The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF

The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF Read Online Free PDF
Author: Isaac Asimov
Tony to Laurette.
    “You believe this bilge he’s been handing you?”
    “I’m not interested in what you think, Erle. But I am in what you do, Daddy.”
    Overland looked uneasy, his stubbled jaws barely moving over a wad of rough-cut.
    “It does sound like . . . er . . . bilge,” he muttered. “If you weren’t an IPF man, I’d think you were slightly off-center. But – one thing, young man. How did you know the skeleton was older than the human race?”
    “I said it existed
before
the human race.”
    “Is there any difference?”
    “I think there is – somehow.”
    “Well,” said Overland patiently, “how do you know it?”
    Tony hesitated. “I don’t really know. I was standing at the mouth of the cave, and something – or someone – told me.”
    “
Someone!
” Masters blasted the word out incredulously.
    “I don’t know!” said Tony. “All I know is what I’m telling you. It couldn’t have been supernatural – could it?”
    Overland said quickly, “Don’t let it upset you, son. Of course it wasn’t supernatural. There’s a rational explanation somewhere, I guess. But it’s going to be hard to come by.”
    He nodded his head abstractedly, and kept on nodding it like a marionette. Then he smiled peculiarly.
    “I’m old now, son – you know? And I’ve seen a lot. I don’t disbelieve anything. There’s only one logical step for a scientist to take now, and that’s to go back and take a look at that skeleton.”
    Masters’ breath sounded. “You can’t do that!”
    “But we’re going to. And remember that I employ
you
, because Laurette asked me to. Now turn this ship back to 1007. This might be more important than patching up a torn-up world at that.” He chuckled.
    Laurette shook her blond head. “You know,” she said musingly, “this might be the very thing we
shouldn’t
do, going back like this. On the other hand, if we went on our way,
that
might be the thing we shouldn’t do.”
    Masters muttered, “You’re talking nonsense, Laurette.”
    He ostentatiously grabbed her bare arm, and led her from the room after her father, throwing Tony a significant glance as he passed.
    Tony expelled a long breath. Then, smiling twistedly, he went back to the lounge, to wait – for what? His stomach contracted again with revulsion – or was it a premonition?
     
    Braker came sharply to his feet. “What’s up, Crow?”
    “Let me see that ring again,” Tony said. After a minute he raised his eyes absently. “It’s the same ring,” he muttered.
    “I wish to hell,” Braker exploded, “I knew what you were talking about!”
    Tony looked at him obliquely, and said under his breath, “Maybe it’s better you don’t.”
    He sat down and lighted a cigarette. Braker swore, and finally wandered to the window. Tony knew what he was thinking: of Earth; of the cities that teemed; of the vast stretches of open space between the planets. Such would be his thoughts. Braker, who loved life and freedom.
    Braker, who wore a ring—
    Then the constellations showing through the port abruptly changed pattern.
    Braker leaped back, eyes bulging. “What the—”
    Yates, sitting sullenly in the corner, came alertly to his feet. Braker mutely pointed at the stars.
    “I could have sworn,” he said thickly.
    Tony came to his feet. He had seen the change. But his thoughts flowed evenly, coldly, a smile frozen on his lips.
    “You saw right, Braker,” he said coldly, then managed to grab the guide rail as the ship bucked. Braker and Yates sailed across the room, faces ludicrous with surprise. The ship turned the other way. The heavens spun, the stars blurring. Something else Tony saw besides blurred stars: a dull-gray, monstrous landscape, a horizon cut with mountains, a bright, small sun fringing tumbled clouds with reddish, ominous silver. Then stars again, rushing past the port, simmering through an atmosphere—
    Blackness crushed its way through Tony Crow’s consciousness, occluding it until,
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