for another series of events to rival that which followed Flags?"
"This should easily rival Flags," said Lord Jagged. "It makes me feel young again."
"Were you ever young, Jagged?" asked the Iron Orchid in surprise.
"Well, you know what I mean," he said.
7
To Steal a Space-Traveller
My Lady Charlotina had always preferred the subterranean existence.
Her territory of Below-the-Lake was not merely subterranean, it was subaqueous, too, in the truest
sense. It was made up of mile upon mile of high, muggy caverns linked by tunnels and smaller caves, into
which one might put whole cities and towns without difficulty. My Lady Charlotina had hollowed the
whole place out herself, many years before, under the bed and following the contours of one of the few
permanent lakes left on the planet.
This lake was, of course, Lake Billy the Kid.
Lake Billy the Kid was named after the legendary American explorer, astronaut and bon-vivant,
who had been crucified around the year 2000 because it was discovered that he possessed the
hindquarters of a goat. In Billy the Kid's time such permutations were apparently not fashionable.
Lake Billy the Kid was perhaps the most ancient landmark in the world. It had been moved only
twice in the past fifty thousand years.
At Below-the-Lake, the revels were in full swing.
A hundred or so of My Lady Charlotina's closest friends had arrived to entertain their delighted (if
surprised) hostess and themselves. The party was noisy. It was chaotic.
Jherek Carnelian had had no difficulty, in this atmosphere, in slipping away to the menagerie and at
last discovering My Lady Charlotina's latest acquisition in one of the two or three thousand smaller
caverns she used to house her specimens.
The cavern containing Yusharisp's environment was between one containing a flickering, hissing
flame-creature (which had been discovered on the Sun, but had probably originally come from another
star altogether) and another containing a microscopic dog-like alien from nearby Betelgeux.
Yusharisp's environment was rather dark and chilly. Its main feature was a pulsing, squeaking black
and purple tower which was covered in a most unappealing kind of mould. The tower was doubtless
what Yusharisp lived in on his home planet. Apart from the tower there was a profusion of drooping grey
plants and jagged dark yellow rocks. The tower resembled the spaceship which My Lady Charlotina had
had to disseminate (if it had disseminated, as such, being of unearthly origin).
Yusharisp sat on a rock outside his tower, his four little legs folded under his spherical body. Most
of his eyes were closed, save one at the front and one at the back. He seemed lost in sullen thoughts and
did not notice Jherek at first. Jherek adjusted one of his rings, broke the force-barrier for a second, and
walked through.
"You're Yusharisp, aren't you?" said Jherek. "I came to say how interested I was in your speech of
the other day."
All Yusharisp's eyes opened round his head. His body swayed a little so that for a moment Jherek
thought it would roll off and bounce over the ground like a ball. Yusharisp's many eyes were filled with
gloom. "You, skree, responded to it?' he said in a small, despairing voice.
"It was very pleasant," said Jherek vaguely, thinking that perhaps he had begun on the wrong tack.
"Very pleasant indeed."
"Pleasant? Now I am completely confused." Yusharisp began to rise on the rock upon his four little
legs. "You found what I had to say pleasant?"
Jherek realised he had not said the right thing. "I mean," he went on, "that it was pleasant to hear
such sentiments expressed." He racked his brains to remember exactly what the alien had said. He knew
the general drift of it. He had heard it many times before. It had been about the end of the universe or the
end of the galaxy, or something like that. Very similar in tone to a lot of what Li Pao had to say. Was it
because the people on Earth were not living according to the principles and customs currently fashionable
on the alien's home planet? That was the usual message: "You do not live like us. Therefore you are going
to die. It is inevitable. And it will be your own fault."
"Refreshing, I meant," said Jherek lamely.
"I see, skree, what you mean, skree." Mollified, the alien hopped from the rock and stood quite
close to Jherek, his front row of eyes staring roundly up into Jherek's face.
"I am pleased that there are some serious-minded people on this planet," Yusharisp continued. "In
all my travels I have never had such a reception. Most beings have been moved and (roar) saddened by
my news. Some have accepted it with dignity, skree, and calm. Some have been angry to disbelieving,
even attacked me. Some have not been moved at all, for death holds no fear for, skree, them. But, skree,
on Earth (roar) I have been imprisoned and my spaceship has quite casually been destroyed! And no
one has expressed regret, anger anything but what? amusement. As if what I had to say was a
joke. They do not take me seriously, yet they lock me in this cell as if I had, skree, committed some kind
of crime (roar)! Can you explain?"
"Oh, yes," said Jherek. "My Lady Charlotina wanted you for her collection. You see, she hasn't got
a space-traveller of your shape and size."
"Collection? This is a (roar) zoo, skree, then?"
"Of sorts. She hasn't explained? She can be a bit vague, My Lady Charlotina, I agree. But she has
made you comfortable. Your own environment in all its details."
Jherek looked without enthusiasm at the drooping plants and dark yellow rocks, the mouldy tower
sticking up into the chill air. It was easy to see why the alien had chosen to leave. "Nice."
Yusharisp turned away and began to waddle towards his tower. "It is useless. My translator is
malfunctioning more than I realised. I cannot transmit my message properly. It is my fault, not yours. I
deserve this."
"What exactly was the message," said Jherek. He saw a chance to find out without appearing to
have forgotten. "Perhaps if you could repeat it I could tell you if I understood."
The alien appeared to brighten and walk backwards. The only difference between his back and his
front, as far as Jherek could see, was that his mouth was in the front. The eyes looked exactly the same.
He swivelled round so that his mouth aperture faced Jherek.
"Well," Yusharisp began, "basically what has happened is that the universe, having ceased to
expand, is contracting. Our researches have shown that this is what always happens
expansion/contraction, expansion/contraction, expansion/contraction the universe forming and
re-forming all the time. Perhaps that formation is always the same each cycle being more or less a
repeat of the previous one I don't know. Anyway that takes us into the realm of Time, not Space, and
I know nothing at all of Time."
"An interesting theory," said Jherek, who found it somewhat boring.
"It is not a theory."
"Aha."
"The universe has begun to contract. As a result, skree, all matter not in a completely gaseous (roar)
state already, will be destroyed as it is pulled into what you might call the central vortex of the universe.
My own, skree, planet has already gone by now, I should think." The alien sighed a deep sigh. "It's a
matter of millennia, perhaps even less time than that, before your galaxy goes the same way." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]