Tiger in the Stars

by Zach Hughes

  all the way to the barrier. In the early days of blink travel, the existence of the barrier had been confirmed, and after that, there was no reason to venture out beyond the galaxy into the deepness of true emptiness. Among spacers the barrier was rarely mentioned. Plank's grandfather had seen a ship crunch to ruin against the barrier, so the general area was approached very cautiously. No one was sure that even the mental abilities of Susan and Martha would be able to detect it. To ram it would be disaster. To blink into it would produce an unknown

  result, but to be effective, the barrier had to be able to halt a blinking ship, because the Eater had possessed blink technology and the barrier was, after all, first installed to imprison the Eater within the galaxy. Within a few million miles, plus or minus, of the barrier, the Pride ceased blinking and began to move carefully forward at sublight speeds. Plank was reasonably sure that electronics alone would be useless in detecting the barrier. Electronics in combination with the mental tricks of Susan and Martha might, just might, detect it, but he did not leave it to chance. On the front of the Pride a small cannon fired a non-explosive projectile containing a tracking device; fired it at a speed that sent it ahead of the Pride at regular intervals. Light and radiation and radio waves passed the barrier at will. A solid object would be stopped. In a blink, parsecs disappeared instantly. At sublight speeds a man could appreciate the vastness of space. The ship crawled. Time passed. A comfortable relationship was being established aboard ship, all members compatible. Automatic systems made round-the-clock watches unnecessary, so there was time for socializing, for bridge, for long bull sessions, for lovely nights in his cabin with his wife. Plank came to know why, up to the very end, his grandfather and grandmother loved space, why, at the drop of a suggestion, they would board one version or the other of a Pride and be off. There was a grandeur about it that made a person stand taller. There was an indescribable

  feeling of comfort and safety inside a good ship, with all that was hostile to life outside, cold, airless, empty. As weeks became months, however, Plank grew restless. The barrier was farther out than he had calculated. He was tempted to do some jumping, but he didn't dare. Sooner or later it would be encountered. After almost a year of cruising at sublight, firing projectiles into the space ahead, the barrier was found. And it was not found by mental detection, but by the rebounding of a projectile from an unseen screen. Plank halted the Pride at 10,000 kilometers and began to run a series of tests. Physical instruments showed only the emptiness of space. The light of distant galaxies came to them as if there was nothing between the ship and the far pinpoints of light. Neither Martha nor Susan could detect the force of the barrier. It was going to be tougher than he thought. But he had come a long way. Once again he moved the ship and, easing her forward on steering jets at less than two kilometers an hour, felt the solid impact. The Pride bumped to a halt. The barrier was just outside, centimeters away from the forward viewers. Plank suited up and went outside to feel the barrier for himself. Using the advanced propulsion unit of an lsg, he skimmed along the barrier for a kilometer or so and then returned to the ship. Martha and Susan had been using the mind amplifier. They could detect nothing. For years Plank had been theorizing about the barrier. To sustain the barrier would require energy. In intergalactic space the only source of energy would be the radiation from the galaxies. There were scattered particles of matter of course, since nothing is truly empty, but they were so few that he doubted the possibility of using them in any way to create enough power to build a field around something as vast as a galaxy. When the initial investigations produced nothing, Plank set out on a task that would take, even at blink speeds, two years. First, it was necessary to determine the contour of the barrier. This was a laborious process, accomplished by short blinks. After several months he had what he thought was a pattern. Holding his breath, he made a long blink; the ship stayed outside the first scattering of stars and came out within projectile distance of the barrier. The remaining months of the two-year mapping period were easier. The barrier could be figured to be at a uniform distance from the nearest star of the galaxy, and it bulged out to take in the satellite clouds of stars. After two years Plank had built a model of the galaxy and the clouds; and around that model a film to indicate the barrier. It was all encompassing. The work of two years—it did not require the attentions of all of the crew to complete the mapping—produced no clue as to the nature of the barrier. Having returned to a point near their initial encounter with the barrier, they settled down to some hard work. Plank was convinced that the barrier was formed from something physical. He could not swallow the concept of pure mental force. The others disputed him. He pointed out that although mental force is in existence, as witness both Ellen and Martha's abilities to move physical objects with the power of the mind, that mental force is undetectable. To be evinced, it must act on something physical. While the mentalists concentrated on using the mental amplifier at different frequencies—this was not an accurate term, but rather than take time to invent a new word they used it—Plank reviewed his work in elemental particles. He could not escape the idea that the barrier was something physical. He remembered the Eater's ability to flow particles at the atomic level and below. He was in an area where man had not, as yet, equaled the ability of the Eater, but there were solid advances. In the end, the solution was surprisingly simple. It was merely a matter of knowing how to look and where to look, and in the looking Plank recorded entire new families of subatomic particles. It was possible, then, to tune the mental amplifier. «Yes,» Martha Peters said. «I can see it now.» Susan Lite, the receiver, felt the power that held the field together. She tried to put it into words. «The particles are mesmerized,» she said. «They make contact with other particles coming into contact with them and, in effect, pass on the mesmerization. The effect is an order—thou shalt not pass.» And, two days later, after sleepless, frantic hours of study, Susan said. «All right.» She sank back limply in her seat. «You can now counter the force?» Plank asked. «I think so,» Susan said. «Selectively?» «Yes.» «A small test, then,» Plank said. «Do I hear any objections?» «Will it alert them?» Ellen asked. «I don't know.» «I don't think passing an object a few millimeters in diameter will cause much of a disturbance,» Susan said. «They would have to be watching very closely.» «I feel that we can count on the very element that helped my grandfather, arrogance. The Eater was so sure of himself that he left grandfather and the others to their own devices. From what John Plank said and wrote, I'm sure that the parent race feels the same sort of smug arrogance toward us. They told him that it was quite unlikely that we'd

  ever be able to break the barrier, that it was unlikely that we could develop a way around the old Einsteinian laws.» He let his gaze take in each one of them. «It is a serious step. I will abide by majority rule.» «Do you vote yes?» Ellen asked. «Of course,» Plank said, smiling. «That's why we're here.» «Then it's two aye votes,» Ellen said. «Three,» Joker Osbourne said. «Carried,» said Martha and Tom Peters together. The object that passed through the barrier was the size of the tip of Ellen's little finger. It went through and continued to move, unhindered, toward the far corners of the expanding universe. It was a time of celebration. The old brandy supplied by Matt Plank was broken out. When the short period of congratulating themselves was over, work began. All the data was compiled and organized into a form that could be easily followed by Matt's technicians. When all was ready, Plank beamed a message toward the nearest blinkstat relay and sent the Pride after it. They made rendezvous with a ship from Plank's World. Matt himself was aboard. The data was handed over. «You're going back now?» Matt asked. «Yes.» «Give us some time, John. A year.» «That's not too much to ask.» «We'll be able to accomplish a lot in a year. With what you've given us we can duplicate their techniques. Of course, I'd have two or three if you gave me a choice.» John shook his head. «All right. A year, then. I'm not going to spread the word, not yet. But when you're ready to go through, contact me. W
e owe it to others to at least warn them. Meantime, I'm going to be working. We'll have a few things ready just in case.» «Good.» He spent the year refining his findings. His results were sent back into the receivers of Matt's organization. Word from Plank's World spoke of glowing successes in atomic flow technique. Force-field-equipped ships were cruising the periphery, some of them in contact with the Pride. On the eve of decision, Plank gathered his crew in the lounge over the finest vintage produced on a million worlds. «You all have a choice, you know.» «I'm going with you,» Ellen said. «Life would be too dull back at the university,» Joker Osbourne said. «I'm going, but I'm not sure why,» Susan Lite said. «I won't tell you I'm not scared out of my wits.» «I'm not sure it's time,» Tom Peters said. «We have a galaxy,» Martha said. «Isn't that enough?» Many others before them had said the same. «We have no territorial ambitions,» John Sahara Plank in said. «We seek only knowledge.» He looked at Tom and Martha. «We can call in one of Matt's cruisers and off-load you.» «No,» Martha said, looking at her husband. «We would only wonder.» The Sahara Plank nosed up to the barrier. From her, certain forces were transmitted. She moved through slowly, on steering jet power, inching her way. Inside the ship, the passage created a prickling sensation on the napes of the crew's necks and, almost unheard, there was a low, grating roar. There was no time to think again. No way to reverse their decision. Free in space, the Pride was checked. She was intact. Tapes were studied. The passage was analyzed in every way. Behind them, the barrier was intact. Everything had gone as planned. The only abnormality was the low roar that each of them had heard. They replayed it on the ship's sound system, measured its frequency, subjected it to all the tests of science. «It shouldn't have happened,» Plank said. «A resonance of some sort,» Tom Peters suggested. «All right, tell me why,» Plank said, as Tom went back to work. Hours later, they still had no answer. «We can be on the fringe of the nearest galaxy in one blink,» Plank said. «Perhaps we will still have the element of surprise in our favor.» «Perhaps,» Susan said. «We can turn back.» «And never know?» Susan asked. «We'll sleep on it,» Plank said. Alone in their cabin, he replayed the sound of the barrier. It was Ellen who said it, although he, himself, had been thinking it. «Remember when we visited the zoological park?» she asked. «Yes,» he said absently, deep in thought. «Run the tape again and close your eyes. Place yourself back there in the park. Remember the sounds.» He punched the button. The low roar began. He closed his eyes. «Tiger, tiger burning bright,» Ellen said. The sound became the low, snarling, threatening call of a great jungle cat. «I think,» Plank said, «we've attracted their attention.» «Then there's no turning back,» Martha Peters said, with a sigh. «Afraid not,» Plank said. «Full alert, everybody. We want to do our best to go in on our own power.» «It would save time and searching if we just let them bring us in,» Joker said. «When my grandfather and grandmother were out here, they were jerked in without any choice,» Plank said. «I think it would be psychologically beneficial if we could resist just enough to do it on our own.» «Here we go,» Susan Lite said. She was in contact with the mental amplifier. Her voice was tense. Quickly Martha and Ellen linked hands with Susan. Plank, a bit tense himself, watched the ship's instruments. They were undisturbed, but something was in the air, an intangible force. The hair on the back of his neck seemed to stand on end. He felt a charged tension. There was total silence as the struggle continued. Susan, the main force in the mental resistance, began to show the strain. Plank went to her, put his hand atop Ellen's as it clasped Susan's hand, closed his eyes and, although he had not been able to develop any of the para abilities, willed his mind to help in any way it could. The ship's lights dimmed, became black. In the total darkness of space the struggle continued. Plank could hear someone breathing in quick, hard pants. Sweat began to bead his forehead, and then the lights flickered and were full, and the hum of

  life was back in the Pride. Susan, breath fast and shallow, was failing from the seat; he caught her and leaned her back and used his handkerchief to wipe the moisture from her face. She was crying. «Pure force,» Susan panted. «They'll try again,» Plank said. «I can't—» Susan began. Suddenly she stiffened and the air of the cabin was charged with fire. It rolled around and past them and the sound in Plank's ears was Susan screaming. But the fire stopped, and once again there was that frozen, frightening moment of absolute silence, save for Susan's labored breathing. When it was over, the stars were the same. The Pride was still stationary in space just inside the barrier. Tom Peters ran from the cabin and reappeared with a glass in his hand. Susan accepted the brandy gratefully, but weakly.

  «And all of you can do it,» she said. «It's all here.» She indicated an area

  behind her right ear. «You feel it and just will a wall against it. Look at me, Martha.» Martha looked into Susan's eyes, and a glazed look came over her. In a moment she sighed. «Yes,» she said. And then, more excitedly, «Yes!» «Now you, Ellen,» Susan said, but she had no time. The ship lurched. Quickly Susan went back into the trancelike state of resistance to the powerful mental forces that were trying to jerk the Pride out of its place in space. And this time Martha helped and it was over quickly. «I learned,» Susan said, excitement in her eyes. «They couldn't have

  guessed, but the force, the feel of it, was as if I were being opened up. And each time I seemed to be stronger.» «It's as if some new area of the brain has been suddenly activated,» Martha Peters said. «It's so simple,» Susan said. «Anyone can do it. It's just a matter of knowing…» She paused. «This is not a good analogy, but it's like knowing which key to turn. I can show all of you.» «They were trying to move the ship,» Plank asked, «no doubt?» «No doubt,» Susan said. «Now, quickly, before they come again.» Ellen felt the force as Susan looked into her eyes and entered her mind.

  Joker, already gifted with some para abilities, felt it. Tom Peters tried and

  failed. Plank felt nothing. As Susan looked deeply into his eyes and tried to reach him, Martha and Ellen were playing games. «I'm sorry,» Plank said, after a moment. «I just can't seem to concentrate with those two flying about the cabin.» For Ellen and Martha were moving about, as if in free-fall, floating and darting against the artificial gravity of the ship's system. «Look, I'm superwoman,» Ellen laughed, soaring to the cabin's ceiling and, at the same time, lifting with her mental force a seat that was normally bolted to the deck, twirling it dizzily in midair. The voice was in their minds. «Very well, you may come.» Plank mused. Ellen and Martha floated to the deck and the chair took its place, firmly bolted. «We accept your invitation,» Plank said aloud. He waited. «We accept your invitation,» Susan said, when nothing happened. They all heard the laugh. It was delightfully feminine. «Good,» the voice said. Blink coordinates were given. Plank wrote them down and punched them into the computer. The ship gathered power and leaped. The planet was on the fringe of a galaxy, the stars thin around its parent sun. It was a blue planet, a water planet. Close-up viewers showed a tailored beauty. Plank looked knowingly at Ellen. «The same,» she said. «The planet John and Sahara Plank visited.» «Yes,» Plank said. «Will you accept our transport to the surface?» the voice asked. «Gladly,» Plank said. They stood below a vertical cliff. Above them the house perched high and stately, all crystals and glowing angles. «Brace yourselves,» Susan said. «We're going to try something.» And

  they lifted. All six of them, rising effortlessly on the mental force of the combined minds of the women. The balcony was the same. The room was as John Plank and Sahara had described it. The woman was the same, entering the room in her graceful flow of motion, all beauty. She gestured to the sunken conversation area. The six Earth people seated themselves. «You continue to surprise us,» the woman said. «We come in goodwill,» Plank said. «With a certain amount of belligerent pride,» the woman said, smiling. «Admitted,» Plank said. «And an unlimited quantity of curiosity,» the woman said. «That, too, I admit,» Plank said. «One galaxy was just too small for you.» «Wouldn't it be for you?»
A slight frown crossed the woman's face. It faded rapidly. «This is the quality in you that we feared.» Plank looked at her, eyebrows raised. «It is a strong word,» she said, laughing. «But don't be deceived. We

  feared it not for us, but for you. At least most of us felt that way. In all honesty there were those who, when you appeared once more, wanted to

  destroy you. There were a minority of votes to reduce all of your worlds, to return you to primitivism. Those who voted thus said you broke the barrier too quickly. That, of course, is true, but the majority saw the amusing side: for how could one small race from one small galaxy threaten

  the serenity of a coalition of thousands of races from billions of planets in a sweep of the universe beyond your wildest imagination?» «I have said we come in peace,» Plank said. «We ask only—» She waved him into silence. «You have earned the right to enter our community. You have passed the tests.» There was something in her voice that caused a flash of anger in Plank. «Tests?» he asked. «The barrier?» «The barrier.» «The Eater?» For the first time Plank saw what could have been uncertainty in the beautiful face. «That was unfortunate.» «Unfortunate?» She opened her mouth to speak. Plank went on, overcoming her objection. «The Eater destroyed thousands. Wasn't that a rather severe