there butinvisible.
And those watching the screen on which time and distance were acompressed and distilled kaleidoscope, saw planet after planet andthousands at a time; heard strange noises; rasping and roaring, clinksand whistles, screams and crying, sighing and moaning. And they wereaware through all this of atmosphere and ground inimical to man, somethat would evaporate at the touch of a human body, or would burst intoflame, or swallow, or turn from liquid to solid or solid to liquid.They saw and heard chemical analyses, were aware of this ocean ofblackness and clouds of white through which man might move, and mustever move, because he could live only upon this floating dust speckthat was Earth.
The picture faded in, close to one of the long, needle nosed crafts,showing inside, a man and a woman. Time was telescoped again while theman cut a tiny piece of scar tissue from his arm and that of thewoman, put them in bottles and set them into compartments wheresolutions dripped rhythmically into the bottles, the temperature washeld at that of the human body, and synthetic sunlight focused uponthem from many pencil like tubes.
The watchers in the council chamber saw the bits of tissue swell intohuman embryos in a few seconds, and grow arms and legs and faces andextend themselves into babies. Saw them taken from the bottles andcared for, and become replicas of the man and woman controlling theship, who, all this time were aging, until life went out of theirbodies. Then the ones who had been the scar tissue disintegrated themin the coffin-like tubes and let their dust be sucked out intospace--all this through millions of miles and a hundred years,compressed for the watchers into sixty seconds and a few feet ofspace.
Instantly there was black space on the screen again, with the fingersof flame pointing out behind the dark bodies of the ships.
And then the spectators saw one ship shudder and swerve into ablazing, bluish white star, like a gnat flying into a white hot poker;saw another drop away and away, out and out into the blackness pastthe swirling white rim of the galaxy, and sink into a darknothingness.
Great balls of rock showered like hail onto other ships, smashing theminto grotesque tin cans. The stream of fire at the tail of anothership suddenly died and the ship floated into an orbit around a great,yellow planet, ten times the size of Jupiter, then was sucked into it.Another burst like a bomb, flinging a man and woman out into thedarkness, where they hung suspended, frozen into statues, like bodiesdrowned in the depths of an Arctic sea.
At this instant from the watching council, there were screams ofhorror and voices crying out, "Shut it off! Shut it off!" There was amoving about in the darkness. Murmurs and harsh cries of disapprovalgrew in volume.
Another ship in the picture was split down the side by a meteor andthe bodies inside were impaled on jagged blades of steel, thecontorted, bloody faces lighted by bursts of flame. And the screamsand cries of the spectators rose higher, "Shut it off.... Oh Lord...."
Lights flashed through the room and the picture died.
* * * * *
Michael and Mary, both staring, saw, along the line of desks, theagonized faces, some staring like white stones, others hidden inclutching fingers, as though they had been confronted by a Medusa.There was the sound of heavy breathing that mixed with the throbbingof the pumps. The President held tightly to the edges of his desk toquiet his trembling.
"There--there've been changes," he said, "since you've been out inspace. There isn't a person on Earth who's seen a violent death forhundreds of years."
Michael faced him, frowning. "I don't follow you."
"Dying violently happened so seldom on Earth that, after a long time,the sight of it began to drive some people mad. And then one day a manwas struck by one of the ground cars and _everyone_ who saw it wentinsane. Since then we've eliminated accidents, even the idea. Now, noone is aware that death by violence is even a possibility."
"I'm sorry," said Michael, "we've been so close to violent death forso long.... What you've seen is part of the proof you asked for."
"What you showed us was a picture," said the President. "If it hadbeen real, we'd all be insane by now. If it were shown to the peoplethere'd be mass hysteria."
"But even if we'd found another habitable planet, getting to it wouldinvolve just what we've shown you. Maybe only a tenth of the peoplewho left Earth, or a hundredth, would ever reach a destination out inspace."
"We couldn't tolerate such a possibility," said the Presidentgravely. "We'd have to find a way around it."
The pumps throbbed like giant hearts all through the stillness in thecouncil chambers. The faces along the line of desks were smoothingout; the terror in them was fading away.
"And yet the Earth is almost dead," said Michael quietly, "and youcan't bring it back to life."
"The sins of our past, Mr. Nelson," said the President. "The Atomicwars five thousand years ago. And the greed. It was too late a longtime ago. That, of course, is why the expedition was sent out. And nowyou've come back to us with this terrible news." He looked around,slowly, then back to Michael. "Can you give us any hope at all?"
"None."
"Another expedition? To Andromeda perhaps? With you the leader?"
Michael shook his head. "We're finished with expeditions, Mr.President."
There were mutterings in the council, and hastily whisperedconsultations. Now they were watching the man and woman again.
"We feel," said the President, "it would be dangerous to allow you togo out among the people. They've been informed that your statementwasn't entirely true. This was necessary, to avoid a panic. The peoplesimply must not know the whole truth." He paused. "Now we ask you tokeep in mind that whatever we decide about the two of you will be forthe good of the people."
Michael and Mary were silent.
"You'll wait outside the council chambers," the President went on,"until we have reached our decision."
As the man and woman were led away, the pumps beat in the stillness,and at the edge of the shrinking seas the salt thick waters were beingpulled into the distilleries, and from them into the tier upon tier ofartificial gardens that sat like giant bee hives all around theshoreline; and the mounds of salt glistening in the sunlight behindthe gardens were growing into mountains.
* * * * *
In their rooms, Michael and Mary were talking through the hours, andwaiting. All around them were fragile, form-fitting chairs andtranslucent walls and a ceiling that, holding the light of the sunwhen they had first seen it, was now filled with moonlight.
Standing at a circular window, ten feet in diameter, Michael saw, farbelow, the lights of the city extending into the darkness along theshoreline of the sea.
"We should have delivered our message by radio," he said, "and goneback into space."
"You could probably still go," she said quietly.
He came and stood beside her. "I couldn't stand being out in space, oranywhere, without you."
She looked up at him. "We could go out into the wilderness, Michael,outside the force walls. We could go far away."
He turned from her. "It's all dead. What would be the use?"
"I came from the Earth," she said quietly. "And I've got to go back toit. Space is so cold and frightening. Steel walls and blackness andthe rockets and the little pinpoints of light. It's a prison."
"But to die out there in the desert, in that dust." Then he paused andlooked away from her. "We're crazy--talking as though we had achoice."
"Maybe they'll have to _give_ us a choice."
"What're you talking about?"
"They went into hysterics at the sight of those bodies in the picture.Those young bodies that didn't die of old age."
He waited.
"They can't stand the sight of people dying violently."
Her hand went to her throat and touched the tiny locket.
"These lockets were given to us so we'd have a choice betweensuffering or quick painless death.... We still have a choice."
He touched the locket at his own throat a
nd was very still for a longmoment. "So we threaten to kill ourselves, before their eyes. Whatwould it do to them?"
He was still for a long time. "Sometimes, Mary, I think I don't knowyou at all." A pause. "And so now you and I are back where we started.Which'll it be, space or Earth?"
"Michael." Her voice trembled. "I--I don't know how to say this."
He waited, frowning, watching her intently.
"I'm--going to have a child."
His face went blank.
Then he stepped forward and took her by the shoulders. He saw thesoftness there in her face; saw her eyes