Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

the Rift -a term I won’t explain, it almost stops my heart to think of it.

They will find no promising stars there, that’s all that needs to be said.

They will probably not even get to the other side. Of course, some few

ships like the Javelin may still be cruising along the spiral arm, in

diametrically opposed directions, by accident or even by policy. But if

they are, it’s something about which we can’t know now, and will never

know. Thq distances have grown too great; the end of the fleet as an

organism is almost complete. The Javelin is on her own.

Together, they stared down into the plotting tank, the little lights in it

glinting on the wet curves of their blind eyes.

While they watched, the point that was the Quarrel turned slowly russet,

and then crimson. It began to dim.

For a moment, then, it brightened to a sullen orange. As a visible signal

the little light had gone out, but the computer was reporting that it was

still maintaining the pip in the infra-red. Now it was crimson again: a

signal in radio in the tank, but growing longer and longer in wave-length

…

It flickered, turned sooty, and was gone.

The old men stood like statues over the tank for an indefinite length of

time. No one seeing them could have told for certain whether they were

alive or not, except perhaps by the two tears standing under Kamblin’s

eyes.

Behind them, at last, there was a fumbling sound;

168 James Blish

and then an uncertain sliding of metal against metaL They turned slowly and

looked up at the bridge.

Ertak’s door was half open; a little light, steamy and dim, spilled out of