Such moments of diversion, however, were the exception rather than the rule. Our days in the craft were dull and repetitive, and we soon adopted routines. We slept for as many hours as possible, and dawdled over our meals. We would take exercise by walking about the circumference of the hull, and when it came to attending to the controls would divert more energy and time than was actually necessary. Sometimes we became fractious, and then we would separate and stay at different parts of the compartment.
During one of these periods I returned to the problem of how to deal with the unwelcome occupants of the main hold.
Interfering with the monsters’ air-supply seemed to be the logical way of killing them, and in lieu of any substance which I knew to be poisonous to them, suffocation was the obvious expedient. With this in mind I spent the best part of one day exploring the various machines which were built into the hull.
I discovered much about the operation of the craft—for example, I found the location of the quasi-photographic instruments which delivered the pictures to our viewing panels, and I learnt that the craft’s directional changes were effected by means of steam expelled from a central heat-source, and ducted through the outer hull by means of an intricate system of pipes—but came no nearer to finding a solution. As far as I could tell, the air inside the craft was circulated from one unit, and that it served all parts of the ship simultaneously. In other words, to suffocate the monsters we, should have to suffocate too.
vii
The nearer we came to Earth the more we were obliged to make corrections to our course. Twice or three times a day I would consult the forwards panel, and adjust the controls to bring the two grids once more into alignment. Earth was now large and clear in the picture, and Amelia and I would stand before it, watching our homeworld in silence. It glowed a brilliant blue and white, unspeakably beautiful. Sometimes we could see the moon beside it, showing, like Earth, as a slender and delicate crescent.
This was a sight which should have brought joy to our hearts, but whenever I stood at Amelia’s side and stared at this vision of celestial loveliness, I felt a tremendous sadness inside me. And whenever I operated the controls to bring us more accurately towards our destination, I felt stirrings of guilt and shame.
At first I could not understand this, and said nothing to Amelia. But as the days passed, and our world sped ever nearer, I identified my misgivings, and at last was able to speak of them to Amelia. Then it was that I found she too had been experiencing the same.
I said: “In a day or two we shall be landing on Earth. I am minded to aim the craft towards the deepest ocean, and be done with it.”
“If you did, I would not try to stop you,” she said.
“We cannot inflict these creatures on our world,” I went on. “We cannot shoulder that responsibility. If just one man or woman should die by these creatures’ machinations, then neither you nor I could ever face ourselves again.”
Amelia said: “But if we could escape the craft quickly enough to alert the authorities…”
“That is a chance we cannot take. We do not know our way out of this ship, and if the monsters are out before us then we would be too late. My dearest, we have to face up to the fact that you and I must be prepared to sacrifice ourselves.”
While we had been talking, I had turned on the control that produced the two grids across the panel. The secondary grid, showing our intended destination, lay over northern Europe. We could not see the precise place, for this part of the globe was obscured by white cloud. In England the day would be grey; perhaps it was raining.
“Is there nothing we can do?” Amelia said.
I stared gloomily at the screen. “Our actions are proscribed. As we have replaced the men who would have crewed this ship, we can only do what they would have done. That is to say, to bring the craft manually to the place already selected, by the monsters. If we follow the plan, we bring the craft down in the centre of the grid. Our only choice is whether or not we do that. I can allow the craft to pass by Earth entirely, or I can head the craft to a place where its occupants can do no damage.”
“You spoke of landing us in an ocean. Were you serious?”
“It is one course open to us,” I said. “Although you and I would surely die, we would effectively prevent the monsters from escaping.”
“I don’t want to die,” Amelia said, holding me tightly.
“Nor I. But do we have the right to inflict these monsters on our people?”
It was an agonizing subject, and neither of us knew the answers to the questions we raised. We stared at the image of our world for a few more minutes, then went to take a meal. Later, we were drawn again to the panels, over-awed by the responsibilities that had been thrust upon us.
On Earth, the clouds had moved away to the east, and we saw the shape of the British Isles lying in the blue seas. The central circle of the grid lay directly over England.
Amelia said, her voice strained: “Edward, we have the greatest army on Earth. Can we not trust them to deal with this menace?”
“They would be taken unawares. The responsibility is ours, Amelia, and we must not avoid it. I am prepared to die to save my world. Can I ask the same of you?”
It was a moment charged with emotion, and I found myself trembling.
Then Amelia glanced at the rearward panel, which, though dark, was an insistent reminder of the nine projectiles that followed us.
“Would false heroics save the world from those too?” she said.
viii
So it was that I continued to correct our course, and brought the main grid to bear on the green islands we loved so dearly.
We were about to go to sleep that night when a noise I had hoped never to hear again emanated from a metal grille in the bulkhead: it was the braying, screeching call of the monsters. One has often heard the idiom that one’s blood runs cold; in that moment I understood the truth of the cliché.
I left the hammock directly, and hurried through the pass ages to the sealed door of the monsters’ hold.
As soon as I slid back the metal plate I saw that the accursed beings were conscious. There were two directly in front of me, crawling awkwardly on their tentacles. I was satisfied to see that in the increased gravity (I had long since changed the spin of the ship in an attempt to approximate the gravity of Earth) their movements were more ponderous and ungainly. That was a hopeful sign, when all else seemed bleak, for with any luck they would find their extra weight on Earth a considerable disadvantage.
Amelia had followed me, and when I moved back from the door she too peered through the tiny window. I saw her shudder, and then she drew back.
“Is there nothing we can do to destroy them?” she said.
I looked at her, my expression perhaps revealing the unhappiness I felt.
“I think not,” I said.
When we returned to our compartment we discovered that one or more of the monsters was still trying to communicate with us. The braying echoed through the metal room.
“What do you think it is saying?” Amelia said.
“How can we tell?”
“But suppose we are to obey its instructions?”
“We have nothing to fear from them,” I said. “They can reach us no more than we can reach them.”
Even so, the hideous screeching was unpleasant to hear, and when it eventually stopped some fifteen minutes later we were both relieved. We returned to the hammock, and a few minutes later we were asleep.