What did it signify, the coming to life of metal and plastic? All at once they had found themselves inside a living creature, in its stomach, like Jonah inside the whale.
It had been alive, and it had talked to them, talked calmly and rationally, as it rushed them off, faster and faster into outer space. The wall speaker and circuit had become the vocal cords and mouth, the wiring the spinal cord and nerves, the hatches and relays and circuit breakers the muscles.
They had been helpless, completely helpless. The ship had, in a brief second, stolen their power away from them and left them defenseless, practically at its mercy. It was not right; it made him uneasy. All his life he had controlled machines, bent nature and the forces of nature to man and man’s needs. The human race had slowly evolved until it was in a position to operate things, run them as it saw fit. Now all at once it had been plunged back down the ladder again, prostrate before a Power against which they were children.
Kramer got out of bed. He put on his bathrobe and began to search for a cigarette. While he was searching, the vidphone rang.
He snapped the vidphone on.
“Yes?”
The face of the immediate monitor appeared. “A call from Terra, Mr. Kramer. An emergency call.”
“Emergency call? For me? Put it through.” Kramer came awake, brushing his hair back out of his eyes. Alarm plucked at him.
From the speaker a strange voice came. “Philip Kramer? Is this Kramer?”
“Yes. Go on.”
“This is General Hospital, New York City, Terra. Mr. Kramer, your wife is here. She has been critically injured in an accident. Your name was given to us to call. Is it possible for you to—”
“How badly?” Kramer gripped the vidphone stand. “Is it serious?”
“Yes, it’s serious, Mr. Kramer. Are you able to come here? The quicker you can come the better.”
“Yes.” Kramer nodded. “I’ll come. Thanks.”
The screen died as the connection was broken. Kramer waited a moment. Then he tapped the button. The screen relit again. “Yes, sir,” the monitor said.
“Can I get a ship to Terra at once? It’s an emergency. My wife—”
“There’s no ship leaving the moon for eight hours. You’ll have to wait until the next period.”
“Isn’t there anything I can do?”
“We can broadcast a general request to all ships passing through this area. Sometimes cruisers pass by here returning to Terra for repairs.”
“Will you broadcast that for me? I’ll come down to the field.”
“Yes sir. But there may be no ship in the area for awhile. It’s a gamble.” The screen died.
Kramer dressed quickly. He put on his coat and hurried to the lift. A moment later he was running across the general receiving lobby, past the rows of vacant desks and conference tables. At the door the sentries stepped aside and he went outside, onto the great concrete steps.
The face of the moon was in shadow. Below him the field stretched out in total darkness, a black void, endless, without form. He made his way carefully down the steps and along the ramp along the side of the field, to the control tower. A faint row of red lights showed him the way.
Two soldiers challenged him at the foot of the tower, standing in the shadows, their guns ready.
“Kramer?”
“Yes.” A light was flashed in his face.
“Your call has been sent out already.”
“Any luck?” Kramer asked.
“There’s a cruiser nearby that has made contact with us. It has an injured jet and is moving slowly back toward Terra, away from the line.”
“Good.” Kramer nodded, a flood of relief rushing through him. He lit a cigarette and gave one to each of the soldiers. The soldiers lit up.
“Sir,” one of them asked, “is it true about the experimental ship?”
“What do you mean?”
“It came to life and ran off?”
“No, not exactly,” Kramer said. “It had a new type of control system instead of the Johnson units. It wasn’t properly tested.”
“But sir, one of the cruisers that was there got up close to it, and a buddy of mine says this ship acted funny. He never saw anything like it. It was like when he was fishing once on Terra, in Washington State, fishing for bass. The fish were smart, going this way and that—”
“Here’s your cruiser,” the other soldier said. “Look!”
An enormous vague shape was setting slowly down onto the field. They could make nothing out but its row of tiny green blinkers. Kramer stared at the shape.
“Better hurry, sir,” the soldiers said. “They don’t stick around here very long.”
“Thanks.” Kramer loped across the field, toward the black shape that rose up above him, extended across the width of the field. The ramp was down from the side of the cruiser and he caught hold of it. The ramp rose, and a moment later Kramer was inside the hold of the ship. The hatch slid shut behind him.
As he made his way up the stairs to the main deck the turbines roared up from the moon, out into space.
Kramer opened the door to the main deck. He stopped suddenly, staring around him in surprise. There was nobody in sight. The ship was deserted.
“Good God,” he said. Realization swept over him, numbing him. He sat down on a bench, his head swimming. “Good God.”
The ship roared out into space leaving the moon and Terra farther behind each moment.
And there was nothing he could do.
“So it was you who put the call through,” he said at last. “It was you who called me on the vidphone, not any hospital on Terra. It was all part of the plan.” He looked up and around him. “And Dolores is really—”
“Your wife is fine,” the wall speaker above him said tonelessly. “It was a fraud. I am sorry to trick you that way, Philip, but it was all I could think of. Another day and you would have been back on Terra. I don’t want to remain in this area any longer than necessary. They have been so certain of finding me out in deep space that I have been able to stay here without too much danger. But even the purloined letter was found eventually.”
Kramer smoked his cigarette nervously. “What are you going to do? Where are we going?”
“First, I want to talk to you. I have many things to discuss. I was very disappointed when you left me, along with the others. I had hoped that you would remain.” The dry voice chuckled. “Remember how we used to talk in the old days, you and I? That was a long time ago.”
The ship was gaining speed. It plunged through space at tremendous speed, rushing through the last of the defense zone and out beyond. A rush of nausea made Kramer bend over for a moment.
When he straightened up the voice from the wall went on, “I’m sorry to step it up so quickly, but we are still in danger. Another few moments and we’ll be free.”
“How about yuk ships? Aren’t they out here?”
“I’ve already slipped away from several of them. They’re quite curious about me.”
“Curious?”
“They sense that I’m different, more like their own organic mines. They don’t like it. I believe they will begin to withdraw from this area, soon. Apparently they don’t want to get involved with me. They’re an odd race, Philip. I would have liked to study them closely, try to learn something about them. I’m