Gods of Green Mountain (50 page)

The huge maps of deep blue with the white avenues were laid on the floor of the God's ship, as if one day he knew they would have a need for them, and he had considerately placed everything convenient for their small size. Though they were not now, by any means, of the minute smallness when the God had last viewed them.

Their small ships flew over the maps, taking pictures, so they could later make smaller exact duplicates, easy to handle and study. The giant pages of his books were turned one by one, so they too could be reproduced in miniature scale. Very much Logan wanted to use that giant calculating machine of racing lights on the wall--almost he was tempted to use the nose of his plane to push one of the buttons that would bring those lights into brightness again, and see what would happen. But judiciousness won out over temptation.

It grew tiresome, a waste of time, to fly back and forth to Far-Awndra, across the ocean, so the scholarly young men turned the God's former home into a university. In that seat of learning, there was but one subject, one goal in mind, though it took a thousand roads to reach there. Included in the student body were a few young women of serious intent, and they were as dedicated as any of the young men. Logan would have had it otherwise, and kept them out--sent all females back to the cities where they could dance and flirt, and keep their pretty noses and hands out of his affairs. He had a short, impatient way with all of them. And though he was handsome, like every member of his family, he was soon disliked by every girl there but one. That one clung to him like a burr, always choosing the seat just before his, so she could half-turn, smile at him, and posture herself in seductive ways that showed her figure to advantage. Logan ignored the fluttering of her dark long lashes, the way she would raise her arms to lift her heavy dark hair from her neck, and tease him in every coquettish way a certain book had guaranteed would work on the most reluctant male, unless he was a blind, sexless eunuch.

This girl with the dark, curling hair and violet eyes stared at Logan often, wondering if such an accident could have happened to him--and that was what made him so resistant to her charms, which she knew she had. However, her eyes were attentive to the least detail about his appearance, and his form-fitting clothes revealed he hadn't suffered such an accident. Nothing, absolutely nothing she did made him see her--to him, she was like air to see through--and the more he ignored her, the more determined she became. Thoughts of how to capture his interest kept her awake at night, and she was running out of ideas.

One day Logan was passing by her worktable, in a hurry as usual, his arms loaded with books and rolled-up charts, when she quickly put out her foot and tripped him. He sprawled on the floor in a very undignified way, his charts, and books, pencils, scattering everywhere. "Look what you did!" he flared in a rare burst of uncontrolled bad temper. "But for you and your inane, stupid posturing, this ship we're planning would be off the ground, instead of just a design on paper! Women weren't meant for anything but play--so why don't you go home and learn how to cook, and clean house, and how to handle your legs so they don't get in everyone's way!"

"It wasn't my leg--it was my foot."

"Then keep your damn feet under your table where they belong!"

"Damn you for your snooty, higher-than-thou attitude!" she flared back just as hotly. "I am a distant cousin of yours--so there is no reason for you to look down your princely nose at me!"

For the first time Logan really saw her. "A distant cousin?" he asked vaguely. It was hard for him to remember names and faces of cousins; he had too many, and he never attended family reunions if he could in any way find a reasonable excuse not to.

"Yes, Prince Logan, I am a distant cousin of yours. My name is Lamar, and we met once a long time ago. I doubt you would remember. You had your nose in a book while everyone else was dancing and singing. Your great-great-grandfather Far-Awn's sister married one of my grandfathers--his name was Sal-Lar."

"Oh, I know Sal-Lar!" responded Logan with enthusiasm, as if Sal-Lar were an old and good friend, and not dust in the ground. "I read his history books when I was a boy. Sal-Lar married Bret-Lee when she was comatose, and he was going to be sacrificed, just when Far-Awn came back with the puhlets and pufars!"

Lamar didn't doubt for a moment that Logan had read every history book ever written. It was a wonder his eyes weren't reddened and dull-looking from so much reading and studying, instead of flashing and dark, and so intensely alive it made her heart thud loud when he scanned his eyes down over her...and then up to stare at her face. He was really seeing her at last!--and she, stupidly, couldn't think now of a word to say, and her face seemed frozen so she couldn't even move and put to good use that smile she had practiced before the mirror for so long. Instead of speaking, or smiling, she got down on her hands and knees and helped him gather up his armload of supplies. By the time this had been accomplished, she had recovered some of her poise, and sweetly charming, she handed to him the last spilled item. "I hate to tell you this, Prince Logan, but I don't think you are human," she said, looking directly into his beautiful dark eyes. "You are like that thing up there on the wall--with thoughts racing around inside your brain, flashing your eyes--but you are only a calculating machine walking blindly about on two legs. You are programmed to reach the God's home, and nothing else. You are not a man at all. Have you ever stopped and thought about what you will do after you accomplish your goal? There will be nothing left for you. Do you know what I think? And of course, you don't want to know what I think, because you don't care about anyone's thoughts but your own. When we come back from the God's home planet, you will dry up like a dead leaf of fall, or curl into an old dry claw, like Es-Trall!"

Stunned, Prince Logan was left with his arms carelessly stacked with books and rolled-up charts, and his brain awhirl with bewilderment. Why, what had he done to cause all that anger and resentment, and ugly words, when she had been the one to trip him! He was the one who had taken that hard fall and wrenched his knee, and she was angry! By the Gods, he would never understand women! What Star-Far saw in girls was beyond him! Not that his older brother had any intention of marrying a girl anytime soon. It was Star-Far's oft-repeated remark that he was saving all three wives for his old age, and while he was young and middle-aged, he would sample all the cups of wine.

Wine? Why the devil would anyone compare women to wine? More like poison! Yet, in the days that came after, he began to watch Lamar, though he took care not to let her know he was looking.

On a day of great excitement, when their first spaceship was finished, he smiled at Lamar and shyly asked, "I'm going home for a short visit. My parents are always complaining they don't see enough of me. So I was wondering...I thought, well, that maybe...I mean, you wouldn't want to...would you?"

"Oh yes, I'd love to! I thought you would never ask!"

In his own flying ship, Logan flew Lamar to the crystal palace, and introduced her to his parents and to his new little sister, called Roseanne, and of course, to Star-Far.

Immediately attentive, Star-Far turned on the charm. "We haven't met before, have we?" he asked, raking his sky-blue eyes over her nubile figure, and then back to the lovely pale face framed in soft dark hair, and rare violet eyes. Star-Far glanced at his mother, whom he thought the most beautiful woman alive--and yet, here before him was an entirely different type, and just as breathtakingly lovely in her own special way.

While Logan rhapsodized to his parents about the splendid, powerful ship they had now--vastly superior to any of the smaller ones made and tested--Star-Far closed in on Lamar, and backed her into a corner. "You are not really going on that fool trip, are you?" he asked, looking at her in his special way reserved for only the most beautiful and appealing girls. "A beauty like you, that sort of thing is for dull, ugly girls who can't catch a man and must find some other reason for staying alive."

Trapped against the wall, with two powerful arms barring her escape, Lamar marveled on how two brothers could be so different. "Prince Star-Far," she replied coolly, "I assure you that I am going. I haven't spent half my life studying and preparing for that journey just to be turned aside because I happen not to be dull and ugly. I would rather go with your brother, Logan, on that trip than dance through a thousand balls with you." Very gently she pushed him away, and walked to where she could sit close at Logan's side. From there she smiled benevolently, charmingly at Star-Far. Her look and her attitude implying that he was a mischievous little boy who had to be tolerated but not enjoyed.

The crown prince stood stunned, shocked, and quite angry. Girls didn't treat him that way! Not once had he been rejected, or even rebuffed! The queen had taken all this in, and later reported the incident to her husband. "Dray-Gon, it was marvelous what that girl did to Star-Far! All along I have been hoping some girl would put him in his place. He has an exalted opinion of himself, believing he is irresistible." Then Sharita was laughing. "You know, our first son is almost as intolerable as you were when we first met. I took one look at that darned puhlet fur jacket you were wearing and wanted to slap your face--and you stood there foolishly gawking at me for so long, pretending to be dazzled, and all along you were only mocking, and trying to be as insulting as possible."

The king had in his hands the model of the spaceship Logan had brought, as he stared down at the beautiful baby girl in her crib, draped about with shimmering pink cloth and filmy lace. A daughter at last--like her mother--only this one had hair silver-pink, and highlighted with gold--but her eyes were the same almost blue color of Sharita's. Their last child, the child of their old age, yet when he turned and looked at his wife, she had hardly changed at all, except, in his eyes, to grow more beautiful. All these years she had managed to keep him intoxicated so that he hadn't turned his eyes toward other, younger women as did many other men his age. He couldn't imagine a life without Sharita beside him. Trying to think back to that long-ago evening when they had first met, he didn't recall any effort to be mocking--but insulting, yes.

"Darling, if you are trying to chew over old cud, and start some argument, save it for tomorrow night. I'm not in the mood now. I am just too happy, what with my new baby daughter and this ship Logan has built. Look at this, Sharita! I believe this ship of his is designed just right, and it is so simple--like a child's top to spin! This one is going to work. I feel it in my bones!"

He set the model aside, and came to pick up his wife of so many years, and he spun her about as her arms clung round his neck. "Just think of the enormity of it! Our son is going to the God's giant green planet! Can you believe that? Recall when we traveled there, just across the desert of Bay Sol, and thought we were making a real contribution? And look where Logan is going--out of our galaxy and into another! I wish we were going too, you and I. I wish we weren't held here by so many duties and responsibilities."

They kissed several times before Sharita was set upon her feet and drawn out on the terrace where they could see the stars in the dark plum night sky. Both were thinking the same thoughts, of their journey to the God's home...

But Logan would cross through outer space, enter another galaxy, to reach a great world whereon lived giants of unknown character...if indeed any were left. "You know, Sharita, it seemed at the time that ours was a fabulous, incredible odyssey--but when compared to Logan's, it will be but a stroll down a garden path."

Sharita was thinking everything was relative. Their trip hadn't been any stroll down a garden path. There came to her still nights when she had dreams that woke her up trembling, with her heart pumping fast and hard, and glad she was to turn over and find in her bed the man who made all this worthwhile. Looking out there, into the dark night and all that space, and to realize it went on and on and on into infinity made her shiver. At least they had been able to look ahead and see their goal. Yet, she wasn't disbelieving Logan could do it. For that reason he was born, as she and Dray-Gon had been born for their journey, and to give to their world what they had. Very tightly she embraced her husband, laying her head against his chest, wondering how those distant giants would welcome her son and his party of young space travelers.

"Dray..." she began in a small faltering voice, "the God said he left his world in ruins--but some just as large as he could still be there. What if they don't want or don't need what we are sending?"

That made Dray-Gon laugh heartily. "Oh, they will! Only fools wouldn't accept a gift such as we will deliver!"

Epilogue

S
maller spaceships had been built and tested, but this was their first important ship. It jetted out of the cavernous mouth of the Green Mountain to reach beyond the clouds, traveling higher and higher, until their own small planet was revealed as a glowing jewel, all green, violet, and red set against black velvet. To inch their way off their own star made all of El Dorraine cheer madly with the enormity of this accomplishment.

Other ships were constructed, each larger, and farther and farther they reached out into space, skimming through the black vacuum. In his ultimate and best blue ship, Logan, as captain, searched all their own galaxy and found nothing at all like themselves, or even growing life. He wasn't disappointed nor despondent as he flashed back the news to those waiting on El Dorraine.

"Mother, Father, you know the God said this was the way of things. That growing life is unique, and extremely difficult to find, and everything up here looks the same when viewed from a distance. We have to close in to see any differences--and so far, we are alone in our galaxy."

Back to El Dorraine zoomed the spaceship of blue, to study again the giant charts of the Gods. "Look," said Logan to Lamar, who was always just a step ahead of him, behind him, or to his side, "our God reached our planet by accident, not by design. None of his charts indicate the way from his planet to ours, so they are of no real value until we find his galaxy. But, if an accident of fortuitous discovery can happen once, it can happen fortuitously twice! Doesn't Es-Trall proclaim that happenstance makes for the greatest discoveries and inventions?"