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Title: The woman obsession
Author: William Campbell Gault
Release date: July 27, 2024 [eBook #74139]
Language: English
Original publication: New York, NY: King-Size Publications, Inc, 1954
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN OBSESSION ***
The Woman Obsession
By William Campbell Gault
Surely Collins was an idiot. He
kept dreaming of women in a
world that knew nothing of love's
delight. But where there's life--
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Fantastic Universe September 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
_Few writers possess William Campbell Gault's sensitive capacity
for balancing delicacy with daring in themes which gracefully
skirt the edge of the outrageous, and open up entire new worlds of
speculation which future historians will most assuredly encounter
in their travels time and time again. Seldom has he written a story
more imaginatively audacious than this._
It was on the Mars-Jupiter run, a trip flea-bitten with asteroids, and
needing a Level-One navigator. In all the galaxy, there were three
Level-One navigators, and Horse Collins was one, and he was ours. By
'ours,' I mean _Gideon Shipping, Inc._ Twelve years I've piloted for
them, and I think they're the best in the business.
Johnny "Horse" Collins was a typical space bum in one way. He
was restless, he wanted to see what was out there. But he lacked
discipline. And his thinking was earth-bound conventional. He'd even
played football at college, and that's where he'd picked up the 'Horse'
nickname. He'd been an All-Earth fullback, and why he'd gone on to
navigator's school from there I'm not competent to judge. A man who
can make All-Earth in a game dominated by robots is bound to have some
body. No one but a sportswriter would suspect he might also have a mind.
Horse had a fine mind for his business; otherwise he was, as I've said,
rather conventional, like a fullback. He liked women, for one thing.
"Why?" I asked him one day. "Their primary function is handled better
by the Massago-Lust. If they have any secondary functions, I've
forgotten them."
"You never knew any of their functions, except through books," Horse
answered. "Second-hand living."
I stared at him. If traveling among the stars wasn't living, then what
the hell was? I asked him that pointblank.
"It's nothing I could explain to you," he said. "You're space-happy."
"Why are you here, Horse?" I asked him quietly.
"Because I thought there'd be adventure, out here. Strange lands and
strange people."
"Jupiter isn't a _strange_ land. It's simply a land of ice and lava, a
grotesque, fascinating, frightening...."
"No people," Horse interrupted. "And how about Mars?"
"Mars is a disappointment, sure. I was talking about Jupiter, and you
say 'no people.' Earth is full of people. Too full. That's why we have
the Massago-Lust."
"And the women rationed to the scientists. Who do they think they are?"
"They're the people who cut our shackles, fullback. They're the people
who refused to be earth-bound."
"Mmm-hmm. And they're the cuties who could just as well maintain the
population quota with artificial insemination, too. But do they? Come
to think of it, why don't they?"
"You'd better check your orbit log," I told him. "We're getting into
asteroid alley."
"Yes, Chief. Yes, Boss. Yes, _Sir_!" He pulled out the flats, and
looked through the electronic scanner. Then he picked up a stylus and
adjusted it to the graph arm, and took another look through the scanner.
He seemed to be frozen there. "Mi Gawd--"
"What's happened? You damned fullback, if you've lost our line to--"
He waved, stiff-armed. "Shut up. We're right on orbit. I just saw a
woman. And _what_ a woman. She was waving to me!"
In all the galaxy there had been three Level-One navigators. There were
now two.
"Naturally," I said patiently. "You would. That would be _your_
mirage--a woman."
"I saw a woman," Horse insisted evenly, "on--" He was consulting his
flats, frowning. "On--Well, I'll be damned."
"You also saw a planetoid that doesn't exist. I'll name it for you,
Horse's Asteroid. A fitting name."
Collins didn't answer, right away. He was flipping levers, connecting
the scanner to the chart, and also to the controls. Then he said,
"Okay, Skipper. We're under mechanical control. Relax, if you know
how."
I locked the board and stretched my neck. Horse lighted a cigarette, a
vice I deny myself. His eyes looked--bemused.
I said, "You saw a woman where there could be no women. I'll have to
enter it in the log, Johnny."
"Sure," he said. He took a deep and weary breath. "You know what the
boys call you?"
"Slide Rule Sam," I answered. "I'm proud of it."
"Why? A robot could handle your job."
"For a man who made his reputation in a robot's game, you're talking
rather haughtily, fullback. If a robot _could_ handle my job, a robot
would be giving you orders right now. Gideon Shipping is cost-conscious
enough for that, despite the wages they pay."
"Wages," Johnny said. "Is that all a man works for, wages?"
"At our level, that's all a man works for," I assured him. "You're
talking like a Capitalist, Horse." I watched for a reaction.
He started to say something, then shook his head. "You'd probably
enter that in the log, too, if I said it." He put out his cigarette
thoughtfully. "Sam, on the way back I want you to look through that
scanner. If we delay our trip back an hour, the orbits of the other
planetoids will be about right, and that one should be, too. Then you
can enter the fact that we _both_ saw it. You think I'm space-simple.
But you won't be able to doubt what you'll see with your own eyes."
I said evenly, "I've traveled this line for twelve years and I've had
navigators before who saw mirages. You're just not emotionally stable,
Horse."
"I'm not punchy, either," Horse said. "You can have my resignation
right now, Sam."
"Resignation? That's a word I've forgotten, Horse. You'll be
re-assigned when we return to base."
He lighted another cigarette and went back to his desk. And I
wondered who we'd get to take his place. The schools hadn't had a
Level-One navigator in six years and the only two graduates who met
that specification were very happy on other runs. Maybe, he wasn't
completely gone.... Maybe...? But that wasn't scientific thinking.
Horse said, "Ever read about the old trains on Earth, Sam?"
"Second-hand living," I quoted him. "That's what you called reading."
"All right. It's better than not living at all. Anyway, in those old
days, people along the tracks used to wave at the passengers as the
trains roared by, for no reason I can think of. At any rate, for no
_scientific_ reason. What happened to me was pretty much like that.
Sort of romantic, wasn't it?"
"An earth-bound iron sluggard moving through cow pastures. Is that
romantic to a man who's seen Jupiter?"
"No, I guess not," Horse said quietly. "Only to me, I guess."
I turned on the video-viewer above the board, and as the glow
brightened, I could see the robot quarters and Van Elling playing
bridge with three of our brightest automatons. Van's a great boy to
buck impossible odds, but otherwise rational. He's our robot master.
Van looked up from the game at the signal light, and smiled, "About
time, Skipper?"
"You'd have to ask the navigator."
Van's eyes shifted. "What's he sulking about?"
Horse waved. "How you coming with the master-minds?"
"I'm winning. I've found a system." He looked back at me. "Skipper,
there should be two robot masters on this run, and you know it."
Horse laughed. "A partner, eh, Van?"
"Why not? Psychic bids, that's what throws them off. But it throws off
my partner, too, and I don't make what I should. How about it, Sam?"
I said, "You wanted a report from the navigator. I'm holding the screen
open for that."
Van Elling's face stiffened, and his eyes went to Horse's. Collins
said, "Seven hours and twelve minutes." I turned off the viewer.
Silence in the cabin and I was uncomfortable. Damn it, there had to be
discipline on board, and I was in command.
Horse said quietly, "Are you a natural son-of-a-broomstick, or do you
work at it?"
Rage flamed in me, and I waited until it had languished. Then I said
calmly, "I'm your superior, and I've been too lenient. I'm not strong
enough to fight you but I'm powerful enough to destroy you. I intend
to. Look forward to a long career in the mines of Mars, fullback."
"Even you, with all your connections, couldn't rig that," Horse said
lightly. "You can ground me, and hope I get court-martialed for
insubordination. I've a few connections, too."
Silence, again. I went over to his scanner and checked our
co-ordinates. I brought out the log and entered his mirage and his
insubordination. Why quibble? Let the record speak.
Europa loomed below us, now, and Jupiter dead ahead. The oxygenator
sent its draft along the back of my neck, and I shifted in my seat,
remembering his question about artificial insemination. That in itself
could be considered subversive. Not that I hadn't thought it, and
millions of others, but he'd _voiced_ it.
The scientists had the money, the power, the commerce. And hadn't they
earned it? Hadn't they made all this quite possible?
We hadn't said a word right up to the time I put the forward blasters
on for the Jupiter mooring.
The buzzer from the rear hatch was buzzing now, and I threw the switch
to open it. Van Elling came in with his duryllium helmet on, beating
his hands on his thighs.
Collins helped him with the helmet, and Van said, "Cold, cold, cold,
cold, cold. Chief, we might lose a couple minutes on the loading. Those
boys aren't what they were when we bought them."
Through the oxygenator, I could smell ammonia and burning elgeron. I
went to the viewer room and switched to the landing ramp. The robots
were moving down the ramp at a pace which might have been slower than
usual, but didn't seem so to me.
Behind me, I could hear Van Elling and Horse Collins whispering. Mutiny?
I watched the first of the robots go into the big hole that led to
the elgeron deposits, and came back to see Van at the duplicate robot
control board we had to use at the end of a trip. Van was looking
worried, but it could have been feigned.
"A few minutes?" I asked. "How many is a few?"
"I said 'a couple' only, Chief, but I think that was a bad guess. It
might be an hour."
Horse was smiling. Van kept his face averted.
"Delayed an hour?" I asked, and then it came to me. Horse wanted
another look at his asteroid. That's why they'd whispered.
"I'm afraid," I said, "an hour's delay would be too long, and I hope
neither of you think I'm being fooled by your cute little tricks. This
isn't the time for trickery."
"Sorry, Chief," Van said. "I'm doing the best I can."
He kept his attention on the control board and Horse bent over his
charts. They ignored me. Well, I had a lot of strings to pull. They'd
regret this day, both of them.
The smell of molten elgeron was heavy now, and the bite of ammonia.
The robots were coming back up the ramp, carrying enormous chunks of
the solidified, translucent stuff. On Mars, it would be crushed in the
huge, automatic grinders and mixed with the stydium of that planet, and
sent in radiation-proof ships to the laboratories of Earth.
One robot seemed to falter for a second, and I glanced quickly back
toward the cabin where I could just see Van at the control board. I
couldn't tell by his manipulation of the toggles whether the robot's
falter was deliberate or not, but I saw him glance at Collins and smile.
Rage simmered in me, pulsated, and I stood there for seconds in the
viewing room, waiting for it to recede. The whole line of robots was
stationary now and the one who'd faltered was leaning over against the
guard rail of the ramp.
I came into the cabin and said, "You'd better put on your suit, Van.
There's a robot out there holding up the line."
Jupiter was no place to venture without proper radiation shielding, and
our space suits weren't the best in the world for radiation protection.
He said, "I think I can handle it from here, Chief."
Horse said quickly, "I'll go out and see what I can do. No sense in
taking a chance on jamming the whole line, Van." Collins glanced at me
for confirmation.
I shrugged. "Suit yourself. But remember--I didn't order you out."
"Unless you'd like to go, Chief," Horse said meaningfully.
I shook my head. I flushed, too, though there wasn't any reason for it.
Unnecessary risks are not a part of a pilot's job.
Horse murmured something that sounded like "gutless" and I said
sharply, "Would you repeat that?"
His gaze met mine levelly. "I didn't say a word, Chief. I'll get my
suit on."
In a little while, I saw him out there on the ramp putting on a great
show of trying to adjust the robot's delemeter, which is what gives
them their uncanny balance.
After about twenty minutes, he waved and stood to one side, and Van
Elling sent the impulse through. The robot staggered, and then came
back to an upright position. Collins stood at the broad part of the
ramp as the line began to move again.
_Discipline begins with self-discipline_, I told myself. _No man ever
achieved anything without self-control._
The more complex robots stayed in the storeroom of the ship, checking
the tonnage, and classifying the elgeron according to quality. These
were just the haulers, on the ramp, and Van controlled them completely
from his board.
His word regarding their breakdown would be the accepted word with the
bosses. I would have a difficult job getting anything on Van Elling.
But Horse Collins? Horse had seen a woman on an asteroid that didn't
exist. Horse had been guilty of insubordination. He would need more
friends than he had to wriggle out from under those charges.
There was another breakdown before we were finished loading, and they'd
timed it well. We blasted off an hour later than usual.
Van went back to the robot quarters and Horse to his charts, and I had
some more entries for the log. I'm not a talkative man, but Horse was.
The silence in the cabin must have bothered him.
He said, "Chief, we could start over. We could forget the nasty things
that have been said."
"I have forgotten them," I said. "Once I enter something in the log, I
forget it."
"All that happened you entered in the log?"
"All. Including your earlier request to delay our return an hour." I
paused. "The disciplinary board can read whatever inferences they want
from that, in the light of what happened later."
"I see. The report would put Van in the soup, too, Chief."
"I suppose."
"That'll lose you _two_ good men."
"Will it?"
Silence for over an hour, and then Horse said, "Before the company
filled you full of that discipline garbage, were you human, Sam? Did
you dream of a better world, a normal world, a world with women?"
"Some things we outgrow," I said. "I'm doing exactly what I want to do."
Horse sighed, and the silence grew again.
I was dozing the next time he opened his mouth. "It's not necessary to
stick it to Van, too, is it, Chief?"
"I record," I said. "I don't judge."
"It wasn't necessary to record my request. Don't give me that, Chief."
"In my opinion, it was necessary."
"Okay. Would you check my co-ordinates?"
He'd caught me in a nap, and I didn't think of the time. It was a
routine request in a routine voice and I rose without thinking and went
over to the scanner.
I put my eye to the eye-piece and saw _her_. A dark girl, without
clothes, more beautifully shaped than any picture I'd ever carried as
an adolescent. And she was waving!
A trembling possessed me, but I fought it. I looked up instantly at
Horse, and I said, "You've increased the magnification about three
million times beyond the requirements of the co-ordinate check. How do
you expect me to substantiate your findings?"
Horse was smiling. "I know, I know. What'd you see, Chief?"
"Nothing. There was nothing to see. This will be recorded, too,
Collins."
Collins was still smiling. "You'll record there was nothing to see?"
"I certainly will, and that you had the electronic scanner up to its
full magnification for no apparent reason. That should finish you,
Collins."
"Chief, if you saw nothing through that scanner, you're already
finished. I don't want to stay in a service that would make something
like you out of me."
"You haven't the stuff to become something like me," I told him, and
went back to my chair.
"The service," he said gently, "is looking for planets or planetoids
that will support our kind of life. And you've just seen our kind of
life. And you're not going to report it. That's going to be your cross.
Because, Slide Rule, I'm not going to report it, either. That's my
secret, back there. That's _mine_."
"Whatever it was you think you saw, you'll never see it again,
Collins," I told him. "This is the only line from Mars to Jupiter and
you're going to be out of work once we're back to base."
"You think," he said. "You hope. You pray."
I wonder what he thought I'd been doing in my twelve years with Gideon?
I wonder if he thought I was so stupid I wouldn't have a few lines to
the right people in twelve years? Did he think only the noisy ones
could play this political game?
Once out of asteroid alley, I dozed. And dozing, dreamed of that black
haired temptress waving, dreamed of her like some pimply-faced young
idiot. Gad, if a man couldn't discipline himself after _my_ training....
I wakened to find Horse nodding over his board.
I said sharply, "I'm ready to eat, Collins."
His head jerked upright, and he stared at me a few seconds. Then he
stood up and went out to the small galley.
A stinking fullback trying to play the political game with Slide Rule
Sam. How these athletes loved to over-rate themselves.
He brought my food, and then went into the galley to eat his.
When he came out, he said, "I'd like to nap, if you're going to be
awake, Chief."
"I'll be awake for two hours. You'd better sleep fast."
"You're the boss," he said, which was his admission.
I gave him a bad time the rest of the trip and got not a single
complaint out of him. And at Mars, we put on our suits and went ashore,
and I entered my complaints with the subsidiary board at the company
headquarters there.
They got us transportation to Earth next morning, and both Van and
Horse were held for trial the following week.
That gave me time, and I pulled every string I knew in the four days
before the trial. Horse was almost irreplaceable; Van could be replaced
in five minutes.
But there was no need to worry about Collins. He didn't fight. He
pulled no strings I knew of, and when he went up in front of the board,
he pleaded space insanity.
He'd seen a mirage, he'd insisted on my checking it, he'd called me
names and he took the full responsibility for the robot breakdown.
Trying to save Van, I suppose, with that last.
Horse had a company lawyer, and he tried to establish the line that
perhaps there had been life on the asteroid and that a discovery of
that importance over-shadowed the charges of insubordination and
temporary space insanity.
I got on the stand and swore there had been no sign of life and not
even an asteroid where Horse had fixed the scanner. I was safe enough,
I knew. There were only a few ships on the run, and no other with a
scanner of our power.
I hadn't wasted the four days. For three years, I'd been studying
navigation in my spare time. I wasn't really qualified for the
Mars-Jupiter run, but I had men high in the company who thought I was.
I'd get by until I learned.
I didn't want anyone else on _that_ scanner.
Van Elling was fired without prejudice, but I knew he'd have some time
trying to get back into the service after the publicity of the trial.
Collins was held over for a higher review of his case on the
possibility that his background was subversive. I was sure they'd find
some capitalistic group he'd belonged to briefly in college.
I was back on Mars when I got word through the new pilot that Horse
had never been brought before the higher tribunal. Somewhere, Van had
managed to buy an obsolete, atomic two seater, and Horse had broken out
of Embardo. The two of them had been seen by one of the Gideon ships a
few million miles beyond Galaxy E.
Typical fullback thinking--that--taking off into space. If he'd wanted
to hide, Earth was the place for it. Where could he get to with a clunk
of a two seater? He was a navigator, granted. But he'd have to have
something worthwhile to navigate.
Both the new pilot and the new robot master were young and properly
respectful, space-dedicated boys, and my life, I knew, was going to be
pleasant. And once I had mastered navigation, I was going to be damned
near irreplaceable.
As we bored through space on the old familiar run, the thought came to
me that probably Horse would head for his asteroid, and if he should
make it, wouldn't that be something? Two men and one girl. I wonder how
long Van would live.
Van was no fullback, nor a reasonably accurate facsimile thereof.
Unless he had a weapon, he'd be no match for Horse.
The image of the girl came back to haunt me. I knew there'd been an
expedition or two lost in asteroid alley on early exploratory trips,
but they hadn't carried women. And her face was familiar.
I went to a library and thumbed through some old newsprints. Of course!
The photograph fairly leapt at me. Elsbeth Parrish, the science
hater, the woman who'd gone on a lecture tour ridiculing the powers
that be, making converts first in the women's schools and then in the
co-educational institutions. The 'Live for Love' girl, Elsbeth Parrish.
Naturally the government had cracked down and tried to deport her to
Mars. She'd disappeared a week before the trial, and one of those old
Interplan Rocket Sedans had disappeared with her. The government had
given her up as lost in space.
* * * * *
I could understand now why Horse had made the confession at his trial
and why he'd been so submissive on the return trip from Jupiter. He'd
tricked me into swearing there was no life on the asteroid. And now he
could safely head there, because I was the one man alive besides him
and Van Elling who knew there _was_ life there, and my future depended
on my not revealing it.
But could he make it in an atomic two seater? And two men for one
woman--if he did make it? I had to know the answer.
When we came into asteroid alley, I had the scanner's magnification
on at full strength, and I also had the automatic scanning control
adjusted to the orbits I wanted. Even Horse Collins couldn't have
pin-pointed it any better.
I wish I'd missed it. For both of them were there, Horse and Van,
looking up my way and smiling, too. The slobs. There wasn't _one_ woman
there. There were three, all beautiful.
_Two_ men and _three_ women.
The dirty, science-hating sons.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN OBSESSION ***
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