Arthur Clarke - Against the Fall of Night

“I believe you are right,” Theon answered slowly. “Our two peoples have been separated for long enough.” That, he thought, was true, though he knew that his own feelings must bias his reply. But Alvin was still worried.

“There’s one problem I haven’t thought about until now,” he continued in a troubled voice, “and that’s the difference in our life-spans.” He said no more, but each knew what the other was thinking.

“I’ve been worrying about that a good deal,” Theon admitted, “but I think the problem will solve itself when our people get to know each other again. We can’t both be right-our lives may be too short and yours are certainly too long. In time there will be a compromise.”

Alvin wondered. That way, it was true, lay the only hope, but the ages of transition would be hard indeed. He remembered again those bitter words of Seranis: “We shall both be dead when you are still a boy.” Very well: he would accept the conditions. Even in Diaspar all friendships lay under the same shadow: whether it was a hundred or a million years away made little difference at the end. The welfare of the race demanded the mingling of the two cultures: in such a cause individual happiness was unimportant. For a moment Alvin saw humanity as something more than the living background of his own life, and he accepted without flinching the unhappiness his choice must one day bring. They never spoke of it again.

Beneath them the world continued on its endless turning. Sensing his friend’s mood, Theon said nothing, and presently Alvin broke the silence again.

“When I first left Diaspar,” he said, “I did not know what I hoped to find. Lys would have satisfied me once- but now everything on Earth seems so small and unimportant. Each discovery I’ve made has raised bigger questions and now I’ll never be content until I know who the Master was and why he came to Earth. If I ever learn that, then I suppose I’ll start to worry about the Great Ones and the Invaders-and so it will go on.”

Theon had never seen Alvin in so thoughtful a mood and did not wish to interrupt his soliloquy. He had learnt a great deal about his friend in the last few minutes.

“The robot told me,” Alvin continued, “that this machine can reach the Seven Suns in less than half a day. Do you think I should go?”

“Do you think I could stop you?” Theon replied quietly.

Alvin smiled.

“That’s no answer,” he said, “even if it’s true. We don’t know what’s out there in space. The Invaders may have left the Universe, but there may be other intelligences unfriendly to Man.”

“Why should there be?” Theon asked. “That’s one of the questions our philosophers have been debating for ages. A truly intelligent race is not likely to be unfriendly.”

“But the Invaders-?”

Theon pointed to the unending deserts below.

“Once we had an Empire. What have we now that they would covet?”

Alvin was a little surprised at this novel point of view.

“Do all your people think like this?”

“Only a minority. The average person doesn’t worry about it, but would probably say that if the Invaders really wanted to destroy Earth they’d have done it ages ago. Only a few people, like Mother, are still afraid of them.”

“Things are very different in Diaspar,” Alvin said. “My people are great cowards. But it’s unfortunate about your Mother-do you think she would stop you coming with me?”

“She most certainly would,” Theon replied with emphasis. That Alvin had taken his own assent for granted he scarcely noticed.

Alvin thought for a moment.

“By now she’ll have heard about this ship and will know what I intend to do. We mustn’t return to Airlee.”

“No: that wouldn’t be safe. But I have a better plan.”

The little village in which they landed was only a dozen miles from Airlee, but Alvin was surprised to see how greatly it differed in architecture and setting. The houses were several stories in height and had been built along the curve of a lake, looking out across the water. A large number of brightly colored vessels were floating at anchor along the shore: they fascinated Alvin, who had never heard of such things and wondered what they were for.

He waited in the ship while Theon went to see his friends. It was amusing to watch the consternation and amazement of the people crowding round, unaware of the fact that he was observing them from inside the machine. Theon was gone only a few minutes and had some difficulty in reaching the airlock through the inquisitive crowds. He breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him.

“Mother will get the message in two or three minutes. I’ve not said where we’re going, but she’ll guess quickly enough. And I’ve got some news that will interest you.”

“What is it?”

“The Central Council is going to hold talks with Diaspar.”

“What!”

“It’s perfectly true, though the announcement hasn’t been made yet. That sort of thing can’t be kept secret.”

Alvin could appreciate this: he never understood how anything was ever kept secret in Lys.

“What are they discussing?”

“Probably ways in which they can stop us leaving. That’s why I came back in a hurry.”

Alvin smiled a little ruefully.

“So you think that fear may have succeeded where logic and persuasion failed?”

“Quite likely, though you made a real impression on the councillors last night. They were talking for a long time after you went to sleep.”

Whatever the cause of this move, Alvin felt very pleased. Diaspar and Lys had both been slow to react, but events were now moving swiftly to their climax. That the climax might have unpleasant consequences for him Alvin did not greatly mind.

They were very high when he gave the robot its final instructions. The ship had come almost to rest, and the Earth was perhaps a thousand miles below, nearly filling the sky. It looked very uninviting: Alvin wondered how many ships in the past had hovered here for a little while and then continued on their way.

There was an appreciable pause, as if the robot was checking controls and circuits that had not been used for geological ages. Then came a very faint sound, the first that Alvin had ever heard from the machine. It was a tiny humming, which soared swiftly octave by octave until it was lost at the edge of hearing. There was no sense of change or motion, but suddenly he noticed that the stars were drifting across the screen. The Earth reappeared, and rolled past-then appeared again, in a slightly different position. The ship was “hunting,” swinging in space like a compass needle seeking the north. For minutes the skies turned and twisted around them, until at last the ship came to rest, a giant projectile aimed at the stars.

Centered in the screen the great ring of the Seven Suns lay in its rainbow-hued beauty. A little of Earth was still visible as a dark crescent edged with the gold and crimson of the sunset. Something was happening now, Alvin knew, beyond all his experience. He waited, gripping his seat, while the seconds drifted by and the Seven Suns glittered on the screen.

There was no sound, only a sudden wrench that seemed to blur the vision-but Earth had vanished as if a giant hand had whipped it away. They were alone in space, alone with the stars and a strangely shrunken sun. Earth was gone as though it had never been.

Again came that wrench, and with it now the faintest murmur of sound, as if for the first time the generators were exerting some appreciable fraction of their power. Yet for a moment it seemed that nothing had happened: then Alvin realized that the sun itself was gone and that the stars were creeping slowly past the ship. He looked back for an instant and saw-nothing. All the heavens behind had vanished utterly, obliterated by a hemisphere of night. Even as he watched, he could see the stars plunge into it, to disappear like sparks falling upon water. The ship was travelling far faster than light, and Alvin knew that the familiar space of Earth and Sun held him no more.