“No. I have the strong feeling that feeding a normal patrol ship into this situation will be like asking them to take a stroll through the guts of an atomic pile.”
“A confused description—but I get the message.”
“I hope so. You are the crookedest agent I know. You have a sense of survival that, so far, has made you unkillable. I am banking on that and the hideously twisted convolutions of your warped mind to get you through. So get out there and see what the hell is happening, and get back with a report.”
“Do I have to bring the admirals back?”
“Only if you want to. We have plenty more where they came from.”
“You are heartless and cruel, Inskipp, and as big a crook as I am.”
“Of course. How else do you think I run this outfit? When do you leave and what do you need?”
I had to think about that. I couldn’t go without telling my Angelina, and once she learned how dangerous it would be she would insist on coming. Fine. I’m a male chauvinist pig at heart, but I know true talent when I see it and I would rather have her with me than all of the rest of the Special Corps. But what about the boys? The answer to that was obvious as well. With their natural bent and inherited characteristics they were fit only for lives of crime or careers in the Corps. They would have to be blooded sometime and this looked very much like the time. So it was settled. I unglazed my eyes and realized that I had been muttering to myself for some minutes and that Inskipp was looking at me in a very suspicious manner and reaching slowly for the scramble button on his desk. I groped through my memory for the question he had asked me before I had sunk into my coma.
“Ahh, yes, hm, of course. I leave soonest, I have my own crew, but I want a fully automated grinder class cruiser with all armaments, etc.”
“Done. It will take twenty hours to get one here. You have that long to pack and write a new will.”
“How charming of you. I will need but one psi call.”
I set it up with the communication centre who were on to the operator on Blodgett like a flash and a line hooked through seconds later to Angelina. “Hello, my sweet,” I said. “Guess where we are going for our holiday?”
“It’s a fine ship, Dad,” Bolivar said, running his eyes appreciatively over the varied controls of the
“I hope so. Those grinder class cruisers are supposed to be the best in space.”
“Central fire controls and all, wow,” James said, thumbing a button before I could stop him.
“You didn’t have to blast that hunk of space rock, it wasn’t doing you any harm,” I complained, switching the gun controls to my pilot’s position before he could cause any more trouble.
“Boys will be boys,” Angelina said, looking on with motherly pride.
“Well, they can be boys with their own pocket money. Do you know how many thousands of credits it costs every time those energy cannon are fired?”
“No, nor do I care.” She raised one delicate eyebrow. “And since when have you cared, Slippery Jim, plunderer of the public pocket?”
I muttered something and turned back to the instrument displays. Did I really care? Or was it just fatherly reflex? No—it was authority! “I’m in charge here,” I grated in my best spacedog voice. “I’m captain and the crew can but obey.”
“Shall we all walk the plank, dear?” Angelina asked in her most unreasonable tones. I changed the subject.
“Look. If you will all kindly sit over there I will order up a bottle of champagne and a chocolate cake and we will relax a bit before this mission begins and I start cracking the whip.”
“You’ve already told us the whole deal, Dad,” James said. “And could you make that a strawberry shortcake?”
“I know you all know all about what has happened and where we are going, but just what we will do when we get there is yet to be determined.”
“I’m sure you will tell us in due time, dear. And isn’t it a little early in the day for champagne?”
I punched busily at the catering controls and fought to organize my thoughts. All chiefs and no indians in this outfit. I must be firm.
“Now hear this. Order of the day. We blast off in exactly fifteen minutes. We will proceed with all due dispatch to the position in space determined by the spacewarp leech. We will emerge from spacewarp for exactly one point five seconds which will be enough time to make instrument readings of the surrounding volume of space. We will then automatically return to our last position and analyze our findings. We will then act upon them. Understood?”
“You’re so masterful,” Angelina murmured, then sipped at her champagne. There was no way of telling from her tone of voice just what she had meant by this remark. I ignored it.
“Then forward. Bolivar, I see by your school record that you had good marks in navigation…”
“I had to. We were chained to the desks without food until we passed the test.”
“Details, details—that is all behind you now. Set up a course to our target area and let me review it before you actuate. James, you will program the computer to take the readings we will need upon arrival and get us out of there in the second and a half we will have.”
“And what shall I do, my love?”
“Open the other bottle, my sweet, and we will look on with pride while our offspring work.”
And work they did, with no complaints, and each did a fine job. There were no games now. This was reality and survival and they threw themselves into it with gusto. I checked and rechecked the results but could find no faults.
“A gold star for both of you. Take a double portion of cake each.”
“It rots the teeth, Dad. We would like some champagne instead.”
“Of course. In time for a toast. Here’s to success.”
We clinked glasses and sipped and I leaned across and pressed the flight button. We were off. Like all voyages there was absolutely nothing to do once the computer had been programmed. The twins prowled the ship with tech manuals until they had learned every detail of her operation. Angelina and I found far more interesting things to do and the days tiptoed by on little golden feet. Until the alarm pinged and we were ready for the last spacewarp. Once again we assembled in the control room.
“Dad, did you know we have two patrol boats aboard?” Boliver asked.
“I did, and fine little craft they are. Get ready for the quick look as planned. After we suit up in combat armor.”
“Why?” James asked.
“Because you have been ordered to do so,” Angelina said and there was a steel edge to her voice. “Plus a moment’s rational thought would have given you the answer without asking.”
Thus reinforced, I felt my authority was firm and said no more while we all suited up. The combat suits, armored and armed spacesuits, would keep us alive if anything nasty was waiting at the other end.
Nothing was. We arrived, all of the instruments buzzed and clicked—and we were back to our starting point a hundred light years’ distant. I made everyone stay armored up in case we had been followed, but we had not been. After a half an hour we climbed out of the suits and ran the results of our investigations.
“Nothing really close,” Angelina said, scanning the printout. “But there is a star system just two light years’ distant.”
“Then that’s our next target,” I said. “The plan is this. We are going to stay right here a nice distance from whatever is out there. But we’ll send a spyeye to chart the system, look for inhabited planets, scout them as well, and send back continuous reports to a satellite receiver in orbit nearby. The satellite will be programmed to return here the instant anything happens to the spyeye. All right?”
“Can I program the spyeye?” Bolivar asked, speaking an instant ahead of his brother. Volunteers! My heart warmed and I gave them their assignments. Within minutes the machines were launched and, once they were on
