Catskin--or," she finished sweetly,"have you given that any thought lately?"
Sy frowned. A small stone in the road suddenly sped along the ground andcracked against another; the other snapped away, rolled, slowed,reversed, shot backward and hit the first one. He spoke thoughtfully."Yes, I've given it a great deal of thought. And there's going tobe--uh--a slight change of plan. That's really why I needed you here,Arna."
The girl stared. "Sy! Have you shorted a circuit? For heaven's sake,don't you realize this thing has been planned, and calculated, andre-arranged bit by bit for twenty years? That each of us is merely asmall--no matter how important--cog in a far-reaching activity ofinfinite complexity? Don't you understand that everything is in a stateof delicate, constantly shifting balance, with ambassadors, scientistsand agents making each tiny move with precise timing and skillthroughout a hundred worlds? And you want to change things!" Her voicesoftened, and she laid a hand on his arm. "Sy," she pleaded, "if you'verun into some insurmountable obstacle, let's report it and try to easeout without upsetting everything. That's happened three times before,you know, and it's no disgrace if you can't--"
"Hell!" said Sy bitterly. "I can do it--I think. And if I can do it atall, I can go one step better. But I need help."
"But can't you see, Sy, that you can't change the plans now? Why, no oneeven knows what you have in mind--and I won't have anything to do withit!"
The hangars loomed not far ahead. Sy spoke patiently. "Look. As itstands, Operation Catskin now boils down to installing new engines inthe Sur-Malic fleet, slipping gimmicks into the stabilizer works andcontrolling the gimmicks psychokinetically when the League and Alliancefleets meet for battle. If the Alliance ships operate erratically, theycan't bring their guns to bear, and the League will mop up--even withour pint-sized fleet and inferior armament. Check?"
"Of course. That's what--"
"Okay. Now suppose we can rig a deal so it won't be necessary to shootup the Alliance boats nor kill the poor deluded devils in them? TheLeague wins the war, gets a brand-new, superior fleet, and hardly anyonegets smeared."
Arna sighed. "Let's be practical, Sy. All you know about engineering hasbeen implanted hypnotically just for this job; all I can do is answerquestions of pure math. I wouldn't know how to devise any gadgetry, andyou're in no position to waste time trying--and in war some must bedestroyed that others may survive."
"But suppose I've just about got the thing whipped already? I've learnedenough, since I've been here, to rate Mech C even home."
"Sy, I just won't be a party to anything that might possibly upsetLeague plans!"
Sy's chest heaved resignedly. "Will you help me with the computationalmath needed to finish Operation Catskin?"
"That's better!" Arna squeezed his arm happily. "Of course I will, youbig, bony, restless idealist!"
He smiled fondly at her--at her answer, her young beauty and hernearness.
* * * * *
The weeks passed swiftly--weeks in which the swarming Sur-Malic workmenripped from their foundations the massive, cumbersome atomic convertersof the mighty space fleet and replaced them with light, radicallydesigned engines which would feed eternally upon the all-pervadingcosmic emanations that streaked the universe.
Sy and Arna had worked furiously. Surrounded by a corps of physicists,mathematicians, engineers, technicians and draftsmen, Arna hadunerringly replied to endless queries as fast as she could speak. Sy hadtranslated equations, converted values, integrated, correlated anddirected. Subtly, he had inserted certain innocent equations of his ownbit by bit, fed his results into the basic plans and disguised theall-important device with the cloak of dual function--one of which wasvital to ship performance, the other of which was vulnerable to hispsychokinetic ability to move objects of small mass by mentalconcentration alone.
But all things are subject to the vagaries of pure chance. CommandantRilth, as chief of the project, continually prowled the immense planningrooms, workshops and assembly areas, giving of his not-inconsiderabletechnical knowledge where needed. And one day he came upon Sy delicatelychecking the tiny installation which would spell doom to Allianceschemes of conquest.
"You have found a flaw, perhaps?" demanded the Sur-Malic officer. Hesquatted and peered through the maze of ducts and cables at theshielded mechanism.
Sy crawled back out of the metallic web. "Not yet," he grunted. "I wasjust testing my brainstorm--works like a charm."
"To me," sneered Rilth, "it looks clumsy and inefficient. Could not youraddled brain devise an electronic circuit, instead of a mechanicaldevice subject to frictional wear?"
Sy wiped the perspiration from a dripping brow and spoke boldly. "Thissimplifies the master controls for your stupid crewmen. See those littleplates on the shaft--like a butterfly's wings? When they fold up, theship revolves; the closer together they get, the greater the artificialgravity. When they touch, you've got normal gravity in the ship. Theyfunction perfectly--and if you don't like them, rip them out of everyboat and design your own G control!"
Rilth smiled coldly. "I suppose we must accept some of the moreimbecilic aspects of your warped genius." He turned on his heel andleft.
Sy whispered at his retreating back. "You'll never know _how_ warpeduntil that butterfly folds its wings _down_--and they kiss like littleangels."
As the gigantic task of installation hummed and whined and boiled itsway to completion, Sy and Arna found time to slip away into sprawling,dirty Dirik, where war-feverish activity catered to the whims anddesires of teeming, pleasure-seeking officers and common warriors. Inthe boisterous cafes the Earth couple sat close together and whisperedfreely, relaxing from their grueling pace. They watched the dull,surging masses of characteristically thin Sur-Malic commoners ebb andflow along the dim, moonless, star-canopied streets, seeking surceasefrom the demands of their cruel and exacting lords. Under the sting ofstimulants, listless, drab women became as gay as their noisycompanions. There was endless bicker and chatter.
Frequently the Earth pair walked along winding country lanes, hand inhand, inhaling deeply of cool, sweet air beneath the everlasting ebonarch of the heavens. On one such evening Sy turned in to a farmer'sdimly lit cottage, almost concealed in a stygian grove of fruit trees,and called its occupant to the door. He introduced Arna to a lean,toothless, grinning man.
"This is Loor, darling, our loyal Venusian agent--our contact with youngTel and the League."
Loor served them with simple wine. He showed Arna the delicatetelepathic amplifier which carried his mental transmissions across thedust-voids of space, to be received by the unaided mind of a youthfulUnique. Afterward, he returned the apparatus to its place ofconcealment beneath the floor.
It was but a few days before the scheduled space trials of the fleetwhen Arna brought Sy disquieting news.
"I overheard Rilth say he was going to investigate the ships' Gmechanism," she whispered rapidly. "He seems to be suspicious of--"
"Poor kid," Sy said loudly. "You can't work when you feel like that. Yougo on home and sleep." He added casually, "I may be late tonight--lotsof work to do." He located Rilth in a great noisy hangar and piloted himaway from a crowd of noisy engineers. "Filthy vermin," he said by way ofgreeting, "you look like you need an airing." He lowered his voice."Let's dodge our females tonight and slice up Dirik a bit--it'd do usboth good."
Rilth grimaced. "It is unfortunate, gutter-born, that Ruza wants tocelebrate tonight. Some miserable party or other."
"You can always work late, can't you, son of cattle? We'll snag a coupleof lively young peasants from one of the pleasure dens."
Rilth's cold eye glittered. "Your vile mouth speaks temptingly."
"I'll meet you at a sidewalk table of the Wild Snake, on the Street ofDelight. We'll blast the town!"
It was completely dark when the two met at the cafe. They finished agoblet of wine, and Sy suggested they move on to a place he knew. Theythreaded their way through jostling crowds and walked along side streetswhich le
d away from the city's riotous heart. Pedestrians became fewer.Rilth cursed Sy for not thinking to use a vehicle.
"It's just around the next corner, slimehead," Sy assured him. "And I'vealready made arrangements."
But there was a narrow, lightless alleyway a few steps ahead. Had Arnabeen following them, instead of at home worrying, she would have seen Systumble sideways at the mouth of the alley, bumping hard against hiscompanion. She would have seen them both disappear into the blacknessfor an instant, and then would have seen Sy emerge from