Chapter 6

Oona Dahlborg’s jetticopter hovered over the Grand Canyon at the sunset hour. She had let the controls go so that the little ship drifted with the wind like one of the clouds which sailed a thousand feet or so over the canyon rim. The disk of whirling gas which kept the teardrop of the fuselage suspended shone in all rainbow colors; it reflected through the translucent plastics top of the fuselage and played over the golden helmet of the girl’s hair and over the greying mane of the gaunt man at her side.

Lee had been talking intensely, almost desperately for quite some time, watching her as she lay back in her seat, her eyes half closed, hands folded behind her neck, the perfect hemispheres of her breasts caressed by the rainbows as they rose slowly with the even rhythm of her breath.

“And now you know everything, Oona,” he ended, “do you think I’m mad?”

“No.”

Her eyelids fluttered like wings of a butterfly as she turned to him. Her right arm came down upon Lee’s shoulder in a gesture of confidence. He breathed relief as he saw no fear, not even uneasiness in the blue depths of those beautiful eyes. Her hand upon his shoulder felt soothing and at the same time electrifying; like the purple descending upon the shoulder of a king.

“No,” she repeated slowly: “the fact that you feel The Brain is alive and possessed with a personality of its own, doesn’t make you mad. I’ve always felt that way about machines; even the simple ones like automobiles. It was in the mountains north of San Francisco where I grew up; whenever we went to town in winter time and the car came roaring down those serpentines into the heavy air moist with fog and soft rains, I could feel that engine breathe deeper and rejoice over its added power. There was no doubt in my mind that it was a living thing. I often went to the garage when I was little to talk to that car; to children of another age their dolls were alive, for our generation it’s the machines. It’s natural that this should be so. There’s a child in every man, no matter how adult. There is in Howard Scriven, too; in all the scientists I’ve come to know, and the greater they are the more it is distinct. You identify yourself with your work and in the degree you do that it becomes a living thing; it is through vital imagination that we become creators of anything, be it love or a machine. You needn’t worry, Semper; let The Brain be alive, let it be a personality, that doesn’t make you mad. All it indicates is that you’re doing excellent work.”

Lee blinked. With an effort he turned his eyes away from those breasts which seemed to strive for the light of the sun from under the restraint of her Navajo Indian sweater dress. He felt the utter inadequacy, the devastating irony of words as now he was alone with Oona, up in the clouds in a plane with nobody to interfere for the first time.

“You fool,” a voice whispered in him, “you damned, you helpless fool. Why don’t you take her into your arms now? Isn’t this the fulfillment of all your dreams; what are you waiting for?” But: “No,” his ration answered, “that wouldn’t do. Maybe she would give in to the mood of some enchanted hour, maybe she would let herself be kissed. But if she did, it would be ‘one of those things’; the glory of the sunset, God’s great masterpiece, the Canyon spread below, the intensity of my desire. They are bound to enter, bound to confuse the issue.”

His every muscle stiffened and his lips paled as he bit them with a violent effort to keep under control.

“Thanks, Oona,” he said. “Of course I couldn’t expect and, in fact, I didn’t expect that you would accept those things I’ve told you just now; not in the literary sense that is. I’m very happy though and deeply grateful that at least you do not think me mad. I’ll confess to you--and to you only--that I’ve been so deeply disturbed by these experiences with The Brain that I’ve thought to myself: “Lee you’re going crazy.” The Brain as it has revealed itself to me, is a tremendous reality; the world outside The Brain is another reality and the two seem mutually exclusive of one another; they just don’t mix. Now: either The Brain is an absolute reality--in that case I should not wish to have anything to do with this god of the machines who wants to enslave mankind ... if I cannot fight this monster I would rather flee before its approach to the end of the world--or else: I’m suffering hallucinations, I’m hearing voices, I’m obsessed. In that case I’d be unfit for the service of The Brain, I’d be unworthy to be in your company and I also ought to run and hide where I belong, out there in the wilds of Australia.”

He had been talking faster and faster as if in fear that she would interrupt him before he came to the end.

“In other words, I’m damned both ways; damned if I’m right and damned if I’m wrong; and you know why Oona; you have known it all along: that I love you.”

She did not look at him. She stared upward into the rainbow vortex of the jet which held the ship in the air. There was a smile on her face, a kind smile which men do not often see, infinitely wise and infinitely sad, full of a secret knowledge older than Man’s.

It worried Lee, as the unknown of woman always worries man; but at least she didn’t take her hand away; softly, soothingly the fingers of that hand caressed his shoulder as if possessed with a life of their own.

“No; I would not follow you into your wilderness if that’s what you mean,” she said at last. “That hasn’t got anything to do with you; I’ll tell you later why. But I don’t think that you should go there either; it wouldn’t help--it never helps a man to run away from unsolved problems.” She had sounded strangely dull and dry, but now the beautiful deep resonance reentered the contralto voice as she continued:

“I know your record, Semper; I know just why you ran away and became an expatriate the first time--way back in ‘49. Her name was Ethel Franholt and just because she happened to be a little bitch and worst of all: jilted you for old money-bags Carson’s son, you took it hard. Granted that it was a fierce letdown, those postwar years were a nasty picture generally; did it solve your problem to sulk out there in the desert like Achilles in his tent? You know it didn’t. You were not through with civilization be it good or bad. You were not through, as now it turns out, even with the other sex. That human problem which was the immediate reason why you left, the one named Ethel, has traveled back and forth to Reno three or four times and is currently married to one Padraic O’Conner, a Chicago cop. Don’t you think that it was good riddance when she married old man Carson’s son? Do you think your leaving made one iota of a difference or altered a solution as ordained by fate?”

“No,” he said humbly.

“Then why are you trying that selfsame escapist solution now? Maybe you’re right about The Brain and maybe you’re wrong; that I wouldn’t know. I’ve been working with scientists for too long to rule out anything as impossible. But that’s exactly it. You have not solved this problem one way or another yet, not even to your own satisfaction. To abandon it now, to flee from it in self preservation; why that would be almost like desertion in the face of the enemy. You have got to see this thing through to the end. If it turns out that you are suffering from a neurosis, there still will be time to do something about it. If you are right and some machine-god has indeed descended upon this earth, then it is your plain duty to stay on because you are its prophet whether you like it or not and would know better how to handle it than anybody else. Perhaps our mechanized civilization is going to the dogs; as Scriven suspects and you and maybe I myself. But even so we cannot abandon it; we belong, we are part of it, we’re in it to the bitter end.”

Lee nodded slowly.

“Yes, I see what you mean. Please forgive me, Oona; The Brain, has a terrific force of attrition, it’s been wearing me down--Keeping everything to myself and thinking that you would shrink from me as from a madman. Tell me then, what shall I do? Should I tell Scriven or anybody else about this thing?”

“For heaven’s sake, no,” she said horrified. “In the first place, Howard carries an enormous burden at this present time; that Brain power Extension Bill is going before Congress next week. It simply would be unfair to bring any new uncertainty into his life when his energy is already strained to its last ounce. In the second place Howard abhors anything which smacks of the metaphysical. You have no proof, Semper, and in the absence of that you cannot, you mustn’t approach anybody with the matter. All you can do is carry on and build up a strong case 100% with solid facts. Don’t forget that The Brain constitutes a three-billion-dollar investment of taxpayers’ money; besides The Brain is the heart of our national defenses; never forget your “Oath of the Brain.” You cannot be too careful. Make the slightest mistake, and believe me, it would be suicide. Promise, please, promise that you won’t do anything rash?”

Lee looked at her in frank amazement.

“You’re right,” he murmured, “these things never occurred to me before. But you’ve got something there; good lord, what a complex world we’re living in.”

The face she turned toward his suddenly was wet with tears.

“Forget it,” she cried, “oh please, forget everything I said about staying in this country and seeing this thing through to the end. Go, go away, back to the never-never land, stay there and be safe. You cannot cope with this thing, its too big and it’s too involved with all those politics behind. Get out of it as long as there’s still time. You’re a child, you’re a Don Quixote riding against windmills and it’s going to kill you--you--you innocent.”

Anger and contempt were in her voice as she flung this last at him. She hastily withdrew her hand from Lee; now it fingered for something in her bag. He sat appalled; this was so unexpected, this was a different woman from the composed and balanced Oona he had known. What had he done to provoke this sudden reversal of opinion, this contempt, this tearing away the king’s purple from his shoulder, the purple which had been her hand.

“She must think I’m a coward,” he thought.

“This is awful.” Aloud he said:

“Oh no; believe me, I never would have gone back to the never-never in any case, Oona. Not without you that is. You said you couldn’t follow me there for some reasons which have nothing to do with me. Does that mean, could I hope perhaps that you would--be my wife--later, when The Brain problem is all done and over with?” He paused: “It wouldn’t necessarily mean to bury you in any desert, Oona,” he added eagerly.

“No, Semper,” she cried. “It’s very good of you and I’m proud you asked me, but it cannot be, never.” Almost violently she repeated: “Never--it is too late. Some day, I promise I’m going to explain; right now I cannot, Semper. Please understand at least this one thing that right now I cannot explain.”

“It’s horrid,” Lee thought. “I’m always saying the wrong things at the wrong time with Oona. I don’t seem to have any understanding of a woman’s psychology at all; I’m hopeless.”

“Of course” he said aloud. “It shall be as you wish.”

The girl still didn’t look at him. Her face under the transparent rainbow umbrella of the swooshing jet again was radiant with that strange smile which women preserve for their newly born after the pangs of birth or for their men when unseeing they lie in fever deliriums; the old, the knowing smile as she starts on the road to pain. Still smiling she gripped the controls with her firm, capable hands.

“From the first minute,” she said, “we’ve been friends, Semper. Let’s stay that way. This afternoon I made a fool of myself by telling you first to stay on and then to go away. I was a little unnerved; I’m sorry, Semper, it won’t happen again. I, too, am living under a considerable strain. You won’t leave, I can see that now; it’s partly my fault and partly the perversity of the male. Promise me as a friend that you’ll be careful, understand? Very, very careful in all matters concerning The Brain and above all: discreet. Will you do that?”

It buoyed Lee up no end.

“Of course, Oona,” he said. “You know that I trust your judgment. You know that I think the world of you.”

“That’s wonderful,” she exclaimed, “and now: look down; see the last act before the curtain falls.”

Down in the canyon deeps the dream cities and castles which millions of years and the river built were changing contours and colors as the big fireball dived into the Sierra Mountains. And then the shadows raced like a ferocious hunt out of the deep, chasing away the last iridescence of that awesome beauty and drowning it in the rising tide of the night.

The girl had flicked on the dashboard lights; the radio started humming the tune of the Cephalon sound-beam, a deft turn of the wheel set the jetticopter upon its course. They were alone under the stars; all the other pleasure craft had returned before darkness from the fashionable sunset-cocktail hour over the Grand Canyon. Now it was Lee’s arm which eased itself around the shoulder of the girl feeling with a delight in its every nerve the slight pressure by which she answered it.

“I’m going to kiss her now,” he thought, “at last, at last!”

There was a buzz in the phone and Lee lost contact with her shoulder as suddenly she bent forward to take the receiver:

“Oh hello, Oona; this is Howard. Saw your plane over the canyon.”

“Where are you?”

“Right behind you,” chuckled Scriven’s voice. “On the maiden trip with my new ship. Took her over in Los Angeles this afternoon straight from the assembly line. She’s got everything. Oona, I don’t wish to spoil your evening for you but there are a few things right now I wish I could consult with you about. Do you think you could spare me a minute? Would you feel terrible if you did? Who’s with you now; I don’t mean to be personal, you understand.”

“Why it’s Dr. Lee, of course.”

“That’s fine. He’s the very man I want to see. Perhaps you two would like to come over for cocktails in my ship? We could both land at the top of the Braintrust building; it would be more comfortable than up in the air. Besides, we would have all our working material right there.”

With her hand on the receiver Oona turned to Lee: “How about it, Semper?”

“Do you want me to go?” he asked.

“Frankly I do,” she said earnestly. “He needs your aid. He’s in a terrible fix right now.”

He tried to hide the bitterness of disappointment by a smile. “Why then of course,” he said.

Uncovering the receiver Oona spoke aloud again: “Okay, Howard, we’ll be seeing you.”

“Fine, fine,” came the delighted voice: “I’ll phone the tower immediately.”

With Scriven’s big ship flying behind Oona’s, only a few miles behind, the broken spell did not return. Already like a white table cloth laid in the sky, the landing platform of the Braintrust tower gleamed under the floodlights, and as the two ships descended almost side by side into the clearing behind the cabin, plain-clothes men materialized from under the shadows of the trees. Under the strong lights their smiles were as well-bred as those of trained diplomats and their poise was perfect. Six of them kept Lee, the stranger, covered while the seventh quickly frisked him under the disguise of a polite bow.

Bearing it all with a grin, Lee thought: “I never knew home would be like this. Never suspected it would be this kind of an America we were fighting for. The Brain, it’s got a private army too. Funny that I should have known that all the time and yet not realized...”

Scriven took him warmly by the arm. “I’m awfully sorry Lee, it’s plain folly of course. I don’t feel as if I need all this protection, but the government does. Don’t blame it on these men, they merely obey orders. Now, out with those lights--and let’s go over to the “Brain Wave.” I seem to hear a pleasant tinkling of glasses from within.”

There was. With her remarkable ability of living up to an emergency, Oona had taken possession of the strange ship. As the two men approached, she stood at the door, unhurried hostess of an established home with the soft glow of an electric fireplace behind her, ice cubes and cocktail shakers already glittering on the little bar.

It was a spacious cabin. On Scriven’s orders it had been equipped somewhat like the captain’s stateroom on an old “East-Indiaman” sailing ship.

“I like your ship, Howard,” she said. “She’s swaying a little on her shock absorbers in this breeze, but that makes one feel like really being at high sea.”

Scriven heaved a big sigh. “Thank you Oona, my dear. And you have no idea how right you are. We are at high sea; in fact, we’re lost--at least I am. Unless you save my life tonight, you and Dr. Lee.”

Oona laughed and even Lee couldn’t help smiling. There was something irresistible comic in the puzzled and worried expression of that leonine face. “Come on in, you need a drink,” the girl said.

The aluminum steps creaked, and then the settee by the fireplace, under the surgeon’s mighty frame. “More than one. Tonight, so help me, I would be justified, I would even have a right to get roaring drunk.”

Lee began to wonder whether the great Scriven had already made some use of his right in Los Angeles, which would account for the startling change in the man. The drink, however, which Oona handed him, seemed to do a lot of good. He sighed relief.

“This, briefly, is the story: I ran into General Vandergeest at the airplane factory. He was there to take over some stuff for the Army and he tipped me off. We are going to be invaded, Oona, a full scale invasion mounted by a Congressional Committee.”

“Oh God,” there was sincere grief in the girl’s voice. “And couldn’t you ward it off?”

With a gesture of despair, Scriven waved that away. “I know, I know. But after all The Brain is a military establishment and I am only the scientific director of it. Yes, of course I protested, I protested vehemently, but--” he shrugged his shoulders, “it was no good. You know how the military are.” He drained his glass and swung around.

“To put you into the picture, Lee, we have under construction at this present time the ‘Thorax.’ That’s a vast cavity underneath The Brain, just as is the thorax in the human body. It’s strictly hush-hush of course, but since you were good enough to say that you’re going to help me out, I might as well tell you. The Thorax is going to house the ‘motoric organs’ of The Brain. It already contains the living quarters for guards, maintenance engineers, and the general staff and so on in the event of war emergency. It also contains the first fully automatic factories for the production of spare parts which would make The Brain self-sufficient. Eventually it is going to contain a great many developments such as ‘Gog and Magog’ as I call them--fascinating little beasts, I tell you, even if at present they are still in the nursery stage. Anyway, for the completion of its Thorax The Brain needs another billion dollars, and for the operation of the Thorax Congress has to pass the Brainpower-Extension-Bill. For eventually, of course, all war-essential traffic and all war-essential industries have to be brought under the centralized control of The Brain if the country is going to win the Atom-war. Naturally this Brainpower-Extension-Bill has been very carefully edited by the War Department so as to appear a peacetime project for the technological improvement of transportation and so on. Even so we have great reason to fear that one of those blind mice which we elect for our law-makers might accidentally fall over a kernel of truth and start a great big squeak over it.