All Judgment Fled by James White Read Free Book Online

be home again."
     
     
     
     
chapter six
     
     
Radio interference had all but disappeared, so that the lectures, music,

last-minute instructions and reminders that this was an epoch-making event

and would they please not do anything silly, poured in on them constantly

and so clearly that they had no real excuse to switch off. They were told

that they must at all costs remember and apply the knowledge gained during

their trip out, but at the same time they must not hesitate to forget

all of their scientific, sociological and psychological theories and

preconceptions if the situation warranted it. They were told to do,

or not do, this several times an hour.
     
     
One did not have to be a psychologist to realize that the people at

Prometheus Control had worked themselves into a fine state of jitters.
     
     
"The awful black immensity of space," said Walters sourly during one of

the rare radio silences. "The vast and aching loneliness between the stars,

the unutterable, soul-destroying boredom. Dammit, they won't even give us

ten minutes peace and quiet to feel bored in ."
     
     
Shaking his head, Berryman intoned, "Is some superhuman extraterrestrial

intelligence already brushing our minds with unfelt tendrils of thought,

sizing us up, judging us and perhaps with us the whole human race? Or

is some bug-eyed bugger sitting at a rocket launcher just waiting for

us to come into range?"
     
     
"We've been over all this before!" said McCullough, suddenly angry at the

pilot for bringing up the subject which they all wanted to leave alone.

Then awkwardly he tried to turn it into a joke by adding, "Three times

in the last hour . . ."
     
     
"Thrust in minus thirty seconds, P-Two. Stand by, P-One . . ."
     
     
There was a note of self-satisfaction overlaying the tension in the voice

of Control and, considering the fact that their computations had resulted

in them hitting an impossibly small target with both ships, their smugness

was perhaps justified. But McCullough wondered, a little cynically,

how pleased an arrow was with the archer when a bull's-eye or a miss

into the sandbags would result in an equally violent headache . . .
     
     
Deceleration was a strangely uncomfortable sensation after so many months'

weightlessness. On Morrison's ship, thrust was delayed by several seconds

to allow P-One to draw closer to P-Two -- but not too close. It had been

decided that Berryman's ship would approach the alien vessel directly

to within a distance of one mile, with the command pilot reporting back

every yard of the way and using his initiative if something untoward

occurred. With P-One's more powerful transmitter, Morrison would relay

these reports back to Control, advising Berryman if or when necessary,

and Control would do nothing but listen.
     
     
Because of the radio time lag, anything they might say would come too late

to be useful.
     
     
All decisions on procedure in the area of the alien ship were thus the

responsibility of Colonel Morrison. Berryman could exercise a little

initiative to begin with, but once the situation was evaluated, all major

decisions would be taken by the colonel. As a precautionary measure the

thrust and attitude of P-One had been modified so as to bring it to a

stop fifty miles short of the alien ship.
     
     
McCullough wondered what Hollis was making of that .
     
     
In the three weeks since he had visited him, the physicist's condition,

both physical and mental, had improved enormously. Hollis had spoken to

him several times and had said so -- without, of course, mentioning the

Dirty Annie business. McCullough was well aware that Hollis could not,

by any stretch of the imagination, be said to have been cured, but at

least his condition had improved to the point where his difficulties,

both emotional and physical, no longer impaired his functioning --

and that was half the battle.
     
     
On the radar screen the target showed as a pulsing blob of