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them."
"Yes," said Luhon, "let's go to the lounge."
They went. As they entered the lounge, with Eff and Chak'ha abreast, followed
by Luhon beside Miles, and moved to stand together in one corner from which
they could survey the rest of the room, the eyes of everyone else there turned
to them.
"Get everyone here," said Luhon, raking the room with his eyes. His gaze
fastened on Vouhroi, who was closest to the corridor leading back to the crew
quarters. "You, Vouhroi, go back and bring everybody else up here."
Vouhroi went. The silence in the lounge continued unbroken. The eyes of those
there remained fixed on the four standing in the corner. For the first time a
small doubt crawled through the lower level of Miles' mind. They were four
combined now three who were the top three in physical abilities aboard the
ship plus Chak'ha, who was least. But with the breakdown of the old pecking
order anything was possible. What if, seeing this combination of four, the
others of the nineteen remaining moved to combine themselves in an opposing
group? Suddenly, he was glad of Luhon's willingness to fight for their plans
if necessary.
Five other crew members, followed by Vouhroi, filed into the lounge and
filled up the empty chairs, with the exception of those chairs belonging to
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Miles and his three companions. They sat still, looking at Luhon.
"Miles just conquered me," said Luhon. "So he's on top now aboard this ship.
He believes, and we with him here agree, that from now on things are going to
be different." He glanced aside at Miles. "Tell them, Miles."
"There isn't going to be any more fighting among ourselves," said Miles,
looking around at the different alien faces. "From now on we're going to work
together, and we're going to make theFighting Rowboat into a ship that can
actually go into battle against the Silver Horde when it comes."
A small sound came murmuring from the rest of the crew members, like the
sound of wind through the swaying branches of a grove of trees. It was a
combination of sounds, in many verbal ways, of astonishment and disbelief.
"I know!" said Miles swiftly. "The Center Aliens don't think we can do it.
But I think we can. Have any of you gotten close to those weapons and felt
what they're like with the sensing part of your minds? They'recold ! We'd have
to work with them to warm them up. But who knows what they'd be like if
theywere warmed up?"
He looked around at them.
"We come from fighting races, all of us," he said. "Otherwise we wouldn't
have fought among ourselves the way we did. Now, who among you doesn't want to
fight the Silver Horde if you get the chance?"
All through the lounge there was silence. No one moved; no one replied.
"None of you!" said Miles. "Of course, if that's the case, what've you got to
lose by going along with me? Let's see if this ship and all of us, working
together, can't make a fighting unit that the Center Aliens will let join them
when the time comes to face the Silver Horde."
He paused. They still looked at him, neither assenting nor dissenting.
"All right," said Miles slowly. "Is there anyone here who won't go along with
the rest of us in doing this?"
Beside and behind Miles, Luhon, with Eff and Chak'ha, moved forward a step.
No one spoke. For a moment Miles was tempted to let it go at that. Then some
inner instinct warned him that he needed to force his listeners into a
positive statement of agreement, rather than just a passive acceptance of his
plans.
"Those who're ready to go to work at once," he said, "take a step forward."
There was a pause, a rustle of movement; then Vouhroi stood up. One by one
and in groups they all rose from their chairs and stepped toward Miles.
"Good!" said Miles. He kept his voice calm, but triumph sang inside him. "Now
let's find out what it takes to operate this ship and her weapons!" he said.
"I'll go to the control room. With me will be Luhon as my second-in-command
and Eff as my third-in-command. Chak'ha will join the rest of you on the
weapons. Scatter around the ship now, find yourselves weapons, and try to warm
them up."
Without waiting for any sign of assent from them, Miles turned and strode
from the room toward the passageway, the corridor leading to the control room
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in the vessel's bow. He heard footfalls behind him and knew that Luhon, Eff,
and Chak'ha were following, while a general confused sound of voices and
movement behind him indicated that at least some of the rest of the crew were
obeying. He led the way up into the control room and paused before the central
of the three seats that faced the control console under the large vision
screen with its view of the blackness of intergalactic space.
"We'll have to practice, too," he muttered, as much to himself as to the
three others, who had followed him in.
"Shall I show you how, friend Miles?" murmured the soft voice of Luhon in his
ear. Miles turned sharply to face the gray-skinned alien.
"Do you know something about this I don't?" Miles asked. "The information
about these controls was evidently put into me by the Center Aliens when they
first took me over."
"So it was in me in all of us," answered Luhon, unperturbed. "But you have to
remember I've fought with the ship thousands of times, and you haven't."
Miles stared at him. Another ripple of amusement sped from Luhon to break
against Miles' perception.
"What do you think I've been doing up here all alone, all this time?' asked
Luhon. "Thousands of times, in my imagination, I've fought this ship against
the Silver Horde never believing it would actually ever happen, that I would
really fight her. You know the controls, friend Miles, as well as I do,but I
know theship better than you do." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]