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diff --git a/29742.txt b/29742.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50f9369 --- /dev/null +++ b/29742.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1135 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Long Voyage, by Carl Richard Jacobi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Long Voyage + +Author: Carl Richard Jacobi + +Release Date: August 20, 2009 [EBook #29742] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONG VOYAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _When we published Carl Jacobi's last story we had no assurance he + would be with us so soon again. For when a uniquely gifted + science-fantasy writer becomes radio-active on the entertainment + meter and goes voyaging into the unknown, he may be gone from the + world we know for as long as yesterday's tomorrow. But Carl Jacobi + has not only returned almost with the speed of light--he has brought + with him shining new nuggets of wonder and surmise._ + + + the + long + voyage + + _by ... Carl Jacobi_ + + + The secret lay hidden at the end of nine landings, + and Medusa-dark was one man's search for it--in + the strangest journey ever made. + + +A soft gentle rain began to fall as we emerged from the dark woods and +came out onto the shore. There it was, the sea, stretching as far as the +eye could reach, gray and sullen, and flecked with green-white froth. +The blue _hensorr_ trees, crowding close to the water's edge, were bent +backward as if frightened by the bleakness before them. The sand, +visible under the clear patches of water, was a bleached white like the +exposed surface of a huge bone. + +We stood there a moment in silence. Then Mason cleared his throat +huskily. + +"Well, here goes," he said. "We'll soon see if we have any friends +about." + +He unslung the packsack from his shoulders, removed its protective outer +shield and began to assemble the organic surveyor, an egg-shaped ball of +white carponium secured to a segmented forty-foot rod. While Brandt and +I raised the rod with the aid of an electric fulcrum, Mason carefully +placed his control cabinet on a piece of outcropping rock and made a +last adjustment. + +The moment had come. Even above the sound of the sea, you could hear +the strained breathing of the men. Only Navigator Norris appeared +unconcerned. He stood there calmly smoking his pipe, his keen blue eyes +squinting against the biting wind. + +Mason switched on the speaker. Its high-frequency scream rose +deafeningly above us and was torn away in unsteady gusts. He began to +turn its center dial, at first a quarter circle, and then all the way to +the final backstop of the calibration. All that resulted was a +continuation of that mournful ululation like a wail out of eternity. + +Mason tried again. With stiff wrists he tuned while perspiration stood +out on his forehead, and the rest of us crowded close. + +"It's no use," he said. "This pickup failure proves there isn't a +vestige of animal life on Stragella--on this hemisphere of the planet, +at least." + +Navigator Norris took his pipe from his mouth and nodded. His face was +expressionless. There was no indication in the man's voice that he had +suffered another great disappointment, his sixth in less than a year. + +"We'll go back now," he said, "and we'll try again. There must be some +planet in this system that's inhabited. But it's going to be hard to +tell the women." + +Mason let the surveyor rod down with a crash. I could see the anger and +resentment that was gathering in his eyes. Mason was the youngest of our +party and the leader of the antagonistic group that was slowly but +steadily undermining the authority of the Navigator. + +This was our seventh exploratory trip after our sixth landing since +entering the field of the sun Ponthis. Ponthis with its sixteen +equal-sized planets, each with a single satellite. First there had been +Coulora; then in swift succession, Jama, Tenethon, Mokrell, and R-9. And +now Stragella. Strange names of strange worlds, revolving about a +strange star. + +It was Navigator Norris who told us the names of these planets and +traced their positions on a chart for us. He alone of our group was +familiar with astrogation and cosmography. He alone had sailed the +spaceways in the days before the automatic pilots were installed and +locked and sealed on every ship. + +A handsome man in his fortieth year, he stood six feet three with broad +shoulders and a powerful frame. His eyes were the eyes of a scholar, +dreamy yet alive with depth and penetration. I had never seen him lose +his temper, and he governed our company with an iron hand. + +He was not perfect, of course. Like all Earthmen, he had his faults. +Months before he had joined with that famed Martian scientist, +Ganeth-Klae, to invent that all-use material, _Indurate_, the formula +for which had been stolen and which therefore had never appeared on the +commercial market. Norris would talk about that for hours. If you +inadvertently started him on the subject a queer glint would enter his +eyes, and he would dig around in his pocket for a chunk of the black +substance. + +"Did I ever show you a piece of this?" he would say. "Look at it +carefully. Notice the smooth grainless texture--hard and yet not +brittle. You wouldn't think that it was formed in a gaseous state, then +changed to a liquid and finally to a clay-like material that could be +worked with ease. A thousand years after your body has returned to dust, +that piece of _Indurate_ will still exist, unchanged, unworn. Erosion +will have little effect upon it. Beside it granite, steel are nothing. +If only I had the formula ..." + +But he had only half the formula, the half he himself had developed. The +other part was locked in the brain of Ganeth-Klae, and Ganeth-Klae had +disappeared. What had become of him was a mystery. Norris perhaps had +felt the loss more than any one, and he had offered the major part of +his savings as a reward for information leading to the scientist's +whereabouts. + +Our party--eighteen couples and Navigator Norris--had gathered together +and subsequently left Earth in answer to a curious advertisement that +had appeared in the Sunday edition of the London _Times_. + + WANTED: _A group of married men and women, young, courageous, + educated, tired of political and social restrictions, interested + in extra-terrestrial colonization. Financial resources no + qualification._ + +After we had been weeded out, interviewed and rigorously questioned, +Norris had taken us into the hangar, waved a hand toward the _Marie +Galante_ and explained the details. + +The _Marie Galante_ was a cruiser-type ship, stripped down to essentials +to maintain speed, but equipped with the latest of everything. For a +short run to Venus, for which it was originally built, it would +accommodate a passenger list of ninety. + +But Norris wasn't interested in that kind of run. He had knocked out +bulkheads, reconverted music room and ballroom into living quarters. He +had closed and sealed all observation ports, so that only in the bridge +cuddy could one see into space. + +"We shall travel beyond the orbit of the sun," he said. "There will be +no turning back; for the search for a new world, a new life, is not a +task for cowards." + +Aside to me, he said: "You're to be the physician of this party, Bagley. +So I'm going to tell you what to expect when we take off. We're going to +have some mighty sick passengers aboard then." + +"What do you mean, sir?" I said. + +He pointed with his pipe toward the stern of the vessel. "See that ... +well, call it a booster. Ganeth-Klae designed it just before he +disappeared, using the last lot of _Indurate_ in existence. It will +increase our take-off speed by five times, and it will probably have a +bad effect on the passengers." + +So we had left Earth, at night from a field out in Essex. Without +orders, without clearance papers, without an automatic pilot check. +Eighteen couples and one navigator--destination unknown. If the +Interstellar Council had known what Norris was up to, it would have been +a case for the Space-Time Commission. + +Of that long initial lap of our voyage, perhaps the less said the +better. As always is the case when monotony begins to wear away the +veneer of civilization, character quirks came to the surface, cliques +formed among the passengers, and gossip and personalities became matters +of pre-eminent importance. + +Rising to the foreground out of our thirty-six, came Fielding Mason, +tall, taciturn, and handsome, with a keen intellect and a sense of +values remarkable in so young a man. Mason was a graduate of Montape, +the French outgrowth of St. Cyr. But he had majored in military tactics, +psychology and sociology and knew nothing at all about astrogation or +even elemental astronomy. He too was a man of good breeding and +refinement. Nevertheless conflict began to develop between him and +Navigator Norris. That conflict began the day we landed on Coulora. + +Norris stepped out of the air lock into the cold thin air, glanced +briefly about him and faced the eighteen men assembled. + +"We'll divide into three groups," he said. "Each group to carry an +organic surveyor and take a different direction. Each group will so +regulate its marching as to be back here without fail an hour before +darkness sets in. If you find no sign of animal life, then we will take +off again immediately on your return." + +Mason paused halfway in the act of strapping on his packsack. + +"What's that got to do with it?" he demanded. "There's vegetation here. +That's all that seems to be necessary." + +Norris lit his pipe. "If you find no sign of animal life we will take +off immediately on your return," he said as if he hadn't heard. + +But the strangeness of Coulora tempered bad feelings then. The blue +_hensorr_ trees were actually not trees at all but a huge cat-tail-like +growth, the stalks of which were quite transparent. In between the +stalks grew curious cabbage-like plants that changed from red to yellow +as an intruder approached and back to red again after he had passed. +Rock outcroppings were everywhere, but all were eroded and in places +polished smooth as glass. + +There was a strange kind of dust that acted as though endowed with life. +It quivered when trod upon, and the outline of our footsteps slowly +rose into the air, so that looking back I could see our trail floating +behind us in irregular layers. + +Above us the star that was this planet's sun shown bright but faintly +red as if it were in the first stages of dying. The air though thin was +fit to breathe, and we found it unnecessary to wear space suits. We +marched down the corridors of _hensorr_ trees, until we came to an open +spot, a kind of glade. And that was the first time Mason tuned his +organic surveyor and received absolutely nothing. + +There was no animal life on Coulora! + + * * * * * + +Within an hour we had blasted off again. The forward-impact delivered by +the Ganeth-Klae booster was terrific, and nausea and vertigo struck us +all simultaneously. But again, with all ports and observation shields +sealed shut, Norris held the secret of our destination. + +On July twenty-second, the ship gave that sickening lurch and came once +again to a standstill. + +"Same procedure as before," Norris said, stepping out of the airlock. +"Those of you who desire to have their wives accompany you may do so. +Mason, you'll make a final correlation on the organic surveyors. If +there is no trace of animal life return here before dark." + +Once our group was out of sight of the ship, Mason threw down his +packsack, sat down on a boulder and lighted a cigarette. + +"Bagley," he said to me, "has the Old Man gone loco?" + +"I think not," I said, frowning. "He's one of the most evenly balanced +persons I know." + +"Then he's hiding something," Mason said. "Why else should he be so +concerned with finding animal life?" + +"You know the answer to that," I said. "We're here to colonize, to start +a new life. We can't very well do that on a desert." + +"That's poppycock," Mason replied, flinging away his cigarette. "When +the Albertson expedition first landed on Mars, there was no animal life +on the red planet. Now look at it. Same thing was true when Breslauer +first settled Pluto. The colonies there got along. I tell you Norris has +got something up his sleeve, and I don't like it." + +Later, after Mason had taken his negative surveyor reading, the flame of +trouble reached the end of its fuse! + +Norris had given orders to return to the _Marie Galante_, and the rest +of us were sullenly making ready to start the back trail. Mason, +however, deliberately seized his pick and began chopping a hole in the +rock surface, preparatory apparently to erecting his plastic tent. + +"We'll make temporary camp here," he said calmly. "Brandt, you can go +back to the ship and bring back the rest of the women." He turned and +smiled sardonically at Navigator Norris. + +Norris quietly knocked the ashes from his pipe and placed it in his +pocket. He strode forward, took the pick from Mason's hands and flung it +away. Then he seized Mason by the coat, whipped him around and drove his +fist hard against the younger man's jaw. + +"When you signed on for this voyage, you agreed to obey my orders," he +said, not raising his voice. "You'll do just that." + +Mason picked himself up, and there was an ugly glint in his eyes. He +could have smashed Norris to a pulp, and none knew it better than the +Navigator. For a brief instant the younger man swayed there on the balls +of his feet, fists clenched. Then he let his hands drop, walked over and +began to put on his packsack. + +But I had seen Mason's face, and I knew he had not given in as easily as +it appeared. Meanwhile he began to circulate among the passengers, +making no offers, yet subtly enlisting backers for a policy, the +significance of which grew on me slowly. It was mutiny he was plotting! +And with his personal charm and magnetism he had little trouble in +winning over converts. I came upon him arguing before a group of the +women one day, among them his own wife, Estelle. He was standing close +to her. + +"We have clothing and equipment and food concentrate," Mason said. +"Enough to last two generations. We have brains and intelligence, and we +certainly should be able to establish ourselves without the aid of other +vertebrate forms of life. + +"Coulora, Jama, Tenethon, Mokrell, R-9, and Stragella. We could have +settled on any one of those planets, and apparently we should have, for +conditions have grown steadily worse at each landing. But always the +answer is no. Why? Because Norris says we must go on until we find +animal life." + +He cleared his throat and gazed at the feminine faces before him. "Go +where? What makes Norris so sure he'll find life on any planet in this +system? And incidentally where in the cosmos is this system?" + +One of the women, a tall blonde, stirred uneasily. "What do you mean?" +she said. + +"I mean we don't know if our last landing was on Stragella or Coulora. I +mean we don't know where we are or where we're going, and I don't think +Norris does either. _We're lost!_" + +That was in August. By the last of September we had landed on two more +planets, to which Norris gave the simple names of R-12 and R-14. Each +had crude forms of vegetable life, represented principally by the blue +_hensorr_ trees, but in neither case did the organic surveyor reveal the +slightest traces of animal life. + +There was, however, a considerable difference in physical appearance +between R-12 and R-14, and for a time that fact excited Norris +tremendously. Up to then, each successive planet, although similar in +size, had exhibited signs of greater age than its predecessor. But on +R-12 there were definite manifestations of younger geologic development. + +Several pieces of shale lay exposed under a fold of igneous rock. Two of +those pieces contained fossils of highly developed _ganoids_, similar to +those found on Venus. They were perfectly preserved. + +It meant that animal life had existed on R-12, even if it didn't now. It +meant that R-12, though a much older planet than Earth, was still +younger than Stragella or the rest. + +For a while Norris was almost beside himself. He cut out rock samples +and carried them back to the ship. He personally supervised the tuning +of the surveyors. And when he finally gave orders to take off, he was +almost friendly to Mason, whereas before his attitude toward him had +been one of cold aloofness. + +But when we reached R-14, our eighth landing, all that passed. For R-14 +was old again, older than any of the others. + +And then, on October sixteenth, Mason opened the door of the locked +cabin. It happened quite by accident. One of the _arelium-thaxide_ +conduits broke in the _Marie Galante's_ central passageway, and the +resulting explosion grounded the central feed line of the instrument +equipment. In a trice the passageway was a sheet of flame, rapidly +filling with smoke from burning insulation. + +Norris, of course, was in the bridge cuddy with locked doors between us +and him, and now with the wiring burned through there was no way of +signalling him he was wanted for an emergency. In his absence Mason took +command. + +That passageway ran the full length of the ship. Midway down it was the +door leading to the women's lounge. The explosion had jammed that door +shut, and smoke was pouring forth from under the sill. All at once one +of the women rushed forward to announce hysterically that Mason's wife, +Estelle, was in the lounge. + +Adjoining the lounge was a small cabin which since the beginning of our +voyage had remained locked. Norris had given strict orders that that +cabin was not to be disturbed. We all had taken it as a matter of course +that it contained various kinds of precision instruments. + +Now, however, Mason realized that the only way into the lounge was by +way of that locked cabin. If he used a heat blaster on the lounge door +there was no telling what would happen to the woman inside. + +He ripped the emergency blaster from its wall mounting, pressed it to +the magnetic latch of the sealed cabin door and pressed the stud. An +instant later he was leading his frightened wife, Estelle, out through +the smoke. + +The fire was quickly extinguished after that and the wiring spliced. +Then when the others had drifted off, Mason called Brandt and me aside. + +"We've been wondering for a long time what happened to Ganeth-Klae, the +Martian inventor who worked with Norris to invent _Indurate_," he said +very quietly. "Well, we don't need to wonder any more. He's in there." + +Brandt and I stepped forward over the sill--and drew up short. +Ganeth-Klae was there all right, but he would never trouble himself +about making a voyage in a locked cabin. His rigid body was encased in a +transparent block of amber-colored solidifex, the after-death +preservative used by all Martians. + +Both of us recognized his still features at once, and in addition his +name-tattoo, required by Martian law, was clearly visible on his left +forearm. + + * * * * * + +For a brief instant the discovery stunned us. Klae dead? Klae whose IQ +had become a measuring guide for the entire system, whose Martian head +held more ordinary horse sense, in addition to radical postulations on +theoretical physics, than anyone on the planets. It wasn't possible. + +And what was the significance of his body on Norris' ship? Why had +Norris kept its presence a secret and why had he given out the story of +Klae's disappearance? + +Mason's face was cold as ice. "Come with me, you two," he said. "We're +going to get the answer to this right now." + +We went along the passage to the circular staircase. We climbed the +steps, passed through the scuttle and came to the door of the bridge +cuddy. Mason drew the bar and we passed in. Norris was bent over the +chart table. He looked up sharply at the sound of our steps. + +"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" he said. + +It didn't take Mason long to explain. When he had finished, he stood +there, jaw set, eyes smouldering. + +Norris paled. Then quickly he got control of himself, and his old bland +smile returned. + +"I expected you to blunder into Klae's body one of these days," he said. +"The explanation is quite simple. Klae had been ill for many months, and +he knew his time was up. His one desire in life was to go on this +expedition with me, and he made me promise to bury him at the site of +our new colony. The pact was between him and me, and I've followed it to +the letter, telling no one." + +Mason's lips curled in a sneer. "And just what makes you think we're +going to believe that story?" he demanded. + +Norris lit a cigar. "It's entirely immaterial to me whether you believe +it or not." + +But the story was believed, especially by the women, to whom the +romantic angle appealed and Mason's embryonic mutiny died without being +born, and the _Marie Galante_ sailed on through uncharted space toward +her ninth and last landing. + +As the days dragged by and no word came from the bridge cuddy, +restlessness began to grow amongst us. Rumor succeeded rumor, each story +wilder and more incredible than the rest. Then just as the tension had +mounted to fever pitch, there came the sickening lurch and grinding +vibration of another landing. + +Norris dispensed with his usual talk before marching out from the ship. +After testing the atmosphere with the ozonometer, he passed out the heat +pistols and distributed the various instruments for computing +radioactivity and cosmic radiation. + +"This is the planet Nizar," he said shortly. "Largest in the field of +the sun Ponthis. You will make your survey as one group this time. I +will remain here." + +He stood watching us as we marched off down the cliff side. Then the +blue _hensorr_ trees rose up to swallow him from view. Mason swung along +at the head of our column, eyes bright, a figure of aggressive action. +We had gone but a hundred yards when it became apparent that, as a +planet, Nizar was entirely different from its predecessors. There was +considerable top soil, and here grew a tall reed-shaped plant that gave +off varying chords of sound when the wind blew. + +It was as if we were progressing through the nave of a mighty church +with a muted organ in the distance. There was animal life too, a strange +lizard-like bird that rose up in flocks ahead of us and flew screaming +overhead. + +"I don't exactly like it, Bagley," he said. "There's something +unwholesome about this planet. The evolution is obviously in an early +state of development, but I get the impression that it has gone +backward; that the planet is really old and has reverted to its earlier +life." + +Above us the sky was heavily overcast, and a tenuous white mist rising +up from the _hensorr_ trees formed curious shapes and designs. In the +distance I could hear the swashing of waves on a beach. + +Suddenly Mason stopped. "Look!" he said. + +Below us stretched the shore of a great sea. But it was the structure +rising up from that shore that drew a sharp exclamation from me. Shaped +in a rough ellipse, yet mounted high toward a common point, was a large +building of multiple hues and colors. The upper portion was eroded to +crumbling ruins, the lower part studded with many bas-reliefs and +triangular doorways. + +"Let's go," Mason said, breaking out into a fast loping run. + +The building was farther away than we had thought, but when we finally +came up to it, we saw that it was even more of a ruin than it had at +first appeared. It was only a shell with but two walls standing, alone +and forlorn. Whatever race had lived here, they had come and gone. + +We prowled about the ruins for more than an hour. The carvings on the +walls were in the form of geometric designs and cabalistic symbols, +giving no clue to the city's former occupants' identity. + +And then Mason found the stairs leading to the lower crypts. He switched +on his ato-flash and led the way down cautiously. Level one ... level +two ... three ... we descended lower and lower. Here water from the +nearby sea oozed in little rivulets that glittered in the light of the +flash. + +We emerged at length on a wide underground plaisance, a kind of +amphitheater, with tier on tier of seats surrounding it and extending +back into the shadows. + +"Judging from what we've seen," Mason said, "I would say that the race +that built this place had reached approximately a grade C-5 of +civilization, according to the Mokart scale. This apparently was their +council chamber." + +"What are those rectangular stone blocks depending from the ceiling?" I +said. + +Mason turned the light beam upward. "I don't know," he said. "But my +guess is that they are burial vaults. Perhaps the creatures were +ornithoid." + +Away from the flash the floor of the plaisance appeared to be a great +mirror that caught our reflections and distorted them fantastically and +horribly. We saw then that it was a form of living mold, composed of +millions of tiny plants, each with an eye-like iris at its center. Those +eyes seemed to be watching us, and as we strode forward, a great sigh +rose up, as if in resentment at our intrusion. + +There was a small triangular dais in the center of the chamber, and in +the middle of it stood an irregular black object. As we drew nearer, I +saw that it had been carved roughly in the shape of this central +building and that it was in a perfect state of preservation. + +Mason walked around this carving several times, examining it curiously. + +"Odd," he said. "It looks to be an object of religious veneration, but I +never heard before of a race worshipping a replica of their own living +quarters." + +Suddenly his voice died off. He bent closer to the black stone, studying +it in the light of the powerful ato-flash. He got a small magnifying +glass out of his pocket and focused it on one of the miniature +bas-reliefs midway toward the top of the stone. Unfastening his geologic +hammer from his belt, he managed, with a sharp, swinging blow, to break +off a small protruding piece. + +He drew in his breath sharply, and I saw his face go pale. I stared at +him in alarm. + +"What's wrong?" I asked. + +He motioned that I follow and led the way silently past the others +toward the stair shaft. Climbing to the top level was a heart-pounding +task, but Mason almost ran up those steps. At the surface he leaned +against a pillar, his lips quivering spasmodically. + +"Tell me I'm sane, Bagley," he said huskily. "Or rather, don't say +anything until we've seen Norris. Come on. We've got to see Norris." + + * * * * * + +All the way back to the _Marie Galante_, I sought to soothe him, but he +was a man possessed. He rushed up the ship's gangway, burst into central +quarters and drew up before Navigator Norris like a runner stopping at +the tape. + +"You damned lying hypocrite!" he yelled. + +Norris looked at him in his quiet way. "Take it easy, Mason," he said. +"Sit down and explain yourself." + +But Mason didn't sit down. He thrust his hand in his pocket, pulled out +the piece of black stone he had chipped off the image in the cavern and +handed it to Norris. + +"Take a look at that!" he demanded. + +Norris took the stone, glanced at it and laid it down on his desk. His +face was emotionless. "I expected this sooner or later," he said. "Yes, +it's _Indurate_ all right. Is that what you want me to say?" + +There was a dangerous fanatical glint in Mason's eyes now. With a sudden +quick motion he pulled out his heat pistol. + +"So you tricked us!" he snarled. "Why? I want to know why." + +I stepped forward and seized Mason's gun hand. "Don't be a fool," I +said. "It can't be that important." + +Mason threw back his head and burst into an hysterical peal of laughter. +"Important!" he cried. "Tell him how important it is, Norris. _Tell +him._" + +Quietly the Navigator filled and lighted his pipe. "I'm afraid Mason is +right," he said. "I did trick you. Not purposely, however. And in the +beginning I had no intention of telling anything but the truth. Actually +we're here because of a dead man's vengeance." + +Norris took his pipe from his lips and stared at it absently. + +"You'll remember that Ganeth-Klae, the Martian, and I worked together to +invent _Indurate_. But whereas I was interested in the commercial +aspects of that product, Klae was absorbed only in the experimental +angle of it. He had some crazy idea that it should not be given to the +general public at once, but rather should be allocated for the first few +years to a select group of scientific organizations. You see, _Indurate_ +was such a departure from all known materials that Ganeth-Klae feared it +would be utilized for military purposes. + +"I took him for a dreamer and a fool. Actually he was neither. How was I +to know that his keen penetrating brain had seen through my motive to +get control of all commercial marketing of _Indurate_? I had laid my +plans carefully, and I had expected to reap a nice harvest. Klae must +have been aware of my innermost thoughts, but Martian-like he said +nothing." + +Norris paused to wet his lips and lean against the desk. "I didn't kill +Ganeth-Klae," he continued, "though I suppose in a court of law I would +be judged responsible for his death. The manufacture of _Indurate_ +required some ticklish work. As you know, we produced our halves of the +formula separately. Physical contact with my half over a long period of +time would prove fatal, I knew, and I simply neglected to so inform +Ganeth-Klae. + +"But his ultimate death was a boomerang. With Klae gone, I could find no +trace of his half of the formula. I was almost beside myself for a time. +Then I thought of something. Klae had once said that the secret of his +half of the formula lay in himself. A vague statement, to say the least. +But I took the words at their face value and gambled that he meant them +literally; that is, that his body itself contained the formula. + +"I tried everything: X-ray, chemical analysis of the skin. I even +removed the cranial cap and examined the brain microscopically. All +without result. Meanwhile the police were beginning to direct their +suspicions toward me in the matter of Klae's disappearance. + +"You know the rest. It was necessary that I leave Earth at once and go +beyond our system, beyond the jurisdiction of the planetary police. So I +arranged this voyage with a sufficient complement of passengers to +lessen the danger and hardship of a new life on a new world. I was still +positive, however, that Klae's secret lay in his dead body. I took that +body along, encased in the Martian preservative, solidifex. + +"It was my idea that I could continue my examination once we were safe +on a strange planet But I had reckoned without Ganeth-Klae." + +"What do you mean?" I said slowly. + +"I said Klae was no fool. But I didn't know that with Martian stoicism +he suspected the worst and took his own ironic means of combating it. He +used the last lot of _Indurate_ to make that booster, a device which he +said would increase our take-off speed. He mounted it on the _Marie +Galante_. + +"Mason, that device was no booster. It was a time machine, so devised as +to catapult the ship not into outer space, but into the space-time +continuum. It was a mechanism designed to throw the _Marie Galante_ +forward into the future." + +A cloud of fear began to well over me. "What do you mean?" I said again. + +Navigator Norris paced around his desk. "_I mean that the_ Marie Galante +_has not once left Earth, has not in fact left the spot of its moorings +but has merely gone forward in time. I mean that the nine 'landings' we +made were not stops on some other planets but halting stages of a +journey into the future._" + +Had a bombshell burst over my head the effect could have been no +greater. Cold perspiration began to ooze out on my forehead. In a flash +I saw the significance of the entire situation. That was why Norris had +been so insistent that we always return to the ship before dark. He +didn't want us to see the night sky and the constellations there for +fear we would guess the truth. That was why he had never permitted any +of us in the bridge cuddy and why he had kept all ports and observation +shields closed. + +"But the names of the planets ... Coulora, Stragella, and the others and +their positions on the chart...?" I objected. + +Norris smiled grimly. "All words created out of my imagination. Like the +rest of you, I knew nothing of the true action of the booster. It was +only gradually that truth dawned on me. But by the time we had made our +first 'landing' I had guessed. That was why I demanded we always take +organic surveyor readings. I knew we had traveled far into future time, +far beyond the life period of man on Earth. But I wasn't sure how far we +had gone, and I lived with the hope that Klae's booster might reverse +itself and start carrying us backwards down the centuries." + +For a long time I stood there in silence, a thousand mad speculations +racing through my mind. + +"How about that piece of _Indurate_?" I said at length. "It was chipped +off an image in the ruins of a great building a mile or so from here." + +"An image?" repeated Norris. A faint glow of interest slowly rose in his +eyes. Then it died. "I don't know," he said. "It would seem to +presuppose that the formula, both parts of it, was known by Klae and +that he left it for posterity to discover." + +All this time Mason had been standing there, eyes smouldering, lips an +ugly line. Now abruptly he took a step forward. + +"I've wanted to return this for a long time," he said. + +He doubled back his arm and brought his fist smashing onto Norris' jaw. +The Navigator's head snapped backward; he gave a low groan and slumped +to the floor. + +And that is where, by all logic, this tale should end. But, as you may +have guessed, there is an anticlimax--what story-tellers call a happy +conclusion. + +Mason, Brandt, and I worked, and worked alone, on the theory that the +secret of the _Indurate_ formula would be the answer to our return down +the time trail. We removed the body of Ganeth-Klae from its solidifex +envelope and treated it with every chemical process we knew. By sheer +luck the fortieth trial worked. A paste of carbo-genethon mixed with +the crushed seeds of the Martian iron-flower was spread over Klae's +chest and abdomen. + +And there, in easily decipherable code, was not only the formula, but +the working principles of the ship's booster--or rather, time-catapult. +After that, it was a simple matter to reverse the principle and throw us +backward in the time stream. + +We are heading back as I write these lines. If they reach print and you +read them, it will mean our escape was successful and that we returned +to our proper slot in the epilogue of human events. + +There remains, however, one matter to trouble me. Navigator Norris. I +like the man. I like him tremendously, in spite of his cold-blooded +confession, and past record. He must be punished, of course. But I, for +one, would hate to see him given the death penalty. It is a serious +problem. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ September 1955. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Long Voyage, by Carl Richard Jacobi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONG VOYAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 29742.txt or 29742.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/4/29742/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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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