Mission of Gravity

There was such a stream, easily navigable by a vessel like the Bree, passing within fifty miles of the desired spot; but it emptied into an ocean which had no visible co

„What we could use, Barl, is a passage from one of these seas into the other,” remarked Lackland one day. The Mesklinite, sprawled comfortably on his ledge outside the window, gestured agreement silently. It was past midwinter now, and the greater sun was becoming perceptibly dimmer as it arched on its swift path across the sky to the north. „Are you sure that your people know of none? After all, most of these pictures were taken in the fall, and you say that the ocean level is much higher in the spring.”

„We know of none, at any season,” replied the captain. „We know something, but not much, of the ocean you speak of; there are too many different nations on the land between for very much contact to take place. A single caravan would be a couple of years on the journey, and as a rule they don’t travel that far. Goods pass through many hands on such a trip, and it’s a little hard to learn much about their origin by the time our traders see them in the western seaports of the isthmus. If any passage such as we would like exists at all, it must be here near the Rim where the lands are almost completely unexplored. Our map — the one you and I are making-does not go far enough yet. In any case, there is no such passage south of here during the autumn; I have been along the entire coast line as it was then, remember. Perhaps, however, this very coast reaches over to the other sea; we have followed it eastward for several thousand miles, and simply do not know how much farther it goes.”

„As I remember, it curves north again a couple of thousand miles past the outer cape, Barl — but of course that was in the autumn, too, when I saw it. It’s going to be quite troublesome, this business of making a usable map of your world. It changes too much. I’d be tempted to wait until next autumn so that at least we could use the map we made, but that’s four of my years away. I can’t stay here that long.”

„You could go back to your own world and rest until the time came — though I would be sorry to see you go.”

„I’m afraid that would be a rather long journey, Barle

„How far?”

„Well — your units of distance wouldn’t help much. Let’s see. A ray of light could travel around Mesklin’s ‘rim’ in — ah — four fifths of a second.” He demonstrated this time interval with his watch, while the native looked on with interest. „The same ray would take a little over eleven of my years; that’s — about two and a quarter of yours, to get from here to my home.”

„Then your world is too far to see? You never explained these things to me before.”

„I was not sure we had covered the language problem well enough. No, my world ca

Lackland had put down the photograph he was holding, and seemed immersed in-’thought. Much of the floor of the room was already covered with loosely fitted pictures; the region best known to Barle

To add to the difficulty of matching photographs, much of the planet’s surface was relatively smooth, without really distinctive topographic feature; and even where mountains and valleys existed, the different shadowing of adjacent photographs made comparison a hard job. The habit of the brighter sun of crossing from horizon to horizon in less than nine minutes had seriously disarranged normal photographic procedure; successive pictures in the same series were often illuminated from almost opposite directions.

„We’re not getting anywhere with this, Barl,” Lackland said wearily. „It was worth a try as long as there might be short cuts, but you say there are none. You’re a sailor, not a caravan master; that four thousand miles overland right where gravity is greatest is going to stump us.”

„The knowledge that enables you to fly, then, ca

„It ca

„But what sort of devices were on board this rocket?” Barle

„I’m afraid I can’t tell you, Barl. You simply have no background which would give words like ‘electron’ and ‘neutrino’ and ‘magnetism’ and ‘quantum’ any meaning at all. The drive mechanism of the rocket might mean a little more to you, but I doubt it.” In spite of Lackland’s apparent freedom from suspicion, Barle

„Would it not be well,” he said, „to seek the pictures that show the shore and inland regions east of here?”

Lackland replied, „There is still some chance, I suppose, that they do meet; I don’t pretend to have memorized the whole area. Maybe down next to the icecap — how much cold can you people stand?”