Dream thief

2

… THE TUNNEL, GLOWING SOFTLY with the light of the tiny green organisms, stretched beyond Spence's sight. It was smooth and round, and large enough for a man to walk erect without touching the top or sides. Its circular symmetry reminded him of a water conduit; the notion occurred to him that the shaft had been formed long ago by the water which had once run in the arroyo above.

He stepped into the shaft and started walking, not knowing or particularly caring where it led. As he moved along he saw that the green light wavered as he passed, as if his passing disturbed the tiny luminescent creatures. The glow dimmed as he drew near and then flashed brighter behind him. The creatures, if creatures they were, apprehended his presence.

He moved on; it seemed like hours that he pursued the unbending downward course of the shaft before he noticed a slight curving of the tunnel walls ahead.

When he reached the place where the curve began he noticed a gap in the floor of the shaft. Not a large crack-one he could jump across if he were careful about it, but dark so that he could not see how far down it went.

Spence reached out over the edge of the hole and after a few moments felt a tingling sensation in his fingers as warmth began to seep through his gloves.

The fissure was a natural vent which carried heat from a deep reservoir beneath the crust of the planet, perhaps from some ancient volcanic source or, reasoned Spence, from the molten core of the planet itself.

With shaking hands he grasped his helmet and gave it a sideways twist and lifted it off his head. He felt the warmth drift out of the hole and wash over his frozen features. This was perhaps the source of the fragile mist he had seen on the slope of the arroyo trough.

He replaced his helmet momentarily and took a lungful of air; then, stepping away from the crack he blew it out and watched the steam roll away in great billows. Clearly, the tunnel was still desperately cold, but by contrast with the surface it was tropic. It was at least warm enough to keep the tin alive. He doubted whether it was enough to keep himself a vlrtual any length of time. Without real warmth the c Y glowing alive ally get to him, if more slowly than it would at the surface.

Spence, balancing himself carefully, leaped with extreme caution over the crack and trudged off, feeling every weary deep in his bones. He wondered how much longer he would be able to keep going and feared that if he stopped to sleep Would not wake up. The cold would overcome him. Pushing the thought aside he gritted his teeth and moved on. he After a while he noticed that the green glow shining around him grew brighter. Looking at the walls of the tunnel he saw that the strange organisms grew in greater profusion. Perhaps it meant that the shaft was becoming warmer. He continued on. at Soon he walked, not in a faint glow, but in the green ha light of a moon-bright night. The light-making creatures clustered in thick colonies over every available inch of surface, radiating a steady green fluorescence which made him feel as if he walked inside a beam of light.

He welcomed the illumination, but the floor of the tunnel was now so covered with the algae-like organisms that walking became a hazard, His unsteady feet, aching with the rigors of his ordeal, slid as on glare ice while he propelled himself along the shaft. He fell often, each fall wearing him down further; it took him longer to regain his feet each time. He began to think that the next time he would not rise again.

But he did rise again. Something urged him on, kept him climbing back onto legs wobbling with pain and fatigue. Again and again he rose, sliding, stumbling, staggering ever downward into the bowels of the planet.

The tube twisted and turned like a snake. It sank in sharp downward angles and he lay on his back and slid like a man on a sled. He followed it without thinking where it would lead him.

Where the tunnel walls pinched together he wormed his way through. Where crevices opened in the floor, he found the strength to get across. Where the roof lowered he went on hands and knees, He kept moving.

Time lost significance. He lost all comprehension of the passing hours. His suit's chronometer, shattered in the fall into the arroyo, presented only a fixed present-time frozen, as if his life had stopped at that moment. Past, present, and future merged into one mingling amorphous element through which he moved as through water. once he came to himself as he felt the floor drop away beneath him, his feet kicking out from under him. He landed heavily on his back and glimpsed the shaft falling away in a near-vertical drop.

He had stepped over the brink without knowing it.

The tube was smooth beneath him, and the light-emitting algae cushioned his slide somewhat as he picked up momentum, sliding faster and faster, riding the curving conduit deeper into the Red Planet's heart.

The exhilaration of this wild ride burned the clouds from his mind. He felt adrenaline pumping into his bloodstream, rousing him from his torpor as the shaft raced by him, blurring his vision.

It seemed to him that he was falling into a gleaming green infinity, hurtling faster and faster, whizzing into a radiant unknown.

The luminous algae tore away in flashing streamers from his hands and feet to splatter over him like foaming light, covering his faceplate, blinding him. He wiped at the visor and cleared a small area just in time to see the shaft bottom out.

He braced himself for the impact and felt the tube curve and level out as he hit the bottom with a bone-cracking thump. He skidded out, arms and legs flailing, rolling over himself as if he'd been tossed from a speeding vehicle.

When at last he raised his head to look around he saw that he was in an enormous cavern. He pushed himself up on elbows and knees and winced from shooting pains in his head and back.

The cave was a vast bubble-shaped dome flattened on the bottom. Its roof arched at least a hundred meters above the floor; the walls, curved and smooth, lifted upward gracefully.

He rose stiffly and, feeling as if every bone in his body had been rearranged, began walking the length of the domed vault. The dim bluish-green light bathed him in the illusion of walking on the bottom of the sea; he fully expected schools of fish to swim by at any moment.

He reached the further wall and discovered that the cave had several smaller conduits leading out of it, and large drainlike holes in the floor. These smaller tubes were squat, roughly half his height; if he were to continue his journey it would have to be on hands and knees.

He quaked at the thought. His muscles already drooped with exhaustion and strain. He sank to the floor and lay down in front of one of the drain tubes. In moments he was sound asleep.