_Outer Space_
"He only proved a belief I have entertained for centuries!" snarled
Dalis. "That all the male Sarkas are fools--and the females for bearing
them!"
Sarka said nothing, but within his breast a deep hatred was forming for
Dalis. He had disliked him before, and had been amused by him; but in
the busy life of Sarka there had been no time for hatred of anyone. Busy
people had no time for hatreds.
"You should be torn to pieces for that, Dalis!" was all he said. "We
needed my father's father in our efforts! But the loss to the world of
one super-genius cannot be balanced by slaying another--so you are safe!
"What he could do, I can do!" snapped Dalis.
Sarka turned away from him, seating himself beside the table of the
vari-colored lights, and his heart was heavy as lead in his breast. He
blamed Jaska for much of this, and his heart was burdened, despite her
treachery, by the fact that he loved her, always would love her. Love
was the one possession which made centuries of life desirable to men of
the Earth. For men could spend centuries in seeking a true mate, knowing
that there were other centuries still in which to enjoy her. Woman was
man's greatest boon, his excuse for living, as was man excuse for woman.
Through the centuries, when humankind remained forever young, the joy in
each other of those truly mated grew as their knowledge grew....
* * * * *
And now Jaska had failed Sarka, when for half a century they had loved
each other! Why had she done it? He had given her no reason to do so.
Had there been some other reason? Why had she laughed, and left them,
after the betrayal of the Master Beryl into the hands of Dalis?
"Before God," whispered Sarka, "I believe that you, Jaska, were playing
a game to dupe Dalis, as he played a game to dupe us!"
Down in his heart he was not sure. But somehow, just to whisper to
himself his faith in Jaska, gave it back to him in some measure, and by
so much lightened the weight upon his heart. For now his
responsibilities were greater than they had ever been before, and he had
need of all his faculties.
"She'll come back, or somehow communicate with me, and explain
everything," he told himself. But he refused to ponder on how Dalis the
betrayer had gained possession of the secret sign manual he had believed
known only to Jaska and himself. That, too, might be explained
satisfactorily, for Dalis was cunning.
From the side of the laboratory opposite the Revolving Beryl came a soft
tinkling sound, like the striking of a musical bell. Sarka rose wearily,
strode to the wall, where a narrow aperture opened, in which rested Food
Capsules sufficient for one meal for three men. He smiled wryly. They
knew then, the Food Conservers deep in the earth as they were, that
Sarka the First was no more--and sent food for three men! All the world
knew, perhaps, yet no single person had raised voice in protest--or if
any had, the mounting murmur of the Beryls had drowned it out.
* * * * *
"Sarka!" spoke Dalis suddenly. "At what time do you estimate that the
flight of the Earth in its orbit will be materially affected?"
"It is being affected this moment, Dalis, shifting the Ovidum store!"
said Sarka shortly. "Within twelve hours we will be in readiness to
start our journey!"
Remaining absolutely motionless within the domed laboratory, it was now
possible to feel the ever so slight motion, not only of the laboratory,
but of the mountain crest upon which it rested. Not so much a to-and-fro
motion as a round-about motion.
Just as the slightest sound flies outward through space endlessly, and
the slightest vibration moves outward until the end of time and of
space, Sarka knew that the vibration set up by the Beryl, slight though
it was, was already being felt at the Poles of the Earth. Not enough to
be noticed there, but existant, just the same.
"In twelve hours the world will be fighting against this combined
vibration and Anti-Gravitational Force we are starting, and second by
second accelerating," Sarka explained to Dalis: "fighting to remain on
its pathway about the Sun! But we will win against it, and with each new
vibration, each succeeding one being more strongly felt, we will force
the Earth that much more against the _pull_ which holds it in its
orbit!"
The laboratory was trembling. The mountain beneath it was trembling.
Both in accordance with scientific design. There was no element of
chance in it, for the mountain moved, and the laboratory on its crest
moved, as science willed. It was now difficult for Sarka to remain still
where he sat, for the trembling was exciting his heart action, and
causing the blood to rush to his cheeks, making him feverish. He rose
to his feet and began pacing the floor.
He strode to the jade lever, moved it ahead a fraction of a fraction of
an inch, and perceptibly the murmuring of the Beryl increased, as did
the trembling of the laboratory and of the mountain.
* * * * *
Twelve hours later exactly, Sarka shouted a single word to Dalis.
"Now!"
The laboratory was swinging about in a sort of circle in a way that made
one dizzy if one remained still for the merest second. Sarka, glancing
out into the Outside, across which blew the storms of the heights, and
noting that no cracks appeared in the surface of the world's vast roof,
knew that this swaying motion had been transmitted evenly to all the
Earth, and that, so far at least, his calculations had been correct.
But Dalis was in a cold sweat of fear, and deathly sick. The motion of
the laboratory, like the inside of a whirling top, made him ill, though
Sarka could tell that he fought against it with all his great will.
Sarka strode to him, looked him in the eyes for a moment. Dalis looked
back, glaring defiance.
"Are you afraid, Dalis?" he shouted, to be heard above the screaming of
the Master Beryl.
"I am not afraid," croaked Dalis. "Has the time arrived?"
Sarka paused, as though for dramatic effect, and raised his right hand
high, while his left hand dropped to the metalized jade lever. There
still was room in the slot in the onyx base for the lever to move
forward ever so little.
* * * * *
"We have reached the exact place," cried Sarka, "where the Earth can, by
pressure upon this lever, be continued on in its orbit--or forced out of
it--out into space! Which shall it be, Dalis? If I move the lever
forward we start our voyage, and may not be able to return!"
For a moment the nostrils of Dalis quivered as though with fear. His
face was white with his illness; but out of his eyes peered the fanatic
self-confidence of the man.
"Push it forward, O Sarka!" he managed.
Sarka, smiling slightly, pushed the lever to its uttermost limit, still
with his right arm upraised. For full five minutes he stood thus, and
then....
"Now!" he shouted, bringing down his arm. "We have begun our journey
into space! Come, let us look Outside, and await the first reports from
my father!"
The two men, forgetting again for a moment the fact of their enmity,
strode to the southern wall of the laboratory and looked out across the
roof of the world.
"You will note, Dalis," said Sarka conversationally, "that in a matter
of hours, the roaring of the Etheric winds will possess everything! We
will have passed into the infinite reaches of Outer Space, where, if I
may make so bold as to say so, it were better if Dalis, self-named
master of the world, knew whither he was going!"