And Carl went, blindly.
He reached the ship in less than an hour. He entered, dogged the
airlocks shut, went slowly toward the transparent door of the control
room. He threw open the door and stood looking at the empty chair and
the tattered strands of rope which had held Rex. He was drained of
emotion, though, and he leaned weakly against the door jamb. Finally he
moved, left the ship, and spent another hour looking for Rex.
He didn't find him. Rex had consciously obscured his tracks. He went
back to the ship, smiling without mirth. That was funny. Rex drove
himself crazy figuring out a way to get back to Earth for four years.
Then he backed out. He had chosen the same path as the Wortans, and
maybe for as good a reason....
* * * * *
He drove straight away from the dying red sun. A billion miles out, he
was picked up by the stately ship of the Stellar Survey. He was ushered
into the presence of the officer who had appeared in the teleview
plate. That individual was cold in his welcome.
"You've cost the tax-payers a mint of money," he growled. "They've had
ships on the lookout for you for four years. Where's the other young
fellow?"
Carl told the story while the officer slowly tensed. Then he looked
annoyed. "It seems a little extreme for Oberling to have committed
suicide."
"Maybe, sir. Except that one doesn't go around destroying solar systems
without a good reason. If you hadn't shown up when you did--"
"There would have been a good reason?" The officer sat silent. "Yes,
I suppose so. A classical bit of irony, that. Destroying a sun to
attract rescuers--then the rescuers spoil the drama of it by showing up
ahead of time. And the funny part of it is that it would have worked."
He seemed to recollect. He hastily snapped in the teleview, motioned
Carl to come around to his side of the desk.
"Chances are," the officer said, consulting some figures, "We'll see a
merry hell-fire in the next few minutes."
Ten minutes later, the red star exploded.
It cracked into three separate pieces. They held that position, each
section racing from red to violet. That changed blindingly to magnesium
white. The glare smashed at the eyeballs. The three pieces in turn
shattered each other as they puffed up. Then the whole spurted into
a violence that lighted all the black sky with recurring, silently
throbbing sheets of shattering luminescence.
The stars were blotted out in that primeval surf of untamed energy.
The planet Worta was caught, flamed in glory for the small part of a
second.
The big space-ship trembled in every beam and partition as the
wave-front of exploding light reached it.
_Distress signal!_