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return to Earth. Charlie, get aboard the Palomino and prepare for lift-off.
Vincent, get in touch with Kate and tell her I want her and Alex back here,
ready to leave, on the dou-ble.
Vincent s lights twinkled in a particular pattern as they hurried toward the
Palomino, indications that the esplink was being engaged. Pizer hurried on
ahead of him. And Booth . . . Booth let out a sigh, relieved that his
initially daring but now obviously foolhardy plan had been rejected.
As a reporter, he had had occasion to live the life of the people he had been
documenting. He did not, how-ever, wish to sample the existence of a member of
the Cygnus s altered crew.
Within the command tower, Durant and McCrae. looked on as Reinhardt guided the
mechanicals there through various preparatory tasks.
Lock in navigation on preprogrammed final course. Commence auxiliary
inspection, all systems.
McCrae was standing before the vast screen on which the three-dimensional
image of the black hole was being projected. The gravitational maelstrom
teased her scientific self. Emotionally, it terrified her.
Meanwhile, Durant had strolled over to stand closer to Reinhardt. You ve
achieved all this on your own, Dr. Reinhardt. You d have every right to
reserve your coming expedition to yourself, to reject the request of a
Johnny-come-lately.
In quest of Eternal Youth, Alex? It was hard to tell if the commander was
mocking him, but by now Durant was so far gone with worshipful admiration that
he wouldn t have cared anyway.
Scientific truth, Doctor.
Alex . . . Reinhardt had been about to respond when McCrae s voice drew
their attention. She stared blankly past them. Dan wants us back on board.
They re ready to lift off.
The commander eyed her speculatively for a mo-ment, then turned back to his
mechanical servants. Prepare engines. Stand by to build for maximum thrust.
Commence maximum expansion of the null-g field. Then, more loudly,
Maximillian!
Instantly the huge mechanical joined them, floating out from nearby shadows.
Within the cockpit of the Palomino, Vincent and Pizer finished checking out
the ship s systems.
How are your readings? Pizer asked his compan-ion.
All systems are go, the robot replied. Air regen-eration is now working
perfectly. Looks good.
Damn it, Dan, Booth was arguing as he and Hol-land entered the cockpit, if
we wait for Alex we may be too late. I ve seen the look in his eyes before,
be-lieve me. He s been hypnotized by that man. He s not one of us any more.
He s become an acolyte.
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Holland considered, then spoke to the robot. Vincent, tell Kate I want her
back here fast . . . with or without Alex.
What if she objects, sir?
Holland s teeth were clenched as he spoke. Then tell her why I want her
back.
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McCRAE continued to remonstrate with Durant. Alex, you can t throw your life
away. You re a re-spected scientist, a good research man. You ve got
dis-coveries of your own ahead of you. Discoveries that will mean something,
because you ll be alive to ex-pound on them. She was pleading desperately
with him now. Don t throw all that away. Let him go if he wants to, but you
...
He can do it, Kate, Durant countered excitedly, blindly. I know he can.
There s a whole new Universe beyond the black hole. A point where time and
space as we know it no longer exist. We ll be the first to ex-perience it, see
it ... the first to explore it. He turned away from her, his attention going
back to the shifting images on multiple screens, smothered by the feeling that
Great Things were about to happen.
It didn t matter. Kate was no longer listening to him anyway. A look of utter
horror transformed her visage as Vincent s hurried but graphic description of
his own little discovery resounded in her brain.
Initiate Cygnus Process, Reinhardt was saying. Commence generation sequence
...
At the far end of the ship the order was received by humanoid technicians.
Adjustments were made to con-trols and instrumentation. Eight enormous,
drastically modified engines began to glow softly, taming the anni-hilation
beginning within. The aura that appeared around each engine was a radiant side
effect of the Cygnus Process. The halo of power.
Aboard the Palomino they could neither hear Rein-hardt s commands nor witness
his directives being car-ried out, but they could feel the results. A subtle
vibration shook the cockpit, communicated from the skin of the Cygnus.
There was a moment s silence as each man absorbed the import of that vibration
while their bodies absorbed the actuality of it. Then Booth began looking
around wildly, like a man seeking some miraculous trans-tem-poral means of
escape.
He s going to do it! The crazy fool really means to do it! He ll kill us all
if you don t get us out of here now, Dan! We ve got to pull clear while
there s still
Take it easy, Harry, Holland ordered tautly. He wants us free to monitor
his flight into the hole. We ve still got time.
He may have changed his mind. He may want to take us all down with him, to
prove just how insane he is. You re gambling with our lives, and the odds are
going up every second you hesitate.
Harry... shut up.
Someone besides the men on the Palomino was aware that the time for discussion
had ended. The time for decision-making had arrived, and was passing all too
quickly.
Kate McCrae emerged from the fog of mind-to-machine contact. She blinked
twice, then spoke with quiet finality to the man who was no longer her
col-league. Alex, we ve got to get back to the ship. Now. They re preparing
to leave. Dan can t wait for us much longer.
I m staying. Durant s tone left no room for argu-ment.
She still held one weapon she hadn t used. She em-ployed it now. You don t
understand, Alex. Rein-hardt s a murderer . . . and worse. Those... creatures
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over there, the ones monitoring all the instruments and flight consoles, they
aren t humanoid. They re human. Or they were once.
A crack appeared in Durant s surety. I don t follow you, Kate.
Use your head, Alex. I know you ve got one. They re what s left of the
original human crew. They ve been surgically altered on Reinhardt s orders to
obey only his commands. Their wills, their humanity, have been destroyed.
I... I don t believe...
McCrae pressed her attack. It s true, Alex, she continued, trying to keep an
eye on Reinhardt at the same time. Vincent and an old supply roboclerk saw
the surgery. You remember Dan s story about the fu-neral, and Harry s about
the robot with the limp?
No ... I... Durant spun away from her, gods and decisions crumbling around
him in the face of the unbelievable.
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