The Space Opera Megapack

by John W. Campbell

  “I understand. I will call in a few of our most expert robe-makers, who will weave the gowns. Before they come, let us decide upon the ceremony. I think you are familiar with our marriage customs, but I will explain them to make sure. Each couple is married twice. The first marriage is symbolized by the exchange of plain bracelets and lasts four karkamo, during which period divorce may be obtained at will. The children of such divorced couples formerly became wards of the state, but in my lifetime I have not heard of there being any such children—all divorces are now between couples who discover their incompatibility before children are conceived.”

  “That surprises me greatly,” said Crane. “Some system of trial-marriage is advocated among us on Earth every few years, but they all so surely degenerate into free love that no such system has found a foothold.”

  “We are not troubled in that way at all. You see, before the first marriage, each couple, from the humblest peasantry to the highest royalty, must submit to a mental examination. If they are marrying for any reason at all other than love, such as any thought of trifling in the mind of the man, or if the woman is marrying him for his wealth or position, he or she is summarily executed, regardless of station.”

  No other questions being asked, Dunark continued:

  “At the end of four karkamo the second marriage is performed, which is indissoluble. In this ceremony jeweled bracelets are substituted for the plain ones. In the case of highly-evolved persons it is permitted that the two ceremonies be combined into one. Then there is a third ceremony, used only in the marriage of persons of the very highest evolution, in which the ‘eternal’ vows are taken and the faidon, the eternal jewel, is exchanged. As you are all in the permitted class, you may use the eternal ceremony if you wish.”

  “I think we all know our minds well enough to know that we want to be married for good—the longer the better,” said Seaton, positively. “We’ll make it the eternal, won’t we, folks?”

  “I should like to ask one question,” said Crane, thoughtfully. “Does that ceremony imply that my wife would be breaking her vows if she married again upon my death?”

  “Far from it. Numbers of our men are killed every karkam. Their wives, if of marriageable age, are expected to marry again. Then, too, you know that most Kondalian men have several wives. No matter how many wives or husbands may be linked together in that way, it merely means that after death their spirits will be grouped into one. Just as in your chemistry,” smiling in comradely fashion at Seaton, “a varying number of elements may unite to form a stable compound.”

  * * * *

  After a short pause, the speaker went on:

  “Since you are from the Earth and unaccustomed to bracelets, rings will be substituted for them. The plain rings will take the place of your Earthly wedding rings, the jeweled ones that of your engagement rings. The only difference is that while we discard the plain bracelets, you will continue to wear them. Have you men any objections to wearing the rings during the ceremony? You may discard them later if you wish and still keep the marriage valid.”

  “Not I! I’ll wear mine all my life,” responded Seaton earnestly, and Crane expressed the same thought.

  “There is only one more thing,” added the Kofedix. “That is, about the mental examination. Since it is not your custom, it is probable that the justices would waive the ruling, especially since everyone must be examined by a jury of his own or a superior rank, so that only one man, my father alone, could examine you.”

  “Not in a thousand years!” replied Seaton emphatically. “I want to be examined, and have Dorothy see the record. I don’t care about having her put through it, but I want her to know exactly the kind of a guy she is getting.”

  Dorothy protested at this, but as all four were eager that they themselves should be tested, the Karfedix was notified and Dunark clamped sets of multiple electrodes, connected to a set of instruments, upon the temples of his father, Dorothy, and Seaton. He pressed a lever, and instantly Dorothy and Seaton read each other’s minds to the minutest detail, and each knew that the Karfedix was reading the minds of both.

  After Margaret and Crane had been examined, the Karfedix expressed himself as more than satisfied.

  “You are all of the highest evolution and your minds are all untainted by any base thoughts in your marriage. The First Cause will smile upon your unions,” he said solemnly.

  “Let the robe-makers appear,” the Karfedix ordered, and four women, hung with spools of brilliantly-colored wire of incredible fineness and with peculiar looms under their arms, entered the room and accompanied the two girls to their apartment.

  As soon as the room was empty save for the four men, Dunark said:

  “While I was in Mardonale, I heard bits of conversation regarding an immense military discovery possessed by Nalboon, besides the gas whose deadly effects we felt. I could get no inkling of its nature, but feel sure that it is something to be dreaded. I also heard that both of these secrets had been stolen from Kondal, and that we were to be destroyed by our own superior inventions.”

  The Karfedix nodded his head gloomily.

  “That is true, my son—partly true, at least. We shall not be destroyed, however. Kondal shall triumph. The discoveries were made by a Kondalian, but I am as ignorant as are you concerning their nature. An obscure inventor, living close to the bordering ocean, was the discoverer. He was rash enough to wireless me concerning them. He would not reveal their nature, but requested a guard. The Mardonalian patrol intercepted the message and captured both him and his discoveries before our guard could arrive.”

  “That’s easily fixed,” suggested Seaton. “Let’s get the Skylark fixed up, and we’ll go jerk Nalboon out of his palace—if he’s still alive—bring him over here, and read his mind.”

  “That might prove feasible,” answered the Kofedix, “and in any event we must repair the Skylark and replenish her supply of copper immediately. That must be our first consideration, so that you, our guests, will have a protection in any emergency.”

  The Karfedix went to his duties and the other three made their way to the wrecked space-car. They found that besides the damage done to the hull, many of the instruments were broken, including one of the object-compasses focused upon the Earth.

  “It’s a good thing you had three of them, Mart. I sure hand it to you for preparedness,” said Seaton, as he tossed the broken instruments out upon the dock. Dunark protested at this treatment, and placed the discarded instruments in a strong metal safe, remarking:

  “These things may prove useful at some future time.”

  “Well, I suppose the first thing to do is to get some powerful jacks and straighten these plates,” said Seaton.

  “Why not throw away this soft metal, steel, and build it of arenak, as it should be built? You have plenty of salt,” suggested Dunark.

  “Fine! We have lots of salt in the galley, haven’t we, Mart?”

  “Yes, nearly a hundred pounds. We are stocked for emergencies, with two years’ supply of food, you know.”

  * * * *

  Dunark’s eyes opened in astonishment at the amount mentioned, in spite of his knowledge of earthly conditions. He started to say something, then stopped in confusion, but Seaton divined his thought.

  “We can spare him fifty pounds as well as not, can’t we, Mart?”

  “Certainly. Fifty pounds of salt is a ridiculously cheap price for what he is doing for us, even though it is very rare here.”

  Dunark acknowledged the gift with shining eyes and heartfelt, but not profuse, thanks, and bore the precious bag to the palace under a heavy escort. He returned with a small army of workmen, and after making tests to assure himself that the power-bar would work as well through arenak as through steel, he instructed the officers concerning the work to be done. As the wonderfully skilled mechanics set to work without a single useless motion, the prince stood silent, with a look of care upon his handsome face.

  “Worrying about Mardonale, Dunark?
”

  “Yes. I cannot help wondering what that terrible new engine of destruction is, which Nalboon now has at his command.”

  “Say, why don’t you build a bus like the Skylark, and blow Mardonale off the map?”

  “Building the vessel would be easy enough, but X is as yet unknown upon Osnome.”

  “We’ve got a lot of it.…”

  “I could not accept it. The salt was different, since you have plenty. X, however, is as scarce upon Earth as salt is upon Osnome.”

  “Sure you can accept it. We stopped at a planet that has lots of it, and we’ve got an object-compass pointing at it so that we can go back and get more of it any time we want it. We’ve got more of it on hand now than we’re apt to need for a long time, so have a hunk and get busy,” and he easily carried one of the lumps out of his cabin and tossed it upon the dock, from whence it required two of Kondal’s strongest men to lift it.

  The look of care vanished from the face of the prince and he summoned another corps of mechanics.

  “How thick shall the walls be? Our battleships are armed with arenak the thickness of a hand, but with your vast supply of salt you may have it any thickness you wish, since the materials of the matrix are cheap and abundant.”

  “One inch would be enough, but everything in the bus is designed for a four-foot shell, and if we change it from four feet we’ll have to redesign our guns and all our instruments. Let’s make it four feet.”

  Seaton turned to the crippled Skylark, upon which the first crew of Kondalian mechanics were working with skill and with tools undreamed-of upon Earth. The whole interior of the vessel was supported by a complex falsework of latticed metal, then the four-foot steel plates and the mighty embers, the pride of the great MacDougall, were cut away as though they were made of paper by revolving saws and enormous power shears. The sphere, grooved for the repellers and with the members, braces, and central machinery complete, of the exact dimensions of the originals, was rapidly moulded of a stiff, plastic substance resembling clay. This matrix soon hardened into a rock-like mass into which the doors, machine-gun emplacements, and other openings were carefully cut. All surfaces were then washed with a dilute solution of salt, which the workmen handled as though it were radium. Two great plates of platinum were clamped into place upon either side of the vessel, each plate connected by means of silver cables as large as a man’s leg to the receiving terminal of an enormous wireless power station. The current was applied and the great spherical mass apparently disappeared, being transformed instantly into the transparent metal arenak. Then indeed had the Earth-men a vehicle such as had never been seen before! A four-foot shell of metal five hundred times as strong and hard as the strongest and hardest steel, cast in one piece with the sustaining framework designed by the world’s foremost engineer—a structure that no conceivable force could deform or injure, housing an inconceivable propulsive force!

  * * * *

  The falsework was rapidly removed and the sustaining framework was painted with opaque varnish to render it plainly visible. At Seaton’s suggestion the walls of the cabins were also painted, leaving transparent several small areas to serve as windows.

  The second work-period was drawing to a close, and as Seaton and Crane were to be married before koprat, they stopped work. They marveled at the amount that had been accomplished, and the Kofedix told them:

  “Both vessels will be finished tomorrow, except for the controlling instruments, which we will have to make ourselves. Another crew will work during the sleeping-period, installing the guns and other fittings. Do you wish to have your own guns installed, or guns of our pattern? You are familiar with them now.”

  “Our own, please. They are slower and less efficient than yours, but we are used to them and have a lot of X-plosive ammunition for them,” replied Seaton, after a short conference with Crane.

  After instructing the officers in charge of the work, the three returned to the palace, the hearts of two of them beating high in anticipation. Seaton went into Crane’s room, accompanied by two attendants bearing his suitcase and other luggage.

  “We should have brought along dress clothes, Mart. Why didn’t you think of that, too?”

  “Nothing like this ever entered my mind. It is a good thing we brought along ducks and white soft shirts. I must say that this is extremely informal garb for a state wedding, but since the natives are ignorant of our customs, it will not make any difference.”

  “That’s right, too—we’ll make ’em think it’s the most formal kind of dress. Dunark knows what’s what, but he knows that full dress would be unbearable here. We’d melt down in a minute. It’s plenty hot enough as it is, with only duck trousers and sport-shirts on. They’ll look green instead of white, but that’s a small matter.”

  Dunark, as best man, entered the room some time later.

  “Give us a look, Dunark,” begged Seaton, “and see if we’ll pass inspection. I was never so rattled in my life.”

  They were clad in spotless white, from their duck oxfords to the white ties encircling the open collars of their tennis shirts. The two tall figures—Crane’s slender, wiry, at perfect ease; Seaton’s broad-shouldered, powerful, prowling about with unconscious, feline suppleness and grace—and the two handsome, high-bred, intellectual faces, each wearing a look of eager happiness, fully justified Dunark’s answer.

  “You sure will do!” he pronounced enthusiastically, and with Seaton’s own impulsive good will he shook hands and wished them an eternity of happiness.

  “When you have spoken with your brides,” he continued, “I shall be waiting to escort you into the chapel. Sitar told me to say that the ladies are ready.”

  Dorothy and Margaret had been dressed in their bridal gowns by Sitar and several other princesses, under the watchful eyes of the Karfedir herself. Sitar placed the two girls side by side and drew off to survey her work.

  “You are the loveliest creatures in the whole world!” she cried.

  They looked at each other’s glittering gowns, then Margaret glanced at Dorothy’s face and a look of dismay overspread her own.

  “Oh, Dottie!” she gasped. “Your lovely complexion! Isn’t it terrible for the boys to see us in this light?”

  There was a peal of delighted laughter from Sitar and she spoke to one of the servants, who drew dark curtains across the windows and pressed a switch, flooding the room with brilliant white light.

  “Dunark installed lamps like those of your ship for you,” she explained with intense satisfaction. “I knew in advance just how you would feel about your color.”

  Before the girls had time to thank their thoughtful hostess she disappeared and their bridegrooms stood before them. For a moment no word was spoken. Seaton stared at Dorothy hungrily, almost doubting the evidence of his senses. For white was white, pink was pink, and her hair shone in all its natural splendor of burnished bronze.

  In their wondrous Osnomian bridal robes the beautiful Earth-maidens stood before their lovers. Upon their feet were jeweled slippers. Their lovely bodies were clothed in softly shimmering garments that left their rounded arms and throats bare—garments infinitely more supple than the finest silk, thick-woven of metallic threads of such fineness that the individual wires were visible only under a lens; garments that floated and clung about their perfect forms in lines of exquisite grace. For black-haired Margaret, with her ivory skin, the Kondalian princess had chosen a background of a rare white metal, upon which, in complicated figures, glistened numberless jewels of pale colors, more brilliant than diamonds. Dorothy’s dress was of a peculiar, dark-green shade, half-hidden by an intricate design of blazing green gems—the strange, luminous jewels of this strange world. Both girls wore their long, heavy hair unbound, after the Kondalian bridal fashion, brushed until it fell like mist about them and confined at the temples by metallic bands entirely covered with jewels.

  Seaton looked from Dorothy to Margaret and back again; looked down into her violet eyes, deep with wonder an
d with love, more beautiful than any jewel in all her gorgeous costume. Unheeding the presence of the others, she put her dainty hands upon his mighty shoulders and stood on tiptoe.

  “I love you, Dick. Now and always, here or at home or anywhere in the Universe. We’ll never be parted again,” she whispered, and her own beloved violin had no sweeter tones than had her voice.

  A few minutes later, her eyes wet and shining, she drew herself away from him and glanced at Margaret.

  “Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you ever laid eyes on?”

  “No,” Seaton answered promptly, “she is not—but poor old Mart thinks she is!”

  * * * *

  Accompanied by the Karfedix and his son, Seaton and Crane went into the chapel, which, already brilliant, had been decorated anew with even greater splendor. Glancing through the wide arches they saw, for the first time, Osnomians clothed. The great room was filled with the highest nobility of Kondal, wearing their heavily-jeweled, resplendent robes of state. Every color of the rainbow and numberless fantastic patterns were there, embodied in the soft, lustrous, metallic fabric.

  As the men entered one door Dorothy and Margaret, with the Karfedir and Sitar, entered the other, and the entire assemblage rose to its feet and snapped into the grand salute. Moving to the accompaniment of strange martial music from concealed instruments, the two parties approached each other, meeting at the raised platform or pulpit where Karbix Tarnan, a handsome, stately, middle-aged man who carried easily his hundred and fifty karkamo of age, awaited them. As he raised his arms, the music ceased.

  It was a solemn and wonderfully impressive spectacle. The room, of burnished metal, with its bizarre decorations wrought in scintillating gems; the constantly changing harmony of colors as the invisible lamps were shifted from one shade to another; the group of mighty nobles standing rigidly at attention in a silence so profound that it was an utter absence of everything audible as the Karbix lifted both arms in a silent invocation of the great First Cause—all these things deepened the solemnity of that solemn moment.