Leslie Waltham

“ A star twinkled—one star in particular—as if through the prism of a cold tear.
But he went back to the instrument, and bent to it slowly. And as he gripped the desk, his knuckles erupted, pale as washed gravestones....
And the graph lines shivered and glowed hot, and the hate came pouring out of the shining needle between the stars, and somewhere a voice called into space....
"Come back, John Hastings, come back," the Questioner said. "You may return to the present."
Throbbing, the screen died as a stirring exhalation came from the crowd. Someone asked for more air. ”

“ Mya had to be rid of this garrulous woman immediately.
Grasping one fat elbow, she steered expertly. Past the chiding of the shrubbery. "Just a perfect treasure...." Through the soughing of sands. "Imagine a servant as divine as that...." Into a waiting boat.
The tiny bark bestrode the wind. Her visitor's words washed over Mya, blue-scented and faint.
"I only wish I had her...."
"I only wish you did too," she said to no one in particular.
Thoughts of Dikki carried her back into the house. Dikki. Her tiny, scrubbed morsel! Her beloved, pink tyrant. Maybe Maun wouldn't be there. ”

“ It was definite. "It's more than that. You've been a rocket man all your life. You don't get nervous any more."
His fingers twisted the glass. Something else twisted his voice. "There are things in it that might make a man nervous, Mary. Black winds. Burning worlds. Holes in space waiting for him. You think it might be that, Mary?"
"No."
"But this is Alpha Centauri. This is faster-than-light." He bowed. "This is when baby-God Hastings tests his brain child ... when the electron lightscope goes to bat. You think it might be that, Mary?" ”

“ This ends here, Mya. I am the representative of the Third Planet. The people of Venus have seen fit to single me out and make a present to my wife. My wife will not affront them! She will not discredit me by returning this gift. She will, instead, adapt herself. It is a simple thing. ”

“ You've just opened the front door and said, 'Mary, I'm home!' And all the time in between hasn't been. It never will be."
He smiled for the first time.
"Now that's better."
The woman handed John Hastings a goblet, plump with yellow liquid. "To August, dear," she said, and raised her glass. "To the moment your foot touches Earth again. And to the wine ... warm and golden, like our life together." ”

“ I thought she was always there, watching me from some place I didn't know about. I feel that way during the sleep periods here."
Somewhere a wind-clock breathed its warning of the time.
"Gracious!" the guest started. "I didn't realize how long I've been here."
"Yes."
"And your poor baby! I'd forgotten about Dikki! He must be ravenous."
"I'll feed him right away."
"How is the little angel?"
"Eats like a horse, sleeps like a rock."
"How healthy of him!" She fluttered again over her misplaced wrap. "Which is more than I can say for you, pet. Has Andro been taking care of you?" ”

“ Only Mya, wife of Andro!"
"But I've got to have some rest," she pleaded. "I've got to be able to think freely once in a while."
"Think freely, she says!" He stopped before her and fairly screamed into her face. "Doesn't Maun draw her energy from the sun? Doesn't she fall into a comatose sleep as soon as we go night-side? Isn't she almost dead just before daybreak? ”

“ She what?"
"She took him inside and shut the door."
Heaped silence greeted the words. Men turned quietly and gazed at their wives, their eyes asking a question for the bewildered, the undecided.
"John Hastings, we have checked thoroughly. Your wife did spend the night of the fifteenth in the vacant house of which you speak. She spent the night, however, alone. Her graphs show no disturbances, no emotional exhilaration. You are perpetrating an untruth." ”

“ Rockets hummed.
"There's no use asking any more questions Angus. The time for questions is past. This is exams."
"That's what I mean, John. Remarks like that. You've gotten to be a man who talks to himself." ”

“ It is unfortunate that we can show no evidence of what reached John Hastings' eye as he looked into the electron-lightscope. Mechanical tabulations cannot be transmitted to our screen, since its envisioning powers are limited to the sensory memory patterns of the brain. We must therefore go to the defendant himself for further evidence. ”

“ Then it wasn't even a half smile.
"Dikki!" she cried, "come back." Her body tensed to watch his flight. "Dikki!" The gap between boy and ledge grew smaller and smaller.
Suddenly, she was on her feet and running hard. "Come back!" she called to him. "Watch out, Dikki, watch out!" ”

“ The screen misted, and the veils swirled.
"March eleventh ... on a ship ... a glazed splinter in blackness...."
The curtains quivered.
"Men gather tight against the void ... a clarinet wails ... there is the smell of sweat...."
Kitson and Holmes were doing a dance. They had their breechskins rolled over their knees, and four grapefruit tied to their fronts.
"Take it off ... take it off ... take it off!" The men rode a ground swell of tinny music. Rhythm stamped out in the pattern of magnetic boots fought with the sucking sound of beer cans. The air curled with smoke. ”

“ And Mya had waited for the moment when his hand would move toward her body.
"Answer me."
"I don't know what it is, Andro. It's just a feeling I have about her."
"Please explain yourself."
"I don't want her here. I was happier before she came."
He withdrew his hand. "Oh, happy, happy ... who can say what makes happiness and what doesn't? Most women would be delighted that their husbands had been so honored, but you—?"
"I am delighted," she insisted. "Please understand."
"What is there to understand?"
"That I'm also afraid."
"Of Maun?" He was surprised.
"Of Maun ... or myself ... ”

“ Envy, hate, avarice and kindred responses were virtually non-existent. Every citizen had a crude type of emotiograph attached to his person, which was examined periodically by the Eye. If any deviation from the norm was observed, the accused was called up for questioning.
"In the absence of actual crime, any emotion which might have precipitated crime was considered unlawful, and men were tried for too much anger, or too little pity. The only purpose of a trial was to ascertain whether sufficient provocation could be established to warrant a given reaction. ”

“ Placing it over the defendant's head they allowed it to fall to his shoulders.
"Are you ready, John Hastings?"
"Yes." It seemed he was already gone from the place.
"Then concentrate. Remember. Permit your mind to have freedom." The voice washed over him in waves. "It is a day in December ... the fourteenth.... Take my words and let them carry you...."
The screen above the defendant's head began to cloud and draw in.
"It is cold outside ... the snow is falling. There is a warm room. A fire is burning...." ”

“ The woman was aghast. "Here you have this lamb of a servant—"
"Who has me completely trapped. Just thinking of anything sets her off. I don't have anything left to do."
"Well, counteract the order, my sweet. ”

“ Prominent among the guests was Mrs. Mary A. Hastings, wife of Captain John Hastings who is making history in his FTL flight to Alpha Centauri. Captain Hastings will test his invention, the electron-lightscope, from our neighboring sun. It is reliably reported that the lightscope will revolutionize astral observation, in that it will replace the telescope, and will bring distant galaxies to within a few hundred feet of the earth.
"Mrs. Hastings, smartly gowned, was seated next to Co-ordinator Charles Lathrop, who had—"
Someone jostled into the machine. ”

“ Dollar signs, probably. Fred Kitson, of the horny palms, chief mechanic on the Darkness. All men who, because they had once reached out and touched hands with John Hastings, were now called to judge him. ”