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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32208-h.zip b/32208-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c91423f --- /dev/null +++ b/32208-h.zip diff --git a/32208-h/32208-h.htm b/32208-h/32208-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b60d39 --- /dev/null +++ b/32208-h/32208-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3412 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Star Lord, by Boyd Ellanby. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + + + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +.centerbox { width: 50%; /* heading box */ + margin: 0 auto; + text-align: center; + padding: 1em; + } + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star Lord, by Boyd Ellanby + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Star Lord + +Author: Boyd Ellanby + +Release Date: May 2, 2010 [EBook #32208] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR LORD *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="centerbox"> +<p class="center">Transcriber's note:</p> + +<p>This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy +June 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"> +<img src="images/img195306001.jpg" width="447" height="600" alt="" title="cover" /> +</div> + +<h1>THE STAR LORD</h1> + +<h2><i>By Boyd Ellanby</i></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" width="500" height="438" alt="" title="untitled" /> +</div> + +<div class="centerbox"><p>To some passengers a maiden voyage was a pleasure cruise; to others +it meant a hope for new life. Only the Captain knew of its danger!</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + + +<p>The <i>Star Lord</i> waited, poised for her maiden voyage. The gigantic +silvery spindle, still cradled in its scaffoldings, towered upwards +against the artificial sky of Satellite Y.</p> + + +<p>The passengers were beginning to come on board before Captain Josiah +Evans had finished checking the reports of his responsible officers. The +ship was ready for space, now, and there was nothing more he could do +until takeoff. With long, deliberate steps he walked to his cabin, +closed the door, and in the privacy he had come to regard as the +greatest luxury life had to offer him, he sank into his chair and +reached for the post-bag which had been delivered by the morning's +rocket ferry from earth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/002.jpg" width="500" height="428" alt="" title="untitled" /> +</div> + +<p>There were no personal letters for him. He rarely received any and never +really expected any, for his career had always been more important to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>him than personal ties. Shoving aside the official documents, he picked +up the small brown parcel, slit the pliofilm covering with his pocket +knife, and inspected the red leather cover with its simple title: <i>Ley's +Rockets and Space Ships.</i> At the bottom of the cover was a date: May 1, +2421, Volume 456. In the nearly five hundred years since the publication +of Volume one, which listed all the earth's rocket ships on half of one +page, the annual edition of this book, regularly edited and brought up +to date, had become the spaceman's bible.</p> + +<p>Captain Evans was annoyed to find that his hands were shaking as he +leafed through the pages, and he paused a few seconds, trying to control +his excitement. His black hair had begun to turn gray above his ears, +and there were a few white hairs in his bushy eyebrows. But a healthy +pink glowed under the skin of his well-fleshed cheeks, and the jut of +his chin showed the confidence of one used to receiving immediate, +unquestioning obedience. When his long fingers had stopped their +trembling, he found the entry he had been looking for, and a triumphant +smile lighted his heavy features as he settled deeper in his chair and +read the first paragraph.</p> + +<p>"<i>Star Lord: newest model in space-ships of the famed Star Line. Vital +Statistics: Construction begun February 2418, on Satellite Y. +Christened, October, 2420. Maiden voyage to Almazin III scheduled +spring, 2421.</i>"</p> + +<p>He looked up at the diagram of the ship which hung on the wall at his +right, then glanced at the zodiometer on his desk. May 3, late spring.</p> + +<p>"<i>Powered by twenty-four total conversion Piles. Passenger capacity +1250. Crew and maintenance 250. Six life boats, capacity 1500. Captain. +Josiah Evans.</i>"</p> + +<p>His throat swelling, he was almost choked with pride as he read the +final Statistic. This, he thought was the climax of his career, the +place he had been working towards all his life. It had been a long road +from his lonely boyhood in a Kansas orphanage, to Captain of the earth's +finest spaceship.</p> + +<p>The <i>Star Lord</i> was the perfection of modern space craft, the creation +of the earth's most skilled designers and builders, the largest ship +ever launched. Protected by every safety device the ingenuity of man had +been able to contrive, she was a palace to glide among the stars.</p> + +<p>His heart beat more rapidly as he read the next section.</p> + +<p>"<i>Prediction: her maiden voyage will break all previous speed records, +and regain for her backers the coveted Blue Ribbon, lost ten years ago to the Light Lines.</i>" +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>No question of that, he thought. No faster ship had ever been built. But +he frowned as he read the final paragraph:</p> + +<p>"<i>Sidelights: Reviving a long obsolete custom, certain astrologers in +London have cast the horoscope of the Star Lord and pronounced the +auguries to be unfavorable. This verdict, plus the incident at the +christening, has caused some head-shaking among the superstitious +fringe, and some twittering about 'cosmic arrogance'. But few of the +lords of the earth, we imagine, will therefore feel impelled to cancel +their passages on this veritable Lord of the Stars.</i>"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Evans remembered that christening. High in the scaffolding he had stood +on the platform with the christening party: the Secretary of +Interstellar Commerce, the Ambassador from Almazin III, the Governor of +Satellite Y, and President and Mrs. Laurier of Earth.</p> + +<p>Swaying gently in the still air, the traditional bottle of champagne +hung before them, suspended at the end of a long ribbon. Mrs. Laurier's +eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed, as she looked at her husband for +a signal. At his smile and nod she had said in a high clear voice, "I +christen thee <i>Star Lord</i>!" and then reached out to grasp the bottle. +Before she could touch it, somewhere above them the slender ribbon +broke.</p> + +<p>The bottle fell like a stone, plummeted straight down and crashed into a +million fragments on the floor of the satellite.</p> + +<p>An instant's shocked silence, and then a roar of voices surged up from +the crowds watching below. Mrs. Laurier had put her hand to her mouth, +and shivered.</p> + +<p>"What a dreadful thing!" she whispered. "Does that mean bad luck?"</p> + +<p>President Laurier had frowned at her, but the Secretary of Interstellar +Commerce had laughed.</p> + +<p>"Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Laurier. There is no such thing as luck. Even +without a bath of champagne, this magnificent vessel will prove that man +is certainly master of the universe. She begins her life well and truly +named."</p> + +<p>The Star Line ought to abandon that silly custom of christening a new +ship, thought Captain Evans. It was an archaic ceremony, utterly +irrational, a foolish relic of a primitive world in which people had +been so uncertain of their machines that they had had to depend on luck, +and to beg good fortune of unpredictable gods.</p> + +<p>Taking up <i>Ley's Space Ships</i> again, he began fondly to reread the page, +when there was a knock at the door and a crewman entered.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jasperson to see you, sir."</p> + +<p>The Captain stared, a tiny mus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>cle in his cheek quivering.</p> + +<p>"You know I'm not to be disturbed until after takeoff, Stacey."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. But Mr. Jasperson insisted. He says he knows those rules +don't apply to <i>him</i>."</p> + +<p>Evans closed the book, laid it on his desk, and stood up. He leaned +forward and spoke softly.</p> + +<p>"Tell Mr. Jasperson—"</p> + +<p>"Tell him what, Josiah?" boomed a voice from the opening door. "You can +tell me yourself now."</p> + +<p>Burl Jasperson was a portly little man with legs too short for his +bulging body, and clothes that were too tight. His head was bald except +for a fringe above the ears, and he might have been a comical figure but +for the icy blue eyes that probed from under the dome of his forehead.</p> + +<p>"What have you got to tell me? You're quite right not to let the ragtag +and bobtail bother you at a time like this, but I know your old friend +Burl Jasperson is always welcome."</p> + +<p>With scarcely a pause, the Captain extended his hand.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Burl? Won't you come in? I hope the Purser has taken care +of you properly?"</p> + +<p>"I'm comfortable enough, thanks, and I'm looking forward to the trip. +It's odd, come to think of it, that though I've been Chairman of the +board of directors, and have spent some thirty years managing a fleet of +space liners, yet I've never before made a trip myself. I don't like +crowds of people, for one thing, and then I've been busy."</p> + +<p>"What made you decide to go along on this one?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Reaching across the table, Jasperson picked up the silver carafe and +poured himself a glass of water.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Nothing like a drink of cold water! The fact is, I wanted to check +up on things, make notes of possible improvements in the Star Line's +service, and sample passenger reactions. Then too, I'll have the +satisfaction of being present on the trip which will establish the +Line's supremacy, once and for all. This crossing will make history. It +means everything to us, Josiah. You know we're counting on you to break +the record. We want to win back the Blue Ribbon, and we expect you to +manage it for us."</p> + +<p>"I shall do my best."</p> + +<p>"That's the spirit I like to see. Full speed ahead!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly—consistent with safety."</p> + +<p>"Consistent with <i>reasonable</i> safety, of course. I know you won't let +yourself be taken in by all this nonsense about the imaginary dangers of +hyperspace."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"All this nonsense about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Thakura Ripples! But then, of course +you're a sensible man or we wouldn't have hired you, and I'm sure you +agree with me that the <i>Star Lord</i> can deal with anything that +hyperspace has to offer."</p> + +<p>Jasperson adjusted the set of his jacket over his plump stomach while he +waited for an answer, and Captain Evans stared at him.</p> + +<p>"Is that why you're wearing a pistol?" he said dryly. "To help the ship +fight her battles?"</p> + +<p>"This?" His face reddened as he patted his bulging pockets. "Oh, it's +just a habit. I don't like being without protection; I always wear a gun +in one pocket and my recorder in the other."</p> + +<p>"You'll scarcely be in any danger on the ship, Burl. Better leave it in +your cabin."</p> + +<p>"All right. But about the Ripples—you aren't going to take them +seriously, are you?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd be a little more frank, Mr. Chairman. Has the Star Line +suddenly lost confidence in me?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, nothing of the sort! We've every confidence in you, of course. +But I've been hearing rumors, hints that we may have to make a slow +crossing, and I've been wondering. But then, I'm sure that a man of your +intelligence doesn't take the Ripples any more seriously than I do."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what gossip you have been hearing," said the Captain, +hesitantly. "'Ripples' is probably a very inaccurate and inadequate name +for the phenomenon. Thakura might equally well have called them rapids, +falls, bumps, spaces, holes, or discontinuities."</p> + +<p>"Then why did he choose to call them Ripples?"</p> + +<p>"Probably because he didn't know exactly what they are. The whole +problem is a very complicated one."</p> + +<p>"Complicated nonsense, I call it. Well, we won't quarrel, my dear +Josiah, but don't let them hold us back. Remember, we're out to break +all records!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Under the artificial sky, crowds of people streamed into the +administration building of Satellite Y. The jumping-off place for all +rockets and ships going to and from the stars, Y-port was a world of its +own, dedicated to only one purpose, the launching and berthing of ships.</p> + +<p>It was a quiet and orderly place as a rule, and its small permanent +colony of workmen and officials lived a spartan existence except for +their yearly vacations on Earth. But today it seemed as if half the +earth's people, friends and relatives of the passengers, had chosen to +make the port a holiday spot of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> their own, to help celebrate the +launching of the <i>Star Lord</i> on her maiden voyage. The rocket ferry +between Y-port and Earth had had to triple its number of runs in the +past week, and this morning's rocket had brought in the last of the +passengers for Almazin III.</p> + +<p>Alan Chase trudged wearily along with the crowd entering the building, +trying to close his ears to the hundreds of chattering voices. He was +tall and very thin, and his white skin clothed his bones like brittle +paper. Walking was an effort, and he tried to move with an even step so +he would not have to gasp for breath as he moved slowly forward with the +line before the Customs desk. In his weakness, the gaiety around him +seemed artificial, and the noise of voices was unendurable.</p> + +<p>Just ahead of him in line was a young man in an obviously new suit; the +pretty girl holding to his arm still had a few grains of rice shining in +her hair.</p> + +<p>"That will be all," said the Inspector. "I hope you and Mrs. Hall have a +very happy honeymoon. Next!"</p> + +<p>He gritted his teeth to stop his trembling as the Inspector reached for +the passport, glanced at a notation, then looked up.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to ask you to step in and see Dr. Willoughby, our ship's +doctor. It will only take a moment, Dr. Chase."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not infectious!"</p> + +<p>"But there seems to be some question of fitness. In cases like yours the +Star Line likes to have a final check, just to make sure you'll be able +to stand the trip. We're responsible, after all. Last door on my right."</p> + +<p>Close to exhaustion, Alan walked down the hall to the last door and +stepped inside. A healthy, rugged man with prominent black eyes looked +at him with a speculative glance.</p> + +<p>"And what can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>Holding out his passport, Alan sank down into a chair, glad of a chance +to rest, while Dr. Willoughby studied the document, then looked up, the +routine smile wiped off his face.</p> + +<p>"Well! So you're Dr. Alan Chase. I've been much interested in the papers +you've been publishing recently. But this is bad news, Dr. Chase. I +suppose you had an independent check on the diagnosis?"</p> + +<p>"Not even one of our freshmen could have missed it, but I had it +confirmed by Simmons and von Kramm."</p> + +<p>"Then there's no question. How did you pick it up, doctor? Neosarcoma is +still rather a rare disease, and it's not supposed to be very +infectious."</p> + +<p>Alan tried to speak casually,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> although just looking at the rugged good +health of the man opposite him made him feel weaker.</p> + +<p>"No, it's not very infectious. But after medical school, I went into +research instead of practice, and I worked on neosarcoma for nearly five +years, trying to devise a competitive chemical antagonist. Then, as used +to happen so often in the old days, I finally picked it up myself—a lab +infection."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The older man nodded. "Well, you're doing the right thing now in going +to Almazin III. I've made some study of the disease myself, as you may +know, and I entirely agree with your theory that it is caused by a +virus, and kept active by radiation. Since the atomic wars, the +increased radioactivity of the earth undoubtedly stimulates mitosis of +the malignant cells. It feeds the disease, and kills the man. But on a +planet like Almazin III where the radiation index is close to zero, the +mitosis of the sarcoma cells stops abruptly, virus or no virus."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to hear that," said Alan. "I've read some of your papers on +the subject, and the evidence sounds pretty convincing."</p> + +<p>"It's conclusive. If you arrive in time you've nothing to worry about. +I've seen men as badly off as you, with malignant growths well advanced, +who migrated to Almazin III and recovered within a year. Without +radioactivity to maintain it, the disease seems to be arrested +immediately, and if the tissue damage has not gone too far, the tumor +regresses and eventually disappears. Once you're cured, you can come +back to earth and take up your work where you left off. Well, let's +check you over."</p> + +<p>The examination was brief. Dr. Willoughby initialed the passport, and +offered his hand.</p> + +<p>"You should stand the trip all right. But I'm glad you didn't put it off +any longer than you did. Another two months of earth's emanations, and +I'm afraid I couldn't have certified you. It's lucky for you that the +<i>Star Lord</i> is the fastest ship in space. That's all, Dr. Chase. I'll be +seeing you on board."</p> + +<p>In the swiftly moving elevator cage Alan ascended the slender pylon to +the boarding platform, crowded by a group of quarreling children in +charge of an indifferent nursemaid.</p> + +<p>The Chief Steward, rustling in starched whites, stepped forward at the +port, clicked his heels, and curved his thin lips into a smile.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, sir. The Star Line wishes you a happy voyage. Will you +be kind enough to choose?"</p> + +<p>Following his nod, Alan looked down at the silver tray extended for his +inspection, and then step<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>ped back as a heavy perfume assaulted his +nostrils.</p> + +<p>"What are those?"</p> + +<p>"Carnations, sir, for the gentlemen's coats, and rose corsages for the +ladies' gowns. Compliments of the Star Line."</p> + +<p>"But they're white!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. The white flowers, the only kind we are able to grow in +Y-port, are symbols of the white light of the stars, we like to think."</p> + +<p>"What idiot gave the Star Line that idea?" said Dr. Chase. "You know +stars are all colors—white, green, yellow, blue, and even red. But +white carnations are a symbol of death."</p> + +<p>Steward Davis lowered his tray. "Then you don't care to wear one, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Not until I have to," said Alan. "Now please call some one to show me +my cabin."</p> + +<p>"Band playing in the lounge, sir. Tea is being served in the Moon Room, +and the Bar is open until just before takeoff."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, but I've been ill. I just want to find my cabin."</p> + +<p>"Boy!" called Steward Davis. "Show this gentleman to 31Q."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Alan followed the pageboy through a complex of corridors, ascending +spirals of stairs, down a hall, and to the door of Cabin 31Q. The boy +threw open the door and Alan stepped in, then halted in shocked +disbelief at sight of a white-haired old man who was just lifting a +shirt from an opened suitcase.</p> + +<p>"I am Dr. Chase. Isn't this Cabin 31Q?"</p> + +<p>The old man beamed, his pink skin breaking into a thousand tiny +wrinkles. "That's right. 31Q it is."</p> + +<p>"Then what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Have you no powers of observation? Unpacking, of course. I was assigned +to this cabin."</p> + +<p>Staggering over to a bunk, Alan sagged back against the wall. He lifted +his tired eyelids and stared at the sprightly old gentleman.</p> + +<p>"But I was promised a cabin by myself!"</p> + +<p>The old man looked distressed. "I'm very sorry, young man. I, too, hoped +to have a cabin to my self. I learned only a few minutes ago that I was +to be quartered with another passenger—evidently you. Somebody made a +mistake, there's no question of that, but the Purser tells me that every +bit of space is occupied, and no other arrangements can be made. Unless +you want to postpone your voyage, and follow in a later ship?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Alan. His voice had sunk to a whisper. "No, I can't do that."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll have to make the best of it, young man," he said, picking up +a pile of handkerchiefs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> and putting them in the drawer he had pulled +out from the wall.</p> + +<p>"Let me introduce myself. I am Wilson Larrabee—teacher, or student, +according to the point of view. Some years of my life I've spent being a +professor of this or that at various universities, and the other years +I've spent in travel. Whenever the bank account gets low, I offer my +knowledge to the nearest university, and stay there until I pile up +enough credits so I can travel again."</p> + +<p>"Sounds a lonely sort of life, with no roots anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! My wife loved travelling as much as I do, and wherever she was, +was home." He paused, his hand arrested in the act of hanging up his +last necktie, and for a moment his face was somber. Then he finished +hanging up the tie, gave it a little pat, and continued cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"We saw most of the world, in the fifty years we had together. The last +trip she made with me, to the Moon and back, was in some ways the +pleasantest of all. After we returned, we started planning and saving +and dreaming of making one last grand tour outside the solar system. And +then—well, she was more than seventy, and I try to think that she isn't +dead, that she just started the last tour a little ahead of me. That's +why I'm making this jaunt now, the one we planned on the <i>Star Lord</i>. +It's lonely, in a way, but she wouldn't have wanted me to give up and +stay home, just because I had to go on alone."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Glancing at Alan's bent head, Professor Larrabee abruptly banged shut +the lid of his empty suitcase and shoved it into the conveyor port in +the wall to shoot it down to Luggage. Then he straightened up and +rumpled his white hair.</p> + +<p>"That's done, young man. Will you join me in the Bar for a spacecap?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry, sir. I'm very tired. I just want to rest and be quiet."</p> + +<p>"But a frothed whiskey would help you to relax. Come along, and let me +buy you a final drink before we take off for eternity."</p> + +<p>Alan noticed with distaste the white carnation in the coat lapel of his +companion. "I hardly like to think of this trip as being synonymous with +eternity," he said. "You sound as though you didn't expect to come +back."</p> + +<p>"Do I? Perhaps I made an unfortunate choice of words. But do you believe +in premonitions, Dr. Chase?"</p> + +<p>"No. All premonitions stem from indigestion."</p> + +<p>"No doubt you are right. But from the moment of boarding this ship I +have been haunted by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> memory of an extremely vivid story I once +read."</p> + +<p>"What kind of a story?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was a scientific romance, one of those impossible flights of +fancy they used to publish in my boyhood, about the marvels of future +science. This was in the days before we had got outside the solar +system, but I still remember the tale, for it was about a spaceship +which was wrecked on its first voyage."</p> + +<p>"But there've been hundreds of other such stories! Why should this +particular one be bothering you now?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see," said the professor apologetically, "it's because of the +name. The coincidence of names. This other ship, the one in the +story—it was called the <i>Star Lord</i>."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't let that worry me. Surely it's a logical name for a +spaceship?"</p> + +<p>Professor Larrabee laughed. "Logical, and perhaps a trifle presumptuous. +But I'm sure it's a meaningless coincidence, my boy. Now how about that +drink?"</p> + +<p>Alan shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Come, Dr. Chase. Allow me the liberties of an old man. You're obviously +ill, you want to crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after you, and +enjoy the deadly luxury of feeling sorry for yourself. But we can't do +that sort of thing. Let me prescribe for you."</p> + +<p>With an effort, Alan smiled. "All right, Professor. I usually do the +prescribing myself, but right now I'm too tired to argue. I'll accept a +spacecap with pleasure." He swallowed a panedol tablet to ease his pain, +then pulled himself up.</p> + +<p>"That's the spirit, my boy! We will drink to the <i>Star Lord</i>, that she +may have a happier fate than her namesake."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Five minutes before takeoff. The first signal had sounded. The Bar was +closed by now, the lounges deserted, and in theory the twelve hundred +and fifty passengers were secure in their cabins, waiting for the +instantaneous jump into hyperspace.</p> + +<p>At the port, Chief Steward Davis leaned against the wall with his tray +of wilting flowers, while the Second Officer and two crewmen stood by, +waiting for the final signal to close the port.</p> + +<p>They were startled by a sudden commotion, a flurry of voices, and turned +to see the elevator doors open on the loading platform. A group of +laughing people surged forward.</p> + +<p>"But I'm late again, darlings!" cried a vibrant voice. "You must let me +go now! The ship is waiting just for me, I know. Stop holding me!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But we don't want to lose you!" called a man.</p> + +<p>"You know I'll be back in the fall."</p> + +<p>"But the theater can't get along without you!"</p> + +<p>"But it won't be forever, darling!"</p> + +<p>Still laughing, Tanya Taganova pulled away from her teasing friends. She +was a tall woman, very slender; very beautiful, with her burnished +auburn hair and warm brown eyes. She walked forward with the swift +precision of a dancer, in her flared gown of stiff green satin, whose +ruff stood out about her slender neck to frame a regal head. In her arms +she carried an enormous sheaf of red roses.</p> + +<p>With light steps she entered the port, then turned to wave at her +friends and give them a last challenging smile.</p> + +<p>The Second Officer asked sharply, "Are you a passenger, madame? You're +rather late."</p> + +<p>"And I tried <i>so</i> hard to be on time for once in my life! I'm very +sorry, lieutenant!"</p> + +<p>"Quite all right, madame. You got here in time, and that's what counts. +But you'll have to hurry to get to your cabin before takeoff."</p> + +<p>"Wait!" said Steward Davis. His long face had come to life as he looked +at her admiringly and extended his tray of flowers.</p> + +<p>"White roses? For me?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, madame. Compliments of the Star Line."</p> + +<p>Turning her head, she moved away. "Thank you, but I'm not ready to wear +white roses, yet. It's not that they're not lovely, but—" she raised +her arms, burdened with their scented blooms, "you see that I already +have so many flowers, and the red rose is still for the living!"</p> + +<p>Davis banged his tray to the floor and shoved it aside with his foot.</p> + +<p>"All right, madame. Now we'll have to hurry. We'll have to run!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A final bell rang, a final light flashed.</p> + +<p>On the floor below the ship, the crowds of relatives and wistful +stay-at-homes gazed up; at the beautiful metal creation, poised on its +slender fins, nose pointed towards the opened dome.</p> + +<p>A vibration began, a gentle, barely perceptible shuddering of the ground +which increased in frequency. It beat through the floor, into their +feet, until their whole bodies quivered with the racing pulse that grew +faster, faster, as the twenty-four total conversion Piles in the ship +released their power. Then, as the people watched, between one instant +and the next, the ship van<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>ished. In the blink of an eyelid she had +shifted to hyperspace.</p> + +<p>The <i>Star Lord</i> had begun her maiden voyage.</p> + +<p class="center">* * *</p> + +<p>By the second day out, most of the passengers felt completely at home. +The ship had become a separate world, and the routines they had left +behind them on earth, and the various routines they would take up again +some six weeks from now on Almazin III seemed equally remote and +improbable. Life on the <i>Star Lord</i> was the only reality.</p> + +<p>She moved through the uncharted realms of hyperspace, travelling in one +hour's time as measured by earth watches, more than twenty light years +distance, if measured in the units of real space. The ship itself was +quiet. The vibration of the takeoff had ended in a moment, and now the +passengers could hear no noise and hum of motors, could feel no motion +against swelling waves, no battering against a barrier of uneven air. +The artificial gravity induced a sense of security as absolute as though +the ship were resting on living rock.</p> + +<p>Although most of the cabins were small, they were cleverly designed to +provide the maximum of comfort, even the least expensive of them. For +the very wealthy, the rulers of the galaxy's finance, the owners of the +galaxy's industries, the makers of the galaxy's entertainment, there +were the luxury cabins. The floors glowed with the soft reds of oriental +rugs, the lounge chairs were upholstered in fabrics gleaming with gold +thread. Cream-colored satin curtains fluttered in an artificial breeze +at the simulated windows, and on the walls hung tranquil landscapes in +dull gold frames. To those who had engaged them, the ornate cabins +seemed only appropriate to their own eminent positions in life.</p> + +<p>Delicious meals were served three times a day in the several dining +rooms, the softly lighted Bar was never closed, and every day three +theaters offered a varied program of stereo-dramas. There was even—the +most marvelous, daring, expensive luxury of all—a swimming pool. The +pool was small, and was open only to the first cabin passengers, but the +fact that a ship travelling to a distant solar system could afford room +enough for a pool, and extra weight for the water needed to fill it, +seemed evidence that man had achieved a complete conquest of the +inconveniences of space travel.</p> + +<p>One luxury, however, freely accessible to even the poorest sheep herder +on earth, was denied the passengers of the <i>Star Lord</i>.</p> + +<p>They could not see the stars. They could not see the sky.</p> + +<p>The ship had portholes, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> course, and observation rooms which could be +opened if at any time she cruised in normal space, but the ports and +observation windows were closed now, for there was nothing to see. The +ship was surrounded by blackness, the impenetrable, unknowable +blackness, of hyperspace, but this black emptiness did not frighten the +passengers because they never bothered to think about it.</p> + +<p>But the builders of the ship had designed it so that even the simple +pleasure of looking at a friendly sky should not be denied its +passengers. An artificial day and night of the appropriate length was +maintained by the dimming and brightening of lights, and the main +lounges were bounded with special walls which looked like windows, +through which could be glimpsed bright summer days, fleecy clouds +drifting over a blue sky, and, in the evenings, soft starlight.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Every passenger should have been soothed into contentment by these +devices, but by the end of the first week, Burl Jasperson was restless.</p> + +<p>He hated to sit still, and the hours and the days seemed endless. His +bald head and portly body were a familiar sight as he roamed the ship, +inspecting every detail as though it were his personal responsibility. +Once a day he called on Captain Evans to check on the progress of the +<i>Star Lord</i>, once a day he chafed under the cold courtesy of the +Captain's manner, and then wandered on. In his jacket he wore his pocket +recorder, and he was momentarily cheered whenever he found an excuse for +making a memorandum:</p> + +<p>"Chairs in lounge should be two centimeters lower. Sell Deutonium +shares. How about monogrammed linens for the first cabins? Install +gymnasium?"</p> + +<p>As he walked, he murmured these thoughts to his recorder, and each night +his meek and colorless secretary sat up late to transcribe them into the +locked notebook which was his special charge, after Jasperson had taken +his sleeping pills and crawled into bed.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the eighth night out, Burl Jasperson wandered into the +Bar, and drummed his pudgy fingers on the table as he waited to give his +order.</p> + +<p>"A glass of ice water, and a Moon Fizz. And be sure you make it with +genuine absinthe. You fellows seem to think you can get away with making +it with <i>'arak</i>, and your customers won't know the difference. Well, +just remember I'm one customer that does, and I want <i>real</i> absinthe."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, Mr. Jasperson," said the Bar steward.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turning restlessly in his chair, Burl let his eyes stop on the +white-haired old gentleman beside him, happily consuming a brandy and +soda. After a moment's inspection, he stuck out his hand confidently.</p> + +<p>"My name's Jasperson. Everything all right? Enjoying the trip?"</p> + +<p>The pink skin wrinkled in amusement.</p> + +<p>"I am Wilson Larrabee. Everything's fine, thank you, except that the +ship is almost too luxurious for a man of my background. A professor's +salary does not often permit him indulgences of this kind."</p> + +<p>"You a professor? Of what?"</p> + +<p>"Various things at various times. Philosophy, physics, Elizabethan +drama, history of science—"</p> + +<p>"Myself, I never could understand why a sensible man would go into that +business. No money. No prestige. Never doing anything, just reading and +thinking."</p> + +<p>"Every man to his taste," said Larrabee.</p> + +<p>"Yes, within limits. But the things some of you professors think up! +Most of the ideas do more harm than good, scaring people to death, +hurting business. You'd think they ought to have more sense of +responsibility!"</p> + +<p>He tasted his drink, then nodded knowingly at the bartender. "This is +something like! <i>Real</i> absinthe."</p> + +<p>Professor Larrabee studied his companion. "I can hardly suppose, Mr. +Jasperson, that you hold professors responsible for all the ills of the +world. And yet you seem disturbed. Did you have something in particular +in mind?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The Thakura Ripples!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Amusement vanished from the professor's eyes. "What about them?"</p> + +<p>"Why are people so afraid of them? As far as I can see, they're just a +piece of nonsense thought up by a dreamy-eyed physics professor, and he +hypnotized people into believing in them. But as I was telling Captain +Evans last night, they've never been seen, never been measured, and +there's nothing at all to prove that they have any existence outside the +mind of a madman. And yet people are afraid of them!"</p> + +<p>"And just what are the Thakura Ripples?" said Alan Chase, drawing up a +chair. "Waiter, I'll have a spacecap."</p> + +<p>"Feeling a little better tonight, Alan?" asked his friend.</p> + +<p>"Some, thanks. I just had a checkup from Dr. Willoughby, and he thinks +I'm more than holding my own. Now go on about the Ripples. Where are +they? What do they do?"</p> + +<p>"Suit yourself," Jasperson muttered. "If you want to tell ghost stories, +go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. The Thakura Rip<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>ples, my boy, are an unexplained phenomenon +of hyperspace. We do not know what they are—only that they are +dangerous."</p> + +<p>"But I thought that space was entirely uniform?"</p> + +<p>"Alas, no. Not even normal space can be called uniform. It has been +known for a long time that variations exist in the density of the +interstellar gases. Just why they occur, what pattern they follow, if +any, was for many years one of the major unsolved problems confronting +astronomers and physicists. Then they learned that these variations in +density of the interstellar gases were directly connected with the +development of the successive ice ages on the earth, and eventually a +study of the collisions and interactions of the various light forces +from the stars in the galaxy made the pattern clear. We know, now, that +the variations occur only in a certain band of space. They may occur at +any given place within that band, but their position is constantly +shifting and unpredictable."</p> + +<p>"Now you see it, now you don't?" said Alan.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Now it was Thakura's theory that the Ripples are an analogous +band of mysterious forces existing in hyperspace. They may be tangible +barriers, they may be force barriers, we do not know. But a ship +entering this lane <i>may</i> go through it without damage, and by pure +chance take a course which misses all these bumps in space. Or, by going +slowly and using his instruments to feel his way, a navigator can often +sense them ahead, and if he is skillful he may be able to dodge them. +But if, in some terrible moment, he smashes head-on against the Thakura +Ripples, the conversion Piles which power his ship are immediately +affected. They begin to heat, perhaps to heat irreversibly, and if they +get out of control, they may vaporize. In the last fifty years at least +five ships have vanished in this region, and it was Thakura's belief +that they were disintegrated on the Ripples."</p> + +<p>"But there isn't any evidence!" Jasperson exploded.</p> + +<p>"Isn't a demolished space ship evidence?"</p> + +<p>"No! It's evidence that something went wrong, certainly, but it doesn't +tell us <i>what</i> went wrong. I'm not an unreasonable man, professor, I'm a +hardheaded business man, and I like to deal with facts."</p> + +<p>"I don't have an intimate knowledge of these matters, of course," said +Larrabee, "but it was my impression that in the past fifty years since +travel in hyperspace became common, several ships have been +unaccountably lost."</p> + +<p>"Your first figure was right. Five ships have been lost—that much is +fact. Why they were lost is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> still a question. It's my considered +opinion that they were lost by human failure; the crewmen let the Piles +get hot, and the ships were helpless. In the early days they had to get +along with only one or two Piles, and if they went wrong the ship was +done for. But we've changed all that. That's why the <i>Star Lord</i> has +twenty-four Piles. No matter what happens it's impossible that <i>all</i> of +them should go bad at once. She can ditch the dangerous Piles and still +always have power enough left to make port. One thing is certain, this +ship will never be wrecked on the Ripples of a mad scientist's +imagination! A phenomenon like the Ripples, is impossible. If it +existed, we'd have had some proof of it many years ago."</p> + +<p>"But surely you don't mean to imply that if we don't know a fact, it is +therefore impossible?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. But you know yourself, Professor Larrabee—you're an +educated man—that by this time our physicists understand the universe +completely, from A to Z. There are no unexplained phenomena. Thakura is +shut up in a madhouse now. In my opinion, he was already insane when he +published his theory."</p> + +<p>Larrabee was nodding, thoughtfully. "I wonder what makes you so certain +of your theory?"</p> + +<p>"What theory? I never deal in theories. I'm talking fact."</p> + +<p>"Your theory that we have unveiled all the mystery of the universe; how +do you know? Every now and then, of course, man lives through a century +of such amazing progress that he concludes that nothing remains to be +learned. But how can he ever be certain?"</p> + +<p>"But we are certain! Most physicists are in agreement now that there +hasn't been one single unexplained physical aberration in the past +century!"</p> + +<p>"Most physicists except Thakura, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"But Thakura is insane! We understand all the physical phenomena of the +universe."</p> + +<p>"Except the Thakura Ripples?"</p> + +<p>Jasperson slammed down his glass and stood up, his face red and puffy. +"Steward! More ice water! I'm getting tired of those words, professor. +Do you think for one minute I'd have risked my life to come on this trip +if I'd thought there was the slightest danger?"</p> + +<p>Alan looked up languidly. "You mean you wouldn't mind sending a crew and +passengers into danger—as long as you could take care to be safe +yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Surely you're not afraid, Mr. Jasperson?" said Larrabee.</p> + +<p>"No. What is there to be afraid of?" He gulped down his drink. "Nothing +can wreck the <i>Star Lord</i>!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When Dr. Alan Chase woke up next morning and glanced at his wrist watch, +he realized that the breakfast hour was nearly over. Professor Larrabee +had already left the cabin.</p> + +<p>Alan was not hungry. It had been many months since he had really enjoyed +an appetite for food, but he got up and began to dress, so that he could +perform the duty of eating. But his clothes, he noticed, were beginning +to fit a little more snugly. He fastened his belt at a new and +previously unused notch, buttoned his jacket, and then performed the +ritual he carried out every morning and every evening.</p> + +<p>Touching a facet in the ornamentation of his wrist watch, he walked +about, geigering the room. Radiation normal, somewhat less than earth's +normal, in fact. The twenty-four Piles were well shielded, and if this +continued, he should survive the journey in fair shape.</p> + +<p>At the door of the dining room he paused, for the entrance was blocked +by Steward Davis and the young couple he had noticed the day they left +Y-port.</p> + +<p>The tall young man with rumpled black hair was arguing, while the pretty +girl clung to his arm and watched his face admiringly, as though he were +the only man in the world.</p> + +<p>"But Steward," said the young man, "Dorothy and I—that is, Mrs. Hall +and I—we felt sure we'd be able to have a table by ourselves. We don't +want to be unreasonable, it's only that this is our honeymoon, maybe the +only time we'll ever get to spend together, really, and we like to eat +alone, together, I mean. That's the reason we chose the <i>Star Lord</i>, +because the advertisements all talked about how big and roomy it was, +and how it didn't have to be so miserly with its space as they did in +earlier ships. They said you could have privacy, and not have to crowd +all together in one stuffy little cabin, the way they used to."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Mr. Hall," said the Steward crisply. "We are all proud of +the spaciousness of our ship, but not even the <i>Star Lord</i> can provide +separate tables for everybody who—Oh, <i>good</i> morning, Mr. Jasperson! +Glad to see you, sir." Turning his back on Tom, he smiled and bowed to +the new arrival "Everything all right, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Dr. Chase. No nightmares last night? 'Morning Davis. Tell +that waiter of mine to be more particular about giving me plenty of ice +water. I like plenty of water, and I like it cold."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, sir. I'll speak to him at once." He bowed again as Jasperson +strode on.</p> + +<p>"Then could we—" Tom began.</p> + +<p>Davis whirled with an impatient frown. "What? Are you still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> here? +Surely I made it clear that there's nothing I can do, Mr. Hall?"</p> + +<p>"But couldn't you at least move us to another table?"</p> + +<p>"I regret that you are dissatisfied with our arrangements. All table +space was allocated before we took off from Y-port."</p> + +<p>"But you've put us with such noisy people!" said Tom stubbornly. "They +keep talking about how much money they made in deutonium, and they refer +to us, right in front of us, as the babes in the woods. They may be +rich, but they haven't the manners of a six-year old. We <i>can't</i> stay at +that table."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hall, I can't waste any more time with you. If all our passengers +were to demand special privileges—" He shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Dorothy Hall whispered shyly, "Ask him, then, what about that man?" and +she nodded her head slightly to the right.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tom. "You say there isn't enough room, but what about that +table over there? It's made to seat two, and there's just that one man +who eats alone."</p> + +<p>Davis glanced over. "Oh, yes. But that's Mr. Jasperson! He likes to be +by himself."</p> + +<p>"Who's Mr. Jasperson?"</p> + +<p>"A very important man."</p> + +<p>"And I'm not?"</p> + +<p>Alan broke in. "Excuse me, Mr. Hall. I am Dr. Chase. Won't you join my +table? Three of the people assigned places there are Almazanians, a +diplomatic mission, I think, and they naturally prefer to have their own +cuisine in their own cabins, so we have room for three more."</p> + +<p>"How about it, Steward," said Tom. "Any objections?"</p> + +<p>Shrugging his shoulders, Davis strolled away.</p> + +<p>Tom glared at the retreating back. "That guy has the face of a murderer. +He can't be decent to anybody with less than a million credits."</p> + +<p>Dorothy laughed. "Never mind, Tom. Someday you'll be the most famous +lawyer in the Interstellar courts, and maybe you'll get a chance to +prosecute him for arson or treason."</p> + +<p>Alan led them to the rear of the dining room, where his two table +companions were finishing the last sips of their coffee, and lighting +the first cigarette of the morning.</p> + +<p>"Miss Taganova, may I present Tom and Dorothy Hall, who would like to +share our table."</p> + +<p>Tanya lifted her beautiful auburn head and smiled a welcome. Professor +Larrabee stood up, his pink cheeks crinkling with pleasure as he shook +hands with Tom.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Young people make the best companions," he said, "especially on long +journeys."</p> + +<p>Alan sat down and reached for the vitamin dispenser. "These particular +young people want privacy. They're on their honeymoon, and would hardly +shed a tear if all the rest of the world suddenly ceased to exist."</p> + +<p>"It's not quite like that, Dr. Chase," said Tom, his face reddening, +"but those people at our other table were just out of our class, one way +or another. The men talked all the time about their bank accounts, and +the women clawed at each other about which one had the biggest house, +and the biggest pearls and diamonds and emeralds, until we began to feel +smothered in a blanket of credits and diamonds."</p> + +<p>"Credits and diamonds must be very nice things to have," said Tanya. +"I've never managed to collect many of either."</p> + +<p>"I've nothing against them in themselves," said Tom, "but right now they +don't seem to matter very much. We had to wait five long years to be +married, five years for me to finish my law training, and for Dorothy to +wear out her family's opposition. They didn't want her to throw herself +away on a penniless lawyer."</p> + +<p>"As if I were a child who didn't know her own mind," said Dorothy. +"Well, I wanted Tom, penniless or not; and anyway, in a few years he's +going to be the finest lawyer in the Interstellar Courts."</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll always be as happy as you are now, children." The +professor's eyes were misty as he stood up. "Come, Miss Tanya. Take a +stroll with me, and bring back to an old man a brief illusion of youth."</p> + +<p>"But you'll never be old!" she said affectionately. "You're still the +most fascinating man on the ship."</p> + +<p>Like every other man in the room, Alan watched with envious eyes as +Tanya took the professor's arm and sauntered to the door, the heavy +taffeta skirts of her pearl-gray gown swishing and rustling as she +walked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Within the sealed hulk of the <i>Star Lord</i> the twenty-four Piles silently +did their work, out of sight, out of the thoughts of the passengers. +Driving the ship through the unknowable infinities of hyperspace, they +held her quiet, steady, seemingly without motion. They behaved as they +were intended to, their temperatures remained docilely within the normal +limits of safety, and the ship sped on.</p> + +<p>The technicians and maintenance men, the navigators, the nucleonics men, +all kept aloof from the social eddies frothing at the center of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +ship. They lived in another world, a world of leashed power, in which +the trivial pursuits of the passengers were as irrelevant as the +twitterings of birds.</p> + +<p>In the central tiers occupied by the passengers, each morning the walls +of the lounges and dining rooms resumed their daily routine of +simulating the panorama of earth's day. Lights glowed into a clear +sunrise, brightened into a sunny sky across which light clouds scudded.</p> + +<p>Children played in the nurseries, grownups idled through the hours, +eating the delicious food, taking a dip in the priceless pool, attending +the stereodrams, and playing games. At the cocktail hour, the orchestra +played jaunty tunes, old-fashioned polkas, waltzes, mazurkas; at dinner, +it shifted to slower, muted melodies, suitable background for high +feminine voices, deep male laughter, and the heavy drone of talk.</p> + +<p>In the walls, the sun set, twilight crept in, and the stars came out. +After the stars had been advancing for several hours, people finished +their dancing and card games, walked out of the theaters, had a final +drink at the Bar, paused at the bulletin board which detailed the ship's +daily progress, and went to bed.</p> + +<p>Dr. Alan Chase followed his own routine. Each morning and each evening +he geigered his cabin and found the radiation still below the earth +normal. He was surprised to find that he was holding his own, +physically, instead of becoming progressively weaker, as he had +expected, and he began to feel hopeful that he might quickly regain his +health on the inert atmosphere of Almazin III. He was not strong enough, +however, to take part in the active games of the passengers, and had not +enough energy to try to make friends, except for the people at his +dining table—particularly Tanya.</p> + +<p>Of all the lovely women on board, he thought Tanya Taganova the +loveliest. He knew he was not alone in this, for the arresting planes of +her face, the dramatic color of her rustling taffeta gowns, attracted +many followers. He would sit in the lounge at night and watch her +dancing, and then realize, suddenly, that she had disappeared, long +before the evening was over. She was an elusive creature, as +unpredictable as a butterfly.</p> + +<p>Wandering listlessly about the ship, one afternoon he stepped through +the open door of the Library. In the almost empty room he saw the auburn +head of Tanya, bent over so as to hide her face and show him only her +glowing hair. She raised her head as he approached.</p> + +<p>"Are you looking for a book, Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Chase?"</p> + +<p>"No, I just wondered what was interesting you so much."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>She shifted her seat, to let him see a large sheet of rough drawing +paper covered with a chalk sketch of a desolate gray marsh over which +green waves swirled from the sea, behind them loomed rose-colored +granite hills.</p> + +<p>"I'm a scene designer, you know. But at home, somehow, I never have time +to myself. People will never believe I'm serious, and when I want to get +some real work done, I run away on a trip, by myself. Right now I'm +sketching out a set for a new stereodrama we're staging next autumn. +This particular one is for a melancholy suicide on Venus. I've several +more here." She pointed to a scattered heap of drawings.</p> + +<p>The soft chime of the library telephone interrupted them. Tanya rose and +moved to the desk.</p> + +<p>"Yes? Not now, youngster. I'm working. Yes, maybe tomorrow."</p> + +<p>Alan had been examining her drawings. "Is this what you do during the +hours when you disappear?".</p> + +<p>"Usually. Sometimes I drop into the playroom to chat with the children. +They're more interesting than their parents, for the most part, and +nobody ever seems to pay much attention to them."</p> + +<p>"But do you have to work at night, too? When you disappear in the middle +of the evening, everybody misses you. The men all watch for you to come +back, their wives sigh with relief, and old man Jasperson toddles around +and searches the dance floor and bleats, 'Where's Miss Tanya? She was +here just a little while ago, and now I can't find her anywhere!'"</p> + +<p>"I know. But one dance an evening with him is about all I can stand. I +don't really like the man."</p> + +<p>"But why? He's a little stupid, but he seems a harmless sort of duck. In +a financial deal, of course, I can see that he'd be sharp and +ruthless—that's how men like him become millionaires—but he can't +knife anybody on shipboard."</p> + +<p>Tanya slashed a heavy black line across her drawing, bearing down so +hard that she broke the chalk, and threw the pieces to the floor.</p> + +<p>"He's a coward! Haven't you ever noticed the way he bullies the waiters? +How he patronizes Professor Larrabee, and ignores the young Halls? And +to hear him tell it, you'd think only his advice makes it possible for +Captain Evans to run the ship! I'm afraid of men like that. They're +cowardly and boastful, and in a crisis they are dangerous!"</p> + +<p>"What an outburst over a fat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> little bald-headed man! Aren't you letting +your dramatic sense run away with you?"</p> + +<p>Laughing, Tanya picked up her chalk and resumed sketching. "Probably, +but after all, I earn my living with my imagination."</p> + +<p>"Then you aren't just a rich young woman dabbling in the theater?"</p> + +<p>"No indeed. If you could see my bank account! No, I'm going to Almazin +III to make authentic sketches of the landscape. We may do a show set in +that locale, next year."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could see some of the shows you stage."</p> + +<p>"When we get home, I'll send you a pass."</p> + +<p>He did not answer. Suddenly the melancholy Venusian scene she was +creating depressed him, as if it had been a reflection of his own barren +life.</p> + +<p>"Or don't you like the theater, Dr. Chase?"</p> + +<p>"It's not that," he said hastily. "Only—" He shrugged his shoulders. +"Something about this ship, I suppose. Home seems so very far away."</p> + +<p>"Have you felt that too? I've had the feeling, sometimes, that earth +isn't there any more, and that this ship is the only reality."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>By the end of the third week out, Burl Jasperson was afflicted by an +almost intolerable tension. He prowled the ship like a tiger, for he +could think of nothing more to do. For the moment there were no more +improvements to suggest to the Star Line, no more brilliant financial +deals to execute, and each empty minute seemed to swell into an endless +hour. He tried to relax by viewing the dramas on the stereoscreen, but +he was always too uneasy to sit through an entire performance, and would +leave in the middle to resume his pacing of the corridors.</p> + +<p>At his private table in the dining room he stared at the empty chair +across from him, munching his food mechanically, seething with unrest. +He could see Tanya's gleaming head across the room, with Alan Chase's +beside her, and he tortured himself with imagining the light laughter, +the friendly talk which must be taking place there. Never, before this +trip, had he been made to feel so unnecessary, so much an outsider. +Wasn't he a lord of finance, a master of industry, the kind of a man to +be respected and admired? Of course, less successful men called him +ruthless, he realized, but he was not ruthless—only realistic. He was +an able man, and if he expected people in general to take orders from +him, it was only because he was more intelligent and more capable than +the people to whom he gave his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> orders. Nothing wrong with that.</p> + +<p>But these miserable empty days were beginning to frighten him. He felt +lost. The ship ran by herself, without needing his help, and there was +no doubt at all that she would win the Blue Ribbon. Although he +questioned Captain Evans sharply, and checked every day on the minutest +data of the voyage, so far he had found nothing to criticize—except the +coldness of Josiah Evans' manner.</p> + +<p>He ground his teeth through a stalk of celery in a vicious bite. After +all, wasn't he Chairman of the board of directors of the Star Line? +Wasn't it his right, even his duty, to make sure that everything was +going well?</p> + +<p>The crowd of diners had grown thin, now, and he could see clearly the +little group at Tanya's table. They were laughing, and he could see the +delightful animation which always disappeared whenever he tried to talk +to her.</p> + +<p>Steward Davis sidled up, a deferential smile on his long face.</p> + +<p>"Is everything all right, Mr. Jasperson?"</p> + +<p>"Um."</p> + +<p>"Looks like we'll get the Blue Ribbon this trip, doesn't it, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Um."</p> + +<p>"If you should ever want any special dishes, sir, any little delicacies +not available to everyone, I should be glad to speak to the chef."</p> + +<p>Jasperson pushed his plate away. "I'll remember, Davis." Throwing down +his napkin he stood up. His waiter came running.</p> + +<p>"Dessert, sir?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Without answering, he strode across the room, trying to compose his +mouth into a smile as he reached his goal.</p> + +<p>"Miss Taganova, would you care to join me in the bar for a drink?"</p> + +<p>They all looked up at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"But I've just finished dinner," she said.</p> + +<p>He waited, uncertainly. At last Professor Larrabee pointed to the +unoccupied chair.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you'd care to join us, instead?"</p> + +<p>No one else spoke, and he sat down nervously. Conversation had stopped, +and at last he broke out with explosive force.</p> + +<p>"I wish Captain Evans would speed up this ship. It feels as if we'd been +on the way forever. And still three weeks to go!"</p> + +<p>"Do you find three weeks so long a time?" asked the professor.</p> + +<p>"It seems like eternity. I wish something would happen. Why can't we +have a little excitement?"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you find any more banks to break today?" Alan drawled. "No +gambles on the stock exchange?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>The professor broke in soothingly. "Now, there's an idea! You're +obviously a gambling man, a man of action. Do you play poker? Why don't +you get up a little game among your friends? That ought to provide you +with excitement for one evening at least."</p> + +<p>"Would you join the game?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, my dear Mr. Jasperson! You and I do not move in the same +circles. I confess, I enjoy the delightful uncertainties of poker, but I +could never afford to play for your stakes."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll make the stakes what you can afford. Each raise limited to +five credits?"</p> + +<p>"In that case, I might consider it."</p> + +<p>"You, Dr. Chase?"</p> + +<p>"Too exciting for an invalid, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"You, Mr. Hall?"</p> + +<p>Tom squeezed Dorothy's hand under the table. "No, thank you, Mr. +Jasperson. My wife and I, we have other plans."</p> + +<p>"If it's money, young fellow, I'll stake you, and you can have a year to +pay me back."</p> + +<p>Tom grinned. "You're very generous. But what makes you so sure you'd be +the winner?"</p> + +<p>"I always win. Will you join the game, Miss Taganova?"</p> + +<p>He accepted her silent head-shake without protest.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll try to round up two or three others. We don't want a big +crowd—too many people make me nervous. Perhaps Willoughby will play, +and I'll get Captain Evans. He doesn't like the game, but he'll sit in +if I insist. See you in my suite in half an hour."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The poker game had been in progress for more than an hour when Captain +Evans entered the parlor. Frowning, Jasperson looked up.</p> + +<p>"You're late, Josiah. I told you we'd begin at nine."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, Burl. I was delayed."</p> + +<p>Jasperson paused in the act of raking in the pot, and looked up sharply.</p> + +<p>"Anything wrong?"</p> + +<p>"No, all serene."</p> + +<p>"Anything you need my advice on?"</p> + +<p>"No, just a routine conference with the navigator."</p> + +<p>"Then pull up a chair and get in the game."</p> + +<p>Nearly half the chips were piled in front of Jasperson, and across from +him a modest heap sat before the professor. At his right the baggy-eyed +only son of a deutonium millionaire fingered his dwindling pile +indifferently, and on his left Dr. Willoughby stared unbelievingly at +his few remaining chips, three blues and a couple of whites.</p> + +<p>"I'll just watch," said the Captain. "You know I'm not much of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> a +gambler. Chess is my game."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come on, Josiah. I insist that you play. Prove that you've got red +blood in your veins."</p> + +<p>Evans hesitated, but remained standing. "I'd rather just look on."</p> + +<p>"Now look here, Captain. Doesn't the Star Line always try to please its +passengers? Well, I'm a passenger. Or is it just your native caution +that makes you afraid of losing?" His laugh did not entirely disguise +the irritation in his voice.</p> + +<p>"All right, anything to oblige," said Evans wearily, pulling up a chair. +"What stakes are you playing for?"</p> + +<p>The Captain lost, slowly and steadily. Mechanically he went through the +motions of dealing, discarding, drawing, and betting, but it was obvious +that his mind was not on the game. Jasperson rarely lost a hand, if he +had stayed at all, while Professor Larrabee's luck was unpredictable, +the pile of chips before him fluctuating, growing or diminishing with +startling swiftness.</p> + +<p>They were interrupted once when a waiter came in with a tray of bottles +and glasses. The Captain refused.</p> + +<p>"But one drink won't do you any harm," said Jasperson.</p> + +<p>"I never drink in space. For one thing, the rules of the Star Line +explicitly forbid it, as you should know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I helped make that rule. That means I can release you from it."</p> + +<p>But Evans was firm. "I never drink in space," he repeated. "I'll take +two cards—no, make it three."</p> + +<p>The professor surveyed his hand with his customary sprightly air.</p> + +<p>"I'll play these," he said.</p> + +<p>Jasperson discarded. "I'll take one."</p> + +<p>Captain Evans languidly opened the betting, but after the first round he +dropped out, and only Jasperson and the professor remained. Each raised +the other persistently, and while Jasperson grew more and more excited, +the professor smiled as usual, his eyes glinting with amusement.</p> + +<p>"And another five," said Larrabee.</p> + +<p>For the first time, Jasperson hesitated. "You sure you mean it, +professor? I kind of hate to clean you out, especially because I doubt +if you can afford it."</p> + +<p>"Suppose you let me be the judge of what is, after all, a private +matter?"</p> + +<p>"All right, it's you that will go bankrupt, not me. And another five."</p> + +<p>"See you, and raise you five!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Jasperson sat back and pondered, his cold eyes calculating.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> "Now let's +review the situation, just among friends. The professor's a smart man, +and he isn't rich. He saw me draw one card, so he can make a pretty good +guess what I probably hold, if I drew the right card, but he's playing a +pat hand, and playing as if he meant it. Well, I've put a lot of credits +in that pot, but I never did believe in throwing good money after bad, +even in a friendly game. I quit."</p> + +<p>"What? You mean you're going to drop out without even seeing me?"</p> + +<p>"I know when I'm licked. Five credits is five credits, even to me." He +threw down his cards and reached to gather in the deck.</p> + +<p>Slowly Professor Larrabee raked in the chips, as Jasperson went on +complacently.</p> + +<p>"That's the only principle a practical man can work on. Know when you're +licked. Get all the facts, analyze all the data, and then act on the +logical conclusion, no matter how much you may hate to. It was clear to +me that you must have drawn a pat flush that would top my straight, so I +simply decided not to waste any more money."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Jasperson. I appreciate the gift."</p> + +<p>"It was no gift. You had me beat."</p> + +<p>"Did I? Only if you had all the facts, only if you analyzed all the +data, and only if you reached the correct conclusion. Perhaps you ought +to see what I held."</p> + +<p>Deliberately he turned over his hand and spread the cards.</p> + +<p>Jasperson jumped to his feet in a rage. "But that's a handful of junk! +Not even a pair! You held a bust, and I had you beat!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. But you didn't know it. Without all the facts, you acted on +a faulty conclusion."</p> + +<p>Breathing noisily, his plump face flushed, Jasperson smashed his fist +into his pile of chips and scattered them to the floor.</p> + +<p>"A pure bluff! I hate bluffing!"</p> + +<p>"Then you miss a great deal of fun in life," said Larrabee calmly. "I +find it dull just to analyze data and then bet on a sure thing. I like a +little excitement."</p> + +<p>Slowly the financier sank back into his chair. He gulped in a large +breath of air and tried to steady himself, a sickly smile around his +mouth.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Professor. But you took me by surprise." Hands trembling, he +began to shuffle the deck.</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door, and a crewman entered.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Stacey?" said Captain Evans.</p> + +<p>"Chief Wyman is waiting to see you in your quarters, sir."</p> + +<p>With a sigh of relief, the Cap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>tain turned in his few chips. "Time for +me to quit, anyway."</p> + +<p>His face still red, Jasperson looked up hopefully. "Shall I come with +you? Any way I can be of use?"</p> + +<p>"No thank you, Burl. I'll leave you to your little game."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In the Captain's quarters, Chief Wyman was pacing the floor.</p> + +<p>"Sir!" he burst out. "This is it! We've hit the Thakura Ripples!"</p> + +<p>"Impossible, Wyman! It's too soon. What's happened?"</p> + +<p>"You told me to report as soon as we ran across anything suspicious, +sir. Well, look what our screen has been picking up."</p> + +<p>He handed over a plastic record tape, perforated by minute notches which +outlined an unsystematic, jagged line of peaks and hollows.</p> + +<p>"We've been getting this stuff all evening."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't seem to mean anything. It doesn't show any sort of pattern."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, and it may not mean anything, but it's different from what +we've been getting up till now. And then another thing. It's probably +not serious, but the number ten Pile has started to heat."</p> + +<p>"Begun to heat? What's wrong with Pile Ten? One of your men been getting +careless?"</p> + +<p>"I'm positive not, sir. I have complete confidence in all of them."</p> + +<p>Captain Evans studied the record tape, a worried frown on his forehead.</p> + +<p>"It's just possible, I suppose, that the Ripples—Is Pile Ten heating +fast?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. It's still below the critical level, and of course we're +putting in dampers."</p> + +<p>"I wish we <i>knew</i> something definite about the Thakura Ripples," the +Captain burst out, "what they are, what they do, what they look like, +and <i>how</i> they affect our atomic Piles! If only Thakura were still a +sane man, and could finish up his calculations!"</p> + +<p>"Maybe Thakura was crazy to start with," said Chief Wyman, "or maybe the +Ripples drove him crazy. I don't know. But I do know Pile Ten is +heating."</p> + +<p>"Well, keep watching it. Double the checks on the other Piles, and let +me know of even the slightest rise."</p> + +<p>As soon as the door had closed, Evans opened the desk panel and buzzed +Operations.</p> + +<p>"Pilot Thayer? Captain Evans here. I am about to give you an order. As +soon as you have executed it, come at once to my cabin, and bring +Navigator Smith with you. Here it comes. Reduce speed immediately, +repeat immediately, to one-half, repeat one-half. That's all."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Nobody felt the alteration in the progress of the <i>Star Lord</i>. Within +the metal casing of the ship nothing was changed. The sunny scenes in +the walls were just as bright, and the synthetic light of the slowly +moving stars at night was just as soothing. For the passengers, the +black menace outside the ship did not exist. Because change of speed +cannot be felt in hyperspace, they had no way of realizing that the +<i>Star Lord</i> had slackened her pace and was feeling her way cautiously as +a blind man to avoid the ominous barriers of the Thakura Ripples.</p> + +<p>On their way to their cabins that night, there were a few people who +noticed that the bulletin which detailed the day's run had not been +posted on the board, but they wondered only for a moment why it had been +omitted, and then forgot the matter.</p> + +<p>Going in to breakfast next morning, Burl Jasperson stopped to read the +bulletin as usual, to find how many light years distance had been put +behind him in this interminable journey, and he clenched his fist at +finding a blank board before him.</p> + +<p>Abruptly turning his back on the dining room, he proceeded straight to +the Captain's quarters, where Stacey stopped him in the anteroom.</p> + +<p>"Where's Captain Evans?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Mr. Jasperson. The Captain left orders he was not to be +disturbed."</p> + +<p>"He'll see <i>me</i>. Let him know I'm here."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, sir. My orders were, nobody was to be admitted. He was very +specific."</p> + +<p>Stacey did not budge, but the inner door swung open and the Captain's +tired face peered out.</p> + +<p>"You have a very penetrating voice, Burl. I suppose you might as well +come in. It's all right, Stacey. Stand by."</p> + +<p>He moved to let Jasperson enter, and closed the door.</p> + +<p>About the desk sat Chief Engineer Wyman, Chief Pilot Thayer, and Chief +Navigator Smith, all studying a chart laid out before them, and making +computations. They looked up at the interruption.</p> + +<p>"What's going on here?" said Jasperson. "If you're having a conference +of some kind, I should be in on it."</p> + +<p>"Just routine work, Burl. What is it you want?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody is getting careless. The bulletin of yesterday's run has not +been posted. It's little things like that that make all the difference +in the reputation of a shipping line. Somebody ought to be reprimanded. +What was the day's run, by the way? Well, speak up, Josiah! I'm +waiting."</p> + +<p>Evans reached for a sheet of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> paper from the desk and silently handed it +across. Jasperson looked at the figures, frowned, and spoke angrily.</p> + +<p>"Have your computers broken down, Captain Evans? Or is this a joke? Why, +that's only about two-thirds our usual distance. At this rate it will +take us from now to eternity to arrive."</p> + +<p>"You'd better sit down, Burl." The Captain looked steadily at him. +"Those figures explain why I ordered that the bulletin was not to be +posted. Not one passenger out of a hundred would have noticed much +change in the figures, but I do not want to alarm even that one in a +hundred. I have ordered the ship to proceed at half-speed."</p> + +<p>"What? Have you lost your mind?"</p> + +<p>"We are approaching the Thakura Ripples. It just isn't safe to go any +faster."</p> + +<p>Expelling a long breath, Jasperson spoke more calmly.</p> + +<p>"That means we'll be late in reaching Almazin III?"</p> + +<p>"Three or four days, perhaps, not more. Eventually we'll get through +this danger zone, and then we can resume speed."</p> + +<p>"But we <i>can't</i> be late, Captain Evans! Surely you haven't forgotten +that we're out after the Blue Ribbon? The Light Line's ships have made +it in forty-three days, and we've got to do it in forty-two or less. +This trip is a matter of prime importance to the Star Line, and a delay +of even three days would keep us from breaking the record. I thought you +understood all that?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Sighing, the Captain shook his head. "I know all that. But we are in +dangerous regions, and I can't risk my ship just for a piece of silk! +Last night Pile Ten started heating. It's still hot, and we may have to +expel it. I hadn't expected to reach the Ripples so soon, and had even +hoped we could avoid them entirely, but evidently the limits of the band +haven't been charted very accurately. The only safe thing is to go +slow."</p> + +<p>"But the Ripples are imaginary! Why do you think we've hit them?"</p> + +<p>"There's the number Ten Pile."</p> + +<p>"But why should only that one out of the twenty-four be affected? And +even if it is heating, that's no good reason for slackening speed."</p> + +<p>Captain Evans glared back at the plump little man, then his eyes +wavered, and his fingers fiddled uncertainly with the papers on his +desk. His chief officers were watching him intently. At last he +straightened his shoulders and spoke sternly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jasperson. Surely it will not be necessary to remind you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> that I am +the Captain of this ship. I am in sole command. Is that correct?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—"</p> + +<p>"Would you seriously advise me to go contrary to my own knowledge, my +own instinct? To run this ship into an area of danger, to risk the lives +of the passengers, all for a piece of ribbon? Would you want to take the +responsibility of giving me such an order, even if I should agree?"</p> + +<p>As Jasperson looked around at the watchful faces of the Engineer, the +Pilot, and the Navigator, some of the belligerence left his voice.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, Josiah! And anyway, it's not your knowledge I'm +quarreling with. If you run the ship according to the facts, you'll do +all right. It's when you let your judgment be influenced by your +imagination that I object. But by all means, do as you think best. When +the Star Line loses confidence in its Captains, they replace them. I'll +look in again, if I may, later in the day."</p> + +<p>When the door had closed behind him, Pilot Thayer shook his head +wonderingly. "You'd think he ruled the universe!"</p> + +<p>"He's a man of very limited imagination," said the Captain. "But never +forget, he wields a great deal of power. Now, are your orders clear? +Smith, you'll continue your charting."</p> + +<p>"I'm doing my best, Captain, but what am I charting? Sometimes I wonder +if maybe your friend Jasperson isn't right. If the Ripples are +imaginary, maybe I'm getting gray hairs trying to make a map of +something that isn't there!"</p> + +<p>"Chart it anyway! We can't take chances. Wyman, I'm not a bit satisfied +with the way Pile Ten is behaving. It should have cooled to normal +before now. Watch it. If we have to dump it, we want to act before it +gets too hot. Anything else?"</p> + +<p>"One other thing, sir," said Engineer Wyman, pointing to the diagram of +the ship which hung on the wall. "Pile Ten is located just below +Lifeboat C, and the radiation index of Boat C is getting a little high."</p> + +<p>"That's bad. Well, keep shoving in the dampers, and keep me posted."</p> + +<p>After they had gone, he sat for a while at his desk, studying the data +on the papers before him. He paced the room for a few minutes, then +paused to pick up the little red volume of <i>Ley's Space Ships</i>. He had +no need to open it. It fell open of itself at the well-read page, and +his eyes rested for one rich moment on the words: <i>Captain: Josiah +Evans</i>.</p> + +<p>What name, he wondered, feeling almost physically sick with +uncer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>tainty, what name would be printed in the next edition?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The orchestra played melodiously at lunch time. The chef had produced +delicacies even more delectable than usual, and at each table the +waiters poured sparkling white wine into long-stemmed glasses, while +murmuring softly, "Compliments of the Captain!"</p> + +<p>"Is this a special occasion?" asked Tanya.</p> + +<p>"Not that I know of, miss."</p> + +<p>"Every meal feels like a special occasion," said Alan, "because I get to +talk to you."</p> + +<p>"Sh-h! Here come the Halls."</p> + +<p>Tom and Dorothy flitted in to the table, hand in hand, still absorbed in +the wonder of being together, scarcely aware of the world about them, +then left, without finishing their dessert. Alan and Tanya looked after +them with affectionate amusement, but Professor Larrabee seemed +withdrawn and a little sad, as though they evoked memories of a time now +lost to him forever.</p> + +<p>"They make me feel so <i>old</i>!" said Tanya.</p> + +<p>"And lonely?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, a little. They seem so sure, somehow, that all the rest of +their lives will be just as happy as this, always."</p> + +<p>"And why not?" said Professor Larrabee.</p> + +<p>The orchestra swayed into a final soft chord, and immediately a voice +spoke from a loudspeaker in the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen!" Conversation stopped, the room became quiet.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen. The customary lifeboat drill will be held this +afternoon at 1600 hours. The attendance of all passengers is requested."</p> + +<p>The voice stopped, the orchestra resumed its playing, and the passengers +sipped their coffee.</p> + +<p>"I wonder why he said 'customary'?" said Tanya. "We've been out about +three weeks, and this will be the first drill we've had. Do you suppose +something is wrong?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid your sense of the dramatic gets the better of you," said +Alan. "What could be wrong with the <i>Star Lord</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe her name," murmured Professor Larrabee, and his eyes looked +haunted.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Solitary at his table, Burl Jasperson sipped at a glass of ice water as +he pondered. For the first time in his life he was not quite sure what +course to follow. He wanted that Blue Ribbon for the Star Line, and +yet—he did not know what to do. While he listened to the announcement +of the lifeboat drill, his lip twisted in contempt. Just like Josiah +Ev<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>ans, he thought, to be over-cautious and run the risk of starting a +panic.</p> + +<p>Still thinking, he left the dining room and went to the main lounge to +study the illuminated map of the ship. The three-dimensional panorama +showed the slim and elegant body of the <i>Star Lord</i>, tapered like a +silver spindle. Six small ships, three on each side of the long axis, +each capable of carrying 250 people, were fastened into her hulk. +Seemingly a part of the ship itself, their outer walls forming a part of +the ship's wall, they were designed to be detached at the touch of a +button, and launched into space as free craft.</p> + +<p>When the warning bells rang, he joined the crowd of passengers who were +assigned to Boat F, peered at the boat through the transparent panel, +and listened attentively to the instructions. It was Steward Davis, he +noted approvingly, who was in charge.</p> + +<p>"Passengers will file in through the usual port and walk to the farthest +unoccupied seat, and buckle themselves into place. They have nothing +further to do. Crewmen will take care of the mechanics of detaching and +launching the boat. You will note that there are no separate cabins, +only rows of seats as in the primitive airplanes, but you will find this +no real discomfort, since the boat would undoubtedly be picked up after +a very short interval by some alerted space liner."</p> + +<p>Jasperson raised his voice above the crowd's hum.</p> + +<p>"What about provisioning? Are the boats stocked on Y-port?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Jasperson, except for food concentrates, and one air tank which +is placed there for the greater comfort of the crewmen who must go in to +clean or to make minor adjustments. The boats are not fully provisioned +until the need arises. After all, we don't want to invite trouble, do +we?"</p> + +<p>People laughed appreciatively.</p> + +<p>"No," he went on, "if there should be an emergency, we have specially +trained crewmen whose job it is to stock reserves of air and water. They +would go to work as automatically and efficiently as machines. Any other +questions?"</p> + +<p>Jasperson lingered after the indifferent crowd, to inspect the boat more +closely, then slouched away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>All that afternoon he prowled the ship, trying to make up his mind. He +stopped now and then to question a business acquaintance, ask a +journalist his opinion, and he quizzed Larrabee again, more sharply than +before, about the hypothetical Ripples. He kept moving, and as he walked +he calculated, bringing to bear all the power of a mind which he +believed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> to be logical, and which his financial success had proved to +be keen and intelligent. All his life he had trusted his judgment, and +it had rarely failed him—barring accidents like that unfair poker game. +At last, as the hours went on, his decision crystallized. He had made up +his mind.</p> + +<p>At dinner he drank champagne in addition to his usual ice water, and +only half heard the scraps of conversation in the dining room. There was +to be a special masquerade dance, he gathered. People around him were +excitedly planning the improvisation of costumes. He would not get +himself up in any silly costume, he decided, but if his plans went well, +he might look in later in the evening, on the chance to being allowed to +glide over the waxed floor with the lovely Tanya.</p> + +<p>After finishing his last drop of coffee he went directly to the cabin of +Captain Evans, who had just begun to eat his simple dinner.</p> + +<p>The Chairman of the board of directors pulled up a chair and sat down, +without waiting to be asked.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Josiah, I want to talk to you. I've been thinking. I'm +afraid I was too brusque this morning. That's a bad habit of mine, and I +want to apologize. But after all, we should not be quarreling, for your +interests and mine are the same, as you surely realize."</p> + +<p>Captain Evans pushed away his tray, lit a cigar, and puffed stolidly. "I +realize that I must consider the safety of my passengers, if that's what +you mean."</p> + +<p>"That's included, of course." Jasperson made his voice warm and +persuasive, the voice that had swayed boards of directors, the voice +that reassured hesitant bankers.</p> + +<p>"Passenger safety is always paramount, of course, and I respect your +attitude there. But in this particular case, isn't it possible that you +are being too cautious?"</p> + +<p>"But Burl! Can the Captain of a ship <i>ever</i> be too cautious? Think of +his responsibility!"</p> + +<p>"His responsibility is very great, and I would never advise you, nor +permit you, to shirk yours. But sometimes caution may cease to be a +virtue. Think about this caution of yours for a minute. Surely you +believe that I would never urge you to do anything against the interests +of the ship, or against your own conscience? Now you have an excellent +mind—logical, objective, clear. That was one reason we chose you for +this place. Try to consider, for a moment, the bare possibility that +your decision to reduce speed may not have been justified."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Evans was silent, and finally Burl asked, "How far did we get today?"</p> + +<p>"240 Light years."</p> + +<p>"And if you decide to continue at that speed for five or six days, that +means we'll be approximately three days behind schedule in touching +Almazin III?"</p> + +<p>"About that."</p> + +<p>"And that means we won't break the record. Now consider the reason for +this very unhappy situation. Think about it with an open mind. You have +one Pile heating—but has that never happened to a ship before, even in +normal space? You and I both know it happens, and that ships have been +lost because of a defective Pile. Logically, why shouldn't this be just +another such case? You say it is caused by the Ripples, but as man to +man, what objective evidence can you bring forward to prove their +existence? I'm not trying to browbeat you, you understand, but just to +ask you to look at the matter carefully. You said yourself, this +morning, that you hadn't expected to be meeting the Ripples at this +point—you had thought they occurred in a rather different area of +hyperspace. Couldn't that mean that they don't really exist, anywhere?"</p> + +<p>Captain Evans wiped his glistening forehead with his handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "I was surprised. I'll admit I didn't expect them here. +But there's so much we don't know about hyperspace!"</p> + +<p>"No, there's so much we <i>do</i> know! Are you a child, to fancy there are +goblins outside just because it's dark? There is a perfectly rational, +alternative explanation for the things that worry you. Why can't you +accept them?"</p> + +<p>Evans got up and began to pace the floor. "I guess I'm following a +hunch."</p> + +<p>"But would you make us lose the Blue Ribbon for a mere hunch? Don't you +trust your own objective judgment?"</p> + +<p>Sweating heavily, the Captain tried to stub out his cigar, but his hands +were moist and his fingers trembled.</p> + +<p>"I don't know!" he shouted. Then he went on, his voice low and tired. +"You may be right. Burl. You may be right. We may not have hit the +Ripples. The Ripples may not even exist, although some very competent +spacemen and some very brilliant physicists are convinced they do. But +how can I judge? How can I be sure?"</p> + +<p>Jasperson leaned forward, intent as a cat on a bird.</p> + +<p>"None of the other Piles have started to heat? There's nothing else to +make you suspicious?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing except the space record tape, and that makes no sense."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Exactly. Then why don't you look at this situation as a hardheaded +spaceman should, and order full speed ahead?"</p> + +<p>"Burl, there are fifteen hundred lives dependent on me. How can I take +such a chance?"</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be a chance. And if by the one unlucky chance in ten +million there should be trouble, you have ample lifeboat space for +everyone. Isn't it worth the gamble?"</p> + +<p>"I don't like gambling lives against a piece of blue silk ribbon."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Jasperson sighed. "Come, Josiah, be reasonable. I wouldn't think of +giving you an order, or trying to interfere with your decision in any +way, but surely I may be allowed to help you to reach the correct +decision? How will you feel when the <i>Star Lord</i> limps into port four or +five days late, and you have to explain to the Board that she was +delayed because you were trying to dodge some non-existent Ripples. You +are afraid! Change your frightened point of view, and that will make you +change your orders and get us on the way once more, full speed!"</p> + +<p>Muttering to himself, wiping his brow, Captain Evans walked around the +little room, while Jasperson sat back and watched him with cold, intent +eyes. Evans glanced once at the little red book, half covered with +papers, and pain contorted his face.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he stepped to his desk and called Engineer Wyman.</p> + +<p>"What about that space tape, Wyman? Has Smith been able to detect any +pattern in the impulses?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. No pattern of any sort we can recognize, anyway."</p> + +<p>"And what report on Pile Ten?"</p> + +<p>"Pile Ten is doing nicely, sir. Lost half a degree in the last hour. By +tomorrow she ought to be back to normal limits."</p> + +<p>Clicking the phone, Evans resumed his pacing in the heavy silence. At +last he faced Jasperson and spread out his palms, his face gray as +parchment.</p> + +<p>"All right, Burl. You're probably right. I won't argue any longer."</p> + +<p>"Good man! The Star Line will know how to appreciate your decision." He +hesitated, and asked, "You'll agree, now, I didn't push you into this? +It's your own free decision?"</p> + +<p>Calmly, Evans answered. "It is my own responsibility."</p> + +<p>He buzzed Operations.</p> + +<p>"Wyman? Captain Evans speaking. Full speed ahead!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>On the dance floor late that night, a crooner in blue Venusian mask and +wig hummed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> melody while the orchestra wailed and zinged behind him. +The lights had been dimmed to a purple midnight, and shadowy couples +flitted about the room, swaying, humming, laughing. Horned devils danced +with angels, pirates and Roman senators guided in their arms lovely +Cleopatras and sinuous mermaids. Hunched over the little tables, +clinking glasses, grotesque silhouettes of Martians, Venusians, and +Apollonians whispered intimately.</p> + +<p>The walls of the room displayed the evening stars of late summer, and, +special event for a gala evening, a fat yellow half moon sailed lazily +in the sky.</p> + +<p>The <i>Star Lord</i> shuddered, briefly. Briefly the crooner's voice wavered, +the notes of the violins hesitated, but no one noticed. A second quiver +of the ship, and the dancers paused to look at one another +questioningly, then laughed and danced on.</p> + +<p>Jasperson had been sitting beside the wall, vainly searching among the +dancers for Tanya. He stood up, his forehead suddenly wet with sweat. +Plowing through the dancers and out of the door, in the corridor he ran +into Steward Davis, gliding along on silent, slippered feet.</p> + +<p>"What was that, Davis?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know, sir. Nothing serious, or the alarm lights would be on."</p> + +<p>"Come with me."</p> + +<p>He flung open the door of the Captain's cabin. It was empty. Stacey was +not in the anteroom, and the inner cabin was silent. The water carafe +had been turned over on the desk, and a few papers lay scattered on the +floor.</p> + +<p>"They might be in Operations, sir."</p> + +<p>"Show me the way!" They raced down the corridors, past the open door of +the room where dancers still swayed and the orchestra still played. +Through a hall, down an escalator, down, down, to the center of the +ship.</p> + +<p>Jasperson paused. "You needn't wait, Davis. But I may want you again. +I'll let you know."</p> + +<p>Pushing aside the crewmen who stood guard at the door, he rushed into +the room.</p> + +<p>"Josiah! What was that shock? I demand to know what's happened!"</p> + +<p>Evans threw him a glance of pure, intense hatred, and then resumed his +questioning of Chief Wyman.</p> + +<p>"You say Number Ten just let go?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly, sir. For a couple of hours or so after we resumed speed, +it stayed steady. All of a sudden, it started to climb. They called me, +but by the time I got there it was already at critical lev<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>el. We put in +more dampers, but it kept going up and up, and I thought it might +vaporize any minute. I hadn't any choice, sir. There wasn't time to call +you and get orders. I had to drop it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I'm not criticizing you. But there's one thing we hadn't +counted on. Chief Thayer says Pile Ten took lifeboat C along with it."</p> + +<p>"But how could that happen?"</p> + +<p>"Boat C was just above, you remember. The heat triggered the release +mechanism, and the boat launched itself into space."</p> + +<p>Jasperson interrupted, trying to speak calmly. "What's happened? Tell me +what's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"We've hit the imaginary Thakura Ripples," Evans said savagely, "and +they're tearing us apart!"</p> + +<p>The plump soft body of Burl Jasperson seemed to deflate. The truculence +drained from his face, leaving his skin a dirty white as he whispered, +"Then the Thakura Ripples <i>are</i> real? And we're in danger?"</p> + +<p>The Captain's laugh was bitter. "What do <i>you</i> think? Don't you want to +give me the benefit of your advice now?"</p> + +<p>Again the door burst open, and a crewman ran in.</p> + +<p>"Captain Evans, sir. Piles Fourteen and Fifteen have started to heat. +They're already at critical level."</p> + +<p>"Dump them!"</p> + +<p>The phone buzzed, and Evans listened with a face which was turning a +graveyard gray.</p> + +<p>"If you can hold them down, keep them. If they pass the critical point, +shoot them away." Turning, he looked straight into the dilated eyes of +Jasperson, and spoke as if every word were a knife thrusting into the +pudgy body.</p> + +<p>"Every one of the Piles is starting to heat. Every last one. One life +boat is lost. That means fifteen hundred people to be crowded into five +little boats!"</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" croaked the little man.</p> + +<p>"I've already reduced speed. I've sent out and am still sending out +calls for help, over phase wave. We'll shift to normal space, and we'll +launch the lifeboats as soon as they can be provisioned and loaded. And +then we'll pray. And now, Burl Jasperson, how do you like the Thakura +Ripples?"</p> + +<p>Bracing himself against the desk, Burl tried to smile. "If there's any +way I can help, of course, just let me know." With a feeble attempt at +jauntiness, he staggered out of the cabin.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Opening the long-closed shutter of the observation port, Captain Evans +could see the suns of normal space glittering in the blackness about the +ship, unfamil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>iar and alien. Before the shift to normal space he had +sent out SOS calls throughout the galaxy, but he had not waited for any +replies before shifting. He could not know whether the calls had been +heard, or even whether there were any ships close enough to send help +after hearing the calls. He hoped, with all his being, that they had +come out in a region of inhabited planet systems, in a regular shipping +lane, so that his passengers could be picked up and taken to port—any +port.</p> + +<p>He kept his line open to Operations, and every minute or so Wyman spoke +to him, giving the data on the climbing piles. Ten had been jettisoned +in hyperspace, and so had Fourteen and Fifteen. Since their shift to +normal space, it had been necessary also to detach the entire bank of +Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-one, whose index had risen at a terrifying +rate.</p> + +<p>Wyman's voice spoke in his ear. "One, Two, and Three are climbing fast, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Shoot them away!"</p> + +<p>"No good, sir. I've tried. The release mechanism has fused, and those +three Piles are welded to the ship!"</p> + +<p>Evans closed his eyes. That meant that the life of the ship was doomed. +There would be no way to save her. But the passengers could still be +saved, if they got away soon enough, before the three Piles vaporized.</p> + +<p>"Wyman!" he whispered despairingly, "is there any single Pile that isn't +heating?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Is there any single Pile that's responding to your dampers?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, not one."</p> + +<p>"Then, in your experience, they are all bound to go, sooner or later?"</p> + +<p>"I've never seen anything like this in my experience, sir. It looks +bad."</p> + +<p>The door opened, and Jasperson slunk in. His skin had lost its +cushioning, gray folds sagged under his cheek bones, and black hollows +outlined his glittering blue eyes. The Captain ignored him, and spoke +into the phone.</p> + +<p>"Very well. In exactly fifteen minutes I shall sound the alarm and we'll +abandon ship. I can't take a chance on waiting any longer. Keep a +skeleton crew at work on those Piles to hold them down as much as +possible, and have all other crewmen report to their lifeboat stations."</p> + +<p>"Right, sir. But Boat C has gone, you remember. When we dumped Pile +Ten."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Distribute her passengers among the remaining boats."</p> + +<p>He turned to look at Jasperson, who was shivering as though he were +freezing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Is there no hope, Josiah? Is this the end?"</p> + +<p>"The end of the <i>Star Lord</i>, yes. I hope to save the passengers. You +heard me. In fifteen minutes all preparations should be finished, then I +sound the alarm. Don't worry, Burl. There's room enough for everybody, +your skin is safe."</p> + +<p>"But won't the lifeboats be horribly crowded?"</p> + +<p>"Crowded, yes, but not impossibly so. If they can carry two hundred and +fifty people in fair comfort, they can jam in three hundred by squeezing +a bit."</p> + +<p>Jasperson shuddered. "So many people! And so close together! I can't +bear crowds, Josiah, you know that. They make me feel sick and confused. +It will be terrible!"</p> + +<p>"Whether you like it or not, there's nothing else to do if we want to +save lives. I'll sound the alarm in a quarter of an hour. Get yourself +ready, but whatever you do, don't tell the others yet. I don't want a +panic on my hands until I'm ready to deal with it."</p> + +<p>Biting his lip, Jasperson turned, without a word, and shuffled out of +the cabin.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Once in the corridor, he began to run, a shrivelled old man waddling on +wings of fear down the hall to the dining room where empty tables waited +in the elegant silence of gleaming silver and crisp white linen for the +breakfast hour.</p> + +<p>Davis was standing at the sideboard, staring blankly at the flashing red +light above the door.</p> + +<p>Jasperson ran up to him and clutched his arm. Looking around cunningly +to see that they were alone, he whispered.</p> + +<p>"Davis, I want to talk to you."</p> + +<p>"Later, sir. That red light means I'm wanted at the briefing room."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but wait a minute!"</p> + +<p>"I'm supposed to go at once, sir."</p> + +<p>"A thousand credits if you'll listen to me a minute!"</p> + +<p>As Davis hesitated, Burl went on. "Listen, Davis, the ship is in +trouble. The Captain is going to launch the lifeboats. You're in charge +of Boat F, aren't you? You know how to operate it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, Mr. Jasperson."</p> + +<p>"Then come with me, and we'll take the boat now. I'll pay you well."</p> + +<p>"But we can't do that!"</p> + +<p>"Why not? The <i>Star Lord</i> is doomed. In fifteen minutes this place will +be a madhouse, and there may not be room for everybody. I want to get +out of here before the mob. We'll take Boat F."</p> + +<p>Steward Davis' eyes were thoughtful as he replied. "But sir, we can't +just take a boat for ourselves, like that. There's two hun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>dred and +fifty people assigned to Boat F."</p> + +<p>"Worse than that! Three hundred! One lifeboat has been lost already. +It's dangerous to wait—there'll be a stampede and the lifeboats might +even be wrecked. No, we must take her alone, Davis. I'll give you ten +thousand credits if you'll do it, and as long as you live you'll have me +as a friend."</p> + +<p>The steward's Little eyes looked sidewise at the pleading man. "But I'd +be found out for sure, Mr. Jasperson, and then what would become of me? +I'd never get another job as long as I lived. I'd have to change my +name, disguise myself, and maybe live on some other planet, and all that +would take money. I'm a poor man, and I don't see how I could afford +it."</p> + +<p>"But if I have to squeeze into one of those boats with three hundred +other people crowding against me, I'll go crazy! We'll go to some +out-of-the-way planet, and you can change your identity and be perfectly +safe. Can't you understand, man? My life is at stake, and my sanity. +I'll give you fifteen thousand credits!"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Davis. "Could you make it twenty-five?"</p> + +<p>"Done! Meet me at Boat F in five minutes."</p> + +<p>Jasperson rushed to his cabin. Yanking open the wall safe he dragged out +his brief case and the locked memorandum book, thrust his pistol into +his pocket, and ran to the door.</p> + +<p>"Follow me!" he called to his startled secretary, and hurried from the +room.</p> + +<p>Running past the library door, he glimpsed Tanya at work, her auburn +head bent over her sketching. On impulse, he stopped and ran back.</p> + +<p>Panting from the physical punishment of running, nearly smothered by the +pounding of his terrified heart, he gasped out his invitation.</p> + +<p>"Tanya! The ship is going to blow up! Don't tell anyone. Come with me +now, before the crowd, and I'll get you off safely in my lifeboat. I'll +take care of you, Tanya."</p> + +<p>She pulled away. "Have you lost your mind, Mr. Jasperson?"</p> + +<p>"Don't argue. There's no time. Come, I'll protect you. We'll have plenty +of room. If you wait, it may be too late."</p> + +<p>"Go with you, and leave the others? You're mad!"</p> + +<p>"But if you wait, you'll be trampled to death by the mob. I'm giving you +a chance to save your life."</p> + +<p>"But you can't take that boat for yourself. What would happen to the +other people? That would be murder. Get away from me! I'm going to call +Captain Evans."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>As she ran to the phone and pressed the dial, he padded out of the door +and resumed his flight to Boat F where Davis waited, peering nervously +up and down the hall. Waving his secretary to follow, Jasperson rushed +through the port.</p> + +<p>"Everything ready, Davis? Provisions all in?"</p> + +<p>"All set. I saw the tail end of the truck leaving just as I got here, +but I'll just check—"</p> + +<p>"Hurry, man! There's no time to waste." He cocked his head, listening to +the low rumble of an approaching motor. Davis ran inside, and together +they watched from the port.</p> + +<p>Coming swiftly down the corridor was a small motor truck. It stopped, +and the driver jumped out and shouted.</p> + +<p>"Get out of that boat! She's not ready yet! What are you—"</p> + +<p>With a steady hand Jasperson drew his pistol and pressed the trigger. +The man fell without a sound.</p> + +<p>"What are you waiting for, Davis? Shove off!"</p> + +<p>The port door slid shut. A few seconds delay, and Lifeboat F, carrying +three persons, shot away from the <i>Star Lord</i> into space.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Alarm bells rang, red lights flashed.</p> + +<p>Sickening with the inexorable rise of her fevered power units, the <i>Star +Lord</i> trembled with the clangor of bells ringing in library and nursery, +in lounges and dance hall, in bar and cabins, in dining rooms and +theaters. The orchestra crashed to a stop, the dancers halted, startled +and vaguely frightened, half laughing at themselves as they listened to +the bells.</p> + +<p>Then silence, and the voice of Captain Evans.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen. Do not be alarmed. Because of certain mechanical +difficulties the <i>Star Lord</i> has shifted to normal space. There is no +immediate danger, but purely as a precautionary measure we shall launch +the lifeboats. Remember, there is no danger, but I ask each of you to +proceed at once, in calm orderly fashion, to the station to which you +are assigned, and there obey the orders of the officer in charge. The +passengers formerly assigned to Boat C will be placed in other boats. Do +not wait to go to your cabins. Proceed immediately to your lifeboats."</p> + +<p>The voice clicked off. A few seconds of silence, and then the quiet was +broken by the patter of hurrying feet. In a moment, the public lounges +were empty.</p> + +<p class="center">* * *</p> + + +<p>In the library, Tanya was still calling into the phone.</p> + +<p>"Operator, operator!" she cried. "I must speak to the Captain. It's a +matter of life and death!" But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the phone was dead.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/043.jpg" width="500" height="341" alt="" title="untitled" /> +</div> + +<p>When the alarm bells rang, she listened to the announcement and then +slowly put back the useless instrument. Back in her corner, she picked +up her chalk, shuffled her drawings into an orderly heap, paused, and +with a wry smile dropped them all to the floor and hurried away.</p> + +<p>A sound of crying wailed from the open door of the playroom, and she +looked in to see a group of children, none of them more than six, +huddled together and sobbing. She walked up to them and smiled, hands on +her hips.</p> + +<p>"Well, small fry! What are you doing up so late? Why the big howls?"</p> + +<p>Still they cried, ignoring their abandoned toys. Around the room hobby +horses sat quietly, alphabet blocks lay scattered, and picture books and +sprawling dolls littered the floor.</p> + +<p>"So," she said. "Your nurses ran out on you, did they? Left you to shift +for yourselves? Never mind, youngsters, Aunt Tanya will look after you. +Take hands, now, and come with me."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When the alarm rang in the Bar, a glass crashed to the floor as the only +son of the deutonium millionaire jumped to his feet and ran.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;"> +<img src="images/044.jpg" width="433" height="600" alt="" title="untitled" /> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Larrabee deliberately finished his drink, gently put down the +glass, and stood up.</p> + +<p>"Our final spacecap," he said. "Well, Alan, it's been a good trip, but I +can't say I'm surprised at its ending. The ship had the wrong name, from +the beginning."</p> + +<p>"We'd better hurry, Professor. We must find Tanya and the Halls."</p> + +<p>"You're walking too fast for me, my boy. Don't worry. They're in Boat F, +with us, and we're sure to find them there."</p> + +<p>In the corridor leading to F station their way was blocked by the crowd, +many of them still wearing the grotesque costumes of the masquerade +dance, now pale and tawdry in the bright lights. Stunned with horror, +they stared through the transparent wall at the gaping socket where the +lifeboat had been. Crewmen formed a tight circle around the truck and +the man who lay moaning on the floor. Pistols ready, they held back the +crowd while Dr. Willoughby administered an intravenous shot of panedol, +and Captain Evans, kneeling beside the dying man, tried to catch his +whispers.</p> + +<p>"It was Mr. Jasperson, sir. He got me before I could do a thing. I tried +to stop him."</p> + +<p>"You say you warned him?"</p> + +<p>"I called to him, sir, and said the boat wasn't ready. But he didn't +give me a chance. He shot me."</p> + +<p>The boy closed his eyes, and Evans stood up.</p> + +<p>"Through an error, ladies and gentlemen, Boat F has already gone. You +will please go to the other stations and wait for assignment to the +other boats."</p> + +<p>The crowd whispered, staring uncomprehendingly at the Captain's stony +face.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever teach mathematics, Professor?" Alan murmured. "How do you +divide fifteen hundred people among four boats?"</p> + +<p>Larrabee only smiled, a faraway look in his eyes.</p> + +<p>A frightened voice cried, high and loud, "But there won't be enough +room!"</p> + +<p>Someone screamed. Someone else started to run. In a few seconds a mob of +running, panic-stricken people jammed the corridor, fighting their way +out. Alan and the professor, an old man and an invalid, had no strength +to resist and were helplessly carried along by the living wave.</p> + +<p>"Stop those people!" shouted the Captain.</p> + +<p>A gun fired into the air and the mob hesitated, then surged on, +shouting, past the lounges, to join the throngs waiting at the other +stations.</p> + +<p>"It's no use," said Evans wearily. "Chief Thayer. Send men to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> all the +stations to guard the boats. You proceed to Boat E and load it first. If +any person tries to force his way in, shoot to kill!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In their small cabin, Dorothy Hall raised herself on one elbow and +looked down at her sleeping husband. His hair was rumpled, his face calm +and placid.</p> + +<p>"Tom," she whispered. "Wake up, Tom!" Mumbling sleepily, he opened his +eyes, then smiled and tried to draw her down to him.</p> + +<p>"Wait, Tom. Did you hear the Captain's message?"</p> + +<p>"What message?"</p> + +<p>"I was so sleepy I didn't understand it very well. Something about the +ship, and we must all go to our lifeboats."</p> + +<p>"You must have been dreaming. What time is it?"</p> + +<p>"Not quite midnight. Do you think everything is all right?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. You just had a bad dream. The <i>Star Lord</i> can't be in any +trouble. You know that."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think we ought to go see?"</p> + +<p>Playfully he towsled her hair. "Trying to get away from your husband? +Tired of me already?"</p> + +<p>Relaxing, she snuggled down beside him with a happy sigh.</p> + +<p>"I'd never be tired of you, Tom, in a million years. Wherever you are, +that's where I want to be, always."</p> + +<p>She closed her eyes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The children were no longer afraid, and they had stopped crying. Leading +them through the maze of corridors towards Boat station F, Tanya laughed +and told them jokes until, reaching a corner, she suddenly found the +passage blocked with a screaming mass of people, fighting, gouging, +jamming the hall so that forward movement was almost impossible. She +drew back, huddling the children behind her.</p> + +<p>"No place for us here, youngsters," she said. "Let's go back, where it +isn't so noisy."</p> + +<p>Obediently they followed her back to the library, where she settled them +in her favorite corner and picked up the abandoned chalk and paper.</p> + +<p>"Now Aunt Tanya will tell you a story," she said. "And if you're very +good and don't cry at all, I'll even draw you some pictures to go with +the story. Once upon a time...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>There was not enough room. A lifeboat which had been designed to carry +two hundred and fifty persons could not suddenly expand to take in three +hundred and seventy-five, although Chief Thayer did his best. At Boat E +he stood with drawn pistol, sorting the crowd, and ordering them one by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +one through the port according to custom as ancient as the race.</p> + +<p>"Women and children first," he repeated, again and again. "<i>Women and +children first!</i>"</p> + +<p>They could hear from distant corridors an occasional shout and the +clatter of running feet, but the first panic had subsided, and under the +menace of the crew's guns the people had become subdued.</p> + +<p>White-faced men stepped back and made themselves inconspicuous in the +shadows, watching their wives and children file through the port, and +looking after them hungrily. Once, a man screamed and tried to crash +through the cordon. Thayer shot him, and he fell moaning to the floor. +Dr. Willoughby moved through the crowd, soothing the hysterical, +jollying the frightened, until he spied Alan Chase standing at the edge +of the group.</p> + +<p>He pushed through to Alan and threw his arm around the bony shoulder, +encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"I'm assigned to this first boat, Chase, and they'll want you in one of +the others. We want at least one medical man in each boat. But I must +warn you—" he look-ed around cautiously, but they might have been alone +in a desert for all chance there was of anyone's listening to them, "be +sure to get off in Boats B or D. Don't wait for Boat A."</p> + +<p>"What difference does it make?"</p> + +<p>"Boat A lies above two of the Piles that had to be dumped, and the +radioactivity index is sure to be high. Normal people won't be harmed in +the brief time they'll be on board if they're rescued, and if they're +not rescued, of course, it won't matter anyway. Even you might not be +harmed, but with your condition you shouldn't take the risk."</p> + +<p>"But does it really matter?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that we'd counted on my reaching Almazin III quickly and living +in an inert atmosphere in order to cure the neosarcoma. Now that the +<i>Star Lord</i> is wrecked, I may not be able to get there for months, and +that will be too late. If I'm going to die, I'd rather stay with the +ship and get it over with."</p> + +<p>"Don't be an idiot, doctor! Don't you realize how much better you are? +The mitosis was definitely decreasing the last time I checked you. This +delay won't be fatal, I'm convinced."</p> + +<p>Alan shook his head skeptically.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Willoughby!" called Thayer. "Boat ready to launch!"</p> + +<p>A grip of the hand, and he had gone. The port shut.</p> + +<p>Boat E, jammed with three hundred and twenty-five persons, released +itself and shot out into star-studded space.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Boat B was the second to be launched, and Boat D followed.</p> + +<p>Keeping to the back of the crowds, Alan watched, admiring the efficiency +with which Chief Thayer worked, shouting, wheedling, cursing, until +three hundred and thirty people were squeezed in, like frightened cattle +in a pen.</p> + +<p>There remained only Boat A, and from the shadows he watched nearly five +hundred tense faces, drawn with the anxiety of wondering who was to go, +and who remain.</p> + +<p>Good thing the women and children had all been taken off in the earlier +boats, Alan reflected thankfully. It would be heartbreaking enough for +Thayer to have to choose among the men, and say to some, <i>Go</i>, and to +some, <i>Stay</i>.</p> + +<p>Captain Evans appeared, flanked by Thayer and Stacey, each with drawn +pistol. He faced the silent crowd and spoke with terrifying calm.</p> + +<p>"I will take charge here," he said. "I cannot ask Thayer to take on such +a responsibility. I am sure it is not necessary to tell you that there +is not room enough in this boat for all of you. If rescue ships arrive +in time, those who must remain behind will be taken off. If not—I +realize that no human being has the right arbitrarily to send some men +to life and keep others for possible death. But since choice of some +sort is necessary to avoid a panic which might result in unnecessary +deaths, I shall choose which ones are to enter this boat, as nearly as +possible according to the random positions in which you are now +standing. Anyone trying to change his place will be shot!"</p> + +<p>No one moved. No one spoke.</p> + +<p>"Thayer, you will send in two crewmen to help run the boat. You yourself +will be the last man in, to take command. As for the rest—" He paused, +wiped his hand over his reddened eyes, and staggered. In a few seconds +he had regained control of himself, and with shoulders erect he pointed +his arm and called out,</p> + +<p>"You go, and you, and you, and you...."</p> + +<p>Alan heard a low chuckle behind him, and turned to find Professor +Larrabee.</p> + +<p>"What a climax, my boy! Do you believe in premonitions, now?"</p> + +<p>"Why haven't you gone?"</p> + +<p>"Too old, Alan. I don't want to go. My life is done. But I can't say I +really mind. It's been a wonderful adventure, sharing the life and death +of the <i>Star Lord</i>."</p> + +<p>The boat was nearly half full when the tense quiet was broken by the +treble voice of a child.</p> + +<p>Captain Evans whirled to face the corridor, along which came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> Tanya, +holding to the hands of the two smallest children, while the others +clung tightly to the stiff folds of her taffeta gown.</p> + +<p>His stare was ghastly. "Miss Taganova! I thought you'd gone! Where have +you been? And why weren't these children sent off in the other boats? +Didn't you hear the warnings?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody's always scolding me for being late," said Tanya, lightly. +"But I really couldn't help it. These children seem to have been +abandoned by the nursemaids and lost or forgotten by their parents. I +have been trying to amuse them until it seemed safe to bring them to +you. If I'd come before they would have been trampled to death."</p> + +<p>"Well, luckily it's not too late. In you go, the lot of you."</p> + +<p>The six youngsters were scrambling through the port, and the Captain had +resumed his "You, and you, and you...." when Alan darted forward and +clasped Tanya's hand.</p> + +<p>"I just want you to know," he whispered. "If the <i>Star Lord</i> had gone on +to port I'd never have dared say it. But since it can't matter now, +Tanya—I'd like you to know—"</p> + +<p>She smiled. "I know, Alan. I've known it for many days. And I'd have +made a good doctor's wife, I think!" Her lips were trembling as she +turned away and entered the port.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Chase!" roared the Captain. "What are you doing here? You were +supposed to go on Boat D!"</p> + +<p>"There isn't room for all of us, Captain. I thought the healthy men +should have the preference. I prefer to stay here."</p> + +<p>"Personal preferences mean nothing at all at this moment. Get into the +boat."</p> + +<p>"Let some one else have my place, sir. I haven't long to live anyway, +you know. I don't mind staying behind."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The Captain steadied his pistol. "Get in. That's an order. This is no +time for mock heroics. You should have gone with Boat D to look after +the women and children. Whether you live a month or a year doesn't +matter to me, but it is important that you use your medical skill to +take care of these people until they are rescued."</p> + +<p>With a dazed look, Alan walked through the port.</p> + +<p>"And you, and you, and you...."</p> + +<p>Thayer called out at last. "That's all, sir. No more room."</p> + +<p>"None at all? You're sure?"</p> + +<p>"Certain, sir. The talley is three hundred and thirty...."</p> + +<p>Nearly a hundred men remained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> in the corridor. Ashen-faced but calm, +they stared at the rectangular doorway which would have meant a chance +to live.</p> + +<p>"In you go, Thayer," said the Captain. "Prepare to release."</p> + +<p>Into the tense silence broke the brittle clicking of high heels as Tom +and Dorothy Hall sauntered up, arm in arm, a puzzled frown on their +foreheads.</p> + +<p>The Captain moaned. "Another woman! Wait, Thayer. We've one more woman +here. Which one of you men in Boat A will volunteer to give up his place +to young Mrs. Hall?"</p> + +<p>An elderly man walked serenely back into the ship, and joined the +others.</p> + +<p>Dorothy looked bewildered. "But what's happened? We kept hearing so much +noise we decided to get up. Is something wrong?"</p> + +<p>"We're abandoning ship. This gentleman is giving up his place to you. +Get in."</p> + +<p>She clung to Tom's arm. "Not without my husband!"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Hall! We can't waste time on hysterics. This ship might be +vaporized while we're talking. A man has given up his chance at life for +you. Get in."</p> + +<p>She held back. "And Tom?"</p> + +<p>With a haggard smile, Tom pat-ted her shoulder. "Never mind me, honey. +You go jump in. I'll be all right."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Hall, I'm willing to deprive one man of his chance, because you +are a woman. But I will not ask anyone else to give up his place to your +husband. Every man in the lifeboat has as much right to his life as your +husband, and so has every man who must be left behind. Go, now. It's +your last chance!"</p> + +<p>Her face had become calm and all hint of tears was gone. Without +hesitating she looked up at her husband and spoke softly.</p> + +<p>"Tell the man to go back. Whether we live or we die, we'll do it +together." Smiling at Tom, she took his hand to lead him away.</p> + +<p>"Come, Tom. Let's go look at the sky. I believe these stars are real +ones."</p> + +<p>"Close the port!"</p> + +<p>The door slid shut. A minute's long wait, then the boat released herself +and shot out into the blackness. The last of the lifeboats was gone.</p> + +<p>Professor Larrabee materialized from the shadows and approached Evans +with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"Well done, Captain!"</p> + +<p>"You here? I'd hoped you'd gone with the others."</p> + +<p>"What for? My life is over. I've had my pleasures. And this way, I shall +be seeing my wife all the sooner. She always loved adventure, and I +shall tell her all about the Thakura Ripples. Will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> you join me in a +drink, Captain Evans?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you." His voice broke. "No. I need to be alone." He turned +and strode away.</p> + +<p>In the privacy of his cabin he buzzed operations.</p> + +<p>"What news, Wyman?"</p> + +<p>"Slow, steady climb, sir. All piles have passed critical stage."</p> + +<p>Slowly he replaced the phone, and covered his eyes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Huddled against the wall of boat F, Burl Jasperson stared out of the +observation port, his cold eyes intent on the distant, fast receding +lights of the <i>Star Lord</i>. Now that he felt himself to be safe, he was +weak and exhausted. Beside him sat his secretary, a wizened little man +who stared numbly at his clasped hands.</p> + +<p>Jasperson coughed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Jasperson?"</p> + +<p>"Get me a panedol tablet and a glass of water. I don't suppose there's +any ice, but if there is, put in some ice. I'm thirsty."</p> + +<p>Meekly the secretary shuffled down the long length of the boat, solitary +as a ghost, to the cubicle labelled Rations. He was gone a long time, +thought Burl, and when at last he returned his feet were dragging more +than ever.</p> + +<p>"There isn't any water, Mr. Jasperson."</p> + +<p>"You idiot! There's got to be water."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't find any, Mr. Jasperson."</p> + +<p>"Davis!" he roared. "Davis, get me a glass of water!"</p> + +<p>Davis looked out from the control room. "Get it yourself. This isn't the +ship's dining room any more, Jasperson. I've got other things to do now +than taking orders from you."</p> + +<p>"But I don't know where it is!"</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll get it for you this time and show you where it's kept, +but after this you wait on yourself."</p> + +<p>Leading the way to Rations, he opened a steel cupboard and reached in. +Suddenly anxious, he groped about frantically, then cried, "But there +isn't any water!"</p> + +<p>Jasperson swallowed, with dry throat.</p> + +<p>"There isn't any water?" he asked plaintively. "But I'm <i>thirsty</i>!"</p> + +<p>As the hours crawled by, Jasperson sat in the vast emptiness of the boat +and stared out at the alien stars. He could not bear to look at the long +rows of empty seats, seats that might have been occupied by living men, +two hundred and forty-seven silent, omnipresent accusers. His eyes were +glowing coals, his skin sagged in wrinkles over his haggard face, and +his voice was a mere croak.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are you <i>sure</i> there's no water?" he asked again. "Are you certain?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm certain, as I've told you a thousand times," said Steward +Davis. "Don't you suppose I'm thirsty too? If you hadn't been in such a +hurry to sneak away we'd have been all right. That man you shot was +probably getting ready to load the water tanks."</p> + +<p>"But you told me the boat was all provisioned!"</p> + +<p>"I thought it was, when I saw the tail-end of that truck! But you didn't +give me time to check. Why did you have to be in such a hurry?"</p> + +<p>Groaning, Jasperson turned again to peer at the unfamiliar suns.</p> + +<p>"How long will it take us to reach an inhabited planet, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, because I don't know just where we are. With luck, maybe +a week, maybe two."</p> + +<p>"How long can we live without water?"</p> + +<p>"Longer than you'd think. Twelve to fifteen days if we don't move +around. We may be able to land somewhere before then. If not—" His +voice rose to a sudden shriek. "<i>What good are those twenty-five +thousand credits going to do me now?</i>"</p> + +<p>The secretary sat in numb collapse, but Jasperson prowled the room, up +and down, up and down, past the rows of empty seats, while Davis sat and +watched him with glittering eyes. Jasperson's head was aching, and he +was aware, all at once, that he was out of breath, as though he had been +climbing a steep hill under a broiling sun.</p> + +<p>"Have to see to this," he muttered. "They can't treat me this way." +Stumbling, he lurched down the aisle towards Davis, staggering like a +drunken man.</p> + +<p>"Got to have more air, Davis. This won't do."</p> + +<p>Insolently, Davis got up and looked at the oxygen indicator set in the +wall.</p> + +<p>"Needle's falling a bit. I'll turn on another tank." He touched the +switch, then sat down again.</p> + +<p>Jasperson began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"What's so funny?"</p> + +<p>With shaking hand he pointed, laughing harder, his sagging cheeks +quivering as he roared.</p> + +<p>"It's those chairs! Ever see such silly chairs? The way they sit there, +and look at you?"</p> + +<p>"Hey, man, you're drunk! I wonder...."</p> + +<p>He got up to look at the oxygen dial again. The needle had fallen still +further.</p> + +<p>"Where's that oxygen?" he shouted. He rushed into the inner compartment +and was back immediately, his eyes black with terror.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No air reserve either! Only that one tank! You great, blundering, +condemned fool! A man can live for fifteen days without water, but he +can't live ten minutes without air. We're done for!"</p> + +<p>Jasperson giggled.</p> + +<p>Davis collapsed, and he, too, began to laugh, a helpless, gasping laugh. +They had entirely forgotten the self-effacing secretary, but the noise +of their dying laughter did not disturb him. He had already fallen +sideways in his chair, and would never wake again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>On the <i>Star Lord</i>, Tom and Dorothy sat in the empty lounge, looking +through the observation port at the real stars that studded the void. +They were holding hands. They were not afraid, and there was nothing +they needed to say.</p> + +<p>Some of the doomed passengers sat in the Bar, drinking steadily. Others +sat and stared at nothingness. Professor Larrabee lay in his cabin, his +face turned to the wall, his eyes closed. But he was not sleeping. He +was thinking of his wife, and a smile clothed his face.</p> + +<p class="center">* * *</p> + + +<p>In his cabin Captain Josiah Evans waited alone. His hair was almost +white, now, his cheeks were sunken, and all semblance of youth had left +him. Knowing the futility of his action, nevertheless he completed the +day's entry in the ship's log, and closed the volume.</p> + +<p>As the hours crept by he noticed that the temperature in the room was +rising. Once more, for the last time, he called Operations.</p> + +<p>"It's no use, Wyman. Let the Piles alone. It's only a matter of hours +now—or perhaps minutes."</p> + +<p>"Shall I cast loose the other Piles, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No, no use in that, since you can't jettison Piles One, Two and Three. +When they go, we all go. It's impossible, now, that any rescue ship +could get to us in time. You've done a good job, Wyman. You are now +released from duty."</p> + +<p>His hands were sweating, his whole body was wet from the high summer +torridness of the room. Captain Evans wiped his sticky hands on his +handkerchief and picked up the little red book, <i>Ley's Space Ships</i>. +Opening the book, he read for the last time the well-loved page. Then he +took up his pen and made a new notation in the margin.</p> + +<p>"<i>Star Lord: Lost, May 26, 2421, on the Thakura Ripples.</i>"</p> + +<p>He paused a moment, and then with firm, steady strokes he wrote the +final entry: "<i>Destroyed by the arrogance of her owners, and the +criminal pride and weakness of her Captain.</i>"</p> + +<p>He put down the pen, and laid his head on his desk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Hour after hour Boat A circled the dying <i>Star Lord</i>, its weary +passengers tense with hope for the all but impossible rescue. Alan sat +next to Tanya, guarding the sleeping children.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she sat up. "What's that? Out there?"</p> + +<p>Over the loudspeaker came Thayer's voice. "We have successfully made +contact with a rescue ship. A space cruiser will reach us in +approximately eight hours."</p> + +<p>Tanya scarcely heard him. She was still peering out, her eyes on the +faint lights of the <i>Star Lord</i>.</p> + +<p>"Look!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Shut your eyes!" shouted Thayer. "Everybody turn your head!"</p> + +<p>Far out in space where the <i>Star Lord</i> had been was a brilliant red +glow, like many suns. It changed, suddenly, to a blinding light, so +bright that it was more blue than white, then vanished.</p> + +<p>Man had not yet made himself Lord of the Stars.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star Lord, by Boyd Ellanby + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR LORD *** + +***** This file should be named 32208-h.htm or 32208-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/0/32208/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Star Lord + +Author: Boyd Ellanby + +Release Date: May 2, 2010 [EBook #32208] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR LORD *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy +June 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + +THE STAR LORD + +_By Boyd Ellanby_ + +[Illustration] + + To some passengers a maiden voyage was a pleasure cruise; to others + it meant a hope for new life. Only the Captain knew of its danger! + + +The _Star Lord_ waited, poised for her maiden voyage. The gigantic +silvery spindle, still cradled in its scaffoldings, towered upwards +against the artificial sky of Satellite Y. + +[Illustration] + +The passengers were beginning to come on board before Captain Josiah +Evans had finished checking the reports of his responsible officers. The +ship was ready for space, now, and there was nothing more he could do +until takeoff. With long, deliberate steps he walked to his cabin, +closed the door, and in the privacy he had come to regard as the +greatest luxury life had to offer him, he sank into his chair and +reached for the post-bag which had been delivered by the morning's +rocket ferry from earth. + +There were no personal letters for him. He rarely received any and never +really expected any, for his career had always been more important to +him than personal ties. Shoving aside the official documents, he picked +up the small brown parcel, slit the pliofilm covering with his pocket +knife, and inspected the red leather cover with its simple title: _Ley's +Rockets and Space Ships._ At the bottom of the cover was a date: May 1, +2421, Volume 456. In the nearly five hundred years since the publication +of Volume one, which listed all the earth's rocket ships on half of one +page, the annual edition of this book, regularly edited and brought up +to date, had become the spaceman's bible. + +Captain Evans was annoyed to find that his hands were shaking as he +leafed through the pages, and he paused a few seconds, trying to control +his excitement. His black hair had begun to turn gray above his ears, +and there were a few white hairs in his bushy eyebrows. But a healthy +pink glowed under the skin of his well-fleshed cheeks, and the jut of +his chin showed the confidence of one used to receiving immediate, +unquestioning obedience. When his long fingers had stopped their +trembling, he found the entry he had been looking for, and a triumphant +smile lighted his heavy features as he settled deeper in his chair and +read the first paragraph. + +"_Star Lord: newest model in space-ships of the famed Star Line. Vital +Statistics: Construction begun February 2418, on Satellite Y. +Christened, October, 2420. Maiden voyage to Almazin III scheduled +spring, 2421._" + +He looked up at the diagram of the ship which hung on the wall at his +right, then glanced at the zodiometer on his desk. May 3, late spring. + +"_Powered by twenty-four total conversion Piles. Passenger capacity +1250. Crew and maintenance 250. Six life boats, capacity 1500. Captain. +Josiah Evans._" + +His throat swelling, he was almost choked with pride as he read the +final Statistic. This, he thought was the climax of his career, the +place he had been working towards all his life. It had been a long road +from his lonely boyhood in a Kansas orphanage, to Captain of the earth's +finest spaceship. + +The _Star Lord_ was the perfection of modern space craft, the creation +of the earth's most skilled designers and builders, the largest ship +ever launched. Protected by every safety device the ingenuity of man had +been able to contrive, she was a palace to glide among the stars. + +His heart beat more rapidly as he read the next section. + +"_Prediction: her maiden voyage will break all previous speed records, +and regain for her backers the coveted Blue Ribbon, lost ten years ago +to the Light Lines._" + +No question of that, he thought. No faster ship had ever been built. But +he frowned as he read the final paragraph: + +"_Sidelights: Reviving a long obsolete custom, certain astrologers in +London have cast the horoscope of the Star Lord and pronounced the +auguries to be unfavorable. This verdict, plus the incident at the +christening, has caused some head-shaking among the superstitious +fringe, and some twittering about 'cosmic arrogance'. But few of the +lords of the earth, we imagine, will therefore feel impelled to cancel +their passages on this veritable Lord of the Stars._" + + * * * * * + +Evans remembered that christening. High in the scaffolding he had stood +on the platform with the christening party: the Secretary of +Interstellar Commerce, the Ambassador from Almazin III, the Governor of +Satellite Y, and President and Mrs. Laurier of Earth. + +Swaying gently in the still air, the traditional bottle of champagne +hung before them, suspended at the end of a long ribbon. Mrs. Laurier's +eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed, as she looked at her husband for +a signal. At his smile and nod she had said in a high clear voice, "I +christen thee _Star Lord_!" and then reached out to grasp the bottle. +Before she could touch it, somewhere above them the slender ribbon +broke. + +The bottle fell like a stone, plummeted straight down and crashed into a +million fragments on the floor of the satellite. + +An instant's shocked silence, and then a roar of voices surged up from +the crowds watching below. Mrs. Laurier had put her hand to her mouth, +and shivered. + +"What a dreadful thing!" she whispered. "Does that mean bad luck?" + +President Laurier had frowned at her, but the Secretary of Interstellar +Commerce had laughed. + +"Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Laurier. There is no such thing as luck. Even +without a bath of champagne, this magnificent vessel will prove that man +is certainly master of the universe. She begins her life well and truly +named." + +The Star Line ought to abandon that silly custom of christening a new +ship, thought Captain Evans. It was an archaic ceremony, utterly +irrational, a foolish relic of a primitive world in which people had +been so uncertain of their machines that they had had to depend on luck, +and to beg good fortune of unpredictable gods. + +Taking up _Ley's Space Ships_ again, he began fondly to reread the page, +when there was a knock at the door and a crewman entered. + +"Mr. Jasperson to see you, sir." + +The Captain stared, a tiny muscle in his cheek quivering. + +"You know I'm not to be disturbed until after takeoff, Stacey." + +"Yes, sir. But Mr. Jasperson insisted. He says he knows those rules +don't apply to _him_." + +Evans closed the book, laid it on his desk, and stood up. He leaned +forward and spoke softly. + +"Tell Mr. Jasperson--" + +"Tell him what, Josiah?" boomed a voice from the opening door. "You can +tell me yourself now." + +Burl Jasperson was a portly little man with legs too short for his +bulging body, and clothes that were too tight. His head was bald except +for a fringe above the ears, and he might have been a comical figure but +for the icy blue eyes that probed from under the dome of his forehead. + +"What have you got to tell me? You're quite right not to let the ragtag +and bobtail bother you at a time like this, but I know your old friend +Burl Jasperson is always welcome." + +With scarcely a pause, the Captain extended his hand. + +"How are you, Burl? Won't you come in? I hope the Purser has taken care +of you properly?" + +"I'm comfortable enough, thanks, and I'm looking forward to the trip. +It's odd, come to think of it, that though I've been Chairman of the +board of directors, and have spent some thirty years managing a fleet of +space liners, yet I've never before made a trip myself. I don't like +crowds of people, for one thing, and then I've been busy." + +"What made you decide to go along on this one?" + + * * * * * + +Reaching across the table, Jasperson picked up the silver carafe and +poured himself a glass of water. + +"Ah! Nothing like a drink of cold water! The fact is, I wanted to check +up on things, make notes of possible improvements in the Star Line's +service, and sample passenger reactions. Then too, I'll have the +satisfaction of being present on the trip which will establish the +Line's supremacy, once and for all. This crossing will make history. It +means everything to us, Josiah. You know we're counting on you to break +the record. We want to win back the Blue Ribbon, and we expect you to +manage it for us." + +"I shall do my best." + +"That's the spirit I like to see. Full speed ahead!" + +"Certainly--consistent with safety." + +"Consistent with _reasonable_ safety, of course. I know you won't let +yourself be taken in by all this nonsense about the imaginary dangers of +hyperspace." + +"What do you mean?" + +"All this nonsense about the Thakura Ripples! But then, of course +you're a sensible man or we wouldn't have hired you, and I'm sure you +agree with me that the _Star Lord_ can deal with anything that +hyperspace has to offer." + +Jasperson adjusted the set of his jacket over his plump stomach while he +waited for an answer, and Captain Evans stared at him. + +"Is that why you're wearing a pistol?" he said dryly. "To help the ship +fight her battles?" + +"This?" His face reddened as he patted his bulging pockets. "Oh, it's +just a habit. I don't like being without protection; I always wear a gun +in one pocket and my recorder in the other." + +"You'll scarcely be in any danger on the ship, Burl. Better leave it in +your cabin." + +"All right. But about the Ripples--you aren't going to take them +seriously, are you?" + +"I wish you'd be a little more frank, Mr. Chairman. Has the Star Line +suddenly lost confidence in me?" + +"No, no, nothing of the sort! We've every confidence in you, of course. +But I've been hearing rumors, hints that we may have to make a slow +crossing, and I've been wondering. But then, I'm sure that a man of your +intelligence doesn't take the Ripples any more seriously than I do." + +"I don't know what gossip you have been hearing," said the Captain, +hesitantly. "'Ripples' is probably a very inaccurate and inadequate name +for the phenomenon. Thakura might equally well have called them rapids, +falls, bumps, spaces, holes, or discontinuities." + +"Then why did he choose to call them Ripples?" + +"Probably because he didn't know exactly what they are. The whole +problem is a very complicated one." + +"Complicated nonsense, I call it. Well, we won't quarrel, my dear +Josiah, but don't let them hold us back. Remember, we're out to break +all records!" + + * * * * * + +Under the artificial sky, crowds of people streamed into the +administration building of Satellite Y. The jumping-off place for all +rockets and ships going to and from the stars, Y-port was a world of its +own, dedicated to only one purpose, the launching and berthing of ships. + +It was a quiet and orderly place as a rule, and its small permanent +colony of workmen and officials lived a spartan existence except for +their yearly vacations on Earth. But today it seemed as if half the +earth's people, friends and relatives of the passengers, had chosen to +make the port a holiday spot of their own, to help celebrate the +launching of the _Star Lord_ on her maiden voyage. The rocket ferry +between Y-port and Earth had had to triple its number of runs in the +past week, and this morning's rocket had brought in the last of the +passengers for Almazin III. + +Alan Chase trudged wearily along with the crowd entering the building, +trying to close his ears to the hundreds of chattering voices. He was +tall and very thin, and his white skin clothed his bones like brittle +paper. Walking was an effort, and he tried to move with an even step so +he would not have to gasp for breath as he moved slowly forward with the +line before the Customs desk. In his weakness, the gaiety around him +seemed artificial, and the noise of voices was unendurable. + +Just ahead of him in line was a young man in an obviously new suit; the +pretty girl holding to his arm still had a few grains of rice shining in +her hair. + +"That will be all," said the Inspector. "I hope you and Mrs. Hall have a +very happy honeymoon. Next!" + +He gritted his teeth to stop his trembling as the Inspector reached for +the passport, glanced at a notation, then looked up. + +"I'll have to ask you to step in and see Dr. Willoughby, our ship's +doctor. It will only take a moment, Dr. Chase." + +"But I'm not infectious!" + +"But there seems to be some question of fitness. In cases like yours the +Star Line likes to have a final check, just to make sure you'll be able +to stand the trip. We're responsible, after all. Last door on my right." + +Close to exhaustion, Alan walked down the hall to the last door and +stepped inside. A healthy, rugged man with prominent black eyes looked +at him with a speculative glance. + +"And what can I do for you?" + +Holding out his passport, Alan sank down into a chair, glad of a chance +to rest, while Dr. Willoughby studied the document, then looked up, the +routine smile wiped off his face. + +"Well! So you're Dr. Alan Chase. I've been much interested in the papers +you've been publishing recently. But this is bad news, Dr. Chase. I +suppose you had an independent check on the diagnosis?" + +"Not even one of our freshmen could have missed it, but I had it +confirmed by Simmons and von Kramm." + +"Then there's no question. How did you pick it up, doctor? Neosarcoma is +still rather a rare disease, and it's not supposed to be very +infectious." + +Alan tried to speak casually, although just looking at the rugged good +health of the man opposite him made him feel weaker. + +"No, it's not very infectious. But after medical school, I went into +research instead of practice, and I worked on neosarcoma for nearly five +years, trying to devise a competitive chemical antagonist. Then, as used +to happen so often in the old days, I finally picked it up myself--a lab +infection." + + * * * * * + +The older man nodded. "Well, you're doing the right thing now in going +to Almazin III. I've made some study of the disease myself, as you may +know, and I entirely agree with your theory that it is caused by a +virus, and kept active by radiation. Since the atomic wars, the +increased radioactivity of the earth undoubtedly stimulates mitosis of +the malignant cells. It feeds the disease, and kills the man. But on a +planet like Almazin III where the radiation index is close to zero, the +mitosis of the sarcoma cells stops abruptly, virus or no virus." + +"I'm glad to hear that," said Alan. "I've read some of your papers on +the subject, and the evidence sounds pretty convincing." + +"It's conclusive. If you arrive in time you've nothing to worry about. +I've seen men as badly off as you, with malignant growths well advanced, +who migrated to Almazin III and recovered within a year. Without +radioactivity to maintain it, the disease seems to be arrested +immediately, and if the tissue damage has not gone too far, the tumor +regresses and eventually disappears. Once you're cured, you can come +back to earth and take up your work where you left off. Well, let's +check you over." + +The examination was brief. Dr. Willoughby initialed the passport, and +offered his hand. + +"You should stand the trip all right. But I'm glad you didn't put it off +any longer than you did. Another two months of earth's emanations, and +I'm afraid I couldn't have certified you. It's lucky for you that the +_Star Lord_ is the fastest ship in space. That's all, Dr. Chase. I'll be +seeing you on board." + +In the swiftly moving elevator cage Alan ascended the slender pylon to +the boarding platform, crowded by a group of quarreling children in +charge of an indifferent nursemaid. + +The Chief Steward, rustling in starched whites, stepped forward at the +port, clicked his heels, and curved his thin lips into a smile. + +"How do you do, sir. The Star Line wishes you a happy voyage. Will you +be kind enough to choose?" + +Following his nod, Alan looked down at the silver tray extended for his +inspection, and then stepped back as a heavy perfume assaulted his +nostrils. + +"What are those?" + +"Carnations, sir, for the gentlemen's coats, and rose corsages for the +ladies' gowns. Compliments of the Star Line." + +"But they're white!" + +"Yes, sir. The white flowers, the only kind we are able to grow in +Y-port, are symbols of the white light of the stars, we like to think." + +"What idiot gave the Star Line that idea?" said Dr. Chase. "You know +stars are all colors--white, green, yellow, blue, and even red. But +white carnations are a symbol of death." + +Steward Davis lowered his tray. "Then you don't care to wear one, sir?" + +"Not until I have to," said Alan. "Now please call some one to show me +my cabin." + +"Band playing in the lounge, sir. Tea is being served in the Moon Room, +and the Bar is open until just before takeoff." + +"Thanks, but I've been ill. I just want to find my cabin." + +"Boy!" called Steward Davis. "Show this gentleman to 31Q." + + * * * * * + +Alan followed the pageboy through a complex of corridors, ascending +spirals of stairs, down a hall, and to the door of Cabin 31Q. The boy +threw open the door and Alan stepped in, then halted in shocked +disbelief at sight of a white-haired old man who was just lifting a +shirt from an opened suitcase. + +"I am Dr. Chase. Isn't this Cabin 31Q?" + +The old man beamed, his pink skin breaking into a thousand tiny +wrinkles. "That's right. 31Q it is." + +"Then what are you doing here?" + +"Have you no powers of observation? Unpacking, of course. I was assigned +to this cabin." + +Staggering over to a bunk, Alan sagged back against the wall. He lifted +his tired eyelids and stared at the sprightly old gentleman. + +"But I was promised a cabin by myself!" + +The old man looked distressed. "I'm very sorry, young man. I, too, hoped +to have a cabin to my self. I learned only a few minutes ago that I was +to be quartered with another passenger--evidently you. Somebody made a +mistake, there's no question of that, but the Purser tells me that every +bit of space is occupied, and no other arrangements can be made. Unless +you want to postpone your voyage, and follow in a later ship?" + +"No," said Alan. His voice had sunk to a whisper. "No, I can't do that." + +"Then we'll have to make the best of it, young man," he said, picking up +a pile of handkerchiefs, and putting them in the drawer he had pulled +out from the wall. + +"Let me introduce myself. I am Wilson Larrabee--teacher, or student, +according to the point of view. Some years of my life I've spent being a +professor of this or that at various universities, and the other years +I've spent in travel. Whenever the bank account gets low, I offer my +knowledge to the nearest university, and stay there until I pile up +enough credits so I can travel again." + +"Sounds a lonely sort of life, with no roots anywhere." + +"Oh, no! My wife loved travelling as much as I do, and wherever she was, +was home." He paused, his hand arrested in the act of hanging up his +last necktie, and for a moment his face was somber. Then he finished +hanging up the tie, gave it a little pat, and continued cheerfully. + +"We saw most of the world, in the fifty years we had together. The last +trip she made with me, to the Moon and back, was in some ways the +pleasantest of all. After we returned, we started planning and saving +and dreaming of making one last grand tour outside the solar system. And +then--well, she was more than seventy, and I try to think that she isn't +dead, that she just started the last tour a little ahead of me. That's +why I'm making this jaunt now, the one we planned on the _Star Lord_. +It's lonely, in a way, but she wouldn't have wanted me to give up and +stay home, just because I had to go on alone." + + * * * * * + +Glancing at Alan's bent head, Professor Larrabee abruptly banged shut +the lid of his empty suitcase and shoved it into the conveyor port in +the wall to shoot it down to Luggage. Then he straightened up and +rumpled his white hair. + +"That's done, young man. Will you join me in the Bar for a spacecap?" + +"Sorry, sir. I'm very tired. I just want to rest and be quiet." + +"But a frothed whiskey would help you to relax. Come along, and let me +buy you a final drink before we take off for eternity." + +Alan noticed with distaste the white carnation in the coat lapel of his +companion. "I hardly like to think of this trip as being synonymous with +eternity," he said. "You sound as though you didn't expect to come +back." + +"Do I? Perhaps I made an unfortunate choice of words. But do you believe +in premonitions, Dr. Chase?" + +"No. All premonitions stem from indigestion." + +"No doubt you are right. But from the moment of boarding this ship I +have been haunted by the memory of an extremely vivid story I once +read." + +"What kind of a story?" + +"Oh, it was a scientific romance, one of those impossible flights of +fancy they used to publish in my boyhood, about the marvels of future +science. This was in the days before we had got outside the solar +system, but I still remember the tale, for it was about a spaceship +which was wrecked on its first voyage." + +"But there've been hundreds of other such stories! Why should this +particular one be bothering you now?" + +"Well, you see," said the professor apologetically, "it's because of the +name. The coincidence of names. This other ship, the one in the +story--it was called the _Star Lord_." + +"I wouldn't let that worry me. Surely it's a logical name for a +spaceship?" + +Professor Larrabee laughed. "Logical, and perhaps a trifle presumptuous. +But I'm sure it's a meaningless coincidence, my boy. Now how about that +drink?" + +Alan shook his head. + +"Come, Dr. Chase. Allow me the liberties of an old man. You're obviously +ill, you want to crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after you, and +enjoy the deadly luxury of feeling sorry for yourself. But we can't do +that sort of thing. Let me prescribe for you." + +With an effort, Alan smiled. "All right, Professor. I usually do the +prescribing myself, but right now I'm too tired to argue. I'll accept a +spacecap with pleasure." He swallowed a panedol tablet to ease his pain, +then pulled himself up. + +"That's the spirit, my boy! We will drink to the _Star Lord_, that she +may have a happier fate than her namesake." + + * * * * * + +Five minutes before takeoff. The first signal had sounded. The Bar was +closed by now, the lounges deserted, and in theory the twelve hundred +and fifty passengers were secure in their cabins, waiting for the +instantaneous jump into hyperspace. + +At the port, Chief Steward Davis leaned against the wall with his tray +of wilting flowers, while the Second Officer and two crewmen stood by, +waiting for the final signal to close the port. + +They were startled by a sudden commotion, a flurry of voices, and turned +to see the elevator doors open on the loading platform. A group of +laughing people surged forward. + +"But I'm late again, darlings!" cried a vibrant voice. "You must let me +go now! The ship is waiting just for me, I know. Stop holding me!" + +"But we don't want to lose you!" called a man. + +"You know I'll be back in the fall." + +"But the theater can't get along without you!" + +"But it won't be forever, darling!" + +Still laughing, Tanya Taganova pulled away from her teasing friends. She +was a tall woman, very slender; very beautiful, with her burnished +auburn hair and warm brown eyes. She walked forward with the swift +precision of a dancer, in her flared gown of stiff green satin, whose +ruff stood out about her slender neck to frame a regal head. In her arms +she carried an enormous sheaf of red roses. + +With light steps she entered the port, then turned to wave at her +friends and give them a last challenging smile. + +The Second Officer asked sharply, "Are you a passenger, madame? You're +rather late." + +"And I tried _so_ hard to be on time for once in my life! I'm very +sorry, lieutenant!" + +"Quite all right, madame. You got here in time, and that's what counts. +But you'll have to hurry to get to your cabin before takeoff." + +"Wait!" said Steward Davis. His long face had come to life as he looked +at her admiringly and extended his tray of flowers. + +"White roses? For me?" she said. + +"Yes, madame. Compliments of the Star Line." + +Turning her head, she moved away. "Thank you, but I'm not ready to wear +white roses, yet. It's not that they're not lovely, but--" she raised +her arms, burdened with their scented blooms, "you see that I already +have so many flowers, and the red rose is still for the living!" + +Davis banged his tray to the floor and shoved it aside with his foot. + +"All right, madame. Now we'll have to hurry. We'll have to run!" + + * * * * * + +A final bell rang, a final light flashed. + +On the floor below the ship, the crowds of relatives and wistful +stay-at-homes gazed up; at the beautiful metal creation, poised on its +slender fins, nose pointed towards the opened dome. + +A vibration began, a gentle, barely perceptible shuddering of the ground +which increased in frequency. It beat through the floor, into their +feet, until their whole bodies quivered with the racing pulse that grew +faster, faster, as the twenty-four total conversion Piles in the ship +released their power. Then, as the people watched, between one instant +and the next, the ship vanished. In the blink of an eyelid she had +shifted to hyperspace. + +The _Star Lord_ had begun her maiden voyage. + + * * * * * + +By the second day out, most of the passengers felt completely at home. +The ship had become a separate world, and the routines they had left +behind them on earth, and the various routines they would take up again +some six weeks from now on Almazin III seemed equally remote and +improbable. Life on the _Star Lord_ was the only reality. + +She moved through the uncharted realms of hyperspace, travelling in one +hour's time as measured by earth watches, more than twenty light years +distance, if measured in the units of real space. The ship itself was +quiet. The vibration of the takeoff had ended in a moment, and now the +passengers could hear no noise and hum of motors, could feel no motion +against swelling waves, no battering against a barrier of uneven air. +The artificial gravity induced a sense of security as absolute as though +the ship were resting on living rock. + +Although most of the cabins were small, they were cleverly designed to +provide the maximum of comfort, even the least expensive of them. For +the very wealthy, the rulers of the galaxy's finance, the owners of the +galaxy's industries, the makers of the galaxy's entertainment, there +were the luxury cabins. The floors glowed with the soft reds of oriental +rugs, the lounge chairs were upholstered in fabrics gleaming with gold +thread. Cream-colored satin curtains fluttered in an artificial breeze +at the simulated windows, and on the walls hung tranquil landscapes in +dull gold frames. To those who had engaged them, the ornate cabins +seemed only appropriate to their own eminent positions in life. + +Delicious meals were served three times a day in the several dining +rooms, the softly lighted Bar was never closed, and every day three +theaters offered a varied program of stereo-dramas. There was even--the +most marvelous, daring, expensive luxury of all--a swimming pool. The +pool was small, and was open only to the first cabin passengers, but the +fact that a ship travelling to a distant solar system could afford room +enough for a pool, and extra weight for the water needed to fill it, +seemed evidence that man had achieved a complete conquest of the +inconveniences of space travel. + +One luxury, however, freely accessible to even the poorest sheep herder +on earth, was denied the passengers of the _Star Lord_. + +They could not see the stars. They could not see the sky. + +The ship had portholes, of course, and observation rooms which could be +opened if at any time she cruised in normal space, but the ports and +observation windows were closed now, for there was nothing to see. The +ship was surrounded by blackness, the impenetrable, unknowable +blackness, of hyperspace, but this black emptiness did not frighten the +passengers because they never bothered to think about it. + +But the builders of the ship had designed it so that even the simple +pleasure of looking at a friendly sky should not be denied its +passengers. An artificial day and night of the appropriate length was +maintained by the dimming and brightening of lights, and the main +lounges were bounded with special walls which looked like windows, +through which could be glimpsed bright summer days, fleecy clouds +drifting over a blue sky, and, in the evenings, soft starlight. + + * * * * * + +Every passenger should have been soothed into contentment by these +devices, but by the end of the first week, Burl Jasperson was restless. + +He hated to sit still, and the hours and the days seemed endless. His +bald head and portly body were a familiar sight as he roamed the ship, +inspecting every detail as though it were his personal responsibility. +Once a day he called on Captain Evans to check on the progress of the +_Star Lord_, once a day he chafed under the cold courtesy of the +Captain's manner, and then wandered on. In his jacket he wore his pocket +recorder, and he was momentarily cheered whenever he found an excuse for +making a memorandum: + +"Chairs in lounge should be two centimeters lower. Sell Deutonium +shares. How about monogrammed linens for the first cabins? Install +gymnasium?" + +As he walked, he murmured these thoughts to his recorder, and each night +his meek and colorless secretary sat up late to transcribe them into the +locked notebook which was his special charge, after Jasperson had taken +his sleeping pills and crawled into bed. + +On the evening of the eighth night out, Burl Jasperson wandered into the +Bar, and drummed his pudgy fingers on the table as he waited to give his +order. + +"A glass of ice water, and a Moon Fizz. And be sure you make it with +genuine absinthe. You fellows seem to think you can get away with making +it with _'arak_, and your customers won't know the difference. Well, +just remember I'm one customer that does, and I want _real_ absinthe." + +"Yes, sir, Mr. Jasperson," said the Bar steward. + +Turning restlessly in his chair, Burl let his eyes stop on the +white-haired old gentleman beside him, happily consuming a brandy and +soda. After a moment's inspection, he stuck out his hand confidently. + +"My name's Jasperson. Everything all right? Enjoying the trip?" + +The pink skin wrinkled in amusement. + +"I am Wilson Larrabee. Everything's fine, thank you, except that the +ship is almost too luxurious for a man of my background. A professor's +salary does not often permit him indulgences of this kind." + +"You a professor? Of what?" + +"Various things at various times. Philosophy, physics, Elizabethan +drama, history of science--" + +"Myself, I never could understand why a sensible man would go into that +business. No money. No prestige. Never doing anything, just reading and +thinking." + +"Every man to his taste," said Larrabee. + +"Yes, within limits. But the things some of you professors think up! +Most of the ideas do more harm than good, scaring people to death, +hurting business. You'd think they ought to have more sense of +responsibility!" + +He tasted his drink, then nodded knowingly at the bartender. "This is +something like! _Real_ absinthe." + +Professor Larrabee studied his companion. "I can hardly suppose, Mr. +Jasperson, that you hold professors responsible for all the ills of the +world. And yet you seem disturbed. Did you have something in particular +in mind?" + +"Yes. The Thakura Ripples!" + + * * * * * + +Amusement vanished from the professor's eyes. "What about them?" + +"Why are people so afraid of them? As far as I can see, they're just a +piece of nonsense thought up by a dreamy-eyed physics professor, and he +hypnotized people into believing in them. But as I was telling Captain +Evans last night, they've never been seen, never been measured, and +there's nothing at all to prove that they have any existence outside the +mind of a madman. And yet people are afraid of them!" + +"And just what are the Thakura Ripples?" said Alan Chase, drawing up a +chair. "Waiter, I'll have a spacecap." + +"Feeling a little better tonight, Alan?" asked his friend. + +"Some, thanks. I just had a checkup from Dr. Willoughby, and he thinks +I'm more than holding my own. Now go on about the Ripples. Where are +they? What do they do?" + +"Suit yourself," Jasperson muttered. "If you want to tell ghost stories, +go ahead." + +"Thank you. The Thakura Ripples, my boy, are an unexplained phenomenon +of hyperspace. We do not know what they are--only that they are +dangerous." + +"But I thought that space was entirely uniform?" + +"Alas, no. Not even normal space can be called uniform. It has been +known for a long time that variations exist in the density of the +interstellar gases. Just why they occur, what pattern they follow, if +any, was for many years one of the major unsolved problems confronting +astronomers and physicists. Then they learned that these variations in +density of the interstellar gases were directly connected with the +development of the successive ice ages on the earth, and eventually a +study of the collisions and interactions of the various light forces +from the stars in the galaxy made the pattern clear. We know, now, that +the variations occur only in a certain band of space. They may occur at +any given place within that band, but their position is constantly +shifting and unpredictable." + +"Now you see it, now you don't?" said Alan. + +"Exactly. Now it was Thakura's theory that the Ripples are an analogous +band of mysterious forces existing in hyperspace. They may be tangible +barriers, they may be force barriers, we do not know. But a ship +entering this lane _may_ go through it without damage, and by pure +chance take a course which misses all these bumps in space. Or, by going +slowly and using his instruments to feel his way, a navigator can often +sense them ahead, and if he is skillful he may be able to dodge them. +But if, in some terrible moment, he smashes head-on against the Thakura +Ripples, the conversion Piles which power his ship are immediately +affected. They begin to heat, perhaps to heat irreversibly, and if they +get out of control, they may vaporize. In the last fifty years at least +five ships have vanished in this region, and it was Thakura's belief +that they were disintegrated on the Ripples." + +"But there isn't any evidence!" Jasperson exploded. + +"Isn't a demolished space ship evidence?" + +"No! It's evidence that something went wrong, certainly, but it doesn't +tell us _what_ went wrong. I'm not an unreasonable man, professor, I'm a +hardheaded business man, and I like to deal with facts." + +"I don't have an intimate knowledge of these matters, of course," said +Larrabee, "but it was my impression that in the past fifty years since +travel in hyperspace became common, several ships have been +unaccountably lost." + +"Your first figure was right. Five ships have been lost--that much is +fact. Why they were lost is still a question. It's my considered +opinion that they were lost by human failure; the crewmen let the Piles +get hot, and the ships were helpless. In the early days they had to get +along with only one or two Piles, and if they went wrong the ship was +done for. But we've changed all that. That's why the _Star Lord_ has +twenty-four Piles. No matter what happens it's impossible that _all_ of +them should go bad at once. She can ditch the dangerous Piles and still +always have power enough left to make port. One thing is certain, this +ship will never be wrecked on the Ripples of a mad scientist's +imagination! A phenomenon like the Ripples, is impossible. If it +existed, we'd have had some proof of it many years ago." + +"But surely you don't mean to imply that if we don't know a fact, it is +therefore impossible?" + +"Not at all. But you know yourself, Professor Larrabee--you're an +educated man--that by this time our physicists understand the universe +completely, from A to Z. There are no unexplained phenomena. Thakura is +shut up in a madhouse now. In my opinion, he was already insane when he +published his theory." + +Larrabee was nodding, thoughtfully. "I wonder what makes you so certain +of your theory?" + +"What theory? I never deal in theories. I'm talking fact." + +"Your theory that we have unveiled all the mystery of the universe; how +do you know? Every now and then, of course, man lives through a century +of such amazing progress that he concludes that nothing remains to be +learned. But how can he ever be certain?" + +"But we are certain! Most physicists are in agreement now that there +hasn't been one single unexplained physical aberration in the past +century!" + +"Most physicists except Thakura, you mean?" + +"But Thakura is insane! We understand all the physical phenomena of the +universe." + +"Except the Thakura Ripples?" + +Jasperson slammed down his glass and stood up, his face red and puffy. +"Steward! More ice water! I'm getting tired of those words, professor. +Do you think for one minute I'd have risked my life to come on this trip +if I'd thought there was the slightest danger?" + +Alan looked up languidly. "You mean you wouldn't mind sending a crew and +passengers into danger--as long as you could take care to be safe +yourself?" + +"Surely you're not afraid, Mr. Jasperson?" said Larrabee. + +"No. What is there to be afraid of?" He gulped down his drink. "Nothing +can wreck the _Star Lord_!" + + * * * * * + +When Dr. Alan Chase woke up next morning and glanced at his wrist watch, +he realized that the breakfast hour was nearly over. Professor Larrabee +had already left the cabin. + +Alan was not hungry. It had been many months since he had really enjoyed +an appetite for food, but he got up and began to dress, so that he could +perform the duty of eating. But his clothes, he noticed, were beginning +to fit a little more snugly. He fastened his belt at a new and +previously unused notch, buttoned his jacket, and then performed the +ritual he carried out every morning and every evening. + +Touching a facet in the ornamentation of his wrist watch, he walked +about, geigering the room. Radiation normal, somewhat less than earth's +normal, in fact. The twenty-four Piles were well shielded, and if this +continued, he should survive the journey in fair shape. + +At the door of the dining room he paused, for the entrance was blocked +by Steward Davis and the young couple he had noticed the day they left +Y-port. + +The tall young man with rumpled black hair was arguing, while the pretty +girl clung to his arm and watched his face admiringly, as though he were +the only man in the world. + +"But Steward," said the young man, "Dorothy and I--that is, Mrs. Hall +and I--we felt sure we'd be able to have a table by ourselves. We don't +want to be unreasonable, it's only that this is our honeymoon, maybe the +only time we'll ever get to spend together, really, and we like to eat +alone, together, I mean. That's the reason we chose the _Star Lord_, +because the advertisements all talked about how big and roomy it was, +and how it didn't have to be so miserly with its space as they did in +earlier ships. They said you could have privacy, and not have to crowd +all together in one stuffy little cabin, the way they used to." + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Hall," said the Steward crisply. "We are all proud of +the spaciousness of our ship, but not even the _Star Lord_ can provide +separate tables for everybody who--Oh, _good_ morning, Mr. Jasperson! +Glad to see you, sir." Turning his back on Tom, he smiled and bowed to +the new arrival "Everything all right, sir?" + +"Good morning, Dr. Chase. No nightmares last night? 'Morning Davis. Tell +that waiter of mine to be more particular about giving me plenty of ice +water. I like plenty of water, and I like it cold." + +"Sorry, sir. I'll speak to him at once." He bowed again as Jasperson +strode on. + +"Then could we--" Tom began. + +Davis whirled with an impatient frown. "What? Are you still here? +Surely I made it clear that there's nothing I can do, Mr. Hall?" + +"But couldn't you at least move us to another table?" + +"I regret that you are dissatisfied with our arrangements. All table +space was allocated before we took off from Y-port." + +"But you've put us with such noisy people!" said Tom stubbornly. "They +keep talking about how much money they made in deutonium, and they refer +to us, right in front of us, as the babes in the woods. They may be +rich, but they haven't the manners of a six-year old. We _can't_ stay at +that table." + +"Mr. Hall, I can't waste any more time with you. If all our passengers +were to demand special privileges--" He shrugged his shoulders. + + * * * * * + +Dorothy Hall whispered shyly, "Ask him, then, what about that man?" and +she nodded her head slightly to the right. + +"Yes," said Tom. "You say there isn't enough room, but what about that +table over there? It's made to seat two, and there's just that one man +who eats alone." + +Davis glanced over. "Oh, yes. But that's Mr. Jasperson! He likes to be +by himself." + +"Who's Mr. Jasperson?" + +"A very important man." + +"And I'm not?" + +Alan broke in. "Excuse me, Mr. Hall. I am Dr. Chase. Won't you join my +table? Three of the people assigned places there are Almazanians, a +diplomatic mission, I think, and they naturally prefer to have their own +cuisine in their own cabins, so we have room for three more." + +"How about it, Steward," said Tom. "Any objections?" + +Shrugging his shoulders, Davis strolled away. + +Tom glared at the retreating back. "That guy has the face of a murderer. +He can't be decent to anybody with less than a million credits." + +Dorothy laughed. "Never mind, Tom. Someday you'll be the most famous +lawyer in the Interstellar courts, and maybe you'll get a chance to +prosecute him for arson or treason." + +Alan led them to the rear of the dining room, where his two table +companions were finishing the last sips of their coffee, and lighting +the first cigarette of the morning. + +"Miss Taganova, may I present Tom and Dorothy Hall, who would like to +share our table." + +Tanya lifted her beautiful auburn head and smiled a welcome. Professor +Larrabee stood up, his pink cheeks crinkling with pleasure as he shook +hands with Tom. + +"Young people make the best companions," he said, "especially on long +journeys." + +Alan sat down and reached for the vitamin dispenser. "These particular +young people want privacy. They're on their honeymoon, and would hardly +shed a tear if all the rest of the world suddenly ceased to exist." + +"It's not quite like that, Dr. Chase," said Tom, his face reddening, +"but those people at our other table were just out of our class, one way +or another. The men talked all the time about their bank accounts, and +the women clawed at each other about which one had the biggest house, +and the biggest pearls and diamonds and emeralds, until we began to feel +smothered in a blanket of credits and diamonds." + +"Credits and diamonds must be very nice things to have," said Tanya. +"I've never managed to collect many of either." + +"I've nothing against them in themselves," said Tom, "but right now they +don't seem to matter very much. We had to wait five long years to be +married, five years for me to finish my law training, and for Dorothy to +wear out her family's opposition. They didn't want her to throw herself +away on a penniless lawyer." + +"As if I were a child who didn't know her own mind," said Dorothy. +"Well, I wanted Tom, penniless or not; and anyway, in a few years he's +going to be the finest lawyer in the Interstellar Courts." + +"I hope you'll always be as happy as you are now, children." The +professor's eyes were misty as he stood up. "Come, Miss Tanya. Take a +stroll with me, and bring back to an old man a brief illusion of youth." + +"But you'll never be old!" she said affectionately. "You're still the +most fascinating man on the ship." + +Like every other man in the room, Alan watched with envious eyes as +Tanya took the professor's arm and sauntered to the door, the heavy +taffeta skirts of her pearl-gray gown swishing and rustling as she +walked. + + * * * * * + +Within the sealed hulk of the _Star Lord_ the twenty-four Piles silently +did their work, out of sight, out of the thoughts of the passengers. +Driving the ship through the unknowable infinities of hyperspace, they +held her quiet, steady, seemingly without motion. They behaved as they +were intended to, their temperatures remained docilely within the normal +limits of safety, and the ship sped on. + +The technicians and maintenance men, the navigators, the nucleonics men, +all kept aloof from the social eddies frothing at the center of the +ship. They lived in another world, a world of leashed power, in which +the trivial pursuits of the passengers were as irrelevant as the +twitterings of birds. + +In the central tiers occupied by the passengers, each morning the walls +of the lounges and dining rooms resumed their daily routine of +simulating the panorama of earth's day. Lights glowed into a clear +sunrise, brightened into a sunny sky across which light clouds scudded. + +Children played in the nurseries, grownups idled through the hours, +eating the delicious food, taking a dip in the priceless pool, attending +the stereodrams, and playing games. At the cocktail hour, the orchestra +played jaunty tunes, old-fashioned polkas, waltzes, mazurkas; at dinner, +it shifted to slower, muted melodies, suitable background for high +feminine voices, deep male laughter, and the heavy drone of talk. + +In the walls, the sun set, twilight crept in, and the stars came out. +After the stars had been advancing for several hours, people finished +their dancing and card games, walked out of the theaters, had a final +drink at the Bar, paused at the bulletin board which detailed the ship's +daily progress, and went to bed. + +Dr. Alan Chase followed his own routine. Each morning and each evening +he geigered his cabin and found the radiation still below the earth +normal. He was surprised to find that he was holding his own, +physically, instead of becoming progressively weaker, as he had +expected, and he began to feel hopeful that he might quickly regain his +health on the inert atmosphere of Almazin III. He was not strong enough, +however, to take part in the active games of the passengers, and had not +enough energy to try to make friends, except for the people at his +dining table--particularly Tanya. + +Of all the lovely women on board, he thought Tanya Taganova the +loveliest. He knew he was not alone in this, for the arresting planes of +her face, the dramatic color of her rustling taffeta gowns, attracted +many followers. He would sit in the lounge at night and watch her +dancing, and then realize, suddenly, that she had disappeared, long +before the evening was over. She was an elusive creature, as +unpredictable as a butterfly. + +Wandering listlessly about the ship, one afternoon he stepped through +the open door of the Library. In the almost empty room he saw the auburn +head of Tanya, bent over so as to hide her face and show him only her +glowing hair. She raised her head as he approached. + +"Are you looking for a book, Dr. Chase?" + +"No, I just wondered what was interesting you so much." + + * * * * * + +She shifted her seat, to let him see a large sheet of rough drawing +paper covered with a chalk sketch of a desolate gray marsh over which +green waves swirled from the sea, behind them loomed rose-colored +granite hills. + +"I'm a scene designer, you know. But at home, somehow, I never have time +to myself. People will never believe I'm serious, and when I want to get +some real work done, I run away on a trip, by myself. Right now I'm +sketching out a set for a new stereodrama we're staging next autumn. +This particular one is for a melancholy suicide on Venus. I've several +more here." She pointed to a scattered heap of drawings. + +The soft chime of the library telephone interrupted them. Tanya rose and +moved to the desk. + +"Yes? Not now, youngster. I'm working. Yes, maybe tomorrow." + +Alan had been examining her drawings. "Is this what you do during the +hours when you disappear?". + +"Usually. Sometimes I drop into the playroom to chat with the children. +They're more interesting than their parents, for the most part, and +nobody ever seems to pay much attention to them." + +"But do you have to work at night, too? When you disappear in the middle +of the evening, everybody misses you. The men all watch for you to come +back, their wives sigh with relief, and old man Jasperson toddles around +and searches the dance floor and bleats, 'Where's Miss Tanya? She was +here just a little while ago, and now I can't find her anywhere!'" + +"I know. But one dance an evening with him is about all I can stand. I +don't really like the man." + +"But why? He's a little stupid, but he seems a harmless sort of duck. In +a financial deal, of course, I can see that he'd be sharp and +ruthless--that's how men like him become millionaires--but he can't +knife anybody on shipboard." + +Tanya slashed a heavy black line across her drawing, bearing down so +hard that she broke the chalk, and threw the pieces to the floor. + +"He's a coward! Haven't you ever noticed the way he bullies the waiters? +How he patronizes Professor Larrabee, and ignores the young Halls? And +to hear him tell it, you'd think only his advice makes it possible for +Captain Evans to run the ship! I'm afraid of men like that. They're +cowardly and boastful, and in a crisis they are dangerous!" + +"What an outburst over a fat little bald-headed man! Aren't you letting +your dramatic sense run away with you?" + +Laughing, Tanya picked up her chalk and resumed sketching. "Probably, +but after all, I earn my living with my imagination." + +"Then you aren't just a rich young woman dabbling in the theater?" + +"No indeed. If you could see my bank account! No, I'm going to Almazin +III to make authentic sketches of the landscape. We may do a show set in +that locale, next year." + +"I wish I could see some of the shows you stage." + +"When we get home, I'll send you a pass." + +He did not answer. Suddenly the melancholy Venusian scene she was +creating depressed him, as if it had been a reflection of his own barren +life. + +"Or don't you like the theater, Dr. Chase?" + +"It's not that," he said hastily. "Only--" He shrugged his shoulders. +"Something about this ship, I suppose. Home seems so very far away." + +"Have you felt that too? I've had the feeling, sometimes, that earth +isn't there any more, and that this ship is the only reality." + + * * * * * + +By the end of the third week out, Burl Jasperson was afflicted by an +almost intolerable tension. He prowled the ship like a tiger, for he +could think of nothing more to do. For the moment there were no more +improvements to suggest to the Star Line, no more brilliant financial +deals to execute, and each empty minute seemed to swell into an endless +hour. He tried to relax by viewing the dramas on the stereoscreen, but +he was always too uneasy to sit through an entire performance, and would +leave in the middle to resume his pacing of the corridors. + +At his private table in the dining room he stared at the empty chair +across from him, munching his food mechanically, seething with unrest. +He could see Tanya's gleaming head across the room, with Alan Chase's +beside her, and he tortured himself with imagining the light laughter, +the friendly talk which must be taking place there. Never, before this +trip, had he been made to feel so unnecessary, so much an outsider. +Wasn't he a lord of finance, a master of industry, the kind of a man to +be respected and admired? Of course, less successful men called him +ruthless, he realized, but he was not ruthless--only realistic. He was +an able man, and if he expected people in general to take orders from +him, it was only because he was more intelligent and more capable than +the people to whom he gave his orders. Nothing wrong with that. + +But these miserable empty days were beginning to frighten him. He felt +lost. The ship ran by herself, without needing his help, and there was +no doubt at all that she would win the Blue Ribbon. Although he +questioned Captain Evans sharply, and checked every day on the minutest +data of the voyage, so far he had found nothing to criticize--except the +coldness of Josiah Evans' manner. + +He ground his teeth through a stalk of celery in a vicious bite. After +all, wasn't he Chairman of the board of directors of the Star Line? +Wasn't it his right, even his duty, to make sure that everything was +going well? + +The crowd of diners had grown thin, now, and he could see clearly the +little group at Tanya's table. They were laughing, and he could see the +delightful animation which always disappeared whenever he tried to talk +to her. + +Steward Davis sidled up, a deferential smile on his long face. + +"Is everything all right, Mr. Jasperson?" + +"Um." + +"Looks like we'll get the Blue Ribbon this trip, doesn't it, sir?" + +"Um." + +"If you should ever want any special dishes, sir, any little delicacies +not available to everyone, I should be glad to speak to the chef." + +Jasperson pushed his plate away. "I'll remember, Davis." Throwing down +his napkin he stood up. His waiter came running. + +"Dessert, sir?" + + * * * * * + +Without answering, he strode across the room, trying to compose his +mouth into a smile as he reached his goal. + +"Miss Taganova, would you care to join me in the bar for a drink?" + +They all looked up at him in astonishment. + +"But I've just finished dinner," she said. + +He waited, uncertainly. At last Professor Larrabee pointed to the +unoccupied chair. + +"Perhaps you'd care to join us, instead?" + +No one else spoke, and he sat down nervously. Conversation had stopped, +and at last he broke out with explosive force. + +"I wish Captain Evans would speed up this ship. It feels as if we'd been +on the way forever. And still three weeks to go!" + +"Do you find three weeks so long a time?" asked the professor. + +"It seems like eternity. I wish something would happen. Why can't we +have a little excitement?" + +"Couldn't you find any more banks to break today?" Alan drawled. "No +gambles on the stock exchange?" + +The professor broke in soothingly. "Now, there's an idea! You're +obviously a gambling man, a man of action. Do you play poker? Why don't +you get up a little game among your friends? That ought to provide you +with excitement for one evening at least." + +"Would you join the game?" + +"No, no, my dear Mr. Jasperson! You and I do not move in the same +circles. I confess, I enjoy the delightful uncertainties of poker, but I +could never afford to play for your stakes." + +"Then we'll make the stakes what you can afford. Each raise limited to +five credits?" + +"In that case, I might consider it." + +"You, Dr. Chase?" + +"Too exciting for an invalid, I'm afraid." + +"You, Mr. Hall?" + +Tom squeezed Dorothy's hand under the table. "No, thank you, Mr. +Jasperson. My wife and I, we have other plans." + +"If it's money, young fellow, I'll stake you, and you can have a year to +pay me back." + +Tom grinned. "You're very generous. But what makes you so sure you'd be +the winner?" + +"I always win. Will you join the game, Miss Taganova?" + +He accepted her silent head-shake without protest. + +"Then I'll try to round up two or three others. We don't want a big +crowd--too many people make me nervous. Perhaps Willoughby will play, +and I'll get Captain Evans. He doesn't like the game, but he'll sit in +if I insist. See you in my suite in half an hour." + + * * * * * + +The poker game had been in progress for more than an hour when Captain +Evans entered the parlor. Frowning, Jasperson looked up. + +"You're late, Josiah. I told you we'd begin at nine." + +"Sorry, Burl. I was delayed." + +Jasperson paused in the act of raking in the pot, and looked up sharply. + +"Anything wrong?" + +"No, all serene." + +"Anything you need my advice on?" + +"No, just a routine conference with the navigator." + +"Then pull up a chair and get in the game." + +Nearly half the chips were piled in front of Jasperson, and across from +him a modest heap sat before the professor. At his right the baggy-eyed +only son of a deutonium millionaire fingered his dwindling pile +indifferently, and on his left Dr. Willoughby stared unbelievingly at +his few remaining chips, three blues and a couple of whites. + +"I'll just watch," said the Captain. "You know I'm not much of a +gambler. Chess is my game." + +"Oh, come on, Josiah. I insist that you play. Prove that you've got red +blood in your veins." + +Evans hesitated, but remained standing. "I'd rather just look on." + +"Now look here, Captain. Doesn't the Star Line always try to please its +passengers? Well, I'm a passenger. Or is it just your native caution +that makes you afraid of losing?" His laugh did not entirely disguise +the irritation in his voice. + +"All right, anything to oblige," said Evans wearily, pulling up a chair. +"What stakes are you playing for?" + +The Captain lost, slowly and steadily. Mechanically he went through the +motions of dealing, discarding, drawing, and betting, but it was obvious +that his mind was not on the game. Jasperson rarely lost a hand, if he +had stayed at all, while Professor Larrabee's luck was unpredictable, +the pile of chips before him fluctuating, growing or diminishing with +startling swiftness. + +They were interrupted once when a waiter came in with a tray of bottles +and glasses. The Captain refused. + +"But one drink won't do you any harm," said Jasperson. + +"I never drink in space. For one thing, the rules of the Star Line +explicitly forbid it, as you should know." + +"Yes, I helped make that rule. That means I can release you from it." + +But Evans was firm. "I never drink in space," he repeated. "I'll take +two cards--no, make it three." + +The professor surveyed his hand with his customary sprightly air. + +"I'll play these," he said. + +Jasperson discarded. "I'll take one." + +Captain Evans languidly opened the betting, but after the first round he +dropped out, and only Jasperson and the professor remained. Each raised +the other persistently, and while Jasperson grew more and more excited, +the professor smiled as usual, his eyes glinting with amusement. + +"And another five," said Larrabee. + +For the first time, Jasperson hesitated. "You sure you mean it, +professor? I kind of hate to clean you out, especially because I doubt +if you can afford it." + +"Suppose you let me be the judge of what is, after all, a private +matter?" + +"All right, it's you that will go bankrupt, not me. And another five." + +"See you, and raise you five!" + + * * * * * + +Jasperson sat back and pondered, his cold eyes calculating. "Now let's +review the situation, just among friends. The professor's a smart man, +and he isn't rich. He saw me draw one card, so he can make a pretty good +guess what I probably hold, if I drew the right card, but he's playing a +pat hand, and playing as if he meant it. Well, I've put a lot of credits +in that pot, but I never did believe in throwing good money after bad, +even in a friendly game. I quit." + +"What? You mean you're going to drop out without even seeing me?" + +"I know when I'm licked. Five credits is five credits, even to me." He +threw down his cards and reached to gather in the deck. + +Slowly Professor Larrabee raked in the chips, as Jasperson went on +complacently. + +"That's the only principle a practical man can work on. Know when you're +licked. Get all the facts, analyze all the data, and then act on the +logical conclusion, no matter how much you may hate to. It was clear to +me that you must have drawn a pat flush that would top my straight, so I +simply decided not to waste any more money." + +"Thank you, Mr. Jasperson. I appreciate the gift." + +"It was no gift. You had me beat." + +"Did I? Only if you had all the facts, only if you analyzed all the +data, and only if you reached the correct conclusion. Perhaps you ought +to see what I held." + +Deliberately he turned over his hand and spread the cards. + +Jasperson jumped to his feet in a rage. "But that's a handful of junk! +Not even a pair! You held a bust, and I had you beat!" + +"Certainly. But you didn't know it. Without all the facts, you acted on +a faulty conclusion." + +Breathing noisily, his plump face flushed, Jasperson smashed his fist +into his pile of chips and scattered them to the floor. + +"A pure bluff! I hate bluffing!" + +"Then you miss a great deal of fun in life," said Larrabee calmly. "I +find it dull just to analyze data and then bet on a sure thing. I like a +little excitement." + +Slowly the financier sank back into his chair. He gulped in a large +breath of air and tried to steady himself, a sickly smile around his +mouth. + +"Excuse me, Professor. But you took me by surprise." Hands trembling, he +began to shuffle the deck. + +There was a knock at the door, and a crewman entered. + +"What is it, Stacey?" said Captain Evans. + +"Chief Wyman is waiting to see you in your quarters, sir." + +With a sigh of relief, the Captain turned in his few chips. "Time for +me to quit, anyway." + +His face still red, Jasperson looked up hopefully. "Shall I come with +you? Any way I can be of use?" + +"No thank you, Burl. I'll leave you to your little game." + + * * * * * + +In the Captain's quarters, Chief Wyman was pacing the floor. + +"Sir!" he burst out. "This is it! We've hit the Thakura Ripples!" + +"Impossible, Wyman! It's too soon. What's happened?" + +"You told me to report as soon as we ran across anything suspicious, +sir. Well, look what our screen has been picking up." + +He handed over a plastic record tape, perforated by minute notches which +outlined an unsystematic, jagged line of peaks and hollows. + +"We've been getting this stuff all evening." + +"Doesn't seem to mean anything. It doesn't show any sort of pattern." + +"No, sir, and it may not mean anything, but it's different from what +we've been getting up till now. And then another thing. It's probably +not serious, but the number ten Pile has started to heat." + +"Begun to heat? What's wrong with Pile Ten? One of your men been getting +careless?" + +"I'm positive not, sir. I have complete confidence in all of them." + +Captain Evans studied the record tape, a worried frown on his forehead. + +"It's just possible, I suppose, that the Ripples--Is Pile Ten heating +fast?" + +"No, sir. It's still below the critical level, and of course we're +putting in dampers." + +"I wish we _knew_ something definite about the Thakura Ripples," the +Captain burst out, "what they are, what they do, what they look like, +and _how_ they affect our atomic Piles! If only Thakura were still a +sane man, and could finish up his calculations!" + +"Maybe Thakura was crazy to start with," said Chief Wyman, "or maybe the +Ripples drove him crazy. I don't know. But I do know Pile Ten is +heating." + +"Well, keep watching it. Double the checks on the other Piles, and let +me know of even the slightest rise." + +As soon as the door had closed, Evans opened the desk panel and buzzed +Operations. + +"Pilot Thayer? Captain Evans here. I am about to give you an order. As +soon as you have executed it, come at once to my cabin, and bring +Navigator Smith with you. Here it comes. Reduce speed immediately, +repeat immediately, to one-half, repeat one-half. That's all." + + * * * * * + +Nobody felt the alteration in the progress of the _Star Lord_. Within +the metal casing of the ship nothing was changed. The sunny scenes in +the walls were just as bright, and the synthetic light of the slowly +moving stars at night was just as soothing. For the passengers, the +black menace outside the ship did not exist. Because change of speed +cannot be felt in hyperspace, they had no way of realizing that the +_Star Lord_ had slackened her pace and was feeling her way cautiously as +a blind man to avoid the ominous barriers of the Thakura Ripples. + +On their way to their cabins that night, there were a few people who +noticed that the bulletin which detailed the day's run had not been +posted on the board, but they wondered only for a moment why it had been +omitted, and then forgot the matter. + +Going in to breakfast next morning, Burl Jasperson stopped to read the +bulletin as usual, to find how many light years distance had been put +behind him in this interminable journey, and he clenched his fist at +finding a blank board before him. + +Abruptly turning his back on the dining room, he proceeded straight to +the Captain's quarters, where Stacey stopped him in the anteroom. + +"Where's Captain Evans?" + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Jasperson. The Captain left orders he was not to be +disturbed." + +"He'll see _me_. Let him know I'm here." + +"I'm sorry, sir. My orders were, nobody was to be admitted. He was very +specific." + +Stacey did not budge, but the inner door swung open and the Captain's +tired face peered out. + +"You have a very penetrating voice, Burl. I suppose you might as well +come in. It's all right, Stacey. Stand by." + +He moved to let Jasperson enter, and closed the door. + +About the desk sat Chief Engineer Wyman, Chief Pilot Thayer, and Chief +Navigator Smith, all studying a chart laid out before them, and making +computations. They looked up at the interruption. + +"What's going on here?" said Jasperson. "If you're having a conference +of some kind, I should be in on it." + +"Just routine work, Burl. What is it you want?" + +"Somebody is getting careless. The bulletin of yesterday's run has not +been posted. It's little things like that that make all the difference +in the reputation of a shipping line. Somebody ought to be reprimanded. +What was the day's run, by the way? Well, speak up, Josiah! I'm +waiting." + +Evans reached for a sheet of paper from the desk and silently handed it +across. Jasperson looked at the figures, frowned, and spoke angrily. + +"Have your computers broken down, Captain Evans? Or is this a joke? Why, +that's only about two-thirds our usual distance. At this rate it will +take us from now to eternity to arrive." + +"You'd better sit down, Burl." The Captain looked steadily at him. +"Those figures explain why I ordered that the bulletin was not to be +posted. Not one passenger out of a hundred would have noticed much +change in the figures, but I do not want to alarm even that one in a +hundred. I have ordered the ship to proceed at half-speed." + +"What? Have you lost your mind?" + +"We are approaching the Thakura Ripples. It just isn't safe to go any +faster." + +Expelling a long breath, Jasperson spoke more calmly. + +"That means we'll be late in reaching Almazin III?" + +"Three or four days, perhaps, not more. Eventually we'll get through +this danger zone, and then we can resume speed." + +"But we _can't_ be late, Captain Evans! Surely you haven't forgotten +that we're out after the Blue Ribbon? The Light Line's ships have made +it in forty-three days, and we've got to do it in forty-two or less. +This trip is a matter of prime importance to the Star Line, and a delay +of even three days would keep us from breaking the record. I thought you +understood all that?" + + * * * * * + +Sighing, the Captain shook his head. "I know all that. But we are in +dangerous regions, and I can't risk my ship just for a piece of silk! +Last night Pile Ten started heating. It's still hot, and we may have to +expel it. I hadn't expected to reach the Ripples so soon, and had even +hoped we could avoid them entirely, but evidently the limits of the band +haven't been charted very accurately. The only safe thing is to go +slow." + +"But the Ripples are imaginary! Why do you think we've hit them?" + +"There's the number Ten Pile." + +"But why should only that one out of the twenty-four be affected? And +even if it is heating, that's no good reason for slackening speed." + +Captain Evans glared back at the plump little man, then his eyes +wavered, and his fingers fiddled uncertainly with the papers on his +desk. His chief officers were watching him intently. At last he +straightened his shoulders and spoke sternly. + +"Mr. Jasperson. Surely it will not be necessary to remind you that I am +the Captain of this ship. I am in sole command. Is that correct?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"Would you seriously advise me to go contrary to my own knowledge, my +own instinct? To run this ship into an area of danger, to risk the lives +of the passengers, all for a piece of ribbon? Would you want to take the +responsibility of giving me such an order, even if I should agree?" + +As Jasperson looked around at the watchful faces of the Engineer, the +Pilot, and the Navigator, some of the belligerence left his voice. + +"Certainly not, Josiah! And anyway, it's not your knowledge I'm +quarreling with. If you run the ship according to the facts, you'll do +all right. It's when you let your judgment be influenced by your +imagination that I object. But by all means, do as you think best. When +the Star Line loses confidence in its Captains, they replace them. I'll +look in again, if I may, later in the day." + +When the door had closed behind him, Pilot Thayer shook his head +wonderingly. "You'd think he ruled the universe!" + +"He's a man of very limited imagination," said the Captain. "But never +forget, he wields a great deal of power. Now, are your orders clear? +Smith, you'll continue your charting." + +"I'm doing my best, Captain, but what am I charting? Sometimes I wonder +if maybe your friend Jasperson isn't right. If the Ripples are +imaginary, maybe I'm getting gray hairs trying to make a map of +something that isn't there!" + +"Chart it anyway! We can't take chances. Wyman, I'm not a bit satisfied +with the way Pile Ten is behaving. It should have cooled to normal +before now. Watch it. If we have to dump it, we want to act before it +gets too hot. Anything else?" + +"One other thing, sir," said Engineer Wyman, pointing to the diagram of +the ship which hung on the wall. "Pile Ten is located just below +Lifeboat C, and the radiation index of Boat C is getting a little high." + +"That's bad. Well, keep shoving in the dampers, and keep me posted." + +After they had gone, he sat for a while at his desk, studying the data +on the papers before him. He paced the room for a few minutes, then +paused to pick up the little red volume of _Ley's Space Ships_. He had +no need to open it. It fell open of itself at the well-read page, and +his eyes rested for one rich moment on the words: _Captain: Josiah +Evans_. + +What name, he wondered, feeling almost physically sick with +uncertainty, what name would be printed in the next edition? + + * * * * * + +The orchestra played melodiously at lunch time. The chef had produced +delicacies even more delectable than usual, and at each table the +waiters poured sparkling white wine into long-stemmed glasses, while +murmuring softly, "Compliments of the Captain!" + +"Is this a special occasion?" asked Tanya. + +"Not that I know of, miss." + +"Every meal feels like a special occasion," said Alan, "because I get to +talk to you." + +"Sh-h! Here come the Halls." + +Tom and Dorothy flitted in to the table, hand in hand, still absorbed in +the wonder of being together, scarcely aware of the world about them, +then left, without finishing their dessert. Alan and Tanya looked after +them with affectionate amusement, but Professor Larrabee seemed +withdrawn and a little sad, as though they evoked memories of a time now +lost to him forever. + +"They make me feel so _old_!" said Tanya. + +"And lonely?" + +"Perhaps, a little. They seem so sure, somehow, that all the rest of +their lives will be just as happy as this, always." + +"And why not?" said Professor Larrabee. + +The orchestra swayed into a final soft chord, and immediately a voice +spoke from a loudspeaker in the ceiling. + +"Ladies and gentlemen!" Conversation stopped, the room became quiet. + +"Ladies and gentlemen. The customary lifeboat drill will be held this +afternoon at 1600 hours. The attendance of all passengers is requested." + +The voice stopped, the orchestra resumed its playing, and the passengers +sipped their coffee. + +"I wonder why he said 'customary'?" said Tanya. "We've been out about +three weeks, and this will be the first drill we've had. Do you suppose +something is wrong?" + +"I'm afraid your sense of the dramatic gets the better of you," said +Alan. "What could be wrong with the _Star Lord_?" + +"Maybe her name," murmured Professor Larrabee, and his eyes looked +haunted. + + * * * * * + +Solitary at his table, Burl Jasperson sipped at a glass of ice water as +he pondered. For the first time in his life he was not quite sure what +course to follow. He wanted that Blue Ribbon for the Star Line, and +yet--he did not know what to do. While he listened to the announcement +of the lifeboat drill, his lip twisted in contempt. Just like Josiah +Evans, he thought, to be over-cautious and run the risk of starting a +panic. + +Still thinking, he left the dining room and went to the main lounge to +study the illuminated map of the ship. The three-dimensional panorama +showed the slim and elegant body of the _Star Lord_, tapered like a +silver spindle. Six small ships, three on each side of the long axis, +each capable of carrying 250 people, were fastened into her hulk. +Seemingly a part of the ship itself, their outer walls forming a part of +the ship's wall, they were designed to be detached at the touch of a +button, and launched into space as free craft. + +When the warning bells rang, he joined the crowd of passengers who were +assigned to Boat F, peered at the boat through the transparent panel, +and listened attentively to the instructions. It was Steward Davis, he +noted approvingly, who was in charge. + +"Passengers will file in through the usual port and walk to the farthest +unoccupied seat, and buckle themselves into place. They have nothing +further to do. Crewmen will take care of the mechanics of detaching and +launching the boat. You will note that there are no separate cabins, +only rows of seats as in the primitive airplanes, but you will find this +no real discomfort, since the boat would undoubtedly be picked up after +a very short interval by some alerted space liner." + +Jasperson raised his voice above the crowd's hum. + +"What about provisioning? Are the boats stocked on Y-port?" + +"No, Mr. Jasperson, except for food concentrates, and one air tank which +is placed there for the greater comfort of the crewmen who must go in to +clean or to make minor adjustments. The boats are not fully provisioned +until the need arises. After all, we don't want to invite trouble, do +we?" + +People laughed appreciatively. + +"No," he went on, "if there should be an emergency, we have specially +trained crewmen whose job it is to stock reserves of air and water. They +would go to work as automatically and efficiently as machines. Any other +questions?" + +Jasperson lingered after the indifferent crowd, to inspect the boat more +closely, then slouched away. + + * * * * * + +All that afternoon he prowled the ship, trying to make up his mind. He +stopped now and then to question a business acquaintance, ask a +journalist his opinion, and he quizzed Larrabee again, more sharply than +before, about the hypothetical Ripples. He kept moving, and as he walked +he calculated, bringing to bear all the power of a mind which he +believed to be logical, and which his financial success had proved to +be keen and intelligent. All his life he had trusted his judgment, and +it had rarely failed him--barring accidents like that unfair poker game. +At last, as the hours went on, his decision crystallized. He had made up +his mind. + +At dinner he drank champagne in addition to his usual ice water, and +only half heard the scraps of conversation in the dining room. There was +to be a special masquerade dance, he gathered. People around him were +excitedly planning the improvisation of costumes. He would not get +himself up in any silly costume, he decided, but if his plans went well, +he might look in later in the evening, on the chance to being allowed to +glide over the waxed floor with the lovely Tanya. + +After finishing his last drop of coffee he went directly to the cabin of +Captain Evans, who had just begun to eat his simple dinner. + +The Chairman of the board of directors pulled up a chair and sat down, +without waiting to be asked. + +"Look here, Josiah, I want to talk to you. I've been thinking. I'm +afraid I was too brusque this morning. That's a bad habit of mine, and I +want to apologize. But after all, we should not be quarreling, for your +interests and mine are the same, as you surely realize." + +Captain Evans pushed away his tray, lit a cigar, and puffed stolidly. "I +realize that I must consider the safety of my passengers, if that's what +you mean." + +"That's included, of course." Jasperson made his voice warm and +persuasive, the voice that had swayed boards of directors, the voice +that reassured hesitant bankers. + +"Passenger safety is always paramount, of course, and I respect your +attitude there. But in this particular case, isn't it possible that you +are being too cautious?" + +"But Burl! Can the Captain of a ship _ever_ be too cautious? Think of +his responsibility!" + +"His responsibility is very great, and I would never advise you, nor +permit you, to shirk yours. But sometimes caution may cease to be a +virtue. Think about this caution of yours for a minute. Surely you +believe that I would never urge you to do anything against the interests +of the ship, or against your own conscience? Now you have an excellent +mind--logical, objective, clear. That was one reason we chose you for +this place. Try to consider, for a moment, the bare possibility that +your decision to reduce speed may not have been justified." + + * * * * * + +Evans was silent, and finally Burl asked, "How far did we get today?" + +"240 Light years." + +"And if you decide to continue at that speed for five or six days, that +means we'll be approximately three days behind schedule in touching +Almazin III?" + +"About that." + +"And that means we won't break the record. Now consider the reason for +this very unhappy situation. Think about it with an open mind. You have +one Pile heating--but has that never happened to a ship before, even in +normal space? You and I both know it happens, and that ships have been +lost because of a defective Pile. Logically, why shouldn't this be just +another such case? You say it is caused by the Ripples, but as man to +man, what objective evidence can you bring forward to prove their +existence? I'm not trying to browbeat you, you understand, but just to +ask you to look at the matter carefully. You said yourself, this +morning, that you hadn't expected to be meeting the Ripples at this +point--you had thought they occurred in a rather different area of +hyperspace. Couldn't that mean that they don't really exist, anywhere?" + +Captain Evans wiped his glistening forehead with his handkerchief. + +"Yes," he said. "I was surprised. I'll admit I didn't expect them here. +But there's so much we don't know about hyperspace!" + +"No, there's so much we _do_ know! Are you a child, to fancy there are +goblins outside just because it's dark? There is a perfectly rational, +alternative explanation for the things that worry you. Why can't you +accept them?" + +Evans got up and began to pace the floor. "I guess I'm following a +hunch." + +"But would you make us lose the Blue Ribbon for a mere hunch? Don't you +trust your own objective judgment?" + +Sweating heavily, the Captain tried to stub out his cigar, but his hands +were moist and his fingers trembled. + +"I don't know!" he shouted. Then he went on, his voice low and tired. +"You may be right. Burl. You may be right. We may not have hit the +Ripples. The Ripples may not even exist, although some very competent +spacemen and some very brilliant physicists are convinced they do. But +how can I judge? How can I be sure?" + +Jasperson leaned forward, intent as a cat on a bird. + +"None of the other Piles have started to heat? There's nothing else to +make you suspicious?" + +"Nothing except the space record tape, and that makes no sense." + +"Exactly. Then why don't you look at this situation as a hardheaded +spaceman should, and order full speed ahead?" + +"Burl, there are fifteen hundred lives dependent on me. How can I take +such a chance?" + +"It wouldn't be a chance. And if by the one unlucky chance in ten +million there should be trouble, you have ample lifeboat space for +everyone. Isn't it worth the gamble?" + +"I don't like gambling lives against a piece of blue silk ribbon." + + * * * * * + +Jasperson sighed. "Come, Josiah, be reasonable. I wouldn't think of +giving you an order, or trying to interfere with your decision in any +way, but surely I may be allowed to help you to reach the correct +decision? How will you feel when the _Star Lord_ limps into port four or +five days late, and you have to explain to the Board that she was +delayed because you were trying to dodge some non-existent Ripples. You +are afraid! Change your frightened point of view, and that will make you +change your orders and get us on the way once more, full speed!" + +Muttering to himself, wiping his brow, Captain Evans walked around the +little room, while Jasperson sat back and watched him with cold, intent +eyes. Evans glanced once at the little red book, half covered with +papers, and pain contorted his face. + +Suddenly he stepped to his desk and called Engineer Wyman. + +"What about that space tape, Wyman? Has Smith been able to detect any +pattern in the impulses?" + +"No, sir. No pattern of any sort we can recognize, anyway." + +"And what report on Pile Ten?" + +"Pile Ten is doing nicely, sir. Lost half a degree in the last hour. By +tomorrow she ought to be back to normal limits." + +Clicking the phone, Evans resumed his pacing in the heavy silence. At +last he faced Jasperson and spread out his palms, his face gray as +parchment. + +"All right, Burl. You're probably right. I won't argue any longer." + +"Good man! The Star Line will know how to appreciate your decision." He +hesitated, and asked, "You'll agree, now, I didn't push you into this? +It's your own free decision?" + +Calmly, Evans answered. "It is my own responsibility." + +He buzzed Operations. + +"Wyman? Captain Evans speaking. Full speed ahead!" + + * * * * * + +On the dance floor late that night, a crooner in blue Venusian mask and +wig hummed the melody while the orchestra wailed and zinged behind him. +The lights had been dimmed to a purple midnight, and shadowy couples +flitted about the room, swaying, humming, laughing. Horned devils danced +with angels, pirates and Roman senators guided in their arms lovely +Cleopatras and sinuous mermaids. Hunched over the little tables, +clinking glasses, grotesque silhouettes of Martians, Venusians, and +Apollonians whispered intimately. + +The walls of the room displayed the evening stars of late summer, and, +special event for a gala evening, a fat yellow half moon sailed lazily +in the sky. + +The _Star Lord_ shuddered, briefly. Briefly the crooner's voice wavered, +the notes of the violins hesitated, but no one noticed. A second quiver +of the ship, and the dancers paused to look at one another +questioningly, then laughed and danced on. + +Jasperson had been sitting beside the wall, vainly searching among the +dancers for Tanya. He stood up, his forehead suddenly wet with sweat. +Plowing through the dancers and out of the door, in the corridor he ran +into Steward Davis, gliding along on silent, slippered feet. + +"What was that, Davis?" + +"Don't know, sir. Nothing serious, or the alarm lights would be on." + +"Come with me." + +He flung open the door of the Captain's cabin. It was empty. Stacey was +not in the anteroom, and the inner cabin was silent. The water carafe +had been turned over on the desk, and a few papers lay scattered on the +floor. + +"They might be in Operations, sir." + +"Show me the way!" They raced down the corridors, past the open door of +the room where dancers still swayed and the orchestra still played. +Through a hall, down an escalator, down, down, to the center of the +ship. + +Jasperson paused. "You needn't wait, Davis. But I may want you again. +I'll let you know." + +Pushing aside the crewmen who stood guard at the door, he rushed into +the room. + +"Josiah! What was that shock? I demand to know what's happened!" + +Evans threw him a glance of pure, intense hatred, and then resumed his +questioning of Chief Wyman. + +"You say Number Ten just let go?" + +"Not exactly, sir. For a couple of hours or so after we resumed speed, +it stayed steady. All of a sudden, it started to climb. They called me, +but by the time I got there it was already at critical level. We put in +more dampers, but it kept going up and up, and I thought it might +vaporize any minute. I hadn't any choice, sir. There wasn't time to call +you and get orders. I had to drop it." + +"Certainly. I'm not criticizing you. But there's one thing we hadn't +counted on. Chief Thayer says Pile Ten took lifeboat C along with it." + +"But how could that happen?" + +"Boat C was just above, you remember. The heat triggered the release +mechanism, and the boat launched itself into space." + +Jasperson interrupted, trying to speak calmly. "What's happened? Tell me +what's wrong?" + +"We've hit the imaginary Thakura Ripples," Evans said savagely, "and +they're tearing us apart!" + +The plump soft body of Burl Jasperson seemed to deflate. The truculence +drained from his face, leaving his skin a dirty white as he whispered, +"Then the Thakura Ripples _are_ real? And we're in danger?" + +The Captain's laugh was bitter. "What do _you_ think? Don't you want to +give me the benefit of your advice now?" + +Again the door burst open, and a crewman ran in. + +"Captain Evans, sir. Piles Fourteen and Fifteen have started to heat. +They're already at critical level." + +"Dump them!" + +The phone buzzed, and Evans listened with a face which was turning a +graveyard gray. + +"If you can hold them down, keep them. If they pass the critical point, +shoot them away." Turning, he looked straight into the dilated eyes of +Jasperson, and spoke as if every word were a knife thrusting into the +pudgy body. + +"Every one of the Piles is starting to heat. Every last one. One life +boat is lost. That means fifteen hundred people to be crowded into five +little boats!" + +"What are you going to do?" croaked the little man. + +"I've already reduced speed. I've sent out and am still sending out +calls for help, over phase wave. We'll shift to normal space, and we'll +launch the lifeboats as soon as they can be provisioned and loaded. And +then we'll pray. And now, Burl Jasperson, how do you like the Thakura +Ripples?" + +Bracing himself against the desk, Burl tried to smile. "If there's any +way I can help, of course, just let me know." With a feeble attempt at +jauntiness, he staggered out of the cabin. + + * * * * * + +Opening the long-closed shutter of the observation port, Captain Evans +could see the suns of normal space glittering in the blackness about the +ship, unfamiliar and alien. Before the shift to normal space he had +sent out SOS calls throughout the galaxy, but he had not waited for any +replies before shifting. He could not know whether the calls had been +heard, or even whether there were any ships close enough to send help +after hearing the calls. He hoped, with all his being, that they had +come out in a region of inhabited planet systems, in a regular shipping +lane, so that his passengers could be picked up and taken to port--any +port. + +He kept his line open to Operations, and every minute or so Wyman spoke +to him, giving the data on the climbing piles. Ten had been jettisoned +in hyperspace, and so had Fourteen and Fifteen. Since their shift to +normal space, it had been necessary also to detach the entire bank of +Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-one, whose index had risen at a terrifying +rate. + +Wyman's voice spoke in his ear. "One, Two, and Three are climbing fast, +sir." + +"Shoot them away!" + +"No good, sir. I've tried. The release mechanism has fused, and those +three Piles are welded to the ship!" + +Evans closed his eyes. That meant that the life of the ship was doomed. +There would be no way to save her. But the passengers could still be +saved, if they got away soon enough, before the three Piles vaporized. + +"Wyman!" he whispered despairingly, "is there any single Pile that isn't +heating?" + +"No, sir." + +"Is there any single Pile that's responding to your dampers?" + +"No, sir, not one." + +"Then, in your experience, they are all bound to go, sooner or later?" + +"I've never seen anything like this in my experience, sir. It looks +bad." + +The door opened, and Jasperson slunk in. His skin had lost its +cushioning, gray folds sagged under his cheek bones, and black hollows +outlined his glittering blue eyes. The Captain ignored him, and spoke +into the phone. + +"Very well. In exactly fifteen minutes I shall sound the alarm and we'll +abandon ship. I can't take a chance on waiting any longer. Keep a +skeleton crew at work on those Piles to hold them down as much as +possible, and have all other crewmen report to their lifeboat stations." + +"Right, sir. But Boat C has gone, you remember. When we dumped Pile +Ten." + +"Yes. Distribute her passengers among the remaining boats." + +He turned to look at Jasperson, who was shivering as though he were +freezing. + +"Is there no hope, Josiah? Is this the end?" + +"The end of the _Star Lord_, yes. I hope to save the passengers. You +heard me. In fifteen minutes all preparations should be finished, then I +sound the alarm. Don't worry, Burl. There's room enough for everybody, +your skin is safe." + +"But won't the lifeboats be horribly crowded?" + +"Crowded, yes, but not impossibly so. If they can carry two hundred and +fifty people in fair comfort, they can jam in three hundred by squeezing +a bit." + +Jasperson shuddered. "So many people! And so close together! I can't +bear crowds, Josiah, you know that. They make me feel sick and confused. +It will be terrible!" + +"Whether you like it or not, there's nothing else to do if we want to +save lives. I'll sound the alarm in a quarter of an hour. Get yourself +ready, but whatever you do, don't tell the others yet. I don't want a +panic on my hands until I'm ready to deal with it." + +Biting his lip, Jasperson turned, without a word, and shuffled out of +the cabin. + + * * * * * + +Once in the corridor, he began to run, a shrivelled old man waddling on +wings of fear down the hall to the dining room where empty tables waited +in the elegant silence of gleaming silver and crisp white linen for the +breakfast hour. + +Davis was standing at the sideboard, staring blankly at the flashing red +light above the door. + +Jasperson ran up to him and clutched his arm. Looking around cunningly +to see that they were alone, he whispered. + +"Davis, I want to talk to you." + +"Later, sir. That red light means I'm wanted at the briefing room." + +"Yes, but wait a minute!" + +"I'm supposed to go at once, sir." + +"A thousand credits if you'll listen to me a minute!" + +As Davis hesitated, Burl went on. "Listen, Davis, the ship is in +trouble. The Captain is going to launch the lifeboats. You're in charge +of Boat F, aren't you? You know how to operate it?" + +"Of course, Mr. Jasperson." + +"Then come with me, and we'll take the boat now. I'll pay you well." + +"But we can't do that!" + +"Why not? The _Star Lord_ is doomed. In fifteen minutes this place will +be a madhouse, and there may not be room for everybody. I want to get +out of here before the mob. We'll take Boat F." + +Steward Davis' eyes were thoughtful as he replied. "But sir, we can't +just take a boat for ourselves, like that. There's two hundred and +fifty people assigned to Boat F." + +"Worse than that! Three hundred! One lifeboat has been lost already. +It's dangerous to wait--there'll be a stampede and the lifeboats might +even be wrecked. No, we must take her alone, Davis. I'll give you ten +thousand credits if you'll do it, and as long as you live you'll have me +as a friend." + +The steward's Little eyes looked sidewise at the pleading man. "But I'd +be found out for sure, Mr. Jasperson, and then what would become of me? +I'd never get another job as long as I lived. I'd have to change my +name, disguise myself, and maybe live on some other planet, and all that +would take money. I'm a poor man, and I don't see how I could afford +it." + +"But if I have to squeeze into one of those boats with three hundred +other people crowding against me, I'll go crazy! We'll go to some +out-of-the-way planet, and you can change your identity and be perfectly +safe. Can't you understand, man? My life is at stake, and my sanity. +I'll give you fifteen thousand credits!" + +"Well," said Davis. "Could you make it twenty-five?" + +"Done! Meet me at Boat F in five minutes." + +Jasperson rushed to his cabin. Yanking open the wall safe he dragged out +his brief case and the locked memorandum book, thrust his pistol into +his pocket, and ran to the door. + +"Follow me!" he called to his startled secretary, and hurried from the +room. + +Running past the library door, he glimpsed Tanya at work, her auburn +head bent over her sketching. On impulse, he stopped and ran back. + +Panting from the physical punishment of running, nearly smothered by the +pounding of his terrified heart, he gasped out his invitation. + +"Tanya! The ship is going to blow up! Don't tell anyone. Come with me +now, before the crowd, and I'll get you off safely in my lifeboat. I'll +take care of you, Tanya." + +She pulled away. "Have you lost your mind, Mr. Jasperson?" + +"Don't argue. There's no time. Come, I'll protect you. We'll have plenty +of room. If you wait, it may be too late." + +"Go with you, and leave the others? You're mad!" + +"But if you wait, you'll be trampled to death by the mob. I'm giving you +a chance to save your life." + +"But you can't take that boat for yourself. What would happen to the +other people? That would be murder. Get away from me! I'm going to call +Captain Evans." + +As she ran to the phone and pressed the dial, he padded out of the door +and resumed his flight to Boat F where Davis waited, peering nervously +up and down the hall. Waving his secretary to follow, Jasperson rushed +through the port. + +"Everything ready, Davis? Provisions all in?" + +"All set. I saw the tail end of the truck leaving just as I got here, +but I'll just check--" + +"Hurry, man! There's no time to waste." He cocked his head, listening to +the low rumble of an approaching motor. Davis ran inside, and together +they watched from the port. + +Coming swiftly down the corridor was a small motor truck. It stopped, +and the driver jumped out and shouted. + +"Get out of that boat! She's not ready yet! What are you--" + +With a steady hand Jasperson drew his pistol and pressed the trigger. +The man fell without a sound. + +"What are you waiting for, Davis? Shove off!" + +The port door slid shut. A few seconds delay, and Lifeboat F, carrying +three persons, shot away from the _Star Lord_ into space. + + * * * * * + +Alarm bells rang, red lights flashed. + +Sickening with the inexorable rise of her fevered power units, the _Star +Lord_ trembled with the clangor of bells ringing in library and nursery, +in lounges and dance hall, in bar and cabins, in dining rooms and +theaters. The orchestra crashed to a stop, the dancers halted, startled +and vaguely frightened, half laughing at themselves as they listened to +the bells. + +Then silence, and the voice of Captain Evans. + +"Ladies and gentlemen. Do not be alarmed. Because of certain mechanical +difficulties the _Star Lord_ has shifted to normal space. There is no +immediate danger, but purely as a precautionary measure we shall launch +the lifeboats. Remember, there is no danger, but I ask each of you to +proceed at once, in calm orderly fashion, to the station to which you +are assigned, and there obey the orders of the officer in charge. The +passengers formerly assigned to Boat C will be placed in other boats. Do +not wait to go to your cabins. Proceed immediately to your lifeboats." + +The voice clicked off. A few seconds of silence, and then the quiet was +broken by the patter of hurrying feet. In a moment, the public lounges +were empty. + + * * * * * + +In the library, Tanya was still calling into the phone. + +"Operator, operator!" she cried. "I must speak to the Captain. It's a +matter of life and death!" But the phone was dead. + +[Illustration] + +When the alarm bells rang, she listened to the announcement and then +slowly put back the useless instrument. Back in her corner, she picked +up her chalk, shuffled her drawings into an orderly heap, paused, and +with a wry smile dropped them all to the floor and hurried away. + +A sound of crying wailed from the open door of the playroom, and she +looked in to see a group of children, none of them more than six, +huddled together and sobbing. She walked up to them and smiled, hands on +her hips. + +"Well, small fry! What are you doing up so late? Why the big howls?" + +Still they cried, ignoring their abandoned toys. Around the room hobby +horses sat quietly, alphabet blocks lay scattered, and picture books and +sprawling dolls littered the floor. + +"So," she said. "Your nurses ran out on you, did they? Left you to shift +for yourselves? Never mind, youngsters, Aunt Tanya will look after you. +Take hands, now, and come with me." + + * * * * * + +When the alarm rang in the Bar, a glass crashed to the floor as the only +son of the deutonium millionaire jumped to his feet and ran. + +[Illustration] + +Professor Larrabee deliberately finished his drink, gently put down the +glass, and stood up. + +"Our final spacecap," he said. "Well, Alan, it's been a good trip, but I +can't say I'm surprised at its ending. The ship had the wrong name, from +the beginning." + +"We'd better hurry, Professor. We must find Tanya and the Halls." + +"You're walking too fast for me, my boy. Don't worry. They're in Boat F, +with us, and we're sure to find them there." + +In the corridor leading to F station their way was blocked by the crowd, +many of them still wearing the grotesque costumes of the masquerade +dance, now pale and tawdry in the bright lights. Stunned with horror, +they stared through the transparent wall at the gaping socket where the +lifeboat had been. Crewmen formed a tight circle around the truck and +the man who lay moaning on the floor. Pistols ready, they held back the +crowd while Dr. Willoughby administered an intravenous shot of panedol, +and Captain Evans, kneeling beside the dying man, tried to catch his +whispers. + +"It was Mr. Jasperson, sir. He got me before I could do a thing. I tried +to stop him." + +"You say you warned him?" + +"I called to him, sir, and said the boat wasn't ready. But he didn't +give me a chance. He shot me." + +The boy closed his eyes, and Evans stood up. + +"Through an error, ladies and gentlemen, Boat F has already gone. You +will please go to the other stations and wait for assignment to the +other boats." + +The crowd whispered, staring uncomprehendingly at the Captain's stony +face. + +"Did you ever teach mathematics, Professor?" Alan murmured. "How do you +divide fifteen hundred people among four boats?" + +Larrabee only smiled, a faraway look in his eyes. + +A frightened voice cried, high and loud, "But there won't be enough +room!" + +Someone screamed. Someone else started to run. In a few seconds a mob of +running, panic-stricken people jammed the corridor, fighting their way +out. Alan and the professor, an old man and an invalid, had no strength +to resist and were helplessly carried along by the living wave. + +"Stop those people!" shouted the Captain. + +A gun fired into the air and the mob hesitated, then surged on, +shouting, past the lounges, to join the throngs waiting at the other +stations. + +"It's no use," said Evans wearily. "Chief Thayer. Send men to all the +stations to guard the boats. You proceed to Boat E and load it first. If +any person tries to force his way in, shoot to kill!" + + * * * * * + +In their small cabin, Dorothy Hall raised herself on one elbow and +looked down at her sleeping husband. His hair was rumpled, his face calm +and placid. + +"Tom," she whispered. "Wake up, Tom!" Mumbling sleepily, he opened his +eyes, then smiled and tried to draw her down to him. + +"Wait, Tom. Did you hear the Captain's message?" + +"What message?" + +"I was so sleepy I didn't understand it very well. Something about the +ship, and we must all go to our lifeboats." + +"You must have been dreaming. What time is it?" + +"Not quite midnight. Do you think everything is all right?" + +"Of course. You just had a bad dream. The _Star Lord_ can't be in any +trouble. You know that." + +"Don't you think we ought to go see?" + +Playfully he towsled her hair. "Trying to get away from your husband? +Tired of me already?" + +Relaxing, she snuggled down beside him with a happy sigh. + +"I'd never be tired of you, Tom, in a million years. Wherever you are, +that's where I want to be, always." + +She closed her eyes. + + * * * * * + +The children were no longer afraid, and they had stopped crying. Leading +them through the maze of corridors towards Boat station F, Tanya laughed +and told them jokes until, reaching a corner, she suddenly found the +passage blocked with a screaming mass of people, fighting, gouging, +jamming the hall so that forward movement was almost impossible. She +drew back, huddling the children behind her. + +"No place for us here, youngsters," she said. "Let's go back, where it +isn't so noisy." + +Obediently they followed her back to the library, where she settled them +in her favorite corner and picked up the abandoned chalk and paper. + +"Now Aunt Tanya will tell you a story," she said. "And if you're very +good and don't cry at all, I'll even draw you some pictures to go with +the story. Once upon a time...." + + * * * * * + +There was not enough room. A lifeboat which had been designed to carry +two hundred and fifty persons could not suddenly expand to take in three +hundred and seventy-five, although Chief Thayer did his best. At Boat E +he stood with drawn pistol, sorting the crowd, and ordering them one by +one through the port according to custom as ancient as the race. + +"Women and children first," he repeated, again and again. "_Women and +children first!_" + +They could hear from distant corridors an occasional shout and the +clatter of running feet, but the first panic had subsided, and under the +menace of the crew's guns the people had become subdued. + +White-faced men stepped back and made themselves inconspicuous in the +shadows, watching their wives and children file through the port, and +looking after them hungrily. Once, a man screamed and tried to crash +through the cordon. Thayer shot him, and he fell moaning to the floor. +Dr. Willoughby moved through the crowd, soothing the hysterical, +jollying the frightened, until he spied Alan Chase standing at the edge +of the group. + +He pushed through to Alan and threw his arm around the bony shoulder, +encouragingly. + +"I'm assigned to this first boat, Chase, and they'll want you in one of +the others. We want at least one medical man in each boat. But I must +warn you--" he look-ed around cautiously, but they might have been alone +in a desert for all chance there was of anyone's listening to them, "be +sure to get off in Boats B or D. Don't wait for Boat A." + +"What difference does it make?" + +"Boat A lies above two of the Piles that had to be dumped, and the +radioactivity index is sure to be high. Normal people won't be harmed in +the brief time they'll be on board if they're rescued, and if they're +not rescued, of course, it won't matter anyway. Even you might not be +harmed, but with your condition you shouldn't take the risk." + +"But does it really matter?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that we'd counted on my reaching Almazin III quickly and living +in an inert atmosphere in order to cure the neosarcoma. Now that the +_Star Lord_ is wrecked, I may not be able to get there for months, and +that will be too late. If I'm going to die, I'd rather stay with the +ship and get it over with." + +"Don't be an idiot, doctor! Don't you realize how much better you are? +The mitosis was definitely decreasing the last time I checked you. This +delay won't be fatal, I'm convinced." + +Alan shook his head skeptically. + +"Dr. Willoughby!" called Thayer. "Boat ready to launch!" + +A grip of the hand, and he had gone. The port shut. + +Boat E, jammed with three hundred and twenty-five persons, released +itself and shot out into star-studded space. + + * * * * * + +Boat B was the second to be launched, and Boat D followed. + +Keeping to the back of the crowds, Alan watched, admiring the efficiency +with which Chief Thayer worked, shouting, wheedling, cursing, until +three hundred and thirty people were squeezed in, like frightened cattle +in a pen. + +There remained only Boat A, and from the shadows he watched nearly five +hundred tense faces, drawn with the anxiety of wondering who was to go, +and who remain. + +Good thing the women and children had all been taken off in the earlier +boats, Alan reflected thankfully. It would be heartbreaking enough for +Thayer to have to choose among the men, and say to some, _Go_, and to +some, _Stay_. + +Captain Evans appeared, flanked by Thayer and Stacey, each with drawn +pistol. He faced the silent crowd and spoke with terrifying calm. + +"I will take charge here," he said. "I cannot ask Thayer to take on such +a responsibility. I am sure it is not necessary to tell you that there +is not room enough in this boat for all of you. If rescue ships arrive +in time, those who must remain behind will be taken off. If not--I +realize that no human being has the right arbitrarily to send some men +to life and keep others for possible death. But since choice of some +sort is necessary to avoid a panic which might result in unnecessary +deaths, I shall choose which ones are to enter this boat, as nearly as +possible according to the random positions in which you are now +standing. Anyone trying to change his place will be shot!" + +No one moved. No one spoke. + +"Thayer, you will send in two crewmen to help run the boat. You yourself +will be the last man in, to take command. As for the rest--" He paused, +wiped his hand over his reddened eyes, and staggered. In a few seconds +he had regained control of himself, and with shoulders erect he pointed +his arm and called out, + +"You go, and you, and you, and you...." + +Alan heard a low chuckle behind him, and turned to find Professor +Larrabee. + +"What a climax, my boy! Do you believe in premonitions, now?" + +"Why haven't you gone?" + +"Too old, Alan. I don't want to go. My life is done. But I can't say I +really mind. It's been a wonderful adventure, sharing the life and death +of the _Star Lord_." + +The boat was nearly half full when the tense quiet was broken by the +treble voice of a child. + +Captain Evans whirled to face the corridor, along which came Tanya, +holding to the hands of the two smallest children, while the others +clung tightly to the stiff folds of her taffeta gown. + +His stare was ghastly. "Miss Taganova! I thought you'd gone! Where have +you been? And why weren't these children sent off in the other boats? +Didn't you hear the warnings?" + +"Somebody's always scolding me for being late," said Tanya, lightly. +"But I really couldn't help it. These children seem to have been +abandoned by the nursemaids and lost or forgotten by their parents. I +have been trying to amuse them until it seemed safe to bring them to +you. If I'd come before they would have been trampled to death." + +"Well, luckily it's not too late. In you go, the lot of you." + +The six youngsters were scrambling through the port, and the Captain had +resumed his "You, and you, and you...." when Alan darted forward and +clasped Tanya's hand. + +"I just want you to know," he whispered. "If the _Star Lord_ had gone on +to port I'd never have dared say it. But since it can't matter now, +Tanya--I'd like you to know--" + +She smiled. "I know, Alan. I've known it for many days. And I'd have +made a good doctor's wife, I think!" Her lips were trembling as she +turned away and entered the port. + +"Dr. Chase!" roared the Captain. "What are you doing here? You were +supposed to go on Boat D!" + +"There isn't room for all of us, Captain. I thought the healthy men +should have the preference. I prefer to stay here." + +"Personal preferences mean nothing at all at this moment. Get into the +boat." + +"Let some one else have my place, sir. I haven't long to live anyway, +you know. I don't mind staying behind." + + * * * * * + +The Captain steadied his pistol. "Get in. That's an order. This is no +time for mock heroics. You should have gone with Boat D to look after +the women and children. Whether you live a month or a year doesn't +matter to me, but it is important that you use your medical skill to +take care of these people until they are rescued." + +With a dazed look, Alan walked through the port. + +"And you, and you, and you...." + +Thayer called out at last. "That's all, sir. No more room." + +"None at all? You're sure?" + +"Certain, sir. The talley is three hundred and thirty...." + +Nearly a hundred men remained in the corridor. Ashen-faced but calm, +they stared at the rectangular doorway which would have meant a chance +to live. + +"In you go, Thayer," said the Captain. "Prepare to release." + +Into the tense silence broke the brittle clicking of high heels as Tom +and Dorothy Hall sauntered up, arm in arm, a puzzled frown on their +foreheads. + +The Captain moaned. "Another woman! Wait, Thayer. We've one more woman +here. Which one of you men in Boat A will volunteer to give up his place +to young Mrs. Hall?" + +An elderly man walked serenely back into the ship, and joined the +others. + +Dorothy looked bewildered. "But what's happened? We kept hearing so much +noise we decided to get up. Is something wrong?" + +"We're abandoning ship. This gentleman is giving up his place to you. +Get in." + +She clung to Tom's arm. "Not without my husband!" + +"Mrs. Hall! We can't waste time on hysterics. This ship might be +vaporized while we're talking. A man has given up his chance at life for +you. Get in." + +She held back. "And Tom?" + +With a haggard smile, Tom pat-ted her shoulder. "Never mind me, honey. +You go jump in. I'll be all right." + +"Mrs. Hall, I'm willing to deprive one man of his chance, because you +are a woman. But I will not ask anyone else to give up his place to your +husband. Every man in the lifeboat has as much right to his life as your +husband, and so has every man who must be left behind. Go, now. It's +your last chance!" + +Her face had become calm and all hint of tears was gone. Without +hesitating she looked up at her husband and spoke softly. + +"Tell the man to go back. Whether we live or we die, we'll do it +together." Smiling at Tom, she took his hand to lead him away. + +"Come, Tom. Let's go look at the sky. I believe these stars are real +ones." + +"Close the port!" + +The door slid shut. A minute's long wait, then the boat released herself +and shot out into the blackness. The last of the lifeboats was gone. + +Professor Larrabee materialized from the shadows and approached Evans +with outstretched hand. + +"Well done, Captain!" + +"You here? I'd hoped you'd gone with the others." + +"What for? My life is over. I've had my pleasures. And this way, I shall +be seeing my wife all the sooner. She always loved adventure, and I +shall tell her all about the Thakura Ripples. Will you join me in a +drink, Captain Evans?" + +"No, thank you." His voice broke. "No. I need to be alone." He turned +and strode away. + +In the privacy of his cabin he buzzed operations. + +"What news, Wyman?" + +"Slow, steady climb, sir. All piles have passed critical stage." + +Slowly he replaced the phone, and covered his eyes. + + * * * * * + +Huddled against the wall of boat F, Burl Jasperson stared out of the +observation port, his cold eyes intent on the distant, fast receding +lights of the _Star Lord_. Now that he felt himself to be safe, he was +weak and exhausted. Beside him sat his secretary, a wizened little man +who stared numbly at his clasped hands. + +Jasperson coughed. + +"Yes, Mr. Jasperson?" + +"Get me a panedol tablet and a glass of water. I don't suppose there's +any ice, but if there is, put in some ice. I'm thirsty." + +Meekly the secretary shuffled down the long length of the boat, solitary +as a ghost, to the cubicle labelled Rations. He was gone a long time, +thought Burl, and when at last he returned his feet were dragging more +than ever. + +"There isn't any water, Mr. Jasperson." + +"You idiot! There's got to be water." + +"I couldn't find any, Mr. Jasperson." + +"Davis!" he roared. "Davis, get me a glass of water!" + +Davis looked out from the control room. "Get it yourself. This isn't the +ship's dining room any more, Jasperson. I've got other things to do now +than taking orders from you." + +"But I don't know where it is!" + +"All right. I'll get it for you this time and show you where it's kept, +but after this you wait on yourself." + +Leading the way to Rations, he opened a steel cupboard and reached in. +Suddenly anxious, he groped about frantically, then cried, "But there +isn't any water!" + +Jasperson swallowed, with dry throat. + +"There isn't any water?" he asked plaintively. "But I'm _thirsty_!" + +As the hours crawled by, Jasperson sat in the vast emptiness of the boat +and stared out at the alien stars. He could not bear to look at the long +rows of empty seats, seats that might have been occupied by living men, +two hundred and forty-seven silent, omnipresent accusers. His eyes were +glowing coals, his skin sagged in wrinkles over his haggard face, and +his voice was a mere croak. + +"Are you _sure_ there's no water?" he asked again. "Are you certain?" + +"Yes, I'm certain, as I've told you a thousand times," said Steward +Davis. "Don't you suppose I'm thirsty too? If you hadn't been in such a +hurry to sneak away we'd have been all right. That man you shot was +probably getting ready to load the water tanks." + +"But you told me the boat was all provisioned!" + +"I thought it was, when I saw the tail-end of that truck! But you didn't +give me time to check. Why did you have to be in such a hurry?" + +Groaning, Jasperson turned again to peer at the unfamiliar suns. + +"How long will it take us to reach an inhabited planet, do you think?" + +"I don't know, because I don't know just where we are. With luck, maybe +a week, maybe two." + +"How long can we live without water?" + +"Longer than you'd think. Twelve to fifteen days if we don't move +around. We may be able to land somewhere before then. If not--" His +voice rose to a sudden shriek. "_What good are those twenty-five +thousand credits going to do me now?_" + +The secretary sat in numb collapse, but Jasperson prowled the room, up +and down, up and down, past the rows of empty seats, while Davis sat and +watched him with glittering eyes. Jasperson's head was aching, and he +was aware, all at once, that he was out of breath, as though he had been +climbing a steep hill under a broiling sun. + +"Have to see to this," he muttered. "They can't treat me this way." +Stumbling, he lurched down the aisle towards Davis, staggering like a +drunken man. + +"Got to have more air, Davis. This won't do." + +Insolently, Davis got up and looked at the oxygen indicator set in the +wall. + +"Needle's falling a bit. I'll turn on another tank." He touched the +switch, then sat down again. + +Jasperson began to laugh. + +"What's so funny?" + +With shaking hand he pointed, laughing harder, his sagging cheeks +quivering as he roared. + +"It's those chairs! Ever see such silly chairs? The way they sit there, +and look at you?" + +"Hey, man, you're drunk! I wonder...." + +He got up to look at the oxygen dial again. The needle had fallen still +further. + +"Where's that oxygen?" he shouted. He rushed into the inner compartment +and was back immediately, his eyes black with terror. + +"No air reserve either! Only that one tank! You great, blundering, +condemned fool! A man can live for fifteen days without water, but he +can't live ten minutes without air. We're done for!" + +Jasperson giggled. + +Davis collapsed, and he, too, began to laugh, a helpless, gasping laugh. +They had entirely forgotten the self-effacing secretary, but the noise +of their dying laughter did not disturb him. He had already fallen +sideways in his chair, and would never wake again. + + * * * * * + +On the _Star Lord_, Tom and Dorothy sat in the empty lounge, looking +through the observation port at the real stars that studded the void. +They were holding hands. They were not afraid, and there was nothing +they needed to say. + +Some of the doomed passengers sat in the Bar, drinking steadily. Others +sat and stared at nothingness. Professor Larrabee lay in his cabin, his +face turned to the wall, his eyes closed. But he was not sleeping. He +was thinking of his wife, and a smile clothed his face. + + * * * * * + +In his cabin Captain Josiah Evans waited alone. His hair was almost +white, now, his cheeks were sunken, and all semblance of youth had left +him. Knowing the futility of his action, nevertheless he completed the +day's entry in the ship's log, and closed the volume. + +As the hours crept by he noticed that the temperature in the room was +rising. Once more, for the last time, he called Operations. + +"It's no use, Wyman. Let the Piles alone. It's only a matter of hours +now--or perhaps minutes." + +"Shall I cast loose the other Piles, sir?" + +"No, no use in that, since you can't jettison Piles One, Two and Three. +When they go, we all go. It's impossible, now, that any rescue ship +could get to us in time. You've done a good job, Wyman. You are now +released from duty." + +His hands were sweating, his whole body was wet from the high summer +torridness of the room. Captain Evans wiped his sticky hands on his +handkerchief and picked up the little red book, _Ley's Space Ships_. +Opening the book, he read for the last time the well-loved page. Then he +took up his pen and made a new notation in the margin. + +"_Star Lord: Lost, May 26, 2421, on the Thakura Ripples._" + +He paused a moment, and then with firm, steady strokes he wrote the +final entry: "_Destroyed by the arrogance of her owners, and the +criminal pride and weakness of her Captain._" + +He put down the pen, and laid his head on his desk. + + * * * * * + +Hour after hour Boat A circled the dying _Star Lord_, its weary +passengers tense with hope for the all but impossible rescue. Alan sat +next to Tanya, guarding the sleeping children. + +Suddenly she sat up. "What's that? Out there?" + +Over the loudspeaker came Thayer's voice. "We have successfully made +contact with a rescue ship. A space cruiser will reach us in +approximately eight hours." + +Tanya scarcely heard him. She was still peering out, her eyes on the +faint lights of the _Star Lord_. + +"Look!" she cried. + +"Shut your eyes!" shouted Thayer. "Everybody turn your head!" + +Far out in space where the _Star Lord_ had been was a brilliant red +glow, like many suns. It changed, suddenly, to a blinding light, so +bright that it was more blue than white, then vanished. + +Man had not yet made himself Lord of the Stars. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Star Lord, by Boyd Ellanby + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR LORD *** + +***** This file should be named 32208.txt or 32208.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/0/32208/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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