At last Redleigh said, “Well?”
And Downs lifted his head and looked straight at the first mate and said, “That was unlawful, uncommon, criminal eavesdropping. We have no right!”
“Upon uncommon dangers!”
“Would you mutiny, sir?” said Small.
Redleigh pulled back, a horrified look on his face. “Mutiny?!”
Quell broke in. “He would … take over.”
And we answered mutely, with our own horrified faces.
Redleigh said, “Have you not just heard what is in his heart, what he intends to do?”
Downs replied, “We have. But those thoughts of the captain’s which we have borrowed … why, how do they differ from ours? All men are poet-murderers in their souls, ashamed to bleed it out.”
Small said, “You ask us to judge thoughts!”
“Judge actions then!” Redleigh responded. “Leviathan comes. We are changing our course to meet it. Someone has tampered with the computer—just twenty-four hours ago it said one thing, now it says another.”
Downs said, “And so it goes with machines. Astronomical sums are nice, but blood is best. Flesh is easier. Mind and will are excellent. The captain is all these. The computer doesn’t know I live. The captain does. He looks, he sees, he interprets, he decides. He tells me where to go. And as he is my captain, so I go.”
“Straight to hell,” said Redleigh.
“Then hell it is.” Downs shrugged. “The comet’s birthing-place. The captain has the beast in his sights. I hate beasts too. My captain rouses me with No! And I am his dearest echo.”
Little said, “And I!”
“Quell?” said Redleigh, turning to the green alien.
“I have said too much,” said Quell. “And all of it the captain’s.”
“Ishmael?” said Redleigh.
“I,” I replied, “am afraid.”
Downs and Small stepped away. “Excused, Mr. Redleigh?”
“No!” shouted Redleigh. “Sweet Jesus, he’s blinded you, too. How can I make you see?”
“It’s late in the day for that, Redleigh,” said Small.
“But see you will, dammit! I’m going to the captain. Now. You must stand behind if not with me. You’ll hear it from his own mouth.”
“Is that a command, sir?”
“It is.”
“Well, then,” said Small, “aye, sir.”
“And aye, I guess,” said Downs.
And the three crewmen walked away, Quell and me following, listening for the strange electronic pulse of the captain, near but far.