been only an attempt to settle things without war. But from now on, peace seemed impossible.
When they neared Outpost, Bob’s father ordered the other two ships ahead of him, and came in in the in- verted V that was the ancient symbol of the Fleet that they had failed. But the observers on Outpost must have already known that. Three ships out of twenty returning could never spell success.
There was no crowd waiting for them. The field was deserted, except for military police who were patrolling the borders to make sure no one got through. They landed in the spot reserved for them and went out. Across the field, Wallingford’s car waited for Commander Griffith, and patrol cars were lined up for the officers of the three ships. All would have to report in detail.
Bob got through it somehow without cracking. Perhaps it was because he was interviewed last and most of the details were already on record. Wallingford, Jergens, and five other men sat on the panel doing the quizzing. It was not a formal investigation—there was no question of guilt or fault in their defeat. But Jergens’ face had a smugness under his newly grown fear that showed the general attitude. If Bob’s father had let well enough alone, things would have been different! He was technically in the right, but he would be the black sheep of Outpost, in any event. Unconsciously, people would blame him for starting the war.
Beyond them in the room, a stenographer sat before the keys of the encoder, radioing all details back to Earth and Mars!
It was finally over as far as the officers were concerned. Bob was dismissed, and one of the patrol cars took him to the apartment. He hesitated outside the door, dreading the questioning that would follow. Then he opened it, and found he was wrong.
Juan and Jakes were as sunk in gloom as he was. Juan muttered something and went out to bring him sandwiches and some cold drink. He realized suddenly that he hadn’t eaten since the attack. For a moment he tried to shove it away, feeling no hunger.
Jakes scowled at him. “Hey, you eat that, Bob!
Maybe we’ll all be dead in another month, but you don’t need to starve ahead of time!”
There was no taste to the food, but somehow it made him feel better. Once started, Bob wolfed it down. “I thought you wanted war, Si,” he said bitterly.
“Me?” The other stared at him in shocked surprise. “Naw—I’d rather anything else. Just cause I figure we’re bound to have it and want to play it the safest way doesn’t mean I want it.
Why, even Dad doesn’t want war—and he could make plenty out of it. Nobody wants war!”
It seemed to be true, from the tone of the local newspaper and the carefully censored radio reports. Nobody wanted war—but the fear of the mysterious Planet X meant they could never avoid it now.
Bob’s father came in later. “Help me pack my things, Bob,” he requested.
Jakes sprang up before Bob could clear his throat. “You mean… They couldn’t sack you!”
Griffith smiled wearily. “No, nothing like that. I’ve been—promoted, is the word they used! I’m now on Wallingford’s staff here. It seems I’m the leading expert on Planet X and its ships, and he needs me. Either that, or he’s covering me against trouble from Grand Headquarters. But I’ve been assigned quarters there, so you boys will be on your own.”
“Meaning we can’t see you—is that it?” Bob asked.
“Something like that. You won’t be able to see anyone higher than a Senior Leftenant, I suppose.” Griffith began packing his few belongings, hiding his face, but his voice was almost resigned. “You’ll have to face it, Bob. For the first tune in nearly two hundred years, we’re at war. Most of us don’t know anything about that—but the real higher-ups haven’t stopped studying it, and we’ll have to learn to obey them. You boys have no right being on the inside from now on. You’ll still have freedom of the town and the old port, of course. But you’ll have to act like citizens, not like a private staff. Okay?”
They nodded. War was a mysterious word, but they knew that it kept things from being normal, and they weren’t too surprised.
“I’ll drop by now and then, when I get a chance. And you all will go on drawing salaries according to your rank, so you’ll get by.” He put bis bag on the floor, and drew himself up.
“Attention!”
Juan and Jakes were a little awkward about it, but they managed to come to a ragged attention, together with Bob. Griffith saluted in the almost forgotten formality of the old Navy.
“All right. As you were.” He picked up the bag and went out.
Bob knew it had been his way of avoiding an awkward scene, but also a reminder that they were now only two phony ensigns and a phony Junior Leftenant, and that they had better learn to act the part.
When he was gone, Jakes stomped about restlessly, muttering; Juan slumped back on the floor. And Bob stood foolishly, without an idea of what to do. Then he shrugged, and slumped off to bed. He heard the others muttering something about another visit to Smedley’s observatory, and then heard them turning in. Apparently they felt he wanted to be alone, since Juan went into Jakes’s room.
From outside came the sound of lorries driving through the streets and the booming of a public radio that was endlessly recounting the “vicious attack on peaceful ships by the war forces of Planet X.” He grumbled and covered his head with a pillow, but it was a long time before he slept.
Jakes came in from outside right after breakfast the next morning, and threw a card on the table. “Got a job,” he announced. “Filing down flanges over in the repair shops. They’re looking for help.”
“Any help?” Bob asked, with a sudden revival of his infrequent respect for the older boy.
“They don’t ask questions about age, if you can bur off the flanges. How about you, Juan?”
The Ionian nodded quickly, echoing their feelings.
“Of course. Can we only sit here and twiddle the thumbs? We start when?”
They started at once, it seemed. Workers were being sent from the moons of Saturn as quickly as possible, any workers who could follow orders, together with tremendous quantities of supplies. But Outpost, which had only been a small frontier base, was shorthanded, and would be after they arrived. Plans called for domes to cover the whole area of the little moon. From now on, it would have to be built up to a strength that could safely hold off the possible invading forces of X, and throw forces out to battle on its own.
The work was dull, but that somehow helped. The routine didn’t keep them from thinking, but tension was lessened by useful occupation. At the same tune, from the shops they heard more of what went on, and saw more of the activities on the field than they would have remaining in the apartment.
The Infleet landed during one of their lunch hours. The blue and gold of Venus, Mercury and Earth were unmistakable. They came dropping from space, spreading even further, until the last ones began to disappear from sight over the horizon. Lorries with airtight bodies ran out to pull off the men, and a constant line of supply trucks began running by the shops where the boys worked. There were more ships on Outpost now than had ever been based at one time on any major planet!
And back in the huge factories of Earth, more were coming off the assembly lines, just as a constant supply of lithium bombs were being made. It was on those that most of the hopes of the Fleet were based. If a few ships could penetrate the lines of the Planet X fleet, and get through to X itself, they might be able to eliminate the whole world.
Meantime, speculation ran high about the absence of attack from Planet X. The more optimistic claimed that this meant that X might have superior ships, but so few that they had to stick to their own planet. The pessimistic claimed that they were waiting for all ships to be based on Outpost, and would then sail in and wipe out all the other planets.
Two weeks after the ill-fated mission to Planet X, the sirens went off wildly in the middle of a work period. Ships were finally sighted and identified as the enemy! The three boys were forced into the stuffy shelter which would be no protection at all if a real attack came, but which gave some feeling of safety to the civilians. They could not make out details from the garbled radio reports at the time, but the crisis was soon over.
Later, they found that three black ships had cruised over, and that ten Wings of battleships had gone up after them. The black ships had waited around, and then simply put on a burst of speed that carried them almost instantly out of sight, down toward Neptune. There was some question as to whether a lithium bomb had destroyed one of them before it disappeared, but it had probably gotten away safely.
Bob and the other two discussed the situation all that night, but there was no real meat for talk. And the next day was their day off, which left them nothing to do. Bob tried to call his father, but found he was in conference with the staff. He went out to take in a show, and gave that up; with the new workers and the whole
