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diff --git a/40965-h.zip b/40965-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b291f50 --- /dev/null +++ b/40965-h.zip diff --git a/40965-h/40965-h.htm b/40965-h/40965-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fa555a --- /dev/null +++ b/40965-h/40965-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1222 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<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 Time And The Woman, by Dewey, G. Gordon. + </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%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + 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; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and the Woman, by G. Gordon Dewey + +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/license + + +Title: Time and the Woman + +Author: G. Gordon Dewey + +Release Date: October 7, 2012 [EBook #40965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND THE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>TIME and the WOMAN</h1> + +<h2>By Dewey, G. Gordon</h2> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Orbit volume 1 number +2, 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HER ONLY PASSION WAS BEAUTY—BEAUTY WHICH WOULD LAST FOREVER. +AND FOR IT—SHE'D DO ANYTHING!</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>Ninon stretched. And purred, almost. There was something lazily catlike +in her flexing; languid, yet ferally alert. The silken softness of her +couch yielded to her body as she rubbed against it in sensual delight. +There was almost the litheness of youth in her movements.</p> + +<p>It was true that some of her joints seemed to have a hint of stiffness +in them, but only <i>she</i> knew it. And if some of the muscles beneath her +polished skin did not respond with quite the resilience of the youth +they once had, only <i>she</i> knew that, too. <i>But they would again</i>, she +told herself fiercely.</p> + +<p>She caught herself. She had let down her guard for an instant, and a +frown had started. She banished it imperiously. Frowns—just one +frown—could start a wrinkle! And nothing was as stubborn as a wrinkle. +One soft, round, white, long-nailed finger touched here, and here, and +there—the corners of her eyes, the corners of her mouth, smoothing +them.</p> + +<p>Wrinkles acknowledged only one master, the bio-knife of the facial +surgeons. But the bio-knife could not thrust deep enough to excise the +stiffness in a joint; was not clever enough to remold the outlines of a +figure where they were beginning to blur and—sag.</p> + +<p>No one else could see it—yet. But Ninon could!</p> + +<p>Again the frown almost came, and again she scourged it fiercely into the +back of her mind. Time was her enemy. But she had had other enemies, and +destroyed them, one way or another, cleverly or ruthlessly as +circumstances demanded. Time, too, could be destroyed. Or enslaved. +Ninon sorted through her meagre store of remembered reading. Some old +philosopher had said, "If you can't whip 'em, join 'em!" Crude, but apt.</p> + +<p>Ninon wanted to smile. But smiles made wrinkles, too. She was content to +feel that sureness of power in her grasp—the certain knowledge that +she, first of all people, would turn Time on itself and destroy it. She +would be youthful again. She would thread through the ages to come, like +a silver needle drawing a golden filament through the layer on layer of +the cloth of years that would engarment her eternal youth. Ninon knew +how.</p> + +<p>Her shining, gray-green eyes strayed to the one door in her apartment +through which no man had ever gone. There the exercising machines; the +lotions; the unguents; the diets; the radioactive drugs; the records of +endocrine transplantations, of blood transfusions. She dismissed them +contemptuously. Toys! The mirages of a pseudo-youth. She would leave +them here for someone else to use in masking the downhill years.</p> + +<p>There, on the floor beside her, was the answer she had sought so long. A +book. "Time in Relation to Time." The name of the author, his academic +record in theoretical physics, the cautious, scientific wording of his +postulates, meant nothing to her. The one thing that had meaning for her +was that Time could be manipulated. And she would manipulate it. For +Ninon!</p> + +<p>The door chimes tinkled intimately. Ninon glanced at her watch—Robert +was on time. She arose from the couch, made sure that the light was +behind her at just the right angle so he could see the outlines of her +figure through the sheerness of her gown, then went to the door and +opened it.</p> + +<p>A young man stood there. Young, handsome, strong, his eyes aglow with +the desire he felt, Ninon knew, when he saw her. He took one quick step +forward to clasp her in his strong young arms.</p> + +<p>"Ninon, my darling," he whispered huskily.</p> + +<p>Ninon did not have to make her voice throaty any more, and that annoyed +her too. Once she had had to do it deliberately. But now, through the +years, it had deepened.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, Robert," she whispered. She let him feel the slight but firm +resistance so nicely calculated to breach his own; watched the deepening +flush of his cheeks with the clinical sureness that a thousand such +experiences with men had given her.</p> + +<p>Then, "Come in, Robert," she said, moving back a step. "I've been +waiting for you."</p> + +<p>She noted, approvingly, that Robert was in his spaceman's uniform, ready +for the morrow's flight, as he went past her to the couch. She pushed +the button which closed and locked the door, then seated herself beside +the young spaceman on the silken couch.</p> + +<p>His hands rested on her shoulders and he turned her until they faced +each other.</p> + +<p>"Ninon," he said, "you are so beautiful. Let me look at you for a long +time—to carry your image with me through all of time and space."</p> + +<p>Again Ninon let him feel just a hint of resistance, and risked a tiny +pout. "If you could just take me with you, Robert...."</p> + +<p>Robert's face clouded. "If I only could!" he said wistfully. "If there +were only room. But this is an experimental flight—no more than two can +go."</p> + +<p>Again his arms went around her and he leaned closer.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" Ninon said, pushing him back.</p> + +<p>"Wait? Wait for what?" Robert glanced at his watch. "Time is running +out. I have to be at the spaceport by dawn—three hours from now."</p> + +<p>Ninon said, "But that's three hours, Robert."</p> + +<p>"But I haven't slept yet tonight. There's been so much to do. I should +rest a little."</p> + +<p>"I'll be more than rest for you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ninon.... Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>"Not yet, darling." Again her hands were between them. "First, tell me +about the flight tomorrow."</p> + +<p>The young spaceman's eyes were puzzled, hurt. "But Ninon, I've told you +before ... there is so much of you that I want to remember ... so little +time left ... and you'll be gone when I get back...."</p> + +<p>Ninon let her gray-green eyes narrow ever so slightly as she leaned away +from him. But he blundered on.</p> + +<p>"... or very old, no longer the Ninon I know ... oh, all right. But you +know all this already. We've had space flight for years, but only +rocket-powered, restricting us to our own system. Now we have a new kind +of drive. Theoretically we can travel faster than light—how many times +faster we don't know yet. I'll start finding out tomorrow, with the +first test flight of the ship in which the new drive is installed. If it +works, the universe is ours—we can go anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Will it work?" Ninon could not keep the avid greediness out of her +voice.</p> + +<p>Robert said, hesitantly, "We think it will. I'll know better by this +time tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"What of you—of me—. What does this mean to us—to people?"</p> + +<p>Again the young spaceman hesitated. "We ... we don't know, yet. We think +that time won't have the same meaning to everyone...."</p> + +<p>"... When you travel faster than light. Is that it?"</p> + +<p>"Well ... yes. Something like that."</p> + +<p>"And I'll be—old—or dead, when you get back? If you get back?"</p> + +<p>Robert leaned forward and buried his face in the silvery-blonde hair +which swept down over Ninon's shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Don't say it, darling," he murmured.</p> + +<p>This time Ninon permitted herself a wrinkling smile. If she was right, +and she knew she was, it could make no difference now. There would be no +wrinkles—there would be only the soft flexible skin, naturally soft and +flexible, of real youth.</p> + +<p>She reached behind her, over the end of the couch, and pushed three +buttons. The light, already soft, dimmed slowly to the faintest of +glows; a suave, perfumed dusk as precisely calculated as was the exact +rate at which she let all resistance ebb from her body.</p> + +<p>Robert's voice was muffled through her hair. "What were those clicks?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>Ninon's arms stole around his neck. "The lights," she whispered, "and a +little automatic warning to tell you when it's time to go...."</p> + +<p>The boy did not seem to remember about the third click. Ninon was not +quite ready to tell him, yet. But she would....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Two hours later a golden-voiced bell chimed, softly, musically. The +lights slowly brightened to no more than the lambent glow which was all +that Ninon permitted. She ran her fingers through the young spaceman's +tousled hair and shook him gently.</p> + +<p>"It's time to go, Robert," she said.</p> + +<p>Robert fought back from the stubborn grasp of sleep. "So soon?" he +mumbled.</p> + +<p>"And I'm going with you," Ninon said.</p> + +<p>This brought him fully awake. "I'm sorry, Ninon. You can't!" He sat up +and yawned, stretched, the healthy stretch of resilient youth. Then he +reached for the jacket he had tossed over on a chair.</p> + +<p>Ninon watched him with envious eyes, waiting until he was fully alert.</p> + +<p>"Robert!" she said, and the youth paused at the sharpness of her voice. +"How old are you?"</p> + +<p>"I've told you before, darling—twenty-four."</p> + +<p>"How old do you think I am?"</p> + +<p>He gazed at her in silent curiosity for a moment, then said, "Come to +think of it, you've never told me. About twenty-two or -three, I'd say."</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be fifty-two."</p> + +<p>He stared at her in shocked amazement. Then, as his gaze went over the +smooth lines of her body, the amazement gave way to disbelief, and he +chuckled. "The way you said it, Ninon, almost had me believing you. You +can't possibly be that old, or anywhere near it. You're joking."</p> + +<p>Ninon's voice was cold. She repeated it: "I am fifty-two years old. I +knew your father, before you were born."</p> + +<p>This time she could see that he believed it. The horror he felt was easy +to read on his face while he struggled to speak. "Then ... God help +me ... I've been making love to ... an old woman!" His voice was low, +bitter, accusing.</p> + +<p>Ninon slapped him.</p> + +<p>He swayed slightly, then his features froze as the red marks of her +fingers traced across his left cheek. At last he bowed, mockingly, and +said, "Your pardon, Madame. I forgot myself. My father taught me to be +respectful to my elders."</p> + +<p>For that Ninon could have killed him. As he turned to leave, her hand +sought the tiny, feather-light beta-gun cunningly concealed in the folds +of her gown. But the driving force of her desire made her stay her hand.</p> + +<p>"Robert!" she said in peremptory tones.</p> + +<p>The youth paused at the door and glanced back, making no effort to +conceal the loathing she had aroused in him. "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>Ninon said, "You'll never make that flight without me.... Watch!"</p> + +<p>Swiftly she pushed buttons again. The room darkened, as before. Curtains +at one end divided and rustled back, and a glowing screen sprang to life +on the wall revealed behind them. And there, in life and movement and +color and sound and dimension, she—and Robert—projected themselves, +together on the couch, beginning at the moment Ninon had pressed the +three buttons earlier. Robert's arms were around her, his face buried in +the hair falling over her shoulders....</p> + +<p>The spaceman's voice was doubly bitter in the darkened room. "So that's +it," he said. "A recording! Another one for your collection, I suppose. +But of what use is it to you? I have neither money nor power. I'll be +gone from this Earth in an hour. And you'll be gone from it, +permanently—at your age—before I get back. I have nothing to lose, and +you have nothing to gain."</p> + +<p>Venomous with triumph, Ninon's voice was harsh even to her ears. "On the +contrary, my proud and impetuous young spaceman, I have much to gain, +more than you could ever understand. When it was announced that you were +to be trained to command this experimental flight I made it my business +to find out everything possible about you. One other man is going. He +too has had the same training, and could take over in your place. A +third man has also been trained, to stand by in reserve. You are +supposed to have rested and slept the entire night. If the Commandant of +Space Research knew that you had not...."</p> + +<p>"I see. That's why you recorded my visit tonight. But I leave in less +than an hour. You'd never be able to tell Commander Pritchard in time to +make any difference, and he'd never come here to see...."</p> + +<p>Ninon laughed mirthlessly, and pressed buttons again. The screen +changed, went blank for a moment, then figures appeared again. On the +couch were she and a man, middle-aged, dignified in appearance, +uniformed. Blane Pritchard, Commandant of Space Research. His arms were +around her, and his face was buried in her hair. She let the recording +run for a moment, then shut it off and turned up the lights.</p> + +<p>To Robert, she said, "I think Commander Pritchard would be here in five +minutes if I called and told him that I have information which seriously +affects the success of the flight."</p> + +<p>The young spaceman's face was white and stricken as he stared for long +moments, wordless, at Ninon. Then in defeated tones he said, "You +scheming witch! What do you want?"</p> + +<p>There was no time to gloat over her victory. That would come later. +Right now minutes counted. She snatched up a cloak, pushed Robert out +through the door and hurried him along the hall and out into the street +where his car waited.</p> + +<p>"We must hurry," she said breathlessly. "We can get to the spaceship +ahead of schedule, before your flight partner arrives, and be gone from +Earth before anyone knows what is happening. I'll be with you, in his +place."</p> + +<p>Robert did not offer to help her into the car, but got in first and +waited until she closed the door behind her, then sped away from the +curb and through the streets to the spaceport.</p> + +<p>Ninon said, "Tell me, Robert, isn't it true that if a clock recedes from +Earth at the speed of light, and if we could watch it as it did so, it +would still be running but it would never show later time?"</p> + +<p>The young man said gruffly, "Roughly so, according to theory."</p> + +<p>"And if the clock went away from Earth faster than the speed of light, +wouldn't it run backwards?"</p> + +<p>The answer was curtly cautious. "It might appear to."</p> + +<p>"Then if people travel at the speed of light they won't get any older?"</p> + +<p>Robert flicked a curious glance at her. "If you could watch them from +Earth they appear not to. But it's a matter of relativity...."</p> + +<p>Ninon rushed on. She had studied that book carefully. "And if people +travel faster than light, a lot faster, they'll grow younger, won't +they?"</p> + +<p>Robert said, "So that's what's in your mind." He busied himself with +parking the car at the spaceport, then went on: "You want to go back in +the past thirty years, and be a girl again. While I grow younger, too, +into a boy, then a child, a baby, at last nothing...."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to be sorry for you, Robert."</p> + +<p>Ninon felt again for her beta-gun as he stared at her for a long minute, +his gaze a curious mixture of amusement and pity. Then, "Come on," he +said flatly, turning to lead the way to the gleaming space ship which +poised, towering like a spire, in the center of the blast-off basin. And +added, "I think I shall enjoy this trip, Madame, more than you will."</p> + +<p>The young man's words seemed to imply a secret knowledge that Ninon did +not possess. A sudden chill of apprehension rippled through her, and +almost she turned back. But no ... there was the ship! There was youth; +and beauty; and the admiration of men, real admiration. Suppleness in +her muscles and joints again. No more diets. No more transfusions. No +more transplantations. No more the bio-knife. She could smile again, or +frown again. And after a few years she could make the trip again ... and +again....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The space ship stood on fiery tiptoes and leaped from Earth, high into +the heavens, and out and away. Past rusted Mars. Past the busy +asteroids. Past the sleeping giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Past pale +Uranus and Neptune; and frigid, shivering Pluto. Past a senseless, +flaming comet rushing inward towards its rendezvous with the Sun. And on +out of the System into the steely blackness of space where the stars +were hard, burnished points of light, unwinking, motionless; eyes—eyes +staring at the ship, staring through the ports at Ninon where she lay, +stiff and bruised and sore, in the contoured acceleration sling.</p> + +<p>The yammering rockets cut off, and the ship seemed to poise on the ebon +lip of a vast Stygian abyss.</p> + +<p>Joints creaking, muscles protesting, Ninon pushed herself up and out of +the sling against the artificial gravity of the ship. Robert was already +seated at the controls.</p> + +<p>"How fast are we going?" she asked; and her voice was rusty and harsh.</p> + +<p>"Barely crawling, astronomically," he said shortly. "About forty-six +thousand miles a minute."</p> + +<p>"Is that as fast as the speed of light?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly, Madame," he said, with a condescending chuckle.</p> + +<p>"Then make it go faster!" she screamed. "And faster and faster—hurry! +What are we waiting for?"</p> + +<p>The young spaceman swivelled about in his seat. He looked haggard and +drawn from the strain of the long acceleration. Despite herself, Ninon +could feel the sagging in her own face; the sunkenness of her eyes. She +felt tired, hating herself for it—hating having this young man see +her.</p> + +<p>He said, "The ship is on automatic control throughout. The course is +plotted in advance; all operations are plotted. There is nothing we can +do but wait. The light drive will cut in at the planned time."</p> + +<p>"Time! Wait! That's all I hear!" Ninon shrieked. "Do something!"</p> + +<p>Then she heard it. A low moan, starting from below the limit of +audibility, then climbing, up and up and up and up, until it was a +nerve-plucking whine that tore into her brain like a white-hot tuning +fork. And still it climbed, up beyond the range of hearing, and up and +up still more, till it could no longer be felt. But Ninon, as she +stumbled back into the acceleration sling, sick and shaken, knew it was +still there. The light drive!</p> + +<p>She watched through the ports. The motionless, silent stars were moving +now, coming toward them, faster and faster, as the ship swept out of the +galaxy, shooting into her face like blazing pebbles from a giant +slingshot.</p> + +<p>She asked, "How fast are we going now?"</p> + +<p>Robert's voice sounded far off as he replied, "We are approaching the +speed of light."</p> + +<p>"Make it go faster!" she cried. "Faster! Faster!"</p> + +<p>She looked out the ports again; looked back behind them—and saw shining +specks of glittering blackness falling away to melt into the sootiness +of space. She shuddered, and knew without asking that these were stars +dropping behind at a rate greater than light speed.</p> + +<p>"Now how fast are we going?" she asked. She was sure that her voice was +stronger; that strength was flowing back into her muscles and bones.</p> + +<p>"Nearly twice light speed."</p> + +<p>"Faster!" she cried. "We must go much faster! I must be young again. +Youthful, and gay, and alive and happy.... Tell me, Robert, do you feel +younger yet?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ninon lay in the acceleration sling, gaining strength, and—she +knew—youth. Her lost youth, coming back, to be spent all over again. +How wonderful! No woman in all of time and history had ever done it. She +would be immortal; forever young and lovely. She hardly noticed the +stiffness in her joints when she got to her feet again—it was just from +lying in the sling so long.</p> + +<p>She made her voice light and gay. "Are we not going very, very fast, +now, Robert?"</p> + +<p>He answered without turning. "Yes. Many times the speed of light."</p> + +<p>"I knew it ... I knew it! Already I feel much younger. Don't you feel it +too?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer, and Ninon kept on talking. "How long have we been +going, Robert?"</p> + +<p>He said, "I don't know ... depends on where you are."</p> + +<p>"It must be hours ... days ... weeks. I should be hungry. Yes, I think I +am hungry. I'll need food, lots of food. Young people have good +appetites, don't they, Robert?"</p> + +<p>He pointed to the provisions locker, and she got food out and made it +ready. But she could eat but a few mouthfuls. <i>It's the excitement</i>, she +told herself. After all, no other woman, ever, had gone back through the +years to be young again....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Long hours she rested in the sling, gaining more strength for the day +when they would land back on Earth and she could step out in all the +springy vitality of a girl of twenty. And then as she watched through +the ingenious ports she saw the stars of the far galaxies beginning to +wheel about through space, and she knew that the ship had reached the +halfway point and was turning to speed back through space to Earth, +uncounted light-years behind them—or before them. And she would still +continue to grow younger and younger....</p> + +<p>She gazed at the slightly-blurred figure of the young spaceman on the +far side of the compartment, focussing her eyes with effort. "You are +looking much younger, Robert," she said. "Yes, I think you are becoming +quite boyish, almost childish, in appearance."</p> + +<p>He nodded slightly. "You may be right," he said.</p> + +<p>"I must have a mirror," she cried. "I must see for myself how much +younger I have become. I'll hardly recognize myself...."</p> + +<p>"There is no mirror," he told her.</p> + +<p>"No mirror? But how can I see...."</p> + +<p>"Non-essentials were not included in the supplies on this ship. Mirrors +are not essential—to men."</p> + +<p>The mocking gravity in his voice infuriated her. "Then you shall be my +mirror," she said. "Tell me, Robert, am I not now much younger? Am I not +becoming more and more beautiful? Am I not in truth the most desirable +of women?... But I forget. After all, you are only a boy, by now."</p> + +<p>He said, "I'm afraid our scientists will have some new and interesting +data on the effects of time in relation to time. Before long we'll begin +to decelerate. It won't be easy or pleasant. I'll try to make you as +comfortable as possible."</p> + +<p>Ninon felt her face go white and stiff with rage. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>Robert said, coldly brutal, "You're looking your age, Ninon. Every year +of your fifty-two!"</p> + +<p>Ninon snatched out the little beta-gun, then, leveled it and fired. And +watched without remorse as the hungry electrons streamed forth to strike +the young spaceman, turning him into a motionless, glowing figure which +rapidly became misty and wraith-like, at last to disappear, leaving only +a swirl of sparkling haze where he had stood. This too disappeared as +its separate particles drifted to the metallite walls of the space ship, +discharged their energy and ceased to sparkle, leaving only a thin film +of dust over all.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>After a while Ninon got up again from the sling and made her way to the +wall. She polished the dust away from a small area of it, trying to make +the spot gleam enough so that she could use it for a mirror. She +polished a long time, until at last she could see a ghostly reflection +of her face in the rubbed spot.</p> + +<p>Yes, unquestionably she was younger, more beautiful. Unquestionably Time +was being kind to her, giving her back her youth. She was not sorry that +Robert was gone—there would be many young men, men her own age, when +she got back to Earth. And that would be soon. She must rest more, and +be ready.</p> + +<p>The light drive cut off, and the great ship slowly decelerated as it +found its way back into the galaxy from which it had started. Found its +way back into the System which had borne it. Ninon watched through the +port as it slid in past the outer planets. Had they changed? No, she +could not see that they had—only she had changed—until Saturn loomed +up through the port, so close by, it looked, that she might touch it. +But Saturn had no rings. Here was change. She puzzled over it a moment, +frowning then forgot it when she recognized Jupiter again as Saturn fell +behind. Next would be Mars....</p> + +<p>But what was this? Not Mars! Not any planet she knew, or had seen +before. Yet there, ahead, was Mars! A new planet, where the asteroids +had been when she left! Was this the same system? Had there been a +mistake in the calculations of the scientists and engineers who had +plotted the course of the ship? Was something wrong?</p> + +<p>But no matter—she was still Ninon. She was young and beautiful. And +wherever she landed there would be excitement and rushing about as she +told her story. And men would flock to her. Young, handsome men!</p> + +<p>She tottered back to the sling, sank gratefully into the comfort of it, +closed her eyes, and waited.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><i>The ship landed automatically, lowering itself to the land on a pillar +of rushing flame, needing no help from its passenger. Then the flame +died away—and the ship—and Ninon—rested, quietly, serenely, while the +rocket tubes crackled and cooled. The people outside gathered at a safe +distance from it, waiting until they could come closer and greet the +brave passengers who had voyaged through space from no one knew where.</i></p> + +<p><i>There was shouting and laughing and talking, and much speculation.</i></p> + +<p><i>"The ship is from Maris, the red planet," someone said.</i></p> + +<p><i>And another: "No, no! It is not of this system. See how the hull is +pitted—it has traveled from afar."</i></p> + +<p><i>An old man cried: "It is a demon ship. It has come to destroy us all."</i></p> + +<p><i>A murmur went through the crowd, and some moved farther back for +safety, watching with alert curiosity.</i></p> + +<p><i>Then an engineer ventured close, and said, "The workmanship is similar +to that in the space ship we are building, yet not the same. It is +obviously not of our Aerth."</i></p> + +<p><i>And a savant said, "Yes, not of this Aerth. But perhaps it is from a +parallel time stream, where there is a system with planets and peoples +like us."</i></p> + +<p><i>Then a hatch opened in the towering flank of the ship, and a ramp slid +forth and slanted to the ground. The mingled voices of the crowd +attended it. The fearful ones backed farther away. Some stood their +ground. And the braver ones moved closer.</i></p> + +<p><i>But no one appeared in the open hatch; no one came down the ramp. At +last the crowd surged forward again.</i></p> + +<p><i>Among them were a youth and a girl who stood, hand in hand, at the foot +of the ramp, gazing at it and the ship with shining eyes, then at each +other.</i></p> + +<p><i>She said, "I wonder, Robin, what it would be like to travel through far +space on such a ship as that."</i></p> + +<p><i>He squeezed her hand and said, "We'll find out, Nina. Space travel will +come, in our time, they've always said—and there is the proof of it."</i></p> + +<p><i>The girl rested her head against the young man's shoulder. "You'll be +one of the first, won't you, Robin? And you'll take me with you?"</i></p> + +<p><i>He slipped an arm around her. "Of course. You know, Nina, our +scientists say that if one could travel faster than the speed of light +one could live in reverse. So when we get old we'll go out in space, +very, very fast, and we'll grow young again, together!"</i></p> + +<p><i>Then a shout went up from the two men who had gone up the ramp into the +ship to greet whoever was aboard. They came hurrying down, and Robin and +Nina crowded forward to hear what they had to report.</i></p> + +<p><i>They were puffing from the rush of their excitement. "There is no one +alive on the ship," they cried. "Only an old, withered, white-haired +lady, lying dead ... and alone. She must have fared long and far to have +lived so long, to be so old in death. Space travel must be pleasant, +indeed. It made her very happy, very, very happy—for there is a smile +on her face."</i></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and the Woman, by G. 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Gordon Dewey + +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/license + + +Title: Time and the Woman + +Author: G. Gordon Dewey + +Release Date: October 7, 2012 [EBook #40965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND THE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + + TIME and the WOMAN + + By Dewey, G. Gordon + +[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Orbit volume 1 number +2, 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.] + +[Sidenote: HER ONLY PASSION WAS BEAUTY--BEAUTY WHICH WOULD LAST FOREVER. +AND FOR IT--SHE'D DO ANYTHING!] + +[Illustration ] + + +Ninon stretched. And purred, almost. There was something lazily catlike +in her flexing; languid, yet ferally alert. The silken softness of her +couch yielded to her body as she rubbed against it in sensual delight. +There was almost the litheness of youth in her movements. + +It was true that some of her joints seemed to have a hint of stiffness +in them, but only _she_ knew it. And if some of the muscles beneath her +polished skin did not respond with quite the resilience of the youth +they once had, only _she_ knew that, too. _But they would again_, she +told herself fiercely. + +She caught herself. She had let down her guard for an instant, and a +frown had started. She banished it imperiously. Frowns--just one +frown--could start a wrinkle! And nothing was as stubborn as a wrinkle. +One soft, round, white, long-nailed finger touched here, and here, and +there--the corners of her eyes, the corners of her mouth, smoothing +them. + +Wrinkles acknowledged only one master, the bio-knife of the facial +surgeons. But the bio-knife could not thrust deep enough to excise the +stiffness in a joint; was not clever enough to remold the outlines of a +figure where they were beginning to blur and--sag. + +No one else could see it--yet. But Ninon could! + +Again the frown almost came, and again she scourged it fiercely into the +back of her mind. Time was her enemy. But she had had other enemies, and +destroyed them, one way or another, cleverly or ruthlessly as +circumstances demanded. Time, too, could be destroyed. Or enslaved. +Ninon sorted through her meagre store of remembered reading. Some old +philosopher had said, "If you can't whip 'em, join 'em!" Crude, but apt. + +Ninon wanted to smile. But smiles made wrinkles, too. She was content to +feel that sureness of power in her grasp--the certain knowledge that +she, first of all people, would turn Time on itself and destroy it. She +would be youthful again. She would thread through the ages to come, like +a silver needle drawing a golden filament through the layer on layer of +the cloth of years that would engarment her eternal youth. Ninon knew +how. + +Her shining, gray-green eyes strayed to the one door in her apartment +through which no man had ever gone. There the exercising machines; the +lotions; the unguents; the diets; the radioactive drugs; the records of +endocrine transplantations, of blood transfusions. She dismissed them +contemptuously. Toys! The mirages of a pseudo-youth. She would leave +them here for someone else to use in masking the downhill years. + +There, on the floor beside her, was the answer she had sought so long. A +book. "Time in Relation to Time." The name of the author, his academic +record in theoretical physics, the cautious, scientific wording of his +postulates, meant nothing to her. The one thing that had meaning for her +was that Time could be manipulated. And she would manipulate it. For +Ninon! + +The door chimes tinkled intimately. Ninon glanced at her watch--Robert +was on time. She arose from the couch, made sure that the light was +behind her at just the right angle so he could see the outlines of her +figure through the sheerness of her gown, then went to the door and +opened it. + +A young man stood there. Young, handsome, strong, his eyes aglow with +the desire he felt, Ninon knew, when he saw her. He took one quick step +forward to clasp her in his strong young arms. + +"Ninon, my darling," he whispered huskily. + +Ninon did not have to make her voice throaty any more, and that annoyed +her too. Once she had had to do it deliberately. But now, through the +years, it had deepened. + +"Not yet, Robert," she whispered. She let him feel the slight but firm +resistance so nicely calculated to breach his own; watched the deepening +flush of his cheeks with the clinical sureness that a thousand such +experiences with men had given her. + +Then, "Come in, Robert," she said, moving back a step. "I've been +waiting for you." + +She noted, approvingly, that Robert was in his spaceman's uniform, ready +for the morrow's flight, as he went past her to the couch. She pushed +the button which closed and locked the door, then seated herself beside +the young spaceman on the silken couch. + +His hands rested on her shoulders and he turned her until they faced +each other. + +"Ninon," he said, "you are so beautiful. Let me look at you for a long +time--to carry your image with me through all of time and space." + +Again Ninon let him feel just a hint of resistance, and risked a tiny +pout. "If you could just take me with you, Robert...." + +Robert's face clouded. "If I only could!" he said wistfully. "If there +were only room. But this is an experimental flight--no more than two can +go." + +Again his arms went around her and he leaned closer. + +"Wait!" Ninon said, pushing him back. + +"Wait? Wait for what?" Robert glanced at his watch. "Time is running +out. I have to be at the spaceport by dawn--three hours from now." + +Ninon said, "But that's three hours, Robert." + +"But I haven't slept yet tonight. There's been so much to do. I should +rest a little." + +"I'll be more than rest for you." + +"Yes, Ninon.... Oh, yes." + +"Not yet, darling." Again her hands were between them. "First, tell me +about the flight tomorrow." + +The young spaceman's eyes were puzzled, hurt. "But Ninon, I've told you +before ... there is so much of you that I want to remember ... so little +time left ... and you'll be gone when I get back...." + +Ninon let her gray-green eyes narrow ever so slightly as she leaned away +from him. But he blundered on. + +"... or very old, no longer the Ninon I know ... oh, all right. But you +know all this already. We've had space flight for years, but only +rocket-powered, restricting us to our own system. Now we have a new kind +of drive. Theoretically we can travel faster than light--how many times +faster we don't know yet. I'll start finding out tomorrow, with the +first test flight of the ship in which the new drive is installed. If it +works, the universe is ours--we can go anywhere." + +"Will it work?" Ninon could not keep the avid greediness out of her +voice. + +Robert said, hesitantly, "We think it will. I'll know better by this +time tomorrow." + +"What of you--of me--. What does this mean to us--to people?" + +Again the young spaceman hesitated. "We ... we don't know, yet. We think +that time won't have the same meaning to everyone...." + +"... When you travel faster than light. Is that it?" + +"Well ... yes. Something like that." + +"And I'll be--old--or dead, when you get back? If you get back?" + +Robert leaned forward and buried his face in the silvery-blonde hair +which swept down over Ninon's shoulders. + +"Don't say it, darling," he murmured. + +This time Ninon permitted herself a wrinkling smile. If she was right, +and she knew she was, it could make no difference now. There would be no +wrinkles--there would be only the soft flexible skin, naturally soft and +flexible, of real youth. + +She reached behind her, over the end of the couch, and pushed three +buttons. The light, already soft, dimmed slowly to the faintest of +glows; a suave, perfumed dusk as precisely calculated as was the exact +rate at which she let all resistance ebb from her body. + +Robert's voice was muffled through her hair. "What were those clicks?" +he asked. + +Ninon's arms stole around his neck. "The lights," she whispered, "and a +little automatic warning to tell you when it's time to go...." + +The boy did not seem to remember about the third click. Ninon was not +quite ready to tell him, yet. But she would.... + + * * * * * + +Two hours later a golden-voiced bell chimed, softly, musically. The +lights slowly brightened to no more than the lambent glow which was all +that Ninon permitted. She ran her fingers through the young spaceman's +tousled hair and shook him gently. + +"It's time to go, Robert," she said. + +Robert fought back from the stubborn grasp of sleep. "So soon?" he +mumbled. + +"And I'm going with you," Ninon said. + +This brought him fully awake. "I'm sorry, Ninon. You can't!" He sat up +and yawned, stretched, the healthy stretch of resilient youth. Then he +reached for the jacket he had tossed over on a chair. + +Ninon watched him with envious eyes, waiting until he was fully alert. + +"Robert!" she said, and the youth paused at the sharpness of her voice. +"How old are you?" + +"I've told you before, darling--twenty-four." + +"How old do you think I am?" + +He gazed at her in silent curiosity for a moment, then said, "Come to +think of it, you've never told me. About twenty-two or -three, I'd say." + +"Tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be fifty-two." + +He stared at her in shocked amazement. Then, as his gaze went over the +smooth lines of her body, the amazement gave way to disbelief, and he +chuckled. "The way you said it, Ninon, almost had me believing you. You +can't possibly be that old, or anywhere near it. You're joking." + +Ninon's voice was cold. She repeated it: "I am fifty-two years old. I +knew your father, before you were born." + +This time she could see that he believed it. The horror he felt was easy +to read on his face while he struggled to speak. "Then ... God help +me ... I've been making love to ... an old woman!" His voice was low, +bitter, accusing. + +Ninon slapped him. + +He swayed slightly, then his features froze as the red marks of her +fingers traced across his left cheek. At last he bowed, mockingly, and +said, "Your pardon, Madame. I forgot myself. My father taught me to be +respectful to my elders." + +For that Ninon could have killed him. As he turned to leave, her hand +sought the tiny, feather-light beta-gun cunningly concealed in the folds +of her gown. But the driving force of her desire made her stay her hand. + +"Robert!" she said in peremptory tones. + +The youth paused at the door and glanced back, making no effort to +conceal the loathing she had aroused in him. "What do you want?" + +Ninon said, "You'll never make that flight without me.... Watch!" + +Swiftly she pushed buttons again. The room darkened, as before. Curtains +at one end divided and rustled back, and a glowing screen sprang to life +on the wall revealed behind them. And there, in life and movement and +color and sound and dimension, she--and Robert--projected themselves, +together on the couch, beginning at the moment Ninon had pressed the +three buttons earlier. Robert's arms were around her, his face buried in +the hair falling over her shoulders.... + +The spaceman's voice was doubly bitter in the darkened room. "So that's +it," he said. "A recording! Another one for your collection, I suppose. +But of what use is it to you? I have neither money nor power. I'll be +gone from this Earth in an hour. And you'll be gone from it, +permanently--at your age--before I get back. I have nothing to lose, and +you have nothing to gain." + +Venomous with triumph, Ninon's voice was harsh even to her ears. "On the +contrary, my proud and impetuous young spaceman, I have much to gain, +more than you could ever understand. When it was announced that you were +to be trained to command this experimental flight I made it my business +to find out everything possible about you. One other man is going. He +too has had the same training, and could take over in your place. A +third man has also been trained, to stand by in reserve. You are +supposed to have rested and slept the entire night. If the Commandant of +Space Research knew that you had not...." + +"I see. That's why you recorded my visit tonight. But I leave in less +than an hour. You'd never be able to tell Commander Pritchard in time to +make any difference, and he'd never come here to see...." + +Ninon laughed mirthlessly, and pressed buttons again. The screen +changed, went blank for a moment, then figures appeared again. On the +couch were she and a man, middle-aged, dignified in appearance, +uniformed. Blane Pritchard, Commandant of Space Research. His arms were +around her, and his face was buried in her hair. She let the recording +run for a moment, then shut it off and turned up the lights. + +To Robert, she said, "I think Commander Pritchard would be here in five +minutes if I called and told him that I have information which seriously +affects the success of the flight." + +The young spaceman's face was white and stricken as he stared for long +moments, wordless, at Ninon. Then in defeated tones he said, "You +scheming witch! What do you want?" + +There was no time to gloat over her victory. That would come later. +Right now minutes counted. She snatched up a cloak, pushed Robert out +through the door and hurried him along the hall and out into the street +where his car waited. + +"We must hurry," she said breathlessly. "We can get to the spaceship +ahead of schedule, before your flight partner arrives, and be gone from +Earth before anyone knows what is happening. I'll be with you, in his +place." + +Robert did not offer to help her into the car, but got in first and +waited until she closed the door behind her, then sped away from the +curb and through the streets to the spaceport. + +Ninon said, "Tell me, Robert, isn't it true that if a clock recedes from +Earth at the speed of light, and if we could watch it as it did so, it +would still be running but it would never show later time?" + +The young man said gruffly, "Roughly so, according to theory." + +"And if the clock went away from Earth faster than the speed of light, +wouldn't it run backwards?" + +The answer was curtly cautious. "It might appear to." + +"Then if people travel at the speed of light they won't get any older?" + +Robert flicked a curious glance at her. "If you could watch them from +Earth they appear not to. But it's a matter of relativity...." + +Ninon rushed on. She had studied that book carefully. "And if people +travel faster than light, a lot faster, they'll grow younger, won't +they?" + +Robert said, "So that's what's in your mind." He busied himself with +parking the car at the spaceport, then went on: "You want to go back in +the past thirty years, and be a girl again. While I grow younger, too, +into a boy, then a child, a baby, at last nothing...." + +"I'll try to be sorry for you, Robert." + +Ninon felt again for her beta-gun as he stared at her for a long minute, +his gaze a curious mixture of amusement and pity. Then, "Come on," he +said flatly, turning to lead the way to the gleaming space ship which +poised, towering like a spire, in the center of the blast-off basin. And +added, "I think I shall enjoy this trip, Madame, more than you will." + +The young man's words seemed to imply a secret knowledge that Ninon did +not possess. A sudden chill of apprehension rippled through her, and +almost she turned back. But no ... there was the ship! There was youth; +and beauty; and the admiration of men, real admiration. Suppleness in +her muscles and joints again. No more diets. No more transfusions. No +more transplantations. No more the bio-knife. She could smile again, or +frown again. And after a few years she could make the trip again ... and +again.... + + * * * * * + +The space ship stood on fiery tiptoes and leaped from Earth, high into +the heavens, and out and away. Past rusted Mars. Past the busy +asteroids. Past the sleeping giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Past pale +Uranus and Neptune; and frigid, shivering Pluto. Past a senseless, +flaming comet rushing inward towards its rendezvous with the Sun. And on +out of the System into the steely blackness of space where the stars +were hard, burnished points of light, unwinking, motionless; eyes--eyes +staring at the ship, staring through the ports at Ninon where she lay, +stiff and bruised and sore, in the contoured acceleration sling. + +The yammering rockets cut off, and the ship seemed to poise on the ebon +lip of a vast Stygian abyss. + +Joints creaking, muscles protesting, Ninon pushed herself up and out of +the sling against the artificial gravity of the ship. Robert was already +seated at the controls. + +"How fast are we going?" she asked; and her voice was rusty and harsh. + +"Barely crawling, astronomically," he said shortly. "About forty-six +thousand miles a minute." + +"Is that as fast as the speed of light?" + +"Hardly, Madame," he said, with a condescending chuckle. + +"Then make it go faster!" she screamed. "And faster and faster--hurry! +What are we waiting for?" + +The young spaceman swivelled about in his seat. He looked haggard and +drawn from the strain of the long acceleration. Despite herself, Ninon +could feel the sagging in her own face; the sunkenness of her eyes. She +felt tired, hating herself for it--hating having this young man see +her. + +He said, "The ship is on automatic control throughout. The course is +plotted in advance; all operations are plotted. There is nothing we can +do but wait. The light drive will cut in at the planned time." + +"Time! Wait! That's all I hear!" Ninon shrieked. "Do something!" + +Then she heard it. A low moan, starting from below the limit of +audibility, then climbing, up and up and up and up, until it was a +nerve-plucking whine that tore into her brain like a white-hot tuning +fork. And still it climbed, up beyond the range of hearing, and up and +up still more, till it could no longer be felt. But Ninon, as she +stumbled back into the acceleration sling, sick and shaken, knew it was +still there. The light drive! + +She watched through the ports. The motionless, silent stars were moving +now, coming toward them, faster and faster, as the ship swept out of the +galaxy, shooting into her face like blazing pebbles from a giant +slingshot. + +She asked, "How fast are we going now?" + +Robert's voice sounded far off as he replied, "We are approaching the +speed of light." + +"Make it go faster!" she cried. "Faster! Faster!" + +She looked out the ports again; looked back behind them--and saw shining +specks of glittering blackness falling away to melt into the sootiness +of space. She shuddered, and knew without asking that these were stars +dropping behind at a rate greater than light speed. + +"Now how fast are we going?" she asked. She was sure that her voice was +stronger; that strength was flowing back into her muscles and bones. + +"Nearly twice light speed." + +"Faster!" she cried. "We must go much faster! I must be young again. +Youthful, and gay, and alive and happy.... Tell me, Robert, do you feel +younger yet?" + +He did not answer. + + * * * * * + +Ninon lay in the acceleration sling, gaining strength, and--she +knew--youth. Her lost youth, coming back, to be spent all over again. +How wonderful! No woman in all of time and history had ever done it. She +would be immortal; forever young and lovely. She hardly noticed the +stiffness in her joints when she got to her feet again--it was just from +lying in the sling so long. + +She made her voice light and gay. "Are we not going very, very fast, +now, Robert?" + +He answered without turning. "Yes. Many times the speed of light." + +"I knew it ... I knew it! Already I feel much younger. Don't you feel it +too?" + +He did not answer, and Ninon kept on talking. "How long have we been +going, Robert?" + +He said, "I don't know ... depends on where you are." + +"It must be hours ... days ... weeks. I should be hungry. Yes, I think I +am hungry. I'll need food, lots of food. Young people have good +appetites, don't they, Robert?" + +He pointed to the provisions locker, and she got food out and made it +ready. But she could eat but a few mouthfuls. _It's the excitement_, she +told herself. After all, no other woman, ever, had gone back through the +years to be young again.... + + * * * * * + +Long hours she rested in the sling, gaining more strength for the day +when they would land back on Earth and she could step out in all the +springy vitality of a girl of twenty. And then as she watched through +the ingenious ports she saw the stars of the far galaxies beginning to +wheel about through space, and she knew that the ship had reached the +halfway point and was turning to speed back through space to Earth, +uncounted light-years behind them--or before them. And she would still +continue to grow younger and younger.... + +She gazed at the slightly-blurred figure of the young spaceman on the +far side of the compartment, focussing her eyes with effort. "You are +looking much younger, Robert," she said. "Yes, I think you are becoming +quite boyish, almost childish, in appearance." + +He nodded slightly. "You may be right," he said. + +"I must have a mirror," she cried. "I must see for myself how much +younger I have become. I'll hardly recognize myself...." + +"There is no mirror," he told her. + +"No mirror? But how can I see...." + +"Non-essentials were not included in the supplies on this ship. Mirrors +are not essential--to men." + +The mocking gravity in his voice infuriated her. "Then you shall be my +mirror," she said. "Tell me, Robert, am I not now much younger? Am I not +becoming more and more beautiful? Am I not in truth the most desirable +of women?... But I forget. After all, you are only a boy, by now." + +He said, "I'm afraid our scientists will have some new and interesting +data on the effects of time in relation to time. Before long we'll begin +to decelerate. It won't be easy or pleasant. I'll try to make you as +comfortable as possible." + +Ninon felt her face go white and stiff with rage. "What do you mean?" + +Robert said, coldly brutal, "You're looking your age, Ninon. Every year +of your fifty-two!" + +Ninon snatched out the little beta-gun, then, leveled it and fired. And +watched without remorse as the hungry electrons streamed forth to strike +the young spaceman, turning him into a motionless, glowing figure which +rapidly became misty and wraith-like, at last to disappear, leaving only +a swirl of sparkling haze where he had stood. This too disappeared as +its separate particles drifted to the metallite walls of the space ship, +discharged their energy and ceased to sparkle, leaving only a thin film +of dust over all. + + * * * * * + +After a while Ninon got up again from the sling and made her way to the +wall. She polished the dust away from a small area of it, trying to make +the spot gleam enough so that she could use it for a mirror. She +polished a long time, until at last she could see a ghostly reflection +of her face in the rubbed spot. + +Yes, unquestionably she was younger, more beautiful. Unquestionably Time +was being kind to her, giving her back her youth. She was not sorry that +Robert was gone--there would be many young men, men her own age, when +she got back to Earth. And that would be soon. She must rest more, and +be ready. + +The light drive cut off, and the great ship slowly decelerated as it +found its way back into the galaxy from which it had started. Found its +way back into the System which had borne it. Ninon watched through the +port as it slid in past the outer planets. Had they changed? No, she +could not see that they had--only she had changed--until Saturn loomed +up through the port, so close by, it looked, that she might touch it. +But Saturn had no rings. Here was change. She puzzled over it a moment, +frowning then forgot it when she recognized Jupiter again as Saturn fell +behind. Next would be Mars.... + +But what was this? Not Mars! Not any planet she knew, or had seen +before. Yet there, ahead, was Mars! A new planet, where the asteroids +had been when she left! Was this the same system? Had there been a +mistake in the calculations of the scientists and engineers who had +plotted the course of the ship? Was something wrong? + +But no matter--she was still Ninon. She was young and beautiful. And +wherever she landed there would be excitement and rushing about as she +told her story. And men would flock to her. Young, handsome men! + +She tottered back to the sling, sank gratefully into the comfort of it, +closed her eyes, and waited. + + * * * * * + +_The ship landed automatically, lowering itself to the land on a pillar +of rushing flame, needing no help from its passenger. Then the flame +died away--and the ship--and Ninon--rested, quietly, serenely, while the +rocket tubes crackled and cooled. The people outside gathered at a safe +distance from it, waiting until they could come closer and greet the +brave passengers who had voyaged through space from no one knew where._ + +_There was shouting and laughing and talking, and much speculation._ + +_"The ship is from Maris, the red planet," someone said._ + +_And another: "No, no! It is not of this system. See how the hull is +pitted--it has traveled from afar."_ + +_An old man cried: "It is a demon ship. It has come to destroy us all."_ + +_A murmur went through the crowd, and some moved farther back for +safety, watching with alert curiosity._ + +_Then an engineer ventured close, and said, "The workmanship is similar +to that in the space ship we are building, yet not the same. It is +obviously not of our Aerth."_ + +_And a savant said, "Yes, not of this Aerth. But perhaps it is from a +parallel time stream, where there is a system with planets and peoples +like us."_ + +_Then a hatch opened in the towering flank of the ship, and a ramp slid +forth and slanted to the ground. The mingled voices of the crowd +attended it. The fearful ones backed farther away. Some stood their +ground. And the braver ones moved closer._ + +_But no one appeared in the open hatch; no one came down the ramp. At +last the crowd surged forward again._ + +_Among them were a youth and a girl who stood, hand in hand, at the foot +of the ramp, gazing at it and the ship with shining eyes, then at each +other._ + +_She said, "I wonder, Robin, what it would be like to travel through far +space on such a ship as that."_ + +_He squeezed her hand and said, "We'll find out, Nina. Space travel will +come, in our time, they've always said--and there is the proof of it."_ + +_The girl rested her head against the young man's shoulder. "You'll be +one of the first, won't you, Robin? And you'll take me with you?"_ + +_He slipped an arm around her. "Of course. You know, Nina, our +scientists say that if one could travel faster than the speed of light +one could live in reverse. So when we get old we'll go out in space, +very, very fast, and we'll grow young again, together!"_ + +_Then a shout went up from the two men who had gone up the ramp into the +ship to greet whoever was aboard. They came hurrying down, and Robin and +Nina crowded forward to hear what they had to report._ + +_They were puffing from the rush of their excitement. "There is no one +alive on the ship," they cried. "Only an old, withered, white-haired +lady, lying dead ... and alone. She must have fared long and far to have +lived so long, to be so old in death. Space travel must be pleasant, +indeed. It made her very happy, very, very happy--for there is a smile +on her face."_ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Time and the Woman, by G. Gordon Dewey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIME AND THE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 40965.txt or 40965.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/9/6/40965/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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