Children of Tomorrow (22 page)

Desmond Reid was waiting for Lane, as the later emerged from the elevator. He stood by with a faint smile as the commander of the fleet stepped into the
identification booth. Again Lane received an ‘all clear’ from the attending security officer.

‘Well,’ said Reid heartily, ‘your precautions seem to have scotched that problem. No more K energy.’ Lane nodded, and with his friend beside him walked down die hall. ‘Sort of suggests,’ Reid continued, ‘that the enemy is not overwhelmingly
powerful, that we can defend our planet, and that there is hope,’ ‘It’s really quite a puzzle,’ replied the younger man. ‘They seem to be more interested in information about us than in a fight to the death. Which, of course, we don’t want either - the fight to the death, that is. If, on the other hand, we could discover what information they wanted, it might be simpler to give it to them, and then say, “Okay. Now, what?” ’

They had arrived at the door of Lane’s office as these words were spoken. The two men stopped, and Reid said admiringly, ‘Whenever I listen to you on fleet matters, I always have the feeling I’m listening to an astute reasoning mind that is somehow getting closer to the facts all the time. But right now, I want to ask you a question about an area of your life where I’ve never had this sense of admiration ... How’s Susan?’

The strong face of the younger man broke into a faint, satisfied smile. ‘Everything is proceeding according to my plan,’ he said. ‘As of now, Susan is on a week’s suspension from her outfit, beginning today. By the end of the week, I have an idea she’ll be completely and neatly ejected by those little automatons. They respond like robots. It’s amazing, but’ - he nodded complacently

‘to be expected.’

Reid stood silent as the door was opened. When Lane asked,
‘
Want to come in?’ the older man shook his head gravely, and said, ‘Perhaps I should send a member of the psychology staff of the Outfit Training Institute over to talk to you, John, and explain - ’

He paused there. Because the other man’s gray, steady eyes met his own. ‘Dez,’ said Lane firmly, ‘Susan is
my
daughter. I would prefer that you let me handle her future my way.’ He smiled grimly. ‘My feeling is, if I were to meet one of these psychologists, my impulse would be to tell him what I think of him, and then punch him in the jaw.’

There was a faraway look in the older man’s eyes. Finally, he nodded as if in agreement with a thought of his own, Then he said gently, ‘Well, I’m a supporter of the outfits, so I won’t say anymore since I can see that our friendship would suffer if I did. But don’t be surprised, or shocked, or outraged, if you suddenly find what your little game can lead to in the way of a clash with the outfits over what you’re doing to Susan.’

They separated a few moments later. Lane went into his office, a tight, stubborn smile on his face, and closed the door. Reid walked thoughtfully to the nearest phone booth, and called Lee David. There was a long wait while the phone at the other end rang. Finally, Mrs David’s voice answered listlessly, and said that Lee would be home about eight thirty.

I’ll
call him then,' said Desmond Reid.

He replaced the receiver, emerged from the phone booth, and walked rapidly, and purposefully, back toward the elevators.

At the Lane residence, the phone rang shortly after eight o’clock. Estelle was in the kitchen, reading, while she sipped a cup of coffee. She turned the book over, got up and walked to the corridor door. As the second ring sounded, she raised her voice, Would you like to get that, Susan?’ she called. There was
a
muffled ‘No!’ from the faraway bedroom. So the blonde woman walked back to the kitchen extension, picked up the receiver, and said hello. It was Lee David for Susan.

Once again, Estelle went to the kitchen door. ‘It’s for you, Susan,’ she called. ‘It’s Lee.’

There was a slight pause. Then, the same muffled voice as before, said, ‘I don’t wish to talk to him or anyone else.’

Her mother stood for a moment after that rejection. Then she shook her head slowly and wonderingly, and with the first faint frown of returning disturbance in and around her eyes, walked back to the phone. ‘Lee,’ she said earnestly, ‘I seem to have a very disturbed girl here. She doesn’t want to talk to anyone. Is there anything new?’ Pause. ‘Oh, she said that to Bud? That was very foolish of her, because there’s nothing to it. So don’t you let the Red Cats go off on any wild tangent. All right, I’m going to go in now and talk to her and see what’s going on in her little noodle. I intend to try to get her to school tomorrow. If she doesn’t show, you phone me again, will you? All right, good-bye.’'

The woman hung up, hesitated, and then button-pressed another number. A woman’s voice answered presently. ‘Is that the Jaeger home?’ Estelle asked. At the other end, the dull-eyed creature who was Mrs Len Jaeger, said, ‘Yes, what is it?’ Estelle said, ‘This is Susan Lane’s mother. Susan and Bud are both in the Red Cat outfit. May I speak to Bud?’ The apathetic Mrs Jaeger said, ‘I think I heard him come back. I’ll see.’ A minute went by, during which time the woman went to the boy’s bedroom. Bud was bending over his books at a desk, laboriously writing. ‘It’s for you, Bud,’- said Mrs Jaeger. ‘Susan Lane’s mother.’ The boy climbed awkwardly to his feet, and was presently mumbling into the phone. At her end, the blonde woman said, ‘Bud, I’d like to know exactly what Susan told you about her father sending her to a school outside of Spaceport.’ Perfect recall was a corollary to Bud’s mind reading ability, and so he repeated Susan’s words exac
tl
y as she had spoken them. When he had done so, Estelle hesitated. There was a thought of censure in her mind at the swift way Bud had passed on the information. And abruptly she had to say it. She worded it diplomatically: ‘Bud, I realise you’re new to the outfit, and still
fairly
young - thirteen or fourteen, isn’t it? - so I’d like you to consider what I’m about to say as not personal. I don’t think you should have passed that information about Susan on to the outfit so quickly. You should learn to take into account whether or not a person who says something to you is in a disturbed state of mind. Susan has been upset ever since she was put on probation, so you shouldn’t take seriously everything she says. By telling it so quickly, when it didn’t really mean anything, you’ve caused her another problem. Bear that in mind for the future, will you?’

Bud was apologetic. Tm sorry, Mrs Lane,’ he muttered, ‘I didn’t mean to cause problems.’

‘It’s all right.’ The woman spoke hastily. ‘Thank you. And good-bye.’

As Bud replaced the receiver, Mrs Jaeger said with just an edge more animation than was normal for her, ‘What did she want?’

Slowly, the alien boy with his face that he kept for looking like that of the real Bud Jaeger, turned around. On this eve of his departure - almost — something of his curiosity about and in the many unexplained human behaviors, motivated him to go over to her. He said, ‘You people puzzle me. How could human beings have done what they did?’ He stopped. He seemed to realise it was not exactly the proper way to word what he wanted to say.

For the first time since he had known her, intelligence stirred in the woman’s eyes and face. She had seated herself at the table in the small dining room alcove adjoining the living room. Now, she stared at him, and said, ‘That’s a strange way to talk, Bud. But, then’ - she frowned, as if trying to penetrate some mental fog - ‘you’ve been very strange ever since you came back. Running away . . . changed you. Your eyes have become so bright. It seems wrong,’

The alien boy gazed at her with eyes that became even brighter. He said slowly, ‘There’s a kind of beautifulness about the way that human beings feel. At first, I didn’t understand, but now" - long pause - ‘that poor girl, Susan. She’s really all mixed up. And it happened to her so fast . . . People are too sensitive. Human children need help the moment anything goes wrong. If they don’t get it, they start to do something automatic that they can’t stop. It’s just as if their intelligence is suddenly pushed aside, and all it can do after that is justify the automatic actions.’

Something struggled for expression in the woman’s face. Awareness? But of course that was impossible. In this hypnotised mind, the breakthrough could not take place. But, like all human thought, what happened was a striving to make sense out of perception, however distorted. . . . Her eyes widened as he spoke what could have been giveaway words. But instead of grasping the truth, she experienced a flow of warmth. The sound of that warmth was in her voice as she said, ‘This is the first time I ever realised that perhaps you inherited the intelligence I used to have before I married that man because I thought he was a real masculine type, and not a softy like so many other young men I knew at that time. That was my mistake, and it was such a big one that I gave up all hope for my own happiness. But if you come out of it all right, then I won’t mind so much.’

‘You see what I mean,’ said Bud. ‘People are really beautiful. Life on earth is actually full of details, isn’t it? Even,’ he hesitated,
‘dad...
is complicated.’

A negating smile lighted the sad face of the woman. ‘I’m afraid that’s carrying beautifulness too far,’ she said. She broke off. “You’d better get back to your homework, dear,’ she said.

Bud hesitated. He stood with his hands and arms held slightly above his hips and in front of him, bent at the elbows, as if he wanted to express more of his thoughts in some concrete way. But he clearly thought better of it, because after a moment he turned and shuffled off to his room. The door closed.

After Estelle replaced the receiver of the kitchen phone, she turned, and walked purposefully to Susan’s bedroom. The girl undoubtedly heard her coming. Because, as her mother appeared in the doorway, Susan began, ‘Mother, please don’t pressure me to talk to Lee, or anybody. The way I feel, I can’t seem to do or say anything right.’

The woman was slightly mollified. ‘It’s a little late,’ she said,
‘
but it’s obviously true. Still, I think you and I had better have a little talk about what actually happened between you and Captain Sennes.’

The girl was silent. Her mother continued. ‘You’ve got to admit that the second surprise Up-kissing needs some additional explanation. You were conned, weren’t you?
’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Susan said defensively. But the first hint of color brightened her previously palUd face. ‘Exactly what did happen?’ demanded the blonde woman. There was a pause, a momentary impUcation of resistance in the way Susan’s body stiffened. But she evidently thought better of it. For she sighed, and then gave an accurate description.

When the story was finished, her mother nodded, and sighed, also. ‘It sounds like the good-bye routine,’ she said. ‘So suddenly you were a female experiencing loss, and you sort of clutched at him.’ Her eyes focused on Susan’s face. ‘Did you?’ she asked.

‘I really can’t remember such details,’ said the girl in a distracted tone. ‘I read him the rules that first time, and he seemed to take it in good part. And then, suddenly, this second time, he grabbed me again. And he’s really incredibly strong. I couldn’t move.’

Her mother smiled reminiscently, grimly. ‘I know. I’d feel sorry for a python matched against your father. They really train the space personnel to withstand heavy gravitational pressures. So I agree. As soon as it happened, it was too late. Nothing to do but hold still until those steel muscles are motivated to let go.’

‘In this case,’ said Susan gloomily, ‘it was Dolores’s voice.’ Her mother drew a deep breath. She was suddenly decisive. “It doesn’t seem like too impossible a situation. Why don’t you just decide to accept that it was good-bye, and you close the book on Captain Sennes, endure your week, and then pick up your outfit life again? How about that?’

‘Oh, mother,’ said the girl tearfully, ‘the way I feel, things will never be the same again.’

‘Come, now,’ coaxed the woman, ‘you’ve stood by while other jabbers were given penalties, haven’t you? Did they all want to scrape the outfit?’

‘No-o-o! At least, they didn’t,’ Susan admitted.

‘Are they made of sterner stuff than you? Is that what you’re saying?’

‘No-no!’

She was clearly still not capable of making the forward-going decision. Her mother urged affectionately, ‘What’s the matter? C’mon, now’ — she stumbled over die outfit terminology — ‘uh, push it out.’

‘Dad,’ said Susan, uneasily.

‘Oh!’ The woman was silent. Finally, tentatively, she ventured, ‘You don’t want to hurt his feelings?’

‘I want him to love me. And I don’t think he will if I don’t do what he wants.’ The pretty, girlish face twisted with the effort to stop tears.

‘But he told you it was your choice.’

‘Oh, mother.’ The girl was impatient. ‘You know better than that.’'

‘Well, that’s true,’ Estelle admitted reluctantly. Nevertheless, her lips presently tightened. ‘I’m surprised to hear a jabber talking like you are. Parents have to have the rules brought to their attention, too.’

Susan said in a subdued voice, ‘I never had anything like this happen to me before, and I guess I was really weaker than I
thought because - because now that it’s actually here, I don’t feel strong anymore. It’s ... too much.’

‘Look,’ said Estelle. She made a vague gesture that had in it frustration and determination - all mixed up. ‘I told you that I’d talk to your father tonight. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?
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