Виктор Сапарин - The Trial of Tantalus

Barch was flying over the Pacific when his machine flashed the "forced landing" signal.

At the same instant the fire-fighting system went into action, and through the porthole he saw the left fire-extinguisher spraying the nose of the craft which was enveloped in heavy black smoke. A tongue of flame leapt up, but was snuffed out by the fire-extinguisher, and again the smoke billowed out. In a few minutes another jet of flame jabbed back along the side of the plane.

Looking about him Barch could see nothing but the vast expanse of the ocean spreading on all sides. But the machine had evidently found a piece of dry land in this watery wilderness and was straining toward it with every ounce of its remaining mechanical strength.

Barch, peering down, saw at last what the machine was heading for; it was a tiny volcanic island which from above looked amazingly like one of the spots that appeared on diseased sugar cane leaves after the Tantalus had been at it. At close quarters it turned out to be a heap of rocks that seemed to have been dropped casually in the middle of the ocean.

By now, however, the smoke was too thick for Barch to be able to see anything clearly. All he knew was that the machine circled the island twice, but even the light and manoeuvrable first aid craft could not find a place to land on this jagged pile.

After the machine had circled the island a third time, the floor under the seat into which Barch was strapped gave way and he dropped out into space.

As he floated down under the parachute, Barch saw his plane plunging down toward the ocean, trailing a scarf of black smoke.

What happened after that was like a bad dream. The jagged rocks grew menacingly larger and larger, like the teeth of cruel monsters waiting to devour him. He struck his knee a painful blow against a rocky ledge, and almost at the same time hit a vertical wall of stone with his chest. The violence of the impact caused the buckle of his strap to snap and Barch fell out of his seat. Luckily for him, he did not have far to fall. The seat suspended from the chute floated away out of sight, taking with it the supply of food and medicines packed in the sealed pocket beneath it.

For a few minutes Barch lay on the rocky ledge, too dazed to move. Then almost instinctively he felt for his Universal in his breast pocket. The tough plastic case was intact but inside something was damaged. Now he was deprived of what he needed most-contact with the outside world.

Gritting his teeth and dragging his injured leg, Barch climbed painfully up the steep side of the rock to get his bearings.

All around him, as far as the eye could see spread the ocean, blue and seemingly fathomless. The waves rolling up from the horizon broke against the rocky island and receded as if surprised at finding it there.

This tiny islet was no bigger than a freckle on the face of the ocean; he doubted whether it even had a name.

Barch turned over on his back. Lying on the hard rock and staring up at the piece of sky hemmed in by the jagged stony crags he tried to remember how it had all happened.

The first image that rose to his mind was that of Sven-sen, the grim-faced gaoler.

... The "gaol" looked exactly as Barch had pictured it from the numerous photographs he had seen. Consisting of some four dozen buildings, it was a whole town in itself, but a town without a single bush or blade of grass, a town of smooth plastic pavements covered with a huge dome of transparent plastic material.

"There is no escape from here," Svensen said in a solemn tone. His slightly sunken eyes and the deep lines at the mouth gave him the look of an ancient prophet.

"There is only one entrance, just like in Dante's Inferno, but no way out. Not so much as a seam in this wall."

"No cracks either?"

Svensen smacked his fist against the transparent wall. The fist bounced off as if from hard rubber.

"It consists of many layers, all of them self-sealing. It is resilient material. Crack-proof and bullet-proof."

"But there is an entrance!" Barch had insisted.

"You mean the entrance could serve as an exit? For men, yes. But not for microbes."

"Nevertheless one did escape."

"You will not find what you are looking for here."

"I quite believe that. But, after all, where did it come from? It couldn't have been dropped from Mars or Venus, could it?"

"Hardly. All rockets are reliably decontaminated. There is no danger of a slip there. The Safety Control people take care of that."

"But what about the bacteria that are specially brought here from other planets? Do they all come here too?"

"Yes. In sealed containers, and they go straight to our special building. That's it over there-the one farthest away from here. It is roofed with a double dome for additional insulation.

"Do you think it possible that some bacteria might have been left on the Moon?" Barch asked. "We don't decontaminate Moon rockets, do we?"

"No, that is quite excluded. Besides, as you know, the only bacteria found on the Moon were anaerobic. Just think of it!" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands in a truly prophetic gesture, "to destroy all the micro-organisms on a whole heavenly body! What a tragic blunder! One shudders to think how narrowly our Earth escaped the same fate! Remember how they began destroying all the influenza, dysentery and cholera germs? Some were completely wiped out. And now they are searching for them on Venus." The gaoler fell silent.

"Come," he said shortly.

"But where is the exit?"

"In front of you."

Looking closer, Barch saw a thin, hair-like seam on the section of the wall before him and two almost transparent hinges.

"This is the only place on Earth where there still are guards," Svensen explained. "Of course, no one would dream of entering here without permission. But the Safety Control people insist on the extra precaution. Open!" he called, raising his voice.

A section of the wall slid back, leaving a narrow opening barely wide enough for one man to squeeze through at a time. Stretching out his hand, Barch touched something hard. They were not under the dome as he had thought but in a corridor.

"The cleansing process begins here," said Svensen, pointing to the floor which had a pimply surface consisting of tiny globules with minute openings. "More bacteria are carried on the feet than any other way."

"Aren't they allowed in either?"

"Certainly not. At least not in the legal' way. Your Tantalus couldn't possibly get in here even if it tried. So you see why I am so positive that you won't find it here."

"Perhaps, but you didn't invite me here merely to convince me of that, did you?"

Svensen made no reply.

The corridor ended in the wall of the main building. After a minute's wait, the floor began slowly to drop. When it stopped, the opening above was closed by a thick screen. The two men stripped naked and deposited their discarded clothing in sealed boxes. Then began a curious journey through a seemingly endless succession of rooms, connected by small ante-chambers with double doors on both sides. And as they moved from room to room their bodies were sprayed, sprinkled, scrubbed and doused with jets of various chemical solutions at varying temperatures. Barch felt as if he were walking through a giant fountain. With his eyes shut, he followed Svensen, clinging to his guide's hand. Then followed a cycle of radiation, and they walked like ghosts from room to room now in orange, now blue, now green light radiated from the walls, now in utter darkness.

At one point the control apparatus following the procedure registered some doubt and they had to repeat one stage of the treatment. But at last it was over and they were permitted to don sterilized overalls which they took from sealed cupboards with sizes marked on the doors. These were milky-white garments resembling space suits with openings only for the face and hands.