Chapter 19

“This time,” the communications supervisor said with all the firmness he could muster, “this time there must not be any interference with communication. There just absolutely must not be!”

“Well, it wasn’t my fault,” the operator retorted with an exasperation that blanketed prudent restraint. “You heard what E McGinnis said--that they could identify E Gray, and the ship’s crew, and many of the colonists, but that there was no sign of the ship that took them there. If there wasn’t any ship there couldn’t be any communication. It’s not my fault. I can’t receive something that wasn’t sent.”

“I know, I know,” the supervisor said, and then, worried that he may be giving the appearance of backing down, commanded savagely, “just watch it, that’s all!” He chewed violently at his knuckle and glared at the operator.

“Just watch it,” the operator mumbled bitterly. “Just watch it, the man says. And what will I watch if the message stops coming?”

“Now, now, now, now,” the supervisor nagged, “we’ll have no insubordination, if you please.”

And upstairs this time more than Bill Hayes, sector chief, were monitoring the message. The top administrative brass of E.H.Q. were assembled in their big plush conference room used for arriving at major policy decisions that sometimes affected the whole course of man’s progress and direction in occupying the universe.

They sat in worried silence as E McGinnis reported the two messages he had received from Junior E Gray.

First: Keep clear of me. I am maneuvering with difficulty.

Then: Keep off. No mechanical science allowed in this co-ordinate system.

They looked at one another under beetled brows. They wondered, at first privately and then openly if that Junior E had blown his stack. They had looked at many a problem finally solved by the E’s, but never before had such a ridiculous situation come up.

And right at the time, too, when the civil government had decided to place a curb on E.H.Q.’s freedom of movement, its control over the experimental phases of planet development. The injunction to halt a Junior E from taking over the Eden problem fooled none of them. They knew that Gunderson wasn’t concerned for those colonists out there, that he was merely using the public furor to advance his own personal power. They knew that the police worked unremittingly, unceasingly, always and ever to bring every phase of human activity under their control. They knew it was a centuries-old tactic to wait for the right situation to arise, so that the lawmakers could be stampeded into passing some law which seemed only to apply to this given condition but in actuality broadened police powers over a wide area of man’s actions.

Yes, there was far more at stake here than the fate of fifty colonists. In a sense E.H.Q. itself was the stake. The whole science of E was at stake.

And E McGinnis had played right into Gunderson’s hands. It was he who had been the E influence in deciding to allow a Junior to handle the problem in the first place. It was he who was standing off from the planet, not landing and taking over things as he should.

There was obviously no danger. By his own report, the people on Eden were in good health, and from their apparent actions, not even distressed.

This message about no mechanical science being allowed, for example. Did the Junior mean the colonists wouldn’t allow it? Must mean that. What else could prevent it? But when an E, a real E, took charge in an experimental colony, the colonists had nothing further to say about the matter. True, when the five-year experimental period was over and the three-generation colonists took over a planet, then it came more under civil control, and E.H.Q. largely withdrew with the provision that it could step back in at any time the problem seemed not to have been solved after all.

But while under the five-year test ... The E was the final word, or should be. The colonists knew it. The E knew it, or should know it. Obviously then it was weakness on the part of the Junior if he allowed the colonists to dictate that there could be no mechanical science. Proof of his inability to handle the job.

A perfect setup for Gunderson!

They decided they were forced to take a strong hand with McGinnis. Ordinarily the E was the final word, not only with the colonists, but with the administration at E.H.Q. But maybe there were times when he shouldn’t be. Yes, definitely they should take a hand. After all, Gray was still a Junior, hardly more than a boy. Was it right that a mere boy could stop investigation by anyone except himself? Tell Earth with all its power and might what to do?

Definitely there was a time when an exception to general E policy should be made. Definitely this was that time. If nothing else, they must take a strong hand to prevent Gunderson from moving in with his police powers. Protect the E science from Gunderson, or at least salvage what they might.

Their conference over, they asked for a connection with McGinnis.

“We assume you will land and take charge, E McGinnis?” the board chairman asked.

“Certainly not,” McGinnis snapped back. “An E has forbidden it.”

“Well now,” the chairman argued, and sweat began to come out on his forehead. “He’s only a Junior. We have decided his judgment isn’t mature enough for this problem.”

“I have every confidence in Junior E Gray,” McGinnis said acidly. “And every E in the system will back me. It makes no difference what you have decided. Either the science of E means something, or it doesn’t. Either we have complete freedom to handle a problem, or we don’t. Let me remind you, gentlemen, this isn’t the first time that laymen have decided the E is a fool and tried to take matters into their own hands. Do you want to repeat past disasters?”