Transcriber's notes are indicated in the text by [TN-#]. [Illustration: _I caught his hand and pulled him to safety. _] Out Around Rigel By Robert H. Wilson [Note: An astounding chronicle of two Lunarians' conquest of time andinterstellar space. ] The sun had dropped behind the Grimaldi plateau, although for a daytwilight would linger over the Oceanus Procellarum. The sky was a hazyblue, and out over the deeper tinted waves the full Earth swung. All thelong half-month it had hung there above the horizon, its light dimmed bythe sunshine, growing from a thin crescent to its full disk three timesas broad as that of the sun at setting. Now in the dusk it was a greatsilver lamp hanging over Nardos, the Beautiful, the City Built on theWater. The light glimmered over the tall white towers, over the whiteten-mile-long adamantine bridge running from Nardos to the shore, andlit up the beach where we were standing, with a brightness that seemedalmost that of day. "Once more, Garth, " I said. "I'll get that trick yet. " The skin of my bare chest still smarted from the blow of his woodenfencing sword. If it had been the real two-handed Lunarian duelingsword, with its terrible mass behind a curved razor edge, the blow wouldhave produced a cut deep into the bone. It was always the same, eversince Garth and I had fenced as boys with crooked laths. Back to back, we could beat the whole school, but I never had a chance against him. Perhaps one time in ten-- "On guard!" The silvered swords whirled in the Earth-light. I nicked him on onewrist, and had to duck to escape his wild swing at my head. The woodenblades were now locked by the hilts above our heads. When he steppedback to get free, I lunged and twisted his weapon. In a beautifulparabola, Garth's sword sailed out into the water, and he dropped to thesand to nurse his right wrist. "Confound your wrestling, Dunal. If you've broken my arm on the eve ofmy flight--" "It's not even a sprain. Your wrists are weak. And I supposed you'vealways been considerate of me? Three broken ribs!" "For half a cent--" * * * * * He was on his feet, and then Kelvar came up and laid her hand on hisshoulder. Until a few minutes before she had been swimming in the surf, watching us. The Earth-light shimmered over her white skin, stillfaintly moist, and blazed out in blue sparkles from the jewels of thebreastplates and trunks she had put on. When she touched Garth, and he smiled, I wanted to smash in his darkface and then take the beating I would deserve. Yet, if she preferredhim-- [TN-1]And the two of us had been friends before she was born. Iput out my hand. "Whatever happens, Garth, we'll still be friends?" "Whatever happens. " We clasped hands. "Garth, " Kelvar said, "it's getting dark. Show us your ship before yougo. " "All right. " He had always been like that--one minute in a black rage, the next perfectly agreeable. He now led the way up to a cliff hangingover the sea. "There, " said Garth, "is the _Comet_. Our greatest step in conqueringdistance. After I've tried it out, we can go in a year to the end of theuniverse. But, for a starter, how about a thousand light-years aroundRigel in six months?" His eyes were afire. Then he calmed down. "Anything I can show you?" [Note: Editor's Note: The manuscript, of which a translation is herepresented, was discovered by the rocket-ship expedition to the moonthree years ago. It was found in its box by the last crumbling ruins ofthe great bridge mentioned in the narrative. Its final translation is atribute at once to the philological skill of the Earth and to themarvelous dictionary provided by Dunal, the Lunarian. Stars and lunarlocalities will be given their traditional Earth names; and measures oftime, weight, and distance have been reduced, in round numbers, toterrestrial equivalents. Of the space ship described, the _Comet_, notrace has been found. It must be buried under the rim of one of thehundreds of nearby Lunar craters--the result, as some astronomers havelong suspected and as Dunal's story verifies, of a great swarm ofmeteors striking the unprotected, airless moon. ] * * * * * I had seen the _Comet_ before, but never so close. With a hull ofshining helio-beryllium--the new light, inactive alloy of a metal and agas--the ship was a cylinder about twenty feet long, by fifteen indiameter, while a pointed nose stretched five feet farther at each end. Fixed in each point was a telescopic lens, while there were windowsalong the sides and at the top--all made, Garth informed us, of anotherform of the alloy almost as strong as the opaque variety. Runninghalf-way out each end were four "fins" which served to apply the powerdriving the craft. A light inside showed the interior to be a singleroom, ten feet high at the center of its cylindrical ceiling, with alevel floor. "How do you know this will be the bottom?" I asked, giving the vessel ashove to roll it over. But it would not budge. Garth laughed. "Five hundred pounds of mercury and the disintegrators are under thatfloor, while out in space I have an auxiliary gravity engine to keep myfeet there. " "You see, since your mathematical friends derived their identicalformulas for gravity and electromagnetism, my job was pretty easy. Asyou know, a falling body follows the line of least resistance in a fieldof distortion of space caused by mass. I bend space into another suchfield by electromagnetic means, and the _Comet_ flies down the track. Working the mercury disintegrators at full power, I can get anacceleration of two hundred miles per second, which will build up thespeed at the midpoint of my trip to almost four thousand times that oflight. Then I'll have to start slowing down, but at the average speedthe journey will take only six months or so. " * * * * * "But can anyone stand that acceleration?" Kelvar asked. "I've had it on and felt nothing. With a rocket exhaust shoving theship, it couldn't be done, but my gravitational field attracts theoccupant of the _Comet_ just as much as the vessel itself. " "You're sure, " I interrupted, "that you have enough power to keep up theacceleration?" "Easily. There's a two-thirds margin of safety. " "And you haven't considered that it may get harder to push? You know theincrease of mass with velocity. You can't take one-half of therelativity theory without the other. And they've actually measured theincrease of weight in an electron. " "The electron never knew it; it's all a matter of reference points. Ican't follow the math, but I know that from the electron's standards itstayed exactly the same weight. Anything else is nonsense. " "Well, there may be a flaw in the reasoning, but as they've worked itout, nothing can go faster than light. As you approach that velocity, the mass keeps increasing, and with it the amount of energy required fora new increase in speed. At the speed of light, the mass would beinfinite, and hence no finite energy could get you any further. " "Maybe so. It won't take long to find out. " A few of the brightest stars had begun to appear. We could just see theparallelogram of Orion, with red Betelguese at one corner, and acrossfrom it Rigel, scintillant like a blue diamond. "See, " Garth said, pointing at it. "Three months from now, that's whereI'll be. The first man who dared to sail among the stars. " "Only because you don't let anyone else share the glory and the danger. " "Why should I? But you wouldn't go, anyway. " "Will you let me?" I had him there. "On your head be it. The _Comet_ could hold three or four in a pinch, and I have plenty of provisions. If you really want to take thechance--" "It won't be the first we've taken together. " "All right. We'll start in ten minutes. " He went inside the ship. * * * * * "Don't go, " Kelvar whispered, coming into the _Comet's_ shadow. "Tellhim anything, but don't go. " "I've got to. I can't go back on my word. He'd think I was afraid. " "Haven't you a right to be?" "Garth is my friend and I'm going with him. " "All right. But I wish you wouldn't. " From inside came the throb of engines. "Kelvar, " I said, "you didn't worry when only Garth was going. " "No. " "And there's less danger with two to keep watch. " "I know, but still.... " "You are afraid for _me_?" "I am afraid for you. " My arm slipped around her, there in the shadow. "And when I come back, Kelvar, we'll be married?" In answer, she kissed me. Then Garth was standing in the doorway of the_Comet_. "Dunal, where are you?" We separated and came out of the shadow. I went up the plank to thedoor, kicking it out behind me. Kelvar waved, and I called something orother to her. Then the door clanged shut. Seated before the controlboard at the front of the room, Garth held the switch for the twoprojectors. "Both turned up, " he yelled over the roar of the generators. His handsswung over and the noise died down, but nothing else seemed to havehappened. I turned back again to look out the little window fixed in thedoor. * * * * * Down far below, I could see for a moment the city of Nardos with itsgreat white bridge, and a spot that might be Kelvar. Then there was onlythe ocean, sparkling in the Earth-light, growing smaller, smaller. Andthen we had shot out of the atmosphere into the glare of the sun and athousand stars. On and up we went, until the moon was a crescent with stars around it. Then Garth threw the power forward. "Might as well turn in, " he told me. "There'll be nothing interestinguntil we get out of the solar system and I can put on real speed. I'lltake the first trick. " "How long watches shall we stand?" "Eighteen hours ought to match the way we have been living. If you haveanother preference--" "No, that will be all right. And I suppose I might as well get in somesleep now. " I was not really sleepy, but only dazed a little by the adventure. Ifixed some things on the floor by one of the windows and lay down, switching out the light. Through a top window the sunlight slanted downto fall around Garth, at his instrument board, in a bright glory. Frommy window I could see the Earth and the gleaming stars. The Earth was smaller than I had ever seen it before. It seemed to bemoving backward a little[TN-2], and even more, to be changing phase. Iclosed my eyes, and when I opened them again, sleepily, the bright areawas perceptibly smaller. If I could stay awake long enough, there wouldbe only a crescent again. If I could stay awake--But I could not.... * * * * * Only the rattling of dishes as Garth prepared breakfast brought me backto consciousness. I got to my feet sheepishly. "How long have I slept?" "Twenty hours straight. You looked as if you might have gone on forever. It's the lack of disturbance to indicate time. I got in a little myself, once we were out of the solar system. " A sandwich in one hand, I wandered over the vessel. It was reassuringlysolid and concrete. And yet there was something lacking. "Garth, " I asked, "what's become of the sun?" "I thought you'd want to know that. " He led me to the rear telescope. "But I don't see anything. " "You haven't caught on yet. See that bright yellowish star on the edgeof the constellation Scorpio. That's it. " Involuntarily, I gasped. "Then--how far away are we?" "I put on full acceleration fifteen hours ago, when we passed Neptune, and we have covered thirty billion miles--three hundred times as far asfrom the moon to the sun, but only one half of one per cent of alight-year. " I was speechless, and Garth led me back to the control board. He pointedout the acceleration control, now turned up to its last notch forward;he also showed me the dials which were used to change our direction. "Just keep that star on the cross hairs. It's Pi Orionis, a little outof our course, but a good target since it is only twenty-fivelight-years away. Half the light is deflected on this screen, with adelicate photo-electric cell at its center. The instant the light of thestar slips off it, a relay is started which lights a red lamp here, andin a minute sounds a warning bell. That indicator over there shows ourapproach to any body. It works by the interaction of the object'sgravitational field with that of my projector, and we can spot anythingsizable an hour away. Sure you've got everything?" * * * * * It all seemed clear. Then I noticed at the top three clock-like dials;one to read days, another to record the speeds of light, and the thirdto mark light-years traveled. "These can't really work?" I said. "We have no way to check our speedwith outer space. " "Not directly. This is geared with clockwork to represent an estimatebased on the acceleration. If your theory is right, then the dials areall wrong. " "And how long do you expect to go ahead without knowing the truth?" "Until we ought to be at Pi Orionis. At two weeks and twenty-fivelight-years by the dials, if we aren't there we'll start back. By yourfiguring, we shouldn't be yet one light-year on the way. Anything more?" "No, I think I can manage it. " "Wake me if anything's wrong. And look out for dark stars. " Then he hadleft me there at the controls. In five minutes he was asleep and thewhole ship was in my hands. * * * * * For hours nothing happened. Without any control of mine, the ship wentstraight ahead. I could get up and walk about, with a weather eye on theboard, and never was there the flash of a danger light. But I was unableto feel confident, and went back to look out through the glass. The stars were incredibly bright and clear. Right ahead were Betelgueseand Rigel, and the great nebula of Orion still beyond. There was notwinkling, but each star a bright, steady point of light. And if Garth'sindicators were correct, we were moving toward them at a speed nowseventy-five times that of light itself. If they were correct.... Howcould one know, before the long two weeks were over? But before I could begin to think of any plan, my eye was caught by thered lamp flashing on the panel. I pressed the attention button beforethe alarm could ring, then started looking for the body we were indanger of striking. The position indicators pointed straight ahead, butI could see nothing. For ten minutes I peered through the telescope, andstill no sign. The dials put the thing off a degree or so to the rightnow, but that was too close. In five more minutes I would swing straightup and give whatever it was a wide berth. I looked out again. In the angle between the cross hairs, wasn't there aslight haze? In a moment it was clear. A comet, apparently, the two ofus racing toward each other. Bigger it grew and bigger, hurtlingforward. Would we hit? The dials put it up a little and far off to the right, but it was stillfrightening. The other light had come on, too, and I saw that we hadbeen pulled off our course by the comet's attraction. I threw the noseover, past on the other side for leeway, then straightened up as theside-distance dial gave a big jump away. Though the gaseous globe, tailless of course away from the sun, showed as big as the full Earth, the danger was past. * * * * * As I watched, the comet vanished from the field of the telescope. Fiveminutes, perhaps, with the red danger light flickering all the time. Then, with a ghastly flare through the right hand windows, it had passedus. Garth sat straight up. "What happened?" he yelled. "Just a comet. I got by all right. " He settled back, having been scarcely awake, and I turned to the boardagain. The danger light had gone out, but the direction indicator wasburning. The near approach of the comet had thrown us off our course byseveral degrees. I straightened the ship up easily, and had only alittle more difficulty in stopping a rocking motion. Then again theempty hours of watching, gazing into the stars. Precisely at the end of eighteen hours, Garth awakened, as if theconsummation of a certain number of internal processes had set off alittle alarm clock in his brain. We were forty-one hours out, with aspeed, according to the indicator, of one hundred and twenty-eight timesthat of light, and a total distance covered of slightly over one quarterof a light-year. A rather small stretch, compared to the 466 light-yearswe had to go. But when I went back for a look out of the rear telescope, the familiar stars seemed to have moved the least bit closer together, and the sun was no brighter than a great number of them. I slept like a log, but awakened a little before my trick was due. * * * * * Exactly on schedule, fourteen days and some hours after we had startedoff, we passed Pi Orionis. For long there had been no doubt in my mindthat, whatever the explanation, our acceleration was holding steady. Inthe last few hours the star swept up to the brilliance of the sun, thenfaded again until it was no brighter than Venus. Venus! Our sun itselfhad been a mere dot in the rear telescope until the change in our coursethrew it out of the field of vision. At sixty-five light-years, twenty-three days out, Beta Eridani wasalmost directly in our path for Rigel. Slightly less than a third of thedistance to the midpoint, in over half the time. But our speed was stillincreasing 200 miles a second every second, almost four times the speedof light in an hour. Our watches went on with a not altogetherdisagreeable monotony. There was no star to mark the middle of our journey. Only, toward theclose of one of my watches, a blue light which I had never noticed cameon beside the indicator dials, and I saw that we had covered 233light-years, half the estimated distance to Rigel. The speed markerindicated 3975 times the speed of light. I wakened Garth. "You could have done it yourself, " he complained, sleepily, "but Isuppose it's just as well. " He went over to the board and started warming up the rear gravityprojector. "We'll turn one off as the other goes on. Each take one control, and goa notch at a time. " He began counting, "One, two, three ... " On the twentieth count, my dial was down to zero, his up to maximumdeceleration, and I pulled out my switch. Garth snapped sideways a leveron the indicators. Though nothing seemed to happen, I knew that thespeed dial would creep backward, and the distance dial progress at aslower and slower rate. While I was trying to see the motion, Garth hadgone back to bed. I turned again to the glass and looked out at Rigel, on the cross hairs, and Kappa Orionis, over to the left, and the greatnebula reaching over a quarter of the view with its faint gaseousstreamers. * * * * * And so we swept on through space, with Rigel a great blue glory ahead, and new stars, invisible at greater distances, flaring up in front of usand then fading into the background as we passed. For a long time we hadbeen able to see that Rigel, as inferred from spectroscopic evidence, was a double star--a fainter, greener blue companion revolving with itaround their common center of gravity. Beyond Kappa Orionis, threehundred light-years from the sun, the space between the two was quiteevident. Beyond four hundred light-years, the brilliance of the vaststar was so great that it dimmed all the other stars by comparison, andmade the nebula seem a mere faint gauze. And yet even with this gradualchange, our arrival was a surprise. When he relieved me at my watch, Garth seemed dissatisfied with ourprogress. "It must be farther than they've figured. I'll stick attwenty-five times light speed, and slow down after we get there bytaking an orbit. " "I'd have said it was nearer than the estimate, " I tried to argue, butwas too sleepy to remember my reasons. Propped up on one elbow, I lookedaround and out at the stars. There was a bright splash of light, Inoticed, where the telescope concentrated the radiation of Rigel at onespot on the screen. I slept, and then Garth was shouting in my ear: "We're there!" I opened my eyes, blinked, and shut them again in the glare. "I've gone around three or four times trying to slow down. We're there, and there's a planet to land on. " * * * * * At last I could see. Out the window opposite me, Rigel was a blue-whitedisk half the size of the sun, but brighter, with the companion star asort of faint reflection five or ten degrees to the side. And stillbeyond, as I shaded my eyes, I could see swimming in the black a speckwith the unmistakable glow of reflected light. With both gravity projectors in readiness, we pulled out of our orbitand straight across toward the planet, letting the attraction of Rigelfight against our still tremendous speed. For a while, the pull of thebig star was almost overpowering. Then we got past, and into thegravitational field of the planet. We spiralled down around it, lookingfor a landing place and trying to match our speed with its rotationalvelocity. From rather unreliable observations, the planet seemed a good dealsmaller than the moon, and yet so dense as to have a greatergravitational attraction. The atmosphere was cloudless, and the surfacea forbidding expanse of sand. The globe whirled at a rate that must giveit a day of approximately five hours. We angled down, picking a spotjust within the lighted area. A landing was quite feasible. As we broke through the atmosphere, wecould see that the sand, although blotched with dark patches here andthere, was comparatively smooth. At one place there was a leveloutcropping of rock, and over this we hung. It was hard work, watchingthrough the single small port in the floor as we settled down. Finallythe view was too small to be of any use. I ran to the side window, onlyto find my eyes blinded by Rigel's blaze. Then we had landed, and almostat the same moment Rigel set. Half overlapped by the greater star, thefaint companion had been hidden in its glare. Now, in the dusk, a cornerof it hung ghostlike on the horizon, and then too had disappeared. * * * * * I flashed on our lights, while Garth cut out the projector and the floorgravity machine. The increase in weight was apparent, but notparticularly unpleasant. After a few minutes of walking up and down Igot used to it. Through a stop-cock in the wall, Garth had drawn in a tube of gas fromthe atmosphere outside, and was analyzing it with a spectroscope. "We can go out, " he said. "It's unbreathable, but we'll be able to usethe space suits. Mostly fluorine. It would eat your lungs out likethat!" "And the suits?" "Fortunately, they've been covered with helio-beryllium paint, and thehelmet glass is the same stuff. Not even that atmosphere can touch it. Isuppose there can be no life on the place. With all this sand, it wouldhave to be based on silicon instead of carbon--and it would have tobreathe fluorine!" He got out the suits--rather like a diver's with the body ofmetal-painted cloth, and the helmet of the metal itself. On theshoulders was an air supply cylinder. The helmets were fixed with radio, so we could have talked to each other even in airless space. We saidalmost anything to try it out. "Glad you brought two, and we don't have to explore in shifts. " "Yes, I was prepared for emergencies. " "Shall we wait for daylight to go out?" "I can't see why. And these outfits will probably feel better in thecool. Let's see. " * * * * * We shot a searchlight beam out the window. There was a slight drop downfrom the rock where we rested, then the sandy plain stretching out. Onlyfar off were those dark patches that looked like old seaweed on adried-up ocean bed, and might prove dangerous footing. The rest seemedhard packed. My heart was pounding as we went into the air-lock and fastened theinner door behind us. "We go straight out now, " Garth explained. "Coming back, it will benecessary to press this button and let the pump get rid of thepoisonous, air before going in. " I opened the outer door and started to step out, then realized thatthere was a five-foot drop to the ground. "Go ahead and jump, " Garth said. "There's a ladder inside I should havebrought, but it would be too much trouble to go back through the lockfor it. Either of us can jump eight feet at home, and we'll get back upsomehow. " I jumped, failing to allow for the slightly greater gravity, and fellsprawling. Garth got down more successfully, in spite of a long packageof some sort he carried in his hand. Scrambling down from the cliff and walking out on the sand, I tried toget used to the combination of greater weight and the awkward suit. If Istepped very deliberately it was all right, but an attempt to run sankmy feet in the sand and brought me up staggering. There was no troubleseeing through the glass of my helmet over wide angles. Standing on theelevation by the _Comet_, his space-suit shining in the light from thewindows, Garth looked like a metallic monster, some creature of thisstrange world. And I must have presented to him much the sameappearance, silhouetted dark and forbidding against the stars. * * * * * The stars! I looked up, and beheld the most marvelous sight of the wholetrip--the Great Nebula of Orion seen from a distance of less than onehundred and fifty light-years its own width. A great luminous curtain, fifty degrees across, I could just take it allin with my eye. The central brilliancy as big as the sun, a smaller oneabove it, and then the whole mass of gas stretching over the sky. Thewhole thing aglow with the green light of nebulium and blazing with thestars behind it. It was stupendous, beyond words. I started to call Garth, then saw that he was looking up as well. Foralmost half an hour I watched, as the edge of the nebula sank below thehorizon. Then its light began to dim. Turning, I saw that the skyopposite was already gray. The dawn! Why, the sun had just set. Then I realized. It was over an hour since wehad landed, and a full night would be scarcely two hours and a half. Ifwe were in a summer latitude, the shorter period of darkness was naturalenough. And yet it was still hard to believe as, within ten minutes, itwas as bright as Earth-light on the moon. Still clearer and clearer grewthe light. The stars were almost gone, the center of the nebula only afaint wisp. There were no clouds to give the colors of sunrise, but abluish-white radiance seemed to be trembling on the eastern horizon. And then, like a shot, Rigel came up into the sky. The light and heatstruck me like something solid, and I turned away. Even with my suitreflecting most of the light away, I felt noticeably warm. The _Comet_shone like a blinding mirror, so that it was almost impossible to seeGarth on the plain below it. Stumbling, and shielding my eyes with myhand, I made my way toward him. He was standing erect, in his hands two old Lunarian dueling swords. There was hate in his voice as the radio brought it in my ears. "Dunal, only one of us is going back to the moon. " * * * * * I stared. Was the heat getting him? "Hadn't we better go inside, " I saidquietly and somewhat soothingly. He made no reply, but only held out one of the hilts. I took it dumbly. In that instant he could have struck my head from my body, if he wished. "But, Garth, old friend--" "No friend to you. You shall win Kelvar now, or I. I'm giving you asporting chance. One of your light cuts letting the fluorine inside willbe as deadly as anything I can do. The one who goes back will tell of anaccident, making repairs out in space. Damn you, if you don't want me tokill you where you stand, come on and fight. " "Garth, you've gone mad. " "I've been waiting ever since I got you to leave the moon. On guard!" With a rush of anger I was upon him. He tried to step back, stumbled, had one knee on the ground, then hurled himself forward with a thrust atmy waist that I dodged only by an inch. I had to cover, and in spite ofmyself, with the cool work of parrying, my animosity began to disappear. And so began one of the strangest battles that the Universe has seen. Lumbering with our suits and the extra gravity, we circled each otherunder the blazing sky. The blue-white of Rigel shimmered off our suitsand the arcs of our blades as we cut and guarded--each wary now, realizing that a touch meant death. As that terrible sun climbed upwardin the sky, its heat was almost overpowering. The sweat poured off everyinch of my body, and I gasped for breath. And still we fought on, twoglittering metal monsters under the big blue star sweeping up to itsnoon. * * * * * I knew now that I could never kill Garth. I could not go back to Kelvarwith his blood. Yet if I simply defended, sooner or later he would wearme down. There was just one chance. If I could disarm him, I couldwrestle him into submission. Then he might be reasonable, or I couldtake him home bound. I began leading for the opening I wanted, but with no result. He seemedresolved to tire me out. Either I must carry the fight to him, or Iwould be beaten down. I made a wide opening, counting on dodging hisslow stroke. I did, but he recovered too soon. Again on the other side, with no better result. Still again, just getting in for a light tap onGarth's helmet. Then I stepped back, with guard low, and this time hecame on. His sword rose in a gleaming arc and hung high for a moment. Ihad him. There were sparks of clashing, locked steel. "Damn you, Dunal!" He took a great step back, narrowly keeping hisbalance on the sand. On another chance, I would trip him. My ears werealmost deafened by his roar, "Come on and _fight_. " I took a step in and to the side, and had him in the sun. He swungblindly, trying to cover himself with his whirling point but I had halfa dozen openings to rip his suit. When he moved to try to see, I wouldlock with him again. I watched his feet. And as I watched, I saw an incredible thing. Near one of Garth's feetthe sand was moving. It was not a slide caused by his weight;rather--why, it was being pushed up from below. There was a little hump, and suddenly it had burst open, and a stringy mass like seaweed wascrawling toward his leg. "Look out, Garth, " I yelled. * * * * * How he could see through that terrible sun I do not know, but Garthswung through my forgotten guard with a blow square across my helmetglass. The force threw me to the ground, and I looked up, dazed. Theberyllium glass had not broken to let in the fluorine-filled air, butGarth was standing over me. "That's your last trick, Dunal. " His blade rose for the kill. I was unable even to get up, but with one hand I pointed to the ground. "Look!" I shouted again, and on the instant the thing wound itselfaround Garth's foot. He swung down, hacking it loose. I had got to my feet. "Run for theship, " I cried, and started off. "Not that way. " I looked back, and saw that I had run in the wrong direction. But itmade no difference. Over a whole circle around us the sand was rising, and directly between us and the _Comet_ there was a great green-brownmass. We were surrounded. We stood staring at the creatures. Spread out to full dimensions, eachone made a sphere about four feet in diameter. In the center, a solidmass whose outlines were difficult to discern; and spreading out fromthis a hundred long, thin, many-jointed arms or legs or branches orwhatever one could call them. The things were not yet definitely hostile--only their circle, ofperhaps fifty yards radius, grew continually thicker and moreimpenetrable. Within the enclosed area, the only ripples we could see inthe sand were heading outward. There was to be no surprise attack frombelow, at least; only one in mass. What, I wondered, might be a sign offriendship, to persuade them to let us go. * * * * * And then the circle began to close in. The things rolled over and overon themselves, like gigantic tumbleweeds. At one point, to the right ofthe direct route to the _Comet_, the line seemed thinner. I pointed theplace out to Garth. "Break through there, and make a run for it. " We charged into the midst of them with swinging blades. The verysuddenness of our rush carried us half-way through their midst. Thensomething had my legs from behind. I almost fell, but succeeded inturning and cutting myself free. The creatures from the other side ofthe circle must have made the hundred yards in four or five seconds. Andthe rest had now covered the breach in front. It was hopeless. And so we stood back to back, hewing out a circle of protection againstour enemies. They seemed to have no fear, and in spite of thedestruction our blades worked among them, they almost overcame us bysheer numbers and weight. It was a case of whirling our swords back andforth interminably in the midst of their tentacles. Against the light, the long arms were a half-transparent brown. Our swords broke them inbright shivers. Formed from the predominant silicon of the planet, thecreatures were living glass! For perhaps a quarter of an hour we were in the thick of them, hewinguntil I thought my arms must fall, slashing and tearing at the ones thathad got underfoot and were clamping their tentacles around our legs. Only for the space-suits, we should have, by this time, been overpoweredand torn into bits--and yet these garments could not be expected to holdindefinitely. * * * * * But at last there was a breathing space. The crippled front ranksdragged themselves away, and there was left around us a brief area ofsand, covered with coruscating splinters of glass. Garth got the breathto say something or other encouraging. It was like old days at school. Only this time the odds were all against us. We were still a goodhundred yards from the _Comet_, and in our path stood a solid wall ofthe creatures. Even if we got free, they could outrace us to the goal. And with our limited strength, we could not hope to kill them all. In aminute or two, they would attack us again. Somehow we must fight our way as long as we lasted. Perhaps they mightbe frightened. We threw ourselves at the side next our goal. The linegave perhaps a yard, then stiffened, and we found ourselves swallowed upin a thick cloud of brown smoke. Poison gas! It must be shot out of their bodies, at a cost so great thatit was kept as a last resort. Through the rolling vapor it was justpossible to see our opponents, but they made no forward move. They werewaiting for us to be overcome. Suppose their compound could eat througheven our helio-beryllium? But it did not. We were safe. "Stand still, Garth, " I whispered, counting on the radio to carry myvoice. "Let them think we're dead, and then give them a surprise. " "All right. " Long, long minutes.... If only they did not know that it was thecustomary thing for a dead man to fall.... Slowly they began to move in. Then Garth and I were upon them. They halted as if stupefied. We hadhacked our way half through their mass. The rest fled, and we beganrunning toward the _Comet_, praying that we might reach the ship beforethey could get organized again. How we floundered through the sand inwild and desperate haste. * * * * * Before we had covered half the distance, the pursuit began. There was noattempt to drag us down directly, but the two wings raced past to cut usoff in front. At the base of the little cliff where the _Comet_ lay, thecircle closed. "Jump, " I called, and threw myself up over them toward the stone. Garthwould have fallen back, but I caught his hand and pulled him to safety. We had won. But had we? Joined by reinforcements from somewhere, the creatures werepacked all around the base of the cliff and had begun to climb itswalls, to cut us off from the ship. We rushed separately toward the twosides, and they backed away. But those in front were now established onthe top. We stepped backward, and the whole line came on. But now weturned and ran for the _Comet_. We were just able to turn again and clear them away with our swords. Ina moment others would be climbing up from behind over the ship. And thedoor to safety was on a level with our heads. There was just one chance. Stamping threateningly, we cleared the thingsout for ten feet in front of us. But once we turned our backs for arunning start they were at us again. "Boost you up, Dunal, " said Garth pantingly. "No, you first. " But in the midst of my words, he almost threw me into the doorway. Iturned to pull him up after me. They were around his legs, and one hadjumped down upon his helmet. And he must have known it would happen. "Go back to her, " he cried, and slammed shut the door. * * * * * There was no time to help him, to interfere with the way of expiation hehad chosen. I tried to look away, but a sort of fascination kept mewatching him through the glass. He had been dragged to his knees. Thenhe was up again, whirling to keep them away on all sides in a mad, gallant fight. But the creatures knew it was the kill. Now they werearound his knees, now up to his waist in their overpowering mass. It wasonly a matter of minutes. Garth took a staggering step backward, dragging them all with him. Hewas facing me, and swung up his sword in the old Lunar salute. "Goodluck, Dunal. " The words, coming clearly over the radio, had a note ofexaltation. Then flashing his blade over his head, he hurled it into the midst ofthe accursed things. With a tremendous effort, Garth tore the protectinghelmet from his head, and plunged backward over the cliff.... There was nothing to do but get in out of the lock and start for home, and little on the trip is worthy of recounting. Without unsurpassabledifficulty, I was able to operate the machinery and steer, first forBetelguese, then for the sun. Counting on the warning bells to arouseme, I managed to get in snatches of sleep at odd intervals. At times thestrain of the long watches was almost maddening. By the time the midpoint had been passed, I was living in a sort ofwaking dream; or rather, a state of somnambulism. I ate; my hands movedthe controls. And yet all the while my mind was wandering elsewhere--outto Garth's body under the blazing light of Rigel, back to the moon andKelvar, or else in an unreal, shadowy world of dreams and vaguememories. * * * * * With perfect mechanical accuracy I entered the solar system and adjustedthe projectors for the sun's attraction. Running slower and slower, Iwatched Venus glide by. And then, gradually, everything faded, and I waswalking along the great Nardos bridge with Kelvar. The ocean was sostill that we could see mirrored in it the reflection of each whitecolumn, and our own faces peering down, and beyond that the stars. "I shall bring you a handful for your hair, " I told her, and leaned overfarther, farther, reaching out.... Then I was falling, with Kelvar'sface growing fainter, and in my ears a horrible ringing like the worldcoming to an end. Just before I could strike the water, I wakened to find the alarm belljangling and the object-indicator light flashing away. Through thetelescope, the moon was large in the sky. It was an hour, perhaps two, before I approached the sunlit surface andhovered over the shore by Nardos. Try as I would, my sleep-drugged bodycould not handle the controls delicately enough to get the _Comet_ quitein step with the moon's rotation. Always a little too fast or too slow. I slid down until I was only ten or fifteen feet off the ground thatseemed to be moving out from under me. In another minute I should beabove the water. I let everything go, and the _Comet_ fell. There was athud, a sound of scraping over the sand, a list to one side. I thoughtfor an instant that the vessel was going to turn over, but with theweight of the reserve mercury in the fuel tanks it managed to rightitself on a slope of ten or fifteen degrees. From the angle, I could barely see out the windows, and everythinglooked strange. The water under the bridge seemed too low. The half-fullEarth had greenish-black spots on it. And the sky? * * * * * So dead with sleep that I could scarcely move, I managed to crane myneck around to see better. There was no sky, only a faint gray hazethrough which the stars shone. And yet the sun must be shining. Istretched still further. There the sun burned, and around it was anunmistakable corona. It was like airless space. Was I dreaming again? With a jerk, I got to my feet and climbed up the sloping floor to theatmosphere tester. My fingers slipped off the stop-cock, then turned it. And the air-pressure needle scarcely moved. It was true. Somehow, as thescientists had always told us would be the case eventually, the air ofthe moon, with so little gravity to hold it back, had evaporated intospace. But in six months? It was unthinkable. Surely someone had survived thecatastrophe. Some people must have been able to keep themselves alive incaves where the last of the atmosphere would linger. Kelvar _must_ bestill alive. I could find her and bring her to the _Comet_. We would goto some other world. Frantically, I pulled on my space-suit and clambered through theair-lock. I ran, until the cumbersome suit slowed me down to astaggering walk through the sand beside the Oceanus Procellarum. Leaden and dull, the great sea lay undisturbed by the thin atmospherestill remaining. It had shrunk by evaporation far away from its banks, and where the water once had been there was a dark incrustation ofimpurities. On the land side, all was a great white plain of glitteringalkali without a sign of vegetation. I went on toward Nardos theBeautiful. * * * * * Even from afar off, I could see that it was desolate. Visible now thatthe water had gone down, the pillars supporting it rose gaunt andskeletal. Towers had fallen in, and the gleaming white was dimmed. Itwas a city of the dead, under an Earth leprous-looking with black spotswhere the clouds apparently had parted. I came nearer to Nardos and the bridge, nearer to the spot where I hadlast seen Kelvar. Below the old water level, the columns showed agreenish stain, and half-way out the whole structure had fallen in agreat gap. I reached the land terminus of the span, still glorious andalmost beautiful in its ruins. Whole blocks of stone had fallen to thesand, and the adamantine pillars were cracked and crumbling with theerosion of ages. Then I knew. In our argument as to the possible speed of the _Comet_, Garth and I hadboth been right. In our reference frame, the vessel had put on anincredible velocity, and covered the nine-hundred-odd light-years aroundRigel in six months. But from the viewpoint of the moon, it had beenunable to attain a velocity greater than that of light. As theaccelerating energy pressed the vessel's speed closer and closer towardthat limiting velocity, the mass of the ship and of its contents hadincreased toward infinity. And trying to move laboriously with such vastmass, our clocks and bodies had been slowed down until to our leadenminds a year of moon time became equivalent to several hours. The _Comet_ had attained an average velocity of perhaps 175, 000 milesper second, and the voyage that seemed to me six months had taken athousand years. A thousand years! The words went ringing through mybrain. Kelvar had been dead for a thousand years. I was alone in a worlduninhabited for centuries. I threw myself down and battered my head in the sand. * * * * * More to achieve, somehow, my own peace of mind, than in any hope of itsbeing discovered, I have written this narrative. There are two copies, this to be placed in a helio-beryllium box at the terminus of thebridge, the other within the comet[TN-3]. One at least should thus beable to escape the meteors which, unimpeded by the thin atmosphere, havebegun to strike everywhere, tearing up great craters in the explosionthat follows as a result of the impact. My time is nearly up. Air is still plentiful on the _Comet_, but myprovisions will soon run short. It is now slightly over a month since Icollapsed on the sands into merciful sleep, and I possess food and waterfor perhaps another. But why go on in my terrible loneliness? Sometimes I waken from a dream in which they are all so near--Kelvar, Garth, all my old companions--and for a moment I cannot realize how faraway they are. Beyond years and years. And I, trampling back and forthover the dust of our old life, staring across the waste, waiting--forwhat? No, I shall wait only until the dark. When the sun drops over theGrimaldi plateau, I shall put my manuscripts in their safe places, thentear off my helmet and join the other two. An hour ago, the bottom edge of the sun touched the horizon. Transcriber's notes: TN-1 Spaced em dash is found in the original. TN-2 Corrected from litle to little. TN-3 Not Capitalised or italicised in the original, but should probably read _Comet_ TN-4 This etext was produced from "Astounding Stories" December 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed.