Dr. S, in a louder tone of voice but as calmly and steadily as possible in the circumstances: “James Goodwin, the next time you hear me say ‘stop,’ you will at once disconnect your neural interface and fall peacefully asleep!”
Goodwin, beginning to froth at the mouth and swaying in his frame as his prosthetic lurched forward: “Ach-ach-arrrggghhh!”
And finally Dr. S: “STOP!”
Session ends.
X
NO DUFF MSG!
URGENT! URGENT! URGENT!
On this day, 12th Nov 2407, at 2244 Hrs, Cmdr. Abel Berresford, Darkside Luna Base, requests immediate voice contact with Cmdr. Space Central, AZ.
“Abel? This is Frankie Zazarro. What the hell is happening up there? Man, I was at Liz’s birthday party, and if this is one of your practical…. Are you talking over the top of me?”
“Frankie, shut up and listen! I’m really sorry about Liz’s party but we have an anomaly. In fact we have five of them. My meteor cannons are locked on them right now and I need to know what to do. I mean, hell, I know what to do but SOPs won’t let me, not without your say-so.”
“An ‘anomaly’? Five anomalies? You mean like Anomaly 13?”
“Exactly like that, Frankie! Now let me tell you about it. All nine hundred of us, we’re situated in our three interconnected crater domes in a rough triangle of some five acres…but you already know all that; you were the Officer Commanding up here way before me! I’m just putting you in the picture, is all. Anyway, these things appeared out of nowhere maybe twenty or twenty-five minutes ago. They’re something like a mile away, in the hills to the north and on the plain in the south, completely encircling the base. And they just sit there like small silver pyramids. They’re not doing anything, but their pattern—the way we’re surrounded—I mean, this has got to be about us! And Frankie, I don’t like it at all.”
“Abel, General Sellway and my security people are on their way into HQ right now. And meanwhile I’m told we can’t get you on screen. Now why the hell is that?”
“Because our comsats are down, that’s why.”
“Down?”
“Either taken out or blocked in some way. Never mind visuals, you wouldn’t be getting voice if not for our surface cable to Earthside! But these things are like sitting ducks, Frankie! And with our cannons…you just say the word and this time we won’t simply be firing at chunks of space rock!”
“Abel, listen: you’ll do no such thing! Don’t even shine a light on those pyramids! You’re not the only one with SOPs, you know. Mine are pretty much like yours and while we’ve been talking I’ve glanced through them. Know what happened the last time someone flashed a light at one of those things?”
“Yes, I know. Anomaly 13. But I wasn’t thinking in terms of flashlights, Frankie. I was thinking in terms of guns that fire so fast and hard they can vaporize incoming meteorites!”
“Abel, hold it a minute. The General is here, and he’s been listening in.”
“Abel, Gordon Sellway here. When our security people get in we’ll look at our options. There’s too much history—too much of a situation here—for any one man’s decision. Do you copy?”
“Shit! I copy, but it looks like one of my gunners doesn’t!”
“What?”
“Some trigger-happy jerk has just opened up! Ah! That 1ight…leaping from one pyramid to the next…reaching up like a wall of brilliant white fire, and…. “ (Transmission ends.)
XI
“Ahem! Voice record of Dr. G. L. Spatzer, at—ummm, let’s see—0845 hours on the 13th of November, 2407:
“Just had a call from James Goodwin. He’s coming to see me. Puzzling—in fact amazing! Until recently I was the one man he least wanted anything to do with! But bad timing, because right now the HQ is a madhouse—and I don’t just mean the psychiatric ward! All of the top brass, the military and their minions, and droves of civil servants rushing to and fro; I daren’t step out in the corridor for fear of getting trampled underfoot!
“Understandable in the current circumstances, I suppose. Apparently some idiot paparazzi hack was tuned in on an insecure Earth/Darkside Luna conversation last night and patched it through as an ‘exclusive’ to his patron news channel…since when it’s spread like wildfire!
“This morning it’s on the airwaves, the TV screens, and in the papers all over the planet! Two shuttles on course for the moon from UES II, grav-drive Spirit of Space inbound from the asteroid belt, and the untried gunship Sir Galahad ordered up into Earth orbit. I didn’t catch it alclass="underline" something about ‘anomalies’—like Jim Goodwin’s, I wonder?—and a total Darkside-Luna shutdown. Space Central working desperately hard, even too hard, to put it about that it’s some kind of ‘freak power failure’ and nothing to be concerned about. Frankly I can’t see it. If it’s nothing to be concerned about, why is this place in an uproar?
“I can hear Goodwin come purring down the corridor…I’ll leave the recorder running. Maybe he’ll have something interesting for me. High time, too! I admit I’m beginning to despair of ever getting through to him….”
(The hiss of pneumatic doors opening and the deep-throated purr of a powerful electric motor. Dr. Spatzer’s voice warning, “Mind your head, Jim!” And a high-pitched whine quickly fading into silence as the motor shuts down.)
Goodwin’s voice: “Surprise, surprise, Doc!”
Dr. S: “Good morning, Jim. You seem in fine spirits!”
Goodwin: “Cheerful, you mean? In a way, I suppose. Not much good feeling down; not any longer, anyway. Fact is I’m ready to talk—about everything. I’ve remembered everything, Doc—and it’s stopped hurting!”
Dr. S, indeed sounding surprised, and perhaps not a little alarmed: “Stopped hurting? But how can that be, Jim? The drugs? I mean even the best painkillers can’t—”
Goodwin: “No, it’s not my backside, what little is left of it; I’m talking about my head! I can think it through now without it shuts me down every time.”
Dr. S: “And you believe you can talk about it? About, well, everything, did you say?”
Goodwin, most eagerly: “That’s right. It was the library—the archives, all the restricted stuff that I’ve been reading—and then to top it off this morning’s news. That’s what finally did the trick. You see Doc, until now I couldn’t figure it out. But now…now I’m pretty sure I know what it was all about.”
Dr. S: “The archives? Ah, yes! You’ve been spending quite a lot of time in the library, haven’t you? Your newfound freedom and unrestricted access? We’ve tried to make everything as easy and as normal as possible for you. Not everyone has that kind of access to the archives. As for this morning’s news: do you mean the problem on Darkside?”
Goodwin: “That’s what I mean all right—but it isn’t just Darkside Base that’s got a problem, Doc. No, not at all. So, do you want to hear about it—about everything?”
Dr. S, cautiously: “An unscheduled session, you mean? Right here in my office?”
Goodwin: “Relax, Doc. I’m not going to bite you. That’s all over and done with now. Fact is, everything is done with now. I just thought you’d like to know about it before…well before they get here, is all. Then you can make up your mind like I’ve made up mine.”