2061 Odyssey Three

chapter 37 Star

And now Universe was moving so swiftly that its orbit no longer even remotely resembled that of any natural object in the Solar System. Mercury, closest to the Sun, barely exceeds fifty kilometres a second at perihelion; Universe had reached twice that speed in the first day - and at only half the acceleration it would achieve when it was lighter by several thousand tons of water.

For a few hours, as they passed inside its orbit, Venus was the brightest of all heavenly bodies, next to the Sun and Lucifer. Its tiny disc was just visible to the naked eye, but even the ship's most powerful telescopes showed no markings whatever. Venus guarded her secrets as jealously as Europa.

By going still closer to the Sun - well inside the orbit of Mercury - Universe was not merely taking a short cut, but was also getting a free boost from the Sun's gravitational field. Because nature always balances her books, the Sun lost some velocity in the transaction; but the effect would not be measurable for a few thousand years.

Captain Smith used the ship's perihelion passage to restore some of the prestige his foot-dragging had cost him.

'Now you know,' he said, 'exactly why I flew the ship through Old Faithful. If we hadn't washed all that dirt off the hull, by this time we'd be badly overheating. In fact, I doubt if the thermal controls would have handled the load - it's already ten times Earth level.' Looking - through filters that were almost black - at the hideously swollen Sun, his passengers could easily believe him. They were all more than happy when it had shrunk back to normal size - and continued to dwindle astern as Universe sliced across the orbit of Mars, outward bound on the final leg of its mission.

The 'Famous Five' had all adjusted, in their various ways, to the unexpected change in their lives. Mihailovich was composing copiously and noisily, and was seldom seen except when he emerged at meals, to tell outrageous stories and tease all available victims, especially Willis. Greenburg had elected himself, no-one dissenting, an honorary crew member, and spent much of his time on the bridge.

Maggie M viewed the situation with rueful amusement.

'Writers,' she remarked, 'are always saying what a lot of work they could do if they were only in some place with no interruptions - no engagements; lighthouses and prisons are their favourite examples. So I can't complain - except that my requests for research material keep getting delayed by high priority messages.'

Even Victor Willis had now come to much the same conclusion; he too was busily at work on sundry long-range projects. And he had an additional reason to keep to his cabin. It would still be several weeks before he looked as if he had forgotten to shave, and months before he returned to his full glory.

Yva Merlin spent hours every day in the entertainment centre, catching up - as she readily explained - with her favourite classics. It was fortunate that Universe's library and projection facilities had been installed in time for the voyage; though the collection was still relatively small, there was sufficient for several lifetimes of viewing.

All the famous works of visual art were there, right back to the flickering dawn of the cinema. Yva knew most of them, and was happy to share her knowledge.

Floyd, of course, enjoyed listening to her, because then she became alive - an ordinary human being, not an icon. He found it both sad and fascinating that only through an artificial universe of video images could she establish contact with the real world.

One of the strangest experiences of Heywood Floyd's fairly eventful life was sitting in semi-darkness just behind Yva, somewhere outside the orbit of Mars, while they watched the original Gone with the Wind together. There were moments when he could see her famous profile silhouetted against that of Vivien Leigh, and could compare the two - though it was impossible to say that one actress was better than the other; both were sui generis.

When the lights went up, he was astonished to see that Yva was crying. He took her hand and said tenderly: 'I cried too, when Bonny died.'

Yva managed a faint smile.

'I was really crying for Vivien,' she said. 'While we were shooting Two, I read a lot about her - she had such a tragic life. And talking about her, right out here between the planets, reminds me of something that Larry said when he brought the poor thing back from Ceylon after her nervous breakdown. He told his friends: "I've married a woman from outer space."

Yva paused for a moment, and another tear trickled (rather theatrically, Floyd could not help thinking) down her cheek.

'And here's something even stranger. She made her last movie exactly a hundred years ago - and do you know what it was?'

'Go on - surprise me again.'

'I expect it will surprise Maggie - if she's really writing the book she keeps threatening us with. Vivien's very last film was - Ship of Fools.'