the middle was a furnace red where seethed monstrous spots; this dimmed and thinned outward until at last it writhed in a hazy intricacy of flame, tendrils which made Dejerine think of the Kraken.
He turned his look away. As if for companionship, he tried to find sister planets, and believed he could pick out two. And, yes, that really brilliant star, ruby-colored, that must be Ea, six thousand times as remote from here as Bel and outward bound. It wasn’t a reminder of mortality like Anu; as a dwarf, Ea would have a tremendously long though quiet life.
Nevertheless it touched Dejerine with a sense of its loneliness, and his, and everybody’s, ineluctable. And the splendor of Ishtar held an oncoming agony. His thought went on to Eleanor, how fair she had been and how miserable, on the day she told him that after two years she could try no longer and wanted a divorce.
I was trying too,
he told her again.
I really was.
He shook himself. No notions for the commander of a flotilla, these. A voice out of a speaker rescued him from silence: ‘Orbit assumed, sir. All satisfactory.’
‘Very good,’ he replied automatically. ‘Men not on regular watch may go off duty.’
‘Shall I have a call put through to ground, sir?’ asked his exec.
‘Not yet. It’s night in that hemisphere – as far as the proper sun is concerned, anyway. They’ve adapted to an eighteen-and-a-half-hour day there and must be mostly asleep at present, whether or not Anu is aloft. We’d be discourteous to rouse their leaders. Let us wait – um-m-m–’ Dejerine balanced Ishtarian rotation against EarthspinNavy clocks. ‘Say till 0700. That’ll give us a few hours to relax, too. If any messages are received before, switch them to me in my cabin. Otherwise beam Primavera at 0700.’
‘Aye, sir. Have you further orders?’
‘No, I’ll simply rest. I advise you do the same, Heinrichs. We’ve a busy time ahead.’
‘Thank you, sir. Good night.’ The thick accent cut off. Dejerine had required talk to be in English, practice for a community where that was well nigh the exclusive language. (No, native speech also. Don Conway had used a number of words which he explained, on inquiry, were of nonhuman origin.) The captain suspected a lot of Spanish, Chinese, or what-have-you went on in his absence.
He himself had no linguistic problem. His upbringing had made him fluent in several major tongues, and his wife had been from the United States.
He brushed aside the returning memory. He had loved her, and he still wished her well, but after three years it would be ridiculous to pine. There were plenty of other women – had been since his middle teens. He wondered if any on Ishtar would prove available.
Again he considered the planet. Orbit had brought the cruiser into view of its civilized parts. The opposite half held a single continent and countless islands, where no significant number of Ishtarians lived and about which humans had to date learned little. They had more enigmas where they were than they could handle, in spite of indigenous help.
Anu light lay sinister across a slice which ought to have been dark. By that dull glow he picked out the continents he had read about. Conway had tried to teach him how to utter their names.
Australia-sized Haelen decked the south pole, extending an arm past the Antarctic Circle. Thence a series of archipelagos, visible from here only as changes in the pattern of clouds and currents, led north to Beronnen, roughly India-shaped, dry land from a bit south of the southern tropic to a bit south of the equator. Beyond were more islands, many volcanic – could he identify murkiness in some of the clouds? – until his eye reached Valennen, not far north ofthe equator. Like a Siberia stood on end, it stretched nearly to the north pole. The curve of the planet hid its further three quarters from Dejerine, that unknown territory whose life had not been born on Ishtar.
He searched for the rest of his
He turned his look away. As if for companionship, he tried to find sister planets, and believed he could pick out two. And, yes, that really brilliant star, ruby-colored, that must be Ea, six thousand times as remote from here as Bel and outward bound. It wasn’t a reminder of mortality like Anu; as a dwarf, Ea would have a tremendously long though quiet life.
Nevertheless it touched Dejerine with a sense of its loneliness, and his, and everybody’s, ineluctable. And the splendor of Ishtar held an oncoming agony. His thought went on to Eleanor, how fair she had been and how miserable, on the day she told him that after two years she could try no longer and wanted a divorce.
I was trying too,
he told her again.
I really was.
He shook himself. No notions for the commander of a flotilla, these. A voice out of a speaker rescued him from silence: ‘Orbit assumed, sir. All satisfactory.’
‘Very good,’ he replied automatically. ‘Men not on regular watch may go off duty.’
‘Shall I have a call put through to ground, sir?’ asked his exec.
‘Not yet. It’s night in that hemisphere – as far as the proper sun is concerned, anyway. They’ve adapted to an eighteen-and-a-half-hour day there and must be mostly asleep at present, whether or not Anu is aloft. We’d be discourteous to rouse their leaders. Let us wait – um-m-m–’ Dejerine balanced Ishtarian rotation against EarthspinNavy clocks. ‘Say till 0700. That’ll give us a few hours to relax, too. If any messages are received before, switch them to me in my cabin. Otherwise beam Primavera at 0700.’
‘Aye, sir. Have you further orders?’
‘No, I’ll simply rest. I advise you do the same, Heinrichs. We’ve a busy time ahead.’
‘Thank you, sir. Good night.’ The thick accent cut off. Dejerine had required talk to be in English, practice for a community where that was well nigh the exclusive language. (No, native speech also. Don Conway had used a number of words which he explained, on inquiry, were of nonhuman origin.) The captain suspected a lot of Spanish, Chinese, or what-have-you went on in his absence.
He himself had no linguistic problem. His upbringing had made him fluent in several major tongues, and his wife had been from the United States.
He brushed aside the returning memory. He had loved her, and he still wished her well, but after three years it would be ridiculous to pine. There were plenty of other women – had been since his middle teens. He wondered if any on Ishtar would prove available.
Again he considered the planet. Orbit had brought the cruiser into view of its civilized parts. The opposite half held a single continent and countless islands, where no significant number of Ishtarians lived and about which humans had to date learned little. They had more enigmas where they were than they could handle, in spite of indigenous help.
Anu light lay sinister across a slice which ought to have been dark. By that dull glow he picked out the continents he had read about. Conway had tried to teach him how to utter their names.
Australia-sized Haelen decked the south pole, extending an arm past the Antarctic Circle. Thence a series of archipelagos, visible from here only as changes in the pattern of clouds and currents, led north to Beronnen, roughly India-shaped, dry land from a bit south of the southern tropic to a bit south of the equator. Beyond were more islands, many volcanic – could he identify murkiness in some of the clouds? – until his eye reached Valennen, not far north ofthe equator. Like a Siberia stood on end, it stretched nearly to the north pole. The curve of the planet hid its further three quarters from Dejerine, that unknown territory whose life had not been born on Ishtar.
He searched for the rest of his
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