Hunters Out of Space
Page 19
CHAPTER 19
Six months had passed since the battle.
The city of the violet dome was rebuilt. The ashes of the dead had beenstrewn upon the mossy plains. The two ships now stood in peace and gazedat each other across the expanse of moss and grass that had replaced thecinders left from the fighting.
Another city was being built a few miles away.
Ato had soon recovered from his wounds, and as ship's captain had marriedMaya and Odin.
So it was over. But Odin and Maya had asked for Gunnar's ashes, and hadburied them out there on the plain, beneath a gaunt tree which wassomething like a mesquite. Gunnar would have liked that. Twisted, gnarled,and tough, the tree spread out its branches above him; and a bird had builtits nest there and sang its old song of stars and men and time.
The Lorens were a happier people. One of the first things that the lightshad done was to plunge back into space. Within a few days they returned,trailing a huge dust-cloud behind them. It must have been the last salvagefrom the explosion that Odin had witnessed back there in space. The cloudtrailed out in one great streamer and slowly circled the ancient sun.Slowly the spirals came nearer to the fires. The sun fed. Its old warmthreturning, it smiled at its lone child. The air of the planet of the Lorensgrew warmer and fresher. The plains seemed to shake themselves as a newspring returned to enliven the land and take up its old work of helpinglife to begat new life. Out there in empty space, Odin fancied, Deathlowered his scythe and smiled and shrugged his lean shoulders as he wentaway to harvest other suns.
Oh, it was a wonderful spring. The trip was over, but what a haggard fewhad beached the boats at the vast edge of space!
The few surviving Brons were happy now. Those who had been Grim Hagen'sslaves out of their loyalty to Maya were offered anything that they wished.However, it turned out that most of them wanted little except peace andrest.
The families of Brons that survived were now building their houses aboveground--although the Lorens had generously offered them quarters below thecity. The Brons wanted no more of caves or tunnels. They preferred to liveup there on this world's surface and take their chances with frost andflood.
Opal had been beautiful and wonderful. It had been like living eastward inEden, but Eden's gardens were no more. And perhaps it would be better toface the elements and meet them head-on instead of seeking shelter. Fortime and chance were working everywhere--even in Eden--and as Gunnar hadalways said, a fighting heart could carry a man to the last.
* * * * *
The days and the nights were longer than on earth. The work was long andhard. But the world of the Lorens was being rebuilt. And at night, Odinusually set an hour aside to work on his notes.
At times he talked with Wolden, although he could never be completely atease when talking to a light. Nor could he understand half the things thatWolden told him. Wolden quoted formulas on time and space, mass and speed.Odin guessed that the belt which he had once used so briefly embodied aNo-Time and No-Space factor. But this was beyond him.
As for Ato, he grew moodier every day. At last he came to see Maya and Odinone evening. Sitting by the fire--for the nights there were chilly--hetalked to them of his decision.
"It was a great fight," he said. "And I will always remember it. If Nea hadlived, I might have felt differently. But Wolden and the others say thatthey will not stay here much longer. I have decided to go with them. Theirsis a sort of Nirvana, a timeless, dimensionless existence. Yesterday andtomorrow, near and far, are one--"
Maya shivered. "It sounds like a frightening existence. I don't understandit at all. It is as though they had become spirits without dying."
"Perhaps," said Ato thoughtfully, looking into the fire. "You may beright. But they say it is wonderful to be freed from the shackles ofspace and time. You remember the belt, Odin? Wolden has merely improvedupon it. Soon, I think, I will put on the belt that they brought for meand go forth with them like Laelaps to invade the night."
He paused a minute and then added cautiously, "They have brought two morebelts with them. For you two, if you should decide--"
Maya shivered. Odin laughed, as he shook his head. "No. I am a man. Justflesh and blood, Ato. And I choose to stay here and take the blows oftime. To endure to the end--even as my fathers before on earth--"
Maya snuggled against his shoulder as she nodded her agreement.
Ato smiled. "I thought so--But we will say no more about it. There isone thing that you may not understand. Wolden has tried to tell you. Buthe is a scientist, and his words are different and difficult to follow.You and I have fought shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps I can explain--"
Then he talked for nearly an hour about the passing of time--and how aship could circle the universe at the speed of light--and upon returningit might find its home-port nothing but dust and memories. For while theirhearts were beating once a month out there in space tide after tide ofyears had flowed over their homes and their loved ones.
It was a sad, bewildering speech. It reduced time to nothing--and bothMaya and Odin felt a lump of ice in their throats as Ato talked.
But even after he had finished, they shook their heads and clung together.A chill wind from space seemed to be blowing through the room, whisperingof time's vagaries, and how space had different clocks, and how theaffairs of men were swept by time and chance down to a sunless sea.
For the last time Jack Odin and Maya refused Ato's offer. Eden was behindhim. Immortality was lost. But Adam and Eve held close to each other thereat the edge of space--and as they left Eden behind an old sad nobilityclung to them. Something brave and beautiful, like the last leaves ofautumn glinting in the setting sun.
* * * * *
The notes that Doctor Jack Odin sent me are ended. But even as before hewrote a short letter and added it to the package at the last.
Dear Joe: (he began)
Wolden and Ato have agreed to deliver this message and the attached notes. Wolden says that it is a terrible experience to go from the fourth-dimensional light of his into a time-bound world. He will not again obligate himself as a messenger boy.
I promised to let you know how we fared. And here is the tale, if you can piece it together. And I suppose you can, for you always liked to monkey around with words. (From this distance, I would say that putting words together has been both the curse and the blessing of your entire life.)
I fear that I cannot understand Ato's and Wolden's talk. But let me put it this way. We traveled fast and furiously through space. And all the while, Father Time was laughing at us. You will remember how Grim Hagen aged on Aldebaran while we sped after him in what seemed to be only a few weeks. Well, if we left in The Nebula now and plunged back to earth we would arrive there two hundred years from the day that we took off. And from what I saw of your civilization at the last, I have no desire to see it two hundred years later.
Bewildering, isn't it? Nea always said that we would have to use new concepts and develop new mores if we ever conquered space. She was right.
Theoretically, you are gone and forgotten for two centuries. And yet, Wolden assures me that he can deliver this to you in short order. Therefore, time does not exist as we know it. Or is it a river that can be navigated?
Our home is finished. Maya and I are happy. This is a peaceful planet. Val's people are philosophers. They only fought out of desperation.
My sword and Gunnar's are growing rusty upon the wall. I have a small office now, and will probably end up as a country doctor. The two ships are still out there on the plain. Our children, if they wish, can man them and go out into space. But as far as we are concerned we go no more a-hunting.
The notes that I am sending you are fairly complete. It is nearly midnight and the fire is burning low. Maya is nodding beside me. So--happy at last--parsecs away and years away--I wish my old friend a hearty fare-thee-well--and
IT IS A TALE THAT IS TOLD.
Best wishes,
Jack Odin, M. D.
THE END
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
This etext was produced from Amazing Science Fiction Stories May 1960.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed.
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page 48: Both hands of the clock were pointing upward{original had uward}.
Page 51: Rolling the knapsack up into a ball and tying it securely{originalhad securly}, he threw it over the brink.
Page 52: The spurt of a match showed him his miner's cap{original had cape}not five feet away.
Page 55: Even though we go farther than the graveyard of stars--or beyondthe gates of hell, maybe--I will find her."{original omitted quotationmark}
Page 59: We know now that Grim Hagen and his ship, with all his prisonersand loot, took off from the bed of the sea with a flourish which was justlike Grim Hagen{original had Hagin}.
Page 70: They hammered and pounded at the framework.{original omitted theperiod}
Page 71: It was entitled: "Einstein and Einsteinian Space, with Conjecturesupon a Trans-Einsteinian concept.{original had a comma here}"
Page 73: She was dressed in linsey-woolsey{original had lindsey-woolsey},and the overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
Page 75: And once,{original had a period} Odin heard him cry out
Page 78: Larger than the others, Odin landed awkwardly{original hadawkardly} upon the floor of the car.
Page 79: It was surrounded by green grass, and at one corner was aprofusion of water-lilies{original had water-lillies} and cat-tails.
Page 80: "{original omitted this quotation mark}For over a thousand years,theirs was an economy of death and rottenness. Mushrooms and toadstoolswere their food.
Page 82: Jupiter with its red clouds and its protean{original had portean}"eye" reached out for them and was left behind.
Page 83: "It will be like plunging back from immortality{original hadimortality} to mortality," Ato told Odin.
Page 84: "My father's work is finished{original had finisheded}," she toldthem proudly.
Page 86: Don't you see?{original had a period instead of the question mark}
Page 91: He saw boats and cars and a few long-nosed airplanes, with themerest trace of vestigial{original had vestigeal} wings far back near theempennage,
Page 95: Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar's direction--{original had asuperfluous quotation mark here}
Page 95: "If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your hell's{original hadhells'} spawn loose upon the stars to perplex them forever?"
Page 97: "Touche{original had Touche}!" Jack Odin thought as Gunnardeparted.
Page 98: This was true,{original omitted the comma} Odin thought, sincethis was the first Bro-Stoka who had ever been identified to him.
Page 98: "And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves,{original omitted thiscomma}" Gunnar continued.
Page 100: "Turn the light upon her forearm{original had fore-arm, but allother occurrences were spelled forearm}, now," he instructed.
Pages 103-104: Do you remember a story about the bush-men dying from acurse?{original had a period instead of the question mark}
Page 106: {original had a superfluous quotation mark here}Here," he pointedto a pinpoint of light upon the map.
Page 107: "Perhaps," she answered.{original had a comma} "But space outthere is curdling in his wake."
Illustration caption (Page 122): Grim Hagen's men writhed helplessly inthe grip of the Kalis'{original had Kali's} deadly copper hairs!
Page 128: The bees who steal the honey soon die, the old man{original hadmen} had said,
Page 134: Soon, I think, I will put on the belt that they brought for meand go forth with them like Laelaps{original had laelaps} to invade thenight."
The following words were inconsistently hyphenated, and have been left asin the original:
cheek-bone/cheekbone fore-arm/forearm loud-speakers/loudspeakers motor-boat/motorboat out-cropping/outcropping