Star Ship on Saddle Mountain (12 page)
The alien boy stared ahead, to the
great looming shadow that came toward them, the
real
Barrier, where the mist- laden
air closed down, deep and heavy, over his world. Then Dondee spoke,
and in his voice and words, Charlie felt some
millions of people who lived their life behind it.
"Take a last look, Charles—there at the Sun's pure
light."
"At what, Dondee?"
"The Sun's light, Charles."
Squinting hard as he glanced directly into the
gaudy blue brilliance, Charlie let the smile slowly fade from his
face, even as the alien boy explained.
"You won't see pure Sun's light again, Charles,
living behind the Great Barrier. Not for many periods. And possibly
never again, in all your life."
CHAPTER TEN
Escape!
he had expected, through the particles and mist of the Barrier,
though it had seemed very dense at a distance. Occasionally, he saw
the great globular outline of a moon looming nearby, its shadowy
form following its lonely course through all eternity. And though
he tried not to let the new circumstance of his surroundings take
hold on his own mind, he could not help feeling some portent of the
shadowed life that was the world of Dondee's existence. He turned
now to the alien boy.
"Dondee," he said, "I think I feel a little bit now
like you do about the Sun."
"Perhaps now, Charles, when you're living in my
world, you might understand why the Star Project is so important to
us all. It's the most important thing in all our lives."
"I wish you could let me in on it, Dondee—I
wouldn't tell, honest."
Before Dondee could reply they were interrupted by
the sudden entrance of several of the ship's officers. Angrily they
took Charles by the shoulder, and, as he was taken off with them he
saw Dondee being hurried off with two others. He caught their tense
impulses directed at Dondee, telling him the Commander had warned
him not to mention the Star Project again. The last he saw, Dondee
was going up with them on the airlift, to another tier.
With the sudden flurry of last moment preparations
for entering port, Charlie found himself alone with Navajo who had
been brought along with him, just where he had started, on the
lowest tier of the ship. He couldn't help but feel some of the
excitement as the great flagship lowered, slicing easily,
gracefully, like a great falling leaf, as it went down to surface.
Then there were great billowing clouds of steam— momentarily
obscuring the panoramics—as the counter- gravity power was thrown
into action. He realized they were now using the D2O reserve.
It was only a few minutes later, when with the
passing of a final command throughout the great ship, Charlie felt
a slight and almost unnoticeable shiver. Then he knew! The sudden
stillness, no vibration anywhere. And the last traces of steam
caused by the down blast through the cool moist atmosphere now were
rapidly disappearing. The ship was in port.
The many days aboard that passed all too swiftly,
their passing through and beyond the Radiant Barrier,
traveling
faster than the speed of light—all these things
paraded swiftly through Charlie's mind. He looked out across the
low, rolling countryside, searching for the city and its people,
their houses and other evidence of advanced civilization. But there
was nothing. Only the hard bowl-like cradles in the surface
surrounding the flagship, another couple of star ships nearby,
resting in bowls similar to the one his own ship had come down in.
Outside of that, and the aliens aboard going about the ship, there
was no sign of civilization. Then as he wondered, the broad
panoramic view before him slid silently, smoothly, down into the
outside bulkhead of the tier! Charlie breathed in, slowly at first
then deeply, of the warm and mildly-misted air. The air was fresh
and sweet, and it was far nicer to smell than Charlie had
anticipated.
"The weather looks worse than it is, Nav," Charlie
said aloud. "It's not so bad, even if it looks like it'll rain any
minute. It sure smells good, Nav .. ."
Anxious not only to see what his future might
possibly be, but to get Navajo outside and turn him loose on some
of that fresh looking and dew-frosted greenness, Charlie turned to
go—just as two aliens entered from the airlift.
Come with us
,
their impulses ordered.
his curiosity got the best of him. He was no longer able to hold
back the biggest question in his mind as the airlift began to
lower.
"I don't see any buildings anywhere—"
"Chew that," the impulse told him, as one alien
handed him a small ball of colored gum. "Chew and keep your
mouth open if possible, then you shall not be
bothered by the first pressures."
He took the gum, and began chewing
as both of them were now doing. He could already feel the pressure
in his ears. All too soon he realized as he chewed harder, that the
airlift had not just lowered to the ground outside then stopped. It
had kept right on going, and at a higher rate of speed. The big
discus ship had coupled with the bowl-like cradling ramp, and the
ship had merely become the "cap" on an already- waiting elevator
shaft, and it was down that great shaft now that Charlie found
himself shooting fast,
into
the alien world of Saturn, rather than on
it!
again, Charlie felt a little worried now as he glanced at the two
aliens standing near him.
"It won't be too long, Primitive," came the impulse
from one of the aliens in answer to the question in his mind. "In a
little while we shall reach the first tier, and get out on the main
level of the Capitol City."
"You mean, sir, it's an underground city?" Charlie
asked.
"Yes. It is one of many such cities of the Barrier
World, all of which are beneath the surface, Primitive. You shall
soon have your first sight of a city of tiers."
"City of tiers . . ." Charlie repeated the words
aloud. He couldn't help but think how well the name fitted their
world, as he spoke the words.
Then he was embarrassed, knowing the two alien men
had listened to his thought. They were solemnly looking at him, but
turned their faces away as he glanced at them. But in that
brief glance he had seen the expression on their
faces, and once again he was keenly aware of their world's longing
for clear light from the Sun they called their own.
Neither of the two aliens looked at him again as
the airlift came swiftly to a swaying halt. Obeying their impulse,
he followed them out onto a modernistic, broad paved street, a
street on which there were hundreds of other aliens going in every
direction. They were dressed in varying types of the net shirts,
toga cloaks and the comfortable-looking shorts, and there was more
color everywhere than he had ever seen before. It was a rainbow
world of people, their clothes, their buildings, everything in the
vast cavern that was the underground city. He could understand
their liking for brightness and color, in a land where the Sun
never shone.
Unable to keep down his growing curiosity, Charlie
stared at the great towering stretches of underground space, the
all-circular buildings everywhere that spiraled up from the broad
floor of the city to the underground sky, a man-made ceiling. But
it must have been at least a thousand feet high, for most of the
buildings reached all the way up to the artificial sky, climbing
tier after tier till they touched that ceiling. The buildings were
like star ships stacked one on top of the other, Charlie thought,
and the wide panoramic band of windows that circled each tier or
floor of the houses was completely frosted. He could see into
none.
"People can look out," came the informative impulse
to Charlie's unspoken question. "But in regard for privacy and the
laws concerning it, due to the proximity of the dwellings, no one
can look into the tier of another's home.
However, from the inside, all people can see out
clearly in all directions."
"Oh," Charlie said, "it's a one-way kind of glass—I
know how that works. Thanks a lot, sir, for telling me."
As he looked about further, Charlie noticed there
was no such thing as a sidewalk, and the buildings were built up
out of the city's "floor," which smooth surface ran right up to the
entrances of the buildings. He also noted that all the streets were
a series of broad winding "S" roads that zig-zagged their wavery
course outward and away from what seemed to be the center of the
city, where they were right now.
In each bend of the S-shaped streets there was one
of the high towers of tiers, all of which were anything from a half
dozen stories high, up to around twenty for the taller houses that
just about touched the inland sky. Nowhere did Charlie see a light
bulb of any sort, but only the indirect glow of the chemical
lighting, of which the nearest thing back on Earth was fluorescent
light tubes. Chemistry had gone far in the world of Saturn, where
electric power was known but thought dangerous, while great energy
was easily accessible for everything through the long use of
fissionables.
"There are some forty million dwellers," one guard
replied to Charlie's thought, "in this, the Capitol City."
He thanked the man, still following after them.
Just as he spoke, they paused before a small, squat building of
only three very wide tiers. Indicating the open, circular entrance,
the guards followed in after Charlie. Most of the furnishings, as
he glanced around, were low, close to the floor, and all circular.
He compared it to a cross between something out of
The Arabian Nights
and a roomful of modern Japanese furniture, such
as he once saw in a city store. Colorful cushions, low-back chairs
and small tables were everywhere about the polished flooring. And
again, he noticed that everything was brilliantly colored, like the
clothes of the people outside.
can be reached concerning your future circumstances," one alien
told Charlie.
As Charlie glanced toward the door, the aliens read
his thought.
"We only cage animals in our world," said one of
them. "Beings of reason and intelligence are not caged here,
Primitive. You shall, however, consider your person confined to
these premises until further ruling."
"Yes sir."
"To your thought," the other alien said as they
paused at the entrance, "your animal will be cared for properly.
After the decision is reached, then perhaps you may see the animal
again."
About to protest, Charlie held back his anger at
not being allowed to see Navajo right now. Just as the two left, he
had a sudden thought and rushed to the doorway.
"Hey—I want to ask you something!"
The two aliens turned and started back, even as
passersby stopped to stare at Charlie, looking him over
curiously.
"Will—do you think the Council will let me go home
again . . . maybe?"
The two of them looked at him for some moments
before replying. Then finally, one sent the curt mental
impulse:
"Your home is here, for however long the Council
may decide to let you live. It is up to them, the governing body of
this planet."
Turning their backs abruptly, the two strode off,
soon being obscured by the many people on the broad curving
streets. The lost feeling returned to Charlie stronger than ever
now as he stood there, staring out unseeingly at the many people,
the sudden moisture in his eyes blurring the colors before him.
Then he became aware of the small crowd gathered, watching him.
They were rapidly exchanging impulses, too fast for him to get, and
as they talked they pointed at him and smiled.
They were taking him for a curiosity, as though he
were an ape from Africa, here in a zoo—instead of another human
being. Even if he were from another planet it wasn't fair, for he
was just like them.
But in his sudden anger, Charlie couldn't help but
notice that many of their impulses that he did catch were admiring
ones, and at least one, in particular. They were admiring his
tanned face and arms, and even in their subdued impulses Charlie
could sense a feeling of awe and wonder, as they told each other he
was actually "burned" like that, from living under pure Sun's light
day and night. He realized how little they actually knew about
general living conditions on his own Earth.
Charlie caught, too, their furtive
references to
Star Project
and
Little Star,
and he tried very hard to catch every impulse, to
get the importance of what it meant to them. But he could not. For
even they, these aliens on the street, were well aware
learn their world's secret. They abruptly cut off their thoughts on
the subject, clamping down before his own probing impulses.
As they continued to stare and point at him,
Charlie suddenly lost control of his temper and shouted at
them.
"Why don't you go away—leave me alone! I'm no
animal in a zoo!"
Though the words shouted at them were not at all
understood still the angry impulses were quite clear to them. And
with the angry expression on his face, the aliens began to leave,
heading off quickly in all directions. A little surprised, since he
had not expected them to do what he wanted, Charlie stared
wide-eyed as he watched them go. Then he understood. In a world
where people could read each other's thoughts, the aliens held a
high regard for personal privacy.
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