by Bryce Walton
us toparadise. He was happy, nothing could stop the old man--but he's deadnow."
He sighed.
"He was taking us wrong ... wrong!" Russell screamed. "Angels--musicall night--houses like jewels--and women like angels--"
"_Shhhh_," said Alvar. It was quiet. How could it be so quiet, Russellthought? And up ahead the old man's pressure suit with a corpse insidewent on ahead, leading the other three at the front of thegravity-rope.
"Maybe he was wrong," Alvar said. "But now do we know which way isright?"
* * * * *
Sometime later, Johnson said, "We got to decide now. Let's forget theold man. Let's forget him and all that's gone and let's start now anddecide what to do."
And Alvar said, "Guess he was crazy all right, and I guess we trustedhim because we didn't have the strength to make up our own minds. Whydoes a crazy man's laugh sound so good when you're desperate and don'tknow what to do?"
"I always had a feeling we were going wrong," Johnson said. "Anyway,it's forgotten, Russ. It's swallowed up in the darkness all around.It's never been."
Russell said, "I've had a hunch all along that maybe the old man washere before, and that he was right about there being a star here witha world we can live on. But I've known we was heading wrong. I've hada hunch all along that the right star was the one to the left."
"I don't know," Johnson sighed. "I been feeling partial toward thatone on the right. What about you, Alvar?"
"I always thought we were going straight in the opposite directionfrom what we should, I guess. I always wanted to turn around and goback. It won't make over maybe a month's difference. And what does amonth matter anyway out here--hell there never was any time out hereuntil we came along. We make our own time here, and a month don'tmatter to me."
Sweat ran down Russell's face. His voice trembled. "No--that's wrong.You're both wrong." He could see himself going it alone. Going crazybecause he was alone. He'd have broken away, gone his own direction,long ago but for that fear.
"How can we tell which of us is right?" Alvar said. "It's likeeverything was changing all the time out here. Sometimes I'd swearnone of those suns had red rims, and at other times--like the old mansaid, they're all pretty and lying and saying nothing, just changingall the time. Jezebel stars, the old man said."
"I know I'm right," Russell pleaded. "My hunches always been right.My hunch got us out of that prison didn't it? Listen--I tell you it'sthat star to the left--"
"The one to the right," said Johnson.
"We been going away from the right one all the time," said Alvar.
"We got to stay together," said Russell. "Nobody could spend a yearout here ... alone...."
"Ah ... in another month or so we'd be lousy company anyway," Alvarsaid. "Maybe a guy could get to the point where he'd sleep most of thetime ... just wake up enough times to give himself another boost withthe old life-gun."
"We got to face it," Johnson said finally. "We three don't go ontogether any more."
"That's it," said Alvar. "There's three suns that look like they mightbe right seeing as how we all agree the old man was wrong. But webelieve there is one we can live by, because we all seem to agree thatthe old man might have been right about that. If we stick together,the chance is three to one against us. But if each of us makes for onestar, one of us has a chance to live. Maybe not in paradise like theold man said, but a place where we can live. And maybe there'll beintelligent life, maybe even a ship, and whoever gets the right starcan come and help the other two...."
"No ... God no...." Russell whispered over and over. "None of us canever make it alone...."
Alvar said, "We each take the star he likes best. I'll go back theother way. Russ, you take the left. And you, Johnson, go to theright."
Johnson started to laugh. Russell was yelling wildly at them, andabove his own yelling he could hear Johnson's rising laughter. "Everyguy's got a star of his own," Johnson said when he stopped laughing."And we got ours. A nice red-rimmed sun for each of us to call hisvery own."
"Okay," Alvar said. "We cut off the gravity rope, and each to his ownsun."
Now Russell wasn't saying anything.
"And the old man," Alvar said, "can keep right on going toward what hethought was right. And he'll keep on going. Course he won't be able togive himself another boost with the life-gun, but he'll keep going.Someday he'll get to that red-rimmed star of his. Out here in space,once you're going, you never stop ... and I guess there isn't anyother body to pull him off his course. And what will time matter toold Dunbar? Even less than to us, I guess. He's dead and he won'tcare."
"Ready," Johnson said. "I'll cut off the gravity rope."
"I'm ready," Alvar said. "To go back toward whatever it was I startedfrom."
"Ready, Russ?"
Russell couldn't say anything. He stared at the endless void which nowhe would share with no one. Not even crazy old Dunbar.
"All right," Johnson said. "Good-bye."
Russell felt the release, felt the sudden inexplicable isolation andaloneness even before Alvar and Johnson used their life-guns and shotout of sight, Johnson toward the left and Alvar back toward that otherred-rimmed sun behind them.
And old Dunbar shooting right on ahead. And all three of themdwindling and dwindling and blinking out like little lights.
Fading, he could hear their voices. "Each to his own star," Johnsonsaid. "On a bee line."
"On a bee line," Alvar said.
Russell used his own life-gun and in a little while he didn't hearAlvar or Johnson's voices, nor could he see them. They were thousandsof miles away, and going further all the time.
Russell's head fell forward against the front of his helmet, and heclosed his eyes. "Maybe," he thought, "I shouldn't have killed the oldman. Maybe one sun's as good as another...."
Then he raised his body and looked out into the year of blackness thatwaited for him, stretching away to the red-rimmed sun. Even if he wereright--he was sure now he'd never make it alone.
* * * * *
The body inside the pressure suit drifted into a low-level orbitaround the second planet from the sun of its choice, and drifted therea long time. A strato-cruiser detected it by chance because of thestrong concentration of radio-activity that came from it.
They took the body down to one of the small, quiet towns on the edgeof one of the many blue lakes where the domed houses were like brightjoyful jewels. They got the leathery, well-preserved body from thepressure suit.
"An old man," one of them mused. "A very old man. From one of the lostsectors. I wonder how and why he came so very far from his home?"
"Wrecked a ship out there, probably," one of the others said. "But hemanaged to get this far. It looks as though a small meteor fragmentpierced his body. Here. You see?"
"Yes," another of them said. "But what amazes me is that this old manpicked this planet out of all the others. The only one in this entiresector that would sustain life."
"Maybe he was just a very lucky old man. Yes ... a man who attainssuch an age was usually lucky. Or at least that is what they say aboutthe lost sectors."
"Maybe he knew the way here. Maybe he was here before--sometime."
The other shook his head. "I don't think so. They say some humans fromthat far sector did land here--but that's probably only a myth. And ifthey did, it was well over a thousand years ago."
Another said. "He has a fine face, this old man. A noble face. Whoeverhe is ... wherever he came from, he died bravely and he knew the way,though he never reached this haven of the lost alive."
"Nor is it irony that he reached here dead," said the Lake Chieftain.He had been listening and he stepped forward and raised his arm. "Hewas old. It is obvious that he fought bravely, that he had greatcourage, and that he knew the way. He will be given a burial suitableto his stature, and he will rest here among the brave.
"Let the women dance and the music play for this old man. Let thetrumpets speak, and the
rockets fly up. And let flowers be strewn overthe path above which the women will carry him to rest."
* * * * *
