Jim Baen's Universe Vol 2 No 6 by Eric Flint

Author:Eric Flint [Flint, Eric]
Format: epub
Published: 2009-10-01T03:00:00+00:00

II.

An hour later, it was, when the grave little scientist finished and leaned back in the huge leather chair lacing his thin brown fingers together again.

Without speaking, Foster strode to a tall window. He put up the blind and stared out into the early-winter night. The bare trees were a ghostly rank of skeletons on fields of snow that shimmered faintly under the dark sky. Flakes of snow gleamed white in the flood of light from the window. The bitter wind moaned bleakly against the ancient stone walls.

"Please draw the blind," requested Barron Kane, with that same calm that nothing disturbed. "The agents of L'ao Ku might be watching. The poison ray—"

Foster snatched down the blind. He strode back to his uncle, tense, trembling a little. "Sorry!" he muttered. "I forgot."

"The idea is a peculiarly difficult one for the western mind to receive," said Barron Kane sympathetically. "It would drive most westerners mad, I suspect, to be forced to believe it. But, if you will try to grasp it with something of the oriental fatalism—"

Foster seemed unconscious of him. He strode up and down the vast, dark-paneled room. He paused, once, to touch the little aluminum model of the space ship on the table. He took a photograph of dark-eyed June Trevor from the mantel, and studied her demure, classic loveliness for a moment and replaced it very carefully. He strode back to his uncle.

"The Earth—that!" he rasped. "I can't believe it! It's too-monstrous!"

Barron Kane rose and came to him eagerly. "You must believe me, Foster," his low voice pleaded. "Because only you have the means to save the seed of humanity. And you must begin the work at once—to-night!"

"To-night?" echoed Foster, in dull surprise.

"You must realize, Foster, that we've only months. Half a year, at most. And the undertaking is—terrific. We must set up a laboratory to rush the development of your motor-tube. Your steel mills must begin fabricating parts for the—the ark of space.

"We've a thousand problems to solve in every branch of engineering. And the thing must be finished in less time than was ever taken for a similar construction. Much less time!"

"There has been no similar construction," Foster said. "Even a battle ship is a simple toy compared to the space machine. It would take a lifetime to launch the thing.

"Besides," he protested vaguely, still lost in wonderment, "I'm going to Palm Beach. I promised June that I—"

"Then you must break your promise," cut in Barron Kane imperatively. "Both of us must give every second to the job. Even then, the time is fearfully short. And we must look out for L'ao Ku with his poison ray."

"Really, you see, I can't—can't quite believe." Foster's blue eyes looked soberly at Barron Kane. "The thing's too damnably fantastic!"

"You must try to grasp it with the oriental viewpoint," urged his uncle. "The eastern fatalism—"

"I'm no Chinaman," said Foster. "But I do love June Trevor—more than anything. Even if you're right—if the next six months will be the last—I'd rather spend them with her.

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