The rule is that you have to pick yourself up and go on; and lying here in the dark is not doing it.
I turn on my side and see a cl.u.s.ter of self-luminous objects including a light switch. I reach for it.
How did I get into a hospital?
On second thoughts it is a cabin in the ship, or rather two of them with the part.i.tion torn out, I can see the ragged edge of it. There is a lot of paraphernalia around; I climb out to have a look.
Holy horrors what"s happened? Someone borrowed my legs and put them back wrong; my eyes also are not functioning well, the light is set at Minimum and I am still dazzled. I see a door and make for it to get Explanations from somebody.
Arrived, I miss my footing and stumble against the door and on the other side someone says "h.e.l.lo, Lizzie. Awake at last?"
I think my heart stops for a moment. I can"t find the latch. I am vaguely aware of beating something with my fists, and then the door gives, sticks, gives again and I stumble through and land on all fours the other side of it.
Someone is calling: "Lizzie! Are you hurt? Where the devil have they all got to? Liz!"
I sit up and say, "They said you were _dead_!"
"_Who_ did?"
"I ... I ... someone in the hold. I said How"s M"Clare? and they said you were dead."
M"Clare frowns and says gently, "Come over here and sit down quietly for a bit. You"ve been dreaming."
Have I? Maybe the whole thing was a dream--but if so how far does it go? Going down in the heli? The missile? The boat? Crawling through the black tunnel of a broken ship?
No, because he is sitting in a sort of improvised chaise longue and his legs are evidently strapped in place under the blanket; he is fumbling with the fastening or something.
I say "Hey! Cut that out!"
He straightens up irritably.
"Don"t you start that, Lysistrata. I"ve been suffering the attentions of the d.a.m.nedest collection of amateur nurses who ever handled a thermocouple, for over a week. I don"t deny they"ve been very efficient, but when it comes to--"
Over a _week_?
He nods. "My dear Lizzie, we left Incognita ten days ago. Amateur nursing again! They have some unholy book of rules which says that for Exposure, Exhaustion and Shock the best therapy is sleep. I don"t doubt it, but it goes on to say that in extreme cases the patient has been known to benefit by as much as two weeks of it. I didn"t find out that they were trying it on you until about thirty-six hours ago when I began inquiring why you weren"t around. They kept me under for three days--in fact until their infernal Handbook said it was time for my leg muscles to have some exercise. Miss Lammergaw was the ring-leader."
No wonder my legs feel as though someone exchanged the muscles for cotton wool, just wait till I get hold of Kirsty.
If it hadn"t been for her, I shouldn"t have spent ten days remembering, even in my sleep, that--
I say, "h.e.l.l"s feathers, it was _you_!"
M"Clare makes motions as though to start getting out of his chair, looking seriously alarmed. I say, "It was your voice! When I asked--"
M"Clare, quite definitely, starts to blush. Not much, but some.
"Lizzie, I believe you"re right. I have a sort of vague memory of someone asking how I was--and I gave what I took to be a truthful answer. I remember it seemed quite inconceivable that I could be alive. In fact I still don"t understand it. Neither Yardo nor Miss Laydon could tell me. How _did_ you get me out of that ship?"
Well, I do my best to explain, glossing over one or two points; at the finish he closes his eyes and says nothing for a while.
Then he says, "So except for this one man who saw you, you left no traces at all?"
Not that I know of, but--
"Do you know, five minutes later there were at least twenty men in that bay, most of them scientists? They don"t seem to have found anything suspicious. Visibility was bad, of course, and you can"t leave foot-prints in shingle--"
Hold on, what _is_ all this?
M"Clare says, "We"ve had two couriers while you were asleep. Yes, I know it"s not ordinarily possible for a ship on Ma.s.s-Time to get news.
One of these days someone will have an interesting problem in Cultural Engineering, working out how to integrate some of these s.p.a.ce Force secrets into our economic and social structure without upsetting the whole of the known volume. Though courier boats make their crews so infernally sick I doubt whether the present type will ever come into common use. Anyway, we"ve had transcripts of a good many broadcasts from Incognita, the last dated four days ago; and as far as we can tell they"re interpreting _Gilgamesh_ just as we meant them to.
"The missile, by the way, was experimental, waiting to be test-fired the next day. The man in charge saw _Gilgamesh_ on the alarm screens and got trigger-happy. The newscasters were divided as to whether he should be blamed or praised; they all seem to feel he averted a menace, at least temporarily, but some of them think the invaders could have been captured alive.
"The first people on the scene came from a scientific camp; you and Miss Laydon saw their lights on the way down. You remember that area is geophysically interesting? Well, by extraordinary good luck an international group was there studying it. They rushed straight off to the site of the landing--they actually saw _Gilgamesh_, and she registered on some of their astronomical instruments, too. They must be a reckless lot. What"s more, they started trying to locate her on the sea bottom the next day. Found both pieces; they"re still trying to locate the nose. They were all set to try raising the smaller piece when their governments both announced in some haste that they were sending a properly equipped expedition. Jointly.
"There"s been no mention in any newscast of anyone seeing fairies or sea maidens--I expect the poor devil thinks you were a hallucination."
So we brought it off.
I am very thankful in a distant sort of way, but right now the Incognitans have no more reality for me than the Lost Kafoozalum.
M"Clare came through alive.
I could spend a good deal of time just getting used to that fact, but there is something I ought to say and I don"t know how.
I inquire after his injuries and learn they are healing nicely.
I look at him and he is frowning.
He says, "Lizzie. Just before my well-meant but ineffective attempt at suicide--"
Here it comes.
I say quick If he is worrying about all that nonsense he talked in order to distract my attention, forget it; I have.
Silence, then he says wearily, "I talked nonsense, did I?"
I say there is no need to worry, under the circ.u.mstances anyone would have a perfect right to be raving off his Nut.
I then find I cannot bear this conversation any longer so I get up saying I expect he is tired and I will call someone.
I get nearly to the door when
"_No_, Lizzie! you can"t let that crew loose on me just in order to change the conversation. Come back here. I appreciate your wish to spare my feelings, but it"s wasted. We"ll have this out here and now.