The Indulgence of Negu Mah Page 3

away in the night, and stealing from me the Vulcan.She is doing evil, and must be punished. The young man, too--indulgentas I am, I can not let him dishonor me thus without paying anypenalty."

  Sliss' eye membranes shut, questioningly.

  "Yet," the uranium merchant went on, "I have a fondness for Nanlo. Iwill not prevent her from doing as she has chosen to do, for the intentwould still be there, and knowing it as I do, all between us is over. Ican not aid her to fulfill her plans, either, for that is to injure herand myself too. But there is another course. I have chosen that."

  He gestured with one plump hand toward the silhouetted ship.

  "I believe they have entered the Vulcan," he announced. "I saw light asthe entrance port opened then."

  The amphibian's great, frog head nodded agreement.

  "So," Negu Mah continued, "I have decided to exercise what indulgence Ican in the face of the injury they would do me. They shall have theirchance."

  He fell silent again. Sliss leaned forward in his tub. Both of themwatched intently. A flare of greenish light had sprung up beneath theblack pillar that was the Vulcan. For just an instant the freighterstood there, green radiance expanding around her. Then she leaped intothe sky.

  With her leap, she seemed to suck the radiance along. It became a greatcone of glowing light that, arrow-like, raced away upward. For a longinstant the black length of the ship, and the greenish fan of flame,were outlined against the scarlet background of Jupiter. Then thefreighter rocket, flinging herself upward at three gravities or better,passed the edge of the planet and vanished.

  Negu Mah sat very quiet for some moments. But at last he stirred again.Sliss' eyes turned toward him, immobile.

  "Sometimes love transforms the weak," the uranium merchant said slowly."Like fire giving temper to soft metal. Sometimes a mutual love willendure for all eternity, and the two who share it will gain from it asoul they did not have before. Nanlo and Hugh Neils have this chance.Both said they wanted only the other, and their love, for all eternity.To gain this, both were willing to cheat, to steal, to dishonor me andthemselves.

  "So, Sliss, my understanding friend, they have paid the price, theyshall have what they ask for.

  "As the man, Hugh Neils, said, there is fuel and food in the holds ofthe Vulcan to run the motors and last the lifetime of a man--or a manand a woman. Indeed, two lifetimes, or three, for I was aware of theirplans, and secretly I placed aboard the craft many additional supplies.Fuel, and food, and books, and tools. And one additional thing the twowho flee now there in space have not counted upon.

  "Into the controls of the Vulcan one of my engineers has placed a smalldevice. After two hundred hours, or when they are well beyond Jupiter,this device will swing the Vulcan straight toward Proxima Centauri, thenearest star. In that position the controls will lock. And for twentyyears, a generation, it will be impossible either to alter the courseof the Vulcan or to shut her blast motors off.

  "At the end of that time the last tank of reserve fuel will beexhausted, and they will cease automatically. Then once more the Vulcanmay be controlled by those aboard. They may switch the motors onto thetanks of fuel in the cargo holds, and continue onwards. If they werecelestial navigators, they might try to turn, and seek earth again. Butthey are not navigators, and the sun will be but a tiny spark in thelimitless darkness, one with a million others, not to be told apart.They will know that only Proxima Centauri in all space may the Vulcanhope to reach in their lifetime, or perhaps even in that of theirdescendants, for a message to that effect they will find presently.

  "So it may be that they will continue onward of their own choice. Ifthey make no choice, momentum will carry them onward, perhaps forever.

  "But in any case, Nanlo and Hugh Neils will have exactly what they haveasked for--each other, for all eternity. If truly that was what theywanted, a great destiny may be theirs. A lifetime of travel can bringthem to the stars. They or their descendants can be the first humans tobridge the gap of nothingness that has thus far daunted the stoutesthearts."

  As they watched, the green dart of light dwindled and was gone. Andquite invisible at last in the arms of outer darkness, the Vulcan spedits two passengers onward toward the stars.