“We live here, don’t we? Wouldn’t we know? You asked for me because I know our sun, and I do. But there are other men on our homeworld who know far more than I do. But no one has ever discovered the least shred of evidence to support your theory.”
“A theory is a guess,” Jonathon said. “We do not guess; we know.”
“Then,” Reynolds said, “explain it to me. Because I don’t know.” He watched the alien’s eyes carefully, waiting for the first indication of a blinking fit.
But Jonathon’s gaze remained steady and certain. “Would you like to hear of our journey?” it asked.
“Yes.”
“We left our homeworld a great many of your years ago. I cannot tell you exactly when, for reasons I’m certain you can understand, but I will reveal that it was more than a century ago. In that time we have visited nine stars. The ones we would visit were chosen for us beforehand. Our priests-our leaders determined the stars that were within our reach and also able to help in our quest. You see, we have journeyed here in order to ask certain questions.”
“Questions of the stars?”
“Yes, of course. The questions we have are questions only a star may answer.”
“And what are they?” Reynolds asked.
“We have discovered the existence of other universes parallel with our own. Certain creatures-devils and demons-have come from these universes in order to attack and capture our stars. We feel we must-“
“Oh, yes,” Reynolds said. “I understand. We’ve run across several of these creatures recently. ” And he blinked, matching the twitching of Jonathon’s eye. “They are awfully fearsome, 3 aren’t they?” When Jonathon stopped, he stopped too. He said, “You don’t have to tell me everything. But can you tell me this: these other stars you have visited, have they been able to answer any of your questions?”
“Oh, yes. We have learned much from them. These stars were very great-very different from our own.”
“But they weren’t able to answer all your questions?”
“If they had, we would not be here now.”
“And you believe our star may be able to help you?”
“All may help, but the one we seek is the one that can save us.”
“When do you plan to go to the sun?”
“At once,” Jonathon said. “As soon as you leave. I am afraid there is little else you can tell us.
“I’d like to ask you to stay,” Reynolds said. And I forced himself to go ahead. He knew he could not convince Jonathon without revealing everything, yet, by doing so, he might also be putting an end to all his hopes. Still, he told the alien about Kelly and, more generally, he told it what the attitude of man was toward their visit. He told it what man wished to know from them, and why.
Jonathon seemed amazed. It moved about the floor as Reynolds spoke, its feet clanking dully. Then it stopped and stood, its feet only a few inches apart, a position that impressed Reynolds as one of incredulous amazement. “Your people wish to travel farther into space? You want to visit the stars? But why, ‘ Reynolds? Your people do not believe. Why?”
Reynolds smiled. Each time Jonathon said something to him, he felt he knew these people-and how they thought and k reacted-a little better than he had before. There was another ; question he would very much have liked to ask Jonathon. How long have your people possessed the means of visiting the stars? A very long time, he imagined. Perhaps a longer time than the q .whole lifespan of the human race. And why hadn’t they gone before now? Reynolds thought he knew because, until now, they had had no reason for going.
Now Reynolds tried to answer Jonathon’s question. If anyone could, it should be him. “We wish to go to the stars because we are a dissatisfied people. Because we do not live a very long time as individuals, we feel we must place an important part of our lives into the human race as a whole. In a sense, we surrender a portion of our individual person in return for a sense of greater immortality. What is an accomplishment for man as a race is also an accomplishment for each individual man. And what are these accomplishments? Basically this: anything a man does that no other man has done before-whether it is good or evil or neither one or both-is considered by us to be a great accomplishment.” And-to add emphasis to the point-he blinked once.
Then, holding his eyes steady, he said, “I want you to teach me to talk to the stars. I want you to stay here around the moon long enough to do that.”
Instantly Jonathon said, “No.”
There was an added force to the way it said it, an emphasis its voice had not previously possessed. Then Reynolds realized what that was at the same moment Jonathon had spoken, Richard too had said, “No.”
“Then you may be doomed to fail,” Reynolds said. “Didn’t I tell you? I know our star better than any man available to you. Teach me to talk to the stars and I may be able to help you with this one. Or would you prefer to continue wandering the galaxy forever, failing to find what you seek wherever you go?”
“You are a sensible man, Reynolds. You may be correct. We will ask our home star and see.”
“Do that. And if it says yes and I promise to do what you wish, then I must ask you to promise me something in return. I want you to allow a team of our scientists and technicians to enter and inspect your ship. You will answer their questions to the best of your ability. And that means truthfully.”
“We always tell the truth,” Jonathon said, blinking savagely.
The moon had made one full circuit of the Earth since Reynolds’ initial meeting with the aliens, and he was quite satisfied with the progress he had made up to now, especially during the past ten days after Kelly had stopped accompanying him in his daily shuttles to and from the orbiting starship. As a matter of fact, in all that time, he had not had a single face-to-face meeting with her and they had talked on the phone only once. And she wasn’t here now either, which was strange, since it was noon and she always ate here with the others.
Reynolds had a table to himself in the cafeteria. The food was poor, but it always was, and he was used to that by now. What did bother him, now that he was thinking about it, was Kelly’s absence. Most days he skipped lunch himself. He tried to remember the last time he had come here. It was more than a week ago, he remembered-more than ten days ago. He didn’t like the sound of that answer.
Leaning over, he attracted the attention of a girl at an adjoining table. He knew her vaguely. Her father had been an important wheel in NASA when Reynolds was still a star astronaut. He couldn’t remember the man’s name. His daughter had a tiny cute face and a billowing body about two sizes too big for the head. Also, she had a brain that was much too limited for much of anything. She worked in the administrative section, which meant she slept with most of the men on the base at one time or another.
“Have you seen Kelly?” he asked her.
“Must be in her office.”
“No, I mean when was the last time you saw her here?”
“In here? Oh-” The girl thought for a moment. “Doesn’t she eat with the other chiefs?”
Kelly never ate with the other chiefs. She always ate in the cafeteria-for morale purposes-and the fact that the girl did not remember having seen her meant that it had been several days at least since Kelly had last put in an appearance. Leaving his lunch where it lay, Reynolds got up, nodded politely at the, girl, who stared at him as if he were a freak; and hurried away.
It wasn’t a long walk, but he ran. He had no intention of going to see Kelly, He knew that would prove useless. Instead, he was going to see John Sims. At fifty-two, Sims was the second oldest man in the base. Like Reynolds, he was a former astronaut. In 1987, when Reynolds, then a famous man, was living in Sao Paulo, Sims had commanded the first (and only) truly successful Mars expedition. During those few months, the world had hear his name, but people forgot quickly, and Sims was one of the things they forgot. He had never done more than what he was expected to do; the threat of death had never come near Sims’s expedition. Reynolds, on the other hand, had failed. On Mars with him, three men had died. Yet it was he-Reynolds, the failure-who had been the hero, not Sims.