The City And The Stars - Arthur C. Clarke [89]
‘But the subway is closed at both ends!’
‘We can open ours; it will not be long before Diaspar does the same.’
The minds of the senators, those in Airlee and those scattered over the whole width of Lys, considered the proposal and disliked it heartily. But they saw no alternative.
Sooner than he had any right to expect, the seed that Alvin had planted was beginning to flower.
The mountains were still swimming in shadow when they reached Shalmirane. From their height the great bowl of the fortress looked very small; it seemed impossible that the fate of Earth had once depended on that tiny ebon circle.
When Alvin brought the ship to rest among the ruins by the lakeside, the desolation crowded in upon him, chilling his soul. He opened the airlock, and the stillness of the place crept into the ship. Hilvar, who had scarcely spoken during the entire flight, asked quietly: ‘Why have you come here again?’
Alvin did not answer until they had almost reached the edge of the lake. Then he said: ‘I wanted to show you what this ship was like. And I also hoped that the polyp might be in existence once more; I feel I owe it a debt, and I want to tell it what I’ve discovered.’
‘In that case,’ replied Hilvar, ‘you will have to wait. You have come back much too soon.’
Alvin had expected that; it had been a remote chance and he was not disappointed that it had failed. The waters of the lake were perfectly still, no longer beating with that steady rhythm that had so puzzled them on their first visit. He knelt down at the water’s edge and peered into the cold, dark depths.
Tiny translucent bells, trailing almost invisible tentacles, were drifting to and fro beneath the surface. Alvin plunged in his hand and scooped one up. He dropped it at once, with a slight exclamation of annoyance. It had stung him.
Some day—perhaps years, perhaps centuries in the future—these mindless jellies would reassemble and the great polyp would be reborn as its memories linked together and its consciousness flashed into existence once again. Alvin wondered how it would receive the discoveries he had made; it might not be pleased to learn the truth about the Master. Indeed, it might refuse to admit that all its ages of patient waiting had been in vain.
Yet had they? Deluded though these creatures might have been, their long vigil had at last brought its reward. As if by a miracle, they had saved from the past knowledge that else might have been lost for ever. Now they could rest at last, and their creed could go the way of a million other faiths that had once thought themselves eternal.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HILVAR AND ALVIN walked in reflective silence back to the waiting ship, and presently the fortress was once more a dark shadow among the hills. It dwindled swiftly until it became a black and lidless eye, staring up for ever into space, and soon they lost it in the great panorama of Lys.
Alvin did nothing to check the machine; still they rose until the whole of Lys lay spread beneath them, a green island in an ochre sea. Never before had Alvin been so high; when finally they came to rest the whole crescent of the Earth was visible below. Lys was very small now, only an emerald stain against the rusty desert—but far around the curve of the globe something was glittering like a many-coloured jewel. And so for the first time, Hilvar saw the city of Diaspar.
They sat for a long while watching the Earth turn beneath them. Of all Man’s ancient powers, this surely was the one he could least afford to lose. Alvin wished he could show the world as he saw it now to the rulers of Lys and Diaspar.
‘Hilvar,’ he said at last, ‘do you think that what I’m doing is right?’
The question surprised Hilvar, who did not suspect the sudden doubts that sometimes overwhelmed his friend, and still knew nothing of Alvin’s meeting with the Central Computer and the impact which that had had upon his mind. It was not an easy question to answer dispassionately; like Khedron, though with less cause, Hilvar felt that his own character was becoming submerged. He was being