Ben Bova - End of Exile

Magda listened to Linc’s tale without interrupting once. Her eyes went misty when he told her about Peta, otherwise she showed no emotion at all. The room’s lights dimmed to sleeping level, and still Linc wasn’t finished. On the ceiling, the Bull, the Twins, the Lion, the Virgin also listened in their customary silence. In the shadows Magda sat unmoving, straight-backed, as if in meditation. The only sign that she heard Linc was an occasional nod of her head.

“…And, well, I guess that’s all of it,” Linc said at last. His throat was dry, raspy.

Magda seemed to sense how he felt. “I’ll get you some water,” she said, rising to her feet. “Stay there.”

She went to the little niche in the wall where the water tap was and filled a cup for Linc.

Handing it to him and sitting down beside him again, Magda asked, “Jerlet wants us to fix the machines?”

Linc could hear uncertainty in her voice. Disbelief.

“Yes,” he answered. “The machines are our only hope. If we don’t fix them and use them properly, then we will fall into Baryta—the yellow sun. And we’ll all die. But with the help of the machines, we can reach the new world. Beryl. And we can live there.”

Magda said nothing.

Linc reached through the shadows to grasp her arm gently. “Think of it, Magda! A whole world for us! Open and free and clean. No more conning walls. All the air and food and water we could want. All the room!”

“The machines,” she said softly. “Jerlet told us long ago never to touch the machines. Never.”

Linc smiled at her, even though it was too dark for her to see it. “That was when we were children. Babies! Of course he told us not to touch the machines then. We would have hurt ourselves or fouled up the machines.”

She didn’t move away from his touch. But she didn’t move toward him, either.

“If Jerlet himself could tell us to fix the machines—”

“He can’t. He’s dead.”

“Yes, you told me.”

“He used the machines himself. All the time. Even when he was dying.”

“They didn’t save his life.”

“He was old, Magda. Unbelievably old. And he’d been sick for a long time.”

“But the machines still let him die,” she said.

Linc answered, “He’s inside a machine now. A machine is keeping his body safe until we—or our children, I guess—learn enough to bring him back to life.”

He felt her shudder, as though a touch of the outer darkness’s cold had gone through her.

Linc lay back on the carpeting and stared up at the softly glowing figures on the ceiling. The Ram, the Scales, the Scorpion. Once they had been strange and mysterious signs that had puzzled and even frightened him a little. Now, thanks to Jerlet, he knew what astronomical constellations were and how the art of astrology had begun on old Earth.

“Magda,” he said, surprised at the tone of his own voice. “We’re dealing with the difference between life and death. We can save the people, and reach the new world. But only if we use the machines. We’ve got to repair them and then use them. If we help the machines, they will help us. To live. If we don’t do it, then we will all die.”

“Jerlet told you that.”

“Jerlet showed me the truth of it. He taught me. He put ideas and information into my mind. I know what we have to do. But the people won’t do it unless you tell them to. You are their priestess. If you tell them that it’s the right thing to do, they’ll believe you.”

“Monel thinks he’s their leader.”

“Monel!” Linc heard anger and disgust in his voice. “He can play at being a leader, but if you tell the people that we’ve got to fix the machines, they’ll do it no matter how much Monel hollers.”

“You’re really certain…?”

“I know what we have to do,” Linc said firmly.

For a moment, Magda said nothing. Then, “All right, Linc. I want to believe you. I don’t think I even care if you’re right or wrong. I want to believe you.”

He smiled into the darkness. “Magda—”

“Where will we start, Linc? What has to be done first?”

“The bridge,” he said. “We’ve got to get the bridge back into functioning condition.”

“Bridge?” she echoed. “Where is that?”

He hesitated. “Um… it’s what we call… the Ghost Place.”

Magda sat bolt upright. “The Ghost Place?” Her voice was a horrified whisper. “ The Ghost Place? Linc, how could you even think of that? It’s impossible! You can’t go there!”

“We’ve got to.”

“No!” Magda screamed. “Never! That’s a place of death. I’ll never let you go there. You, or anyone else.”

Linc got slowly to his feet.

“Magda,” he said, forcing his voice to stay steady and calm, “this is something that I understand and you don’t. I’ve been with Jerlet; I know what has to be done.”

She stood beside him, fists planted stubbornly on her hips. “You don’t understand anything! You can’t go to the Ghost Place. It’s death—”

“That’s wrong. I know how to go there. I’ve got to clear out the bodies and fix the machines so that—”

“Linc, listen to me!” Her voice was more pleading than angry now. “I couldn’t stand it if you died.”

“I won’t die.”

“Jerlet died! You could, too.” She took a deep breath. “Besides, if you go there it’ll give Monel the chance he’s been waiting for. He’ll drive us both out.”

“Monel?”

“I don’t have the strength to fight him,” Magda said. “He wanted to make Jayna priestess. But when I stopped fighting against him so much and let him have things his own way… he let that drop. I’m still priestess, but Monel tells everybody what to do.”

Linc could feel his face pulling into a frown in the darkness. He couldn’t see the expression on Magda’s face, only the glint of highlights in her hair and the outline of her determined jaw, silhouetted against the fluorescent pictures on the walls.

“I’m here now,” he said. “I’ll take care of Monel.”

“How?” she snapped. “By going to the Ghost Place? By killing yourself? Or by making everybody so scared of you and what you’re doing that they’ll listen to whatever Monel tells them?”

He reached out toward her. “Magda, it’s got to be done, or we’ll all die.”

“No, I don’t believe that. Jerlet wouldn’t—”

“Jerlet has no control over it! He never did! He was a man, an ordinary man. He couldn’t even move out of the weightless area. He couldn’t control the ship.”

Someone knocked at the door. Two sharp raps, loud and demanding. Their argument ended.

“Who is it?” Magda called.

“Monel.”

Before Linc could say anything, Magda answered, “Come in.”

The door slid open and Monel wheeled himself into the room.

“No lights?” His voice was mocking, a thin knife blade of sound. “Are you two meditating in the dark?”

Linc couldn’t see Monel’s face, but his two guards out in the softly-lit corridor were grinning. He went over and closed the door with one hand, while palming the light switch with the other. The room brightened.

“You two have had enough time to walk around the Wheel,” said Monel. “How about telling the rest of us what you’re up to.”

The rest of us. Linc thought, meaning you.

“Linc has been telling me about his time with Jerlet,” Magda said guardedly.

“Yes? You must tell us all about it.” Monel was smiling, but there was neither friendship nor warmth in his face.

“Jerlet sent me back to fix the machines,” Linc said, “so that we can be saved from the yellow sun.”