here from the Government. He's worked on deals likethis with me before and he's got an idea.
"Here's the substance of it. We're going to send out a space tug fromMercury to see if we can haul you in. It's a new, experimental tug andit's been kept under wraps until now. But it's been designed for jobslike this and we figure it can sure as hell do it.
"There's just one hitch, though, kid. It's a mighty powerful ship sothere's going to be a terrific shock when it contacts you and themagnetic grapples set to work. In your medicine kit you'll find a smallhypo in a red-sealed plastic box. Take the shot that's in itimmediately and we'll have the tug out there as soon as we can. It willprobably take about twelve hours."
Donnelly's voice broke and he hesitated strangely for a moment. "You'llbe out fast," he went on. "So you won't feel a thing when the shock wavehits you. There's less chance of injuries, this way."
* * * * *
"It's a lousy thing to do," cried Donnelly as he snapped off the set. "Arotten, heartless way of giving the lad false hopes. But then you don'tgive a damn about anybody's feelings but your own, do you, Doc?"
"Take it easy, Joe--"
"Shut up, Williams. I'm talking to this little Government time-serverover here, not to you."
The psychiatrist shrugged wearily. "I don't care what you think. I'veworked with you both on cases similar to this before, though I'll admitthat none of them were quite as hopeless. In any case, I'll do it myway, or not at all."
"Maybe you will, maybe you will," said Donnelly. "But if I had to waitthirty days in that thing and somebody told me it was only a matter ofhours--"
"I know what I'm doing even if you think that I don't. The Governmenthas developed a set approach in matters like this. Fortunately, therearen't many of them. Perhaps if there were--"
"Let me take over, Doc," broke in Donnelly. "I'm a space-engineer andthat makes me far better qualified to handle this than you are. Why thehell they ever put a psychiatrist on this job in the first place issomething I'll never know, if I live to be a hundred and ten. It's a jobfor an engineer, not a brain washer."
"There's a lot of things you'll never know, Donnelly," the gaunt, thinlittle man sighed wearily. He sat down at the long mahogany table in theRadio Room. With a careless wave of one arm, he swept a pile of papersand magazines to the floor.
"Try and get this through your head, Donnelly. There's not too much youcan do by yourself for that boy up there. You just don't know how tocope with the psychological intangibles. That's why they have mehere--so that we could work together as a team.
"Now the sooner you get on that radio and follow my instructions for thepilot the sooner we'll get this over with. Then maybe I can go home andspend a hundred years trying to forget about it. Until then please tryand keep your personal opinions to yourself. Please."
Donnelly's face flushed a still deeper red. His fists clenched and, as amuscle started to twitch warningly in his cheek, he started to get up.He stopped for a moment--frozen in silence. Then he relaxed and pushedback his chair. With a heavy sigh, he maneuvered his huge bear of a bodyto its feet.
He rumbled something disgustedly in his throat and then spat casually onthe floor. "Williams," he thundered. "Get the hell out of here and getus some coffee."
He waited a moment until the only witness had left the room and then,with grim determination, he turned to the little psychiatrist seated atthe table.
"You, Doc," he said coldly and with deliberate malice, "are a dirty,unclean little--"
* * * * *
Williams, when he eased his slight body through the door a few minuteslater, found a suspicious scene. The little doctor, his face flushed andrage-twisted, his effortless and almost contemptuous composure shakenfor once, was on his feet. Speechless, he faced the grinningspace-engineer who was waving a huge and warning finger in his face.
"Easy, Doc," Donnelly roared in a friendly voice. "I might takeadvantage of it if you keep on giving me a good excuse. Then where wouldall your psychiatry and your fine overlording manners get you?"
"Joe," yelled Williams in explosive sudden fright. "Leave him alone.You're liable to have the Government Police down on us."
"Sure, Williams. The police and the newspapers too. They'd just love tohave the taxpayers find out what they're doing to those kids out in deepspace. What would they call it, Doc? Just an interesting psychologicalexperiment? Is that what it's meant to be, eh, Doc?"
He chuckled suddenly as the little doctor flinched under his virulentattack. "I really hit the spot that time, didn't I, Doc? So that's whatthe Government's so scared and hush-hush about. They're really scared tohell and back, aren't they? I wonder what's really going on behind allthis?"
He leaned forward, suddenly roaring and ferocious. "Why are Williams andI followed everywhere we go when we leave here? To see who we talk to?Is that the way of it? Why do quite a few of the ships you and I andWilliams have rescued in the past few years never show up again? Justwhere are they? I don't see them reported missing in the newspapers,either."
He leaned back in exhausted satisfaction at the look on the littledoctor's face. "Yeah, Doc, the only way to get anything out of you is toblast it out, isn't it?"
Pale and frightened, Williams hurried across the room to the table and,with shaky hands, took out three containers of coffee from the paper bagand passed them out.
Nobody bothered to thank him.
The hidden tension in the room had begun to mount steadily, so Donnellyhelped it out a little.
"Is this the first time you've ever been on the defensive, Doc?" heasked.
Williams jumped in before the explosion. "When will the rocket get tothe kid's ship, Doctor?" he asked.
"In about thirty days," the little man answered, coldly anddeliberately.
Williams blinked in surprise. "Good Lord," he said. "I thought it wassupposed to be in twelve hours or so?"
"That's the whole point," snapped Donnelly. "That's what I'm so fightingmad about. Think of it yourself, Williams. Suppose you had a son or abrother up there, how would you feel about this whole infernal, lyingbusiness?
"I don't get it," he went on. "I just don't get the big central ideabehind it. Don't all these tugs we send out ever get there? First theytell the kid he'll have his life saved in twelve hours or so. Then theyget him to take a shot so his mind won't crack up while he's waiting.
"Now they know very well the shot won't last for thirty days. If it didhe'd starve to death. So what have they accomplished? Nothing. As amatter of fact they've made things worse instead of better. What's goingto happen to that poor kid when he wakes up in twelve hours and findsout he still has to wait for thirty more days? What's going to happen tohim then, Doc? Don't you think that kid will really go off his rockerfor sure?"
Donnelly and Williams both looked at the little psychiatrist. He satagain at his former place at the table, white and shaken. His face wasonce again buried in one hand.
"Come on, Doc," whispered Williams, quietly. "What's going on here,anyway?"
"That's enough," cried the doctor, suddenly. He sprang up and strodetoward the door. "Leave me alone," he exclaimed, almost in tears. "Byheaven, I've had enough of this. I've had all I can stand."
Donnelly moved to block the door and the psychiatrist came abruptly to ahalt. "That ain't enough, Doc. You get out after you talk."
"For God's sake, Joe."
"Shut up, Williams, I'm warning you for the last time."
"Let me by. I warn you, Donnelly. Let me by."
Williams moved in, regaining a sudden spurt of assurance. "What aboutthat kid up there, Doc? Nobody's letting him by, are they, Doc?"
A look of utter weariness swept across the doctor's face.
"All right," he said. "You may as well know the truth then. You won'tlike or understand it, but here it is anyway. You see, there isn't anytug up there, experimental or otherwise. There was only our need for agood excuse--in this present case--to get him to take th
e drug. You're aspace-engineer and a good one, Donnelly. That's why you were chosen forthis job. If anybody could help those kids, you could."
Donnelly's face tightened warningly and the doctor hurried on. "Youwould have known about it if there had been any experimental modelsdeveloped even if they had been secret. As a matter of fact, with yourstanding,