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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Accidental Flight, by Floyd L. Wallace
+
+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: Accidental Flight
+
+Author: Floyd L. Wallace
+
+Illustrator: Ed Alexander
+
+Release Date: May 30, 2010 [EBook #32597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACCIDENTAL FLIGHT ***
+
+
+
+
+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 April 1952.
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                          Accidental Flight
+
+
+                           By F. L. WALLACE
+
+
+                     Illustrated by Ed Alexander
+
+
+     _Outcasts of a society of physically perfect people, they
+     couldn't stay and they couldn't go home again--yet there had
+     to be some escape for them. Oddly enough, there was!_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Cameron frowned intently at the top of the desk. It was difficult to
+concentrate under the circumstances. "Your request was turned over to
+the Medicouncil," he said. "After studying it, they reported back to
+the Solar Committee."
+
+Docchi edged forward, his face literally lighting up.
+
+Dr. Cameron kept his eyes averted; the man was damnably disconcerting.
+"You know what the answer is. A flat no, for the present."
+
+Docchi leaned back. "We should have expected that," he said wearily.
+
+"It's not entirely hopeless. Decisions like this can always be
+changed."
+
+"Sure," said Docchi. "We've got centuries." His face was
+flushed--_blazing_ would be a better description.
+
+Absently, Cameron lowered the lights in the room as much as he could.
+It was still uncomfortably bright. Docchi was a nuisance.
+
+"But why?" asked Docchi. "You know that we're capable. Why did they
+refuse?"
+
+Cameron had tried to avoid that question. Now it had to be answered
+with blunt brutality. "Did you think you would be chosen? Or Nona, or
+Jordan, or Anti?"
+
+Docchi winced. "Maybe not. But we've told you that we're willing to
+abide by what the experts say. Surely from a thousand of us they can
+select one qualified crew."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Cameron. He switched on the lights and resumed
+staring at the top of the desk. "Most of you are biocompensators.
+Ninety per cent, I believe. I concede that we ought to be able to get
+together a competent crew." He sighed. "But you're wasting your time
+discussing this with me. I'm not responsible for the decision. I can't
+do anything about it."
+
+Docchi stood up. His face was colorless and bright.
+
+Dr. Cameron looked at him directly for the first time. "I suggest you
+calm down. Be patient and wait; you may get your chance."
+
+"You wait," said Docchi. "We don't intend to."
+
+The door opened for him and closed behind him.
+
+Cameron concentrated on the desk. Actually he was trying to look
+through it. He wrote down the card sequence he expected to find. He
+opened a drawer and gazed at the contents, then grimaced in
+disappointment. No matter how many times he tried, he never got better
+than strictly average results. Maybe there was something to telepathy,
+but he hadn't found it yet.
+
+He dismissed it from his mind. It was a private game, a method of
+avoiding involvement while Docchi was present. But Docchi was gone
+now, and he had better come up with some answers. The right ones.
+
+He switched on the telecom. "Get me Medicouncilor Thorton," he told
+the robot operator. "Direct, if you can; indirect if you have to. I'll
+wait."
+
+With an approximate mean diameter of thirty miles, the asteroid was
+listed on the charts as Handicap Haven. The regular inhabitants were
+willing to admit the handicap part of the name, but they didn't call
+it haven. There were other terms, none of them suggesting sanctuary.
+
+It was a hospital, of course, but even more like a convalescent home,
+_the permanent kind_. A healthy and vigorous humanity had built it for
+those few who were less fortunate. A splendid gesture, but, like many
+such gestures, the reality fell somewhat short of the original
+intentions.
+
+The robot operator interrupted his thoughts. "Medicouncilor Thorton
+will speak to you."
+
+The face of an older man filled the screen. "On my way to the
+satellites of Jupiter. I'll be in direct range for the next half
+hour." At such distance, transmission and reception were practically
+instantaneous. "You wanted to speak to me about the Solar Committee
+reply?"
+
+"I do. I informed Docchi a few minutes ago."
+
+"How did he react?"
+
+"He didn't like it. As a matter of fact, he was mad all the way
+through."
+
+"That speaks well for his mental resiliency."
+
+"They all seem to have enough spirit, though, and nothing to use it
+on," said Dr. Cameron. "I confess I didn't look at him often, in spite
+of the fact that he was quite presentable. Handsome, even, in a
+startling way."
+
+Thorton nodded. "Presentable. That means he had arms."
+
+"He did. Is that important?"
+
+"I think it is. He expected a favorable reply and wanted to look his
+best. As nearly normal as possible."
+
+"Trouble?"
+
+"I don't see how," said the medicouncilor uncertainly. "In any event,
+not immediately. It will take them some time to get over the shock of
+refusal. They can't do anything, really. Individually they're
+helpless. Collectively--there aren't parts for a dozen sound bodies on
+the asteroid."
+
+"I've looked over the records," said Dr. Cameron. "Not one accidental
+has ever _liked_ being on Handicap Haven, and that covers quite a few
+years. But there has never been so much open discontent as there is
+now."
+
+"Someone is organizing them. Find out who and keep a close watch."
+
+"I know who. Docchi, Nona, Anti, and Jordan. But it doesn't do any
+good merely to watch them. I want your permission to break up that
+combination. Humanely, of course."
+
+"How do you propose to do it?"
+
+"Docchi, for instance. With prosthetic arms he appears physically
+normal, except for that uncanny luminescence. That is repulsive to the
+average person. Medically there's nothing we can do about it, but
+psychologically we might be able to make it into an asset. You're
+aware that Gland Opera is the most popular program in the Solar
+System. Telepaths, teleports, pyrotics and so forth are the heroes.
+All fake, of course: makeup and trick camera shots. But Docchi can be
+made into a real live star. The death-ray man, say. When his face
+shines, men fall dead or paralyzed. He'd have a chance to return to
+normal society under conditions that would be mentally acceptable to
+him."
+
+"Acceptable to him, perhaps, but not to society," reflected the
+medicouncilor. "An ingenious idea, one which does credit to your
+humanitarian outlook. Only it won't work. You have Docchi's medical
+record, but you probably don't know his complete history. He was an
+electrochemical engineer, specializing in cold lighting. He seemed on
+his way to a brilliant career when a particularly messy accident
+occurred. The details aren't important. He was badly mangled and
+tossed into a tank of cold lighting fluid by automatic machinery. It
+was some time before he was discovered.
+
+"There was a spark of life left and we managed to save him. We had to
+amputate his arms and ribs practically to his spinal column. The
+problem of regeneration wasn't as easy as it usually is. We were able
+to build up a new rib case; that's as much as we could do. Under such
+conditions, prosthetic arms are merely ornaments. They can be fastened
+to him and they look all right, but he can't use them. He has no back
+or shoulder muscles to anchor them to.
+
+"And add to that the adaptation his body made while he was in the
+tank. The basic cold lighting fluid, as you know, is semi-organic. It
+permeated every tissue in his body. By the time we got him, it was
+actually a necessary part of his metabolism. A corollary, I suppose,
+of the fundamental biocompensation theory."
+
+The medicouncilor paused and shook his head. "I'm afraid your idea is
+out, Dr. Cameron. I don't doubt that he would be successful on the
+program you mention. But there is more to life on the outside than
+success. Can you picture the dead silence when he walks into a room of
+normal people?"
+
+"I see," said Cameron, though he didn't, at least not eye to eye. The
+medicouncilor was convinced and there was nothing Cameron could do to
+alter that conviction. "The other one I had in mind was Nona," he
+added.
+
+"I thought so." Thorton glanced at the solar chronometer. "I haven't
+much time, but I'd better explain. You're new to the post and I don't
+think you've learned yet to evaluate the patients and their problems
+properly. In a sense, Nona is more impossible than Docchi. He was once
+a normal person. She never was. Her appearance is satisfactory;
+perhaps she's quite pretty, though you must remember that you're
+seeing her under circumstances that may make her seem more attractive
+than she really is.
+
+"She can't talk or hear. She never will. She doesn't have a larynx,
+and it wouldn't help if we gave her one. She simply doesn't have the
+nervous system necessary for speech or hearing. Her brain is
+definitely not structurally normal. As far as we're concerned, that
+abnormality is not in the nature of a mutation. It's more like an
+anomaly. Once cleft palates were frequent--prenatal nutritional
+deficiencies or traumas. Occasionally we still run into cases like
+that, but our surgical techniques are always adequate. Not with Nona,
+however.
+
+"She can't be taught to read or write; we've tried it. We dug out the
+old Helen Keller techniques and brought them up to date with no
+results. Apparently her mind doesn't work in a human fashion. We
+question whether very much of it works at all."
+
+"That might be a starting point," said Cameron. "If her brain--"
+
+"Gland Opera stuff," interrupted Thorton. "Or Rhine Opera, if you'll
+permit me to coin a term. We've thought of it, but it isn't true.
+We've tested her for every telepathic quality that the Rhine people
+list. Again no results. She has no special mental capacities. Just to
+make sure of that, we've given her periodic checkups. One last year,
+in fact."
+
+Cameron frowned in frustration. "Then it's your opinion that she's not
+able to survive in a normal society?"
+
+"That's it," answered the medicouncilor bluntly. "You'll have to face
+the truth--you can't get rid of any of them."
+
+"With or without their cooperation, I'll manage," said Cameron.
+
+"I'm sure you will." The medicouncilor's manner didn't ooze
+confidence. "Of course, if you need help we can send reinforcements."
+
+The implication was clear enough. "I'll keep them out of trouble,"
+Cameron promised.
+
+The picture and the voice were fading. "It's up to you. If it turns
+out to be too difficult, get in touch with the Medicouncil...."
+
+The robot operator broke in: "The ship is beyond direct telecom range.
+If you wish to continue the conversation, it will have to be relayed
+through the nearest main station. At present, that is Mars."
+
+Aside from the time element, which was considerable, it wasn't likely
+that he would get any better answers than he could supply for himself.
+Cameron shook his head. "We are through, thanks."
+
+He got heavily to his feet. That wasn't a psychological reaction at
+all. He really was heavier. He made a mental note. He would have to
+investigate.
+
+In a way they were pathetic--the patchwork humans, the half or quarter
+men and women, the fractional organisms masquerading as people--an
+illusion which died hard for them. Medicine and surgery were partly to
+blame. Techniques were too good, or not good enough, depending on the
+viewpoint.
+
+Too good in that the most horribly injured person, if he were still
+alive, could be kept alive! Not good enough because a percentage of
+the injured couldn't be returned to society completely sound and
+whole. There weren't many like that; but there were some, and all of
+them were on the asteroid.
+
+They didn't like it. At least they didn't like being _confined_ to
+Handicap Haven. It wasn't that they wanted to go back to the society
+of the normals, for they realized how conspicuous they'd be among the
+multitudes of beautiful, healthy people on the planets.
+
+What the accidentals did want was ridiculous. They desired, they
+hoped, they petitioned to be the first to make the long, hard journey
+to Alpha and Proxima Centauri in rockets. Trails of glory for those
+that went; a vicarious share in it for those who couldn't.
+
+Nonsense. The broken people, those without a face they could call
+their own, those who wore their hearts not on their sleeves, but in a
+blood-pumping chamber, those either without limbs or organs--or too
+many. The categories seemed endless.
+
+The accidentals were qualified, true. In fact, of all the billions of
+solar citizens, _they alone could make the journey and return_. But
+there were other factors that ruled them out. The first point was
+never safe to discuss with them, especially if the second had to be
+explained. It would take a sadistic nature that Cameron didn't
+possess.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Docchi sat beside the pool. It was pleasant enough, a pastoral scene
+transplanted from Earth. A small tree stretched shade overhead. Waves
+lapped and made gurgling sounds against the sides. No plant life of
+any kind grew and no fish swam in the liquid. It looked like water,
+but it wasn't. It was acid. In it floated something that monstrously
+resembled a woman.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"They turned us down, Anti," Docchi said bitterly.
+
+"Didn't you expect it?" the creature in the pool asked.
+
+"I guess I didn't."
+
+"You don't know the Medicouncil very well."
+
+"Evidently I don't." He stared sullenly at the faintly blue fluid.
+"Why did they turn us down?"
+
+"Don't you know?"
+
+"All right, I know," he said. "They're pretty irrational."
+
+"Of course, irrational. Let them be that way, as long as we don't
+follow their example."
+
+"I wish I knew what to do," he said. "Cameron suggested we wait."
+
+"Biocompensation," murmured Anti, stirring restlessly. "They've always
+said that. Up to now it's always worked."
+
+"What else can we do?" asked Docchi. Angrily he kicked at an anemic
+tuft of grass. "Draw up another request?"
+
+"Memorandum number ten? Let's not be naive about it. Things get lost
+so easily in the Medicouncil's filing system."
+
+"Or distorted," grunted Docchi.
+
+"Maybe we should give the Medicouncil a rest. They're tired of hearing
+us anyway."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Docchi, rising.
+
+"Better talk to Jordan about it."
+
+"I intend to. I'll need arms."
+
+"Good. I'll see you when you leave for far Centauri."
+
+"Sooner than that, Anti. Much sooner."
+
+Stars were beginning to wink. Twilight brought out shadows and tracery
+of the structure that supported the transparent dome overhead. Soon
+controlled slow rotation would bring darkness to this side of the
+asteroid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cameron leaned back and looked speculatively at the gravital engineer,
+Vogel. The man could give him considerable assistance, if he would.
+There was no reason why he shouldn't; but any man who had voluntarily
+remained on Handicap Haven as long as Vogel had was a doubtful
+quantity.
+
+"Usually we maintain about half Earth-normal gravity," Cameron said.
+"Isn't that correct?"
+
+Engineer Vogel nodded.
+
+"It isn't important why those limits were set," Cameron continued.
+"Perhaps it's easier on the weakened bodies of the accidentals. There
+may be economic factors."
+
+"No reason for those limits except the gravital units themselves,"
+Vogel said. "Theoretically it should be easy to get any gravity you
+want. Practically, though, we get between a quarter and almost full
+Earth gravity. Now take the fluctuations. The gravital computer is set
+at fifty per cent. Sometimes we get fifty per cent and sometimes
+seventy-five. Whatever it is, it just is and we have to be satisfied."
+
+The big engineer shrugged. "I hear the units were designed especially
+for this asteroid," he went on. "Some fancy medical reason. Easier on
+the accidentals to have less gravity change, you say. Me, I dunno. I'd
+guess the designers couldn't help it and the reason was dug up later."
+
+Cameron concealed his irritation. He wanted information, not a
+heart-to-heart confession. "All practical sciences try to justify
+whatever they can't escape but would like to. Medicine, I'm sure, is
+no exception." He paused thoughtfully. "Now, there are three separate
+gravital units on the asteroid. One runs for forty-five minutes while
+the other two are idle. Then it cuts off and another takes over. This
+is supposed to be synchronized. I don't have to tell you that it
+isn't. You felt your weight increase suddenly at the same time I did.
+What is wrong?"
+
+"Nothing wrong," said the engineer. "That's what you get with
+gravital."
+
+"You mean they're supposed to run that way? Overlapping so that for
+five minutes we have Earth or Earth-and-a-half gravity and then none?"
+
+"It's not _supposed_ to be that way," said Vogel. "But nobody ever
+built a setup like this that worked any better." He added defensively:
+"Of course, if you want, you can check with the company that makes
+these units."
+
+"I'm not trying to challenge your knowledge, and I'm not anxious to
+make myself look silly. I have a sound reason for asking these
+questions. There is a possibility of sabotage."
+
+The engineer's grin was wider than the remark seemed to require.
+
+"All right," said Cameron tiredly. "Suppose you tell me why sabotage
+is so unlikely."
+
+"Well," explained the gravital engineer, "it would have to be someone
+living here, and he wouldn't like it if he suddenly got double or
+triple gravity or maybe none at all. But there's another reason. Now
+take a gravital unit. Any gravital unit. Most people think of it as
+just that--a unit. It isn't really that at all. It has three parts.
+
+"One part is a power source that can be anything as long as it's big
+enough. Our power source is a nuclear pile, buried deep in the
+asteroid. You'd have to take Handicap Haven apart to get to it. Part
+two is the gravital coil, which actually produces the gravity and is
+simple and just about indestructible. Part three is the gravital
+control. It calculates the relationship between the amount of power
+flowing through the gravital coil and the strength of the created
+gravity field in any one microsecond. It uses the computed
+relationship to alter the power flowing through in the next
+microsecond to get the same gravity. No change of power, no gravity. I
+guess you could call the control unit a computer, as good a one as is
+made for any purpose."
+
+The engineer rubbed his chin. "Fatigue," he continued. "The gravital
+control is an intricate computer that's subject to fatigue. That's why
+it has to rest an hour and a half to do forty-five minutes of work.
+Naturally they don't want anyone tinkering with it. It's
+non-repairable. Crack the case open and it won't work. But first you
+have to open it. Mind you, that can be done. But I wouldn't want to
+try it without a high-powered lab setup."
+
+If it didn't seem completely foolproof, neither did it seem a likely
+source of trouble. "Then we can forget about the gravital units," said
+Cameron, arising. "But what about hand weapons? Are there any
+available?"
+
+"You mean toasters?"
+
+"Anything that's lethal."
+
+"Nothing. No knives even. Maybe a stray bar or so of metal." Vogel
+scratched his head. "There is something dangerous, though. Dangerous
+if you know how to take hold of it."
+
+Instantly Cameron was alert. "What's that?"
+
+"Why, the asteroid itself. You can't physically touch any part of the
+gravital unit. But if you could somehow sneak an impulse into the
+computer and change the direction of the field...." Vogel was very
+grave. "You could pick up Handicap Haven and throw it anywhere you
+wanted. At the Earth, say. Thirty miles in diameter is a big hunk of
+rock."
+
+It was this kind of information Cameron was looking for, though the
+engineer seemed to regard the occasion as merely a social call. "Is
+there any possibility of that occurring?" he asked quietly.
+
+The engineer grinned. "Never happened, but they're ready for things
+like that with any gravital system. They got monitor stations all
+over--the moons of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus.
+
+"Any time the gravital computer gets dizzy, the monitor overrides it.
+If that fails, they send a jammer impulse and freeze it up tight. It
+won't work until they let loose."
+
+Cameron sighed. He was getting very little help or information from
+Vogel. "All right," he said. "You've told me what I wanted to know."
+
+He watched the engineer depart for the gravity-generating chamber far
+below the surface of the asteroid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The post on Handicap Haven wasn't pleasant; it wasn't an experience a
+normal human would desire. It did have advantages--advancement came in
+sizes directly proportional to the disagreeableness of the place.
+
+Ten months to go on a year's assignment. If Cameron could survive that
+period with nothing to mar his administration, he was in line for
+better positions. A suicide or any other kind of unpleasantness that
+would focus the attention of the outside world on the forgotten
+asteroid was definitely unwelcome.
+
+He flipped on the telecom. "Rocket dome. Get me the pilot."
+
+When the robot finally answered, it wasn't encouraging. "I'm sorry.
+There is no answer."
+
+"Then trace him," he snapped. "If he's not in the rocket dome, he's in
+the main dome. I want you to get him at once."
+
+A few seconds of silence followed. "There is no record of the pilot
+leaving the rocket dome."
+
+His heart skipped; with an effort he spoke carefully. "Scan the whole
+area. Understand? You've got to find him."
+
+"Scanning is not possible. The system is out of operation in that
+area."
+
+"All right," he said, starting to shake. "Send out repair robots."
+They were efficient in the sense they always did the work they were
+set to do, but not in terms of speed.
+
+"The robots were dispatched as soon as scanning failed to work. Are
+there any other instructions?"
+
+He thought about that. He needed help, plenty of it. Vogel? He'd be
+ready and willing, but that would leave the gravity-generating setup
+unprotected. Better do without him.
+
+Who else? The sour old nurse who'd signed up because she wanted quick
+credits toward retirement? Or the sweet young thing who had bravely
+volunteered because someone ought to help those poor unfortunate men?
+Not the women, of course. She had a bad habit of fainting when she saw
+blood. Probably that was why she couldn't get a position in a regular
+planetary hospital.
+
+That was all, except the robots, who weren't much help in a case like
+this. That and the rocket pilot. For some reason he wasn't available.
+
+The damned place was under-manned. Always had been. Nobody wanted to
+come except the mildly psychotic, the inefficient and lazy, or,
+conceivably, an ambitious young doctor like himself. Mentally, Cameron
+berated the last category. If anything serious happened here, such a
+doctor might end his career bandaging scratches at a children's
+playground.
+
+"Instructions," he said. "Yes. Leave word in gravity-generating for
+Vogel. Tell him to throw everything he's got around the units. Watch
+them."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Not quite. Send six general purpose robots. I'll pick them up at the
+entrance to the rocket dome."
+
+"Repair robots are already in that area. Will they do as well?"
+
+"They will not. I want geepees for another reason." They wouldn't be
+much help, true, but the best he could manage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Docchi waited near the rocket dome. Not hiding, merely inconspicuous
+among the carefully nurtured shrubbery that was supposed to give the
+illusion of Earth. If the plants failed in that respect, at least they
+contributed to the oxygen supply of the asteroid.
+
+"Good girl," said Docchi. "That Nona is wonderful."
+
+Jordan could feel him relax. "A regular mechanical marvel," he agreed.
+"But we can gas about that later. Let's get going."
+
+Docchi glanced around and then walked boldly into the passageway that
+connected the main dome with the much smaller, adjacent rocket dome.
+Normally, it was never dark in the inhabited parts of the asteroid; a
+modulated twilight was considered more conducive to the slumber of the
+handicapped. But it wasn't twilight as they neared the rocket dome--it
+was a full-scale rehearsal for the darkness of interplanetary space.
+
+Docchi stopped before the emergency airlock which loomed solidly in
+front of them. "I hope Nona was able to cut this out of the circuit,"
+he said anxiously.
+
+"She understood, didn't she?" asked Jordan. He reached out and the
+great slab moved easily aside in its grooves. "The trouble with you is
+that you lack confidence."
+
+Docchi, listening with a frown, didn't answer.
+
+"Okay, I hear it, too," whispered Jordan. "We'd better get well inside
+before he reaches us."
+
+Docchi walked rapidly into the darkness of the rocket dome. He allowed
+his face to become faintly luminescent, the one part of his altered
+metabolism that he had learned to control, when he wasn't under
+emotional strain.
+
+He was nervous now, but his control had to be right. Enough light so
+that he'd be noticed, not so much that details of his appearance would
+be plain.
+
+The footsteps came nearer, accompanied by a steady volume of
+profanity. Docchi flashed his face once and then lowered the intensity
+almost immediately.
+
+The footsteps stopped. "Docchi?"
+
+"No. Just a lonely little light bulb out for an evening stroll."
+
+The rocket pilot's laughter wasn't altogether friendly. "I know it's
+you. I meant, what are you doing here?"
+
+"I saw the lights in the rocket dome go out. The entrance was open, so
+I came in. Maybe I can help."
+
+"They're off, all right. Everything. Even the standby system." The
+rocket pilot moved closer. The deadly little toaster was in his hand.
+"You can't help. You'd better get out. It's against regulations for
+you to be in here."
+
+Docchi ignored the weapon. "What happened? Did a meteor strike?"
+
+The pilot grunted. "Not likely." He peered intently at the barely
+visible silhouette. "Well, I see you're getting smart. You should do
+that all the time. You look better that way, even if they're not
+usable arms. You look...." His voice faded away.
+
+"Sure, almost human," Docchi finished for him. "Not like a pair of
+legs and a spinal column with a lightning bug stuck on top."
+
+"I didn't say that. So you're sensitive about it, eh? Maybe that's not
+your fault. Anyway, you'd better get going."
+
+"But I don't want to go," said Docchi deliberately. "I'm not afraid of
+the dark. Are you?"
+
+"Cut the psycho talk, Docchi. All your circuits are working and you
+know it. Now get out of here before I take your fake hand and drag you
+out."
+
+"Now you've hurt my feelings," declared Docchi reproachfully, nimbly
+stepping away.
+
+"You asked for it," growled the pilot, lunging after him. What he took
+hold of wasn't an imitation hand, made of plastic. It was flesh and
+blood. That was why the pilot screamed, once, before he was lifted off
+his feet and slammed to the floor.
+
+Docchi bent double. The dark figure on his back came over his head
+like a sword from a scabbard.
+
+"Jor--"
+
+"Yeah," said Jordan.
+
+He wrapped one arm around the pilot's throat and clamped it tight.
+With the other he felt for the toaster the pilot still held.
+Effortlessly he tore it away and used the butt with just enough force
+to knock the pilot unconscious without smashing the skull. Docchi
+stood by until it was over. All he could offer was an ineffectual
+kick, not balanced by arms.
+
+It wasn't needed.
+
+"Let there be light," ordered Jordan, laughing, and there was, a
+feeble, flickering illumination from Docchi.
+
+Jordan was balancing himself on his hands. A strong head, massive,
+powerful arms and shoulders. His body ended at his chest. A round
+metal capsule contained his digestive system.
+
+"Dead?" Docchi looked down at the pilot.
+
+Jordan rocked forward and listened for the heartbeat. "Nah," he said.
+"I remembered in time that we can't afford to kill anyone."
+
+"Good," said Docchi, and stifled an exclamation as something coiled
+around his leg. His reactions were fast; he broke loose almost
+instantly.
+
+"Repair robot," said Jordan, looking around. "The place is lousy with
+them."
+
+Docchi blinked on and off involuntarily and the robot came toward him.
+
+"Friendly creature," observed Jordan. "He's offering to fix your
+lighting system for you."
+
+Docchi ignored the squat contrivance and stared at the pilot. "Now
+what?" he asked.
+
+"Agreed," said Jordan. "He needs attention. _Not_ the kind I gave
+him." He balanced the toaster in his hand and burned a small hole in
+the little wheeled monster. Tentacles emerged from the side of the
+machine and felt puzzledly at the damaged area. The tentacles were
+withdrawn and presently reappeared with a small torch and began
+welding.
+
+Jordan pulled the unconscious pilot toward him. He leaned against the
+machine, raised the inert form over his head and laid it gently on the
+top flat surface. Another tentacle reached out to investigate the body
+of the pilot. Jordan welded the joints solid with the toaster. Three
+times he repeated the process until the pilot was fastened to the
+robot.
+
+"The thing will stay here, repairing itself, until it's completely
+sound again," remarked Jordan. "However, that can be fixed." He
+adjusted the toaster beam to an imperceptible thickness. Deftly he
+sliced through the control case and removed a circular section. He
+reached inside and ripped out circuits. "No further self-repair," he
+said cheerfully. "Now I'm going to need your help. From a time
+stand-point, I think it's a good idea to run the robot around the
+main dome a few times before it delivers the pilot to the hospital. No
+point in giving ourselves away before we're ready."
+
+Docchi bent over the robot, and with his help the proper sequence was
+implanted. The machine scurried erratically away.
+
+Docchi watched it go. "Time for us to be on our way." He bent double
+for Jordan. The arms folded around his neck, but Jordan made no effort
+to climb up onto his back. For a panic moment Docchi knew how the
+pilot felt when strength, where there shouldn't have been strength,
+reached out from the darkness and gripped his throat.
+
+He shook the thought from his mind. "Get on my back," he insisted.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"You're tired," said Jordan. "Half gravity or not, you can't carry me
+any farther." His fingers worked swiftly and the carrying harness fell
+to the floor. "Stay down," growled Jordan. "Listen."
+
+Docchi listened. "Geepees!"
+
+"Yeah," said Jordan. "Now get to the rocket."
+
+"What can I do when I get there? You'll have to help me."
+
+"You'll figure something out when the time comes. Hurry up!"
+
+"Not without you," said Docchi stubbornly, without moving.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A huge paw clamped around the back of his skull. "Listen to me,"
+whispered Jordan fiercely. "Together we were a better man than the
+pilot--your legs and my arms. It's up to us to prove that separately
+we are a match for Cameron and his geepees."
+
+"We're not trying to _prove_ anything," said Docchi.
+
+A brilliant light sliced through the darkness and swept around the
+rocket dome.
+
+"Maybe we are," said Jordan. Impatiently, he hitched himself along the
+ground. "I think I am."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going up. With no legs, that's where I belong."
+
+He grasped the structural steel member in his great hands, and in the
+light gravity, ascended rapidly.
+
+"Careful," warned Docchi.
+
+"This is no time to be careful." His voice floated down from high in
+the lacy structure. It wasn't completely dark; the lights were getting
+nearer. Docchi decided it was possible for Jordan to see what he was
+doing.
+
+They hadn't expected to be discovered so soon. But the issue had not
+yet been settled against them. Docchi settled into a long stride,
+avoiding the low-slung repair robots that seemed to be everywhere. If
+Jordan refused to give up, Docchi had to try.
+
+He stayed well ahead of the oncoming general purpose robots.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He reached the rocket and barely had time to look around. It was
+enough, however. The ship's passenger and freight locks were closed.
+Nona had either not understood all their instructions, or she hadn't
+been able to carry them out. The first, probably. She had put the
+light and scanning circuits out of commission with no tools except her
+hands. That and her uncanny knowledge of the inner workings of
+machines. It was too much to expect that she should also have the ship
+ready and waiting for them.
+
+It was up to him to get in. If he had the toaster they'd taken from
+the pilot, he might have been able to soften the proper area of the
+passenger lock. But he didn't. Not having arms, he couldn't have used
+it. For that reason Jordan had kept the weapon.
+
+The alternative was to search the surrounding mechanical jungle for an
+external control of the rocket. There had to be one, at least for the
+airlocks. Then it was a matter of luck whether he could work it.
+
+The approaching lights warned him that he no longer had that
+alternative. If Cameron hadn't tried to search the rocket dome as he
+came along, the geepees would be solidly ringed around the ship now.
+That was Cameron's mistake, however, and he might make more.
+
+In all probability Jordan was still at large. Perhaps nearby. Would
+Cameron know that? He might not.
+
+Docchi descended into the shallow landing pit. Until both of them were
+caught, there was always a chance. He had to hide, but the landing pit
+seemed remarkably ill-suited for that purpose.
+
+He leaned against the stern tube cluster and tried to shake his brain
+into activity. The metal pressed hard into the thin flesh that covered
+his back. In the smooth glazed surface of the landing pit, the only
+answer was the tubes.
+
+He straightened up and looked into them. A small boy might climb
+inside and crawl out of sight. Or a grown man who had no shoulders or
+arms to get wedged in the narrow cylinder.
+
+Out in space, the inner ends of the tubes were closed with a
+combustion cap wherein the fuel was ignited. But in the dome, where
+the ship was not used for months at a time....
+
+Yes, there was that possibility.
+
+He tried a lower tube. He lay on the floor and thrust his head inside.
+He wriggled and shoved with his feet until he had forced himself
+entirely in. It was dark and terrifying, but no time for
+claustrophobia.
+
+He stopped momentarily and listened. A geepee descended noisily into
+the landing pit. The absence of any other sound indicated to Docchi
+that it was radio-controlled.
+
+He drove himself on, though it was slow progress. The walls were
+smooth and it was difficult to get much purchase. The going became
+even tougher--the tube was getting smaller. Not much, but enough to
+matter.
+
+Again he stopped. Outside, there was the characteristic sputter, like
+frying, that the toaster beam made when it struck metal. A great
+clatter followed.
+
+"Get him!" shouted Cameron. "He's up there!"
+
+Jordan had arrived and had picked off a geepee. And it wasn't going to
+be easy for Cameron to capture him. The diversion would help.
+
+"Don't use heat," ordered Cameron. "Get your lights on him. Blind him.
+Drive him in a corner and then go up and get him."
+
+Docchi had been wrong; the geepees were controlled by voice, not
+radio. That would make it easier for him once he got inside the ship.
+If he did.
+
+It looked as though he would. The tube wasn't getting narrower. More
+important, the air was not noticeably stale. The combustion cap had
+been retracted, which was a lucky break. His feet slipped. It didn't
+matter; somehow he inched along. Blood was pounding in his veins from
+the constriction, but his head emerged in the rocket.
+
+He stared at the retracted combustion cap a few feet away. If he had
+arms, he could grasp it and pull himself free. But if he had arms, he
+would never have gotten this far. He wriggled until his body was
+nearly out and only his legs were in the tube. He kicked hard, fell to
+the floor.
+
+He lay there while his head cleared, then rolled to his feet and
+staggered forward to the control compartment. The rocket was his, but
+he didn't want it for himself alone.
+
+He stared thoughtfully at the instrument panel. It had been a long
+time since he had operated a ship. When he understood the controls, he
+bent down and thrust his chin against the gravital dial. Laboriously
+he turned it to the proper setting. Then he sat down and kicked on a
+switch. The ship rocked and rose a few inches.
+
+Chances were that Cameron wouldn't notice that in the confusion
+outside. If he did, he had thirty seconds in which to stop Docchi.
+That wouldn't be enough for Cameron.
+
+"Rocket landing," said Docchi when the allotted time passed.
+"Emergency instructions. Emergency instructions. Stand by." Strictly
+speaking, that wasn't necessary, for the frequency he was using
+assured him of complete control.
+
+"All energized geepees lend assistance. This order supersedes previous
+orders. Additional equipment necessary." After listing the equipment,
+he sat back and chuckled.
+
+With his knee he turned on the external lights, got up and walked to
+the passenger lock, brushing against the switch. The airlock opened.
+He stood boldly at the threshold and looked out. The rocket dome was
+floodlighted by the ship.
+
+"All right, Jordan, you can come down now," he called.
+
+Jordan appeared overhead, hanging from a beam. He swung along it until
+he reached a column, down which he descended. He propelled himself
+over the floor and up the ramp in his awkward fashion. Balancing on
+his hands, he gazed up at Docchi.
+
+"Well, monster, how did you do it?"
+
+"Monster yourself," said Docchi. "Do what?"
+
+"I saw you crawl in the rocket tubes," said Jordan. "But what did you
+do after you got inside?"
+
+"Cameron's a medic," said Docchi, "not mechanically inclined. He
+forgot that an emergency rocket landing cancels any verbal orders. So
+I took the ship up a few inches. Geepees aren't very bright; that
+satisfied them that I was coming in for a landing. What Cameron should
+have done was splash some heat against a gravital unit, and then,
+having created an artificial emergency condition in the main dome, he
+could have directed the geepees from the gravity control center. After
+that, he would have had top priority, not me."
+
+"But they rushed off, carrying Cameron with them." Jordan looked
+puzzled.
+
+"Easy. I told the geepees that there was danger of crashing and that
+they must remove any human beings nearby, whether they were willing or
+not. You weren't nearby and that let you out. They took Cameron
+because he was."
+
+"It's ours!" breathed Jordan. "But what about Anti and Nona?"
+
+"Anti's taken care of. As far as the geepees are concerned, she comes
+under the heading of emergency landing material. They'll bring her.
+Nona is supposed to be waiting with Anti." Docchi frowned. "There's
+nothing we can do if she isn't. Meanwhile you'd better get ready to
+take the ship off."
+
+Jordan swung himself inside.
+
+Docchi remained at the passenger lock, waiting. He heard the geepees
+first and saw them seconds later. They came into sight half pushing,
+half carrying a huge rectangular tank. With unexpected robotic
+ingenuity, they had mounted it on four of their smaller brethren, the
+squat repair robots, which served to support the tremendous weight.
+
+The tank was filled with blue liquid. Twisted pipes dangled from the
+ends; it had been torn and lifted from its foundation. Broken plants
+still clung to the narrow ledge on top and moist soil adhered to the
+sides. Five geepees pushed it rapidly toward the ship, mechanically
+oblivious to the disheveled man who frustratedly shouted and struck at
+them.
+
+"Jordan, open the freight lock."
+
+In response the ship rose a few more inches and hung quivering. A
+section of the ship hinged outward and downward to form a ramp. The
+ship was ready to take on cargo.
+
+Docchi stood at his post. That damn fool Cameron should have stayed in
+the main dome where the geepees had released him. His presence added
+an unwelcome complication. Still, it should be easy enough to get rid
+of him when the time came.
+
+It was Nona who really worried him. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. He
+took an uncertain step down the ramp, came back, shaking his head. It
+was impossible to look for her now, though he wanted to.
+
+The tank neared the ship. A few feet of it projected onto the ramp.
+The geepees stopped; their efforts lost momentum. They looked
+bewildered.
+
+The tank rolled backward. The geepees shook, buzzed and looked around,
+primarily at Docchi. He didn't wait any longer. He leaped into the
+ship.
+
+"Close the passenger lock!" he shouted.
+
+Jordan looked up questioningly from the controls.
+
+"Vogel, the engineer," explained Docchi. "He must have seen the
+geepees on scanning when they entered the main dome. He's trying to do
+what Cameron should have done, but didn't have enough sense to do."
+
+The passenger lock swung ponderously shut behind him.
+
+"Now what?" Jordan asked, worried.
+
+"First, let's see what you can get on the telecom," said Docchi.
+
+The angle was impossible, so close to the ship, but they did manage to
+get a corner of the tank on the screen. Apparently it was resting
+where Docchi had last seen it, though it was difficult to be sure
+because the curve of the ship loomed so large.
+
+"Maybe we'd better get out of here," suggested Jordan nervously.
+
+"Without the tank? Not a chance. Vogel hasn't got complete control of
+them yet." That seemed to be true. The geepees were nearly motionless,
+paralyzed.
+
+"What shall I do?" asked Jordan.
+
+"Give me full power on the radio," said Docchi. "Burn it out if you
+have to. I think the engineer is at the wrong angle to broadcast much
+power to them. Besides, the intervening structure is absorbing most of
+his signal."
+
+He waited until Jordan had complied. "The tank must be placed in the
+ship," he added.
+
+Geepees were not designed to sift contradictory commands that were
+nearly at the same level of urgency. Their reasoning power was feeble,
+but the mechanism was complicated enough. In that respect they
+resembled humans. Borderline decisions were difficult.
+
+"More power," whispered Docchi.
+
+Sweating, Jordan obeyed.
+
+Marionettes. This string led toward a certain action. Another,
+intrinsically more important, but suddenly far less powerful, pulled
+for something else. Circuits burned within electronic brains.
+Micro-relays fluttered under the stress.
+
+Choice....
+
+Stiffly the geepees moved and grasped the tank. The quality of
+decision, in this case, was strained. Inch by inch the tank rolled up
+the ramp.
+
+"When it's completely on, raise the ramp," Docchi whispered to Jordan
+in an even lower voice.
+
+One geepee wavered and fell. Motionless, it lay there. The remaining
+four were barely equal to the task.
+
+"Now," said Docchi.
+
+The freight ramp began to rise. The tank picked up speed as it rolled
+into the ship.
+
+"Geepees, save yourselves!" shouted Docchi.
+
+They leaped from the ramp.
+
+Jordan breathed deeply. "I don't think they can hurt us now."
+
+Docchi nodded. "Get me ship-to-asteroid communication, if there's any
+radio left."
+
+"There is." Jordan made the adjustment.
+
+"Vogel, we're going out. Give us the proper sequence and save the dome
+some damage."
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"He's trying to bluff," said Jordan. "He knows the airlocks to the
+main dome will automatically close if we do break through."
+
+"Sure," said Docchi. "Everyone in the main dome is safe, _if_
+everyone is in there. Vogel, we'll give you time to think about
+that."
+
+Jordan gave him the time until it hurt, waiting. Meanwhile he flipped
+on the telecom and searched the rocket dome. Nothing was moving; no
+geepee was in sight. Docchi watched the screen with interest. What he
+thought didn't show on his face.
+
+Still there was no reply from Vogel.
+
+"All right," Docchi said in a low, hard voice. "Jordan, take it out.
+Hit the shell with the bow of the rocket."
+
+The ship hardly quivered as it ripped through the transparent covering
+of the rocket dome. The worst sound was unheard: the hiss of air
+escaping through the great hole in the envelope.
+
+Jordan sat at the controls, gripping the levers. "I couldn't tell," he
+said slowly. "It happened too fast for me to be sure. Maybe Vogel did
+have the inner shell out of the way. In that event, it's all right
+because it would close immediately. The outer shell is supposed to be
+self-sealing, but I doubt if it could handle that much damage."
+
+He twisted the lever and the ship leaped forward.
+
+"Cameron I don't mind. He had enough time to get out if he wanted to.
+But I keep thinking that Nona might be in there."
+
+Docchi avoided his eyes. There was no light at all in his face. He
+walked away.
+
+Jordan rocked back and forth. The hemisphere that held what remained
+of his body was well suited for that. He set the auto-controls and
+reduced the gravity to one-quarter Earth normal. He bent his great
+arms and shoved himself into the air, deftly catching hold of a guide
+rail. He would have to go with Docchi. But not at the moment. He felt
+bad.
+
+That is, he did until he saw a light blinking at a cabin door. He had
+to investigate that first.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jordan caught up before Docchi reached the cargo hold. In the lesser
+gravity of the ship Jordan was truly at home.
+
+Docchi turned and waited for him. Jordan still carried the weapon he
+had taken from the pilot. It was clipped to the sacklike garment he
+wore, dangling from his midsection, which, for him was just below his
+shoulders. Down the corridor he flew, swinging from the guide rails
+lightly, though gravity on the ship was as erratic as on the asteroid.
+
+Docchi braced himself. Locomotion was not so easy for him.
+
+Jordan halted beside him and dangled from one hand. "We have another
+passenger."
+
+Docchi stiffened. "Who?"
+
+"I could describe her," said Jordan. "But why, when a name will do at
+least as well?"
+
+"Nona!" said Docchi. He slumped in sudden relief against the wall.
+"How did she get in the ship?"
+
+"A good question," said Jordan. "Remind me to ask her that sometime
+when she's able to answer. But since I don't know, I'll have to use my
+imagination. My guess is that, after she jammed the lights and
+scanners in the rocket dome, she walked to the ship and tapped the
+passenger lock three times in the right places, or something just as
+improbable. The lock opened for her whether it was supposed to or
+not."
+
+"As good a guess as any," agreed Docchi.
+
+"We may as well make our assumptions complete. Once inside, she felt
+tired. She found a comfortable cabin and fell asleep in it. She
+remained asleep throughout our skirmish with the geepees."
+
+"She deserves a rest," said Docchi.
+
+"She does. But if she had waited a few minutes to take it, she'd have
+saved you the trouble of crawling through the tubes."
+
+"She did her part and more," Docchi argued. "We depend too much on
+her. Next we'll expect her to escort us personally to the stars." He
+straightened up. "Let's go. Anti is waiting for us."
+
+The cargo hold was sizable. It had to be to contain the tank, battered
+and twisted though it was. Equipment had been jarred from storage
+racks and lay in tangled heaps on the floor.
+
+"Anti!" called Docchi.
+
+"Here."
+
+"Are you hurt?"
+
+"Never felt a thing," came the cheerful reply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jordan scaled the side of the tank. He reached the top and peered
+over. "She seems all right," he called down. "Part of the acid's gone.
+Otherwise no damage."
+
+Damage enough, however. Acid was a matter of life for Anti. It had
+been splashed from the tank and, where it had spilled, metal was
+corroding rapidly. The wall against which the tank had crashed was
+bent and partly eaten through. That was no reason for alarm; the
+scavenging system of the ship would handle acid. The real question was
+what to do for Anti.
+
+"I've stewed in this soup for years," said Anti. "Get me out of here."
+
+"How?"
+
+"If you weren't as stupid as doctors pretend to be, you'd know how. No
+gravity, of course. I've got muscles, more than you think. I can walk
+as long as my bones don't break from the weight."
+
+No gravity would be rough on Docchi; having no arms, he would be
+virtually helpless. The prospect of floating free without being able
+to grasp something was terrifying.
+
+"As soon as we can manage it," he said, forcing down his fear. "First
+we've got to drain and store the acid."
+
+Jordan had anticipated that. He'd swung off the tank and was busy
+expelling the water from an auxiliary compartment into space. As soon
+as the compartment was empty, he led a hose from it to the tank.
+
+The pumps sucked and the acid level fell slowly.
+
+Docchi felt the ship lurch familiarly. "Hurry," he called out to
+Jordan.
+
+The gravital unit was acting up. Presumably it was getting ready to
+cut out. If it did--well, a free-floating globe of acid would be as
+destructive to the ship and those in it as a high velocity meteor
+cluster.
+
+Jordan jammed the lever as far as it would go and held it there. "All
+out," said Jordan presently, and let the hose roll back into the wall.
+Done in plenty of time. The gravital unit remained in operation for a
+full minute.
+
+As soon as she was weightless, Anti rose out of the tank.
+
+In all the time Docchi had known her, he had seen no more than a face
+framed in blue acid. Periodic surgery, where it was necessary, had
+trimmed the flesh from her face. For the rest, she lived submerged in
+a corrosive liquid that destroyed the wild tissue as fast as it grew.
+Or nearly as fast.
+
+Docchi averted his eyes.
+
+"Well, junkman, look at a real monster," snapped Anti.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Humans were not meant to grow that large. But it was not obscene to
+Docchi, merely unbelievable. Jupiter is not repulsive because it is
+the bulging giant of planets; it is overwhelming, and so was Anti.
+
+"How will you live out of the acid?" he stammered.
+
+"How really unobservant some men are," said Anti loftily. "I
+anticipated our little journey and prepared for it. If you look
+closely, you will notice I have on a special surgery robe. It's the
+only thing in the Solar System that will fit me. It's fabricated from
+a spongelike substance and holds enough acid to last me about
+thirty-six hours."
+
+She grasped a rail and propelled herself toward the corridor. Normally
+that was a spacious passageway. For her it was a close fit.
+
+Satellites, one glowing and the other swinging in an eccentric orbit,
+followed after her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nona was standing before the instrument panel when they came back.
+There was an impressive array of dials, lights and levers in front of
+her, but she wasn't interested in these. A single small dial, separate
+from the rest, held her complete attention. She seemed disturbed by
+what she saw or didn't see. Disturbed or excited, it was difficult to
+say which.
+
+Anti stopped. "Look at her. If I didn't know she's a freak like the
+rest of us, the only one, in fact, who was born that way, it would be
+easy to hate her--she's so disgustingly normal."
+
+Normal? True and yet not true. Surgical techniques that could take a
+body apart and put it back together again with a skill once reserved
+for the repair of machines had made beauty commonplace. No more
+sagging muscles, wrinkles; even the aged were attractive and
+youthful-seeming until the day they died. No more ill-formed limbs,
+misshapen bodies. Everyone was handsome or beautiful. No exceptions.
+
+None to speak of, at least.
+
+The accidentals didn't belong, of course. In another day most of them
+would have been candidates for a waxworks or the formaldehyde of a
+specimen bottle.
+
+Nona fitted neither category; she wasn't a repair job. Looking at her
+closely--and why not?--she was an original work as far from the normal
+in one direction as Anti, for example, was in the other.
+
+"Why is she staring at the little dial?" asked Anti as the others
+slipped past her and came into the compartment. "Is there something
+wrong with it?" She shrugged. "I would be interested in the big dials.
+The ones with colored lights."
+
+"That's Nona." Docchi smiled. "I'm sure she's never been in the
+control room of a rocket before, and yet she went straight to the most
+curious thing in it. She's looking at the gravital indicator. Directly
+behind it is the gravital unit."
+
+"How do you know? Does it say so?"
+
+"It doesn't. You have to be trained to recognize it, or else be Nona."
+
+Anti dismissed that intellectual feat. "What are you waiting for? You
+know she can't hear us. Go stand in front of her."
+
+"How do I get there?" Docchi had risen a few inches from the floor,
+now that Jordan had released him from his grip.
+
+"A good engineer would have enough sense to put on magneslippers. Nona
+did." Anti grasped his jacket. How she was able to move was uncertain.
+The tissues that surrounded the woman were too vast to permit the
+perception of individual motions. Nevertheless, she proceeded to the
+center of the compartment, and with her came Docchi.
+
+Nona turned before they reached her.
+
+"My poor boy," sighed Anti. "You do a very bad job of concealing your
+emotions, if that's what you're trying to do. Anyway, stop glowing
+like a rainbow and say something."
+
+"Hello," said Docchi.
+
+Nona smiled at him, though it was Anti that she came to.
+
+"No, not too close, child. Don't touch the surgery robe unless you
+want your pretty face to peel off like a plastiwrapper."
+
+Nona stopped; she said nothing.
+
+Anti shook her head hopelessly. "I wish you would learn to read lips
+or at least recognize written words. It's so difficult to communicate
+with you."
+
+"She knows facial expressions and actions, I think," said Docchi.
+"She's good at emotions. Words are a foreign concept to her."
+
+"What other concepts does anyone think with?" asked Anti dubiously.
+
+"Maybe mathematical relationships," answered Docchi. "Though she
+doesn't. They've tested her for that." He frowned. "I don't know what
+concepts she does think with. I wish I did."
+
+"Save some of that worry and apply it to our present situation," said
+Anti. "The object of your concern doesn't seem to be interested in
+it."
+
+That was true. Nona had wandered back and was staring at the gravital
+indicator again. What she saw to hold her attention was a puzzle.
+
+In some ways she seemed irresponsible and childlike. That was an
+elusive thought, though: whose child? Not really, of course. Her
+parents were obscure technicians and mechanics, descendants of a long
+line of mechanics and technicians. The question he had asked himself
+was this: where and how does she belong? He couldn't answer.
+
+With an effort Docchi came back to reality. "We appealed to the
+Medicouncil," he said. "We asked for a ship to go to the nearest star.
+It would have to be a rocket, naturally. Even allowing for a better
+design than any we now have, the journey would take a long time, forty
+or fifty years going and the same length of time back. That's entirely
+too long for a normal, but it wouldn't matter to a biocompensator."
+
+"Why a rocket?" interrupted Jordan. "Why not some form of gravity
+drive?"
+
+"An attractive idea," admitted Docchi. "Theoretically, there's no
+limit to gravity drive except light speed, and even that's not
+certain. If it would work, the time element could be cut to a
+fraction. But the last twenty years have proved that gravity drives
+won't work at all outside the Solar System. They function very poorly
+even when the ship is as far out as Jupiter's orbit."
+
+"I thought the gravity drive on a ship was nearly the same as the
+gravital unit on the asteroid," said Jordan. "Why won't they
+function?"
+
+"I don't know why," answered Docchi impatiently. "If I did, I wouldn't
+be marooned on Handicap Haven. Arms or no arms, biocompensator or not,
+I'd be the most important scientist on Earth."
+
+"With a multitude of pretty women competing for your affections,"
+added Anti.
+
+"I think he'd settle for one. A certain one," suggested Jordan.
+
+"Poor, unimaginative boy," said Anti. "In my youth...."
+
+"We've heard about your youth," said Jordan.
+
+"Youth and love are long since past, for both of you. Talk about them
+privately if you want, but not now." Docchi glowered at them.
+"Anyway," he resumed, "gravity drive is out. One time they had hopes
+for it, but no longer. It should be able to drive this ship. Actually,
+its sole function is to provide an artificial gravity _inside_ the
+ship, for passenger comfort. So rocket ship it is. That's what we
+asked for. The Medicouncil refused. Therefore we're going to appeal to
+a higher authority."
+
+"Fine," said Anti. "How?"
+
+"We've discussed it," answered Docchi. "Ultimately the Medicouncil is
+responsible to the Solar Government. And in turn--"
+
+"All right, I'm in favor of it," said Anti. "I just wanted to know."
+
+"Mars is closer," continued Docchi. "But Earth is the seat of
+government. As soon as we get there...." He stopped suddenly and
+listened.
+
+Anti listened with him and waited until she could stand it no longer.
+"What's the matter?" she asked. "I don't hear anything."
+
+Jordan leaned forward in his seat and looked at the instrument panel.
+"That's the trouble, Anti. You're not supposed to hear anything. But
+you should be able to _feel_ the vibration from the rocket exhaust, as
+long as it's on."
+
+"I don't feel anything, either."
+
+"Yeah," said Jordan. He looked at Docchi. "There's plenty of fuel."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Momentum of the ship didn't cease when the rockets stopped, of course.
+They were still moving, but not very fast and not in the direction
+they wanted to go. Gingerly Docchi tried out the magneslippers; he
+was clumsy, but no longer helpless in the gravityless ship. He stared
+futilely at the instruments as if he could wring more secrets than the
+panel had electronic access to.
+
+"It's mechanical trouble of some sort," he said uneasily. "There's one
+way of finding out."
+
+Before he could move, Anti was in the corridor that led away from the
+control compartment.
+
+"Stay here, Anti," he said. "I'll see what's wrong."
+
+She reached nearly from the floor to the ceiling. She missed by scant
+inches the sides of the passageway. Locomotion was easy enough for
+her; turning around wasn't. Anti didn't turn.
+
+"Look, honey," her voice floated back. "You brought me along for the
+ride. That's fine, but I'm not satisfied with it. I want to earn my
+fare. You stay and run the ship because you know how and I don't. I'll
+find out what's wrong."
+
+"But you won't know what to do, Anti." There was no answer. "All
+right," he said in defeat. "Both of us ought to go. Jordan, you stay
+at the controls."
+
+Anti led the way because Docchi couldn't get around her. Determinedly
+he shuffled along. There was a trick to magneslippers that he had
+nearly forgotten. Slowly it was coming back to him--shuffle instead of
+striding.
+
+It was a dingy, poorly lighted passageway in an older ship. Handicap
+Haven definitely didn't rate the best equipment that was produced. On
+one side was the hull of the ship; on the other, a few small cabins.
+None were occupied. Anti stopped. The passageway ended in a cross
+corridor that led to the other side of the ship.
+
+"We'd better check the stern rocket tubes," he said, still unable to
+see around her. "Open it up and we'll take a look."
+
+"I can't," said Anti. "There are handles, but the thing won't open.
+There's a red light, too. Does that mean anything?"
+
+His heart sank. "It does. Don't try to open it. With your strength,
+you might be unlucky enough to do it."
+
+"That's a man for you," said Anti sharply. "First he wants me to open
+it, and then he tells me not to."
+
+"There's a vacuum in there. The combustion cap has been retracted.
+That's the only thing that will actuate the warning signal. You'd die
+in a few seconds if you somehow managed to open the lock to the rocket
+compartment."
+
+"What are we waiting for? Let's get busy and fix it."
+
+"Sure, fix it. You see, Anti, that didn't happen by itself. Someone,
+or something, was responsible."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Did you see anyone when we were loading your tank in the ship?"
+
+"Nothing. I heard Cameron shouting, a lot of noise. All I could see
+was what was directly overhead. What does that have to do with it?"
+
+"I think it has to do with a geepee. I thought they all dropped
+outside. Maybe there was one that didn't."
+
+"Why a geepee?" she asked blankly.
+
+"In the first place, no man is strong enough to move the combustion
+cap. But if he should somehow manage to exert super-human effort, as
+soon as the cap cleared the tubes, rocket action would cease. The air
+in the compartment would exhaust into space and anyone in there would
+die."
+
+"So we have a dead geepee in there."
+
+"A geepee doesn't die. Not even become inactive; it doesn't need air."
+Docchi tried to think the thing through. "Not only that, a geepee
+might be able to escape from the compartment. The lock would close as
+soon as the pressure dropped. But a geepee...."
+
+Anti settled down grimly. "Then there's a geepee on the loose, intent
+on sabotage?"
+
+"I'm afraid so," he admitted worriedly.
+
+"What are we standing here for? We'll go back to controls and pick up
+the robot on radio. What it damaged, it can repair." She was partly
+turned around now and saw Docchi's face. "Don't tell me," she said. "I
+suppose I should have thought of it. The signal doesn't work inside
+the ship."
+
+Docchi nodded. "It doesn't. Robots are never used aboard, so the
+control is set in the bow antenna and the ship, of course, is
+insulated."
+
+"Well," said Anti happily, "we've got a robot hunt ahead of us."
+
+"We do. And our bare hands to hunt it with."
+
+"Oh, come now! It's not as bad as all that. Look, the geepee was back
+here when the rockets stopped. Could it get by the control compartment
+without our seeing it?"
+
+"It couldn't. There are two corridors leading through the compartment,
+one on each side of the ship."
+
+"That's what I thought. We came down one corridor and no geepee was in
+it. It has to be in the other. If it goes into a cabin, a light will
+shine on the outside. It can't really hide from us."
+
+"Sure, we'll find out where it is. But what are we going to do with it
+when we find it?"
+
+"I was thinking," said Anti. "Can you get around me when I'm standing
+like this?"
+
+"I can't."
+
+"Neither can a geepee. All I need is a toaster, or something that
+looks like one, and I can drive the robot into the control compartment
+for Jordan to pick off." Determinedly, she began to move toward the
+opposite corridor. "Hurry back to Jordan and tell him what we're
+doing. There ought to be another toaster on the ship. Probably there's
+one somewhere in the control compartment. Bring it back to me."
+
+Docchi bit his lip and stared at the back of the huge woman. "All
+right," he answered. "But stay where you are. Don't try anything until
+I get back."
+
+Anti laughed. "I value my big, fat life," she said. There were other
+things she valued, but she didn't mention them.
+
+Docchi went as fast as the magneslippers would allow, which wasn't
+very fast. The strategy was simple, but it didn't follow that it was
+sound--a toaster for Jordan and one for Anti, if another could be
+found.
+
+Anti would block the corridor. A geepee might go through her, but it
+could never squeeze past her. The robot would have to run for it. If
+it came toward Anti, she might be able to burn it down. But she would
+be firing directly into the control room. If she missed even
+partially--
+
+The instruments were delicate.
+
+It wasn't better if Jordan got the chance to bring down the robot.
+Anti would be in the line of fire. No, that wasn't good, either.
+They'd have to think of something else.
+
+"Jordan," called Docchi as he entered the control compartment. Jordan
+wasn't there. Nona was, still gazing serenely at the gravity
+indicator.
+
+Lights were streaming from the corridor on the opposite side of the
+compartment. Docchi hurried over. Jordan was just inside the entrance,
+the toaster clutched grimly in his hand. He was hitching his truncated
+body slowly toward the stern.
+
+Coming to meet him was Anti--unarmed, enormously fat Anti. She wasn't
+walking; somehow it seemed more like swimming, a bulbous, flabby sea
+animal moving through the air. She waved her fins against the wall and
+propelled herself forward.
+
+"Melt him down!" she cried.
+
+It was difficult to make out the vaguely human form of the geepee. The
+powerful, shining body blended into the structure of the ship
+itself--unintentional camouflage, though the robot wasn't aware of
+that. It was crouched at the threshold of a cabin, hesitating between
+the approaching dangers.
+
+Jordan raised the weapon and as instantly lowered it. "Get out of the
+way," he told Anti.
+
+There was no place for her to go. She was too big to enter a cabin,
+too massive to let the geepee squeeze by her even if she wanted it to.
+
+"Never mind that. Get him," she answered.
+
+A geepee was not a genius even by robot standards. It didn't need to
+be. Heat is deadly; a human body is a fragile thing. This it knew. It
+ran toward Anti. Unlike man, it didn't need magneslippers. It had
+magnetic metal feet which could move fast, and did.
+
+Docchi couldn't close his eyes, though he wanted to. He had to watch.
+The geepee torpedoed into Anti. And it was the robot that was thrown
+back. Relative mass favored the monstrous woman.
+
+The electronic brain obeyed its original instructions, whatever those
+were. It got to its feet and rushed toward Anti. Metal arms shot out
+with dazzling speed and crashed against the flesh of the fat woman.
+Docchi could hear the thud. No ordinary person could take that kind of
+punishment and live.
+
+Anti wasn't ordinary; she was strange, even for an accidental, living
+far inside a deep armor of flesh. It was possible that she never felt
+the crushing force of those blows. Amazingly, she grasped the robot
+and drew it to her. And the geepee lost the advantage of leverage. The
+bright arms didn't flash so fast nor with such lethal power.
+
+"Gravity!" cried Anti. "All you've got!"
+
+She leaned against the struggling machine.
+
+Gravity. That was something he could do. Docchi turned, took two steps
+before the surge of gravity hit him. It came in waves, the sequence of
+which he was never able to disentangle. The first wave staggered him;
+at the second his knees buckled and he sank to the floor. After that
+his eardrums hurt. He thought he could feel the ship quiver. He knew
+dazedly that an artificial gravity field of this magnitude was
+impossible, but that knowledge didn't help him move.
+
+It vanished as suddenly as it had come. Painfully his lungs expanded.
+Each muscle ached. He rolled to his feet and lurched past Jordan.
+
+He didn't find the mass of broken flesh he expected. Anti was already
+standing.
+
+"Oof!" she grunted and gazed with satisfaction at the twisted
+grotesque shape at her feet. The electronic brain had been smashed,
+the body flattened.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Are you hurt?" asked Docchi gently, awed.
+
+She waggled the extremities of her body. "Nope, I can't feel anything
+broken," she said solemnly. She moved back to get a better view of the
+robot. "I'd call that throwing my weight around. At the right time, of
+course. The secret's timing. And I must say you picked up your cue
+with the gravity well." Her laughter rolled through the ship.
+
+"It wasn't I," said Docchi.
+
+"Jordan? No, he's just getting up. Then who?"
+
+"Nona," said Docchi. "It had to be her. She saw what had to be done
+and did it. But how she got that amount of gravity--"
+
+"Ask her," said Anti with fond irony.
+
+Docchi grimaced and limped back into the control room, followed by
+Anti and Jordan. Nona was at the gravity panel, her face pleasant and
+childlike.
+
+"Gravity can be turned on or off," said Docchi puzzledly, searching
+her face for some sign. "And regulated, within certain narrow limits.
+But somehow you doubled or tripled the normal amount. How?"
+
+Nona smiled questioningly.
+
+"Gravity engineers would like to know that too," said Jordan.
+
+"Everybody would like to know," Anti interrupted irritably. "Except
+me. I'm too pragmatic, I suppose, but I want to know when we start the
+rockets and be on our way."
+
+"It isn't that easy," sighed Jordan. "A retracted combustion cap in
+flight generally means at least one burned-out tube." He made his way
+to the instrument panel and looked at it glumly. "Three."
+
+"A factor." Docchi nodded. "But I was thinking about the robot."
+
+Anti was impatient. "An interesting subject, no doubt. What about it?"
+
+"Where did it get instructions? Not radio; the hull of the ship cuts
+off all radiation. The last we knew, it was in our control."
+
+"All right, how?"
+
+"Voice," said Docchi. "Cameron's voice, to be exact."
+
+"But he was in the rocket dome," Jordan objected.
+
+"Think back to when we were loading the tank. We had to look through
+the telecom and the angle of vision was bad. We couldn't see much of
+the cargo lock. Anti couldn't see anything that wasn't directly
+overhead. Both Cameron and the geepee managed to get inside and we
+didn't know it."
+
+Jordan hefted his weapon. "Looks like we've got another hunt on our
+hands. This time a nice normal doctor."
+
+"Keep it handy," said Docchi, glancing at the toaster. "But be careful
+how you use it. One homicide and we can forget what we came for. I
+think he'll be ready to surrender. The ship's temporarily disabled;
+he'll consider that damage enough."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jordan found the doctor in the forward section of the ship. Cameron
+knew better than to argue with a toaster. In a matter of minutes he
+was in the control room.
+
+"Now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?" he asked.
+
+Docchi swiveled away from the instrument panel. "I don't expect active
+cooperation, of course, but I like to think you'll give your word not
+to hinder us hereafter."
+
+Cameron glared. "I promise nothing of the kind."
+
+"We can chain him to Anti," suggested Jordan. "That will keep him out
+of trouble."
+
+"Like leading a poodle on a leash? Nope," said Anti indignantly. "A
+girl has to have some privacy."
+
+"Don't wince, Cameron," objected Docchi. "She really was a girl once,
+an attractive one."
+
+"We can put him in a spacesuit and lock his hands behind his back,"
+said Jordan. "Something like an ancient straitjacket."
+
+Cameron laughed.
+
+"No, that's inhuman," said Docchi.
+
+Jordan juggled the toaster. "I can weld with this. Let's put him in a
+cabin and weld the door closed. We can cut a slot to shove food in. A
+very narrow slot."
+
+"Excellent. I think you have the solution. That is, unless Dr. Cameron
+will reconsider his decision."
+
+Cameron shrugged. "They'll pick you up in a day or less anyway. I
+suppose I'm not compromising myself by agreeing to your terms."
+
+"Good."
+
+"A doctor's word is as good as his oath," observed Anti. "Hippocratic
+or hypocritic."
+
+"Now, Anti, don't be cynical. Doctors have an economic sense as well
+as the next person," said Docchi gravely. He turned to Cameron. "You
+see, after Anti grew too massive for her skeletal structure, doctors
+reasoned she'd be most comfortable in the absence of gravity. That was
+in the early days, before successful ship gravital units were
+developed. They put her on an interplanetary ship and kept
+transferring her before each landing.
+
+"But that grew troublesome and--expensive. They devised a new
+treatment; the asteroid and the tank of acid. Not being aquatic by
+nature, Anti resented the change. She still does."
+
+"I knew nothing about that," Cameron pointed out defensively.
+
+"It was before your time." Docchi frowned at the doctor. "Tell me, why
+did you laugh when Jordan mentioned a spacesuit?"
+
+Cameron grinned. "That was my project while you were busy with the
+robot."
+
+"To do what? Jordan--"
+
+But Jordan was already on his way. He was gone for some time.
+
+"Well?" asked Docchi on his return. It really wasn't necessary;
+Jordan's gloomy face told the story.
+
+"Cut to ribbons."
+
+"All of them?"
+
+"Every one. Beyond repair."
+
+"What's the excitement about?" rumbled Anti. "We don't need spacesuits
+unless something happens to the ship and we have to go outside."
+
+"Exactly, Anti. How do you suppose we go about replacing the defective
+tubes? From the outside, of course. By destroying the spacesuits,
+Cameron made sure we can't."
+
+Anti opened her mouth with surprise and closed it in anger. She
+glowered at the doctor.
+
+"We're still in the asteroid zone," said Cameron. "In itself, that's
+not dangerous. Without power to avoid stray rocks, it is. I advise you
+to contact the Medicouncil. They'll send a ship to pick us up and tow
+us in."
+
+"No, thanks. I don't like Handicap Haven as well as you do," Anti said
+brusquely. She turned to Docchi. "Maybe I'm stupid for asking, but
+exactly what is it that's deadly about being out in space without a
+spacesuit?"
+
+"Cold. Lack of air pressure. Lack of oxygen."
+
+"Is that all? Nothing else?"
+
+His laugh was too loud. "Isn't that enough?"
+
+"I wanted to be sure," she said.
+
+She beckoned to Nona, who was standing near. Together they went
+forward, where the spacesuits were kept.
+
+Cameron scowled puzzledly and started to follow. Jordan waved the
+toaster around.
+
+"All right," said the doctor, stopping. He rubbed his chin. "What is
+she thinking about?"
+
+"I wouldn't know," said Docchi. "She's not scientifically trained, if
+that's what you mean. But she has a good mind, as good as her body
+once was."
+
+"And how good was that?"
+
+"We don't talk about it," said Jordan shortly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a long time before the women came back--if the weird creature
+that floated into the control compartment with Nona _was_ Anti.
+
+Cameron stared at her and saw shudderingly that it was. "You need a
+session with the psycho-computer," he said. "When we get back, that's
+the first thing we do. Can't you understand...."
+
+"Be quiet," growled Jordan. "Now, Anti, explain what you've rigged
+up."
+
+"Any kind of pressure is good enough as far as the outside of the body
+is concerned," answered Anti, flipping back the helmet. "Mechanical
+pressure will do as well as air pressure. I had Nona cut the
+spacesuits into strips and wind them around me--hard. Then I found a
+helmet that would fit over my head when the damaged part was cut away.
+It won't hold much air pressure, even taped very tight to my skin. But
+as long as it's pure oxygen--"
+
+"It might be satisfactory," admitted Docchi. "But the temperature?"
+
+"Do you think I'm going to worry about cold?" asked Anti. "Me? Way
+down below all this flesh?"
+
+"Listen to me," said Cameron through his teeth. "You've already
+seriously threatened my career with all this childish nonsense. I
+won't permit you to ruin it altogether by a deliberate suicide."
+
+"You and your stinking career," retorted Jordan tiredly. "We're not
+asking your permission to do anything." He turned away from the
+doctor. "You understand the risk, Anti? It's possible that it won't
+work at all."
+
+"I've thought about it," Anti replied soberly. "On the other hand,
+I've thought about the asteroid."
+
+"All right," said Jordan. Docchi nodded. Nona bobbed her head; it was
+doubtful that she knew what she was agreeing to.
+
+"Let's have some telecom viewers outside," said Docchi. "One directly
+in back, one on each side. We've got to know what's happening."
+
+Jordan went to the control panel and flipped levers. "They're out and
+working," he said, gazing at the screen. "Now, Anti, go to the freight
+lock. Close your helmet and wait. I'll let the air out slowly. The
+pressure change will be gradual. If anything seems wrong, let me know
+over the helmet radio and I'll yank you in immediately. Once you're
+outside I'll give you further instructions. Tools and equipment are in
+a compartment that opens into space."
+
+Anti waddled away.
+
+Jordan looked down at his legless body. "I suppose we have to be
+realistic about it--"
+
+"We do," answered Docchi. "Anti is the only one of us who has a chance
+of doing the job and surviving."
+
+Jordan adjusted a dial. "It was Cameron who was responsible for it.
+If Anti doesn't come back, you can be damn sure he'll join her."
+
+"No threats, please," said Docchi. "When are you going to let her
+out?"
+
+"She's out," said Jordan. Deliberately, he had diverted their
+attention while he had taken the burden of emotional strain.
+
+Docchi glanced hastily at the telecom. Anti was hanging free in space,
+wrapped and strapped in strips torn from the useless spacesuits--that,
+and more flesh than any human had ever borne. The helmet sat jauntily
+on her head; the oxygen cylinder was strapped to her back. She was
+still intact.
+
+"How is she?" he asked anxiously, unaware that the microphone was
+open.
+
+"Fine," came Anti's reply, faint and ready. "The air's thin, but it's
+pure oxygen."
+
+"Cold?" asked Docchi.
+
+"It hasn't penetrated yet. No worse than the acid, at any rate. What
+do I do?"
+
+Jordan gave her directions. The others watched. It was work to find
+the tools and examine the tubes for defectives, to loosen the tubes in
+the sockets and pull them out and push them spinning into space. It
+was still harder to replace them, though there was no gravity and Anti
+was held to the hull by magneslippers.
+
+But it seemed more than work. To Cameron, who was watching, an odd
+thought occurred: In her remote past, of which he knew nothing, Anti
+had done something like this before. Ridiculous, of course. Yet there
+was a rhythm to her motions, this shapeless giant creature whose bones
+would break with her weight if she tried to stand at even only half
+Earth gravity. Rhythm, a sense of purpose, a strange pattern, an
+incredible gargantuan grace.
+
+The whale plowing the waves is graceful; it cannot be otherwise in its
+natural habitat. The human race had produced, accidentally, one
+unlikely person to whom interplanetary space was not an alien thing.
+Anti was at last in her element.
+
+"Now," said Jordan, keeping the tension out of his voice, "go back to
+the outside tool compartment. You'll find a lever. Pull. That will set
+the combustion cap in place."
+
+"Done," said Anti, some minutes later.
+
+"That's all. You can come in now."
+
+"That's all? But I'm not cold. It hasn't reached any nerves yet."
+
+"Come in," repeated Jordan, showing the anger of alarm.
+
+She walked slowly over the hull to the cargo lock and, while she did,
+Jordan reeled in the telecom viewers. The lock was no sooner closed
+to the outside and the air hissing into the compartment than Jordan
+was there, opening the inner lock.
+
+"Are you all right?" he asked.
+
+She flipped back the helmet. There was frost on her eyebrows and her
+nose was a bright red. "Of course. My hands aren't a bit cold." She
+stripped off the heated gloves and waggled her fingers.
+
+"It _can't_ be!" protested Cameron. "You should be frozen stiff!"
+
+"Why?" asked Anti, laughing. "It's a matter of insulation and I have
+plenty of that."
+
+Cameron turned to Docchi. "When I was a kid, I saw a film of a dancer.
+She did a ballet, Life of the Cold Planets, I believe it was called.
+For some cockeyed reason, I thought of it when Anti was out there. I
+hadn't thought of it in years."
+
+He rubbed his hand fretfully over his forehead. "It fascinated me when
+I first saw it. I couldn't get it out of my mind. When I grew older, I
+found out a tragic thing happened to the dancer. She was on a tour of
+Venus and the ship she was in disappeared. They sent out searching
+parties, of course. They found her after she had spent a week on a
+fungus plain. You know what that meant. The great ballerina was a
+living spore culture medium."
+
+"Shut up," growled Jordan.
+
+Cameron didn't seem to hear. "Naturally, she died. I can't remember
+her name, but I've always remembered the ballet she did. And that's
+funny, because it reminded me of Anti out there--"
+
+A fist exploded in his face. If there had been more behind the blow
+than shoulders and a fragment of a body, his jaw would have been
+broken. As it was he floated through the air and crashed against the
+wall.
+
+Angrily, he got to his feet. "I gave my word I wouldn't cause any
+trouble. The agreement evidently doesn't work both ways." He glanced
+significantly at the weapon Jordan carried. "Maybe you'd better be
+sure to have that around at all times."
+
+"I told you to shut up," said Jordan. After that he ignored the
+doctor. He didn't have a body with which to do it, but somehow Jordan
+managed a bow. "A flawless performance. One of your very best,
+Antoinette."
+
+"Do you think so?" sighed Anti. The frost had melted from her eyebrows
+and was trickling down her cheek. She left with Jordan.
+
+Cameron remained behind. He felt his jaw. It was too bad about his
+ambitions. He knew now that he was never going to be the spectacular
+success he had once imagined. Not after these accidentals had escaped
+from Handicap Haven. Still, he would always be able to practice
+medicine somewhere in the Solar System. He'd done his best on the
+asteroid and this ship, and he'd been a complete ass both times.
+
+The ballerina hadn't really died, as he had been told. It would have
+been better for her if she had. He succeeded in recalling her name. It
+had been Antoinette.
+
+Now it was Anti. He could have found that out by checking her case
+history--_if_ Handicap Haven had one on file. Probably not, he
+comforted himself. Why keep case histories of hopeless cases?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We'll stick to the regular lanes," said Docchi. "I think we'll get
+closer. They have no reason to suspect that we're heading toward
+Earth. Mars is more logical, or one of the moons of Jupiter, or
+another asteroid."
+
+Jordan shifted uneasily. "I'm not in favor of it. They'll pick us up
+before we have a chance to say anything."
+
+"But there's nothing to distinguish us from an ordinary Earth-to-Mars
+rocket. We have a ship's registry on board. Pick out a ship that's in
+our class. Hereafter, we're going to be that ship. If Traffic blips
+us, and they probably won't unless we try to land, have a recording
+ready. Something like this: 'ME 21 zip crackle 9 reporting. Our
+communication is acting up. We can't hear you, Traffic.' Don't overdo
+the static effects but repeat that with suitable variations and I
+don't think they will bother us."
+
+Shaking his head dubiously, Jordan swung away toward the repair shops.
+
+"You look worried," said Anti.
+
+Docchi turned around. "Yeah."
+
+"Won't it work?"
+
+"Sure. We'll get close to Earth. They're not looking for us around
+here. They don't really know why we escaped in the rocket. That's why
+they can't figure out where we're going."
+
+His face was taut and his eyes were tired. "It's not that. The entire
+Solar Police Force has been alerted for us."
+
+"Which means?"
+
+"Look. We planned to bypass the Medicouncil and take our case directly
+to the Solar Government. If they want us as much as the radio
+indicates, it's not likely they'll be very sympathetic. If the Solar
+Government doesn't support us all the way, we'll never get another
+chance."
+
+"Well?" said Anti. She seemed trimmer, more vigorous. "What are we
+waiting for? Let's take the last step first."
+
+He raised his head. "The Solar Government won't like it."
+
+"They won't, but there's nothing they can do about it."
+
+"I think there is--simply shoot us down. When we stole the ship, we
+automatically stepped into the criminal class."
+
+"We knew that in advance."
+
+"Is it worth it?"
+
+"I think so," said Anti.
+
+"In that event," he said, "I'll need time to get ready."
+
+She scrutinized him carefully. "Maybe we can fix you up."
+
+"With fake arms and grease-paint? No. They'll have to accept us as we
+are."
+
+"A good idea. I hadn't thought of the sympathy angle."
+
+"Not sympathy. Reality. I don't want them to approve of us as handsome
+accidentals and have them change their minds when they discover what
+we're really like."
+
+Anti looked doubtful, but she kept her objections to herself as she
+waddled away.
+
+Sitting in silence, he watched her go. She, at least, would derive
+some benefit. Dr. Cameron apparently hadn't noticed that exposure to
+extreme cold had done more to inhibit her unceasing growth than the
+acid bath. She'd never be normal again; that was obvious. But some
+day, if the cold treatment were properly investigated, she might be
+able to stand gravity.
+
+He examined the telecom. They were getting closer. No longer a bright
+point of light, Earth was a perceptible disc. He could see the outline
+of oceans, shapes of land; he could imagine people.
+
+Jordan came in. "The record is rigged up, though we haven't had to use
+it. But we have a friend behind us. An official friend."
+
+"Has he blipped us?"
+
+"Not yet. He keeps hanging on."
+
+"Is he overtaking us?"
+
+"He would like to."
+
+"Don't let him."
+
+"With this bag of bolts?"
+
+"Shake it apart if you have to," Docchi impatiently said. "How soon
+can you break into a broadcasting orbit?"
+
+"I thought that was our last resort."
+
+"Right. As far as Anti and I are concerned, this is it. Any argument
+against?"
+
+"None that I can think of," answered Jordan. "With a heavy cruiser
+behind us, no argument at all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They were all in the control compartment. "I don't want a focus
+exclusively on me," Docchi was saying. "To a world of perfect normals
+I may look strange, but we have to avoid the family portrait effect."
+
+"Samples," suggested Anti.
+
+"In a sense, yes. A lot depends on whether they accept those
+samples."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+For the first time Dr. Cameron began to realize what they were up to.
+"Wait!" he exclaimed. "You've got to listen to me!"
+
+"We're not going to wait and we've already done enough listening to
+you," said Docchi. "Jordan, see that Cameron stays out of the telecom
+transmitting angle and doesn't interrupt. We've come too far for
+that."
+
+"Sure," Jordan promised harshly. "If he makes a sound, I'll melt the
+teeth out of his mouth." He held the toaster against his side, out of
+line with the telecom, but aimed at Cameron's face.
+
+Cameron began to shake with urgency, but he kept still.
+
+"Ready?" Docchi asked.
+
+"Flip the switch and we will be, with everything we've got. If they
+don't read us, it'll be because they don't want to."
+
+The rocket slipped out of the approach lanes. It spun down, the stern
+tubes pulsing brightly, coming toward Earth in a tight trajectory.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Citizens of the Solar System!" began Docchi. "Everyone on Earth! This
+is an unscheduled broadcast, an unauthorized appeal. We are using the
+emergency bands because, for us, it is an emergency. Who are we?
+Accidentals, of course, as you can see by looking at us. I know the
+sight isn't pretty, but we consider other things more important than
+appearance. Accomplishment, for example. Contributing to progress in
+ways normals cannot do.
+
+"Shut away on Handicap Haven, we're denied this right. All we can do
+there is exist in frustration and boredom; kept alive whether we want
+to be or not. Yet we have a gigantic contribution to make ... if we
+are allowed to leave the Solar System for Alpha Centauri! You can't
+travel to the stars now, although eventually you will.
+
+"You must be puzzled, knowing how slow our present rockets are. No
+normal person could make the round trip; he would die of old age. But
+we accidentals can go! We would positively _not_ die of old age! The
+Medicouncil knows that is true ... and still will not allow us to go!"
+
+At the side of the control compartment, Cameron opened his mouth to
+protest. Jordan, glancing at him, imperceptibly waggled the concealed
+weapon. Cameron swallowed his words and subsided without a sound.
+
+"Biocompensation," continued Docchi evenly. "You may know about it,
+but in case information on it has been suppressed, let me explain: The
+principle of biocompensation has long been a matter of conjecture.
+This is the first age in which medical technology is advanced enough
+to explore it. Every cell, every organism, tends to survive, as an
+individual, as a species. Injure it and it strives for survival
+according to the seriousness of the injury. We accidentals have been
+maimed and mutilated almost past belief.
+
+"Our organisms had the assistance of medical science. _Real_ medical
+science. Blood was supplied as long as we needed it, machines did all
+our breathing, kidneys were replaced, hearts furnished, glandular
+products supplied in the exact quantities necessary, nervous and
+muscular systems were regenerated. In the extremity of our organic
+struggle, because we had the proper treatment, our bodies were wiped
+virtually free of death."
+
+Sweat ran down his face. He longed for hands to wipe it away.
+
+"Most accidentals are nearly immortal. Not quite--we'll die four or
+five hundred years from now. Meanwhile, there is no reason why we
+can't leave the Solar System. Rockets are slow; you would die before
+you got back from Alpha Centauri. We won't. Time doesn't matter to us.
+
+"Perhaps better, faster rockets will be devised after we leave. You
+may get to there long before we do. We won't mind. We will simply have
+made our contribution to progress as best we could, and that will
+satisfy us."
+
+With an effort Docchi smiled. The instant he did, he felt it was a
+mistake, one that he couldn't rectify. Even to himself it felt more
+like a snarl.
+
+"You know where we're kept That's a politer word than imprisoned. We
+don't call it Handicap Haven; our name for it is the _junkpile_. And
+to ourselves we're junkmen. Does this give you a clue to how we feel?
+
+"I don't know what you'll have to do to force the Medicouncil to grant
+their permission. We appeal to you as our last resort. We have tried
+all other ways and failed. Our future as human beings is at stake.
+Whether we get what we want and need is something for you to settle
+with your conscience."
+
+He nudged the switch and sat down.
+
+His face was gray.
+
+"I don't like to bother you," said Jordan, "but what shall we do about
+them?"
+
+Docchi glanced at the telecom. "They" were uncomfortably close and
+considerably more numerous than the last time he had looked.
+
+"Take evasive action," he said wearily. "Swing close to Earth and use
+the planet's gravity to give us a good push. We've got to keep out of
+their hands until people have time to react."
+
+"I think you ought to know--" began Cameron. There was an odd tone to
+his voice.
+
+"Save it for later," said Docchi. "I'm going to sleep." His body
+sagged. "Jordan, wake me up if anything important happens. And
+remember that you don't have to listen to this fellow unless you want
+to."
+
+Jordan nodded and touched the controls. Nona, leaning against the
+gravital panel, paid no attention to the scene. She seemed to be
+listening to something nobody else could hear. That was nothing new,
+but it broke Docchi's heart whenever he saw it. His breath drew in
+almost with a sob as he left the control room.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The race went on. Backdrop: planets, stars, darkness. The little
+flecks of light that edged nearer didn't seem cheerful to Jordan. His
+lips were fixed in a straight, hard line. He could hear Docchi come in
+behind him.
+
+"Nice speech," said Cameron.
+
+"Yeah." Docchi glanced at the telecom. The view didn't inspire further
+comment.
+
+"That's the trouble, it was just a speech. It didn't do you any good.
+My advice is to give up before you get hurt."
+
+"It would be."
+
+Cameron stood at the threshold. "I may as well tell you," he said
+reluctantly. "I tried to before the broadcast, as soon as I found out
+what you were going to do. But you wouldn't listen."
+
+He came into the control compartment. Nona was huddled in a seat,
+motionless, expressionless. Anti was absent.
+
+"You know why the Medicouncil refused to let you go?"
+
+"Sure," said Docchi.
+
+"The general metabolism of accidentals is further from normal than
+that of creatures we dredge from the bottom of the sea. Add to that an
+enormously elongated life span and you ought to see the Medicouncil's
+objection."
+
+"Get to the point!"
+
+"Look at it this way," Cameron continued almost desperately. "The
+Centauri group contains quite a few planets. From what we know of
+cosmology, intelligent life probably exists there to a greater or
+lesser extent. You will be our representatives to them. What _they_
+look like isn't important; it's their concern. But our ambassadors
+have to meet certain minimum standards. They at least--damn it, don't
+you see that they at least have to _look_ like human beings?"
+
+"I know you feel that way," said Jordan, rigid with contempt.
+
+"I'm not talking for myself," Cameron said. "I'm a doctor. The
+medicouncilors are doctors. We graft on or regenerate legs and arms
+and eyes. We work with blood and bones and intestines. We know what a
+thin borderline separates normal people from--from you.
+
+"Don't you understand? They're perfect, perhaps too much so. They
+can't tolerate even small blemishes. They rush to us with things like
+hangnails, pimples, simple dandruff. Health--or rather the appearance
+of it--has become a fetish. They may think they're sympathetic to you,
+but what they actually feel is something else."
+
+"What are you driving at?" whispered Docchi.
+
+"Just this: if it were up to the Medicouncil, you would be on your way
+to the Centauri group. But it isn't. The decision always had to be
+referred back to the Solar System as a whole. And the Medicouncil
+can't go counter to the mass of public opinion."
+
+Docchi turned away in loathing.
+
+"Don't believe me," said Cameron. "You're not too far from Earth. Pick
+up the reaction to your broadcast."
+
+Worriedly, Jordan looked at Docchi.
+
+"We may as well find out," said Docchi. "It's settled now, one way or
+the other."
+
+They searched band after band. The reaction was always the same.
+Obscure private citizen or prominent one, man or woman, they all told
+how sorry they were for the accidentals, but--
+
+"Turn it off," said Docchi at last.
+
+"Now what?" Jordan asked numbly.
+
+"You have no choice," said the doctor.
+
+"No choice," repeated Docchi dully. "No choice but to give up. We
+misjudged who our allies were."
+
+"We knew you had," said Cameron. "It seemed better to let you go on
+thinking that way while you were on the asteroid. It gave you
+something to hope for. It made you feel you weren't alone. The trouble
+was that you got farther than we thought you would ever be able to."
+
+"So we did," Docchi said. His lethargy seemed to lift a little. "And
+there's no reason to stop now. Jordan, pick up the ships behind us.
+Tell them we've got Cameron on board. A hostage. Play him up as a
+hero. Basically, he's not with those who are against us."
+
+Anti came into the control compartment. Cheerfulness faded from her
+face. "What's the matter?" she asked.
+
+"Jordan will explain to you. I've got to think."
+
+Docchi closed his eyes. The ship lurched slightly, though the
+vibration from the rockets did not change. There was no reason for
+alarm; the flight of a ship was never completely steady. Docchi paid
+no attention.
+
+At last he opened his eyes. "If we were properly fueled and
+provisioned," he said without much hope, "I would be in favor of the
+four of us heading for Alpha or Proxima. Maybe even Sirius. It
+wouldn't matter where, since we wouldn't intend to come back. But we
+can't make it with our small fuel reserve. If we can shake the ships
+behind us, we might be able to hide until we can steal the necessary
+fuel and food."
+
+"What'll we do with Doc?" asked Jordan.
+
+"We'd have to raid an unguarded outpost, of course. Probably a small
+mining asteroid. We can leave him there."
+
+"Yeah," said Jordan. "A good idea, _if_ we can run away from our
+personal escort of bloodhounds. Offhand, that doesn't seem very
+likely. They didn't come any closer when I told them we had Doc with
+us, but they didn't drop back--"
+
+He stopped and raised his eyes to the telecom. He blinked, not
+believing what he saw.
+
+"They're gone!" His voice broke with excitement.
+
+Almost instantly Docchi was beside him. "No," he corrected. "They're
+still following, but they're very far behind." Even as he looked, the
+pursuing ships visibly lost ground.
+
+"What's our relative speed?" asked Jordon. He looked at the dials
+himself, frowned, tapped them as if the needles had gone crazy.
+
+"What did you do to the rockets?" demanded Docchi.
+
+"Nothing! There wasn't a thing I _could_ do. We were already running
+at top speed."
+
+"We're above it. Way above it. How?"
+
+There was nothing to explain their astonishing velocity. Cameron,
+Anti, and Jordan were in the control compartment. Nona still sat
+huddled up, hands pressed tight against her head. There was no
+explanation at all, yet power was pouring into the gravital unit, as a
+long unused, actually useless dial was indicating.
+
+"The gravital drive is working," Docchi blankly pointed out.
+
+"Nonsense," said Anti. "I don't feel any weight."
+
+"You don't," answered Docchi. "You won't. The gravital unit was
+originally installed to drive the ship. When that proved
+unsatisfactory, it was converted. The difference is slight but
+important. An undirected general field produces weight effects inside
+the ship. That's for passenger comfort. A directed field, outside the
+ship, will drive it. You can have one or the other, not both."
+
+"But I didn't turn on the gravital drive," said Jordan in flat
+bewilderment. "I couldn't if I wanted to. It's disconnected."
+
+"I would agree with you, except for one thing. It's working." Docchi
+stared at Nona, whose eyes were closed. "Get her attention," he said.
+
+It was Jordan who gently touched her shoulder. She opened her eyes. On
+the instrument board, the needle of a once useless dial rose and fell.
+
+"What's the matter with the poor dear?" asked Anti. "She's shaking."
+
+"Let her alone," said Docchi.
+
+No one moved. No one said anything at all. Minutes passed while the
+ancient ship creaked and groaned and ran away from the fastest rockets
+in the Solar System.
+
+"I think I know," said Docchi at last, still frowning. "Consider the
+gravity-generating plant. Part of it is an electronic computer,
+capable of making the necessary calculations and juggling the
+proportion of power required to produce, continuously, directed or
+undirected gravity. In other words, a brain, a complex mechanical
+intelligence. From the viewpoint of that intelligence, why should it
+perform _ad infinitum_ a complicated but meaningless routine? It
+didn't know why, and because it didn't, very simply, it refused to do
+so.
+
+"Now consider Nona. She's deaf, can't speak, can't communicate. In a
+way she's comparable to the gravital computer. Like it, she has a very
+high potential intelligence. Like it, she's had difficulty grasping
+the facts of her environment. Unlike it, though, she has learned
+something. How much, I don't know, but it's far more than the
+Medicouncil psychologists credit her with."
+
+"Yeah," said Jordan dubiously. "But what's happening now?"
+
+"If there were two humans involved, you would call it telepathy,"
+answered Docchi hesitantly, fumbling for concepts he could only sense
+without grasping. "One intelligence is electronic, the other organic.
+You'll have to coin a new term, because the only one I know is
+extrasensory perception, and that's obviously ridiculous. It is, isn't
+it?"
+
+Jordan smiled and flexed his arms. Under the shapeless garment his
+muscles rippled. "It isn't," he said. "The power was there, but we're
+the only ones who know how to use it. Or rather Nona is."
+
+"Power?" repeated Anti, rising majestically. "You can keep it. I want
+just enough to get to Centauri."
+
+"I think you'll get it," Docchi promised. "A lot of things seem
+clearer now. For example, in the past, why didn't gravital units work
+well at considerable distances from the Sun? As a matter of fact, the
+efficiency of each unit was inversely proportional to the square of
+the distance between it and the Sun.
+
+"The gravital computer is a deaf, blind, mass-sensitive brain. The
+major fact in its existence is the Sun, the greatest mass in the Solar
+System. To such a brain, leaving the Solar System would be like
+stepping off the edge of a flat world, because it couldn't be aware of
+stars.
+
+"Now that it knows about the Galaxy, the drive will work anywhere.
+With Nona to direct it, even Sirius isn't far away."
+
+"Doc," said Jordan carelessly, "you'd better be figuring a way to get
+off the ship. Remember, we're going faster than man ever went before."
+He chuckled. "Unless, of course, you _like_ our company and don't want
+to leave."
+
+"We've got to do some figuring ourselves," interposed Docchi. "Such as
+where we are heading now."
+
+"A good idea," said Jordan. He busied himself with charts and
+calculations. Gradually his flying fingers slowed. His head bent low
+over his work. At last he stopped and folded his arms.
+
+"Where?" asked Docchi.
+
+"There." Jordan dully punched the telecom selector and a view became
+fixed on the screen. In the center glimmered a tiny world, a fragment
+of a long-exploded planet. Their destination was easily recognizable.
+
+It was Handicap Haven.
+
+"But why do we want to go there?" asked Anti. She looked in amazement
+at Docchi.
+
+"We're not going voluntarily," he answered, his voice flat and spent.
+"We're going where the Medicouncil wants us to go. We forgot about the
+monitor system. When Nona activated the gravital unit, that fact was
+indicated at some central station. All the Medicouncil had to do was
+use the monitor to take the gravital drive away from Nona."
+
+"We thought we were running away from the ships, which we were, but
+only to beat them back to the junkpile?" asked Anti.
+
+Docchi nodded.
+
+"Well, it's over. We did our best. There's no use crying about it."
+Yet she was. She passed by Nona, patting her gently. "It's all right,
+darling. You tried."
+
+Jordan followed her from the compartment.
+
+Cameron remained; he came over to Docchi. "Everything isn't lost," he
+said, somewhat awkwardly. "You're back where you started from, but
+Nona at least will benefit."
+
+"Benefit?" said Docchi. "Someone will. It won't be Nona."
+
+"You're wrong. Now that she is an important factor--"
+
+"So is a special experimental machine. Very valuable. I don't think
+she'll like that classification."
+
+Silence met silence. It was Dr. Cameron who turned away.
+
+"That ghastly glow of yours when you're angry always did upset me.
+I'll come back when it's dimmer."
+
+Docchi glared after him. Cameron was the only normal aware that it was
+Nona who controlled the gravital unit. All the outside world could
+realize was that it was in operation, as it had been designed to work,
+but never had. If Cameron could be disposed of--
+
+He shook his head. It wouldn't solve anything. He might fool them for
+a while. They might think he was responsible. In the end, they'd find
+out. Nona wasn't capable of that much deception, for she never knew
+what a test was.
+
+He went over to her. Once he had hoped.... It didn't matter what he
+had hoped.
+
+She looked up and smiled. She had a right to. No word had ever broken
+the silence of her mind, but now she was communicating with something,
+whatever it was that an electronic brain could say. Of course she
+didn't understand that the conversation was taking place between two
+captives, herself and the gravital computer.
+
+Abruptly he turned away. He stopped at the telecom panel and
+methodically kicked it apart. Delicate tubes smashed into powder. The
+emergency radio he thoroughly demolished.
+
+The ship was firmly in the grip of the gravital monitor. There was
+nothing he could do about that. All that remained was to protect Nona
+from their prying minds as long as he could.
+
+She didn't hear the noise, or didn't care. She sat there, head in her
+hands, calm and smiling.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The outer shell of the rocket dome opened before and closed behind
+them. Jordan set the controls in neutral and lifted his hands,
+muttering to himself. They were gliding through the lip of the inner
+shell. Home.
+
+"Cheer up," said Cameron breezily. "You're not really prisoners, you
+know."
+
+Nona seemed content, though Jordan didn't. Docchi said nothing, the
+light gone from his face. Anti wasn't with them; she was floating in
+the tank of acid. The gravity field of the asteroid made that
+necessary.
+
+The ship scraped gently and they were down. Jordan touched a lever;
+passenger and freight locks were open.
+
+"Let's go," said Dr. Cameron. "I imagine there's a reception committee
+for you."
+
+There was. The little rocket dome held more ships than normally came
+in a year. The precise confusion of military discipline was everywhere
+in evidence. Armed guards lined either side of the landing ramp down
+which they walked.
+
+At the bottom, a large telecom unit had been set up. If size indicated
+anything, someone considered this an important occasion. From the
+screen, larger than life, Medicouncilor Thorton looked out
+approvingly.
+
+The procession from the ship halted in front of the telecom unit.
+
+"A good job, Dr. Cameron," said the medicouncilor. "We were quite
+surprised at the escape of the four accidentals, and your
+disappearance, which coincided with it. From what we were able to
+piece together, you deliberately followed them. A splendid example of
+quick thinking, Doctor. You deserve recognition for it."
+
+"Thank you," said Cameron.
+
+"I'm sorry I can't be there to congratulate you in person, but I will
+be soon." The medicouncilor paused discreetly. "At first the publicity
+was bad. Very bad. We thought it unwise to conceal an affair of such
+magnitude. Of course the unauthorized broadcast made it impossible.
+Fortunately, the gravital discovery came along at just the right time.
+I don't mind telling you that the net effect is now in our favor."
+
+"I hoped it would be," said Cameron. "Nona--"
+
+"You've spoken about her before." The medicouncilor frowned. "We can
+discuss her later. For the moment, see that she and the rest of the
+accidentals are returned to their usual places. Bring Docchi to your
+office at once. I want to question him privately."
+
+Cameron stared at him in bewilderment. "But I thought--"
+
+"No objections, Doctor," snapped Thorton. "Important people are
+waiting for you. That is all." The telecom darkened.
+
+"I think you heard what he said, Dr. Cameron." The officer at his side
+was very polite. He could afford to be, with the rank of three big
+planets on his tunic.
+
+"Very well," Cameron answered. "But as commander of the asteroid, I
+request that you furnish a guard for the girl."
+
+"Commander?" repeated the officer. "That's funny--my orders indicate
+that I am, until further notice. I haven't got that notice." He looked
+around at his men and crooked a finger. "Lieutenant, see that the
+little fellow--Jordan, I think his name is--gets a lift back to the
+main dome. And you can walk the pretty lady to her room. Or whatever
+it is she lives in." He smiled negligently at Cameron. "Anything to
+oblige another commander."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The medicouncilor, Thorton, was waiting impatiently on the telecom
+when they got to Cameron's office.
+
+"We will arrive in about two hours," he said immediately. "When I say
+we, I mean a number of top governmental officials and scientists.
+Meanwhile, let's get on with this gravital business." He caught sight
+of the commander. "General Judd, this is a technical matter. I don't
+think you'll be interested in it."
+
+"Very well, sir. I'll stand guard outside."
+
+The medicouncilor was silent until the door closed behind General
+Judd. "Sit down, Docchi," he said with unexpected kindness. He paused
+to note the effect. "I can sympathize with you. You had everything you
+wanted nearly within your reach. And, after that, to return to
+Handicap Haven--well, I can understand how you feel. But since you did
+return, I think we can arrange to do something for you."
+
+Docchi stared at the man on the screen. A spot of light pulsed on his
+cheek and then flared rapidly over his face.
+
+"Sure," he said casually. "But there are criminal charges against me."
+
+"A formality," said the medicouncilor. "With a thing like the
+discovery--or rediscovery--of the gravital drive to think about, no
+one is going to worry much about your unauthorized departure from the
+asteroid."
+
+Medicouncilor Thorton sounded pleased. "I don't want to mislead you.
+We can't do any more for you medically than has already been done.
+However, you will find yourself the center of a more adequate social
+life. Friends, work, whatever you want. Naturally, in return for this,
+we will expect your full cooperation."
+
+"Naturally." Docchi blinked at him and got to his feet. "Sounds
+interesting. I'd like to think about it for a minute."
+
+Cameron planted himself squarely in front of the screen. "Maybe I
+don't understand. I think you've got the wrong person."
+
+"Dr. Cameron!" Thorton glowered. "Please explain."
+
+"It was an easy mistake to make," said Cameron. "Cut off from
+communication, the gravital drive began to work. How? Why? Mostly, who
+did it? You knew it wasn't I. I'm a doctor, not a physicist. Nor
+Jordan, he's at best a mechanic. Therefore it had to be Docchi,
+because he's an engineer. He could make it work. But it wasn't Docchi.
+He had nothing to do with--"
+
+"Look out!" cried Thorton too late.
+
+Cameron fell to his knees. The same foot that brought him down crashed
+into his chin. His head snapped back and he sprawled on the floor.
+Blood trickled from his face.
+
+"Docchi!" shouted Thorton from the screen.
+
+Docchi didn't answer. He was crashing through the door. The commander
+was lounging against the wall. Head down, Docchi ran into him. The
+toaster fell from his belt to the floor. With scarcely a pause, Docchi
+stamped on it and continued running.
+
+The commander got to his feet and retrieved the weapon. He aimed it
+tentatively at the retreating figure; a thought occurred to him and he
+lowered it. He examined the damaged mechanism. After that, it went
+gingerly into a tunic pocket.
+
+Muffled shouts were coming from Cameron's office. The general broke
+in.
+
+The medicouncilor glared at him from the screen. "I can see that you
+let him get away."
+
+The disheveled officer straightened his uniform. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll
+alert the guards immediately."
+
+"Never mind now. Revive that man."
+
+The general wasn't accustomed to giving resuscitation; it was out of
+his line. Nevertheless, in a few minutes Cameron was conscious, though
+somewhat dazed.
+
+"Now then, Doctor, if it wasn't Docchi who was responsible for the
+sudden functioning of the gravital drive, who was it?"
+
+With satisfaction, Cameron told him. He had not been wrong about the
+girl. Listening to the detailed explanation of Nona's mental
+abilities, the general was perplexed, as generals sometimes are.
+
+"I see." The medicouncilor nodded. "We overlooked that possibility
+altogether. Not the mechanical genius of an engineer. Instead, the
+strange telepathic sense of a girl. That puts the problem in a
+different light."
+
+"It does." Cameron pressed his aching jaw. "She can't tell us how she
+does it. We'll have to experiment. Fortunately, it won't involve any
+danger. With the monitor system we can always control the gravital
+drive."
+
+The medicouncilor leaned perilously backward and shook his head.
+"You're wrong. It's supposed to, but it doesn't. We tried. For a
+microsecond, the monitor did take over, but the gravital computer is
+smarter than we thought, if it _was_ the computer that figured out the
+method. It found a way of cutting the power from the monitor circuit.
+It didn't respond at all."
+
+Cameron forgot his jaw. "If you didn't bring the rocket back on
+remote, why did she come?"
+
+"Docchi knows," growled the medicouncilor. "He found out in this room.
+That's why he escaped." He tapped on his desk with blunt fingers. "She
+could have taken the ship anywhere she pleased and we couldn't have
+stopped her. Since she voluntarily came back, it's obvious that she
+wants the asteroid!"
+
+Medicouncilor Thorton tried to shove his face out of the screen and
+into the room. "Don't you ever think, General? There isn't any real
+difference between gravital units except size and power. What she did
+to the ship she can do as easily to the asteroid." He thrust out a
+finger and pointed angrily. "Don't stand there, General Judd. Find
+that girl!"
+
+It was late for that kind of command. The great dome overhead trembled
+and creaked in countless joints. The little world shivered, groaned as
+if it had lain too long in an age-old orbit. It began to move.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vague shapes stirred, crawled, walked if they could. Fantastic and
+near-fantastic figures came to the assembly. Huge or tiny, on their
+own legs or borrowed ones, they arrived, with or without arms, faces.
+The word had spread by voice, by moving lips, by sign languages of
+every sort.
+
+"Remember, it will be hours or perhaps days before we're safe," said
+Docchi. His voice was growing hoarse. "It's up to us to see that Nona
+has all the time she needs."
+
+"Where is she hiding?" asked someone from the crowd.
+
+"I don't know. If I did, I still wouldn't tell you. It's our job to
+keep them from finding her."
+
+"How?" demanded one near the front. "Fight the guards?"
+
+"Not directly," said Docchi. "We have no arms in the sense of weapons.
+Many of us have no arms in any sense. All we can hope to do is
+obstruct their search. Unless someone has a better idea, this is what
+I plan:
+
+"I want all the men, older women, and the younger ones who aren't
+suitable for reasons I'll explain later. The guards won't be here for
+another half hour--it will take that long to get them together and
+give them the orders that the Medicouncil must be working out now.
+When they do come, get in their way.
+
+"How you do that, I'll leave to your imagination. Appeal to their
+sympathy as long as they have any. Put yourself in dangerous
+situations. They have ethics; at first they'll be inclined to help
+you. When they do, try to steal their weapons. Avoid physical violence
+as much as you can. We don't want to force them into retaliation. Make
+the most of that phase of their behavior. It won't last long."
+
+Docchi paused and looked over the crowd. "Each of you will have to
+decide for himself when to drop that kind of resistance and start an
+active battle campaign. We have to disrupt the light and scanning and
+ventilation systems, for instance. They'll be forced to keep them in
+repair. Perhaps they'll try to guard these strategic points. So much
+the better for us--there will be fewer guards to contend with."
+
+"What about me?" called a woman from far in back. "What do I do?"
+
+"You are in for a rough time," Docchi promised her. "Is Jerian here?"
+
+She elbowed her way to his side through the crowd.
+
+"Jerian," said Docchi to the accidentals, "is a normal, pretty
+woman--outwardly. She has, however, no trace of a digestive system.
+The maximum time she can go without food and fluid injections is ten
+hours. That's why she's here."
+
+Again Docchi scanned the group. "I need a cosmetech, someone who has
+her equipment with her."
+
+A legless woman propelled herself forward. Docchi conferred with her.
+She seemed startled, but she complied. Under her deft fingers Jerian
+was transformed--into Nona.
+
+"She will be the first Nona they'll find," explained Docchi, "because
+she can get away with the disguise longer. I think--I hope--they'll
+call off the search for a few hours while they test her. Eventually
+they are sure to find out. In Jerian's case, fingerprints or X-rays
+would reveal who she is. But that won't occur to them immediately.
+Nona is impossible to question, as you know, and Jerian will act
+exactly as Nona would.
+
+"As soon as they discover that Jerian isn't Nona--well, they won't
+bother to be polite, if that's the word for it. The guards will like
+the idea of finding an attractive girl they can manhandle in the line
+of duty, especially if they think that will help them find Nona. It
+won't, of course. But it will hold up the search and that's what we
+want."
+
+They stood still, no one moving. Women looked at each other in silent
+apprehension.
+
+"Let's go," said Jordan grimly.
+
+"Wait," advised Docchi. "I have one volunteer Nona. I need about fifty
+more. It doesn't matter if you're physically sound or not--we'll raid
+the lab for plastissue. If you think you can be made up to look like
+Nona, come forward."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Slowly, singly and by twos and threes, they came to him. There were
+few indeed who wouldn't require liberal use of camouflage.
+
+The rest followed Jordan out.
+
+Mass production of an individual. Not perfect in every instance. Good
+enough to pass in most. Docchi watched approvingly, suggesting
+occasional touches of makeup.
+
+"She can't speak or hear," he reminded the volunteers. "Remember that
+at all times, no matter what they do. Hide in difficult places. After
+Jerian is taken and the search called off and then resumed, let
+yourselves be found one at a time. Every guard that has to take you
+for examination is one less to look for the real Nona. They have to
+find her soon or get off the asteroid."
+
+The cosmetechs were busy; none stopped. There was one who looked up.
+
+"Get off?" she asked. "Why?"
+
+"The Sun is getting smaller."
+
+"Smaller!" exclaimed the woman.
+
+He nodded. "Handicap Haven is leaving the Solar System."
+
+Her fingers flew and molded the beautiful curve of a jaw where there
+had been none. Next, plastissue lips were applied.
+
+Nona was soon hiding in half a hundred places.
+
+And one more....
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The orbit of Neptune was far behind and still the asteroid was
+accelerating. Two giant gravital units strained at the core of
+Handicap Haven. The third clamped an abnormally heavy gravity on the
+isolated world. Prolonged physical exertion was awkward and doubly
+exhausting. Hours turned into a day, but the units never faltered.
+
+"Have you figured it out as precisely as you should?" asked Docchi
+easily. "You share our velocity away from the Sun. You'll have to
+overcome it before you can start going back."
+
+The general ignored him. "If we could only turn off that damned
+drive!"
+
+Engineer Vogel shrugged sickly. "You try it," he suggested. "I don't
+want to be around when you do. It sounds easy: just a gravital unit.
+But remember there's a good-sized nuclear pile involved."
+
+"I know we can't," admitted the general, morosely looking at the
+darkness overhead. "On the other hand, we can take off and blow this
+rock apart from a safe distance."
+
+"And lose all hope of finding her?" taunted Docchi.
+
+"We're losing her anyway," Cameron commented sourly.
+
+"It's not as bad as all that," consoled Docchi. "Now that you know
+where the difficulty is, you can always build another computer and
+furnish it with auxiliary senses. Or maybe build into it the facts of
+elementary astronomy."
+
+Cautiously, he shifted his frail body under the heavy gravity.
+"There's another solution, though it may not appeal to you. I can't
+believe Nona is altogether unique. There must be others like her.
+So-called 'born' mechanics, maybe, whose understanding of machinery is
+a form of empathy we've never suspected. Look hard enough and you may
+find them, perhaps in the most unlikely or unlovely body."
+
+General Judd grunted wearily, "If I thought you knew where she is--"
+
+"You can try to find out," Docchi invited, glowing involuntarily.
+
+"Forget about the dramatics, General," said Cameron in disgust. "We've
+questioned him thoroughly. Resistance we would have had in any event.
+He's responsible merely for making it more effective than we thought
+possible."
+
+He added slowly: "At the moment, obviously, he's trying to tear down
+our morale. He doesn't have to bother. The situation is so bad that it
+looks hopeless. I can't think of a thing we can do that would help
+us."
+
+The Sun was high in the center of the dome. Sun? More like a very
+bright star. It cast no shadows; the lights in the dome did. They
+flickered and with monotonous regularity went out again. The general
+swore constantly and emotionlessly until service was restored.
+
+A guard approached with his captive. "I think I've found her, sir."
+
+Cameron looked at the girl in dismay. "Guard, where's your decency?"
+
+"Orders, sir," the man said.
+
+"Whose orders?"
+
+"Yours, sir. You said she was sound of body. How else could I find
+out?"
+
+Cameron scowled and thrust a scalpel deep into the girl's thigh. She
+looked at him with a tear-stained face, but didn't move a muscle.
+
+"Plastissue, as any fool can see," he commented dourly.
+
+The guard looked revolted and started to lead her out.
+
+"Let her go," snapped the doctor. "Both of you will be safer, I
+think."
+
+The girl darted away. The guard followed her, shuddering, his eyes
+filled with a self-loathing that Cameron realized would require hours
+of psychiatric work to remove.
+
+Docchi smiled. "I have a request to make."
+
+"Go ahead and make it," snorted the general. "We're likely to give you
+anything you want."
+
+"You probably will. You're going to leave without her. Very soon. When
+you do go, don't take all your ships. We'll need about three when we
+come to another solar system."
+
+General Judd opened his mouth in rage.
+
+"Don't you say anything you'll regret," cautioned Docchi. "When you
+get back, what will you report to your superiors? Can you tell them
+that you left in good order, while there was still time to continue
+the search? Or will they like it better if they know you stayed until
+the last moment? So late that you had to abandon some of your ships?"
+
+The general closed his mouth and stamped away. Wordlessly, Cameron
+dragged after him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The last ship had blasted off and the rocket trails had faded into
+overwhelming darkness. The Sun, which had been trying to lose itself
+among the other stars, finally succeeded. The asteroid was no longer
+the junkpile. It was a small world that had become a swift ship.
+
+"We can survive," said Docchi. "Power and oxygen, we have, and we can
+grow or synthesize our food."
+
+He sat beside Anti's tank, which had been returned to the usual place.
+A small tree nodded overhead in the artificial breeze. It was peaceful
+enough. But Nona wasn't there.
+
+"We'll get you out of the tank," promised Jordan. "When she comes
+back, we'll rig up a place where there's no gravity. And we'll
+continue cold treatment."
+
+"I can wait," said Anti. "On this world I'm normal."
+
+Docchi stared forlornly about. The one thing he wanted to see wasn't
+there.
+
+"If you're worrying about Nona," advised Anti, "don't. The guards were
+pretty rough with the women, but plastissue doesn't feel pain. They
+didn't find her."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Listen," said Anti. The ground shivered with the power of the
+gravital units. "As long as they're running, how can you doubt?"
+
+"If I could be sure--"
+
+"You can start now," Jordan said. "First, though, you'd better get up
+and turn around."
+
+Docchi scrambled to his feet. She was coming toward him.
+
+She showed no sign of strain. Except for a slight smudge on her
+wonderfully smooth and scar-less cheek, she might just have stepped
+out of a beauty cubicle. Without question, she was the most beautiful
+woman in the world. This world, of course, though she could have done
+well on any world--if she could have communicated with people as well
+as with machines.
+
+"Where were you hiding?" Docchi asked, expecting no answer.
+
+She smiled. He wondered, with a feeling of helplessness, if machines
+could sense and appreciate her lovely smile, or whether they could
+somehow smile themselves.
+
+"I wish I could take you in my arms," he said bitterly.
+
+"It's not as silly as you think," said Anti, watching from the surface
+of the tank. "You don't have any arms, but she has two. You can talk
+and hear, but she can't. Between you, you're a complete couple."
+
+"Except that she would never get the idea," he answered unhappily.
+
+Jordan, rocking on his hands, looked up quizzically. "I must be
+something like her. They used to call me a born mechanic; just put a
+wrench in my hand and I can do anything with a piece of machinery.
+It's as if I sense what the machine wants done to it. Not to the
+extent that Nona can understand, naturally. You might say it's
+reversed, that she's the one who can hear while I have to lip-read."
+
+"You never just gabble," Docchi prompted. "You have something in
+mind."
+
+Jordan hesitated. "I don't know if it's stupid or what. I was thinking
+of a kind of sign language with machines. You know, start with the
+simple ones, like clocks and such, and see what they mean to her.
+Since they'd be basic machines, she'd probably have pretty basic
+reactions. Then it's just a matter of--"
+
+"You don't have to blueprint it," Docchi cut in excitedly. "That would
+be fine for determining elementary reactions, but I can't carry around
+a machine shop; it wouldn't be practical. There ought to be one
+variable machine that would be portable and yet convey all meanings to
+her."
+
+"An electronic oscillator?"
+
+Acid waves washed at the sides of the tank as Anti stirred
+impatiently. "Will you two great brains work it out in the lab,
+please? And when you get through with that problem, you'll have plenty
+more to keep you occupied until we get to the stars. Jordan and me,
+for instance. What future is there for a girl unless she can get
+married?"
+
+"That's right," Docchi said. "I've got an idea we can do better than
+normal doctors. Being accidentals ourselves, we won't stop
+experimenting till we succeed. And we have hundreds of years to do it
+in."
+
+Glowing, literally, with pleasure, he bent over for Jordan to climb on
+his back. Then he kissed Nona and headed for the laboratory.
+
+Nona smiled and followed.
+
+"There are some things you don't need words or machines to express,"
+Anti called out. "Keep that in mind, will you?"
+
+She submerged contentedly in the acid bath. Above the dome, the stars
+gleamed a bright welcome to the little world that flashed through
+interstellar space.
+
+                                                        --F. L. WALLACE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Accidental Flight, by Floyd L. Wallace
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