‘I think that’s why they are technologically retarded, despite their age. They don’t really have the feel of machines, they’ve’ never gotten used to them. When they needed a starship for their religion, they built the most awkward one imaginable that would work.’ Reynolds paused, feeling lightheaded. ‘They live inside that machine, but they don’t like it. They stink it up and make it feel like a corral. They mistrusted that tape recorder of mine. They must want to know the stars very badly, to depart so much from their nature just to reach them.’
Kelly’s lip stiffened and her eyes narrowed. Her face, Reynolds thought, was returning to its usual expression. ‘This is all very well, Dr. Reynolds,’ she said, and it was the old Kelly, the one he knew; the Kelly who always came out on top. ‘But it is speculation. We need facts. Their starship is crude, but it works. They must have data and photographs of stars. They know things we don’t. There are innumerable details we could only find by making the trip ourselves, and even using their ship, that will take centuries Houston tells me that bomb-thrower of theirs can’t go above one percent of light velocity. I want-’
‘I’ll try,’ he said. ‘but I’m afraid it won’t be easy. Whenever I try to approach a subject it does not want to discuss, the alien begins telling me the most fantastic lies.’
‘Oh?’ Kelly said suspiciously, and he was sorry he had mentioned that, because it had taken him another quarter-hour of explaining before she had allowed him to escape the confines of her office.
Now he was back home again-in his room. Rolling over, he lay flat on his back in the bed, eyes wide open and staring straight ahead at the emptiness of the darkness. He would have liked to go out and visit the observatory, but Kelly had said he was’ excused from all duties until the alien situation was resolved. He gathered she meant that as an order. She must have. One thing about Kelly: she seldom said a word unless it was meant as an order.
They came and woke him up. He had not intended to sleep. His room was still pitch-black, and far away there was a fist pounding furiously upon a door. Getting up, taking his time, he went and let the man inside. Then he turned on the light.
‘Hung and see the director,’ the man said breathlessly.
‘What does she want now?’ Reynolds asked.
‘How should I know?’
Reynolds shrugged and turned to go. He knew what she wanted anyway. It had to be the aliens; Jonathon was ready to see him again. Well, that was fine, he thought, entering Kelly’s office. From the turn of her expression, he saw that he had guessed correctly. And I know exactly what I’m going to tell them, he thought.
Somewhere in his sleep, Reynolds had made an important decision. He had decided he was going to tell Jonathon the truth.
Approaching the alien starship, Reynolds discovered he was no longer so strongly reminded of his old home in Sao Paulo. Now that he had actually been inside the ship and had met the creatures who resided there, his feelings had changed. This time he was struck by how remarkably this strange twisted chunk of metal resembled what a real starship ought to look like.
The tug banged against the side of the ship. Without having to be told, Reynolds removed his suit and went to the air lock. Kelly jumped out of her seat and dashed after him. She grabbed the camera off the deck and forced it into his hands. She wanted him to photograph the aliens. He had to admit her logic was quite impeccable. If the aliens were as unfearsome as Reynolds claimed, then a clear and honest photograph could only reassure the population of Earth; hysteria was still a worry to many politicians back home. Many people still claimed that a spaceship full of green monsters was up here orbiting the moon only a few hours’ flight from New York and Moscow. One click of the camera and this fear would be ended.
Reynolds had told her Jonathon would never permit a photograph to be taken, but Kelly had remained adamant.
‘Who cares?’ he’d asked her.
‘Everyone cares,’ she’d insisted.
‘Oh, really? I listened to the news yesterday and the aliens weren’t even mentioned. Is that hysteria?’
‘That’s because of Africa. Wait till the war’s over, then listen.’
He hadn’t argued with her then and he didn’t intend to argue with her now. He accepted the camera without a word, her voice burning his ears with last-minute instructions, and plunged ahead.
The smell assaulted him immediately. As he entered the spaceship, the odor seemed to rise up from nowhere and surround him. He made himself push forward. Last time, the odor had been a problem only for a short time. He was sure he could overcome it again this time.
It was cold in the ship. He wore only light pants and a light shirt without underwear, because last time it had been rather warm. Had Jonathon, noticing his discomfort, lowered the ship’s temperature accordingly?
He turned the first corner and glanced briefly at the distant ceiling. He called out, ‘Hello!’ but there was only a slight echo. He spoke again and the echo was the same, flat and hard.
Another turn. He was moving much faster than before. The tight passages no longer caused him to pause and think. He simply plunged ahead, trusting his own knowledge. At Kelly’s urging he was wearing a radio attached to his belt. He noticed that it was beeping furiously at him. Apparently Kelly had neglected some important last-minute direction. He didn’t mind. He already had enough orders to ignore; one less would make little difference.
Here was the place. Pausing in the doorway, he removed the radio, turning it off. Then he placed the camera on the floor beside it and stepped into the room.
Despite the chill in the air, the room was not otherwise different from before. There were two aliens standing against the farthest wall. Reynolds went straight toward them, holding his hands over his head in greeting. One was taller than the other. Reynolds spoke to it. ‘Are you Jonathon?’
‘Yes,’ Jonathon said, in its child’s piping voice. ‘And this is Richard.’
‘May I pay obeisance?’ Richard asked eagerly.
Reynolds nodded. ‘If you wish.’
Jonathon waited until Richard had regained its feet, then said; ‘We wish to discuss your star now.’
‘All right,’ Reynolds said. ‘But there’s something I have to tell you first.’ Saying this, for the first time since he had made his decision, he wasn’t sure. Was the truth really the best solution in this situation? Kelly wanted him to lie: tell them whatever they wanted to hear, making certain he didn’t tell them quite everything. Kelly was afraid the aliens might go sailing off to the sun once they had learned what they had come here to learn. She wanted a chance to get engineers and scientists inside their ship before the aliens left. And wasn’t this a real possibility? What if Kelly was right and the aliens went away? Then what would he say?
‘You want to tell us that your sun is not a conscious being,’ Jonathon said. ‘Am I correct?’
The problem was instantly solved. Reynolds felt no more compulsion to lie. He said, ‘Yes.’
‘I am afraid that you are wrong,’ said Jonathon.
‘We live here, don’t we? Wouldn’t we know? You asked for me because I know our sun, and I do. But there are other men on our homeworld who know far more than I do. But no one has ever discovered the least shred of evidence to support your theory.’
‘A theory is a guess,’ Jonathon said. ‘We do not guess; we know.’
‘Then,’ Reynolds said, ‘explain it to me. Because I don’t know.’ He watched the alien’s eyes carefully, waiting for the first indication of a blinking fit.
But Jonathon’s gaze remained steady and certain. ‘Would you like to hear of our journey?’ it asked.
‘Yes.’
‘We left our homeworld a great many of your years ago. I cannot tell you exactly when, for reasons I’m certain you can understand, but I will reveal that it was more than a century ago. In that time we have visited nine stars. The ones we would visit were chosen for us beforehand. Our priests-our leaders determined the stars that were within our reach and
also able to help in our quest. You see, we have journeyed here in order to ask certain questions.’
‘Questions of the stars?’
‘Yes, of course. The questions we have are questions only a star may answer.’
‘And what are they?’ Reynolds asked.
‘We have discovered the existence of other universes parallel with our own. Certain creatures-devils and demons-have come from these universes in order to attack and capture our stars. We feel we must-’
‘Oh, yes,’ Reynolds said. ‘I understand. We’ve run across several of these creatures recently.’ And he blinked, matching the twitching of Jonathon’s eye. ‘They are awfully fearsome, aren’t they?’ When Jonathon stopped, he stopped too. He said, ‘You don’t have to tell me everything. But can you tell me this: these other stars you have visited, have they been able to answer any of your questions?’
‘Oh, yes. We have learned much from them. These stars were very great-very different from our own.’
‘But they weren’t able to answer all your questions?’
‘If they had, we would not be here now.’
‘And you believe our star may be able to help you?’
‘All may help, but the one we seek is the one that can save us.’
‘When do you plan to go to the sun?’
‘At once, ‘ Jonathon said. ‘As soon as you leave. I am afraid there is little else you can tell us.’
‘I’d like to ask you to stay,’ Reynolds said. And forced himself to go ahead. He knew he could not convince Jonathon without revealing everything, yet, by doing so, he might also be putting an end to all his hopes. Still, he told the alien about Kelly and, more generally, he told it what the attitude of man was toward their visit. He told it what man wished to know from them, and why.
Jonathon seemed amazed. It moved about the floor as Reynolds spoke, its feet clanking dully. Then it stopped and stood, its feet only a few inches apart, a position that impressed Reynolds as one of incredulous amazement. ‘Your people wish to travel farther into space? You want to visit the stars? But why, Reynolds? Your people do not believe. Why?’
Reynolds smiled. Each time Jonathon said something to him, he felt he knew these people-and how they thought and reacted-a little better than he had before. There was another question he would very much have liked to ask Jonathon. How long have your people possessed the means of visiting the stars? A very long time, he imagined. Perhaps a longer time than the whole lifespan of the human race. And why hadn’t they gone before now? Reynolds thought he knew: because, until now, they had had no reason for going.
Now Reynolds tried to answer Jonathon’s question. If anyone could, it should be him. ‘We wish to go to the stars because we are a dissatisfied people. Because we do not live a very long time as individuals, we feel we must place an important part of our lives into the human race as a whole. In a sense, we surrender a portion of our individual person in return for a sense of greater immortality. What is an accomplishment for man as a race is also an accomplishment for each individual man. And what are these accomplishments? Basically this: anything a man does that no other man has done before-whether it is good or evil or neither one or both-is considered by us to be a great accomplishment.’
And-to add emphasis to the point-he blinked once.
Then, holding his eyes steady, he said, ‘I want you to teach me to talk to the stars. I want you to stay here around the moon long enough to do that.’
Instantly Jonathon said, ‘No.’
There was an added force to the way it said it, an emphasis its voice had not previously possessed. Then Reynolds realized what that was: at the same moment Jonathon had spoken, Richard too had said, ‘No.’
‘Then you may be doomed to fail,’ Reynolds said. ‘Didn’t I tell you? I know our star better than any man available to you. Teach me to talk to the stars and I may be able to help you with this one. Or would you prefer to continue wandering the galaxy forever, failing to find what you seek wherever you go?’
‘You are a sensible man, Reynolds. You may be correct. We will ask our home star and see.’
‘Do that. And if it says yes and I promise to do what you wish, then I must ask you to promise me something in return. I want you to allow a team of our scientists and technicians to enter and inspect your ship. You will answer their questions to the best of your ability. And that means truthfully.’
‘We always tell the truth,’ Jonathon said, blinking savagely.
The moon had made one full circuit of the Earth since Reynolds’ initial meeting with the aliens, and he was quite satisfied with the progress he had made up to now, especially during the past ten days after Kelly had stopped accompanying him in his daily shuttles to and from the orbiting starship. As a matter of fact, in all that time, he had not had a single face-to-face meeting with her and they had talked on the phone only once. And she wasn’t here now either, which was strange, since it was noon and she always ate here with the others.
Reynolds had a table to himself in the cafeteria. The food was poor, but it always was, and he was used to that by now. What did bother him, now that he was thinking about it, was Kelly’s absence. Most days he skipped lunch himself. He tried to remember the last time he had come here. It was more than a week ago, he remembered-more than ten days ago. He didn’t like the sound of that answer.
Leaning over, he attracted the attention of a girl at an adjoining table. He knew her vaguely. Her father had been an important wheel in NASA when Reynolds was still a star astronaut. He couldn’t remember the man’s name. His daughter had a tiny cute face and a billowing body about two sizes too big for the head. Also, she had a brain that was much too limited for much of anything. She worked in the administrative section, which meant she slept with most of the men on the base at one time or another.
‘Have you seen Kelly?’ he asked her.
‘Must be in her office.’
‘No, I mean when was the last time you saw her here?’
‘In here? Oh-’ The girl thought for a moment. ‘Doesn’t she eat with the other chiefs?’
Kelly never ate with the other chiefs. She always ate in the cafeteria-for morale purposes-and the fact that the girl did not remember having seen her meant that it had been several days at least since Kelly had last put in an appearance. Leaving his lunch where it lay, Reynolds got up, nodded politely at the, girl, who stared at him as if he were a freak; and hurried away.
It wasn’t a long walk, but he ran. He had no intention of going to see Kelly, He knew that would prove useless. Instead, he was going to see John Sims. At fifty-two, Sims was the second oldest man in the base. Like Reynolds, he was a former astronaut. In 1987, when Reynolds, then a famous man, was living in Sao Paulo, Sims had commanded the first (and only) truly successful Mars expedition. During those few months, the world had heard his name, but people forgot quickly, and Sims was one of the things they forgot. He had never done more than what he was: expected to do; the threat of death had never come near Sims’s expedition. Reynolds, on the other hand, had failed. On Mars with him, three men had died. Yet it was he-Reynolds, the failure-who had been the hero, not Sims.
And maybe I’m a hero again, he thought as he knocked evenly on the door to Sims’s office. Maybe down there the world is once more reading about, me daily. He hadn’t listened to a news broadcast since the night before his first trip to the ship. Had the story been released to the public yet? He couldn’t see any reason why it should be suppressed, but that seldom was important. He would ask Sims. Sims would know.
The door opened and Reynolds went inside. Sims was a huge man who wore his black hair in a crewcut. The style had been out of fashion for thirty or forty years; Reynolds doubted there was another crewcut man in the universe. But he could not imagine Sims any other way.
‘What’s wrong?’ Sims asked, guessing accurately the first time. He led Reynolds to a chair and sat him down. The office was big but empty. A local phone sat upon the desk along with a couple of d
aily status reports. Sims was assistant administrative chief, whatever that meant. Reynolds had never understood the functions of the position, if any. But there was one thing that was clear: Sims knew more about the inner workings of the moon base than any other man. And that included the director as well.
‘I want to know about Vonda,’ Reynolds said. With Sims, everything stood on a first-name basis. Vonda was Vonda Kelly. The name tasted strangely upon Reynolds’ lips. ‘Why isn’t she eating at the cafeteria?’
Sims answered unhesitantly. ‘Because she’s afraid to leave her desk.’
‘It has something to do with the aliens?’
Universe 4 - [Anthology] Page 18
