Renark had no hatred for the Union which pestered him. He had served it loyally until he had acquired that certain knowledge which he had withheld from the Galactic Lords. They had asked many times for the information he possessed, but he had refused; and he was cautious, also, never to let his whereabouts be known.
He glanced up into the blazing white sky as if expecting to see a Geese patrol falling down upon them.
Slowly, the two men walked across the pad towards the cruiser.
Mechanics were at work on Renark's ship. They had long since completed their initial check and found the ship completely spaceworthy. But Renark had not been satisfied. Now they checked again. Renark and Talfryn entered the elevator and it took them into the centre of the ship, to the control cabin.
Talfryn looked admiringly around the well-equipped cabin. He had the scientist's eye that could appreciate the ingenuity, the skill, the energy, the pure passion which had gone into its construction.
Once, a year before, Renark had said in a talkative moment: Take note of these instruments, Talfryn - they represent man's salvation. They represent the power of the mind to supersede the limitations of its environment, the power of every individual man to control, for the first time, his own destiny.'
Renark hadn't been referring to his own particular instruments and Talfryn knew that.
Now, Talfryn thought, the mystique attached to science had made it at once a monster and a salvation. People believed it capable of anything, because they had no idea any more what it was. And they tended to think the worst of it.
More men like Renark were needed - men who could not take the simple workings of a turbine for granted, yet, at the same time, could take the whole realm of science for granted.
Just then another thought occurred to Talfryn - a thought more immediately applicable to their present situation. He said:
'How do we know that our drive - or any of our other instruments - will work in the Shifter, Renark?' He paused, looking around him at the tall, heaped banks of instruments. 'If, as you think might be possible, different laws of space and time apply, then we may find ourselves completely stranded in the Shifter's area of space - cut adrift without control over the ship.'
'I admit we don't know whether our instruments will work out there,' Renark agreed, 'but I'm prepared to risk the fact that we may share certain laws with the Shifter. Maybe I'll be able to tell when it's closer, but my judgment won't be infallible.'
As a space senser, Renark needed no equipment to heighten his powers, but he did need to concentrate, and he therefore used an energy-charger, a machine which replaced natural, nervous and mental energy as it was expended and could, if used wisely, give a man an extra boost if he needed it especially. It was equipment normally only issued to hospitals.
Now, as Talfryn studied the recordings which had been made of the Shifter and became increasingly puzzled, Renark got into a comfortably padded chair and attached electrodes to his forehead, his chest and other parts of his body. He held a stylus and a plastic writing block on the small ledge in front of him.
Calmly, he switched on the machine.
TWO
Renark concentrated.
He could feel the presence of the galaxy, spreading Inwards from his own point in space; layer upon layer of it, time upon time.
He was aware of the galaxy as a whole and at the same time felt the presence of each individual atom in its structure - each atom, each planet, each star, nova and nebula. Thorough space, where matter was of minimum density, little cores of denser matter moved. Spaceships.
Faintly, beyond the limits of his own galaxy, he sensed the lesser density of intergalactic space, and beyond that he picked up faraway impressions of other galaxies.
There was nothing unpleasant happening out there - something he already knew about. Something he was pledged to alter.
Then he adjusted his mind so that, instead of sensing the components of the galaxy, he sensed it as a whole. He widened his reception to take in a small area beyond the galaxy and immediately the entire structure of time and space, as he knew it, was flawed.
There was something there that was alien - something that did not fit. It was as if a body had moved through that small area and had torn a hole in the very fabric of the universe. His mind and body trembled as he sought to adjust, as previously, to his new, unnatural factor. It was a binary star with eleven planets equidistantly encircling it.
It did not exist. Not in relation to the universe Renark knew. He could make no close assessment of its components - as yet. It was wrong! Renark controlled his mind against the thought and concentrated on judging the system's progress. It was, in relation to itself, travelling through space in the same manner as ordinary stars and planets travelled. But it also travelled through a series of dimensions of which Renark had no experience whatsoever. And its course, its orbits through the dimensions was bringing it closer to Renark's own continuum.
He opened his eyes, gasping.
Quickly, he jotted down an equation; closed his eyes and re-adjusted his mind.
It continued towards them. It shifted through myriad alien dimensions, moving through a whole series of continua, progressing imperturbably onwards in an orbit as constant as the orbits of its planets about its stars. Soon now it would be passing through Renark's continua.
But how long would it stay there? Renark could not tell without knowing a little of the universes which lay beyond his own - and of these he had much to find out. His future plans depended on it.
In less than twenty minutes, Renark was finished. He looked over Talfryn's shoulder at the records.
'She's coming closer,' he said. 'Between twelve to fifteen hours and shell be here. That's if my calculations are right. I think they are. As far as I can tell, she's travelling at a regular rate. I can't explain why the periods spent in this continuum have varied so much, though, if her speed is as constant as it seems to be.'
'Well, you've narrowed it, anyway.' Talfryn's body seemed to tense.
'Yes.' Renark moved about the control room reading gauges.
'And you're certain it won't miss this space-time altogether?'
'That's possible - but unlikely.'
Renark stared at a bank of gauges for a moment and then he moved towards a chrome and velvet chair which had a whole bank of levers and switches in front of it, a laser-screen above it. This was the gunnery control panel.
Again he began to move uneasily about the great cabin. Again he volunteered a suggestion.
'We don't know all the directions in which our own universe moves,' he said. 'It may also, for all we know, have a "sideways" movement through the dimensions at an angle different from the Shifter. This would explain to some extent any inconsistency in the length of time the system stays in our space-time continuum.'
Talfryn shook his head. 'I've never been able to grasp any of those theories about the system. I don't even understand your ability to sense its approach. I know that, with training, space sensers can locate planets and even smaller bodies in normal space-time, but I wasn't aware that they could sense things outside, beyond, in different dimensions - wherever it is.'
'Normally they can't,' Renark said, 'but many who have probed the perimeter of space outside the galaxy have mentioned that they have sensed something else, something not in keeping with any recognised natural laws. Others have had the illusion of sensing suns and worlds within the galaxy - where suns and worlds just can't be! This has given rise to the theory of the "multi-verse", the multidimensional universe containing dozens of different universes, separated from each other by unknown dimensions…'