Universe 2 - [Anthology] Read online

  When his eyes readjusted to the darkness he picked out the shape of Lieutenant Kelvin lying on the sand a short distance away. The emergency dressing on his ankle was visible as a whitish blur.

  “Do you need any help?” Surgenor asked.

  “I already put in a call” Kelvin said faintly, without moving. “They should be here soon. Where are the others?”

  “Back there.” One part of his mind told Surgenor that McErlain and the Paladorian woman had been dead for millions of years, but another now understood they were still alive, because the past and the present and the future are as one. “They can’t make it.”

  “That means . . . they’ve been dead for a long time.”

  “You could say that.”

  “Oh, Christ,” Kevin whispered. “What a stupid, pointless way to go! It’s as if they’d never lived.”

  “Not quite,” Surgenor said. He had an illogical flicker of hope that, somehow, the Paladorians would learn what McErlain had done for a member of their race. If that happened, they might just have the beginnings of a basis for a working relationship. .. .

  Kelvin sighed tiredly in the darkness. “It’s time we got off this planet, anyway.”

  Surgenor nodded. He could imagine himself back on board the Sarafand—traveling far and fast—but the afterimage of the bright circle persisted in his vision for a long, long time.

  * * * *

  McErlain stirred feebly in the dimness of the cave. He tried to call out, but the congestion in his lungs had grown so great that he produced only a faint, dry rattle. The small gray figure at the cave mouth did not move, but continued to stare patiently outwards at the rain-soaked banks of foliage. There was no way, even after all the years, of knowing if she had heard him or not. He lay back and, as the fever intensified its hold, tried to reconcile himself to dying.

  Summing it all up—he had been fortunate. The Paladorian woman had remained as uncommunicative as every alien member of every alien race mankind had ever encountered, but she had stayed with him, accepted his aid. He could swear he had seen something like gratitude in her eyes when he had helped her through the difficult period of the birth and her subsequent illness. That had been good for him. Then there had been the times when he in turn lay ill, poisoned as a result of trying the wrong fruit or plants or seeds in his quest to find food suitable for her and the children. At those times, he fancied, she had never been far from his side.

  Most gratifying of all was the fact that the Paladorian woman and her kind were very fertile. The offspring of that first quadruple birth were young adults now, and had produced many more children. As he had watched them multiply the cancer of guilt which had been devouring him since the Georgetown incident had ceased to dominate his life. It was still there, of course, but he had learned to forget it for hours on end. If only he had been able to teach the children his own language, to drive one idea through the logic-structure barrier, things would have been better—but there was a limit to what a man could ask. He was a thirty-year man, McErlain decided as the conscious world tilted ponderously away from him, and it was enough that he had been given the chance to put his record straight. .. .

  Late that evening, as the sun’s light was fleeing through the trees, the Family gathered around the bed on which McErlain’s body lay. They stood in silence while the Mother laid one hand on the dewed, icy brow.

  This being is dead, she told them silently. And now that our debt to him is paid, and his need for us has ended, we shall travel to the great home-time of our own people.

  The children and adults joined hands. And the Family vanished.

  <>

  * * * *

  * * * *

  This is a story about the end of the world, but it isn’t funny. If you discover traces of an irresponsible grin forming as you read, suppress them. That’s what I did.

  WHEN WE WENT TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD

  by Robert Silverberg

  Nick and Jane were glad that they had gone to see the end of the world, because it gave them something special to talk about at Mike and Ruby’s party. One always likes to come to a party armed with a little conversation. Mike and Ruby give marvelous parties. Their home is superb, one of the finest in the neighborhood. It is truly a home for all seasons, all moods. Their very special corner of the world. With more space indoors and out… more wide-open freedom. The living room with its exposed ceiling beams is a natural focal point for entertaining. Custom-finished, with a conversation pit and fireplace. There’s also a family room with beamed ceiling and wood paneling… plus a study. And a magnificent master suite with twelve-foot dressing room and private bath. Solidly impressive exterior design. Sheltered courtyard. Beautifully wooded ½-acre grounds. Their parties are highlights of any month. Nick and Jane waited until they thought enough people had arrived. Then Jane nudged Nick and Nick said gaily, “You know what we did last week? Hey, we went to see the end of the world!”

  “The end of the world?” Henry asked.

  “You went to see it?” said Henry’s wife Cynthia.

  “How did you manage that?” Paula wanted to know.

  “It’s been available since March,” Stan told her. “I think a division of American Express runs it.”

  Nick was put out to discover that Stan already knew. Quickly, before Stan could say anything more, Nick said, “Yes, it’s just started. Our travel agent found out for us. What they do is they put you in this machine, it looks like a tiny teeny submarine, you know, with dials and levers up front behind a plastic wall to keep you from touching anything, and they send you into the future. You can charge it with any of the regular credit cards.”

  “It must be very expensive,” Marcia said.

  “They’re bringing the costs down rapidly,” Jane said. “Last year only millionaires could afford it. Really, haven’t you heard about it before?”

  “What did you see?” Henry asked.

  “For a while, just grayness outside the porthole,” said Nick. “And a kind of flickering effect.” Everybody was looking at him. He enjoyed the attention. Jane wore a rapt, loving expression. “Then the haze cleared and a voice said over a loudspeaker that we had now reached the very end of time, when life had become impossible on Earth. Of course we were sealed into the submarine thing. Only looking out. On this beach, this empty beach. The water a funny gray color with a pink sheen. And then the sun came up. It was red like it sometimes is at sunrise, only it stayed red as it got to the middle of the sky, and it looked lumpy and sagging at the edges. Like a few of us, hah hah. Lumpy and sagging at the edges. A cold wind blowing across the beach.”

  “If you were sealed in the submarine, how did you know there was a cold wind?” Cynthia asked.

  Jane glared at her. Nick said, “We could see the sand blowing around. And it looked cold. The gray ocean. Like in winter.”

  “Tell them about the crab,” said Jane.

  “Yes, and the crab. The last life-form on Earth. It wasn’t really a crab, of course, it was something about two feet wide and a foot high, with thick shiny green armor and maybe a dozen legs and some curving horns coming up, and it moved slowly from right to left in front of us. It took all day to cross the beach. And toward nightfall it died. Its horns went limp and it stopped moving. The tide came in and carried it away. The sun went down. There wasn’t any moon. The stars didn’t seem to be in the right places. The loudspeaker told us we had just seen the death of Earth’s last living thing.”

  “How eerie!” cried Paula.

  “Were you gone very long?” Ruby asked.

  “Three hours,” Jane said. “You can spend weeks or days at the end of the world, if you want to pay extra, but they always bring you back to a point three hours after you went. To hold down the babysitter expenses.”

  Mike offered Nick some pot. “That’s really something,” he said. “To have gone to the end of the world. Hey, Ruby, maybe we’ll talk to the travel agent about it.”

  Nick took a deep drag and
passed the joint to Jane. He felt pleased with himself about the way he had told the story. They had all been very impressed. That swollen red sun, that scuttling crab. The trip had cost more than a month in Japan, but it had been a good investment. He and Jane were the first in the neighborhood who had gone. That was important. Paula was staring at him in awe. Nick knew that she regarded him in a completely different light now. Possibly she would meet him at a motel on Tuesday at lunchtime. Last month she had turned him down but now he had an extra attractiveness for her. Nick winked at her. Cynthia was holding hands with Stan. Henry and Mike both were crouched at Jane’s feet. Mike and Ruby’s twelve-year-old son came into the room and stood at the edge of the conversation pit. He said, “There just was a bulletin on the news. Mutated amoebas escaped from a government research station and got into Lake Michigan. They’re carrying a tissue-dissolving virus and everybody in seven states is supposed to boil their water until further notice.” Mike scowled at the boy and said, “It’s after your bedtime, Timmy.” The boy went out. The doorbell rang. Ruby answered it and returned with Eddie and Fran.

  Paula said, “Nick and Jane went to see to end of the world. They’ve just been telling us all about it.”

  “Gee,” said Eddie, “we did that too, on Wednesday night.”

  Nick was crestfallen. Jane bit her lip and asked Cynthia quietly why Fran always wore such flashy dresses. Ruby said, “You saw the whole works, eh? The crab and everything?”

  “The crab?” Eddie said. “What crab? We didn’t see the crab.”

  “It must have died the time before,” Paula said. “When Nick and Jane were there.”

  Mike said, “A fresh shipment of Cuernavaca Lightning is in. Here, have a toke.”

  “How long ago did you do it?” Eddie said to Nick.

  “Sunday afternoon. I guess we were about the first,.”

  “Great trip, isn’t it?” Eddie said. “A little somber, though. When the last hill crumbles into the sea.”

  “That’s not what we saw,” said Jane. “And you didn’t see the crab? Maybe we were on different trips.”

  Mike said, “What was it like for you, Eddie?”

  Eddie put his arms around Cynthia from behind. He said. “They put us into this little capsule, with a porthole, you know, and a lot of instruments and—”

  “We heard that part,” said Paula. “What did you see?”

  “The end of the world,” Eddie said. “When water covers everything. The sun and the moon were in the sky at the same time—”

  “We didn’t see the moon at all,” Jane remarked. “It just wasn’t there.”

  “It was on one side and the sun was on the other,” Eddie went on. “The moon was closer than it should have been. And a funny color, almost like bronze. And the ocean creeping up. We went halfway around the world and all we saw was ocean. Except in one place, there was this chunk of land sticking up, this hill, and the guide told us it was the top of Mount Everest.” He waved to Fran. “That was groovy, huh, floating in our tin boat next to the top of Mount Everest. Maybe ten feet of it sticking up. And the water rising all the time. Up, up, up. Up and over the top. Glub. No land left. I have to admit it was a little disappointing, except of course the idea of the thing. That human ingenuity can design a machine that can send people billions of years forward in time and bring them back, wow! But there was just this ocean.”

  “How strange,” said Jane. “We saw an ocean too, but there was a beach, a kind of nasty beach, and the crab-thing walking along it, and the sun—it was all red, was the sun red when you saw it?”

  “A kind of pale green,” Fred said.

  “Are you people talking about the end of the world?” Tom asked. He and Harriet were standing by the door taking off their coats. Mike’s son must have let them in. Tom gave his coat to Ruby and said, “Man, what a spectacle!”

  “So you did it too?” Jane asked, a little hollowly.

  “Two weeks ago,” said Tom. “The travel agent called and said, Guess what we’re offering now, the end of the goddamned world! With all the extras it didn’t really cost so much. So we went right down there to the office, Saturday, I think—was it a Friday?—the day of the big riot, anyway, when they burned St. Louis—”

  “That was a Saturday,” Cynthia said. “I remember I was coming back from the shopping center when the radio said they were using nuclears—”

  “Saturday, yes,” Tom said. “And we told them we were ready to go, and off they sent us.”

  “Did you see a beach with crabs,” Stan demanded, “or was it a world full of water?”

  “Neither one. It was like a big ice age. Glaciers covered everything. No oceans showing, no mountains. We flew clear around the world and it was all a huge snowball. They had floodlights on the vehicle because the sun had gone out.”

  “I was sure I could see the sun still hanging up there,” Harriet put in. “Like a ball of cinders in the sky. But the guide said no, nobody could see it.”

  “How come everybody gets to visit a different kind of end of the world?” Henry asked. “You’d think there’d be only one kind of end of the world. I mean, it ends, and this is how it ends, and there can’t be more than one way.”

  “Could it be a fake?” Stan asked. Everybody turned around and looked at him. Nick’s face got very red. Fran looked so mean that Eddie let go of Cynthia and started to rub Fran’s shoulders. Stan shrugged. “I’m not suggesting it is,” he said defensively. “I was just wondering.”

  “Seemed pretty real to me,” said Tom. “The sun burned out. A big ball of ice. The atmosphere, you know, frozen. The end of the goddamned world.”

  The telephone rang. Ruby went to answer it. Nick asked Paula about lunch on Tuesday. She said yes. “Let’s meet at the motel,” he said, and she grinned. Eddie was making out with Cynthia again. Henry looked very stoned and was having trouble staying awake. Phil and Isabel arrived. They heard Tom and Fran talking about their trips to the end of the world and Isabel said she and Phil had gone only the day before yesterday. “Goddamn,” Tom said, “everybody’s doing it! What was your trip like?”

  Ruby came back into the room. “That was my sister calling from Fresno to say she’s safe. Fresno wasn’t hit by the earthquake at all.”

  “Earthquake?” Paula said.

  “In California,” Mike told her. “This afternoon. You didn’t know? Wiped out most of Los Angeles and ran right up the coast practically to Monterey. They think it was on account of the underground bomb test in the Mohave Desert.”

  “California’s always having such awful disasters,” Marcia said.

  “Good thing those amoebas got loose back east,” said Nick. “Imagine how complicated it would be if they had them in L.A. now too.”

  “They will,” Tom said. “Two to one they reproduce by airborne spores.”

  “Like the typhoid germs last November,” Jane said.

  “That was typhus,” Nick corrected.

  “Anyway,” Phil said, “I was telling Tom and Fran about what we saw at the end of the world. It was the sun going nova. They showed it very cleverly, too. I mean, you can’t actually sit around and experience it, on account of the heat and the hard radiation and all. But they give it to you in a peripheral way, very elegant in the McLuhanesque sense of the word. First they take you to a point about two hours before the blowup, right? It’s I don’t know how many jillion years from now, but a long way, anyhow, because the trees are all different, they’ve got blue scales and ropy branches, and the animals are like things with one leg that jump on pogo sticks—”

  “Oh, I don’t believe that,” Cynthia drawled.

  Phil ignored her gracefully. “And we didn’t see any sign of human beings, not a house, not a telephone pole, nothing, so I suppose we must have been extinct a long time before. Anyway, they let us look at that for a while. Not getting out of our time machine, naturally, because they said the atmosphere was wrong. Gradually the sun started to puff up. We were nervous—weren’t we, Iz?—I m
ean, suppose they miscalculated things? This whole trip is a very new concept and things might go wrong. The sun was getting bigger and bigger, and then this thing like an arm seemed to pop out of its left side, a big fiery arm reaching out across space, getting closer and closer. We saw it through smoked glass, like you do an eclipse. They gave us about two minutes of the explosion, and we could feel it getting hot already. Then we jumped a couple of years forward in time. The sun was back to its regular shape, only it was smaller, sort of like a little white sun instead of a big yellow one. And on Earth everything was ashes.”