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20 - Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith · Galactic Patrol

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty of Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Out from Radelicks
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  Speaker 1: and into deep space, shot the speedster bearing the gray
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  Speaker 1: Lensmen toward Boisea, too, where the Bosconian base was situated.
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  Speaker 1: The patrol forces had not even yet been able to
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  Speaker 1: locate it definitely. Therefore it must be cleverly hidden. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it was manned and staffed by Telurians, and this was
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  Speaker 1: fairly close to the line first taken by the pilot
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  Speaker 1: of the pirate vessel, whose crew had been so decimated
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  Speaker 1: by man Buskirk and his Valerians. There couldn't be so
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  Speaker 1: many Bosconian bases with Telurian personnel, Kinnison reflected, it was
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  Speaker 1: well within the bounds of possibility, even of probability, that
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  Speaker 1: he might again encounter hear his former but unsuspecting shipmates,
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  Speaker 1: since the Boisean system was less than a hundred parsecs
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  Speaker 1: from Radelicks. A couple of hours found the Lensmen staring
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  Speaker 1: down upon another green and earthly world. Very earthly indeed
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  Speaker 1: was this one. There were polar ice caps, areas of
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  Speaker 1: intensely dazzling white There was an atmosphere deep and sweetly blue,
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  Speaker 1: filled for the most part with sunlight, but flecked here
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  Speaker 1: and there with clouds, some of which were slow moving storms.
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  Speaker 1: There were continents bearing mountains and plains, lakes and rivers.
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  Speaker 1: There were oceans studded with islands great and small. But
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  Speaker 1: Kennison was no planetographer, nor had he been gone from
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  Speaker 1: Tellus sufficiently long so that the sight of this beautiful
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  Speaker 1: and homelike world aroused in him any qualum of nostalgia.
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  Speaker 1: He was looking for a pirate base, and dropping his
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  Speaker 1: speedster as low into the night side as he dared,
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  Speaker 1: he began his search of man, or of the works
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  Speaker 1: of man. He at first found little enough trace. All
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  Speaker 1: human or pseudo human life was apparently still in a
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  Speaker 1: savage state of development, and except for a few scattered races,
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  Speaker 1: or rather tribes, of burrowers and of cliff or cave dwellers,
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  Speaker 1: it was still nomadic, wandering here and there without permanent
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  Speaker 1: habitation or structure. Animals of scores of genera and species
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  Speaker 1: were there in myriads, but neither was Kennison a biologist.
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  Speaker 1: He wanteds and it seemed that was the one form
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  Speaker 1: of life which he was not going to find, but finally,
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  Speaker 1: through sheer, grim, bulldog pertinacity, he was successful. That base
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  Speaker 1: was there somewhere. He would find it, no matter how
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  Speaker 1: long it took. He would find it if he had
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  Speaker 1: to examine the entire crust of the planet, land and
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  Speaker 1: water alike, kilometer by plotted cubic kilometer. He set out
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  Speaker 1: to do just that, and it was thus that he
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  Speaker 1: found the Basconian Stronghold. It had been built directly beneath
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  Speaker 1: a towering range of mountains, protected from detection by mile
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  Speaker 1: upon mile of native copper and of iron ore. Its entrances,
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  Speaker 1: invisible before were even now not readily perceptible, camouflaged as
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  Speaker 1: they were by outer layers of rock which matched exactly
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  Speaker 1: in form, color, and texture the rocks of the cliff
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  Speaker 1: in which they were placed. Once those entrances were located,
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  Speaker 1: the rest was easy again. He set his speedster into
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  Speaker 1: a carefully observed orbit and came to ground. In his
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  Speaker 1: armor again, he crept forward furtively and skulkingly until he
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  Speaker 1: could perceive a shimmering web of force with minor variations.
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  Speaker 1: His method of entry into the Bosconian base was similar
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  Speaker 1: to that he had used in making his way into
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  Speaker 1: the patrol base upon Ratolics. He was, however, working now
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  Speaker 1: with a surety in a precision which had then been
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  Speaker 1: entirely lacking. His practice upon the patrolman and his terrific
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  Speaker 1: bout with the four Lensmen had given him knowledge and technique.
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  Speaker 1: His sitting in judgment, during which he had touched almost
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  Speaker 1: every mind in the vast assemblage, had taught him much.
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  Speaker 1: And above all, the grisly finale of that sitting, horribly
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  Speaker 1: distasteful in soul racking as it had been, had given
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  Speaker 1: him training of inestimable value, Necessitating, as it had, the
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  Speaker 1: infliction of the ultimate penalty. He knew that he might
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  Speaker 1: have to stay inside that base for some time. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: he selected his hiding place with care. He could, of
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  Speaker 1: course blank out the knowledge of his presence in the
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  Speaker 1: mind of anyone chancing to discover him, but since such
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  Speaker 1: an interruption might come at a critical instant, he preferred
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  Speaker 1: to take up his residence in a secluded place. There were,
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  Speaker 1: of course, many vacant sweats in the officer's quarters. All
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  Speaker 1: bases must have accommodations for visitors, and the Lensmen decided
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  Speaker 1: to occupy one of them. It was a simple matter
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  Speaker 1: to obtain a key, and inside the bare but comfortable
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  Speaker 1: little room, he stripped off his armor with a sigh
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  Speaker 1: of relief. Leaning back in a deeply upholstered leather arm chair,
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  Speaker 1: he closed his eyes and he let his sense of
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  Speaker 1: perception roam throughout the great establishment. With all his newly
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  Speaker 1: developed power, he studied it hour after hour and day
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  Speaker 1: after day. When he was hungry, the pirate cooks fed him,
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  Speaker 1: not knowing that they did so. He had lived on
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  Speaker 1: iron rations long enough. When he was tired, he slept
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  Speaker 1: with his eternally vigilant lens on guard. Finally he knew
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  Speaker 1: everything there was to be known about that stronghold, and
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  Speaker 1: he was ready to act. He did not take over
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  Speaker 1: the mind of the base commander, but chose instead the
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  Speaker 1: chief communications officer as the one most likely and most
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  Speaker 1: intimately to have dealings with Helmouth. For Helmouth, who spoke
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  Speaker 1: for Bascone, had for many long months, been the lensman's
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  Speaker 1: definite objective. But this game could not be hurried. Bases,
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  Speaker 1: no matter how important, did not call Grand Base except
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  Speaker 1: upon matters of the most dire urgency, and no such
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  Speaker 1: matter eventuated. Nor did Helmuth call that base, since nothing
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  Speaker 1: out of the ordinary was happening to any pirate's knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: that is, and his attention was more necessary elsewhere. One day, however,
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  Speaker 1: there came crackling in a triumphant report a ship working
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  Speaker 1: out of that base had taken noble booty, indeed no
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  Speaker 1: less surprize than a fully supplied hospital ship of the
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  Speaker 1: patrol itself. As the report progressed, Kinnison's heart went down
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  Speaker 1: into his boots, and he swore bitterly to himself, how
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  Speaker 1: in all the nine hells of Valeria had they managed
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  Speaker 1: to take such a ship as that? Hadn't she been escorted? Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: as chief communications officer, he took the report, and he
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  Speaker 1: congratulated heartily through the ship's radio man, its captain, its officers,
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  Speaker 1: and its crew. Mighty fine work, Helmuth himself shall hear
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  Speaker 1: of this? Included his words of praise. How did you
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  Speaker 1: do it with one of the new maulers, Yes, sir,
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  Speaker 1: came the reply. Our moler, accompanying us just out of range,
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  Speaker 1: came up and engaged theirs. That left us free to
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  Speaker 1: take the ship. We locked on with magnets, cut our
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  Speaker 1: way in, and here we are there they were, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the hospital ship was red with blood. Patients, doctors, interns, officers,
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  Speaker 1: and operating crew alike had been butchered with the horribly
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  Speaker 1: ruthless savagery, which was the customary technique of all the
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  Speaker 1: agencies of Bascon. Of all that ship's personnel, only the
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  Speaker 1: nurses lived. They were not to be put to death. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, and under certain conditions, they need not die
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  Speaker 1: at all. They huddled together a little knot of white
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  Speaker 1: clad misery in that corpse littered room. And even now
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  Speaker 1: one of them was being dragged away. She was fighting
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  Speaker 1: viciously with fists and feet, with nails and teeth. No
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  Speaker 1: one pirate could handle her. It took two of the
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  Speaker 1: huskies to subdue that struggling fury. They hauled her upright,
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  Speaker 1: and she threw back her head in panting defians. There
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  Speaker 1: was a cascade of red bronze hair, and Kennison saw
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  Speaker 1: Clarissa MacDougall. He remembered that there had been some talk
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  Speaker 1: that they were going to put her back into space service.
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  Speaker 1: The Lensman decided instantly what to do, Stop you swine,
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  Speaker 1: he roared through his pirate mouthpiece. Where do you think
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  Speaker 1: you're going with that nurse? To the captain's cabin. Sir
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  Speaker 1: the husky stopped short in amazement as that roar filled
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  Speaker 1: the room, but answered the question concisely. Let her go. Then,
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  Speaker 1: as the girl fled back to the huddled group in
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  Speaker 1: the corner, he said, tell the captain to come out
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  Speaker 1: here and assemble every officer and man of the crew.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk to everybody at once. He had
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  Speaker 1: a minute or two in which to think, and he
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  Speaker 1: thought furiously but accurately. He had to do something. But
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  Speaker 1: whatever he did must be done strictly according to the
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  Speaker 1: pirate's own standards of ethics. If he made one slip,
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  Speaker 1: it might be Al Deborah one all over again. He
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  Speaker 1: knew how to keep from making that slip, he thought.
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  Speaker 1: But also, and this was the heart, he must work
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  Speaker 1: in something that would let those nurses know that there
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  Speaker 1: was still hope, that there were a few more acts
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  Speaker 1: of this drama yet to come. Otherwise, he knew, with
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  Speaker 1: a stark, cold certainty, what would happen. He knew of
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  Speaker 1: what stuff those space nurses of the patrol were made.
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  Speaker 1: He knew that they would be driven just so far
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  Speaker 1: and no further alive. There was a way out of
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  Speaker 1: that too, In the childishness of his hospitalization, he had
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  Speaker 1: called Nurse MacDougall a dumbbell. He had thought of her,
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  Speaker 1: and had spoken to her quite frankly in uncomplimentary terms.
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  Speaker 1: But he knew that there was a real brain back
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  Speaker 1: of that beautiful countenance, that a quick and a keen
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  Speaker 1: intelligence resided under that red bronze thatch. Therefore, when the
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  Speaker 1: assembly was complete, he was ready, and in no uncertain
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  Speaker 1: or ambiguous language, he opened up. Listen, you, all of you,
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  Speaker 1: he barked savagely. This is the first time in months
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  Speaker 1: that we have had such a hall as this, and
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  Speaker 1: you fellows, have the brazen gall to start helping yourselves
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  Speaker 1: to the choicest stuff before anybody else gets a look
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  Speaker 1: at it. I tell you now to lay off, and
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  Speaker 1: that goes exactly as it lays. I personally will kill
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  Speaker 1: any man that touches one of those women before they
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  Speaker 1: arrive here at base. Now, you, captain, are the first
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  Speaker 1: and worst offender of the lot. And he stared directly
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  Speaker 1: into the eyes of the officer whom he had last
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  Speaker 1: seen entering the dungeon of the Wheelman. I admit that
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  Speaker 1: you are a good picker. Kinnison's voice was now venomously soft,
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  Speaker 1: his intonation distinct with thinly veiled sarcasm. Unfortunately, however, your
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  Speaker 1: taste degrees too well with mine. You see, Captain, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to need a nurse myself. I think I'm coming
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  Speaker 1: down with something, and since I've got to have a nurse,
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  Speaker 1: I'll take that red headed one. I had a nurse
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  Speaker 1: once with air just that color, who insisted on feeding
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  Speaker 1: me tea and toast and soft boiled egg when I
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  Speaker 1: wanted beef steak. And I'm going to take my grudge
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  Speaker 1: out on this one here, for all the red headed
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  Speaker 1: nurses that ever lived. I trust that you will pardon
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  Speaker 1: the length of this speech, but I wanted to give
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  Speaker 1: you my reasons in full for cautioning you that particular
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  Speaker 1: nurse is my own particular personal property. Mark her for me,
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  Speaker 1: and see to it that she gets here exactly as
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  Speaker 1: she is now. The captain had been afraid to interrupt
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  Speaker 1: his superior, but now he erupted. But see here, Blakesley,
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  Speaker 1: she ought to be mine by every right. I captured her.
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  Speaker 1: I saw her first. I've got her here. Enough of
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  Speaker 1: that back talk, Captain Kinnison sneered elaborately. You know, of course,
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  Speaker 1: that you are violating every rule by taking booty for
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  Speaker 1: yourself before division at base, and that you can be
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  Speaker 1: shot for doing it. But everybody does it, protested the captain,
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  Speaker 1: except when a superior officer catches him at it. Superiors
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  Speaker 1: get first pick, you know, but I protest, sir, I'll
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  Speaker 1: take it up with shut up, Kinnison snarled with cold finality.
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  Speaker 1: Take it up with whom you will please. But remember
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  Speaker 1: this my last warning. Bring her into me as she is,
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  Speaker 1: and you live. Touch her and you die. Now, you nurses,
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  Speaker 1: come over here to the board. Nurse McDougall had been
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  Speaker 1: whispering furtively to the others. Now she led the way,
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  Speaker 1: head high and eyes blazing defiance. She was an actress
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  Speaker 1: as well as a nurse. Take a good long look
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  Speaker 1: at this button right here, marked relay forty six. Came
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  Speaker 1: kurt instruction. If anybody aboard this ship touches any one
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  Speaker 1: of you or even looks at you as though he
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  Speaker 1: wants to press this button, and I will do the rest. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you big red headed dumbbell, look at me. Don't start
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  Speaker 1: begging yet. I just want to be sure you'll know
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  Speaker 1: me when you see me. I'll know you never fear you,
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  Speaker 1: you brat, she flared, thus informing the Lensman that she
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  Speaker 1: had received his message. I'll not only know you, I'll
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  Speaker 1: scratch your eyes out on sight. That'll be a good
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  Speaker 1: trick if you can do it. Kinnison sneered, and he
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  Speaker 1: cut off. What's all this about, mac, What has got
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  Speaker 1: into you? Demanded one of the nurses, as soon as
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  Speaker 1: the women were alone. I don't know, she whispered, Watch out,
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  Speaker 1: they may have spy.
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  Speaker 2: Rays on us.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know anything, really, and the whole thing is
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  Speaker 1: too wildly impossible, too utterly fantastic to be even partially true.
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  Speaker 1: But passed the word along to all the girls to
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  Speaker 1: ride this out, because my gray Lensman is in on
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  Speaker 1: it somewhere somehow. I don't see how he can be, possibly,
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  Speaker 1: but I just know that he is. For At the
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  Speaker 1: first mention of tea and toast, before she perceived even
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  Speaker 1: an inkling of the true situation, her mind had flashed
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  Speaker 1: back instantly to Kinnison, the most stubborn, rebellious patience she
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  Speaker 1: had ever had, more the only man she had ever
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  Speaker 1: known who had treated her precisely as though she were
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  Speaker 1: a part of the hospital's very furniture, as is the
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  Speaker 1: way of women, particularly of beautiful women. She had orated
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  Speaker 1: of women's rights and of women's status in the scheme
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  Speaker 1: of things. She had decried all special privileges, and had
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: stated often and with heat that she asked no odds
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  Speaker 1: of any man living or yet to be born. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: and also so beautiful woman like, the thought had bitten
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  Speaker 1: deep that here was a man who had never even
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  Speaker 1: realized she was a woman, to say nothing of realizing
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  Speaker 1: that she was an extraordinarily beautiful one. And deep within
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  Speaker 1: her and sternly suppressed, the thought had still wrinkled. At
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  Speaker 1: the mention of beefsteak, she all but screamed, gripping her
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  Speaker 1: knees with frantic hands to keep her emotion down, for
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  Speaker 1: she had had no real hope. She was simply fighting
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  Speaker 1: with everything she had till the hopeless end, which she
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  Speaker 1: had known could not long be delayed. Now she gathered
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  Speaker 1: herself together and began to act. When the word dumb
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  Speaker 1: bell boomed from that speaker, she knew beyond doubt or
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  Speaker 1: peradventure that it was Kinnison, the gray Lensman, who was
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  Speaker 1: really doing that talking. It was crazy. It didn't make
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  Speaker 1: any kind of sense at all, but it was it
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  Speaker 1: must be true. And again, womanlike she knew with a
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  Speaker 1: calm certainty, that as long as that gray Lensman were
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  Speaker 1: alive and conscious, he would be completely the master of
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  Speaker 1: any situation in which he might find himself. Therefore she
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  Speaker 1: passed along her illogical but cheering thought, and the nurses,
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  Speaker 1: also being women, accepted it without question as the actual
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  Speaker 1: and accomplished fact. They carried on, and when the captured
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  Speaker 1: hospital ship had dockted, Base Kinnison was completely free to
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  Speaker 1: force matters to a conclusion. In addition to the chief
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  Speaker 1: communications officer, he now had under his control a highly
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  Speaker 1: capable observer. To handle two such minds was child's play
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: to the intellect which had directed against their full fighting wills.
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  Speaker 1: The minds of two and three quarters alert, powerful fully
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  Speaker 1: warned Lensman, good girl Mack. He put his mind on
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  Speaker 1: rapport with hers and sent his message, glad you got
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the idea. You did a good job of acting, and
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  Speaker 1: if you can do some more as good, we'll be
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  Speaker 1: all set. Can do. I'll say I can, she assented fervently.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you're doing, how you can possibly
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  Speaker 1: do it, or where you are but that can wait.
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  Speaker 1: Just tell me what to do and I'll do it.
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  Speaker 1: Make a pass at the base commander, he instructed her.
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  Speaker 1: Hate me the ape I'm working through, you know, hate
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  Speaker 1: me all over the place. Go into it big. You
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  Speaker 1: maybe could love him, but if I get you, you'll
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: blow out your brains if any you know the line.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Play up to him with everything you can bring to bear,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and hate me all to pieces. Help all you can
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  Speaker 1: to start a fight between us. If he falls for
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: you hard enough, the blow off comes then and there.
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  Speaker 1: If not, he'll be able to do us all. Plenty
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  Speaker 1: of dirt. I can kill a lot of them, but
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: not enough of them quick enough. He'll fall, she promised him, gleefully,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: like ten thousand bricks falling down a well, just watch
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  Speaker 1: my jets and fall he did. He had not even
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  Speaker 1: seen a woman for months, and he expected nothing except
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  Speaker 1: bitter resistance and suicide from any of these women of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the patrol. Therefore, he was rocked to the heels, set
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: back upon his very haunches when the most beautiful woman
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  Speaker 1: he had ever seen came of her own volition into
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  Speaker 1: his arms, seeking in them, saying sctuary from his own
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  Speaker 1: chief communications officer, I hate him. She sobbed, nestling against
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  Speaker 1: the huge bulk of the base commander's body, turning upon
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  Speaker 1: him the full blast of the high powered projectors which
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  Speaker 1: were her eyes. You wouldn't be so mean to me.
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  Speaker 1: I just know you wouldn't, and her subtly perfumed head
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  Speaker 1: sank upon his shoulder. The bass commander was just so
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: much soft wax. I'll say, I wouldn't be mean to you. Why,
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  Speaker 1: you little sweetheart. I'll marry you. I will, by all
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the gods of space. It thus came about that nurse
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  Speaker 1: and base commander entered the control room together, arms about
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  Speaker 1: each other. There he is, she shrieked, pointing at the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: chief communications officer. He's the one. Let's see you start something,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you rat faced conquer. There's one real man around here,
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  Speaker 1: and he won't let you touch me. Yah ah ah,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And then she gave a resounding bronx cheer, and her
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: escort swelled visibly. Is that so, Kinnison, sneered, Get this
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  Speaker 1: baby face and get it straight. You are marked as
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  Speaker 1: mine as soon as I look the ship over, and
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  Speaker 1: mine you are going to be, whether you like it
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  Speaker 1: or not. And no matter what anybody else says or
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: does about it. And as for you, Chief, you're too late.
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  Speaker 1: I saw her first. Now, you red headed hussy, come
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  Speaker 1: over here where you belong. She snuggled closer into the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: commander's embrace, and the big man turned purple. What do
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you mean too late? You took her away from the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: ship's captain, didn't you. You said that superior officers get
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: first choice, and they do. Well, I'm the boss here
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and I'm taking her away from you. Get me. You'll
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: stand for it too, Yes, and you'll like it. One
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: word out of you and I'll have you spread eagle
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: across the mouth of number six Projector. Superior officers do
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: not always get first choice, Kinnison replied with bitter cold ferocity,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: but choosing his words with care. It depends entirely upon
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: who the two men are. Now is the time to strike.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Kinison knew that if the base commander kept his head,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the lives of those valiant women were forfeit and the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Lensman's whole plan seriously endangered. He himself could get away,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of course, but he could not see himself doing it
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: under these conditions. No, he must goad the commander to
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a frenzy mac would help in fact, and without his suggestion,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: she was even then hard at work flomenting trouble between
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the two men. You don't have to take that from anybody,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: big boy, she was whispering urgently. Don't call in a
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: crew to spread eagle him either, Just beam him out yourself.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: You're a better man than he is any time. Blast
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: him down. That'll show him who's who around this base.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: When the inferior is such a man as I am,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and the superior such a one as you are, the biting,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: contemptuously sneering voice went on without a break, Such a
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: bloated swine, such a mangy, low down cur such a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: pussy gutted top of the lard, such a worthless, brainless
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: spawn of the lowest dregs of the sour's scum of space.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Such an utterly incompetent, self opinionated ass you are, the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: outraged pichief, bellowing incoherently and wildly mounting rage, was leaping
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: toward a cabinet in which were kept the dilameters. Then,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: in that case, the inferior keeps the red headed wench himself.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Put that on your tape, chief and eat it. Then,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: if you're too much of a lily livered cower to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: do anything about it yourself.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Have me spread eagled, the lensman concluded, cuttingly. Blest him,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: blast him down. The nurse had been shrieking, and as
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: the raging commander neared the cabinet, no one noticed that
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: her latest and loudest scream was kim blast him down.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Don't wait any longer, beat him down before he gets
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: a gun.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: But the lensman did not act yet, although almost every
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: man of the space crew stared spellbound, Kinnison's enslaved observer
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: had for many seconds been jamming the subeuther with Helmuth's
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: personal and urgent call. It was of almost vital importance
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to his plan that Helmuth himself should see the climax
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: of this scene. Therefore, the communications officer stood immobile while
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the profanely raving base commander reached the cabinet, tore it open,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: seized the dilameter, and swung it savagely toward him. End
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty