Children of Tomorrow (14 page)

The commander’s patience began to show wear. ‘For God’s sake,’ he snapped, ‘you’ve got that backwards. On my return,
I
found Susan in difficulties. My judgement, based on my experience and observation in my own teens, tells me she’s been conned. I am now in process of putting a stop to that.’

'I see.’ The older man was smiling also, but in a disturbed way, "I’m afraid the outfits are smarter than you think, and they’re going to catch on to what you’re up to. At which time you may discover what happens to booters when they run afoul of outfits
-
Lane stopped the next words before they were spoken by laying a hand on Reid
’
s arm. Throughout their discussion, he had repeatedly sent quick, darting looks at what the three scientists were doing at the big instrument panel. Now, finally, the lead scientist gestured at his helpers, sighed deeply, shook his head, and turned toward his passengers. It was evident to both men that they were about to be given further information.

The physicist said, and he was clearly unhappy about it,
''What was puzzling, gentlemen - to answer Commander Lane’s earlier question - was that it is difficult to know why we should have lost the picture so quickly. It would almost seem as if they became aware of us, and disconnected. And, of course, that’s impossible, because their distance from earth is too great. You follow the reasoning?’ He glanced from Lane to Reid and back again. ‘Where they are beyond Pluto’s orbit, is six light-hours away. That also means radio or TV hours. If they were to signal to us that they wanted to negotiate, it would require six hours for our reply to reach them by normal, direct transmission. And then six more hours for them to answer back. On the other hand, if they - like we do - have the ability to use ordinary waves as carriers multi-
’
times faster than light-speed, then it would still take a few minutes at the enormous distance to the Neptune-Pluto orbit. But that reaction you saw took seconds only. As if something here in Spaceport tuned us out.’

‘You can’t tune in again?’

‘I haven’t been able to, so far. And’ - the keen eyes were narrowed - ‘that suggests we were cut off. Which means they have a feedback system which can detect when another receiver tunes in on them.’

‘And you suggest,’ said Lane, ‘that they have such sensitive equipment here on earth?’ His tone was strained. He was suddenly a very disturbed man. He turned to his companion. ‘Dez. I’m dead tired, and so I’ve got to have some sleep. But this information should be communicated to Elliotson at Space Control.’ ‘I’m sure it should, and will,’ the older man soothed. ‘But don’t get yourself all upset. After all, the fleet is deployed for defense. Our space radar network goes all the way out to Pluto - that’s why they haven’t crossed Pluto’s orbit. It’s difficult to imagine anything as large as an atomic bomb penetrating within millions of miles of earth without setting off an alarm somewhere.’

He stopped, because the man in the seat beside him had leaned forward, and was speaking again to the scientist. ‘What about that picture we saw? Can the computer reproduce that?’

The physicist shook his head unhappily. ‘I’m sorry, sir. Equipment aboard this armored vehicle is self-contained and therefore limited. I’ve already put through a requisition for an aerial laboratory, and when you talk to Commander Elliotson please ask him to authorise that at once.’

‘By aerial laboratory,’ asked Lane, ‘you mean a ship that will float above my house?’

‘Above this area, Commander, We need to patrol all the way from the Jaeger cottage, which is half a mile west of your home, past your residence and to the street where we saw the picture - that is, right here. But, now, if it’s all right, I think we
should get you two gentlemen
home and to bed.’

It was all right. Yet they were reluctant to give up hope. And during the rest of the drive sat watching the screen expectantly. Unfortunately, both before Reid got off, and afterwards, the energy patterns remained neutral. And they were still blank and uniformative when Lane stood up wearily, said good-bye, and got out of the machine, and so, as those aboard monitored his movements, walked through the gate, up to the veranda, and into his house.

The invisible observer first became aware of the armored truck when it felt an automatic response within the energy complex by which it operated on earth. It was by that reaction that it shut off the picture Lane and Dr Yanlo saw so fleetingly.

A few minutes later, it watched as the armored truck approached the Lane residence. Sensing energy probes, it drew back behind the Subsurface shrubbery ... as Lane walked from the truck to the gate, and so into his house.

After Lane disappered, the unseen energy duplicate of a remote Real Being emerged from its concealment, and bold
l
y came
closer to the truck. At first, it circled warily - from across the street. Then from the side. And then from above.

That was the mistake,

Estelle was reading in the chair beside the bar, when she heard the heavy throbbing sound of the truck. She obviously did not connect the noise with her
husband, for she continued to stare at the book in front of her. But she was tired, and her face showed lines of fatigue. As she came to the end of that page, she leaned back and squeezed her eyelids in an unmistakable effort to fend off sleep. Presently, she opened her eyes again, glanced at her watch, and sighed.

‘All right," she said suddenly, aloud, ‘all right, Commander Lane, I’m sure you’re tired, also. But does life
have
to be this difficult?
’

Only instants after she finished her complaint there was the sound of a key in the nearby front door. The door opened, and shut. As his footsteps approached, the blonde woman put the book onto the table beside the chair, and waited expectantly. Moments later, there was her husband. He stepped through the doorway, and stopped, stared at her in surprise, ‘Still awake? My dear, you should have more sense.’

He came all the way into the room.
‘
1 must make a phone call,' he said. As he picked up the receiver and button-pressed the number, his face was visible in the light from the floor lamp. His eyes had tiny blood lines in them. His face was not as fatigued as hers, but the skin was unnaturally dark. As soon as he had the phone connected, and had identified himself to a man called Elliotson, he said, ‘Jim, we’ll need one of the aerial labs type L-20 to support ground unit 67-A. A Dr Yanlo is in charge. Looks like a very able man. Fine. Good-bye.’ He hung up, and reaching down took the woman’s hand. ‘Bedtime, darling, don’t you think?’

There was muscle resistance in his wife, as he drew her out of the chair. Her body protested his assumption that he could walk into his house at two o’clock in the morning and find all signals at ‘Go!’ She waited while he gave her a kiss, and then said in an unaccepting tone, ‘Aren’t you interested in what happened to your
daughter today?
’

The man made a wry face. ‘I see the unwelcome sign is out again/ he said.

There was a long pause after those words were spoken. Estelle closed her eyes, and sort of slumped in his arms. Finally, she sighed, and looked up at him, her cheeks wet. ‘Ever since your return,’ she said, ‘we seem to have operated slightiy out of phase. You have
never
been unwelcome. Even that first night I held my peace until you started to take charge like a full admiral without waiting to discover that there was no war. Since then there’s been a kind of truce, with both sides stiffly standing at attention during moments of stress. When you said what you did just now, for the first time - for the very first time - there went fleetingly through my mind the thought: Is this marriage going to last, really?’ She broke off, wearily, ‘John, I don’t think I could stand you not caring what happens to Susan. I just couldn’t live with that.
¹

The wry smile had faded from her husband’s face, as she spoke. By the time she was finished, he was shaking his head sorrowfully. ‘It looks,’ he said, ‘like I’m going to have to make the fight to keep this marriage going. But if what you just said is all it takes, then there’s no problem. Naturally, I knew Susan was in the care of one of our supermen - which is what the active flight officers are, if anyone is. And since the transport vehicle was the magnificent
Omnivulture
class, all I had to do was have the Father computer that deals with such, report to me periodically. So Father got it from Mother, and Mother got it from Boarder, that they spent the day on Tombaugh, and checked in at O-Base shortly before ten p.m. Now, what else would you like to know about my interest in Susan - aside from the fact that I don’t care for her to be in an outfit?
¹

“Why don’t you just forget about the outfits?’ his wife said fretfully. “You arrived so late into that situation - on her nineteenth birthday, she’s out - automatically graduated. So it’s just a little over two years.’ Her tone was
slightly
pleading.

‘I’ll make up my mind about the oufits,’ said the man, ‘after I get a little time to study them.’ He had released himself from her, as he spoke. Now, he stepped back. ‘Estelle, you’ve got to let me form my own opinion on that. Don’t try to get some kind of a blanket withdrawal out of me in connection with Susan, I won’t do it.’

‘It bothers me,’ persisted the woman, ‘that you were willing to let her go out with a man, where they would be alone in a plane, and then in a known pleasure resort.’

Lane sighed. ‘I guess I need a drink,’ he said. He walked to the
bar, and put out two glasses. He glanced over at her. “Like one?’ She shook her head, an impatient movement. So her husband poured himself a jigger of something, put in ice and water, and then stood sipping. Finally, he seemed to relax, for he said, ‘I took that drink as a method of
refraining
from a hasty response. One of the things, my dear, that bothers men about some women is that they never let up. You can see the thought in the woman’s face, and in the configuration of her body muscles.’

He continued after another sip, ‘What I’m saying is that, just looking at you I could see that you were going to say more. I had the thought: She’s not going to let well enough alone, now that I’ve established my innocence. I refer to your accusation that I never thought of Susan all day, I did. So I’m cleared on that. But what I observed in your face was: She will not be able to restrain herself from continuing a fruitless argument. Whatever the new thought is, it will not be witheld, but will come bursting forth, presumably in view of the subject, in the form of an attack. And so now you’ve done it. My answer is: I deny that you have spoken a rational statement.’

The woman was defensive. ‘I don’t see how you can say a thing like that. It is well-known in Spaceport that grounded officers prey on the wives of absent personnel and on female jabbers. And so the rule of parents here, that is, of parents
who care
- ’

The man winced. Closed his eyes. Pressed his teeth together. Clenched the hand that was not holding the glass, and tightened the one that was. All were melodramatic acts of restraint.

His wife had paused to watch while he went through his reaction. His response deterred her, made it harder to speak again. But she braced herself, and finished in a determined voice; 'The rule is, keep teen-age girls away from the grown men.’

Lane set his glass down on the gleaming bar top. ‘I gather, then, that it is your considered belief,’ he Spoke in a deliberate tone, ‘that Susan on her first outing to the theater with Captain Sennes, and now on her second one to the moonlet, Tombaugh, allowed herself to become involved in a sexual episode each time?'

Again, one of the long pauses. When his wife finally answered, her words were defensive. ‘I didn’t say that. I said - ’

‘In your opinion,’ her husband asked flady, ‘has this girl had sex with any male, young or old?’

‘No!’ Explosively. Having spoken, the woman must have realised that her reply was too swift to be convincing, for she added, kind of angrily, ‘Now, you’ve got me on the defensive on a subject that is not an issue. For God’s sake, Commands Lane, until your arrival home we didn’t have problems like this,

Suddenly, we’ve got them. Suddenly, a Captain Sennes is invited to our home and is brought into close contact with our sixteen- year-old daughter. Suddenly, Susan is a confused girl - and she wasn’t. That’s what disturbs me.’

‘Maybe I should have remained out in space!’ her husband snapped.

The blonde woman was silent. But her expression said that in part at least she was agreeing with that. Lane was angry now, also. ‘Well, let me tell you my belief,’ he said. ‘I believe that you exposed Susan to sex in these outfit situations, and that if she was vulnerable to Captain Sennes, it would be because she had already had her morals attenuated by these young gangsters.’

That is absolutely ridiculous!’ Estelle yelled. ‘If you would ever take a minute away from whatever you’re doing down there at Space Control, and -
⁵
The phone rang, and her voice suspended its sound in mid-^ rage. She gave her husband a quick, startled, questioning glance. 'Are things
that
urgent?’ She half whispered the question. ‘A call at
this
hour!’

Lane did not answer her with words. He jumped forward and grabbed at the receiver. ‘Lane?’ He acknowledged. “Yanlo, you’ve actually got hold of something?’ His voice and manner showed bemusement. ‘Yes, I’ve spoken to Elliotson. You should have an L-20 in minutes. Unfortunately, they are based across the river, but - All right. Do your best. Above all, get data.’