Ivan Yefremov - Andromeda (A Space-Age Tale)

“Oh, of course,” exclaimed Chara enthusiastically, but grew timid and continued, “very few great scientists have devoted themselves to research into the laws of the beautiful and the fullness of emotions — I’m not talking about psychology.”

“I can understand you,” answered the African, admiring the girl who, in her confusion, had raised her proud head higher to the rays of the rising sun that again gave her skin the colour of burnished copper. Chara sat easily and lightly on the big black horse that walked in step with Mven Mass’ roan.

“We are lagging behind!” exclaimed the girl slackening her reins and urging her horse forward. The African overtook her and they cantered together along the smooth old road. They soon caught up with the others, reined in their horses and again Chara turned to Mven Mass.

“What about that girl, Onar?”

“She must go to the Great World. You said yourself that she had remained on the island quite by chance because she was attached to her mother who came here and died recently. It would be good for Onar to work with Veda, women’s gentle and sensitive hands are needed at the excavations…. And there are thousands of other jobs for which they are needed… and Beth Lohn, the new Beth Lohn who will come back with us, he’ll find her in a new way.”

Chara frowned and the bird that flew over her eyes spread its wings still more widely.

“And you won’t leave your stars?”

“Whatever the decision of the Council may be I shall continue my study of the Cosmos. But first I have to write….”

“About the stars of the human soul?”

“Quite right, Chara! So great is their variety that it takes my breath away.” Noticing that the girl was smiling gently at him, Mven Mass stopped, “Don’t you agree?”

“Of course I do. I was thinking about your experiment. You did it out of your passionately impatient desire to give people the fullness of the world. In that you were an artist and not a scientist.”

“And Renn Bose?”

“He’s different. For him the experiment was another step forward in his research but one that science required.”

“You don’t blame me, Chara?”

“No! Nor do many other people, the majority, I’m sure!”

Mven Mass took the reins in his left hand and held out his right to Chara. They entered the tiny group of houses around the station.

The waves of the Indian Ocean beat rhythmically at the foot of the cliff. In the sounds they made Mven Mass could hear the rhythmic beat of the basses in Zieg Zohr’s symphony depicting life reaching out into the Cosmos. There was one powerful note, a strong F, the basic note in terrestrial nature, that sang over the sea and compelled man to respond with his entire soul, merging with the nature that gave him birth.

The sea was transparent, shining, cleansed of the relics of the past, of predatory sharks, poisonous fish, molluscs and medusae in the same way as the life of present-day man has been cleansed of the evil and fear of past centuries. But somewhere in the distant corners of the boundless ocean the seeds of harmful life have survived and we have the Destroyer Battalions to thank for keeping our ocean waters safe and clean.

And is it not true that in the same way there suddenly arises savage stubbornness, the self-confidence of the cretin, the egoism of the beast in the transparent soul of youth? If man today does not submit to the authority of society that is directed towards wisdom and goodness but, instead, is guided by his own accidental ambition and individual passions, courage is turned into bestiality, creative activity into cruel cunning while loyalty and self-abnegation become the bulwark of tyranny, cruel exploitation and abasement. The surface layer of discipline and social culture is easily torn off, only one or two generations of poor living are needed. Mven Mass had glanced into the face of the beast there, on the Island of Oblivion. If he is not restrained, if he has his way, a monstrous despotism will come into being that will crush everything underfoot and bring back that ruthless arbitrariness that held mankind enslaved for so many centuries.

The most astounding thing in world history is the emergence of that undying hatred for knowledge and beauty that is typical of all vicious ignoramuses. This mistrust, fear and hatred are to be found in all human communities, beginning with fear of the primitive witches and witch-doctors and continuing up to the beating of those thinkers who were ahead of their time in the Era of Disunity. The same thing occurred on other planets with highly-developed civilizations that had not succeeded in protecting their social systems from the arbitrary action of small groups of people, oligarchies, that emerged suddenly and cunningly in the most diverse forms. Mven Mass recalled that the same thing had been reported over the Great Circle about other inhabited worlds where the highest achievements of science were used to intimidate, for torture and punishment, for thought-reading and turning the masses into obedient semi-idiots ever ready to fulfil the most monstrous orders. A cry for help from such a planet had reached the Circle and flown on into space many hundreds of years after the people who sent it and their cruel rulers had perished.

Our planet is now at a stage of development when such horrors are inconceivable. But man’s spiritual development is still insufficient and people like Evda Nahl are working on the problem.

“How can you get so deep in thought?” came Chara’s voice from behind. “The artist Cart Sann said that wisdom is the combination of knowledge and feelings,” as she walked along the girl threw off her bathrobe, “and so we’ll be wise!”

Chara ran past the African and dived from the height into the noisy swirl below. Mven Mass saw her jump forward, turn a somersault, spread her arms and disappear into the waves. The lads from the Destroyer Battalion, bathing down below, were suddenly silent. A cold shiver of admiration verging on fright ran down Mven’s back. The African had never dived from such a crazy height but he now stood without a tremor on the edge of the cliff and took off his clothes. He later remembered that in hazy momentary thoughts Chara seemed like an ancient goddess to him, a goddess that could do anything. If she could, then so could he!

A faint cry of warning from the girl arose out of the waves but Mven Mass did not hear it as he dived down. The flight was blissfully long. Mven Mass, a skilled diver, entered the water perfectly and his dive carried him a long way down. The water was so amazingly transparent that the sea bed seemed dangerously close. He twisted his body upwards and the impact of unspent inertia was so terrific that for a moment everything ceased to exist for him. With the velocity of a rocket Mven Mass flew to the surface, rolled over on to his back and lay rocked by the waves. When he opened his eyes he saw Chara swimming towards him, the paleness of fright dulling the bronze of her sunburn. There was both reproach and admiration in her eyes.

“Why did you do that?” she whispered, hardly breathing.

“Because you did. I’ll follow you anywhere to build my Epsilon Tucanae on our Earth!”

“Will you come back to the Great World with me?”

“Yes!”

Mven Mass turned over to swim farther and gave a shout of amazement. The astounding transparency of the water that had played such a nasty trick on him seemed even greater out there, farther from the beach. He and Chara seemed to be floating at a dizzy height over the sea bed every detail of which showed as clearly through the pure water as it would through the air. Mven Mass was brimming over with courage and triumph such as people experience when they get outside the bounds of terrestrial gravitation. Journeys across the ocean in a storm, leaps into the black gulf of the Cosmos from artificial satellites aroused similar feelings of boundless daring and success. Mven Mass in a single spurt swam up to Chara, whispered her name and read a fervent response in her clear and courageous eyes. Their hands and lips joined over the crystal gulf.