Forbidden Planet (10 page)

We didn’t go for the test ride anyway. Because, just when Doc came running back, Lonnie sent a hand over with a message for me to go talk to him.

I went over to the rig at the double. Lonnie was scratching his head, looking worried. He was sweating and covered with black grease. He said, “We’re in trouble about housing for this thing, Skipper. I don’t know how I’m going to find anything with the right density.”

It was then I had my big idea. I asked what he’d order if he was at a Base depot. He said, “Two-inch lead shielding. Three hundred square feet of it.” He looked at me as if I was wasting his time.

I said, “Any other work on this you could be getting on with?” His glasses slipped on his nose and he pushed them back. Now he was sure I was crazy. But he said yes there was.

I said, “Get on with it then!” and took Doc away. I said, “Better get slicked up, Doc. We’re going visiting,” and took him back to the ship. I could feel him looking at me, but I didn’t give him a chance to say anything.

When we got to Control Area, Doc went on to his hutch, and I told Jerry to quit the radio search and slick up too. I didn’t want to take him but I had to. I needed three of us at least, and I couldn’t spare anyone else.

When Jerry found out where we were going, you could’ve seen his grin a mile away. He was making off like a jet from a mother ship when I stopped him. I said. “Hold it. Something you’d better remember. Lay off the girl.”

He said, “Sure. Sure, Skipper.” He might as well have given me a blast from a stand-clear siren.

III

We started at the tail end of the afternoon. Jerry drove, and made good time. The light hadn’t quite gone when we got through the rocks and turned down into the valley. I told Jerry to slow up and we crawled the rest of the way at about ten terra m.p.h.

This time I really studied the country, and told Doc to keep his eyes open too. I didn’t know what we were looking for, I said, but anything we’d missed would do. Particularly anything which gave any sign there was
any
other form of life than we’d seen already.

It was all pretty vague. And got us nowhere, as expected. We were going into the grove of trees near the house in the rock when Doc finally broke. I hadn’t told him or Jerry my idea, but they knew something was cooking. Jerry didn’t care, so long as he saw the girl again. But Doc couldn’t stand it. He said suddenly, “What’s behind this trip, Skipper. Better tell us, or we might make mistakes.”

He was right. So I told them.

“Good thought!” Doc said. “It may not get anywhere, of course. But it’s well worth a try.”

Jerry didn’t say anything; just nodded.

We came out of the grove and started on the curve to the rock. We hadn’t seen so much as the tail of one of Altaira’s animals. But when we came around to the house-front, there was Morbius. On the patio. Waiting.

Jerry pulled up and cut the engine. Which is a silent Q6 type. Except for some radar-principle gear somewhere, there didn’t seem any way for him to have known we were coming. But he seemed to be expecting us, no mistake about it.

We piled out and he came to meet us. He wore the same sort of clothes as yesterday, but these were grey instead of blue. He looked a lot older, some way. He was white in the face, with black circles under his eyes.

He said he was glad to see us. He didn’t have the superior smile that had made me so mad. I said I wanted help and maybe he could give it to me. He said he’d be only too glad, but we must come in the house before we got down to business.

We trooped in. There was no sign of the Robot. Or of Altaira. I said, “Here’s the problem, Doctor. My Chief Devisor needs a housing for the transmitter rig. It should be two-inch lead sheeting. We don’t have any—” I was trying to keep it all matter-of-fact—“and I thought possibly you could come to the rescue with three hundred square feet of it.”

He did smile then. He said, “So you believe what I told you yesterday, Commander? You want me to—ah—utilize Robby’s talents on your behalf?”

I tried to look puzzled. “Why shouldn’t I believe you, sir?” I pulled out a scrap of lead I’d brought from Lonnie’s workshop. “I know a specimen’s needed. Will this do?”

He took the piece of metal, but didn’t look at it. He went on looking at me. He said, “I’m sure it will, Commander,” and began to ask questions about how Lonnie was working.

I told him what I’d been told. That it was a question of crude power; of how to short-circuit the continuum on a six parsec level; of temporarily cannibalizing half the electronic gear we had; of getting the auxiliary core out of the ship to supply enough juice.

He seemed to understand it all, which was more than I did. He asked a couple of questions which I said I’d have to relay to Lonnie . . . He thought for a minute and then said, “Very well, Commander, I’ll put Robby to work tonight. You should have your shielding early tomorrow.”

So we were through phase one.

I wanted to get to the second right away. But I heard a quick movement, and looked around to see Jerry half way to the entrance and Doc just getting out of his chair.

Altaira was in the archway. She had on a sort of golden-yellow dress with some blue around somewhere. It wasn’t very low at the neck, and I think it had long sleeves. So it oughtn’t to have been any more dangerous than the one she’d worn yesterday, which was lowish and hadn’t any sleeves at all.

It oughtn’t to have been—but it was. Maybe it was the color. Maybe it was the way the material clung. Not that it looked as if it was meant to cling. One look at her, and you knew it wasn’t.

I could sense the jolt it must be giving Jerry. And that made me mad. Mad at him. Mad at everything and everybody. Even mad at her.

So I didn’t get to smile at her the way I’d meant to. She said something about being glad to see us, but the way she looked, that wasn’t meant to include J. J. Adams . . .

So I went back to Morbius and phase two. I got him on one side and asked whether I could watch Robby at work.

As expected, I got no place. Very fast. For a moment he looked the way he had yesterday, mad and superior at the same time. He said, “Quite impossible,” and I thought he was going to leave it at that. But then he gave me a calculating sort of look and deliberately lost some altitude. He said, “I’m afraid it wouldn’t be feasible, Commander. Even I myself can’t be in Robby’s workshop,” and sprayed a mess of technicalities at me about temperatures and radiation and a couple of things I’d never heard of.

I said I quite understood and all that mattered was getting the lead as quickly as possible. It seemed to go down all right. If he was thinking things about me, they didn’t show, anyway.

IV

That was a hell of an evening. It all worked out the right way, but getting through it was another story. We were in the house over five hours but they felt like days to me. Right away we were asked to stay for dinner. Which was a good thing for phase three of my campaign, but otherwise not so hot. I don’t carry much blast as an actor, but that’s what I had to be. Watching Jerry with one eye, Morbius with the other, being social all the time. Doc was a help with Jerry, but all the same I couldn’t leave it all to him. Astrogator Premier Class Lieutenant Gerald Farman is one smooth operator. I wished things were different. Things Like Altaira. Maybe I wouldn’t have been fighting not to get mad all the time. I didn’t understand my own feelings, and that was no help. I kept trying to be civil to her, at least—but every time I’d try she’d either be doing something else or Jerry would be making at her in some new way.

I couldn’t figure her. Most of the time, it didn’t seem possible she’d never seen any human except her father. She was so—so poised. But then she’d suddenly say something, or react to something in a way that showed it must be true. I don’t mean she seemed childish. Quite the reverse; she knew a lot more than most girls of her age would at home. She was just—I don’t know. Doc could probably have put it in the right words but not me. Honest kept popping up in my head, but I guess it didn’t cover what I meant. She didn’t seem to know about any—well, subterfuge might hit it . . .

There was one time at dinner. She’d just said one of those things—asked some question or something—and she caught me looking at her. Her face sort of froze, and she said, “You mustn’t forget, Commander Adams, that socially I’m an infant.”

It wasn’t only the words. It was the way she said them. And the look that went with them. All I wanted was an airlock to open and pull me through. Jerry looked as if he was trying not to smirk. Morbius looked as if he hadn’t heard. But good old Doc came through. He didn’t look as if anything had happened; and somehow he switched the talk. Without any effort. All very natural. He got onto the zoo again, and popped a question at Morbius. Another of those Hundred Credit kinds. How come those terra-type animals were on Altair-4?

It was funny the way that threw Morbius. Threw him a lot harder than I had, asking if I could watch Robby. He didn’t look mad and hit his altimeter the way he had with me. But he did something that seemed a lot more off-beam. He looked—well embarrassed. He looked more than that, he looked scared.

But it was only for a split second, and then he was back on base. He said, “That, Major, is one of the mysteries which I hope to solve. One of these days.” He looked as if he’d like to leave it there, but Doc began pushing. Were the animals we’d seen the only kinds? Were there any more of them? Didn’t their existence show that Altair-4 must have gone through a similar evolutionary process to Earth’s? And wasn’t it extraordinary how the protective coloration scheme had lost its bearings, with all the animals in the terra colors instead of having adapted along Altairian lines?

By this time I was plenty interested in myself, but Morbius dug in brake-prongs. He said, “As a matter of fact, Major Ostrow, you have raised the very question upon which I am now working. My researches, however, are not complete.” The way he sounded, he might as well have told Doc to shut up and the hell with him.

I kicked Doc on the ankle. So he shut up and we hit the social note again. Dinner was over anyway, and before you could say quanto gravitum we were all away from the table and making with the small talk.

I would have liked to get off right then. But Morbius might have wondered why the hurry. So we had to put in some time. I had the dirty end of it, too. Because Morbius and Doc went over to a corner to play chess, and Altaira showed me and Jerry a game she and her father had invented. At least, she showed Jerry, and I was along. It was a game for two, so I said I’d kibitz, and then killed time by swinging between them and the other two.

It was grim. But it dragged itself through some way, and I got ready to take off just in time to kill Jerry’s notion that he and Altaira were going out to see the animals by moonlight, for God’s sake! Morbius warmed right up again; said he was glad we’d come; told me not to worry about the lead sheeting, he’d have Robby bring it out to the ship in the morning. He came out to see us off . . .

This time I drove, I went off at a good clip, and kept it up until we were out of the trees and a good terra mile up the slope to the desert. Then I slowed and found the place I’d picked out on the way. Just off the track, behind a group of odd-looking trees.

I cut the engine and slid in. When we got out and looked back, you could hardly see the tractor. And that was from only a few feet. It was the best we could do, anyway. I kept thinking of the way he’d seemed to know we were arriving. But I had to take a chance. If he
was
doing anything like a radar-scan, it mightn’t show us. And unless he’d used it as we went away, he’d never spot the tractor.

We walked, to the other edge of the track and looked down at the valley. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. With a sort of no-sound feeling you never get back home. If you did, you’d think the end of the world had come . . .

But the goddamn green moonlight showed everything I wanted. I picked a couple of spots, then briefed the guys properly. I said, “The idea’s to watch. And keep watching. Don’t move from your spots, but if you see anything remember it. All of it.” We compared watches; it was twenty-three hundred. I said, “Okay. Rondy back here at zero three and thirty. We’d better be gone by dawn. Any questions?”

Doc didn’t have any. But Jerry made up. He hadn’t really been listening when I’d explained on the way. So I had to go over it, after I’d called him.

I said, “For Christ’s sake get it this time. Morbius says he’s going to have the Robot run off three hundred square feet of two-inch lead sheeting tonight. And let us have it in the morning. I’ll bet a year’s pay he’ll deliver all right. But I’ll lay five to one the Robot’s not going to turn it out. Not from his goddamn belly or his goddamn lab which nobody can get into to watch—”

Jerry cut in. He was sore at the way I was talking. He said, “No need to make like I was a moron. You figure Morbius’ll be in touch with these Altarian pals you’re so sure he’s got, and they’ll fix it? And you figure we’ll see something cooking after he’s gotten in touch with ‘em? Either them coming to him, or him going to them? Right?”

I said, “Sure. That’s the way it has to be. Unless you believe the Robot story.”

Jerry said, “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”

Doc said, “Suppose they have some way of getting in touch inside the rock?”

Now I got mad. We were all pretty touchy. I said, “Then they’re gremlins and we don’t get to see ‘em. So we’ve lost a couple of hours sleep, for Christ sake!”

Doc said, “All right, Skipper,” the way he might talk to a kid. I was going to call him about it when there was a noise from the trees behind us, near the tractor. The way we all whipped around must’ve been something to see. Jerry and I had guns out. Even Doc was pulling at his.

It was only one of the goddamn monkeys. Doc said afterwards it was the titi. It dropped down onto the track and squattered away, looking back at us over its shoulder.

I shoved my D-R back in the holster and turned around again and showed the guys where I wanted them, Doc first. He had about half a mile to go, straight down into the valley to a patch of stuff near the river that looked like willows. From there, I figured he could watch the whole back of the rock-shoulder. I sent him off right away. I said, “Remember—just watch. If you get in trouble, fire three bursts from your D-R. But I mean real trouble! Don’t pop off at me if I show. You guys’re on fixed points, I’m going to rove.”