VOYAGE TO FAR N'JURD
By KRIS NEVILLE
Illustrated by MACK
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Magazine April 1963.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
They would never live to see the trip's
end. So they made a few changes in their way
of life—and many in their way of death!
I
"I don't see why we have to be here," a crewman said. "He ain't liableto say anything."
"He shore better," the man in front of him said loudly.
"Be still," his wife said. "People's lookin' at ya."
"I don't care a smidgen," he said, "if en they ayre."
"Please," she said.
"Joanne Marie," he said, "you know that when I aims ta do somethin',I'm jest natcher'lly bound to do hit. An' iffen I aims ta talk...."
"Here comes the priest. Now, be still."
The man looked up. "So he do; an' I'll tell ya, hit shore is time he'sa-gittin' hyere. I ain't got no all night fer ta sit."
The crewman to his left bent over and whispered, "I'll bet he's gonnatell us it's gonna be another postponement."
"Iffen he does, I'm jest a-gonna stand up an' yell right out that Iain't gonna stand fer hit no longer."
"Now, dear," said Joanne Marie, "the captain can hear ya, if you'regonna talk so loud."
"I hope he does; I jest hope he does. He's th' one that's a-keepin' usall from our Reward, an' I jest hope he does heyar me, so he'll knowI'm a-gittin' mighty tyird uv waitin'."
"You tell 'im!" someone said from two rows behind him.
The captain, in the officer's section, sat very straight and tall. Hewas studiously ignoring the crew. This confined his field of vision tothe left half of the recreation area. While the priest stood before thespeaker's rostrum waiting for silence, the captain reached back withgreat dignity and scratched his right shoulder blade.
Nestir, the priest, was dressed out in the full ceremonial costumeof office. His high, strapless boots glistened with polish. His fezperched jauntily on his shiny, shaven head. The baldness was symbolicof diligent mental application to abstruse points of doctrine. Cotianexentiati pablum re overum est: "Grass grows not in the middle ofa busy thoroughfare." The baldness was the result of the diligentapplication of an effective depilatory. His blood-red cloak had beenfreshly cleaned for the occasion, and it rustled around him in silkysibilants.
"Men," he said. And then, more loudly, "Men!"
The hiss and sputter of conversation guttered away.
"Men," he said.
"The other evening," he said, "—Gelday it was, to be exact—one of thecrew came to me with a complaint."
"Well, I'll be damned," Joanne Marie's husband said loudly.
Nestir cleared his throat. "It was about the Casting Off. That's whyI called you all together today." He stared away, at a point over thehead and to the rear of the audience.
"It puts me in mind of the parable of the six Vergios."
Joanne Marie's husband sighed deeply.
"Three, you will recall, were wise. When Prophet was at Meizque, theycame to him and said, 'Prophet, we are afflicted. We have great soresupon our bodies.' The Prophet looked at them and did see that it wastrue. Then he blessed them and took out His knife and lay open theirsores. For which the three wise Vergios were passing grateful. Andwithin the last week, they were dead of infection. But three werefoolish and hid th