Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains by Sylvia Louise Engdahl

Author:Sylvia Louise Engdahl
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Atheneum
Published: 1973-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Leaving the computers, Noren found his way to the assembly room without conscious thought. It was not crowded, and in fact even Stefred was absent; apparently only the specialists in nuclear physics had been invited to attend. Noren was so dazed that he scarcely noticed that others also looked troubled, or that none of his acquaintances tried to talk to him. He sat in a sort of stupor, void of all feeling, waiting for the conference to begin. There are no answers, his mind kept repeating. The City does not contain all truth, and if it does not, is there any real truth to be found? How can there be sense to such a universe? How can these others live in it?

He had assumed that the older Scholars must know something he did not; now he felt that such questions as he’d framed must never have occurred to them. They had discussed the limits of their scientific knowledge often enough, and surprising though it had been to find that even apart from the problem of how to synthesize metal, the Founders had not been omniscient about material things, he had accepted the fact. He had seen how knowledge of that kind increased gradually, through observation and experimentation. Yet never had anyone mentioned a general ignorance of other important matters—deep matters that, having once been thought about, could not possibly be ignored. If people had been perplexed, they would surely have said so! Why had he been singled out to endure this burden? Noren wondered despairingly. The rest had once seemed so much like him in their concern for truth. . . .

At the front of the room a Scholar was speaking quietly. “Grenald cannot be with us,” he said, “although as I’m sure you all realize, he would not stay away by choice. Two hours ago he collapsed and has been taken to the infirmary. For more than a year the doctors have warned him about overwork, yet he drove himself until there was nothing left to be done. May the Star’s spirit now restore the strength . . .”

As the eyes of the people turned upward toward the overhead sunburst, Noren saw that many glistened with tears, and bafflement penetrated his numbness. Grenald was greatly respected, but he was a reserved and distant man for whom few felt warm affection. “. . . that he spent on our behalf,” the speaker continued, “for while he cannot live to see the day he strove for, the darkness of this one will nevertheless diminish. We who go on would have him see that we are not vanquished.”

Several of the women were by this time crying openly, and Noren perceived that some unexpectedly serious failure had been encountered in the work. Terror spread in a cold wave through his body. He felt paralyzed, unreal, as he had on the morning after the space flight. The voice of Grenald’s chief assistant, who had taken the floor, seemed dim and far away.

“Those of

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