Captain Szili’s voice yanked her back. “Waggoner! Tell that Aurigean to get busy. We’ve spotted a radiation source on an intercept orbit, and it may be too much for our screen.” He specified coordinates. “What is it?” #101 | | |
For the first time, Eloise felt alarm in Lucifer. He curved about and streaked from the ship. #102 | | |
Presently his thought came to her, no less vivid. She lacked words for the terrible splendor she viewed with him: a million-kilometer ball of ionized gas where luminance blazed and electric discharges leaped, booming through the haze around the star’s exposed heart. The thing could not have made any sound, for space here was still almost a vacuum by Earth’s parochial standards; but she heard it thunder, and felt the fury that spat from it. #103 | | |
She said for him: “A mass of expelled material. It must have lost radial velocity to friction and static gradients, been drawn into a cometary orbit, held together for a while by internal potentials. As if this sun were trying yet to bring planets to birth—” #104 | | |
“It’ll strike us before we’re in shape to accelerate,” Szili said, “and overload our shield. If you know any prayers, use them.” #105 | | |
“Lucifer!” she called; for she did not want to die, when he must remain. #106 | | |
—I think I can deflect it enough, he told her with a grimness she had not hitherto met in him.—My own fields, to mesh with its; and free energy to drink; and an unstable configuration; yet, perhaps I can help you. But help me, Eloise. Fight by my side. #107 | | |
His brightness moved toward the juggernaut shape. #108 | | |
She felt how its chaotic electromagnetism clawed at his. She felt him tossed and torn. The pain was hers. He battled to keep his own cohesion, and the combat was hers. They locked together, Aurigean and gas cloud. The forces that shaped him grappled as arms might; he poured power from his core, hauling that vast tenuous mass with him down the magnetic torrent which streamed from the sun; he gulped atoms and thrust them backward until the jet splashed across the heaven. #109 | | |
She sat in her cubicle, lending him what will to live and prevail she could, and beat her fists bloody on the desk. #110 | | |
The hours brawled past. #111 | | |
In the end, she could scarcely catch the message that flickered out of his exhaustion:—Victory. #112 | | |
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Through instruments, men saw the luminous death pass them by. A cheer lifted. #115 | | |
“Come back,” Eloise begged. #116 | | |
—I cannot. I am too spent. We are merged, the cloud and I, and are tumbling in toward the star. (Like a hurt hand reaching forth to comfort her:) Do not be afraid for me. As we get closer, I will draw fresh strength from its glow, fresh substance from the nebula. I will need a while to spiral out against that pull. But how can I fail to come back to you, Eloise? Wait for me. Rest. Sleep. #117 | | |
Her shipmates led her to sickbay. Lucifer sent her dreams of fire flowers and mirth and the suns that were his home. #118 | | |
But she woke at last, screaming. The medic had to put her under heavy sedation. #119 | | |
He had not really understood what it would mean to confront something so violent that space and time themselves were twisted thereby. #120 | | |
His speed increased appallingly. That was in his own measure; from Raven they saw him fall through several days. The properties of matter were changed. He could not push hard enough or fast enough to escape. #121 | | |
Radiation, stripped nuclei, particles born and destroyed and born again, sleeted and shouted through him. His substance was peeled away, layer by layer. The supernova core was a white delirium before him. It shrank as he approached, ever smaller, denser, so brilliant that brilliance ceased to have meaning. Finally the gravitational forces laid their full grip upon him. #122 | | |
—Eloise! he shrieked in the agony of his disintegration—Oh, Eloise, help me! #123 | | |
The star swallowed him up. He was stretched infinitely long, compressed infinitely thin, and vanished with it from existence. #124 | | |
The ship prowled the farther reaches. Much might yet be learned. #125 | | |
Captain Szili visited Eloise in sickbay. Physically she was recovering. #126 | | |
“I’d call him a man,” he declared through the machine mumble, “except that’s not praise enough. We weren’t even his kin, and he died to save us.” #127 | | |
She regarded him from eyes more dry than seemed natural. He could just make out her answer. “He is a man. Doesn’t he have an immortal soul too?” #128 | | |
“Well, uh, yes, if you believe in souls, yes, I’d agree.” #129 | | |
She shook here head. “But why can’t he go to his rest?” #130 | | |
He glanced about for the medic and found they were alone in the narrow metal room. “What do you mean?” He made himself pat her hand. “I know, he was a good friend of yours. Still, his must have been a merciful death. Quick, clean; I wouldn’t mind going out like that.” #131 | | |
“For him … yes, I suppose so. It has to be. But—” She could not continue. Suddenly she covered her ears. “Stop! Please!” #132 | | |
Szili made soothing noises and left. In the corridor he encountered Mazundar. “How is she?” the physicist asked. #133 | | |
The captain scowled. “Not good. I hope she doesn’t crack entirely before we can get her to a psychiatrist.” #134 | | |
“Why, what is wrong?” #135 | | |
“She thinks she can hear him.” #136 | | |
Mazundar smote fist into palm. “I hoped otherwise,” he breathed. #137 | | |
Szili braced himself and waited. #138 | | |
“She does,” Mazundar said. “Obviously she does.” #139 | | |
“But that’s impossible! He’s dead!” #140 | | |
“Remember the time dilation,” Mazundar replied. “He fell from the sky and perished swiftly, yes. But in supernova time. Not the same as ours. To us, the final stellar collapse takes an infinite number of years. And telepathy has no distance limits.” The physicist started walking fast away from that cabin. “He will always be with her.” #141 | | |
