Chapter 16: Get the Dome!

To Gordon’s surprise, the publicity Randolph wrote about his being a Security Prime seemed to bring the other sections of Outer Marsport under the volunteer police control even faster. But he was too busy to worry about it. He left general co-ordination in the hands of Mother Corey, while Izzy and Schulberg ran the expanding of the police force.

Praeger arrived with the first load of food, and came storming up to him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a Security Prime! I’m grade three myself.”

“And I suppose that would have meant you’d have shipped in all the food we needed free?” Gordon asked.

The other stopped to think it over. Then he laughed roughly. “Nope. You’re right. The growers would starve next year if they gave it all away now. Well, we’ll get in enough food this way to keep you going for a while--couple of weeks, at least.”

It sounded good, and might have worked if there had been the normal food reserve, or if the other three quadrants had been willing to do as much. But while the immediate pressure of starvation was lifted, Gordon’s own stomach told him that it wasn’t an adequate diet. Signs of scurvy and pellagra were increasing.

Bruce Gordon whipped himself into forgetting some of that. His army was growing. Or rather, his mob. There was no sense in trying to get more than the vaguest organization.

It was the eighth day when he led them out in the early dawn. He had issued extra dope and managed a slight increase in the ration, so they made a brave showing--until they reached the dome.

There were no rifles opposed to him, as he had expected, and the guard at the gate was no heavier. But the warning had somehow been given, and both forces were ready.

Stretching north from the gate were the Municipals with members of some of the gangs; the other gangmen were with the Legals to the south. And they stood within inches of the dome, holding axes and knives.

A big Marspeaker ran out from the gate, and the voice of Gannett came over it. “Go back! If just one of you gets within ten feet of the dome or entrance, we’re going to rip the dome! We’ll destroy Marsport before we’ll give in to a doped-up crowd of riffraff! You’ve got five minutes to get out of sight, before we come out with rifles and knock you off! Now beat it!”

Gordon got out of the car the Kid was driving and started toward the entrance, just as the moaning wail of the crowd behind him built up.

“You fools!” he yelled. “They’re bluffing. They wouldn’t dare destroy the dome! Come on!”

But already the men were evaporating. He stared at the rout, and suddenly stopped fighting the hands holding him. Beside him, the Kid was crying, making horrible sounds of it. He turned slowly back to the car, and felt it get under way. His final sight was that of the Legals and Municipals wildly scrambling for cover from each other.

Mother Corey met him, dragging him back to a small room where he dug up an impossibly precious bottle of brandy. “Drink it all, cobber. So one of your Security badges had the wrong man attached to it, and word got back. Couldn’t be helped. You just ran into the sacred law of Marsport--the one they teach kids. Be bad, and the dome’ll collapse. The dome made Marsport, and it’s taboo!”

Gordon nodded. Maybe the old man was right. “If the dome gives them a perfect cover, why let me make a jackass of myself, Mother?” he asked numbly.

Corey shook his head, setting the heavy folds of flesh to bouncing. “Gave them something to live for here, cobber. And when you get over this, you’re gonna announce new plans to try again. Yes, you are! But right now, you get yourself drunk!”

He left Gordon and the bottle. After a while, the bottle was gone. He felt number, but no better, by the time Izzy came in.

“Trench is outside in a heavy-armored car, Bruce. Says he wants to see you. Something to discuss--a proposition!”

Gordon stood up, wobbling a little, trying to think. Then he swore, and headed for his room. “Tell him to go to hell!”

He saw Izzy and Sheila leave, wondering vaguely where she had been. Through the opening in the seal, he spotted them moving toward the big car outside. Then he shrugged. He finally made the stairs and reached his bed before he passed out.

Sheila was standing over him when he finally woke. She dumped a headache powder into her palm and held it out, handing him a small glass of water. He swallowed the fast-acting drug, and sat up, trying to remember. Then he wished he couldn’t.

“What did Trench want?” he asked thickly.

“He wanted to show you a badge--a Security badge made out for him,” she answered. “At least he said he wanted to show you something, and it was about that size. He wouldn’t talk with us much. But I remember his name in the book--”

Gordon shook his head and sat up. The book, he thought, trying to focus his thoughts. The book with all the names...

“All right, Cuddles,” he said finally. “You got your meal ticket, and you’ve outgrown it in this mess. Now I want that damned book! I’ve been operating in the dark. It’s time I found out how to get in touch with some of those people. Where is it?”

She shook her head. “It isn’t. Bruce--I don’t have it. That time I gave you the note, you didn’t come when I said, and I thought you wouldn’t. Then Jurgens’ men broke in, and I thought they’d get it, so--so I burned it. I lied to you about using it to make you keep me.”

“You burned it!” He turned it over, staring at her. “Okay, Cuddles, you burned it. You were trying to kill me then, so you burned it to keep Jurgens from getting it and putting the finger on me! Where is it, Sheila? On you?”

She backed away, biting her lips. “No, Bruce. I burned it. I don’t know why. I just did! No!”

She turned toward the door as he pushed up from the bed, but his arm caught her wrist, dragging her back. She whimpered once, then shrieked faintly as his hand caught the buttons on the dress, jerking them off. Then suddenly she was a writhing, biting, scratching fury. He tightened his hand and lifted her to the bed, dropping a knee onto her throat and beginning to squeeze, while he jerked the dress and thin slip off.

She sat up as he released his knee, her hoarse voice squeezed from between her writhing lips. “Are you satisfied now, you mechanical beast! Do you still think I have it on me?”

He grinned, twisting the corners of his mouth. “You don’t. Don’t you know a wife shouldn’t keep secrets from her husband? A warm-blooded, affectionate husband, to boot.” He bent down, knocking aside her flailing arms, and pulled her closer to him. “Better tell your husband where the book is, Cuddles!”

She cursed and he drew her closer. He bent down, forcing her head back and setting his lips on hers.

From somewhere, wetness touched his cheek; he lifted his head and looked down. The wetness came from tears that spilled out of her eyes and ran off onto the mattress. She was making no sound, and there was no resistance, but the tears ran out, one drop seeming to trip over another.

“All right, Sheila,” he said. His voice was cracked in his ears. “Another week of being a failure on this planet of failures, and I might. Go ahead and tell me I’m the same as your first husband. If I can’t even keep my word to you, I can at least get out and stay out.” He shook his head, waiting for her denunciation. “For your amusement, I’m going to miss having you around!”

He stood up. Something touched his hand, and he looked down to see her fingers.

“Bruce,” she said faintly, “you meant it! You don’t hate me any more.” She rubbed her wrist across her eyes, and the ghost of a smile touched her lips. “I don’t think you’re a failure. And maybe--maybe I’m not. Maybe I don’t have to be a failure as a woman--a wife, Bruce. I don’t want you to go!”

Two worlds. One huddled under its dome, forever afraid of losing that protection and having to face the life the other led; and yet driven to work together or to perish together. The sacred dome!

And suddenly he was shaking her. “The dome! It has to be the answer! Cuddles, you broke the chain enough for me to think again! We’ve been blind--the whole damned planet has been blind.”

She blinked and then frowned. “Bruce--”

“I’m all right! I’m just half sane instead of all insane for a change.” He got up, pacing the floor as he talked.

“Look, most of the people here are Martians. They’ve left Earth behind, and they’re meeting this planet on its own terms. And they’re adapting. Third-generation children--not all, but a lot of them--are breathing the air we’d die on, and they’re doing fine at it. Probably second-generation ones can keep going after we’d pass out. It’s just as true out here as it is on the frontier. But Marsport has that sacred dome over it. It’s still trying to be Earth. And it can’t do it. It’s never had a chance to adjust here, and it’s afraid to try.”

“Maybe,” she agreed doubtfully. “But what about this part of Marsport?”

“Obvious. Here, they grow up under the shadow of it. They live in a half-world, and they have to live on the crumbs the dome tosses them. Sheila, if something happened to that dome--”

“We’d be killed,” she said. “How do we do it?”

He frowned, and then grinned slowly. “Maybe not!”

They spent the rest of the night discussing it. Sometime during the discussion, she made coffee, and first Randolph, then the Kid came in for briefing. Randolph was a natural addition, and the Kid had been alternately following Gordon and Sheila around since he’d first heard they were fighting against the men who’d robbed him of his right to speak. In the end, as the night spread into day, there were more people than they felt safe with, and less than they needed.

But later, as he stood beside the dome when night had fallen again, Gordon wasn’t so sure. It was huge. The fabric of it was thin, and even the webbing straps that gave it added strength were frail things. But it was strong enough to hold up the pressure of over ten pounds per square inch, and the webbing was anchored in a metal sleeve that went too high for cutting. They could rip it, but not ruin it completely; and it had to be done so that no repair could ever be made.