Masters of Space

  VII

  Knowing that he had done everything he could to help the most importantinvestigations get under way, Hilton turned his attention to secondarymatters. He made arrangements to decondition Javo, the Number Two OmanBoss, whereupon that worthy became Javvy and promptly "bumped" the Omanwho had been shadowing Karns.

  Larry and Javvy, working nights, deconditioned all the other Omanshaving any contact with BuSci personnel; then they went on to set up aroutine for deconditioning all Omans on both planets.

  Assured at last that the Omans would thenceforth work with and reallyserve human beings instead of insisting upon doing their work for them,Hilton knew that the time had come to let all his BuSci personnel moveinto their homes aground. Everyone, including himself, was fed up to thegozzel with spaceship life--its jam-packed crowding; its flat,reprocessed air; its limited variety of uninteresting food. Conditionswere especially irksome since everybody knew that there was available toall, whenever Hilton gave the word, a whole city full of all the roomanyone could want, natural fresh air and--so the Omans had told them--anunlimited choice of everything anyone wanted to eat.

  Nevertheless, the decision was not an easy one to make.

  Living conditions were admittedly not good on the ship. On the otherhand, with almost no chance at all of solitude--the few people who hadprivate offices aboard were not the ones he worried about--there was nodanger of sexual trouble. Strictly speaking, he was not responsible forthe morals of his force. He knew that he was being terriblyold-fashioned. Nevertheless, he could not argue himself out of theconviction that he was morally responsible.

  Finally he took the thing up with Sandra, who merely laughed at him."How long have you been worrying about _that_, Jarve?"

  "Ever since I okayed moving aground the first time. That was one reasonI was so glad to cancel it then."

  "You _were_ slightly unclear--a little rattled? But which factor--thefun and games, which is the moral issue, or the consequences?"

  "The consequences," he admitted, with a rueful grin. "I don't give awhoop how much fun they have; but you know as well as I do just howprudish public sentiment is. And Project Theta Orionis is squarely inthe middle of the public eye."

  * * * * *

  "You should have checked with me sooner and saved yourself wear andtear. There's no danger at all of consequences--except weddings. Lots ofweddings, and fast."

  "Weddings and babies wouldn't bother me a bit. Nor interfere with thejob too much, with the Omans as nurses. But why the 'fast', if youaren't anticipating any shotgun weddings?"

  "Female psychology," she replied, with a grin. "Aboard-ship here there'sno home atmosphere whatever; nothing but work, work, work. Put a womaninto a house, though--especially such houses as the Omans have built andwith such servants as they insist on being--and she goes domestic in areally big way. Just sex isn't good enough any more. She wants the kindof love that goes with a husband and a home, and nine times out of tenshe gets it. With these BuSci women it'll be ten out of ten."

  "You may be right, of course, but it sounds kind of far-fetched to me."

  "Wait and see, chum," Sandra said, with a laugh.

  Hilton made his announcement and everyone moved aground the next day. Noone, however, had elected to live alone. Almost everyone had chosen todouble up; the most noteworthy exceptions being twelve laboratory girlswho had decided to keep on living together. However, they now had atwenty-room house instead of a one-room dormitory to live in, and astaff of twenty Oman girls to help them do it.

  Hilton had suggested that Temple and Teddy, whose house was only ahundred yards or so from the Hilton-Karns bungalow, should have supperand spend the first evening with them; but the girls had knocked thatidea flat. Much better, they thought, to let things ride as nearly aspossible exactly as they had been aboard the _Perseus_.

  "A _little_ smooching now and then, on the Q strictly T, but that's all,darling. That's _positively_ all," Temple had said, after a highlysatisfactory ten minutes alone with him in her own gloriously privateroom, and that was the way it had to be.

  Hence it was a stag inspection that Hilton and Karns made of their newhome. It was very long, very wide, and for its size very low. Four ofits five rooms were merely adjuncts to its tremendous living-room. Therewas a huge fireplace at each end of this room, in each of which a fireof four-foot-long fir cordwood crackled and snapped. There was a greathi-fi tri-di, with over a hundred tapes, all new.

  "Yes, sirs," Larry and Javvy spoke in unison. "The players and singerswho entertained the Masters of old have gone back to work. They willalso, of course, appear in person whenever and wherever you wish."

  * * * * *

  Both men looked around the vast room and Karns said: "All the comfortsof home and a couple of bucks' worth besides. Wall-to-wall carpeting aninch and a half thick. A grand piano. Easy chairs and loafers anddavenports. Very fine reproductions of our favorite paintings ... andstatuary."

  "You said it, brother." Hilton was bending over a group in bronze. "If Ididn't know better, I'd swear this is the original deHaven 'Dance of theNymphs'."

  Karns had marched up to and was examining minutely a two-by-three-footpainting, in a heavy gold frame, of a gorgeously auburn-haired nude."Reproduction, hell! This is a _duplicate_! Lawrence's 'Innocent' isworth twenty million wogs and it's sealed behind quad armor-glass inPrime Art--but I'll bet wogs to wiggles the Prime Curator himself, withall his apparatus, couldn't tell this one from his!"

  "I wouldn't take even one wiggle's worth of that. And this 'LaughingCavalier' and this 'Toledo' are twice as old and twice as fabulouslyvaluable."

  "And there are my own golf clubs...."

  "Excuse us, sirs," the Omans said, "These things were simple becausethey could be induced in your minds. But the matter of a staff couldnot, nor what you would like to eat for supper, and it is growing late."

  "Staff? What the hell has the staff got to do with ..."

  "_House_-staff, they mean," Karns said. "We don't need much of anybody,boys. Somebody to keep the place shipshape, is all. Or, as a de luxetouch, how about a waitress? One housekeeper and one waitress. That'llbe finer."

  "Very well, sirs. There is one other matter. It has troubled us that wehave not been able to read in your minds the logical datum that theyshould in fact simulate Doctor Bells and Doctor Blake?"

  "Huh?" Both men gasped--and then both exploded like one twelve-inchlength of primacord.

  * * * * *

  While the Omans could not understand this purely Terran reasoning, theyaccepted the decision without a demurring thought. "Who, then, are thetwo its to simulate?"

  "No stipulation; roll your own," Hilton said, and glanced at Karns."None of these Oman women are really hard on the eyes."

  "Check. Anybody who wouldn't call any one of 'em a slurpy dish needs anew set of optic nerves."

  "In that case," the Omans said, "no delay at all will be necessary, aswe can make do with one temporarily. The Sory, no longer Sora, who hasnot been glad since the Tuly replaced it, is now in your kitchen. Itcomes."

  A woman came in and stood quietly in front of the two men, the waftedair carrying from her clear, smooth skin a faint but unmistakablefragrance of Idaho mountain syringa. She was radiantly happy; herbright, deep-green eyes went from man to man.

  "You wish, sirs, to give me your orders verbally. And yes, you may orderfresh, whole, not-canned hens' eggs."

  "I certainly will, then; I haven't had a fried egg since we left Terra.But ... Larry said ... _you_ aren't Sory!"

  "Oh, but I am, sir."

  Karns had been staring her, eyes popping. "Holy Saint Patrick! Talkabout simulation, Jarve! They've made her over into Lawrence's'Innocent'--exact to twenty decimals!"

  "You're so right." Hilton's eyes went, half a dozen times, from the formof flesh to the painting and back. "That must have been a terrific job."

  "Oh, no. It was quite simple, really,"
Sory said, "since the brain wasnot involved. I merely reddened my hair and lengthened it, made my eyesto be green, changed my face a little, pulled myself in a little aroundhere...." Her beautifully-manicured hands swept the full circle of herwaistline, then continued to demonstrate appropriately the rest of herspeech:

  "... and pushed me out a little up here and tapered my legs a littlemore--made them a little larger and rounder here at my hips and thighsand a little smaller toward and at my ankles. Oh, yes, and made my feetand hands a little smaller. That's all. I thought the Doctor Karns wouldlike me a little better this way."

  * * * * *

  "You can broadcast _that_ over the P-A system at high noon." Karns wasstill staring. "'That's all,' she says. But you didn't have _time_ to ..."

  "Oh, I did it day before yesterday. As soon as Javvy materialized the'Innocent' and I knew it to be your favorite art."

  "But damn it, we hadn't even _thought_ of having you here then!"

  "But I had, sir. I fully intended to serve, one way or another, in thisyour home. But of course I had no idea I would ever have such an honoras actually waiting on you at your table. Will you please give me yourorders, sirs, besides the eggs? You wish the eggs fried in butter--threeof them apiece--and sunny side up."

  "Uh-huh, with ham," Hilton said. "I'll start with a jumbo shrimpcocktail. Horseradish and ketchup sauce; heavy on the horseradish."

  "Same for me," Karns said, "but only half as much horseradish."

  "And for the rest of it," Hilton went on, "hashed-brown potatoes andbuttered toast--plenty of extra butter--strong coffee from first tolast. Whipping cream and sugar on the side. For dessert, apple pie _a lamode_."

  "You make me drool, chief. Play that for me, please, Innocent, all theway."

  "Oh? You are--you, personally, yourself, sir?--renaming me 'Innocent'?"

  "If you'll sit still for it, yes."

  "That is an incredible honor, sir. Simply unbelievable. I thank you! Ithank you!" Radiating happiness, she dashed away toward the kitchen.

  * * * * *

  When the two men were full of food, they strolled over to a davenportfacing the fire. As they sat down, Innocent entered the room, carrying atall, dewy mint julep on a tray. She was followed by another femalefigure bearing a bottle of avignognac and the appurtenances which areits due--and at the first full sight of that figure Hilton stoppedbreathing for fifteen seconds.

  Her hair was very thick, intensely black and long, cut squarely off justbelow the lowest points of her shoulder blades. Heavy brows and longlashes--eyes too--were all intensely, vividly black. Her skin was tannedto a deep and glowing almost-but-not-quite-brown.

  "Murchison's Dark Lady!" Hilton gasped. "Larry! You've--we've--_I've_got that painting here?"

  "Oh, yes, sir." The newcomer spoke before Larry could. "At the otherend--your part--of the room. You will look now, sir, please?" Her voicewas low, rich and as smooth as cream.

  Putting her tray down carefully on the end-table, she led him toward theother fireplace. Past the piano, past the tri-di pit; past a toweringgrillwork holding art treasures by the score. Over to the left, againstthe wall, there was a big, business-like desk. On the wall, over thedesk, hung _the_ painting; a copy of which had been in Hilton's room forover eight years.

  He stared at it for at least a minute. He glanced around: at the otherpriceless duplicates so prodigally present, at his own guns arrayedabove the mantel and on each side of the fireplace. Then, without aword, he started back to join Karns. She walked springily beside him.

  "What's your name, Miss?" he asked, finally.

  "I haven't earned any as yet, sir. My number is ..."

  "Never mind that. Your name is 'Dark Lady'."

  "Oh, thank you, sir; that is truly wonderful!" And Dark Lady satcross-legged on the rug at Hilton's feet and busied herself with theesoteric rites of Old Avignon.

  Hilton took a deep inhalation and a small sip, then stared at Karns.Karns, over the rim of his glass, stared back.

  "I can see where this would be habit-forming," Hilton said, "and verydeadly. _Extremely_ deadly."

  "Every wish granted. Surrounded by all this." Karns swept his armthrough three-quarters of a circle. "Waited on hand and foot by powerfulmen and by the materializations of the dreams of the greatest, finestartists who ever lived. Fatal? I don't know...."

  * * * * *

  "My solid hope is that we never have to find out. And when you add inInnocent and Dark Lady.... They _look_ to be about seventeen, but thethought that they're older than the hills of Rome and powered byeverlasting atomic engines--" He broke off suddenly and blushed. "Excuseme, please, girls. I _know_ better than to talk about people that way,right in front of them; I really do."

  "Do you really think we're _people_?" Innocent and Dark Lady squealed,as one.

  That set Hilton back onto his heels. "I don't know.... I've wondered.Are you?"

  Both girls, silent, looked at Larry.

  "We don't know, either," Larry said. "At first, of course, there werecrude, non-thinking machines. But when the Guide attained its presentstatus, the Masters themselves could not agree. They divided about halfand half on the point. They never did settle it any closer than that."

  "I certainly won't try to, then. But for my money, you are people,"Hilton said, and Karns agreed.

  That, of course, touched off a near-riot of joy; after which the two menmade an inch-by-inch study of their tremendous living-room. Then, longafter bedtime, Larry and Dark Lady escorted Hilton to his bedroom.

  "Do you mind, sir, if we sleep on the floor at the sides of your bed?"Larry asked. "Or must we go out into the hall?"

  "Sleep? I didn't know you _could_ sleep."

  "It is not essential. However, when round-the-clock work is notnecessary, and we have opportunity to sleep near a human being, wederive a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from it. You see, sir,we also serve during sleep."

  "Okay, I'll try anything once. Sleep wherever you please."

  Hilton began to peel, but before he had his shirt off both Larry andDark Lady were stretched out flat, sound asleep, one almost under eachedge of his bed. He slid in between the sheets--it was the mostcomfortable bed he had ever slept in--and went to sleep as thoughsandbagged.

  He had time to wonder foggily whether the Omans were in fact helping himgo to sleep--and then he _was_ asleep.

  * * * * *

  A month passed. Eight couples had married, the Navy chaplainofficiating--in the _Perseus_, of course, since the warship was, alwaysand everywhere, an integral part of Terra.

  Sandra had dropped in one evening to see Hilton about a bit of business.She was now sitting, long dancer's legs out-stretched toward the fire,with a cigarette in her left hand and a tall, cold drink on a coaster ather right.

  "This is a wonderful room, Jarvis. It'd be perfect if it weren't quiteso ... so mannish."

  "What do you expect of Bachelors' Hall--a boudoir? Don't tell me_you're_ going domestic, Sandy, just because you've got a house?"

  "Not just that, no. But of course it helped it along."

  "Alex is a mighty good man. One of the finest I have ever known."

  She eyed him for a moment in silence. "Jarvis Hilton, you are one of thekeenest, most intelligent men who ever lived. And yet ..." She broke offand studied him for a good half minute. "Say, if I let my hair cleardown, will you?"

  "Scout's Oath. That 'and yet' requires elucidation at any cost."

  "I know. But first, yes, it's Alex. I never would have believed that anyman ever born could hit me so hard. Soon. I didn't want to be the first,but I won't be anywhere near the last. But tell me. You were really inlove with Temple, weren't you, when I asked you?"

  "Yes."

  "Ha! You _are_ letting your hair down! That makes me feel better."

  "Huh? Why should it?"

  "It elucidates the 'and yet' no end. You were insula
ted from all otherfemale charms by ye brazen Bells. You see, most of us assistants made akind of game out of seeing which of us could make you break theExecutives' Code. And none of us made it. Teddy and Temple said youdidn't know what was going on; Bev and I said nobody as smart as you arecould possibly be that stupid."

  "You aren't the type to leak or name names--oh, I see. You are merelyreporting a conversation. The game had interested, but non-participating,observers. Temple and Teddy, at least."

  "At least," she agreed. "But damn it, you _aren't_ stupid. There isn't astupid bone in your head. So it must be love. And if so, what aboutmarriage? Why don't you and Temple make it a double with Alex and me?"

  "That's the most cogent thought you ever had, but setting the date isthe bride's business." He glanced at his Oman wristwatch. "It's earlyyet; let's skip over. I wouldn't mind seeing her a minute or two."

  "Thy statement ringeth with truth, friend. Bill's there with Teddy?"

  "I imagine so."

  "So we'll talk to them about making it a triple. Oh, nice--let's go!"

  They left the house and, her hand tucked under his elbow, walked up thestreet.

  * * * * *

  Next morning, on her way to the Hall of Records, Sandra stopped off asusual at the office. The Omans were all standing motionless. Hilton wasleaning far back in his chair, feet on desk, hands clasped behind head,eyes closed. Knowing what that meant, she turned and started back out ontiptoe.

  However, he had heard her. "Can you spare a couple of minutes to thinkat me, Sandy?"

  "Minutes or hours, chief." Tuly placed a chair for her and she sat down,facing him across his desk.

  "Thanks, gal. This time it's the Stretts. Sawtelle's been havingnightmares, you know, ever since we emerged, about being attacked, andI've been pooh-poohing the idea. But now it's a statistic that the soupis getting thicker, and I can't figure out why. Why in all the hells ofspace should a stasis that has lasted for over a quarter of a millionyears be broken at this exact time? The only possible explanation isthat _we_ caused the break. And any way I look at that concept, it'splain idiocy."

  Both were silent for minutes; and then it was demonstrated again thatTerra's Advisory Board had done better than it knew in choosing SandraCummings to be Jarvis Hilton's working mate.

  "We did cause it, Jarve," she said, finally. "They knew we were coming,even before we got to Fuel Bin. They knew we were human and tried towipe out the Omans before we got there. Preventive warfare, you know."

  "They _couldn't_ have known!" he snorted. "Strett detectors are nobetter than Oman, and you know what Sam Bryant had to say about them."

  "I know." Sandra grinned appreciatively. "It's becoming a classic. Butit couldn't have been any other way. Besides, I _know_ they did."

  He stared at her helplessly, then swung on Larry. "Does that make senseto you?"

  "Yes, sir. The Stretts could peyondire as well as the old Masters could,and they undoubtedly still can and do."

  "Okay, it does make sense, then." He absented himself in thought, thencame to life with a snap. "Okay! The next thing on the agenda is acrash-priority try at a peyondix team. Tuly, you organized a team togenerate sathura. Can you do the same for peyondix?"

  "If we can find the ingredients, yes, sir."

  * * * * *

  "I had a hunch. Larry, please ask Teddy Blake's Oman to bring her inhere...."

  "I'll be running along, then." Sandra started to get up.

  "I hope to kiss a green pig you won't!" Hilton snapped. "You're one ofthe biggest wheels. Larry, we'll want Temple Bells and Beverly Bell--fora start."

  "Chief, you positively amaze me," Sandra said then. "Every time you getone of these attacks of genius--or whatever it is--you have me gaspinglike a fish. Just what can you _possibly_ want of Bev Bell?"

  "Whatever it was that enabled her to hit the target against odds ofalmost infinity to one; not just once, but time after time. Bydefinition, intuition. What quality did you use just now in getting meoff the hook? Intuition. What makes Teddy Blake such an unerringperformer? Intuition again. My hunches--they're intuition, too.Intuition, _hell_! Labels--based on utterly abysmal damned dumbignorance of our own basic frames of reference. Do you think those fourkinds of intuition are alike, by seven thousand rows of apple trees?"

  "Of course not. I see what you're getting at.... Oh! This'll be fun!"

  The others came in and, one by one, Tuly examined each of the fourwomen and the man. Each felt the probing, questioning feelers of herthought prying into the deepest recesses of his mind.

  "There is not quite enough of each of three components, all of which areusually associated with the male. You, sir, have much of each, but notenough. I know your men quite well, and I think we will need the doctorsKincaid and Karns and Poynter. But such deep probing is felt. Have Ipermission, sir?"

  "Yes. Tell 'em I said so."

  Tuly scanned. "Yes, sir, we should have all three."

  "Get 'em, Larry." Then, in the pause that followed: "Sandy, rememberyowling about too many sweeties on a team? What do you think of thisbusiness of all sweeties?"

  "All that proves is that nobody can be wrong all the time," she repliedflippantly.

  The three men arrived and were instructed. Tuly said: "The great troubleis that each of you must use a portion of your mind that you do not knowyou have. You, this one. You, that one." Tuly probed mercilessly; sopoignantly that each in turn flinched under brand-new and almostunbearable pain. "With you, Doctor Hilton, it will be by far the worst.For you must learn to use almost all the portions of both your minds,the conscious and the unconscious. This must be, because you are theactual peyondixer. The others merely supply energies in which youyourself are deficient. Are you ready for a terrible shock, sir?"

  "Shoot."

  * * * * *

  He thought for a second that he _had_ been shot; that his brain hadblown up.

  He couldn't stand it--he _knew_ he was going to die--he wished he_could_ die--anything, anything whatever, to end this unbearableagony....

  It ended.

  Writhing, white and sweating, Hilton opened his eyes. "Ouch," heremarked, conversationally. "What next?"

  "You will seize hold of the energies your friends offer. You will bindthem to yours and shape the whole into a dimensionless sphere of purecontrolled, dirigible energy. And, as well as being the binding force,the cohesiveness, you must also be the captain and the pilot and theastrogator and the ultimately complex computer itself."

  "But how can I.... Okay, damn it. I _will_!"

  "Of course you will, sir. Remember also that once the joinings are madeI can be of very little more assistance, for my peyondix is as nothingcompared to that of your fusion of eight. Now, to assemble the energiesand join them you will, all together, deny the existence of the sumtotal of reality as you know it. Distance does not exist--every point inthe reachable universe coincides with every other point and that commonpoint is the focus of your attention. You can be and actually areanywhere you please or everywhere at once. Time does not exist. Spacedoes not exist. There is no such thing as opacity; everything isperfectly transparent, yet every molecule of substance is perceptible inits relationship to every other molecule in the cosmos. Senses do notexist. Sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, sathura, endovix--all areparts of the one great sense of peyondix. I am guiding each of youseven--closer! Tighter! There! Seize it, sir--and when you work theStretts you must fix it clearly that time does not exist. You must workin millionths of microseconds instead of in minutes, for they have mindsof tremendous power. Reality does not exist! Compress it more, sir.Tighter! Smaller! Rounder! There! Hold it! Reality does notexist--distance does not exist--all possible points are...._Wonderful!_"

  Tuly screamed the word and the thought: "Good-by! Good luck!"

  END OF PART ONE