Brain World

Chapter Fifteen

Hiring the space freighter was no problem. As Ronny had suspected, one of them, the Space Freighter Cherokee, was a tramp and the skipper had no regular run. He would pick up a cargo on one planet, freight it to its destination and pick up a new load there for whatever spaceport it was designated for. He asked for an astronomical figure in interplanetary credits to take Ronny and Dorn to New Delos, his freighter going empty, since there was no cargo on Einstein for the world which had originally been settled by religious fanatics. Ronny shrugged that off. He was acting under orders. Let Sid Jakes worry about price.

However, the hop to New Delos was a lengthy one and the captain of the Cherokee found it necessary to take on additional fuel before getting under way.

The two Section G agents were climbing the walls with the need to get going, but there was nothing for it. The following morning was the soonest they could blast off. They returned to Rosemary’s house.

The balance of the committee had shown up but Rosemary herself had flown the coop, and no one knew where she had gone.

Ronny and Dorn had eyed Marvin and Barbara in disgust.

Ronny said, “After what Academician Felix Fitzjames told you about the dangers of the Deathworlds, you’re still foolish enough to make an attempt on them?”

Marvin said stubbornly, “We’re going to request that they release some of their technology to us, not try to seize it by force or steal it. We’ll offer to exchange some of ours for theirs.”

Ronny snorted and plunked down into a chair. “After a few megayears of their developing their science and technology, as compared to a couple of thousand years on the part of the human race, just what is it that you think that you’ve got that they’d want?”

Barbara said, “We don’t know. But we are sending four of the most intelligent persons on Einstein. It will be a matter of consulting with the Dawnmen. From what Academician Fitzjames said, there is no difficulty whatsoever in communicating with them.”

“No, there isn’t,” Ronny admitted. “They do it telepathically. Language makes no difference. But they do not like intruders.”

He turned to Fredric. “Isn’t there any possible way to stop them? Can’t you put it to a vote, or something?”

Marvin said, “It’s too late, anyway. They’re on their way, and in the speediest spacecraft on Einstein.” There was triumph in his voice.

“Holy Ultimate,” Dorn said in disgust. “And we’ve got to wait until morning even to start.” In the morning, Fredric came down to the spaceport to see them off. He had another Vizsla with him. A female.

Boy said to her, “Hi, Puppy.”

And she said scornfully, “The name is Plotz, as you very well know.”

The whole group was walking toward the Cherokee from where they had parked the overcar which had brought them to the spaceport.

“Plotz?” Ronny said to Fredric.

“I dabble in writing,” Fredric admitted ruefully. “What’s wrong with Plotz as a name for a writer’s dog? As she grows older, Plotz thickens.”

“Oh, no,” Dorn protested. “Don’t tell me that with all the upgrading of intelligence on the planet Einstein, you still have the pun.”

“She’s a beautiful dog,” Ronny made the mistake of saying, as they reached the space freighter’s gangplank.

“Thank you,” Plotz said, casting her eyes down demurely.

“She’s yours,” Fredric said immediately.

“Oh, now, see here… ”

“No, really. It’s better that you have a pair to take back with you to Earth. They breed true, you know. That is, the puppies, too, will talk and have superior intelligences.”

Boy let his tongue hang out from the side of his mouth and gave a double pant as he eyed Plotz.

“Huh,” she said.

Ronny looked at Fredric and said, “All right. Thanks. Earth will appreciate it. But listen, how do you people stand now on entry into United Planets? I know that Rosemary and her gang had ulterior motives for wishing to join, but how about the majority of you?”

“The majority of us still wish to join. Since we’ve found out about the presence of other intelligent life in the galaxy, we realize that man must stick together. It’s not a matter of upgrading a single world, such as Einstein; the job must be to upgrade the whole race. We are willing to contribute our efforts to the common cause.”

“Wizard,” Ronny said. “We’ll so report to our superiors. I don’t know how they’ll react, in view of this Dawnworlds foul-up, but I, personally, have no doubts about your own sincerity.”

Fredric shook hands with the two Section G agents and they ascended the gangplank, followed by the two dogs, Plotz going first, lady that she was.

As she climbed the stair, Boy gave her rear end a quick sniff and she looked over her shoulder at him and said nastily, “If you don’t look out you’re going to get a nip.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Boy said in defense, giving her a wag in reassurance.

Captain Joe Wald stood at the top of the gangplank awaiting his passengers. He looked down at the dogs for a long empty moment, then looked up accusingly at Ronny. “They talked,” he said.

“Yeah,” Ronny said. “Everything’s brainy on this world.”

When Boy came abreast the skipper, he stuck up his paw to be shaken and said, “Glad to be aboard, Captain. My name’s Boy.”

Wald, looking as blank as had Ronny and Dorn when they had first come in contact with the talking dog, first shook his head, then shook the paw.

The skipper led the way to their quarters, which were ample enough. In her day, before becoming a tramp, the Cherokee had been an interplanetary passenger-freighter with accommodations for twenty, in addition to the crew. She seldom carried passengers these days, being on the rundown side, but the cabins were still available.

The run to New Delos was uneventful and Ronny and Dorn killed most of the time either reading or playing battle chess. Spotted two tanks and a machine gun nest, Ronny sometimes even won.

Largely, they avoided discussing their mission. There was simply nothing more to say at this point.

An exception was one day, after they had wearied of playing, when out of a clear sky Ronny exploded.

“Those damn Einstein funkers,” he snarled.

Dorn looked over at him.

Ronny said, “The bastards supposedly have the best brains mankind has ever developed and look at what they’re doing. Risking the whole race.”

Dorn thought about it. “It was you,” he said mildly, “who pointed out that high intelligence doesn’t guarantee integrity.”

He pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and went on. “In developing a viable intelligent life form, you have three requirements, a brain, a hand with an opposed thumb, or its equivalent, and a voice box with its necessary complement, the ear—or the equivalent, such as telepathy. Once given those basics, you can begin to develop all three. In a surprisingly short time, speaking in terms of evolution of species, the brain can be augmented. Bringing the hand up from the point where it can grasp and utilize a sharp rock to where it can thread a needle or assemble a micro-computer, is also possible. Evolving the voice box from the point where it can grunt, bark and whine to the level where it can render the Jewel Song from Faust, and evolving an ear that will appreciate the effort, is time-consuming, but it only takes time.

“But the evolution of a high ethic is still more time-consuming and man, certainly, is still at the task. The sands of our beaches are littered with those who have drowned in the attempt, from the Hebrew prophets, through the Buddah and Joshua of Nazareth to more recent examples, some too close to us for us to realize that this was what they were attempting to do. Our Voltaires, our Tom Paines, our Lincolns, our Ghandis, not to mention so many of our poets.”

Ronny said, “Wizard. I’ve never heard you wax so poetic, Dorn.”

Boy, who had been sprawled out on the floor next to Plotz, opened one eye and said, accusingly, “How’s a dog supposed to get any sleep around here?”

They ignored him and Dorn said, “Evidently, our friends from Einstein have yet to achieve a high ethic. We can only hope that the Dawnmen are more advanced in this respect.”

Ronny snorted deprecation at that. He said, “The planet Phrygia now has an atmosphere of methane, hydrogen and ammonia, as a result of the Dawnworlds’ attack. Does that sound like a high ethical code?”

“They were provoked,” Dorn said unhappily.

Ronny Bronston had been on New Delos once before. In fact, it had been the first planet, save Earth, he had ever set down upon. It had been his first assignment and Lee Chang Chu had been along to shepherd the fledging Section G agent. Theoretically, he had been in pursuit of the legendary Tommy Paine, an interplanetary revolutionist who had participated in the overthrow of a score of governments, socioeconomic systems and even religions. His latest escapade had been assisting the local revolutionists in the assassination, with a bomb, of the immortal god-king of New Delos. The planet was governed by a very restrictive theocracy, headed by this god-king, who supposedly never died. In actuality, approximately every twenty years, the ruling bishops of the church would get together and elect from their number a new head. Plastic surgery would then be used so that the new god-king would look exactly like the old to the people. Reactionary though the government was, there had seldom been revolt. It takes a brave man to rebel against both his kind and his god. However, Tommy Paine supposedly entered onto the scene and the god-king, while being televised all over the planet, was assassinated by the local revolutionists. The revolution then took place overnight, and was in full swing when Ronny and Lee Chang had arrived.

It was only later that Ronny Bronston found out that there was no such person as Tommy Paine. He was, in actuality, a cover for Section G when they secretly committed some of their subversive acts against members of United Planets who were failing to progress because of reactionary institutions.

New Delos had changed considerably since Ronny had been there before. For one thing, the capital city, formerly on the sleepy side, had doubled in size and was abustle with activity. The spaceport was also considerably larger and there were a dozen spaceships of varying size on the field. Obviously, New Delos was conducting a wide trade with her fellow members of United Planets. Under the god-king she had been what amounted to a hermit planet, with as little intercourse with other worlds as she could manage.

Among the spaceships, was a Space Forces cruiser. Captain Joe Wald set the Cherokee down as near to it as he could.

Ronny Bronston and Dorn Horsten had long since packed. They said hurried goodbyes and, accompanied by the dogs, started in the direction of the SFC Alexander Hamilton.

Plotz, happy at the chance for some exercise after the cooped up period on the Cherokee trotted ahead.

Ronny looked down at Boy, who was pacing along beside him. He said, “What are you looking so smug about?”

Boy hung his tongue out for a couple of quick pants and said, “Didn’t you notice? Plotz was in heat, back on the Cherokee.”

Ronny rolled his eyes upward. “Oh, wizard. A great lover I’ve got on my hands. She’ll probably have the pups before we get back to Earth—always assuming we do.”

Boy gave his bobbed tail several wags. “Sixty-three days,” he said with satisfaction. “Gestation period is about sixty-three days. I understand that you humans take nine months. Waste of time.”

Lee Chang Chu and a tall, uniformed Space Forces officer were awaiting them at the top of the gangplank. As always, she was dressed in a silken Cheongsam. And, just as characteristic, she was demurely smiling as the two Section G agents approached, a mere Oriental woman in the presence of men.

When Ronny and Dorn reached the hatchway she said, “Supervisor Ronald Bronston, Agent Dorn Horsten, let me introduce you to Captain John Fodor, commander of the Cruiser Alexander Hamilton.”

The three men shook hands. The captain was, tall, sparse, about forty and gave the impression of being the no-nonsense type. He radiated the air of spaceman.

Lee Chang looked down at the dogs and said, “Where in the world did you acquire these two beautiful animals?”

Ronny said, “Lee Chang, meet Boy and Plotz.”

Boy stuck out his paw for a shake and said, “Hello. You the Boss’ female?”

Lee Chang’s almond eyes widened and her chin dropped a little. She shook the offered paw, and darted a quick look up at Ronny.

She said, “Why, no. Why do you ask?”

“It’s the way you two look at each other,” he told her. “Meet my bitch friend.”

Plotz extended a paw and said, “I am happy to meet you. Lee Chang.”

The captain was gaping too.

Ronny said to him, “Let’s get spaceborne soonest, skipper. We’re in the biggest hurry, ever.”

“Where are we bound for?” Captain Fodor said.

“We’ll tell you later. For the time, set a course in the direction of Xanadu.”

“Right,” the captain said. He looked down at the dogs again, shook his head, then turned and headed toward the cruiser’s bridge, saying over his shoulder, “Supervisor Lee Chang Chu will show you to your quarters.”

Carrying the bags, the two agents followed her, the dogs bringing up the rear.

She said, “You have the second officer’s cabin. He’s doubling up with the third deck officer. I’m right next to you in the first officer’s quarters. He’s moved in with the first engineer.”

The door to their new quarters was open and they found the cabin on the Spartan side, but comfortable. Somebody had improvised a second bunk and Dorn was pleased to see that it was ample in size for his bulk. Evidently, Lee Chang had given them the word on his size.

While the men were putting their bags down, Lee Chang put her hands on her hips and said, “Ronny Bronston, have you been studying ventriloquism? I couldn’t even catch your mouth moving.”

He grinned at her. “Nope,” he said. “They really talk. In fact, I sometimes think Boy talks too damn much.”

“Some nerve,” Boy said, but he gave his stub of a tail a double wag to indicate he wasn’t really upset at the charge.

Dorn said, “They come from Einstein and on that planet they not only upbreed themselves with a vengeance but evidently everything else.”

Ronny said to the Chinese operative, “This cruiser is bigger than I expected.”

“It was the only one immediately available,” Lee Chang told him.

“How big’s the crew?”

“The captain and three deck officers. The chief engineer and three engineer officers. And a chief steward. That’s the officers. There are thirty in the crew, of varying ranks.”

“Damn,” Ronny said. “It’s too many. The fewer people that see anything at all of the Dawnworlds, the better.”

“I’ve thought about that,” she said, nodding. “I think our best plan is to set-down and we three disembark and the cruiser blast-off again immediately and go into orbit, with instruction not to use the scanners to observe the surface. We’ll keep in laser beam communication with them and call to come and get us, when required.”

They could feel the spaceship tremble beneath them and knew that they were underway.

They found seats and for a moment looked at each other in silence.

“Who’s in command, among the three of us?” Ronny said finally.

“You are,” Lee Chang said. “We’re both of supervisor rank, but you’re in charge.”

“You’re my senior.”

“But you’ve been on the Dawnworlds before. You’re the only one who has—at least the only one who remembers.”

He didn’t argue. She made sense. As little as he really knew about the Dawnmen, it was more than anybody else did.

He said, “How’s the Alexander Hamilton armed?”

“The same as all other cruisers of this class.”

“Wizard. We’ll have the skipper jettison all weapons. That includes everything, even our H-guns, if you brought them along.”

Lee Chang and Dorn both eyed him questioning.

Ronny said, “I don’t want to approach that first Dawnworld we’ll come to with as much in the way of a potentially deadly article as a fly swatter, not to speak of laser weapons, nuclear weapons and such.”

Lee Chang nodded. “I suppose you’re right. We want to give every indication of friendly, peaceful intent.”

They met most of the balance of the cruiser’s officers in the mess at the noon meal. Except for the first officer and the first engineer, both of whom were on watch, the full complement were on hand. Lee Chang, who had come with them from Earth, was already well known, and, as usual, it was obvious that, to a man, they were in love with the provocative Chinese. She introduced them all and then made the ship’s officers acquainted with the two dogs. Boy went around wagging and offering his right front paw to each in turn.

“Hi,” he’d say. “Glad to meet you.”

Plotz had simply said, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” wagged her tail a few times, to guarantee the truth of her statement and remained in the background.

Except for one muttered, “I don’t believe it,” the Space Forces men simply ogled.

The captain said, “All right, all right. Let us get down to the nitty-gritty.” He looked at Ronny. “Citizen Lee Chang Chu has been most secretive. She would tell us nothing about our destination, saying that we’d have to wait until our rendezvous with you and Doctor Horsten.”

Lee Chang said quietly, “In actuality, I don’t even know it, Captain.”

Ronny put his fork down and said simply, “Our destination is unknown, Captain. What exactly were the orders that you were given?”

The captain was staring at him. “To put my ship and my crew under your orders and to carry out your every order—to the death, if necessary. They were issued to me by the President of United Planets himself. What do you mean, you don’t know our destination, Supervisor Bronston?”

“I didn’t mean that. When I said our destination is unknown, I meant that it will remain unknown to you, your officers and the crew. I am the only person that knows it. And shortly Supervisor Chu will. You will never know where you have gone or where you have been.”

The skipper was looking at him as though he had gone completely around the bend. So were his officers.

Captain Fodor said, “My dear sir, how am I going to be able to take you to this mysterious destination if I don’t know where it is?”

“Who is your navigator?”

“Traditionally, the second deck officer is navigator. Mr. Tokugawa, here. But the captain also double checks the navigating and, if needed, overrules the second officer.”

Very well,” Ronny told him. “And who is in charge of the star charts?”

“Mr. Tokugawa and myself.”

“Wizard. Supervisor Lee Chang Chu is also a spaceship navigator. I will reveal the coordinates of our destination to her. She will do the navigating. During our journey, even while in underspace, Mr. Tokugawa will not be allowed on the bridge at any time. And you, yourself, will not be allowed on it while Lee Chang is setting our courses.”

The captain’s face went indignant. He said stiffly, “This is my ship, sir.”

“And you are under the direct orders of the President of United Planets.”

Captain Fodor glared at him for a long moment. Finally, “Very well, sir.”

Lee Chang said quietly, “I think it would be best if all star charts would be placed in my custody, in my stateroom, and that a guard be placed at the door on a twenty-four hour a day basis.”

“What in the hell’s going on!” the captain demanded in indignation.

Dorn Horsten spoke up for the first time in his quiet voice. “The fate of the human race is going on,” he said.

“Dogs too, evidently,” Boy murmured.

After the meal, for the next few hours in their own quarters, the five of them rehashed the developments on Einstein, Lee Chang being only partially acquainted with them. Ronny pulled no punches, admitting that he had been suckered by Rosemary, giving her the opportunity to drug him, and leading to his being given Scop and his mind being picked.

She said, her soft voice gently mocking, “I didn’t know that you were that susceptible to feminine charms, Ronny.”

He looked at her in irritation. “I’m a man, damn it.”

“On the face of it,” she nodded sweetly.

She thought about it for a moment, then said, “I suppose that the quicker you give me the coordinates of the Dawnworlds, the sooner I can get to setting as direct a course as possible for the nearest one.”

“Yes, certainly,” Ronny said. He looked at Dorn apologetically. “I think that it’s better that not even you be in on it.”

The doctor pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and said emphatically, “I most certainly agree with you. What I do not know, I cannot betray, even under Scop. I have sometimes wondered, in reflection, whether or not Ross Metaxa shouldn’t have brainwashed you as well as the crew of the Pisa and Rita Daniels. Possibly nobody should know the location of the Dawnworlds. You say that they are in an obscure spiral, off the beaten track, and that ordinarily we wouldn’t stumble upon them for ages. Very well, just knowing that they are out there, somewhere, is enough, that and the information we have about them. Sooner or later, stumble upon them we will—and the later the better.”

“We’ll leave you here with the dogs,” Ronny said. “Obviously, they, too, can’t hear what I have to tell Lee Chang.”

Don’t you trust me, Boss?” Boy said, giving a quick double pant and obviously just kidding. The super-pooch even had a sense of humor.

“Shut up,” Ronny said, escorting Lee Chang toward the door and toward her own quarters.

He closed and locked the door behind him.

“Why, Ronny,” she said modestly.

He grunted at her and looked at the door. “I imagine that’s sound proof and proof everything else, for that matter. But I wonder if there’s the chance of an icicle in hell that this cabin could be bugged.”

“No,” she said. “Sid Jakes had a team of our people go through the Alexander Hamilton like a fine comb. A cockroach couldn’t be on it that we didn’t know about. And each crewman and officer was searched down to the last mote of dust in his clothes, before coming aboard. There’s no bug in this cabin—or anywhere else on the cruiser.”

“Wizard,” he said. “All right, these are the coordinates of the Dawnworlds. To be exact, the coordinates of the one I first landed upon. The same coordinates those Einstein cloddies have.”

He gave them to her and she mentally noted them down, rather than risking any written record.

She nodded and said, “Very well. We’re already headed in the general direction. Tomorrow, I’ll take over the bridge and drop us into underspace, after taking every star chart they have. I’d have to look at a chart, but from memory I think you’re probably correct. They’re located in such a spiral that I doubt that, ordinarily, we would have come in contact for some time.”

He came to his feet, saying, “I suppose I should get back to Dorn and the dogs.”

She stood, too, and the sides of her mouth turned down. “But, Ronny,” she said. “You said you were a man—damn it, as you put it. And here we are. You have me in a locked room.”

He gaped at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Her almond eyes took him in, in amusement. “Don’t you think that you’d be more comfortable in here with me than with Dorn and the dogs?”

She turned and looked at the bunk. “There seems to be room for the two of us. After all these years, Ronny, you’ve still never approached me.”

“I… I didn’t know that you were available.”

“You never asked,” she said, a slightly mocking element in her voice.