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diff --git a/20553-h/20553-h.htm b/20553-h/20553-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4af607 --- /dev/null +++ b/20553-h/20553-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1496 @@ +<!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"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Out Around Rigel, by Robert H. Wilson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + img {border: 0} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .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%;} + + .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;} + .trnote {background-color: #EEE; color: inherit; margin: 2em 5% 1em 5%; font-size: 80%; + padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em; border: dotted 1px gray;} + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Out Around Rigel, by Robert H. Wilson + +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: Out Around Rigel + +Author: Robert H. Wilson + +Release Date: February 10, 2007 [EBook #20553] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUT AROUND RIGEL *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Christine D. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<div class="trnote"><p class="center">Transcriber's notes are indicated in the text by [TN-#].</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 523px;"> +<img src="images/img1.jpg" width="523" height="600" alt="I caught his hand and pulled him to safety." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><i>I caught his hand and pulled him to safety</i>.</span> +</div> + + + +<h1>Out Around Rigel</h1> + +<h2>By Robert H. Wilson</h2> + +<div class="bbox"><p class='center'>An astounding chronicle of two Lunarians' conquest of time and +interstellar space.</p></div> + +<p>The sun had dropped behind the Grimaldi plateau, although for a day +twilight would linger over the Oceanus Procellarum. The sky was a hazy +blue, and out over the deeper tinted waves the full Earth swung. All the +long half-month it had hung there above the horizon, its light dimmed by +the sunshine, growing from a thin crescent to its full disk three times +as broad as that of the sun at setting. Now in the dusk it was a great +silver lamp hanging over Nardos, the Beautiful, the City Built on the +Water. The light glimmered over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> the tall white towers, over the white +ten-mile-long adamantine bridge running from Nardos to the shore, and +lit up the beach where we were standing, with a brightness that seemed +almost that of day.</p> + +<p>"Once more, Garth," I said. "I'll get that trick yet."</p> + +<p>The skin of my bare chest still smarted from the blow of his wooden +fencing sword. If it had been the real two-handed Lunarian dueling +sword, with its terrible mass behind a curved razor edge, the blow would +have produced a cut deep into the bone. It was always the same, ever +since Garth and I had fenced as boys with crooked laths. Back to back, +we could beat the whole school, but I never had a chance against him. +Perhaps one time in ten—</p> + +<p>"On guard!"</p> + +<p>The silvered swords whirled in the Earth-light. I nicked him on one +wrist, and had to duck to escape his wild swing at my head. The wooden +blades were now locked by the hilts above our heads. When he stepped +back to get free, I lunged and twisted his weapon. In a beautiful +parabola, Garth's sword sailed out into the water, and he dropped to the +sand to nurse his right wrist.</p> + +<p>"Confound your wrestling, Dunal. If you've broken my arm on the eve of +my flight—"</p> + +<p>"It's not even a sprain. Your wrists are weak. And I supposed you've +always been considerate of me? Three broken ribs!"</p> + +<p>"For half a cent—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He was on his feet, and then Kelvar came up and laid her hand on his +shoulder. Until a few minutes before she had been swimming in the surf, +watching us. The Earth-light shimmered over her white skin, still +faintly moist, and blazed out in blue sparkles from the jewels of the +breastplates and trunks she had put on.</p> + +<p>When she touched Garth, and he smiled, I wanted to smash in his dark +face and then take the beating I would deserve. Yet, if she preferred +him— [<a name="TN-1" id="TN-1">TN-1</a>]And the two of us had been friends before she was born. I put out +my hand.</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens, Garth, we'll still be friends?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens."</p> + +<p>We clasped hands.</p> + +<p>"Garth," Kelvar said, "it's getting dark. Show us your ship before you +go."</p> + +<p>"All right." He had always been like that—one minute in a black rage, +the next perfectly agreeable. He now led the way up to a cliff hanging +over the sea.</p> + +<p>"There," said Garth, "is the <i>Comet</i>. Our greatest step in conquering +distance. After I've tried it out, we can go in a year to the end of the +universe. But, for a starter, how about a thousand light-years around +Rigel in six months?" His eyes were afire. Then he calmed down. +"Anything I can show you?"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Editor's Note: The manuscript, of which a translation is here +presented, was discovered by the rocket-ship expedition to the moon +three years ago. It was found in its box by the last crumbling ruins of +the great bridge mentioned in the narrative. Its final translation is a +tribute at once to the philological skill of the Earth and to the +marvelous dictionary provided by Dunal, the Lunarian. Stars and lunar +localities will be given their traditional Earth names; and measures of +time, weight, and distance have been reduced, in round numbers, to +terrestrial equivalents. Of the space ship described, the <i>Comet</i>, no +trace has been found. It must be buried under the rim of one of the +hundreds of nearby Lunar craters—the result, as some astronomers have +long suspected and as Dunal's story verifies, of a great swarm of +meteors striking the unprotected, airless moon.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I had seen the <i>Comet</i> before, but never so close. With a hull of +shining helio-beryllium—the new light, inactive alloy of a metal and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> a +gas—the ship was a cylinder about twenty feet long, by fifteen in +diameter, while a pointed nose stretched five feet farther at each end. +Fixed in each point was a telescopic lens, while there were windows +along the sides and at the top—all made, Garth informed us, of another +form of the alloy almost as strong as the opaque variety. Running +half-way out each end were four "fins" which served to apply the power +driving the craft. A light inside showed the interior to be a single +room, ten feet high at the center of its cylindrical ceiling, with a +level floor.</p> + +<p>"How do you know this will be the bottom?" I asked, giving the vessel a +shove to roll it over. But it would not budge. Garth laughed.</p> + +<p>"Five hundred pounds of mercury and the disintegrators are under that +floor, while out in space I have an auxiliary gravity engine to keep my +feet there."</p> + +<p>"You see, since your mathematical friends derived their identical +formulas for gravity and electromagnetism, my job was pretty easy. As +you know, a falling body follows the line of least resistance in a field +of distortion of space caused by mass. I bend space into another such +field by electromagnetic means, and the <i>Comet</i> flies down the track. +Working the mercury disintegrators at full power, I can get an +acceleration of two hundred miles per second, which will build up the +speed at the midpoint of my trip to almost four thousand times that of +light. Then I'll have to start slowing down, but at the average speed +the journey will take only six months or so."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"But can anyone stand that acceleration?" Kelvar asked.</p> + +<p>"I've had it on and felt nothing. With a rocket exhaust shoving the +ship, it couldn't be done, but my gravitational field attracts the +occupant of the <i>Comet</i> just as much as the vessel itself."</p> + +<p>"You're sure," I interrupted, "that you have enough power to keep up the +acceleration?"</p> + +<p>"Easily. There's a two-thirds margin of safety."</p> + +<p>"And you haven't considered that it may get harder to push? You know the +increase of mass with velocity. You can't take one-half of the +relativity theory without the other. And they've actually measured the +increase of weight in an electron."</p> + +<p>"The electron never knew it; it's all a matter of reference points. I +can't follow the math, but I know that from the electron's standards it +stayed exactly the same weight. Anything else is nonsense."</p> + +<p>"Well, there may be a flaw in the reasoning, but as they've worked it +out, nothing can go faster than light. As you approach that velocity, +the mass keeps increasing, and with it the amount of energy required for +a new increase in speed. At the speed of light, the mass would be +infinite, and hence no finite energy could get you any further."</p> + +<p>"Maybe so. It won't take long to find out."</p> + +<p>A few of the brightest stars had begun to appear. We could just see the +parallelogram of Orion, with red Betelguese at one corner, and across +from it Rigel, scintillant like a blue diamond.</p> + +<p>"See," Garth said, pointing at it. "Three months from now, that's where +I'll be. The first man who dared to sail among the stars."</p> + +<p>"Only because you don't let anyone else share the glory and the danger."</p> + +<p>"Why should I? But you wouldn't go, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Will you let me?"</p> + +<p>I had him there.</p> + +<p>"On your head be it. The <i>Comet</i> could hold three or four in a pinch,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +and I have plenty of provisions. If you really want to take the +chance—"</p> + +<p>"It won't be the first we've taken together."</p> + +<p>"All right. We'll start in ten minutes." He went inside the ship.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Don't go," Kelvar whispered, coming into the <i>Comet's</i> shadow. "Tell +him anything, but don't go."</p> + +<p>"I've got to. I can't go back on my word. He'd think I was afraid."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you a right to be?"</p> + +<p>"Garth is my friend and I'm going with him."</p> + +<p>"All right. But I wish you wouldn't."</p> + +<p>From inside came the throb of engines.</p> + +<p>"Kelvar," I said, "you didn't worry when only Garth was going."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"And there's less danger with two to keep watch."</p> + +<p>"I know, but still...."</p> + +<p>"You are afraid for <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid for you."</p> + +<p>My arm slipped around her, there in the shadow.</p> + +<p>"And when I come back, Kelvar, we'll be married?"</p> + +<p>In answer, she kissed me. Then Garth was standing in the doorway of the +<i>Comet</i>.</p> + +<p>"Dunal, where are you?"</p> + +<p>We separated and came out of the shadow. I went up the plank to the +door, kicking it out behind me. Kelvar waved, and I called something or +other to her. Then the door clanged shut. Seated before the control +board at the front of the room, Garth held the switch for the two +projectors.</p> + +<p>"Both turned up," he yelled over the roar of the generators. His hands +swung over and the noise died down, but nothing else seemed to have +happened. I turned back again to look out the little window fixed in the +door.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Down far below, I could see for a moment the city of Nardos with its +great white bridge, and a spot that might be Kelvar. Then there was only +the ocean, sparkling in the Earth-light, growing smaller, smaller. And +then we had shot out of the atmosphere into the glare of the sun and a +thousand stars.</p> + +<p>On and up we went, until the moon was a crescent with stars around it. +Then Garth threw the power forward.</p> + +<p>"Might as well turn in," he told me. "There'll be nothing interesting +until we get out of the solar system and I can put on real speed. I'll +take the first trick."</p> + +<p>"How long watches shall we stand?"</p> + +<p>"Eighteen hours ought to match the way we have been living. If you have +another preference—"</p> + +<p>"No, that will be all right. And I suppose I might as well get in some +sleep now."</p> + +<p>I was not really sleepy, but only dazed a little by the adventure. I +fixed some things on the floor by one of the windows and lay down, +switching out the light. Through a top window the sunlight slanted down +to fall around Garth, at his instrument board, in a bright glory. From +my window I could see the Earth and the gleaming stars.</p> + +<p>The Earth was smaller than I had ever seen it before. It seemed to be +moving backward a little[<a name="TN-2" id="TN-2">TN-2</a>], and even more, to be changing phase. I closed +my eyes, and when I opened them again, sleepily, the bright area was +perceptibly smaller. If I could stay awake long enough, there would be +only a crescent again. If I could stay awake—But I could not....</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Only the rattling of dishes as Garth prepared breakfast brought me back +to consciousness. I got to my feet sheepishly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How long have I slept?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty hours straight. You looked as if you might have gone on forever. +It's the lack of disturbance to indicate time. I got in a little myself, +once we were out of the solar system."</p> + +<p>A sandwich in one hand, I wandered over the vessel. It was reassuringly +solid and concrete. And yet there was something lacking.</p> + +<p>"Garth," I asked, "what's become of the sun?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd want to know that." He led me to the rear telescope.</p> + +<p>"But I don't see anything."</p> + +<p>"You haven't caught on yet. See that bright yellowish star on the edge +of the constellation Scorpio. That's it."</p> + +<p>Involuntarily, I gasped. "Then—how far away are we?"</p> + +<p>"I put on full acceleration fifteen hours ago, when we passed Neptune, +and we have covered thirty billion miles—three hundred times as far as +from the moon to the sun, but only one half of one per cent of a +light-year."</p> + +<p>I was speechless, and Garth led me back to the control board. He pointed +out the acceleration control, now turned up to its last notch forward; +he also showed me the dials which were used to change our direction.</p> + +<p>"Just keep that star on the cross hairs. It's Pi Orionis, a little out +of our course, but a good target since it is only twenty-five +light-years away. Half the light is deflected on this screen, with a +delicate photo-electric cell at its center. The instant the light of the +star slips off it, a relay is started which lights a red lamp here, and +in a minute sounds a warning bell. That indicator over there shows our +approach to any body. It works by the interaction of the object's +gravitational field with that of my projector, and we can spot anything +sizable an hour away. Sure you've got everything?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It all seemed clear. Then I noticed at the top three clock-like dials; +one to read days, another to record the speeds of light, and the third +to mark light-years traveled.</p> + +<p>"These can't really work?" I said. "We have no way to check our speed +with outer space."</p> + +<p>"Not directly. This is geared with clockwork to represent an estimate +based on the acceleration. If your theory is right, then the dials are +all wrong."</p> + +<p>"And how long do you expect to go ahead without knowing the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Until we ought to be at Pi Orionis. At two weeks and twenty-five +light-years by the dials, if we aren't there we'll start back. By your +figuring, we shouldn't be yet one light-year on the way. Anything more?"</p> + +<p>"No, I think I can manage it."</p> + +<p>"Wake me if anything's wrong. And look out for dark stars." Then he had +left me there at the controls. In five minutes he was asleep and the +whole ship was in my hands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For hours nothing happened. Without any control of mine, the ship went +straight ahead. I could get up and walk about, with a weather eye on the +board, and never was there the flash of a danger light. But I was unable +to feel confident, and went back to look out through the glass.</p> + +<p>The stars were incredibly bright and clear. Right ahead were Betelguese +and Rigel, and the great nebula of Orion still beyond. There was no +twinkling, but each star a bright, steady point of light. And if Garth's +indicators were correct, we were moving toward them at a speed now +seventy-five times that of light itself. If they were correct....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> How +could one know, before the long two weeks were over?</p> + +<p>But before I could begin to think of any plan, my eye was caught by the +red lamp flashing on the panel. I pressed the attention button before +the alarm could ring, then started looking for the body we were in +danger of striking. The position indicators pointed straight ahead, but +I could see nothing. For ten minutes I peered through the telescope, and +still no sign. The dials put the thing off a degree or so to the right +now, but that was too close. In five more minutes I would swing straight +up and give whatever it was a wide berth.</p> + +<p>I looked out again. In the angle between the cross hairs, wasn't there a +slight haze? In a moment it was clear. A comet, apparently, the two of +us racing toward each other. Bigger it grew and bigger, hurtling +forward. Would we hit?</p> + +<p>The dials put it up a little and far off to the right, but it was still +frightening. The other light had come on, too, and I saw that we had +been pulled off our course by the comet's attraction. I threw the nose +over, past on the other side for leeway, then straightened up as the +side-distance dial gave a big jump away. Though the gaseous globe, +tailless of course away from the sun, showed as big as the full Earth, +the danger was past.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As I watched, the comet vanished from the field of the telescope. Five +minutes, perhaps, with the red danger light flickering all the time. +Then, with a ghastly flare through the right hand windows, it had passed +us.</p> + +<p>Garth sat straight up. "What happened?" he yelled.</p> + +<p>"Just a comet. I got by all right."</p> + +<p>He settled back, having been scarcely awake, and I turned to the board +again. The danger light had gone out, but the direction indicator was +burning. The near approach of the comet had thrown us off our course by +several degrees. I straightened the ship up easily, and had only a +little more difficulty in stopping a rocking motion. Then again the +empty hours of watching, gazing into the stars.</p> + +<p>Precisely at the end of eighteen hours, Garth awakened, as if the +consummation of a certain number of internal processes had set off a +little alarm clock in his brain. We were forty-one hours out, with a +speed, according to the indicator, of one hundred and twenty-eight times +that of light, and a total distance covered of slightly over one quarter +of a light-year. A rather small stretch, compared to the 466 light-years +we had to go. But when I went back for a look out of the rear telescope, +the familiar stars seemed to have moved the least bit closer together, +and the sun was no brighter than a great number of them.</p> + +<p>I slept like a log, but awakened a little before my trick was due.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Exactly on schedule, fourteen days and some hours after we had started +off, we passed Pi Orionis. For long there had been no doubt in my mind +that, whatever the explanation, our acceleration was holding steady. In +the last few hours the star swept up to the brilliance of the sun, then +faded again until it was no brighter than Venus. Venus! Our sun itself +had been a mere dot in the rear telescope until the change in our course +threw it out of the field of vision.</p> + +<p>At sixty-five light-years, twenty-three days out, Beta Eridani was +almost directly in our path for Rigel. Slightly less than a third of the +distance to the midpoint, in over half the time. But our speed was still +increasing 200 miles a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> second every second, almost four times the speed +of light in an hour. Our watches went on with a not altogether +disagreeable monotony.</p> + +<p>There was no star to mark the middle of our journey. Only, toward the +close of one of my watches, a blue light which I had never noticed came +on beside the indicator dials, and I saw that we had covered 233 +light-years, half the estimated distance to Rigel. The speed marker +indicated 3975 times the speed of light. I wakened Garth.</p> + +<p>"You could have done it yourself," he complained, sleepily, "but I +suppose it's just as well."</p> + +<p>He went over to the board and started warming up the rear gravity +projector.</p> + +<p>"We'll turn one off as the other goes on. Each take one control, and go +a notch at a time." He began counting, "One, two, three ..."</p> + +<p>On the twentieth count, my dial was down to zero, his up to maximum +deceleration, and I pulled out my switch. Garth snapped sideways a lever +on the indicators. Though nothing seemed to happen, I knew that the +speed dial would creep backward, and the distance dial progress at a +slower and slower rate. While I was trying to see the motion, Garth had +gone back to bed. I turned again to the glass and looked out at Rigel, +on the cross hairs, and Kappa Orionis, over to the left, and the great +nebula reaching over a quarter of the view with its faint gaseous +streamers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And so we swept on through space, with Rigel a great blue glory ahead, +and new stars, invisible at greater distances, flaring up in front of us +and then fading into the background as we passed. For a long time we had +been able to see that Rigel, as inferred from spectroscopic evidence, +was a double star—a fainter, greener blue companion revolving with it +around their common center of gravity. Beyond Kappa Orionis, three +hundred light-years from the sun, the space between the two was quite +evident. Beyond four hundred light-years, the brilliance of the vast +star was so great that it dimmed all the other stars by comparison, and +made the nebula seem a mere faint gauze. And yet even with this gradual +change, our arrival was a surprise.</p> + +<p>When he relieved me at my watch, Garth seemed dissatisfied with our +progress. "It must be farther than they've figured. I'll stick at +twenty-five times light speed, and slow down after we get there by +taking an orbit."</p> + +<p>"I'd have said it was nearer than the estimate," I tried to argue, but +was too sleepy to remember my reasons. Propped up on one elbow, I looked +around and out at the stars. There was a bright splash of light, I +noticed, where the telescope concentrated the radiation of Rigel at one +spot on the screen. I slept, and then Garth was shouting in my ear:</p> + +<p>"We're there!"</p> + +<p>I opened my eyes, blinked, and shut them again in the glare.</p> + +<p>"I've gone around three or four times trying to slow down. We're there, +and there's a planet to land on."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At last I could see. Out the window opposite me, Rigel was a blue-white +disk half the size of the sun, but brighter, with the companion star a +sort of faint reflection five or ten degrees to the side. And still +beyond, as I shaded my eyes, I could see swimming in the black a speck +with the unmistakable glow of reflected light.</p> + +<p>With both gravity projectors in readiness, we pulled out of our orbit +and straight across toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> the planet, letting the attraction of Rigel +fight against our still tremendous speed. For a while, the pull of the +big star was almost overpowering. Then we got past, and into the +gravitational field of the planet. We spiralled down around it, looking +for a landing place and trying to match our speed with its rotational +velocity.</p> + +<p>From rather unreliable observations, the planet seemed a good deal +smaller than the moon, and yet so dense as to have a greater +gravitational attraction. The atmosphere was cloudless, and the surface +a forbidding expanse of sand. The globe whirled at a rate that must give +it a day of approximately five hours. We angled down, picking a spot +just within the lighted area.</p> + +<p>A landing was quite feasible. As we broke through the atmosphere, we +could see that the sand, although blotched with dark patches here and +there, was comparatively smooth. At one place there was a level +outcropping of rock, and over this we hung. It was hard work, watching +through the single small port in the floor as we settled down. Finally +the view was too small to be of any use. I ran to the side window, only +to find my eyes blinded by Rigel's blaze. Then we had landed, and almost +at the same moment Rigel set. Half overlapped by the greater star, the +faint companion had been hidden in its glare. Now, in the dusk, a corner +of it hung ghostlike on the horizon, and then too had disappeared.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I flashed on our lights, while Garth cut out the projector and the floor +gravity machine. The increase in weight was apparent, but not +particularly unpleasant. After a few minutes of walking up and down I +got used to it.</p> + +<p>Through a stop-cock in the wall, Garth had drawn in a tube of gas from +the atmosphere outside, and was analyzing it with a spectroscope.</p> + +<p>"We can go out," he said. "It's unbreathable, but we'll be able to use +the space suits. Mostly fluorine. It would eat your lungs out like +that!"</p> + +<p>"And the suits?"</p> + +<p>"Fortunately, they've been covered with helio-beryllium paint, and the +helmet glass is the same stuff. Not even that atmosphere can touch it. I +suppose there can be no life on the place. With all this sand, it would +have to be based on silicon instead of carbon—and it would have to +breathe fluorine!"</p> + +<p>He got out the suits—rather like a diver's with the body of +metal-painted cloth, and the helmet of the metal itself. On the +shoulders was an air supply cylinder. The helmets were fixed with radio, +so we could have talked to each other even in airless space. We said +almost anything to try it out.</p> + +<p>"Glad you brought two, and we don't have to explore in shifts."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was prepared for emergencies."</p> + +<p>"Shall we wait for daylight to go out?"</p> + +<p>"I can't see why. And these outfits will probably feel better in the +cool. Let's see."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We shot a searchlight beam out the window. There was a slight drop down +from the rock where we rested, then the sandy plain stretching out. Only +far off were those dark patches that looked like old seaweed on a +dried-up ocean bed, and might prove dangerous footing. The rest seemed +hard packed.</p> + +<p>My heart was pounding as we went into the air-lock and fastened the +inner door behind us.</p> + +<p>"We go straight out now," Garth explained. "Coming back, it will be +necessary to press this button<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> and let the pump get rid of the +poisonous, air before going in."</p> + +<p>I opened the outer door and started to step out, then realized that +there was a five-foot drop to the ground.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead and jump," Garth said. "There's a ladder inside I should have +brought, but it would be too much trouble to go back through the lock +for it. Either of us can jump eight feet at home, and we'll get back up +somehow."</p> + +<p>I jumped, failing to allow for the slightly greater gravity, and fell +sprawling. Garth got down more successfully, in spite of a long package +of some sort he carried in his hand.</p> + +<p>Scrambling down from the cliff and walking out on the sand, I tried to +get used to the combination of greater weight and the awkward suit. If I +stepped very deliberately it was all right, but an attempt to run sank +my feet in the sand and brought me up staggering. There was no trouble +seeing through the glass of my helmet over wide angles. Standing on the +elevation by the <i>Comet</i>, his space-suit shining in the light from the +windows, Garth looked like a metallic monster, some creature of this +strange world. And I must have presented to him much the same +appearance, silhouetted dark and forbidding against the stars.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The stars! I looked up, and beheld the most marvelous sight of the whole +trip—the Great Nebula of Orion seen from a distance of less than one +hundred and fifty light-years its own width.</p> + +<p>A great luminous curtain, fifty degrees across, I could just take it all +in with my eye. The central brilliancy as big as the sun, a smaller one +above it, and then the whole mass of gas stretching over the sky. The +whole thing aglow with the green light of nebulium and blazing with the +stars behind it. It was stupendous, beyond words.</p> + +<p>I started to call Garth, then saw that he was looking up as well. For +almost half an hour I watched, as the edge of the nebula sank below the +horizon. Then its light began to dim. Turning, I saw that the sky +opposite was already gray. The dawn!</p> + +<p>Why, the sun had just set. Then I realized. It was over an hour since we +had landed, and a full night would be scarcely two hours and a half. If +we were in a summer latitude, the shorter period of darkness was natural +enough. And yet it was still hard to believe as, within ten minutes, it +was as bright as Earth-light on the moon. Still clearer and clearer grew +the light. The stars were almost gone, the center of the nebula only a +faint wisp. There were no clouds to give the colors of sunrise, but a +bluish-white radiance seemed to be trembling on the eastern horizon.</p> + +<p>And then, like a shot, Rigel came up into the sky. The light and heat +struck me like something solid, and I turned away. Even with my suit +reflecting most of the light away, I felt noticeably warm. The <i>Comet</i> +shone like a blinding mirror, so that it was almost impossible to see +Garth on the plain below it. Stumbling, and shielding my eyes with my +hand, I made my way toward him.</p> + +<p>He was standing erect, in his hands two old Lunarian dueling swords. +There was hate in his voice as the radio brought it in my ears.</p> + +<p>"Dunal, only one of us is going back to the moon."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I stared. Was the heat getting him? "Hadn't we better go inside," I said +quietly and somewhat soothingly.</p> + +<p>He made no reply, but only held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> out one of the hilts. I took it dumbly. +In that instant he could have struck my head from my body, if he wished.</p> + +<p>"But, Garth, old friend—"</p> + +<p>"No friend to you. You shall win Kelvar now, or I. I'm giving you a +sporting chance. One of your light cuts letting the fluorine inside will +be as deadly as anything I can do. The one who goes back will tell of an +accident, making repairs out in space. Damn you, if you don't want me to +kill you where you stand, come on and fight."</p> + +<p>"Garth, you've gone mad."</p> + +<p>"I've been waiting ever since I got you to leave the moon. On guard!"</p> + +<p>With a rush of anger I was upon him. He tried to step back, stumbled, +had one knee on the ground, then hurled himself forward with a thrust at +my waist that I dodged only by an inch. I had to cover, and in spite of +myself, with the cool work of parrying, my animosity began to disappear.</p> + +<p>And so began one of the strangest battles that the Universe has seen. +Lumbering with our suits and the extra gravity, we circled each other +under the blazing sky. The blue-white of Rigel shimmered off our suits +and the arcs of our blades as we cut and guarded—each wary now, +realizing that a touch meant death. As that terrible sun climbed upward +in the sky, its heat was almost overpowering. The sweat poured off every +inch of my body, and I gasped for breath. And still we fought on, two +glittering metal monsters under the big blue star sweeping up to its +noon.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I knew now that I could never kill Garth. I could not go back to Kelvar +with his blood. Yet if I simply defended, sooner or later he would wear +me down. There was just one chance. If I could disarm him, I could +wrestle him into submission. Then he might be reasonable, or I could +take him home bound.</p> + +<p>I began leading for the opening I wanted, but with no result. He seemed +resolved to tire me out. Either I must carry the fight to him, or I +would be beaten down. I made a wide opening, counting on dodging his +slow stroke. I did, but he recovered too soon. Again on the other side, +with no better result. Still again, just getting in for a light tap on +Garth's helmet. Then I stepped back, with guard low, and this time he +came on. His sword rose in a gleaming arc and hung high for a moment. I +had him. There were sparks of clashing, locked steel.</p> + +<p>"Damn you, Dunal!" He took a great step back, narrowly keeping his +balance on the sand. On another chance, I would trip him. My ears were +almost deafened by his roar, "Come on and <i>fight</i>."</p> + +<p>I took a step in and to the side, and had him in the sun. He swung +blindly, trying to cover himself with his whirling point but I had half +a dozen openings to rip his suit. When he moved to try to see, I would +lock with him again. I watched his feet.</p> + +<p>And as I watched, I saw an incredible thing. Near one of Garth's feet +the sand was moving. It was not a slide caused by his weight; +rather—why, it was being pushed up from below. There was a little hump, +and suddenly it had burst open, and a stringy mass like seaweed was +crawling toward his leg.</p> + +<p>"Look out, Garth," I yelled.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>How he could see through that terrible sun I do not know, but Garth +swung through my forgotten guard with a blow square across my helmet +glass. The force threw me to the ground, and I looked up, dazed. The +beryllium glass had not broken to let in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> fluorine-filled air, but +Garth was standing over me.</p> + +<p>"That's your last trick, Dunal." His blade rose for the kill.</p> + +<p>I was unable even to get up, but with one hand I pointed to the ground.</p> + +<p>"Look!" I shouted again, and on the instant the thing wound itself +around Garth's foot.</p> + +<p>He swung down, hacking it loose. I had got to my feet. "Run for the +ship," I cried, and started off.</p> + +<p>"Not that way."</p> + +<p>I looked back, and saw that I had run in the wrong direction. But it +made no difference. Over a whole circle around us the sand was rising, +and directly between us and the <i>Comet</i> there was a great green-brown +mass. We were surrounded.</p> + +<p>We stood staring at the creatures. Spread out to full dimensions, each +one made a sphere about four feet in diameter. In the center, a solid +mass whose outlines were difficult to discern; and spreading out from +this a hundred long, thin, many-jointed arms or legs or branches or +whatever one could call them.</p> + +<p>The things were not yet definitely hostile—only their circle, of +perhaps fifty yards radius, grew continually thicker and more +impenetrable. Within the enclosed area, the only ripples we could see in +the sand were heading outward. There was to be no surprise attack from +below, at least; only one in mass. What, I wondered, might be a sign of +friendship, to persuade them to let us go.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And then the circle began to close in. The things rolled over and over +on themselves, like gigantic tumbleweeds. At one point, to the right of +the direct route to the <i>Comet</i>, the line seemed thinner. I pointed the +place out to Garth.</p> + +<p>"Break through there, and make a run for it."</p> + +<p>We charged into the midst of them with swinging blades. The very +suddenness of our rush carried us half-way through their midst. Then +something had my legs from behind. I almost fell, but succeeded in +turning and cutting myself free. The creatures from the other side of +the circle must have made the hundred yards in four or five seconds. And +the rest had now covered the breach in front. It was hopeless.</p> + +<p>And so we stood back to back, hewing out a circle of protection against +our enemies. They seemed to have no fear, and in spite of the +destruction our blades worked among them, they almost overcame us by +sheer numbers and weight. It was a case of whirling our swords back and +forth interminably in the midst of their tentacles. Against the light, +the long arms were a half-transparent brown. Our swords broke them in +bright shivers. Formed from the predominant silicon of the planet, the +creatures were living glass!</p> + +<p>For perhaps a quarter of an hour we were in the thick of them, hewing +until I thought my arms must fall, slashing and tearing at the ones that +had got underfoot and were clamping their tentacles around our legs. +Only for the space-suits, we should have, by this time, been overpowered +and torn into bits—and yet these garments could not be expected to hold +indefinitely.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But at last there was a breathing space. The crippled front ranks +dragged themselves away, and there was left around us a brief area of +sand, covered with coruscating splinters of glass. Garth got the breath +to say something or other encouraging. It was like old days at school.</p> + +<p>Only this time the odds were all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> against us. We were still a good +hundred yards from the <i>Comet</i>, and in our path stood a solid wall of +the creatures. Even if we got free, they could outrace us to the goal. +And with our limited strength, we could not hope to kill them all. In a +minute or two, they would attack us again.</p> + +<p>Somehow we must fight our way as long as we lasted. Perhaps they might +be frightened. We threw ourselves at the side next our goal. The line +gave perhaps a yard, then stiffened, and we found ourselves swallowed up +in a thick cloud of brown smoke.</p> + +<p>Poison gas! It must be shot out of their bodies, at a cost so great that +it was kept as a last resort. Through the rolling vapor it was just +possible to see our opponents, but they made no forward move. They were +waiting for us to be overcome. Suppose their compound could eat through +even our helio-beryllium? But it did not. We were safe.</p> + +<p>"Stand still, Garth," I whispered, counting on the radio to carry my +voice. "Let them think we're dead, and then give them a surprise."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>Long, long minutes.... If only they did not know that it was the +customary thing for a dead man to fall.... Slowly they began to move in.</p> + +<p>Then Garth and I were upon them. They halted as if stupefied. We had +hacked our way half through their mass. The rest fled, and we began +running toward the <i>Comet</i>, praying that we might reach the ship before +they could get organized again. How we floundered through the sand in +wild and desperate haste.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Before we had covered half the distance, the pursuit began. There was no +attempt to drag us down directly, but the two wings raced past to cut us +off in front. At the base of the little cliff where the <i>Comet</i> lay, the +circle closed.</p> + +<p>"Jump," I called, and threw myself up over them toward the stone. Garth +would have fallen back, but I caught his hand and pulled him to safety. +We had won.</p> + +<p>But had we? Joined by reinforcements from somewhere, the creatures were +packed all around the base of the cliff and had begun to climb its +walls, to cut us off from the ship. We rushed separately toward the two +sides, and they backed away. But those in front were now established on +the top. We stepped backward, and the whole line came on. But now we +turned and ran for the <i>Comet</i>.</p> + +<p>We were just able to turn again and clear them away with our swords. In +a moment others would be climbing up from behind over the ship. And the +door to safety was on a level with our heads.</p> + +<p>There was just one chance. Stamping threateningly, we cleared the things +out for ten feet in front of us. But once we turned our backs for a +running start they were at us again.</p> + +<p>"Boost you up, Dunal," said Garth pantingly.</p> + +<p>"No, you first."</p> + +<p>But in the midst of my words, he almost threw me into the doorway. I +turned to pull him up after me. They were around his legs, and one had +jumped down upon his helmet. And he must have known it would happen.</p> + +<p>"Go back to her," he cried, and slammed shut the door.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was no time to help him, to interfere with the way of expiation he +had chosen. I tried to look away, but a sort of fascination kept me +watching him through the glass. He had been dragged to his knees. Then +he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> up again, whirling to keep them away on all sides in a mad, +gallant fight. But the creatures knew it was the kill. Now they were +around his knees, now up to his waist in their overpowering mass. It was +only a matter of minutes.</p> + +<p>Garth took a staggering step backward, dragging them all with him. He +was facing me, and swung up his sword in the old Lunar salute. "Good +luck, Dunal." The words, coming clearly over the radio, had a note of +exaltation.</p> + +<p>Then flashing his blade over his head, he hurled it into the midst of +the accursed things. With a tremendous effort, Garth tore the protecting +helmet from his head, and plunged backward over the cliff....</p> + +<p>There was nothing to do but get in out of the lock and start for home, +and little on the trip is worthy of recounting. Without unsurpassable +difficulty, I was able to operate the machinery and steer, first for +Betelguese, then for the sun. Counting on the warning bells to arouse +me, I managed to get in snatches of sleep at odd intervals. At times the +strain of the long watches was almost maddening.</p> + +<p>By the time the midpoint had been passed, I was living in a sort of +waking dream; or rather, a state of somnambulism. I ate; my hands moved +the controls. And yet all the while my mind was wandering elsewhere—out +to Garth's body under the blazing light of Rigel, back to the moon and +Kelvar, or else in an unreal, shadowy world of dreams and vague +memories.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>With perfect mechanical accuracy I entered the solar system and adjusted +the projectors for the sun's attraction. Running slower and slower, I +watched Venus glide by. And then, gradually, everything faded, and I was +walking along the great Nardos bridge with Kelvar. The ocean was so +still that we could see mirrored in it the reflection of each white +column, and our own faces peering down, and beyond that the stars.</p> + +<p>"I shall bring you a handful for your hair," I told her, and leaned over +farther, farther, reaching out.... Then I was falling, with Kelvar's +face growing fainter, and in my ears a horrible ringing like the world +coming to an end.</p> + +<p>Just before I could strike the water, I wakened to find the alarm bell +jangling and the object-indicator light flashing away. Through the +telescope, the moon was large in the sky.</p> + +<p>It was an hour, perhaps two, before I approached the sunlit surface and +hovered over the shore by Nardos. Try as I would, my sleep-drugged body +could not handle the controls delicately enough to get the <i>Comet</i> quite +in step with the moon's rotation. Always a little too fast or too slow. +I slid down until I was only ten or fifteen feet off the ground that +seemed to be moving out from under me. In another minute I should be +above the water. I let everything go, and the <i>Comet</i> fell. There was a +thud, a sound of scraping over the sand, a list to one side. I thought +for an instant that the vessel was going to turn over, but with the +weight of the reserve mercury in the fuel tanks it managed to right +itself on a slope of ten or fifteen degrees.</p> + +<p>From the angle, I could barely see out the windows, and everything +looked strange. The water under the bridge seemed too low. The half-full +Earth had greenish-black spots on it. And the sky?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>So dead with sleep that I could scarcely move, I managed to crane my +neck around to see better. There was no sky, only a faint gray haze +through which the stars shone. And yet the sun must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> shining. I +stretched still further. There the sun burned, and around it was an +unmistakable corona. It was like airless space.</p> + +<p>Was I dreaming again?</p> + +<p>With a jerk, I got to my feet and climbed up the sloping floor to the +atmosphere tester. My fingers slipped off the stop-cock, then turned it. +And the air-pressure needle scarcely moved. It was true. Somehow, as the +scientists had always told us would be the case eventually, the air of +the moon, with so little gravity to hold it back, had evaporated into +space.</p> + +<p>But in six months? It was unthinkable. Surely someone had survived the +catastrophe. Some people must have been able to keep themselves alive in +caves where the last of the atmosphere would linger. Kelvar <i>must</i> be +still alive. I could find her and bring her to the <i>Comet</i>. We would go +to some other world.</p> + +<p>Frantically, I pulled on my space-suit and clambered through the +air-lock. I ran, until the cumbersome suit slowed me down to a +staggering walk through the sand beside the Oceanus Procellarum.</p> + +<p>Leaden and dull, the great sea lay undisturbed by the thin atmosphere +still remaining. It had shrunk by evaporation far away from its banks, +and where the water once had been there was a dark incrustation of +impurities. On the land side, all was a great white plain of glittering +alkali without a sign of vegetation. I went on toward Nardos the +Beautiful.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Even from afar off, I could see that it was desolate. Visible now that +the water had gone down, the pillars supporting it rose gaunt and +skeletal. Towers had fallen in, and the gleaming white was dimmed. It +was a city of the dead, under an Earth leprous-looking with black spots +where the clouds apparently had parted.</p> + +<p>I came nearer to Nardos and the bridge, nearer to the spot where I had +last seen Kelvar. Below the old water level, the columns showed a +greenish stain, and half-way out the whole structure had fallen in a +great gap. I reached the land terminus of the span, still glorious and +almost beautiful in its ruins. Whole blocks of stone had fallen to the +sand, and the adamantine pillars were cracked and crumbling with the +erosion of ages.</p> + +<p>Then I knew.</p> + +<p>In our argument as to the possible speed of the <i>Comet</i>, Garth and I had +both been right. In our reference frame, the vessel had put on an +incredible velocity, and covered the nine-hundred-odd light-years around +Rigel in six months. But from the viewpoint of the moon, it had been +unable to attain a velocity greater than that of light. As the +accelerating energy pressed the vessel's speed closer and closer toward +that limiting velocity, the mass of the ship and of its contents had +increased toward infinity. And trying to move laboriously with such vast +mass, our clocks and bodies had been slowed down until to our leaden +minds a year of moon time became equivalent to several hours.</p> + +<p>The <i>Comet</i> had attained an average velocity of perhaps 175,000 miles +per second, and the voyage that seemed to me six months had taken a +thousand years. A thousand years! The words went ringing through my +brain. Kelvar had been dead for a thousand years. I was alone in a world +uninhabited for centuries.</p> + +<p>I threw myself down and battered my head in the sand.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>More to achieve, somehow, my own peace of mind, than in any hope of its +being discovered, I have written this narrative. There are two copies, +this to be placed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> a helio-beryllium box at the terminus of the +bridge, the other within the comet[<a name="TN-3" id="TN-3">TN-3</a>]. One at least should thus be able to +escape the meteors which, unimpeded by the thin atmosphere, have begun +to strike everywhere, tearing up great craters in the explosion that +follows as a result of the impact.</p> + +<p>My time is nearly up. Air is still plentiful on the <i>Comet</i>, but my +provisions will soon run short. It is now slightly over a month since I +collapsed on the sands into merciful sleep, and I possess food and water +for perhaps another. But why go on in my terrible loneliness?</p> + +<p>Sometimes I waken from a dream in which they are all so near—Kelvar, +Garth, all my old companions—and for a moment I cannot realize how far +away they are. Beyond years and years. And I, trampling back and forth +over the dust of our old life, staring across the waste, waiting—for +what?</p> + +<p>No, I shall wait only until the dark. When the sun drops over the +Grimaldi plateau, I shall put my manuscripts in their safe places, then +tear off my helmet and join the other two.</p> + +<p>An hour ago, the bottom edge of the sun touched the horizon.</p> + +<div class="trnote"> +<p>Transcriber's notes:</p> +<p><a href="#TN-1">TN-1</a> Spaced em dash is found in the original.</p> +<p><a href="#TN-2">TN-2</a> Corrected from litle to little.</p> +<p><a href="#TN-3">TN-3</a> Not Capitalised or italicised in the original, but should probably read <i>Comet</i></p> +<p>TN-4 This etext was produced from "Astounding Stories" December 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Out Around Rigel, by Robert H. 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