“Is there enough?” Talu asked at last.
“More than enough,” Erik replied. His face split into a wide grin. “Your people are good, Talu. I wish there were some way to repay you.”
“You have already repaid us,” Talu said.
Neil watched silently as the last of the food was loaded. The Norsemen began climbing aboard, and the Mayas now brought gifts to the ship, jewelry, pottery, fine ornaments of beautifully wrought gold, highly polished semiprecious stones, robes brilliantly embroidered, feathered capes and headdresses, weapons, and small stone carvings.
Erik accepted all these gifts graciously. He stood ready to board his ship, ready to sail to his own land, far across the sea.
Slowly his hands moved to the helmet on his head. He lifted it gingerly and brought it down to hold it before his chest. The sunlight glanced off the shining metal, and the wings on either side of the helmet seemed poised to fly.
“I have accepted your many gifts,” Erik said to Talu, “for which my humblest thanks. And now, I would have you accept a gift from me, a gift you refused when first we met.” He held out the winged helmet.
“Take this, my friend, and keep it well. Let it serve as a reminder, perhaps, of the sacrifices your gods will accept.”
Talu’s old eyes studied the kindly face, the stalwart figure of the big Norseman.
“It will remind us of many things, my friend,” he said. He took Erik’s hand and shook it. “May the gods be with you on your long voyage.”
“Thank you,” said Erik. His eyes sought Neil’s, and he turned to his young friend. He took Neil’s hand and held it firmly.
“Neil,” he said simply.
Neil bit his lip. It wouldn’t do to cry. He was going to miss this big Norseman.
“It was a lucky wind that threw us together,” Erik said. “I have enjoyed knowing you.”
“I… I have too,” Neil stammered.
A sudden inspiration seemed to strike Erik.
“Would you like to sail with us, Neil? Visit my homeland? Stay with us for a little while?”
Neil hesitated.
“Only for a little while,” Erik coaxed. “You can go home to your own land after that.”
If only it were that simple, Neil thought.
“No, Erik,” he replied. “My parents are waiting for me. And I too am anxious to see my own home.”
Erik sighed. “Perhaps, then, we shall meet again sometime.” He squeezed Neil’s hand. “You will always have a friend in Erik, Neil.”
With that he slapped a big hand onto the head of his ax and whirled suddenly. “Prepare to sail,” he shouted.
He turned again to Neil and seized him by the shoulders with his big hands. “You’re sure, Neil?”
“I’d like to, Erik. But. . “
“Well, enough, then,” Erik said, a smile brightened his face. “A man has his own duties. Get home safely, my friend.”
“Good luck, Erik.”
The Norseman whirled and clambered up the side of the ship. Several sailors on the beach put their shoulders against the bow of the ship, pushing hard against it until the vessel floated free in the water. They scampered up the sides as the oars lifted into the air and pulled against the sand in the low water.
Slowly the ship edged away from the beach. The Norsemen shouted good-bys at the Mayas, and the Mayas wished them well, waving at them, bidding the gods to treat them gently.
Erik stood in the glare of the afternoon sun, his head bare, his hair and his beard glistening like molten gold. He stood tall and erect, a proud figure in command of a valiant crew.
He waved once at Neil as the ship moved away.
Then the oars pulled against the water and the sail billowed out, and the ship became smaller and smaller, until it was lost at last in the blue expanse of limitless ocean.
Neil stood watching the sea long after the ship had disappeared beyond the horizon.
The days were lonelier now that Erik and his Norsemen were gone. Neil wandered aimlessly about the city, watching the Mayas in their daily chores. Dave, he knew, was busy on the time machine, and he didn’t want to disturb him.
The thought of getting home had become a pressing weight that he carried on his back, for under it all was the recurring thought that they might never reach home. Considering this deeply and anxious to see how the machine was coming along, Neil went to the place where Dave was working.
The machine looked much better now. The twisted rotors were straight, ready to carry the machine into the air. Dave had patched the shattered part of the lower bubble with deerskin, and the control room had taken on a semblance of unity and efficiency again.
Dave, however, looked sad.
“What’s the trouble?” Neil asked. “Something can’t be fixed?”
“That’s just it,” Dave answered. “I’ve fixed everything that can be fixed. The machine should be ready to leave any time.”
“Well, that’s wonder…”
“I said it should be ready.”
“I don’t understand. You said you’d fixed everything that could be fixed.”
“That’s just it. There’s a part missing.”
“A… part… missing,” Neil repeated blankly.
“Look, Neil, I don’t know how much you understand about the operation of the machine.”
“Not very much,” Neil admitted.
“Well, I’ll try to give you a quick briefing. You see, when your father discovered the temporium crystal, he also discovered that it had rather peculiar qualities.
“To explain these qualities briefly, let’s just say that a high frequency, low voltage current of electricity, when applied to two opposing facets of the crystal, will cause the crystal to travel in time.”
“I’m afraid you lost me back there,” Neil admitted.
Dave wiped his hand across his forehead. “Let’s look at it this way. We’ll assume, and this is all guesswork you understand, that time is really alternating, or oscillating back and forth at a high rate of speed. Do you follow?”
“I think so.”
“All right. Let’s assume further that all normal matter-you, me, a house, a rock-has a slight resistance in one direction to this oscillation. Something like the crystal detectors of the first radios had to alternating current.”
“I think I understand. Go on.”
“This resistance allows matter to be pushed slowly through time in one direction; the direction being from past to present to future.”
“I see,” Neil said. “This has nothing to do with the time machine, really. It’s just a theory on time and matter.”
“Well, yes and no. It’s a theory, yes, but it also can help explain the time crystal.”
“Go on.”
“Well, we’ve discovered that with the iodine salt of temporium-with temporium iodide, in other words- we can control this resistance of matter to time. In other words, we can make matter move through time more swiftly.”
“Now we’re getting down to the time machine.”
“Right,” Dave said. “We’ve found that by applying electricity to the facets on the short sides of the crystal we can move the crystal forward in time. If the crystal’s long sides are given the juice, it will move backward. In short, the crystal will travel.”
“But what about the machine? How does that travel?”
“Well, the effect of the crystal seems to spread out beyond the crystal. It’s sort of like a sphere with the crystal as a nucleus. Incidentally, that’s why the machine has helicopter rotors.”
“Why?” Neil asked.
“If we took off from the ground, the crystal would try to take the ground with it. It isn’t powerful enough to lift that much weight, though, so it would simply blow a fuse.”