| | |
The comet body curvetted and danced, the brain of fire laughed low.—Yes, Eloise, I would like very much to remain with you. No one else has ever—Joy. Joy. Joy. #92 в контекст | | |
They named you better than they knew, Lucifer, she wanted to say, and perhaps she did. They thought it was a joke; they thought by calling you after the devil they could make you safely small like themselves. But Lucifer isn’t the devil’s real name. It means only Light Bearer. One Latin prayer even addresses Christ as Lucifer. Forgive me, God, I can’t help remembering that. Do You mind? He isn’t Christian, but I think he doesn’t need to be, I think he must never have felt sin, Lucifer, Lucifer. #93 в контекст | | |
She sent the music soaring for as long as she was permitted. #94 в контекст | | |
The ship jumped. In one shift of world line parameters she crossed twenty-five light-years to destruction. #95 в контекст | | |
Each knew it in his own way, save for Eloise, who also lived it with Lucifer. #96 в контекст | | |
She felt the shock and heard the outraged metal scream, she smelled the ozone and scorch and tumbled through the infinite falling that is weightlessness. Dazed, she fumbled at the intercom. Words crackled through: . . unit blown … back EMF surge … how should I know how to fix the blasted thing? … stand by, stand by . . Over all hooted the emergency siren. #97 в контекст | | |
Terror rose in her, until she gripped the crucifix around her neck and the mind of Lucifier. Then she laughed in the pride of this might. #98 в контекст | | |
He had whipped clear of the ship immediately on arrival. Now he floated in the same orbit. Everywhere around, the nebula filled space with unrestful rainbows. To him, Raven was not the metal cylinder which human eyes would have seen, but a lambency, the shield screen reflecting a whole spectrum. Ahead lay the supernova core, tiny at this remove but alight, alight. #99 в контекст | | |
—Have no fears (he caressed her). I comprehend. Turbulence is extensive, so soon after the detonation. We emerged in a region where the plasma is especially dense. Unprotected for the moment before the guardian field was reestablished, your main generator outside the hull was short-circuited. But you are safe. You can make repairs. And I, I am in an ocean of energy. Never was I so alive. Come, swim these tides with me. #100 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
For the first time, Eloise felt alarm in Lucifer. He curved about and streaked from the ship. #102 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
“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 в контекст | | |
“Lucifer!” she called; for she did not want to die, when he must remain. #106 в контекст | | |
—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 в контекст | | |
| | |
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 в контекст | | |
She sat in her cubicle, lending him what will to live and prevail she could, and beat her fists bloody on the desk. #110 в контекст | | |
| | |
In the end, she could scarcely catch the message that flickered out of his exhaustion:—Victory. #112 в контекст | | |
| | |
| | |
Through instruments, men saw the luminous death pass them by. A cheer lifted. #115 в контекст | | |
| | |
—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 в контекст | | |
Her shipmates led her to sickbay. Lucifer sent her dreams of fire flowers and mirth and the suns that were his home. #118 в контекст | | |
But she woke at last, screaming. The medic had to put her under heavy sedation. #119 в контекст | | |
He had not really understood what it would mean to confront something so violent that space and time themselves were twisted thereby. #120 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
—Eloise! he shrieked in the agony of his disintegration—Oh, Eloise, help me! #123 в контекст | | |
The star swallowed him up. He was stretched infinitely long, compressed infinitely thin, and vanished with it from existence. #124 в контекст | | |
The ship prowled the farther reaches. Much might yet be learned. #125 в контекст | | |
Captain Szili visited Eloise in sickbay. Physically she was recovering. #126 в контекст | | |
“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 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
“Well, uh, yes, if you believe in souls, yes, I’d agree.” #129 в контекст | | |
She shook here head. “But why can’t he go to his rest?” #130 в контекст | | |
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 в контекст | | |
“For him … yes, I suppose so. It has to be. But—” She could not continue. Suddenly she covered her ears. “Stop! Please!” #132 в контекст | | |
Szili made soothing noises and left. In the corridor he encountered Mazundar. “How is she?” the physicist asked. #133 в контекст | | |
The captain scowled. “Not good. I hope she doesn’t crack entirely before we can get her to a psychiatrist.” #134 в контекст | | |
| | |
| | |
Mazundar smote fist into palm. “I hoped otherwise,” he breathed. #137 в контекст | | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
