Space Opera Part 11

"Relax, Mr. Bickel; enjoy the scenery!" Logan de Appling smiled down at Dame Isabel and left the saloon.

After three days Captain Gondar still had not appeared, and Dame Isabel finally made up her mind to confer with him. As she and Bernard Bickel crossed the bridge, Logan de Appling and Madoc Roswyn stood talking in great animation. At the sight of Dame Isabel they abruptly fell silent.

Dame Isabel went to the view-screen, where a view of the cosmos was projected by the dephasing system. She checked the cross-hairs, turned to Logan de Appling. "Swannick's Star is that greenish sun dead ahead?" she inquired.

"It can't be," said Bernard Bickel. "Swannick's Star is an orange dwarf!"

"True," said Logan de Appling cheerfully. "We're allowing for s.p.a.ce-drift and also galactic rotation, which in this region is quite considerable."

"Surely we should be closer to our destination!" said Dame Isabel. "Are you absolutely sure of your calculations, Mr. de Appling?"

"Of course! It wouldn't do to get lost this far from home!"

Dame Isabel gave her head a puzzled shake. Crossing the bridge she knocked at Captain Gondar's door. "Yes?" came a surly voice from within. "Who is it?"

"It is I," said Dame Isabel. "I want a word or two with you."

The door flung open; Captain Gondar looked out. He was gaunt, his eyes glowed, a straggly black beard covered his cheeks and chin. "Well?" he croaked. "What do you want?"

"I'd like you to check the astrogation," said Dame Isabel in a mild voice. "I don't altogether trust the judgment of Mr. de Appling. It seems that we should long ago have reached Swannick's Star."

With four long strides Captain Gondar was on the bridge. He took one look at the view-screen, gave a harsh laugh. He paused, then laughed again, until Dame Isabel wondered whether he was mad indeed. She glanced at de Appling, who stood stiffly to the side, his fair cheeks flus.h.i.+ng. She turned back to Captain Gondar. "Why do you laugh?"

Gondar pointed. "See the cant of the Milky Way? And that star off there to the right? That's Alphard or I'm a baboon. All of which puts us in Hydra."

"There must be some dreadful mistake," stammered Dame Isabel. "Swannick's Star is in Taurus."

Once more Captain Gondar vented his harsh croak of a laugh. "No mistake." He pointed a long finger at Madoc Roswyn. "That's why we're in Hydra."

Dame Isabel was speechless. She stared from Madoc Roswyn to Logan de Appling and back to Captain Gondar. "Do you mean - can it be -"

"He's taken you on a joy-ride. Don't blame him too much. I don't believe a man alive can stand up to her. She's a dire Welsh witch. If I were you I'd throw her into s.p.a.ce and let her swim."

Dame Isabel swung about. In a terrible voice she asked, "Is this true, Mr. de Appling?"

"Yes."

"Captain, turn the s.h.i.+p about. Then confine these two to their respective cabins."

Gondar said, "Don't lock up de Appling. He's just a jackanapes. Make him work. If he swerves a second of an arc I'll strangle him. But lock her up. Keep her from the sight of men, or she'll use her magic."

"Very well. Miss Roswyn, to your cabin. I can't imagine how to deal with you."

"Put me in a life-boat and let me go off by myself."

Dame Isabel stared. "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Naturally," said Dame Isabel, "I shall do nothing of the sort. It would be nothing less than murder. To your cabin, if you please."

Madoc Roswyn went slowly from the bridge.

"As for you," Dame Isabel said to Logan de Appling, "Captain Gondar will note this occurrence in the log. You will receive no pay, and I shall take every step to ensure that you never again secure employment as an astrogator."

Logan de Appling said nothing. The heavens swung across the view-screen as Captain Gondar swung the Phoebus about on its axis.

Four hours later Roger tapped at Madoc Roswyn's door. Slowly the door opened and she looked at him.

"May I come in?" Roger asked.

Without speaking she drew listlessly back.

Roger seated himself on the bunk. "Have you eaten?"

"I'm not hungry." She moved across the little cubicle, to lean against the wall.

"If I only knew why you've been doing all this," said Roger tentatively. "It's beyond my understanding. How could anyone be so beguiling, so faithless - unless she had some overpowering motive?"

Madoc Roswyn hardly seemed to hear. She said in a low voice. "Do you think your aunt will ..." Then she sighed, made a helpless motion. "I know she won't."

"I realize that you only pretended to be fond of me," went on Roger, "to get aboard the s.h.i.+p ... And the same with Captain Gondar and that a.s.s de Appling ..."

Madoc Roswyn nodded drearily. "Yes. I only pretended. I had no other way."

"But why? If only I could understand why I might not think so harshly of you."

Madoc Roswyn looked at him with a ghost of a smile. "Do you think harshly of me, Roger?"

He nodded. "Yes. It's humiliating to be used."

"All I can say, Roger, is that I'm sorry. Really I am. But I'd do it again," she added in a low voice, "if it would help ... But it won't."

"No. Not now. Tell me why."

"No ... I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm secretive. I'm born of secretive people. All my life I've had secrets you'd never dream of."

"No doubt," said Roger sadly. "No doubt."

She sat down, rather diffidently, on the bunk beside him. Roger swayed, as if he were iron and she a magnet. With an effort he brought himself to his previous position. After a moment's thought, he asked: "This planet in Hydra is one of your secrets?"

"Yes."

"If the Phoebus visited this planet, it would no longer be secret."

Now it was Madoc Roswyn's turn to ponder. "This had never occurred to me. But you must remember my upbringing. I've been habituated to secrecy."

"Secrecy," said Roger, "is a miserable vice. I have no secrets whatever."

Madoc Roswyn smiled wanly. "You're indeed an admirable man, Roger. Very well. I'll tell you my secret. It's all mine now, because none are left to share it. And since we're not to visit Yan, no one would believe either you or me."

"'Yan' is the name of this planet?"

"Yan ..." She breathed the name with the most fervent reverence and affection. "It is my home behind the stars. So near now, and so far."

Roger frowned in puzzlement. "Is this Welsh folk-lore? I'm sorry to be ignorant, but I've never heard anything like it before."

She shook her head. "I am not Welsh. Or not altogether Welsh. Long long ago - thirty thousand years ..." She talked for an hour, and Roger's head swam with the marvels which came casually from her lips.

Shorn of detail and circ.u.mstance her story was simple enough. Thirty thousand years ago a race of Earth-folk inhabited a pleasant land whose exact location was now unknown - some thought it to be Greenland, others the land now submerged below the Bay of Biscay. They attained civilization, of a texture as rich as any of those which followed. During a period of decadence, a certain arcane group contrived a s.h.i.+p of s.p.a.ce and exiled themselves from Earth. After an epic voyage they landed on Yan, which they made their home. And what of the once-n.o.ble civilization which had been left behind? Its destiny no one ever learned: apparently it spent itself and lapsed to ruins.

On Yan a new era began, with advances, retreats, dark ages, renewals, culminations, aftermaths. Then, two hundred years ago, another dissident group decided to return to Earth. Their landing on the Isle of Man was a catastrophe which destroyed the s.h.i.+p and all but a handful of the pa.s.sengers. These fled the superst.i.tious persecution of the Manxmen and settled in Wales, where for generations they farmed the remote valleys of Merioneth. Such were Madoc Roswyn's forebears, who perpetuated their traditions, whispered the history of Yan to their children, dedicated themselves to secrecy. They lived only to return to Yan, and bred this yearning into their children. One of these was Madoc Roswyn, the last of her line. Longing for Yan, she had taken advantage of Roger's bemus.e.m.e.nt to win herself pa.s.sage on the Phoebus.

She finished her story. She had tried and failed; Yan was now forever lost to her.

Roger sat quietly a long moment, then heaved a sigh. "I'll help you as best I can. If I succeed it means I've lost you forever - but not really, because I can't lose something I've never had ... I'll talk to my aunt."

Madoc Roswyn said nothing, but when Roger departed, she slumped back on the bunk and tried to restrain the tears which welled from behind her eyelids.

Roger found Dame Isabel on the bridge, trying to learn the exact location of Rlaru from a brooding and taciturn Captain Gondar. His only reply to her expostulations was, "All in good time, all in good time."

Roger attracted Dame Isabel's attention and asked to speak with her in private. With poor grace she acceded, and took him to her cabin. Here walking back and forth he said, "I know you consider me a wastrel, and credit me with very little judgment."

"Do I not have reason to do so?" inquired Dame Isabel with acerbity. "You brought that dreadful young woman aboard the Phoebus. She has disrupted the entire tour!"

"Yes," said Roger. "Quite true. I've just learned the motive for her acts. It's a strange tale, and I'd like you to hear it."

"Roger, I am not all that ingenuous; nothing would be gained."

"She is not what you think," said Roger, "and her motive for wanting to visit this particular world is astonis.h.i.+ng."

"I do not wish to be astonished," growled Dame Isabel. "I have had enough surprises ... I suppose, in simple justice, I must speak to this wretched girl. Where is she?"

"In her cabin. I'll fetch her."

Madoc Roswyn was extremely reluctant to talk to Dame Isabel. "She hates me. She senses things in me she can't understand, that she doesn't want to understand. She'd listen to me only to find exercise for her sarcasm."

"Come now," said Roger. "Isn't it worth a try? What can you lose? Just tell her what you told me. How can she help but be impressed?"

"Very well," said Madoc Roswyn. "I'll do it ... Let me wash my face."

Roger took Madoc Roswyn to Dame Isabel's cabin and prudently retired to the corridor. For an hour he heard the soft lilt of Madoc Roswyn's voice, with occasionally a crisp question or remark from Dame Isabel. At last he deemed it judicious to enter; and neither Dame Isabel nor Madoc Roswyn seemed to notice his presence.

Madoc Roswyn finally completed her story, and Dame Isabel sat silent, drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair. "What you tell me is extremely interesting," she said at last. "I cannot deny it. While I will never condone your acts, I admit that you have put forward a compelling motive - provided it can be sustained. Interesting indeed ..." She gave Roger a sour smile. "Well - stubborn inflexibility is a fault of which I have never been accused." She turned back to Madoc Roswyn. "Tell me something more of the planet, of its customs and inst.i.tutions."

Madoc Roswyn shook her head uncertainly. "I wouldn't know where to begin. Earth history is six thousand years old, the history of Yan is five times longer."

"Let me ask this: do your traditions mention art and music?"

"Oh yes, indeed." Madoc Roswyn sang an odd little song in a strange language. The melody, the rhythm, the meter of the language derived from human perceptions and human needs - so much was intuitively clear - but also conveyed a quality which had no terrestrial reference: in short, the music of another planet. "That's a nursery song," said Madoc Roswyn. "From as early as I can remember, and before, I went to sleep by that song."

Dame Isabel signaled Roger. "Please ask Captain Gondar to step in here a moment, if he'll be so good."

Captain Gondar appeared.

Dame Isabel said in a clear cool voice, "I have decided to convey Miss Roswyn to the planet Yan. She has worked with great diligence to this end, by expedients I will not comment upon. I am not completely convinced that I have heard the precise and entire truth, but Miss Roswyn has intrigued me to the extent that I wish to learn the facts. So, Captain - set a new course, to 'Yan', as I believe the planet is known."

Captain Gondar gave Madoc Roswyn a black look. "She's scheming and faithless; she knows every evil to be learned in the far Welsh mountains; you'll regret the day she persuaded you."

"Quite possibly," said Dame Isabel. "Nevertheless, to Yan."

Madoc Roswyn waited silently until Captain Gondar had departed. Then she turned to Dame Isabel. "Thank you," she said, and left the cabin.

Chapter XI.

On the cross-hairs once more lay that greenish-white sun described in the Star Directory as Hydra GRA 4442. The tale told by Madoc Roswyn had circulated throughout the Phoebus, predictably encountering incredulity. The general consensus was that, whether or not the Phoebus would find an age-old civilization on Yan, the upshot was certain to be dramatic, and the atmosphere was taut with expectancy.

The green star flared large and moved to the side; in the cross-hairs hung an Earth-sized planet, well within the zone of habitability. The Phoebus slipped out of star-drive, swung into a normal approach orbit.

On the bridge Dame Isabel, Captain Gondar, Madoc Roswyn and Roger stood looking into the view-screen as Yan rolled magnificently below. No question but what it was a beautiful planet, not dissimilar from Earth. There were oceans and continents, mountains and deserts, forests and tundras and ice-fields, and the a.n.a.lyzer indicated a breathable atmosphere.

Captain Gondar said in a carefully expressionless voice, "No response to our radio signal - in fact we can't intercept signals on any wave-length whatever."

"Odd," said Dame Isabel. "Let us examine the surface more closely. Can you increase the magnification on the screen?"

Captain Gondar adjusted the view-screen, the surface seemed to leap closer.

Madoc Roswyn pointed. "I recognize those continents. That's Esterlop and Kerlop, and there in the north is Noauluth. That big island is Drist Amiamu, those little ones are the Suth.o.r.e Stil. That long peninsula is Drothante, and there are six great temples at the extreme southern cape." She looked carefully into the magnified image, but the tip of the long peninsula showed no sign of the temples she had mentioned. "I don't understand," she muttered in a low voice. "Nothing looks as it should ... Where is Dilicet? Thax? Kos.h.i.+un?"

"I see no obvious signs of habitation," said Dame Isabel drily.

"There are ruins," Roger pointed out. "Or rough patches which look like ruins."

"Down there, beside that bay, where the forest runs up over the mountain - that is where I expected to find Sansue, the city of my ancestors. But where? More ruins?"

"If ruins, they are certainly thorough-going ruins," said Roger. "Not one stone seems to be left on another."