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The man had said they would destroy themselves. Because Mryna had come aboard? But why were they afraid of her? What possible harm could she do them? Mryna had left Rythar to discover the truth, and the truth was insanity. Was truth always like this a bitter disillusionment, an empty horror?
The shuttle settled into a metal rack. The lock hissed open. Mryna shrank back against the wall, looking out at what she would destroy what she had already destroyed. A dignified, portly man came panting up the ramp toward her. "No!" she whispered. "Don't come in here." "I am Senator Brieson," he said shortly. "For ten years Dr.
The scream of the machinery slowly turned shrill, hammering against her eardrums. The stars visible in the viewplate blurred and winked out. Mryna felt a twist of vertigo as the shuttle shifted from conventional speed into a time warp. And then the sound was gone. The ship was floating in an impenetrable blackness. Mryna had no idea how much time passed subjectively.
Vaguely Mryna remembered that the metal men had been there before, when the kids were still very small. They had built the new settlement and they had brought food. They lived with the children for a long time, she thought but the memory was hazy. As the years passed, Mryna's fear retreated and only one thing became important: she knew the Earth-god was a man.
It was not insanity, but the sublime courage of a few human beings sacrificing themselves to save the rest of their civilization. They smashed the Guardian Wheel to keep the Sickness there. And Mryna had already escaped before that happened! She was being hurled through space toward Earth and she would destroy that, too. If she killed herself, that would in no way alter the situation.
The adjustment Mryna had to make was shattering; she lost faith in everything she believed. Yet the clock-work logic of astronomy appealed to her orderly mind. It explained why the rain mist glowed with light during the day and turned dark at night. Mryna had never seen a clear sky. She had no visual data to tie her new concept to. For six years she kept the secret.
Tense and tight-lipped Mryna Brill slipped aboard the god-car. She sealed the lock door, which automatically fired the launching tubes. After that there was no turning back. The dark compartment shook in a thunder of sound. The weight of the escape speed tore at her body, pulling her tight against the confining walls. She lost consciousness until the pressure lessened.
She felt a slight lurch as the pickup left the hub of the Guardian Wheel. It swung in a wide arc. Through the viewplate she saw the enormous Wheel growing small behind her, silhouetted against the mist of Rythar. Suddenly the wheel glowed red with a soundless explosion. Its flaming fragments died in the void. Mryna dropped weakly on the lounge. Nausea spun through her mind.
It had a choking, antiseptic odor; it stung Mryna's face and inflamed her eyes. Worse still, as the liquid soaked into her clothing, it disintegrated the fiber, tearing away the cloth in long strips which slowly dissolved in the liquid on the floor. Before the antiseptic spray ceased, Mryna was helplessly naked. Even her black boots had not survived.
He fumbled for his glasses. Instinctively she knew she shouldn't let him see her clearly enough to identify her as a stranger. She shoved past him, knocking the glasses from his hand. "I'd better find my own ward." Mryna didn't know the word, but she supposed it meant some sort of sleeping chamber. The old man said chattily, "I hadn't heard they were bringing in any new patients today."
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