Come Back Page 4

  "There's another odd thing." Mary said. "Parts of North America are treeless, the prairies, and so is the African savannah although it's much reduced, bits of India and so on. You'd expect to see huge herds of animals."

  I glanced up at her. "No bison or wildebeest?"

  She shook her head. "There's hardly any big animal life at all." She stared at the screen, lines of strain showing on her normally smooth countenance. "We haven't got the definition to see small life, insects say or minor mammals. There's masses of life in the oceans, though."

  I brooded over her information and came up with an answer. "Radiation." I decided.

  Linda's chestnut hair shone as she shook her head. "Maybe, but how? Where from? We've gone over the ship's records. Any solar flare would have been captured on the detectors, but it hasn't and to do this it must have been huge, we've had all this out before."

  A silence fell on us as we gazed at our home. Terrible images passed through my imagination, unwanted, pictures of millions, billions dying in heaps, whole nations and peoples incinerated in a second. What in God's name, if there was a God, had done this?

  Mary and Linda, however, had been thinking along different lines. "David, we have to think about survival." Linda had her hand on my arm, gazing at me with that near hypnotic look in her dark eyes. "I... I'm worried. I don't like to think..."

  I patted her hand. "I've thought of it already." I told her, seeing the immediate frown arrive and Mary's puzzled expression. "I'm going to see the junta." I added.

  "But..." Linda stuttered.

  "What I want you two to do is take a copy of everything. All the scanner records, all the original tectonic and navigation data, all the chart and mapping data we made of Earth before we went, get it on paper, not discs, paper." I explained to two pairs of wide eyes. "Then go and get your survival kits ready. We want medical stuff and clothes, you work it out."

  "Max won't let us land." Linda said uncertainly, looking startled. "He's going to leave us here and him and Selena and some others are going down." She seemed to shudder. "Mary found out." She added in a small voice.

  "Max and me." Mary said unhappily. "I thought he...but all the time...it doesn't matter." She finished miserably. It did matter, but I couldn't tell her, she already knew. "We used to talk to each other with the tracers we had on Centauri." She fished out the playing card shape of the intercoms we'd used on that distant planet. "We used to say things we didn't want others to hear." She continued, avoiding our eyes. "He had his switched on to charge it from the lights and I heard them talk before they shut the hatch." She looked up with tears welling in her eyes. "I thought he loved me and I... I... but he's going to leave us up here to die."

  "We've been waiting for you to get here." Linda said, her eyes telling me she wasn't about to allow anyone, captain or not, to condemn her to death without a fight.

  "I won't be long." I told them. "Make sure we have an interrogator." I added as I stepped smartly out of the hatchway, the hiss as it shut behind me cutting off their questions. An interrogator can ask the ship's brain for anything, data, scanning facilities, you name it, and we only had to point it up to where the ship would be in orbit.

  The navigation section hatch was shut and the monitor lights told me it had been sealed so I put my personal decoder on the digital display. Long hours brooding over the duplicity of mankind in my weapon filled den had been filled in by a hobby, a useful hobby. The electronics were simple, after all this wasn't a bank, it was a starship where certain areas could be sealed off for very good reasons. Equally good reasons made me want to have access if I needed it.

  The hatch lock bleeped, and the door slid open to reveal the three of them staring at me with set faces and hostile eyes. "Hello." I said genially. "Thought you would need some common sense although it seems to be kind of rare nowadays."

  Max stood up, the blond height of him towering over my modest five foot ten. "You have no business here." He said coldly. "You will be told of your tasks and duties when we have decided."

  "Get out." Selena hissed, her blue eyes colder than I had ever seen them.

  Mark said nothing but rubbed his fingers on his chin, watching me like an interesting chemical experiment. We had never been close but then I doubted anyone had been close to him.

  "We have things to discuss." I said mildly, watching Max.

  "You are a nuisance." Max snarled, his hands opening and closing in regular spasms. "There can be only one captain on a ship and you forget who that is." He took a deep breath as I didn't answer. "But I see no reason not to inform you what your main duty will be." He smiled suddenly, giving me a feeling as if a door had opened into a blast furnace. "You will be the captain. It's what you want, isn't it? We have chosen who will go down. Only those with the right skills will be needed and you are not one of them. We will not need navigators or communication engineers," he paused. "Or geologists."

  "How nice." I said, still smiling. "We sit in orbit forever while you inherit the Earth? Very Biblical, I'm sure."

  "Choices have to be made." Mark said, his sharp features reflecting an emotion I didn't recognise. "We need to find answers and those with the right qualifications will go down. The landers will not take the equipment necessary if every useless mouth is taken."

  "We do not need your guns or your rocks." Selena said. "You can have all the time in the world with your Linda. Dream your dreams."

  They all seemed so sure, so untroubled that I wondered how this committee had come about so quickly. It called for thought but not yet. "I don't think so." I informed them. "You will find that lander two will not obey your instructions."

  Max took a half pace towards me, his eyes narrowing to a slit. It appeared that his psycho evaluation showing massive self-control had been incorrect, but he stopped which showed that he still had powers of logic because the blunt barrel of the three fifty-seven calibre Magnum revolver that I held was pointed straight at his lower chest. "Let's not be hasty." I told him easily. "Just sit yourselves down over there." I nodded at the seats in front of the navigation displays. "And then you can tell me the reasoning behind your selection of people to be saved."

  Mark jumped visibly at the sudden appearance of the gun, but Selena simply thinned her lips and looked at me in a way that told me I was never going to be her chosen companion in a garden of Eden. Max backed away slowly, a mask of bland disinterest descending on his face. I stayed near the hatch and switched on the comm channel. "Linda, collect Elizabeth and Mike and that insect guy, you know, what's his name? Bradley Smith, him with the beard and his girlfriend Hilary Tomaso, she works in the physics section. Tell them they are on the crew for lander two."

  The hiss was her breath escaping, I could tell. "What about Jules and Marie?" Her voice was steady but compressed. She hadn't asked any questions but I knew that behind that high forehead of hers, wheels were going round. The French pair continually chattered to each other in French and glared at anyone not interested in trees. I grinned at the faces staring at me and nodded. "OK, but they talk to us in English."

  The intercom light went to green as she cut the connection. "Mutiny is the only crime still punishable by death under the Inner System Penal Code." Max broke a pregnant silence.

  "So I believe." I agreed. "You'll have trouble assembling a court."

  "It will be necessary to take search equipment down." Selena declared coolly. “We will need to find records and they will be buried in the deep command caves of North America. You know that whole cities were buried under miles of rock and the answers will be there. If we all go down we will never find them."

  "But you decide?" I kept the gun pointing neutrally in their general direction.

  "There will be fuel. We will send a lander up for you." Mark watched my face carefully.

  "A pity you didn't explain that earlier. Maybe you've just thought of it and maybe you know damned well that any fuel will be long gone after four hundred years."

  "You are wrecking the only cha
nce of scientific exploration." Selena disregarded my cynical comment. She was sitting close to Max, her hands almost touching his. "There has to be order and logic and you are behaving like a gangster."

  I leaned back against the cold metal of the hatch and scratched my chin with the gun barrel. "It was when Mary was talking about the time table of our long sleep." I said slowly, aware that they were all now paying flattering attention to my conversation. "Then there was that odd conversation between you and Selena." I pointed the gun casually at Max. "You suddenly switched on a very different persona and became a reincarnation of Captain Bligh and I wondered why."

  Selena had a tiny frown, but Max regarded me with the beginnings of a smile. "I didn't want to take you." He said evenly. "But the European High Command insisted. You're a spy, a crawling, slinking, peeping Tom."

  "Oh no." I responded. "I'm an insurance policy against captains who think they are God." I grinned at him. "And you do, don't you? You turned everyone's attention away from the ship's control programs just as Mary was pointing out interesting things. It got me thinking and I remembered that you three were on the design team. I joined late, you recall, but you are all very expert tinkerers with computers and especially as they are now so bloody clever you only have to tell them what you want and it's all written in to the code."

  "And what do you think we put in the code?" Selena asked softly. They were all staring at me like three hungry lizards.

  "That's easy. You three take over, the ship only obeys you, the landers only do what you tell them. You only have to say Open Sesame in the right language and the rest of us have to do what you want because if we don't you can shut down the air systems, say, or the temperature controls." I paused and let steam pressure escape. Keep cool and win, that's the motto. "It was in case we found nasty green men on Alpha Centauri. You could save yourselves, you were the chosen three." Memory told me they were rarely, if ever, separated when we conducted our exploration of that alien wilderness. They were always ready to shoot back to the ship and leave the rest of us to shake hands with aliens if they popped out. They hadn't of course, and everyone had remained happy, excited and alive except the unfortunate Hans and Maria.

  "So, what are you going to do? We can order the whole ship sealed off. Every compartment will be shut down and locked. Each section has its crew already waiting for orders. We can shut down the life support, we only have to speak. Shall I start now?" Max's smile was a little wider. "Or are you going to fire your little gun?"

  "It's a sad commentary on the human species." I wagged my head at Selena. "You must be disappointed. Only eighteen of us left alive and one lot wants to kill the other lot." She didn't respond so I sighed. "You are not the only ones with command override powers, but you didn't know that, did you? The nominated crew I have selected will go down on lander two. What the rest of you do is up to you." I swept my gaze across their set faces, the hostile eyes giving nothing away. "You know something and you're not going to tell me, I can see the signs. There's something extra, some factor we don't know but you do." They all regarded me with calm faces, but no one responded. "I'm a civilised guy, fortunately for you, or you could find yourselves with busted ankles. You can take your tribe and go to the hydroponics section. The ship is programmed to go into an equatorial orbit and lander two will depart at the appropriate moment and we'll see what we can find down there as well as try and survive." I paused. "Just don't get ideas about retribution."

  "I will remember." Max said quietly. Neither Selena nor Mark said a word, but they watched me with an intentness that would have made a more sensitive man turn pale.

  "Linda? You collected the rest of the gang?" I palmed the comm switch.

  "Everyone knows but..." She seemed breathless.

  "No buts. Get them all on the bridge." I cut the circuit. "Now, you can all entertain yourselves in the bio labs and the hydroponics for the next two days. I have inserted a time block to stop you tinkering with things like air pressure, attitude controls and engine settings so don't think you can bugger up the orbit. Besides you know as well as I do that any drastic fiddling with the orbit will kill us all."

  My ability to interfere with the main control programs was limited but they didn't know that. Of course, as soon as they got their hands on an interface console, they would find out but by that time it would be too late. I hadn't meant to provoke an instant rebellion in this manner, it just seemed to have happened, but I was convinced that there was indeed an 'X' factor, a piece of the jigsaw that they knew and no one else did. It screamed at me and for a moment I considered putting a bullet into Mark's knee and asking him to explain but scruples prevented me. It was a mistake, but we didn't find that out until it was obvious. I might have sabotaged the other lander but that would have been barbaric, leaving them all up here to die of old age or madness. That too was a mistake.

  Apart from the list of people we had nominated, no one else appealed to come with us which confirmed certain things to my suspicious nature. Jules and Marie exchanged poisonous, dark eyed stares with Selena and said explosive things in rapid French, but they certainly didn't want to stay with Max's crowd nor did the bearded Bradley Smith or the willowy Hilary. They had all been witnesses to that appalling scene when Max and Selena had told

  them in so many words that they were just expendable units. Poor Mary stared at Max and received nothing in return, just nothing, an empty look and no recognition. He stood with Selena close to him and Mike Zelenov stared at her just as Mary had gazed at Max and with the same result. The social betrayals rang warning bells in my head, but we had no time to investigate why Max and Selena had let Mary and Mike think they had bonds of love when it was clear that there were no ties at all, not even loyalty.

  My crew had looked askance at the gun, but Linda merely asked me how it worked as I herded the rest back to the lower levels and their temporary living space. Our boats were burnt, there was no talking our way out of this and for a moment a ripple of doubt and unease flickered through my thick cortex. Within minutes we had made enemies of people we had known and shared life-threatening times with. We couldn't go back and smile sweetly at Max and Selena and tell them we liked practical jokes, and didn't they think it had been funny?

  Bradley Smith's black face frowned at me as he announced that neither he nor Hilary liked firearms or the people who carry them. Linda, before I could say a word, told them equably that there was no compulsion, they could go and make their peace with Max. They both glowered at us, but the offer was unattractive, we could see that.

  "OK, people." I faced our tense and worried crew. "Just listen. There's no gun at your heads, Linda said it. Any one of you can go back to Max and Selena and tell them you've seen the light. Think about it now."

  "You want us to stay up 'ere?" Jules regarded me as if I had made an improper suggestion.

  "They were going down." Bradley said, his voice gravelly. "But not me or Hilary, or any of us." His black eyes gleamed with rage. "We are not chess pieces for that goddamned martinet to move about."

  "Right. You're all agreed? Tell me now because there's no going back once we get down."

  They looked at each other, Jules and Marie producing Gallic shrugs and limited smiles. "We go and look at the trees, yes?"

  "What do we take?" Mike was looking thin faced and bitter, but Mary had her hand on his arm. They were stoking up emotional outrage but that was up to them, I didn't see any reason to interfere. I like freedom myself.

  "We'll get together and make a list." Linda told them. "What's the payload, David?"

  "Not a lot. With all of us maybe half a ton, no more and I want half of that."

  They stared at me with puzzled faces. "Half of everything? What for?" Elizabeth demanded.

  I grinned at them. "I'll give you three guesses." I said shortly. "But more important than the cargo, we have to decide where we go." I scratched my chin, a habit caught from Linda. "And that's where you all come in. You're the scientific brains. I know about r
ocks, but you know about life and weather and that planet down there." I jerked my head at the main screen, now showing the Earth in stunning and breathtaking detail. "Where we go, we stay so we have to get it right."

  "And you want to take half a ton of guns?" Bradley gazed at me as if I was insane.

  "I think we're going to need them." I said flatly. "We've got less than a standard day to decide everything so get your brains working." I finished, turning away to go out of the hatch.

  "And where are you going to be?" Linda enquired with dangerous sweetness.

  "I'm going to get our survival kit ready." I told her and departed before she could say anything venomous. It was slightly more urgent than she realised or any of them. Like most boffins, they all regarded the world around them with enquiring but distressingly innocent eyes. Oh, they could and did conspire and plot against each other, quietly stabbing each other in the back, but present them with a practical problem and they tended to descend into arcane argument, very informative and high flown but forgetful of the principle that a decision, almost any decision in the real world was better than no decision.

  I except Linda from this cynical appraisal but then she had been sharing my bed for a long time and some of my Machiavellian personality had rubbed off on her and very sexy it was doing it. Max, Selena and the laconic Mark would not just be exchanging nursery rhymes, they would be piling up a bank balance of future profit at our expense. I had put a time lock on the bio section hatchways but it wouldn't take a genius long to get around that and they had several brains of near genius level in there. So I put a small charge against the main hatch into their area and a polite message on the intercom circuit telling them what to do to avoid a loud bang. Meanwhile I had to drag assorted armaments into the loading bay, plus things I kept thinking of as I went along. Linda, naturally, appeared while I was happily clinking rifle bits together and started to help while keeping quiet in a reproachful silence.