When Worlds Collide (When Worlds Collide 1)

“Exactly what do you mean by that, Eve?”

“I mean that marriage on Bronson Beta—if we reach it—cannot possibly be what it is here, especially if only a few, a very few of us, reach it. It will be all-important then—it will be essential to take whatever action the circumstances may require to establish the race.”

“You mean,” said Tony savagely, remembering the remarks at breakfast, “if that flyer from South Africa—Ransdell—also made the passage on that Space Ship, and we all live, I may have to give you up to him—when circumstances seem to require it?”

“I don’t know, Tony. We can’t possibly describe it now; we can’t imagine the circumstances when we’re starting all over again. But one thing we can know—we must not first fix relations between us here which may only give trouble.”

“Relations like love and marriage!”

“They might not do at all, over there.”

“You’re mad, Eve. Your father’s been talking to you.”

“Of course he has; but there’s only sanity in what he says. He has thought so much more about it, he can look so calmly beyond the end of the world to what may be next that—that he won’t have us carry into the next world sentiments and attachments that may only bring us trouble and cause quarrels or rivalry and death. How frightful to fight and kill each other on that empty world! So we have to start freeing ourselves from such things here.”

“I’ll be no freer pretending I don’t want you more than anything else. What sort of thing does your father see for us—on Bronson Beta?”

She evaded him. “Why bother about it, Tony, when there’s ten thousand chances to one we’ll never get there? But we’ll try for it—won’t we?”

“I certainly will, if you’re going to.”

“Then you’ll have to submit to the discipline.”

His arms hungered for her, and his lips ached for hers, but he turned away.

Inside the house, he found her father, Cole Hendron.

“Glad to see you, Tony. We’re going ahead with our plans. I suppose you knew I had been counting on you.”

“For what?” Tony inquired brusquely.

“For one of my crew. You’ve the health and the mind and the nerve, I think. It’s going to take more courage, in the end, than staying here on the world. For we will all leave—we will shoot ourselves up into the sky while the world still seems safe. We leave, of course, before the end; and the end of the world will never be really believed till it comes. So I need men of your steadiness and quality. Can I count on you?”

Tony looked him over. “You can count on me, Mr. Hendron.”

“Good.… I can guess that Eve has acquainted you with some features of the discipline of the League. I will tell you, in proper time, of others; nothing will be asked of you which will not be actually reasonable and necessary. But now I should advise you to learn something useful. Investment experience, and skill in trading, will scarcely be an asset on Bronson Beta, whereas knowledge of agriculture and proficiency in manual arts and elementary mechanics may be invaluable. You have time to learn the simple, primary processes by which life is maintained. You will have, I might say, approximately two years to prepare, before affairs here become acute with the approach of the planets on their first passage.”

CHAPTER 8—MARCHING ORDERS FOR THE HUMAN RACE

NO record could picture a thousandth part of the changes that came in those two years. No single aspect of human enterprise was left undisturbed.

It was on the half of the world which we call the Northern Hemisphere that the effect of the approach of the planets proved most disastrous. Of course, it was the north that possessed the continents teeming with people—Asia, Europe, North Africa, North America. The Southern Hemisphere, in comparison, was sparsely settled; and the South, moreover, had the advantage of seeing the strange stars slowly become visible and slowly, thereafter, brighten. The South became accustomed to their shining in the sky.

But at the end of the first year after the announcement of their approach, they stood for the first time in the northern sky. Partly this was due to their actual approach, which was bringing them not only closer but higher in the heavens; but chiefly it was due to the seasonal shifts of the earth which in spring showed more and more of the southern skies.

So there they stood, not high above the horizon as seen from New York or Chicago or San Francisco, but quite distinct and strange—two new stars clearly connected, one much brighter than the other. Even in a good field-glass, the brighter showed a round, gleaming disk, and the dimmer one appeared more than a point.

It was yet more than a year before the first serious physical manifestations were expected; so the statement that Hendron signed merely read:

“It is still impossible to forecast the entire effect of the approach of the Bron

son bodies. Unquestionably they will disturb us greatly. We may anticipate, as a minimum, the following phenomena: tides which will destroy or render uninhabitable all coastal cities and all inland cities within five hundred or more feet of sea-level. We have no terrestrial precedent for such tides. The existing sixty-foot rise and fall in the Bay of Fundy will certainly be trifling in comparison. The tides we anticipate will be perhaps several hundreds of feet high, and will sweep overland with a violence difficult to anticipate.

“The second manifestation, which will be simultaneous, will consist of volcanic activity and earthquakes of unpredictable extent and violence.

“The Bronson bodies, if they pass on a parabola, will approach the earth twice. If, however, their course becomes modified into an ellipse, the earth will meet them again in its journey around the sun. Direct collision with one or another of the bodies, or grazing collision due to mutual attraction when in proximity, cannot be regarded as impossible. The succession of tides and earthquakes caused by gravity and resultant stresses may instantly or in time render the surface of this globe wholly uninhabitable; but we cannot say that there is no hope.

“Certain steps must be taken. All coastal cities in all parts of the world must be evacuated. Populaces must be moved to high, non-volcanic regions. Provision for feeding, clothing and domiciling migrated peoples must be made.