Part 8 (1/2)

Every night thereafter, Temple made it a point to remain awake after Arkalion apparently had fallen asleep. But if he were seeking repet.i.tion of the peculiar occurrence, he was disappointed. Not only did Arkalion sleep soundly and through the night, but he snored.

Loudly and clearly, a wheezing snore.

Arkalion's strange feat--or his own overwrought imagination, Temple thought wryly--was good for one thing: it took his mind off Stephanie.

The days wore on in endless, monotonous routine. He took some books from the s.h.i.+p's library and browsed through them, even managing to find one concerned with traumatic catalepsy, which stated that a severe emotional shock might render one into a deep enough trance to have a layman mistakenly p.r.o.nounce him dead. But what had been the severe emotional disturbance for Arkalion? Could the effects of weightlessness manifest themselves in that way in rare instances?

Temple naturally did not know, but he resolved to find out if he could after reaching their destination.

One day--it was three weeks after they left the s.p.a.ce station, Temple realized--they were all called to a.s.sembly in the s.h.i.+p's large main lounge. As the men drifted in, Temple was amazed to see the progress they had made with weightlessness. He himself had advanced to handy facility in locomotion, but it struck him all the more pointedly when he saw two hundred men swim and float through air, pus.h.i.+ng themselves along by means of the hand-holds strategically placed along the walls.

The ever-present microphone greeted them all. ”Good afternoon, men.”

”Good afternoon, mac!”

”Hey, is this the way to Ebbetts' Field?”

”Get on with it!”

”Sounds like the same man who addressed us in White Sands,” Temple told Arkalion. ”He sure does get around.”

”A recording, probably. Listen.”

”Our destination, as you've probably read in newspapers and magazines, is the planet Mars.”

Mutterings in the a.s.sembly, not many of surprise.

”Their suppositions, based both on the seven hundred eighty day lapse between Nowhere Journeys and the romantic position in which the planet Mars has always been held, are correct. We are going to Mars.

”For most of you, Mars will be a permanent home for many years to come--”

”Most of us?” Temple wondered out loud.

Arkalion raised a finger to his lips for silence.

”--until such time as you are rotated according to the policy of rotation set up by the government.”

Temple had grown accustomed to the familiar hoots and catcalls. He almost had an urge to join in himself.

”Interesting,” Arkalion pointed out. ”Back at White Sands they claimed not to know our destination. They knew it all right--up to a point.

The planet Mars. But now they say that all of us will not remain on Mars. Most interesting.”

”--further indoctrination in our mission soon after our arrival on the red planet. Landing will be performed under somewhat less strain than the initial takeoff in the Earth-to-station ferry, since Mars exerts less of a gravity pull than Earth. On the other hand, you have been weightless for three weeks and the change-over is liable to make some of you sick. It will pa.s.s harmlessly enough.

”We realize it is difficult, being taken from your homes without knowing the nature of your urgent mission. All I can tell you now--and, as a matter of fact, all I know--”

”Here we go again,” said Temple. ”More riddles.”

”--is that everything _is_ of the utmost urgency. Our entire way of life is at stake. Our job will be to safeguard it. In the months which follow, few of you will have any big, significant role to play, but all of you, working together, will provide the strength we need. When the _cadre_--”