Tillie Part 2

"Me too," Mallory exclaimed.

"Then it must be so," Jud said. "Obviously the thought came from the tellecarbon in reply to our question!"

"But how can it think?" Mallory questioned. "After all it was precipitated as a fine film, and you can quash it and even slice it up without any trouble."

"In science," Jud said, "you don't try to argue away facts. You accept the facts and go on from there."

"Let's go on from there, then," Lahoma spoke up. "Tillie--we might as well call her that now that we know she, the tellecarbon, you know, thinks--is looking for a companion. We might as well help her look."

"How do you know it isn't a him?" I asked.

"Oh, just a feeling," Lahoma replied.

"Oh, fine," Mallory groaned. "We should have suspected it was a female the way it started galivanting all over the solar system."

"So that's the way you think of us females, Mallory!" Lahoma exclaimed angrily.

I smiled to myself. A few more remarks like that from Mallory and I would have the field to myself. IF we ever got back to the Earth, which I doubted. Secretly I agreed with Mallory. If the chunk of tellecarbon was a female we had much less of a chance than if it were a male or an it.

Jud went to the telescope and started looking for a stray chunk of silvery looking stuff. An air of semi-hopelessness began to settle over all of us. The chances of finding such a thing were extremely slim.

Almost at once, though, Jud let out an exclamation of triumph. We rushed to his side and took turns looking into the telescope. There, less than a quarter of a mile ahead of us, was something that flashed with silvery brilliance like the belly of a trout in a clear stream. We followed the flashes and soon figured out that Tillie was not searching for her companion, but had found him long ago and was, female like, pursuing him!

When the distance between them shortened, the silvery chunk ahead of us speeded up. When the distance between us increased, it slowed down again. It was obviously enjoying the chase.

"This could go on forever," Mallory groaned, sticking his foot in his mouth again.

Lahoma ignored the opening.

"It's obvious what we must do," she said, sounding quite capable.

"Tillie needs a little advice on love making. I'm quite sure that Oscar, or whatever his name is, would pursue Tillie if she stopped CHASING him.

We've got to convince her of that and get her to try it."

Evidently she didn't need convincing. She got the idea direct from Lahoma and acted on it. The silver flash ahead swung away. Half an hour later it showed up in the stern telescope.

This seemed to delight Tillie, the tellecarbon, no end. She cavorted about like a drunken puppy, giving us all a bad case of sea sickness.

"Now," Lahoma gasped. "We must coax Tillie into setting us back on Earth. I don't know how you men feel, but I would be quite willing to turn Tillie loose so she could join her mate--once we were safely home."

"But if we did that we wouldn't be able to explore the Solar System!"

Jud exclaimed.

"And if we don't we'll probably wind up flattened against some asteroid as soon as Tillie decides to break out of her sh.e.l.l," Lahoma snapped.

I blanched at the thought. Mallory's knees buckled and he sat down on the floor weakly. Jud himself swayed a little.

That eventuality just hadn't occurred to us before. Obviously Tillie would get tired of the chase and want to settle down and get cozy some day. If she hadn't acquired the idea from us she might figure it out by herself and dash us against some jagged bit of s.p.a.ce rock.

"All right. All right," Jud said weakly. "Let's see if we can talk Tillie into taking us back home in exchange for her freedom. As an arguing point you might all visualize the smashed s.h.i.+p, with her still imprisoned and all of us dead and unable to help free her."

An invisible hand seemed to push us to the back of the s.h.i.+p. We were picking up speed faster than we ever had before.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The blob of metal clung to the s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p's trail like a pursuing nemesis.]

I slowly climbed to the forward telescope and looked through it. Dead center was a small twinkling Earth with the Moon hovering near it.

I informed the rest. They shouted with relief. We were on our way home!

The stern telescope showed the other piece of tellecarbon following us--almost sniffing at our heels. It held there, day after day, while the Earth grew larger and larger.

At the last Jud stood at the telescope and directed us in. After circling about ten thousand miles up until Puget Sound was directly below us, Tillie dipped down in obedience to his unspoken command.

The whistling sound of atmosphere on the sh.e.l.l was the sweetest music ever played by G.o.ds or men!

We landed on Puget Sound opposite the campus. The minute we touched sh.o.r.e I took a wrench and unscrewed the framework that held the tellecarbon in place in the center tube. I could feel a rapid, excited vibration as it waited--I mean she.

No sooner was the last bolt loosened than she darted away. She almost reached the open porthole where Mallory had taken his first breath of fresh air when she stopped and returned.

Tillie, the silvery blob of matter, came back and touched my cheek softly. Then she did the same to Lahoma.

We wasted no time in climbing out of the s.h.i.+p to the sh.o.r.e. There we looked up. Far over our heads were two silver flashes of brilliance that zoomed in ever-widening spirals.

I felt someone beside me and glanced down. Lahoma was standing there.

Cautiously I put my arm around her waist.

With a starry look in her bright eyes as she glanced at me, she twined her arm around me. Then we looked up again.

Far above we saw a wonderful sight. The two silver flashes seemed to come together. There was a blinding light as from a tremendous explosion; but unlike an explosion it remained bright. It was like a morning star--a sun, far, far away. It grew smaller and smaller until at last it seemed just another star twinkling in the heavens.

There was an aftermath. We sold the s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p to a Ferry Boat company and they transformed it into a streamlined excursion boat with a conventional motor to drive it. But that isn't what I'm talking about.

Lahoma and I got married shortly after. I had sense enough to capitalize on the romance of the tellecarbons and proposed right then and there.

She accepted, of course.

But it was two years later when our first child was born--little William Lawrence. One Sunday we were down at the beach strolling along, pus.h.i.+ng the go-cart in the twilight.

A full moon beamed down upon us and a million stars twinkled in the clear sky. The waves washed with sleepy sounds against the sandy sh.o.r.e and now and then a sea gull came close enough so we could hear the swis.h.i.+ng of its wings.

Into this pleasant scene came a sound--at first so faint it could hardly be heard. It was a shrill scream of some object hurtling through the atmosphere above, almost like the whine of plane struts, only much higher pitched.

Lahoma and I glanced up. There, far up, something silvery flashed. As our eyes adjusted themselves we saw that there were at least two of them, and they were coming closer.

Just as they seemed about to crash into the sandy beach they paused.

There were two large pieces of silvery substance and five small pieces.