"Hold on, Miss. Why should I do that? Don't tell me there's a plot and someone wants to usurp the new king before he's crowned? No? What then?"
"Stop making fun of me, Eric Taine. I'm trying to save your life." She said it so seriously, her eyes so big and round, that Eric half wanted to believe her. But that was fantastic. From what could she possibly be saving him?
The words came out in a rush as the girl spoke again. "The ship is not on course. For twenty five years it has been off, heading back to Earth—"
"To Earth! That's crazy."
"Listen, please. They killed Lazarus Six. He was a scapegoat. They watched the old films of Earth and felt they had been cheated out of their birthright. Why should they live here, alone in space? they said. Why should their children's children face the hardships of a new world? They didn't ask for it. It was thrust upon them by the planners, by your generation. If they knew how to get into your room of tubs, they would have killed you. Now there is a mock ceremony, everything is blamed on the new Lazarus, and the people feel better when he is killed. I know, my mother told me. You can ask her——"
The girl was about twenty, Eric thought. A wild-eyed thing now, who so wanted him to believe her impossible story. Her breath came quickly, in little gasps, and Eric tried to hide the smile on his face.
"You're laughing at me! Stupid, stupid—please—And when you get back to your room of tubs, awaken your friends, the three who remain. You four can control the ship, put it back on course, teach the people—Ooo, stop laughing!" She pouted prettily. "All of us, we're not all like that. We who are not can help you."
Eric chuckled softly. "You try to picture it," he told her. "I'm sorry, but everything's been sweetness and light, and you come in here with a wild notion—"
"It isn't wild, it's the truth. Why don't you ask to check our course before they make you king?"
He could do that, all right. But they'd be wondering what mad neurosis compelled his actions, and he did not want that, not when he might have so much to do.