Masters of Space | Page 7

... not clear ... foggy,
diffuse ... this woman is sure I'm her long-lost
great-great-a-hundred-times grandmother or something--You! Slow
down. Take it easy! They want us all to come out here and live with ...
no, not with them, but each of us alone in a whole house with them to

wait on us! But first, they all want to come aboard...."
"What?" Hilton yelped. "But are you sure they're friendly?"
"Positive, chief."
"How about you, Alex?"
"We're all sure, Jarve. No question about it."
"Bring two of them aboard. A man and a woman."
"You won't bring any!" Sawtelle thundered. "Hilton, I had enough of
your stupid, starry-eyed, ivory-domed blundering long ago, but this
utterly idiotic brainstorm of letting enemy aliens aboard us ends all
civilian command. Call your people back aboard or I will bring them in
by force!"
"Very well, sir. Sandy, tell the natives that a slight delay has become
necessary and bring your party aboard."
The Navy officers smiled--or grinned--gloatingly; while the scientists
stared at their director with expressions ranging from surprise to
disappointment and disgust. Hilton's face remained set, expressionless,
until Sandra and her party had arrived.
"Captain Sawtelle," he said then, "I thought that you and I had settled
in private the question or who is in command of Project Theta Orionis
at destination. We will now settle it in public. Your opinion of me is
now on record, witnessed by your officers and by my staff. My opinion
of you, which is now being similarly recorded and witnessed, is that
you are a hidebound, mentally ossified Navy mule; mentally and
psychologically unfit to have any voice in any such mission as this.
You will now agree on this recording and before these witnesses, to
obey my orders unquestioningly or I will now unload all Bureau of
Science personnel and equipment onto this planet and send you and the
Perseus back to Terra with the doubly-sealed record of this episode
posted to the Advisory Board. Take your choice."

Eyes locked, and under Hilton's uncompromising stare Sawtelle
weakened. He fidgeted; tried three times--unsuccessfully--to blare
defiance. Then, "Very well sir," he said, and saluted.
* * * * *
"Thank you, sir," Hilton said, then turned to his staff. "Okay, Sandy, go
ahead."
Outside the control room door, "Thank God you don't play poker,
Jarve!" Karns gasped. "We'd all owe you all the pay we'll ever get!"
"You think it was the bluff, yes?" de Vaux asked. "Me, I think no.
Name of a name of a name! I was wondering with unease what life
would be like on this so-alien planet!"
"You didn't need to wonder, Tiny," Hilton assured him. "It was in the
bag. He's incapable of abandonment."
Beverly Bell, the van der Moen twins and Temple Bells all stared at
Hilton in awe; and Sandra felt much the same way.
"But suppose he had called you?" Sandra demanded.
"Speculating on the impossible is unprofitable," he said.
"Oh, you're the most exasperating thing!" Sandra stamped a foot.
"Don't you--ever--answer a question intelligibly?"
"When the question is meaningless, chick, I can't."
At the lock Temple Bells, who had been hanging back, cocked an
eyebrow at Hilton and he made his way to her side.
"What was it you started to say back there, boss?"
"Oh, yes. That we should see each other oftener."
"That's what I was hoping you were going to say." She put her hand

under his elbow and pressed his arm lightly, fleetingly, against her side.
"That would be indubitably the fondest thing I could be of."
He laughed and gave her arm a friendly squeeze. Then he studied her
again, the most baffling member of his staff. About five feet six. Lithe,
hard, trained down fine--as a tennis champion, she would be.
Stacked--how she was stacked! Not as beautiful as Sandra or Teddy ...
but with an ungodly lot of something that neither of them had ... nor
any other woman he had ever known.
"Yes, I am a little difficult to classify," she said quietly, almost reading
his mind.
"That's the understatement of the year! But I'm making some progress."
"Such as?" This was an open challenge.
"Except possibly Teddy, the best brain aboard."
"That isn't true, but go ahead."
"You're a powerhouse. A tightly organized, thoroughly integrated,
smoothly functioning, beautifully camouflaged Juggernaut. A
reasonable facsimile of an irresistible force."
"My God, Jarvis!" That had gone deep.
"Let me finish my analysis. You aren't head of your department
because you don't want to be. You fooled the top psychs of the Board.
You've been running ninety per cent submerged because you can work
better that way and there's no glory-hound blood in you."
She stared at him, licking her lips. "I knew your mind was a razor, but I
didn't know it