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board.
The captain hesitated a moment. Then he threw switches. The great ship began
shuddering as gases ignited and began to pour like channeled lightning from
the rear vents. The sound was almost soothing to Mason. He didn t care any
more; he was willing, like Mickey, to take a chance. It had only been a few
hours. It had seemed like a year. Minutes had dragged, each one weighted with
oppressive recollections. Of the bodies they d seen, of the shattered
rocket even more of the Earth they would never see, of parents and wives and
sweethearts and children. Lost to their sight forever. No, it was far better
to try to get back. Sitting and waiting was always the hardest thing for a man
to do. He was no longer conditioned for it.
Mason sat down at his board. He waited tensely. He heard Mickey jump up and
move over to the engine control board.
I m going to take us up easy, Ross said to them. There s no reason why we
should... have any trouble.
He paused. They snapped their heads over and looked at him with muscle-tight
impatience.
Are you both ready? Ross asked.
Take us up,
Mickey said.
Ross jammed his lips together and shoved over the switch that read:
Vertical Rise.
They felt the ship tremble, hesitate. Then it moved off the ground, headed up
with increasing velocity. Mason flicked on the rear viewer. He watched the
dark earth recede, tried not to look at the white patch in the corner of the
screen, the patch that shone metallically under the moonlight.
Five hundred, he read. Seven-fifty... one thousand... fifteen hundred....
He kept waiting. For explosion. For an engine to give out. For their rise to
stop.
They kept moving up.
Three thousand, Mason said, his voice beginning to betray the rising sense
of elation he felt. The planet was getting
farther and farther away. The other ship was only a memory now. He
looked across at Mickey. Mickey was staring, open-mouthed, as if he were
about ready to shout out
Hurry!
but was afraid to tempt the fates.
Six thousand...
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seven thousand!
Mason s voice was jubilant. We re out of it!
Mickey s face broke into a great, relieved grin. He ran a hand over his brow
and flicked great drops of sweat on the deck.
God, he said, gasping, my God.
Mason moved over to Ross s seat. He clapped the captain on the shoulder.
We made it, he said. Nice flying.
Ross looked irritated.
We shouldn t have left, he said. It was nothing all the time. Now we have
to start looking for another planet. He shook his head. It wasn t a good
idea to leave, he said.
Mason stared at him. He turned away shaking his head, thinking... you can t
win.
If I ever see another glitter, he thought aloud, I ll keep my big mouth
shut. To hell with alien races anyway.
Silence. He went back to his seat and picked up his graph chart. He let out a
long shaking breath. Let Ross complain, he thought, I can take anything now.
Things are normal again. He began to figure casually what might have occurred
down there on that planet.
Then he happened to glance at Ross.
Ross was thinking. His lips pressed together. He said something to himself.
Mason found the captain looking at him.
Mason, he said.
What?
Alien race, you said.
Mason felt a chill flood through his body. He saw the big head nod once in
decision. Unknown decision. His hands started to shake. A crazy idea came.
No, Ross wouldn t do that, not just to assuage vanity. Would he?
I don t... he started. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mickey watching
the captain too.
Listen,
Ross said. I ll tell you what happened down there. I ll show you what
happened!
They stared at him in paralyzing horror as he threw the ship around and headed
back.
What are you doing! Mickey cried.
Listen, Ross said. Didn t you understand me? Don t you see how we ve been
tricked?
They looked at him without comprehension. Mickey took a step toward him.
Alien race, Ross said. That s the short of it. That time-space idea is all
wet. But I ll tell you what idea isn t all wet. So we leave the place. What s
our first instinct as far as reporting it? Saying it s uninhabitable?
We d do more than that. We wouldn t report it at all.
Ross, you re not taking us back! Mason said, standing up suddenly as the
full terror of returning struck him.
You bet I am! Ross said, fiercely elated.
You re crazy! Mickey shouted at him, his body twitching, his hands clenched
at his sides menacingly.
Listen to me! Ross roared at them. Who would be benefited by us not
reporting the existence of that planet?
They didn t answer. Mickey moved closer.
Fools! he said. Isn t it obvious? There life down there. But life that
isn t strong enough to kill us or chase us away is with force. So what can
they do? They don t want us there. So what can they do?
He asked them like a teacher who cannot get the right answers from the dolts
in his class.
Mickey looked suspicious. But he was curious now, too, and a little timorous
as he had always been with his captain, except in moments of greatest
physical danger. Ross had always led them, and it was hard to rebel against it
even when it seemed he was trying to kill them all. His eyes moved to the
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viewer screen where the planet began to loom beneath them like a huge dark
ball.
We re alive, Ross said, and I say there never was a ship down there. We saw
it, sure. We touched it. But you can see anything if you believe it s
there! All your senses can tell you there s something when there s nothing.
All you have to do is believe it!
What are you getting at? Mason asked hurriedly, too frightened to realize.
His eyes fled to the altitude gauge. Seventeen thousand... sixteen thousand...
fifteen...
Telepathy, Ross said, triumphantly decisive. I say those men, or whatever
they are, saw us coming. And they didn t want us there. So they read our minds
and saw the death fear, and they decided that the best way to scare us away
was to show us our ship crashed and ourselves dead in it. And it worked...
until now.
So it worked! Mason exploded. Are you going to take a chance on killing us
just to prove your damn theory?
It s more than a theory! Ross stormed, as the ship fell, then Ross added
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