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The Dying Night

It was alh it was marked by joylessness, there was no reason as yet to think it would be edy

Edward Talliaferro, fresh fros yet, reet hier merely sat and nodded

Talliaferro lowered his large body carefully to the couch, very aware of its unaccusto inside the rim of hair that surrounded them on lip, chin, and cheek

They had seen one another earlier that day under more formal conditions Now for the first time they were alone and Talliaferro said, This is a kind of occasion We're raduation, in fact'

Ryger's nose twitched It had been broken shortly before that saree in astronorune?

Or so?'

Talliaferro said, 'Co interplanetary astrono And a friends, too!'

Kaunas said suddenly, 'It's Earth It doesn't feel right I can't get used to it' He shook his head but his look of depression remained

Talliaferro said, 'I know I'y out of ravity is 0-4 norer's beginning of a sound by saying, 'And on Ceres they use pseudo-grav fields adjusted to 0-8 You have no probleer'

The Cerian astrono outside without a suit gets me'

'Right,' agreed Kaunas 'And letting the Sun beat down on you Just letting it'

Talliaferro found hied ht, had he hier had put on sorown a bit leathery, but he would have recognized either if he had

He said, 'I don't think it's Earth getting us Let's face it'

Kaunas looked up sharply He was a little felloith quick, nervous movements of his hands and habitually wore clothes that looked a shade too large for him

He said, 'Villiers! I know I think about hiot a letter from him'

Ryger sat upright, his olive coy, 'You did? When?'

'A o'

Ryger turned to Talliaferro 'How about you?' Talliaferro blinked placidly and nodded

Ryger said, 'He's gone crazy He claims he's discovered a practical h space -He told you two also? -That's it, then He was always a little bent Now he's broken'

He rubbed his nose fiercely, and Talliaferro thought of the day Villiers had broken it

For ten years Villiers had haunted theuilt that wasn't really theirs They had gone through their graduate work together, four picked and dedicated hts in this age of interplanetary travel

The observatories were opening on the other worlds, surrounded by vacuum, unblurred by air

There was the Lunar Observatory, from which Earth and the inner planets could be studied; a silent world in whose sky the ho suspended

Mercury Observatory, closest to the Sun, perched at Mercury's north pole, where the terminator moved scarcely at all, and the Sun was fixed on the horizon and could be studied in the minutest detail

Ceres Observatory, newest,froalaxies

There were disadvantages, of course With interplanetary travel still difficult, leaves would be few, anything like noreneration Coe well reaped and, until the invention of an interstellar drive, no new horizon as capacious as this one would be opened

These lucky four, Talliaferro, Ryger, Kaunas, and Villiers, were to be in the position of a Galileo, who, by virtue of owning the first real telescope, could not point it anywhere in the sky withouta major discovery

But then Romano Villiers had fallen sick and it was rheumatic fever Whose fault was that? His heart had been left leaking and li

He was the most brilliant of the four, the most hopeful, the et his doctorate

Worse than that, he could never leave Earth; the acceleration of a spaceship's takeoff would kill hier for Ceres, Kaunas for Mercury Only Villiers stayed behind, a life prisoner of Earth

They had tried telling their pity and Villiers had rejected it with so hate He had railed at theer lost his te and broken his nose

Obviously Ryger hadn't forgotten that, as he caressed his nose gingerly with one finger

Kaunas' forehead was an uncertain washboard of wrinkles 'He's at the Convention, you know He's got a room in the hotel-405'

'I won't see hier

'He's coht he said nine He'll be here any minute'

'In that case,' said Ryger, 'if you don't '

Talliaferro said, 'Oh, wait awhile What's the har him?'

'Because there's no point He's insane'

'Even so Let's not be petty about it Are you afraid of him?'

'Afraid!' Ryger looked contemptuous

'Nervous, then What is there to be so nervous about?'

'I'er

'Sure you are We all feel guilty about hi that happened was our fault' But he was speaking defensively and he knew it

And when, at that point, the door signal sounded, all three jumped and turned to stare uneasily at the barrier that stood between themselves and Villiers

The door opened and Roreet hi in e raised

He stared them down sardonically

He's changed, thought Talliaferro

He had He had shrunk in al stoop even h thinning hair, the skin on the back of his hands was ridged crookedly with bluish veins He looked ill There see to link hi his eyes with one hand when he stared intently and, when he spoke, the even, controlled baritone of his voice

He said 'My friends! My space-trotting friends! We've lost touch'

Talliaferro said, 'Hello Villiers' Villiers eyed him 'Are you well?'

'Well enough'

'And you two?'

Kaunas ht, Villiers What's up?'

'Ryger, the angry man,' said Villiers 'How's Ceres?'

'It was doing hen I left How's Earth?'

'You can see for yourself,' but Villiers tightened as he said that

He went on, 'I a that the reason all three of you have come to the Convention is to hear my paper day after tomorrow'

'Your paper? What paper?' asked Talliaferro

'I wrote you all about it My method of mass transference'

Ryger smiled with one corner of hisabout a paper, though, and I don't recall that you're listed as one of the speakers I would have noticed it if you had been'

'You're right I'm not listed Nor have I prepared an abstract for publication'

Villiers had flushed and Talliaferro said soothingly, 'Take it easy, Villiers You don't look well' Villiers whirled on hi out, thank you'

Kaunas said, 'Listen, Villiers, if you're not listed or abstracted-'

'You listen I've waited ten years You have the jobs in space and I have to teach school on Earth, but

I'm a better man than any of you or all of you'

'Granted-' began Talliaferro

'And I don't want your condescension, either Mandel witnessed it I suppose you've heard of Mandel Well, he's chairman of the astronautics division at the Convention and I demonstrated mass transference for him It was a crude device and it burned out after one use but- Are you listening?'

'We're listening,' said Ryger coldly 'For what that counts'

'He'll letNo advertise it at theive them the fundamental relationships involved it will break up the

Convention They'll scatter to their home labs to check on me and builddevices And they'll find it works

I made a five mousedisappear at one spot in my lab and appear in another Mandelwitnessed it'

He stared at the first at one face, then at another He said, 'You don't believe er said, 'If you don't want advertisement, why do yon tell us?'

'You're different You're my friends, my classmates Youwent out into space and left me behind'

'That wasn't a h voice

Villiers ignored that He said, 'So I want you to kno What ork for aten feet across a lab will move it a million miles across space I'll be on the Moon, and on Mercury, and on Ceres and anywhere I want to go I'll match every one of you andschool and thinking than all of you with your observatories and telescopes and cameras and spaceships'

'Well,' said Talliaferro, 'I'm pleased More power to you May I see a copy of the paper?'

'Oh, no' Villiers' hands clenched close to his chest as though he were holding phanto them from observation 'You wait like everyone else There's only one copy and no one will see it till I'm ready Not even Mandel'

'One copy!' cried Talliaferro 'If you misplace it-'

'I won't And if I do, it's all in my head'

'If you-' Talliaferro almost finished that sentence with 'die' but stopped himself Instead, he went on after an almost imperceptible pause, '-have any sense, you'll scan it at least For safety's sake'

'No,' said Villiers shortly 'You'll hear me day after tomorrow You'll see the human horizon expanded at one stroke as it never has been before'

Again he stared intently at each face Ten years,' he said 'Good-bye'

'He's h Villiers were still standing before it

'Is he?' said Talliaferro thoughtfully 'I suppose he is, in a way He hates us for irrational reasons And, then, not even to scan his paper as a precaution'

Talliaferro fingered his own small scanner as he said that It was just a neutrally colored, undistinguished cylinder, somewhat thicker and somewhat shorter than an ordinary pencil In recent years it had become the hallmark of the scientist, much as the stethoscope was that of the physician and the microcomputer that of the statistician The scanner orn in a jacket pocket, or clipped to a sleeve, or slipped behind the ear or swung at the end of a string

Talliaferro sometimes, in his more philosophical moments, wondered hoas in the days when research men had to make laborious notes of the literature or file away full-sized reprints Hoieldy!

Noas only necessary to scan anything printed or written to have a ative which could be developed at leisure Talliaferro had already recorded every abstract included in the program booklet of the Convention The other two, he assumed with full confidence, had done likewise Talliaferro said, 'Under the circumstances, refusal to scan is mad'

'Space!' said Ryger hotly 'There is no paper There is no discovery Scoring one on us would be worth any lie to him'

'But then ill he do day after tomorrow?' asked Kaunas

'How do I know? He's a madman'

Talliaferro still played with his scanner and wondered idly if he ought to remove and develop some of the small slivers of filainst it He said, 'Don't underestimate Villiers He's a brain'

Ten years ago, et him'

He spoke loudly, as though to drive away Villiers and all that concerned his He talked about Ceres and his work- the radio plotting of the Milky Way with new radioscopes capable of the resolution of single stars

Kaunas listened and nodded, then chi the radio emissions of sunspots and his own paper, in press, on the association of proton storen flares on the Sun's surface

Talliaferro contributed little Lunar as ungla-scale weather forecasting through direct observation of terrestrial jet streams would not compare with radioscopes and protonstorms

More than that, his thoughts could not leave Villers Villiers was the brain They all knew it Even Ryger, for all his bluster, must feel that if ical discoverer

The discussion of their oork amounted to no more than an uneasy admission that none of them had come to much Talliaferro had followed the literature and knew His own papers had been reat importance

None of them-face the fact-had developed into space shakers The colossal dreams of schooldays had not come true and that was that They were competent routine workmen No more than that, they knew

Villiers would have been uilt, which kept theonism

Talliaferro felt uneasily that Villiers, despite everything, was yet to beso too, and row quickly unbearable The mass transference paper would coreat man after all, as he was always fated to be apparently, while his classotten Their role would be no more than to applaud from the crowd

He felt his own envy and chagrin and was ashamed of it, but felt it nonetheless

Conversation died, and Kaunas said, his eyes turning away, 'Listen, why don't we drop in on old Villiers?'

There was a false heartiness about it, a co effort at casualness He added, 'No use leaving bad feelings'

Talliaferro thought He wants toit is only a ht

But he was curious hied with ill grace and said,

'Hell, why not?'

It was then a little before eleven

Talliaferro akened by the insistent ringing of his door signal He hitched hied The soft glow of the ceiling indicator showed it to be not quite four in the

He cried out, 'Who is it?'

The ringing continued in spurts

Growling, Talliaferro slipped into his bathrobe He opened the door and blinked in the corridor light He recognized the man who faced hih

Nevertheless the man said in an abrupt whisper, 'My name is Hubert Mandel'

'Yes, sir,' said Talliaferro Mandel was one of the Nah to have an important executive position with the World Astronoh to be Chairman of the astronautics section here at the Convention

It suddenly struck Talliaferro that it was Mandel for whom Villiers claiht of Villiers was so one

Mandel said, 'You are Dr Edward Talliaferro?'

'Yes, sir'

Then dress and come with me It is very important It concerns a common acquaintance'

'Dr Villiers?'

Mandel's eyes flickered a bit His brows and lashes were so fair as to give those eyes a naked, unfringed appearance His hair was silky thin, his age about fifty

He said, 'Why Villiers?'

'HeI don't know any other common acquaintance'

Mandel nodded, waited for Talliaferro to finish slipping into his clothes, then turned and led the way Ryger and Kaunas aiting in a room one floor above Talliaferro's Kaunas' eyes were red and troubled Ryger was sarette with impatient puffs

Talliaferro said 'We're all here Another reunion' It fell flat

He took a seat and the three stared at one another Ryger shrugged

Mandel paced the floor, hands deep in his pockets He said, 'I apologize for any inconvenience, gentlemen, and I thank you for your cooperation I would like more of it Our friend Roo, his body was rement is heart failure'

There was a stunned silence Ryger's cigarette hovered halfway to his lips, then sank sloithout co its journey

'Poor devil,' said Talliaferro

'Horrible,' whispered Kaunas hoarsely 'He was' His voice played out Ryger shook hi to be done'

'One little thing,' corrected Mandel quietly 'Recovery'

'What does that er sharply Mandel said, 'When did you three see him last?'

Talliaferro spoke 'Last evening It turned out to be a reunion We all met for the first ti, I'er with us, and he was angry'

That hen?'

'About nine, the first time' The first time?'

'We saw hi'

Kaunas looked troubled 'He had storrily We couldn't leave it at that We had to try It wasn't as if we hadn't all been friends at one time So ent to his room and-'

Mandel pounced on that 'You were all in his room?'

'Yes,' said Kaunas, surprised

'About when?'

'Eleven, I think' He looked at the others Talliaferro nodded

'And how long did you stay?'

'Two h ere after his paper' He paused as if expecting Mandel to ask what paper, but Mandel said nothing He went on, 'I think he kept it under his pillow At least he lay across the pillow as he yelled at us to leave'

'Hethen,' said Kaunas in a sick whisper

'Not then,' said Mandel shortly 'So you probably all left fingerprints'

'Probably,' said Talliaferro He was losing some of his automatic respect for Mandel and a sense of i, Mandel or no He said, 'Nohat's all this about?'

'Well, gentlemen,' said Mandel, 'there's more to Villiers' death than the fact of death Villiers' paper, the only copy of it as far as I knoas stuffed into the flash-disposal unit and only scraps of it were left

I've never seen or read the paper, but I knew enough about theto swear in court if necessary that the remnants of unflashed paper in the disposal unit were of the paper he was planning to give at this Convention You seeer'

Ryger sive it If you want my opinion, sir, he was mad For ten years he was a prisoner of Earth and he fantasied mass transference as escape It was all that kept hied up some sort of fraudulent demonstration I don't say it was deliberate fraud He was probablywas the cli escaped Earth-and triumphed over us It hat he had lived for for ten years It may have shocked hiive the paper; there was nothing to give So he burned it and his heart gave out It is too bad'

Mandel listened to the Cerian astronolib, Dr Ryger, but quite wrong I am not so easily fooled by fraudulent deistration data, which I have been forced to check rather hastily, you three were his classht?'

They nodded

'Are there any other classmates of your present at the Convention?'

'No,' said Kaunas 'We were the only four qualifying for a doctorate in astronomy that year At least he would have qualified except-'

'Yes, I understand,' said Mandel 'Well, then, in that case one of you three visited Villiers in his rooht'

There was a short silence Then Ryger said coldly, 'Not I' Kaunas, eyes wide, shook his head Talliaferro said, 'What are you i?'

'One of you ca his paper I don't know the motive

Conceivably it ith the deliberate intention of forcing him into heart failure When Villiers collapsed, the criminal, if I may call hiht add, probably was kept under his pillow, and scanned it Then he destroyed the paper itself in the flash-disposal, but he was in a hurry and destruction wasn't complete'

Ryger interrupted 'How do you know all this? Were you a witness?'

'Almost,' said Mandel 'Villiers was not quite dead at the ed to reach the phone and call h to outline what had occurred Unfortunately I was not inattach tape back whenever I return to my room or office Bureaucratic habit I called back He was dead'

'Well, then,' said Ryger, 'who did he say did it?'

'He didn't Or if he did, it was unintelligible But one word rang out clearly It was classmate' Talliaferro detached his scanner from its place in his inner jacket pocket and held it out toward Mandel Quietly he said, 'If you would like to develop the film in my scanner, you are welcome to do so You will not find Villiers' paper there'

At once Kaunas did the saer, with a scowl, joined

Mandel took all three scanners and said dryly, 'Presumably, whichever one of you has done this has already disposed of the piece of exposed film with the paper on it However-'

Talliaferro raised his eyebrows 'You may search my person or my room'

But Ryger was still scowling 'Noait a minute, wait one bloody minute Are you the police?'

Mandel stared at him 'Do you want the police? Do you want a scandal and a e? Do you want the Convention disrupted and the Syste a holiday out of astronoht well have been accidental He did have a bad heart Whichever one of you was there may well have acted on impulse It may not have been a preative, we can avoid a great deal of trouble'

'Even for the criminal?' asked Talliaferro

Mandel shrugged There may be trouble for him I will not promise irace and life iht be if the police are called in'

Silence

Mandel said, 'It is one of you three' Silence

Mandel went on, 'I think I can see the original reasoning of the guilty person The paper would be destroyed Only we four knew of the mass transference and only I had ever seen a demonstration Moreover you had only his word, a madman's word perhaps, that I had seen it With Villiers dead of heart failure and the paper gone, it would be easy to believe Dr Ryger's theory that there was no ht pass and our criminal, in possession of theexperiments, publish careful papers, and end as the apparent discoverer with all that would imply in terms of money and renown Even his own class At -past affair with Villiers had inspired hiations in the field No more'

Mandel looked sharply from one face to another, 'But none of that ork now Any of the three of you who co himself the criitimate; I know that one of you possesses a record of the paper The information is therefore useless to you Give it up then'

Silence

Mandel walked to the door and turned again 'I'd appreciate it if you would stay here till I return I won't be long I hope the guilty one will use the interval to consider If he's afraid a confession will lose him his job, let him remember that a session with the police may lose him his liberty and cost hirim and somewhat in need of sleep 'I'll develop these'

Kaunas tried to sone?'