The Hitch Hikers, Page 2

space in the ship, doubledas living quarters. A larger man would have found the arrangementimpossible. Brown, being 5' 2" and weighing 105 pounds found it merelyintolerable.

  At the moment he was temporarily able to forget his discomfort, however.The many tiny dials and indicators told a story all their own to Brown'strained vision.

  "Just another half hour," he whispered to himself. "Just thirty moreminutes and I'll land. It may be just a dead planet but I'll still bethe first."

  There really wasn't a great deal for Brown to do. The ship wasself-guided. The Air Force had trusted robot mechanisms more than humanreactions.

  Thus Brown's entire active contribution to the flight consisted inwatching the dials (which recorded everything so even watching them wasunnecessary) and in pressing the button which would cause the ship tostart its return journey.

  Of course the scientists could have constructed another mechanism topress the button and made it a completely robot ship. But despite theirfrailties and imperfections, human beings have certain advantages.Humans can talk. Machines may see and detect far more than their humancreators but all they can do is record. They can neither interpret norsatisfactorily describe.

  Brown was present not only to report a human's reactions to the firstMars flight; he was also along to see that which the machines mightmiss.

  "We've never satisfactorily defined life," one of his instructors hadtold Brown shortly after he started the three grueling years of trainingwhich had been necessary, "so we can't very well build a foolproofmachine for detecting it. That's why we've left room for 105 pounds ofdead weight."

  "Meaning me?"

  "Meaning you."

  "And I'm your foolproof machine for detecting life?"

  "Let's say you're the closest we can come to it at present. We'rebanking everything on this first trip. It'll be at least eighteenmonths later before we can get a second ship into space. So it's up toyou to get everything you can ... some evidence of life, preferablyanimal, if possible. With public support it'll be a hell of a lot easiersqueezing appropriations out of Congress for the next ship and to getpublic support we need the biggest possible play in the newspapers. Ifanything is newsworthy on Mars it should be evidence of life ... evenplant life."

  So here he was, 105 pounds of concentrated knowledge and anticipation,itching with the desire for action and also from more basic causeshaving to do with two months confinement in a small space with a minimumof water.

  "Life is most probable at the poles," the instructor had said. "Youwon't be able to stay long so we'll try to set you down right at theSouth Pole. You won't have room to bring back specimens. So keep youreyes open and absorb everything you see. Don't forget anything. What youbring back in your mind weighs nothing."

  "It's just sitting there," the observing banks reported, "and the redflame has gone out."

  "Is it safe now?" enquired the speculative bank.

  "In what way?"

  "Is it safe to go near that thing?"

  "It's very huge," ventured the observing banks unasked. There was a stirof activity which encompassed practically all except the most simpleunits and which lasted for perhaps five minutes while the speculativebank's last question was processed.

  Finally the interpretive bank reluctantly admitted, "We can't arrive ata positive answer. Too many unknown elements are present. We don't knowfor sure what caused the flame, when it might start again, or what, ifanything, is inside."

  "But you said it was a work of intelligence. Doesn't that mean Rellwould be inside?"

  "Not necessarily. They could have constructed the thing to operateitself."

  It was just then that the observing banks reported, "It's opening."

  The speculative bank quickly responded, "This is an emergency. We mustbe able to observe from close up. We'll have to approach it."

  "The entire mind?" enquired the disciplinary corps.

  The speculative bank hesitated. "No, we'll need to split up. One-fifthof us will go, the rest remain here. It's a short distance and we'llstill be able to continue in complete contact."

  Those who were to go were quickly sorted out and Raeillo/ee13 was quitethrilled to find he and Raellu//2 were included in the scouting party.

  The group set off briskly toward their objective but had moved hardlyone hundred yards when a vertigo seemed to overtake them. Raeillo/ee13found himself swimming helplessly in a vortex of darkness and isolation,blanked off from not only the group-mind and his bank but also fromRaellu//2. Frantically he grasped for some sort of stasis, butdependence on the group-mind was too ingrained and he was unable to stirhis long-dormant powers of sight and education.

  Then the isolation cleared to be replaced by a brief impression of chaoswith perhaps a tinge of alienness. Another instant of vertigo followedand then everything was normal once more as the comfortable familiarmesh took hold.

  "What was that?" Even the speculative bank sounded frightened.

  "Sorry." The usually silent meshing bank sounded abashed. "We weren'tprepared for that. Some sort of thought wave is issuing from the openingand it disrupted the group mesh till we were able to take it intocalculation and rebuild the mesh around it."

  "Thought wave? Then there _are_ Rell in that thing."

  "Do not compute before the mesh is set," the interpretive bankcautioned. "The presence of Rell, while extremely probable, is not yetentirely certain."

  Without waiting for a suggestion from elsewhere the disciplinary groupordered the entire mind forward.

  Perhaps, in time of stress, dormant qualities tend to emerge,Raeillo/ee13 mused. Certainly everyone, himself included, appeared to beexercising speculative qualities. Not that specialization isn't amarvelous blessing, he hastily added, in case the disciplinary corpsmight be scanning his bank. But the disciplinary corps itself was asfascinated by the phenomenon ahead as Raeillo/ee13.

  Emerging from the infinitely huge upright thing was a mobile being, alsoinfinitely huge. Not that they were the same size. The mobile one wassmall enough to fit easily through the opening in the lower portion ofthe larger. But beyond a certain point words lose meaning and infinitelyhuge was the closest measurement the tiny Rell could find for either theupright pointed thing or the knobby one which had emerged and wasquickly identified as the source of the disrupting thought patterns.

  * * * * *

  Leonard Brown was enjoying himself thoroughly. The inside of a spacesuit can scarcely be termed comfortable but at least you can move aroundin it and Brown was making the most of this sensation after two monthscramped in his tiny cell. He was, in fact, comporting himself much as athree-year-old might have done after a similar release.

  But before long he settled down to the serious business of observing andmentally recording everything in sight.

  There were none of the mysterious 'canals' in view, which wasdisappointing; one piece of glamour the publicity boys would necessarilyforego until the next trip. The ice cap itself, if such it could becalled, was almost equally disappointing. On Earth it would have beendismissed as a mere frost patch, if this section was typical. For aradius of many yards the ground was blasted bare by the action of theexhaust and nowhere in sight did there appear to be more than theflimsiest covering of white over the brown sandy soil.

  "Not even lichens," muttered Brown in disgust.

  But disgust cannot long stand against the magic of a fresh new planetand Brown continued his avid, though barren, search until hunger forcedhis return to the ship. He had been able to detect no life and wascompletely unaware of his close proximity to the planet's dominantspecies. It had been considered neither practical nor particularlydesirable to build a microscope into the space suit. Simplicity and theleast possible weight had been the watchwords here as with everythingdesigned to go aboard the ship.

  In any case, a microscope would have done Brown little good in trying todetect the submicroscopic beings of the Rell.

  The Rell, who had somewhat lost their fear of Brown, hastily re
treatedwhen they saw him returning to the still awesome ship.

  "But are you _sure_ he's _completely_ self-powered?" the speculativebank queried. "No Rell inside him at all?"

  "There are many Rell-like beings in various parts of him," replied theinterpretive bank. "Some help digest his food, others are predators, andstill others their enemies. But most are too big and clumsy to havedeveloped intelligence, and even the small ones appear completelymindless."

  "But where do the thought waves come from? We all felt them."

  "It's hard to accept but we are almost forced to conclude they areemanating from the mobile unit itself, or rather from the