Part 11 (1/2)

”You know the intolerance of the Americans. They would not allow us to live in peace. They would not even try to understand our system of true socialism. No. If we go to the planet where the Americans are, it will be best to fight first, while we are still strong.”

”We will go to them in peace,” Theresita said firmly, but she was heartsick. The old att.i.tudes were gaining force. ”I, for one, favor exploration of other star systems. The cosmos is vast. How much better it will be to have our own planet so that we can develop as we please- without friction, without the necessity of fighting.”

”I insist on a vote, ” Denis Ivanov said. He was backed by others.

Theresita postponed the decision for as long as possible. The year 2040 pa.s.sed. The s.h.i.+p continued its sublight cruise toward the outer limits of the solar system. And, as the second year pa.s.sed and icy Pluto's...o...b..t was near, she reluctantly set up the procedure for a secret ballot. She hoped that her sensible talk, backed by most of the s.p.a.ce Service people who had joined the mutiny, had convinced the majority that conducting their own exploration to find their planet was the best course.

The vote was close. Fifty-three percent of those aboard wanted to avoid the 61 Cygni system and the Americans' planet and find a planet of their own.

”Comrades,” she told them, on the jury-rigged all-s.h.i.+p communicator, ”we must not let this difference of opinion among us cause rancor. We must work together. I ask those who are in the minority to accept the decision and join with us. We live in comfort here on this great s.h.i.+p, and there is no danger of shortages, thanks to our efficient life-support systems. Perhaps we will be lucky and find a planet on our first attempt. If not, we must develop patience.”

”Each time we search a solar system,” Denis Ivanov angrily told a group of his followers, ”we will have to cruise at sublight speed. It will take ten years or more to search the systems of five or six stars, and if they, too, have no planets, what have we done other than waste a decade of our lives?”

A star was chosen. It was not even in the same segment of the galaxy with 61 Cygni. Ilya Salkov and his engineering staff began to make preparations for the big moment, the activation of the Shaw Drive. The rhenium fuel, cast into three foot-long cylinders, was bulky and very heavy. The s.h.i.+p's architects had placed the storage areas for the excess fuel in the engine room so that refueling would not require laborious movement of tons of heavy metal. Rhenium was an inert metal until bombarded with antimatter, so it had seemed perfectly safe to store the tons of excess fuel in close proximity to the drive room. What the designers of the s.h.i.+p did not antic.i.p.ate was the field of undefined force, which extended outward from the Drive when it was activated and encompa.s.sed the entire s.h.i.+p.

And what Theresita had not antic.i.p.ated was a second mutiny.

Denis Ivanov and his supporters, in a slas.h.i.+ng, surprising display of violence, decimated the ranks of those who had voted to stay away from the 61 Cygni system, took the engineering staff with Ilya Salkov as their prisoners, and overwhelmed Theresita in her quarters while she slept.

”We offer you the same choice that you offered Captain Simonov,” Vera Ivanov told Theresita, speaking for her husband and the new mutineers. ”We would like to have you with us, comrade.”

Having survived the bomb she'd used to kill the man she loved, and having escaped certain nuclear war and lived through a mutiny against heavy odds, Theresita was not going to stand on principle to the point of throwing her life away. ”Thank you,” she said. ”I accept your generous offer.”

Under guard, she talked with Ilya Salkov and his engineering crew. ”To stay alive is the important thing now, comrades. Perhaps we can be of some influence later.”

”To fly this s.h.i.+p requires technical know-how,” Ilya said. ”We can refuse to partic.i.p.ate in any attack from s.p.a.ce on the Americans.”

”Such talk will be reported to the committee,” said their guard.

”Report it and be d.a.m.ned,” Salkov said. ”What's to prevent me from programming the Drive to take us to the star that was chosen by the majority?”

The guard, a microbiologist not accustomed to his role as weapon-bearing mutineer, looked uncertain.

”There are those among us who are familiar with the operation of the Drive,” he said.

”Do as you are ordered,” Theresita told Ilya.

When the time came, when theKarl Marx was safely out of the gravitational influence of the solar system, there was an understandable air of tension throughout the s.h.i.+p. Ilya Salkov was on the bridge.

Theresita, no longer under guard, was observing. The target for their lightstep was 61 Cygni A. The Americans were, at that time, only weeks ahead of them, and there was talk that they might find theSpirit of America still in s.p.a.ce. With the advantage of surprise, one missile could settle the issue of owners.h.i.+p of the new planet.

But even among the new mutineers there was disagreement. The s.p.a.ce Service officer who had been in charge of weapons control had been killed in the first mutiny. One of Ilya's engineers was now serving in that capacity. As the countdown continued his voice broke in on the communicator.

”I serve notice to all,” he vowed in a trembling voice, ”that I will not obey any order to fire on the American s.h.i.+p.” ”Relieve that man immediately,” Denis Ivanov yelled, to no one in particular, although all the self-proclaimed leaders of the second mutiny were gathered on the bridge.

”Whom do you suggest in his place?” Ilya Salkov asked, with a sneer. ”Perhaps the nutritional expert from the s.h.i.+p's kitchens?”

”We must take advantage of the element of surprise!” Ivanov said, his eyes a bit panicky.

Anarchy, Theresita was thinking, a grim smile on her lips. With a certain amount of disgust she began to understand why American democracy had never been successfully established elsewhere: The ordinary man didn't have the sense to control his own destiny, much less to make decisions about important matters involving the good of all. He was not capable of handling freedom.

”Comrade Marshal,” Vera Ivanov appealed, ”you must make that man in weapons control listen to reason.”

”Whose reason, Comrade Vera?” Theresita asked.

”You'll have no help from her,” Denis said sourly. ”She's still unhappy at having been relieved of command.”

”Not at all,” Theresita a.s.sured him. ”I feel a certain relief, as a matter of fact. I am happy that you are in command, Denis, so thatyou can decide what will happen if the American s.h.i.+p opens fire on us, with our man in our weapons control refusing to fire on them.”

Denis blinked rapidly and swallowed, his face going pale. The countdown was proceeding, in spite of the confusion.

Ilya Salkov and his shorthanded staff did a great job, not missing any checkpoints in the countdown and making the lightstep strictly according to the book. Now the viewscreens showed a different star pattern, although it felt as if nothing had happened.

The navigator was an astronomer who had no practical experience in operating the various sensor systems. It took him a long time to identify two dim stars as, most probably, being 61 Cygni A and B.

”We are too far from them,” Denis said impatiently. ”What do you mean, bringing us out of lightstep so far from our destination! There will be how many years of cruising to get there?”

”No more than two, comrade,” answered the sweating astronomer.

”And which is the Cygni A star?” Denis demanded.

”The one to the left of the screen, comrade,” the astronomer said. ”At least I'm reasonably certain that it is.”

Denis turned, his hands still shaking. ”By the name of Lenin!” he snarled in disgust. ”He can't even tell us which star is which.”

”We can program another lightstep,” Vera said. ”We're not that close to any object with a gravitational well.” ”Salkov,” Denis demanded, ”is she right?”

”Yes,” Ilya said.

”Then go down to engineering and check the Drive and refuel.”

”May I have the commander's permission to accompany Lieutenant Salkov to engineering?” Theresita asked.

”I don't give a d.a.m.n what you do,” Denis said.

They found the engineering staff cl.u.s.tered around the Drive control console. ”It's good you are here, Comrade Salkov,” a young officer said. ”We are sustaining quite unusual readings on the instruments.”

Ilya stepped to the board and swept his eyes over the instruments. The temperature inside the sealed Drive chamber was high. At first that did not concern him. Temperatures reached almost sunlike highs during the lightstep reaction. Then he looked back at the temperature gauge and felt a jolt of anxiety.

Instead of cooling, the interior of the Drive chamber was heating, the gauge moving imperceptibly upward.

”Check the cooling system,” Ilya ordered.

”It has been done. The cooling system is operating at maximum.”

”Is something wrong?” Theresita asked.

”I don't know yet.”

”Ilya,” said a young engineer named Ivan, ”take a look at the flux gauges in the Drive compartment.”