The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Long Voyage, by Carl Richard Jacobi

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Long Voyage

Author: Carl Richard Jacobi

Release Date: August 20, 2009 [EBook #29742]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONG VOYAGE ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

_When we published Carl Jacobi's last story we had no assurance he
would be with us so soon again. For when a uniquely gifted
science-fantasy writer becomes radio-active on the entertainment
meter and goes voyaging into the unknown, he may be gone from the
world we know for as long as yesterday's tomorrow. But Carl Jacobi
has not only returned almost with the speed of light--he has brought
with him shining new nuggets of wonder and surmise._

the
long
voyage

_by ... Carl Jacobi_

The secret lay hidden at the end of nine landings,
and Medusa-dark was one man's search for it--in
the strangest journey ever made.

A soft gentle rain began to fall as we emerged from the dark woods and
came out onto the shore. There it was, the sea, stretching as far as the
eye could reach, gray and sullen, and flecked with green-white froth.
The blue _hensorr_ trees, crowding close to the water's edge, were bent
backward as if frightened by the bleakness before them. The sand,
visible under the clear patches of water, was a bleached white like the
exposed surface of a huge bone.

We stood there a moment in silence. Then Mason cleared his throat
huskily.

"Well, here goes," he said. "We'll soon see if we have any friends
about."

He unslung the packsack from his shoulders, removed its protective outer
shield and began to assemble the organic surveyor, an egg-shaped ball of
white carponium secured to a segmented forty-foot rod. While Brandt and
I raised the rod with the aid of an electric fulcrum, Mason carefully
placed his control cabinet on a piece of outcropping rock and made a
last adjustment.

The moment had come. Even above the sound of the sea, you could hear
the strained breathing of the men. Only Navigator No