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December 1964

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n
600
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n> THE STARSLOGGERS
3
C
ro
byHARRY HARRISON

AMAN OF THE
RENAISSANCE
y WYMAN GUIN

TO AVENGE MAN by LEST R DEL REY


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03X&XV
MAGAZINE
ALL STORIES NEW

Galaxy is published in French and


Italian. The U. Edition is pub-
S.
lished in Braille.This Edition is
also published Living Tape by
in
Blind, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa.

• FREDERIK POHL
DECEMBER, 1964 Vol. 23, No. 2
Editor
CONTENTS WILLY LEY
Science Editor
COMPLETE SHORT NOVEL DIANE SULLIVAN
THE STARSLOGGERS .... 7 Associate Editor
by Harry Harrison SOL COHEN
Publisher

NOVELETTES DAVID PERTON


A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE . 106 Production Manager
Wyman Guin
DAVE GELLER ASSOC.
by
TO AVENGE MAN 156 Advertising

by Lester del Rey MAVIS FISHER


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FEATURES fiction and any similarity be-
EDITORIAL 4 tween characters and actual
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by Frederik Pohl
Printed the U.SA.
in
FORECAST 155 By The Guinn Co., Inc. N. T.
Cover by McKenna for TO AVENGE MAN Title Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.
T et’s say that we get to Mars at that. Where is he going to
in the next few years and find one?
learn that, in spite of everything, As a matter of fact, he won’t
there really are Martians. The have very far to look —
not by
way we learn this is that our the time we land on Mars, and
spacecraft cushions its soft land- indeed not even today. Space
ing on a Martian canal-tender’s law already a recognized spe-
is

hut; and as a direct consequence cialty; the most recent proof of


of this mishap grave events fol- this to cross our desk is a fat,
low, for all of which the Martian good-looking volume entitled
government holds us responsible. Law and Public Order in Space
Next thing you know the Presi- (Yale University Press), written
dent of the United States is sum- by three law professors named
moned to defend himself before McDougal, Lasswell and Vlasic.
the Third Marslaw Folk Concil- (Professors McDougal and Lass-
iatorium. well are on the Yale faculty.
Clearly the President needs Professor Vlasic, however, shows
a lawyer — and a space lawyer, just how far this thing has gone.

4

Secrets
entrusted
to a
few

THERE are some things that cannot organization) an age-old brotherhood


be generally told — things you ought to of learning, have preserved this secret
know. Great truths are dangerous to wisdom in their archives for centu-
•one- but factors for personal power ries. They now invite you to share the
and accomplishment in the hands of practical helpfulness of their teachings.
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$
with his academic connection: Ley, C. S. Lewis, etc.) Maybe
his school is McGill’s Institute we should all start boning up
and Space Law.)
of Air right now . . .

What is most interesting about


Law and Public Order in Space Tf not on space law, then how
is that not science fiction. It
it is about the sort of law, or at
is law: which means that
solid least governmental policy, that
it firmly on statute and
rests scientists are making right now?
precedent, and although you What makes us think of that
might not think it, both statute is another book, this one called
and precedent exist copiously Scientists and National Policy
right now. The authors have Making (Columbia University
found any number of points of Press), a symposium edited by
law concerning marine vessels Robert Gilpin and Christopher
and aircraft, for example, which Wright on how scientists are
must clearly apply to Gemiri helping to shape government pol-
and Vostok as well. How can icies today.
nations determine who owns There are plenty of them,
what when Mars is colonized? some 4,000 in that National Bu-
The precedents come from Ant- reau of Standards alone. What
arctica. What happens if there do they do? Why, they advise,
are Martians, and they object? A mostly. But their advice has
whole budget of law on such much force behind it, since it is
questions as American relations rather clear that most laymen
with the Apaches give the an- —
don’t and can’t know enough—
swers. The authors of this tome about certain rather large scien-
have considered nearly as many tific questions to be entitled to
possibilities as Heinlein and Van an opinion without such advice.
Vogt —
and have found legal This is a step forward as the—
matter concerning everything book points out, in the half-
from a collision between orbiting century after the National Acad-
satellites to the trick question emy of Sciences was founded
of contact with superintendent in 1863 it was consulted by the
aliens who wish to send us mis- War Department on only five
sionaries preaching their One subjects, including “Tests for the
True Religion. Purity of Whiskey” and how to
It’s interesting reading. (Quotes preserve paint on Army knap-
a number of familiar names as sacks.
authorities, by the way — Arthur There have been changes since
C. Clarke, Lester del Rey, Willy then! — FREDERIK POHL
6
THE
STARSLOGGERS
by HARRY HARRISON

ILLUSTRATED BY GIUNTA

Left , right! Left, right! Keep


in line—don't talk back to NCOs
—and, above all, don't ask why I

I the road. He might never have


heard it and his life would have
never realized that sex was been very, very different. But
B ill

the cause of it all. If the he did hear it and dropped the


sun that morning had not been handles of the plow that was
burning so warmly in the brassy plugged into the robomule,
sky of Phigerinadon II, and if he turned and gaped.
had not glimpsed the sugar-white It was indeed a fabulous sight
and barrel-wide backside of In- Leading the parade was a one-
ga-Maria Calyphigia while she robot-band, twelve-feet high and
bathed in the stream, he might splendid in its great black busby
have paid more attention to his that concealed the hi-fi speakers.
plowing than to the burning The golden pillars of its legs
pressures of heterosexuality. He stamped forward as its thirty ar-
would have driven his furrow to ticulated arms sawed, plucked
the far side of the hill before the and fingered at a dazzling variety
seductive music sounded along of instruments. Martial music

7
poured out in wave after inspir- Star Troopers to the Skies
ing wave and even Bill’s thick Avaunt, and thrashed its way
peasant feet stirred in their clod- through Rockets Rumble and al-
hoppers as the shining boots of most demolished itself in the
the squad of soldiers crashed tumultuous rhythm of Sappers
along the road in perfect unison. at the Pithead Digging. It pur-
Medals jingled on the manly sued this last tune so strenuously
swell of their scarlet-clad chests. that one of its legs flew off, ris-
And there could certainly be no ing high into the air, but was
nobler sight in all the world. To caught dexterously before it
their rear marched the sergeant, could hit the ground and the
gorgeous in his braid and brass, music ended with the robot bal-
thickly clustered medals and rib- ancing on its remaining leg beat-
bons, sword and gun, girdled gut ing time with the detached limb.
and steely eye which sought out It also, after an ear-fracturing
Bill where he stood gawking over peal on the basses, used the leg
the fence. The grizzled head to point across the square to
nodded in his direction, the where a tri-di screen and re-
steel-trap mouth bent into a freshment booth had been set
friendly smile and there was a up. The troopers had vanished
conspiratorial wink. Then
the into the tavern and the recruit-
little legion was past, and hurry- ing sergeant stood alone among
ing behind in their wake came
a his robots, beaming a welcoming
huddle of dust- covered ancillary smile.
robots, hopping and crawling or
rippling along on treads. As soon ( t \T ow hear this! Free drinks
as these had gone by Bill ’ for all, courtesy of the
climbed clumsily over the split- Emperor, and some lively scenes
rail fence and ran after them. of jolly adventure in distant
There were no more than two in- climes toamuse you while you
teresting events every four years he called in an immense
sip,”
here, and he was not going to and leathery voice.
miss what hopefully promised to Most of the people drifted over,
be a third. Bill in their midst, though a few
A crowd hadalready gathered embittered and elderly draft-
in the market square when Bill dodgers slunk away between the
hurried up, and they were lis- houses. Cooling drinks were
tening to an enthusiastic band shared out by a robot with a
concert. The robot hurled itself spigot for a navel and an inex-
into the glorious measures of haustible supply of plastic

8 GALAXY
glasses in one metallic hip. screen went blank the refresh-
Bill sipped his happily while ment robot pounded hollowly on
he followed the enthralling ad- its metallic chest and bellowed
ventures of the space troopers DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! The
in full color with sound effects sheeplike audience swept that
and stimulating subsonics. There way, all except Bill who was
was battle and death and glory plucked from their midst by a
though it was only the Chingers powerful arm.
who died: troopers only suffered “Here, I saved some for you,”
neat little wounds in their ex- the sergeant said, passing over
tremities that could be covered a prepared cup so loaded with
easily by small bandages. And dissolved ego-reducing drugs that
while Bill was enjoying this. Re- they were crystallizing out at
cruiting Sergeant Grue was en- the bottom. “You’re a fine fig-
joying him, his little piggy eyes ure of a lad and to my eye seem
ruddy with greed as they fas- a cut above the yokels here. Did
tened onto the back of Bill’s you ever think of making your
neck. career in the forces?”
This is the one! he chortled to “I’m not the military type,
himself while, unknowingly, his shargeant .” Bill chomped his
. .

yellowed tongue licked at his jaws and spat to remove the im-
lips. He could already feel the pediment to his speech, puzzled
weight of the bonus money in at the sudden fogginess in his
his pocket. The rest of the au- thoughts. Though it was a trib-
dience were the usual mixed bag ute to his physique that he was
of overage men, fat women, even conscious after the volume
beardless youths and other un- of drugs and sonics that he had
enlistables. All except this broad- been plyed with. “Not the mili-
shouldered, square-chinned, cur- tary type. My fondest ambition
ly-haired chunk of electronic- is to be of help in the best way
cannon fodder. With a precise I can, in my
chosen career as a
hand on the controls the sergeant Technical Fertilizer Operator
lowered the background sub- and I’m almost finished with my
sonics and aimed a tight-beam correspondence course .” . .

stimulator at the back of his


victim’s head. Bill writhed in ttnphat’s a crappy job for a
his seat, almost taking part in bright lad like you,” the
the glorious battles unfolding be- sergeant said while clapping him
fore him. on the arm to get a good feel
As the last chord died and the of his biceps. Rock. He resisted

THE STARSLOGGERS 9
the impulse to pull Bill’s lip of him and pointing to a large
down and take a quick peek at book held open by a tiny robot.
the condition of his back teeth. “Clothes make the man and most
Later. “Leave that kind of job men would be ashamed to be
to those that likeit. No chance seen in a crummy looking smock
of promotion. While a career in like that thing draped around
the troopers has no top. Why you or wearing those broken
Grand-Admiral Pflunger came canal boats on their feet. Why
upthrough the rocket tubes, as look like that when you can look
they say, from recruit trooper like this?"
to grand-admiral. How does that Bill’s eyes followed the thick
sound?” finger to the color plate in the
“It sounds very nice for Mr. book where a miracle of mis-
Pflunger but I think fertilizer applied engineering caused his
operating is more fun. Gee —
I’m own face to appear on the illus-
feeling sleepy. I think I’ll go lie trated figure dressed in trooper-
down.” red. The sergeant flipped the
“Not before you’ve seen this, pages and on each plate the uni-
just as a favor to me of course,” form was a little more gaudy,
the sergeant said, cutting in front the rank higher. The last one

10 GALAXY
was that of a grand-admiral and stripped him naked. “Hey!
Bill blinked at his own face un- Hey . . .!” he said.
der the plumed helmet, now with “It won’t hurt,” the sergeant
a touch of crowfeet about the said, poking his great head
eyes and sporting a handsome through the curtain and beaming
and gray-shot moustache, but at Bill’s muscled form. He poked
still undeniably his own. a finger into a pectoral (rock)
“That’s the way you will and then withdrew.
look,” the sergeant murmured
into his ear, “once you have tt/"vuch!” Bill said as the
climbed the ladder of success. ^ ' tailor extruded a cold
Would you like to try a uniform pointer and jabbed him with it,

on? Of course you would like measuring his size. Something


to try a uniform on. Tailor!” went chunk deep inside its tub-
When Bill opened his mouth ular torso and a brilliant red
to protest the sergeant put a jacket began to emerge from a
large cigar into it, and before he slot in the front. In an instant
could get it out the robot tailor this was slipped onto Bill and
had rolled up, swept a curtain the shining golden buttons but-
bearing arm about him and toned. Luxurious gray moleskin

THE STARSLOGGERS 11
trousers were pulled on next, flowing Cornucopia which does
then gleaming black knee-length not mean anything but it looks
boots. Bill staggered a bit as the nice and can be used to carry
curtain was whipped away and contraceptives.” He stepped back
a powered full-length mirror and admired Bill’s chest which
rolled up. was now adangle with ribbons,
“Oh how the girls love a uni- shining metal and gleaming paste
form,” the sergeant said, “and I gems.
can’t blame them.” “I just couldn’t,” Bill said.
A memory the vision of
of “Thank you anyway for the of-
Inga-Maria Calyphigia’s matched fer, but . .
.”
white moons obscured Bill’s sight
The sergeant smiled, prepared
for a moment, and when it had even for this eleventh hour re-
cleared he found he was grasp- sistance, and pressed the button
ing a stylo and was about to
on his belt that actuated the
sign the form that the recruiting
programmed hypno-coil in
the
sergeant held before him.
heel of Bill’s new boot. The pow-
“No,” Bill said, a little amazed erful neural current surged
at his own
firmness of mind. “I
through the contacts and Bill’s
don’t really want to. Technical hand twitched and jumped, and
FertilizerOperator .” . .
when the momentary fog had
“And not only will you receive lifted from his eyes he saw that
this lovely uniform, an enlist-
he had signed his name.
ment bonus and a free medical “But ”
. .

examination, but you will be


awarded these handsome med-
als.” The sergeant took a flat C4'lX7'elcome to the Space
^ ’ Troopers,” the sergeant
box, offered to him on cue by a
robot, and opened it to display a boomed, smacking him on the
glittering array of ribbons and back (trapezius like rock) and
bangles. “This is the Honorable relieving him of the stylo. “FALL
Enlistment Award,” he intoned IN!” in a larger voice, and the
gravely, pinning a jewel-encrust- recruits stumbled from the tav-
ed nebula, pendant on chartreuse, ern.
to Bill’s wide chest. “And the “What have they done to my
Emperor’s Congratulatory Gilded son!” Bill’s mother screeched,
Horn, The Forward to Victory coming into the market square,
Starburst, the Praise Be Given clutching at her bosom with one
Salutation of the Mothers of the hand and towing his baby broth-
Victorious Fallen and the Ever- er Charlie with the other. Char-

12 GALAXY
lie began to cry and wet his cut through the thud of march-
pants. ing feet.
“Your son is now a trooper for “Step up the count to 130,” the
the greater glory of the Emper- sergeant ordered, glancing at the
or,” the sergeant said, pushing watch which was set under the
his slack-jawed and round-shoul- nail of his little finger. “Just ten
dered recruit squad into line. miles to the station and we’ll be
“No! it can’t be . . .” Bill’s incamp tonight, my lads.”
mother sobbed, tearing at her The command robot moved its
graying hair. “I’m a poor widow metronome up one notch and the
he’s my sole support . . . you tramping boots conformed to the
cannot .
.!”. smarter pace and the men be-
“Mother . .
.” Bill said, but gan to sweat. By the time they
the sergeant shoved him back had reached the copter station
into the ranks. it was nearly dark, their red
“Be brave, madam,” he said paper uniforms hung in shreds,
humbly. the gilt had been rubbed from
“There can be no greater glory their potmetal buttons and the
for a mother.” He dropped a surface charge that repelled the
large newly minted coin into her dust from their thin plastic
hand. “Here is the enlistment boots had leaked away. They
bonus, the Emperor’s shilling. I looked as ragged, weary, dusty
know he wants you to have it. and miserable as they felt.
ATTENTION!”
With a clash of heels the grace- II
less recruits braced their shoul-
ders and lifted their chins. Much wasn’t the recorded bugle
t
to his surprise, so did Bill. I playing reveille that woke
“RIGHT TURN!” Bill, but the supersonics that
In a single, graceful motion streamed through the metal
as the command robot relayed frame of his bunk that shook him
the order to the hypno-coil in until the fillings vibrated from his
every boot. FORWARD teeth. He sprang to his feet and
MARCH! and they did in per- stood there shivering in the gray
fect rhythm, so well under con- of dawn. Because it was summer
trol that, try as hard as he could the floor was refrigerated no :

Bill could neither turn his head mollycoddling of the men in


nor wave a last good-by to his Camp Leon Trotsky. The pallid,
mother. She vanished behind chilled figures of the other re-
him and one last, anguished wail cruits loomed up on every side.

THE STARSLOGGERS 13
When the soul-shaking vibrations red gleams in the stygian dark-
died away they dragged their ness. A nose, broken and crushed,
thick and sandpaper
sackcloth squatted above the mouth that
fatigue uniforms from their was like a knife slash in the taut
bunks, pulled them hastily on, belly of a corpse, while from be-
jammed their feet into the great, between the lips issued the great,
purple recruit boots and stag- white fangs of the canine teeth,
gered out into the dawn. at least two inches long, that
“I am here to break your rested in grooves on the lower
spirit,” a voice, rich with men- lip.

ace, told them, and they looked “I am Petty Chief Officer


up and shivered even more as Deathwish Drang and you will
they faced the chief demon in call me ‘sir’ or ‘m’lord’.” He be-
this particular hell. gan to pace grimly before the
Petty Chief Officer Deathwish row of terrified recruits. “I am
Drang was a specialist from the your father and your mother and
tips of the angry spikes of his your whole universe and your
hair to the corrugated stamping dedicated enemy, and very soon
soles of his mirror-like boots. He I will have you regretting the
was wide shouldered and lean day you were bom. I will crush
hipped, while his long arms hung, your will. When I say frog you
curved like some horrible an- will jump. My job is to turn you
thropoid, the knuckles of his im- into troopers, and troopers have
mense fists scarred from the discipline. Discipline simply
merciless breaking of thousands means unthinking subservience,
of teeth. loss of free will, absolute obed-
It was impossible to look at ience. That is all I ask .” . .

this detestable form and imagine


that it issued from the tender T Te stopped before Bill, who
womb of a woman. He could was not shaking quite as
never been born; he must have much as the other recruits and
been built to order by the gov- scowled.
ernment. Most terrible of all “I don’t like your face. One
was the head. The face! The month of Sunday KP.”
hairlinewas scarcely a fingers- “Sir . .
.”

width above the black tangle of “And a second month for talk-
the brows that were set like a ing back.”
rank growth of foliage at the rim He waited, but Bill was silent
of the black pits that concealed He had already learned his first

the eyes visible only as baleful lesson on how to be a good
14 GALAXY
trooper. Keep your mouth shut. speed. With each day conditions
Death wish paced on. became worse and Bill’s exhaus-
“Right now you are nothing tion greater. This seemed impos-
but horrible, sordid, flabby pieces sible, but it was nevertheless
of debased civilian flesh. I shall true. A large number of gifted
turn that flesh to muscle, your and sadistic minds had designed
wills to jelly, your minds to ma- it to be that way. The recruits'

chines. You will become good heads were shaved for uniformity
troopers or I will kill you. Very and their genitalia painted with
soon you will be hearing stories orange antiseptic to control the
about me, vicious stories about endemic crotch crickets. The
how I killed and ate a recruit food was theoretically nourishing
who disobeyed me.” but incredibly vile and when, by
He
halted and stared at them. mistake, one batch of meat was
Slowly the coffin-lid lips parted served in an edible state it was
in an evil travesty of a grin, while caught at the last moment and
a drop of saliva formed at the thrown out and the cook reduced
tip of each whitened tusk. two grades. Their sleep was bro-
“That story is true.” ken by mock gas attacks and
A moan broke from the row of their free time filled with caring
recruits and
they shook as for their equipment.
though a chill wind had passed
over them. The smile vanished. nphe seventh day was designa-
“We will run to breakfast now *- ted as a day of rest but they
as soon as I have some volun- all had received punishments,
teers for an easy assignment. Can like Bill’s KP, and it was as any
any of you drive a helicar?” other day. On this, the third
Two recruits hopefully raised Sunday of their imprisonment,
their hands and he beckoned they were stumbling through
them forward. “Alright, both of the last hour of the day before
you, mops and buckets behind the lights were extinguished and
that door. Clean out the latrine they were finally permitted to
while the rest are eating. You’ll crawl into their casehardened
have a better appetite for bunks. Bill pushed against the
lunch.” weak force field that blocked
That was Bill’s second lesson the door, cunningly designed to
on how to be a good trooper: allow the desert flies to enter
never volunteer. but not leave the barracks, and
The days of recruit training dragged himself in. After four-
passed with a horribly lethargic teen hours of KP his legs vibra-

THE STARSLOGGERS 15
ted with exhaustion and his arms us hate the dirty enemy more.”
were wrinkled and pallid as a Bill jumped, he had thought he
corpse’s from the soapy water. was alone in the latrine, and the
He dropped his jacket to the razor buzzed spitefully and
floor, where it stood stiffly, sup- gouged a bit of flesh from his
ported by its burden of sweat, lip.
grease and dust, and dragged his “Who’s there? Why are you
shaver from the foot locker. In hiding?” he snarled, then recog-
the latrine he bobbed his head nized the huddled dark figure
around trying to find a clear and the many pairs of boots. “Oh,
space on one of the mirrors. it’s only you Eager.” His anger

All of them had been heavily drained away and he turned back
stenciled in large letters with to the mirror.
such inspiring messages as KEEP Eager Beager was so much a
YOUR WUG SHUT — THE part of the latrine that you forgot
CHINGERS ARE LISTENING he was there. A moon-faced,
and IF YOU TALK THIS MAN eternally smiling youth whose
MAY DIE. He finally plugged apple red cheeks never lost their
the shaver in next to WOULD glow, and whose smile looked
YOU WANT YOUR SISTER so much out of place here in
TO MARRY ONE? and center- Camp Leon Trotsky that every-
ed his face in the O in ONE. one wanted to kill him until they
Black-rimmed, bloodshot eyes remembered that he was mad.
stared back at him as he ran
the buzzing machine over the TTe had to be mad because he
underweight planes of his jaw. -* was always eager to help his

It took more than a minute for buddies and had volunteered as


the meaning of the question to permanent latrine orderly. Not
pentrate his fatigue-drugged only that, but he liked to polish
brain. boots and had offered to do those
“I haven’t a sister,” he
got of one after another of his bud-
grumbled peevishly. “And if I dies until now he did the boots
did why should she want to for every man in the squad every
marry a lizard anyway?” It was night. Whenever they were in
a rhetorical question but it the barracks Eager Beager could
brought an answer from the far be found crouched at the end of
end of the room, from the last the thrones that were his per-
shot tower in the second row. sonal domain, surrounded by
“It doesn’t mean exactly what heaps of shoes and polishing in-
it says — it’s just there to make dustriously, his face wreathed in

16 GALAXY
smiles. He would still be there warfare. We
have to win the war.
after lights-out,working by the To win the war we have to fight
light of a burning wick struck in hard. In order to fight hard we
a can of polish and was usually have to have good soldiers. Good
up before the others in the morn- soldiers have to hate the enemy.
ing, finishing his voluntary job That’s the way it goes. The
and still smiling. Sometimes, Chingers are the only non-hu-
when the boots were very dirty, man race that has been discover-
he worked right through the ed in the galaxy that has gone
night. The kid was obviously in- beyond the aboriginal level, so
sane but no one turned him in naturally we have to wipe them
because he did such a good job out.”
on the boots and they all prayed “What the hell do you mean
that he wouldn’t die of exhaus- naturally ? I don’t want to wipe
tion until recruit training was anyone out. I just want to go
finished. home and be a Technical Fertili-
“Well if that’s what they want zer Operator.”
to say,why don’t they just say
‘hate the dirty enemy more’,” Cfl TC7'ell I don’t mean you per-
Billcomplained. He jerked his ’ ’
sonally, of course —
thumb at the far wall where gee!” Eager opened a fresh can
there was a poster labeled of polish with purple -stained
KNOW THE ENEMY. It fea- hands and dug his fingers into it.

tured a life-size illustration of a “I mean the human race, that’s


Chinger, a seven foot high sauri- just the way we do things. If we
an that looked very much like a don’t wipe them out they’ll wipe
scale covered, four armed, green us out. Of course they say that
kangaroo with an alligator’s war is against their religion and

head. “Whose sister would want they will only fight in defense,
to marry a thing like that any- and they have never made at-
way? And what would a thing tacks, yet. But we can’t believe
like that want to do with a sis- them even though it is true. They
ter, except maybe eat her?” might change their religion or
Eager put a last buff on a pur- their minds some day and then
ple toe and picked up another where would we be? The best
boot. He frowned for a brief in- answer is to wipe them out now.”
stant to show what a serious Bill unplugged his razor and
thought this was. “Well you see, washed his face in the tepid, rus-
gee — it doesn’t mean a real sis- ty water. “It still doesn’t seem
ter. It’s just part of psychological to make sense. Alright, so the

THE STARSLOGGERS 17

sister I don’t have doesn’t marry painfully cutting his coffee-sub-


one of them. But how about that stitute into chunks small enough
— ” he pointed to the stenciling to swallow, the telenews reported
on the duckboards, KEEP THIS heavy fighting in the Beta Lyra
SHOWER CLEAR — THE sector with mounting losses. A
ENEMY CAN HEAR. “Or that groan ripples through the mess
— ” The sign above the urinal hall when this was announced,
that read BUTTON FLIES — not because of any excess of pat-
BEWARE SPIES. “Forgetting riotism, but because any bad
for the moment
that we don’t news would only make things
have any secrets here worth worse for them. They did not
traveling a mile to hear, much know how this would be ar-
less twenty-five light-years — ranged, but they were positive it

how could a Chinger possibly be would be. They were right.


a spy? What kind of make-up
would disguise a seven foot liz- Oince the morning was a bit
ard as a recruit? You couldn’t ^ cooler than usual the Mon-
even disguise one to look like day parade was postponed until
Deathwish Drang, though you noon when the ferro- concrete
could get pretty close — drill ground would have warmed
The lights went out and, as up nicely and there would be
though using his name had sum- the maximum number of heat
moned him like a devil from the prostration cases. But this was
pit,the voice of Deathwish blast- just the beginning. From where
ed through the barracks. Bill stood at attention near the
“Into your sacks! Into your rear he could see that the air-
sacks! Don’t you lousy bowbs conditioned canopy was up on
know there’s a war on!” he the reviewing stand. That meant
rumbled menacingly. brass. The trigger guard of his
Bill stumbled away through atomic rifle dug a hole into his
the darkness of the barracks shoulder and a drop of sweat
where the only illumination was collected then dripped from the
the red glow from Deathwish’s tip of his nose. Out of the corn-
eyes. He fell asleep the instant ers of his eyes he could see the
his head touched his carborun- steady ripple of motion as men
dum pillow and it seemed that collapsed here and there among
only a moment had elapsed be- the massed ranks of thousands,
fore reveille sent him hurtling and were dragged to the waiting
from his bunk. ambulances by alert corpsmen.
At breakfast, while he was Here they were laid in the shade

38 GALAXY
of the vehicles until they revived hadn’t been more than thirty
and could be urged back to their yards away, who had lectured
positions in the formation with them on venereal disease, but Bill
other staggering recruits. had been lucky enough to sit be-
Then the band burst into hind a post and had promptly
Spacemen Ho and Chingers fallen asleep.
Vanguished! and the broadcast After the band shut up, the
signal to each boot heel snapped anti-G loudspeakers floated out
the ranks to attention at the over the troops and the general
same instant and the thousands addressed them. He had nothing
of rifles flashed in the sun. The to say that anyone cared to listen
commanding general’s staff car to and he closed with the an-
— was obvious from the two
this nouncement that because of
stars painted on it —
pulled up losses in the field their training
beside the reviewing stand and a program would be accelerated,
tiny, round figure moved quickly which was just what they had
through the fumacelike air to expected. Then the band played
the comfort of the enclosure. Bill some more and they marched
had never seen him any closer back to the barracks, changed
than this, at least from the front, into their haircloth fatigues and
though once while he was re- marched — doubletime now —
turning from late KP he had to the range where they fired
spotted the general getting into their atomic rifles at plastic re-
his car near the camp theatre. plicas of Chingers that popped
At it was him,
least Bill thought up out of holes in the ground.
but he had seen was a brief
all Their aim was very bad until
rear view. Therefore, if he had a Deathwish Drang popped out of
mental picture of the general, it a hole and every trooper switch-
was of a large backside super- ed to full automatic and hit with
imposed on a teeny ant-like every charge fired from every
figure. gun, which is a very hard thing
He thought of most officers in to do. Then the smoke cleared
these general terms, since the and they stopped cheering and
men of course had nothing to do started sobbing when they saw
with officers during their recruit that it was only a plastic replica
training. Bill had had a good of Deathwish, now tom to tiny
glimpse of a 2nd lieutenant once, pieces, and the original appeared
near the orderly room, and he behind them and gnashed its

knew he had a face. And there tusks and gave them all a full
had been a medical officer who month’s KP.

THE STARSLOGGERS 19
Ill “Go on —
why is the body a
wonderful thing?”
tt'T'he human body is a won- They waited in expectant si-
derful thing,” Bowb Brown lence while Bowb managed to
said, a month later, when they tear a bite from his sausage and,
were sitting around a table in the after ineffectual chewing, swal-
Lowest Ranks Klub eating plas- lowed it with an effort that
tic skinned sausages stuffed with brought tears to his eyes. He
road sweepings and drinking eased the pain with a mouthful
watery warm beer. Bowb Brown of beer and spoke.
was a thoatherder from the “The human body is a wonder-
plains, which is why they called ful thing —
because if it doesn’t
him Bowb since everyone knows die — it lives.”
just what thoatherders do with They waited for more until
their thoats. He was tall, thin they realized that he was fin-
and bowlegged, his skin burnt ished, then they sneered.
to the color of ancient leather. “Boy, are you full of bowb!”
He rarely talked, being more “Sign up for O.C.S.!”
used to the eternal silence of “Yeah —
but what does it
the plains broken only by the mean?”
eerie cry of the restless thoat. Bill knew what it meant, but
He was a great thinker since the didn’t tell them.
one thing he had had plenty of There were only half as many
was time to think in. He could men in the squad as there had
worry a thought for days, even been the first day. One man had
weeks, before he mentioned it been transferred. All the others
aloud, and while he was thinking were sick or in the mental hos-
about it nothing could disturb pital,or discharged for the con-
him. He even let them call him venience of the government as
Bowb without protesting call any: being too crippled for active ser-
other trooper bowb and he vice. Or dead. The survivors,
would hit you in the face. Bill after losing every ounce of
and Eager and the other troopers weight not made up of bone or
from X squad sitting around the essential connective tissue, Rad
table all clapped and cheered, put back the lost weight in the
as they always did when Bowb form of muscle and were now
said something. completely adapted to the rigors
“Tell us more, Bowb!” of Camp Leon Trotsky, though
“It can still talk —
I thought they still loathed it.
it was deadl” Bill marveled at the efficiency

20 GALAXY
of the system. Civilians had to long time, but could think of
fool around with examinations, nothing else that anyone really
grades, retirement benefits, se- wanted. Eager Beager looked out
niority and a thousand other fac- from under the table where he
tors that limited the efficiency was surreptitiously polishing a
of the workers. But how easily boot and said that he wantetd
the troopers did it! They simply more polish, but they ignored
killed off the weaker ones and him. Even Bill, now that he put
used the survivors. He respected his mind to it, could think of
the system. Though he still loath- nothing he really wanted other
ed it. than this inextricably linked pair.
He tried hard to think of some-
tCVTou know what I need, I thing else, since he had vague
- •* need a woman,” Ugly memories of wanting other things
Ugglesway said. when he had been a civilian, but
“Don’t talk dirty,” Bill told nothing else came to mind.
him promptly, since he had been “Gee, it’s only seven more
brought up correctly. weeks until we get our first pass,”
“I’m not talking dirty!” Ugly Eager said from under the table,
whined. “It’s not like I said I then screamed as everyone kick-
wanted to re-enlist or that I ed him at once.
thought Deathwish was human or But slow as subjective time
anything like that. I just said I crawled by, the objective clocks
need a woman. Don’t we all?” were still operating and the seven
“I need a drink,” Bowb Brown weeks did pass by and eliminate
said as he took a long swig from themselves one by one. Busy
his glass of dehydrated reconsti- weeks filled with all the essen-
tuted beer, shuddered, then tial recruit training courses:
squirted it out through his teeth bayonet drill, small arms train-
in a long stream onto the con- ing, short arm inspection, grey-
crete, where it instantly evapora- pfing, orientation lectures, drill,
ted. communal singing and the Ar-
“Affirm, affirm,” Ugly agreed, ticles of War. These last were
bobbing his mat-haired warty read with dreadful regularity
head up and down. “I need a twice a week and were absolute
woman and a drink.” His whine torture because of the intense
became almost plaintive. “After somnolence they brought on.
all, what else is there to want in At the first rustle of the
the troopers outside of out?” scratchy, monotonous voice from
They thought about that a the tape player heads would be-

THE STARSLOGGERS 21
gin to nod. But every seat in crimpled scrap of plastic. . ms
the auditorium was wired with rite finished, there was a scram-
an EEG that monitored the ble for the monorail train whose
brain waves of the captive track ran on electrically charged
troopers. As soon as the shape pillers, soaring over the thirty-
of the Alpha wave indicated foot high barbed wire, crossing
transition from consciousness to the quicksand beds, then drop-
slumber a powerful jolt of cur- ping into the little farming town
rentwould be shot into the doz- of Leyville.
ing buttocks, jabbing the owner At least it had been an agricul-
painfully awake. tural town before Camp Leon
The musty auditorium was a Trotsky had been built and
dimly lit torture chamber, filled sporadically, in the hours when
with the droning dull voice punc- the troopers weren’t on leave,
tuated by the sharp screams of it followed its original agrarian
the electrified, the sea of nodding bent. The rest of the time the
heads abob here and there with grain and feed stores shut down
painfully leaping figures. and the drink and knock shops
opened. Many times the same
VTo one ever listened to the premises were used for both
’ terrible executions and functions. A lever would be
sentences announced in the Ar- pulled when the first of the leave
ticles for the most innocent of party thundered out of the sta-
crimes. Everyone knew that they tion and grain bins became beds,
had signed away all human rights salesclerks pimps, cashiers re-
when they enlisted. The itemiz- tained their same function —
ing of what they had lost inter- though the prices went up —
ested them not in the slightest. while counters would be racked
What they really were interested with glasses to serve as bars. It
in was counting the hours until was to one of these establish-
they would receive their first ments, a mortuary-cum-saloon,
pass. that Bill and his friends went.
The ritual by which this re- “What’ll it be, boys?” the
ward was begrudgingly given was ever-smiling owner of the Final
unusually humiliating, but they Resting Bar and Grill asked.
expected this and merely lower- “Double shot of embalming
ed their eyes and shuffled for- fluid,” Bowb Brown told him.
ward in the line, ready to sacri- “No jokes,” the landlord said,
fice any remaining shards of their the smile vanishing for a second
self-respect in exchange for the as he took down a bottle on

22 GALAXY
which the garish label REAL turned to see Eager still sitting
WHISKY had been pasted over at the table.
the etched in EMBALMING “Woman!” Ugly said enthu-
FLUID. “Any trouble I call the siastically, in the tone of voice
MPs.” The smile returned as you say Dinner! in when you are
money struck the counter. “Name calling a dog. The knot of men
your poison, gents.” stirred in doorway and
the
They sataround a long, nar- stamped their feet. Eager didn’t
row table it was wide
as thick as move.
with brass handles on both sides, “Gee —
I think I’ll stay right

and let the blessed relief of here,” he said, his smile simpler
ethyl alcohol trickle a path down than ever. “But you guys run
their dust-lined throats. along.”
“I never drank before I came “Don’t you feel well. Eager?”
into the service,” Bill said, drain- “Feel fine.”
ing four fingers neat of Old Kid- “Ain’t you reached puberty?”
“Gee ”
ney Killer and held his glass . .

out for more. “What you gonna do here?”


Eager reached under the table
ttX/'ou never had to,” Ugly and dragged out a canvas grip.
* said, pouring. He opened it to show that it
“That’s for sure,” Bowb Brown was packed with great, purple
said, smacking his lips with relish boots. “I thought I’d catch up on
and raising a bottle to his lips my polishing.”
again. They walked slowly down the
“Gee,” Eager Beager said, sip- wooden sidewalk, silent for the
ping hesitantly at the edge of moment. “I wonder if there is
his glass, “It tastes like a tinc- something wrong with Eager?”
ture of sugar, wood chips, vari- Bill asked,but no one answered
ous esters and a number of high- him. They were looking down the
er alcohbls.” rutted street, at a brilliantly illu-
“Drink up,” Bowb said in- minated sign that cast a tempt-
coherently around the neck of ing, ruddy glow.
the bottle- “All them things is SPACEMEN’S REST it said.
good for you.” CONTINUOUS STRIP SHOW
“Now I want a woman,” Ugly andBEST DRINKS and better
said and there was a rush as they PRIVATE ROOMS FOR
all jammed in the door trying to GUESTS AND THEIR
get out at the same time, until FRIENDS. They walked faster.
someone shouted Look! and they The front wall of the Space-
THE STARSLOGGERS 23
man’s Rest was covered with ly and other troopers appeared
shatterproof glass cases filled and cued up behind him. The
with tri-di pix of the fully dress- night was cool and he took many
ed (bangle and double stars) en- life-preserving slugsfrom his bot-
tertainers, and further in with tle. There was little conversation
pix of them nude (debangled and what there was died as the
with fallen stars). Bill stayed the red-lit portal loomed ever closer.
quick sound of panting by point- It opened and closed at regular
ing to a small sign almost lost intervals and one by one Bill’s
among the tumescent wealth of buddies slipped in to partake of
mammaries. itssatisfying, though rapid, pleas-
OFFICERS ONLY it read. ures. Then it was his turn and
“Move along,” an MP grated the door started to open and he
and poked at them with his elec- started to step forward. Sudden-
tronic nightstick. They shuffled ly sirens started screaming and
on. a large MP with a great fat belly
jumped between Bill and the
rT~'he next establishment admit- door.
ted men of all classes, but “Emergency recall. Back to the
the cover charge was 77 credits, base you men!” it barked.
more than they all had between howled a strangled groan
Bill
them. After that the OFFICERS of frustration and leaped for-
ONLY began again until the ward, but a light tap with the
pavement ended and all the electronic nightstick sent him
lights were behind them. reeling back with the others. He
“What’s that?” Ugly asked at was carried along, half stunned,
the sound of murmured voices with the shuffling wave of bodies
from a nearby darkened street. while the sirens moaned and the
Peering closely they saw a line artificial northern lights in the
of troopers that stretched out of sky spelled out TO ARMS!!!! in
sight around a distant corner. letters of flame each a hundred
“What’s this?” he asked the last miles long. Someone put his hand
man in the line. out, holding Bill up as he start-
,
“Lower ranks cathouse. Two ed to slide under the trampling
credits, two minutes. And don’t purple boots. It was his old bud-
try to buck the line, bowb. On dy, Ugly, carrying a satiated
the back, on the back.” smirk and he hated him and
They joined up instantly and tried to hit him. But before he
Bill ended up last, but not for could raise his fist they were
long. They shuffled forward slow- swept into a monorail car, hurtl-
24 GALAXY
ed through the night and dis- IV
gorged back in Camp Leon Trot-
sky He forgot his anger when the
\ lready 89,672,899 recruits had
gnarled claws of Deathwish been shipped into space
Drang dragged them from the through Camp Leon Trotsky, so
crowd. the process was an automatic
“Pack your bags,” he rasped. and smoothly working one even
“You’re shipping out.” though this time it was process-
“They can’t do that to us — ing itself, like a snake swallow-
we haven’t finished our training.” ing its own tail. Bill and his bud-
“They can do whatever they dies were the last group of re-
want, and they usually do. A. cruits through and the snake
glorious space battle has just began ingesting itself right be-
been fought to its victorious con- hind them. No sooner had they
clusion and there are over four been shorn of their sprouting
million casualties, give or take fuzz and deloused in the ultra-
a hundred thousand. Replace- sonic delouser than the barbers
ments are needed, which is you. rushed at each other and in a
Prepare to board the transports welter of under and over arms,
immediately if not sooner.” gobbets of hair, shards of mous-
“We can’t — we have no
.”
tache, bits of flesh, drops of
space gear! The supply room . . blood, they clipped and shaved
“All of the supply personnel each other then pulled the opera-
have already been shipped out.” tor after them into the ultrasonic
“Food .” . . chamber. Medical corpsmen gave
“The cooks and KP
pushers themselves injections against roc-
are already spacebound. This is ket fever, space-cafard and the
an emergency. All unessential clap, record clerks issued them-
personnel are being sent out. selves pay books and the load-
Probably to die.” He twanged a masters kicked each other up the
tusk coyly and watched them ramps and into the waiting shut-
with his loathsome grin. “While tle-ships.
I remain here in peaceful secur- Rockets blasted, living columns
ity to train your replacements.” of fire-like scarlet tongues lick-
The delivery tube plunked at ing down at the blasting pads,
his elbow and as he opened the burning up the ramps in a love-
message capsule and read its con- ly pyrotechnic display since the
tents his smile slowly fell to ramp operators were also aboard.
pieces. “They’re shipping me out The ships echoed and thundered
too,” he said, hollowly. up into the night sky leaving
THE STARSLOGGERS 25
Camp Leon Trotsky a dark and Officer who sat at a desk in the
silent ghost town. Bits of daily hanger-sized spacelock. Or rather
orders and punishment rosters he tried to drop it, but since
rustled and blew from the bul- there was no gravity the bags
letin boards, dancing through the remained in midair and when he
deserted streets to finally plaster pushed them down he rose.
themselves against the noisy, (Since a body when it is falling
bright windows of the Officer’s freely is said to be in free fall,
Club. A great drinking party and anything with weight has
was in progress there, although no weight, and for every action
there was much complaining be- there is an equal and opposite
cause they had to serve them- reaction or something like that.)
selves. The Petty looked up and snarl-
Up and up the shuttleships ed and pulled Bill back down to
shot, towards the great fleet of the deck.
deep-spacers that darkened the “None of your bowby space-
stars above. It was a new fleet, lubber tricks, tropper. Name?”
the most powerful the galaxy with two L’s.”
“Bill, spelled

had ever seen, so new in fact “Bil,”the Petty mumbled,


that the ships were still under licking the end of his stylo, then
construction. Welding torches inscribing it in the ship’s roster
flared in brilliant points of light with round, illiterate letters.

while hot rivets hurled their flat “Two L’s for officers only, bowb
trajectories across the sky into — learn your place. What’s your
waiting buckets. The spots of classification?”
light died away as one behemoth “Recruit, unskilled, untrained,
of the star lanes was completed spacesick.”
and thin screams sounded in the “Well don’t puke in here, that’s
spacesuit radio circuit as the what you have your own quarters
workers, instead of being return- for. You are now a Fusetender
ed to the yards, were pressed into 6th class, unskilled. Bunk down
service on the ship they had so in compartment 34J-89T-001.
recently built. Move. And keep that woopsy-
This was total war. sack over your head.”
No sooner had Bill found his
T) ill staggered through the sag- quarters and thrown his bags
^ ^ ging plastic tube that con- into a bunk, where they floated
nected the shuttleship to a dread- five inches over the reclaimed
naught of space and dropped his rock-wool mattress, then Eager
bags in front of a Petty Chief Beager came in, followed by

26 GALAXY
by Bowb Brown and a crowd of 4 4'IT7elcome aboard the Chris-
strangers, some of them carrying ’ ’
tine Keeler,” he said and
welding torches and angry ex- with a friendly shake splintered
pressions. most of Bill’s knuckle bones.
“Where’s Ugly and the rest of “The grand old lady of this
the squad?” Bill asked. fleet, commissioned almost a
Bowb shrugged and strapped week ago. I’m Reverend Fuse-
himself into his bunk for a little tender 6th Class Tembo, and I
shuteye. Eager opened one of see by the stencil on your bag
the six bags he always carried that your name is Bill, and since
and removed some boots to pol- we’re shipmates, Bill, please call
ish. me Tembo, and how isthe con-
“Are you saved?” a deep voice dition of your soul?”

vibrant with emotion sounded “I haven’t had much chance to


think about it lately .”
from the other end of the com- . .

partment. Bill looked up startled, “I should think not, just com-


and the big trooper standing ing from recruit training, since
there saw the motion and stabbed attendance of chapel during
towards him with an immense training is a court-martial of-
finger. “You, brother, are you fense. But that’s all behind you

saved?” now and you can be saved. Might

“That’s a little hard to say,”


I ask if you are of the faith?”
Bill mumbled, bending over and “My folks were Fundamental-
ist Zoraoastrian, so I suppose .”
rooting in his bag, hoping the . .

man would go away. But he “Superstition, my boy, rank


didn’t, in fact he came over and superstition. It was the hand of
sat down on Bill’s bunk. Bill fate that brought us together in
tried to ignore him, but this was this ship, that your soul would
hard to do because the trooper have this one chance to be saved
was over six feet high, heavily from the fiery pit. You’ve heard
muscled and iron jawed. He had of Earth?”
lovely, purplish black skin that “I like plain food . .
.”

made Bill a little jealous because “It’s a planet, my boy — the


his was only a sort of grayish home of the human race. The
pink. Since the trooper’s ship- home from whence we sprang,
all
board uniform was almost the see it, a green and lovely world,
same shade of black he looked a jewel in space.” Tembo had
all of a piece, very effective slipped a tiny projector from his
with his flashing smile and pierc- pocket while he spoke and a
ing gaze. colored image appeared on the

THE STARSLOGGERS 27
bulkhead, a planet swimming ar- eneral Quarters sounded, a
tistically through the void gir- hooting alarm keyed to the
dled by white clouds. Suddenly, resonant frequency of the human
ruddy lightning shot through the skull so that the bone vibrated
clouds and they twisted and boil- as though the head were inside
ed while great wounds appeared a mighty bell and the eyes blur-
on the planet below. From the red out of focus with each stroke.
pinhead speaker came the tiny There was a scramble for the
moaning sound of rolling, clash- passageway where the hideous
ing thunder. sound was not quite as loud and
“But wars sprang up among where non-coms were waiting to
the sons of man and they smote herd them to their stations. Bill
followed Eager Beager up an oily
each other with the atomic ener-
ladder and out of the hatch in
gies until the Earth itself groaned
the floor of the fuse room.
aloud and mighty was the holo-
Great racks of fuses stretched
caust. And when the final light-
away on all sides of them, while
nings stilled there was death in
from the tops of the racks sprang
the north, death in the west,
arm-thick cables that looped up-
death in the east, death, death,
wards and vanished through the
death. Do you realize what that
ceiling. In front of the racks,
means?” Tembo’s voice was elo-
evenly spaced, were round open-
quent with feeling, suspended for
ings a foot in diameter.
an instant in midflight, waiting
for theanswer to the catachisti- “My opening remarks will be
cal question.
brief,any trouble from any of
“I’m not sure,” Bill said, root-
you and I will personally myself
feed you head first down the
ing aimlessly in his bag, “I come
nearest fuseway.” A greasy fore-
from Phigerinadon II. it’s a quiet-
.” finger pointed at one of the
er place . .

holes in the deck and they re-


“There was no death in the
cognized the voice of their new
SOUTH! And why was the south
master. He was shorter and wid-
spared, I ask you, and the an-
er and thicker in the gut than
swer is because it was the will of
Deathwish, but there was a gen-
Samedi that all the false pro-
eric resemblance that was un-
phets and false religions and
mistakable.
false gods be wiped from the
face of the Earth so that the “I am Fusetender First Class
only true faith should remain. Spleen. I will take you crumbly

The First Reformed Voodoo groundcrawling bowbs and will


Church , .
turn you into highly skilled and

28 GALAXY
efficient fusetenders or else feed the clips, and again Unggh! when
you down the nearest fuseway. he dropped it into the fuseway.
This is a highly skilled and effi- Then, still Ungghing, he pulled
cient technical specialty which a new fuse from the storage rack
usually takes a year to train a and clipped it into place and,
good man. But this is war so with a final Unggh! snapped
you’re going to learn to do it back to attention.
now or else. I will now demon- “And that’s the way it is done,
strate. Tembo front and center. by the count, by the numbers,
Take board 19J-9, it’s out of the trooper way and you are
circuit now.” going to learn it or else.” A dull
Tembo clashed his heels and buzzing sounded, grumbling
stood at rigid attention in front through the air like a stifled

of the board. Stretching away on eructation. “There’s the chow


both sides of him were the fuses, call, so I’ll let you break now
white ceramic cylinders capped and while you’re eating think
on both ends with metal, each about what you are going to have
one a foot in diameter, five foot to learn. Fall out.”
high and weighing 90 pounds.
There was a red band around /"\ther troopers were going by
the midriff of each fuse. First in the corridor and they fol-
Class Spleen tapped one of these lowed them into the bowels of
bands. the ship.
“Every fuse has one of these “Gee —
do you think the food
red bands which is called a fuse- might be any better than it was
band and is of the color red. back in camp?” Eager asked,
When the fuse burns out this smacking his lips excitedly.
band turns black. I don’t expect “It is completely impossible
you to remember all this now, that it could be any worse,” Bill
but it’s inyour manual and you said as they joined a line leading
are going to be letter perfect to a door labeled CONSOLI-
before I’m done with you, or DATED MESS NUMBER
else- Now show you what
I will TWO. “Any change will have to
will happen when a fuse bums make it better. After all — aren’t
out. Tembo — that is a burned we fighting troopers now? We
out fuse! Go!” have to go into combat fit, the
“Unggh!” Tembo shouted and manual says.”
leaped at the fuse and grasped The line moved forward
with
it with both hands. “Unggh!” he painful slowness, but within an
said again as he pulled it from hour they were at the door. In-
THE STARSLOGGERS 29
side of it a tired looking KP else did you expect?”
in soapstained, greasy fatigues “Dinner . .?” Bill said hope-
.

handed Bill a yellow plastic cup fully, then saw red as the soup
from a rack before him. Bill ladle crashed down on his head.
moved on and when the trooper “Could I have it without the
in front of him stepped away he fatty acid ester?” he asked hope-
faced a blank wall from which fully, but he was pushed out in-
there emerged a single, handle- to the corridor where Eager
less spigot. A fat cook standing joined him.
next to it, wearing a large white “Gee,” Eager said. “This has
chef’s hat and a soiled under- all the food elements necessary
shirt, waved him forwards with to sustain life indefinitely. Isn’t
the soup ladle in his hand. that marvelous?”
“C’mon, co’mon, ain’t you Bill sipped at his cup then
never et before? Cup under the sighed tremulously.
spout, dogtag in the slot, snap
it up!” 44T ook at that,” Tembo said,
Bill held the cup as he had ' and when Bill turned, a
been advised and noticed a nar- projected image appeared on the
row slit in the metal wall just corridor wall. It showed a misty
at eye level. His dogtags were firmament in which tiny figures
hanging around his neck and he seemed to be riding on clouds.
pushed one of them into the “Hell awaits you, my boy, unless
slot. Something went buzzzzz you are saved. Turn your back
and a thin stream of yellow fluid on your superstitious way. The
gushed out, filling the cup half- First Reformed Voodoo Church
way. welcomes you with open arms,
“Next man!” the cook shouted come unto her bosom and find
and pulled Bill away so that your place in heaven at Samedi’s
Eager could take his place. right hand. Sit there with Mon-
“What is this?” Bill asked, peer- dongue and Bakalou and Zandor
ing into the cup. who will welcome you.”
“What is this! What is this!” The projected scene changed,
the cook raged, growing bright the clouds grew closer, while
red. “This is your dinner you from the little speaker came the
stupid bowb! This is absolutely tiny sound of a heavenly choir
chemically pure water in which with drum accompaniment. Now
are dissolved 18 amino acids, 16 tile figures could be seen clearly,
vitamins, 11 mineral salts, a flat- all with very dark skins and white
ty acid ester and glucose. What robes from the back of which

30 GALAXY
protruded great black wings. out pay, an honorable discharge
They smiled and waved grace- with band music as well as your
fully to each other as their free transport back to Earth.”
clouds passed, while singing en- Tembo, relaxed yet firm, look-
thusiastically and beating on the ed down at the runty lieutenant
little tom-toms that each one with his well-chewed blonde
carried. It was a lovely scene and moustache who stood before him.
Bill’s eyes misted a bit. “That will be impossible, sir.”
“Attention!"
The barking tones echoed from 11 T mpossible ” the lieutenant
!

the walls and the troopers snap- A screeched and rocked back
ped their shoulders back, heels and forth on his high-heeled
together, eyes ahead. The heav- boots.“Who are you to tell me
enly choir vanished as Tembo what is impossible ?!” —
shoved the projector back into “Not I, sir,” Tembo answered
his pocket. with utmost calm. “Regulation
“As you was,” First Class 13-9A, paragraph 45, page 8923,
Spleen ordered, and they turned volume 43 of Rules, Regulations
to see him leading two MPs with and Articles of War. ‘No man
drawn handguns who were acting nor officer shall or will receive
as a bodyguard for an officer. a discharge other than dishonor-
Bill knew it was an officer be- able with death sentence from a
cause they had had an Officer vessel, post, base, camp, ship,
Identification course, plus the outpost, or labor camp during
fact that there was a KNOW time of emergency’ .
.” .

YOUR OFFICERS chart on the “Are you a ship’s lawyer, Tem-


latrine wall that he had had a bo?”
great deal of opportunity to “No, sir. I’m a loyal trooper,
study during an anguilluliasis sir. I just want to do my duty,
epidemic. His jaw gaped open as sir.
the officer went by, almost close “There’s something very funny
enough to touch, and stopped in about you, Tembo. I saw in your
front of Tembo. record that you enlisted volun-
“Fusetender 6th Class Tembo tarily without drugs and or hyp-
I have good news for you. In two notics being used. Now you re-
weeks your seven year period of fuse discharge. That’s bad, Tem-
enlistment will be up and be- bo, very bad. Gives you a bad
cause of your fine record Cap- name. Makes you look suspi-
tain Zekial has authorized a cious. Makes you look like a spy
doubling of the usual mustering- or something.”

32 GALAXY
“I’m a loyal trooper, of the ber with one curved wall, while
Emperor, sir, not a spy.” attached to this wall were cum-
“You’re not a spy, Tembo, we bersome devices set with meters,
have looked into that very care- dials, switches, controls, levers,
fully. But why are you in the a view screen and a relief tube.
service, Tembo?” Bill bent over and read the label
“To be a loyal trooper of the on the nearest one.
Emperor, sir, and to do my best “Mark IV Atomic Blaster —
to spread the gospel. Have you and look at the size of them!
been saved, sir?” This must be the ship’s main
“Watch your tongue, trooper battery.” He turned around and
or I’ll have you up on charges! saw that Eager was holding his
Yes, we know that story — rev- arm up so that his wristwatch

erend but we don’t believe it. pointed at the guns and was
You’re being too tricky, but we’ll pressing on the crown with the
find out .” He stalked away
. .
index finger of his other hand.
muttering to himself and they all “What are you doing?” Bill
snapped to attention until he asked.
was gone. The other troopers
looked at Tembo oddly and did
“Gee — just seeing what time
it was.”
not feel comfortable until he had “How
can you tell what time
gone. Bill and Eager walked slow- it when you have the inside
is
ly back to their quarters. of your wrist towards your face
“Turned down a discharge!” and the watch is on the out-
Bill mumbled in awe. side?”
“Gee,” Eager said, “maybe he’s Footsteps echoed far down the
nuts? I can’t think of any other long gundeck and they remem-
reason.” bered the sign on the outside of
“Nobody could be that crazy,” the door. In an instant they had
then “I wonder what’s in there?” slipped back through it and Bill
pointing to a door with a large pressed it quietly shut. When he
sign that read ADMITTANCE turned around Eager Beager had
TO AUTHORIZED PERSON- gone so that he had to make his
NEL ONLY. way back to their quarters by
“Gee — I don’t know — maybe himself. Eager was busy shining
food?” boots for his buddies and didn’t
They slipped through instantly look up from his work when Bill
and closed the door behind them, came in.
but there was no food there. In- But what had he been doing
stead they were in a long cham- with his watch?

THE STARSLOGGERS 33
V I’d like to . . . see the . . . chap-
lain . .
.”

'T'his question kept bugging Bill Spleen turned white and sank
all the time during the days back against the bulkhead. “Now
of their training as they painfully I heard everything,” he said

learned the drill of fusetending. weakly. “Get down to chow and


if you don’t tell anyone about
It was an exacting, technical job
that demanded all their atten- this, I won’t either.”

tion, but in spare moments Bill Bill blushed. “I’m sorry about
worried. He worried when they this, First Class Spleen, but I
stood in line for chow, and he can’t help it. It’s not my fault I
worried during the few moments have to see him, it could have
every night between the time the happened to anyone.” His voice
lights were turned off and the trailed away and he looked down
heavy descent of sleep rested at his feet, rubbing one boot
upon his fatigue drugged body. against another. The silence
He worried whenever he had the stretched out until Spleen finally
time to do it. And he lost weight. spoke, but all the comradeliness
He lost weight not because he was gone from his voice.

was worrying, but for the same “Alright, trooper — if that’s


reason everyone else lost weight. the way you wantit. But I hope

The shipboard rations. They were none of the rest of the boys hear
designed to sustain life, and that about it. Skip chow and get up
they did, but no mention was there now —
here’s a pass.” He
made of what kind of life it was scrawled on a scrap of paper then
to be. It was a dreary, under- threw it contemptuously to the
weight, hungry one. Yet Bill took floor, turning and walking away
no notice of this. He had a big- as Bill bent humbly to pick it
ger problem and he needed help. up.
After Sunday the end of
drill at
their second week he stayedto went down dropchutes,
talk to First Class Spleen instead B ill

along corridors, through pas-


of joining the others in their sageways and up ladders. In the
tottering run towards the mess ship’s directory the chaplain was
hall. listed as being in compartment
“I have a problem, sir.” 362 -B on the 89th deck and Bill
“You ain’t the only one, but finally found this, a plain metal
one shot cures it and you ain’t door set with rivets. He raised
a man until you’ve had it.” his hand to knock while sweat
“It’s not that kind of problem. stood out in great beads from his

34 GALAXY
fece and his throat was dry. His I’ve lost 600 jockstraps and they
knuckles boomed hollowly on the may be in there. You think it’s
panel and after an endless per- easy to be a laundry officer?”
iod a muffled voice sounded from He sniveled with self-pity and
the other side. pushed a tottering stack of pap-
“Yeah, yeah — c’mon in — it’s ers over to Bill who began to
open.” sort through them. Long before
Bill stepped through and snap- he was finished the buzzer sound-
ped to attention when he saw the ed that ended the watch.
officer behind the single desk “I knew it!” the officer sobbed
that almost filled the tiny room. hopelessly. “This job will never
The officer, a 4th lieutenant, end, instead it gets worse and
though still young was balding worse. And you think you got
rapidly. There were black circles problems!” He reached out an
under his eyes and he needed a unsteady finger and flipped over
shave. His tie, was knotted crook- the sign on his desk. It read
edly and badly crumpled. He CHAPLAIN on the other side.
continued to scratch among the Then he grabbed the end of his
stacks of paper that littered the necktie and pulled it back hard
desk, picking them up, changing over his right shoulder. The neck-
piles with them, scrawling notes tie was fastened to his collar
on some and throwing others into and the collar was set into ball
an overflowing wastebasket. bearings that rolled smoothly in
When he moved one of the stacks a track fixed to his shirt. There
Bill saw a sign on the desk that was a slight whirring sound as
read LAUNDRY OFFICER. the collar rotated, then the neck-
“Excuse me, sir,” he said, “but tie was hanging out of sight down

I am in the wrong office. I’m his back and his collar was now
looking for the chaplain.” on backwards, showing white and
“This is the chaplain’s office
smooth and cool to the front.
but he’s not on duty until 1300
hours, which, as someone even nphe chaplain steepled his fin-
as stupid looking as you can tell, gers before him, lowered his
is in fifteen minutes more.” eyes and smiled sweetly. “How
“Thank you, sir, I’ll come may I help you my son?”
back.” Bill slid towards the door. “I thought you were the laun-
“You’ll stay and work.” The dry officer.” Bill said, taken
officer raised bloodshot eyeballs aback.
and cackled evilly. “I got you. “I am, my but that is just
son,
You can sort the hanky reports. one of the burdens that must fall
THE STARSLOGGERS 35
upon my shoulders. There is away and reappeared a moment
little call for a chaplain in these later bearing a black plastic box
troubled times, but much call decorated with golden bulls, ram-
for a laundry officer. I do my pant. “Be with you in a second,”
best to serve.” He bent his head, the chaplain said, opening the
humbly. box.
“But —
which are you? A chap- First he unrolled a length of
lain who is a part-time laundry white cloth sewn with more gold-
officer, ora laundry officer who en bulls and draped this around
is a part-time chaplain?” his neck. He placed a thick,
“That is a mystery, my son. leather-bound book next to the
There are some things that it is box, then on the closed lid set
best not to know. But I see you two metal bulls with hollowed
are troubled. May I ask if you out backs. Into one of them he
are of the faith?” poured distilled water from a
“Which faith?” plastic flask and into the other
“That’s what I’m asking you!” sweet oil, which he ignited. Bill
the chaplain snapped, and for watched these familiar arrange-
a moment the old laundry offi- ments with growing happiness.
cer peeped through. “How can I “It’s very lucky,” Bill said,
help you if I do not know what “that you are a Zoroastrian. It
your religion is?” makes it much easier to talk to
“Fundamentalist Zoroastrian.” you.”
The chaplain took a plastic
covered sheet from a drawer and U VT° luck involved, my son,
ran his finger it. “Z . . down . ^ just intelligent planning.”
Z . . . Zen
Zodomite. . .
. . . The chaplain dropped some pow-
Zoroastrian, Reformed Funda- dered haoma into the flame and
mentalist, is that the one?” Bill’snose twitched as the drug-
“Yes sir.” ged incense filled the room. “By
“Well,should be no trouble the grace of Ahura Mazdan I am
with this my son ... 2 1 52 05 .”
. . an anointed priest of Zoroastra.
He quickly dialed the number By Allah’s will a faithful Muez-
on a control plate set in the zin of Islam, through Yahweh’s
desk, then, with a grand gesture intercession a circumcized rabbi,
and an evangelistic gleam in his and so forth.” His benign face
eye, he swept all the laundry broke into a savage snarl. “And
papers to the floor. Hidden ma- also because of an officer short-
chinery hummed briefly, a por- age I am the damned laundry
tion of the desk top dropped officer.” His face cleared. “But

36 GALAXY
now, you must tell me your prob- the stem and I heard it click!
lem.” It could be a camera. I ... I
“Well, it’s not easy. It may be think he is a Chinger spy!” Bill
just foolish suspicion on my part, sat back, breathing deeply and
but I’m worried about one of sweating. The fatal words had
my buddies. There is something been spoken.
strange about him. I’m not sure The chaplain continued to nod,
how to tell it . . smiling, half unconscious from
“Have confidence, my boy, and the haoma fumes. Finally he
reveal your innermost feelings to snapped out of it, blew his nose
me and do not fear. What I hear and opened the thick copy of the
shall never leave this room for Avesta. He mumbled aloud in
I am bound to secrecy by the old Persian a bit, which seemed
oath of my calling. Unburden to brace him, then slammed it
yourself.” shut.
“That’s very nice of you, and “You must not bear false wit-
I do feel better already. You see ness!” he boomed, fixing Bill
this buddy of mine has always with piercing gaze and accusing
been a funny, he shines the
little finger.
boots for all of us and volunteer-
ed for latrine orderly and doesn’t tiATou got me wrong,” Bill
like girls.” - * moaned, writhing in the
The chaplain nodded beatifi- chair.“He’s done these things, I
cally and fanned some of the in- saw him use the watch. What
cense towards his nose. “I see kind of spiritual aid do you call
little here to worry you, he this?”
sounds a decent lad. For is it not “Just a bracer my boy, a touch
written in the Vendidad that we of the old-time religion to re-
should aid our fellow man and new your sense of guilt and start
seek to shoulder his burdens and you thinking about going to
pursue not the harlots of the church regular again. You have
streets?” been backsliding!” the chaplain
Bill pouted. “That’s alright for roared.
Sunday school, but it’s no way to “What else could I do — chap-
act in the troopers! Anyway, we el is forbidden during recruit
just thought he was out of his training.”
mind and he might have been — “Circumstance is no excuse,
but that’s not all. I was with him but you will be forgiven this time
on the gun deck and he pointed because Ahura Mazdah is all-
his watch at the guns and pressed merciful.”

THE STARSLOGGERS 37

“But what about my buddy — about and as it did the blissful

the spy?” expression was wiped from his


“You must forget your suspi- face to be replaced by a surly
cions, for they are not worthy of snarl. “Just where do you think
a follower of Zoroaster.This poor you’re going, bowb! Put your ass
lad must not suffer because of back in that chair.”
his natural inclinations to be “B-but,” Bill stammered, “you
friendly, to aid his comrades, to said I was dismissed.”

keep himself pure, to own a “That’s what the chaplain said,


crummy watch that goes click. and as laundry officer I have no
And besides, if you do not mind truck with him. Now —
fast —
my introducing a spot of logic — what’s the name of this Chinger
how could he be a spy? To be spy you’re hiding?”
a spy he would have to be a “I told you about that under
Chinger, and Chingers are seven oath —
feet tallwith tails. Catch?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bill mumbled t C \/'ou told the chaplain about
unhappily. “I could figure that * it, and he keeps his word
out for myself —
but it still and he didn’t tell me, but I just
doesn’t explain everything.” happened to hear.” He pressed
“It satisfies me, and it must a red button on the control pan-
satisfy you. I feel that Ahriman el. “The MPs are on the way.
has possessed you to make you You talk before they get here,
think evil of your comrade, and bowb, or I’ll have you keelhaul-
you had better do some penance ed without a spacesuit and de-
and join me in a quick prayer prived of canteen privileges for a
before the laundry officer comes year. The name?”
back on duty.” “Eager Beager,” Bill sobbed as
This ritual was quickly fin- heavy feet trampled outside and
ished and Bill helped stow the two redhats forced their way
things back in the box and watch- into the tiny room.
ed it vanish back into the desk. “I have a spy for you boys,”
He made his good-bys and turn- the laundry officer announced
ed to leave. triumphantly and the MPs grated
“Just one moment, my son,” their teeth, howled deep in their
the chaplain said with his warm- throats,and launched themselves
est smile, reaching back over his through the air at Bill. He drop-
shoulder at the same time to ped under the assault of fists
grab the end of his necktie. He and clubs and was running with
pulled and his collar whirred blood before the laundry officer

38 GALAXY
could pull the overmuscled mor- slap him on the offensive grin
ons with their eyes not an inch but Beager opened his mouth
apart, off him. and bit the hand that hit him,
“Not him . the officer
. clamping down hard so that the
gasped, and threw Bill a towel to officer could not get away. “He
wipe off some of the blood. ‘‘This bit me!” the man howled and
is our informant, the loyal, pa- tried desperately to pull free.
triotic hero who ratted on his Both MPs, each handcuffed to
buddy by the name of Eager an arm of the prisoner, raised
Beager, who we will now grab their clubs to give him a sound
and chain so he can be question- battering.
ed. Let’s go.” At this moment the top of
The MPs held Bill up between Eager Beager’s head flew open.
them and by the time they had
come to the fusetenders’ quar- TTappening at any other time
the breeze from their swift -* ^
ters this would have been con-
passage had restored him a bit. sidered unusual, but happening
The laundry officer opened the at this moment it was spectacu-
door just enough to poke in his larly unusual and they all, in-
head. “Hi, gang!” he called cheer- cluding Bill, gaped as a seven-
ily. “Is Eager Beager here?” inch high lizard climbed out of
Eager looked up from the boot the open skull and jumped to
he was polishing, waving and the floor in which it made a size-
grinning. “That’s me — gee.” able dent upon landing. It had
“Get him!” the laundry offic- four tiny arms, a long tail, a head
er expostulated, jumping aside like a baby alligator and was
and pointing accusingly. Bill bright green. It looked exactly
dropped to the floor as the MPs like a Chinger except that it was
let go of him and thundered into seven inches tall instead of seven
the compartment. By the time he feet.
had staggered back to his feet “All bowby humans have B.
Eager was pinioned handcuffed O.” it said in a thin imitation of
and chained, hand and foot, but Eager Beager’s voice. “Chingers
still grinning. can’t sweat Chingers forever!”
“Gee — you guys want some It charged across the compart-
boots polished too?” ment toward Beager’s bunk.
“No backtalk you dirty spy,” Paralysis prevailed. All of the
the laundry officer grated and fusetenders who had witnessed
slapped him hard on the offen- the impossible events stood or
sive grin. At least he tried to sat as they had been, frozen with

THE STARSLOGGERS 39
.

shock and eyes bulging like hard- space. There was the roar of air
boiled eggs. The laundry officer rushing into the void and the
was pinioned by the teeth locked clamor of alarm bells.
into his hand, while the two MPs “Well I'll be damned.” the
struggled with the handcuffs that laundry officer said, then snap-
held them to the immobile body. ped his gaping mouth closed and
Only Bill was free to move and, screamed, “Get this thing offa
stilldizzy from the beating, he my hand — it’s biting me to
bent over to grab the tiny crea- death!”
ture. Small and powerful talons The two MPs swayed back and
locked into his flesh and he was forth, handcuffed effectively to
pulled from his feet and went the immobile figure of the form-
sailing through the air to crash er Eager Beager. Beager just
against a bulkhead. “Gee — stared, smiling around the grip
that’s for you, you stoolie!” the he had on the officer’s hand, and
miniscule voice squeeked. it wasn’t until Bill got his atomic
Before anyone else could in- rifle and put the barrel into
terfere the lizardoid ran to Beag- Eager’s mouth and levered the
er’s pile of barracks bags and jaw open that the hand could be
tore the topmost one open and withdrawn. While he did this Bill
dived inside. A highpitched hum- saw that the top of Eager’s head
ming grew in volume an instant had splitopen just above his
later and from the bag emerged ears and was held at the back
the bulletlike nose of a shining by a shiny brass hinge. Inside the
pushed out until a
projectile. It gaping skull, instead of brains
tiny spaceship not two feet long and bones and things, was a
floated in the compartment. model control room with a tiny
Then it rotated about its vertical chair, miniscule controls, teevee
axis, stopped when it pointed at screens and a water cooler. Eag-
the bulkhead. The humming rose erwas just a robot worked by the
in pitch and the ship suddenly littlecreature that had escaped
shot forward and tore through in the spaceship. It looked like
the metal of the partition as if a Chinger —
but it was only sev-
it. had been no stronger than wet en inches tall.
cardboard. There were other dis- “Hey!” Bill said, “Eager is
tant tearing sounds as it pene- just a robot worked by the little
trated bulkhead after bulkhead creature that escaped in the
until,with a rending clang it spaceship! It looked like a Chin-
crashed through the outer skin ger —
but it was only seven
of the ship and escaped into inches tall .

40 GALAXY
“Seven inches, seven feet — “Look at the trouble you got
what difference does it make!” me into!” he whined.
the laundry officer mumbled pe- “At least close your head when
tulantly as he wrapped a hand- I’m talking to you,” Bill snarled
kerchief around his wounded and reached over to slam the
hand. “You don’t expect us to top of Eager’s head shut. But it
tell the recruits how big the didn’t do any good. Eager
enemy really are, or to explain couldn’t do anything now except
that they come from a 10G plan- smile. He had polished his last
et. We gotta keep the morale boot. He just stood there now, he
up.” was really veryheavy and be-
sides was magnetized to the floor.
VI The fusetenders hung their dirty
shirts and arc welders on him. He

VTow that Eager Beager had stayed there for three watches
^ ' turned out to before someone figured out what
be a Chinger
to do with him. Finally a squad
much alone.
spy, Bill felt very
of MPs came with crowbars and
Bowb Brown, who never talked
anyway, now talked even less, tilted him into a handcar and
which meant never, so there was rolledhim away.
no one that Bill could bitch to. “So long,” Bill called out, wav-
Bowb was the only other fuse- ing after him, then went back
man in the compartment who to polishing his boots. “He was
had been in Bill’s squad at Camp a good buddy even if he was a
Leon Trotsky, and all of the new Chinger spy.”
men were very clannish and giv- Bowb didn’t answer him, and
en to sitting close together and welders wouldn’t talk to him and
mumbling and throwing suspi- he spent a lot of the time avoid-
cious looks over their shoulders ing Reverend Tembo. The grand
ifhe should come too close. Their old lady of the fleet, Christine
only recreation was welding and Keeler, was still in orbit while
every offwatch they would break her engines were being installed.
out the welders and weld things There was very little to do be-
to the floor and the next watch cause, in spite of what First Class
cut them loose again which is Spleen had said they had mast-
about as dim a way of wasting ered all the intricies of fusetend-
time as there is, but they seemed ing in a little less than the pre-
to enjoy it. So Bill was very scribed year —in fact it took
much out of things and tried them something like maybe fif-

bitching to Eager Beager. teen minutes.

THE STARSLOGGERS 41
In his free time Bill wandered himself leaning further and fur-
around the ship, going as far as ther into the compartment as
the MPs who guarded the hatch- his eyes traced up the leg past
ways would allow him. He even the belt to the shirt to the neck
considered going back to se upon which rested the fa" that ->

chaplain so he could have had featured largely in his night-


one to bitch to. But if he timed mares since he had enlisted. The
it wrong he might meet the lips moved.
laundry officer again and that “Is that you Bill? C’mon in and
was more than he could face. So rest it.”
he walked through the ship, very Bill stumbled in.
much alone, and
looked in “Have a hunk of candy,”
through the door of a compart- Deathwish said, and smiled.
ment and saw a boot on a bed. Reflex drove Bill’s fingers into
the offered box and set his jaw
T)ill stopped, frozen, immobile, chewing on the first solid food
shocked, rigid, horrified, dis- that had passed his lips in weeks.
mayed, and had to fight for con- Saliva spouted from dusty ori-
trol of his suddenly contracted fices and his stomach gave a
bladder. preliminary rumble while his
He knew that boot. He would thoughts drove maddingly in cir-
never forget that boot until the cles while he tried to figure out
day he died, just as he would what expression was on Death-
never forget his serial number wish’s face. Lips curved at the
and could say it frontwards or corners behind the tusks, little
backwards or from the inside out. crinkles on the cheeks. It was
Every detail of that terrible boot hopeless. He could not recognize
was clear in his memory from the it.

snakelike laces in the repulsive “I hear Eager Beager turned


leather of the uppers —
said to out to be a Chinger spy,” Death-
be made of human skin —
to the wish said, closing the box of
corrugated stamping soles tinged candy and sliding it under the
with red that could only have pillow. “I should have figured
been human blood. that one out myself. I knew there
.That boot belonged to Death- was something very wrong with
wish Drang. him, doing his buddies’ boots and
The boot was attached to a that crap, but I though he was

leg and paralyzed with terror, just nuts. Should have known
better .”
as unable to control himself as . .

a bird before a snake, he found “Deathwish,” Bill said hoarse-

42 GALAXY
ly, “it can’t be, I know — but that in prehistoric times the drill-
you are acting like a human be- sergeants or whatever it was they
ing!” called them, that they were real
Deathwish chuckled, not his sadists! The armed forces would
ripsaw - slicing - human - bone let these people with no real
chuckle, but an almost normal knowledge absolutely destroy re-
one. cruits. Let them learn to hate
Bill stammered. “But you are the service before they learned
a sadist, a pervert, a beast, a to fear it, which wrecks hell with
creature, a thing, a murderer . .
discipline. And talk about waste-

“Why, thanks, Bill. That’s very ful! They were always marching
nice to hear. I try to do my job someone to death by accident or

to the best of my abilities, but drowning a squad or nonsense


like that. The waste alone would
I’m human enough to enjoy a
word of praise now and then. make you cry.”
Being a murderer is hard to pro- “Could I ask what you major-
ject but I’m glad it got across, ed in in college?” Bill asked in
even to a recruit as stupid as a very tiny and humble voice.
you were.” “Military Discipline, Spirit
“B-but . . . aren’t you really Breaking and Method Acting. A
a . .
rough course, four years, but I
graduated Sigma Cum, which is
4 4'TT'asynow!” Deathwish snap- not bad for a boy from a work-
J ing class family. I’ve made a
was enough
ped, and there
of the old venom and vileness to career of the service and that’s
why I can’t understand why the
lower Bill’s body temperature
six degrees. Then Deathwish ungrateful bastards went and
smiled again. “Can’t blame you, shipped me out on this crummy
son, for carrying on this way, can!” He lifted his goldrimmed
glasses to flick away a develop-
you being kind of stupid and
from a rube planet and having ing tear.
your education retarded by the “You expect gratitude from
troopers and all that. But wake the service?” Bill asked humbly.
up, boy! Military education is “No, of course not, how fool-
far too important a thing to be ish ofme. Thanks for jerking me
wasted by allowing amateurs to back into line, Bill, you’ll make
get involved. If you read some a good trooper. All I expect is

of the things in our college text- criminal indifference which I can


books it would make your blood take advantage of by working
cold, yes indeed. Do you realize through the old boys’ network,
THE STARSLOGGERS 43
bribery, cutting false orders, clean with scars, thick jaws, re-
black-marketing and the other pulsive manners, hot pants, ev-
usual things. It’s just that I had erything. I figured a small in-
been doing a good job on you vestment in the beginning would
slobs in Camp Leon Trotsky and pay rich dividends in the end.
the least I expected was to be And it was a sacrifice, believe
left alone to keep doing it, which me, you won’t see many im-
was pretty damn stupid of me. I planted tusks around! For a lot
had better get cracking on my of reasons. Oh, maybe they are
transfer now.” He slid to his feet good for eating rough meat, but
and stowed the candy and gold- what the hell else? Wait until
rimmed glasses away in a locked you try kissing your first girl
footlocker. . . Now, get lost Bill, I got
.

things to do. See you around.”


T> ill, who in moments of shock His last words faded in the
found it hard to adjust in- distance since Bill’s well-condi-
stantly,was still bobbing his head tioned reflexes had carried him
and occasionally banging it with down the corridor the instant he
the heel of his hand. “Lucky had been dismissed. When the
thing,” he said, “for your chosen spontaneous terror faded he be-
career that you were born de- gan to walk with a crafty roll,
formed —
I mean you have such like a duck with a spring knee-
nice teeth.” cap, that he thought looked like
“Luck nothing,” Deathwish an old spacesailor’s gait. He was
said, plunking one of his project- beginning to feel a seasoned hand
ing tusks, “expensive as hell. Do and momentarily labored under
you know what a gene-mutated, the delusion that he knew more
vat- grown, surgically implanted about the troopers than they
set of two-inch tusks cost? I bet knew about him. This pathetic
you don’t know! I worked the misconception was dispelled in-
summer vac for three years to stantly by the speakers on the
earn enough to buy these but — ceiling which belched and then

I tell you they were worth it. The grated their nasal voices through-
image, that’s everything. I stud- out the ship.
ied the old tapes of prehistoric “Now hear this, the orders di-
spiritbreakers and in their own rect from the old man himself,
crude way they were good. Se- Captain Zekial, that you all have
lected by physical type and low been waiting to hear. We’re
I.Q. of course, but they knew heading into action so we are
their roles. Bullet heads, shaved going to have a clean buckle-

GALAXY
down fore and aft, stow all loose “Not again.” Bill pleaded.
gear.” “Look there,” Tembo said
A low, heartfelt groan of pain temptingly, and projected a hea-
echoed from every compartment venly scene with golden gates,
of the immense ship. clouds and a soft tom-tom beat
in the background.
VII “Knock off that salvation
crap!” First Class Spleen shout-
nphere was plenty of latrine ed, and the scene vanished.
rumor and scuttlebutt about Something tugged slightly at
this first flight of the Chris’ Bill’s stomach, but he ignored it

Keeler but none of it was true. as being just another of the


The rumors were planted by symptoms sent up continually by
undercover MPs and were value- his panic-stricken gut which
less. About the only thing they thought it was starving to death
could be sure of was that they and hadn’t yet realized that all
might be going someplace be- its marvelous grinding and dis-

cause they seemed to be getting solving machinery had been con-


ready to go someplace. Even demned to a liquid diet. But
Tembo admitted to that as they Tembo stopped work and cock-
lashed down fuses in the store- ed his head to one side, then
room. poked himself experimentally in
“Then again,” he added, “we the stomach.
might be doing all this just to “We’re moving,” he said posi-
fool any spies into thinking we tively, “and going interstellar
are going someplace when really too. They’ve turned on the star-
some other ships are going there.” drive.”
“Where?” Bill asked irritably, “You mean we are breaking
tying his forefinger into a knot through into sub-space and will
and removing part of the nail soon experience the terrible
when he pulled it free.
wrenching at every fiber of our
“Why anyplace at all, it doesn’t being?”
matter.” Tembo was undisturbed “No, they don’t use the old
by anything that did not bear sub-space drive anymore because
on his faith. “But I do know though a lot of ships broke
where you are going, Bill.” through into sub- space with a
“Where?” Eagerly. A peren- fiber-wrenching jerk, none of
nial sucker for a rumor. them have yet broke back out.
“Straight to hell unless you I read in the Trooper’s Times

are saved.” where some mathematician said

THE STAR LOGGERS 45


that there had been a slight er- up of little bitty things called
ror in the equations and that electrons, protons, neutrons, tron-
time was different in sub-space, trons, things like that, sort of
but it was different faster not held together by a kind of bind-
different slower so that it will be ing energy. Now if you weaken
maybe forever before those ships the energy that holds things to-
come out.” gether —
I forgot to tell you that

also they are spinning around


t*nphen we’re going into hy- all the time like crazy, or maybe
perspace?” you already know —
you weaken
“No such thing.” the energy and because they are
“Or we’re being dissolved into going around so fast all the little
our component atoms and re- pieces start to move away from
corded in the memory of a giant each other, and the weaker the
computer who thinks we are energy the further apart they
someplace else so there we are?” move. Are you with me so far?”
“Wow!” Tembo said, his eye- “I think I am, but I’m not
brows crawling up to his hairline. sure that I like it.”
“For a Zoroastrian farmboy you “Keep cool. Now —
see my
have some strange ideas! Have hands? As the energy gets weak-
you been smoking or drinking er the ship gets bigger,” he mov-
something I don’t know about?” ed his hands farther apart. “It
“Tell me!” Bill pleaded. “If gets bigger and bigger until it
it’s not one of them —
what is is as big as a planet, then as big

it? We’re going to have to cross as a sun then a whole stellar


interstellar space to fight the system. The bloater drive can
Chingers. How are we going to make us just as big as we want
do it?” to be, then it’s turned the other
“It’s like this,” Tembo looked way and we shrink back to our
around to make sure that First regular size and there we are.”
Class Spleen was out of sight, “ Where are we?”
then put his cupped hands to- “Wherever we want to be,”
gether to form a ball. “You make Tembo answered patiently.
believe that my hands are the Bill turned away and indust-
ship, just floating in space. Then riously rubbed shine-o onto a
the bloater drive is turned on —” fuse as First Class Spleen saunt-
“The what?” ered by, a suspicious glint in his
“The bloater drive, it’s called eye. As soon as he turned the
that because it bloats things up. corner Bill leaned over and hiss-
You know, everything is made ed at Tembo.

46 GALAXY
“How can we be anywhere head. A little planet with
perfect
else than where we started? Get- tiny icecaps,cold fronts, cloud
ting bigger, smaller
getting cover, oceans and the works.
doesn’t get us anyplace.” “What’s that?” Bill yiped.
“Bad navigation,” Tembo
“Well. they’re pretty tricky scowled. “Backlash, the ship is
with the old bloater slipping back a little on one end
drive. The way I heard it it’s instead of going all the other
like you take a rubber band and way. No-no! Don’t touch it, it
hold one end in each hand. You can cause accidents sometimes.
don’t move your left hand but That’s the planet we just left,
you stretch the band out as far Phigerinadon II.”
as it will go with your right hand. “My home,” Bill sobbed and
When you let the band shrink felt the tears rise as the planet
back again you keep your right shrank to the size of a marble.
hand steady and let go with your “So long, Mom.” He waved as
left. See? You never moved the the marble shrunk to a mote
rubber band, just stretched it then vanished.
and let it snap —
but it has mov- After this the journey was un-
ed over. Like our ship is doing eventful, particularly since they
now. It’s getting bigger, but in could not feel when they were
one direction. When the nose moving, did not know when they
reaches wherever we’re going the stopped, and had no idea where
stern will be wherever we were. they were. Though they were
Then we shrink and bango! there sure they had arrived somewhere
we are. And you can get into when they were orderd to strip
heaven just that easily, my son, the lashings from the fuses. The
only ”
if . . inaction continued for three
“Preaching on government watches and then the GENERAL
time, Tembo!” First Class Spleen QUARTERS alarm sounded. Bill
howled from the other side of ran with the others, happy for
the fuserack over which he was the first time since he had enlist-
looking with a mirror tied to the ed. All the sacrifices, the hard-
end of a rod. “I’ll have you ships would not be in vain. He
polishing fuseclips for a year. was seeing action at last against
You’ve been warned before.” the dirty Chingers.
They tied and polished in si- They stood in first position op-
lence after that, until a little posite the fuseracks, eyes intent
planet about as big as a tennis on the red bands on the fuses
ball swam in through the bulk- that were called the fusebands.

THE STARSLOGGERS 47
Through the soles of his boots The temperature stayed high,
Bill could feel a faint, distant just at the boundary of tolera-
tremor in the deck. while they stared
bility for hours,
“What’s that?” he asked Tem- at the fusebands. At one point
bo out of the comer of his mouth. there was a tiny plink that Bill
“Main drive, not the bloater felt through his bare feet on the
drive. Atomic engines. Means we hot metal rather than heard.
must be maneuvering, doing “What was that?”
something.” “Torpedoes being fired.”
“But what?” “At what?”
“Watch them fusebands!” Trembo just shrugged in an-
First Class Spleen shouted. swer and never let his vigilant
gaze stray from the fusebands.
T)ill was beginning to sweat — Bill writhed with frustration,
then suddenly realized that boredom, heat rash and fatigue
it was becoming excruciatingly for another hour, until the all
hot. Tembo, without taking his clear blew and a breath of cool
eyes from the fuses, slipped out air came in from the ventilators.
of his clothes and folded them By the time he had pulled his
neatly behind him. uniform back on Tembo was
“Are we allowed to do that?” gone and he trudged wearily
Bill asked, pulling at his collar. back to his quarters. There was
“What’s happening?” a new mimeographed notice pin-

against ned to the bulletin board in the


“It’s regulations but
you have to strip or cook. Peel, corridor and he bent to read its
blurred message.
son, or you will die unblessed.
We must be going into action
because the shields are up. Sev- FROM: Captain Zekial
TO: All Personnel
enteen force screens, one elec- RE: Recent engagement
tromagnetic screen, a double ar- On 23/11-8956 this ship did participate

mored hull and a thin layer of in the destruction by atomic torpedo


of the enemy installation 17KL-345
pseudoliving jelly that flows over and did in concert with the other
and seals any openings. With all vessels of said flotilla RED CRUTCH
accomplish its mission, it is thereby
that stuff there is absolutely no
hereby authorized that all personnel
energy loss from the ship, nor of this shall attach an Atomic
vessel
any way to get rid of energy. Or Cluster the ribbon denoting the
to
Active Duty Unit Engagement Award,
heat. With the engines running or however if this is their first mission
and everyone sweating it can get of this type they will be authorized to

pretty hot. Even hotter when the wear the Unit Engagement Award.
NOTE: Some personnel have been ob-
guns fire.” served with their Atomic Clusters bs-

48 GALAXY
verted ond this is WRONG and a barriers, the post was distributed
COURT-MART Ai OFFENSE that is pun-
ishable
I

by DEATH.
and Bill had a precious special-
postal from his mother. On one
VIII side of the card was a picture of
the Noisome-Offal refinery just
outside of his hometown, and this
\ fter the heroic razing of
'*"*•
17KL-345 there were weeks alone was enough to raise a lump
of training and drill to restore in his throat.Then, in the tiny
the battle-weary veterans to their square allowed for the message,
usual fitness. But midway in his mother’s scrawl had traced
these depressing months a new out: “Bad crop, in debt, robmule
callsounded over the speakers, has packing glanders, hope you
one had never heard before,
Bill are the same love,— Maw.”
a clanging sound like steel bars was a message from home
Still, it

being clashed together in a metal and he read and reread it as they


drum full of marbles. It meant stood in line for chow. Tembo,
him nor to the other
nothing to just ahead of him, also had a
new men, but it sent Tembo card, all angels and churches,
springing from his bunk to do just what you would expect, and
a quick two step Death Curse Bill was shocked when he saw

Dance with tom-tom accompani- Tembo read the card one last
ment on his footlocker cover. time then plunge it into his cup
“Are you around the bend?” of dinner.
Bill asked dully from where he “What are you doing that for?”
sprawled reading a tattered copy he asked, shocked.
of Real Ghoul Sexfiend Shocker “What else is mail good for?”
Comics with built-in sound ef- Tembo hummed, and poked the
fects. A ghastly moan was keen- card deeper. “You just watch
ing from the page he was looking this now.”
at. Before Biirs startled gaze, and
“Don’t you know?” Tembo right in front of his eyes, the
asked. “Don’t you KNOW! card was starting to swell. The
That’s mail call, my boy, the white surface broke off and fell
grandest sound in space.” away in tiny flakes while the
The rest of the watch was brown insides grew and grew
spent in hurrying up and waiting, until they filled the cup and
standing in line and all the rest. were an inch thick. Tembo fish-

Maximum inefficiency was at- ed the dripping slab out and took
tached to the delivery of the a large bite from one corner.
mail but finally, in spite of all “Dehydrated chocolate,” he

THE STARSLOGGERS 49
said indistinctly. “Good! Try do big things grow; a tiny bird
yours.” terd lands on a snow- covered
mountain slope, rolls, collects
TT'ven before he spoke Bill had snow, becomes bigger and bigger,
*—t pushed his card down into gigantic and more gigantic until
the liquid and was fascinatingly it is a thundering mass of snow

watching it swell. The message and ice, an avalanche, a ravening


fell away, but instead of brown mass of hurtling death that wipes
a swelling white mass became out an entire village. From small
visible. beginnings . Who knows what
. .

“Taffy — or bread maybe,” he the beginning was here, perhaps


said, and tried not to drool. the Gods do, but they are laugh-
ing. Perhaps the haughty strut-
The white mass was swelling,
pushing against the sides of the ting peahen wife of some high

cup, expanding out of the top. minister saw a bauble she cher-
Bill grabbed the end and held it
ished and with shrewish, spiteful
as it rose. Out and out it came
tongue exacerbated her peacock
until every drop of liquid had husband until, to give himself
been absorbed and Bill held be- peace, he promised her the trin-
tween his outstretched hands a ket, then sought the money for
string of fat, connected letters its purchase. Perhaps this was a
over two yards long. VOTE- word in the Emperor’s ear about

FOR - HONEST - GEEK - a new campaign in the 77sub7th


THE - TROOPERS - FRIEND Zone, quiet now for years, a vic-
they read. Bill leaned over and tory there — or even a draw if
bit out an immense mouthful of
there were enough deaths —
T. He spluttered and spat the would mean a medal, an award,
damp shards onto the deck. some cash. And thus did a wom-
“Cardboard,” he said hollowly. an’s covetousness, like a tiny
bird’s terd, start the snowball of
“Mother always shops for bar-
gains. Even in dehydrated choc- warfare rolling, mighty fleets
.” He reached for his gathering, ship after ship as-
olate . .

cup for something to wash the sembling, like a rock in a pool of


old newsprint taste out of his water the ripples spread until
mouth but it was empty. even the lowliest were touched
by its motion . . .

omewhere, high in the seats


S of power a decision was tCTX7'e’re heading for action,”
’ ’
made, a problem resolved, an Tembo said as he sniff-
order issued. From small things ed at his cup of lunch. “They’re
50 GALAXY

loading up the chow with stimu- stand by The voice was cut
. .

lants, pain depressors, saltpeter off by the sounding of General


and antibiotics.” Quarters, but went on again when
“Is that why they keep play- this hideous sound had ended.
ing the patriotic music?” Bill . and here we are on the
.

shouted so that he could be heard bridge of that gigantic conquis-


over the endless roar of bugles tadore of the spacelanes, the
and drums that poured from the twenty-mile long, heavily arm-
speakers. Tembo nodded. ored, mightily gunned super
“There’s little time left to be battleship the Fairy Queen . . .

saved, to assure your place in the men on watch are stepping


Samedi’s legions — aside now and coming towards
“Why don’t you talk to Bowb me in a simple uniform of spun
Brown?” Bill screamed. “I got platinum is the Grand Admiral
tom-toms coming out of my ears! of the Fleet, the Right Honor-
Every time I look at a wall I able Lord Archaeopteryx . . .

see angels floating by on clouds. Could you spare us a moment


Stop bothering me! Work on Your Lordship? Wonderful! The
Bowb —
anybody who would do next voice you are about to hear
what he does with thoats would will be . .
.”

probably join up with your Voo- The next voice was a burst of
doo mob in a second.” music while the fusemen eyed
“I have talked with Brown their fusebands, but the next
about his soul, but the issue is voice after had all the rich ade-
still in doubt. He never answers noidal tones always heard from
me so I am not sure if he has peers of the empire.
heard me or not. But you are “Lads —
we’re going into ac-
different, my son, you show an- tion! This, the mightiest fleet
ger which means you are show- the galaxy has ever seen is head-
ing doubt, and doubt is the first ing directly towards the enemy
step to belief.” to deliver the devasting blow
The music cut off in mid-peal that may win us the war. In my
and for three seconds there was operations tank before me I see
an echoing blast of silence that myriad pinpoints of light, stretch-
abruptly terminated. ing as far as the eye can see and
“Now hear this. Attention all each point of light, I tell you
hands stand by ... in a few
. . . they are like holes in a blanket!,
moments we will be taking you is not a ship, not a squadron —
to the flagship for an on-the-spot but an entire fleet! We are
report from the admiral . . . sweeping forward, closing in .” . .

THE STARSLOGGERS 51
6

'T'he sound of tom-toms filled “Well, at least we’re in action,”


the air and on the fuseband Bill said, back in position and
that Bill was watching appeared trying to favor his bruised foot.
a matched set of golden gates, “Not in action yet, still to cold
swinging open. in here. And that was just a fuse
“Tembo!” he screamed. “Will breakdown, you can tell by the
you knock that off! I want to they do that some-
clip discharge,
hear about the battle.” times when they get old.”
“Canned tripe,” Tembo sniff- “. massed armadas man-
. .

ned by heroic troopers .”


ed. “Better to use the few re- . .

maining moments of this life that ‘We could have been in com-
may remain to you to seek sal- bat.” Bill pouted.
vation. That’s no admiral, that’s “. . thunder of atomic broad-
.

a canned tape. I’ve heard it five sides and lightning trails of hurt-
times already. They only play it ling torpedoes . .
.”
to build morale before what they
“I think we are now. It does
are sure is to be a battle with
feel warmer, doesn’t it, Bill? We
heavy losses. It never was an had better undress, if it really is
admiral, its from an old teevee
a battle we may get too busy.”
program.” “Let’s go, let’s go, down to the
“Yippee!” Bill shouted and buff,” First Class Spleen barked
leaped forward. The fuse he was leaping gazelle-like down the
looking at crackled with a bril- rows of fuses, clad only in a pair
liant discharge around the clips
of dirty gymsocks and his ta-
and at the same moment the tooed-on stripes and fouled fuse
fuseband charred and turned insignia of rank. There was a
from red to black. “Unggh!” he sudden crackling in the air and
grunted, then in rapid succes- Bill felt the shortly clipped stubs
sion, “Unggh! Unggh! Unggh!” of his hair stirring in his scalp.
burning his palms on the still hot “What’s that?” he yi >ed.
fuse, dropping it on his toe, and
finally getting it into a fuseway.
( Qecondary discharge from
When he turned back Tembo
had already clipped a fresh fuse
^ that bank of fuses,” Tembo
pointed. “It’s classified as to
into the empty clips.
what is happening but I heard
“That was my fuse —
you tell that it means one of the
shouldn’t have . .
.” there were defense screens is under radia-
tears in his eyes. tion attack and as it overloads it
“Sorry. But by the rules I climbs up the spectrum to green,
must help if I am free.” to blue to ultraviolet until fin-

52 GALAXY
ally it goes black and the screen First Class Spleen — maybe Sec-
breaks down.” ond Class Spleen would be able
“That sounds pretty way out.” to answer faster?”
“I told you it was just a ru- “Have pity, sir — I’m an old
mor. The material is classified.” man.” He dropped to his knees
“THERE SHE GOES!!” in prayerful attitude
a which
A crackling bang split the hu- took him off the screen.
mid air of the fuseroom and a “Get up you idiot! Have you
bank of fuses arced, smoked, repaired the fuses after that last
burned black. One of them overload?”
cracked in half, showering small “We replace, sir, not repair."
fragments like shrapnel in every “None of your technical gib-
direction. The fusemen leaped, berish, you swine! A straight
grabbed the fuses, slipped in re- answer!”
placements with sweating hands, “All in order, sir. Operating in
barely visible to each other the green. No complaints from
through the reeking layers of anyone, your worship.”
smoke. The fuses were driven “Why are you out of uniform?”
home and there was a moment’s “I am in uniform, sir,” Spleen
silence, broken only by a plain- whined, moving closer to the
tive bleating from the communi- screen so that his bare behind
cations screen. and shaking lower limbs could
“Son of a bowb!” First Class not be seen.
Spleen muttered, kicking a fuse “Don’t lie to me! There’s sweat
out of the way and diving for on your forehead. You aren’t
the screen. His uniform jacket allowed to sweat in uniform. Do
was hanging on a hook next to you see me sweating? And I
it,and he struggled into this be- have a cap on too —
at the cor-
fore banging the receive switch. rect angle. I’ll forget it this time
He finished closing the last but- because I have a heart of gold.
ton just as the screen cleared. Dismissed.”
Spleen saluted, so it must have
been an officer he was facing. tt'E'ilthy bowb!” Spleen cursed
The screen was edge on to Bill JL at the top of his lungs,
so he couldn’t tell, but the voice tearing the jacket from his stif-
had the quacking no-chin-and- ling body. The temperature was
plenty-of-teeth whine that he over 120 and still rising. “Sweat!
was beginning to associate with They have air-conditioning on
tiie officer class. the bridge —
and where do you
“You’re slow in answering, think they discharge the heat?

THE STARSLOGGERS 53
In here! YEOOWM” he cried. the room. In its eye-piercing light
Two entire bands of fuses blew and in a single, eternal moment
out at the same time, three of Bill saw the flame sear through
the fuses exploding like bombs. the ranks of the fusetenders,
At the same moment the floor throwing them about and incin-
under their feet bucked hard erating them like particles of
enough to actually be felt. dust in an open fire. Tembo
“Big trouble!” Tembo
shouted. crumpled and collapsed, a mass
“Anything that is strong enough of seared flesh; a flying length
to feel through the stasis field of metal tore First Class Spleen
must be powerful enough to flat- open from neck to groin in a
ten this ship pancake.
like a single hideous wound.
There go some more!” He dived “Look at that vent in Spleen!”
for the bank and kicked a fuse Bowb shouted, then screamed as
clear of the clips and jammed a ball of lightning rolled over
in a replacement. him and turned him to a black-
It was an inferno. Fuses were ened husk in a fraction of a sec-
exploding like aerial bombs, ond.
sending whistling particles of
ceramic death through the air. chance, a mere accident, Bill
There was a lightning crackle as By was holding the solid bulk
a board shorted to the metal of the fuse before him when the
floor and a hideous scream, flame struck. It washed over his
thankfully cut short, as the sheet left arm which was on the out-
of lightning passed through a side of the fuse and hurled its
fusetender’s body. Greasy smoke flaming weight against the thick
boiled and hung in sheets making cylinder. The force hit Bill,
it almost impossible to see. Bill knocked him back towards the
raked the remains of a broken reserve racks of fuses, and rolled
fuse from the darkened clips and him end over end flat on the
jumped for the replacement rack. floor while the all-destroying
He clutched the 90 pound fuse sheet of fire crackled inches
in his aching arms and had just above his head. It died away, as
turned back towards the boards suddenly as it had come, leaving
•when the universe suddenly ex- behind nothing but smoke, heat,
ploded. the scorched smell of roasted
All the remaining fuses seem- flesh, destruction and death,
ed to have shorted at once and death, death. Bill crawled pain-
the screaming bolt of crackling fully for the hatchway. Nothing
electricity crashed the length of else moved down the blackened

54 GALAXY
mVHTX -Hf.)
51
and twisted length of the fuse- pounds and he fell from the seat
room. light as a husk with a shriveled
The compartment below seem- parchment face as though not
ed just as hot, the air as bereft a drop of liquid were left in his
of nourishment for his lungs as body.
the one he had just quitted. He “Dehydrator ray,” Bill grunt-
crawled on, barely conscious of ed. “ thought they only had them
the fact that he moved on two on teevee.” The gunner’s seat
lacerated knees and one bloody was padded and looked very
hand. His other arm just hung comfortable, far more so than
and dragged, a twisted and black- the warped steel deck: Bill slid
ened length of debris, and only into the recently vacated posi-
the blessings of deep shock kept tion and stared with unseeing
him from screaming with un- eyes at the screen before him.
bearable pain. Littlemoving blobs of light.
He
crawled on, over a sill, In large letters, just above the
through a passageway. The air screen, was printed: GREEN
was and much cool-
clearer here, LIGHTS OUR SHIPS, RED
er: he sat up and inhaled its LIGHT ENEMY. FORGET-
blessed freshness. The compart- TING THIS IS A COURT-
ment was familiar —
yet unfa- MARTIAL OFFENSE.
miliar —
he blinked at it, trying “I won’t forget,” Bill mumbled
to understand why. Long and as he started to slide sideways
narrow with a curved wall that from the chair. To steady him-
had the butt ends of immense self he grabbed a large handle
guns projecting from it. that rose before him, and when
The main battery, of course, he did a circle of light with an
the guns Chinger spy Eager Bea- X in it moved on the screen. It
ger had photographed. Different was very interesting. He put the
now, the ceiling closer to the circle around one of the green
deck, bent and dented, as if lights, then remembered some-
some gigantic hammer had beat thing about a court-martial of-
on it from the outside. There fense. He jiggled it a bit and
was a man slumped in the gun- moved it over to a red light, with
ner’s seat of the nearest weapon. the X right over the light. There
“What happened?” Bill asked, was a red button on top of the
dragging himself over to the man handle and he pressed it because
and clutching him by the shoul- it looked like the kind of button
der. Surprisingly enough the thatis made to be pressed. The

gunner only weighed a few gun next to him went whffle . . .

56 GALAXY
in a very subdued way and the him a cup on a tray held by a
red lights went out. Not very white hand that was attached to
interesting, he let go of the a white arm that was connected
handle. to a white uniform well stuffed
“Oh, but you are a fighting with female breasts. With a gut-
fool!” a voice said and, with tural animal growl Bill knocked
some effort, Bill turned his head. the tray aside and hurled him-
A man stood in the doorway self at the dress. He didn’t quite
wearing a burned and tattered make it because his left arm was
uniform still hung with shreds of wrapped up in something and
gold braid. He weaved forward. hung from wires, so that he spun
“I saw it,” he breathed. “Until around in the bed like an impal-
my dying day I won’t forget it. ed beetle, still uttering harsh
A fighting fool! What guts! Fear- cries. The nurse shrieked and
less! Forward against the ene- fled.
my, no holds barred, don’t give “Glad to see that you are feel-
up the ship .”
. .
ing better,” the doctor said, whip-
“What the bowb you talking ping him straight in the bed with
about?” Bill asked thickly. a practiced gesture and numbing
“A hero!”the officer said arm with
Bill’s still flailing right
pounding Bill on the back, which a neat judo blow. pour you
“I’ll

caused a great deal of pain and some more dinner and you drink
was the last straw for his con- it right down, then we’ll let your
scious mind which let go the buddies in for the unveiling,
reins of command and went away they’re all waiting outside.”
to sulk. Bill passed out. The tingling was dying from
his arm and he could wrap his
IX fingers about the cup now. He
sipped. “What buddies? What
tCXTow won’t you be a nice unveiling? What’s going on
’ trooper-wooper and drink here?” he asked suspiciously.
your dinner .”. .
Then the door was opened and
The warm notes of the voice the troopers came in. Bill search-
insinuated themselves into a sin- ed their faces, looking for bud-
gularly repulsive dream that Bill dies, but all he saw were ex-
was only too glad to leave and, welders and strangers. Then he
with a great deal of effort he remembered. “Bowb Brown
managed to heave his eyes open. cooked!” he screamed. “Tembo
A quick bit of blinking got them broiled! First Class Spleen gut-
into focus and he saw before ted! They’re all dead!” He hid

THE STARSLOGGERS 57
under the covers and moaned unwind the bandages while the
horribly. troopers crowded around to
“That’s no way for a hero to watch.
act,” the doctor said, dragging “How is my arm, Doc?” Bill
him back onto the pillows and was suddenly worried.
tucking the covers under his “Grilled like a chop. I had to
arms. “You’re a hero, trooper, cut it off.”
the man whose guts, ingenuity, “Then what is this?” Bill
integrity, stick-to-itiveness, fight- shrieked, horrified.
ing spirit and deadly aim saved “Another arm that I sewed
the ship. All the screens were on. There were lots of them left
down, the power room destroyed, over after the battle. The ship
the gunners dead, control lost had over 42 percent casualties
and the enemy dreadnaught ze- and I was really cutting and
roing in for the kill when you chopping and sewing, I tell you.”
appeared like an avenging angel, The last bandage fell away and
wounded and near to death, and the troopers ahhhed with de-
with your last conscious effort light.

fired the shot heard round the “Say, that’s a mighty fine
fleet, the single blast that dis- arm!”
emboweled the enemy and saved “Make do something.”
it

our ship, the grand old lady of “And a damn nice seam there
the fleet Christine Keeler.” He at the shoulder look — how neat
handed a sheet of paper to Bill. the stitches are!”
“I am, of course, quoting from the “Plenty of muscles too and
official report, me myself I think good and long, not like the
it was just a lucky accident.” crummy little short one he has
“You’re just jealous,” Bill on the other side.”
sneered, already falling in love “Longer and darker that’s a —
with his new image. great skin color!”
Tembo’s arm!” Bill howl-
“It’s
tt'T'Xon’t get freudian with me!” ed. “Take it away!” He squirmed
the doctor screamed, then across the bed but the arm came
snuffled pitifully. “I always after him. They propped him up
wanted to be a hero, but all I again on the pillows.
do is wait hand and foot on “You’re a lucky bowb. Bill,
heroes. I’m taking that bandage having a good arm like that.
off now.” And your buddy’s arm too.”
He unclipped the wires that “We know that he wanted you
held up Bill’s arm and began to to have it.”

58 GALAXY
“You’ll always have something across his chest and the finger-
to remember him by.” tips quivered at his eyebrow. All
It really wasn’t a bad arm. Bill the troopers snapped to attention
bent it and flexed the fingers and returned the salute. The
still looking at it suspiciously. It door crashed open and an officer
felt alright. He reached out with poked his head in.
it and grabbed a trooper’s arm “Stand easy, men — this is just
and squeezed. He could feel the an informal visit by the old
man’s bones grating together man.”
while he screamed and writhed. “Captain Zekial coming here!”
Then Bill looked closer at the “I’ve never seen the old man
hand and began to shout curses . .” The troopers chippered like
.

at the doctor. birds and were as nervous as


“You stupid sawbones! You virgins at a defloration ceremony.
thoat doctor! Some big job — Three more officers came
this is a right arm!” through the door followed by a
“So it’s a right arm so — male nurse leading a ten-year-
what?” old moron wearing a bib and a
“But you cut off my left arm! captain’s uniform.

Now I have two right arms.” “Uh . . . hi ya fellows . . .

“Listen, there was a shortage the captain said.


of left arms. I’m no miracle “The captain wishes to pay his
worker. I do my best and all I respects to you all,” the first
get are complaints. Be happy I lieutenant said crisply.
didn’t sew on a leg.” He leered “Is dat da guy in da bed?”
“Or even better
evilly, I didn’t “And particularly wishes to
sew on a . . pay his personal respects to the
hero of the hour.”
<CTt’s a good arm, Bill,” the “. . . Dere was sometin’ else
Atrooper said who was rub- but I forgot . .
.”

bing his recently crushed fore- “And he furthermore wishes to


arm. “And you’re really lucky inform the valiant fighter who
too. Now you can salute with saved our ship that he is being
either arm, no one else can do raised in grade to Fusetender
that.” First Class, which increase in
“You’re right,” Bill said hum- rank includes an automatic re-
bly. “I never thought of that. I’m enlistment for seven years to be
really very lucky.” He tried a added to his original enlistment,
salute with his left-right arm and and that upon dismissal from the
the elbow whipped up nicely hospital he is to go by first avail-

THE STARSLOGGERS 59
able transportation to the Im- the crunched genes and defective
perial planet of Helior, there to recessives coming out and you
receive the hero’s award of the got a group of people that are
Purple Dart with Coalsack Neb- a little more exotic than most
ula Cluster from the Emperor’s nuthouses. There’s nothing wrong
own hand.” with the old man that a new
. I think I gotta go to da I.Q. wouldn’t cure! You should
bathroom . . have seen the captain of the last
“But now the exigencies of shipI was on .” he shuddered
. .

command recall him to the and jabbed the needle viciously


bridge and he wishes you all an into Bill’s flesh. Billscreamed,
affectionate farewell.” then gloomily watched the blood
Bill saluted with both arms drip from the hole after the hy-
and the troopers stood at atten- podermic had been withdrawn.
tion until the captain and his The door closed and Bill was
officers had gone, then the doc- alone, looking at the blank wall
tor dismissed the troopers as and his future. He was a First
well. Class Fusetender, and that was
“Isn’t the old man a little nice. But the compulsory re-
young for his post?” Bill asked. enlistment for seven years was
“Not as young as some,” the not so nice. His spirits dropped.
doctor scratched through his hy- He wished he could talk to some
podermic needles looking for a of his old buddies, then remem-
particularly dull one for an in- bered that they were all dead
jection. “You have to remember and his spirits dropped even
that all captains have to be of further. He tried to cheer him-
the nobility and even a large self up but could think of noth-
nobility gets stretched damn thin ing to be cheery about until he
over a galactic empire. take We discovered that he could shake
what we can get.” He found a hands with himself. This made
crooked one and clipped it to him feel a little bit better.
the cylinder. He lay back on the pillows
“Affirm, so he’s young, but and shook hands with himself
isn’t he also a little stupid for until he fell asleep.

the job?”
“Watch that lese majesty stuff,
bowb! You get an empire that’s H ow
easy is the fall from the
pinnacle of power to the
a couple of thousand years old depths of degradation, for suc-
and you get a nobility that keeps cess and failure are but two sides
inbreeding and you get some of of the same coin, one the obverse

60 GALAXY
and the other the reverse, as the ways superior to his existence
expression goes, and the shaking as a trooper.
hand of fate flips this coin and
no man knoweth on which side X
it will landeth.
Fate flipped for Bill. The same r
I 'he transit stockade was a
fate that had guided his fingers A makeshift building of plastic
to the trigger that destroyed the sheets bolted to bent aluminum
Chinger dreadnaught failed one frames and was in the center of
day to guide his fingers on a a large quadrangle. MPs with
more mundane mission. bayoneted atom rifles marched
He received his medal pin- — around the perimeter of the six
ned on by the Emperor himself electrified barbed-wire fences.
in a heart-warming ceremony — The multiple gates were opened
and as soon as the royal cortege by remote control and Bill was
had withdrawn the honor guard dragged through them by the
sprang on Bill and savaged him handcuff robot that had brought
soundly. him here.
“Sacrilege!” a colonel of ma- This debased machine was a
rines roared as he sank his heel squat and heavy cube as high as
into Bill’s quivering kidney. his knee that ran on clanking
“If you were one of my lads treads, and from the top of which
I’d have you blown from an projected a steel bar with heavy
atomic cannon!” screeched an handcuffs fastened to the end.
artillery major as he mashed a Bill was on the end of the hand-
fist against Bill’s ear. cuffs. Escape was impossible be-

Unconscious and bleeding, Bill cause if any attempt was made


was finally dragged away by the to force the cuffs the robot sadis-
MPs and locked behind bars. tically exploded a peewee atom

This was only the first of a series bomb it had in its guts and blew
of military pokeys through which up itself and the escaping pris-
they shuttled his carcass while oner, as well as anyone else in
trying to make up their minds the vicinity. Once inside the com-
what do with him. In transit
to pound the robot stopped and did
he brushed against the criminal not protest when the guard ser-
inhabitants of this secluded world geant unlocked the cuffs. As
and learned a form of low cun- soon as its prisoner was freed
ning that enabled him to survive the machine rolled into its ken-
with a minimum of effort. It was nel and vanished.
a pleasant, easy life, and in all “Alright wiseguy, you’re in my
THE STARSLOGGERS 61
charge now, and dat means trou- open and Bill looked in at the
ble for you,” the sergeant snap- narrow cell, dimly lit by the light
ped at Bill. He had a shaven that filtered through the trans-
head, a wide and scar-covered lucent plastic walls. The double-
jaw, small, close-set eyes in decker bunk took up almost all
which there flickered the gut- of the space, leaving only a nar-
tering candle of stupidity. row passage at one side. Two
Billnarrowed his own eyes to sagging shelves were bolted to
slits and slowly raised his good the far wall and, along with the
left-rightarm, flexing the bicep. stenciled message BE CLEAN
Tembo’s muscle swelled and NOT OBSCENE — DIRTY
splitthe thin prison fatigue jack- TALK HELPS THE ENEMY!,
et with a harsh ripping sound. made up the complete furnish-
Then Bill pointed to the ribbon ings. A small man with a pointed
of the Purple Dart which he face and beady eyes lay on the
had pinned to his chest. bottom bunk looking intently at
“Do you know how I got that?” Bill. Bill looked right back and
he asked in a grim and toneless frowned.
voice. “I got that by killing 13
Chingers single handed in a pill- U/^ome in, sarge,” the little
box I had been sent into. I got ^ man said as he scuttled up
into this stockade here because the support into the upper bunk.
after killing the Chingers I came “I been saving the lower for
back and killed the sergeant who you, yes I have. The name is
sent me in there. Now what— Blackey and I’m doing ten
did you say about trouble, ser- months for telling a second looey
geant?” to blow it out . .

“You don’t give me no trouble He ended the sentence with a


I don’t give you no trouble,” the slight questioning note that Bill
guard sergeant squeaked as he ignored. Bill’s feet hurt. He kick-
skittered away. “You’re in cell ed off the purple boots and
13, in there, right upstairs . .
stretched out on the sack. Black -
he stopped suddenly and began ey’s head popped over the edge
to chew all the fingernails on of the upper bunk, not unlike a
one hand at the same time, with rodent peering out the land-
a nibbling crunching sound. Bill scape. “It’s a long time to chow
gave him a long glower for good — how’s about a dobbinburger?”
measure, then turned and went A hand appeared next to the
slowly into the building. head and slipped a shiny pack-
The door to number 13 stood age down to Bill.

62 GALAXY
After looking it over suspi- tle labeled COUGH SYPRUP
ciously Bill pulled the sealing and passed it to Bill. “Specially
string on the end of the plastic mixed for me by a friend in the
bag. As soon as the air rushed medics. Half grain alcohol and
in and hit the combustible lining half ether.”
the burger started to smoke and “Zoingg!” Bill said, dashing
within three seconds was steam- the tears from his eyes after
ing Lifting the bun Bill
hot. draining half the bottle. He felt
squirted ketchup in from the almost at peace with the world.
little sack at the other end of “You’re a good buddy to have
the bag, then took a suspicious around, Blackey.”
bite. It was rich, juicy horse. “You can say that again,”
“This old gray mare sure tastes Blackey told him earnestly. “It
likeit used to be,” Bill said, talk- never hurts to have a buddy,
ing with his mouth full. “How not in the troopers, the army,
did you ever smuggle this into the navy, anywheres. Ask old
the stockade?” Blackey, he knows. You got mus-
Blackey grinned and produced cles, Bill?”
a broad stage wink. “Contacts.
They bring it in to me, all I T)ill lazily flexed Tembo’s mus-
gotta do is ask. I didn’t catch cle for him.
the name.” “That’s what I like to see,”
“Bill.” Food had soothed his Blackey said in admiration.
ruffled temper. “I was sent up “With your muscles and my
on an indeterminate sentence for brain we can get along fine . .
.”
a crime too hideous to mention.”
“I have a brain too!”
“What was it?” Blackey licked
“Relax it! Give it a break,
his lips with anticipation.
while I do the thinking. I seen
“I was given a medal by him-
service in more armies than you
self,the Emperor, in person and
got days in the troopers. I got
the ceremony was broadcast live
to 967 billion teevee sets.”
my first purple heart serving
with Hannibal, there’s the scar
“So what’s wrong with that?”
right there,” he pointed to a
“My fly was open.” white arc on the back of his
Bill swallowed the last mouth- hand. “But I picked him for a
ful and wiped his fingers on loser and switched to Romulus
the blanket. “That was a good and Remus’s boys while there
burger, too bad there’s nothing was still time. I been learning
to wash it down with.” ever since and I always land on
Blackey produced a small bot- my feet. I saw which way the
THE STARSLOGGERS 63
wind was blowing and ate some pterodactyl. Knocked it down
laundry soap and got the trots myself with a stone from a sling
the morning of Waterloo, and I I had just invented.”

missed but nothing I tell you. I “Looks like a hunk of plastic.”


saw the same kind of thing shap- “See what I mean? So I don’t
ing up at the Somme or was — the old stories anymore. Just
tell
it Ypres? I —
forget some of keep re-enlisting and drifting
them old names now, and chew- with the tide.”
ed a cigarette and put it into Bill satup and gaped. “Re-
my armpit. You
get a fever that enlist! Why, that’s suicide . .

way, and missed that show too. “Safe as houses. Safest place
There’s always an angle to figure during the war is in the army.
I always say.” The jerks in the front lines get
“I never heard of those bat- their asses shot off, the civilians
tles. Fighting the Chingers?” at home get their asses blown
“No, earlier than that, a lot off. Guys in between safe as
earlier than that. Wars and wars houses. It takes 30, 50 maybe 70
ago.” guys in the middle to supply
“That makes you pretty old, every guy in the line. Once you
Blackey. You don’t look pretty learn to be a fileclerk you’re
old.” saft. Who ever heard of them
“I am pretty old, but I don’t shooting at a fileclerk? I’m a
tell people usually because they great fileclerk. But that’s just
give me the laugh. But I remem- in wartime. Peacetime, whenever
ber the pyramids being built, and they make a mistake and there
I remember what lousy chow the is peace for awhile, it’s better to

Assyrian army had, and the time be in the combat troops. Better
we took over Wug’s mob when food, longer leaves, nothing much
they tried to get into our cave, to do. Travel a lot.”
rolled rocks down on them.” “So what happens when the
“Sounds like a lot of bowb,” war starts?”
Bill said lazily, draining the bot- “I know 735 different ways to
tle. get into the hospitals.”
. “Yeah, that’s what everybody “Will you teach me a couple?”
says, so I don’t tell the old stor- “Anything for a buddy, Bill.
ies anymore. They don’t even show you tonight, after they
I’ll

believe me when I show them bring thechow around. And the


my good luck piece.” He held guard what brings the chow is
out a little white triangle with being difficult about a little fa-
a ragged edge. “Tooth from a vor I asked him. Boy, I wish he

64 GALAXY
had a broken arm!” he sighed. “Good news,” he said. “We’re
‘‘Which arm?” Bill cracked his shipping out.”
knuckles with a loud, rending “What’s good about that?” Bill
crunch. asked, surly at being disturbed
‘‘Dealer’s choice.” and still half stoned from the
previous evening’s drinking bout.
'~phe Plastichouse Stockade was “I like it here.”
a transient center where pri- “It’s going to get too hot for
soners were kept on the way us soon. The colonel is giving me
from somewhere to elsewhere. It the eye and a very funny look
was an easy, relaxed life enjoyed and I think he is going to have
by both guards and inmates with us shipped to the other end of
nothing to disturb the even ten- the galaxy where there is heavy
or of the days. There had been fighting. But he’s not going to
one new guard, a real eager type do anything until next week
fresh in from the National Ter- after I finish the books for him,
ritorial Guard, but he had had so I had secret orders cut for
an accident while serving the us this week sending us to Tabes
meals and had broken his arm. Dorsalis where the cement mines
Even the other guards were glad are.”
to see him go. About once a week “The dust world!” Bill shouted
Blackey would be taken away hoarsely and picked Blackley up
under armed guard to the Base by the throat and shook him. “A
Records Section where he was worldwide cement mine where
forging new records for a light men die of silicosis in hours. Hell
colonel who was very active in hole of the universe .
.”
.

the black market and wanted to Blackey wriggled free and


make millionaire before he re- scuttled to the other end of the
tired. While working on the re- cell.
cords Blackey saw to it that the “Hold it!” he gasped. “Don’t
stockade guards received unde- go off half cocked. Close the
served promotions, extra leave cover on your priming pan and
time and cash bonuses for non- keep your powder dry! Do you
existent medals. As a result Bill think I would ship us to a place
and Blackey ate and drank very like that? That’s just the way
well and grew fat. It was as it is on the teevee shows, but I
peaceful as could possibly be got the inside dope. If you work
until the morning after a session in the cement mines, roger, it
in the records section when ain’t so good. But they got one
Blackey returned and woke Bill, tremendous base section there

THE STARSLOGGERS 65
with a lot of clerical help and Veneria where all the fighting is
they use trustees in the motor going on —
we’re heading for
pool since there aren’t enough combat!”
troops there. While I was work- “A little slip of the pen,”
ing on the records I changed Blackey sighed. “You can’t win
your MS from fusetender which them all.”
is a suicide job to driver, and
He dodged the kick Bill swung
here is your drive’s license with at him then waited patiently
qualifications on everything from while the MPs beat Bill sense-
a monocycle to an atomic 89-ton less with their clubs and drag-
tank. So we get us some soft ged him aboard the ship.
jobs and besides, the whole base
is air-conditioned.”
XI
was kind of nice here,”
“It
Bill said, scowling at the plas-
TT'eneria ...
a fog-shrouded
tic card that certified to his ap- * world of untold horrors,
titude in chauffeuring a number
creeping in its orbit around the
of strange vehicles most of which
ghoulish green star Hernia like
he had never seen. some repellent heavenly tres-
“They come, they go, they’re passer newly rose from the neth-
all the same,” Blackey said,
ermost pit What secrets lie be-
packing a small toilet kit. neath the eternal mists? What
They began to realize that nameless monsters undulate and
something was wrong when the gibber in its dank tarns and bot-
column of prisoners were shackl- tomless black lagoons? Faced by
ed then chained together with the unspeakable terrors of this
neckcuffs and leg irons and prod-
planet men go mad rather than
ded into the transport spacer by face up to the faceless. Veneria
a platoon of combat MPs. “Move
. . swamp world, the lair of
.

along!” they shouted. “You’ll


the hideous and unimaginable
have plenty of time to relax Venians . . .

when we get to Tabes Dorsal-


It was hot and it was damp
gia.”
and it stank. The wood of the

“Where are we going?” Bill
newly constructed barracks was
gasped. already soft and rotting away.
“You heard me, snap it bowb.” You took your shoes off and be-
“You told me Tabes Dorsalis,” fore they hit the floor fungus
Blackey who was
Bill snarled at was growing out of them. Once
ahead of him in the chain. inside the compound their chains
“Tabes Dorsalgia is the base on were removed, since there was
66 GALAXY
no place for labor camp prisoners onto the nearest bunk. Instantly
to escape to, and Bill wheeled a vine flashed up from a crack
around looking for Blackey, the in the floor, whipped four times
fingers of Tembo’s arm snapping around the bunk lashing him se-
like hungry jaws. Then he re- curely to it, then plunged ten-
membered that Blackey had drils into his leg and began to
spoken to one of the guards as drink his blood.
they were leaving the ship, had “Grrrrk .
.”.Bill croaked
slipped him something, and a against the pressure of a green
little while later had been un- loop that tightened around his
locked from the line and led throat.
away. By now he would be run- “Never lie down without you
ning the file section and by to- got a knife in your hand,” a
morrow he would be living in thin, yellowish sergeant said as
the nurse’s quarters. he passed by and severed the
Bill sighed, let the whole thing vine, with his own knife, where
slip out of his mind and vanish it emerged from the floorboards.
since it was just one more an- “Thanks, sarge,” Bill said,
tangonistic factor that he had no stripping off the coils and throw-
control over and dropped down ing them out the window.

THE STARSLOGGERS 67
The sergeant suddenly began bad enough, but on this planet
vibrating like a plucked string they have the natives, the Ven-
and dropped onto the foot of ians, on their side. These Ven-
Bill’s bunk. “P-pocket . . . shirt ians look like moldy newts and
. . . p-p- pills . . he stuttered they got just maybe enough IQ
through chattering teeth. Bill to hold a gun and pull the trig-
pulled a plastic box of pills out ger, but it is their planet and
of the sergeant’s pocket and they’re murder out there in the
forced some of them into his swamps. They hide under the
mouth. The vibrations stopped mud and they swim under the
and the man sagged back against water and they swing from the
the wall, gaunter and yellower trees and the whole planet is
and streaming with sweat. thick with them. They got no
sources of supply, no army divi-
(t Taundice and swamp fever sions, no organizations, they just
•I and galloping filariasis, one dies the others eat
fight. If

never know when an attack will him. one is wounded in the


If

hit me, that’s why they can’t and he


leg the others eat the leg
send me back to combat, I can’t grows a new one. If one of them
hold a gun. Me, Master Sergeant runs out of ammunition or poi-
Ferkel, the best damned flame son darts or whatever he just
thrower in Kirjassoff’s Kut- swims back a hundred miles to
throats, and they have me play- base, loads up and back to bat-
ing nursemaid in a prison labor tle. We have been fighting here

camp. So you think that bugs for three years and we now con-
me? It does not bug me, it trol one hundred square miles of

makes me happy, and the only territory.”


thing that would make me hap- “A hundred, that sounds like
pier would be shipping off this a lot.”
cesspool planet at once.” “Just to a stupid bowb like
“Do you think alcohol will you. That is ten miles by ten
hurt your condition?” Bill asked, miles, and maybe about two
passing over a bottle of cough square miles more than we cap-
syrup. “It’s kind of rough here?” tured in the first landings.”
“Not only won’t hurt it but There was the squish -thud of
it will.” There was a deep gur- and weary, mud-soak-
tired feet
gling and when the sergeant ed men began to drag into the
spoke again he was hoarser but barracks. Sergeant Ferkel haul-
stronger. “Rough is not the word ed himself to his feet and blew
for it. Fighting the Chingers is a long blast on his whistle.

68 GALAXY
“Alright you new men, now my. They dragged slowly down
hear this. You have all been as- the road of felled trees that
signed to B squad which is now wound through the swamp.
assembling in the compound, There was a sudden whistling
which squad will now march out overhead and heavy transports
into the swamp and finish the flashed by.
job these shagged creeps from A “We’re in luck today,” one of
squad began this morning. You the older prisoners said, “they’re
will do a good days work out sending in the heavy infantry
there. I am not going to appeal again. I didn’t know they had
to your sense of loyalty, your any left.”
honor or your sense of duty . . “You mean they’ll capture
Ferkel whipped out his atomic more territory?” Bill asked.
pistol and blew a hole in the “Naw, all they’ll get is dead.
ceiling through which rain began But while they’re getting butch-
to drip. “I am only going to ered some of the pressure will
appeal to your urge to survive, be off of us and we can maybe
because any man shirking, goof- work without losing too many
ing off or not pulling his own men.”
weight will personally be shot Without orders they all stop-
dead by me. Now get out.” With ped to watch as the heavy in-
his bared teeth and shaking fantry fell like rain into the
hands he looked sick enough and swamps ahead — and vanished
mean enough and mad enough Every
just as easily as raindrops.
to do it. Bill and the rest of B once in awhile there would be a
squad rushed out into the rain boom and flash as a teensie
and formed ranks. A-bomb went off, which prob-
ably atomized a few Venians,
4 4T)ick up da axes, pick up da but there were billions more of
A picks, get the uranium the enemy just waiting to rush
out,” the corporal of the armed in. Small arms crackled in the
guard snarled as they squelched distance and grenades boomed.
through the mud towards the Then over the trees they saw a
gate. The labor squad, carrying bobbing, bouncing figure ap-
their tools, stayed in the center, proach. It was a heavy infantry-
while the armed guard walked man in his armored suit and
on the outside. The guard wasn’t gasproof helmet, A-bombs and
there to stop the prisoners from grenades strapped to him, a reg-
escaping but to give some mea- ular walking armory. Or rather
sure of protection from the ene- hopping armory, since he would

THE STARSLOGGERS 69
have had trouble walking on a “Them suits weigh 3,000 pounds.
paved street with the weight of Goes down like a rock,” the cor-
junk hung about him, so there- poral said as he prodded them
fore moved by jumping, using ahead.
two reaction rockets, one bolted
to each hip. His hops were get- f this was a quiet day, Bill
ting lower and lower as he came I didn’t want to see a busy
near. He landed 50 yards away one. Since the entire planet of
ana sank slowly to his waist in Veneria was a swamp no ad-
the swamp, his rockets hissing vances could be made until a
as they touched the water. Then road was built. Individual sol-
he hopped again, much shorter diers might penetrate a bit ahead
this time, the rockets fizzling and of the road, but for equipment or
popping, and he threw his hel- supplies or even heavily armed

met open in the air. men a road was necessary.
“Hey, guys,” he called. “The Therefore the labor corps was
dirty Chingers got my fuel tank. building a road of felled trees.
My rockets are almost out, I At the front.
can’t hop much more. Give a Bursts from atom rifles steam-
buddy a hand will you . . .” He ed in the water around them and
hit the water with a splash. the poison darts were as thick
“Get outta the monkey suit as falling leaves. The firing and
and we’ll pull you in,” the guard sniping on both sides was con-
corporal called. stant while the prisoners cut
“Are you nuts!” the soldier down trees, trimmed and lashed
shouted. “It takes an hour to them together to push the road
get into and outta this thing.” forward another few inches. Bill
He triggered his rockets but trimmed and chopped and tried
they just went pffft and he rose to ignore the screams and falling
about a foot in the water, then bodies until it began to grow
dropped back. “The fuel’s gone! dark. The squad, now a good
Help me you bastards! What’s ‘
deal smarter, made their return
this,bowb-your-buddy week .” . . march in the dusk.
he shouted as he sank, then his “We pushed it ahead at least

head went under and there were 30 yards this afternoon,” Bill
a few bubbles and nothing else. said to the old prisoner march-
“It’s always bowb-your-buddy ing at his side.
week,” the corporal said. “Get “Don’t mean nothing, Venians
the column moving!” he ordered, swim up in the night and take
and they shuffled forward. the logs away.”

70 GALAXY
Bill instantly made his mind “We don’t have an orderly
up to get out of there. room. We don’t have any rec-
“Got any more of that joy- ords. Everyone sent here gets
juice?” Sergeant Ferkel asked killed sooner or later, so who
when Bill dropped onto his bunk cares exactly when.”
and began to scrape some of “What about getting wound-
the mud from his boots with the ed?”
blade of his knife. Bill took a “Get sent to the hospital, get
quick slash at a plant coming up well, get sent back here.”
through the floorboards before “The only thing left to do is
he answered. mutiny!” Bill shouted.
“Do you think you could spare “Didn’t work last four times
me a moment to give me some we tried it. They just pulled the
advice, sergeant?” supply ships out and didn’t give
“I am a flowing fountain of us any food until we agreed to
advice once my throat is lubri- start fighting again. Wrong chem-
cated.” istry here, the food on this
all
Bill dug a bottle out of his planet is pure poison for our
pocket. “How do you get out metabolisms. We
had a couple
of this outfit?” he asked. of guys prove it the hard way.
“You get killed,” the sergeant Any mutiny that is going to suc-
told him as he raised the bottle ceed has to grab enough ships
to his lips. Bill snatched it out first so we can get off-planet. If
of his hand. you got any good ideas about
“That I know without your that I’ll put you in touch with
help,” he snarled. the Permanent Mutiny Commit-
“Well that’s all you gonna tee.”
know without my help,” the ser- “Isn’t there any way to get
geant snarled back. out?”
Their noses were touching and “I anshered that firsht,” Fer-
they growled at each other deep kel told him and fell over stone
in their throats. Having proven drunk.
just where they stood and just “I’ll see for myself,” Bill said
how tough they both were they as he slid the sergeant’s pistol
relaxed, and Sergeant Ferkel from his holster and slipped out
leaned back while Bill sighed and the back door.
passed him the bottle. Armored floodlights lit up the
forward positions facing the ene-
UT Tow’s about a job in the my and Bill went in the opposite
orderly room?” direction, towards the distant

THE STARSLOGGERS 71
white flares of landing rockets. mother to know that her boy is
Barracks and warehouses were a coward? Fifty seconds. Your
dotted about on the boggy ground Emperor has invested a lot of
but Bill stayed clear of them money in your training is this —
since they were all guarded, and the way you repay him? Forty -
the guards had itchy trigger fin- five seconds . .

gers. They fired at anything they Bill cursed and shot up the
saw, anything they heard, and nearest loudspeaker but the voice
if they didn’t see or hear any- continued from others down the
thing they fired once in awhile length of the fence. He turned
anyway just to keep their morale and went back the way he had
up. Lights were burning brightly come.
ahead and Bill crawled forward As he neared his barracks,
on his stomach to peer from be- skirting the front line to avoid
hind a rank growth at a tall, fire from the nervous guards in
floodlighted fence of barbed wire the buildings, all the lights went
that stretched out of sight in both out. At the same time gunfire
directions. and bomb explosions broke out
A burst from an atomic rifle on every side.
burned a hole in the mud about
a yard behind him and a search- XII
light swung over, catching him
full in its glare. omething slithered close by in
“Greetings from your com- S the mud and Bill’s trigger
manding officer,” an amplified finger spontaneously contracted
voice thundered from loudspeak- and he shot it. In the brief atom-
ers on the fence. “This is a re- ic flare he saw the smoking re-
corded announcement. You are mains of a dead Venian, as well
now attempting to leave the com- as an unusually large number
bat zone and enter the restricted of live Venians squelching to the
headquarters zone. This is for- attack. Bill dived aside instant-
bidden. Your presence has been ly, so that their return fire miss-
detected by automatic machin- ed him, and fled in the opposite
ery- and these same devices now direction. His only thought was
have a number of guns trained to save his skin and this he did
upon you. They will fire in sixty by getting as far from the firing
seconds if you do not leave. Be and the attacking enemy as he
patriotic, man! Do your duty. could. That this direction hap-
Death to the Chingers! Fifty-five pened to be into the trackless
seconds. Would you like your swamp he did not consider.

72 GALAXY
Survive his shivering little ego There was a little lizard perch-
screamed and he ran on into the ed on a nearby branch watching
swamp. him with jewel-like eyes.
Running became difficult when “Gee —
you were really sack-
the ground turned to mud, and ed out,” the Chinger said.
even more difficult when the Bill’s shot tore a smoking scar
mud gave way to open water. in the top of the branch, then
After paddling desperately for the Chinger swung back up from
an interminable length of time underneath and meticulously
Bill came to more mud. The wiped bits of ash from his paws.
first hysteria had now passed, “Easy on the trigger, Bill,”
the firing was only a dull rumble it said. “Gee I —
could have
in the distance and he was ex- killed you anytime during the
hausted. He dropped onto the night if I had wanted to.”
mudbank and instantly sharp “I know you,” Bill said hoarse-
teeth sank into his buttocks. ly. “You’re Eager Beager, aren’t
Screaming hoarsely he ran on you.”
until he ran into a tree. He
wasn’t going fast enough to hurt — this is just like old
himself and the feel of rough '-J home week, isn’t it.” A
bark under his fingers brought centipede was scuttling by and
out all of his eoanthropic survi- Eager Beager the Chinger grab-
val instincts: he climbed. bed it up with three of his arms
High up there were two and began pulling off legs with
branches that forked out from his fourth and eating them. “I
the trunk and he wedged himself recognized you Bill, and wanted
into the crotch, back to the solid to talk to you. I’ve been feeling
wood and gun pointed straight bad ever since I called you a
ahead and ready. Nothing both- stoolie, that wasn’t right of me.
ered him now and the night You were only doing your duty
sounds grew dim and distant, the when you turned me in. You
blackness was complete and wouldn’t like to tell me how
within a few minutes his head you recognized me, would you?”
started to nod. He dragged it he asked, and winked slyly.
back a few times, blinked about “Why don’t you bowb off,
at nothing, then finally slept Jack?” Billgrowled and groped
soundly. in his pocket for a bottle of
It was the first gray light of cough syrup. Eager Chinger
dawn when he opened his gum- sighed.
my eyes and blinked around. “Well, I suppose I can’t ex-

THE STARSLOGGERS 73
pect you to betray anything of “Like what?” Bill asked sus-
military importance, but I hope piciously, draining the bottle and
you will answer a few questions flinging it away into the jungle.
for me.” He discarded the de- “Well — gee — to begin
sim-
limbed corpse and groped about ply, how do you feel about us
in his marsupial pouch and pro- Chingers?”
duced a tablet and tiny writing “Death to all Chingers!” The
instrument. “You must realize little pen flew over the tablet.
that spying is not my chosen oc- “But you have been taught
cupation, but rather I was dra- to say that. How did you feel
gooned into it through my spe- before you entered the service?”
cialty which is exopology per- — “Didn’t give a damn about
haps you have heard of this dis- Chingers.” Out of the corner of
cipline?” his eye Bill was watching a sus-
“We had an orientation lecture picious movement of the leaves
once, an exopologist, all he could in the tree above.
talk about was alien creeps and “Fine! Then could you explain
things.” to me just who it is that hates
“Yes — well that roughly sums us Chingers and wants to fight
it up. The science of the study a war of extermination?”
of alien life forms, and of course “Nobody really hates Ching-
to us you homo sapiens are an ers, I guess. It’s just that there

alien form.” He scuttled halfway is no one else around to fight a

around the branch when Bill war with so we fight with you.”
raised his gun. The moving leaves had parted
“Watch that kind of talk, and a great, smooth head with
bowb!” slitted eyes peered down.

“Sorry, just my manner of


speaking. To put it briefly, since ttT knew it! And that brings
I specialized in the study of A me to my really impor-
your species I was sent out as tant questions. Why do you homo
a spy, reluctantly, but that
is the sapiens like to fight wars?”
one makes dur-
sort of sacrifice Bill’s hand tightened on his
ing wartime. However, seeing gun as the monstrous head drop-
you here reminded me that there ped silently down from the
are a number of questions and leaves behind Eager Chinger
problems still unanswered that I Beager. It was attached to a
would appreciate your help on, foot-thick and apparently end-
purely in the matter of science, less serpent body.
of course.” “Fight wars? I don’t know,”

74 GALAXY
Bill said, distracted by the area, just ten miles to a side,
soundless approach of the giant made a microscopic pinprick in
snake. “I guess because we like the hide of this planet. Yet if he
to, there doesn’t seem to be any didn’t find it he was as good as
other reason.” dead. And if he just stayed here
“You like to!” the Chinger he would die, so, picking what
squeaked, hopping up and down looked like the most likely direc-
with excitement. “No civilized tion, he started off.
race could like wars, death, kill- “I’m pooped,” he said, and
ing, maiming, rape, torture, pain was. A few hours of dragging
to name just a few of the con- through the swamps had done
comitant factors. Your race can’t nothing except weaken his mus-
be civilized!” cles, fill his skin with insect
The snake struck like light- bites, drain a quart or two of
ning and Eager Beager Chinger blood into the ubiquitous leeches
vanished down its spine-covered and deplete the charge in his
throat with only the slightest of gun as he killed a dozen or so
muffled squeals. of the local lifeforms that want-
“Yeah ... I guess we’re just ed him for breakfast. He was
not civilized,” Bill said, gun also hungry and thirsty. And
still lost.
ready, but the snake kept going
on down. At least fifty yards of The day just re-
rest of the
it slithered by before the tail capitulated the morning so that
flipped past and it was out of when the sky began to darken
sight. “Serves the damn spy he was close to exhaustion and
right,” Billgrunted happily and his supply of cough medicine
pulled himself to his feet. was gone. He was very hungry
Once on
the ground Bill began when he climbed a tree to find
to realize just how bad a spot a spot to rest for the night and
he was in. The damp swamp had he plucked a luscious looking red
fruit.
swallowed up any marks of his
passage from the night before “Supposed to be poison,” he
and he hadn’t the slightest idea looked at it suspiciously, then
in which direction the battle area smelled it. It smelled fine. He
lay. The sun was just a general threw it away.
illumination behind the layers of In the morning he was much
fog and cloud, and he felt a sud- hungrier. “Should I put the bar-
den chill as he realized how rel of the gun in my mouth and
small were his chances of find- blow my head off?” he asked
ing his way back. The invasion himself, weighing the atomic
THE STARSLOGGERS 75
pistol in his hand. “Plenty of walking up behind him and
time for that yet. Plenty of catching him in the back of the
things can still happen,” yet he neck with the rifle butt. The
didn’t really believe it. Suddenly last two troopers in the file saw
he heard voices coming through this but had enough brains to
the jungle towards him, human be quiet as he crept up on num-
voices. He settled behind the ber four. Some stir among the
limb and aimed his gun in that prisoners or a chance sound
direction. warned thisguard and he turned
about, raising his rifle. There
Ophe voices grew, then a clank- was no chance now to kill him
silently so Bill burned his head
ing and rattling. An armed
off and ran as fast as he could
Venian scuttled under the tree,
towards the head of the column.
but Bill held his fire as other
figures loomed out of the fog.
There was a shocked silence
It was a long file of human pris-
when the blast of the rifle echo-

oners wearing the neckirons used


ed through the fog and Bill filled
it with a shout.
to bring Bill and the others to
the labor camp, all joined togeth-
“Hit the dirt — FAST!”
er by a long chain that connect- The soldiers dived into the
ed the neckirons. Each of the mud and Bill held his atomic
men was carrying a large box rifle at his waist as he ran, fan-

on his head. Bill let them stum- ning it back and forth before
ble by underneath and kept a him like a water hose and hold-
careful count of the Venian ing the trigger on full automatic.
guards. There were five in all A continuous blast of fire pour-
With a sixth bringing up the ed out a yard above the ground
rear. and he squirted it in an arc be-
fore him. There were shouts and
When this one had passed un-
derneath the tree Bill dropped
screams in the fog and then the
straight down on him, braining
charge in the rifle was exhaust-
ed. Bill threw it from him and
him with his heavy boots. The
Venian was armed with a Chin- drew the pistol. Two of the re-
ger-made copy of a standard maining guards were down and
the last one was wounded and
atomic rifle and Bill smiled wick-
got off a single badly aimed shot
edly as he hefted its familiar
before Bill burned him too.
weight. After sticking the pistol
into his waistband he crept after “Not bad,” he said, stopping
the column, rifle ready. He man- and panting. “Six out of six.”
aged to kill the fifth guard by There were low moans coming

76 GALAXY
from the line of prisoners and should have hit the dirt like the
Bill curled his lip in disgust at others . .
.”

the three men who hadn’t drop- “You’re damn right you should
ped at his shouted command. have,” Bill said looking down
“What’s the matter?” he ask*, at the familiar, loathed, tusked
ed, stirring one with his foot, face. “You’re dying Deathwish,
“never been in combat before?” you’ve bought it.”
But this one didn’t answer be- “I know,” Deathwish said and
cause he was charred dead. coughed. His eyes were closed.
“Wrap this line in a circle,”
tC XT ever . .
.” the next one Bill shouted. “I want the medic
-* answered, gasping in up here.” The chain of prisoners
pain. “Get the corpsman, I’m curved around and they watch-
wounded, there’s one ahead in ed as the medic examined the
the line. Oh, oh, why did I ever casualties.
leave the Chris’ Keeler! Medic.” “A bandage on the looie’s arm
Bill frowned at the three gold takes care of him,” he said. “Just
balls of a fourth lieutenant on superficial burns. But the big
the man’s collar, then bent and guy with the fangs has bought
scraped some mud from his face. it.”

“You! The laundry officer!” he “Can you keep him alive?”


shouted in outraged anger, rais- Bill asked.
ing his gun to finish the job. “For awhile, no telling how
“Not I!” the lieutenant moan- long.”
ed, recognizing Bill at last. “The “Keep him alive.” Bill looked
laundry officer is gone, flushed around at the circle of prisoners.

down the drain! This is I, your “Any way to get those neckirons
friendly local pastor, bringing off?” he asked.
you the blessings of Ahura Maz- “Not without the keys,” a bur-
dah, my son, and have you been ly infantry sergeant answered,
reading the Avesta every day “and the lizards never brought
before going to sleep?” them. We’ll have to wear them
“Bah!” Bill snarled, he until we get back. How come
couldn’t shoot him now, and you risked your neck saving us?”
walked over to the third wound- he asked suspiciously.
ed man. “Who wanted to save you?”
“Hello Bill ...” a weak voice Bill sneered. “I was hungry and

said. “I guess the old reflexes I figured that must be food you

are slowing down ... I can’t were carrying.”


blame you for shooting me, I “Yeah, it is,” the sergeant

THE STARSLOGGERS 77
said, looking relieved. “I can “Those are better odds for
understand now why you took all of us than they were about

the chance.” an hour ago.”


Bill broke open a can of ra- “You’re telling me. But they
tions and stuffed his face. get worse the longer we hang
around here.”
'"T''he dead man was cut from “Let’s get moving.”
his position in the line and Following the track was even
the two men, one in front and easier than Bill had thought,
one in back of the wounded and by early afternoon they
Deathwish, wanted to do the heard the first signs of firing, a
same with him. Bill reasoned dim rumble in the distance. The
with them, explained the only only Venian they had seen had
human thing to do was to carry been instantly killed. Bill halt-
their buddy, and they agreed ed the march.
with him when he threatened to “Eat as much as you want,
bum their legs off if they didn’t. then dump the food,” he said.
While the chained men were “Pass that on. We’ll be moving
eating. Bill cut two flexible poles He went to see how
fast soon.”
and made a stretcher by slipping Deathwish was getting on.
three donated uniform jackets “Badly —
” Deathwish gasped,
over them. He gave the captured his face white as paper. “This is

rifles to the burly sergeant and it, Bill ... I know it . . . I’ve
the most likely looking combat terrorized my last recruit . . .

veterans, keeping one for him- stood on my last pay line . . .

self. had my last shortarm ... so


“Any chance of getting back?” long — Bill . you’re a good
. .

Bill asked the sergeant, who was buddy . . . taking care of me like
carefully wiping the moisture this . .
.”

from his gun. “Glad you think so, Death-


“Maybe. We can backtrack wish, and maybe you’d like to
the way we come, easy enough do me a favor.” He dug in the
to follow the trail after every- dying man’s pockets until he
one dragged through. Keep an found his noncom’s notebook,
eye peeled for Venians, get them then opened it and scrawled on
before they can spread the word one of the blank pages. “How
about us. When we get in ear- would you like to sign this, just
shot of the fighting we try and for old time’s sake Death- —
find a quiet area —
then break wish ?”
through. A fifty-fifty chance.” The big jaw lay slack, the

78 GALAXY
evil red eyes open and staring. thatyou saw him thumbprint it
“The dirty bowb’s gone and and it is all affirm and legal-
died on me,” Bill said disgust- like,then sign your name.”
edly. After pondering for a mo- “But —
I couldn’t do that my
ment he dribbled some ink from son. I did not see the deceased
the pen onto the ball of Death- print the will and glmmpf . .

wish’s thumb and pressed it to He said glmmpf because Bill


the paper to make a print. had poked the barrel of the
atomic pistol into his mouth and
( yTedic!” he shouted, and was rotating it, his finger quiv-
the line of men curled ering on the trigger.
around so the medic could come “Shoot,” the infantry sergeant
back. “How does he look to said,and three of the men who
you?” could see what was going on
“Dead as a herring,” the corps- were clapping. Bill slowly with-
man said after his professional drew the pistol.
examination. “I shall be happy to help,”
“Just before he died he left the chaplain said, grabbing for
me his tusks in his will, written the pen.
right down here, see? These are Bill read the document, grunt-

real vat- grown tusks and cost ed in satisfaction, then went


a lot. Can they be transplanted?” over and squatted down next to
“Sure, as long as you get them the medic. “You from the hos-
cut out and deep froze inside pital?” he asked.
the next twelve hours.” “You can say that again, and
if I ever get back into the hos-
“No problem with that, we’ll
pital I ain’t never going out of it
just carry the body back with
Hestared hard at the two again. It was just my luck to be
us.”
stretcher bearers and fingered out picking up combat casualties
his gun r and they had no com- when the raid hit.”
plaints. “Get that lieutenant up “I hear that they aren’t ship-
here.” ping any wounded out. Just put-
“Chaplain,” Bill said, holding ting them back into shape and
out the sheet from the note- sending them back into the line.”
book, “I would like an officer’s “You heard right. This is go-
signature on this. Just before he ing to be a hard war to live
died this trooper here dictated through.”
his will, but was too weak to “But some of them must be
sign it, so he put his thumbprint wounded too badly to send back
on it. Now you write below it into action,” Bill insisted.

THE STARSLOGGERS 79
tt'T'he miracles of modem heavy weapons shook the mud
medicine,” the medic said under their feet. They worked
indistinctly as he worried a cake along parallel with the firing
of dehydrated luncheon meat. until it had died down, then
“Either you die or you’re back stopped. Bill, the only one not
in the line in a couple of weeks.” chained in the line, crawled
“Maybe a guy gets his arm ahead to reeonnoiter. The ene-
blown off?” my lines seemed to be lightly
“They got an icebox full of held and he found the spot that
old arms. Sew a new one on and looked the best for a break-
bango, right back into the line.” through. Then, before he return-
“What about a foot?” Bill ed, he dug the heavy cord from
asked, worried. his pocket that he had taken
“That’s right —
I forgot! They from one of the ration boxes. He
got a foot shortage. So many tied a tourniquet above his right
guys lying around without feet knee and twisted it tight with a
that they’re running out of bed- stick, then swallowed the three
space. They were starting to pills. He stayed behind some
ship some of them offplanet heavy shrubs when he called to
when I left.” the others.
“You got any pain pills?” Bill “Straight ahead, then sharp
asked, changing the subject. The right before that clump of trees.
medic dug out a white bottle. Let’s go — and FAST!”
“Three of these and you’d Bill led the way until
the first
laugh while they sawed your men could see the lines ahead.
head off.” Then he called out, “What’s
“Give me three.” that?” and ran into the heavy
“If you ever see a guy around foilage.“Chingers!” he shouted
what has his foot shot off you and sat down with his back to
better quick tie something a tree.
around his leg just over the He took careful aim with his
knee, tight, to cut the blood pistol and blew his right foot
off.” off.
“Thanks buddy.” “Get moving fast!” he shout-
“Let’s get moving,” the infan- ed and heard the crash of the
try sergeant said. “The quicker frightened men through the un-
we move the better our chances.” dergrowth. He threw the pistol
Occasional flares from atomic away, fired at random into the
burned through the foilage
rifles trees a few times, then dragged
overhead and the thud-thud of to his feet. The atomic rifle

80 GALAXY
made a good enough crutch to stone wall that bordered the road
hobble along on and he did not and rolled up his right pants
have far to go. Two troopers, leg. When he whistled one of the
they must have been new to robots trundled quickly over and
combat or they would have held out a tool box from which
known better, left the shelter to the sergeant took a large screw-
help him inside. driver and tightened one of the
“Thanks, buddie,” he gasped, bolts in the ankle of his artifi-
and sank to the ground. “War cial foot. Then he squirted a few
sure is hell.” drops from an oil can onto the
joint and rolled the pants leg

XIII back down. When he straighten-


ed up he noticed that a robo-
' 'he martial music echoed from mule was pulling a plow down
the hillside, bouncing back a furrow in the field beyond the
from the rocky ledges and losing fence a farmlad guided it.
itself in the hushed green shad- “Beer!” the sergeant barked,
ows under the trees. Around the then, “A Spacemen’s Lament.”
bend, stamping proudly through “That’s sure pretty music,”
the dust, came the little parade the plowboy said.
led by the magnificent form of “Join me in a beer,” the ser-
a one-robot-band. Sunlight geant said, sprinkling a white
gleamed on its golden limbs and powder into it.

twinkled from the brazen in- “Don’t mind iffen I do, sure is
struments it worked with such hottern’n H out here today.”
enthusiasm. A small formation of “Say hell, son.”
assorted robots rolled and clat- “Momma don’t like me to
tered in its wake and bringing cuss. You sure do have long
up the rear was the solitary fi- teeth, mister.”
gure of the grizzle-haired re- The sergeant twanged a tusk.
cruiting sergeant, striding along “A big fellow like you shouldn’t
strongly, his rows of medals a- worry about a little cussing. If
jingle. Though the road was you were a trooper you could
smooth the sergeant lurched sud- say hell —
or even bowb if —
denly, stumbling, and cursed you wanted to, all the time.” *
with the rich proficiency of “I don’t think I’d want to say
years. anything like that,” he flushed
“Halt!” he commanded, and redly under his deep tan.
while his little company braked “Thanks for the beer, but I
to a stop he leaned against the gotta be ploughing on now.

THE STARSLOGGERS 81
Momma said I was to never talk begged, clutching the sergeant’s
to soldiers.” hand and dribbling tears onto
it. “I’ve lost one son, isn’t that
tt'VT'our momma’s right, a enough.” she blinked up through
* dirty, drinking
cussing, the tears, then blinked again.
crew the most of them. Say, “But you — you’re my boy! My
would you like to see a picture Bill come home! Even with those

here of a new model robomule teeth and the scars and one
that can run 1,000 hours without black hand and one white hand
lubrication?” The sergeant held and one artificial foot, I can
his hand out behind him and a tell, a mother always knows!”

robot put a viewer into it. The sergeant frowned down at


"Why that sounds nice!” The the woman. “I believe you might
farmlad raised the viewer to his be right,” he said. “I thought
eyes and looked into it and Phigerinadon II was familiar.”
flushed an even deeper red. The robot tailor had finished
"That’s no mule, mister, that’s a his job, the red paper jacket
girl and her clothes are .” . . shone bravely in the sun, the
The sergeant reached out one-molecule-thick boots gleam-
swiftly and pressed a button on ed. “Fall in,” Bill shouted.
.” the woman
the top of the viewer. Some- “Billy, Billy . .

thing went thunk inside of it wailed, “this is your little broth-


and the farmer stood, rigid and er Charlie! You wouldn’t take
frozen. He did not move or your own little brother into the
change expression when the ser- troopers, would you?”
geant reached out and took the Bill thought about his mother,
little machine. then he thought about his baby
“Take this stylo,” the sergeant brother, Charlie, then he thought
said, and the other’s fingers of the one month that would be
closed on it “Now sign this form, taken off of his enlistment time
recruits’ signature.” for every recruit he brought in,
"My Charlie! What are you and he snapped his answer back.
doing with my Charlie!” an an- “Yes,” he said.
cient, gray-haired woman wailed The music blared, the soldiers
as she scrambled toward them. marched, the mother cried —
as
“Your son is now a trooper mothers have always done and—
for the greater glory of the Em- the brave little band tramped
peror,” the sergeant said, and down the road and over the hill
waved over the robot tailor. and out of sight into the sunset.
“No —
please!” the woman — HARRY HARRISON
82 GALAXY
THE RULES
OF THE ROAD
by NORMAN SPINRAD

Anyone who dared might enter the


maze from the stars, but no one
would return alive — or humanl

'T''he great silver dome sat in ed or contained was a moot ques-


the desert at Yucca Flats. tion.
It wasfeatureless, save for an in- Near the opening in the dome
nocent-appearing open entrance- a tent had been pitched. The
way, but there was something flag of a three-star general flew
about it that shrieked alien. The
: from a makeshift flagpole. In-
silver shimmer was not quite the side the tent were a half-dozen
shimmer of silver. Rather it was canvas folding chairs, an elabor-
more like the silver of shimmer. ate radio setup, a large map
The tanks, machine-gun em- table that seemed to serve no
placements and foxholes sur- useful function, five assorted
rounding the dome confirmed colonels, Lieutenant General
the sense of alienness.The dome Richard Brewster —
a middle-
was surrounded and cordoned aged man with the look of an
off. Whether it was being guard- athlete gone to fat and one —
83
lone civilian, looking plucked to the stars? What about those
and out of place amidst all that tenmen you sent in who never
khaki plumage. came out? Do you think they’re
General Brewster eyed the so sure it’s the key to the stars?”
civilian with cold resignation. “What are you leading up to,
“I’ve lost ten men in there al- man?” spat Brewster, with un-
ready,” he said, in a tone of voice concealed distaste.
like a poker player describing a “Just that you know nothing
particularly bad run of cards. about why that thing came here.
“Ten men, and we don’t know Ten men go in, and none of them
any more than when we started.” come out. Maybe it’s not here to
Brewster stared out the open give us the stars at all. Maybe
tent flap at the entrance to the it’s purpose is as alien as its

dome. “Only one thing we manufacture. Or maybe ” Lind- —


know,” he said. “It’s from the strom paused and allowed him-
stars.” self a grin.
“Interesting,” said the civilian “Maybe it’s just a better
He was a wiry man, not
flatly. mousetrap,” he said.
His face showed
short, not tall. “Well,” said Brewster, “will
even more tension than his spare you cr won’t you? If you’re try-
body. His mouth seemed frozen ing to point out how dangerous
in a perpetual sour sneer, his it is, you’re wasting your time.

expression appeared dead and I’ve lost ten men as it is. I know
juiceless. Only his large dark damn well it’s dangerous. I’ve
eyes betrayed him. They shifted been told you’re not afraid of
purposefully from focus to foc- danger. I’ve been told you enjoy
us, absorbing, categorizing, an- it.”

alyzing. Lindstrom laughed brittly. “In


“Interesting? Is that all you a way,” he said. “It’s not that I
have to say, Lindstrom? Inter- enjoy danger, General. It’s just
esting? It’s from the stars, man. that I need it. The question is,
We tracked it from beyond the how much do you think you need
orbit of Pluto. Don’t you under- me?”
stand? It’s a spaceship from an- “What do you mean?”
other solar system. It’s the key “I mean two hundred and
to the stars.” fifty thousand tax-free dollars.
“That’s what it is to you,” said Take it or leave it.”

Lindstrom. “But what is it to “Payable if you succeed in tell-


whatever sent it here? Are you ing us what’s inside the dome?”
so sure they intend it as a key “What else?”

84 GALAXY
Brewster nodded. “Okay, he had to be near it, he had to
you’re on.” risk it,for only at the moment of
risk could his life have any
T)ert Lindstrom was aware of meaning.
his glamor only when he And this was the best risk in
wanted a woman. Then it prov- a life of risks. Not necessarily
ed most useful; it was a well- because it was the longest shot
honed, finely-crafted tool. There of all. Lindstrom had the profes-
were plenty of women who could sional risk-taker’s contempt for
resist the soldier of fortune myth, soldiers who took risks on or-
to be sure, but there were many ders.
more who could not. The prob- That ten soldiers had not come
abilities were all on his side. out was a thing of little im-
And odds were Bert Lind- port.
strom’s religion. What was interesting was that
Lindstrom was a calculating the dome from the stars was a
man. He would undertake noth- total unknown. Even the odds on
ing that did not seem to offer coming out were incalculable.
an odds on chance of success. They might be in his favor, they
Nothing, from seduction to as- might not. He was betting his in-
sassination. stinctive feelings about himself
Yet he would never fail to ac- against a complete unknown.
cept a challenge when the odds If he had set up the situation
were in his favor —
no matter if himself in a laboratory he could
he were risking m dime or his not have contrived a more per-
life. fect risk.
For in his system of values,
there was no real difference. It nphe hot desert wind blew at
was not what was being risked Lindstrom’s back as he ap-
that counted, it was the risk it- proached the entrance to the
self. His life meant little to him dome.
when he was not risking it. Only The soldiers who had not come
when he was gambling with his out had been armed to the teeth.
existence did it come to have Therefore Lindstrom was not.
meaning —then it was the stake, He carried only his old .45, a
the challenge, the risk. machete which was more a luck-
Lindstrom did not seek death. charm than anything else, a coil
He risked his life only when he of rope, an all-purpose utility
felt that the odds were on his knife and a flashlight.
side. He did not seek death, but The entrance was little more
THE RULES OF THE ROAD 85
than a door-sized hole in the ma- frightened: the instinctual fear
terial of the dome. Lindstrom of the unknown. This he had, of
peered inside. He could see noth- course, expected. Fear meant
ing but blackness. He drew his that there was danger, risk. And
gun, turned on the flashlight and risk meant that he was living.
stepped inside. The tunnel came to a fork.
As soon as he crossed the Decision number one. Had this
threshhold, there was light. It been the point at which the sol-
did not seem to come from any- diers had made the wrong cal-
where, it just was. culation? Lindstrom was sure
In the pearly luminescence, he that surviving in the dome was
could see he was standing at the a matter of making the proper
mouth of a tunnel, a smooth, calculations, the correct deci-
round, somehow almost color- sions. Either that, or there was
less tunnel, that curved crazily no way of surviving. And that
upwards and leftwards in an arc was apossibility not worth con-
so steep that it seemed impos- sidering —
since if it were true,
sible to hold one’s footing. the game was already lost.
Nevertheless, Lindstrom de- It waslike walking on a ledge
cided to try to climb it. Although over a precipice in the dark. You
the material of the tunnel seem- knew that there was a safe path
ed glass-smooth, it did not have and you knew that there was a
a low frictional coefficient. It point beyond which death lurk-
was more like walking on con- ed. But you had no way of
crete than glass. knowing how Wide the ledge was,
Stranger still, although his how much margin for error you
eyes told him that he was walk- had.
ing up a curve at an impossible There was nothing to choose
angle, his body tilted almost
. between the two forks. The one
forty degrees from the vertical, on the right curved up, the one
his kinesthetic senses told a dif- on the left down. Otherwise they
ferent story. The force of gravity were identical. A random choice.
remained perpendicular to the Okay, thought Lindstrom. He
floor of the tunnel, no matter hesitated for only a moment, and
what angle the tunnel took to then, for no reason in particular,
the Earth’s surface, so that he took the right-hand turn.
was walking upright, as if the He had only gone a few steps,
tunnel had a private gravity all the intersection was just behind
its own. him, when he felt a sudden flash
Lindstrom was somewhat of heat at his back.

86 GALAXY
He whirled in time to see a “stood up” —
or rather stood
solid pillar of fire engulf the down.
crotch of the intersection, the Quite suddenly, he was stand-
spot where he had stood mo- ing upright in what had been the
ments ago pondering his choice. hole. Now it was just more of
the same tunnel. The thing ac-
T esson number one, he thought. tually did have a gravity of its
' No Hamlets allowed. When own.
faced with a decision, make it, Lesson number two, he thought.
one way or the other. Don’t tem- This place has its own rules.
porize, or you’ll be vaporized. Learn them and obey them.
The tunnel wound on for an It was highly probable that

indeterminable distance. Then it none of the soldiers had gotten


ended. Or, from another point of this far. This was a place that

view, took an abrupt ninety-de- demanded a cold mathematical


gree turn and became a bottom- intimacy with death. It was a
less, black, circular hole. place where the greatest risk of
Lindstrom shined his light into all was not to take risks.

the hole. The beam petered out It was no place for a man un-
in the blackness. The hole seem- der orders.
ed made of the same material as Lindstrom felt calmer now; he
the tunnel. There was nothing to had dared and he had won. The
secure the rope to. fear that he had left was not a
Now what? thought Lindstrom paralyzer, it was a tonic, the
grimly. And how much time do satisfied fear that a matador
I have? He remembered the pil- feels when he realizes that he
lar of fire at the fork. is facing a truly great bull.
He felt that weird, timeless, He wandered
further along the
floating exhilaration that he only tunnel, and with every passing
experienced at those times when minute, the calmness he felt he
he knew that death was near, had earned diminished.
and had the time to contemplate This was not ordinary mortal
it. danger —
Lindstrom had lived
The hole wasthe tun-
like on speaking terms with death
nel. He must go forward, or . . . too long for mere danger to be
Not like the tunnel. It was the extraordinary. It was something
tunnel. Or at least it should be. far worse. He was thinking too
Fatalistically he dangled his much as he walked, and this was
feet into the hole, until his soles a place that was not to be
contacted its sides. Then he thought about, because it was a

THE RULES OF THE ROAD 87


place without rules which is
. . . examination,” it “said”. “Are you
one symptom of madness . . . ready?”
There might be no rules, he “Ready for what?”
thought, but there must be a “Ready."
purpose. Something had brought The single word had many
the dome to Earth, something nuances. It seemed to Lindstrom
intelligent, and intelligence im- that the voice in his mind was
plies purpose. intimate with his entire being.
But what if it really were just Ready Ready was the word
. . .

a giant mousetrap? that described his entire life.


But was ridiculous. If
that Ready seemed to imply accept-
they had wanted merely to kill ance and belligerance at the same
him, they could have done it time. Ready to accept possible
long ago. The dome was not only death, and ready to fight to
their creation, it was a universe cling to life. Ready to wait, and
in itself. Inside the dome, they ready to make instant decisions.
could alter the very rules of ex- “Yes,” said the voice, “yes.”
istence. No, the rules were set “Why?” asked Lindstrom.
up so that it was possible to sur- “Why all this? Why . .
.”

vive. Fantastically difficult, but “Your General Brewster was


possible. right,” said the voice. “In a way,
That was he had to cling
all this is a spaceship. A starship.
to. The odds
against survival For your people, it can be the
might be astronomical, but sur- key to the universe. If you are
vival was at least a possibility. ready. If you can change.”
I can die, he thought. There- “Change to what?” said Lind-
fore I can live. strom.
In the distance, around a bend, “Change," said the voice. “Not
the tunnel ended. It opened in- change to what. Adapt to that
to a large domed chamber. The which is constantly changing.
chamber was lit with the same Live on a tightrope strung over
pearly light as the tunnel, and nothingness. Your race is now
it seemed to be made of the same reaching for the planets of your
substance. solar system. A
tiny beginning.
It was a smooth, featureless You have conquered your world
room. A dead end. It was empty. by adapting to your needs. But
it

the universe will not be adapted.


A voice that was not a voice An infinity of deaths awaits you
nibbled at his mind. out there. Death you cannot now
“You have passed the entrance even conceive of.”
88 GALAXY
“Fve never been afraid of He burned and froze, exploded
death,” snapped Lindstrom. and imploded, his mind was boil-
“You have always been afraid ed in alien thoughts unspeakably
of death,” said the voice. “It foul. He rolled in beauty so hid-
is your very fear which allows eous that he died an infinity of
you to face it. But fear is not deaths from pleasure . . .

enough.” “Stop. Stop. Stop!” His cries


“What else is there?” echoed from the walls of exist-
“You will learn. Here you will ence and rebounded back to
learn, or you will die.” sting his flesh like a geometrical-
“Why? Why?” ly breeding nest of angry hor-
“Perhaps you are ready to be- nets . . .

gin to learn why,” said the voice. “Enough,” said the voice.
“Behold the road to the stars.”
He was in a place that was ter- T T e was back in the featureless
ror. It was no place at all. It was chamber.
everyplace. He was at the same “W-what . . . what was it?”
time in a lightless blackness, and “That,” said the voice, “is the
the mad dissociated core of a real universe. All else, is illu-
sun. It was a space with no di- sion, a partial truth, the projec-
mensions. It was a space with tion in three dimensions of a
an infinity of dimensions. reality with an infinity of dimen-
He had no senses. He had sions. That is the road to the
senses that could not exist. He stars.”
tasted color. He saw time ravel- “You mean we have to learn to
ed like a vast ball of twine about navigate in that? To remain sane
him. He heard the creation of long enough to find our way? It’s
the universe, and he smelt the impossible!”
acrid stench of its eventual “No,” said the voice. “That is
death. the real universe. It is not
Entropy ran forward, back- enough to learn to travel through
ward, in circles. He was bigger it. You must learn to live in it.”

than the entire universe; it nest- “In it?” exclaimed Lindstrom.


led in his navel. He stood on the “In that madness?”
non-existent surfaces of a tril- “It is reality,” said the voice.
lion electrons. “The universe is not as tidy as
He was an insect, a star, a you would like it to be. Time is

void, a galaxy. not really a straight line, nor


He screamed and screamed space three-dimensional. It is
and screamed and screamed . . . possible to be all places at once.

THE RULES OF THE ROAD 89


It is possible times at
to be all TTe was in a space with four
once. Your race’s view of the dimensions. It hurt his mind.
universe is pathetically limited. There was a fourth dimension
Limited, perhaps to preserve that was somehow at right angle
your sanity.” to all three normal directions . . .

Lindstrom felt his mind perch- His body was different. He


. . .

ed on the edge of a fathomless was enclosed in a cubical box of


abyss. He felt the bonds of real- some dull metal. Enclosed on all
ity crumbling about him. What, Slowly the walls of the
six sides.
after all, was reality? Was it real- box began to contract in on him
ly this unspeakable horror, this
mad, murderous confusion .? . . He was trapped. He was sur-
“Yes,” said the voice, “you are rounded on all six sides.
looking down into an abyss. But But in this space, a cube did
you must do more, you must not have six sides, it had thirty-
learn to jump willingly into it. six.

In the real universe, laws of na- He did a thing that strained


ture are not constant. The rules his mind near breaking. He mov-
themselves vary, according to ed at right angles to all six faces
rules for rules, which in turn of the contracting cube, simul-
vary according to still higher or- taneously.
ders or rules . .
.” He was out.
“Stop. Stop. No one can cope And he was a point in a space
with a thing like that. I don’t with no dimensions. He was ev-
want to know any more. I — ery point in the space, since all
“The choice is not yours,” said points coincided.
the voice. “No human will be He was trapped in a space with
permitted to leave this place un- no dimensions. There could be
changed. This chamber is a dead no motion . . .

end. There is no other passage But time existed, and in this


out but the way you came, and place time had three dimensions.
that tunnel is sealed to you for- The special point that was Lind-
ever.” strom wriggled in three temporal
“You mean you intend to keep dimensions, and became a tem-
me a prisoner here for the rest of poral solid, and thus . . .

my life?” He was back in “normal”


“No,” said the voicd. “There space-time.
is no passage out, but there is a And was whisked into a star-
way out. Either you will learn filled blackness . . . But the blaz-
it, or you will die. We begin.” ing suns were also the nuclei of

90 GALAXY
the atoms of his body, corres- slide down the hill of space-time
ponding, one for one, with each into one of the sun-atoms, the
other, macrocosm and micro- one called “Sol”, to one of its
cosm. electrons called “Earth.”
He
did a thing with his mind He was back in the chamber.
for which there are no words, and And he knew the way out.
he was back once more in the
featureless chamber . . . eneral Brewster stood out-
And was transported to even side his tent, staring at the
stranger othernesses . . . An in- silver dome, and wondering
finity of places, dimensions and whether it was time to try some-
othernesses for which there are thing else.
not even the ghosts of concepts. “Lindstrom’s been in there two
He felt a strangeness in his days,” he said to a nervous-look-
mind, a complexity beyond com- ing colonel. “I think we can as-
plexity, a revelation of new and sume that whatever happened to
unexpected textures in his psy- the others happened to him.”
che. Time was flux, space was “What now, sir?”
flux, eternity was a variable. “I don’t know ... I just don’t
There came a time when he know. I suppose we could try
stood, naked, alone and home- to blow the thing open, but —
sick, on the surface of some far- A man suddenly appeared out
off planet, looking up at a small of nowhere. He was standing just
star he knew was Sol. He re- outside the dome. He was a wiry
membered the spaces he had man, not short, not tall ....
seen —spaces of no dimensions, “What —
it’s Lindstrom.”
an infinity of dimensions, spaces The being that had been Bert
that were not spaces, but times. Lindstrom began to walk slowly
There was a way back to Earth. toward the tent. It had two arms,
He did something with his two legs, two eyes, a nose, a
mind, and the surface of the mouth. It was, in fact, the per-
planet vanished like mist. His fect image of the man who had
body floated in total blackness. entered the dome.
He felt it expand and contract But when Lindstrom was close
rhythmically, from the size of an enough for Brewster to see into
electron to the size of the uni- his eyes, the general was dread-
verse .He caught it in a phase
. . fully sure that the creature fac-
where each of its atoms corre- ing him was something other
sponded to a star in the Galaxy. than human.
Then he let his entire mass — NORMAN SPINRAD
THE RULES OF THE ROAD 91
BALLAD OF THE

Among the wild Reguleans


we trade in beer and hides
for sacks of mMomimotl leaves
and carcasses of brides.
They love 'em and they leave 'em,
once affection's been displayed,
to the everloving merchants
of the Interstellar Trade.

Chorus: Don't throw that bride away, friends;


don't turn that carcass loose.
What's only junk on Regulus
is gold on Betelguese.

We potter out to Betelguese


with crates of brides and leaves,
and what the Betelgueseans do
with both no one believes.
They weep, though, while they're doin' it,

great bottles full of tears,


which we stow in the afterhold
between the bales of ears.

Chorus: Don't waste your weeps on Betelguese,


don't let your teardrops fade.
Those teardrops are the life-blood, friends,
of Interstellar Trade.

92
INTERSTELLAR MERCHANTS
[ Ca. 2400 C E. |

On Arcturus eleven they


are connoisseurs of wine
and think the bottled Betel-juice
a vintage rare and fine.
They buy the bales of Betel ears
for making mating hats,
and, in exchange, we take aboard
Arcturan worms and bats.

Chorus: Don't step on that Arcturan worm,


for once it's been fileted
it's worth its weight in platinum
to Interstellar Trade.

On Terra, sauce of worm filet's


an epicurean dish
with aphrodisiac side-effects
beyond one's fondest wish,
the only antidote to which
(least Terrans feel dismayed)
is serum of Arcturan bat

from Interstellar Trade.

Chorus: Fill up the holds with hides, my boys,

you've spent what you were paid.


I wonder what's on Scorpii
for Interstellar Tradel

— SHERI S. EBERHART

93
for

BY WILLY LEY
THE
RAREST ANIMALS

F
ple
or the last sixty years zoo-
logists and many other peo-
who love wildlife have been
worrying about a problem that
does not even occur to a real
estate dealer or the manager of
the Friendly Neighborhood
Household Finance office. It is
the fact that our earth is growing
poorer by a species of animal life
every decade or so. And during

94
the last twenty years this worry the past what can be done even
has taken a sharp turn upward at a late hour — the American
for two reasons the general pop-
: bison is an impressive example
ulation explosion and the fact of this.
that there are many new and At the time the thirteen colo-
recently independent nations in nies declared their idependence
South East Asia and in Africa. there were an estimated sixty
I am, on principle, quite pleased million bison on the North Amer-
about the fact that these nations ican continent. After the rail-
are I am even
now independent roads had been built across the
willing toadmit that practically continent —and in spite of a few
all of governments know
their protective laws passed by states
how sad it would be if the wild- like Kansas and Colorado —the
lifeof their areas disappeared. bison were virtually hunted out
Unfortunately they don’t do of existence. William, T. Homa-
much about it day of the New York Zoological
British and German scientists Park wrote the Smithsonian Re-
who flew to Africa for private port for 1887 and entitled it “The
inspections have stated with both Extermination of the American
anger and concern that things are Bison”, predicting that the spe-
not as pretty by far as the gov- cies would be extinct within less
ernment handouts would have it. than two decades. Since a cen-
Sure, there are wildlife preserves. sus taken by Hornaday in 1889
Often they actually have boun- showed that there were only 1091
dary markers. But most of them bison still living (two-thirds of
are not policed and poachers, them in Canada) his prediction
even caught, are never prose-
if would probably have come true
cuted. Trying to convince the if nothing had been done.

people concerned sounds like a But Hornaday, in 1905, found-


hopeless task; they simply do not ed the American Bison Society
understand the need for con- which gained the support of
servation.When told that with- Theodore Roosevelt. Bison sanc-
out conservation the zebras and tuaries were founded, stocked
gnus and antelopes will be gone and protected and forty-five
one day, they answer that cattle years later the number of bison
taste better. had grown to more than 40,000.
Fortunately the larger forms It is even necessary now to
of the African fauna are still slaughter surplus animals from
numerous enough so that they time to time to keep the herds
can be saved. We have seen in from deteriorating.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 95


In 1895 there was a flood of
the Hun Ho river that toppled
the wall of the Imperial Park
in several places. The starving
peasants, made homeless by the
same and ate every
flood, killed
animal in sight, including all the
Milus. The speciments in the
various zoological parks died of
Fig. 1.The "Tasmanian Wolf". old age one by one and only the
Does If Still Exist? small herd at IjVobum Abbey on
nother pleasing example is the estates of Duke of Bedford
\ increased. In spite of a setback
the story of a large and un-
gainly deer called Milu or Pere during the first World War the
David’s Deer, for its "discoverer” herd did well. Now there are
was the French missionary Pere close to three hundred Milus in

Armand David who went to Chi- existence, at Woburn and in

na in 1862. I put the word “dis- many zoological gardens.


coverer” in quotation marks be- There are a few more examples
cause Father David did not dis- of this kind. Some thirty years
cover the deer in the usual man- ago the koalas of Queensland
ner, that is in the open, as he were believed to be near extinc-
did the Giant Panda. The deer tion. They are numerous again
existed only in one place, the now, due to strict measures. And
emperor’s private hunting park. in Europe the efforts of a society
Father David, by climbing the patterned after the American Bi-
wall, verified the existence of a son Society seem to be successful
species of deer unknown to in saving the European cousin of
science and then arranged for a the bison, the wisent. There were
few specimen ts to be shipped to only about fifty animals left at
the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. the end of the second World
After the wall of bureaucratic War. By now the number is more

secrecy had been breached the than, a hundred.
embassies of other countries be- These examples have proved
came active. The Zoological Gar- that even a late action can be
den in Berlin obtained a speci- quite successful. The societies
men via a diplomatic exchange which are now concerned with
of some kind and the Duke of the survival of the Whooping
Bedford bought several. This Crane and the California Condor
purchase saved the Milu. can take heart. But for a few

96 GALAXY
other species the day of extinc- comes from kyon (“dog”) and
tion is near. kephale (“head”). The English
Zoologists have drawn up a version of the scientific name
list of about fifteen species which would therefore be: the dog-
are very much endangered by headed pouched disturber (of
two facts: the number of speci- livestock). The actual English
mens is very small, and their name is Tasmanian Wolf because
geographical range is also very of the wolf-like head, or some-
small. Their extinction could be times Tasmanian Tiger, because
the result of a single large forest of the tiger-striped hindquarters.
fire,an unusually severe winter In size a fully grown male could
or the inability to escape newly compete with a police dog. The
introduced predators. females were much smaller. The
This list has been referred to Tasmanian Wolf, therefore, was
as “tomorrow’s fossils”. While it the largest meat-eating marsu-
contains a few names where this pial.
term seems to be exaggerated — As long as the number of set-
for example the wisent, which is tlerswas small and the number
under the firm protection of its of “wolves”was large it was very
own watchdog society — it also decidedly a nuisance. It is not
contains two names of species surprising that the settlers shot
which may no
longer exist. If them whenever they saw one.
survivors of these species are still But while wolf-like in appear-
in existence somewhere they are ance, the habits of Thylacinus
the rarest animals on earth. were quite different. It seems to
have hunted alone and was not

T heir scientific names are Thy-


lacinus cynocephalus and
Solenodon cubanus, inhabitants,
particularly
overtaking
ian Wolf wore
its
swift.
prey the Tasman-
it out by relent-
Instead of

or former inhabitants, of Tas- less pursuit. Then, when the prey


mania and of Cuba respectively. finally collapsed, Thylacinus just
Thylacinus was named by the ate as much as it wanted, leav-
English zoologist Harris who dis- ing the remains to the other pre-
played a fine knowledge of class- datory marsupial of Tasmania,
ical Greek in the process. The the smaller Tasmanian Devil.
generic name Thylacinus was de- One zoologist, about eighty years
rived from the word thylax ago, claimed that small groups
meaning “pouch” and kiifeter of Tasmanian Devils trailed a
which means “disturber”: While hunting Tasmanian Wolf, know-
the specific name cynocephalus ing from experience that a free

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 97


meal would be forthcoming soon- almost immediately did not find
er or later. The Tasmanian Devil it.

is now rare, too, but does seem

to be on the verge of extinction. 'T'he latest case dates from the


It may be saved because it year 1961. A fisherman night-
makes a friendly pet when cap- fishing for bait at Sandy Cape
tured young enough to be train- (also in the northwest of the
ed. island) ran into an animal in the
The last thirty years of the dark, and in the ensuing fight
history of the Tasmanian Wolf bashed its skull in. In the morn-
consist mainly of rumors. It is ing he realized that he had prob-
definite that a settler shot one ably killed a “tiger”, as he called
in At that time another
1930. it. He must have done some soul-

specimen was alive in the zoo- searching in the light of the early
logical park at Hobart, Tasma- morning. He knew of a fine of
nia’s largest city. When the zoo a £100 for killing a Thylacinus;
speciment died in 1935 the offi- on the other hand he knew that
cials issued a call for a replace- any reliable report on this ani-
ment, apparently confident that mal was of scientific value. So he
they would get one soon. They took hair and blood samples and
never did. But in 1938 one was sentthem to the university where
shot and photographed at Maw- they were tentatively identified
banna on Tasmania’s northwest as having come from a “tiger”.
coast. In 1957, a pilot, flying a Presumably the samples were
helicopter along the island’s west too small to make the identifica-
coast,saw a striped animal from tion positive.
the air which could have been And that’s the story now.
a Tasmanian Wolf. But a search Nobody can say that the Tas-
on the ground which was started manian Wolf is extinct, and no-
of the nineteenth century brought
the reply that no such animal
was known. If there had been
one like it, it was extinct.
One of the men who received
such a reply was Prof. Addison
Emery Verrill of Yale Univer-
sity; and his son, Alpheus Hyatt
Verrill,who explored the West
Indies early in this century, suc-
Fig. 3. The Cuban Solenodon ceeded in re-discovering Solen-
Probably exterminated by mongooses.
odon paradoxus in Santo Domin-
body can insist that it is
go in 1907. He obtained a female
still
which, on the day after capture,
alive. If it is, it is one of the
rarest animals on earth. gave birth to three naked young
and died immediately afterward.
A 11 this applies to the Cuban The animal must have been very
solenodon too, with the com- rare. It isnow extinct.
plication thatit is much harder
The Cuban solenodon was dis-
to get any information at all. covered in 1861 when a German
But before I go into the short traveler by the name of Gund-
and flimsy story of the Cuban lach shot one and sent it to the
solenodon a little backtracking Natural History Museum in Ber-
is necessary. lin for identification. It was
In 1833 the Russian Academy found to be a close relative of the
in St. Petersburg received a spe- species described by Brandt and
cimen of a new animal from though it lived on Hispaniola as
Haiti. It looked somewhat like a
well as on Cuba the scientific
shrew but was the size of a very name became Solenodon cuban-
large rat. It was turned over to us.

the Curator of Mammals, a Ger- In shape it looked very much


man named Brandt, who describ- like a shrew. Its color was a typ-
ed and who also had
it to invent ical camouflage color of the forest
a scientific name. Since it was floor, a yellowish brown which
generally a puzzling animal he was overlaid on the back by
called it Solenodon paradoxus. fairly long blackish guide hairs.
(Solenodon means “grooved The tail was naked. The overall
teeth”.) Naturally American length was about 20 inches with
scientists were interested, but in- the tail accounting for about 7
quiries made near the latter part inches of the total length.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 99


Several zoologists went to wide distribution. It is therefore
Cuba for the main purpose of not too much out of the ordinary
studying solenodon. They found that fairly close relatives should
that it was nocturnal and fond of exist in widely separated parts
going into shallow water. It of the globe.
would eat anything, provided it Since almost all of the insecti-
was meat; when hunting on its vores are of nocturnal habits and
own it ate beetles, grubs and most of them are small they are
worms but was quite willing to overlooked by the average per-
killyoung chickens, which it tore son, even one living in the coun-
apart with the long claws of its try.
front feet. It had two cries. One Even though the Cuban solen-
of them was likened to the grunt- odon might have stolen a young
ing of a piglet, while the other chicken here and there it had
was shrill, like that of a carniv- never been actively pursued by
orous bird. Every once in a while the Cuban peasants- They had a
—reasons unknown— it would se- much bigger worry. Rats had
crete an oily reddish liquid with come ashore from ships and had
an unpleasant smell. multiplied prodigiously. Getting
rid of rats, was, for a time, the
T) y about 1910 zoologists knew main problem. Officials of the
that the nearest living rela- various island republics asked
tives of the two solenodons were for expert advice: was there an
the Giant Water Shrew ( Potam - animal which liked to hunt and
ogale velox ) of Africa and the to kill rats, preferably an animal
hedgehog-like Tenrec of Mad- that did not bother people? The
agascar. This was not as surpris- experts said that there was just
ing as it may look at first glance. such an animal which also likes
Solenodon and its relatives be- to hunt snakes, the Burmese
longed to a group of ancient mongoose. Beginning around 1870
mammals which go under the mongooses were imported to Ja-
general designation of insecti- maica, to Cuba, to Hispaniola
vores. The name is misleading in and everywhere else where rats
that they do not live on insects caused damage.
only-; the African Potamogale is At first it looked like a huge
on a diet of fish and freshwater success. Within three years the
crabs, as are some of the smaller loss because of rat-spoiled sugar
shrews that also are classed with cane was halved on Jamaica.
the insectivores. In any event Cuba had similar results. Every-
this is an ancient group of world- body was pleased that the mon-
100 GALAXY
gooses liked the climate and mul- seum in Berlin, showing a dis-
tiplied rapidly. But every mon- play of a number of fairly large
goose wanted to eat and the rats pale-colored and beautiful but-
had become comparatively rare terflies. A black-bordered card
by the time the mongooses were stated that this butterfly its —
numerous. So they attacked and —
name is Apollo was unfortu-
ate snakes, and lizards and other nately extinct. When I was about
wildlife —
including solerodon. twenty-five, the display case was
Officials of the U. S. Wildlife still there but the card had been
Commission watched, and saw removed; in the meantime Apol-
to it that a law was passed pro- lo had been found alive and in
hibiting the import of live mon- large numbers in an area only
gooses into the U.S.A. The South about 100 miles to the east of the
American countries followed suit area in which it had been exter-
and the Central American coun- minated by a series of severe
tries did the same. Even the var- winters.
ious island governments passed In Australia they had a card

such laws a futile gesture be- marked with a skull —meaning
cause they already had the extinct — in the Melbourne mu-
“beneficial” mongoose on their seum on a case displaying Lead-
islands in large numbers- beater’s Opossum ( Gymnobelid
The mongoose is the reason eus leadbeateri ) with the addi-
why Solenodon cubanus is likely tional information that only five
to be extinct by now. specimens of it had ever been

found. In 1961 the card had to


f I sound positive one
fail to be re-written, for a specimen of
I way or another it is by no Leadbeater’s Opossum, quite
means accidental, for amazing re- alive and in good health, was
discoveries have taken place. In caught in the mountains only 70
spite of the fact that more than miles from Melbourne.
fifty species have become extinct In New Zealand they were
during the last one and a half even sadder about an extinct
centuries, zoological literature is large and flightless brightly col-
full of notes and reports saying ored bird which went under the
that such and such an animal, native name of Takahe as well
believed extinct, has been four, as under the scientific name of
again. Notornis. Once it had ranged
When I was a boy of about over both islands, and after it
ten, there was a glass-covered had become extinct on the North
case in the Natural History Mu- Island it had been captured re-

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 101


peatedly on the South Island,
the last one in August 1898. Only
four specimens had been cap-
tured. The skins of three of
them were in museums in Eu-
rope; New Zealand held on to
fig. 4. Steller's Sea Cow
the last one. Of course the cards
Only three drawings of the animal
on the cases were either black- exist, of which this one is the best. It
bordered or bore skulls, depend- was originally drawn by Sven Plenis-
ner, a member of Bering's expedition-
ing on local scientific custom.
By 1945 it was evident that identified as a Cahow) it was
the Takahe was extinct, since re- discovered alive. Again it : is very
peated searches had failed to find rare,but it isn’t extinct.
one. But in 1948 a live Takahe
was seen by an expedition look- \ nd there is now good reason
ing for it because of footprints to believe that we have one
that had been found. One of the more case of an animal believed
members of the expedition threw to be extinct but actually still
a net — capturing two Takahes. existing in very smallnumbers.
It is now known that there are The case has been reported in
two colonies of the birds in two the August 1963 issue of the
adjacent areas to the west of Russian journal Priroda (“Na-
Lake Te Anau. ture”), the official journal of the
Of course the Takahe is a Academy of Science of the
very rare bird, just as Lead- USSR. In July 1962 the captain
beater’s Opossum is a rare mar- and the crew of the Russian
supial- But they are not extinct. whaling ship Buran saw a group
The story of theCahow bird of of large marine mammals in
Bermuda is quite similar. It was shallow water off Cape Navarin
thought to be extinct and oc- to the northeast of Kamtchatka.
casional reports were put down The bottom of this area is cov-
as confusions with a similar look- ered by a dense growth of all
ing bird that goes under the kinds of marine plants. The six
name of Audubon’s Lesser Shear- animals were not whales and
water.Most of the reports prob- they were not seals. Their length
ably were confusions, but some was between 20 and 24 feet, the
may have been correct, because skin was dark in color and they
in January 1951 (after a dead had a pendulous upper lip hang-
bird which had killed itself fly- ing across the front end of the
ing into a ''lighthouse had been lower jaw. Every once in a while

102 GALAXY
they dived, possibly browsing on and in 1762 somebody named
the vegetation. Korovin did the same. But in
Considering the place where 1772 Dimitri Bragin, who had
these marine mammals were been instructed to keep a journal
seen and the description of their on animal life in these waters,
appearance they could only be failed to see one. Other negative
surviving specimens of Steller’s reports followed. Therefore
Sea Cow, known to zoologists as Brandt in St. Petersburg (the
Rhytina stelleri. The animal was one who named solenodon) con-
originally discovered during the cluded that the animal had been
winter from 1741 to 1742 when exterminated around 1768.
the survivors of Vitus Bering’s This was a mistake. Reports
expedition to Alaska were ship- on sea cow hunts made in 1779
wrecked on the island where and 1780 were found later, and
Bering died and which bears his the Russian archives contained
name. The naturalist of the ex- a statement about a sighting of
pedition, Geog Wilhelm Steller, a sea cow during the year 1854.
recognized it as an enormously Nordenskiold, after reading all
large relative of the manatee and the reports, decided that the arc-
the dugong. They were up to 25 tic sea cow had not been exterm-
feet in length and lived in the inated in 1768, but driven away
shallow water around the island, from the island. But he conclud-
forming distinctive small herds. ed that they then became extinct
Steller said that they were num- anyway because their new habi-
erous around the island all year tat did not offer them favorable
round, but that he had never conditions.
seen one before anywhere else. After the report from the
About 1880 A. E- Nordenskiold Buran it seems that Norden-
collected all the material about skiold was both right and wrong.
the animal that could be found They were not exterminated at
in Russian archives. In 1754 the Bering Island, but dispersed.
vessel of one Ivan Krassilnikov However, they found new habi-
was provisioned with the flesh tats which permitted them to
and hides of the artic sea cow. survive. —WILLY LEY
THE MONSTER

AND THE MAIDEN

BY ROGER
ZELAZNY

She was doomed as a sacrifice


to the god her people feared.

104
A great unrest was among the “We grow fewer every year,”
' n said.
people, for the time of de- “One day we shall no
cision was again at hand. The longer have any sacrifices left to
Elders voted upon the candi- offer.”
dates and the sacrifice was af- “Then that day we die,” said
firmed over the objections of the others.
Ryllik, the oldest. “So why prolong it?” he asked.
“It is wrong to capitulate “Let us fight them —
now, be-
thus,” he argued. fore we are no more!”
But they did not answer him, But the others shook their
and the young virgin was taken heads, a summary of that resig-
to the grotto of smokes and fed nation Ryllik had watched grow
the leaves of drowsiness. as the centuries passed. They all
Ryllik watched with disap- respected Ryllik’s age, but they
proval. did not approve of his thoughts.
“It should not be so,” he stat- They cast one last look back,
ed. “It is wrong.” just as the sun caught the clank-
“It has always been so,” said ing god upon his gilt-caparisoned
the others, “in the spring of the ~nount, his death-lance slung at
year,and in the fall. It has al- his side. Within the place where
ways been so.” And they cast the smokes were bom the maiden
worried glances down the trail thrashed her tail from side to
to where the sun was pouring side, rolling wild eyes beneath
morning upon the world. her youthful browplates. She
The god was already travel- sensed the divine presence and
ling through the great-leafed began to bellow.
forest. They turned away and lum-
“Let us go now,” they said. bered across the plains.
“Did you ever think of stay- As they neared the forest
ing? Of watching to see what the Ryllik paused and raised a sca-
monster god does?” asked Ryllik ley forelimb, groping after a
bitterly. thought. Finally, he spoke:
“Enough of your blasphem- “I seem to have memory,”
ies! Come along!” said he, “of a time when things
Ryllik followed them. were different.” END

105
106
by

RENAISSANCE WYMAN GUIN

best address on my home island.


I sat at a window of my
par-
VTow that the revolution was lor and watched the street-
^a success the little Cha- lamps gutter in oily smoke. The
cone and I were staying at the firstgray of dawn pearled the
Stone Inn. As you might sus- mists between the lights. With
pect from the name, there is not day approaching, you could hear
a piece of rock in the whole an occasional patter of
building. Nevertheless, it is the feet on the worn, plank streets.

107
The voices of our guards came prince would be made king. Un-
more frequently from far and til that ceremony there was dan-

near. ger everywhere.


“Halt, for inspection!”
1 felta sigh heave my chest. nphe people were happy about
The rebel leader and I had not the death of the false king
commanded our forces very and about the placing of the
brilliantly. There had been young prince in the Tower.
much more billing than I had It was my own plans they were
anticipated. The
defenders of against. They wanted no part of
the false king, together with our my scheme to bind two other
own dead, had been piled in small, floating islands to our is-
the streets, and in the courtyard land and create one large, rich
of the Tower, and up all the island.I had not lived on my
Tower. Every burial
stairs of the home island since childhood
pool on the island had been and I was, to my rude people,
crowded with mourners for two a fancy foreigner with educated
days now. ideas.
From where I sat listening to Across the gray fog, appeared
the first stirring of the frighten- the first ochre streams of day.
ed city, I could dim see the Sha’tule, our yellow sun, would
lights in the shabby Tower of rise shortly. About an hour later
my home island. Our kings have his twin,
bluish Sha’cham,
never lived higher than six lev- would come up. Then the fog
els above the sea. Even the poor would melt.
little island of Tome has a high- There was a gentle knock at
er Tower. the door between our apart-
Tonight, all of the rooms of ments and the little Chacone
our Tower were lighted as a entered. She was dressed in
protection for the young prince mourning for the “rebel dead.”
whom we had taken from his Her black sheath did little to
prison and placed in the tower obscure her figure, and it set off
the night before last. We had her beautiful face dramatically.
him under the protection of the She was wearing a royal funer-
first overlord and those soldiers al tiara of the black diamonds
from the old army who had that are mined by divers in the
joined the revolution. The first shallow Sea of Mourning. This
overlord was now preparing the was her right, since the beauti-
Tower for the ceremony at ful women of Chacone are made
noon, today, in which the true queens before they leave

108 GALAXY
the island. From wherever in put things clearly, the so-called
the world their masters may ‘false’ king is ‘false’ only because
live, they participate by messen- he is dead. He got that way be-
ger in the highest affairs of cause he refused to sign the
Chacone. After all, the whole treaty I want with the islands of
island is supported by these Tome and Parsos.
rare women. “He was a better administra-
“She hesitated at the door to tor than this prince will be.
make sure she was not intrud- Don’t forget, I taught this prince
ing. “I heard you moving about while he attended the Univer-
over an hour ago.” sity of Hahn. I can tell you, he
“I am
just waiting for noon. is something of a lout. But he

Nothing is safe until noon.” will sign the treaty as I wish it,
Up the street I thought I and so, he is a ‘true’ king, in my
glimpsed a furtive scuffle. estimation.”
She was approaching me and She put her golden arms
I “Did you hear a
raised a hand. about my shoulders and kissed
cry?” my mouth. Since she had been
She stopped, but she did not trained from childhood in every
glance out into the fog. “I heard nuance of love, and since she
nothing.” loved me deeply, it was a kind
“I thought I heard a cry.” of kiss that would have made a
Now she came directly to me. common man throw sticks at his
She took my hands and raised bride.
them until I followed with my Her lips broke with a little
body to stand over her. laugh and she drew back. “Dar-
ling, I must be seen in my funer-
he said, “Darling, you are de- al finery. Won’t you take me
S pressed about the killing. You down to the dining room?”
have you had to.
killed because Without offense she had in-
Now, in a few hours, your peo- terjected a little light-hearted-
ple will have a good king.” ness. Since arriving on my is-
‘T killed because I want to land a few weeks ago we had a
bind three poor little islands in- joke about her.
to one rich, big island.” In their natural habitat the —
I spoke with conscious melo- great cities on the rich islands
drama. “The men who died will of the world —
the Chacone
never share that wealth. The women display no vanity. For
men who live do not want it.” thousands of years die Chacon-
I kissed her and went on. “To ese have lived in ritual polyan-

A MAN Of THE RENAISSANCE 109


dry, breeding and perfecting “My marvelous little Cha-
these beautiful creatures for ex- cone!” I took her sweet face in
port. These women are so ac- my hands and kissed her again.
complished in manners and so I debated about arming my-
talented in the arts that it usual- self to go down to breakfast.
ly does not occur to an ordinary Then I put on the Great Blade
woman envy them. Still, there
to of Hahn and tucked my steel
are always a few who do, and knife into my sash.
on many islands the native word As I reached to open the door
for female vanity has been re- to the hallway, to let the Cha-
placed by a phrase that means, cone pass through, there was a
“trying to act like a Chacone”. knock on it. I pressed her back
and drew the knife and opened
"fTThHe we had lived on the the door a crack. It was the big
’ ’ rich island of Hahn, rebel leader.
she
had been simply, the most beau- We grasped forearms affec-
tiful Chacone anyone had even tionately, and he bowed with re-
seen. Here on this naive little spect to the Chacone.
island where none of the last As we went down the hall to-
three kings had been able to af- ward the stairs he fell into step
ford a Chacone, she was the beside me.
most beautiful human anyone “There are things I do not
had ever seen. The adulation like.”
had shocked her at first. Then “For example?”
she had begun to revel in it be- “The Tower is locked.”
cause, once my people accept a “The Tower is always locked
stranger, it is all the way to the on the day a king is made.”
heart. “Nevertheless, there are things
So we had this joke that — I like. I am going to have
do not
she was a Chacone trying to act a close look at everything.”
like a vain wife. With her lit-
tle parody, she had made me T'Vownstairs he bowed again to
face the fact that my “guilt” the Chacone. To me he said,
about the killing was as unnec- “I will beback before Sha’cham
essary as her ‘Vanity”. rises.”
For the first time since we He had succeeded in stirring
had got the prince into the first some unease in me. When the
overlord’s protection and the Chacone and I entered the din-
fighting had ceased, I began to ing room, I let the attendant
get a grip on my depression. take my cloak and feathered

110 GALAXY
hat, but I kept my Great Blade manner in which
he ate his
and my knife. eggs, we were from such a
safe
We were no more than seated raid. Now that we knew
him, he
at our table when I caught a could be watched and it would
flash erf evidence that I was be time enough to worry if he
right to be alert. man at aA disappeared.
table against the wall made a “Waiter.”
mistake. He came around the table
He was having flashed gull from where he had been watch-
eggs for breakfast. Instead of ing the boys put saucers of fruit
driving his sipping tube through before us and fill our glasses
the shell of the egg he was hold- with spiced rainwater.
ing, he punched a delicate hole “Yes, Master?”
in it with his thumb nail. “What is that shouting out in
He froze, and I swept my eyes the street?”
to the face of the Chacone be- “Both of the local printers
fore he could inspect the dining have sheets out this morning
room. The islands held by sea that tell of the revolution. Shall
bandits have never adopted the I send one of the children?”

sipping tube which is proper ev- “Please do.”


erywhere else.
I smiled at the Chacone and T Te beckoned an urchin of less
then made a disinterested survey than six years from the
of the room. He was looking di- comer of the room and sent him
rectly at me. He had picked me for the papers.
as the only guest who might “Is that all before I serve
have noticed that a spy from the your first course. Master?”
sea bandits had just broken an “No. Look me in the eye.”
egg. This waiter had been very
On any island where there is loyal to the revolution. He stood
political strife, and even on is- stilland looked me in the eye.
lands where these clever men “The man against that wall is
can smell it coming, there are a spy for the bandits.”
spies for the sea bandits. When “Ahhhh ! Really?”
these spies report that an island He was staring hard into my
is sufficiently divided and weak- eyes trying to remember the
ened, the bandits come in for guests in the direction
I had
brief, bloody raids. glanced.
I decided that as long as this “Ahhhh! In the white blouse
man was worried about the with lace?”

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 111


I had only to nod once. the inn for home and mother.
“Really! I would never have The Chacone was shaking her
guessed.” head. “You shouldn’t do that,
“Have him watched constant- darling. He may be accused of
ly.” stealing.”
“Of course.” I my
head in turn. “I
shook
“And waiter.” don’t know why I do it to the
“Yes, Master?” little beggers.”
“Sha’tule is up. Many of the
guests here, who
are trying to XT either mentioned that
of us
stare at my lady are looking di- ^ I had a that age son of
rectly into the panes of this whom I had never seen. She
window. Why don’t we draw the simply reached out and covered
curtain for their benefit.” the back of my hand with hers
A smile passed his lips. “How and asked, “May I have a pa-
gracious of you, Master.” per, dear?”
She gasped, “Oh!”, and with Oneof the printers was still
a little laugh, she popped a using wooden type, but the oth-
berry into her mouth. er had acquired the metal type
Just before the waiter drew that is now molded on the is-
the curtains, I saw dark sha- land of Hahn. I gave her the
dows of soldiers race along the one printed with metal.
translucent panes on some We had been served hot bit-
emergency. ter-berry tea, and we both sipped
I grinned at her. “I must say, while we read. Abruptly, she
you are being seen.” started exclaiming in whispers.
She dropped her delighted “Darling, it tells about you
all
eyes in embarrassment. “Dar- here. It says that you are not
ling, please! It was only a silly just a Master of The Seven
joke.” Arts, but the most learned and
The child returned with both talented man in the world. It
papers. I looked into the pale, says that your books and scrolls
pinched face that you see so are treasured by seven kings
often in these children of my and countless lords. It says that
home island, and I overtipped your paintings in oil and your
him lavishly. sculptures and your designs for
He hardly understood what I the great Towers of the world
ft
had given him. Instead of re- are . .

turning to his post in the cor- “Does it say anything about


ner of the room, he raced from my flying machine?”

112 GALAXY
She glanced up and down the turned to me with the glazed
page. “No, I don’t see anything stare of a completely ravished
about that.” woman. “What was funny, dar-
“I didn’t think you would. ling?”
But if we had lost the revolution “I’ll tell you what let’s do.
you would be reading a feature Give me that paper, now. Then,
story about it.” after breakfast, we’ll go upstairs
“ Did you have a flying ma- and snuggle into bed and read
chine?” to each other about ourselves.
“No, I had a machine that Won’t that be fun?”
didn’t fly.” She handed me the paper obe-
My
paper, printed from the diently. “Don’t be silly.”
larger wooden type was quite While she sat in her daze, au-
thick and I began hunting with tomatically rebathing in adula-
excited annoyance for some tion, I searched the metal print
mention of my great plan to for any mention of my plan to
bind together my home
isle and bind together the three little is-
the islands of Tome and Parsos. lands.
I could find no mention of it. There was nothing.
“Oh, darling, it tells about Slowly, I lowered the paper to
me! Listen! ‘For his work in the table. It was an ominous
developing the steel of the Great sign. They were dead against it.

Blade of Hahn, the Master was In the moment of our triumph


given a beauteous Chacone by they did not dare mention it. But
the king of Hahn. It is said that when the time came they would
the king paid for her the high- try to swing the popular dislike
est price ever paid to the Cha- of my plan to influence the new
conese.’ king against it.
“Oh, darling, listen to this! I heard my teeth gritting to-

‘Our whole citizenry has been gether and I found that I was
grateful these past weeks for her trembling with anticipatory
gracious
” — ’
rage. I had not led hundreds to
“My dear. Calm yourself!” their deaths, killing other hun-
“ —her gracious presence
‘for dreds only to let two smudge-
. her wit.
. . her taste and artis-
. . fingered printers stand in my
try her. .
.!’ ”
. . . way.
I saw that the spy for the sea
he was becoming quite breath- bandits was leaving. Then he
S less. I couldn’t help laughing. hesitated, staring at the door-
Her breathing stopped and she way.

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 113


II is you and your plan he wants to
stop. We must get you off the
nnhe rebel leader was stand- island.”
ing in the entrance. There He continued with heavy
was an urgency about him.
air of breathing, “Now, listen. The
The spy would have given any- bamboo forests are still in fog.
thing if he had not already risen I ampreparing a guarded way
and headed for the entrance, but for us through the alleys to the
it was too late now, and he passed edge of the city. I am also pre-
oh out with only a glance at the paring a fast ship for you and
rebel. your lady. If we are cut off from
When the big man reached that, I am having a raft pre-
our table, I saw what the spy pared for you.”
had seen. The blunt face was I stared at him. “Rebel, we
chalked with shock, the pupils are surrounded by desert seas
dilated, the breathing shallow right now. I can’t take a raft in-
and fast. to those deserts.”
I could feel the blood drain- “Master, I believe you can do
ing from my own face. My whole anything. I only say that you
body was straining; first to cannot always do everything at
swell into a giant of rage, then once. If we are reduced to the
to shrivel to a beetle and scuttle raft, your lady will have to re-
for the wall. main.”
He sat down, whispering The little Chacone was
hoarsely. “It is all lost. We have clutching and unclutching my
been tricked. The overlord
first hand in became aware
hers. I
has locked the prince in the that the dining room had be-
Tower dungeon. He commands come electrified with terror and
the remnants of the old army was emptying. We three had be-
against us. They have just taken come a focal point where the
the warehouse we were using as sudden threat of death hummed
a garrison and killed over a in the ears of those present like
hundred men.” a stricken wasp.
I started to rise. The waiter hurried up to us.
He grabbed my arm and “Master, I have heard about the
pulled me down. “Listen to me. treachery. But listen, there is
We are safe as long as we don’t more. The spy for the bandits
leave the hotel. Even if I’m cap- has disappeared. In days, the
tured I do not think the first sea about here will be swarming
overlord will have me killed. It with them. If you were thinking

114 GALAXY
of escaping with your lady ... I perhaps I was condemned to
beg you, don’t.” love her simply because I could
not have her.
Qhe was shaking her head I kissed the dear little Cha-
^ piteously with tears glisten- cone over and over and prom-
ing on her cheeks. “Please don’t ised her that I would return.
leave me. I do not fear any of Then I found that I was prom-
these things. Please take me ising to return with soldiers and
with you.” retake the Tower.
The rebel and I were staring So there it was in the open . .

at each other across the horrible the killing had not yet been
thought of capture by sea ban- enough. It had only been in
dits. I turned dazedly to the vain. Whether or not the sea
Chacone and shook my head. bandits came I would come
She buried her face and wept. again, to kill again for my plan
The waiter declared, “Master, to bind together the three is-
no harm will come to her. We lands.
will take good care of her.”
Then he excused himself and ^Tphe rebel and I had no dif-
hurried away. ficulty reaching the edge of
The rebel rose. “I will make the city. We were beckoned
one last check of the escape from point to point by our
route while you say farewell to waiting comrades. Trouble be-
your lady.” He left the dining gan immediately when we enter-
room by way of the kitchens. ed the forests of bamboo.
I stood up, and drew the Cha- A rebel came racing toward
cone up to me. Her lips moved us from ochre banners of fog.
warmly and her tears were hot “They have captured the boat
on my face. Undoubtedly, for the and the three men guarding it.
last time, I was holding the Take this side path to the raft.
world’s most fabulous prize in Hurry, they are right behind
my arms. Yet death, buzzing in- me.
sistantly in my ears reminded me He gestured wildly and fell at
that I had been condemned, long our feet with a javelin in his
ago, to love another. back. We raced into the forest
The woman I loved was beau- where the light of Sha’tule beat
but not this beautiful; ta-
tiful, at the fog with a golden ham-
lented, but not this talented; mer.
royal, but not his regal. She Shrieks and moans from a
was the mother of my son, and thousand lost souls burst from

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 115


the path ahead of us. I stopped from a pious distance and they
dead in the path and the big passed right by us.
rebel crashed into me. The Shaman mounted his
We both simultaneously recog- stand at the head of the reclin-
nized the din as the pipes and ing corpse. After a long time in
strings of funeral music. The which little accidental sounds
scale in which my people play ceased, he started reading from
their harsh instruments is for- his sacred scroll.
tunately unknown on other is- “All things that live on land
lands. all the animals of the islands
The rebel leader was press- and the cities of men on the is-
ing me forward. “Move in and lands, float at the surface of the
mingle with the mourners. They sea where there is storm and
will be hurrying the funeral to sinking and terror.”
avoid the Sun Gods. They will Suddenly the widow, who
not notice.” stood with her friends beside the
Masked by and
the racket Shaman’s place, lifted her arms
concentration of the ceremony, to the thinning fog and shrieked
we went in among the mourners a curse. With a bound of my
who encircled the pool. Smoking heart, I recognized that it was
torches still fluttered along the me at whom she hurled this ha-
edge of the golden bowl of light tred. The rebel turned to me,
above the pool light that was
. . . and he could not help grinning.
now fretted with the blue of There was a little commotion
Sha’cham. A red-shrouded near the widow and the rudely
corpse was poised over the wa- grinning rebel used the moment
ter on his bamboo slide. The to whisper, “Master, they are
bural stone to which his feet praising you.”
were bound was a rich one, fully
a hand thick, and as big around
as a man could encircle with his
M ’
ow it made my
to see this corpse.
throat ache
He had
arms. been Captain of the Guard
The wailing of the instru- at the Tower, and last to stand
ments ceased, and now the big before the door to the apart-
rebel, his rock-like face un- ments of the false king. I had
moved, worked to still his deep to run the brave man through.
breathing. The Shaman went on with his
On all sides, presently, I could reading. “On the currents of the
hear the soldiers moving quiet- worldwide sea, our islands drift
ly. They inspected the mourners to the north and they drift to

116 GALAXY
.

the south. They


bring us to the the eternity the asqueous silence.
depredations of the Ice Island- Unable to bear such a pros-
ers. Our islands drift into the pect, the sailor has invented the
boiling waters of steam and lascivious Sea Women, and the
pumicine and into the chill wa- soldier has named our twin suns
ters of ice and snow. Sha’tule and Shal’cham . . .

“All these terrors are con- “commander of the dead that


trolled by the evil eyes of the arise as mists,” and “commander
stars which control all things at of the dead that arise as storms”.
the surface of the sea.”
This belief is the reason 'TT'he drums about the burial
funerals are held at dawn or pool began to murmur and
sunset. They want the dead to the slide bearing the corpse was
go to the sea floor without be- slowly tilted. I thought the brave
ing seen by the evil stars or captain would never let go of
wrathful Sun Gods. his slide. Then, as the drums
The Shaman continued. “But reached a deafening roar, it was
the eyes of the stars do not reach as though he remembered some
to the Floor of the Sea. Down gleeful prospect, so abruptly did
there, where decay cannot occur, he shoot into the black water.
far from the storm and terror of My throat ached, but I found
living, there go all the dead .
there were no words to say to
Behind me a soldier coughed him.
nervously, and from the other To make sure we would lose
side of the pool, another also the soldiers, the rebel and I re-
coughed. The rebel smiled sym- turned toward the city for a
pathetically. way with the mourners. We left
The Shaman had reached that them where a narrow path head-
part of sacred belief that is most ed back toward the island’s
distressing to a man of action, edge. We raced down this still
and presently I could hear the protected from any distant view
soldiers beginmoving away. In by the thinning fog. The ground
the thinking of the pious, the grew softer and now, only a few
Floor of the Sea is a great, feet beneath us, was the sucking
calm plain on which, in static of the sea.
promenade, the buried dead The rebel motioned to me and
stand about in the blue shrouds stopped. He studied things
of women and the red shrouds through the fog a bit and then
of men, their feet bound to their whispered. “They are guarding
burial stones, contemplating for the paths ahead. If we don’t slip

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 117


through them, run for the am- While an island drifts
phibial.” through tropic waters it is bor-
whispered back. “Listen, if
I dered with this pumicine pack
we are separated, tell our people and its wildly growing plant life.
I have gone to Thule for sol- No man would willingly venture
diers.” there and the soldiers did not fol-
He stared at me in disbelief. low. They stood on the higher
“I thought the king of Thule ground and waited.
had condemned you to the When we started to move we
plank?” waved the head-high, pulpy
“He will have forgiven me.” bush. A shower of arrows snick-
He continued to stare at me ered through the leaves. There
and shook his head. “Master, was laughter from the shore.
you have lost your mind to go They had themselves a real
back there.” sport. If they didn’t hit us, the
Behind me a man shouted snakes would.
very loudly, “Aaaaeeee, here!” I went ahead of the rebel with
my Great Blade and in thirty
Ill stops I cut six filthy snakes. The
soldiers showered arrows increas-
T T e was hurling a bone-pointed ingly wide of us as the stir we
*- javelin and it was sad for caused drew out of their sight.
him that he missed my face. Finally, we were free of the sol-
I drew the gleaming Blade diers and there was only the
of Hahn, the blade a stride long, great, hot hush of the amphibial
a length unheard of in most of about us.
the world. I took two steps and The island had not passed
ran him through. through a storm in many months
The rebel was calling to me, and so the amphibial was un-
“This way.” usually solid. Even so, we
Soldiers rose out of the shal- stepped through the treach-
low ground, eager and yelling. I erously waving earth frequently,
heard all about us as we ran, that and once the rebel went clear
dry whisper of death arrows— through till I grabbed the bushy
clipping through the bashai hair of his head.
leaves. We plunged into the rank Sha’tule, and Sha’cham were
growth of the amphibial where high now and boiled down into
the thin ground waved under the thicket. Clouds of insects
foot, where the thicket crawled made our progress torment.
with deadly snakes and toads. What a curse it is that this
118 GALAXY
great military barrier around nel.We lay in the hot sunlight
every island fails us when we unable to care what might hap-
need it most. As our islands pen.
drift north or south toward the At last I asked him, “Is the
Ice Islanders, the encircling raft in this channel?”
amphibial shrivels. Creeping He nodded without speaking
roots that have collected these to me.
great pumicine packs and rot- It was mid-moming before we
ting leaves in the long tropic let ourselves down into the sea
heat now freeze. The snakes and water and swam silently back to
poisonous toads retreat to the the land.
more solid land and burrow. Two soldiers with bone-point-
The chill waves smash away all ed javelins stood on the floating
but a little rim of the once for- wharf watching the shore and
bidding amphibial and when whispering to each other. A raft
the Ice Islanders come in their had been upended on the wharf
fearsome, homed boats we must for repairs and the two stood
defend every pace of the frozen with this between themselves
shore. and the shore. Not once as we
approached did they worry
nphe rebel leader, an older about the surrounding amphib-
man than I, floundered more ial.

and more frequently. One man I drew the rebel to me and


cannot carry another, or any whispered to him while our toes
great burden, without breaking rested on the bamboo cross mem-
through such thin ground. We bers at the bottom of the chan-
were desperate by the time we nel. With our heads barely
came upon a small boating chan- above water we moved cautious-
nel. ly ahead.
The fishers maintain these When we reached the end of
channels with walls and bottom the wharf they were about ten
woven of bamboo. As an island paces away. I nodded to the reb-
heads for the tropics and an am- el and he sank from sight.

phibial grows about it, the fish- I counted methodically to 20.

ers add these cradles of bamboo I drew my steel knife and threw
making a channel to the sea for it,a flash of light, between the
their craft. ribs of the man on the left. His
We crawled onto the over- companion turned in astonish-
head cross members separating ment. I grimaced and hissed a
the bamboo walls of this chan- curse. He raised his javelin as,

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 119


behind him, the rebel mounted back into the amphibial until
the wharf. dark.”
I ducked and the javelin Standing on opposite sides of
boiled into the water over my the raft we paddled it back out
shoulders. I raised my head to the channel to the bobbing beds
see him kneeling with coy sur- of free pumicine. I moored to
prise before he rolled into the the last bamboo stays of the
water. I mounted the wharf and channel and we rested.
retrieved my knife. hurried We He was a big man with a de-
to a fishing raft that was some- termined face and a blunt way.
what larger and more substantial “I am not sure you will return.
than the others. Your cause is not our cause.”
The rebel loosened the moor- “My cause includes your cause.
ings. “You will have to do with We both want the young prince
what provisions are here,” he made king. Once he is king I
whispered. will be able to take my business
to him.”
turned to him in stunned “You are sure he will sign
I disbelief. “Isn’t it stocked? the treaties you want with the
Are you trying to kill me? I islands of Torne and Parsos?”
have to cross a desert sea.” “I know him. After all, I was
“Something has gone wrong. his teacher when he was a boy.
This isn’t the raft we had pre- I taught him the first two of the

pared.” Seven Arts.”


opened the floor box of the
I “You think the King of Tome
raft and glimpsed gaffing rods and Parsos will sign?”
and a coil of rope. I cast about “They have already signed a
the wharf frantically until I saw proposal.”
one of those huge baskets which “What do they gain by this?”
fishermen sometimes tow behind I began to unroll the split
them filled with live fish. I bamboo Since the wind was
sail.
brought this and threw it onto from the land the raft pulled at
the deck while the rebel was its mooring.
shoving past the end of the float- It made me angry to talk with
ing wharf. I leaped two paces to him about this. Why could not
the deck and he handed me a the people of my homeland see
paddle. that they would have no lasting
“I will help you paddle out prosperity until they federated
to sea. If soldiers appear before with other freely floating
we are out of sight I can duck islands?

120 GALAXY
rT~'he kings of Tome and Par- wouldn’t sleep on the same is-
-* sos were
both convinced land with a Tomian. They are
that myplan was feasible to root grubbers.”
bind together with great ropes I had the sail fully hoisted
these small islands so that even- and the raft jerked at its moor-
tually they would grow together ing. He did not take the hint, so
in the tropic lushness. When I went back and squatted near-
next their lands drifted out of the rope to untie it.

the north seas clean of amphib- turned and snapped, “You,


I

ial, they planned to erect the rebel, have not been taken from
great sails I had designed. They your home as a boy by the Ice
would try to maneuver their is- Islanders. You have not spent
lands together and bind them. two years as their slave. You are
With three islands thus bound a small-island man and you
.”
there would be so much less think like a small . .

shore to defend and so many Suddenly, I saw on the sea


more to defend it the next time over his shoulder, what had hap-
we drifted against the Ice Is- pened to the raft that had been
landers. Such a man-joined is- prepared for me. Four soldiers
land, ruled by these three peace- paddled it swiftly, silently to-
ful Kings, would be as wealthy ward us.
and powerful as the great rock
latched islands of Thule and nphe rebel, as if answering
Hahn. my an impudent
insult with
But the people of my home- gesture, from his
thrust at me
land are stubborn and arrogant. mouth the barbed head of an
The former king, who had ob- arrow.
tained the Tower falsely, would I spun backward, drawing the
never listen to me. So I had Great Blade. I slashed the moor-
joined these rebels to place the ing, and the raft leaped into the
young prince to whom I could pumicine beds. As a second ar-
talk in the Tower. One could not row sang over the deck, I tore
talk to these stubborn rebels open the lid to the deck box and
about joining peaceful hands dived into this narrow confine,
with a sister island. They were jabbing myself painfully on a
as independent as sea-going tur- gaffing hook. Two more arrows
tles. thudded into the deck and then
This one shook his head pro- no more. I peeked out and saw
foundly. “You worry too much that the soldiers were struggling
about the Ice Islanders. I to mount their sail.

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 121


They would draw more wa- ground of pumicine tightly mat-
ter, and I was sure they could ted in wiry roots. On an old
not overtake me. Nevertheless, rock-latched island such as
I spent little ceremony in dis- Thule, this base may be ten
posing of the dead rebel and as- times as deep as a man stands.
sisting my flight by paddle.
Soon they gave up the chase and IV
headed back for the channel. I
stopped paddling and let the sail t is the belief of the pious
bounce me over the pumicine. I that the islands were bom
Across our seas drift great in antiquityby fabled Sea God-
reaches of this stone, some as desses who sometimes cohabited
large as a man’s thumb tip, and with the Sun Gods. Thus, it is
most much smaller. If one cuts said that the beautiful isle of
a piece of this stone on a lapi- Ohme, which never leaves its
dary’s wheel he will find it narrowly circling current in the
filled with air spaces. If one tropics, was begat by Sha’tule,
digs anywhere on an island he commander of the mist. It is
will find, beneath the soil of said that the Sea Goddess, Tora,
rotted vegetation, a thick in gratitude for this delightful

122 GALAXY
her womb until it was the most to treasure them as myth.
beautiful in the world. She is I think this: the islands are

said to have travailed for a thou- being built each day. There are
sand years to create Ohme, forces building them and forces
where the tiny red deer bound tearing them apart In many
across emerald meadows and the parts of the ocean, such as Chryo
balloon flowers loose themselves where stupendous rocks reach
from their branches at night and to the clouds, there are great
copulate above the tree tops boiling places out of which
with little cries. gouts of pumidne are coughed
A man who notices what he up from the water. In addition
sees instead of what he hears there are many places in the sea
will not believe that Ohme, or where cones of hot rock and fire
any other island, was bom in rise high in the sky and two
such a way. of these are near the rock-latched
In my lifetime our knowl- island of Hahn. From all these
edge of the world has grown places comes stone filled with air-
tremendously, and we are not so spaces.
likely to believe that Sea God- Where beds of such pumicine

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 123


float in calm seas you find them wave to wave with a busy illu-
strewn with plantlife, and if the sion of progress. I stepped for-
time is long enough you can ward of the sail and watched the
pick up clumps of floating stone horizon where a blue line lay.
tightly bound in wiry roots and I decided that I had about two
already plastered on the under- hours before I would be leaving
side with the bulbous red leaves the green sea.
of the bottom plant. Such a I lashed the basket in the wa-
clump is a primitive little is- ter at the rear of the raft, and
land which being borne only
is used one of the gaffing hooks to
figuratively in the womb of a land my food before I reached
Sea Goddess. For the bottom the desert. I was able to bring
plants suck up water and strain in six large blue-stripes without
it of salt and deliver fresh wa- harming them unduly and I
ter to the planets above. These dropped them into the basket. A
in their turn are spread in the seventh, I left on the deck for
sunlight, which plants must tonight’s food.
have, and somehow they ex- I reached the endless blue of
change sunlight with the the desert. There would be no
bottom plants that were always fishing here.The sparse plank-
in the sea. ton supported no life. Now my
I think that shallow islands progress fretted me. The im-
such as Chacone, where the soil probability of success began to
is brackish and unfit for agri- depress me. The first overlord
culture, will one day be deep is- would probably assume the
lands like Thule. After a storm kingship tomorrow. Now was
on any island, you find pumi- the time to overthrow him
cine in the funeral pools which while the people were bitter that
means it has been driven in un- the young prince had not been
der the island where it may be placed.
incorporated by the muscular Now was the time, and here I
bottom plants into a deeper sat slapping from wave to wave.
ground. Worst of all had been the death
of the rebel leader. Now the
4 tlast I was free of the rebels would have to rise spon-
pumicine beds of my home taneously when and if I reap-
isle. Now, about me ,the green peared.
sea swelled like white-nippled Prospects were even gloomier
breasts of the necrophilic sea- ahead of me on Thule. I was go-
women. The raft slapped from ing there to beg soldiers from a
124 GALAXY
man who had last looked upon huge platform on which it
me in fabulous rage and had stands is built of hardwood
cried out in anguish, “Givehim raided from the Ice Islanders
one hundred lashes. Nail him to and is a hundred paces square.
a plank and put him adrift at On the upper floors, I had di-
sea.” rected a hundred lapidaries for
I had been saved from that two years to finish the mosaics
punishment. I had escaped to of the outer walls. These are of
Parsos where the king had giv- ivory and pearl, wood and
en me refuge against every stone. They depict all the alle-
threat and bribe from Thule. gories of the Sea Dieties and the
But I could not go to Parsos or highest levels depict the epics
Torne for help in this venture. of the ancestors of the king of
If their soldiers came storming Thule.
into my home isle killing lords The wood panels on the inner
and overlords —
even putting walls I had painted magically in
the young prince in the Tower oil so that the human form and
would not sooth the feelings of all the animals and fishes of the
my people. After such a day world are seen in delightful
there would never be a treaty poses and so real that the eye is
such as I wanted. bewitched.
This Tower rises fourteen lev-
'""T'he only source of soldiers els over its massive columns,
close enough this year to be gleaming high above the lesser
feasible was the rock-latched is- Towers of lords of Thule. Truly,
land of Thule near which our the king of Thule is raised above
present currents were carrying the sea. How could he have
us. The source was a good one. brought himself to destroy such
I was simply the worst possible a work? And every day that he
ambassador. lived in those halls he looked
I had heard that the rage of upon the message of my hand.
the king toward me had cooled. Surely he would have softened
Definitely he had not tom down toward me.
the Great Tower of Thule though That night I ate the raw fish
at first he had threatened to do and drank its water. I lay on my
so. back watching the stars. I was
How could he have done steady on course. The Shaman
that?Of all my works, the Great say the stars are “evil eyes” that
Tower for the king of Thule is create all disaster. A man who
the crowning achievement. The thinks does not credit such talk.

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 125


A man who sails, (and who- startled. Hurriedly I checked
ever heard of a sailor Shaman?) the sea about me, and as a good
knowns the stars as friends. seaman should, I looked into
There are many wonderful the suns.
thoughts in the world today, new It is a good thing that I did.
ideas that thrill you. One, that I recognized her at once. Prac-
is most exciting to me, is the tically all the ships sailed by sea
theory of the aged professor of bandits are built to a pattern.
astronomy at the University of This ship came at me like a
Parsos. This theory is that the great, black bat skimming be-
stars are really suns like Sha- tween the suns, and I had only

tule and Sha’charn and that moments to prepare. My heart


they are so small only because fluttered wildly into my constrict-
they are far from us. I like to ed throat.
think that there may be other I would die, but I would not

worlds on which those suns be tortured.


shine. I jerked open the deck box of
the raft and brought out the
have tried to think of oth- gaffing polls. The advice of an
I er worlds, for example, one old merchant seaman raced in
where the sea would be almost my mind.
dried up, perhaps by a closer “I’ve boarded three of ’em and
sun. On such a world parts of there’s only one way to do it.
the bottom of the sea might be They always approach you on
exposed. Plants might grow on their windward because that’s
the exposed sea floor just as they high-boarding for them.”
do on pumicine. Animals would I wanted them to board me
walk on solid rock. The Ice Is- forward of my sail. Aft of the
anders have great piles of rock sail, I rammed the butts of the
which rise out of the ice and in- gaffing polls through the bam-
to the clouds and on which the boo and braced them in the
hardwood grows. I mean . the
. . logs. Their vicious points were
whole world would be like that, a formidable barrier to boarding
and the islands would not move. there. I snatched the coil of
. Tonight I tired of thinking of rope out of the deck box and
such different worlds and I formed a noose as they bore
wished that the little Chacone down on me.
were with me. I cotinted nine men leaning
When I awakened the suns over the rail and one at the rud-
lay hot on the horizon. I was der. Three of the men, hesitat-

126 GALAXY
ing before the ugly gaffing polls time and salt my body if they
about me, leaped onto my for took me.
ward deck. jumped down the stairs and
I
slammed and bolted the door to
gave thanks to the rich la- the captain’s cabin. Right be-
I dies of Hahn. They are la- hind me two of them hit it with
vishly untrue to their husbands, terrifying fury. They would have
and a student at that university it down in seconds, but if the
is not worth his salt unless he old merchant man’s advice held
can throw a noose to the second up they would be too late.
floor of a rich man’s Tower. The His voice lashed me to ac-
bandit ship swept past, and I tion. “Throw open the door to
caught the rudder pommel neat- the forward compartment and
ly- jam it so you can see the for-
Desperation hoisted me to the ward hatch. Hurry back to the
railing,and one motion that lee port in the captain’s cabin
drew and swung the Great Blade and open it. Reach way up and
slashed the throat of the sur- you can cut loose the boom.”
prised helmsman. I watched through the door I
The bandits came at me to had opened and when I saw
take a live prize, but when I light at the forward hatch I
opened the chest of a man from slashed the lashing of the boom
arm to arm they changed plan. with my knife. There was a sick-
The great Blade of Hahn is still ening lurch through the ship
as rare in the world as a king’s and two men screamed. A leg
Tower and greatly feared by that had started down the lad-
fighting men. These five ban- der in the forward hatch was
dits now saw what I carried and whisked out again as if by the
they hurled club and javelin to hand of a god. There followed
kill.A javelin laid bare one of two splashes in the sea.
my ribs and a club momentarily
stunned me and I fell heavily to rT''he door to the captain’s ca-
my knees. bin was splintering, and I
The voice of the old merchant dashed forward. I went up the
man came back commandingly. hatch-ladder, blade first, and
“Board at the rudder and fight chopped off one of two bare feet
your way to the rear hatch.” I that suddenly appeared before
followed the voice in a gleam- me on the deck. His unbalanced
ing frenzy of the Great Blade. blow with a club smashed into
They would flay me a little at a the hatch and enough of my

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 127


head to knock northern lights gress. The man who had jumped
through my brain. overboard and one of the men
As climbed groggily onto
I who had been knocked over-
the deck I heard the two who board by the boom were swim-
had smashed open the captain’s ming for the raft.
door yell disappointment and The raft was still a hundred
clamber back up the rear hatch paces away when I began re-
for the deck. hoisting the sail and felt the
The fellow who had lost a foot trim little bandit slip tighten like
did not realize it. He was try- an airborne bird. I set my course
ing to come at me with a knife. for Thule.
His head flew off with one By the time the raft was out
swing of the Great Blade, and of sight I had got rid of the bod-

the two who had come up out of ies and swabbed the deck clean.
the rear hatch witnessed this. Then I sat down near the tiller
When I approached them they and carefully cleaned and pol-
backed off respectfully. One of ished my Great Blade.
them dropped a stone ax to the What a marvel this metal was!
deck. Presently he turned and Recently the Hahnese have been
dove into the sea. working the gray iron that flows
The other man held a bone from a fiery cone near their
javelin hesitantly. I gestured rock latched island. Now I had
over the side of the ship. He learned to work it with char-
shook his head. I took a step coal to make blades such as
toward him and he hurled the these.
javelin. I chopped it out of the It had been for this the King
air. I raised the point of the of Hahn had given me the Cha-
Great Blade and I started back- cone.
ing him. When he reached the Unlike the killing in the revo-
rail he just leaned away from lution, I had no remorse over

the point until he fell over- the killing of the sea bandits.
board. They are descendants of the Ice
Then I understood why he Islanders. For centuries their
had not done as had his com- ancestors dominated our oceans;
panion. He could not swim. I their raiding and slaughtering
had to listen to his screams while almost wiped civilization off of
I brought the sail down to re- most islands. Those dark cen-
trim the ship. turies were ended only by the
The three men who had board- rise of the great navies of Thule
ed my raft had made some pro- and Hahn which have pushed
128 GALAXY
the bandits back to a few poor V
islands from which they oper-
ate. \ s you approach Thule you
I was thinking these things as understand that it takes a
I finished cleaning the blade man two days to walk across
and remembered that I had
I this largest of all islands. It lies
seen some writing on the table across the horizon like an end-
in the captain’s cabin. less, green cloud. The rocks
a seeming paradox that
It is to whichit is latched do not
the bandits so love slaughter and rise out of the soil. But the
torture that the most brutal man gleaming Tower of the King of
of another island shudders at the Thule, which is my design, can
though of them —
and yet they be seen from the sea.
are said to be constant poets. Thule is the great stationary
The long sagas of their history point of trade. All islands which
are marvels of myth and they are in currents that pass near her
are said to leave a scene of have cycles of industry and
slaughter with every man vying trade based on that fact. The
to compose the best verse about approach near Thule is always
it. festival time. When the currents
This captain had indeed been bring an island into these wa-
composing in a labored hand ters, the stores of its products
when I was sighted. His cup of are traded for the exotic prod-
morning tea had crashed to the ucts from many islands. Even
floor when I later cut the boom. the Ice Islanders of the north
But the piece of parchment and sometimes appear in fearsome
his writing brush were where he armadas to stand off Thule and
had left them. conducted sullen trade.
“Up ecstatic towers we I had not had Thule on the
raced. horizon more than a short time
With bone lance and flesh. when the sails of a fighting ship
Their women we pierced, came out in my direction. At this
Till thousands of doves. latitude there is little growth of

Werecooing for death.” amphibial and they keep a close


I over the savage
reflected watch on the sea. My ship, ob-
faces of the morning and de- viously a sea bandit, brought
cided that the man whose chest this fighter out under taut sail.
I had opened had been the cap- The fighter came about. The
tain. I tucked his lines under my faces of the soldierswere many
sash. and they inspected every inch of
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 129
my deck. I lowered sail rapidly dered a line thrown to me, and
and waited. I made it fast. I stepped to the
From about fifty paces the deck of the fighter of Thule and
captain called to me. “Who are prickles of fear were on my
you?” back. The captain studied my
I cupped my hands and called face, and he recognized me.
back, “I am a Master of the Sev- He exclaimed “Master!”
en Arts. I call on the King of I saw the many implications of
Thule.” this meeting storm across his rug-
The captain ordered his sail ged face.
down and we drifted together in A soldier whispered, “I’ll
silent waiting. The grim soldiers swear on the Sea Floor, it is the
did not speak with each other. builder of the Tower.”
They watched my deck. The sol- All motion about me ceased
diers of Thule are the finest in and there was silence in which
the world and their discipline is no man heard more loudly than
a thing to behold. The ship cap- I that anguished cry, Give him
tains are always Lords of Thule. one hundred lashes. Nail him to
“I’m alone.” a plank, and put him adrift at
“How did you come by this sea.
ship?” The captain could only stare
“I captured it.” at me. I had painted for one of
“Alone?” the inner walls of his tower a
“If you retrace my course scene that had since become fa-
you will pick up five ugly sea mous. It depicts the legend of
bandits adrift on my raft. The Namora. Startled from her bed
other five I killed and I have of pearls, the chaste goddess
brought their ship as a prize to fights off the advances of Ti,
the navy of Thule.” the sea serpent. With this paint-
ing I had at last achieved such
or the time the sol- depiction of the human body
F
and there was
first
diers looked at each other
laughter. I drew
that all who saw it stood in awe.
None of the paintings I had done
the Great Blade and flashed it on Parsos or Hahn equaled it.
between Sha’ and Sha’. The This captain had been proud of
laughter abruptly ceased. The his association with me.
Lords of Thule already carry I saw on his face that the lords
such blades and these soldiers of Thule would be dismayed at
now believed me. my return. In their eyes I had
At five paces the captain or- not done such a wrong. In the

130 GALAXY
last great raid of the Ice Island- to your death. Don’t you wish
ers my parents had been killed. to stand on the Sea Floor? Must
All their servants, and I their you decay here at the surface?”
son, had been taken as slaves. It “You think he cannot forgive
was not, to the lords of Thule, a me?”
discredit to me that subsequent- “He will go through with it
ly a false king had assumed the because he commanded it. What
Tower of my home isle and had in the name of Sha’charn has
dissolved the lordship of my fa- brought you here?”
ther. “A false pretender holds the
If then, I was a lord by desert, Tower of my home isle. I have
it was no great crime to have come for soldiers to retake it.”
loved the youngest of the six “Why didn’t you go to Parsos
daughters of their king. Unpoli- which is drifting close to you
tic behavior, no doubt. But to be now?”
nailed to a plank! The thought The the fighter had
sails of
is abhorrent even beyond its been rehoisted and the light
reality because of the belief that breeze heeled us away from the
such cursed planks drift into the bandit ship which was returned
desert seas and remain afloat. with soldiers to pick up the
raft-load of its former crewmen.
•nphe Lord Captain who now Iexplained to the captain why
stared into my face knew I could not use soldiers from
that my sentence was irrational. Parsos.
If the king had had a son, if one The people of my homeland
of his older daughters had had have an outlandish reputation
a son, I would today be mar- for unpredictable and romantic
ried into the king’s family. For action. The Lords of Thule and
in that circumstance a son of Hahn, the great powers that
pure Thulian blood would not forced back the Ice Islanders,
have been required of the sometimes look down their
youngest princess, to be later, noses at our violent political his-
King of Thule. In that circum- tory. They call us “teri che”
stance my impropriety would which is to say, “wild ones”.
have led, not to her ineligibil- This captain now hurt my
ity for royal marriage, but to our heart, as if he had slapped my
early marriage. face. He shook his head with a
The captain took me aside. grim smile and said, “Teri che.”
“Master, why have you brought Then, staring into my face un-
this trial to me? I must take you comprehendingly, he went on,

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 131


“You will not live to retake hurtfulness of the rude, and the
your Tower, let alone to carry hurt lay in the heart of the
out a scheme for binding islands proud old man to whom I was
together. You are going to be a being taken.
dead patriot.” Twice soldiers had to dash to
Then, without meaning to, he the side of the road and knock
hurt me even deeper. “Thule heads with their javelin butts. I
owes you better than a plank. I began to understand why the
promise that after your death, I King of Thule could not forgive
will raise an invasion and me.
straighten out your politics at The flesh of my back crawled,
home. I will place your great and I perspired more than the
prince in his Tower.” day called for. The captain some-
With his contemptuous tone times looked at me, but he said
about our prince, which we no more.
agreed on, he expressed his eval- After the long walk through
uation of my plan to bind the the country came the city. First,
islands, which he understood no the two-level towers of the poor
better than my own people. on their awkward stilts; then
Neither by the rude nor by towers of more levels, and towers
the sophisticated was my plan that reared gorgeous mosaics of
understood. ivory and wood and pearl,
seven and nine levels into the
VI blue and gold sunlight. These
rich men were indeed raised re-
T ater, when we marched along splendently above the monotony
' country road toward the
a of the sea.
city, with soldiers ahead and Here in these nacreous ’ers
to the rear of us, I found there lived the charming people whose
was one thing that rude people eyes I had dazzled with carvings
everywhere understood of me. and paintings, and whose minds
The news of my capture had I had thrilled with theories.
run ahead. Tillers came down Now they turned from me in
the neat rows of their fields to grief. I felt at my back the

stand beside the road. They northwind of fear.
snickered and nudged each oth- Then came the great square of
er and sometimes one could hear Thule which is actually paved
a suggestion that I must have a from one end to the other with
finer “tower” even than the king. stone. All of this stone was raid-
The analogy had the inspired ed two centuries ago from the
132 GALAXY
great pile* in the northern Ice in the night to the jail. I saw
Islands, and it is said that in with pain that he was now an
the years of those raids 1,000 old man, as if something had
Thulians died —
and twice that broken in him and loosed the
many Ice Islanders. tensions of his haughty bearing.
Here in this great sunlit He stood before me and studied
square they would nail me to my fear.
the plank. As sharply and dryly He stood that way while they
as the breaking of small sticks drew my hands up to the low
would sound the stone mallet on ceiling in a noose and bound
the pegs. The sound of the mal- my feet to a shackle in the floor.
let would spank along the dec- Then he spoke and I learned
orated tower walls and die away, that the voice was still his.
and they would lift the plank to He asked softly, “How could
carry it out to sea. The crowd you have done this to me? To
in the square would melt away, me, who loved you and reward-
fearful and brooding because an- ed you and gloried in your
other vengeful “shee-shoon”, work? How could you have tak-
which is to say, condemned spirit, en from me my last hope?”
would be loose upon the sea. I could say nothing. Then, in

So I would drift into deserts the tiny, windowless jail, his ter-
with the suns banging my eyes rible pride shrieked, “How could
while my home isle drifted in you have made a laughing stock
poverty. of me?”
The work of my own hand He tore the lash from the
was the final blow to my hopes. great brute beside him, and he
How awesome was this dwell- smashed it into my face. Repeat-
ing! At the far end of the square ing over and over, “How could
it soared fourteen levels into the you have made a laughing stock
sky. Its grounds were walled of me?’ he lashed my face and
with stone to twice the height of chest and groin, and I tasted
a man. Inside there, in the spa- what was to come.
cious gardens, rose four more As a boy I was tortured by the
towers, and even these were nine Ice Islanders. I do not bear tor-
levels high. ture well. I moaned when his
All this had been done to my weak flailing warned me of what
design, and now I trembled be- the big jailer could do. When he
fore it had exhausted himself, he sat
They did not take me to him. down on the damp floor and
Instead, he came to me. He came beat feebly with his fists.

134 GALAXY
The jailer took up the lash. alone for what I had done to
He grinned pleasantly to me him.
and asked politely, “How would On the third day he spoke.
you like it, Master? Slow, or “The Lord Captain who took
fast.” you has explained the reason
“No,” I shouted. “No, Highest you have come. It is good poli-
One, don’t let him do this!” tics for the rock-latched islands
But the poor old man was like Thule and Hahn, to
deaf to everything except his strengthen the freely floating
own misery and shame. islands. You may have the sol-
diers. Whatever you need.”
XT/hen I was again con- With that he rose to leave.
^ * scious, and the lights had Then at the door he turned,
stopped bursting in my eyes, the the whisper of his robes as loud
jailer was seated on a bench, as the shouting of a thousand
resting. The fat of his chest soldiers.
heaved, and he ran a stubby “Be very clear about this. I do
hand across it to wipe away his not waste a soldier for the sake
sweat. of ten che. I believe your plan
The king had risen from the to bind those three little islands
floor. His silks were dirty and into one rich, strong island will
disheveled. “How many have you work. By aiding that plan, I do
given him?”, he asked the jail- one more little thing to keep
er, hoarsely. back the Ice Islanders and keep
“Barely thirty, Highest One.” down the sea bandits. It strength-
Through the swimming of the ens Thule.”
room, I saw the jailer rise and His gray eyes lingered mo-
start toward me, and I screamed. mentarily as he turned and left
“Let him down. Be gentle me.
with him.”
I allowed myself to sink to the A gain and again, while the
calm Sea Floor. captain and I worked on the
He had me taken to his own plans for storming my home isle,
apartments, in the highest levels the king’s words stung me. “Z do
came
of the Tower. In silence, he not waste a soldier for the sake
every day and washed my of teri che.”
wounds and dressed them. Again and again, this stinging
He came several times each drove my mind to the pool in
day and repeated this care in si- the gardens of the Tower of my
lence so that I wept when I was homeland. It is a hole into the
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 135
sea for decorative purposes and be too buoyant, and so stone
salt-lilies are grown there. On would have to line the bottom of
many such a pool
islands there is the craft until it was almost
in the gardens of the Tower. ready to sink. Now, there would
I have often thought. “Behind have to be a way to take on
allthe guards at the walls of the weight for sinking and get rid
Tower, there is a way in.” of it for coming back to the sur-
When the captain and I had face. So I would have a barrel
completed our plans and had de- braced on the floor midship
cided to embark in another and a pipe with a cock in that
four days, suddenly it came to would let water into it so that
me. “A craft can be built to go the craft would sink.
under the island and come up in From the iron that flows near
the pool.” their island, the Hahnese have
Such a surprise would save contrived a pump which a man
many soldiers of Thule, and may work by a handle and
many of my teri che. force water up a height. I would
In one moment things fell in- have to arrange one of these
to placefrom countless observa- pumps so that water could be
tions and sources. How had I forced from the barrel back in-
built and caulked the plumb- to the sea, and thus we would
ing in the Great Tower of come again to the surface.
Thule? How does a fish roll in I saw that when the craft sank
the water? How
strong is the I would go on sinking, however
thickest of the round lenses of slowly, unless a means other
the glass of Hahn? than emptying the barrels were
For two days, hardly taking used to stop this motion. So I
time to eat or sleep, I stayed in would have structures along the
my apartment drawing plans for sides like the fins of a fish that
such a craft. Once I went to the would maintain a level of de-
winery in the country and in- scent as long as the craft was
spected two of the great hogs- moving forward.
heads for storage which are It was in moving the craft for-
large enough for a man to stand ward that I had trouble. There
in. are no winds under the sea, and
The two giant hogsheads to paddle my hogsheads seemed
could be spliced together with to me out of the question. A
mores than enough strength and boat can be moved forward by
more room inside than would be thrashing the rudder in a crude
needed by two men. This would duplication of the fish tail. But
136 GALAXY
Isaw that no rudder I might de- luxurious bed and buried my
sign would move us from the face, and abruptly, there was the
edge of my home isle to the pool idea for the propulsion.
in the gardens of the Tower be- The rudder need not move like
fore the two or three occupants the tail of a fish, it need not act
of the hogsheads fell from ex- like any living thing. It could be
haustion. a spinning rudder of two blades
I had to ask the captain for a tilted oppositely on their axis.
delay in the embarkation. Na- This could be turned by a shaft
urally he was willing to wait extending into the craft. The
for any plan that would spare shaft should have two cranks in
his men. So I went back to my it so that two men could turn at

apartment and the problem of once.


propulsion. Now, before noon, I finished
The more I thought about the all the drawings for my craft,
clumsy action of a rudder, the and I sent a servant to the king.

more exasperated I became. He invited me to lunch on his


There was something in this ac- balcony, and there I showed
tion that escaped me. him the drawings for this mar-
It was evening again, and I velous boat that would take
was utterly exhausted. I took a men under the sea.
bottle of spirits from the cabinet By the end of our lunch he
and poured a drink. I sipped it had become as excited as I. Then
while I stared at all the draw- suddenly, we were both sad-
ings had made for propelling
I dened that the old days were
mechanisms. I poured another, gone when we had planned to-
large drink and went to the win- gether like this.
dows. He said simply, “Have the
I do not deny that in my go- Lord Captain procure craftsmen
ings and comings about the and proceed at once to build it.”
Tower, I had never ceased to I was dismissed. He shook his
watch for the princess. I had not head to prevent me from speak-
seen her and I did not see her ing.
now as my eyes searched the
lawns and courts between the VII
towers. But I longed deeply to
see her, and suddenly I was VT7e built the undersea craft
drunk and very tired. on one of the navy wharfs.
I awakened in the night with In barely seven days we were
a headache. I rolled over in the ready for a trial.
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 137
We let the boat into water. I last sighting on the fighter to
had added a barrel to the top of make sure we were pointing to-
the structure through which the ward it. Then, hurriedly, I

occupants could enter and leave. closed and tightened the hatch
In the front of this superstruc- in the top of the barrel and de-
ture I had had them caulk a cended into the dark to hear
thick lens of the glass of Hahn the soldier’s teeth chattering.
so that I could look forward un- I said, “Soldier, are you stand-
der water. ing by the crank?”
I had somehow miscalculated He gulped hard. “Yes, Mas-
the buoyancy and we had to add ter.”
some stone to the floor. Finally, “Stay there. Start crank-
when I and the soldier who ing when I tell you.”
would go with me were both I fumbled in the dark and
aboard, little more than the su- opened the cock of the barrel.
perstructure remained above Through the shallow, fast
water. breathing of the soldier, I could
The poor soldier was shaking hear water running into the bar-
with fright but determined to rel. Back at the window I caught

die for Thule. I climbed the a blurred glimpse of the fighter


rungs back up into the super- just before the sea lapped over
structure and told the Lord Cap- the glass. Then I was looking at
tain to pole us away from the the cool, green of underwater
wharf. and fishes turning past. My
A luxurious litter appeared heart beat widly. I let the light
and came toward us. deepen a little and hurried back
I knew at once thatit was the
to close the cock, barking my

king. He could not stay away shins on the gracings for the
from this trial.I waited, stand-
barrel.

ing in a barrel in the sea. I “Now, soldier, start to crank!”


hoped for some warning or some I joined my effort to his at my

encouragement from him. He part of the shaft. I could hear


simply motioned the Lord Cap- his frightened breathing begin
tain and soldiers to be at ease. to even out with the labor over
Then he waved to me in silence the cranks. I counted up to one
and stood waiting. hundred turns of the shaft while
it became insufferably hot in
IJHe had placed one of the the hogsheads.
* ' fighters ofThule at a good “Keep cranking with all your
distance from shore. I took one might,”I gasped and made my

138 GALAXY
way up to the window.
The green light outside had
deepened shockingly. For the
firsttime I felt fear of the sea.
I scrambled to the pump and
worked it for fifteen back-break-
ing strokes. Then I turned the
crank with the soldier for twen-
ty-five turns, and I could re-
strain my anxiety no longer. I
went to the window and wiped
fog from the glass. The light was
reassuringly brighter.
“Rest a while, soldier.”
“What Master?”
“Rest a while.”
Ikept wiping the fog from
the window and watching the
light brighten until I could see
the swirling of the sea surface.
Now we needed forward speed
so the fins along the side would
keep us from coming all the
way to the surface.
“Let’s start cranking again.”
“Master, are we all right?”
“We’re all right, soldier, as
long as we crank.”
Iturned the crank another
hundred times with the soldier
and stumbled with exhaustion
back to the window. The light
was still all right. I looked hope-
fully ahead and to the sides,
knowing we could not be near
the fighter.

nphe soldier labored with great


lung-bursting breaths. I told
him to rest again, and I tum-
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 139
ed the crank alone for fifty “Stop, man. Crank the oth-
times before I fell to the stones er way.”
of the floor in a daze. The air For a moment I had thought
was foul and hot and my lungs we might pass under the fighter
heaved desperately. and rip off the superstructure,
When I could speak, I com- but we stopped short of her.
manded, “Turn the crank, sol- The soldier had collapsed. I
dier.” thought I would never finish
“Master, I’m dying.” pumping the water out of the
“Soldier turn the crank or you barrel. For a time, after I was
will die.” able to open the hatch, I stood
At first with infinite weari- and gulped at the air like a dy-
ness and then with dogged ener- ing fish. Then I lifted the sol-
gy, I could hear him start turn- dier and held him while he
ing the crank. I drug myself up breathed it.

to the window. Just as I wiped climbed out the hatch and


I
away the fog, I saw something stood on the forward hogshead
off to the left. Then it was no with water occasionally lapping
longer there. I fell back into my feet. We had come around
the hogsheads yelling at the sol- the fighter and placed her be-
dier.“Crank, man! Crank!” tween ourselves and the shore.
I banged my head and ripped All on her deck were at the oth-
skin from my
shins getting to er side watching for us toward
the screws that controlled the the island. We drifted to a gen-
rudder. I turned the rudder the tle bump against the ship. I
wrong way. Then turned it
I reached up and caught the rail
rightly. I made myself count and pulled myself slowly to the
slowly to twenty. Then I deck.
straightened the rudder. I stood there for a moment
When I again wiped the fog looking at their backs, and then
from the window, there was the I said loudly, “Captain, we are
hull of the fighter floating mag- here.”
ically in a green-yellow sky.
“Soldier, we’re there. Just a nphe King of Thule is a com-
little more turning. Turn, sol- -* plex man. When the fighter,
dier.” towing the undersea craft,
He turned and I turned with brought us back, he stood before
him. Then, gasping as if in me for a time and simply nodd-
death, I clambered back to the ed his head. Then, no longer
window and cried out. able to restrain himself, he
140 GALAXY
threw his arms about me and VIII
hands clapped my shoul-
his old
ders. 'T'wo days later the undersea
Still holding me he called to craftwas ready on the deck
all about. “It is a holiday. The is- of a cargo carrier, and the sol-
land must celebrate. There will diers and ships were ready for
be dancing and free wine.” the expedition to take the Tower
As walked back to the city
I of my homeland. I planned to
beside his litter, I was not able take two soldiers to turn the
to join in his enthusiasm. For I crank. This would free me to
had not anticipated the agonies handle the controls during the
of the underwater trip. I knew dangerous passage under the is-
that the distance out to the fight- land and to keep careful eye on
er had been little more than a the beacons of daylight that
Jdnrd of the shortest distance would fall through the pools.
from the shore of my home isle In the late afternoon, the king
to the pool in its Tower gardens. sent a servant for me. The man
Suddenly I remembered the took me down smoothly in one
burial poolswhere we could sur- of the lifts I had designed for
face for good airand rest in the the Tower. Then he led me out
protection a tabooed place.
of to one of the spacious gardens
Then I became as gay as the where the king was waiting for
king was, and when I saw the me.
many lords and ladies he invited “First I must 9how you some-
to his apartments in my honor thing over here i» the garden
and the lavish banquet he had house.”
served, I knew that I had com- He led me to a small service
pletely won his forgiveness. house where the gardeners kept
Somehow, having dissolved his their tools. With poorly hidden
shame by punishing me, his excitement he pushed me
pride had risen again in the through the entrance and closed
achievement of the day. the door behind me.
It was only natural that a I was in blackness. Then I
gnawing hope rose in me. I saw, glowing before me, a gar-
watched every entering guest. I den hoe and a fork. There was
longed more than anything else also a board with glowing let-
in the world to see the princess, ters. “Master, you are not the
and I knew that it was impossi- only inventor.” .

ble. He could not bring her What an old fox this king
here. was. The door opened and he

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 141


was standing there as proud as was rocked by a storm deep in
Sha’charn. the sea.
“You know the glowing fish
from the currents of Ohme?” na garden behind one of
I nodded, smiling at his pleas- I the lesser towers, we came to
ure. her. She sat at a table decorat-
“I keep some of those fish in ing a fabric. As we approached
the pool over there. The light she dropped the needle and her
you saw in there is the stuff hand trembled on the unfinished
from their glowing stripes. It fabric.
will last over a day, and you will I stared at her hand that was
have no trouble finding the con- telling everything and then at
trols of your craft.” her lovely face, and my chest
Sha’tule, in sunset, and Sha- ached. I bowed and it felt like I
’charn, yet a little higher, were was being moved by strings. The
splashing colors across a fluffy king asked me to be seated and
sky. The towers of the city were I stood unmindfully until he re-
irridescent with fires. The king peated his request. Then, after I
spoke as if he suggested a stroll. was seated, I found that I was
He spoke softly, too softly, and unable to speak.
he laid his hand affectionately on She did speak, but her words
my arm. meant nothing because her voice
“Would you go with me to fluttered like a bird in a snare.
have cakes and wine with the “You have been traveling many
princess?” years, Master.”
The island rocked and I put “Pardon me, Princess?”
out a hand. “I say ... I say, you have been
I was dismayed at what was away ... a long time.”
happening to me. I stammered, “Yes, I have been to many is-
“No. Highest One. That would lands, Princess.”
not be right. Do not stir this It seemed, after six years, that
thing.” this was going to be all we had
“I think so too, but I can deny to say.
her nothing. Also, I would give The king cleared his throat,
you an opportunity to ruin my and I was grateful for the com-
last hope or to vindicate the passion in his voice. "The Mas-
faith I had in you.” ter has come for soldiers to re-
This last, I did not really hear. take the Tower of his homeland
I was too dazed. I walked the from a false pretender.”
way he led me, and the island A nurse appeared at the near-
142 GALAXY
by door, and I saw that she had hand and repeated, “Come, my
with her the boy. son.” His message was not lost
A thrill gripped me. This was on me. For this was his son, the
my son. only heir he would ever have to
The nurse saw us and grasped the Tower of Thule.
frantically to return the lad to
the rooms. He her like a
fled ITThen we were alone, I went
deer, bounding over the pretty ' ' and sat beside her. The
flowers, and threw himself into light of Sha’charn was soft on
his mother’s arms. She drew his her lovely head. I saw that
head to her breast and kissed she was now a woman, even as I
his forehead and admonished was no longer a young man. I
him. had forgotten the thick beat of
The nurse hurried forward to my heart.
retrieve him, but the king waved It was as though the years
her away. “Meet the child and since our parting had stood for
me in a little while at the en- nothing. I felt my ambitions for
trance to the Great Tower. I will my homeland melting away like
go for a walk in the gardens a mist. What did I care to bind
with him.” together three ridiculous little
Momentarily, I raised my eyes islands?
from the child to his mother’s She assured me, between our
face, and found her staring at me kisses, that her father would
with a great pride and warmth. make her Provincial Queen of
Now, suddenly, we had so much the island of Lani and allow me
to say to each other that we need- to marry her as consort ruler if
ed only our eyes to speak with. I but askedit. In that beguiling

The king rose and extended twilight we both understood that


his hand to the child. “Come, my thislong separation would only
son, I will show you the lumin- deepen the delight of Lani. Our
ous fish.” touch still had the magic of our
I stared at the boy and could first touch.
not take my eyes from him. He When I had, one last time,
was as favored as I had heard. kissed her eyelids, hercheeks
He had his mother’s famous and her mouth, I her and
left

looks. But I saw, too, the shock went to ask him for this simple
to hair that is my people’s and happiness.
tile thin line of a mouth that is From behind a low cloud Sha-
mine. ’cham hurled a vast shaft of fire
The king took the child’s at the Great Tower of Thule. I

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 143


»

was momentarily dazzled. I He turned to me and gestured


looked up the cascading mosaics as if he deprecated that of which
of fire to where an old man he spoke. “It is not a law, but
waited in the pinnacle of flame. an expectation, that the King of
Then I awakened and knew Thule will be Thulian. The peo-
that Lani would never be. ple often prefer to see laws brok-
When I was admitted to his en, but they do not easily toler-
apartments, he stood at a win- ate the disappointment of an ex-
dow looking out over the wealth pectation.
of his city. He did not turn. “I have not much longer to
I waited in silence and pres- live. If Ideclare the princess to
ently he spoke. “Do not ask of be Queen and Interim Ruler the
me what she wishes. If you ask people will in time forget you
it I will allow it I suffer with and there will be no more than
both of you. But do not ask it of ill-mannered heckling when,
„-
me. f
eventually, the prince assumes
Her face, in its last look of the Tower. But if you marry
love, appeared before me and her, if you remain about as a
sharpened painfully till it blot- .”
constant reminder . .

ted out the harsh reality of the He spread his hands as a con-
room. clusion.
I heard his voice repeat, “Do He turned again to the dying
not ask it of me.” light from the window, and I
I felt the huge wave ofemo- knew that he saw a marvelous
tion on which she and I had ris- vista that I had planned. “I have
en begin to wash from me. Help- built Thule into the greatest
lessly I stood there and felt it all power on the sea. I want my son
wash from me until I was left to rule what I have built.”
empty as a cadaver that had
somehow struck a pose of adora- went down to the streets.
tion. I I was numb with loss, and
Then her face was gone and I I understoodthat, all these
was back in the bitter reality of years, I had existed on the hope
the king’s room. From far below, that eventually he would let us
the noisy happiness of the eve- live together.Now I found that
ning streets was a murmur of I was going to have to live with
irony in this high place where the bleak certainty that I would
the last light of Sha’charn lay never again hold her. At the
across the rich carpet as might thought, my mouth grew dry
a fading, blue shroud. and my palms perspired.

144 GALAXY
I walked to the tower of the

Lord Captain. While I awaited


him, looked for the last time
I

upon my
painting of Namora.
captain came from his din-
The
ing and looked at me question-
ingly.
“We leave tonight. Captain. It
is the wish of the king.”
We sailed with nine fighters.
On the morning of the second
day out, before Sha’tule had
raised the first mists from the
bobbing pumicine beds of my
home isle, we lowered the un-
derwater craft into the sea on a
boom.
remember the eerie light in
I

came from the lu-


the craft that
minousstuff of the fishes, and I
remember the soldiers cranking
desperately in the stagnant air.
I can still see the great balls of

light from the burial pools


where we surfaced and lay out
on the hogsheads, gasping like
monstrous fish.

Most clearly, I remember her


face weeping in the dark of the
sea.
remember the garden pool of
I

the Tower from which I stared


across the alabaster lilies and
heard only her voice murmur-
ing of Lani. The great sound of
the soldiers of Thule storming
through the streets of my home-
land did not still her murmur,
nor did the screams of the guards
at the gates as we three came
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE
.

from behind and cut them down. been signed by the Kings of Par-
I suppose a quiet sea will al- sos and of Tome.
ways speak to me of Lani. In any He hesitated fretfully. He
case, I can recapture her face asked many questions.
only as it drifts in the dark had expected him, in grati-
I
nether world. tude to me, and out of respect
There was a strange thing for the two great men who had
down there ... little fish with already signed the document,
rods straight up from their heads to grab a pen with haste.
on which hung bell-like lan- Instead the lout kept bringing
terns, brightly lighted. They up other matters of inconse-
came to the window and inspect- quence. He interrupted my argu-
ed me. Now they always invade ment with asides to his new
her memory, like little clowns First Overlord.
relieving tragedy. This First Overlord was sim-
ply one of yesterday’s rebels and
IX behaved accordingly. His idea of
polish was servility. Suddenly he
had the prince made king glanced at me in fright.
I that very noon. I was taking Then, like a great bell, I re-
no more chances with the lords heard what this profound king
of my home island and it is . . . had just asked yesterday’s rebel.
true, as has been claimed, that He had asked, “Where is the
when we brought him from the Chacone they sent to me with
prison to his Tower, he stumbled food while I was in prison?”
over corpses. He would have to He had asked this as though it
do that ! not once, but twice.
. . had just now occurred to him.
The officers of Thule laughed. Slowly I lowered the map
It really looked like we were which showed how Tome and
placing a dolt in the Tower to Parsos could be most efficient-
rule the teri che. ly bound to our island.
I gave him time to bathe and The First Overlord was agitat-
dine after the rudely rushed cer- ed. “She is here, Highest One.
.”
emony. Then I had myself You asked that . .

brought to him in his shoddy, “Never mind what I asked.


administrative rooms. As the Bring her.”
captain of a mercenary foroe Then he said to apologet- me
asks his price for services ren- ically, “Ah, Master, forgive these
dered, I put before our new king interruptions. So many things
the treaty which had already have come up. I know it is not
146 GALAXY
.

important to you, but I have fal- to Parsos and let you drift to
len in love. Desperately! It hap- Chryo.”
pens she is a Chacone, and I He stormed out of the room.
must determine to whom she be- “You’re under detention. Don’t
longs so that I may pay the forget it You’re under deten-
man a fair price. My mind will tion.” And then at the door, mel-
be much more receptive to your odramatically, “Oh, that you
theories when I have settled this should have blundered with her
affair of the heart.” loveliness before I found her!”
I could have choked him
was suddenly suffering a through a thousand deaths I
I very bad chill and I shiv- went to the wall and beat my fist.
ered. He took the map from my The little Chacone wept open-
hands and looked at it rather ly. She came and took my
gaily and with new interest. bruised hand and kissed it. She
“Master, this is truly a mo- sobbed, “Oh, Master, my heart
ment in our history. To think will break. I have known, Mas-
that my signature will set this ter. The way he looked at me
great plan in motion. You will from the jail, I knew this would

be the hero of our people once happen. But my heart will


they realize the greater prosper- break.”
ity and safety that will be caught the finality in her
I

theirs . statement, and I took her shoul-


The cringing First Overlord ders and stared into her face.
returned, and with him entered “What makes you think I would
my Chacone.
little give you up?”
Like the broken barking of a “You will have to. I heard
north wind I tore at him. “Why them talking.” She sobbed and
you impudent little you un- . . .
indicated the First Overlord
grateful what do you know
. . . who still stood at the door. “You

of love?” will not get the plan for the is-


He reddened and yammered. lands unless you do.”
“You can’t talk like that to mel
I’m king now, not your pupil! he knew me better than I
Do you want to stand on a stone? S knew myself. She knew I
What’s this woman to you, any- would go back to the table and
way?” stare at the map of three islands
“You know very
well what she bound in one. She knew I

is to me. Do you
think I’ll bar- would turn then to stare at her,
gain with you? No! I’ll take her because she did not wait for that

A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 147


She left quietly with the First walked alone among my people
Overlord. which are called teri che. They
I was appalled at her certain- love to drink and there are many
ty of me, and I knew that she taverns in the city. I went into
was right. I knew it with a loath- one of these and ordered spirits.
ing that began to crawl in my Then I also ordered one for the
belly like some hideous toad. amiable sot who instantly joined
How could I be so dedicated me.
to this plan of mine that I would We drank in silence for a
destroy in this girl a delicate while. Indeed, I had nothing to
monolith of love? I was a crud- say to any man since I had shut
er man than the sea bandit who myself from the tender heart of
had gloried that a thousand the Chacone. I stared without
doves cooed for death. This dove seeing across the talkative room
would coo forever in some dark and that
realized a common
recess of her heart man could come in here and
For it is true of the women of brag with impunity that he had
Chacone that they will kill them- slept with the wives of ten lords.
selves before they will let a man Then let him brag that he had
other than their owner come slept with the Chacone of one
near them. But should that own- lord, and he would be laughed
er trade them to another they out of the tavern.
will remain as faithful to the The sot could stand the silence
master, and will then as savage- no longer. “Now, Master, you’re
ly fight off the former owner as done in, aren’t you? Well, it’s a
any other man. For this they fine thing you managed, getting
are trained from childhood in the young prince to his Tower.
some esoteric drilling of the spir- Of course, this business of tying
it. us up with Parsos and Tome, I
Thus I saw that I was going don’t see. But I suppose the king
to shut myself from the heart of will decide on that.”
the Chacone, and my anger at I stood up to go. He grabbed
the king dissolved in the slime my sleeve.“Now, Master, don’t
of my loathing for myself. I take offense. You ought to get
went to him without the slight- to know your homeland. You’ve
est accusation and got his signa- been away too long doing fine
ture on the treaty with Torne things for other islands. You
and Parsos. ought to build a new Tower for
went down from the shabby
I our .

Tower of my homeland and I crashed him over the table

148 GALAXY
and into the near wall. from pride and prejudice and
For a moment the place went the demands of provincialism.
silent.The wine seller glanced The street-lighters had set the
from his counter and shook his lamps guttering, and the fog
head. moved in and turned to pearl be-
“Now, Master, it’s a fine thing tween them. Somehow the fog
to get drunk and disorderly, but brought restraint and order and
let’s not tamper with life and a muffling of guilt. As I walked
limb.” the lamps came from the fog in
a regular cadence and the damp
stalked out to the streets, planks of the street became an
I and again I was alone orderly path through chaos.
among my people. I accepted My enormous crime against
their respectful nods and bows the Chacone settled into a knot
and understood that I would al- of guilt that Iwas going to have
ways be separated from them by to live with. It was a guilt fate
this heart that could love reason had made necessary if I was to
so deeply and reason away love put through the plan and. . .

so quickly. only I would put it through.


They were right to fear my I stopped involuntarily and
plan to bind the islands togeth- declared to the fog, “I am what
er. The threat of the Ice Island- I am!” Then, glancing about
ers was too distant and the me, I walked on.
pinched faces of their children There was much to be set
too close to weigh against the in motion so that the islands
chilling logic of the step. For it could be maneuvered together
was a plan bom purely of rea- and bound. I would sail tomor-
son. It threatened much of the row for parsos and get things
spirit in them that was fashioned started.
with such disorderly grandeur — WYMAN GUIN
All stories complete in Worlds of Tomorrow
A. Bertram Chandler
Richard Wilson
J. T. McIntosh
Lester del Rey
— and many morel
November Issue still on sale — get your copy today
A MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 149
LET ME CALL
HER SWEETCORE
by DAVID R. BUNCH

lh, love/ Without it, we would


be like robots.With it, robots
would be like — well, like what?

had just come in from a hard the truth -bottom of things at


I day of expediting at the once I asked, “Something wrong,
power wafer works, and I and Dan?”
Dan the Can were getting settl- The lower half of his face
ed for one of our usual event- crashed open like a scoop ready
less evenings. I thought. to dip. “Yoops,” he said in the
I was making myself comfort- funny grating way sound always
able in a soof-air chair, one with came out of him when he was
pulsing upholstery that massaged upset. “Sompin’ wroong.”
buttocks, thighs and back, and “What’s wrong then, Dan?”
Dan was standing by on his solid “At’s Noona. I bea woontin’
square- cornered feet, ready to do her. Ever since I saw her in a
what I asked. But soon I saw shoop, yesterday when we strool-
he wasn’t his usual self. When ed, I bea woontin’ her.”
he changed the set of the chair “But Dan!” I said, amused
pumps and brought me my so- and alarmed at the same time.
mooso pipe and dozoff shoes I “Is this Noona someone like
noted some strange agitation. you?”
Always fearing for our rela- “Noops. She’s a a— —well, I
tionship and wanting to get at guess yoo’d say she’s a goorl.”

150
"Sure, of course. But is she — Dan, we function. Why should
well, is she a manufactured ar- we be cluttering the works with
ticle like you? I mean, Dan, is this Noona?”
«he mechanical?” “Amoosement,” grated Dan.
Dan’s protruding eyes that “Foon. Loove, too. Besides I
usually glowed a kind of deep get loonesome when you’re oop
red when he was feeling right at the wafer factoory all day.”
changed to purple-blue. With “Dan!” I almost screamed, so
those weird beams he looked surprised was I that he should
straight at me. He didn’t answer speak so. “Do we not play chess
my question, but he laughed a or checkers every night, emo-
screechy laugh that sent shivers tionless games that give our
over my body. “Heepa heepa steel-sharp minds a chance to
heepa,” it sounded. function? Do I not let you sit
“Change the air, Dan!” I in the rolling soof-air chair when
shouted to reestablish my mas- you want to? Though for the life
tery. “Set the needle on tired of me I don’t know why you,
man’s roll, the way you know I with your steel shell, want to.
always want it when I’m done Do I not feed you your power
with businessman’s come-home.” wafers every day promptly at
He moved sluggishly toward the the hour we begin our evening?
pumps. In short, Dan, are you not one
“Brisk, Dan!” I snapped. “Get of the best-cared-for robots in

itdone.” He moved then with town?”


speed that rattled the floor. “Need Noona!” he bellowed
“And another thing, Dan. Re- his reply. “Saw her inna shoop
member, you and I have been yesterday when we strooled. Saw
tiieperfect relationship for four that loovely name in raised
years now. Or, in other words, loomps on her chest! Saw her
ever since I obtained you from firm hoord legs as she bent to
the government robot pool and pick up a sack, yesterday when
started to work at the state we passed.”
wafer factory. Through all the Then he started making the
working day I help make wafers gestures that always brought me
to feed your ever-demanding to my feet. He raised up the
power maw; you burn those hinged section of his chest and
wafers to serve me. Most of the threatened to tear out his heart,
human emotions are gone from or, more specifically, the core
me now. Thank God you never where the power wafers digest-
had any. We live the great life, ed. “Don’t Dan,” I pleaded, as

LET ME CALL HER SWEETCORE 151


I always did. “That would kill “Yes Dan,” I said, trying to


you. And I need you need you — smile, “a promise is a promise.
to give my life a meaning. Or And of course I want to see
more accurately, perhaps, I re- Noona too.”
quire your presence to make my “Goob. I like you.” And he
non-meaning
life’s bearable. caused his fingers to stop mak-
Anyway — ing those threats.
“Goo see Noona,” he suggested After breakfast I pushed the
as a kind ultimatum while
of emergency leave button for time
his steel fingers played with the off from work, and the wafer
core where the wafers digested. factory sent up a green positive-
“Go see Noona,” I promised, reply flare from the Time-Clock
not knowing how else to save building. So we started, led by
Dan. “Tomorrow. I’ll take off Dan.
work.” He clumped and rattled along
almost at a run. He seemed en-
XT ext morning I arose from my tirely confident of his direction
* ^ bed that had the roko-pulse as we went past the power wafer
mattress with
the exciting big plants, the rocket mills and
spongy knobs and the tingly- many factories where machines
lined holes, and I went to see were being whammed together
Dan who was standing like a by other machines at terrific
steel rock, firmly planted beside pace amidst great I did noise.
the soof-air chair. I feared that not remember going past these
he had stood all night there in places yesterday, but Dan did
a kind of trance, dreaming metal not seem to be lost. And when
dreams of Noona. we got to the place he sought,
“Good morning, Dan,” I said, a shop in the big-number streets
checking his power unit. far from the main part of town,

He I understood. We had been


replied, “Goob morning,”
there yesterday, but we had
in a normal voice that made me
have hopes that we would not come by a different route.
have to go see his girl friend “No woonderin’ by the river
after all. But near the end of and woostin’ time this time,”
my breakfast Dan clumped over said Dan. “I coom today by the
to stand beside me. “Goo see?” way I like. Short.”
he asked, letting metal fingers We went into a littered place
idly flicker up and down past where a small man sat by him-
the place where his chest would self. There was something de-

come open. feated in the way the arms pull-

152 GALAXY
ed the shoulders down and trail- hole.But the pounding contin-
ed along the chair sides, dumping ued that sounded like a ham-
hands toward the floor. His eyes mer tapping a chisel.
were tragic, and when he spoke could see that each tap tore
I
it was in a voice that hurried at Dan’s power core and almost
to have done with what it had ripped him apart. I felt sorry
to say. for Dan the Can then, but soon
“Hear noise?” I admired him. For once he had
We heard it, a tappity-rap and made his decision he hardly
rattle sound surely locked in a wasted a tick. He leaped through
closet somewhere, or maybe in the air like a dedicated being
a basement under us. “When and fell several feet to the ce-
you don’t hear it, it’ll be all ment floor of that basement
over. Don’t care. Did all I could. hole. I heard him hit, and it
Wouldn’t listen.” sounded like dumping scrap at
“Who? What?” I blurted. tiie mill. I shuddered.
“Noona,” he cried. “Commit- When the noise of Dan’s de-
ting suicide. Now. Hammering scent cleared away, the tapping
at the locks put on. She’ll get
I noise seemed louder for a mo-
them. Nothing can seem to stop ment. Then it stopped altogeth-
the crazy force she’s working er. New sounds took its place,
for now. But I don’t care now.” the smallest of scratchy noises
“But why? What?” down in that basement dark, like
“Something from yesterday. metal sections being tenderly
Couldn’t understand. Good up opened on hinges that made al-
to then, good functional. Helped most no noise. Through this
in this parts store. Helped me were the two soft words, Danny
to prosper. could buy more
I — Noona, said with a strange
wafers. She could help me more. metallic tenderness. Then they
It was a good arrangement. Then came up in each others arms.
yesterday —
Something passed The shopowner could hardly
in the street! believe what he saw. His eyes
“Noona!” Dan shrieked. became strangely bright when he
“Don’t do it. Here’s loove!” And saw them embrace. ,

he pounded across to a place in Then a petty anger shond


the floor and stamped hard on through the tragedy in them,
the boards. A hidden door sprang “Worse than death!” he scream-
up. “Don’t!” Dan screamed ed at Noona, who definitely was
again, and he went to his knees a girl robot with steel ringlets
to peer into the dark basement to her head and roundness at

LET ME CALL HER SWEETCORE 153


places. “Worse than if you’d torn dominate one another.. I knew
out your power wafers!” something must soon give way.
“Did doo,” said Noona smil- It happened one cold March
ing a simperish, half -embarrass- evening, about six months after
ed smile out of her square, shin- the nuptials of Noona and Dan.
ing face. I had called eight times for
“Did too,” echoed Dan smil- Dan to come change the chair
ing worse than a bridegroom as massage from businessman’s
he raised his chest’s hinged part. come-home to home-owner’s
“We’re soo much a part of each bounce-around, and he hadn’t
oother.” obeyed. I went after him. I met
Then I saw what they had him coming from the back beige
done! They had exchanged pow- room where he and Noona had
er cores. quarters; his scoop-shaped face
“Well, whatta ya know!” I was twitching so that it shook
blurted, and the shopowner yell- his eyes. “I hate hate hate her!”
ed, “Hell’s hinges, this will kill he screamed. “But she has noo
them both.” power power oover anything
noow. I’m glad.” He was clutch-
XToona of course came home ing his power core in his metal
^ to live with Dan and me, fingers, having ripped it from
since the shopowner said he no Noona’s chest! “I’m my own can
longer had any use for her, now!”
couldn’t trust her now anyway. “But Dan,” I cried, “you can’t
In the days that followed I use two! Take Noona back her
saw how much the man was right power; then we’ll turn her out
in predicting disaster for the of this house. We’ll go back to
metal lovebirds. Noona and Dan, our functional living. We’ll be
after a few weeks of dallying through with emotion and this
and toying with each other’s silly love-and-stuff.”
metal sections and being enam- “Noo,” shrieked Dan as he
ored with each other’s nearness, ripped her power from his chest.
became, like almost any other He clapped in his own and threw
married pair, bored and snap- hers out the window; it landed
pish with each other. And I, in a garbage pail. “Damn
remembering my own less-than- Noona!” he continued, still

successful marriage of many shrieking. “She’s rooned my life.


years ago, watched with bitter But I have looved her —
I could
amusement as these two, with never stand to see her with an-
desires horribly mixed, tried to oother.”

154 GALAXY
“Let’s go adjust the massage I hardly ever mention her name
and be like old times,” I sug- as we grow quietly older, so
gested. assured, unbothered, coolly
so
So we did, after awhile. And living our never changing func-
after many weeks Dan seemed tional routine.
almost to forget that tragic pe- But sometimes when the moon
riod when he had been slave to shines down a certain way on
Noona and love’s sickening emo- the wafer factory roofs and there
tions. Now our days are spent, is a soft touch of valentine wea-

much the same as before Noona, ther in a pink and peaceful time,
among the clean-cut little vic- and steel lovers sing to their
tories of functional living. Eight steel ladies in the big entertain-
hours I work at the power wafer ment panels of the wall, I see
factory so that I may earn Dan get that funny look. Then
enough wafers to power Dan the I say, “Dan, you’ve been work-
can for eight hours of game- ing too hard again, Dan; time
playing and care in the soof-air for your vacation again, Dan.”
chair. Eight hours I sleep. And And before he can react to stop
Noona just lies in the back beige me I rush over to jerk out his
room, cold, alone, without any power wafers —to save him
power, waiting for some master from — well, to save him from
tinkerer in robots I suppose to his foolish foolish self.
come and repair her. Dan and — DAVID R. BUNCH

FORECAST
Next issue brings long stories by Cordwainer Smith, J. T. McIntosh and

James H. Schmitz, as well as shorts by well, well see how many we can
fit in. We think it will be a rather outstanding issue, in terms of its fiction

content. But what we want to tell you about right now is not the fiction
but the features.
Feature one: The next Willy Ley column 'is produced at the suggestion
and special request of Betsy Curtis, herself a first-rate writer. "What," she
asked us recently, "are all those different kinds of things called orreries
that see in museums and shops?"
I We
fielded the question neatly by
passing it on to Willy; and the result is his upcoming column, which will
tell you rather more than you thought there was to know about orreries

(otherwise known as the poor man's planetarium) and their successor


devices for portraying planetary orbits.
Feature two: Next issue we bring back our regular book review column,
an event which we have postponed until we were able to find the reviewer
we liked best. We've got him now. His name is Algis Budrys.
LET ME CALL HER SWEETCORE 155
TO AVENGE MAN
by LESTER DEL REY

ILLUSTRATED BY MORROW

Men were dead, but they had left


mourners behind . determined
. .

to track down their murderers I

I it of understanding, fought
against that limit, and surged
T Tate spewed across the gal- past it to limitless possibilities.
axy in a high crusade. Metal
-*• But behind all the arts and
ships leaped from world to sciences lay the drive of reli-
world and hurtled across space gion. And the religion was one of
to farther and farther stars. ancient anger and dedicat-
Planets surrendered their ores ed hate.
to sky-reaching cities, built The ships filled the galaxy un-
around fortress temples and til every world was conquered.

supported by vast networks of For a time they hesitated, pre-


technology.Then more ships paring for the great leap out-
were spawned, armed with in- ward. Then the armadas sailed
credible weapons, and sent forth again, across thousands and mil-
in the eternal search for an ene- lions of light-years toward the
my. beckoning galaxies beyond.
the teeming cities and
In With each ship went the holy
aboard the questing ships, soul- image of their faith and the un-
wrenching music was composed, sated and insatiable hunger of
epic fiction and supernal poetry their hate . .
wfere written, and great paint-
ings and sculpture were devel- II
oped, to be forgotten as later
and nobler work was done. Sci- Hphe cat-track labored up the
ence strove for the ultimate lim- rough road over the crater

156
wall, topped the last rise and be- answer seriously. “I like your
gan humming its way down into company very much, Hal.”
Aristarchus. As it dipped He hadalways liked the com-
into the ink black of its own pany of the men he’d met on
shadow from the sun behind, its Earth or during his many years
headlights flashed on. Around on the Moon. Humans, he had
it, the jagged rocky walls scintil- decided long ago, were wonder-
lated in a riot of reflected colors ful. He had enjoyed the long
from crystal fractures that had field trip with Hal Norman
never been dulled by wind or while they collected data from
rain. the automatic recorders scat-
Inside the cab, the driver’s tered over the lunar surface. But
seat groaned protestingly at the itwould still be good to get back
robot’s weight as Sam shifted his to the dome, where the men had
six hundred terrestrial pounds given him the unique privilege
forward. Coming home was al- of joining them. There he could
ways a good time. He switched listen to the often inexplicable
lenses in his eyes and began but always fascinating conversa-
scanning the crater floor for the tion of forty men. And there,
first sight of the Lunar Base perhaps, he could join them in
Dome, though he knew it was their singing.
still hidden around a twist of Music and reading were the
the trail. chief recreations of the men
“You don’t have to be quite so here. There were thousands of
all-fired anxious to get back, microbooks in the dome library,
Sam,” Hal Norman complained. brought in a few at a time by
But the little selenologist was al- many men over the long years.
so gazing forward eagerly. “You They were one of the few taboos.
might show some appreciation It was against orders for Sam to
for the time I’ve spent answer- read any of them, and a man
ing your fool questions and try- had once told him that it was to
ing to pound sense into your tin save him from unnecessary con-
head. Anybody’d think you fusion. But the collection of mu-
didn’t like my company,” he sic was not forbidden, and he
pouted humorously. was often permitted to join in
Sam made the sound of a hu- their singing. All the robots had
man chuckle as he had taught perfect pitch, of course. But
himself to acknowledge all the only Sam had learned to sing ac-
verbal nonsense men called hu- ceptably enough to win a place
mor. But truth compelled him to in the dome.
TO AVENGE MAN 157
In anticipation, he began keep the stranded crew alive un-
humming a chanty about the sea til rescue could be sent. The
he had never seen. The cat-track three ships bore a striking re-
hummed downward between the semblance to the one that had
walls of the road that had been crashed. The only other such
crudely bulldozed from the rub- ships were those used in the
ble of the crater. Then they third expedition. But they had
broke out into the open, and he been parked in orbit around
could see the dome and the ter- Earth after the end of the third
ritory around it expedition fifty years ago. Once
Hal grunted in surprise. the Base was established, their
“That’s odd. I hoped the supply capacity had no longer been
rocket would be in. But what needed, and they were inefficient
are those three ships doing for routine supply shipment and
here?” the rotation of the men stationed
Sam cut off the headlights and here.
switched back to wide-angle
lenses. Now most of the crater T)efore he could comment
was visible, until it vanished on the ships, the buzzer
against the horizon, giving place sounded, indicating that Base
to the blackness of the sky and had spotted the cat-track. Sam
the myriad colored pinpoints of flipped the switch and acknowl-
the stars. Ahead lay the low edged the call.
dome that roofed the Base, with “Hi, Sam.” It was the voice of
its biphase microwave antenna Dr. Robert Smithers, the leader
tracking the manned space plat- of Lunar Base. “Butt out, will
form that circled Earth. Half a you? I want to talk to Hal.”
mile beyond it stood three ships, Sam could have tuned in on
bulky with exposed tanks and the communication frequency
each carrying a huge passenger with his own receptors, since
globe encased in bracing girders. the signal was strong enough at
They didn’t look like supply this distance. But he obeyed the
rockets. order to avoid listening as Hal
Sam’s eyes swept across the reached for the handset. There
crater floor, almost to the hori- was no way to detune his audio
zon. There he could make out receptors, however.
the crumpled wreck of an early He heard Hal’s greeting.
ship, still by the
surrounded Then there was silence for at
supply capsules that had been least a minute.
sent on automatic control to Hal’s face was shocked and
158 GALAXY
serious when he
finally spoke to his set, unsmiling expression
again. “But damned non-
that’s was usually meant to be a form
sense, Chief!Earth got over such of humor. He filed the puzzling
insanity half a century ago. words away in his permanent
There hasn’t been a sign of . . memory for later consideration.
Yes, sir . . . All right, sir. Thanks The terminator was rushing
for not taking off without me.” across the lunar surface. It
He hung up the handset, shak- would soon be night. More than
ing head. When he faced
his half of the near crater was al-
Sam, his expression was unread- ready hidden in blackness,
able. “Full speed, Sam.” though sunlight was still reach-
“There’s trouble,” Sam ing the Base, and the territory
guessed. He threw the cat-track beyond was in glaring white
into its top speed of thirty miles light. But the undiffused sha-

an hour, fighting and straining dows stretched long behind ev-


with the controls. Only a robot ery projection in the road. See-
could manage the tricky ma- ingwas hard as they neared the
chine at such a rate over the dome, and all Sam’s attention
crude road, and it required his had to be directed to his driving.
full attention. Behind him, he heard Hal get-
Hal’s voice was strange and ting into the moonsuit to leave
harsh. “We’re being sent back to the cab.
Earth. Big trouble, Sam. But Sam
brought the cat-track to a
what can you know of war and halt to let Hal out at the en-
rumors of war?” trance to the sealed un-
“War was a dangerous form of derground hemisphere of lunar
political insanity, outlawed at rock that was the true dome —
the conference of 1983,” Sam The light upper structure was
quoted from a speech that had simply a shield against the heat
come over the radio. “Human of the sun. He drove the ma-
warfare has now become un- chine under that and shut off
thinkable.” the motor.
“Yeah. Human war.” Hal As he emerged from the air-
made arough sound in his lock, air gushed out of small ca-
throat. “But not cruel and inhu- vities of hisbody and made a
man war, it seems Oh, hell. . . . haze of glittering crystals that
Stop looking so gloomy; it’s not fell slowly to the surface. But he
your problem.” felt no discomfort. There was
Sam decided against chuck- only the faint click as a pressure
ling this time, though reference sensitive piezzo-electric switch

TO AVENGE MAN 159


activated a relay inside his torso. than that of a man. There had'
That switch was designed as an been thirty of the model origin-
emergency measure, to turn his ally, but accidents had left only
power on if there should be a a few more than twenty. And of
puncture of the dome wh:?e he the original Mark Ones, only
was inactivated, and now it Sam was still functioning.
merely the pressure
indicated “When dc we leave?” he
drop. Maybe one of the reasons called to one of the little robots
the men liked having him in- over the radio circuit.
side was the existence of that The black head turned slowly
switch, since it could save their toward him. “We do not know.
lives —
though he hoped there The men did not tell us.”
were other explanations. There “Didn’t you ask them?” he
had been no room in the Mark called. But he had no need of
Three robots for such devices. their denial. They had not been
He saw some of the Mark told to ask.
Threes waiting just beyond the They were still unformed, less
entrance as he approached. than five years old, and their
There were tracks in the lunar thoughts were tied to the educa-
dust leading to the space ships, tion given by the computers in
but whatever ferrying they had the creche. They lacked more
done was obviously finished, and than twenty years of his intimate
they were merely standing in association with men. But some-
readiness. They were totally un- times he wondered whether they
like him. would ever learn enough, or
whether they had been too
am bulked over the tiny strongly repressed in training.
S black robots. One of them, Men were afraid of robots back
directly in his path, slipped un- on Earth, as Hal Norman had
der his raised arm to make room once told him, which was why
for him, moving with a light they were still being used only
gracefulness that he couldn’t ap- on the Moon.
proximate. He was bulky and He turned away from them
mechanical, designed only for and went down the entrance to
when
fuhction, in the early days the inner dome. The entrance
men needed help on the Moon. led to the great community
The Mark Threes were almost room, and the men were all ga-
childlike, under their dark ena- thered wearing moon-
there,
mel, and their size and weight suits. They were arguing with
had been pared down to less Hal as he began emerging from

160 GALAXY
NX

TO AVENGE MAN
the lock, but at sight of Sam the those behind. He’s worth more
words were cut off. He stared than the whole lot of them.”
about in the silence, feeling sud- “Yeah. He is. But my orders
denly awkward. specify that all men and the
“Hello, Sam,” Dr. Smithers maximum possible number of
said finally. He was a tall, spare robots must be returned.” Smith-
man of barely thirty, but seven ers twisted his lips savagely and
years of responsibility here had suddenly turned to face the ro-
etched deep lines into his face bot. “Sam, I’ll give it to you
and put gray in his mustache, straight. I can’t take you with
though his other hair was still us. We have to leave you here
jet black. “All right, Hal. Your alone. I’m sorry, but that’s how
things are on the ship. I cut it it has to be.”
fine waiting for you, so we’re “You won’t be alone, Sam,”
leaving at once. No more argu- Hal Norman said. “I’m staying.”
ments. Get out there!” Sam stood silently for a mo-
“Go to hell!” Hal told him. “I ment, letting it register. His cir-
don’t desert my friends.” cuits found it hard to integrate.
Other men began moving out. He had never thought of being
Sam stepped aside to let them separated from these men who
pass, but they seemed to avoid had been his life. Going back to
looking at him. Earth had been easy to accept;
Smithers sighed wearily. he’d gone back there once be-
“Hal, I can’t argue this with fore. Little hopes and future-pic-
you. You’ll go if I have to chain tures he hadn’t known were in
you. Do you think I like this? hismind began to appear.
But we’re under military orders But with those came memor-
now. They’re going crazy back ies of Hal Norman’s expressed
there. They didn’t find out about hopes and dreams. The man had
the expected attack until a week showed Sam a picture of his fu-
ago, as near as I can learn, but ture wife and tried to describe
they’ve already canceled space. all that such a creature meant to
Damn it, I can’t take him! We’re a man. He’d spoken of green
at the ragged limit of available fields and the sea. He’d raved
lift now, and he represents six about Earth too often during the
hundred pounds of mass — more days they were together.
than four of the others,” he raised Sam moved forward toward
hisarms slightly. Hal. The man saw him coming
Hal gestured sharply toward and began to back away, but he
the outside. “Then leave four of was no match for the robot. Sam
162 GALAXY
held his arms and closed the could understand, and even they
moonsuit, then gathered the made no sense. With the men all
man up carefully. Hal was strug- gone, there would be no spare
gling, but it did no good against time. There would be more than
Sam’s determination. he could possibly find time to
“All right, Dr. Smithers. We accomplish. The great solar ob-
can go now,” Sam told the Chief. servatory across the crater would
need tending, the selenographs
rT''hey were the last to leave would have to be checked and
the dome. The little black at least the routine reports from
robots were already marching allinstruments would have to be
across the surface, with the men sent off weekly. He should have
straggling along behind them. had hours of instructions, but
Smithers fell into step with Sam, now it looked as if there would
moving as if the burden was on be no time for more than hasty
his back instead of in the arms orders.

of the robot. Hal had ceased By the time the three reached
struggling. He lay outwardly the nearest ship, the other men
quiet; but through the suit, and the little robots were all
Sam’s body receptors picked up aboard. The Chief motioned Hal
sounds that he had heard only up the ramp. For a moment the
twice before on occasions he younger man hesitated. He
tried not to remember. They turned toward Sam, started to
were the sounds of a man trying make a motion, and then swung
to control his weeping. away and dashed into the ship,
Half way to the ships, faint his shoulders shaking convul-
words came over the radio. “Put sively.

me down, Sam. I’ll go quietly.” Smithers stood after the


still

Sam obeyed, and the three other had disappeared. The ra-
moved on together. Smithers’ dio brought the sound of a sigh,
hand touched Sam’s shoulder, before the man moved. But there
and the man’s words came were no words.
through his suit. “Thanks, Sam. “You haven’t given me my or-
Handling Hal was a favor I no ders,” Sam reminded him.

longer had the right to ask erf Smithers shook his head, as if
you. Well, it looks as if you’re coming out of some deeper
going to have a lot of time to thoughts ef his own. His lips
.” twitched into what might have
kill. And we . .

He didn’t finishthe thought. been a smile. “No, Sam. There


Sam mulled over the words he are no orders. All orders, past.

TO AVENGE MAN 163


present or future — all are can- space, carrying the men toward
celed. There is no more work. the rendezvous with Earth’s or-
Space is finished!” bital station. Sam watched until
He put his foot on the ramp they were beyond the range of
and turned partly away from Then, with-
his strongest vision.
Sam. Then abruptly he swung out orders or knowledge of why
back. he acted, he turned into the
“Good-by, Sam,” he said thick- dome. It was silent and empty
ly. His right hand lifted in a around him.
brief gesture. “Don’t forget the He stared at the clock on the
books!” wall and at the calendar that
A moment later, he was they had kept marked off. He
through the entrance to the ship. hadn’t found how long they
The ramp was drawn in after would be gone. But Smithers’
him, and the great outer seal of words gave a vague answer he —
the rocket ship began to close. would have a lot of time to kill.
That could mean anywhere from
Ill one month to most of a year,
judging by the application of
Cam ran back to the en- similar phrases in the past. He
^ trance to the dome, to avoid looked at the shelves filled with
the blast. As he ran, he realized microbooks for a few moments.
slowly the meaning of what Then he went outside, to stare
Smithers had said. up at the Earth in the sky above
No orders! There hadn’t even him. There were spots of light
been orders left for him to come in the dark areas that he knew
back here, back to the place men to be the cities of men. There
had left. Yet his feet went on were men there, a quarter of a
moving, as if acting on some million miles away, and there
strange orders of their own. must be speech and man-laugh-
The edge of darkness had ter and singing.

touched the dome now, leaving He stood there a long time,


the rocket standing in the last staring upwards. Finally he went
light as he turned back. He back inside, to tidy up the mess
Watched the takeoff of the three the men had made in theirhasty
heavily laden ships. They stag- leaving. He folded the few
spare
gered up slowly on great tails of clothes put them away,
and
flame. They rose on sharper jets cleaned the cooking equipment
until they were above the crater and straightened up as best he
walls and against the black of could. Hal had left the picture

164 GALAXY
of the female man about whom news and entertainment from
he’d spoken so often, and Sam the relay on the orbital station,
stared at it, trying again to un- but no signal was coming
derstand. At last, he put it care- through. He debated calling
fully into a drawer, closing it them, but initiating such a call
away from view. was reserved for Smithers. And
The microbooks Hal had liked he was gone.
to keep near him were in the He was outside again, staring
same drawer, and they reminded at Earth the next time the famil-
Sam of Smithers’ last words. iar spots that should have been
“Don’t forget the books!” The citiesswam into the darkened
words seemed needless, since side of Earth. There were still
Sam could never forget unless no spots of lights. Even with the
ordered to do so. And the Chief small telescope used for the in-
had said there were no orders. frequent observations of Earth,
There wasn’t even an order he could detect no sign of the
against reading the books now. cities. There was only the hint

And that, Sam realized, might of a dull glow in a few places,


have been what Smithers was in- too diffuse to be from normal
dicating to him in those final lights. And the radio was silent.
words.
The second day after the take- T T e paced about, trying to
off of the ship, Sam was watch- -* force his eyes to see what
ing the dark areas of Earth was not there to see. Men had to
again when some of them grew be there! And the lights of their
suddenly brighter. New spots of cities would be the proof of it
brightness rose and decayed dur- —the assurance that men were
ing the hours he watched. They still talking and making what
were far brighter than any city they called jokes and singing,
should have been. Other spots even if they were beyond his
glowed where no cities had been hearing. Now suddenly, he
before. But eventually, they all needed that proof, and there was
faded. After that, there were no no evidence! It was as if all men
bright areas at all. had disappeared with the going
As Earth turned slowly, he saw of the few from the Moon!
that all the cities on Earth were Through all the fifth day, he
now dark. waited before the radio with the
It was a mystery for which he gain turned up to its maximum.
had no explanation. He went in- The men who had left here
side to try the radio that brought should have arrived at their des-

TO AVENGE MAN 165


tination now. He knew there was But at last he threaded it into
no reason to expect such a call; the microreader and sat down
men were not obligated to report to read.
to a robot, as they would have It started well enough, and it
reported to other men. But his was about some strange kind of
brain circuits had been filled man, not about astronomy. But
with odd future-pictures that then
drove him to the set and kept Sam made a strange sound,
him there for long hours after only slowly realizing that he had
he knew there would be no sig- imitated the groan of a man for
nal for him. the first time in his existence. It
Finally, he knew there would was all madness!
be no call. He got up and went He knew men had never
into the empty room where the reached Mars —
and couldn’t
men had spent so much of their reach this Mars, because the
time. planet was totally unlike what
Eventually his pacing led him he knew existed. It must be some
to themusic player. They had let strange form of human humor.
him use it at times, and he Or else there were men unlike
turned to it now, to fill theemp- any he had known and facts that
tiness of the room and of his had been kept from him. The
mind with sound. He found a latter seemed more probable.
tape that was one of his favorites He struggled through it, to
and threaded it. But when the fi- groan again when it ended and
nal chorus of Beethoven’s Ninth he still didn’t know what had
reached its end, the dome happened to the strange female
seemed more empty and silent man who was a princess and who
than He found another
ever. laid highly impossible eggs. But
tape, without voices this time. by then he had begun to like
And was followed by an-
that John Carter. He wanted to read
other. It helped a little, but it more. He was confused — but
was not enough. even more curious than puzzled.
It was then that he turned to Eventually, he found the whole
the books, taking one at ran- series and read them all.
dom. It was something about It was much later that one of
Mars, by a human named Edgar the books solved some of the puz-
Rice Burroughs, and he started zle for him. There was a small
to put it back. He had already note before the book really be-
learned enough about astronomy gan: This is a work of specula-
from the education machine. tive fiction; any resemblance to

166 GALAXY
present-day persons or events is and think less as he went
entirely coincidental. He looked through it, it was fiction.

up fiction in the dictionary he There was one book that was


had seen the men use and felt hardest of all to classify. It was
better afterwards. It wasn’t quite an old book, written before men
like humor, but it wasn’t fact, had gone out into space. Yet it
either. It was a game of some was full of carefully documented
kind, where the rules of life were and related facts about an inva-
all changed about in idiosyncra- sion of flying saucers from far
tic ways. The writer might pre- in space. Eventually he was
tend that men liked to kill each forced to decide from the inter-
other or were afraid of women, nal evidence that it was fact; but
or some other ridiculous idea; it left him disturbed and unhap-
then he tried to show what might py-
happen. It was obviously taboo Hal Norman had referred to
to pretend about real people and inhuman war, and Dr. Smithers
events, though some of the books had mentioned an attack. Could
had stories that used names and it be that the strange ships from
backgrounds that had the same somewhere had struck Earth?
names as those in reality. He remembered the brilliant
The best fiction of all some- lights over the cities, so much
times looked like books of fact, like the great ray weapons des-
if the writer was clever enough. cribed in some of the fiction
“History” was mostly that. There about space war. Sometimes
was a whole imaginary world there were elements of truth
called Rome, was
for instance. It even in fiction. There had been
fortunate that Sam had been a book about men who went back
taught the simple facts of man’s in time and fought totally im-
progress by the education ma- possible monsters —
and then he
chine before reading such books. had discovered that there really
Men, it was true, had sometimes had been dinosaurs of that size
been violent, but not when they and kind.
understood all the facts or could There was a book about those
help it.
who spoke for Boskone, and puz-
zling suggestions that the evil
n the end he evolved a sim- men who seemed to have exist-
I ple classification. If a book ed were agents of that Boskone,
made him think hard and forced or of the Eich. It would at least
him to strain to follow it, it was explain why the probably fic-
fact; if it made him read faster tional Hitler could be treated as

TO AVENGE MAN 167


fact, inbooks that otherwise did “ In the gray beginning of things
not seem to be fiction. that began,
If invaders had come in great “The word of the earth in the
ships to fight against Earth, it ears of the world, was it God?
might take men longer than Sam was it man?"
cared to think about to fight
them off. If there were flying Sam went up and down the
saucers or ships of the Eich at- dome for most that day,
of
tacking Earth, some of his men chanting to that the
himself
might never come back at all! word of the earth in the ears of
And there was nothing Sam the world was man! Then he
could do here to help them. turned back to other poetry.
He went outside to stare at the None quite equaled that one
sky. Earth still showed no sign experience, but most of it stirred
of cities. They must be blacked his circuits in strange ways. A
out, as they would be if flying book of limericks even surprised
saucers were in their skies. He him twice to the point where he
searched the space over the chuckled, without realizing that
Moon, but he could find no he had never done that spontan-
strange craft. Then he went back eously before.
inside to read through the mi- There were slightly over four
crobooks again. thousand volumes in the little li-
It was poetry that somehow brary, including the technical
finally shoved the worry from books. He timed them carefully,
his mind. He had tried poetry stretching them by rereading his
before, and given up, unable to favorites, until he finished the
follow it. But this time he made last at exactly midnight on the
a discovery. He tried reading it eve of the takeoff anniversary.
aloud, until it began to beat at The next twenty-four hours he
him and force its rhythm on spent outside the dome, watching
him. He was reading Swin- the sky and staring at Earth,
burne’s Hymn of Man, attracted while his radio receptors
by the title, and suddenly the scanned all the frequencies.
words and something besides be- It had been a lot of time al-
gan to sing their way into his ready killed. But there was no
deepest mind. signal, and no rocket ship blast-
He went back over four lines ed down, bringing back the men.
again and again, until they were At midnight he gave a sighing
music, or all that music had sound and went back inside the
tried to say and had failed: dome. In the technical section.

168 GALAXY
be unlocked the controls for the into operation to turn him on
atomic generator and turned it automatically.
down to lowest idling rate.
its A few minutes later he found
He came back, turning the now the hole. A meteoroid the size of
dim lights off as he moved. In an egg must have hit the surface
the main room, he put his favor- above. It had struck with
ite tape on the player and the enough force to blast a tiny cra-
copy of Swinburne in the micro- terlet almost completely through
reader. But he did not turn them the dome, and internal pressure
on. Instead, he dropped his had done the rest
heavy body quietly onto the He secured patching material
floor before the entrance, where and began automatically mak-
the men would be sure to see him ing the repairs. There was still

when they finally returned. more than enough air in


Then one hand reached up the tanks to fill the dome again.
firmly, and he turned himself Sam sighed as the first whis-
off. per of sound reached him from
the tape player. He flipped his
IV switch back to on position before
the rising pressure negated the
Cam’s eyes turned toward emergency circuit. He still had
the entrance as conscious- to get back to the entrance to
ness snapped on again. There resume his vigil. It had simply
was no sign of men there. He been bad luck that had aroused
stood up, staring about the dome, him before the men could re-
then hastened outside to stare turn.
across the floor of the crater. It He moved back through the
lay bare, except for the old dome, hardly looking. But his
wrecked rocket ship. eyes were open, and his mind
Men had not come back. gradually began to add the evi-
Inside again, he looked for dence. There was no way to tell
something that might have fall- how long he had been uncon-
en and hit his switch. The switch scious; he had no feeling of any
itself was still in the off position, time. But there was dust over
however. And when he turned everything —
dust that had been
on the tape player, no sound disturbed by the outrushing air,
came. It was confirmation but that had still patina-plated
enough. Something had hap- itself on metal firmly enough to
pened to the air in the dome, remain. And some of the metal
and his internal switch had gone showed traces of corrosion. That
TO AVENGE MAN 169

must have taken years! sky, glowing blue and white,
He stopped abruptly, checking with touches of brown in a few
his battery power. The cobalt- places. He saw the outline of
platinum cell had been fully continents through the cloud
charged when he lay down. Now cover, and reorganized the great
it was at less than half charge. cities that must lie within the
Such batteries had an extremely thin darkened area. There should
slow leakage. Even allowing for have been lights visible there,
residual conductance through even against the contrast of
his circuits, it would have taken brighter Earthlight.
at least thirty years for such a But there was no light.
loss! He sighed soundlessly again,
Thirty years! And the men and now he felt himself relaxing.
had not come back. The attackers must still be hov-
ering there! The dangerous Ufo-
\ groan came to his ears, things from space. Men were still

and he turned quickly. But embattled and unable to return


it had only been his own voice. to him. Thirty years of that for
And now he began shouting. He them, and here he was losing
was still trying to shout in the balance over what had been only
airless void as he reached the a year of his conscious time!
surface. He caught himself, brac- He faced the worst of possi-
ing his back against the dome as bilities more calmly now. He
his balance circuits reacted to even forced himself to admit
some wild impulse from his that men might have been so
brain. badly crippled by the war that
Men would never desert him. they could not return to him
They had to come back to the perhaps not for more time than
Moon to finish their work, and he could think of. Smithers had
the first thing they would do said they were abandoning
would be to find him. Men space, at a time when the attack
couldn’t just leave him there! had not yet come. How long
Only in the wild fiction could would it take to recover and re-
that happen, and even there only gain their lost territory?
the postulated evil men would He went back into the dome,
do 'such a thing. His men would but the radio was silent. Hesi-
never dream of it! tantly, he initiated a call to the
He stared up at Earth. The orbital station. After half an
dome was in night again, and hour, he gave up. The men there,
Earth was a great orb in the if men were still there, must be

170 GALAXY
keeping strict radio silence. man who had first introduced
“All right,” he said slowly in- him to his place with men had
to the silence of the dome. “All put a hand on his metal shoul-
right, face it. Men aren’t coming der and smiled at him.
back for a robot. Ever!” “You’re unique, Sam,” he’d
It was a speech out of the fic- said. “A lucky combination of
tion he had read, rather than out all the wild guesses we used in
But somehow say-
of rationality. making each Mark One individ-
ing loudly made it easier to
it ually, as well as some unique
face. Men
could not come to him. conditioning among that first
He wasn’t that valuable to them. Base staff. We don’t dare dupli-
He shook his head over that, cate you but some day the
yet,
remembering the time he had circuit control computer is go-
been taken back to Earth after ing to want to get your pattern
twenty years out of the creche in full for later brains. So take
and on the Moon. The Mark One good care of yourself. I’d keep
robots had all been destroyed in you here, but ... You take care
the accidents and difficulties of of yourself, Sam. You hear me?”
getting the Base established, ex- Sam had nodded. “Yes, sir. Do
cept for Sam. Supposedly better you mean you can make other
Mark Two robots were sent to brains exactly like mine?”
replace them, but they had been “Technically, the control
beset by some circuit flaws that computer can duplicate your de-
made them more prone to acci- sign,” DeMatre had answered.
dent and less useful than the “It won’t be just like your brain
first models. More than a hun- — too many random factors in
dred had been sent in all and — any really advanced mechanical
none had remained. It was then mind unit — but with similar ca-
they called Sam back to study pabilities. That’s why you’re
him. worth more money than this
whole project without you.
nphere, deep in the security- You’re worth quite a few mil-
hidden underground robot lion dollars, and it’s up to you
development workshops, he had to see valuable property like
been tested in every way they that isn’t destroyed. Right,
knew to help them in designing Sam?”
the Mark Three robots. And Sam had agreed and been
there old Stephen DeMatre had shipped back to the Moon, along
interviewed him for three whole with the first of the Mark Three
days. At the end of that time, the robots. And maybe his trip back
TO AVENGE MAN 171
had been of some use, since the have found an answer. But even-
new models worked as well as tually he nodded.
their permitted.
limitations A motor from the big shop
They were far better than the could be fitted to a capsule. It
preceding models. would be barely strong enough.
Maybe he wasn’t valuable But the plating could be re-
enough to men for them to come moved to lighten the little ship;
for him now. But by DeMatre’s Sam needed no protection from
own words, he was one of their space. And
the automatic guid-
most valuable possessions. If it ance system could be removed to
was up to him to see that he make enough room for him. He
wasn’t destroyed, then it was up could operate it manually, since
to him also to see that he wasn’t his reaction and integrating
lost to men. times were faster than that of
If they couldn’t come for him, even the system.
he had to go to them. Fuel would be a problem,
The question was: How? He though there was enough oxy-
couldn’t project himself by gen in the dome storage tanks. It
mind power like John Carter. would have to be hydrogen,
He had to have a rocket! since he could find rocks from
With the thought, he went which that could be released by
dashing out through the en- the power of the generator. For-
trance and heading toward the tunately, lunar gravity was
old wreck. It stood exactly as it easier to escape than that of
had after the landing that had Earth.
ruined it, with half its hull plat- He went back to the dome and
ing ripped off and most of its found paper and pencil. He was
rocket motors broken. It could humming softly to himself as he
never be flown again. Nor could began laying out his plan. It
the old supply capsules. They wasn’t easy. He might not be
had burned out their tubes in skilled enough to pilot the
getting here, being of minimum strange craft to the station. And
construction. There wasn’t even it would take a great deal of
room inside one for him. time. But Sam was going to the
Sam considered it, making men who wouldn’t come to him!
measurements and doing the
hardest thinking of his exis- V
ence. Without the long study of
all the technical manuals of the t takes experience to turn
dome library, he could never I engineering theory into

172 GALAXY
practice. Almost three years had gers moved delicately, and fuel
passed since Sam’s awakening metered out to the cranky little
before the orbital station swam motor.
slowly into view before him. It was not a perfect match, but
And the erratic takeoff and he managed to catch himself in
flight had been one that no hu- the net around the entrance to
man body could have stood. But the hub. He pulled himself free,
now he sighted on the huge met- as the capsule drifted off, and
al doughnut before him, estimat- began scrambling up to the lock.
ing its orbit carefully. There A moment later, he was stand-
were only a few gallons of fuel ing in the weightlessness of the
remaining in the tanks behind receiving section. And from the
him, and he had to reach the sounds of his feet, there was still
landing net at the first try. air in the station.
His first calculations seemed He froze motionless as he let
wrong. He glanced down at the himself realize he had made it.
huge orb of Earth and flipped Then he began looking for the
sun filters over his eyes. Some- men who should have seen his
thing was wrong. The station approach and be coming to ques-
was not holding its bottom point- tion him.
ed exactly at the center of Earth There was no sound of steps or
as it should have done; it was of any other activity, except for
turning very slowly, and even his own movements. Nor was
its spin was uneven, as if the wa- there any light from the bulbs
ter used to balance it against above him. The only illumina-
wobbling had not been distribu- tion was from a thick quarts
ted properly. Beside it, the little port that faced directly into the
ferry ship used between station sun.
and ships from Earth was jerk- Sam cut on thelamp built in-
ing slightly on the silicone-plas- to his chest, and began sweeping
tic line that held it. the sections of the hub with its
Sam felt an unpleasant stir- light. Dust had formed a patina
ring in his chest where most of here, too. He sighed softly into
his brain circuits lay. But he the air. Then he moved toward
forced it down and computed his the outer sections, his step de-
blast for all the factors. He had termined.
learned something of the behav- Half-way down the tube that
ior of his capsule during the ran from the hub to the outer
minutes of takeoff and the later hull, Sam stopped and cut off
approach to the station. His fin- his light. Ahead of him there

TO AVENGE MAN 173


was a glow! Lights were still ery and came to a big room that
burning! was apparently now used for
storage. Sam had seen a plan of
T Te let out a yell to call the the station in one of the older
men and began running, ad- books in the dome. He placed
justing for the increasing feeling this room as one designed as a
of weight as he moved outward. storage for hydrogen bombs
Then he was under the bulb. once. But that had been from

He stared up at it a single the pre-civilized days of men,
bulb burning among several oth- and the bombs had been dis-
were black, though they
ers that mantled and destroyed more
were on the same circuit. How than sixty years before.
long did it take for these bulbs It was in the hydroponics
to burn out? Years surely, and room that he was forced to face
probably decades. Yet most of the truth. The plants there had
the station was in darkness, been the means of replacing the
though there was still power oxygen in the air for the men,
from the atomic generator. and now the tanks were dry and
He found a few other bulbs the vegetation had been dead so
burning in the outer station, but long that only dessicated stalks
not many. The great reception remained. There could be no
and recreation room was empty. men here. He didn’t need the
Beyond that, the offices were sight of the bare food section for
mostly open and vacant. Some confirmation. Some men had
held a litter of paper and other stayed here until the food was
stuff, as if someone had gone gone before they left the un-
through carelessly, not bother- tended plants to die. It must
ing to put anything back in have been many years ago that
place. The living section with its they had abandoned the station.
tiny sleeping cubicles was worse. Sam shook his head in anger •

Some of the rooms were simply at himself. He should have


bare, but others were in com- guessed it when he saw that there
plete disorder. Four showed were none of the winged rocket
signs of long occupancy, with ships waiting outside the station.
the sleeping nets worn almost So long as men were here, they
through and not replaced. But would have kept some means for
nothing showed how recent- return to Earth.
ly they had been left. The observatory was dark,
He went through another sec- but there was still power for the
tion devoted to station machin- electronic telescope. The screen
174 GALAXY
lighted at his touch, showing fight on for a great many years.
only empty space. He had to He sagged against the tele-
wait nearly two hours before the scope, his mind filled with pic-
slow tumble of the station tures he could not control. Great
brought Earth into full view. ships ravening out of space, car-
Most of it was in daylight, and rying savage alien monsters and
there was only a thin cloud cov- bringing planet-wrecking rays
er. Once a thousand cities could against Earth. There had been
have been scanned plainly from no Lens, no miracle to save
here. When seeing was best, even Earth. There had been only the
streams of moving cars could be ruin of all man’s achievements.
seen. But now there were no And man had been gone before
cities and no signs of movement! Sam had finished his first year
Sam emitted a harsh gasping of waiting.
sound as he scanned the contin-
ent of North America. He had T T e shook off his imaginings
seen pictures of New York, Chi- by force of will. There had
cago and several other city com- been men here on the station.
plexes from this view. Now there They must have left some rec-
was only dark ruin showing ords.
where they had been. It came to He moved rapidly away from
him with an almost physical the observatory, hunting for the
shock that perhaps millions of communications section. It was
human beings had died in those in worse shape than most other
wrecks of cities. places when he found it. It
There were still smaller towns looked as if some man had de-
where he could make out the liberately tried to wreck the ma-
pattern of houses. But there was chinery. A hammer lay tangled
no movement, even there. in a maze of ruin that must once
He cut power from the tele- have been the main receiver.
scope with an angry flick of his There was something that looked
finger, trying to blot the things like dried blood on a metal cab-
he had seen from his memory. A inet, with a dent that might have
moment later, he had power on fitted a human fist.

again and was hunting down The floor was littered with
roadways and rivers for signs of tape that should have held a rec-
movement. But there was no evi- ord of all the communications
dence of man. And all of the received and sent, and the drive
ruins looked old and weathered, capstan on the tape player was
as if there had been no man to bent into uselessness. Sam lift-

176 GALAXY
. .

ed a section of tape and placed it The noise grew worse then, to-
in the slot that gave his face a tally ruining intelligibility. Sam
sad caricature of a mouth. The caught bits of what might have
tape sensors moved into place, been sentences, but they made no
and he began scanning the bit of sense to him; they seemed to be
plastic. It was blank, probably pure gibberish. Then suddenly a
wiped of any message by time small section of the tape against
and the unshielded transformer the hub became almost clear.
that was still humming below The voice was high-pitched
the contnpl panel. now, and overmodulated, as if
Most of the tape cabinet was the words had been too loud to
empty, and there was nothing be carried by the transmitter.
on tapes within. Sam ripped There was a strange, unpleasant
open drawers, hunting for some quality that Sam had never
evidence. He finally found a sin- heard in a human voice before.
gle tape in the cabinet dented by .all shiny and bright. But
.

a fistprint, lying at the back it couldn’t fool me. I knew it was

with the reel broken as if it had one of them! They’re waiting up


been hurled savagely into the there, waiting for me to come out.
drawer. Most of the impression They want to eat my soul.
on the tape was a garble of sta- They’re clever now, they won’t
tic; stray fields had gotten to it, let me see them. But when I
even through the metal of the turn my back, I can feel .

cabinet. But towards the end, a The tape came to an end.


few words could barely be picked Sam could make no sense of it,
out from the noise. though he replayed it all again
. test chambers here away
. in hopes of finding some other
from the blast. Thought we’d
. . clue. He gave up and reached
made it a starving —went . . .
down to shut off the power in
mad. Must have been a nerve the transformer. It was amazing
but it didn’t settle as .
aerosol, . .
that the wreckage hadn’t already
Mad. Everywhere. Southern blown all the fuses for this sec-
hemisphere, too. Your men who tion. He groped for the switch
came down here didn’t have a and flipped it, just as his eyes

chance Took a chance after I


. . . spotted something under the
heard your broadcasts, but find- transformer shelf.
ing a transmitter was diffi . .
It was a fountain pen, gold and
Weeks. Now I’m the last survi- black enamel.
vor. I must be. For God’s sake, Sam had seen one like it
stay where you are! Don’t . . countless times, and now he
TO AVENGE MAN 177
turned it over in his hands, to There was more than enough
see familiar lettering engraved sheet metal in the sheathing of
on the barrel: RPS. Those were the station to provide modifica-
the initials of Dr. Smithers, and and there
tions to the little ferry,
the pen could only have been were books that showed most de-
his. He’d been one of those who tails of the design of the regu-
had reached the station, proba- lar landing craft. There was even
bly one who had waited there to enough fuel; the emergency
receive that strange message tanks in the station were half
from Earth. The Moon ships filled with the monopropellant
had made it safely, and Smithers suited for the little rocket motor
had stayed on here until the food in the ferry.
was gone. Then he must have re- Sam had allowed himself per-
turned to Earth where the tape haps a month to complete the
indicated at least one man still task. But at the end of that time,
survived, after the attack was he was swearing, using unpro-
over. fane but colorful words he had
The had showed no
telescope learned from a score of histori-
sign men. But if there were
of cal novels. By then he was be-
only a few men left on the im- ginning to realize that the gap
mense face of the planet below, between theory and practice was
the chance of finding any evi- enormous. He would be lucky to
dence of them was too slight to finish his work in a year, and
determine. then the results would be crude
The search must be made from and uncertain.
the surface of Earth, not from The sheet metal was already
this useless station in the sky. all work-hardened, and there
was no annealing oven to pre-
n theory, getting back to pare it for reshaping. There was
I Earth from the station no press or large sheet metal
wasn’t too difficult. A small ret- brake in the tiny shop provided
ro-thrust from a rocket could in the station. Even the welders
slow its speed and change its or- were designed only for small re-
bit enough to bring down to
it pair. No transformer was suit-
the atmosphere. Then any able for constructing a larger
winged craft with shallow welder, and he was forced to re-
enough an angle of glide could wind one of the power cores,
be maneuvered down slowly to hoping that it would carry the
avoid burning from the friction amperage he needed.
of the air. Tt took two weeks of hard work

178 GALAXY
to draw in the ferry, tie it down possible only because he had no
firmly to the hub against the need of air to breathe.
wobbling of the station, and con- Even the fuel turned out to be
struct a crude scaffolding around a problem. Thirty years of sit-

it. Then he discovered that the ting in the tanks had started a
hub was in the shadow of the slow process that resulted in
station too much of the time, small tarry filaments through-
making metal there brittle with out. Pint by slow pint, it had to
cold. The whole job had to be be filtered and refiltered until it

undone, the ferry moved to the was clear enough to pass


top of the station and the en- through the tiny nozzle of the
tire scaffolding rebuilt. injector on the motor. By then
The framework for his wings, he knew it would have been sim-
controls and nose cone had to be pler to centrifuge it. But at last
built up by welding together a it was done.
network of small plumbing
pipes; they were too heavy and VI
he was forced to build another
framework through the walls of Qurprisingly, the modified
the ferry and across most of the ^ ferry behaved far better
small cabin. It left him barely than Sam had dared to hope. It
room for himself. Then he dis- heated badly at the first touches
covered by bitter trial that there of atmosphere, but the tempera-
was no way to form the sheet ture remained within the limits
metal around the frame without he and the craft could stand. He
so much welding that air turbu- learned slowly to control the
lence would have made atmo- descent to a glide neither too
spheric maneuvering quite im- shallow for stability nor too
possible. steep to avoid overheating. By
He finally was forced to hand the time he was down to thirty
form his wing covering on a miles above the surface, he was
crude mold built on the main almost pleased with the way it
deck of the station, fighting to handled.
force the sheets into their prop- He had set his course to reach
er curves by repeated careful the underground creche that had
hammering. When finally fin- been his home at awakening and
ished, were too large to
they during the first three years of
move through the halls, and he his education, before they sent
was forced to cut a new path out him to the Moon. It was the only
through the station. It was made home he knew on Earth.
TO AVENGE MAN 179
Now he saw that he could nev- There was a short stretch of sand,
er make it.The first fifteen min- some woods, and then a long ex-
utes in the upper layers of at- panse of green that must be
mosphere had been at too steep grass. He eased the control for-
a glide angle, and he could nev- ward, then back again.
er reach far inland. He might The little ship came skim-
even have trouble reaching the ming down at two hundred miles
shore at all, he realized; when an hour. Its skids touched the
the clouds thinned, he could see surface, and it bounced upwards.
nothing but ocean under him. Sam fought the controls to keep
He opened the rocket motor it from nosing over. Again it
behind him gently, letting its touched, jerking with decelera-
thrust raise his speed to the tion. This time it seemed to have
highest his little craft could take struck right. Then a hummock of
But there was too
at this altitude. ground caught against one skid.
little help much. It
fuel left to The craft slithered sideways and
might have given him an extra flipped over. Sam braced him-
twenty miles of glide, but not self as the ship began coming to
more. pieces around him.
Sam
considered the prospects
of landing in the water with IT e pulled himself out, star-
grim foreboding. He could exist -* ing
-*•
at the wreckage. It was
in it for even at fair
a while, a shame that it was ruined, he
depths. If he landed near the thought. But it couldn’t be made
shore, he might work his way as strong as he was and still glide
out. But within a limited period through the air.
of time, the water would pene- He
turned to study the world
trate through his body to some around him. The grass was knee-
of the vital wiring. Once that was high, moving gently in the wind.
shorted, he would cease to exist. Beyond it lay woods. Sam had
He came down under the seen only pictures of trees like
clouds, fighting for every inch of that before. He moved toward
altitude. Then, far ahead, he them, noticing the thickness of
could see the shore. There were the underbrush around them.
no islands here, so it had to be Below them, the dirt was dark
the mainland. Once there, he and moist. He lifted a pinch to
"could reach the creche in a sin- his face, moving his smell re-
gle day. ceptors forward in his mouth
He passed over the shoreline slit. It was a rich smell, richer

at a height of five hundred feet than the stuff in the hydroponic

180 GALAXY
tanks. He lifted his head to look across the sea, the Moon seemed
for the birdshe expected, but he to ride on the waves, casting a
could see no sign of them. There silver road of light over the wa-
were only insects, buzzing and ter.
humming. Sam had read the word. Now
The sun had already set, he for the first time, he found an
noticed. Yet it was not yet dark. understanding of it. This was
There was a paling of the light, Beauty.
and a soft diffusion. He shook He sighed as he heaved him-
his head. Above him, tiny twink- self from the sand and began
ling spots began to appear. He heading along the shore in
had read that stars twinkled, but search of a road that would take
he had thought it only fiction. him westward. No wonder men
He had never been under the wanted to come back to defend
open sky of Earth before. a world where something like
Then a soft murmur of sound this could be seen.
reached him. He started away, to The moon rose higher as he
be drawn back to it. Slowly he moved on, its light now bright
realized it was a sound like the enough to give him clear vision.
description of that heard near He came over a small rise in the
the sea. He had never seen an ground and spotted what seemed
ocean, either. And now one lay to be a road beyond it. Beside
no more than a mile away. the road was a house. It was dark
He stumbled through the and quiet, but he swung aside,
woods in the growing darkness. going through a copse of woods
For some reason, he was reluc- to reach it and search for any
tant to turn on his light. Even- evidence of humanity.
tually he learned to make his The windows were mostly
way through the brush and broken he saw as he ap-
around the trees. The sound proached. And weeds had
grew louder as he progressed. grown up around it. There was a
It was dark when he reached detached building beside it that
the seashore, but there was a held a small car, by what he
hint of faint light to the east. As could see through the single
he watched, it increased. A pale dusty window. He skirted that
white arc appeared over the hor- and reached the door of the
izon and grew to a large circle. house; it opened at his touch, its
The Moon, he realized finally. hinges protesting rustily.
The waves rose and fell, boom- Inside, the moonlight shone
ing into surf. And far out through the broken windows on
TO AVENGE MAN 181
a jumble of furniture that was seemed to have drifted to the
overturned and scattered in no shoulder before they stopped or
order Sam could see. And there crashed.
were other things —
white things The sun was just rising when
that lay sprawled about on the Sam located the place where the
floor. factory and warehouse had
served as a legitimate cover for
IT e recognized them from the secret underground robot
^ the pictures in the books — project. Fire and weather had
skeletons of human beings. Two left only gutted ruins and rusty
small skeletons were tangled in things that had once been ma-
one comer with their skulls chines. But the section that
bashed in. A male skeleton lay housed the creche entrance now
near them, with the rusty shape stood apart from the rest, almost
of a knife shoved through a unharmed.
scrap of clothing between two Sam moved into it and to the
ribs. There was a revolver near metal door openly concealed
one hand. Across the room, a fe- among other such doors. He
male skeleton was a jumbled should probably not have known
pile of bones, with a small hole the combination, but men were
in the skull that could have often careless among robots. He
come from a bullet. had been curious enough to note
Sam backed out of the room. the details, and Sam did not for-
He knew the meaning of anoth- get. He bent to what seemed to
er word now. He had seen Mad- be an ornamental grille and
ness. called out a series of numbers.
Men had learned to build The door seemed to stick a lit-

good machines. The car motor tle,but then it moved Be-


aside.
barely turned over after Sam yond lay the and that
elevator,
had figured out the controls, but operated smoothly at the com-
it caught and began running bination he punched. Power was
with only a slight sputtering. still on, at least. There was no

The tires were slightly soft, but light, but the bulbs sprang into
they took the bumps of the rut- life as he found a switch.
ted little rail. Later, when Sam He called out once, but he no
found a better road, they lasted longer expected to find men so
under he punishment of high easily. The place had the feel of
speed. Most of the road was abandonment. And while it could
clear. There were few vehicles have protected its workers from
along its way, and most of those almost anything, there had been
182 GALAXY
only enough food and water either during construction or
stocked here for two weeks. during the initial period before
There were a few signs that it awakening. Everything that Sam
had been used for a shelter, but had been before awakening had
most of it was still in very good come from this. That pattern
order. would still be recorded, along
He movedpast offices and la- with what the great computer
boratories toward the back. The had learned of him during his
real creche, with its playrooms return here five years before
and learning devices was empty, men abandoned the Moon.
he saw. No robots had been re-
ceiving post- awakening training. Cam moved toward the ma-
Sam was not surprised. Most of ^2 chine, gazing in surprise at
the work here had been devoted theamount of work lying about.
to researchor the possibilities There were boxes of robot bodies
of robots.Actual construction crammed into every storage
was only a necessary sideline. space. They could never have
Usually the brain complexes had been assembled in such numbers
been created and tested without here during the periodhe re-
bodies, and then extinguished be- membered. And beyond lay
fore there had been a full shelves jammed with the com-
awakening. ponents for the brain complexes.
He started toward the educator With such supplies, enough ro-
computer out of his old habits. bots could be made to supply
But it was only a machine that the Lunar Base needs for genera-
had programmed his progress tions.
from prepared tapes and memory The computer itself was large-
circuits. It could not help him ly hidden far below, but its panel
now. came to life at his touch. It
Beyond the creche lay the waited.
heart of the whole affair. Here “This is Robot Ninety-Three,
the brain complexes were as- Mark One,” Sam said. “You
sembled from components ac- have authorization on file.”
cording to esoteric calculations. The authorization from Dr.
This was work that required a DeMatre should have been can-
computer that was itself intelli- celed. But the machine did not
gent to some extent. It had to switch on alarm circuits. A thin
make sense out of the desirable cable of filaments reached out
options given it by men, then and passed into Sam’s mouth slit.
form the brain paths needed. It retracted, and the speaker
TO AVENGE MAN 183
came to life. “There is authori- vehicles. Further instruction not
zation.What is wanted?” necessary.”
“What is the correct date?” Sam in amazement.
grunted
Sam asked. Then he grunted as He’d been surprised at how well
the answer came from the ma- he had controlled the landing
chine’s isotope clock. craft and then the car. But it
It had been more than thirty- had never occurred to him that
seven years since the men had such knowledge had been built
left the Moon. He shook his in.
head, and the robot bodies caught “All right,” he decided. “Start
his attention again. “Why are so broadcasting again on all the
many robots being built?” frequencies you can handle. If
“Orders were received for one you get any answers, find where
thousand robots trained to fly the sender is and record it. If
missiles. Orders were suspended anyone asks who is calling, say
by Director DeMatre. No orders you’re calling for me and take
have been received for removing any message. Tell them I’ll be
parts.” back in one month.” He started
“Do you know what happened to turn away, then remembered.
to the men?” Sam had little hope “Finished for now.”
of finding an easy answer any The machine darkened. Sam
more, but he had to ask. headed out to find a field some-
The machine seemed to hesi- where that might still have an
tate. “Insufficient data. Orders operable plane. But he was al-
were given by Director DeMatre ready beginning to suspect what
to monitor broadcasts. Broad- he would find.
casts were monitored. Analysis
is incomplete. Data of doubtful VII
coherence. Requests for more
data were broadcast on all fre- grew and flowers bloom-
rass
quencies for six hours. Relevant '-J ed. Ants built nests and
replies were not received. Re- crickets chirped in the soft sum-
quest further information if avail- mer night. The seas swarmed
able.” with marine lifeof most kinds.
“Never mind,” Sam told it. And reptiles sunned themselves
“Can you teach me how to fly on rocks, or retired to their holes
a plane?” when the sun was too hot.
“Robot Ninety-Three, Mark But on all the Earth, no warm-
One, was programmed with es- blooded animal could be found.
tablished ability to control all The Earth of man was without
184 GALAXY
form and void. The cities were the nine preceding issues.Be-
slag heaps from which radioac- major news seemed
fore that, the
tivity still radiated. No fires to involve a political campaign
burned on the hearthstones of in United South Africa.
the most isolated houses. The Other scattered small libraries
villages were usually burned, had papers that were no differ-
sometimes apparently by acci- ent Yet the only clue was in
dent, but often as if they had one of those places. It was a
been fired deliberately by their piece of paper resting under the
owners. hand of a skeleton that was scat-
The Moon was a thing of glory tered before bound copies of a
over Lake Michigan. It was the technical journal. The paper was
only glorious thing for six hun- covered with doodles and stained
dred miles. Four returned winged inwhat might have been blood.
rockets rested on a field in Flori- But the words were legible:
da, but there was no sign of what “Lesson for the day. Assign
had become of the men who to all students. Politics: Men
rode down from the station in could not win such a war and
them. One winged craft stood that is obvious. Chemistry: Their
forlornly outside Denver, and nerve gas was similar to one we
there was a scrawl in crayon in- tested in small quantities. It
side its port that spelled the seemed safe. Yet when they
worst obscenity in the English dropped it over us in both
language. Northern and Southern hemi-
There was a library still stand- spheres, it did not settle out as
ing in Phoenix, and the last the test batches had done.
newspaper had the dateline of Proved, that aerosols must be
the day when Sam had seen the tested in massive quantities.
lights brighten over the cities of Medicine: Bonny was in the
Earth. Most of the front page shelter with me three weeks, yet
was occupied by a large box there was still enough in the air
which advised its readers that to makeher die in the ecstasty
the government had taken over of a theophany. Geography: The
all radio communications during wind patterns have been known
the crisis and would broadcast for years. In three weeks, they
significant news on the hour. The reach all the Earth. Psychology:
paper was cooperating with the I am mad. But my madness is
government in making all such that I am become only cold
news available by broadcast logic without a soul. Therefore,
only. The same box appeared in I must kill myself. Religion:

TO AVENGE MAN 185


Nothing matters. I am mad. God light of the Moon, staring at the


is
— sky from which evil had come,
That was all. there was a coldness in his brain
complex that seemed deeper than
rT''he creche was still the same, the reaches of space.
of course. Sam sat before the Men were gone. He had faced
entrance three nights after his that fact during the early days
return to his only home on Earth, of his search, and now he was
staring at the Moon that was learning to live with it. There
rising over the horizon. were no more of his creators. He
It was a full Moon again, and would go on searching for them,
there was beauty to it, even here. of course, in the faint hope that
But he was only vaguely aware a paltry few might have survived
of that. Below him, the great somehow, somewhere. But he was
computer was quiescent now. It certain that the search would be
had taken all the mass of tiny in vain.
details he had gathered and had They had come from some-
integrated them with all of the where out there, he thought bit-
millions of facts it already knew. terly.The Eich, the minions of
Such a job had taken time, even Boskone, or some other horror
for such a machine. But a few equally evil had appeared more
hours after his return it called than a century before and
him over the radio frequencies to snooped and sniffed at Earth in
issue its report. their various saucers, only to
“All data correlated,” was its leave. Now they had come back,
announcement. “Data not fully giving Earth only a week’s warn-
coherent with previous data. De- ing of their approach. They had
gree of relevancy approaches struck all Earth with glowing
zero. Data insufficient for con- bombs or radiation that ruined
clusion.” the cities of men. And when men
Then it had gone back to still survived in spite of their
stand-by, while Sam had sought rain of destruction, they had re-
the sight of living plants and in- sorted to a deadly mist of in-
sects outside the creche. sanity that was borne by the
He had expected little else winds to every part of the planet.
from the computer. He had “They dropped it over us,” the
known there was too little for a note had said. And the wonder-
logical conclusion. ful race Sam had known had
But his own conclusion was died in madness, usually of some
drawn now. As he sat under the destructive kind.

186 GALAXY
There had not even been a VIII
purpose to it. They hadn’t want-
ed the Earth for themselves. Tie shouted back audibly and
They had simply come and * -*-by radio and was on his feet,
slaughtered, to depart as sense- running toward the sound. His
lessly as they had departed be- feet crashed through the brush
fore. and he leaped over the rubble,
Sam beat his fist against his making no effort to find the
leg until the metal clanged easy path. As he stopped to listen
through the night. Then he lifted again, he heard the sound, di-
his other fist toward the stars rectly ahead, but even weaker.
and shook it. A minute later he almost stum-
It was wrong that the alien in- bled over the caller.
vaders should escape from pun- It was a robot. Once it had
ishment. been slim and neat, covered with
They had come with fire and black enamel. Now it was bent
pestilence, and they should be and bare metal was exposed. But
found and overcome with all that it was still a Mark Three. It lay

they had meted out of mankind. without motion, only a whisper


He had supposed that evil was coming from its speaker.
something found only in fiction. Sam felt disappointment strike
But now evil was ruler of the uni- through all his brain complex,
verse. It should be met as it was but he bent over the prone figure,
usually met in fiction. It should testing quickly. It was power
be wiped from existence in a failure,he saw at once. He rip-
suffering as great as it had af- ped a spare battery from the
flicted. But such justice was ap- pack that had been with him
parently the one great lie of fic- during his long search and slam-
tion. med it quickly into place, re-
He beat his fists resoundingly placing the corroded one that
against his legs again and shouted had been there.
at the Moon, but there was no The little robot sat up and be-
relief for what was burning deep gan trying to get to its feet. Sam
in him. reached out a helping hand, star-
Then his ears picked up a new ing down at the worn, battered
sound and he stopped all mo- legs that seemed beyond any
tion to listen. It came again, hope of functioning.
very weakly and from very far “You need help,” he admitted.
away. “You need a whole new body.
“Help!” Well, there are a thousand new

TO AVENGE MAN 187


ones going to waste in the creche, Hal. Hal had been the youngest
ready for you to use. What’s Hal would be only fifty-nine, or
your number?” something like that. That wasn’t
It had to be one of the robots too old for a man, from what he
from the Moon. Men had never had learned.
permitted any robots to remain He flicked his light on, unable
on Earth. to maintain full speed by the
The robotteetered for a mo- moonlight. The pointing finger
ment, then seemed to gain some of the other guided him down
mastery over its legs. “Joe. They the slope to a worn, weed-cover-
called me Joe. I’m glad I ed trail. It was already more
heard your signal over the radio than five miles from the entrance
weeks ago, but it was a long to the creche.
way. My transmitter is broken. “He was worried you might
I couldn’t answer you. A long leave here before we could reach
way, and I was afraid I would you,” Joe explained. “He knew
fail before I could reach here. the month was almost up, and
But now hurry. We can’t waste it might take too long for me to

time here.” bring him. He ordered me to


“We’ll hurry. But that way,” leave him and go ahead alone.
Sam told him, pointing toward Sometimes now it is hard to
the creche. know whether he means what he
Joe shook his head, making says, but this was a clear order.”
a creaking, horrible sound of it. “You’d have been wiser to
“No, Sam. He can’t wait. I think stick to the car and drive all
he’s dying! He was sick when I the way with him,” Sam sug-
heard the call from you, but he gested. He was forcing his way
insisted I bring him here. He — through a tangle of underbrush,
“Sick? Dying? There’s a man wondering how much farther
with you?” they had to go.
Joe nodded jerkily and point- “There was no car,” Joe said.
ed. “I can’t drive one now. My arms
sometimes stop working, and it
am scooped the light figure would be dangerous to drive. I
S up in his arms. Even on found a little wagon and drag-
Earth, it was no great load for ged him behind me on that un-
his larger body, and they could til we got here.”
make much better time than by Sam took his eyes off the trail
letting the other try to run. Hal, to stare at Joe’s battered legs.
Sam thought. It was probably Joe had almost worn out his

188 GALAXY
body. But in other ways, he must lips again, and the eyes closed.
have developed a great deal since Then abruptly they snapped
the days on the Moon. Time, open, and Smithers tried to sit
experience and the companion- up. “Sam! You really are Sami
ship of men had shaped him far How’d you get here?”
beyond what Sam remembered.
Then they were in a little oe had been fussing over a
hollow beside a brook, and J little fire, drawing supplies
there was a small tent pitched from the cart. Now he hobbled
beside a cart. Sam released Joe up with a bowl of some broth
and headed for the shelter. and began trying to feed the
Moonlight broke through the man. Smithers swallowed a few
trees and fell on the drawn suf- mouthfuls dutifully, but his eyes
fering of a human face just in- remained on Sam. And he nod-
side the tent. ded as he heard the summary
It took long study to find of the long struggle back to
familiar features. At first nothing Earth. But when Sam told of
seemed right. Then Sam traced the landing, he slumped back
the behind the long
jawline onto his pad.
beard and gasped in recognition. “I’m glad you made it. Glad
“Dr. Smithers!” I got a chance to see you again

“Hello, Sam.” The eyes open- before I give up the last ghost
ed slowly, and a pain-racked on Earth. I couldn’t figure that
smile stretched the lips briefly. radio signal Joe heard. Knew it
“I was just dreaming about you. couldn’t be a human call, but I
Thought you and Hal got lost never thought of you making it

in a crater. Better go shine up back to Earth. Should have had


now. We’ll want you to sing for a brass band to welcome you.”
us tonight. You’re a good man, He closed his eyes, but the
Sam, even if you are a robot. weak voice went on. “Hal and
But you stay away too long out Randy died. Pete suicided. I’m
on those field trips.” the only one left, Sam. We wait-
Sam sighed softly. This was ed up in the station three years,
another reality he could recog- guessing what had happened
nize only from fiction. But he here. Then we came down and
nodded. “Yes, Chief. It’s all tried to find somebody any-—
right now.” body — to start the race over.
He began singing softly, the But there weren’t any left. We
song about a Lady Greensleeves. covered every continent for thir-
A smile flickered over Smithers’ ty years. The robots got busted.

TO AVENGE MAN 189


except for Joe here. Then we another living human being. The
came back. And now I’m the nerve gas had produced even-
last man. The last man on Earth tual death by nerve damage, as
heard a knock on the door — well as the initial insanity that
and it was Sam. It’s a better had killed many.
ending on the story than I ex- “Who?” Sam asked bitterly.
pected.” “What race did this?”
He slept fitfully after that,
though Sam could hear him moan oe made a gesture of uncer-
at times. It was cancer, according J tainty. “They talked about
to what Joe knew, and there was that. me about
Mr. Norman told
no hope. it, He explained that men
too.
Somehow, Joe had found a hos- killed each other off. One side
pital with its equipment intact attacked this side, and then our
and books to study. The robot side had to hit back, until no-
had taken Smithers there and body was left. But I don’t under-
tried to treat him with the equip- stand it.”
men, but it had been a losing “Do you believe it?”
battle. Then, when the mes- “No,” Joe answered. “Mr.
sage came, broadcast by the Norman was always saying things
computer at Sam’s orders, Smith- I found he didn’t really mean.
ers had insisted on leaving. They No man would do anything like
had no radio capable of answer- this.”
ing, and little hope of finding a Sam
nodded, and began telling
working transmitter in time, so his At first Joe was
theories.
Smithers had insisted they must doubtful. Then the little robot
come in person. In the hospital, seemed convinced. He dredged
the treatment might have given up small confirming bits of in-
him a year more of life; but he formation from the long years
had ordered Joe to leave, know- of search. They weren’t impor-
ing that he might not survive tant by themselves, but a few
the trip. And now only his will seemed to add to the total pic-
seemed to keep the man alive. ture. A sign cursed the “sky
Joe had a few drugs to ease the devils” in Borneo. There were
pain, but that was all the help odd bits from a sermon printed
that could be given. in Louisianna. And there were
During the long night, Joe told other vague hints at doom from
more of the long search for sur- beyond the Earth.
vivors. It had been thorough. Twice during the long night
But they had found no trace of Smithers wakened, but he was ir-

190 GALAXY

rational. Samsoothed him and He’s finished. He dies, and the
sang to him, while Joe tried to universe won’t even know he’s
give him nourishment that was gone.”
loaded with morphine. Now even “We’ll know,” Joe said softly.
Sam could see that the man was Smithers dropped back onto
near death. The pulse was the pad. “Yeah. Maybe that
thready and the breathing helps. We had our faults, but I
seemed too much for the worn guess there must have been a
body. lot of —
good in us, too there had
In the morning, however, to be, if we could make two
Smithers was rational again. He people like you. God, I’m tired!”
managed a smile. “Man goeth to He closed his eyes. A few min-
his long home, and the mourn- utes later, Sam knew he was
ers won’t go about the streets this dead.
time. There won’t be any mourn-
ers.” nphe two robots waited to be
“There will be two,” Sam told sure, and then wrapped the
him. body in the tentand buried it,
“Yes.” Smithers thought it while Sam recited the scraps of
over and nodded. “That’s good, the burial service he had picked
somehow. A man hates not be- up from his reading.
ing missed. I guess you two will Sam sat down then where
have to take on all the debts of Smithers had died, staring at the
the human race now.” world where no man would ever
His breath caught sharply in live again. And the knot in his
his throat, and he retched weak- brain complex grew stronger and
ly. But he forced himself up on colder. He could not see the stars
his elbows and looked out in the light of the day. But he
through the flap of the tent to- knew they were there. And some-
ward the hills that showed where out there was the debt
through the shrubbery and the —
Smithers had given him a debt
blue of the sky beyond. of justice that had to be paid.
“There are a lot of debts and Saucers, Boskone, the Eich
a lot of broken promises, Sam, whatever they were, the evil
Joe.” he said. “Man had prom- alien monsters must be repaid to
ised to write some great things the last full measure for the foul-
into the future of this universe. ness they had done and which
He was going to conquer the stars man could no longer settle with
and even make a better scheme them.
for everything. But he failed. Anger and hate grew slowly in
TO AVENGE MAN 191

him against the enemy from the ery that had robbed the universe
stars, until he could no longer of that rac$. They would learn
contain his emotions. His radio that the universe held an enemy,
message was almost a scream as a race of technological monsters
he roused the computer. that must be sought among the
“You’ve got a thousand robot stars and exterminated to the
bodies waiting. Can you build last individual.
brains for them, modelled after They would comb the entire
the records of my brain? Can you galaxy for that enemy if they
build them without the limits you had to. And someday, mankind’s
used for later models? Do you debt of justice would be paid.
have materials for that?” Man would be avenged.
“Such a program is feasible,” Sam looked up at the sky and
the machine answered. foreswore all robots for all time

“Then start ” Sam began. But to that debt of vengeance.
his eyes fell on the wreck of
Joe’s body, and he modified his IX
order. “No, save one body to re-
place another robot I’ll bring you. T Tate spewed across the uni-
Start work at once on all the verse in a high crusade.
others.” Metal ships leaped from star to
“The program is begun,” the star and hurtled across the im-
machine agreed. mensities between the far-flung
Nine hundred and ninety-nine galaxies. The ships spawned in-
should be enough. They wouldn’t cessantly, and with each went
be just like him, Sam realized; the holy image of their faith and
DeMatre had said there was a the unsated and insatiable hun-
random factor. But they would ger of their hate.
do. The first group could find A thousand stars yielded the
raw materials for ten thousand dead and ancient wreckage of
more, and those for still more. races that had once achieved
There would be robots enough to technology. Five hundred suns
study all the books men had left, gave light to intelligent races
and to begin the long trip out in- quiet, peaceful races with back-
to space. ward cultures. The great ships
This time, there would be more dropped onto their worlds and
than a tape education for them. went away again, leaving peoples
Sam would be there to tell them throughout the galaxies filled
the story of man, the glory of with gratitude and paying hom-
the race, and the savage treach- age to the incredibly beautiful

192 GALAXY
images of the supernal be ng :
great Hall of Art that lifted its

called Man. But still the quest fairy beauty across the park. It
went on. was the eighth opus of their
greatest living composer an —
n a great temple palace on the early work, but magnificent
still

I capital world of the Androm- in its reach and ambition.


its

eda Galaxy, Sam stared down For the moment his shoulders
at a long table piled with little slumped faintly. His emotions
scraps of evidence. One graceful blended with the half -bitter
finger of his lithe seventeenth memories of other discoveries.
body stirred some of the scraps There had been the first visit to
and he bent closer to read what —
Mars a Mars where no John
was left of the ancient writing. Carter could ever have fought
Then he looked up and across green men for the hand of the
at the great scientist who had incredible Dejah Thoris. There
just returned from the ancient had been star after star, with no
mother world of Earth, incred- friendly Arisians, no gallant
ible light-years away. dragon-folk to join against the
“That is how the human race undiscovered menace of Boskone.
died?” Sam asked quietly. “You And for a thousand years, as fic-
are quite sure?” tion paled before reality, there
The scientist nodded. “Quite had been the growing doubt in
sure. Even with a hundred mil- his mind. Now the last effort to
lion workers, it took us fifty years make himself believe the legend
to gather all this on Earth. It he had created was spent.
has been so badly scattered, so “There is no Enemy now,” the
nearly ruined. But no truth from scientist said from behind him.
the past can be completely con- “There can be no doubt. Man
cealed from our present methods was his own destroyer. He killed
of research. Man died as I said.” himself. In a sense, his race was
Sam sighed softly and moved the one we are sworn to kill.”
to the window. Outside it was
summer, and the trees were in am leaned further out the win-
blossom, competing with the S dow. Below, the throng of
bright plumage of the birds busy, laughing people looked up
brought from far Deneb. The at him and cheered. There were
gardens were a poem of color. a dozen races in the park, min-
He bent forward, sniffing the gled with a majority of his
blended fragrance of the flowers. people. He smiled and lifted his
Strains of music came from the hand to them, then bent further
TO AVENGE MAN 193
out, until he could just see the the other, chosen by man, intel-
great statue of Man that reared ligence grew from the aggression*
heavenward over the central part of savagery and thrust the race
of the temple palace. He sighed ahead to great discoveries while —
again and inclined his head, be- building the means to the inevit-
fore backing from the window. able final aggression that must
“How many know this besides destroy itself utterly.
you, Robert?” he asked. Man had failed, like all other
“None. It was gathered in too races grown from killing strains
small fragments, until I could of animal life. But in dying, he
assemble it into a meaningful had passed on part of his soul to
pattern.” another race that had been de-
Sam smiled at him. “Your signed without his mighty pas-
work was well done, and there sions. Somehow he had passed
will be ways to reward you for it on the driving anger of his spirit
properly. But now I suggest that of his true children, the robots.
we bum this evidence.” And
they had carried on.
“Burn it!” Robert’s voice rose. The had been a created
robots
“Burn this evidence and shackle race, race designed only to
a
our race to superstition forever? serve, able to live in perfect
Our entire lives have been peace and without ambition.
shaped to fit a cult of vengeance. They had owned no heritage.
Now we can free ourselves. This But through an accident of fic-
is our heritage, Sam —
we can tion and a few dying words, men
be ourselves!” had left them a rich heritage.
Sam ran his finger through the Anger had carried them
evidence again. There was pity throughout the stars, and hatred
in his mind for the scientist, but had bridged the spaces between
more for the strange race of man the galaxies.
whose true nature had finally “You’re mistaken, Robert,”
been revealed in fact. Man had Sam said. “Vengeance is our her-
missed owning the universe by itage. Burn .the evidence.”
so little! But the fates of that Most of the material was tin-
universe had conspired against der dry, and it caught fire at
him. The fates had offered two the first spark. For a few seconds,
roads to intelligence.one,In it was seething pillar of
a
there was the quiet growth that flame. Then there was only a
led to pastoral life and gentle dark scar on the wood to show
pleasures, but somehow never the true death of man.
got beyond its native planet. In —
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