made special requests, in the past, for assignments other than the routine work of the Service, Commander?”
He was boxing me up in a corner, and I knew it, but I couldn’t deny what he said, so I admitted it as gracefully as I could.
“Very well,” nodded the Chief, and it seemed to me his eyes twinkled for an instant. “Inverness, here, is head of a party of scientists bent upon a certain exploration. They have interested the Council in the work, and the Council has requested the cooperation of this Service.”
He glanced at me to make sure I understood. I certainly did; when the Supreme Council requested something, that thing was done.
“Very well, sir,” I said. “What are your orders?”
The Chief shrugged.
“Simply that you are to cooperate with Inverness and his party, assisting them in every possible way, including the use of your ship for transporting them and a reasonable amount of equipment, to the field of their activities. The command of the ship remains, of course, in you and your officers, but in every reasonable way the Ertak and her crew are to be at the disposal of Inverness and his group. Is that clear, Commander?”
“Perfectly, sir.” Nothing could have been clearer. I was to run the ship, and Inverness and his crew were to run me. I could just imagine how Correy, my fighting first officer, would take this bit of news. The mental picture almost made me laugh, disgusted as I was.
“Written orders will, of course, be given you before departure. I believe that’s all. Good luck, Commander!” The Chief offered his hand briefly, and then hurried back to the other room where the Silver-sleeves had gathered to make more rulings for the confusion of the Service.
“Since when,” asked Correy bitterly, “are we running excursions for civilians? We’ll be personally conducting elderly ladies next thing.”
“Or put on Attached Police Service,” growled Hendricks, referring to the poor devils who, in those days, policed the air-lanes of the populated worlds, cruising over the same pitiful routes day after day, never rising beyond the fringe of the stratosphere.
“Perhaps,” suggested the level-headed Kincaide, “it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Didn’t you, say, sir, that this Inverness was rather a decent sort of chap?”
I nodded.
“Very much so. You’d scarcely take him for a scientist.”
“And our destination is—what?” asked Kincaide.
“That I don’t know. Inverness is to give us that information when he arrives, which will be very shortly, if he is on time.”
“Our destination,” said Correy, “will probably be some little ball of mud with a tricky atmosphere or some freak vegetation they want to study. I’d rather—”
A sharp rap on the door of the navigating room, where we had gathered for an informal council of war, interrupted.
“Party of three civilians at the main exit port, Port Number One, sir,” reported the sub-officer of the guard. “One sent his name: Carlos Inverness.”
“Very good. Admit them at once, and recall the outer guards. We are leaving immediately.”
As the guard saluted and hurried away, I nodded to Correy. “Have the operating room crew report for duty at once,” I ordered, “and ask Sub-officer Scholey to superintend the sealing of the ports. Mr. Kincaide, will you take the first watch as navigating officer? Lift her easily until we determine our objective and can set a course; this is like shoving off with sealed orders.”
“Worse,” said Hendricks unhappily. “Sealed orders promise something interesting, and—”
“Carlos Inverness and party,” announced the guard from the doorway.
Inverness nodded to me in friendly fashion and indicated his two companions.
“Commander Hanson,” he said, “permit me to present Godar Tipene and Cleve Brady, who are my companions on this expedition.” I bowed, and shook hands with Brady; Tipene was a Zenian, and hence did not offer me this greeting of Earth. Then, quickly, I completed the round of introductions, studying Inverness’s companions with interest as I did so.
Brady was short, and rather red-faced; a beefy, taciturn type, with a trap-like mouth and thoughtful discerning eyes. He struck me as being one with whom most men would like to be friendly, but who would have exceedingly few friends.
The Zenian was a perfect foil for him. Tipene was exceedingly tall and slender, like all his race, and very dark. His eyes were almost womanly in their softness, and he had the nervous grace of a thoroughbred—which is an Earth animal of particularly high breeding, raised for show purposes. He had the happy faculty of speaking the language of Earth without a trace of Zenian or Universal accent; the Zenians are exceeded by none in linguistic ability, which was a real accomplishment before these decadent days when native languages are slipping so rapidly into obscurity.
“And now,” said Inverness crisply, when the introductions were over, “I presume you’ll wish to know something about our destination and the objects of this expedition, sir?”
“It would be helpful in charting our course,” I admitted, smiling.
Inverness, with beautiful disregard for the necessities of space navigation, spread voluminous papers over the table whose surface was formed by the pair of three-dimensional charts which were the Ertak’s eyes in outer space.
“Our destination,” he said, “is a body designated on the charts as FX-31. You are familiar with it, Commander Hanson?”
“Hardly familiar,” I admitted, smiling at Correy. “The universe is rather sizable, and even the named bodies are so numerous that one is able to be familiar with but an exceedingly small percentage. Its designation, of course, gives me certain information regarding its size, location and status, however.”
“How much information, Commander?” asked Tipene nervously.
“Well, ‘F’ indicates that it is large; larger than Earth, for example. The numerals tells me where to locate it upon our space charts. And the ‘X’ would indicate that it is inhabited, but not by intelligent beings. Or that there is reasonable doubt as to the nature of those inhabiting it.”
“A very good summary of the knowledge we have,” nodded Inverness approvingly. “I can add but one bit of information which may or may not be accurate: that the sphere known as FX-31 is populated by a ruling class decidedly unusual in type, and possessed of a degree of intelligence which has made them virtual masters of the sphere.”
“What are they like?” asked Correy. “Will they put up a fight? Are they dangerous?”
“Our knowledge came from a luckless tramp liner which set down on FX-31 in search of water, their water-producing equipment having been damaged by carelessness. They found water, a great river of it, and sent a party of five men to determine its fitness for human consumption. They were snapped up before they had gone a hundred feet from the ship—and no more men were sent out. They hovered over the stream and drew up the water in containers devised for the purpose.”
“Snapped
