“Look at ‘em, Lill Such machines are food and precious drink to me.”
I too admired fine machines.
I had spent three years polishing and tuning and loving the great space machine that was the station.
For a moment I wanted to like Giles Habibula.
“Very well.” I tried to be gruff.
“But this is no mechanical museum.
If you have any honest reason for visiting Nowhere Near, what is it?”
“We’re conducting an experiment.”
His flat, shallow eyes flickered evasively from me to the girl.
“A mortal important experiment!
Though I told you I’m retired, the Legion has asked another desperate service of me.
The Legion medics have made me a miserable human guinea pig, for a research that’s likely to end in my death.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” I thought I saw a glimmer of light.
“What is that research?”
“You know I’m old.”
His baby-head shook sadly.
“Dreadful death is crowding close upon me—a poor reward for all the hardship and danger I’ve endured to help defend the precious human race.
But still I’ve not forgot the spirit of the Legion.
I’ve volunteered to give my few last years to this rare and desperate experiment.”
“Yes?”
“Lilith Adams is my very special nurse.”
He gave her a fond pink smile.
“I’m her guinea pig for a new serum the Legion medics have invented.
The hazards are unknown, for the serum has never been tested.
I fear the research will end in my death.”
Hunching his thick shoulders in the flame-yellow sweater, he shivered.
“That’s why I’ve come to Nowhere Near,” he wheezed. “To sweat out these fearful final years among the machines I love.
Perhaps to perish here—a precious human sacrifice for the glory of the Legion and the welfare of mankind.”
“What’s the serum for?”
“Age!” he gasped.
“It’s supposed to immunize me to what the medics call the cumulative biochemicals of senescence.
We’ve come to wait here till we discover whether it works.
If it does, the medics promise I’ll be immortal.
But it’s a frightful gamble!”
“So you want to live forever?”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
He shot a murky glance at me.
“I’m a veteran of the Legion, and I’ve not forgot our magnificent tradition.
I’ve come to devote myself to this desperate experiment, to the brink of death itself—even if it takes a thousand mortal years!”
I stood for a moment just admiring his bluff.
Cool and tall and curiously sure in her clean white garb, Lilith Adams looked gravely at him and seriously back at me.
I was almost smiling, but her lean and lovely face showed no hint of amusement.
“I’m afraid you’ve picked an unfortunate spot for this kind of research,” I told them.
“No miracle serum is likely to protect either one of you against the hazards of Nowhere.
I’ll respect your orders, of course—if Commander Star does bring any orders about you before the Erewhon leaves.
But surely you can see that Nowhere Near is no old folks’ home.
There’s not a man of us here who wouldn’t give a month’s pay for half an hour of sun and wind and sea and sky, back on Earth.
Why can’t you test your serum there?”
Stubbornly, the old man shook his pink and hairless head. “I’ve seen too much of Earth.” His pale eyes fluttered uneasily.
“I’ve seen too many human beings—too mortal much of their yelling and crowding and fretting and scheming and lying and killing and stinking.