The Black Corridor

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ryan is better now.

The hallucinations have passed. Some dreams still disturb him, but not seriously.

He paces the spaceship. He paces down the central passageway to the main control cabin and there he checks the coordinates, the consumption indicators, the regeneration indicators and he checks all his figures, at length, with those of the ship's computer.

Everything is perfectly in order; exactly as it should be.

Near the ship's big central screen is a desk. Although activated the screen shows no picture, but it casts a greenish light on to the desk. Ryan sits down and depresses a stud on the small console on his desk. In a clear, level voice he makes his standard log entry.

'Day number one thousand, four hundred and ninety. Spaceship Hope Dempsey en route for Munich 15040. Speed holds steady at point nine of c. All systems functioning according to original expectations. No other variations. We are all comfortable.

'Signing off.

'Ryan, Commander.'

Ryan now slides open a drawer and takes from it a large red book. It is a new book, with only one page filled in. He enters the date and underlines it in red.

He writes: Another day without much to report. I am a little depressed, but I felt worse yesterday and I think my spirits are improving. I am rather lonely and sometimes wish I could wake someone else up so that we could talk a little together. But that would be unwise. I persevere. I keep myself mentally active and physically fit. It's my duty.

All the horror and humiliation and wretchedness of Earth is far behind us. We shall be starting a new race, soon. And the world we'll build will be a cleaner world. A sane world. A world built according to knowledge and sanity—not fear and guilt.

Ryan finished his entry and neatly puts his book away.

The computer is flashing at him.

He goes over to it and reads.

REPORT ON PERSONNEL IN CONTAINERS NOT

SUPPLIED.

A stupid oversight. Ryan punches in the reports: JOSEPHINE RYAN. CONDITION STEADY RUPERT RYAN. CONDITION STEADY ALEXANDER RYAN. CONDITION STEADY SIDNEY RYAN. CONDITION STEADY JOHN RYAN. CONDITION STEADY ISABEL RYAN. CONDITION STEADY JANET RYAN. CONDITION STEADY FRED MASTERSON. CONDITION STEADY He hesitates for a moment, then he continues: TRACY MASTERSON. CONDITION STEADY JAMES HENRY. CONDITION STEADY IDA HENRY. CONDITION STEADY FELICITY HENRY. CONDITION STEADY*******

**************************************************

*******YOUR OWN CONDITION suggests the computer.

Ryan shrugs.

CONDITION STEADY he reports.

*

Ryan sleeps.

He is in the ballroom. It is dusk and long windows look out on to a darkening lawn.

Formally dressed couples slowly rotate in perfect time to the music, which is low and sombre. All the couples have round, very black glasses hiding their eyes. Their pale faces are almost invisible in the dim light...

Ryan awakes. He smiles, wondering what the dream can mean.

He gets up and stretches. For some reason he remembers old Owen Powell, the man he had to dismiss, the man who killed himself. That gave him a bad turn at the time. Still...

He dismisses the thought. No point in dwelling on the past when the future's so much more important.

He switches on the agriculture programme. Might just as well do a bit of homework until he can get back to sleep.

He falls asleep in front of the screen.

*

The spacecraft moves through the silence of the cosmos. It moves so slowly as to seem not to move at all.

It is a lonely little object.

*

Space is infinite.

It is dark.

Space is neutral.

It is cold.