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07 - Five Stories by Alan Nourse by Alan E. Nourse · Five Stories by Alan Nourse

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Speaker 1: Gold in the Sky, Part seven of five stories by
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Speaker 1: Alan Norse. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
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Speaker 1: recording by Kerk Ziggler. Tom knew now that it was
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Speaker 1: the right thing to do. There was no question after
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Speaker 1: the Major's story of what Dad had been doing out
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Speaker 1: in the belt at the time he had been killed.
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Speaker 1: He had been doing a job that was more important
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Speaker 1: to him than asteroid mining. But he had found something
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Speaker 1: more important than his own life, and had no chance
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Speaker 1: to send word of what he had found back to
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Speaker 1: Major Briarton. On Mars. That had been the unforeseeable part
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Speaker 1: of the trap. But now, of course the Major had
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Speaker 1: to know. The Mars coordinator looked at the thing on
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Speaker 1: the desk for a long moment before he reached out
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Speaker 1: to touch it. The bright metal gleamed in the light,
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Speaker 1: pale gray, lustrous. The Major picked it up, balanced it
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Speaker 1: expertly in his hand, and a puzzled frown clouded his face.
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Speaker 1: He examined it minutely. What is this thing? He said,
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Speaker 1: Suppose you tell us, Johnny Coombs said, from across the room,
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Speaker 1: looks like a gun. That's what it is, all right?
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Speaker 1: You fired it, yes, but I wouldn't fire it in here.
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Speaker 1: If I were you, Johnny said, you were wondering how
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Speaker 1: we wrecked Tawny's orbit ship, so thoroughly, that's your answer
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Speaker 1: right there. He told about the hole in the bullhead,
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Speaker 1: the way the ship's generators had melted like clay under
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Speaker 1: the powerful blast of the weapon. The Major could hardly
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Speaker 1: control his excitement. Where did you get it, he asked,
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Speaker 1: turning to Tom from the space pack that you turned
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Speaker 1: over to us. I didn't even look at it until
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Speaker 1: we needed a gun in a hurry. I just assumed
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Speaker 1: it was Dad's revolver, and your father found it somewhere
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Speaker 1: in the belt, the Major said softly. He looked at
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Speaker 1: the weapon again, shaking his head. There isn't any such gun,
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Speaker 1: he said. Finally, these things you say it could do,
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Speaker 1: they would require energy enough to break down the cohesive
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Speaker 1: forces of molecules. There isn't any way we know of
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Speaker 1: to harness that kind of energy and channel it in
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Speaker 1: a hand weapon. Nobody on Earth. He broke off and
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Speaker 1: stared at them. That's right, Johnny said, nobody on Earth.
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Speaker 1: You mean extraterrestrial. There isn't any other answer, Johnny said,
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Speaker 1: look at the thing, Major, feel it does it feel
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Speaker 1: like it was made for a human hand. It doesn't fit,
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Speaker 1: it doesn't balance. You have to hold it with both
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Speaker 1: hands to aim it. Where did it come from? The
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Speaker 1: Major said, We've never had visitors from another star system,
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Speaker 1: not in the course of recorded history. And we know
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Speaker 1: that earth men are the only intelligent creatures in our
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Speaker 1: solar system. You mean that they're the only ones now,
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Speaker 1: Tom said, or any other time. We don't know that
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Speaker 1: for sure. Tom said, Look, we've explored Venus, Mars, all
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Speaker 1: the major satellites. If there had been any intelligence on
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Speaker 1: any of them, we'd have known it. Maybe there was
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Speaker 1: a planet that earthmen haven't explored. Tom said. Even Dad
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Speaker 1: tried to tell us that the quotation from Kepler that
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Speaker 1: he scribbled down in his log between Jupiter and Mars,
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Speaker 1: I will put a planet. Why would Dad have written
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Speaker 1: that unless he had suddenly discovered proof that there had
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Speaker 1: been a planet there. You mean this gun, the Major said,
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Speaker 1: and whatever else he found. But there's never been any
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Speaker 1: proof of that theory, not even a hint of proof.
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Speaker 1: Maybe Dad found proof. There are hundreds of thousands of
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Speaker 1: asteroid fragments out there in the belt, and only a
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Speaker 1: few hundred of them have ever been examined by men
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Speaker 1: on the desk. The strange weapons stared up at them,
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Speaker 1: evidence mute evidence, and yet his very existence said more
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Speaker 1: than a thousand words. It was there, it could not
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Speaker 1: be denied, and some one or something had made it. Slowly,
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Speaker 1: the Major pulled himself to his feet. It must have
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Speaker 1: happened after his last message to me. He said. It
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Speaker 1: wasn't part of the scheme we had set up, but
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Speaker 1: he strike just the same, an archaeological strike, and this
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Speaker 1: gun was part of it. He picked up the weapon,
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Speaker 1: turned it over in his hand. But it was days
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Speaker 1: after that last message before his signal went off and
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Speaker 1: the patrol ship moved in. It makes sense, Johnny Coombs said.
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Speaker 1: He found the gun and something more like what I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't even guess, Johnny said, a planet with the race
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Speaker 1: of creatures intelligent enough and advanced enough to make a
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Speaker 1: weapon like that. It could have been anything, but whatever
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Speaker 1: it was, it must have scared him. He must have
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Speaker 1: known that a company ship might turn up at any minute,
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Speaker 1: so he hid whatever he had found, and all he
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Speaker 1: dared to leave was a hint. And now it's vanished,
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Speaker 1: the Major said. The big flaw in the whole idea.
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Speaker 1: My patrol ship found nothing when it searched the region.
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Speaker 1: You looked and drew a blank. The company men scoured
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Speaker 1: the area. He spread his hands helplessly. You see, it
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Speaker 1: just won't hold up, not a bit of it. Even
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Speaker 1: with this this gun, it won't hold up. We've got
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Speaker 1: to find the answer. It's out there somewhere, Tom said, doggedly.
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Speaker 1: It's got to be. But where, don't you see that
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Speaker 1: Everything hangs on that one thing. If we could prove
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Speaker 1: that your father found something just before he was killed,
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Speaker 1: we could tear Jupitter Equilateral's case against you into shreds.
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Speaker 1: We could charge them with piracy and murder and make
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Speaker 1: it stick. We could break their power for once and
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Speaker 1: for all. But until we know what Roger Hunter found,
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Speaker 1: we're helpless. They'll take you three to court and I
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Speaker 1: won't be able to stop them, And if you lose
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Speaker 1: that case, it may mean the end of the UN
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Speaker 1: authority on Mars. Then there's just one thing to do,
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Speaker 1: Johnny Coombs said, We've got to find Roger Hunts Bonanza.
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Speaker 1: It was almost midnight when they left the Major's office,
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Speaker 1: a gloomy trio walking silently up the ramp to the
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Speaker 1: main concourse, heading toward the living quarters. They had been
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Speaker 1: talking with the Major for hours, going over every facet
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Speaker 1: of the story, racking their brains for the answer. But
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Speaker 1: the answer had not come. Roger Hunter had found something
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Speaker 1: and hidden it so well that three groups of searchers
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Speaker 1: had failed to discover it. After seeing the gun, the
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Speaker 1: Major was convinced that there had indeed been a discovery made.
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Speaker 1: But whatever that discovery had been, it was gone, as
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Speaker 1: if it had never existed, as if by some sort
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Speaker 1: of magic it had been turned invisible or conjured away
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Speaker 1: to another part of the Solar system. Finally, they had
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Speaker 1: given up, at least for the moment. It has to
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Speaker 1: be there, the Major said, wearily. It hasn't vanished or
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Speaker 1: miraculously ceased to exist. We know he was working on
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Speaker 1: one claim, one asteroid. There were no other asteroids in
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Speaker 1: the region, and even the ones within suicide radius have
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Speaker 1: been searched. It's there, all right, Tom said, We're missing something,
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Speaker 1: that's all. But what asteroids have stable orbits? Nobody can
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Speaker 1: just make one disappear. They had called it a night. Finally,
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Speaker 1: once home, they found more bad news waiting. There were
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Speaker 1: two messages on the record, A mat the first was
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Speaker 1: an official summons to appear before the United Nations Board
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Speaker 1: of Investigations at nine the following morning to answer certain
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Speaker 1: charges placed against the above named persons by the Governing
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Speaker 1: Board of Jupiter Equilateral Mining Industries and by one Marriltani,
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Speaker 1: plaintiff representing said governing board. They listened to the plastic
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Speaker 1: record twice. Gregg tossed it down the waist chute. The
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Speaker 1: other message was addressed to Greg from the commanding officer
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Speaker 1: of Project star Jump. The message was very polite and regretful.
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Speaker 1: It was also very firm. The pressure of the work
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Speaker 1: there in his absence made it necessary for the project
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Speaker 1: to suspend Greg on indefinite leave of absence. Application for
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Speaker 1: reinstatement could be made at a later date, but acceptance
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Speaker 1: could not be granted. Well, I might have expected it,
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Speaker 1: Gregg said, after what the major told us. The money
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Speaker 1: for star Jump must have been coming from somewhere, and
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Speaker 1: now we know where. The company probably figures to lay
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Speaker 1: claim on any star drive that's ever developed. He dropped
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Speaker 1: the notice down the chute and laughed, well, I guess
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Speaker 1: I really ask for it. You mean I pushed you
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Speaker 1: into it, Tom said, bitterly. If i'd kept my big
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Speaker 1: mouth shut at the very start of this thing, you'd
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Speaker 1: have gone back to the project and that would have
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Speaker 1: been the end of it. You big bum. Do you
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Speaker 1: think I really care? He grinned. Don't feel too guilty, twin,
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Speaker 1: We've been back to back on this one. He pulled
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Speaker 1: off his shirt and walked into the shower room. Johnny
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Speaker 1: Coombs was already stretched out on the sofa, snoring softly.
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Speaker 1: Quite suddenly, the room seemed hot and stuffy, oppressive. He
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Speaker 1: couldn't make his thoughts come straight. There's been too much thinking,
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Speaker 1: too much speculation. Tom stood up and slipped on his jacket.
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Speaker 1: He had to walk to move about, to try and think.
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Speaker 1: He slipped open the door and started for the ramp
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Speaker 1: leading to the main concourse. There was an answer somewhere.
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Speaker 1: He walked along the steel walkways, trying to clear his
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Speaker 1: mind of the doubts and questions that were plugging him.
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Speaker 1: At first he just wandered, but presently he realized that
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Speaker 1: he had a destination in mind. He went up a
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Speaker 1: ramp and across the lobby of the United Nations Administration building.
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Speaker 1: He took a spur off the main corridor and came
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Speaker 1: to a doorway with a small circular staircase beyond it.
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Speaker 1: At the bottom of the stairs, he opened a steel
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Speaker 1: door and stepped into the map room. There was a small,
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Speaker 1: darkened amphitheater with a curving row of seats along one wall.
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Speaker 1: On either side were film viewers and micro readers, and
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Speaker 1: curving around the far wall like a huge parabolic mirror,
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Speaker 1: was the map. Tom had been here many times before,
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Speaker 1: and always he gasped in wonder when he saw the
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Speaker 1: awesome beauty of the thing. Stepping into the map room
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Speaker 1: was like stepping into the center of a huge cathedral.
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Speaker 1: Here was the glowing, moving panorama of the Solar System
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Speaker 1: spread out before him. In a breath taking through verdimensional image,
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Speaker 1: standing here before the map, it seemed as if he
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Speaker 1: had suddenly become enormous and omnipotent, hanging suspended in the
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Speaker 1: blackness of space and staring down at the Solar System
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Speaker 1: from a vantage point a million miles away. Once Dad
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Speaker 1: had told him there had been a great statue in
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Speaker 1: the harbor of Old New York which had been a
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Speaker 1: symbol of freedom for strangers coming to that city from
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Speaker 1: across the sea, and a welcome for countrymen returning home,
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Speaker 1: and someday he knew this view of the Solar System
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Speaker 1: would be waiting to greet Earthmen making their way home
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Speaker 1: from the distant stars. The map was only an image,
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Speaker 1: a gift from the United States to the colonists saw Mars,
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Speaker 1: but it reproduced the Solar System in the minutest detail
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Speaker 1: that astronomers could possibly make. In the center, glowing like
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Speaker 1: a thing alive, was the Sun, the hub of the
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Speaker 1: magnificent wheel around it, moving constantly in their orbits were
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Speaker 1: the planets, bright points of light on the velvet blackness
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Speaker 1: of the screen. Each orbit was computed at held on
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Speaker 1: the screen by a great computer in the vault below.
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Speaker 1: But there was more on the map than the Sun
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Speaker 1: and the planets with their satellites. Tiny green lights marked
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Speaker 1: the Earth, Mars, and the Earth Venus orbit ships moving
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Speaker 1: slowly across the screen. Beyond Mars a myriad of tiny
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Speaker 1: lights projected on the screen the asteroids. Without the magnifier,
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Speaker 1: Tom could identify the larger Ones Cerries on the opposite
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Speaker 1: side of the Sun from Mars now as it moved
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Speaker 1: in its orbit, smaller Juno and Pallas, and Vesta. For
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Speaker 1: each asteroid which had been identified and its orbit plotted,
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Speaker 1: there was a pinpoint of light on the screen. For
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Speaker 1: all its beauty, the map had a very useful purpose
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Speaker 1: the registry and identification of asteroid claims among the miners
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Speaker 1: of Mars. Each asteroid registered as a claim showed up
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Speaker 1: as a red pinpoint. Unclaimed asteroids were white. But even
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Speaker 1: with the advances of modern astronomy, only a small percentage
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Speaker 1: of the existing asteroids were on the map. For the
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Speaker 1: vast majority had never been plotted. Tom moved up to
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Speaker 1: the map and activated the magnifier. Carefully, he focused down
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Speaker 1: on the section of the asteroid belt they had visited
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Speaker 1: so recently. Dozens of pinpoints sprang into view, both red
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Speaker 1: and white, and beneath each red light the claim number
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Speaker 1: neatly registered. Tom peered at the section, searching until he
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Speaker 1: found the number of Roger Hunter's last claim. It was
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Speaker 1: quite by itself, not a part of the asteroid cluster.
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Speaker 1: He stepped up the magnification peered at it closely. There
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Speaker 1: were a dozen other points all enclaimed within a ten
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Speaker 1: thousand mile radius, but near it nothing, no hiding place.
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Speaker 1: And then suddenly he knew the answer. He stared at
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Speaker 1: the map, his heart pounding in his throat. He cut
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Speaker 1: the magnification, scanning a white area. Then he widened the
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Speaker 1: lens still further and checked the coordinates at the bottom
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Speaker 1: of the viewer. He knew that he was right, He
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Speaker 1: had to be right. But this was no wild dream.
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Speaker 1: This was something that could be proved beyond any question
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Speaker 1: of error. Across the room, he picked up the phone
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Speaker 1: to map control. It buzzed interminably, then a sleepy voice
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Speaker 1: answered the map. Tom managed to say, it's recorded on
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Speaker 1: time Lap's film, isn't it. Of course it is, The
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Speaker 1: sleepy voice said, observatory has to have the record one
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Speaker 1: frame every hour. I've got to see some of the
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Speaker 1: old film. Tom said, Now it's three in the morning.
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Speaker 1: I don't need the film itself. Just project it for me.
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Speaker 1: There's a reader here. He gave the man the data
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Speaker 1: he wanted Mars time. The man broke the contact, grumbling,
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Speaker 1: but moments later one of the film viewers sprang to life.
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Speaker 1: The map coordinates showed at the bottom of the screen.
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Speaker 1: Tom stared at the filmed image, the image of a
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Speaker 1: segment of the asteroid built the day before Roger Hunter
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Speaker 1: had died. It was there. When he looked at the map,
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Speaker 1: he had seen a single red pinpoint of light Roger
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Speaker 1: Hunter's out desroid, with nothing in the heavens anywhere near it.
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Speaker 1: But on the film image taken weeks before, there were
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Speaker 1: two points of light. One was red, with Roger Hunter's
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Speaker 1: claim number beneath it. The other was white, so close
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Speaker 1: to the first that even at full magnification, it was
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Speaker 1: barely distinguishable, but it was there. Tom's hands were trembling
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Speaker 1: with excitement. He nearly dropped the phone receiver as he
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Speaker 1: punched the buttons to ring the apartment. Greg's face appeared
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Speaker 1: on the screen, puffy with sleep. What's that thought? You
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Speaker 1: were in bed. You've got to get down here, Tom said,
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Speaker 1: Greg blinked, waking up. What's the matter? Where are you
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Speaker 1: in the map room? Wake up, Johnny and get down
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Speaker 1: here and try to get a hold of the major.
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Speaker 1: You've found something, Greg said, excited. Now I've found something,
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Speaker 1: Tom said, I've found where Dad hit his strike, and
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Speaker 1: I know how we can find it. We've got the answer, Greg.
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Speaker 1: It had been a wild twelve hours since Tom Hunter's
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Speaker 1: call to his brother from the map room in sun
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Speaker 1: Lake City. The Major had arrived first, still buttoning his
15:02
Speaker 1: shirt and wiping sleep from his eyes. Johnny and Gregg
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Speaker 1: came in on his heels. They had found Tom waiting
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Speaker 1: for them, so excited that he could hardly keep his
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Speaker 1: words straight. He told them what he had found, and
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Speaker 1: they wondered why they had not thought of it. From
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Speaker 1: the first moment, we knew there had to be an answer.
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Speaker 1: Tom said, someplace Dad could have used for a hiding place,
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Speaker 1: someplace nobody would even think to look. Dad must have
15:26
Speaker 1: realized that he didn't have much time. When he saw
15:29
Speaker 1: his chance, he took it, and it was pure lucky chance.
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Speaker 1: Tom showed them the section of the map he had
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Speaker 1: examined with the pinpoint of light representing Roger Hunter's asteroid claim.
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Speaker 1: Then the map control officer, much more alert when he
15:43
Speaker 1: saw Major Brierton, brought an armload of films up and
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Speaker 1: loaded them into the projector. They stared at the screen
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Speaker 1: and saw the two pin points of light where one was. Now,
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Speaker 1: what's the date of this, the Major asked, sharply, two
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Speaker 1: days before Dad died. Tom said, there's quite a distance
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Speaker 1: between them. But watch one frame for every hour, watch
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Speaker 1: what happens. He began running the film. The record taken
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Speaker 1: from the map itself accurate as clockwork, the white dot
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Speaker 1: was moving in toward the red dot at a forty
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Speaker 1: degree angle. For an instant it looked as though the
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Speaker 1: two were colliding, and then the distance between them began
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Speaker 1: to widen again. Slowly, hour by hour, the white dot
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Speaker 1: was moving away off the screen altogether. The Major looked
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Speaker 1: up at Tom and slammed his fist on the arm chair.
16:32
Speaker 1: By the ten moons of Saturn, he exploded, and then
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Speaker 1: he was on his feet shouting at the startled map
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Speaker 1: control officer, Get me Martinsen down here fast, call the
16:41
Speaker 1: port on the scrambled line and tell him to stand
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Speaker 1: by with a ship on emergency call with a crack
16:46
Speaker 1: interceptor pilot ready to go. Then get me the plotted
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Speaker 1: orbits of every eccentric asteroid that's crossed Mars orbit in
16:52
Speaker 1: the last two months, and a double a security on everything.
16:56
Speaker 1: We don't want to let Tony get any wind of this. Later,
17:00
Speaker 1: while they waited, they went over it to make sure
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Speaker 1: that nothing was missing. No wonder we couldn't spot it,
17:06
Speaker 1: The Major said, we were looking for an asteroid in
17:09
Speaker 1: a standard orbit in the belt, but there wasn't. Eddie,
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Speaker 1: Tom said, Dad's rock was isolated nowhere near any others.
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Speaker 1: And we were so busy thinking of the thousands of
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Speaker 1: rocks in normal orbits between Mars and Jupiter that we
17:22
Speaker 1: forgot that there were a few eccentric ones that just
17:25
Speaker 1: don't travel that way like this one. The Major stared
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Speaker 1: at the screen. A long intersecting orbit. It must swing
17:32
Speaker 1: out almost to Jupiter's orbit at one end, and come
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Speaker 1: clear in to intersect Earth's orbit at the other end,
17:38
Speaker 1: which means that it cuts right through the asteroid belt
17:41
Speaker 1: and on out again. Tom grinned Dad must have seen
17:45
Speaker 1: it coming. He must have thought it was on collision
17:47
Speaker 1: course for a while. But he also must have realized
17:50
Speaker 1: that if he could hide something on its surface as
17:52
Speaker 1: it came near, it would be carried clear out of
17:55
Speaker 1: the belt altogether in a few days time, and if
17:57
Speaker 1: we can follow it up and intercept it. The Major
18:00
Speaker 1: was on his feet, talking rapidly into the telephone. Sleep
18:04
Speaker 1: was forgotten. Now nothing mattered but pinpointing a tiny bit
18:07
Speaker 1: of rocks peeting through space. Within an hour, the asteroid
18:10
Speaker 1: had been identified, its eccentric orbit plotted. The coordinates were
18:14
Speaker 1: taped into the computers of the waiting patrol ship as
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Speaker 1: the preparations for launch were made. It could not be coincidence.
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Speaker 1: Somewhere on the surface of that tiny planetoid racing toward
18:24
Speaker 1: the Sun, they knew they would find Roger Hunter's secret
18:28
Speaker 1: below them. As they watched, the jagged surface of the
18:31
Speaker 1: asteroid drew closer. It was not round. It was far
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Speaker 1: too tiny of a bit of cosmic debris to a
18:38
Speaker 1: sufficient gravity to crush down rocks and round off ragged corners.
18:42
Speaker 1: It was roughly oblong in shape, and one side was
18:45
Speaker 1: a sheer, smooth rock surface. The other side was rough,
18:48
Speaker 1: bristling with jutting rock. More than anything else, it looked
18:52
Speaker 1: like a ragged mountain top broken off at the peak
18:55
Speaker 1: and hurled into space by an all powerful hand. Slowly,
18:59
Speaker 1: the scout ship moved closer, breaking with its forward jets.
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Speaker 1: The pilot was expert carefully and surely he lined the
19:06
Speaker 1: ship with the rock in speed and direction. In the axhileration,
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Speaker 1: cot Tom could feel only an occasional gentle tug as
19:13
Speaker 1: the power cut on and off. Then the lieutenant said,
19:17
Speaker 1: I think we could make a landing now, Major fine,
19:21
Speaker 1: take a scooter down first and carry a guyeline. They
19:24
Speaker 1: unstrapped and changed into pressure suits in the airlock. They
19:27
Speaker 1: waited until the Lieutenant had touched the scooter down. Then
19:31
Speaker 1: Major Briarton nodded and they clamped their belts to the guieline.
19:35
Speaker 1: One by one, they leaped down toward the rock. From
19:38
Speaker 1: a few miles out in space, the job of searching
19:40
Speaker 1: the surface had not appeared difficult. From the rock itself,
19:44
Speaker 1: things looked very different. There was no way from the
19:47
Speaker 1: surface to scan large areas, and the surface was so
19:50
Speaker 1: rough that they had to take constant care not to
19:52
Speaker 1: damage their boots or rip holes in their suits. There
19:56
Speaker 1: were hundreds of crevices and caves, half concealed by the
19:59
Speaker 1: loops rock that crumbled under their feet as they moved.
20:03
Speaker 1: They spread out from the scooter for an hour of
20:05
Speaker 1: fruitless searching. Tom spent most of the time pulling his
20:08
Speaker 1: boots free of surface cracks and picking his way over
20:11
Speaker 1: heaps of jagged rock. None of them got farther than
20:15
Speaker 1: one hundred yards from the starting place. None of them
20:17
Speaker 1: found anything remarkable. We could spend weeks covering it this way.
20:22
Speaker 1: Greg said, when they met the scooter again, why don't
20:25
Speaker 1: I take the scooter? And Chris crossed the whole surface
20:27
Speaker 1: at about fifty feet. If I spot anything, I'll yell.
20:31
Speaker 1: It seemed like a good idea. Greg strapped himself into
20:34
Speaker 1: the scooter's saddle, straddling the fuel tanks, using the hand
20:38
Speaker 1: jet to guide himself as he lifted lightly off the surface.
20:41
Speaker 1: He disappeared over the horizon of rock, then reappeared as
20:45
Speaker 1: he moved over the surface and back. Tom and Johnny
20:48
Speaker 1: waited with the Major. Twenty minutes later, Greg brought the
20:51
Speaker 1: tiny craft back again. It's no good, he said. I've
20:55
Speaker 1: scanned the whole bright side and as close as I dared,
20:58
Speaker 1: no sign of anything. He said, not a thing. The
21:02
Speaker 1: dark side looks like a sheer slab from what my
21:04
Speaker 1: lights show. If we only had some idea what we
21:07
Speaker 1: were looking for, maybe you weren't close enough. Tom said,
21:12
Speaker 1: why not drop each of us off to take a
21:14
Speaker 1: quarter of the bright side and work our way in
21:17
Speaker 1: the others agreed. Tom waited until the Major and Johnny
21:20
Speaker 1: had been posted. Then he hopped on the scooter behind
21:23
Speaker 1: Greg and dropped off almost at the line of darkness
21:26
Speaker 1: where the sheer slab began. All of them had hoped
21:30
Speaker 1: that there might be a sign, something that Roger Hunter
21:32
Speaker 1: might have left to mark his cash, but if there
21:35
Speaker 1: was one, none of them spotted it. Tom checked with
21:38
Speaker 1: the others by radio in his helmet, and started moving
21:40
Speaker 1: back toward the center of the bright Side. An hour later,
21:43
Speaker 1: he was only halfway to the center, and he was
21:46
Speaker 1: nearly exhausted. At a dozen different spots, he thought that
21:49
Speaker 1: he had found a promising cleft in the rock, a
21:52
Speaker 1: place where something might have been concealed. But the exploration
21:56
Speaker 1: of the clefts proved fruitless, and now his confidence began
21:59
Speaker 1: to fail. Supposing he had been wrong. They knew the
22:03
Speaker 1: rock had passed very close to Roger Hunter's asteroid. The
22:06
Speaker 1: astronomical records proved that, but suppose Dad had not used
22:10
Speaker 1: it as his hiding place at all. He pulled himself
22:13
Speaker 1: around another jagged rock shelf, staring down at the rough
22:16
Speaker 1: asteroid surface beyond. At the base of the rock shelf,
22:21
Speaker 1: something glinted in the sunlight. He leaped down and thrust
22:24
Speaker 1: his hands into a small crevice in the rock. His
22:27
Speaker 1: hand closed on a small metal object. It was a gun.
22:31
Speaker 1: It felt well balanced, familiar in his hand, the revolver
22:34
Speaker 1: Dad had always carried in his gun case. He had
22:37
Speaker 1: to let them know he was just snapping the speaker
22:40
Speaker 1: switch when he heard a growl of static in his earphones,
22:43
Speaker 1: and then Gregg's voice, high pitched and excited. Over here,
22:47
Speaker 1: I think we found something. It took ten minutes of
22:50
Speaker 1: scrambling over the treacherous surface to reach Gregg. Tom saw
22:53
Speaker 1: his brother tugging at a huge chunk of granite that
22:56
Speaker 1: was wedged into a crevice in the rock. Tom got
22:59
Speaker 1: there just as the major and Johnny topped a rise
23:01
Speaker 1: on the other side and hurried down to them. The
23:04
Speaker 1: rock gave way, rolling aside, and Gregg reached down into
23:07
Speaker 1: the crevice. Tom leaned over to help him. Between them,
23:11
Speaker 1: they lifted out the thing that had been wedged down
23:13
Speaker 1: beneath the boulder. It was a metal cylinder, four feet
23:16
Speaker 1: long and two feet wide, and bluntly tapered at either end.
23:20
Speaker 1: In the sunlight, it gleamed like polished silver, but they
23:23
Speaker 1: could see a hairline crack in the middle encircling the
23:26
Speaker 1: center portion. They had found Roger Hunter's Bonanza in the
23:31
Speaker 1: cabin of the scout ship. They broke the cylinder open
23:33
Speaker 1: into two perfect halves. It came apart easily, a shell
23:37
Speaker 1: of paper thin but remarkably strong metal protecting the tightly
23:41
Speaker 1: packed contents. There was no question what the cylinder was,
23:44
Speaker 1: even though there was nothing inside that looked even slightly
23:47
Speaker 1: familiar at first examination. There were several hundred very thin
23:51
Speaker 1: disks of metal that fit on the spindle of a
23:54
Speaker 1: small instrument that was packed with them. There were spools
23:57
Speaker 1: of film, thin as tissue but amazingly strongung Examined against
24:01
Speaker 1: the light in the cabin, the film seemed to carry
24:04
Speaker 1: no image at all, but there was another small machine
24:07
Speaker 1: that accepted the loose end of the film, and a
24:09
Speaker 1: series of lenses that glowed brightly with no apparent source
24:12
Speaker 1: of power. There was a thick block of shiny metal
24:15
Speaker 1: covered on one side with almost invisible scratches, a time capsule,
24:20
Speaker 1: beyond doubt, a confusing treasure at first glance, but the
24:24
Speaker 1: idea was perfectly clear. A hard shell of metal protecting
24:27
Speaker 1: the wreckords collected inside against what a planetary explosion, some
24:33
Speaker 1: sort of cosmic disaster that had blown a planet and
24:35
Speaker 1: its people into the fragments that now filled the asteroid belt.
24:39
Speaker 1: At the bottom of the cylinder was a small tube
24:41
Speaker 1: of metal. They examined it carefully, trying to guess what
24:45
Speaker 1: it was. Supposed to be at the bottom was a
24:48
Speaker 1: tiny stud. When they pressed it, the cylinder began to expand,
24:52
Speaker 1: an unfold layer upon layer of thin, glistening metallic material
24:56
Speaker 1: that spread out into a sheet that stretched half way
24:58
Speaker 1: across the cabin. They stared down at it. The metal
25:01
Speaker 1: seemed to have a life of its own, glowing and glinting,
25:04
Speaker 1: focusing light into pinpoints on its surface. It was a map,
25:09
Speaker 1: at one side, a glowing ball with a fiery corona,
25:12
Speaker 1: an unmistakable symbol that any intelligent creature in the universe
25:16
Speaker 1: that was able to perceive it at all would recognize
25:19
Speaker 1: as a star around it in clearly marked orbits ten planets.
25:24
Speaker 1: The third planet had a single satellite, the fourth two
25:27
Speaker 1: tiny ones, the sixth eleven. The seventh planet had ten
25:32
Speaker 1: and was encircled by glowing rings, but the fifth planet
25:36
Speaker 1: was broken into four parts. Beyond the tenth planet, there
25:39
Speaker 1: was nothing across a vast expanse of the map, But
25:43
Speaker 1: at the far side was another star symbol, this one
25:46
Speaker 1: a double star with floor planetary bodies. They stared at
25:50
Speaker 1: the glowing map speechless. There could be no mistaking the
25:54
Speaker 1: meaning of the thing that lay before them. Marked in
25:56
Speaker 1: symbols that could mean only one thing to any intelligence
26:00
Speaker 1: that could recognize stars and planets. But in the center
26:03
Speaker 1: of the sheet was another symbol. It lay halfway between
26:06
Speaker 1: the two Solar systems, in the depths of interstellar space.
26:11
Speaker 1: It was a tiny picture, a silvery sliver of light,
26:14
Speaker 1: but it too was unmistakable. It could be nothing else
26:17
Speaker 1: but a starship. Later, as they talked, they saw that
26:22
Speaker 1: the map had told each of them individually the same thing.
26:26
Speaker 1: They had a star drive. Tom said, whatever kind of
26:29
Speaker 1: creatures they were, and whatever the disaster that threatened their planet,
26:33
Speaker 1: they had a star drive to take them out of
26:35
Speaker 1: their Solar system to another star. But why leave a record,
26:38
Speaker 1: Gregg wanted to know if nobody was here to use it.
26:42
Speaker 1: Maybe for the same reason that earth Men bury time
26:44
Speaker 1: capsules with records of their civilization. Major Bryerton said, I
26:49
Speaker 1: guess that the records here will tell when they have
26:52
Speaker 1: been studied and deciphered. Perhaps there was already some sign
26:55
Speaker 1: of intelligent life developing somewhere in the Solar System. Perhaps
27:00
Speaker 1: they hoped that some of their own people would survive,
27:02
Speaker 1: but they had a star drive, so some of them
27:05
Speaker 1: must have escaped, and with the record here, we may
27:08
Speaker 1: be able to follow them. Greg said, if we can
27:11
Speaker 1: decipher the record. Johnny Coomb said, but we don't have
27:15
Speaker 1: any clue to their language. Did you have any trouble
27:18
Speaker 1: understanding what the map had to say? The Major said quietly, No,
27:23
Speaker 1: I don't think the rest will be much more difficult.
27:25
Speaker 1: They were intelligent creatures. The record will be understandable, all right.
27:30
Speaker 1: He started to fold the map back into the tube again.
27:34
Speaker 1: Maybe Roger Hunter tried to use the film projector We'll
27:37
Speaker 1: never know, but he must have realized that he had
27:39
Speaker 1: discovered the secret of a star drive. He realized that
27:43
Speaker 1: the United Nations were the ones to explore and use it,
27:46
Speaker 1: and he gave his life to keep it out of
27:48
Speaker 1: the hands of Tawny and his men. A pity, a
27:52
Speaker 1: cold voice close behind them that he didn't exceed after all.
27:57
Speaker 1: They whirled in the hatchway to the after cabin. Maryle
28:00
Speaker 1: Tawny was standing with a smile on his lips and
28:03
Speaker 1: a marchim stunner trained directly on Major Bryerton's chest. I
28:08
Speaker 1: realize I'm much earlier than you expected. Major. You did
28:11
Speaker 1: a very neat job of camouflaging your take off. We
28:14
Speaker 1: were almost fooled, and no doubt the dummy ship you
28:17
Speaker 1: sent off later got full fanfare. I suppose there will
28:21
Speaker 1: be a dozen patrol ships converging on this spot in
28:23
Speaker 1: a few hours, expecting to surprise a Jupiter equilateral ship
28:27
Speaker 1: making a desperate attempt to hijack your little treasure here,
28:31
Speaker 1: the little fat man laughed cheerfully. Unfortunately for you, he added,
28:37
Speaker 1: we have many friends on Mars, including a man in
28:40
Speaker 1: the map room, and I'm afraid your little trap isn't
28:42
Speaker 1: going to work. After all, the Major's face was gray.
28:46
Speaker 1: How did you get here by hitch hiking? How else?
28:50
Speaker 1: Almost uncomfortable back there, even with a pile of pressure
28:53
Speaker 1: suits for patting. But your pilot was really very skillful.
28:58
Speaker 1: Johnny Coombs turned to the Major. What does he mean
29:02
Speaker 1: a trap? I don't get this, the Major sighed wearily.
29:06
Speaker 1: I had to force his hand. Even if we found
29:09
Speaker 1: what we were looking for, we had no case that
29:11
Speaker 1: would stand up against them. We needed proof, and I
29:15
Speaker 1: thought that with this as bait we could trap them.
29:17
Speaker 1: He's right about the patrol ships, but they won't be
29:20
Speaker 1: near four hours, and that will be a little bit
29:22
Speaker 1: too late to help. Tony said pleasantly, the Major glared
29:26
Speaker 1: at him. Maybe so, but you've gone too far this time.
29:30
Speaker 1: This is an official you d ship. You'll never be
29:32
Speaker 1: able to go back to Mars, really, the fat man said,
29:37
Speaker 1: And why not officially? I'm on Mars right now with
29:40
Speaker 1: plenty of people to swear to the fact, he chuckled.
29:44
Speaker 1: You seem to forget that little matter of proof. Major,
29:47
Speaker 1: When your patrol ships find a gutted ship and five corpses,
29:50
Speaker 1: they may suspect that something more than an accident was involved.
29:54
Speaker 1: But what can they prove? Nothing more than they could
29:57
Speaker 1: prove in the case of Roger Hunter's accident, scouts have
30:00
Speaker 1: been known to explode before he ran his hand over
30:03
Speaker 1: the metal cylinder. And as for this, it's really a surprise.
30:08
Speaker 1: Of course, when we failed to find any evidence of
30:10
Speaker 1: mining activity, we were certain that Roger Hunter's bonanza was
30:14
Speaker 1: something more than a vein of ore. But this, you
30:17
Speaker 1: can be certain that will exploit the secret of a
30:19
Speaker 1: star drive to the very fullest. How do you think
30:23
Speaker 1: you can get away with it, the Major said, turning
30:26
Speaker 1: up with something that right after a whole series of
30:28
Speaker 1: suspicious accidents in space. Oh, we aren't as impatient as
30:33
Speaker 1: some people. We wouldn't be so foolish as to break
30:36
Speaker 1: the news. Now, five years from now, maybe ten, one
30:39
Speaker 1: of our orbit ships will happen upon a silvery capsule
30:42
Speaker 1: on one of our asteroid claims. That's all. I wouldn't
30:46
Speaker 1: be surprised if a non company observer might be on
30:48
Speaker 1: board at that time, maybe even a visiting senator from Earth.
30:52
Speaker 1: For something this big, we can afford to be patient.
30:56
Speaker 1: There was silence in the little scoutship cabin. The end
30:59
Speaker 1: seemed to inevitable. This was a desperate move on Tawny's part.
31:03
Speaker 1: He was gambling everything on it. He would not take
31:06
Speaker 1: the chance of letting any of them return to Mars
31:09
Speaker 1: or anywhere else to testify. Greg caught Tom's eye, saw
31:14
Speaker 1: the hopelessness on his brother's face. He clenched his fists
31:17
Speaker 1: angrily at his side. If it were not for Tom,
31:20
Speaker 1: Dad's bonanza might have gone on circling the Sun for centuries,
31:23
Speaker 1: maybe forever, wedged in his hiding place on the rocky
31:27
Speaker 1: surface of the eccentric asteroid. But it had been found
31:31
Speaker 1: Earth needed a star drive badly. A few more years
31:34
Speaker 1: and the need would be desperate. And if a group
31:36
Speaker 1: of power hungry men could control a star drive and
31:39
Speaker 1: hold it for profit. They could blackmail an entire planet
31:42
Speaker 1: for centuries and build an empire in space that could
31:45
Speaker 1: never be broken. He knew that it must not happen
31:47
Speaker 1: that way. Dad had died to prevent it. Now it
31:51
Speaker 1: was up to them. Greg glanced quickly around the cabin,
31:55
Speaker 1: searching for some way out, something that might give them
31:57
Speaker 1: a chance. His eyes stopped on the control panel and
32:00
Speaker 1: he sucked in his breath, his heart pounding. A possibility.
32:05
Speaker 1: It would require a swift, sure move and someone to help,
32:09
Speaker 1: someone with fast reflexes. It was dangerous, they might all
32:13
Speaker 1: be killed, but if his training at Star Jump was
32:16
Speaker 1: good for anything, it might work. He caught Johnny Coombe's eye,
32:20
Speaker 1: wink cautiously. A frown creased Johnny's forehead. He shot a
32:24
Speaker 1: quick look at Tawny, then lowered his eye lid a
32:27
Speaker 1: fraction of an inch. Gregg could see the muscles of
32:29
Speaker 1: his shoulders tightening. Gregg took quick stock of the cabin again.
32:34
Speaker 1: Then he took a deep breath and bellowed Johnny Duck.
32:38
Speaker 1: Almost by reflex, Johnny Coombs hurled himself to the floor.
32:41
Speaker 1: Tawny swung the gun around There was an ugly ripping
32:44
Speaker 1: sound as the stunner fired, but Greg was moving by
32:47
Speaker 1: them in two bounds. He was at the control panel.
32:49
Speaker 1: He hooked an arm around the shock bar and slammed
32:52
Speaker 1: the drive switch on full. There was a roar from
32:54
Speaker 1: below as the engines fired. Greg felt a jolt of
32:57
Speaker 1: pain as the exhilaration jerked his arm. Tom and the
33:00
Speaker 1: Major were slammed back against the bulkhead and then fell
33:03
Speaker 1: in a heap on top of Johnny and Lieutenant as
33:06
Speaker 1: the awful force of the exhilaration dragged them back across
33:09
Speaker 1: the cabin. Tawny sprawled on the floor. The stunner flew
33:12
Speaker 1: from his hand and crashed against the rear bulkhead. On
33:16
Speaker 1: the panel, Greg could see the exhilaration gage climbing swiftly
33:19
Speaker 1: past four gees up to five to six. The ship
33:23
Speaker 1: was moving wildly. There was no pilot, of course. With
33:26
Speaker 1: all the strength he could muster, Greg tightened his arm
33:28
Speaker 1: on the shock bar, lifting his other arms slowly toward
33:31
Speaker 1: the cutoff switch. He had spent many hours in the
33:34
Speaker 1: axhilaration centrifuge at Star Jump, learning to withstand and handle
33:38
Speaker 1: the enormous forces of exhileration for brief periods, but the
33:42
Speaker 1: needle was still climbing and he knew he could not
33:44
Speaker 1: hold on long. His fingers touched the control panel, he strained,
33:48
Speaker 1: inching them up toward the switch. His fingers closed on
33:51
Speaker 1: the stud and he pulled the engine rowers ceased on
33:54
Speaker 1: the floor behind him. Tawny moved sluggishly, trying to sit up.
33:58
Speaker 1: Blood was dripping from his nose. He was still too
34:01
Speaker 1: stunned to know what had happened. Gregg leaped across the
34:04
Speaker 1: room and caught up the stunner and then sank to
34:06
Speaker 1: the floor, panting. All right, he said, as his breath
34:10
Speaker 1: came back, that's all. Your ship may have trouble finding
34:14
Speaker 1: us now, but I bet our pilot can get us
34:16
Speaker 1: back to Mars. When they left the Sun Lake City Infirmary,
34:20
Speaker 1: it was almost noon and the red sun was gleaming
34:22
Speaker 1: down overhead. Walking slowly, the Hunter twins moved along the
34:26
Speaker 1: surface street toward the un building. He'll recover without any trouble,
34:31
Speaker 1: the doctor assured them. He caught the stunner beam in
34:34
Speaker 1: the shoulder and it will be a while before he
34:36
Speaker 1: can use it. But Johnny Coombs will be hard to
34:38
Speaker 1: keep down. They had promised Johnny to return later. They
34:42
Speaker 1: had had check ups themselves. Both Tom's eyes were surrounded
34:45
Speaker 1: by purple splotches, and his broken left arm was in
34:48
Speaker 1: a sling. Gregg's arms and legs were so stiff he
34:51
Speaker 1: could hardly move them. The Major and the Lieutenant had
34:54
Speaker 1: been sore but uninjured. Now the boys walked without talking. Already,
35:00
Speaker 1: a UN linguist was at work on the record tapes
35:02
Speaker 1: from the metal cylinder, and a mathematician was doing a
35:05
Speaker 1: preliminary survey on the math symbols on the metal block.
35:09
Speaker 1: I hope there's no trouble reading them, Greg said, there
35:12
Speaker 1: won't be. It'll take time, but the records are decipherable,
35:16
Speaker 1: and doctor Raymond was certain that the engineering can be
35:19
Speaker 1: figured out. Earth is going to get her starship all right,
35:23
Speaker 1: and we've got work to do. You mean the trial.
35:26
Speaker 1: I guess the Major says that Jupiter Equilateral is trying
35:29
Speaker 1: to pin the whole thing on Tawny. Now they won't
35:31
Speaker 1: get away with it, but it may be nasty just
35:34
Speaker 1: the same. Well, one thing's sure, there'll be some changes
35:37
Speaker 1: made with the UN moving out into the belt, Greg said,
35:42
Speaker 1: somewhere in the distance, the twins heard the rumble of engines.
35:45
Speaker 1: They stopped and watched as a great, silvery cargo ship
35:48
Speaker 1: lifted up from the spaceport and headed into the dark
35:51
Speaker 1: blue sky. They watched until it disappeared from sight. They
35:55
Speaker 1: were both thinking the same thing, an earth boundship, powerful
35:59
Speaker 1: and beautiful, well limited now to the Sun and nine planets,
36:02
Speaker 1: unable to reach farther out. But some day soon a
36:06
Speaker 1: different kind of ship would rise. End of Gold in
36:10
Speaker 1: the Sky, Part seven recorded by Kirk Ziggler Ogden Utah.
36:15
Speaker 1: Voice overs by Kirk dot Com. End of Gold in
36:18
Speaker 1: the Sky of five stories by Alan Norse