From the Ocean from teh Stars (10 page)

unobtrusively watching over him despite the jovial pretense that he was
doing nothing of the sort, must have spoken to her.

A little more of his contentment ebbed as he realized that Indra must
feel sorry for him and must wonder, like everyone else, exactly what had
happened to him. He would not, he told himself bitterly, accept a love
that was founded on pity.

Indra seemed unaware of his sudden brooding silence and the conflict
that now disturbed his mind. She was busy filling the little stove by a
somewhat primitive method that involved siphoning fuel out of the hy-
drojet's tank, and Franklin was so amused by her repeated failures that
he forgot his momentary annoyance. When at last she had managed to
light the stove, they lay back under the palms, munching sandwiches and
waiting for the water to boil. The sun was already far down the sky, and Franklin realized that they would probably not get back to Heron Island
until well after nightfall. However, it would not be dark, for the moon
was nearing full, so even without the aid of the local beacons the home
ward journey would present no difficulties.

The billy-brewed tea was excellent, though doubtless far too anemic for any old-time swagman. It washed down the remainder of their food
very efficiently, and as they relaxed with sighs of satisfaction their hands
once again found each other. Now, thought Franklin, I should be per
fectly content. But he knew that he was not; something that he could not
define was worrying him.

His unease had grown steadily stronger during the last few minutes,
but he had tried to ignore it and force it down into his mind. He knew
that it was utterly ridiculous and irrational to expect any danger here, on
this empty and peaceful island. Yet little warning bells were ringing far
down in the labyrinths of his brain, and he could not understand their
signals.

Indra's casual question came as a welcome distraction. She was star
ing intently up into the western sky, obviously searching for something.

"Is it really true, Walter," she asked, "that if you know where to look for her you can see Venus in the daytime? She was so bright after sunset
last night that I could almost believe it."

"It's perfectly true," Franklin answered. "In fact, it isn't even diffi
cult. The big problem is to locate her in the first place; once you've done
that, she's quite easy to see."

He propped himself up against a palm trunk, shaded his eyes from
the glare of the descending sun, and began to search the western sky with
little hope of discovering the elusive silver speck he knew to be shining
there. He had noticed Venus dominating the evening sky during the last

few weeks, but it was hard to judge how far she was from the sun when both were above the horizon at the same time.

Suddenly—unexpectedly—his eyes caught and held a solitary silver star hanging against the milky blue of the sky. "I've found her!" he exclaimed, raising his arm as a pointer. Indra squinted along it, but at first could see nothing.

"You've got spots before the eyes," she taunted.

"No—I'm not imagining things. Just keep on looking," Franklin answered, his eyes still focused on the dimensionless star which he knew he would lose if he turned away from it even for a second.

"But Venus
can't
be there," protested Indra. "That's much too far north."

In a single, sickening instant Franklin knew that she was right. If he had any doubt, he could see now that the star he was watching was moving swiftly across the sky, rising out of the west and so defying the laws which controlled all other heavenly bodies.

He was staring at the Space Station, the largest of all the satellites now circling Earth, as it raced along its thousand-mile-high orbit. He tried to turn his eyes away, to break the hypnotic spell of that man-made, unscintillating star. It was as if he was teetering on the edge of an abyss; the terror of those endless, trackless wastes between the worlds began to invade and dominate his mind, to threaten the very foundations of his sanity.

He would have won the struggle, no more than a little shaken, had it not been for a second accident of fate. With the explosive suddenness with which memory sometimes yields to persistent questioning, he knew what it was that had been worrying him for the last few minutes. It was the smell of the fuel that Indra had siphoned from the hydrojet—the unmistakable, slightly aromatic tang of synthene. And crowding hard upon that recognition was the memory of where he had last met that all-too-familiar odor.

Synthene—first developed as a rocket propellant—now obsolete like all other chemical fuels, except for low-powered applications like the propulsion of space suits.

Space suits.

It was too much; the double assault defeated him. Both sight and smell had turned traitor in the same instant. Within seconds, the patiently built dikes which now protected his mind went down before the rising tide of terror.

He could feel the Earth beneath him spinning dizzily through space. It seemed to be whirling faster and faster on its axis, trying to hurl him

off like a stone from a sling by the sheer speed of its rotation. With a choking cry, he rolled over on his stomach, buried his face in the sand, and clung desperately to the rough trunk of the palm. It gave him no security; the endless fall began again. . . . Chief Engineer Franklin, second in command of the
Arcturus,
was in space once more, at the beginning of the nightmare he had hoped and prayed he need never retrace.

☆
CHAPTER SEVEN

I
n the first shock of stunned surprise, Indra sat staring foolishly at Franklin as he groveled in the sand and wept like a heartbroken child. Then compassion and common sense told her what to do; she moved swiftly to his side and threw her arms around his heaving shoulders.

"Walter!" she cried. "You're all right—there's nothing to be afraid of!"

The words seemed flat and foolish even as she uttered them, but they were the best she had to offer. Franklin did not seem to hear; he was still trembling uncontrollably, still clinging to the tree with desperate determination. It was pitiful to see a man reduced to such a state of abject fear, so robbed of all dignity and pride. As Indra crouched over him, she realized that between his sobs he was calling a name—and even at such a moment as this she could not depress a stab of jealousy. For it was the name of a woman; over and over again, in a voice so low as to be barely audible, Franklin would whisper "Irene!" and then be convulsed by a fresh paroxysm of weeping.

There was something here beyond Indra's slight knowledge of medicine. She hesitated for a moment, then hurried to the catamaran and broke open its little first-aid kit. It contained a vial of potent pain-killing capsules, prominently labeled
only one to be taken at any time,
and with some difficulty she managed to force one of these into Franklin's mouth. Then she held him in her arms while his tremors slowly subsided and the violence of the attack ebbed away.

It is hard to draw any line between compassion and love. If such a division exists, Indra crossed it during this silent vigil. Franklin's loss of manhood had not disgusted her; she knew that something terrible indeed must have happened in his past to bring him to this state. Whatever it was, her own future would not be complete unless she could help him fight it.

Presently Franklin was quiet, though apparently still conscious. He did not resist when she rolled him over so that his face was no longer half-buried in the sand, and he relaxed his frenzied grip upon the tree. But his eyes were empty, and his mouth still moved silently though no words came from it.

"We're going home," whispered Indra, as if soothing a frightened child. "Come along—it's all right now."

She helped him to his feet, and he rose unresistingly. He even assisted her, in a mechanical way, to pack their equipment and to push the catamaran off the beach. He seemed nearly normal again, except that he would not speak and there was a sadness in his eyes that tore at Indra's heart.

They left the island under both sail and power, for Indra was determined to waste no time. Even now it had not occurred to her that she might be in any personal danger, so many miles from any help, with a man who might be mad. Her only concern was to get Franklin back to medical care as quickly as she could.

The light was failing fast; the sun had already touched the horizon and darkness was massing in the east. Beacons on the mainland and the surrounding islands began, one by one, to spring to life. And, more brilliant than any of them, there in the west was Venus, which had somehow caused all this trouble. . . .

Presently Franklin spoke, his words forced but perfectly rational.

"I'm very sorry about this, Indra," he said. "I'm afraid I spoiled your trip."

"Don't be silly," she answered. "It wasn't your fault. Just take it easy —don't talk unless you want to." He relapsed into silence, and spoke no more for the rest of the voyage. When Indra reached out to hold his hand again, he stiffened defensively in a way which said, without actually rejecting her, that he would prefer no such contact. She felt hurt, but obeyed his unspoken request. In any event, she was busy enough picking out the beacons as she made the tricky passage between the reefs.

She had not intended to be out as late as this, even though the rising moon was now flooding the sea with light. The wind had freshened, and all too close at hand the breakers along the Wistari Reef were appearing and vanishing in deadly lines of luminous, ghostly white. She kept one eye on them, and the other on the winking beacon that marked the end of the Heron jetty. Not until she could see the jetty itself and make out the details of the island was she able to relax and give her attention once more to Franklin.

He appeared almost normal again when they had berthed the cat-

amaran and walked back to the lab. Indra could not see his expression, for there were no lights here on this part of the beach, and the palms shaded them from the moon. As far as she could tell, his voice was under full control when he bade her good night.

"Thank you for everything, Indra. No one could have done more."

"Let me take you to Dr. Myers right away. You've got to see him."

"No—there's nothing he can do. I'm quite all right now—it won't happen again."

"I still think you should see him. I'll take you to your room and then go and call him."

Franklin shook his head violently.

"That's one thing I don't want you to do. Promise me you won't call him."

Sorely troubled, Indra debated with her conscience. The wisest thing to do, she was sure, was to make the promise—and then to break it. Yet if she did so, Franklin might never forgive her. In the end, she compromised.

"Will you go and see him yourself, if you won't let me take you?"

Franklin hesitated before answering. It seemed a shame that his parting words with this girl, whom he might have loved, should be a lie. But in the drugged calm that had come upon him now he knew what he must do.

"I'll call him in the morning—and thanks again." Then he broke away, with a fierce finality, before Indra could question him further.

She watched him disappear into the darkness, along the path that led to the training and administration section. Happiness and anxiety were contending for her soul—happiness because she had found love, anxiety because it was threatened by forces she did not understand. The anxiety resolved itself into a single nagging fear: Should she have insisted, even against his will, that Franklin see Dr. Myers at once?

She would have had no doubt of the answer could she have watched Franklin double back through the moonlit forest and make his way, like a man in a waking dream, to the dock from which had begun all his journeys down into the sea.

The rational part of his mind was now merely the passive tool of his emotions, and they were set upon a single goal. He had been hurt too badly for reason to control him now; like an injured animal, he could think of nothing but the abating of his pain. He was seeking the only place where for a little while he had found peace and contentment.

The jetty was deserted as he made the long, lonely walk out to the

edge of the reef. Down in the submarine hangar, twenty feet below the
water line, he made his final preparations with as much care as he had
ever done on his many earlier trips. He felt a fleeting sense of guilt at
robbing the bureau of some fairly valuable equipment and still more
valuable training time; but it was not his fault that he had no other choice.

Very quietly, the torp slipped out beneath the submerged archway and set course for the open sea. It was the first time that Franklin had
ever been out at night; only the fully enclosed subs operated after dark
ness, for night navigation involved dangers which it was foolhardy for
unprotected men to face. That was the least of Franklin's worries as he set the course he remembered so well and headed out into the channel
that would lead him to the sea.

Part of the pain, but none of the determination, lifted from his mind.
This was where he belonged; this was where he had found happiness.
This was where he would find oblivion.

He was in a world of midnight blue which the pale rays of the moon
could do little to illumine. Around him strange shapes moved like phosphorescent ghosts, as the creatures of the reef were attracted or scattered
by the sound of his passing. Below him, no more than shadows in a
deeper darkness, he could see the coral hills and valleys he had grown to know so well. With a resignation beyond sadness, he bade them all adieu.

There was no point in lingering, now that his destiny was clear before
him. He pushed the throttle full down, and the torpedo leaped forward
like a horse that had been given the spur. The islands of the Great Barrier
Reef were falling swiftly behind him, and he was heading out into the
Pacific at a speed which no other creature of the sea could match.

Only once did he glance up at the world he had abandoned. The
water was fantastically clear, and a hundred feet above his head he could
see the silver track of the moon upon the sea, as few men could ever have
witnessed it before. He could even see the hazy, dancing patch of fight
that was the moon itself, refracted through the water surface yet occa
sionally freezing, when the moving waves brought a moment of stability,
into a perfect, flawless image.

And once a very large shark—the largest he had ever seen—tried to
pursue him. The great streamlined shadow, leaving its phosphorescent
wake, appeared suddenly almost dead ahead of him, and he made no
effort to avoid it. As it swept past he caught a glimpse of the inhuman,
staring eye, the slatted gills, and the inevitable retinue of pilot fish and
remora. When he glanced back the shark was following him—whether