"Don't excite yourself, Rammer." There was a suggestion of what might be
contempt in Maulbow's tone now. "The girl hasn't been harmed. She can
breathe easily through the restrainer. And you can remove it by pulling
at the material from outside."
Gefty's mouth tightened. "I'll keep my gun on the passage while I do
it--"
Maulbow didn't answer. Gefty edged back into the map room, tentatively
grasped the transparent stuff above Kerim's shoulder. To his surprise,
it parted like wet tissue. He pulled sharply, and in a moment Kerim came
peeling herself out of it, her face tear-stained, working desperately
with hands, elbows and shoulders.
"Gefty," she gasped, "he ... Mr. Maulbow--"
"He's out in the passage there," Gefty said. "He can hear you." His
glance shifted for an instant to the wall where a second of the
shroudlike transparencies was hanging. And who could that have been
intended for, he thought, but Gefty Rammer? He added, "We've had a
little trouble."
"Oh!" She looked out of the room towards the passage, then at the gun in
Gefty's hand, then up at his face.
"Maulbow," Gefty went on, speaking distinctly enough to make sure
Maulbow heard, "has a gun, too. He'll stay there in the passage and
we'll stay in the instrument room until we agree on what should be done.
He's responsible for what's happened and seems to know where we are."
He looked at Kerim's frightened eyes, dropped his voice to a whisper.
"Don't let this worry you too much. I haven't found out just what he's
up to, but so far his tricks have pretty much backfired. He was counting
on taking us both by surprise, for one thing. That didn't work, so now
he'd like us to co-operate."
"Are you going to?"
Gefty shrugged. "Depends on what he has in mind. I'm just interested in
getting us out of this alive. Let's hear what Maulbow has to say--"
* * * * *
Some minutes later Gefty was trying to decide whether it was taking a
worse risk to believe what Maulbow said than to keep things stalled on
the chance that he was lying.
Kerim Ruse, perched stiffly erect on the edge of a chair, eyes big and
round, face almost colorless, apparently believed Maulbow and was
wishing she didn't. There was, of course, some supporting evidence ...
primarily the improbable appearance of their surroundings. The
pencil-thin fire-spouter and the sleazy-looking "restrainer" had a
sufficiently unfamiliar air to go with Maulbow's story; but as far as
Gefty knew, either of them could have been manufactured in the Hub.
Then there was the janandra--the big, snakish thing in the storage which
Maulbow had brought back up from the moon along with the battered
machine. It had been, he said, his shipboard companion on another
voyage. It wasn't ordinarily aggressive--Gefty's sudden appearance in
the vault must have startled it into making an attack. It was not
exactly a pet. There was a psychological relationship between it and
Maulbow which Maulbow would not attempt to explain because Gefty and
Kerim would be unable to grasp its significance. The janandra was
essential, in this unexplained manner, to his well-being.
That item was almost curious enough to seem to substantiate his other
statements; but it didn't really prove anything. The only point Gefty
didn't question in the least was that they were in a bad spot which
might be getting worse rapidly. His gaze shifted back to the screens.
What he saw out there, surrounding the ship, was, according to Maulbow,
an illusion of space created by the time flow in which they were moving.
Also according to Maulbow, there was a race of the future, human in
appearance, with machines to sail the current of time through the
universe--to run and tack with the winds of time, dipping in and out of
the normspace of distant periods and galaxies as they chose. Maulbow,
one of the explorers, had met disaster a million light-years from the
home of his kind, centuries behind them, his vehicle wrecked on an
airless moon with damaged control unit and shattered instruments. He had
made his way to a human civilization to obtain the equipment he needed,
and returned at last with the _Silver Queen_ to where the time-sailer
lay buried.
Gefty's lip curled. No, he wasn't buying all that just yet--but if
Maulbow was _not_ lying, then the unseen stars were racing past, the
mass of the galaxy beginning to slide by, eventually to be lost forever
beyond a black distance no space drive could span. The matter simply had
to be settled quickly. But Maulbow was also strained and impatient, and
if his impatience could be increased a little more, he might start
telling the things that really mattered, the things Gefty had to know.
Gefty asked slowly, as if hesitant to commit himself, "Why did you bring
us along?"
The voice from the passage snapped, "Because my resources were nearly
exhausted, Rammer! I couldn't obtain a new ship. Therefore I chartered
yours; and you came with it. As for Miss Ruse--in spite of every
precaution, my activities may have aroused suspicion and curiosity among
your people. When I disappeared, Miss Ruse might have been questioned. I
couldn't risk being followed to the wreck of the sailer, so I took her
with me. And what does that mean against what I have offered you? The
greatest adventure--followed, I give you my solemn word, by a safe
return to your own place and time, and the most generous compensations
for any inconvenience you may have suffered!"
Kerim, looking up at Gefty, shook her head violently. Gefty said, "We
find it difficult to take you on trust now, Maulbow. Why do you want to
get into the instrument room?"
Maulbow was silent for some seconds. Then he said, "As I told you, this
ship would not have been buffeted about during the moments of transfer
if the control unit were operating with complete efficiency. Certain
adjustments will have to be made in the unit, and this should be done
promptly."
* * *
"Where do the ship instruments come in?" Gefty asked.
"I can determine the nature of the problem from them. When I was ...
stranded ... the unit was seriously damaged. My recent repairs were
necessarily hasty. I--"
[Illustration]
"What caused the crack-up?"
Maulbow said, tone taut with impatience, "Certain sections of the Great
Current are infested with dangerous forces. I shall not attempt to
describe them ..."
"I wouldn't get it?"
"I don't pretend to understand them very well myself, Rammer. They are
not life but show characteristics of life--even of intelligent life. If
you can imagine radiant energy being capable of conscious hostility...."
There was a chill at the back of Gefty's neck. "A big, fast-moving
light?"
"Yes!" Sharp concern showed suddenly in the voice from the passage. "You
... when did you see that?"
Gefty glanced at the screens. "Twice since you've been talking. And
once before--immediately after we got tumbled around."
"Then we can waste no more time, Rammer. Those forces are sensitive to
the fluctuations of the control unit. If they were close enough to be
seen, they're aware the ship is here. They were attempting to locate
it."
"What could they do?"
Maulbow said, "A single attack was enough to put the control unit out of
operation in my sailer. The Great Current then rejected us instantly. A
ship of this size might afford more protection, which is the reason I
chose it. But if the control unit is not adjusted immediately to enable
it to take us out of this section, the attacks will continue until the
ship--and we--have been destroyed."
Gefty drew a deep breath. "There's another solution to that problem,
Maulbow. Miss Ruse and I prefer it. And if you meant what you said--that
you'd see to it we got back eventually--you shouldn't object either."