A Wreath of Stars

Chapter Fifteen

Twelve months had passed, by Snook’s reckoning, on the morning he received the wordless message that the Avernians had confirmed the existence of other worlds in their own planetary system.

His early experiences on Avernus had shown that his facility for mind-to-mind communication was not much greater than it had been when he had lived on Earth and occasionally had snared the thoughts of other men. Ironically, he had been able to achieve full congruency of self with

Felleth only when they had inhabited different universes and had been able to merge their brains in the same volume of space. During Felleth’s regular visits to the island he had tried to extend his ability to receive data, but progress had been uncertain if it existed at all.

On this special day, however, he could not fail to be aware of the mood of the People. The emotions of joy and triumph, amplified millions of times, were spangled across the islands like the gold of the sunsets they never saw.

“Not bad,” Snook said aloud, looking up from his digging. “From complete ignorance of the skies to fully-fledged radio astronomy in one year. Not bad.”

He returned his attention to the work in hand, but kept scanning the waterways in the hope that Felleth would pay him a special visit to bring details of the new knowledge. The masses and orbital elements of the other worlds would determine the distance by which Thornton’s Planet would miss Avernus on its next pass, and Snook felt a proprietory interest in the information. He was incapable of understanding the relevant sets of equations, but they had affected the whole course of his life, and he wanted to know whether Avernus was destined for another disaster, of greater or lesser proportions, or if it had been granted a total reprieve. It also occurred to him that the People might regard his presence among them less distasteful were they assured of their futures once more.

Should that prove to be the case, he would ask for the right to travel as freely as he had once done on Earth. Felleth had told him there were larger land masses to the west and east, and exploring them—perhaps circumnavigating the watery globe—might give his life a semblance of purpose.

No boat came near him that day, but when darkness fell he saw a profusion of coloured lights on the other islands which told him that celebrations were in progress. He watched the moving specks of brilliance for several hours before going to bed, wondering if it was another universal law that at times of happiness and victory sentient beings would express their feelings with pyrotechnics, the symbols of cosmic birth.

On the following morning a fleet of four boats passed the island at high speed, heading north-east. Snook, who could not recall seeing craft go in that direction before, watched them with some puzzlement. They were of a type powered by sophisticated batteries—in which the sea itself served as an electrolyte—and therefore had virtually unlimited range, but he had no knowledge of land on that particular bearing.

When the little fleet was at its nearest to him, a white-clad figure waved to Snook from the leading boat. He waved back, pleased for a moment by the simple act of communication, then began to wonder if the anonymous figure had been Felleth, and why he should be speeding off into an empty ocean. Within minutes the four boats had dwindled to invisibility on the flat grey waters.

In spite of several rain showers, Snook remained outside all that day, but did not see the boats return. By the following day the incident was fading from his mind, and he remained indoors concentrating on the task of constructing an earthenware oven from local clay. The Avernians were not only strictly vegetarian—they ate all their food in its natural state, and Felleth had not felt obliged to provide Snook with cooking facilities. He had adapted reasonably well to living on raw food, but lately had become obsessed with the idea of making hot soups. A doubly cherished ambition was that of grinding cereal, baking it into bread and serving it to himself with fruit jam. He was shaping the oven liner on an armature of dried twigs when there came the whine of a boat’s engine running at low speed.

He went to the door and saw an Avernian craft nuzzling up to his landing stage, with Felleth standing at its prow. Three other boats were wheeling across the smooth grey waters, passing the island on their way south. Snook walked down to meet Felleth, and saw that the Avernian seemed to be holding a green-and-white object in one hand. He stared hard at Felleth, projecting the customary greeting and received fleeting image of the eternal running wave.

“I was hoping you would come,” he said as the Avernian stepped on to the aged planks of the landing stage. “Is there good news?”

“I think that is how you would describe it,” Felleth said. With a year of practice behind him he could speak with some fluency, although his voice remained low and reedy.

“You’ve found another planet.”

“Yes.” Felleth’s mouth rippled with an expression Snook had not seen before and could not interpret. “Although we had some assistance.”

Snook shook his head. “I don’t understand you, Felleth.”

“Perhaps this will make things clear.”

Felleth brought the object he was holding into clear view and Snook saw, with a lurch of his heart, that it was a green bottle which—had he been on Earth—he would instantly have identified as containing gin. Attached to it, in place of a label, was a piece of paper covered with handwriting. Felleth offered the bottle to Snook, and he took it with trembling hands. It was full of clear liquid.

“Felleth,” he said in a faint voice, “what is this?”

“I do not know,” Felleth replied. “The message is written in English, or another human language, and therefore I cannot read it. I presume it is intended for you.”

“But…” Snook gazed at Felleth in perplexity for a moment, then directed his attention to the closely written message. He read:

“Dear Gil, this is yet another of my famous long shots—but you know I’m prepared to try anything in the cause of science. We have discovered two more antineutrino planets, one inside Pluto and one inside Uranus, and they are massive enough to modify the orbit of Thornton’s Planet considerably. Avernus is going to have some very high tides in 2091—but, with proper precautions, there should be no loss of life. I have put all the relevant information into diagram form, which Felleth should be able to decipher, and it is going into a buoy which is fitted with a radio beacon. I know the Avernians do not need to use electro-magnetic phenomena for communications, but I am hoping they will detect the buoy by some means—if we get it through to Avernus safely. We have made a lot of progress in nuclear physics and in inter-universal physics in the past year, and are now in a good position to attempt a unilateral transfer on a modest scale. I am writing this on a ship in the Arabian Sea, which is as near to you as I can get on the circle of emergence, and am almost certain we can hold station with the northern top dead centre long enough to effect the transfer. If you are reading this, you will know that the experiment has been successful, and I hereby order you to celebrate by drinking the contents of the bottle. You may be interested to hear that we all got out of Barandi safely, just before there was a full-scale workers’ revolution in which Ogilvie and Freeborn disappeared. Prudence has gone back to her job with UNESCO, but I know she would want me to send you her regards. Des Quig is working with me full time, and he sends his regards as well. You may also be interested to hear that I am now married—to a lovely girl called Jody, who talks a lot but keeps me from getting too puffed up with all the publicity I get these days. There is a tremendous amount of interest in the whole concept of inter-universal transfer, and a lot of research money is going into it. There is even talk of a full-scale, manned scientific expedition to Avernus some year, and if I’m not eclipsed in the field I’ll have to consider going on it—coward though I am. I don’t want to promise too much, Gil, but if you get this bottle safely, make a candle-holder out of it. And put the candle in your window. Yours. Boyce.”

Snook finished reading and raised his eyes to Felleth, whose slight figure was outlined on a backdrop of misty islands. He opened his mouth to say what he had read, then remembered that the Avernian would have absorbed the information directly from his mind. They looked at each other in silence, while an ocean breeze whispered past them on its journey around the world.

“It looks as though the future could be different to what I expected,” Snook said.

“The present has changed as well,” Felleth replied. “If you would like to live among the People, and to travel among the larger islands, it can be arranged. I can take you to my home now.”

“I would like that, but I don’t want to leave this island until tomorrow.” Snook hefted the gin bottle. “I’ve got an old friend to keep me company tonight.”

He said goodbye to Felleth and began walking back to his solitary house, picking his way with care on the steep and stony path.