No one noticed the boy in blue pyjamas haring along the roads of North London in the half hour before midnight.
Jacob might have been sleepwalking. There he was, late at night, running as if his life depended upon it. In his hand he was carrying a thin metal coat hanger, the sort that comes from the dry-cleaner’s. There were cars passing, and a few pedestrians; but no one noticed him because no one ever did.
The decision to make one last effort to prevail upon the Cube to allow the spaceship to remain on Earth had come to him so suddenly that there seemed no time to dress or wrap up warm, or do anything but run. He knew, of course, that he would not be noticed. On this occasion, it would work to his advantage.
He did not stop or even pause for breath till he reached precisely the right spot along the railings of Highgate Cemetery.
At this hour the place was silent as the grave. Memorials were dark etched against a lesser darkness. Jacob peered in at the home of the dead but he did not shudder and no ghost, imaginary or real, came between him and his fixed purpose. William, Friese-Greene, master of a different sort of illusion, lay peacefully sleeping, totally unaware of anyone or anything in the world outside.
Jacob painstakingly straightened out the wire of the coat hanger and then pushed up against the railings of the cemetery. In his right hand he held the length of metal. It lacked the rigidity of the folded ruler, but it would be of adequate length. All he needed to do was to put his arm through the railings and hold on to the end of the wire.
It might not work.
He fished around till he could feel the marble of the pediment beneath the obelisk. Then, pulling back an inch or two, he thought he should be in the right place. He had watched very carefully as his father manoeuvred the ruler. He squeezed hard against the railing and prodded the wire into the soil. It would not go far, but it did not need to go far. Would it accept Jacob as Ormingatrig? Would it draw him in?
Gladly, willingly, quickly!
The spaceship had been expecting passengers for two days and nights. The final hour was close at hand.
You are late, Javayl, but you are welcome.
These were the first words Jacob heard as he tumbled into the ship. He sat himself upright on the sofa and gazed up at the Cube.
Sterekanda is awaited.
Jacob wondered what to say. Then, remembering what his father had told him of the machine’s oblique manner of communication, he made up his mind to say what he had intended to say before he entered the ship.
‘I have come to beg you to stay on Earth,’ he said. ‘I can never be happy again if you leave. My father will not be coming. But he and I can serve you well, if we are permitted.’
Sterekanda is awaited.
Jacob realized that the Cube was not answering him. He must try another way.
‘Sterekanda will not leave Earth,’ he said.
Time passes. Within minutes it will be too late.
‘Stay here,’ said Jacob. ‘Please, don’t go.’
‘I shall go to my father now,’ said Jacob, standing up and facing towards the door that must soon eject him. ‘Can I take a message to him?’
The door is sealed. Departure is imminent.
Even now, after such an explicit statement, Jacob did not appreciate the danger he was in. ‘Then I must go,’ he said.
The Cube was silent. The clock on the floor of the ship whirred and then sparked.
‘What is happening?’ said Jacob in sudden panic. ‘Let me go back to my father. Let me tell him whatever it is you want him to do.’
The door is sealed.
‘Unseal it,’ said Jacob, his voice rising. ‘I have to go back home.’
Ormingat is home.
‘Let me out!’ shouted Jacob. ‘Ormingat is home, but not yet, and not without my father.’
The door is sealed.
‘Open it! Open it now and let me out!’
We do not have the technology.
‘What do you mean?’
The door is sealed. The spaceship is on the point of departure.
Jacob flung himself at the place where the door should have been, but that was guesswork. There was now no evidence of any door at all. The ship was plunged into near darkness – even the Cube blanked out. In the base of the ship, on the laboratory side, the clock appeared huge, its stars and its wand the only visible light against black velvet.
Jacob stood gazing down at it, shocked into silence. He now understood completely that there was no going back. He could not even make any further appeal to the Cube, because it was no longer visible. All he could see was the clock, the wand a runnel full of stars.
He went on standing there, feeling chilled in the darkness, unable to think. Tears rolled down his cheeks, although he was not sobbing. He was not even fully aware of being sad. For more than an hour he remained as still as a statue with no idea what he should do. He was afraid, deeply afraid, but it became a waiting fear, without direction.
Then suddenly there was motion; an upward thrust sent Jacob reeling back on to the sofa, where he huddled in terror. ‘I want my mother,’ he cried. ‘I want my mother.’
It took an hour of Earth time for the take-off to settle. Then the lights in the ship came back on, the ship’s internal gravity asserted itself, and the Cube glowed green again.
You are travelling into space, Javayl ban. Have no fear.
The fox was no more than a metre away when the soil was scattered and the spaceship broke out from its prison and was flung miles up into the air, leaving briefly behind it a streak of blue light. The animal crouched down and whimpered, his ears sharp points against the side of his head. His fear was short-lived. Within less than a minute, he had recovered enough for curiosity to take him to the edge of the small hole the ship had made. He sniffed anxiously, scrabbled with his front paws, gulped down an earthworm, then sensibly gave up on the whole business and went on with his hunting.