Читать книгу Star Haven - E. C. Tubb - Страница 5

CHAPTER 1

To Captain Barker, interstellar flight had long lost any thrill it might once have had. It was too much like driving a bus with its predicted stops, regular flights and long months of boring routine between planetfalls. The procedure was always the same. A moment of strain as the ship snapped out of hyper-drive, an indescribable wrenching and a brief nausea as the familiar stars replaced the swirling rainbow patterns on the screens, then the ship would swing into matching orbital velocity with the target planet, contact made, the business done, and they would be on their way again.

He sighed as he leaned back from the control panel, staring idly at the mottled green-brown-blue ball seeming to hang motionless below them, and nodded towards the one man who, technically, had no right at all to be in the control room.

“Well, commander, there she is. Hyperon, second planet of Procyon. A nice new Earth-type world suitable for habitation and exploitation, and your future home.”

Williams ignored the elderly captain’s remarks, his eyes gleaming as he stared at the glowing screen. “When do we land?”

“We don’t. The ship doesn’t, that is. We’ll drop you and your people by auxiliary.” Barker twisted his head and stared at the radio operator. “Made contact yet?”

“Not yet, sir.”

“No?” Barker frowned. “That’s odd. Keep trying and let me know immediately they answer.”

“Yes, sir.”

“They’re probably asleep,” said Barker, and smiled at the expression on the young man’s face. “Don’t forget, Williams, it’s been ten years since a ship called here last. You can hardly expect them to maintain a continuous radio-watch.”

“Why not?” Williams made no attempt to disguise his impatience. “The manual specifically orders that such a watch be maintained. There can be no excuse for failure to comply with the instructions.” He frowned at the screen. “Another thing. The settlement was based at the edge of that lake, wasn’t it? Where the river runs through that forest?”

“Was it?” Barker stared thoughtfully at the mottled ball. “Could be.”

“Don’t you know?”

“I could find out,” snapped Barker, annoyed at the other’s tone. “But if you think I can memorize the exact whereabouts of a hundred different settlements on a hundred different planets then you want to think again. That’s what files are for.”

“Never mind the files.”

Williams reached for the adjustment controls on the screen. “I’ve studied up on this planet, and that’s where they should be.” Abruptly the image expanded, seeming to flow away from the centre as details became clearer, and they stared at the image of a lake edge, a river bank and a tiny, obviously man-made clearing. “There!” Williams rested his finger on the smooth surface. “That clearing, that’s where they are.”

“Are they?” Barker narrowed his eyes and made a final adjustment, steadying the image against the distortion of atmospheric heat currents. “Looks deserted to me.”

Impatiently he glared towards the radioman. “Got them yet?”

“No, sir. The ether’s dead; nothing but sun-static.”

“Try a flare.” Barker looked at the young commander. “Maybe their radio’s broken or something. We’ll see if any of them attempt visual signalling in answer to our flare.” He squinted as a gush of brilliant orange limned the edge of the screen and pointed to a small, spinning shape falling towards the lake. “That should rouse them. Pyrotechnic sound-and-sight attention catcher.” He smiled as the spinning shape suddenly expanded into a series of brilliantly coloured smoke clouds, imagining the staccato explosions accompanying the light and smoke.

After ten minutes he said, quietly: “Try another.” Then, fifteen minutes after that: “One more and we’ll be on our way.”

Williams glanced sharply at the elderly captain. “What do you mean?”

“What I said. Unless they answer, we’ll get moving. You and your people can return to Earth; it’s our next stop anyway, and Hyperon can be written off as a ‘bad’ planet.”

“No.”

“Yes.” Barker shrugged as he stared at the silent and deserted clearing. “Something’s happened down there. Disease perhaps, dangerous native life, something lethal in the atmosphere, any one of a thousand things. It doesn’t matter what it is, my orders are plain. Any colony failing to respond to signals is to be considered dangerous and must be abandoned.”

“But you can’t do that.” Williams stared desperately at the screen. “They may be in trouble, or away on an expedition, anything. You just can’t abandon five hundred men and women merely because they didn’t answer your signal.”

“I can and I will,” said Barker coldly. He stared shrewdly at the young commander. “I know what’s on your mind, Williams. You’re thinking that if you return to Earth you’ll lose your command. Well, maybe you will, but isn’t that better than landing here when you don’t know what happened to the others?”

“I can’t agree. Earth needs these new worlds, Barker, and too many of them are proving unfit for human habitation. You mentioned a hundred worlds a short while ago. Did you know that, of those hundred, only ten managed to support a colony for the first ten years? You know how things are back home. With the population increase what it is, we’ve got to find external sources of food and raw materials or face literal starvation. That’s why we are founding these colonies. Not for population expansion, though we can use them for that too, but to grow and supply essential food for the home world. You can’t just write off this planet because the colony doesn’t answer.”

“What do you want me to do?” Barker forced himself to remember that the commander was young, impetuous, and with a high personal stake in his decision. “Land and carry a virulent plague back to Earth? You know the dangers of that as well as I do. That is why this ship never lands, but uses the auxiliaries for ship to planet communication. And even if I did land, what then? I’ve a schedule to maintain and I can’t waste time here even if I was equipped for it, which I’m not. This isn’t an exploration vessel, Williams; this is only a transport, and, as such, is needed back on Earth for more important things than just worrying about one world.” He glanced at the screen and the deserted clearing. “Sorry, but there it is.”

“Wait!” Williams swallowed as he looked at the screen. “There’s one thing you can do.”

“Yes?”

“You can land me and my people.”

“Are you crazy?” Barker shook his head and reached for the controls. “You don’t know what’s down there and you might die within a day.” He rested his finger on the alarm button. “No sense in talking about it. You know the rules.”

“If you press that button,” said Williams coldly, “I’ll have you broken for cowardice.”

“You’ll what?”

“You heard what I said. You’re an old man, Barker, and you’ve started to think like one. Space isn’t for the old, and the Bureau is beginning to realize that. There’s a new world down there waiting to be exploited and you’ve no right to deny my request. If you insist on running from something you don’t understand, then I’ll see to it that the publicity breaks you.”

“You young fool!” Barker surged to his feet, his heavy features mottled with rage. “I’m the captain of this ship and you and every man and woman aboard will do as I say. Damn you! I’ll have you thrown in irons for this. Harper!”

“Wait.” Williams stepped back as the radioman rose from his seat. “Never mind the rights and wrongs of it. Just imagine what the public will say. A new world, a potential granary, and you ran away from it without even a second thought. And it isn’t your skin that I’m asking you to risk. All I ask is that you land me and my people as you were directed to do. What do you think the media will say? The public? They are short of food, Barker, and they pay too much in taxes as it is. Do you think that the Bureau will hesitate to throw you to the lions if it would calm the people? If you think that, Barker, then you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were.”

“I....” The captain swallowed, his eyes glaring his hate of the young man, but he gestured Harper to return to his chair. “What about the others?”

“My people?” Williams shrugged. “I’ll take full responsibility for them. You will land us?”

“You know what you’re doing, don’t you?” Barker glared his contempt. “I know just what your threats are worth; you aren’t concerned with what the people will say and think; all you’re worried about is losing your own little world to play the dictator in. To satisfy your own conceit you’re willing to risk the lives of fifty innocent people on an unknown, and as far as we can determine, lethal world. I thought that you were low, Williams, but I didn’t think that any man could be that selfish.”

“That’s enough!” Anger glowed in twin spots of red on the commander’s cheeks. “I’m not asking for your moral condemnation, and the future will prove that I’m right. Progress is determined by the sacrifice of the individual for the majority, and what does it matter if a thousand die so long as the race is advanced on the path of its destiny? In any case, we won’t be as helpless as you seem to imagine. The original colonists had plenty of equipment and we can use that. My people are mostly trained personnel, scientists, the men and women who were to study Hyperon as soon as the economy of the settlement could afford to support them. We’ll get along.”

“You’ll get along, you mean, don’t you?” Barker openly sneered as he stared at the young commander. “What do you care for the others?”

“Never mind that. You’ll land us?”

“Not so fast.” Barker settled himself back in his chair. He seemed to have lost his anger and looked at the commander with an almost amused contempt. “Don’t think that you can bully me, Williams. I don’t need a young snippet like you to threaten me with adverse publicity, and don’t forget that I happen to have a few more contacts than you imagine. If it came to the point, you would be the one to suffer, not I.” He glanced at the screen and the empty, too-small clearing shown on it. “If you land you know that it will be ten years before a ship makes contact?”

“I know.”

“And yet you want to be cooped up down there with men and women who will know that you’ve tricked them as soon as they land.”

“I am their commander.”

“I see.” Barker looked towards the radio-man and shrugged. “All right, Williams. You can have your kingdom—but your people must be warned and given free choice.”

“You insist?”

“Yes.”

“Then I have no choice. You’ll land us?”

“You will also sign and thumb-print a waiver accepting full responsibility?”

“Of course.”

“Very well, then.” Barker sighed heavily as he stared at the screen. “I’ll land you—and I hope that you get just what you deserve.”

He didn’t look at the commander as he gave the necessary orders.