Dark Benediction

The ship’s airlock opened again and another man started out. He stopped with one foot on the top rung of the ladder. He looked down at Brodanovitch and the S&R men. He pulled his leg back inside and closed the hatch. Novotny chuckled.

“That was Relke, the damn fool.”

Lije smote his forehead. “Look at Suds! They tole him! They went an tole him, Joe. We’ll nevah get back in that ship now.”

The pusher watched the four figures on the plain. They were just standing there. Brodanovitch had stopped gesticulating. For a few seconds he seemed frozen. His head turned slowly as he looked up at the rocket. He took three steps toward it, then stopped.

“He gonna have apoplexy, thass what he gonna have.” Brodanovitch turned slowly. He gave the S&R men a blank look, then broke into a run toward his tractor. “I’d better climb out,” Joe said.

He met the engineer beside the command runabout. Suds’s face was a livid mask behind the faceplate. “Get in,” he snapped at the pusher.

As soon as they were inside, he barked, “Drive us to Crater City.”

“Slow down, Suds.”

“Joe. That ship. Damn brothel. Out to fleece the camp.”

“So what’re you going to do in Crater City?”

“Tell Parkeson, what else?”

“And what’s the camp going to be doing while you’re gone?”

That one made him pause. Finally he shook his head. “Drive, Joe.”

Novotny flipped the switch and glanced at the gauges. “You haven’t got enough oxygen in this bug to last out the trip.”

“Then we’ll get another one.”

“Better take a minute to think it over, Suds. You’re all revved up. What the hell can Parkeson do?”

“What can he do? What can—migawd, Joe!” Suds choked.

“Well?”

“He can get that ship out of here, he can have those women interned.”

“How? Suppose they refuse to budge. Who appointed Parkeson king of creation? Hell, he’s only our boss, Suds. The moon’s open to any nation that wants to send a ship, or to any corporation that can get a clearance. The W.P. decided that a long time ago.”

“But it’s illegal—those women, I mean!”

“How do you know? Maybe their racket’s legal in Algiers. That’s where you told me they had clearance from, didn’t you? And if you’re thinking about the Schneider-Volkov Act, it just applies to the Integrated Projects, not wildcat teams.”

Brodanovitch sat silent for a few moments, his throat working. He passed a shaky hand over his eyes. “Joe, we’ve got to keep discipline. Why can’t I ever make the men understand that? On a moon project, it’s discipline or die. You know that, Joe.”

“Sure I know it. You know it. Parkeson knows it. The First Minister of the Space Ministry knows it. But the men don’t know it, and they never will. They don’t know what the word ‘discipline’ means, and it’s no good trying to tell them. It’s an overseer’s word. It means your outfit’s working for you like your own arms and legs. One brain and one body. When it cracks, you’ve just got a loose handful of stray men. No coordination. You can see it, but they can’t see it. ‘Discipline’ is just a dirty word in the ranks, Suds.”

“Joe, what’ll I do?”

“It’s your baby, not mine. Give it first aid. Then talk to Parkeson later, if you want to.”

Suds sat silent for half a minute, then: “Drive back to the main wagon.”

Novotny started the motors. “What are you going to do?”

“Announce Code Red, place the ship off limits, put an armed guard on it, and hope the Crater City crew gets that telephone circuit patched up quick. That’s all I can do.”

“Then let me get a safe distance away from you before you do it.”

“You think it’ll cause trouble?”

“Good Lord, Suds, use your head. You’ve got a campful of men who haven’t been close to a dame in months and years, even to talk to. They’re sick, they’re scared, they’re fed-up, they want to go home. The Party’s got them bitter, agitated. I’d hate to be the guy who puts those women off limits.”

“What would you do?”

“I’d put the screws on the shift that’s on duty. I’d work hell out of the crews that are supposed to be on the job. I’d make a horrible -example out of the first man to goof off. But first I’d tell the off-duty team-pushers they can take their crews over to that ship, one crew at a time, and in an orderly manner.”

“What? And be an accomplice? Hell, no!”

“Then do it your own way. Don’t ask me.”

Novotny parked the runabout next to the boss-wagon. “Mind if I use your buggy for awhile, Suds?” he asked. “I left mine back there, and I’ve got to pick up my men.”

“Go ahead, but get them back here—fast.”

“Sure, Suds.”

He backed the runabout out again and drove down to B-shift’s sleep-wagon. He parked again and used the air-lock phone. “Beasley, Benet, the rest of you—come on outside.”

Five minutes later they trooped out through the lock. “What’s the score, Joe?”

“The red belts are ahead, that’s all I know.”

“Come on, you’ll find out.”

“Sleep! I haven’t had no sleep since— Say! You takin’ us over to that ship, Joe?”

“That’s the idea.”

“YAYHOO!” Beasley. danced up and down. “Joe, we love ya!”

“Cut it. This is once-and-once-only. You’re going once, and you’re not going again.”

“Who says?”