by Lee Sheldon
"How do you guide this ship?" Jeff asked after he had absorbed this information.
"You do not guide it," the voice came back. "The controls are all preset. You cannot move any of them. They will guide you safely to Illus."
"We don't want to go to Illus," Woody shouted. "We belong on Earth."
"You will go to Illus. We will be there to meet you. Just leave the main panel alone. There are other panels behind you. Some will give you food and drink. Others will give you a place to sleep."
Jeff looked behind him. There were lights there, but they were much dimmer than the ones on the main panel. He hadn't even noticed them before.
"All the comforts of home," Woody said sarcastically.
Woody touched two of the buttons but nothing happened. Jeff also touched a couple with the same results. "Stuck."
"Rusted like the door," Woody agreed. "Better tell that voice on the other end of that hot line since he's so interested in our comfort and see what suggestion he has now."
Jeff pushed the button and spoke into the transmitter, but no answer came. After the second try, Jeff gave up.
"It may be a two-way radio," he grunted, "but it's strictly a one-way management of it. They'll talk to us only when they feel like it. I suppose Dood thinks he has told us all we need to know."
"He didn't tell me what I want to know," Woody grunted. "That's how to turn this thing around and head it back to Earth."
Jeff picked up the oil can. "I suppose these joints are rusted, too. If we can squirt oil into them, maybe they'll respond to their buttons."
Jeff searched for tiny cracks indicating joints in the panels directly across from the blazing control panel. All the things that Dood had said were in the ship would have to be behind these panels. On either side, and below and above them, were transparent panels through which they could look out into the ink-black sky.
After squirting oil into all the seams he could find, Jeff set the oil can down and waited for a moment. One of the panels slowly began opening.
"Hey," Woody exclaimed. "It doesn't even wait for us to push the button."
"You did push the button. Apparently the brain that controls those doors stores up the knowledge and puts it to use as soon as the oil unlocks the mechanism. Remember, the outside door worked that way."
"I'm not liable to forget that."
The first door that opened revealed a sort of cot—half-bed, half-chair—that reminded Jeff of a lawn chair except it was a little too short for comfort.
"Wish those guys were a little taller," Woody grumbled as he tried out the chair. "Guess I can sleep in it, though, if I get tired enough."
Two other doors opened in response to the lights Jeff and Woody had touched before oiling the hinges. One had another chair like the first, and the other revealed a small room full of what Jeff guessed to be spacesuits. He pulled two of the suits out into the main room.
"Would you look at these?" he said softly.
"What are they supposed to fit?" Woody asked, holding up one suit.
Jeff examined the suits carefully. They were about the size of the men he'd seen get out of this ship but each had four sleeves for arms. "They certainly wouldn't fit us."
"Which brings up another question," Woody said. "What happens when we get to this planet, Illus? Will there be air there like we're used to? Maybe we're supposed to wear these suits. If that's it, we're in trouble."
"I'd say we're in trouble, any way we cut it," Jeff said. "Let's see what the other buttons will show us."
They put the suits back and Jeff touched another small light. Another panel slowly opened; before them now was a shelf with some cans on it. Labels on the cans were in two different colors. Jeff guessed those colors meant something to the men who had originally been in this ship but they didn't mean anything to him. There were two sizes of cans, plus a big square can with an open top that looked something like a pitcher. It was empty.
"Here goes," Jeff said and picked up one of the small cans. It wasn't hard to his touch as he expected and he found that he could peel off the top with his fingernail. A dark substance that looked something like jelly was in the can.
"This must be our dinner," Jeff said and handed the can to Woody.
Woody tasted the jelly, made a face, then took some more.
"Not as bad as I expected. But it's no T-bone steak, I'll tell you."
Jeff picked up one of the larger cans and opened it the same way. There was liquid in this and the moment the top came off the can, the liquid began expanding. Jeff held the can over the big square pitcher and let the expanding liquid flow into it. The pitcher was almost full before the can was empty. Gingerly Jeff tasted the liquid.
"Water!" he exclaimed. "It tastes about like our water."
"Who ever heard of condensed water? That stuff swelled up like a balloon when the air hit it."
Jeff handed the pitcher to Woody. "Taste it. You'll have to admit this is an easy way to pack a lot of drinking water."
When they had eaten some of the jelly and had all they wanted to drink, they turned to the rest of the panels along the rear of the ship. Eight of the buttons revealed big chairs that reminded Jeff of dentist's chairs with a big metal cap suspended above each.
"Maybe if we oil that control panel," Woody suggested, "we can make those buttons work, too."
"If we move the setting, there's no telling where we might go."
"Would that be any worse than knowing we're going where those goons will be waiting for us?"
"We don't know what kind of world Illus will be," Jeff admitted, "but apparently we can eat the food and drink the water. We can probably breathe their air, too, but it must be different from ours. Something about the air on Earth rusted their metal very quickly, anyway."
Woody nodded. "Apparently it doesn't do that on Illus, because they didn't even seem to know what rust was. Wonder how those earlier expeditions to Earth made out."
"Apparently they didn't stay long once they landed. The last ship that landed at the observatory tonight took off all right. It was just this one that sat out there for quite a while that rusted."
Jeff studied the panel for any clues as to its operation. One thin purple line fascinated him; it seemed to be extending farther and farther across the upper portion of the panel. Surmising that it might be a speed indicator, he looked back at Earth, smaller already than the moon appeared from his front yard back home. With a pencil he traced the outline of Earth on a transparent panel. Within a few minutes, Earth had shrunk until it filled no more than three-quarters of the circle he had drawn.
"We're traveling at an unbelievable speed," Jeff said in awe.
Just then Dood's voice came over the radio again. Jeff and Woody turned to face the panel.
"Have you found all the compartments in the ship?"
"Looks like it," Jeff said after pushing the transmitter button.
"Soon you must each sit in one of the big chairs with the telecator attached to it."
"What's a telecator?" Woody demanded.
"It's..." Dood seemed to be searching for a word to describe it. "It's the metal cap to fit on your head. You must sit in those chairs soon. This is important. I cannot communicate with you much longer."
"Why not?" Jeff demanded.
"We will be accelerating to a speed too fast for radio. From then on, you will be out of communication with everything until you come to our solar system. Do you understand?"
"I sure don't," Woody shouted.
For a long minute, there was silence on the radio, then a chatter like that which they had first heard when the strangers landed at the observatory came crackling over the speaker. Jeff wheeled as he saw lights flashing here and there over the ship, apparently in response to the orders coming over the radio. Then suddenly the radio was silent.
"Too fast for radio," he muttered. "That would have to be at least the speed of light.”
Woody nodded as if in a daze. "I suppose we'll go at the same speed. I just can't believe it."
Jeff tried to slow his spinning thoughts. Dood had said they were going to another solar system; that meant at least four or five light years away. According to scientific theory, they wouldn't age much, if at all on the trip, if they traveled at the speed of light. But then if ships were going to travel between solar systems, they would have to move at some utterly fantastic speed.
Suddenly Woody pointed at a bright red spot out in space, almost as large as the moon looked from Earth's surface. "Suppose that is Mars?" he asked in awe.
Jeff nodded. "Must be. You know, it really is red from this distance. But look how fast it is slipping past us."
Jeff searched the panel for the button that had revealed a telescope a while ago. But before he found it, he touched a button that opened up a small radar screen. Then he found the telescope. These two instruments he understood; they were very much like the ones he was acquainted with at home.
With the telescope, he studied the surface of Mars until they were past the planet. Woody was staring at the radar screen; occasionally tiny blips showed on it and then were gone.
"What do you suppose is making those blips?"
"Probably asteroids. There are millions of them, from the size of peas up to the size of small moons, between Mars and Jupiter, you know."
"I'd hate to hit one barreling along as we are now."
Bigger blips showed on the radar as they sped along. Jeff realized that they were getting into the heart of the asteroid belt. He had heard scientists speculate on the dangers of trying to get through the asteroid belt without being hit, and he wondered if they would make it. Most of the asteroids were tiny, he knew; but if they hit the ship at the velocity it was moving, trouble would surely result.
"Hey, Jeff," Woody exclaimed. "Look at this one coming."
A huge blip was on the radar screen and coming straight toward them at terrific speed. Jeff jerked his eyes away from the screen and looked through the transparent panel. At first, he saw nothing; then he saw it: It was a bare speck directly ahead. But even as he looked, it grew to the size of a baseball.
"Look at that!" Woody cried, pointing at the asteroid.
"It's on a collision course with us," Jeff shouted.
"It can't miss us!"
Chapter V
Jeff ran his hand over the lights on the panel; the ship had to get off its collision course with that asteroid. But nothing moved.
"Dood said our course was preset,” Woody said in despair.
Jeff realized that there wasn't a thing that either of them could do. He gripped an edge of the panel and set himself for the jolt of collision. Woody dropped flat on the floor.
Suddenly the ship whipped sideways and Jeff thought the asteroid had struck. But a moment later the ship whipped around again and then repeated the maneuver. Everything seemed intact and Jeff looked back at the radar screen; it was clear.
"We dodged it," Woody gasped. "How?"
"Evidently this ship is also set to avoid objects picked up on its radar. That second and third shift must have been the computers bringing the ship back on its original course."
Woody rubbed a bruised hip. "Talk about Sunday drivers. None of them ever made as sharp a turn as that."
"We avoided a wreck, though. Sunday drivers don't always do that. I guess we can stop worrying about collisions."
After the tension had drained out of him, Jeff felt worn out. He remembered the chairs he had seen and pushed the first button on the rear panel. One of the long chairs appeared.
"You can watch the scenery," Jeff said. "I'm going to rest."
He sat down and found the chair remarkably comfortable. There was a headphone set just in front of his eyes. Curiosity prompted him to put the headphones on. Immediately a voice came over the phones. It said a word he didn't recognize then gave an English word, slowly and distinctly. It repeated this process several times then changed to a new sound followed by another English word. Jeff sat bolt upright, his weariness gone.
"Hey," he yelled at Woody, "I've found a teacher here. It gives a word in Illustrian, then gives the English translation."
"Like those recordings that teach foreign languages?"
"Just about. Get in that other chair. Maybe it has one of these machines, too. If we can understand their language when we get there, it could be a real help."
"Reckon that's right." Woody touched the button to bring out another chair.
For a long time they sat and listened to the phones. Slowly Jeff began to master some of the words. After a while he felt tired and turned the phones off.
He was awakened by the chatter of the voice behind the panel. He and Woody had grown almost immune to the chatter, considering it a part of the unfathomable workings of the machinery; now the familiarity of some of the words caught Jeff's attention.
As he listened, he realized he didn't understand many of the words but he did comprehend enough to make some sense of the chatter. It was a report of their progress. He listened carefully, remembering the words he knew and trying to make sense of it all when the voice stopped.
"As near as I can figure," he said to Woody who was just rousing up, "the computer has just told us that we are eight million peqs away from Earth."
Woody stretched. "How many city blocks in a peq?"
"As near as I got it from that little translation lesson I had, a peq is about equal to a hundred miles. So that would put us about eight hundred million miles from Earth. That's out almost in Saturn's orbit."
"Might as well be heading for another galaxy, if we can't turn this thing around."
"According to Dood, we are heading for another solar system. But it's in our own galaxy."
Woody spread his hands. "Another solar system, another galaxy—somehow it just doesn't seem to make much difference any more."
Jeff looked back at the sun. Already it was so far away that it looked more like a huge star than a sun. No wonder the planets out here were cold. They couldn't hope to get much heat from a sun that shone no brighter than that.
The voice behind the panel chattered again. Jeff listened closely. As near as he could determine, their speed was being increased again. There was no sensation of movement at all in the ship. There were other chattered words coming from the panel but Jeff couldn't translate enough of them to make any sense of the message.
"That thing is trying to tell us something, I'll bet," Woody said. "But I'm not even sure I want to know what it is."
A clang ran through the ship. The voice repeated a word over and over then added some more words, a few of which were familiar to Jeff.
"He's saying something about speed," Jeff said. "I'll bet we're getting ready to go into overdrive."
"I suppose we've been just poking along."
"Maybe, compared to what we're going to be doing," Jeff said. "What was it Dood told us to do before we accelerated?"
He turned to the panel behind him, but before he could decide which button he was to push, lights flashed and two panels slid back, revealing the long chairs that reminded Jeff of lawn chairs with metal helmets hanging above them. Those must be the tele-cators Dood had told them about.
"If they think I'm going to put on that tin skull cap, they can think again," Woody exclaimed, backing off from the chairs.
"Dood made it sound important," Jeff said, hesitating.
The voice behind the panel began chattering again and Jeff guessed that they were being given additional instructions but the word here and there that he could recognize gave him no clue as to what the message was.
"Look out!" Woody yelled as the chairs moved out of their compartments toward them.
Jeff saw a small red light in the back of the chair closest to him. As he moved to one side, the chair swung toward him as though the light were an eye that was fixed on him. He saw Woody trying to dodge the other chair.
Jeff backed toward the front panel of the ship as the chair glided toward him. He had the feeling there was no avoiding the chair; that feeling became
a reality suddenly when he backed into the front panel and something shoved him forward.
He hit the chair and fell into it. He was twisted around almost as if hands had spun him. He found himself lying more than sitting in the chair and the chair was gliding rapidly back toward the compartment from which it had come.
As the chair reached the compartment, the metal cap descended swiftly toward Jeff's head. He tried to duck his head to escape it but he seemed powerless to move.
He made an effort to raise his arms to lift the helmet off his head after it had clamped itself in place, but his arms were too heavy. He wondered vaguely about that and he tried to fight the feeling of heaviness and extreme weariness that was pressing him down.
But it was a losing battle; he couldn't lift a finger and there was a humming in his head that drove out the thoughts that he was trying desperately to remember. He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was aware of a faint humming in his head and the light was too bright. The humming stopped and for a long minute, he lay in the chair, trying to remember the thoughts he had been clinging to so desperately.
Then suddenly it came to him. The chair was holding him prisoner; he was trying to get out. He struggled forward, trying to lift his arms.
His arms shot forward and he almost fell out of the chair. Nothing was holding him now, and he felt none of the heaviness or weariness that had pressed him down only a moment ago.
He got out and watched the chair move farther back into the compartment. The metal helmet went back to the far wall and the panel that shut the compartment off from the main room slid into place. Suddenly it seemed that the chair with the metal helmet had never been there.
Jeff looked around. Woody was leaving his chair and it was disappearing behind the sliding panel just as Jeff's had. Jeff didn't understand it. The voice behind the panel had sounded so urgent and Dood's instructions had been definite—Jeff and Woody had to sit in the chairs before acceleration.
They had sat in the chairs, the helmets had clamped over their heads, but nothing had happened. And now they were released. Jeff stared at Woody.
