Weissenbaum's Eye - Stetten

Weissenbaum's Eye - Stetten - Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Even when the ferry's two black hulls pulled back together, nothing was apparent from within the program, which eliminated body and ship alike. Nothing broke Sand's view from the couch until the Moon appeared alongside. The sky was blocked suddenly by the rocky lunar surface, which moved closer till the ragged, jumbled skyline streaked past in a blur that made Sand's head spin.

Ridge after ridge popped up ahead, to fall back slowly towards him. Each crater whipped by, only at the last moment discarding its randomness to form a circle, like a frozen splash. Big craters, little craters, craters overlapping craters. Then the peaks ahead were biting into nothing, a copy of the sky squeezed out between two rollers, as though someone had taken a spoonful out of the moon, and filled it with a lake of stars.

Weissenbaum's Eye consumed all sides as the ferry shot out over the rim. In the enormity of its lost surface, a tiny red dot drifted below. It took a moment for Sand to recognize himself. Motionless as his own eye caught in the mirror, the ship's beacon pardoned its way before a crowd of stars. He floated, dizzy with distance over Weissenbaum's Eye.

At the far rim stood two doors, large even from this distance. Sand had heard much of the cathedral, where the giant vessels had been built, and he expected to see its doors opened, the town abandoned.

But the doors of this supposedly dead town were shut. And now just beyond the rim, the lights of the ferry port blinked, and the wide steel jaws of the landing platform opened to receive them. With a last glimpse of the cradle rising up, the ship's senses were cut off. Opening his eyes, Sand lay in total darkness. After the clunks, the creaks, and rumbles died away, all was silent. Then the cabin door opened. A light came from the ferry's hold.

Sand got up and saw no one. As he stepped out, the light turned off, and down the hall another light came on. Sand moved forward into this newly illuminated area, not recognizing it as part of the ferry. It too went dark, and yet another light turned on further down the hall. He gave in again. This time the light didn't wait before advancing. It seemed to have a definite route planned for him. At every step, with reluctant obedience Sand followed the will of some unseen switch thrower, leaving many shadows unexplored. Out from Tarni's cabin he proceeded in a maze, until he could not possibly have still been on the ferry, although there had been no distinct transition. Backdoor and the ferry had fused into one.

The lights guided him to the tunnel he remembered from the chart in Tarni's cabin. He could only go down, and the lights kept just ahead of him, until a small side door slid open.

The little room was very much like his own, back on the Earth, except there was no couch. He hesitated on the threshold, in the shadows of the hallway. The light within the room beckoned him to enter, but he would not. He wanted to explore instead. In the gloom on the wall at about eye level was a small dark arrow. Even in the shadows, Sand could see it was outdated, and not meant for him. The old engraving pointed down into the darkness. He touched it, leaving a fingerprint in the dust that seemed to glow. His new little room grew brighter, as if impatient for him to enter. But Sand walked off in the direction of the arrow. As he proceeded down the tunnel, the feeling of enclosure was intensified because the light would not accompany him.

Some distance down, Sand found another arrow, this time with a definite faint glow. He plunged on into darkness. It was wide enough for four to pass abreast. The tunnel walls were smooth and cool, and the floor had tracks for a cart. Down and further down he went, until suddenly he was stopped.

Sand touched a square of solid darkness at arm's length. It opened with a quiet rumble before a dimly lit enormous space. By sheer size it had to be the cathedral. And so this path he had just walked, those old arrows he had followed, were for the colonists on their last pilgrimage out onto Weissenbaum's Eye. The cathedral was shrouded in disuse. On all sides, dusty tarps covered machinery, and narrow paths were filled with shadows, or things to trip over. Sand craned his neck to look up at the ceiling. Huge claws hung there motionless between the girders and cables.

All the shadows pointed towards the light from one far corner, so Sand turned in that direction. Near the center of the cathedral he passed a pillar that supported some kind of station high above the floor. The closer he got to the source of the light, the quieter Sand tried to be. The area had been cleared. Stacks upon stacks of chest sized spheres hummed and glowed on all sides. Next to a pile of the luminous globes stood a tall woman with curly blond hair. That she was a woman was the last thing Sand noticed. Her angular body and posture made him think of a gawky bird. The woman was examining one of the spheres with a small tool. As she turned, her face was visible. Her teeth were buck, and her expression revealed that she was no stranger to solitude.

Her face went blank with disbelief for just a moment when she spotted him, and then assumed an empty stare of self defense as if she had been discovered at some lonely task that no one should be made to do. She was untouched, removed from the human race. She had been here a long time, by herself. Sand knew it. The woman reached for the panel in front of her and whispered, "He's down here." Then reading a message, she spoke to Sand. "You were supposed to go to your room. Now Don Andrews is waiting. Just follow the lights." Sand would have asked about the stacks of glowing spheres, but it was clear no further conversation was expected. A door opened in the nearby wall, and a deep blue line appeared across the floor.

Reluctantly, Sand obeyed. The light was waiting for him through the door. He looked back, but already the strange woman seemed to have forgotten he was there.

After the door closed, Backdoor's chief engineer studied the sphere before her. Judy could remember sitting at her station on the central pillar, watching the children depart year after year. That one beautiful child, that young woman, Tarni. In the midst of her friends, Tarni had sat like an anchor, loved by them more than she knew, firm among them as though they might float away without her. The night before the Pinta, when Don Andrews had spoken to the crew, Judy had listened to the same words she had heard so many times. So now Don Andrews and Tarni had returned, and with them this strange artist from the medium. So Backdoor was no longer empty, and she was no longer by herself.

Judy recalled the last time she had seen another human face. Don Andrews, in that bleakest hour, whispering that he would find a way to come back, securing the floor boards over her hiding place. She had heard the footsteps marching overhead, the mindless troops of Benjamin Holly, evacuating what they thought to be the total population of Backdoor.

Don Andrews had kept his word, he had returned, and now they were together once again. Her solitude was over. Judy looked down and set herself once more to work.

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