Part 1

Trajectory To Taurus

By LES COLLINS

ILLUSTRATOR FINLAY

_Out in the reaches of space an ultimate disaster raced at light-speeds toward Earth. Only a massive sacrifice could save Mankind now. And so he turned, as always, to his Eternal Mother._

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories September 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Fred Kirr, stomach twisting with shock, turned from the viewscreen and looked directly into the deep blue eyes of the girl. "Would you repeat that?" he asked, fighting to keep urgency from his voice.

Ordinarily, JoAnn Chase's eyes danced merrily in tune with her vivacious personality; now, however, they were filled with an inner light akin to fanaticism, and Fred felt his scalp crawl. Without taking her eyes from the planet, in a hypnotic-like state, Jo answered, "I just said, 'Oh, my God!'"

"I know," Fred interjected hastily. "We were in complete agreement up to that point. But what did you say next?"

"It's indescribably lovely, heavenly! Compared to it, Earth is a desiccated old hag, a vapid, colorless rock that tediously circles the sun."

Fred thought silently: When we left Earth, a few days ago, you looked back and called her a blue-green jewel. Then, to check himself, he looked once more at the planet, even now perceptibly larger in the center of the screen. Heavenly? Far from it, a diametric opposite, for he still saw in it a face that might have been dredged from the nightmare horror of his unconscious. It was a face from hell, and he couldn't shake the impression. Even if he wanted to be dispassionate in evaluation, he'd still have to call the cancerous blob a desert planet....

"Jo!" Fred's call was a plea for help, "I've got to speak to you--"

The girl interrupted with an impatient shake of her blonde locks, put a finger to her lips. For a moment, Fred was reminded of a small boy being quieted during the Sunday sermon. His confusion and fear came boiling out as aggression. After all, this _was_ only a planet; Jo hadn't the right to make it a religious ceremony. He stamped away ... but soon was wrestling with the problem again; Fred was too well trained in the scientific method not to. Given: two reasonably competent observers. Event: a planet that the expedition had set out to find. Descriptions: completely opposite. Conclusion: well, what? Is sanity to be questioned? Whose? And be honest with yourself. Add the overtones of what could be emotional involvement with a girl you've only recently met.

* * * * *

Fred was surprised to find himself in the ship's control center. The hugeness of Captain John Charlesworth was bent over a star chart. Charlesworth was a big, solid man who loved living. He had taught Fred practically everything there was to know about operating the ship--with automation being what it was, he was able to do it in the three days they'd been traveling. The two men were friends from the time they'd been introduced, so perhaps it wasn't strange that Fred should be here.

"John," Fred began without preamble, "there's something about that planet--"

Charlesworth's face split into a grin. "There sure is! Beauty, isn't she? Thought you'd like it. If we find life, it'll be there."

Fred was caught short. It was another strike against him. Some instinct warned him to be quiet, and he left as soon as he could. "Curiouser and curiouser," he mused, then reached a decision. He had a purpose now.

The other two members of the expedition were also watching the approach to the planet. Fred found them in the recreation area. Richard Lodgesen, the lean, tall chemist-physicist, looked up at Fred's approach, said with a supercilious air, "I should think the anthropology section would be studying the planet as hard as we."

* * * * *

Data, Fred, data! Ignore the jerk; just integrate this information: he was easily distracted. "I _am_ studying. What do you think of it?"

Lodgesen smiled warmly, the first time he'd reacted pleasantly around Fred. "I think we're all of the same opinion. This discovery will rock 'em up back home."

"And you, Beth?"

Beth Rosen, their data coordinator, _Huh?ed_, and gave Fred her attention grudgingly. "My opinion? It's ... it's like coming home, Fred. Why do you ask?"

Of them all, Beth was the only one who was curious about Fred's activities. "No important reason," he was suddenly aware of a bead of sweat on his forehead as he looked at the screen. Home? More like the poorhouse. But he continued to lie, "Just doing a little survey." He wandered away, thoughts in turmoil.

He must be careful of Beth. He'd learned very fast to respect her on both professional and interpersonal grounds. The gal had a mind like a steel trap; she had a body that caused males--adolescents to elders--to fantasy, and females--of _any_ age--to envy. Beth, as data coordinator, had a role on the ground similar to Charlesworth's in space. Although the data coordinator rarely went to extremes, she or he was fed all information the expedition collected, had ultimate power for decision and responsibility.

And how was Fred to give her this information? Add it up--but it wouldn't add. JoAnn Chase, semantics, deeply taken with the planet; Beth Rosen, data coordinator, in a state of lassitude but not as strongly influenced as Jo; John Charlesworth, captain, highly enthusiastic; Richard Lodgesen, chemistry-physics, showing more joyous emotion than the cold fish could possibly be expected to; and Fred Kirr, anthropology, who tended as far toward dislike as Beth did like, possibly as far as Jo.

Item: no one acted abnormal.

Item: on the basis of very bad statistical sampling, it seemed the women were reacting far more than the men to this particular encounter.

Item: you, Fred Kirr, are the only one to have an anti-reaction. Are you insane? No, you've always been this way. In school, the times you got good grades were when you were sure you'd flunked. Or, take your Tanganyika discovery in 1965: a complete skeleton of the Dryopithecinae, showing anthropoid differentiation by late Miocene. The scientific world hailed this as strong evidence that, in _Life's_ words, "the evolution of that primate called 'man' began fantastically farther back than we'd ever before dreamed." Your reaction was discouragement; there was too much conclusion jumping; nothing at all had been proved.

Come to think of it, all 28 of your years have been spent with reverse reaction. And now you have a situation that must soon be resolved.

* * * * *

Fred shook his head. The change in the others seemed so sudden. It was only a few hours ago that the ship had come out of hyper.

He'd been watching the newly visible star system wondering, Will you be the one? Somewhere in your depths, is there the key to our mystery?

"Hi, Gloomy Gus!" JoAnn joined him, excited pleasure bubbling from her.

"Gloomy--"

"All right, you weren't being gloomy, just concentrating. You're still known to the rest of us as Gloomy Gus...." She giggled.

"I was thinking about intelligent life," Fred said.

"I'll bet," the girl added, "you were thinking I wouldn't have a job because, as usual, we won't find it. But we're _bound_ to, eventually, so why not now?"

He had to smile; her attitude was infectious. "Matter of fact, I _was_ thinking we'd miss. I even wonder what we're doing out here--"

Charlesworth's voice, on the intercom, broke in: "Attention, please. We have come out of hyperspace in the constellation Taurus. As you know, nothing has been said about our destination; this is done to avoid prejudicing you. I'll now play the recorded instructions from General Anderson."

A new voice took over, sounding even more mechanical. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are making history. Whatever you do will make history, United States' history--"

Fred, the only member who'd been out before, said, "They always begin that way. You'd think--"

Jo shooshed him, and they continued listening. "This expedition is one of the many under the administration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and coordinated by the joint armed forces. You are aboard the Exploration Frigate DLE 560, also known as USS Taurus. The general volume of space around you is the Taurus moving cluster, a roughly globular group of 100 stars. Your destination is the Hyades open cluster, specifically Gamma Tauri.

"Your primary mission is, as always, to find and contact intelligent life. However, secondarily, you may be able to shed some light on the phenomenon we call 'moving clusters.' These are ill-defined groups of stars, all in parallel motion.

"Taurus is moving away from us at 28.5 miles per second. Now 130 light years away, the group was closest to us--some 65 light years--only 800 thousand years ago...."

Fred stopped listening. Why, that long ago, man was already differentiated. In another half-million years, more or less, the gang around the old juke box in Java would be using fire ... only he wouldn't really be man, just an unreasonable facsimile. Man? He wouldn't show up for another 450 millennia--too soon, too soon. Something's got to be done about our theories: in 25,000 years, we appeared as a clever savage, developed to our present state. What were we doing in all the years the lower hominids were evolving? Where were we?

No matter. In 25,000 years, we haven't had a chance to mature. Because of political pressure, DLE 560 is out into the universe, trying to befriend other intelligences. And so are a host of other peoples from Earth: peoples who owe their allegiance to imaginary lines on Earth's surface. Suppose we do make contact? Can we--man, that is--handle the job? _Have_ we matured? Why are we here?

* * * * *

The learning curve is exponential. It took man nearly 50 years to go from Jenny to jet, from Kittyhawk to Canaveral. It took him little more than a decade to go from _Titan_ to transcontinuum, from exploring Earth to exploring the universe. And man being a contrary, contumacious, cockeyed Cat, it wasn't a good thing, Man.

There were some cynics who thought it was the most miserable thing that could happen to the universe. They based this on the shrieking ambivalence man displayed in the total course of events, primarily bad, he'd created and lived through. He began meekly enough. Hunted and planted and found a little leisure. With that commodity, he set up special caves and began to paint, to sculpture, to philosophize.

Then he changed. Maybe it was the cold draughts in the caves, maybe it was the old lady complaining about the draughts, or maybe it was plain frustration: he'd been trying, for a couple of thousand years, to invent writing and had failed. In any event, man was suddenly different. He found that scrambled brains--his neighbor's--were good eating. Ever the artist, he enjoyed the color of blood much more than those dull old mineral pigments. If a couple of the guys sneaked up behind a herd of horses and suddenly scared them, what fun! The whole herd would stampede off a cliff.

Aesthetic? Certainly. He went back into the caves and tried his hand at dirty pictures; had to give that up, though, until he invented plain brown envelopes and photography. Anyway, he'd lost the touch ... except in one area. These products were works of art, a delight to behold: man was making the damnedest, finest arrowheads and spear points he'd ever seen.

She, who may have jerked him out of the cave in the beginning, continued to warm her feet on his back, with the result that he'd go out and knock over a country rich in coal deposits. She didn't really like it, but she was stuck with it. Certainly, she was carrying out her function. If there were a war or two too many, she could always up production--having discovered how well before they set up cave-keeping. The flutter of an eyelash or an exposed ankle ... she carried out her function, and the population kept rising.

* * * * *

By the opening of the twentieth century, however, she'd grown apprehensive. Man was playing with bigger and bigger boom-boom toys. She tried to exert control, discovered too late it was out of her hands. For one day, man brought home the keenest, ginger-peachiest job of them all. Like maybe he could blow himself to hell with an atomic bomb.

Elders had shaken their heads over it; youngsters had joined them when the fusion bomb came next. And the world settled down to hold its breath while the two leading powers fenced economically--with Russia thrusting and the U. S. parrying.

* * * * *

Suddenly, two other nations appeared on the world scene--rather, reappeared. Great Britain, at one time the strongest nation, in one stroke became the richest: Britain, of necessity, for years had been researching magnetohydrodynamics in an effort to get controlled fusion. While the two "leading" powers were threatening one another, the British engineered practical atomics and had energy to burn, if the phrase will be excused.

And then there was France. Long influential in world history, this small country was reduced by two wars to a minor position. France had at one time been the seat of scientific progress in the world. The French regained status when they got antigravity. Zwicky, at Cal Tech, had long ago shown that the effect of gravity occurred either twice or one-half the speed of light. Apparently no one paid much attention, except for a few obscure French philosophers.

And so, in the course of eight months in 1964-1965, the focus of power in the world again shifted to the English Channel. Of course, these developments were secret. If the U. S. and U. S. S. R. were left with their tongues hanging out, they didn't realize it. But not for long. You just can't keep things like that secret. And man being what he is....

The French were spying on the British; the British on the Russians; the Russians on the United States; and the U. S. was spying on all three.

Antigravity had its limits. With it, you could never exceed light speed because you were confined to the physical, Einsteinian universe. What was needed was raw energy to warp the continuum, fold it like a piece of paper, and punch a hole through it as a short cut. That's where controlled fusion came in. And even though it required tons of equipment, antigravity made it possible to get those tons off the ground.

By 1970, the four powers were racing to explore the universe. If anything, relations between them were worse. All gave lip service to the noble idea of finding intelligent life; actually, the world knew that the first nation to find such life would be enlisting a powerful ally, creating a shift in power that might mean control.

There were exceptions. Take Russia, who'd brought the Red Chinese along too fast. As many had predicted as far back as 1941, the U. S. S. R. was now trying to play footsie with the West. Unfortunately, there no longer was a West as such. Each was to its own. So the world groaned under a new burden when it was rumored that the Chinese were working on their first transcontinuum ship.

With the power of fusion at his command, man had everything he could possibly want. But it had come too soon; he was unaware. Instead, he went into space looking for intelligence equal to or greater than his own, looking for a new club to use against his neighbors on Earth. Man, the cynics said, was too immature, would destroy himself before 1980--himself and the life he's trying to find. The cynics were in overwhelming preponderance. Yet a few voices were raised in hope: Don't let this throw you, but is it possible that the artist-philosopher had again come to the fore?

* * * * *

The shift in the others had seemed abrupt to Fred. They were far more interested in that damned planet than in him; this should have been perfectly natural except for the speed of occurrence.

As the only space veteran, Fred was listened to carefully. Further, as the anthropologist, he was in a position to tell them things they wanted to know.

Soon after they'd come out of hyper, the group gathered in the recreation area. In the three days of the trip, they'd grown used to meeting there for discussion. And this time, they were excited about the possibility of life.

"Somehow," Jo said, "I feel that _we_ are destined to do what none of the others has done."

There was general concurrence. "Right!" Charlesworth interjected.

Fred frowned, shook his head.

"Why not? How can you know, Kirr?" Lodgesen, as usual, was his snobbish self.

"Why not? You ought to know more than I about randomness and screwed-up statistics, Lodgesen." Fred was on his feet for emphasis. "Frankly, from what we've learned out here, I'd rather count on winning the sweepstakes ... without having a ticket. That's how bad the odds are."

"Fred," Beth said softly, "we concede you know your business; and you were on two other expeditions that found traces of very high orders of intelligence on deserted planets. But why do you feel so strongly? I should think those traces would be encouraging."

Again he shook his head. "It's not that simple. Here's the run-down: five years ago we began sending out expeditions. So did the other countries. Naturally, we tried the stars nearest us; so did they. We've very effectively covered the nearest parts of the galaxy. No life."

"But evidence of it," Lodgesen objected. "Counting all extinct cultures found by the various powers, I'd guess the total is upwards of 10 or 11."

Fred smiled humorously. "The total is _47_ finds; for some reason, no one is telling all. Security. Fortunately, Dr. Kousansky is a good friend of mine, and Professeur de Poitiers is a friend of his, and so on down the line.

"We're guessing, of course, but it seems our little corner of the universe is deserted. A more profitable question than _where?_ is _why?_ You might also be interested in the times involved; they're lengthy enough to cause head scratching. Wendell, at London University, came up with the oldest--some 585 thousand years, based on radioactive dating, but he won't guarantee the figure any closer than +/- 50 thousand. And the French, as you know, were the first out; de Poitiers did a very thorough job on Alpha Centauri IV. Until 30 thousand years ago, give or take, she had a thriving little community. I don't think you're going to find intelligent life this close, even within 500 light years. To me, the wonder is why we're here at all when everyone else has left."

There it was. He'd let them have it between the eyes, and they resented it. From that time on, he was something of a pariah. Even Jo seemed to be ignoring him. The nearer they came to planetfall, the worse it got. At least she lost that look of inner truth, but she was terribly, terribly busy. For what? Obviously, preparing for what they should find.

The USS Taurus circled the planet, Gamma Tauri II. As Fred had expected, it seemed a negative quantity, just another of those hunks of cosmic mediocrity. By the third trip, he was completely convinced this thing had evolved nothing. He was more relieved than he cared to admit; now Charlesworth would go on. There were more promising planets in the system.

He'd spent the last hour writing his report--NASA/DD Form E-72, Rev. B in triplicate--when it occurred to him that Charlesworth had made no announcement. Fred went to the captain's cabin, found Beth in discussion with him.

"Glad you're here; we want to talk something over," Charlesworth said. There was a pause, and Fred, watching the other two, felt as though he were an intruder.

"Sure," he said, dropping into a chair.

"You're sort of strait-laced, but rules are made to be broken...." Charlesworth's voice trailed off.

Beth came directly to the point: "We all want to land on New Earth."

_New Earth!_ Fred was stunned but managed to keep silent.

"Sure," Charlesworth beamed, a big happy bear, "that way you get a couple of days vacation at government expense, and no one's the wiser."

Fred shrugged, trying to appear normal. "I don't see anything wrong with it." Hardly aware of his words, he was thinking rapidly. Why convince me? Have the four of them sensed my attitude?

"There could be something so right with it!" Beth added. "If it turns out to be what it seems, we'll take the news home. You don't find many planets like this--"

_You sure don't!_ The young anthropologist gripped the chair arms, again swept by nausea. He was sure he hadn't thought that or said it. Was he hearing voices? Neither Beth nor John seemed to notice. He had to get out of there, caught in a sudden claustrophobic nightmare.

"I don't need any convincing," he said, hoping it sounded convincing. "I'm ready for that vacation right now. Good night." Drenched with sweat, he stumbled from the cabin.

During the next few days, Fred went through a series of emotional oscillations the like of which he'd never experienced. He'd nosedive into the pit of depression; when he landed, he found himself atop the peak of Mount Euphoria. Finally, however, he came to an important conclusion. If he were ready for the squirrel factory, he'd wait until the DLE 560 returned to Earth. He certainly didn't feel violent, so he'd be crazy like a fox and keep his mouth shut.

He was amazed at the adaptability of the human psyche, for there were three most-probable alternatives to face: he was mentally ill, the other four were ditto, or all of them were. Facing that, he could be quite calm. He doubted but didn't discount the possibility that they were all sane.

* * * * *

After two days of self-imposed exile, he came out of his cabin. His relations with the opposition--how easily he fell into the term!--were polite but strained. Except Lodgesen. The two men, never cordial, now fell into a state of cold war, characterized chiefly by refusal to speak. This was the only open rupture.

Fred began to help them, to join their somewhat frenetic activities. Apparently each was engaged in exploration, bringing back to the ship samples of soil, rocks, vegetation, and the like. However, he was never invited to go with them, and as time passed, he found it harder and harder to reach them.

JoAnn was his last link. Perhaps it was the feeling of rapport they'd had on the journey out here--or perhaps it was simply that she felt sorry for his present state. In any event, Jo would talk freely to him.

* * * * *

It was late in the evening of the sixth day. Jo was showing him the samples they'd collected a few hours earlier. The recreation area had been hastily converted into a sort of museum. In it, the exhibit had grown to an impressive pile ... of junk. But Jo was vivacious enough to make a mummy jump, and he enjoyed listening to her.

"Don't you see, Fred? We've got huge amounts of data; New Earth is a paradise, rich in everything we could possibly want. This is the place where our peoples will want to come. We'll be hailed for this discovery!"

For a moment, as she spoke, he did see through her eyes: the place man had always dreamt of. This Eden abounded in game, in forests drained by sparkling brooks. All of the riches were here; animal, vegetable, mineral wealth were so plentiful that ... _that the streets were paved with gold_, he thought sourly, as the vision faded. No, it was just a common planet, undistinguished.

"Why don't we go home, Jo, and tell them?"

The blonde lost her sparkle, became blank. As though she hadn't heard his question, she cast about nervously, picked up a rock.

"Look at this!" She was enthusiastic again. "Uranium! Dick Lodgesen has been analyzing ores. He says the place is fantastically rich in heavy minerals."