shoulder. ‘You’re working at the Observatory?’
‘At the Hubble.’
Kandinski came and sat down beside Ward. ‘Cameron is a good man. A very pleasant fellow.’
‘He thinks a great deal of you,’ Ward volunteered, realizing that Kandinski was probably short of friends.
‘You mustn’t believe everything that Cameron says about me,’ Kandinski said suddenly. He hesitated, apparently uncertain whether to confide further in Ward, and then took the magazine from him. ‘There are better ones here. You have to exercise some discrimination.’
‘It’s not so much the sensationalism that puts me off,’ Ward explained, as the psychological implications. Most of the themes in these stories come straight out of the more unpleasant reaches of the unconscious.’
Kandinski glanced sharply at Ward, a trace of amusement in his eyes. ‘That sounds rather dubious and, if I may say so, second-hand. Take the best of these stories for what they are: imaginative exercises on the theme of tomorrow.’
‘You read a good deal of science fiction?’ Ward asked.
Kandinski shook his head. ‘Never. Not since I was a child.’
‘I’m surprised,’ Ward said. ‘Professor Cameron told me you had written a science fiction novel.’
‘Not a novel,’ Kandinski corrected.
‘I’d like to read it,’ Ward went on. ‘From what Cameron said it sounded fascinating, almost Swiftian in concept. This space-craft which arrives from Venus and the strange conversations the pilot holds with a philosopher he meets. A modern morality. Is that the subject?’
Kandinski watched Ward thoughtfully before replying. ‘Loosely, yes. But, as I said, the book is not a novel. It is a factual and literal report of a Venus landing which actually took place, a diary of the most significant encounter in history since Paul saw his vision of Christ on the road to Damascus.’ He lifted his huge bearded head and gazed at Ward without embarrassment. ‘As a matter of interest, as Professor Cameron probably explained to you, I was the man who witnessed the landing.’
Still maintaining his pose, Ward frowned intently. ‘Well, in fact Cameron did say something of the sort, but I…’
‘But you found it difficult to believe?’ Kandinski suggested ironically.
‘Just a little,’ Ward admitted. ‘Are you seriously claiming that you did see a Venusian space-craft?’
Kandinski nodded. ‘Exactly.’ Then, as if aware that their conversation had reached a familiar turning he suddenly seemed to lose interest in Ward. ‘Excuse me.’ He nodded politely to Ward, picked up a length of hose-pipe connected to a faucet and began to spray one of the big mobiles.
Puzzled but still sceptical, Ward sat back and watched him critically, then fished in his pockets for some change. ‘I must say I admire you for taking it all so calmly,’ he told Kandinski as he paid him.
‘What makes you think I do?’
‘Well, if I’d seen, let alone spoken to a visitor from Venus I think I’d be running around in a flat spin, notifying every government and observatory in the world.’
‘I did,’ Kandinski said. ‘As far as I could. No one was very interested.’
Ward shook his head and laughed. ‘It is incredible, to put it mildly.’
‘I agree with you.’
‘What I mean,’ Ward said, ‘is that it’s straight out of one of these science fiction stories of yours.’
Kandinski rubbed his lips with a scarred knuckle, obviously searching for some means of ending the conversation. ‘The resemblance is misleading. They are not my stories,’ he added parenthetically. ‘This caf is the only one which would give me work, for a perhaps obvious reason. As for the incredibility, let me say that I was and still am completely amazed. You may think I take it all calmly, but ever since the landing I have lived in a state of acute anxiety and foreboding. But short of committing some spectacular crime to draw attention to myself I don’t see now how I can convince anyone.’
Ward gestured with his glasses. ‘Perhaps. But I’m surprised you don’t realize the very simple reasons why people refuse to take you seriously. For example, why should you be the only person to witness an event of such staggering implications? Why have you alone seen a Venusian?’
‘A sheer accident.’
‘But why should a space-craft from Venus land here?’
‘What better place than near Mount Vernon Observatory?’
‘I can think of any number. The UN Assembly, for one.’
Kandinski smiled lightly. ‘Columbus didn’t make his first contacts with the North-American Indians at the IroquoisSioux Tribal Conference.’
‘That may be,’ Ward admitted, beginning to feel impatient. ‘What did this Venusian look like?’
Kandinski smiled wearily at the empty tables and picked up his hose again. ‘I don’t know whether you’ve read my book,’ he said, ‘but if you haven’t you’ll find it all there.’
‘Professor Cameron mentioned that you took some photographs of the Venusian space-craft. Could I examine them?’
‘Certainly,’ Kandinski replied promptly. ‘I’ll bring them here tomorrow. You’re welcome to test them in any way you wish.’
That evening Ward had dinner with the Camerons. Professor Renthall, Director of the Hubble, and his wife completed the party. The table-talk consisted almost entirely of good-humoured gossip about their colleagues retailed by Cameron and Renthall, and Ward was able to mention his conversation with Kandinski.
‘At first I thought he was mad, but now I’m not so certain. There’s something rather too subtle about him. The way he creates an impression of absolute integrity, but at the same time never gives you a chance to tackle him directly on any point of detail. And when you do manage to ask him outright about this Venusian his answers are far too pat. I’m convinced the whole thing is an elaborate hoax.’
Professor Renthall shook his head. ‘No, it’s no hoax. Don’t you agree, Godfrey?’
Cameron nodded. ‘Not in Andrew’s sense, anyway.’
‘But what other explanation is there?’ Ward asked. ‘We know he hasn’t seen a Venusian, so he must be a fraud. Unless you think he’s a lunatic. And he certainly doesn’t behave like one.’
‘What is a lunatic?’ Professor Renthall asked rhetorically, peering into the faceted stem of his raised hock glass. ‘Merely a man with more understanding than he can contain. I think Charles belongs in that category.’
‘The definition doesn’t explain him, sir,’ Ward insisted. ‘He’s going to lend me his photographs and when I prove those are fakes I think I’ll be able to get under his guard.’
‘Poor Charles,’ Edna Cameron said. ‘Why shouldn’t he have seen a space-ship? I think I see them every day.’
‘That’s just what I feel, dear,’ Cameron said, patting his wife’s matronly, brocaded shoulder. ‘Let Charles have his Venusian if he wants to. Damn it, all it’s trying to do is ban Project Apollo. An excellent idea, I have always maintained; only the professional astronomer has any business in space. After the Rainbow tests there isn’t an astronomer anywhere in the world who wouldn’t follow Charles Kandinski to the stake.’ He turned to Renthall. ‘By the way, I wonder what Charles is planning for the Congress? A Neptunian? Or perhaps a whole delegation from Proxima Centauri. We ought to fit him out with a space-suit and a pavilion — 'Charles Kandinski — New Worlds for Old'.’
‘Santa Claus in a space-suit,’ Professor Renthall mused. ‘That’s a new one. Send him a ticket.’
The next weekend Ward returned the twelve plates to the Site Tycho.
‘Well?’ Kandinski asked.
‘It’s difficult to say,’ Ward answered. ‘They’re all too heavily absorbed. They could be clever montages of light brackets and turbine blades. One of them looks like a close-up of a clutch plate. There’s a significant lack of any real corroborative details which you’d expect somewhere in so wide a selection.’ He paused. ‘On the other hand, they could be genuine.’
Kandinski said nothing, took the paper package, and went off into the caf.
The interior of the Site Tycho had been designed to represent the control room of a space-ship on the surface of the Moon. Hidden fluorescent lighting glimmered through plastic wall fascia and filled the room with an eerie blue glow. Behind the bar a large mural threw the curving outline of the Moon on to an illuminated star-scape. The doors leading to the rest-rooms were circular and bulged outwards like air-locks, distinguished from each other by the symbols cj and.
