by Jerry Sohl
“If you was a true friend, you’d help me if I was in trouble.” Toby gave him a quick look. “Wouldn’t you now?”
“Yes. I would help you if you were in trouble.”
“See? We agree on everything, don’t we?”
“Sure.” Toby was all right. He was a friend. He was a warm, alive old man. And a very nice guy to know.
“Well, if we’re goin’ to be real friends, we got to be honest with each other. Are you sure I can trust you, mister?”
“Certainly “ What was the old guy getting at? Of course Toby could trust him. Why, Virginia...
“Eh? What was that?”
The image of Toby blurred and Martin had trouble concentrating on his eyes.
“Never mind, son. You and I, we’ll get along, won’t we?”
“We’ll get along.” That was better.
“We’ve known each other for years.”
“For years?” Had he really known him that long?
“For years. Of course we have. You remember.” Toby was smiling. The way he always smiled. Martin remembered now.
“Old friends that we be, we know each other through and through.”
“Yes.”
“We never had no secrets from each other.”
“No, we never kept any secrets from each other.” Of course not. Toby was an old friend. A friend from way back.
“You know my name.”
“I know your name.”
“What is it?”
“Toby “ How ridiculous. Toby not knowing his own name.
“And what’s your name?”
“Martin “ How silly of Toby not to remem—
Martin screamed with the sudden smash of light against his eyes, against the whirling figure at his side and suddenly something clicked inside his brain and he saw, emerging from a dream, that Toby had somehow entered the cabin.
“What the hell…” He started to rise. Something forced him back.
“Stay back!” Virginia ordered.
It was then that he saw her standing against the wall, her breath coming fast, her eyes fierce and determined. She did not move.
He turned to Toby, saw him standing, frozen to a spot on the floor, equal determination in his blazing blue eyes.
Then he became aware of the tug of war, the exchange of power, the pulsations in the air that glowed and died and flickered like neon, the breath of hot wind that smote him and the hard, unyielding edge of something invisible that he could touch in front of him. The heat of it made him draw back in alarm.
The room resounded to the clashing of wills that slipped and slid and held and gave, the areas of combat emanating a radiance that lighted the room. The two Capellans stood, their eyes whipping at each other, the house creaking and groaning under the unleashed forces that battled each other within.
Chapter 14
Sweat was rolling down the old man’s face into his beard. Martin turned frantic eyes to Virginia and he saw her pale face, her lips a bloodless line, desperation in her eyes. Her fingernails dug into the bark of the logs at her side and her fingers were white; the muscles of her forearm were distended with strain, her breasts rose and fell rapidly as she fought for breath. Toby’s rasping breath answered hers.
With a cry, Martin hurled himself at the man, but the impenetrable wall between did not yield and he bounced back helplessly to the foot of the bed, clawing at the fringe of the field.
Suddenly the old man started to shake as if in a chill. Then his hoarse respiration seemed to rip his throat and he moved, wild-eyed, staggering backward as if from blows.
“You—can—return—me,” he cried shrilly, gasping for breath. “But—they—will—be—back.”
Virginia moved from the wall and the air quieted.
“Thank you,” Toby whispered, stopping his backward flight and leaning against the table to keep from collapsing. His white hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot. He still had difficulty with his breath.
“If I go—I’ll tell them—where,” he managed to say. “You can’t—you can’t stand against them all. They’ll—they’ll kill him...”
“They’ll kill me first,” Virginia retorted.
The old man sank to a chair. He was getting control of himself; his breath was less labored.
“You are disgustingly like an Earth mother guarding her young,” he said.
“Why did you come here?” Virginia stood in the center of the room, facing him.
“I wasn’t sure,” Toby said. “You had blocked yourself so well I couldn’t be sure. I had to come back. I knew I could discover the truth through your friend.”
“Do they all know?”
“We’ve all been warned and everyone is looking—everyone left.”
“So it is true!”
Toby looked at her in surprise and then grinned feebly. “I saw your papers. I thought you would be aware of it.”
“And now that you know about us, what were you to do?”
“He,” Toby said, indicating Martin with a vague movement of a hand, “is to die. Then you are to come back.”
“So you came to kill him.”
“If he turned out to be Martin Enders, yes.”
“I thought your accent was phony, Toby,” she said. “How long have you had it?”
“I’ve got along with it for years and nobody has complained.”
“What reason do they give for wanting to kill Martin?”
“So he will not reveal what he knows, though I don’t think anybody would believe him. But that’s only the secondary reason. The main one is to get you back. They can’t understand why you have acted this way.”
Virginia turned to look at Martin. “I can tell you why, Toby.” Her eyes glistened. “I happen to love this man.”
“Love on this level?” Toby was incredulous. “Why do you stoop to a thing like that? He is just an ordinary man.”
“He is not just an ordinary man.”
“I saw nothing unusual about him,” Toby said.
“I say he is more than an ordinary man.”
“He must be,” Toby said sarcastically. “I suppose you’re going to tell me he has no atavistic tendencies.”
“If he has, they are under control. His mind is much better than average, his extrasensory perception is highly developed.”
“Unwarlike, eh?” Toby looked at Martin curiously. “Then what must he have thought of our little demonstration?”
“Have you forgotten that it may not be over?”
Toby snorted. “You are the one who is warlike, Virginia Penn. It is evident you have lived too long among these people. Have you forgotten your own kind?”
“My people have forsaken me,” she said angrily, turning back to him. “Instead of letting us alone, they have sent all of you out to hunt us down!”
“You cannot forget your birth. You are not one of them.”
“I wish I were!”
“Oh, come, now—”
“We are too complacent, too condescending, too sure of ourselves as a people. We are ethnocentrics. The Greeks and the Romans had a word for strangers, for people not like themselves. It was ‘outsiders.’”
“It is our history, Virginia. If it weren’t for the Earth people we could not propagate ourselves.”
“But is there no end? Must we always be this way?”
Toby got up from his chair to come over to her, but Virginia waved him back.
“You keep sitting there, Toby. I don’t trust you.”
He sat down again. “As you wish. But to answer your question, do you think Earth people have advanced far enough to be released to continue in time on their own?”
“But we have been responsible for their wars, their plagues, the devastations.”
Toby shrugged. “There are others among us far better to answer questions like that than I. I merely did what I was bid in trying to find you.”
Virginia came over to sit on the bed with Martin.
“Why should they want me back? Since I’ve been so
reactionary, I should think they’d be glad to get rid of me.”
“I don’t know, Virginia. If you were up to me, I’d say they would be better off forgetting you. But we all have been told what to do. The Triumvirate decides that. You know that.”
She gave him a dark look. “I could send you back.”
“I really believe you could. But what good would it do? If my Earth body dies here, I go back and others will find you, those still living on Earth. It would not take more than five minutes, I should say.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Virginia put a hand on Martin’s arm.
At that moment Martin felt a blast of cold air and looked at the old man in alarm. Instantly Virginia was on her feet. The disappearing form of the old man shimmered uncertainly for a moment in the dim light of the room, then settled back into solidity again.
“You are tricky, Toby. Now stay there like that, if you please, until I figure this out.”
“There’s no figuring to do, Virginia. You had better come back with me.”
“I am not leaving Martin Enders.”
“All right, then,” Toby said disgustedly. “I give you my promise that nothing will happen to Mr. Enders. Now will you come with me?”
She looked beseechingly at Martin. “I don’t know what to do, Martin,” she said. “I can’t just stay here now that he knows. If he leaves he will inform the others and they will come back as he says and kill you. There will be nothing I can do about that. I cannot keep him here permanently. He will escape somehow. If I destroy him, the other part of him goes back.”
Martin stirred uneasily. He had been fascinated by the drama and could see now the futility of resistance. He had accepted the role of noncombatant from necessity; he did not like doing nothing about it.
“Perhaps you could come back,” Martin suggested. “Surely when they learn how you feel they will let you come back. They must let you return.”
Virginia turned cold, blue eyes toward the man. “I will go with you, then, on condition that you guarantee that I return.”
Toby laughed. “How could I assure you what they’ll do?”
“You could tell them you gave me your promise.”
“Why should I?”
Virginia was silent. She looked away from him, studied the warped wooden floor for a long time. Toby looked at her in amusement.
“You must be in love with him,” he commented.
Suddenly the girl’s crafty eyes met his. “I am stronger than you are, Toby. I have proved that.”
The smile faded. “Yes,” he said hesitantly. “I will grant you that. But it doesn’t mean you can use it to advantage.”
“It so happens that it does, Toby,” Virginia was more sure of herself now.
“You think so?”
“Unless you promise that I will return, I will hold you here as you are, in your Earth body, as long as I can. I will send Martin out to get food for me, none for you. You will starve slowly, Toby. It will take some time, of course. Perhaps I will give you something to eat to keep you barely alive. Then you won’t be able to escape. How does that strike you?”
“What could you possibly gain by that?” It was plain Toby did not like the prospect.
“It is evident the Capellans are getting ready to leave this planet. That way you will be unable to accompany them.”
“They would not leave without me!” Toby was a little frantic; his voice was shrill.
“Shall we try it and see?” Virginia smiled pleasantly.
“But when they leave,” Toby said. “When they leave, Martin will...”
Virginia nodded. “I know. But at least they will not have killed him.”
“No! I have looked forward for years to the journey.” The old man’s hands trembled as he talked. Then he threw them in air in dismay. “All right, all right! I promise. You will return.” He seemed to go to pieces with this announcement, burying his head in his hands.
Virginia’s fingers tightened on Martin’s arm and they looked wistfully at each other.
“There is no other way,” she said softly. “I will be back as soon as I can. Don’t worry. And don’t leave here!”
“All right, darling,” he said. He ran his hands up her arms to her shoulders and a moment later they were in each other’s arms.
“Remember,” he said, his mouth an inch from her ear. “Remember, when you’re back there, that I love you. That I will be waiting for you.”
“I will, darling. I promise,” she whispered back.
“What’s it like—back there?”
She shook her head and her cheek, as it brushed his, was warm. “I can’t tell you,” she said. “It’s—it defies description. But please don’t worry.”
When he let her go, he could see, by the light of the dying fire, that her eyes were rimmed in tears. She kissed her fingers, put them to his lips. They were cool.
“Good-bye, darling,” she said. Then she turned to Toby. “You first.” Her voice was gruff.
They sat on the bed, Martin holding her hand, watching Toby. There was an eddy of icy air and the old man faded from view. Martin then turned to Virginia, saw her profile, the nicely modeled chin, the full lips, the pert nose—and then with a heavy heart he felt frigid air as she faded. The fingers that had held her hand moved together, clutching only air.
It was suddenly very cold in the cabin.
The sun was a blazing hole in the October sky. It shone on jutting rocks in the ravine, reflecting their brilliant colors. It was caught shimmering in the water of the stream, water that was never clearer.
From where Martin stood at the top of the ravine he could see the curving stand of pines, the flat profile of the mountain, the timbered steppes of the jagged range. He could hear the rattle of cottonwood leaves, the sigh of the wind in the pines.
It was beautiful. Ironically beautiful, for it reminded him of Virginia. The thought of her filled him with nostalgia for the immediate past when all he needed to do was reach out his hand and he touched her.
A thousand times in the past few days he had looked for her when a shadow caught his eyes, when a twig fell from a tree, when a stone, loosened from its place on the side of the ravine, tumbled to the stream. But she was never there.
On this, the fourth day since she had gone, he determined to try to help pass the time by strenuous activity. Perhaps if he worked hard he might sleep, he thought, for in the face of her expected return, slumber had become an elusive thing.
He returned to the cabin, took a pail to the stream and filled it with water. Back in the cabin he set to work washing it down. That was the first project. When he finished that, he was going to chink it. The old man had been right about the crevices; they needed to be filled in before winter.
He was in the middle of scrubbing down the floor when, with a surge of elation, he felt a characteristic coldness. He sensed it was she behind him and he was about to turn when he thought; What if it isn’t Virginia?
In panic, he whirled around.
Virginia was there and he rose from his work to go to her in joy. It was the look on her face that stopped him.
“What’s happened?” he asked in growing alarm. Her eyes were listless, her face ashen. Her shoulders sagged. “What have they done to you?”
“They have done nothing.” Virginia stood there looking at him with detachment. Her voice was weary.
“They have, too!” He approached her.
Virginia stepped back.
“No, Martin. It’s no use.”
He stopped, thunderstruck. Surely, they must have done something to her to cause her to be this way. They were exercising control over her...
“This can’t be you. You couldn’t have changed so.”
She smiled bleakly. “I have changed, Martin. I am a Capellan. I will always be a Capellan. I belong with my people.”
“But I thought—”
“That was impossible.” There was an awful finality in the words. “I loved you. I still love you, dar
ling, but... Why do you suppose I’ve taken so long? I’ve been thinking. I tried to find a way, but there is no other way out. This is best.”
“What is best?” he asked in horror.
“That I go with my people.” Virginia moved to the table Martin had moved to the other end of the room. She sat down there, putting her hands before her on the table and examining them with disinterest.
Martin could only stand in the center of the room.
“Toby was right, Martin. I was born a Capellan. When I went back I saw my father. My mother. Bobby. I talked to them all. At first I was still filled with the desire to go against them all, but I see now I was wrong. You have your people. I have mine.”
She shrugged resignedly. “I learned something else, too. When the Capellans leave they will take with them the device for creating the waves that energize the brain cells of men—those words hardly described how your reasoning power is maintained. But when it is taken away you must go back at once to only a few thousand years from where we found you. It will be chaos.
“I thought I might somehow prevent that from happening to you. I didn’t want you to revert to a primitive thing, a mere hulk of a man who remembered so little of what he once knew. I could not stand it, Martin. But I have learned I cannot supply the force I thought I could. You would go back with everyone else.”
Martin looked away. “I see.”
“And as for me,” she said bitterly, “I am an immortal. It would be my lot to live on Earth forever—alone, after they left. I would see, through the millions of years, the advancement of your race once again. I might conceivably help it, if it proved to be the dominant species, but even the power of a single Capellan is limited. That way I would not be fulfilling my destiny. It is with my people, as I have said. It is perhaps on some other star somewhere with another Capellan, to start a new colonization, if it is so decided.”
She continued to look at her hands.
“Another thing,” she said in a voice he could hardly hear. “They are leaving soon. There would be so little time...”
Martin moved to her. She looked up at him without expression. He lifted her from the chair, made her stand and face him.
He took her in his arms, kissed her savagely.
