Probably a lousy clothes closet, Low found himself thinking. Raincoats and umbrellas. That’ll get us back home.
Brink called out from the far end of the room. The scientist’s voice was trembling. “Commander Low! Come quick.”
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Low hurried forward, past mounds of inexplicable gear.
Nothing was wrong. Brink was standing before a transparent case not unlike those that dominated the display in the museum spire. It was a little larger than most and hung by invisible means to the back wall of the room. Glowing green crystals floated within.
Lots of glowing green crystals, glistening in their transparent sheaths.
Except in quantity, they were identical to the one Low had found in the museum spire and had used to revive Brink. A glance at the scientist showed him staring unblinkingly at the trove, eyes focused and glistening.
“We must get them out!” There was an uncharacteristic quaver in his voice.
“Hold on a minute.” Low frowned at his companion. “Sure we’ll get them out. They’re potentially useful, and valuable, and we’re not going to just leave them sitting here. Never can tell when we might need one. But why must we get them out?”
His words seemed to penetrate the scientist’s mind slowly, as if they had been delivered one at a time over a long interval. He blinked. “Why … I should think that would be obvious. If my revived condition is temporary, a possibility we discussed, then application of a second crystal may extend my life.”
“Fair enough,” Low replied guardedly, “although you look perfectly healthy to me. Better than you did when we arrived here, as a matter of fact.”
“I am pleased to hear it.” Was he starting to sweat? Low couldn’t be sure. “We need to extract these.” He moved to go around the pilot, who was standing between him and the case.
Low edged sideways to block the other man’s path. “Just a minute, Ludger. Just because these look like the crystal I used on you doesn’t mean they have the same function. Shouldn’t we proceed with some caution? Maybe one or two of them have other functions. Dangerous ones. What’s the rush? It’s not good research to be in such a hurry.”
But Brink wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was staring past him, back in the direction of the entrance. “Perhaps someone else feels similarly.”
Low turned. Flashes and sparks filled the center of the storeroom. They were echoes of the ghost-light that they had encountered briefly soon after stepping out of the asteroid-ship. Once more they appeared to be trying to form some sort of solid outline, and once more they remained nothing more than fireflylike glitterings in the air. Low thought he detected urgency in their motion, but decided he was being foolish.
“What are those things, anyway?” he heard himself murmuring.
“A natural phenomenon of some interest.” As the lights drifted forward, Brink edged closer to the case.
Low held his ground as they swarmed around him. “I wonder if they carry a charge. Some of them look almost solid.”
“I would doubt it.” Brink waved at the nearest cluster. His fingers passed easily through them. “I feel nothing. A slight tingling sensation, perhaps. They are lights, that is all. A harmless local atmospheric phenomenon.”
Low held out a hand palm upward. Several of the lights settled onto his skin, and he felt the tingling to which the scientist had alluded. It was not painful, more of a persistent tickling. As he stared, the sparks vanished one by one.
“I guess you’re right, Ludger. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but that’s all.” Feeling oddly disappointed, he turned hack toward the rear of the room.
“A thousand years’ frustration!” A dozen thought-forms whirled precisely about a predetermined axis. “Can we do nothing to stop them, warn them, help them?”
“Why should it be any different with these than with their predecessors?” declared a hundred others, who had clustered together in a unique geometric form that nine out of ten human mathematicians would have said was a theoretical impossibility.
“No matter how hard we try, we cannot affect the physical dimension in any meaningful way.” Half a million caucused resignedly. “That was the choice we made.”
None present, which meant all, needed to be reminded of that sorrowful fact. Sadly, restatement of the unpleasant obvious was a catechism to which they had long been addicted. Paradise was rife with discontent, and few had the energy to dispute it. They had achieved a most unhappy perfection. All they could do was exist, and observe.
“Beautiful! Wunderbar!” Brink reached for the case, his fingers penetrating with the same ease Low had experienced in the museum spire. His fingertips began to tingle as they neared the cluster of crystals.
“What about possible dangers?” Low hesitated, uncertain how to react.
“Nonsense! Who would make a deadly analogue of something designed to restore life? You are overcautious, Commander. Besides, having no resources for detailed analysis, we must content ourselves with empirical demonstration.”
It wasn’t as if the scientist had been hypnotized, Low decided. Simply that he was preoccupied with the crystals to the exclusion of nearly everything else, including potential danger. His attitude might border on the irrational, but he had a ways to go before he could be accused of having stepped over. Low determined to keep a close watch on him.
“I admit we don’t have the means to do a proper study. What did you have in mind?”
Brink smiled at him. “We cannot imagine the full capabilities of these crystals, hut we have proof of their partial potential. I am it. I wish I could have observed the actual action of the crystal on my body.” His smile widened and Brink relaxed a little. “Being dead certainly inhibits one’s studies.” His fingers closed around the nearest sheath and he inhaled sharply at the contact.
“We must take at least a few of these with us.”
“Why? The door’s open now and we know where they are. We can come back for them whenever we need one.”
“We cannot take that chance!” Struck by the sudden vehemence of his own response, Brink took care to moderate the remainder of his words. “Be reasonable, Commander. We have no way of knowing what devices and mechanisms may return to life in this place at any given time. In our absence, however brief, this room may choose to reseal itself, barring us permanently from its treasures. Additionally, should we encounter future difficulties, it would be useful to have crystals on hand for medicinal purposes.”
Low agreed reluctantly. “You argue persuasively, Ludger. All right, I concede your points. Take the crystals. But I’m not going to lug them around. You carry most of them.”
“With delight.” As Low looked on, the scientist eagerly removed one crystal after another, stuffing them into every available shirt and pants pocket until he resembled someone who’d swallowed a green searchlight. As a precaution, Low pocketed a couple of the crystals himself. Their gentle warmth could be felt through the material of his pants.
“See, Commander.” Brink fingered the last crystal, rolling it sensuously back and forth between the palms of both hands. “I am neither dead nor injured, so it does not sink into my fingers.”
“Maybe it only operates at specific entry points,” Low suggested. “Maybe fingers don’t qualify.”
His lower lip pushed out, Brink responded approvingly and with only the faintest hint of condescension. “Very good, Commander! A valid observational deduction.” His gaze dropped to the crystal. “I hold in my hands the key to the resurrection of the dead. Perhaps I hold also the answer to everything mankind has ever dreamed of.”
“Kind of a blanket inference, don’t you think?” remarked Low sourly. After the spaciousness of the main chamber and the museum spire, the storeroom was beginning to feel cramped. Also, he was mindful of Brink’s comment about doors being permanently and unexpectedly sealed.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Nervous, Commander?” Brink followed Low as the other turned and started for the portal.
“Just thinking about what you said earlier. If doors can open here, they can also close.” He breathed easier when they stepped back out into the high-domed chamber. It was brighter outside the storeroom. A man could see. And think.
He turned on Brink sharply enough to startle him. “You know, if these crystals are some kind of all-purpose tool, maybe they can open doors?”
The scientist grimaced, then considered, and finally found himself nodding in agreement. “A combination universal health clinic and door-opener? I would think such a thing not only impossible but absurd. However, that would be thinking like a human. We are on an alien world and should strive to employ nontraditional ways of thinking. Nonhuman, one might almost wish. As to your proposal, however, why not? What harm can it do to try?”
The crystals did nothing for the second sealed archway. Low touched one to the barrier, ran it along the line between door and floor, used it to trace the glyphs etched into the wall nearby. Beyond leaving him feeling really stupid, the exercise had no effect.