Angalo shrugged. "That's what it said."
There was only a distant dot now, at the end of a widening white cloud of smoke.
Masklin watched it.
We must be mad, he thought. We're tiny and it's a big world and we never stop to learn enough about where we are before we go somewhere else. At least back when I lived in a hole I knew everything there was to knowabout living in a hole, and now it's a year later and I'm at a place sofar away I don't even know how far away it is, watching something Idon't understand go to a place so far up there is no down. And I can't goback. I've got to go right on to the end of whatever all this is, becauseI can't go back. I can't even stop.
So that's what Grimma meant about the frogs. Once you know things, you're a different person. You can't help it.
He looked back down. Something was missing.
The Thing.
He ran back the way they'd come.
The little black box was where he'd left it. The rods had withdrawn into it, and there weren't any lights.
"Thing?" he said uncertainly.
One red light came on faintly. Masklin suddenly felt cold, despite the heat around him.
"Are you all right?" he said.
The light flickered.
'Too quick. Used too much povo ..." it said.
"Pow?" said Masklin. He tried hard not to wonder why the word hadn't been much more than a growl.
The light dimmed.
"Thing? Thing?" He tapped gently on the box. "Did it work? Is the Ship coming? What do we do now? Wake up! Thing?"
The light went out.
Masklin picked the Thing up and turned it over and over in his hands.
"Thing?"
Masklin and Gurder hurried up, with Pion behind them.
"Did it work?" said Angalo. "Can't see any Ship yet."
Masklin turned his face toward them.
"The Thing's stopped," he said.
"Stopped?"
"All the lights have gone out!"
"Well, what does that mean?" Angalo started to look panicky.
"I don't know!"
"Is it dead?" said Gurder.
"It can't die! It's existed for thousands of years!"
Gurder shook his head. "Sounds like a good reason for dying," he said.
"But it's a-a Thing."
Angalo sat down with his arms around his knees.
"Did it say if it got everything sorted out? When's the Ship coming?"
"Listen, don't you care? It's run out of pow!"
"Pow?"
"It must mean electricity. It kind of sucks it out of wires and stuff. I think it can store it for a while too. And now it must have run out."
They looked at the black box. It had spent thousands of years being handed down from nome to nome without ever saying a word or lighting a light. It had only woken up again when it had been brought into the Store, near electricity.
"It looks creepy, sitting there doing nothing," said Angalo.
"Can't we find it some electricity?" said Gurder.
"Around here? There isn't any!" Angalo snapped. "We're in the middle of nowhere!"
Masklin stood up and gazed around. It was just possible to see some buildings in the distance. There was a movement of vehicles around them.
"What about the Ship?" said Angalo. "Is it on its way?"
"I don't know!"
"How will it find us?"
"I don't know!"
"Who's driving it?"
"I don't-" Masklin stopped in horror. "No one! I mean, who could be driving it? There hasn't been anyone on it for thousands of years!"
"Who was going to bring it here, then?"
"I don't know! The Thing, maybe?"
"You mean it's on its way and no one's driving it?"
"Yes! No! I don't know!"
Angalo squinted up at the blue sky.
"Oh, wow," he said glumly.
"We need to find some electricity for the Thing," said Masklin. "Even if it's managed to summon the Ship, the Ship will still need to be toldwhere we are."
"If it summoned the Ship," said Gurder. "It might have run out of pow before it had time."
"We can't be sure," said Masklin. "Anyway, we must help the Thing. I hate to see it like that."
Pion, who had disappeared into the scrub, came back dragging a lizard.
"Ah," said Gurder, without any enthusiasm. "Here comes lunch."
"If the Thing were talking, we could tell Pion you can get awfully tired of lizard, in time," said Angalo.
"In about two seconds," said Gurder.
"Come on," said Masklin, wearily. "Let's go and find some shade and think up another plan."
"Oh, a plan," Gurder said, as if that was worse than lizard. "I like plans."
They ate-not very well-and lay back watching the sky. The brief sleep on the way hadn't been enough. It was easy to doze.
"I must say these Floridians have got it all worked out," said Gurder lazily. "It's cold back home and here they've got the heating turned up just right."
"I keep telling you, it's not the heating," said Angalo, straining his eyes for any sign of a descending Ship. "And the wind isn't the air conditioning, either. It's the sun that makes you warm."
"I thought that was just for lighting," said Gurder.
"And it's where all the heat comes from," said Angalo. "I read it in a book. It's a great ball of fire bigger than the world."
Gurder eyed the sun suspiciously.
"Oh, yes?" he said. "What keeps it up?"
"Nothing. It's just kind of there."
Gurder squinted at the sun again.
"Is this generally known?" he said.
"I suppose so. It was in the book."
"For anyone to read? I call that irresponsible. That's the sort of thing that can really upset people."
"There are thousands of suns up there, Masklin says."
Gurder sniffed. "Yes, he's told me. It's called the glaxie, or something.
Personally, I'm against it."
Angalo chuckled.
"I don't see what's so funny," said Gurder coldly.
"Tell him, Masklin," said Angalo.
"It's all very well for you," Gurder muttered. "You just want to drive things fast. I want to make sense of them. Maybe there are thousands of suns, but why?"
"Can't see that it matters," said Angalo lazily.
"It's the only thing that does matter. Tell him, Masklin."
They both looked at Masklin.
At least, where Masklin had been sitting.
He'd gone.
Beyond the top of the sky was the place the Thing had called the universe. It contained, according to the Thing, everything and nothing.
And there was very little everything and more nothing than anyone couldimagine.
For example, it was often said that the sky was full of stars. It wasuntrue. The sky was full of sky. There were unlimited amounts of sky and, really, by comparison, very few stars.
It was amazing, therefore, that they made such an impression.
Thousands of them looked down now as something round and shiny driftedaround the Earth.
It had Arnsat-1 painted on its side, which was a bit of a waste of paint since stars can't read.
It unfolded a silver dish.
It should then have turned to face the planet below it, ready to beam down old movies and new news.
It didn't. It had new orders.
Little puffs of gas jetted out as it turned around and searched the sky for a new target.
By the time it had found it, a lot of people in the old movies and new news business were shouting very angrily at one another on telephones, and some of them were feverishly trying to give it new instructions.
But that didn't matter, because it wasn't listening anymore.
Masklin galloped through the scrub.
They'd argue and bicker, he thought. I've got to do this quickly. I don't think we've got a lot of time.
It was the first time he'd been really alone since the days back when he'd lived in a hole and had to go out hunting by himself because therewas no one else.
Had it been better then? At least it had been simpler. You just had to try to eat without being eaten. Just getting through the day was a triumph. Everything had been bad, but at least it had been a kind of understandable, nome-sized badness.
In those days the world ended at the highway on one side and the woods beyond the field at the other side. Now it had no kind of boundaries at all, and more problems than he knew what to do with.