Asimov's SF, October-November 2007

by Dell Magazine Authors

  * * * *

  The two stared after him, and Theremon said, “What's wrong?"

  “Nothing in particular,” replied Sheerin. “Two of the men were due several hours ago and haven't shown up yet. He's terrifically short handed, of course, because all but the really essential men have gone to the Hideout."

  “You don't think the two deserted, do you?"

  “Who? Faro and Yimot? Of course not. Still, if they're not back within the hour, things would be a little sticky.” He got to his feet suddenly, and his eyes twinkled. “Anyway, as long as Aton is gone—"

  Tiptoeing to the nearest window, he squatted, and from the low window box beneath withdrew a bottle of red liquid that gurgled suggestively when he shook it.

  “I thought Aton didn't know about this,” he remarked as he trotted back to the table. “Here! We've only got one glass so, as the guest you can have it. I'll keep the bottle."And he filled the tiny cup with judicious care.

  Theremon rose to protest, but Sheerin eyed him sternly. “Respect your elders, young man."

  The newsman seated himself with a look of pain and anguish on his face. “Go ahead, then, you old villain."

  The psychologist's Adam's apple wobbled as the bottle upended, and then with a satisfied grunt and a smack of the lips, he began again.

  “But what do you know about gravitation?"

  “Nothing, except that it is a very recent development, not too well established, and that the math is so hard that only twelve men in Lagash are supposed to understand it."

  “Tcha! Nonsense! Baloney! I can give you all the essential math in a sentence. The Law of Universal Gravitation states that there exists a cohesive force among all bodies of the universe, such that the amount of this force between any two given bodies is proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them."

  “Is that all?"

  “That's enough! It took four hundred years to develop it."

  “Why that long? It sounded simple enough, the way you said it."

  “Because great laws are not divined by flashes of inspiration, whatever you may think. It usually takes the combined work of a world full of scientists over a period of centuries. After Genovi 41 discovered that Lagash rotated about the sun Alpha, rather than vice versa—and that was four hundred years ago—astronomers have been working. The complex motions of the six suns were recorded and analyzed and unwoven. Theory after theory was advanced and checked and counterchecked and modified and abandoned and revived and converted to something else. It was a devil of a job."

  Theremon nodded thoughtfully and held out his glass for more liquor. Sheerin grudgingly allowed a few ruby drops to leave the bottle.

  “It was twenty years ago,” he continued after remoistening his own throat, “that it was finally demonstrated that the Law of Universal Gravitation accounted exactly for the orbital motions of the six suns. It was a great triumph."

  Sheerin stood up and walked to the window, still clutching his bottle. “And now we're getting to the point. In the last decade, the motions of Lagash about Alpha were computed according to gravity, and it did not account for the orbit observed; not even when all perturbations due to the other suns were included. Either the law was invalid, or there was another, as yet unknown, factor involved."

  Theremon joined Sheerin at the window and gazed out past the wooded slopes to where the spires of Saro City gleamed bloodily on the horizon. The newsman felt the tension of uncertainty grow within him as he cast a short glance at Beta. It glowered redly at zenith, dwarfed and evil.

  “Go ahead, sir,” he said softly.

  Sheerin replied, “Astronomers stumbled about for years, each proposed theory more untenable than the one before—until Aton had the inspiration of calling in the Cult. The head of the Cult, Sor 5, had access to certain data that simplified the problem considerably. Aton set to work on a new track.

  “What if there were another nonluminous planetary body such as Lagash? If there were, you know, it would shine only by reflected light, and if it were composed of bluish rock, as Lagash itself largely is, then in the redness of the sky, the eternal blaze of the suns would make it invisible—drown it out completely."

  Theremon whistled, “What a screwy idea!"

  “You think that's screwy? Listen to this: Suppose this body rotated about Lagash at such a distance and in such an orbit and had such a mass that its attraction would exactly count for the deviations of Lagash's orbit from theory—do you know what would happen?"

  The columnist shook his head.

  “Well, sometimes this body would get in the way of a sun.” And Sheerin emptied what remained in the bottle at a draft.

  “And it does, I suppose,” said Theremon flatly.

  “Yes! But only one sun lies in its plane of revolutions.” He jerked a thumb at the shrunken sun above. “Beta! And it has been shown that the eclipse will occur only when the arrangement of the suns is such that Beta is alone in its hemisphere and at a maximum distance, at which time the moon is invariably at minimum distance. The eclipse that results, with the moon seven times the apparent diameter of Beta, covers all of Lagash and lasts well over half a day, so that no spot on the planet escapes the effect. That eclipse comes once every two thousand and forty nine years."

  Theremon's face was drawn into an expressionless mask. “And that's my story?"

  The psychologist nodded. “That's all of it. First the eclipse which will start in three quarters of an hour—then universal Darkness, and, maybe, these mysterious Stars—then madness, and end of the cycle."

  He brooded. “We had two months’ leeway—we at the Observatory—and that wasn't enough time to persuade Lagash of the danger. Two centuries might not have been enough. But our records are at the Hideout, and today we photograph the eclipse. The next cycle will start off with the truth, and when the next eclipse comes, mankind will at last be ready for it. Come to think of it, that's part of your story, too."

  A thin wind ruffled the curtains at the window as Theremon opened it and leaned out. It played coldly with his hair as he stared at the crimson sunlight on his hand. Then he turned in sudden rebellion.

  “What is there in Darkness to drive me mad?"

  Sheerin smiled to himself as he spun the empty liquor bottle with abstracted motions of his hand. “Have you ever experienced Darkness, young man?"

  The newsman leaned against the wall and considered. “No. Can't say I have. But I know what it is. Just—uh—” He made vague motions with his fingers, and then brightened. “Just no light. Like in caves."

  “Have you ever been in a cave?"

  “In a cave! Of course not."

  “I thought not. I tried last week—just to see—but I got out in a hurry. I went in until the mouth of the cave was just visible as a blur of light, with black everywhere else. I never thought a person my weight could run that fast."

  Theremon's lip curled. “Well, if it comes to that, I guess I wouldn't have run, if I had been there."

  The psychologist studied the young man with an annoyed frown.

  “My, don't you talk big! I dare you to draw the curtain."

  Theremon looked his surprise and said, “What for? If we had four or five suns out there we might want to cut the light down a bit, for comfort, but now we haven't enough light as it is."

  “That's the point. Just draw the curtain; then come here and sit down."

  “All right.” Theremon reached for the tasseled string and jerked. The red curtain slid across the wide window, the brass rings hissing their way along the crossbar, and a dusk-red shadow clamped down on the room.

  * * * *

  Theremon's footsteps sounded hollowly in the silence as he made his way to the table, and then they stopped half-way. “I can't see you, sir,” he whispered.

  “Feel your way,” ordered Sheerin in a strained voice.

  “But I can't see you, sir.” The newsman was breathing harshly. “I can't see anything."

&n
bsp; “What did you expect?” came the grim reply. “Come here and sit down!"

  The footsteps sounded again, waveringly, approaching slowly. There was the sound of someone fumbling with a chair. Theremon's voice came thinly, “Here I am. I feel ... ulp ... all right."

  “You like it, do you?"

  “N-no. It's pretty awful. The walls seem to be—” He paused. “They seem to be closing in on me. I keep wanting to push them away. But I'm not going mad! In fact, the feeling isn't as bad as it was."

  “All right. Draw the curtain back again."

  There were cautious footsteps through the dark, the rustle of Theremon's body against the curtain as he felt for the tassel, and then the triumphant roo-osh of the curtain slithering back. Red light flooded the room, and with a cry of joy Theremon looked up at the sun.

  Sheerin wiped the moistness off his forehead with the back of a hand and said shakily, “And that was just a dark room."

  “It can be stood,” said Theremon lightly.

  “Yes, a dark room can. But were you at the Jonglor Centennial Exposition two years ago?"

  “No, it so happens I never got around to it. Six thousand miles was just a bit too much to travel, even for the exposition."

  “Well, I was there. You remember hearing about the ‘Tunnel of Mystery’ that broke all records in the amusement area—for the first month or so, anyway?"

  “Yes. Wasn't there some fuss about it?"

  “Very little. It was hushed up. You see, that Tunnel of Mystery was just a mile-long tunnel—with no lights. You got into a little open car and jolted along through Darkness for fifteen minutes. It was very popular—while it lasted."

  “Popular?"

  “Certainly. There's a fascination in being frightened when it's part of a game. A baby is born with three instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the absence of light. That's why it's considered so funny to jump at someone and shout ‘Boo!’ That's why it's such fun to ride a roller coaster. And that's why that Tunnel of Mystery started cleaning up. People came out of that Darkness shaking, breathless, half dead with fear, but they kept on paying to get in."

  “Wait a while, I remember now. Some people came out dead, didn't they? There were rumors of that after it shut down."

  The psychologist snorted. “Bah! Two or three died. That was nothing! They paid off the families of the dead ones and argued the Jonglor City Council into forgetting it. After all, they said, if people with weak hearts want to go through the tunnel, it was at their own risk—and besides, it wouldn't happen again. So they put a doctor in the front office and had every customer go through a physical examination before getting into the car. That actually boosted ticket sales."

  “Well, then?"

  “But, you see, there was something else. People sometimes came out in perfect order, except that they refused to go into buildings—any buildings; including palaces, mansions, apartment houses, tenements, cottages, huts, shacks, lean-tos, and tents."

  Theremon looked shocked. “You mean they refused to come in out of the open. Where'd they sleep?"

  “In the open."

  “They should have forced them inside."

  “Oh, they did, they did. Whereupon these people went into violent hysterics and did their best to beat their brains out against the nearest wall. Once you got them inside, you couldn't keep them there without a strait jacket and a shot of morphine."

  “They must have been crazy."

  “Which is exactly what they were. One person out of every ten who went into that tunnel came out that way. They called in the psychologists, and we did the only thing possible. We closed down the exhibit.” He spread his hands.

  “What was the matter with those people?” asked Theremon finally.

  “Essentially the same thing that was the matter with you when you thought the walls of the room were crushing in on you in the dark. There is a psychological term for mankind's instinctive fear of the absence of light. We call it ‘claustrophobia,’ because the lack of light is always tied up with enclosed places, so that fear of one is fear of the other. You see?"

  “And those people of the tunnel?"

  “Those people of the tunnel consisted of those unfortunates whose mentality did not quite possess the resiliency to overcome the claustrophobia that overtook them in the Darkness. Fifteen minutes without light is a long time; you only had two or three minutes, and I believe you were fairly upset.

  “The people of the tunnel had what is called a ‘claustrophobic fixation.’ Their latent fear of Darkness and enclosed places had crystallized and become active, and, as far as we can tell, permanent. That's what fifteen minutes in the dark will do."

  * * * *

  There was a long silence, and Theremon's forehead wrinkled slowly into a frown. “I don't believe it's that bad."

  “You mean you don't want to believe,” snapped Sheerin. “You're afraid to believe. Look out the window!"

  Theremon did so, and the psychologist continued without pausing, “Imagine Darkness—everywhere. No light, as far as you can see. The houses, the trees, the fields, the earth, the sky—black! And Stars thrown in, for all I know—whatever they are. Can you conceive it?"

  “Yes, I can,” declared Theremon truculently.

  And Sheerin slammed his fist down upon the table in sudden passion. “You lie! You can't conceive that. Your brain wasn't built for the conception any more than it was built for the conception of infinity or eternity. You can only talk about it. A fraction of the reality upsets you, and when the real thing comes, your brain is going to be presented with a phenomenon outside its limits of comprehension. You will go mad, completely and permanently! There is no question of it!"

  He added sadly, “And another couple of millenniums of painful struggle comes to nothing. Tomorrow there won't be a city standing unharmed in all Lagash."

  Theremon recovered part of his mental equilibrium. “That doesn't follow. I still don't see that I can go loony just because there is not a Sun in the sky—but even if I did and everyone else did, how does that harm the cities? Are we going to blow them down?"

  But Sheerin was angry, too. “If you were in Darkness what would you want more than anything else; what would it be that every instinct would call for? Light, damn you, light!"

  “Well?"

  “And how would you get light?"

  “I don't know,” said Theremon flatly.

  “What's the only way to get light, short of the sun?"

  “How should I know?"

  They were standing face to face and nose to nose.

  Sheerin said, “You burn something, mister. Ever see a forest fire? Ever go camping and cook a stew over a wood fire? Heat isn't the only thing burning wood gives off, you know. It gives off light, and people know that. And when it's dark they want light, and they're going to get it."

  “So they burn wood?"

  “So they burn whatever they can get. They've got to have light. They've got to burn something, and wood isn't handy—so they'll burn whatever is nearest. They'll have their light—and every center of habitation goes up in flames!"

  Eyes held each other as though the whole matter were a personal affair of respective will powers, and then Theremon broke away wordlessly. His breathing was harsh and ragged, and he scarcely noted the sudden hubbub that came from the adjoining room behind the closed door.

  Sheerin spoke, and it was with an effort that he made it sound matter-of-fact. “I think I heard Yimot's voice. He and Faro are probably back. Let's go in and see what kept them."

  “Might as well!” muttered Theremon. He drew a long breath and seemed to shake himself. The tension was broken.

  The room was in an uproar with members of the staff clustering about two young men who were removing outer garments even as they parried the miscellany of questions being thrown at them.

  Aton bustled through the crowd and faced the newcomers angrily. “Do you realize that it's less than half an hour before deadline? Where have you two be
en?"

  Faro 24 seated himself and rubbed his hands. His cheeks were red with the outdoor chill. “Yimot and I have just finished carrying through a little crazy experiment of our own. We've been trying to see if we couldn't construct an arrangement by which we could simulate the appearance of Darkness and Stars so as to get an advance notion as to how it looked."

  There was a confused murmur from the listeners, and a sudden look of interest entered Aton's eyes. “There wasn't anything said of this before. How did you go about it?"

  “Well,” said Faro, “the idea came to Yimot and myself long ago, and we've been working on it in our spare time. Yimot knew of a low one-story house down in the city with a domed roof—it had once been used as a museum, I think. Anyway, we bought it—"

  “Where did you get the money?” interrupted Aton peremptorily.

  “Our bank accounts,” grunted Yimot 70. “It cost two thousand credits.” Then, defensively, “Well, what of it? Tomorrow, two thousand credits will be two thousand pieces of paper. That's all."

  “Sure,” agreed Faro. “We bought the place and rigged it up with black velvet from top to bottom so as to get as perfect a Darkness as possible. Then we punched tiny holes in the ceiling and through the roof and covered them with little metal caps, all of which could be shoved aside simultaneously at the close of a switch. At least, we didn't do that part ourselves; we got a carpenter and an electrician and some others—money didn't count. The point was that we could get the light to shine through those holes in the roof, so that we could get a starlike effect."

  Not a breath was drawn during the pause that followed. Aton said stiffly:

  “You had no right to make a private—"

  Faro seemed abashed. “I know, sir—but, frankly, Yimot and I thought that the experiment was a little dangerous. If the effect really worked, we half expected to go mad—from what Sheerin says about all this, we thought that would be rather likely. We wanted to take the risk ourselves. Of course, if we found we could retain sanity, it occurred to us that we might develop immunity to the real thing, and then expose the rest of you to the same thing. But things didn't work out at all—"