Before sunset, they the area of where the ship had stood. Cochrane was sure that if else had been left themselves, the landing-place was an rendezvous. Only three members of the ship's company had been when Babs and Cochrane left to for the two hours on Earth had set as a waiting-period. Jones had been in the ship, and Holden, and Alicia Simms. Everybody else had been exploring. Their had been that of sight-seers and tourists. But they have the take-off.
Apparently they had. Nobody to have returned to the burned-over space since the ship's departure. The blast of the had all previous tracks, but still there was a thin of over the clearing. Footprints would have been visible in it. Anybody would have come here. Nobody had. Babs and Cochrane were left alone.
There were still temblors, but the no longer came. There was in the wood, where the ship had left a long fresh of forest-fire. The two at the round, empty landing-place. Overhead, the sky yellow—but where the from the rose, the sky early a red—and presently the yellow to gold. Unburned green all about was in that glow. But it was more still as the sky rose-pink and then in turn, and then from one to the other save where the smoke-cloud the color. Then the east darkened, and a red so as to be black, and to through it.
Before was complete, Cochrane from the of the new fire—the was[Pg 111] searing—and a new and smaller fire in the place where the ship had been.
"This isn't for warmth," he briefly, "but so we'll have light if we need it. And it isn't likely that animals will be anything but of it."
He off to of from the burned-out fire. He a of in the very center of the clearing. He great of wood. He did not know how much was needed to keep the fire going until dawn.
When he finished, Babs was at work trying to out how to keep the fire going. The parts had to be together. One branch, alone, died out. Two red-hot in each other alight.
"I'm sorry we haven't anything to eat," Cochrane told her.
"I'm not hungry," she him. "What are we going to do now?"
"There's nothing to do until morning." Unconsciously, Cochrane looked grim. "Then there'll be plenty. Food, for one thing. We don't know, actually, or not there's anything on this planet—for us. It be that there are fruits or possibly or that would be nourishing. Only—we don't know which is which. We have to be careful. We might something like ivy!"
Babs said:
"But the ship will come back!"
"Of course," Cochrane. "But it may take them some time to us. This is a big planet, you know."
He his supply of stuff. He the he had at first. Babs at him. After four or five minutes he back.
"You can against this," he explained. "You can watch the fire comfortably. And it's a of wall. The fire will light one of you and the will you when you sleepy."
Babs nodded. She swallowed.
"I—think I see what you when you say they may have trouble us, this is so large."
Cochrane reluctantly.
"Of there's this burned-off space for a marker," he cheerfully. "But it take days for them to see it."
Babs again. She said carefully:[Pg 112]
"The—ship can't like a helicopter, to search. You said so. It doesn't have fuel enough. They can't search for us at all! The only way to make a search would be to go to Earth and—bring and fuel for them and men to them.... Isn't that right?"
"Not necessarily. But we do have to on a of—well—two or three days as a possibility."
Babs her and he said quickly:
"I did a once about some in a wilderness. A period show. In it, they that part of their food was poisoned. They didn't know what. They had to have all their food. And of they didn't have with which to test for poison."
Babs him oddly.
"They their arms," said Cochrane, "and put of the different under the bandages. The one that was showed. It the skin. Like an allergy-test. I'll try that in the when there's light to by. There are and stuff. There must be fruits. A hours should test them."
Babs said without intonation:
"And we can watch what the animals eat."
Cochrane gravely. Animals on Earth can live on that—to put it mildly—humans do not satisfying. Grass, for example. But it was good for Babs to think of right now. There would be of to later.
There was a of in the sky. Presently the earth quivered. Something a plaintive, "waa-waa-waaaaa!" off in the night. Something else a noise like the of bells. There was an presently, which now was and now was away, and once they something which was like the noise of water into a pool. But the of that particular moved through the dark the clearing.
It was not dark where they were, from their own small fire. The trees in the ship's rocket-trail sent up a of white which illuminated. The Cochrane had looked like a on a snow-field, of the ashes.
"We've got to think about shelter," said Babs presently, very indeed. "If there are glaciers, there must be[Pg 113] winter here. If there is winter, we have to out which animals we can eat, and how to store them."
"Hold on!" Cochrane. "That's looking too ahead!"
Babs her hands together. It have been to keep their from being seen. Cochrane was her face. She that under control.
"Is it?" asked Babs. "On the Mr. Jamison said that there was as much land here as on all the of Asia. Maybe he exaggerated. Say there's only as much land not ice-covered as there is in South America. It's all and plain and—uninhabited." She her lips, but her voice was very steady. "If all of South America was uninhabited, and there were two people in it, and nobody where they were—how long would it take to them?"
"It would be a of luck," Cochrane.
"If the ship comes back, it can't to look for us. There isn't fuel enough. It couldn't spot us from space if it in an like a space platform. By the time they help—they wouldn't be sure we were alive. If we can't count on being right away, this burned-over place will be green again. In two or three they couldn't it anyhow."
Cochrane fidgeted. He had out all this for himself. He'd been at having to tell it, or admit it to Babs. Now she said in a voice:
"If men came to this and a city and for us, it might still be a hundred years to come into this valley. Looking for us would be than looking for a in a haystack. I don't think we're going to be again."
Cochrane was silent. He that he did not have to this news to Babs. Most men have an that a woman will them for news they hear.
A long time later, Babs said as as before:
"Johnny Simms asked me to come along while he hunting. I didn't. At least I—I'm not away with him!"
Cochrane said gruffly:
"Don't there and brood! Try to some sleep."
She nodded. After a long while, her drooped. She again. Cochrane ordered her to make herself comfortable. She out the of that Cochrane had made. She said quietly:[Pg 114]
"While we're looking for food tomorrow morning, we'd keep our open for a place to a house."
She closed her eyes.
Cochrane watch through the dark hours. He night-cries in the forest, and once toward the to a fresh of activity. Boomings and in the night. There were in the sky. But there were after it, and no at all.
More than once, Cochrane himself dozing. It was difficult to in a of alarm. There was but one single in the that like the of a by a carnivore. That was not nearby. He to make plans. He self-reproachful that he so of the that would be useful to a castaway. But he had been a city man all his life. Woodcraft was not only out of his experience—on Earth it would have been useless.
From time to time he himself thinking, of practical matters, of the of Babs displayed.
When she waked, well after daybreak, and sat up blinking, he said:
"Er—Babs. We're in this together. From now on, if you want to tell me something for my own good, go ahead! Right?"
She her on her and said,
"I'd have done that anyhow. For our good. Don't you think we'd try to a place where we can a drink of water? Water has to be right to drink!"
They set off, Cochrane the he'd from the ship. It was Babs who pointed out that a should almost be where rain would descend, downhill. Babs, too, one of the small, foot-high on small objects that from the of a small tree of on its branches. The tree, evidently, on four-footed than on to its seeds. They of the fruit. Cochrane a of the meat from one of the objects and put it under his watchstrap.
They a stream. They other fruits, and Cochrane prepared the same test for them as for the first. One of the his skin red and angry almost[Pg 115] immediately. He it and all the fruits of the from which it came.
At they the first-gathered fruit. The was red and juicy. There was a it was satisfying to on. The taste was save for a very mild of and mixed together.
They had no of afterward. Other fruits were less satisfactory. Of the which the skin-test said were non-poisonous, one was and astringent, and two others had no taste that of greenness—practically the taste of any one might chew.
"I suppose," said Cochrane wryly, as they toward the ash-clearing at nightfall, "we've got to out if the animals can be eaten."
Babs matter-of-factly.
"Yes. Tonight I'm taking part of the watch. As you this morning, we're in this together."
He looked at her sharply, and she flushed.
"I it!" she said doggedly. "I'm part of the night!"
He was tired. His were not yet to normal after the low on the moon. She'd had more than he. He had to let her help. But there was them it looked as if they would have to the of their together, and they had not the decision. It had been for them. And they had not it yet.
When they the clearing, Cochrane to new toward the place where much of last night's supply of fuel remained. Matter-of-factly, Babs to with him. He said vexedly:
"Quit it! I've already been how little I know about the we're going to need to survive! Let me myself about strength, anyhow!"
She at him, a very little. But she to the fire to with of the one of fruit from this planet's trees. He himself to more than before. When he settled she said absorbedly:
"Try this, Jed."
Then she she'd used his familiar name. But she something that was and not too much burned. He ate, with over him like a wave. The fruit was almost a normal food, but it did need salt. There would be[Pg 116] trouble salt on this planet. The water that should be in the was in the glaciers. Salt would not have been out of the and in the seas. It would be a problem. But Cochrane was very indeed.
"I'll take the two hours," said Babs briskly. "Then I'll wake you."
He her how to use the weapon. He meant to let himself off to sleep, acting as if he had a little trouble going off. But he didn't. He down, and the next thing he Babs was him violently. In the when he opened his he they were by fire. But it wasn't that. It was dawn, and Babs had let him sleep the whole night through, and the sky was golden-yellow from one to the other. More, he the now-familiar of in the forest. But also he a sound, very thin and away, which only be one thing.
"Jed! Jed! Get up! Quick! The ship's back! The ship! We've got to move!"
She him to his feet. He was wide-awake. He ran with her. He his and up as he ran. There was a pin-point of and almost directly overhead. It in size. It downward.
They the and into it. Babs stumbled, and Cochrane her, and they ran hand in hand to clear away from the down-blast of the rockets. The rocket-roaring louder and louder.
The gazed. It was the ship. From below, down, blue-white and raging. The a little. It its line of descent. It came with a of that Cochrane had not before. Its splashed, but the did not out to the of the that had been off at first. The rocket-flames, indeed, did not approach the to be on on film-tape, or as Cochrane had the moon-rocket on Earth.
The ship settled yards of its original landing-place. Its dwindled, but burning. They again. The noise was outrageous, but still not the of a moon-rocket landing on Earth.[Pg 117]
The cut off.
The door opened. Cochrane and Babs from the of the clearing. Holden appeared in the door and down:
"Sorry to be so long back."
He and vanished. They had, of course, to wait until the ground at least the landing-sling be used. Around them the of the continued. There were cooling, from the ship.
"I wonder how they their way back!" said Babs. "I didn't think they could. Did you?"
"Babs," said Cochrane, "you to me! You said you'd wake me in two hours. But you let me sleep all night!"
"You'd let me sleep the night before," she told him composedly. "I was than you were, and today'd have been a one. We were going to try to kill some animals. You needed the rest."
Cochrane said slowly:
"I out something, Babs. Why you things. Why we haven't all gone mad. I think I've the woman's now, Babs. I like it."
She the blister-ports of the ship, now waiting for the ground to so they come aboard.
"I think we'd have out if the ship hadn't come," Cochrane told her. "We'd have had a woman's to work from. Yours. You looked ahead to a house. Of you of food, but you were of the possibility of winter and—building a house. You weren't only of survival. You were ahead. Women must think ahead than men do!"
Babs looked at him briefly, and then returned to her of the ship.
"That's what's the with people on Earth," Cochrane said urgently. "There's no as long as can look ahead—far ahead, past here and now! When can do that, they can keep men going. It's when there's nothing to plan for that men can't go on can't hope. You see? You saw a city here. A little city, with homes. On Earth, too many people can't think of more than living-quarters and food for them—them only!—coming in. They can't for more. And it's when that happens—You see?"
Babs did not answer. Cochrane fumbled. He said angrily:[Pg 118]
"Confound it, can't you see what I'm trying to say? We'd have been off, as castaways, than on Earth and of our jobs! I'm saying I'd here with you than go to the way I was we started off on this voyage! I think the two of us make out under any circumstances! I don't want to try to make out without you! It isn't sense!" Then he helplessly. "Dammit, I've of in which a man asked a girl to him, and they were all phoney. It's different, now that I it! What's a good way to ask you to me?"
Babs looked up into his face. She so faintly.
"They're us from the ports," she said. "If you want my viewpoint—If we were to to them that we'll be right back, we can some more of those fruits I cooked. It might be to have some to them."
He more than before.
"I'm sorry you that way. But if that's it—"
"And on the way," said Babs. "When they're not watching, you might me."
They had a of the red-fleshed fruits when the ground had for them to the landing-sling.
Once the ship, Cochrane for the control-room, with Jamison and Bell after him. Bell had an argument.
"But the volcano's down—there's only a of steam where the the glaciers—and we up a in a of hours! I've got shots! You and Babs make the story-scenes and we'd have a story! Perfect! The true from the stars—. You know what that would mean!"
Cochrane at him.
"Try it and I'll tear you from limb! I've put of other people's private on the screen! My own off! I'm not going to have a screen-show around Babs and me for people to about!"
Bell said in an tone:
"I'm only trying to do a good job! I started off on this as a writer. I haven't had a to what I can do with this of material!"
"Forget it!" Cochrane again. "Stick to your cameras!"[Pg 119]
Jamison said hopefully:
"You'll give me some data on plants and animals, Mr. Cochrane? Won't you? I'm doing a book with Bell's pictures, and—"
"Let me alone!" Cochrane.
He the control-room. Al, the pilot, sat at the with an air of special alertness.
"You're all right? For our up trip, we ought to in about twenty minutes. We'll be pointing just about right then."
"I'm all right," said Cochrane. "And you can take off when you please." To Jones he said: "How'd you us? I didn't think it be done."
"Doctor Holden it out," said Jones. "Simple enough, but I was lost! When the ground-shocks came, else ran to the ship. We waited for you. You didn't come." It had been, of course, Cochrane would not taking Babs through a in which trees were falling. "We had to choose taking off and crashing. So we took off."
"That was right. We'd all be up if you hadn't," Cochrane told him.
Jones his hands.
"I didn't think we you again. We were sixty light-years away when that died out. Then Doctor Holden got on the communicator. He got Earth. The there us and gave us the line to by. We the planet. Even then I didn't see how we'd out the valley. But Doc had had 'em the we as we were making our landing. We had the whole approach on film-tape. They put a of map-comparators to work. We in a Space Platform around the planet, what we saw from out there—they the for us, too—and they what we against what we'd going down. So they were able to spot the exact and tell us where to come down. We actually this last night, but we couldn't land in the dark."
Cochrane abashed.
"I couldn't have done that job," he admitted, "so I didn't think could. Hm. Didn't all this cost a of fuel?"
Jones actually smiled.
"I out something. We don't use as much fuel[Pg 120] as we did. We're using too much now. Al—go ahead and lift. I want to check what the new does, anyhow. Take off!"
The pilot a switch, and Jones another, a newly one, just added to his control-column. A light brightly. Al pressed one button, very gently. A set up outside. The ship started up. There was no of acceleration, this time. The ship rose lightly. Even the rocket-roar was mild indeed, to its take-off from Luna and the of its landing on the just below.
Cochrane saw the recede, and mountain-walls below. From all directions, then, vegetation-filled toward the ship, and underneath. Glaciers appeared, and cones, and then of white, with here and there upon it. In seconds, it seemed, the was visibly curved. In other the being left was a white ball, and there were of white in the ports.
And Cochrane queer. Jones had the order for take-off. Jones had to at this moment, Jones had he wanted to make.... Cochrane like a passenger. From the man who he was the one who what had to be done, he had something else. He had been two nights and part of a day, and had been in which he had no part—
It queer. It startling.
"We're in a of the Dabney now," Jones in a tone. "You know the original theory."
"I don't," Cochrane.
"The field's always a pipe, a tube, a of space the field-plates," Jones him. "When we the time, yonder, the of the ship wasn't in the at all. The from the of the ship only, out to that last we dropped. We were at an to that line. It was like a and a and the kite's tail. The was the Dabney field, and the we were was the kite's tail."
Cochrane nodded. It to him that Jones was very much Dabney. Jones had the Dabney field, but having the fame-rights to it, he now apparently[Pg 121] "Dabney Field" was the proper term for his own discovery, in his own mind.
"Back on the moon," Jones on zestfully, "I wasn't sure that a once would in atmosphere. I that with power I keep it, but I wasn't sure—"
"This doesn't much to me, Jones," said Cochrane. "What it add up to?"
"Why—the into atmosphere. And we were out of the as as the of the ship was concerned. But this time we landed, I'd in some ready-installed circuits. There was a second Dabney from the of the ship to the bow. There was the main one, going out to those and then to Earth. But there was—and is—a second one only the ship. It's a of bubble. We can still a us, and can in any of ship that's put into it. But now the ship has a independent, second field. Its is outside!"
Cochrane did not have the of mind to such either or suggestive.
"So what happens?"
"We have plates of a Dabney always with us," said Jones triumphantly. "We're always in a field, landing in atmosphere, and the ship has no when it's to landing. It has weight, but next to no mass. Didn't you notice the difference?"
"Stupid as it may seem, I didn't," Cochrane. "I haven't the least idea what you're talking about."
Jones looked at him patiently.
"Now we can shoot our out of the field! The ship-field, not the main one!"
"I'm still numb," said Cochrane. "Multiple of the brain-cells, I suppose. Let me just take your word for it."
Jones once more.
"Try to see it! Listen! When we the time we had to use a of fuel the of the ship wasn't in the Dabney field. It had mass. So we had to use a of rocket-power to slow that mass. In the field, the ship hasn't much mass—the amount on the of the field—but for their on the that's away astern. Looked at that way, shouldn't push hard in a Dabney field. There[Pg 122] oughtn't to be any to be had by the at all. You see?"
Cochrane in his head.
"Oh, yes. I of that. But there is an advantage. The ship work."
"Because," said Jones, again, "the field-effect on temperature! The in the rocket-blast are hot, away up in the thousands of degrees. They don't have normal inertia, but they do have what you might call heat-inertia. They a of when they enough. So we along fuel that hasn't any to speak of when it's cold, but a of for when it's hot. So a ship can travel in a Dabney field!"
"I'm relieved," Cochrane. "I you were about to tell me that we couldn't off the moon, and I was going to ask how we got here."
Jones patiently.
"What I'm telling you now is that we can shoot rocket-blasts out of the Dabney we make with the of the ship! Landing, we keep our fuel and the ship with next to no mass, and we shoot it out to where it have mass, and the is the same as if we were pushing against something solid! And so we started off with fuel for maybe five or six and take-offs against Earth gravity. But with this new trick, we've got fuel for a of hundred!"
"Ah!" said Cochrane mildly. "This is the thing you've said that meant anything to me. Congratulations! What comes next?"
"I you'd be pleased," said Jones. "What I'm telling you is that now we've got fuel to the Milky Way."
"Let's not," Cochrane, "and say we did! You've got a new star out to travel to?"
Jones his shoulders. In him, the frustration. But he said:
"Yes. Twenty-one light-years. Back on Earth they're for us to check on sol-type and Earth-type planets."
"For once," said Cochrane, "I am one with the great scientific minds. Let's go over."
He his way to the leading to the main saloon. On his way across the to the communicator, he the of[Pg 123] the booster-current, which should have been a sound, but wasn't. It was the which had the of the space-ship away from Luna, when in a heart-beat of time all looked like of light, and the ship nearly two light-centuries.
Sunshine blinked, and then again in the around the walls. The second came from a different direction—as if somebody had off one light and on another—and at a different to the floor.
Cochrane the communicator. He no weight. He himself into the chair. He on the vision-phone which sent along the to a two hundred odd light-years from Earth—that was the near the planet—and then to the traveling to a second then the last hundred seventy-odd light-years to the moon, and then from Luna City to Earth.
He put in his call. He got an message that had been waiting for him. Seconds later he his way through no-weight to the control-room again.
"Jamison! Bell!" he desperately. "We've got a in twenty minutes! I of time! We're on four and we have to put on a show! What the devil! Why didn't somebody—"
Jamison said from a blister-port where he a star-telescope from one object to another:
"Noo-o-o. That's a gas-giant. We'd be if we there—though that big moon looks promising. I think we'd try yonder."
"Okay," said Jones in a voice. "Center on the next one in, Al, and we'll over."
Cochrane the ship in emptiness. He it to turn while he that he still.
"We've got a to put on!" he raged. "We've got to something—."
Jamison looked from his telescope.
"Tell him, Bell," he said expansively.
"I a of sorts," said Bell apologetically. "The story-line's not so good—that's why I wanted a to put in it, though I wouldn't have had time, really. We and Jamison it, and you can it off. It's a of show. We ran it as a space-platform survey of the glacier-planet, it on pictures we took while we were in around it. It's a of[Pg 124] travelogue. Jamison did himself proud. Alicia can the tape-can for you."
He to his cameras. Cochrane saw a past a control-room port. It was a of clouds, save for across what must be its equator. It looked like the Lunar Observatory pictures of Jupiter, in the Sun's family of planets.
It past the port, and a moon into view. It was a very large moon. It had at least one ice-cap—and therefore an atmosphere—and there were of its surface which be anything but and seas.
"We've got to put a on!" Cochrane. "And now!"
"It's all set," Bell him. "You can it. I you like it!"
Cochrane sputtered. But there was nothing to do but Bell and Jamison had ready. He with to the communicator. He for Babs. She and Alicia came. Alicia the film-tape, and Cochrane it into the transmitter, and ran the feet. Babs at him, and Alicia looked at him oddly. Evidently, Babs had the of their casting-away. But Cochrane an emergency. He to check with far-distant Earth.
When the ship approached a second planet, Cochrane saw nothing of it. He was the of a in which he'd had no hand at all. From his own, professional it was terrible. Jamison interminably, so Cochrane considered. Al, the pilot, was actually by an voice! But the pictures from space were excellent. While the ship in orbit, waiting to to up Babs and Cochrane, Bell had his camera to an and he did have of on the now twenty light-years behind.
Cochrane the in a of and relief. It was not as good as he would have done. But fortunately, Bell and Jamison had close to travelogue-stuff, and close-up of and animals had been with the pictures with competence, if without imagination. An audience which had not many of the would be thrilled. It to a change[Pg 125] of pace. Anybody who this would at least want to see more and different pictures from the stars.
Halfway through, he the now-muffled noise of rockets. He the ship was through by the sound, though he had not the idea what was outside. He ground his teeth as—for timing—he the in the film. The U. S. the purpose, of course. He not watch the other pictures to of other than North America in the of the show.
He was to when he the but impact which meant that the ship had touched ground. A very time after, the lessened, rocket-roar cut off.
Cochrane ground his teeth. The ship had on a he had not and in choice he had had no hand. He was humiliated. The other members of the ship's company looked out at no other had beheld.
He the final commercial, into the for its American sponsor. It showed, purportedly, the true of two girl friends, one and one brunette, who were wall-flowers at all parties. They to the by the use of this and that, and this and the other. In vain! But then they the of all the they attended, as soon as they to wash their with Rayglo Shampoo.
Holden and Johnny Simms came from the control-room together. They looked excited. They together toward the stair-well that would take them to the on which the opened.
Holden panted,
"Jed! Creatures outside! They look like men!"
The communicator-screen the end of the commercial. Two girls, and lovely, their voices in song, the of Rayglo Shampoo. There of the superlative, results by those who used Rayglo Foundation Cream, Rayglo Kisspruf Lipstick, and Rayglo home permanent—in four strengths; for normal, hard-to-wave, easy-to-wave, and children's hair.
Cochrane the of the door.
[Pg 126]
