Human Error Read online

is the way I believe youput it. You're going to do a lot more than ostensibly work at it,Medick. Just how much do you think you can get away with?"

  Paul remained motionless in the chair. Only his lips moved. "So you hada report on our little meeting? I hope it was complete enough to giveyou the rest of the things I said, that my basic purpose was not toproduce human robots, but to validate the humanity of man."

  Oglethorpe leaned closer, his fists resting on the top of the desk. "Thehumanity of man be damned! I told you before we want men who'veforgotten they were ever human, men of metal and electrons. If I didn'tthink you were the man who could do it--probably the _only_ man in thewhole country--you wouldn't last here another minute. But you _can_ doit, and you're going to.

  "Your little lecture was enough to ruin your career in any place you tryto run to, if you undermine Superman. Who do you suppose would trust youwith any kind of research after that expression of intent to sabotagethe Project your Government entrusted you with, and which you agreed tocarry out?

  "You're finished, Medick, washed up completely in your own profession,unless you give me what I've asked for! I won't take promises any more.The only assurance you can give me from here on out is results! I wantthose men, and I want them damn fast!"

  * * * * *

  Professor Barker listened attentively as Paul sat across from him in theadministration office and reported Oglethorpe's visit and demands.

  "We're caught in a squeeze, and we've got to push both ways," Paul said."If the Base goes down, Superman goes with it, and we've lost anopportunity that will never come again in our lifetimes. So we've got todo two things: We've got to give active support to the rebuilding of theWheel, and we've got to develop some kind of show that will convinceOglethorpe that Superman is giving him what he wants. It will meandetouring our basic objectives, but it's necessary in order to have aproject at all. I'd like you to take charge of it."

  "It'll be a waste of time," Barker said slowly. "I wonder if we'll everget back on the track."

  "We'll have to gamble on it," said Paul. "I don't want you to feel I'mdeliberately pushing you up a blind alley, but I think you're the bestman for bringing up something we can sell Oglethorpe--while we try to dosome real research on some honest goals."

  "We can follow the usual lines of so-called training--brute conditioningthrough shock and fear and pain and discomfort. Most of the men here arealready well anaesthetized in that respect. Their breakdown level ishigh."

  "Cummins' was the highest," said Paul, "and he cracked. But work alongthose lines anyway. Maybe we can find a way to thicken the conditioningarmor. At the same time let's push a genuine investigation into thenature of error as hard as we can. For the moment we'll forget broaderobjectives, until we know the Project is safe."

  Barker agreed reluctantly, feeling that they would end up as merepersonnel counselors before long. As soon as he left, Paul calledOglethorpe.

  "I've got a suggestion," he said. "Let's not get on the defensive aboutthis thing. Why don't you propose a Senatorial investigation of SpaceCommand?"

  "Are you crazy? Why would we want to have them come out here and pickour bones to pieces before making final burial?"

  "We've got a story to tell them--remember? We've got Superman, that'sgoing to produce for the first time in the world's history a manadequate to go into the dangers of space. And there's that little storyof yours about courage. I think that would go over with them. We'd beout in front if we took the initiative in this instead of just waitinguntil it rolled over us."

  There was a long pause before Oglethorpe spoke again. "I wonder justwhat you're trying to do," he said finally. "I know you don't mean aword of what you're saying at all--"

  "But I do mean it," Paul said earnestly. "I want Superman saved; youwant the Wheel. It amounts to the same thing."

  "You could be right. You might even be telling the truth. I'll give itsome thought."

  * * * * *

  The officer in charge of the rocket crews and the take-off stand was ayoung engineer-soldier named Harper. Paul had met him during the firstweek at Base. His endorsement of Project Superman was enthusiastic.

  After talking with Oglethorpe, Paul took a jeep over to the stand andlocated Harper. The engineer was overseeing the fueling process on a bigrocket.

  "Doc Medick!" Harper exclaimed. "How's your crew of head shrinkerscoming along? We're just about ready for your new breed of pilots."

  "What do you mean?"

  "This is the nucleus ship. She's going out in orbit tonight with thefirst batch of supplies and instruments to get ready for the new Wheel.We're going to need your men awfully fast."

  "That's what I came to talk about. Can you spare a few minutes?"

  "Sure." Harper led him to the office, where the whining of fueling pumpswas silenced. "What can we do for you?"

  "I wanted to ask about Cummins. You knew him pretty well, didn't you?"

  "Buddies. Just like that." Harper crossed his fingers.

  "What went wrong, do you think? I know it's all been hashed over in theinvestigations, but I'd like your personal feelings about him."

  Harper's face sobered and he looked away a moment. "Cummins was as gooda guy as they come," he said. "But in a pinch he was just a weak sister.That doesn't mean he didn't have a lot on the ball," Harper addeddefensively. "He was a better pilot than most of us ever will be, but hewas just human like the rest of us."

  "What do you mean, 'human'?"

  "Weak, soft, failure when the going gets rough--everything we have to beon guard against every minute we're alive."

  "I take it you don't think much of human beings, as such."

  Harper leaned forward earnestly. "Listen, Doc, when you've been aroundships as long as I have, you'll know what Captain West really meant. Theweakest link in any technological development has always been the meninvolved with its operation. In space flight our weakness is pilots andtechnicians. Set a machine on course and it'll go until it breaksdown--and flash you a warning before it fails. With a man, you neverknow when he's going to fail, and you have to be on guard against _his_breakdown every minute because he won't give any warning.

  "Think what it's like to be in our shoes! We take the controls of a fewhundred million dollars worth of machinery, and we know that every lastman of us is booby-trapped with some weakness that can break out in acritical moment and destroy everything. We fight against it; we struggleto hold it in and act like responsible instruments. And we grow to hateourselves because of the weak things that we are.

  "Cummins was like that. He fought himself every waking hour, knowingthat he had a weakness of becoming confused in a tight spot. Oh, it wasnothing that even showed up on the tests, and he was the best man of anyof us on the Base. But he knew it was there, just as we all know ourclosets bulge with skeletons that we try to keep from breaking out."

  "Do you fight yourself the way Cummins did?" Paul asked.

  "Sure."

  "What would happen if you pulled a blunder that wrecked that ship outthere on the stand."

  "I'd have had it, that's all. I'd never get within ten miles of a rocketbase again as long as I lived. And there wouldn't be much worth livingfor--"

  "It would be pretty wonderful to feel you weren't constantly on theverge of some disastrous blunder, wouldn't it?"

  "It would be a rocket man's idea of heaven to handle these ships withthat kind of a feeling inside him."

  "We're about ready to begin running tests on Superman, and I'd like youto be the first to help us out. Can you arrange it?"

  "We're tied up like a ball of string on getting the nucleus ship inorbit. I know Oglethorpe gave orders we were to jump when you called,but I'll have to check on replacements for those of us you take. Whatkind of test are you going to run on me?"

  "I want to find out how long it takes you to make a serious error, andwhat happens to you when you do!"

  * * * * *
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  Arrangements were made for initiating this series of tests two dayslater. Paul had designed them, and Nat Holt's crew had built theequipment.

  But before they were started, Paul grew increasingly aware of the clamorand public agitation against the Wheel. Instead of dying out after asmall spurt of anger, it was accumulating momentum in every corner ofthe nation.

  A rabble rouser named Morgan in