Star Ship on Saddle Mountain

by Richard Ackley

  "I hope, Dondee, that some day your world will have pure sun light, too. Like mine."

  "Look—Charles!" exclaimed Dondee, and Charlie followed his gaze, as once more with the course adjustment of the great ship his own world came brilliantly into full lighted view.

  Charlie watched with Dondee, as the green ball grew very small, slowly disappearing from view. Then it was gone in the blackness of the space sea—almost invisible now. Turning his gaze out, into the far-flung bastions of eternal night, Charlie looked through the Timeless Sea, unmarred by dimming atmosphere.

  Full propulsion—take positional course. Charlie wondered—he thought they had been going full speed! Then somewhere, far off it seemed, Dondee's impulse

  came to him, telling him that was the commanding Navigator again, the astronaut in charge.

  Full propulsion, Sir. Acceleration steady.

  "We are well beyond your Earth's gravity now," Dondee informed him. "Can't you feel it—the great, free-rolling void about us!"

  "Well beyond . . ." was all Charlie could say.

  "Charles, whether we are just hovering, or traveling beyond the speed of light, beyond the Radiant Barrier, it will feel just the same."

  "Nothing," Charlie said, "travels faster than light."

  "Remember, Charles, your science teaches that. However, in free space, the open sea, there is no limitation on the speed an object may travel. For example, during the first third or possibly half of our journey, we shall steadily accelerate. About halfway to destination, we shall stabilize at standard speed for scheduled arrival. Then, in that speed well beyond that of light, we shall finally start the deceleration, before braking down to a speed suitable for entry into port."

  "But," Charlie said, "wouldn't it be really something, to hit a moon or stray meteor at that speed? Then just where'd we be!"

  "If that were possible, Charles, we would simply be vaporized. However, that cannot happen."

  "Why—what's to stop it?"

  "The magno lanes, Charles. They are not faulty man- made highways, but the safest, most natural roadways known in Time. And they were made as part of nature."

  "Why are they safest?"

  "It's a scientific fact, Charles, of my world's understanding of the cosmic laws. Those laws say no two objects can travel or adjust to any given magno lane, while traveling in the opposite direction. The lanes flow only one way, that is, any particular lane. If you recall a primitive rule governing electrical current, Charles, you will know that a current running along a conductor, from its source, spirals over to the right and under to the left, as it circles the conductor. It does this as it goes towards the direction of the conductor's extension, the direction of the current's flow, away from the source."

  "Oh yeah, I've heard of that, in a manual I read once."

  "As you may recall, Charles, the magno flux field about the wire, I believe, revolves about the wire in the same circular manner of the magno lanes throughout all the Timeless Sea. In fact, the circular manner of the Universe itself is the ultimate in design, just as the basic principle involved in the engineering of this discus ship is the highest known to Man."

  "But one of the things my world believes, Dondee, is that in high speed out in space, there would be danger of maybe hitting something before your eyes could focus and see it coming."

  "It is, in the more primitive forms of travel, since such travel is largely done contrary to any concern for adjusting to the magno lanes. I believe the primitive term for travel, Charles, is blast off, rather than to go along with the natural course provided by nature, the most perfect of all. Under those circumstances it would be possible to strike any debris

  in a matter of direction. Anything could happen, and probably would!" "That same thing, the magno lanes, must keep the worlds in their own orbits."

  "Yes, Charles, and around their own magno center, or sun, in the great system of star groups. All natural bodies in the Timeless Sea, such as stars and planets, are protected against such disasters. Their course is sure and delineable, as is our own at this moment. Even known comets have a preordained course, Charles. Halley's, for example."

  "Doggone," Charlie said, "you sure know lots, Dondee."

  "Actually very little, Charles. I've only begun to learn."

  All guidons set on magno flux.

  "That's the Navigator again," Charlie said, recognizing the command impulse. "I'd know his impulse anywhere!" "You are advanced far beyond what any of us expected, Charles. When you were discovered, I mean."

  "And you, maybe, will learn a thing or two, Dondee. Before you're through with me, you'll be talking like an old Arizona ranch hand, if you stick around me!"

  "I 'sure' will."

  "That's what I mean, Dondee. You use that 'sure' and 'sure is' about as much as I do. Uncle John used to laugh about how I said it so much."

  "Uncle John?" queried Dondee's impulse.

  "Sure. Oh—he was my father's kid brother. He was the only one of my folk I ever knew, since Mom and Dad got killed in an auto accident. But that was when I was knee high to a coyote, so I never did know them."

  "I'm sorry, Charles, sorry that you do not have any— folks. Folks-that is for family group, Charles?"

  "Yes. That's sort of Western for how people say it. Do you have any folks, Dondee?"

  "Oh yes, Charles."

  "What are they like ... if you don't mind telling me?"

  "There is Darda and Elstara, and they are my parents. Then there is my only duplicate, Biri Biri, Charles. I guess in your world you would call her my sister. She was born with me."

  "Don't you call your parents something like Mom and Dad — something like that, instead of by their first names?"

  "Sometimes, Charles. But it is customary for family groups to call each other by the one first name. They are just plain Darda and Elstara, or father and mother. Whichever Biri and I like to use."

  "Biri Biri Bin," Charlie said, rolling out the words. "It's a pretty name, Dondee. Bin, that's your family name, huh?"

  "My old duplicate is going to be happy to meet you, Charles!"

  "Old duplicate?"

  "Sure, Biri Biri Bin!" the alien boy said. "And last, Charles, I am Dondee Bin—in case you forgot!" •

  "Gosh . . . that's sure a swell family, all those folks, I mean," Charlie said wistfully.

  "Hey—" he exclaimed, as the thought struck him, "I hope that take-off didn't hurt Navajo."

  "No, Charles," Dondee answered quickly. "I gave instructions while we were eating, in a brief high speed thought

  that you did not even notice. An attendant took proper care of Navajo before we adjusted to the magno lanes. He was also fed. And," Dondee added, "he was given two of the apples."

  "Thanks, Dondee. Thanks a lot. Just so Nav is all right."

  "Oh, look—Charles! There, at the panoramic!"

  Following after Dondee, Charlie gazed out, too, through the non-reflecting clear crystalline view. It seemed as though he were looking through a clear opening, with no window at all, out into the towering vastness of the night.

  "There—see those great blue-white stars, Charles! Suns! Are they not something!"

  Open-mouthed, Charlie stared silently out upon the mighty spectacle now glittering before him on the great velvety black wall of space. It almost seemed that he could put out a hand to that magnificence, and touch the very stars themselves. As Dondee pointed further, Charlie held his breath at the still greater beauty the alien boy was pointing out.

  There, now, was a forward grouping of stars, great suns all clear-cut and brilliant before him. Some were a smoldering orange blaze and others a pale shimmering cobalt blue. Still others shone a fiery crimson, while some were a bright green or pale lemon. They seemed to Charlie as though they were on fire, burning with a deep beauty from within them. In silence he watched with Dondee the glittering cluster, the coloratura of suns splashed against the vast wall of space, like a handful of great jewels tossed out across the night by a giant
hand of Eminence.

  "It's like a star garden floating in time, Dondee."

  "Yes ... an incredible garden."

  "They're a lot like giant candy drops, too," Charlie added. "Say—Dondee, do you think there are other people, on some of those worlds, maybe?"

  The alien boy looked at him a moment. Then his surprised look changed to a friendly smile, as he saw that Charlie had meant the question seriously.

  "Yes, Charles, there are. We—your world and mine—are only two of the lesser planets—in size, planets on the outskirts of the great stream of civilizations. We would be very vain and foolish, Charles, were we to think the Universe revolves about our own small planets. There are numberless worlds besides our own, whose chemistry and general environs are about the same as the ones we live on. Therefore, even if my world did not already know some of these civilizations, we should be rather primitive were we to think our small cultures stood alone. There are many more such advanced civilizations along what your world calls the Milky Way, and what mine calls the Planetary Stream.

  "And Charles, from what little my world knows of this, their greatness, in the matter of being civilized, is far beyond us. Theirs is a civilization from which the memories of war have long been gone and forgotten, a high level of the philosophies coupled with humanitarian workings beyond anything we know."

  "In other words, Dondee, they can really say they're

  civilized!" "Yes, Charles! But they, too, are people, so we can hope

  to some day arrive at that same high degree they now hold. And if we do as they have done, Charles, we may some day stand there where they are standing. We may hold that same knowledge as our own, the most priceless thing of all. Never be afraid to learn, Charles, to look up. For only then is it possible, when you lift up your eyes, to see the shining stars that light all night."

  "I can see now why your world calls us primitives," Charlie said. "Earth is not only a small world, but our people are always fighting and arguing about things, and never getting anywhere much. I wish my world was as fine and important—" and Charlie pointed through the clear panoramic, "as those worlds out there."

  "Never say that, Charles. It is important," Dondee told him. "All peoples are important, no matter how small the world in which they live."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Heavy Water

  As the alien boy talked about greater worlds, telling him things he had never even dreamed of, Charlie's mind wandered. Despite himself, he continually found his thoughts going back to that small world he called his own. He knew now that, in the great brilliance of all the galaxies along the starway, Earth was probably the least important world of all. As Dondee had told him, other worlds considered his Earth—Little Star as they called it—an outpost of civilization.

  But to Charlie, even as the great star ship flashed toward that blue brilliant cobalt sun directly ahead of them now, it could never be so. Earth was the greatest star of all, and it would always be, for Earth was home.

  Still, it was good to talk to Dondee. It helped to make him forget that he might never go home again. It was like remembering the fishing trips up river with Uncle John, and he tried hard not to think of home, not to remember. He was a captive, no matter how friendly Dondee was. He was a prisoner on board an alien star ship heading for a far-away world. His own world was now behind.

  Having explored most of the middle tiers of the great ship with Dondee, Charlie at last found himself only a couple of decks below the top control dome.

  "The Commanding Navigator is probably still up there," Charlie said, as they hesitated at the airlift. "Maybe we can go through the lower control dome again, Dondee?"

  "No, Charles. I still want to show you the top tier and controls," came the alien boy's determined impulse. "I promised you I would, and besides, we can always go through the lower dome any time."

  "Well, I sure would like to see it—that's if you're sure it'll be all right to go in there, Dondee?"

  "We will go through it, Charles. I promised you."

  Just then they came out from the inner recesses of what amounted to the galley of the discus flagship, where a certain amount of food was being prepared, in spite of the fact that most of the meals were already packeted and ready-to-eat when originally brought aboard on Dondee's world. And it was just then, as the alien boy stepped out from behind him into the brighter light of the main promenade of the tier, that Charlie noticed something. He stopped short as he glanced back. Then putting a hand to Dondee's shoulder, he turned him further to the bright wall lighting and looked

  r

  closely at the alien boy's left eye. As Dondee waited, not quite understanding Charlie's action, Charlie began to laugh.

  "Why—what are you laughing for?" came the puzzled impulse from Dondee. "I don't understand—"

  Holding back his laughter, Charlie pulled Dondee over to one of the bright mirror-like strips of metal that were on every tier.

  "Look, Dondee—look in there at yourself!" Charlie pointed, and he was laughing again. "That's the biggest and best shiner I ever saw! Even back in school!"

  Dondee looked closely into the mirrowed panel, tenderly feeling all around the perfectly blacked eye.

  "The green in your eyes, Dondee, sure is a pretty color in that big black circle!"

  The alien boy looked dimly at Charlie's grinning image in the panel. Then he laughed too.

  "Charles—you called the coagulation a—a 'shiner.' Why, Charles? My eye doesn't shine."

  Finding it hard to hold back further laughing at Dondee's serious face with its black eye, Charlie explained.

  "It's the way folks talk in Arizona. That's what our people call a black eye. It's from when we had the fight, Dondee, that's how—"

  "Oh, I know what it's from. Only, I never knew it was called a shiner. 'Shiner,' that's a fine name for it! Only it doesn't shine, Charles."

  They both laughed again as they looked into another panel they passed.

  "It's funny," Charlie said, "it must be a full day almost, since we had that fight. And only now your eye gets black."

  "You mean, on your world the coags—I mean, the shiners come faster?"

  "They sure do. Just as soon as the fight's over, a little while after you get hit in the eye."

  Walking toward the airlift, they both glanced at another panel, and the beautiful little barrier that circled the green of Dondee's eye.

  "My eye does look a little bit like my home world, Charles. I got that impulse that just passed through your mind about the dark rings around Saturn!"

  Just as Dondee was about to push the button at the transparent cylinder to bring the airlift to their tier, he withdrew his hand. The bright clear crystal cage compartment was already coming down. Charlie nodded to the mild quick impulse from Dondee that said: the Commanding Navigator.

  The alien captain of the ship, much larger and taller than the other men Charlie had seen, also saw them now. He put out a hand, bringing the lift back up to their tier. As the panel slid open smoothly he stepped out, a flashing twinkle in his large green eyes.

  "The son of the Primate, Dondee," Charlie felt the Captain's impulse, "should not find it so easy to bump into corners on a cornerless discus star ship. The impossible, however, seems to have occurred."

  Dondee's hand went to his eye as he understood the

  captain's meaning.

  "It's a 'shiner,' Sir! That's Arizona, for a coagulation."

  "An Arizona shiner," mused the Commander, glancing again at Charlie, as he caught his guilty impulse. "I suppose you, young man, will no doubt find corners on our Barrier World, on which to secure what we term a coag."

  "Yes sir!" Charlie said. As he replied, he couldn't help noticing that the Commander's features were much like Earthmen's. His and the other alien men too, for their faces, though somewhat longer, were also oval. But the flagship's Commander, as Charlie noticed now, had a face very much like a friend of Uncle John's, back in Parker. There wasn't so much difference, a
fter all, in human features.

  With the pleasant thought of the Commander's resemblance to his own people, Charlie let the thoughts in his mind flow freely to and fro, with Dondee, as they went into the top control dome.

  "Dondee, that big glass deal there—the one like a giant round gold fish bowl. What is it?"

  "Oh," came the alien boy's impulse reply, as they stopped. "That is the D2O reserve, Charles. For the journey."

  "D2O?" Charlie repeated.

  "Yes. As your world no doubt knows, it's one and one tenth heavier than the ordinary elements."

  "It looks like," Charlie said, "well, like plain old water, Dondee."

  "That is just what it is, Charles. It's the combination deuterium and oxygen, and what I believe your world people term 'heavy water.'"