OCTOBER • 1 962 • 5C

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Ray Bradbury returns
COME into my cellar
will

eginning A PLAGUE OF PYTHONS by Frederik Pohl ^

-

THE BALLAD OF LOST C’MEL

by.Cordwain^r S mith
m- \ .
 ALL STORIES NEW • NO REPRINTS

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The Large Magellanic Cloud, an

BIG ISSUES OF SERIAL — Two

First of Parts
irregularly shaped galaxy which
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Cloud contains the star S
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 112 Doradus, some 500,000 times
by Frederik Pohl brighter than the Sun, the hot-
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THE BALLAD OF LOST C’MELL 8
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THE BUSINESS OF BEING BAD
A LONG ABOUT now the an- have trouble naming anything
nual prizes for worthy con- more recent than The Forbidden
tributions to science fiction will Planet . and that was half a
. .

be awarded. One of them will, dozen years ago.

as usual, go to somebody for the Yet there are plenty of science-
category called “best dramatic fiction stories in print that seem
performance on television or mo- admirably adapted to motion
tion pictures.” If past perform- pictures. Why in the world
ance is any criterion, it will go doesn’t some smart Hollywood
to a television show that about producer make a few of them?
one voter out of four has seen,
and fewer than half of those
really care for. THERE ARE
question,
answers to that
and we’ve gone to
The unhappy fact is that for some trouble to learn a few of
this prize there is very little com- them.
on tele-
petition. Science fiction The first answer is a single
vision is bad enough —
if there word: Money.
isan area of TV where Commis- There are two kinds of mo-
sioner Minow’s term “wasteland” tion pictures being made today,
indubitably applies, it is in its the very big ones and the very
science-fiction dramas — and as little. The very big ones repre- THERE are some things that cannot
be generally told — things you ought to
organization) an age-old brotherhood
of learning, have preserved this secret
for good science-fiction movies, sent such a titanic investment of
know. Great truths are dangerous to wisdom in their archives for centu-
there just ain’t no sich animal. capital and effort that the pro- some — but factors for personal power ries. They now invite you to share the
What was the last good one you ducers will not bet except on a and accomplishment in the hands of practical helpfulness of their teachings.
those who understand them. Behind Write today for a free copy of tie
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4
$25,000,000 remakes of ancient ducer, as well as the director) that the producers had the wit entertainment and pleasure.
stories;the producers reason that hastily tinkers up the script to to make an unusual decision. There are dozens of good, sound,
if it made money once it will allow the boner, and shooting When they wanted science-fiction enjoyable science-fiction stories
make money again, and let the goes on. stories written they took their already in print in science-fiction
other fellow take a chance on In spite of all this it is aston- courage in their hands and em- books and magazines that need
something new. ishing how competently the ac- ployed science-fiction writers hardly the changing of a word,
The trouble with that, from tors act, the directors direct, the write them. and that would still be 99% in-
our point of view, is that few photographers shoot and the spe- Often it was the science-fiction telligible to anyone capable of
really big sf movies have ever cial-effects men create plausible writers themselves —
Sheckley, reading without moving his lips.
been made. Thus there isn’t gadgets. These men and women Sturgeon, Kornbluth and many Maybe better times are ahead.
much to look for in the way of are highly skilled professionals. others — who prepared the ac- Right at this moment there are
remakes. They do everything they can. tual shooting script. When the a number of fine science-fiction
So barring an occasional cour- What makes the average cheapie producers could not do that, they writers who have turned to TV
ageous (and thus, in the judg- as terribly bad as not the
it is is employed other script writers, and motion pictures Robert —
ment of his peers, crazy) experi- low cost of its production. The but took the trouble to have Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Jerome Bix-
menter, we can’t hope for a great trouble is that whatever money them understand what the origi- by, Arthur C. Clarke, John
deal in the way of high-budget does get spent is spent on the nal story was all about and to Wyndham and half a dozen
science-fiction movies. That wrong story. convert that story to dramatic others are in some way or an-
leaves us the Grade B artists. Ten years or so ago in the — presentation instead of the
. . . other involved —
and from their
To produce a quickie for dis- remote Eocene of television — present custom of throwing ev- efforts we may yet see great
tribution as the second half of we were privileged to sit in on erything but the name of one things.
a drive-in’s double bill (and ulti- some of the science-fiction pro- character out of the window and We also may not, because the
mate consumption on The Late, grams of that era, Captain Video, remaking Buck Rogers. producers not only seem to make
Late Show) costs not much more Tales of Tomorrow and a couple it a point to have non-sf writers
than fifty thousand dollars. Some of others. The average budget of T’S TRUE that science-fiction write their science-fiction, but
of them have been made for even these enterprises was a closely I stories often rely on rather when a science-fiction writer
less. This is practically petty guarded secret, but it was at least sophisticated ideas “sophisti-— comes along they seem to make
cash by Hollywood standards (it an order of magnitude smaller cated” in the sense that they are it their business to put him to

represents about a week’s pay for than today’s cheapest motion pic- developed from previous ideas work on a mystery or a Western
an Elizabeth Taylor), and to ture. The principal staple of scen- and itnot always easy to get
is — instead of what he can do best
make it possible every cost is ery was painted canvas. Stone everything possible out of them of all.

pared to the bone. Shooting time walls rippled to the touch. Ten unless the audience has had some Science-fiction doesn’t have to
is held to a single week. Re- worth of electrical parts
dollars’ background in the field. be relegated to the part of the
hearsals are very few. Costumes had to do as a $50,000,000 syn- It does not, however, follow drive-in program where the cus-
are picked up at Army 8s Navy chrotron. from that that the only way to tomers quit watching the screen
surplus stores; sets are stark, Yet there was hardly one of handle science fiction is to ex- — but it is likely to go on that
cheap and flimsy. If something those old TV
programs that was tract its ideas and destroy them. way, until some producer dis-
goes wrong in a take it may not not better than most of the low- Even if some nuances are covers that it really has things
even be shot over again. The budget motion pictures of today! missed by the non-specialist pub- to say that cannot be said in any
writer (who is often the pro- The reason they were good is lic, there’s plenty left to provide other form! — THE EDITOR

6 GALAXY
 Her ancestors were cats. Her heart was human, though, and By CORDWAINER SMITH Illustrated by FINLAY
she gave it once and for all.

THE BALLAD OF
LOST C’MELL

CHE was a girly girl and they greatest of buildings, smallest of

^ were true men, the lords of
creation, but she pitted her wits
against them and she won. It had
never happened before, and it is
sure never to happen again, but
she did win. She was not even of
human extraction. She was
derived, though human in
ward shape, which explains the C
in front of her name. Her father’s
name was C’mackintosh and her
name was C’mell. She won her
trick against the lawful and as-
sembled Lords of the Instrumen-
tality.
It all happened at Earthport,
cities, standing twenty-five kilo-
meters high at the Western edge
of the Smaller Sea of Earth.
Jestocost had an office outside
the fourth valve.
cat- I
out-
ESTOCOST liked the morning
She got the which of the what-she-did,
J sunshine, while most of the
Hid the bell with a blot, she did,
other Lords of the Instrumentali- But she fell in love with a hominid.
ty did not, so that he had no Where is the which of the what-she-did?
trouble in keeping the office and
the apartments which he had
from THE BALLAD OF LOST C’MELL
selected. His main office was
ninety meters deep, twenty

8 GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 9

L
meters high, twenty meters broad.
Behind it was the “fourth valve,”
almost a thousand hectares in ex-
tent. It was shaped helically, like
an enormous snail. Jestocost’s
apartment, big as it was, was
merely one of the pigeonholes in
the muffler on the rim of Earth-
port. Earthport stood like an
enormous wineglass, reaching
from the magma to the high at-
mosphere.
Earthport had been built dur-
ing mankind’s biggest mechanical
splurge. Though men had had nu-
clear rockets since the beginning
of consecutive history, they had
used chemical rockets to load the
interplanetary ion-drive and nu-
clear-drive vehicles or to assemble
the photonic sail-ships for inter-
stellar cruises. Impatient with the
troubles of taking things bit by
bit into the sky, they had worked
out a billion-ton rocket, only to
find that it ruined whatever coun-
tryside it touched in landing. The
Daimoni — people of Earth ex-
traction, who came back from
somewhere beyond the stars — only person who could appreciate
had helped men build it of
weatherproof, rustproof, time-
proof, stressproof material. Then
they had gone away and had
never come back.
Jestocost often looked around
his apartment and wondered what
it might have been like when
white-hot gas, muted to a whisper,
surged out of the valve into his
own chamber and the sixty-four
other chambers like it. Now he
had a back wall of heavy timber,
and the valve itself was a great
hollow cave where a few wild
things lived. Nobody needed that
much space any more. The cham-
bers were useful, but the valve
did nothing. Pianoforming ships
whispered in from the stars; they
landed at Earthport as a matter
of legal convenience, but they
made no noise and they certainly
had no hot gases.
Jestocost looked at the high
clouds far below him and talked
to himself,
“Nice day. Good air. No trou-
ble. Better eat.”
Jestocost often talked like that
to himself. He was an individual,
almost an eccentric. One of the
top council of mankind, he had
problems, but they were not per-
sonal problems. He had a Rem-
brandt hanging above his bed
the only Rembrandt known in the
world, just as he was possibly the
a Rembrandt. He had the tapes-
a forgotten empire hang-
tries of
ing from his back wall. Every
morning the sun played a grand
opera for him, muting and light-
ing and shifting the colors so that
he could almost imagine that the
old days of quarrel, murder and
high drama had come back to
Earth again. He had a copy of
Shakespeare, a copy of Colegrove
and two pages of the Book of
box beside
Ecclesiates in a locked
Only forty-two people in
his bed.
the universe could read Ancient
English, and he was one of them.
He drank wine, which he had
made by his own robots in his
own vineyards on the Sunset
coast. He was a man, in short,
who had arranged his own
live comfortably, selfishly
well on the personal side, so that
he could give generously and im-
partially of his talents on the
official side.
When he awoke on this par-
ticular morning, he had no idea
that a beautiful girl was about to
fall hopelessly in love with him
— that he would find, after a
hundred years and more of ex-
perience in government, another
government on earth just as
strong and almost as ancient as
his own —that he would willingly
— fling himself into conspiracy and
danger for a cause which he only
half understood. All these things
were mercifully hidden from him
by time, so that his only question
on arising was, should he or
should he not have a small cup
of white wine with his breakfast.
On the 173rd day of each year,
he always made a point of eating
eggs. They were a rare treat, and
he did not want to spoil himself
by having too many, nor to de-
prive himselfand forget a treat
by having none at all. He put-
tered around the room, mutter-
ing, “White wine? White wine?”
/^’MELL was coming
into his
life, but he did not know it.
She was fated to win; that part,
she herself did not know.
Ever since mankind had gone
through the Rediscovery of Man,
life to bringing back governments, mon-
and ey, newspapers, national lan-
guages, sickness and occasional
death, there had been the problem
of the underpeople —
people who
were not human, but merely hu-
manly shaped from the stock of
Earth animals. They could speak,
sing, read, write, work, love and
die; but they were not covered by
human law, which simply defined
them as “homunculi” and gave
them a legal status close to ani-
mals or robots. Real people from
off-world were always called “ho-
minids.”
Most of the underpeople did
their jobs and accepted their
half-slave status without question.
Some became famous — C’mack-
intosh had been the first earth-
being to manage a thousand-
meter broad-jump under normal
gravity. His picture was seen in
a thousand worlds. His daughter,
C’mell, was a girly girl, earning
her living by welcoming human
beings and hominids from the out-
worlds and making them feel at
home when they reached Earth.
She had the privilege of working

10 GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 11

at Earthport, but she had the duty
of working very hard for a living
which did not pay well. Human
beings and hominids had lived so
long in an affluent society that
they did not know what it meant
to be poor. But the Lords of the
Instrumentality had decreed that
underpeople —
derived from an-
—
imal stock should live under the
economics of the Ancient World;
they had to have their own kind
of money to pay for their rooms,
their food, their possessions and
the education of their children. If
they became bankrupt, they went
to the Poorhouse, where they
were killed painlessly by means
of gas.
It was evident that humanity,
having settled all of its own basic
problems, was not quite ready to
let Earth animals, no matter how
much they might be changed, as-
sume a full equality with man.
The Lord Jestocost, seventh of
that name, opposed the policy. He
was a man who had little love,
no fear, freedom from ambition
and a dedication to his job: but
there are passions of government
as deep and challenging as the
emotions of love. Two hundred
years thinking himself right
of
and being outvoted had in-
of
a furious desire
stilled in Jestocost
to get things done his own way.
Jestocost was one of the few
true men who believed in the
rights of the underpeople. He did
12
not think that mankind would
ever get around to correcting an-
cient wrongs unless the under-
people themselves had some of
the tools of power — weapons,
conspiracy, wealth and (above
all) organization with which to
challenge man. He was not afraid
of revolt, but he thirsted for jus-
tice with an obsessive yearning
which overrode all other consider-
ations.
When the Lords of the Instru-
mentality heard that there was
the rumor of a conspiracy among
the underpeople, they left it to
the robot police to ferret out.
Jestocost did not.
He set up his own police, using
underpeople themselves for the
purpose, hoping to recruit enemies
who would realize that he was a
friendly enemy and who would
in course of time bring him into
touch with the leaders of the
underpeople.
If those leaders existed, they
were clever. What sign did a girly
girl like C’mell ever give that she
was the spearhead of a criss-cross
of agents who had penetrated
Earthport itself? They must, if
they existed, be very, very careful.
The telepathic monitors, both ro-
botic and human, kept every
thought-band under surveillance
by random sampling. Even the
computers showed nothing more
significant than improbable
amounts of happiness in minds
GALAXY
which had no objective reason for
being happy.
The death of her father, the
most famous cat-athlete which
the underpeople had ever pro-
duced, gave Jestocost his
definite clue.
HE WENT to the funeral him-
where the body was
self,
packed an ice-rocket to be shot
in
into space. The mourners were
thoroughly mixed with the curi-
osity-seekers. Sport is internation-
al, inter-race, inter-world,
species. Hominids were
true men, 100% human, they
looked weird and horrible because
they or their ancestors had under-
gone bodily modifications to meet
the life conditions of a thousand
worlds.
Underpeople, the animal-de-
rived “homunculi,” were there,
most of them in their work
clothes, and they looked more
human than did the human be-
ings from the outer worlds.
were allowed to grow up if they
were less than half the size of
man, or more than six times the
size of man. They all had to have
human features and acceptable
human voices. The punishment
for failure in their elementary
schools was death. Jestocost
looked over the crowd and won-
dered to himself, “We have set up
the standards of the toughest kind
of survival for these people and
THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL
we give them the most terrible
incentive, life itself, as the con-
dition of absolute progress. What
fools we are to think that they
will not overtake us!” The true
first people in the group did not seem
to think as he did. They tapped
the underpeople peremptorily
with their canes, even though this
was an underperson’s funeral, and
the bear-men, bull-men, cat-men
and others yielded immediately
and with a babble of apology.
C’mell was close to her father’s
inter- icy coffin.
there: Jestocost not only watched her;
she was pretty to watch. He com-
mitted an act which was an in-
decency in an ordinary citizen but
lawful for a Lord of the Instru-
mentality: he peeped her mind.
And then he found something
which he did not expect.
As the coffin left, she cried,
“Ee-telly-kelly, help me! help
me!”
She had thought phonetically,
None not in script, and he had only the
raw sound on which to base a
search.
Jestocost had not become a
Lord of the Instrumentality with-
out applying daring. His mind
was quick, too quick to be deeply
intelligent. He thought by gestalt,
not by logic. He determined to
force his friendship on the girl.
He decided to await a propi-
tious occasion, and then changed
his mind about the time.
13
 As she went home from the as a result of his own zealous con- him smile #3 (extremely adhe- looking up from the floor, her
funeral, he intruded upon the science? Good-by, C’mell, I go sive ) which she had learned in the glance had the impact of a blow.
circle of her grimfaced friends, back to ray office.” girly-girl school. Realizing it was “What do you want from me?”
underpeople who were trying to She arrived forty minutes after wrong, she tried to give him an He stared right back. “Watch
shield her from the condolences he did. ordinary smile. She felt she had me. Look at my face. Are you
of ill-mannered but well-meaning made a face at him. sure, sure that I want nothing
sports enthusiasts. II “Look at me,” he said, “and see from you personally?”
She recognized him, and if I am going to
you can trust me.
showed him the proper respect. TTE FACED her straight away, take both our lives in my hands.” C^E looked bewildered. “What
“My Lord, I did not expect you studying her face. She looked at him. What imag- ^ else is there to want from me
here. You knew my father?” “This is an important day in inable subject could involve him, except personal things? I am a
He nodded gravely and ad- your life.” a Lord of the Instrumentality, girly girl. I’m not a person of any
dressed sonorous words of con- “Yes, my Lord, a sad one.” with herself, an undergirl? They importance at all, and I do not
solation and sorrow, words which “I do not,” he said, “mean your never had anything in common. have much of an education. You
brought a murmur of approval father’s death and burial. I speak They never would. know more, sir, than I will ever
from humans and underpeople of the future towhich we all must But she stared at him. know.”
alike. turn. Right now, it’s you and me.” “I want to help the under- “Possibly,” he said, watching
But with his left hand hanging Her eyes widened. She had not people.” her.
slack at his side, he made the per- thought that he was that kind of He madeher blink. That was She stopped feeling like a girly
petual signal of alarm! alarm! man at all. He was an official who a crude approach, usually fol- girl and felt like a citizen. It made
used within the Earthport staff moved freely around Earthport, lowed by a very raw kind of pass her uncomfortable.
— a repeated tapping of the often greeting important offworld indeed. But his face was illumi- “Who,” he in a voice of
thumb against the third finger — visitors and keeping an eye on the nated by seriousness. She waited. great solemnity,
said,
“is your own
when they had to set one another bureau of ceremonies. She was a “Your people do not have leader?”
on guard without alerting the off- part of the reception team, when enough power even to
political “Commissioner Teadrinker, sir.
world transients. a girly girl was needed to calm talk to us. I will not commit trea- He’s in charge of all outworld
She was so upset that she al- down a frustrated arrival or to son to the true-human race, but visitors.” She watched Jestocost
most spoiled it all. While he was postpone a quarrel. Like the I am willing to give your side an carefully; he still did not look as
still doing his pious doubletalk, geisha of ancient Japan, she had advantage. If you bargain better if he were playing tricks.
she cried in a loud clear voice: an honorable profession; she was with us, it will make all forms of Helooked a little cross. “I don’t
“You mean me?” not a bad girl but a professionally life safer in the long run.” mean him. He’s part of my own
And he went on with his con- flirtatious hostess. She stared at C’mell stared at the floor, her staff.Who’s your leader among
dolences: “. and I do mean you,
. .
the Lord Jestocost. He did not red hair soft as the fur of a Per- the underpeople?”
C’mell, to be the worthiest carrier look as though he meant anything sian cat. It made her head seemed “My father was, but he died.”
of your father’s name. You are improperly personal. But, thought bathed in flames. Her eyes looked Jestocost said. “Forgive me.
the one to whom we turn in this she, you can never tell about men. human, except that they had the Please have a seat. But I don’t
time of common sorrow. Who “You know men,” he said, pass- capacity of reflecting when light mean that.”
could I mean but you if I say ing the initiative to her. struck them; the irises were the She was so tired that she sat
that C’mackintosh never did “I guess so,” she said. Her face rich green of the ancient cat. down into the chair with an in-
things by halves, and died young looked odd. She started to give When she looked right at him, nocent voluptuousness which
14 GALAXY
 an accident had happened to a searched. Very good so far, he
would have disorganized any or- almost drive his words like steel
pretty child. He spoke to her. thought to himself. An intelli-
dinary man’s day. She wore girly straight into her face. “Who .” . .

gence like that on Earth itself, he

girl clothes, which were close
enough to the everyday fashion
he said, slowly and icily, “is
Ee . . . telly . . . kelly?”
. . .

TTE SPOKE to her, not really thought —and we of the Lords

expecting an answer. not knowing it!
to seem agreeably modish when The girl’s face had been cream-
“Who are you?” he said to her, The girl hacked out a dry little
she stood up. In line with her colored, pale with sorrow. Now
testing her hypnosis. laugh.
profession, her clothes were de- she went white. She twisted away
“I am"he whose name is never Jestocost thought at the mind,
signed to be unexpectedly and from him. Her eyes glowed like
said aloud,” said the girl in a Sorry. Go ahead.
provocatively revealing when she
—
twin fires.
sharp whisper, “I am he whose This plan of yours — thought
sat down not revealing enough
to shock the man with their
Her eyes like twin fires.
.

(No undergirl, thought Jesto-

. .

secret you have penetrated. I the strange mind — may I see

have printed my image and my more of it?
brazenness, but so slit, tripped cost as he reeled, could hypnotize
name in your mind.” That’s there is.
all
and cut that he got far more visual me.)
Jestocost did not quarrel with Oh, said the strange mind, you
stimulation than he expected. Her eyes were like cold fires.
want me to think for you. Can
. . .

ghosts like this. He snapped out

“I must ask you to pull your The room faded around him.
a decision. “If I open my mind, you give me the keys in the Bank
clothing together a little,” said The girl disappeared. Her eyes
will you search it while I watch and Bell which pertain to destroy-
Jestocost in a clinical turn of became a single white, cold fire.
you? Are you good enough to do ing underpeople?
voice. “I am a man, even if I am Within this fire stood the figure
that?” You can have the information
an official, and this interview is of a man. His arms were wings,
“I am
very good,” hissed the keys if I ever get them,
can
more important to you and to me but he had human hands growing
voice in the girl’s mouth. thought but not the
Jestocost,
than any distraction would be.” at the elbows of his wings. His
C’mell arose and put her two control keys and not the master
She was a little frightened by face was clear, white, cold as the
hands on his shoulders. She switch of the Bell.
his tone. She had meant no chal- marble of an ancient statue; his
looked into his eyes. He looked Fair enough, thought the other
lenge. With the funeral that day, eyes were opaque white. “I am
back. A strong telepath himself, mind, and what do I pay for
she meant nothing at all; these the E-telekeli. You will believe in
Jestocost was not prepared for them?
clothes were the only kind she me. You may speak to my daugh-
the enormous thought-voltage You support me in my policies
had. ter C’mell.”
which poured out of her. before the instrumentality. You
He read all this in her face. The image faded.
Relentlessly, he pursued the Jestocost saw the girl staring
Look in my mind, he com- keep the underpeople reasonable,
manded, for the subject of under- if you can, when the time comes
subject. as she sat awkwardly on the chair,
people only. to negotiate. You maintain honor
“Young lady, I asked about looking blindly through him. He
I see it, thought the mind be- and good faith in all subsequent
your leader. You name your boss was on the edge of making a joke
hind C’mell. agreements. But how can I get the
and you name your father. I want about her hypnotic capacity when
Do you see what I mean to do keys? It would take me a year to
your leader.” he saw that she was still deeply
for the underpeople? figure them out myself.
“I don’t understand,” she said, hypnotized, even after he had
Jestocost heard the girl breath- Let the girl look once, thought
on the edge of a sob, “I don’t un- been released. She had stiffened
ing hard as her mind served as a the strange mind, and I will be
derstand.” and again her clothing had fallen
relay to his. He tried to remain behind her. Fair?
Then, he thought to himself, into its planned disarray. The ef-
calm so that he could see which Fair, thought Jestocost.
I’ve got to take a gamble. He fect was not stimulating; it was
part of his mind was being Break? thought the mind.
thrust the mental dagger home, pathetic beyond words, as though

16 GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 17

 How do we re-connect? thought
Jestocost back.
As before. Through the girl.
Never say my name. Don’t think
it if you can help it. Break?
Break! thought Jestocost.
The girl, who had been holding
his shoulders,drew his face down
and kissed him firmly and warm-
ly. He had never touched an un-
derperson before, and it never
had occurred to him that he might
kiss one. It was pleasant, but he
took her arms away from his
neck, half-turned her around, and
let her lean against him.
“Daddy!” she sighed happily.
Suddenly she stiffened, looked
at his face, and sprang for the
door. “Jestocost!” she cried. “Lord
Jestocost! What am I doing here?”
“Your duty is done, my girl.
You may go.”
She staggered back into the
room. “I am going to be sick,”
said.She vomited on his floor.
He pushed a button for a clean-
ing robot and slapped his desk-
top for coffee.
She relaxed and talked about
his hopes for the underpeople. She
stayed an hour. By the time she
left they had a plan. Neither of
them had mentioned E-telekeli,
neither had put purposes in the
open. If the monitors had been
listening, they would have found
no single sentence or paragraph
which was suspicious.
When she had gone, Jestocost
18
looked out of his window. He saw ably soft texture, her lithe young She remembered the off-Earth
the clouds far below and he knew and per-
figure with firm breasts prince who had rested his head in
the world below him was in twi- suasive hips. She knew down to her lap and had said, sipping his
light. He had planned to help the the last millimeter the effect glass of motl by way of farewell:
underpeople, and he had met which her legs had on hominid
, “Funny, C’mell, you’re not even
powers of which organized man- men. True humans kept few se- a person and you’re the most in-
kind had no conception or percep- crets from her. The men betrayed telligent human being I’ve met in
tion. He was righter than he had themselves by their unfulfillable Do you know
this place. it made
thought. He had to go on through. desires, the woman by their ir- my planet poor to send me here?
But as partner —C’mell herself! repressible But she
jealousies. And what did I get out of them?
Was there ever an odder diplo- knew people best of all by not Nothing, nothing, and a thousand
mat in the history of worlds? being one herself. She had to times nothing. But you, now. If
learn by imitation, and imitation you’d been running the govern-
Ill is conscious. A thousand little ment of Earth, I’d have gotten
things which ordinary women what my people need, and this
TN LESS than a week they had took for granted, or thought about world would be richer too. Man-
decided what to do. It was the just once in a whole lifetime, were home, they call it. Manhome, my
Council of the Lords of the In- subjects of acute and intelligent eye! The only smart person on
strumentality at which they study to her. She was a girl by it is a female cat.”
would work — the brain center profession; she was a human by He ran his fingers around her
itself. The risk was high, but assimilation; she was an inquisi- ankle. She did not stir. That was
the entire job could be done in a tive cat in her genetic nature. part of hospitality, and she had
few minutes if it were done at the Now she was falling in love with her own ways of making sure that
Bell itself. Jestocost, and she knew it. hospitality did not go too far.
she This is the sort of thing which Even she did not realize that Earth police were watching her;
interested Jestocost. the romance would sometime leak to them, she was a convenience
He did not know that C’mell cut into rumor, be magnified into maintained for outworld people,
watched him with two different legend, distilled into romance. She something like a soft chair in the
facets of her mind. One side of had no idea of the ballad about Earthport lobbies or a drinking
her was alertly and wholehearted- herself that would open with the fountain with acid-tasting water
ly his fellow-conspirator, utterly lines which became famous much for strangers who could not tol-
in sympathy with the revolution- later: erate the insipid water of Earth.
ary aims to which they were both She was not expected to have
committed. The other side of her She got the which of the what-she-did, feelings or to get involved. If she
— was feminine. Hid the bell with a blot, she did,
But she fell in love with a hominid.
had ever caused an incident, they
She had a womanliness which Where is the which of the what-she-did? would have punished her fiercely,
was truer than that of any homi- as they often punished animals
nid woman. She knew the value All this lay in the future, and or underpeople, or else (after a
of her trained smile, her splendid- she did not know it. short formal hearing with no ap-
ly kept red hair with its unimagin- She knew her own past. peal) they would have destroyed
GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 19
her, as the law allowed and cus-
tom encouraged.
She had kissed a thousand men,
maybe fifteen hundred. She had
made them feel welcome and she
had gotten their complaints or
their secrets out of
left.
them as they
was a living, emotionally
It
tiring but intellectually very stim-
ulating. Sometimes it made her
laugh to look at human women
with their pointed-up noses and
their proud airs, and
thatshe knew more about the
men who belonged to the human
women than the human women
themselves ever did.
NCE A
policewoman had had
O to read over the record of two
pioneers from New Mars. C’mell
had been given the job of keeping
in very close touch with them.
When the policewoman
through reading the report she
looked at C’mell and her face was
distorted with jealousy and prud-
ish rage.
“Cat, you call Cat!
yourself.
You’re a pig, you’re a dog, you’re
an animal. You may be working
for Earth but don’t ever get the
idea that you’re as good as a per-
son. I think if s a crime that the
Instrumentality lets monsters like
you greet real human beings from
outside! I can’t stopBut may
it.
the Bell help you, girl, if you ever
touch a real Earth man! If you
ever get near one! If you ever try
20
tricks here! Do you understand gency door, the cow-man guard- “That’s it,” she whispered to
me?” ing a gate without reward), and herself, “with all the kindness that
“Yes, ma’am,” C’mell had said. the scientists had also given many none of these passing men have
To herself she thought, “That of the underpeople the human ever really shown. With all the
poor thing doesn’t know how to shape. It was handier that way. depth which my poor under-
select her own clothes or how to
The human eye, the five-fingered people can never get. Not that
do her own hair. No wonder she
resents somebody who manages
hand, the human size —
these it’s not in them. But they’re born
were convenient for engineering like dirt, treated like dirt, put
to be pretty.” reasons. By making underpeople
policewoman
away like dirt when we die. How
Perhaps the
the same size and shape as people, can any of my own men develop
thought that raw hatred would be more or less, the scientists elimi- real kindness? There’s a special
shocking to C’mell. It wasn’t. Un- nated the need for two or three or sort of majesty to kindness. It’s
to realize derpeople were used to hatred,
a dozen different sets of furniture. the best part there is to being
and it was not any worse raw The human form was good people. And he has whole oceans
than it was when cooked with enough for all of them. of it in him. And it’s strange,
politeness and served like poison.
But they had forgotten the hu- strange, strange that he’s never
They had to live with it.
man heart. given his real love to any human
But now, it was all changed.
And now she, C’mell, had fallen woman.”
love with
She had
Jestocost.
fallen in
in love with a man, a true
old enough to have been her
man
own
She stopped,
Then
cold.
she consoled herself and
Did he love her? father’s grandfather. whispered on, “Or if he did, it’s
Impossible. No, not impossible.
Unlawful, unlikely, indecent — But she didn’t feel daughterly
about him at all. She remembered
so long ago that it doesn’t matter
now. He’s got me. Does he know
got yes, all these, but not impossible.
that with her own father there it?”
Surely he felt something of her
was an easy comradeship, an in-
love.
nocent and forthcoming affection, IV
If he did, he gave no sign -of it.
which masked the fact that he
People and underpeople had rT'HE Lord Jestocost did know,
was considerably more cat-like
fallen in love many times before.
than she was. Between them there and yet he didn’t. He was
The underpeople were always de-
was an aching void of forever- used to getting loyalty from peo-
stroyed and the real people brain-
washed. There were laws against
unspoken words — things that ple, because he offered loyalty
couldn’t quite be said by either of and honor in his daily work. He
that kind of thing. The scientists
them, perhaps things that couldn’t was even familiar with loyalty be-
among people had created the
be said at all. They were so close coming obsessive and seeking
underpeople, had given them ca-
to each other that they could get physical form, particularly from
pacities which real people did not
no closer. This created enormous women, children and underpeople.
have (the thousand-yard jump,
distance, which was heartbreak- He had always coped with it be-
the telepath two miles under-
ing but unutterable. Her father fore. He was gambling on the fact
ground, the turtle-man waiting a
had died, and now this true man that C’mell was a wonderfully in-
thousand years next to an emer-
was here, with all the kindness — telligent person, and that as a
GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 21

girly girl, working on the hospital-
ity staff of the Earthport police,
she must have learned to control
her personal feelings.
“We’re born in the wrong age,”
he thought, “when I meet the
most and beautiful fe-
intelligent
male I’ve ever met, and then have
to put business first. But this stuff
about people and underpeople is
sticky. Sticky. We’ve got to keep
personalities out of it.”
So he thought. Perhaps he was
right.
the nameless one, whom he
If
did not dare to remember, com-
manded an attack on the Bell it-
self, that was worth their lives.
Their emotions could not come
into it. The Bell mattered: justice
mattered: the perpetual return of
mankind to progress mattered. He
did not matter, because he had al-
ready done most of his work.
C’mell did not matter, because
their failure would leave her with
mere underpeople forever. The
Bell did count.
Theprice of what he proposed
to do was high, but the entire
job could be done in a few min-
utes if it were done at the Bell
itself.
The Bell, of course, was not a
Bell. It was a three-dimensional
situation table, three times the
height of a man. It was set one
story below the meeting room,
and shaped roughly like an an-
cient bell. The meeting table of
22
1
the Lords of the Instrumentality wanted traced. A single call would ter to C’mackintosh, cat-stock
had a circle cut out of it, so that be enough. E-telekeli would take (pmre) lot 1138, confession of.
the responsibility for tracing Subject: conspiracy to export ho-
the Lords could look down into
the Bell at whatever situation one them. The other Lords would be muncular material. Reference:
up manually distracted by him, E-telekeli. planet De Prinsensmacht.”
of them called either
or telepathically. The Bank below It was simple in appearance. The Lady Johanna Gnade had
it, hidden by the floor, was the
The complication came in ac- already pushed the buttons for
tion. the planet concerned. The people
key memory-bank of the entire
system. Duplicates existed at The plan seemed flimsy, but Earth by origin, were enor-
there,
thirty-odd other places on Earth. there was nothing which Jestocost mously strong but they had gone
Two duplicates lay hidden in in- could do at this time. He began to great pains to maintain the
terstellar space, one of them be- to curse himself for letting his original Earth appearance. One
side the ninety-million-mile gold-
passion for policy involve him in was at the mo-
of their first-men
colored ship left over from the the intrigue. It was too late to ment on Earth. He bore the title
War against Raumsog and the back out with honor; besides, he of the Twilight Prince (Prins van
had given his word; besides, he de Schemering) and he was on a
other masked as an asteroid.
Most of the Lords were off- liked C’mell — not
as a being, as mixed diplomatic and trading mis-
world on the business of the In- a girly girl — and he would hate sion.
to see her marked with disap- Since Jestocost was a little late,
strumentality.
pointment for life. He knew how C’mell was being brought into the
Only three beside Jestocost
—
were present the Lady Johanna
the underpeople cherished their
and their status.
identities
room
utes.
as he glanced over the min-
Gnade, the Lord Issan Olascoaga
and the Lord William Not-from- With heavy heart but quick The Lord Not-from-here asked
here. (The Not-from-heres were
mind he went to the council Jestocost if he would preside.
chamber. A dog-girl, one of the “I beg you, sir and scholar,” he
a great Norstrilian family which
routine messengers whom he had said, “to join me in asking the
had migrated back to Earth many
seen many months outside the Lord Issan to preside this time.”
generations before.)
door, gave him the minutes. The presidency was a formal-
The E-telekeli told Jestocost
the rudiments of a plan.
He wondered how C’mell or Jestocost could watch the Bell
ity.
E-telekeli would reach him, once and Bank better if he did not
He was to bring C’mell into the
he was inside the chamber with have to chair the meeting too.
chambers on a summons.
its tight net of telepathic inter- C’mell wore the clothing of a
The summons was to be seri-
cepts. prisoner. On her it looked good.
ous.
They should avoid her sum-
He sat wearily at the table — He had never seen her wearing
And almost jumped out of his anything but girly-girl clothes be-
mary death by automatic justice,
chair. fore. The
if the relays began to trip. pale-blue prison tunic
C’mell would go into partial made her look very young, very
trance in the chamber.
T HE
r ,
conspirators had forged human, very tender and very
the minutes themselves, and frightened. The cat family showed
He was then to call the items
the top item was: “C’mell daugh- only in the fiery cascade of her
in the Bell which E-telekeli
GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 23
 >
mi%
IlKh
4

hairand the lithe power of her “It’s run by a man who looks than this gentleman, two inches The Bell cleared.
body as she sat, demure and erect. like this gentleman here,” said shorter, and he has red hair. His It showed the vague image of
Lord Issan asked her: “You C’mell, pointing at Jestocost. place is at the Cold Sunset corner a room in which children were
have confessed. Confess again.” Quickly, so that nobody could of Earthport, down the boulevard playing Hallowe’en tricks.
“This man,” and she pointed at stop her, but modestly, so that and under the boulevard. Under- The Lady Johanna laughed,
a picture of the Twilight Prince, none of them thought to doubt people, some of them with bad “Those aren’t people. They’re ro-
“wanted to go to the place where her, she circled the room and reputations, live in that neighbor- bots. It’s just a dull old play.”
they torment human children for touched Jestocost’s shoulder. He hood.” “Then,” added C’mell, “he
a show.” felt a thrill of contact-telepathy The Bell went milky, flashing wanted a dollar and a shilling to
“What!” cried three of the and heard bird-crackle in her through hundreds of combinations take home. Real ones. There was
Lords together. brain. Then he knew that the E- of bad underpeople in that part of a robot who had found some.”
“What place?” said the Lady telekeliwas in touch with her. the city. Jestocost felt himself “What are those?” said Lord
Johanna, who was bitterly in “The man who has the place,” staring at the casual milkiness Issan.
favor of kindness. pounds
said C’mell, “is five lighter with unwanted concentration. “Ancient money — the real

24 GALAXY THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL 25

money America and old
of old
Australia,” Lord William.
cried
“I have no
copies, but there are
originals outside the state muse-
um.” He was an ardent, passionate
collector of coins.
“The robot found them
old hiding place right
Earth port.”
T ORD William almost shouted
at the Bell. “Run through
every hiding place and get me
that money.”
The Bell clouded. In finding
the bad neighborhoods it had
flashed every police point in the
Northwest sector of the tower.
Now it scanned all the police
points under the tower, and ran
dizzily through thousands of
binations before it settled
old toolroom. A robot was polish-
ing circular pieces of metal.
When Lord William saw the
polishing, he was furious. “Get
that here,” he shouted. “I want
to buy those myself!”
“All right,” said Lord Issan. “It’s
a little irregular, but all right.”
The machine showed the key
search devices and brought the
robot to the escalator.
The Lord Issan said, “This isn’t
much of a case.”
C’mell sniveled. She was a good
actress. “Then he wanted me to
get a homunculus egg. One of the
E-type, derived from birds, for
him to take home.”
26
Issan put on the search device.
“Maybe,” said C’mell, “some-
body has already put it in the
disposal series.”
The and the Bank ran
Bell
through the disposal devices
all
in an at high speed. Jestocost felt his
under nerves go on edge. No human be-
ing could have memorized these
thousands of patterns as they
flashed across the Bell too fast
for human eyes, but the brain
reading the Bell through his eyes
was not human. It might even be
locked into a computer of its
own. It was, thought Jestocost, an
indignity for a Lord of the In-
strumentality to be used as a
human spy-glass.
The machine blotted up.
com- “You’re a fraud,” cried the Lord
on an Issan. “There’s no evidence.”
“Maybe the offworlder tried,”
Lady Johanna.
said the
“Shadow him,” said Lord Wil-
liam. “If he would steal ancient
would steal anything.”
coins he
The Lady Johanna turned to
C’mell. “You’re a silly thing.
have wasted our time and you
have kept us from serious inter-
world business.”
“It is inter-world business,”
wept C’mell. She let her hand slip
from Jestocost’s shoulder, where
it had rested all the time. The
body-to-body relay broke and the
telepathic link broke with
“We should judge that,” said
Lord Issan.
GALAXY
“You might have been pun-
Lady Johanna.
ished,” said
The Lord Jestocost had said
nothing, but there was a glow of
happiness in him. If the E-telekeli
was half as good as he seemed,
the underpeople had a list of
checkpoints and escape routes
which would make it easier to
hide from the capricious sentence
of painless death which
authorities meted out.
V pacious blouse. She had filled out
THERE was singing
ridors that night.
in the cor-
Underpeople burst into happi-
ness for no visible reason.
C’mell danced a wild cat dance
for the next customer who came
in from outworld stations, that
very evening. When she got
to bed, she knelt before the pic-
ture of her father C’mackintosh
and thanked the E-telekeli for
what Jestocost had done.
But the story became known
You a few generations later, when the
Lord Jestocost had won acclaim
for being the champion of the
underpeople and when the author-
ities, still unaware of E-telekeli,
accepted the elected representa-
tives of the underpeople as ne-
gotiators for better terms of life;
and C’mell had died long since.
it. She had first had a long, good
life.
She became a female chef when
THE BALLAD OF LOST C'MELL
she was too old to be a girly girl.
Her food was famous. Jestocost
once visited her. At the end of
the meal he had asked, “There’s
a silly rhyme among the under-
people. No human beings know it
except me.”
“I don’t care about rhymes,”
she said.
“This is called ‘The what-she-
human did.’
”
C’mell blushed all the way
down to the neckline of her ca-
a lot in middle age. Running the
restaurant had helped.
“Oh, that rhyme!” she said. “It’s
silly.”
“It says you were in love with
a hominid.”
“No,” she said. “I wasn’t.” Her
green eyes, as beautiful as ever,
home stared deeply into his. Jestocost
felt uncomfortable. This was get-
ting personal. He liked political
relationships; personal things
made him uncomfortable.
The light in the room shifted
and her cat eyes blazed at him,
she looked like the magical fire-
haired girl he had known.
“I wasn’t in love. You couldn’t
call it that .
.”.
Her heart cried out, It was you,
it was you, it was you.
“But the rhyme,” insisted Jest-
ocost, “says it was a hominid. It
wasn’t that Prins van de Schemer-
ing?” /
“Who was he?” C’mell asked
27
 creatures in the universe threw
Boys! You can raise Giant Mushrooms in your cellar
the question quietly, but her
emotions cried out, Darling, will playful kisses at him. All he asked and that's by no means all!
was of his political
you never, never know? fulfillment
“The strong man.” passions, not his personal ones.
“Oh, him. I’ve forgotten him.” He had always been in love, mad- By RAY BRADBURY
Jestocost rose from the table. ly in love —

GOME
“You’ve had a good life, C’mell. With justice itself.
You’ve been a citizen, a commit-
teewoman, a leader. And do you
even know how many children AT LAST, knewown
and he
his
that he was
time came,

you have had?” dying, and he was not sorry. He

“Seventy-three,” she snapped had had a wife, hundreds of years
at him. “Just because they’re mul- ago, and had loved her well; their
tiple doesn’t mean we don’t know children had passed into the gen-
them.” erations of man.
him. His In the ending, he wanted to
face
His playfulness left
was grave, his voice kindly. know something, and he called to INTO
meant no harm, C’mell.” a nameless one (or to his succes-
“I
He never knew that when he
left she went back to the kitchen
sor) far beneath the ground.
called with his mind till it
He
was a
MY CELLAR
and cried for a while. It was Jest- scream.
ocost whom she had vainly loved
ever since they had been com-
rades, many long years ago. of
I have helped your people.
“Yes,” came back the faintest
faraway whispers, inside his
^^H FORTNUM
Saturday’s commotions, and
lay eyes shut, savoring each in its
woke to and leaned out to hear her cry:
“There! Take that! This’ll fix
you! Hah!”
Even after she died, at the full head. turn. “Happy Saturday, Mrs. Good-
age of five-score and three, he I am dying. I must know. Did Below, bacon in a skillet; Cyn- body!”
kept seeing her about the corri- she love me? thiawaking him with fine cook- The old woman froze in clouds
dors and shafts of Earthport. “She went on without you, so ings instead of cries. of bug-spray pumped from an

Many of her great-granddaugh- much did she love you. She let Across the hall, Tom actually immense gun.
ters looked just like her and sev- you go, for your sake, not for hers. taking a shower. “Nonsense!” she shouted. “With
eral of them practised the girly- She really loved you. More than Far off in the bumble-bee these fiends and pests to watch
girl business with huge success. death. More than life. More than dragon-fly light, whose voice was for?”
They were not half-slaves. time. You will never be apart.” already damning the weather, “What kind this time?” called
(reserved Never apart? the time, and the tides? Mrs. Fortnum.
They were citizens
grade) and they had photopasses “Not, not in the memory of Goodbody? Yes. That Christian “I don’t want to shout it to the

which protected their property, man,” said the voice, and was then giantess, foot tall with her
six jaybirds, but — ” she glanced sus-
their identity and their rights. still.
shoes the gardener extraor-
off, piciously around — “what would
Jestocost was the godfather to Jestocost lay back on his pillow dinary, the octogenarian-dietitian you say if I told you I was the
them all; he was often embar- and waited for the day to end. and town philosopher. first line of defense concerning

rassed when the most voluptuous — CORDWAINER SMITH He rose, unhooked the screen Flying Saucers?”

28
GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 29
 “Fine,” replied Fortnum. “Here,” said Fortnum, “what
in the dirt of the back part of the Fortnum laughed easily.
“There’ll be rockets between the are?” “Hasn’t there always been?”
cellar.
worlds any year now.” “The Sylvan Glade Jumbo- wife beside him, “No, no, I mean
He felt his something
—
. . .

“There already are!” She

pumped, aiming the spray under
Giant Guaranteed Growth Raise-
Them-in-Y our - Cellar - for - Big -
breathing softly, looking down strange something unseen —
into the cool dimness. is happening.”
the hedge. “There! Take that!” Profit Mushrooms!” “Those are mushrooms, I hope. “Mrs. Goodbody,” said Fort-
He pulled his head back in “Oh, of course,” said Fortnum. Not .
toadstools?”
. • num, half to himself, and stop-
from the fresh day, somehow not “How silly of me.” Fortnum laughed. “Happy har- ped.
as high-spirited as his first re- Cynthia squinted. “Those little farmer!” “Mrs. Goodbody?”
sponse had indicated. Poor soul, teeny bits ?” — vest,
Tom glanced up and waved. “This morning. Gave me a
Mrs. Goodbody. Always the very “Fabulous growth in 24 Fortnum shut the door, took talk on flying saucers.”
essence of reason. And now what? hours,” Tom quoted from mem- his wife’s arm, and walked her “No,” Willis bit the knuckle of
Old age? ory. “Plant them in your own cel- out to the kitchen, feeling
The doorbell rang. lar — ’ ”
fine. his forefinger nervously. “Noth-
ing like saucers. At least I don’t
Fortnum and wife exchanged OWARD NOON, Fortnum what is intuition?”
think. Tell me,
TTE GRABBED his robe and glances. T was driving toward the near- “The conscious recognition of
was half down the stairs “Well,” she admitted, “it’s est market when he saw Roger something that’s been subcon-
when he heard a voice say, better than frogs and green- Willis, a fellow Rotarian, and scious for a long time. But don’t
“Special Delivery. Fortnum?” snakes.” teacher of biology at the town quote this amateur psycholo-
and saw Cynthia turn from the “Sure is!” Tom ran. high school, waving urgently gist!” He laughed again.
front door, a small packet in her “Oh, Tom,” said Fortnum, from the sidewalk. “Good, good!” Willis turned,
hand. lightly. Fortnum pulled his car up and his He readjusted
face lighting.
He
put his hand out, but she Tom paused at the cellar opened the door. himself in the seat. “That’s it!
shook her head. door. “Hi, Roger, .give you a lift?” Over a long period, things gather,
“Special Delivery Air-Mail for “Tom,” said his father. “Next Willis responded all too eager- right? All of a sudden, you have
your son.” time, fourth class mail would do ly, jumping in and slamming the to spit, but you don’tremember
Tom was downstairs like a fine.” door. saliva collecting. Your hands are
centipede. “Heck,” said Tom. “They “Just the man I want to see. dirty, but you don’t know how
“Wow! That must be from the must’ve made a mistake, thought I’ve put off calling for days. they got that way. Dust falls on
Great Bayou Novelty Green- I was some rich company. Air- Could you play psychiatrist for you every day and you don’t feel
house!” mail special, who can afford five minutes, God help you?” it. But when you get enough dust

“I wish I were as excited about that?” Fortnum examined his friend collected up, there it is, you see
ordinary mail,” observed Fort- The door slammed.
cellar for a moment as he drove quiet- and name it. That’s intuition, as
num. Fortnum, bemused, scanned ly on. far as I’m concerned. Well, what
“Ordinary?!” Tom ripped the the wrapper a moment, then “God help you, yes. Shoot.” kind of dust has been falling on
cord and paper wildly. “Don’t you dropped it into the wastebasket. Willis sat back and studied his me? A few meteors in the sky at
read the back pages of Popular On his way to the kitchen, he fingernails. “Let’s a just drive night? Funny weather just before
Mechanics? Well, here they are!” opened the cellar door. moment. There. Okay. Here’s dawn? I don’t know. Certain
Everyone peered into the small Tom was already on his what I want to say: something’s colors, smells, the way the house
open box. knees, digging with a handrake wrong with the world.” creaks at three in the morning?
I

30 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 31

Hair prickling on my arms? All burning blind in the great, re- Willis nodded. “See you Mon- “What are you up to?” she
the damn dust has day night?” said at last.
I know is, mote sky.
collected. Quite suddenly I “Be aware,” he said, slowly. “Any time. Drop around.” “Cynthia,” he said, “is your in-

know.” “Watch everything for a few “I hope I will, Hugh. I really tuition in running order? Is this

hope I will. earthquake weather? Is the land

“Yes,” said Fortnum, disquiet- days.”
“But what is you know?” “Everything?” Then Willis was gone, hurry- going to sink? Will war be de-
ed. it

Willis looked at his hands in “We don’t use half what God ing across the dry weed-grown clared? Or is it only that our del-

gave us, ten per cent of the time. lot, toward the side entrance of phinium will die of the blight?”
his lap.
“I’m afraid. I’m not afraid. We ought to hear more, feel the market. “Hold on. Let me feel my
Watching him go, Willis sud-
'

Then I’m afraid the again,
middle of the day. Doctor’s
checked me. I’m A-l. No family
problems. Joe’s a fine boy, a
in more, smell more, taste more.
Maybe there’s something wrong
with the way the wind blows
these weeds there in the lot. May-
bones.”
denly did not want to move. He He opened his eyes and
discovered that very slowly he watched Cynthia in turn clos-
was taking deep breaths, weigh- ing hers and sitting absolutely

good son. Dorothy? She’s re-
markable. With her, I’m not a-
fraid of growing old or dying.”
“Lucky man.”
“But beyond my
be it’s the sun up on those tele- ing the silence. He licked his lips, statue-still, her hands on her
phone wires or the cicadas sing- tasting the salt. He looked at his knees. Finally she shook her
arm on the door-sill, the sun- head and smiled.
ing in the elm trees. If only we
could stop, look, listen, a few light burning the golden hairs. “No. No war declared. No land
luck now. days, a few nights, and compare In the empty lot the wind moved sinking. Not even a blight. Why?”

Scared stiff, really, for myself, notes. Tell me to shut up then, all alone to itself. He leaned out “I’ve met a lot of Doom
my family; even, right now, for and I will.” to look at the sun which stared Talkers today. Well, two, any-
you.” “Good enough,” said Fortnum, back with one massive stunning way, and ” —
“Me?” said Fortnum. playing it lighter then he felt. blow of intense power that made The screen door burst wide.
“I’ll look around. But how do I
him jerk his head in. Fortnum’s body jerked as if he
HTHEY had stopped now by an know the thing I’m looking for He exhaled. Then he laughed had been struck. “What!”
when I see it?” out loud. Then he drove away. Tom, a gardener’s wooden flat
empty lot near the market.
him in his arms, stepped out on the
There was a moment of great Willis peered in at sin-
know. You’ve got I'T'HE lemonade glass was cool porch.
stillness, in which Fortnum turn- cerely. “You’ll
ed to survey his friend. Willis’ to know. Or we’re done for, all of and deliciously sweaty. The “Sorry,” he said. “What’s
voice had suddenly made him us,” he said quietly. ice made music inside the glass, wrong, dad?”
cold. Fortnum shut the door, and and the lemonade was just sour “Nothing.” Fortnum stood up,

“I’m afraid for everybody,” didn’t know what to say. He felt enough, just sweet enough on his glad to be moving. “Is that the
a flush of embarrassment creep- tongue. He sipped, he savored, he crop?”
said Willis. “Your friends, mine,
and their friends, on out of sight. ing up his face. Willis sensed tilted back in the wicker rocking Tom moved foreward, eagerly.
eh?” chair on the twilight front porch, “Part of it. Boy, they’re doing
Pretty silly, this.
opened the door, got out
Willis “Hugh, do you think I’m — his eyes closed. The crickets great. In just seven hours, with

Fortnum. my rocker?” were Ghirping out on the lawn. lots of water, look how big the
and peered
in at off
Fortnum felt he had to speak. “Nonsense!” said Fortnum, too Cynthia, knitting across from him darn things are!” He set the flat
“Well —
what do we do about quickly. “You’re just nervous, is on the porch, eyed him curious-
ly. He could feel the pressure of
on the table between his parents.
The crop was indeed plentiful.
it?” all. You should take a couple of

Willis looked up at the sun weeks off.”

her attention. Hundreds of small grayish brown

32 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 33

mushrooms were sprouting up in stairs. He slammed the cellar !

the
“I’ll
damp
be
soil.
damned,” said Fort-
door and ran angrily out the back
door.
THE wire hangers were indeed
empty. With a clatter, Fort-
house
ductors.”
and go meet his alfr

num, impressed. Fortnum turned back to his

num shoved them aside and Dorothy opened the door as if
down along the rod, then turned to let the night or the night wind
Cynthia put out her hand to wife,who, stricken, glanced away.
and looked out of the closet at move down the hall as she turn-
touch the flat, then took it away “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t
Dorothy Willis and her son Joe. ed to stare back through the
uneasily. know why. I just had to say that j
“I was just walking by,” said rooms, her voice wandering.
“I hate to be a spoilsport, but to Tom.”
no way Joe, “and saw the closet empty, “No. Somehow they came into
. . . there’s for these to be Thephone rang. Fortnum
all Dad’s clothes gone!” the house. Right in front of us,
anything else but mushrooms, is brought the phone outside on its 1
“Everything was fine,” said they stole him away.”
there?” extension cord.
Tom he had been
Dorothy. “We’ve had a wonder- And then:
looked as if “Hugh?” It was Dorothy (
ful life- I don’t understand it, I “. . . a terrible thing has hap-
insulted. “What do you think Willis’ voice. She sounded sud- j
don’t, I don’t!” She began to cry pened.”
I’m going to feed you? Poison denly very old and very frighten-
again, putting her hands to her Fortnum stepped out into
fungoids?” ed. “Hugh . . . Roger isn’t there,
|
face. the night of crickets and rustling
“That’s just it,” said Cynthia is he?”
Fortnum stepped out of the trees. The Doom Talkers, he
quickly. “How do you tell them “Dorothy? No.”
closet. thought, talking their Dooms.
apart?” “He’s gone!” said Dorothy.
“You didn’t hear him leave the Mrs. Goodbody. Roger. And now
“Eat ’em,” said Tom. “If you “All his clothes were taken from
house?” Roger’s wife. Something terri-
live, they’re mushrooms. If you the closet.” She began to cry
“We were
drop dead well!” — softly.
front,” said Joe.
playing catch out
“Dad said he had
ble has happened. But what, in
God’s name? And how?
He gave a great guffaw, which “Dorothy, hold on, I’ll be I

go in for a minute.
to I went a- He looked from Dorothy to
amused Fortnum, but only made
his mother wince. She sat back
there in a minute.”
“You must help, oh, you must.
round back. Then — he was her son. Joe, blinking the wetness
gone!” from his eyes, took a long time
in her chair. Something’s happened to him, I
“I — I don’t like them,” she know it,” she wailed. “Unless you I

ly
“He must have packed quick-
and walked wherever he was
to turn,
stop,
walk along the
fingering the knob
hall and
of the
said. do something, we’ll never see him
going, so we wouldn’t hear a cab cellar door.
“Boy, oh, boy.” Tom seized the alive again.”
pull up in front of the
“When are we going
house.” Fortnum felt his eyelids
flat angrily. Very slowly, he put the re- They were moving out through twitch, his iris flex, as if he were
to have the next Wet Blanket ceiver back on its hook, her voice
the hall now. snapping a picture of something
Sale in this house!?” weeping inside it. The night
“I’ll check the train depot and he wanted to remember.
He shuffled morosely away. crickets, quite suddenly, were
“Tom —
” said Fortnum. very loud. He felt the hairs, one
the airport.” Fortnum
“Dorothy, is there anything in
hesitated. Joe pulled the cellar door
wide, stepped down out of sight,
“Never mind,” said Tom.
“Everyone figures they’ll be ruin-
by one, go up on the back of his
neck.
I

Roger’s background ” — gone. The door tapped shut.

“It wasn’t insanity took him.” Fortnum opened his mouth to
ed by the boy entrepeneur. To Hair can’t do that, he thought.
She hesitated. “I feel — some- speak, but Dorothy’s hand was
heck with it!”
Fortnum got inside just as
Silly, silly.
in real life,
It can’t
it can’t!
do that, not
how —he was kidnapped.” taking his now, he had to look
Fortnum shook his head. “It at her.
Tom heaved the mushrooms, But, one by slow prickling one,
doesn’t seem reasonable he would “Please,” she said. “Find him
flat and all, down the cellar his hair did.
arrange to pack, walk out of the for me.”

34 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 35

-
 He kissed her cheek. “If it’s There was a creaking noise. A' quietly onto the porch and was “What telegram?” said Roger,
”
humanly possible . . knob rattled. standing there with a telegram jovially. “I sent no telegram.
humanly possible. Good
If it’s Tom vanished into the base- in his hand. Now, of a sudden, the police
Lord, why had he picked those ment. “Fortnum?” come pouring onto the south-
words? Fortnum felt as if someone Cynthia snapped on the hall bound train, pull me off in some
He walked off into the summer had set off an explosion in his light as he ripped the envelope jerkwater, and I’m calling you to
night. face. He reeled. Everything had open and smoothed it out for get them off my neck. Hugh, if
the numbed familiarity of those :

reading. this is some joke ” —

A GASP, an exhalation, a gasp, waking dreams where all motions
j
“TRAVELING NEW OR- “But, Roger, you just vanish-
J
-*-an exhalation, an asthmatic are remembered before they oc- j LEANS. THIS TELEGRAM ed!”
insuck, a vaporing sneeze. Some- cur, all dialogue known before it
j
POSSIBLE OFF-GUARD MO- “On a business trip. If you
one dying in the dark? No. fellfrom the lips.
’
MENT. YOU MUST REFUSE, can call that vanishing. I told
Just Mrs. Goodbody, unseen He found himself staring at REPEAT REFUSE, ALL Dorothy about this, and Joe.”
beyond the hedge, working late, the shut basement door. Cynthia !
SPECIAL DELIVERY PACK- “This is all very confusing,
her hand-pump aimed, her bony took him inside, amused AGES! ROGER.” Roger. You’re in no danger? No-
elbow thrusting. The sick-sweet “What? Tom? Oh, I relented. I Cynthia glanced up from the body’s blackmailing you, forc-
smell of bug-spray enveloped The darn mushrooms meant so I paper. ing you into this speech?”
Fortnum heavily as he reached much to him. Besides, when he i
“I don’t understand. What “I’m fine, healthy, free and un-
his house. threw them into the cellar, they I does he mean?” afraid.”
“Mrs. Goodbody? Still at it?!” did nicely, just lying in the dirt.” But Fortnum was already at “But, Roger, your premoni-
'

From the black hedge, her “Did they?” Fortnum heard the telephone, dialing swiftly, tions . . .
?”
voice leapt: himself say. once. “Operator? The police, and “Poppycock! Now, look, I’m
“Damn it, yes! Aphids, water- Cynthiq, took his arm. “What hurry!” being very good about this,
bugs, woodworms and now the about Roger?” aren’t I?”
marasmius oreades. Lord, it “He’s gone, yes.” A T ten-fifteen that night, the “Sure, Roger.”
grows fast!” “Men, men, men,” she said. phone rang for the sixth time “Then play the good father
“What does?” “No, you’re wrong,” he said. “I 1 during the evening. Fortnum got and give me permission to go.
“The marasmius oreades, of saw Roger every day for the last it, and immediately gasped. Call Dorothy and tell her I’ll be
It’s me against them, and ten years. When you know a man
'

course! “Roger! Where are you?!” back in five days. How could she
I intend to win. There! There! that well, you can tell how things “Where am I,hell,” said Roger have forgotten?”
There!” are at home, whether things are j lightly, almost amused. “You “She did, Roger. See you in
He left the hedge, the gasping in the oven or the mixmaster. i
know very well where I am. five days, then?”
‘

pump, the wheezing voice, and Death hadn’t breathed down his l

You’re responsible for this. I “Five days, I swear.”

found his wife waiting for him on neck yet. He running
wasn’t should be angry!” The voice was indeed winning
the porch almost as if she were scared after his immortal youth, Cynthia, at his nod, had hur- and warm, the old Roger again.
going to take up where Dorothy picking peaches in someone else’s ried to take the extension phone Fortnum shook his head, more
had left off at her door a few orchards. No, no, I swear, I’d bet in the kitchen. When he heard bewildered than before.
minutes ago. my last dollar on it, Roger — ”
the soft click, he went on. “Roger,” he said, “this is the
Fortnum was about to speak, The doorbell rang behind him. “Roger, I swear I don’t know. craziest day I’ve ever spent.
when a shadow moved inside. The delivery boy had come up
j

I got that telegram from you — You’re not running off from
I

36 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 37

Dorothy? Good Lord, you can insisted he was okay? No. He Then: “No, wait. Three days ago. flicked through the unabridged
tell me.” sent that telegram, but he But I thought you knew! All the dictionary.
her with all my heart.
“I love changed his mind after sending it. boys on the block are going in His forefinger underlined the
Now, here’s Lieutenant Parker of Why, why, why?” Fortnum paced for it.” words:
the Ridgetown police. Good-by, the room, sipping the drink. ‘Why Fortnum measured his words “Marasmius oreades: a mush-
Hugh.” warn us against special delivery room commonly found on lawns
“Good ”— packages? The only package
carefully.
“Going in for what?” in summer and early autumn.”
But the lieutenant was on the we’ve got this year which fits that “But why ask?” she said. He let the book fall shut.
line, talking angrily. What had description is the one Tom got nothing wrong with
Fortnum meant putting them to this morning — ” His voice trailed
“There’s
raising mushrooms, is there?” /"kUTSIDE, in the deep summer
this trouble? What was going on? off. Fortnum closed his eyes. night, he lit a cigarette and
Who did he think he was? Did or Before he could move, Cynthia “Hugh? Are you still there?” smoked quietly.
didn’t he want this so-called was at the wastepaper basket asked Dorothy. “I said: there’s A meteor
friend Lfcld or released? taking out the crumpled wrap- nothing wrong with — burning itself
fell across
out quickly.
space,
The
Fortnum managed
“Released,” ping paper with the special-de- “ — mushrooms?” said
raising trees rustled softly.
to say somewhere along the way, livery stamps on it. Fortnum, at last. “No. Nothing The front door tapped shut.
and hung up the phone and im- The postmark read: NEW wrong. Nothing wrong.” Cynthia moved toward him in
agined he heard a voice call all a- ORLEANS, LA. And slowly he put down the her robe.
board and the massive thunder Cynthia looked up from it. phone. “Can’t sleep?”
of the train leaving the station “New Orleans. Isn’t that where The curtains blew like veils of “Too warm, I guess.”
two hundred miles south in the Roger is heading right now?” moonlight. The clock ticked. The “It’s not warm.”
somehow increasingly dark night. A doorknob rattled, a door after-midnight world flowed into “No,” he said, feeling his arms.
opened and closed in Fortnum’s and filled the bedroom. He heard “In fact, it’s cold.” He sucked on
/^YNTHIA walked very slowly mind. Another doorknob rattled, Mrs. Goodbody’s clear voice on
^ into the parlor. another door swung wide and this morning’s air, a million years
the cigarette twice, then, not
looking at her, said, “Cynthia . . .

“I feel so foolish,” she said. then shut. There was a smell of gone now. He heard Roger put- What if ?” He snorted and
. . .

“How do think I feel?” damp earth. ting a cloud over the sun at noon. had to stop. “Well, what if Roger
‘Who could have sent that tele- He found his hand dialing the He heard the police damning him was right this morning? Mrs.
gram? And why?” phone. After a long while, Dor- by phone from downstate. Then Goodbody, what if she’s right,
He poured himself some scotch othy Willis answered at the other Roger’s voice again, with the lo- too? Something terrible is hap-
and stood
room looking
in the middle of the end. He could imagine her sitting
alone in a house with too many
comotive thunder hurrying him pening. Like well — —
” he nodded
at it. away and away, fading. And fi- at the sky and the million stars
“I’m glad Roger is all right,” lights on. He talked quietly with nally, Mrs. Goodbody’s voice be- — “Earth being invaded by
his wife said, at last. her awhile, then cleared his hind the hedge: things from other worlds, may-
“He isn’t,” said Fortnum. throat and said, “Dorothy, look. “Lord, grows
“But you just said — I know it sounds silly. Did any “What does?”
it fast!” be.”
“Hugh!”
“I said nothing. After all, we special delivery airmail packages “Marasmium oreades!” “No, let me run wild.”
couldn’t very well drag him off arrive at your house the last few He snapped his eyes open. He “It’s quite obvious we’re not-
that train and truss him up and days?” sat up. being invaded or we’d notice.”
send him home, could we, if he Her voice was faint. “No.” Downstairs, a moment later, he “Let’s say we’ve only half-

38 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 39

noticed, become uneasy about by six foot tall mushrooms from shouted. And then he simply with you in a minute . . . well, a
something. What? How could we another planet?” could not go on. He was afraid couple of minutes . .
.”

be invaded? By what means “If you put it that way, it that if he would find him-
he did, “That’s better!” She kissed him
would creatures invade?” sounds funny,” he admitted. self shouting with laughter, too, on both cheeks, squeezed him and
Cynthia looked at the sky and “Funny! It’s hilarious!” She and somehow he did not want went away up the stairs.
was about to try something when threw her head back deliciously. that. He stared at the surround- In the kitchen, he took out a
he interrupted. ing houses up and down the block glass, opened the refrigerator and
“No, not meteors or flying 66/^OOD grief!” he cried, sud- and thought of the dark cellars was pouring the milk when he
saucers. Not things we can see. denly irritated. “Some- and the neighbor boys who read stopped suddenly.
What about bacteria? That comes thing’s going on! Mrs. Goodbody Popular Mechanics and sent Near the front of the top shelf
from outer space, too, doesn’t it?” is rooting out and killing maras- their money in by the millions to was a small yellow dish. It was
“I read once, yes
— mium oreades. What is maras- raise the mushrooms hidden not the dish that held his at-
“Spores, seeds, pollens, viruses mium oreades? A certain kind of away. Just as he, when a boy, tention, however. It was what lay
probably bombard our atmos- mushroom. Simultaneously, and had mailed off for chemicals, in the dish.

phere by the billions every second I suppose you’ll call it coinci-

seeds, turtles, numberless salves The fresh-cut mushrooms.
and have done so for millions of dence, by special delivery, what and sickish ointments. In how
years. Right now we’re sitting out arrives the same day? Mush- many American homes to-
million TTE MUST have stood there
under an invisible rain. It falls rooms for Tom! What else hap- night were billions of mushrooms for half a minute, his breath
all over the country, the cities, pens? Roger fears he may soon rousing up under the ministrations frosting the refrigerated air, be-
the towns, and right now our . . . cease to be! Within hours, he of the innocent? fore he reached out, took hold of
lawn.” vanishes, then telegraphs us, “Hugh?” His wife was touching the dish, sniffed it, felt the mush-
“
Out lawn?” warning us not to accept what? his arm now. “Mushrooms, even rooms, then at last, carrying the
“And Mrs. Goodbody’s. But The special-delivery mushrooms big ones, can’t think. They can’t dish, went out into the hall. He
people like her are always pulling for Tom! Has Roger’s son got a move. They don’t have arms and looked up the stairs, hearing Cyn-
weeds, spraying poison, kicking similar package in the last few legs. How could they run a mail- thia moving about in the bed-
toadstools off their grass. It days? He has! Where do the order service and ‘take over’ the room, and was about to call up
would be hard for any strange life packages come from? New Or- world? Come on, now. Let’s look to her, “Cynthia, did you put
form to survive in cities. Weath- leans! And where is Roger going at your terrible fiends and mon- these in the refrigerator!?”
er’sa problem, too. Best climate when he vanishes? New Orleans! sters!” Then he stopped. He knew her
might be South: Alabama, Geor- Do you see, Cynthia, do you see? She pulled him toward the answer. She had not.
gia, Louisiana. Back in the damp I wouldn’t be upset if all these
door. Inside, she headed for the He put the dish of mushrooms
bayous, they could grow to a fine separate things didn’t lock to- but he stopped, shaking his
cellar, on the newel-upright at the bot-
size.” gether! Roger, Tom, Joe, mush- head, a foolish smile shaping it- tom of the stairs and stood look-
But Cynthia was beginning to rooms, Mrs. Goodbody, packages, selfsomehow to his mouth. “No, ing at them. He imagined himself,
laugh now. destinations, everything in one no, Iknow what we’ll find. You in bed later, looking at the walls,

“Oh, really, you don’t believe, pattern!” win. The whole thing’s silly. the open windows, watching the
do you, that this Great Bayou or She was watching his face now, Roger will be back next week moonlight sift patterns on the
Whatever Greenhouse Novelty quieter, but still amused. “Don’t
and we’ll all get drunk together. ceiling. He heard himself saying,

Company that sent Tom his get angry.” Go on up to bed now and I’ll Cynthia? And her answering, yes?
package is owned and operated “I’m not!” Fortnum almost drink a glass of warm milk and be And him saying, there is a way

40 GALAXY COME INTO MY CELLAR 41

for mushrooms to grow arms and No answer. whole silly senseless fool “Don’t. Light’s bad for the
t he
legs What? she would say, “Tom?” No reason, he tried to say, mushrooms.”
. . .
thing-
silly, silly man, what? And he After a long while, Tom’s voice but his lips wouldn’t
move. Fortnum took his hand off the
would gather courage against her came up from below. “Dad?” called Tom softly from switch.
hilarious reaction and go on, what “Yes, Dad?” the cellar.
“Come on down.” An- He swallowed. He looked back
if a man wandered through the “It’s after midnight,” said Fort- other pause. “I want you to see at the stair leading up to his wife.
swamp picked the mushrooms, num, fighting to keep his voice the harvest.” I suppose, he thought, I should
and ate them ? . . . from going high. “What are you Fortnum knob slip in
felt the go say good-by to Cynthia. But
No response from Cynthia. doing down there?” his sweaty hand. The knob rat- why should I think that! Why
Once inside the man, would No answer. tled. He gasped.
*
should I think that at all? No
the mushrooms spread through “I said — “Dad?” called Tom softly. reason, is there?
his blood, take over every cell, “Tending to my crop,” said the Fortnum opened the door. None.
and change the man from a man boy at last, his voice cold and The cellar was completely “Tom?” he said, affecting a
to a —
Martian? Given this faint. black below.
hand in toward
jaunty air. “Ready or not, here
theory, would the mushroom need “Well, get the hell out of there! He stretched his I come!”

its own arms and legs? No, not You hear me!?” the light switch. As if sensing And stepping down in dark-
when it could borrow people, live Silence. this intrusion, from somewhere ness, he shut the door.

inside and become them. Roger “Tom? Listen! Did you put Tom said: — RAY BRADBURY
ate mushrooms given him by his some mushrooms in the refriger-
son. Roger became “something why?”
ator tonight? If so,
else.” He kidnaped himself. And Ten seconds must have ticked
in one last flash of sanity, of be- by before the boy replied from
ing “himself” he telegraphed us, below. “For you and Mom to eat,
warning us not to accept the of course.”
special-delivery mushrooms. The Fortnum heard his heart mov-
“Roger” that telephoned later was ing swiftly, and had to take three
no longer Roger but a captive of deep breaths before he could go
what he had eaten! Doesn’t that on.
figure, Cynthia? Doesn’t it, does- “Tom? You didn’t . . . that is

n’t it? . . . you haven’t by any chance

No, said the imagined Cynthia, eaten some of the mushroom
no, it doesn’t figure, no, no, no . . . yourself, have you?”
There was the faintest whisper, “Funny you ask that,” said
rustle, stirfrom the cellar. Taking Tom. “Yes. Tonight. On a sand-
his eyes from the bowl, Fortnum wich after supper. Why?”
walked to the cellar door and put Starting in November
his ear to it. P'ORTNUM held to the door-
IF •SCIENCE FICTION
“Tom?” A knob. Now it was his turn
No answer. not to answer. He felt his knees
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN'S great NEW serial

“Tom, are you down there?” beginning to melt and he fought PODKAYNE OF MARS
42 GALAXY
* DON’T MISS IT
THE
EARTHM
BURDEN
Mighty Earth was master of all the
stars. Trouble was — nobody had
told some of the inhabited worlds

By DONALD E. WESTLAKE
Illustrated by TEMPLETON

H elmut
the
rence, Vice-Marshal in the
rial Fleet,
glorring,
Commander-in-Chief
TSS(E&D) Law-
Impe-
Primate Representa-
of

tive of the Empire of Earth and

the Protectorate, D.A.S. (Hon.),
D.I.L. (Hon.), D.Lib.A. (Hon.),
smiled and took the hand of
Marine Captain Rink. He then
turned, twisted, lifted and hurled
Captain Rink over his head and
into the wall.

44
 The captain screamed, and
when he rolled away from the
wall hisleft arm was twisted.
The assembled officers dutiful-
ly cheered, beating their palms
together. Glorring grinned and
nodded, flexing his muscles as his
two dressers hurried forward with
towels and patted him dry. Rink,
weaving a bit, got to his feet and
staggered away to the infirmary.
“Still the best,” muttered Glor-
ring in satisfaction.
The dressers chorused,
sir!”
Still the best, he thought.
shape he was in, he could even
take the Triumvirate, one at a
time. But he knew better than to
voice that thought aloud. He still
wasn’t sure which of his officers
was the Loyalty Sneak.
As the last of them trailed out
of the gym, headed for their du-
ties in other parts of the ship,
Chief Astrogator Koll came in,
trailed by SSS Citizen Ehlen-
burgh. “Sir,” said Koll, jabbing a
thumb at Ehlenburgh, “the Scien-
tist here says we’re passing near a
Sol-star. He says the charts don’t
list it, and it might have planets.”
LORRING frowned.
Lawrence had been out from
Earth over three years now.
Seven Lost Colonies had been
—
found and brought forcibly, un-
fortunately but unavoidably
back into the fold. And Glorring
46
had more or less decided to skip
this time the token search for a
habitable yet uninhabited planet
which was, in the popular mind
at home, the primary purpose for
the Fleet.
He was anxious to return to
—
Earth it wasn’t politically safe
to be too long away.
He turned to the Scientist.
“How good are the chances?” he
demanded.
Ehlenburgh, a narrow elderly
“Yes, man in SSS gray, shrugged bony
shoulders. “You can never tell.
The The star is of the right type, but
in FTL it’s impossible to measure
anything as small as planetary
mass. Statistically, our chances
are good. On the other hand, there
are such stars Without planets, or
without planets on which humans
can live. This may be one.”
“In other words,” said Glorring,
“you won’t make a definite state-
ment one way or the other.”
“I can’t,” Ehlenburgh told him.
“Not in FTL.”
“If we’re going to stop,” said
Astrogator Koll, “we’ll have to do
it within ten minutes, Excellency.”
A commander must make his
decisions rapidly and confidently.
The “We’ll stop,” said Glorring. With-
out turning around, he barked,
“Strull!”
Captain Strull, adjutant, hur-
ried forward and bowed. “Excel-
lency.”
“Staff in the Ready Room in
GALAXY
Glorring told him.
ten minutes,”
“Very good, Excellency.” Strull
bowed again and turned toward
the door.
“Strull!”
The adjutant stopped, looking
apprehensively at Glorring. “Ex-
cellency?”
Glorring studied the adjutant
moment, raking him
a long silent
with his eyes. Strull was
short,
broad-framed, naturally prone to
He had grown lax re-
overweight.
cently— was probably avoiding
the exercise sessions in the gym
and certainly hadn’t engaged in
i
any wrestling matches for months
now. His potential for fat had be-
come kinetic. Strull bulged within
his scarlet uniform, and his chin
had multiplied.
His voice deceptively soft,
Glorring purred, “Just how much
do you weigh, Strull, if you
please?”
“Excellency,” quavered Strull,
j
“one hundred ninety pounds. If
your Excellency pleases.”
• “You’re tat!” barked Glorring.
“The men of the Fleet must be
lean! Must be hard! Could you
wrestle me, Strull, one bone-
break?”
“Oh, no, Excellency,” said
Strull fearfully. “You are much
stronger than I, Excellency.”
“You have seven days to weigh
one-sixty,” Glorring told him, “or
I’ll have the excess carved from
you and served to the enlisted
i
THE EARTHMAN'S BURDE N
men for breakfast. Do I make
myself clear?”
“Quite clear, Excellency,” said
Strull miserably. “Seven days,
Excellency.”
“I’ll be out for the briefing in
ten minutes,” said Glorring. “I’ll
want the staff ready.”
“Yes, Excellency. Ten minutes,
Excellency.”
bowed more deep-
Strull again,
ly than before, and, maintaining
the bow, backed out of the room.
Glorring nodded in satisfaction
and turned away, in search of a
mirror.
At decreasing multiples of the
speed of light, the Lawrence ap-
proached the Sol-star. On block
one, in the most forward section
of the ship, Glorring preened be-
fore his mirror while the mutter-
ing and helplessly indignant
padded about, rounding up
Strull
the On block four, the six
staff.
gray-garbed members of the SSS
— Scientific Survey Staff —
checked their equipment and pre-
pared for observation and meas-
urement, or at least five of them
did so. One, the psysociohistorian,
named Cahann, had nothing to do
in this situation. His field was
human groupings, not the physi-
cal universe of starsand planets.
So Cahann, a thin and bitter man,
sat morosely in his cubicle and
thought his seditious thoughts.
Below, on block six, the Marines
made fast, preparing for the tran-
47

sition to normal speed.
them was a twenty-year-old
Spaceman Third named Elan, in-
distinguishable from the rest.
C AHANN hated the transitions
and from FTL. The mo-
to
mentary feeling of
always upset him, irrationally
frighteninghim, as though he
were afraid each time that he
wouldn’t come back together
again.
It happened as usual
Cahann, swallowing repeatedly
and trying to ignore his nausea,
reached for a book any book — their worlds were tamed. In the
and tried to read. The other five
Scientists, he knew, would be on
their way up to the
now with their preliminary re-
ports. He
could go up with them
and hear the news. But he was
completely disinterested. This
was not a Lost Colony for which
they were stopping, and he was
just as pleased.
He enjoyed his work. But he
hated its consequences.
Helonged for his pipe. Most of
the time, he could get along some-
how without it, but when faced
with speed transition he sorely
missed its warm comfort.
Well, he reflected, at least this
was an unpopulated system, and
he could have no false hopes
dashed by a weakling Colony.
One would think, he told himself
for the thousandth time, that at
48
Among least one of the Lost Colonies
would have advanced to the point
where it could stand up to the
Empire and defend itself. But it
just didn’t work out that way.
True, Earth had fallen back
from the Old Empire into the bar-
barism of the Dark Ages; but the
bodilessness
records had still been there, wait-
ing for men to be ready to use
them again. And the colonies, at
the time of the collapse of the Old
Empire, had been small units, de-
this time. pendent on Earth for most of
knowledge
their technological
and materiel. Only tiny areas
time that Earth had rebuilt her
Empire, the colonies had had to
Ready Room devote themselves to maintaining
the shaky status quo on alien and
often dangerous worlds, progres-
sing only slowly.
A brisk rap at the cubicle door
was immediately followed by the
head of Strull, saying, “His Excel-
lency wants you in the Ready
Room. At once.”
Cahann looked up. “What
“Don’t question his Excellen-
cy,” snapped Strull.
“I’m not. I’m questioning you.”
“And I’m not answering,” Strull
told him triumphantly, and
marched away down the corridor.
Cahann surged out of his chair,
knowing exactly what Strull in-
tended to do next. He raced down
the corridor, Strull trundling
ahead of him, and managed to get
GALAXY
before Strull could
to the elevator
close its door in his face.
Cahann grinned. “You’ll have
to take some
of that tonnage off
before you can outrace me,
he said.
Strull,”
The barb seemed to strike far
deeper than was warranted. Strull
got red-faced and beetle-browed
and sank into a burning silence.
Cahann shrugged.
The Ready Room was filled
with an excited buzzing. Glorring
in the savage splendor of his
golden uniform, prowled across
of the room to Cahann, smirking
happily. “Good news, Cahann!”
he announced. “Not only a habit-
able planet, but populated!
There’ll be work for you. Sit
down, and we’ll start the briefing.”
He turned away, crying, “Ehlen-
burgh!”
Stunned, Cahann found a seat
in thecrowded Ready Room. He
wondered if he’d heard aright. A
populated world, not on the
charts? Impossible!
for?” Unconsciously, his hand came
up to mouth, cupped as though
his
holding a pipe-bowl, as he listened
to the other Scientists describe
the world this ambulatory boil
had so unexpectedly discovered.
TT sounded a strange world
deed. Not physically,but in
reference to the human popula-
tion. Physically, it was nearly
ideal. It was a rather close approx-
THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN
imation of Earth. Somewhat less
of it was under water, the climate
was generally a few degrees
warmer at all latitudes, and the
oxygen content of the air was a
higher. Gravity was
six per
trifle
cent lighter, and in shape it was
a bit more flattened at the poles.
Its day was three minutes shorter
than that of Earth, and its equator
was an impassable jungle belt, de-
void of settlements.
All of the settlements, in fact,
were in the northern hemisphere,
in the middle latitudes. And it
was here that the strangeness set
in.
These settlements showed no
signs of civilization whatever.
No use of artificial illumination
at night had been sighted, nor
were there evidently airships of
any kind. The instruments had
failed to detect any use of atomic
energy. There were no metropoli-
tan centers. And large segments
of land were obviously in cultiva-
tion, apparently for food more
. . .
primitive than which it was im-
possible to imagine.
A bucolic world, on the face of
it.A primitive paradise which had
reverted to a pre-civilized agricul-
tural level. Pity they couldn’t
have been left to stagnate in
in- peace.
Why the world had been left
off the charts no one present
could guess. The charts, carefully
assembled, translated and trans-
49
cribed after the New Empire had
been built up from the rubble of
the Dark Ages following the col-
lapse of the Old Empire, had al-
ways been assumed to be correct.
The Old Empire had burned it-
self out in its attempt to seed the
stars with humanity, finally bring-
ing about its own collapse and the
Dark Ages that had followed by
so doing. And during those Dark
Ages, contact with the far-flung
colonies had been lost. It was only
now, five hundred years after the
dissolution of the Old Empire,
that once again Earth was master
of space. Now once again the Pro-
tectorate was being expanded,
and the Lost Colonies were being
rediscovered and reintegrated in-
to the Empire.
The other five Scientists mono-
toned slowly through their re-
ports, and then Glorring turned
inquisitively to Cahann. “You’ve
heard,” he said. “What do you
think? Are these people peaceful,
or are they warlike?”
Cahann shook his head. “I have
no idea,”he said. “I can’t tell
much about their social structure
from what I’ve justheard.
They’re pre-industrial, obviously,
and it doesn’t seem as though
their number can be very large.
But we don’t have any records.
We don’t know who founded the
colony, how long ago, under what
kind of charter, or with what sort
of original population. In this situ-
50
ation, there’s only one way for me out the block,
and of course none verts were always pleased, always
to learn anything, and that’s to go Marines actually had any happy.
of the
down and take a look.” at all what was going on. All Reconvert: Former enemy im-
idea
Glorring considered, his bullet
head bowed in thought. At last,
he said, “You have to see these
r
|
they could do
now was wait.
Elan was using this time to
pressed into the service to bring
the force back up to strength after
good advantage, shining his com- a military engagement. Surgical
natives in person, is that it?” At twenty, he was tall and psychological reconversion,
bat boots.
Cahann nodded. and slender. Marine life had made taking five days, was necessary to
“Very well. We will land near him lean and physically hard. It make such a former enemy a will-
one of the larger settlements, and had also taught him the knack of ing and malleable Marine. There
you You the impassive face, and it had
will leave the ship. will was, of course, a good deal lost in-
spend one hour studying the na- trained him in patience. sofar as initiative, intelligence and
and then you will return. If
tives, He had, like everyone else on personality were concerned, but
you have not returned in that Earth, been taken into the service the remainder was a good Marine.
time, we will make every effort to on his sixteenth birthday. After “I sure hope it’s a Lost Colony,”
rescue you.” one year of training and an addi- said Brent. “I’d be glad to get
“Thank you,” murmured Ca- tional year of garrison duty on back into action.”
hann. Earth, he had been assigned to Elan looked at his friend.
Strull was suddenly active, the Lawrence for the rest of his Brent’s squarish face had the
whispering into His Excellency’s twelve-year tour. bland smile and smooth com-
ear. Glorring nodded. He had had trouble adapting to plexion of the reconvert, and he
“You will have an enlisted man the military life at first. Having sat stolidly on his bunk, body
with you,” he told Cahann. “To been born and raised in the Adir- completely at rest. In the year
protect you,” he lied blandly. ondacks of North America, still and a half that Brent had been
“Thank you,” said Cahann, the most backward area of Earth, on the ship, Elan had never seen
deadpan, not looking at Strull. the tight quarters which had any other expression or any other
seemed so natural to the men emotion on Brent’s face. The re-
II from more metropolitan regions converts could only be happy.
had depressed him for a long A trace of wistfulness came into
T^LAN and Brent sat together while, though he had gradually Elan’s voice: “You know, Brent,
in their cubicle on block six. grown used to them. in a way you’re lucky.”
They had felt the speed-transi- Brent broke a rather lengthy “Sure I’m lucky,” said Brent,
tion, and knew now that the ship between them by saying,
silence happily but without surprise.
was moving in normal speed. But “You never know. It might be a “Good ship, good outfit, good
that was all they knew. It didn’t Lost Colony after
all. I sure hope chow. And every once in a while
seem as though they had come so.” a chance to see some good action.”
out of FTL for a Colony, since “It might be,” said Elan non- “That isn’t what I meant,” said
they hadn’t been put on battle commitally. He didn’t sound as Elan. “I meant
—
” he groped for
standby, and of course conflicting pleased as Brent, but then he —
words “you don’t ever worry,
rumors were spreading through- wasn’t a reconvert, and recon- ever feel sad or lonely or afraid.”
GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDE N 51
 “Sure,” smiled Brent. “It’s a fight,” said Brent, and it was
was accompany us, keeping your eyes tin can of yours. The name’s
great life, Elan.” clear that upset him, but he
open for any danger. You will Harvey. Welcome to Cockaigne.”
“I could volunteer,” said Elan still smiling happily.
speak only when spoken to or if Cahann could only gape. Per-
softly, as though talking to him-
necessary to give warning of dan- fect Terran? No variations at all
self. “They’d reconvert me if I

asked. But I’d lose an awful lot, CAHANNby

wall
leaned against
the open personnel
the
ger. You will not speak to any
native under any circumstances.
in five hundred years?
“Well, well, come along,” said
wouldn’t I?” hatch, and pointedly ignored
Is that clear?” Harvey with brisk cheeriness.
“Still be the same great outfit,” Strull.At the last moment, it had “Yes, sir,” snapped the boy. “Got to meet the others, you
said Brent. “We’d still be here, been decided to send the adjutant “Very well. You will proceed. know.”
buddy.” along. Neither one of them was Cahann, second.” Strull pushed past Cahann and
“But I wouldn’t be the same.” happy about it. Of course, thought Cahann announced, “I am Adjutant Cap-
Elan looked down at himself, In a way, Cahann reflected, it grimly. Inverse order of rank, tain Strull. I greet you on behalf
wearing off-duty uniform, and didn’t matter whether Strull and when the probability of attack is of the Empire of Earth and the
then gazed out the open side of the enlisted man came along or unknown. Protectorate, and on behalf of
the cubicle at the other Marines not. He could still make every The three of them went out Vice-Marshal Helmut Glorring.”
he could see. All alike, every one effort to explain the situation to and down the ramp, the Marine Harvey glanced at Strull, nod-
of them. Only the faces were dif- the natives, to try to avoid unnec- first in the dull gray of his dress ded, said, “Greetings yourself,”
ferent.And even there the differ- essary bloodshed, convince them uniform, Cahann second in the and turned away in obvious dis-
ences were small, minimized by that capitulation was their only paler gray of his civilian garb, and missal. Linking his arm through
the deadpan encouraged by the defense. Strull third, wearing his scarlet Cahann’s, he said, “It’s just over
officers. The enlisted men’s elevator uniform. this way. Come along.”
The thing that he had, that was slid open and the Marine who And the man at the foot of the
him, that made him unique and was to accompany them stepped ramp wore a white shirt and tan Ill
different from anyone else —was out. Cahann glanced at him, knee-length trousers and was
there any real reason to keep it, if recognized him as only one of the barefooted. And smiling. ^TRULL marched along in
it only gave him pain? blank-faced enlisted men, and Cahann stopped abruptly ^ growing indignation, stung by
There was only one answer to looked over at Strull. when he. saw the native, then the native’s snub and impatient
that. While he gloomily studied “Spaceman!” called Strull started moving again, since the for a chance to do something
it S/2nd Carr, the flight leader, abruptly. Marine was still descending about it.
stuck his head into the cubicle The Marine marched rigidly ahead of him, and Strull was com- The ship had landed in the
and barked, “Elan! Dress uniform over to stand in front of Strull ing along in the rear. middle of a large squarish mead-
on the double and report to Per- and raise both hands high over The Marine reached the foot of ow, with forest backed up
sonnel Hatch.” his head in salute, parroting, the ramp. against low broad hills on three
Elan
“Sir?”
looked up, astonished. “Spaceman Third Class Elan re-
porting as ordered, sir.”
The native stepped aside to
allow him to pass. Then he
sides. The settlement —the larg-
est one on the planet and still
“Don’t ask me, all I
you’re going outside.
know
On
is

the
Strull returned the salute half-
heartedly, barely raising his
stepped back into Cahann’s path
and said, in perfect Terran,
tiny by Earth standards was on—
the fourth side. It was toward this
double. No weapons.” hands above his shoulders. The “Wondered when you people settlement that they were walk-
“Outside,” said Elan. Marine’s arms snapped down to would make up your minds to ing.
“Maybe there won’t be any his sides. Strull said, “You will land and come out of that silly The Settlement, when they

52 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 53

finally came to it, was certainly
nothing to crow about, not in
Strull’s considered opinion. It was
about as primitive as one could
get and still survive. There wasn’t
even a transparent dome over the
settlement. And these people
were surely not advanced enough
to have complete weather con-
trol; which could only mean that
they were, from time to time,
actually rained upon!
Strull glanced upward appre-
hensively, wondering if anything
of the kind were about to happen
now. But the sky was clear blue,
with only a few small fluffy
clouds. Strull was pessimistically
surprised.The way things were
going today, he wouldn’t have
been a bit surprised if he’d
walked directly into a thunder-
storm.
Strull looked again at the set-
tlement. Buildings of various sizes
and shapes and colors though — say, “I imagine you want to
none of them more than one story
—
high were spotted haphazardly
here and there, with no order or
precision to them at all. Nor was
there any sort of pavement or
streets, only narrow brown paths
worn into the grass, leading hither
and yon.
“The meeting hall,” Strull
heard the native say to Cahann,
“is just over this way. We’re all
anxious to get to know you people
better.”
When they arrived at the en-
54
trance of the meeting hall Strull
said coldly, “All right, Cahann,
I’lltake over.” He stepped ahead,
following the native inside.
There was just the one room
within, and the walls were only
the one thickness of planed lum-
ber. At this latitude, it would
never get cold enough to make
more than that really necessary,
though there was a rough stone
fireplace in one wall.
An amateurish platform, a foot
high, was at the far end, with
three small stools on it. Other
stools were scattered here and
there, not in rows or any sort of
order at all. And people were sit-
ting on them, dressed somewhat
like the first native, though there
was no uniform pattern to their
clothing except its rustic simpli-
city.
The native led the way to the
platform and turned to Strull to
make some sort of speech now.
Want me to introduce you? Or
would you rather just begin on
your own?”
“I can handle it myself, thank
you,” Strull told him, with frosty
dignity.
THHE native shrugged and went
back to sit on one of the
stools. Cahann was already seated
on the second, and the enlisted
man was glancing at the third as
though he wasn’t quite sure
GALAXY
whether he should take it or not.
Strull gave him a one-second
glower, to let him know he
shouldn’t, and then turned to the
audience.
“My name,” he boomed, “is
Strull, Captain Adjutant to Vice-
Marshal Glorring of the TSS
(E&D) Lawrence. I greet you of
the planet, uh
—
” What the dick-
ens had that native called this
place?
The native in question leaned
forward to stage-whisper, “Cock-
aigne.”
“Cockaigne, yes. Thank you. I
greet you, citizens of the planet
Cockaigne, on behalf of the Em-
pire of Earth and the Protector-
ate, and additionally on behalf of
Vice-Marshal Glorring, Primate
Representative. I congratulate
you on your rediscovery by the
Empire of Earth and the Protec-
torate, and I welcome you as a
Confederated State in good stand-
ing within the Protectorate and
beneath the benign and omnipo-
tent protection of the Empire
of
Earth.”
Strull inhaled, having just bare-
ly begun his speech, but he
noticed that a bearded native to-
ward the back of the room had
risen to his feet and was waving
a hand for attention. Strull
frowned, paused, and in a lower*
voice than previously said, “You
had a question?”
“That I did,” said the man.
THE EARTHMAN'S BURDE N
While somewhat older and more
hairy than the first native, he
shared with him an identical ex-
pression of lazy insolence. “I was
just wondering,” he said, “how
you can manage to rediscover us
for your Empire when we were
never a part of your Empire to
begin with.”
Strull allowed a smile of supe-
rior knowledge to curve his lips.
“Ah,” he said, “but you were in
the Empire at one time, over five
hundred years ago. I assume all
records of a time that far back
have been lost, but I can assure
you that it is so. Surprising as it
may seem to you, humanity is not
native to this world. You are
descendants of the original colo-
nists sent here by the Old Empire,
which collapsed five hundred
years ago and which only now has
been fully restored.”
“Sorry,” said the native, not
looking at all sorry, “but you’ve
got your history a little confused.
This world wasn’t settled five
hundred years ago by the Old
Empire, it was settled seven hun-
dred years ago by the United
States of America.”
Strull had never heard the
term. He blinked rapidly, saying,
“What? What, what?”
And that blasted Cahann
spoke up, not bothering at all to
hide his dislike for Strull. Didn’t
he realize that they should show
these yokels a united front?
55

CAHANN
leaned forward
“Regional government
say,
on Earth. One of the last.
There’ve been some indications in
the old manuscripts that it did do
small-scale colonizing of
some
own, shortly before the Empire
took over. We’ve always assumed
that their efforts were unsuccess-
ful.”
“Nonsense,” said Strull. “Non-
sense.”
The bearded native shook his
head. “Not at all,” he insisted.
“We beat your Empire by a good
two hundred years.”
“This planet,” said Strull des-
perately, “is part of the Protector-
ate of the Empire of Earth, as of
moment, and that’s all there
this
to it! No questions!”
is
“I’ve got a question anyway,”
said a rather attractive young
woman toward the front of the
hall. “What if we don’t want to be
part of your silly Empire?”
“That,” Strull told her happily,
on familiar ground again, “would
be tantamount to revolution.
And we would be regrettably
forced to put down any revolu-
tion.”
want
“We certainly wouldn’t
that,” saidthe young woman. A
number of the other natives
nodded in agreement, but they all
seemed to have faint smiles drift-
ing about their lips, as though
they thought the whole discussion
rather funny.
56
The who had
native first
to
them got to his feet and
“We’ll have to talk this over some,
and decide what to do about you
people. You can go on back to
your tin can now. Tell your boss
its
we’ll let him know our decision in
a day or two.”
Strull was just as pleased. He’d
come, seen that the natives were
anything but dangerous, had said
his piece, and now he was more
than ready to return to the ship.
“Come along,” he said to Cahann
and the enlisted man.
“These two can stay
said the native. “We may have
some questions to ask them.”
“Definitely not!” cried
There was no telling what a sedi-
tionist like Cahann might say if
alone with these people.
left
be perfectly
“They’ll
here,” said the native unnecessar-
ily. “Go on back to the ship.”
Well, in that case — “I
come back with his Excellency in
an hour,” said Strull.
He was halfway back to the
ship before he began to wonder
just what the dickens had hap-
pened there. He hadn’t intended
to leave Cahann and the enlisted
man, not under any circum-
stances. But the native had said
—
something he couldn’t precisely
remember what any more and
for some reason that had seemed
to change things.
Why? He was somehow
GALAXY
met he couldn’t for the
fused,
said, him figure out exactly what had
happened toward the end there.
Itwas all that had happened
to him today, that’s what it was.
Glorring being such a nasty mar-
about his weight, and Ca-
tinet
hann baiting him, and the native
being so insolent, and all
of it. No wonder he was a
confused.
But his face was still puckered
in a bewildered frown as he con-
tinued back to the ship.
here,” /^AHANN, baffled, watched the
^ natives, who had burst into
laughter the minute Strull left the
Strull. hall. It was his job, as psysociohis-
torian, tounderstand and categor-
ize human
societies, from the
most complex industrial world to
safe the smallest family group. Human
social groupings, that was
seen in historical con-
ject matter,
will the sociologist’s what? com-
text,
plemented by the psychologist’s
why?
In essence, his job was even
simpler than that. Every human
grouping, from the smallest fam-
ily to the largest industrial com-
plex, had some sort of loophole in
it, some spot for the Empire to
insert itself and thus make the
grouping at last only another part
— of the Empire. It was his job to
find the loophole. He did the job
well, because he enjoyed it in the
con- abstract. He understood that he
THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN
of was making quite a large contri-
life
bution to the Empire’s subjuga-
tion of more and more human be-
ings, but he didn’t suppose he had
any choice in the matter. His
work fascinated him, and he could
only perform that work in the
service of the Empire. His refusal
the rest to work would not have changed
little the course of events one iota. An-
other psysociohistorian would
simply have taken his place, leap-
ing at the opportunity to get
away for even a little while from
the rigid anti-intellectualism of
the college campus.
Since he enjoyed his work, and
since he had the curious facility to
separate it from its end product,
and since he was additionally a
highly intelligent man, he was
one of the best psysociohistorians
in the business. He had pro-
his sub- gressed to the point where his
understanding of new societies
and new cultures was so rapid as
to be almost intuitive.
This was the first time he had
ever been baffled.
All right, these people were not
the descendants of Old Empire
colonists, they were the descend-
ants of even earlier colonists than
But they were people, never-
that.
theless.They were an aggregate
group. They should certainly have
reacted in one of a limited num-
ber of predictable ways.
They hadn’t.
Throughout his contact with
*
57
them so far, they had behaved in there is no such place, you can ana saw only me normal ment, he followed Harvey out of
no known manner whatsoever. either change your thinking or be expression. The Marine the meeting hall.
—
Making fun of Strait he liked to a hermit, it’s up to you.”
blank
waS staring straight ahead, at Outside, Harvey gestured away
do that himself, but that was be- ‘What about criminals?” Ca- nothing- to the right, deeper into the settle-
cause he knew the little blimp, hann asked him. “What do you do The laughter stopped abruptly, ment. “This way,” he said.
and he hadn’t done it on first with them?” and Harvey said, “I’m sorry, Ca- Something in the man’s tone,
—
meeting him anyway and acting “Hermits,” said Harvey suc- hann. You don’t understand the or in his expression, or perhaps
as though the threat of the ship cinctly. situation here yet.” just in the posture of his body,
and its complement of Marines “All right, what about money?” “I’m well aware of that,” said made Cahann suddenly appre-
were no threat at all. And then Harvey shook his head. “I Cahann stiffly. hensive. Just what was this he
all at once bursting into laughter know what you mean,” he said, ‘You aren’t going to under- was walking into?
for no reason that Cahann could “but we don’t use it. A society has stand by asking questions,” Har- “You want to know, don’t
see. to be more complex and sophisti- vey told him. He got to his feet you?” Harvey asked him, chal-
cated than ours to need money. and said, “I can show you more lenging him.
r
|
''HE laughter having finally —
Value symbols and that’s what easily than I can explain to you. “Yes,” said Cahann. “Yes, I
subsided, Harvey came over money is, after all —
are usually Do you want to come along with want to know.” He stepped out
to Cahann and said, “You have a the result of expanding travel, me?” firmly in the direction the other
lot of questions to ask. That’s only trade over larger and larger areas. Cahann hesitated, then stood. man had indicated.
natural. Where do you want to We rarely travel, and we neither The Marine did likewise, but Har-
begin?” import nor export, so simple bar- vey said, ‘You stay here, Elan, IV
“I’m not sure,” admitted Ca- ter is gOod enough for us.” if you please. Harriet there wants
hann. He looked at them, and “What about war between the to talk toyou while we’re gone.” "C'LAN was alone now, and
they were all attentive now, more settlements?” Cahann asked him. He gestured at the young woman scared out of his wits. The
serious than they had been up to “None,” said Harvey. “Con- who had spoken to Strull, and girlwho’d been called Harriet
now. “I think I’d better begin trolled population growth is a bet- who was now coming forward, came up on the platform, smiling
with basics,” he said. “Govern- ter answer. We don’t need more smiling pleasantly. at him in a useless attempt at
ment, for instance.” land than we have.” Cahann said hesitating, “I’m reassurance. “Please don’t be
“Democratic anarchy,” said “You’ve never had a war?” not sure
— frightened, Elan,” she said. “We
Harvey promptly. “The will of
the minority.” He laughed at the
“Never.”
“So you don’t have much by
“
—you should separate?” fin- just want to get to know you,
ished Harvey, smiling again. that’s all.”
expression on Cahann’s face. “Not way of military armaments.” “Face Cahann, the two of you
it, He looked at them, too fright-
what you’re thinking,” he said. “Nothing at all.” together with a roomful of us are ened at being alone to be able to
“Not a ruling minority in your “Then why,” Cahann de- no safer than you would be sepa- read their expressions.
Empire sense.” He motioned at manded, “are you so sure you rated. Come along.” Harriet sat down beside him.
the others in the hall. “We’re a won’t be conquered by that ship- Cahann paused again, then “Don’t be upset, Elan. Just talk
minority,” he said, “of the people load of Marines out there?” shrugged and said, “You’re right.” to us. Tell us about yourself.”
on Cockaigne. Every settlement That set them all laughing With a backward glance at the He mumbled, “I don’t know
is a minority. If you disagree with again, though Cahann couldn’t Marine, whose expressionless face what to say.”
us, you can go find a settlement see that he’d said anything partic- was beginning to crack under an “Tell us about your life on the
where people agree with you. If ularly funny. He glanced at the onslaught of frightened bewilder- ship,” she suggested.

58 « GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 59

 His mind filled with memories LORRING had stripped down seemed to falter. He he could find out from the natives.
of the rigid military discipline of n d then
to loinpiece and was wres- completely confused for a And I ordered the Marine to stay
the ship, but he knew better than Rooked
tlingwith Chief Astrogator Koll and then said, “Well, uh, and keep an eye on Cahann.”
to give information to potential second,
when Strull returned. Seeing the said, we encountered the “Brilliant,” said Glorring, with
enemies and so said only, “Life on aS I
adjutant enter the ready room, spoke to a group of heavy sarcasm. “Absolutely bril-
natives. I
the ship is just ordinary. Like gar- Glorring quit fooling around. He Captain
meeting hall, telling liant, Strull.”
rison duty anywhere. That’s all.” them in their
kneed the astrogator, kidney, “Of course,” said Strull hastily,
them who we were and
the pur-
Unexpectedly, that seemed to punched him and gave him an “there was another reason, too. It
pose of our coming here. They
satisfy them, and the girl Harriet elbow in the eye. Koll staggered
claimed, by the way, that they
was impossible in the short time I
said, “Tell us about Earth, then. back across the ready room, while Empire was thereto get any idea of their
Tell us about your home on the other officers shouted appreci-
weren’t Old colonists

after but colonists from an

all, system of government. And of
Earth.” ation. Glorring signaled the end
even earlier time than that. I for- course mine was just first contact,
Earth. Home! Oh, but that was of the match. wish, your Excel-
get the name of the government
and I had no
something else again. His home Immediately, his dressers came lency, to usurp your prerogative
that sent them, but they
claimed
section, peaceful and beautiful. forward to towel him dry and put seven hundred years ago.” of direct negotiation with the
it was
Harriet said, surprise plain in his golden uniform back on him. governmental So
Koll, somewhat recovered, local leaders.
her face and voice, “Is all of Earth Glorring gazed bleakly at who
chimed in, “So that’s why they Cahann is to find out just
like that?” Strull. “Took you long enough,”
weren’t on the charts.” heads the local government and
Hestared at her, and felt a he snapped. “Report.” where he can be found, so you’ll
“It would seem so,” said Glor-
moment of complete panic. He “Yes, sir. We encountered the
— ring. “Go on, Captain Strull. We be able to go directly to him when
hadn’t said anything! natives and
haven’t come to the interesting the time comes and not have to
She seemed to understand. “Where’s Cahann?” Glorring
part yet. The part where you left waste time asking directions of
She laughed, a bit shakily, and interrupted.
Cahann and the Marine and re- underlings.”
patted his hand. “Don’t go so him
goggle-eyed,” she told him. “The
“I left
promptly. “He —there,” said Strull
turned to the ship alone.”
“Yes, sir.” Strull gnawed a low-
Glorring
That made
raised an
sense, surprisingly.
eyebrow.
Of
expression on your face told “You what?” er lip a second, as though
for course, Strull was only currying
volumes. It’s clear you love your “I left the enlisted man with
gathering his thoughts, and then favor by doing this, but neverthe-
own home section, but what of the him,” explained Strull. “There’s was sensible for Glorring to
went on in a rush. “Well, sir, after less it
rest of Earth? Tell us about the nothing to worry about, Excel- be able to go directly to the local
I spoke to these natives, I got sus-
big cities.” lency.”
picious. They’re as backward a authority. “Very well,” he said.
He made as though to
— I have to go back — rise. “I “Oh, there
couldn’t stand
isn’t,eh?” Glorring
a weakling, and
bunch as you’ll ever see. Not a
bit of mechanization around them
“You did better than I expected,
Strull. Very good.”
“No, no, they’ll come for you. Strull was by far the weakest bowed, on his
at all. But they talk as though Strull relief plain
They was all right for you
said it boob on the ship. It was about “Thank you, Excellency.”
they don’t even consider us a face.
to stay here.” She held his hand, time, Glorring decided, to make a threat. Apparently, they feel as “Very well,” said Glorring, to
gazing at him with an expression man out of that wart. “You go though they have some sort of theroom in general. “We will give
he couldn’t define. “Little rabbit,” right on, Captain Strull,” he said. Cahann an hour to find out all he
secret weapon or something. So I
she said soothingly. “Poor little “You go right on and tell me all
ordered Cahann to stay behind, can. In one hour, I shall leave the
rabbit No one will frighten you about it.”
because he’s particularly qualified ship. We shall be escorted by one
any more.” “Yes, sir,” said Strull briskly, Marines on foot, the
for that sort of thing, and see what flight of

60 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 61

other three flights to be at com- raised a hand to stop him, saying,
| alone of all the creatures of TTE was getting closer and
bat-ready stations. One hour.” “Not yet. I’ll answer all your 1 ^universe, all the creatures that closer, so close he could feel
questions, I promise that, but not lived or ever would live, his skin tingling with anticipation,
had ever
/^AHANN was in love. It had just yet. Let me show you this! one and nothing but him. so close that the sweat broke out
^ just happened. first.”
frt no
Ithad come upon him almost all over his body and his mouth

Itwas calling to him, because “What is it?” Cahann had asked annoticeably, like an aroma hung open and his eyes stared for
it loved him, and he went to it, him. creeping into a
room, and it is a sight of the beloved.
because he returned that love, be- “I don’t think I could explain it
strong in the room before you And then, at last, he came to it,

cause he loved it as much as it
loved him, because to love it and
to be loved by it was greater and
more wonderful and more right
than anything else in all of life.
They had left the meeting hall,
he and Harvey. They had walked,
almost aimlessly, among the scat-
tered unordered buildings of the
•settlement and slowly it had
grown upon him, this acquisition
of love, this new understanding of
the meaning and depth of love,
this new completion which was
possible only with the loved one,
close to the loved one, blending
with the loved one . . . So they had fallen silent. And
It was in this direction. Not far
away now, closer and closer.They
had walked aimlessly, almost as
though Harvey were allowing
Cahann to choose his own direc-
tion. Then Cahann had chosen
his direction, and it was this way,
this way toward love and toward
fulfillment and toward comple-
tion, this way toward It which
desired him above all things.
Before, just after they’d left the
meeting hall, Cahann had been
full of questions, had tried to ask
them at once, but Harvey had
to you,” Harvey had said. “When even notice it. Andso it was with where it stood in its own small
you see it, you’ll understand why. this, it
was only a faint unnoticed clearing.
When you see it, you’ll under- sensation until suddenly it had It was the head of Medusa, a
stand a lot of things that are been there for a long time and thick green plant with many sinu-
puzzling you now.” had grown strong and was now ous waving arms reaching up and
“This thing, whatever it is you all-pervasive in his mind. out from the single stubby base,
want to show me,” Cahann had This way, it called. This way. the whole nearly eight feet high
said, “this is what you think will A message of love, a message of and five feet in diameter. The
protect you from the Empire, is desire and understanding and ful- rubbery green branches, or arms,
that it?” fillment; and he had followed it,, swayed slowly, as though from a
“Not precisely,” Harvey had he had turned in the path it had breeze, and at their tips were
said. “Please, don’t try to guess. pointed out, and now Harvey great scarlet flowers with thick
That won’t do any good. Just -
trailed him, unnoticed and un- petals,the flowers as big as a
come along. Once you’ve seen it, needed, and he hurried toward his man’s head. The arms swayed vol-
you’ll understand; and that will beloved, who hungered for him. uptuously, and the petals of the
be that.” He felt like running, but there flowers, which looked like great
was really no reason to run. They rough tongues, scraped together
they had walked aimlessly, back would have all eternity together, with a sound like the smacking of
and forth, and Cahann had just now that they had found one an- dry lips.
about come to the conclusion that other at last. And so he walked This was It, the beloved, the
he was being given a- runaround, through the settlement, striding purpose of all life.
that they were simply retracing certainly forward, eyes bright This was his destination and
their steps among the buildings of with love and hope. He reached his ending and his fulfillment.
the settlement and not really get- the last of the houses of the settle- For what greater purpose could
ting anywhere at all, when the ment and the edge of the woods any creature have than the satis-
firstfaint touches of it had beyond, and stepped unhesitat- faction of the hungers of It?
reached him. ingly into the woods, for the loved What was there in life more
Desire. one was in there, beckoning to wonderful than the feeding of It?
Love. him, calling for him, needing him. How grand and blessed and
Warmth and compassion and And Harvey trailed along be- wonderful it was that he had been
understanding. hind him, two or three paces be- chosen, he of all the beings that
A need for him, for him and hind him. lived and moved, he had been

62 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 63

chosen to give himself to the be- to complete himself at the base of 1

loved, to feed it and so to become his beloved, he shrieked with the ;

a part of it forever. torment of the greatest loss and '•

To throwhimself at its base the greatest sorrow that any be- ,

and give himself to its hunger.
as he stepped forward into
But
the clearing, and the great scarlet
flowers beckoned and bowed to
ing had ever known. He shrieked
and shrieked, till one of the crea-
tures struck him. And then black-
ness rushed in, and he knew no \

him, he was suddenly stopped. more.

Some petty creature was clutch-
ing at him, trying to hold him V
back, trying to keep him from his
proper completion. 'T'HBY could read his mind!
He pushed the creature aside. Every thought!
But it came back, and again, Elan sat on the platform in ter-
grabbing at him, clutching at him, ror of his life. That was their

pulling him away, keeping him secret, and he knew it now, and
always just out of reach of the the nature of their secret was such
beckoning scarlet flowers which that they must know he knew it.
hungered for him. The girl Harriet’s slip when
And then more of the foul filthy she had asked him to describe his
creatures arrived and overpow- home had been the first indica-
ered him. And though he fought tion, but had seemed too fan-
it

against them, though It gave him tastic to be believed, and he had

the strength of fury and of love, chosen to accept her flimsy ex-
he was borne down and back, car- cuse.
ried bodily away from the clear- But gradually, as the question-
ing and away from the sight of his inghad gone on, he had seen that
beloved. the people in the room were list-
And still he fought, and the ening attentively not to the eva-
creatures dragged him back and sions and generalizations he was
back, out of the woods and among saying but to the truths he was
constructions which were of no thinking. The play of expression
moment to him, for the beloved on an unguarded face, a look pass-
was there, back there, still calling ing between two people, things
to him. which could have been produced
And when at last he knew that only by his thoughts, and not by
it was hopeless, that the creatures his words.
were not going to release him Until finally there just wasn’t
ever, that he would never be able any choice any more, there

64 GALAXY
/

I
weren’t any other possible an- through the natives to the doorr
f
"
way- The Marines looked deadly their expressions, but he knew
swers. But still they played out and outside. the officers in their what they must be. Admiring en-
a nd
the game with him, Harriet asking Heran around the corner of S rim
-
.
jj t
colors hearkened back to vy on the part of Cahann. Mili-
the questions and he stumbling the building, and stopped dead. tary pride on the part of the
bright-plumed or feather-dec-
the
through the useless answers. A little distance away was the body-painted warriors Marine.
orated or
At one point, a kind of wave man named Harvey, and with dim past. These were the And, on the faces of the group
of the
seemed to go through them all, him were the five men who had
warriors of the Empire,
respecting of natives waiting with them,
they looking at one another with left the meeting hall so hurriedly themselves, desiring could there be any expression pos-
suddenly widened eyes, and five no one but
a few minutes before.
nothing but conquest, owing sible other than a wonderful awe?
alle-
men at the back of the room got And at their feet lay the body giance only to the Empire which Beneath the silver skirts, he all
to their feet and hurried outside. of Cahann.
equipped them and sent them on at once executed a little hop, the
He tried to recall what his time-honored method for chang-
their missions.
thoughts had been at that second, r T HE
,
small band marching out Glorring, in the lead, breathed ing step.
but it didn’t seem as though their from the ship in the sunlight
the sweet air and cast an eye
of Simultaneously, all the march-
strange apprehension had any- looked hard and lean and impres- behind him did exactly the
ownership over his world. ers
thing to do with him. sive. In the lead, herculean in his And it was his world, much same thing.
The scientist, Cahann? golden uniform, marched Glor- more so than any other Lost Col- He didn’t pay any attention to
Harriet patted his hand again, ring. Directly behind him Strull,
ony he had bagged for the Em- that at all.
saying, “Be easy, Elan. You have and next back two officers march- pire. Here was a verdant globe,
nothing to fear.” ing abreast, Majors Londin and /^AHANN’S was
already stocked with colonists, its expression
He stared at her. “You know
what I’m thinking,” he whispered.
Corse, respectively in green and existence unsuspected at home. ^ somewhat greenish, but not
black. Behind them, Captains Glory came to the men who with envy. It was more the green-
“You’re reading my mind.” Rink (his left arm in a sling) and shepherded the stray Colonies ish tinge of seasickness. He had a
“Be easy, Elan,” she said softly. Stimmel and Pleque, in blue and back to the flock. How much more lot to recover from.
“Don’t always expect the worst of
humanity. Not all of mankind has
maroon and pale rose. Next, Lieu-
tenants Braldor,
glory for the man who discovered His memory of—the thing, it,
Chip, Sassen, a brand new stray! the beloved, whatever had been it
chosen the path of Earth.”
Then they were silent. He
Kommel and Roll, in the multi-
colored uniforms preferred by
Perhaps he might bring a few —was dim and and he
blurred,
specimens of the local colony had the feeling he didn’t want to
looked from face to face, and most junior officers. And, bring- back with him. Say ten of them. remember it any more clearly
knew that they were talking to ing up the rear, the flight of Unusual, of course, but this was than he did.
one another without words, decid- Marines in dress gray, S/lst Lor- an unusual world, an unknown There had been an urge, a com-
ing what to do with him and with etta two paces ahead of them and world. Yes, he would bring ten of pulsion, that had seemed at the
Cahann and with all the people S/2nd Kallett at the head of the the natives back to Earth with time to be right and proper and
on the ship. middle squad. him. natural, and that had also seemed
The silence was suddenly shat- There was no music, there were As they came closer to the set- to come from within, to be his
tered by a shriek from outside the no flags. These were considered tlement, Glorring spied Cahann own invention and own decision.
building, and a second shriek on frills, and an Exploration & Dis- and the enlisted man, waiting He remembered the urge, re-
the heels of the first. “Cahann!” covery ship was notoriously de- near the closest of the buildings. membered with a shudder what
he cried, leaping to his feet. Jump- void of frills. They were too far away for the the urge had been, even remem-
ing from the platform, he raced But they were impressive any- vice-marshal to be able to read bered to some extent the all-inclu-

66 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEI 1 67

sive compulsion of the thing.- But it killed so many in the first fe^l
“Have you ever heard of had ever known, exclusively
his memory was pedantic and un- generations.” he said,
telepathy?” crackpots and panacea-peddlers.
real, as though he were remem- “What was it?” Cahann asked mental
“Of course.” Could the thing really exist?
bering a particularly vicious tor- him. He felt stronger now, but his
“What do you think of it, as a All he had to do was open his
ture which he had never seen limbs ached as though he’d been
possibility?” mouth and say one word, any
practiced on anyone but about tensing them too hard for too
think it’s nonsense,” said
“j word at all, and he would know.
which he had read graphic and long. “What in time was it?”
Cahann promptly. So did Harvey, He wasn’t quite sure he wanted
detailed accounts. They were “Our ancestors called it ‘en-
saying it right with him word for to know.
second-hand memories; he was ticer,”’Harvey told him. “When
word. Mind-readers.
buffered to some extent from they came here, the plant infested
Cahann frowned. “What was Peeping toms.
their impact. the whole planet. There’s only a
that all about?” he asked, and No privacy at all.
On regaining consciousness, the few left now, except around the
Harvey asked the question in “It isn’t as bad as all that,”
first thing he had seen had been jungle belt of the equator. We
harmony with him. Harvey do de-
told him. “Shields
Harvey’s face, almost comically haven’t bothered to clean them
Cahann pondered, then nodded velop. Go
ahead, say something.”
worried. And through a surrealis- out down there. We can’t use the
his head, saying, “Oh, I get it. But Cahann took a deep breath and
tic damping, he had vaguely land anyway, and their range isn’t
that doesn’t ”
— He stopped, rath- said: “Canteloupe!”
heard Harvey’s voice: very far.”
er precipitately. Because every Twenty-five voices bellowed it
“Cahann! Come out of it, Ca- “But what is it?”
one of the twenty or twenty-five with him: “Canteloupe!”
hann, it’s all over! Come on, man, “It’s an enticer,” said Harvey.
natives around him had been say- Harvey smiled. “Okay?”
it’s over now, the thing doesn’t “It entices animal food, broad-
ing exactly the same words, in
want you any more.” casting a kind of telepathic beam
chorus with him. VI
The last phrase had done it. He that attracts anything that moves.
Harvey smiled slightly. “You
had sat bolt upright, prepared to We think the beam is connected think that prove any-
doesn’t Z"'
1
AH ANN felt suddenly tired.
scream, and Harvey’s hand had with the flowers’ smell, but we’ve
thing,” he said, “because those are Too much too soon. He
clapped tight to his mouth, hold- never proved it one way or the
the words you might have been wiped his forehead with his palm.
ing him rigid until the need to other.”
Cahann
expected to say. All right, say He was still sitting on the ground,
scream had passed. Then the “All right,” said shak-
something unexpected.” Harvey squatting beside him and
hand had fallen away. Harvey, ily. “Itgot to me, so it does work.
Cahann looked at him, thinking the others, with the goggle-eyed
hunkered down beside him, said, But why doesn’t it go after you
furiously. He glanced at the en- Marine, standing around in front
“I’m sorry, Cahann, more sorry people? Why only me?”
listed man, who was gaping at of him. He leaned forward, arms
than you know. I hope you can “It does go after us,” Harvey
everything with such a complete lax, and gazed bleakly at the
forgive me.” told him. “It goes after every liv-
look of blank astonishment that ground between his knees.
“Forgive you?” Cahann raised ing thing that gets close enough.”
Cahann at once felt better. At “All right,” he said dully. “Tell
a shaking hand to wipe his fore- “You mean you’ve built up re-
how you
least there was one person present me about it.”
head. “I don’t know yet what you sistance to it? I don’t see
who was more baffled than he. “I don’t know what the coloni-
did to me,” he confessed. get the chance.”
Cahann gnawed on the inside of zation methods of the Old Empire
“I had no idea,” Harvey told
hischeek, trying to think. Telep- were,” Harvey told him, “but our
him, “just how strong the enticer 46TT doesn’t work quite that
athy? The word was known, the ancestors were on a one-way
could be for somebody who didn’t way.” Harvey seemed to
field existed, but the researchers street. They
got on their ship, left
have any preparation. No wonder consider for a moment, and then
in the field were, so far as Cahann Earth, traveled until they found a

68 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 69

place where they could land and resistance. Do you see what that! “Your name’s Cahann,” Harvey Cahann looked. at the Marine,
live, and that was it. There was meant?” told him gently. not understanding. He hadn’t ever
no contact with Earth, and no Cahann.
“I think so,” said “Jt Of course! How stupid to for- really paid any attention to him,
way to get back to Earth. Nor meant that the people with the get it! he was simply an impassive face
was there any way to leave their greatest telepathic capacity Cahann looked sharply at Har- and a uniform, one of the deper-
new home once they’d chosen it. would be the ones most likely to
ve y, in
sudden understanding. sonalized enlisted men from block
The ship needed a complex survive. The ones who could “You made me forget it.” six.
catch what the enticer was doing
‘

launching pad they weren’t Harvey nodded. “Of course,” said Harvey.
equipped to build. in time to get back out of range.” ] It was as though a dull weight “That’s what you think of him.
“So they came here,” he went “Of course,” said Harvey. “On were pressing on Cahann’s soul, That’s what everybody thinks of
on, motioning at the world around this planet, for the first time i n “js there no limit to what you him. They’ve told him so long
them. “They landed, stripped man’s history, telepathic ability people can do?” he asked. and so often that he doesn’t count
down the ship for parts, planted, was the primary survival charac- “There are limits,” Harvey as a person, as an individual, that
started to build shelters and . . . teristic. This world forced man to told him, “but they’re nothing to he believes it himself by now. Do
then the enticer went to work on breed for telepathy. The survivors worry about.” you know that he has seriously
them.” of each generation were just a “What are you going to do with considered requesting reconver-
“The way it did on me,” said little bit more advanced toward USr sion, to kill off the individuality
Cahann. full use of the ability than the “We’ve been trying to decide. which was only worthless and
“Exactly. Now, here’s the point. generation before them.” At first, when you’d just landed which brought him only self-
Telepathic ability is dormant, to “Until now,” Cahann finished here, we thought the best thing to doubt and worry? Do you know
a greater or lesser extent, in every for him, “you are all fully telep- do was make you take off again at that four per cent of Earth’s
human being who ever lived. athic.” once, and give you the idea the Marines every year volunteer for
Back on Earth, there were count- “Exactly. And with, in addition, planet was uninhabitable. It’s un- reconversion? That’s how little

less cases of individuals whose the complementary abilities that likely any other Earth ship will lifeand individual worth have
ability was advanced almost to go along with it. Such as the ever stumble across us.” come to mean with you people.”
the threshold of self-awareness. shield. And such as, for instance “I wish you had done that,” “I didn’t know the figures,”
You see, the capability is greater well, for instance, what’s your Cahann told him. said Cahann distractedly. He was
in some people than in others. name?” gazing at the Marine, trying to
Just as some people have better Helooked at Harvey blankly. TTARVEY smiled. “You won’t see him as a person, trying to see
memories than others, some are Why ask that? when we’re finished with him the way Harvey saw him. It
better at mathematics than “Come on,” said Harvey. “Tell you,” he said.He motioned at the wasn’t easy to do.
others, and so on.” me your name.” Marine, still goggle-eyed in the “Your Empire,” Harvey told
Cahann nodded. “My name’s . . background. “See Elan there? him, steel now coming into his
“To get back to the original set- He didn’t know. He thought He’s an intelligent boy. He’s also voice, “is an open sore. It’s a gap-
Cockaigne,” said Harvey.
tlers of desperately, trying to remember, a latent telepath of a very high ing wound on the face of the uni-
“They were stranded here, five and it just wasn’t there. He didn’t order. Harriet tells me she thinks verse. We wouldn’t feel right if
thousand of them. And they were know his own name! It was as she could bring the ability out we let it go on,”
being picked off by the enticer, though he had never had a name, completely in less than a year. “No,” said Cahann. “With all of
which struck them telepathically, as though a name had never been But do you know what Earth has your powers, you can’t do that.
and below the level of conscious given him. done to that boy?” You can’t fight the Empire. One

70 GALAXY THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN 71

 you could beat one ship. have to make you forget most of
ship, yes,
this, but only temporarily. We’d
But not the Empire.”
“Don’t be so sure.” rather not give the Empire any

A native came strolling up at warning. Ten of us are going to

that point, casually saying, go back to Earth with you people,
“Group of them forming outside on your ship.”

the ship. They’re going to come “Ten of you? You can’t pos-

this way.”
—
sibly

“All right.” Harvey got to his “Don’t worry about it, Ca-
feet, saying, “Come along, Ca- hann,” said Harvey. “Your com-
hann, We can talk while waiting mander is deciding right now to
for them.” bring us along.”
Cahann stood up, awkwardly. They stopped at the edge of
He was stiff and aching in every the meadow. In the distance, the for
joint. He limped along beside procession was moving toward
Harvey, the Marine and the other
natives following.
them.
How pompous they looked! Ca-
your
Harvey said, “We’re going to hann had never noticed that be-
fore, how silly and pompous they
all looked. Nor how completely
information
defenseless.

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And was there any doubt the Clarke, having flown into
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NOVELS COMING OUT SOON!
when they were finished with by sleeper plane, said to me:
4 different books: GIRL FROM HOLLYWOOD: JUNGLE what they would do to it? “When I woke up this morning it
GIRL; TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE; WAR CHIEF,
due December 1962. $2.75 each. “Earth is out of step,” said suddenly occurred to me that I
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Harvey, “out of step with life. belong to the only generation of
now ready or due soon!
Like this group coming toward us. men who will take a real sleeper
complete sets of back-number sf
They’re all out of step. We have
Specialist in
magazines. Send your want list. All prices F.O.B. plane. The generation before us
Brooklyn, N. Y.
to change that.” did not fly and the generation
In the distance, the marching after us will fly so fast that there
JAY'S CORNER
group all hopped at once, chang- won’t be any time for sleep.”
6401 24th Ave. Brooklyn 4, N. Y.
ing step. It was a very interesting ob-
—DONALD E. WESTLAKE servation, which was wrong only

72 GALAXY FOR YOUR INFORMATION

73
in the respect of speaking of pulsion it would seem, at first a lecture at New York Even though a ramjet-powered
given after
generations; it can all happen in glance, that the ramjet-powered right after the
University, war, airliner may look easier it is quite
the lifetime of one man. If some- passenger liner, flying at an aver- Commodore Whittle, the possible
by Air that a rocket-powered
body was born in 1900 he was age of twice the speed of sound, who designed the first Brit- passenger liner
pjan is the more likely
walking around before anybody would be closer to the present. In et engines. When somebody successor to today’s jets. Years
ish j
flew, except in balloons. This a manner of speaking it is, but audience asked him
— fro m the ago Dr. Walter Dornberger and
man might have flown in one of there is a problem which is whether he thought the then new Krafft A. Ehricke designed such
the early passenger planes which
made it all the way from New
either interesting or
depending on how you look at it
infuriating,
ramjet might ever be used for an airliner —
or more precisely
piloted aircraft (the questioner they thought about the problem
York to Chicago in just a little — in the fact that a ramjet will probably had military aircraft in of how it could be made to work.
over eight hours. He can now be not work unless it is moving with mind) Commodore Whittle said In principle, the flight of such a
flying the Los Angeles-New
in a fairly high speed. that asan engineer he considered rocket-powered airliner would be
York which takes four hours
jet, In the case of ramjet-powered thisan interesting problem. “But the same as the flight of a ballistic
and twenty minutes from lift-off missiles this is easily overcome as a pilot,” he continued, “I missile (in other words: it would
in Los Angeles to touchdown on by catapulting the missile into would hate to approach a runway not be really a “flight” in the
Idlewild airport. And the same the air, either with a real cata- with dead engines. This is the proper meaning of the word most
man won’t be too old, say five or pult or else by the use of several moment where I want to have all of the time) but with a landing at
six years from now, to board the high-power, short duration solid the power I might need — and if the end instead of an impact.
successor to the jets. fuel rockets. As I said, this is possible a little more.” When I mentioned this possibility
The term “successor to the being done with a missile; but Any ramjet-powered airliner at the time, the reaction of the
jets” must not be misunderstood. when it comes to passenger carry- would, therefore, need two sets of listener usually was that he would
It does not mean that new types ing aircraft the passengers are engines,adding turbojets for the let anybody else use this device.
of transportation will make the likely to say something about take-offrun and for getting the But now, after successful
jets disappear. Nothing ever this. In fact, the passenger’s plane up
to the speed it needs manned orbits of the earth, the
seems to disappear completely. strongest argument would be to for the ramjets to take over. And idea may slowly become more
Soldiers not only carry bayonets say nothing at all and book pas- the turbojets would be needed palatable.
but use them occasionally, sage with another airline. again for the landing. As the diagram shows,
(Fig. 1 )
whether there are transcontinen- But the takeoff is not the only And whenever you approach the rocket-propelled passenger
tal missiles or not. problem. The landing is another an engineer with the request of liner would be a two-stage device.
one. When an airliner approaches designing an airplane for two dif- Both stages would have wings and
rT''HERE are two foreseeable the airport area its speed is very ferent sets of engines he will both stages would be piloted. But
*- types of devices which considerably reduced. The final probably lean back as if in the wings of both stages would
might be considered successors to approach to the runway is made thought. He be in thought, as
will be used mainly for the landing.
the jets for passenger transporta- at about the speed where the a matter of fact, but he won’t The passengers would be in the
tion. One is the ramjet, now in wings will still keep it airborne. think about the problem. He’ll second stage.
use for the propulsion of several If such a plane were ramjet-pro- think of a way of getting rid of
different missiles. The other is pelled the ramjets just would you, and he may also consider r
^AKEOFF would be vertical or
the passenger-carrying rocket. not play any more. whether there is anybody he dis- |
almost vertical, with all eight
Since we do have winged mis- The best statement about this likes enough to recommend for rocket motors burning (five in
siles which use ramjets for pro- problem I have ever heard was this job. the first stage and three in the

74 GALAXY FOR YOUR INFORMATION 75

 ^way for corrections and for not be answered right now. The
an
emergency pull-out in case a development cost of the ship it-
sudden obstruction appears on self will be influenced by how

th e
runway. much it will differ from ships
The from Los An-
flying time which the government will have
les to New York would be to develop for space operations
ge
only a few minutes more than such as the job of supplying the
0 ne hour,
or about one quarter of space station or, possibly, the
the time now needed by a turbo- servicing of very large communi-
jet. cations satellites.
The real problem here is the But passenger travel by rocket
Fig. 1. Design for a two-stage, passenger-carrying rocket (both stages piloted). question “will it pay?” in all its is possible.
ramifications. Will it pay for And it will come if the finan-
second stage) to produce a maxi- The second stage would mean- enough passengers to make a cer- cial problems can economically
mum of thrust. But the three while have gone into a ballistic tain trip in one quarter of the be solved.
rocket motors of the second stage trajectory, far flatter than the time it normally takes them now?
would not burn fuel from the ballistic trajectories of missiles. In the beginning the picture will THE LIVING FOSSIL FROM
tanks of the second stage during The highest point of the flight no doubt be falsified by curiosity CALIFORNIA.
takeoff. They would take fuel would be around 28 miles up. It travelers,people who don’t have
from the first stage. The fuel sup- would actually be a flight in the to make the trip but have the Let me point out first that I
ply of the first stage would be upper stratosphere. For the sake money to pay for the ticket and have nothing against readers who
nearly exhausted after 130 sec- of the passengers, one of the three make the trip for the sole purpose ask me questions. But I do feel
onds. Then the two stages would rocket motors of the second stage of bragging about it afterwards. pleased when, once in a while, a
separate. The large, but by then would be kept burning at very Now, whether it will pay for the reader tells me something. And I
very light, first stage would drop much reduced thrust. The pur- “real” travelers to quarter the am especially pleased when a
behind the second stage which . . . pose not to accelerate the ship
is travel time will depend, in a large reader, as in this case Dr. Pedro
keeps going, this time using its any farther;the purpose is to measure, on the price of the Wygodzinsky, tells me something
own fuel. The job of the pilot of spare the passengers from ex- ticket. Obviously if the ticket which I, without his kind inter-
the first stage would be to fly his periencing the zero-g condition, price is only 20 per cent higher vention, would almost certainly
stage on the momentum it has which is in itself harmless but than the jet fare, the quartering have missed.
and ease it around so that it will might frighten inexperienced of the travel time will pay for The case is the discovery of an
return to the airport from which people. The low thrust of the many more people than it will if insect which most certainly de-
it took off. Possibly he might fly rocket motor that is kept in op- the ticket price is, say, double the serves the designation “living
it to another conveniently locat- eration would also help to over- jet fare. fossil” in northern California. The
ed airport; but the ideal would come the residual air resistance The ticket price will depend, specific place, geographically
be to return to the original air- which would still be encountered in turn, on the fuel consumption speaking, was the northern Cal-
port, so that the first stage, after 28 miles up. (and the price of the fuel) and ifornia Coast Range in Mendo-
inspection and refueling, can be Each of the two stages would on the number of trips a ship can cino County, near Piercy. The
used to push another second have some fuel left, to be used make without needing a major specific place, ecologically speak-
stage into its trajectory. during the final approach to the overhaul. All these questions can- ing, was under the decaying bark

76 M O 51- 1 GALAXY FOR YOUR INFORMATION 77

and in the rotten logs of fallen
Douglas firs in this area.
The small insect that turned
up in the collections made by
Dr. W. Gertsch and V. Roth
would have been recognized, in
a general way, even by many city
people. A “silverfish” they would
have said, probably wondering
what a silverfish was doing in a
forest. As far as they are con-
cerned, silverfish turn up in little-
used closets, in old-fashioned
pantries and sometimes in books
— old books, that is. The reason
why the book must be old is that
the modern plastic glues
used in bookbinding hold no
traction for silverfish. They
interested in books bound with
the aid of old-fashioned library
paste, and in wallpaper stuck on
with boiled flour paste.
Now the silverfish which the
city man would have recognized
has the scientific name of Lepis-
ma saccharins, given by old Car-
olus Linnaeus himself. The
part of the name comes from the
Greek lepisma, which means
“scale” or else something that has
scaled off. The second part of
the name was to indicate that
loves sugar. Linnaeus probably
was quite used to the spectacle of
half a dozen silverfish darting off
in as many directions when he
reached for his sugar bowl.
They are primitive insects that
do not have wings and do not
78
now
at-
Fig. 2. Tricholepidion gertschi. From Califor-
are nia. Photograph by Dr. Pedro Wygodzinsky.
go through a metamorphosis.
Their young look like the adults;
they are merely smaller. The
name of the order of insects to
which the silverfish belong is
Thysanura or Bristletails. A total
300 species is known and
of about
first there are, of course, several fam-
ilies. And to an expert who knows
what to look for they do not look
alike.
When Dr. Wygodzinsky
it who at the time was on leave
from his normal position
Department of Zoology, Univer-
sity of Buenos Aires looked at —
the insects brought back by Dr.
Gertsch, he saw at once that they
were Thysanura. But he also saw
that they were not Lepisma but
GALAXY
belonged to a different group. He
did not write me in so many
words that he grew suspicious,
but that must have been the case
for he set out on a collecting trip
of his own for additional specie
mens. He was successful, too.
It looked like a new genus. But
there was something familiar. Dr.
Wygodzinsky remembered what
it was, an insect very closely re-
lated to the one he had alive was
known, but as a fossil. It was
known as an inclusion in Baltic
amber and had been described by
F. Silvestri in 1912. The scien-
tific name of the form preserved
in amber became Lepidothrix,
and the family of which it was the
type was called Lepidotrichidae.
But these were fossils from the
early part of the Oligocene per-
iod. The new insect from north-
ern California was, therefore, a
surviving representative of an
otherwise extinct family of in-
must be added here that,
sects. It
while the Thysanura as a whole
are primitive insects, the Lepido-
trichidae are the most archaic of
the Thysanura.
— That a genus of these archaic
insects should have survived at
in the all is remarkable. That it was
found alive in California, while
the extinct relatives were found
in East Prussia, is almost to
be
expected. Old forms of animal
and plant life very often turn up
in widely separated places. The
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
best known example is that of
our opossum, a marsupial. Mar-
supials “normally” belong in
Australia, but we have one in
North America. The customary
explanation for this phenomenon
is that a group of animals
(it ap-
plies to plants, too, of course)
will, at one time in its history,
occur over a very wide range and
possibly be of worldwide distri-
bution. But then the climate
turns unfavorable in one area.
The animal type disappears from
that area — not necessarily be-
cause it is directly affected by
the changing climate; it may be
its food which disappears
first.
In another area natural enemies
may become victorious, and as a
consequence the type disappears
from that area too. The final
result is that the animal survives
in a few spots . which might
. .
be at the extremes of its original
range.
The very fact that occurrence
is so scattered means something
to the expert. If one should learn
that a certain animal type is
found on one of the northern
Japanese islands, near Cape Town
and in southern Sweden it is safe
to bet that this is likely to be
an old form.
That the new —
or very old
— insect from northern Califor-
nia should have extinct relatives
in the Baltic amber was quite
logical. Zoologists speak about a
79
 Name or Distance in
“relic fauna” when they come QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Designation Light Years Magnitude
disturbed by the cosmic events
across such a case. The scientific which are usually dubbed “mag-
name given to the new discovery In a recent issue you supplied netic storms.” The wavelengths
proxima Centauri 4 11.0
is Tricholepidion gertschi, the a list of the earliest known and used by the satellites will not be
Alpha Centauri 4 0.1
subject to such disturbances. But
second part of the name honoring therefore presumably largest as-

its discoverer. The insect is, like teroids. This list made me wonder Barnard’s Star 6 9.7 even the first batch of “comsats,”
allThysanura, not large. Its body about the nearest stars. I know, Wolf 359 8 13.5 as they are now called, will do
measures 12 millimeters in length of course, that Alpha Centauri something all businessmen are
is
Luyten 726-8 8 12.5
when fully grown. The antennae the nearest star but it is not looking forward to. They will add
Lalande Catalogue new
are nine millimeters long and the visible from New Jersey where I channels. Consider: if a New
Which No. 21,185 8 7.6 York company has a branch of-
three caudal appendages 14 milli- live. is the nearest star I
meters. The total length, from the can see from my home in New Sirius 9 -1.6 fice inLondon, or vice versa, their
tip of the antennae to the tip of Jersey? office hours overlap by just two
Procyon 11 1.0
the appendages is, therefore, 35 hours. All business which con-
millimeters or about 1.4 inches. Dorothy Steinfeld, cerns both must be transacted in
As you can see, only three
Of course there is no “practi- East Orange, N. these two hours, and everybody
J. (Alpha Centauri, Sirius and
cal” value to the discovery. scrambles for this two-hour slot.
Procyon) of the eight nearest
But there is a strange feeling If the English firm has a branch
stars are even visible with the
of wonder that one finds around Thenearest star you can see naked eye. But these three hap- office in your city, Chicago, the

such a case. from New Jersey is the one com- pen to be quite bright. office hour overlap will be just

I don’t know how many people
walk around in the forests of the
California Coast Range.
if not a place where hikers
it is
are common thousands of people
must have wandered around
there, completely unaware of
what was hiding under the bark
of the fallen logs on which they
may have sat to rest. When hear-
ing of such a case
thought is always what else
might be in hiding —
or not even
really hiding, but protected by
not being recognized as some-
thing unusual by most people.
And the thought after that is that
such a relic might easily become
extinct without even having been
“discovered.”
monly known as the Sun. Alpha one hour. There is one more fac-
Centauri is only the second near- tor which nobody mentions much
Please tell me why we need
But even est star, after our sun. Having because it is difficult to give fig-
communications satellites. We
gotten this customary correction ures, but “comsats” will be cheap-
have long-range radio, we have
off my chest I can proceed to en then additional cables. Besides
cables, we even have telephone
answer what you really meant. cables. What can these communi-
cables don’t go everywhere. The
The nearest naked-eye star that
cations satellites do that radio,
satellite sliortwave does.
can be seen from the northern cables and telephone cables can-
hemisphere also happens to be I read just recently that some
not do? of our artificial satellites are ex-
the brightest: Sirius. It is very
Andrew Pessowski pected to stay in orbit for 50 or
the next interesting that many of the
Chicago 51, 111. 100 or even more years. How is
brightest stars are quite a dis-
tance away from
us: Pollux 30
Offhand the communications
this possible? Aren’t they all in-
light years,Capella 48 light years, side Roche’s limit? Why don’t
satellites, especially the first they break up? Or has Roche’s
Aldebaran 57 light years, Arc-
series of them, will not be able limit been disproved?
turus 38 light years and Regulus
to do anything that cables, es- Arthur T. A. Wallace
80 light years. On the other hand
pecially telephone cables, can not The Bronx 53, N. Y.
the nearest stars are by no means
do. They can do better than long-
the brightest, as the following
range radio, which is sometimes There is hardly any concept
table shows:

80 GALAXY FOR YOUR INFORMATION 81

that has been as much misunder- Roche’s limit is about 5700 miles The city was sacred, but not
stood than “Roche’s Limit” and from sea level. This means, n j

is as popular at the same time. turn, that all artificial satellites

to its gods. Michaelson was
by WEST
I get an average of one letter per
week which either asks about it
are well inside Roche’s limit.
Illustrated

B y BILL
DOEDE a god — but far from sacred!
Then why don’t they break up,
or else quotes it. Roche’s limit is as reader Wallace asks? Awfully ROUCHED in the ancient colony from the fifth planet of
always interpreted to mean that
no can exist inside this
satellite
limit which Edouard Roche, Pro-
fessor of Mathematics at Mont-
simple; Professor Roche
that his “limit” applied to fluid
satellites, satellites of zero tensile
strength. Any
specified

solid body, like a

C
row,
doorway like
peering out from his bur-
Mr. Michaelson saw the
an animal the system. They were a curious
people. Some were highly intelli-
gent,
He
though uneducated.
decided to ignore the man
native.
pellier,France, placed at 2.44 large meteoroid, or any structure, he was startled, think- for the moment. He was far down
At first
planet radii, counting from the like any artificial satellite, is not the ancient street, a mere speck
ing it might be someone else from
center of the planet. In the case troubled by Roche’s limit at all.
the Earth settlement who had against the sand. There would be
of the earth this means that — WILLY LEY discovered the old city before plenty of time to wonder about
him. Then he saw the glint of him.
sun against the metallic skirt, and He gazed out from his position
relaxed. at the complex variety of build-
He chuckled to himself, won- ings before him. Some were small,
dering with amusement what a obviously homes. Others were
FORECAST webfooted man was doing in an
old dead city so far from his
huge with tall, frail spires stand-
ing against the pale blue sky.
With this issue GALAXY begins its thirteenth year, and as our birthday people. Some facts were known Square buildings, ellipsoid, spher-
present to about the people of Alpha Cen- oid. Beautiful, dream-stuff bridges
all of us we've lined up some old favorites among the authors to
new taurus II. They were not actually connected tall, conical towers,
bring us favorite stories. Next we have a novella by a fellow who
issue
natives, he recalled. They were a bridges that still swung in the
has been with us since Volume 1 Number 1, and almost two dozen times
wind after half a million years.
since. The name is Fritz Leiber. The story is The Creature from Cleveland
Late afternoon sunlight shone
Depths. Like all of Leiber's best work, this one is bright and witty, with savage against ebony surfaces. The sands
undertones. has to do with shelters and cybernetics, but most of has of many centuries had blown
It all it

to do with people —
people who are capable of smashing themselves against down the wide streets and filled
their own dangerous ingenuity; people who can then pick up the pieces and the doorways. Desert plants grew
build something better people you will be glad to meet.
. . . from roofs of smaller buildings.
Ignoring the native, Mr.
f
Michaelson poked about among
Starting in November
If •SCIENCE FICTION
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN'S great NEW

CENTAURU
serial

PODKAYNE OF MARS
* DON'T MISS IT

GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 83

the ruins happily, exclaiming to were a child. “I just got here a *
“Mr. Earthgod!” the webfoot He stood there alone feeling
himself about some particular ar- few hours ago.” so sharply that Michaelson
cried, the age of the place. Even the
tifact,marveling at its state of- “You must go.” “You must not touch,
stopped. smell of age was in the air. Silver
preservation, holding it this way “Why? Who are you?” upon, not handle. Your
n0 t walk moonlight from the two moons
and that to catch the late after- “I am keeper of the city.”
step may destroy the home of filteredthrough clear air down
noon sun, smiling, clucking glee- “You?” Michaelson laughed.
some ancient spirit. Your breath upon the ruins. The city lay now
He crawled over the rubble Then, seeing how serious the
fully. may cause one iota of change and in darkness, dead and still, wait-
through old doorways half filled native was, said, “What makes may lose his way
a spirit in the ing for morning so it could lie
with the accumulation of ages. He you think a dead city needs a darkness. Go quickly now, or be dead and still in the sun.
dug experimentally in the sand keeper?” killed.” There was no hurry to be going
with his hands, like a dog, under “The spirits may return.”
home, although he was alone, al-
a roof that had weathered half a Michaelson crawled out of the
million
Then
years of
he crawled out again,
rain and sun. doorway and
brushed his trousers.
stood
He
up. He
pointed.
HE turned and walked
lookipg back.
Michaelson stood in the an-
off, not though this was Alpha Centaurus
II with many unknowns, many
dangers . although home was
. .

covered with dust and cobwebs. “See that wall? Built of some street,
cient tall, gaunt, feet a very great distance away. There
metal, I’d say, some alloy imper- planted wide, hands in pockets, was no one back there to worry
THE native stood in the street vious to rust and wear.” watching the webfoot until he was about him.
less than a hundred feet “The spirits are angry.”
out of sight beyond a huge circu- His wife had died many years
away, waving his arms madly. “Notice the inscriptions? Wind building.There was a man
lar ago back on Earth. No children.
“Mr. Earthgod” he cried. “It is has blown sand against them for watch. There was one of the
to His friends in the settlement
sacred ground where you are eons, and rain and sleet. But their
intelligent ones. One look into the would not look for him for anoth-
story is there, once we decipher
trespassing!’* alert old eyes had told him that. er day at least. Anyway, the tiny
The archeologist smiled, watch- it.” Michaelson shook his head, cylinder, buried in flesh behind
ing the man hurry closer. He was “Leave!” and went about satisfying his his ear, a thing of
mystery and
short, even for a native. Long The native’s lined, weathered curiosity. He entered buildings immense power, could take him
gray hair hung to his shoulders, old face was working around the without thought of roofs falling home instantly, without effort
bobbing up down as he
and mouth in anger. Michaelson was in, or decayed floors dropping save a flicker of thought.
walked. no shoes. The
He wore almost sorry he had mocked him. from under his weight. He began “You did not leave, as I asked
toes of his webbed feet dragged in He was deadly serious. to collect small items, making a you.”
the sand, making a deep trail be- “Look,” he said. “No spirits are pile of them in the street. An
Michaelson whirled around at
hind him. He was an old man. ever coming back here. Don’t you ancient bowl, metal untouched by the sound of the native’s voice.
“You never told us about this know that? And even if they did, the ages. A statue of a man, one Then he relaxed. He said, “You
old dead city,” Michaelson said, spirits carenothing for old cities
foot high, correct to the
minutest shouldn’t sneak up on a man like
chidingly. “Shame on you. But half covered with sand and dirt.”
detail,showing how identical that.”
never mind. I’ve found it now. He walked away from the old they had been to Earthmen. He “You must leave, or I will be
Isn’t it beautiful?” man, heading for another build- found books still standing on forced to kill do not want
you. I
“Yes, beautiful. You will leave ing. The sun had already gone be- ancient shelves but was afraid to to kill you, but must
if .” He
I
now.” low the horizon, coloring the high touch them without tools.
. .

He glanced backward. made a clucking sound deep in

“Leave?” Michaelson asked, clouds. Darkness came swiftly and he the throat. “The spirits are angry.”
acting surprised as if the man The webfoot was following. was forced out into the street. “Nonsense, Superstition! But

84 GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 85

never mind. You have been here The old man shrugged. “It ;s ‘‘N°” Michaelson was adamant. The wind had turned cool.
longer than I. Tell me, what are not an item worthy of dispute rock of Gibraltar.
|<}, e Michaelson shivered, wishing he
those instruments in the rooms? Those names you mention, are Maota hit him, quickly, pas- had brought a coat. The city was
It looks like a clock but I’m cer- they the names of gods?” sionately, and dropped the weap- absolutely still except for small
tain ithad some other function.” He chuckled. “In a way, y es
on beside his body. He turned gusts of wind sighing through the
“What rooms?” What is your name?”
swiftly, making a swirling mark frail spires. The ancient book still
“Oh, come now. The small “Maota.”
in the sand with his heel, and lay in the sand beside the dark
rooms back there. Look like they “You must help me, Maota, walked off toward the hills out- spot of blood. He stooped over
were bedrooms.” These things must be preserved. side the city. and picked it up.
“I do not know.” The webfoot We’ll build a museum, right here The weapon he had used was It was light, much lighter than
drew closer. Michaelson decided in the street. No, over there on an ancient book. Its paper-thin most Earth books. He ran a hand
he was sixty or seventy years old, the hill just outside the city. We’ll pages rustled in the wind as if an over the binding. Smooth it was,
at least. collect all the old writings and unseen hand turned them, read- untouched by time or climate. He
“You’ve been here a long time. perhaps we may decipher them. ing, while Michaelson’s blood squinted at the pages, tilting the
You you must
are intelligent, and Think Maota! To read pages
of it, trickled out from the head wound book to catch the bright moon-
be educated, the way you talk. written so long ago and think upon the ancient street. light, but the writing was alien.
That gadget looks like a time- their thoughts. We’ll put every- He touched the page, ran his fore-
piece of some sort. What is it? thing under glass. Build and YJ7HEN he regained conscious- finger over the writing.
What does it measure?” evacuate chambers to stop the ness the two moons, bright Suddenly he sprang back. The
“I insist that you go.” The web- decay. Catalogue, itemize .” . . sentinel orbs in the night sky, had book fell from his hands.
foot held something in his hand. Michaelson was warming up to moved to a new position down “God. in heaven!” he exclaimed.
“No.” Michaelson looked off Maota shook his
his subject, but their sliding path. Old Maota’s He had heard a voice. He
down the street, trying to ignore head like a waving palm frond absence took some of the weird- looked around at the old build-
the native, trying to feel the life and stamped his feet. nessand fantasy away. It seemed ings, down the length of the an-
of the city as it might have been. “You will leave now.” a more practical place now. cient street. Something strange
“Can’t you see? Look at the The gash in his head was pain- about the voice. Not Maota. Not
UV^OU ARE sensitive,” the decay. These things are priceless. ful, throbbing with quick, short his tones.Not his words. Satisfied
native said in his ear. “It They must be preserved. Future hammer-blows synchronized with that no one was near, he stooped
takes a sensitive god to feel the generations will thank us.” his heart beats. But there was a and picked up the book again.
spirits moving in the houses and “Do you mean,” the old man new determination in him. If it “Good God!” he said aloud. It
walking in these old streets.” asked, aghast, “that you want was a fight that the old webfooted was the book talking. His fingers
“Say it any way you want to. others to come here? You know foolwanted, a fight he would get. had touched the writing again. It
This is the most fascinating thing the city abhors the sound of alien The cylinder flicked him, at his was not a voice, exactly, but a
I’ve ever seen. The Inca’s treas- voices. Those who lived here may command, across five hundred stirring in his mind, like a strange
ure, the ruins of Pompeii, Egyp- return one day! They must not miles of desert and rocks to a language heard for the first time.
tian tombs —
none can hold a find their citypackaged and pre- small creek he remembered. Here A talking book. What other sur-
candle to this.” served and laid out on shelves for he bathed his head in cool water prises were in the city? Tall,
.”
“Mr. Earthgod . . the curious to breathe their foul until all the caked blood was dis- fragile buildings laughing at time
“Don’t call me that. I’m not a breaths upon. You will leave. solved from his hair. Feeling bet- and weather. A clock measuring
god, and you know it.” Now!” ter,he went back. God-knows-what. If such wonders

86 GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 87

remained, what about those al- He touched it again, curiosity «I’m sorry to hear that.” Maota shook his head. “One
ready destroyed? One could only overwhelming his fear. It was “How do you feel?” does not study a dead culture to
guess at the machines, the gad- warm. No mistake. And there was “Fine, but my head learn how they made things, but
gets, the artistry already decayed a faint vibration, a suggestion of how they thought. But we are
little.”
and blown away to mix forever power. He stood there in the dark- “Sorry,” Maota said. wasting time. I must kill you now,
with the sand. ness staring off into the darkness, “For what?” so I can get some rest.”
I must preserve it, he thought, trembling. Fear built up in him “For hitting you. Pain is not The old man raised the gun.
whether Maota or not. until it was a monstrous thing,
likes it for gods like you.”
They say these people lived half a drowning reason. He forgot the Michaelson relaxed somewhat. 44 Vjf/'AIT! You forget that I
million years ago. A long time. power of the cylinder behind his “What kind of man are you? First ” also have a weapon.” He
Let’s see, now. A man lives one ear. He scrambled through the you try to break my skull, then pointed to the spot behind his ear
hundred years on the average. doorway. He got up and ran down you apologize.” where the cylinder was buried. “I
Five thousand lifetimes. the ancient sandy street until he “I abhor pain. I should have can move faster than you can fire
And all you do is touch a book, came to the edge of the city. Here killed you outright.” the gun.”
and a voice jumps across all those he stopped, gasping for air, feel- He thought about that for a Maota nodded. “Ihave heard
years! ing the pain throb in his head. moment, eyeing the weapon. how you travel. It does not mat-
He started off toward the tall Common sense said that he It looked in good working ter. I will kill you anyway.”
building he had examined upon should go home, that nothing order. Slim and shiny and inno- “I suggest we negotiate.”
discovery of the city. His left eye- worthwhile could be accomplished cent, itlooked like a glorified “No.”
lid began to twitch and he laid his at night, that he was tired, that African blowgun. But he was not “Why not?”
forefinger against the eye, press- he was weak from loss of blood deceived by its appearance. It Maota looked off toward the
ing until it stopped. Then he and fright and running. But when was a deadly weapon. hills, old eyes filmed from years
stooped and entered the building. Michaelson was on the trail of “Well,” he said, “before you kill of sand and wind, leather skin
He laid the book down and tried important discoveries he had no me, tell me about the book.” He lined and pitted. The hillsstood
to take the “clock” off the wall. common sense. held it up for Maota to see. immobile, brown-gray, already
It was dark in the building and He sat down in the darkness, “What about the book?” shimmering with heat, impotent.
his fingers felt along the wall, meaning to rest a moment. “What kind of book is it?” “Why not?” Michaelson re-
looking for it. Then he touched “What does Mr. Earthgod peated.
it.His fingers moved over its %W7"HEN he awoke dawn was mean, what kind of book? You “Why not what?” Maota
smooth surface. Then suddenly ^’ red against thin clouds in have seen it. It is like any other dragged his eyes back.
he jerked his hand back with an the east. book, except for the material and “Negotiate.”
exclamation of amazement. Fear Old Maota stood in the street the fact that it talks.” “No.” Maota’s eyes grew hard
ran up his spine. with webbed feet planted far “No, no. I mean, what’s in it?” They stood there in the
as steel.
The clock was warm. apart in the sand, a weapon in the “Poetry.” sun, nottwenty feet apart, hating
He felt like running, like flick- crook of his arm. It was a long “Poetry? For God’s sake, why each other. The two moons, very
ing back to the settlement where tube affair, familiar to Michael- poetry? Why not mathematics or pale and far away on the western
there were people and familiar son. history? Why not tell how to horizon, stared like two bottom-
voics, for here was a thing that Michaelson asked, “Did you make the metal of the book itself? less eyes.
should not be. Half a million sleep well?” Now there is a subject worthy of “All right, then. At least it’s a
years —
and here was warmth! “No.” a book.” quick death. I hear that thing just

88 GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 89

 man. And unreasonable man,” the webfoot landed at Maota’s feet, spouting Maota read, Michaelson
disintegrates a
that’s that.”
Michaelson
Pfft!

prepared himself
said.
Michaelson stepped forward,
sand against his leg. He shifted
the weapon, picked
^ listened.The cadence was
up the book different, the syntax confusing.
to move if the old man’s finger extending his arm with the book. and leafed through it, raising his But the thoughts were there. It
slid closer toward the firing stud. “No, stay where you are. Throw head in a listening attitude, might have been a professor back
The old man raised the gun. it.” searching for a suitable passage. on Earth reading to his students.
“Wait!” “This book is priceless. You Michaelson heard the thin, metal- Keats, Shelley, Browning. These
“Now what?” just don’t go throwing such valu- lic pages rustle softly. He could people were human, with human
“At read some of the
least able items around.” have jumped and seized the weap- thoughts and aspirations.
book to me before I die, then.” “It won’t break. Throw it.” on at that moment, but his desire The old man stopped reading.
The gun wavered. “I am not an Michaelson threw the book. It to hear the book was strong. He squatted slowly, keeping

90 GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 91

Michaelson in sight, and laid the his fingers, hung on and was
“It was just a book. Not alive, “You are a god,” Maota said.
book face up in the sand. Wind pulled to his feet.
know.” “One does not negotiate with
moved the pages. They struggled for possession y ou gods.
“How do you know?” The old One either loves them, or kills
“See?” he “The spirits
said. of the gun, silently, gasping, kick-
man's pale eyes were filled with them.”
read. They must have been great ing sand. Faces grew red. Lip s
tears. “It talked and it sang. In “That’s another thing. I am not
readers, these people.They drink drew back over Michaelson’s it had a soul. Sometimes
a way, a god. Can’t you understand?”
the book, as if it were an elixir. white teeth, over Maota’s pink,
on long nights I used to imagine it “Of course you are.” Maota
See how gentle! They lap at the toothless gums. The dead city’s
loved me, for taking care of it.” looked up, very sure. “Mortals
pages like a new kitten tasting fragile spires threw impersonal
“There are other books. We’ll cannot step from star to star like
milk.” shadows down where they fought.
get another.” crossing a shallow brook.”
Michaelson laughed. “You cer- Then quite suddenly a finger or Maota shook his head.
tainly have an imagination.” —
hand neither knew whose finger no more.”
“There “No, no. I don’t step from one

“What difference does it or hand —

touched the firing stud.
are
“But I’ve seen them. Down
star to another.An invention does
that. Just an invention. I carry it
make?” Maota cried, suddenly There was a hollow, whooshing there in the square building.” with me. It’s a tiny thing. No one
angry. “You want to close up all sound. Both stopped still, realiz- “Not poetry. Books, yes, but would ever guess it has such
these things in boxes for a poster- ing the total destruction they
not poetry. That was the only power. So you see, I’m human,
ity who may have no slightest might have caused. book with songs.” just like you. Hit me and I hurt.
feeling or appreciation. I want to “It only hit the ground,” “I’m sorry.” Cut me and I bleed. I love. I hate.
leave the city as it is, for spirits Michaelson said.
“You killed it!” Maota sudden- Iwas born. Some day I’ll die. See?
whose existence cannot prove.”
I A black, charred hole, two feet sprang for the weapon, lying
diameter and — they could
ly I’m human. Just a human with a
The old man’s eyes were furi- in not
how deep —
forgotten in the sand. Michaelson machine. No more than that.”
ous now, deadly. The gun came see them.
stared at put his foot on it and Maota was
down directly in line with the Maota go and sprawled in
let weak to tear it loose. He could
too 1VTAOTA laughed, then sobered
Earthman’s chest. The gnarled the sand. “The book!” he cried. only weep out his rage.
“The book gone!”
quickly. “You lie.”
finger moved. is
When he could talk again, “No.”
Michaelson, using the power of “No! We probably covered it
Maota said, “I am sorry, Mr. had this machine, could
“If I I
the cylinder behind his ear, with sand while we fought.”
Earthgod. I’ve disgraced myself.” travel as you?”
jumped behind the old webfoot. “Don’t be sorry.” Michaelson
To Maota it seemed that he had DOTH men began scooping helped him to his feet. “We fight
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll kill you and take
flicked out of existence like a sand in their cupped hands, for some reasons, cry for others. yours.”
match blown out. The next in- digging frantically for the book. A priceless book is a good reason “It would not work for you.”
stant Michaelson spun him Saliva dripped from Maota’s for either.”
“Why?”
around and hit him. It was an in- mouth, but he didn’t know or care. “Not for that. For not winning. “Each machine is tailored for
expert fist, belonging to an arche- Finally they stopped, exhaust- I should have killed you last night each person.”
ologist,not a fighter. But Maota ed. They had covered a substan- when I had the chance. The gods The old man hung his head.
was an old man. tialarea around the hole. They give us chances and we don’t
if He looked down into the black,
He dropped in the sand, mo- had covered the complete area take them we lose forever.” charred hole. He walked all
mentarily stunned. Michaelson where they had been. "I told you before! We are on
around the hole. He kicked at the
bent over to pick up the gun and “We killed it,” the old man the same side. Negotiate. Have sand, looking half-heartedly again
the old man, feeling it slip from moaned. you never heard of negotiation?” for the book.

92 2 U *
'
GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 93
 “Look,” Michaelson said. “I’m “Yes.”
n ot die out, as a species be- moonlight. He made a stretcher,
sure I’ve convinced you that I’m Maota went inside, Michaelson 1
comes extinct.” rolled the old man’s body on to
human. Why not have a try at stood in the entrance and looked
j Michaelson was amused, but it and dragged it down the long
negotiating our differences?” around. The room was clean, fUr„ ^ “Something like a
interested. ancient street and up the knoll.
He looked up. His expressive nished with hand made chairs and '

fourth dimension?” Here he buried him.

eyes, deep, resigned, studied a bed. Who is this old man, he
“I don’t know. I only know that But it seemed a waste of time.
Michaelson’s face. Finally he thought, far from his people, li v . ]
wjth this instrument there is no Somehow he knew beyond any
shook his head sadly. “When we ing alone, choosing a life of soli-
death. I have read the books that doubt that the old native and his
first met I hoped we could think tude among ancient ruins but not speak of this race, this wonderful body were completely disassoci-
the ancient
thoughts together. touching them? Above the bed a people who conquered all disease, ated in some sense more complete
But our paths diverge. We have “clock” was fastened to the wall.
who explored all the mysteries of than death.
finished, you and I.” Michaelson remembered his who devised this machine
science,
He
turned and started off, fright — thinking of the warmth
tocheat death. See this button
In the days that followed he
gave much thought to the “clock.”
shoulders slumped dejectedly. where warmth should not be. here on the face of the instru- He came to the city every day.
Michaelson caught up to him. Maota pointed to it. ment? Press the button, and .” . . He spent long hours in the huge
“Are you leaving the city?” “You asked about this ma- “And what?” square building with the books.
“No.” chine,” he said. “Now I will tell know, exactly. But I
“I don’t He learned the language by sheer
“Where are you going?” you.” He laid his hand against it. have lived many years. I have bulldog determination. Then he
“Away. Far away.” Maota “Here is power to follow another walked the streets of this city and searched the books for informa-
looked off toward the hills, eyes direction.” wondered, and wanted to press tion about the instrument.
distant. the button. Now I will do so.” Finally after many weeks, long
“Don’t be stupid, old man. How ly/ldCHAELSON tested one of Quickly the old man, still smil- after the winds had obliterated
can you go far away and not the chairs to see if it would ing,pressed the button. A high- allevidence of Maota’s grave on
leave the city?” hold his weight, then sat down. pitched whine filled the air, just the knoll, Michaelson made a de-
“There are many directions. His curiosity about the instrument within audio range. Steady for a cision. He had to know if the
You would not understand.” was colossal, but he forced a moment, it then rose in pitch machine would work for him.
“East. West. North. South. Up. short laugh. “Maota, you are com- passing beyond hearing quickly. And so one afternoon when the
Down.” plex. Why not stop mys-
all this The old man’s knees buckled. ancient spires threw long shadows
“No, no. There is another di- tery nonsense and tell me
about He sank down, fell over the bed, over the sand he walked down the
rection. Come, if you must see.” it? You know more about it than lay still. Michaelson touched him long street and entered the old
Michaelson followed him far I.” cautiously, then examined him man’s house. He stood before the
down the street. They came to a “Of course.” Maota smiled a more carefully. No question about instrument, trembling, afraid, but
section of the city he had not toothless, superior smile. “What it.
determined. He pinched his eyes
seen before. Buildings were small- do you suppose happened to this The old man was dead. shut tight like a child and pressed
er, dwarfed against larger
spires race?” the button.
structures. Here a path was “You tell me.” WHEELING depressed and alone, The high-pitched whine started.
packed in the sand, leading to a “They took the unknown direc- Michaelson found a desert Complete, utter silence. Void.
particular building. tion. The books speak of it. I don’t knoll outside the city overlooking Darkness. Awareness and mem-
Michaelson said, “This is where know how the instrument works, the tall spires that shone in the ory, yes; nothing else. Then
you live?” but one thing is certain. The race sunlight and gleamed in the Maota’s chuckle came. No sound,

94 2 U v
GALAXY A CITY NEAR CENTAURUS 95
an impression only like the voice Michaelson decided he would 1 By JIM HARMON Every lonely man tries to
from the ancient book. Where was try.
make friends. Manet just
Illustrated by WEST didn't know when to stop
he? There was no left or right, up
or down. Maota was everywhere, 467VO!” Maota’s thought was
nowhere.
“Look!” Maota’s thought was
him in this place of
anger.
" prickled with

Michaelson did not know how

fear and
HOW TO MAKE
FRIENDS
directed at
no direction. “Think of the city to try, but he remembered the
and you will see it.” cylinder and gathered all the
Michaelson did, and he saw the force of his mind in spite of
city beyond, as if he were looking Maota’s protests, and gave his
through a window. And yet he most violent command.
was in the city looking at his own At first he thought it didn’t
body. work. He got up and looked
Maota’s chuckle again. “The around, then it struck him. He
city will remain as it is. You did was standing up!
not win after all.” The cylinder. He knew it was
“Neither did you.” the cylinder. That was the differ-
“But this existence has com- ence between himself and Maota.
pensations,” Maota said. “You When he used the cylinder, that
can be anywhere, see anywhere was where he went, the place
on this planet. Even on your
Earth.”
Michaelson
seeing his
old,
closer.
home made
He
felt a great sadness,
body lying across the
bed. He looked
sensed a vibration or
where Maota was now. It was a
door of some kind, leading to a
path of some kind where distance
was non-existent. But the “clock”
was a mechanism to transport
only the mind to that place.
W
had seen
ILLIAM
alone.
MANET
In the beginning, he
many advantages to be-
ing alone. It would give him an
was

life force — he didn’t stop to To be certain of it, he pressed

unprecedented opportunity to

define it — in his body. Why was the button again, with the same
once and for all correlate
ness to the point of madness,
his dead body different from Old result as before. He saw his own
see how long it would take
Maota’s? Could it be that there body fall down. He felt Maota’s
to start slavering and clawing
was some thread stretching from presence.
pin-ups from the magazines,
the reality of his body to his “You Maota’s thought-
devil!”
begin teaching himself classes
present state? scream was a sword of hate and
philosophy consisting of intermi-
“I don’t like your thoughts,” anger, irrational suddenly, like
nable lectures to a bored and
Maota said. “No one can go back. a person who knows his loss is
captive audience of one.
I tried. I have discussed it with irrevocable. “I said you were a
He would be able to measure
many who are not presently in god. I said you were a god. I,
the qualities of peace and decide
communication with you. No one said you were a god !”
— BILL DOEDE
. . .
whether it was really better than
can go back.”

96 GALAXY HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS

war, he would be able to get as had to do nothing else. The whole*
fat and as dirty as he liked, he gimcrack was cybernetically COn 11*6
on the table of the desert, its before the horizontal pattern of
would be able to live more like trolled, entirely
automatic. tail
burning as bright as envy. chinked wall.
an animal and think more like a one was needed here —
no hu-
ANET suspected hallucina-
“Need a fresher?” the host
god than any man for generations. man
But after a shorter time than
he expected, it all got to be a
being, at least.
The Workers’ Union was
pretty small pressure group, but
a
M tion, but in an existence with
the pallid dispassion of a re-
inquired.
Manet’s eyes wondered down
to heavy water tumbler full of
a fl
tearing bore. Even the waiting to it didn’t take much to pressure quited love he was happy to wel- rich, amber whiskey full of
go crazy part of it. the Assembly. Featherbedding come dementia. Sometimes he sparks from the hearth. He
Not that he was going to have had been carefully specified, in- even manufactured it. Sometimes stirred himself in the comfort-
any great long wait of it. He was cluding an Overseer for each of he would run through the arteries ingly warm leather chair. “No,
already talking to himself, mak- the Seeders to honeycomb Mars, 0 f thefactory and play that it had no, I’m He
fine.” wordlet the
ing verbal notes for his lectures, to prepare its atmosphere for suddenly gone mad hating human hang there for examination.
and he had cut out a picture of colonization. beings, and was about to close “Pardon me, but could you tell
Annie Oakley from an old book. They didn’t give tests to find down its bulkheads on him as sure me just what place this is?”
He tacked it up and winked at well-balanced, well-integrated as the Engineers’ Thumb and The host shrugged. It was the
it whenever he passed that way. people for the job. Well-balanced, bale up the pressure-dehydrated only word for it. “Whatever place
Lately she was winking back at well-integrated men weren’t go- digest, making so much stall you choose it to be, so long as
him. ing to isolate themselves in a
flooring of him.He ran until he you’re with Trader Tom. ‘Service,’
Loneliness was physical They dropped with a kind of climaxing my
a useless job. got, instead, that’s motto. It is a way of
release of terror.
weight on his skull. It peeled the William Manet and his fellows. life with me.”
fleshfrom his arms and legs and The Overseers were to stay as So Manet put on the pressure “Trader Tom? Service?”
suit he had been given because “Yes! That’s it exactly. It’s me
sandpapered his self-pity to a fine long as the job required. Passen-
sensitivity. ger fare to Mars was about one
he would never need it, and
marched out to meet the visiting
exactly. Trader Tom Service —
No
one on Earth was as lonely billion dollars. They weren’t Serving the Wants of the Space-
spaceship. man
as William Manet, and even providing commuter service for Between the Stars. Of
William Manet could only be this night shifts. They weren’t pro-
He wasn’t quite clear how he course, ‘stars’ is poetic. Any point
came from walking effortlessly
lonely on Mars. viding accommodations for cou-
across the
of light in the sky in a star. We
Manet was Atmosphere Seeder ples when the law specified only
Martian plain that had service the planets.”
all the distance-perpetuating Manet took the tumbler in
Station 131-47’s own human. one occupant. They weren’t
qualities of a kid’s crank movie
All Manet had to do was sit in providing fuel (at fifty million both hands and drank. It was
the beating aluminum heart in
machine to the comfortable in- good whiskey, immensely power-
dollars a gallon) for visits be-
terior of a strange cabin. Not
the middle of the chalk desert tween the various Overseers. a ful. “The government wouldn’t
ship s cabin but a Northwoods
and stare out, chin cupped in They weren’t very providential. pay for somebody serving the
cabin.
hands, at the flat, flat pavement But it was two hundred thou- wants of spacemen,” he exploded.
of dirty talcum, at the stars sand a year in salary, and it of-
The black and orange Hallo- “Ah,” Trader Tom said, cau-
we’en log charring in the slate
gleaming as hard in the black sky fered wonderful opportunities. tionary. He moved nearer the
stone fireplace seemed real. So
as a starlet’s capped teeth . . . It gave William Manet an op- fire and warmed his hands and
did the lean man with the smiling
starstwo of which were moons portunity to think he saw a buttocks. “Ah, but I am not a
and one of which was Earth. He spaceship making a tailfirst land-
mustache painted with the ran- government service. I represent
dom designs of the fire, standing free enterprise.”
98 GALAXY HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS
99
(, i lVT ONSENSE,” Manet said. mind. We give you what y 0u
“No group of private in- want. As for paying for it wjj — t he
only reality
cal reality.
it

The Assembly could

lacks is politi- street.
said:
The red and blue letters
dividuals can build a spaceship. forget about the payment.
You
It takes a combine of nations.” may apply for a Trader Tom n0 longer justify their disposition
0 f the
cosmos if it were known
“But remember only that busi- Credit Card.” LIFO
nessmen are reactionary. It’s well- “And I could buy anything that they were dealing confiscation The Socialization Kit
known. Ask anyone on the street. I wanted with it?” Manet w ithout representation. Come,
de-
tell me what you want.”
“It is
commercialized,” Trader
Businessmen are reactionary manded. “That’s absurd. I’d never
Manet gave in to it. “I want to Tom admitted with no little cha-
even beyond the capitalistic be able to pay for it.”
be not alone,” he said. grin. “It is presented to appeal to
system. Money is a fiction that “That’s it precisely!” Trader
“Of course,” Trader Tom re- a twelve-year-old child, an erotic,
exists mostly on paper. They play Tom said with enthusiasm. “You aggressive
plied, “I suspected. It is not so twelve-year-old, the
along on paper to get paper things,
but to get real things they can
never pay for it.
merely deducted
Charges are
from your
unusual, you know. Sign here. typical sensie goer —
but that is
forego the papers. Comprehend, estate.”
And here. Two This is
copies. reality.It offends men of good
yours. Thank you so much.” taste like ourselves, yet some-
mon ami? My businessmen have “But I may leave no estate!”
gone back Jo the barter system. Trader Tom demonstrated his
Manet handed back the pen times it approaches being art. We
and stared at the laminated card must accept it.”
Between them, they have the raw peculiar shrug. “All businesses
in his hand. “What’s the cost?” Manet
materials, trained men, the
the operate on a certain margin of
asked. “Before I accept it, I have
man-hours to make a spaceship. risk. That is our worry.”
TRADER TOM CREDIT CARD to know the charges.”
So they make it. Damned reac-
“You never know the
tionaries, all of my principals.” jVT ANET finished the mellow cost.

Good
Only your executor knows that.
“I don’t believe you,” Manet whiskey and looked into the for Anything
stated flatly. His conversation glass. It seemed to have been
It’s the Trader Tom plan.”
A-I 9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2***** “Well, is it guaranteed?”
had grown blunt with disuse. polished clean. “What do you
“There are no guarantees,”
“What have to offer?”
possible profit could your
principals turn from running a “Whatever you want?”
WM. MoNeT / —fader —om / Trader Tom admitted. “But I’ve
never had any complaints yet.”
trading ship among scattered ex- Irritably, “How do I know
(Sign Here) “Suppose I’m the first?” Manet
ploration posts on the planets? what I want until I know what Trader Tom
suggested reasonably.
What could you give us that a you have?”
“You won’t be,” Trader Tom
benevolent government doesn’t “You know.” When he looked up from the said. “I won’t pass this way
already supply us with? And if “I know? All right, I know. card, Manet saw the box. Trader again.”
there was anything, how could we You don’t have it for sale.” Tom was pushing it across the
pay for it? My year’s salary “Old chap, understand if you floor towards him.
wouldn’t cover the transportation please that I do not only sell. I
jyjANET didn’t open the box.
The box had the general dimen-
costs of this glass of whiskey.” am a trader — Trader Tom. I sions of a coffin, but wasn’t
He
let it fade quietly in the

“Do you
“Very good.”
find it good whiskey?” trade with many parties. There
are, for example . extraterres-
.
wood — only it

brightly illustrated
filteredbut still brilliant sunlight
near a transparent wall.
.
cardboard. There was a large
“Excellent?” trials.”
Manet puttered around the
four-color picture on the lid show-
“Excellent, youif prefer.” “Folk legend!” spawning monster, trying to
“I only meant — but never “On the contrary, mon cher,
ing men, women and children
moving through a busy city
brush the copper taste of the sta-
tion out of his mouth in the

100 GALAXY HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS

101
mornings, talking to himself, information stated: “A Manual
winking at Annie Oakley, and for Lifo, The Socialization Kit.”
waiting to go mad. At the bottom of the title page,
Finally, Manet woke up one the publisher was identified as:
morning. He lay in the sheets of LIFO KIT CO, LTD, SYRA-
his bunk, suppressing the urge to CUSE.
go wash his hands, and came at The unnumbered first chapter
last to the conclusion that, after was headed Your First Friend.
all the delay, he was mad.
So he went to open the box. Before you go further, first find
The cardboard lid seemed to the Modifier in your kit. This is
have become both brittle and vital.

rotten. Itcrumbled as easily as

But Manet was old enough
ideals. He quickly riffled through the
to remember the boxes Japanese pages. Other Friends, Authority,
toys came in when he was a boy, A Companion Then The Final
. . .

and was not alarmed. Model. Manet tried to flip past

The contents were such a
glorious pile of junk, of bottles
from old chemistry sets, of pieces
from old Erector sets, of name-
less things and unremembered
antiques from neglected places,
that it seemed too good to
this section, but the pages after
the sheet labeled The Final
Model were stuck together. More
than stuck. There was a thick
slab of plastic in the back of the
book. The edges were ridged as
if there were pages to this section,

have been assembled commer- but they could only be the tracks
cially. It was the collection of of lame ants.
lifetime. Manet flipped back to page
On top of everything was a one.
paperbound book, the size of the
Reader’s Digest, covered in rip- First find the Modifier in your
pled gray flexiboard. The title kit. This is vital to your entire

was stamped in black on the experiment in socialization. The

spine and cover: The Making of Modifier is Part #A-1 on the
Friends. Master Chart.
Manet opened the book and,
turning one blank page, found He prowled through the box
the title in larger print and looking for some kind of a chart.
slightly amplied: The Making of There was nothing that looked
Friends and Others. There was like a chart inside. He retrieved
no author listed. A further line of the lid and looked at its inside.

102 GALAXY
Nothing. He tipped the box and “The Korean-American War
was the greatest of all wars,”
}
ANET knew it all. He had “Ronald,” Manet said “you are
looked at its outside. Not a thing. 1
heard it all before, a terrific jerk.”
There was always something Ronald said pontifically.
Manet fiewas so damned sick of hear- Ronald leaped up immediately
missing from kits. Maybe even “Only in the air,” cor-
j about Korean air battles, and led with his right.
the Modifier itself. rected him. jj,g

Intelligence was one of paniel Boone, the literary quali- Manet blocked it deftly and
He read on, and probed and the
of ancient sports fiction mag- threw a right cross.
scattered the parts in the long factors Manet had punched to fies
azines, the painting of Norman Ronald blocked it deftly, and
box. He studied the manual in- suppress. Intelligence. Aggressive-
Sense of perfection. Ronald
Rockwell, New York swing, ad drove in a right to the navel.
tently and groped out with his ness.
What a narrow band of
couldn’t know any more than nauseum. The two men separated and,
free hand. With the whole uni-
interests! puffing like steam locomotives
The toe bone was connected to Manet, but he could (and did)
verse to explore in thought and passing the diesel works, closed
the foot bone. know less. He had seen to that
concept, why did he have to be
. .
again.
when his own encephalograph
trapped with such an unoriginal Ronald leaped forward and
HE Red King smugly in matrix had programmed Ronald’s
T his diagonal corner.
sat
feeder.
“There were no dogfights in
human being?
Of course, Ronald wasn’t an
lead with his right.
Manet stepped inside the
The Black King stood two
original human being. He was a swing and lifted an uppercut to
places away, his top half tipsy Korea,” Ronald said.
copy. the ledge of Ronald’s jaw.
“I know.”
in frustration. Manet had been interested in Ronald pinwheeled to the floor.
The Red King crabbed
ways one square.
side- “The dogfight was a combat of
hundreds of planes in a tight
the Fabulous Forties Lt.— He lifted his bruised head from
“Hoot” Gibson, Sam Merwin the deck and worked his red-
The Black King pounced for- area, the last of which took place
tennis stories,Saturday Evening dened mouth. “Had enough?” he
near the end of the First World
ward one space.
War. The aerial duel, sometimes
Post covers —
when he had first asked Manet.
The Red King advanced back- learned of them, and he had Manet dropped his fists to his
inaccurately referred to as a
wards to face the enemy. learned all about them. He had sides and turned away. “Yes.”
‘dogfight’ was not seen in Korea
The Black King shuffled side- firm opinions on all these. Ronald hopped up lightly. “An-
ways. either.The pilots at supersonic
He yearned for someone to other checkers, Billy Boy?”
speeds only had time for single
The Red King
Uselessly.
followed. . .

passes at the enemy. Still, I be-

challenge him —
to say that “No.”
Dime Sports had been nothing “Okay. Anything you want,
“Tie game,” Ronald said. lieve, contrary to all experts, that
but a cheap yellow rag and, why, William, old conquerer.”
“Tie game,” Manet said. this took greater skill, man more
Sewanee Review, there had been Manet scrunched up inside
“Let’s talk,” Ronald said wedded to machine, than the lei-
a magazine for you. himself in impotent fury.
He was always cheer- surely combats of World War
cheerfully. Manet’s only consolidation was
One.”
Ronald was maddeningly co-
ful. that Ronald’s tastes were lower operative and peaceful. He would
Cheerfulness was a personality “I know.”
than his own. He patriotically in- even get in a fist fight to avoid
“Daniel Boone was still a crack
trait Manet had thumbed out for sisted that the American Sabre
He was trouble between them. He would
shot at eight-five.
him. Cheerful. Submissive. Co- Jet was superior to the Mig. He do anything Manet wanted him
said to be warm, sincere, modest,
operative. Manet had selected
respected and rheu-
maintained with a straight face to do. He was so utterly damned
these factors in order to make truthful,
thatTommy Dorsey was a better stupid.
Ronald as different a person from matic.”
band man than Benny Goodman. Manet’s eyes orbitted towards
himself as possible. “I know.”
Ronald was a terrific jerk. the checkerboard.

104
GALAXY HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS 105
 But if he were so much more hall.He had, he recalled, shove<} that three years ago the
ca ll Ronald locked in the Usher tomb
stupid than he, Manet, why was Ronald in there on Lincoln’s estimate was changed to
it that their checker games al- Birthday, a minor ironic twist he
official of the File Room for 18 flat years.
thirty* one years. The recent esti- Long before that, he would have
ways ended in a tie? appreciated quietly. He had been mate by certain reactionary worn his fists away hammering at
waiting in vain for Ronald to run sources of two hundred and the hatch. Then he might start
r
|
''HE calendar saidwas Spring
it down ever since. seventy-four years is not an offi- pounding with his head. Perhaps
on Earth when the radio was In Communication, he took a cial government estimate. The before the time was up he would
activated for a high-speed infor- seat and punched the slowed news for you is good, if you are have worn himself down to noth-
mation and entertainment trans- down playback of the trans- becoming nostalgic for home, or ing whatsoever.
mission. mission. not particularly bad if you are Manet selected the ripple-
The
buzzer-flasher activated in “Hello, Overseers,” the Voice counting on drawing your hand- finished gray-covered manual
the solarium at the same time. said. It was the Voice of the some salary for the time spent on from the hodgepodge, and
Manet lay stretched out on his B.B.C. It irritated Manet. He Mars. We
have every reason to thought: eighteen years.
back, naked, in front of the trans- never understood how the British believe our original estimate was Perhaps I should have begun
parent wall. had got the space transmissions substantially correct. The total here, he told himself.
By rolling his eyes back But I really
in his ass’gnment for the English lan- time is,within limits of error, a don’t have as much interest
head, Manet could see over a guage. He would have preferred flat 18 years.”
in’
that sort of thing as the earthier
hedge of eyebrows for several an American disk-jockey himself, A very flat 18 years, Manet types. Simple companionship was
hundred flat miles of white sand. one who appreciated New York thought as he palmed off the all I wanted. And, he thought
on,
And several hundred miles of swing. recorder. even an insipid personality like
desert could see him. “We imagine that you are most He sat there thinking about Ronald’s would be bearable with
For a moment he gloried in the interested in how long you shall eighteen years. certain compensations.
blatant display of his flabby mus- be required to stay at your pres- He did not switch to video for Manet opened the book to the
cles and patchy sunburn. ent stations,” said the Voice of some freshly taped westerns. chapter headed: The Making of
Then he sighed, rolled over to God’s paternal uncle. “As you on Finally, Manet went back to a Girl.
his feetand started trudging to- Mars may know, there has been the solarium and dragged the big
ward Communication. much discussion as to how long box out. There was a lot left in-
'17’ERONICA crept up behind
He padded down the rib-ridged will require to complete the
matted corridor, taking his usual
it

present schedule —
” there was of
side.
One of those parts, one of those
T Manet
hands up
and slithered her
his back and over his
small pleasure in the kaleido- course no “K” sound in the word bones or struts of flesh sprayers,
scopic effect of the spiraling re- — “for atmosphere seeding. one of them, he now knew, was
shoulders. She leaned forward
and breathed a moist warmth in-
flections on the walls of the “The original, non-binding esti- the Modifier.
to his ear, and worried the lobe
tubeway. mate at the time of your depart- The Modifier was what he with her even white teeth.
As he passed the File Room, ure was 18.2 years. However, needed to change Ronald. Or to
Daniel Boone,” she sighed
he caught the sound of the pound- determining how long it will take shut him off.
huskily, “only killed three In-
ing vibrations against the stop- our stations properly to remake If only the Master Chart dians in his life.”
pered plug of the hatch. the air of Mars is a problem com- hadn’t been lost, so he would “I know.”
“Come on, Billy Buddy, let me parable to finding the age of the know what the Modifier looked Manet folded his arms sto-
out of this place!” Earth. Estimates change as new like!He hoped the Modifier itself ically and added: “Please don’t
Manet padded on down the factors are learned. You may re- wasn’t lost. He hated to think of
talk.”

106 GALAXY HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS

107
 She sighed her instant agree- “Don’t be silly,”

were over, I’d

she snapped.
know about
R ONALD’S
Manet
as
criesgrew louder
marched Veronica ing
Ronald sidestepped the
girl.
lurch-

ment and moved her expressive “If it through the corridor. “Do you know what I’m going
hands over his chest and up to it, wouldn’t I?” “Hear that?” he inquired, smil- to do with you? Manet de-
the hollows of his throat. She would, except that some- ing with clenched teeth. manded. “I’m going to lock you
“I need a shave,” he observed. how she had turned out even less “No, darling.” up in here, and leave you for a
bright, less equipped with
Her hands instantly caressed Well, that was all right. He re- day, a month, a year, forever!
his face to prove that she liked a Manet’s own store of information, membered he had once told her Now what do you think about
rather bristly, masculine counte- than Ronald. Whoever had built to ignore the noise. She was still that?”
nance. the Lifo kit must have had following orders. “If you think it’s the right
Manet elbowed Veronica away ancient ideas about what consti- “Come on, Bill, open up the thing, dear,” Veronica said hes-
tuted appropriate “feminine” hatch for old Ronald,” the voice
in a gentlemanly fashion. itantly.
She made her return. characteristics. carried through sepulchrally. “You know best, Willy,” Ron-
“Not now,” he instructed her. “I suppose,” he said heavily, “Shut up!” Manet yelled. ald said uncertainly.
“Whenever you say.” “thatyou would like me to take The voice dwindled stub- Manet slammed the hatch in
He stood up and began pacing you back to Earth and introduce bornly, then cut off. disgust.
off the dimensions of the com- you to Daniel Boone?” A silence with a whisper of Manet walked carefully down
partment. There was no doubt “Oh, yes.” metallic ring to it. the corridor, watching streamers
about it: he had been missing his “Veronica, your stupidity is Why hadn’t he thought of that of his reflection corkscrewing into
regular exercise. hideous.” before? Maybe
because he se- the curved walls. He had to walk
“Now?” she asked. She lowered her long blonde cretly took comfort in the sound carefully, else the artery would
“I’ll tell you.” lashes on her pink cheeks. “That of an almost human voice echoing
roll up tight and squash him. But
you were a jet pilot,” Ver- is a mean thing to say to me. But through the station.
“If he walked too carefully for this
onica said wistfully, “you would I forgive you.” Manet threw back the bolt and to happen.
be romantic. You would grab An invisible hand began press- wheeled back the hatch. As he passed the File Room,
love when you could. You would ing down steadily on the top of Ronald looked just the same Ronald’s voice said: “In my
moment would his head until it forced a sound as had when Manet had seen him
never know which opinion, William, you should let
make the most out of him. “Aaaawrraagggh! last. His hands didn’t seem to
be last. You would us out.”
Must you be so cloyingly sweet? have been worn away in the least.
of each one.” “I,” Veronica said, “honestly
“I’m not a jet pilot,” Manet Do you have to keep taking that? Ronald’s lips seemed a trifle feel that you should let me out,
said.“There are no jet pilots. Isn’t there any fight in you at chapped. But that probably came Bill, dearest.”
There haven’t been any for gen- all?” not from all the shouting but Manet giggled. “What? What
erations.” He stepped forward and back- from having nothing to drink for was that? Do you suggest that I
“Don’t be silly,” Veronica said. handed her across the jaw. some months. take you back after you’ve been
“Who else would stop those vile It was the first time he had Ronald didn’t say anything to behind a locked door with my
North Koreans and Red China ever struck a woman, he realized Manet. best friend?”
‘volunteers’?” regretfully. He now knew he But he looked offended. He went down the corridor,
should have been doing it long “You,” Manet said to Veronica
“Veronica,” he said carefully, giggling.
“the Korean War is over. It was ago. with a shove in the small of the He giggled and thought: This
finished even before the last of Veronica sprang forward and back, “inside, inside.” will never do.
the jet pilots.” led with a right.
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS
108
GALAXY 109
T>OURING and tumbling He read the unfolding p a es
g
'-

through the Lifo kit, consult- The odd assortment of

critically. do everything I can to defeat you. “Yes.”
a ll your knowledge. You
ing the manual diligently, Manet ill-matched parts left in the box j have “No. Can’t do it, old man. Can’t.
concluded that there weren’t took a new shape in his mind and do not have all your knowledge. I know. You’re too human, too
you let yourself know some of
enough parts left in the box to under his fingers. . . If like me. The one thing a man
go around. Manet gave one final t he
things, it could be used can’t accept is a passive state, a
spurt
The book gave instructions for from the flesh-sprayer and stood against you. It is my function to state of uselessness. Not
he if
The Model Mother, The Model back. use everything I possibly can can possibly avoid it. Something
Father, The Model Sibling and Victor was finished. Perfect. against you.” has to be happening to him. He
others. Yet there weren’t parts Manet stepped forward, lifted
“When do you start?” has to be happening to some-
enough in the kit. the model’s left eyelid, tweaked “I’ve finished. I’ve done my thing. You didn’t kill me because
He would have to take parts his nose. worst. I have destroyed the then you would have nothing left
“Move!” Modifier.”
from Ronald or Veronica in order to do. You’ll never kill me.”
Victor leaped back into the “What’s so bad about that?”
to make any one of the others. “Of course not!” Victor
And he could not do that without Lifo kit and did a jig on one of Manet asked with some interest. stormed. “Fundamental safety
the Modifier. the flesh-sprayers. “You’ll have Veronica and cut-off!”
He wished Trader Tom would As the device twisted as hand- Ronald and me forever now. “Rationalization. You don’t
ily as good intentions,
We’ll never change. You’ll get want
return and extract some higher Manet to kill me. And you can’t
price from him for the Modifier, realized that it was not a flesh- older, and we’ll never change. stop challenging me at every
You’ll lose your interest in New
which was clearly missing from sprayer but the Modifier. turn. That’s your function.”
the kit. “It’s finished!” were Victor’s York swing and jet combat and “Stop talking and just think
Daniel Boone, and we’ll never
Or to get even more for simply first words. “It’s done!” about your miserable life,” Victor
repossessing the kit. Manet stared at the tiny
change. We don’t change and you said meanly. “Your friends won’t
can’t change us for others. I’ve
But Trader Tom would not be. wreck. “To say the least.” grow and mature with you. You
back. He came this way only Victor stepped out of the ob-
made the worst thing happen to won’t make any new friends.
once. long box. “There is something you you that can happen to any man. You’ll have me to constantly re-
I’ve seen that you will always
Manet thumbed through the should understand. I am different mind you of your uselessness,
keep your friends.”
manual in mechanical frustration. from the others.” your constant unrelenting steril-
As he did so, the solid piece of “They allsay that.” ity of purpose. How’s that for
the last section parted sheet by “I am not your friend.” HE prospect was frightful. boredom, for passiveness?”
sheet. “No?” Victor smiled. “Aren’t you “That’s what I’m trying to tell
You have made going to denounce me for a
He glanced forward and found “No. yourself you,” Manet said irritably, his
fiend?”
the headings: The Final Model. an enemy.” social manners rusty. “I won’t be
There seemed something om- Manet nothing more at
felt
“Yes, it time for the de-
is bored. You will see to that. It’s
inous about that finality. But he this information than an esthetic nouncement. Tell me, you feel your purpose. You’ll be a chal-
that now you are through? You
had paid a price for the kit, pleasure at the symmetry of the lenge, an obstacle, a source of
hadn’t he? Who knew what price, situation.
have fulfilled your function?” triumph every foot of the
when it came to that? He had completes the final course “Yes. Yes.” way.
“•It Don’t you see? With
every right to get everything out in socialization,” Victor contin- “Now you will have but to you for an enemy, I don’t
am your adversary. I will lean back, as it were, so to speak, need a friend!”
of the kit that he could. ued. “I
and see me suffer?” —
JIM HARMON
no GALAXY
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS 111
 I>ECAUSE of the crowd they
held Chandler’s trial in the
The pythons had entered int 0
all-purpose room of the high
Mankind. No man knew at what school. It smelled of leather and
moment he might be Possessed!
stale sweat. He walked up the
three steps to the stage, with the
By FREDERIK POHL bailiff’s hand on his elbow, and
took his place at the defendant's
Illustrated by RITTER
table.
Chandler’s lawyef looked at
him without emotion. He was ap-
pointed by the court. He was
willing to do his job, but his job
didn’t require him to like his cli-
ent. All he said was, “Stand up.
The judge is coming in.”

Chandler got to his feet and

leaned on the table while the
bailiff chanted his call and the
chaplain read some verses from
John. He did not listen. The
Bible verse came too late to hqlp
him, and besides he ached.
When the police arrested him
they had not been gentle. There
were four of them. They were
from the plant’s own security
force and carried no guns. They
didn’t need any; Chandler had
put up no resistance after the
first few moments —
that is, he
stopped as soon as he could stop
— but the police hadn’t stopped.
He remembered that very clear-
ly. He remembered the nightstick

across the sfde of his head that

left his ear squashed and puffy,

112 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 113


he remembered the kick in the
gut that still made walking pain-
ful. He even remembered the
series of blows about the skull
that had knocked him out.
The bruises along his rib cage
and left arm, though, he did not
remember getting. Obviously the
police had been mad enough to
keep right on subduing him after
he was already unconscious.
Chandler did not blame them
— exactly. He supposed he
would have done the same thing.
The judge was having a long
mumble with the court stenog-
rapher apparently about
thing which had happened in the
Union House the night before.
Chandler knew Judge Ellithorp
slightly. He
did not expect to get
a fair trial. The previous Decem-
ber the judge himself, while pos-
sessed, had smashed the trans-
mitter of the town’s radio station,
which he owned, and set fire to
the building occupied. His son-
it
in-law had been killed in the fire.
Laughing, the judge waved the
reporter back to his seat and
glanced around the courtroom.
His gaze touched Chandler light-
ly, like the flick of the hanging
strands of cord that precede a
railroad tunnel.
ried the
The touch car-
same warning. What lay
ahead for Chandler was destruc-
tion.
“Read the charge,” ordered
Judge Ellithorp. He spoke very
114
”
loudly.There were more than six through the papers on his desk around the all-purpose room, de-
hundred persons in the auditor- crowd in the auditorium
the fying anyone to smile, as he
ium; the judge didn’t want any stirred and murmured. chanted: “Domina Pythonis, I
of them to miss a word. A child began to cry. command you, leave! Leave, Hel!
The bailiff ordered Chandler
Leave, Heloym! Leave, Sother
to stand and informed him that rf^HE JUDGE stood up and and Thetragrammaton, leave, all
he was accused of having, on the *- pounded his gavel. “What is unclean ones! I command you!
seventeenth day of June last, it? What’s the matter with him? In the name of God, in all of His
committed on the person of Mar- You, Dundon!” The court attend-
garet Flershem, a minor, an act
manifestations!” He sat down
ant the judge was looking at hur-
of rape — “Louder!” ordered the ried over and spoke to the child’s
again, still very grave.
that he did not make nearly as
He knew
judge testily. mother, then reported to the
“Yes, Your Honor,” said the judge.
fine a showing as Father Lon,
with his resonant in nomina Jesu
and inflated his chest. “An
bailiff, “Idunno, Your Honor. All he Christi et Sancti Ubaldi and his
Act of Rape under Threat of says is something scared him.” censer, but the post of exorcist
Bodily Violence,” he cried; “and The judge was enraged. “Well, was filled in strict rotation, one
some- Did Further Commit on the Per- that’s just fine! Now we have to month to a denomination, ever
son of Said Margaret Flershem up the time
an Act of Aggravated Assault — take
people,
of all these good
probably for no reason,
sincethe troubles started. Dr.
Palmer was a Unitarian. Exor-
Chandler rubbed his aching and hold up the business of this cisms had not been in the curric-
side, looking at the ceiling. He court, just because of a child. ulum at the seminary and he had
remembered the look in Peggy Bailiff! I want you to clear this been forced to invent his own.
Flershem’s eyes as he forced him- courtroom of all children under
self on her. She was only sixteen — ” he hesitated,
calculating vot-
Chandler’s lawyer tapped him
on the shoulder. “Last chance to
years old, and at that time he
hadn’t even known her name.
ing blocks in his head —
“all change your mind,” he said.
children under the age of six. “No. I’m not guilty, and that’s
The bailiff boomed on: “• and — Dr. Palmer, are you there? Well, the way I want to plead.”
Did Further Commit on that
Same Seventeenth Day of June
you better go ahead with the — The lawyer shrugged and
prayer.” The judge could not stood up, waiting for the judge
Last on the Person of Ingovar make himself say “the exor- to notice him.
Porter an Act of Assault with cism.” Chandler, for the first time, al-
Intent to Rape, the Foregoing “I’m sorry,madam,” he added lowed himself to meet the eyes
Being a True Bill Handed Down to the mother of the crying two- of the crowd.
by the Grand Jury of Sepulpas year-old. “If you have someone He studied the jury first. He
County in Extraordinary Session
Assembled, the Eighteenth Day
to leave the child with,
struct the attendants to save
I’ll in- knew some of them casually —
it was not a big enough town to
of June Last.” your place for you.” She was also command a jury of total strang-
Judge Ellithorp looked satis- a voter. ers for any defendant, and
fied as the bailiff sat down, quite Dr. Palmer rose, very grave, as Chandler had lived there most of
winded. While the judge hunted he was embarrassed. He glared his life. He recognized Pop
GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 115
Matheson, old and very stiff, who in contemporary human society “She was all blood. And her fied, Chandler was able to tally
ran the railroad station cigar caught, exposed, convicted and clothes were —
And she was, I every break and bruise against
stand. Two of the other men were punished; they did not want to mean her —her body was — the memory of what his own
familiar as faces passed in the miss a step of the process. Al- With relentless tact the prosecu- body had done. He had been a
street. The forewoman, though, ready in the playground behind torallowed her to stammer out spectator then, too, as remote
was a She sat there
stranger. the school three deputies from her observation that the girl from the event as he was now;
very composed and frowning, the sheriff’s office were loading had clearly been raped. And she but that was why they had him
and all he knew about her was their rifles, while the school jani- had seen Chandler laughing and on trial. That was what they did
that she wore funny hats. Yester- tor chalked lines around the breaking up the place, throwing not believe.
day’s had been red roses when handball court to mark where the racks of cultures through the win- At twelve-thirty the prosecu-
she was selected from the panel; crowd witnessing the execution dows, upsetting trays. Of course tion restedits case, Judge Elli-
today’s was, of all things, a would be permitted to stand. she had crossed herself and tried thorp looking very pleased. He
stuffed bird. a quick exorcism but there was recessed the court for one hour
He did not think that any of HPHE PROSECUTION made no visible effect; then Chandler for lunch, and the guards took
them were possessed. He was not its case very quickly. Mrs. had leaped at her. “He was hate- Chandler back to the detention
so sure of the audience. Porter testified that she worked ful!He was just foul!” But as he cell in the basement of the school.
He saw girls he had dated in at McKelvey Bros., the antibi- began to attack her the plant Two Swiss cheese sandwiches
high school, long before he met otics plant, where the defendant police came, drawn by her and a wax-paper carton of choc-
Margot; men he worked with at also worked. Yes, that was him. screams. olate milk were on the desk.
the plant. They all glanced at She had been attracted by the Chandler’s attorney did not They were Chandler’s lunch. As
him, but he was not sure who noise from the culture room last question.
was looking out through some of — let’s see— “Was it the seven- Peggy Flershem’s deposition
they had been standing, the sand-
wiches were crusty and the milk
those familiar eyes. The visitors teenth day of June last?” was introduced without objection lukewarm. He ate them anyway.
reliably watched all large gather- prompted the prosecutor, and from the defense. But she had He knew what the judge looked
ings, at momentarily; it
least Chandler’s attorney instinctively little to say anyway, having been
pleased about. At one-thirty
would be surprising if none of gathered his muscles to rise, hesi- dazed at first and unconscious Chandler’s lawyer would put him
them were here. tated, glanced at his client and later. The plant police testified on the stand, and no one would
“All right, how do you plead,” shrugged. That was right, it was to having arrested Chandler; a pay very much attention to what
said Judge Ellithorp at last. the seventeenth. Incautiously she doctor described in chaste medi- he had to say, and the jury would
Chandler’s lawyer straightened went right into the room. She cal words the derangements be out at most twenty minutes,
up. “Not guilty, Your Honor, by should have known better, she Chandler had worked on Peggy and the verdict would be guilty.
reason of temporary pandemic admitted. She should have called Flershem’s virgin anatomy. There The judge was pleased because
insanity.” the plant police right away, but, was no question from Chandler’s he would be able to pronounce
The judge looked pleased. The well, they hadn’t had any trou- lawyer — and, for that matter, sentence no later than four
crowd murmured, but they were ble at the plant, you know, and nothing to question. Chandler did o’clock, no matter what. They
pleased too. They had him dead — well, she didn’t. She was a not hope to pretend that he had had formed the habit of holding
to rights and it would have been stupid woman, for all that she not ravished and nearly killed the executions at sundown. As,
a disappointment if Chandler was rather good-looking, and in- one girl, then done his best to at that time of year, sundown
had pleaded guilty. They wanted satiably curious. She had seen repeat the process on another. was after seven, it would all go
to see one of the vilest criminals Peggy Flershem on the floor. Sitting there as the doctor testi- very well — for everyone but

116 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 117

 had always retained a certain firing squad,”
Chandler. For Chandler it would where but at
plant, all right, but there’s never
the McKelvey skepticism about “possession” — “And that’s all.”
said his lawyer.
be the end. seemed like such a convenient
it
been any trouble there. You way for anyone to do any illicit jC'IVE OR SIX
II know
laymen
that.
is
The
you think
trouble with you
of lawyers
thing he chose until the mo- — executed for hoaxing;
others had been
Chand-
ment when he looked up to see ler was familiar with the ritual.
rpHE ODD thing about Chand- in terms of Perry Mason, right? Peggy Flershem walking into the He even understood it, in a way.
ler’s dilemma was not mere- Rabbit out of the hat stuff. Well, culture room with a tray of agar
ly that he was innocent — in a I can’t do that. I can only pre-
disks, and was astonished to find
The world had gone to pot in
way, that is — but that many sent your case, whatever it is, the himself striking her with the
the previous two years. The real
enemy was out of reach; when
who were guilty (in a way; as best way possible. And the best
wrench in his hand and ripping any citizen might run wild and,
guilty as he himself, at any rate) thing I can do for your case right at her absurdly floral-printed when caught, relapse into his
were free and honored citizens. now tell you you haven’t got
is
own
. slacks. Maybe his case was dif- self, terrified and sick, there was
Chandler himself was a widower one.” At that time the lawyer ferent. Maybewasn’t the sort
it a need to strike back. But the
because his own wife had been was still trying to be fair. He was of possession that struck at ran- enemy was invisible. The hoaxers
murdered. He had seen the mur- even casting around for some
derer leaving the scene of the thought he could use to convince
dom; maybe he was
rocker.
just off his were only whipping boys but —
they were the only targets ven-
crime, and the man he had seen himself that his client was inno- Margot, his wife, had been cut geance had.
was in the courtroom today, cent, though he had frankly ad- up cruelly. He had seen his The real enemy had struck the
watching Chandler’s own trial. Of mitted as soon as he introduced friend, Jack Souther, leaving his entire world in a single night.
the six hundred or so in the court, himself that he didn’t have much home hurriedly as he ap- One day the people of the world
at least fifty were known to have hope there. proached; and although he had went about their business in the
taken part in one or more prov- Chandler protested that he thought that the stains on his gloomy knowledge that they
able acts of murder, rape, arson, didn’t have to commit rape. He’d
theft, sodomy, vandalism, assault been a widower for a year, but — clothes looked queerly like blood,
nothing in that prepared him for
were likely to make mistakes but
with, at least, the comfort that
and battery or a dozen other of- “Wait a minute,” said the law- what he found in the rumpus the mistakes would be their own.
fenses indictable under the laws yer. “Listen. You can’t make an room. It had taken him some The next day had no such com-
of the state. Of course, that could ordinary claim of possession
time to identify the spread-out fort. The next day anyone, any-
be said of almost any community stick,but what about good old- dissection on the floor with his where, was likely to find himself
in the world in those years; fashioned insanity?” Chandler wife Margot “No,” he told
. . . seized, possessed, working evil or
Chandler’s was not unique. What looked puzzled, so the lawyer his lawyer, “I was shaken up, of whimsy without intention and
had put Chandler in the dock explained. Wasn’t it possible that
course. The worst time was the
was not what his body had been Chandler was — consciously,
next night, when there was a
helplessly.
Chandler stood up, kicked the
seen to do, but the place in which subconsciously, unconsciously, knock on the door and I
it had been seen to do it. For call it what you will —trying it and it was Jack. He’d come
opened
to
balled-up wax paper from his
sandwiches across the floor and
everybody knew that medicine
and agriculture were never mo-
to get revenge for
pened to his own
what had hap-
wife?
apologize. I — fell apart; but I swore violently.
got over it. I tell you I was pos- He was beginning to wake
lested by the demons. No, said Chandler, certainly sessed, that’s all.” from the shock that had gripped
Chandler’s own lawyer had not! But then he had and
to stop “And you that defense
I tell him. “Damn fool,” he said to him-
pointed that out to him the day think. After all, he had never put you right
will in front of a self. He had no particular reason.
before the trial. “If it was any- been possessed before; in fact, he
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 119
118 GALAXY
 Like the world, he needed a he had not thought to mark
whipping boy too, if only him- an
himself very well, he thought, ter with you? You asleep out
escape route when he Was
self. “Damn fool, you know brought in, it did him no jje only asked: “Would that do there?”
g 00(j
they’re going to shoot you!” The guard, however, had me any good at all?”
a /’"''HANDLER was sworn, gave
He stretched and twisted his gun. Chandler lifted up an The lawyer reflected, gazing
edge name, admitted the truth
body violently, alone in the mid- the ceiling. No. I guess it. his
of the table and tried to shake at
.

dle of the room, in silence. He of everything the previous wit-

one of the legs. They did vvouldn t.
not had The faces were
had to wake up. He had to start shake; that part of his taxes Chandlernodded. “So what nesses said.
had about? Want aimed at him, every one. He
else shall we talk
thinking. In a quarter of an hour still
been well enough spent, he
notes about where could not read them at all any
or less the court would recon- thought wryly. The chair? Could to compare
vene, and from then it was only you were and I was the night more, could not tell if they were
he smash the chair to get a club
possessed?” friendly or hating, there were too
a steady, quick slide to the grave. which would give him a weapon the President went
had The
It was better to do anything to get the guard’s
gun? . . .
The lawyer was irritated. He many and they all eyes.

than to do nothing. He examined his mouth shut for a mo- jurors sat on their funeral-parlor
Before he reached the chair kept
the windows of his improvised ment until he thought he could chairs like cadavers, embalmed
the door opened and his lawyer
cell. They were above his head came in. keep from showing it. Outside a and propped, the dead witness-
ing a wake for the living. Only
and barred;
standing on the “Sorry I’m late,” he said brisk- vendor was hawking amulets:
table, he could see feet walking Ann beads! Witch knots! theforewoman in the funny hat
ly. As your attorney I have
“Well. “St.
looking
showed signs of life,
outside, in the paved play-yard to tell you they’ve presented a Fresh garlic, local grown, best in
of the school. He discarded the damaging case. As I see it — town!” The lawyer shook his alertly at Chandler, at the judge,
at the man next to her, around
thought of escaping that way; “What case?” Chandler de- head.
there was no one to smuggle him “All right,” he said, “it’s your the auditorium. Maybe it was a
manded. “I never denied the acts.
At least she did not
a file, and there was no time. He What did they prove?”
else life.We’ll do it your way. Any- good sign.
have frozen in concrete,
the
studied the door 'to the hall. It “Oh, God!” said his lawyer, not way, time’s up; Sergeant Grantz
was not impossible that when the will be banging on the door any
guilty-as-hell look of the others.
quite loudly enough to be insult-
guard opened it he could jump minute.” His attorney asked him the
ing. “Do we have to go over that
him, knock him out, run He zipped up his briefcase. question he had been waiting for:
run . . . again? Your claim of possession
where? The room had been a Chandler did not move. “They “Tell us, in your own words, what
would make a defense if it had
storage place for athletic equip- don’t give us much time anyway,” happened.” Chandler opened his
happened anywhere else. We
ment at the end of a hall; the the lawyer added, angry at mouth, and paused. Curiously, he
know that these cases exist, but
hall led only to the stairs and Chandler and at hoaxers in gen- had forgotten what he wanted to
we also know that they follow a
the stairs emerged into the court- eral but not willing to say so. say. He had rehearsed this mo-
pattern. Some areas seem to be
room. It was quite likely, he
thought, that the hall had an-
immune —
medical establish- “Grantz is a stickler for prompt- ment again and again; but all
that came out was:
ments, pharmaceutical ness.”
plants mean, did
other flight of stairs somewhere Chandler found a crumb of “I didn’t do it. I I
among them. So they proved that
farther along, or through another cheese by his hand and absently the acts, but I was possessed.
all this happened in pharma-
a
room. What had he ate The lawyer watched him That’s all. Others have done
spent his ceutical plant. I advise you to it.

taxes on these years, and glanced at his watch. “Oh, worse, under the same circum-
ifnot for plead guilty.”
schools designed with he picked up his brief- stances, and been let off. Just as
more than Chandler sat down on the hell,” said,
one exit in case of case and kicked the base of the Fisher was acquitted for murder-
fire? But as edge of the table, controlling
door. “Grantz! What’s the mat- ing the Leamards, as Draper got
120
GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 121
 what he did to the Cline
off after then time, as
if to make
'

ame '

sessed! And beyond doubt the “No nonsense, you! Listen to me,
boy.
was
As Jack Souther over there
he murdered my
let off after
came to a stop, abrupt,
brak^ woman The men around
was. her young man —
on.The judge asked the Ury f*" The lawyer snapped, “Permis-
own wife. They should be. They j hurled themselves away, as from
their verdict and it was an leprosy among them, and then sion to approach the bench.”
couldn’t help themselves. What- nity before the forewoman
ever this thing is that takes con- arosT washed back like a lynch mob. “Granted.”
She was beginning to
trol, I know it be fought.
can’t
i 0Q ,
She was giggling as they fell on Chandler sat unable to move,
rather disheveled.
My Beaming at her. “Got a cigarette? No ciga- watching the brief, stormy con-
God, you can’t even try to
fight it!”
Chandler — surely the
woman rettes in this lousy bag oh.” — ference. It was painful to be com-
was rather odd, it couldn’t be
He was She screamed as they touched ing back to life. It was agony to
The
not getting through.
had not changed. The
faces
just his imagination — she fUln her, went limp and screamed a- hope. At least, he thought de-
bled in her pocketbook for
forewoman of the jury was now the gain. tachedly, his lawyer was fighting
slip of paper with the
searching systematically through verdict It was a different note this for him; the prosecutor’s face was
But she wore an expression pure hysteria: couldn’t
her pocketbook, taking each item 0f time, “I a thundercloud.
suppressed laughter.
out and examining it, putting it stop. Oh, God.” The lawyer came back, with
“I knew
had it,” she cried
I
the expression of a man who
has
back and taking out another. But triumphantly and waved the slip /"’HANDLER caught his lawyer won a victory he did not ex-
between times she looked at him
and at least her expression wasn’t
above her head. “Now, let’s see.”
She held it before her eyes and
^ by the arm and jerked him pect, and did not want. “Your

hostile.He said, addressing her: away from staring at the scene. last chance, Chandler. Change
squinted. “Oh, yes. Judge, we
the of a sudden he was alive your plea to guilty.”
“That’s all there is to it. It
wasn’t me running my body. It
jury, and so forth and so on .”
All
again. “You, damn it. Listen! The “But —
She paused to wink at Judge “Don’t push your luck, boy!
was someone jury acquitted me, right?”
else. I swear it be- Ellithorp. An uncertain worried
fore all of you, and before God.” The lawyer was startled. The judge has agreed to accept
murmur welled up in the audi-
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a clear a plea. They’ll throw you out of
The prosecutor did not bother
to question him.
torium. “All that junk, Judge,”
she explained, “anyway, we u-
case of — town, of course. But you’ll be
“Be a lawyer, man! You live alive.” Chandler hesitated. “Make
Chandler went back to his seat nanimously — but unanimously on technicalities, don’t you? Make up your mind! The best I can do
and sat down and watched the
next twenty minutes go by in
love! —
find this son of a bitch
,

this one work for me!” otherwise is a mistrial, and that

innocent. Why,” she giggled, “we
the wink of an eye, rapid, rapid, The attorney gave him a queer, means you’ll get convicted by
think he ought to get a medal,
they were in a hurry to shoot thoughtful look, hesitated, another jury next week.”
you know? I tell you what you
him. He could hardly believe that shrugged and got to his feet. He Chandler said, testing his luck:
do, love, you go right over and
Judge Ellithorp could speak so had to shout to be heard. “Your “You’re sure they’ll keep their
give him a big wet kiss and say
fast,the jurymen rise and file honor! I take it my client is free end of the bargain?”
you’re sorry.” She kept on talk-
out at a gallop, zip, whisk, and to go.” The lawyer shook his head, his
ing, but no one heard. The mur-
they were back again. Too fast! He made almost as much of a expression that of a man who
mur because a mass scream.
he cried silently, time had gone stiras the sobbing woman, but he smells something unpleasant.
“Stop, stop her!” bawled the
into high gear; but he knew that outshouted the storm. “The jury’s “Your honor! I ask you to dis-
judge, dropping
it was only his imagination.
The
his glasses. verdict is on record. Granted charge the jury. My
client wishes
“Bailiff!”
twenty minutes had been a full there was an apparent case of to change his plea.”
twelve hundred seconds. And
The scream became a word, possession. Nevertheless — ... In the school’s chemistry
in many voices chorused: Pos- an hour Chandler
Judge Ellithorp yelled back: lab, later, dis-

122
GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 123

covered that the lawyer had left
out one little detail. Outside there
was a sound of motors idling, the
police car that would dump him
at the town’s limits; inside was a
thin, hollow hiss. It was the
sound of a Bunsen burner, and in
its blue flame a crudely shaped
The railroads were safer
far safer than either cars or air
transport, notoriously a lightning-
rod attracting possession. Chand-
ler was surprised when the train
came crashing to a stop, each
freight car smashing against the
couplings of the one ahead, the
The tracks followed the roll of
— a river, their bed a few feet higher
than an empty three-lane high-
way, which in turn was a dozen
feet about the water. As he looked
out the engine brayed twice. The
train jolted uncertainly, then
stopped again.
Then there was a very long
things were almost never inter-
fered with.
Chandler jumped down to the
roadbed, slipped on the crushed
rock and almost fell. He had for-
gotten the wound on his forehead.
He clutched the sill of the car
door, where an ankh and fleur-de-
lis had been chalked to ward off

iron changed slowly from cherry
to orange to glowing straw. It
had the .shape of a letter “H”.
“H” for “hoaxer.” The mark
they were about to put on his
forehead would be with him
wherever he went and as long
as he lived, which would prob-
ably not be long. “H” for “hoaxer,”
so that a glance would show that
he had been convicted of the
worst offense of all.
No one spoke to him as the
sheriff’s man took the iron out
of the fire, but three husky police-
men held his arms while he
screamed.
Ill
THEwhen pain was still
engine jolting forward and stop-
ping again.
Then there was silence. It en-
dured.
Chandler, who had been slow-
ly waking after a night of very
little sleep, sat up against the
wall of the boxcar and wondered
what was wrong.
It seemed remiss to start a day
without signing the Cross or hear-
ing a few exorcismal verses. It
seemed to be mid-morning, time
for work to be beginning at the
plant. The lab men would be
their amulets ex-
streaming in,
amined at the door. The chaplains
would be wandering about, ready
to pray a possessing spirit out.
Chandler, who an open
kept
mind, had considerable doubt of
time when nothing happened at
all.
From Chandler’s car he could
not see the engine. He was on the
convex of the curve, and the
other door of the car was sealed.
He did not need to see it to
know that something was wrong.
There should have been a brake-
man running with a flare to ward
off other trains; but there was
not. There should have been a
station, or at least a water tank,
to account for the stop in the
first place. There was not.
thing had gone wrong, and Chand-
ler knew what it was. Not the
details, but the central fact that
lay behind this and behind almost
everything that went wrong these
demons, until the sudden rush of
blood subsided and the pain be-
gan to relent. After a moment he
walked gingerly to the end of the
car, slipped between the cars,
dodged the couplers and climbed
the ladder to its roof.
It was a warm, bright, silent
day. Nothing moved. From his
height he could see the Diesel at
the front of the train and the
caboose at No
its rear. people.
The train was halted a quarter-
mile from where the tracks
Some- swooped across the river on a
suspension bridge. Away from
the river, the side of the tracks
that had been hidden from him
before, was an uneven rock cut
and, above it, the slope of a

Chandler awoke the

burning
the effectiveness of all the amu-
lets and spells —
certainly they
days.
The engineer was possessed. It
mountain.
By
looking carefully he could
next day. He wished he had a had to be that. spot the signs of a number of
bandage, but he didn’t, and that had not kept him from a brutal Yet it was odd, he thought, as homes within half a mile or so
was that. ra pe — but he felt uneasy with- odd as his own trouble. He had — the corner of a roof, a glassed-
He was in a freight car —
had out them. . The train still
. .
chosen this car with care. It con- in porch built to command a
hopped it on the run at the yards, was not moving. In the silence tained eight refrigerator cars full river view, a twenty-foot tele-
daring to sneak back into town he could hear the distant huffing of pharmaceuticals, and if any- vision antenna poking through
long enough for that. He could of the engine. thing was known about the laws the trees. There was also the
not hope to hitchhike, with that He went to the door, support- governing possession, as his law- curve of a higher road along which
mark on him. Anyway, hitchhik- ing himself with one hand on yer had told him, it was that such the homes were strung.
ing was an invitation to trouble. the wooden wall, and looked out.
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 125
124
GALAXY
 Chandler took thought. He his skin had the gross pits of old

was alive and free, two gifts more acne.

gracious than he had had any Chandler said glibly: “Good
right to expect. However, he morning. I’m working my W ay
would need food and he would east. I need something to eat
need at least some sort of band- and I’m willing to work for it.”
age for his forehead. He had a The man withdrew, leaving the
wool cap, stolen from the high upper half of the Dutch door
school, which would hide the open. As it looked in on only a
mark, though what it would do vestibule it did not tell Chandler
to the burn on his skin was some- much. There was one curious
thing else again. thing — a lath and cardboard
Chandler climbed down the sign, shaped like an arc of a
ladder.With considerable pain he rainbow, lettered:
gentled the cap over the great
raw H
on his forehead and began WELCOME TO ORPHALESE
to climb the mountain.
He puzzled over it and dismissed
TTE KNOCKED on the first it.The entrance room, apart from
door he came to, a great old the sign, had a knickknack shelf
three-story house with well of Japanese carved ivory and an
tended gardens. old-fashioned umbrella rack, but
There was a wait. The air that added nothing to his knowl-
smelled warmly of honeysuckle edge. He had already guessed
ancl mown grass, with wild onions that the owners of this home
chopped down by the blades of were well off. Also it had been
the mower. It was pleasant, or recently painted; so they were not
would have been in happier demoralized, as so much of the
times. He knocked again, per- world had been demoralized, by
emptorily, and door was
the the coming of the possessors.
opened at once. Evidently some- Even the elaborate sculpturing of
one had been right inside, listen- its hedges had been maintained.
ing. The man came back and with
A man stared at him. “Stranger, him was a girl of fifteen or so.
what do you want?” He was short, She was tall, slim and rather
plump, with an extremely thick homely, with a large jaw and an
and unkempt beard. It did not oval face. “Guy, he’s not much
appear to have been grown for to look at,” she said to the pock-
its own sake, for where the facial marked man. “Meggie, shall I let
hair could not be coaxed to grow him in?” he asked. “Guy, you

126 GALAXY
 as well,” she shrugged,
might
staring at Chandler with interest
but not sympathy.
come along,”
“Stranger,
the man named Guy, and led
through a short hall into an
enormous living room, a room two
stories high with a ten-foot fire-
place.
Chandler’s thought was
first
that he had stumbled in upon a
wake. The room was neatly laid
out in rows of folding chairs,
more than half of them occupied.
He entered from the side, but all
the occupants of the chairs were
looking toward him. He returned
their stares; he had had a good
deal of practice lately in looking
back at staring faces, he reflected.
“Stranger, go on,” said the man
who had let him in, nudging him,
“and meet the people of Orphal-
ese.”
Chandler hardly heard him. He
had not expected anything like
this. It was a meeting, a Daumier
caricature of a Thursday After-
noon Literary Circle, old men
with faces like moons, young
women with faces like hags. They
were strained, haggard and fear-
ful,and a surprising number of
them showed some sort of physi-
cal defect, a bandaged leg, an
arm in a sling or merely the
marks of pain on the features.
“Stranger, go in,” repeated the
man, and it was only then that
Chandler noticed the man was
holding a pistol, pointed at Bible on the desk before him and his command against Washing-
his
head. thrown it at the television ton, D. C.
camera. Over five hundred missiles
said /"'HANDLER sat in the rear of The last the televiewers had were involved. In most of the
him ^ the room, watching. There seen was the fluttering pages of
the Book, growing larger as it
sites the order was disobeyed,
but in- six of them, unfortunately,
must be thousands of little colo-
crashed against the lens, then a unquestioning discipline won out,
nies like this, he reflected; with
the breakdown of long-distance flicker and a blinding shot of the thus ending not only the swear-
communication the world had studio lights as the cameraman ing in, the general’s weeping ex-
been atomized. There was a real jumped away and the instrument planation, the spinning of tapes,
swiveled to stare mindlessly up- but also some two million lives in
fear, well justified, of living" i n
ward. Twenty minutes later the the District of Columbia, Mary-
large groups, for they too were
President was dead, as his Secre- land, Virginia and (through
lightning rods for possession. The
tary of Health and Welfare, hur- malfunctioning relays on two
world was stumbling along, but
it was lame in all its members; a
rying with him back to the White missiles) Pennsylvania and Ver-
lobotomy had stolen House, calmly took a hand gren- mont. But it was only the begin-
planetary
from it its wisdom and plan. If, ade from a Marine guard at the ning.
he reflected dryly, it had ever gate and blew the President’s
had any. party to fragments. f'T'HESE were the first cases of
But of course things were bet- For the President’s seizure was possession seen by the world
ter in the old days. The world only the first and most conspicu- in some five hundred years, since
had seemed on the brink ous. “Disht dvornyet ilgt.” C.I.A. the great casting out of devils of
of blow-
ing itself up, but at least it was specialists were playing the tapes the Middle Ages. A thousand
by its own hand. Then came of the broadcast feverishly, elec- more occurred in the next few
tronically cleaning the mumble days, a hundred in the next hours.
Christmas.
had happened at Christmas,
It
and stir from the studio away The timetable was made up out
and the first sign was on nation- from the words to try to learn, of scattered reports in the wire-
The first, the language and second service newsrooms, while they
wide television. old Presi-
dent, balding, grave and plump, what the devil it meant; but the still had facilities for spot cover-
President who ordered it was age in any part of the world.
was making a special address to
the nation, urging good will to dead before the first reel spun, (That lasted almost a week.)
men and, please, artificial trees and his successor was not quite They identified 237 cases of
because of the fire danger in the sworn in when it became his time possessionby noon of the next
event of H-bomb raids; in the to die. The ceremony was inter- day. Disregarding the dubious
middle of a sentence twenty mil- rupted for an emergency call items —
the Yankee pitcher who
lion viewers had seen him stop, from the War Room, where a leaped from the Manhattan
look dazedly around and say, in very nearly hysterical four-star bridge (he had Bright’s disease),
a breathless mumble, what general was trying to explain the warden of San Quentin who
sounded like: “Disht dvornyet why he had ordered the immedi- seated himself in the gas cham-
ilgt.” He had then picked up the ate firing of every live missile in ber and, literally, kicked the
bucket (did he know the Grand
Jury was subpoenaing his
books?) — disregarding these,
the chronology of major cases
that evening was:
8:27 PM, E.S.T.: President has
attack on television.
8:28 PM, E.S.T.: Prime Min-
ister of England orders bombing
raid against Israel, alleging secret
plot (order not carried out).
8:28 PM, E.S.T.: Captain of
SSN Ethan Allen, surfaced near
Montauk Point, orders crash dive
and course change, proceeding
submerged at flank speed to New
York Harbor.
9:10 PM, E.S.T.: Eastern Air-
lines six-engine jet makes wheels-
up landing on roof of Pentagon,
breaking some 1500 windows but
causing no other major damage
(except to the people aboard the
jet); record of this incident frag-
mentary because entire site
charred black in fusion attack
two hours later.
9:23 PM, E.S.T.: Rosalie Pan,
musical-comedy star, jumps off
stage, runs up center aisle and
vanishes in cab, wearing beaded
bra, G-string and $2500 head-
dress. Her movements are traced
to Newark airport where she
boards TWA jetliner, which is
never seen again.
9:50 PM, E.S.T.: Entire S.A.C.
fleet of 1200 jet bombers takes
off for rendezvous over New-
foundland, where 72% are com-
130
pelled to ditch as tankers fail to
keep refueling rendezvous. (Or-
ders committing the aircraft orig-
inate with S.A.C. commander
found to be a suicide.)
10.14 PM, E.S.T.: Submarine
fusion explosion destroys 40% Q f
New York City. Analysis of fall-
out indicates U.S. Navy Polaris
missiles were detonated under-
water in bay; by elimination it is
deduced that the submarine was
the Ethan Allen.
10:50 PM, E.S.T.: President’s
party assassinated by Secretary
of Health, Education and Wel-
fare; Secretary then dies on bay-
onet of Marine guard who fur-
nished the grenade.
10:55 PM, E.S.T. Satellite
stations observe great nuclear ex-
plosions in China and Tibet.
11:03 PM, E.S.T.: Heavily
loaded munitions barges exploded
near North Sea dikes of Holland;
dikes breached, 1800 square miles
of reclaimed land flooded out . .
And so on. The incidents were
countless. But before long, before
even the C.I.A. had finished the
first playthrough of the tapes, be-
fore their successors in the task
identified Disht dvornyet ilgt as
a Ukrainian dialect rendering of,
My God, it works! — before all
this, one fact was already ap-
parent. There were many inci-
dents scattered around the world,
but not one of them took place
in Russia itself.
GALAXY
ARSAW was ablaze, China It was fortunate for the Com-
pockmarked with blasts,
East Berlin demolished along
munists that most of the Western
arsenal had already spent itself
with its western sector, in eight in suicide. What was left wiped
rounds fired from a U.S. Army out Moscow, Leningrad and nine
nuclear cannon. But the U.S.S.R. other cities. It was even fortunate
for the whole world, for this was
had not suffered at all, as far as
could be told by the prying eyes the Apocalypse they had dreaded,
in orbit; and that fact was reason every possible nuclear weapon
committed. But the circum-
enough for it to suffer very great-
ly very soon. —
stances were such hasty orders,
Within minutes of this dis- often at once recalled; confusion;
covery what remained of the mil- panic —
that most were unfused,
itary strength of the Western many others merely tore great
world was roaring through airless craters in the quickly healing
space toward the most likely tar- surface of the sea. The fallout
gets of the East. was locally murderous but quite
One unscathed missile base in spotty.
Alaska completed a full shoot, And the conventional forces in-
seven missiles with fusion war- vading Russia found nothing to
heads. The three American bases The Russians were as con-
fight.
that survived at all in the Med- fused as they. There were not
iterranean fired what they had. many survivors of the very top
Even Britain, which had already brass, and no one seemed to
watched the fire-tails of the Amer- know just what had happened.
ican missiles departing on suicide Was the Secretary of the C.P.,
.
missions,managed to resurrect its U.S.S.R. behind that terrible
own two prototype Blue Streaks brief agony? As he was dead be-
from their racks, where they had fore was over, there was no
it
moldered since the cancellation way tell. More than a quarter
to
of the British missile program. of a billion lives went into mush-
One of these museum-pieces de- room-shaped clouds, and nearly
stroyed itself in launching, but half of them were Russian, Latvi-
the other chugged painfully an, Tatar and Kalmuck. The
across the sky, the tortoise fol- Peace Commission squabbled for
lowing the flight of the hares. It a month, until the breakdown of
arrived a full half-hour after the communications cut them off from
newer, hotter missiles. It might their governments and each
as well not have bothered. There other; and in that way, for a time,
was not much left to destroy. there was peace.
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 131

was the sort of peace that
THIS was left, thought Chandler
looking around at the queer faces
and queerer surroundings, the
peace of medieval baronies, cut
off from the world, untouched
where the rain of fallout had
passed by but hardly civilized
any more. Even his own home
town, trying to take his life in
form of law, reduced at last to tor-
ture and exile to cast him out,
was not the civilization he had
grown up in but something new
and ugly.
There was a great deal of talk
he did not understand because
he could not quite hear it, though
they looked at him. Then Guy,
with the gun, led him up to the
front of the room. They had con-
structed an improvised platform
out of plywood panels resting on
squat, heavy boxes that looked
On
like empty ammunition crates.
the dais was a dentist’s chair,
bolted to the plywood; and in the
chair, strapped in, baby spotlights
on steel-tube frames glaring on
her, was a girl. She looked at
Chandler with regretting eyes
but did not speak.
up there,” said
“Stranger, get
Guy, prodding him from behind,
and Chandler took a plain wood-
en chair next to the girl.
“People of Orphalese,” cried
the teen-age cutie named Meggie,
“we have two more brands to save
from the imps!”
132
agenda for the day is first the don’t you?” he said to two men
The men and women
audience cackled or shrilled
in ^ salvation of we Orphalese on
Guire’s Mountain.”
Mc- in the front row, surrendering his
gun. “Meggie, you tell about the
“Save them! Save them!” They
(“All saved, all of us saved,” female one.”
all had a look of invisible uni-
forms, Chandler saw, like baseball
rolled a murmur from the con- The teen-aged girl stepped for-
players in the lobby of a hotel
gregation.”) A red-headed
lean, ward and said, in a conversational
man bounded to the platform and tone but with modest pride, “Peo-
or soldiers in a diner outside the
fussed wi(h the stand of spot- ple of Orph’lese, well, I was walk-
gate of their post; they were all
lights, turning one of them full ing down the cut and I heard this
of a type. Their type was some-
Some were on Chandler. car coming. Well, I was pretty
a thing strange. tall,
“People of Orphalese, as we are surprised, you know. I had to
some short; there were old, fat,
saved, do I have your consent to figure what to do. You all know
lean and young around them; but
pass on and proceed to the next what the trouble is with cars.”
they all wore about them a look
of glowing excitement, muted by
order of business?” “The imps!” cried a woman of
(“Consent, consent, consent,” forty with a face like a catfish.
an aura of suffering and pain.
They wore, in a word, the look
rolled the echo.) The girl nodded. “Most prob’ly.
bigots.
of
“And then the second item of Well, I — I mean, people of
business is to welcome and bring Orph’lese, well, I was by the
The bound was not one of
girl
to grace these two newly found switchback where we keep the
them. She might have been twen-
much and adopted souls.” chevvy-freeze hid, so I just waited
ty years old or as as thirty.
She might have been pretty. It
The congregation shouted var- till I saw it slowing down for the
was hard to tell; she wore no iously: “Bring them to grace! curve — me out of sight, you
makeup, her hair strung raggedly Save them from the imps! Keep know — and I rolled the chevvy-
Orphalese from the taint of the freeze out nice and it caught the
to her neck, and her face was
drawn into a tight, lean line. It beast!” wheels. Right over!” she cried
Evidently Guy was satisfied. gleefully. “Off the shoulder,
was her eyes that were alive. She
saw Chandler and she was sorry He nodded and became more people of Orph’lese, and into the
chatty. “Okay, people of Orpha- ditch and over, and I didn’t give
for him. And hesaw, as he turned
to look at her, that she was man-
lese, let’s get down to it. We got it a chance to burn. I cut the
two new ones, like I say. Their switch and I had her! I put a knife
acled to the dentist’s chair.
spirits have gone wandering on into her back, just a little, about
“People of Orphalese,” chanted
the wind, or anyway one of them a quarter of an inch, maybe. Her
Guy, standing behind Chandler
with the muzzle of the gun
has, and you all know
the et cet- pain was the breakin’ of the shell
against his neck, “the meeting of
era. They have committed a that enclosed her understanding,
wrong unto others and therefore like it says. I figured she was all
the Orphalese Self-Preservation
Society will now come to order.” unto themselves. Herself, I mean. right then because she yelled but
Course, the other one could have I brought her along that way.
There was an approving, hungry
murmur from the audience. a flame spirit in him too.” He Then Guy took care of her until
“Well, people of Orphalese,” stared severely at Chandler. we got the synod. Oh,” she re-
“Boys, keep an eye on him, why membered, “and her tongue
Guy went on in his singsong, “the
GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 133
staggered a little without purpose
while he was putting it on, didn’t
it, Guy?” The bearded man nod-
ded, grinning, and lifted up the
girl’s foot. Incredulously, Chand-
ler saw that it was bound tight
with a three-foot length of barbed
wire, wound and twisted like a
tourniquet, the blood black and
congealed around it. He lifted his
shocked eyes to meet the girl’s.
of Orphalese,” he said slowly
“they’re laughing in the forest all
right, I guarantee, but we’ve got
one here that may be honest in
the flesh, probably is, though she
was a thief in the spirit. Right?
Well, do we
take her in or reject
her, O people of Orphalese?”
The audience muttered to it-
self and then began to call out:
“Accept! Oh, bring in the brand!
ure.” Chandler sat up straighter
now thatall of them were look-
ing at him again; but it wasn’t
quite his turn, at that, because
there was an interruption. Guy
never finished. From the valley,
far below, there was a sudden
mighty thunder, rolling among
the mountains. The windows blew
in with a crystalline crash.
;
cost him his life; his body active
and urgent and his mind com-
pletely cut off from it. He felt his
own muscles move in ways he
had not planned, observed him-
self leap forward, felt his own fist
strike at the back of the red-
headed man’s ear. The man went
spinning, the gun went flying,
Chandler’s body leaped after it,

with Chandler a prisoner in his

She only looked at him, with pity
and understanding.
Guy patted the foot and let it
go. “I didn’t have any more C-
clamps, people of Orphalese,” he
apologized, “but it looks all right
at that. Well, let’s see. We got to
make up our minds about these
two, I guess — no, wait!” He held
up his hand as a murmur began.
“First thing is, we ought to read
a verse or two.”
He opened a purple-bound
volume at random, stared at a
page for a moment, moving his
lips, and then read:
“Some of you say, ‘It is the
north wind who has woven the
clothes we wear.’
“And I say, Ay, it was the north
wind, but shame was his loom,
and the softening of the sinews
was his thread.
“And when his work was done
he laughed in the forest.”
Gently he closed the book,
looking thoughtfully at the wall
at the back of the room. He
scratched his head. “Well, people
Accept and drive out the imp!” TPHE room erupted into con- own brain, watching, horrified
“Fine,” said the teen-ager, rub- fusion, the audience leaping and helpless. And he had the gun!
bing her hands and looking at the from their seats, running to the He caught it in the hand that
bearded man. “Guy, let her go.” broad windows, Guy and the teen- was his own hand, though some-
He began to release her from the age girl seizing rifles, everyone one else was moving it; he raised
chair.“You, girl stranger, what’s in motion at once. it and half-turned. He was sud-
your name?” Chandler straightened, then denly conscious of a fusillade of
The girl said faintly, “Ellen sat down again. The red-headed gunfire from the roof, and a
Braisted.” man guarding him was looking scattered echo of guns all round
“
‘Meggie, my name is Ellen away. It would be quite possible the outside of the house. Part of
”
Braisted,’ corrected the teen- to grab his gun, run, get away him was surprised, another alien
ager. “Always say the name of from these maniacs. Yet he had part was not. He started to shoot
the person you’re talkin’ to in nowhere to go. They might be the teen-aged girl in the back of
Orph’lese, that way we know it’s crazy, but they seemed to have the head, silently shouting No!
you talkin’, not a flame spirit or organization. His fingers never pulled the
wanderer. Okay, go sit down.” They seemed, in fact, to have trigger.
Ellen limped wordlessly down worked out, on whatever crazed He caught a second’s glimpse
into the audience. “Oh, and peo- foundation of philosophy, some of someone just beside him,
ple of Orph’lese,” said Meggie, practical methods for coping with whirled and saw the girl, Ellen
“the car’s still there if we need it possession. He decided to stay, Braisted, limping swiftly toward
for anything. It didn’t burn. Guy, wait and see. him with her barbed-wire amulet
you go on with this other fellow.” And at once he found himself loose and catching at her feet. In
Guy stroked his beard and as- leaping for the gun. her hands was an axe-handle club
sessed Chandler, looking him over No. Chandler didn’t find him- caught up from somewhere. She
carefully. “Okay,” he said. “Peo- self attacking the red-headed struck at Chandler’s head, with
ple of Orphalese, the third order man. He found his body doing it; a face like an eagle’s, impersonal
of business is to welcome or re- Chandler had nothing to do with and determined. The blow caught
ject this other brand saved from it. It was the helpless compulsion him and dazed him, and from be-
the imps, as may be your p/^as- he had felt before, that had nearly hind someone else struck him with

134 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 135

something else. He went down. shots from outside wiped it away I She pointed at his burned palm. place where you were known you
He heard shouts and firing, but at once. “Sorry,” she said. “I had I Meg approached him with com- could perhaps count on friends
he was stunned. He felt himself to do that. Please trust me.” I petent care, the rifle resting on and as a stranger you were prob-
dragged and dropped. He saw a “Why did you have to burn I her good right forearm and aimed able fair game anywhere else. Of
cloudy, misty girl’s face hanging my hand?” at him as she examined his burn. course, there was one likely
over him; it receded and re- “House rules,” she “Keeps said. She pursed her lips and looked reason for travel.
turned. Then a frightful blister- the flame-spirits out, you know. at his face. “All right, Ellen, I She didn’t like to talk about
ing pain in his hand startled him They can’t stand pain.” She took guess he’s clean. But you want to it, that was clear, but that was

back into full consciousness.
It was the girl, Ellen, still
leaning over him and, oddly,
weeping. And the pain in his
hand was the burning flame of
a kitchen match. Ellen was doing
it, his wrist in one hand, a burn-
ing match held to it with the
other.
IV
/'''HANDLER yelled hoarsely,
^ jerking his hand away.
She dropped the match and
jumped up, stepping on the flame
and watching him. She had a
butcher knife that had been
caught between her elbow and her
body while she burned him. Now
she put her hand on the knife,
waiting. “Does it hurt?” she de-
manded tautly.
Chandler howled, with incred-
ulity and “God damn
rage:
yes! What did you expect?”
“I expected it to hurt,” she
agreed. She watched him for a
moment more and then, for the
first time since he had seen her,
she smiled. It was a small smile,
but a beginning. A fusillade of
her hand off the knife warily.
there, still hurts, doesn’t it?”
“It still does, yes,”nodded
Chandler bitterly, and she lost
interest in him and got up, look-
ing about the room. Three of the
Orphalese were dead, or seemed
to be from the casual poses in
which they lay draped across a
chair on the floor. Some of the
others might have been freshly
wounded, though it was hard to
tell the casualties from the others
in view of the Orphalese custom
of self-inflicted pain. There was
still firing going on outside and
overhead, and a shooting-gallery
smell of burnt powder in the air.
The girl, Ellen Braisted, limped
back with the butcher knife held
carelessly in one hand. She was
followed by the teen-ager, who
wore a smile of triumph and, — HPHE name
Chandler noticed for the first
it, time, a sorttourniquet of
of
barbed-wire on her left forearm,
the flesh puffy red around it.
“Whopped ’em,” she said with
glee, and pointed a .22 rifle at
Chandler.
Ellen Braisted said, “Oh, he
Meggie, I mean, he’s all
“It burn ’em deeper’n that. Never
pays to go easy, just means we’ll
have to do something else to ’im
tomorrow.”
“The hell you will,” thought
Chandler, and all but said it; but
reason stopped him. In Rome he
would have to do Roman deeds.
Besides, maybe their ideas
worked. Besides, he had until
morrow to make up his mind
about what he wanted to do.
“Ellen, show him around,” or-
dered the teen-ager. “I got no
time myself. Shoosh! Almost got
us that time, Ellen. Got to be
more careful, cause the white-
handed aren’t clean, you know.”
She strutted away, the rifle at
trail. She seemed to be enjoying
herself very much.
of the girl in the
•*-
barbed-wire bracelet was El-
len She came from
Braisted.
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,
and Chandler’s first wonder was
what she was doing nearly three
thousand miles from home.
Nobody liked to travel much
these days. One place was as bad
right.” as another, except that in the
the reason. She had been pos-
sessed. When the teen-ager
trapped her car the day before
she had been the tool of another’s
will. She had had a dozen sub-
machine guns in the trunk and
she had meant to deliver them to
a party of hunters in a valley just
south of McGuire’s Mountain.
to- Chandler said, with some effort,
“I must have been —
“Ellen, I must have been,” she
corrected.
“Ellen, I must have been pos-
sessed too, just now. When I
grabbed the gun.”
“Of course. First time?”
He shook his head. For some
reason the brand on his forehead
began to throb.
“Well, then you know. Look
out here, now.”
They were at the great pier
windows that looked out over the
valley. Down below was the river,
an arc of the railroad tracks, the
wooded mountainside he had
scaled.“Over there, Chandler.”
She was pointing to the railroad
bridge.
Wispy gray smoke drifted off
southward toward the stream.

136 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 137

The freight train Chandler had bad plan. He didn’t think specific, alive, though wounded, and
still
put on his steel-rimmed glasses
ridden on had been stopped, all ally of himself, or the brand on under the rules of this chessboard and read:
that time, in the middle of the his forehead or the memory the captured enemy became a
0f “Much in you is still man, and
bridge. The explosion that blew the body of his wife. What
he friend. much in you is not yet man, but
out their windows had occurred thought of was the prospect Guy had suffered a broken jaw a shapeless pigmy that walks
when another train plowed into thwarting — 0f
not even defeating,
[ in the scuffle and another man
it —evidently at high speed. It merely hampering or annoying presided, a fat youth who favored
asleep in the mist searching for
own awakening.”
seemed that one of the trains had was enough! —
the imps, the
|

a bandaged leg. He limped to his

its

He closed the book, looked

carried some sort of chemicals. “flame creatures,” the pythons feet, grimacing and patting his
f with satisfaction at Guy and
The bridge was a twisted mess. devils, incubi or demons who had leg. “O Orphalese and brothers,” said “Do you understand that,
:

“A diversion, Chandler,” said destroyed a world he had thought he said, “we have lost friends, but new friends? They are the words
Ellen Braisted. “They wanted us very fair. we have won a test. Praise the of the Prophet, who men call
looking that way. Then they at- “If they’ll have me,” he said, Prophet, we will be spared to win Kahlil Gibran. For the benefit of
tacked from up the mountain.” “I’ll stick with them, all right. again, and to drive the imps of the new folks I ought to say that
“Who?” Where do I go to join?” fire out of our world. Meggie, you he died this fleshly life quite a
Ellen looked surprised. “The going to tie these folks up?” The good number of years ago, but
men that crashed the trains . . . TT was not hard to join at all. girl proudly ordered one of the was unclouded. Like we
his vision
if they are men. The ones who Meg informed him
chattily hunters into the spotlighted den- we
possessed me —
and you and — that he was already practically a tist’s chair, another into a wing
say,
the flame
are the sinews that batter
spirits but he is our
the hunters. They don’t like these member. “Chandler, we got to chair that was hastily moved onto soul.”There was an antiphonal
Orphalese, I think. Maybe they’re watch everybody strange, you the platform. The men were murmur from the audience and
a little afraid of them. I think the know. See why, don’t you? Might bleeding and hurt, but they had Walter flipped the pages again
Orphalese have a pretty good have a flame spirit in ’em, no fault clearly been abandoned by their rapidly, obviously looking for a
idea of how to fight them.” of theirs, but look how they could possessors. They watched with familiar passage. “People of Or-
Chandler a sudden flash of
felt mess us up. But now we know puzzlement and fear. phalese, here we are now. This’s
sensation along his nerves. For a
moment he thought
you don’t, so —
What do you “Walter, they’re okay now,” what he says. What is this that
he had been mean, how do we know? Cause Meg reported as others finished has torn our world apart? The
possessed again, and then he you did have one when you busted tying up the hunters. “Oh, wait Prophet says: “It is life in quest
knew it for what it was. It was loose in there. Can’t have two at a minute.” She advanced on of life, in bodies that fear the
hope. “Ellen, I never thought of a time, you know. Think we Chandler. “Chandler, I’m sorry. grave.” Now, honestly, nothing
fighting them. I thought that was You
couldn’t tell the difference?” sit down
there, hear?” could be clearer than that, people
given up two years The interrupted meeting was of Orphalese and friends! We got
ago.” Chandler suffered himself to
“So maybe you agree with me? resumed after the place had been be bound to a camp chair on the something taking possession of
Maybe you think worth while
it’s tidied up and the dead buried. platform and Walter took a drink us, see? What is it? Well, he says
sticking with the Orphalese?” There had been four of the hunt- of wine and opened the ornate here, people of Orphalese and
Chandler allowed himself the ers, and even without their sub- book that was before him on the friends, ‘It is a flame spirit in you
contemplation of what hope machine guns they had succeeded rostrum. ever gathering more of itself.’
meant. To find someone in this in killing eight Orphalese. But it “Meg, thanks. Guy, I hope I do Now, what the heck! Nobody can
world who had a plan! Whatever was not all loss to the Orphalese, this as good as you do. Let me blame us forwhat a flame spirit
the plan was. Even if it was a because two of the hunters were read you a little. Let’s see.” He in us does! So the first thing we
138 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 139
 got to learn, friends —
people of Orphalese is, —
we
aren’t to blame. And the second
thing is, we are to blame!”
He turned and grinned at
Chandler kindly, while the cho-
rus of responses came from the
room, “Like here,” he said,
. “people of Orphalese, the Proph-
et says everybody is guilty. ‘The
murdered is not unaccountable
for his own murder, and the
robbed is not blameless in being
robbed. The righteous is not in-
nocent of the deeds of the wick-
ed, and the white-handed is not
clean in the doings of the felon.’
You see what he’s getting
We all got to take the respon-
sibility for everything — -
that means we got to suffer
butwe don’t have to worry about
any special things we did when
some flame spirit or wanderer,
like,took us over.
“But we do have to suffer,
people of Orphalese.” His expres-
sion became grim. “Our beloved
founder, Guy, who’s sitting there
doing a little extra suffering now,
was favored enough to under-
stand these things in the very
beginning, when he himself was
seized by these imps. And it is all
in this book! Like it says, ‘Your
pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter
potion by which the physician
within you heals your sick self.’
Ponder on that, people of Or-
phalese —
and friends. No, I
140
and mean ponder,” he ex
really
plained, glancing at the bound
“friends” on the platform. “w e
always do that for a minute. Ada
there will play us some music so
we can ponder.”
/^HANDLER shifted uncorn-
^ fortably, while an old woman
crippled by arthritis began fum-
bling a tune out of an electric
organ. The burn Ellen Braisted
had given him was beginning to
hurt badly. If only these people
were not such obvious nuts, he
thought, he would feel a lot better
about casting his lot in with them.
at? But maybe it took lunatics to do
the job. Sane people hadn’t ac-
and complished much.
— And anyway he had very little
choice . . .
“Ada, that’s enough,” ordered
the fat youth. “Meg, come on up
here. People of Orphalese, now
you can listen again while Meg
explains to the new folks how all
this got started, seeing Guy’s in
no condition to do it.”
The teen-ager marched up to
the platform and took the parade-
rest position learned in some
high-school debating society in—
the days when there were debat-
ing societies and high schools.
“Ladies and gentlemen, well, let’s
start at the beginning. Guy tells
this better’n I do, of course, but
I guess I remember it all pretty
well too. I ought to. I was in on
GALAXY
and She grimaced and
it
said,
all.”
“Well, anyway, ladies and
gentlemen — people of Orph’lese
—
. the way Guy organized this
Orphalese self-protection society
was, like Walter says, he was pos-
sessed. The only difference be-
tween Guy and you and me was
that ha knew what to do about
it, because he read the book, you
see. Not that that helped him at
first, when he was took over. He
was really seized. Yes, people of
Orph’lese, he was taken and while
his whole soul and brain and body
was under the influence of some
foul wanderer fiend from hell he
did things that, ladies and gentle-
men of Orph’lese, I wouldn’t want
to tell you. He was a harp in
the hand of the mighty, as it says.
Couldn’t help it, not however
much he tried. Only while he was
doing —
the things —
he hap-
pened to catch his hand in a gas
flame and, well, you can see it
was pretty bad.” With a depreca-
tory smile Guy held up a twisted
hand. “And, do you know, he was
free of his imp right then and
there! Now, Guy is a scientist,
people of Orph’lese, he worked
for the telephone company, and
he not only had that training in
the company school but he had
read the book, you see, and he put
two and two together. Oh, and
he’s my uncle, of course. I’m
proud of him. I’ve always loved
him, and even when he —
when
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
he was not one with himself, you
know, when he was doing those
terrible things to me, I knew it
wasn’t Uncle Guy that was doing
them, but something else. I didn’t
know what, though. And when he
told me he had figured out the
Basic Rule, I went along with
him every bit. I knew Guy wasn’t
wrong, and what he said was from
Scripture. Imps fear pain! So we
got to love it. That one I know
by heart, all right: ‘Could you
keep your heart from wonder at
the daily miracles of your life,
your pain would not seem less
wondrous than your joy.’ That’s
what it says, right? So that’s why
we got to hurt ourselves, people
of Orph’lese —and new brothers
— because the wanderers don’t
like it when we hurt and they
leave us alone. Simple’s that.
“Well —
” the girl’s face stif-
fened momentarily —
“I knew I
wasn’t going to be seized. So Guy
and I got Else, that’s the other
girl he’d been doing things to,
and we knew she wasn’t going
to be taken either. Not if the imps
feared pain like Guy said, be-
cause,” she said solemnly, “I want
to tell you Guy hurt us pretty
bad.
“And then we came out here,
and found this place, and ever
since then we’ve been adding
brothers and sisters. It’s been
slow, of course, because not many
people come this way any more,
141
and we’ve had to kill a lot. Yes,
we have. Sometimes the possessed
just can’t be saved, but
Abruptly her face changed.
Suddenly alert, her face years
older, she glanced around the
room. Then she relaxed
And screamed.
leaped up. Hoarsely, his
voice almost inarticulate as
he tried to talk with his broken
jaw, he cried, “Wha Wha’s . . .
matter, Meg?
“Uncle Guy!” she wailed. She
plunged off the platform and flung
herself into his arms, crying hys-
terically.
“Wha?”
She sobbed, “I could feel
They took me. Guy, you prom-
isedme they couldn’t!”
He shook his head,
staring at her as though she were
indeed possessed — -still
and telling him some
great lie to destroy his hopes.
seemed unable to comprehend
what she had said. One of the
hunters bellowed in stark fear:
“For God’s sake, untie us! Give
us a chance, anyway!” Chandler
yelled agreement. In one split
second everyone in the room had
been transmuted by terror into
something less than human. No
one seemed capable of any action.
Slowly the plump youth who had
presided moved over to the hunt-
er bound in the dentist’s chair and
142
began to fumble blindly at the
knots. Ellen Braisted dropped
— her head into her hands and be-
gan to shake.
The cruelty of the moment was
that they had all tasted hope.
. . . Chandler writhed wildly against
his ropes, his mind racing out of
control. The world had become
a hell for everyone, but a bearable
hell until the promise of a chance
to end it gave them a full sight
. . . of what their lives had been. Now
that that was dashed they were
far worse off than before.
Walter finished with the hunt-
er and lethargically began to pick
at Chandler’s bonds. His face was
slack and unseeing.
it! Then it, too, changed.
The plump youth stood up
sharply, glanced about, and
dazed, walked off the platform.
Ellen Braisted raised her face
possessed, from her hands and, her eyes
fearful streaming, quietly stood up and
He followed. The old lady with the
arthritis about-faced and limped
with them. Chandler stared, puz-
zled, and then comprehended.
They were marching toward
the corner of the room where the
rifles were stacked. “Possessed!”
Chandler bellowed, the words
tasting of acid as they ripped out
of his throat. “Stop them! You — rifle for insurance and began to
Guy — look!” He
flailed wildly
at his loosenedbonds, lunged,
tottered and toppled, chair and
all, crashingly off the platform.
GALAXY
The three possessed ones did
not need to hurry. They had all
the time in the world. They were
already reaching out for the rifles
when Chandler shouted. Econom-
ically they turned, raising the
butts to their shoulders, and began
to fire at the Orphalese. It was
a queerly frightening sight to see
the arthritic organist, with a face
like a relaxed executioner, take
quick aim at Guy and, with a
thirty-thirty shell, blow his throat
out. Three shots, and the nearest
three of the congregation were
dead. Three more, and others
went down, while the remainder
turned and tried to run. It was
like a slaughter of vermin. They
never had a chance.
When every Orphalese except
themselves was down on the
floor, dead, wounded or, like
Chandler, overlooked, the arthrit-
ic lady took careful aim at Ellen
Braisted and the plump youth
and shot them neatly in the tem-
ples.- They didn’t try to prevent
her. With expressions that seemed
almost impatient they presented
their profiles to her aim.
Then the arthritic lady glanced
leisurely about, fired into the
stomach of a wounded man who
was trying to rise, reloaded her
search the bodies of the nearest
dead. She was looking for mat-
ches. When she found them, she
tugged weakly at the upholstery
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
on a couch, swore and began
methodically to rip and crumple
pages out of Kahlil Gibran. When
she had a heap of loose papers
piled against the dais she pitched
the remainder of the book out of
the window, knelt and ignited the
crumpled heap.
She stood watching the fire,
her expression angry and impa-
tient, tapping her foot.
The crumpled pages burned
briskly. Before they died the
wooden dais was beginning to
catch. Laboriously the old lady
toted folding chairs to pile on the
blaze until it was roaring hand-
somely.
She watched it for several min-
utes, until it was a great orange
pillar of fire sweeping to the ceil-
ing, until the drapes on the wall
behind were burning and the
platform was a holocaust, until
the noise of crackling flame and
the beginning of plaster falling
from the high ceiling proved that
there was no likelihood of the fire
going out and, indeed, no way to
put it out without a complete fire
department arriving on the scene
at once.
The old lady’s expression
cleared.She nodded to herself.
She then put the muzzle of the
rifle in her mouth and, with her
thumb, pulled the trigger that
blew the top of her head off. The
body fell into the flames, but it
was by then already dead.
143
/'''HANDLER had not been shot, facing him was was as
^ he was very near to
but though some mad householder
lighted. It

Walter had released

roasting. had decided to equip his rooms
one hand and, while the pos- only with orange lights, orange
sessed woman’s attention was lights that flickered and moved.
elsewhere, Chandler had worked For a second Chandler thought
on the other knots. there were still living people in
When he saw her commit sui- the rooms —
shapes moved and
cide he redoubled his efforts. It cavorted at the windows, as
was incredible to him that his though they were gathering up
life had been saved, and he knew possessions or waving wildly for
that if he escaped the flames he help. But it was only the drapes,
still had nothing to live for — aflame, tossed about in the fierce
that blasted brief hope had heat.
broken his spirit — but his fingers Chandler sighed and turned
had a will of their own. away.
He lay there, struggling, while Pain was not a sure defense
great black clouds of smoke, after all. Evidently it was only
orange painted from the flames, an annoyance to the possessors
gathered under the high ceiling, . .whoever, or whatever, they
.

while the thunder of falling lumps might be. As soon as they had
of plastersounded like a child become suspicious they had ex-
heaving volumes of the Encyclo- erted themselves and destroyed
pedia Britannica down a flight of the Orphalese. He listened and
stairs, while the heat and short- looked about, but no one else
age of oxygen made him breathe moved. He had not expected any-
in violent spasms. Then he cried one. He had been sure that he was
out sharply and stumbled to his the only survivor.
feet. It was only a matter of mo- He began to walk down the
ments before he was out of the hill toward the wrecked railway
house, but it was very nearly not bridge, turning only when a roar
time enough. told him that the roof of the
Behind him was a great, sus- house had fallen in. A tulip of
tained crash. He thought it must flame a hundred feet tall rose
have been the furniture on the above the standing walls, and
upper floor toppling through the above that a shower of floating
burned-out ceiling of the hall. He red-orange sparks, heat-borne,
turned and looked. drifting up and away and begin-
It was dark, and now every ning to settle all over the moun-
window on the side of the house tainside. Many were still red when

PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 145

Ilf!
they landed, a few still flaming.
It was a distinct risk that the
trees would begin to burn, and
then he would be in fresh danger.
So great was his stupor that he
did not even hurry.
By a plowed field he flung
himself to the ground.
He could go no farther because
he had nowhere to go. He had
had two homes and he had been
driven from both of them, He
had had hope twice, and twice
he had been damned.
He lay on his back, with the
burning house mumbling and
crackling in the distance, and
stared up at the orange-lit tops of
the trees and, past them, the
stars. Over his left shoulder De-
neb chased Vega across the sky;
toward his feet something moved
between the bright rosy dot that
was Antares and another, the
—
same brightness and hue Mars?
He spent several moments won-
dering if Mars were in that part
of the heavens. Then he looked
again for the tiny moving point
that had crossed the claws of the
Scorpion, but it was gone. A sat-
ellite, maybe. Although there
were few of them left that the
naked eye could hope to see. And
there would never be any more,
because the sort of accumulated
wealth of nations that threw
rockets into the sky was forever
spent.
It was probably an airplane, he
146
thought drowsily, and drifted off
to sleep without realizing how re-
mote even that possibility had
become . He woke up to find
. .
that he was getting to his feet.
Once again an interloper ten-
anted his brain. He tried to in-
terfere, for he could not help it,
although he knew how useless it
was, but his own neck muscles
turned his head from side to side,
his own eyes looked this way and
that, his own hand reached down
for a dead branch that lay on the
ground, then hesitated and with-
drew. His body stood motionless
for a second, the lips moving, the
larynx mumbling to itself. He
could almost hear words. Chand-
ler felt like a fly in amber, pris-
oned in his own brainbox. He was
not surprised when his legs moved
to carry him back toward the
destroyed building, now a fakir’s
bed of white-hot coals with brush
fires spattered around it. He
thought he knew why. It seemed
very likely that what possessor
had him was a sort of clean-up
squad, tidying up the loose ends
of the slaughter; he expected that
his body’s errand was to destroy
itself, and thus him, as all the
Orphalese had been destroyed.
V Chandler’s body stood poised
/"’HANDLER’S body carried
^ him rapidly toward the house.
Now and then it paused and
GALAXY
glanced about. It seemed to be
weighing some shortcut in its er-
rand; but always it resumed its
climb.
Chandler could sympathize
with it, in a way. He still felt
every pain from burn, brand and
wound; as they neared the em-
bers of the building the heat it
threw off intensified them all.
could not be a comfortable body
to inhabit for long.He was almost
sympathetic because his tenant
could not find a convenient weap-
on with which to fulfill his pur-
pose.
When it seemed they could get
no closer without the skin of his
face crackling and bursting into
flame his body halted.
Chandler could feel his mus-
cles gathering for what would be
the final leap into the auto-da-fe.
His feet took a short step and — purpose. As time passed, Chand-
slipped. His body stumbled and
recovered itself; his mouth swore
thickly in a language he did not
know.
Then his body hesitated,
glanced at the ground, paused
again and bent down. It had
tripped on a book. It picked the
book up, and Chandler saw that
it was the Orphalese copy of
Gibran’s The Prophet.
for a moment, in an attitude of
thought. Then down, in the
it sat
play of heat from the coals. It
was a moment before Chandler
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
realized he was free. He tested
his legs; they worked; he got up,
turned and began to walk away.
He had traveled no more than
a few yards when he stumbled
slightly, as though shifting gears,
and the tenant in his
felt mind
again.
He continued to walk away
He from the building, down toward
the road. Once his arm raised the
book he still carried and his eyes
glanced down, as if for reassur-
ance that it was the same book.
That was the only clue he was
given as to what had happened
and it was not much. It was as
though his occupying power,
whatever it was, had gone —
—
somewhere to think things over,
perhaps to ask a question of an
unimaginable companion, and
then returned with an altered
ler began to receive additional
clues, but he was in little shape
to fitthem together, for his body
was near exhaustion.
He walked to the road, and
waited, rigid, until a panel truck
came bouncing along. He hailed
it, his arms making a sign he did
not understand, and when it stop-
ped he addressed the driver in
a language he did not speak.
“Shto,” said the driver, a somber-
faced Mexican in dungarees. “Ja
nie jestem Ruska. Czego prag-
niesh?”
“Czy ty jedziesz to Los Ange-
147
 of goods from the truck into the “My what?”
les?” asked Chandler’s mouth. saw projecting aluminum mem-
aircraft, a four-engine, swept- The man paused, scratched and
“Nyet. Acapulco.” bers,twisted and scorched but
wing jet of what looked to Chand- shook his head. “Well, stay away
Chandler’s voice argued, 'Wes still visibly aircraft parts. Appar-
ler like an obsolete model. Per- from us. This is an important
na Los Angeles.” ently a transport had crashed in-
haps it was one of the early shipment, see? guess you’re all
I
“Nyet.” The voices droned on. to the building. Burned-out cars
Boeings. There hadn’t been many right or you couldn’t’ve got past
Chandler lost interest in the ar- parking lot and what
littered the
of those in use at the time the the guards, but I don’t want you
gument and was only relieved had once been a green lawn. They
troubles began, too big and fast messing us up. Got enough
when it seemed somehow to be seemed to have been bulldozed
for short hops, too slow to com- trouble already. I don’t know
settled and he was herded into the out of the way, but not an inch
pete over long distances with the why,” he said in the tones of an
back of the truck. The somber farther than was necessary to
rockets. But, of course, with all old grievance, “we can’t get the
Mexican locked him in; he felt clear the approach roads.
the destruction, and with no new execs to let us know when they’re
the truck begin to move; his To his right, as he stared out aircraft being built anywhere in going to bring somebody in. It
tenant left him, and he was at onto the field, was a strange-
the world any more, no doubt wouldn’t hurt them! Now here
once asleep. looking construction on three
they were as good as could be we got to load and fuel this ship
He woke long enough to find legs, several stories high. It did
found. and, for all I know, you’ve got
himself standing in the mist of not seem to serve any useful pur-
The truckmen did not seem to half a ton of junk around some-
early dawn at a crossroads. In a pose. Perhaps it had been a sort
be possessed; they worked with where that you’re going to load
few minutes another car came of luxury restaurant at one time,
the normal amount of grunting onto it. How do I know how much
by, and his voice talked earnestly like the Space Needle from the
and swearing, pausing to wipe fuel it’ll take? No weather, natu-
with the driver for a moment. old Seattle Fair, but now it too
sweat away or to scratch an itch. rally. So if there’s headwinds it’ll
Chandler got in, was released, was burned out and glassless in
They showed neither the intense take full tanks, but if there’s ex-
slept again and woke to find him-
and abandoned, sprawled
self free
its windows. The field itself was

swept bare except for two or

malevolent concentration nor the tra cargo I —
wide-eyed idiot curiosity of those “The only cargo I brought
across the back seat of the car, three parked planes in the bays,
whose bodies were no longer with me that I can think of is
which was parked in front of a but he could see wrecked trans-
their own. Chandler settled the a book,” said Chandler. “Weighs
building marked Los Angeles In- ports lining the approach strips.
woolen cap over the brand on his maybe a pound. You think I’m
ternational Airport. All in all, Los Angeles Interna-
forehead, to avoid unpleasantness, supposed to get on that plane?”
tional Airport appeared to be
and drifted over toward them. The man grunted non-commit-
/"'’HANDLER got out of the car serviceable, but only just.
^ and strolled around, stretch- He wondered where all the
They stopped work and re-
garded him. One of them said
tally.
“All right, suit yourself. Listen,
ing. He realized he was very people were.
something to another, who nod- is there any place I can get some-
hungry. Distant truck noises answered
ded and walked toward Chand- thing to eat?”
No one was in sight. The field part of the question. An Army
ler. “What do you want?” he The man considered. “Well, I
showed clear signs of having been six by six came bumping across
demanded warily. guess we can spare you a sand-
through the same sort of destruc- a bridge that led from the takeoff
know. I was going
“I don’t to wich. But you wait here. I’ll bring
tion that had visited every major strips to this parking area of the
ask you the same question, I it to you.”
communications facility in the airport. Five men got out next
guess.” He went back to the truck. A
world. Part of the building before to one of the ships. They glanced
The man scowled. “Didn’t your moment later one of the others
him was smashed flat and showed athim but did not speak as they
exec tell you what to do?” brought Chandler two cold ham-
signs of having been burned. He began loading crates of some sort

GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 149

148
burgers wrapped in waxed paper,
but would answer no questions.
/"'HANDLER ate every crumb,
Sought and found a wash-
room in the wrecked building,
came out again and sat in the
sun, watching the loading crew.
He had become quite a fatalist.
It did not seem that it was in-
tended he should die immediate-
ly, so he might as well live.
There were large gaps in his
understanding, but it seemed
Chandler that these men,
clear to
though not possessed, were in
some way working for the pos-
sessors. Itwas a distasteful con-
cept; but on second thought it
had reassuring elements. It was
evidence that whatever the
“execs” were, they were very pos-
sibly human beings — or, if
precisely human, at least shared
the human trait of working by
some sort of organized effort to-
ward some sort of a goal. It was
the first non-random phenomenon
he had seen in connection with
the possessors, barring the short-
term tactical matters of mass
slaughter and destruction. It made
him feel — what he tried at once
to suppress, for he feared another
destroying frustration —a touch
of hope.
The men finished their work
but did not leave. Nor did they
approach Chandler, but sat in
the shade of their truck, waiting
150
for something.He drowsed and
was awakened by a distant sput-
ter of a single-engined
Aerocoupe
that hopped across the building
behind him, turned sharply and
came down with a brisk little run
in the parking bay itself.
From one side the pilot climbed
down and from the other two men
lifted, with great care, a wooden
crate, small but apparently heavy.
They stowed it in the jet while
the pilot stood watching; then the
pilot and one of the other men
got into the crew compartment.
Chandler could not be sure, but
he "had the impression that the
truckman who entered the plane
was no longer his own master.
His movements seemed more sure
and confident, but above all it
was the mute, angry eyes with
not which his fellows regarded him
that gave Chandler grounds for
suspicion. He had no time to
worry about that; foi; in the same
breath he felt himself occupied
once more.
He did not rise. His own voice
said to him, “You. Votever you
name, you fellow vit de book!
You go get de book verever. you
pud it and get on dat ship dere,
you see?” His eyes turned toward
the waiting aircraft. “And don’t
forget de book!”
He was released. “I won’t,” he
said automatically, and then re-
alized that there was no longer
anyone there to hear his answer.
GALAXY
When he retrieved the Gibran
volume from the car and ap-
proached the plane the loading
crew said nothing. Evidently they
|
knew what he was doing —
either
because they too had been given
instructions, or because they
[
r were used to such things. He
r
paused at the wheeled stairs.
“Listen,” he said, “can you at
least tell me where I’m going?”
The four remaining men looked
at him silently, with the same
angry, worried expression he had
t
i seen on their faces before. They
did not answer, but after a mo-
I
ment one of them raised his arm
t and pointed.
West. Out toward the Pacific.
Out toward some ten million
square miles of nearly empty sea.
T ONG before they reached
destination Chandler
their
had reasoned what it must be. He
was correct: It was the islands of
Hawaii.
Chandler knew that the pilot
and his coopted partner were up
forward, in the crew compart-
ment, but the door was locked
and he never saw them again.
Apart from them he was the only
living person on the plane.
The plane was lightly loaded
with cargo of unidentifiable sorts.
In the rear section, where once
had eaten
tourist-class passengers
theircomplimentary tray meals
and planned their vacations, the
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
seats had been removed and a
thin scatter of crates and boxes
were strapped to the floor. In the
luxury of the forward section
Chandler sat, stared at the water
and drowsed. He seemed to be
always sleepy. Perhaps it was the
consequence of his exertions;
more likely it was a psychological
phenomenon. He was beyond
worry. He had reached that point
in emotional fatigue when the
sudden rattle of cannonfire or the
enemy’s banzai charge can no
longer flood the blood with adren-
alin. The glands are dry. The
emotions have been triggered too
often. Battle fatigue takes men
in many different ways, but in
Chandler it was only apathy. He
not only could not worry, he
could not even rouse himself to
feel hunger, although the prick-
ing of habit made him get up and
search the flight kitchen, unsuc-
cessfully, for food.
He had no idea how much time
had passed when the hiss of the
jetschanged key.
The horizon dipped below the
wingtip and straightened again,
and he beheld land. He never saw
the airfield, only water, then
beach, then water again, then a
few buildings. Then there was a
roar of jets, with their clamshells
deflecting their thrust forward to
brake their speed, and then the
wheels were on the ground. As the
plane stopped he felt himself
151
once more possessed. It “was no to close the door and made
—
longer terrifying though Chand- sharp U-turn.
a
ler was sure he was doomed. As soon as the car was moving
Without knowing where he was Chandler felt himself able to move
going or why he picked up the his lips again.
ripped book, opened the cabin “I
— ” he said. “I don’t
exit and stepped down onto the “Friend,” said the
rolling steps that had immediate- “kindly keep your mouth shut.
ly been brought into place. He ‘South Gate,’ the exec said, and
was conscious of a horde of men South Gate is where I’m going.”
swarming around the plane, Chandler shrugged and looked
stripping it of its cargo, and won- out the window . .
dered briefly at the rush; but he to see the jet that had brought
could not stop to watch them, his him to the islands once more
legs carried him swiftly across a lumbering into life. It
paved strip to where a police car bling its over the
wingtips,
was cruising. ground, picked up speed, roared
Chandler cringed inside, in- across taxi strips and over rough
stinctively, but his body did not ground and at last
falter as stepped into the path
it against an ungainly looking for-
of the car and raised
its hand. eign airplane, a Russian jet by
The police car jammed on its its markings, in a thunderous
brakes. The policeman at the crash and ball of flame as its
wheel, Chandler thought inside fuel exploded. No one got
himself, looked startled, but he It seemed that traffic to
also looked resigned. “To de was all one way.
South Gate, qvickly,” said
Chandler’s lips, and he felt his VI
legs carry him around to the door
on the other side. r ''HEY roared through down-
|
There was another policeman town Honolulu with the
on the seat next to the driver. He siren blaring and cars scattering
leaped like a hare to get the door out of the way. At seventy miles
open and get out before Chand- an hour they raced down a road
ler’s body got there. He made it by the sea. Chandler caught a
with nothing to stare. “Jack, you glimpse of a sign that said “Hilo,”
go on, I’ll tell Headquarters,” he but where or what “Hilo” might
said hurriedly. The driver nodded be he had no idea. Soon there
without speaking. His lips were were fewer cars; then there were
white. He reached over Chandler none but their own.
152
The road was a surburban high-
way lined with housing develop-
ments, shopping centers, palm
groves and the occasional center
know ”
of a small municipality, scatter-
ing helterskelter together. There
policeman, was a road extending in
like this
every direction from every city
in the United States, Chandler
thought; but this one was some-
what altered. Something had been
. just in time there before them. About a mile
outside Honolulu’s outer fringe,
life was cut off as with a knife.
crept, wob- There were no people on foot,
and the only cars were rusted
wrecks lining the roads. The
lawns were ragged stands of
piled up weeds in front of the ranch-type
homes.
It was evidently not allowed
live here.
Chandler craned his neck. His
out. curiosity was becoming almost
Hawaii unbearable. He opened his mouth,
but, fT said, “Shut up.’ ” rumbled
the cop without looking at him.
There was a note in the police-
man’s voice that impressed
Chandler. He did not quite know
what it was, but it made him
obey. They drove for another
fifteen minutes in silence, then
drew up before a barricade across
the road.
Chandler got out. The police-
man slammed the door behind
him, ripping rubber off his tires
with the speed of his U-turn and
acceleration back toward Hono-
GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
He did not look at Chandler.
lulu.
Chandler stood staring off after
him, in bright warm sunlight with
a reek of hibiscus and rotting
palms in his nostril. It
quiet there, except for a soft
was very
scratchy sound of footsteps on
gravel. As Chandler turned to
face the man who was coming
toward him, he realized he had
learned one fact from the police-
man after all. The cop was scared
clear through.
Chandler said, “Hello,” to the
man who was approaching.
He too wore a uniform, but not
that of the Honolulu city police.
It was like U.S. Army suntans, but
without insignia. Behind him
were half a dozen others in the
to same dress, smoking, chatting,
leaning against whatever was
handy. The barricades them-
selves were impressively thor-
ough. Barbed wire ran down the
beach and out into the ocean; on
the other side of the road, barbed
wire ran clear out of sight along
the middle of a side road. The gate
itself was bracketed with ma-
chine-gun emplacements.
The guard waited until he was
close to Chandler before speak-
ing. “What do you want?” he
asked without greeting. Chand-
ler shrugged. “All right, just wait
here,” said the guard,and began
to walk away again.
“Wait a minute! What am I
waiting for?” The guard shook
153
his head without stopping or pected body sway or movement once been and were no longer. It He looked at Chandler without
turning. He did not seem very in- of the hand, and his lagging, i _m seemed that some monstrous much interest. “Vot’s your name?”
terested, and he certainly was prisoned mind would wrench at Zoning Commissar had stalked he wheezed. He had a heavy, in-
not helpful. its unresponsive nerves to put out through the island with an eras- eradicable accent, like a Hapsburg
Chandler put down the copy of the elbow that would brace him, er, rubbing out the small homes, or a Russian diplomat. Chandler
The Prophet which he had car- or to catch itself with a step. He the cheap ones, the old ones; rub- recognized it readily. He had
ried so farand sat on the ground, had learned to ignore these bing out the stores, rubbing out heard it often enough, from his
but again he had no long time things. The mind that inhabited the factories. This whole section own lips.
to wait. One of the guards came hisbody had ways not his own of of the island had been turned into
toward him, with the purposeful maintaining balance and reach- an exclusive residential park. 'T'HE man’s name was Koitska,
movements Chandler had learned ing an objective, but they were It was not uninhabited. Chand- *-
he said in his accented
to recognize. Without speaking equally sure. ler thought he glimpsed a few wheeze. If he had another name
the guard dug into a pocket. He watched his own hands people, though since the direction he did not waste it on Chandler.
Chandler jumped up instinctive- shifting the gears of the car. It of his eyes was not his to control He took as few words as possible
ly, but it was only a set of car was a make he had never driven, it was hard to be sure. And then to order Chandler to be seated
keys. with a clutchless drive he did not the Renault turned into a lane, and to be still.
As Chandler took them the understand, but the mind in his paved but narrow. Hardwood Koitska squinted at the copy
look in the guard’s eyes showed brain evidently understood it well trees with some sort of blossoms, of Gibran’s The Prophet. He did
the quick release of tension that enough. They picked up speed in Chandler could not tell what, not glance at Chandler, but
meant he was free again; and great, gasoline-wasting surges. overhung it on both sides. Chandler felt himself propelled
in that same moment Chandler’s Chandler began to form a pic- It meandered for a mile or so, out of his seat, to hand the book
own body was occupied once ture of that mind. It belonged to turned and opened into a great to Koitska, then returning. Koit-
more. an older man, from the hesitancy vacant parking lot. The Renault ska turned its remaining pages
He reached down and picked of its walk, and a testy one, from stopped with a squeal of brakes with an expression of bored re-
up the book. Quickly, but a little the heedless crash of the gears as in front of a door that was pugnance, like a man picking off
clumsily, his fingers selected a it shifted. It drove with careless flanked by bronze plaques: TWA his arm. He seemed to be waiting
key, and his legs carried him slapdash speed. Chandler’s mind Flight Message Center. for something.
toward a little French car parked yelled and flinched in his brain as Chandler caught sight of a A door closed on the floor be-
just the other side of the barrier. they rounded blind curves, where skeletal towering form overhead, low, and in a moment a girl came
any casual other motorist would like a radio transmitter antenna, into the room.
/"'HANDLER was learning at have been a catastrophe; but the as his body marched him
^ last the skills of allowing his hand on the wheel and the foot up a motionless escalator, along
inside, She was tall, dark and not
quite young. Chandler, struck by
body to have its own way. He on the accelerator did not hesi- a hall and into a room. her beauty, was sure that he had
couldn’t help it in any event, so tate. His muscles relaxed. seen her, somewhere, but could
he was consciously disciplining Beyond the South Gate the He glanced around and, from not place her face. She wore a
himself to withdraw his atten- Oahu became abruptly
island of a huge couch beside a desk, a coronet like the fat man’s, inter-
tion from his muscles and senses. wild. huge soft body stirred and, gasp- twined in a complicated hairdo,
It involved queerly vertiginous There were beautiful homes, ing, sat up. It was a very fat old and she got right down to busi-
problems. A hundred times a but there were also great, gap- man, almost bald, wearing a cor- ness. “Chandler, is it? All right,
minute there was some unex- toothed spaces where homes had onet of silvery spikes. what we want
love, to know is

154 GALAXY PLAGUE OF PYTHONS 155

what this is all about.” She
dicated the book.
A relief that was like pain
crossed Chandler’s mind. So that
was why he was here! Whoever
these people were, however they
managed to rule men’s minds,
they were not quite certain of
their perfect power. To them the
sad, futile Orphalese represented
a sort of annoyance —
not im-
portant enough to be a threat
but something which had proved
inconvenient at one time and
therefore needed investigating.
As Chandler was the only survi-
vor they had deemed it worth
their godlike whiles to transport
him four thousand miles so that
he might satisfy their curiosity.
Chandler did not hesitate in
telling them all about the people
of Orphalese. There was nothing
worth concealing, he was quite
sure. No debts are owed to the
dead; and the Orphalese had
proved on their own heads, at the
last, that their ritual of pain was
only an annoyance to the pos-
sessors, not a tactic that could
long be used against them.
It took hardly five minutes to
say everything that needed say-
ing about Guy, Meggie and the
other doomed and suffering in-
habitants of the old house on the
mountain.
Koitska hardly spoke. The
was his interrogator, and some-
times translator as well, when
156
in- English was not sufficient to com-
prehend a point. With patient
detachment she kept the story
moving until Koitska with a bored
shrug indicated he was through.
Then she smiled at Chandler
and said, “Thanks, love. Haven’t
I seen you somewhere before?”
“I don’t know. I thought the
same thing about you.”
“Oh, everybody’s seen me. Lots
— of me. But —
well, no matter.
Good luck, love. Be nice to Koit-
ska and perhaps he’ll do as much
for you.” And she was gone.
Koitska lay unmoving on his
couch for a few moments, rub-
bing a fat nose with a plump
finger. “Hah,” he said at last.
Then, abruptly, “And now, de
qvestion is, vot to do vit you, eh?
I do not t’ink you can cook, eh?”
VW/'ITH unexpected clarity
** Chandler realized he was
on trial for his “Cook? No,
life.
I’m afraid not. mean, I can boil
I parts,
eggs,” he said. “Nothing fancy.”
“Hah,” grumbled Koitska. “Vel.
Ve need a couple, three doctors,
but I do not t’ink you vould do.”
Chandler shook his head. “I’m
an electrical engineer,” he said.
“Or was.”
*
“Vas?”
“I haven’t had much practice.
There has not been a great deal
girl of call for engineers, the last year
or two.”
his “Hah.” Koitska seemed to con-
GALAXY
sider. “Vel,” he said, “it could be
. yes, it could be dat ve have
. .
a job for you. You go back down-
stairs and — no, vait.”
man closed his eyes and Chand-
ler himself seized and pro-
felt
pelled down the stairs to what
had once been a bay of a built-in
garage. Now it was fitted up with
workbenches and the gear of a
radio ham’s dreams.
Chandler walked woodenly to
one of the benches. His own
voice spoke to him. “Ve got here
someplace —
da, here is cirguit
diagrams and de specs for a
sqvare-vave generator. You know
vot dat is? Write down de an-
swer.” Chandler, released with a
pencil in his hand and a pad be-
fore him, wrote Yes. “Okay. Den
you build vun for me. I areddy
got vun but I vant another. You
do dis in de city, not here. Go
to Tripler, dey tells you dere
'
vere you can work, vere to get
all dat. Couple days you
come out here again,
like how you build.”
Clutching the thick sheaf of
diagrams, Chandler felt himself
propelled outside and back into
the little car. The interview was
over.
He wondered if
able to find his
Honolulu, but that problem was
then postponed as he discovered
he could not start the car. His
own hands had already done so,
PLAGUE OF PYTHONS
of course, but it had been so
quick and sure that he had not
paid attention; now he found that
The fat the ignition key was marked only
in French, which he could not
speak. After trial and error he
discovered the combination that
would start the engine and un-
lock the steering wheel, and then
gingerly he toured the perimeter
of the lot until he found an exit
road.
It was close to midnight, he
judged. Stars were shining over-
head; there was a rising moon. He
then remembered, somewhat
tardily, that he should not be
seeing stars. The lane he had
come in on had been overhung
on both sides with trees.
A few minutes later he real-
ized he was quite lost.
Chandler stopped the car,
swore feelingly, got out and
looked around.
There was nothing much to
see.The roads bore no markers
I see if I that made sense to him. He
shrugged and rummaged through
the glove compartment on the
chance of a map; there was none,
but he did find what he had al-
most forgotten, a half-empty pack
of cigarettes. It had been —
he
he would be counted — nearly a week since
way back to he had smoked. He lit up.
TT was a pleasant evening, too.
He felt almost relaxed.
He stood there, wondering just
157
what might be about to happen Then I have to build some radio Robert was always there.
next — with curiosity more than equipment.”
fear — and then he felt a light “Tripler’s actually on the other
He had to be. He didn't

touch at his mind. side of the city. I’ll take you to have anywhere else to go.
It was nothing, really. Or noth- the gate; then you tell them
ing that he could quite identify. where you want to go. They’ll By MARGARET ST. CLAIR
It was though he had been nudg- take care of it.”
Illustrated by RITTER
ed. It seemed that someone was “I don’t have any money for
about to usurp his body again, fare.”
but that did not develop. She laughed. After a moment
As he had about decided to she said, “Koitska’s not the worst.
forget it and get back in the car But mind my step
I’d if I were
he saw headlights approaching. you, love. Do what he says, the
A low, lean sports car slowed best you can. You never know.
as it came near, stopping beside You might find yourself very
him, and a girl leaned out, almost fortunate . .

invisible in the darkness. “There “I already think that. I’m a-

you are, love,” she said cheer- live.”
fully. “Thought I spotted some- “Why, love, that point of view
one. Lost?” will take you far.” The sports
She had a coronet, and Chand- car slid smoothly to a stop at the TJOBERT leaned on one of the berta wanted to know. “It seems
ler recognized her. It was the barricade and, in the floodlights clouds and said, reproach- to me . sometimes ... that I
. .

girl who had interrogated him. above the machine-gun nests, fully, “You’re far too aggressive, used to be happier.”
“I guess I am,” he admitted. she looked more closely at Chan- dear.” “Hush. Be quiet.” Robert
The girl leaned forward. dler. “What’s that on your fore- “I know,” Roberta answered in seemed about to chin himself on a
“Come in, dear. Oh, that thing? head, dear?” a small voice. cloud and then thought better of
Leave it here, the silly little bug.” Somehow the woolen cap had shows in everything you do,”
“It it. “Of course you’re happy.”

She giggled as they drove away been lost. “A brand,” he said Robert continued. “Your voice, He leaned his elbows on the
from the Renault. “Koitska shortly. “ ‘H’ for ‘hoaxer.’ I did the way you walk, everything. pinkest of the cloud bands and
wouldn’t like you wandering a- something when one of you You’d better watch out for it. It smiled at Roberta benevolently.
round. I guess he decided to give people had me, and they thought will get you in trouble some day He looked, Roberta thought, like
you a job?” I’d done it on my own.” . . . besides spoiling the illusion.” a picture Roberta had had taken
“How did you know?” “Why — why, this is wonder- Roberta drew breath in a little when Roberta was little,

Roberta cherub. Ever so pretty.

as a little
She said softly, “Well, love, ful!” the girl said excitedly. “No gasp. Robert smiled. “What’s the
you’re here, you know. Other- wonder thought I’d seen you matter, anyhow?” he asked. “Are (Are cherubs boys or girls?)
wise — never mind. What are before.
I
Don’t you remember? you still envious of other women, The buzzer on the vizi-screen
you supposed to be doing?” was Roberta? You oughtn’t to be. at the foot of the big sunken tub .
I in the forewoman at your
“Going to Tripler, whatever trial!” Now that we’re, well, married. (Robert always seemed to show
that is. In Honolulu, I guess. — FREDERIK POHL And everything.”
“Are we really married?” Ro-
up when Roberta was taking a
bath) rang harshly. Roberta clam-
TO BE CC
158 GALAXY ROBERTA 159
bered out of the tub, picked up a ers,extremely large synthetic opal do sorts of
“How’s your collection, Mr. Robert could all
towel with one hand, and with and a suit of unusually
cufflinks,
Dlag?” Roberta asked brightly. things.)
the other pressed a switch. The garish iridi-tweed. His manners, very interesting,”
face of the receptionist on duty at
Mr. Dlag frowned. “Dear Miss “That’s
though, were excellent.
Prentice,” he said, “I thought you Roberta murmured. “I’m not quite
the desk in the lobby became vis-
ible.
“And how are you now, ah, Miss
Prentice?” he asked yhen they
understood. You won’t be sub- clear, though, Mr. Rov Rob —
ject to annoyance in any way. Mr. Dlag, how I fit into your col-
“A Mr. Rodvorello Dlag to see were both seated. “Quite recov-
You’re to stay on Needr that’s — lection.”
you, Miss Prentice,” said the re-
ceptionist. “R-o-d-v-o-r-e-l-l-o
ered from your operation? Well
and happy, I trust?”
the Vegan planet —
only a couple Once more Mr. Dlag frowned.
you understood. Well
D-l-a-g. He says he knows you. “Yes, I’m feeling well,” Roberta
of months. You will be a part of
my collection, of course. But you — thought
“I
he smiled
” deprecatingly
Shall I send him up?” admitted. Miss Prentice, you’re by
won’t be aware of it.” “you see,
Roberta’s eyebrows arched “Good! I’m glad to hear it,” Mr. way of being an imitation your-
doubtfully. “Rov — ? Rob — ?” But Dlag declared. His eyes, coal-
“You must have a very unusual
collection, Mr. Dlag,” Roberta self.”
a glance at the ceiling showed that black against the deep whiteness Roberta
said. “An imitation?”
Robert had gone. He might have of his skin, twinkled. “It wasn’t
Mr. Dlag seemed to expand echoed. It was odd, at that word,
gone into one of the closets, which any' trouble for me. Just a ques-
with pleasure. “I flatter myself, it how much Mr. Dlag had begun
was a good place for a skeleton to tion of exerting a little influence
to resemble Robert. Robert, who
is an unusual idea,” he cried.
hide itself. More likely he had in the right quarters. And if it
“Other Vegans collect postage usually sat in the sky on a pink
pulled a cloud in after him. Cuc- made you happy — well! Any
time
stamps, or coins, or obsolete radio cloud.
koo Robert. Like a cuckoo in a I’m too busy to help out a friend, imitation things. “Yes. Because of your opera-
sets. I collect
clock. I’ll leave Earth.”
“That was what interested me tion, you know. You’re an imita-
“Oh, have him come on up,” “Awfully good of you,” mur- woman now, Miss Prentice.
most, you know, when I came to tion
Roberta told the image of the
receptionist’s face. “In about
mured Roberta, who hadn’t the
foggiest idea what he was talking
—
Earth realizing how many Earth That’s why I helped you with

things were imitations. Insects getting it.”

twenty minutes. Even if I don’t about. Roberta pulled the sliver gun
that imitate other insects. Plants
remember him.” Mr. Dlag nodded. “I came to out of the handbag and shot Ve-
that imitate other plants. Animals
bring you your ticket,” he said. gan-Robert in the forehead with
that imitate plants. Plants that
TJOBERT and Roberta were “You remember our little agree- imitate rocks. And half your arti- it.
waltzing around and around, ment, of course. Here it is.” He facts other things.
imitate It’s Since the forehead is in close
with Roberta’s long pink tulle extended an envelope. amazing. There are almost no proximity to the brain, Robert
skirt whirling out behind, when Roberta opened it. Inside there my died almost immediately. Rober-
imitation things on Needr,
Mr. Dlag knocked. was a very long ticket for Vega. home.” ta’s mouth could not help coming
Robert went away. Roberta One way, on the S.S. Thor, Am- open.
went to the door.
Mr. Dlag was an extraordinary
looking man. Roberta, peering at
sonia Star Lines.
Vega. So that was where Mr.
Dlag was from. Vega. Why hadn’t
ROBERTA had folded up the
and was putting it
ticket
Oh, dear.
Oh, dear indeed. For killing
Robert was about as naughty a
away in a handbag. At the bottom
him, tried to remember where Roberta realized it before? And thing as was possible to do.
of the handbag there was a little it
people who looked like that came was he, like other Vegans, a pas- gun. It had been Robert’s birth- Naughty, naughty. Naughty. Left
from. He was wearing a button- sionate collector? Was his collec- Roberta hand slapped right
day gift. (How had he got it? Sli-
hole flower made of brown feath- tion what he went on living for?
ver guns were strictly illegal. But —
Roberta hand the one with the

160 GALAXY ROBERTA 161

 sliver gun —hard and repeatedly. fluid. Cotton scoured a spot
on
Naughty hand. It deserved to be one plump thigh.
hurt. “Theelin,” Robert said from a
But now what was to be done? purplish cloud bank. “An extract
The big mahogany chest in the of the female hormones. Your reg-
bedroom was empty, except for ular glandular therapy, designed
the plasti-mink coat Roberta had to make you a little more what . . .

ben planning to wear when the you’re trying to be.”

weather got cold. Roberta took Roberta’s heart gave a terrific
the coat out and hung it on a bound. “Go away. Go away.
hanger in the closet. Then, catch- You’re in the chest. You can’t be
ing Vegan-Robert by the back of here. You’re dead.”
the jacket collar and the seat of “There’s somebody in the chest,
his synthi-tweed pants, Roberta certainly,” Robert said with a
tugged him over to the chest and judicial air. “Who it is is another
tumbled him in. The lid closed matter. Irather doubt it’s me.
down on him with a neat bang. “You may be able to get away
There. with it. Lewd Vegan, corruptor
Having killed Robert was very of innocent terrestrial youth, slain
naughty, certainly. But now that
—
he was dead well, it was rather
by heartbroken victim that —
sort of thing. ’M, yes. But for
nice to have him gone perma- God’s sake, Roberta, don’t kill
nently. anybody else. Mind, now.” He dis-
Something seemed to have hap- appeared.
pened to time. It alternately Time gave another jerk and it
caught and then went forward in was morning. Roberta couldn’t be
big jerks, like a tape that sticks said not to have slept, since there
in the machine. Roberta put on had been no time to sleep in. But
makeup; it took hours, though it what had been on the agenda at
was only five minutes by the midnight was still there now that
clock. Then it was after eleven,
with nothing happening in be-
it was —
morning how to make
Robert go away and stay away.
tween at all, and time for the in- Well. If there weren’t any
jection. And bed. Robert, there wouldn’t be any
Roberta. Would there, now?
TJOBERTA sterilized the syr- Sleeping pills? There weren’t
inge in alcohol; it was easier nearly enough of them. There
than boiling it in water. The wasn’t any gas in the kitchenette.
needle went into the tip of the The bridges were a long way off
sterile ampoule and sucked up to jump from. And a hanging

162
GALAXY
 ” ”

Thomas. He cleared his Thomas reallywas, under his the ceiling. “Don’t waste time with
weight would break down the throat.

chandelier. But in the drawer in “You know, Miss Ptentice, there’s

I mask. “Honestly, don’t you re- that,” he said at last. “You can’t

been a recession—- depression

member? You came to me six possibly get away with it. Get
the kitchen there was a knife. months or so ago, recommended your
whatever they’re calling it now.
suitcases, Roberta, and start
Roberta drew the paring knife
by a hum, and packing. Hurry
lightly over one wrist. It hurt. It Times have been rather bad for
me professionally.”
asked for
certain, alien,
my professional services. “But, Robert
— up.”

would hurt an awful lot, really. Your name was Robert Bayliss “Yes?”
But it might hurt somebody
. . . “Bad for other people too,” said
then. You had me perform a sex- “Why do have to go away?
else worse. Roberta, thinking of Mr. Dlag in
reversal op — like this place.”
I I

Roberta was making a second the chest.

This time there was no possible “What areyou using for a
attempt when the buzzer on the “Yes, I suppose.” Once more
noise was
The Mr. Thomas cleared his throat.
doubt. He wasn’t Clement Thom- brain? If we want to go on living
vizi-screen rang.
“And of course I’ve been some- as, he was Robert. The person sit- even a little longer, we’re going to
startlingly and
loud harsh.
ting opposite surgeon-Robert shot have to run. And run.”
Roberta jumped so hard that the what distressed by thinking about
our professional, hum, association.
him in the throat. He disappeared, drawing the
paring knife shot out of the in-
Since the throat is further from black cloud in after him. Roberta
flicting hand, into the sink and As you know, the operation I p3r-
the brain than the forehead is, it remained staring up at the ceil-
down into the garbage reduction formed on you was strictly illegal,
ing, head thrown back, Adam’s
unit, which happened — but how though it was performed at your
took Robert No. 2 quite a lot
longer to die than it had taken apple prominent.
odd! —which somehow happened urgent request. If I were to go to
Mr. Dlag, yesterday. Sliver-gun
to be turned on. the authorities, I could clear my
and no doubt get darts act directly on the nervous YV7HAT was the use of hoping
The knife was chewed up al- conscience . . .

system. Robert tied himself up any longer? No matter where

most immediately. The buzzer off with a light sentence. But that
would mean trouble for you.” Mr.
in convulsion after convulsion, —
they went Venus, Vega, Arctur-
went on ringing.
Thomas cocked his head and sim- horrid masculine knots, before he us, even M —
31 it would be the
relaxed finally. But there. He was same. Robert would go along with
XT was the clerk at the desk in pered engagingly.
the lobby again, and she had —
Oper ? “There’s nothing so
dead.
Roberta put Robert in the
Roberta.
Roberta’s jaw set. No, that
another caller for Miss Prentice. terrible about an abortion,”
chest beside yesterday’s Robert. wasn’t quite true. After Mr. Dlag
Clement Thomas was a small, Roberta answered.
Thomas It was a tight fit. There was trou- had died, Robert had been dead
slight man, quite ordinary except
“Abortions?” Mr.
ble with the lid. might be a
for a little while. It
for his eyes, which were green, seemed startled. His simper dis-
appeared. It looked, Roberta
Thebodies were still being matter of keeping on trying.
bright and interesting. He said he wrestled with when, on a bank of If you killed people enough,
thought, as if the mask he had on
wanted to see Miss Prentice for a
few moments about a personal over his face was getting thin. He
black clouds very low down on you would — was it reasonable,

matter. laughed. “An abortion, my dear,

the ceiling, Robert appeared. He wasn’t —you would
it? get
looked angry. “I told you not to,” through all the masks they wore
They talked about the weather is something you’ll never need.
he said. to the person behind them. At last.
for a while, and then Mr. Thomas Never in this world.”
He started to laugh again, and Roberta, trying yet again to To the one you had always tried
(like what’s-his-name yesterday)
checked himself. “Don’t you re-
make Mr. Dlag’s left arm bend to destroy. To him.
said he hoped Miss Prentice was
backwards, made no reply. Rob- “I’ll kill you yet, Robert,”
feeling well and happy. member?” he said to Roberta, who
ert, chewing on his lower lip, as- Roberta said between his teeth.
was fidgeting with the clasp of the
“Yes,” said Roberta.
“That’s good news,” said Mr. handbag and wondering who Mr.
cended slowly to the zenith of —
MARGARET ST. CLAIR

GALAXY ROBERTA 165

164

[
 June 27, 1982 Bimmie said to do He wants me to finish school. I
this, keep a diary. I said, Cows? can finish in December. I thought
Bimmie says people are stupid. Bimmie
He said, You deaf, woman? A when you got married you didn’t
says he can help them — but they're not book! Then I remembered, only I have to, just slept late and fixed
haven’t seen one. It’s for when he’s your hair.
really worth his trouble , Bimmie says!
famous. Then we can have it pub-
lished anytime we need money. July 9, 1982 The puppy’s Susta,
I’d better tell about us. I’m the cat’s Sup. Susta’s jealous be-
short, sort of cute, and I cook cause Sup jumps on the couch,
good. Bimmie’s tall and skinny, and she can’t.
he likes to eat. He’s 18, I’m 16. Bimmie’ll have to make pills
We got married 22 days ago. In- for Susta. She hides from his
stead of a fancy wedding, Bimmie needle. She’ll be small. That’s
told my folks, Give us money. good, Bimmie says.
He needed the money for his
laboratory. It’s in the basement. August 17, 1982 He just married
It’s what’ll make him famous. me to cook! Every night he’s in
his laboratory. I’m always in this
June 31, 1982 We got a cat and stupid, ugly house.
dog. They’re black and two
months old. I wanted red collars. August 18, 1982 Susta won’t
Bimmie said, Don’t waste my change for a long time. Bimmie
money, woman. has pills now.
,, Bimmie wanted them down in
his laboratory. He said that’d be September 1, 1982 School started.
. proper conditions. I said, No, I’ll Frankie’s still stuck on me. He
leave if you do and you’ll have to says I’m sexy, that’s why Bimmie
'
eat capsules. married me. I said, He married
The cat’s he, the dog’s she. me for my cooking. He laughed.

-JR
Bimmie doesn’t want them
:
out-
side, ever. September 11, 1982 I felt funny
again. I stopped by Momma’s.

July 3, 1982 We
thought Bim- She bets she knows what it is.
VAN SCYOC mie’s folks’d change their minds. She knew after ten days.
By SYDNEY
But they said, Finally and con-
clusively, we won’t. Bimmie says September 15, 1982 I had to ask
he doesn’t want to go to college if the school nurse if it was that. She
they’re stingy because we got said, Yes, two weeks. I hope she’s
married. He already knows every- wrong. Babies are work. She said,
thing important. But the fulfillment. I said, Chang-
’

•
s' -5

BIMMIE SAYS
'Sygsgi
:
< ‘‘ :
ing soppy diapers is what you October 25, 1982 Bimmie’s so me Baby. Gosh! She said, You April 19, 1983 Saw Dr. Brantly.
call fulfillment? nice.He took me to a tridiversion. shouldn’t have cats around babies, Sup pulled the curtains down.
It doesn’t show. Frankie winked He hates them. He said, They’re you’llhave to give him away. Susta isn’t jealous any more, she’s
at me. for the cloddy-minded masses. I Bimmie heard, from the bed- playing with a string.
said, Well, what are we? room. He came out. He said, I am
September 17, 1982 The cat I want a tridiversion wall. Bim- conducting an important scientific May 9, 1983 I’m writing this next
climbed those lace curtains Bim- mie says, No. We had a fight. experiment with the cat and dog. day. Last night I had this sharp
mie’s mother gave us. Bimmie I would as soon give away the pain. I said, Bimmie, call Dr.
said it was my job to watch him. I October 30, 1982 I took a pill baby. Momma got white under Brantly. I remember him looking
said, That’s a stupid way to spend Bimmie made. I felt good. her plasti-skin. She said, Bimmie, at me funny. That’s all I remem-
my life. He said, I didn’t marry I let them out. It beats cleaning you’re a monster for experiment- ber until I woke up in the hospi-
you to have you sit around and up. Susta played with that dog. ing on dumb animals. And for re- tal. Bimmie was sitting beside me,
do nothing. own child.
jecting your looking proud. I asked him,
Susta watched Sup and whined. November 7, 1982 I went to Dr. Then Sup climbed the curtains What’s happened? He grinned.
She wants to be a cat. Brantly. He hypnotized me. I Momma gave us. She shrieked, We have a nine-pound son, he
*
don’t remember it. You’re ungrateful! and huffed said. I named him after the man
September 27, 1982 Bimmie read out. who delivered him. I said, Did I
my diary. He said there wasn’t a December 13, 1982 Susta’s leav- She came back asking us
later, faint? That wasn’t the way it was
June 31. He says to tell more ing spots. I thought, She’s hurt. to forgive her. She said she explained, just that Dr. Brantly
about his work. It won’t make Bimmie explained and said, Don’t wanted to help, since we’re both would put me in a trance. Bimmie
money if he’s not in it. let her out. He wants to wait till still children. Well! was too busy grinning to say, then
I told him about the baby. He next time to have puppies. He I do wonder where we’ll put the he had to go to work. The doctor
said, Whoopee! He got some ob- said, The treatment must take full baby. Maybe on the couch. came in. I said, It wasn’t bad, I
stetrics books. effect first. He explained but I only felt one pain. He frowned. I
didn’t understand. February 1983 I had to tell
17, said, Can I see the baby? He said,
October 5, 1982 Bimmie expects Bimmie I was letting them out. Later. He went out too.
the baby to kick already. I’m glad January 5, 1983 I’m out of school. Sup fought with the dog next I thought I must have cussed.
it doesn’t! He made the puppy’s It’s boring. Momma says I’m too door. Bimmie got mad. He told I didn’t understand until the
pills tonight. young to settle down. She’s crazy. me, They must have a controlled nurse brought the baby. He had a
I’m sixteen. environment. I said, It’s hard for little plastic bracelet that said
October 7, 1982 I let them out- me to bend over to clean up. Bimford Fost, Jr. He was red and
side. The
smell in the house turns January 11, 1983 Bimmie’s read- Finally he said he’d clean up and squalling. I felt like doing the
my stomach. I’m afraid to take the ing more obstetrics books. Hypno- wasn’t it funny Sup and that dog same, because I knew why Bim-
pills Bimmie made me. tism too. He tried to hypnotize knew they were rivals. mie had been studying those ob-
me, but I went to sleep. I didn’t know myself. stetrics books. He has to try
October 9, 1982 I let them out everything!
again. There’s a black dog next January 14, 1983 I wish Momma March 17, 1983 I saw Dr. Brantly
door with a long nose, ears like would stop. She said, Where’re today. He says I’m fine. I tried to May 21, 1983 I’m seventeen to-
rosebuds and white feet. Susta you going to put a baby, with only remember him putting me in the day. Bimmie says to write more.
was scared. Sup hissed. one bedroom. She cried and called trance, but I couldn’t. He thinks that’s all I have to do.

168 GALAXY BIMMI E SAYS 169

The baby sleeps all the time he completion. Not that I care for I couldn’t do anything, my arms the baby was alone, I had to hurry
isn’t crying. I like him, only I’m fame and riches, no, I care only were full. home.
tired of diapers. accomplishment of some-
for the
She came back in half an hour.
Susta gets three pills every day. thing man has never before July 6, 1983 Bimmie didn’t think I didn’t tell Bimmie yet.
She plays with them, then eats achieved. I said he didn’t sound it was funny. He yelled,What are
them. Bimmie said last night, It natural. He said, Put it down that you, stupid? Didn’t you know July 1983
8, I didn’t tell him, still.
won’t be long until my experiment way, woman. dogs would come around? Didn’t He was mad because he had to
bears fruit. He said to write that you know dogs chase cats? He pay to get Sup out
of the pound.
here. June 29, 1983 Bimmie wanted to took the car and called, Kitty, Bimmie salved his ears, they were
feed the baby. I caught him be- kitty, all over town. No luck. I tom, and put them in the base-
June 3, 1983 Susta tried to climb fore he gave him a pill. We said, Get another cat. He said, ment. He said, Now!
the curtains. fought. He Who
delivered
said, This one is used to Susta. I said,
him? I said, I made
him, and There’ll be another time. He July 15, 1983 Bimmie says to
June 5, 1983 Bimmie wanted to pointed to my stomach. I said, I stared at me and said Susta’s sys- write every day. It’s dull, them in
give the baby some pills he made. won’t have you using him like a tem would tolerate only so much the basement. They come up to-
I said, No. He said, They’ll make guinea pig. of the stuff he’sbeen giving her. morrow.
him smarter, woman. I said, He’s He can’t give her any more after
enough trouble dumb. July 4, 1983 Bimmie says tomor- next month. He’ll have to wait July 23, 1983 Susta acts funnier
Today was our first anniver- row we’ll shut them up in the another year. Then he went look- than ever. She rubs my legs when
sary. Bimmie wouldn’t buy me basement. ing again. I’m cooking. She keeps wetting
anything. That was last night. Maybe her paws and rubbing her face.
July 5, 1983 The funniest thing. he’ll come home tonight.
June 9, 1983 We fought about a Bimmie said, You put them in the August 3, 1983 Today I caught
dryer. After he left I said, For basement. Then he left. I thought, July 1983 He Bimmie’s
hasn’t. Susta sharpening her claws on the
7,
that I’ll let your animals out. The I’ll just take them out while I biting his fingernails. He’d bite couch. I said, Bimmie, look at the
dog next door came up. Susta hang diapers. But when we went harder if he knew what happened crazy dog, thinks she’s a cat. He
arched her back. out, three dogs came up. I said, today. frowned. He only has one pimple
Scat! I couldn’t chase them be- I thoughtSusta was asleep now, he’s kind of handsome. I
June 21, 1983 I’ve been putting cause I had my arms full of dia- when I went to hang diapers. I said, Isn’tit cute? Bimmie went
them out every day. pers, because Bimmie won’t buy had my arms clear full. When I downstairs. I think he was wor-
me a basket. They came closer, opened the door, Susta shot past ried.
June 25, 1983 Bimmie says to edging around. I stomped my feet me. I yelled at her, but she went
write every day, his experiment is and The dog next door
yelled. flying down the street, and I saw August 11, 1983 Susta’s getting
coming to a head. I can’t see any- came and growled. Then Sup that dog next door take off behind big. I let her sleep with the baby.
thing happening. Susta gets six hissed him. This was the
at her. I thought first thing, It’s Bim- Bimmie says, Whoopee! It
pills now. first the other three saw Sup. He mie’s fault for not buying a dryer. worked! I’m scared to tell him
hunched up, spitting and intend- I hung the clothes fast. After now.
June 27, 1983 The dog’s that way ing to chase them off. Only they all,nothing could happen in such
again. Bimmie said, At last my took out after him instead. He a short time. Then I started up August 12, 1983 Susta rubs my
experiment shall be carried to ran off with four dogs after him. the street calling, Here Susta! But leg when she’s hungry. Then she

170 GALAXY BIMMIE SAYS 171

sits and switches her tail for a sometimes, It had to work. Other I said, I guess. I put the baby joy to be derived from delving
long time. times he bites his nails. down. He hadn’t thrown anything into Greek drama.
He gave me ten pages to type. or burned my diary.
August 17, 1983 Susta meowed I thought I’d better. He said, Good, then. I’ve fixed November 9, 1983 Bimford, Jr. is
today. I was fixing dinner. She supper. six months old today. Since I gave
looked up and said, Meow. It September 1983 I went down
13, He had hamburger, frozen pie up the last puppy, the house
wasn’t supposed to be this way. to call Susta and I saw them. and hot chocolate. Some of it seems barnlike in its emptiness. I
Bimmie’s afraid she’ll have kit- There were five, wobbling every- tasted bad. I didn’t say anything. mentioned the fact to Bimford.
tens. That isn’t what he’s trying where. They’re the cutest fat His glance was speculative. “I
to do. things. I picked one up, and then September 15, 1983 I asked Bim- have some money saved. Want a
I felt sick. He had a long nose and mie, Should I quit my diary? He tridiversion wall?”
September 1983 Susta wanted
5, little rosebud ears and white feet. said, Yes. Then, No, keep on. I I was horrified. “Whatever for?”
to go down in the basement this He looked like the dog next door. asked, was he doing another ex- He shrugged. “Maybe you’d
afternoon. When I called her for All of them do. They’re all periment? He said, Not yet. I like to go to the library. Get some-
supper she came up with her puppies. Nothing else, just pup- said, Bim better not start talking thing to read.”
stomach flat. Bimmie and I went pies. early. He said, You don’t think I’d I considered. “Perhaps I will,” I
down. Susta ducked back in a hole I put them in a box and took experiment with my own child? I said. “There isn’t much for me to
in the wall. There’s a sort of little them upstairs. didn’t know. He said, Bim might do, hang diapers and push but-
cave. We said, They must be in Bimmie’s working tonight. I’ll be smart anyway. I said, He might tons. Automation has almost com-
there. We got a flash, and we go to bed before he comes’ home. be, he’s your son. It was a good pletely eliminated the housewife’s
could see little black balls. Bim- compliment. traditional chores.”
mie couldn’t reach them. September 14, 1983 He raved all I left Bimford, Jr. with Mother
Bimmie kept talking about morning and tromped around. I September 17, 1983 Bimmie and walked to the library. I asked
how his experiment is going to said, Shut up or I’ll leave and wants to learn cooking. He said, the librarian toshow me about.
revolutionize agriculture. you’ll have to eat capsules. He You have to work hard, hanging “What are you interested in?”
said, I could eat dog food! Then diapers. It will help if I can cook. she inquired.
September 6, 1983 I can hear her he wanted to see my diary. I said, I’ll teach him hot chocolate “I don’t know,” I replied. “Do
meowing to them. We can see No. But he yanked out all the first. His fixing tastes awful. you have any good recent works
them with the flash. We can’t tell drawers and found it. on chemistry or perhaps nuclear
anything yet. I took the baby and went to October 5, 1983 I have little to physics?”
Momma’s. report. Bimford, Jr. is flourishing. She raised her eyebrows but
September 7, 1983 He’ll buy a It was suppertime when I came The puppies are adorable. Susta conducted me to the proper shelf.
typewriter but not a dryer! He’s home. He was on the couch with and Sup tend them jointly. After finding several interesting
going to write a book about his Sup and Susta and the puppies. Bimmie has no new project. He volumes, I also checked out a vol-
experiment. He expects me to Hedidn’t act mad, just nasty- has thrown all his energies into ume on cookery for Bimford. His
type it. nice.So you came home, he said. cooking. He does quite well, ex- hot chocolate doesn’t improve,
I how limited you
never realized cept for hot chocolate, which still despite nightly practice.
September 10, 1983 She still were, Listie. Your diary’s shown tastes of chemicals. He tells me he is working on a
won’t bring them out. She purred me a lot. Can you at least find I never, until yesterday, real- new project.
today, rusty-like. Bimmie says, homes for the puppies? ized the intellectual and sensual — SYDNEY VAN SCYOC
172
GALAXY BIMMIE SAYS 173
 “You are welcome, sorr!” hissed
I the Spandul, which was about
three feet high, black, lean as
U]VfE!” said Lucy. “At an Am- a toothpick, and had a mouth
bassadorial Banquet!” full of vicious looking needle-

WHO “Don’t be like that now,” said

Tom, pausing in the night shad-
ow
something
of a ten-foot-high alien plant,
in the shape of a bear-
sharp teeth. It stood just within
the golden glow of the light from
the high arched doorway to the
Jaktal Embassy in Washington.
DARES trap.
drags
He
from
took a last couple of
his cigaret and
Its large eyes glittered at Lucy.
“Welcome alssso, Lady. Enter

A ground it out underfoot, on the

footpath of terrazzo tile.
“How should I be?”
please. Here you will be safe
from zzatz.”
It took their cloaks and they

BULBUR “Nonchalant,” said Tom. “You

do this sort of thing every day.
Ho-hum.”
proceeded on through the en-
trance into a long, high-ceilinged
hall, already well-filled with hu-

EAT? “But certainly the Jaktal Am-

bassador knows you’re only a
mans and
all in
aliens of all varieties,
evening dress.
third assistant secretary in the “What’s ‘zzatz’?” muttered
Foreign Office’s Department of Lucy in Tom’s ear.
New Governments ” — “Means ‘a most unfortunate
By GORDON R. DICKSON “We hope they won’t know me fate’,” muttered Tom back. “Ah,
at all. Heh-heh.” good evening, Monsieur Pour-
Illustrated by SCHELLING “You sound nervous, honey.” toit,” he said in French, “I don’t

Aliens needn't look like “I am not nervous.” believe you’vemet my wife.” And
“Then why are you biting your he introduced Lucy to a tall thin
men. They can come in any nails?” gentleman with a sad face and
shape, size — or flavor! “I am not biting my nails. I a broad red ribbon crossing his
never bite my nails. I just thought white dress shirt under a dinner
I had something stuck between jacket. The gentleman acknowl-
my front teeth, that’s all. I don’t edged the introduction graceful-
know why you always keep talk- ly-
ing about me biting my nails, “Elle est charmante,” he said,
when you know as well as I do bowing to Lucy.
Ah, good evening, Spandul. “Why, thank you, Mr. Ambas-
. . .

My card. I am Thomas Whit- sador!” said Lucy. “I can see —

worth Reasoner, and this is my “However if you’ll excuse us,”
mate, Lucy Sue Reasoner. Be- said Tom, catching Lucy by the
ware the zzatz.” hand, “we must be going.”

WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 175

 ” ”

“Of course,” said M. Pourloit. might offend anyone,” said Tom, 66T TOLD you to wait for me!” like if you sang it in Bulbur?”
Tom towed Lucy off. after a large swallow of the he whispered angrily at “Alas,” said Kotnick, “there is
“Well, all I was going to say punch. “But you’d be surprised no Bulbur to sing
was — whispered Lucy.
” how much in common tastes are
her.
“You did not. You said, ‘wait is only Jaktal.”
it in. There

“Ah, Brakt Kul Djok! May I
present my wife, Mrs. Lucy Sue
Reasoner?”
“Well, well, honored I am posi-
tive!” boomed a large alien,
looking something like a walrus
with a stocking cap on. “A fine
young lady, I can see at a glance,
hey, boy?” The walrus-sized el-
bow joggled Tom almost off his
feet. “See you coming up in the
world, hey? Hey? Wonder what
type entertainment and food this
Jaktal puts out, hah? Never tell
about these new alien types,
hey, ho?”
nnOM laughed heartily
they moved on, Tom intro-
ducing Lucy every few feet to
some new human or alien of the
diplomatic circle in Washington.
Finally they found themselves at
the punchbowl, and were able to
fill a couple of glasses and find
a small alcove out of the crowd.
“What I don’t understand,”
among different intelligent, ani- a minute’. Anyway,” said Lucy, Lucy looked bewildered.
mal life forms. It’s all flesh and “there’s nothing here but that “You don’t understand,” Tom
plant food, in every case.” great big jelly mold on the table.” said to her. “There are a number
“But don’t some of them And she pointed to an enormous of intelligent races on the Jaktal
taste ..?” said Lucy.
. three-tiered mass of what seemed planets. But the Jaktal are the
“Some, of course,” said Tqm. to be pink, green and yellow gel- ruling ones. The language and
“But a lot of alien foods are quite atine on a silver box set on a everything takes its name from
tasty. I’ve liked all sorts of di- white tablecloth. The tablecloth the rulers.”
verse items I’ve run into.” was on a table which was the “Indeed, yes,” said the Bulbur.
“Oh!” said Lucy. only furniture in the room. “And properly so.”
“What’s wrong?” “You know what I meant!” “I knew about Spanduls, and
“What do you think’s in this said Tom. “And somebody was Gloks, and Naffings,” said Tom,
punch?” said Lucy, examining singing here.” looking at it. “But we haven’t
her glass with suspicion. “It was
said the jelly mold
I,” heard much about you Bulburs
“Fruit juice and alcohol. Now,” in sweet and flawless tones of compared to the rest of the in-
saidTom, “let’s just run over the English. ferior races of the Jaktal.”
schedule for the evening. First, Lucy stared at it. Tom was the The Bulbur turned pink all
and we’ll be having entertainment.” first to recover. over.
“Oh, Tom, wait a minute,” said “May I present my wife?” he “Pardon my immodesty,” it
Lucy, interrupting. “Listen. How said.“Mrs. Lucy Sue Reasoner. said, “but I have come especially
sad!” I am James Whitworth Reasoner, for the occasion.”
“What?” he said —
and then Third Assistant Secretary in the “Ah?” said Tom. He stepped
he heard it. A voice, around the Foreign Office Earth Department closer to the Bulbur and lowered
corner from their alcove and of New Governments.” his voice. “Perhaps, then,you can
through an archway leading back, “I’m awfully pleased to meet tell me —
was pouring out a thin, sad you,” said the jelly mold. “I am “Did the sorr and lady wisssh
thread of song. He stiffened sud- Kotnick, a Bulbur.” somesing?” interrupted a sharp, '

said Lucy, “is how they can have denly. “Wait a minute. I’ll see.” “Was it a Bulbur song you hissing voice. The two humans
a banquet for so many different He got up and went around were singing?” asked Lucy. turned abruptly to see a Spandul
kinds of people and aliens. I the corner. Through the archway “Alas,” said Kotnick, a like the one that had admitted
should think — he could see a farther doorway Jaktal song. A little thing I com-
“it is

them to the embassy. It was

“Well, they do have a number from which light was showing. He posed myself but sung, of course, standing in the doorway. Beside
of different foods for those who went forward and looked into the in Jaktal —
though unfortunate- it was a sort of four-foot worm
can’t eat anything but their own lighted room beyond. At this ly with a heavy Bulbur accent.” with fang-like teeth curving down
special diet. And of course it’s moment Lucy bumped into him “But you sing so beautifully!” from its upper lip.
necessary to stay clear of what from behind. said Lucy. “What would it sound “Oh!” said Tom. “No. Nothing.

176 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 177

 vacy of their alcove. “Now, sup- II
pose you tell me what’s going on.”
“Going on?” said Tom. T^OM led her out across the hall
“Yes, going on,” said Lucy. and into a sort of garden
“And you might as well tell me area where a band was playing.
now because I’m going to keep When they were well out into
after you until you do tell me. I the middle of the dance floor, he
thought we were just going to a put his lips close to her ear and
banquet. You didn’t give me any murmured into it.
notion that it was something un- “You might be able to help
dercover or something like that. after all.”
Now me
now —wantsheyoubroke
I
”
to tell
off.
right
“What
“Yes?” whispered
“The Office
Lucy.
Upstairs,” whis-
are you making faces like that pered Tom, “is very concerned
for?” about this Jaktal race. Six months
Tom, besides making faces, ago, we didn’t even know they
was scribbling on a piece of paper existed. Now we suddenly dis-
torn from his checkpocket. He cover they have a spatial empire
passed it to her. at least as large as ours. Not
Will you keep quiet? the paper only that, but the Jaktal them-
Nothing at all. We heard this humans, its needly teeth glitter- read. The walls have ears. I can’t selves — I mean the dominant
Bulbur singing and wandered in ing at them. tell you. It’s top secret. race — seem to have a conqueror
to meet it.” “Guestsss,” it hissed, “will find “Oh!” gasped Lucy. Tom took psychology, judging by their ex-
“It ssshouldnot sssing!” hissed it mossst comfortable in main the paper from her hands and pansion and the intelligent races
the Spandul, looking at the Bul- hall area.” held it up to her lips. like the Spanduls, Naffings, and
bur, which quivered and went al- “I imagine you’re right,” said “Eat it!” he whispered. Gloks.”
most colorless. Tom. “We’ll trot on back. Nice “I certainly will not!” whis- “Was that one of them that —
of you to show us the way. See pered back Lucy, revolted. worm-like thing with the fangs?”
U \X7ELL ’
it wasn’t really you later, then. May there be no “Then I’ll have to.” said Tom. Lucy asked.
singing. Sort of just hum- zzatz beneath this roof tonight.” He took it, and he did. “A Naffing,” said Tom. “They
ming. Well, we’ll have to be get- “There will be no zzatz be- “Oh!” said Lucy, impressed. are not much more intelligent
ting back to the punch bowl. neasss ssis roof tonight,” replied Tom was looking at her in an than an adult chimp. But danger-
Glad to have met you, Kotnick.” the Spandul, fixing them with its unusual way. She shrank back a ous. But to get back to the im-
Still talking, Tom herded Lucy glittering eyes as they moved out little. portant part of the business,
before him past the Spandul and into the hall. “Shall we dance?” said Tom. recent information seems to in-
the worm-like being and out into “Well,” said Tom. “How about “D-dance?” dicate that even with our alien
the shadowy area giving on the another glass of punch, Lucy?” His eyebrows wigwagged an- allies, we’d be at the mercy of
hall. The worm-like being slith- “I should say not,” said Lucy. grily at her. the Jaktal empire, if they decided
ered past them into the room and She took hold of his sleeve and “Oh, dance!” she said. “Of to move against us right now.”
the Spandul fell in beside the led him back around to the pri- course!” “Would they?” Lucy shivered.

178 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 179

L
 “We don’t know. That’s it. •
corps might fail. Easier for me to bravely. “Maybe I can use it as 46TF Rex was with you and
Their ambassador talks peaceful be inconspicuous. Of course, an excuse to make him stay with trouble came, he’d start
relations; but we can’t make this that’s why I brought you along, me.” broadcasting excited thoughts,
match up with the character he too.” “That’san idea,” said Tom. and then I’d know you were in
and his subservient races show. “Well, I like that!” They were off the dance floor trouble.”
You’ll see what mean when you
I “I’m sorry. But that’s the way now and he lowered his voice. “What good would do?that
get a look at Bu Hjark, the Am- diplomacy is. Now, we’ve had “I’ll tell him I want him to take You couldn’t do anything about
bassador.” one stroke of luck already. We’ve care of you while I go for a it. No, believe me, Rex would be

“But what’s it all got to do with
us — with you?”
“Well, you remember how they
thought we did a good job with
that Oprinkian*? Well, there’s a
found out where the Bulbur is,
and we know he’s off without a
crowd around him. The next step
is up to me. I have to have a
chance to talk to him alone.”
doctor to make your foot more just what we needed to bollix
comfortable. Then, when I leave things up,” said Tom. “Besides
you with him, you get him away I’m happy to have a rest from
from the entrance there any way those inane canine thoughts of
you can.” his. ‘Good Tom,’ ‘Good Lucy,’

new addition to the Embassy “Oh, I see.” He broke off suddenly. A fan- ‘play ball?’ — all day long.”
here. That Bulbur we just saw. “Yes,” said Tom, “and I think fare of something like trumpets Tom broke off suddenly. The
He — or it, we don’t even know that’s where you can help.” had just silenced all the talk in trumpets had sounded again, a
that much yet —
seems entirely “Oh, good.” the room. The crowd was split- wild, violent shout of metal
different from the rest of the “Do you think you can get ting apart down the middle, leav- throats. Now, bounding down
crew here. So what does it mean? that Spandul out of the way ing the center of the floor clear. through the open lane in the mid-
What’s his place in the organiza- while I have a talk with the Bul- Luckily, Tom
and Lucy were al- dle they could see an alien fully
tion? What does his showing up bur? I can gas the Naffing. It ready on the side of the room eight feet tall, approaching and
here mean in terms of the Jaktal can’t talk and report what’s been they wished to reach. bellowing greetings to people in
attitude toward us and our alien done to it. But the Spandul “I wonder what’s happening?” the crowd.
allies?” could, if I gassed him.” said Lucy. “Oh, dear. I wish we “It’s him,” said Tom. “Him,
“I see what you mean,” whis- “Well,” said Lucy, biting her had Rex with us.” the Jaktal Ambassador, Bu Hj-
pered Lucy. “Ouch!” lower lip, “I don’t know. It isn’t “Rex!” said Tom. “What good ark. Just look at him!”
“What happened?” as if he was a man, or something. would it do to have that moose Bu Hjark was a huge lizard-
“You just stepped on my toe.” What’ll I do?” of a dog along?” like alien, with a heavy, power-
“Oh. Sorry.” “He has to be polite to you — “He could keep us in touch ful tail. Elbows out, huge hands
“It’s all right. Go on.” especially if you can get him out with each other.” half-clenched, he danced down
where people can see him. You’ll “How? Just because we picked the open space like a boxer
66TT’S hard to concentrate on think of something.” up enough telepathic sense from warming up in the ring. Brilliant
two thingsat once. As I “I hope,” said Lucy. that Oprinkian to understand ribbons and medals covered his
was the Office Upstairs
saying, “Sure you will. Let’s go,” Tom Rex doesn’t mean he’d be any silver tunic and shorts. Into a
thought I might be able to get started to lead the way off the use to us now. What I wish is gem-studded belt was fastened a
the information where somebody dance floor and suddenly noticed that we’d been able to go one heavy, curve-bladed sword.
better known in our diplomatic that she was limping. “Ohmigosh, step further and understand peo- “Ho! Ho! Welcome! Wel-
I didn’t realize I’d stepped on ple’s thoughts. Even each other’s come!” he roared. “Great pleasure
•REX AND MR. REJILLA, Galaxy, you that hard!” thoughts. That’s what we need to have you all here! Great pleas-
January 1958 “It’s all right,” said Lucy, now.” ure. Greetings, Brakt Dul Jokt.

180 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 181

Evening, Mr. Vice-President!
Great evening, isn’t
yourself seats, respected entities,
and let me show you how the
Jaktal entertain.”
“What does he need a sword
for?” whispered Lucy,
“With those teeth and nails?”
“And that tail,”
“Just part of costume, no
his
doubt. Wait until the entertain-
ment starts. Then we can slip
off while everybody’s watching.”
“Positions, everybody!” shout-
ed Bu Hjark, and added some-
thing in Jaktal. A crowd of ape-
like beings in full metal armor
trotted in and formed a protective
wall in front of the audience.
Laughing hugely, Bu Hjark took
off his sword-belt and tossed it
to one of these.
“Gloks,” explained Tom in
answer to Lucy’s inquiring gaze,
nodding at the beings in armor.
“A little brighter than the Naff-
ings, not so bright as the Span-
duls. Sort of high-grade morons.
But extremely strong for their
met with flailing hands and
it now!” said Tom. “You under- He pointed the pen at it and
it?. Find tail, and a deep-chested shout. stand? Find her a chair. Look pressed the clip. There was an
Amid roarings and snarlings, they after her while I find a doctor!” almost inaudible pop. The Naf-
rolled on the floor together. “Doctor?” hissed the Spandul. fing wavered a minute and then
“I can’t look,” said Lucy, hid- It glanced back into the room sank down to lie still on the floor.
ing her eyes. behind it, and then out again at “What is it?” fluted the jelly
staring. “It’s all right, it’s all over,” Tom and Lucy. on the table, paling to near trans-
saidTom, a few moments later. “A chair,” moaned Lucy, cling- parency. “Have you come to kill
said Tom. “He wrung its neck. See, some ing to Tom. me:
Gloks are carrying it off.” “What’re you
waiting for?” “No,” said Tom. He glanced
“Now, for the armed Wlack- snapped Tom. “Is this the way behind him and saw the entrance
ins!” shouted Bu Hjark. And a you do things here at the embas- still deserted, the crowd still oc-
moment later, a herd of five sy? I’ll speak to the Ambassador cupied with the combat going on.
small, centaur-like creatures, himself about this!” He slipped into the room. “I want
clutching sharpened stakes, gal- “Yesss, yesss. I help,” said the to talk to you.”
loped down upon Bu Hjark, who Spandul, gliding forward. It took “Take my worthless life, then,”
joined battle with them gleefully. hold of the arm of Lucy which keened the jelly. “I have nothing
“Let’s get going,” whispered Tom was not holding. “Chair. worth talking about.
Tom. Thisss way.” “Yes, you have,” said Tom.
“Yes, let’s,” said Lucy with, a “Good. Stay with her,” said “You can tell me about yourself.”
shudder. They threaded their Tom. “I’ll go after a doctor.” “Myself?” A little color began
way through the staring crowd Heturned and plunged back to flow back into the Bulbur. “Ah,
to the shadowy corner which led into the crowd. As soon as he I see. It is not me. It is the high
back to the room where they had was out of sight, however, he role I have been chosen to play
discovered the Bulbur. stopped, waited for a moment and that makes me an object of in-
“Limp more!” said Tom. He then slowly began to work his terest to you.”
guided her toward the lighted way back. “Oh? Oh yes, that of course,”
doorway. “Hey! Spandul?” said Tom. “Let me hear you de-
The Spandul they had seen Ill scribe it in your own words.”

size.” earlier emerged from the room. The Bulbur turned pink.
“First,” Bu Hjark was crying, Its eyes glittered suspiciously XITTHEN he arrived once more “I am not worthy,” it mur-
“let in the Bashtash!” upon them. ” at the shadowy entrance, mured.
“What iss the masser?” it it was empty. He slipped quickly “Tell me,” said Tom. The Bul-
r I ’'HERE was a moment’s pause, hissed. “Guests will be more back to the doorway, taking bur turned flame-colored.
then a gasp from the far end comfortable in main hall.” what appeared to be an lifetime “I am . . it began and then
of the room, drowned out by a “My mate has hurt herself. I fountain pen from his pocket as its voice almost failed it, “the . . .

sudden bestial bellow. Something insist you give me a hand here,” he approached the doorway. most important item . . .” At that
the general shape of a rhinoceros said Tom. “I need help.” Holding it, he peered inside. The its voice did fail it.

but not so large, charged down “Help?” Naffing, curled up in a corner, “Go on,” said Tom, drawing
the aisle full tilt at Bu Hark, who “I must get a doctor. Right reared up at the sight of him. close to it.

182 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 183

 —
“I cannot. The emotion in- that the way was still clear, “I’m away. It was only with a sudden, find peace to be a pleasant and
volved is too strong.” afraid I don’t understand you. convulsive effort that he broke desirable thing?”
The Bulbur had deepened its What do you mean, peace- loose from the hold of that voice “Of course,” said Tom.
red color until it was almost worshipper?” upon him. “Oh —
you poor creature,”
black. Its voiceseemed strangled “If you will permit me,” said “Wait! Hold it!” he gasped. breathed the Bulbur. “How you
and unnatural. Tom cast another the Bulbur humbly. “I might sing “I get it. I understand.” must suffer.”
glance at the doorway. you a little melody?” The Bulbur broke off sudden- “Suffer? Certainly not!” said
“All right,” he said. “Let’s talk “Well, if it’ll help,” said Tom. ly, with a sound very much like Tom. “We like it peaceful. We
about things you can talk about “Go ahead.” a sob. keep it peaceful.”
for a moment. Tell me about “Excuse me,” it whispered. “You keep peaceful?”
it

yourself — aside from what you’re rT, HE Bulbur turned a pale, “It’s shameful, I know, but I was “Well — most of the time,” said
supposed to do here.” happy pink. A thread of mel- carried away.” Tom, a little guiltily.
“But I am nothing,” sang the ody began to pour forth from it. “Well, it’s not shameful, exact- “But what do you do with such
Bulbur, paling relievedly. “I am Up until now, Tom had been too ly,” said Tom, clearing his throat. as the Jaktals, the Spanduls, the
a mere blob. A shameful blob.” concerned to figure out how a “I mean — there’s more to life Gloks and the Naffings?”
“Shameful?” said Tom. three-layer aspic, even one of than that, of course. But I don’t “We —
well, we stop them,”
“Oh, yes,” said the Bulbur, large size, could manage to talk see why you think you have to said Tom. “By force, if neces-
earnestly. “A shameful quiver of and sing. But now, looking closer, be ashamed of it.” sary.”
emotions. A useless creature, he perceived, palely moving and “Because,” said the Bulbur, “But force? Isn’t that coer-
possessing only a voice and the pulsating within the body of the going a sad, translucent blue, “it cion?” said the Bulbur, turning
power of putting forth weak Bulbur, almost transparent or- is my mark —
the mark of my pink, chartreuse and mauve in
pseudopods to get about. A pus- —
gans and parts heart, lungs, and difference from all the rest of that order. “Isn’t that fighting fire
illanimous peace-worshipper in a throat among others, with a clear you. I cannot stand to force my with fire?”
universe at war.” channel leading to a small mouth opinion on anyone else. I have no “Why not? said Tom.
“Peace?” Tom stiffened. “Did in the very top of the being. He virtues. It is quite right that I
you say peace-worshipper?” was also suddenly aware of pale, should suffer.” r T'HE Bulbur went slowly, com-
- “Oh, yes. Yes,” fluted the Bul- almost transparent eyes ringing “Suffer?” pletely transparent again.
bur. “It is the main cause of my the upper tier like decorations on “Ah, indeed —
suffer. Oh,” said “Oh, I couldn’t!” it said at last.
shame. Ah, if only the worlds of a wedding cake in jelly form. the Bulbur, pinkening again, “it’s “Certainly. That singing of
the universe were oriented to my But almost as soon as he had a great honor, I know. I should yours is a strong argument. I’d
desires!” Its voice sank, and took seen he began to forget all
this, be rejoicing. But I’m a failure at think you’d use it.”
on a note of sad reasonableness, about it. The melody he was rejoicing, too.” And now it did “Oh, no,” said the Bulbur.
not untouched with humor. “But listening to began to pass beyond sob, quite distinctly. “What if I was successful? That

obviously, if it had been meant to mere sound, began to pass be- “Wait a minute, now,” said would make me a dominator of
be that way, all life forms would yond mere music. It moved com- Tom. “You seem to have things the Jaktals —
and the Spanduls.”
be cast in the shape of Bulburs pletely inside him and became all twisted up. What gives you “To say nothing,” said Tom,
and this, manifestly, is not the a heart-twisting voice speaking the idea nobody but you prefers “of the Gloks, Naffings and so
case.” of peace, beyond any other voice peace to fighting?” forth.” He stopped suddenly,
“Look,” said Tom with another that could possibly speak in op- The Bulbur turned completely wondering what had just
glance out the doorway, to see position. He felt himself swept transparent. “You mean you also alarmed him. Then he noticed

184 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 185

that the sound of battle from the The crowd opened up again for pleasing the worthwhile pal- in the universe. He thought of
main hall had suddenly ceased. alongside them and the platoon ates of our betters. It is our one how effective the Bulbur’s gift of
now bearing the Bulbur pride and pleasure, to know that song had proved in the room
“Why
peaceful
shouldn’t
if
you have things
you want them?”
of Gloks,
on its silver stand, marched out
—
you find us good to ” the Bul- when the Bulbur sang to him.
“Why, not natural,” said
it’s to the table and set stand and bur swallowed audibly and then What we need is another Bulbur
the Bulbur. “Look at the matter Bulbur up in the middle of it. Bu took up its speech a little more to sing it into resisting the Jaktal,
logically. If beings had been in- Hjark raised his hand for silence rapidly as Bu Hjark scowled at he thought — and, with that, in-
” — and barked at the Naffing with — “eat. I cannot express the came him. He
tended to live in peace
“Good-by!” interrupted Tom, the vacuum cleaner, which scur-
it

intense enjoyment — ” it said rap-

spiration to
opened his mouth and, in his best
sprinting out the door. He had ried off. idly “— that it gives me to be bathroom baritone, burst into
just noticed the crowd stirring “Respected Entities!” boomed here tonight, awaiting my su- song:
and opening in the direction of Bu Hjark. “I now bring you the preme fulfillment as appetizer to “Allons, enfants de la patrie —
the shadowy entrance and this climax to the evening’s enter- the banquet you will shortly be he sang.
room. He made it to the fringes tainment and the commence- having. To ensure your unal- Almost with the first word,
of the crowd in the main hall ment of the banquet itself. I have loyed enjoyment of me, I will Lucy chimed in with him. Her
just as a lane parted through no doubt, respected Entities, that now,” it said, speeding up even untrained but clear soprano
them and a platoon of Gloks ap- you have on occasion tasted rare more under Bu Hjark’s steely, picked up the second line.
peared, marching the toward and However, tonight
fine dishes. lizard-like eye, “sing you a “ — Le jour de gloire Sing!”—
room. Tom slipped down the I mean to provide you not mere- mouth-watering song to increase she cried to Monsieur Pourtoit,
open space behind them to the ly with the food
finest-tasting your appreciation of my truly who was standing across the open
edge of the open area in the cen- you have ever encountered a — unique flavor.” It broke off and space from them. He bowed to
ter of the floor. A table had just food which all beings who have visibly took a deep breath, her gravely. He looked a little
been set up in the middle of the yet tried it rate better than any turned pale, but came steadily puzzled, but after all he was a
floor. A Naffing, operating a sort other thing they have tasted — back to a solid blue color. Frenchman. He opened his
of vacuum cleaner, was busy but with certain preliminaries “Tom!” Lucy clutched Tom’s mouth and joined a resonant,
cleaning up a few last spots of and appetizers. After which I elbow with fingers that dug in. trained voice to her tones and
pale blood. Bu Hjark, wearing a shall, with my own hand, prepare “It can’t mean we’re going to eat Tom’s.
few neat bandages, his sword re- and serve the dish to you.” it? Tom, do something!” “What is this?” roared Bu
placed, was standing by the table He drew sword and step-
his “What?” said Tom as a small Hjark, spinning around to face
directing the Naffing. Tom ped a little aside from the table. beginning thread of golden mel- Tom. His lizard face was agape,
gained a ringside position, and “And now,” he said to the Bul- ody began to emerge, growing in showing great dog teeth. He
allbut bumped into Lucy, limp- bur. “Commence!” volume as it continued, from the lifted the sword ominously in his
ing around the ring in the oppo- “R-respected Entities,.” the mouth of the Bulbur. hand. Tom swallowed, but con-
site direction. Bulbur began with a slight qua- “I don’t know. But stop it!” tinued to sing.
“That Spandul finally insisted ver. It turned remarkably trans- The Marseillaise, the anthem
on going to get a doctor, himself. parent, then washed back to blue r^ESPERATELY, Tom looked of France, was beginning to
I came to warn you to get out,” again. “It is a great honor, I as- around him for inspiration. sound its battle cry against tyr-
she said. “What happened?” sure you, to be the appetizer to He thought of how he had almost anny from other confused but
Before Tom could answer, your banquet tonight. We Bul- begun to convince the Bulbur cooperative lips. The sword
there was a fanfare of trumpets. burs are a worthless lot, fit only that its attitudes were not unique swung up. The Gloks turned as

186 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR EAT? 187

one man toward Tom. Suddenly bur’s melody-bom emotional With your Spanduls, your
to discover, but it had changed
a clear, pure note, two octaves color. Its lowest tier was now red, might driving through the savage Naffings and your Gloks!
above high F, trilled through all its second tier blue, its top tier ego of the Jaktal like a metal Why shouldn’t peace be
the sound of the room, striking white. As they stood, blade through the tender body of sweet?
all as if
them motionless. The whole attention, it broke magnificently a Bulbur. Now it caught the Who dares a Bulbur eat?
room turned toward the table. into the French anthem to whole assemblage up in its song. Have done! Have done!
Spellbound, a chorus of diplo- Let there be an end!
PEACE —
liberty:
f I ''HE fine, thrilling note was “Against us long, a tyranny,” matic and government personnel It’s be-autiful
*- proceeding from the Bulbur. it sang in wild, masterful accents. harking from old Sol to the fur- From this hour on,my friend!
It had stretched upward until it “A bloody sword has waved on thest of the Pleiades, roared to
was almost twice its original high!” the tune of the Marseillaise: And, as the last great chord
height. From what well of knowl- was pitching its notes direct-
It of voices crashed into silence, the
edge it had picked up the neces- ly atBu Hjark. Those assembled Too long have you kept us huge figure of the Jaktal Ambas-
sary information Tom was never saw the full power of the Bul- subject, sador could be seen to shiver

188 GALAXY WHO DARES A BULBUR E AT ? 189

XJ L
through all its length and, leaning they were contacted by us if —
more and more at an angle with for no other reason than that
eyes glazed, topple at last to they wouldn’t want to hurt his
thunder upon the floor like .some feelings by disagreeing with
mighty ruined tower. And the him.”
voices of the Spanduls and Gloks “They must be so sensitive!”
present rose in one great wail, said Lucy.
crying, “Zzatz! Zzatz! Zzatz . . “Sensitive,” said Tom, taking
When their cries at last died a glum sip from his Martini, “but
away Bulbur on
into silence, the shrewd. The Bulbur knew very
the table could be seen to have well he was turning the authority
taken on an all-over shade of over to people who’d regard it
perky pink. as a sacred trust. ‘Greater love
“Jaktals,” it mentioned, in mild hath no being than to take on
but audible tones as it leaned authority as a duty rather than
above the fallen Bu Hjark, “are a privilege,’ he said.”
also supposed to be very good “You must admit it was quite
eating.” a compliment,” said Lucy.
“Yeah,” said Tom, gloomily.
66 A ND that remark,” said Tom “We’re in for one hell of an ex-
-^*-the evening of the next day, pansion. They’re going to make
after he had finished work, waded me a First Assistant Secretary
through the softball game in the with a full department under me.
street before their house, patted Twice the work —and a ten per
Rex, the Great Dane, and kissed cent raise in pay.” rpHE DAY following Col. ucts of our own cultural environ-
Lucy, “will undoubtedly go down “But imagine,” said Lucy radi- Glenn’s historic round and ment, and present experience
in the history books as the harsh- antly. “Me! The wife of a First round a prominent official
trip, with electronic language transla-
est statement ever made by an Assistant Foreign Secretary!” called attention to the problem tors has demonstrated how tricky
adult Bulbur.” Tom sighed heavily. Rex that he felt loomed largest ... if translating thoroughly known
“But what’s going to happen licked his hand. In the pause in not most immediately urgent. It languages can be. Explorers
to the Bulburs now?” asked the conversation the yells from is becoming obvious even to offi- throughout the centuries have lit-
Lucy, as she gave Tom a Mar- the softball game outside pene- cialdom that we may not be erally wound up in the soup
tini and Rex a bowl of Scotch
and milk.
trated through the living-room alone — out there —
and that through failure to recognize or
walls, in spite of their being set raises the aforementioned prob- comprehend unfamiliar customs.
“Well, this one told us his race on full sound-block. It sounded lem: Communication. How, then, can we expect to
doesn’t want anything to do to Tom a little like Glok and As we in SF are well aware, tackle completely alien concepts?
with running the Jaktal empire. Spandul voices in the distance, the problem is enormous. Innum- A good question, to which many
He turned the authority over to faintly and forebodingly crying erable author-hours have been people wish we had a good an-
us humans. All other Bulburs, he “Zzatz! Zzatz!” devoted to it. We
have trouble swer.
said, would ratify that move, if — GORDON R. DICKSON communicating with fellow prod- Unfortunately, we have no in-

190 GALAXY SHELF 191

digenous, non-human, civilized Lilly has ruled out experimenta- with him to determine our range skinned, tree-dwelling, two-tov,.
races to practice on. However, tion with these species because of of audibility. (Ours ranges from high creature totally intent on
we may have a good substitute the great disparity in strength. 0-20 kc, theirs from 0-200 kc.) mere survival in a world in which
much closer at hand than we sus- (We are far too vulnerable.) Despite his obvious compas- the vegetable has almost totally
pect. There is one species, however, sion and concern, all six of his supplanted the animal, whether
that owns a brain comparable in first test subjects died. walker, crawler, flyer, burrower
MAN AND DOLPHIN by John size to ours and possesses the Lilly pioneering in virgin
is or predator. It has even produced
C. Lilley, M.D. Doubleday & ability to vocalize. Neither is it territory. He has to invent experi- keen intelligence in the form of
Co., Inc. too difficult to manage. The com- mental procedures as he pro- a fungus-like, symbiotic morel.
mon, bottle-nosed dolphin of gresses and failures must out- Aldiss’s completely engrossing
One of the most thoroughly Marineland fame fills the bill. number successes. However, as yarn is far too involved to ex-
overworked words in the review- Says Lilly: any SFeer can tell him, there is cerpt, but the problem of inter-
er’s vocabulary, the adjective “There are many obstacles to a most uncomfortable parallel be- species communication is ignored:
“fascinating,” must be pressed in- mutual understanding. They tween his investigation and the All his intelligences speak collo-
to service to describe the subject have no written records and make plot of manyterror-provoking quial English. Despite this, and
matter of this book. no artifacts. They have no hands yarns. The theme, humans as ex- occasional cuteness, Aldiss’s book
Dr. Lilly opens with these and build nothing. They can perimental subjects of an alien is a tour-de-toTce guaranteed to
words: “Within the next decade swim at 20 knots and in a few species, has created acres of startle the most blase SF buff.
or two the human species will days cover thousands of sea miles gooseflesh. Despite Dr. Lilly’s ob- Rating: * * * * V2
establishcommunication with an- in search for food or more desir- vious solicitude, the role of the
other species: nonhuman, alien, able water temperatures. They intelligent dolphins evokes em- WHEN THEY COME FROM
possibly extraterrestrial, more have no need for clothing or shel- pathy, sympathy and pity. SPACE by Mark Clifton.
probably marine, but definitely ter. Because they do not have to Lilly concludes: Doubletlay & Co.
intelligent, perhaps even intellec- resist gravity, they do not need “Even if we are successful, we
tual. If no one among us pursues to sleep . . . shall still not be fully prepared Clifton envisions a normal bu-
the matter before inter-species “Dolphins are socially, mutu- to encounter intelligent life forms reaucratic snafu summoning the
communication is forced upon ally interdependent. A baby is not of this earth. At most we shall wrong Ralph Kennedy, Mr. in- -
Homo Sapiens by an alien spe- not weaned for 18 to 21 months. have graduated from the kinder- stead of Dr., to Washington to
cies, this book will have failed in During this period, he is appar- garten of inter-species communi- serve as Staff Psychologist of the
its purpose.” ently taught many things by the cation.” Dept, of Extraterrestrial Life
Provocative introduction, yes? mother on a purely experiential Research, Space Navy, specializ-
Lilly himself is fully engaged in and possibly vocal basis dol- . . . THE LONG AFTERNOON OF ing in the Adaptation of Extra-
the research that he has so ur- phins help one another in dis- EARTH by Brian Aldiss. Signet terrestrial Beings to Earth Ecol-
gently recommended. It is from tress. Sometimes complex and Books ogy. Ironically, when ET’s do
that research that his book has concerted action is taken after land on Earth, Mr. Ralph Ken-
taken shape. complex vocalization.” The dolphin figures promin- nedy turns out to be the one hu-
It is a fact that Man is not Libby, finding that dolphins ently in Aldiss’s all-stops-removed man capable of dealing with
supreme in brain size. Elephants can mimic human sounds, is at- fantasy of a far future and a them.
and whales have brains four to tempting to teach them our lan- non-revolving earth. Mankind Bureaucratic Washington is
six times as big as ours. However, guage. One dolphin experimented hard put to survive Clifton’s
has survived also, as a green-

192 GALAXY SHELF 193

vitriolic pen and all
rates low on his scale. The In-
vaders, because they discover our
mankind
mass mentality to be so low, are
convinced that our scientific
achievements are the efforts of
another race strangely absent. To
match our mental level, they ma-
terialize as the incarnation of all
bad TV Space Cadet programs;
broad-shouldered, six-five, mod-
est (Shucks, Ma’m) and with
charming Texas drawls. And that
takes care of the communication
problem.
Rating :
*** V2
THE FALLING TORCH
gis Budrys. Pyramid Books
The yarn a crackling
itself is
good one. The inept, not-too-
bright son of Earth’s president-
in-exile, parachuted with wea-
pons to enable the guerrillas to
mount an all-out offensive against
to Lewis’s evocative
tive allegory.)
The
and provoca-
1 The BEMs in your neighborhood
author’s choice of a philol- won't run off with your books
ogist hero neatly solves the com-
ifyou put inside the front cover
munication problem by providing
the training necessary to achieve of each book ... a gummed bookplate
a working knowledge of the alien with your name printed on it!
language.
INVADERS FROM THE IN-
FINITE by John W. Campbell,
Jr. Gnome Press, Inc.
“Skylark” Smith’s only real
competitor for the super-science
heavyweight title of yore was the
esteemed editor of Analog. In
by Al- fact, this 30-year-old story of
time-travel, planet smashing and
billion-light-year jaunts left
Campbell no place to go ex- —
cept to rebel against this type of
.yarn with his Don A. Stuart
stories that completely altered
your mame here
the course of modern SF. No. GF-614 by Emsh No. GF-612 by Emsh
Campbell brushes off commu- I.

the infinitely superior enemy, is nication by employing thought

FINAGLE SAYS —
plunged beyond his depth. transference via “Ortolian head- The umpteenth corollary
Rating: **** set” or by the “Venerian tele-
of Finagle's General Law of
Dynamic Negatives says:
pathic method.” And so much for
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET that subterfuge.
"No books are ever lost
by loaning except ones you
by C. S. Lewis. Collier Books The communication problem particularly want to keep."
may never arise. We may be
In Lewis’s classic, a brilliant, alone, which is unthinkable, or 100 for $4; 200, $6; 300, $8
but shady, scientist and his finan- our nearest neighbors might be with owner's name imprinted
cial partner shanghai a philolo- too far away to drop in on us. All Postpaid. Add state sales tax, if any.
gist friend to serve as a sacrifice But should they, Dr. Lilly’s work
to weird creatures of Malacandra will be the foundation on which ACTUAL SIZE, all designs, 3x4 inches
No. CM-12 by Cullen Rapp No. CX-J7 by Lynd Ward
(Mars). (Of course, this descrip- our attempt at intercourse will
tion does no justice whatsoever rest. — FLOYD C. GALE The designs shown above are the only ones we offer f

194 GALAXY Order from GALAXY421 Hudson Street, New York 14. N.Y.
I
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