Unwise Child Page 14

  14

  Mike the Angel spent the next three days in a pale blue funk which hestruggled valiantly against, at least to prevent it from becoming a deepblue.

  There was something wrong aboard the _Brainchild_, and Mike simplycouldn't quite figure what it was. He found that he wasn't the only onewho had been asked peculiar questions by Snookums. The little robotseemed to have developed a sudden penchant for asking seemingly inanequestions.

  Lieutenant Keku reported with a grin that Snookums had asked him if heknew who Commander Gabriel _really_ was.

  "What'd you say?" Mike had asked.

  Keku had spread his hands and said: "I gave him the usual formula aboutnot being positive of my data, then I told him that you were known asMike the Angel and were well known in the power field."

  Multhaus reported that Snookums had wanted to know what theirdestination was. The chief's only possible answer, of course, had been:"I don't have that data, Snookums."

  Dr. Morris Fitzhugh had become more worried-looking than usual and hadconfided to Mike that he, too, wondered why Snookums was asking suchpeculiar questions.

  "All he'll tell me," the roboticist had reported, wrinkling up his face,"was that he was collecting data. But he flatly refused, even whenordered, to tell me what he needed the data for."

  Mike stayed away from Leda Crannon as much as possible; shipboard was noplace to try to conduct a romance. Not that he deliberately avoided herin such a manner as to give offense, but he tried to appear busy at alltimes.

  She was busy, too. Keeping herd on Snookums was becoming something of aproblem. She had never attempted to watch him all the time. In the firstplace, it was physically impossible; in the second place, she didn'tthink Snookums would develop properly if he were to be kept underconstant supervision. But now, for the first time, she didn't have thefoggiest notion of what was going on inside the robot's mind, and shecouldn't find out. It puzzled and worried her, and between herself andDr. Fitzhugh there were several long conferences on Snookums' peculiarbehavior.

  Mike the Angel found himself waiting for something to happen. He hadn'tthe slightest notion what it was that he was waiting for, but he was ascertain of its coming as he was of the fact that the Earth was an oblatespheroid.

  But he certainly didn't expect it to begin the way it did.

  A quiet evening bridge game is hardly the place for a riot to start.

  Pete Jeffers was pounding the pillow in his stateroom; Captain Quill wason the bridge, checking through the log.

  In the officers' wardroom Mike the Angel was looking down at two handsof cards, wondering whether he'd make his contract. His own hand heldthe ace, nine, seven of spades; the ten, six, two of hearts; the jack,ten, nine, four, three, and deuce of diamonds; and the eight of clubs.

  Vaneski, his partner, had bid a club. Keku had answered with a take-outdouble. Mike had looked at his hand, figured that since he and Vaneskiwere vulnerable, while Keku and von Liegnitz were not, he bid a weaknesspre-empt of three diamonds. Von Liegnitz passed, and Vaneski hadanswered back with five diamonds. Keku and Mike had both passed, and vonLiegnitz had doubled.

  Now Mike was looking at Vaneski's dummy hand. No spades; the ace, queen,five, and four of hearts; the queen, eight, seven, and six of diamonds;and the ace, king, seven, four, and three of clubs.

  And von Liegnitz had led the three of hearts.

  It didn't look good. His opponents had the ace and king of trumps, andwith von Liegnitz' heart lead, it looked as though he might have to trya finesse on the king of hearts. Still, there _might_ be another wayout.

  Mike threw in the ace from dummy. Keku tossed in his seven, and Mikethrew in his own deuce. He took the next trick with the ace of clubsfrom dummy, and the singleton eight in his own hand. The one after thatcame from dummy, too; it was the king of clubs, and Mike threw in theheart six from his own hand. From dummy, he led the three of clubs. Kekuwent over it with a jack, but Mike took it with his deuce of diamonds.

  He led the seven of spades to get back in dummy so he could use up thoseclubs. Dummy took the trick with the six of diamonds, and led out withthe four of clubs.

  Mike figured that Keku must--absolutely _must_--have the king of hearts.Both his take-out double and von Liegnitz' heart lead pointed toward theking in his hand. Now if....

  Vaneski had moved around behind Mike to watch the play. Not one of themnoticed Lieutenant Lew Mellon, the Medical Officer, come into the room.

  That is, they knew he had come in, but they had ignored him thereafter.He was such a colorless nonentity that he simply seemed to fade into thebackground of the walls once he had made his entrance.

  Mike had taken seven tricks, and, as he had expected, lost the eighth tovon Liegnitz' five of diamonds. When the German led the nine of hearts,Mike knew he had the game. He put in the queen from dummy, Keku tossedin his king triumphantly, and Mike topped it with his lowly four ofdiamonds.

  If, as he suspected, his opponents' ace and king of diamonds were split,he would get them both by losing the next trick and then make a cleansweep of the board.

  He threw in his nine of diamonds.

  He just happened to glance at von Liegnitz as the navigator dropped hisking.

  Then he lashed out with one foot, kicking at the leg of von Liegnitz'chair. At the same time, he yelled, "Jake! Duck!"

  He was almost too late. Mellon, his face contorted with a mixture ofanger and hatred, was standing just behind Jakob von Liegnitz. In onehand was a heavy spanner, which he was bringing down with deadly forceon the navigator's skull.

  Von Liegnitz' chair started to topple, and von Liegnitz himself spunaway from the blow. The spanner caught him on the shoulder, and hegrunted in pain, but he kept on moving away from Mellon.

  The medic screamed something and lifted the spanner again.

  By this time, Keku, too, was on his feet, moving toward Mellon. Mike theAngel got behind Mellon, trying to grab at the heavy metal tool inMellon's hand.

  Mellon seemed to sense him, for he jumped sideways, out of Mike's way,and kicked backward at the same time, catching Mike on the shin with hisheel.

  Von Liegnitz had made it to his feet by this time and was blocking thedownward swing of Mellon's arm with his own forearm. His other fistpistoned out toward Mellon's face. It connected, sending Mellonstaggering backward into Mike the Angel's arms.

  Von Liegnitz grabbed the spanner out of Mellon's hand and swung ittoward the medic's jaw. It was only inches away when Keku's hand graspedthe navigator's wrist.

  And when the big Hawaiian's hand clamped on, von Liegnitz' hand stoppedalmost dead.

  Mellon was screaming. "You ----!" He ran out a string of unprintable andalmost un-understandable words. "I'll kill you! I'll do it yet! _Youstay away from Leda Crannon!_"

  "Calm down, Doc!" snapped Mike the Angel. "What the hell's the matterwith you, anyway?"

  Von Liegnitz was still straining, trying to get away from Keku to takeanother swipe at the medic, but the huge Hawaiian held him easily. Thenavigator had lapsed into his native German, and most of it wasunintelligible, except for an occasional reference to various improbablecombinations of animal life.

  But Mellon was paying no attention. "You! I'll kill you! Lecher!Dirty-minded, filthy...."

  He went on.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, he smashed his heel down on Mike's toe. Atleast, he tried to; he'd have done it if the toe had been there when hisheel came down. But Mike moved it just two inches and avoided the blow.

  At the same time, though, Mellon twisted, and Mike's forced shift ofposition lessened his leverage on the man's shoulders and arms. Mellonalmost got away. One hand grabbed the wrench from von Liegnitz, whosegrip had been weakened by the paralyzing pressure of Keku's fingers.

  Mike had no choice but to slam a hard left into the man's solar plexus.Mellon collapsed like an unoccupied overcoat.

  By this time, von Liegnitz had quieted down. "Let go, Keku," he said."I'm all right." He looked down at the motionless figure on the deck."W
hat the hell do you suppose was eating him?" he asked quietly.

  "How's your shoulder?" Mike asked.

  "Hurts like the devil, but I don't think it's busted. But why did he doit?" he repeated.

  "Sounds to me," said Keku dryly, "that he was nutty jealous of you. Hedidn't like the times you took Leda Crannon to the base movies while wewere at Chilblains."

  Jakob von Liegnitz continued to look down at the smaller man in wonder."_Lieber Gott_" he said finally. "I only took her out a couple of times.I knew he liked her, but--" He stopped. "The guy must be off hisbearings."

  "I smelled liquor on his breath," said Mike. "Let's get him down to hisstateroom and lock him in until he sobers up. I'll have to report thisto the captain. Can you carry him, Keku?"

  Keku nodded and reached down. He put his hands under Mellon's armpits,lifted him to his feet, and threw him over his shoulder.

  "Good," said Mike the Angel. "I'll walk behind you and clop him one ifhe wakes up and gets wise."

  Vaneski was standing to one side, his face pale, his expression blank.

  Mike said: "Jake, you and Vaneski go up and make the report to thecaptain. Tell him we'll be up as soon as we've taken care of Mellon."

  "Right," said von Liegnitz, massaging his bruised shoulder.

  "Okay, Keku," said Mike, "forward march."

  * * * * *

  Lieutenant Keku thumbed the opener to Mellon's stateroom, shoved thedoor aside, stepped in, and slapped at the switch plaque. The plateslighted up, bathing the room in sunshiny brightness.

  "Dump him on his sack," said Mike.

  While Keku put the unconscious Mellon on his bed, Mike let his gazewander around the room. It was neat--almost too neat, implyingoverfussiness. The medical reference books were on one shelf, all inalphabetical order. Another shelf contained a copy of the _InternationalEncyclopedia_, English edition, plus several dictionaries, including oneon medical terms and another on theological ones.

  On the desk lay a copy of the Bible, York translation, opened to theBook of Tobit. Next to it were several sheets of blank paper and a smalltraveling clock sat on them as a paperweight.

  His clothing was hung neatly, in the approved regulation manner, withhis shoes in their proper places and his caps all lined up in a row.

  Mike walked around the room, looking at everything.

  "What's the matter? What're you looking for?" asked Keku.

  "His liquor," said Mike the Angel.

  "In his desk, lower left-hand drawer. You won't find anything but abottle of ruby port; Mellon was never a drinker."

  Mike opened the drawer. "I probably won't find that, drunk as he is."

  Surprisingly enough, the bottle of wine was almost half full. "Did hehave more than one bottle?" Mike asked.

  "Not so far as I know. Like I said, he didn't drink much. One slug ofport before bedtime was about his limit."

  Mike frowned. "How does his breath smell to you?"

  "Not bad. Two or three drinks, maybe."

  "Mmmm." Mike put the bottle on top of the desk, then walked over to thesmall case that was standing near one wall. He lifted it and flipped itopen. It was the standard medical kit for Space Service physicians.

  The intercom speaker squeaked once before Captain Quill's voice cameover it. "Mister Gabriel?"

  "Yes, sir?" said Mike without turning around. There were no eyes in theprivate quarters of the officers and crew.

  "How is Mister Mellon?" A Space Service physician's doctorate is neverused as a form of address; three out of four Space Service officers havea doctor's degree of some kind, and there's no point in calling 75 percent of the officers "doctor."

  Mike glanced across the room. Keku had finished stripping the littlephysician to his underclothes and had put a cover over him.

  "He's still unconscious, sir, but his breathing sounds all right."

  "How's his pulse?"

  Keku picked up Mellon's left wrist and applied his fingers to the arterywhile he looked at his wrist watch.

  Mike said: "We'll check it, sir. Wait a few seconds."

  Fifteen seconds later, Keku multiplied by four and said: "One-oh-fourand rather weak."

  "You'd better get hold of the Physician's Mate," Mike told Quill. "He'snot in good condition, either mentally or physically."

  "Very well. As soon as the mate takes over, you and Mister Keku get uphere. I want to know what the devil has been going on aboard my ship."

  "You are bloody well not the only one," said Mike the Angel.