Barrington Bayley - Barrington Bayley SF Gateway Omnibus - The Soul of the Robot, The Knights of the Limits, The Fall of Chronopolis

‘You want us to take the ship and go illegally into solidity,’ Ereton said tonelessly.

‘Yes, why not? What else is left to us? It’s either that or abandon all our dreams and live useless, frustrated lives. We’ve got this one chance, so let’s take it!’

In his heart Ereton had known that this was why they had come here, but the thought of such a step made him go deathly pale. ‘Do you realise what it means? It will be the death sentence when we return!’

‘Not if we return with news of other emptiness in the rock!’ Erled replied triumphantly. ‘We have friends even in the Council, you know!’ One friend, anyway, he told himself privately.

Ereton opened his hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘And suppose we find no new emptiness? How long did the ancients search?’ He shook his head. ‘We’re both mad.’

‘ Both of us, eh?’ Erled grinned. ‘I knew you were with me! Don’t prevaricate, we may only have minutes in which to make our get-away!’

Smiling wryly, Ereton patted him on the shoulders. ‘Of course I’m with you, old friend. As you say, what else is there to do at a juncture like this?’

Hastily they scrambled aboard the solidity ship and made a rapid check of all the equipment. The newly completed craft slid along its ramp until reaching the further wall, when the rock touched by its snout seemed to collapse and to flow like fine oil. The ship lurched suddenly forward, and seconds later it had merged and disappeared into the bare, blank rock.

‘Incredible,’ murmured Erled.

Ereton joined him from aft and peered over his shoulder at the flickering bank of instruments. ‘What is it?’

‘I think we’re being followed.’

They had been en voyage for just over two weeks. In the cramped space, Ereton leaned closer. Pretty soon there was no doubt of it: the image plates of both sonicscope and tremorscope sharpened to reveal that a second solidity ship was following them. And it was close.

While they stared in amazement they heard a ping and a light came on over the rockvid receiver. Erled flicked a switch. Across the plate streamed recurrent ripples that slowly built up a crude, low-definition picture carried by sonicwaves from the following ship.

The hooded face of Ergrad stared at them from the plate, distorted somewhat by the incessant ripples.

‘I never dreamed they’d go this far!’ Erled breathed.

The Proctors, presumably, were so furious at their escape that they had sent Ergrad in hot pursuit! The second ship must have been put together in a hurry by modifying a surveyor vessel. At that, Erled thought, the enforcer had done very well indeed to catch up with them so quickly. He must have strained the engines to the utmost, at considerable danger to himself.

Ergrad spoke, the words coming blurred through the speaker.

‘Erled, Ereton! Halt and turn your ship round at once! I am here to escort you back to the Cavity, where you will stand trial for your crimes!’

Erled and Ereton looked at one another quizzically.

‘No return!’ Erled said fiercely. ‘We keep going!’

Nodding, Ereton spoke into the transmitter microphone. ‘Sorry, Proctor, we can’t turn back now.’

‘Be warned that we are armed with quake beams and will not hesitate to use them! Obey or be destroyed!’ Ergrad glowered, and his voice was like iron.

‘What shall we do?’ Ereton hissed, switching off the microphone. ‘Those beams can shake us to pieces!’

‘Perhaps we can dodge them.’

Ereton crouched down behind Erled as the latter took over the controls. The solidity ship surged forward at top speed and began to weave about through the rock. Shortly afterwards there was a screeching, rumbling sound and the ship shook as though it were a bell struck by a giant hammer. Erled gasped as the vibrations caught hold of him and made him feel that he was being turned inside out.

Although they had been struck only a glancing blow, Erled had been counting on the fact that quake beams travelled fairly slowly through their rock medium and therefore were difficult to aim at a fast-moving object. Unfortunately, Ergrad – or whoever was operating the weapon – seemed to be skilled in its use.

Finding the controls unaffected by the strike, Erled put the ship through a dizzying series of turns. He knew that he had to avoid another hit and at the same time to put distance between himself and the pursuer, because their only hope lay in the probability that Ergrad’s vessel was limited in its range and therefore he would soon have to turn back.

He peered at the sonicscope and tremorscope plates, trying to judge precisely where the pursuing ship lay and where it might strike next. But suddenly both plates erupted into an unreadable, screaming flurry as the quake beam went into action again. All around them the tortured rock quaked and imploded and the metal of the ship shrieked as if demented. Erled and Ereton immediately lost consciousness, but the injured solidity ship, its engines still working at full blast, plunged blindly on at top speed through the eternal rock.

Erled did not know how much later it was that he came to himself again. His first impression was of a grating noise jarring on his ears, telling him that all was not well. He saw that Ereton too was stirring, and then he climbed back to his bucket seat and scaled down the accelerator.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asked Ereton.

‘I don’t think so,’ groaned the other, and he hauled himself to his knees in the confined space. ‘What in God’s name is that noise?’

‘We’ve sustained some damage, I think. Something amiss in the traction motor by the sound of it.’

He glanced at the ’scope plates. They were both working normally but showed no hint of anything unusual in the vicinity. ‘No sign of Ergrad,’ he announced.

‘Eh?’ Ereton stared at the plates in delight. ‘What can have happened to him? He should be able to track us down easily enough.’

‘It’s possible he believes us destroyed,’ Erled said with a shrug. ‘Or he might already have been at the point of no return when he caught up with us and is unable to follow us any further. It could even be that the quake beam backfired on him – that happens sometimes, you know. Anyway the first thing we’ve got to do is check the ship.’

When they had done so the news was not good. The steering gear was severely damaged. Worse, the relatively delicate sustenance recycling plant had also suffered damage. Erled and Ereton debated what to do.

Erled said gloomily: ‘We may well die here in the rock. But even if we manage to turn round now and head back home, what future have we? Our rank rebellion earns the death sentence, apart from the possibility that Ergrad may have died, for which we will be held responsible. Let’s continue as best we can, Ereton.’

Dourly Ereton agreed.

In the ensuing months they spent much of their time trying to repair the damage. The recycling plant required enormous attention to keep it functioning properly. Sometimes the air became foul and the food uneatable, and neither could help but notice that even its best output was deteriorating over a period of time.

The traction motor never quite lost its ominous grating noise, but they did manage to jury-rig a steering system.

But despite all their successes the confined conditions of their existence, combined with persistent hard work, anxiety, poor food and air, were sapping their strength. As time advanced something like a stupor overcame them. Eventually each privately despaired of reaching their goal, though neither would speak of his despair to the other. During that time only one thing happened to break the monotony. Ereton was taking his turn on watch, staring with heavy-lidded eyes at the image plates. Suddenly he gave a hoarse cry which brought Erled hurrying forward.