"Me? Now that's an odd question. I mind a time when I asked a chap that very same question-about me, I mean, not about him. Ever hear of Dr. Hugo Pinero?"
"'Pinero... Pinero.. .' Oh, yes, 'Pinero the Charlatan.'"
"Mary, he was no charlatan. He could do it, no foolin'. He could predict accurately when a man would die."
"But- Go ahead. What did he tell you?"
"Just a minute. I want you to realize that he was no fake. His predictions checked out right on the button-if he hadn't died, the life insurance companies would have been ruined. That was before you were born, but I was there and I know. Anyhow, Pinero took my reading and it seemed to bother him. So he took it again. Then he returned my money."
"What did he say?"
"Couldn't get a word out of him. He looked at me and he looked at his machine and he just frowned and clammed up. So I can't rightly answer your question."
"But what do you think about it, Lazarus? Surely you don't expect just to go on forever?"
"Mary," he said softly, "Fm not planning on dying. I'm not giving it any thought at all."
There was silence. At last she said, "Lazarus, I don't want to die. But what is the purpose of our long lives? We don't seem to grow wiser as we grow older. Are we simply hanging on after our tune has passed? Loitering in the kindergarten when we should be moving on? Must we die and be born again?"
"I don't know," said Lazarus, "and I don't have any way to find out... and I'm damned if I see any sense in my worrying about it. Or you either. I propose to hang onto this life as long as I can and learn as much as I can. Maybe wishing and understanding are reserved for a later existence and maybe they aren't for us at all, ever. Either way, I'm satisfied to be living and enjoying it. Mary my sweet, carpe that old diem! It's the only game in town."
The ship slipped back into the same monotonous routine that had obtained during the weary years of the first jump. Most of the Members went into cold-rest; the others tended them, tended the ship, tended the hydroponds. Among the somnolents was Slayton Ford; cold-rest was a common last resort therapy for functional psychoses.
The flight to star PK3722 took seventeen months and three days, ship's time.
The ship's officers had as little choice about the journey's end as about its beginning. A few hours before their arrival star images flashed back into being in the stellarium screens and the ship rapidly decelerated to interplanetary speeds. No feeling of slowing down was experienced; whatever mysterious forces were acting on them acted on all masses alike. The New Frontiers slipped into an orbit around a live green planet some hundred million miles from its sun; shortly Libby reported to Captain King that they were in a stable parking orbit.
Cautiously King tried the controls, dead since their departure. The ship surged; their ghostly pilot had left them.
Libby decided that the simile was incorrect; this trip had undoubtedly been planned for them but it was not necessary to assume that anyone or anything had shepherded them here. Libby suspected that the "gods" of the dog-people saw the plenum as static; their deportation was an accomplished fact to them before it happened-a concept regrettably studded with unknowns-but there were no appropriate words. Inadequately and incorrectly put into words, his concept was that of a "cosmic cam," a world line shaped for them which ran out of normal space and back into it; when the ship reached the end of its "cam" it returned to normal operation.
He tried to explain his concept to Lazarus and to the Captain, but he did not do well. He lacked data and also had not had time to refine his mathematical description into elegance; it satisfied neither him nor them.
Neither King nor Lazarus had time to give the matter much thought. Barstow's face appeared on an interstation viewscreen. "Captain!" he called out. "Can you come aft to lock seven? We have visitors!"
Barstow had exaggerated; there was only one. The creature reminded Lazarus of a child in fancy dress, masqueraded as a rabbit. The little thing was more android than were the Jockaira, though possibly not mammalian. It was unclothed but not naked, for its childlike body was beautifully clothed in short sleek golden fur. Its eyes were bright and seemed both merry and intelligent.
But King was too bemused to note such detail. A voice, a thought, was ringing in his head: "... so you are the group leader..." it said. "... welcome to our world... we have been expecting you... the (blank.) told us of your coming..."
Controlled telepathy. A creature, a race, so gentle, so civilized, so free from enemies, from all danger and strife that they could afford to share their thoughts with others-to share more than their thoughts; these creatures were so gentle and so generous that they were offering the humans a homestead on their planet. This was why this messenger had come: to make that offer.
To King's mind this seemed remarkably like the prize package that had been offered by the Jockaira; he wondered what the boobytrap might be in this proposition.
The messenger seemed to read his thought"... look into our hearts... we hold no malice toward you... we share your love of life and we love the life in you...
"We thank you," King answered formally and aloud. "We will have to confer." He turned to speak to Barstow, glanced back. The messenger was gone.
The Captain said to Lazarus, "Where did he go?"
"Huh? Don't ask me."
"But you were in front of the lock."
"I was checking the tell-tales. There's no boat sealed on outside this lock-so they show. I was wondcring if they were working right. They are. How did he get into the ship? Where's his rig?'
"How did he leaver'
"Not past me!"
"Zaccur, he came in through this lock, didn't he?
"I don't know."
"But he certainly went out through it"
"Nope," denied Lazarus. "This lock hasn't been opened. The deep-space seals are still in place. See for yourself."
King did. "You don't suppose," he said slowly, "that he can pass through-"
"Don't look at me," said Lazarus. "I've got no more prejudices in the matter than the Red Queen. Where does a phone image go when you cut the circuit?" He left, whistling softly to himself. King did not recognize the tune. Its words, which Lazarus did not sing, started with:
"Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there-"
Chapter 4
THERE WAS NO CATCH to the offer. The people of the planet-they had no name since they had no spoken language and the Earthmen simply called them "The Little People"-the little creatures really did welcome them and help them. They convinced the Families of this without difficulty for there was no trouble in communication such as there had been with the Jockaira. The Little People could make even subtle thoughts kndwn directly to the Earthmen and in turn could sense correctly any thought directed at them. They appeared either to ignore or not to be able to read any thought not directed at them; communicatibn with them was as controlled as spoken speech. Nor did the Earthmen acquire any telepathic powers among themselves.
Their planet was even more like Earth than was the planet of the Jockaira. It was a little larger than Earth but had a slightly lower surface gravitation, suggesting a lower average density-the Little People made slight use of metals in their culture, which may be indicative.
The planet rode upright in its orbit; it had not the rakish tilt of Earth's axis. Its orbit was nearly circular; aphelion differed from perihelion by less than one per cent. There were no seasons. Nor was there a great heavy moon, such as Earth has, to wrestle its oceans about and to disturb the isostatic balance of its crust. Its hills were low, its winds were gentle, its seas were placid. To Lazarus' disappointment, their new home, had no lively weather; it hardly had weather at all; it had climate, and that of the sort that California patriots would have the rest of the Earth believe exists in their part of the globe.