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Theremon joined Sheerin at the window and gazed out past the wooded slopes to where the spires of Saro City gleamed bloodily on the horizon. The newsman felt the tension of uncertainty grow within him as he cast a short glance at Beta. It glowered redly at zenith, dwarfed and evil.
"Go ahead, sir," he said softly.
Sheerin replied, "Astronomers stumbled about for year, each proposed theory more untenable than the one before - until Aton had the inspiration of calling in the Cult. The head of the Cult, Sor 5, had access to certain data that simplified the problem considerably. Aton set to work on a new track.
"What if there were another nonluminous planetary body such as Lagash? If there were, you know, it would shine only by reflected light, and if it were composed of bluish rock, as Lagash itself largely is, then, in the redness of the sky, the eternal blaze of the suns would make it invisible - drown it out completely."
Theremon whistled. "What a screwy idea!"
"You think that's screwy? Listen to this: Suppose this body rotated about Lagash at such a distance and in such an orbit and had such a mass that its attention would exactly account for the deviations of Lagash's orbit from theory - do you know what would happen?"
The columnist shook his head.
"Well, sometimes this body would get in the way of a sun." And Sheerin emptied what remained in the bottle at a draft.
"And it does, I suppose," said Theremon flatly.
"Yes! But only one sun lies in its plane of revolution." He jerked a thumb at the shrunken sun above. "Beta! And it has been shown that the eclipse will occur only when the arrangement of the suns is such that Beta is alone in its hemisphere and at maximum distance, at which time the moon is invariably at minimum distance. The eclipse that results, with the moon seven times the apparent diameter of Beta, covers all of Lagash and lasts well over half a day, so that no spot on the planet escapes the effects. That eclipse comes once every two thousand and forty-nine years."
Theremon's face was drawn into an expressionless mask. "And that's my story?"
The psychologist nodded. "That's all of it. First the eclipse - which will start in three quarters of an hour - then universal Darkness and, maybe, these mysterious Stars - then madness, and end of the cycle."
He brooded. "We had two months' leeway - we at the Observatory - and that wasn't enough time to persuade Lagash of the danger. Two centuries might not have been enough. But our records are at the Hideout, and today we photograph the eclipse. The next cycle will start off with the truth, and when the next eclipse comes, mankind will at last be ready for it. Come to think of it, that's part of your story too."
A thin wind ruffled the curtains at the window as Theremon opened it and leaned out. It played coldly with his hair as he stared at the crimson sunlight on his hand. Then he turned in sudden rebellion.
"What is there in Darkness to drive me mad?"
Sheerin smiled to himself as he spun the empty liquor bottle with abstracted motions of his hand. "Have you ever experienced Darkness, young man?"
The newsman leaned against the wall and considered. "No. Can't say I have. But I know what it is. Just - uh - " He made vague motions with his fingers and then brightened. "Just no light. Like in caves.",
"Have you ever been in a cave?"
"In a cave! Of course not!"
"I thought not. I tried last week - just to see - but I got out in a hurry. I went in until the mouth of the cave was just visible as a blur of light, with black everywhere else. I never thought a person my weight could run that fast."
Theremon's lip curled. "Well, if it comes to that, I guess I wouldn't have run if I had been there."
The psychologist studied the young man with an a
"My, don't you talk big! I dare you to draw the curtain."
Theremon looked his surprise and said, "What for? If we had four or five suns out there, we might want to cut the light down a bit for comfort, but now we haven't enough light as it is."
"That's the point. Just draw the curtain; then come here and sit down."
"All right." Theremon reached for the tasseled string and jerked. The red curtain slid across the wide window, the brass rings hissing their way along the crossbar, and a dusk-red shadow clamped down on the room.
Theremon's footsteps sounded hollowly in the silence as he made his way to the table, and then they stopped halfway. "I can't see you, sir," he whispered.
"Feel your way," ordered Sheerin in a strained voice.
"But I can't see you, sir." The newsman was breathing harshly. "I can't see anything."
"What did you expect?" came the grim reply. "Come here and sit down!"
The footsteps sounded again, waveringly, approaching slowly. There was the sound of someone fumbling with a chair. Theremon's voice came thinly, "Here I am. I feel… ulp… all right."
"You like it, do you?"
"N - no. It's pretty awful. The walls seem to be - " He paused. "They seem to be closing in on me. I keep wanting to push them away. But I'm not going mad! In fact, the feeling isn't as bad as it was."
"All right. Draw the curtain back again."
There were cautious footsteps through the dark, the rustle of Theremon's body against the curtain as he felt for the tassel, and then the triumphant roo-osh of the curtain slithering back. Red light flooded the room, and with a cry of joy Theremon looked up at the sun.
Sheerin wiped the moistness off his forehead with the back of a hand and said shakily, "And that was just a dark room."
"It can be stood," said Theremon lightly.
"Yes, a dark room can. But were you at the Jonglor Cente
"No, it so happens I never got around to it. Six thousand miles was just a bit too much to travel, even for the exposition."
"Well, I was there. You remember hearing about the "Tu
"Yes. Wasn't there some fuss about it?"
"Very little. It was hushed up. You see, that Tu
"Popular?"
"Certainly. There's a fascination in being frightened when it's part of a game. A baby is born with three instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the absence of light. That's why it's considered so fu
"Wait a while, I remember now. Some people came out dead, didn't they? There were rumors of that after it shut down."
The psychologist snorted. "Bah! Two or three died. That was nothing! They paid off the families of the dead ones and argued the Jonglor City Council into forgetting it. After all, they said, if people with weak hearts want to go through the tu
"Well, then?"
"But you see, there was something else. People sometimes came out in perfect order, except that they refused to go into buildings - any buildings; including palaces, mansions, apartment houses, tenements, cottages, huts, shacks, lean-tos, and tents."
Theremon looked shocked. "You mean they refused to come in out of the open? Where'd they sleep?"
"In the open."
"They should have forced them inside."
"Oh, they did, they did. Whereupon these people went into violent hysterics and did their best to bat their brains out against the nearest wall. Once you got them inside, you couldn't keep them there without a strait jacket or a heavy dose of tranquilizer."