only half as long as we
do-that was the period of man's real greatness!"
Nisa jerked up her head as she usually did when she disagreed.
"'And when new ways of overcoming space have been discovered and people
don't just force their way through it like we do, they'll say the same about
you-those were the heroes who conquered space with their primitive methods!"
The commander smiled happily and held out his hand to the girl.
"They'll say it about you, too, Nisa!"
"I'm proud to be here with you!" she answered, blushing. "And I'm
prepared to give up everything if I can only travel into the Cosmos again
and again!"
"I know that," said Erg Noor, thoughtfully, "but that's not the way
everybody thinks!"
Feminine intuition gave her an insight into the thoughts of her
commander. In his cabin there were two stereopor-traits, splendidly done in
violet-gold tones. Both were of her, Veda Kong, a woman of great beauty, a
specialist in ancient history; eyes of that same transparent blue as the
skies above Earth looked out from under long eyebrows. Tanned by the sun,
smiling radiantly, she had raised her hands to her ash-blonde hair. In the
other picture she was seated, laughing heartily, on a ship's bronze gun, a
relic of ancient days....
Erg Noor lost some of his impetuosity-he sat down slowly in front of
the astronavigator.
"If you only knew, Nisa, how brutally fate dealt with my dreams, there
on Zirda!" he said suddenly, in a dull voice, placing his fingers cautiously
on the lever controlling the anameson motors as though he intended
accelerating the spaceship to the limit.
"If Zirda had not perished and we had got our supplies of fuel," he
continued, in reply to her mute question, "I would have led the expedition
farther. That is what I had arranged with the Council. Zirda would have made
the necessary report to Earth and Tantra would have continued its journey
with those who wanted to go. The others would have waited for Algrab, it
could have gone on to Zirda after its tour of duty here."
"Who would have wanted to stay on Zirda?" exclaimed the girl,
indignantly. "Unless Pour Hyss would. He's a great scientist though,
wouldn't he be interested in gaining further knowledge?"
"And you, Nisa?"
"I'd go, of course."
"Where to?" asked Erg Noor suddenly, fixing his eyes on the girl.
"Anywhere you like, even..." and she pointed to a patch of abysmal
blackness between two arms of the starry spiral of the Galaxy; she returned
Noor's fixed stare with one equally determined, her lips slightly parted.
"Oh, no, not as far as that! You know, Nisa, my dear little
astronavigator, about eighty-five years ago. Cosmic Expedition No. 34, the
so-called 'Three-Stage Expedition' left Earth. It consisted of three
spaceships carrying fuel for each other and left Earth for the Lyra
Constellation. The two ships that were not carrying scientists passed their
anameson on to the third and then came back to Earth. That is the way
mountain-climbers reached the tops of the highest peaks. Then the third
ship, Parus...."
"That's the ship that never returned!" whispered Nisa excitedly.
"That's right, Parus didn't return. It reached its objective and was
lost on the return journey after sending a message. The goal was the big
planetary system of Vega, or Alpha Lyrae, a bright blue star that countless
generations of human eyes have admired in the northern sky. The distance to
Vega is eight parsecs and people had never been so far away from our Sun.
Anyway, Parus got there. We do not know the cause of its loss, whether it
was a meteoroid or an irreparable break-down. It is even possible that the
ship is still moving through space and the heroes whom we regard as dead are
still alive."
"That would be terrible!"
"Such is the fate of any spaceship that cannot maintain a speed close
to that of light. It is immediately separated from the home planet by
thousands of years." "What message did Parus send?" asked the girl. "There
wasn't much of it. It was interrupted several times and then broke off
altogether. I remember every word of it: 'I am Parus. I am Parus, travelling
twenty-six years from Vega ... enough ... shall wait... Vega's four planets
... nothing more beautiful... what happiness...."
"But they were calling for help, they wanted to wait somewhere!"
"Of course they were calling for help, otherwise the spaceship wouldn't
have used up the tremendous energy needed for the transmission. But nothing
could be done, not another word was received from Parus."
"'They were twenty-six independent years on their way back and the
journey from Vega to the Sun is thirty-one years. They must have been
somewhere near us, or even nearer to Earth."
"Hardly, unless, of course, they exceeded the normal speed and got
close to the quantum limit.8 That would have been very
dangerous!"
Briefly Erg Noor explained the mathematical basis for the destructive
change that takes place in matter when it approaches the speed of light, but
he noticed that the girl was not paying any great attention to him.
"I understand all that!" she exclaimed the moment the commander had
finished his explanation. "I would have realized it at once if your story of
the loss of the spaceship hadn't taken my mind off it. Such losses are
always terrible and one cannot become reconciled to them!"
"Now you realize the chief thing in the communication," said Erg Noor
gloomily. "They discovered some particularly beautiful worlds. I have long
been dreaming of following the route taken by Parus; with modern
improvements we can do it with one ship now: I've been living with a dream
of Vega, the blue sun with the beautiful planets, ever since early youth."
"To see such worlds ..." breathed Nisa with a breaking voice, "but to
see them and return would take sixty terrestrial or forty dependent years
... and that's ... half a lifetime."
"Great achievements demand great sacrifices. For me, though, it would
not be a sacrifice. My life on Earth has only been a few short intervals
between journeys through space. I was born on a spaceship, you know!"
"How could that have happened?" asked the girl in amazement.
"Cosmic Expedition No. 35 consisted of four ships. My mother was
astronomer on one of them. I was born halfway to the binary star MN19026 +,
7AL and managed to Contravene the law twice over. Twice-firstly by being
born on a spaceship and secondly because I grew up and was educated by my
parents and not in a children's school. What else could they have done? When
the expedition returned to Earth I was eighteen years old. I had learnt the
art of piloting a spaceship and had acted as astronavigator in place of one
who was taken ill. I could also work as a mechanic at the planetary or the
anameson motors and all this was accepted as the Labours of Hercules I had
to perform on reaching maturity." "Still I don't understand ..." began Nisa.
''About my mother? You'll understand when you get a bit older! Although the
doctors didn't know it then, the Anti-T serum wouldn't keep.... Well, never
mind what the reason was I was brought to a control tower like this one to
look at the screens with my uncomprehending baby eyes and watch the stars
dancing up and down on them. We were flying towards the Lupus Constellation
where there was a binary star close to the Sun. The two dwarfs, one blue and
the other orange, were hidden by a dark cloud. The first tiling that
impinged on my infant consciousness was the sky over a lifeless planet that
I observed from under the glass dome of a temporary station. The planets of
double stars are usually lifeless on account of the irregularity of their
orbits. The expedition made a landing and for seven months engaged in
mineral prospecting. As far as I remember there were enormous quantities of
platinum; osmium and iridium there. My first toys were unbelievably heavy
building blocks made of iridium. And that sky, my first sky, was black and
dotted with the pure lights of unwinking stars, and there were two suns of
indescribable beauty, one a deep blue and the other a bright orange. I
remember how their rays sometimes crossed and at those times our planet was
inundated with so much jolly green light that I shouted and sang for joy!"
Erg Noor stopped. "That's enough, I got carried away by my reminiscences and
you have to sleep."
"Go on, please do, I've never heard anything so interesting," Nisa
begged him, but the commander was implacable. He brought a pulsating
hypnotizer and, either because of his impelling eyes or the sleep-producing
apparatus, the girl was soon fast asleep and did not wake up until the day
before they were to enter the sixth circle. By the cold look on the
commander's face Nisa Greet realized that Algrab had not shown up.
"You woke up just at the right time!" he said as soon as Nisa had taken
her electric and wave baths and returned ready for work. "Switch on the
animation music and light.
For everybody!"
Swiftly Nisa pressed a row of buttons sending intermittent bursts of
light accompanied by a specific music of low, vibrant chords that gradually
increased in intensity, to all the cabins where members of the Cosmic
expedition were sleeping. This initiated the gradual awakening of the
inhibited nervous system to bring it back to its normal active state. Five
hours later all the members of the expedition gathered in the control tower;
they had by then fully recovered from their sleep and had taken food and
nerve stimulants.
News of the loss of the auxiliary spaceship was received in different
ways by different people. As Erg Noor expected, the expedition was equal to
the occasion. Not a word of despair, not a glance of fear. Pour Hyss, who
had not shown himself particularly brave on Zirda heard the news without a
tremor. Louma Lasvy, the expedition's young physician, went slightly pale
and secretly licked her dry lips.
"To the memory of our lost comrades!" said the commander as he switched
on the screen of a projector showing Algrab, a photograph that had been
taken before Tantra took off. All rose to their feet. On the screen one
after another came the photographs of the seven members of Algrab's crew,
some serious, some smiling. Erg Noor named each of them in turn and the
travellers gave him the farewell salute. Such was the custom of the
astronauts. Spaceships that set off together always carried photographs of
all the people of the expedition. When a ship disappeared it might keep
travelling in Cosmic space for a long time with its crew still alive. But
this made no difference, the ship would never return. There was no real
possibility of searching for the ship and rendering it aid. Minor faults
never, or seldom, occurred and were easily repaired, but a serious
break-down in the machinery had never been successfully repaired in the
Cosmos. Sometimes ships, like Parus, managed to send a last message, but in
the majority of cases such messages did not reach their destination on
account of the great difficulty of directing them. The Great Circle had, for
thousands of years, been investigating exact routes for its transmissions
and could vary them by directing them from planet to planet. The spaceships
were usually in unexplored areas where the direction for a message could
only be guessed.
There was a conviction amongst astronauts that there existed in the
Cosmos certain neutral fields or zero areas in which all radiation and all
communications sank like stones in water. Astrophysicists, however, regarded
the zero areas to be nothing more than the idle invention of Cosmic
travellers who were, in general, inclined to monstrous fantasies.
After that sad ceremony and a very short conference, Erg Noor turned
Tantra in the direction of Earth and switched on the anameson motors.
Forty-eight hours later they were switched off again and the spaceship began
to approach its own planet at the rate of 21,000 million kilometres in every
twenty-four hours. The journey back to the Sun would take about six
terrestrial, or independent, years. Everybody was busy in the control tower
and in the ship's combined library and laboratory where a new course was
being computed and plotted on the charts.
The task was to fly the whole six years and use anameson only for
purposes of correcting the ship's course. In other words the spaceship had
to be flown with as little loss of acceleration as possible. Everybody was
worried about the unexplored area 344 +2U that lay between the Sun and
Tantra. There was no way of avoiding it: on both sides of it, as far as the
Sun, lay belts of free meteoroids and, apart from that, they would lose
velocity in turning the ship.
Two months later the computation of the line of flight had been
completed. Tantra began to describe a long, flat curve.
The wonderful ship was in excellent condition and her speed was kept
within the computed limits. Now nothing but time, about four dependent
years, separated the ship from its home.
Erg Noor and Nisa Creet finished their watch and, dead tired, started
their period of long sleep. Together with them two astronomers, the
geologist, biologist, physician and four engineers departed into temporary
forgetful-ness.
The watch was taken over by an experienced astronavigator, Pel Lynn,
who was on his second expedition, assisted by astronomer Ingrid Dietra and
electronic engineer Kay Bear who had volunteered to join them. Ingrid, with
Pel Lynn's consent, often went away to the library adjoining the control
tower. She and her old friend, Kay Bear, were writing a monumental symphony.
Death of a Planet, inspired by the tragedy of Zirda. Pel Lynn, whenever he
grew tired of the hum of the instruments and his contemplation of the black
void of the Cosmos, left Ingrid at the control desk and plunged into the
thrilling task of deciphering puzzling inscriptions brought from a planet in
the system of the nearest stars of the Centaur whose inhabitants had
mysteriously quit it. He believed in the success of his impossible
undertaking....
Twice again watches were changed, the spaceship had drawn ten billion
kilometres nearer Earth and still the anameson motors had only been run for
a few hours.
One of Pel Lynn's watches, the fourth since Tantra had left the place
where she was to have met Algrab, was coming to an end.
Ingrid Dietra, the astronomer, had finished a calculation and turned to
Pel Lynn who was watching, with melancholy mien, the constant flickering of
the red arrows on the graded blue scales of the gravitation meters. The
usual sluggishness of psychic reaction that not even the strongest people
could avoid made itself felt during the second half of the watch. For months
and years the spaceship had been automatically piloted along a given course.
If anything untoward had happened, something that the electronic machines
were incapable of dealing with, it would have meant the loss of the ship,
for human intervention could not have saved it since the human brain, no
matter how well trained it may be, cannot react with the necessary alacrity.
"In my opinion we are already deep in the unknown area 344 - 2U. The
commander wanted to take over the watch himself when we reached it," said
Ingrid to the astronavigator. Pel Lynn glanced up at the counter that marked
off the days.
"Another two days and we change watches. So far there doesn't seem to
be anything to worry about. Shall we see the watch through?"
Ingrid nodded assent. Kay Bear came into the control tower from the
stern of the ship and took his usual seat beside the equilibrium mechanism.
Pel Lynn yawned and stood up.
"I'll get some sleep for a couple of hours," he said to Ingrid. She got
up obediently and went forward to the control desk.
Tantra was travelling smoothly in an absolute vacuum.
Not a single meteoroid, not even at a great distance, had been
registered by the super-sensitive Voll Hoad detectors. The spaceship's
course now lay somewhat to one side of the Sun, about one and a half flying
years. The screens of the forward observation instruments were of an
astounding blackness, it seemed as though the spaceship was diving into the
very heart of universal darkness. The side telescopes still showed needles
of light from countless
stars.
Ingrid's nerves tingled with a strange sensation of alarm.
She returned to her machines and telescopes, again and again checked
their readings as she mapped the unknown area. Everything was quiet but
still Ingrid could not take her eyes off the malignant blackness ahead of
the ship. Kay Bear noticed her anxiety and for a long time studied and
listened to the instruments.
"I don't see anything," he said at last, "aren't you imagining things?"
"I don't know why, but that unusual blackness ahead of us bothers me.
It seems to me that our ship is diving straight into a dark nebula."
"There should be a dark cloud here," Kay Bear agreed, "but we shall
only scratch the edge of it. That's what was calculated! The strength of the
gravitational field is increasing slowly and regularly. On our way through
this area we should pass close to some centre of gravity. What does it
matter whether it's light or dark?"
"That's true enough," admitted Ingrid, more calmly.
"We've got the finest commander and officers there are. We're
proceeding along a set course even faster than was computed. If there are no
changes we'll be out of our trouble and we'll get safely to Triton despite
our short supply of anameson."
Even at the thought of the spaceship's station on Triton, Neptune's
satellite on the fringe of the solar system, Ingrid felt much happier. To
reach Triton would mean that they were home.
"I was hoping we'd be able to work on the symphony together but Lynn's
asleep. He'll sleep six or seven hours so I'll think over the orchestration
of the coda of the second movement-you know, the place where we couldn't
find a means of expressing the integrated accession of the menace. This
piece...." Kay sang a few notes.
"Tee-ee-e, tee-ee-e, ta-rara-ra," came the immediate response from the
very walls of the control tower. Ingrid started and looked round, but a
moment later realized what it was. There had been an increase in the force
of gravity and the instruments had responded by changing the melody of the
artificial gravitation apparatus.
"What an amusing coincidence," laughed Ingrid, with an air of guilt.
"There is stronger gravitation, as there should be in a black cloud.
Now you can calm yourself altogether and let Lynn sleep."
Kay Bear left the control tower and entered the brightly-lit library
where he sat down at a tiny electronic violin-piano. He was soon deeply
immersed in his work and, no doubt, several hours must have passed before
the hermetically sealed door of the library flew open and Ingrid appeared.
"Kay, please wake up Lynn."
"What's wrong?"
"The strength of the gravitation field is much more than was computed."
"What is ahead of us?"
"The same blackness!" Ingrid went out.
Kay Bear woke the astronavigator, who jumped up and ran to the
instruments in the control tower.
"There's nothing especially dangerous. Only where does such a
gravitational field come from in this area? It's too strong for a black
cloud and there are no stars here." Lynn thought for a time and then pressed
the knob to awaken the commander of the expedition and after another
moment's thought pressed the knob of Nisa Creel's cabin as well.
"If nothing extraordinary happens they can simply take over their
watch," Lynn explained to the anxious Ingrid.
"And if something does happen? Erg Noor won't return to normal for
another five hours. What shall we do?"
"Wait quietly," answered the astronavigator. "What can happen here in
five hours when we are so far from all stellar systems?"
The tone of the measuring instruments grew lower and lower telling of
the constantly changing conditions of the flight. The tense waiting dragged
out endlessly. Two hours dragged by so slowly that they seemed like a whole
watch. Outwardly Pel Lynn was still calm but Ingrid's anxiety had already
infected Kay Bear. He kept looking at the control-tower door expecting Erg
Noor to appear with his usual rapid movements although he knew that the
awakening from prolonged sleep is a lengthy process.
The long ringing of a bell caused them all to start. Ingrid grasped
hold of Kay Bear.
Tantra was in danger! The gravitation was double the computed figure!
The astronavigator turned pale. The unexpected bad happened and an
immediate decision was essential. The fate of the spaceship was in his
hands. The steadily increasing gravitational pull made a reduction in speed
necessary, both because of increasing weight in the ship and an apparent
accumulation of solid matter in the ship's path. But after reducing speed
what would they use for further acceleration? Pel Lynn clenched his teeth
and turned the lever that started the ion trigger motors used for braking.
Gong-like sounds disturbed the melody of the measuring instruments and
drowned the alarming ring of those recording the ratio of gravitational pull
to velocity. The ringing ceased and the indicators showed that speed had
been reduced to a safe level and was normal for the growing gravitation. But
no sooner had Pel Lynn switched off the brake motors than the bells began
ringing again. Obviously the spaceship was flying directly into a powerful
gravitation centre which was slowing it down.
The astronavigator did not dare change the course that had been plotted
with such great difficulty and absolute precision. He used the planetary
motors to brake the ship again although it was already clear that there had
been an error in plotting the course and that it lay through an unknown mass
of matter.
"The gravitational field is very great," said Ingrid softly,
"perhaps...."
"We must slow down still more so as to be able h turn," exclaimed the
navigator, "but what can we accelerate with after that?..." There was a note
of fatal hesitancy in his words.
"We have already passed the zone of outer vortices," Ingrid told him,
"gravitation is increasing rapidly all the time.''
The frequent clatter of the planet motors resounded through the ship;
the electronic ship's pilot switched them on automatically as it felt a huge
accumulation of solid matter in front of them. Tantra began to pitch and
toss. No matter how much the ship's speed was reduced the people in the
control tower began to lose consciousness. Ingrid fell to her knees. Pel
Lynn, sitting in his chair, tried to raise a head as heavy as lead. Kay Bear
experienced a mixture of unreasoning brute fear and puerile hopelessness.
The thuds of the motors increased in frequency until they merged into a
continual roar-the electronic brain had taken up the struggle in place of
its semi-conscious masters; it was a powerful brain but it had its limits,
it could not foretell all possible complications and find a way out of
unusual situations.
The tossing abated. The indicators showed that the supply of ion
charges for the motors was dropping with catastrophic rapidity. As Pel Lynn
came to he realized that the strange increase of gravity was taking place so
fast that urgent measures had to be taken to stop the ship and then make a
complete change of course away from the black void.
Pel Lynn turned the handle switching on the anameson motors. Four tall
cylinders of boron nitride that could be seen through a slit in the control
desk were lit up from inside. A bright green flame beat inside them with
lightning speed, it flowed and whirled in four tight spirals. Up forward, in
the nose of the spaceship, a strong magnetic field enveloped the motor jets,
saving them from instantaneous destruction.
The astronavigator moved the handle farther-through the whirling green
wall of light a directing ray appeared, a greyish stream of K-particles."
Another movement and the grey stream was cut by a blinding flash of violet
lightning, a signal that the anameson had begun its tempestuous emission.
The huge bulk of the spaceship responded with an almost inaudible,
unbearable, high-frequency vibration....
Erg Noor had eaten the necessary amount of food and was lying half
asleep enjoying the indescribably pleasurable sensation of an electric nerve
massage. The veil of forgetfulness that still covered mind and body left him
very slowly. The music of animation changed to a major key and to a rhythm
that increased in rapidity....
Suddenly something evil coming from without interrupted the joy of
awakening from a ninety-day sleep. Erg Noor realized that he was commander
of the expedition and struggled desperately to get back to normal
consciousness. At last he recognized the fact that the spaceship was being
braked and that the anameson motors were switched on, all of which meant
that something serious had occurred. He tried to get up. His body still
would not obey his will, his legs doubled under him and he collapsed like a
sack on the floor of his cabin. After some time he managed to crawl to the
door and open it. Consciousness was breaking through the mist of sleep-in
the corridor he rose on all fours and made his way into the control tower.
The people staring at the screens and instrument dials looked round in
alarm and then ran to their commander. He was not yet able to stand but he
muttered:
"The screens ... the forward screen ... switch over to infrared ...
stop the motors!"
The borason cylinders were extinguished at the same time as the
vibration of the ship's hull ceased. A gigantic star, burning with a dull
reddish-brown light, appeared on the forward starboard screen. For a moment
they were all flabbergasted and could not take their eyes off the enormous
disc that emerged from the darkness directly ahead of the spaceship.
"Oh, what a fool!" exclaimed Pel Lynn bitterly, "I was sure we were in
a dark nebula! And that's...."
"An iron star!" exclaimed Ingrid Dietra in horror.
Erg Noor, holding on to the back of a chair, stood up. His usually pale
face had a bluish tinge to it but his eyes gleamed brightly with their usual
fire.
"Yes, that's an iron star," he said slowly and the eyes of all those in
the room turned to him in fear and hope, "the terror of astronauts! Nobody
suspected that there would be one in this area."
"I only thought about a nebula," Pel Lyn said softly and guiltily.
"A dark nebula with such a gravitational field would contain
comparatively large solid particles and Tantra would have been destroyed
already. It would be impossible to avoid a collision in such a swarm," said
the commander in a calm firm voice.
"But these sharp gravitational changes and these vortex things-aren't
they a direct indication of a cloud?"
"Or that the star has a planet, perhaps more than one...."
The astronavigator bit his lip so badly that it began to bleed. The
commander nodded his head encouragingly and himself pressed the buttons to
awaken the others.
"A report of observations as quickly as possible! We'll work out the
gravitation contours."
The spaceship began to rock again. Something flashed across the screen
with colossal speed, something of terrific size that passed behind them and
disappeared.
"There's the answer, we've overtaken the planet. Hurry up, hurry up,
get the work done!" The commander's glance fell on the fuel supply
indicator. His hands gripped the back of the chair more tightly, he was
going to say something but refrained.
CHAPTER TWO. EPSILON TUCANAE
The faint tinkle of glass that came from the table was accompanied by
orange and blue lights. Varicoloured lights sparkled up and down the
transparent partition. Darr Veter, Director of the Outer Stations of the
Great Circle, was observing the lights on the Spiral Way. Its huge arc
curved into the heights and scored a dull yellow line along the sea-coast.
Keeping his eyes on the Way, Darr Veter stretched out his hand and turned a
lever to point M, ensuring himself solitude for meditation. A great change
had on that day come into his life. His successor Mven Mass, chosen by the
Astronautical Council, had arrived that morning from the southern
residential belt. They would carry out his last transmission round the
Circle together and then ... it was precisely this "then" that had not yet
been decided upon. For six years he had been doing a job that required
superhuman effort, work for which the Council selected special people, those
who were outstanding for their splendid memories and encyclopaedic
knowledge. When attacks of complete indifference to work and to life began
recurring with ominous frequency-and this is one of the most serious
ailments in man-he had been examined by Evda Nahl, a noted psychiatrist. A
tried remedy-sad strains of minor music in a room of blue dreams saturated
with pacifying waves-did not help. The only thing left was to change his
work and take a course of physical labour, any sort of work that required
daily, hourly muscular effort. His best friend, Veda Kong, the historian,
had offered him an opportunity to do archaeological work with her. Machines
could not do all the excavation work, the last stages required human hands.
There was no lack of volunteers but still Veda had promised him a long trip
to the region of the ancient steppes where he would be close to nature.
If only Veda Kong ... but of course, he knew the whole story. Veda was
in love with Erg Noor, Member of the Astronautical Council and Commander of
Cosmic Expedition No. 37. There should have been a message from Erg Noor
-from the planet Zirda he should have reported and said whether he was going
farther. But if no message had come -and all space nights were computed with
the greatest precision-then ... but no, he must not think of winning
Veda's love! The Vector of Friendship, that was all, that was the
greatest tie that there could be between them. I Nevertheless he would go
and work for her.
Darr Veter moved a lever, pressed a button and the room was flooded
with light. A crystal glass window formed I one of the walls of a room
situated high above land and sea, giving a view over a great distance. With
a turn of another lever Darr Veter caused the window to drop inwards leaving
the room open to the starry sky; the metal frame of the window shut out from
his view the lights of the Spiral Way and the buildings and lighthouses on
the sea-coast.
Veter's eyes were fixed on the hands of the galactic clock with three
concentric rings marked in subdivisions. The transmission of information
round the Great Circle followed galactic time, once in every
hundred-thousandth of a galactic second, or once in eight days, 45 times a
year according to terrestrial time. One revolution of the Galaxy around its
axis was one day of galactic time.
The next and, for him, the last transmission would be at 9 a.m. Tibetan
Mean Time or at 2 a.m. at the Mediterranean Observatory of the Council. A
little more than two hours still remained.
The instrument on the table tinkled and flashed again. A man in
light-coloured clothing made of some material with a silk-like sheen
appeared from behind the partition.
"We are ready to transmit and receive," he said briefly, showing no
outward signs of respect although in his eyes one could read admiration for
his Director. Darr Veter did not say a word, nor did his assistant who stood
there in a proud, unrestrained pose.
"In the Cubic Hall?" asked Veter, at last, and, getting an answer in
the affirmative, asked where Mven Mass was.
"He is in the Morning Freshness Room, getting tuned up after his
journey and, apart from that, I think he's a bit excited."
"I'd be excited myself if I were in his place!" said Darr Veter,
thoughtfully. "That's how I felt six years ago."
The assistant was flushed from his effort to preserve his outward calm.
With all the fire of youth he was sorry for his chief, perhaps he even
realized that some day he, too, would live through the joys and sorrows of
great work and great responsibility. The Director of the Outer Stations did
not in any way show his feelings for to do so at his age was not considered
decent. "When Mven Mass appears, bring him straight to me." The assistant
left the room. Darr Veter walked over to one corner where the transparent
partition was blackened from floor to ceiling and with an easy movement
opened two shutters in a panel of polished wood. A light appeared, coming
from somewhere in the depths of a mirror-like screen. It did not, however,
possess the gloss of a mirror -it gave the impression of a long corridor
leading into the far distance.
Using selected switches the Director of the Outer Stations switched on
the Vector of Friendship, a system of direct communication between people
linked by the ties of profound friendship that enabled them to contact each
other at any moment. The Vector of Friendship was connected with a number of
places where the person concerned was likely to be-his house, his place of
work, his favourite recreation centre.
The screen grew light and in the depths there appeared familiar panels
with columns of coded titles of electronic films that had succeeded the
ancient photocopies of books.
When all mankind adopted a single alphabet-it was called the linear
alphabet because there were no complicated signs in it-it became easy to
film even the old books, so that eventually the process was fully
mechanized. The blue, green and red stripes were the symbols of the central
film libraries where scientific research works were stored, works that had
for centuries been published only in a dozen copies. It was merely necessary
to select the a code number and symbols and the film library would transmit,
automatically, the full text of the book. This machine was Veda's private
library. A snap of switches and the picture faded, it was followed by
another room which was also empty. Another switch connected the screen with
a hall in which stood a number of dimly lighted desks. The woman seated at
the nearest desk raised her head and Darr Veter recognized the thick, widely
separated eyebrows and the sweet, narrow face with its grey eyes. As she
smiled, white teeth flashed in a big mouth with bold lines and her cheeks
were chubbily rounded on either side of a slightly snub nose with a
childish, round tip to it that made the face gentle and kindly.
"Veda, there are two hours left. You have to change and I would like
you to come to the observatory a little before time."
The woman on the screen raised her hands to her thick, ash-blonde hair.
"I obey, my Veter," she smiled. "I'm going home." Veter's ear was not
deceived by the gayness of her tones.
"Brave Veda, calm yourself. Everybody who speaks to the Great Circle
had to make a first appearance."
"Don't waste words consoling me," said Veda Kong, raising her head with
a stubborn gesture. "I'll be there soon.
The screen went dark. Darr Veter closed the shutters and turned to meet
his successor. Mven Mass entered the room with long strides. The cast of his
features and his smooth, dark-brown skin showed that he was descended from
African ancestors. A white mantle fell from his powerful shoulders in heavy
folds. Mven Mass took both Darr Veter's hands in his strong, thin ones. The
two Directors of the Outer Stations, the new and the old, were both very
tall. Veter, whose genealogy led back to the Russian people, seemed broader
and more massive than the graceful African.
"It seems to me that something important ought to happen today," began
Mven Mass, with that trusting sincerity that was typical of the people who
lived in the Era of the Great Circle. Darr Veter shrugged his shoulders.
''Important things will happen for three people. I am handing over my
work, you are taking it from me and Veda Kong will speak to the Universe for
the first time."
"She is beautiful?" responded Mven Mass, half questioning, half
affirming.
"You'll see her. By the way, there's nothing special about today's
transmission. Veda will give a lecture on our history for planet KRZ 664456
+ BS 3252."
Mven Mass made an astonishingly rapid mental calculation.
"Constellation of the Unicorn, star Ross 614, its planetary system has
been known from time immemorial but has never in any way distinguished
itself. I love the old names and old words," he added with a scarcely
detectable note of apology.
"The Council knows how to select people," Darr Veter thought to
himself. Aloud he said:
"Then you'll get on well with Junius Antus, the Director of the
Electronic Memory Machines. He calls himself the Director of the Memory
Lamps. He is not thinking of the lamps they used for light in ancient days
but of those first electronic devices in clumsy glass envelopes with the air
pumped out of them; they looked just like the electric lamps of those days."
Mven Mass laughed so heartily and frankly that Darr Veter could feel
his liking for the man growing fast.
"Memory lamps! Our memory network consists of kilometres of corridors
furnished with billions of cell elements." He suddenly checked himself. "I'm
letting my feeling run away with me and haven't yet found out essential
things. When did Ross 614 first speak?"
"Fifty-two years ago. Since then they have mastered the language of the
Great Circle. They are only four par-sees away from us. They will get Veda's
lecture in thirteen years' time."
"And then?"
"After the lecture we shall go over to reception. We shall get some
news from the Great Circle through our old friends."
"Through 61 Cygni?"
"Of course. Sometimes we get contact through 107 Ophiuchi, to use the
old terminology."
A man in the same silvery uniform of the Astronautical Council as that
worn by Veter's assistant entered the room. He was of medium height,
sprightly and aquiline-nosed; people liked him for the keenly attentive
glance of his jet-black eyes. The newcomer stroked his hairless head.
"I'm Junius Antus," he said, apparently to Mven Mass. The African
greeted him respectfully. The Directors of the Memory Machines exceeded
everybody else in erudition. They decided what had to be perpetuated by the
machines and what would be sent out as general information or used by the
Palaces of Creative Effort.
"Another brevus," muttered Junius Antus, shaking hands with his new
acquaintance.
"What's that?" inquired Mven Mass. "A Latin appellation I have thought
up. I give that name to all those who do not live long-vita breva, you
know-workers on the Outer Stations, pilots of the Interstellar Space Fleet,
technicians at the spaceship engine plants.... And ... er ... you and I. We
do not live more than half the allotted span, either. What can one do, it's
more interesting. Where's Veda?"
"She intended coming earlier," began Darr Veter. His words were