"What do you propose to do now?" She couldn't disguise the fact that she was anxious.
"Ask you to marry me, Helen."
"I accept," she said thankfully. "I thought…"
"We all tend to see other people's emotions as reflecting on ourselves. It's a mistake. People's emotions are rarely created by anyone else. I think we might be happy, don't you?"
"In spite of my work?"
"In spite of that, yes. I don't expect to see much of you for some time. But maybe that's for the best."
A buzz began to sound on her wrist.
"I'm "sorry." She smiled. "I get issued with this thing-I'm on call, as it were, all the time. I didn't expect it to start so soon."
She went to his laservid and pressed a number.
"President Curtis," she said to the slightly perturbed looking man on the screen. She put the drink down on the set.
"Madame-there is probably no danger but I have just received news that a strange space-ship has landed somewhere near Algiers. It's believed to be the Fireclown's."
"No need for declaring a state of emergency now." She smiled. "It will be good to see him again." She switched out and turned to Alan. "He's your father-want to be part of a deputation?"
"If it's just the two of us, yes."
"Come on then. Let's see what his experiments have proved."
Before Helen could go she was forced to leave notification of her whereabouts.
Her Presidential duties had not really begun as yet, but from now on her time would never be her own. In his new state of mind, Alan decided he could bear it so long as she only served one term.
The Pi-meson rested on its belly, its pitted hull gleaming in the African sun.
As yet, nothing had been heard from the ship. It was as if it were empty, bereft of life.
As their car settled beside it, the huge "airlock began to open. But nothing else happened.
"What now?" Helen looked to Alan for guidance.
"Let's go in," he said, leading the way over to the ship and clambering into the airlock.
On the big landing deck Alan touched the stud operating the sliding wall. It opened and they climbed into the control deck. It was darkened. No light passed the closed ports.
"Father?" Alan spoke into the silence, certain someone was here. "Fireclown?"
"Alan…" The voice was rumbling, enigmatic, thoughtful.
"Yes-and Helen Curtis. We've got something to tell you." He was slightly amused at his decision to announce his engagement formally to his strange father.
A single light shone now from the corner. Alan could just make out the slumped bulk of the Fireclown. A short distance away Cornelia Fisher stirred. Corso seemed prone, but Alan thought he heard him mumble under his breath.
"Is anything wrong father?"
"No." The Fireclown raised his huge body up from the couch. His gaudy tatters curled about him, his conical hat still bobbed on his head and his face was still painted. He chuckled. "I thought you'd come here first. I wouldn't have admitted anyone else."
"Helen and I are getting married, Father."
"Ah… really?" The Fireclown didn't sound very interested. His manner had become, if anything, more detached and alien.
"A lot's been happening on Earth, sir," Helen put in, "since we last met. You're no longer an outcast."
The Fireclown's body shook with laughter which he at first suppressed and then let roll from his mouth in roaring gusts. "No-longer-an-outcast. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Good!"
Nonplussed, Alan glanced at Helen, who frowned back at him.
"It is not I who am the outcast, young lady-not in the cosmic sense. It is the human race, with their futile, worthless intelligence."
"I still don't understand…" Helen said bewilderedly.
"I took you to the heart of the sun-I took you even to the heart of the galaxy and you still failed to understand! Consciousness is not the same as intelligence. Consciousness is content to exist as it exists, to be what it is and nothing more. But intelligence-that is a blot on the cosmos! In short, I intend to wipe out that blot. I intend to destroy intelligence!"
"Destroy intelligence? You mean, destroy life in the Solar System!" Alan was horrified.
"No, my son, nothing so unsubtle. For one thing, human life is the only culprit-the only thing that offends against the law of the universe. I have journeyed throughout the galaxy and have found nothing like it anywhere else.
Intelligence, therefore, is a weed in the garden of infinity, a destroying weed that must be dealt with at once."
"You are mad!" Alan said desperately. "It's impossible to destroy intelligence without destroying those who have it!"
"According to human logic, that is true. But according to my logic-the Fireclown's logic-that is false. I have perfected a kind of fire-Time Fire, call it-which will burn away the minds of those it strikes without consuming them in body. My Time Fire will destroy the ability to think, because thought takes time."
The Fireclown reached out his hand towards a stud and depressed it. The wall hummed down. He went over to the controls and began to operate them. "I waited for you to arrive because I still retain some human sentiment. I did not want to make my son go with the rest. I will convince you, anon, that I speak truth and you will agree with me. You will want only consciousness!"
Alan strode towards his father and grasped his huge arm. "It can't work-and even if it could, who are you to take such a task upon yourself?"
"I am the Fireclown!"
The screen in front of them showed that the ship had once again set up its own peculiar field. The spheres began to flash past.
"See those?" The Fireclown pointed. "They are chronons-Atoms of Time! Just as there are atoms of matter, the same is true of time. And I control those atoms as ably as the physicists control their electrons and protons. They are the stuff of my Time Fire!"
Astounded, Alan could only believe his father. He turned to Corso, who was opening his eyes, a dazed look on his red face. "Corso! Do you want any part of this? Stop him! Cornelia"-the woman stared at him blankly-"tell him to cease!"
The Fireclown put his painted, bellowing face close to Alan's. "They cannot understand you. They hear you-but they hear sound alone! They are the first to gain from the Time Fire. They are fully aware but they have no intelligence to mar their awareness."
"Oh, God!" Helen looked aghast at the blank-faced pair.
"Where are we going?" Alan yelled at his insane father.
"I intend to put the ship into a time-freeze. Then, as the globe passes beneath me, I will unleash the Time Fire, covering the world with its healing flames P"
"No, Father!"
"Don't try to tamper with the controls, Alan. If you do you will disrupt the time field and we might well perish."
The spheres-the chronons-flashed past. Alan stared at them, fascinated in spite of the danger. Atoms of Time. He had heard the chronon theory before, but had never believed it had any reality in fact. But there was no other explanation he could think of for the Fireclown's ability to ignore the laws of matter and venture into the sun's heart, travel swiftly through the galaxy to its center and remain unharmed. Unharmed bodily, at least. His mind had obviously been unable to stand up against the impressions it had seen.
Faster and faster the chronons rolled past on the screen.
Concentrating on his controls, the Fireclown ignored them.
"What are we going to do, Alan?" Helen said. "Do you think he's right about this Time Fire?"
"Yes. Look at Corso and Cornelia for proof. He is a genius-but he's an idiot as well. We've got to stop him, Helen. Heaven knows what destruction he can work-even if it isn't as bad as he boasts!"
"How?"
"There's only one way. Destroy the controls!"
"We could be killed-or frozen forever in this 'time freeze' of his!"