Ellis clamped his sentence off. "Nothing." He picked up his briefcase. "Nothing at all. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, Mr Miller. Goodnight."
He hurried downstairs and out of the TD building. The faint outline of his Jiffi-scuttler was visible in the fading late-afternoon sunlight. The sky was already full of mono jets taking off. Weary workers beginning their long trip back to their homes in the country. The endless commute. Ellis made his way to the hoop and stepped into it. Abruptly the bright sunlight dimmed and faded.
Again he was in the wavery gray tunnel. At the far end flashed a circle of green and white. Rolling green hills and his own house. His backyard. The cedar tree and flower beds. The town of Cedar Groves.
Two steps down the tunnel. Ellis halted, bending over. He studied the floor of the tunnel intently. He studied the misty gray wall, where it rose and flickered -- and the thin place. The place he had noticed.
They were still there. Still? It was a different bunch. This time ten or eleven of them. Men and women and children. Standing together, gazing up at him with awe and wonder. No more than a half-inch high, each. Tiny distorted figures, shifting and changing shape oddly. Altering colors and hues.
Ellis hurried on. The tiny figures watched him go. A brief glimpse of their microscopic astonishment -- and then he was stepping out into his backyard.
He clicked off the Jiffi-scuttler and mounted the back steps. He entered his house, deep in thought.
"Hi," Mary cried, from the kitchen. She rustled towards him in her hip-length mesh shirt, her arms out. "How was work today?"
"Fine."
"Is anything wrong? You look -- strange."
"No. No, nothing's wrong." Ellis kissed his wife absently on the forehead. "What's for dinner?"
"Something choice. Siriusian mole steak. One of your favorites. Is that all right?"
"Sure." Ellis tossed his hat and coat down on the chair. The chair folded them up and put them away. His thoughtful, preoccupied look still remained. "Fine, honey."
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong? You didn't get into another argument with Pete Taylor, did you?"
"No. Of course not." Ellis shook his head in annoyance. "Everything's all right, honey. Stop needling me."
"Well, I hope so," Mary said, with a sigh.
The next morning they were waiting for him.
He saw them the first step into the Jiffi-scuttler. A small group waiting within the wavering gray, like bugs caught in a block of jello. They moved jerkily, rapidly, arms and legs pumping in a blur of motion. Trying to attract his attention. Piping wildly in their pathetically faint voices.
Ellis stopped and squatted down. They were putting something through the wall of the tunnel, through the thin place in the gray. It was small, so incredibly small he could scarcely see it. A square of white at the end of a microscopic pole. They were watching him eagerly, faces alive with fear and hope. Desperate, pleading hope.
Ellis took the tiny square. It came loose like some fragile rose petal from its stalk. Clumsily, he let it drop and had to hunt all round for it. The little figures watched in an agony of dismay as his huge hands moved blindly around the floor of the tunnel. At last he found it and gingerly lifted it up.
moved blindly around the floor of the tunnel. At last he found it and gingerly lifted it up.
"I'll look at it later," he said.
His voice boomed and echoed up and down the tunnel. At the sound the tiny creatures scattered. They all fled, shrieking in their shrill, piping voices, away from the gray shimmer, into the dimness beyond. In a flash they were gone. Like startled mice. He was alone. Ellis knelt down and put his eye against the gray shimmer, where it was thin. Where they had stood waiting. He could see something dim and distorted, lost in a vague haze. A landscape of some sort. Indistinct. Hard to make out.
Hills. Trees and crops. But so tiny. And dim...
He glanced at his watch. God, it was ten! Hastily he scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the tunnel, on to the blazing New York pavement.
Late. He raced up the stairs of the Terran Development building and down the long corridor to his office.
At lunchtime he stopped in at the Research Labs. "Hey," he called, as Jim Andrews brushed past, loaded down with reports and equipment. "Got a second?"
"What do you want, Henry?"
"I'd like to borrow something. A magnifying glass." He considered. "Maybe a photon-microscope would be better. One- or two-hundred power."
"Kids' stuff." Jim found him a small microscope. "Slides?"
"Yeah, a couple of blank slides."
He carried the microscope back to his office. He set it up on his desk, clearing away his paper. As a precaution he sent Miss Nelson, his secretary, out of the room and off to lunch. Then carefully, cautiously, he got the tiny wisp from his wallet and slipped it between two slides.
It was writing, all right. But nothing he could read. Utterly unfamiliar. Complex, interlaced little characters.
For a time he sat thinking. Then he dialed his inter-department vidphone. "Give me the Linguistics Department."
After a moment Earl Peterson's good-natured face appeared. "Hi, there, Ellis. What can I do for you?"
Ellis hesitated. He had to do this right. "Say, Earl, old man. Got a little favor to ask you."
"Like what? Anything to oblige an old pal."
"You, uh -- you have that Machine down there, don't you? That translating business you use for working over documents from non-Terran cultures?"
"Sure. So?"
"Think I could use it?" He talked fast. "It's a screwy sort of a deal, Earl. I got this pal living on -uh -- Centaurus VI, and he writes me in -- uh -- you know the Centauran native semantic system, and I --"
"You want the Machine to translate a letter? Sure, I think we could manage it. This once, at least. Bring it down."
He brought it down. He got Earl to show him how the intake feed worked, and as soon as Earl had turned his back he fed in the tiny square of material. The Linguistics Machine clicked and whirred. Ellis prayed silently that the paper wasn't too small. Wouldn't fall out between the relay-probes of the Machine.
But sure enough, after a couple of seconds, a tape unreeled from the output slot. The tape cut itself off and dropped into a basket. The Linguistics Machine turned promptly to other stuff, more vital material from TD's various export branches.
With trembling fingers Ellis spread out the tape. The words danced before his eyes.
Questions. They were asking him questions. God, it was getting complicated. He read the questions intently, his lips moving. What was he getting himself into? They were expecting answers. He
questions intently, his lips moving. What was he getting himself into? They were expecting answers. He
He returned to his office and dialed his vidphone. "Give me outside," he ordered.
The regular vid monitor appeared. "Yes, sir?"
"I want the Federal Library of Information," Ellis said. "Cultural Research Division."
That night they were waiting, all right. But not the same ones. It was odd -- each time a different group. Their clothing was slightly different, too. A new hue. And in the background the landscape had also altered slightly. The trees he had seen were gone. The hills were still there, but a different shade. A hazy gray-white. Snow?
He squatted down. He had worked it out with care. The answers from the Federal Library of Information had gone back to the Linguistics Machine for re-translation. The answers were now in the original tongue of the questions -- but on a trifle larger piece of paper.
Ellis made like a marble game and flicked the wad of paper through the gray shimmer. It bowled over six or seven of the watching figures and rolled down the side of the hill on which they were standing. After a moment of terrified immobility the figures scampered frantically after it. They disappeared into the vague and invisible depths of their world and Ellis got stiffly to his feet again.