He felt sick. Human-inhabited planets are far apart. The average distance of stars-of all typesўthere is on an average between four and five light-years- of distance between suns. They are two monthsт spaceship journey apart. And not all stars are Solўtype or have inhabited planets. Colonized worlds are like isolated islands in an unimaginably vast ocean, and the ships that ply between them at thirty light-speeds seem merely to creep. In ancient days on the mother planet Earth, men sailed for months between ports, in their clumsy sailing ships. There was no way to send messages faster than they could travel. Nowadays there was little improvement. News of the Lani disaster could not be transmitted. It had to be carried, as between stars, and carriage was slow and response to news of disaster was no faster.
The inner planet, Lani II, had twenty millions of inhabitants, as against the three hundred people in the colony on Lani III. The outer planet was already frozen, but there would be glaciation on the inner world in two hundred days. Glaciation and human life are mutually exclusive. Human beings can survive only so long as food and power hold out, and shelter against really bitter cold cannot be improvised for twenty million peopie! And, of course, there could be no outside help on any adequate scale. News of the need for it would travel too slowly. One other world might hear in two months, and send what aid it could in four. But the next would not hear for four months, and could not send help in less than eight. It would take five Earth-years tO get a thousand ships to Lani Ilўand a thousand ships could not rescue more than one per cent of the population. But in five years there would not be nearly so many people left alive.
Heindon licked his lips. There were three hundred people in the already-frozen colony. They had food and power and shelter. They had been considered splendidly daring to risk the conditions here. But all their home world would presently be like this. And there was no possibility of equipping everybody there as the colonists were equipped.
уOur people,ф said Riki in a thin voice, уall of them Mother and Father and the others. Our cousins. All our friends. Home is going to be like . . . like that!ф
She jerked her head toward a port which let in the frigid colony-worldтs white daylight. Her face worked.
Massy was aware of an extreme unhappiness ou her account. For himself, of course, the tragedy was less.
He had no family. He had very few friends. But he could see something that had not occurred to them as yet~
уOf course,ф he said, уitтs not only their trouble. If the solar constant is really dropping like that . . . why things out here will be pretty bad, too. A lot worse than they are now. Weтll have to get to work - to save ourselves!ф
Riki did not look at him. Herndon bit his lips. It was plain that their own fate did not concern them immediately. But when oneтs home world is doomed, oneтs personal safety seems a very trivial matter.
There was silence save for the crackling, tumultuous noises that came out of the speaker on Herndonтs desk. In the midst of that confused sound there was a wavering, whining, high-pitched note which swelled atid faded and grew distinct again.
уWe,ф said Massy without confidence, уare right now in the conditions theyтll face a good long time from now.ф
Herndon said dully: -
уBut we couldnтt live here without supplies from home. Or even without the equipment we brought. But they canтt get supplies from anywhere, and they canтt make such equipment for everybody! Theyтll die!ф He swallowed, and there was a clicking noise in his throat. уThey . . . they know it, too. So they . . . warn us to try to save ourselves because . . - they canтt help us anymore.ф
There are many reasons why a man can feel shame that he belongs to a race which can do the things that some men do. But sometimes there are reasons to be proud, as well. The home world of this colony was doomed, but it sent a warning to the tiny group on the colony-world, to allow them to try to save theniselyes.
уI . . . wish we were there to . . . share what they have to face,ф said Riki. Her voice sounded as if her throat hurt. уI.. . donтt want to keep on living if,.. everybody who.. . ever cared about us is going to die!ф
Massy felt lonely. He could understand that nobody would want to live as the only human alive. Nobody would want to live as a member of the only group of people left alive. And everybody thinks of his home planet as all the world there is. I donтt think that way, thought Massy. But maybe itтs the way Iтd feel about living if Riki were to die. It would be natural to want to share any danger or any disaster she faced. Which he was.
уL-look!ф he said, stammering a little. уYou donтt see! It isnтt a case of your living while they die! If your home world becomes like this, what will this be like? Weтre farther from the sun! Weтre colder to start with! Do you think weтll live through anything they canтt take? Food supplies or no, equipment or no, do you think weтve got a chance? Use your brains!ф
Herndon and Riki stared at him. And then some of the strained look left Rikiтs face and body. Herndon blinked, and said slowly:
уWhy . . . thatтs so! We were thought to be taking a terrific risk when we came here. But itтll be as much worse here. Of course! We are in the same fix theyтre in!ф -
He straightened a little. Color actually came back into his face. Riki managed to smile. And then Hemdon said almost naturally:
уThat makes things look more sensible! Weтve got to fight for our lives, too! And weтve very little chance of saving them! What do we do about it, Massy?ф
II
The sun was halfway toward mid-sky, and still attended by its sun-dogs, though they were fainter than at the horizon. The sky was darker. The mountain peaks reached skyward, serene and utterly aloof from the affairs of man. This was a frozen world, where there should be no inhabitants. The city was a fleet of metal hulks, neatly arranged on the valley floor, emptied of the material they had brought for the building of the colony. At the upper end of the valley the landing-grid stood. It was a gigantic skeleton of steel, rising from legs of unequal length bedded in the hillsides, andт reaching two thousand feet toward the stars. Human figures, muffled almost past recognition, moved about a catwalk three-quarters of the way up. There was a tiny glittering below where they moved. They were, of course, men using sonic ice-breakers to shatter the frost which formed on the framework at night. Falling shards of crystal made a liquidlike flashing. The landing-grid needed to be cleared every ten days or so. Left uncleared, it would acquire an increasingly thick coating of ice. In time it could collapse. But long before that time it would have ceased to operate, and without its operation there could be no space travel. Rockets for lifting spaceships were impossibly heavy, for practical use. But the landing-grids could lift them out to the unstressed space where Lawlor drives could work, and draw them to ground with cargoes they couldnтt possibly have carried if theyтd needed rockets.
Massy reached the base of the grid on foot. It was not far from the village of drone-hulls. He was dwarfed by the ground-level upright beams. He went through the cold-lock to the small control-house at the gridтs base.
He nodded to the man on standby as he got painfully out of his muffling garments.
уEverything all right?ф he asked.
The standby operator shrugged. Massy was Colonial Survey. It was his function to find fault, to expose inadequacies in the construction and operation of colony facilities. Itтs natural for me to be disliked by men whose work I inspect, thought Massy. If I approve it doesnтt mean anything, and if I protest, itтs bad. He had always been lonely, but it was a part of the job.
уI think,ф he said painstakingly, уthat there ought to be a change in maximum no-drain voltage. Iтd like to check it.ф
The operator shrugged again. He pressed buttons under a phone-plate.
уShift to reserve power,ф he commanded when a face appeared in the plate. уGotta check no-drain juice.ф
уWhat for?ф demanded the face in the plate.
уYou-know-whoтs got ideas,ф said the grid operator scornfully. уMaybe weтve been skimping something. Maybe thereтs some new specification we didnтt know about. Maybe anything! But shift to reserve power.ф
The face in the screen grumbled. Massy swallowed. It was not a Survey officerтs privilege to maintain discipline. But there was no particular virtue in discipline here and now. He watched the current-demand dial. It stood a little above normal day-drain, which was understandable. The outside temperature was down. There was more power needed to keep the dwellings warm, and there was always a lot of power needed in the mine the colony had been formed to exploit. The mine had to be warmed for the men who worked to develop it.
The demand-neqdle dropped abruptly, and hung steady, and dropped again and again as additional parts of the colonyтs power-uses were switched to reserve. The needle hit bottom. It stayed there.
Massy had to walk around the standby man to get at the voltmeter. It was built around standard, oldfashioned vacuum tubesўstandard for generations, now. Massy patiently hooked it up and warmed the thbes and tested it. He pushed in the contact plugs. He read the no-drain voltage. He licked his lips and made a note. He reversed the leads, so it wOuld read backward. He took another reading. He drew in his breath very quietly.
уNow I want the power turned on in sections,ф he told the operator. уThe mine first, maybe. It doesnтt matter. But I want to get voltage-readings at different power take-offs."
The Operator looked pained. He spoke with unnecessary elaboration to the face in the phone-plate, and grudgingly went through with the process by which Massy measured the successive drops in voltage with power drawn from the ionosphere. The Щurrent available from a layer of ionized gas is, in effect, the current-flow through a conductor with marked resistance. It is possible to infer a gasт ionization from the current it yields.
The cold-lock door opened. Riki Hemdon came in, panting a little.
уThereтs another message from home,ф she said sharply. Her voice seemed strained. уThey picked up our answering-beam and are giving the information you asked for.ф
уIтll be along,ф said Massy. уI just got some informalion here.ф
He got into his cold-garments again. He followed her out of the control-hut.
уThe figures from home arenтt good,ф said Riki evenly, when mountains visibly rose on every hand around them. уKen says theyтre much worse than he thought. The rate of decline in the solar constantтs worse than we figured or could believe.ф
уI see,ф said MИssy, inadequately.
уItтs absurd!ф said Riki fiercely. уItтs monstrous! Thereтve been sun spots and sunspot cycles all along! I learned about them in school! I learned myself about a four-year and a seven-year cycle, and that there were others! They should have known! They should have calculated in advance! Now they talk ╬about - sixty-year cycles coming iii with a hundred-and-thirty-year cycle to pile up with all the othersў But whatтs the use of scientists if they donтt do their work right and twenty million people die because of it?ф
Massy did not consider himself a scientist, but he winced. Riki raged as they moved over the slippery ice. Her breath was an intermittent cloud about her shoulders. There was white frost on the front of her cold-garments.
