Jack Wodhams - Budnip [ss]

There's nothing like a loose nut to screw up a sound design!

He was a model young officer, keen, dedicated, but withal conscious of his youth and flatteringly deferential in his attentiveness to his seniors. He knew what he was doing. Trustworthy, loyal, practical, sensible young man, but not lacking initiative, and ever ready to crisply and efficiently carry out the directives of his elders. And he satisfied by relieving his superiors of many of the more tedious chores that can at times so irritate the higher leadership.

He had many admirable qualities, had young Captain Strustle; he knew his place, was always most civil, and he displayed a most gratifying respect for authority. Well-bred young fellow, unfailingly courteous, with a rare understanding, why, one might almost describe him as a gentleman of the old school. Nothing, it would seem, was too much trouble for him, and he was a most thoughtful and conscientious young officer.

A young man of Strustle's type and caliber did indeed give cause to hope that the next generation would not he completely lost. An exemplary young man. A most reliable and deserving young man. He would go far. Oh yes, he would go very far indeed. Strustle knew what he was about all right.

Strustle was the most engaging, scrupulous, the most natural choice. And so they chose him.

"I beg your pardon, sir? Did you say 'No.' again, sir?"

"That is what I said, Punter, exactly and precisely - no."

"But, sir! It's well overdue, it's ... Why, sir?"

Strustle coolly studied the tech-man. "Because I say so, Punter."

Punter was bewildered, at a loss. "But there's no reason for any more delay, sir, all tests have fallen within approved affirmative margins There's nothing to suggest we delay any longer, is there, sir?"

"Punter," and Strustle sounded patient, "I am the appointed activation officer, is that not so? The evaluation of this situation has been entrusted to me, not to you, and the decision rests upon my judgment of the suitability of the moment."

Punter was uneasy. "Mr. Kable the Colonel and the Committee might not like it very much, sir, do you think? Already it seems we have been dilatory, and we could easily..."

Strustle's voice was sharp in cut ting him off, "Mr. Punter. I won't ask you who is in charge here, the vested authority, hm-m-m? I do no take my position lightly, believe me You will proceed with reactivation when I instruct you to, Mr. Punter and not before - do I make myself clear?"

"But I don't understand, sir. Punter persisted, "we need the hand if we're to go ahead. and Colonel Wynse said that we ..."

"Will you cease, Mr. Punter! Strustle barked now, aggravation getting the better of him. "I will not have you questioning me, sir, and just you remember who is in command here." He smiled then, astutely. "There is no hurry, Mr. Punter, is there? We have all the time in this world ..."

"I don't know what his game is," Punter confided to his assistant, Beverley, "but I don't like it, not one little bit."

"It's not for you to worry, Mr. Punter, is it?" she said. "If he's at fault, he'll have to explain it to them as soon as they get out."

"Oh yes," Punter nodded, "as soon as they get out - but what if he doesn't intend to bring them out?"

"Now surely he can't he thinking to keep them in there indefinitely," she clucked. "Don't you think you might be putting too much emphasis on this? He's just being super-thorough, perhaps, that's all. When we do bring them out, he wants everything to be two hundred percent."

Punter was not so sanguine. "We were to work together, be brought together at the earliest possible time. Captain Strustle and the rest of our team were only to be watchdogs to the automatics, that's all, you know that. Instead he's switched over to manual hold, and there's no need for it, none whatsoever."

"It's a big responsibility," she suggested, "couldn't that have something to do with it? There's nearly a thousand people, Mr. Punter, and he wouldn't want to make a mistake, would he?"

"Bev, my dear, we've had survey and assessment, analysis and selection, comprehensive and satisfactory, otherwise we would never have touched down. Since then our team has largely confirmed the data. There's absolutely no reason remaining for holding back any longer."

"Maybe he knows something you don't know," she said, "maybe he has secret orders, or something. He could have a perfectly legitimate reason."

"Yes?" Punter was not persuaded. "Then I would like to know what it is. We've been down over a month now, and all we're doing is horsing about. Dammit, there's no likelihood that we'll go back home again, is there?"

Captain Strustle gauged his man. "Well, Glober, can you do it?"

Glober hedged. "Mr. Punter is head of the section, sir, would he be in agreement with your proposal?"

"Mr. Punter is head by virtue of his untested and purely theoretical competence. As commanding officer, I can, if I see fit, replace him with someone who I think will serve to be of greater benefit in establishing this, our beachhead. Do you follow me?"

"I ... think so, sir. You would demote and ... replace Mr. Punter, if you thought this to be in the best interests of our small community."

Strustle became amiably disposed towards this useful expert. "That is so, Glober, you show an excellent grasp. Punter, I feel, is actually ill-suited to this task, the man lacks imagination, flexibility, foresight." Strustle gave Glober the shrewd eye. "To my way of thinking, a younger person of such as your intellect might have more flair and a readiness to adapt to what is, after all, an embryo circumstance."

"I see." The tip of Glober's tongue peeped as he saw.

"Glober, we are in a unique position, you and I. At our backs we have a vast store of technology. We are a seed landed here, and the land is good, and it needs but a touch for this seed to burst forth and grow. The touch has to be right, Glober. Here, at this point in time, the quality of this seed is in our hands, the mastery of this seed within our control. Is my meaning clear?"

"I think I begin to see what you're driving at, sir."

"Good. I need a man of firm character and resolve, a man I can trust." Strustle paused. "I want a man who will not become corrupted by the power that comes to those who form the very top leadership."

"You are thinking perhaps that the programmed government might be modified, sir?"

"I do indeed, Glober. Younger blood, fresh ideas. I think, quite frankly, that it would be sheer folly to resuscitate the rather staid members of the Committee, to let them resume their rather prosaic and uninspired mandate over us. We need vigor and enterprise, Glober, and I think for a while that we can well do without citizen Kahle and his ilk, eh?"

"It would seem to hold interesting possibilities, sir. Could you give me more detail of quite what you have in mind?" Glober asked. "This would leave me in no doubt, Captain, as to the wisest course to pursue for the common good."

"I admire your perceptiveness, your freely open mind, and willingness to consider alternatives that might break us from a deadly mold at this so vital point, the very beginning. It is so essential that this start should be as propitious as we can make it, isn't that so?"

"We should do our best, sir," Glober agreed.

"Of course. Now I have Bahmedin and Elmot in charge of the armory. With myself and you, this makes four out of our team of twenty-five." Strustle smiled. "We would seem to he outnumbered, but the only real opposition we might meet could come from Punter - and I don't think any objection he might raise will be insurmountable. If necessary he can be compulsorily retired."

"And me, sir?"

"We want to build surely and well, Glober. Your job will be to break out and revivify those persons we initially consider to be the most desirable, one at a time. This way they can become acclimatized conveniently to the slightly changed state of affairs."

"Selecting, yes." Glober pondered. "Plucked out to be treated individually. Yes, it could be done, I think."

"You'll be given complete authority. You can be Minister for Manpower in the new cabinet I shall create." Strustle archly winked. "And Minister for Womenpower too, eh ...?"

"It's monstrous," Punter declared. "absolutely outrageous. You've gone mad, sir. No, it cannot be countenanced, it's totally against the prescribed program. It's impossible. And it's intolerable. You simply cannot quite casually disrupt the entire procedure just to advance some personal adjustments of your own. It's unthinkable!"

"I am in command," Strustle reminded him calmly.

"Your command is a temporary one, sir, and is limited to the performance of certain duty, of carrying out a specific duty entrusted to you. You have command of an operation, not of the entire project." Punter's indignation waxed hot. "And if you fail to perform this duty, deliberately, then you become guilty of extreme negligence and you will, sir, leave yourself open to the severest reprimand."

"My command," Strustle was imperturbable, "empowers me to adopt the course that I consider most desirable and in accord with our welfare. This I am earnestly seeking to do."

"You procrastinate, sir." Punter was flushed. "I advise you most strongly to put away this foolishness that you harbor. It will do you no good, and indeed will serve you ill the longer you neglect to implement the revival of proper delegated persons."

"Mr. Punter, I do not think I require your advice. The truth is, Mr. Punter," and Strustle was markedly cool and assured, "that I begin to see you as an obstructionist, a man devoid of vision. You patently are at odds with the majority, and your attitude, I am sad to say, may oblige us, with great reluctance, to declare your redundancy."

"Huh? Redundancy? What are you talking about?" The implication colored Punter a deeper hue. "The majority? us few? You have no power to make me redundant, sir, and don't you think it. I don't know what fanciful notions you may be cherishing, but you had better forget them, and quickly. I can obey you within the limits of your predetermined authority, but I cannot condone or support this ever more clearly inexcusable delay in bringing forth our compatriots."

"Punter," and now Strustle's voice had a biting edge, "in the absence of a recognized superior, the decision-making function becomes indisputably mine. What I deem best is the ruling we must abide by. And if you do not cooperate, Mr. Punter, if you persist in willfully hindering the rightful modifications that I see fit to introduce, then you will leave us no recourse but to relieve you of your tenure."

Punter was staggered by the apparent effrontery. "What? You have no right. It's not ... it's ... this is absolutely beyond your jurisdiction."

"I am standing you down as of now, Mr. Punter," Strustle stated flatly. "You are suffering from stress, I feel, and some mental aberration. You should take a rest."

"What? Now look here, Captain . . ."

But Strustle overrode him. "A well-earned rest, Mr. Punter, and it will in no way reflect upon your abilities. Mr. Glober will take over while you recuperate, so you can be assured that everything will be in good hands."

"Oh yes?" Punter sputtered, "Oh yes? Mr. Glober is my junior, under my authority, and he will take his orders from me, sir. He is not qualified to act upon his own, and you have no right to place such a burden upon him."

"I act as I think the circumstances dictate to be most advantageous to our survival, Punter. It is not for you to question the significance of my directions. As commander, I am informed of matters that you know nothing about. The commander must be obeyed. Punter - anything else is insubordination."

"But there are a thousand people in storage out there!" Punter cried. "You cannot deny their restoration indefinitely."

"They have kept for so long. Mr. Punter," Strustle bent, "and they can keep for a little while longer."

"But," flustered, Punter strove to pungent argument, "but it's ... it's like murder, a form of living death, to unnecessarily prolong their boxing."

"I disagree." Strustle's smile was thin. "You can hardly describe the continuing preservation of life as murder, now can you? You see how your values have become muddled?" Punter was at a loss for words. "You ... I have never ..."

"You have a tendency to panic, Punter, to inordinate and careless haste. They will all be recovered in good time ... at a manageable pace."

"You won't get away with this," Punter choked. "There'll be the devil to pay later, mark my words. As for Glober," he swore, "I shall positively forbid him to acknowledge any instructions he may receive from you ..."

But to Punter's dismay and frustration he met mutiny in Glober, quiet and apologetic but mutiny nonetheless. And Punter encountered physical restraint from the large sergeant named Bahmedin when he would have attempted to institute the block revivification sequence cycles on his own initiative. "This is insane, criminally insane," Punter told Beverley. "He is off his head entirely."

"What can we do about it?" she asked. "We have no arms, have we, and with that bodyguard of his ..."

Punter wriggled in vexation. "What could we do with arms if we had them? Such things are not our business, and are a supply solely to provide defense in the face of hostility."

"Isn't he hostile?"

Punter was exasperated. "It was hardly considered likely that we would have an internecine war on our hands almost as soon as we arrived. Our numbers are such, and our assumed interdependence so vital, that the question never arose. This is ..." Punter shook his head. "I still find it most difficult to comprehend."

"If this place had not been so ideally accommodating..."

"Extraordinarily corroborative," Punter was still able to enthuse, "not a hitch. We should be praising the Lord and thanking our luck that everything has gone so fantastically well. Instead, this junior buffoon has to develop a case for personal aggrandizement, to change our whole enterprise into one seemingly to serve his own narrow purposes."

Beverley brooded. "The people will have to be released sometime, he can't keep them in suspension forever as some kind of ornament."

Punter paced. "I don't mind telling you he has me very worried, Bev. This is a project we undertook all together, shared all together. We each and every one of us had our jobs to do, our planned roles. Great heavens, this is a colony base we're to establish, not a game. We need every man, we ... we should be sinking down roots now, not toying with piecemeal proposals to embark upon some wildly novel conception dreamed up by an overgrown schoolboy."

"He seemed such a nice fellow before," Beverley said. "I wonder what caused him to change so suddenly?"

"I begin to strongly suspect his former image." Punter wagged a finger, "It wouldn't surprise me to learn now that he purposely duped us, that it was his intention all along to seize this opportunity for abuse."

"Surely there's something we can do, Mr. Punter?"

Punter held his head. "There must be, but I'm damned if I know just what. Everything is so unreal, and this does not help at all. Home is so far away. I keep thinking of people to call, bodies that might have a policing influence, but of course there's ... we can't reach them. It ... seems only yesterday."

"Oh, Mr. Punter, we must make him see reason somehow - we need all the others."

"One here, one there," Punter despaired, "if he stretches it out he could create endless confusion, disordering the aging patterns, upsetting the timing relationship between one and another. It's not fair. Already there is discrepancy between our aging and knowledge and experience, and that of all those being held. The longer we wait, the bigger the gap, the harder it is to fill in."

"And the less time we have together."

"Beverley, I ..." he threw up his hands, "I'm damned if I know. It makes no sense, is pointless. It throws everything out of kilter. I find it hard to think straight."

"There must be something." she said, not very helpfully. "All those people. our friends - there must be something we can do ..."

"You want Mrs. Aymelite, but not Mr. Aymelite, is that correct, sir?" Glober inquired. completing checking his short list.

"That is so, and," Strustle added meaningly. "I want her brought to my quarters as soon as possible. Gloher, I ... expect you to employ some discretion, hm-m-m? Do you read me?"

"Of course, sir."

"Good." Strustle winked, "I think we are going to get along, you and I. Now I want you to take Sergeants Bahmedin and Elmot and, ah, to make their choice of a couple of females they might like to rescue. Also Ball and Feltman. The rewards go to those who deserve them, eh? Oh, and you, of course, can also select what you might fancy."

"Thank you, sir."

"We'll have no nonsense. Glober. We have control, and we shall not lose it. Women have their place where they rightfully belong, and in our society they shall willingly serve those who are the masters, right?"

"The thought is not without attraction, sir."

"The prizes go to the strong, Glober. I realized long ago, before we calve, that out here it would not be the weak stomachs who would survive. Out here, the man with the strongest will wins - and the man with the strongest will is me, make no mistake about that. And if you aid my will, Glober, it will not be to your regret, that I can promise you."

"I believe you, sir. Your ideas do indeed have a basic inescapable soundness."

"Do you think so? I'm glad to hear you agree. We're going to go a long way, you and Glober, you have the right approach and appreciation of the possibilities."

"I'd like to think so, sir."

"You have. Fathers of a world. Glober, human genesis. It's a responsibility not to be taken lightly, is something that persons with a high consciousness of destiny cannot fail to influence. Do you read me?"

"I feel fortunate and privileged to he given this opportunity, sir. It looks to be much more interesting and satisfying than anything I had anticipated."

"You can rely on it, Glober. Now," Strustle pointed, "do you think you can prize these workers out separately O.K.? Without busting any communal circuits? We don't want any accidental tragedies, do we, unless it should involve a committee member."

"Oh, it can be done, sir, with care and the furnishing of substitute supplementary linkages."

"Great. Get to it, then. Glober and let's make the start to populating our empire ..."

"It was nice of him to allow you to visit me," Punter fretted. "A fine thing, I must say. I'm virtually a prisoner now in my own cabin. What's going on out there? Is Glober seriously undertaking to comply with that young upstart's wishes?"

"I'm afraid so. Mr. Punter." Beverley averted her eyes. "He seems to he quite taken up with the captain's ideas, and he's doing everything he's asked."

"And you, you're helping him, too?"

"Mr. Punter. I can't do anything else, can I?" she appealed. "They're so determined, and there are so many lives at stake, I daren't do anything to be in error."

"Of course not, of course not," he mollified quickly, "you're not to blame, not in any way. And the last thing you can afford is to take risks that might jeopardize the lives of all those who remain. No," Punter declared, "you are entirely innocent in this, it's none of your wish or doing whatsoever, I know that. But," he gazed into space, "I can't believe that it is really happening, that it should all result in this way. It makes me feel so infuriatingly impotent."

"Perhaps later, as we break more and more of the people out of storage," she ventured, we shall be able to rally some ... support ...?"

He relented his disparagement at her hopeful fading. "My dear," he took her hand, "I have been a fool, and terribly slow in grasping this fellow's intentions. It was simply incredible that anyone would want to do such a thing, and even now, at this time, I still find it hard to believe."

Punter seemed to notice then that he was holding her hand, for a moment was nonplussed what to do about it, somewhat self-consciously carefully let go. She was sorry. "C'hm. I have been giving the matter some thought, Beverley, as you can well imagine, and I begin to perceive what might be at the heart of his scheme. We know from our own traumatic first two or three weeks how strange and disoriented we felt, and how weird and subduing it is to admit how many years have passed since we left home, and how very uncompromisingly distant home has become. The logic is irrefutable and accepted, and yet the mind remains for a long time unconvinced that the links have been irreparably broken.

"He has the upper hand, Bev," Punter soberly mused. "His plan has quite primitive cunning to aid its success. The trickle he permits can, in their bewilderment, be brought quickly to assent to his dominion. Giving high marginal priority to militiamen and potential henchmen, he can cull essential technocrats gradually and singularly and provide them small recourse but to acknowledge his regime."

"It will grow on us."

"That, my dear, is succinctly put," Punter admired.

"He can supply glib justifications, to be sure, specious excuses, and for the history books this will suffice; for the entrenched are always valid. Yes," he nodded, "entrenchment is what he seeks, surely, and by the time he deigns to permit our proper and designated leaders to draw breath again we shall all be a good deal older, I fancy. Possibly even enough to make some committee members his juniors."

"Particularly Mr. Kable and Colonel Wynse," Beverley guessed.

"Particularly. By the time he's prepared to awaken them, they'll still be sprightly youngsters compared to the rest of us."

"But they will still be obsolete. The whole committee will very shortly be obsolete, won't it?" she said, "left behind, out of touch."

Almost involuntarily he took her hand again. "Beverley, your quick intelligence gratifies me. Indeed, I wonder if you might not have a clearer conception of this contretemps than I have."

"No, Mr. Punter, really," she claimed modestly, "it's you, somehow, who seems to crystallize the essence of a problem ..."

"Your problem is that you've got a brain of solid crystal, marble between the ears it's called, otherwise known as block headedness." Mrs. Stephanie Aymelite was scathing. "I told you last week, a couple weeks ago, hell, whenever it was, that you didn't have a turkey's chance come July. What's the matter with you, living under water?"

Strustle's smile was lopsided "Things have changed a little, Stevie. Wheels don't turn around here unless I give the magic word."

"Is that right?" She scanned her surroundings. "Well, from the look of the place your wheels could be rusted solid. This is what we've landed ourselves, is it?"

"Uhuh, sweetest spot on this whole world." Strustle relished his fortune. "A five-hundred by five hundred island, isolated enough to have its own virtually enclosed ecology, equator temperate to sub tropical all year, lagging Earth by couple million years or so."

"Nothing dangerous, huh? No," she answered her own question, "otherwise you'd be in an armored bug-suit." She gazed about again. "Where is everybody? I didn't think I'd be one of the first out."

Strustle kept his equanimity. "I arranged to have you brought en ahead especially, Stevie, with one two others. As a favor."

Her voice held chill sufficient to cause a brass monkey anxiety. I would thank you, Captain Strustle, to curb your unwanted familiarity. I am Mrs. Aymelite to you, please and further, I neither ask nor require any so-called 'favors' you might do me. You can twiddle your string from now to footrot, but from me you'll get not even a used tea bag."

Strustle made effort to remain pleasant, but his thumb hard-rubbed his fingertips, betraying. "You think not? Stevie - Stephanie, I don't think you fully realize what the situation is here. I am in command, Stephanie. I'm the boss here, and what I say goes."

She was not impressed. "Bursting your breeches in a little moment of glory, eh? What are you hoping for, a break between scenes? Forget it, Captain. My husband can eat you alive."

Strustle barely managed mastery of-his temper. "At the moment your husband is in no position to eat anything, not even a marshmallow, Mrs. Aymelite." He leaned towards her, glitter of suppressed anger in his eye. "He is still blissfully asleep, Mrs. Aymelite. And he will stay that way just so long as I choose that he should do so, do you read me?"

She squinted at him. "What are you getting at?" She raised palms. "We're here, we're getting started, aren't we? You can't keep him under, can you." She laughed. "Captain, you've got an inflated sense of your own importance suddenly? Do you think they might let you keep a few of us tucked away for your own convenience?" She was amused.

"You think it funny, do you?" His face was taut. "Well, get this into your head, Stevie - they are not in charge here, I am. And I will keep in storage who I want, as many as I want, for as long as I want - do you understand that? Nobody - nobody at all! - is brought out unless I say so, unless I order, unless I permit it - nobody!"

Strustle straightened, his chin lifting. "I am in command, full command, unquestioned command, and I am going to stay in command. You understand that, and you understand it good, Stevie."

She was unbelieving. "What? Oh now, come on, a joke's a joke, but ..." His face stopped her, and at last disquiet twitched her as she realized that he was indeed most deadly serious. "But you can't mean it, you can't possibly, you can't ... can't keep people blindly shut away, not now we're here, we've arrived, that everything is all right."

He squared his shoulders and stood as tall as he could, and was pleased to wear a tight savage smile of triumph. "I can do what I damn-well like. The control is mine." He looked her over with proprietary insolence. "I give preference to those who find favor in my eyes."

Her color mounted. Then her teeth clicked and, "Captain, I don't know how many balls you think you have in the air, but you split no banana with me. Now you'll just get Babe out to join me, hear? And our friends and the rest, like they should be, and stop this talk like you think you've got to be King Kong."

He tried, but he could not prevent his fuse from burning to ignite powder. "You high-and-mighty stuck-up bitch! Too good for me, are you? Well, we'll see about that, do you hear? You'll come to me, you'll crawl to me! I'll make you to be grateful if I so much as spit in your direction!"

"You clack-shackled grubber," she flared icily, "you haven't got what it takes to even enter the preliminaries. You'll make progress all right - over my dead body!"

Strustle glowered, trembling a little, his fists clenching and unclenching. "Maybe," he hissed, "maybe over your husband's dead body, huh? ..."

"Beverley, I've been thinking." tribulations bring people together, and now Punter held both her hands, "his tactic is fundamentally one of ransom. Bargaining on our sensibilities, he holds the bulk of us still as hostage."

"Those he has brought out have been spineless," she complained. "He seems to know just which ones will most easily succumb."

"A man does his best to appraise a brand-new condition," Punter pardoned, "and he generally takes the path that buys him most time."

But Beverley was not to be diverted from disapproval. "He's treating the female complement like slaves. He seems to think he can dispense women like birthday presents. It's most degrading."

"I agree. It's a most barbaric reversion."

"Most of the men don't seem to think so. He's getting quite a clique about him." She sounded aggrieved. "Harvey, the way he's going, he's going to build a strong gang. And I ... I can't see how we'll be able to beat him."

Punter patted her knuckles in traditional comfort. "Where force may be so meager as to be unavailing, then here must there be the employment of guile."

"Yes, but what, Harvey?" she chafed. "His power is growing, and it won't diminish with the passage of time. We can see the way things are going."

Punter concurred, "Yes. But there are lives at stake, and surely many more lives than any man would wish to have on his conscience. He is risking those lives, however fractionally."

"Glober is solidly committed now. Harvey, they can keep some under suspension and threat until they themselves die. They're ugly. And the pressure he's putting on Mrs. Aymelite, he's hinted that there could be a malfunction in the compartment that holds Babe Aymelite. It's ...," She shivered.

"I know. We must try and put a stop to it." He squeezed her fingers. "Now a while ago you said something, quite casually, but it recurred to me, and I became rather struck by its relevance. You said something like, 'Perhaps he is delaying to make no mistake, to be absolutely two hundred percent certain that everything is all right.' Do you remember?"

"No."

"Never mind. He's been so thoughtlessly lucky. It's really quite obvious ..."

"You ought to know, shouldn't you?" Strustle demanded crossly. "You're the doctor, you must have some idea of what she's got."

"I'm sorry," the doctor said stiffly, "but I have never encountered such a case before. I can only treat her for fever, that is all."

"But," Strustle flapped irritably, "you must recognize the symptoms, a similarity, be able to make some comparable diagnosis."

"She is a very sick young woman," the doctor snapped, "and I cannot treat her with anything, do you understand? Her reaction could be fatal."

"She might die anyway, mightn't she?" Strustle gasped. "God, you must he able to do something."

"If you hadn't so drastically slowed down the proper resuscitation of the intended whole and viable community, we would have a capably staffed laboratory to speedily run tests, and we would have a far greater variety of resources tapped to provide much wider range of choice for possible answers."

"You want some labtechs? I'll have them out by this afternoon," Strustle promised.

The doctor was tart. "You fool, don't you listen? Haven't I just spoken of resources? Where does a lab get its supplies? Who might they not need to call upon for specialized advice? Which body to perhaps have the blood-immunity to provide sera for us all?" He snorted. "It's no good pulling one doctor out of the hat, and expecting him to perform miracles. I need help." And he stabbed out an intimidatingly grim finger, "And you need help, and fast!"

"Me?" Strustle paled a shade. "Why?"

"Because whatever it is Mrs. Aymelite has, it is my strongest suspicion that it is infectious. I doubt very much that her isolation may be either in time or anyway effective."

"What?" Strustle knuckled a palm, given food for thought, a contingency spectre risen from limbo, a most grave and bothersome factor to create indecision. "Is there no standard precaution we can take, no shots?"

The doctor was pitying. "You can't have formulated shots against something you don't know what is, can you?"

"Well we can't just sit here and do nothing." Strustle exclaimed, "there must he some steps we can take. Surely there's some ...some positive action we can initiate, screening, testing, sterilizing ..."

"It takes people." the doctor said shortly. He hefted his slim bag. "You've left it late, but you could still try to recover some of the lost ground by setting loose those people that you would keep stifled unaware. Your stupid selfishness could kill you. The brain that could perhaps save us," he sounded bitter, "is, thanks to you, locked in blissful narcosis."

The doctor stepped to the door. "This happens once, it can happen again. Where do you think you are - within a hoot and a holler of the World Health Organization?" He opened the door.

"Wait! Hell, come on now, we can't just leave it at that. What are we to do, man?"

"It's your responsibility - Captain." Arid the doctor sardonically suggested, "If you asked Mr. Punter nicely, he just might help you get your static public out of hock. However, whether it will be in time to substantially salvage your colossal foul-up is something I'd not care to guess at. Good-day. Captain. Oh," he paused at the door, "and I don't have to advise you, do I, of the unwisdom of approaching too close to the patient?"

Punter said, "We have no idea how long the incubation period might be, and it might even have begun from the moment we set foot ashore. Captain Strustle, our choices are so limited as to be almost negligible."

"I know, I know," Strustle raised fending hands to protect his belligerence, "we need all the help we can get, especially from trained people and variously skilled professionals, all right. But I'm still boss, huh? Remember that. Don't you forget that."

"Five women afflicted so far, and almost certain to be more tomorrow.

I've never seen anything so swift or virulent," Punter worried. "'They're so terribly distressed - Captain, community survival is at stake."

"I know that," Strustle snarled. "Think I'm blind? Think I'm stupid?" He pointed, "There's a chance they could get over it though, isn't there, huh? It might not be so fatal, might it? Isn't that right?"

"Do you want to sit back and wait and see?" Punter quizzed. "My God, you cannot be so inhuman. And," he added, "you cannot be so disinterested in your own welfare."

"Mine? I'm not sick."

"Do you think you're invulnerable? You're trapped here, Captain, trapped with the rest of us. Whatever the germs might he, you've been exposed to them, and they'll be beyond escape in your system now. The time will inevitably come when you will require your turn of what maximum of community aid there can be made available. No man can avoid this, Captain."

"I am the master here." Strustle repeated loudly. "I am. And I will get the best that there is."

"If the best, and the producers of the best, are all unconscious, they are not then to be well able to concern themselves with your physical partialities, are they?" Punter argued. "And there is another thing, another facet which is much more ominous."

"Yes?" Strustle's head jerked up. "Well? Well, what is it?"

Punter frowned. "Over our long journey here, we were sealed and most stringently guarded against contaminants. However, lately this seal has been severally broken, and the most rigid precautions against microbial invasion have not been put into effect, have they? Cycles have been ruptured and bypassed, and there has been unavoidable leakage of atmosphere into the group packages."

Strustle rubbed flat palms, weighing. "This is a tragedy? A little seepage one way or the other?"

"We are not in vacuum now, Captain," Punter remonstrated. "The suspended state was not intended to be prolonged once entry had been made into a selected acceptable environment. The suspended state has security just so long as its housing chambers remain unbreached. Such security has been forfeited here. Micro-organisms even now may be proliferating to irrevocably damage those helpless bodies that you have caused to remain insensible. Fungus spores, larvae, bacteria, these people become ever more vulnerable to irreversible damage with every day, every hour, that their summoning is withheld."

Strustle was too young to have a tic, but he got one anyway. "You're exaggerating," he claimed. "They'll keep forever."

"They won't, not after your taking chances interrupting the temperature balance. Don't you think it significant that this crop of female victims have all been recent releases? Not I, not anyone, will answer to the consequences if you persist and try to confine these people for another month, for another week, or even for so much as another day."

"Are you trying to dictate to me, Punter?" Strustle grated. "I am the one who gives the word."

`Then they will rot on your hands," Punter shouted, "think of that! Is that what you want, Grand Captain? To be lord over cripples and the stinking dead?"

"I'll release them, release them then!" Strustle shouted in return. "Release them all - all except those on the Committee. I am master here, and I shall remain master here. The committee members can stay, and if they rot, they rot. And also," he spat, "Aymelite stays in there."

Strustle braced himself, placed feet apart, to reassert his dominance. "You can have them all, except the committee members and Aymelite." He flicked fingers, dismissing. "See to it ..."

"Glober, you're in trouble," Punter remarked amiably. They had cycled out well over half of the human cargo that had been kept benumbed.

Glober was cautious. "I only obey orders, sir, those of the highest authority."

"That won't wash, Glober," Beverley chided. "You have consciously been aiding a revealed megalomaniac to achieve his ambition, to the deliberate imperilment of a thousand lives."

"I have taken the greatest care at all times to maintain the purity of conditions," Glober defended. "In my opinion the risk of contamination has been very slight. At no time have I intentionally done anything that might impair the hopes for survival of any individual."

"When these people wake up, really wake up, do you think they are going to credit your excuses?" Punter wagged his head. "No. Denunciation will be the order of this day. And I don't have to tell you, you're going to be asked questions that you won't be able to happily answer, not without sympathetic support."

Sergeant Bahmedin warned, "Leave him alone. He's doing like the chief said, that's all. Just get on with it"

"Uhuh, so you're still insisting on keeping your eyes shut, too, eh? My friend sergeant," Punter said, "this man you call chief is shortly to he relieved of his office. These people we are now bringing out are the cream of pioneering potential, the upper strata. They are too many now to be intimidated by the likes of you."

"Yes?"

"Yes, Sergeant," Punter said firmly. "Would you rely on a handful of unsettled militia? Our young captain is hereby unleashing competition and brains beyond his scope to contest or contain in subjugation. Too much at once, any hopes he had are knocked cockeyed."

"That's what you think, is it?"

"That's what I know, Sergeant. He's finished, it's all over. Would you actually go so far as to kill on his behalf, for this strutting little would-be despot? Take another look at the odds, Sergeant, and also take another look to see what the reins are made of."

"Ah," Punter halted before the next chamber door, checked the indicators, "two committee members in here." He looked hard at Glober, very solemnly at Sergeant Bahmedin "I am sure that they will be willing to overlook errors made through misguidance, and to let bygones be bygones, eh?"

Sergeant Bahmedin in turn gazed hard at Glober. Glober wore light perspiration. The trumps were lost to deuces wild. He bent his head, conceding. "It's been a quandary for me. I'm... glad it's over."

Bahmedin lingered. Then, "Okay," he said. But his regret was unconcealed when he added, "I knew it was too good to last ..."

"The excess of the old sex hormones worked wonders," Mrs. Aymelite noted, "but it's not at all the kind of itch I'd care to suffer again."

"That guy sure had one sweet nerve," Babe Aymelite marveled gruffly. "Doling us out as a steady ration to feed his ego."

"It was tricky," Punter confessed, "it was touch-and-go there for a while. I thought I might really have to see him killed."

"You wouldn't have," Beverley was only half dubious, "would you?"

"My dear, he had control in his restricted circle, and within this narrow gauge he was in position to give orders and make them stick. In such a tight, more-or-less family enclave, removal of the head would have left the way clear for the entry of rationality, which I am confident I could have conveyed - adequately enough."

"I'm sure," Aymelite growled. "I'd have screwed the bastard's head off as soon as he opened his mouth."

"No offense, but easier said than done," Punter differed. "Like I said, it was tricky - a mentally unbalanced person always is. He did not have a corresponding conscience, or a need for such strong justification to kill. Just fortunately he still had some way to go to plumb the more vicious depths of autocracy. But it was incipient in him."

"Incidentally, where is he now?" Aymelite asked, "Straitjacket? Or has he been sensibly, quietly garroted and fed to the fishes?"

"Neither." Punter coughed. "It's hardly a way to start a new colony, with a capital punishment or a mercy killing. On the other hand, we have not and should not desire to so soon begin a prison service, and likewise we have at present no institutional facilities suitable for treating him."

After waiting a moment for more. Aymelite wanted to know, "What have they done with him then?"

"They, ah . . c'hm . . we've . ." Punter self-deprecatingly shrugged, "put him into suspension, uh, until such time, hm-m-m ...?"