A Handful of Earths by Sansoucy Kathenor

Author:Sansoucy Kathenor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Madona Skaff
Published: 2021-08-27T16:05:18+00:00

Chapter 14

Limbo

The minutes dragged through an hour and more. Van and Davith were torn by their helplessness. There was nothing they could do themselves, no one on their own Earth to whom they could appeal for aid, and no way to contact anyone elsewhere: even the wexters’ recorder, slow as that might be as communication, was with Mayne. After fruitless speculation, review of their non-resources, and plain worry, they gradually fell silent. Their normal departure hour had passed without remark or even notice; they clung desperately to their vigil.

And finally Mayne reappeared. Alone. Their cries of relief blended into anxious inquiries: “What’s happened?” “Where’s Ithleen?”

“I can’t get her,” said Mayne heavily. “I’ve seen her innumerable times; but every time I transplace into the world where she is, she’s transplaced out. Since it takes a bit longer to materialize than to fade out, I get only a glimpse of her. Sometimes I thought I was catching up, so I kept on; but I never did. I don’t know how many universes we’ve been through, but I don’t dare go any further.”

“Why not, Plennor?” Davith asked, brow creased with puzzlement as well as worry.

“The first universes were ordinary, civilized ones. Then we began to appear in ones that had reverted to savagery; then devastated ones; then ones that had never had life; then ones with alien forms of life; then ones with horrors like things out of some old book on the occult; and finally – non-worlds. I don’t know how to describe them. They were simply – places – of nothingness. With a sensation of emptiness, loss, alienness. And it was getting worse.”

“You had to leave her in that?” cried Van.

“It seemed to be my arrival that set off her rifkey each time. I didn’t dare pursue any further,” he repeated.

Van turned to the practical. “What are we going to do, Plennor?”

“Something is malfunctioning in her rifkey and possibly in mine. But since the rifkeys are psionic, there’s just a chance a change of operator might affect the functioning. So I want each of you, to try one trip to her. If you can reach her, try to bring her back. If you can’t bring her, come back promptly yourselves. Now, you understand how to operate the rifkey?”

“Yes, Plennor.”

He made each of them go over the operation, and drilled the pattern into them by hypnotic command.

Each in turn, faces set with concentration, transplaced out, and shortly after, returned, to find Mayne pacing in agitated suspense. “It’s just as you described, Plennor: she vanishes.”

At the second return, Mayne broke off his pacing to make another brief report into the wexters’ recorder, then picked up the rifkey again. “I’m going to talk to Jonno. Perhaps another mind on this will help somehow. Meanwhile, see if you can get hold of Robinaire.”

He found Jonno in his kitchen, so engrossed in a book that he had forgotten to finish his supper.

“Jonnan,” With a single look at his analog, Jonno snapped his book shut and shoved his dishes into the automatic high-temperature sterilizer/sorter.

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