"It's holding well. I've got them as far from any land mass as I can. Those motors we installed are pretty good, but they're having a rough time in that storm, I'd wager."
"Where have you got them?" asked the captain.
"In the middle of the big sea west of the big inland lake … what was the big inland lake, and what was the big sea. It's all one sea with islands of mountain, now. They ought to ride it out without hitting anything here."
"Very well. Mr. Promo," said the captain formally, "release the first of the chlorine."
Promo's hand barely moved, but Zad could feel his tension; knew that the first of the storage domes of hydrogen and chlorine gases would have been triggered into activity by that slight motion.
In her mind's eye she saw the natural rock cavity far below the surface of the ground into which chlorine and hydrogen had been forced under ever-increasing pressures, until at last the chlorine had begun to liquify.
Chlorine and hydrogen, she had learned, are inert towards each other and may be mixed quite safely, so long as the mixture is kept dark. And that was the secret. Expose the mixture to light, and it reacts, violently, explosively; and in large quantities, disastrously. So the fuse was the simple light bulb—or bulbs—that they had planned, designed to be keyed from this ship and to blow the various domes, one at a time, under perfect control. But one had blown while they were filling it, with a violent explosion that had shown her dramatically just what the explosion, occurring now on the planet below, was like; and leaving her with a tentative feeling about the remaining domes below, bombs waiting to be exploded.
"Number One retarder released," Promo broke her train of thought. "The meter shows the explosion. We should see some of the reaction in about five minutes." He indicated the screen and sat back to wait.
Zad stared at the screen, at the glowing, golden sphere which looked from this viewpoint to be seething with energies equivalent to those of the sun, though in actual fact, she knew, this was far from the truth.
"There it is," she muttered to herself, as a dark spot appeared, a slowly expanding circle of brown in the orange-gold glow; an expanding circle that seemed rapidly to take on the shape and characteristics of a sun-spot.
Abruptly Promo sat forward and stared hard at the instruments that were repeating the electronic details of the story unfolding below. "I didn't expect that much effect," he said. Then, after a pause, "Captain. It's working backwards."
Zad watched in fascination, as a tall, fiercely glowing prominence rose from the center of the brown spot.
It's sticking out its tongue at us, she thought.
"It's putting out free protons!" Promo's voice was unhappy. Then: "And it's shaking things up down below, too. There's … damn. Captain, Number Two dome just went."
"Do you know what caused the second explosion, Mr. Promo?" The captain's voice hadn't changed, carried no inflection.
"No, Sir. I don't know. It's damn touchy stuff, of course. .."
As he spoke another of the green lights on his board flicked suddenly red. And then, in rapid succession, several more.
"Is there anything we can do to quiet the explosions, Mr. Promo?" The captain's voice was still calm.
"I don't know of anything, Sir. I guess I just tell myself what a murdering idiot I am, and wait to see what happens." His voice held a deep bitterness.
"Mr. Promo. There will be no self-recriminations."
Then the captain allowed a small, wry smile onto his face, and his voice took a gentle overtone. "As far as I know, this is the first planetary engineering job. We could wish that it were a more perfect job," he said.
The hours passed, as they watched while at increasingly frequent intervals the tiny telltale lights flicked from green to red, sometimes singly, more often in pairs, triplets and chains. Only five out of nearly two hundred of the telltales still glowed green. And, shortly after each flick, another brownish circle began to spread, and then to put out its bright prominence of free hydrogen nuclei standing like a sword above its center of turbulence; until the ball, almost completely brown now, bristled with swords.
The room was quiet, interrupted only occasionally by the captain's query: "How is the Ark doing?" And Pat's intent answer, "The Ark is still fighting, Sir. It's still afloat." And finally, Promo's bitter voice, "The brakes are going on now … fast. I … I don't think they've got a chance. It's almost all up there—and the brakes are going on."
Then Promo seized a pencil and did some rapid calculations. When he spoke, his voice was loud and fierce. "Pat," he said, "keep that Ark headed west." He paused and caught his breath, as though he'd been running hard. Then he went on, "There'll probably be a small tidal wave going west … and your tendency might be to turn the Ark to face into it. But don't do it. It should be followed by a giant wave—a really giant tidal wave-going east."
"I've got it headed west, Ted." Pat's voice was strained. "I've got it headed west at full power. How much time do you figure? But those are mighty puny motors…"
"I … any time now. Not for a few hours yet, I'd think."
Somebody brought coffee and sandwiches. Zad found herself eating, and realized she hadn't even noticed when her hand had picked up the sandwich. The coffee was hot and tasted good. Something to hang on to, she thought.
"Here comes the first one, I think," said Pat in a soft voice that carried throughout the control room in the silence.
Then … and Zad realized it was nearly an hour later, "Here's the second…" Had she been holding her breath all that time? I couldn't have, she thought.
"It's taking us …" Zad knew he meant the Ark. "It's taking us. I can't fight it. I … we're headed west, but…"
Then; "We're over land. We're … my god, what a wave that must be! The Ark is over the coast … it's being swept inland … we're heading …"
He didn't speak again. The beads of sweat were hanging on his forehead.
Only the instruments told the story of a wave that went three times around the planet; the tidal wave that, at one time, Promo estimated as at least 700 cubits tall, smashing and tearing at the mountain barriers in its path, speeding at at least a thousand miles an hour… It was the first twenty-five hours that were the worst. By then the giganic wave was losing weight, was losing speed. Speed was a comparative figure, Zad reminded herself.
Promo and Pat spelled each other at the controls of the Ark. No one thought of leaving the control room.
The picture on the viewscreen was changing now. The globe was still there, but it no longer had so much as a trace of the golden glow. And spotty, faint-blue tinges opened to show what must be seas; a flat, blue plain.
The telescopic view was pinpointed and enlarged when the patches appeared, focusing on them to show madly churning seas and a few peaks of land, glistening with a new rock whiteness. And finally, under now-scattering clouds, the last of the tidal wave as it splashed its fury on the mountainous coast-lines on the far side of the planet from the guarded area.
But—the Ark was still afloat. Whether there would be life still aboard, they had no way of knowing yet. But it was still afloat, far inland, near a low range of hills, its motors still fighting.
Pat was at the controls of the Ark now, and he stood up suddenly. "The motors quit," he said. "They've had it." His voice choked and he swallowed spasmodically, his fists clenching.
David stood beside him, put his arm gently around the young engineer's shoulders. "The wave's spent, now," he said. "Is there any more coming do you think, Ted?"
"No," said Promo wearily. "The worst is over now. I figure the planet's rotation is slowed at least twenty-five percent from its top speed. The rest should be gradual. David," he said, "we …"
"I know," David answered before the impossible sentence could trail to its end. "I know."
Zad watched until the Vaheva's landing craft disappeared into the deep blue of the skies above the island that would be their home. Two years, she thought. It took almost two years, but it was dry n
ow.
Then her eyes wandered down to the calm inland sea that stretched beyond the horizon; wandered past the plastic bubble-domes that they had delightedly named the "New University at Crêta," to the damp soil at her feet. To where … growing in a cranny by an odd, whiteish rock, a tiny sprig of green was forcing its defiant way into the sunshine…
The rosy fingers of dawn were just touching the desert skies. Slowly the engineer stretched his stiff muscles; stood and walked to the edge of the canopy. His voice, when he spoke, seemed to come from a long way off.
"I don't think we'll make good patsies now, we humans," he said. "I don't like the idea of being anybody's mark. A man grows up," he said, "he's got a choice. Put up or …"
He stood silent a long time, looking at the dawn growing in the skies. Then, "So you want me to design you a transposer," he said. "Well, you might be right, that it's a matter of using tap power—or planetary power?—to take the Einstein equations one step further. To a point where mass goes almost instantaneously near-infinite and time reaches, almost instantaneously, near-zero. The quantum jump on an interstellar scale." His voice held awe. "Of course, your power would have to balance out between the two gates …"
"If we can build both the solar tap and the transposer of our own, home-grown know-how," said the archaeologist softly as a new day broke over the desert, "I think our father, who left on the Vaheva, could be right proud of us."
GLOSSARY
Atalama—the original civilization
Aetala—the north; the arctic regions; also, the name of the 'president' of Atalama
Lama—the south; sea
Ura—or Ur or Urath—the one continent of Atalama
The Baron Sivos—developer of the solar tap. It is possible that the title 'Baron' meant a doctorate in physics
Siva—the solar tap—also known as …
She or Shee-op—from the shee-gulp sound that it made
The Vahs—the starships of old Atalama
Vahnire—the people of the Vahs
An, Ain, Amon, Aeton, Ur-Aenos—the First One. Lord David
Aenia—the immortals. Also, Ammnaki; also Aengels
Cha—transposer
Cha-ran—users of the transposers; also guards of the transposers
Ra—the sun; a sun; any sun
Pha-ra—those who come from far suns; the sons of the suns
She-ra-phim—also Si-ra-phim. The people of the Sivas
Nephilim—the crew of the Vaheva
Cha-ra-bim—the transposer peoples
Rg Vedic—the written Vahdic; the written word of the Vahnire
Ankh—Crux Aensata—a spray hypodermic, or perhaps a needle hypodermic. Used in making people well. Used by the Vahsata'an in lower Egypt.
Uraes—a symbol meaning representative or speaking for the 'aes' of old Ura—the immortals. Later came to mean the representative here of whatever people of the suns was currently in power.
Gizzeh, Giza—the fountain of light; the area from which comes the power
Shi-nar - She-nar—without the She
-sos, -stine, -tec—suffixes meaning descendants of and/or trained by the people named in the prefix; i.e., Aztec, Pharostine, Wytchsos
Wyzier—Warlords of the planet Wytch
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