Browne addressed him enthusiastically, "I'm excited by this telepathy!
It's a marvelous short-cut to communication, if we could build up
our own thought pulses. Maybe we could use the principle of the
remote-control landing device which, as you know, can project human
thoughts on a simple, gross level, where ordinary energies get confused
by the intense field needed for the landing."
What interested Lesbee in the suggestion was that he had in his pocket
a remote control for precisely such mechanically produced thought
pulses. Unfortunately, the control was for the lifeboat. It probably
would be advisable to tune the control to the ship landing system also.
It was a problem he had thought of earlier, and now Browne had opened
the way for an easy solution.
He held his voice steady as he said, "Captain, let me program those
landing analogs while you prepare the film communication project. That
way we can be ready for him either way."
Browne seemed to be completely trusting, for he agreed at once.
At Browne's direction, a film projector was wheeled in. It was swiftly
mounted on solid connections at one end of the room. The cameraman and
Third Officer Mindel--who had come in with him--strapped themselves
into two adjoining chairs attached to the projector, and were evidently
ready.
* * * * *
While this was going on, Lesbee called various technical personnel.
Only one technician protested. "But, John," he said, "that way we have
a double control--with the lifeboat control having pre-emption over the
ship. That's very unusual."
It was unusual. But it was the lifeboat control that was in his pocket
where he could reach it quickly; and so he said adamantly, "Do you want
to talk to Captain Browne? Do you want his okay?"
"No, no." The technician's doubts seemed to subside. "I heard you
being named joint captain. You're the boss. It shall be done."
Lesbee put down the closed-circuit phone into which he had been
talking, and turned. It was then he saw that the film was ready to
roll, and that Browne had his fingers on the controls of the tractor
beam. The older man stared at him questioningly.
"Shall I go ahead?" he asked.
At this penultimate moment, Lesbee had a qualm.
Almost immediately he realized that the only alternative to what Browne
planned was that he reveal his own secret knowledge.
He hesitated, torn by doubts. Then: "Will you turn that off?" He
indicated the intercom.
Browne said to the audience, "We'll bring you in again on this in a
minute, good people." He broke the connection and gazed questioningly
at Lesbee.
Whereupon Lesbee said in a low voice, "Captain, I should inform you
that I brought the Karn aboard in the hope of using him against you."
"Well, that is a frank and open admission," the officer replied very
softly.
"I mention this," said Lesbee, "because if you had similar ulterior
motives, we should clear the air completely before proceeding with this
attempt at communication."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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