Berkley books by Arthur C. Clarke
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
DOLPHIN ISLAND
AGAINST THE
FALL OF NIGHT
ARTHUR C.CLARKE
&
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with
the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Twelve previous printings
Jove/HBJ edition / October 1978
Berkley edition / June 1983
All rights reserved.
Copyright  1953 by Arthur C. Clarke.
Cover illustration by Vincent Di Fate.
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PROLOGUE
NOT ONCE IN A GENERA" W DID THE VOICE OF THE CITY
change as it was changing now. Day and night, age after
age, it had never faltered. To myriads of men it had been
the first and the last sound they had ever heard It was
part of the city: when it ceased the city would be dead
and the desert sands would be settling in the great streets
of Diaspar.
Even here, half a mile above the ground, the sudden
hush brought Convar out to the balcony. Far below, the
moving ways were still sweeping between the great buildings,
but now they were thronged with silent crowds Something
had drawn the languid people of the city from their homes: in their thousands they were drifting slowly between
the cliffs of colored metal. And then Convar saw that all
those myriads of faces were turned towards the sky
For a moment fear crept into his soul--fear lest after all
these ages the Invaders had come again to Earth. Then
he too was staring at the sky, entranced by a wonder he
had never hoped to see again. He watched for many minutes
before he went to fetch his infant son.
The child Alvin was frightened at first. The soaring spires
of the city, the moving specks two thousand feet below--
these were part of his world, but the thing in the sky was
beyond all his experience. It was larger than any of the city's
buildings, and its whiteness was so dazzling that it hurt the
eye. Though it seemed to be solid, the restless winds were
changing its outlines even as he watched.
Once, Alvin knew, the skies of Earth had been filled with
strange shapes. Out of space the great ships had come,
bearing unknown treasures, to berth at the Port of Diaspar
But that was half a billion years ago; before the beginning
of history the Port had been buried by the drifting sand
5
6 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Convar's voice was sad when presently he spoke to his
son.
"Look at it well, Alvin," he said. "It may be the last the
world will ever know. I have only seen one other in all my
life, and once they filled the skies of Earth."
They watched in silence, and with them all the thousands
in the streets and towers of Diaspar, until the last cloud
slowly faded from sight, sucked dry by the hot, parched air
of the unending deserts.
I
THE PRISON OF DIASPAR
THE LESSON WAS FINISHED. THE DROWSY WHISPER OF T::E
hypnone rose suddenly in pitch and ceased abruptly on a
thrice repeated note of command. Then the machine blurred
and vanished, but still Alvin sat staring into nothingness
while his mind slipped back through the ages to meet reality
again.
Jeserac was the Erst to speak: his voice was worried and
a little uncertain.
"Those are the oldest records in the world, Alvin--the
only ones that show Earth as it was before the Invaders
came. Very few people indeed have ever seen them."
Slowly the boy turned towards his tutor. There was something
in his eyes that worried the old man, and once again
Jeserac regretted his action. He began to talk quickly, as if
trying to set his own conscience at ease.
"You know that we never talk about the ancient times,
and I only showed you those records because you were so
anxious to see them. Don't let them upset you: as long as
we're happy, does it matter how much of the world we
occupy? The people you have been watching had more space,
but they were less contented than we."
Was that true? -Alvin wondered. He thought once more
of the desert lapping round the island that was Diaspar, and
his mind returned to the world that Earth had been. He saw
again the endless leagues of blue water, greater than the land
itself, rolling their waves against golden shores. His ears were
still ringing with the boom of breakers stilled these thousand
million years. And he remembered the forests and prairies,
and the strange beasts that had once shared the world with
Man.
All this was gone. Of the oceans, nothing remained but
9
)0 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
the grey deserts of salt, the winding sheets of Earth. Salt
and sand, from Pole to Pole, with only the lights of Diaspar
burning in the wilderness that must one day overwhelm them.
And these were the least of the things that Man had
lost, for above the desolation the forgotten stars were shining
still.
"Jeserac," said Alvin at last, "once I went to the Tower
of Loranne. No one lives there any more, and I could look
out over the desert. It was dark, and I couldn't see the
ground, but the sky was full of colored lights. I watched them for a long time, but they never moved. So presently
I came away. Those were the stars, weren't they?"
Jeserac was alarmed. Exactly how Alvin had got to the
Tower of Loranne was a matter for further investigation.
The boy's interests were becoming--dangerous.
"Those were the stars," he answered briefly. "What of them?"
"We used to visit them once, didn't we?"
A long pause. Then, "Yes."
"Why did we stop? What were the Invaders?"
Jeserac rose to his feet. His answer echoed back through
all the teachers the world had ever known.
"That's enough for one day, Alvin. Later, when you are
elder, I'll tell you more--but not now. You already know
too much."
Alvin never asked the question again: later, he had no
need for the answer was clear. And there was so much in
Diaspar to beguile the mind that for months he could forget that strange yearning he alone seemed to feel.
Diaspar was a world in itself. Here Man had gathered
all his treasures, everything that had been saved from the
ruin of the past. All the cities that had ever been had given
something to Diaspar: even before the coming of the Invaders
its name had been known on the worlds that Man had lost.
Into the building of Diaspar had gone all the skill, all
the artistry of the Golden Ages. When the great days were
coming to an end, men of genius had remoulded the city
and given it the machines that made it immortal. Whatever
might be forgotten, Diaspar would live and bear the descendants
of Man safely down the stream of Time.
They were, perhaps, as contented as any race the world
had known, and after their fashion they were happy. They
spent their long lives amid beauty that had never been
surpassed, for the labour of millions of centuries had been
dedicated to the glory of Diaspar.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 11
This was Alvin's world, a world which for ages had been
sinking into a gracious decadence. Of this Alvin was still
unconscious, for the present was so full of wonder that it
was easy to forget the past. There was so much to do, so
much to learn before the long centuries of his youth ebbed
away.
Music had been the first of the arts to attract him, and
for a while he had experimented with many instruments.
But this most ancient of all arts was now so complex that
it might take a thousand years for him to master all its secrets,
and in the end he abandoned his ambitions. He could listen,
but he could never create.
For a long time the thought-converter gave him great delight.
On its screen he shaped endless patterns of form and
color, usually copies--deliberate or otherwise--of the ancient
masters. More and more frequently he found himself creating
dream landscapes from the vanished Dawn World, and often
his thoughts turned wistfully to the records that Jeserac had
shown him. So the smoldering flame of his discontent burned
slowly towards the level of consciousness, though as yet he
was scarcely worried by the vague restlessness he often felt
But through the months and the years, that restlessness
was growing. Once Alvin had been content to share the
pleasures and interests of Diaspar, but now he knew that
they were not sufficient. His horizons were expanding, and
the knowledge that all his life must be bounded by the walls
of the city was becoming intolerable to him. Yet he knew
well enough that there was no alternative, for the wastes
of the desert covered all the world.
He had seen the desert only a few times in his life, but
he knew no one else who had ever seen it at all. His people's
fear of the outer world was something he could not understand:
to him it held no terror, but only mystery. When he
was weary of Diaspar, it called to him as it was calling now.
The moving ways were glittering with life and color as
the people of the city went about their affairs. They smiled
at Alvin as he worked his way to the central highspeed
section. Sometimes they greeted him by name: once it had
been flattering to think that he was known to the whole of
Diaspar, but now it gave him little pleasure.
In minutes the express channel had swept him away from
the crowded heart of the city, and there were few people
in sight when it came to a smooth halt against a long platform
of brightly colored marble. The moving ways were so much
a part of his life that Alvin had never imagined any other
12 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
form of transport. An engineer of the ancient world would
have gone slowly mad trying to understand how a solid roadway
could be Exed at both ends while its centre travelled at
a hundred miles an hour One day Alvin might be puzzled
too, but for the present he accepted his environment as
uncritically as all the other citizens of Diaspar,
This area of the city was almost deserted. Although the
population of Diaspar had not altered for millenia, it was
the custom for families to move at frequent intervals. One
day the tide of life would sweep this way again, but the great
towers had been lonely now for a hundred thousand years.
The marble platform ended against a wall pierced with
brilliantly lighted tunnels. Alvin selected one without hesitation
and stepped into it. The peristaltic field seized him at
once and propelled him forward while he lay back luxuriously,
watching his surroundings.
It no longer seemed possible that he was in a tunnel far
underground. The art that had used all Diaspar for its
canvas had been busy here, and above Alvin the skies seemed
open to the winds of heaven. All around were the spires
of the city, gleaming in the sunlight. It was not the city
as he knew it, but the Diaspar of a much earlier age. Although
most of the great buildings were familiar, there were subtle
differences that added to the interest of the scene. Alvin
wished he could linger, but he had never found any way of
retarding his progress through the tunnel.
All too soon he was gently set down in a large elliptical
chamber, completely surrounded by windows. Through these
he could catch tantalizing glimpses of gardens ablaze with
brilliant flowers. There were gardens still in Diaspar, but
these had existed only in the mind of the artist who conceived
them. Certainly there were no such flowers as these
in the world today.
Alvin stepped through one of the windows--and the illusion
was shattered. He was in a circular passageway curving steeply
upwards. Beneath his feet the floor began to creep slowly
forward, as if eager to lead him to his goal. He walked a few
paces until his speed was so great that further effort would
be wasted.
The corridor still inclined upwards, and in a few hundred
feet had curved through a complete right-angle. But only
logic knew this: to the senses it was now as if one were
being hurried along an absolutely level corridor. The fact that
he was in reality travelling up a vertical shaft thousands of
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 13
feet deep gave Alvin no sense of insecurity, for a failure of
the polarizing Eeld was unthinkable.
Presently the corridor began to slope "downwards" again
until once more it had turned through a right-angle. The
movement of the floor slowed imperceptibly until it came
to rest at the end of a long hall lined with mirrors. Alvin
was now, he knew, almost at the summit of the Tower of
Loranne.
He lingered for a while in the hall of mirrors, for it had
a fascination that was unique. There was nothing like it,
as far as Alvin knew, in the rest of Diaspar. Through some
whim of the artist, only a few of the mirrors reflected the
scene as it really was--and even those, Alvin was convinced,
were constantly changing their position. The rest certainly
reflected something, but it was faintly disconcerting to see
oneself walking amid everchanging and quite imaginary surroundings.
Alvin wondered what he would do if he saw
anyone else approaching him in the mirror-world, but so far
the situation had never arisen.
Five minutes later he was in a small, bare room through
which a warm wind blew continually. It was part of the
tower's ventilating system, and the moving air escaped
through a series of wide openings that pierced the wall of the
building. Through them one could get a glimpse of the world
beyond Diaspar.
It was perhaps too much to say that Diaspar had been
deliberately built so that its inhabitants could see nothing
of the outer world. Yet it was strange that from nowhere
else in the city, as far as Alvin knew, could one see the
desert. The outermost towers of Diaspar formed a wall around
the city, turning their backs upon the hostile world beyond,
and Alvin thought again of his people's strange reluctance
to speak or even to think of anything outside their little
universe.
Thousands of feet below, the sunlight was taking leave
of the desert. The almost horizontal rays made a pattern of
light against the eastern wall of the little room, and Alvin's
own shadow loomed enormous behind him. He shaded his
eyes against the glare and peered down at the land upon
which no man had walked for unknown ages.
There was little to see: only the long shadows of the
sand-dunes and, far to the west, the low range of broken
hills beyond which the sun was setting. It was strange to
think that of all the millions of living men, he alone had
seen this sight.
14 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
There was no twilight: with the going of the sun, night
swept like a wind across the desert, scattering the stars before
it. High in the south burned a strange formation that had
puzzled Alvin before--a perfect circle of six colored stars,
with a single white giant at its center. Few other stars had
such brilliance, for the great suns that had once burned
so fiercely in the glory of youth were now guttering to their
doom.
For a long time Alvin knelt at the opening, watching the
stars fall towards the west. Here in the glimmering darkness,
high above the city, his mind seemed to be working with a
supernormal clarity. There were still tremendous gaps in his
knowledge, but slowly the problem of Diaspar was beginning
to reveal itself.
The human race had changed--and he had not. Once, the curiosity and the desire for knowledge which cut him
off from the rest of his people had been shared by all the
world. Far back in time, millions of years ago, something
must have happened that had changed mankind completely.
Those unexplained references to the Invaders--did the answer
lie there?
It was time he returned. As he rose to leave, Alvin was
suddenly struck by a thought that had never occurred to
him before. The air-vent was almost horizontal, and perhaps
a dozen feet long. He had always imagined that it ended
in the sheer wall of the tower, but this was a pure assumption.
There were, he realized now, several other possibilities.
Indeed, it was more than likely that there would be a ledge
of some kind beneath the opening, if only for reasons of
safety. It was too late to do any exploring now, but tomorrow
he would come again. . . .
He was sorry to have to lie to Jeserac, but if the old man
disapproved of his eccentricities it was only kindness to
conceal the truth. Exactly what he hoped to discover, Alvin
could not have said. He knew perfectly well that if by any
means he succeeded in leaving Diaspar, he would soon have
to return. But the schoolboy excitement of a possible adventure
was its own justification.
It was not difficult to work his way along the tunnel,
though he could not have done it easily a year before. The
thought of a sheer five-thousand-foot drop at the end worried
Alvin not at all, for Man had completely lost his fear of
heights. And, in fact, the drop was only a matter of a yard
on to a wide terrace running right and left athwart the face
of the tower.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 15
Alvin scrambled out into the open, the blood pounding
in his veins. Before him, no longer framed in a narrow
rectangle of stone, lay the whole expanse of the desert. Above,
the face of the tower still soared hundreds of feet into the
sky. The neighboring buildings stretched away to north and
south, an avenue of titans. The Tower of Loranne, Alvin
noted with interest, was not the only one with air-vents
opening towards the desert. For a moment he stood drinking
in the tremendous landscape: then he began to examine
the ledge on which he was standing.
It was perhaps twenty feet wide, and ended abruptly in
a sheer drop to the ground. Alvin, gazing fearlessly over the
edge of the precipice, judged that the desert was at least a
mile below. There was no hope in that direction.
Far more interesting was the fact that a flight of steps led
down from one end of the terrace, apparently to another
ledge a few hundred feet below. The steps were cut in
the sheer face of the building, and Alvin wondered if they
led all the way to the surface. It was an exciting possibility:
in his enthusiasm, he overlooked the physical implications
of a five-thousand-foot descent.
But the stairway was little more than a hundred feet long.
It Came to a sudden end against a great block of stone that
seemed to have been welded across it. There was no way
past: deliberately and thoroughly, the route had been barred.
Alvin approached the obstacle with a sinking heart. He
had forgotten the sheer impossibility of climbing a stairway
a mile high, if indeed he could have completed the descent,
and he felt a baffled annoyance at having come so far only
to meet with failure.
He reached the stone, and for the first time saw the
message engraved upon it. The letters were archaic, but
he could decipher them easily enough. Three times he read
the simple inscription: then he sat down on the great stone
slabs and gazed at the inaccessible land below.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY.
GIVE MY GREETINGS TO THE KEEPER OF THE RECORDS.
Alaine of Lyndar
2
START OF THE SEARCH
RORDEN, KEEPER OF THE RECORDS, CONCEALED HIS SURPRISE
when his visitor announced himself. He recognized Alvin
at once and even as the boy was entering had punched out
his name on the information machine. Three seconds later,
Alvin's personal card was lying in his hand.
According to Jeserac, the duties of the Keeper of the
Records were somewhat obscure, but Alvin had expected to
find him in the heart of an enormous filing system. He had
alsofor no reason at allexpected to meet someone quite
as old as Jeserac. Instead, he found a middle-aged man in a
single room containing perhaps a dozen large machines. Apart
from a few papers strewn across the desk, there were no
records of any kind to be seen.
Rorden's greeting was somewhat absent-minded, for he
was surreptitiously studying Alvin's card.
"Alaine of Lyndar?" he said. "No, I've never heard of
him. But we can soon find who he was."
Alvin watched with interest while he punched a set
of keys on one of the machines. Almost immediately there
came the glow of a synthesizer field, and a slip of paper
materialized.
"Alaine seems to have been a predecessor of minea very
long time ago. I thought I knew all the Keepers for the last
hundred million years, but he must have been before that.
It's so long ago that only his name has been recorded, with
no other details at all. Where was that inscription?"
"In the Tower of Loranne," said Alvin after a moment's
hesitation.
Another set of keys was punched, but this time the field
did not reappear and no paper materialized.
19
20 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
"What are you doing?" asked Alvin. "Where are all your
records?"
The Keeper laughed.
"That always puzzles people. It would be impossible to
keep written records of all the information we need: it's
recorded electrically and automatically erased after a certain
time, unless there's a special reason for preserving it. If
Alaine left any message for posterity, we'll soon discover it."
"How?"
"There's no one in the world who could tell you that.
All I know is that this machine is an Associator. If you give
it a set of facts, it will hunt through the sum total of human
knowledge until it correlates them."
"Doesn't that take a lot of time?"
"Very often. I have sometimes had to wait twenty years
for an answer. So won't you sit down?" he added, the
crinkles round his eyes belying his solemn voice.
Alvin had never met anyone quite like the Keeper of
the Records, and he decided that he liked him. He was tired
of being reminded that he was a boy, and it was pleasant
to be treated as a real person.
Once again the synthesizer field flickered and Rorden
bent down to read the slip. The message must have been
a long one, for it took him several minutes to finish it.
Finally he sat down on one of the room's couches, looking
at his visitor with eyes which, as Alvin noticed for the first
time, were of a most disconcerting shrewdness.
"What does it say?" he burst out at last, unable to contain
his curiosity any longer.
Rorden did not reply. Instead, he was the one to ask for
information.
"Why do you want to leave Diaspar?" he said quietly.
If Jeserac or his father had asked him that question, Alvin
would have found himself floundering in a morass of half-
truths or downright lies. But with this man, whom he had
iret for only a few minutes, there seemed none of the barriers
Aat had cut him off from those he had known all his life.
"I'm not sure," he said, speaking slowly but readily. "I've
always felt like this. There's nothing outside Diaspar, I know
but I want to go there all the same."
He looked shyly at Rorden, as if expecting encouragement,
but the Keeper's eyes were far away. When at last he again
turned to Alvin, there was an expression on his face that
the boy could not fully understand, but it held a tinge of
sadness that was somewhat disturbing.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 21
No one could have told that Rorden had come to the
greatest crisis in his life. For thousands of years he had
carried out his duties as the interpreter of the machines,
duties requiring little initiative or enterprise. Somewhat apart
from the tumult of the city, rather aloof from his fellows,
Rorden had lived a happy and contented life. And now this
boy had come, disturbing the ghosts of an age that had been
dead for millions of centuries, and threatening to shatter his
cherished peace of mind.
A few words of discouragement would be enough to destroy
the threat, but looking into the anxious, unhappy eyes,
Rorden knew that he could never take the easy way. Even
without the message from Alaine, his conscience would have
forbidden it.
"Alvin," he began, "I know there are many things that have been puzzling you. Most of all, I expect, you have
wondered why we now live here in Diaspar when once the
whole world was not enough for us."
Alvin nodded, wondering how the other could have read
his mind so accurately.
"Well, I'm afraid I cannot answer that question completely.
Don't look so disappointed: I haven't finished yet.
It all started when Man was Eghting the Invaders--whoever
or whatever they were. Before that, he had been expanding
through the stars, but he was driven back to Earth in wars
of which we have no conception. Perhaps that defeat changed
his character, and made him content to pass the rest of his
existence on Earth. Or perhaps the Invaders promised to
leave him in peace if he would remain on his own planet:
we don't know. All that is certain is that he started to develop
an intensely centralized culture, of which Diaspar was the
6nal expression.
"At first there were many of the great cities, but in the
end Diaspar absorbed them all, for there seems to be some
force driving men together as once it drove them to the stars.
Few people ever recognize its presence, but we all have a
fear of the outer world, and a longing for what is known and
understood. That fear may be irrational, or it may have some
foundation in history, but it is one of the strongest forces
in our lives."
"Then why don't I feel that way?"
"You mean that the thought of leaving Diaspar, where
you have everything you need and are among all your friends,
doesn't fill you with something like horror?"
"No."
22 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
The Keeper smiled wryly.
"I'm afraid I cannot say the same. But at least I can
appreciate your point of view, even if I cannot share it. Once I might have felt doubtful about helping you, but not now
that I've seen Alaine's message."
"You still haven't told me what it was!"
Rorden laughed.
"I don't intend to do so until you're a good deal older.
But I'll tell you what it was about.
"Alaine foresaw that people like you would be born in
future ages: he realized that they might attempt to leave
Diaspar and he set out to help them. I imagine that whatever
way you tried to leave the city, you would meet an
inscription directing you to the Keeper of the Records.
Knowing that the Keeper would then question his machines,
Alaine left a message, buried safely among the thousands and
millions of records that exist. It could only be found if the
Associator was deliberately looking for it. That message directs
any Keeper to assist the enquirer, even if he disapproves of his quest. Alaine believed that the human race was becoming
decadent, and he wanted to help anyone who might regenerate
it. Do you follow all this?"
Alvin nodded gravely and Rorden continued.
"I hope he was wrong. I don't believe that humanity is
decadent--it's simply altered. You, of course, will agree with
Alaine--but don't do so simply because you think it's fine
to be different from everyone else! We are happy: if we have lost anything, we're not aware of it.
"Alaine wrote a good deal in his message, but the important
part is this. There are three ways out of Diaspar. He does
not say where they lead, nor does he give any clues as to
how they can be found, though there are some very obscure
references I'll have to think about. But even if what he says
is true, you are far too young to leave the city. Tomorrow
I must speak to your people. No, I won't give you away! But
leave me now--I have a good deal to think about."
Rorden felt a little embarrassed by the boy's gratitude.
When Alvin had gone, he sat for a while wondering if, after
all, he had acted rightly.
There was no doubt that the boy was an atavism--a
throwback to the great ages. Every few generations there
still appeared minds that were the equal of any the ancient
days had known. Born out of their time, they could have
little influence on the peacefully dreaming world of Diaspar.
The long, slow decline of the human will was too far adAGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 23
vanced to be checked by any individual genius, however
brilliant. After a few centuries of restlessness, the variants
accepted their fate and ceased to struggle against it. When
Alvin understood his position, would he too realize that his
only hope of happiness lay in conforming with the world?
Rorden wondered if, after all, it might not have been kinder
in the long run to discourage him. But it was too late now:
Alaine had seen to that.
The ancient Keeper of the Records must have been a
remarkable man, perhaps an atavism himself. How many
times down the ages had other Keepers read that message
of his and acted upon it for better or worse? Surely, if there
had been any earlier cases, some record would have been
made.
Rorden thought intently for a moment: then, slowly at
first, but soon with mounting conEdence, he began to put
question after question to the machines, until every Associator
in the room was running at full capacity. By means now
beyond the understanding of man, billions upon billions of
facts were racing through the scrutinizers. There was nothing
to do but to wait. . . .
IN AFTER YEARS, ALVIN WAS OFTEN TO MARVEL AT HIS GOOD
fortune. Had the Keeper of the Records been unfriendly, his
quest could never have begun. But Rorden, in spite of the
years between them, shared something of his own curiosity.
In Rorden's case, there was only the desire to uncover lost
knowledge: he would never have used it, for he shared with
the rest of Diaspar that dread of the outer world which
Alvin found so strange. Close though their friendship became,
that barrier was always to lie between them.
Alvin's life was now divided into two quite distinct portions.
He continued his studies with Jeserac, acquiring the immense
and intricate knowledge of people, places and customs without
which no one could play any part in the life of the city.
Jeserac was a conscientious but a leisurely tutor, and with so
many centuries before him he felt no urgency in completing
his task. He was, in fact, rather pleased that Alvin should
have made friends with Rorden. The Keeper of the Records
was regarded with some awe by the rest of Diaspar, for he
alone had direct access to all the knowledge of the past.
How enormous and yet how incomplete that knowledge
was, Alvin was slowly learning. In spite of the self-cancelling
24 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
circuits which obliterated all information as soon as it was
obsolete, the main registers contained a hundred trillion facts
at the smallest estimate. Whether there was any limit to
the capacity of the machines Rorden did not know: that
knowledge was lost with the secret of their operation.
The Associators were a source of endless wonder to Alvin,
who would spend hours setting up questions of their keyboards.
It was amusing to discover that people whose names
began with "S" had a tendency to live in the eastern part
of the city--though the machines hastened to add that the
fact had no statistical signiEcance. Alvin quickly accumulated
a vast array of similar useless facts which he employed to
impress his friends. At the same time, under Rorden's
guidance, he was learning all that was known of the Dawn
Ages, for Rorden had insisted that it would need years of
preparation before he could begin his quest. Alvin had recognized
the truth of this, though he sometimes rebelled against
it. But after a single attempt, he abandoned any hope of
acquiring knowledge prematurely.
He had been alone one day when Rorden was paying
one of his rare visits to the administrative centre of the
city. The temptation had been too strong, and he had
ordered the Associators to hunt for Alaine's message.
When Rorden returned, he found a very scared boy trying
to discover why all the machines were paralyzed. To Alvin's
immense relief, Rorden had only laughed and punched a
series of combinations that had cleared the jam. Then he
turned to the culprit and tried to address him severely.
"Let that be a lesson to you, Alvin! I expected something
like this, so I've blocked all the circuits I don't want you to
explore. That block will remain until I think it's safe to
lift it."
Alvin grinned sheepishly and said nothing. Thereafter he
made no more excursions into forbidden realms.
3
THE TOMB OF YARLAN ZEY
NOT FOR THREE YEARS DID RORDEN MAKE MORE THAN CASUAL
references to the purpose of their world. The time had passed
quickly enough, for there was so much to learn and the
knowledge that his goal was not unattainable gave Alvin
patience. Then, one day when they were struggling to
reconcile two conflicting maps of the ancient world, the main
Associator suddenly began to call for attention.
Rorden hurried to the machine and returned with a long
sheet of paper covered with writing. He ran through it
quickly and looked at Alvin with a smile.
"We will soon know if the Erst way is still open," he said
quietly.
Alvin jumped from his chair, scattering maps in all directions.

"Where is it?" he cried eagerly.
Rorden laughed and pushed him back into his seat.
"I haven't kept you waiting all this time because I wanted
to," he said. "It's true that you were too young to leave
Diaspar before, even if we knew how it could be done. But
that's not the only reason why you had to wait. The day
you came to see me, I set the machines searching through
the records to discover if anyone after Alaine's time had
tried to leave the city. I thought you might not be the first, and I was right. There have been many others: the last was
about fifteen million years ago. They've all been very careful
to leave us no clues, and I can see Alaine's influence there.
In his message he stressed that only those who searched for
themselves should be allowed to find the way, so I've had
to explore many blind avenues. I knew that the secret had
been hidden carefully--yet not so carefully that it couldn't
be found.
27
28 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
"About a year ago I began to concentrate on the idea of
Transport. It was obvious that Diaspar must have had many
links with the rest of the world, and although the Port itself
has been buried by the desert for ages, I thought that there
might be other means of travel. Right at the beginning I
found that the Associators would not answer direct questions:
Alaine must have put a block on them just as I once did for
your benefit. Unfortunately I can't remove Alaine's block, so I've had to use indirect methods.
"If there was an external transport system, there's certainly
no trace of it now. Therefore, if it existed at all, it has
been deliberately concealed. I set the Associators to investigate
all the major engineering operations carried out in the city
since the records began. This is a report on the construction
of the central park--and AJaine has added a note to it himself. As soon as it encountered his name, of course, the
machine knew it had finished the search and called for me."
Rorden glanced at the paper as if rereading part of it
again. Then he continued:--
"We've always taken it for granted that all the moving
ways should converge on the Park: it seems natural for them
to do so. But this report states that the Park was built after
the founding of the city--many millions of years later, in tact. Therefore the moving ways once led to something the"
"An airport, perhaps?"
"No: flying was never allowed over any city, except in ^ery ancient times, before the moving ways were built. Even
Diaspar is not as old as thati But listen to Alaine's note:--
" 'When the desert buried the Port of Diaspar, the emergency
system which had been built against that day was able
to carry the remaining transport. It was finally closed down
by Yarlan Zey, builder of the Park, having remained almost
unused since the Migration.' "
Alvin looked rather puzzled.
"It doesn't tell me a great deal," he complained.
Rorden smiled. "You've been letting the Associators do
too much thinking for you," he admonished gently. "Like
all of Alaine's statements, it's deliberately obscure lest the
wrong people should learn from it. But I think it tells us
quite enough. Doesn't the name "Yarlan Zey" mean anything
to you?"
"I think I understand," said Alvin slowly. "You're talking
about the Monument?"
"Yes: it's in the exact centre of the Park. If you extended
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 29
the moving ways, they would all meet there. Perhaps, once
upon a time, they did."
Alvin was already on his feet.
"Let's go and have a look," he exclaimed.
Rorden shook his head.
"You've seen the Tomb of Yarlen Zey a score of times
and noticed nothing unusual about it. Before we rush off,
don't you think it would be a good idea to question the
machines again?"
Alvin was forced to agree, and while they were waiting
began to read the report that the Associator had already produced.
"Rorden," he said at-last, "what did Alaine mean when
he spoke about the Migration?"
"It's a term often used in the very earliest records," answered
Rorden. "It refers to the time when the other cities
were decaying and all the human race was moving towards
Diaspar."
"Then this 'emergency system,' whatever it is, leads to
them?"
"Almost certainly."
Alvin meditated for a while.
"So you think that even if we do find the system, it will
only lead to a lot of ruined cities?"
"I doubt if it will even do that," replied Rorden. "When
they were abandoned, the machines were closed down and
the desert will have covered them by now."
Alvin refused to be discouraged.
"But Alaine must have known that!" he protested. Rorden
shrugged his shoulders.
"We're only guessing," he said, "and the Associator hasn't
any information at the moment. It may take several hours,
but with such a restricted subject we should have all the
recorded facts before the end of the day. We'll follow your
advice after all."
The screens of the city were down and the sun was shining
fiercely, though its rays would have felt strangely weak to a
man of the Dawn Ages. Alvin had made this journey a hundred
times before, yet now it seemed almost a new adventure.
When they came to the end of the moving way, he bent
down and examined the surface that had carried them through
the city. For the first time in his life, he began to realize
something of its wonder. Here it was motionless, yet a
hundred yards away it was rushing directly towards him faster
than a man could run.
30 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Rorden was watching him, but he misunderstood the
boy's curiosity.
"When the park was built," he said, "I suppose they had
to remove the last section of the way. I doubt if you'll learn
anything from it."
"I wasn't thinking of that," said Alvin. "I was wondering
how the moving ways work."
Rorden looked astonished, for the thought had never occurred
to him. Ever since men had lived in cities, they had
accepted without thinking the multitudinous services that lay
beneath their feet. And when the cities had become completely
automatic, they had ceased even to notice that they
were there.
"Don't worry about that," he said. "I can show you a
thousand greater puzzles. Tell me how my Recorders get
their information, for example."
So, without a second thought, Rorden dismissed the moving
ways--one of the greatest triumphs of human engineering.
The long ages of research that had gone to the making of
anisotropic matter meant nothing to him. Had he been told
that a substance could have the properties of a solid in one
dimension and of a liquid in the other two, he would not
even have registered surprise.
The Park was almost three miles across, and since every
pathway was a curve of some kind all distances were considerably
exaggerated. When he had been younger Alvin had
spent a great deal of time among the trees and plants of this
largest of the city's open spaces. He had explored the whole
of it at one time or another, but in later years much of its
charm had vanished. Now he understood why: he had seen
the ancient records and knew that the Park was only a pale
shadow of a beauty that had vanished from the world.
They met many people as they walked through the avenues
of ageless trees and over the dwarf, perennial grass that never
needed trimming. After a while they grew tired of acknowledging
greetings, for everyone knew Afvin and almost everyone
knew the Keeper of the Records. So they left the paths
and wandered through quiet byways almost overshadowed by
trees. Sometimes the trunks crowded so closely round them
that the great towers of the city were hidden from sight.
and for a little while Alvin could imagine he was in the
ancient world of which he had so often dreamed.
The Tomb of Yarlan Zey was the only building in the
Park. An avenue of the eternal trees led up the low hill
on which it stood, its rose-pink columns gleaming in the sunAGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 31
light. The roof was open to the sky, and the single chamber
was paved with great slabs of apparently natural stone. But
for geological ages human feet had crossed and recrossed that
floor and left no trace upon its inconceivably stubborn material.
Alvin and Rorden walked slowly into the chamber, until
they came face to face with the statue of Yarlan Zey.
The creator of the great park sat with slightly downcast
eyes, as if examining the plans spread across his knees. His
face wore that curiously elusive expression that had baffled
the world for so many generations. Some had dismissed it as
no more than a whim of the artist's, but to others it seemed
that Yarlan Zey was smiling at some secret jest. Now Alvin
knew that they had been correct.
Rorden was standing motionless before the statue, as if
seeing it for the first time in his life. Presently he walked
back a few yards and began to examine the great flagstones.
"What are you doing?" asked Alvin.
"Employing a little logic and a great deal of intuition,"
replied Rorden. He refused to say any more, and Alvin
resumed his examination of the statue. He was still doing
this when a faint sound behind him attracted his attention.
Rorden, his face wreathed in smiles, was slowly sinking into
the floor. He began to laugh at the boy's expression.
"I think I know how to reverse this," he said as he disappeared.
"If I don't come up immediately, you'll have to
pull me out with a gravity polarizer. But I don't think it will
be necessary."
The last words were muffled, and, rushing to the edge
of the rectangular pit, Alvin saw that his friend was already
many feet below the surface. Even as he watched, the shaft
deepened swiftly until Rorden had dwindled to a speck no longer recognizable as a human being. Then, to Alvin's relief,
the far-off rectangle of light began to expand and the pit
shortened until Rorden was standing beside him once more.
For a moment there was a profound silence. Then Rorden
smiled and began to speak.
"Logic," he said, "can do wonders if it has something to
work upon. This building is so simple that it couldn't conceal
anything, and the only possible secret exit must be through
the floor. I argued that it would be marked in some way,
so I searched until I found a slab that differed from all the rest."
Alvin bent down and examined the floor.
"But it's just the same as all the others!" he protested.
Rorden put his hands on the boy's shoulders and turned
32 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
him round until he was looking towards the statue. For a
moment Alvin stared at it intently. Then he slowly nodded
his head.
"I see," he whispered. "So that is the secret of Yarian
Zey!"
The eyes of the statue were fixed upon the floor at his feet. There was no mistake. Alvin moved to the next slab,
and found that Yarian Zey was no longer looking towards
him.
"Not one person in a thousand would ever notice that
unless they were looking for it," said Rorden, "and even, then, it would mean nothing to them. At first I felt rather
foolish myself, standing on that slab and going through
different combinations of control thoughts. Luckily the circuits
must be fairly tolerant, and the code-thought turned out
to be "Alaine of Lyndar." I tried "Yarian Zey" at first, but
it wouldn't work, as I might have guessed. Too many people
would have operated the machine by accident if that trigger
thought had been used."
"It sounds very simple," admitted Alvin, "but I don't think I would have found it in a thousand years. Is that how the
Associators work?"
Rorden laughed.
"Perhaps," he said. "I sometimes reach the answer before
they do, but they always reach it." He paused for a moment.
We'll have to leave the shaft open: no one is likely to fall down it."
As they sank smoothly into the earth, the rectangle of
sky dwindled until it seemed very small and far away. The
shaft was lit by a phosphorescence that was part of the walls,
and seemed to be at least a thousand feet deep. The walls
were perfectly smooth and gave no indication of the machinery
that had lowered them.
The doorway at the bottom of the shaft opened automatically
as they stepped towards it. A few paces took them
through the short corridor--and then they were standing,
overawed by its immensity, in a great circular cavern whose
walls came together in a graceful, sweeping curve three hundred
feet above their heads. The column against which they
were standing seemed too slender to support the hundreds
of feet of rock above it. Then Alvin noticed that it did not
seem an integral part of the chamber at all, but was clearly of
much later construction. Rorden had come to the same conclusion.

"This column," he said, "was built simply to house the
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 35
shaft down which we came. We were right about the moving
ways--they all lead into this place."
Alvin had noticed, without realizing what they were, the
great tunnels that pierced the circumference of the chamber
He could see that they sloped gently upwards, and now he
recognized the familiar grey surface of the moving ways
Here, far beneath the heart of the city, converged the wonderful
transport system that carried all the traffic of Diaspar.
But these were only the severed stumps of the great roadways:
the strange material that gave them life was now frozen into
immobility.
Alvin began to walk towards the nearest of the tunnels. He had gone only a few paces when he realized that something
was happening to the ground beneath his feet. It was
becoming transparent. A few more yards, and he seemed
to be standing in mid-air without any visible support. He Stopped and stared down into the void beneath.
"Rorden!" he called. "Come and look at this!"
The other joined him, and together they gazed at the
marvel beneath their feet. Faintly visible, at an indefinite
depth, lay an enormous map--a great network of lines converging
towards a spot beneath the central shaft. At first it
seemed a confused maze, but after a while Alvin was able
to grasp its main outlines. As usual, he had scarcely begun
his own analysis before Rorden finished his.
"The whole of this floor must have been transparent once,"
said the Keeper of the Records. "When this chamber was sealed and the shaft built, the engineers must have done
something to make the center opaque. Do you understand
what it is, Alvin?"
"I think so," replied the boy. "It's a map of the transport
system, and those little circles must be the other cities of
Earth. I can just see names beside them, but they're too faint
to read."
"There must have been some form of internal illumination
once," said Rorden absently. He was looking towards the
walls of the chamber.
"I thought so!" he exclaimed. "Do you see how all these
radiating lines lead towards the small tunnels?"
Alvin had noticed that besides the great arches of the moving
ways there were innumerable smaller tunnels leading out
of the chamber--tunnels that sloped downwards instead of up.
Rorden continued without waiting for a reply.
"It was a magnificent system. People would come down
34 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
the moving ways, select the place they wished to visit, and
then follow the appropriate line on the map."
"And what happens then?" said Alvin.
As usual, Rorden refused to speculate.
"I haven't enough information," he answered. "I wish
we could read the names of those citiesi" he complained,
changing the subject abruptly.
Alvin had wandered away and was circumnavigating the
central pillar. Presently his voice came to Rorden, slightly
muffled and overlaid with echoes from the walls of the
chamber.
"What is it?" called Rorden, not wishing to move as he
had nearly deciphered one of the dimly visible groups of
characters. But Alvin's voice was insistent, so he went to join
him.
Far beneath was the other half of the great map, its faint
web-work radiating towards the points of the compass. But
this time not all of it was too dim to be clearly seen, for one
of the lines, and one only, was brilliantly illuminated. It
seemed to have no connection with the rest of the system, and pointed like a gleaming arrow to one of the downward-
sloping tunnels. Near its end the line transfixed a circle of
golden light, and against that circle was the single word
LYS." That was all.
For a long time Alvin and Rorden stood gazing down at that silent symbol. To Rorden it was no more than another
question for his machines, but to Alvin its promise was boundless.
He tried to imagine this great chamber as it had been
in the ancient days, when air transport had come to an end
but the cities of Earth still had commerce one with the other.
He thought of the countless millions of years that had passed
with the traffic steadily dwindling and the lights on the
great map dying one by one, until at last only this single
line remained. He wondered how long it had gleamed there
among its darkened companions, waiting to guide the steps
that never came, until at last Yarlan Zey had sealed the
moving ways and closed Diaspar against the world.
That had been hundreds of millions of years ago. Even
then, Lys must have lost touch with Diaspar. It seemed impossible
that it could have survived: perhaps, after all, the
map meant nothing now.
Rorden broke into his reverie at last. He seemed a little
nervous and ill at ease.
"It's time we went back," he said. "I don't think we
should go any further now."
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 3?
Alvin recognized the undertones in his friend's voice, and
did not argue with him. He was eager to go forward, but
realized that it might not be wise without further preparation
Reluctantly he turned again toward the central pillar As he
walked to the opening of the shaft, the floor beneath him
gradually clouded into opacity, and the gleaming enigma tar
below slowly faded from siglit.
4
THE WAY BENEATH
NOW THAT THE WAY LAY OPEN AT LAST BEFORE HIM, ALVIN
felt a strange reluctance to leave the familiar world of Dia-
spar. He began to discover that he himself was not immune
from the fears he had so often derided in others.
Once or twice Rorden had tried to dissuade him, but the
attempt had been half-hearted. It would have seemed strange
to a man of the Dawn Ages that neither Alvin nor Rorden
saw any danger in what they were doing. For millions of
years the world had held nothing that could threaten man,
and even Alvin could not imagine types of human beings
greatly different from those he knew in Dispar. That he might
be detained against his will was a thought wholly inconceivable
to him. At the worst, he could only fail to discover anything.

Three days later, they stood once more in the deserted
chamber of the moving ways. Beneath their feet the arrow
of light still pointed to Lys--and now they were ready to
follow it.
As they stepped into the tunnel, they felt the familiar tug
of the peristaltic field and in a moment were being swept
effortlessly into the depths. The journey lasted scarcely a
minute: when it ended they were standing at one end of a
long, narrow chamber in the form of a half-cylinder. At the
far end, two dimly lit tunnels stretched away towards infinity.
Men of almost every civilization that had existed since the
Dawn would have found their surroundings completely familiar:
yet to Alvin and Rorden they were a glimpse of
another world. The purpose of the long, streamlined machine
that lay aimed like a projectile at the far tunnel was obvious,
but that made it none the less novel. Its upper portion was
transparent, and looking through the walls Alvin could see
rows of luxuriously appointed seats. There was no sign of
any entrance, and the whole machine was floating about a
foot above a single metal rod that stretched away into the
distance, disappearing in one of the tunnels. A few yards
away another rod led to the second tunnel, but no machine
floated above it. Alvin knew, as surely as if he had been told,
that somewhere beneath unknown, far-off Lys, that second
machine was waiting in another such chamber as this.
39
40 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
"Well," said Rorden, rather lamely, "Are you ready?"
Alvin nodded.
"I wish you'd come," he said--and at once regretted it
when he saw the disquiet on the other's face. Rorden was
the closest friend he had ever possessed, but he could never
break through the barriers that surrounded all his race.
"111 be back within six hours," Alvin promised, speaking
with difficulty for there was a mysterious tightness in his
throat. "Don't bother to wait for me. If I get back early I'll
call you--there must be some communicators around here."
It was all very casual and matter-of-fact, Alvin told himself.
Yet he could not help jumping when the walls of the
machine faded and the beautifully designed interior lay open
before his eyes.
Rorden was speaking, rather quickly and jerkily.
"You'll have no difficulty in controlling the machine," he
said. "Did you see how it obeyed that thought of mine?
I should get inside quickly in case the time delay is fixed."
Alvin stepped aboard, placing his belongings on the nearest
seat. He turned to face Rorden, who was standing in the
barely visible frame of the doorway. For a moment there was
a strained silence while each waited for the other to speak.
The decision was made for them. There was a faint flicker
of translucence, and the walls of the machine had closed
again. Even as Rorden began to wave farewell, the long cylinder
started to ease itself forward. Before it had entered the
tunnel, it was already moving faster than a man could run.
Slowly Rorden made his way back to the chamber of the
moving ways with its great central pillar. Sunlight was streaming
down the open shaft as he rose to the surface. When he
emerged again into the Tomb of Yarlan Zey, he was disconcerted,
though not surprised, to find a group of curious onlookers
gathered around him.
"There's no need to be alarmed," he said gravely. "Someone
has to do this every few thousand years, though it hardly
seems necessary. The foundations of the city are perfectly
stable--they haven't shifted a micron since the Park was
built."
He walked briskly away, and as he left the tomb a quick
backward glance showed him that the spectators were already
dispersing. Rorden knew his fellow citizens well enough to be
sure that they would think no more about the incident.
Alvin settled back among the upholstery and let his eyes
wander round the interior of the machine. For the first time
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 41
he noticed the indicator board that formed part of the forward
wall. It carried the simple message:--
lys
35 MINUTES
Even as he watched, the number changed to "34." That at
least was useful information, though as he had no idea of
the machine's speed it told him nothing about the length
of the journey. The walls of the tunnel were one continual
blur of grey, and the only sensation of movement was a
very slight vibration he would never have noticed had he not
been expecting it.
Diaspar must be many miles away by now, and above him
would be the desert with its shifting sand dunes. Perhaps at
this very moment he was racing beneath the broken hills he
had watched as a child from the Tower of Loranne.
His thoughts came back to Lys, as they had done continually
for the past few days. He wondered if it still existed,
and once again assured himself that not otherwise would the
machine be carrying him there. What sort of city would it
be? Somehow the strongest effort of his imagination could
only picture another and smaller version of Diaspar.
Suddenly there was a distinct change in the vibration of
the machine. It was slowing down--there was no question
of that. The time must have passed more quickly than he
had thought: somewhat surprised, Alvin glanced at the indicator.

LYS
23 MINUTES
Feeling very puzzled, and a little worried, he pressed his
face against the side of the machine. His speed was still blurring the walls of the tunnel into a featureless grey, yet
now from time to time he could catch a glimpse of markings
that disappeared almost as quickly as they came. And at
each appearance, they seemed to remain in his field of vision
for a little longer.
Then, without any warning, the walls of the tunnel were
snatched away on either side. The machine was passing, still
at a very great speed, through an enormous empty space, far
larger even than the chamber of the moving ways.
Peering in wonder through the transparent walls, Alvin
could glimpse beneath him an intricate network of guiding
42 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
rods, rods that crossed and crisscrossed to disappear into a
maze of tunnels on either side. Overhead, a long row of artificial
suns flooded the chamber with light, and silhouetted
against the glare he could just make out the frameworks of
great carrying machines. The light was so brilliant that it
pained the eyes, and Alvin knew that this place had not been |
intended for man. What it was intended for became clear a
moment later, when his vehicle flashed past row after row ,
of cylinders, lying motionless above their guide-rails. They |
weie larger than the machine in which he was travelling, and
Alvin realised that they must be freight transporters. Around
them were grouped incomprehensible machines, all silent
and stilled. |
Almost as quickly as it had appeared, the vast and lonely I
chamber vanished behind him. Its passing left a feeling of
awe in Alvin's mind: for the first time he really understood
the meaning of that great, darkened map below Diaspar. The
world was more full of wonder than he had ever dreamed.
Alvin glanced again at the indicator. It had not changed:
he had taken less than a minute to flash through the great
cavern. The machine was accelerating again, although there
was still no sense of motion. But on either side the tunnel
walls were flowing past at a speed he could not even guess.
It seemed an age before that indefinable change of vibration
occurred again. Now the indicator was reading:--
lys
I MINUTE
and that minute was the longest Alvin had ever known. More
and more slowly moved the machine: this was no mere slackening
of its speed. It was coming to rest at last.
Smoothly and silently the long cylinder slid out of the
tunnel into a cavern that might have been the twin of the
one beneath Diaspar. For a moment Alvin was too excited to
see anything clearly. His thoughts were jumbled and he could
not even control the door, which opened and closed several
times before he pulled himself together. As he jumped out
of the machine, he caught a last glimpse of the indicator. Its
wording had changed and there was something about its
message that was very reassuring:--
diaspar
35 MINUTES
IT HAD BEEN AS SIMPLE AS THAT. NO ONE COULD HAVE
guessed that he had made a journey as fateful as any in the
history of Man.
As he began to search for a way out of the chamber, Alvin
found the first sign that he was in a civilization very different
from the one he had left. The way to the surface clearly
lay through a low, wide tunnel at one end of the cavern--
and leading up through the tunnel was a flight of steps. Such
a thing was almost unknown in Diaspar. The machines disliked
stairways, and the architects of the city had built ramps
or sloping corridors wherever there was a change of level.
Was it possible that there were no machines in Lys? The
idea was so fantastic that Alvin dismissed it at once.
The stairway was very short, and ended against doors that
opened at his approach. As they closed silently behind him,
Alvin found himself in a large cubical room which appeared
to have no other exit. He stood for a moment, a little puzzled,
and then began to examine the opposite wall. As he did so,
the doors through which he had entered opened once more.
Feeling somewhat annoyed, Alvin left the room again--to
find himself looking along a vaulted corridor rising slowly to
an archway that framed a semicircle of sky. He realized that
he must have risen many hundreds of feet, but there had
been no sensation of movement. Then he hurried forward
up the slope to the sunlit opening.
He was standing at the brow of a low hill, and for an instant
it seemed as if he were once again in the central park
of Diaspar. Yet if this were indeed a park, it was too enormous
for his mind to grasp. The city he had expected to see
was nowhere visible. As far as the eye could reach there was
nothing but forest and grass-covered plains.
45
46 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Then Alvin lifted his eyes to the horizon, and there above
the trees, sweeping from right to left in a great arc that encircled
the world, was a line of stone which would have
dwarfed the mightiest giants of Diaspar. It was so far away
that its details were blurred by sheer distance, but there was
something about its outlines that Alvin found puzzling. Then
his eyes became at last accustomed to the scale of that colossal
landscape, and he knew that those far-off walls had not
been built by Man.
Time had not conquered everything: Earth still possessed
mountains of which she could be proud.
For a long time Alvin stood at the mouth of the tunnel,
growing slowly accustomed to the strange world in which he
had found himself. Search as he might, nowhere could he
see any trace of human life. Yet the road that led down the
hillside seemed well-kept: he could do no more than accept
its guidance.
At the foot of the hill, the road disappeared between great
trees that almost hid the sun. As Alvin walked into their
shadow, a strange medley of scents and sounds greeted him.
The rustle of the wind among the leaves he had known before,
but underlying that were a thousand vague noises that
conveyed nothing to his mind. Unknown odors assailed him,
smells that had been lost even to the memory of his race.
The warmth, the profusion of scent and color, and the unseen
presences of a million living things, smote him with almost
physical violence.
He came upon the lake without any warning. The trees
to the right suddenly ended, and before him was a great expanse
of water, dotted with tiny islands. Never in his life
had Alvin seen such quantities of the precious liquid: he
walked to the edge of the lake and let the warm water trickle
through his fingers.
The great silver fish that suddenly forced its way through
the underwater reeds was the first non-human creature he
had ever seen. As it hung in nothingness, its fins a faint blur
of motion, Alvin wondered why its shape was so startlingly
familiar. Then he remembered the records that Jeserac had
shown him as a child, and knew where he had seen those
graceful lines before. Logic told him that the resemblance
could only be accidental--but logic was wrong.
All through the ages, artists had been inspired by the
urgent beauty of the great ships driving from world to world
Once there had been craftsmen who had worked, not with
crumbling metal or decaying stone, but with the most imAGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 47
perishable of all materials--flesh and blood and bone. Though
they and all their race had been utterly forgotten, one of
their dreams had survived the ruins of cities and the wreck
of continents.
At last Alvin broke the lake's enchantment and continued
along the winding road. The forest closed around him once
more, but only for a little while. Presently the road ended,
in a great clearing perhaps half a mile wide and twice as long.
Now Alvin understood why he had seen no trace of man
before.
The clearing was full of low, two-storied buildings, colored
in soft shades that rested the eye even in the full glare of
the sun. They were of clean, straightforward design, but several
were built in a complex architectural style involving the
use of fluted columns and gracefully fretted stone. In these
buildings, which seemed of great age, the immeasurably ancient
device of the pointed arch was used.
As he walked slowly towards the village, Alvin was still
struggling to grasp his new surroundings. Nothing was familiar:
even the air had changed. And the tall, golden-haired
people coming and going among the buildings were very different
from the languid citizens of Diaspar.
Alvin had almost reached the village when he saw a group
of men coming purposefully towards him. He felt a sudden,
heady excitement and the blood pounded in his veins. For
an instant there flashed through his mind the memory of
all Man's fateful meetings with other races. Then he. came
to a halt, a few feet away from the others.
They seemed surprised to see him, yet not as surprised as
he had expected. Very quickly he understood why. The leader
of the party extended his hand in the ancient gesture of
friendship.
"We thought it best to meet you here," he said. "Our
home is very different from Diaspar, and the walk from the
terminus gives visitors a chance to become--acclimatized."
Alvin accepted the outstretchd hand, but for a moment
was too astonished to reply.
"You knew I was coming?" he gasped at length.
"We always know when the carriers start to move. But we did not expect anyone so young. How did you discover
the way?"
"I think we'd better restrain our curiosity, Gerane. Seranis
is waiting."
The name "Seranis" was preceded by a word unfamiliar
48 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
to Alvin. It somehow conveyed an impression of affection,
tempered with respect.
Gerane agreed with the speaker and the party began to move into the village. As they walked, Alvin studied the
faces around him. They appeared kindly and intelligent:
there were none of the signs of boredom, mental strife, and
faded brilliance he might have found in a similar group in
his own city. To his broadening mind, it seemed that they
possessed all that his own people had lost. When they smiled,
which was often, they revealed lines of ivory teeth--the
pearls that Man had lost and won and lost again in the long
story of evolution.
The people of the village watched with frank curiosity as
Alvin followed his guides. He was amazed to see not a few
children, who stared at him in grave surprise. No other single
fact brought home to him so vividly his remoteness from
the world he knew. Diaspar had paid, and paid in full, the
price of immortality.
The party halted before the largest building Alvin had yet
seen. It stood in the center of the village and from a flagpole
on its small circular tower a green pennant floated along the
breeze.
All but Cerane dropped behind as he entered the building.
Inside it was quiet and cool: sunlight filtering through the
translucent walls lit up everything with a soft, restful glow.
The floor was smooth and resilient, inlaid with fine mosaics.
On the walls, an artist of great ability and power had depicted
a set of forest scenes. Mingled with these paintings
were other murals which conveyed nothing to Alvin's mind,
yet were attractive and pleasant to look upon. Let into the
wall was something he had hardly expected to see--a visi-
phone receiver, beautifully made, its idle screen filled with
a maze of shifting colors.
They walked together up a short circular stairway that led
them out on the flat roof of the building. From this point,
the entire village was visible and Alvin could see that it consisted
of about a hundred buildings. In the distance the trees
opened out into wide meadows: he could see animals in
some of the fields but his knowledge of biology was too slight
for him to guess at their nature.
In the shadow of the tower, two people were sitting together
at a desk, watching him intently. As they rose to greet
him, Alvin saw that one was a stately, very handsome woman
whose golden hair was shot through with wisps of grey. This,
he knew, must be Seranis. Looking into her eyes, he could
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 49
sense that wisdom and depth of experience he felt when he
was with- Rorden and, more rarely, with Jeserac.
The other was a boy a little older than himself in appearance,
and Alvin needed no second glance to tell that Seranis
must be his mother. The clear-cut features were the same,
though the eyes held only friendliness and not that almost
frightening wisdom. The hair, too, was different--black instead
of gold--but no-one could have mistaken the relationship
between them.
Feeling a little overawed, Alvin turned to his guide for sup- port--but Gerane had already vanished. Then Seranis smiled,
and his nervousness left him.
"Welcome to Lys," she said. "I am Seranis, and this is my
son Theon, who will one day take my place. You are the
youngest who has ever come to us from Diaspar: tell me
how you found the way."
Haltingly at Erst, and then with increasing confidence,
Alvin began his story. Theon followed his words eagerly, for
Diaspar must have been as strange to him as Lys had been
to Alvin. But Seranis, Alvin could see, knew all that he was
telling her, and once or twice she asked questions which
showed that in some things at least her knowledge went
beyond his own. When he had finished there was silence for
a while. Then Seranis looked at him and said quietly:
"Why did you come to Lys?"
"I wanted to explore the world," he replied. "Everyone
told me that there was only desert beyond the city, but I
wanted to make sure for myself."
The eyes of Seranis were full of sympathy and even sadness
when she spoke again:
"And was that the only reason?"
Alvin hesitated. When he answered, it was not the explorer
who spoke, but the boy not long removed from childhood.
"No," he said slowly, "it wasn't the only reason, though
I did not know until now. I was lonely."
"Lonely? In Diaspar?"
"Yes," said Alvin. "I am the only child to be born there
for seven thousand years."
Those wonderful eyes were still upon him and, looking
into their depths, Alvin had the sudden conviction that Se- ranis could read his mind. Even as the thought came, he saw
an expression of amused surprise pass across her face--and
knew that his guess had been correct. Once both men and
machines had possessed this power, and the unchanging ma50 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
chines could still read their master's orders. But in Diaspar,
Man himself had lost the gift he had given to his slaves.
Rather quickly, Seranis broke into his thoughts.
"If you are looking for life," she said, "your search has
ended. Apart from Diaspar, there is only desert beyond our
mountains."
It was strange that Alvin, who had questioned accepted
beliefs so often before, did not doubt the words of Seranis.
His only reaction was one of sadness that all his teaching
had been so nearly true.
"Tell me something about Lys," he asked. "Why have
you been cut off from Diaspar for so long, when you know
all about us?"
Seranis smiled at his question.
"It's not easy to answer that in a few words, but I'll do
my best.
"Because you have lived in Diaspar all your life, you have
come to think of Man as a city-dweller. That isn't true, Al-
vin. Since the machines gave us freedom, there has always
been a rivalry between two different types of civilization. In
the Dawn Ages there were thousands of cities, but a large
part of mankind lived in communities like this village of ours.
"We have no records of the founding of Lys, but we know
that our remote ancestors disliked city life intensely and
would have nothing to do with it. In spite of swift and universal transport, they kept themselves largely apart from the
rest of the world and developed an independent culture which
was one of the highest the race had ever known.
"Through the ages, as we advanced along our different
roads, the gulf between Lys and the cities widened. It was
bridged only in times of great crisis: we know that when the
Moon was falling, its destruction was planned and carried out
by the scientists of Lys. So too was the defense of Earth
against the Invaders, whom we held at the Battle of Shalmirane.

"That great ordeal exhausted mankind: one by one the
cities died and the desert rolled over them. As the population
fell, humanity began the migration which was to make Dia-
spar the last and greatest of all cities.
"Most of these changes passed us by, but we had our own
battle to fight--the battle against the desert. The natural
barrier of the mountains was not enough, and many thousands
of years passed before we had made our land secure.
Far beneath Lys are machines which will give us water as
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 51
long as the world remains, for the old oceans are still there,
miles down in the Earth's crust.
"That, very briefly, is our history. You will see that even
in the Dawn Ages we had little to do with the cities, though
their people often came into our land. We never hindered
them, for many of our greatest men came from Outside, but
when the cities were dying we did not wish to be involved
in their downfall. With the ending of air transport, there
was only one way into Lys--the carrier svstem from Diaspar.
Four hundred million years ago that was closed by mutual
agreement. But we have remembered Diaspar, and I do not
know why you have forgotten Lys."
Seranis smiled, a little wryly.
"Diaspar has surprised us. We expected it to go the way
of all other cities, but instead it has achieved a stable culture
that may last as long as Earth. It is not a culture we admire,
yet we are glad that those who wished to escape have been
able to do so. More than you might think have made the
journey, and they have almost all been outstanding men."
Alvin wondered how Seranis could be so sure of her facts,
and he did not approve of her attitude towards Diaspar. He
had hardly "escaped"--yet, after all, the word was not altogether
inaccurate.
Somewhere a great bell vibrated with a throbbing boom
that ebbed and died in the still air. Six times it struck, and
as the last note faded into silence Alvin realized that the sun
was low on the horizon and the eastern sky already held a
hint of night.
"I must return to Diaspar," he said. "Rorden is expecting
me."
6
THE LAST NIAGARA
SERANIS LOOKED AT HIM THOUGHTFULLY FOR A MOMENT.
Then she rose to her feet and walked towards the stairway.
"Please wait a little while," she said. "I have some business
to settle and Theon, I know, has many questions to ask you "
Then she was gone, and for the next few minutes Theon's
barrage of questions drove any other thoughts from his mind.
Theon had heard of Diaspar, and had seen records of the
cities as they were at the height of their glory, but he could
not imagine how their inhabitants had passed their lives.
Alvin was amused at many of his questions--until he realized
that his own ignorance of Lys was even greater.
Seranis was gone for many minutes, but her expression
revealed nothing when she returned.
"We have been talking about you," she said--not explaining
who "we" might be: "If you return to Diaspar, the whole
city will know about us. Whatever promises you make, the
secret could not be kept."
A feeling of slight panic began to creep over Alvin. Seranis
must have known his thoughts for her next words were more
reassuring.
"We don't wish to keep you here against your wishes, but
if you return to Diaspar we will have to erase all memories
of Lys from your mind." She hesitated for a moment. "This
has never arisen before: all your predecessors came here to
stay."
Alvin was thinking deeply.
"Why should it matter," he said, "if Diaspar does learn
about you again? Surely it would be a good thing for both
our peoples?"
Seranis looked displeased.
"We don't think so," she said. "If the gates were opened,
our land would be flooded with sensation seekers and the 55
56 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
idly curious. As things are now, only the best of your people
have ever reached us."
Alvin felt himself becoming steadily more annoyed, but he realized that Seranis' attitude was quite unconscious.
"That isn't true," he said flatly. "Very few of us would
ever leave Diaspar. If you let me return, it would make no
difference to Lys."
"The decision is not in my hands," replied Seranis, "but
I will put it to the Council when it meets in three days from
now. Until then, you can remain as my guest and Theon
will show you our country."
"I would like to do that," said Alvin, "but Rorden will be
waiting for me. He knows where I am, and if I don't come
back at once anything may happen."
Seranis smiled slightly.
"We have given that a good deal of thought." she admitted.
"There are men working on the problem now--we
will see if they have been successful."
Alvin was annoyed at having overlooked something so obvious.
He knew that the engineers of the past had built for
eternity--his journey to Lys had been proof of that. Yet it
gave him a shock when the chromatic mist on the visiphone
screen drifted aside to show the familiar outlines of Rorden's room.
The Keeper of the Records looked up from his desk. His
eyes lit when he saw Alvin.
"I never expected you to be early," he said--though there
was relief behind the jesting words. "Shall I come to meet
you?"
While Alvin hesitated, Seranis stepped forward and Ror-
den saw her for the Erst time. His eyes widened and he leaned
forward as if to obtain a better view. The movement was as
useless as it was automatic: Man had not lost it even though
he had used the visiphone for a thousand million years.
Seranis laid her hands on Alvin's shoulders and began to
speak. When she had Bnished Rorden was silent for a while.
"I'll do my best," he said at length. "As I understand it, the choice lies between sending Alvin back to us under some
form of hypnosis--or returning him with no restrictions at
all. But I think I can promise that even if it learns of your
existence, Diaspar will continue to ignore you."
"We don't overlook that possibility," Seranis replied with
just a trace of pique. Rorden detected it instantly.
"And what of myself?" he asked with a smile. "I know as
much as Alvin now."
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 57
"Alvin is a boy," replied. Seranis quickly, "but you hold
an office as ancient as Diaspai. This is not the first time Lys
has spoken to the Keeper of the Records, and he has never
betrayed our secret yet."
Rorden made no comment: he merely said: "How long do
you wish to keep Alvin?"
"At the most, five days. The Council meets three days
from now."
"Very well: for the next five days, then, Alvin is extremely
busy on some historical research with me. This won't be the
first time it's happened--but we'll have to be out if Jeserac
calls."
Alvin laughed.
"Poor Jeserac! I seem to spend half my life hiding things
from him."
"You've been much less successful than you think," replied
Rorden, somewhat disconcertingly. "However, I don't expect
any trouble. But don't be longer than the five days'"
When the picture had faded, Rorden sat for a while staring
at the darkened screen. He had always suspected that the
world communication network might still be in existence,
but the keys to its operation had been lost and the billions
of circuits could never be traced by man. It was strange to
reflect that even now visiphones might be called vainly in
the lost cities. Perhaps the time would come when his own
receiver would do the same, and there would be no Keeper
of the Records to answer the unknown caller. . . .
He began to feel afraid. The immensity of what had happened
was slowly dawning upon him. Until now, Rorden had
given little thought to the consequences of his actions. His
own historical interests, and his affection for Alvin, had been
sufficient motive for what he had done. Though he had humored
and encouraged Alvin, he had never believed that anything
like this could possibly happen.
Despite the centuries between them, the boy's will had always
been more powerful than his own. It was too late to do
anything about it now: Rorden felt that events were sweeping
him along towards a climax utterly beyond his control.
"B ALL THIS REALLY NECESSARY," SAID ALVIN, "IF WE ARE
only going to be away for two or three days? After all, we
have a synthesizer with us."
58 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
"Probably not," answered Theon, throwing the last food-
containers into the little ground-car. "It may seem an odd
custom, but we've never synthesized some of our Enest foods
--we like to watch them grow. Also, we may meet other
parties and it's polite to exchange food with them. Nearly
every district has some special product, and Airlee is famous
for its peaches. That's why I've put so many aboard--not
because I think that even you can eat them all."
Alvin threw his half-eaten peach at Theon, who dodged
quickly aside. There came a flicker of iridescence and a faint
whirring of invisible wings as Krif descended upon the fruit
and began to sip its juices.
Alvin was still not quite used to Krif. It was hard for him
to realize that the great insect, though it would come when
called and would--sometimes--obey simple orders, was almost
wholly mindless. Life, to Alvin, had always been synonymous
with intelligence--sometimes intelligence far higher
than man's.
When Krif was resting, his six gauzy wings lay folded along
his body, which glittered through them like a jewelled scepter.
He was at once the highest and the most beautiful form of
insect life the world had ever known--the latest and perhaps
the last of all the creatures Man had chosen for his companionship.

Lys was full of such surprises, as Alvin was continually
learning. Its inconspicuous but efficient transport system had
been equally unexpected. The ground-car apparently worked
on the same principle as the machine that had brought him
from Diaspar, for it floated in the air a few inches above the
turf. Although there was no sign of any guide-rail, Theon
told him that the cars could only run on predetermined
tracks. All the centres of population were thus linked together,
but the remoter parts of the country could only be
reached on foot. This state of affairs seemed altogether extraordinary
to Alvin, but Theon appeared to think it was an
excellent idea.
Apparently Theon had been planning this expedition for
a considerable time. Natural history was his chief passion--
Krif was only the most spectacular of his many pets--and
he hoped to find new types of insect life in the uninhabited
southern parts of Lys.
The project had filled Alvin with enthusiasm when he heard
of it. He looked forward to seeing more of this wonderful
country, and although Theon's interests lay in a different
FR1;AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 59
field of knowledge from his own, he felt a kinship for his new
companion which not even Rorden had ever awakened.
Theon intended to travel south as far as the machine could
go--little more than an hour's journey from Airlee--and the rest of the way they would have to go on foot. Not realizing
the full implications of this, Alvin had no objections.
To Alvin, the journey across Lys had a dream-like unreality.
Silent as a ghost, the machine slid across rolling plains and
wound its way through forests, never deviating from its invisible
tracks. It travelled perhaps a dozen times as fast as a
man could comfortably walk. No one in Lys was ever in a
greater hurry than that.
Many times they passed through villages, some larger than
Airlee but most built along very similar lines. Alvin was interested
to notice subtle but significant differences in clothing
and even physical appearance as they moved from one community
to the next. The civilization of Lys was composed of
hundreds of distinct cultures, each contributing some special
talent towards the whole.
Once or twice Theon stopped to speak to friends, but the
pauses were brief and it was still morning when the little
machine came to rest among the foothills of a heavily wooded
mountain. It was not a very large mountain, but Alvin thought
it the most tremendous thing he had ever seen.
"This is where we start to walk," said Theon cheerfully,
throwing equipment out of the car. "We can't ride any
further."
As he fumbled with the straps that were to convert him
into a beast of burden, Alvin looked doubtfully at the great
mass of rock before them.
"It's a long way round, isn't it?" he queried.
"We aren't going round," replied Theon. "I want to get
to the top before nightfall."
Alvin said nothing. He had been rather afraid of this.
FROM HERE, SAID THEON, RAISING HIS VOICE TO MAKE IT
heard above the thunder of the waterfall, "you can see the
whole of Lys."
Alvin could well believe him. To the north lay mile upon
mile of forest, broken here and there by clearings and fields
and the wandering threads of a hundred rivers. Hidden somewhere
in that vast panorama was the village of Airlee. Alvin
60 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
fancied that he could catch a glimpse of the great lake, but
decided that his eyes had tricked him. Still further north,
trees and clearings alike were lost in a mottled carpet of
green, rucked here and there by lines of hills. And beyond
that, at the very edge of vision, the mountains that hemmed
Lys from the desert lay like a bank of distant clouds.
East and west the view was little different, but to the
south the mountains seemed only a few miles away. Alvin
could see them very clearly, and he realized that they were
far higher than the little peak on which he was standing.
But more wonderful even than these was the waterfall.
From the sheer face of the mountain a mighty ribbon of
water leaped far out over the valley, curving down through
space towards the rocks a thousand feet below. There it was
lost in a shimmering mist of spray, while up from the depths
rose a ceaseless, drumming thunder that reverberated in hollow
echoes from the mountain walls. And quivering in the air
above the base of the fall was the last rainbow left on Earth.
For long minutes the two boys lay on the edge of the cliff,
gazing at this last Niagara and the unknown land beyond.
It was very different from the country they had left, for in
some indefinable way it seemed deserted and empty. Man
had not lived here for many, many years.
Theon answered his friend's unspoken question.
"Once the whole of Lys was inhabited," he said, "but that
was a very long time ago. Only the animals live here now."
Indeed, there was nowhere any sign of human lifenone
of the clearings or well-disciplined rivers that spoke of Man's
presence. Only in one spot was there any indication that he
had ever lived here, for many miles away a solitary white ruin
jutted above the forest roof like a broken fang. Elsewhere,
the jungle had returned to its own.
7
THE CRATER DWELLER
IT WAS NIGHT WHEN ALVIN AWOKE, THE UTTER NIGHT OF
mountain country, terrifying in its intensity. Something had
disturbed him, some whisper of sound that had crept into
his mind above the dull thunder of the falls. He sat up in
the darkness, straining his eyes across the hidden land, while
with indrawn breath he listened to the drumming roar of
the falls and the faint but unending rustle of life in the trees
around him.
Nothing was visible. The starlight was too dim to reveal
the miles of country that lay hundreds of feet below: only
a jagged line of darker night eclipsing the stars told of the
mountains on the southern horizon. In the darkness beside
him Alvin heard his friend roll over and sit up.
"What is it?" came a whispered voice.
"I thought I heard a noise."
"What sort of noise?"
"I don't know. Perhaps I was only dreaming."
There was silence while two pairs of eyes peered out into
the mystery of night. Then, suddenly, Theon caught his
friend's arm.
"Look!" he whispered.
Far to the south glowed a solitary point of light, too low
in the heavens to be a star. It was a brilliant white, tinged
with violet, and as the boys watched it began to climb the
spectrum of intensity, until the eye could no longer bear to
look upon it. Then it explodedand it seemed as if lightning
had struck below the rim of the world. For an instant the
mountains, and the great land -they guarded, were etched
with Ere against the darkness of the night. Ages later came
the echo of a mighty explosion, and in the forest below a
63
64 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
sudden wind stirred among the trees. It died away swiftly,
and one by one the routed stars crept back into the sky.
For the Erst time in his life, Alvin knew that fear of the
unknown that had been the curse of ancient man. It was a
feeling so strange that for a while he could not even give it a
name. In the moment of recognition it vanished and he became
himself again.
"What is it?" he whispered.
There was a pause so long that he repeated the question.
"I'm trying to remember," said Theon, and was silent for
a while. A little later he spoke again.
"That must be Shalmirane," he said simply.
"Shalmirane! Does it still exist?"
"I'd almost forgotten," replied Theon, "but it's coming
back now. Mother once told me that the fortress lies in those
mountains. Of course, it's been in ruins for ages, but someone
is still supposed to live there."
Shalmirane! To these children of two races, so widely differing
in culture and history, this was indeed a name of magic.
In all the long story of Earth there had been no greater epic
than the defense of Shalmirane against an invader who had conquered all the Universe.
Presently Theon's voice came again out of the darkness.
"The people of the south could tell us more. We will ask
them on our way back."
Alvin scarcely heard him: he was deep in his own thoughts,
remembering stories that Rorden had told him long ago.
The Battle of Shalmirane lay at the dawn of recorded history:
it marked the end of the legendary ages of Man's conquests,
and the beginning of his long decline. In Shalmirane,
if anywhere on Earth, lay the answers to the problems that
had tormented him for so many years. But the southern
mountains were very far away.
Theon must have shared something of his mother's powers,
for he said quietly:
"If we started at dawn, we could reach the fortress by
nightfall. I've never been there, but I think I could End the
way."
Alvin thought it over. He was tired, his feet were sore, and the muscles of his thighs were aching with the unaccustomed
effort. It was very tempting to leave it until another
time. Yet there might be no other time, and there was even. the possibility that the actinic explosion had been a signal
for help.
Beneath the dim light of the failing stars, Alvin wrestled
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 65
with his thoughts and presently made his decision. Nothing
had changed: the mountains resumed their watch over the sleeping land. But a turning-point in history had come and
gone, and the human race was moving towards a strange
new future.
The sun had just lifted above the eastern wall of Lys when
they reached the outskirts of the forest. Here, nature had
returned to her own. Even Theon seemed lost among the
gigantic trees that blocked the sunlight and cast pools of
shadow on the jungle floor. Fortunately the river from the
fall flowed south in a line too straight to be altogether natural,
and by keeping to its edge they could avoid the denser
undergrowth. A good deal of Theon's time was spent in
controlling Krif, who disappeared occasionally into the jungle
or went skimming wildly across the water. Even Alvin, to
whom everything was still so new, could feel that the forest
had a fascination not possessed by the smaller, more cultivated
woods of northern Lys. Few trees were alike: most of.
them were in various stages of devolution and some had reverted
through the ages almost to their original, natural forms.
Many were obviously not of Earth at all--perhaps not even
of the Solar System. Watching like sentinels over the lesser
trees were giant sequoias, three or four hundred feet high.
They had once been called the oldest things on Earth: they
were still a little older than Man.
The river was widening now: ever and again it opened into small lakes, upon which tiny islands lay at anchor. There
were insects here, brilliantly colored creatures swinging aimlessly
to and fro over the surface of the water. Once, despite
Theon's shouts, Krif darted away to join his distant cousins.
He disappeared instantly in a cloud of glittering wings, and
the sound of angry buzzing floated towards them. A moment
later the cloud erupted and Krif came back across the water,
almost too quickly for the eye to follow. Thereafter he kept
very close to Theon and did not stray again.
Towards evening they caught occasional glimpses of the
mountains ahead. The river that had been so faithful a guide
was flowing sluggishly now, as if it too were nearing the end of
its journey. But it was clear that they could not reach the
mountains by nightfall: well before sunset the forest had
become so dark that further progress was impossible. The
great trees lay in pools of shadow, and a cold wind was sweeping
through the leaves. Alvin and Theon settled down for
the night beside a giant redwood whose topmost branches
were still ablaze with sunlight.
66 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
When at last the hidden sun went down, the light still
lingered on the dancing waters. The two boys lay in the gathering
gloom, watching the river and thinking of all that they
had seen. As Alvin fell asleep, he found himself wondering
who last had come this way, and how long since.
The sun was high when they left the forest and stood at
last before the mountain walls of Lys. Ahead of them the
ground rose steeply to the sky in waves of barren rock. Here
the river came to an end as spectacular as its beginning, for
the ground opened in its path and it sank roaring from sight.
For a moment Theon stood looking at the whirlpool and
the broken land beyond. Then he pointed to a gap in the
hills.
"Shalmirane lies in that direction," he said confidently.
Alvin looked at him in surprise.
"You told me you'd never been here beforel"
"I haven't."
"Then how do you know the way?"
Theon looked puzzled.
"I don't know--I've never thought about it before. It must
be a kind of instinct, for wherever we go in Lys we always
know our way about."
Alvin found this very difficult to believe, and followed
Theon with considerable skepticism. They were soon through
the gap in the hills, and ahead of them now was a curious
plateau with gently sloping sides. After a moment's hesitation.
Theon started to climb. Alvin followed, full of doubts,
and as he climbed he began to compose a little speech. If
the journey proved in vain, Theon would know exactly what
he thought of his unerring instinct.
As they approached the summit, the nature of the ground
altered abruptly. The lower slopes had consisted of porous,
volcanic stone, piled here and there in great mounds of slag.
Now the surface turned suddenly to hard sheets of glass,
smooth and treacherous, as if the rock had once run in
molten rivers down the mountain. The rim of the plateau
was almost at their feet. Theon reached it first, and a few
seconds later Alvin overtook him and stood speechless at his
side. For they stood on the edge, not of the plateau they
had expected, but of a giant bowl half a mile deep and three
miles in diameter. Ahead of them the ground plunged steeply
downwards, slowly levelling out at the bottom of valley and
rising again, more and more steeply, to the opposite rim.
And although it now lay in the full glare of the sun, the
whole of that great depression was ebon black. What material
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 67
formed the crater the boys could not even guess, but it was
black as the rock of a world that had never known a sun
Nor was that all, for lying beneath their feet and ringing
the entire crater was a seamless band of metal, some hundred
feet wide, tarnished by immeasurable age but still showing
no slightest trace of corrosion.
As their eyes grew accustomed to the unearthly scene, Al-
vin and Theon realized that the blackness of the bowl wis
not as absolute as they had thought. Here and there, so fugitive
that they could only see them indirectly, tiny explosions
of light were flickering in the ebon walls. They came at random,
vanishing as soon as they were born, like the reflections
of stars on a broken sea.
"It's wonderful!" gasped Alvin. "But what is it?"
"It looks like a reflector of some kind."
"I can't imagine that black stuff reflecting anything."
"It's only black to our eyes, remember. We don't know
what radiations they used."
"But surely there's more than this! Where is the fortress?"
Theon pointed to the level floor of the crater, where lay
what Alvin had taken to be a pile of jumbled stones. As he
looked again, he could make out an almost obliterated plan
behind the grouping of the great blocks. Yes, there lay the
ruins of once mighty buildings, overthrown by time.
For the first few hundred yards the walls were too smooth
and steep for the boys to stand upright, but after a little
while they reached the gentler slopes and could walk without
difficulty. Near the bottom of the crater the smooth ebony
of its surface ended in a thin layer of soil, which the winds
of Lys must have brought here through the ages.
A quarter of a mile away, titanic blocks of stone were piled
one upon the other, like the discarded toys of an infant giant.
Here, a section of a massive wall was still recognizable: there,
two carven obelisks marked what had once been a mighty
entrance. Everywhere grew mosses and creeping plants, and
tiny stunted trees. Even the wind was hushed.
So Alvin and Theon came to the ruins of Shalmirane,
Against those walls, if legend spoke the truth, forces that
could shatter a world to dust had flamed and thundered
and been utterly defeated. Once these peaceful skies had
blazed with fires torn from the hearts of suns, and the
mountains of Lys must have quailed like living things beneath
the fury of their masters.
No one had ever captured Shalmirane. But now the
fortress, the impregnable fortress, had fallen at last--cap-
68 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
hired and destroyed by the patient tendrils of the ivy and
the generations of blindly burrowing worms.
Overawed by its majesty, the two boys walked in silence
towards the colossal wreck. They passed into the shadow of
a broken wall, and entered a canyon where the mountains
of stone had split asunder.
Before them lay a great amphitheater, crossed and crisscrossed
with long mounds of rubble that must mark the
graves of buried machines. Once the whole of this tremendous
space had been vaulted, but the root had long since
collapsed. Yet life must still exist somewhere among the
desolation, and Alvin realized that even this ruin might
lie no more than superficial. The greater part of the fortress
would be far underground, beyond the reach of Time.
"We'll have to turn back by noon," said Theon, "so we
mustn't stay too long. It would be quicker if we separated.
I'll take the eastern half and you can'explore this side. Shout
if you find anything interesting--but don't get too far
away."
So they separated, and Alvin began to climb over the
rubble, skirting the larger mounds of stone. Near the center
of the arena he came suddenly upon a small circular clearing,
thirty or forty feet in diameter. It had been covered with
weeds, but they were now blackened and charred by tremendous
heat, so that they crumbled to ashes at his approach.
At the centre of the clearing stood a tripod supporting a
polished metal bowl, not unlike a model of Shalmirane itself.
It was capable of movement in altitude and azimuth, and
a spiral of some transparent substance was supported at its
centre. Beneath the reflector was welded a black box from
which a thin cable wandered away across the ground.
It was clear to Alvin that this machine must be the source
of the light, and he began to trace the cable. It was not
too easy to follow the slender wire, which had a habit of
diving into crevasses and reappearing at unexpected places.
Finally he lost it altogether and shouted to Theon to come
and help him.
He was crawling under an overhanging rock when a shadow
suddenly blotted out the light. Thinking it was his friend,
Alvin emerged from the cave and turned to speak. But the
words died abruptly on his lips.
Hanging in the air before him was a great dark eye
surrounded by a satellite system of smaller eyes. Th.it, at
least, was Alvin's first impression: then he realized that he
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 69
was looking at a complex machine--and it was looking at
him.
Alvin broke the painful silence All his life he had given
orders to machines, and although he had never seen anything
quite like this creature, he decided that it was probably
intelligent.
"Reverse," he ordered experimentally.
Nothing happened.
"Go. Come. Rise. Fall. Advance."
None of the conventional control thoughts produced any
effect. The machine remained contemptuously inactive
Alvin took a step forward, and the eyes retreated in some
haste. Unfortunately, their angle of vision seemel somewhat
limited, for the machine came to a sudden halt agauut Theon, who for the last minute had been an interested
spectator. With a perfectly human ejaculation, the wh )le
apparatus shot twenty feet into the air, revealing a set of
tentacles and jointed limbs clustering round a stubby cylin
drical body.
"Come down--we won't hurt you!" called Theon, rubbing
a bruise on his chest.
Something spoke: not the passionless, crystal-clear voice
of a machine, but the quavering speech of a very old and
very tired man.
"Who are you? What are you doing in Shalmirane?"
"My name is Theon, and this is my friend, Alvin of
Loronei. We're exploring Southern Lys."
There was a brief pause. When the machine spoke again
its voice held an unmistakable note of petulance and annoyance.

"Why can't you leave me in peace? You know how often
I've asked to be left alonel"
Theon, usually good-natured, bristled visibly.
"We're from Airlee, and we don't know anything about
Shalmirane."
"Besides," Alvin added reproachfully, "we saw your light
and thought you might be signalling for help."
It was strange to hear so human a sigh from the coldly
impersonal machine.
"A million times I must have signalled now, and all I
have ever done is to draw the inquisitive from Lys But I see
you meant no harm. Follow me."
The machine floated slowly away over the broken stones,
coming to rest before a dark opening in the ruined wall
of the amphitheater. In the shadow of the cave something
70 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
moved, and a human figure stepped into the sunlight. He
was the first physically old man Alvin had ever seen. His
head was completely bald, but a thick growth of pure white
hair coveied all the lower part of his face. A cloak of woven
glass was thrown carelessly over his shoulders, and on either
side of him floated two more of the strange, many-eyed
machines.
8
THE STORY OF SHALMIRANE
THERE WAS A BRIEF SILENCE WHILE EACH SIDE REGARDF3
the other. Then the old man spoke--and the three machines
echoed his voice for a moment until something
switched them off.
"So you are from the North, and your people have already
forgotten Shalmirane."
"Oh, no!" said Theon quickly, "we've not forgotten But
we weren't sure that anyone still lived here, and we certainly
didn't know that you wished to be left alone."
The old man did not reply. Moving with a slowness that
was painful to watch, he hobbled through the doorway and
disappeared, the three machines floating silently after him.
Alvin and Theon looked at each other in surprise- they did
not like to follow, but their dismissal--if dismissal it was--
had certainly been brusque. They were starting to argue the
matter when one of the machines suddenly reappeared
"What are you waiting for? Come alongi" it ordered.
Then it vanished again.
Alvin shrugged his shoulders.
"We appear to be invited. I think our host's a little
eccentric, but he seems friendly."
From the opening in the wall a wide spiral stairway led
downwards for a score of feet. It ended in a small circular
room from which several corridors radiated. However, there
was no possibility of confusion, for all the passages save one
were blocked with debris.
Alvin and Theon had walked only a few yards when they
found themselves in a large and incredibly untidy room
cluttered up with a bewildering variety of objects One end
of the chamber was occupied by domestic machines--synthesizers,
destructors, cleaning equipment and the like--
73
74 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
which one normally expected to be concealed from sight in the walls and floors. Around these were piled cases of
thought records and transcribers, forming pyramids tliat
reached almost to the ceiling. The whole room was uncomfortably
hot owing to the presence of a dozen perpetual fires scattered about the floor. Attracted by the radiation,
Krif flew towards the nearest of the metal spheres, stretched
his wings luxuriously before it, and fell instantly asleep.
It was a little while before the boys noticed the old man
and his three machines waiting for them in a small open
space which reminded Alvin of a clearing in the jungle.
There was a certain amount of furniture here--a table and
three comfortable couches. One of these was old and shabby,
but the others were so conspicuously new that Alvin was
certain they had been created in the last few minutes. Even
as he watched, the familiar warning glow of the synthesizer
field flickered over the table and their host waved silently
towards it. They thanked him formally and began to sample
the food and drink that had suddenly appeared. Alvin realized
that he had grown a little tired of the unvarying output from Theon's portable synthesizer and the change was very welcome.

They ate in silence for a while, stealing a glance now and
then at the old man. He seemed sunk in his own thoughts
and appeared to have forgotten them completely--but as
soon as they had finished he looked up and began to question
them. When Alvin explained that he was a native not of
Lys but of Diaspar, the old fellow showed no particular
surprise. Theon did his best to deal with the queries: for
one who disliked visitors, their host seemed very anxious
to have news of the outer world. Alvin quickly decided that
his earlier attitude must have been a pose.
Presently he fell silent again. The two boys waited with
what patience .they could: he had told them nothing of
himself or what he was doing in Shalmirane. The light-
signal that had drawn them there was still as great a mystery
as ever, yet they did not care to ask outright for an
explanation. So they sat in an uncomfortable silence, their
eyes wandering round that amazing room, finding something
new and unexpected at every moment. At last Alvin broke
into the old man's reverie.
"We must leave soon," he remarked.
It was not a statement so much as a hint. The wrinkled
face turned towards him but the eyes were still very far
away. Then the tired, infinitely ancient voice began to speak.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 75
It was so quiet and low that at first they could scarcely hear:
after a while the old man must have noticed their difficulty,
for of a sudden the three machines began once more to echo
his words.
Much that he told them they could never understand.
Sometimes he used words which were unknown to them:
at other times he spoke as if repeating sentences or whole
speeches that others must have written long ago. But the
main outlines of the story were clear, and they took Alvin's
thoughts back to the ages of which he had dreamed since his
childhood.
The tale began, like so many others, amid the chaos of
the Transition Centuries, when the Invaders had gone but
the world was still recovering from its wounds. At that time
there appeared in Lys the man who later became known as
the Master. He was accompanied by three strange machines
--the very ones that were watching them now--which acted
as his servants and also possessed definite intelligences of their
own. His origin was a secret he never disclosed, and eventually
it was assumed that he had come from space, somehow
penetrating the blockade of the Invaders. Far away among
the stars there might still be islands of humanity which the
tide of war had not yet engulfed.
The Master and his machines possessed powers which
the world had lost, and around him he gathered a group
of men to whom he taught much wisdom. His personality
must have been a very striking one, and Alvin could understand
dimly the magnetism that had drawn so many to him.
From the dying cities, men had come to Lys in their
thousands, seeking rest and peace of mind after the years
of confusion. Here among the forests and mountains, listening
to the Master's words, they found that peace at last.
At the close of his long life the Master had asked his
friends to carry him out into the open so that he could
watch the stars. He had waited, his strength waning, until
the culmination of the Seven Suns. As he died the resolution
with which he had kept his secret so long seemed to weaken,
and he babbled many things of which countless books were
to be written in future ages. Again and again he spoke of
the "Great Ones" who had now left the world but who
would surely one day return, and he charged his followers
to remain to greet them when they came. Those were his
last rational words. He was never again conscious of his
surroundings, but just before the end he uttered one phrase
that revealed part at least of his secret and had come down
76 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
the ages to haunt the minds of all who heard it: "It is
lovely to watch the colored shadows on the planets of eternal
light" Then he died.
So arose the religion of the Great Ones, for a religion it now became. At the Master's death many of his followers
broke away, but others remained faithful to his teachings,
which they slowly elaborated through the ages. At first they
believed that the Great Ones, whoever they were, would
soon return to Earth, but that hope faded with the passing
centuries. Yet the brotherhood continued, gathering new
members from the lands around, and slowly its strength and
power increased until it dominated the whole of Southern
Lys.
It was very hard for Alvin to follow the old man's narrative.
The words were used so strangely that he could not
tell what was truth and what legend--if, indeed, the story- held any truth at all. He had only a confused picture of
generations of fanatical men, waiting for some great event
which they did not understand to take place at some unknown
future date.
The Great Ones never returned. Slowly the power of the
movement failed, and the people of Lys drove it into the
mountains until it took refuge in Shalmirane. Even then
the watchers did not lose their faith, but swore that however
long the wait they would be ready when the Great Ones
came. Long ago men had learned one way of defying Time,
and the knowledge had survived when so much else had
been lost. Leaving only a few of their number to watch over
Shalmirane, the rest went into the dreamless sleep of suspended
animation.
Their numbers slowly falling as sleepers were awakened
to replace those who died, the watchers kept faith with tlie
Master. From his dying words it seemed certain that the
Great Ones lived on the planets of the Seven Suns, and in
later years attempts were made to send signals into space.
Long ago the signalling had become no more than a meaningless
ritual, and now the story was nearing its end. In a
very little while only the three machines would be left in
Shalmirane, watching over the bones of the men who had
come here so long ago in a cause that they alone could
understand.
The thin voice died away, and -Alvin's thoughts returned
to the world he knew. More than ever before the extent of
his ignorance overwhelmed him. A tiny fragment of the
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 77
past had been illuminated for a little while, but now the
darkness had closed over it again.
The world's history was a mass of such disconnected
threads, and none could say which were important and which
were trivial. This fantastic tale of the Master and the Great
Ones might be no more than another of the countless legends
that had somehow survived from the civilizations of the
Dawn. Yet the three machines were unlike any that Alvin
had ever seen. He could not dismiss the whole story, as he
had been tempted to do, as a fable built of self-delusion
upon a foundation of madness.
"These machines," he said abruptly, "surely they've been
questioned? If they came to Earth with the Master, they
must still know his secrets."
The old man smiled wearily.
"They know," he said, "but they will never speak. The
Master saw to that before he handed over the control. We
have tried times without number, but it is useless."
Alvin understood. He thought of the Associator in Diaspar,
and the seals that Alaine had set upon its knowledge. Even
those seals, he now believed, could be broken in time, and
the Master Associator must be infinitely more complex than
these little robot slaves. He wondered if Rorden, so skilled
in unravelling the secrets of the past, would be able to wrest
the machines' hidden knowledge from them. But Rorden
was far away and would never leave Diaspar.
Quite suddenly the plan came fully fledged into his mind.
Only a very young person could ever have thought of it, and it taxed even Alvin's self-confidence to the utmost. Yet
once the decision had been made, he moved with determination
and much cunning to his goal.
He pointed towards the three machines.
"Are they identical?" he asked. "I mean, can each one
do everything, or are they specialized in any way?
The old man looked a little puzzled.
"I've never thought about it," he said. "When I need
anything, I ask whichever is most convenient. I don't think
there is any difference between them."
"There can't be a great deal of work for them to do
now," Alvin continued innocently. Theon looked a little
startled, but Alvin carefully avoided his friend's eye. The
old man answered guilelessly.
"No," he replied sadly, "Shalmirane is very different now."
Alvin paused in sympathy: then, very quickly, he began to talk. At first the old man did not seem to grasp his
78 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
proposal- later, when comprehension came, Alvin gave him
no time to interrupt. He spoke of the great storehouses of
knowledge in Diaspar, and the skill with which the Keeper
of the Records could use them. Although the Master's machines
had withstood all other enquirers, they might yield
their secrets to Rorden's probing. It would be a tragedy if
the chance were missed, for it would never come again.
Flushed with the heat of his own oratory, Alvin ended
his appeal:
"Lend me one of the machines--you do not need them
all. Order it to obey my controls and I will take it to Dias-
par. I promise to return it whether the experiment succeeds
or not."
Even Theon looked shocked and an expression of horror
came across the old man's face.
"I couldn't do that!" he gasped.
"But why not? Think what we might learnI"
The other shook his head 6rmly.
"It would be against the Master's wishes."
Alvin was disappointed--disappointed and annoyed. But
he was young, and his opponent was old and tired. He began
again to go through the argument, shifting his attack and
pressing home each advantage. And now for the first time
Theon saw an Alvin he had never suspected before--a
personality, indeed, that was surprising Alvin himself. The
men of the Dawn Ages had never let obstacles bar their way
for long, and the will-power and determination that had
been their heritage had not yet passed from Earth. Even
as a child Alvin had withstood the forces seeking to mould
him to the pattern of Diaspar. He was older now, and
against him was not the greatest city of the world but only ^ an aged man who sought nothing but rest, and would surely ,|
find that soon. |
9
MASTER OF THE ROBOT
THE EVENING WAS FAR ADVANCED WHEN THE GROUND-CAR
slid silently through the last screen of trees and came to
rest in the great glade of Airlee. The argument, which had
lasted most of the journey, had now died away and peace
had been restored. They had never quite come to blows,
perhaps because the odds were so unequal. Theon had only
Krif to support him, but Alvin could call upon the argus-
eyed, many-tentacled machine he still regarded so lovingly.
Theon had not minced his words. He had called his friend
a bully and had told Alvin that he should be thoroughly
ashamed of himself. But Alvin had only laughed and continued
to play with his new toy. He did not know how the
transfer had been effected, but he alone could control the
robot now, could speak with its voice and see through its
eyes. It would obey no one else in all the world.
Seranis was waiting for them in a surprising room which
seemed to have no ceiling, though Alvin knew that there
was a floor above it. She seemed to be worried and more uncertain
than he had ever seen her before, and he remembered
the choice that might soon lie before him. Until now he
had almost forgotten it. He had believed that, somehow,
the Council would resolve the difficulty. Now he realized
that its decision might not be to his liking.
The voice of Seranis was troubled when she began to
speak, and from her occasional pauses Alvin could tell that
she was repeating words already rehearsed.
"Alvin," she began, "there are many things I did not tell
you before, but which you must learn now if you are to
understand our actions.
"You know one of the reasons for the isolation of our
81
82 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
two races. The fear of the Invaders, that dark shadow in
the depths of every human mind, turned your people against
the world and made them lose themselves in their own
dreams. Here in Lys that fear has never been so great,
although we bore the burden of the attack. We had a better
reason for our actions, and what we did, we did with open
eyes.
"Long ago, Alvin, men sought immortality and at last
achieved it. They forgot that a world which had banished
death must also banish birth. The power to extend his life
inde6nitely brought contentment to the individual but stagnation
to the race. You once told me that you were the
only child to be born in Diaspar for seven thousand years--
but you have seen how many children we have here in Airlee.
Ages ago we sacriEced our immortality, but Diaspar still
follows the false dream. That is why our ways parted--and
why they must never meet again."
Although the words had been more than half expected,
the blow seemed none the less for its anticipation. Yet Alvin refused to admit the failure of all his plans--half-formed
though they were--and only part of his brain was listening
to Seranis now. He understood and noted all her words, but
the conscious portion of his mind was retracing the road to
Diaspar, trying to imagine every obstacle that could be placed
in his way.
Seranis was clearly unhappy. Her voice was almost pleading
as it spoke, and Alvin knew that she was talking not only
to him but to her own son. Theon was watching his mother
with a concern which held at last more than a trace of
accusation.
"We have no desire to keep you here in Lys against your
will, but you must surely realize what it would mean if our
people mixed. Between our culture and yours is a gulf as
great as any that ever separated Earth from its ancient
colonies. Think of this one fact, Alvin. You and Theon are
now of nearly the same age--but he and I will have been
dead for centuries when you are stiJJ a boy."
The room was very quiet, so quiet that Alvin could hear
the strange, plaintive cries of unknown beasts in the Selds
beyond the village. Presently he said, almost in a whisper:
"What do you want me to do?"
"I have put your case to the Council, as I promised, but
the law cannot be altered. You may remain here and become
one of us, or you may return to Diaspar. If you do that, we
must rst reshape the patterns of your mind so that you
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 83
have no recollection of Lys and never again attempt to reach
us."
"And Rorden? He would still know the truth, even if I
had forgotten everything."
"We have spoken with Rorden many times since you left.
He recognizes the wisdom of our actions."
In that dark moment, it seemed to Alvin that the whole world had turned against him. Though there was much truth
in the words of Seranis, he would not recognize it he saw
only the wreck of his still dimly-conceived plans, the end
of the search for knowledge that had now become the most
important thing in his life.
Seranis must have read his thoughts.
"I'll leave you for a while," she said. "But remember--
whatever your choice, there can be no turning back."
Theon followed her to the door but Alvin called after
him. He looked enquiringly at his mother, who hesitated
for a moment and then nodded her head. The door closed
silently behind her and Alvin knew that it would not open
again without her consent.
Alvin waited until his racing thoughts were once more
under control.
"Theon," he began, "you'll help me, won't you?"
The other nodded but did not speak.
"Then tell me this--how could your people stop me if
I tried to run away?"
"That would be easy. If you tried to escape, my mother
would take control of your mind. Later, when you became
one of us, you would not wish to leave."
"I see. Can you tell if she is watching my mind now?"
Theon looked worried, but his protest answered the question.

"I shouldn't tell you that!"
"But you will, won't you?"
The two bOys looked silently at each other for many
seconds. Then Theon smiled.
"You can't bully me, you know. Whatever you're planning
--and / can't read your mind--as soon as you tried to put
it into action Mother would take over. She won't let you
out of her sight until everything has been settled."
"I know that," said Alvin, "but is she looking into my
mind at this moment?"
The other hesitated.
"No, she isn't," he said at last. "I think's she's delib-
84 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
crately leaving you alone, so that her thoughts won't influence
you."
That was all he needed to know. For the first time Alvin
dared to turn his mind upon the only plan that offered any
hope. He was far too stubborn to accept either of the alternatives
Seranis had offered him, and even if there had been nothing at stake he would have bitterly resisted any attempt
to override his will.
In a little while Seranis would return. He could do noth'ing
until they were in the open again, and even then Seranis
would be able to control his actions if he attempted to run
away. And apart from that, he was sure that many of the
villagers could intercept him long before he reached safety.
Very carefully, checking every detail, he traced out the
only road that could lead him back to Diaspar on the terms
he wished.
Theon warned him when Seranis was near, and he quickly
turned his thoughts into harmless channels. It had never
been easy for her to understand his mind, and now it seemed
to Seranis as if she were far out in space, looking down upon
a world veiled with impenetrable clouds. Sometimes there
would be a rift in the covering, and for an instant she could
catch a glimpse of what lay beneath. She wondered what
Alvin was trying to hide from her. For a moment she dipped
into her son's mind, but Theon knew nothing of the other's
plans. She thought again of the precautions she had taken:
as a man may flex his muscles before some great exertion,
she ran through the compulsion patterns she might have to
use. But there was no trace of her preoccupation as she
smiled at Alvin from the doorway.
"Well," she asked, "have you made up your mind?"
Alvin's reply seemed frank enough.
"Yes," he said. "I will return to Diaspar."
"I'm sorry, and I know that Theon will miss you. But
perhaps ifs best: this is not your world and you must think
of your own people."
With a gesture of supreme confidence, she stood aside
to let Alvin pass through the door.
"The men who can obliterate your memory of Lys are
waiting for you: we expected this decision."
Alvin was glad to see that Seranis was leading him in
the direction he wished to go. She did not look back to
see if he was following: her every movement told him:
"Try and run away if you like--my mind is more powerful
than yours." And he knew that it was perfectly true.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 85
They were clear of the houses when he stopped and turned
to his friend.
"Good-bye, Theon," he said, holding out his hands.
"Thank you for all you've done. One day I'll be back."
Seranis had stopped and was watching him intently. He
smiled at her even while he measured the twenty feet of
ground between them.
"I know that you're doing this against your will," he
said, "and I don't blame you for it. I don't like what I'm
doing, either." (That was not true, he thought. Already he
was beginning to enjoy himself.) He glanced quickly around:
no one was approaching and Seranis had not moved. She
was still watching him, probably trying to probe into his
mind. He talked quickly to prevent even the outlines of
his plan from shaping among his thoughts.
"I do not believe you are right," he said, so unconscious
of his intellectual arrogance that Seranis could not resist
a smile. "It's wrong for Lys and Diaspar to remain apart
forever: one day they may need each other desperately. So
I am going home with all that I have learned--and I do
no!- think that you can stop me."
He waited no longer, and it was just as well. Seranis
never moved, but instantiv he felt his body slipping from
his control. The power that had brushed aside his own
will was even greater than he had expected, and he realized
that many hidden minds must be aiding Seranis. Helplessly
he began to walk back towards the center of the village,
and for an awful moment he thought his plans had failed.
Then there came a flash of steel and crystal, and the metal
arms closed swiftly around him. His body fought against
them, as he had known it must do, but his struggles were
useless. The ground fell away beneath him and he caught
a glimpse of Theon, frozen by surprise with a foolish smile
upon his face.
The robot was carrying him a dozen feet above the ground,
much faster than a man could run. It took Seranis only a
moment to understand his ruse, and his struggles died away
as she relaxed her control. But she was not defeated yet,
and presently there happe-.ied that which Alvin had feared
and done his best to counteract.
There were now two separate entities fighting inside his
mind, and one of them was pleading with the robot, begging
it to set him down again. The real Alvin waited, breathlessly,
resisting only a little against forces he knew he could not
hope to fight. He had gambled: there was no way of telling
86 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
beforehand if the machine could understand orders as complex
as those he had given it. Under no circumstances, he had
told the robot, must it obey any further commands of his
until he was safely inside Diaspar. Those were the orders.
If they were obeyed, Alvin had placed his fate beyond the
reach of human interferences.
Never hesitating, the machine raced on along the path
he had so carefully mapped out for it. A part of him was
still pleading angrily to be released, but he knew now that
he was safe. And presently Seranis understood that too, for
the forces inside his brain ceased to war with one another.
Once more he was at peace, as ages ago an earlier wanderer
had been when, lashed to the mast of his ship, he had heard
the song of the Sirens die away across the wine-dark sea.
"SO YOU SEE," CONCLUDED ALVIN, "IT WILL CARRY OUT ANY
orders I give, no matter how complicated they are. But as
soon as I ask questions about its origin, it simply freezes
like that."
The machine was hanging motionless above the Master
Associator, its crystal lenses glittering in the silver light like
a cluster of jewels. Of all the robots which Rorden had ever
met, this was by far the most baffling: he was now almost
sure that it had been built by no human civilization. With
-such eternal servants it was not surprising that the Master's
personality had survived the ages.
Alvin's return had raised so many problems that Rorden
was almost afraid to think of them. He himself had not
found it easy to accept the existence of Lys with all its
implications, and he wondered how Diaspar would react to
the new knowledge. Probably the city's immense inertia
would cushion the shock: it might well be years before all
of its inhabitants fully appreciated the fact that they were
no longer alone on Earth.
But if Alvin had his way, things would move much more
quickly than that. There were times when Rorden regretted
the failure of Seranis' planseverything would have been
so much simpler. The problem was immense, and for the
second occasion in his life Rorden could not decide what
course of action was correct. He wondered how many more
times Alvin would present him with such dilemmas, and
smiled a little wryly at the thought. For it would make no
difference either way: Alvin would do exactly as he pleased.
As yet, not more than a dozen people outside Alvin's own
family knew the truth. His parents, with whom he now had
so little in common and often did not see for weeks, still
89
90 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
seemed to think that he had merely been to some outlying
part of the city. Jeserac had been the only person to react
strongly: once the initial shock had worn off he had engaged
in a violent quarrel with Rorden and the two were no longer
on speaking terms. Alvin, who had seen this coming for some
time, could guess the details but to his disappointment neither
of the protagonists would talk about the matter.
Later, there would be time enough to see that Diaspar
realized the truth: for the moment Alvin was too interested
in the robot to worry about much else. He felt, and his
belief was now shared by Rorden, that the tale he had heard
in Shalmirane was only a fragment of some far greater story.
At first Rorden had been skeptical, and he still believed the
"Great Ones" to be no more than another of the world's
countless religious myths. Only the robot knew the truth,
and it had defied a million centuries of questioning as it was
defying them now.
"The trouble is," said Rorden, "that there are no longer
any engineers left in the world."
Alvin looked puzzled: although contact with the Keeper
of the Records had greatly enlarged his vocabulary, there
were thousands of archaic words he did not understand.
"An engineer," explained Rorden, "was a man who designed
and built machines. It's impossible for us to imagine
an age without robots--but every machine in the world had
to be invented at one time or other, and until the Master
Robots were built they needed men to look after them. Once
the machines could care for themselves, human engineers
were no longer required. I think that's a fairly accurate account,
though of course it's mostly guesswork. Every machine
we possess existed at the beginning of our history, and many
had disappeared long before it started."
"Such as flyers and spaceships," interjected Alvin.
"Yes," agreed Rorden, "as well as the great communicators
that could reach the stars. All these things vanished when
they were no longer needed."
Alvin shook his head.
"I still believe," he said, "that the disappearance of the
spaceships can't be explained as easily as that. But to get
back to the machine--do you think that the Master Robots
could help us? I've never seen one, of course, and don't
know much about them."
"Help us? In what way?"
"I'm not quite sure," said Alvin vaguely. "Perhaps they
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 91
could force it to obey all my orders. They repair robots, don't
they? I suppose that would be a kind of repair . . ."
His voice faded away as if he had failed even to convince
himself.
Rorden smiled: the idea was too ingenuous for him to put
much faith in it. However, this piece of historical research
was the first of all Alvin's schemes for which he himself could
share much enthusiasm, and he could think of no better plan
at the moment.
He walked towards the Associator, above which the robot
was still floating as if in studied indifference. As he began,
almost automatically, to set up his questions on the great
keyboard, he was suddenly struck by a thought so incongruous
that he burst out laughing.
Alvin looked at his friend in surprise as Rorden turned
towards him.
"Alvin," he said between chuckles, "I'm afraid we still
have a lot to learn about machines." He laid his hand on
the robot's smooth metal body. "They don't share many
human feelings, you know. It wasn't really necessary for us
to do all our plotting in whispers."
THIS WORLD, ALVIN KNEW, HAD NOT BEEN MADE FOR MAN.
Under the glare of the trichromatic lights--so dazzling that
they pained the eyes--the long, broad corridors seemed to
stretch to infinity. Down these great passageways all the
robots of Diaspar must come at the end of their patient
lives, yet not once in a million years had they echoed to
the sound of human feet.
It had not been difficult to locate the maps of the underground
city, the city of machines without whfirfi Diaspar
could not exist. A few hundred yards ahead the corridor
would open into a circular chamber more than a mile across,
its roof supported by great columns that must also bear the
unimaginable weight of Power Center. Here, if the maps
spoke the truth, the Master Robots, greatest of all machines,
kept watch over Diaspar.
The chamber was there, and it was even vaster than
Alvin had imagined--but where were the machines? He
paused in wonder at the tremendous but meaningless panorama
beneath him. The corridor ended high in the wall of
92 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
the chamber--surely the largest cavity ever built by man--
and on either side long ramps swept down to the distant
floor. Covering the whole of that brilliantly lit expanse were
hundreds of great white structures, so unexpected that for
a moment Alvin thought he must be looking down upon a
subterranean city. The impression was startlingly vivid and
i. was one he never wholly lost. Nowhere at all was the
sifht he had expected--the familiar gleam of metal which
since the beginning of time man had learned to associate
with his servants
Here wa' the end of an evolution almost as long as Man's.
Its beginning was lost in the mists of the Dawn Ages, when
humanity had first learned the use of power and sent its
nn'-y engines clanking about the world. Steam, water, wind
--all hac" been harnessed for a little while and then abandoned.
For centuries the energy of matter had run the world until
it too had been superseded, and with each change the old
machines were forgotten and the new ones took their place.
Very slowly, over millions of years, the ideal of the perfect
machine was approached--that ideal which had once been
a dream, then a distant prospect, and at last reality:
No machine may contain any moving parts.
Here was the ultimate expression of that ideal. Its achievement
had taken Man perhaps a thousand million years, and
in the hour of his triumph he had turned his back upon the
machine forever.
The robot they were seeking was not as large as many
of its companions, but Alvin and Rorden felt dwarfed when
they stood beneath it. The five tiers with their sweeping
horizontal lines gave the impression of some crouching beast,
and looking from it to his own robot Alvin thought it
strange that the same word should be used for both.
Almost three feet from the ground a wide transparent
panel ran the whole length of the structure. Alvin pressed
his forehead against the smooth, curiously warm material
and peered into the machine. At first he saw nothing: then,
by shielding his eyes, he could distinguish thousands of faint
points of light hanging in nothingness. They were ranged
cne beyond the other in a three-dimensional lattice, as strange and as meaningless to him as the stars must have
been to ancient man.
Rorden had joined him and together they stared into the
brooding monster. Though they watched for many minutes,
the colored lights never moved from their places and their
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 93
brilliance never changed. Presently Alvin broke away from
the machine and turned to his friend.
"What are they?" he asked in perplexity.
"If we could look into our own minds," said Rorden,
"they would mean as little to us. The robots seem motionless
because we cannot see their thoughts."
For the first time Alvin looked at the long avenue of
titans with some trace of understanding. All his life he had
accepted without question the miracle of the Synthesizers,
the machines which age after age produced in an unending
stream all that the city needed. Thousands of times he had
watched that act of creation, never thinking that somewhere
must exist the prototype of that which he had seen come
into the world.
As a human mind may dwell for a little while upon a
single thought, so these greater brains could grasp and
hold forever the most intricate ideas. The patterns of all
created things were frozen in these eternal minds, needing
only the touch of a human will to make them reality.
The world had gone very far since, hour upon hour, the
first cavemen had patiently chipped their arrowlieads and
knives from the stubborn stone.
"Our problem now," said Rorden, "is to get into touch
with the creature. It can never have any direct knowledge
of man, for there's no way in which we can affect its consciousness.
If my information's correct, there must be an
interpreting machine somewhere. That was a type of robot
that could convert human instructions into commands that
the Master Robots could understand. They were pure intelligence
with little memory--just as this is a tremendous
memory with relatively little intelligence."
Alvin considered for a moment. Then he pointed to his
own robot.
"Why not use it?" he suggested. "Robots have very literal
minds. It won't refuse to pass on our instructions, for I doubt
if the Master ever thought of this situation."
Rorden laughed.
"I don't suppose he did, but as there's a machine specially
built for the job I think it would be best to use it."
The Interpreter was a very small affair, a horseshoe shaped
construction built round a vision screen which lit up as
they approached. Of all the machines in this great cavern,
it was the only one which had shown any cognizance of
man, and its greeting seemed a little contemptuous. For on
the screen appeared the words:
FR1;94	AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
STATE YOUR PROBLEM
PLEASE THINK CLEARLY
Ignoring the implied insult, Alvin began his st-orv. Though
he had communicated with robots by speech or thought on
countless occasions, he felt now that he was addressing something
more than a machine. Lifeless though this creature
was, it possessed an intelligence that might be greater than
his own. It was a strange thought, but it did not depress
him undulv--for of what use was intelligence alone?
His words died away and the silence of that overpowering
place crowded back upon them. For a moment the screen
was filled with swirling mist: then the haze cleared and the
machine replied:
KEPAIR IMPOSSIBLE
ROBOT UNKNOWN TYPE
Alvin turned to his friend with a gesture of disappointment,
but even as he did so the lettering changed and a second
message appeared:
DUPLICATION COMPLETED PLEASE CHECK AND SIGN
Simultaneously a red light began to flash above a horizontal
panel Alvin had not noticed before, and was certain
he must have seen had it been there earlier. Puzzled, he
bent towards it, but a shout from Rorden made him look
round in surprise. The other was pointing towards the great
Master Robot, where Alvin had left his own machine a few
minutes before.
It had not moved, but it had multiplied. Hanging in the
air beside it was a duplicate so exact that Alvin could not
tell which was the original and which the copy.
"I was watching when it happened," said Rorden excitedly.
"It suddenly seemed to extend, as if millions of replicas had
come into existence on either side of it. Then all the images
except these two disappeared. The one on the right is the
original."
ALVIN WAS STILL STUNNED, BUT SLOWLY HE BEGAN TO KEALize
what must have happened. His robot could not be forced
to disobey the orders given it so long ago, but a duplicate
could be made with all its knowledge yet with the unbreakable
memory-block removed. Beautiful though the solution
was, the mind would be unwise to dwell too long upon
the powers that made it possible.
The robots moved as one when Alvin called them towards
him. Speaking his commands, as he often did for Rorden's
benefit, he asked again the question he had put so many
times in different forms.
"Can you tell me how your first master reached Shalmirane?"

Rorden wished his mind could intercept the soundless
replies, of which he had never been able to catch even a
fragment. But this time there was little need, for the glad
smile that spread across Alvin's face was sufficient answer.
The boy looked at him triumphantly.
"Number One is just the same," he said, "but Two is
willing to talk."
"I think we should wait until we're home again before
we begin to ask questions," said Rorden, practical as ever.
"We'll need the Associators and Recorders when we start."
Impatient though he was, Alvin had to admit the wisdom
of the advice. As he turned to go, Rorden smiled at his
eagerness and said quietly:
"Haven't you forgotten something?"
The red light on the Interpreter was still flashing, and
its message still glowed on the screen.
97
98	AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
PLEASE CHECK AND SIGN
Alvin walked to the machine and examined the panel
above which the light was blinking. Set in it was a window
of some almost invisible substance, supporting a stylus which
passed vertically through it. The point of tlie stylus rested
on a sheet of white material which already bore several
signatures and dates. The last of them was almost fifty
thousand years ago, and Alvin recognized the name as that
of a recent President of the Council. Above it only two
other names were visible, neither of which meant anything
to him or to Rorden. Nor was this very surprising, for they
had been written twenty-three and fifty-seven million years
before.
Alvin could see no purpose for this ritual, but he knew
that he could never fathom the workings of the minds that
had built this place. With a slight feeling of unreality he
grasped the stylus and began to write his name. The instrument
seemed completely free to move in the horizontal
plane, for in that direction the window offered no more
resistance than the wall of a sap-bubble. Yet his full strength
was incapable of moving it vertically: he knew, because he
tried.
Carefully he wrote the date and released the stylus. It
moved slowly back across the sheet to its original position
--and the panel with its winking light was gone.
As Alvin walked awav, he wondered why his predecessors
had come here and what they had sought from the machine.
No doubt, thousands or millions of years in the future, other
men would look into that panel and ask themselves: "Who
was Alvin of Loronei?" Or would they? Perhaps they would
exclaim instead: "Look! Here's Alvin's signature!"
The thought was not untypical of him in his present
mood, but he knew better than to share it with his friend.
At the entrance to the corridor they looked back across
the cave, and the illusion was stronger than ever. Lying
beneath them was a dead city of strange white buildings,
a city bleached by the fierce light not meant for human
eyes. Dead it might be, for it had never lived, but Alvin
knew that when Diaspar had passed away these machines
would still be here, never turning their minds from the
thoughts greater men than he had given them long ago.
They spoke little on the way back through the streets
of Diaspar, streets bathed with sunlight which seemed pale
AGAINST THE FALL OF Night 99
and wan after the glare of the machine city. Each in his
own way was thinking of the knowledge that would soon
be his, and neither had any regard for the beauty of the
great towers drifting past, or the curious glances of their
fellow citizens.
It was strange, thought Alvin, how everything that had
happened to him led up to this moment. He knew well
enough that men were makers of their own destinies, yet
since he had met Rorden events seemed to have moved
automatically towards a predetermined goal. Alaine's message--Lys--Shalmirane--at
every stage he might have turned
aside with unseeing eyes, but something had led him on
It was pleasant to pretend that Fate had favoured him, but
his rational mind knew better. Any man might have found
the path his footsteps had traced, and countless times in the
past ages others must have gone almost as far. He was simply
the first to be lucky.
The first to be luclcy. The words echoed mockingly in his
ears as they stepped through the door of Rorden's chamber.
Quietly waiting for them, with hands folded patiently across
his lap, was a man wearing a curious garb unlike any that
Alvin had ever seen before. He glanced enquiringly at Rorden,
and was instantly shocked by the pallor of his friend's face.
Then he knew who the visitor was.
He rose as they entered and made a stiff, formal bow.
Without a word he handed a small cylinder to Rorden, who
took it woodenly and broke the seal. The almost unheard-of
rarity of a written message made the silent exchange doubly
impressive. When he had finished Rorden returned the
cylinder with another slight bow at which, in spite of his
anxiety, Alvin could not resist a smile.
Rorden appeared to have recovered himself quickly, for
when he spoke his voice was perfectly normal.
"It seems that the Council would like a word with us,
Alvin. I'm afraid we've kept it waiting."
Alvin had guessed as much. The crisis had come sooner
--much sooner--than he had expected. He was not, he told
himself, afraid of the Council, but the interruption was
maddening. His eyes strayed involuntarily to the robots.
"You'll have to leave them behind," said Rorden firmly.
Their eyes met and clashed. Then Alvin glanced at the
Messenger.
"Very well," he said quietly.
The party was very silent on its way to the Council
Chamber. Alvin was marshalling the arguments he had never
100 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
properly thought out, believing they would not be needed for
many years. He was far more annoyed than alarmed, and he
felt angry at himself for being so unprepared.
They waited only a few minutes in the anteroom, but it
was long enough for, Alvin to wonder why, if he was unafraid, his legs felt so curiously weak. Then the great doors contracted,
and they walked towards the twenty men gathered
round their famous table.
This, Alvin knew, was the first Council Meeting in his
lifetime, and he felt a little flattered as he noticed that there
were no empty seats. He had never known that Jeserac was
a Council member. At his startled gaze the old man shifted
uneasily in his chair and gave him a furtive smile as if to
say: "This is nothing to do with me." Most of the other
faces Alvin had expected, and only two were quite unknown
to him.
The President began to address them in a friendly voice, and looking at the familiar faces before him, Alvin could
see no great cause for Rorden's alarm. His confidence began
to return: Rorden, he decided, was something of a coward.
In that he did his friend less than justice, for although courage
had never been one of Rorden's most conspicuous qualities,
his worry concerned his ancient office almost as much as
himself. Never in history had a Keeper of the Records been
relieved of his position: Rorden was very anxious not to
create a precedent.
In the few minutes since he had entered the Council
Chamber, Alvin's plans had undergone a remarkable change.
The speech he had so carefully rehearsed was forgotten: the
Ene phrases he had been practising were reluctantly discarded.
To his support now had come his most treacherous ally--
that sense of the ridiculous which had always made it impossible
for him to take very seriously even the most solemn
occasions. The Council might meet once in a thousand years:
it might control the destinies of Diaspar--but those who sat
upon it were only tired old men. Alvin knew Jeserac, and
he did not believe that the others would be very different.
He felt a disconcerting pity for them, and suddenly remembered
the words Seranis had spoken to him in Lys: "Ages
ago we sacrificed our immortality, but Diaspar still follows
the false dream." That in truth these men had done, and he
did not believe it had brought them happiness.
So when at.the President's invitation Alvin began to describe
his journey to Lys, he was to all appearances no more
than a boy who had by chance stumbled on a discovery
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 101
he thought of little importance. There was no hint of any
plan or deeper purpose: only natural curiosity had led him
out of Diaspar. It might have happened to anyone, yet he
contrived to give the impression that he expected a little
praise for his cleverness. Of Shalmirane and the robots, he
said nothing at all.
It was quite a good performance, though Alvin was the
only person who could fully appreciate it. The Council as a
whole seemed favourably impressed, but Jeserac wore an
expression in which relief struggled with incredulity. At
Rorden, Alvin dared not look.
When he had quite finished, there was a brief silence while
the Council considered his statement. Then the President
spoke again:
"We fully appreciate," he said, choosing his words with
obvious care, "that you had the best of motives in what you
did. However, you have created a somewhat difficult situation
for us. Are you quite sure that your discovery was accidental,
and that no one, shall we say, Influenced you in any way?"
His eyes wandered thoughtfully towards Rorden.
For the last time, Alvin yielded to the mischievous prompt-
ings of his mind.
"I wouldn't say that," he replied, after an appearance of
considerable thought. There was a sudden quickening of interest
among the Council Members, and Rorden stirred uneasily
by his side. Alvin gave his audience a smile that lacked
nothing of candor, and added quickly in a guileless voice:
"I'm sure I owe a great deal to my tutor."
At this unexpected and singularly misleading compliment,
all eyes were turned upon Jeserac, who became a deep red,
started to speak, and then thought better of it. There was
an awkward silence until the President stepped into the
breach.
"Thank you," he said hastily. "You will remain here while
we consider your statement."
There was an audible sigh of relief from Rorden--and
that was the last sound Alvin heard for some time. A blanket
of silence had descended upon him, and although he could
see the Council arguing heatedly, not a word of its deliberations
reached him. It was amusing at first, but the spectacle
soon became tedious and he was glad when the silence lifted
again.
"We have come to the conclusion," said the President,
"that there has been an unfortunate mishap for which no
one can be held responsible--although we consider that the
102 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Keeper of the Records should have informed us sooner of
what was happening. However, it is perhaps as well that this
dangerous discovery has been made, for we can now take
suitable steps to prevent its recurrence. We will deal ourselves
with the transport system you have located, and you" --turning to Rorden for the first time--"will ensure that all
references to Lys are removed from the Records."
There was a murmur of applause and expressions of satisfaction
spread across the faces of the Councillors. 'A difficult
situation had been speedily dealt with, they had avoided the
unpleasant necessity of reprimanding Rorden, and now they
could go their ways again feeling that they, the chief citizens
of Diaspar, had done their duty. With reasonably good
fortune it might be centuries before the need arose again.
Even Rorden, disappointed though he was for Alvin's sake
as well a? his own, felt relieved at the outcome. Things might
have been very much worse--
A voice he had never heard before cut into his reverie and
froze the Councillors in their seats, the complacent smiles
slowly ebbing from their faces.
"And precisely why are you going to close the way to
Lys?"
It was some time before Rorden's mind, unwilling to recognize
disaster, would admit that it was Alvin who spoke.
The success of his subterfuge had given Alvin only a
moment's satisfaction. Throughout the President's address his
anger- had been steadily rising as he realized that, despite all
his cleverness, his plans were to be thwarted. The feelings
he had known in Lys when Seranis had presented her ultimatum
came back with redoubled strength. He had won that
contest, and the taste of power was still sweet.
This time he had no robot to help him, and he did not
know what the outcome would be. But he no longer had
any fear of these foolish old men who thought themselves
the rulers of Diaspar. He had seen the real rulers of the city,
and had spoken to them in the grave silence of their brilliant, buried world. So in his anger and arrogance, Alvin threw
away his disguise and the Councillors looked in vain for the
artless boy who had addressed them a little while ago.
"Why are you going to close the way to Lys?"
There was a long silence in the Council Room, but the
lips of Jeserac twisted into a slow, secret smile. Tins Alvin
was new to him, but it was less alien than the one who had
spoken before.
The President chose at first to ignore the challenge. PerAGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 103
haps he could not bring himself to believe that it was more
than an innocent question, however violently it had been
expressed.
"That is a matter of high policy which we cannot discuss
here," he said pompously, "but Diaspar cannot risk contamination
with other cultures." He gave Alvin a benevolent but
slightly worried smile.
"It's rather strange," said Alvin coldly, "that in Lys I was
told exactly the same thing about Diaspar." He was glad to
see the start of annoyance, but gave his audience no time to
reply.
"Lys," he continued, "is much larger than Diaspar and
its culture is certainly not inferior. It's always known about
us but has chosen not to reveal itself--as you put it, to avoid
contamination. Isn't it obvious that we are both wrong?"
He looked expectantly along the lines of faces, but nowhere
was there any understanding of his words. Suddenly his anger
agayist these leaden-eyed old men rose to a crescendo. The
blood was throbbing in his cheeks, and though his voice was
steadier now it held a note of icy contempt which even the
most pacific of the Councillors could no longer overlook.
"Our ancestors," began Alvin, "built an empire which
reached to the stars. Men came and went at will among
all those worlds--and now their descendants are afraid to
stir beyond the walls of their city. ShaJi I tell you why?"
He paused: there was no movement at all in the great, bare
room.
"It is because we are afraid--afraid of something that
happened at the beginning of history. I was told the truth
in Lys, though I had guessed it long ago. Must we always
hide like cowards in Diaspar, pretending that nothing else
exists--because half a billion years ago the Invaders drove
us back to Earth?"
He had put his finger on their secret fear, the fear that he had never shared and whose power he could therefore
never understand. Let them do what they pleased: he had
spoken the truth.
His anger drained away and he was himself again, as yet
only a little alarmed at what he had done. He turned to
the President in a last gesture of independence.
"Have I your permission to leave?"
Still no words were spoken, but the slight inclination
of the head gave him his release. The great doors expanded
before him and not until long after they had closed again
did the storm break upon the Council Chamber.
104 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
The President waited until the inevitable lull. Then he
turned to Jeserac.
"It seems to me," he said, "that we should hear your
views Erst."
Jeserac examined the remark for possible traps. Then he
replied:
"I think-that Diaspar is now losing its most outstanding
brain."
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't it obvious? By now young Alvin will be halfway
to the Tomb of Yarlan Zey. No, we shouldn't interfere. I shall
be very sorry to lose him, though he never cared very much
for me." He sighed a little. "For that matter, he never cared
a great deal for anyone save Alvin of Loronei."
NOT UNTIL AN HOUR LATER WAS RORDEN ABLE TO ESCAPE
from the Council Chamber. The delay was maddening, and
when he reached his rooms he knew it was too late. He
paused at the entrance, wondering if Alvin had left any
message, and realizing for the Erst time how empty the years
ahead would be.
The message was there, but its contents were totally unexpected.
Even when Rorden had read it several times, he
was still completely baffled:
"Meet me at once in the Tower of Loranne."
Only once before had he been to the Tower of Loranne, when Alvin had dragged him there to watch the sunset. That
was years ago: the experience had been unforgettable but
the shadow of night sweeping across the desert had terrified
him so much that he had fled, pursued by Alvin's entreaties.
He had sworn that he would never go there again. . . .
Yet here he was, in that bleak chamber pierced with the
horizontal ventilating shafts. There was no sign of Alvin,
but when he called, the boy's voice answered at once.
"I'm on the parapet--come through the centre shaft."
Rorden hesitated: there were many things he would much
rather do. But a moment later he was standing beside Alvin
with his back to the city and the desert stretching endlessly
before him.
They looked at each other in silence for a little while. Then
Alvin said, rather contritely:
"I hope I didn't get you into trouble."
Rorden was touched, and many truths he was about to utter died abruptly on his lips. Instead he replied:
"The Council was too busy arguing with itself to bother
107
108 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
about me." He chuckled. "Jeserac was putting up quite a
spirited defense when I left. I'm afraid I misjudged him."
"I'm sorry about Jeserac."
"Perhaps it was an unkind trick to play on the old man,
but I think he's rather enjoying himself. After all, there was
some truth in your remark. He was the first man to show
you the ancient world, and he has rather a guilty conscience."
For the first time, Alvin smiled.
"It's strange," he said, "but until I lost my temper I never really understood what I wanted to do. Whether they like
it or not, I'm going to break down the wall between Diaspar
and Lys. But that can wait: it's no longer so important now."
Rorden felt a little alarmed.
"What do you mean?" he asked anxiously. For the first
time he noticed that only one of the robots was with them
on the parapet. "Where's the second machine?"
Slowly, Alvin raised his arm and pointed out across the
desert, towards the broken hills and the long line of sand-
dunes, criss-crossed like frozen waves. Far away, Rorden could
see the unmistakable gleam of sunlight upon metal.
"We've been waiting for you," said Alvin quietly. "As
soon as I left the Council, I went straight to the robots.
Whatever happened, I was going to make sure that no
one took them away before I'd leamt all they could teach
me. It didn't take long, for they're not very intelligent and
knew less than I'd hoped. But I have found the secret of the
Master." He paused for a moment, then pointed again at
the almost invisible robot. "Watch!"
The glistening speck soared away from the desert and
came to rest perhaps a thousand feet above the ground. At
first, not knowing what to expect, Rorden could see no
other change. Then, scarcely believing his eyes, he saw that
a cloud of dust was slowly rising from the desert.
Nothing is more terrible than movement where no movement
should ever be again, but Rorden was beyond surprise
cr fear when the great sand dunes began to slide apart.
Beneath the desert something was stirring like a giant awaking from its sleep, and presently there came to Rorden's ears
the rumble of falling earth and the shriek of rock split asunder
by irresistible force. Then, suddenly, a great geyser of sand
erupted hundreds of feet into the air and the ground was
hidden from sight.
Slowly the dust began to settle back into the fagged
wound torn across the face of the desert. But Rorden and
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 109
Alvi'n stiH kept their eyes fixed steadfastly upon the open
sky, which a little while ago had held only the waiting robot
What Alvin was thinking, Rorden could scarcely imagine
At last he knew what the boy had meant when he had said
that nothing else was very important now. The great city
behind them and the greater desert before, the timidity of
the Council and the pride of Lysall these seemed trivial
matters now.
The covering of earth and rock could blur but could not
conceal the proud lines of the ship still ascending from the
riven desert. As Rorden watched, it slowly turned towards
them until it had foreshortened to a circle. Then, very
leisurely, the circle started to expand.
Alvin began to speak, rather quickly, as if the time were
short.
"I still do not know who the Master was, or why he
came to Earth. The robot gives me the impression that he
landed secretly and hid his ship where it could be easily
found if he ever needed it again. In all the world there could
have been no better hiding place than the Port of Diaspar,
which now lies beneath those sands and which even in his
age must have been utterly deserted. He may have lived for
a while in Diaspar before he went to Shalmirane: the road
must still have been open in those days. But he never needed
the ship again, and all these ages it has been waiting out
there beneath the sands."
The ship was now very close, as the controlling robot
guided it towards the parapet. Rorden could see that it
was about a hundred feet long and sharply pointed at both
ends. There appeared to be no windows or other openings,
though the thick layer of earth made it impossible to be
certain.
Suddenly they were spattered with dirt as a section of
the hull opened outwards, and Rorden caught a glimpse of
a small, bare room with a second door at its far end. The ship
was now hanging only a foot away from the parapet, which
it had approached very cautiously like a sensitive, living thing.
Rorden had backed away from it as if he were afraid, which
indeed was very near the truth. To him the ship symbolized
all the terror and mystery of the Universe, and evoked as
could no other object the racial fears which for so long had
paralyzed the will of the human race. Looking at his friend,
Alvin knew very well the thoughts that were passing through
his brain. For almost the first time he realized that there were
FR1;110 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
forces in men's minds over which they had no control, and
that the Council was deserving of pity rather than contempt.
IN UTTER SILENCE, THE SHIP DREW AWAY FROM THE TOWER.
It was strange, Rorden thought, that for the second time
in his life he had said good-bye to Alvin. The little, closed
world of Diaspar knew only one farewell, and that was for
eternity.
The ship was now only a dark stain against the sky, and
of a sudden Rorden lost it altogether. He never saw its
going, but presently there echoed down from the heavens
the most awe-inspiring of all the sounds that Man had ever
made--the long-drawn thunder of air falling, mile after mile,
into a tunnel drilled suddenly across the sky.
Even when the last echoes had died away into the desert,
Rorden never moved. He was thinking of the boy who had
gone--wondering, as he had so often done, if he would ever
understand that aloof and baffling mind. Alvin would never
grow up: to him the whole universe was a plaything, a puzzle
to be unravelled for his own amusement In his play he had
now found the ultimate, deadly toy which might wreck what
was left of human civilization--but whatever the outcome, to
him it would still be a game.
The sun was now low en the horizon, and a chill wind
was blowing from the desert But still Rorden waited, conquering
his fears, and presently for the first time in his life
he saw the stars.
EVEN IN DIASPAR, ALVIN HAD NEVER SEEN SUCH LUXURY AS
that which lay before him when the inner door of the airlock
slid aside. At first he did not understand its implications:
then he began to wonder, rather uneasily, how long this tiny
world might be upon its journeying between the stars. There
were no controls of any kind, but the large, oval screen which
completely covered the tar wall would have shown that this
was no ordinary room. Ranged in a half circle before it were
three low couches: the rest of the cabin was occupied by two
tables, a number of most inviting chairs, and many curious
devices which for the moment Alvin could not identify.
When he had made himself comfortable in front of the
screen, he looked around for the robots. To his surprise, they
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT III
had disappeared: then he located them, neatly stowed away
in recesses high up beneath the curved ceiling Their action
had been so completely natural that Alvin knew at once the
purpose for which they had been intended He remembered
the Master Robots: these were the Interpreters, without which
no untrained human mind could control a machine as complex
as a spaceship. They had brought the Master to Earth and
then, as his servants, followed him into Lys. Now they were
ready, as if the intervening aeons had never been, to carry
out their old duties once again.
Alvin threw them an experimental command, and the great
screen shivered into life. Before him was the Tower of
Loranne, curiously foreshortened and apparently lying on its
side. Further trials gave him views of the sky, of the city,
and of great expanses of desert. The definition was brilliantly,
almost unnaturally, clear, although there seemed to be no
actual magnification. Alvin wondered if the ship itself moved
as the picture changed, but could think of no way of discovering
this. He experimented for a little while until he could
obtain any view he wished: then he was ready to start.
"Take me to Lys"--the command was a simple one, but
how could the ship obey it when he himself had no idea
of the direction? Alvin had never thought of this, and when
it did occur to him the machine was already moving across
the desert at a tremendous speed. He shrugged his shoulders,
thankfully accepting what he could not understand.
It was difficult to judge the scale of the picture racing
up the screen, but many miles must be passing every minute
Not far from the city the color of the ground had changed
abruptly to a dull grey, and Alvin knew that he was now
passing over the bed of one of the lost oceans. Once Diaspar
must have been very near the sea, though there had never
been any hint of this even in the most ancient records. Old
though the city was, the oceans must have passed away long
before its building.
Hundreds of miles later, the ground rose sharply and
the desert returned. Once Alvin halted his ship above a
curious pattern of intersecting lines, showing faintly through
the blanket of sand. For a moment it puzzled him: then he
realized that he was looking down on the ruins of some
forgotten city. He did not stay for long: it was heartbreaking
to think that billions of men had left no other trace of their
existence save these furrows in the sand.
The smooth curve of the horizon was breaking up at last,
crinkling into mountains that were beneath him almost as
112 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
soon as they were glimpsed. The machine was slowing now,
slowing and falling to earth in a great arc a hundred miles
in length. And then below him was Lys, its forests and
endless rivers forming a scene of such incomparable beauty
that for a while he would go no farther. To the east, the land
was shadowed and the great lakes floated upon it like pools
of darker night. But towards the sunset, the waters danced
and sparkled with light, throwing back towards him such
colors as he had never imagined.
It was not difficult to locate Airlee--which was fortunate, for the robots could guide him no farther. Alvin had expected
this, and felt glad to have discovered some limits to their powers. After a little experimenting, he brought his
ship to rest on the hillside which had given him his first
glimpse of Lys. It was quite easy to control the machine:
he had only to indicate his genera] desires and the robots
attended to the details. They would, he imagined, probably
ignore any dangerous or impossible orders, but he did not
intend to try the experiment.
Alvin was fairly certain that no one could have seen
his arrival. He thought this rather important, for he had
no desire to engage in mental combat with Seranis again.
His plans were still somewhat vague, but he was running no
risks until he had re-established friendly relations.
The discovery that the original robot would no longer
obey him was a considerable shock. When he ordered it from
its little compartment it refused to move but lay motionless,
watching him dispassionately with its multiple eyes. To Alvin's
relief, the replica obeyed him instantly, but no amount of
cajoling could make the prototype carry out even the simplest
action. Alvin worried for some time before the explanation
of the mutiny occurred to him. For all their wonderful skills,
the robots were not very intelligent, and the events of the past
hour must have been too much for the unfortunate machine.
One by one it had seen all the Master's orders defied--
those orders which it had obeyed with such singleness of purpose
for so many millions of years.
It was too late for regrets now, but Alvin was sorry he had
made only a single duplicate. For the borrowed robot had
become insane.
Alvin met no one on the road to Airlee. It was strange
to sit in the spaceship while his field of vision moved effortlessly
along the familiar path, and the whispering of the forest
sounded in his ears. As yet he was unable to identify himself
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 113
fully with the robot, and the strain of controlling it was still
considerable.
It was nearly dark when he reached Airlee, and the little
houses were floating in pools of light. Alvin kept to the
shadows and had almost reached Seranis' home before he was
discovered. Suddenly there was an angry, high-pitched buzzing
and his view was blocked by a flurry of wings. He recoiled
involuntarily before the onslaught: then he realized what
had happened. Krif did not approve of anything that flew
without wings, and only Theon's presence had prevented him
from attacking the robot on earlier occasions. Not wishing
to hurt the beautiful but stupid creature, Alvin brought the
robot to a halt and endured as best he could the blows that
seemed to be raining upon him. Though he was sitting in
comfort a mile away, he could not avoid flinching and was
glad when Theon came out to investigate.

AT HIS MASTER'S APPROACH KRIF DEPARTED, STILL BUZZING
balefully. In the silence that followed Theon stood looking
at the robot for a while. Then he smiled
"I'm glad you've come back. Or are you still in Diaspar?"
Not for the first time Alvin felt a twinge of envy as he
realized how much quicker Theon's mind was than his own
"No," he said, wondering as he did so how clearly the
robot echoed his voice. "I'm in Airlee, not very far away.
But I'm staying here for the present."
Theon laughed heartily.
"I think that's just as well," he said. "Mother's forgiven
you, but the Centra] Council hasn't. There's a conference
going on indoors now: I have to keep out of the way"
"What are they talking about?"
"I'm not supposed to know, but they asked me all sorts
of questions about you. I had to tell them what happened
in Shalmirane."
"That doesn't matter very much," replied Alvin "A good
many other things have happened since then. I'd like to have
a talk with this Central Council of yours."
"Oh, the whole Council isn't here, naturally. But three of
its members have been making enquiries ever since you left '
Alvin smiled. He could well believe it: wherever he went
now he seemed to be leaving a trail of consternation behind
him.
The comfort and security of the spaceship gave him a
confidence he had seldom known before, and he felt complete
master of the situation as he followed Theon into the house
The door of the conference room was locked and it was some
time before Theon could attract attention. Then the walls
slid reluctantly apart, and Alvin moved his robot swiftly
forward into the chamber.
117
118 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
The room was the familiar one in which he had had his
last interview with Seranis Overhead the stars were twinkling
as if there were no ceiling or upper floor, and once again
Alvin wondered how the illusion was achieved. The three
councillors froze in their seats as he floated towards them,
but only the slightest flicker of surprise crossed Seranis' face.
"Good evening," he said politely, as if this vicarious entry
were the most natural thing in the world. "I've decided to
come baci;."
Their surprise exceeded his expectations. One of the
councillors, a young man with greying hair, was the first to
recover.
"How did you get here?" he gasped.
Alvin thought it wise to evade the question: the way in
which it was asked made him suspicious and he wondered
if the underground transport system had been put out of
action.
"Why, just as I did last time," he lied.
Two of the councillors looked fixedly at the third, who
spread his hands in a gesture of baffled resignation. Then the
young man who had addressed him before spoke again.
"Didn't you have any--difficulty?"
"None at all," said Alvin, determined to increase their
confusion. He saw that he had succeeded.
"I've come back," he continued, "under my own free will,
but in view of our previous disagreement I'm remaining out
of sight for the moment. If I appear personally, will you
promise not to try and restrict my movements again?"
No one said anything for a while and Alvin wondered
what thoughts were being exchanged. Then Seranis spoke for
them all.
"I imagine that there is little purpose in doing so. Diaspar
must know all about us by now."
Alvin flushed slightly at the reproach in her voice.
"Yes, Diaspar knows," he replied. "And Diaspar will have
nothing to do with you. It wishes to avoid contamination
with an inferior culture."
It was most satisfying to watch the councillors' reactions,
and even Seranis colored slightly at his words. If he could
make Lys and Diaspar sufficiently annoyed with each other,
Alvin realized that his problem would be more than half
solved. He was learning, still unconsciously, the lost art of
politics.
"But I don't want to stay out here all night," he continued.
"Have I your promise?"
Seranis smiled, and a faint smile played about her lips.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 119
"Yes," she said, "we won't attempt to control you again.
Though I don't think we were very successful before."
Alvin waited until the robot had returned. Very carefully
he gave the machine its instructions and made it repeat them
back. Then he left the ship and the airlock closed silently
behind him.
There was a faint whisper of air but no other sound. For
a moment a dark shadow blotted out the stars: then the ship
was gone. Not until it had vanished did Alvin realize his
miscalculation. He had forgotten that the robot's senses were
very different from his own, and the night was far darker than
he had expected. More than once he lost the path completely,
and several times he barely avoided colliding with
trees. It was blackest of all in the forest, and once something
quite large came towards him through the undergrowth
There was the faintest crackling of twigs, and two emerald
eyes were looking steadfastly at him from the level of his
waist. He called softly, and an incredible long tongue rasped
across his hand. A moment later a powerful body rubbed
affectionately against him and departed without a sound. He
had no idea what it could be.
Presently the lights of the village were shining through the
trees ahead, but he no longer needed their guidance for the
path beneath his feet had now become a river of dim blue
fire. The moss upon which he was walking was luminous and
his footprints left dark patches which slowly disappeared
behind him. It was a beautiful and entrancing sight, and
when Alvin stooped to pluck some of the strange moss it
glowed for minutes in his cupped hands before its radiance
died.
Theon was waiting for him outside the house, and for the
second time he was introduced to the three councillors. He
noticed with some annoyance their barely concealed surprise:
not appreciating the unfair advantages it gave him, he never
cared to be reminded of his youth.
They said little while he refreshed himself, and Alvin
wondered what mental notes were being compared. He kept
his mind as empty as he could until he had finished: then
he began to talk as he had never talked before.
His theme was Diaspar. He painted the city as he had
last seen it, dreaming on the breast of the desert, its towers
glowing like captive rainbows against the sky. From the
treasure-house of memory he recalled the songs that the poets
of old had written in praise of Diaspar, and he spoke of the
countless men who had burnt away their lives to increase its
beauty. No one now, he told them, could ever exhaust a
120 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
hundredth of the city's treasures, however long they lived.
For a while he described some of the wonders which the
mm of Diaspar had wrought: he tried to mak& them catch
,1 glimpse ;it least of the loveliness which such artists as
Shcrvane and Ferildcr Had created for men's eternal admiration.
And he spoke also of Loronci, whose name he bore,
and wondered a little wistfully if it were indeed true that
his music was the last sound Earth had ever broadcast to
the stars.
They heard him to the end without interruption or questioning.
When he had finished it was very late and Alvin felt
more tired than he could ever remember. The strain and
excitement of the long day had told on him at last, and quite
suddenly he fell asleep.
Alvin was still tired when they left the village not long
after dawn. Early though it was, they were not the first upon
the road. By the lake they overtook the three councillors, and
both parties exchanged slightly self-conscious greetings. Alvin
knew perfectly well where the Committee of Investigation
was going, and thought it would be appreciated if he saved
it some trouble. He stopped when they reached the foot of
the hill and turned towards his companions.
"I'm afraid I misled you last night," he said cheerfully.
"I didn't come to Lys by the old route, so your attempt to
close it wasn't really necessary."
The councillors' faces were a study in relief and increased
perplexity.
"Then how did you get here?" The leader of the Committee
spoke, and Alvin could tell that he at least had begun
to guess the truth. He wondered if he had intercepted the
command his mind had just sent winging across the mountains.
But he said nothing, and merely pointed in silence to
the northern sky.
Too swift for the eye to follow, a needle of silver light
arced across the mountains, leaving a mile-long trail of incandescence.
Twenty thousand feet above Lys, it stopped.
There was no deceleration, no slow braking of its colossal
speed. It came to a halt instantly, so that the eye that had
been following it moved on across a quarter of the heavens
before the brain could arrest its motion. Down from the skies
crashed a mighty peal of thunder, the sound of air battered
and smashed by the violence of the ship's passage. A little
later the ship itself, gleaming splendidly in the sunlight, came
to rest upon the hillside a hundred yards away.
It was difficult to say who was the most surprised, but
Alvin was the first to recover. As they walked--very nearly
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 121
running--towards the spaceship, he wondered if it normally
travelled in this abrupt fashion. The thought was disconcerting,
although there had been no sensation of movement on
his first voyage. Considerably more puzzling, however, was
the fact that the day before this resplendent creature hnd
been hidden beneath a thick layer of iron-hard rock. Not
until Alvin had reached the ship. and burnt his fingers by
incautiously resting them on the hull, did he understand
what had happened. Near the stern there were still traces of
earth, but it had been fused into lava. All the rest had been
swept away, leaving uncovered the stubborn metal which
neither time nor any natural force could ever touch.
With Theon by his side, Alvin stood in the open door
and looked back at the three silent councillors. He wondered
what they were thinking, but their expressions gave no hint
of their thoughts.
"I have a debt to pay in Shalmirane," he said. "Please tell
Seranis we'll be back by noon."
The councillors watched until the ship, now moving quite
slowly--for it had only a little way to go--had disappeared
into the south. Then the young man who led the group
shrugged his shoulders philosophically.
"You've always opposed us for wanting change," he said,
"and so far you've won. But I don't think the future lies with
either of our parties now. Lys and Din spar have both come
to the end of an era, and we must make the best of it."
There was silence for a little while. Then one of his companions
spoke in a very thoughtful voice.
"I know nothing of archeology, but surely that machine
was too large to be an ordinary flyer. Do you think it could
possibly have been--"
"A spaceship? If so, this is a crisis!"
The third man had also been thinking deeply.
"The disappearance of both flyers and spaceships is one of
the greatest mysteries of the Interregnum. That machine may
be either: for the moment we had better assume the worst.
If it is in fact a spaceship, we must at all costs prevent that
boy from leaving Earth. There is the danger that he may
attract the Invaders again. That would be the end."
A gloomy silence settled over the company until the leader
spoke again.
"That machine came from Diaspar," he said slowly. "Someone
there must know the truth. I think we had better get
in touch with our cousins--if they'll condescend to speak
to us."
FR1;122 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Sooner than he had any right to expect, the seed that
Alvm had planted was beginning to Sower.
THE MOUNTAINS WERE STILL SWIMMING IN SHADOW WHEN
they rearhed Shalmirane. F'rom their height the great bowl
of the fortress looked very small: it seemed impossible that
the fate of Earth had once depended on that tiny ebon disc.
When Alvin brought the ship to rest among the ruins,
the desolation crowded upon him, chilling his soul. There
was no sign of the old man or his machines, and they had
some difficulty in finding the entrance to the tunnel. At the
top of the stairway Alvin shouted to give warning of the
arrival: there was no reply and they moved quietly forward,
in case he was asleep.
Sleeping he was, his hands folded peacefully upon his
breast. His eyes were open, staring sightlesdy up at the massive
roof, as if they could see through to the stars beyond.
There was a slight smile upon his lips: Death had not come
to him as an enemy.
14
OUT OF THE SYSTEM
THE TWO ROBOTS WERE BESIDE HIM, FLOATING MOTIONLESS
in the air. When A1vin tried to approach the body, their
tentacles reached out to restrain him. so he came no nearer.
There was nothing he could do: as he stood in that silent
room he felt an icy wind sweep through his heart. It was
the first time he had looked upon the marble face of Death,
and he knew that something of his childhood had passed
forever.
So this was the end of that strange brotherhood, perhaps
the last of its kind the world would know. Deluded thoueh
they might have been, these men's lives had not been wholly
wasted. As if by a miracle they had saved from the past
knowledge that else would have been lost forever. Now their
order could go the way of a million other faiths that had
once thought themselves eternal.
They left him sleeping in his tomb among the mountains,
where no man would disturb him until the end of Time.
Guarding his body were the machines which had served him
in life and which, A1vin knew, would never leave him now.
Locked to his mind, they would wait here for the commands
that could never come, until the mountains themselves had
crumbled away.
The little four-legged animal which had once served man
with the same devotion had been extinct too long for the
boys ever to have heard of it.
They walked in silence back to the waiting ship, and
presently the fortress was once more a dark lake among the
hills. But A1vin did nothing to check the machine: still they
rose until the whole of Lys lay spread beneath them, a great
green island in an orange sea. Never before had A1vin been
so high: when finally they came to rest the whole crescent
of the Earth was visible below. Lys was very small now; only
a dark shadow against the grey and orange of the desertbut
125
126 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
far around the curve of the globe something was glittering like
a many-colored jewel. And thus for the first time Theon
saw the city of Diaspar.
They sat for a long time watching the Earth turn beneath
them. Of all Man's ancient powers, this surely was the one
he could least afford to lose. Alvin wished he could show
the world as he saw it now to the rulers of Lys and Diaspar.
"Theon," he said at last, "do you think that what I'm
doing is right?"
The question surprised Theon, who as yet knew nothing
of the sudden doubts that sometimes overwhelmed his friend.
Nor was it easy to answer dispassionately: like Rorden, though
with less cause, Theon felt that his own character was becoming
submerged. He was being sucked helplessly into the
vortex which Alvin left behind him on his way through life.
"I believe you are right," Theon answered slowly. "Our
two people have been separated for long enough." That, he
thought, was true, though he knew that his own feelings
must bias his reply. But Alvin was still worried.
"There's one problem I haven't thought about until now,"
he continued in a troubled voice, "and that's the difference
in our life-spans." He said no more, but each knew what the
other was thinking.
"I've been worrying about that a good deal," Theon admitted,
"but I think the problem will solve itself when our
people get to know each other again. We can't both be right
--our lives may be too short and yours are certainly too long.
In time there will be a compromise."
Alvin wondered. That way, it was true, lay the only hope, but the ages of transition would be hard indeed. He remembered
again those bitter words of Seranis: "We shall
both be dead when you are still a boy." Very well: he would
accept the conditions. Even in Diaspar all friendships lay
under the same shadow: whether it was a hundred or a million
years away made little difference at the end. The welfare
of the race demanded the mingling of the two cultures: in
such a cause individual happiness was unimportant. For a
moment Alvin saw humanity as something more than the
living background of his own life, and he accepted without
flinching the unhappiness his choice must one day bring.
They never spoke of it again.
Beneath them the world continued on its endless turning.
Sensing his friend's mood, Theon said nothing, and presently
Alvin broke the silence again.
"When I first left Diaspar," he said, "I did not know what
I hoped to find. Lys would have satisfied me once--but now
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 127
even-thing on Earth seems so small and unimportant Each
discovery I've made has raised bigger questions and now I'll
never be content until I know who the Master was and why
he came to Earth. If I ever learn that, then I suppose I'll
start to worry about the Great Ones and the Invaders--and
so it will go on."
Theon had never seen Alvin in so thoughtful a mood and
did not wish to interrupt his soliloquy. He had learnt a great
deal about his friend in the last few minutes.
"The robot told me," Alvin continued, "that this machine
can reach the Seven Suns in less than half a day Do you
think I should go?"
"Do you think I could stop you?" Theon replied quietly
Alvin smiled.
"That's no answer," he said, "even if it's true. We don't
know what's out there in space. The Invaders may have left
the Universe, but there may be other intelligences unfriendly
to man."
"Why should there be?" Theon asked. "That's one of the
questions our philosophers have been debating for ages A
trulv intelligent race is not likely to be unfriendly "
"But the Invaders--?"
Theon pointed to the unending deserts below.
"Once we had an Empire. What have we now that they
would covet?"
Alvin was a little surprised at this novel point of view.
"Do all your people think like this?"
"Only a minority. The average person doesn't worry about
it, but would probably say that if the Invaders really wanted
to destroy Earth they'd have done it ages ago. Only a few
people, like Mother, are still afraid of them."
"Things are very different in Diaspar," Alvin said. "My
people are great cowards. But it's unfortunate about your
Mother--do you think she would stop you coming with me?"
"She most certainly would," Theon replied with emphasis
That Alvin had taken his own assent for granted he scarcely
noticed.
Alvin thought for a moment.
"By now she'll have heard about thre ship and will know
what I intend to do. We mustn't return to Airlee."
"No: that wouldn't be safe. But I have a better plan."
THE LITTLE VILLAGE IN WHICH THEY LANDED WAS ONLY A
dozen miles from Airlee, but Alvin was surprised to see how
128 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
greatly it differed in architecture and setting. The houses
were several stones in height and had been built along the
curve of a lake, looking out across the water. A large number
of brightly colored vessels were floating at anchor along the
shore, they fascinated Alvin who had never heard of such
things and wondered what they were for.
He waited in the ship while Theon went to see his friends.
It was amusing to watch the consternation and amazement
of the people crowding round, unaware of the fact that he
was observing them from inside the machine. Theon was
gone only a few minutes and had some difficulty in reaching
the air-lock through the inquisitive crowds. He breathed a
sigh of relief as the door closed behind him.
"Mother will get the message in two or three minutes. I've
not said where we're going, but she'll guess quickly enough.
And I've got some news that will interest you."
"What is it?'-'
"The Central Council is going to hold talks with Diaspar."
What!"
"It's perfectly true, though the announcement hasn't been
made yet. That sort of thing can't be kept secret."
Alvin could appreciate this: he never understood how
anything was ever kept secret in Lys.
"What are they discussing?"
"Probably ways in which they can stop us leaving. That's
why I came back in a hurry."
Alvin smiled a little ruefully.
"So you think that fear may have succeeded where logic
and persuasion failed?"
"Quite likely, though you made a real impression on the
councillors last night. They were talking for a long time after
you went to sleep."
Whatever the cause of this move, Alvin felt very pleased.
Diaspar and Lys had both been slow to react, but events
were now moving swiftly to their climax. That the climax
might have unpleasant consequences for him Alvin did not
greatly mind.
They were very high when he gave the robot its final
instructions. The ship had come almost to rest and the Earth
was perhaps a thousand miles below, nearly filling the sky.
It looked very uninviting: Alvin wondered how many ships
in the past had hovered here for a little while and then continued
on their way.
There was an appreciable pause, as if the robot was checking
controls and circuits that had not been used for geological
ages. Then came a very faint sound, the first that Alvin had
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 129
ever heard from the machine. It was a tiny humming, which
soared swiftly octave by octave until it was lost at the edge
of hearing. There was no sense of change or motion, but
suddenly he noticed that the stars were drifting across the
screen. The Earth reappeared, and rolled past--then appeared
again, in a slightly different position. The ship was
"hunting," swinging in space like a compass needle seeking
the north. For minutes the skies turned and twisted around
them, until at last the ship came to rest, a giant projectile
aimed at the stars.
Centered in the screen the great ring of the Seven Suns
lay in its rainbow-hued beaut}'. A little of Earth was still
visible as a dark crescent edged with the gold and crimson of
the sunset. Something was happening now, Alvin knew,
beyond all his experience. He waited, gripping his seat, while
the seconds drifted by and the Seven Suns glittered on the
screen.
There was no sound, only a sudden wrench that seemed
to blur the vision--but Earth had vanished as if a giant hand
had whipped it away. They were alone in space, alone with
the stars and a strangely shrunken sun. Earth was gone as
though it had never been.
Again came that wrench, and with it now the faintest
murmur of sound, as if for the first time the generators were
exerting some appreciable fraction of their power. Yet for
a moment it seemed that nothing had happened: then Alvin
realized that the sun itself was gone and that the stars were
creeping slowly past the. ship. He looked back for an instant
and saw--nothing. All the heavens behind had vanished
utterly, obliterated by a hemisphere of night. Even as he
watched, he could see the stars plunge into it, to disappear
like sparks falling upon water. The ship was travelling far
faster than light, and Alvin knew that the familiar space of
Earth and Sun held him no more.
When that sudden, vertiginous wrench came for the third
time, his heart almost stopped beating. The strange blurring
of vision was unmistakable now: for a moment, his surroundings
seemed distorted out of recognition. The meaning of
that distortion came to him in a flash of insight he could not
explain. It was real, and no delusion of his eves. Somehow
he was catching, as he passed through the thin film of the
Present, a glimpse of the changes that were occurring in the
Space around him.
At the same instant the murmur of the generators rose to
a roar that shook the ship--a sound doublv impressive for it
was the first cry of protest that Alvin had ever heard from
130 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
a machine. Then it was all over, and the sudden silence
seemed to ring in his ears. The great generators had done
ireir work. they would not be needed again until the end
of the voyage. The stars ahead flared blue-white and vanished
into the ultra-violet. Yet by some magic of Science or Nature
the Seven Suns were still visible, though now their positions
and colcrs were subtly changed. The ship was hurtling toward' them along a tunnel of darkness, beyond the boundaries
of space and time, at a velocity too enormous for the
mind to contemplate.
It was hard to believe that they had now been flung out
of the Solar System at a speed which unless it were checked would soon take them through the heart of the Galaxy and
into the greater emptiness beyond. Neither Alvin nor Theon
truld conceive the real immensity of their journey: the great
Sagas of exploration had completely changed Man's outlook
towards the Universe and even now, millions of centuries
later, the ancient traditions had not wholly died. There had
once been a ship, legend whispered, that had circumnavigated The Cosmos between the rising and the setting of the sun.
The billions of miles between the stars meant nothing before ?uch speeds. To Alvin this voyage was very little greater, and
perhaps less dangerous, than his first journey to Lys.
It was Theon who voiced both their thoughts as the Seven
Sun' slowly brightened ahead.
"Alvin," he remarked, "that formation can't possibly be |
natural."
The other nodded.
"I've thought that for years, but it still seems fantastic."
"The system may not have been built by Man," agreed
Theon, "but intelligence must have created it. Nature could
never have formed that perfect circle of stars, one for each
of the primary colors, all equally brilliant. And there's nothing
else in the visible Universe like the Central Sun."
"Why should such a thing have been made, then?"
"Oh, I can think of many reasons. Perhaps it's a signal,
so that any strange ship entering the Universe will know
where to look for fife. Perhaps it marks the centre of galactic
administration. Or perhaps--and somehow I feel that this
is the real explanation--it's simply the greatest of all works
of art. But it's foolish to speculate now. In a little while
we'll know the truth."
SO THEY WAITED, LOST IN THEIR OWN DREAMS, WHILE HOUR
by hour the Seven Suns drifted apart until they had filled
that strange tunnel of night in which the ship was riding.
Then, one by one, the six outer stars vanished at the brink
of darkness and at last only the Centra] Sun was left Though
it could no longer be fully in their space, it still shone with
the pearly light that marked it out from all other stars
Minute by minute its brilliance increased, until presently it
was no longer a point but a tiny disc. And now the disc was
beginning to expand before them--
There was the briefest of warnings: for a moment a deep,
bell-like note vibrated through the room. Alvin clenched the
arms of his chair, though it was a futile enough gesture.
Once again the great generators exploded into life, and
with an abruptness that was almost blinding, the stars reappeared.
The ship had dropped back into space, back into the
Universe of suns and planets, the natural world where nothing
could move more swiftly than light.
They were already within the system of the Seven Suns,
for the great ring of colored globes now dominated the sky.
And what a sky it was! All the stars they had known, all the
familiar constellations, had gone. The Milky Way was no longer a faint band of mist far to one side of the heavens:
they were now at the centre of creation, and its great circle
divided the Universe in twain.
The ship was still moving very swiftly towards the Central
Sun, and the six remaining stars of the system were colored
beacons ranged around the sky. Not far from the nearest of
them were the tiny sparks of circling planets, worlds that
must have been of enormous size to be visible over such a
distance. It was a sight grander than anything Nature had
ever built, and Alvin knew that Theon had been correct.
133
134 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
This superb symmetry was a deliberate challenge to the stars
scattered aimlessly around it.
The cause of the Central Sun's nacreous light was now
clearly visible. The great star, surely one of the most brilliant
in the whole Universe, was shrouded in an envelope of gas
which softened its radiation and gave it its characteristic
color. The surrounding nebula could be seen only indirectly,
and it was twisted into strange shapes that eluded the eye.
But it was there, and the longer one stared the more extensive
it seemed to be.
Alvin wondered where the robot was taking them. Was it
following some ancient memory, or were there guiding signals
in the space around them? He had left their destination
entirely to the machine, and presently he noticed the pale
spark of light towards which they were travelling. It was
almost lost in the glare of the Central Sun, and around it
were the yet fainter gleams of other worlds. Their enormous
journey was coming to its end.
The planet was now only a few million miles away, a
beautiful sphere of multicolored light. There could be no
darkness anywhere upon its surface, for as it turned beneath
the Central Sun, the other stars would march one by one
across its skies. Alvin now saw very clearly the meaning of
the Master's dying words: "It is lovely to watch the colored
shadows on the planets of eternal light."
Now they were so close that they could see continents and
oceans and a faint haze of atmosphere. Yet there was something
puzzling about its markings, and presently they realized
that the divisions between land and water were curiously
regular. This planet's continents were not as Nature had left
them--but how small a task the shaping of a world must
have been to those who built its suns!
"Those aren't oceans at alll" Theon exclaimed suddenly.
"Look--you can see markings in them!"
Not until the planet was nearer could Alvin see clearly
what his friend meant. Then he noticed faint bands and
lines along the continental borders, well inside what he had
taken to be the limits of the sea. The sight filled him with a
sudden doubt, for he knew too well the meaning of those
lines. He had see them once before in the desert beyond
Diaspar, and they told him that his journey had been in vain.
"This planet is as dry as Eearth," he said dully. "It's water
has all gone--those markings are the salt-beds where the seas
have evaporated."
"They would never have let that happen," replied Theon.
"I think that, after all, we are too late."
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 135
His disappointment was so bitter that Alvin did not trust
himself to speak again but stared silently at the great world
ahead. With impressive slowness the planet turned beneath
the ship, and its surface rose majestically to meet them. Now
they could see buildings--minute white crustations everywhere
save on the ocean beds themselves.
Once this world had been the centre of the Universe. Now
it was still, the air was empty and on the ground were none
of the scurrying dots that spoke of life. Yet the ship was still
sliding purposefully over the frozen sea of stone--a sea which
here and there had gathered itself into great waves that challenged
the sky.
Presently the ship came to rest, as if the robot had at last
traced its memories to their source. Below them was a column
of snow-white stone springing from the center of an immense
marble amphitheater. Alvin waited for a little while- then,
as the machine remained motionless, he directed it to land
at the foot or the pillar.
Even until now, Alvin had half hoped to find life on this
planet. That hope vanished instantly as he left the airlock.
Never before in his life, even in the desolation of Shalmirane,
had he been in utter silence. On Earth there was always the
murmur of voices, the stir of living creatures, or the sighing
of the wind. Here were none of these, nor ever would be
again.
Why the machine had brought them to this place there
was no way of telling, but Alvin knew that the choice made
little difference. The great column of white stone was perhaps
twenty times the height of a man, and was set in a circle of
metal slightly raised above the level of the plain. It was featureless
and of its purpose there was no hint. They might
guess, but they would never know, that it had once marked
the zero point of all astronomical measurements.
So this, thought Alvin sadly, was the end of all his searching.
He knew that it would be useless to visit the other worlds
of the Seven Suns. Even if there was still intelligence in the
Universe, where could he seek it now? He had seen the stars
scattered like dust across the heavens, and he knew that what
was left of Time was not enough to explore them all.
Suddenly a feeling of loneliness and oppression such as he
had never before experienced seemed to overwhelm him. He
could understand now the fear of Diaspar for the great spaces
of the Universe, the tenor that had made his people gather
in the little microcosm of their city. It was hard to believe
that, after all, they had been right.
He turned to Theon for support, but Theon was standing,
136	AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
hands tightly clenched, with his brow furrowed and a glazed
look in his eyes.
"What's the matter?" Alvin asked in alarm.
Theon was still staring into nothingness as. he replied.
"There's something coming. I think we'd better go back
to the ship."
THE GALAXY HAD TURNED MANY TIMES UPON ITS AXIS SINCE
consciousness first came to Vanamonde. He could recall little
of those first eons and the creatures who had tended him
thenbut he could remember still his desolation when they
had gone at last and left him alone among the stars. Down
the ages since he had wandered from sun to sun, slowly
evolving and increasing his powers. Once he had dreamed of
finding again those who had attended his birth, and though
the dream had faded now, it had never wholly died.
On countless worlds he had found the wreckage that life
had left behind, but intelligence he had discovered only
onceand from the Black Sun he had fled in terror. Yet the
Universe was very large, and the search had scarcely begun.
Far away though it was in space and time, the great burst of
power from the heart of the Galaxy beckoned to Vanamonde
across the light-years. It was utterly unlike the radiation of
the stars, and it had appeared in his field of consciousness as
suddenly as a meteor trail across a cloudless sky. He moved
towards it, to the latest moment of its existence, sloughing
from him in the way he knew the dead, unchanging pattern
of the past.
He knew this place, for he had been here before. It had
been lifeless then, but now it held intelligence. The long
metal shape lying upon the plain he could not understand,
for it was as strange to him as almost all the things of the
physical world. Around it still clung the aura of power that
had drawn him across the Universe, but that was of no interest
to him now Carefully, with the delicate nervousness of a
wild beast half poised for flight, he reached out towards the
two minds he had discovered.
And then he knew that his long search was ended.
HOW UNTHINKABLE, BORDEN THOUGHT, THIS MEETING WOULD
have seemed only a few days ago. Although he was still technically
under a cloud, his presence was so obviously essential
that no one had suggested excluding him. The six visitors
sat facing the Council, flanked on either side by the co-opted
members such as himself. This meant that he could not see
their faces, but the expressions opposite were sufficiently instructive.

There was no doubt that Alvin had been right, and the
Council was slowly realizing the unpalatable truth. The delegates
from Lys could rhinK almost twice as quickly as the
finest minds in Diaspar. Nor was that their only advantage,
for they also showed an extraordinary degree of coordination
which Rorden guessed must be due to their telepathic powers
He wondered if they were reading the councillors' thoughts,
but decided that they would not have broken the solemn
assurance without which this meeting would have been impossible.

Rorden did not think that much progress had been made:
for that matter, he did not see how it could be. Alvin had
gone into space, and nothing could alter that. The Council,
which had not yet fully accepted Lys, still seemed incapable
of realizing what had happened. But it was clearly frightened,
and so were most of the visitors. Rorden himself was not as
terriSed as he had expected: his fears were still there, but he
had faced them at last. Something of Alvin's own reckless- ness--or was it courage?--had changed his outlook and given
him new horizons.
The President's question caught him unawares but he recovered
himself quickly.
"I think," he said, "it's sheer chance that this situation
never arose before. There was nothing we could have done
to stop it, for events were always ahead of us." Everyone knew
that by 'events' he meant Alvin, but there were no comments.
"It's futile to bicker about the past: Diaspar and Lys have
both made mistakes. When Alvin returns, you may prevent
him leaving Earth again--if you can. I don't think you will
succeed, for he may have leamt a great deal by then. But if
what you fear has happened, there's nothing any of us can do
139
140 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
about it. Earth is helpless--as she has been for millions of
centuries."
Rorden paused and glanced along the table. His words had
pleased no one, nor had he expected them to do so.
"Yet I don't see why we should be so alarmed. Earth is in
no greater danger now than she has always been. Why should
two boys in a single small ship bring the wrath of the Invaders
down upon us again? If we'll be honest with ourselves, we
must admit that the Invaders could have destroyed our world
ages ago."
There was a shocked silence. This was heresy--but Rorden
was interested to notice that two of the visitors seemed to
approve.
The President interrupted, frowning heavily.
"Is there not a legend that the Invaders spared Earth itself
only on condition that Man never went into space again? And
have we not now broken those conditions?"
"Once I too believed that," said Rorden. "We accept many
things without question, and this is one of them. But my
machines know nothing of legend, only of truth--and there
is no historical record of such an agreement. I am convinced
that anything so important would have been permanently
recorded, as many lesser matters have been."
Alvin, he thought, would have been proud of him now.
It was strange that he should be defending the boy's ideas,
when If Alvin himself had been present he might well have
been attacking them. One at least of his dreams had come
true: the relationship between Lys and Diaspar was still unstable,
but it was a beginning. Where, he wondered, was
Alvin now?
ALVIN HAD SEEN OK HEARD NOTHING, BUT HE DID NOT STOP
to argue. Only when the air-lock had closed behind them
did he turn to his friend.
"What was it?" he asked a little breathlessly.
"I don't know: it was something terrific. I think it's still
watching us."
"Shall we leave?"
"No: I was frightened at first, but I don't think it will
harm us. It seems simply--interested."
Alvin was about to reply when he was suddenly overwhelmed
by a sensation unlike any he had ever known before.
A warm, tingling glow seemed to spread through his body:
it lasted only a few seconds, but when it was gone he was no
longer Alvin of Loronei. Something was sharing his brain,
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 141
overlapping it as one circle may partly cover another He
was conscious, also, of Theon's mind close at hand, equally
entangled in whatever creature had descended upon them.
The sensation was strange rather than unpleasant, and it gave
Alvin his Erst glimpse of true telepathy--the power which in
his race had so degenerated that it could now be used only
to control machines.
Alvin had rebelled at once when Seranis had tried to
dominate his mind, but he did not struggle against this intrusion.
It would have been useless, and he knew that this
intelligence, whatever it might be, was not unfriendly. He
relaxed completely, accepting without resistance the fact that
an infinitely greater intelligence than his own was exploring
his mind. But in that belief, be was not wholly right.
One of these minds, Vanamonde saw at once, was more
sympathetic and accessible than the other. He could tell that
both were filled with wonder at his presence, and that surprised
him greatly. It was hard to believe that they could
have forgotten: forgetfulness, like mortality, was beyond the
comprehension of Vanamonde.
Communication was very difficult: many of the thought-
images in their minds were so strange that he could hardly
recognize them. He was puzzled and a little frightened by
the recurrent fear-pattern of the Invaders; it reminded him
of his own emotions when the Black Sun first came into his
field of knowledge.
But they knew nothing of the Black Sun, and now their
own questions were beginning to form in his mind
"What are you?"
He gave the only reply he could.
"I am Vanamonde."
There came a pause (how long the pattern of their thoughts
took to form!) and then the question was repeated. They had
not understood: that was strange, for surely their kind had
given him his name for it to be among the memories of his
birth. Those memories were very few, and they began
strangely at a single point in time, but they were crystal-clear,
Again their tiny thoughts struggled up into his consciousness.

"Who were the Great Ones--arc you one of them yourself?"

He did not know: they could scarcely believe him, and
their disappointment came sharp and clear across the abyss
separating their minds from his. But they were patient and
he was glad to help them, for their quest was the same as his
and they gave him the first companionship he had ever known,
142	AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
As long as he lived, Alvin did not believe he would ever
again undergo so strange an experience as this soundless
conversation. It was hard to believe that he could be little
more than a spectator, for he did not care to admit, even to
himself, that Theon's mind was so much more powerful than
his own. He could only wait and wonder, half dazed by the
torrent of thought just beyond the limits of his understanding.

Presently Theon, rather pale and strained, broke off the
contact and turned to his friend.
"Alvin," he .said, his voice very tired, "there's something
strange here. I don't understand it at all."
The news did a little to restore Alvin's self-esteem, and
his face must have shown his feelings for Theon gave a sudden,
not unsympathetic laugh.
"I can't discover what this--Vanamonde--is," he continued.
"It's a creature of tremendous knowledge, but it
seems to have very little intelligence. Of course," he added,
"it's mind may be of such a different order that we can't
understand it--yet somehow I don't believe that is the right
explanation."
"Well, what have you learned?" asked Alvin with some
impatience. "Does it know anything about this place?"
Theon's mind still seemed very far away.
"This city was built by many. races, including our own," he said absently. "It can give me facts like that, but it doesn't
seem to understand their meaning. I believe it's conscious
of the Past, without being able to interpret it. Everything
that's ever happened seems jumbled together in its mind."
He paused thoughtfully for a moment: then his face
lightened.
"There's only one thing to do: somehow or other, we
must get Vanamonde to Earth so that our philosophers can
Study him."
"Would that be safe?" asked Alvin.
"Yes," answered Theon, thinking how uncharacteristic
his friend's remark was. "Vanamonde is friendly. More than
that, in fact--he seems almost affectionate."
And quite suddenly the thought that all the while had
been hovering at the edge of Alvin's consciousness came
clearly into view. He remembered Krif and all the small animals
that were constantly escaping ("It won't happen again,
Mother") to annoy Seranis. And he recalled--how long ago
that seemed!--the zoological purpose behind their expedition
to Shalmirane.
Theon had found a new pet.
THEY LANDED AT NOON IN THE GLADE OF AIRLEE, WITH NO
thought of concealment now. Alvin wondered if ever in human
history any ship had brought such a cargo to Earth--if
indeed Vanamonde was located in the physical space of the
machine. There had been no sign of him on the voyage:
Theon believed, and his knowledge was more direct, that only
Vanambnde's sphere of attention could be said to have any
location in space.
As they left the ship the doors closed softly behind them
and a sudden wind tugged at their clothes. Then the machine
was only a silver dot falling into the sky, returning to
the world where it belonged until Alvin should need it again.
Seranis was waiting for them as Theon had known and
Alvin had half expected. She looked at the boys in silence for a while, then said quietly to Alvin:
"You're making life rather complicated for us, aren't you?"
There was no rancor in the words, only a half-humorous
resignation and even a dawning approval.
Alvin sensed her meaning at once.
"Then Vanamonde's arrived?"
"Yes, hours ago. Since dawn we have learned more of history
than we knew existed."
Alvin looked at her in amazement. Then he understood:
it was not hard to imagine what the impact of Vanamonde
must have been upon this people, with their keen perceptions
and their wonderfully interlocking minds. They had reacted
with surprising speed, and he had a sudden incongruous picture
of Vanamonde, perhaps a little frightened, surrounded
by the eager intellects of Lys.
"Have you discovered what he is?" Alvin asked.
"Yes. That was simple, though we still don't know his
145
146 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
origin. He's a pure mentality and his knowledge seems to be
unlimited. But he's childish, and I mean that quite literally."
"Of course!" cried Theon. "I should have guessed!"
Alvin looked puzzled and Seranis took pity on him.
"I mean that although Vanamonde has a colossal, perhaps
an infinite mind, he's immature and undeveloped. His actual
intelligence is less than that of a human being"--she smiled
a little wryly--"though his thought processes are much faster and he learns very quickly. He also has some powers we dp
not yet understand. The whole of the past seems open to his
mind, in a way that's difficult to "describe. He must have used
that ability to follow your path back to Earth."
Alvin stood in silence, for once somewhat overcome. He
realized how right Theon had been to bring Vanamonde to
Lys. And he knew how lucky he had been ever to outwit
Seranis: that was not something he would do twice in a lifetime.

"Do you mean," he asked, "that Vanamonde has only just
been born?"
"By his standards, yes. His actual age is very great, though
apparently less than Man's. The extraordinary thing is that
he insists that we created him, and there's no doubt that his
origin is bound up with all the great mysteries of the past."
"What's happening to Vanamonde now?" asked Theon
in a slightly possessive voice.
"The historians of Grevam are questioning him. They are
trying to map out the main outlines of the past, but the
work will take years. Vanamonde can describe the past in
perfect detail, but as he doesn't understand what he sees it's
very difficult to work with him."
Alvin wondered how Seranis knew all this: then he realized
that probably every waking mind in Lys was watching the
progress of the great research.
"Rorden should be here," he said, coming to a sudden
decision. "I'm going to Diaspar to fetch him."
"And Jeserac," he added, in a determined afterthought.
Rorden had never seen a whirlwind, but if one had hit
him the experience would have felt perfectly familiar. There
were times when his sense of reality ceased to function, and
the feeling that everything was a dream became almost overwhelming.
This was such a moment now.
He closed his eyes and tried to recall the familiar room in
Diaspar which had once been both a part of his personality
and a barrier against the outer world. What would he have
thought, he wondered, could he have looked into the future
when he had 6rst met Alvin and seen the outcome of that
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 147
encounter? But of one thing he was sure and a little proud
he would not have turned aside.
The boat was moving slowly across the lake with a gentle
rocking motion that Rorden found rather pleasant. Why the
village of Grevam had been built on an island he could not
imagine: it seemed a most inconvenient arrangement. It was
true that the colored houses, which seemed to float at anchor
upon the tiny waves, made a scene of almost unreal beauty
That was all very well, thought Rorden, but one couldn't
spend the whole of one's life staring at scenery. Then he remembered
that this was precisely what many of these eccentric
people did.
Eccentric or not, they had minds he could respect. To
him the thoughts of Vanamonde were as meaningless as a
thousand voices shouting together in some vast, echoing cave.
Yet the men of Lys could disentangle them, could record
them to be analyzed at leisure. Already the structure of the
past, which had once seemed lost forever, was becoming
faintly visible. And it was so strange and unexpected that it
appeared to bear no resemblance at all to the history that
Rorden had always believed.
In a few months he would present his first report to Diaspar.
Though its contents were still uncertain, he knew that it
would end forever the sterile isolation of his race. The barriers
between Lys and Diaspar would vanish when their origin was
understood, and the mingling of the two great cultures would
invigorate mankind for ages to come. Yet even this now
seemed no more than a minor by-product of the great research
that was just beginning. If what Vanamonde had hinted was
indeed true, Man's horizons must soon embrace not merely
the Earth, but must enfold the stars and reach out to the
Galaxies beyond. But of these further vistas it was still too
early to be sure.
Calitrax, chief historian of Lys, met them at the little
jetty. He was a tall, slightly stooping man and Rorden wondered
how, without the help of the Masters Associators, he
had ever managed to learn so much in his short life. It did
not occur to him that the very absence of such machines was
the reason for the wonderful memories he had met in Crevam.
They walked together beside one of the innumerable canals
that made life in the village so hazardous to strangers. Calitrax
seemed a little preoccupied, and Rorden knew that part of
his mind was still with Vanamonde.
"Have you settled your date-fixing procedure yet?" asked
Rorden presently, feeling somewhat neglected.
148 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
Calitrax remembered his duties as host and broke contact
with obvious reluctance.
"Yes," he said. "It had to be the astronomical method. We
think it's accurate to ten thousand years even back to the
Dawn Ages. It could be even better, but that's good enough
to mark out the main epochs."
"What about the Invaders? Has Bensor located them?"
"No: he made one attempt but it's hopeless to look for
any isolated period. What we're doing now is to go back to
the beginning of history and then take cross-sections at regular
intervals. We'll link them together by guesswork until we
can fill in the details. If only Vanamonde could interpret
what he sees! As it is we have to work through masses of
irrelevant material."
"I wonder what he thinks about the whole affair: it must
all be rather puzzling to him."
"Yes, I suppose it must. But he's very docile and friendly,
and I think he's happy, if one can use that word. So Theon
believes, and they seem to have a curious sort of affinity. Ah,
here's Bensor with the latest ten million years of history. I'll leave you in his hands."
THE COUNCIL CHAMBER HAD ALTERED LITTLE SINCE ALVIN'S
last visit, for the seldom-used projection equipment was so
inconspicuous that one could easily have overlooked it. There
were two empty chairs along the great table: one, he knew,
was Jeserac's. But though he was in Lys, Jeserac would be
watching this meeting, as would almost all the world.
If Rorden recalled their last appearance in this room, he
did not care to mention it. But the councillors certainly remembered,
as Alvin could tell by the ambiguous glances he
received. He wondered what they would be thinking when
they had heard Rorden's story. Already, in a few months, the
Present had changed out of all recognition--and now they
were going to lose the Past.
Rorden began to speak. The great ways of Diaspar would
be empty of traffic: the city would be hushed as Alvin had
known it only once before in his life. It was waiting, waiting
for the veil of the past to be lifted again after--if Calitrax
was right--more than fifteen hundred million years.
Very briefly, Rordan ran through the accepted history of
the race--the history that both Diaspar and Lys had always
believed beyond question. He spoke of the unknown peoples
of the Dawn Civilizations, who had left behind them nothing
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 149
but a handful of great names and the fading legends of the
Empire. Even at the beginning, so the story went, Man had
desired the stars and at lart attained them. For millions of
years he had expanded across the Galaxy, gathering system
after system beneath his sway. Then, out of the darkness
beyond the rim of the Universe, the Invaders had struck and
wrenched from him all that he had won.
The retreat to the Solar System had been bitter and must
have lasted many ages. Earth itself was barely saved by the
fabulous battles that raged round Shalmirane. When all was
over, Man was left with only his memories and the world on
which he had been born.
Rorden paused: he looked round the great room and
smiled slightly as his eyes met Alvin's.
"So much for the tales we have believed since our records
began. I must tell you now that they are false--false in every
detail--so false that even now we have not fully reconciled them with the truth."
He waited for the full meaning of his words to strike
home. Then, speaking slowly and carefully, but after the Erst
few minutes never consulting his notes, he gave the city the
knowledge that had been won from the mind of Vanamonde.
It was not even true that Man had reached the stars. The
whole of his little empire was bounded by the orbit of Perse-
phone, for interstellar space proved a barrier beyond his
power to cross. His entire civilization was huddled round the
sun, and was still very young when--the stars reached him.
The impact must have been shattering. Despite his failures,
Man had never doubted that one day he would conquer the
deeps of space. He believed too that if the Universe held his
equals, it did not hold his peers. Now he knew that both
beliefs were wrong, and that out among the stars were minds
far greater than his own. For many centuries, first in the ships
of other races and later in machines built with borrowed
knowledge, Man had explored the Galaxy. Everywhere he
found cultures he could understand but could not match, and
here and there he encountered minds which would soon have
passed altogether beyond his comprehension.
The shock was tremendous, but it proved the making of
the race. Sadder and infinitely wiser, Man had returned to
the Solar System to brood upon the knowledge he had gained.
He would accept the challenge and slowly he evolved a plan
which gave hope for the future.
Once the physical sciences had been Man's greatest interest.
Now he turned even more fiercely to genetics and the
150 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
study of the mind. Whatever the cost, he would drive himself
to the limits of his evolution.
The great experiment had consumed the entire energies
of the race for millions of years. All that striving, all that
sacri5ce and toil, became only a handful of words in Rorden's
narrative. It had brought Man his greatest victories. He had
banished disease: he could live forever if he wished, and in
mastering telepathy he had bent the most subtle of all powers
to his will.
He was ready to go out again, relying upon his own resources,
into the great spaces of the Galaxy. He would meet
as an equal the races of the worlds from which he had once
turned aside. And he would play his full part in the story of
the Universe.
These things he did. From this age, perhaps the most
spacious in off history, came the legends of the Empire. It
had been an Empire of many races, but this had been forgotten
in the drama, too tremendous for tragedy, in which it had come to its end.
The Empire had lasted for at least a billion years. It must
have known many crises, perhaps even wars, but all these
were lost in the sweep of great races moving together towards
maturity.
"We can be proud," continued Rorden, "of the part our
ancestors played in this story. Even when they had reached
their cultural plateau, they lost none of their initiative. We
deal now with conjecture rather than proven fact, but it
seems certain that the experiments which were at once the
Empire's downfall and its crowning glory were inspired and
directed by Man.
"The philosophy underlying these experiments appears to
have been this. Contact with other species had shown Man
how profoundly a race's world-picture depended upon its
physical body and the sense organs with which it was equipped.
It was argued that a true picture of the Universe could be
attained, if at all, only by a mind which was free from such
physical limitations--a pure mentality, in fact. This idea was
common among most very ancient religions and was believed
by many to be the goal of evolution.
"Largely as a result of the experience gained in his own
regeneration, Man suggested that the creation of such beings
should be attempted. It was the greatest challenge ever thrown
out to intelligence in the Universe, and after centuries of
debate it was accepted. All the races of the Galaxy joined
together in its fulfilment.
"Half a billion years were to separate the dream from the
AGAINST THE FALL OF Night l5(
reality. Civilizations were to rise and fall, again and yet again
the age-long toil of worlds was to be lost, but the goal was
never forgotten. One day we may know the full story of this,
the greatest sustained effort in all history. Today we only
know that its ending was a disaster that almost wrecked the
Galaxy.
"Into this period Vanamonde's mind refuses to go. There
is a narrow region of time which is blocked to him; but only,
we believe, by his own fears. At its beginning we can see the
Empire at the summit of its glory, taut with the expectation
of coming success. At its end, only a few thousand years later,
the Empire is shattered and the stars themselves are dimmed
as though drained of their power. Over the Galaxy hangs a
pall of fear, a fear with which is linked the name: The Mad
Mind.
"What must have happened in that short period is not
hard to guess. The pure mentality had been created, but it
was either insane or, as seems more likely from other sources,
was implacably hostile to matter. For centuries it ravaged the
Universe until brought under control by forces of which we
cannot guess. Whatever weapon the Empire used in its extremity
squandered the resources of the stars: from the memories
of that conflict spring some, though not all, of the
legends of the Invaders. But of this I shall presently say more.
"The Mad Mind could not be destroyed, for it was immortal.
It was driven to the edge of the Galaxy and there
imprisoned in a way we do not understand. Its prison was a
strange artificial star known as the Black Sun, and there it
remains to this day. When the Black Sun dies, it will be free
again. How far in the future that day lies there is no way of
telling."

ALVIN GLANCED QUICKLY AROUND THE GREAT ROOM, WHICH
had become utterly silent. The councillors, for the most part,
sat rigid in their seats, staring at Rorden with a trancelike
immobility. Even to Alvin, who had already heard the story
in fragments, Rorden's narrative still had the excitement of r
a newly unfolding drama. To the councillors, the impact of | his revelations must be overwhelming.
Rorden was speaking again in a quiet, more subdued voice
as he described the last days of the Empire. This was the age,
Alvin had decided, in which he would have liked to live.
There had been-adventure then, and a superb and dauntless
courage--the courage that can snatch victory from the teeth
of disaster.
"Though the Galaxy had been laid waste by the Mad Mind,
the resources of the Empire were still enormous, and its
spirit was unbroken. With a courage at which we can only
marvel, the great experiment was resumed and a search made
for the flaw that had caused the catastrophe. There were
now, of course, many who opposed the work and predicted
further disasters, but they were overruled. The project went
ahead and, with the knowledge so bitterly gained, this time I
it succeeded.
"The new race that was born had a potential intellect that
could not even be measured. But it was completely infantile:
we do not know if this was expected by its creators, but it
seems likely that they knew it to be inevitable. Millions of
years would be needed before it reached maturity, and nothing
could be done to hasten the process. Vanamonde was the
first of these minds: there must be others elsewhere in the
154
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 155
Galaxy, but we believe that only a very few were created, for Vanamonde has never encountered any of his fellows.
"The creation of the pure mentalities was the greatest
achievement of Galactic civilization: in it Man played a
major and perhaps a dominant part. I have made no reference
to Earth itself, for its story is too small a thread to
be traced in the great tapestry. Since it had always been
drained of its most adventurous spirits our planet had inevitably
become somewhat conservative, and in the end it opposed
the scientists who created Vanamonde. Certainly it
played no part at all in the Enal act.
"The work of the Empire was now finished: the men of
that age looked round at the stars they had ravaged in their
desperate peril, and they made the decision that might have
been expected. They would leave the Universe to Vanamonde.
"The choice was not hard to make, for the Empire had
now made the first contacts with a very great and very strange
civilization far around the curve of the cosmos. This civilization,
if the hints we can gather are correct, had evolved on
the purely physical plane further than had been believed possible.
There were, it seemed, more solutions than one to the
problem of ultimate intelligence. But this we can only guess:
all we know for certain is that within a very short period of
time our ancestors and their fellow races have gone upon a journey which we cannot follow. Vanamonde's thoughts seem
bounded by the confines of the Galaxy, but through his mind
we have watched the beginning of that great adventure--"
A PALE WRAITH OF ITS FORMER CLORY, THE SLOWLY TURNING
wheel of the Galaxy hangs in nothingness. Throughout its
length are the great empty rents which the Mad Mind has
torn--wounds that in ages to come the drifting stars will fill.
But they wiJI never restore the splendor that has gone.
Man is about to leave his Universe, as once he left his
world. And not only Man, but the thousand other races that
have worked with him to make the Empire. They have gathered
together, here at the edge of the Galaxy, with its whole
thickness between them and the goal they will not reach
for ages.
The long line of fire strikes across the Universe, leaping
from star to star. In a moment of time a thousand suns
have died, feeding their energies to the dim and monstrous
shape that has torn along the axis of the Galaxy and is now
receding into the abyss. .. .
156 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
"THE EMPIRE HAD NOW LEFT THE UNIVERSE, TO MEET ITS
destiny elsewhere. When its heirs, the pure mentalities, have
reached their full stature we believe it will return again. But
that day must still lie far ahead.
"This, in its outlines, is the story of Galactic civilization.
Our own history, which we thought so important, is no more
than a belated episode which we have not yet examined in
detail. But it seems that many of the older, less adventurous
races refused to leave their homes. Our direct ancestors were
among them. Most of these races fell into decadence and are
now extinct: our own world barely escaped the same fate. In
the Transition Centuries--which really lasted for millions of
years--the knowledge of the past was lost or else deliberately
destroyed. The latter seems more probable: we believe that
Man sank into a superstitious barbarism during which he
distorted history to remove his sense of impotence and failure.
The legend of the Invaders is certainly false, and the Battle
of Shalmirane is a myth. True, Shalmirane exists, and was one
of the greatest weapons ever forged--but it was used against
no intelligent enemy. Once the Earth had a single giant
satellite, the Moon. When it began to fall, Shalmirane was
was built to destroy it. Around that destruction have been
weaved the legends you all know, and there are many such."
Rorden paused, and smiled a little ruefully.
"There are other paradoxes that have not yet been resolved,
but the problem is one for the psychologist rather
than the historian. Even my records cannot be wholly trusted,
and bear clear evidence of tampering in the very remote past.
"Only Diaspar and Lys survived the period of decadence--
Diaspar thanks to the perfection of its machines, Lys owing
to its partial isolation and the unusual intellectual powers of
its people. But both cultures, even when they had struggled
back to their former level, were distorted by the fears and
myths they had inherited.
"Those fears need haunt us no longer. All down the ages,
we have now discovered, there were men who rebelled against
them and maintained a tenuous link between Diaspar and
Lys. Now the last barriers can be swept aside and our two
races can move together into the Future--whatever it may
bring."
"I WONDER WHAT YARLAN ZEY WOULD THINK OF THIS?" SAID
Rorden thoughtfully. "I doubt if he would approve."
The Park had changed considerably, so far very much for
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 157
the worse. But when the rubble had been cleared away, the
road to Lys would be open for all to follow.
"I don't know," Alvin replied. "Though he closed the
Moving Ways, he didn't destroy them as he might very well
have done. One day we must discover the whole story behind
the Park--and behind Alaine of Lyndar."
"I'm afraid these things will have to wait," said Rorden,
"until more important problems have been settled. In any
case, I can picture Alaine's mind rather well: once we must
have had a good deal in common."
They walked in silence for a few hundred yards, following
the edge of the great excavation. The Tomb of Yarlan Zey
was now poised on the brink of a chasm, at the bottom of
which scores of robots were working furiously.
"By the way," said Alvin abruptly, "did you know that
Jeserac is staying in Lys? Jeserac, of all people! He likes it
there and won't come back. Of course, that will leave a vacancy
on the Council."
"So it will," replied Rorden, as if he had never given the
matter any thought. A short time ago he could have imagined
very few things more unlikely than a seat on the Council;
now it was probably only a matter of time. There would, he
reflected, be a good many other resignations in the near
future. Several of the older councillors had found themselves
unable to face the new problems pouring upon them.
They were now moving up the slope to the Tomb, through
the long avenue of eternal trees. At its end, the avenue was
blocked by Alvin's ship, looking strangely out of place in
these familiar surroundings.
"There," said Rorden suddenly, "is the greatest mystery of
all. Who was the Master? Where did he get this ship and
the three robots?"
"I've been thinking about that," answered Theon. "We
know that he came from the Seven Suns, and there might
have been a fairly high culture there when civilization on
Earth was at its lowest. The ship itself is obviously the work
of the Empire.
"I believe that the Master was escaping from his own
people. Perhaps he had ideas with which they didn't agree:
he was a philosopher, and a rather remarkable one. He found
our ancestors friendly but superstitious and tried to educate
them, but they misunderstood and distorted his teachings.
The Great Ones were no more than the men of the Empire
--only it wasn't Earth they had left, but the Universe itself.
The Master's disciples didn't understand or didn't believe
this, and all their mythology and ritual was founded on that
158 AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
false premise. One day I intend to go into the Master's history
and find why he tried to conceal his past. I think it will
be a very interesting story."
"We've a good deal to thank him for," said Rorden as
they entered the ship. "Without him we would never have
learned the truth about the past."
"I'm not so sure," said Alvin. "Sooner or later Vanamonde
would have discovered us. And I believe there may be other
ships hidden on Earth: one day I mean to find them."
The city was now too distant to be recognized as the work
of man, and the curve of the planet was becoming visible. In
a little while they could see the line of twilight, thousands
of miles away on its never-ending march across the desert.
Above and around were the stars, still brilliant for all the
glory they had lost.
For a long time Rorden stared at the desolate panorama
he had never seen before. He felt a sudden contemptuous
anger for the men of the past who had let Earth's beauty
die through their own neglect. If one of Alvin's dreams came
true, and the great transmutation plants still existed, it
would not be many centuries before the oceans rolled again.
There was so much to do in the years ahead. Rorden knew
that he stood between two ages: around him he could feel
the pulse of mankind beginning to quicken again. There
were great problems to be faced, and Diaspar would face
them. The recharting of the past would take centuries, but
when it was finished Man would have recovered all that he
had lost. And always now in the background would be the
great enigma of Vanamonde--
If Calitrax was right, Vanamonde had already evolved
more swiftly than his creators had expected, and the philosophers
of Lys had great hopes of future co-operation which they
would confide to no one. They had become very attached
to the childlike supermind, and perhaps they believed that
they could foreshorten the eons which his natural evolution
would require. But Rorden knew that the ultimate destiny of
Vanamonde was something in which Man would play no
part. He had dreamed, and he believed the dream was true,
that at the end of the Universe Vanamonde and the Mad
Mind must meet each other among the corpses of the stars.
Alvin broke into his reverie and Rorden turned from the
screen.
"I wanted you to see this," said Alvin quietly. "It may be
many centuries before you have another chance."
"You're not leaving Earth?"
"No: even if there are other civilizations in this Galaxy, I
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT 159
doubt if they'd be worth the trouble of finding. And there
is so much to do here--"
Alvin looked down at the great deserts, but his eyes saw
instead the waters that would be sweeping over them a thousand
years from now. Man had rediscovered his world, and
he would make it beautiful while he remained upon it. And
after that--
"I am going to send this ship out of the Galaxy, to follow
the Empire wherever it has gone. The search may take ages,
but the robot will never tire. One day our cousins will receive
my message, and they'll know that we are waiting for them
here on Earth. They will return, and I hope that by then
we'll be worthy of them, however great they have become."
Alvin fell silent, staring into the future he had shaped but
which he might never see. While Man was rebuilding his
world, this ship would be crossing the darkness between the
galaxies, and in thousands of years to come it would return.
Perhaps he would be there to meet it, but if not, he was
well content.
They were now above the Pole, and the planet beneath
them was an almost perfect hemisphere. Looking down upon
the belt of twilight, Alvin realized that he was seeing at one
instant both sunrise and sunset on opposite sides of the
world. The symbolism was so perfect and so striking that he
was to remember this moment all his life.
IN THIS UNIVERSE THE NIGHT WAS FALLING: THE SHADOWS
were lengthening towards an east that would not know another
dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had
followed, Man would one day go again.
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