Clarke, Arthur C - SSC 04 (30 page)

The light was fading from the sky as the
fury of the star drive dwindled along its lonely and unreturning road. Only
once did Lora turn away from Clyde to look again at the departing ship. Its
journey had scarcely begun, yet already it was moving across the heavens more
swiftly than any meteor; in a few moments it would have fallen below the edge
of the horizon as it plunged past the orbit of Thalassa, beyond the barren
outer planets, and on into the abyss.

She clung fiercely to the strong arms that
enfolded her, and felt against her cheek the beating of Clyde’s heart – the
heart that belonged to her and which she would never spurn again. Out of the
silence of the night there came a sudden, long-drawn sigh from the watching
thousands, and she knew that the
Magellan
had sunk out of sight below
the edge of the world. It was all over.

She looked up at the empty sky to which the
stars were now returning – the stars which she could never see again without
remembering Leon. But he had been right; that way was not for her. She knew
now, with a wisdom beyond her years, that the starship
Magellan
was
outward bound into history; and that was something of which Thalassa had no
further part. Her world’s story had begun and ended with the pioneers three
hundred years ago, but the colonists of the
Magellan
would go on to
victories and achievements as great as any yet written in the sagas of mankind.
Leon and his companions would be moving seas, levelling mountains, and
conquering unknown perils when her descendants eight generations hence would
still be dreaming beneath the sun-soaked palms.

And which was better, who could say?