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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31985-h.zip b/31985-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3abb94 --- /dev/null +++ b/31985-h.zip diff --git a/31985-h/31985-h.htm b/31985-h/31985-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..795551b --- /dev/null +++ b/31985-h/31985-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1398 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Perfect Control, by Richard Stockham + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.img1 {border:solid 1px; } + +.p1 { margin-left: 70%; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold; font-size:smaller;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Perfect Control, by Richard Stockham + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Perfect Control + +Author: Richard Stockham + +Illustrator: Mel Hunter + +Release Date: April 14, 2010 [EBook #31985] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERFECT CONTROL *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="534" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="800" height="373" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> + +<h1>PERFECT CONTROL</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>By RICHARD STOCKHAM</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>Illustrated by MEL HUNTER</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>Why can't you go home again after years in space? There had +to be an answer ... could he find it in time, though?</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s1.jpg" alt="S" width="32" height="50" /></div> +<p>itting at his desk, Colonel Halter brought the images on the +telescreen into focus. Four booster tugs were fastening, like +sky-barnacles, onto the hull of the ancient derelict, <i>Alpha</i>.</p> + +<p>He watched as they swung her around, stern down, and sank with her +through the blackness, toward the bluish-white, moon-lighted arc of +Earth a thousand miles below.</p> + +<p>He pressed a button. The image of tugs and hull faded and the control +room of the old ship swam onto the screen.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter saw the crew, sitting in a half circle, before the +control panel.</p> + +<p>The telescreen in the control room of old <i>Alpha</i> was yet dark. The +faces watching it held no care lines or laugh lines, only a vague +expression of kindness. They could be faces of wax or those of people +dying pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter shook his head. Brilliant—the finest space people in +the field seventy-five years back—and now he was to get them to come +out of that old hull. God almighty, how could you pull people out of +an environment they were perfectly adjusted to? Logic? Force? Reason? +Humoring? How could you know?</p> + +<p>Talk to them, he told himself. He dreaded it, but the problem had to +be faced.</p> + +<p>He flipped a switch on his desk; saw light jump into their screen and +his own face take shape there; saw their faces on his own screen, set +now, like the faces of stone idols.</p> + +<p>He turned another dial. The picture swung around so that he was +looking into their eyes and they into his.</p> + +<p>Halter said, "Captain McClelland?"</p> + +<p>One of the old men nodded. "Yes."</p> + +<p>McClelland was clean-shaven. His uniform, treated against +deterioration, was immaculate, but his body showed frail and bony +through it. His face was long and hollow-cheeked, the eyes deep-set +and bright. The head was like a skull, the nose an eagle's beak.</p> + +<p>"I'm Colonel Halter. I'm a psychotherapist."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>one of them answered. There was only the faint thrumming of the +rockets lowering the old ship to Earth.</p> + +<p>"Let me be sure I have your identities right," went on Colonel Halter.</p> + +<p>He then looked at the man on the captain's right. "You, I believe, are +Lieutenant James Brady."</p> + +<p>Brady nodded, his pale, eroded face expressionless.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter saw the neat black uniform, identical with the +captain's; saw the cropped gray hair and meticulously trimmed goatee.</p> + +<p>"And you," he said to the woman sitting beside the lieutenant, "are +Dr. Anna Mueller."</p> + +<p>The same nod and thin, expressionless face. The same paleness. Faded +hazel eyes; hair white and trimmed close to her head; body emaciated.</p> + +<p>"Daniel Carlyle, astrogator."</p> + +<p>The nod.</p> + +<p>Like the doctor's brother, thought Colonel Halter, and yet like the +lieutenant with his cropped hair and with an identical goatee.</p> + +<p>"Caroline Gordon, dietician and televisor. John Crowley, rocketman."</p> + +<p>Each nodded, expressionless, their faces like white, weathered statues +in a desert.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter turned to the captain. The rocket thrum of the tugs had +become a roar as the gravity pulled against the antique hull.</p> + +<p>"We understand," said Colonel Halter, "that you demand repairs for +your ship and fuel enough to take you back into deep space."</p> + +<p>"That is right." The voice was low, slightly harsh.</p> + +<p>"You're all close to a hundred years old. You'd die out there. Here, +with medical aid, you'd easily live to a hundred and twenty-five."</p> + +<p>Dr. Anna Mueller's head moved slightly. "We're aware of that, +Colonel."</p> + +<p>"It'd be pointless," said the colonel, "and a shameful waste. You're +still the only crew that ever made it out beyond the Solar System. +You've kept records of your personal experience, how you survived. +They're valuable."</p> + +<p>Dr. Mueller caught her breath. "Our adjustment to space is our private +concern. I don't think you could understand."</p> + +<p>"Maybe not, but we could try. To <i>us</i>, of course, complete adjustment +is a living death."</p> + +<p>"To us, it was a matter of staying alive."</p> + +<p>Halter turned aside from disagreement, searching for common ground. +"You'd be protected here, you know. You deserve that."</p> + +<p>"Who'd protect us from you?" asked the captain. "Life in the Solar +System is destructive."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="35" height="40" /></div> +<p>rady, the lieutenant, leaned forward. "You've failed—all through the +whole System."</p> + +<p>"We haven't finished living in it," said Halter. "Who can pin a label +on us of success or failure?"</p> + +<p>Miss Gordon, dietician and televisor, said quietly, "There are some +records I'd like to show you. We compiled them while the <i>Alpha</i> was +drifting back into the System."</p> + +<p>Halter watched the frail arm reach out and turn a dial.</p> + +<p>A point of light grew on the screen in Colonel Halter's office.</p> + +<p>"Pluto," said her quiet voice.</p> + +<p>Halter watched the lightspot focus on a mountain of ice. Men in suits +of steel were crawling up its frozen side. Other men on the mountain's +top were sighting guns. The men below were sighting guns. Yellow fire +spurted from the top and the sides of the mountain, blending into a +lake of fire. There was a great hissing and a rushing torrent of +boiling water and rolling, twisting steel-clad bodies. The mountain of +ice melted like a lump of lard in a hot frying pan. Only the steel +bodies glinted, motionless, in the pale wash of sunlight.</p> + +<p>Halter watched the brightness die and another lightspot grow one moon. +The focus shifted in close to a fleet of shining silver ships.</p> + +<p>Then another fleet dropped from close above, hanging still, and there +were blinding flashes engulfing each ship below, one after the other, +until there were only the shining ships above, climbing into the dusk +glow of the Sun.</p> + +<p>The glowing circle of bright-ringed Saturn was already rushing toward +Colonel Halter from far back in the depth of screen. The focus shifted +onto the planet's glaring surface. Men in the uniform of Earth +soldiers were rushing out of transparent shell houses and staring in +panic as the missiles plummeted through the shells and erupted clouds +of steam which spouted up from mile-deep craters and there was nothing +but the steam and the holes and the white cold.</p> + +<p>Jupiter made a hole in the blackness, with eleven tiny holes scattered +all around her, like droplets of fire. Ships streaked up, one for each +droplet, circling each, spraying fire, until each droplet flared like +a tiny sun.</p> + +<p>Yellow Mars, holding closely its two speedy rocks of moons, spun into +the screen.</p> + +<p>A straggling line of men moved across a desert that whipped them with +sheets of yellow dust. A single ship dived from out of the Sun, +swooped along the line, licking it with the tongue of flame that +streaked behind. As the ship flashed beyond the horizon, a line of +smoking rag bundles lay still upon the yellow sand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="38" height="40" /></div> +<p>arkness closed in upon the television screen in Colonel Halter's +office. In the long moment of silence that followed, he thought, <i>Oh, +God, after this awful picture, how can I convince them to come out of +the womb of that ship and live again? What reason can I give?</i></p> + +<p>Immobilizing his face, he saw the half circle of the six old people +again in the control room of the old, old ship.</p> + +<p>He said, "You'll set down in approximately twenty minutes."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed the captain, "from where we jumped into space +seventy-five years ago. The people of Earth were talking about their +problems, not killing each other about them. There was hope. We felt +that by the time we'd finished our mission and come back from that +other solar system, where a healthy colony could be born, most of +those problems would be solved." A pause. "But now there's this +terrible killing all through the System. We won't face it."</p> + +<p>The roaring of the rockets now as they plunged flame against the +concrete slab of the landing field. The bug bodies of the tugs gently +easing old <i>Alpha</i> to Earth.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter was saying, "How about this other solar system? You +haven't let us know whether or not you reached it."</p> + +<p>"We saw it." There was a hollowness in the captain's voice. "We didn't +reach it. But we will. You'll repair the <i>Alpha</i> and refuel it."</p> + +<p>"As you were saying," prompted Colonel Halter, "you didn't reach it."</p> + +<p>"A meteor," said the captain. "Straight into our rockets. Our ship +began to drift. The cameras, of course, set in the bulkheads, were +watching us."</p> + +<p>"May I see? Anything you have to show or say will be strictly between +us. I've given orders for our communication to be unrecorded and +private. You have my word."</p> + +<p>"You'll be allowed to see. I've given my permission."</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter thought, <i>You have given permission?</i></p> + +<p>Then he saw in his telescreen the little old lady who was Caroline +Gordon, dietician and televisor, press a button on the side of her +chair. Instantly the picture changed. He heard her voice. "You see the +rocket room of the <i>Alpha</i> back almost seventy-five years, a few +minutes before the accident."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>here were the four torpedo-like tubes projecting into the cylindrical +room; the mass of levers, buttons, wheels and flashing lightspots.</p> + +<p>Halter watched John Crowley, the rocketman, broad-shouldered and +lithe, turning a wheel at the point of one of the giant tubes.</p> + +<p>The next moment, he was flung to the floor. He struggled to his feet, +jerked an oxygen mask from the bag at his chest, clamped it to his +face and rushed to the tubes. He twirled wheels, pulled levers, +pressed buttons. He glanced at the board on which the lightspots had +been flashing. Darkness. He pressed a button. A foot-thick metal door +swung open. He stepped through it. The door shut and locked.</p> + +<p>Leaning against the steel wall at the end of a long companionway, he +pulled off his oxygen mask and ran along the companionway toward the +control room.</p> + +<p>The others met him in the center of the ship.</p> + +<p>Crowley saluted the young Captain McClelland.</p> + +<p>"The rockets are gone, sir. A meteor."</p> + +<p>McClelland did not smile or frown, show sadness or fear or any other +emotion. He was tall and slim then, with cropped black hair, its line +high on his head. His face was lean and strong-featured. There was a +sense of command about the captain.</p> + +<p>Quietly, he said, "We'll all go to the control room."</p> + +<p>They followed him as he strode along the companionway.</p> + +<p>The telescreen in Colonel Halter's office darkened and there was only +the old voice of the captain, saying, "We were drifting in space. You +know what that means. But no one broke down. We were too well trained, +too well conditioned. We gathered in the control room."</p> + +<p>Light opened up again on Colonel Halter's telescreen. He saw the +polished metal walls, the pilot chairs and takeoff hammocks, the +levers, buttons and switches of the young ship back those many years, +and the six young people standing before a young Captain McClelland, +who was speaking to them of food, water and oxygen.</p> + +<p>It was decided that their metabolisms must be lowered and that they +must live for the most part in their bunks. All activity must be cut +to minimum. All weapons must be jettisoned, except one, the captain's +shock gun, that could not kill but only cause unconsciousness for +twenty-four hours.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_c.jpg" alt="C" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>aptain McClelland gave an order. The weapons were gathered up and +placed in an airlock which thrust them out into space. Five of the +crew lay down in their bunks. Dr. Anna Mueller, tall and slim, +full-bosomed, tawny-skinned and tawny-haired, remained standing. She +pressed the thought recorders over the heads of the other five people +who lay there motionless, clamped the tiny electrodes onto her own +temples and placed a small, black box, covered with many tiny dials, +beside the bunk of Miss Gordon, the televisor.</p> + +<p>A moment later, a jumble of thoughts: <i>Now I am dead. An end. For +what, now that it's here? Love. The warm press of a body. Trees and +grass. Sunrise. To take poison. Clean air after a rain. City, people, +lights. Sunset—</i></p> + +<p>The thought words jumbled like a voice from a recorder when the speed +is turned up.</p> + +<p>Then they faded and one thought stream came through clean and clear: +<i>I am Dr. Anna Mueller. Good none of the others can hear what I'm +thinking. Was afraid I'd die this way someday. But to prolong it. +Painless death in an instant. Could give it to us all. But orders. +Captain McClelland. No feeling? Can't he see what I feel for him? Why +am I thinking like this? Now. But this is what is happening to me. +He'd rather make love to this ship. Kiss Crowley before I give him the +metabolism sedation shot. Captain'll see I'm a woman.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="400" height="585" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>She stepped to the bulkhead and pressed a button. A medicine cabinet +opened. After filling a hypodermic syringe, she went to Crowley, bent +down and gave him a long kiss on the lips.</p> + +<p>Instantly Colonel Halter heard thoughts.</p> + +<p>Captain McClelland: <i>She must be weak. Why's she doing that? Thought +she was stronger. But the ship's the thing. The ship and I.</i></p> + +<p>Crowley: <i>What the hell? Didn't know she went for me. Just a half hour +with her before the needle. What's to lose?</i> He pulled her down to +him.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brady: <i>He'd do that, the damned animal. But I'm not enough +of an animal. I'm a good spaceman. All spontaneity's been trained out +of me. Feel like killing him. And taking her. Anyplace. But I'm so +controlled. Got to do something. This last time....</i> He sat up in his +bunk.</p> + +<p>Caroline Gordon: <i>I knew he was like that. Married when we got back. +Mrs. Crowley. And if we'd gotten back. Out every other night with +another woman. I could kill him.</i> She turned her face away.</p> + +<p>Daniel Carlyle: <i>Look at them. And I can't live. Only one person needs +me, back on Earth, and she's the only. And that's enough. But maybe I +can kill myself....</i> He did not move.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>he thoughts stopped and Colonel Halter leaned forward in his chair as +he saw Captain McClelland standing beside his bunk, the gun in his +hand. Dr. Mueller saw, too—the young Dr. Mueller, back those +seventy-five years. She struggled to pull away from Crowley.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brady stood, started toward the captain, stopped. Crowley +pushed Dr. Mueller away from him, leaped to his feet and lunged toward +the captain. A stream of light appeared between the gun muzzle and +Crowley. He stumbled, caught himself, stood up very straight, then +sank down, as though he had been deflated.</p> + +<p>The captain motioned Dr. Mueller to her bunk. She hesitated, pain in +her face, turned, went to her bunk and lay down. Another stream of +light appeared between her and the gun. She lay very still. The needle +slipped from her fingers.</p> + +<p>The captain turned the gun on Lieutenant Brady, who was coming at him, +arms raised. The light beam again. The lieutenant sank back. Caroline +Gordon was watching the captain as the light stream appeared. She +relaxed, her eyes closed. Daniel Carlyle did not move as the light +touched him.</p> + +<p>Captain McClelland holstered the gun. He picked up the hypodermic +needle and sterilized it at the medicine cabinet. Then he injected +Crowley's arm, filled the hypo four more times, injected the others.</p> + +<p>He finally thrust the needle into his own arm and lay down. His +breathing began to slow. There was only the control room of the ship +now, like some ancient mausoleum, with the six still figures and the +control board dark and the eternal ocean of night pressing against the +ports.</p> + +<p>The picture of the ship's control room began to fade on the screen. +After a moment of darkness, the live picture of the six old figures, +sitting in their half circle, spread again over the lighted square.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter saw his own image, looking into the old masks.</p> + +<p>He said, "And where was <i>your</i> weakness, Captain McClelland?"</p> + +<p>"I was concerned," said the old voice, "with keeping us alive."</p> + +<p>"You weren't aware that some of your crew were emotionally involved +with each other?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Are there any more records you could show me?"</p> + +<p>"Many more, Colonel, but I don't think it's necessary for you to see +them. It would take too long. And we want to get back out into space." +He paused. "We can brief you."</p> + +<p>"About your going back into space.... I'm not sure we can allow it."</p> + +<p>"Our answer's very simple. There's a button, under my thumb, on the +arm of this chair. A little pressure. Carbon monoxide. It would be +quick."</p> + +<p>"Your idea?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. A matter of preserving our integrity. We'd rather die than face +the horrors of life on Earth."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="39" height="40" /></div> +<p>alter turned to the semi-circle of faces. "And you've all agreed to +this—this suicide?"</p> + +<p>The captain cut in. "Of course. I realized years ago that the only +place we could live was in space, in this ship."</p> + +<p>"When did your crew realize this?"</p> + +<p>"After a couple of years. I told them over and over again, day after +day. After all, I am captain. I dictate the policy."</p> + +<p>"You've come back. You're in port. You're not in complete command."</p> + +<p>"I'll always be in command."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Halter quietly. "However, we can come back to that. +Please brief me on the records."</p> + +<p>Captain McClelland's face hardened as he turned to Dr. Anna Mueller.</p> + +<p>She explained, "We regained consciousness twenty-four hours after +Captain McClelland used the shock gun on us. By then, our metabolisms +were high enough to keep us conscious and alive. We could lift +nutrition and water capsules to our mouths. We could press the button +to activate the exercise mechanisms in our bunks. The output of the +air machines was cut down until there was just enough to keep us alive +and thinking clearly.</p> + +<p>"At intervals of several days, during our exercise and study periods, +Captain McClelland turned up the air. We slept. And we dreamed. The +dreams are recorded in full. When we could face them, they were played +back to us. Our thoughts were played back, too. I conducted group +therapy among us. We all grew to understand each other and ourselves, +intimately, and now, in relation to our environment, we're perfectly +adjusted."</p> + +<p>"Did Captain McClelland join you in group therapy?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"He was already perfectly adjusted."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>he frowned faintly, glanced at the captain. "When we were conscious, +we studied from the library of microfilm. We read all the great +literature of Earth. We watched the great plays and pictures and the +paintings and listened to the music. Sometimes our thoughts were +hateful. There was self-pity and hysteria. There were times when one +or two of us would withdraw almost to the point of death. Then Captain +McClelland would knock us out with the shock gun.</p> + +<p>"Slowly, over the years, our minds gradually merged into one mind. We +thought and created and lived as if we were one person. There grew to +be complete and perfect cooperation. And from this cooperation came +some great works. Each one of us will tell you. I'll speak first."</p> + +<p>She paused. "Psychology has always been my prime interest. My rating +at school was genius. My aptitudes were precisely in line with the +field of work I chose. Through the years, I've developed a theory, +discovered a way to bring about cooperation between all men. This is +possible in spite of your wars and hatreds and destruction." Frown +creases wrinkled her parchment forehead. "I'd like to know if it would +work."</p> + +<p>Daniel Carlyle's voice was slightly above a whisper. "All my life, I'd +wanted to write poetry. The meteor struck. I realized I wouldn't be +allowed to die quickly. I began to do what I'd always wanted to do. +The words poured into the thought recorder. Everything I felt and +thought is there and all I've been able to know and be from this one +mind of ours that's in us all. And it's some of the finest poetry +that's ever been written." He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. +"It'd be good to know if anyone found them inspiring."</p> + +<p>"I've always lived for adventure," said Crowley, the rocketman, his +old voice steady and quiet. "I've been the one to quiet down last into +the life it was necessary for us to live out there. But my thoughts +ran on into distant universes and across endless stretches of space. +And so at last, to keep my sanity, I wrote stories of all the +adventures I should have had, and more. And in them is all the native +power of me, of all adventurers, and the eternal sweep of the Universe +where Man will always thrust out to new places." There was a faint +trembling in his body and a pained light in his eyes. "Seems I ought +to know if they'll ever be read."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="19" height="40" /></div> +<p>n spite of Brady's frailness, the lieutenant was like a grizzled old +animal growling with his last breath. "I was the most capable pilot +that ever blasted off from Earth. But I was also an inventor and +designer. A lot of the ships Earth pilots are flying today are +basically my ideas. After the accident, I wanted to get drunk and make +love and then let myself out into space, with a suit, and be there +forever. But Captain McClelland's shock gun and the understanding +seeping into me from the thought recorders calmed me down eventually.</p> + +<p>"So I turned to creation as I lay there in my bunk. I designed many +spaceships. And from those, I designed fewer and fewer, incorporating +the best from each. And now I have on microfilm a ship that can thrust +out to the ends of our galaxy. There aren't any flaws.... Oh, I tell +you, by God, I'd like to see her come to life!"</p> + +<p>He leaned back, sweat rolling down his bony cheeks.</p> + +<p>Miss Gordon, dietician and televisor, the motionless old lady with +cropped, white hair, and face bones across which the paper skin was +stretched, said, "There was only one thing I wanted when I knew I +couldn't have marriage and a family. There was a perfect food for the +human animal. I could find it. I began working on formulas. Over and +over again, I put the food elements together and took them apart and +put them together again. I threw away the work of years and started +over again until at last I had my perfect formula."</p> + +<p>She clasped her hands. "Man's nutrition problem is solved. From the +oceans and the air and the Earth, from the cosmic rays and the lights +of the suns and from the particles of the microcosm, Man can take into +his body all the nutrition that can enable him to live forever." She +sat very still, smiling. "And it's got to be given a try."</p> + +<p>Silence.</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter watched the old figures sitting like figures in a wax +museum, waiting, waiting. He turned a dial. The picture that flashed +onto the screen in his office showed the pocked ship standing upright +now, like some tree that had grown in the middle of a desert where it +was never meant to grow.</p> + +<p>The space tugs had streaked out beyond the atmosphere to finish other +assignments. There were no crowds, no official cars, no platforms, no +bands. Only darkness and silence.</p> + +<p>Halter turned a dial. The control room of the old ship flashed back +onto the screen. The ancient crew sat as before. Halter saw his own +face on their television screen.</p> + +<p>Something was missing, he thought. What? What hadn't been said?</p> + +<p>And then suddenly it came to him.</p> + +<p>The captain. He hadn't spoken of any contribution he had made during +those interminable years.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="39" height="40" /></div> +<p>alter thought back over Captain McClelland's record. No family. Wiped +out when he was a baby in the last war. Educated and raised by the +government. Never married. No entanglements with women. No close +friends. Ship's captain at twenty-one. No failures. No vacations. No +record of breakdown. Perfect physical condition. Strict +disciplinarian. More time in space than on Earth by seventy-five per +cent. No hobbies. No interest in the arts.... Apparently no flaw as a +spaceman.... The end product of the stiffest training regimen yet +devised by Man.</p> + +<p>The ideal captain.</p> + +<p>The records of the other five? All showing slight emotional +instabilities when checked against the optimum score of a spaceman.</p> + +<p>Dr. Mueller—a divorcee. A woman men had sought after. Dedicated in +spare time to social psychology. Conflict in her decision as to +whether she should go into the private practice of psychotherapy or +specialize in space psychology. Interested in the study of neurosis +caused by culture.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brady—family man. Forced himself into mold of good husband +and father. Brilliant designer. Ambition also to be space captain. +Conflict between these three. Several years of psychotherapy which +released his drive for adventure in space. <i>Alpha</i> mission to be his +last. Lack of full leadership qualities prevented him from reaching +captaincy.</p> + +<p>Rocketman Crowley—typical man of action. Superb physique. Decathlon +champion. Continual entanglements with women. Quick temper. Tendency +to fight if pushed or crossed. Proud. However, if under good command, +best rocketman in the service.</p> + +<p>Astrogator Daniel Carlyle—highly sensitive. Psychosomatic symptoms +unless out in space. Then in perfect health. Fine mathematician. +Highly intuitive, yet logical. Saved four missions from disaster. +Holder of Congressional Medal of Honor. Hobby, poetry. Fiancee was +boyhood sweetheart.</p> + +<p>Dietician and televisor Caroline Gordon—youngest of crew. Twenty +years. Too many aptitudes. Tendency toward immaturity. Many hobbies. +Idealistic. Emotions unfocused. IQ 165. Success in any field of +endeavor concentrated upon. At eighteen, specialized in dietetics and +electronics. Highest ratings in field. Stable when under strict +external discipline.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>o, thought Halter. None of them fitted space like the completely +self-sufficient McClelland, the man who could stand alone against that +black, teeming, swirling endlessness of space.</p> + +<p>He turned to the captain. The old face was placid, the eyes slightly +out of focus.</p> + +<p>"Captain McClelland," Halter said sharply.</p> + +<p>The pale eyes blinked and looked keenly on Halter's face.</p> + +<p>"You want fuel to take you back out into space."</p> + +<p>"That's right."</p> + +<p>"And if you don't get it, you'll press a button on the arm of your +chair and you'll all die of carbon monoxide poisoning."</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>"I'm curious about one point." Halter paused. "What did <i>you</i> do, +Captain, while the others were working on their various projects?"</p> + +<p>Captain McClelland scowled at Halter for a long moment. "Why do you +want to know that?"</p> + +<p>"Your crew members became lost in some work they loved. They told me +about it with a certain amount of enthusiasm. You haven't told me what +you did. I'd like to know—for the records."</p> + +<p>"I watched them, Colonel. I watched them and dreamed of the time when +I could take them and the ship back out into space under her own +power. I love space and I love this ship. I love knowing she's under +power and shooting out to the stars. There's nothing more for me."</p> + +<p>"What else did you do besides watch them?"</p> + +<p>"I activated the machinery that moved my bunk close to the controls. I +practiced taking the ship through maneuvers. I kept the controls in +perfect working order so I'd be ready to take off again someday."</p> + +<p>"If we repaired the ship so you could take off, the first shock of +rocket thrust would kill you all."</p> + +<p>"We're willing to take that chance."</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter looked around the half circle of old faces. "And all +your long years of work would be for nothing. Each of you, except +Captain McClelland, has made a contribution to Earth and Man. You're +needed here, not in the emptiness of space."</p> + +<p>He saw the eyes of the five watching him intently; saw a tiny flicker +of surprise and interest on their faces.</p> + +<p>"You're destroying Earth," said the captain, his voice rising, "with +your wars and your quarrels. We've all of us found peace. We're going +to keep it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="39" height="40" /></div> +<p>alter ignored the captain and looked at the five.</p> + +<p>"There are many of <i>us</i> on Earth, who are fighting a war without +blood, to save mankind. We've made progress. We've worked out +agreements among the warring nations to do their fighting on the +barren planets where there aren't any native inhabitants, so +noncombatants on Earth won't be killed and so the Earth won't be laid +waste. That was the fighting you saw while you were coming in.</p> + +<p>"This is just <i>one</i> example. And there're a lot of us contributing +ideas and effort. If all of us who're working for Earth were to leave +it and go out into space, the ones who have to fight wars would make +the Earth as barren as the Moon. This is our place in the Universe and +it's got to be saved."</p> + +<p>"We've adjusted to the control room of this ship and to each other," +said McClelland flatly. "Our work's done."</p> + +<p>"Let's put it like this, Captain. Maybe <i>your</i> work's done. Maybe +<i>you're</i> not interested in what happens to Earth." Halter turned to +the others. "But what <i>you've</i> done adds up to a search for answers +here on Earth. Poetry. Design of a flawless spaceship. A psychological +theory. A perfect diet. Novels about Man pushing out and out into +space. All this indicates a deep concern for the health of humanity +and its success."</p> + +<p>"We're not concerned," retorted the captain, "with the health or +success of humanity."</p> + +<p>Halter sharply examined the other faces. He saw a flicker of sadness +in one, anger in another, uncertainty, fear, joy.</p> + +<p>He said, "For seventy-five years, you obey your captain. You listen to +what he says. And everything is a command. Yet in yourselves you feel +a drive to carry out your ideas, your creations, to their logical +ends. Which means, will they work when they're applied to Man? Will +people read the novels? Will they catch the meaning of the poetry? +Will the spaceships really work as they're supposed to? Will the +psychological theory really promote cooperation? Is there supreme +health in this marvelous diet?"</p> + +<p>He gave them a moment to think and then continued. "But if you +continue to follow the commands of the captain, you'll be dead before +you're out of the Earth's atmosphere. You'll never know. Maybe Man +will prove that your great works are only dreams.... But I think +there's a great need in you to know, one way or the other."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>here was a faint stirring among them, like that of ancient machines +being activated after years of lying dormant. They glanced at each +other. They fidgeted. Trouble twisted their faces.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "I'm warning you. My thumb is on +the button. I'll release the gas. Do we get the repairs and the fuel +to take off from Earth, or don't we?"</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter leaned grimly toward the captain. "You've spent fifty +years with one idea—to stay out in space forever. You've made no +effort to create or do one single constructive act. I'll tell you +whether or not you get the fuel and the repairs—<i>after</i> I hear what +someone in your crew has to say."</p> + +<p>Silence hung tensely between the control room of the ship and Colonel +Halter's office on Earth. The captain was glaring now at Halter. A +tear showed in the corner of each of Dr. Anna Mueller's old eyes. +Lieutenant Brady was gripping the arms of his chair. Daniel Carlyle's +eyes were closed and his head shook slightly, as though from palsy. +There was a faint, enigmatic smile on Caroline Gordon's face. The +cords on Crowley's neck stood out through the tan and wrinkled +wrapping-paper skin.</p> + +<p><i>By God,</i> thought Halter, <i>they're all sane except the captain. And +they've got to do it. They've got to come out on their own steam or +die in that control room.</i></p> + +<p>"I'm waiting," he said. "Is your work going to die and you with it?"</p> + +<p>"We'll leave all the records," said the captain, his thumb poised over +the button on the arm of his chair. "That's enough."</p> + +<p>Halter ignored him. "Each of you can help. You've only done part of +the work." He stood and struck the desk with the flat of his hand. +"Damn it, say something, one of you!"</p> + +<p>Still the silence and the flickering looks all around.</p> + +<p>Halter heard a sob. He saw Dr. Anna Mueller's head drop forward and +her shoulders tremble. The others were staring at her, as if she had +suddenly materialized among them, like a ghost.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"> +<img src="images/image_003.jpg" width="800" height="338" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Then her voice, through the trembling and the faint crying: +"I've—I've got to know."</p> + +<p>The captain got creakily to his feet. "Dr. Mueller! Do you want me to +use the gun again?"</p> + +<p>She raised her face to his. There was pain in it. "I've—got work to +do. There's so—little time."</p> + +<p>"That's right. On this ship. You're part of the crew. There'll be +plenty of work once we get out in space again."</p> + +<p>"I've got to see if my theory's right."</p> + +<p>"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "this is insubordination. Mutiny."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="39" height="40" /></div> +<p>e raised the gun tremblingly, pointed the black muzzle at Dr. +Mueller, sighted along the barrel.</p> + +<p>"Wait," said Halter. "You're right."</p> + +<p>Captain McClelland hesitated.</p> + +<p>"It's quite plain," went on Halter, "that Dr. Mueller is alone among +you. She wants to come out and go on with her work. The rest of you +want the closed-in uterine warmth and peace of this room you're +existing in. You can't face the possibility of failure. So I'm afraid +she'll have to be sacrificed. After all, you do need a full crew to +move the ship—even if you are all dead a few seconds after blastoff." +He paused, looking intently at Brady, Crowley, Carlyle, Gordon, where +they sat in the half circle, staring back at him. "So—"</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brady struggled up from his chair.</p> + +<p>"I've got twenty-five years of life. I've some ships to design."</p> + +<p>"That goes for me, too," said Crowley, the rocketman. "Will anybody +want to read my novels?"</p> + +<p>Astrogator Carlyle leaned forward. "There are many more poems to be +written."</p> + +<p>"Give me a soundproof laboratory," said Caroline Gordon. "I'll add +another fifty years to all your lives."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it is mutiny, Captain," said Halter.</p> + +<p>The captain started toward his chair, his hand reaching for the button +on its arm.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Brady stumbled forward, blocking his way.</p> + +<p>Halter could only watch, thinking, <i>It's up to them. They've got to do +it now!</i></p> + +<p>He saw the captain draw his shock gun; saw light flare at its muzzle; +saw Lieutenant Brady crumple like a collapsing skeleton.</p> + +<p>Crowley reached forward, grasping McClelland's shoulder. The gun swung +toward him. A stream of light squirted into his middle. Crowley fell +forward, pulling the captain down with him. The three other oldsters +were above the three black figures sprawled on the floor, like tangled +puppets. They hesitated a moment, then fell upon the ones below them, +black arms and legs twitching about now like the legs of dying +spiders, struggling weakly.</p> + +<p>A flash of light exploded beneath these twisting black reeds and +streaks of it shot out all through the waving black cluster.</p> + +<p>The next moment, they settled and were quiet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>here was a stillness in the ancient control room, like the stillness +in a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea. It lingered for a long +time, while Colonel Halter watched and waited.</p> + +<p>Dr. Mueller's voice, seventy-five years tired, said, "He's—quiet now. +Please come and take us out."</p> + +<p>Colonel Halter switched on his desk visiophone.</p> + +<p>"They're coming out," he said quietly. "I'll be there to supervise."</p> + +<p>On the visiophone, the general's image nodded. "Congratulations, +Colonel. How are they?"</p> + +<p>"There'll be one case for psycho. Captain McClelland."</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned!" exclaimed the general. "From his record, I thought +he'd never break!"</p> + +<p>"Let's say he couldn't bend, sir." A pause. "And yet he did keep them +from destroying themselves."</p> + +<p>"He'll be made well again.... What about the others?"</p> + +<p>"I think they, too, are very great and human people."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the general, "they're <i>your</i> patients. I'll see you at +the ship in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"I'll be there, sir." Colonel Halter flipped the switch. The +visiophone blanked out. He looked at the television screen.</p> + +<p>The six black-clothed figures were quiet on the floor of their ship's +control room. They reminded him of sleeping children curled together +for warmth.</p> + +<p>As he left his office and walked out into the humming city, he felt +drained, still shaking with tension, realizing even now how close he +had come to failure.</p> + +<p>But there was the scarred and pitted needle-nosed old hull, bright +with moonlight, standing like a monument against the night sky.</p> + +<p>Not a monument to the past, though.</p> + +<p>It marked the birthplace of the future ... and he had been midwife. He +felt his shoulders straighten at the knowledge as he walked toward the +ancient ship.</p> + +<p class="p1"><b>—RICHARD STOCKHAM</b></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Perfect Control, by Richard Stockham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERFECT CONTROL *** + +***** This file should be named 31985-h.htm or 31985-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/9/8/31985/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Perfect Control + +Author: Richard Stockham + +Illustrator: Mel Hunter + +Release Date: April 14, 2010 [EBook #31985] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERFECT CONTROL *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1955. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + PERFECT CONTROL + + + By RICHARD STOCKHAM + + + Illustrated by MEL HUNTER + + + Why can't you go home again after years in space? There had + to be an answer ... could he find it in time, though? + + * * * * * + + + + +Sitting at his desk, Colonel Halter brought the images on the +telescreen into focus. Four booster tugs were fastening, like +sky-barnacles, onto the hull of the ancient derelict, _Alpha_. + +He watched as they swung her around, stern down, and sank with her +through the blackness, toward the bluish-white, moon-lighted arc of +Earth a thousand miles below. + +He pressed a button. The image of tugs and hull faded and the control +room of the old ship swam onto the screen. + +Colonel Halter saw the crew, sitting in a half circle, before the +control panel. + +The telescreen in the control room of old _Alpha_ was yet dark. The +faces watching it held no care lines or laugh lines, only a vague +expression of kindness. They could be faces of wax or those of people +dying pleasantly. + +Colonel Halter shook his head. Brilliant--the finest space people in +the field seventy-five years back--and now he was to get them to come +out of that old hull. God almighty, how could you pull people out of +an environment they were perfectly adjusted to? Logic? Force? Reason? +Humoring? How could you know? + +Talk to them, he told himself. He dreaded it, but the problem had to +be faced. + +He flipped a switch on his desk; saw light jump into their screen and +his own face take shape there; saw their faces on his own screen, set +now, like the faces of stone idols. + +He turned another dial. The picture swung around so that he was +looking into their eyes and they into his. + +Halter said, "Captain McClelland?" + +One of the old men nodded. "Yes." + +McClelland was clean-shaven. His uniform, treated against +deterioration, was immaculate, but his body showed frail and bony +through it. His face was long and hollow-cheeked, the eyes deep-set +and bright. The head was like a skull, the nose an eagle's beak. + +"I'm Colonel Halter. I'm a psychotherapist." + + * * * * * + +None of them answered. There was only the faint thrumming of the +rockets lowering the old ship to Earth. + +"Let me be sure I have your identities right," went on Colonel Halter. + +He then looked at the man on the captain's right. "You, I believe, are +Lieutenant James Brady." + +Brady nodded, his pale, eroded face expressionless. + +Colonel Halter saw the neat black uniform, identical with the +captain's; saw the cropped gray hair and meticulously trimmed goatee. + +"And you," he said to the woman sitting beside the lieutenant, "are +Dr. Anna Mueller." + +The same nod and thin, expressionless face. The same paleness. Faded +hazel eyes; hair white and trimmed close to her head; body emaciated. + +"Daniel Carlyle, astrogator." + +The nod. + +Like the doctor's brother, thought Colonel Halter, and yet like the +lieutenant with his cropped hair and with an identical goatee. + +"Caroline Gordon, dietician and televisor. John Crowley, rocketman." + +Each nodded, expressionless, their faces like white, weathered statues +in a desert. + +Colonel Halter turned to the captain. The rocket thrum of the tugs had +become a roar as the gravity pulled against the antique hull. + +"We understand," said Colonel Halter, "that you demand repairs for +your ship and fuel enough to take you back into deep space." + +"That is right." The voice was low, slightly harsh. + +"You're all close to a hundred years old. You'd die out there. Here, +with medical aid, you'd easily live to a hundred and twenty-five." + +Dr. Anna Mueller's head moved slightly. "We're aware of that, +Colonel." + +"It'd be pointless," said the colonel, "and a shameful waste. You're +still the only crew that ever made it out beyond the Solar System. +You've kept records of your personal experience, how you survived. +They're valuable." + +Dr. Mueller caught her breath. "Our adjustment to space is our private +concern. I don't think you could understand." + +"Maybe not, but we could try. To _us_, of course, complete adjustment +is a living death." + +"To us, it was a matter of staying alive." + +Halter turned aside from disagreement, searching for common ground. +"You'd be protected here, you know. You deserve that." + +"Who'd protect us from you?" asked the captain. "Life in the Solar +System is destructive." + + * * * * * + +Brady, the lieutenant, leaned forward. "You've failed--all through the +whole System." + +"We haven't finished living in it," said Halter. "Who can pin a label +on us of success or failure?" + +Miss Gordon, dietician and televisor, said quietly, "There are some +records I'd like to show you. We compiled them while the _Alpha_ was +drifting back into the System." + +Halter watched the frail arm reach out and turn a dial. + +A point of light grew on the screen in Colonel Halter's office. + +"Pluto," said her quiet voice. + +Halter watched the lightspot focus on a mountain of ice. Men in suits +of steel were crawling up its frozen side. Other men on the mountain's +top were sighting guns. The men below were sighting guns. Yellow fire +spurted from the top and the sides of the mountain, blending into a +lake of fire. There was a great hissing and a rushing torrent of +boiling water and rolling, twisting steel-clad bodies. The mountain of +ice melted like a lump of lard in a hot frying pan. Only the steel +bodies glinted, motionless, in the pale wash of sunlight. + +Halter watched the brightness die and another lightspot grow one moon. +The focus shifted in close to a fleet of shining silver ships. + +Then another fleet dropped from close above, hanging still, and there +were blinding flashes engulfing each ship below, one after the other, +until there were only the shining ships above, climbing into the dusk +glow of the Sun. + +The glowing circle of bright-ringed Saturn was already rushing toward +Colonel Halter from far back in the depth of screen. The focus shifted +onto the planet's glaring surface. Men in the uniform of Earth +soldiers were rushing out of transparent shell houses and staring in +panic as the missiles plummeted through the shells and erupted clouds +of steam which spouted up from mile-deep craters and there was nothing +but the steam and the holes and the white cold. + +Jupiter made a hole in the blackness, with eleven tiny holes scattered +all around her, like droplets of fire. Ships streaked up, one for each +droplet, circling each, spraying fire, until each droplet flared like +a tiny sun. + +Yellow Mars, holding closely its two speedy rocks of moons, spun into +the screen. + +A straggling line of men moved across a desert that whipped them with +sheets of yellow dust. A single ship dived from out of the Sun, +swooped along the line, licking it with the tongue of flame that +streaked behind. As the ship flashed beyond the horizon, a line of +smoking rag bundles lay still upon the yellow sand. + + * * * * * + +Darkness closed in upon the television screen in Colonel Halter's +office. In the long moment of silence that followed, he thought, _Oh, +God, after this awful picture, how can I convince them to come out of +the womb of that ship and live again? What reason can I give?_ + +Immobilizing his face, he saw the half circle of the six old people +again in the control room of the old, old ship. + +He said, "You'll set down in approximately twenty minutes." + +"Yes," agreed the captain, "from where we jumped into space +seventy-five years ago. The people of Earth were talking about their +problems, not killing each other about them. There was hope. We felt +that by the time we'd finished our mission and come back from that +other solar system, where a healthy colony could be born, most of +those problems would be solved." A pause. "But now there's this +terrible killing all through the System. We won't face it." + +The roaring of the rockets now as they plunged flame against the +concrete slab of the landing field. The bug bodies of the tugs gently +easing old _Alpha_ to Earth. + +Colonel Halter was saying, "How about this other solar system? You +haven't let us know whether or not you reached it." + +"We saw it." There was a hollowness in the captain's voice. "We didn't +reach it. But we will. You'll repair the _Alpha_ and refuel it." + +"As you were saying," prompted Colonel Halter, "you didn't reach it." + +"A meteor," said the captain. "Straight into our rockets. Our ship +began to drift. The cameras, of course, set in the bulkheads, were +watching us." + +"May I see? Anything you have to show or say will be strictly between +us. I've given orders for our communication to be unrecorded and +private. You have my word." + +"You'll be allowed to see. I've given my permission." + +Colonel Halter thought, _You have given permission?_ + +Then he saw in his telescreen the little old lady who was Caroline +Gordon, dietician and televisor, press a button on the side of her +chair. Instantly the picture changed. He heard her voice. "You see the +rocket room of the _Alpha_ back almost seventy-five years, a few +minutes before the accident." + + * * * * * + +There were the four torpedo-like tubes projecting into the cylindrical +room; the mass of levers, buttons, wheels and flashing lightspots. + +Halter watched John Crowley, the rocketman, broad-shouldered and +lithe, turning a wheel at the point of one of the giant tubes. + +The next moment, he was flung to the floor. He struggled to his feet, +jerked an oxygen mask from the bag at his chest, clamped it to his +face and rushed to the tubes. He twirled wheels, pulled levers, +pressed buttons. He glanced at the board on which the lightspots had +been flashing. Darkness. He pressed a button. A foot-thick metal door +swung open. He stepped through it. The door shut and locked. + +Leaning against the steel wall at the end of a long companionway, he +pulled off his oxygen mask and ran along the companionway toward the +control room. + +The others met him in the center of the ship. + +Crowley saluted the young Captain McClelland. + +"The rockets are gone, sir. A meteor." + +McClelland did not smile or frown, show sadness or fear or any other +emotion. He was tall and slim then, with cropped black hair, its line +high on his head. His face was lean and strong-featured. There was a +sense of command about the captain. + +Quietly, he said, "We'll all go to the control room." + +They followed him as he strode along the companionway. + +The telescreen in Colonel Halter's office darkened and there was only +the old voice of the captain, saying, "We were drifting in space. You +know what that means. But no one broke down. We were too well trained, +too well conditioned. We gathered in the control room." + +Light opened up again on Colonel Halter's telescreen. He saw the +polished metal walls, the pilot chairs and takeoff hammocks, the +levers, buttons and switches of the young ship back those many years, +and the six young people standing before a young Captain McClelland, +who was speaking to them of food, water and oxygen. + +It was decided that their metabolisms must be lowered and that they +must live for the most part in their bunks. All activity must be cut +to minimum. All weapons must be jettisoned, except one, the captain's +shock gun, that could not kill but only cause unconsciousness for +twenty-four hours. + + * * * * * + +Captain McClelland gave an order. The weapons were gathered up and +placed in an airlock which thrust them out into space. Five of the +crew lay down in their bunks. Dr. Anna Mueller, tall and slim, +full-bosomed, tawny-skinned and tawny-haired, remained standing. She +pressed the thought recorders over the heads of the other five people +who lay there motionless, clamped the tiny electrodes onto her own +temples and placed a small, black box, covered with many tiny dials, +beside the bunk of Miss Gordon, the televisor. + +A moment later, a jumble of thoughts: _Now I am dead. An end. For +what, now that it's here? Love. The warm press of a body. Trees and +grass. Sunrise. To take poison. Clean air after a rain. City, people, +lights. Sunset--_ + +The thought words jumbled like a voice from a recorder when the speed +is turned up. + +Then they faded and one thought stream came through clean and clear: +_I am Dr. Anna Mueller. Good none of the others can hear what I'm +thinking. Was afraid I'd die this way someday. But to prolong it. +Painless death in an instant. Could give it to us all. But orders. +Captain McClelland. No feeling? Can't he see what I feel for him? Why +am I thinking like this? Now. But this is what is happening to me. +He'd rather make love to this ship. Kiss Crowley before I give him the +metabolism sedation shot. Captain'll see I'm a woman._ + +[Illustration] + +She stepped to the bulkhead and pressed a button. A medicine cabinet +opened. After filling a hypodermic syringe, she went to Crowley, bent +down and gave him a long kiss on the lips. + +Instantly Colonel Halter heard thoughts. + +Captain McClelland: _She must be weak. Why's she doing that? Thought +she was stronger. But the ship's the thing. The ship and I._ + +Crowley: _What the hell? Didn't know she went for me. Just a half hour +with her before the needle. What's to lose?_ He pulled her down to +him. + +Lieutenant Brady: _He'd do that, the damned animal. But I'm not enough +of an animal. I'm a good spaceman. All spontaneity's been trained out +of me. Feel like killing him. And taking her. Anyplace. But I'm so +controlled. Got to do something. This last time...._ He sat up in his +bunk. + +Caroline Gordon: _I knew he was like that. Married when we got back. +Mrs. Crowley. And if we'd gotten back. Out every other night with +another woman. I could kill him._ She turned her face away. + +Daniel Carlyle: _Look at them. And I can't live. Only one person needs +me, back on Earth, and she's the only. And that's enough. But maybe I +can kill myself...._ He did not move. + + * * * * * + +The thoughts stopped and Colonel Halter leaned forward in his chair as +he saw Captain McClelland standing beside his bunk, the gun in his +hand. Dr. Mueller saw, too--the young Dr. Mueller, back those +seventy-five years. She struggled to pull away from Crowley. + +Lieutenant Brady stood, started toward the captain, stopped. Crowley +pushed Dr. Mueller away from him, leaped to his feet and lunged toward +the captain. A stream of light appeared between the gun muzzle and +Crowley. He stumbled, caught himself, stood up very straight, then +sank down, as though he had been deflated. + +The captain motioned Dr. Mueller to her bunk. She hesitated, pain in +her face, turned, went to her bunk and lay down. Another stream of +light appeared between her and the gun. She lay very still. The needle +slipped from her fingers. + +The captain turned the gun on Lieutenant Brady, who was coming at him, +arms raised. The light beam again. The lieutenant sank back. Caroline +Gordon was watching the captain as the light stream appeared. She +relaxed, her eyes closed. Daniel Carlyle did not move as the light +touched him. + +Captain McClelland holstered the gun. He picked up the hypodermic +needle and sterilized it at the medicine cabinet. Then he injected +Crowley's arm, filled the hypo four more times, injected the others. + +He finally thrust the needle into his own arm and lay down. His +breathing began to slow. There was only the control room of the ship +now, like some ancient mausoleum, with the six still figures and the +control board dark and the eternal ocean of night pressing against the +ports. + +The picture of the ship's control room began to fade on the screen. +After a moment of darkness, the live picture of the six old figures, +sitting in their half circle, spread again over the lighted square. + +Colonel Halter saw his own image, looking into the old masks. + +He said, "And where was _your_ weakness, Captain McClelland?" + +"I was concerned," said the old voice, "with keeping us alive." + +"You weren't aware that some of your crew were emotionally involved +with each other?" + +"No." + +"Are there any more records you could show me?" + +"Many more, Colonel, but I don't think it's necessary for you to see +them. It would take too long. And we want to get back out into space." +He paused. "We can brief you." + +"About your going back into space.... I'm not sure we can allow it." + +"Our answer's very simple. There's a button, under my thumb, on the +arm of this chair. A little pressure. Carbon monoxide. It would be +quick." + +"Your idea?" + +"Yes. A matter of preserving our integrity. We'd rather die than face +the horrors of life on Earth." + + * * * * * + +Halter turned to the semi-circle of faces. "And you've all agreed to +this--this suicide?" + +The captain cut in. "Of course. I realized years ago that the only +place we could live was in space, in this ship." + +"When did your crew realize this?" + +"After a couple of years. I told them over and over again, day after +day. After all, I am captain. I dictate the policy." + +"You've come back. You're in port. You're not in complete command." + +"I'll always be in command." + +"Perhaps," said Halter quietly. "However, we can come back to that. +Please brief me on the records." + +Captain McClelland's face hardened as he turned to Dr. Anna Mueller. + +She explained, "We regained consciousness twenty-four hours after +Captain McClelland used the shock gun on us. By then, our metabolisms +were high enough to keep us conscious and alive. We could lift +nutrition and water capsules to our mouths. We could press the button +to activate the exercise mechanisms in our bunks. The output of the +air machines was cut down until there was just enough to keep us alive +and thinking clearly. + +"At intervals of several days, during our exercise and study periods, +Captain McClelland turned up the air. We slept. And we dreamed. The +dreams are recorded in full. When we could face them, they were played +back to us. Our thoughts were played back, too. I conducted group +therapy among us. We all grew to understand each other and ourselves, +intimately, and now, in relation to our environment, we're perfectly +adjusted." + +"Did Captain McClelland join you in group therapy?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"He was already perfectly adjusted." + + * * * * * + +She frowned faintly, glanced at the captain. "When we were conscious, +we studied from the library of microfilm. We read all the great +literature of Earth. We watched the great plays and pictures and the +paintings and listened to the music. Sometimes our thoughts were +hateful. There was self-pity and hysteria. There were times when one +or two of us would withdraw almost to the point of death. Then Captain +McClelland would knock us out with the shock gun. + +"Slowly, over the years, our minds gradually merged into one mind. We +thought and created and lived as if we were one person. There grew to +be complete and perfect cooperation. And from this cooperation came +some great works. Each one of us will tell you. I'll speak first." + +She paused. "Psychology has always been my prime interest. My rating +at school was genius. My aptitudes were precisely in line with the +field of work I chose. Through the years, I've developed a theory, +discovered a way to bring about cooperation between all men. This is +possible in spite of your wars and hatreds and destruction." Frown +creases wrinkled her parchment forehead. "I'd like to know if it would +work." + +Daniel Carlyle's voice was slightly above a whisper. "All my life, I'd +wanted to write poetry. The meteor struck. I realized I wouldn't be +allowed to die quickly. I began to do what I'd always wanted to do. +The words poured into the thought recorder. Everything I felt and +thought is there and all I've been able to know and be from this one +mind of ours that's in us all. And it's some of the finest poetry +that's ever been written." He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. +"It'd be good to know if anyone found them inspiring." + +"I've always lived for adventure," said Crowley, the rocketman, his +old voice steady and quiet. "I've been the one to quiet down last into +the life it was necessary for us to live out there. But my thoughts +ran on into distant universes and across endless stretches of space. +And so at last, to keep my sanity, I wrote stories of all the +adventures I should have had, and more. And in them is all the native +power of me, of all adventurers, and the eternal sweep of the Universe +where Man will always thrust out to new places." There was a faint +trembling in his body and a pained light in his eyes. "Seems I ought +to know if they'll ever be read." + + * * * * * + +In spite of Brady's frailness, the lieutenant was like a grizzled old +animal growling with his last breath. "I was the most capable pilot +that ever blasted off from Earth. But I was also an inventor and +designer. A lot of the ships Earth pilots are flying today are +basically my ideas. After the accident, I wanted to get drunk and make +love and then let myself out into space, with a suit, and be there +forever. But Captain McClelland's shock gun and the understanding +seeping into me from the thought recorders calmed me down eventually. + +"So I turned to creation as I lay there in my bunk. I designed many +spaceships. And from those, I designed fewer and fewer, incorporating +the best from each. And now I have on microfilm a ship that can thrust +out to the ends of our galaxy. There aren't any flaws.... Oh, I tell +you, by God, I'd like to see her come to life!" + +He leaned back, sweat rolling down his bony cheeks. + +Miss Gordon, dietician and televisor, the motionless old lady with +cropped, white hair, and face bones across which the paper skin was +stretched, said, "There was only one thing I wanted when I knew I +couldn't have marriage and a family. There was a perfect food for the +human animal. I could find it. I began working on formulas. Over and +over again, I put the food elements together and took them apart and +put them together again. I threw away the work of years and started +over again until at last I had my perfect formula." + +She clasped her hands. "Man's nutrition problem is solved. From the +oceans and the air and the Earth, from the cosmic rays and the lights +of the suns and from the particles of the microcosm, Man can take into +his body all the nutrition that can enable him to live forever." She +sat very still, smiling. "And it's got to be given a try." + +Silence. + +Colonel Halter watched the old figures sitting like figures in a wax +museum, waiting, waiting. He turned a dial. The picture that flashed +onto the screen in his office showed the pocked ship standing upright +now, like some tree that had grown in the middle of a desert where it +was never meant to grow. + +The space tugs had streaked out beyond the atmosphere to finish other +assignments. There were no crowds, no official cars, no platforms, no +bands. Only darkness and silence. + +Halter turned a dial. The control room of the old ship flashed back +onto the screen. The ancient crew sat as before. Halter saw his own +face on their television screen. + +Something was missing, he thought. What? What hadn't been said? + +And then suddenly it came to him. + +The captain. He hadn't spoken of any contribution he had made during +those interminable years. + + * * * * * + +Halter thought back over Captain McClelland's record. No family. Wiped +out when he was a baby in the last war. Educated and raised by the +government. Never married. No entanglements with women. No close +friends. Ship's captain at twenty-one. No failures. No vacations. No +record of breakdown. Perfect physical condition. Strict +disciplinarian. More time in space than on Earth by seventy-five per +cent. No hobbies. No interest in the arts.... Apparently no flaw as a +spaceman.... The end product of the stiffest training regimen yet +devised by Man. + +The ideal captain. + +The records of the other five? All showing slight emotional +instabilities when checked against the optimum score of a spaceman. + +Dr. Mueller--a divorcee. A woman men had sought after. Dedicated in +spare time to social psychology. Conflict in her decision as to +whether she should go into the private practice of psychotherapy or +specialize in space psychology. Interested in the study of neurosis +caused by culture. + +Lieutenant Brady--family man. Forced himself into mold of good husband +and father. Brilliant designer. Ambition also to be space captain. +Conflict between these three. Several years of psychotherapy which +released his drive for adventure in space. _Alpha_ mission to be his +last. Lack of full leadership qualities prevented him from reaching +captaincy. + +Rocketman Crowley--typical man of action. Superb physique. Decathlon +champion. Continual entanglements with women. Quick temper. Tendency +to fight if pushed or crossed. Proud. However, if under good command, +best rocketman in the service. + +Astrogator Daniel Carlyle--highly sensitive. Psychosomatic symptoms +unless out in space. Then in perfect health. Fine mathematician. +Highly intuitive, yet logical. Saved four missions from disaster. +Holder of Congressional Medal of Honor. Hobby, poetry. Fiancee was +boyhood sweetheart. + +Dietician and televisor Caroline Gordon--youngest of crew. Twenty +years. Too many aptitudes. Tendency toward immaturity. Many hobbies. +Idealistic. Emotions unfocused. IQ 165. Success in any field of +endeavor concentrated upon. At eighteen, specialized in dietetics and +electronics. Highest ratings in field. Stable when under strict +external discipline. + + * * * * * + +No, thought Halter. None of them fitted space like the completely +self-sufficient McClelland, the man who could stand alone against that +black, teeming, swirling endlessness of space. + +He turned to the captain. The old face was placid, the eyes slightly +out of focus. + +"Captain McClelland," Halter said sharply. + +The pale eyes blinked and looked keenly on Halter's face. + +"You want fuel to take you back out into space." + +"That's right." + +"And if you don't get it, you'll press a button on the arm of your +chair and you'll all die of carbon monoxide poisoning." + +"Exactly." + +"I'm curious about one point." Halter paused. "What did _you_ do, +Captain, while the others were working on their various projects?" + +Captain McClelland scowled at Halter for a long moment. "Why do you +want to know that?" + +"Your crew members became lost in some work they loved. They told me +about it with a certain amount of enthusiasm. You haven't told me what +you did. I'd like to know--for the records." + +"I watched them, Colonel. I watched them and dreamed of the time when +I could take them and the ship back out into space under her own +power. I love space and I love this ship. I love knowing she's under +power and shooting out to the stars. There's nothing more for me." + +"What else did you do besides watch them?" + +"I activated the machinery that moved my bunk close to the controls. I +practiced taking the ship through maneuvers. I kept the controls in +perfect working order so I'd be ready to take off again someday." + +"If we repaired the ship so you could take off, the first shock of +rocket thrust would kill you all." + +"We're willing to take that chance." + +Colonel Halter looked around the half circle of old faces. "And all +your long years of work would be for nothing. Each of you, except +Captain McClelland, has made a contribution to Earth and Man. You're +needed here, not in the emptiness of space." + +He saw the eyes of the five watching him intently; saw a tiny flicker +of surprise and interest on their faces. + +"You're destroying Earth," said the captain, his voice rising, "with +your wars and your quarrels. We've all of us found peace. We're going +to keep it." + + * * * * * + +Halter ignored the captain and looked at the five. + +"There are many of _us_ on Earth, who are fighting a war without +blood, to save mankind. We've made progress. We've worked out +agreements among the warring nations to do their fighting on the +barren planets where there aren't any native inhabitants, so +noncombatants on Earth won't be killed and so the Earth won't be laid +waste. That was the fighting you saw while you were coming in. + +"This is just _one_ example. And there're a lot of us contributing +ideas and effort. If all of us who're working for Earth were to leave +it and go out into space, the ones who have to fight wars would make +the Earth as barren as the Moon. This is our place in the Universe and +it's got to be saved." + +"We've adjusted to the control room of this ship and to each other," +said McClelland flatly. "Our work's done." + +"Let's put it like this, Captain. Maybe _your_ work's done. Maybe +_you're_ not interested in what happens to Earth." Halter turned to +the others. "But what _you've_ done adds up to a search for answers +here on Earth. Poetry. Design of a flawless spaceship. A psychological +theory. A perfect diet. Novels about Man pushing out and out into +space. All this indicates a deep concern for the health of humanity +and its success." + +"We're not concerned," retorted the captain, "with the health or +success of humanity." + +Halter sharply examined the other faces. He saw a flicker of sadness +in one, anger in another, uncertainty, fear, joy. + +He said, "For seventy-five years, you obey your captain. You listen to +what he says. And everything is a command. Yet in yourselves you feel +a drive to carry out your ideas, your creations, to their logical +ends. Which means, will they work when they're applied to Man? Will +people read the novels? Will they catch the meaning of the poetry? +Will the spaceships really work as they're supposed to? Will the +psychological theory really promote cooperation? Is there supreme +health in this marvelous diet?" + +He gave them a moment to think and then continued. "But if you +continue to follow the commands of the captain, you'll be dead before +you're out of the Earth's atmosphere. You'll never know. Maybe Man +will prove that your great works are only dreams.... But I think +there's a great need in you to know, one way or the other." + + * * * * * + +There was a faint stirring among them, like that of ancient machines +being activated after years of lying dormant. They glanced at each +other. They fidgeted. Trouble twisted their faces. + +"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "I'm warning you. My thumb is on +the button. I'll release the gas. Do we get the repairs and the fuel +to take off from Earth, or don't we?" + +Colonel Halter leaned grimly toward the captain. "You've spent fifty +years with one idea--to stay out in space forever. You've made no +effort to create or do one single constructive act. I'll tell you +whether or not you get the fuel and the repairs--_after_ I hear what +someone in your crew has to say." + +Silence hung tensely between the control room of the ship and Colonel +Halter's office on Earth. The captain was glaring now at Halter. A +tear showed in the corner of each of Dr. Anna Mueller's old eyes. +Lieutenant Brady was gripping the arms of his chair. Daniel Carlyle's +eyes were closed and his head shook slightly, as though from palsy. +There was a faint, enigmatic smile on Caroline Gordon's face. The +cords on Crowley's neck stood out through the tan and wrinkled +wrapping-paper skin. + +_By God,_ thought Halter, _they're all sane except the captain. And +they've got to do it. They've got to come out on their own steam or +die in that control room._ + +"I'm waiting," he said. "Is your work going to die and you with it?" + +"We'll leave all the records," said the captain, his thumb poised over +the button on the arm of his chair. "That's enough." + +Halter ignored him. "Each of you can help. You've only done part of +the work." He stood and struck the desk with the flat of his hand. +"Damn it, say something, one of you!" + +Still the silence and the flickering looks all around. + +Halter heard a sob. He saw Dr. Anna Mueller's head drop forward and +her shoulders tremble. The others were staring at her, as if she had +suddenly materialized among them, like a ghost. + +[Illustration] + +Then her voice, through the trembling and the faint crying: +"I've--I've got to know." + +The captain got creakily to his feet. "Dr. Mueller! Do you want me to +use the gun again?" + +She raised her face to his. There was pain in it. "I've--got work to +do. There's so--little time." + +"That's right. On this ship. You're part of the crew. There'll be +plenty of work once we get out in space again." + +[Illustration] + +"I've got to see if my theory's right." + +"Colonel Halter," said the captain, "this is insubordination. Mutiny." + + * * * * * + +He raised the gun tremblingly, pointed the black muzzle at Dr. +Mueller, sighted along the barrel. + +"Wait," said Halter. "You're right." + +Captain McClelland hesitated. + +"It's quite plain," went on Halter, "that Dr. Mueller is alone among +you. She wants to come out and go on with her work. The rest of you +want the closed-in uterine warmth and peace of this room you're +existing in. You can't face the possibility of failure. So I'm afraid +she'll have to be sacrificed. After all, you do need a full crew to +move the ship--even if you are all dead a few seconds after blastoff." +He paused, looking intently at Brady, Crowley, Carlyle, Gordon, where +they sat in the half circle, staring back at him. "So--" + +Lieutenant Brady struggled up from his chair. + +"I've got twenty-five years of life. I've some ships to design." + +"That goes for me, too," said Crowley, the rocketman. "Will anybody +want to read my novels?" + +Astrogator Carlyle leaned forward. "There are many more poems to be +written." + +"Give me a soundproof laboratory," said Caroline Gordon. "I'll add +another fifty years to all your lives." + +"I'm afraid it is mutiny, Captain," said Halter. + +The captain started toward his chair, his hand reaching for the button +on its arm. + +Lieutenant Brady stumbled forward, blocking his way. + +Halter could only watch, thinking, _It's up to them. They've got to do +it now!_ + +He saw the captain draw his shock gun; saw light flare at its muzzle; +saw Lieutenant Brady crumple like a collapsing skeleton. + +Crowley reached forward, grasping McClelland's shoulder. The gun swung +toward him. A stream of light squirted into his middle. Crowley fell +forward, pulling the captain down with him. The three other oldsters +were above the three black figures sprawled on the floor, like tangled +puppets. They hesitated a moment, then fell upon the ones below them, +black arms and legs twitching about now like the legs of dying +spiders, struggling weakly. + +A flash of light exploded beneath these twisting black reeds and +streaks of it shot out all through the waving black cluster. + +The next moment, they settled and were quiet. + + * * * * * + +There was a stillness in the ancient control room, like the stillness +in a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea. It lingered for a long +time, while Colonel Halter watched and waited. + +Dr. Mueller's voice, seventy-five years tired, said, "He's--quiet now. +Please come and take us out." + +Colonel Halter switched on his desk visiophone. + +"They're coming out," he said quietly. "I'll be there to supervise." + +On the visiophone, the general's image nodded. "Congratulations, +Colonel. How are they?" + +"There'll be one case for psycho. Captain McClelland." + +"I'll be damned!" exclaimed the general. "From his record, I thought +he'd never break!" + +"Let's say he couldn't bend, sir." A pause. "And yet he did keep them +from destroying themselves." + +"He'll be made well again.... What about the others?" + +"I think they, too, are very great and human people." + +"Well," said the general, "they're _your_ patients. I'll see you at +the ship in five minutes." + +"I'll be there, sir." Colonel Halter flipped the switch. The +visiophone blanked out. He looked at the television screen. + +The six black-clothed figures were quiet on the floor of their ship's +control room. They reminded him of sleeping children curled together +for warmth. + +As he left his office and walked out into the humming city, he felt +drained, still shaking with tension, realizing even now how close he +had come to failure. + +But there was the scarred and pitted needle-nosed old hull, bright +with moonlight, standing like a monument against the night sky. + +Not a monument to the past, though. + +It marked the birthplace of the future ... and he had been midwife. He +felt his shoulders straighten at the knowledge as he walked toward the +ancient ship. + + --RICHARD STOCKHAM + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Perfect Control, by Richard Stockham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERFECT CONTROL *** + +***** This file should be named 31985.txt or 31985.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/9/8/31985/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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