and had decided to open up the ship with an electro-hydraulic
tool capable of cutting through the hardest and most viscous covering of the
terrestrial spaceships. After a short discussion they all agreed that the
robot should open the tip of the spiral. There should be a hollow space
there, a pipe or a circular gangway leading round the ship, through which
they hoped to get into the ship without the risk of running into a number of
bulkheads that would bar their way.
The study of the spiral-disc would be of great interest. Inside this
visitor from distant worlds there might be instruments and records, all the
furniture and utensils of those who had brought the ship through such
expanses that, in comparison, the journeys made by terrestrial astronauts
were nothing but timid sallies into outer space.
On the far side of the disc the spiral came right down to the ground. A
floodlight and high-voltage cable were taken there and the bluish light that
was reflected from the disc was dispersed in a dull haze spreading across
the plateau as far as some high objects of indefinite shape, probably
cliffs, in which there was a gap of impenetrable blackness. Neither the pale
reflected light of the hazy stars nor the floodlights gave any feeling of
ground in that black gap; it was probably a steep slope leading down to the
lowland plain that had been seen when Tantra was
landing.
With a low, dull growl, the automatic car, loaded with the only
universal robot on the ship, crawled towards the disc. The unusual weight
did not make any difference to the robot and it moved quickly to its place
beside the metal wall: it resembled a fat man on short legs, with a long
body and a huge head that leaned forward menacingly.
The robot was controlled by Erg Noor; in its four front limbs it raised
the heavy cutter and stood with its legs placed firmly apart ready to begin
its dangerous undertaking.
"Only Kay Bear and I will direct the robot since we are wearing
high-protection suits," said the commander in the intercommunication 'phone.
"All those in light biological spacesuits will go farther away."
The commander hesitated. Something penetrated into his mind causing
inexplicable anguish and made his knees weaken under him. The proud will of
man had wilted away and given place to the dumb obedience of an animal.
Sticky with perspiration from head to foot, Erg Noor, with no will of his
own, strode towards the black gap in the darkness. A cry from Nisa that he
heard in the telephone, brought him back to his senses. He stood still, but
the power of darkness that had taken control of his psyche again drove him
forward.
Following the commander, halting and obviously struggling with
themselves, went Kay Bear and Eon Thai, who had been standing on the fringe
of the circle of light, Away out there, in the gates of darkness, in the
clouds of mist, there was a movement of weird forms beyond the comprehension
of man and, therefore, the more awe-inspiring. This was not the now familiar
jellyfish-like creature-in the grey half-light there moved a black cross
with widely outstretched arms and a convex ellipse in the middle. Three
points of the cross had lenses on them reflecting the light of the flood
lamp that scarcely penetrated the misty, humid atmosphere. The base of the
cross was invisible in the darkness of an unilluminated depression in the
ground.
Erg Noor, who was walking faster than the others, drew near the unknown
object and fell to the ground about a hundred paces away from it. Before the
stupefied onlookers could realize that it was a life and death matter for
their commander, the black cross had risen above the ring of cables. It bent
forward like the stem of a plant and clearly intended leaning over the
protective field to get Erg Noor.
Nisa, in a frenzy that lent her the strength of an athlete, ran to the
robot and started turning the control levers at the back of its head. Slowly
and somewhat uncertainly, the robot lifted the cutter. Then the girl, afraid
that she would be unable to work the intricate machine, jumped forward and
with her body covered the commander. Serpentine streams of light or
lightning came from the three points of the cross. The girl fell on Erg Noor
with her arms spread out on either side. Fortunately the robot had by this
time turned the funnel of the cutter, with its sharp instrument inside,
towards the centre of the black cross. The thing bent convulsively
backwards, seemed to fall flat on the ground and then disappeared in the
impenetrable darkness under the cliffs. Erg Noor and his two companions
immediately recovered, lifted up the girl and retired back behind the disc.
The others had by this time recovered from the shock and were wheeling out
the cannon improvised from a planetary motor. With a savage ferocity such as
he had never before experienced. Erg Noor directed the destructive radiation
beam to the cliffs with their gate-like gap, taking special care to sweep
the plain without missing a single inch. Eon Thai knelt on the ground in
front of the motionless Nisa, calling her softly in the telephone and trying
to get a glimpse of her face through the silicolloid helmet. The girl lay
dead still with her eyes closed. No sound of breathing could be heard in the
telephone nor could the biologist detect it through the spacesuit.
"The monster has killed Nisa!" cried Eon Thai bitterly, as soon as Erg
Noor approached them. It was impossible to see the commander's eyes through
the narrow slit in the high-protection helmet.
"Take her to Louma on Tantra immediately." The metallic note resounded
more strongly than ever in Erg Noor's voice. "You, too, help her find out
the nature of the injury. The six of us will remain here and continue the
investigation. The geologist can go back with you and collect specimens of
all the rocks between here and Tantra, we cannot remain on this planet any
longer. Any exploration here must be carried out in high-protection tanks
but if we go on like this we'll only ruin the whole expedition! Take the
third car and hurry!"
Erg Noor turned round and without looking back made his way to the disc
spaceship. The "cannon" was pushed forward. The engineer-mechanic who stood
behind it swept the plain with it every ten minutes, covering a semicircle,
with the disc at its centre. The robot raised his cutter to the second outer
loop of the spiral which, on the side where the edge of the disc was deeply
sunk in the ground, was level with the robot's breast.
The loud roar that followed could be heard even through the
high-protection space helmets. Thin cracks appeared on the section of the
malachite coating that had been chosen. Pieces of that hard material flew
off and struck resoundingly against the metal body of the robot. Lateral
motions of the cutter removed a big slab of the outer layer revealing a
bright light-blue granular surface that was pleasant to the eyes even in the
glare of the floodlamp. Kay Bear marked out a square big enough to allow a
man in a spacesuit to pass and set the robot to making a deep channel in the
blue metal without cutting right through it. The robot cut a second line at
an angle to the first and then began moving the sharp end of the cutter back
and forth, increasing the pressure as it did so. When the mechanical servant
cut the third side of the square the lines he had made began to move
outwards.
"Look out! Get back, everybody- lie down!" howled Erg Noor in the
microphone as he switched off the robot and staggered back. The thick slab
of metal suddenly bent outwards like the lid of a tin can. A stream of
extraordinarily bright, rainbow-coloured fire burst out of the hole, and
flew off at a tangent from the spiral protuberance. This, and the fact that
the blue metal melted and immediately closed the hold that had been cut,
saved the unfortunate explorers. Nothing remained of the mighty robot but a
mass of molten metal with two short metal legs sticking pitifully out of it.
Erg Noor and Kay Bear escaped because of the special protection suits they
were wearing. The explosion threw them far back from the peculiar spaceship;
it hurled the others back, too, overturned the "cannon" and broke the
high-voltage cables.
When the people recovered from the shock they realized that they were
defenceless. Fortunately for them they were lying in the rays of the
undamaged floodlight. Although nobody had been hurt Erg Noor decided that
they had had enough. They abandoned unnecessary tools, cables and the
floodlamp, piled on to the undamaged car and beat a hurried retreat to their
spaceship.
This fortunate outcome of an incautious attempt to open an alien
spaceship was by no means due to the foresight of the commander. A second
attempt would have ended with some serious accident... and Nisa, the pretty
astronavigator, what of her?,... Erg Noor hoped that the spacesuit would
have weakened the lethal power of the black cross. After all the biologist
had not been killed by contact with the black medusa. But out in the Cosmos,
so far from the mighty terrestrial medical institutions, would they be able
to counteract the effects of an unknown weapon?
In the air-lock Kay Bear drew near to the commander and pointed to the
rear side of his left shoulder armour. Erg Noor turned towards the mirrors
that were always provided in the locks for those who returned from an alien
planet to examine themselves. The thin sheet of zircono-titanium of which
the shoulder armour was made had been torn. A piece of sky-blue metal stuck
out of the furrow it had cut in the insulation lining although it had not
reached the inner layer of the suit. They had difficulty in removing the
metal splinter. At the cost of great risk and, in the final analysis, by
sheer chance, they had obtained a specimen of the mysterious metal of which
the spiral-disc spaceship was made and which would now be taken back to
Earth.
At last Erg Noor, divested of his heavy spacesuit, was able to enter
his ship or rather to crawl in under the influence of the gravity of the
fearful planet.
The entire expedition was relieved when he arrived. They had watched
the catastrophe at the disc through their stereovisophones and had no need
to ask what the result had been.
CHAPTER FOUR. THE RIVER OF TIME
Veda Kong and Darr Veter were standing on the little round flying
platform as it swept slowly over the endless steppes. The thick, flowering
grasses rolled in waves under the gentle breeze. In the distance they could
see a herd of black and white cattle, the descendants of animals bred by
crossing yaks, domestic cows and buffaloes.
This unchanging lowland with its low hills and quiet rivers in wide
valleys, a part of Earth's crust once known as the Hanty-Mansy Territory,
breathed the peace of great open spaces.
Darr Veter was gazing contemplatively at the land that had formerly
been covered with the dismal swamps and sparse, stunted woods of Yamal. It
brought to mind a picture by an old master that had impressed itself on his
memory when he was still a child.
Where the river curved round a high promontory, there stood a church,
timber-built and grey with time, its lonely gaze turned towards the wide
fields and grasslands across the river. The tiny cross on the dome was black
under masses of low, black clouds. In the little graveyard behind the church
a cluster of birches and willows bowed their tousled heads to the wind.
Their low-hanging boughs almost brushed the rotting crosses, thrown down by
time and storm and overgrown with fresh damp grass. Across the river
gigantic violet-grey masses of cloud were piling up until they became
tangibly dense. The wide river gave off a cruel, steel-coloured gleam, a
cold gleam that lay on everything round about. The whole countryside, far
and near, was wet in the miserable autumn drizzle, so cold and uninviting in
those northern latitudes. The whole palette of blue-grey-green tones used in
the picture told of stretches of barren land, where it was hard for man to
live, where man was cold and hungry, where he felt so strongly the
loneliness that was typical of the long-forgotten days of human folly.
This picture, seen in a museum, had seemed to Darr Veter to be a window
looking into the past; it was kept under a plexiglass shield, its colours
ever fresh in the illumination of invisible rays.
Without a word Darr Veter looked at Veda. The young woman put her hand
on the rail around the platform. With her head bent she stood there, deep in
thought. watching the stems of the tall grass as they bent to the wind. Wave
after wave swept slowly across the feathergrass and equally slowly the round
platform floated over the steppe. Tiny hot whirlwinds rushed suddenly on the
travellers, ruffled Veda's hair and dress and breathed heat mischievously
into Darr Veter's eyes. The automatic stabilizer, however, worked more
rapidly than thoughts and the flying platform merely heaved or swayed
slightly.
Darr Veter bent over the chart frame: the strip of map was moving
quickly, showing their movement-hadn't they flown too far north? They had
crossed the sixtieth parallel some time before, had passed the junction of
the Irtish and the Ob and were approaching the plateau known as the North
Siberian Uval or Highlands.
The two travellers had become accustomed to the open country during
their four months at the excavation of ancient grave mounds in the hot
steppes of the Altai lowlands. It was as though the explorercs of the past
had travelled hack to times when only occasional small parties of armed
horsemen crossed the southern steppes....
Veda turned and pointed ahead without a word. A dark island, seemingly
torn off from the earth, was floating in streams of heated air. A few
minutes later the platform approached a small hill, probably the slag-heap
of what had once been a mine. There was nothing left of the buildings and
the pit-just that slag-heap overgrown with wild cherry, The round flying
platform suddenly listed.
Darr Veter, acting like an automaton, seized Veda by the waist and
jumped to the opposite, rising side of the platform. It straightened out for
a fraction of a second only to crash down flat at the foot of the hill. The
shock absorbers took the shock and the recoil threw Veda Kong and Darr Veter
out on to the hill-side where they landed in a clump of stiff bushes. After
a minute's silence the stillness of the steppe was broken by Veda's low,
contralto laugh. Darr Veter tried to picture the look of astonishment on his
own scratched face. The moment of surprised stupefaction passed and he
joined in Veda's merriment, glad that she was unharmed and that there were
no ill results from the accident.
''There's a good reason for forbidding these platforms to fly higher
than eight metres," she said with a slight gasp, "now I understand."
"If anything goes wrong the machine drops down in a second and you have
to rely entirely on the shock absorbers. What else can you expect, it's the
price you have to pay for little weight and compactness. I'm afraid we'll
have to pay a still higher price for all the safe flights we've had," said
Darr Veter with an indifference that was slightly exaggerated.
"In what way:'"' asked Veda, seriously. "The faultless functioning of
the stabilizing instruments presupposes very intricate mechanisms. I'm
afraid I should need a long time to find out how they work. We'll have to
get away from here in the way the poorest of our ancestors did."
Veda, with a sly glint in her eyes, held her hand out to Darr Veter and
lie lifted her out of the Lushes with an easy movement. They went down to
the wrecked platform, put some healing salve on their scratches and glued up
the tears in their clothes. Veda lay down in the shade of a bush and Darr
Veter began to study the causes of the mishap. As lie had suspected,
something had gone wrong with the stabilizer, and it, had cut out the
engine. No sooner had Darr Veter opened the lid of the apparatus than he
realized that there could be no question of repairing it-it would take him
too long to delve into the nature of the intricate electronics before he
could even start on it. With a sigh of annoyance he straightened his aching
back and glanced at the bush where Veda Kong had curled herself up
trustfully. The hot silent steppe, as far as the eye could see, was devoid
of people. Two big birds of prey circled over the waving blue mirage of the
grass.
The obedient machine had become nothing more than a dead disc that lay
helpless on the dry earth. Darr Veter experienced a strange feeling of
loneliness, of being cut off from the whole world, something that came from
inside him where it had existed apart from his mind in the dull memory of
his body's cells.
Al the same time lie was not afraid of anything. Let night come, the
naked eye would see over greater distances and they would certainly see a
light somewhere that they could make for. They had been flying without
luggage and had not even taken a radiotelephone, torches or food with them.
"There was a time when we could have died in the steppes if we had not
had a sufficient supply of food with us ... and water!" thought Veter,
shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. He noted a patch of shade under
a cherry bush near Veda and stretched himself, carefree, on the ground, the
dry grass stalks pricking his body through his light clothing. The soft
rustling of the wind and the heat brought forgetfulness, thoughts flowed
drowsily, and pictures of long-forgotten days passed slowly, one after
another, through his memory, a long procession of ancient peoples, tribes
and individuals.... It was as though a gigantic river of time were flowing
out of the past, with the events, people and clothes changing every second.
"Veter!" Through his sleepiness he heard the voice of his beloved
calling him; awakening he sat up. The red ball of the sun was already
touching the darkening horizon and not the slightest breath of wind was to
be felt in the still air.
"My Lord Veter," said Veda playfully bowing before him in imitation of
the women of ancient Asia, "would you deem it unworthy to awaken and
remember my existence?"
Darr Veter did a few physical jerks to drive away sleep. Veda agreed
with his plan to await darkness. Nightfall found them engaged in a lively
discussion of their past work. Suddenly Darr Veter noticed that Veda was
shivering. Her hands were cold and he realized that her light clothing was
not much protection against the cold nights of those high latitudes.
The summer night on the sixtieth parallel was quite light and they were
able to gather a fairly large pile of twigs.
An electric spark discharged by the machine's big accumulator gave Darr
Veter fire and the bright flames of burning brushwood soon made the
surrounding darkness blacker as it showered its life-giving warmth on the
travellers.
Shivering Veda soon opened out again like a flower in the sunlight and
the two of them fell into a sort of almost hypnotic reverie. Somewhere deep
down in man's spirit, left over from that hundred thousand years during
which fire had been his chief asylum and his salvation, there remained an
eradicable sense of comfort and calm that came over man sitting by a fire
surrounded by cold and darkness.
"What's worrying you, Veda?" said Darr Veter, disturbing the silence;
there were signs of sorrow in the lines of his companion's mouth.
"I was thinking of that woman, the one in the kerchief ..." answered
Veda, quietly, her eyes fixed on the burning embers that were collapsing in
a shower of gold.
Darr Veter understood her immediately. The day before their trip on the
flying platform they had completed the opening of a big Scythian hiirgan or
grave mound. Inside the well-preserved log vault lay the skeleton of an old
man, a chieftain; the vault was surrounded by the bones of horses and slaves
lying round the fringe of the mound. The old chieftain lay with his sword,
shield and armour beside him, and at his feet was the skeleton of a quite
young woman in a crouching position. Over the skull lay a silk kerchief that
had at some time been tightly wound about her face. Despite all their
efforts they had not managed to preserve the kerchief although, before it
had fallen to dust, they had succeeded in copying the outlines of the
beautiful face impressed on it thousands of years before. The kerchief
preserved another awful detail-the imprint of eyes starting out of their
sockets; the young woman had undoubtedly been strangled and then thrown into
her husband's tomb to accompany him on his journey into the unknown world
beyond the grave. She could not have been more than nineteen, her husband no
less than seventy, a ripe old age for those days.
Darr Veter recalled the heated discussion that had taken place between
the younger members of Veda's expedition. Had the woman married him
willingly or had she been forced to it? Why? For the sake of what? If she
married him for a great and devoted love, why had she been killed instead of
being treasured as the best memorial to him in the world he was leaving?
Then Veda Kong spoke. For a long time she had been looking at the grave
mound, tier eyes shining, trying to penetrate mentally into the depths of
the past.
"Try to understand those people. The great expanse of the steppe was to
them really boundless, with horses, camels and oxen as the only means of
transport at their disposal. These great spaces were inhabited by little
groups of nomad herdsmen that not only had nothing to unite them but who
were on the contrary, living in constant enmity with one another. Insults
and animosity accumulated from generation to generation, every stranger was
an enemy, every other tribe was legitimate prey that promised herds and
slaves, that is, people who were forced to work under the whip, like
cattle.... Such a system of society brought about, on the one liand, greater
liberty for the individual in his petty passions and desires than we know
and, dialectically, on the other, excessive limitation in relations between
people, a terrible narrow-mindedness. If a nation or tribe consisted of a
small number of people capable of feeding themselves by hunting and the
gathering of fruits, even as free nomads they lived in constant fear of
enslavement or anniliilation by their militant neighbours. In cases when the
country was isolated and had a big population capable of setting up a
powerful military force the people paid for their safety from warlike raids
by the loss of their liberty, since despotism and tyranny always developed
in such powerful states. This was the case with ancient Egypt, Assyria and
Babylon.
"Women, especially if they were beautiful, were the prey and the
playthings of the strong. They could not exist without the protection of a
man and were completely in his power. If the man who owned them died,
nothing was left to them but an unknown and ruthless life at the cruel and
greedy hands of another man. Her own will and endeavours meant so little for
a woman ... so terribly little, that when she was faced with such a life ...
who knows, perhaps death may have seemed the easier way." Veda's ideas
created a great impression on the young people. The finds in the Scythian
grave mound were some-tiling that Darr Veter, too, would never forget. As
though reading his thoughts Veda moved closer and slowly stirred the burning
twigs, following with her eyes the blue tongues of flame that ran across the
coals.
"What a tremendous amount of courage and fortitude was needed to he
oneself in those days, not to become degraded but to make one's way in
life," Veda Kong said softly.
"It seems to me that we exaggerate the difficulties of life in ancient
days," said Darr Veter. "Quite apart from the fact that people were used to
it, the chaotic nature of society was the cause of a variety of incidental
happenings. Man's strength and will-power struck flashes of romantic joy out
of that life in the same way as steel strikes sparks from grey stone. I
shudder more at the last stages of development of capitalist society,
towards the end of the Era of Disunity, when the people, shut up in towns,
cut off from nature, exhausted by monotonous labour, grew weaker and more
indifferent as they succumbed to widespread diseases."
"I am also at a loss to understand why it took our ancestors so long to
understand the simple fact that the fate of society depended on them alone,
that a community is what the moral and ideological development of all its
members makes it, that it depends wholly on the economy...."
"The perfect form of scientifically organized society is not merely a
quantitative accumulation of productive forces but a qualitative stage in
development. It's all really very simple," answered Darr Veter.
"Furthermore, there is the understanding of dialectical interdependence,
that new social relations are as improbable without new people as are the
new people without the new economy. When this was realized it led to the
greatest attention being paid to education, to the physical and mental
development of man. When was this finally realized?"
"In the Era of Disunity, at the end of the Fission Age, soon after the
Second Great Revolution."
"It's a good thing it didn't come later! The destructive means of
war...."
Darr Veter stopped suddenly and turned towards the open space between
the fire and the hill. The thunder of heavy hoofs and panting breath came
from somewhere nearby, making the two travellers jump to their feet.
A gigantic black bull appeared before the fire. The flames were
reflected in blood-red lights in his wicked rolling eyes. He was snorting
and pawing up the dry ground, obviously contemplating an attack. In the
feeble light he seemed of gigantic size, his lowered head was like a granite
boulder, his mighty withers rose behind it like a mountain of solid muscle.
Never before had either Veda Kong or Darr Veter been close to an animal that
possessed malicious, death-dealing strength and whose unthinking brain was
deaf to the voice of reason.
Veda pressed her hands tightly to her bosom and stood stock still, as
though hypnotized by the vision that appeared suddenly out of the darkness.
Darr Veter, obeying some powerful instinct, stood in front of the bull to
protect Veda as his ancestors had done thousands and thousands of times
before him. The hands of the man of the New Era, however, were empty.
"Veda, jump to the right," lie just managed to say as the bull plunged
at them. In their rapidity of action the well-trained bodies of the two
travellers were equal to the primeval agility of the bull. The giant flashed
past them and crashed into the thicket of bushes and Veda and Darr found
themselves in darkness a few paces from the platform. Away from the fire the
night did not seem so dark and Veda's dress could no doubt be seen from some
distance. The bull extracted itself from the wild cherry bushes and Darr
Veter heaved his companion towards the machine: with well-performed vault
she landed on the little platform. While the animal was turning, tearing up
the ground with its lioofs, Darr Veter got on to the platform beside Veda.
They exchanged hurried glances and in the eyes of his companion Darr saw
nothing but frank admiration. He had removed the cover from the motor during
the day when he had tried to find out how it worked. Mustering every ounce
of strength, he tore the cable of the balancing field from the rail of the
platform, put one end under the spring of the accumulator terminal and
pushed Veda protectively to one side. In the meantime the bull had its horn
under the rail and the machine was swaying dangerously. With a happy grin
Darr Veter pushed the end of the cable into the animal's muzzle. There was a
flash of lightning, a dull thud, and the savage beast collapsed in a heap.
"Oh! You've killed it!" exclaimed Veda disapprovingly. "I don't think
so, the ground's dry!" exclaimed the ingenious hero with a smirk of
satisfaction. As though in confirmation of his words the bull grunted
feebly, got to its feet and, without looking round, staggered off at a trot
from the scene of its disgrace. The travellers returned to their fire and
another armful of twigs gave new life to the dying embers.
"I don't feel the cold any more," said Veda, "let's climb the hill."
The top of the hill hid the light of the fire from them and the pale
stars of the northern summer formed balls of mist on the horizon.
There was nothing to be seen in the west; in the north, rows of lights,
faintly discernible, flickered on the slopes of some hills; in the south
burned the bright star of a herdsmen's watch tower, also a long way off.
"Too bad, we'll have to walk all night," muttered Darr Veter.
"No, look over there!" Veda pointed to the east where four lights
placed in the form of a square, had flashed on suddenly. They were only a
couple of miles away. Taking note of the direction by the stars they
returned to the fire. Veda Kong stopped for a while before the dying embers
as though trying to remember something.
"Farewell to our home," she said contemplatively. "The nomads probably
had such homes as this all the time, uncertain and short-lived. Today I have
become a woman of that epoch."
She turned to Darr Veter and put her arm trustingly round his neck.
"I felt the need for protection so strongly! I was not afraid, it
wasn't that. but there was some sort of tempting submission to fate ... or
so it seems."
Veda placed her hands behind her head and stretched herself gracefully
before the fire. A second later her dimming eyes had again acquired their
roguish sparkle.
"All right, lead the way ... hero!" and the tone of her deep voice
became gentle and filled with unfathomable mystery.
The bright night was full of the perfumes of grasses, the rustling of
small animals and the cries of night birds. Veda and Darr walked cautiously,
afraid of falling into some unseen hole or crack in the dry earth. The
brush-headed grass stalks stealthily grazed their ankles. Darr Veter looked
around vigilantly whenever they came in sight of dark clusters of bushes.
Veda laughed softly.
"Perhaps we should have taken the accumulator and I cable with us?"
"You're thoughtless, Veda," said Darr Veter good-, humouredly, "more so
than I thought!"
The young woman suddenly became serious. " I felt your protection too
strongly ...."
And Veda began to speak, or rather, to think aloud, about further plans
for the work of her expedition. The first stage of the work at the grave
mounds in the steppes was finished ^ and her workers had returned to their
old employments or were seeking something new. Darr Veter, however, had not
chosen another job and was free to follow the woman ' he loved. Judging by
reports that reached them Mven Mass' work was going well. Even if he had
done badly the Council would not have appointed Darr Veter again so soon. In
the Great Circle Era it was not thought advisable to keep people too long at
any one job. The most valuable possession of man, his creative inspiration,
grew weaker and he could only return to an old job after a long break.
"Doesn't our work seem petty and monotonous to you after six years
communion with the Cosmos?"
Veda's clear and attentive glance was fixed on him. "This isn't petty
or monotonous work," he objected, "but it certainly doesn't provide me with
that tension to which I am accustomed. I need the strain, otherwise I'll
become too calm and good-natured, as though I were being treated with blue
sleep!"
"Blue sleep ..." began Veda and the catch in her breath told Darr Veter
more than the burning cheeks that he could not sec in the dark.
"I'm going to continue my exploration farther to the south,'' she said,
interrupting herself, "but not until I have gathered a new group of
volunteer diggers. Until then I am going to take part in the maritime
excavations, I have been asked to help there."
Darr Veter understood her and his heart beat faster with joy. A second
later, however, he had hidden his feelings in a distant corner of his heart
and hurried to Veda's help.
"Do you mean the excavation of the submarine city to the south of
Sicily?" he asked. "I saw some wonderful things from there in the Atlantis
Palace."
"No, not there, we're working on the coasts of the Eastern
Mediterranean, the Red Sea and India now. We are looking for cultural
treasures under the water, beginning from the Creto-Indian period and ending
with the Dark Ages."
"You mean what was hidden or, more often, simply thrown into the sea
when the islands of civilization were destroyed under the impact of new
forces, fresh, barbaric, ignorant and reckless-that is something I can
understand," said Darr Veter thoughtfully, his eyes carefully Studying the
whitish plain. "I can also understand the great destruction of ancient
civilizations, when the states of antiquity, strong in their bonds with
nature, were unable to make changes in their world, to cope with the growing
horror of slavery and the parasitic upper strata of society."
''And people exchanged the primitive materialism that had led them into
a blind alley for the religious darkness of the Middle Ages," added Veda,
"but what is there that you cannot understand?"
"It's just that I have a very poor idea of the Creto-Indian
civilization."
"You don't know the latest researches. Traces of that civilization arc
now being found over a huge area from Africa, through Crete, the southern
part of Central Asia, ^Northern India to Western China."
"I did not suspect that in those ancient days there could have been
secret treasure-houses for works of art like tliose of Carthage, Greece and
Rome."
"Come with me and you'll sec," said Veda, softly. Darr Veter walked
beside her in silence. They were ascending a long, gentle slope and had
reached the ridge when Darr Veter suddenly stopped.
"Thanks for your offer, I'll come."
Veda turned her head towards him somewhat mistrustfully but in the
half-light of the northern night her companion's eyes were dark and
impenetrable.
Once past the ridge the lights turned out to be quite close. Lamps in
polarizing hoods did not disperse the light rays and that made them seem
farther away than they really were. Such concentrated light was a sign of
night work and this was confirmed by a low roar that increased in volume as
they neared it. Huge latticed trusses shone like silver under blue lamps
high up in the air; a warning howl of sirens brought them to a standstill as
the protective robots began working.
"Danger, keep to the left, don't approach the line of posts!" shouted
the loudspeaker of an invisible amplifier. They turned obediently towards a
group of white portable houses.
"Don't look in the direction of the field!" the robot continued warning
them.
The doors of two houses opened simultaneously and two beams of light
crossed on the dark road. A group of men and women gave the travellers a
hearty welcome but were surprised at the imperfect means of transport that
had brought them there, especially at night.
The cupboard-like cabin of the shower-bath with its streams of aromatic
water saturated with gas and electricity, with the merry play of tiny
electric charges on the skin, was a place that gave gentle pleasure.
Refreshed, the travellers met at table. ''Veter, my dear, we've come across
some of our colleagues!" exclaimed Veda, freshly bathed and extremely young,
as she poured out a golden liquid.
'"The ten tonics, right now!" he exclaimed, reaching for his glass.
"Bullfighter, you're growing savage in the steppes," protested Veda.
"I'm telling you interesting news and you only think of eating!"
"Are there excavations here?" said Darr Veter, doubtingly.
"There are, only they're palaeontological, not archaeological. They're
studying the fossilized animals of the Permian period, two hundred million
years old. That puts us in the shade with our petty thousands."
"Are they studying them in the ground, without digging them up? How's
that?"
"'Yes, in the ground, although as yet I don't know how."
One of those sitting at the table, a thin, yellow-faced man, joined in
the conversation.
"Our group is now relieving another. We have just finished preparations
and are about to start work on depth photography."
"Hard irradiation," hazarded Darr Veter.
"If you are not too tired I would advise you to watch it. Tomorrow we
shall be moving the whole apparatus to another site and that will not be
interesting."
Veda and Darr gladly consented. Their hospitable hosts rose from the
table and led them into a neighbouring house, where protective clothing hung
in niches with a clock-face indicator over each of them.
"There is very great ionization from our powerful electron tubes," said
a tall, slightly round-shouldered woman with a faint suggestion of apology
as she helped Veda into a suit of closely-woven fabric and a transparent
helmet, and fastened a container with batteries on her back. In the
polarized light every hillock in the steppes stood out with unnatural
clarity. A dull groan came from a square space marked off by thin rails. The
earth heaved, cracked and opened up in a crater in the centre of which
appeared a sharp-nosed silver cylinder. Its polished walls were encircled by
a spiral ridge and the sharp end was fitted with an intricate electric
milling head of blue metal rotating as the machine appeared. The cylinder
rolled over the edge of the crater, turned over, showed blades that moved
quickly at the rear end and began digging in again a few metres away from
the crater, diving almost vertically with its polished nose into the ground.
Darr Veter noticed a double cable that the cylinder pulled behind it,
one of the cables was insulated, the other made of some highly-polished
metal. Veda jerked his sleeve and pointed in front of them, beyond the fence
of magnesium rails. A second cylinder, similar to the first, had come out of
the earth and with just the same movements had rolled over to the left and
disappeared as though it had dived into water.
The yellow-faced man made a sign to his visitors to hurry.
"I remember now who lie is," whispered Veda, as they hastened to
overtake the group ahead of them, "he is Liao Lang, the palaeontologist who
discovered the secret of the settlement of the Asian continent in the
Palaeozoic.''
"Is he of Chinese origin?'" asked Darr Veter, recalling the sombre
glance of the scientist's slightly slant eyes. "I'm ashamed to admit it, hut
I don't know anything about his work."
'"I see you don t know much about our terrestrial palaeontology," Veda
remarked, ''you probably know more about that of other stellar worlds."
Before Darr's mind's eye there passed the countless forms of life,
millions of strange skeletons in the rocks of various planets- monuments to
the past hidden in the different strata of all inhabited worlds. This was
nature's memory, recorded by her until such times as a reasoning being
appeared, a being not only capable of remem