Five million light-years from Earth! Who of finite human mind can
conceive such unfathomable distance! Yet, as I crouched on the floor of
the vehicle gazing down at the radiance emerging from the black void
which was our first sight of the Inner Surface, the distance had seemed
no more than gigantic. We were, in size, many million times our Earthly
stature. The tiny Earth, from our larger viewpoint, was a little orange
spinning above us in the void--a mere one-twentieth light-year away.
Martt, for all his youth, had proved competent. He had made the trip
once before with Brett; he handled the vehicle carefully, and with
skill. He said now, as we three crouched by the floor window, "We'll
soon be down to the atmosphere, Frank. I'm checking our fall--we want
no errors----"
We were reversed in Time--holding very nearly at a single instant, so
that on the Inner Surface the time now was the same as it had been when
we left the Earth.
We argued the point; Martt said, "I think when we land--we should
choose the point in Time about four years beyond Brett's landing. So
that it will be four years to us--and also to him. Don't you?"
We decided upon that, so that we would reach the Inner Surface and
find Brett had been there four years. It seemed to strike a greater
normality. Find Brett! Would we find him? I wondered, as I knew Martt
and Frannie were wondering. But in our plans we always took it for
granted.
The radiance beneath us grew brighter. And at last we entered the upper
strata of atmosphere, falling gently downward. It was a fair, beautiful
land, as Brett and Martt had said. A sylvan landscape, with an air of
quiet peace upon it. A broad vista of land and water; patches of human
habitation--houses, villages; a city.
Martt was at the telescope. "Pretty good, Frank! I've hit it--I see the
city--off there, isn't it? And the crescent lake."
He changed our direction slightly. As we dropped, the broad crescent
lake lay beneath us. Trees bordered its banks; and to the right was the
city of low-roofed, crescent-shaped buildings banked with flowers. And
beyond the city a rolling country of gently undulating hills, with a
jagged mountain range up near the horizon.
From this height it was a visibly concave surface. And it was gray and
colorless, for we were passing abnormally through its Time. Then Martt
threw off the Time-switch; we took the normal Time-rate of the realm.
And in size we were also normal.
At a height of perhaps a thousand feet Martt held us poised above the
city. "They'll see us now," he said. "If--if Brett is down there he'll
recognize us. I'll land in the grove where we landed before. We'll give
Brett time to get there to meet us."
With the Time-switch off, color and movement had sprung into the scene.
The forests were a somber growth of dull, orange-colored vegetation.
The water was a shimmering purple; and above us was a purple sky, with
faint clouds, and dim stars up there--stars which seemed very small and
very close.
The white houses gleamed and glowed in the starlight. Yet it seemed
not night; nor day either. A queerly shimmering twilight. Shadowless,
as though everything were vaguely phosphorescent.
In the broad city streets there was movement. Vehicles; people. And the
people now were gathered in groups, staring up at us.
We landed in the little clearing at the edge of the lake near the city.
And now at the last, Frannie gave voice to the fear which was within us
all. "Oh Frank, do you think Brett will be here?"
There were human figures in the near-by thickets. I saw them through
the windows, but we were too busy with the landing to look closely. The
vehicle came to rest. Martt and I flung open the door. The vegetation
was thick near by; we stepped from the vehicle onto a soft, mossy
sward, and stood in a timid group, with tumultuously beating hearts.
"Martt! Frannie! Frank!" It was his voice! Brett was here! And we saw
him step from a thicket. His familiar voice; his familiar figure, but
so fantastically garbed that it brought to me a wild desire to laugh,
for I was half hysterical with the relief of seeing him.
Frannie cried, "Brett! My brother! You're all right, Brett, aren't you?
I'm glad you're all right."
Under stress, how inarticulate are we humans! I said awkwardly, "How
are you, Brett? We thought we'd come and see you."
He took Frannie in his arms. And wrung Martt's hand, and mine, while
his strange companions stood in the background among the trees,
watching us.
"Of course I'm all right," he declared. "And terrifically happy." A
shadow crossed his face; his glance went to the vehicle's doorway.
"Father didn't come with you?"
Then Martt showed a wisdom far beyond his years. This was no time to
bring sorrow to Brett. Martt said smoothly, "Father is better than he
has ever been, Brett. We'll tell you--later."
"Good! That's fine!" Brett's face was radiant. "You're just in time,
you three. I'm to be married tonight."
But even then as I wrung his hand again, and congratulated him, I had a
premonition that it was not to be.
_CHAPTER 2_