The Gateway To Never by A. Bertram Chandler

Author:A. Bertram Chandler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Action & Adventure
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 2018-01-21T21:41:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The Control Tower was a shack on stilts and had little in the way of electronic equipment—just a normal space-time transceiver, a Carlotti transceiver and, logically enough for this planet, a seismograph. The Duty Aerospace Control Officer was little more than a boy, and a badly frightened boy at that. He looked around with a start as Grimes and the Malemute’s Third Engineer burst in. He said, in a shaken voice, “Did you see that, sir? Did you see that?”

“Too right I saw it!” Grimes told him. “Stick a piece of paper in your typewriter and take this down. Ready? I, John Grimes, Commodore, Rim Worlds Naval Reserve, senior officer of the Rim Worlds Navy on Eblis, hereby lodge a complaint, as follows. Got all that? At 0600 hours this morning—put the date in, will you?—the cruise liner Sobraon, under the pilotage of Captain Clavering, Port Captain, Inferno Valley, fouled the moorings of the Rim Worlds Naval Auxiliary Vessel Rim Malemute, as a result of which Rim Malemute sustained severe damage, the extent of which has yet to be determined. I, Commodore John Grimes, hold the Inferno Valley port authorities responsible for this accident. That’s all. Give it to me, and I’ll sign it. Take copies and let me have three.”

“But, sir, it was an accident. I saw it too. When Sobraon’s vane fouled Rim Malemute’s moorings Captain Clavering had to keep on going. The ship was off balance. If he’d tried to land there’d have been a shocking disaster.”

“I said it was an accident,” stated Grimes. “But that has no bearing at all on the question of legal liability. Somebody will have to pay for the repairs to the Malemute. I suppose that it will be Lloyd’s, as usual.”

But was it an accident? Grimes asked himself. This Sobraon was practically a sister ship to Clavering’s own Sally Ann, his last space-going command. Too, Clavering had piloted Sobraon inwards. He would know the second/foot/tons developed by her inertial drive. As Port Captain he would know, too, the breaking strain of Rim Malemute’s moorings. His motive? Plain enough. He didn’t want Grimes ranging far and wide over the surface of Eblis, ostensibly conducting a survey. Deliberately, knowing Gillings’ weakness, he had got the TG Clipper’s Master drunk the night before lift off. And Gillings, knowing that he was morally as well as legally to blame for the alleged accident, would tend to back up Clavering in any story that did not show him and his pilot in a bad light. After all, insofar as his owners were concerned he was there, and they were not.

Just then Clavering came through on the transceiver. His face, in the little screen, was surprisingly calm. Behind him, Gillings seemed to have aged years in as many minutes. “Sobraon to Eblis Aero-Space Control … I don’t think we sustained any damage, but I’m putting the ship in orbit until we’re sure. Expect me when you see me. Over.”

“Commodore Grimes is here, sir.”

“Put him on, will you? Good morning, Commodore.

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