E.C Tubb - THE RETURN

"Getting close." The navigator's voice betrayed his tension. "Field ready to collapse. Ready? Now!"

The blue cocoon surrounding the vessel died. There was a brief flicker as the scanners replaced the computer analogues and relayed the direct image of what lay outside.

"No!" Nadine drew in her breath. "It can't be!"

The screens showed nothing, but the vista of space.

"I knew it!" Chapman snarled his disgust. "It was all a damned lie! Earth doesn't exist and this proves it. We've crossed half the galaxy to find it's only a myth. The salvage lost. The reward. Those abandoned on Fionnula. All for nothing. There's no Earth. No planet of treasure. We've been used. Taken for fools!"

Dumarest said, sharply, "You can't lose what you never had so stop whining about the salvage. There's nothing out there because you didn't do your job."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You were supposed to take us to the new coordinates I gave you. Obviously you haven't. Why? Taking your revenge because I didn't trust you?" His voice thickened with anger. "If you want revenge you can have it – and so can I!"

"Earl! Don't!" Nadine added, quickly, "There has to be a mistake of some kind."

"The mistake was in believing a legend." Chapman had calmed, recognizing the strength of Dumarest's anger. He gestured at the screens. "There's the truth. Take a good look at it." He added, bitterly, "It's cost enough."

In blood and pain and the threat of extinction. The loss of a fortune. In mockery, hatred, betrayal, and death which had come too close. Dumarest knew too well what the price had been.

Niall said, quietly, "I know how you must be feeling, Earl. You're disappointed and think yourself cheated and it's never pleasant to be wrong. But don't blame the captain. He went where I told him and you supplied the coordinates. This is where they guided us."

The golden figures of Earth – a lie?

It was something Dumarest didn't want to believe. He had searched too long to be able to calmly accept that it had all been for nothing. He knew Earth existed. He was positive the coordinates had been genuine. Why had they found nothing but empty space?

Nadine said, urgently, "Believe them, Earl. It's exactly as they say."

The truth as she read it. But there had to be something more. Dumarest recalled a clue won from the past.

"Look for patterns," he ordered. "Try to find constellations which fit designs." He quoted the mnemonic. "The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, and next the Crab the Lion shines the Virgin and the Scales. The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea Goat, the man who holds the Watering Pot, the Fish with shining scales."

Nadine didn't understand. "Earl?"

"The signs of the Zodiac," he explained. "As seen from Earth the night sky held constellations set in a ring of designs. In order they are Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Pot, Fish. Twelve of them. They should be unmistakable."

Signposts in the sky standing like a ring of sentinels about Earth. Guardians now absent.

"Maybe they didn't look like what you say," suggested Badwasi. Impatient to find the promised world he had joined the others. "Can you remember them, Earl? You would have seen them when young. Animals, people, things. Stars shaped into images would be hard to forget?"

There had been no images. Dumarest thought back, remembering, seeing the sky as he had when a boy. An expanse of gleaming stars streaked by the ribbon of the galactic lens, dominated at times by the swollen orb of the moon. There had been no pictures of men and women, of artifacts and creatures suspended in the heavens.

"Try to remember," urged Badwasi. "If we can see them then this is where Earth used to be. If not then we are in the wrong place."

"Used to be," mused Niall. "That's a possibility. Maybe it has moved. The galaxy is rotating," explained the navigator. "The drift isn't fast but it's there and has to be taken into account. How old were the coordinates you gave me? A thousand years? Five?"

"I don't know," admitted Dumarest. "But they had to be very old."

"Which means we are at a point in space where Earth used to be a long time ago. A few thousand years isn't much in galactic terms but it could be the answer. All we have to do is plot a course which will compensate for the galactic drift. Don't worry, Earl. If Earth exists we'll find it."

Dumarest waited, staring bleakly at the screen. There was nothing he could do if the search should end in failure. Nothing but admit defeat and try again, but, if Earth was not found, there would be problems he would have to face. The Kaldari, disappointed, believing themselves to have been cheated, would demand vengeance for their dead. Even if they left him alive he would be stranded on some hostile world. Perhaps crippled, maimed, blinded, helpless to fend for himself. Capable only of waiting for death.

Irritably he dismissed the concept. To worry about an uncertain future was worse than stupid. The very fact such thoughts had intruded on his mind was proof that the search was costing him more than money and fatigue. He was losing the sharp edge of assessment which was essential if he hoped to survive.

"Soon," said Chapman. His tone betrayed what he expected to find. Another failure and the inevitable disappointment which could lead Dumarest to make demands backed by the threat of violence. The captain's hand rose to feel the flat hardness of the laser beneath his tunic. If such demands came he was ready to face them.

From his station Niall said, "Stand by, captain. Now!"

The field collapsed, the ship slowing, the screen blazing with a sudden rush of light. A glowing sun and, before them, a ball of blue and swirling white hanging like a jewel against the darkness of space. One attended by a sister globe, smaller, brightly silver with reflected light, marred and pocked to give the likeness of a skull.

"That's it!" Niall shouted his triumph. "By God, we've found it!"

Earth – and something else.

It came from behind the moon, a gleaming spindle which was suddenly before them, to hang, a bright fleck against the bulk of the planet. A vessel of unfamiliar pattern but Dumarest knew to whom it must belong.

To Chapman he said, "Order full battle alert. Move, damn you! Badwasi, get to your station and ready missiles!" Over the blare of the alarm he yelled, "Schell! Any contact?"

"No."

"Keep trying," snapped the captain. "Niall, what have you on that vessel?"

"Nothing. The design is one I've never seen before. But it's fast and looks armed. Let's hope it's friendly."

A hope Dumarest didn't share. The Cyclan had advanced technology and the ship had to be theirs. The fact that it was here, waiting, was proof they knew of the existence and location of Earth. Like a spider in a web they had waited for his arrival. Logic dictated they would communicate. He knew what they would demand.

"Dumarest.'The face portrayed on the comscreen was a model of sculptured perfection. "Earl Dumarest. Are you receiving me? Please respond."

"I am receiving you."

"We must talk in private. Use your communications shack." The communication was broken as Dumarest followed the instructions. Was resumed as he sat in Schell's chair. "You are wise to cooperate. We have matters to discuss."

Dumarest said, dryly, "I assumed that."

"You are astute. Incidentally I must congratulate you. The prediction that you would fall victim to the trap presented by the Evoy was of a high order of probability. By escaping you demonstrated your unusual abilities. I am confident we can arrive at a satisfactory arrangement."

"Who are you?"

"The representative of the Master Ryon, the Cyber Prime. Think of me as an extension. I suggest you consider the implications of what that means."