aftertomorrow."
Mel nodded and stepped out into the hall.
* * *
No great black ship.
No mysterious little robot ships with tentacles that whip out andcapture a man.
No strange trio in surgeons' gowns.
And no Alice--
A sudden spear of thought pierced his mind. Maybe all that wasillusion, too. Maybe he could go home right now and find her waiting forhim. Maybe--
No. That was real enough. The accident. Dr. Winters. The scene in theicy room next to Surgery at the hospital. Dr. Martin didn't know aboutthat. He would have called that a fantasy, too, if Mel had tried to tellhim.
No. It was all real.
The unbelievable, alien organs of Alice.
The great, black ship.
The mindless robot searchers.
His nightmare had stemmed from all this that had happened out in space,which had somehow been wiped from his conscious memory. The nightmarehad not existed in his boyhood, as he had thought. It was oriented intime now.
But what had happened to Alice? There was no clue in the memoryunearthed by Dr. Martin. Was her condition merely the result of somefreak heredity or gene mutation?
The surging turmoil in his mind was greater than before. There was onlyone way to quiet it--that was to carry out his original plan to go toMars.
He'd go out there again. He'd find out if the black ship existed or not.
* * * * *
The girl in the ticket office was kind but firm. "Our records show thatyou were a vacationer to Mars very recently. The demand is so great andthe ship capacity so small that we must limit vacation trips to no morethan one in any ten-year period."
He turned away and went down the hall and out the doorway of the marbleand brass Connemorra Lines Building.
He walked through town for six blocks and the thought of old Jake Nortoncame to his mind. Jake had been an old timer in the city room when Melwas a cub. Jake had retired just a few months ago and lived in a placein town with a lot of other old men. Mel hailed the nearest cab anddrove to Jake's place.
"Mel, it's great to see you!" Jake said. "I didn't think any of the boyswould remember an old man after he'd walked out for the last time."
"People remember real easy when they want favors."
"Sure," Jake said with a grin, "but there's not much of a favor I can doyou any more, boy. Can't even loan you a ten until next payday."
"Jake, you can help me," said Mel. "You don't expect to ever take a tripto Mars, do you?"
"Mars! Are you crazy, Mel?"
"I went once. I've got to go again. It's about Alice. And they won't letme. I didn't know you could go only once in ten years."
Jake remembered. Alice had called him and all the other boys afterthey'd come back the other time. Mel had been sick, she said. Hewouldn't remember the trip. They were asked not to say anything aboutit. Now Mel was remembering and wanted to go again. Jake didn't knowwhat he should do.
"What can I do to help you?" he asked.
"I'll give you the money. Buy a ticket in your name. I'll go as JakeNorton. I think I can get away with it. I don't think they make anycloser check than that."
"Sure--if it'll do you any good," Jake said hesitantly. He wasremembering the anxiety in Alice's voice the day she called and beggedhim not to say anything that would remind Mel of Mars. No one ever had,as far as Jake knew.
He took the money and Mel waited at the old men's home. An hour laterJake called. "Eight months is the closest reservation I can get atnormal rates, but I know of some scalpers who charge 50% more."
Mel groaned. "Buy it no matter what the cost! I've got to go at once!"He would be broke for the next ten years.
* * * * *
It was little different from the other time. There was the same holidayexcitement in the crowd of vacationers and those who had come to seethem off. It was the same ship, even.
All that was different was the absence of Alice.
He stayed in his stateroom and didn't watch the takeoff. He felt thefaint rocking motion as the ship went down its long waterway. He feltthe shift as the artificial gravity took over. He lay on the bed andclosed his eyes as the Martian Princess sought the cold night of space.
For two days he remained in the room, emerging only for meals. The tripitself held no interest for him. He waited only for the announcementthat the black ship had come.
But by the end of the second day it had not come. Mel spent a sleeplessnight staring out at the endless horizon of stars. Dr. Martin had beenright, he thought. There was no black ship. He had merely substitutedone illusion for another. Where was reality? Did it exist anywhere inall the world?
Yet, even if there were no black ship, his goal was still Mars.
The third day passed without the appearance of the black ship. But onthe very evening of that day the speaker announced: "All passengers willprepare for transfer from the shuttle ship to the Mars liner. Bring handluggage--"
Mel sat paralyzed while he listened to the announcement. So it was true!He felt the faint jar that rocked the Martian Princess as the two shipscoupled. From his stateroom port Mel could see the stranger, black,ugly, and somehow deadly. He wished he could show Dr. Martin this"illusion"!
He packed swiftly and left the room. Mel joined the surprised andexcited throng now, not hanging back, but eager to find out the secretof the great black ship.
The transition from one ship to the other was almost imperceptible. Thestructure of both corridors was the same, but Mel knew when the junctionwas crossed. He sensed the entry into a strange world that was fardifferent from the common one he knew.
Far down the corridor the crowd was slowing, forming into lines beforestewards who were checking tickets. The passengers were shunted intobranching corridors leading to their own staterooms. So far everythingwas so utterly normal that Mel felt an overwhelming despondency. It wasjust as they had been told; they were transferring to the Mars linerfrom the shuttle.
The steward glanced at his ticket, held it for a moment of hesitationwhile he scanned Mel's face. "Mr. Norton--please come with me."
The steward moved away in a direction no other passengers were taking.Another steward moved up to his place. "That way," the second man saidto Mel. "Follow the steward."
* * * * *
Mel's heart picked up its beat as he stepped out of the line and movedslowly down the corridor after the retreating steward. They walked along way through branching silent corridors that showed no sign of life.
They stopped at last before a door that was like a score of others theyhad passed. There were no markings. The steward opened the door andstood aside. "In here please," he said. Mel entered and found himselfalone. The steward remained outside.
The room was furnished as an office. It was carpeted and paneledluxuriously. A door leading from a room at his left opened and admitteda tall man with graying hair. The man seemed to carry an aura of powerand strength as he moved. An aura that Mel Hastings recognized.
"James Connemorra!" Mel exclaimed.
The man bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Yes, Mr. Hastings,"he said.
Mel was dismayed. "How do you know who I am?" he said.
James Connemorra looked through the port beside Mel and at the starsbeyond. "I have been looking for you long enough I ought to know who youare."
Something in the man's voice chilled Mel. "I have been easy enough tofind. I'm only a news reporter. Why have you been looking for me?"
Connemorra sank into a deep chair on the opposite side of the room."Can't you guess?" he said.
"It has something to do with what happened--before?" Mel asked. Hebacked warily against the opposite wall from Connemorra. "That time whenI escaped from the Martian Princess rather than come aboard the blackship?"
Connemorra nodded. "Yes."
"I still don't understand. Why?"
"It's an
old story." Connemorra shrugged faintly. "A man learns too muchabout things he should know nothing of."
"I have a right to know what happened to my wife. You know about herdon't you?"
Connemorra nodded.
"What happened to her? Why was she different after her trip to Mars?"
James Connemorra was silent for so long that Mel thought he had notheard him. "Is everyone different when they get back?" Mel demanded."Does something happen to everybody who takes the Mars trip, the samething that happened to Alice?"
"You learned so much," said Connemorra, speaking as if to himself, "Ihad to hunt you down and bring you here."
"What do you mean by that? I came through my own efforts. Your officetried to stop
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