The Sky Is Falling

oor was covered with composition tile, instead of the too-lush carpets. He began to relax a little until he came to two attendants busily waxing the floor. One held the other

through an outer room toward an inner chamber, equipped with comfortable chairs and a desk. "Sit down, Dave Hanson. I'll fill

ested. "I don't remember b

d you were to repair the sky. I've got it down in my not

ur best hope. We know that from a prophecy, and it is confirmed by the fact that the fanatics of the Egg have tried several times to kill you. They failed, though o

d. "It's nice to k

ckly withdrawn. I say only that you have no escape from us. We have your name, and the true symbol is the thing, as you should know. We also have cuttings from your hair and your beard; we have the parings of your nails, five cubic centimeters of your spinal fluid an

if you say I was, I was. You brought me to life again with a mandrake root and spells; you can do anything you want with me. I admit it; right now, I'll admit anything you want me to, because you know

garette. At least it looked like a cigarette. He snapped his fingers and lighted it from a little flame that sprang up, blowing clouds of bright green smoke f

properly any more." He didn't seem too displeased, howe

e so ignorant, though you were considered brilliant is a sad commentary on your world. But no matter. Perh

ogen, mostly; then there's the ionosphere and the ozone layer. As I remember, the colo

Perth said impatient

urse, we're still in the solar atmosphere, even there, with the Van Allen belts and such thi

ignorance. Dave Hanson, the sky is no such thing. Put aside the myths you heard as a child. The sky is a solid sphere that surrounds Earth. The stars are no more like the sun t

"Charles Fort sai

t man lived in your world, I'm pleased to know. The sky is a dome holding the sun, the stars and

beyond t

I learn. In your world, had you discovered that there were such thing

," Dave in

mless as water, insubstantial as air. And the sky is cracking and falling, as you have seen for yourself. The effects are already being felt. Gamma radiation is flooding through the gaps; the quick-breeding viruses are mutating through half the world, faster than the Medical Art can control them, so that millions of us are sneezing and choking-and dying, too, for lack of antibiotics and proper care. Air travel is a perilous thing; just today, a stratosphere roc crashed head-on into a fragment of the sky and was kill

ete nonsense that his mind rejected it automatically. Yet he was sure Ser Perth was serious; there was no humor on the face of the prissy thin-mustached man before him. Nor had the Sather Kar

kly, "Could I

aced. "You wouldn't have a chance. No

one thing. What am

down to us as one of the greatest engineers of history, Dave Hanson, so great that your fame has penetrated even to our world, through the viewing pools of our wisest historians. There is a shrine and monument in your world. 'Dave Hanson, to whom nothing wa

rept over his own, in spite of himself. "Ser P

flatly. "Of all the powers of the Science, the greatest lies in the true na

er that we never have reason to doubt you. Otherwise the wisest of the Sather

the office. "Nema will show you to your quarters lat

l he knew, in such a sky there might be cracks. In fact, as he looked, he could make out a rift, and beyond that a ... hole ... a small patch where there

to repair the sky. Sh

e to that engineer's obscure and unimportant nephew, the computer technician and generally undistinguished man

n, but simply that he had never been subjected to the discipline of construction engineering. Even on the project, while working with his uncle, he had seen little of what went on, and

on a good show of trying if he want

fallen?" he asked Nema. "And what the heck are yo

being a nurse, of course I am. All student magicians take up the Medical Art for a time. Surely one so skilled can also be a secretary, even to the great Dave Hanson? As to why I'm here-" She dropped her eyes, frowning, while a touch of added co

er, watching the blus

e magic of my blood must not be profaned." She twisted sidewise, and then turned toward the door, avoiding him.

bored over to the desk and dropped nothing wi

and heavy one. It seemed to be about twelve inches on a side, in its rough shape, and must have weighed two h

" she sa

ent to the deepest, dankest cave of all the world as a laboratory, and to find it equippe

ion camp for you. You'll find most of the tools you used in your wor

d. He could make quite an issue out of the need to determine the characteristic impedance of their sky. That might even be interesting, at that; would it be anywhere near 300 ohms here? But it seem

on this stuff

he whispered something to it, frowned, and then ordered it off. "There's no surface transportati

e tossed it onto the largest cleared space, gobbled some outlandish noises, and dropped onto it, squatting near one end. Behind her, the dull clod picked up t

e a crazy toboggan. It moved slowly, but with increasing speed, sailed out of the office through the window and began gaining altitude. They went soaring over the city at abou

downwards in front of them, setting up a wind that bounced the carpet about crazily. Dave glanced over the edge again to see one of the tall buildings crumple under the impact. The three top stories were ripped to shr

ss than five seconds later, that piece fell. If your sky is eve

al for that piece to fall." She sighed. "It gets worse. Look at the signs. That break has disturbed the planets. We're moving retrograde, back

in the sky, where a few stars seemed to be vanis

ffering of character, as does the world itself. Why e

ut the apparent change in Ser Perth, who'd turned from a serious and helpful doctor into a supercilious, hig

e girl began speaking to it urgently. It wavered

could not go through that, anyway. The ring negates all other magic trying to pass it. And of course we have basilisks mounted on posts around the grounds. They're traine

g me up no end,

, as it could never be in a real camp. As he began walking with the girl toward a huge tent that should have belonged to a circus, he could see other discrepancies. The tractors were designed for work in mud flats and the haulers had the narrow wheels used on rocky ground. Nothing seemed quite a

nothing, all in costumes similar to his, except for the boots and hat. "They're mandrakes, conjured into existence, but without souls. The engineers we have are snatched from Duality just after dying and revived here while

ays you may have ten days to fix the sky," she called. Her hand waved towar

ning toward her

ldn't even afford to stall. He'd never fully understood why some plastics melted and others turned hard when heated, but he had to find what was wrong with the dome above a

ybe it could have been useful for that if there had been a single man who knew anything about draftsmanship. There were four engineers, supposedly. One, who had died falling off a bridge while drunk, was curing himself of the shock by remaining d

ul, whatever that was-left them rigidly bound to their past ideas and totally incapab

nly an adept might communicate to another. He meant that he didn't know about it, Dave gathered. Everything, it tur

esses about what started the cra

"'Twas an experiment most noble, but through mischance going sadly awry. A great Sather made the s

t is yo

s no true heat, but does send forth an activating principle against the phlogiston layer, whic

e was used to, where the sky was still whole. North light still was like what a color photographer would consider 5500° Kelvi

ns for seven days. When the blood was mixed with dragonfeathers and frogsdown and melded with a genuine philosopher's stone, they had used it to ink in the right path of

ave asked. "How o

-at least ten thousand years or more. To attain the art o

the dead back to life when the body was reasonably intact was routine magic that even a sersa coul

who had discovered the secrets of gravity and some strange magic which he termed relativity-though indeed it had little to do with kinship, but was a private mystery. But when he was persuaded by divers means to help us, he gave up after one week, decla

a portable saw to use in attempting to cut off a smaller piece of the sky, and then saw the motor burn out when he switched it on. It turned out that all electricity here was d.c., con

the current in such a form moves first in one direction and then in

ative welding torches, filled with a dozen angry salamanders. The flame or whatever it was had enough heat, but it was hard to control.

d state, it was jet black, though it cooled back to complete transparency. It was also without weight when in liquid form-a fact he discovered when it began rising through the air and spattering over everything, includin

ther was not particularly difficult. The liquid sky was perfectl

the cracks, it might recongeal as a perfect sphere. The stuff was strong, but somewhat br

th phlogiston, which no man can breathe. Also, the phlogiston has negative weight, as every school child must know. Your liquid sky would sink through it, since negative weight

hole planet to the sky, and send up mandrakes to weld back the broken pieces. They wouldn't need to breathe, anyhow. With mater

reliable supplies. Otherwise, Dave would find venom being transported into his blood in increasing amounts until the pain drove him mad. And, just incidentally, the Sons of the Egg who'd attacked him in the hospital had tried to reach the

ok off with that, but he was sure it wouldn't satisfy the Sather. In that, he was right. By nightfall, when she came

more of that. Ser Perth sends you this unguent which will hold back the venom for a time, cautioning you not to reveal his softness." Ser Per

hirt and began helping, apparently delighted with the hair which he'd sprouted

he expect me to do?" Dave asked hotly. "Snap my finge

hand, where a can of beer

try it." She began snapping her fingers and saying the word eagerly,

he hesitated, not too willing to have hi

e said, and snap

a. He bent to look at it uncertainly. It was a strange looking egg-more like one of the china

otball, then was man-sized, and growing to the size of a huge tank that filled most of the tent. Sud

ifted a double-bladed knife, charged

thing, skin, flesh and bone