Saucer

asphalt in Egg's pickup.

'Only if they are looking for it. Their radars are set up to receive coded signals from aircraft transponders, not pick up skin paints.'

'Wouldn't the saucer's shape be hard to see?'

'The shape of the top and bottom would give it some stealth characteristics,' she said after a moment's thought, 'but the curved leading edge will glint, make a return on a screen, if there is a radar close enough and properly tuned to pick it up.'

'So what are our chances of, say, flying to Denver tonight, making an appearance with the saucer, then sneaking back here?'

'Are you serious?' she asked.

'If we can make these people look in Colorado, we've got another day or two we can stay with Egg.'

'Why do you want to stay here?'

'Speaking just for myself,' Rip replied, 'I'd like a decent night's sleep and a couple of good meals. And we need to do some figuring about what happens next.'

'What does happen next?'

'Every day you hang out with me is another day deeper in trouble for you. Have you thought about it?'

'Yes,' Charley Pine admitted.

'And?'

'My troubles are mine. I'll handle them.'

Rip Cantrell shrugged. 'Okay, lady. You being an older woman and all, I guess I have to live with that. But back to my question, can we sneak the saucer out of here without blowing the eardrums out of every hick within fifty miles?'

'Let's talk a bit more about Denver. The television people are talking about an invasion of saucers. Plural. They've got the American public looking for a swarm of saucers, an aerial armada.'

'The more saucers they think there are, the less chance they have of finding just one.'

'Denver?'

'Denver.'

'If we left after dark,' Charley mused, 'rode the antigravity rings for a while before we lit the rockets… '

'If we used the rockets sparingly to get to altitude, maybe the ship would sound like a low-flying jet,' Rip suggested hopefully.

'It might work,' Charley mused. 'Or it might not.'

'Maybe the best thing to do is leave it right where it is,' Egg said.

A state police car passed the pickup going the other way. All three of them watched the car go by.

'So what are you going to do with the saucer, Rip?' Egg asked when the police car was out of sight.

'I don't know, Unc.' Rip's voice reflected his misery. 'Honest, I don't know what the right thing is. Giving it to the Air Force doesn't have much appeal.'

'Ms. Pine, what do you think?' Egg asked, his eyes on the road.

'Rip has to make a decision he can live with,' Charley replied.

'That's a cop-out,' Rip said and sighed. 'Maybe you ought to steal the damned thing and fly it to Area Fifty- One.'

'Maybe I should,' Charley said lightly.

'What is this?' Rip asked the waitress at the cafe.

The woman looked at him as if he were stupid. 'It's what you ordered: banana cream pie.'

'I didn't want a piece. I wanted the whole pie.'

She stared at him for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed. 'I remember you. You were here last summer.'

'That's right. Would you bring the rest of the pie, please?'

The waitress looked at Charley and Egg with suspicion, then marched for the kitchen. In a moment she returned. The heads of the rest of the kitchen staff were visible behind her, peeking through the door. She put the pie in front of Rip with a flourish. 'Enjoy,' she ordered and marched away.

As Rip ate, Egg asked, 'Why do you want to go to Denver tonight, Rip?'

'You want a ride, don't you?'

'Well, yeah. Who wouldn't? But I don't want to get you guys in trouble giving me one.'

'No trouble,' Rip said between bites.

'What do you think, Ms. Pine?' Egg asked.

'Someone is liable to see us coming or going from your place.'

Rip nodded. 'Life's a risk.'

'Being around you, it certainly is.'

'Hey! I don't know how this saucer adventure is going to turn out. While we have it, let's enjoy it. Let's take Egg for a ride. Twenty years from now he and I can sit in front of his hangar talking about how great it was.' 'Makes sense to me,' Egg said.

'Try this tonight,' Rip said, handing Charley a headband. He had already plugged it into the computer, which presented the main display in front of the pilot. The reactor was on, so the ship had power. 'Egg figured out the computers this afternoon. Put it on, try it out before we light out of here.'

'You've done this yourself?' Charley asked, checking the expression on his face. She was sitting in the pilot's seat of the saucer with the reactor on, waiting for things to warm up. Egg was standing on her left and Rip on her right.

'Oh, yeah,' Rip assured her. 'Nothin' to it.'

She looked at Egg. 'Why the headband?'

'Near as we can determine,' Egg explained, 'the computer uses the headband to determine what you want to know, then gives you that information. You will have a few choices to make — just move toward the icon or selection you want.'

'Will I still be able to fly?'

'We think so,' Egg replied, nodding thoughtfully.

'Are you suicidal?'

'Only on Mondays. That's the short answer. The long answer is, the computer that the Aussies disassembled allows you to see things — you step into the computer's world. When I tried the primary flight computer this afternoon, it seemed to give the pilot displays on the screen and project graphics on the canopy glass. In other words, the pilot stays — how do I say it? — here. The pilot stays here.'

She looked at Rip. 'You and your uncle spent the afternoon on a psychedelic computer trip?

'Not the whole afternoon,' Rip protested. 'And it was pretty cool.'

Charley pulled on the headband and arranged her hair around it. She jerked rigidly as the computer screen came alive.

'Takes a little getting used to,' Rip added, but Charley Pine gave no indication that she had heard. Her gaze went around the cockpit, taking in everything. Once she reached out and touched the gear lever, which was of course in the down position.

'Can you hear me?' Rip asked loudly.

'Yes,' she said finally, after several seconds, then held up her hand for silence so that she could concentrate.

Graphics flashed on the computer screen in the middle of the instrument panel, so quickly they were difficult to follow. It comes and goes as quickly as she thinks, Rip thought. He was watching the screen displays with only a passing interest when the realization struck him that he was looking into Charley's mind. He was watching her think.

A map appeared on the pilot's main display and, instantly, at the speed of thought, resolved itself into the farm, trees, woodlots, the nearby rivers, with a pathway leading away. He could see everything in three dimensions,