Accidental Flight Page 11

that shewants the asteroid!"

  Medicouncilor Thorton tried to shove his face out of the screen andinto the room. "Don't you ever think, General? There isn't any realdifference between gravital units except size and power. What she didto the ship she can do as easily to the asteroid." He thrust out afinger and pointed angrily. "Don't stand there, General Judd. Findthat girl!"

  It was late for that kind of command. The great dome overhead trembledand creaked in countless joints. The little world shivered, groaned asif it had lain too long in an age-old orbit. It began to move.

  * * * * *

  Vague shapes stirred, crawled, walked if they could. Fantastic andnear-fantastic figures came to the assembly. Huge or tiny, on theirown legs or borrowed ones, they arrived, with or without arms, faces.The word had spread by voice, by moving lips, by sign languages ofevery sort.

  "Remember, it will be hours or perhaps days before we're safe," saidDocchi. His voice was growing hoarse. "It's up to us to see that Nonahas all the time she needs."

  "Where is she hiding?" asked someone from the crowd.

  "I don't know. If I did, I still wouldn't tell you. It's our job tokeep them from finding her."

  "How?" demanded one near the front. "Fight the guards?"

  "Not directly," said Docchi. "We have no arms in the sense of weapons.Many of us have no arms in any sense. All we can hope to do isobstruct their search. Unless someone has a better idea, this is whatI plan:

  "I want all the men, older women, and the younger ones who aren'tsuitable for reasons I'll explain later. The guards won't be here foranother half hour--it will take that long to get them together andgive them the orders that the Medicouncil must be working out now.When they do come, get in their way.

  "How you do that, I'll leave to your imagination. Appeal to theirsympathy as long as they have any. Put yourself in dangeroussituations. They have ethics; at first they'll be inclined to helpyou. When they do, try to steal their weapons. Avoid physical violenceas much as you can. We don't want to force them into retaliation. Makethe most of that phase of their behavior. It won't last long."

  Docchi paused and looked over the crowd. "Each of you will have todecide for himself when to drop that kind of resistance and start anactive battle campaign. We have to disrupt the light and scanning andventilation systems, for instance. They'll be forced to keep them inrepair. Perhaps they'll try to guard these strategic points. So muchthe better for us--there will be fewer guards to contend with."

  "What about me?" called a woman from far in back. "What do I do?"

  "You are in for a rough time," Docchi promised her. "Is Jerian here?"

  She elbowed her way to his side through the crowd.

  "Jerian," said Docchi to the accidentals, "is a normal, prettywoman--outwardly. She has, however, no trace of a digestive system.The maximum time she can go without food and fluid injections is tenhours. That's why she's here."

  Again Docchi scanned the group. "I need a cosmetech, someone who hasher equipment with her."

  A legless woman propelled herself forward. Docchi conferred with her.She seemed startled, but she complied. Under her deft fingers Jerianwas transformed--into Nona.

  "She will be the first Nona they'll find," explained Docchi, "becauseshe can get away with the disguise longer. I think--I hope--they'llcall off the search for a few hours while they test her. Eventuallythey are sure to find out. In Jerian's case, fingerprints or X-rayswould reveal who she is. But that won't occur to them immediately.Nona is impossible to question, as you know, and Jerian will actexactly as Nona would.

  "As soon as they discover that Jerian isn't Nona--well, they won'tbother to be polite, if that's the word for it. The guards will likethe idea of finding an attractive girl they can manhandle in the lineof duty, especially if they think that will help them find Nona. Itwon't, of course. But it will hold up the search and that's what wewant."

  They stood still, no one moving. Women looked at each other in silentapprehension.

  "Let's go," said Jordan grimly.

  "Wait," advised Docchi. "I have one volunteer Nona. I need about fiftymore. It doesn't matter if you're physically sound or not--we'll raidthe lab for plastissue. If you think you can be made up to look likeNona, come forward."

  Slowly, singly and by twos and threes, they came to him. There werefew indeed who wouldn't require liberal use of camouflage.

  The rest followed Jordan out.

  Mass production of an individual. Not perfect in every instance. Goodenough to pass in most. Docchi watched approvingly, suggestingoccasional touches of makeup.

  "She can't speak or hear," he reminded the volunteers. "Remember thatat all times, no matter what they do. Hide in difficult places. AfterJerian is taken and the search called off and then resumed, letyourselves be found one at a time. Every guard that has to take youfor examination is one less to look for the real Nona. They have tofind her soon or get off the asteroid."

  The cosmetechs were busy; none stopped. There was one who looked up.

  "Get off?" she asked. "Why?"

  "The Sun is getting smaller."

  "Smaller!" exclaimed the woman.

  He nodded. "Handicap Haven is leaving the Solar System."

  Her fingers flew and molded the beautiful curve of a jaw where therehad been none. Next, plastissue lips were applied.

  Nona was soon hiding in half a hundred places.

  And one more....

  * * * * *

  The orbit of Neptune was far behind and still the asteroid wasaccelerating. Two giant gravital units strained at the core ofHandicap Haven. The third clamped an abnormally heavy gravity on theisolated world. Prolonged physical exertion was awkward and doublyexhausting. Hours turned into a day, but the units never faltered.

  "Have you figured it out as precisely as you should?" asked Docchieasily. "You share our velocity away from the Sun. You'll have toovercome it before you can start going back."

  The general ignored him. "If we could only turn off that damneddrive!"

  Engineer Vogel shrugged sickly. "You try it," he suggested. "I don'twant to be around when you do. It sounds easy: just a gravital unit.But remember there's a good-sized nuclear pile involved."

  "I know we can't," admitted the general, morosely looking at thedarkness overhead. "On the other hand, we can take off and blow thisrock apart from a safe distance."

  "And lose all hope of finding her?" taunted Docchi.

  "We're losing her anyway," Cameron commented sourly.

  "It's not as bad as all that," consoled Docchi. "Now that you knowwhere the difficulty is, you can always build another computer andfurnish it with auxiliary senses. Or maybe build into it the facts ofelementary astronomy."

  Cautiously, he shifted his frail body under the heavy gravity."There's another solution, though it may not appeal to you. I can'tbelieve Nona is altogether unique. There must be others like her.So-called 'born' mechanics, maybe, whose understanding of machinery isa form of empathy we've never suspected. Look hard enough and you mayfind them, perhaps in the most unlikely or unlovely body."

  General Judd grunted wearily, "If I thought you knew where she is--"

  "You can try to find out," Docchi invited, glowing involuntarily.

  "Forget about the dramatics, General," said Cameron in disgust. "We'vequestioned him thoroughly. Resistance we would have had in any event.He's responsible merely for making it more effective than we thoughtpossible."

  He added slowly: "At the moment, obviously, he's trying to tear downour morale. He doesn't have to bother. The situation is so bad that itlooks hopeless. I can't think of a thing we can do that would helpus."

  The Sun was high in the center of the dome. Sun? More like a verybright star. It cast no shadows; the lights in the dome did. Theyflickered and with monotonous regularity went out again. The generalswore constantly and emotionlessly until service was restored.

  A guard approached with his captive. "I think I've found h
er, sir."

  Cameron looked at the girl in dismay. "Guard, where's your decency?"

  "Orders, sir," the man said.

  "Whose orders?"

  "Yours, sir. You said she was sound of body. How else could I findout?"

  Cameron scowled and thrust a scalpel deep into the girl's thigh. Shelooked at him with a tear-stained face, but didn't move a muscle.

  "Plastissue, as any fool can see," he commented