Raymond Jones: Utility

Captain Wilkins was too stupefied by this news to groan any more. He merely sat down and buried his face in his hands.

Dunc Edwards looked out the port towards the far stars. “We could head out away from the Solar System as far as our fuel would take us,” he suggested.

Captain Wilkins glared at him, but he was deadly serious.

And then McCord spoke again. “I have a suggestion.”

Captain Wilkins’ glare turned on him was permission to speak.

“The only solution is for us to exterminate the Arthoids,” said McCord.

“How would you do that, even if it weren’t stupid to even think of such a thing ?”

“I have a method,” said McCord quietly.

Every eye turned upon him. A cold wave swept over us and we all seemed to get the same idea at the same time. That gadget McCord had been working on during the trip —his insistence on trading with the Arthoids first.

“Why, you—” I spluttered.

“You planned this!” Captain Wilkins thundered.

“Captain!” McCord’s voice was full of hurt and he averted his eyes.

I don’t quite know yet what saved McCord from being slaughtered right there in the ship in the next fifteen minutes. Captain Wilkins swore, the men of the crew tried to grab McCord but he beat them off with a heavy metal chair and when our rage had exhausted us, he said quietly, "I suggest you call Timothy Thorgersen and get permission to exterminate the Arthoids. It can be done in such a way that it will appear that the Diomedes have done it without any help from us.”

All this time the clamor outside had been going on again. The Diomedes peppered the ship with rocks and kept up their high-pitched squealing that we didn’t even know they could make before, pleading for our help.

“It’s the only way,” said McCord.

Slowly, Captain Wilkins turned around to the communication panel and put in a call for Timothy Thorgersen. Every man in the room knew that it was the end of his trading career and there was murder in their eyes as they glowered at McCord.

It took a while to get Thorgersen on the beam. He was out partying somewhere as usual and his face was flushed and angry as he came in view. “What is the meaning of this interruption, captain ?” he snapped.

Briefly, Captain Wilkins explained the situation and the solution as given by McCord.

On the color screen we could see the blood rush to Thorgersen’s head and the little veins in his forehead swelled and pulsed. “McCord 1” he spat. “Put him on!”

Captain Wilkins beckoned to McCord who seemed as calm as a spring morning as he walked between the threatening crew members towards the thunderous image of Thorgersen.

“Yes?” said McCord.

“McCord, what’s the meaning of this ? Isn’t there some way out besides what Wilkins says you suggest ?”

“None at all, Mr. Thorgersen. There is something else you should know', too: I took a bath.”

Thorgersen seemed to go pale on the screen, but he blustered, “Your personal pathologies are nothing to me.”

“You know what I mean,” said McCord evenly and there was a tone in his voice that we had never heard before. “I took a bath.”

“I want to know what this is all about!”

“I’ll take care of this situation on Merans so that you will never have to worry about your supply of Jewelworlds again. You will be able to get all you want.”

“Go ahead,” said Thorgersen. “Slaughter the whole bunch of Arthoids if necessary as long as Barter, Inc. is not connected with it.”

“There are certain concessions that I want,” said McCord, “before I save your precious Diomedes. I want my share of the profits from the Jewelworlds which you have robbed me of during the last eight years. I want a return of my share in the trading company we formed. In exchange for this I’ll save your main asset of Barter, Inc. and forget that you tried to murder me.”

Thorgersen sputtered with incipient apoplexy, but before he could speak, McCord went on again. “All the agreements I want you to sign are in the hands of my lawyers along with the murder charge that will be released if you fail to comply. There are about five hundred witnesses to your attempted murder and they are all living.”

“You’re crazy! You can’t threaten—”

“I can and am. The Diomedes are intelligent creatures, and now that I can speak vocally with them their testimony will be admitted in any court. I’ll keep the Arthoids from killing the five hundred I need until they can testify against you. Better call my lawyers and make up your mind fast. I’ll give you a half hour.”

McCord gave the name of his law firm and clicked off.

The rest of us stared openmouthed at McCord, the changed McCord. He had browbeat the one man we all feared because of the arbitrary control he exercised over us.

But now McCord seemed to sag as if some great energy had gone out of him and he sank down on a chair.

"What are you trying to do?” asked Captain Wilkins. “You can’t blackmail Thorgersen. That’s suicide to try to pull a stunt like that on him.”

"It’s not blackmail,” said McCord in a tired voice. “It’s merely an attempt at justice. When Thorgersen and I landed on this planet eight years ago we had a joint interest in the trading company that we had formed.

“Sure, I had a reputation then of being a drunken bum and not caring about anything. I admit it. I was young and didn’t have a brain in my head, I guess. Thorgersen was older and more settled. He took this trading business seriously and I was in for the fun of it. He was determined to roll the thing into a big corporation with great fleets of trading ships like he finally got. But that seemed too much like business red tape to me. I would have been content with a half dozen ships and a bottle of good whiskey on Saturday nights. Thorgersen saw me as just an anchor to him.

“Then I found the Jewelworlds here on Merans and saw their possibilities. I knew they’d be worth a fortune if we exploited them right. Thorgersen admitted I had a good idea, so good that he tried to murder me in order that he wouldn’t have to share the profits with me.

“I celebrated the discovery of the Jewelworlds with an extra quart and while I was half cockeyed Thorgersen tapped me on the head and threw me in the pool out there where the Diomedes swim. That’s what gave me my psychosis.”

Dunc Edwards snorted. "You aren’t going to try to tell us that you actually had a hydrophobia that kept you away from water!”

“I’m telling you,” said McCord evenly. “The Diomedes fished me out and brought me around. That was when I worked out a sign language with them and they became so friendly because I showed them how my pocket visor worked. The little devils took it apart and made a death ray out of it that they turned on the Arthoids until the power ran out. I later gave one to the Arthoids to get in solid with them.

“Thorgersen kept trying to hang around and get a load of Jewelworlds, but I told the Diomedes not to give him any. When I finally confronted him, he thought he was seeing a ghost, but when he found out about my psychosis he thought I was crazy and that it would be safe enough to take me back, which I bargained for by getting some of the Jewelworlds for him.

“For eight years I’ve been trying to get up courage to go back into that pool where he tried to drown me. I knew it was the only thing that would cure me, and that if I didn’t make it this trip I never would. So I made arrangements before we left to bargain with Thorgersen for what he stole from met”

Captain Wilkins was about to . break in when the gong sounded and Thorgersen was back. His apoplectic face was pale now and his jowls sagged. “I’ve signed,” he said. “You see that you take care of your end. Come in and see me when you get back.”