The Joy Machine by James Gunn & Theodore Sturgeon

Author:James Gunn & Theodore Sturgeon [Gunn, James & Sturgeon, Theodore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek
Published: 2011-01-10T06:00:00+00:00

[subspace carrier wave transmission]

<happiness = not wanting anything>

>not wanting anything = human state: death<

<happiness = not wanting anything but not dead>

>life in death interrogate<

Chapter Ten

What Rough Beast

KIRK AWOKE FROM a dream about a reunion with Dannie. Not the Dannie he had met on Timshel but the Dannie he had come to love before they were separated by duty and then by the Joy Machine. The Dannie he imagined she might be once again. The experience was joyous and sensual and perfect in every way. Then, inexplicably, as Kirk drew Dannie close, she changed into Linda, and, although the pleasure of the moment continued unabated, the Dannie-Linda image became tinged with regret and loss, as if something dark and dangerous lurked behind the woman he held in his arms. Something that would break through if he embraced her without reservation. And then Dannie-Linda had turned into a robot, metallic and yet obscenely human, and the human part looked womanly, and the woman looked like Dannie.

Kirk sat up, bumping his head on the bunk above. He swore softly so as not to rouse the other men sleeping in the room. He rubbed his head and wondered what had awakened him, the way his body felt, [141] from a sleep only half completed. The glacier rumbled, and Kirk remembered. He had heard an explosion. The noise had been muffled by distance and bigger, therefore, than if it had been close. Something had exploded near the mountains that encircled the base.

Kirk got to his feet in the chilly room, trying to identify more accurately the noise that had broken into his sleep. He had slipped into his Timshel workshirt and jeans when the door opened, letting in a flood of sunlight. Linda stood at the door, back lit in the darkness, searching for him.

“What is it?” Kirk whispered.

Linda moved toward him. “We have recorded a curious reply from the Enterprise.”

Kirk worked his feet into his shoes and walked to Linda’s side. “What was the sound I heard in my sleep? Like an explosion. Loud but distant.”

“We get meteorite strikes here with some frequency,” Linda said. “The soil here is littered with metallic pellets, and the surface of the glacier is pitted with holes left behind when hot fragments burn their way down.”

Linda handed a jacket to Kirk, who shrugged into it as they left the hut. The wind outside was filled with ice pellets blowing from the north. “What time is it?” Kirk asked as they made their way to the next hut, bending against the wind.

“About five in the morning, here,” Linda said. “Still five hours until your scheduled departure.”

“Still time enough to make adjustments,” Kirk said, “if adjustments are necessary.”

Another man was on duty in the electronics hut. He was a large, bearded fellow with blue eyes. He was working on an electronic circuit at one of the benches. “This is Gregor Zworykin,” Linda said.

“We picked up this message a few minutes ago,” Zworykin said. He walked to the corner where the radio equipment was stacked and pressed a button.

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