September 24, 2025 • 28 mins
In a world where dreamers and reality rarely coexist, Steve Arnsen cant shake the feeling that his friend Douglas OBrien might be the exception. As Douglas becomes increasingly obsessed with tracing the origins of a mysterious meteorite he discovered, Steve resolves to keep his friend grounded. However, Douglas‚As determination may lead them both into the most extraordinary dream of all. Will their friendship survive the journey? - Summary by EVKesserich
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section three of The Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. The Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner, Chapter four Circe,
(00:26):
The Immortal. It was dark when he woke. Oxygen was
once more pouring into his suit. He had managed to
open the valve before falling. Far above the distant corona crowned.
A sun flamed against the starry backdrop. The ship lay
(00:47):
beneath its crag, but of O'Brien there was no trace whatever.
After that, something akin to madness came to Arnson again.
The utter loneliness of space crushed down on him with
suffocating terror. Doug was gone, like Hastings where he searched then,
(01:14):
and in the days thereafter, he grew haggard and gaunt,
drugging himself with stimulants so that he could drive himself
beyond his limit. Hour after hour, he searched the tiny world,
squinting against the sun glare, peering into black shadow, shouting
O'Brien's name, cursing, bitter, swearing oaths that sounded futile to
(01:37):
his own ears. Time dragged on into an eternity. He
had been here forever. He could not remember a time
when he had not been plodding across the asteroid, watching
for a glimpse of a space suited figure, of dancing
jewels of fire, of a slim white body. Who was she?
(02:01):
What was she? Not? Human? No? And the crystals, what
were they? He returned to the ship one day, shoulders slumping,
and passed the spot where he had seen the girl.
Something on the ground caught his eye, a pearly shining gem.
(02:24):
He remembered his scuffle with O'Brien and the thing that
had dropped into his glove. The jewel. Of course, it
had lain here, unnoticed for many revolutions of the asteroid.
He picked it up, staring into the milky depths. A
pulse tingled up his arm, fingering into his mind, a
(02:47):
pulse of longing. The girl had appeared when O'Brien summoned her.
Perhaps it would work again. There was no other hope,
But he could not call her Deirdre. He gripped the
hard crystal, his thought probed out, forceful and summoning, circe nothing,
(03:15):
the eternal silence, the cold blaze of the stars, Circe
the gem in his hand leaped with eagerness in the
emptiness above him. A rainbow glitter of coarse, gating light
flamed the crystals and within them the girl. She had
(03:39):
not changed, Lovely and alien. She lay among her dancing,
shining gems, and her lashes still veiled the cryptic depth
of her eyes. Arnson stumbled forward. Whar's O'Brien? His voice cracked,
harsh and inhuman, damn you, where is he? She did
(04:06):
not look at him. Her body seemed to recede. The
jewels swirled into swift motion about her. Arneson lurched on,
his mind felt on fire. He whipped out his elastic
billy and plunged toward the girl. She was not there.
(04:27):
She had drifted back amid the rainbow crystals. Arnseon could
not overtake her. It was like following a willow, the
wisp a torch of Saint Elmo's fire. But he did
not take his eyes from the girl more than once
he fell. She was leading him away from the ship.
(04:48):
He knew that did not matter, not if she also
led him to Doug. What had she done with the boy?
He hated her, hated her relentless inhumanity, her incredible beauty,
teeth bared, red rimmed eyes glaring, Arnson plunged on in
(05:10):
a nightmare race across the face of the silent asteroid.
Hours later, it seemed she vanished in black shadow under
a thrusting pinnacle of slag. Arnson followed, reeling with fatigue,
expecting to cannon into a rock wall, but the darkness
remained intangible. The ground sloped beneath his leaded boots. Suddenly,
(05:37):
light shone through a cleft at his side, pale, warm
liquid light. It drifted up from a slanting corridor in
the rock. Far down the passage, Arnson could see the
cloud of dancing flames that marked the girl's crystal attendants.
He stumbled on. Down he went, and down, till at
(06:01):
last the passage turned again in the distance. He rounded
the bend and stopped, blinded and dazed. As his vision
adjusted itself, Arnson made out a pillar of fire that
rose from floor to ceiling of the cavern before him.
Yet it was not fire, it with something beyond human knowledge,
(06:25):
pure energy, perhaps wrenched from the locked heart of the
atom itself, silently thundering and pouring up like a geyser.
The pillars shook, It wavered and rocked, coldly white, intensely brilliant,
like a living thing, blazing with a power inconceivable. Walls
(06:46):
and floor and roof of the cavern were crusted with jewels.
The rainbow crystals clung quivering, thousands of them, some tiny,
others huge. They watched, They were alive. The girl stood
near Arnson. A score of the jewels pressed against her. Lovingly.
(07:10):
They caressed her. The veiled eyes did not meet Arnson's,
but she lifted her arm. There was a movement in
Arnson's gloved hand. The milky gem stirred. A pulse of
eagerness beat out from it. It leaped free, raced towards Circe.
(07:33):
She caught it, flung it at the shaking tower of flame,
into the pillar's blazing heart. The crystal darted, fire, sank,
rose again, spewed forth. The jewel no longer milky, no
longer dulled, It blazed with fantastic brilliance. Vital energy streamed
(07:59):
from it, whirled and danced joyously, with sheer delight. It
was like a sleeper suddenly wakened. It spun towards Circe,
pulsed madly with the intoxication of life. The girl rose
feather light without gravity, drifting across the cavern to a
(08:20):
passage mouth that gaped in the wall. The jewels clustered
around its swayed toward her. Some broke free. Rushing in
her train, she vanished into the portal. The spell that
held Arnson broke. He flung himself after her, too late.
(08:42):
Already she was gone. But along the corridor jewels floated bright, shining, alive,
and suddenly strong arms were around Arnson. The face of
O'Brien was before him. O'Brien, no longer wearing his space
haggard yet aflame with a vital something that glowed in
(09:04):
his dark eyes. O'Brien, laughing, steve his voice shook. So
you followed me here? I'm glad, Come in here. It's
all right. The energy went out of Arnson, leaving him
(09:24):
weak and exhausted. He cast one glance up the empty
corridor and followed O'Brien through the cave, opening into a
little room cut out of solid rock. He felt the
other's fingers loosening his helmet, removing the bulky spacesuit. Some
remnant of caution returned the oxygen there's air here. It's
(09:49):
a place of wonders. Steve, there was air, cool, sweet
and refreshing. It crept into Arnson's lungs. He looked around.
The little cavern was empty, save for dozens of the
rainbow crystals clinging to the walls. They watched alertly. O'Brien
(10:13):
pressed him back, made a quick gesture. A jewel floated forward,
hovering over Arnson's face. He felt water trickling between his lips, and,
too exhausted for wonder, swallowed gratefully. You needn't sleep, O'Brien said.
(10:34):
But it's all right, Steve. It's all right. I tell
you you'll hear all about it when you wake up. Time enough,
then you'll see Deirdre. Arnson tried to struggle up. I won't.
O'Brien signaled again. Another gem drifted close from it, A
(10:57):
gray breath of cloud floated, her fume, sweet, supphoric. It
crept into Arnson's nostrils, and he slept. Chapter five, The
Jewel Folk. The room was unchanged. When he woke once more,
(11:20):
O'Brien sat cross legged, looking into space. His face had altered,
had acquired a new peace and maturity. He heard Arnson's
slight movement and turned awake. How do you feel all right?
Well enough to hear explanations? Arnson said, with a flash
(11:44):
of temper. I've been nearly crazy looking for you all
over this damned asteroid. I still think I'm crazy after
all this, O'Brien chuckled. I can imagine I felt pretty
upset for a while, till the crystal's explained. The crystal's
(12:04):
what they're alive, Steve, the ultimate product of evolution, perhaps
crystalline life, perfect machines. They could do almost anything. You
saw how one created drinkable water. And well, look here,
he beckoned, a jewel floated close from it a jet
(12:28):
of flame shot red and brilliant. O'Brien waved his hand.
The jewel drifted back to its place. They can convert
energy into matter, you see, it's logical when you forget
about hide bound science. All matter's made up of energy,
simply locked in certain patterns, certain matrices. But inside the atom,
(12:52):
the framework of matter, you've got nothing but energy. These
crystals build patterns out of basic energy. Arnston shook his head.
I don't see it. O'Brien's voice grew deeper, stronger, long, ago,
very long ago, and in another galaxy light years away,
(13:15):
there was a civilization far beyond ours. Deirdre is a
child of that race. It was mighty. It passed through
our culture level and went far beyond till machines were
no longer needed. Instead, the race made the crystals supermachines,
super robots with incredible powers locked in them. They supplied
(13:38):
all the needs of Deirdre's race. Well, this asteroid doesn't
belong to our family of planets. It's from that other
solar system in the neighboring galaxy. It drifted here by accident.
I think I don't quite know the facts of it.
It came under the gravitational pull of a comet wandering planet,
(14:01):
was yanked out into space. Eventually it settled into this orbit.
Deirdre didn't care. Her mind isn't like ours. The crystal
supplied all her needs, made air, gave her food and
water everything she desired. Arnson said, how long has this
(14:21):
been going on? Forever? Perhaps? O'Brien said, quietly, I think
Deirdre's immortal. At least she is a goddess. Do you
remember the crystal I found in that meteorite? Yeah? I
remember it came from here. It was one of Deirdre's servants.
(14:43):
Somehow it was lost, wandered away. Cosmic dust collected on
it as it moved in an orbit around the Sun
thousands of years, perhaps iron atoms. At last, it was
a meteorite with the crystal at its heart. So it
fell to and I found it, and it wanted to
go home, back to Deirdre. It told me that I
(15:06):
felt its thoughts. It drew me here. Steve Arnson shivered.
It's unbelievable. And that girl isn't human. Have you looked
into her eyes? No, she isn't human. She is a goddess.
(15:29):
A new thought came to Arnson. Where's Tex Hastings here?
I haven't seen him, O'Brien said, I don't know where
he is. Uh huh, what have you been doing? She
brought me here. The crystals took care of me and Deirdre.
(15:52):
He stood up. She's summoning me. Wait, Steve, I'll be back.
Arnson put out a detaining hand, but it was useless.
O'Brien stepped through the portal and was gone. A dozen
crystals swept after him. Arnson followed, refusing to admit that
(16:16):
he too, wanted another glimpse of the girl. Down the passage,
he went in O'Brien's trail till the boy vanished from sight.
Arnson increased his pace. He halted on the threshold of
the cavern with a pillar of flame swept up to
the roof. He had thought it thundered. It did not.
(16:40):
It rushed up in utter silence, shaking and swaying with
the surcharged intensity of its power. The walls were crusted
with the dancing watching crystals. Now Arnson saw that some
were dull, gray, motionless and dead. These were sprinkled among
the others, and there were thousands of them. O'Brien paced forward,
(17:06):
and suddenly Cecy was standing with her back to Arnson,
the gems clustering about her. Caressingly, she lifted her arms,
and O'Brien turned a great hunger leaped into his face.
The girl did not move, and O'Brien came into the
circle of her arms. So swift was her movement that
(17:28):
Arnson did not realize it till too late. The slender
arms slid free. Circe stepped back apace and thrust O'Brien
toward the tower of flame. He stumbled off balance, and
the crystals leaped from Circe's body. They were no longer
a garment. They pressed against O'Brien, forcing him away, thrusting, pushing.
(17:55):
Arnson cried out and sprang forward. O'Brien reeled was engulfed
by the flame pillar. The pouring torrent swallowed him. Simultaneously.
From the farther wall, a gray, dead jewel detached itself
and shot toward the Tower of Fire, into the blazing heart.
(18:17):
It fled and vanished. The pillar sank down, It pulsed,
thundered up again, silently, streaming like a torrent, toward the
roof and out of its depths, the jewel came transformed, sentient, blazing,
shining with the myriad hues. It swirled towards Circe, scintillant
(18:41):
with delight. It hovered about her caressingly. It was alive.
Arnson cried out, flung himself forward. Circe turned to face him.
Still her eyes were hidden. Her face was aloofly, lovely
and inhuman. The crystal swept toward Arnson, cupping itself into
(19:05):
his outthrust hand. From it, a wave of mad delight
rushed into his brain. It was dug. It was, Doug
frozen with sick horror. Arnson halted while thoughts poured from
the sensioned crystal into his mind, the gray jewel. His
(19:28):
tongue fumbled thickly with the words. He looked up to
where the dull gems clung among the shining ones machines. Steve,
the thought lanced into him from the living thing he held.
Robots not energized. Only one thing can energize them, life force,
(19:50):
vital energy. The flame pillar does that through atomic transmutation.
It's not earthly science. It was created in a another galaxy. There,
Deirdre's race had slaved people to energize the crystals. Doug,
she's killed you. I'm not dead. I'm alive, Steve, more
(20:13):
alive than I have ever been. All the crystals Martians, Venusians,
beings from other systems and galaxies that landed on this asteroid.
Deirdre took them for her own, as she took Hastings,
as she has taken me. We serve her now. The
(20:35):
jewel tore free from Arnson's grip. It fled back to Circe,
brushing her lips, caressing her hair. The other gems scores
of them danced about the girl like elfin lovers. Arnson
stood there, sick and nauseated. He understood now the intricate
(21:00):
crystal machines were too complicated to work unless life force
energized them. Circe, who took the minds of living beings
and prisoned them in silicate robot forms, they felt no resentment.
They were content to serve. Damn you, Arnson mouthed and
(21:22):
took a step forward. His fists bald, his fingers ached
to curl about the girl's slender neck and snap it
with sharp, vicious pressure. Her lashes swept up. Her eyes
looked into his. They were black as space, with stars
prisoned in their depths. They were not human eyes. Now
(21:48):
Arnson knew why O'Brien had asked if he looked into
Deirdre's eyes. They were her secret and her power. Her
human form was not enough to enchant an enslave beings
of a hundred worlds. It was the soul shaking alienage
that looked out of Circe's eyes. Through those dark windows,
(22:11):
Arnson saw the outside. He saw the gulf between the stars,
and no longer did he fear it, for Circe was
a goddess. She was above and beyond humanity. A great
void opened up between her and the man, a void
of countless evolutionary cycles and a million light years of space.
(22:37):
But across that gulf, something reached and met and clung,
and Arnson's senses drowned in a soul shaking longing. For Circe,
it was her power. She could control emotion as she
could control the crystals, and the power of her mind
reached into Arnson and wrung sanity and self from it.
(23:00):
Only an outer semblance was she even slightly human. Beside her,
Arnson was an animal, and like an animal, he could
be controlled. She blazed like a flame before him. He
forgot O'Brien, got hastings and Earth and his purpose. Her
(23:22):
power clutched him and left him helpless. The grip upon
his mind relaxed. Circe, confident of her triumph, let her
eyelids droop, and Arnson's mind came back in a long,
slow cycle from the gulfs between the stars, drifted leisurely
(23:42):
back into the crystalline cavern and the presence of the goddess,
and woke not wholly. He would never be whole again,
but he felt the crowding vibrations of the countless prisoners
in Cristel, who had gone the way his own feet
were walking now, bewildered, drunken, and drowning in emotions without name,
(24:04):
sacrificing identity without knowing what they sacrificed, flung into eternity
at the whim of a careless goddess to whom all
life forms were won. She was turning half away. As
realization came back to Arnson. She had lifted one round
white arm to let Cristel's cascade along it. She did
(24:26):
not even see him lurched forward. What he did was
without thought. The emotion she had called up in him
drowned all thought. He only knew he must do what
he did. He could not yet think why. The breath
hissed between his lips as he stumbled forward and thrust
(24:48):
Circe into the flame. From the roof, a gray jewel dropped.
The tower of fire, paused in its rhythm, beat out
strongly again. From it, a crystal leaped. It hung motionless
in the air, and Arnson seized it with shaking fingers.
(25:09):
He felt great racking sobs shake him. His fingers caressed
the jewel pressed it to his lips. Circe. He whispered,
eyes blind with tears Circy epilogue. Arnson had not spoken
(25:34):
for some time. Through the window, I could see the
Cairo Strato ship being wheeled into place beyond the lights
of New York glowed yellow. So you came back, I said.
He nodded, and so I came back, put on my
(25:55):
spacesuit and went back to the ship. The crystals didn't
try to stop me. They seemed to be waiting. I
don't know for what. I blasted off and headed sunward.
I knew enough to do that. After a while, I
began to send out SOS signals, and a patrol boat
picked me up. That was all Doug still there, I suppose,
(26:22):
with all the others veil, Why did I do it?
Was I right? He didn't wait for an answer, but
cupped the little chagrin box in his hand. He didn't
open it. No, he went on, you can't answer me,
(26:45):
nobody can, Syros. He took the soul out of my body,
and I'm empty now. There's no peace for me on
Earth or in the spaceways. Dout there somewhere on that asteroid,
the crystals are waiting, waiting for Circe to come back,
(27:05):
but she never will come back. She'll stay with me
till I die, and then she'll be buried with me
in space. In the meantime, Circe doesn't like it here
on Earth, so I'm going out again sometime. Perhaps I'll
take her back outside to the unknown place from which
(27:26):
she came. I don't know. An audio announced the plane
for Kansas. Arnson stood up, gave me a smile from
his ravaged face, and without a word, went out. I
never saw him again. I think that beyond Pluto, beyond
(27:50):
the farthest limits of the system, a little cruiser may
be fleeing into the void, controls set racing, perhaps for
the darkness of the coalsac In the ship is a
man and a jewel. He will die, but I do
not think even in death, his hand will relax its
grip on that jewel, and the ship will go on
(28:15):
into the blackness which has no name. End of Section three,
End of the Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner
Section three of The Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. The Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner, Chapter four Circe,
(00:26):
The Immortal. It was dark when he woke. Oxygen was
once more pouring into his suit. He had managed to
open the valve before falling. Far above the distant corona crowned.
A sun flamed against the starry backdrop. The ship lay
(00:47):
beneath its crag, but of O'Brien there was no trace whatever.
After that, something akin to madness came to Arnson again.
The utter loneliness of space crushed down on him with
suffocating terror. Doug was gone, like Hastings where he searched then,
(01:14):
and in the days thereafter, he grew haggard and gaunt,
drugging himself with stimulants so that he could drive himself
beyond his limit. Hour after hour, he searched the tiny world,
squinting against the sun glare, peering into black shadow, shouting
O'Brien's name, cursing, bitter, swearing oaths that sounded futile to
(01:37):
his own ears. Time dragged on into an eternity. He
had been here forever. He could not remember a time
when he had not been plodding across the asteroid, watching
for a glimpse of a space suited figure, of dancing
jewels of fire, of a slim white body. Who was she?
(02:01):
What was she? Not? Human? No? And the crystals, what
were they? He returned to the ship one day, shoulders slumping,
and passed the spot where he had seen the girl.
Something on the ground caught his eye, a pearly shining gem.
(02:24):
He remembered his scuffle with O'Brien and the thing that
had dropped into his glove. The jewel. Of course, it
had lain here, unnoticed for many revolutions of the asteroid.
He picked it up, staring into the milky depths. A
pulse tingled up his arm, fingering into his mind, a
(02:47):
pulse of longing. The girl had appeared when O'Brien summoned her.
Perhaps it would work again. There was no other hope,
But he could not call her Deirdre. He gripped the
hard crystal, his thought probed out, forceful and summoning, circe nothing,
(03:15):
the eternal silence, the cold blaze of the stars, Circe
the gem in his hand leaped with eagerness in the
emptiness above him. A rainbow glitter of coarse, gating light
flamed the crystals and within them the girl. She had
(03:39):
not changed, Lovely and alien. She lay among her dancing,
shining gems, and her lashes still veiled the cryptic depth
of her eyes. Arnson stumbled forward. Whar's O'Brien? His voice cracked,
harsh and inhuman, damn you, where is he? She did
(04:06):
not look at him. Her body seemed to recede. The
jewels swirled into swift motion about her. Arneson lurched on,
his mind felt on fire. He whipped out his elastic
billy and plunged toward the girl. She was not there.
(04:27):
She had drifted back amid the rainbow crystals. Arnseon could
not overtake her. It was like following a willow, the
wisp a torch of Saint Elmo's fire. But he did
not take his eyes from the girl more than once
he fell. She was leading him away from the ship.
(04:48):
He knew that did not matter, not if she also
led him to Doug. What had she done with the boy?
He hated her, hated her relentless inhumanity, her incredible beauty,
teeth bared, red rimmed eyes glaring, Arnson plunged on in
(05:10):
a nightmare race across the face of the silent asteroid.
Hours later, it seemed she vanished in black shadow under
a thrusting pinnacle of slag. Arnson followed, reeling with fatigue,
expecting to cannon into a rock wall, but the darkness
remained intangible. The ground sloped beneath his leaded boots. Suddenly,
(05:37):
light shone through a cleft at his side, pale, warm
liquid light. It drifted up from a slanting corridor in
the rock. Far down the passage, Arnson could see the
cloud of dancing flames that marked the girl's crystal attendants.
He stumbled on. Down he went, and down, till at
(06:01):
last the passage turned again in the distance. He rounded
the bend and stopped, blinded and dazed. As his vision
adjusted itself, Arnson made out a pillar of fire that
rose from floor to ceiling of the cavern before him.
Yet it was not fire, it with something beyond human knowledge,
(06:25):
pure energy, perhaps wrenched from the locked heart of the
atom itself, silently thundering and pouring up like a geyser.
The pillars shook, It wavered and rocked, coldly white, intensely brilliant,
like a living thing, blazing with a power inconceivable. Walls
(06:46):
and floor and roof of the cavern were crusted with jewels.
The rainbow crystals clung quivering, thousands of them, some tiny,
others huge. They watched, They were alive. The girl stood
near Arnson. A score of the jewels pressed against her. Lovingly.
(07:10):
They caressed her. The veiled eyes did not meet Arnson's,
but she lifted her arm. There was a movement in
Arnson's gloved hand. The milky gem stirred. A pulse of
eagerness beat out from it. It leaped free, raced towards Circe.
(07:33):
She caught it, flung it at the shaking tower of flame,
into the pillar's blazing heart. The crystal darted, fire, sank,
rose again, spewed forth. The jewel no longer milky, no
longer dulled, It blazed with fantastic brilliance. Vital energy streamed
(07:59):
from it, whirled and danced joyously, with sheer delight. It
was like a sleeper suddenly wakened. It spun towards Circe,
pulsed madly with the intoxication of life. The girl rose
feather light without gravity, drifting across the cavern to a
(08:20):
passage mouth that gaped in the wall. The jewels clustered
around its swayed toward her. Some broke free. Rushing in
her train, she vanished into the portal. The spell that
held Arnson broke. He flung himself after her, too late.
(08:42):
Already she was gone. But along the corridor jewels floated bright, shining, alive,
and suddenly strong arms were around Arnson. The face of
O'Brien was before him. O'Brien, no longer wearing his space
haggard yet aflame with a vital something that glowed in
(09:04):
his dark eyes. O'Brien, laughing, steve his voice shook. So
you followed me here? I'm glad, Come in here. It's
all right. The energy went out of Arnson, leaving him
(09:24):
weak and exhausted. He cast one glance up the empty
corridor and followed O'Brien through the cave, opening into a
little room cut out of solid rock. He felt the
other's fingers loosening his helmet, removing the bulky spacesuit. Some
remnant of caution returned the oxygen there's air here. It's
(09:49):
a place of wonders. Steve, there was air, cool, sweet
and refreshing. It crept into Arnson's lungs. He looked around.
The little cavern was empty, save for dozens of the
rainbow crystals clinging to the walls. They watched alertly. O'Brien
(10:13):
pressed him back, made a quick gesture. A jewel floated forward,
hovering over Arnson's face. He felt water trickling between his lips, and,
too exhausted for wonder, swallowed gratefully. You needn't sleep, O'Brien said.
(10:34):
But it's all right, Steve. It's all right. I tell
you you'll hear all about it when you wake up. Time enough,
then you'll see Deirdre. Arnson tried to struggle up. I won't.
O'Brien signaled again. Another gem drifted close from it, A
(10:57):
gray breath of cloud floated, her fume, sweet, supphoric. It
crept into Arnson's nostrils, and he slept. Chapter five, The
Jewel Folk. The room was unchanged. When he woke once more,
(11:20):
O'Brien sat cross legged, looking into space. His face had altered,
had acquired a new peace and maturity. He heard Arnson's
slight movement and turned awake. How do you feel all right?
Well enough to hear explanations? Arnson said, with a flash
(11:44):
of temper. I've been nearly crazy looking for you all
over this damned asteroid. I still think I'm crazy after
all this, O'Brien chuckled. I can imagine I felt pretty
upset for a while, till the crystal's explained. The crystal's
(12:04):
what they're alive, Steve, the ultimate product of evolution, perhaps
crystalline life, perfect machines. They could do almost anything. You
saw how one created drinkable water. And well, look here,
he beckoned, a jewel floated close from it a jet
(12:28):
of flame shot red and brilliant. O'Brien waved his hand.
The jewel drifted back to its place. They can convert
energy into matter, you see, it's logical when you forget
about hide bound science. All matter's made up of energy,
simply locked in certain patterns, certain matrices. But inside the atom,
(12:52):
the framework of matter, you've got nothing but energy. These
crystals build patterns out of basic energy. Arnston shook his head.
I don't see it. O'Brien's voice grew deeper, stronger, long, ago,
very long ago, and in another galaxy light years away,
(13:15):
there was a civilization far beyond ours. Deirdre is a
child of that race. It was mighty. It passed through
our culture level and went far beyond till machines were
no longer needed. Instead, the race made the crystals supermachines,
super robots with incredible powers locked in them. They supplied
(13:38):
all the needs of Deirdre's race. Well, this asteroid doesn't
belong to our family of planets. It's from that other
solar system in the neighboring galaxy. It drifted here by accident.
I think I don't quite know the facts of it.
It came under the gravitational pull of a comet wandering planet,
(14:01):
was yanked out into space. Eventually it settled into this orbit.
Deirdre didn't care. Her mind isn't like ours. The crystal
supplied all her needs, made air, gave her food and
water everything she desired. Arnson said, how long has this
(14:21):
been going on? Forever? Perhaps? O'Brien said, quietly, I think
Deirdre's immortal. At least she is a goddess. Do you
remember the crystal I found in that meteorite? Yeah? I
remember it came from here. It was one of Deirdre's servants.
(14:43):
Somehow it was lost, wandered away. Cosmic dust collected on
it as it moved in an orbit around the Sun
thousands of years, perhaps iron atoms. At last, it was
a meteorite with the crystal at its heart. So it
fell to and I found it, and it wanted to
go home, back to Deirdre. It told me that I
(15:06):
felt its thoughts. It drew me here. Steve Arnson shivered.
It's unbelievable. And that girl isn't human. Have you looked
into her eyes? No, she isn't human. She is a goddess.
(15:29):
A new thought came to Arnson. Where's Tex Hastings here?
I haven't seen him, O'Brien said, I don't know where
he is. Uh huh, what have you been doing? She
brought me here. The crystals took care of me and Deirdre.
(15:52):
He stood up. She's summoning me. Wait, Steve, I'll be back.
Arnson put out a detaining hand, but it was useless.
O'Brien stepped through the portal and was gone. A dozen
crystals swept after him. Arnson followed, refusing to admit that
(16:16):
he too, wanted another glimpse of the girl. Down the passage,
he went in O'Brien's trail till the boy vanished from sight.
Arnson increased his pace. He halted on the threshold of
the cavern with a pillar of flame swept up to
the roof. He had thought it thundered. It did not.
(16:40):
It rushed up in utter silence, shaking and swaying with
the surcharged intensity of its power. The walls were crusted
with the dancing watching crystals. Now Arnson saw that some
were dull, gray, motionless and dead. These were sprinkled among
the others, and there were thousands of them. O'Brien paced forward,
(17:06):
and suddenly Cecy was standing with her back to Arnson,
the gems clustering about her. Caressingly, she lifted her arms,
and O'Brien turned a great hunger leaped into his face.
The girl did not move, and O'Brien came into the
circle of her arms. So swift was her movement that
(17:28):
Arnson did not realize it till too late. The slender
arms slid free. Circe stepped back apace and thrust O'Brien
toward the tower of flame. He stumbled off balance, and
the crystals leaped from Circe's body. They were no longer
a garment. They pressed against O'Brien, forcing him away, thrusting, pushing.
(17:55):
Arnson cried out and sprang forward. O'Brien reeled was engulfed
by the flame pillar. The pouring torrent swallowed him. Simultaneously.
From the farther wall, a gray, dead jewel detached itself
and shot toward the Tower of Fire, into the blazing heart.
(18:17):
It fled and vanished. The pillar sank down, It pulsed,
thundered up again, silently, streaming like a torrent, toward the
roof and out of its depths, the jewel came transformed, sentient, blazing,
shining with the myriad hues. It swirled towards Circe, scintillant
(18:41):
with delight. It hovered about her caressingly. It was alive.
Arnson cried out, flung himself forward. Circe turned to face him.
Still her eyes were hidden. Her face was aloofly, lovely
and inhuman. The crystal swept toward Arnson, cupping itself into
(19:05):
his outthrust hand. From it, a wave of mad delight
rushed into his brain. It was dug. It was, Doug
frozen with sick horror. Arnson halted while thoughts poured from
the sensioned crystal into his mind, the gray jewel. His
(19:28):
tongue fumbled thickly with the words. He looked up to
where the dull gems clung among the shining ones machines. Steve,
the thought lanced into him from the living thing he held.
Robots not energized. Only one thing can energize them, life force,
(19:50):
vital energy. The flame pillar does that through atomic transmutation.
It's not earthly science. It was created in a another galaxy. There,
Deirdre's race had slaved people to energize the crystals. Doug,
she's killed you. I'm not dead. I'm alive, Steve, more
(20:13):
alive than I have ever been. All the crystals Martians, Venusians,
beings from other systems and galaxies that landed on this asteroid.
Deirdre took them for her own, as she took Hastings,
as she has taken me. We serve her now. The
(20:35):
jewel tore free from Arnson's grip. It fled back to Circe,
brushing her lips, caressing her hair. The other gems scores
of them danced about the girl like elfin lovers. Arnson
stood there, sick and nauseated. He understood now the intricate
(21:00):
crystal machines were too complicated to work unless life force
energized them. Circe, who took the minds of living beings
and prisoned them in silicate robot forms, they felt no resentment.
They were content to serve. Damn you, Arnson mouthed and
(21:22):
took a step forward. His fists bald, his fingers ached
to curl about the girl's slender neck and snap it
with sharp, vicious pressure. Her lashes swept up. Her eyes
looked into his. They were black as space, with stars
prisoned in their depths. They were not human eyes. Now
(21:48):
Arnson knew why O'Brien had asked if he looked into
Deirdre's eyes. They were her secret and her power. Her
human form was not enough to enchant an enslave beings
of a hundred worlds. It was the soul shaking alienage
that looked out of Circe's eyes. Through those dark windows,
(22:11):
Arnson saw the outside. He saw the gulf between the stars,
and no longer did he fear it, for Circe was
a goddess. She was above and beyond humanity. A great
void opened up between her and the man, a void
of countless evolutionary cycles and a million light years of space.
(22:37):
But across that gulf, something reached and met and clung,
and Arnson's senses drowned in a soul shaking longing. For Circe,
it was her power. She could control emotion as she
could control the crystals, and the power of her mind
reached into Arnson and wrung sanity and self from it.
(23:00):
Only an outer semblance was she even slightly human. Beside her,
Arnson was an animal, and like an animal, he could
be controlled. She blazed like a flame before him. He
forgot O'Brien, got hastings and Earth and his purpose. Her
(23:22):
power clutched him and left him helpless. The grip upon
his mind relaxed. Circe, confident of her triumph, let her
eyelids droop, and Arnson's mind came back in a long,
slow cycle from the gulfs between the stars, drifted leisurely
(23:42):
back into the crystalline cavern and the presence of the goddess,
and woke not wholly. He would never be whole again,
but he felt the crowding vibrations of the countless prisoners
in Cristel, who had gone the way his own feet
were walking now, bewildered, drunken, and drowning in emotions without name,
(24:04):
sacrificing identity without knowing what they sacrificed, flung into eternity
at the whim of a careless goddess to whom all
life forms were won. She was turning half away. As
realization came back to Arnson. She had lifted one round
white arm to let Cristel's cascade along it. She did
(24:26):
not even see him lurched forward. What he did was
without thought. The emotion she had called up in him
drowned all thought. He only knew he must do what
he did. He could not yet think why. The breath
hissed between his lips as he stumbled forward and thrust
(24:48):
Circe into the flame. From the roof, a gray jewel dropped.
The tower of fire, paused in its rhythm, beat out
strongly again. From it, a crystal leaped. It hung motionless
in the air, and Arnson seized it with shaking fingers.
(25:09):
He felt great racking sobs shake him. His fingers caressed
the jewel pressed it to his lips. Circe. He whispered,
eyes blind with tears Circy epilogue. Arnson had not spoken
(25:34):
for some time. Through the window, I could see the
Cairo Strato ship being wheeled into place beyond the lights
of New York glowed yellow. So you came back, I said.
He nodded, and so I came back, put on my
(25:55):
spacesuit and went back to the ship. The crystals didn't
try to stop me. They seemed to be waiting. I
don't know for what. I blasted off and headed sunward.
I knew enough to do that. After a while, I
began to send out SOS signals, and a patrol boat
picked me up. That was all Doug still there, I suppose,
(26:22):
with all the others veil, Why did I do it?
Was I right? He didn't wait for an answer, but
cupped the little chagrin box in his hand. He didn't
open it. No, he went on, you can't answer me,
(26:45):
nobody can, Syros. He took the soul out of my body,
and I'm empty now. There's no peace for me on
Earth or in the spaceways. Dout there somewhere on that asteroid,
the crystals are waiting, waiting for Circe to come back,
(27:05):
but she never will come back. She'll stay with me
till I die, and then she'll be buried with me
in space. In the meantime, Circe doesn't like it here
on Earth, so I'm going out again sometime. Perhaps I'll
take her back outside to the unknown place from which
(27:26):
she came. I don't know. An audio announced the plane
for Kansas. Arnson stood up, gave me a smile from
his ravaged face, and without a word, went out. I
never saw him again. I think that beyond Pluto, beyond
(27:50):
the farthest limits of the system, a little cruiser may
be fleeing into the void, controls set racing, perhaps for
the darkness of the coalsac In the ship is a
man and a jewel. He will die, but I do
not think even in death, his hand will relax its
grip on that jewel, and the ship will go on
(28:15):
into the blackness which has no name. End of Section three,
End of the Crystal Circe by Henry Cutner
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