Floor of Heaven
By T. D. HAMM
Illustrated by ADKINS
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Amazing Stories January 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The three crew members of the Ad Astra looked at one another, grinning weakly, in the whispering silence after the motors had kicked off. This was the culminating point of a half-century of preparation; behind them was the satellite launching station—ahead of them, a faint red dot, was Mars.
Bryan, nominal head of the expedition, touched the shutter studs that opened their windows on the universe. They stood silently, the three of them; Bryan and Hughes looking back at the majesty of the retreating Earth—Williams, rigid with ecstasy at the forward port.
The stars were his passion and his joy. Women filled a momentary need, men he accepted or rejected as they could help him to achieve his goal. Now, as astrogator of the Ad Astra he had fulfilled his dream; and now before him Canopus, Rigel, Cassiopeia and Aldebaran lay jewel-like on the dark velvet of space.
How stars had absorbed the thoughts of mankind since the beginning, he thought happily, and what dreams had the ancient Chaldeans known as they mapped the routes of the galleons of space? And the poets.... "See how the floor of Heaven is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold—" he quoted softly.
"My, that's pretty," Bryan said solemnly behind him. "Who said that?"