by Ron Cocking
isright," he said. "I did trick you. Not purposely, however. And in thebeginning I had no intention of telling anything but the truth. Actuallywe're here because of a dead man's vengeance."
Norris took his pipe from his lips and stared at it absently.
"You'll remember that Ganeth-Klae, the Martian, and I worked together toinvent _Indurate_. But whereas I was interested in the commercialaspects of that product, Klae was absorbed only in the experimentalangle of it. He had some crazy idea that it should not be given to thegeneral public at once, but rather should be allocated for the first fewyears to a select group of scientific organizations. You see, _Indurate_was such a departure from all known materials that Ganeth-Klae feared itwould be utilized for military purposes.
"I took him for a dreamer and a fool. Actually he was neither. How was Ito know that his keen penetrating brain had seen through my motive toget control of all commercial marketing of _Indurate_? I had laid myplans carefully, and I had expected to reap a nice harvest. Klae musthave been aware of my innermost thoughts, but Martian-like he saidnothing."
Norris paused to wet his lips and lean against the desk. "I didn't killGaneth-Klae," he continued, "though I suppose in a court of law I wouldbe judged responsible for his death. The manufacture of _Indurate_required some ticklish work. As you know, we produced our halves of theformula separately. Physical contact with my half over a long period oftime would prove fatal, I knew, and I simply neglected to so informGaneth-Klae.
"But his ultimate death was a boomerang. With Klae gone, I could find notrace of his half of the formula. I was almost beside myself for a time.Then I thought of something. Klae had once said that the secret of hishalf of the formula lay in himself. A vague statement, to say the least.But I took the words at their face value and gambled that he meant themliterally; that is, that his body itself contained the formula.
"I tried everything: X-ray, chemical analysis of the skin. I evenremoved the cranial cap and examined the brain microscopically. Allwithout result. Meanwhile the police were beginning to direct theirsuspicions toward me in the matter of Klae's disappearance.
"You know the rest. It was necessary that I leave Earth at once and gobeyond our system, beyond the jurisdiction of the planetary police. So Iarranged this voyage with a sufficient complement of passengers tolessen the danger and hardship of a new life on a new world. I was stillpositive, however, that Klae's secret lay in his dead body. I took thatbody along, encased in the Martian preservative, solidifex.
"It was my idea that I could continue my examination once we were safeon a strange planet But I had reckoned without Ganeth-Klae."
"What do you mean?" I said slowly.
"I said Klae was no fool. But I didn't know that with Martian stoicismhe suspected the worst and took his own ironic means of combating it. Heused the last lot of _Indurate_ to make that booster, a device which hesaid would increase our take-off speed. He mounted it on the _MarieGalante_.
"Mason, that device was no booster. It was a time machine, so devised asto catapult the ship not into outer space, but into the space-timecontinuum. It was a mechanism designed to throw the _Marie Galante_forward into the future."
A cloud of fear began to well over me. "What do you mean?" I said again.
Navigator Norris paced around his desk. "_I mean that the_ Marie Galante_has not once left Earth, has not in fact left the spot of its mooringsbut has merely gone forward in time. I mean that the nine 'landings' wemade were not stops on some other planets but halting stages of ajourney into the future._"
Had a bombshell burst over my head the effect could have been nogreater. Cold perspiration began to ooze out on my forehead. In a flashI saw the significance of the entire situation. That was why Norris hadbeen so insistent that we always return to the ship before dark. Hedidn't want us to see the night sky and the constellations there forfear we would guess the truth. That was why he had never permitted anyof us in the bridge cuddy and why he had kept all ports and observationshields closed.
"But the names of the planets ... Coulora, Stragella, and the others andtheir positions on the chart...?" I objected.
Norris smiled grimly. "All words created out of my imagination. Like therest of you, I knew nothing of the true action of the booster. It wasonly gradually that truth dawned on me. But by the time we had made ourfirst 'landing' I had guessed. That was why I demanded we always takeorganic surveyor readings. I knew we had traveled far into future time,far beyond the life period of man on Earth. But I wasn't sure how far wehad gone, and I lived with the hope that Klae's booster might reverseitself and start carrying us backwards down the centuries."
For a long time I stood there in silence, a thousand mad speculationsracing through my mind.
"How about that piece of _Indurate_?" I said at length. "It was chippedoff an image in the ruins of a great building a mile or so from here."
"An image?" repeated Norris. A faint glow of interest slowly rose in hiseyes. Then it died. "I don't know," he said. "It would seem topresuppose that the formula, both parts of it, was known by Klae andthat he left it for posterity to discover."
All this time Mason had been standing there, eyes smouldering, lips anugly line. Now abruptly he took a step forward.
"I've wanted to return this for a long time," he said.
He doubled back his arm and brought his fist smashing onto Norris' jaw.The Navigator's head snapped backward; he gave a low groan and slumpedto the floor.
And that is where, by all logic, this tale should end. But, as you mayhave guessed, there is an anticlimax--what story-tellers call a happyconclusion.
Mason, Brandt, and I worked, and worked alone, on the theory that thesecret of the _Indurate_ formula would be the answer to our return downthe time trail. We removed the body of Ganeth-Klae from its solidifexenvelope and treated it with every chemical process we knew. By sheerluck the fortieth trial worked. A paste of carbo-genethon mixed withthe crushed seeds of the Martian iron-flower was spread over Klae'schest and abdomen.
And there, in easily decipherable code, was not only the formula, butthe working principles of the ship's booster--or rather, time-catapult.After that, it was a simple matter to reverse the principle and throw usbackward in the time stream.
We are heading back as I write these lines. If they reach print and youread them, it will mean our escape was successful and that we returnedto our proper slot in the epilogue of human events.
There remains, however, one matter to trouble me. Navigator Norris. Ilike the man. I like him tremendously, in spite of his cold-bloodedconfession, and past record. He must be punished, of course. But I, forone, would hate to see him given the death penalty. It is a seriousproblem.
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ September 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
