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larger and ever larger. |
Lancelot Biggs had wasted very little time scanning charts. Despairing |
of finding any record of this cosmic visitant, he had grabbed paper |
and pencil, and was now scrawling hasty calculations. Hank Cleaver |
was watching him. I glanced at Helen. She was watching Hank. Rather |
hopefully, I thought. |
Hank said, "What's it show, Lanse?" |
Biggs looked up at him haggardly. |
"The mass of that planet must be terrific. It has a heavy gravitational |
attraction. We're accelerating by leaps and bounds. At our present rate |
of acceleration, only about twenty minutes remain before we we " |
He paused, glancing helplessly at Helen MacDowell. There was a strange |
longing in his eyes. I remembered, all of a sudden, a fact he had |
mentioned. That somewhere back on Earth, a girl waited for him. A girl |
who had promised to be his wife. His next words showed that he shared |
my thought. |
"I don't mind checking out," he said quietly. "We who dare the |
spaceways risk that hazard always. But I wish I could have seen her |
once more before " |
It was then that Hallowell pushed forward. He was scared, and plenty |
scared. So scared that his voice was a thin, bleating yammer. |
"Lieutenant, you can at least send us back to our proper time! You |
can't let us die like this! Without a chance like trapped rats!" |
"Rats!" I said scornfully. "Speak for yourself, Hallowell!" But |
Lancelot Biggs nodded. |
"He's right. We still have twenty minutes. It is not right that you of |
another age should share our fate. We must get the temporal deflector |
into operation, send all of you back " |
Hank cried sharply, "Just us? Why not everybody, Lanse? Let's all |
escape to the twentieth century. The whole kit an' kiboodle!" |
But Biggs shook his head. |
"I'm afraid that is impossible, Hank. There are limitations to temporal |
transmission. You and your friends can enter our time because |
there is no natural barrier, but we cannot violate the established |
world-line of things that have been. We never were in your time, |
therefore we cannot now go there. But, wait " |
He spun swiftly to a wall-audio, spoke to the engine room below. |
"Get the deflector ready. We're sending our guests back!" Then, nodding |
to all of us, "If you will come with me " |
We started for the door. But we had taken just a few steps when the |
audio buzzed. Biggs answered its call, listened for a moment, cried out, |
"But Garrity, are you absolutely sure? It can't be! It mustn't be!" |
The clacking voice was regretful but positive. I felt a thin, cold |
edge running up and down my spine. Now I look back upon it, I think I |
guessed what Garrity was saying even before Biggs turned to us, his |
eyes wide with sympathy and sorrow. |
"My friends," he said in a choked voice, "forgive me for what I must |
say. Your lot is irrevocably cast with ours. The strain on the motors |
has burnt out several vital units. There is not time enough now to |
repair them. The temporal deflector is useless!" |
That was a jolt. The way my several comrades took the message was the |
measure of their characters. Hallowell cried out sharply, began to |
scream protests in a frightened voice until Prexy fat, staid, stuffy |
old H. Logan, himself silenced him with a backhander across the mouth. |
"That will do, Hallowell!" snapped MacDowell. And he seemed to grow |
three inches. It was a mile in my estimation. "I think, Lieutenant |
Biggs," he said, "we need no further apologies. We are not afraid to |
die with you." |
I forgot to dislike the old guy then. I loved him a little bit for |
that. And I liked Tomkins' reaction, too. The little observatory |
technician sighed wistfully. |
"It's too bad, though. I should have liked to take back to our time a |
knowledge of some of the marvels we have seen here." |
The detective said nothing. He still didn't seem to know what the hell |
it was all about. But Helen MacDowell was as game as her old man. |
She said, "We're not licked yet. I still think Hank I mean, Mr. |
Cleaver will find a way out of this." |
Biggs said gently, "I'm afraid not, Mrs. Cleaver. This is the end for |
all of us." |
Helen's eyes darkened suddenly. |
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