“Mven Mass, he has a feeling for my ideas and tries to concretise them for me.”

“Wasn’t it in the concretisation that you made a mistake?”

Renn Bose frowned and changed the subject.

“Is Veda Kong coming here?”

“Yes, I’m waiting for her. Did you know that she almost lost her life during the investigation of a cave, some ancient technical storehouse where there was a closed steel door?”

“It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

“I forgot that unlike Mven Mass you have no great interest in history. The whole planet is discussing the affair and wondering what might be behind the door. Millions of people have volunteered to dig it out. Veda has given the problem to the Academy of Stochastics and Prognostication. Is Evda Nahl coming here?”

“No, she can’t come.”

“A lot of people will be disappointed! Veda’s very fond of Evda and Chara is simply devoted to her. D’you remember Chara?”

“That’s the panther-like girl… either Gypsy or Indian in origin!”

Darr Veter spread his hands in mock horror.

“How well you appreciate feminine beauty! However, I’m always making the mistake that people made in the past when they did not know anything about the laws of psychophysiology and heredity. I always want to see my feelings and my perceptions in other people.”

“Evda, like everybody else on the planet,” said Renn Bose, ignoring Veter’s confessions, “will be watching the take-off.”

The physicist pointed to a row of high tripods carrying chambers for white, infrared and ultra-violet reception placed in a semi-circle around the spaceship. The different groups of spectral rays introduced into the coloured reproduction made the screen breathe with real warmth and life in the same way as the overtone diaphragms[27] destroyed the metallic resonance in the transmission of the human voice.

Darr Veter looked towards the north whence came the heavily laden automatic electrobuses, swaying across the earth. Veda Kong jumped out of the first bus to arrive and ran towards them, catching her feet in the grass. At a run she threw herself on Darr Veter’s broad chest with such force that the long plaits that hung down from either side of her head were thrown over his shoulders and hung down his back.

Darr Veter held Veda off at some distance and looked into that infinitely dear face to which her unusual hair-do imparted new qualities.

“I was playing the Northern Queen of the Dark Ages for a children’s film,” she said, panting slightly. “I hardly had time to change and could not stop to do my hair.”

Darr Veter could imagine her in a long, tight brocade dress and a golden crown with blue stones, her ash-blonde plaits reaching down below her knees, with fearless grey eyes — and he smiled with pleasure.

“Did you wear a crown?”

“Oh, yes, and such a crown!” Veda’s finger drew in the air the outline of a wide circle with teeth round it in the shape of clover leaves.

“Shall I see it?”

“This very day. I’ll ask them to show you the film.”

Darr Veter was going to ask who the “they” were but Veda was already greeting the serious-looking physicist who was smiling naively but whole-heartedly.

“Where are the heroes of Achernar?” asked Renn Bose looking at the spaceship that stood in splendid isolation.

“Over there!” Veda pointed to a tent-shaped building of milk-coloured glass and outside girders of lattice-work — the main hall of the cosmoport.

“Let’s go there, then.”

“We’re not wanted there,” said Veda, firmly. “They are watching Earth’s farewell to them. Let’s go to Lebed.”

The men followed her advice.

As she walked beside Darr Veter she asked softly:

“Do I look too absurd in this old-fashioned hair-do? I could….”

“You don’t need to do anything. It makes a charming contrast to your modern dress, plaits longer than your skirt. Let it stay!”

“I obey you, my Veter!” Veda whispered the magic words that made his heart beat faster and brought colour to his pale cheeks.

Hundreds of people were making their way unhurriedly to the ship. Many of them smiled to Veda or greeted her with a raised hand, much more frequently than they did Darr Veter or Renn Bose.

“You’re very popular, Veda,” said Renn Bose, “is that due to your work as a historian or to your notorious beauty?”

“Neither one nor the other. I mix with a lot of people both in my work and in my social engagements. You and Veter, you either hide in the depths of a laboratory or go away alone for some terribly straining night work. You do more for mankind and much more important things than I do but it is all one-sided and not for the side that is nearer the heart. Chara Nandi and Evda Nahl are much more widely known than I am.”

“Again a reproach to our technical civilization?” asked Darr Veter, jokingly.

“Not to ours but to the leftovers of former fatal mistakes. Twenty thousand years ago our troglodyte ancestors knew that art and the development of sensations connected with it were no less important to society than science.”

“In respect of relations between people?” asked the physicist, with interest.

“Exactly.”

“There was an ancient sage who said that the most difficult thing on earth is to preserve joy!” Darr Veter put in. “Look, here comes another of Veda’s loyal allies!”

Mven Mass, with a light, swinging tread, was coming straight towards them, his huge black figure attracting considerable attention.

“Chara’s dance is over!” Veda guessed, “soon we’ll see the crew of Lebed.’“

“If I were them I’d come over here on foot and as slowly as possible,” said Darr Veter, suddenly.

“You’re getting excited,” said Veda taking him by the arm.

“Naturally. For me it’s painful to think that they’re going away for ever and that I’ll never see that ship again. There’s something inside me that protests against that inescapable doom, perhaps because there are people in the ship that are dear to me!”

“That’s probably not the reason,” said Mven Mass as he joined them. His sharp ears had caught Darr Veter’s words. “It’s the inevitable protest of man against implacable time.”

“Autumn sorrow?” asked Renn Bose, with just a shade of irony as he smiled at his friend with his eyes.

“Have you noticed that it is the most energetic, vivacious people with the strongest feelings who mostly like the sad autumn of the temperate zones?” objected Mven Mass patting the physicist on the shoulder in a friendly way.

“That’s true enough,” exclaimed Veda.

“A very ancient observation.”

“Darr Veter, are you there on the field? Darr Veter, are you there on the field? You are wanted on the televisophone of the central building by Junius Antus. Junius Antus is calling you on the TVP of the central building.”

Renn Bose started and straightened up.

“May I go with you, Veter?”

“Go along in my place. It doesn’t matter much to you if you miss the take-off. Junius Antus likes showing things in the old way, the direct reception and not the recording; in that respect he is in complete agreement with Mven Mass.”

The cosmoport possessed a powerful TVP receiver and a hemispherical screen. Renn Bose entered the quiet round room. The operator on duty pressed a button and pointed to a side screen where the excited Junius Antus appeared immediately. He looked closely at the physicist and, realizing why Darr Veter had not come, nodded to Bose.

“I also intended watching the take-off but at the moment there is an explorer-reception going on in the former direction in the 62/77 range. Take the directed ray funnel and focus it on the observatory. I’ll send a vector ray across the Mediterranean to El Homra. Pick it up on the tubular fan and switch on the hemispherical screen.” Junius Antus looked away for a moment and then added, “Hurry up!”