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Fan, issue 2, July 1945
Page 10
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10 Hagist felt suddenly very sleepy. The past week had been a strenuous one. He retired to a forward cabin to sleep, perchance to dream of his coming days on Earth. . . HAGIST dreamed, but it was not of Earth. He was back on the asteroid, near one of the chasms, staring down again at Stuart's dead body. In the dream he again rolled the body over the precipice edge, but somehow Stuart's hand reached out and clutched him, and pulled him over too. Down they fell, down and down, with Stuart's ghastly and protruding and accusing eyes very close to his own. But they never struck bottom, for it seemed they were no longer falling downward; instead they were sweeping out in a vast parabola. Even in the dream the word "parabola" shrieked familiarly in Hagist's brain. Then Stuart was no longer with him, and he was curving all alone in the darkness along the vast parabola. It seemed ages. . . Hagist awoke, drenched with a cold nightmare sweat. He seemed to have slept for a very long time, and now, vaguely, he knew that something was wrong. He rushed to the control room. He stared down at the robot wheel, at the needle which Adams had said was always in correlation with the prow of the ship. The needle was still steady, but now it did not point along the hairline space that indicated Earth; somehow it had swung back across more than ninety degrees of the rim! Hagist was suddenly weak and frightened. "I must think!" he murmured, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I've got to think!" He rushed over to the solar system chart. Yes, the red line was still moving. It had traced scarcely three inches in its slow curve toward earth, then had turned aside in a sharp hair-pin curve. The present parabola was long and sweeping and steady -- and it was moving outward! Frantically Hagist sought the little moving circle that was Jupiter. He had already passed Jupiter and was moving toward Saturn. With a trembling finger he traced the curve. He would miss Saturn. Uranus was on the other side of the sun. He would cross Neptune's orbit far in advance of that planet. That left Pluto. Searching the chart, he located the circle that was Pluto, and saw that it would cross his parabola before he ever reached the orbit. And beyond? AQaiting him beyond was the vast maw of empty space. "How can this happen?" Hagist screamed aloud. "Adams tricked me! He swore he'd-- How did he manage---" He stopped his frantic words with a little laugh. No. Adams couldn't have caused this. There must be another reason. Hagist staggered back to the robot control wheel. He tugged at it, but it was locked firmly in place. He remembered the little click when Adams had locked it, and he realized now that Adams must have had the key on him. Now it was lost millions of miles back there in space.
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10 Hagist felt suddenly very sleepy. The past week had been a strenuous one. He retired to a forward cabin to sleep, perchance to dream of his coming days on Earth. . . HAGIST dreamed, but it was not of Earth. He was back on the asteroid, near one of the chasms, staring down again at Stuart's dead body. In the dream he again rolled the body over the precipice edge, but somehow Stuart's hand reached out and clutched him, and pulled him over too. Down they fell, down and down, with Stuart's ghastly and protruding and accusing eyes very close to his own. But they never struck bottom, for it seemed they were no longer falling downward; instead they were sweeping out in a vast parabola. Even in the dream the word "parabola" shrieked familiarly in Hagist's brain. Then Stuart was no longer with him, and he was curving all alone in the darkness along the vast parabola. It seemed ages. . . Hagist awoke, drenched with a cold nightmare sweat. He seemed to have slept for a very long time, and now, vaguely, he knew that something was wrong. He rushed to the control room. He stared down at the robot wheel, at the needle which Adams had said was always in correlation with the prow of the ship. The needle was still steady, but now it did not point along the hairline space that indicated Earth; somehow it had swung back across more than ninety degrees of the rim! Hagist was suddenly weak and frightened. "I must think!" he murmured, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I've got to think!" He rushed over to the solar system chart. Yes, the red line was still moving. It had traced scarcely three inches in its slow curve toward earth, then had turned aside in a sharp hair-pin curve. The present parabola was long and sweeping and steady -- and it was moving outward! Frantically Hagist sought the little moving circle that was Jupiter. He had already passed Jupiter and was moving toward Saturn. With a trembling finger he traced the curve. He would miss Saturn. Uranus was on the other side of the sun. He would cross Neptune's orbit far in advance of that planet. That left Pluto. Searching the chart, he located the circle that was Pluto, and saw that it would cross his parabola before he ever reached the orbit. And beyond? AQaiting him beyond was the vast maw of empty space. "How can this happen?" Hagist screamed aloud. "Adams tricked me! He swore he'd-- How did he manage---" He stopped his frantic words with a little laugh. No. Adams couldn't have caused this. There must be another reason. Hagist staggered back to the robot control wheel. He tugged at it, but it was locked firmly in place. He remembered the little click when Adams had locked it, and he realized now that Adams must have had the key on him. Now it was lost millions of miles back there in space.
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