Chapter 6
In the end, Spartan himself arranged a schedule for Morrie and me, so we had no choice when we would serve our extra shifts. However, I spent equal time with Gail, Axel and Joel, as did Morrie.
Gail and I had no opportunity to talk over our personal problems—concerning, mainly, Dr. Spartan—because he was always joining us in the control cabin. Axel was always engaged in radio astronomy, or trying to intercept terrestrial broadcasts, which were growing more feeble each day. Joel was uneasy in my presence.
“I’m sorry about causing you all this trouble,” he said. “But if I hadn’t reported that infraction of rules to Dr. Spartan, he might have punished me.”
“Axel didn’t report it and he wasn’t punished,” I said.
“Dr. Spartan didn’t suspect that Axel knew anything about it.” Joel sighed. “I’m afraid my act has made me very unpopular with the rest of you.”
“Forget it,” I said, “a trip to Mars isn’t a popularity contest. If we return with good results, it won’t matter. We’ll all be fair-haired boys.”
But the incident had helped me decide that Joel would not be trustworthy if it came to a showdown against Spartan. On the other hand, it also helped prove that Axel was not a confidential aide to our chief.
On the fourth extra tour of duty, I was in the control room with Axel. He was concentrating on the sounds he was picking up with our ultrahigh frequency receiver. Finally he ran the sounds he was getting through an oscilloscope.
“Look at that, Bill!” he exclaimed, pointing to the strange wave pattern.
“Pretty,” I commented. All I saw was that it was something different.
“That signal,” said Axel, “was made by intelligent beings. It’s not a natural radio pattern—the kind you’d get from a star or a nebula.”
I took my eyes off the instruments and looked at the pattern again. “Are you trying to tell me the Russians have invented a new kind of radio?”
“The signal’s coming from Mars,” said Axel.
“You’re space crazy,” I said. “There’s nothing intelligent on Mars. Just a few plants.”
“We don’t really know,” said Axel. “I’ve been picking up these signals for several days. They’re traveling twice the distance of the terrestrial signals. And the volume is greater. That would mean at least four or more times the power.”
“You’ve reported it to Spartan?” I asked.
“I’ve entered it in the log book,” said Axel. “I’ve also made a recording. It’s not a voice signal, but it has an artificial wave pattern. It’s some kind of radar wave—”
“The Martians have spotted us?” I couldn’t quite believe it. “They’re gonna send out a fleet of spaceships and blast us before we land.”
“If they had spaceships they would have visited the earth,” said Axel.
“Then we’re more advanced than they are. And if they’re intelligent, we’ve nothing to fear. We’ll probably get the keys to all the Martian cities.”
“We may not be ahead of them,” said Axel. “And even if they’re intelligent, we might have things to fear. How would we receive Martians if they landed on the earth?”
“We’d probably give ’em television contracts,” I said.
“Not at first,” said Axel. “We’d take pains to contain them somehow—prevent them from causing us any harm. We’d make sure they had come to the earth with peaceful intent. And we’d be pretty slow to trust them even if they came unarmed.”
“Martians may be different,” I said. “Why don’t you tell Spartan? You know how he is. If he thought we held out anything on him, he might use his popgun on us.”
“That’s what I’ve been going to do,” said Axel. “But I wanted to make sure these signals came from Mars. Now I’m positive.” He touched the buzzer signal on the big globe in the center of the room where all the ship’s controls were located.
Spartan’s voice came over the intercom. “What’s the matter now?”
“We’ve picked up signals from Mars, sir,” said Axel.
“Nonsense.” There was a click. A moment later Spartan came in through the bulkhead door. His eyes darted about suspiciously, as if expecting some trick.
“It’s sort of a carrier wave,” said Axel as Spartan anchored himself on the floor. “Seems to be a kind of radar—as if we’re being watched.” It was obvious that Axel was awed by the new phenomenon.
“It’s utterly ridiculous,” said Spartan. “Radar would indicate intelligent life. Mars is a dying world. The age of intelligent life ended there long ago.” There was still that wary look about him and his lips curled into a sneer.
“Perhaps it’s a different kind of intelligence,” I suggested.
“What other kinds are there?” Spartan snorted. “Intelligence is knowing what is true and what isn’t. A thing can either be true or false. There’s not much difference between intelligences.”
I’d learned you couldn’t argue with Spartan, who refused to recognize that truth is relative and that there are at least two sides to any question; that, more often, there are an infinite number of points of view, all true in a sense, none altogether false.
“Anyhow, we’ve got signals,” I said meekly, seeing the utter futility of arguing.
“Signals. Bah!” He was almost snarling now, unwilling to admit any possibility which might interfere with his preconceived notions.
“Doc, there are millions of stars and even if only a fraction of one per cent of them has conditions suitable to life, we might find intelligent beings there.”
“Granted. But Mars isn’t a planet with the right conditions. Why, you’re even inferring that these Martians might be more intelligent than we are. We on earth couldn’t pick out an object the size of this ship so far away from our planet. Let me check these signals—”
Spartan began twisting the dials controlling the directional antennae at the front and rear of the craft. “Might be something else; different from radar—”
Axel’s voice cut in. “Doctor! Look at our radarscope!”
I turned my head quickly toward the screen. There was just the flimsy outline of something there; something barely perceptible to the waves that scanned the path ahead of the ship. But whatever it was, it was in our path and it was very large. A cloud, maybe—only clouds don’t show on radar.
“Meteors!” screamed Spartan. “Heaven help us! It’s a meteor cloud!”
He pushed me aside and sprang to the controls. At the same time, he touched the emergency button, setting off a shrieking siren alarm.