Bedlam Planet by John Brunner Page A

one of her satellites, and had kept him chatting for ten minutes. From her, he had gathered obliquely that Tai was more worried than ever about their diet, but everyone else had been emphatically cheerful, as though they didn’t want him to worry while he was away from base on his own. He had no clearer idea of what had happened since his departure.
    There was another hour or two to go before sunset. He peeled off his suit and spread it out on the sunward side of his boat, which he had beached as usual. He was just about to lie down and add another shade to the deeptan he had acquired, when out of memory sprang Parvati’s voice, asking if he liked to swim.
    He turned to stare at the water, wondering. He felt dirty and clammy, although he wasn’t—he had washed down daily in fresh water, using the boat’s inflatable emergency raft as a bath-tub. But that wasn’t the same as going for a swim.
    Am I crazy?
    But even as he asked himself the question, he found he was walking towards the water. Surely just paddling around in the shallows wouldn’t hurt! Yoko and her colleagues had been studying Asgard’s aquatic life intensively since their arrival; they hadn’t reported any danger.
    The coolness was marvellous on his feet and ankles. The sand was firm, matching the best beaches of Earth. The water was clear enough for him to see anything that came his way, surely—
    Abruptly he threw himself forward and struck out in a luxurious crawl, every muscle of his frame signalling pleasure at the exercise. Fifty yards from shore he trod water, shook back his wet hair, and let go a yell of pure animal delight. He porpoised up and down, surfaced, porpoised again, and rolled on his back, sighing.
    Now this would be the right way to tackle Asgard! Polynesian fashion! Spending more time each day in water than on land, chasing the strange denizens of the ocean into their own—
    What was that?
    There had been a touch on his calf, and a momentary stinging. Alarmed, his brain ice-cold, he rolled and peered about him. Something shapeless, from which depended many reddish fronds, was darting away from him.
    He put his head down, furious with himself, and swam fast for the beach. As he scissored with his legs, he felt the area on his calf turn first very cold, then very warm, prickling with heat. The reaction spread; now it was at his hip, now beginning to affect the breathing-musclesin his belly. He gasped, glanced up to see how much further to shore, found that the shore was infinitely far away down a blue and green tunnel, scraped his knees on the bottom, and half-crawled, half-fell, the rest of the distance to his boat.
    There, the universe spun, and he let go his hold on it.

XI
    D ISSOLVING …
    Huge arms weak as water the hero wielded and came by the land and the sea to the western shore where the ocean of oceans reached to lap the star-sphere.
    Retreating …
    Hotcoldhotcoldhotcold: changing with every beat of his heart, now arctic, monstrous blocks of ice sterile as the daughter of a dead star, next furnace, pounding and blazing
thump
with black slag shivering off like the crust of a red iron bar under the slam of the hammer that beats the anvil.
    Exploding …
    Beside some narrow path that skirts Aldebaran and the Pleiades the cool enchanter worked, webbed, wove the coat of mail, and on each separate piece he laid a
geis.
The manner of the
geasa
was multiplex: on this shirt one, on that gauntlet one, on that helm one, unalike.
    Decaying …
    A hand came out of heaven with a rope, and pulled the moon down.
    It lay on the ocean as it had been an egg, fair and silver, steady as a solid isle, and those came who saw and marvelled, saying, “Surely it is the fabled Tir na nOc, and those who dwell there are the Tuatha dé Danann. In that blest land is no sadness but the pleasantdays of summer last yearlong. Do they crave the sweet music of harpers they but strike the air and it resounds of itself with surpassing melody; do they have lust