The Watch Below (15 page)

"There have been other stories with the same idea -- better written,
perhaps," Wallis continued enthusiastically. "I picked up a few of
them during my last stopover in New York. But that particular one
was my first experience of science fiction and it has stuck with me --
especially a character in it who was a winged dragon with scales, claws,
four extensible eyes, and a lot of other visually horrifying features
and who was more human than some of the human characters. There were
bad 'uns, too, of course; I can remember a piece of the opening chapter
which goes . . ."
He closed his eyes for a moment, bringing back an image that was partly
the sound of words, partly the memory of the printed page, and partly
the picture which both of them described; then he recited, "'Among the
world-girdling fortifications of a planet distant indeed from star cluster
AG-257-4736 there squatted sullenly a fortress quite similar to Helmuth's
own. . . . It was cold and dark withal, for its occupants had practically
nothing in common with humanity save the possession of high intelligence.
. . .' Uh, let's see . . . yes . . . 'It was not exactly like an octopus.
Nor, although it was scaly and toothy and wingy, was it, save in the
vaguest possible way, similar to a sea serpent, a lizard, or a vulture.
. . .'"
"I don't think many people here could have read that story," said Dickson,
when Wallis began to bog down. There was a touch of awe in his tone.
"Yes indeed," said the doctor, "I'd like to hear more of it."
"Not until the children have gone to bed," said Margaret firmly.
"I don't want them frightened to death!"
But as time went on the children, who seemed to grow older and more
inquisitive with incredible rapidity, were not unduly disturbed by
anything they overheard. Wallis had read, and was eventually able to
remember, a great many stories other than science fiction, and in addition
there was the technical knowledge acquired learning his profession. The
same applied to the material, both fact and fiction, recalled by the
doctor and Dickson and even the girls. Singing was still a better form
of entertainment than listening to stories -- music did not suffer so
much with repetition -- although a song or an operetta did not give
as much food for discussion afterwards. And the children, listening to
descriptions of the stars and navigation and Jenny's
Ranch Romances
and passages from
Gray's Anatomy
or Gray Lensman, were excited and
curious and just a little bit bored by it all.
"You have to realize," said the doctor, after they had discussed just this
point for several hours and some of them were still feeling worried about
it, "that practically everything we tell them is secondhand. Deep down
they may doubt that such things as dogs and cities and forests exist.
It is very difficult to describe the whole world in words alone, and the
models and pictures we've tried to produce are not really adequate.
"As well," he went on, "at their particular age-group they are physically
and mentally restless. They want to do things with the knowledge they have
learned, and it is bound to take a while for them to realize, like their
parents, that the only long-term activity available to them here is
mental activity. . . ."
But the adjustment of using the mind for the greater part of every day
rather than their young and, in the circumstances, surprisingly healthy
bodies was not an easy one for adolescents to make. There was trouble --
quarreling and nagging and even an odd fist-fight, in which the fond,
irritated or at times downright angry parents could not help but become
embroiled -- which lasted for the best part of five years. But the
children married young, thus helping to stabilize things considerably.
All except Richard Dickson, the third child and second son of that family.
Margaret and the commander did not produce another daughter, or a son
either, for that matter, so it looked as if young Richard was going to
be a bachelor. Both professionally and personally the doctor was not in
favor of Margaret's having any more children, and they had all absorbed
enough of his medical diggings to appreciate the reasons. But he was
at great pains to reassure Richard's parents that doing without female
company was not a thing to be worried about, that he entirely disagreed
with Freud and such people about the effects of sexual frustration, and
that he himself was a case in point. Admittedly he was a little grumpy and
hard to get on with at times, but this was due to his being a naturally
mean and bad-tempered person. Dickson immediately agreed with him.
But young Richard was mean and bad-tempered all the time.
On the Unthan flagship the time passed and the popula- tion and their
problems increased with great rapidity. One of the chief troubles was
among the younger members of the crew, a rebelliousness which came close
to open mutiny. To the captain the reason for it was beyond understanding.
"Three grandchildren for you and four for me does not constitute a
population explosion!" Captain Deslann said hotly, the disagreement lines
around Hellahar's mouth not helping his anger any. "Even if those numbers
were doubled and all restraint removed from subsequent generations --
and neither of those possibilities is likely to occur, first because
your training methods come close to hypnoconditioning in their effects
and secondly because of the fact that the incidence of male sterility is
directly proportional to the degree of inbreeding -- this is still a big
ship and we can devote more compartments to food-growing. The problem
is not immediate, but I can't make Haynor see that! The trouble with
that young fool is that -- "
"He's young?" said Hellahar quickly. "And we aren't?"
"I do not believe that my thought processes have atrophied to such an
extent that -- "
"Very often, sir," said Hellahar, "that is one of the symptoms."
Deslann kept silent for a long time. He was thinking that the healer had
turned nasty in his old age, even though his mind had remained clear and
sharp; and Deslann himself was not so old that he would suffer much more
of such insubordination without doing something pretty drastic about
it. When he went on his voice was quieter, more controlled, and much
more angry.
He said, "Haynor has the highest intelligence and aptitude of anyone in his
generation, which is one of the reasons for my anger and disappointment at
him and his ridiculous ideas. If it wasn't for them I'd have no hesitation
in naming him the next captain. But discounting the fact that he, as your
son, will receive the benefit of any of your doubts, is there any sane
reason for wasting reaction mass simply to come within visual distance
of another ship?"
"Put like that, no sir," Hellahar replied, answering the question but
ignoring the tone. "But this is not a completely sane situation we have
here, and boredom is proportional to the level of intelligence and that
is the main reason behind the support for Haynor's proposal. This is not
my specialty, but if the idea could be modified and perhaps incorporated
into the training program . . ."
It was grossly unnatural, Deslann knew as well as did the healer, for
young, healthy, and intelligent people to have as their sole purpose in
life the observation of colored lights and similar displays which always
gave the same information, and hence required no corrective action, for
year after year and sometimes for generation after generation. Despite
the great stress placed on the importance and meaning of those lights
there was a growing feeling, among some of the second generation trainees
especially, that they were in fact only colored lights and to worry about
them was silly. The flagship was their world and the things which the
elders said were taking place outside it were very hard to believe. If
another ship like their own, though, were to become clearly visible in
one of the direct vision panels, Deslann told himself, that should take
care of the doubts: It would furnish clear proof that each and every
light in the winking vastness of the computer room was a ship and should
be guided and cherished as such.
Unless the young fools began to doubt the evidence of their own eyes,
or believed that the image in the direct vision panel was simply another
display similar to the pictures shown on the educator screens
Deslann began to feel angry again with Hellahar. The healer had an irritating
habit of sending the captain's mind off at a tangent just when Deslann was
on the point of figuratively tearing Hellahar's dorsal off and, what was
even more irritating, the tangent usually ended in a question which just
had to be answered and the process of finding the answer required all
Deslann's attention so that the other's insubordination went not only
unpunished but very often unremarked.
Despite the urgency of this problem, Deslann was sure of one thing,
he was not going to allow anyone to move the flagship. He had a brief,
horrifying mental picture of the fleet arriving in the target system
while its center of control was lost somewhere between the stars.
Yet, if the flagship were to remain in station, it did not necessarily
mean that one of the other ships could not be brought to them, one of the
nearer expendables in the vanguard, for instance. The disadvantages were
that his own trainee engineers would not get the chance to apply thrust
to their own ship and the eager young astrogators and computer technicians
would have to forego the pleasures of a massive reprograming which a shift
in position of the control center would entail; on the other hand, the
advantages were many -- especially if Hellahar and himself were able to
dramatize things so as to keep everyone interested for a long, long time.
Watching that single light signaling in the computer room its change of
position as it slowly approached them -- and it would be slow, because
part of the drill would be on the control and guidance of ships over
great distances using only the tiny reserve of reaction mass carried
for predestination maneuvering -- could be made something more than an
interesting game. And when the expendable arrived -- a brute of a ship
a little more than one great Long Sleep tank filled with the largest
domestic and food species left on Untha -- the doubters would doubt no
more, for the timers on the expendable ships were set to warm their cargo
only on landing. If seeing the ship and being able to travel across to it
was not enough, then having to chip a way through solid ice in search of
more living space or a supply of meat should convince the most fanatical
doubter of its reality.
There would be the more subtle and long-term effects as well. Another ship
close by, even though it contained only cooled, nonintelligent domestic
animals, would make space a much less lonely and frightening place, and
it would be a constant reminder of the many other ships in the fleet and
of their purpose. But like most projects of real importance on the ship,
this one would take many years to complete.
Too many years, perhaps, for Deslann to see it through.
XVI
With the passing years the doctor's hair had gone white, Dickson's had gone
gray, and the lieutenant commander's had gone completely. Both Jenny and
Margaret had aged more than any of the men, but nobody mentioned this
and there were no mirrors in Gulf Trader to tell them about it. The Game
had become so much a part of their lives that it would have been harder
to stop playing it than it would have been to stop breathing. With their
children they made the great metal tanks echo to the songs of Bing Crosby
and the tunes of Gilbert and Sullivan, or acted out famous plays or
sometimes quite trivial incidents from their own past lives, or they
had deep, philosophical discussions regarding the probable background,
motivations, and future fictional actions of some very minor character
in a remembered story (the doctor had completed a fourth story in the
Hornblower series which, if C. S. Forester ever heard about it, would
probably turn the poor man to cowboys and Indians).
They had a lot of fun when the discussion revolved around a minor character
from one of Wallis's stories, a character who was not even human, but oddly
enough it often happened that such humorous and ridiculous philosophizings
became the most serious of them all. Even so, their lives were not all
singing and sparkling conversation and fun. There was disaffection
and quarreling and, at the times when Richard was directly involved,
behavior which was close to mutiny.
At seventeen Richard had developed a positive genius for starting fights.
One of his little exercises involved asking his seniors -- the original
survivors, that is, not his older brother or sister -- for permission
to engage in some activity which just might be allowable. He would ask
their permission separately on this borderline matter, so that some
were sure to give it while some would refuse, after which he would take
his course of action much farther than his original request allowed,
safe in the knowledge that he could play his seniors off against each
other to such an extent that he would escape scot free. Many times
Wallis had to stop arguments just short of violence by pulling rank,
something he hated to do over such petty incidents. And more and more
often he found himself telling Dickson and the doctor what he would like
to do with Richard, from tying him neck deep in the bath for a couple
of days to hanging him from the projecting outlet pipe in Number Four,
which was the nearest thing they had to a yardarm.
Realizing that the commander was not even half joking when he said some of
these things, the doctor took a special interest in Richard. The fact that
they were the only bachelors on the ship gave them something in common,
Radford said, and then he outlined his plan for giving them something else
in common. When Wallis expressed his doubts regarding this proposal, the
doctor went on to explain that Richard was at a difficult age and that
the drives and pressures of adolescence were being aggravated by what
must be admitted was a highly abnormal situation. It would probably help
what ailed him if he was made to feel more important, or even superior
in some ways to those around him. Most of Radford's specialized knowledge
was too repetitious and boring for general distribution during the Game,
but if he could interest Richard in becoming his successor . . .