Chapter 24

The starship landed at noon on a brilliant sunlit day, somewhere on Earth’s North American continent. Barrent had planned on waiting for darkness before leaving; but the control room screens flashed an ancient and ironic warning: All passengers and crew must disembark at once. Ship rigged for full decontamination procedure. Twenty minutes.

He didn’t know what was meant by full decontamination procedure. But since the crew was emphatically ordered to leave, a respirator might not provide much safety. Of the two dangers, leaving the ship seemed the lesser.

The members of Group Two had given a good deal of thought to the clothing Barrent would wear upon debarkation. Those first minutes on Earth might be crucial. No cunning could help him if his clothing was obviously strange, outlandish, alien. Typical Earth clothing was the answer; but the Group wasn’t sure what the citizens of Earth wore. One part of the Group had wanted Barrent to dress in their reconstructed approximation of civilian dress. Another part felt that the guard’s uniform he had worn on board would see him through his arrival on Earth as well. Barrent himself had agreed with a third opinion, which felt that a mechanic’s one-piece coverall would be least noticeable around a spacefield, and suffer the least change of style over the years. In the towns and cities, this disguise might put him at a disadvantage; but he had to meet one problem at a time.

He quickly stripped off his guard’s uniform. Underneath he wore the lightweight coveralls. His needlebeam concealed, a collapsible lunchbox in his hand, Barrent walked down the corridor to the landing stage. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should leave the weapon on the ship. He decided not to part with it. An inspection would reveal him anyhow; with the needlebeam he would have a chance of breaking away from police.

He took a deep breath and marched out of the ship and down the landing stage.

There were no guards, no inspection party, no police, no army units and no customs officials. There was no one at all. Far to one side of the wide field he could see rows of starcraft glistening in the sun. Straight ahead of him was a fence, and in it was an open gate.

Barrent walked across the field, quickly but without obvious haste. He had no idea why it was all so simple. Perhaps the secret police on Earth had more subtle means of checking on passengers from starships.

He reached the gate. There was no one there except a bald, middle-aged man and a boy of perhaps ten. They seemed to be waiting for him. Barrent found it hard to believe that these were government officials; still, who knew the ways of Earth? He passed through the gate.

The bald man, holding the boy by the hand, walked over to him. “I beg your pardon,” the man said.

“Yes?”

“I saw you come from the starship. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Not at all,” Barrent said, his hand near the coverall zipper beneath which lay his needlebeam. He was certain now that the bald man was a police agent. The only thing that didn’t make sense was the presence of the child, unless the boy was an agent-in-training.

“The fact of the matter is,” the man said, “my boy Ronny here is doing a thesis for his Tenth Grade Master’s Degree. On starships.”

“So I wanted to see one,” Ronny said. He was an undersized child with a pinched, intelligent face.

“He wanted to see one,” the man explained. “I told him it wasn’t necessary, since all the facts and pictures are in the encyclopedia. But he wanted to see one.”

“It gives me a good opening paragraph,” Ronny said.

“Of course,” Barrent said, nodding vigorously. He was beginning to wonder about the man. For a member of the secret police, he was certainly taking a devious route.

“You work on the ships?” Ronny asked.

“That’s right.”

“How fast do they go?”

“In real or subspace?” Barrent asked.

This question seemed to throw Ronny off his stride. He pushed out his lower lip and said, “Gee, I didn’t know they went in subspace.” He thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact, I don’t think I know what subspace is.”

Barrent and the boy’s father smiled understandingly.

“Well,” Ronny said, “how fast do they go in real space?”

“A hundred thousand miles an hour,” Barrent said, naming the first figure that came into his head.

The boy nodded, and his father nodded. “Very fast,” the father said.

“And much faster in subspace of course,” Barrent said.

“Of course,” the man said. “Starships are very fast indeed. They have to be. Quite long distances involved. Isn’t that right, sir?”

“Very long distances,” Barrent said.

“How is the ship powered?” Ronny asked.

“In the usual way,” Barrent told him. “We had triplex boosters installed last year, but that comes more under the classification of auxiliary power.”

“I’ve heard about those triplex boosters,” the man said. “Tremendous things.”

“They’re adequate,” Barrent said judiciously. He was certain now that this man was just what he purported to be: a citizen with no particular knowledge of spacecraft simply bringing his son to the starport.