Stanley Mullen

“ A sector of blackness dead ahead was projected onto the screen.
There was nothing to see. Light in interstellar space is too feeble to reveal anything not self luminous.
"Try a radilume beam," suggested Charters.
The screen flickered, then resumed its blackness. With no dust, no anything, to reflect light back to the ship, the beam lost itself in the immensity.
Braun worked with the studs.
"We're slowing," he announced. "Now what?"
"Try a dead stop, but be ready to move out fast in case the alien continues a collision course." ”

“ Light and gravity may not be functions only of our space-time continuum but of others adjacent too and even overlapping ours. We know very little about the nature of either, and some of our unexplained phenomena may be the result of actions and reactions outside our continuum. ”

“ Then the Venture IV went out and out and out countless miles and light-years and whatever else it is—and out there in the lonely darkness something happened. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but there was a lot of guessing. Only one man came back. Braun. And there was talk....
Tending bar anywhere is better, they say, than an academic degree in psychology. Tending bar on one of the way stations to the stars you see people—most of them human—as they really are, and in all stages of emotion. ”

“ Half an hour later, the lifeboat was ready. Serviced with air, food and water for an indefinite time, the tiny craft lay in its cradle.
"Keep a light in the window for me," said Braun.
He climbed aboard through the miniature airlock, which closed behind him. Solenoid magnets conveyed the lifeboat through chutes into the valve of the main airlock. Doors opened and closed with automatic finality. Air hissed back into the ship as pumps emptied the valve. With pressure equalized, the outer door opened into space. ”

“ His eyes seemed to be staring beyond the outer limits of darkness, beyond the mystical barrier of the speed of light itself....
"The ship came out of warp automatically. Robot machinery was set for that, to bring us out at intervals—though nobody could be sure just how it would function. Ordinary time-intervals do not exist, and time itself is a random factor—out there. They tell me we were gone more than five years, here. For us, it was weeks. Most of the time we were in suspended animation, of course, with automatic controls to handle the ship and rouse one or more of us at intervals. ”

“ They waited for explanations while Braun took a stiff slug of coffee laced with brandy.
"Somehow I must have got turned around," admitted Braun ruefully. "I can understand that, but the lifeboat was set on automatic pilot. I thought I came straight across, and with the robot pilot I should have. What do you think happened?"
Topping was sober. "There are several possible explanations. I don't like any of them. Maybe there's a flaw in space here. It could act like a mirror, reflecting back our own mass and the beam of our own light. Who knows? There may not even be an alien ship out there." ”

“ They think I was tricked, that it's not really the same ship, but a clever and almost miraculous duplicate."
"But why, and how?"
Braun laughed bitterly. "Your guess is as good as anybody's. Mine is—that I wasn't wanted. The rest of the crew were all specialists, trained technicians, each one the best in his field. If somebody out there wanted some samples of the best brains in the human race, he really got the top quality. They were all educated to the hilt, trained for a particular job. ”

“ The ship was mostly automatic. I knew then why I had been picked. As I said, in an emergency, I could handle any job or even all jobs, for as long as necessary. We had all the flight tapes from the long voyage out. Mainly it was a job for the computers. You couldn't just run the tapes through backward because nothing ever stands quite still in the universe. All I know is that we did it, the ship and I. The Venture IV is the real hero, I guess. It brought me back."
"What about the others?" somebody persisted.
"I don't know," Braun answered irritably. "All I know is what I've told you. ”

“ We could get there, this time—but not back. Sure, we're all disappointed. But don't take it so hard. We haven't really failed. We've made it easier to get the job done. Next time."
"Yes," agreed Braun bitterly. "The job will be done. But not by us. We'll be too old before another ship is ready. And by the time the analysts are through with this one, it will be junk. Just like us."
Charters laughed.
The two were alone in the control room. The other techs, for once all awake at the same time, were busily checking their instruments, each in his own department. ”

“ Stars, like luminous lice crawling on the black body of eternity...."
... Velocity and acceleration needles met in the center of the gauge. No change in the relation of the ship to anything was apparent, and none would be. Out of the warp, the ship hung, unmoving, in a vastness of dark. Even the galaxies showed but faintly in the visiplates. Destination was the spiral M31 in Andromeda, but the rest of Andromeda lay far behind, and a faint smudge ahead seemed as far away as the home galaxy, which was exactly the case. ”

“ But he was always coming or going somewhere never lighting or staying put.
You don't learn too much about a man in a bar, casually. Little things add up and hint at the bigger ones. You can call him by his first name casually, and hash over mutual acquaintances, that's all. ”