CHAPTER XXI

"Journey's End...."

"So," said Tsalnor regretfully, "you will not change your mind? You will not stay?"

Gary Lane shook his head. "No, Tsalnor. Someday we may return. But now our duty is to go to our own system, there tell them what we have here learned."

Tsalnor nodded. "Yes, man uff Earth, I suppose that is best. But you will send others uff your people to see us? You will teach us, as you promised, your method uff travel? That there may be friendship and amity between the people uff our worlds?"

"We will," pledged Gary. "Dr. Bryant has said that now the ultrawave cannon is destroyed the solar universe will not only stop its dwindling but will, indeed, begin to return to the true and greater universe from which it was exiled.

"But before this happens our races will have forged bonds of friendship so close that when Sol returns to take its place amongst its sister stars there need never again be war between our worlds."

Muldoon said, "And you, Tsalnor, you've got an even more important job than we have. Keeping the Magogeans under control. You've got to see to it that they never try to build another one of those cannon."

Tsalnor said softly, "We shall be careful. But I think we need never again fear the construction uff such a weapon. Thekraedarsof Magog have been overthrown. It was never the common people who conspired against us. When we haff taught them the benefits of freedom and democracy, they too shall take their place in a new and better universe."

A bell clanged in the control turret of theLiberty, and Captain Hugh Warren, seated in the pilot's swivel, turned to his friends. "Well, I'm afraid that's the signal. All ashore that's going ashore."

"Short circuit!" roared Gary. "For God's sake...!"

Tsalnor and his retinue left. A few minutes later theLibertywas once again tenanted only by those making the return trip to the solar universe. To an Earth free now forever of the dangers which had threatened it.

Dr. Bryant sighed. "And so," he said, "begins the long journey home."

"Only," grinned Lark O'Day, "it won't be such a long journey. We've got the Jovians' quadridimensional co-ordinates for a space warp that will drop us a couple of hours from Earth. All set over here, Hugh."

"Right!" Warren called from his banks. "All right, folks, here we go!" And he depressed the green stud.

Lark rose. "Leaving me," he drawled, "with nothing to do for the next couple of hours. Unless," he spoke to Pen-N'hi hopefully, "unless maybe you'd like to take a little stroll out on the observation deck?"

"Yeah," chuckled Flick, "and watch the fourth dimension whizzing by? That ought to be a lot of fun, Miss Penny."

"It all depends," chuckled Warren, "on who you're watching it with. I was just about to suggest something of the same sort. How about it, Nora? Suppose you and I—"

But Gary interrupted him. This was a new and different Gary Lane from the curt young man who, for months past, had been too preoccupied with a life-and-death struggle to pay a proper amount of attention to matters which were a part of his personal and private life.

Gary said, "Oh, no you don't, Hugh! Not so fast. I got here first." He reached out and folded the arm of Nora Powell into his own. He said, "Nora and I have a few matters to discuss.Businessmatters."

The girl looked at him astonished. "B-business, Gary? At a time like this—business?"

Gary said seriously, "Very important business that has been delayed altogether too long. A—a matter of a merger, you might say."

Nora sighed. Whether it was with relief, or whether there was in that sigh a hint of acquiescence to follow was hard to tell. But she smiled and nodded. And:

"In that case," she said, "I have no choice. I have to do what my boss tells me, Hugh. I'll go with you, Gary."

And they left the bridge.

Muldoon snickered. "Business!" he snorted. "Business my hat!Biologicalbusiness, if you ask me!"

And Warren shook his head dejectedly. "Oh, well," he shrugged. "What the hell!Somebody'sgot to stick around to drive the ship...."

[1]Periodically the planet Venus passes so exactly between our Earth and the sun that the planet is outlined against the sun's disc and may be seen crossing it slowly as a small, black dot. These events, known astransits, are quite infrequent, occurring in duos of eight years, separated by longer intervals alternating between 105 and 122 years.Transits of Venus occurred in 1874 and 1882, in 2004 and 2012 A.D. That observed by Dr. Gary Lane and Flick Muldoon was apparently the transit of June 11, 2247 A.D.—Ed.

Transits of Venus occurred in 1874 and 1882, in 2004 and 2012 A.D. That observed by Dr. Gary Lane and Flick Muldoon was apparently the transit of June 11, 2247 A.D.—Ed.

[2]Sir James Jeans' view of the cosmic rays is that they are causing the material universe to dissolve into radiation. "The whole of the available evidence," he writes, "seems to me to indicate that the change is, with possible insignificant exceptions, forever in the same direction—forever solid matter melts into insubstantial radiation, forever the tangible changes into the intangible ... there can be but one end to the universe ... the end of the journey cannot be other than universal death!"—Sir James Jeans:The Mysterious Universe.

[3]Out of the bloody conflict of the Anarchist Rebellion (2197-2208 A.D.) was born, at long last, the Terrestrial World Union. National boundaries were broken down, racial cliques and prejudices were abandoned, and Earth became one single community speaking a single language. The World Council, an electoral body seated in Geneva, Unit 44a (once the Republic of Switzerland), governed planetary trade, politics and practices.—Ed.

[4]The Bog: spaceman's term used to designate the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.—Ed.

[5]Early investigators were unable to discern any one particular sector of space from which the mysterious cosmic rays seemed to emanate. The painstaking research of Larson T. Marquart (2034-92 A.D.) and Thompson Blaine (2041-99) subsequently determined, however, the point of heaviest emanation as being from that sector of space in which is found the Dog Star, Sirius (Canis Major).—Ed.

[6]Muldoon here ignores the two much earlier experimental rockets which left Earth in 1942 ... that of Dr. Frazier Wrenn from Arizona and that of Doktor Erich von Adlund from Berlin. (See Amazing Stories, Dec. 1939.) Since both these rocket flights came to disastrous end, the history of rocket travel really begins with the launching of the Wentworth-Kroll ship,Primus, in September, 1973.—Ed.

[7]Such records do exist in Earthly legends. In many parts of the world may be found folk-tales concerning "blue-skinned" gods who brought to this planet the benefits of civilization.—Ed.

[8]"TheKuuglaof the Martian outlanders is vaguely similar to thebolaof Earth's Polynesian tribesmen, being a length of fine hemp weighted at one extremity with three barbed hooks. When thrown by an expert, thekuuglawraps itself about the body of its victim, the barbs sinking into his flesh while the rope coils itself about his body, stifling any movement.... Thetraalof the Eros guards is somewhat like theboomerangused by early Australian bushmen, except that it is shaped more like a swastika, each blade being honed to a razor edge. An accomplished "traalul" (or "traal-thrower") can decapitate an enemy at two hundred yards with this weapon ... and make thetraalreturn to his feet for another casting."—Excerpt from:A Survey of Tribal Weapons, Stellar Institute Press, 2208 A.D.—Ed.

[9]Gog and Magog: according to the old Erse records, these were the names of two races which waged a tremendous warfare ages ago ... the conclusion of which conflict was "the loss of Magog and the banishment of Gog."—Ed.

[10]Tri-chess: a highly involved game of tri-dimensional chess played on a series of eight superimposed glassine boards. Pieces move not only horizontally, as in the ancient Persian game, but vertically as well. Two additional types of pieces are used in conjunction with the traditional "pawn, knight, bishop," et al. ... the "pilot," which may move in any direction horizontally or vertically until opposed by another piece, and the "ranger," which may move five vertical spaces and three horizontal, or vice versa, disregarding occupants of those squares.—Ed.

[11]Catooni: a Magogean woodland beast similar to the Virginia red-tailed deer, but with six legs and two sets of vestigial wings.—Ed.

[12]Goraruandsneri: wild beasts of Magog. The first is somewhat similar to the extinct "saber-toothed tiger" of Earth, except that it is equipped with a stony carapace; the second is a gigantic lizard with poisonous mobile horns.—Ed.

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