Tunnel in the Sky

  3

  Through the Tunnel

  ROD ARRIVED AT TEMPLETON GATE THE NEXT MORNING feeling not his best. He had intended to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for his ordeal, but his sister’s arrival in conjunction with overwhelming changes in his family had defeated his intention. As with most children Rod had taken his family and home for granted; he had not thought about them much, nor placed a conscious value on them, any more than a fish treasures water. They simply were.

  Now suddenly they were not.

  Helen and he had talked late. She had begun to have strong misgivings about her decision to let him know of the change on the eve of his test. She had weighed it, decided that it was the “right” thing to do, then had learned the ages-old sour truth that right and wrong can sometimes be determined only through hindsight. It had not been fair, she later concluded, to load anything else on his mind just before his test; But it had not seemed fair, either, to let him leave without knowing…to return to an empty house.

  The decision was necessarily hers; she had been his guardian since earlier that same day. The papers had been signed and sealed; the court had given approval. Now she found with a sigh that being a “parent” was not unalloyed pleasure; it was more like the soul-searching that had gone into her first duty as member of a court martial.

  When she saw that her “baby” was not quieting, she had insisted that he go to bed anyhow, then had given him a long back rub, combining it with hypnotic instructions to sleep, then had gone quietly away when he seemed asleep.

  But Rod had not been asleep; he had simply wanted to be alone. His mind raced like an engine with no load for the best part of an hour, niggling uselessly at the matter of his father’s illness, wondering what it was going to be like to greet them again after twenty years—why, he would be almost as old as Mum!—switching over to useless mental preparations for unknown test conditions.

  At last he realized that he had to sleep—forced himself to run through mental relaxing exercises, emptying his mind and hypnotizing himself. It took longer than ever before but finally he entered a great, golden, warm cloud and was asleep.

  His bed mechanism had to call him twice. He woke bleary-eyed and was still so after a needle shower. He looked in a mirror, decided that shaving did not matter where he was going and anyhow he was late—then decided to shave after all…being painfully shy about his sparse young growth.

  Mum was not up, but she hardly ever got up as early as that. Dad rarely ate breakfast these days… Rod recalled why with a twinge. But he had expected Sis to show up. Glumly he opened his tray and discovered that Mum had forgotten to dial an order, something that had not happened twice in his memory. He placed his order and waited for service—another ten minutes lost.

  Helen showed up as he was leaving, dressed surprisingly in a dress. “Good morning.”

  “Hi, Sis. Say, you’ll have to order your own tucker. Mother didn’t and I didn’t know what you wanted.”

  “Oh, I had breakfast hours ago. I was waiting to see you off.”

  “Oh. Well, so long. I’ve got to run, I’m late.”

  “I won’t hold you up.” She came over and embraced him. “Take it easy, mate. That’s the important thing. More people have died from worry than ever bled to death. And if you do have to strike, strike low.”

  “Uh, I’ll remember.”

  “See that you do. I’m going to get my leave extended today so that I’ll be here when you come back.” She kissed him. “Now run.”

  Dr. Matson was sitting at a desk outside the dispensary at Templeton Gate, checking names on his roll. He looked up as Rod arrived. “Why, hello, Walker. I thought maybe you had decided to be smart.”

  “I’m sorry I’m late, sir. Things happened.”

  “Don’t fret about it. Knew a man once who didn’t get shot at sunrise because he overslept the appointment.”

  “Really? Who was he?”

  “Young fellow I used to know. Myself.”

  “Hunh? You really did, sir? You mean you were—”

  “Not a word of truth in it. Good stories are rarely true. Get on in there and take your physical, before you get the docs irritated.”

  They thumped him and x-rayed him and made a wavy pattern from his brain and did all the indignities that examining physicians do. The senior examiner listened to his heart and felt his moist hand. “Scared, son?”

  “Of course I am!” Rod blurted.

  “Of course you are. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t pass you. What’s that bandage on your leg?”

  “Uh—” The bandage concealed Helen’s knife “Lady Macbeth.” Rod sheepishly admitted the fact.

  “Take it off.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’ve known candidates to pull dodges like that to cover up a disqualification. So let’s have a look.”

  Rod started removing it; the physician let him continue until he was sure that it was a cache for a weapon and not a wound dressing. “Get your clothes on. Report to your instructor.”

  Rod put on his vest pack of rations and sundries, fastened his canteen under it. It was a belt canteen of flexible synthetic divided into half-litre pockets. The weight was taken by shoulder straps and a tube ran up the left suspender, ending in a nipple near his mouth, so that he might drink wit out taking it off. He planned, if possible, to stretch his meager supply through the whole test, avoiding the hazards of contaminated water and the greater hazards of the water hole—assuming that fresh water could be found at all.

  He wrapped twenty meters of line, light, strong, and thin, around his waist. Shorts, overshirt, trousers, and boot moccasins completed his costume; he belted “Colonel Bowie” on outside. Dressed, he looked fleshier than he was; only his knife showed. He carried his parka suit over his left arm. It was an efficient garment, hooded, with built-in boots and gloves, and with pressure seams to let him use bare hands when necessary, but it was much too warm to wear until he needed it. Rod had learned early in the game that Eskimos don’t dare to sweat.

  Dr. Matson was outside the dispensary door. “The late Mr. Walker,” he commented, then glanced at the bulkiness of Rod’s torso. “Body armor, son?”

  “No, sir. Just a vest pack.”

  “How much penalty you carrying?”

  “Eleven kilograms. Mostly water and rations.”

  “Mmm…well, it will get heavier before it gets lighter. No Handy-Dandy Young Pioneer’s Kit? No collapsible patent wigwam?”

  Rod blushed. “No, sir.”

  “You can leave that snow suit. I’ll mail it to your home.”

  “Uh, thank you, sir.” Rod passed it over, adding, “I wasn’t sure I’d need it, but I brought it along, just in case.”

  “You did need it.”

  “Sir?”

  “I’ve already flunked five for showing up without their snuggies…and four for showing up with vacuum suits. Both ways for being stupid. They ought to know that the Board would not dump them into vacuum or chlorine or such without specifying space suits in the test notice. We’re looking for graduates, not casualties. On the other hand, cold weather is within the limits of useful test conditions.”

  Rod glanced at the suit he had passed over. “You’re sure I won’t need it, sir?”

  “Quite. Except that you would have flunked if you hadn’t fetched it. Now bear a hand and draw whatever pig shooter you favor; the armorer is anxious to close up shop. What gun have you picked?”

  Rod gulped. “Uh, I was thinking about not taking one, Deacon—I mean ‘Doctor.’”

  “You can call me ‘Deacon’ to my face—ten days from now. But this notion of yours interests me. How did you reach that conclusion?”

  “Uh, why, you see, sir…well, my sister suggested it.”

  “So? I must meet your sister. What’s her name?”

  “Assault Captain Helen Walker,” Rod said proudly, “Corps of Amazons.”

  Matson wrote it down. “Get on in there. They are ready for the drawing.”

/>   Rod hesitated. “Sir,” he said with sudden misgiving, “if I did carry a gun, what sort would you advise?”

  Matson looked disgusted. “I spend a year trying to spoon-feed you kids with stuff I learned the hard way. Comes examination and you ask me to slip you the answers. I can no more answer that than I would have been justified yesterday in telling you to bring a snow suit.”

  “Sorry, sir.”

  “No reason why you shouldn’t ask; it’s just that I won’t answer. Let’s change the subject. This sister of yours she must be quite a girl.”

  “Oh, she is, sir.”

  “Mmm…maybe if I had met a girl like that I wouldn’t be a cranky old bachelor now. Get in there and draw your number. Number one goes through in six minutes.”

  “Yes, Doctor.” His way led him past the school armorer, who had set up a booth outside the door. The old chap was wiping off a noiseless Summerfield. Rod caught his eye. “Howdy, Guns.”

  “Hi, Jack. Kind of late, aren’t you? What’ll it be?”

  Rod’s eye ran over the rows of beautiful weapons. Maybe just a little needle gun with poisoned pellets… He wouldn’t have to use it…

  Then he realized that Dr. Matson had answered his question, with a very broad hint. “Uh, I’m already heeled, Guns. Thanks.”

  “Okay. Well, good luck, and hurry back.”

  “Thanks a lot.” He went into the gate room.

  The seminar had numbered more than fifty students; there were about twenty waiting to take the examination. He started to look around, was stopped by a gate attendant who called out, “Over here! Draw your number.”

  The lots were capsules in a bowl. Rod reached in, drew one out, and broke it open. “Number seven.”

  “Lucky seven! Congratulations. Your name, please.”

  Rod gave his name and turned away, looking for a seat, since it appeared that he had twenty minutes or so to wait. He walked back, staring with interest at what his schoolmates deemed appropriate for survival, any and all conditions.

  Johann Braun was seated with empty seats on each side of him. The reason for the empty seats crouched at his feet—a big, lean, heavily-muscled boxer dog with unfriendly eyes. Slung over Braun’s shoulder was a General Electric Thunderbolt, a shoulder model with telescopic sights and cone-of-fire control; its power pack Braun wore as a back pack. At his belt were binoculars, knife, first aid kit, and three pouches.

  Rod stopped and admired the gun, wondering how much the lovely thing had cost. The dog raised his head and growled.

  Braun put a hand on the dog’s head. “Keep your distance,” he warned. “Thor is a one-man dog.”

  Rod gave back a pace. “Yo, you are certainly equipped.”

  The big blond youth gave a satisfied smile. “Thor and I are going to live off the country.”

  “You don’t need him, with that cannon.”

  “Oh, yes, I do. Thor’s my burglar alarm. With him at my side I can sleep sound. You’d be surprised at the things he can do. Thor’s smarter than most people.”

  “Shouldn’t wonder.”

  “The Deacon gave me some guff that the two of us made a team and should go through separately. I explained to him that Thor would tear the joint apart if they tried to separate us.” Braun caressed the dog’s ears. “I’d rather team with Thor than with a platoon of Combat Pioneers.”

  “Say, Yo, how about letting me try that stinger? After we come out, I mean.”

  “I don’t mind. It really is a honey. You can pick off a sparrow in the air as easily as you can drop a moose at a thousand meters. Say, you’re making Thor nervous. See you later.”

  Rod took the hint, moved on and sat down. He looked around, having in mind that he might still arrange a survival team. Near the shuttered arch of the gateway there was a priest with a boy kneeling in front of him, with four others waiting.

  The boy who had been receiving the blessing stood up—and Rod stood up hastily. “Hey! Jimmy!”

  Jimmy Throxton looked around, caught his eye and grinned, hurried over. “Rod!” he said, “I thought you had ducked out on me. Look, you haven’t teamed?”

  “No.”

  “Still want to?”

  “Huh? Sure.”

  “Swell! I can declare the team as I go through as long as you don’t have number two. You don’t, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Good! Because I’m—”

  “NUMBER ONE!” the gate attendant called out. “‘Throxton, James.’”

  Jimmy Throxton looked startled. “Oh, gee!” He hitched at his gun belt and turned quickly away, then called over his shoulder, “See you on the other side!” He trotted toward the gate, now unshuttered.

  Rod called out, “Hey, Jimmy! How are we going to find—” But it was too late. Well, if Jimmy had sense enough to drive nails, he would keep an eye on the exit.

  “Number two! Mshiyeni, Caroline.” Across the room the big Zulu girl who had occurred to Rod as a possible team mate got up and headed for the gate. She was dressed simply in shirt and shorts, with her feet and legs and hands bare. She did not appear to be armed but she was carrying an overnight bag.

  Someone called out, “Hey, Carol! What you got in the trunk?”

  She threw him a grin. “Rocks.”

  “Ham sandwiches, I’ll bet. Save me one.”

  “I’ll save you a rock, sweetheart.”

  Too soon the attendant called out, “Number seven—Walker, Roderick L.”

  Rod went quickly to the gate. The attendant shoved a paper into his hand, then shook hands. “Good luck, kid. Keep your eyes open.” He gave Rod a slap on the back that urged him through the opening, dilated to man size.

  Rod found himself on the other side and, to his surprise, still indoors. But that shock was not as great as immediate unsteadiness and nausea; the gravity acceleration was much less than earth-normal.

  He fought to keep from throwing up and tried to figure things out. Where was he? On Luna? On one of Jupiter’s moons? Or somewhere ’way out there?

  The Moon, most likely—Luna. Many of the longer jumps were relayed through Luna because of the danger of mixing with a primary, particularly with binaries. But surely they weren’t going to leave him here; Matson had promised them no airless test areas.

  On the floor lay an open valise; he recognized it absent-mindedly as the one Caroline had been carrying. At last he remembered to look at the paper he had been handed.

  It read:

  SOLO SURVIVAL TEST-Recall Instructions

  You must pass through the door ahead in the three minutes allowed you before another candidate is started through. An overlapping delay will disqualify you.

  Recall will be by standard visual and sound signals. You are warned that the area remains hazardous even after recall is sounded.

  The exit gate will not be the entrance gate. Exit may be as much as twenty kilometers in the direction of sunrise.

  There is no truce zone outside the gate. Test starts at once. Watch out for stobor. Good luck!

  —B. P. M.

  Rod was still gulping at low gravity and staring at the paper when a door opened at the far end of the long, narrow room he was in. A man shouted, “Hurry up! You’ll lose your place.”

  Rod tried to hurry, staggered and then recovered too much and almost fell. He had experienced low gravity on field trips and his family had once vacationed on Luna, but he was not used to it; with difficulty he managed to skate toward the far door.

  Beyond the door was another gate room. The attendant glanced at the timer over the gate and said, “Twenty seconds. Give me that instruction sheet.”

  Rod hung onto it. “I’ll use the twenty seconds.”—as much as twenty kilometers in the direction of sunrise. A nominal eastward direction—call it “east.” But what the deuce was, or were, “stobor”?

  “Time! Through you go.” The attendant snatched the paper, shutters rolled back, and Rod was shoved through a dilated gate.

  He fell to his hands and knees;
the gravity beyond was something close to earth-normal and the change had caught him unprepared. But he stayed down, held perfectly still and made no sound while he quickly looked around him. He was in a wide clearing covered with high grass and containing scattered trees and bushes; beyond was dense forest.

  He twisted his neck in a hasty survey. Earth-type planet, near normal acceleration, probably a G-type sun in the sky…heavy vegetation, no fauna in sight—but that didn’t mean anything; there might be hundreds within hearing. Even a stobor, whatever that was.

  The gate was behind him, tall dark-green shutters which were in reality a long way off. They stood unsupported in the tall grass, an anomalism unrelated to the primitive scene. Rod considered wriggling around behind the gate, knowing that the tangency was one-sided and that he would be able to see through the locus from the other side, see anyone who came out without himself being seen.

  Which reminded him that he himself could be seen from that exceptional point; he decided to move.

  Where was Jimmy? Jimmy ought to be behind the gate, watching for him to come out…or watching from some other spy point. The only certain method of rendezvous was for Jimmy to have waited for Rod’s appearance; Rod had no way to find him now.

  Rod looked around more slowly and tried to spot anything that might give a hint as to Jimmy’s whereabouts. Nothing…but when his scanning came back to the gate, the gate was no longer there.

  Rod felt cold ripple of adrenalin shock trickle down his back and out his finger tips. He forced himself to quiet down and told himself that it was better this way. He had a theory to account for the disappearance of the gate; they were, he decided, refocusing it between each pair of students, scattering them possibly kilometers apart.

  No, that could not be true—“twenty kilometers toward sunrise” had to relate to a small area.

  Or did it? He reminded himself that the orientation given in the sheet handed him might not be that which appeared in some other student’s instruction sheet. He relaxed to the fact that he did not really know anything…he did not know where he was, nor where Jimmy was, nor any other member of the class, he did not know what he might find here, save that it was a place where a man might stay alive if he were smart—and lucky.