The floor of the enclosure was in effect a tiny park, for gra.s.s and trees grew here, and there were shaded walks built of the same palely glowing substance as the towers. In the exact center of the place was a fountain, wrought of some l.u.s.trous, silvery metal. Only a thin trickle of water came from it now.
Gaynor dipped down, landed gently beside the fountain. He bent, peering, then gestured excitedly to Harlan, who was hovering close.
"Wade-there"s a bas-relief around this thing! Figures-"
Harlan touched ground, joined Gaynor in a tense scrutiny of the design. A procession of strange, lithebeings was pictured in bas-relief around the curving base of the fountain. Their forms were essentially humanoid, possessed of two arms, two legs, and large, well-formed head. Except for an exotic, fawnlike quality about the graceful, parading figures, Gaynor and Harlan might have been gazing at a depiction of garlanded, Terrestrial youths and maidens.
"The builders of the city," Gaynor said softly. "They looked a lot like us. Parallel evolution, maybe. This planet and sun are almost twins of ours. Wade-I wonder what happened to them?"
Harlan shook his shock of red hair slowly, saying nothing. His blue eyes were dark with somber speculation.
Gaynor"s voice whispered on. "The city was already deserted when that government expedition discovered it some one hundred and thirty years ago. The city couldn"t always have been that way. Once there were people on this planet-beings who thought and moved and dreamed, who built in material things an edifice symbolic of their dreaming. Why did they disappear? What could have been responsible? War, disease-or simply the dying out of a race?"
Harlan shrugged his great shoulders uncomfortably. His voice was gruff. "Maybe the answer is here somewhere. Maybe not. If it isn"t, maybe we"ll be better off, not knowing. When an entire race disappears for no apparent reason, as the people of this city seem to have done, the answer usually isn"t a nice one."
The two men took to one of the paths radiating away from the fountain, followed it to a great, arching entranceway at the base of a tower-building. Slowly they entered-the sunlight dimmed and they moved through a soft gloom. Presently they found themselves in a vast foyer-if such it was. In the middle of the place was a circular dais, with steps leading to a small platform at the top.
They mounted the steps, gained the platform. Of a sudden, a faint whispering grew, and without any other warning, they began to rise slowly into the air. Harlan released a cry of surprise and shock. Gaynor ripped his positron blaster free, sought desperately to writhe from the influence of the force that had gripped him.
And then Gaynor quieted. His eyes were bright with a realization. "An elevator!" he gasped.
"Wade-we stepped into some kind of elevating force."
They ceased struggling and were borne gently up and up. They pa.s.sed through an opening in the ceiling of the foyer, found themselves within a circular shaft, the top of which was lost in the dimness above.
Vertical handrails lined the shaft. It was only after pa.s.sing two floors that they divined the purpose of these. Then, reaching the third floor, each gripped a handrail, and they stepped from the force.
They found themselves within a vast, well-lighted apartment. The source of illumination was not apparent, seeming to emanate from the very walls. Room opened after s.p.a.cious room-and each was as utterly barren of furnishings as the last. Barren, that is, except for two things. The first was that the walls were covered with murals or paintings-life-sized, rich with glowing color, and almost photographic in detail. The second was that one wall of each room contained a tiny niche. Gaynor and Harlan investigated a niche in one room they entered. Within it was a solitary object-a large jewel, or at least what seemed to be a jewel.
"This is screwy," Harlan muttered. "It doesn"t make sense. How could anyone have lived in a place like this?" Gaynor"s eyes were dark with thought. He answered slowly, "Don"t make the mistake of judging things here according to our standard of culture. To the builders of this city, Wade, these rooms might have been thoroughly cozy and comfortable, containing every essential necessary to their daily lives."
"Maybe," Harlan grunted. "But I certainly don"t see those essentials."
"This thing-" Gaynor lifted the jewel from its niche. "Maybe this thing holds an answer of some kind."
Gaynor balanced the jewel in his palm, gazing down at it frowningly. His thoughts were wondering, speculative. Then the speculation faded-he found himself concentrating on the thing, as though by sheer force of will he could fathom its purpose.
And then it happened-the jewel grew cold in his hand-a faint, rose-colored glow surrounded it like an aura. A musical tinkling sounded. Harlan jumped, a yell bursting full-throated from his lungs. Gaynor spun about, surprised, uncomprehending.
"I . . . I saw things!" Harlan husked. "Objects, Jon- The room was full of them-angular ghosts!"
Gaynor stared at the other without speaking. His features were lax with a dawning awe.
Harlan said suddenly, "Try it again, Jon. Look at that thing. Maybe-"
Gaynor returned his gaze to the jewel. He forced his mind quiet, concentrated. Again the jewel grew cold, and again the tinkling sounded. Harlan was tense, rigid, his narrowed eyes probing the room. Within the room, outlines wavered mistily-outlines of things which might have been strange furniture, or queer, angular machines.
"Harder, Jon! Harder!" Harlan prompted.
Gaynor was sweating. He could feel the perspiration roll down his temples. His eyes seemed to be popping from their sockets.
Harlan strained with his peering. The outlines grew stronger, darkened-but only for a moment. The next they wavered mistily again, thinned, and were gone.
Gaynor drew a sobbing breath, straightened up. He asked, "Wade-what did you see?"
"I don"t know for sure. Things-or the ghosts of things. Here-give me that. I"m going to see what I can do."
Gaynor relinquished the jewel. Holding it in his palm, Harlan gathered his thoughts, poised them, focused them. And, watching, Gaynor saw the ghostly outlines for the first time-misty suggestions of angles and curves, hints of forms whose purpose he could not guess. Alien ghosts of alien objects, summoned by will from some alien limbo.
Abruptly, the outlines faded and were gone. The tinkling of the jewel thinned and died.
Harlan drew a shuddering breath. "Jon-you saw them?"
"Yes. Dimly."
"We . . . we haven"t got the strength, Jon. We haven"t got the power necessary to materialize theobjects-whatever they are."
"Maybe that"s the drawback. Or-maybe we"ve got the strength, but simply can"t materialize things-objects-whose size, shape, and purpose we do not know and cannot guess."
"That might be it." Harlan"s voice grew sharp. "But, great s.p.a.ce, Jon, what possibly could be the idea behind it? Why did they-that other race-construct buildings in which the rooms were left unfurnished, or which could be furnished merely by concentrating on . . . on these jewels? What could have been the reason behind it?"
Gaynor shook his head. "We"ll never know that, perhaps. At least, we"ll never know if we persist in thinking in terms of our own culture. The builders of this city were humanoid, Wade-but mentally they were alien. Don"t forget that. These rooms may not have been living quarters at all. They may have been repositories for valuable things, of which the jewels were the means of materializing. Only those who knew how could materialize them. Thus, perhaps, those things were kept safe."
"That might be it," Harlan muttered. "It makes sense."
"These pictures"-Gaynor gestured at the paintings on the walls-"might contain the answer. If we knew how to read them, they might tell us the purpose of these empty rooms-why the furnishings or machines had to be materialized. I wonder, Wade . . . I wonder if each of these pictures is complete in itself, or if each is part of a greater series. You know-like a book. You read one page, and it doesn"t make sense.
You read the whole thing-and it does."
"The beginning, Jon," Harlan whispered. "We"d have to start at the beginning."
"Yes-the beginning."
Harlan replaced the jewel in its niche, and on the invisible wings of their antigravity flight units, they glided back to the force shaft. Here they switched off their units, allowed the force to carry them up. But the apartments on the upper floors contained nothing new or illuminating. Like the first they had visited, these were empty, save for the wall paintings and the jewels in their niches. They returned to the shaft again, this time to meet a complication.
"Say-how do we get down?" Harlan puzzled. "This thing has been carrying us up all the time, and there doesn"t seem to be another one for descending."
"Why, you simplywill yourself to go down," Gaynor said. Then he looked blankly surprised.
Harlan nodded gravely. "Of course," he said. "That"s the answer. I should have thought of it myself."
They descended. Outside, the sun was bright and warm. Under its light the city dreamed on.
Gaynor and Harlan soared through the warmth. The city was very bright and still. Far away and high in the blue, glittering swarms of the crystal creatures darted. Their tinkling and chiming drifted down to the two men.
Gaynor and Harlan descended several times to investigate tower buildings, but these were very much like the first they had visited. The s.p.a.cious apartments seemed to echo in their strange emptiness, each one seemingly louder than the last. Twice they took turns, attempted to materialize the unguessable furnishings of the rooms. Each time they failed. And afterward they did not disturb the jewels in theirniches. They merely gazed at the flaming wall paintings, and came away.
Again they glided through the air, though slowly and thoughtfully, now. They were silent. Beneath them, the city dreamed. Once a cloud of crystal creatures flashed past, sparkling, chiming, but the two did not seem to notice.
"Jon-?" Harlan"s voice was hesitant.
"Yes?"
"I don"t know how to put it into words, but-well, don"t you feel that you are beginning toknow? "
"Yes-there"s the ghost of something in my mind. Those pictures, Wade-"
"Yes, Jon, the pictures."
Again they were silent. Gaynor broke the silence.
"Wade-all my life I"ve been reading primers. Someone just gave me a college textbook, and I glanced through several pages. Naturally, I did not understand, but here and there I found words familiar to me.
They left a ghost in my mind-"
"You"ve got to go back to the beginning, Jon. You"ve got to read all the books which will help you to understand that college textbook."
"Yes, Wade, the beginning-"
They drifted on while the city dreamed beneath them. The sun was a swaddling blanket of brightness.
Like memory-sounds, faint chimings and tinklings wafted on the air.
And then Gaynor was grasping Harlan"s arm. "Wade-down there. Look!" He pointed tensely.
Harlan stiffened as he saw it. The ship was a tiny thing, almost lost amid the greenery of the park. Almost in unison, the two touched the controls of their antigravity flight units, arrowed down in a swift, gentle arc.
The ship was very big, like no ship they had ever seen before. It was a thing of harsh angles, built of some strange red metal or alloy that gleamed in the sunlight with the hue of blood. A square opening gaped in its side. Slowly, Gaynor and Harlan entered it.
It was as though they entered the gloom of another world. Little of what they saw was familiar to them, and they had to guess the purpose of the rest. There were pa.s.sageways and corridors, and rooms opened from these. A few they were able to identify, but the rest, filled with queer, angular furniture and sprawling machines, escaped cla.s.sification. They left the ship-and the sunlight felt good.
Gaynor"s voice rustled dryly. "They were humanoid, Wade, the people who built that ship. If nothing else made sense, the things we saw showed that. But the people who made that ship were not of the city.
They were sp.a.w.ned on some planet circling another sun."
"They came here," Harlan rasped. "They came-and they left that ship behind-Jon . . . they came . . .
and they never left this world-" "Wade-I"m thinking. There might have been other ships-"
Harlan touched the b.u.t.t of his positron blaster, and his face was pale. "We"ve got to look, Jon. That"s something we"ve got to know."
They lifted into the air. Circling and dipping, they searched. The sun was at zenith when they found the second ship. By mid-afternoon they had found a third and a fourth. The fourth was theArk , the hypers.p.a.cial cruiser in which old Mark Gaynor and his band of Purists had left the Earth some one hundred and twenty years before.
The four ships which Gaynor and Harlan had found had two things in common. Each had been built by a different humanoid people, and each was completely deserted. Other than this, there was no basis of comparison between them. Each was separate and distinct, unique in its alienness. Even theArk , long outmoded, seemed strange.
In theArk , Gaynor and Harlan found nothing to indicate what had happened to its pa.s.sengers.
Everything was orderly and neat-more, even in the most excellent condition. Nothing written had been left behind, not the slightest sc.r.a.p of rotting paper.
Gaynor whispered, "Theydid come here, then. And the same thing happened to them that happened to all the rest of the people who landed here. The same thing, I"m sure, that happened to the builders of the city. Why did they leave these ships behind? Where did they go? Whatcould have happened to them?"
Harlan shook his red head somberly. "We"d better not know that. If we stay and try to find out, the same thing will happen to us. The government expedition which discovered this planet encountered the same mystery-but they didn"t try to find out. They returned to Earth. Jon-we"d better get back to the Paragon . We"d better leave while we can."
"And in time more people would come to settle here. And there would be more empty ships." Gaynor"s lips tightened to a stubborn line. "Wade-I"m not leaving until I crack the mystery of this place. I"m going to find what happened to old Mark and the Purists. We"ve been warned-we"ll be on the alert."
Harlan met Gaynor"s determined gaze, and then he looked away. He moistened his lips. After a long moment he gave a stiff nod. His voice was very low.
"Then we"ve got to start at the beginning, Jon. Those pictures-"
"Yes, Wade, the pictures. I"m sure they hold the answer to the whole thing. We"ve got to find that beginning. You"ve noticed how the city is strung out. At one end is the beginning, at the other-"
"The end!" Harlan said abruptly.
"No. Wade. The answer."
They returned first to theParagon , to satisfy pangs of hunger too intense to be ignored any longer.
Then, donning their antigravity flight units once more, they took to the air. They circled several times, set out finally for a point on the horizon where the city thinned out and finally terminated.
Their flight ended at a single, slender tower set in the midst of a parklike expanse. That they had reached the end of the city, they knew, for ahead of them no other building was in sight. They floated to the ground, stared silently at the tower. It glowed with a chaste whiteness in the late afternoon light-serene,somewhat aloof, lovely in its simplicity and solitariness.
Harlan spoke softly. "The beginning? Or-the end?"
"That"s what we have to find out," Gaynor responded. "We"re going in there, Wade."
The interior of the tower was dark and cool, filled with the solemn hush of a cathedral. It consisted solely of one great room, its ceiling lost in sheerness of height. And except for the ever-present wall paintings, it was empty-utterly bare.
Gaynor and Harlan gazed at the paintings, and then they looked at each other, and slowly they nodded.
Silently they left.
"That . . . that wasn"t the beginning," Harlan stated slowly.
"No, Wade. That was-the end. The beginning lies on the opposite side of the city. But we"ll have to postpone our investigation until morning. We wouldn"t reach the other end of the city until dark."
They returned to theParagon . The sun was setting behind the towers of the city to the east, sinking into a glory of rose and gold. Slowly the paling fingers of its radiance withdrew from the city. Night came in all its starry splendor.
Gaynor and Harlan were up with the dawn. Eagerness to be back at their investigations fired them. They hurried impatiently through breakfast. Then, attaching kits of emergency ration concentrates to their belts and donning their antigravity flight units, they took to the air.
As they flew, Gaynor and Harlan had to remind themselves that this was the second day of their visit and not the first, so closely did the new day resemble the one preceding. Nothing had changed. The city beneath them still dreamed on. And far away and high in the blue, glittering clouds of the crystal creatures darted and danced, their chimings and tinklings sounding like echoes of melody from an elfin world.
The sun was bright and warm when Gaynor and Harlan reached the end of the city opposite the one which they had investigated the day before. Here they found no slender tower. There was nothing to show that this part of the city was in any way different from the rest. The general plan of tower-encircled courts was the same as everywhere else. The city merely terminated-or looking at it the other way, merely began.
Gaynor and Harlan glided down into one of the very first of the tower-encircled courts. They touched ground, switched off their flight units, stood gazing slowly about them.
Gaynor muttered, "The beginning? Or- Maybe we were wrong, Wade. Maybe there is no beginning."
"Those towers should tell us," Harlan said. "Let"s have a look inside them, Jon."