E. Tubb - Child of Earth

As he needed to master the mounting terror of being trapped in an alien space.

Dumarest moved, spreading his arms, his legs, twisting his head so as to gain control of his body. As his limbs responded to his direction he concentrated on his senses. His skin prickled as if covered with minute insects, his muscles bunching as he fought the irritation. His ears felt as if blocked by wax. His eyes as if coated with an opaque film. His thoughts vague, distracted, floundering without discipline in the unknown.

He concentrated, focusing his thoughts, isolating doubt and negative images. The fact that he was less than a mote of pollen swept by hurricanes over endless jungles. A scrap of plankton immersed in an infinite ocean. He was a man, a human, a sentient being. A creature capable of logic and extrapolation. One whose ancestors had crawled from the mud to conquer the stars.

The stars!

He concentrated on the stars.

The sun was a star and illuminated the Earth. If it was day he should be able to see it. If night then other stars would illuminate the darkness. Why couldn’t he see them?

Dumarest lifted his hands, fumbling at his face, carefully touching his eyes. They seemed undamaged, uncovered, the lids responding as they should, but the darkness remained unbroken. His ears also seemed not to have received any form of injury. Anger and fear strengthened his resolve. If there was light he should be able to see it. If noise to hear it. He was mobile, free to move, yet when he tried he made no progress. His anger increased, died as he forced himself to be calm. Action without direction was wasted effort. It was better to rest than to struggle. To let his mind take command, his brain which seemed, like his skin, to be affected by an insect-like irritation.

Then, slowly, as his senses responded, things changed.

Light came into being, the glow of distant stars, flashes of colour in jewelled brilliance winking and changing in endless confusion. He could see and, together with the light came sound. It came with the touch of air against his cheek, the gentle impact of a soft breeze which carried a susurration of voices, soft whispers and a medley of noises all dim and muted as if a crowd demanded his attention from all sides.

But the interpretations were at fault. His cortex was striving to gain familiarity but could only relay what it knew. There were no stars-stars did not flash and burn and sparkle. The lights he saw must come from another source. Something electrical, perhaps, such as lightning from a storm. But that was a guess, as was the interpretation of the sounds. There could be no whispers, no music, no noise from an invisible crowd. There had to be another explanation. He was given no time to find it.

Abruptly, within his skull, pain seared his brain with numbing impact. A series of small explosions of agony as if cells were bursting in wild progression. Pain echoed by the twitching of his muscles, the jerking of his nerves. A sea of torment which threatened to last too long.

Dumarest fought against it, striving to remain rational, conscious of the mistakes he had made about the lights and the sounds. All were the result of his desperate mental need to find some kind of familiarity with the situation.

Familiarity with what?

A place. A void. A nothingness. A contradiction in itself. Why build such a thing? For what purpose? Or did it exist at all? What if it was an invention of his own mind? A defence against an unacceptable reality?

Too many questions. Too few answers. Too much pain which exploded within his skull to send him into oblivion.

The words were shimmering birds drifting through an azure sky. Tiny motes of communication which held the impact of drills.

“Darling! Please, Earl. Please, my dearest! Wake up! Wake up. Talk to me!”

Nada’s voice, husky with strain, tense with desperation.

Dumarest listened to it, not responding, struggling to recall vague memories, fragments of oddity which could have been nothing but the fruit of dreams but which could also be the clue to what had happened. The fragments dispersed, driven away by Nada’s pleading, the irritation born of the touch of her arms.

He stirred and said, “How long?”

“What?” Gladness replaced the desperation. “Earl, my darling, you are alive! I’ve been so worried. You’ve been so still. So cold.”

He said, again. “How long?” Then, as she made no reply, “It’s important to me that I know. Please concentrate. How long was I in that place?”

She didn’t know or couldn’t understand. He read it in her face as he opened his eyes and sat upright on the couch beneath him.

“Earl-”

She fell silent as he lifted a hand to rest his fingers lightly across her lips. They, like the couch, the air, the touch of her flesh as she gripped his wrist, were warm and comforting.

Gently he said, “I broke a crystal wall and something drew me through the opening into a strange place, an area of some kind where it was dark and more than unusual. Do you know how long I was in there?” He lowered his hand as she shook her head. “Tell me what you do know.”

It was little enough. Shandaha had required his presence and had ordered Nada to bear the summons. She had found Chagal almost paralysed with fear and had sounded the alarm. Dumarest had been found and she had taken care of him.

“It seemed like forever.” Her hand closed on his wrist like a band of steel to hold him safe or to demonstrate her possession. “You were so still. I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do.”

And nothing more she could add. A facile story with too much missing. Who had found him? Why was the doctor absent? Why had Shandaha demanded his presence? What really lay beyond the crystal wall?

And why was he in such pain?

It filled his skull with renewed intensity and before him the figure ofNada blurred and the furnishings of the chamber seemed to shift and change. A transformation in which he seemed to share. An alteration of perspective. A physical improvement. An enhancement of hearing and vision. Subtle changes of benefit to nerve and muscle. A sharpened ability to detect inconsistency.

“Earl?” Nada moved closer, “Is anything wrong, darling? You seem different in some way. As if you are worried about something. Did anything happen to you when you fell ill?”

“How would I know?” Dumarest smiled and gently touched her on the cheek. “I broke the wall and must have slipped and banged my head and knocked myself out.”

A lie she accepted as the truth and she smiled and moved closer her eyes bright with desire.

“I’m so glad that is all it was. I want you to be fit and well. I need you so much, my darling. Tell me you feel the same. Please!”

He was too tired, too detached, too much in pain. What she offered was the last thing he needed. But to reject her would not be wise.

“Of course I do, how could you be in any doubt?” He smiled again then added, “But we have no time. Shandaha sent you to collect me, he must have something of importance to discuss. In any case I need to shower and get rid of this headache. Will you be joining us?”

“No.”

“Then we will meet later? You promise?”

She smiled her answer as she returned his caress, her fingers light against his cheek, her disappointment a thing of the past. She rose, her movement a thing of grace as she left his side.

Dumarest watched her go then headed for the bathroom. He stripped and stood beneath the shower, setting the temperature cold so the spray stung, then hot so it eased both skin and muscle. He checked himself but found no sign of recent injury.

Aside from the fading discomfort of the headache he felt fine.

When he left the shower and dried himself and dressed the pain had gone leaving his mind sharp and crystal clear. He felt vibrant, active, ready for action. Leaving the bathroom he made his way to where Shandaha would be waiting.