The Ark of Mars by Leigh Brackett

Author:Leigh Brackett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
Published: 2020-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

V

In the gulf that runs from Sol to Alpha Centauri there were now two ships. One was far ahead, but the second ship was possessed of an infinite patience and a greater speed. With every space-league the gap between them grew a little smaller.

On the second ship t here was silence within and without. Nothing human lived in it. There was no need of anything human. The ship was sufficient unto itself.

From its dark hull the sensor field spread wide, infinitely sensitive, tirelessly inquisitive. It touched an object, plunging nearer on an oblique course. Through its external contact-points the sensor-field transmitted a series of impulses to the “bridge”—the walled heart, the protected mind, the cold, precise soul of the ship. There were brains there, large and small—not of flesh, but cybernetic brains of transistors and coils and wires, whose thought was a swift shuttling of electrons. They thought, now. With unhuman swiftness they evaluated the information, set up curves and plotted vectors on the computers, and reached their conclusion. Object: meteor. Course: collision.

The cold, limited, unhuman minds acted upon that conclusion at once. A message was flashed to relays, which sprang instantly alive. Throttles opened, the port lateral generators produced blasts of energy. The ship, moving at a velocity just under the speed of light, changed course—not a fraction too much, not a fraction too little.

The meteor went past, at a safe distance. The relays clicked again. The compensators hummed. There was another little burst of energy. On a master panel red needles on several dials crawled back until they were once more contact-aligned exactly with the black ones that monitored the course. The necessity for thought passed, the cold cybernetic brains ceased to think. And again, the all-pervading silence fell.

No passengers, no crew. But the ship carried a cargo. Ranked in the nether darkness, their atomic warheads pointing down the launching tubes, the missiles slept and waited, until their own relay systems should call them to go forth and fulfill themselves.

In the RSS-l, peace and no time.

In the Liley B: Davenport, far too much time and no peace at all.

Lying in his bunk Kirby tried to sleep and failed. From across the tiny cabin Shari’s even breathing mocked him. She seemed to’be able to detach herself from her surroundings and exist undisturbed inside a kind of cocoon of patience that he envied but could not emulate. In the darkness, Kirby lit a cigarette and swore inaudibly, and felt old beyond Methuselah.

Time.

Chronometers. Calendars. Clocks. Days with no sunrise, nights with no moon. Arbitrary segments cut from a universal darkness, a formlessness, nothingness. Segments cut and shaped into little symbols and named with names that had no longer any meaning. What is Monday, in the spaces between the stars?

Time....

I should have done this when I was young, thought Kirby. I was sure of myself then. Now I don’t know. I don’t know at all. And I’ve get ’em here, the whole howling lot of ’em. Say the ether guys are to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.