CHAPTER
5
JIM HAD MORE THAN A MONTH OF ACCUMULATED LEAVE TIME
coming and he took it. He wanted to go someplace with the
feel of hot sand under his bare feet and the smell of sea in the
breeze. He wanted to forget about space and about Raoul Pen
ard and La Chasse Gallerie; he wanted to forget about the old
Canadian poems and songs, and about Mary Gallegher. Above
all, he wanted to forget what she had said the last time they
had talked. Instead he wanted to fill his mind with wine,
women and song. But he lied to himself.
So he went off, relying on sand, salt-smelling breezes and
the touch of women to burn all he wanted to forget out of his
mind. He went to a place in Baja California called Barres de
Hijo and signed in at a resort there. It had everything he was
looking for, including charterboat fishing for sailfish and tar-
pon. It also-or rather the resort hotel he stayed at-had a -
swimming pool at which he met a fellow vacationer named
Barbie Novak, who did fit his ideas of beauty and liked him
even better when she found out he was one of the Frontier
Guard pilots, on leave.
The days and nights, consequcndy, wuc a p~aant blur
with Barbie for a companion, until she had to go home; and
following that there was a girl named Joan Takari. But
morning after she had left he found himself lying alone on the
beach, hoping she had gotten home all right; and he could not
remember her face.
So instead of looking around for more women to compan-
ion him, he took to sitting and walking by hinself, lying on
the beach and listening to the waves or seated up on the rocks
ovedooking a part of the shore that had no beach, watching
the surf crash on the blue-black boulders below in white foam.
It was not, he concluded, that he wanted to live forever.
But nonetheless Mary's words from their last meeting stuck in
his mind. In a way they had taken the place of the emptiness
inside him-which was still there, but was now like a dark
cavern into which a small aperture had broken, letting in a
single ray of light.
He had dreamed of space and wanted it from the first time
he had realized it was out there-which was earlier than he
could remember. All his life had pointed him at it. It was his
arena in which he could do something... something of lasting
effect. What he would do and how he would do it, he had no
idea. But he was like someone who dreams of a much-wanted
place, in a mountain so far off it was like a blue cloud on the
horizon of his babyhood, but always there, day after day. And
one day he had started to walk toward that mountain.
He had had no idea what roads led to it, what waited for
him along the way, or how he would find his path and keep
from going astray. But he had been determined to keep head-
ing toward it until he reached it; and then he was determined
to find on it the place of which he dreamed. It was a case of
just always going forward. That way he could never go wrong
because all roads led there eventually. All roads, in fact, were
one road as long as he kept searching-the Forever Road, he
had named it in his mind.
So, he left the resort one morning and went back to the
Base, to his duty station, in the mountains outside Denver.
When he checked into the Bachelor Officers' Ouarters, he
found a phone message waiting for him from General Mollen.
"As soon as you get in, call me," the message read.
He did so, and, after a ceitain length of time got put
through to the general.
"Well," said Mollen, "and how was the fishing?"
"Good, sir," said Jim. "I meant to stay longer, but I found I
got filled up sooner than I thought, on time off. I want to get
back to work."
"Glad to hear it," said Mollen. "And I want to talk to you
about that. So why don't we have dinner at the Officers' Club
tonight?"
What does a major say when a general invites him to din-
ner?
"Thank you, sir.'I'd appreciate that. When, sir?"
"Nineteen hundred hours. Meet you in the bar."
"Yes sir. Thank you."
Jim had bet himself that the general would be at least fif-
teen minutes, and perhaps as much as an hour, late. But he,
himself, was at the Officers' Club fifteen minutes ahead of the
time set, just to be on the safe side. It was a busy part of the
day for the bar, and the lounge which held it was full. Jim was
lucky enough to get a stool on the curve of the horseshoe-
shaped bar that was farthest from the lounge entrance, from
which he faced not only that entrance, but beyond it the front
door of the Club.
"Good to see you again, Major," said the sergeant on duty
behind the bar.
"You, too, Lee," answered Jim. T'hey knew each other; but
that particular veibal exchange was routine between the bar-
man and anyone who flew the Frontier, since none of the
pilots who did that ever knew for sure that they would see the
Club again.
"Ginger ale," said Jim. "On the rocks."
“Coming right up, sir."
Jim sat, sipping the ginger ale, and watching the entrances
to the Club and the lounge, for Mollen. Jeremy Tickler, who
also captained a Wing on the Frontier and had gone through
final training with Jim, came by. They fell into shoptalk.
But it was at exactly 1900 hours that the entrance door
opened and Mollen came through.
"-Excuse me, Tick," said Jim, interrupting the other.
"Here he is now. I'll see you again, soon."
"We shall wish," said Tickler, who was a little drunk, but
who had been told by Jim about the latter's dinner with the
general. Tickler lifted his glass to Jim as Jim departed to in-
tercept Mollen.
He caught the general just outside the door of the lounge.
"Oh, you're already here. Good," said Mollen, changing
direction. "In that case, let's go right into the dinitig room."
He led the way to the dining room entrance, where the
mess attendant on duty took them to the quiet table in a corner
that was of course waiting for the general and his guest.
"I'll have a bourbon. A single-mash bourbon, no ice, no
water, no soda, no anything," said the general.
"Yes sir," said the mess attendant and went off, to return
with the drink himself in a few minutes. A waiter was at his
heels.
"We don't want dinner just yet," Mollen said. He looked
over the attendant's shoulder at the waiter. "Come back in
about twenty minutes."
Attendant and waiter departed.
"Well, here's to the hope the fishing was good," said Mol-
len, lifting his glass. Jim drank with him, politely.
They talked fishing until they were halfway through the
general's second bourbon; and by the time the first one had
been finished, Jim was beginning to be pretty sure that for
some reason Mollen was stalling. However, there was nothing
much he could do about that but wait for his superior to get to
the point.
"-There's Mary Gallegher," the general interrupted him-
self midway through the second drink. He nodded across the
dance floor, which the dining area surrounded.
Jim looked and saw her, just as Mollen had said. She was
with some major Jim did not know who was wearing the ai-
guillette, or dress shoulder cord loopod through one epaulet,
that marked him as an aide to some high-innking officer; and
the two of them were just sitting down at a table at the dance
floor's edge, in plain view.
"She's got a working area of her own on Base here, with
La Chasse Gallerie and a staff of her own," said Mollen.
"Yes sir," said Jim. They looked away from Mary and her
companion and back across the table at each other.
'There's a lot of politics involved in it',' said Mollen. He
drank from his glass. "Ever have much to do with politicians,
Jim?"
"Happily, sir, they're above my range," said Jim.
"Don't be so sure," said Mollen. Below the still-dark halr
on his round head, his bulldog face was somber. "Dealing
with them's supposed to be above my range, too. But the fact
is every one of us is affected by what they do to the Service,
generally. In this case, the fact we've got Mary and her lab, as
it's called, here on Base is all a matter of politics."
"Is that so, sir?" He had not known anything about Mary
and a lab. He was being more polite than anything. It seemed
to him the general was still just making conversation.
"Yes, that's so. And it's something that concerns you and
me, particularly," said Mollen. "They raised hell with me
when they discovered I'd let you go off on leave. Luckily,
they were ready to listen when I said that it might attract more
attention to call you back, suddenly, than it would be to let
you come back in your own time. I didn't think you'd stay
much longer than you did, anyway, knowing you."
"Yes sir," said Jim, not understanding this at all.
"Well, I was right. You're back safely and now you're
here, I'm afraid you're going to stay here. If you go off Base
from now on, it'll be with a couple of Secret Service types
riding shotgun on you."
Jim stared.
"Can I ask the general why?"
"I told you. Politics. It just happened that the Chasse Gal-
lerie came home through the North American Sector of the
Frontier. That makes Raoul Penard and all the potentially
valuable scientific possibilities of his existence in the metal of
his ship a piece of property belonging to this oontinent. It also
makes him, it, Mary Gallegher- and you-items of consid-
erable potential value to our partners who guard the other Sec-
tions of the Frontier. That is, if they know about him yet-but
the general feeling is that if any of them don't by flow, they
will shortly. Also, the general feeling among those few whe
know about this is that there's too much at stake to take any
chances at all. There's the possibility of immortality which
Mary may have mentioned to you-or at least a lifetime that
isn't dependent on a body that can wear out. But beyond that,
there's unlimited possibilities of having ships and other things
that don't have to take into account the necessity of being
designed to protect the life of a breakable human inside them,
white they maneuver at high accelerations."
He took a swallow from his glass. "The war with the
Laagi," he said, "may have brought all the nations of Iit~
into alliance, but the national rivalries are still thiere, and the
business of looking forward to a day in which they'll find
themselves competing, once again. So you're all under special
guard from now on."
"But all I did was listen to Penard when we escorted him
back."
"And saw his ship. And heard him again after he got here.
And had Mary Gallegher riding with you, in which case some
of her educated understanding of the nature and possibilities of
Penard may have iubbed off on you. No, Jim, the people up
top, the politicians up where decisions like this are made,
have decided you're under wraps from now on; and under
wraps you're going to be."
"But I can go off Base, if! want to, as long as some Secret
Service people go with me?"
"I didn't say that," Mollen answered. "In fact, I'mnot so
sure you'll be allowed off under any circumstances, unless it's
for something like going to Washington and reporting to the
higher-ups; or something of that nature."
"I see, sir," said Jim gluraly.
"Brace yourself," said Mollen. "So far I've only shown
you the tip of the iceberg. Not only are you going to be re-
stricted in the matter of leaving the Base, your movements and
contacts are going to be restricted here on the Base, too. From
now on you live in special quarters in that lab of Mary's I was
talking about, just as she and her staff does; and during your
waking hours I'll be keeping you under my eye, since I'm
personally responsible for you.
"But you can't ride with me when I take the Wing out to
the Frontier, sir," protested Jim. "It'd be ridiculous, having a
general riding as gunner. These people up top you talk about
can't expect anything like that."
"They don't," grunted Mollen. "I'm not going to join you;
you're going to join me."
It took a long moment for the implications of this remark to
sink into Jim's mind. When it did, he stared at the older man.
"Sir? You mean-you can't mean I'm grounded!"
"That's the size of it," said Mollen. "Beginning tomorrow
morning you move into an office at my headquarters and be-
hind a desk as Chief of Section."
"But sir," said Jim, "there has to be some other way of
working this. I'm a ship man. I don't know anything about a
deskjob. Can't I-"
But Mollen was not listening. His gaze was roving the
room as if in search of a waiter. There was no waiter to be
seen, but in a minute the mess attendant had abandoned his
customary post by the entrance to the room and come hurrying
over.
"Oh, Sven," said Mollen. "I'm sorry to bother you with
this, but would you just step across to Mary Gallegher-you
know who she is? Good. Ask her if she'll join us for a few
minutes. We won't keep her long. Tell her that."
"Yes, General."
The mess attendant went off. They could see him talking to
Mary Gallegher, and a second after, both she and her escort
pushed their chairs back and got to their feet.
"Damn it, I don't want her hound dog, too!" said Mollen.
But the major with the aiguillette was simply being polite.
As Mary started across the empty dance floor toward them,
the major sat down again. Jim and Mollen got to their feet in
turn. Mary came up and they all sat down.
"Jim, here, just got back from leave," said Mollen to Mary.
"I've been telling him he's going to be housed with you pec-
pIe from now on and ride a desk as Chief of Section. Of
oourse, Jim, we'll be making you a colonel while we're about
it."
"If you don't mind, sir, I'd rather stay a major," said Jim.
"Still dreaming of getting back with your Wing?" said
Mollen. "Don't worty, if the chance comes, we'll send you
back as you are, even if you're the only lieutenant colonel-led,
five-ship Wing on the Frontier."
"Thank you, sir," said Jim. But his mind was really not on
what the general had just said. He was looking at Mary, who
was wearing a light blue cocktail frock with irregularly shaped
chunks of aquamarinelike earrings under her reddish blond
hair.
The combination became her. She had a good body and
Jim found himself once again up against the fact that she was
simply not his type of woman. It was just that rectangular face
of hers, with its straight bones and her blue-green eyes seemed
always to be challenging the world, including him-even
when there was no apperent reason.
She was looking tired, though.
"I take it you've been busy," he said to her, for something
to say. Mollen had caught a waiter at last and was sending him
off for a duplicate of the glass of white wine Mary had been
drinking with her major.
"We have," said Mary. "But we're set up now and things
are moving. I won't be bothering you too often, but from time
to time there'll be parts of the work we'll want to bring you in
on, if that's all right?"
"It'll be all right," said Mollen. "More than that, he'll be
glad to get away from that desk."
"How's Raoul?" asked Jim.
"Still happy to be back, I think," said Mary. "He doesn't
talk as often, anymore, but that's because I think what's left of
him in that ship spends most of its time dreaming. You see,
we don't have the whole man-I should say we don't have the
mind of the whole man, but just the part that wanted so badly
to get home. That's one of the things our work's turned up. It
isn't necessarily a matter of the whole mind being transferred
to something inanimate-"
She broke off. The waiter had just come up with her glass
of white wine.
"Thank you."
"A pleasure, ma'am."
“... You see," she went on, "what we seem to be coming
to is the beginning of a theory that could explain a lot that's
been part of folklore for centuries, but generally put down to
superstition. The poltergeist phenomenon, for example, and
haunted houses... that sort of thing."
"Tell him why," said Mollen.
She glanced around.
"It's a little public..."
"Don't worry. This corner's clean and it's in a scrambler
zone. Anyone even three feet from us would hear our voices,
but not be able to make out what we're talking about. Also
notice the empty tables around us, and the ones beyond that
with just one or two officers at each of them, sitting with
drink5 instead of food. Believe me, we're covered; and I want
him to learn this before he steps into that Aladdin's cave of
yours.
"If that's what you want-sir." The "sir" was a slight,af
terthought. Clearly, Mary had not yet acquired an automatic
use of military manners. "You see, Jim, we established one
thing just by Penard's existence in that ship-the fact that the
mind can have an existence away from anything material;
though its instinct is to find something material as a vehicle if
it can."
Jim nodded.
"But our discovery since then's a blockbuster. It's that the
mind, existing separately, doesn't have to be the complete
mind. The mind'll go to almost any extremes normally rather
than leave the body it first grew in, from the first spark of
consciousness in the womb to a full-fledged, unique human or
animal individual. In fact, it'll go right up to the point of
dying with the body, ordinarily, rather than leaving it. But
under certain overwhelming, particular stresses, it or a part of
it will leave an intolerable situation. Is what I'm saying mak-
ing sense to you?"
"You mean do I follow you?" said Jim. "I do."
She made a little grimace of discomfort.
"Please...?" she said.
"Goddamn right!" said Mollen. "Cut out the prickly busi-
ness, Jim. We've no time or place for that anymore.
"Yes sir m sorry," said Jim to Mary. "I really am. I
don't know what gets into me sometimes. Go ahead. I'm in-
terested, as well as ready to listen."
"It's most important you understand," Mary said. "I was
using the poltergeist phenomenon as an example. Most polter-
gism has been tied to young females. It's been checked in a
number of cases and pretty well taken for granted in the others
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