The Other Side of Nowhere

It seemed hours before the tumult had died down enough to allow direct observation of the world outside. Then Braden went down the long, circling corridor of ramps and stairways. The collision doors were open, now. The two formerly empty compartments were now filled with air from Handel's Planet - it smelled of wetness and the sea. The ship was at rest.

The personnel lock-door at the very bottom could be opened under the shelter of the hull. There were gusts of wind. There was rain. The high clouds formed by the Rim Star's descent were not stable clouds. They couldn't be. They condensed. Rain came down in drops, in streams, in seemingly solid masses. It was rain such as might have been imagined to have fallen when the oceans were first filled. The ground was devastated. There was mud and stone and nothing else. For many miles around, the sea still flung itself up in waves and combers. But the Rim Star was aground.

Nothing in particular happened after that. In less than one full day the air was clear, and by the next day the colony's small ships were offshore, carrying men to unload the Rim Star. They brought out cranes and began to empty her holds. But there was a great deal of cargo to be taken off. Presently they were towing hastily-made empty barges to the island and towing them away again, loaded.

Braden went to the mainland presently. Duckworth and Hardy and Fortescue - and of course Derr Carmody and Diane - had gone briskly to work the minute they could get to the new continent. They were shooting sequences for that splendid adventure-documentary, The Other Side of Nowhere. Braden hung around restlessly. A few days before the picture-tape job was to be finished, Duckworth took Braden aside. Derr Carmody had thrown an outstanding temperamental tantrum that day, and shooting had been suspended.

"Mr. Braden," Duckworth said jerkily, "you've been hanging around all the time we've been shooting. I don't think it's my sex appeal that keeps you so absorbed, and I don't think it's Derr's... look here! I like Diane! If I had a daughter, Diane would be my choice. If I were your age... Dammit, what are you waiting for?"

Braden said awkwardly:

"I'm a merchant-space officer. I've a master's ticket, but the pay and the long voyages... It wouldn't be fair to Diane."

Duckworth made an impatient gesture.

"Have you talked to the skipper lately?"

"No," said Braden. "He sleeps most of the time, and I've spent most of my time ashore. Why?"

"My business," said Duckworth, "is making tape plays. I know how things ought to turn out. You saved the lot of us from being killed - or something considerably worse. So I figured out how this business ought to end. And I went to see the skipper."

Braden blinked at him.

"The skipper's finished," said Duckworth briskly. "He sleeps all the time because he's done the last two things he wanted to do. One was settling up with the men who murdered his wife and daughter, and the other was landing the biggest cargo in history to be landed without a grid. He doesn't want to be the skipper of the Rim Star any more. He's going back to where his other daughter lives - he'll go as a passenger on another ship - and he'll play with his grandchildren, and he'll sleep a lot, and the rest of the time he'll... remember."

"I wouldn't want..." began Braden.

"I wouldn't want to remember what he does, either," said Duckworth. "But he's through. He's made the Rim Star into a valuable property for his son-in-law. There's plenty of need for a ship that can carry a colony - men and tools and food and the materials for a grid - all at one time. The Rim Star's that ship. You'll have to take her back to port, and the skipper says his son-in-law will take his word that you're the best skipper he can possibly get for her. With new worlds to be colonized all the time you'll be busy..."

"If you're sure," Braden said urgently.

"I am sure. And Derr Carmody won't object. She'll raise the devil, of course, but that will be for the drama in such a scene. When Diane points out that there'll always be passengers on the Rim Star, and that on a colony-carrying voyage a skipper should have his wife along, she'll calm down. It's true, you know."

Braden said feverishly:

"Excuse me!"

He hurried away. Duckworth mopped his forehead as he looked after him.

Diane came out from where she'd been waiting, unseen, and joined Duckworth. She asked uneasily:

"What... what did he say?"

"If you'll let him find you - oh, quite by accident! - he'll tell you himself. But dammit, you've still got to work a camera for me until this job is finished!"

Diane smiled. Her eyes shone a little. Without a word she moved away, so she'd be where Braden could find her quite by accident.

The building of the colony went on.