To The Stars

Trees, vines, plants, leaves, the jungle burst with life on all sides, above, even on the Road itself. The Road was over 200 meters wide here, twice the normal width, and still the jungle had overrun it as the burgeoning plant life fought for the light of the sun. In the four years since they had passed last the trees on either side had sent long branches out, questing for the light. Many times these had grown so large that they had overweighed and toppled the parent trees onto the Road. Some had died and been used as a base for other plants and vines, while others, with their roots still fixed in the jungle, had thrived and grown higher from their new positions. Where trees had not obstructed the Road, creepers and vines, some a meter thick and more, bad crawled out onto the sunny surface.

The tanks had joined in battle against the trees; the black remains of their victories lined the Road on both sides. With their flame-exploding snouts, the fusion guns had gone first, burning every obstruction before them. Then dozer blades had cleared a path just wide enough for their treads: the tanks that followed had widened this, pushing back the charred remains. Now the trains moved slowly between two walls of blackened debris, still smoking in places. It was a nightmare sight.

“It’s horrible,” Alzbeta said. “Horrible to look at.”

“I don’t mean to make light of it,” Jan told her, “but this is just the beginning. The worse part is up ahead. Of course it is dangerous out there, always, even when the trip is made at the usual time. And we are late this year, very late.”

“Will that make a difference?” she asked.

“I’m not sure, but if there is going to be any difference it will be for the worse. If only better records had been kept. I can’t find anything at all from any early planetary surveys. All the memory tapes have been wiped clean. Of course there are logs of all the trips, but they aren’t very helpful. Technical notes and distance for the most part. But no personal journals of any kind. I suppose when everything has to be packed to be moved every couple of years odd items usually get thrown out. So I have no hard facts — just a feeling. It’s spring that’s bothering me.

“I do not know the word”

“Not in the language. No referent. On more reasonable planets there are four seasons in the temperate zones. Winter is the cold time, summer is the hot. The time in between, when everything is warming up, that’s spring.”

Alzbeta shook her head and smiled. “It is a little hard to understand.”

“There is something a little bit like it on this planet. At the edge of the twilight zone there are life forms that have adapted to the cooler environment. They have their ecological niche there and make out fine until summer returns. When it does, all this burgeoning hot-zone life will probably rush in and make a meal of the cooler-adapted forms. Everything out there is eat and be eaten, so the competition for a new food source must be something fierce.”

“But you can’t be sure

“I’m not sure — and I also hope that I am wrong about it. Just cross your fingers and hope that our luck holds Out.”

It didn’t. At first the change seemed innocent enough, just a little incidental traffic slaughter of no real importance. Only Alzbeta seemed put out by it.

“The animals, they don’t seem to know about machines. They just come out onto the Road and are run over, crushed.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. Don’t look if it bothers you.

“I must look. That is part of my job. But those little greenish things with the orange bands, there seem to be a lot of them, coming out of the jungle.”

Jan noticed them now, first individuals, then groups, more and more of them. They were like obscene parodies of terrestrial frogs that had grown big as cats. A ripple of movement seemed to go over them as they advanced with a jerking, hopping motion.

“A migration, maybe,” he said. “Or they could be chased by something. It’s messy — but they can’t hurt us.

Or can they? As he spoke the words Jan felt a sudden disquiet. The edge of a memory. What was it? But any doubts at all called for caution. He switched off the speed control and let off on the accelerator, then turned on the microphone.

“Leader to all trains. Decrease speed by 20 K’s now!”

“What’s wrong?” Alzbeta asked.

The Road was becoming almost invisible, covered by the creatures that thronged across it, oblivious of the deadly wheels rushing toward them.

“Of course!” Jan shouted into the microphone. “All drivers stop, stop. But don’t use your brakes. Ease off on the power, power down to zero, but watch your coupling pressure gauges or you’ll jackknife. Repeat. Slow without braking, watch your coupling pressure, watch your nose radar for the train ahead of you.”

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Emo called in from the engine compartment.

“Animals of some kind, covering the Road, thousands of them, we’re running them down, crushing them…”