Star Ship on Saddle Mountain

by Richard Ackley

  "Oh—that," Charlie said. "I didn't know this flagship used fission power, Dondee. You said it ran on the Magno Lanes."

  "It does. The D2O is only the emergency reserve, and for getting up the centrifugal force needed to nullify the gravitational force field, both for arrival or blast off from a solid surface. Such as for your world, Charles, or even my own."

  Charlie placed his hands lightly on either side of the large crystalline ball, his nose pressed against its side, as he looked into the magnified distortions of the light beams slanting down through the fluid. For a moment, as he looked, his thoughts raced back a million miles and more to a small secret spot on a distant world. And in that moment, remembering the time he had stared down, into the cool clear sunlit depths of the icy Colorado, from a boulder at the curve in the shore, Charlie asked himself the hazy, unformed t h o u g h t . . . What am I doing here, this far from home?

  But even on that mental journey, Charlie was not wholly alone, nor unaware of the nearness of his alien friend, whose smiling face even now looked at him through the globe from the other side—the great green eyes with their golden circled pupil coloring all the water. Charlie raised his face. For, even on this small personal journey into the past he had known, he had not been alone. And as he resented the thought, he realized that Dondee had felt his impulse, and the smile left his face as he realized he had not been wanted on that special momentary journey. But Charlie changed the subject, for he didn't want to hurt Dondee's feelings, his only alien friend.

  "If only that Star Project is completed soon," replied the alien boy, not hearing Charlie's words, "then the Barrier World will have the secret too—" Dondee suddenly stopped,

  and Charlie could see that he was very uncomfortable about

  something.

  "Just what is that Star Project, Dondee?"

  From the paleness of the alien boy's face, he knew he was afraid to tell him, and that Dondee's mention of it had been a slip.

  "It's a secret of your world—about your army and navy maybe? And that's why the mission was sent to my world?"

  "We—we don't have any army or navy, Charles—but, anyway I can't tell you. I can't tell you anything."

  "The Star Project," Charlie repeated aloud, still looking at the worried expression on Dondee's face. "Tell you what, Dondee. I'm going to find out about your old Star Project and—"

  Charlie slapped the D2O globe determinedly as he spoke. But as he did, there was a trampling of feet, a scramble just outside the control room door. As he and Dondee glanced quickly toward the entrance, the Commanding Navigator and several other alien men rushed into the dome.

  The angry thought impulses, almost too swift for Charlie, passed back and forth among the men, but they were all about Dondee and himself. The alien boy tried to explain, but all Charlie could get was that they were angry at his mention of the Star Project. As Charlie watched them, his hand still resting on the heavy water globe, the Commander noticed it and, with an angry sweep of his hand, knocked Charlie's hand off the D2O container.

  "Cell them separately—" ordered the Commander, "as far from each other as there is space on this ship."

  "Sir—" Dondee began, "Sir, you have no right to cell me like an animal, like a—"

  "Silence!" came the abrupt impulse. "Aboard this ship, I am the Primate, young man. You'll have your first lesson in space discipline, regardless of your father's position. You've not only carelessly tampered—you and this Primitive—with the D2O reserve, but have let your thoughts dwell on the Star Project. You're being celled for this security breach."

  "Yes sir."

  "That is all."

  Charlie glanced in Dondee's direction as they were separately escorted from the dome. From the disturbed thoughts and the expression on the alien boy's face, as well as the anger of the men, Charlie was more sure than ever now that he had happened onto an important secret of their world. Whatever the aliens had made that mission to Earth for, it was serious, terribly serious, and important enough to make them hold it top secret.

  CHA P TE R NINE

  The Great Barrier

  Taken far down below, tier after tier, Charlie found himself ten decks below the top control dome. Dondee was far above, somewhere else. But there was one great consolation now for Charlie, because he was again with Navajo.

  As he thought of it, patting the old horse gently, Navajo gave another low whinny, to show his pleasure at their reunion.

  "It sure is, Nav! It sure is swell to get locked up with you, instead of by myself. At least, I know everything there is to know about you, and I can trust you, Nav. You don't have any old secrets about Star Projects that you can't let me in on."

  Navajo shook his mane vigorously, nuzzling Charlie's left ear playfully.

  "Nav—that tickles!" and as Charlie pulled away, his face suddenly sobered.

  Navajo heard the impulses too, and he stretched out his neck, his nostrils flaring a little as he sniffed the air, as when he sensed some danger out on a mountain trip back home.

  "Charles—Charles, can you recognize me, Charles?" Still a little bit sore at Dondee for not telling him the secret, Charlie wasn't going to answer.

  "But I couldn't tell you, Charles," pleaded the sincere impulse. "I couldn't, Charles, or—or I'd have told you . . . Charles?"

  Charlie reconsidered. After all, Dondee got bawled out too. Even though he did have strict orders not to mention the Star Project, he had mentioned it anyway, so he wasn't exactly trying to hide it from me, Charlie thought to himself. It's just that he had to do that.

  "Charles?"

  "Yeah, Dondee, I can hear you all right. I mean, your thought waves." "Fine! Are you with your animal?" "I sure am! Nav's right here beside me now." "I am glad of that, Charles. At least you're better off than I

  am." "Why, Dondee?" "I'm up here, alone. On the central tier. They put me in a

  food locker."

  Charlie laughed a little.

  "At least, you can eat all the grub you want!"

  "That's what the Commander said, Charles. He said if I look around me in here, that I can find plenty to stuff in my big

  mouth, till I learn to keep it shut."

  Charlie laughed again.

  "Oh, I heard that," Dondee said. "Your impulse showed it."

  Then Dondee, too, began to laugh and Charlie was able to note the change in the impulse.

  "Charles! I have a good excuse for getting out for a little while. I can say I want to get down to the chemical on your tier."

  "Chemical?" Charlie repeated.

  "Oh," came Dondee's quick response, "I forgot. It's what your world calls 'the bathroom.' I'll just say I want to go to the chemical, and since the food locker here doesn't have one, they'll have to let me out!"

  "That's swell!" Charlie agreed.

  Dondee had barely finished the impulse when Charlie caught the impulses Dondee was directing elsewhere. He was raising a rumpus now, and other impulses were replying to his, and telling him they'd let him out to go. Then it was only a matter of minutes later that Dondee came running out of the airlift, smiling proudly as he ran toward Charlie and Navajo.

  "I just asked their permission to go to the chemical to get out! And besides, the Commander said I could stay with you since we're entering port soon, if I promised not to touch any of the instruments or get in anybody's way. I promised, Charles, for both of us."

  Charlie heaved a sigh of relief, glad that they were both free again and were soon going to land.

  "Hey—you never met Navajo? Go on, Dondee. Touch him, he won't mind. There—like that, just pat him on his neck—see!"

  Dondee laughed a little, patting Navajo again, while Navajo turned his head around, calmly looking as Dondee petted him.

  "Charles—he's thinking about me," Dondee said, "and his impulses just said that he knows I'm friendly and like him! I don't have a horse, Charles. But I think you will like my animal, when you see him. He's a crustaco."

  "A what?"


  "A crustaco. Oh, I know what your world calls them, crabs I think, Charles. That is what I remember from the animal records of your world, when we studied them in class."

  "A crab—a crustaco, for a pet?"

  "Oh sure," Dondee said with a quick grin. "And I even ride him—my Crustie, that's the name I gave him. He's a really fine crustaco, too."

  "Boy, they must be pretty big crabs, if you can ride them on your world."

  "He's about that high—" and Dondee held out his hand beneath Navajo's neck, indicating a few inches above knee-high. "But that's when he's crouched down. When he's crawling around, then he stands higher. About this high—" and Dondee showed Charlie again. "He's all smooth white shell, too."

  "I never heard of any crab that big, till right now. Is Crustie a land crab, or can he swim in water too?"

  "No, just land. They can go in water, but all crustacans that live in the water are the smaller green ones. They're too small to ride, though, Charles. But wait till you see Crustie— you'll see how nice he is to ride! He's a little bit like Navajo too. He's got ribs up on the high part of his smooth back, and he likes it very much when you run your fingers down it and make a noise like—like, well, sort of a tap tap tap sound."

  "Oh," Charlie nodded, "I know—like running a stick along a picket fence, huh?"

  "Sure, that's what I meant!" Dondee agreed, seeing Charlie's clear mental picture in his mind. "Just like a picket fence."

  "Gosh, I'd sure like to see a big crab like Crustie. Oh—!" and with Charlie's exclamation, he ran over to the panoramic.

  "It's the Barrier, Charles," explained Dondee following over, "and the moons of my world. The visible ones. See— there they are, Charles! That's my home, Charles!"

  Directly before Charlie was a brilliant blue scene, an irredescent sun like a great ball of blazing blue glass—bluer than any blue sky Charlie had ever seen, even in Arizona.

  "That's our Sun, Charles, the Sun of our galaxy. It looks different now, because of the great outer belt of blue ammonia haze about my world. But even as it is veiled from us, still it has beauty . .. the clear crystal blue reasoning of the philosophies."

  "It sure has, Dondee," he agreed, though he didn't quite see the parallel Dondee had drawn.

  Then he turned his eyes again to the tremendous giant, a little over to the right. It was the world of Saturn, surrounded by its magnificent bands that seemed to spin their great circles far out to the edge of Time itself. The great tableau was the Barrier World, the world that Dondee lived in. And staring in awe, Charlie watched the great shadowed bands as they seemed to tilt more diagonally. As Dondee jumped for joy, Charlie was silent, unable to find words to express his wonder at the mighty scene.

  "Charles—we're home! My home and yours, too, Charles! Soon you'll see everything, and—and see my duplicate, Biri Biri Bin. And my 'folks,' as you say!"

  "That's swell, Dondee. I'm glad you're happy. Even if it's not my own real home . . ."

  Sensing Charlie's homesickness, Dondee turned closer to him, putting his arm about his shoulders.

  "I'm truly sorry, Charles. I forgot you couldn't feel the same about my world. Maybe, after a little while, you might like it a little bit, Charles. I hope so."

  "Maybe."

  "Look, Charles!" Dondee pointed. "The moon Miralda . . . it's almost like a sun, it's so bright!"

  "It sort of looks like a real planet, Dondee. Not a moon."

  "It's our biggest one, and it has life of its own. As well as some colonists from our world of the Barrier."

  "You have nine moons around Saturn, haven't you, Don-dee?"

  "Nine?"

  "Oh," Charlie corrected, "maybe I mean eleven. Is that right?"

  "Charles," Dondee said, grinning, "I have news for you. There are nine major moons in the Barrier sea that are visible. Just for fun, how many do you think there are altogether?"

  "Others? Oh, in the Barrier—ones that can't be seen from my world . . . oh."

  "Yes, Charles, how many?"

  "Okay, I'll guess—maybe four or five, even as much as ten more. Right, Dondee?"

  He shook his head slowly from side to side, enjoying the suspense he was building up in Charlie now.

  "Okay, I give up! How many?"

  "Seventy-one. There are seventy-one moons, counting the major ones that are also seen beyond the Barrier."

  "Isn't that kind of dangerous—I mean, when we go through the Barrier to land?"

  "Oh no, Charles. We stay on the Magnos until we're well within the Barrier. Then when we're safely through to our local air sea, we switch to the anti-gravs and land in the easy balance of the force field. Incidentally, Charles, the gravity here on my world is not much stronger than on your own homeland. It's approximately the same, even though my world is over ninety times the mass volume of your Little Star, Charles."

  "Look, Dondee—the Sun's coming through!" As they both watched, the Sun's light struck the Barrier, coming down like the beams of thousands of giant searchlights

  slanting through an ocean to light its darkness. The great discus flagship, having steadily decelerated for many hours, was now moving at a crawl, or barely over twice the speed of sound. Now the great ship jerked slightly, adjusting more closely as it turned in the flux field dominated by the giant Saturn. But though the far-reaching rings of the Barrier were now engulfing them, Charlie realized that they must be still many thousands of miles away, in spite of the solid block in space that loomed ever greater before them—the Barrier World, mighty island in the spatial sea.

  "Wow!"

  "It is beautiful, Charles."

  "Just like a million rainbows, Dondee—all changing, sort of like the colors rolling around in a giant juke box."

  Too excited, as he watched the growing scene in another clearing of space between the Barrier rings, Dondee didn't think to inquire of Charlie just what the words juke box meant. Whatever it was, he got the intended idea, and grinned now as Navajo whinnied, also seeming to enjoy the vivid colors that changed continually.

  "It will be only a moment now, Charles, before we enter the moon fields of the outer ammonia layer of the Barrier— then you'll get your first feel of riding the Hi Fi Winds."

  "The Hi Fi . . . Winds?"

  "Yes, Charles. They're the high fidelity strato streams that carry the hidden moons in their unusual gravity field. They never change speed or direction, but are constant with the various moon's gravities, and that's why we call them the Hi Fi Winds. This is nothing like your small atmosphere,

  Charles, for the Barrier World's air sea extends several thousand miles beyond our surface, unlike the mere two hundred miles that your Little Star atmosphere blankets above your surface. And beyond the air belt is the outer ammonia band. That's why your world's people think our world uninhabitable."

  "Stand by for stream contact—" came the command impulse from somewhere far above them in the dome. “Stand by—" "You can hold that grip-safety, Charles, though I hardly think you'll need it." As Charlie glanced concernedly at Navajo, Dondee understood. "Oh, he'll be quite all right, Charles. He has four legs to balance on!"

  Then there was an increasing, rocking motion, a swaying back and forth as the discus flagship rolled easily on the strato streams. It wasn't too bad, Charlie thought, and Dondee explained the expert gyro balancing action in the navigation dome, which made it hardly necessary to hold onto the grip-safety. But as he released it now, Charlie's feelings went back again, millions of miles through space, to the life of that time before. Once again in his mind's eye, Charlie saw the high craggy chocolate mountains, the tilting majesty of the Arizona horizon 5 and he remembered. It was a place called home, the Shack, on the banks of the swift and icy Colorado.

  "Charles . . . ?" The fleet memory was gone, blanked out by the curiously-voiced question of the alien boy, the unreal paleness of the

  Barrier's mist, and the jolting swift turbulence of the great

  flagship's progress out of the Hi Fi Winds.
/>   "This, now, Charles, is like the mists of your homeland."

  "My homeland's got no mist!"

  "Oh ... but I thought," Dondee hesitated. "I thought there was a part of your homeland called England, and that it was renowned for its misty countryside? But then I guess it must be on some other world I studied."

  "England. . ?" Charlie repeated, more to himself than to Dondee. "Yes," he said finally, "it is, Dondee. I never thought about it much before ... I mean, other countries of my world."

  "You're all on the same space island, aren't you, Charles? You live and die together, you stand together—or alone. Whatever you make it, Charles, it's still your world, isn't it?"

  "It sure is," Charlie said, almost fiercely, feeling a growing affinity for all the countries of his homeland. "It sure is my own world ... all of it."

  Shuddering slightly, the discus flagship swung round in flux orbit, clearing for the last time before entering port, the ring through which it had just passed. The brilliant Sun's light shone on the silver trim of the broad panoramic view before them. Charlie was suddenly cheered by the Sun, and he smiled as he looked at Dondee. But Dondee was not looking at him, and he was not smiling.