Travellers

     Red sand crunched beneath his boots as he limped away from the wreck. In the distance a red-yellow glow filtered skyward from the earth settlement he had seen from the air and it was toward that he headed. Perhaps he would find shelter there, he didn't fool himself though, and rooms would be very hard to come by. According to the few radio reports that had been received on earth, mars was the rat race supreme. People came to mars faster than shelters could be erected. They came in jet controlled sardine cans, packed tight, they came in private spacers and some even made it in small statocruisers converted by various methods into something not quite fit for space travel.

     But most would have made the trip in wooden crates holding their breath all the way if it could be arranged. Even sleeping on frigid Martian sand was said to be better than sleeping on a warmer but somewhat insecure earth. At least on mars you had a chance of being alive in the morning.

     He had walked for almost an hour when the hotel came into sight. It was small and cheap looking. It squatted at the edge of the settlement, and it's plastic exterior was discolored and crumbling. The traveler stepped through the door into the neon lighted lobby.

     Red sand had drifted into the lobby, but the night clerk took no notice. He was looking at nothing, absentmindedly clenching and unclenching a fist as though holding and releasing something.

     The traveler stopped brushing the dust from his clothing and stared at the clerk. After waiting a while he cleared his throat and said quietly

     "I’d like to have a room".

The night clerk started and looked up, "what?"

     "A room?"

     "Oh, yeah, sure" the clerk straightened up and wiped bloodshot eyes with a sleeve, automatically shoving the register forward.

     "Plenty of room" he said tiredly "room for everybody"

The traveler took the pen and scratched his name in the register, "odd." he mused "I heard that all the immigrants trying to get off earth have filled all the hotels and the prices had gone through the roof.

The clerk’s eyes went wide, "I know. Believe me I know. I did it myself, jack up the prices, up till a couple of days ago." his voice turned bitter "then I did it once too often."

     The traveler looked at the red eyes and decided that the man had either been crying or had lost a lot of sleep, maybe both.

     "What happened?" his curiosity aroused.

     "Once in a lifetime it happens" the clerk went on almost as though to himself "once in two thousand years, and more.... And I had to turn them away because they didn't enough money! Because I want to get a few lousy bucks extra for the rooms! Now I’ve got plenty of rooms. Everyone else is in the next town. They’d all be here if I hadn't turned away those two, I could have been famous" his voice rose "famous!"

     The traveler raised his eyebrows. "Sure you could" he said unbelievingly, "you could have been famous."

     "If only I’d known," the night clerk moaned. "If only I’d thought." desperate fingers took the travelers arm "but how was I supposed to know that something like that was going to happen again? I’m no psychic! A guy goes along trying to save a couple of bucks here and there for his family, is that wrong? What else can I do? We been here ten years on this planet, and it's still no place for a family, not with a couple of kids. You got to scrape to get along.

     "It’s not easy" the traveler agreed "but it's a lot healthier than being on earth these days."

     "Yeah" the clerk breathed "but then this happens. If only I’d known...the opportunity! I’d be rich! Famous! I’d be great, have kings in the hotel!"

     "What are you babbling about?"

     The night clerk said, "a man and his wife came to the hotel a couple of days ago. Young but not to young, mature like. And nice looking. They wanted a room. They weren't too well off, probably took most of their money to get here from earth."

     "And you turned them away?"

     "Well how was I to know?" he defensively shot back "lots of women have babies and a guy can't afford to be chicken hearted. Not on mars, I’ve got a wife and a couple of kids to support myself. Sure I had a room. A couple of them. But there's always people who can pay a lot more for them than this guy could."

     "Go on."

     "I told him that there weren't any rooms. '"We’ve searched everywhere"' he told me, and he thanked me anyway. Then he turned and put his arm around his wife and they left. I felt sorry for them. Honest, I did. I wanted to yell out and say "sure I’ve got a room" but I didn't. I wish now that I had, but I didn't because they'd have known that I was lying before. So---" his voice held an infinite regret "so I let them go.

     Distaste showed on the traveler’s face. Even on mars! Even after seeing what a mess greed had caused back on earth.

     "All right, all right" the clerk almost shouted, seeing the others expression. "Don’t rub it in. sure I did wrong. I know that now. It was right in my fingers and I let it slip through. So I’m a fool. But how could I know? How could I know, even remotely?

     "Did they find a room?"

The clerk shook his head. "The baby was born in a barn."

     "A barn!"

     "That’s a laugh isn't it. Born in a barn full of stinking Martian animals because I turned the man away." he laughed sourly "opportunity right in my hands and I let it go."

     The traveler was puzzled. "But..."

     "Go into the next town," the clerk said nodding in the direction of the earth settlement "see for yourself. This was getting to be a filthy rotten place, just like earth. And then this happens. Things are happening down there too, now. Strange things wonderful things, I suppose, I don't really know, I’m all mixed up. When I think of the chance I had..."

     The traveler started to ask some of the questions forming in his mind, but the night clerk was vacantly staring at nothing and muttering to himself.

     The traveler shrugged and went out into the cool Martian night. Stars were out, the twin moons were high and someplace out there was poor troubled earth, far far away. At the horizon a great golden star shone brightly.

     The traveler started suddenly. That was no star, it was earth. She was bursting at the seams, flaming with sudden final brilliance.

     The traveler felt a deep sick sensation crawling within him. And then he thought of what the night clerk had said.

     It was strange.

     Earth exploding, a brilliant star in the sky. An infant born in a barn. Strange and wonderful things happening to people that needed them. Coincidence of course. Pure coincidence

     And yet...........

     Then the traveler started to walk across the Martian soil toward the earth settlement in the distance.