“Yes.”
Larry took a deep, cold breath. Looking straight into the psychotech’s dark, calm eyes, he asked, “Do you think he’s capable of committing violent acts? Like murder?”
Hsai shook his head. “Under the proper circumstances, anyone is capable of murder. Even you and I.”
That’s a big help, Larry complained to himself.
“He should be released,” Dr. Hsai repeated. “You can have him watched as carefully as you wish, but there is no good to be accomplished by keeping him in the infirmary.”
“All right,” Larry agreed unhappily. “Let him go.” Hsai nodded and started walking away, toward the nearest hatch leading back to the warmth of life. He glanced over his shoulder once, looking slightly puzzled that Larry wasn’t coming with him, or at least following him.
But Larry stood rooted to the spot, beside one of the bulky cryosleep couches.
Dan wants Valery, and he wants to be Chairman.
“You knew that,” he said softly to himself. “That’s nothing new.”
Yes, his mind echoed back. But if he is insane, if he has done all these crazy things — including murder—then it’s because of me. The blame is partly mine. Maybe almost entirely mine. Especially if he’s insane. Then he’s not responsible for his actions. But I am. I am!
“All right, so it’s at least partially your own fault. What can you do about it now?”
He wanted to answer, Nothing. But instead he knew. You can give him what he wants. Let him have the Chairmanship. Let him have Valery.
“You know you can’t do that. Not if you want to stay sane. Not if you want to go on living.”
You can sleep. Right here. Sleep for as long as you want to. Sleep until they’re both dead. Then start a new life.
“Sure. Or maybe never wake up.”
It’s your choice.
With a sudden shock, Larry realized he was standing in front of Dr. Loring’s cryosleep unit. The graphs showed that the old man was still alive, waiting in frozen limbo for a surgical team to be organized for the attempt to save his life.
Give up the Chairmanship? Give up Valery?
“No.”
Then you’ll be pushing Dan even further. He might do something even worse.
Larry was sweating now. Despite the cold, beads of sweat were trickling down his face. “I can’t do it!” he whispered fiercely. “I won’t let him have his way! I won’t!”
It was always noisy in the main cafeteria. Big enough to handle three hundred people at a sitting, the cafeteria doubled as an eating place, an entertainment center, and an auditorium. It was brightly lit, gaily decorated, and bustling with crowds nearly all the time. One entire wall was a long viewscreen that showed constantly changing scenes from Earth, from outside in starry space, or from inside the ship itself.
At the moment Dan entered the cafeteria’s big double doors and stood blinking in the entryway, the long wall screen was showing an ocean beach on Earth: surging powerful breakers rolling up to smash against grim rocks in spectacular sheets of spray. The sky was blue, the sun a golden ball starting to turn red as it neared the horizon. People dotted the tiny slice of beach that lay between the rocks. Farther back, atop the higher rocky cliffs, there were houses.
Dan stood at the entryway and took it all in: the videotaped scene, the noise and brightness of the cafeteria. After a month in the quiet confinement of the infirmary,- it was like coming to life again after being in cryosleep.
People jostled through the entryway past him. Several of them smiled at him, or said some brief words of greeting:
“Good to see you back, Dan.”
“Hi, Dan.”
“Hey, pal, how’re ya doin?”
“Can’t keep a good man down, huh, Dan?”
He grinned at them, nodded, even shook a few hands.
Then he saw her far across the room, sitting by herself, looking tense. She had a tray of food before her, but she wasn’t touching it; Valery was merely looking off into space, waiting.
Dan quickly made his way to the selector wall, punched buttons for the food he wanted, and went to the receiving slot. All the while he kept one eye on Valery’s golden hair. He took his steaming tray straight to her table.
“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,” he said.
She looked up, wide-eyed, almost startled. “Oh—no, I just got here a few minutes ago.”
He sat down on the other side of the little table. “It was good of you to agree to meet me.”
She seemed wary, almost afraid. “This is a funny place to meet… I mean, it’s so noisy.”
A group of half a dozen teenagers appeared on the stage at the other end of the room and started setting up electronic musical instruments.
Dan grinned. “It’s alive. I like it. Kind of hard on the ears, but it’s fun.”
“You…you look very good,” Valery said.
“You’re scared of me,” he realized. “Why? Do you think I’m crazy, too?”
“Who…”
He took her hand in his. “Come on, Val. I know what Larry thinks. I know he’s the one who kept me locked up for the past month.”
Pulling slowly away from his grip, she answered, “Dan, I don’t want you and Larry to be enemies. You ought to be friends again—”
“I wish we could. I really do. I think I’d even let him keep the Chairmanship, if only I could be sure …”
He shook his head. “It’d never work. You’re the one I want, Val. If I had you, I’d almost be willing to let the rest of it go.”
“The rest of it?”
“Yep… I had a lot of time to think, you know, sitting there in the infirmary. A lot of time. I understand there haven’t been any accidents since I went in.”
She hesitated, then admitted, “That’s right.”
“You see? He’s been damned smart about it… damned smart.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s trying to make it look like it’s all my fault. Larry’s got half the people on this ship believing that I’m crazy, that I’ve been causing the accidents, that I tried to kill your father.”
She stared at him. “Did you?”
He looked back into her Arctic-blue eyes, sensing all the turmoil, the fear, the pain that lay behind them.
“Have you asked Larry that question?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean, Valery.”
“But why?” she asked, so softly that he could barely hear her voice over the cafeteria din. “Why would Larry do it?”
“Have you ever thought,” Dan asked slowly, “that if there really is a madman aboard this ship, it’s got to be Larry?”
“No! It couldn’t be!”
“Couldn’t it?”
“Dan—you’re wrong. The accidents… they could be just that: accidents.”‘
“Then why is Larry trying to prove that I’m insane?”
“He’s afraid…”
“Afraid of me.”
The words were gushing out of her now. “Larry’s afraid that if you are sick, you’ll hurt more people, hurt the ship, kill us all.”
“That’s just what he’s doing.”
“No…”
Dan could feel his temper rising, his face getting hot and red. “He’s afraid of me because he knows that I know I didn’t cause any of those accidents. He knows that I can’t rest until I show everyone who did cause the accidents—that killed my father and nearly killed yours. That’s what he’s afraid of!”
Valery’s voice was pleading, “Dan, listen to me. Believe in me. If you keep going this way, one of you—or both of you—are going to be killed! Stop it now. Let it stop.”