The Sun was dying—and with it the System.
Earth was a cold stone. Survivors huddled
on a cheerless Mercury, waiting numbly.
But Praav in his inscrutable wisdom—
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Spring 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
N'Zik was a forlorn and weary figure at the forward port. He balancedhis frail, bulbous body on four of his eight limbs, while the otherfour moved listlessly over the etheroscope, adjusting sights andlenses. N'Zik wondered dully why he bothered. Even from here he couldsee that the system looking ahead, the dull reddish Sun with its wildand darksome planets, was not for them.
Bitterness flooded his soul. To have come so far and searched solong, only to find this! In all this Galaxy here was the one Sun thatsustained a planetary system, and that Sun was dying! The irony wasmore than he could bear.
Shi-Zik came to stand beside him. Only she and N'Zik were left, of allthe thousands; two alone on this driving colossus which was the onlyworld they had ever known. She sensed his bitterness now and tried tospeak words of hope.
"See, N'Zik, there are inner planets! How close their orbits are! Theremay still be warmth and life-sustaining rays."
N'Zik's limbs sprawled outward in despair.
"This dying system is not for us, Shi-Zik. The five largest andoutermost planets are but barren, frigid rock. But if you wish, weshall go inward."
His limbs flashed over the huge control-console. Gradually the shipslowed in its headlong pace. Nearly the size of a small planet, wasthis ship; entire generations had been born and died aboard it, duringthe trip between Galaxies. Somewhere deep inside, perpetual generatorspounded out the power that had driven them through space faster thanlight.
N'Zik and Shi-Zik had never seen those generators, nor were theyconscious now of the smooth threnody. They had known it always. Milesof inter-locking corridors extended behind them too, a veritable citywith vast rooms of wonderful machinery—but none of this had they everseen. For DEATH had struck suddenly there, was lurking there still.
The huge metal tomes told of it. N'Zik and Shi-Zik had read thathistory so often that they knew it now by heart. They knew how and whythe last generations had been wiped out.
The first scientists had planned well for the safety and well-beingof the generations to come, but they had overlooked one thing. Withintheir own Galaxy they had been cognizant of certain cosmic rays, whichwere harmless insofar as they had no apparent effect on living tissues.However, in that utter vacuity between Galaxies no such rays existed!And there between Galaxies new generations were born. Five, ten, adozen generations. And at last—they had reached the new Galaxy....
Whether the cosmic rays here differed, or whether the new generationshad simply lost all resistance to them, was never fully known. Therace had died by thousands as the hard rays penetrated the ship. Thescientists worked feverishly to build up a section with layers oftheir heaviest metals; but by the time they had achieved a sufficientthickness, a few dozen had survived.
N'Zik and Shi-Zik were the last of that final group.
Now, under N'Zik's sure guidance, the ship crossed the orbits of theouter planets. He had thrown over the deceleration control, but theirspeed was still tremendous.
In a few minutes craggy fragments of rock were skimming past theirhull. The larger ones were deflected by automatic repulsion plates andthe few that drifted through became