Keller continued to labor valiantly. But there was no clue to the
operation of anything but the transmitter. That was understandable
because one knew where the message went in, and where it came out for
broadcast. With the apparatus before one, one could deduce how it
operated. But no one could guess how weapons were controlled when he
hadn't the least idea of what they did.
On the third night in the asteroid--the third night by ship-time, since
there was neither day nor night in the great empty corridors of the
fortress--Burke dreamed his dream again. It was perfectly familiar,
from the trees with their trailing leaves, to the markings on the
larger moon. He felt the anguished anxiety he'd so often known before.
He grasped the hand-weapon and knew that he was ready to fight anything
imaginable for the person he feared for. He heard small fluting sounds
behind him, and then he knew that someone ran breathlessly behind the
swaying foliage just ahead. He felt such relief and exultation that his
heart seemed about to burst. He gave a great shout and bounded to meet
her--
He waked in the small ship in the entrance tunnel. All was silent.
All was still. The lights in the control-compartment of the ship were
turned to dim. There was no sound anywhere. The opened air-lock doors,
both inner and outer, let in a fan-shaped streak of brightness which
lay on the floor.
Burke lay quiet, still wrought up by the vivid emotions of the dream.
He heard a stirring in the compartment below, occupied by Sandy and
Pam. Someone came very quietly up the ladder-like stairway. Burke
blinked in the semi-darkness. He saw that it was Sandy. She crossed the
compartment to the air-lock. Very quietly, she closed the outer door
and then the inner. She fastened them.
Burke said, sitting up, "Why'd you do that, Sandy?"
She started violently, and turned.
"Pam can't sleep," she said in a low tone. "She says the fortress is
creepy. She feels that there's something hiding in it, something deadly
and frightening. When you leave the air-lock open, she's afraid. So I
closed it."
"Holmes and Keller are out," said Burke. "Keller's trying to trace down
power-leads from the instrument-room to whatever power-source warms and
lights everything. We can't lock him out."
Sandy obediently opened the air-lock doors again. She turned toward the
ladder leading downward.
"Sandy," said Burke unhappily, "I know I'm acting like a fool."
"You're doing all right," said Sandy. She paused at the top of the
ladder. "Finding this--" she waved her hand about her--"ought to put
your name in the history books. Of course you'll be much disliked by
people who intended to invent space travel themselves. But you're doing
all right."
"I'm not thinking of that," said Burke. "I'm thinking of you. I was
going to ask you to marry me. I didn't. If we live through this, will
you?"
Sandy regarded him carefully in the dim light of the ship's interior,
most of which came through the air-lock doors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account