Mechasm by John Sladek

Author:John Sladek [Sladek, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1968-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

A sign informed her that the lights on the left were those of Piedport, Nevada, four miles off the road. As Aurora was about to heave a sigh of relief and take the turnoff—for at least Piedport would have a hotel—the town’s lights went out. She stopped and waited for several minutes, but nothing happened. There was no use, as she saw it, stopping there, when she could as easily push on to a town at least equipped with lights.

The radio gave nothing but a squeal that excited B476. None of the pushbuttons seemed to have any effect other than changing the pitch of the whine. It was odd, because it could not be later than 9:00. There ought to be dozens of stations.

Manually she found a weak station in the southeast.

“. . . y’all keep them cards and letters cornin’, hear? Keep fahrin’ ’em right at me, now, we appreciate hearin’ from you, neighbors . . . tunes you want . . . Here’s a wahr service bulletin, folks, seems like they had a little blackout over Calyfomy way, Nevada, Calyfomy, Oregon, Utah, Washington . . . Iowa, Kansas ...

In the middle of its alarming list, the station faded into oblivion. She found a San Francisco station, then, but it only kept urging her not to call her power company.

“They are doing everything in their—I mean, everything possible to restore service. I’ll just repeat die wire service bulletin with that message from the Pentagon: "The blackout has been caused by a generating plant short in Nevada, following an experiment the full nature of which cannot be divulged, but which was vital to our national security. Power will be restored as soon as possible.’ That was the Pentagon’s message. Now, once again, do not call the power company...

She began to see military vehicles parked along both sides of the road. Apparently they were abandoned, or the occupants were playing possum. Perhaps there was more to what Mackintosh & Company had said than she’d supposed. And the blackout. ..

She pulled off the road and parked. Knowing the potential danger of Project 32 was disturbing, but having the danger become actual was too horrible to understand at once. She needed to skirt the thought, she decided, switching off the lights. She needed to contemplate the calmness of the sky.

It was brighter than she had ever seen it, since the farm in Minnesota. There were no lights to blot anything out, and she was stunned by the heavens’ brilliance. There were Sirius and Aldebaran, pointing to the Pleiades, Orion between them. There were Castor and Pollux. She thought once more of the nights when she had learned their names, peering through one of her father’s cracked, unusable telescopes.

At this time of year the farm would smell of com and creak with crickets—as it did through nearly three seasons of the year. Unperiodically, through the night, the farm’s only “livestock,” the Rooster, would crow. Any time was dawn to the Rooster; he was like the broken clock on the mantel and the broken clock in the hall.

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