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You can give me the lectures later."
I located the hood. The ship's instrument panel wasn't dead, of course, but it
didn't volunteer information unless it was asked. The panel was primarily for
input.
The hood was mostly for observation and sensory functions.
I looked to the east, expecting to see one of the planet's two tiny moons
rising.
But it wasn't a moon. At least Johnny hadn't walked himself into trouble for
nothing.
It was a ship, orbiting the world, where no ship had any right to be.
It couldn't be the Caradoc supply ship which was the only ship legally
entitled to land here while our investigation was going on because that
wouldn't hang around in orbit wasting company money.
"Well?" said Johnny, after a decent pause.
"It's a ship," I said.
"I was right," he said, sounding very relieved. "It's perhaps as well I
looked."
"Damn it," I said. "You know bloody well that finding a ship doesn't justify
your being where you had no right to be. I don't give a damn if you find a
twenty-ton meteorite that's going to drop right on top of us, I don't want you
playing with my equipment."
"But it could be important," he complained.
"Not that important," I assured him. But I was thinking hard, and the venom
had drained out of my voice. I was very curious about that ship.
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"Should I get the boss?" he asked.
"You can leave him alone, too," I said. "I haven't a clue why he hired you in
the first place if it was just to pry me loose from your back room I'd just as
soon he
hadn't bothered but the least you can do is to keep him from regretting it. He
already has one score against you for pulling idiot jailbreaks on Rhapsody.
Don't give him any more."
"Hell," he said, "I only suggested telling him there was a ship in orbit."
"Yeah, well he's ill," I said, "and he doesn't want any more pieces of jigsaw
dropped on his plate without knowing where they fit."
"You're very conscientious all of a sudden," he said. "I'd have thought your
dearest wish was to give the old man a permanent heart attack."
"Some other time," I said, still paying only half a mind to the conversation.
"At the moment he's one of my favourite people. ... I wonder if I can pick up
his beam. How long is it since he was last in the sky?"
"Not too long. Four hours plus, I guess."
"But people were busy, then. If somebody's keeping him up-to-date on what's
happening down here, they'll probably be doing it right now, while they drink
their after-dinner cup of tea, or smoke their after-dinner joint, or
whatever."
He moved from his chair, and dared to come over to stand beside the cradle.
But he kept his hands behind his back.
"You think you can tap their call beam?" he asked.
"Should be easy," I said. "Wherever the beam starts, it can't be more than a
mile from here. I don't care how tight at is, they've got to allow a certain
amount of spray. It's only a matter of tuning. But I ll have to open right up
or I'll only get one end of the chit-chat. So you keep quiet. Don't breathe
too loud. And if you sneeze I'll brain you."
Gently, I began to caress the pickup on the call circuit, trying to infiltrate
the hypothetical beam link between ship and ground. I had to keep the energy
low, so that if I did suddenly manage to augment their beam, I wouldn't
contribute a sudden energy boost and reveal the presence of an eavesdropper.
A few tense, silent minutes passed while my fingers twiddled the dials with
great delicacy.
Then we heard the voice.
"Look," it said, with an unmistakable hint of hysteria, despite its faintness,
"it's too big... I just can't handle it... This isn't my level of
responsibility... I need a director out here at least& "
"You know how far we are from base," said the other voice. "I can't call them,
you know... It'll take a week to get a message through..."
"I haven't got a week!"
"I
know you haven't got a week... That's exactly what I mean... Whatever you do,
it's going to be your own decision... You're the man on the spot... You've got
the responsibility... You've got the rank... You've got the ship up in the
sky... It's your decision..."
"I can't make decisions like this... It's not my level... I haven't got the
rank necessary to handle this not Charlot, not with what Kerman has
already... All I get from him from anyone is garbage... I don't understand...
I can't take the responsibility if I don't know what's going on... We need
more experts... We need a director at least... There's just no way of knowing
how big this thing is or even what kind of a thing it is& "
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