Throughout the ship, people laughed nervously. A waiter replaced a glass of water that had been set too close to the edge of the table and a manly-looking fellow dived into the swimming pool to haul a good-looking blonde back to the edge again. She'd been in the middle of a swan dive when the swerve came and the ship had swerved without her. The resounding smack of feminine stomach against the water was of greater importance than the meteor, now so many hundred miles behind.
The flash of light returned and the ship swerved again. Upon the third swerve, the First Officer was watching the celestial globe with suspicion. He went white. It was conceivable that theEmpress of Kolainwas about to encounter a meteor shower.
And that was bad.
He marked the place and set his observation telescope in synchronism with the celestial globe. There was nothing but the ultimate starry curtain in the background. He snapped a switch and the voice of the pilot came out of a speaker in the wall.
"You called, Mr. Hendall?"
"Tony, take the levers, will you please? Something is rotten in the State of Denmark."
"O.K., sir. I'm riding personal."
"Kick out the meteor-spotter coupling circuits and forget the alarm."
"Right, Mr. Hendall, but will you confirm that in writing?"
Hendall scribbled on the telautograph and then abandoned the 'scope. The flashing in the celestial globe continued, but the ship no longer danced in its path.
The big twenty-inch Cassegrain showed nothing at all, and Hendall returned to the bridge scratching his head. Nothing on the spotting 'scope and nothing on the big instrument.
That intermittent spot was large enough to mean a huge meteor. But wait. At their speed, it should have retrogressed in the celestial globe unless it was so huge and so far away—but Sol didn't appear on the globe and it was big and far away, bigger by far. Nothing short of a planet at less-than-planetary distances would do this.
Not even a visible change in the position of the spot.
"Therefore," thought Hendall, "this is no astral body that makes this spot!"
Hendall went to a cabinet and withdrew a cable with a plug on either end. He plugged one end into the test plug on the meteor spotter and the opposite end into a speaker. A low humming emanated from the speaker in synchronism with the flashing of the celestial globe.
It hit a responsive chord.
Hendall went to the main communication microphone and spoke. His voice went all over theEmpress of Kolainfrom pilot room and cargo spaces to swimming pool and infirmary.
"Attention!" he said in a formal tone. "Attention to official orders!"
Dancers stopped in midstep. Swimmers paused and then made their way to the edges of the pool and sat with their feet dangling in the warm water. Diners sat with their forks poised foolishly.
"Official orders!" That meant an emergency.
Hendall continued: "I believe that something never before tried is being attempted. I am forced against my better knowledge to believe that some agency is trying to make contact with us; a spaceship in flight! This is unknown in the annals of space flying and is, therefore, indicative of something important. It would not have been tried without preparations unless an emergency exists.
"However, the requirements of an officer of space do not include a knowledge of code because of the lack of communication with the planets while in space. Therefore, I request that any person with a working knowledge of International Morse will please present himself to the nearest officer."
Minutes passed. Minutes during which the flashing lights continued.
Then the door of the bridge opened and Third Officer Jones entered with a thirteen-year-old boy at his heels. The youngster's eyes went wide at the sight of the instruments on the bridge, and he looked around in amazed interest.
"This is Freddy Thomas," said Jones. "He knows code!"
"Go to it, Mr. Thomas," said Hendall.
The boy swelled visibly. You could almost hear him thinking: "He called me 'mister'!"
Then he went to the table by the speaker and reached for pencil and paper. "It's code all right," he said. Then Freddy winked at Jones. "He has a lousy fist!"
Freddy Thomas began to write.
"—course and head for Terra direct"—the beam faded for seconds—"Venusian fever and you will be quarantined."Calling CQ, calling CQ, calling CQ. CallingEmpress of Kolain... empowered us to contact you and convey ... message—You are requested to correct your course and head ... a plague of Venusian fever and you—Williams of Interplanet has empowered us ... the following message: 'You are requested to correct your ... head for Terra direct.' Calling CQ...."
"—course and head for Terra direct"—the beam faded for seconds—"Venusian fever and you will be quarantined.
"Calling CQ, calling CQ, calling CQ. CallingEmpress of Kolain... empowered us to contact you and convey ... message—You are requested to correct your course and head ... a plague of Venusian fever and you—Williams of Interplanet has empowered us ... the following message: 'You are requested to correct your ... head for Terra direct.' Calling CQ...."
"Does that hash make sense to you?" asked Jones of Hendall.
"Sure," smiled Hendall, "it is fairly plain. It tells us that Williams of Interplanet wants us to head for Terra direct because of a plague of Venusian fever that would cause us to stay in quarantine. That would ruin the Line Moss. Prepare to change course, Mr. Jones!"
"Who could it be?" asked Jones foolishly.
"There is only one outfit in the Solar System that could possibly think of a stunt like this. And that is Channing and Franks of Interplanetary Communications. This signal came from Venus Equilateral."
"Wait a minute," said Freddy Thomas. "Here's some more."
"'As soon as this signal—intelligible—at right angles to your course for ten minutes. That will take—out of—beam and reflected—will indicate to us—left the area and know of our attempt.'"
"'As soon as this signal—intelligible—at right angles to your course for ten minutes. That will take—out of—beam and reflected—will indicate to us—left the area and know of our attempt.'"
"They're using a beam of some sort that indicates to them that we are on the other end but we can't answer. Mr. Jones, and Pilot Canton, ninety degrees north for ten minutes! Call the navigation officer to correct our course. I'll make the announcement to the passengers. Mr. Thomas, you are given the freedom of the bridge for the rest of the trip."
Mr. Thomas was overwhelmed. He'd learn plenty—and that would help him when he applied for training as a space officer; unless he decided to take a position with Interplanetary Communications when he grew up.
The signal faded from the little cruiser and silence prevailed. Don spoke into the microphone and said: "Run her up a millisecond," to the beam controller. The beam wiped the space above the previous course for several minutes and Franks was sending furiously:
"You have answered our message. We'll be seeing you."
Channing told the man in the cruiser to return. He kicked the main switch and the generators whined down the scale and coasted to a stop. Tube filaments darkened and meters returned to zero.
"O.K., Walton. Let the spinach lay. Get the next crew to clean up the mess and polish the set-up into something presentable. I'll bet a cooky that we'll be chasing spaceships all the way to Pluto after this. We'll work it into a fine thing and perfect our technique. Right now I owe the gang a dinner, right?"
Nothing ever happens at Venus Equilateral. The weather is always right. It never rains or storms. There is no icy street nor heat-waved plain. There is no mud. There is no summer, no winter, no spring, no fall. People ice skate and swim in adjacent rooms. There is no moon to enchant for the moon is millions of miles away. There is no night or day and the stars blaze out in the same sky with the sun; and it has been said that on Venus Equilateral you have been in the only place where the Clouds of Magellan and Polaris can be seen at the same time from your living-room window.
Venus Equilateral is devoted to the business of supplying communication between the three inner planets. As such, it is more than worth it. And though electromagnetic waves travel with the speed of light in vacuo, Channing and his crew were fast asleep by the time that Williams, of Interplanet, read the following message:
EMPRESS OF KOLAINCONTACTED AND MESSAGE CONVEYED. SHIP WILL PUT IN AT TERRA AS PER YOUR REQUEST. YOURS FOR BETTER COMMUNICATIONS.DON CHANNING.
EMPRESS OF KOLAINCONTACTED AND MESSAGE CONVEYED. SHIP WILL PUT IN AT TERRA AS PER YOUR REQUEST. YOURS FOR BETTER COMMUNICATIONS.
DON CHANNING.
THE END