Space Station 1
"Aren't you forgetting something? A single atomic warhead could blow
the Station apart."
"We've got to risk that. They'll think a long time before they'll go
that far. The Station's not expendible. If we change our orbit we can
still make contact with the Mars ship that's due to berth in an hour.
We've got to get back to Mars and whatever protection Ramsey can give
us. We'll have his daughter with us. He'll be so glad to see her he'll
go out on a limb to protect us."
"He'd go out on a limb anyway; He'd have to in order to save himself.
But sure, we'll take the girl. No harm in that. He knows she's here
and will be expecting her. He'll thank us for taking things so quickly
in hand. If that crazy lieutenant had made his story public that
cruiser would have been out there anyway--perhaps even sooner. They'd
have wanted to know on Earth why anyone would want to harm Ramsey's
daughter, something we don't know ourselves."
Corriston decided then that he'd kept silent long enough. He returned
his gun to its holster, and walked up to the three executive officers,
completely ignoring the commander.
He heard the commander threaten him in a low tone, heard him say words
which would have caused some men to pause in fear. But Corriston did
not turn.
There was stunned disbelief in the eyes of the three men facing him. He
spoke quickly, knowing that he had only a moment before the commander
would see that he was seized and restrained. He had to make sure that
the three would hear him out, that the commander would not be instantly
obeyed. Perhaps he couldn't make sure, but at least he could try.
"I'll make a bargain with you," he said. "I've done reckless things
but I'm not a complete fool. You're going to prevent that cruiser from
berthing and I won't be able to interfere. I'm just one man against
several hundred. All three of you are armed. If I started shooting I'd
get perhaps two of you--no more. Then you'd kill me. I haven't even the
advantage of surprise. I gave that up because I can't believe you're
complete fools either.
"First, I want to see Helen Ramsey. I want you to let me talk to her.
And when the Mars' ship berths, I want to go to Mars with her. I've
something to offer in return."
One of the officers stared at him, tightened his lips and stared
harder. "Good God!" he muttered. "Good God! A bargain. You must be out
of your mind. What could you possibly offer? If you had a gun trained
on us--"
"A witness in your defense," Corriston said. "A witness who will stand
up in court and swear that you did try to protect Helen Ramsey, that
you saved her from a very great danger. You may think that you do not
need a witness now, but before the year is out Ramsey will be on trial
for his life. His wealth won't save him. They know too much about him
now. That freighter explosion killed too many people. The public
outcry will be too great.
"If you stay on Mars you'll be hunted down like wild animals. They'll
get you in the end and you know it. You'll be brought back to Earth;
you'll stand trial."
Corriston paused for the barest instant, knowing that the commander too
was listening, knowing from the absence of sound and movement behind
him that his words were being weighed. "I think you know that I would
not break my word. I'll stand up in court and defend you under oath.
I'll be speaking the simple truth. You _did_ save Helen Ramsey from a
very great danger; you probably saved her life. That is sure to weigh
in your favor with any impartial judge and jury. You won't get the
death penalty; I can promise you that."
It was the commander who spoke first. He said, very quietly. "He's
right, of course. Completely right."
One of the officers nodded. "There's no reason why we shouldn't let him
talk to the girl. We can decide later whether we like his offer."
"We're going to like it," the commander said, coming around in front of
Corriston. "He has more sense than I would have given him credit for."
"So have you, commander," Corriston said, and meant it.
The commander's eyes were still hostile, unfriendly, but the cold rage
had gone out of them.
"All right," he said. "Let him see the girl now. Make sure a guard is
stationed at the door. Keeping that cruiser from berthing won't be
easy. They'll keep the Station under fire with small projectiles, even
if they don't attack us with atomic warheads. They'll risk some damage
just to throw a scare into us."
The officer next to Corriston nudged his arm. "All right," he said.
"But remember this when you talk to her. She doesn't know the truth
about us. She doesn't even know we're wearing masks. We'd like it
better if you didn't say anything about it."
"Whether she knows it or not isn't too important," Corriston said. "I
suppose you wouldn't care to tell me what you've done with Commander
Clement and the other officers."
"No, we wouldn't care to tell you. Anything more?"
"I guess not," Corriston said. "Take me to her."
12
He was staring at her across a shadowed room, with the pale glimmer
of a cabin viewport above her right shoulder, a very small port that
looked like a full moon glimmering high in the sky through a sea of
mist.
Her face was very white and she was staring back at him as if he had
come suddenly out of nowhere.
She hesitated only an instant and then walked straight toward him,
walked right up to him and touched him gently on the face.
"I'm so glad," she said.
She drew back then and looked at him and smiled. "I was afraid you were
in trouble because of me," she said, "some terrible kind of trouble,
and I couldn't help you at all. I kept blaming myself for everything
foolish that I had ever done, going way back to the day when I broke
my first doll, deliberately and spitefully, because I was a very
headstrong little girl."
"I'm afraid I've always been pretty headstrong myself," Corriston said.
"But being a boy, I naturally couldn't break dolls. I just wrecked the
family's peace of mind."
"We all go through life with a great deal of foolish luggage," she
said. "And sometimes you have an impulse to just drop everything--and
run away."
"I can understand that," Corriston said. "But did you have to run
away quite so fast? It's hard to believe it was for anybody's good,
including your own."
"It might have been," she said. "It might have been for my good and
then later, partly for your good. Please don't judge me too harshly
before I've had a chance to tell you exactly what happened."
He reached out for her and kissed her even as she came into his arms.
He had expected her to be angry, to withdraw, but instead she encircled
his strong back with a surprising fierceness. When he released her, her
eyes were shining.
"I'm glad you did that ... darling! Very glad. But we're still in
trouble."
"I know that. But we're in love, too. And you just promised to tell me
what happened."
"Well, I guess I just ... just regressed."
"You what?"
"Regressed. You know, like when I was a headstrong little brat of a
child. We all do that at times. You'll have to admit there was some
excuse for me. You weren't born in a house with a hundred rooms, with
servants always coming and going, and outside gardens with big red
and yellow flowers where you couldn't even run and hide without being
smothered, without being searched for and brought screaming and kicking
back inside.
"You don't know what it means to know you haven't a father, only
a stern, cold, black-coated man standing away off in the darkness
somewhere and watching people bow down before him.
"You don't know what it means to be told: 'You're Stephen Ramsey's
daughter. _Behave. Behave. Behave!_'"
"I scarcely ever saw my father. And when I did see him he was as cold
as one of the slabs in the big mausoleum he took so much pride in, the
big family mausoleum which only a Ramsey was permitted to visit. And
yet I think he loved me in his own cold way. I think he still does."
She fell silent for a moment and then an overpowering need to tell
Corriston more seemed to come upon her.
"I was never allowed to see young men, not even to go for a ride in the
park. Anyone of them might be a fortune seeker, because no young man,
even if he is madly in love with a girl, can quite shut his eyes to
wealth as one additional reason for loving her.
"So I never saw any young men. I wasn't permitted to even go to a
dance, or walk in the moonlight on a balcony. I wanted to go to dances,
wanted at least one young man to kiss me damned hard."
"Sure you did," Corriston said. "I understand."
"I'm going to stop right there, darling. I could tell you what it means
to be free to travel, anywhere, anywhere in the world and to see all of
the white and shining cities, and to be intoxicated by beauty, and to
know at the same time that you are not free, can never hope to be free
as other people are free."
"And that's why you ran away."
"Yes, darling, yes, and because that bodyguard was a complete fool.
He was just one of thirty bodyguards my father had hired to protect
me, year after year. But he was the biggest fool of all. He drank too
much and he talked too much. Finally I made up my mind that I would be
better off if I went on to Mars alone. My father had told me I could
come, the trip had been carefully planned down to the smallest detail.
I was to travel incognito. I was to keep to myself until I arrived at
the Station and no one was supposed to know I was even on the ship, not
even the captain. I'm quite sure he didn't know. I think the invitation
to his cabin was a complete fabrication. In fact, I'm sure it was. I
think Clakey--his real name was Ewers--was just drunk enough to make up
a crazy story like that to get me away from you.
"But I didn't want to get away from you, darling. I wanted to get away
from him. I wanted to have a few days of complete freedom before I
arrived on Mars, and perhaps after that for a day in the colony before
I joined my father. I didn't care how angry he'd be when he saw me
without a bodyguard, alone, wonderfully, gloriously alone and free for
the first time in my life. I didn't want to be Helen Ramsey at all. I
wanted to be somebody else and be completely free.
"So I went into the ladies room, darling, and I put on the strangest
kind of mask."
"Yes," Corriston said. "I know."
"You know about the mask?"
"Please go on," Corriston said. "I'd rather you didn't ask me how I
know that your father can take pride in at least one constructive
achievement. The masks are extraordinary. I've seen one."
"But how? Where? I can't believe it. I--"
"Please," Corriston said. "It isn't too important. I made a necessary
promise that I wouldn't tell you, not immediately. I'm asking you to
trust me and go on."
"Well, I secured one of those very unusual masks. From the
Gresham-Ramsey Laboratories, before we left Earth. I could go there
anytime I wanted to. All of the research technicians there are quite
old. One of them, Thomas Webb, is really quite handsome. I might have
fallen in love with him if he had been forty years younger. He showed
me just how to adjust the mask. But when I went into the ladies' lounge
I had more than just a mask. I had a complete thin plastic change of
clothing concealed under my dress. I didn't remove my dress, only
reversed my clothing so that the plastic dress covered the one I'd been
wearing."
Corriston said, "It was a very courageous thing for you to do."
"I'm glad you think so, darling. Because when I came out of the
lounge and saw Ewers killed, I wasn't courageous at all. I became
panic-stricken, terrified, beside myself with fear. I knew that my
father had many dangerous enemies. I knew that I was in immediate,
deadly danger. I _had_ to go on with the disguise then. I had to go