Perfect Control Part 3

She clasped her hands. "Man's nutrition problem is solved. From the oceans and the air and the Earth, from the cosmic rays and the lights of the suns and from the particles of the microcosm, Man can take into his body all the nutrition that can enable him to live forever." She sat very still, smiling. "And it's got to be given a try."

Silence.

Colonel Halter watched the old figures sitting like figures in a wax museum, waiting, waiting. He turned a dial. The picture that flashed onto the screen in his office showed the pocked s.h.i.+p standing upright now, like some tree that had grown in the middle of a desert where it was never meant to grow.

The s.p.a.ce tugs had streaked out beyond the atmosphere to finish other a.s.signments. There were no crowds, no official cars, no platforms, no bands. Only darkness and silence.

Halter turned a dial. The control room of the old s.h.i.+p flashed back onto the screen. The ancient crew sat as before. Halter saw his own face on their television screen.

Something was missing, he thought. What? What hadn't been said?

And then suddenly it came to him.

The captain. He hadn't spoken of any contribution he had made during those interminable years.

Halter thought back over Captain McClelland's record. No family. Wiped out when he was a baby in the last war. Educated and raised by the government. Never married. No entanglements with women. No close friends. s.h.i.+p's captain at twenty-one. No failures. No vacations. No record of breakdown. Perfect physical condition. Strict disciplinarian. More time in s.p.a.ce than on Earth by seventy-five per cent. No hobbies. No interest in the arts.... Apparently no flaw as a s.p.a.ceman.... The end product of the stiffest training regimen yet devised by Man.

The ideal captain.

The records of the other five? All showing slight emotional instabilities when checked against the optimum score of a s.p.a.ceman.

Dr. Mueller--a divorcee. A woman men had sought after. Dedicated in spare time to social psychology. Conflict in her decision as to whether she should go into the private practice of psychotherapy or specialize in s.p.a.ce psychology. Interested in the study of neurosis caused by culture.

Lieutenant Brady--family man. Forced himself into mold of good husband and father. Brilliant designer. Ambition also to be s.p.a.ce captain.

Conflict between these three. Several years of psychotherapy which released his drive for adventure in s.p.a.ce. _Alpha_ mission to be his last. Lack of full leaders.h.i.+p qualities prevented him from reaching captaincy.

Rocketman Crowley--typical man of action. Superb physique. Decathlon champion. Continual entanglements with women. Quick temper. Tendency to fight if pushed or crossed. Proud. However, if under good command, best rocketman in the service.

Astrogator Daniel Carlyle--highly sensitive. Psychosomatic symptoms unless out in s.p.a.ce. Then in perfect health. Fine mathematician.

Highly intuitive, yet logical. Saved four missions from disaster.

Holder of Congressional Medal of Honor. Hobby, poetry. Fiancee was boyhood sweetheart.

Dietician and televisor Caroline Gordon--youngest of crew. Twenty years. Too many apt.i.tudes. Tendency toward immaturity. Many hobbies.

Idealistic. Emotions unfocused. IQ 165. Success in any field of endeavor concentrated upon. At eighteen, specialized in dietetics and electronics. Highest ratings in field. Stable when under strict external discipline.

No, thought Halter. None of them fitted s.p.a.ce like the completely self-sufficient McClelland, the man who could stand alone against that black, teeming, swirling endlessness of s.p.a.ce.

He turned to the captain. The old face was placid, the eyes slightly out of focus.

"Captain McClelland," Halter said sharply.

The pale eyes blinked and looked keenly on Halter's face.

"You want fuel to take you back out into s.p.a.ce."

"That's right."

"And if you don't get it, you'll press a b.u.t.ton on the arm of your chair and you'll all die of carbon monoxide poisoning."

"Exactly."

"I'm curious about one point." Halter paused. "What did _you_ do, Captain, while the others were working on their various projects?"

Captain McClelland scowled at Halter for a long moment. "Why do you want to know that?"

"Your crew members became lost in some work they loved. They told me about it with a certain amount of enthusiasm. You haven't told me what you did. I'd like to know--for the records."

"I watched them, Colonel. I watched them and dreamed of the time when I could take them and the s.h.i.+p back out into s.p.a.ce under her own power. I love s.p.a.ce and I love this s.h.i.+p. I love knowing she's under power and shooting out to the stars. There's nothing more for me."

"What else did you do besides watch them?"

"I activated the machinery that moved my bunk close to the controls. I practiced taking the s.h.i.+p through maneuvers. I kept the controls in perfect working order so I'd be ready to take off again someday."

"If we repaired the s.h.i.+p so you could take off, the first shock of rocket thrust would kill you all."

"We're willing to take that chance."

Colonel Halter looked around the half circle of old faces. "And all your long years of work would be for nothing. Each of you, except Captain McClelland, has made a contribution to Earth and Man. You're needed here, not in the emptiness of s.p.a.ce."

He saw the eyes of the five watching him intently; saw a tiny flicker of surprise and interest on their faces.

"You're destroying Earth," said the captain, his voice rising, "with your wars and your quarrels. We've all of us found peace. We're going to keep it."

Halter ignored the captain and looked at the five.

"There are many of _us_ on Earth, who are fighting a war without blood, to save mankind. We've made progress. We've worked out agreements among the warring nations to do their fighting on the barren planets where there aren't any native inhabitants, so noncombatants on Earth won't be killed and so the Earth won't be laid waste. That was the fighting you saw while you were coming in.

"This is just _one_ example. And there're a lot of us contributing ideas and effort. If all of us who're working for Earth were to leave it and go out into s.p.a.ce, the ones who have to fight wars would make the Earth as barren as the Moon. This is our place in the Universe and it's got to be saved."

"We've adjusted to the control room of this s.h.i.+p and to each other,"

said McClelland flatly. "Our work's done."

"Let's put it like this, Captain. Maybe _your_ work's done. Maybe _you're_ not interested in what happens to Earth." Halter turned to the others. "But what _you've_ done adds up to a search for answers here on Earth. Poetry. Design of a flawless s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. A psychological theory. A perfect diet. Novels about Man pus.h.i.+ng out and out into s.p.a.ce. All this indicates a deep concern for the health of humanity and its success."

"We're not concerned," retorted the captain, "with the health or success of humanity."

Halter sharply examined the other faces. He saw a flicker of sadness in one, anger in another, uncertainty, fear, joy.

He said, "For seventy-five years, you obey your captain. You listen to what he says. And everything is a command. Yet in yourselves you feel a drive to carry out your ideas, your creations, to their logical ends. Which means, will they work when they're applied to Man? Will people read the novels? Will they catch the meaning of the poetry?

Will the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps really work as they're supposed to? Will the psychological theory really promote cooperation? Is there supreme health in this marvelous diet?"

He gave them a moment to think and then continued. "But if you continue to follow the commands of the captain, you'll be dead before you're out of the Earth's atmosphere. You'll never know. Maybe Man will prove that your great works are only dreams.... But I think there's a great need in you to know, one way or the other."