The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF (10 page)

Laurette Overland would be dead, and she would be wearing the ring. Tears, unashamed, burned at his eyes.

How long had he been here, wedged in like this: minutes, hours, days? Where were Overland, Masters, Braker and Yates? Would they land and move this boulder away?

Something suddenly seemed to shake the mountain. He felt the vibration rolling through his body. What had caused that? Some internal explosion, an aftermath of the collision? That did not seem likely, for the vibration had been brief, barely perceptible.

He stood there, wedged, his thoughts refusing to work except with a monotonous regularity. Mostly he thought of the skeleton; so that skeleton
had
existed before the human race!

After a while, it might have been five minutes or an hour or more, he became aware of arms and legs and a sluggishly beating heart. He raised his arms slowly, like an automaton that has come to life after ages of motionlessness, and pushed against the boulder that hemmed him in. It seemed to move away from him easily. He stepped to one side and imparted a ponderous, rocking motion to the boulder. It fell forward and stopped. Light, palely emanating from the starry, black night that overhung Asteroid No. 1007, burst through over the top of the boulder. Good. There was plenty of room to crawl through – after a while. He leaned against the boulder, blood surging weakly in his veins.

He felt a vibration so small that it might have been imagination. Then again, it might have been the ship, landing on the asteroid. At least, there was enough likelihood of that to warrant turning his headset receiver on.

He listened, and heard the dull undertone of a carrier wave; or was that the dull throb of blood against his temples? No, it couldn’t be. He strained to listen, coherent thoughts at last making headway in his mind.

Then:

“Go on, professor – Masters.” That was Braker’s voice! “We’ll all go crazy if we don’t find out who the skeleton is.”

Then Braker had landed the ship, after escaping the holocaust that had shattered that before-the-asteroids world! Tony almost let loose a hoarse breath, then withheld it, savagely. If Braker heard that, he might suspect something. Whatever other purpose Tony had in life now, the first and most important was to get the Hampton away from Braker.

Overland muttered, his voice lifeless, “If it’s my daughter, I’d rather you’d go first, Braker.”

Masters spoke. “I’ll go ahead, professor. I’d do anything to—’ His voice broke.

Overland muttered, “Don’t take it so hard, son. We all have our bad moments. It couldn’t be a skeleton, anyway.”

“Why not?” That was Yates. Then, “Oh, hell, yes! It couldn’t be, could it, professor? You know, this is just about the flukiest thing that has ever happened I guess. Sometimes it makes me laugh! On again, off again!”

“Finnegan,” finished Braker absently. “Say, I don’t get it. This time business. You say the gravity of that planet was holding us back in time like a rubber band stretched tight. When the planet went, the rubber band broke – there wasn’t that gravity any more. And then we snapped back to our real time. But what if Crow and your daughter weren’t released like that? Then we ought to find the skeleton – maybe two of ’em.”

“The gravity of the asteroid would not be enough to hold them back,” Overland said wearily.

“Then I don’t get it,” Braker snapped with exasperation. “This is the present, our real present. Back there is the ledge that cracked our ship up, so it has to be the present. Then how come Crow said he saw a skeleton? Say,” he added, in a burst of anger, “do you think that copper was pulling the wool over our eyes? Well, I’ll be—”

Yates said, “Grow up! Crow was telling the truth.”

Overland said, “The skeleton will be there. The lieutenant saw it.”

Masters: “Maybe he saw his own skeleton.”

Yates: “Say, that’s right!”

Braker: “Well, why not? The same ring was in two different places at the same time, so I guess the same skeleton could be in Crow at the same time as in the cave. It’s a fact, and you don’t talk yourself out of it.”

Tony’s head was whirling. What in heaven were they talking about? Were they intimating that the release of gravity, when the planet broke up, released everything back to the real present, as if some sort of bond had been broken? His hands started to tremble. Of course. It was possible. The escapage of gravitons had thrust them back into the past. Gravitons, the very stuff of gravity, had helped them there. And when that one and a half gravity had dispersed, when the gravitons were so far distant that they no longer exerted that tension, everything had snapped back – to the present!

Everything! His thoughts turned cold. Somewhere, somehow, something was terribly wrong. His head ached. He clenched his hands, and listened again. For a full minute, there was no voice. Tony could envision them walking along, Masters and Overland in front, Braker and Yates behind, making their slow way to the cave, Overland dreading what he was to find there.

Then: “Hurry it up, professor. Should be right around here.”

Overland whispered, throatily, “There it is, Braker. My God!” He sounded as if he were going all to pieces.

“The skeleton!” Yates blurted out, burrs in his voice. ‘Ye gods, professor, d’you suppose—Why sure – they just weren’t snapped back.”

Shaking, pasty white of face, Tony clawed his way halfway up the boulder. He hung there, just able to look outside. The whole floor of the cave was visible. And the skeleton lay there, gleaming white, and the ring shone on its tapering finger!

Laurette
.

He lifted his head, conscious that his eyes were smarting painfully. Through a blur, he saw Braker, Yates, Masters and Overland, standing about thirty feet distant from the cave, silent, speechless, staring at the skeleton.

Braker said, his voice unsteady, “It’s damned strange, isn’t it? We knew it was going to be there, and there it is, and it robs you of your breath.”

Yates cleared his throat, and said firmly, “Yeah, but who is it? Crow or the girl?”

Overland took a step forward, his weak eyes straining.

“It’s not a very long skeleton, is it?” he whispered.

Braker said, harshly, “Now don’t try talking yourself into anything, professor. You can’t see the skeleton well enough from here to tell who it is. Masters, stop shaking.” His words were implicit with scorn. “Move over there and don’t try any funny stuff like you did on the ship a while ago. I should have blasted you then. I’m going to take a look at that skeleton.”

He went forward sideways, hand on his right hip where the Hampton was holstered.

He came up to the mouth of the cave, stood looking down on the skeleton, frowning. Then he knelt. Tony could see his face working with revulsion, but still he knelt there, as if fascinated.

Tony’s lips stretched back from his teeth. Here’s where Braker got his! He worked his way up to the top of the boulder, tensed, slid over to the other side on his feet. He took one step forward and bent his knees.

Braker raised his head.

His face contorted into a sudden mask of horror.

“
You
!” he screamed. His eyes bulged.

Tony leaped.

Braker fell backward, face deathly pale, clawing at the Hampton. Tony was on top of him before he could use it. He pinned Braker down, going for the Hampton with hands, feet, and blistering curses. His helmet was a sudden madhouse of consternated voices. Overland, Masters, and Yates swept across his vision. And Yates was coming forward.

He caught hold of the weapon, strained at it mightily, the muscles of his stomach going rigid under the exertion.

Braker kicked at Tony’s midriff with heavy boots, striving to puncture the pressure suit. Tony was forced over on his back, saw Braker’s sweating face grinning mirthlessly into his.

Stars were suddenly occluded by Yates’ body. The man fell to his knees, pinned Tony down, and with Braker’s help broke Tony’s hold on the Hampton.

“Give it to me!” That was Masters’ voice, blasting out shrilly. By sheer surprise, he wrenched the weapon from Yates. Tony flung himself to his feet as the outlaw hurled himself at Masters with a snarl, made a grab for Yates’ foot. Yates tried to shake him off, hopped futilely, then stumbled forward, falling. But he struck against Masters. Masters’ hold on the weapon was weak. It went sailing away in an arc, fell at the mouth of the cave.

“Get it!” Braker’s voice blasted out as he struggled to his feet. Masters was ahead of him. Wildly, he thrust Braker aside. Yates reached out, tripped Masters. Braker went forward toward the Hampton, and then stopped, stock-still.

A figure stepped from the cave, picked up the weapon, and said, in cold, unmistakable tones, “Up with them. You, Braker. Yates!”

Braker’s breath released in a long shuddering sigh, and he dropped weakly, helplessly to his knees.

His voice was horrible. “I’m crazy,” he said simply, and continued to kneel there and continued to look up at the figure as if it were a dead figure come to life at which he stared.

The blood drummed upward in Tony’s temples, until it was a wild, crazy, diapason. His shuddering hands raised to clasp his helmet.

Then:

“Laurette,” he whispered brokenly. “
Laurette!
”

There were six human beings here.

And
one skeleton on the floor of the cave
.

How long that tableau held, Tony had no way of knowing. Professor Overland, standing off to Tony’s left, arms half raised, a tortured, uncomprehending look on his face. Masters, full length on his stomach, pushing at the ground with his clawed hands to raise his head upward. Yates, in nearly the same position, turned to stone. Braker, his breath beginning to sound out in little, bottled-up rasps.

And the girl, Laurette, she who should have been the skeleton, standing there at the mouth of the cave, her face indescribably pale, as she centered the Hampton on Braker and Yates.

Her voice edged into the aching silence.

“It’s Amos,” she said. She was silent, looking at her father’s haggard face, smiling twistedly.

“Amos,” said Overland hoarsely, saying nothing else, but in that one word showing his utter, dismaying comprehension. He stumbled forward three steps. “We thought—We thought—” He seemed unable to go on. Tears sounded in his voice. He said humbly, “We thought you were the—But no. It’s Amos!” His voice went upward hysterically.

“Stop it!” Laurette’s voice lashed out. She added softly, tenderly, “No, I’m not the skeleton. Far from it, Daddy. Amos is the skeleton. He was the skeleton all along. I didn’t realize it might be that way until the ship lifted. Then it seemed that the ship was going to fall and I thought my hundred and five might help after all and anyway, I decided that the lieutenant was all alone down there. And that somehow made me think of the time all the Christmas packages tumbled down on him and how I slapped him.” She laughed unsteadily. “That made me remember that the university sent your present with a ‘Do Not Open Before Christmas’ sticker on it. I remembered you were leaving the university and they were giving you a combination farewell gift and Christmas present. You didn’t know, but I did, that the professors decided you couldn’t possibly be back before Christmas and so they sent it to the ship. You had always told them you admired – Amos. He hung on the biology classroom wall. It seemed I suddenly knew how things
had
to be. I put two and two together and I took a chance on it.”

She fell silent, and the silence held for another full, shocking minute. She went on, as if with an effort.

“We threw everything out of the ship, remember? The Christmas presents, too. When I dropped from the ship later, I reached the plain and I broke open the carton with the ‘Do Not Open’ sticker on it, and there was Amos, as peaceful as you please. I put the ring on his finger and left him there, because I knew that some way the wind or crack-up or
something
would drop him in the cave. He
had
to turn up in the cave.

“Anyway,” she added, her lips quirking roguishly, “by our time, back there, it was December 25th.”

Masters clawed his way to his knees, his lips parted unnaturally.

“A Christmas present!” he croaked. “A Christmas present!” His face went white.

The girl said unsteadily, “Cut it out, Erle!”

She leaned weakly against the wall of the cave. “Now come up here, lieutenant, and take this gun out of my hands and don’t stare at me as if you’ve lost your senses.”

Tony forced himself to his feet, and like an automaton skirted around Braker and Yates and took the suddenly shaking weapon from her.

She uttered a weary sigh, smiled at him faintly, bemusedly, and whispered, “Merry Christmas, lieutenant!” She slumped slowly to the ground.

Tony gestured soundlessly at Masters. Masters, face abject and ashamed, picked her up in tender arms.

“Come up here, professor,” Tony said dully. He felt as if all the life had been pumped from his bones.

Overland came forward, shaking his head with emotion. “Amos!” he whispered. He broke in a half-hysterical chuckle, stopped himself. He hovered around Laurette, watching her tired face. “At least my girl lives,” he whispered brokenly.