THE BEST OF nnrui IENCE FICTION NO.6

_ -LECTOR'S EDITION FIRST PUBLICATION OF HARLAN ELLISON'S "CHAINED TO THE FAST LANE IN THE RED QUEEN'S RACE" PLUS 16 MORE ILLUSTRATED STORIES- NEW AND CLASSIC. FEATURING ORSON SCOTT CARD SALVADOR DALI POUL ANDERSON ^^ RENE MAGRITTE EDITED BY DON MYRUS V

THE BEST OF Dfuirui SCIENCE FICTION NO.6

SPECIAL EDITORIAL SERVICES FOR THIS BOOK WERE PROVIDED BY AARON OMNI ENCORE/PART ONE NORMAN AND DEBORAH WRAY: SPECIAL DESIGN BY RICHARD BLEIWEISS. 6 A SEPULCHER OF SONGS by Orson Scott Card

BETSY VAYDA, ASSISTANT EDITOR 16 JOHNNY MNEMONIC by William Gibson

LINDA OUINN ADMINISTRATION 23 PICTORIAL by Paul Wunderlich A HARLAN ELLISON CELEBRATION

32 CHAINED TO THE FAST LANE IN THE RED QUEEN'S RACE FACING PAGE AULD'S ACQUAINTANCE IS PAINTING BY 38 WHEN FORGOT TIM WHITE 42 ON THE SLAB

Acknowledgement "A Brief Dance the Music to 47 AN APPRECIATION by Robert Silverberg of (he Spheres £ 1983 by Michael Kurland and author's agent Cunjs Brown Ltd 575 Madison SCIENCE FICTION ORIGINALS Avenue Ne™ York New York 10022 "The Hero as Werwolf © 1975. 1979 by Gene Wolfe 50 A BLOSSOM IN ARES by Jack Massa "Kyrie by Poui Anderson reprinted by permission ol the au'ho' and the author's agents. 57 PICTORIAL by Rowena Morrill Scot! MereO'tn Literary Agency. Inc.. 1W5 Third Avenue. New York, New York 10022 Painting 66 A BRIEF DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES page 77 repriced from The Flight of Dragons by Peler Dickenson Text Si 1979 by Peter by Michael Kurland Dickenson. Illustration e 1979 by Wayne Anderson Replied >':"- perr-n^ion of Harper 70 THE HOLY FATHER by Michael Cassutt and Row. Publishers 76 INTERMEZZO by Melisa Michaels

Copyright ffi 1963 by Omn. Publications SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS

84 KYRIE by Poul Anderson simultaneously in the United Slates of America 90 THE HERO AS WERWOLF by Gene Wolfe States ol America by Meredith'Burda and OMNI ENCORE/PART TWO

Curtis Circulation Company. 21 Henderson Drive, 100 ANGEL AT THE GATE by Russell M. Griffin

West Caldwell. N.J. 07006. Distributed In the U.K. by Comag Ltd.. Tavistock Road, West Drayton. 108 STANDING WOMAN by Tsutsui Yasutaka Middlesex. UB7 70E. England. Certain ot the materials contained herein were copyrighted 113 A CAGE FOR DEATH by Ian Watson 1978 to 1982 inclusive by Omm Publications d. Omni is the registered 118 THE MICROBOTIC REVOLUTION by Ian Stewart ni Publics

Painting bySalvador Dal', 71. re( :: page By 124 LAST WALTZ by Warren Brown of the Chesler Dale Collection, 1955. 128 GOD IS AN IRON by Spider Robinson 135 PICTORIAL by Pete Turner " —

rom the first issue of Omni (Octo- ber 1978) to this writing (July 1983), one hundred sixty-one science-fic- tion stories have been published in its pages. Choosing the best for republication has been a challenging task. All the stories are read not only by the editor, but by his associates who, for each story, write a report made up of a precis and a value judgment. Then the editor cogi- tates and decides.

It is worthy to recall now a very literate young woman's evaluation of "A Sepulcher of Songs" by Orson Scott Card. The report on this bitter- sweet tale, of a girl with no limbs and the man who tries to keep her from running away, concludes: "A good and touching idea, presented with

grace and subtlety. The author leaves it up to the reader whether

. Elaine's story is madness or truth The report on William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" notes that "man, woman, beast, and machine have fused into awesome warriors

some of whom are appealing, some of whom aren't. It's a grim tale, but

it has its comical side, too. Villains lurk around every corner. Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet would be at home here." Born in Berlin in 1927, Paul Wunderlich has been much celebrated since the early 1960s. His paintings selected here were published in Omni in October 1981. Their personalized, very colorful subject matter fits in well with the magazine's celebrated graphics. /

fl SEPULCHER

OF SONGS ,

quietly in her chair on lawn, watching everything. And then later BY ORSON SCOTT CARD was losing her mind during ihe tain. For four weeks it than anyone. Perhaps because she was only fifteen, the only child the Shecame down nearly every day, and the people at the Millard in an institution devoted to adult misery. More likely because she in the day they would wheel her back in.

of patients outside. depended more than most on the hours spent outside; certainly I often saw her being wheeled in — early, because I was there, A young girl's freedom County Rest Home didn't take any the hellish she took more pleasure from them. They would lift her into her though she never complained about my visits cutting into her It bothered them all. oi course, and made life especially

on the love of a man and outside. I watched her being pushed toward the rest depends (or the nurses, everyone complaining to them constantly and de- chair, prop her up with pillows so her body would stay straight, and hours As home, she would smile at me so exuberantly that my mind invented a promise from the stars manding to be entertained then race down the corridor to the glass doors, Elaine calling, Elaine didn't demand entertainment, however. She never "Faster, faster," as they pushed her until finally they were outside. arms for her, waving madly to match her childishly delighted face; I told never anything there. Just sat imagined legs pumping, imagined her running across the grass, PAINTING BY ARMODIO seemed to demand much of anything But the rain hurt her worse They me she really said out —

breasting the air like great waves. But there Actually, she had been five years old take him for ice cream and serve him to the were the pillows where arms should be, when an oil truck exploded right in front of guests." keeping her from falling to the side, and the her parents' car, killing both of them and She didn't smile. She just nodded, and I belt around her middle kept her from pitch- blowing her arms and legs right off. That knew that I wasn't getting anywhere. She ing forward, since she had no legs to bal- she survived was a miracle That she had to really was depressed ance with. keep on living was unimaginable cruelty. l asked her whether she wanted some-

It rained four weeks, and I nearly lost her. That she managed to be a reasonably thing. My job was one of the worst in the state, happy person, a favorite of the nurses "No pills," she said. "They make me

it louring six rest homes in as many counties, that I don't understand in the least. Maybe sleep all the time."

I it visiting each of them every week. I "did was because she had nothing else to do, "If gave you uppers, would make you therapy" wherever the rest home adminis- There aren't many ways that a person with climb the walls." trators thought therapy was needed. I never no arms or legs can kill herself. "Neat trick," she said. figured out how they decided— all the pa- "I want to go outside," she said, turning "It's that strong, So do you want some- tients were mad to one degree or another, her head away from me to look out the thing to take your mind off the rain and most with the helpless insanity of age, the window. these four ugly yellow walls?" rest with the anguish of the invalid and the Outsidewasn't much. A few trees, a lawn, She shook her head. "I'm trying not to crippled. and beyond that a fence, not to keep the in- sleep." You don't end up as a state-employed mates in but to keep out the seamier resi- "Why not?" therapist if you had much ability in college. I dents of a rather seamy town. But there She just shook her head again. "Can't

sometimes pretend that I didn't distinguish were low hills in the distance, and the birds sleep Can't let myself sleep too much."

myself in graduate school because I usually seemed cheerful. Now. of course, I asked again. marched to a different drummer. But I the rain had driven both birds and hills into "Because," she said, "I might not wake

didn't. As one kind professor gently and hiding. There was no wind, and so the trees up." She said it rather sternly, and I knew I brutally totd me, I wasn't cut out for science. didn't even sway. The rain just came shouldn't ask anymore. She didn't often get

But I was sure I was cut out for the art of straight down. impatient with me. but I knew this time I was therapy. Ever since I comforted my mother "Outer space is like the rain," she said. "It coming perilously close to overstaying my during her final year of cancer I had be- sounds like that out there, just a low driz- welcome.

lieved I had a knack for helping people get zling sound in the background of every- "Got to go," I said. "You will wake up." straight in their minds. I was everybody's thing." And then I left, and I didn't see her for a confidant. "Not really," i said. "There's no sound out week, and totell the truth I didn't think of her

Somehow I had never supposed, there at all." much that week, what with the rain and a su- though, that I would end up trying to help "How do you know?" she asked. icide in Ford County that really got to me, the hopeless in a pari of the state where "There's no air. Can't be any sound with- since she was fairly young and had a lot to even the healthy didn't have much to live out air." live for, in my opinion. She disagreed and for Yet that's all I had the credentials for, She looked at me scornfully. "Just as I won the argument the hard way. and when I (so maturely) told myself 1 was thought. You don't really know. You've nev- Weekends I live in a trailer in Piedmont. I over the initial disappointment, I made the er been ihere. have you?" live alone The place is spotlessly clean be- best of it. "Are you trying to pick a fight?" cause cleaning is something I do religious-

Elaine was the best of it. She started to answer, caught herself, ly. Besides. I tell myself. I might want to "Raining raining raining," was the greet- and nodded. "Damned rain." bring a woman home with me one night. ing I got when I visited her on the third day "At least you don't have to drive in it," I Some nights I even do. and some nights I of the wet spell. said But her eyes got wistful, and I knew I even enjoy it, but 1 always get restless and

"Don't I know it?" ! said. "My hair's soak- had taken the banter too far. "Hey," I said. irritable when they start trying to get me to ing wet." "First clear day I'll take you out driving." change my work schedule or take them

"Wish mine was," Elaine answered. "It's hormones," she said. along to the motels I live in or, once only, get "No, you don't. You'd get sick." "What's hormones?" the trailer-park manager to let them into my

"Not me, "she said. "I'm fifteen It always bothered me when I trailer when I'm gone. To keep things cozy

"Well. Mr. Woodbury told me you're de- had to stay in. But I want to scream. My for me. I'm not interested in "cozy." This is pressed. I'm supposed to make you muscles are all bunched up. my stomach is probably because of my mother's death: happy" all tight, I want to go outside and scream. her cancer and my responsibilities as

"Make it stop raining." It's hormones." housekeeper for my father probably ex-

"Do I look like God?" "What about your friends?" I asked. plain why I am a neat housekeeper. Thera- "I thought maybe you were in disguise. "Are you kidding? They're all out there pist, therap thyself. The days passed in rain

I'm in disguise," she said. It was one of our playing in the rain." and highways and depressing people de- regular games. "I'm really a large Texas ar- "All of them?" pressed out of their minds: the nights madillo who was granted one wish I wished "Except Grunty. of course. He'd dis- passed in television and sandwiches and to be a human being. But there wasn't solve." motel bedsheetsat state expense; and enough of the armadillo to make a full hu- "And where's Grunty?" then it was time to go to the Millard County man being; so here I am." She smiled I "In the freezer, of course." Rest Home again, where Elaine was wait-

smiled back. "Someday the nurses are going to mis- ing. It was then that I thought of her and re- "

startled. it's true alized lhat the rain had been going on (or was why I had first been assigned to see She looked at me. "So more than a week, and the poor girl must be her. to get rid of the friends. Grunty. the ice then." every- true?" almost out of her mind. I bought a cassette pig; Howard, the boy who beat up "What's of Copland conducting Copland. She in- body; Sue Ann, who would bring her dolls "It's so frightening. I keep telling myself sisted on cassettes, because they and play with them tor her. making them do it's a dream. But it isn't, is it?" stopped. Eight-tracks went on and on until what Elaine said for them to do; Fuchsia, "What, Anansa?" she couldn't think. who lived among the flowers and was only "You think she's just one of my friends, "Where have you been?" she de- inches high. There were others After a few don't you. But they're— not in my dreams, not this. manded. sessions with her I saw that she knew that like Anansa 7 " "Locked in a cage by a cruel duke in they weren't real. But they passed time for "What about Anansa In Transylvania. It was only four feet high, sus- her. They stepped outside her body and did "She sings to me. my sleep."

I did her trained psychologist's mind immedi- pended over a pond filled with crocodiles. I things she could never do. felt they My got out by picking the lock with my teeth no harm at all, and destroying that imagi- ately conjured up mother figures. "Of

Luckily, the crocodiles weren't hungry. nary world for her would only make her course." I said. Where have you been?" lonelier and more unhappy. She was sane, "She's in space, and she sings to me. You

"I mean it. Don't you keep a schedule?" that was certain. And yet I kept seeing her, wouldn't believe the songs."

I "I'm right on my schedule, Elaine. This is not entirely because I liked her so much. It reminded me. I pulled out the cassette

I bought for her. Wednesday I was here last Wednesday Partly because wondered whether she had This year Christmas falls on a Wednesday, had been pretending when she told me she "Thank you," she said. it?" and I'll be here on Christmas.'' knew her friends weren't real Anansa was a "You're welcome. Want to hear

it "It feels like a year." new one. She nodded. I put on the cassette "Only ten months, Till Christmas. Elaine, "Who's Anansa?" player. Appalachian Spring. She moved you aren't being any fun," "Oh. you don't want to know." She didn't her head to the music. I imagined her as a She wasn't in the mood for fun. There want to talk about her; that was obvious, dancer. She felt the music very well. were tears in her eyes "I can't stand much "I want to know." But after a few minutes she stopped mov- more." she said. She turned away. "I can't make you go ing and started to cry.

"I'm sorry." away, but I wish you would When you get "It's not the same," she said

"I'm afraid." nosy." "You've heard it before?"

And she was afraid. Her voice trembled. "It's my job." "Turn it off. Turn it o/f!"

I it "Sorry," I "At night, and in the daytime, whenever I "Job!" She sounded contemptuous. "I turned off. said. "Thought sleep. I'm just the right size." see all of you, running around on your you'd like it." " "For what7 healthy legs, doing all your/obs." "Guilt, nothing but guilt," she said "You -'" feel guilty, "What do you mean What could I say to her? "It's how we stay always don't you?"

"Pretty nearly always," I cheer- "You said you were just the right size." alive." I said. "I do my best." admitted fully. lot of patients threw psychologi- "I did? Oh, I don't know what I meant. I'm Then she got a strange look on her face; A my going crazy That's what you're here for I've got a secret, she seemed to say, and I cal jargon in my face. Or soap-opera lan- isn't it? To keep me sane. It's the rain. I can't want you to pry it out of me. "Maybe I can guage.

I "It's just it's just do anything. I can't see anything, and all get a job. too." "I'm sorry." she said. —

I that I've can hear most of the time is the hissing of "Maybe," I said. tried to think of some- not the music Not the music Now the rain," thing she could do. heard it, everything is so dark compared to music," said. It Like the rain is always in the way. For a "Like outer space," I said, remembering "There's always she

I getting it what she had said the last time. I misunderstood. "There aren't many in- few minutes thought he was

She apparently didn't remember our dis- struments you can play That's the way it is." right." cussion. She looked startled. "How did you Dose of reality and all that. "Anansa 's music?" know?" she asked. "Don't be stupid." She nodded. "I know you don't believe ." "You told me." "Okay. Never again me. But I hear her when I'm asleep. She tells

"There isn't any sound in outer space," "I meant that there's always the music, me that's the only time she can communi- she said. On my job." cate with me. It's not talking. It's all her there, in her starship, sing- "Oh." I answered, "And what job is this?" songs She's out

"There's no air out there." "Wouldn't you like to know?" she said, ing. And at night I hear her."

"I knew that." rolling her eyes mysteriously and turning to- "Why you?" 9" "Then why didn't you say, Oh, of ward the window. I imagined her as a nor- "You mean, Why only me She laughed. course'? The engines, You can hear them mal fifteen-year-old girl. Ordinarily I would j of what I am, You told me your- all over the ship. It's a drone, all the time. have interpreted this as flirting. But there I can't run around, I live in my That's just like the rain. Only after a while was something else under all this. A feeling imagination She says that the threads be- you can't hear it anymore. It becomes like of desperation. She was right I really would tween minds are very thin and hard to hold.

I silence. Anansa told me." like to know. I made a rather logical guess. I But mine she can hold, because live com- Another imaginary friend. Her tile said put together the two secrets she was trying pletely in my mind. She holds on to me.

I her that she had kept her imaginary friends to get me to figure out today. When I go to sleep, can't escape now lono after most children ajve them ud. That "What kind of job will Anansa give you?" anymore at all." " "

7 "Escape 1 thought you liked her." "I'm not jokingl She pulls me all the time The nurse obviously liked Elaine. It would

I "I don't know what like. I like— I like the now, even when I'm awake. She keeps pull- be hard not to feel sorry for her, but Elaine music. But Anansa wants me. She wants to ing at me and making me fall asleep, and insisted on being liked, and people liked have me—she wants to give me a job." she sings to me, and I feel her pulling and her, those that could get over the horrible

singing like? If I "What's the When she said pulling. could just go outside. I could flatness of the sheets all around her trunk.

I I I if I job. she trembled and closed up; referred hold on. feel like could hold on, could "Listen," I said- "Can we bundle her up or back to something that she had been will- just—" — something? Get her outside in spite of the ing to talk about, to keep the floundering "Hey, relax. Let me give you a rain?" conversation going, "No! I don't want to sleep!" The nurse shook her head. "It isn't just the "It's not like anything. She's there in "Listen. Elaine, It's just a dream. You can't rain. It's cold out there And the explosion space, and it's black, just the humming of let it get to you like this. It's just the rain that made her like she is— it messed her up the engines like the sound of rain, and she keeping you here. It makes you sleepy, and inside. She isn't put together right. She reaches into the dust out there and draws in so you keep dreaming this. But don't fight it. doesn't have the strength to fight off any the songs, She reaches out her—out her It's a beautiful dream in a way. Why not go kind of disease at all. You understand- fingers, or her ears, I don't know; it isn't with it?" there s a good chance that exposure to that clear She reaches out and draws in the She looked at me with terror in her eyes. kind of weather would kill her eventually. dust and the songs and turns them into the "You don't mean that. You don't want me And I won't take a chance on that." music that I hear. It's powerful. She says it's to go." "I'm going to be visiting her more often,

that I her songs drive her between the stars." "No. Of course don't want you to go any- then." I said. "As often as I can She's got

"Is she alone?" where. But you won't, don't you see? It's something going on in her head that's scar- Elaine nodded. "She wants me," a dream, floating out there between the ing her half to death. She thinks she's going "Wants you. How can she have you, with stars—" to die." you here and her out there?" "She's not floating. She's ramming her "Oh, the poor darling," the nurse said

Elaine licked her lips. "I don't want to talk way through space so fast it makes me "Why would she think that?" about it," she said in a way that told me she dizzy whenever she shows me." "Doesn't matter One of her imaginary was on the verge of telling me. "Then be dizzy. Think of it as your mind friends may be getting out of hand."

"I wish you would. I really wish you'd tell finding a way for you to run," "I thought you said they were harmless."

me," "You don't understand, Mr. Therapist. I "They were." "She says— she says that she can take thought you'd understand,"

if t learn me. She says that can the songs, "I'm trying to." When I left the Millard County Rest Home

pull I she can me out of my body and take me "If go with her. then I'll be dead." that night, I stopped back in Elaine's room.

there and give arms and legs and fin- I me — She was asleep, and heard her song It l gers run I and can and dance and asked her nurse, "Who's been reading was eerie I could hear, now and then, She broke down, crying. to her?" themes from the bit of Copland music she

I patted her on the only place that she "We all do. and volunteers from town. had listened to. But it was distorted, and permitted, her soft little belly. She refused to They like her. She always has someone to most of the music was unrecognizable— be hugged. I had tried it years before, and read to her." wasn't even music. Her voice was high and she had screamed at me to stop it. One of "You'd better supervise them more care- strange, and then suddenly it would the nurses told me it was because her fully. Somebody's been putting ideas in her change, would become low and raspy, and mother her, had always hugged and Elaine head About spaceships and dust and for a moment I clearly heard in her voice the wanted to hug back. And couldn't. singing between the stars. It's scared her sound of a vast engine coming through "It's a lovely dream, Elaine." pretty bad." walls of metal, earned on slender metal

"It's a terrible dream. Don't you see? I'll The nurse frowned. "We approve every- rods, the sound of a great roar being swal- belike/ier." thing they read. She's been reading that lowed up by a vast cushion of nothing I pic-

"And what's she like?" kind of things for years. It's never done her tured Elaine with wires coming out of her "She's the ship. She's the starship. And any harm before. Why now?" shoulders and hips, with her head encased she wants me with her, to be the starship "The rain, I guess Cooped up in here, in metal and her eyes dosed m sleep, like with her. And sing our way through space she's losing touch with reality." her imaginary Anansa. piloting the starship together for of nurse if it thousands and thousands The nodded sympathetically and as were her own body. I could see that years." said, "I know. When she's asleep, she's do- this would be attractive to Elaine, in a way, "It's just a dream, Elaine. You don't have ing the strangest things now." After all, she hadn't been born this way. She to be afraid of it." "Like what'' What kind of things?" had memories of running and playing,

"They did it to her. They cut off her arms "Oh. singing these horrible songs." memories of feeding herself and dressing and legs and put her into the machines," "What are the words?" herself, perhaps even of learning to read, of "But no one's going to put you into a "There aren't any words. She just sort of sounding out the words as her fingers machine." hums. Only the melodies are awful. Not touched each letter. Even the false arms of

"I want to go outside." she said. even like music. And her voice gets funny a spaceship would be something to fill the "You can't, It's raining." and raspy. She's completely asleep. She great void. the rain." "Damn sleeps a lot now. Mercifully. I think. She's al- Children's centers are not inside their ." "I do, everyday." ways impatient when she can't go outside bodies; their centers are outside, at the 10 patient's saying that about point where the fingers of the lefl hand and "I'll be back on Saturday,"' I told the ad- Elaine. And my the lingers of the right hand meet. What ministrator. woman troubles must have triggered some- they touch is where they live; what they see "Why so soon?" thing in my mind. After all, my relationship is their self. And Elaine had lost herselt in an "Elaine is going through a crisis of some with Elaine was the longest and closest I with in years. If you explosion before she had the chance to kind," I explained. An imaginary woman had had a woman many move inside With this strange dream of from space wants to carry her off— that I could think of Elaine as a woman

Anansa she was getting a self back. didn't say. "Have the nurses keep her On Saturday I drove back to Millard her, found the nurses rather dis- But a repellent self, for all that. I walked in awake as much as they can. Read to County and and sat by Elaine's bed, listening to her play with her. talk to her. Her normal hours at traught. They didn't realize how much she sing Her body moved slightly, her back night are enough. Avoid naps." was sleeping until they tried to stop her. for or arching a little with the melody. High and "Why''" they ail said She was dozing off two light; low and rasping. The sounds alternat- "I'm afraid for her, that's all. She could go three naps in the mornings, even more in night time, I think. the afternoons. She went to sleep at at ed, and I wondered what they meant. What catatonic on us at any Her least twelve hours. was going on inside her to make this music sleeping isn't normal. I want to have her seven-thirty and slept at come out? watched all the time." "Singing all the time. It's awful, Even at night '' 7 it Singing and singing." If I go with her. then I'll be dead. "This is really serious she keeps up

But when I went in to see Of course she was afraid. I looked at the "This is really serious' she was awake lump ot tlesh that filled the bed shapelessly her. below where her head emerged from the On Friday it looked as if the clouds were "I stayed awake for you."

after of "Thanks.'' I said. covers. I tried to change my perspective, to breaking, but only a few minutes

visit. I really going see her body as she saw it. from above. It sunshine a huge new bank of clouds swept "A Saturday must be almost disappeared then, with the down Irom the northwest, and it was worse bonkers."

l like sleepy foreshortening and the height of her ribs than before. ! finished my work rather care- "Actually, no. But don't how making her stomach and hint of hips vanish lessly, stopping a sentence in the middle you are." into insignificance. Yet this was all she had, several times. One of my patients was an- She smiled wanly "It isn't my idea."

I more cheerful than and if she believed — and certainly she noyed with me. She squinted at me, "You're think my smile was seemed to — the surrendering to the fan- not paid to think about your woman troubles hers. "And I think it's all in your head." like, tasy of Anansa would mean the death of this when you're talking to me," I apologized "Think what you Doctor." pitiful body, is death any less frightening to and tried to pay attention. She was a talker; "I'm not a doctor My degree says I'm a those who have not been able to fully live? I my attention always wandered. But she was master." outside'7 All doubt it. At least for Elaine, what life she had right in a way. I couldn't stop thinking of "How deep is the water lived had been joyful She would not will- ingly trade it for a life of music and metal arms, locked in her own mind Except for the rain. Except that nothing was so real to her as the outside, as the trees and birds and distant hills, and as the breeze touching her with a violence she permitted to no living person. And with that reality, the good part of her life, cut off from her by the rain, how long could she hold out against the incessant pulling of Anansa and her promise of arms and legs and eternal song?

I reached up. on a whim, and very gently lifted her eyelids. Her eyes remained open, staring at the ceiling, not blinking.

I closed her eyes and they remained closed.

I turned her head, and it stayed turned.

She did not wake up. Just kept singing as if I had done nothing to her at all. Catatonia, or the beginning oi catalepsy.

She's losing her mind. I thought, and if I don'! bring her back, keep her here some- how, Anansa will win, and (he resthome will be caring lor a lump of mindless flesh lor the next however many years they can keep this remnant ot Elaine alive. " "

this rain. Surely it's enough to keep a few "You're frightening me, Elaine." "You make Him sound smug."

if dozen arks afloat Is God destroying the "There aren't any trees on her starship, "Sure. Why not? I wonder I'd feel like world?" you know. That's how I stay here. I think of that, if I were with Anansa." "Unfortunately, no. Though He has killed the trees and the hills and the birds and the Anansa again. the engines on a few cars thai went a little grass and the wind, and how I'd lose all of "I can see what you're thinking You're fast through the puddles." that. She gets angry at me, and a little hurt. thinking, 'Anansa again.'

it fill "How long would have to rain to up But it keeps me here. Except now I can "Yeah," I said. "I wish you'd erase her and world?" the hardly remember the trees at all, I try to re- go back to some more harmless friends."

"The world is round. It would all drip off member, and it's like trying to remember the Suddenly her face went angry and fierce.

the bottom." face of my mother. I can remember her "You can believe what you like. Just leave

She laughed. It was good to hear her dress and her hair, but her face is gone for- me alone."

it laugh, but ended too abruptly, and she ever. Even when I look at a picture, it's a I tried to apologize, but she wouldn't have looked at me fearfully. "I'm going, you stranger. The trees are strangers to me any of it. She insisted on believing in this know." now." star woman. Finally I left, redoubling my

"You are?" I stroked her forehead. At first she pulled cautions against letting her sleep. The

"I'm just the right size. She's measured her head away, then slid it back. nurses looked worried, too. They could see

I'll fit me, and perfectly. She has just the "I'm sorry." she said. "I usually don't like the change as easily as I could

t place for me. It's a good place, where can people to touch me there." That night, because I was in Millard on a hear the music of the dust for myself, and "I won't," I said. weekend. I called up Belinda She wasn't learn to sing it. I'd have the directional en- "No, go ahead. I don't mind." married or anything at the moment. She gines." So I stroked her forehead again, It was came to my motel. We had dinner, made

I shook my head. "Grunty the ice pig was cool and dry, and she lifted her head almost love, and watched television. She watched isn't cute, This cute, Elaine." imperceptibly, to receive my touch. Invol- television, that is, I lay on the bed, thinking.

I I "Did ever say thought Anansa was untarily I thought of what the old woman had And so when the text pattern came on and cute? Grunty the ice pig was real, you know. said the day before. Woman troubles. I was Belinda at last got up. beery and passion-

My father made him out of crushed ice for a touching Elaine, and I thought of making ate, my mind was still on Elaine. As Belinda luau. He melted before they got the pig out love to her. I immediately put the Ihoughl kissed and tickled me and whispered stu-

of the I ground. don't make my friends up." outofmymind. pidity in my ear, I imagined myself without

"Fuchsia the flower girl?" "Hold me here," she said. "Don't let me arms and legs. I lay there, moving only my

"My mother would pinch blossoms off the go. I want to go so badly, But I'm not meant head. fuchsia by our front door. We played with for that. I'm just the right size, but not the "What's the matter, you don't want to?'' them like dolls in the grass." right shape. Those aren't my arms. I know I shook off the mood No need to disap-

"But not Anansa." what my arms felt like." point Belinda— I was the one who had

"Anansa came into my mind when I was "I'll hold you if I can. But you have to called her. I had a responsibility. Not much

asleep, She found me. I didn't make her help." of one, though. That was what was nagging up." "No drugs. The drugs pull my mind away at me. I made love to Belinda slowly and

"Don't you see, Elaine, that's how the real from my body. If you give me drugs, I'll die." carefully, but with my eyes closed. I kept hallucinations come? They feel like reality," "Then what can I do?" superimposing Elaine's face on Belinda's. She shook her head. "I know all that. I've "Just keep me here, any way you can." Woman troubles. Even though Belinda's fin- had the nurses read me psychology books. Then we talked about nonsense, because gers played up and down my back. I is Anansa is—Anansa other. She couldn't we had been so serious, and it was as if she thought I was making love to Elaine. And come out of my head She's something weren't having any problems at all We got the stumps of arms and legs didn't revoll else. It She's real. I've heard her music. isn't on the subject of the church meetings. me as much as I would have thought. In- plain, like Copland. It isn't false." "I didn't know you were religious,' I said. stead, I only lelt sad. A deep sense of trag- "Elaine, when you were asleep on "I'm not. But what else is there to do on edy, of loss, as if Elaine were dead and I

Wednesday, you were becoming cata- Sunday? They sing hymns, and I sing with could have saved her, like the prince in all tonic." them. Last Sunday there was a sermon that the fairy tales; a kiss, so symbolic, and the "I know." really got to me. The preacher talked about princess awakens and lives happily ever af-

"You know?" Christ in the sepulcher. About Him being ter. And I hadn't done it. I had failed her.

felt I "I you touch me. felt you turn my there three days before the angel came to When we were finished, I cried,

head. I wanted to speak to you, to say let Him go. I've been thinking about that, "Oh, you poor sweetheart." Belinda said. good-bye, But she was singing, don't you what it must have been like for Him, locked her voice rich with sympathy. "What's see? She was singing. And now she lets me in a cave in the darkness, completely wrong— you don't have to tell me." She sing along. I sing with her. I feel When can alone." cradled me for a while, and at last I went to myself travel out, like a spider along a sin- sleep with my head pressed against her gle thread, out into the place where she is. "Not really. It must have been exhilarat- breasts She thought I needed her. I sup-

Into the If it darkness. It's lonely there, and ing for Him, in a way. was true, you know. pose that, briefly. I did.

black, cold, I and but know that at the end of To lie there on that stone bed, saying to I did not go back to Elaine on Sunday as I

the thread she'll I there be, a friend for me Himself, 'They thought was dead, but I'm had planned. I spent the entire day almost forever." here. I'm not dead.' going. Instead of walking out the door. I sat 12 "

it. fell did awaken, the and watched the incredible array of terrible forth. Her head stayed wherever I placed silent She not but song her her Sunday morning television. And when I fi- And the song went on, softly, high and then ended and she moved on own; nally did go out. fully intending to go to the low, pure and then gravelly I covered her head rocked to the side, and she seemed to

sleep normally not catatonically. I waited rest home and see how she was doing. I mouth. She sang on. even with her mouth ended up driving, luggage in the back of closed, as if nolhing were the matter. by her bedside all night. I fell asleep m the

pin chair, of the nurses covered me. I the car, to my trailer, where I went inside and I pulled down her sheet and pushed a and one again sat down and watched television. into her belly, then into the thin flesh at her was still there when I was awakened in the

I her morning Elaine's voice. Why couldn't I go to her? collarbone No response. slapped by liar still Just keep me here, she had said. Any face. No response. She was gone. I saw her "What a you are! It's raining." way you can, she had said. again, connected to a starship, only this

It It feeling of power, to that I I better. her knpw And I thought I knew the way. That was time understood wasn't body was a the problem. In the back of my mind all this that was the right size; it was her mind. And had called someone back from places far life painful, was much too real, and the fairy tales were it was her mind that had followed the slen- darker than death Her was and wrong. The prince didn't wake her with a der spider's thread out to Anansa, who yet my promise of devotion was enough. kiss He wakened the princess with a prom- waited to give her a body. apparently, tp compensate This was how I ise: In his arms she would be safe forever. A job. understood it. at least. This was what made feel exhilarated, kept blind She awoke for the happily-ever-after. If she Shock therapy? I imagined her already- me what me and hadn't known it to be true, the princess deformed body leaping and arching as the deaf to what had really happened would have preferred to sleep forever. electricity coursed through her. It would ac- I was not the only one rejoicing. The What was Elaine asking of me? complish nothing, except to torture unthink- nurses made a great fuss over her, and the write I .think of administrator promised to a glow- Why was I afraid of if ing flesh Drugs? couldn't any that up Not my job. Unprofessional to get emo- could bring her back from where she had ing report. "Publish," he said.

personal," I said in the tionally involved with a patient. gone. In a way, I think, I even believed in "It's too But back

I already trying figure out I name. But then, when had I ever been a profes- Anansa, for the moment called her pf my mind was to

I let into print, gain sional? I finally went to bed. wishing had "Anansa, her go. Let her come back to a way to get the case to

Belinda with me again, for whatever com- me. Please I need her." something for my career I was ashamed of an hon- fort she could bring. Why weren't all Why had I cried in Belinda's arms? Oh. myself for twisting what had been into personal women like Belinda, soft and loving and yes. Because I had seen the princess and est, heartfelt commitment ad- undemanding? let her lie there unawakened, because the vancement. But I couldn't ignore the sud-

I receiving from pepple to Yet as I drifted off to sleep, it was Elaine I happily-ever-after was so damnably much den respect was remembered, Elaine's face and hideous, work, whom, only hours before, I had been merely

it reali- ordinary reproachful stump of a body that followed I did not do in the fever of the first

I firmly. "I me through all my dreams, zation that f had lost her. It was no act of "It's too personal." repeated

And she followed me when I was awake, passion or sudden fear or grief. I sat beside have no intention of publishing." through my regular rounds on Monday and her bed for hours, looking at her weak and And to my disgust I fpund myself relish-

Tuesday, and at last it was Wednesday, and helpless body, now so empty I wished for ing the administrator's respect for that deci- their sion. from swell- still 1 was afraid to go to the Millard County her eyes to open on own, for her to There was no escape my

believe ing self-satisfaction. long I stayed Rest Home I didn't get there until after- wake up and say. "Hey, would you Not as as noon Late afternoon, and the rain was the dream I had!" For her to say. "Fooled around those determined to give me cheap coming down as hard as ever, and there you. didn't I? It was really hard when you payoffs. Evet the wise psychologist, I re- were lakes of standing water in the fields, poked me with pins, but I tooled you." turned to the only person who would give torrents rushing through the unprepared But she hadn't fooled me. me gratitude instead of admiration The gutters of the town. And so, finally, not with passion but in de- gratitude I had earned. I thought I went

"You're late." the administrator said spair, I stood up and leaned over her. back to Elaine. " either of "Hi." said. "I wondered where "Rain I answered, and he nodded But leaned my hands on side her and she you he looked worried. pressed my cheek against hers and whis- had gone"

I far, ' I "We hoped you'd come yesterday, but pered in her ear. I promised her everything "Not said. "Just visiting with the No- rain bel we couldn't reach you anywhere. It's could think of, I promised her no more Prize committee

Elaine" forever l promised her Irees and flowers "They want to reward you for bringing me the for And I knew that my delay had served its and hills and birds and wind as long here?" give damnable purpose, exactly as 1 expected. as she liked. I promised to take her away "Oh. no. They had been planning to "She hasn't woken up since Monday from the rest home, to take her to see things me the award for having contacted a genu- morning She just lies there, singing. We've she could only have dreamed of before ine alien being from outer space. Instead, I ." got her on an IV She's asleep And then at last, with my voice harsh from blew it and brought you back. They're quite

She was indeed asleep. I sent the others pleading with her. with her hair we! with my upset."

I! her out of the room. tears. I promised her the only thing that She looked flustered wasn't like to

I I usually came back "Elaine." I said. might bring her back. promised her me look flustered— she Nothing promised her love forever, stronger than with another quip. "But what will they do to

I called her name again, several times. I any songs Anansa could sing you?" touched her rocked her head back and And it was then that the monstrous song "Probably boil me in oil. That's the usual "

thing. Though, maybe they've found a way craved all my centuries lost in the songs.' Her voice was like a gentle hand, a

"I'd undo it if I to boil me in solar energy It's cheaper." A But then I hear you." pleading hand touching me.

could." said. "But I can't. She's gone, feeble joke. Bui she didn't get it. "Anansa," I said, realizing at that moment she

here. I of you. I "This isn't the way she said it was—she who was with me. and I'm came because — her. to see the trees and the grass and the said it was "I heard you, crying out to Do you came quickly'? birds your smile. The happily-ever-af- I mind She and She. I tried to ignore the dull fear that sud- think made up my denly churned in my stomach. Be analyti- heard you, but she wouldn't come. She ter. That was what she had lived for, you wouldn't trade her arms and legs for know, all she lived for. Please smile at me." cal, I thought. She could be anyone. new

new. But I'd I felt warmth on my hair. I lifted my head. "She said? Who said''" I asked. anything. They were so had I'd had There was no rain in the window. Sunlight Elaine fell silent. I reached out and touched them for long enough. What never her forehead. She was perspiring. was— you." rose and fell on the wrinkles of the sheet.

is I "Let's go outside," I said. "What's wrong?" I asked. "You're upset." "Where she?" asked. "It raining," said. "I should have known." "Out there," she said "She sings better stopped she

for bit late, isn't it?" I answered. But I "Known what?" than I ever did." She looked wistful a mo- "A She shook her head and turned away ment, then smiled ruefully. "And I'm here. smiled at her. bargain, didn't call Elaine." she said. "You from me. Only I made a bad I? Be- "You can me

I won't won't tell, will I You want me, you?" I didn't fool I knew what it was. thought. knew what cause you.

I tell. It's Elaine want, she's gone. I I shook my head. No,. wouldn't She it was, but we could surely cope. "Elaine," I now. you and said, "you aren't completely cured, are left her alone out there. She won't mind, not was safe enough. I wouldn't tell because you? You haven't got rid of Anansa, have for a long time. But then— then she will. then they would take her away, to a place did not I but you? You don't have to hide it from me Sure, Then she'll know cheated her." where psychiatrists reigned

voice Elaine's voice, the tragic know enough to rule I imagined her con- I would have loved to think you'd been com- The was pletely cured, but that would have been too little body her body. But now I knew I had fined among others who had also made

all. Elaine gone, in their from reality, and I knew that I much ot a miracle. Do I look like a miracle not succeeded at was escape worker? We've just made progress, that's the infinite outer space where the mind couldn't tell anyone. I also knew I couldn't all. Brought you back from catalepsy. We'll hides to escape from itself. And in her place confess failure, not now. free you of Anansa eventually.'' —Anansa. A stranger Besides, I hadn't really completely failed.

Still she was silent, staring at the rain- "You cheated her?" I said. "How did you There was still hope. Elaine wasn't really gray window. cheat her?" gone. She was still there, hidden in her own "You don't have to be embarrassed "It never changes. In a while you learn all mind, looking out through this imaginary place. about pretending to be completely cured. It the songs, and they never change. Nothing person she had created to take her

I bring her was very kind of you. It made me feel very moves. You go on forever until all the stars Someday would find her and After all, Grunty the ice pig had good for a little while But I'm a grown-up. I fail, and yet nothing ever moves." home. even

it hair. I melted. can cope with a little disappointment. Be- I moved my hand and put to my sides, you're awake, you're back, and that's was startled at my own trembling touch on I noticed that she was shaking her head. tind her," said. "You won't all that matters." Grown-up. hell! I was terri- my head. "You won't she

I her I won't melt disappear. bly disappointed, and ashamed thai I "Oh, God," said. They were just words, bring home. and supplication is you couldn't have pre- wasn't more sincere in what I was saying. not a She gone, and

No cure after all. No hero. No magic. No "You hate me." she said. vented it." great achievement. Just a psychologist Hate her? Hate my little, mad Elaine'' Oh, I smiled. "Elaine." I said.

I I realized an- who was, after all, not extraordinary. no. I had another object for my hate hated And then that she had

off all that I hadn't put into words. But I refused to pay too much attention to the rain that had cut her from kept swered thoughts said. "Let's honest I her parents for not leaving "That's right," be those feelings. Be a professional. I told my- her sane. hated she self. She needs your help. her home the day they let their car drive with each other. You might as well. You can't

"So don't go feeling guilty about it." them on to death. But most of all I remem- lie to me."

She turned back to face me, her eyes full. bered my days of hiding from Elaine, my I shook my head. For a moment, in my

it all, "Guilty?" She almost smiled. "Guilty." Her days of resisting her need, of pretending confusion and despair. I had believed real. that I But eyes did not leave my face, though that I didn't remember her or think of her or believed that Anansa was was

doubted she could see me well through the need her, too, She must have wondered nonsense. Of course Elaine knew what I

thinking. better than I tears brimming her lashes. why I was so long in coming. Wondered was She knew me

finally realized myself. "Lets outside." I said. "You tried to do the right thing." I said. and finally given up hope, knew go A

It hold her. failure cripple, out to enjoy the sun- "Did I? Did I really?" She smiled bitterly. that there was no one who would and a fell was a strange smile for her, and for a terrible And so she left, and when I finally came, the light, which equally on the just and the moment she no longer looked like my only person waiting inside her body was unjustifiable. Elaine, my bright young patient. "I meant to Anansa, the imaginary friend who had "I don't mind," she said. "Whatever you

stay with her," she said. "I wanted her with come, terrifyingly. to life. I knew whom to want to believe. Elaine or Anansa. Maybe

I if still for Elaine. I it's me, she was so alive, and when she finally hate. I thought would cry. even buried my better you look Maybe joined herself to the ship, she sang and face in the sheet where her leg would have it's better if you let me tool you after all." fantasies oi I I the the danced and swung her arms, and I said, been. But did not cry. just sat there, the The worst thing about

This is what I've needed; this is what I've sheet harsh against my face, hating myself. mentally ill is that they're so damned con- sistent They never let up They never give sible worlds, for her. She could tell herself chair across the lawn. you any rest that the real Elaine was off in space some- She comes as she has come hundreds of

"I'm Elaine." she said, smiling. "I'm where, dancing and singing and hearing times before She plunges toward me, and I Elaine, pretending to be Anansa. You love songs, with arms and legs at last, while the concentrate on watching her. so that my girl will Elaine surrounded me. That's what I came tor. You promised to poor who was confined to the limbless mind not see my by bring me home, and you did. Take me out- body at the Millard County Rest Home was blackness, plunging through space, gath- side. You made it stop raining for me. You really an alien who was very, very happy to ering dust, gathering songs, leaping and did everything you promised, and I'm home have even that limited body. dancing with her new arms and legs that

I again, and I promise I'll never leave you." And as for me, I kept my commitment to she loves better than me. Instead walch

it. I face. She hasn't left me. I come to see her ev- her, and I'm happier for I'm still human— the wheelchair, watch the smile on her ery Wednesday as part of my work, and ev- still take another woman into my bed from She is happy to see me, so delighted with ery Saturday and Sunday as the best part ol time to time But Anansa doesn't mind. She the world outside that her body cannoi con-

it, only few after tain And when imagination will not my life, I take her driving with me some- even suggested a days she her my

restrained, I for I times, and we talk constantly, and I read to woke up. "Go back to Belinda sometimes." be am God a moment see

her and bnng her books for the nurses to she said. "Belinda loves you, too, you know. her running toward me, her arms waving. I right read to her. None of them know thai she is I wont mind at all." I still can't remember give her a left hand, a hand, delicate left still unwell— to them she's Elaine, happier when I spoke to her of Belinda, but at least and slrong; I put a long and girlish leg than ever, pathetically delighted at every she didn't mind, and so there aren't really on her, and one just as sturdy on the right

sight and sound and smell and taste and any discontentments in my life. Except. And then, one by one, I take them all

every texture that they touch against her Except that I'm not God. I would like to be away.

cheek Only / know that she believes she is God. I would make some changes. first not Elaine. Only / know that I have made no When I go to the Millard County Rest Orson Scoff Card last year became the

progress at all since Ihen. that m moments Home, I never enter the building first. She is author to be honored as a member o!

of terrible honesty I call her Anansa, and never in the building I walk around the out- eOSF's Celebrated Circle. (Harlan Ellison she sadly answers me. side and look across the lawn by the trees. is so honored in this volume.) Two novels by

tell r( But in a way I'm content. Very little has The wheelchair is always there: I can Card were published earlier this year: The changed between us, really And after a from [he others by the pillows, which glare Worthing Chronicle (Ace Books) and Hart's

few weeks I realized, with certainty, that she white in the sunlight. I never call out. In a few Hope (Berkley), a science fantasy. A native was happier now than she had ever been moments she always sees me. and the of Washington, Card lives with his wife and

before. After all, she had the best of all pos- nurses wheel her around and push the three children in North Carolina JOHNNY MNEMONIC

1

j| the shotgun in an Adida

bag and padded il oul witn 4 (ourpairsof tennis socks, not hounds. One myslyleat all, but that waswhat other white, t l* * vx £ as aiminq for; If Ihey think they were as nearly identical as " tic surgery ( ,-u're technical, go crux.-.

i very lechnical boy. So I de-

led to get crude as possible. sle. I was never quile i as A ..iese days, though, you have to one had originally been male. be pretty technical before you can Ralfi was sitting at his had ble. Owing me a lot of moni

' M|W megaby'"" l and then load them myself; I'd I to dig up an old microfiche i tridges; I'd had to build a lever-ac- back For it. Only Ralfi cou trieve the data, with a code phrase of his own invention. I'm not cheap to begin with, but my overtime on ' irage is astronomical. And Ralfi rode the tube three stops past the r " I closest platform and w. "hen I'd heard that Ralfi Face Immaculateprocedure. d to put out a cor ^^ 3 I'd arranged to meet him in chrome siding of a coffee kiosk, the Drome, but I'd a your basic sharp-faced Cauca- Edward Bax. clandestine import- soid with a ruff of stiff, dark hair. er, late of Rio and Peking. The girls at Under the Knife were ankofbiz.ar tension. big on Sony Mao. and it was get- lie tang of nervous I from add- edthi S ting harder to keep them \> w r ing that chic suggestion of epican- e flexing stock parts at

' thic folds. It probably wi

Ralfi Face, but it might get next wiu y,„, a , Wl,d of them me V'vm.^^ ' to his table. under superstructures of muse The Drome is a single narrow graft that their oullines \ ally human.

. Pardon me. friends.

: Importer, with his profession- Magnetic Dog Sisters were on the ally nondescript gym bag. and "" ignore this slit, just wide trying to get out past them if things enough to admit his fight hand. "

it passed. Ralfi wasn't alone. Eighty kilos of blond dex finger of my right hand, but I no longer and seemed to brush his wrist as the table. California beei perched alertly in [he chair seemed to be connected to it. I could feel Bright blood sprayed He was tight, next to his, marlial arts written all over him. the metal of the gun and the foam-padded clutching his wrist white-knuckle his fingers. Fast Eddie Bax was in the chair opposite tape I'd wrapped around the stubby grip, blood trickling from between them before the beef's hands were off the but my hands were cool wax, distant and in- But hadn't her hand been empty? 7 " true going to need a tendon stapler. I a He was table. "You black belt I asked eagerly. He ert. was hoping Lewis was nodded, blue eyes running an automatic meatball, thick enough to go for the gym He stood up carefully, without bothering to scanning pattern between my eyes and my bag and snag my rigid trigger finger, but push his chair back. The chair toppled in backward, and he stepped out of my line of hands. "Me, loo," I said. "Got mine here he wasn't worried about you, sight without a word. this bag." And I shoved my hand through "We've been very medic to look at that," the slit and thumbed the safety off. Click, Johnny. Very worried. You see, that's "He better get a "Double twelve-gauge with the triggers Yakuza property you have there. A fool took she said. "That's a nasty cut." idea," said Ralfi, suddenly wired together." it from them, Johnny. A dead fool." "You have no That's a gun," Ralfi said, putting a plump, Lewis giggled. sounding very tired, "the depths of shit you yourself into." restraining hand on his bpy's taut, blue ny- It all made sense then, an ugly kind of have just gotten lon chest. "Johnny has an antique firearm in sense, like bags of wet sand settling around "No kidding? Mystery. I get real excited here's his bag." So much for Edward Bax. my head. Killing wasn't Ralfi's style. Lewis by mysteries. Like why your friend so Ralfi's style. But he'd got him- quiet. Frozen, like. Or what this thing here is I guess he'd always been Ralfi Some- wasn't even thing or Other, but he owed his acquired self stuck between the Sons of the Neon for," and she held up the little control unit surname to a singular vanity. Built some- Chrysanthemum and something that be- that she'd somehow taken from Lewis. Raid thing like an overripe pear, he'd worn the longed to them— or, more likely, something looked ill. once-famous face of Christian White for of theirs that belonged to someone else. "You, ah, want maybe a quarter million to twenty years— Christian White of the Aryan Ralfi. of course, could use the code phrase give me that and take a walk?" A fat hand Reggae Band, Sony Mao to his generation, to throw me into idiot/savant, and I'd spill came up to gently stroke his pale, lean face and final champion of race rock. I'm a whiz their hot program without remembering a nervously. fin- at trivia- single quarter tone. For a fence like Ralfi. "What I want," she said, snapping her Christian White: classic pop face with a that would ordinarily have been enough. gers so that the unit spun and glittered, "is singer's high-definition muscles, chiseled But not for the Yakuza, The Yakuza would work. A job. Your boy hurt his wrist. But a cheekbones. Angelic in one light, hand- know about Squids, for one thing, and they quartern do for a retainer." somely depraved in another. But Ralfi's wouldn't want to worry about one lifting Ralfi let his breath out explosively and eyes lived behind that face, and they were those dim and permanent traces of their began to laugh, exposing teeth that hadn't White stand- small and cold and black. program out of my head. I didn't know very been kept up to the Christian "Please." he said, "let's work this out like much about Squids, but I'd heard stories, ard. Then she turned the disruptor off.

"Two million," I said. businessmen." His voice was marked by a and I made it a point never to repeat them to horrible prehensile sincerity, and the cor- my clients. No, the Yakuza wouldn't like "My kind of man," she said and laughed. ners of his beautiful Christian White mouth that; it looked too much like evidence. They "What's in the bag?" were always wet. "Lewis here," nodding in hadn't got where they were by leaving evi- "A shotgun." the beefboy's direction, "is a meatball." dence around. Or alive. "Crude." It just might have been a com-

Lewis took this impassively, looking like Lewis was grinning. I think he was vi- pliment. something built trom a kit. "You aren't a sualizing a point just behind my forehead Ralfie said nothing at all. meatball. Johnny." and imagining how he could get there the "Name's Millions. Molly Millions. You want to get out of here, boss? People are starting "Sure I am, Ralfi, a nice meatball chock- hard way. wearing full of implants where you can store your "Hey," said a low voice, feminine, from to stare." She stood up. She was dirty laundry while you go off shopping for somewhere behind my right shoulder, "you leather jeans the color of dried blood.

I first mir- people to kill me. From my end of this bag, cowboys sure aren't having too lively a And saw for the time that the surgical inlays, the silver Ralfi, it looks like you've got some explain- time." rored lenses were

ing to do." "Pack it, bitch," Lewis said, his tanned rismg smoothly from her high cheekbones.

Ralfi blank. in their sockets. I saw my "It's this last batch of product, Johnny."— face very still. looked sealing her eyes He sighed deeply. "In my role as broker "Lighten up. You want to buy some good new face twinned there.

Johnny." I said, "We're taking Mr. "Fence," I corrected. free base?" She pulled up a chair and "I'm "As broker. I'm usually very careful as to quickly sat before either of them could stop Face with us," sources." her. She was barely inside my fixed field of "You buy only from those who steal the vision, a thin girl with mirrored glasses, her He was outside, waiting. Looking like plastic zoris best Got it." dark hair cut in a rough shag. She wore your standard tourist tech, in shirt He sighed again. "I try," he said wearily. black leather, open over a T-shirt slashed and a silly Hawaiian printed with blow- "not to buy from fools. This time, I'm afraid, diagonally with stripes of red' and black. ups of his firm's most popular microproces- I've done that." The third sigh was the cue "Eight thou a gram weight." sor; a mild little guy. the kind most likely to for Lewis to trigger the neural disruptor Lewis snorted his exasperation and tried wind up drunk on sake in a bar that puts out they'd taped under my side of the table. to slap her out of the chair. Somehow he miniature rice crackers with seaweed gar- nish. looked like the kind who sing the I quite connect, her He I put everything had into curling the in- didn't and hand came up corporate anthem and cry, who shake crouched in the narrow gap between a sur- Johnny-san? No way to get that program hands endlessly with the bartender. And gical boutique and an antique shop. She'd without the password?'' She led me into the the pimps and the dealers would leave him just edged one mirrored eye around the shadows that waited beyond the bright alone, pegging him as innately conserva- corner to report a single Volks module in tube platform. The concrete walls were tive. Not up for much, and careful with his front of the Drome, red lights flashing. They overlaid with graffiti, years of them twisting credit, when he was. were sweeping Ralfi up. Asking questions. into a single metascrawl of rage.

The way I figured il later, they must have I was covered in scorched white fluff. The "The stored data are fed in through a amputated part of his left thumb, some- tennis socks, The gym bag was a ragged modified series of microsurgical con- where behind the first joint, replacing it with plastic cuff around my wrist. "I don't see traautism prostheses." I reeled off a numb a prosthetic tip, and cored the stump, fitting how the hell I missed him." version of my standard sales pitch. "Client's if with a spool and socket molded from one "Cause he's fast. So fast " She hugged code is stored in a special chip: barring of the Ono-Sendai diamond analogs. Then her knees and rocked back and forth on her Squids, which we in the trade don't like to they'd carefully wound the spool with three boot heels, "His nervous system's jacked talk about, there's no way to recover your meters of monomolecular filament- up. He's factory custom." She grinned and phrase. Can't drug it out. cut it out, torture it

Molly got into some kind of exchange gave a little squeal of delight. "I'm gonna . . I don't know it. never did." with the Magnetic Dog Sisters, giving me a get that boy. Tonight. He's the best, number "Squids? Crawly thing with arms 9 We

1 chance to usher Ralf i through the door with one, top dollar, state of the art.' emerged into a deserted street market fhe gym bag pressed lightly against the "What you're going to get. for this boy's Shadowy figures watched us from across a base of his spine She seemed to know two million, is my ass out of here. Your boy- makeshift square, littered with fish heads them. I heard the black one laugh. friend back there was mostly grown in a vat and rotting fruit,

I glanced up, out of some passing reflex, in Chiba City. He's a Yakuza assassin." "Superconducting quantum interference maybe because I've never got used to it, to "Chiba. Yeah. See. Molly's been Chiba, detectors. Used them in the war to find the soaring arcs of light and the shadows of too." And she showed me her hands, fin- submarines, suss out enemy cyber the geodesies above them. Maybe that gers slightly spread. Her fingers were slen- systems. ..." saved me. der, tapered, very white against the pol- "Yeah? Navy stuff? From the war?

Ralfi kept walking, but I don't think he was ished burgundy nails. Ten blades, snicked Squid'll read that chip of yours?'' She'd trying to escape. I think he'd already given straight out from their recesses beneath her stopped walking, and I felt her eyes on me up. Probably he already had an idea of nails, each one a narrow, double-edged behind those twin mirrors. what we were up against. scalpel in pale blue steel. "Even the primitive models could mea-

I looked back down just in time to see him I'd never spent much time in Nighttown. sure a magnetic field a billionth the strength explode. Nobody there had anything to pay me to re- of geomagnetic force: it's like pulling a Playback on full recall shows Ralfi step- member, and most of them had a lot they whisper out of a cheering stadium." ping forward as the little tech sidles out of paid regularly to forget. Generations of "Cops can do that already, with para- ." nowhere, smiling. Just a suggestion of a sharpshooters had chipped away at the bolic microphones and lasers bow. and his left thumb tails off. It's a con- neon until the maintenance crews gave up. "But your data's still secure." Pride in juring trick: The thumb hangs suspended Even at noon the arcs were soot-black profession. "No government'!! let their Mirrors? Wires? And Ralfi stops, his back to against faintest pearl. cops have Squids, not even the security us, dark crescents of sweat under the arm- Where do you go when the world's heavies. Too much chance of interdepart- pits of his pale summer suit. He knows. He wealthiest criminal order is feeling for you mental funnies: they're too likely to water- must have known. And then the joke-shop with calm, distant fingers? Where do you gate you." thumbtip, heavy as lead, arcs out in a light- hide from the Yakuza, so powerful that it "Navy stuff," she said, and her grin

ning yo-yo trick, and the invisible thread owns comsats and at least three shuttles? gleamed in the shadows. "Navy stuff. I got a connecting it to the killer's hand passes lat- The Yakuza is a true multinational, like ITT fnend down here who was in the Navy.

Fifty I erally through Ralfi's skull, just above his and Ono-Sendai. years before was Name's Jones, I think you'd better meet eyebrows, whips up, and descends, slicing born, the Yakuza had already absorbed the him. He's a junkie, though. So we'll have to the pear-shaped torso diagonally from Triads, the Mafia, the Union Corse. take him something." shoulder to rib cage. Cuts so fine that no Molly had an answer You hide in the Pit, "A junkie?" blood flows until synapses misfire and the in the lowest circle, where any outside influ- "A dolphin.' first tremors surrender the body to gravity. ence generates swift, concentric ripples of Ralfi tumbled apart in a pink cloud of flu- raw menace You hide in Nighttown Better He was more than a dolphin, but from an- ids, the three mismatched sections rolling yet, you hide above Nighttown. because other dolphin's point of view he might have forward onto the tiled pavement. They the Pit's inverted, and the bottom of its bowl seemed like something less. I watched him rolled in total silence. touches the sky the sky that Nighttown swirling sluggishly in his galvanized tank.

I brought the gym bag up. and my hand never sees, sweating under its own Water slopped over the side, wetting my convulsed. The recoil nearly broke my firmament of acrylic resin, up where the shoes He was surplus from the last war. A wrist. Lo Teks crouch in the dark like gargoyles, cyborg. black-market cigarettes dangling from their He rose out of the water, showing us the

It must have been raining; ribbons of wa- lips. crusted plates along his sides, a kind of vi- ter cascaded from a ruptured geodesic She had another answer, too. sual pun. his grace nearly lost under articu- and spattered on the tile behind us. We "So you're locked up good and tight, lated armor, clumsy and prehistoric. Twin t9 .

deformities on either side of his skull had The arms of the red swastika were blown-glass bodies and tin legs were sip-

been engineered to house sensor units. Sil- twisted in her silver glasses. "Give it to him," ping monotonously from a styrofoam cup of

it." ver lesions gleamed on exposed sections I said. "We've got water on a ledge beside Molly's shoulder.

of his gray-white hide. Ralfi Face. No imagination. As I phased into mode, they accelerated Molly whistled. Jones thrashed his tail, Jones heaved half his armored bulk over gradually until their Day-Glo-feathered

and more water cascaded down the side of the edge of his tank, and I thought the metal crowns became solid arcs of color. The the tank. would give way Molly stabbed him over- LEDs that told seconds on the plastic wall with driving "What is this place?" I peered at vague hand the syrette, the needle be- clock had become meaningless pulsing shapes in the dark, rusting chainlink and tween two plates. Propellant hissed. Pat- grids, and Molly and the Mao-faced boy things under tarps. Above the tank hung a terns of light exploded, spasming across grew hazy, their arms blurring occasionally clumsy wooden framework, crossed and the frame and then fading to black. in insect-quick ghosts of gesture. And then

recrossed by rows of dusty Christmas We left him drifting, rolling lazily in the it all faded to cool gray static and an end- lights. dark water. Maybe he was dreaming of his less tone poem in an artificial language.

"Funland. Zoo and carnival rides, Talk war in the Pacific, of the cyber mines he'd I sat and sang dead Ralfi's stolen pro- with the War Whale.' All that. Some whale swept, nosing gently into their circuitry with gram for three hours. Ralfi's Jones is. . the Squid he'd used to pick pass- Jones reared again and fixed me with a word from the chip buried in my head. The mall runs forty kilometers from end to sad and ancient eye. "I can see them slipping up when he was end. a ragged overlap of Fuller domes roof-

7" him If "How's he talk Suddenly I was anxious demobbed, letting out of the Navy with ing what was once a suburban artery. to go. that gear intact, but how does a cybernetic they turn off the arcs on a clear day, a gray

"That's the catch. Say hi, Jones." dolphin get wired to smack?" approximation of sunlight filters through

And all the bulbs lit simultaneously. They "The war." she said. "They an were Navy layers of acrylic, a view like the prison were flashing red, white, and blue. did it How else you get em working for sketches of Giovanni Piranesi. The three RWBRWBRWB you?" southernmost kilometers roof Nighttown. RWBRWBRWB Nighttown pays no taxes, no utilities. The RWBRWBRWB "I'm not sure this profiles as good busi- neon arcs are dead, and the geodesies RWBRWBRWB ness," the pirate said, angling lor better have been smoked black by decades of RWBRWBRWB money "Target specs on a comsat that isn't cooking fires. In the nearly total darkness of "Good with symbols, see, but the code's in the book—" a Nighttown noon, who notices a few dozen restricted. In the Navy they had him wired "Waste my time and you won't profile at mad children lost in the rafters? into an audiovisual display." She drew the all," said Molly, leaning across his scarred Wed been climbing for two hours, up narrow package from a jacket pocket plastic desk to prod him with her forefinger. concrete stairs and steel ladders with per- "Pure shit, Jones. Want it?" He froze in the "So maybe you want to buy your micro- forated rungs, past abandoned gantries water and started to sink. I felt a strange waves somewhere else?" He was a tough anddust-covered tools We'd started in panic, remembering that he wasn't a fish, kid. behind his Mao-job. A Nighttowner by what looked like a disused maintenance that he could drown "We want the key to birth, probably. yard, stacked with triangular roofing seg-

Johnny's bank. Jones. We want it fast." Her hand blurred down the front of his ments. Everylhing there had been covered The lights flickered, died. jacket, completely severing a lapel without with that same uniform layer of spraybomb

"Go for it, Jones!" even rumpling the fabric. graffiti: gang names, initials, dates back to B "So we got a deal or not?" the turn of the century. The graffiti followed "Deal." he said, staring at his ruined lapel us up, gradually thinning until a single with what he must have hoped was only po- name was repeated at intervals. LO TEK. In B lite interest. "'Deal." dripping black capitals.

B While I checked the two recorders we'd "Who's LoTek?" Blue bulbs, cruciform. bought, she extracted the slip of paper "Not us, boss" She climbed a shivering Darkness. I'd given her from the zippered wrist pocket aluminum ladder and vanished through a

"Pure! It's clean. Come on. Jones." of her jacket. She unfolded it and read si- hole in a sheet of corrugated plastic. " 'Low WWWWWWWWW lently, moving her lips. She shrugged. "This technique, low technology.' The plastic

WWWWWWWWW is it?" muffled her voice I followed her up. nursing

WWWWWWWWW "Shoot," I said, punching the record my aching wrist "Lo Teks, they'd think that WWWWWWWWW studs of the two decks simultaneously. shotgun trick of yours was effete."

WWWWWWWWW "Christian White," she recited, "and his An hour later I dragged myself up White sodium glare washed her features, Aryan Reggae Band," through another hole, this one sawn crook- stark monochrome, shadows cleaving from Faithful Ralfi. a fan to his dying day. edly in a sagging sheet of plywood, and her cheekbones. Transition to idiot/savant mode is always met my first Lo Tek, " it R RRRRR less abrupt than I expect to be. The pirate 'S okay." Molly said, her hand brushing R R broadcaster's front was a failing travel my shoulder. "It's just Dog. Hey, Dog." RRRRRRRRR agency in a pastel cube that boasted a In the narrow beam of her taped flash, he R R desk, three chairs and a faded poster of a regarded us with one eye and slowly ex- RRRRR R Swiss orbital spa. A pair of toy birds with truded a thick length of grayish tongue, lick- ing I huge canines. wondered how they Yiheyuan filters. Beijing Cigarette Factory. I Wouldn't they be happier with something to wrote off tooth-bud transplants from Dober- decided that the Lo Teks were black mar- sell back to Ono-Sendai, happier than mans as low technology. Immunosuppres- keteers, Dog and Molly went back to their they'd be with one dead Johnny from Mem- sives don't exactly grow on trees. argument, which seemed to revolve around ory Lane?

"Moll." Dental augmentation impeded his Molly's desire to use some particular piece Their program was on its way to an ad- speech. A string of saliva dangled from his of LoTek real estate. dress in Sydney, to a place that held letters twisted lower lip. "Heard ya comin'. Long "I've done you a lot of favors, man. I want for clients and didn't ask questions once time." He might have been fifteen, but the that floor. And I want the music." you'd paid a small retainer. Fourth-class fangs and a bright mosaic ot scars com- "You're not Lo Tek. ..." surface mail. I'd erased most of the other bined with the gaping socket to present a This must have been going on for the bet- copy and recorded our message in the re- mask ot total bestiality. It had taken time ter part of a twisted kilometer Dog leading sulting gap, leaving just enough of the pro- and a certain kind of creativity to assemble us along swaying catwalks and up rope gram to identify it as the real thing. that face, ladders. and his posture told me he en- The Lo Teks leech their webs and My wrist hurt. I wanted to stop, to lie

living it. joyed behind He wore a pair of huddling places to the city's fabric with down, to sleep. I knew that I'd lose my grip decaying jeans, black with grime and thick gobs of epoxy and sleep above the and fall soon, knew that the sharp black shiny along the creases. His chest and abyss in mesh hammocks. Their country is shoes I'd bought for my evening as Eddie feet were bare. He did something with his so attenuated that in places it consists of lit- Bax would lose their purchase and carry

1 mouth that approximated a grin. "Bein fol- tle more than holds for hands and feet, me down to Nighttown, But he rose in my lowed, you." sawn into geodesic struts. mind like a cheap religious hologram, glow-

Far off, down in Nighttown, a water ven- The Killing Floor, she called it. Scram- ing, the enlarged chip on his Hawaiian shirt dor cried his trade. bling after her, my new Eddie Bax shoes looming like a reconnaissance shot of some "Strings jumping, Dog?" She swung her slipping on worn metal and damp plywood, doomed urban nucleus.

flash the side, I I it to and saw thin cords tied to wondered how could be any more lethal So I followed Dog and Molly through Lo eyebolts, cords that ran to the edge and than the rest of the territory. At the same Tek heaven, jury-rigged and jerry-built from vanished. time I sensed that Dog's protests were ritual scraps that even Nighttown didn't want. 1 "Kill the fuckin light!" and that she already expected to get what- The Killing Floor was eight meters on a

She snapped it off. ever it was she wanted. side. A giant had threaded steel cable back

"How come the one who's followin' you's Somewhere beneath us Jones would be and forth through a junkyard and drawn it all got no light?" circling his tank, feeling the first twinges of taut. It creaked when it moved, and it "Doesn't need it. That one's bad news, junk sickness. The police would be boring moved constantly, swaying and bucking as Dog. Your sentries give him a tumble, they'll the Drome regulars with questions about the gathering Lo Teks arranged themselves in Ralfi. come home easy-to-carry sections." What did he do? Who was he with be- on the shelf of plywood surrounding it. The "This a friend friend, Moll?" He sounded fore he stepped outside? And the Yakuza wood was silver with age, polished with uneasy. I heard his feet shift on the worn would be settling its ghostly bulk over the long use and deeply etched with initials, plywood. city's data banks, probing for faint images threats, declarations of passion. This was "No. But he's mine. And this one," slap- of me reflected in numbered accounts, se- suspended from a separate set of cables, ping my shoulder, "he's a friend. Got that?" curities bills for utilities. transactions, We're which lost themselves in darkness beyond . "Sure." he said, without much enthusi- an information economy. They teach you the raw white glare of the two ancient floods asm, padding the the platform's edge, that in school. What they don't tell you is that suspended above the Floor, where the eyebolts were. He began to it's impossible to move, to live, to operate at A girl with teeth like Dog's hit the Floor on pluck out some kind of message on the taut any level without leaving traces, bits, seem- all fours. Her breasts were tattooed with in- cords. ingly meaningless fragments of personal digo spirals. Then she was across the Floor, Nighttown spread beneath us like a toy information. Fragments that can be re- laughing, grappling with a boy who was village for rats; tiny windows showed can- trieved, amplified. . . . drinking dark liquid from a liter flask. dlelight, with only a few harsh, bright But by now the pirate would have shut- Lo Tek fashion ran to scars and tattoos. squares lit by battery lanterns and carbide tled our message into line for blackbox And teeth. The electricity they were tapping lamps. I imagined the old men at their end- transmission to the Yakuza comsat. A sim- to light the Killing Floor seemed to be an ex- less games of dominoes, under warm, fat ple message: Call off the dogs or we wide- ception to their overall esthetic, made in the drops of water that fell from wet your program. . . wash hung band . name of ritual, sport, art? i didn't know,

out on poles the I it between plywood shan- The program. had no idea what con- but I could see that the Floor was something

ties, Then I I I tried to imagine him climbing tained. still don'l. only sing the song, with special. It had the look of having been as- patiently up through the darkness in his zero comprehension. It was probably re- sembled over generations. zoris and ugly tourist shirt, bland un- search and data, the Yakuza being given to ad- I held the useless shotgun under my hurried. How was he tracking us? vanced forms of industrial espionage. A jacket. Its hardness and heft were comfort- "Good," said Molly. smells us." genteel business, stealing "He from Ono-Sen- ing, even though I had no more shells. And

dai as matter of politely it a course and hold- came to me that I had no idea of what was "Smoke?" Dog dragged a crumpled ing their data for ransom, threatening to happening, or of what was supposed to pack from his pocket and pried out a flat- blunt the conglomerate's research edge by happen. And that was the nature of my tened cigarette. I squinted at the trademark making the product public. game, because I'd spent most of my life as while he lit it for me with a kitchen match. But why couldn't any number play? a blind receptacle to be filled with other people's knowledge and then drained, The drum pulse quickened, and she was a graceful curve in one piece of rusted Its spouting synthetic languages I'd never un- bounced with it, her dark hair wild around steel, where the molecule went through. derstand. A very technical boy. Sure. the blank silver lenses, her mouth thin, lips edge was bright as new chrome. The Killing Floor And then I noticed just how quiet the Lo taut with concentration. Tekshad become. boomed and roared, and the Lo Teks were We never learned whether the Yakuza He was there, at the edge of the light, tak- screaming their excitement. had accepted our terms, or even whether ing in the Killing Floor and the gallery of si- He retracted the filament to a whirling they got our message. As far as I know, their lent LoTeks with a tourist's calm. And as our meter-wide circle of ghostly polychrome program is still waiting for Eddie Bax on a eyes met for the first time with mutual rec- and spun it in front of him, thumbless hand shelf in the back room of a gift shop on the ognition, a memory clicked into place for held level with his sternum. A shield. third level of Sydney Central-5. Probably me, of Paris and the long Mercedes elec- And Molly seemed to let something go, they sold the original back to Ono-Sendai trics gliding through the rain to Notre Dame: something inside, and that was the real months ago. But maybe they did get the pi- mobile greenhouse. Japanese faces be- start of her mad-dog dance. She jumped,- rate's broadcast, because nobody's come hind the glass, and a hundred Nikons rising twisting, lunging sideways, landing with looking for me yet, and it's been nearly a in blind photolropism, flowers of steel and both feet on an alloy engine block wired di- year. If they do come, they'll have a long sen- crystal. Behind his eyes, as they found me. rectly to one of the coil springs. I cupped climb up through the dark, past Dog's those same shutters whirring. my hands over my ears and knelt in a ver- tries, and I don't look much like Eddie Bax

Floor and benches these days. I let Molly take care of that, with I looked for Molly Millions, but she was tigo of sound, thinking gone. were on their way down, down to Night- a local anesthetic. And my new teeth have in. The LoTeks parted to lei him step up onto town, and I saw us tearing through the almost grown the bench. He bowed, smiling, and shanties, the wet wash, exploding on the I decided to stay up here. When I looked stepped smoothly out ot his sandals and tiles like rotten fruit. But the cables held, and out across the Killing Floor, before he came.

I I down onto the Killing Floor. And then he the Killing Floor rose and fell like a crazy I saw how hollow I was. And knew was came for me. metal sea. And Molly danced on it. sick of being a bucket. So now I climb down Molly hit the Floor, moving. And at the end, just before he made his fi- and visit Jones almost every night.

I, The Floor screamed. nal cast with the filament. I saw something Were partners now, Jones and and Millions, too. our busi- It was miked and amplified, with pickups in his face, an expression that didn't seem Molly Molly handles riding (he four fat coil springs at the corners to belong there. It wasn't fear and it wasn't ness in the Drome. Jones is still in Funland, tank, with fresh and contact mikes taped at random to anger. I think it was disbelief, stunned in- but he has a bigger seawa- rusting machine fragments. Somewhere comprehension mingled with pure aes- ter trucked in once a week. And he has his the Lo Teks had an amp and a synthe- thetic revulsion at what he was seeing. junk, when he needs it. He still talks to the hearing what happening to him. kids with his frame of lights, but he talks to sizer, and now I made out the shapes of — at was speakers overhead, above the cruel white He retracted the whirling filament, the ghost me on a new display unit in a shed that I rent floods. disc shrinking to the size of a dinner plate there, a better unit than the one he used in A drumbeat began, electronic, like an as he whipped up his arm above his head the Navy. amplified heart, steady as a metronome. and brought it down, the thumbtip curving And we're all making good money, better

Shed removed her leather jacket and out for Molly like a live thing. money than I made before, because boots; her T-shirt was sleeveless, faint tell- The Floor carried her down, the molecule Jones's Squid can read the traces of any- tales of Chiba City circuitry traced along her passing just above her head; the Floor thing that anyone ever stored in me, and he thin arms. Her leather jeans gleamed under whiplashed. lifting him into the path of the gives it to me on the display unit in lan- learning the floods. She began to dance. taut molecule. It should have passed harm- guages I can understand. So we're She flexed her knees, white feet tensed lessly over his head and been withdrawn a lot about all my former clients. And one on a flattened gas tank, and the Killing Floor into its diamond-hard socket. It took his day I'll have a surgeon dig all the silicon out began to heave in response. The sound it hand just off just behind the wrist. There of my amygdalae, and I'll live with my own made was like a world ending, like the wires was a gap in the floor in front of him, and he memories and nobody else's, the way other that hold heaven snapping and coiling went through it like a diver, with a strange people do. But not for a while. across the sky. deliberate grace, a defeated kamikaze on In the meantime it's really okay up here,

He rode with it. for a few heartbeats, and his way down to Nighttown. Partly, I think, way up in the dark, smoking a Chinese then he moved, judging the movement of he took that dive to buy himself a few sec- filtertip and listening to the condensation the Floor perfectly, like a man stepping from onds of the dignity ot silence. She'd killed that drips from the geodesies. Real quiet, one flat stone to another in an ornamental him with culture shock. up here— unless a pair of Lo Teks decide to garden. The Lo Teks roared, but someone shut dance on the Killing Floor. He pulled the tip from his thumb with the the ampliiier off, and Molly rode the Killing It's educational, too. With Jones to help grace of a man at ease with social gesture Floor into silence, hanging on now, her me figure things out, I'm getting to be the and flung it at her. Under the floods, the fila- face white and blank, until the pitching most technical boy in town. ment was a refracting thread of rainbow. slowed and there was only a faint pinging She threw herself flat and rolled, jackknifing of tortured metal and the grating of rust William Gibson is a full-time writer who re- up as the molecule whipped past, steel on rust. sides in Vancouver, British Columbia. His claws snapping into the light in what must We searched the Floor for the severed fiction has appeared in two Doubleday an- have been an automatic rictus of defense. hand, but we never found it. All we found thologies, Universe 11 and Shadows4. 22 PICTORIAL. ruuruiBER orue

PAUL lAJUOIDERLICH ARTIST

'

bUILDING 5RDGB

art af Paul Wunderlich has emerged out ot a lifelong characterized by an almost flamboyant s Thestruggle between intellectual ism and spontaneous ctSffi spring from inner reflection. The trar

expression. "I can't conceptualize ahead of time. My natural forms into original configurations Is

pictures take shape only while I work Too much lal process. Wunderlich did not sit in from c thought in the ol the creative process. stands way Darwin he created Still Life ot a Cigar (above) . The form of the real once said that his ability to appreciate an declined in world never directly impinges upon his artistic expres- direct proportion to his growing interest in the natural sion. The pictures on these pages, collected especially sciences. You pay for intellectual growth m declining cre- for Omni by the IMegru Gallery, in Paris, have often been al v-ty. Wunderlich s highly stylized compositions. linked to the Viennese School c 1 Fantastic Realism. But BY THOMAS WEYR Wunderlich rejects anv attempts a; classification. "I never wanted to be a that, of course, beyond member of a group. There isn't much I can do about For record, Wunderlich painting m ways that cannot be put in boxes. ' the "! prefer beeves lhat surrealist s claims are 'ooted in too much irrationally the cianty of the conscious to the darkness of !he unconscious," be says. The influence c' p hoi ographer- wife Ka-n Szekessy also reflects his preference tor an art form based on clear vision rather than on Freudian drives. From 1968 through 1970 -the Wunderlichs' most intense period of creative collab- & 5^1

. /•«

V

• oration-Paul produced No Angel (the series of pictures that were inspired by Besides photographs, the paintings of the masters furnish tion. He has done variations on works ot artists ranging hi. Manet. Wunderlicn sees himself as a bridge builder, intent experience relevant to modern life. As for the future, says "That's not a subject for artists !o contemplate.''

here are titles and then there are titles. For the exemplary, consider Robert Silverberg's "The Soul Painter and the Shapeshifter"; Spider Robinson's "Rubber Soul." a story concerning the resurrection of John Lennon; Patrice Duvic's "The Eyes on Butterflies' Wings"; Tom Sullivan's "The Mickey Mouse Olym- pics"; Alfred Bester's "Galatea Galante" —one each from the preced- ing five volumes in this series. Now, as befits the author celebrated here, Number Six is emblazoned with "Chained to the Fast Lane in the Red Queen's Race." It's a never-before-published story — published, in fact, almost as quickly as Harlan Ellison completed it. And it does his fine reputation justice — its title and content both Ever a powerful and compelling writer, Ellison, in "When Auld's Acquaintance Is Forgot" (reprinted from Omni), grips us in a compul- sion involving the persistence of memory and the possibilities of nepenthe in a future society. Chilling. Richly worded, tightly controlled, tensely paced —these are the characteristics that partially make up the Ellison style. There is another part that is magical; it's the part that sets off every great storyteller, and it is amply represented in "On the Slab" (also reprinted from Omni)

It is appropriate that titlemaker-storyteller Harlan Ellison join Orson Scott Card and Robert Silverberg in The Best of Omni Science Fiction's Celebrated Circle ^ » W* r T

• • •• • • •• • •

Mi it ti il i 4

d I i ii I

< ' A t t I

_fc^— 1 .

It was the best of ail the countless lives he'd lived, and

Walter wanted . CHAINEDto stay. THE FAST LANE IN

BY HARLAN ELLISON

Over cappuccino and key lime ture thai was a large part of his knew thai; and he said he pie he told her that even attraction. "I don't want the loved her, too; and he told her

it if . though wouldn't seem as he memory of you . I want not to cry, because it was go- was going away, he was, in you\" she said urgently. ing lo be all right. All of which

fact, going away. Farther than "It'll be me. I'll be here, ex- was true. Then he told her that

she could imagine cept that it won't be this me. It'll she might not even realize it

1 "I'll go with you. Take me with be the next one over." wasn't him but some other him.

| you." She started to cry. "Noth- She got hysterical at that and which was also true. But it q ing's holding me here. I can go he quickly came around the made her more hysterical £ with you." teak dinner table fhat she had Then he said the truest thing i So he told her that though he polished so assiduously with about their relationship. He | could not lake her, that he lemon oil in joyous expectation said. "We didn't really fall in 2 could take nothing and no one of having dinner with him; and love What we did was collide ~with him, she needn't worry he held her tightly, his unhap- at the intersection of your life 3 about his being gone, because piness made somehow sup- and mine." g he would be here With her. portable by the mingled odors She had no idea whal that

£ She thought he was speak- of her recently washed hair really meant, but she took it to

| ing in metaphor, invoking that and the lemon oil. "I love you," mean he had fallen out of love (5 occasional spirituality in his na- she sobbed He told her he with her; and he was abandon- PAINTING BY RENE MAGRITTE ing her; and she ran away from him. locked who looked exactly like Alan Justes templating the moon and the steady pas- herself m the bathroom: and he left, not emerged from the doorway of Steinway & sage of the hours." He was eloquent in this wanting lo cause her any more anguish. Sons, the famous piano makers on East new life; he liked that.

Because, in truth, he had loved her more 57th Street, who had closed for the evening II was a doorway in which he stood. Now than any woman he had ever known in this three hours earlier; and he hurried toward he stepped out onto the sidewalk. A section life Infni'slife. Fifth Avenue on his way to 63rd Street. He of residential buildings, well-tended town- But he had only resided in this life for was dressed quite differently from Alan houses, neat entranceways. Traffic was eleven months. Justes, which would cause momentary light. The first car he noticed had no wheels.

He left her then; gathering up his jacket confusion when, eighteen minutes hence, It shussshed past on what appeared to be and muffler, and the little Steuben glass he would ring the doorbell of that certain an air-cushion mechanism. There was no panda he had found gift-wrapped on his apartment on the twentieth floor of the unpleasant exhaust smell. place at the dinner table. The chances of building on East 63rd. A moment of pain The cop examined him. stepping back to carrying the figurine through were not and confusion ihat would be compounded give him room in case a gun or knife might good, but he wanted to try. when the door was opened and he would materialize in a hand The cop's manner al-

Wanted to try not only because it would say to the attractive brunet whose eyes tered instantly as he perceived the cut of have been cruelty for her to come out of the were swollen from crying, "Hi. Katherine? suit was expensive, the shoes so highly pol- bathroom, find him gone, and see the frivo- I'm Allen." Because he would say it and not ished they reflected both streetlight and lous, dear gift left behind. Wanted to try be- spell it, she would not realize till weeks later moonlight, the face shaved, the hair cause he felt he should try to remember her. that he was no longer A-l-a-n. but someone combed The faint scent of lime aftershave. Forgetting her. as he had forgotten so named A-l-l-e-n. There were other, minor "Sorry to startle you like that, sir. Thought many others from so many lives past, was differences, as well: a mole on the left you might be an old skid catching forty inevitable. But like a child who saves a spe- shoulder no longer existed; the lyrics to a winks." cial seasheil, a memorable rock, a useless number of popular songs were absent from "No harm done. Officer,' Alan said "The lanyard from summer camp, in order that his available repertoire for singing in the cement was cool and I was stalling the re- the memories will not fade too quickly, he shower; he now liked brussels sprouts; the turn home."

tried nickel . always to carry some memento buffalo-head he carried as a lucky "Why , , it's Mr. Justman. isn't it?" Alan's through. piece would soon be spent with the rest of face was full in the light now. He smiled at He was alone in the creaking, ancient el- the change in his pocket, because for Allen the cop. They stood staring at each other evator when he felt himself going. Like the it had no special significance. for another second, then the cop said onset of the flu He had felt it coming as they But later that night, in bed, Kathenne "Well, say hello to your mother for me. Mr. had sat eating dinner. The dryness in the would perceive a subtle, salutary differ- Justman " And he touched the shiny black nasal passages, the unpleasant feeling at ence between the man who had walked out visor of his cap with his stubby left hand, in the back of his throat that he had never of her apartment and the man who had re- a gesture as old as the deference paid by been able to describe, save by comparing turned less than half an hour later. city employees to those known as gentry it to the gasping discomfort that accompa- It is an ill wind that blows no one some And he walked away, leaving Alan Justman nies the too-rapid consumption of too much good. to contemplate the necessity of going ice cream; the burning in the eyes, the ar- home. thritic pains in hip and finger joints. Alan breathed deeply as he passed He stood in the channel of street and the

He was relieved that he had felt the onset through the membrane. It might not have sound of a spiky, screamhom saxophone of the slippage and had gotten away before been a membrane. But it felt very much like cut through the empty moment. He looked he vanished. Otherwise, how could she pressing ones face against a balloon. up at the few bright windows but could not have reconciled the appearance of the oth- pushing steadily and without discomfort in- find the source of the music. ' have to go er him when he was gone? to a resilient surface. And in a timeless mo- home, he thought. And the thought rein- He leaned against the wall of the elevator, ment he was through. His right hand, which terpreted itself visually in his mind as a hoping no one had pressed the button on a had been in his jacket pocket, holding the dark, ominous rush of water slithering into lower floor, hoping he would go quietly be- glass panda, was now empty. Goodbye, the distance Smooth, slick, oily shapes fore the elevator reached the lobby; and he Kathy, he thought: and put her out of his barely breaking the surface of the freshet drew in long, deep, shuddering breaths. mind as the memory faded, faded frightening shapes cruising along, were

And in a moment he had slipped through. "You cant sleep here, buddy." said a caught in the moonlight of his mind. ' have " The elevator was empty A faint scintil- voice. "Move it along to go home. Mother will be worried. lance in the air, and a not unpleasant odor: He looked up. By moonlight he saw the the smell of sunshine on dusky Concord not-unkind face of a cop, staring down at He let himself into the darkened town- grapes bursting on their vines. him. There were broken veins in his round house. The beaded lamp on the foyer cre- He was gone from that life. His name had cheeks and on the fleshy bulb of his nose denza threw an asthmatic glow halfway up been Alan Justes. And he was gone. He drinks. Alan thought. But then, if I had to the stairs. Mother s elevalor-chair was at the At precisely the instant that Alan Justes spend my nights waiting for teenage top of the balustrade. So she was in bed al- scintillated out of existence in an elevator creeps to rob convenience mans. I'd drink, ready The day nurse would have put her traveling between the fifteenth and four- too. down, tucked her in. and left her to the com- teenth floors of an apartment building on "I'm not sleeping. Officer." Alan said, get- pany of the bizarre coterie. He stood with East 63rd Street in New York City, a man ting to his feet. "I'm sitting, thinking, con- one hand on the newel post, a foot on the 34 . ' .

lowest siep; and he listened. From above- Life was not of a finite length, not of a pro- ing the good life; and they kept the pressure stairs he could hear the sound of malicious scribed duration; life was serial. Each spark constant. laughter and that same ugly sitar music Jo- of life— not reincarnated as incorrectly per- Who would want to be stuck in a life such hann insisted on playing all night. ceived in dim analogue of the reality— trav- as the one he now shared with his mother He started to turn away. eled through consecutive existences, in and her society of twisted degenerates? "Aren't you coming up, Alvin?" He looked contiguous universes, replenished and re- Alvm Justman longed tor checkout time. up as !he voice of the woman caught him in formed as a new individual. But each al- a noose of command. tered from the life just behind: altered still "Where were you last night?" his mother

She stood fhere half-shrouded in dark- more when it became the next one ahead. asked. Her voice was thin and filled with ca- ness, but not even the shadows pooled at He came to think of the totality of exist- tarrh. How much longer could she live in her the head of the stairs could hide Ihe lumi- ence as baklava: the Armenian pastry condition? The day nurse and ihe scarred nous expanse of thigh and leg her parted made up of thousands of isinglass-thin lay- hunchback who told her fortune ministered dressing gown revealed She touched the ers, one atop the others, so tightly pressed to the old woman They bustled around the corner of her mouth with a fingertip. Black one could not differentiate among them, bed, fluffing, inoculating, moistening, lacquered fingernail against her lower lip. could not know when one had bitten touching the sores. He stared at the tableau

He climbed the stairs slowly. Breathing through to the next. and said, "Mother, why don't you let me kill steadily, she waited for him. And when he There was no luck, merely slipping you so you can pass on to the next bright was one step below the landing she through the membrane into the next uni- world?" reached out and put her hand behind his verse layer, assuming a new variation of Her lips trembled before she spoke neck, drawing his face toward her She self. it And sometimes was a better varia- "What are you talking about? I raised you. looked down into his eyes and smiled a tion, and that was a day in which everything The least you can do is stay by me till the feral smile of possession. "Your mother is wenf right. And sometimes it was a worse end." waiting Everyone's been waiting. variation, and that was a day in which ran- "There is no end in sight. Mother."

Then she led him up and into the master dom troubles compounded till life was not "Thank God for the wonders of medical bedroom where the lights were low and the worth living. science." A tube clamped to her throat pale throng moved on a silent lide around Reality was a shunting sfation. an invisi- made bubbling sounds. the yellowed figure of his mother, propped ble railroad terminal without end; and "Yes. Thank God," Alvin said. upon her pillows in the great canopied bed through that switching station every soul "And so ... " she said. "... where were

It was not as a night as it that ever existed bad might have had came and went . . you last night? The seance had to be put been. The blind child was not there. Nor the moving on to its next manifestation of self off. We needed that occasional spirituality woman without arms. ... all unaware as memory of the transfer in your nature that is, my son, a large part of was obliterated by passage ... all un- your attractiveness.' He was a Chinese puzzle box: a box with- aware fhat today's self was a vaguely famil- "I was out walking, my mother Commun- in a box within a box .... iar but completely different entity than yes- ing with the cosmos and the cop on the A Russian capsule doll which, when the terday's self beat." halves were broken open, revealed a small- But like Da vlnci and Karl Marx and Wil- She stared al him through milky irises. er doll nestling inside; a smaller doll which, if liam James before him, something had "Sometimes I wonder you are, indeed, my when opened, exposed an even smaller gone wrong and he had not lost the mem- child," doll; down and down and down to the most ory of where and who he had been. Im- "Sometimes you re not alone in wonder- minuscule doll secreted al the core of the perfectly, shadowy in retrospect, neither ing." he replied. Then, cheerily, he asked largest, so tiny its features were indistin- amnesia nor forgetfulness. came the reali- again, "So there's no matricide in the cards guishable. zation that, like cats nudging each other today, is that right?" Like Gurdjieff and Giordano Bruno and over from food bowl to food bowl, he was The day nurse turned io him. '"She's Tesla before him; like Cagliostro and David being pushed from life to life by the him be- asleep again." Hume: like Confucius and Prester John and hind him And in turn, he was pushing the "Thank God for the wonders of medical Livy the historian; and like Brahmagupta, him next in line. He could not. he under- science." he murmured, and left the bed- Muhammad Cassiodorus, and even the stood, coexist in the same universe with an- room. Somewhere behind him a man poel Sylvia Plath. he had discovered — in a other of himself. named Allen was enjoying a better lite than blinding epiphany on no special day, one If was a journey without end, the one he had left, fearing with just cause day— that there was no such thing as luck. How many hundreds, thousands, mil- the life that lay ahead. I've got to get the hell Nor such a thing as serendipity, no such lions of lives he had led since he had been out of here. Alvin Justman thought. thing as synchronism. No single life of ran- born . . he could not begin to surmise. But all he could do was apply pressure. dom chance existed. No single life was led And how he longed to find the perfect life. And if it was a better life ahead, there would by any breathing mortal To stop the flow, To halt and feel no pres- be a him who would resist that pressure, as He learned: there was only slipping sure to move along. The cop that was the Alan Justes had resisted until Allen grew across from one life to the next One life that life-flow would not tap him on the sole of his strong enough to effect the transition. gave onto the next, slightly different, and shoe and order him to get up, move it along, And so, for the next nine years, Alvin lived beyond that the doorway to the next life, buddy. To reach a life that was pleasing, re- in that dark townhouse with the everchang- and the next. . . warding, supportable. And to stop. ing clique of human refuse and with his He learned that humans were immortal. But every him behind him was also seek- dear mother, thankful for the wonders of 35 "

medical Luckman felt the breath-catching unpleas- of his journey. Not each life individually, but antness ot having eaten too much ice a vast panorama of personae, with a few On a Sunday night, stokfng the ancient cream too quickly. He lay down in the bot- that stood out in sharper relief than the furnace in the basement, still wincing from tom of the punt on the Serpentine, and in a mass. The flamenco dancer he had been; the pain of the straight-razor wounds into moment was gone from that place. the sandhog digging the Holland Tunnel; which they had poured the hot wax. he felt Overtime for use of the punt went unpaid the feudal serf; the confidant of the Medicis; himself trembling with self-loathing and and the quayside entrepreneur who rented the gravedigger in Denmark: the cata- hysteria, and the onset of slippage. He the little boats not only had to absorb the maran-riding Melanesian. began to cry with relief. Thank God, he loss, but was required to pay three pounds In that moment he thought of himself, thought. six to the son of the man who located the each time it happened he thought of him- And in a moment he was pressing punt. self, as Alice had perceived herself: run- against the membrane, feeling compassion It is an ill wind . . ning as fast as he could run. to stay in the for whichever him was at that moment same place, in the Red Queen's race. emerging into the world of mother and her Into a life as William Rucklin A life work- Then the moment passed, and he opened minions. ing in a vacuum-bead circuit-coding fac- his eyes, and his face stared closely back And in another moment he was through tory in Liverpool. Life without color Life with- at him. He was sitting in an easy chair in a into his next life, where he was Elvin Luck- out change. Life that was no life. Three pleasant drawing room filled with books, a man, a young man whose mother had just years. fireplace, and the scent of cavendish, and died and who, desolate with the loss, had Into a life as Wilhelm Richter. Life of de- he was not looking in a mirror, signed up for the merchant marine. Two testation for everyone around him. He knew "Waldemar?" the face that was his said. years later, understanding at last that the how intelligent he was. He knew it was bad "Ja. Waldemar." he replied "And you extended series of heartbreakingly empty breaks, the efforts of those around him who liaisons he had had with women who de- were crazed with jealousy at his gifts, that "Wallace. Vanowen. And I'm not going." spised and ridiculed him was an attempt to and that alone keeping him from ascendan- The memory started to slip—away. pay penance for his mother's death, he also cy. He despised having to smile at them, "Wha what do you " And Wally came to understand that this life was des- loathed having to kowtow to them, hated Vanowen slapped him across the face as tined to be a tragic one. His mothers death, them for their enjoyment of his subservient hard as he could He didn't pull the blow, an inevitability for which he bore no ac- position. He knew Iris was having an affair simply let fly. Waldemar's head snapped countability after they had opened her and with one of her old paramours, knew that, around and in that instant his mind cleared. discovered the carcinoma had metasta- too; but not which one Nine months, fitteen "Hold onto it. boy! said Wally angrily ur- sized like ergot in a field of rye. had become days. gently. "Don't let it slip away or who the hell the central issue of his existence. Into a life as Waldemar van Rensburg, knows what I'll have to do with you . . be- ." He became celibate, withdrawn, ob- who lived within sight of The Hague and cause / ain't going, cookie scure to the point of laying out his clothes had a perfectly pleasant, if uneventful, life. "Yourememder?"

and standing his watch aboard ship in har- Wife, Trina; three children, Hans, Karel, "Yeah, I remember I remember Alvin and mony with the lines of tellurian force he had Wilhelmina (after the Queen, rest her soul); his creepy old lady, I remember that para- found described in a worthless book of small tobacco shop; three weeks in Bel- noid Wilhelm. remember all the way back to crackpot mysticism in a sidestreet book- gium every year. Only a year— Wilhelm was footsoldiering with Blackjack Pershing. You shop in Hong Kong. mad with his life and pushed hard from be- remember that one. the gangrene and the His sanity slipped from him. day by day; hind —and he was nudged into the next lay- dysentery'" and without the companionship of friends er of baklava. "My God, I do. yes! All the way back he had no sticking-post to which his floating The slippage did not go smoothly. then."

if mind could adhere. Strange phantasms It was as he were being bom again. "That's nothing to what I remember, son. and arcane beliefs assaulted him. Standing Pushing, pressing, thrusting against the And it's what makes for a good life. Which is watch, as the sea billowed around him. he membrane, it would not give. As if this en- what this is, in case you hadn't figured it out held conversations with himself And only tranceway was of a stronger, less resilient yet. This is the one. The top of the line The occasionally was he rational enough to re- substance. prize in the Cracker Jack box. This is the member that there was a life beyond this As if someone on the other side were best possible life that can be led by this se-

if one pushing back in the opposite direction, as ries of guys who've been me And here I Finally, life-flow what saved him was the waking the were trying to run upstream, as stay. I don't budge." terror of the life in which he had been Alvin if he were going against the grain. He had "But you have to

Justman. The pressure behind him. time to register the anomaly while in the Wally chuckled, lit his pipe. The life with mother and her band of transitional state. Then he went and sat down in an easy freaks. But the pressure from behind him, the chair across from Waldemar's They stared The life he, Elvin, had totally forgotten. pressure of lives as Alan, Allen. Alvin, Elvin, at each other for a long time. But there had been another him who had William, Wilhelm — terrible lives—could not "They're pushing me from behind." emerged into that monstrous venue: and be contained. He went through. Waldemar said. "I'd be happy to let you like him, Alvin before Allen wanted out' The have this life . . but I have no control over pressure was significant. In the first moments of his new life, as the process. I'm nudged, you're nudged."

And during shore leave in London, Elvin usual, he was able to remember the totality Wally shook his head "I don't go." 36 . . "

"They'll make you go! The pressure." boots that know my feet. I do my work: I Men in many doorways faded and were Wally exhaled a cloud of smoke. The translate poetry by Latin American writers receding shadows.

drawing room smelled woodsy and com- for the university press. I spend many hours He was sick with having eaten too much fortably close. In facl, now that Waldemar a day in their words, surrounded by their ice cream too quickly. His hip joints ached. thought about it, the room—and himself in it beauty. My friends call and suggest we go He was on his way toward another life. —felt more comfortable than anything he for barbecue dinners, and we laugh and He was Walter Vernon and he was a fail- could remember. He fell as if he belonged make up bad puns. My wife is the part of me ure. Every time he had attempted to amelio- here. He knew, in that moment, that his I need but don't have the history or space rate the mediocrity in which he existed, dis- predecessor in this life, the Wally Vanowen within myself to contain. I have two children, aster slipped from the shadows 10 crush his sitting across from him, had told him the ab- who search through my coat pockets for lit- spirit. He was simply not good enough. And solute truth: this was the best of all possible tle gifts when I come home from a trip. I read Belinda never missed an opportunity to tell worlds. a book that made me cry this week." him of his inadequacies. The children were This was the terminus he had sought for Waldemar felt a subtle shift in his body; impossible, needing a strong hand and not uncountable lifetimes. as if the blood had sped up in veins and ar- having a father who could provide it. Trou-

Here the Flying Dutchman came to rest. teries: as if he had gotten late growth in his ble. There was always trouble. Each day

Here the Red Queen's race marked its bones; as if his heart had been touched. was a campaign in a war that was lost be- finish line. Then it passed, and he felt contempt for fore it had begun.

And somehow . . . somehow ... he Wally. To reside in paradise and dine so fru- Walter Vernon, though he could not re- would stay here! gally! The water was deeper, but this fool member the fact, was running as fast as he His mind scrabbled through possibilities, had no sense of the vastness. He resolved could in a life of desolation that stretched on clawing at one plan, then another, casting to snatch this Eden from its totally unworthy before him for fifteen years. At the end ot them aside like a dog digging through a tenant. And for the first time he contemplat- that life lay a membrane that gave onto a wastebasket for that bit of refuse producing ed suicide. fast lane of lives, each more awful than the

Ihe wondrous aroma. Somewhere in his Well, wasn't it suicide if he killed Wally? ones before. Oh, perhaps some were bet- past, somewhere in all those lives he had How could it be murder if he killed himselt? ter; and perhaps somewhere ages away led, was Ihe method, the bit of data, the Two of them could not exist in the same life there was another existence in which one of spark . cunning that would permit him to . . he knew that. So Wally had to go. could read a book that brought tears. shove Wally through before him, back into Seeming still to be listening to the dreary But, maintaining the pattern, Walter

the life-flow, back into the race . . panegyric, he looked around the drawing Vernon might not recognize it. Then he would worry about keeping all room. He would have to move fast, without Ihe others behind him locked out. Jubilation hesitation, brutally. He would have only one In a drawing room filled with books, a sang along the wires of his soul. chance ... he knew that. They were in the large group of men who bore a striking simi- "What makes this such a perfect life?" He middle of the drawing room. The walls of larity to each other stood talking quietly. had to stall till he could reason this out. bookcases were filled with volumes and the There was a sense of great loss among Wally smiled. "The knowledge, cookie." three doors were closed. A sofa, a small them. "What knowledge?" sideboard, the two easy chairs, a floor "He was too damaged. Too bent by what "The knowledge that I'm not a slave. The lamp, the fireplace. he'd been through, the poor sonofabitch," smarts to know that I can live the life I There was a stand of fireplace imple- Wally Vanowen said. They nodded and

if choose I don't let the life I'm in live me I'm ments: tongs, ash shovel, heavy poker. Yes sighed. happy in my skin." He pushed himself out of the easy chair. "You'd think he would have realized,'' Waldemar could not comprehend what He was still a bit unsteady. Wally stopped said Merle Webber. We all believed no two Wally was saying. It sounded like errant speaking, watching him. "I have to get my of us could exist in the same life when we nonsense, obscurant philosophy of the sea legs," he said, acting wobblier than he got here. But couldn't he see he was exist- most sophomoric sort, the kind of twaddle felt. Strength was coming into his body ing with you, Wally, right here, right in this he'd heard from trendy half-wits floating on now. He put out a hand toward the fireplace room? Couldn't he see that it could work?" drugs and cheapjack religiosity. He had led mantel, as if reaching for support. Wally Wallace Vanowen spread his hands in too many lives to go for such simplistic gen- started to say something. He stumbled, hopeless resignation. "Sometimes it's been eralities. took two faltering steps toward the fire- too awful for them, We do the best we can

But he felt comfortable here. Felt as if he place, and in a rush grabbed Ihe handle of They talked about it for a while longer, belonged, for the first time in numberless the poker. He spun with the weapon raised then decided they and their wives and their years of lives. over his head, one sharp blow, one power- lovers and their children would spend the But he listened as Wally told him of this ful smash, an instant, just an instant, and he rest of the day having a barbecue and re- life. there And was nothing at all remarkable would be alone here. . . laxing before they returned to their sepa- about it. Three doors opened into the drawing rate lives here in this world that was rapidly "I get up each morning and make a cup room. Three men stood in the openings, filling up with themselves, Here in this best of coffee with cardamon and chocolate in it. and behind them were others But the poker of all possible worlds where those who were

I sit and look out at the ridge of hills behind was on its descent already. Wally's eyes worthy of happiness had found it. this house; and I watch the seasons widened, it was the best of an possible worlds be- change. I dress every day in clothes that I And Waldemar felt himself hurled into the cause they had made it so; a world in which like, that are comfortable, with a pair of old membrane. checkout time never came. 37 WHEN AULDS ACQUAINTANCE IS FORGOT

For some people, the horrors of the past are not easily laid to rest BY HARLAN ELLISON

lhailhat's a federal offense you're suggesting, Mr. Auld. Its not just my job, it's the whole franchise. The auditors come in. they fall over it

—because / don't know how to cover it— and the peo- ple who own this Bank lose everything they sank into ft." The young woman stared at Jerry Auld till he looked away. She wasn't trying to be kind, despite the look of desperation on his face. She was telling him in as flal and forthright a manner as she could summon—jusf in case he was a field investigator for the regulatory agency looking for bootleg Banks— possibly wired for gathering evidence— so he would understand that this Memory Bank was run strictly along the lines of the federal directives.

"Is that what you want, Mr. Auld? To get us in the most serious kind of trouble?" He was pale and thin, holding his clasped hands in his lap, rubbing one thumb over the other till the skin was raw His eyes had desperation brimming in them.

"No ... no, of course not. I just thought, ..." She waited. "I just thought there might be some way you could

make an exception in this case. I really . . . have to get rid of this one last, pretty awtul memory. I know you've far gone as as you can by the usual standards; but I felt if you just looked in the regulations, maybe you'd find some legitimate way to ..." "Let me stop you," she said. "I've monitored your myelin sheathing, and the depletion level is absolutely at maximum. There is no way on earth, short of a fed- PAINTING BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN " , "

eral guideline being relaxed, (hat we can turned to face the tittle man. tioned with his weapon, and Pinocchio leach sone more memory oul of your brain "Why me?" said, "Come on." yacht She lei a mildy officious—some might say The little man smiled. "Saw you hobble They went belowdecks. The was nasty— smile cross her lips. "Simply pul, out of the Franchise Bank in the mall. You handsomely appointed, Flocked-velvet Mr. Auld. you are overdrawn at the Memory looked rocky, friend. Mighty rocky. Carry- wallpaper in the companionways. bur- Bank." ing a freighttoad of old movies in your skull nished metal banisters, thick carpets. teak door. He straightened in the form fit and his Figured they turned you down lor one rea- Pinocchio knocked at an inlaid voice went cold. "Lady, I'm about as miser- son or another Figured you could use a The door was opened by an unexceptional- able as a human being can be I've got a friendly steer." looking woman. She smiled, pro lorma. and Auld head full of stuff that makes sex with spi- Jerry had been expecting something like walked back into the cabin, permitting ders and other small, lurry things seem like this. The Bank in the mall had not been his and the little man to enter. room was spacious saloon, fitted to a happy alternative, and I don't need you lo first stop. There had been the Memory The a make me leel like a fool." Bank in the Corporate Tower and the Bank the walls with the memory-leaching devices the recognized from his many trips to le- He stood up. "I'm sorry I asked you to do in the Longacre Shopping Cenier and Auld all turned gitimate Banks in the city. something you can't do. I just hope you Bank at Mount Sinai. They had articles he'd "Ms. Keogh, I'd like to introduce Mr. Jerry don't come to where I am someday and him down, and from recent need someone to help." read on bootleg memory operations, he'd Auld. Met him in the city, thought we could She started to reply, but he was already suspected that maintaining a visible image do a little business ..." silence. have walking toward the iris. As it dilated, he would put the steerers on to him. She waved him to "Do you turned to look at her once more. "You don't "You got a name, chum?" your own transportation. Mr. Auld? Or did with Mr. Timiachi?" I come look anything like her. I was wrong." "Do gotta have a name?" you pak." Then he was gone. "Just in case I go around a dark corner Auld said, "I have my own said I can Mr Timiachi," she It took her some time to unravel the mean- with you and gel a sap upside my head. "Then you go, ing of his la 1tl.o1rds, but she decided she want to be able to remember a lag to go to the little man. "Stop by the office and get had no time to feel sorry for him. She won- with the face." a check." Pinocchio his dered who "her" was; then she forgot it. The little man grinned nastily. "Remem- Obsequious. bobbed head

The little man with the long nose and the ber the nose. My friends call me Pinocchio," and smiled a good-bye at Jerry. Then, sans cerise caftan spotted Auld as he left the "Let's go see the man," Jerry Auld said. forelock-fugging, he bowed himself out of Memory Bank. He had been silting on a "Woman," Pinocchio said. the saloon. Ms. Keogh waved at a formfit bench in the mall, sipping at a bulb of "Woman," Jerry Auld said. "Let's go see Jerry sal down. Flashpoint Soda, watching the Bank. He the woman." "How close are you to maximum deple- recognized Auld's distressed look at once, The bootleg Bank was on an air-cushion tion?" she said. and he punctiliously deposited the bulb in a yacht anchored beyond the twelve-mile He decided not to fence. He was in too for the nearby incinerator box and followed him. limit. They reached it, using hoverpaks, and much pain. They were both here When Jerry Auld wandered into a show- by the time the strung lights of the vessel same thing. "I'm at the limit." room displaying this year's models of the materialized out of the mist, it was night. She walked around the saloon, thinking. Ford hoverpak, the tittle man sauntered They pul down on the forecastle pad and Then she came and sat down beside him in around the block once, strolled into the racked their units. Pinocchio kept up a line the other formfit. Through the open porthole showroom, and sidled up to him. They of useless chatter, intended to allay Auld's Auld heard the mournful sound of some- the night stood side by side, looking at the pak. fears. It served to draw him up tighter than thing calling to its mate across wa- things." "They say it's the same design the air- he'd been before the little man had braced ter. "Let me tell you several she cops use, just less juice," the little man said, him. said. not looking at Auld. Jerry saw guards with weapons on the "I want to get rid of some bad stains,"

Jerry looked down at him. aware of him flying bridge. Auld said. "I know what I need fo know." for the first time. "That so? Interesting." Pinocchio caughl his glance and said. She raised a hand to silence him. "Proba- is "You look to me," the little man said, in the "Precautions." bly. Nonetheless, this not a bucket shop same tone of voice he had used to com- "Sure." Bootleg, yes; but not a crash-and-burn op- ment on the Ford pak, casual, light, "like a Pinocchio didn't move. Jerry said. "Are eration." man with some bad memories." we doing something here or just taking the He indicated he'd listen model postu- Jerry's eyes narrowed. "Something I can night air?" He didn't like being under the "The holographic' memory do for you, chum?" guns. lates that a memory is stored in a manner in The little man shrugged and acted non- Pinocchio kept his eyes on the flying analogous to a hologram— not sited any chalant, "Forme? Hell, no. I'm fuzz-free and bridge as he said, "They're making us: re- specific area, but stored all over the brain.

memory, it is always I It'll minute." remove one certain frilly, friend. What I thought, might be able porting. only be a To to do something upright for you." "What kind of trouble do these people necessary to break molecules of myelin all

"Like what?" get?" Jerry asked. over the brain . . . from the densely packed "Like get you to a clean, precise Bank "Hijackers sometimes. You know: pi- myelin of the corpus callosum— lhat could leach off some bad stains." rates. The market's lively right now. A lot of "The white matter," Auld said. She nod- " Jerry looked around. The showroom grift- jockeying for territory, getting good product ded. "I've heard all this before ers were busy wilh live customers. He to push ..." One of the armed guards mo- "—from the white matter right down the 40 " —

spinal cord, perhaps even down into the be asked to give. "Can you travel?" she said. He was look- peripheral nerves. " She finished on a tone "Don't let them put me in the ground, ing off to starboard. She took his head in her of dogged determination. Jerry. Nobody can talk to worms. Send me hands "Can you travel?" tell "Now me about the weak point in the to the fire. I wouldn't mind that, not if you "Yes. Of course. I'm fine." He looked long-chain myelin molecule. The A-1 link. were with me ... away again. Tell me how easily the molecule breaks She was rambling. He understood about "Set the auto for the city," she said to one there. The point at which muscular dystro- her fear of the dark; down there forever in of the deckhands. She spoke softly. "Do phy and other neurodegenerative diseases the cold; with things moving toward her. you remember Lucy?"

attack the molecule. Tell me how I might be- Yes, he could guarantee the clean fire "Yes."

if I come a head of lettuce go past the max. would have what remained . after. But

I've heard it all before. I'm surprised you're she was rambling, talking about things she trying to discourage me. I'm also annoyed, was seeing on the other side— "Lucy." lady." "I know they're over there, past the cross- "Yes, She smiled at me." looked at with resignation. She him "We over, Jerry, They were fhere before, when I They sent him aloft and he hovered for a don't lie. It's push anyone, and we don'l bad thought I was going. Don't let me die alone. moment. Then the autopilot cut in and he

enough law. I we're outside the don't want Be there to keep them at bay till I can run, moved slowly off into the fog. anyone's life on my hands. Your choice, fully honey, Please." She watched for a time, but there were no informed." She coughed blood again, and her eyes stars visible. He stood up. "Put me in the drain and let's closed. He held the moist cloth and Then she went belowdecks to purify the get this over with." reached down and lifted her head from the stain that had been stored in the unit. "It must be nasty." pillow and placed it over her face. "I love Later that night an old man sat in the unit's "I pity the poor sonofabilch you sell these you.kiddo." formfit, and the balance of pain in the uni- stains to," After a very long time he took the pillow verse was restored.

"Would you like to meet the head lhat will away. It was heavily stained. be receiving what you'll be losing?" Ms. Keogh called two deckhands to help The author wishes to acknowledge the as- "Not much." him onto the forecastle. They strapped his sistance of Dottie Amlin, Diane Duane, "He's a very old man whose life has been pak on him. The mist was heavier now, had Mark Valenti, and David Gerrold in the cre-

bland beyond the telling. He wants action, slipped into fog. If there were stars some- ation of this piece of fiction. danger, adventure, romance. He wants to where beyond the yacht, they could not be settle into his twilight years with a head filled seen. © 7932 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. with wonder and experience." "I'm touched." He made fists. "Goddam- mit, lady, get this shit out of my head'." She waved him to the leaching unit on the wall. He followed her as she opened out the wings. She folded down the formfit with its probe helmet, and he sat without waiting for instructions. He had been in that seat be- fore Perhaps too many times. "This won't hurt." Ms. Keogh said. "That's not true," he replied,

"You're right. It's not true," she said, and the helmet dropped and the probes fas- tened to his skull and she turned on the power. The universe became a whirlpool.

Lucy spat blood, and he touched her chin with the moist cloth. "Jerry, please,"

"No, Forget it." "I'm in terrible pain, Jerry."

"Ill call the medic."

"You know it won't do any good. You know what you have to do."

He turned away. "I can't, kid. I just can't."

"I trust you, Jerry. If you do it, I won't be afraid, I know it'll be okay."

It wasn't going to be okay, no matter how it happened. For a moment he hated her for wanting to share it with him, for needing that last terrible measure of love no one should Lightning strikes a tomb, uncovering an ancient ONand awesomeTHEsecret

BY HARLAN ELLISON

^^^ightning was drawn io ihe spot Season after season. August to November, but most heavily in September. the jagged killing bolts sought out George Gibree's orchard. Gibree, a farmer with tour acres of scabrous apple trees whose steadily diminishing production of fruit would drive him, one year later, to cut his throat with a rabbit-skinning knife

and to bleed to death in the loft of his barn in Chepachet, near Providence, Rhode Island, that George Gibree found the dismal creature at Ihe northeast corner of his property late in September. In the season of killing bolts. The obscenely crippled trees — scarred black as if by fireblight — had withstood one attack after another: splintering a little more each year;

withering a little more each year; dying a little more each year. The Macintoshes they produced, hideous and wrinkled as Thalidomide babies. Night after night

PAINTING BY ERNST FUCHS

the lightning, drawn to the spot, cracked stove were brought in. But by morning all the view of the Cyclops on its slab could be and thrashed, until one night, as though three of the students had fled. found in magazines and newspapers and weary of the cosmic game, a monstrous Three days later, a mere six hours before even on posters, then Frank Kneller set up forked bolt, sizzling with power, uncovered the attorneys for the University could pre- his exposition at the Civic Center. the creature's graveplace. sent their of fer to Emma Gibree, a rock con There, within sight of the Rhode Island When he went out to inspect the orchard cert entrepreneur from Providence con- State House, atop whose dome stands the

the next morning, holding back the tears till tracted for full rights to. and ownership of, twelve-foot-high, gold-leafed statue of the he was well out of sight of Emma and the the dead giant for three thousand dollars, Independent Man. house. George Gibree looked down into the Emma Gibree had been unable to get hei The curious came by the thousands to

crater and saw it stretched ou! on its back, husband to speak since the morning he line up and pay their three dollars a head, its single green eye with the two pupits had stood on the lip of the grave and stared so they could file past the dead colossus, glowing terribly in the morning sunlight, its down at the one-eyed being; she was in a blazoned on life-sized thirty-foot-high post- left forearm— bent up at the elbow— seem- panic: there were doctors and hospitals in ers festooning the outer walls of the Civic ing to clutch with spread fingers at the her future. Center as The 9th Wonder of the World!

morning air. It was as i( the thing had been Frank Kneller-, who had brought every (Ninth, reasoned Frank Kneller with a flash

struck by the sky's fury as it was trying lo major rock group of the past decade to the of wit and a sense of history uncommon to dig itself out. city, rented exposition space in the Provi- popularizes and entrepreneurs, because

For just a moment as he stared down into dence Civic Center at a ridiculously low rate King Kong had been the Eighth ) It was a

the pit. George Gibree felt as if the ganglia because it was only the second week in Oc- gracious hommage that did not go unno- mooring his brain were being ripped loose. tober and the world was quiet. Then he as- ticed by fans of the cinematically horrific: His head began lo tremble on his neck... signed his public-relations firm the task of and the gesture garnered for Kneller an ac-

and he wrenched his gaze from the impos- making the giant a national curiosity. It was ceptance he might not have otherwise sible titan, stretched out, filling the thirty- not a difficult task. known from the cognoscenti. foot-long pit. II was displayed via minicam footage on And there was an almost symphonic cor- In the orchard there could be heard the the evening news of all three major net- rectness lo the titans having been un- sounds of insects, a few birds, and the works. Frank Kneller's flair for the dramati- earthed in Providence, in Rhode Island, in whimpering of George Gibree, cally staged was not wasted. that Yankee state so uncharacteristic ol The thirty-foot humanoid, pink-skinned New England; that situs founded by Roger Children, trespassing to play in the or- and with staring eye malevolently directed Williams for "those distressed for cause of chard, saw it; and the word spread through at the cameraman's lens, was held in loving conscience" and historically identified with town, and by stringer to a freelance writer close-up on the marble slab Kneller had independence of thought and freedom of who did occasional human-interest pieces had hewn by a local monument contractor. religion; that locale where the odd and the for the Providence Journal. She drove out to Pilbeam of Yale came, and Johanson of bizarre melded with the mundane: Poe had the Gibree farm and, finding it impossible to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, lived there, and Lovecraft: and they had speak to George Gibree, who sat in a and both the Leakeys, and Taylor of River- had strange visions, terrible dreams that straight-back chair, staring out the window side came with Hans Seuss from the Uni- had been recorded, that had influenced the without speaking or even acknowledging versity of California at La Jolla. They all said course of literature; the moral ownership of her presence, managed to cajole Emma it was genuine But they could not say the city by the modern coven known as the

Gibree into letting her wander out to the where the thing had come from. It was. Mafia; these, and uncountable reports of orchard atone. however, native to the planet: thirty feet in bizarre happenings, sightings, gatherings,

The item was small when published, but it height. Cyclopean, as hard as rhinoceros beliefs that made it seem the Providence was the beginning of October and the world horn.. .but human. And they all noticed one Journal was an appendix to the writings of was quiet. The item received attention. more thing; Charles Fort,., provided a free-floating am- By the time a team of graduate students The chest, just over the place where the bience of the peculiar. in anthropology arrived with their professor, heart lay, was hideously scarred. As though The lines never seemed to grow shorter. pieces of the enormous being had been centurions had |ammed their pikes again The crowds came by the busloads, renting torn away by beasts of the field and by curi- and again into the flesh when this abomina- cassette players with background informa- ous visitors. They sent one of their group tion had been crucified. Terrible weals, tion spoken by a man who had played the back to the University of Rhode Island, in puckered skin still angrily crimson against lead in a television series dealing with the Kingston, advising him to contact the Uni- the gentle pink of the otherwise unmarred occult. Schoolchildren were herded past versity's legal representatives, readying body. the staring green eye in gaggles; teenagers them for the eventual purchase of this terri- Unmarred, that is, but for the places whose senses had been dulled by horror fying, miraculous discovery. Clearly, it was where the curious had used their nail files movies came in knots of five and ten; young not a hoax; this was no P T. Barnum "Cardiff and penknives to gouge out souvenirs. lovers needing to share stopped and won- Giant," but a creature never before seen on And then Frank Kneller made them go dered; elderly citizens from whose lives the earth. away, shaking their heads in wonder, mad had been leached all wonder smiled and And when night fell, the professor was to take the creature back to their laborato- pointed and clucked their tongues: skep- forced to badger the most amenable of the ries for private sludy. but thwarted by Knel- tics and cynics and professional de- students into staying with the thing. Cole- ler's clear and unshakable ownership. And bunkers stood frozen in disbelief and came man lanterns, down jackets, and a mini- when the last of them had departed, and away bewildered. 44 Frank Kneller found himsell involved in a sleep there in the place where he's on dis- open, the twin pupils staring straight way he had never experienced before, net play everyday." ahead. They had become companions, the even with [he most artistically rewarded Frank Kneller looked straight into the man and the giant. And. as usual, Frank groups he had booked, He went to bed eyes of the interviewer, who had to live in saw something that none of the thousands each night exhausted, but uplifted. And he New York City every day and so might not who had passed before the colossus had awoke each day feeling his time was being understand what peace of mind was all ever seen. In the darkness up there near the

well-spent. When he spoke of the feeling to about, and he said, "I like the feeling. I feel ceiling, the scars covering the chest of the his oldest friend, his accountant, with whom as if I'm worth the trouble it took to create giant glowed faintly, like amber plankton or

it he had shared lodgings during college me. And I don't want to be away from too the minuscule creatures that cling to lime- days, he was rewarded with the word en- long. So I set up a bed in there. It may sound stone walls in the deepest caverns of the noo/ed. When he dwelled on the word, he freaky to you, but.,." earth. When night fell, Frank was overcome came to agree. But it he had not been compelled to cen- with an unbearable sadness. Wherever and Showing the monstrosity was Important. ter his life around the immobile figure on the however this astounding being had lived... He wished with all his heart to know the marble slab, then Frank Kneller would not in whatever way he had passed through the reason. The single sound that echoed most have been there the night the destroyer days and nights that had been his life., .he often through the verdant glade of his came. had suffered something more terrible than thoughts was: why? Moonlight flooded the rotunda through anyone merely human could conceive. the enormous skylights of the central dis- What had done such awesome damage to "I understand you've taken to sleeping in play areas. his flesh, and how he had regenerated the rotunda where the giant is on display?" Kneller lay on his back, hands behind his even as imperfectly as this, Kneller could The host of the late-night television talk head, as usual finding sleep a long way off, not begin to fathom. show was leaning forward. The ash on his yet at peace with himself, in the presence of But he knew the pain had been intermina- cigarette was growing to the point where it the great man. ble, and terrible. would drop on his sharply creased slacks. The titan lay on his marble slab, tilted He lay there on his back, thinking again,

He didn't notice. against the far wall, thirty feet high, his face as he did every night, of the life the giant

Kneller nodded. "Yes, that's true." now cloaked in shadows. Kneller needed had known, and what it must have been for "Why?" no light. He knew the single great eye was him on this earth. "Why is a question I've been asking my- self ever since I bought the great man and started letting people see him..."

"Well, let's be honest about it," the inter- viewer said. "You don't let people see the giant.. .you charge them for the privilege.

You're showing an attraction, after all. It's not purely an humanitarian act." Kneller pursed his lips and acceded.

"That's right, that's very true. But I'll tell you, it I had the wherewithal. I'd do it free of charge I don't, of course, so I charge what it costs me to rent space at the Civic Center, That much; no more." The interviewer gave him a sly smile. "Come on..."

"No, really, honest to God, I mean it," Frank said quickly. "It's been eleven months, and I can't begin to tell you how many hundreds of thousands of people have come to see the great man; maybe a million or more; I don't know. And every- body who comes, goes away feeling a little bit better, a little more important..." "A religious experience?" The inter- viewer did not smile. Frank shrugged "No, what I'm saying is that people feel ennobled in the presence of the great man." "You keep calling the giant 'the great man.' Strange phrase. Why?"

"Seems right, that's all," "But you still haven't told me why you " .

The questions were too potent, too com- other human eyes had ever beheld such a He crawled across the floor of the ro- plex, and beyond Frank Kneller's ability destroyer. It was gigantic. Frank Kneller tunda to the base of the slab, and looked even to pose properly, The titan defied the could not estimate its size, because it was up. There, in the shadows... laws of nature and reason. almost as tall as the great man, and when it The great man, in terrible pain, was And the shadow of the destroyer covered made the hideous watery cawing sound staring down at him, the skylight of the rotunda, and the sound of and puffed out its bellows chest and jerked A moan escaped the huge lips. a great wind rose around the Civic Center, its wings into a billowing canopy, the pin- What can ' do? Kneller thought, desper- and Frank Kneller fell a terror that was im- feathers scraped the walls of the rotunda on ately. possible to contain. Something was coming either side. The walls were seventy-five feet And the words were in his head. Nothing. from the sky, and he knew without looking apart. It will come again. up that it was coming for the great man on The vulture gave a hellish scream and Kneller looked up. Where the scar tissue the slab. sank its scimitar talons in the petrified flesh had glowed faintly, the chest was ripped The hurricane wind shrieked past the of the great man. its vicious beak in the open, and Ihe great mans heart lay there in point of audibility, vibrating in the roots of chest, in the puckered area of scars that pulsing blood, part of it torn away his teelh. The darkness outside seemed to had glowed softly in the shadows. Wow / know who you are. Kneller said. fall toward the skylight, and with the final It ripped away the flesh as hard as rhi- Now I know your name. sound of enormous wings beating against noceros horn. The great man smiled a strange, shy the night, (he destroyer splintered the shat- Its head came away with the beak locked smile The one grr f. ^reen eye made the terproof glass. around a chunk of horny flesh. Then, as expression somehow winsome. Yes, he

Ra2or-edged stalactites struck the bed, Kneller watched, the flesh seemed to lose said, yes, you know who I am. the floor, the walls; one long spear embed- its rigidity, it softened, and blood ran off the Your tears mingled with the earth to cre- ded itself through the pillow where Frank's carrion crow's killer beak. And the great ate us. head had lain a moment before, penetrat- man groaned. Yes. ing the mattress and missing him by inches The eye blinked. You gave us fire. where he cowered in the darkness. The bird struck again, tossing gobbets of Yes: and wisdom.

Something enormous was moving be- meat across the rotunda. And you've suffered for it ever since. yond the foot of the bed. Frank felt his brain exploding. He could Yes. Glass lay in a scintillant carpet across the not bear to see this. "I have lo know," Frank Kneller said, "I rotunda. Moonlight still shone down and il- But the vulture worked at its task, ripping have to know if you were what we were be- luminated the display area, out the area of chest where the heart of the fore we became what we are now Frank Kneller looked up and saw a night- great man lay under the scar tissue. Frank The sound of the great wind was rising mare. Kneller crawled out of the shadows and again. The destroyer was in the night, on its The force that had collapsed the skylight stood helpless. The creature was immense. way back. The chemicals of man could not was a bird A bird so enormous he could not He was the robin: pitiful and tiny. drive it away from the task it had to perform, catalog it in the same genus with the robin Then he saw the fire extinguisher in its could not drive it away for long, he had found outside his bedroom window brackets on the wall, and he grabbed the '( comes again, the great man said in when he was a child.. .the robin that had pillow from the bed and rushed to the com- Kneller's mind. And I will not come again flown against the pane when sunlight had partment holding the extinguisher.and he "Tell me! Were you what we were. ..?"

it turned to a mirror. , the robin that had smashed the glass with the pillow protect- The shadow fell across the rotunda and struck and fallen and lain there till he came ing his hand He wrenched the extinguisher darkness came down upon them as the out of the house and picked it up. Its blood otf its moorings and rushed the black bird, great man said, in that final moment. No, I had been watery, and he could feel its heart yanking the handle on the extinguisher so am what you would have become ...

sting against his palm. It had been de- hard the wire broke without effort He aimed And Ihe carrion crow sent by the gods

it s and weak and dying in fear; he it up at the vulture just as threw back its struck him as he said one more thing . could feel that it was dying in fear. And head to rid itself of its carrion load, and the Frank had rushed in to his mother, crying, virulent Halon 1301 mixture sprayed in a When Frank Kneller regained conscious- and had begged her to help restore the white stream over the bird's head. The mix- ness, hours later, there on the floor where creature to the sky. And his mother had got- ture of fluorine, bromine, iodine, and chlo- the scissoring pain of his broken ribs had ten the old eyedropper that had been used rine washed Ihe vulture, spurted into ils dropped him. he heard those last words re- to put cod-liver oil in Frank's milk when he eyes, filled its mouth. The vulture gave one verberating in his mind And heard them was younger, and she had tried to get the last violent scream, tore its claws loose, and endlessly all the days of his life. robin to take some sugar-water. arced up into the darkness with a spastic No. I am what you would have become. .

But it had died. beating of wings that caught Frank Kneller // you had been worthy

Tiny, it had died in fear. across the face and threw him thirty feet into And the silence was deeper that night The thing in the rotunda was of that a corner. He struck the wall; everything slid across Ihe face of the world, from pole to genus, but it was neither tiny nor fearful. toward gray. pole, deeper than it had ever been before in Like no other bird he had ever seen, like When he was able to get to his knees, he the life of the creatures that called them- no other bird that had ever been seen, like felt an excruciating pain in his side and selves humans. no other bird that had ever existed. Sinbad knew at once several ribs had been broken But not as deep as it would soon be- had known such a bird, perhaps, but no All he could think of was the great man. come. 46 )

HARLAN ELLISON AN APPRECIATION BY ROBERT SILVERBERG

When he writes he speaks wilh his own voice, which is a He says he is not a science-liction writer Most of the lime I voice like nobody else's, an instantaneously recognizable believe him even Ihough much of the stuff he writes is popu-

voice even if you have not— as I have— been hearing it tor lated by time machines and androids and people who wander

it thirty years Sometimes the sound is a snarl— very often, in into alternate universes. (Much of isn't also] I think he writes fact—and sometimes it's a seductive whisper, and sometimes a kind ol meta-science-fiction. a unique genre that is made up it's a roar of outrage He is in a state of outrage much of the of bits and pieces of science liction sometimes, stray con- lime, and much of the time it's justifiable anger. (If seems to be . cepts he encounlered in Heinlem or Andre Norton or Sturgeon inherent in his bones He answers the phone, nearly always, when he was a kid and has been marinating in his subcon- with a rough raucous irritated "Yeah? "—as if the caller has scious ever since. But it really doesn't matter to him whether phoned thirteen times in the last hour to sell subscriptions to Mars is the fourth planel from the sun or the smth. and it

Ihe Spotted Swine Journal. II the caller turns out to be some- shouldn't matter to you, either. II it did matter to him, he could one he happens to love, and there are a good many people in look it up— there's a Britannica right back of his desk— or if that category, his tone softens remarkably with the next sylla- thai happened to be loo much trouble, he could phone Poul ble But first you gel that roar, no matter who you are. When Anderson, or Asimov. or even his friend Bradbury who proba- they call up from Stockholm, twenty-five years from now. to tell bly could give him the right answer But although knowing the him he's won the Nobel that gentle unsuspecting Swede is correct position of Mars is of great concern to an astronomer going to get the roar. If they don't call up from Stockholm and of even greater concern to an aslronaul making the first somewhere in the next twenty-five years, he'll probably call expedition there it doesn't help much in an understanding of them to find out why noi. and they'd belter have a" good what we like to call the human condition, and it is the human answer condition and Ihe inhuman condition— that form the center

The fiction always sounds like Harlan— people lend to call of Harlan's preoccupation as a writer. It happens that he finds it him "Harlan, not "Ellison." especially people who don't know valuable, much ol the lime to cloak his explorations in the fab- him bul would like to pretend they do— even though the fiction ric of science fiction, Science-fiction imagery comes naturally is remarkably variable Some of it can leave you numb with to him (He has a row of giant gargoyles on Ihe facade of his awe and admiration, some of it can make you weep, some of it house, too. and Ihe house itself is a whole other story ) But if is merely baffling and irritating, and some leads you to wonder you turn to his fiction to learn where Mars is you are doing how its author ever gol anything published; Harlan has been something quite beside the point Any almanac can tell you so erratic over Ihe three decades of his professional career that Mars is closer to Ihe sun than Jupiter and farther Irom it thai a good many of his slories have that elfect of apparently lhan Earth and when youve learned that you've added an- invalidating all the resl of his work until you take a second look other nice little fact to your collection But what Harlan's fiction at the rest of his work and see thai it isn't so. He writes, as he tells you is not the stulf of science exams: it is Ihe raw and lives in a white heat, and sometimes he can focus that heal so bloody stulf of life itself, lossed around a long while in that mix- il can sear holes in your soul, and sometimes he simply master of a brain, and set forth al white heat —on an Olym- splashes il around in all directions and gives everybody a hot pia manual typewriter m that unique tone of voice which can time But it always sounds like Harlan the good and Ihe bad, be parodied easily enough bul never duplicated He lakes you the brilliant and Ihe astonishingly off-lhe-mark II is as Ihough and he shakes you and he does it because he has been his hcfions are discrete slices chopped from an ongoing shaken himself and wants you to know whal it feels like There monologue, a frenetic and exhaustive and intense and alto- is only one of him As I have often said, that is quite enough: but gether unique monologue thai has been going on. with how pale and drab our world would have been if we had not scarcely a pause for breath or sleep, since the spring ol 1934 had that one! 47

nee again, BOSFini

before-publi : while for the first time, it presents a collection of original pic In his selection of stories, the editoi manuscript

stage, how well each reads, v ideas it engages, what furtherance of the SF genre it achieves. One thing he does

is the author's prestige. Which is just as well, because none of the nal stories finally ch Nevertheless, each has mastered the craft- independently voiced, and compelling in subject, "A Blossom in Ares" by Jack Massa looks at one of the thorn erques tions that Saint Thomas Aquinas considered in Sum proper relationship of man to God and God to

intergalactic , with a condition in wh are m ige.

It is an arg n our technological

n science fiction, that all problems are solvable, givi time and knowledge. In "A Brief Dance to the Music of the Spiv

Michael Kurland glimpses a time when all problems have I

when humanity is master of the univen far too small. Son the ways of the Lord surpass under-

fall stand!! i h so that they feel an impulse to on their k

raise their am . ivens, and scream, "Why i

' nist ol

misery i e of rebirth Melisa Michaels's "Intermezzo" reconsiders G observation that w, as hellish. Rowena Morrill is a frequent contributor to Omm often violent of her work | was requested specifically for this volume. The resi lisplay

of ten science-f id i / artworks. A wossorh

Was it holier to save the alien species or to break his sacred vow? BYJACKMASSA

^ fter my fourth year as a novice I *-\ was ordered by my superiors

I I to spend a year in retreat, a year ol isolation and soul-searching prior to speaking my final vows. My assignment was to the Brother- hood's hermitage in the Ares Vallis, in the midlatitudes of Mars.

I rode a spaceliner out to Lowell City Station, which circles Mars just beyond the orbit of Phobos. From the city's observation deck the planet can be seen, all cratered, brown and orange, with wisps of cloud trailing about the poles Al- though Planet Engineering has been at work on Mars tor over forty years, the goal of an earthlike biosphere is still centuries away Meantime, the surface-dwellers are mostly soli- taries; lone-wolf researchers prefer- ring to work in private, couples and small families who value their isola- tion, sequestered brothers and nuns. Most of the brothers are mem- bers of my order, the Brotherhood of St, James. Following a week ot rest and final instruction at our mission on Lowell. I rode a shuttlef Iyer down to Chryse Planetia The craft landed at Viking, a glassflex-domed town of three hundred, named for the first un- manned probe, which set down here last century. From Viking I drove an airsealed camper across the ancient seabed and up into Ares Vallis. a wide, rocky channel cut eons ago by rushing water. The channel and

PAINTING BY WOLFGANG HUTTER .

sloping valley walls are everywhere dingy, lichen-gray wilderness, the garden between the wall of the dome and a bench cloaked with lichens, gray-white tundra struck me as rather gaudy and profane. that faced the tulips and orchids. The soil moss imported from Earth as a primary tool Still, tending these plants would be a major was loosely packed and wetted, but empty

of the terraforming. Above the lichen fields part of my duties, and I listened with strict of any plant.

loom coral- and rust-colored cliffs, sculpted attention as Jerome instructed me in the "I doubt now anything will come of this,"

to |aggedness by ages of ferocious dust procedures and schedules he had devel- Jerome said, "but twenty-seven days ago I

storms The sky is the palest of blues and, in oped. planted a Martian seed here. That is. I be- the morning, silvery mists condense on the Stepping lightly in the low gravity, we lieve it was a seed, though it was larger than ground to moisten the flora, came finally to a far corner of the dome, to a any I'd seen before and I could find nothing

Those first days the landscape im- well-tended plot reserved for indigenous to match it in Horticulture Section's catalog

pressed me as beautiful, yet terribly lonely. Martian plants These were small: delicate banks I discovered it myself in the ruins

I recall thinking what a precious gitt, and an blue sprouts capped with tiny orange south of here. You do know there is a Mar- awful responsibility, that God has given us bulbs, a short vine clinging feebly to the tian villa a few kilometers down the valley?" this world and the power to reshape it. soil, a few languid ferns with translucent "Yes, it was mentioned."

On the afternoon of the fourth day I ar- stalks and drooping gossamer fronds. Of "A beautiful place. To me, their architec-

rived at the hermitage. I parked the camper course their spores had lain frozen in the ture is more graceful and lovely than any- alongside the entry port and extended the dust some ninety thousand years. That thing in human history. I've stopped there

airlock corridor. I As stepped from the driv- Plane! Engineering had assigned the rare often while doing survey work. I found this er's seat, the hatch into the dome opened seeds to Brother Jerome at all was a result seed on the ground after a windstorm, not in and I saw Brother Jerome. of his gardening success. That he had the garden plot, but in one of the smaller Tall and slim, in his late forties. Jerome coaxed the seeds to even fragile life was blocks. A horticulture team dug up the gar- was dressed as I, in hooded coveralls and proof of his great skill. den years ago. Anyway, if the seed should crucifix. He was at the end of a midlife re- "Are they not wonderful. Brother Alfred?" sprout, you might drop me a message in treat, having spent three years at the her- he asked. "To have survived so long on a care of our mission in Kamchatka. I'd be mitage. He smiled amiably and shook my dead world and now to flourish again." most interested to know."

I first I hand; was the person he had seen "They are as vital as any saw in the I promised I would send the message. since his arrival in Ares. growth tanks on Lowell," I said with admira- We returned to the black-walled hut for eve- Jerome helped me unload the boxes of tion. "You are to be commended." ning prayers and supper Brother Jerome supplies and equipment I had driven in "Oh, I did not speak to elicit praise for my- left in the camper the next morning. from Viking, then took me on a tour of the self, but for God. It is the magnificence of hermitage. The dome is a rectangle with His handiwork that moves me to marvel. I During my first days at the hermitage. I

it rounded corners; covers about an acre. shall miss my garden, now that I am adhered to a strict routine. Rising an hour

The space inside is pressurized and leaving." before dawn. I would wash and say morn- shielded from the ultraviolet rays that scour "You will encounter God's handiwork ing prayers, then leave my cell for the outer the planet's surface. The glassflex material elsewhere, surely." room. 1 placed bread and wine on the altar is clear, but the difference in internal and "Yes, of course " He smiled pensively as and lit candles, then turned on the screen external atmosphere gives the interior light he looked back across the dome. "But that hangs on the wall below the crucifix. I a hazy, dreamlike appearance. Brother these plants I have tended have become knelt at the altar rail while the screen dis-

Jerome showed me the two-room black- very important to me. I hope you will not played the days Mass— broadcast from

it walled hut that serves as office, chapel, think me too seriously deranged I confess our mission on Lowell and stored on a delay and living quarters, then led me outside to that I've gotten into the habit of speaking to loop by the hermitage computer As de- the garden. them, encouraging them to grow, saying creed by the First Interplanetary Council of

Gardening in the domes started as horti- how much I appreciate their beauty. One 2037, the transubstantialion of the bread cultural research, the cultivation of earth does get lonely here." and wine into the body and blood of Christ plants selected for their adaptability and I nodded. "I expect the loneliness will be was valid for me, as for all who received the hardiness. The gardening has proved so difficult for me. I have always been of gre- signal in good faith despite the intervening successful that most surface-dwellers have garious temperament, perhaps too much factors of distance and time. been able to abandon the use of hydro- so. I suspect my Brother Superior sent me After Mass I would take breakfast then

ponic food tanks and artificial oxydizers. In here as a test, to see if my commitment to go and see to my duties about the dome his three years at the hermitage Brother the order would hold up in isolation." The tasks are generally simple: adjusting Jerome had done even better. Besides a "God will test you with loneliness," environmental controls, watering and tend-

healthy selection of vegetables, grains, and Jerome said. "But if you turn to Him. you will ing the garden, recording data on the berries, he had cultivated flowers. be comforted. Be sure to observe Mass ev- growth and condition of the plants. Occa- Rows of multicolored zinnias, hyacinths, ery day." sionally the thermal well would go dry and a and tulips lent their I . fragrance to the humid "I intend to study," said. "St. Paul . new line would have to be drilled to tap the air. Even a few fragile orchids and dwart Aquinas." permafrost, but this takes only a few min- rase bushes climbed boldly from the de- "I found I read little after the first few utes. Like all who are sent to the surface. I

fertilized I salinated and Martian soil. was months," Jerome remarked. "Come. I have had been thoroughly trained in the various startled and vaguely dismayed by this un- one more seedbed to show you." maintenance and survival duties. They expected profusion of blossoms. After the We stepped over to a bordered plot set generally take only two or three hours of 52 to each day complete. ing around their base By Day-16 Ihe plant the time. Indeed, I regarded my preference The rest of my time was for study, con- had assumed what proved to be its mature, for the garden over the chapel as vaguely templation, and prayer. I read the Gospels, preflowering shape; five spindly stems now sinful. Whenever my eyes would leave the the Epistles ot Paul, a sampling of the Old over a meter high, an outer ruff of feathery printed page to roam among the leaves and

Testament. I little also scheduled a time blue leaves, and in the center an orange colored blooms, I would scold myself and each evening to peruse the writings of St. bulb with a wrinkled, silky texture. force my mind back to its studies.

James, the twentieth-century American I had occasion to observe the plant after- founded our order. who theolo- I Unlike other noons as well as mornings, since had After forty days inside the dome I left for of gians the recent past, who have allowed started doing some of my reading in the the first of my scheduled surveys— it being themselves to be swayed by humanism or garden, using the bench Brother Jerome my duty to take regular climalolpgical read- Eastern mysticism. Brother James insisted had built. I rationalized that the light was ings up and down the valley. That first on firm allegiance traditional to Church better, that the higher oxygen level might morning I was due to head south. doctrine, combining this position life with alert. truth I a keep me more But the was, felt Wearing a pressurized suit. I stepped of active service in the world. It was his bal- less lonely in the garden. from the airlock and removed the tarpaulin anced to this life approach and the nexf fhaf The dutifully observed hours of prayer from the hermitage threewheel. I started the first attracted me to the Brotherhood. I have and contemplation were not bringing me engine and set the viewscreen for a map of always been sociable, exceedingly fond of the peace of mind I sought My thoughts the checkpoints, then rode down the slope other people. Yet from my teenage years I kept wandering back to Earth, to my friends to the valley floor. felt had that human relationships alone at the novitiate, to girls I had flirted with in The day was clear and very warm for not without were enough, thai a vital rela- my teens. The more I strained for stillness of Mars; temperature and barometer were tionship with life God my would be empty mind, that I might feel God near, the more high enough that a string of puddles had and incomplete. In Brotherhood I the had remote God seemed. formed along the riverbed. I rode on the found this strong spiritual commitment, At least in the light and sweet air of the sunlit side of the valley to take full advan- while also developing rich friendships with garden, in the flamboyant beauty of Brother tage of the heat. My task was mainly to sur- my brothers and those we serve. Jerome's flowers, there was immediate evi- vey the health and progress of the lichen

That is why I regarded my year at her- of of the dence Gods presence, His Being. fields, I would stop at the various check- mitage as a challenge Being without the I did not understand this consciously at points, snap a vivigraph, then make a rec- companionship and reinforcement of oth- ers would test my faith and willingness to serve. In the wilderness, one had only God to turn to. During my first days on Mars I spent many hours on my knees at the altar rail, before the crucifix and Ihe blank screen, praying to feel Gods presence.

On my twenty-first day at the hermitage Brother Jerome's unique native seed sprouted. I later learned that the plant had been active underground for some time, building a wide-ranging root system. Its first appearance in the light was as a tiny emer- ald stem, full of bubbly sap.

I filed a report, including vivigraphs. to

Planet I Engineering. As had promised, I also sent a brief message to Brother Jerome back on Earth.

The next day I received a reply from Hor- ticulture Section, confirming that the plant was a hitherto-unknown species and in- structing me to monitor it carefully. They designated the plant Ares Vallis-1 and pro- vided details of what they considered opti- mal soil composition and watering schedule. The plant grew at a remarkable rate. By Day-3 the stem was eight centimeters high, and four other stems had appeared along- "Thls may come as a surprise to you but I find the whole idea of extraterrestrial side it. forming a ring. By Day-8 the stems visitations absurd." were approaching a half-meter in height, and clusters of bluish leaves were unfold- ord oi temperature, pressure, and wind ve- was tempted to take a ride up the hill my- pered off. By Day-41 they had stopped locity, as well as the levels of oxygen, nitro- self, but I repressed the impulse. growing entirely, standing between 2.13 gen, and ultraviolet. I had not been sent to Mars to pursue idle and 2.27 meters. The feathery leaves

I thicken, Some eight kilometers down the valley diversions. I chided myself that even in this around the base continued to while breathing portion in- rounded an outcropping and caught my wilderness I could find something worldly to the size of the inner, first glimpse of the Martian villa. It stands on distract me from my duties. I put the creased dramatically, its diameter dou- a rounded hilltop, a tumble of eroded threewheel in gear and rode off toward the bling between Days 36 and 50. The breath- blocks with strange, inward-curving walls next checkpoint. ing continued strong and steady, never

and lean, broken pillars. I had forgotten the perceptibly altering. ruins were near and was momentarily ,l was sitting on the bench in the garden, I still had not filed a report on the plant. I shocked to come upon their elegance in reading the Confessions of St. Augustine, kept thinking I must, but something held me

that wasteland I thought of how great a on the afternoon I first noticed the plant back. Perhaps I was being overly cautious,

it still shock it must have been to the first explor- breathing. I do not know how long took the afraid the breathing might cease before ers who discovered the great city of Hellas subtle, steady rustling to penetrate my anyone could arrive to verify it. Perhaps the telepathic contact awareness. Suddenly I looked up, hearing plant had already made

When that discovery was made in 2016 the sound and dimly aware that I had been and its mental influence held me back. Do I by the second manned mission, the ac- hearing it for some time. dare suppose that it was rather God's will cepted scientific belief held that Mars was I turned and looked at the plant. The or- that I should remain alone with the plant? I and always had been lifeless. Yet the ex- ange bulb, which by how had grown to the certainly did not think so at the time. plorers brought back proof of a civilization size of a human torso, was swelling and col- Indeed, as my watchfulness over the that seemingly had appeared full-blown on lapsing in rhythm with the faint noise— un- plant intensified. I began to feel guilty. Even the planet, capable of building a huge deniably respirating. when I tried to study indoors, thoughts of stone city hundreds of kilometers long. Nothing I had heard or read of Martian the plant kept intruding. At times I would get Most of the city had been eroded by wind flora had prepared me for this. In a slate of up in the night and walk out to the edge of still and dust, but enough remained to hint at an eerie amazement, I stood watching the the ddme to be sure the plant was elaborale architecture whose closest plant for some minutes, then turned and breathing. During Mass I would pray for the earthly parallels, on 'a far tinier scale, are the hurried to the hut. health and success of the plant before any- rambling Minoan palaces of ancient Crete. I sat down at the console, intending to file thing else.

Most astonishing of all. it was evident that an immediate report. With stiff and clumsy Finally I decided my attachment to the

the culture had flourished a mere ninety fingers I typed the entry code. Then I plant was verging on a sinful obsession and thousand years ago, when Mars is known to stopped, gazing at the all but empty must be broken. The schedule from Horti- have been as frigid and airless as it was be- screen. culture Section called tor watering every fore Day-1 of the terraforming. Later exca- Receiving such a report from the surface, three days. It was a struggle, but I kept vations uncovered seeds in some of the the officials at Lowell would probably con- away from the plant lor that long. walled enclosures, seeds like the ones clude that the sender of the message had When I returned to the far end of the

Planet Engineering had assigned to lost his mind. They'd be more likely to send dome on the third day. I recall feeling ex-

Brother Jerome. In fact, all the seeds evei down a couple of brothers to rescue me cited anticipation, as if dimly suspecting found on Mars have come from archeologi than a horticulture team. Suppose whoever something momentous was about to occur.

cal sites. they sent got here and found the plant no I adjusted the nozzle on the watering hose

The sum of these apparent contradic longer breathing? I had no equipment to re- and let it sprinkle dver the outer leaves and tions led scientists to theorize that the build- cord the breathing, and no way of telling if it the soil The plant seemed to catch its ers of the city were not indigenous to Mars was more than a temporary aberration. The breath. after all This theory, still the prevailing ex- last thing I wanted was to cause unwar- "Tender, you have returned."

planation fifty years later, holds that the ranted excitement and to break the solitude I stood there frozen, except for my hand. Martians (as everyone still calls them) were of my retreat over what was— or could ap- which trembled, causing the water to Spray in fact a spacefahng race, nomads from pear to be— nothing. wildly. outside our solar system. But as to why they Better to wait and continue monitoring "Do not leave me again for so long." The settled on Mars, why they left, and whether the plant myself, at least for a while, and voice was soft, high-pitched, and musical.

or not they ever had any contact with Earth then to make a full report. I shut off the ter- something between an insect's buzz and

— all these remain mysteries. minal and hastened back to the garden. notes struck lightly on a xylophone. I could Besides the great city of Hellas, numer- find neither voice nor words to answer. ous smaller sites have been explored and After that day I watched over the plant "I feel you are astonished, my tender. I cataloged all over the southern and middle with increasing attentiveness and fascina- have now grown enough to converse with

latitudes. The site in Ares Vallis, among the tion. I did more of my reading in the garden. you. Do not be dismayed," most northern, is classified as a villa be- so I would be there to notice any change I "I — I wasn't expecting. I don't under-

cause of its size and layout. measured and remeasured the plant's di- stand how you can speak . . . how you can

As I leaned on the handlebars and gazed mensions each day, and look scrupulous know my language."

up at the ruins, I thought of Brother Jerome care with the wording of my entries in the "I touch the words as thoughts in your and his fascination for the place; how he observation book. mind, Your mind, your whole being, is re- had confessed to stopping there often. I The growth of the plant's stems had ta- flected in me. You are my tender." "

I realized feet my were soaked and man- moved forward on my knees. I extended my would pass the afternoon in the chapel, with

aged to turn off the hose. I reached for the hands and laid fingertips on the petal-soft, only my books and the altar to occupy my notebook in pocket, let fall. breathing my fhen my arm bulb. eyes. At sunset I would go to the far comer Even if my hands would stop shaking, how "Yes," the plant whispered. "I will change of the dome, sit down on the loose-packed

could I write this? according to your touch, My blooming is soil, and place my fingers on the silky,

"Tender, are disturbed. I still you Do not many days off. There is time." breathing bulb. I would shut my eyes and please you?" I don't know exactly how long I sfayed in inhale the scent of the wet soil, mixed with "Yes. But this Is uncanny. Plants, even the that position, touching the plani. When I fi- the flower's faint perfume. Then my plants of this world, are not known for nally stirred from the spot, the glare of after- thoughts and anxieties would disappear, speaking," noon had dimmed to blue twilight. my spirit filling with serenity and joy. "You also are different I from what ex- I recall those days as supremely happy.

pected, though I have only dim memories I night, of did not go to bed that but knell in For the first time since coming to Mars, I felt

other lenders. I have been long in the the chapel, my soul in turmoil, and prayed my life was in balance. Communing with the seed." to for guidance. God Moved by the plant's plant made me (eel closer to God. and I

"Yes," I replied. "A very long time." pleadings, I had decided not to report what stopped worrying that my attachment to her Recovering from shock, my mind was had happened— since a report would cer- might be sinful. racing, trying to assemble some sort of ex- tainly bring visitors from Lowell, to investi- I became so calm and confident of mind

planation. I did not for if a moment doubt my gate my sanity not the truth of my claims. that I began to do some of my reading in the

sanity, though looking back I can it Clearly duty lay in tending plan! see my to the garden again. Only now I would sit the other might have been understandable to have myself, until she felt ready to have others in way on the bench, facing the plant and

done it so. But at the time, was plain I was her presence (I had already begun to think reading fo her aloud.

hearing a voice, and that It came from the ifs of the plant as female, based on voice One afternoon, as I read from the open- plant before me. Certainly the orange bulb and the personality I sensed behind the ing of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans, she was large enough now to contain a com- voice.) interrupted me. plex brain and something to function as a Bui this decision, to keep the sentience of "Tender, I do not understand what is said

larynx. I am no biologist, bu! I had read the plant a secret, hung a weight on my in your book Always you read to me of God

enough at school to know that genes con- conscience. If I should fail to keep the plant that has created the world, that is invisible. tain innate intelligence, that they can evolve alive, I might be destroying mankind's one Now it is said that people are wicked for into incredibly varied shapes in order to chance for communication with this alien worshiping the things of the world instead survive. That the vanished settlers of Mars species. of God who created them." cultivated sentient had plants in their gar- And if I did bring the plant to bloom, what "Yes." dens, plants that reflected the minds of might be the cost to my soul? For as I knelt, "But earlier your man of the book says those who fended them, was certainly in the touching the bulb in the stillness of the that God's divine nature is to be seen in the

bounds of the possible. I dropped to my dome, a kind of sympathetic ecstasy had things He has made." knees, recalling Brother Jerome's remark stolen over me, an emotional thrill bordering "Yes, But the things of the world are not to about the magnificence of God's handi- on the sensual. If tending the plant before be worshiped They are there to point the work. had come close to an obsession, how ob- way to God, who is beyond the world." "Are the other tenders gone?" the plant sessed might I become? "I have memory of the old race of ten- asked. I received no plain answer during that ders," the plant said. "They saw divine na- "Yes, long the ago. You are only one of cold night in the chapel. Finally I fell asleep, ture in all visible things, and deemed all your kind known to have survived." leaning on the altar rail. worthy of worship."

"That is lonely," the plant whispered. "But I When woke, daylight was beaming So the Martians were pantheists, I

I shall adapt to you, tender. shall through the stained glass the altar, I We above thought, pagans. I smiled at the notion of la- survive." gazed up at the crucifix and begged once beling them with human terms. will "We help you tot lourish," I said. "I am again for guidance. God has placed me "Would your man of the book condemn going to others, summon experts who here to lend this plan!. I thought, but it need them also?" will—" distract not me from other duties. I my de- "He does condemn their point of view," I "No," the plant said. "I already reflect- am termined to maintain a strict schedule, as I admitted. ing you You are different from the old ten- had during my tirst days at the hermitage. "And do you condemn fhem, tender?" ders and I must change to fit The pres- you There was no reason my taking care of the "No," I said, after a moment's reflection ence ot others would make It harder," plant interfere should with my studies or Who was I to judge the religious percep- "I do not understand. prayers. tions of an alien race? "God reveals Himself tender, "You are my only you. Do nof Perhaps I was deluding myself, pledging in different ways at different times and leave me again for long not lef so Do others to the service of two masters. But dazed as I places." near me." was by shock and sleeplessness. I did not This thought was to stay in my mind

"But I don't know how to care for you." think of it that way. through all thai happened later. "I will tell you. Come closer. Touch me. I must have your if I in your touch am to grow In the days that followed I kept to the As fhe plant continued to grow, her mem- reflection." schedule I set for myself. After finishing my ory of the old race of tenders improved.

My belly clenched with I panic, but chores about the dome and the garden, I From what I could learn, it appears the the- ory thai they outside our solar soil, I it came from ents to the though knew was too late up the first implement I found that would do is correct. system But according to the for this to help. I spent most of my time sit- the job — a hatchet. Crying like one plant's recollections, they were more tour- ting on the ground watching the plant or wounded, I ran back across the dome.

ists than nomads, traveling from star to star praying in the chapel that it would be well. Seeing the hatchet, the flower knelt be-

to satisfy aesthetic whim rather than neces- About an hour before dawn on the fourth fore me in resignation. "It is better if you kill sity Cultivating the sentient flowers was a day. I woke on the floor of the chapel. I me outright." feature of their aesthetic culture. flow- The stood, aching, and looked out the doorway. Not her, I thought, me. I would use the ers were raised as companions, to con- Dim nightlights illuminated the garden. Did blade on myself, destroying the occasion of

verse with their tenders and sing to them. I hear her voice, or was she calling me by sin. and still preserve the plant for human- The tenders commonly became deeply at- ity, In my hysteria it seemed so logical I

to their I tached flowers. That her seed had Either way, knew the blossom had wondered why I had not thought of it before. left been behind, she thought, must have opened. But the flower shook her head. "Kill me. I

been by oversight. My heart was racing as I hurried across will die anyway. Without your seed there will The plant was also curious, but more the garden. Phobos was a dim blade glint- be no more of us." about me personally than about the human ing through the dome. Below where the The sorrow in her voice brought from

race. We had many conversations, but one moon hung I could see her, standing in front within me a response of overwhelming love.

m particular stays in my mind. It occurred a of the splayed petals. My wrist jerked and the hatchet fell to the few days before her blooming. She stood with palms at her sides, open ground, "Tender, is there of why no female your to me: the naked figure of a young woman, I knelt before the flower and raised her species living with you?" rounded and soft, her white skin shiny with chin with my hand. My fingers, cold and

I explained to her about my vocation, and fluid. A leafy tail dragged like a serpent Irom hard, caressed her. My lips quivered as

the of celibacy I vow had taken. the base of her spine, linking her to the flow- they tasted her nectar. Soon I was naked, "Your allegiance to God denies you the er's pistil. Thick red hair curled past her sprawling in the wet soil, clutching her comfort of is a male? This a cold, wintry shoulders. Her face was the face of against me. As I entered her cool, moist in- God you worship." Bernice, copied from my mind. But her eyes terior, her alien eyes gleamed with rapture. "He is a jealous God. "I felt a pang of guilt were alien, luminous emeralds.

at saying I so "Tender, am here for you." In the following days I did not hear Mass

"Why are you disturbed?" I remember I was shuddering. or tend the other plants or read scriptures.

"Sometimes I if I'm neglecting I wonder my "Do not please you?" she asked, fright- But I thought of God constantly, the God

duty to God by paying so much attention to ened, it seemed, almost to panic. who is the immanent in the visible world, the you." Then came the dreadful understanding. God of the pantheists and the Martians. I "Is it not your duty to tend the garden? The Martians had bred these flowers not worshiped that God often, and my altar was Has God not given this to you?" only as companions but as paramours. the body of the flower "Yes. Miraculously, God has given me That was why her adapting to me was so Eight or nine or ten days after she blos- you to tend." crucial. She needed me to reproduce. somed, her tail broke off That evening, as of blooming is near." the plant "My time She stepped closer, straining the length she lay in my arms, she told me I had loved said. "You will be kind to me, tender?" of her vine-tail. Her hands stretched out to her well, that she knew her body had Perhaps her tone of voice triggered the me. adapted and would bear healthy seeds. ?" memory. I thought of Bernice, a red-haired "Tender , . . In the morning she no longer breathed.

girl I had fallen in love with the I almost sum- backed away, horrified, yet conscious Dazed. I lifted her in my arms and placed

mer I turned eighteen. I remembered her of an answering yearning in myself. her among the withered petals, in the circle

anger and hurt when I told her we had to "I must please you," she said. of feathery leaves.

break that I to I of up, had decided enter the was reminded again Bernice, the pain It was many days before I could bring novitiate. in her eyes when I had rejected her love. myself to report what had happened By

"Yes," I told the flower, "Of course I'll be That same love pleaded with me now. then the plant had shriveled, leaving a torn

kind to you." But I wondered just what I was through the glittering eyes of the flower. husk and a handful of large white seeds.

promising, and how I could make such a No, it was trickery, illusion. The plant had The party from Lowell is arriving tomor- promise so readily without being sure. stolen the image, had used my memory to row, to collect the seeds and take me back construct this cell cell body by to tempt me, tothemission. I have no-doubt that Horticul- On Day-71 a series of divisions £. to use me. ture Section will cultivate the seeds and that on the bulb, demarking the petals about to But my body stirred in response to her eventually my story will be verified unfold. That I the plant told in quiet I day me a beauty, and knew must either destroy the My own future is less certain. I do not voice she was to that flower or give myself I if about change, and up to her. And did not know I will remain with the brothers I she would be unable to to until speak me know which would be the greater sin. broke my vow of celibacy, yet I feel no re- the blooming was complete. "Tender, I need you." morse. Indeed. I feel God moved me to next three The I days were a nightmare of turned and ran. The story of Abraham what I did.

nervousness I and apprehension. could not and Isaac flashed in my mind, the sacrifice If it is a sin to love God's creation more concentrate on studying or working in the of the loved one. I stumbled I over the comer than God, then have sinned. But I am no garden. I could think of nothing but the of a flowerbed, got up. and ran to the tool- longer certain God can even be known

plant. I it extra gave water, and added nutri- shed. I flung open the door and snatched apart from the creation given to us.

6/t's enormously important to me to make a beautiful painting; to create something now that may be known, understood, and liked

by people in the future. ... 9

ROWENA'S WORLD: HEROIC. FANTASTIC. VISIONARY An excellent pictorialist, are distinctive. A dozen Rowena Morrill is a fre- major publishers

quent Omni contributor. reproduce her art, and it Her vibrant colors, heroic is frequently exhibited in vision, and vivid galleries and museums imagination throughout America. Hailed by col- leagues such as science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon and fel- low artist Boris

Vallejo. Rowena is esteemed for her insight and sensitivity This summer, Schanes and Schanes of San Diego is publishing a limited, signed portfolio of seven paintings. This fall, Pocket Books will publish The Fantastic Art of

Rowena Morn II.

i ^ Rowena's interest in art Now, not only does flowered in college. But twelve her work hang years elapsed before but also in the private she perfected her technique, collections of connois- largely self- taught. seurs worldwide.

. — .

Faster than light, he had

larked about the cosmos for millennia . but had he ever left home? A BRIEF DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES BY MICHAEL KURLAND

have traveled (his limitless universe for many lens of thou- "Greetings. Deradan!" The hollow nonsound thrummed

sands of years, flitting where I wish at speeds lhat photons en- strongly in my mind.

I vy. I have moved backward through time and met myself Thrayna bounced and blossomed with joy "The planet is say-

L coming and going, and explored the C ' paradox as eagerly as ing hello to you," she giggled, whirling and condensing about a others rummage through attic trunks full of old dreams. And lam nucleus of mist and dust, forming a voluptuous feminine cy- not bored clone that enclosed a rainbow

My name is Deradan. and I am immortal, and I am omniscient, "Who speaks?" I asked aloud. There was no reply

or as omniscient as practical in this uncausal universe, and I "Who speaks?" I projected the thought about me. darting it used to be a man. here and there among the ruins where we stood.

"Tell me how it was. Deradan Tell me about the old days." All was silent but for the wind that was Thrayna.

Thrayna said, perching on a silver crystal, her voice the tinkle ot I lofted into the air and sought a sign of life in the tumbled sapphire bells with ruby overtones. She was born after the trans- stone, cracked concrete, and rotten metal ruins that lay about formation, and she loves the stones of the olden days, when we us tor leagues around Plant life there was: grasses, trees, were mortal and the worlds were young. shrubs, and a myriad of delicate, lovely flowers Animal life

"We lived on Earth," I told her. "billions of us. All crammed to- abounded: foxes, hares, moles, songbirds, worms, insects in- gether on a single planet." numerable But of human life, of intelligent life, there was no

Her eyes enlarged and I could see galaxies reflected in their sign.

depths. "Earth." she said. "Where is Earth?" "Come." I told Thrayna. "Let us seek out what primitive hu-

I thought. "That way." I told her, pointing an arrow of chrome- mans may remain on Earth." red fire. "Splendid!" Thrayna agreed "Let us discover who spoke " "And you all left one day, just like that poof?" Her pool was Was that a human 7

an orange-yellow sparkle that bounced around the surface of "I don't know who or what it was," I admitted, "but human it the airless planetoid on which we sat. and evanesced as sud- was not. Not old-style human They could not do thus.'

denly as it had appeared. "They couldn't do much." Thrayna said "It must have been

"Not so quick," I told her "Nor so thorough They dnbbed and awfully small, awfully closed, awfully dull to be a human,"

it drabbed along as they decided that changing was wiser than I tried to remember what had been like "We did not find it

staying. I Some took centuries to decide Some. imagine, are so." I said. " 7 " there yet, unchanged "How was it then

"People''" it she asked. "With skin covering bone and blood "It was as is, I imagine," I told her. "Let us find some people

coursing through muscle and organ? Delicate-gross, beautiful- and see how it is with them: then you will know."

ugly people?" I rose and headed straight as an arrow toward l-knew-nol-

"So I imagine." what. hoping to intersect some vast city teeming with human

She thought about this, allowing her thoughts to sparkle visi- commerce. I was loath to admit to Thrayna that I no longer rec- bly in her corona. "Take me," she said brightly. "Show me!" ognized the landmarks of this globe that had been my home

I allowed the coordinates of Old Earth to form in my brain and Had it changed so much in the brief millennia I wondered or then headed off through a cluster of newborn stars toward the hadl? withershins corner of the compact spiral galaxy that is our Milky The city appeared, a speck on the horizon, and grew into its

Way. Thrayna followed, faster than light in diamonds, as fast as vastness as we approached It was as empty, as devoid, as de- the essence of thought funct, as all before it. But it was not ruined and rotten, as was the

Earth was where it should have been, and still as it had been: place we had left. The buildings were there: squat cubes and a light-blue globe laced with puffy white. I had forgotten how tall cylinders and lacy spires, with a spiderweb of roads and painfully beautiful it was. We spiraled toward the surface slidewalks and covered skyways All intact, pristine, and ready

PAINTING BY MICHEL HENRICOT —

for use. But whoever had used them was no age. which looked to be well advanced In a were within the cushioned interior. longer Ihere. few moments we were approaching the Although the bed and frame and sur-

"No humans.'' Thrayna observed, spin- pole The Box was still where it had been. roundings appeared to be in perfect condi- ning about and showering a rainbow of fine clearly visible, resting on the surface of an tion, there was a patina of great age that sparks where she moved. ice-sheet that must have been miles thicker covered the object and the great hall itself I

I last visited. I wondered Thrayna "No humans," I agreed. than when had was perplexed. what

"Perhaps they have all become as we: "There it is!" Thrayna trilled an iridescent would make of this. I wondered what had perhaps they have left Earth and now in- trill. She dove through the frigid atmo- become of my ethereal companion. Was I habit the universe." sphere toward the great black cube, which still within the Box, and Thrayna somewhere "Perhaps." seemed to float on the white ice-sheet. without?

"Why is the city so fresh and clean if it is We landed at the foot of the Box, by the "Greetings, Deradan." " deserted 7 great entrance on the east face. The door The voice was low, and soft, and seemed

all I looked all "It is tended by computers." I told her. opened. "Welcome. Deradan," a deep, hol- to come from around around

"Soulless machines that are all mind, that low voice resonated in my mind It was confining, this human body; the vi- do the drudge work for the human race. The "Hurrah! It is the Box itself that welcomes sion limited by the scope of the eyes, the city will remain as it is for the next ten thou- you," Thrayna said. "Shall we go in?" grasp limited by the reach of the arms. sand years— or hundred thousand— wait- We entered. There was no one— nothing— in sight. ing for the people to return." Sudden throbbing pain. A white flash that "Greetings. Voice." I said. I found that I

"What if the inhabitants have become as died to red oblivion. My mind turned on it- was trembling: an unfamiliar sensation will with we, incorporeal beings of pure energy, self, and I was no more. "What you have me? drawing sustenance from the stars— im- "Wait," the voice said. "I shall send part of mortal souls free to roam the universe?" Slowly I came to myself again. The pain myself to you. I did not mean to make you

I ot in "If that is so, then I don't think they will be — long unfamiliar pain— was great and apprehensive. am out practice these ." coming back Unless, as we. they wish to coursed through my body. My arms tingled matters visit their childhood home." (arms?). My legs burned {legs'?). I was con- "Where is Thrayna?" I asked "Why am I "And where was your childhood home?" scious of a strange and oppressive feeling suddenly thus''"

Thrayna asked "Where did you —who that I seemed to recall from some long-past "Wait." the voice responded. were born of Earth, of flesh and blood existence. There was a quavering hum in the midf re- metamorphose into beings such as I, who My consciousness rose and faded, then quency of my reduced hearing range, and

It are at one with the stars?" rose again. For a long time I slept (sleep?) a small object appeared far down the hall

"Where?" When I came to, I was lying in a cocoonlike approached at good speed, rolling on a

"Yes, Deradan, where on Earth'' And bed in the middle of a great marble hall. Ex- sort of large, flexible ball When it was about 7 how? How does an Earthman become a cept for the bed, and my body (body ), the a meter distant, it stopped "Greetings. De- star-roamer?" hall was devoid of furnishings or tenants. radan." it said m a lesser version of its mas-

"I do not know the process except in the I rose stiffly from the confines of the bed- ter's voice.

1 replied, the vaguest form," I told her "Others invented womb and examined myself. Two arms, two "Greetings." examining me-

It and perfected it. But I think I can find the lo- legs, one head, two ears, two eyes, not chanical beast. stood about a meter and a cation of the Box." grossly misshapen; I looked thoroughly half high and half a meter across, and was

It "Let us find the Box, " she said. "What sort normal and human. I had, as tar as I could boxy-looking, with rounded-off edges. of box is it we seek?" tell, been thrust into a human form by some wore a nubby metallic skm with few projec-

"It is what we called the building that external agency of which I was not aware tions, the major one being a pair of hemi- housed the transformation. The Box." That there were beings with powers spherical eyes protruding from the top

"Why?" greater than my own. I had no reason to "Come with me.' n said "It will be good

I tried to remember. Stars had been doubt. I had met many such as I who wan- for you to move about Your body has not formed and planets had lost their atmo- dered the centuries. But, whatever their had any exercise for some time sphere in the intervening years But the powers, their motives were usually not It started back down the hall and I ac- memory was there. Memory is never lost to opaque. What was I doing here, and in this companied it. There was nothing else to do 9 us, it just becomes progressively more diffi- guise? "This. then, is my body l asked I have cult to retrieve, the longer it is dormant. "We I turned to the cocoon that had envel- been out of it for a long while called it the Box because it was a great, oped me, and examined it with interest. It "Indeed, the creature said cubelike structure, isolated in one of the was the only visible clue to whatever lay be- "Where am I?" I asked "Where is Thray- most inaccessible parts of the world." hind my dilemma— except for the too, too na? "Inaccessible?" solid flesh that enclosed my astral form like "Soon." the creature said. "Come. "To us, as we were then." a prison of sinew, skin, and bone. We walked and rolled together to the end "Where was it?" The bed was constructed of some fabric of the hall, which was a considerable dis- "!n the far south. By the southern pole." cushioned over a frame of shiny bronzelike tance for my long-unused legs. The wall

"Let us go. I would see the box from metal. Tubes and wires bundled from the opened and the creature led me through. A which you came." floor below and snaked into the bottom of chair occupied the center of the small

it. We lofted and flew south. The southern the bed. There was some slight indication room, and I gladly sat in Vague memories hemisphere was buried under a new ice that probes and sensors and other devices were fluttering back to me. and this room. " "

this chair, looked familiar. I knew I had sat "Another way," the creature agreed. know? There must be something." thus before. "Tell me now." I said. "We looked inward." I thought. "How has humanity pro-

"You are Deradan," the creature replied, "You built the Box." gressed''" l asked. "What is the history of "last of the Technicians." "That's right. The greatest computer in those who did not choose the freedom of "Last?" Ihe world. And then we froze our bodies, ihe Box?"

"Once the great hail behind us was filled and put our minds info the computer." I re- "That I cannot tell you," the creature said. with the dormant bodies of technicians, membered all. "We brought the universe to "Why?" I asked. "Whal pari of my ques- such as yourself. But as time passed, the us. Inside the vast matrix of ihe Box. we tion is obscure? bodies became one by one past recall, and would be free to roam outside our bodies "The answer.' Ihe Box that was my soul the casks which held them were removed. through all of time and space— to go where and my home replied. "Afler you and your Now only yours remains in the vaslness of humans could never venture." fellows departed the outer world for my in- the hall. You are the last." "I am honored." the creature said, "to be ner world, the populalion of the solar sys-

if drastically. It "What is a technician?" I asked. "Re- serving such a noble purpose." Its eyes, tem declined was as though called from where? Called back to Earth they were its eyes, were gazing off through people, unable to look oulward wilh hope from the infinite universe?" the far wall. any longer, had lost heart Indeed, many of

"Not quite, Deradan. Lean back, and let I patted the creature on its nubby flank. them joined your ranks, and my halls were the memories return to you." "A self-repairing, self-improving computer, filled with their casks."

I leaned back and my head touched the designed to last forever, and to hold the "And then?" back ol the chair, which felt warm and best minds of humanity and, by enclosing "The scenes I showed you of the surface vibrated slightly, and slowly ! remembered. (hem. give them freedom." of Earih as you relurned on wings of By the twenty-fourth century, as we "Forever," the creature said. "On this though!. Earth is deserted." counted centuries, we humans had ex- mud-ball forever." "They all died off?"

plored the inner solar system and much of "Why am l recalled?" I asked. "No. The few remaining, some ten thou- ." the outer. We had placed colonies on those "It was in the terms of the indenture," the sand years ago— lefl planets that would tolerate us, and many in creature said, rolling its eyes toward me. "They lefl? For where?"

space itself. But we could go no farther. "You technicians were to come into your "That I cannot say. A visitor came from We could not reach the stars. bodies, twenty of you every thousand elsewhere. Apparently in response to Ihe There were more and more of us every years, on a relating basis, to investigate the beamed transmissions. A visitor who could

day. and we spread out like a cloud around new work I had done while you scrambled travel faster than light. He told those re- the Sun We were clever, we were inventive, about inside of me. to walk the miles of my maining how to emulate him, and one by we achieved a golden age. But we could internal corridors and check my wiring, to one Ihey left. The children of humanity are rat solve the final problem; our vehicles peer into my cryslal lattices, to determine now, in truth, exploring the universe."

could not easily approach light-speed, and Ihe status of the bodies of your brolhers in I slared. Al what, I knew not. For a long

9 ' we could not hope to surpass it. my greal halls— and lo look in on the striv- time I stared. "Why did you nol wake us I We could hear voices from the stars now: ings of those poor humans who had not opt- asked finally. signals arriving from limitless space that ed for the freedom of the Box." "There was no point. Most of you no long-

were dearly the work of other intelligences. "it comes back to me," I sad. "Then this er possessed physical bodies." But we could not understand them, and is my lour. Where are ihe oiher nineteen?" "I understand." they did not reply to our urgent beamings in "Flitting about the boundless space of "Would you like to eat?"

trieir direction. Of course if might take a sig- my interior, on wings of electrons." the Box "I think not." I said. "I would like to sleep

nal centuries to reach them, and their reply told me. "their bodies long since useless. now." I turned and walked slowly back into

centuries to return But, more probably, The cryogenic process had its flaws. After a Ihe hall and down Ihe lenglh of it 10 my cask. they were not listening lor us. and thus while the bodies deteriorated, and could The little creature rolled alongside me. "No

would not hear us And there was no indica- not be reanimated. Little, hidden flaws thai need to wake me again," I said. tion from any of the intercepted signals that could not be predicted or guarded I lay down and it drew Ihe cover over my 1 these alien intelligences had solved the C agamsi" head. "Good-bye," it said.

problem either. Then how am I here?" Do you remember, Deradan'?" the crea- "Random chance," the Box told me. Thrayna was wailing for me as. on a spar-

ture asked "Oh. embodred ghost of my "Your body lasted out the ages; the olhers kling cloud. I floated out ihe great door of creator do you remember your history?" did not." the Box. "What did you find?" she de-

I did remember "We were the Seekers." "I see." 1 rose from ihe chair and manded in a joyous blue flame of excite-

"So you called yourselves. First the Seek- stretched. I was tempted to ask how long it ment. "How is it in the box of your past?"

ers, and then the Reactionists Others had been, but for some reason l was afraid; "The past is past." I told her. "I find this

called you ihe Hiders and less complimen- I did not want the answer. dull. Let us not stay here on this ball of mud lary names." "You may do whal checking you like." the while the infinite delights of the far universe "We wanted the stars Box told me. "I will aid you." await us. Lei us be off!"

"But you could not have the stars." "It seems pointless." I said "I have for- We circled the Earih twice, and Ihen Memories relumed, welling up inside of gotten too much, and you have changed headed out through the Sun toward Ihe new

me. "That's right. ' I said. "And so we found too much adventures that awaited us in the unchart- another way ." "Is there anything you would like to ed reaches of our infinite cosmos. "

What hope is there for a man's selfish ambitions when his own son the hope of the world?

BY MICHAEL CASSUT

nother one, a white boy this time, was waiting for Chaffee in the garage. "Sorry, I'm not interested," Chaffee snapped, grabbing his briefcase and slamming the car door. — "I think you'll want to talk to me, once you hear

"I doubt it," Chaffee punched the elevator call button. "I make it a policy never to buy things from people in garages, or give them money." The boy was of college age, maybe a year or two -. Mn-imy would have been, pale, pink, and ean-cut. He looked as sad as a you think."

PAINTING BY SALVADOR DAL " a

almost certainly have a nicer day than Chaf- nally. pleased with his own candor, since it not even long-time employees. No one. it fee would had been a rule around the office that We seemed, was used to seeing Chaffee alone Linda was already in the office when he Don't Mention Mr, Chaflee's Son. at lunch. arrived. "Uh-oh." she said. "It's happened "Oh. But . . , how?" In Hennesee's Place, in the space of again." "It could be almost anything Jimmy ran thirty minutes, he ate two handfuls of stale Yeah. He shrugged off his coat and with a rough crowd in college." Rough was peanuts and swallowed three stiff Gibsons, handed it lo her actually foo nice a word; sociopaths was stopping only when he realized that the last 7 " "How many is if now what they were. "Did you know. I found out time he'd been in Hennesee's was with

This was number ten. And it's the same that he was selling drugs his sophomore Jimmy, on his last leave. That was the last fhree kids Two boys and a girl. But ten god- year?" time he'd seen him alive, Prince James, all damn limes.'' He poured himself a cup of Linda had the grace lo appear shocked, of twenty-three, the reason for the first di- coffee and glanced through the morning though Chaffee suspected that a woman of sastrous marriage, to a long-gone Pamela papers. "Can you believe that? If it's not fifty, a girl grown up in the wicked seventies, (as opposed to the second disastrous mar- sales pitches in the parking garage, it's would see nothing wrong with a little deal- riage), quite a striking (igure now. in uni- pleading notes in the mailbox. And if it's not ing to make ends meet. "It was over by the form. "Come on. Dad, you're still pushing fhat, its phone calls in the middle of the time he graduated, of course, and by then too damn hard. That's what drove Mom night 'Can we talk to you. Mr Chaffee?' he was involved in ROTC, but sometimes crazy, and you're doing the same thing to

it easier, Yesterday morning I found sneaker tracks things like that can have repercussions Bonnie. Why don't you take take and some cigarette butts in the snow out- years later. People get burned once and things more as they come? All your profes- side the fence." stay mad forever. And there's the possibility sional contemporaries are ten years older

"They haven't broken into the house!" that he got back into it in the army." He was than you. You're like these hotshot officers I

"Not yet. Not that I can tell, anyway. I afraid of that. Chaffee's three shadows had see all the time, trying to get promoted to asked Jack Wekkin to send by one of his the look of recent military service about captain or major before they're due. 'Below prowls from time to time. He was happy to them. the zone,' they call it. But. you know, they're doit." "Jimmy was never a troublesome boy— never happy when it happens."

"Maybe he wants you to remember him "No, but he was a boy. period." It was startling for Chaffee to hear such

when you get to Washington," she teased. "Strange fo hear you talk about him . . . words from a young man, any young man

"If I get to Washington." Chaffee was not this way." He would have eaten anyone else alive at

a superstitious man; he was merely con- "Sooner or later I have to." He found that that point But Jimmy was a son to be proud vinced that premature assumptions about his coffee was cold and noticed that his of by then, a potential asset to an ambitious government jobs would cost him any ap- phones were ringing, "Ah, well, speak no ill man with his eyes on a career in politics — pointments. And he wanted an appoint- of the dead." necessity to a man whose second marriage ment. "Whoever they are. they'd better stay He went into his office. was in the hands of lawyers But the son the hell out. Or I'll have to get a Doberman." was killed one bitter Friday atternoon when "Or a gun." By lunchtime Chaffee had suffered a TOW rocket smashed into his troop

He grinned without humor, " 'Progressive through two meetings with subordinates carrier.

Politician Buys Forty-Five-Caliber Colt Ma- grown increasingly assertive and energetic Of course, it had not been cold or rainy on

It rauder' . . . No, I can't quite see that — not that he blamed them for jockeying for the banks of the Yarmuk. hadn't even headline." position. Someone would take over the been a Friday, for God's sake, when Jimmy "Who do you suppose these kids are?" desk when the boss went off to the Fed, or was killed. But Chaffee would always think

I it drizzly Friday. "I wish knew. I mean, I'm hardly a war to the Commerce Department He'd also of that way: freezing, Bad criminal or a known oppressor of the work- made a dozen phone calls— including one Friday. ing masses. I've hustled stocks and money- to Senator Neubarth's office, to learn there He stood in Hennesee s doorway and market funds, a little real estate here and was no news for him, yet —and skimmed buttoned his coat securely The air was there. I belong to lots of organizations. The the papers again. The new administration cold and the sky threatening A random

only person I oppress, now that my second had announced its choice for secretary of snowflake melted on his glasses, blurring wife is gone, is my lovely secretary, who's defense, a woman who wanted to double the vision in one eye. while a gust of wind so downtrodden that she's only been put- the number of American troops in Syria. pushed his hair around. It needed to be cut ting up with me for twelve years." Business was booming, especially in aero- the hair did, when Chaffee got to Washing-

"Thirteen." space and munitions. There was a new, un- ton, It would go with regret: he had worn it

"Thirteen years." Chaffee found himself explained, but welcome lull in the fighting in long for thirty years. Whatever it took. Light- staring out the sixth-floor window. Minneap- the Middle East. headed, nauseous, drunk. Chaffee went olis was fully awake now, as fully awake as it He had Linda cancel his lunch with a cli- outside, ever got these autumn days of the new mil- ent. In his current mood he would only cost A car waited at the curb. It was ten years lennium. Would he like Washington better 7 the company money. Better to duck into a old at least— a tiny, battered Apollo, parked

It didn't matter; he needed a change in quiet bar, grab a bite and a drink, and be in a yellow zone with windows togged and scenery, needed to start all over with some- back at work in an hour. engine running. As Chaffee walked up the one else, now that Bonnie was finally out of Avoiding the garage, he walked out the street, he noticed the car moving with him. his life. Now that his son— front door with the noon crowd. No one rec- Or so it seemed. The encounters with those

"I think it has to do with Jimmy," he said f i- ognized him; no one called him by name, kids were making him paranoid. He 72 " . "

laughed and shook his head. I'm involved in a number of civic groups. coat. In spite of the warmth of the room he At Ihe crosswalk he slopped for a light. Maybe you have some project in mind?" was shivering. "Is something wrong?" she

The Apollo stopped , too. "You're going to be on the Wage Price asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost. The passenger door opened and out Board in a couple of months," Clarence "I have," he said, knowing she would crawled the young man from the parking said, speaking for the first time. think he was kidding. He grabbed the enve-

garage. "Well, that explains it. You want to know lope and flopped on the couch. He rubbed

about strategic reserve quotas Or wait a his temples and closed his eyes. "God, It's

Had the boy made the slightest threaten- minute, I've got it. You're German agents funny, the little rules we start to follow when ing move. Chaftee would have bolted. But who want to turn me into a deep-cover we get to that certain age or position. kid the merely stood there in the falling agent on the Board— that's assuming I gel Someone'llsayjustafewwordstoyou, and

if fit snow, wearing that wounded-kitten face. the appointment, of course. I should warn those words don't just Ihe right pattern,

Chaftee called to him. "Aren't you worried you, it wasn't the President-elect whose the rules demand that you smile and say. about getting a ticket?" campaign I worked for; it was Senator 'You must be kidding.' It it's crazy enough,

"Yeah, I guess." Neubarth's. This is my building here, by the you're allowed to say, 'Aw, bullshit.' " He "Well, then, what are you waiting for?" way. Why don't we take another loop opened his eyes. Linda looked mildly horri- "We'd like to talk to you." around the block?" He was enjoying him- fied. "I'm sorry," he said. "The wages of a "Oh? You want to buy some stocks? Talk self. There was nothing like a naked con- liquid lunch. Terminal blithering." some real estate?" Chaffee smiled at the frontation —no advisers, no important repu- "Do you want me to send you to Lourdes. passing shoppers, all of them no doubt ea- tations to consider— to make him feel alive. or would you like some coffee?" ger to avoid the impending scene. Clarence made the turn. "This is about "Coffee, please, Bless you. And could "No thanks." your son. Mr. Chaffee," Skip said. you please arrange, in your own inimitable Chaffee walked slowly toward the car. The trouble, Chaffee thought, with being fashion, for at least one hour of total quiet When he reached it, he dropped the ban- forty-six and a bit cynical is that there are around here? That will be time enough for tering tone. "Then what the hell do you very few surprises. "My son has been dead the cure to lake effect. Then I can get back want? Jesus Christ, you've been following since April." he said flatly. When that didn't to being rutnlessly ambitious." me around for two weeks! I'm getting pretty have the desired effect, he added, "No one "Done." She left, goddamn tired of it." pays much attention to what goes on in

"We're sorry — really. We don't mean any Syria these days. I think it's fair to say that Chaffee reached for the envelope and harm. Weonlywanttotalk." whatever problems you— might have had opened it. Skip had shoved it into his hands Chaffee was just drunk enough. "Oh, with Jimmy in the past when— following the rules —Chaffee had well. I could use a ride back to the office." "We know all about Jimmy!" Dianne said. decided that a forty-six-year-old man of "In facl, we probably know more about him substance and position did not sit listening There were three kids in the Apollo, all of than you do." to chiliastic quackery in the front seat of a them familiar by now. In addition to the The glow ol the booze and the thrill of the compact car. He had snapped Proper Re- skinny kid with the sad lace, there was a encounter were wearing off. "You may be sponse Number Two and hurried away, lest short black behind the wheel. Chaffee had right about that." he turn into a pillar of salt, Now he was feel- seen him several times. In the backseat "Clarence saw Jimmy get hit that day," ing a bit unhappy. They were just kids, after was a girl with honey-colored hair, who Skip said. all. Jimmy's friends, loo. He owed them the must have been the caller on the phone. Chaffee looked at Ihe driver more courtesy he would automatically extend to The kid pushed the seat forward and closely. "Clarence? Is that also C. J.?" any of the dozens of noxious boardroom climbed into the back. "I'm Skip," he said. "Spec-Four C. J. Woodruff," Clarence types he encountered daily. But no, com- "That's Clarence in front, and this is said. "I was Jimmy's runner," mon courtesy was not covered in the rules, Dianne.' "He mentioned you in a letter." not when you had a political career to con- Chaffee almost laughed A black man "I was a medex at the hospital," Skip sider No! when someone told you. with a named Clarence, and a pale blond woman said "Dianne was one of the nurses." straight face, that your dead son had risen with long straight hair— it was a TV show He searched their faces for some sign. fronvbis grave and walked around, speak- he child. d adored as a The Mod Squad. Why were they here? Why now? "Is that why ing of peace . "We're all sort of old friends by now, you're following me around? Because you Inside the envelope were several photo- aren't we?" Chaffee said. "I must admit, you saw my son die?" graphs, some pages of typescript, and a all have a unique way of approaching peo- "No," Dianne said, her voice harsh and videp cassette, all without identifying marks ple. To talk, that is. If you were Moonies or eager. "Because we saw him rise from the as to their source. The photos were all of muggers, you'd be doing it just right." dead." Jimmy ... all obvipusly laken while he was "Should we have called your office and in Syria. Chaffee had seen enough of the for asked an appointment?" Dianne said. "No calls." he told Linda, hoping his man- terrain on the news to know it. and Jimmy Hetwistedintheseattolookather. Damn ner would also discourage further conver- wore the beard he'd grown after being small cars. "That would have been a good sation of any sort. shipped out — it was full now. So the photos start It all depends, of course, on what it is She followed him into his office. "Your were immediately valuable as keepsakes. you want to talk about." He glanced at Skip. coat," she said. "It's soaking wet." He He leafed through them. There was a "Lets see. we've already ruled out invest- tossed the damp, spotted manila envelope sunken-chested Jimmy, in fatigues, talking ment counseling, so what does that leave? on the desk and let her help him out of his to a group of what looked like Syrian Chal- — —

dean militia. Here was Jimmy with a family and a grand canyon of a gouge running up God Squad. Small comfort. of civilians Here was Jimmy riding in a to the right shoulder Then, ol all goddamn That night, for the first time in thirty-three jeep, hand outstretched to unseen crowds, things, the camera zoomed in for a closeup years, Chaffee got down on his knees and like the Pope blessing the faithful al Sain! of the bloody tag hanging from the body's prayed. He did not ask for divine guidance

Peter s. Jimmy looking oul over a battlefield left toe. There was an instant of bad focus, or wisdom. He begged for help. strewn with TOW-blasfed tanks and bodies, then a name: CHAFFEE. J.W. He thought of phoning for help, too. Pam- the lull weighi ol the war and added years He slammed the hold button. The God ela? They no longer communicated, (He visible in his face. Chaffee decided he liked Squad would pay for this. Stalking him, kid- was curious if she had a God Squad hound- that photo. In spite of his faults, Jimmy had napping him, forcing the ravings of sheep- ing her.) Bonnie? Fifteen years his junior never been a kid who did things only for herders on him; he could forgive all of that. that had been the problem What could she himself He'd never lived long enough fo He could not forgive sadists who circulated do, anyway, but sympathize? learn videotapes of the shattered body of his son. Then there was Linda, who used to baby- The typescripts, on the other hand, had Presently he grew calmer and. curious sit the twelve-year-old Jimmy during the no redeeming social value to Chaffee They and horrified at what else was on the tape, summers Chaffee had custody. He got as were full of silliness in badly translated Eng- punched the fast forward and looked at the far as the first three digits of her number lish Witnessings One Elias Hassan, with remainder, this time adjusting tor sound. and changed his mind He would beg the his own eyes, praise God. saw the young He needn't have bothered; there was no Lord of All tor help; he might even ask the

American rising from his grave one summer music and no narration, just sound-on-tape neighbors, if he thought it would do any dawn in the new Christian cemetery outside of third-world voices. The camera had left good, but he could nor ask his secretary. the village of Dar'a on the banks of the Yar- the emergency room, too, moving outside. He could not afford to look weak in her muk. Someone else— Issam Shukairy In fact, the camera work was noticeably eyes. was cured of cataracts at the touch of this better, which led Chaffee to think he was Finally, to bring on some sort of relaxa- same young American. A third, Khaled seeing the product of different cameramen tion, or, failing that, to render himself uncon- Khalaf, claimed to have been cured oi lep- at different times and places. That was con- scious, Chaffee had a few drinks. He lay rosy. Leprosyl Chaflee found that highly firmed when he recognized the setting as down on the bed and did what he always amusing. Not much originality there, the very battlefield shown in one of Ihe still did when in need of diversion: he reviewed Jimmy! There were others in that vein. photos of Jimmy. He was surprised to real- his master plan. With luck, and all Ihe mad- Someone was going to an awful lot of ize that he knew the location: north of Am- ness ot Ihe last day aside, in a couple o' trouble to convince him; that was clear. man, on the Syrian frontier, the scene of the months he would be one of Ihe most powei

. of the Chaffee wondered, why? He thought of only real tank battle of the war. . . ful men in the country. One most pow- himself as a man of average religious sensi- And there was Jimmy — alive— in a erful men in Ihe world. "Below the zone.' bility. He had attended Mass regularly until crowd, talking and laughing with people too. His future would be limitless . . . a "new the second divorce, when it got too em- who fluttered around like moths. Was that leader for a new century!" . someone barrassing. He would admit to anyone who Jimmy's voice? Chaffee could hear no who could make Ihe tough decisions and asked that he preferred a universe with a words, onlysounds. meel the challenges of rebuilding the West

God, with messiahs. too, if that would help, He was distracted by a disturbing afler the chaos of the last ten years. It since the alternative was too troubling to thought. Jimmy had been killed in April, but sounded right. It fell right.

. tank battle took in All lhat one damned consider But . , Jimmy? Did they really the famous Amman place he needed was

. call. fhink there were miracles associated with August. . . phone his birth? Pamela would have been far Suddenly he forgot about Ihe impossibil- It was still dark when he woke, starlled down the list of candidates for virgin con- ity of his dead sons presence on that field. and afraid. A noise? Quickly he checked ception. Ask anyone in the old home town The figure of Jimmy Chaftee began to glow the house and Ihe yard security system, Nevertheless, Chaffee wouldn't automat- with an aura better than the best effects of finding no intruders No one had pene- ically reject the idea that something strange George Lucas. The crowd backed away as, trated ihe compound ye! something had

. had occurred in Syria lately It was hinted at in full view of the camera, the figure reached awakened him . . and he felt surrounded. by the few news teams that still bothered to to its neck and tore away its fatigue shirt. He wen! to Ihe second-floor window of look. The "big lull." Could there be a con- Yes, there was the gaping chest wound, his study, which gave a view beyond the 7 nection the slash running to the shoulder, all of it fence .

The cassette remained. Chaffee stuck it open to Ihe afternoon sun, The figure turned Dozens of lights bobbed m ihe darkness in the playback and sat down. The picture completely around, yet there was clearly no outside Ihe compound. was poor quality— as poor as you got these support mechanism, no artificial aid to sus- days— a muddy, umpteenth-generation tain a man who should have been dead. They waited silently and. thank God. pa- of it . . dub of a tape shot in bad light with a porla- Chaffee could see all . Jimmy's heart, tiently. Chaffee shivered at the sigh! pack. Chaffee was quickly Ihankful for the visibly torn in half and ruined, nevertheless them. In the light of their lanterns and lack of resolution, since the screen showed pumping redly in that awful chest, not los- torches they looked so young, so foreign, an emergency combat medical station full ing a drop of blood. so intense. of fresh casualties. He saw several man- He opened the gale and. unsteadily, gled men, wounded children, severed No one waited in the garage. No one crossed his arms for warmlh. "Well, what do here? limbs on the floor . . . and the body of some waited outside the darkened house. There you want from me now? Why are you " poor bastard with a hole blown in his chest were no messages on his phone from the You've already delivered your damn tape 74 "

Skip appeared from the shadows. "We office. And waited for the phone to ring. "Then what's this all about? Both of us are just wanted lo talk to you. We'd like to share He had not slept the rest of the night, and old enough to know better." leaving the house, "It's Jimmy," Linda said. "Can't you con- your life, if we can." the act of dressing and "Haven't you had enough of me already? knowing another potential confrontation cede the difference? It's your son! You've the Is Why aren't you following My Son the Mes- awaited, had almost been too much. But seen the pictures; you've seen tapes. idea that siah? He must be planning his march on the rabble had dispersed. He had been it so difficult for you to accept the Jerusalem about now." able to work three solid, satisfying hours, He might do some good. Can't you take any "He sent us to you," Dianne said. "We convinced that while the meek may inherit joy in a miracle happening in your lifetime?" "And always a didn't want to leave Him." the earth, they don't necessarily get the big- She shook her head. He was "His time is not His own." Clarence said. ger appointments. His phone buzzed. good boy." "He won't be with us much longer." "Hello, Danny," he said, expecting Neu- In the outer office phones were ringing "Yeah," Chaffee said bitterly. "Once barth. and being answered. Messages were be- comforting, a I Chaffee found that you've risen from the dead, you'don't have But it was Linda. "I'm sorry, Ken. but ... ing taken. Privately." of normality in a world grown dark time for cards or phone calls." guess I need to talk to you. beacon "Look," Skip said, "we know this is diffi- That was strange. While Linda was shy and chaotic. "They're all at the beginning. cult for you to comprehend. It's been diffi- with strangers, she never hesitated lo good boys in." bit advice: try to keep the cult for all of us. even those who saw. But we speak right up with him. "Sure, come Linda One ol vow That'll the hardest." believe. This is the first sign the world has She knocked and opened the door. "This of poverty. be offense. had in two thousand years that God exists, won't take long." She chose not to take "You be- that He cares! How can you not want to "Take as long as you want. I've been wait- long with Him. you know." share that? You should be first in line." ing for Neubarth to call for a week. Chaffee burst out of his chair and loomed "The first shall be last," Chaffee said un- A few minutes more won't kill me." He over her "Has He even asked?" der his breath. laughed. "It's actually been a blessing, in a Shocked but defiant, she looked up at this "We need your help." Clarence said. way. With these weird kids hounding me. It him. Chaffee moved away. Maybe was of had "It might also help you." Dianne said would have looked bad if the press got hold the root his resentment That Jimmy

. . had defiantly of it. Thank God that's over," not communicated with him that He father. Chaffee turned toward her. "I don't need Linda took a seat. "Is it?" sent strangers to His

to if I you your help, honey." He stamped his feet for He was feeling smug. "Yeah, I think so. "The kids would not have come warmth, and to bleed off the growing ten- confronted them a couple of times and Jimmy hadn't asked them,'' Linda said qui- with sion he felt "I'm a grown-up. I've seen all managed to convince them there's nothing etly. "I'm sure they wanted to stay to Him." this before." I could give them. You don't even want He backed away a step. "I'm only twice know." He raised his hand. "What's up?" Chaffee had made his decision. "I'm your age. Clarence, and I've seen half a She did not look at him. She let her gaze sorry," he said. "I can't go." dozen messiahs come and go. There was a drift toward the window. "I'm resigning," "Then I'm sorry for you, Ken. Honestly. said finally. Things are going to be very difficult lor you fat kid from India . . . and another guy who she claimed to have been born on Mars. Hell, "You're not serious." The response came —harder. I think, than they will be for any-

Rules. one else. Someday I hope you'll see the the year I was born there was supposed to straight from the

It I do." be a momentous birth in Egypt of a child "I'm afraid I am. I'm sorry. isn't that good Jimmy can who would unite the world by the time he want to leave you. I've always enjoyed my Linda kissed him and seemed to vanish. It's no longer paying attention. was thirty." Chaffee spread his hands. work here. I see the new possibilities. Perhaps he was "What's happened to him, Clarence? That's just that ... for the first time in my life, I've After what seemed like a long while, he the trouble with these messiahs— they're found something that means more." rose and went to the outer office, which lay never around when you need them." "Well." He forced a smile. "At least give silent and empty. The phones had stopped The disembodied faces floated in the me a chance to match their offer." ringing. No matter. Jimmy's cult would draw darkness, closer and closer. Chaffee was There was a long silence. A trace of a media attention soon, if it hadn't already. never come cold and he was sick to his stomach. It was smile came to her lips. "You've already de- The call from Neubarth would their offer, Ken." now insanity . . . being invited to join a church cided not to match this that worshiped your son. "Look, kids, "I see." And he did see. "The God Squad Was this his particular hell? Was pun- you've got a great package, a wonderful got to you, too."— ishment for his pride? To be known for the not as Chaffee . dash- presentation. Run with it. Do whatever it is "Ken, please rest of time Ken

. ing, Mr. , . President that good followers do. But leave me out of "Jesus Christ, Linda. I can't believe you'd handsome Chaffee

Chaffee , . , but only as the Holy Father? it, OK? Go back to Syria or wherever, and get involved with something as crazy as leave me alone." this!" Jimmy, Jimmy, why have you done this to He closed the gate and, not looking "I didn't expect you to approve." me? back, hurried into the house. "You've got that right." Nervously he In the street below, the new faithful were drummed his fingers on the desktop. "For- gathering for their pilgrimage to the Church "Linda, could you get me a line to Neu- give me. but you never struck me as partic- of the Second Son. Chaffee could see Skip barth's office when you have a moment?" ularly religious." and Linda running toward him. For a mo- heaven; then She looked up distractedly from her desk "I wasn't. I'm not sure I feel very religious ment both raised their eyes to and nodded. Chaffee ducked back into his right now. either," they turned to join the procession. A lull in the battle, a moment's joy and laughter, and then the crushing reality... INTERMEZZO BY MELISA MICHAELS

Before war came to the land of Eolee, this was a typical native vitlage: a cluster of one-story cottages fashioned of mortar and topaz quartz around the effervescent fountain in the village square. Now it was rubble Sunlight glinted watery yellow through shards of luminescent building stones in the street The fountain, fed by a wellspring deep underground, sprayed its green waters all bubbling over the stones; over the scarred ground cover; over the body of a fool soldier crum- pled like a broken doll at the glowing amber base of a forgotten altar to the native God of Songs.

Sergeant Melkyn paused by the fountain; a tall. lean, grubby soldier with rank-patches on her lunic and death in her watch- ful eyes She stared unseeing at the fallen soldier, whose ruined face was turned toward the altar and whose out- stretched arm reached toward it as if in supplication Melkyn blinked and looked away Her expression revealed nothing but weariness Her eyes were cold blue gemslones in the dusty, sun-browned mask ot her face. She dipped a rag in the fountain and rubbed her face with it. yawning; it was morning, and she had been up all night Squinting against the sunlight, she yawned again. There was no sign of natives in the ruined village There was never any sign of natives in any of the ruined villages; they had fled before the war, leaving the Alliance soldiers to defend their villages and farmland. Some defense, thought Melkyn Convention and Covenant banned the worst of psi powers and cowards' weapons; but the Durth from across the seas were not bound by Alliance conventions or the Covenant What damage they could do, they had done, here and in every other village she'd seen Farmlands were charred and pitted by mindblasts and mines; forests were leveled by wrathwind or blackened by deathdust; villages were stinking garbage pits like this one. after the war had passed over them. The land would belong to the natives when the war was done, assuming the Alliance won it; but what good would this cindery rubble be to anyone7 Still, there was no choice The Durlh must be resisted in their ruthless bid for conquest; and they must be resisted accord- ing to the Covenant. There were those in the Alliance who advocated the use of mindblasts against them; there were even those who would blast the Durth homeland, rendering it into rubble and ending the war at once But Melkyn gri- maced and dipped her rag in the water again If the Covenant

were abandoned . . The Durth were almost certainly not shielding their home- land; the expenditure of energy would be too costly, in light of the Covenant Therefore a surprise attack could end the war, and save the natives of Eolee. .But at what cost 7 To aban-

PAINTING BY WAYNE ANDERSON

.

don the Covenant; to open the way to cow- "Yes. Lieutenant." "But, Sarge, he only wants—"

ards' weapons again It was unthink- "I've heard from Grand General Glim "By the Gods, Himmir, that's an order! I

able. Intolerable. She's moving her troops forward. We don't care what he wants' What I care about And, even within the bounds ot the Cove- should have some relief within the tenday" is my people following my orders. Swee Gar

nant, the Alliance could shield the natives to "Yes. Lieutenant." is dead because he didn't do what I told some extent. What the Durth had done here Brun waited a moment, but there was him to!" She realized she was shouting, and was bad. but what they had done to unde- nothing further to say. His gaze strayed to stopped They all knew about Swee Gar, fended lands was worse by far. The natives the dead soldier at the foot of the altar. Her anyway They'd beer\ as close to him as oi Eolee were aware of that Melkyn had sword lay undamaged beside her out- she. She closed her eyes. "Just get him out

occasionally seen them, fleeing across red stretched hand. He bent and picked it up, of here. Lieutenant Brun says we'll be here summer fields: or met a resislance band in glanced again at Melkyn, and walked awhile. Kellemny's squad's on cleanup. So

the pipe-tree forests; or found the charred away, take it easy, but don't act like a bunch of and broken remains of civilians who didn't Melkyn yawned and closed her eyes. damn civilians." She opened her eyes, escape their villages before the Durth ar- Blackness reeled with pinpoints of blue glared at the pale-faced alien waif, and mies swept through. The live ones were behind her lids. She opened her eyes, stalked away. unfailingly delighted to meet Alliance sol- dipped her rag in the water again, and Swee Gar had been an irresponsible sol- diers. The dead ones were dead None of turned away to find her squad dier, but she had loved that silly, lopsided them meant anything to Melkyn. They were resting beside one of the shat- grin, the tousled hair, the way he had of The war meant nothing to Melkyn. She tered buildings. Kriby leaned against the worming his way into one's affections and fought only because she had to fight She broken topaz wall, his balding head glisten- attaining forgiveness for whatever trespass

no longer expected eventual release from ing in reflected yellow light, his sword rest- he'd most recently engineered. . battle: once Impressed, one was in "for the ing across his lap with a cleaning rag But he hadn't followed orders, and he'd

duration." And that looked like it might be a beside it. Jasd was asleep at Kriby's feet. died. Melkyn paused again beside the

lifetime Even if one had a chance to live the her head resting on a shard of stone, her fountain, realized the native boy had fol-

normal span Which a soldier didn't have. mouth open, her eyes squinted shut as if lowed her, and glanced around in annoy- At first. Melkyn had fought to win the war, against a blinding light, or bad dreams. ance 'or some avenue of escape. The last and a chance to go home. Now she fought Kronsk and Fu were playing chance on an thing she wanted now was a native tagging only to see one more garish Eoleean sun- improvised table of broken pipewood along after her. begging candy or some rise: one more sad. sweet Eoleean night planks, their faces expressionless and their damn thing. "Sergeant Melkyn?" eyes blank And Himmir, with his steel mace Greasy black smoke from the rubble of a

She turned, still rubbing one eye with the slung over his shoulder and his combat hel- smoldering house billowed up between her damp rag, and surveyed the man who met pushed back on his forehead, stood and the boy, and she ducked down a bro- approached her. carrying his sword belt in against a crumbling wall, chatting with a ken alley and out of his sight Let him find his hand; then turned back to the water dusty-cheeked native boy whose shining some other squad leader to annoy; she without any interest and without observing fur was half-hidden under a stained white needed to be alone for a while. courtesies of rank. "Yes, Lieutenant Brun." healer's cap Their words in the native lan- Outside the village there were still some "I heard Swee Gar went." Lieutenant guage were like an incongruous song in the undamaged fields and meadows where Brun stopped beside Melkyn and hung his stark morning silence. deathdust hadn't drifted. Melkyn found one sword belt on his shoulder so he could dip "Get him out of here." spreading shade tree that bore no scars at his hands in the cool green fountain water. They stared at her Even Jasd, awakened all; and beside it a burbling brook of the They had known each other tor two years by the harsh sound of Melkyn's voice, effervescent green water common to lands now; ever since Melkyn was Impressed. closed her moulh and clutched her sword as far north as Eolee. She took off her sword

Shed been a raw recruit then, newly rushed and stared without moving; her face was belt and sat beside it. Leaning back on her through training; he'd been a sergeant, as still and wary and all signs of sleep faded elbows, staring up at the tree and listening war-weary as she was now. And still he was instantly from her shadowed eyes. Kronsk to the singing water, she dreamed of home here, and still fighting. That was what she and Fu paused with their hands on their Home. A land of calmer pink sunrises, pur- had to look forward to Maybe a battlefield game pieces, heads turned to look at pler skies, and living people. A place the commission: certainly more battlefields. Melkyn. Nobody moved hell of war hadn't lately touched. A place Too many battlefields. Too little hope. "I said get him out of here. This village where chaos was a word, not a way of life;

She nodded without looking at him. "Yes. isn't secure yet. Himmir, tell him." where people were able to bathe daily, and Lieutenant." Himmir repeated the order in the native's wear garments of their choosing instead of Brun watched her "I'm sorry. Sergeant," melodious tongue. The boy stared from uniform tunics, and lie down to sleep with he said. Himmir to Melkyn. clutched his medical kit, no weapons of death cradled like love in Melkyn dipped her rag in the water. "Yes, and sang an answer directly to Melkyn. who their arms

Lieutenant." Her voice was as flat and closed her eyes briefly as if the music hurt It was an alien vision. Once she had lived empty as her eyes. her ears. Himmir translated the song; "He a life like that, but not now. Now she was a Brun hesitated. "Your squad's been mov- says he wants to help He's a healer, and his soldier, and "peace" was a word whose ing since yesterday morning. Sergeant Kel- father was a grand-healer The Durth killed meaning she no longer fully understood. lemny's squad can take it from here. Give him. The boy wants to help us." She'd never wanted to be a soldier But the your people a rest." "Get him out of here." High Practitioner had made her a soldier. 78 . "

and her life depended on being a good Sunlight through pink branches woke one. Her life, and the lives of her squad her She blinked and yawned and clutched members. her sword. The picnic basket caught her Melkyn almosl smiled at his childlike Swee Gars lopsided grin floated in the eye. "Is somebody here?" She glanced eagerness to please. "Hell, you're just a kid. haze of memory, vying with fhe pink leaves around, sword ready in her hand, but no aren't you? You ought to be home playing " overhead for her attention She blinked, one responded Slowly, catlike, watching with dolls She looked at the cheese in her and the apparition faded. The creek beside the picnic basket, she stretched and hand. "But maybe the Durth broke all your her sang its fizzing watersong, and a yawned again Sleep had eased the lines of dolls." She looked at him again, into those breeze rustled the leaves overhead. A tension around her mouth, but it hadn't sof- deep topaz eyes "Okay. You win But after. " breeze heavily tainted with smoke and the tened the awful dark hopelessness of her you have to go home, understand 7 stench of death: but Melkyn barely noticed eyes. Her footsteps, when she rose to He understood, at least, thai she would that, It had been too long since she'd investigate the picnic basket, dragged as share his picnic. Eagerly he offered bread breathed air tree of the smell of war. To the wearily as before she slept. and wine, ate some himself, and sang. He residents of hell, the stink of decay is an It was almost surreal; the ordinary picnic, had too many fingers, and fur on his head, ordinary thing. on a bright, clean cloth, set out in a daisy- and he smelled like flowers; all Eoleeans

If the Covenant were abandoned, the war studded field as if there were no war but did. And his skin was tinted green, like his would be over. One final orgy of wrath and smoke from the village still darkened the glistening fur. But the sum of his strange destruction, in the distant lands beyond the sky beyond When Melkyn called again, the parts was oddly attractive. She began to sea that the Durth came from, and all this boy laughed, his voice high and sweet in relax with him. as charmed by his eyes as would be ended The peoples of the Alli- the still noon air. Melkyn whirled, and her she had once been by Swee Gar's smile,

. ance could rebuild their lives. , battle-trained eyes saw him easily among He handed her another piece of cheese, Or could they? How many years, how the pink and brown of fhe leaves. She ought and she said, "Thank you.'' He trilled a many lives had it taken to establish the Cov- to have seen him before "Come down," question, and she said. "D'you speak any enant? How many squabbles and wars and she said. Standard at all?" acts of cowardly villainy, performed by peo- He looked at her. head cocked, topaz "Stinnir?" He nodded cheerfully, thought ple who risked nothing of their own. before eyes alert. and said. "Hilo." He pointed at his medical the Covenant was agreed upon, long-dis- Melkyn gestured. "Come down." He kit, then at himself. "Hiller" He pointed at tance destruction banned, and war brought didn't understand the words, but the ges- Melkyn. "Soleja-er."' He grimaced, grinned. back to the level of soldiers, who risked ture was clear. While he scampered down and thought again, then touched his fore- their lives face to face? Before the Cove- from the tree. Melkyn looked at the picnic head. "Hid ack." He touched his mouth, nant, whole cities were wiped out in he had sei out. Bread and wine and rich encouraged by Melkyn's nod. "Toot ack." moments of violence; countries laid waste pink native cheese. The Durth had been Then hesitantly, he touched his stomach in days by tiny bands of powerful psi talents knocking out the supply lines too often and said, "Back ack." and practitioners sate behind their shields. lately: it had been a long time since Melkyn Melkyn grinned and shook her head Now soldiers were obliged to lace each had anything to eat buf standard rations. "No. that's stomachache." She touched her other, in arm's reach, and the blood of one's She sighed, and wondered quite irre- own back. "This is backache." victims was literally on one's hands Was levantly where anyone found something as The boy laughed, delighted with his own that so much better? Was it even sane, clean and white and pure as that tablecloth mistake, and tried to say stomachache. If when the enemy recognized no such limita- in a land as utterly immersed in the filth of was too flat and staccato for his singing tions? The Durth came into the field war as Eolee was. "Damn this war." She tongue, anO the result made Melkyn laugh because they wanted to occupy the land; said it without interest or emphasis. "Damn aloud, startling herself into thoughtful but behind the occupying forces were the it to all the hells." It was a ritual phrase; the silence The boy watched her. After a little clusters of Talents probing, forever meaning was long since gone. moment she said, carefully. "Stomach- probing, and Striking without mercy at any The native trilled something in his own ache." target left unguarded even for an instant . tongue, drifting across the ground cover "Stimo, mmm. stimmickick

like a wraith, and took Melkyn's hand to tug Melkyn hadn't realized she still knew how The creek beside Melkyn fizzed anx- her to a seated position beside the white to laugh. iously in the bright- morning light. She tablecloth His enormous eyes watched her They combined the rest of the wine and yawned and lay back, cradling her sword in attentively. cheese with a language lesson; Melkyn her arms, and slept Deeply and "What do you want?" dutifully singing Eoleean warbles that sent dreamlessly. hoarding her inner resources, The boy seated himself, picked up the the boy into octaves of laughter: and he forgetting the too many faces gone and cheese, and broke off a large piece that he carefully twisting his musical tones around voices forever stilled, she slept On a sub- offered Melkyn with a trilling question. sharp Standard vowels with such notable liminal level she maintained her personal "What? You want me to eat this stuff? But lack of success that Melkyn's ribs ached shield and remained aware of her sur- this is real food." She shook her head reluc- with giggling Neither learned much of the warrior, roundings; the perennial alert for tantly, watching him. "You must have peo- other's language, but it was fun frying. danger in sleep; even but there was no dan- ple of your own who need this. Eoleeans. I While they talked, the boy decorated ger, and she didn't wake when the native can't take it." Melkyn's helmei with daisies from the field boy puf out a picnic basket and blanket The boy shook his head, a sign of incom- Melkyn selected a red one to put behind his between her and the stream, prehension, and pressed the cheese into ear, and smiled when he blushed with plea- sure. Later. they waded in the stream sang his acceptance in a sweet, small squad to warn them of the danger. together, splashing each other with effer- voice, watching Melkyn with his enormous Left alone against the Durth, Melkyn vescent water They sat on a luminous eyes. He asked her a question, and Himmir planned to keep him occupied with a pyro- stone with their feet in the water and translated: "He wants to know where we're technic shield till the squad engaged the watched the sunlight sparkle green and going." main force; they were all hampered by the yellow on the wavelets, while the boy "Tell him on patrol ." Melkyn hesitated, Covenant, but once they had arranged their crooned a long, sweet song to which looking at the boy. "And ask his name, will directional shield, there were some minor Melkyn responded with a marching ballad you?" tricks they were permitted as diversionary that startled and delighted him. Himmir translated. The boy sang an tactics while they tried to sneak to within

It was afternoon when she started back answer. Himmir turned back tc the ser- arm's reach for legal battle. to the village. He walked with her, in spite of geant. "His name's Yyrrleem." He trilled il But the lone Durth pressed forward, tak- her efforts lo convince him by word and twice, and added, "He wants to know your ing chances, thrusting wrath and manbane, gesture that he should go home. It was no name, Sarge." evidently intent on keeping Melkyn from longer so much a matter of ridding herself Melkyn shrugged. "Tell him." returning to the squad to warn them. He had of an unwelcome civilian. She was genu- Himmir hesitated. "He'd want your given no way of knowing Kronsk had already inely concerned for his safety While she name." been sent back. And he presented one was with him, she could shield him; but she "So tell him." excellent opportunity too many; Melkyn couldn't be with him always; and alone, he Himmir looked embarrassed. "I don't couldn't resist. The Durth laid himself open would be safer far from the field of battle. know what it is. Sarge." They'd known each for a quick mirror-thrust, and though that But until they met Himmir at the edge ot the other almost two years, but had never had wasn't strictly legal, Melkyn exposed her- village, the boy pretended not lo under- occasion to exchange given names. self long enough to make it. stand. Startled, Melkyn said slowly, "Oh, of She would have been all right, except this

Himmir trilled the sergeant's rejection in course you don't " She looked al Yyrrleem Durth had a sword. Caught in the reflection the native tongue, and the boy's face crum- "Lunda. Tell him it's Lunda." of his own hurled wrath, he had time for just pled with disappointment; but he turned But before Himmir could translate, Yyrr- one thrust while she held the mindmirror, away obediently, shoulders rounded, head leem smiled and said, "Linni?" and before she restructured her shield. But fell bowed. Himmir watched with interest when Melkyn grinned. "Close enough, 'Leem. I that was enough When he with a windy Melkyn turned twice to wave good-bye to can't even do that well with yours." She hes- moan among the bright pink branches of a the boy, as they walked off to join the itated, as though she wanted to say some- library bush, his sword fell with him, stained squad. thing further; then turned away. "Let's go." with Melkyn's blood. They'd only just found the others when Her voice was flal and professional again. Melkyn clutched her own sword as she the bombardment started Manbane. cast But before they were out of sight she turned fell, but she knew she would have no further by wrathwind. fashioned by psi to explode back to wave good-bye to 'Leem. He need of it. The Durth sword had penetrated on contact, casting broad splinters df smiled, and hesitantly waved at her; then her subliminal shield and her shoulder in deaih, all in defiance of the Covenant. waited till the squad was out of sight before one clean stroke The ground hit her hard Someone shouted, "Incoming!" and the he followed. on the back and she watched in stunned lirst explosion punctuated the cry. There surprise as the lavender sky darkened to was nothing to do but dive for cover, cling to They encountered the Durth less than a purple pinwheels overhead. She thdught of their helmets, augmenl their shields, and kilometer from the village. The enemy com- home, and wished with blinding loneliness hope to survive A Ihin-enough hope that monly carried no hand weapons on patrol that she'd had a chance to go there again seemed, when the projectiles came siz- missions, preferring lo use forbidden psi Then she remembered Leem's smiling zling in overhead, and the splinters whined weapons; and this was no exception Anti- eyes, and grinned at the memory. Bui as angrily through the streets, and the few personnel blasts singed and pried at the the agony of Durth poison bit into her shoul- remaining walls in the village tumbled lo squad's shields, and they dived for cover der, she twisted and cried out and. with a rubble, bright slones dancing like pebbles behind a cluster of topaz boulders at the sense of terrible relief, let darkness carry across the heaving earth. Did il really make edge of a pipe-tree forest. As soon as Ihey her away from ihe war-torn forest of an alien sense to obey Ihe Covenant, fighting were settled, the Durth sent a wrathprobe land, into a region of dreamless peace. against an enemy who used cowards' after them, but Jasd blocked il belore it did Bui Ihe pain wouldn't let her rest. She weapons like that? any harm. woke to the sound of her own voice,

When it was over, the native boy was The Durth wilhdrew behind a cover of screaming. With an effort, she choked off back in the village, lending the wounded as quasimist. Melkyn left Kriby, Jasd. Himmir. the sound and blearily surveyed her sur- if il were his proper place in life And per- and Fu settled in position while she and roundings. Not much lime had passed; the haps it was: he saved at least one soldier's Kronsk worked their way forward to see sun was still high, its yellow-pink light barely life, whose shield was penetrated by what was happening. A single Durth enough to warm her. Her uniform tunic was deadly splinters. Sergeant Melkyn relented remained to bombard them with such psi as wet with blood With her good hand she and told the boy he could stay till Ihe he could manage on his own; Melkyn reached to touch her wounded shoulder, wounded got transporl. "But then you go caught sight of the others working their way and found a padded field bandage over it. behind. lifted her look. home , . .and don't come back, Under- around to attack the squad from Puzzled, she head to stand?" She stayed to keep the lone Durth busy There was something soft and red in her Himmir repeated the order, and the boy while Kronsk snaked her way back to the hand, but she couldn't hold up her head "

long it enough to see what was. Carefully, grunting under the weight of her end of the "It's too late. We cant help him now." said blinking against pain, she used her good stretcher. Jasd. hand lo take the soft little object from the Melkyn grinned, dizzy from pain and the Melkyn looked across the field of wind-

nerveless fingers lift of her injured arm and drugs that dulled it. leem walked beside tossed daisies "The one clean, sweet,

. it into her field of vision A bright red daisy. the stretcher, holding pretty Melkyn's hand. As thing , . " The one untainted crea- She almost smiled, before the darkness field they passed another of daisies, he ture in hell . . He was too pure, too full of carried her down again. She clutched the pointed if out to Melkyn and then, on |oy. too separate from the filth of war to die flower convulsively, and wondered, without impulse, ran across the pink ground cover of it. interest, much how long it would take her to toward a clusfer of iridescent blossoms. She closed her eyes again and bent for- die. Melkyn started to call him back; the area ward, crawling to what remained of him, try- When she woke again, painkilling drugs still wasn't secure. But this field was far from ing to remember his smile. When her had reduced her agony to a roaring ache the village, and near no main paths; booby fingers touched him. she stopped. She Her voice was moaning instead of scream- traps and mindblasts were unlikely. Lulled didn't open her eyes. The thing under her ing; she clamped her jaw shut to smother by 'Leem's laughter and the sweet, pure joy hand was wet and warm and smelled of the sound Something shaded the sun from of being alive, she turned her head so she death. She clenched her teeth but the her eyes. She blinked, squinted, and could watch the boy bounding across the awful, broken words burst out in spite of blinked again. 'Leem's smile swam out of field. her: "No. Please. No. blurry infinity; his large eyes watched She was looking directly at him when he Nobody moved. They watched her, and Melkyn attentively When Melkyn would tripped the mine. It charred him into a twist- they wailed silently, have sat up, he used both slender six-fin- ing, crazy, tangled mass, four meters in the And she watched the memory of 'Leem. gered hands to hold her down; and trilled a air and tumbling, bloody and mangled and flitting like a sweet green wraith among the singing comment, gesturing for her to look dead before the shimmer of detonation leaves and flowers and sunlight of Ihe after- beyond him. reached the squad. They froze in their noon, and laughing. If the Durth had abided She moved her head to enough see Jasd (racks staring. by the Covenant, he would be laughing still. and Kriby bringing an improvised pipe- "Gods-damned psi-mine," said Kronsk. For one anguished, wrathful moment she stretcher wood toward her. Jasd, seeing her voice incredulous; as though she, like wanted lo strike out against all of them: Melkyn was awake, grinned at her and Melkyn. had believed the boy charmed. blast them oul of their homes and cities; wiped her forehead own with a bloody, ban- Melkyn was off the stretcher before she wipe them off the face of the planet, and be daged hand " Leem saved your life, doing. Kriby knew what she was caught her done, To all the hells with the Covenani, if it Sarge," she said. "You better treat him right when she would have fallen. "It's too late, constrained her to light at arm's reach while from now on; the he braved damn Durth to Sarge. He's dead." her enemies struck down innocents at a lead us back here in time And he stopped He might as well not have spoken; distance! the bleeding first, which is more than I Melkyn ignored him and pushed away his But the Durlh were sentient beings, loo. could've done by the time we gol here." helping hands. She didn't speak; just and must have innocents among them. "The Durth?" asked Melkyn, her voice stumbled in a broken, shambling run Even if she could, all by herself, without Tal- thin and hollow. toward the field where 'Leem lay. Fu caught ents to help her, blast their cities and level "All dead," said Kriby. "Thanks to you up with her and slid one arm under Melkyn's their wretched civilization to dust, she and Kronsk. We got our squadshield posi- good shoulder, "Let me help. Sarge." he would stay her hand. Because there would tioned in time, and kept them busy with said, be 'Leems among the Durthkind. too. That pyrotechnics from behind it while two of us Melkyn leaned on him. but didn't slacken was the whole point of the Covenant. It was. flanked them and pinned them down to her pace till they were within a few meters of in a way. the point of this endless war. some legal fighting. Here, this'll hurt, but we the noisome object that had been Leem. It The Oath of Soldiers echoed unexpect- gotta get you back, Kronsk, come on over no longer even vaguely resembled an edly in her mind; "I will defend my home here; Jasd can't lift damn thing that a with Eoleean boy. Melkyn crumpled to her and my people and my way of life, but only hand knees two meters short of it. Still she said at arms reach, I will give my enemies a They Melkyn stretcher gol on the and nothing: just stared, while the rest of the chance at my lifeblood. in exchange for my started home, a weary band of reluctant squad, cautiously shielding against further chance at theirs. I will uphold the Covenani warriors whose job. for this one day, was mines, came behind her up and stopped with all the shields I can muster; and thus done, "And if that ain't a hometicket wound Nobody moved beyond her. They all just will I preserve the innocence of innocents. you got for yourself. I don't know what is," stared, they'd as though never seen any- For I believe wars must be fought always said Fu. one psi-blasted before. and only by soldiers, i! any sentlents are to "That's right.' said Kriby, "You're going "Damn this war." said Kriby, home for sure this time, Sarge." "Damn it to all the hells," said Jasd. "Damn this war." she said. The words "Watch your language, soldier." said Melkyn wavered, and Fu put one hand on tasted of death. But the song of his laughter Jasd. is four-letter "Home' a word.'' her shoulder for support. Melkyn closed her echoed in her ears with the Oath, and she "How does it feel to free be a woman?" eyes. Jasd came up beside her and knelt. whispered aloud. "I will preserve the inno- asked Himmir. putting one arm across her shoulders. "You cence of innocents. " Very slowly, like an old "Ask me after fhe healers confirm it." said have to get to the healers." she said. "Let us woman, she let Fu and Jasd help her to her

Melkyn help you." . "I will . feet. uphold the Covenant . " But, " "Always the pessimist.'' said Kronsk, 'Leem." Her voice was curiously flat. oh, his song was sweer.'

o acquaint new readers of sci- itstanding stories of the past, a classics feature was

ird volume in this series. Stories originally published felen O'Loy" by Lester del Rey) and as recently as My Lady of the Psychiatric Sorrows" by Brian Aldiss) have since 'led. orward this policy, we now offer two outstanding tales that ever before appeared in any science-fiction magazine. They id expressly for this volume by the noted science-fiction lerry Carr, himself the author of the novel Cirque.

' nderson— originally published in a 1968 anthology, /es, edited by Joseph Elder— is an excellent exam- bility to combine scientific extrapolation with human nstance. the love that grows between a human in and an alien vortex creature. is Werwolf" by Gene Wolfe presents a future society artifi- cially "evolved" to something more than human and fraught with grue- some peril. The story originally appeared in The New Improved Sun, a 1975 anthology edited by Thomas M. Disch. Wolfe, incidentally, insists on the variant spelling: Werwolf. Readers who find "Kyrie" to their taste will definitely want to secure a

/ Poul Anderson, a book of short stories published in son's best novels include Brain Wave (1954), The Enemy and Three Lions (1961), and TauZero (1970).

The best short-story collection of Wolfe is a strangely titled book, The Bath and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980); his lovels are The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Concilia-

>rd ol the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch (all KYRIE

Survival depended on the vortex creature and its

communion with Eioise. . . BYPOULANDERSON

a high peak in ihe Lunar Car- Onpathians stands a convent of St. Martha of Bethany The walls are

native rock; they lift dark and cragged as the mountainside itself, into a sky that is always black. As you approach from Northpole, flitting low to keep the force screens along Route Plato between you and the meteoroidal rain, you see the cross which surmounts the tower, stark athwart Earth's blue disc. No bells resound from there — not in airlessness. You may hear them inside at the canoni- cal hours, and throughout the crypts below where machines toil to maintain a sem- blance of terrestrial environment. If you lin- ger awhile, you will also hear them calling to requiem mass. For it has become a tra- dition that prayers be offered at St. Mar- tha's for those who have perished in space; and they are more with every pass- ing year. This is not the work of Ihe sisters. They minister to the sick, the needy, the crip- pled, the insane, all whom space has bro- ken and cast back Luna is full of such, ex- iles because they can no longer endure

Earth's pull or because it is feared they may be incubating a plague Iram some un- known planet or because men are so busy with their frontiers that they have no time to spare for the failures The sisters wear space suits as often as habits, are as likely to hold a medikif as a rosary, Bu! they are granted some time for con- templation. At night, when for hall a month the suns glare has departed, the chapel is unshuttered and stars look down through the glazedome to the candles. They do not wink and their light is winter cold. One of the nuns in particular is there as often as may be. praying tor her own dead. And the

PAINTING BY SHEILA ROSE abbess sees to it that she can be present ity. Power droned, regulators whickered, "Bach. The Third Brandenburg Concer- when the yearly mass, that she endowed ventilation systems rustled. He felt the ener- to. He, Lucifer, he doesn't care for the mod- befo'e she took her vows, is sung. gies quiver in his bones. But metal sur- ern stuff. I don't, either." rounded him. blank and comfortless. View- You wouldn't, Szili decided Aloud: "Lis- Requiem aetemam dona eis, Domine, ports gave on a dragon's hoard of stars, the ten, we jump in half an hour. No telling what et lux perpetua luceat eis ghostly arch of the Milky Way: on vacuum, we'll emerge in. This is the first time any- Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, cosmic rays, cold not far above absolute one's been close to a recent supernova. We Kyrie eleison. zero, distance beyond imagination to the can only be certain of so much hard radia- nearest human hearthfire. He was about to tion that we'll be dead if the screenfields The Supernova Sagitlarii expedition take his people where none had ever been give way. Otherwise we've nothing to go on comprised fifty human beings and a flame. before, into conditions none was sure except theory. And a collapsing stellar core him. unlike anywhere else in the It went the long way around from Earth orbil, about, and that was a heavy burden on is so anything stopping at Epsilon Lyrae to pick up its last He found Eloise Waggoner at her post, a universe that I'm skeptical about how good sit member. Thence it approached its destina- cubbyhole with intercom connections di- the theory is. We can't daydreaming. We tion by stages. rectly to the command bridge. Music drew have to prepare." This is the paradox: time and space are him, atriumphant serenity he did not recog- "Yes, sir." Whispering, her voice lost its aspects of each other The explosion was nize. Stopping in the doorway, he saw her usual harshness. more than a hundred years past when not- seated with a small tape machine on the He stared past her, past the ophidian ed by men on Lasthope. They were part of a desk. eyes of meters and controls, as if he could generations-long effort lo fathom the civili- "What's this?'' he demanded. penetrate the steel beyond and look zation of creatures altogether unlike us; but "Oh!" The woman (he could not fhink of straight into space. There, he knew, floated one night they looked up and saw a light so her as a girl, though she was barely out of Lucifer. him; fireball, twenty brilliant it cast shadows. her teens) started. "I ... I was waiting for The image grew in a That wave front would reach Earth sever- the jump." meters across, shimmering white, red, like al centuries hence. By then it would be so "You were to wait at the alert." gold, royal blue, flames dancing Medu- tail burning tenuous that nothing but another bright "What have I to do?" she answered less sa locks, cometary for a hun- point would appear in the sky. Meanwhile, timidly than was her wont. "I mean, I'm not a dred meters behind, a shmingness. a glory. though, a ship overleaping the space crewman or a scientist." a piece of hell. Not the least of what trou- through which light must creep could track "You are in the crew, Special communi- bled him was the thought of that which the great star's death across time. cations technician." paced his ship. Suitably far off, instruments recorded "With Lucifer. And he likes the music. He He hugged scientific explanations to his what had been before the outburst, incan- says we come closer to oneness with it than breast, though they were little better than descence collapsing upon itself after the in anything else he knows about us." guesses. In the multiple star system of Epsi- last nuclear fuel was burned out. A jump, Szili arched his brows. "Oneness?" lon Aurigae. in the gas and energy pervad- and they saw what happened a century A blush went up Eloise 's thin cheeks. She ing the space around, things took place ago, convulsion, storm of quanta and neu- stared at the deck and her hands twisted to- which no laboratory could imitate. Ball light- trinos, radiation equal to the massed hun- gether. "Maybe that isn't the right word. ning on a planet was perhaps analogous.

I , . ... of simple organic dred billion suns of this galaxy. Peace, harmony, unity , God? as the formation com-

It faded, leaving an emptiness in heaven, sense what he means, but we haven't any pounds in a primordial ocean is analogous and the Raven moved closer. Fifty light- word that fits." to the lite which finally evolves. In Epsilon years—fifty years— inward, she studied a "Hmm. Well, you are supposed to keep Aurigae. magnetohydrodynamics had shrinking fieriness in the midst of a fog him happy." The skipper regarded her with done what chemistry did on Earth. Stable which shone like lightning. a return of the distaste he had tried to sup- plasma vortices had appeared, had grown, Twenty-five years later the central globe press. She was a decent enough sort, he had added complexity, until after millions ot had dwindled more, the nebula had ex- supposed, in her gauche and inhibited years they became something you must panded and dimmed. But because the dis- way: but her looks! Scrawny, big-footed, needs call an organism. It was a form of tance was now so much less, everything big-nosed, pop eyes, and stringy dust-col- ions, nuclei, and force-fields. It metabo- seemed larger and brighter. The naked eye ored hair— and. to be sure, telepaths al- lized electrons, nucleons X rays: it main- saw a dazzle too fierce to look straight at, ways made him uncomfortable. She said tained its configuration for a long lifetime: it making the constellations pale by contrast. she could only read Lucifer's mind, but was reproduced; it thought. 7 Telescopes showed a blue-white spark in that true? But what did it think The iew telepaths the heart of an opalescent cloud delicately No. Don't think such things. Loneliness who could communicate with the Auri- filamented at the edges and otherness can come near breaking you geans, who had first made humankind The Raven made ready for her final jump, out here, without adding suspicion of your aware that the Aurigeans existed, never ex- to the immediate neighborhood of the su- fellows. plained clearly. They were a queer lot them- pernova. If Eloise Waggoner was really human. selves. Captain Teodor Szili went on a last-min- She must be some kind of mutant at the Wherefore Captain Szili said, "I want you ute inspection tour. The ship murmured very least. Whoever could communicate to pass this on to him." around him, running at one gravity of accel- thoughts with a living vortex had to be. "Yes, sir," Eloise turned down the volume eration to reach the desired intrinsic veloc- "What are you playing.?" Szili asked. on her taper. Her eyes unfocused, Through " .

her ears went words, and her brain (how ef- one-summer's-day-to-pick-wildf lowers; I'm not anything to look at, but I try to be ficient a transducer it?) strength was passed the over and gentleness and Bach nice and interesting. Maybe I try too hard. meanings on out to him who loped along- and God.) Lucifer swept around the hull in —You do not with me, Lucifer said. side Raven on his own reaction drive. an exuberant curve. Sparks danced in his "You're different," she told him, "Listen, Lucifer. You have heard this often wake. Mazundar blinked. "Beg pardon?"

before, I know, but I want to be positive you —Think flowers again. Please. "Nothing, " she said in haste.

understand in full. Your psychology must be She tried. "I have wondered about an item," Ma- very foreign to ours. Why did you agree to —They are like (image, as nearly as a hu- zundar said in an effort at conversation.

come with us? I don't know. Technician man brain could grasp, of fountains blos- "Presumably Lucifer will go quite near the Waggoner said you were curious and ad- soming with gamma-ray colors in the mid- supernova. Can you still maintain contact venturous. Is that the whole truth? dle of light, everywhere light). But so tiny. with him? The time dilation effect, will that "No matter. In half an hour we jump. We'll So brief a sweetness. not change the frequency of his thoughts come within five hundred million kilometers "I don't understand how you can under- too much?" of the supernova. That's where your work stand,"' she whispered. "What time dilation?" She forced a begins. You can I go where we dare not, ob- —You understand for me. did not have chuckle. "I'm no physicist. Only a little li- serve what we can't, tell us more than our in- Ifial kind of thing to love, before you came. brarian who turned out to have a wild struments would hint first ever at. But we "But you have so much else. I fry to share talent."

have to verify we can stay in orbit around it, I'm not realize but made to what a star is." "You were not told? Why. I assumed ev- the star, This concerns you. too. Dead men —Nor I for planets. Yet ourselves may erybody was. An intense gravitational field can't transport you home again. touch. affects time just as a high velocity does. "So. In order to enclose you within the Her cheeks burned anew. The thought Roughly speaking, processes take place jumpfield, without disrupting your body, we rolled on, interweaving its counterpoint to more slowly than they do in clear space. have to switch off the shield screens. We'll the marching music. —That is why I came, That is why light from a massive star is emerge in a lethal radiation zone. You must do you know? For you. I am fire and air, I somewhat reddened. And our supernova promptly retreat from the ship, because had not tasted the coolness of water, the core retains almost three solar masses. Fur- we'll start the screen generator up sixty patience of earth, until you showed me. You thermore, it has acquired such a density seconds after transit. Then you must inves- are moonlight on an ocean. that its attraction at the surface is, ah, in- tigate the vicinity. The hazards to look "No. don't," she said. "Please." — credibly high. Thus, by our clocks it will take for " Szili listed them. "Those are only Puzzlement: Why not? Does joy hurt? infinite time to shrink to the Schwarzschild what we can foresee. Perhaps we'll hit other Are you not used to it? radius; but an observer on the star itself

If garbage we haven't predicted. anything "I, I guess that's right." She flung her would experience this whole shrinkage in a

seems like a menace, return at once, warn head back. "No! Be damned if I'll feel sorry fairly short period." us, and prepare for a jump back to here. Do for myself!" "Schwarzschild radius? Be so good as to 7 you have that Repeat. —Why should you? Have we not all re- explain." Eloise realized thai Luciter had Words jerked from Eloise. They were a ality to be in, and is it not full of suns and spoken through her. correct recital; but how much she leav- was songs? "If I can without mathematics. You see. ing out? "Yes, To you. Teach me." this mass we are to study is so great and so "Very good," Szili hesitated. "Proceed If you m turn will teach me The concentrated that no force exceeds the

with if your concert you like. But break it off thought broke off. A contact remained, un- gravitational. Nothing can counterbalance. zero at minus ten minutes and stand by." speaking, such as she imagined must often Therefore the process will continue until no "Yes, sir," She didn't look at him, She prevail among lovers, energy can escape. The star will have van- didn't appear to be looking anywhere in She glowered at Motilai Mazundar's ished out of the universe. In fact, theoreti- particular. chocolate face, where the physicist stood cally the contraction will proceed to zero His footsteps clacked down the corridor in the doorway. "What do you want?" volume. Of course, as I said, that will take

and were lost. He was surprised. "Only to if every- forever far see as as we are concerned . And the thing is well with you, Miss Waggoner." theory neglects quantum-mechanical con- Why did he say the same things over? She bit her lip. He had tried harder than siderations which come into play toward Lucifer. asked most aboard to be kind to her. "I'm sorry," the end. Those are still not very well under- "He is afraid." Eloise said. said. "I didn't she mean to bark at you. stood, I hope, from this expedition, to ? Nerves." acquire more knowledge," Mazundar "I guess you don't know about fear," she "We are everyone on smiled. edge." He shrugged. "At any rate. Miss Waggoner, I said. "Exciting though this venture is, it will be was wondering if the frequency shift in-

. . , — Can you show me? No, do not, I good to come home, correct?" volved would not prevent our friend from sense it is hurtful, You must not be hurt. Home, she thought; four walls of an communicating with us when he is near the "I can't be afraid anyway, when your apartment above a banging city street. star." mind is holding mine." Books and television. She might present a "I doubt that." Still Lucifer spoke; she was (Warmth filled her. Merriment was there, paper at the next scientific meeting, but his instrument and never had she known playing like little flames over the surface of no one would invite her to the parties how good it was to be used by one who Father-lead ing-her-by-the- hand- when- afterward cared. "Telepathy is not a wave phenome- she-was-just-a-child-and-they-went-out- I Am that horrible? she wondered. I know non. Since it transmits instantaneously, it " '

cannot be. Nor does it appear limited by could make you safely small like them- Lucifer. Then she laughed in the pride of his distance. Rather, it is a resonance. Being selves. But Lucifer isn't the devil's real might. attuned, we two may well be able to contin- name. It means only Light Bearer. One Latin He had whipped clear of the ship imme- ue thus across the entire breadth of the cos- prayer even addresses Christ as Lucifer. diately on arrival. Now he floated in the

Forgive I can't help orbit. around, the nebula mos, and I am not aware of any material me, God. remembering same Everywhere him. phenomenon which could interfere." that. Do You mind? He isn't Christian, but I filled space with unrestful rainbows. To

"I see." Mazundar gave her a long look. think he doesn't heed to be. I think he must Raven was not the metal cylinder which hu-

"Thank you." he said uncomfortably. "Ah. I never have felt sin. Lucifer. Lucifer. man eyes would have seen, but a lam- must get to my own station. Good luck." He She sent the music soaring for as long as bency, the shield screen reflecting a whole oustled off without stopping for an answer. she was permitted. spectrum. Ahead lay the supernova core, Eloise didn't notice. Her mind had be- The ship jumped. In one shft of world-line tiny at this remove but alight, alight. come a torch and a song. "Lucifer!" she parameters, she crossed twenty-five light- —Have no fears (he caressed her). I cried aloud. "Is that true?" years to destruction. comprehend. Turbulence is extensive, so

- after the detonation. I believe so. My entire people are tele- soon We emerged m a paths, hence we have more knowledge of Each knew it in his own way, save for region where the plasma is especially such matters than yours do. Our experi- Eloise who also lived it with Lucifer. dense. Unprotected for the moment before ence leads us to think there is no limit. She felt the shock and heard the out- the guardian field was reestablished, your : 'You can always be with me? You always raged metal scream; she smelled the main generator outside the hull was short- will?" ozone and scorch and tumbled through the circuited But you are safe. You can make

repairs. I. I of energy. —If you so wish, I am gladdened. infinite falling that is weightlessness. And am in an ocean

The comet body curvetted and danced. Dazed, she fumbled at the intercom. Words Never was I so alive. Come, swim these

. . the brain of fire laughed low. — Yes, Eloise, I crackled through; ". . . unit blown . back tides with me.

I would like very much to remain with you. No EMF surge . . . how should know how long Captain Sziii's voice yanked her back. one else has ever— Joy. Joy. Joy. to fix the blasted thing? . . . stand by. stand "Waggoner! Tell that Aurigean to get busy. They named you better than they knew, by " Over all hooted the emergency We've spotted a radiation source on an in-

Lucifer, she wanted to say, and perhaps siren. tercept orbit, and it may be too much for our she did, They thought it was a joke, they Terror rose in her, until she gripped the screen." He specified coordinates. "Whal thought by calling you after the devil they crucifix around her neck and the mind of Is it?" For the first time Eloise felt alarm in Luci- fer. He curved away from the ship Presently his thought came to her no less vivid. She lacked words for the terrible splendor she viewed with him: a million- kilometer ball of ionized gas where lumi- nance blazed and electric discharges leaped, booming through the haze around the star's exposed heart. The thing could not have made any sound, for space here

was still almost a vacuum by Earths paro-

chial standards; but she heard it thunder,

and felt the fury that spat from it She said for him; "A mass of expelled ma-

terial. It must have lost radial velocity to fric- tion and static gradients, been arawn into a cometary orbit, held together for a while by internal potentials. As if this—sun were trying yet to bring planets to birth

"It'll strike us before we're m shape to ac- celerate," Szili said, "and overload our

shield. If you know any prayers use them. " "Lucifer 1 she called; for she did not want to die, when he must remain.

it — I think I can deflect enough, he told her with a grimness she had not hitherto met in him. — My own fields, to mesh with its; and free energy to drink; and an unsta-

ble configuration: yes. perhaps I can help you. But help me, Eloise. Fight by my side. "Takea ... card ... any ... card." His brightness moved toward the |ugger- naut shape. '

She felt how iis chaolic electromagnet- d sintegration. -Oh. Eloise. help me! mmd going out like that."

felt . . . ism clawed at his. She him lossed and The star swallowed him up. He was "For him— yes. I suppose so. It has torn. The pain was hers. He battled to keep stretched infinitely long, compressed infi- to be. But " She could not continue,

his own cohesion, and the combat was nitely thin, and vanished with it from Suddenly she covered her ears "Stop! hers. They locked together, Aurigean and existence. Please!" gas cloud. The torces that shaped him Szili made soothing noises and lett. In the grappled as arms might; he poured power The ship prowled the farther reaches. corridor he encountered Mazundar. "How from his core, hauling that vast tenuous Much might yet be learned. is she''" the physicist asked.

mass with him down the magnetic lorrent Captain Szili visited Eloise in sick bay. The captain scowled. "Not good. I hope which streamed from the sun; he gulped Physically she was recovering. she doesn't crack entirely before we can atoms and thrust them backward until the "I'd call him a man." he declared through get her to a psychiatrist. jel splashed across heaven. the machine mumble, "except that's not "Why. what is wrong?" She sat in he' cubicle, lending him what praise enough. We weren't even his kin, "She thinks she can hear him," ." will to live and prevail she could, and beat and he died to save us Mazundar smote fist into palm. "I hoped he' fists bloody on the desk. She regarded him from eyes more dry otherwise." he breathed. The hours brawled past. than seemed natural. He could just make Szili braced himself and waited. In the end, she could scarcely catch the out her answer. "He is a man. Doesn't he "She does," Mazundar said. "Obviously. message that flickered out of his exhaus- have an immortal soul, too?" she does." tion; — Victory. "Well uh.yes. If you believe in souls, yes, "But that's impossible! He's dead!" "Yours." she wept. I'd agree." "He will always be with her." —Ours She shook her head. "But why can't he go "Remember the time dilation." Mazundar Through instruments, men saw the lumi- to his rest?" replied. "He iell from the sky and perished nous death pass them by. A cheer lifted. He glanced about for the medic and swiftly, yes. But in supernova time. Not the "Come back." Eloise begged tound they were alone in the narrow metal same as ours. To us, the final stellar col-

I — cannot. I am too spent. We are room. "What do you mean?" He made him- lapse takes an infinite number of years. And

merged, the cloud and I, and are lumbling self pat her hand. "I know, he was a good telepathy has no distance limits." The phys- in toward the star. (Like a hurt hand reach- friend of yours. Still, his must have been a icist started walking fast, away trom that ing forth to her]: afraid comfort Do not be for merciful death. Quick, clean; I wouldn't cabin.

me As we get closer. I will draw fresh strength from its glow, Iresh substance from the nebula. I will need a while to spiral out against that pull. But how can I fail to come back to you, Eloise"? Wait for me. Rest Sleep. Her shipmates led her to sick bay. Lucifer sent her dreams of fire-flowers and mirth and the suns that were his home. But she woke at last, screaming. The medic had to put her under heavy sedation.

He haa not really understood what it would mean to confront something so vio- lent that space and lime themselves were twisted thereby His speed increased appallingly. That was in his own measure; from Raven they saw him fall through several days. The pfoperties of matter were changed. He could not push hard enough or fast enough to escape Radiation, stripped nuclei, particles born and destroyed and born again, sleeted and shouted through him. His substance was peeled away, layer by layer. The supernova core was a white delirium before him. It shrank as he approached, ever smaller, denser, so brilliant that brilliance ceased to have meaning. Finally the gravitational forces laid their full grip upon him. — Eloise! he shrieked in the agony of his

BY GENE WOLFE

Feel in the jungle words he used; yet he had un- been taught by the thin woman that leave no mark! derstood nothing in the past who had been his mother in the Eyes thai can see hour and a half, and sal little home she had made for in the dark — the dark! wrapped in his stolen cloak and them in the turret of a house that Tongue— give tongue to it! his own thoughts, seeming to lis- was once (she said) the Gorous HarklOHarki ten, watching the crowd and the —now only a house too old to be Once, twice and again! park — this, at least, was no destroyed Neither did they use Rudyard Kipling ghost-house, no trap; the moon money, of which he like other

"Hunting Song was up. night-blooming flowers old-style Homo sapiens still re- o( the Seeonee Pack" scented the park air, and the tained some racial memory, as trees lining the paths glowed of a forgotten god — a magic An owl shrieked, and Paul with self-generated blue light: in once potent that had lost all flinched, Fear, pavement, flesh, the city, beyond the last hedge, force. death, stone, dark, loneliness, the great buildings new and old The masters were rising, and and blood made up Paul's were mountains lit from within. there were tears and laughter world; the blood was all much Neither human nor master, a and that third emotional tone that the same, bul the fear look sev- policeman strolled about the was neither amusement nor sor- eral forms, and he had hardly fringes of the audience, his eyes row— the silken sound humans seen another human being in the bright with stupidity.. Paul could did not possess, but that Paul four years since his mother's have killed him in less than a though! might express content. death. At a night meeting in the second, and was enjoying a as the purring of a cat does, or park he was the red-cheeked dream of the policeman's death community, like the cooing of young man at the end of the last in some remote corner of his doves. The policeman bobbed raw, with his knees together and mind even while he concen- his hairy head, grinning, bask- his scrupulously clean hands trated on seeming to be one of ing in the recognition, the ap- (Paul was particularly careful them A passenger rocket proval of those who had raised about his nails) in his lap. passed just under the stars, trail- him from animality See (said the The speaker was fluent and ing luminous banners. motions of his hands, the amusing; he was Clearly conver- The meeting was over, and he writhings of his body) the cloth- sant with his subject—whatever wondered if the rocket had in ing you have given me. How it was—and he pleased his au- some way been the signal to end nice! I take good care o! my dience. Paul, the listener and it. The masters did not use time. things because they are yours. of watcher, knew many the at least not as he did. as he had See my weapon. I perform a PAINTING BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN —

the temale- useful function — if you did not have me, for an illuminator. The woman followed hesi- claimed, but Paul could sense the from where he stood. you would have to do it yourselves. tantly (her skirt was of flowering vines the ness, woman-rut flashed in the "No," her father said. "You got good If the policeman saw Paul, ii would be color of love, and white skin

I looked at the over. He was too stupid, too silly, to be de- interstices: a serpent of gold supported her clothes. need these." He up ceived by appearances as bis masters breasts) window fearfully, fumbling with buttons. were. He would never dare, thinking him a Someone was behind him. Pressed back "His cloak will hang on you like a blan- master, to meet Paul's eye, but he would against the metal door, he watched the cou- ket." look into his face seeking approval, and ple as they passed. The fat man had gotten He could not carry both, and the fat tainted by the testi- would see not what he was supposed to his illuminator out and held it over his head man's meal would be see but what was there. Paul ducked into as he walked, looking into corners and cles When Paul was young and there had the crowd, avoiding a beautiful woman with doorways. been no one but his mother to do the killing, eyes the color of pearls, preferring to walk They came at them from both sides, a girl they had sometimes eaten old males; he did slung the pearl-eyed in the shadow of her fat escort, where the and an old, gray-bearded man. The fat never so now. He policeman would not see him. The fat man man, the master, his genetic heritage re- woman across his shoulders and trotted took dust (ram a box shaped like the moon vised for intellection and peace, had hardly away. blood. the alley the streets were well lit, and rubbed it between his hands, releasing time to turn before his mouth gushed Outside passersby stared at him and the the smell of raspberries. It froze, and he The woman whirled and ran. fhe vines of her and a few sifted the tiny crystals of crimson ice over skirt withering at herthought to give her leg- dark burden he carried. Fewer still, he his shirtfront, grunting with satisfaction: room, the serpent dropping from her knew, would suspect him of being what he then offered the box to the woman, who breasts to strike with fangless jaws at the was— he had learned the trick of dressing flying-haired girl pursued her, then as the masters did, even of wearing their refused it f i rst. only (three steps laler) to ac- who girl's expressions. wondered the black- cept when he pressed it on her. winding itself about the ankles. The He how They were past the policeman now. Paul girl fell; but as the pearl-eyed woman haired girl and the old man would fare in dropped a few paces behind the couple, passed, Paul broke her neck. For a moment their ragged clothes. They must live very

if startled at sight of other hu- near. wondering if they were the ones tonight— he was too the in his there would be meat at all. For some, vehi- man beings fo speak. Then he said, "These His own place was that which him, a place high in a cles would be waiting. If the pair he had se- are mine." mother had borne lected were among fhese. he would have to The old man. still bent over the fat man's house built when humans were the mas- find others quickly. body, snapped, "Ours. We've been here an ters Every door was nailed tight and They were not. They had entered the can- hour and more." His voice was the creaking boarded up; but on one side, a small gar- yons between the buildings: he dropped of steel hinges, and Paul thought of ghost- den lay between two wings, and in a corner farther behind, then turned aside. houses again. of this garden, behind a bush where the Three minutes later he was in an alley a "I followed them from the park." The girl, shadows were thick even at noon, the hundred meters ahead of them, waiting for black-haired, gray-eyed when the light bricks had fallen away. The lower floors them to pass the mouth. (The old trick was from ihe alley-mouth struck her face, was were full of rotting furniture and the smell ot in his wooden turret to cry like an infant, and he could do it well: taking the serpent from around her legs— it rats and mold, but high but he had a new trick— a better trick, be- was once more a lifeless thing of soft metal the walls were still dry and the sun came in cause too many had learned not to come mesh. Paul picked up the woman's corpse by day at eight windows. He carried his bur-

in corner. It down an alley when an infant cried. The and wrapped it in his cloak. "You gave me den there and dropped her a new trick was a silver bell he had found in no warning," he said. "You must have seen was important that his clothes be kept as clean as the masters kept theirs, though he the house, small and very old. He took it me when I passed you." from his pocket and removed the rag he The girl looked toward the old man. Her lacked their facilities. He pulled his cloak had packed around the clapper. His dark eyes said she would back him if he fought. from the body and brushed it vigorously. cloak concealed him now. its hood pulled and Paul decided he would throw the wom- "What are you going to do with me?" the up to hide the pale gleam of his skin. He an's body at her dead woman said behind him. stood in a narrow doorway only a few me- "Somebody'll come soon," the old man "Eat," he told her. "What did you think I ters away from the alley's mouth.) said. "And I'll need Janie's help to carry this was going to do?" Ihey came. He heard the man's thick one. We each take what we got ourselves "I didn't know." And then; "I've read of laughter, the woman's silken sound, She that's fair. Or we whip you. My girl's worth a you creatures, but I didn't think you really was a trifle silly from the dust the man had man in a fight, and you'll find I'm still worth a existed." said. He given her, and would be holding his arm as man myself, old as I be." "We were the masters once." he they walked, rubbing his thigh with hers, "Give me the picking of his body. This was not sure he still believed it. but it was The man's blackshod foot and big belly one has nothing." what his mother had taught him. "This thrust past the stonework of the building- The girl's bright lips drew back from house was built in those days— that's why there was a muffled moan. strong white teeth. From somewhere under you won't wreck it: you're afraid." He had The fat man turned, looking down the al- the tattered shirt she wore, she had pro- finished with the cloak; he hung it up and ley. Paul could see fear growing in the wom- duced a long knife, and sudden light from a turned to face her. sitting on the bed. an's face, cutting, too slowly, through the window high above the alley ran along the "You're afraid of waking the old limes," he odor of raspberries. Another moan, and the edge of the stained blade; the girl might be said, She lay slumped in the corner, and man strode forward, fumbling in his pocket a dangerous opponent, as the old man though her mouth moved, her eyes were '

only half-open, looking at nothing, eyed dead woman said thinly. "All gone to walk up and down the small room, sooth- "We tore a lot of them down," she said. long ago, like a bad dream." ing himself with the sound of his footsteps. "If you're going to talk, you mighi as well Happy with his new discovery, he said. "He wasn't my husband." The sheet sit up straight." He lifted her by the shoul- "Why do you set traps for us, then? Maybe dropped limply, now that he was no longer ders and propped her in the corner. A nail there are more of us than you think." on the bed. "Why didn't you change'' When protruded from the wall there; he twisted a "There can't be many of you, How many the rest changed their genes?" 1?" " lock of her hair on it so her head would not people do you kill in a year Her mind was "I wasn't alive then loll; her hair was the rose shade of a Utile lifting the sheet from his bed, hoping to "You must have received some tradition. girl's dress, and soft but slightly sticky. smother him with it; but he had seen that "We didn't want to. We are the human "I'mdead. you know." trick many times. beings." "Mo, you're not." They always said this "Twenty or thirty." (He was boasting.) "Everyone wanted to. Your old breed had (except, sometimes, for the children) and "So many." worn out the planet; even with much better his mother had always denied it. He felt that "When you don't get much besides meat, technology, we're still starved for energy he was keeping up a family tradition. you need a lot of it. And then I only eat the and raw materials because of what you

"Dead," the pearl-eyed woman said. best parts —why not? I kill twice a month or did."

it's "Never, never, never. Another year, and ev- more, except when cold, and I could kill "There hadn't been enough to eat be- erything would have been all right. I want to enough for two or three if I had to." {The girl fore," he said, "but when so many changed.

cry, but I can't breathe to." had had a knife. Knives were bad, except there was a lot. So why should more "Your kind lives a long time with a broken for cutting up afterward. But knives left change?" neck," he told her. "But you'll die eventu- blood behind. He would kill tor her— she It was a long time before she answered, ally." could stay here and take care of his clothes, and he knew the body was stiffening. That

"I am dead now." prepare their food. He thought of himself was bad, because as long as she lived in it, He was not listening. There were other walking home under a new moon and see- the flesh would stay sweet: when the lite humans in the city; he had always known ing her face in the window of the turret.) To was gone, he would have to cut it up that, but only now, with the sight of the old the dead woman he said, "You saw that quickly, before the stuff in her lower intes- man and the girl, had their existence girl? With the black hair? She and the old tine tainted the rest. seemed real to him. man killed your husband, and I'm going to "Strange evolution." she said at last.

"I thought you were all gone," the pearl- bring her here to live." He stood and h "Man become food for men." — .

been set to black, "I don't understand the second word. that wanted her two weeks back—he said windows of the bus had hadn'f had no real woman in two years; and the light was dim— slill it was possible Talk so I know what you're saying." He he

said real, I some glimmer showed outside. There kicked her in the chest to emphasize his well, I didn't like the way he so point, and knocked her over: he heard a rib said what did he do. and he said he fooled should be no lights in the dump. He lis- lay with he killed, sometimes, be- tened, but heard only katydids singing in snap. . . .She did not reply, and he around what down on the bed. His mother had told him fore they got cold. You never did like that, the rubbish.

I a master— I dress there was a meeting place in the city where did you?" "They thought was men gathered on certain special nights Paul said he had not like one," he said. "That's something you

They were going to test me. I but he had forgotten (if he had known be- "How'd you find this dump here?" should do. over it. and fore) what those nights were. "Just looked around." He had searched turned the machine and broke window." been "That isn't even metalanguage," Ihe the area in ever-widening circles, starting at jumped through a He had saved by dead woman said, "only children's talk." the alley in which he had seen the girl and on Ihe sixth floor, and had been of tree "Shut up." her father, They had one of the masters' landing in the branches a whose bruised torn leaves exuded an Alter a moment, he said, "I'm going out. If cold boxes to keep their ripe kills in (as he twigs and you can make your body stand, and get out did himself), but there was the stink of clot- acrid incense that to him was the very

still: bul ft had not been the of here, and get down to Ihe ground floor. ted blood about the dump nonelheless. It breath of panic examina- and find the way out. then you may be able was behind a high fence, closer to the park masters, or the instrument-filled tion Ihe jump from the window that to tell someone about me and have the po- than he would have thought possible. room, or there a fella living had terrified him, but waiting in the ghost- lice waiting when I come back." He went out "When we come, was and closed the door, Ihen stood patiently here. Nice fella, a Geman. Name was Cur- room while the walls talked loone another in for sec- outside for five minutes. tain —something like that. He went sweet words he could sometimes, a few

I taken onds, nearly understand, When he opened it again, the corpse on my Janie right off, Well. wasn't too stood erect with her hands on his table, her with having a foreigner in Ihe family, but he "It wouldn't work for me— got too many tremors upsetting the painted metal circus- took us in and let us settle in the big station things wrong with me. Lines in my face; figures he had had since he was a child— wagon. Told me he wanted to wed Janie. even got a wart - they never do."

Wail year, I "Janie could." the girl acrobat, the clown with his hoop and but I said no, she's too young. a trained pig. One of her legs would not says, and take her with my blessing. She The old man cleared his throat; it was a straighten. "Listen." he said, "you're not go- wasn't but fourteen then. Well, one night the thick sound, like water in a downspout in a rain. to talk to you fella I they got hard "I been meaning I and guess ing to do it. I told you all that because knew German went out

her; about why those other fellas I you'd think of it yourself. They always do. him, because he never come back, We about for extra told about never took her— not that I'd and they never make it. The farthest I've moved into this here bus then the you ever had anyone get was out the door and room." of let some of them: Janie's Ihe only family I

I I ain't particular don't want to the top of the steps. She fell down them, His daughter was sitting at his feet, and got left. But so down to her married at all— not a bit of it. Why. I crooked-fingered and I found her at the bottom when came he reached a hand see

of here if it weren't for Ja- back. You're dead. Go to sleep.'' and buried it in her midnight hair. She we wouldn't come

The blind eyes had turned toward him looked up at him and smiled. "Got a pretty nie. When her monthly come. I said to my- " when he began to speak, but they no longer face, ain't she7 he said self, she'll be wantin' a man. and what're watched him now. The face, which had Paul nodded. you goin' to do way out here? Though the been beautiful, was now entirely the face of "She's a mite thin, you was going to say. country was gettin' bad anyway. I must say

provide, If they'd of real dogs. I believe they a corpse. The cramped leg crept toward Well, that's true. I do my besl to but had the floor as he watched, halted, began lo I'm feared, and not shamed to admit to it." would have got us several times." creep downward again. Sighing, he lifted "The ghost-houses," Paul said. He paused, perhaps thinking of those 1 night the dead woman oft her feet, replaced her "What's that? times, the lights in the woods at and only trying to order his in the corner, and went down the creaking "That's what I've always called them. I the running, perhaps ankle, stairs to find the black-haired girl. don't get to talk to many other people." thoughts. Paul waited, scratching an "Where the doors shut on you— and and after a few seconds the old man said. "There has been quite a few to come after you're locked in." "We didn't want to do this, you know, us her," her father said, "since we come into "Yes." Pendeltons. That's mine and Janie's name town. Quile a tew." He sat in the back of the "That ain't ghosts—now don't you think — Pendelton. Janie's Augusta Jane, and bus, on the rearmost seal that went com- I'm one of them fools don't believe in them. I I'm Emmitt J." pletely across the back, like a sofa. "But know better. But that ain't ghosts. They're "PaulGorou," Paul said. you're the first ever to find us here. The oth- always looking, don't you see, for people "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Gorou. When whole side of ers, they hear aboul her, and leave a sign at they think ain't right. That's us. .It's electricity the time come, they took one family. Worthmore Pen- themeetin'." does it. You ever been caught like that?" the They was the deli- that's always called them. Paul wanted to ask where it was such Paul nodded. He was watching the deltons: what we lived thereabouts. signs were left, but held his peace. cate swelling James breasts made in the because most of them "You know there ain't many folks at all fabric of her filthy shirt, and only half-listen- Cousins of mine they was, and second anymore," her father went on. "And not ing to her father; but the memory pene- cousins. We was the Evershaw Pendeltons. of blood, many of them is women. And damn lew is trated Ihe young desire that halt-embar- and they didn't take none us. Bad fear. The they said -too much wrong to be worth fix- young girls like my Janie. I had a fella here rassed him. bringing back 9d " " —

ing, or too much that mightn't get fixed right, canned 'em by that time our old locker see her," he said, "and they'd talk a lot. just and then show up again. My ma— she's that plugged in the wall wouldn't work. like you. about how good they'd take care of alive then — she always swore it was her sis- When (he chickens was all canned, Dad her, though there wasn't a one brought a ter Lillian's boy that did it to us. The whole saddled a horse we had then and rode lick to eat when he come to call. Me and Ja- side of his head was pushed in. You know twenty-five miles to a place where the new nie, sometimes we ain't et for three, four what I mean? They used to say a cow'd folks grew chickens to eat themselves. I days— they never take account of that. kicked him when he was small, but it wasn't guess you know what happened to him, Now. here, you look at her." so— he's just born like that. He could talk though — they wouldn't sell, and they Bending swiftly, he took his daughter by some— there's those that set a high value wouldn't trade. Finally he begged them. He the arm; she rose gracefully, and he spun on that — but the slobber'd run out of his was a Pendelton, and used to cry when he her around. "Her ma was a pretty woman. mouth. My ma said if it wasn't for him we'd told of it. He said the harder tie begged he said, "but not as pretty as what she is. have got in sure. The only other thing was them, the scareder they got. Well, finally he even if she is so thin. And she's got sense " my sister, Clara, that was born with a bad reached out and grabbed one by the leg too— I don't keer what they say eye— blind, you know, and something he was on his knees to them —and he hit Janie looked at Paul with frightened, ani wrong with the lid of it. too. But she was just him alongside the face with a book he was mal eyes. He gestured, he hoped gently, foi as sensible as anybody. Smart as a whip. carryin'." her to come to him, but she only pressed

So I would say it's likely Ma was right. Same The old man rocked backward and for- herself against her father. thing with your family. I suppose?" ward in his seat as he spoke, his eyes half- "You can talk to her. She understands."

"I think so. I don't really know." closed. "There wasn't no more seed but Paul started to speak, then had to stop to "A lot of itwasdie-beetees. They could fix what was saved from last year then, and the clear his throat. At last he said. "Come here, it, but if there was other things, too. they just corn went so bad the ears wasn't no longer Janie. You're going to live with me. We'll re- kept them out. Of course, when it was over, than a soft dick. Mo bullets for Dads old turn to see your father sometimes." there wasn't no medicine for them no more, gun; nowhere to buy new traps when what Her hand slipped into her shirt; came out and they died off quick. When I was young, we had was lost Then one day, just afore holding a knife. She looked at the old man.

I used to think that was what it meant; die- Christmas, these here machines just who caught her wrist and took the knife from beetees died It's fields. for- — you away. really started tearing up our They had her and dropped it on the seat behind him. sweetening of the blood. You heard of it?" got about us, you see. We threw rocks, but it saying, "You're going to have to be a mite

Paul nodded. didn't do no good, and about midnight, one careful around her for a bit, but if you don'

"I'd like to taste some sometime, but I come right through the house. There wasn't hurt her none, she'll take to you pretty quick. never = come to think of that while there was no one living then but Ma and Dad and She wants to take to you now— I can still some of them around."— brother Tom and me and Janie. Janie in the way she looks." "If they weren't masters wasn't but just a little bit of a thing. The ma- Paul nodded, accepting the girl from him "Didn't mean I'd of killed them," the old chine got Tom in the leg with a piece of two- almost as he might have accepted a pack- man said quickly. "Just got one to gash his by-four— rammed the splintery end into age, holding her by her narrow waist. arm a trifle, so I could taste of it. Back then him, you see. The rot got to the wound and "And when you get a mess of grub, she

—that would be twenty aught nine, close to he died a week after: it was winter then, and likes to cut them up, sometimes, while fifty years it is there gone now— was sev- we was living in a place me and Dad built, they're still movin' around. Mostly I don't al-

I eral knowed that was just my age. . .What up on the hill, out of branches and sap- low it, but if you do— anyway, once in a ."

I to fallen was meaning say at the beginning was lings and wood." while — she'll like you better for it that us Pendeltons never figured on any- "About Janie," Paul "I its said. can— see why Paul nodded again. His hand, as if of thin' like this. We'd farmed, and we meant to you might not want to let her go own volition, had strayed to the girl's keep on. grow our own truck and breed our "Are you sayin' you don't want her?" The smoothly rounded hip. and he felt such de- own stock. Well, that did for a time, but it old man shifted in his seat, and Paul saw sire as he had never known before. wouldn't keep." that his right hand had moved close to the "Wait." the old man said. His breath was Paul, who had never considered living off crevice where the horizontal surface joined toul in the close air. "You listen to me now, the land, or realized it even that was possi- the vertical. The crevice was a trifle too You're just a young fella and I know how you ble to could stare do so, only at him. wide, and he thought he knew what was feel, but you don't know how I do. I want you afraid "You take chickens, now. Everybody al- hidden there. He was nol of the old to understand before you go. I love my girl ways said there wasn't nothing easier than man. and it had crossed his mind more than You take good care of her or I'll see to you. chickens, but that was when there was once that if he killed him, there would be And if you change your mind about wanting medicine you could put in the water to keep nothing to prevent his taking Janie. her, don't just turn her out. I'll take her back, otf the sickness. Well, the time come when "I want her," he said. "I'm not going away you hear?" you couldn't get it no more than you could without her." He stood up without knowing Paul said, "All right." get a can of beans in those stores of theirs why. "Even a bad man can love his child. You that don't use money or cards or anything a "There's been others said the same remember that, because it's true." man can understand. My dad had two hun- thing. I would go, you know, to the meetin' Her husband took Janie by the hand and dred in the flock when the sickness struck, the regular way: come back next month, led her out of the wrecked bus. She was and it took every hen inside of four days. and the fella'd be waitin'," looking over her shoulder, and he knew that You wasn't supposed to eat them that had The old man was drawing himself to his she expected her father to drive a knife into died sick, but we did it. Plucked 'em and feet, his jaw outthrust belligerently. "They'd his back. 95 They had seen (he boy-- a brown-haired, was just in time to see Janie follow him into a floats a cork. Thickened by conditioning slightly freckled boy of nine or ten, with an doorway in the center of the block. agents, the air remained a gas; enriched armload of books — on a corner where a He found her clear-soled platform shoes with added oxygen, it stimulated his whole small, columniated building concealed the in the vestibule, under a four-dimensional being, though it was as viscous as corn entrance to the monorail, and the streets picture of Hugo de Vries. De Vries was in syrup when he drew it into his lungs. Far were wide and empty. The children of the the closing years of his life and, in the few above, suspended (as it seemed) in crystal masters were seldom out so late. Paul seconds it took Paul to pick up the shoes and surrounded by Ihe books the boy had waved to him, not daring to speak, but at- and conceal them behind an aquarium of thrown down at her, he saw Janie with her tempting to convey by his posture that he phosphorescent cephalopods, had died, red gown billowing around her and her wanted to ask directions: he wore the black rotted to dust, and undergone rebirth as a white legs flashing. She was going to the cloak and scarlet-slashed shirt, the gold fissioning cell in his mother's womb, with all top. apparently to the uppermost floor, and led . . her sandals and wide-legged, black, film trou- the labyrinth of genetics still before him. . he reasoned that the boy, having sers proper to an evening of pleasure. On The lower floors. Paul knew, were apart- there, would jump into the downshaft to es- eighty-fifth floor, his arm. Janie was all in red. her face cov- ments He had entered them sometimes cape her. He got off at the ered by a veil dotted with tiny synthetic when he could find no prey on the streets. opened the hatch to the downshaft, and bloodstones. Gem-studded veils were a There would be a school at the lop. was rewarded by seeing the boy only a fashion now nearly extinct among the hundred meters above him. It was a simple women of the masters, but one that served A confused, frightened-looking woman matter then to wait on the landing and pluck to conceal the blackness of eye that be- stood in an otherwise empty corridor, a di- him out of the sighing column of thickened trayed Janie, as Paul had discovered, al- sheveled library book lying open a! her feet. air as he wafted by. most instantly. She gave a soft moan of hun- As Paul pushed past her, he could imagine The boy's pointed, narrow face, white ger as she saw the boy, and clasped Paul's Janie knocking her out of the way, and the with fear under a tan. turned up toward him. sir. good arm more tightly. Paul waved again. woman's horror at the savage, exultant face "Don't,"—the boy said. "Please, The boy halted as though waiting for glimpsed beneath her veil. master " but Paul clamped him under his them, but when they were within five me- There were elevators, a liftshaft, and a left arm and, with a quick wrench of his ters, he turned and dashed away. Janie downshaft. all clustered in an alcove. The right, broke his neck. was after him before Paul could stop her. boy would not have waited tor an elevator Janie was swimming head down with the full . her The boy dodged between two buildings with Janie close behind him. . . downshaft current, mouth open and and raced through to the next street; Paul The littshaft floated Paul as spring.-water of eagerness, and her black hair like a " "

her . cloud about head. She had lost her veil. food. . ."There was a door at the other end education, and Jame's sobbing, indrawn Paul showed her the boy and stepped into of the room, and Paul swung a heavy chair breath. Through the crack between the the shaft with her. The hatch slammed be- against it, making a din that almost door and the trame, the two-centimeter hind him. and the motion of the air ceased. drowned out the droning loudspeaker. space held in existence by what remained He looked at Janie. She had stopped "Later, one's peer-group becomes, for a of his right foot, he could see the livid face swimming and staring hungrily into the time, all-important— or nearly blind was so. The boys and , malevolent eyes of the dead boy,

dead boy's face. He said, "Something's and girls you see are attending a model whose will still held the steel rod suspended wrong," and she seemed to understand. school in Armstrong. Notice that no tint is in air. "Die," Paul shouted at him. "Die! though it was possible that she only caught used to mask the black of space above You're dead!" The rod came crashing the fear in his voice. The hatch would not their airtent." down. open, and slowly the current in the shaft The lock burst from the doorframe, but a "This young woman," the loudspeaker reversing, lifting tried was them; he to swim remotely actuated hydraulic cylinder said , "has chosen the profession of medi-

against it, but the effort was hopeless. snapped it shut each time a blow from the cine. She will be a physician, and she says When they were at the top, the dead boy chair drove it open, Paul slammed his now that she was born for that. She will

began to talk; Janie put her hand over his shoulder against it and, before it could spend the remainder of her life in relieving mouth to muffle the sound. The hatch at the close again, put his knee where the shat- the agonies of disease. landing opened, and they stepped out onto tered bolt-socket had been. A chrome- Several minutes passed before he could the hundred-and-first floor. A voice from a plated steel rod, as thick as a finger, had make Janie understand what it was she had loudspeaker in the wall said: "I am sorry to dropped from the chair when his blows had to do. detain you, but there is reason to think you smashed the wood and plastic holding it; "After her live years' training in basic have undergone a recent deviation from after a moment of incomprehension, Janie medical techniques, she will specialize in the optimal development pattern, in a few dropped the dead boy. wedged the rod be- surgery for another three years before — minutes I will arrive in person to provide tween the door and the jamb, and slipped It took Janie a long time to bite through counseling; while you are waiting, it may be through. He was following her when the rod his Achilles tendon; when it was over, she useful for us to review what is meant by 'op- lifted, and the door swung shut on his foot. began to tear at the ligaments that held the timal development. ' Look at the projection. He screamed and screamed again, and bones of the tarsus to the leg. Over the pain, "in infancy the child first feels affection then, in the echoing silence that followed, he could feel the hot tears washing the for its mother the provider of warmth and heard the loudspeaker mumbling about blood from his foot. his final section provides ample evidence of why Omni has become such a success among both invet- erate SF readers and newcomers to the form. Not only are the stories reprinted here fine examples of fiction, but the pictorial is testimony to the magazine's innovative graphics.

The world that Russell Griffin describes in "Angel at the Gate" is not a pleasant place But his protagonist, Rushmore, does what he must to e Rushmore learns the value of the hidden advantages of pros- thesis, and he learns the value of teamwork and its costs. From the story we may conclude that the Big Rock Candy Mountain should join the Free Lunch as a misleading myth. Tsutsui Yasutaka takes a hard look at overcrowding and regimenta- tion in his story, "Standing Woman," and envisions a society that has developed a new way to handle these problems. Some may call it inhu- man — but not very loudly, lest they be overheard. In "A Cage for Death," Ian Watson tells of a man determined to dis- cover what shape the Final Visitor takes. The problem, of course, is to lure Death close enough to be observed... but not too close. There have been myriad stories showing larger-than-life monsters wreaking ruin on the world In "The Microbotic Revolution," Ian Stewart restructures the Frankenstein legend to show us that smaller-than-life monsters can also create chaos

Children play games to rehearse the skills they will need later in life. But for some, life itself becomes a game. In "The Last Waltz" by Warren Brown, a sociopathic games player hoists himself on his own petard and discovers that the game is only as strong as its weakest piece. The theme of death and near-death evident in this section continues

pider Robinson's "God Is an Iron," a science-fiction mystery story that combines irony, humor, philosophy, and surprise- Pete Turner's photographic pictorial, "Plains of Tomorrow," evokes a strong sense of otherworldliness. Although made right here on earth, of e, his pictures qualify splendidly as science-fiction visualizations Working with photographs of natural objects, Turner achieves his sur- eations by manipulating color and by imaginatively combining 'tapositioning images. He does this, he says, "to take advantage

le inherent abstractions in it, to get the sort of effects I feel read science fiction." He succeeds. In a world of scarcity one will give up anything to find the Big Rock Candy Mountain ANGEL AT THE GATE BY RUSSELL M, GRIFFIN

A__Jveryone was jawing aboul what No-Neck and the punk had found, but Rushmore's filters were clogged, and he had retreated to the place where he always slept when he passed this way, wedged into the crotch where the slope of the fill me! the underside of the ruined overpass. It was a good place to scarf a ride because the occa- sional articulated hovertrucks had to slow to negotiate the gaps in the pavement. Also, it was drier than a natural cave, had pigeons instead of bats, and if an irafe farmer or a crusher came at him from one side, he could scuttle out ihe other, Caves usually had one exit, and Rushmore hated feeling closed in.

Hated it more than anything.

He unlatched his nose shell and tipped it back against his forehead, so he could dig out the filler cartridge with his finger and tap it clean. Twenty years before, when he'd been brought in with his nose and chin and cheeks sheared away, the Army doctors had given him gas team implants to ease Ihe Strain on his PAINTING BY CRISTOBAL TORAL — "

seared lungs because they were under or- No-Neck looked up from the dog and thing a hobo wanted was to get organized. to live ders to recycle casualties back to the front wagged his head and shoulders. The whole point of road jocking was a as soon as possible. One had assured him "It was on a fence two towns back this life of freedom.

it in perfect working the tilter inside the plastic nose was twice morning," the punk said, puffing a wisp of "They say was left as good as any mask as long as he kept his hair out of her eyes. She was eighteen condition," Stumpie mused. "Computer mouth shut, and he was damned lucky to twenty maybe. She'd learn, She'd have to. food and climate machines, three-D TVs, all keep you have been hit by laser fire because a con- "Mechanicsville." kinds of stimulators. Enough to ventional explosion wouldn't have left "You sure it wasn't some other sign that happy forever in there." enough face to work with and he'd probably got smeared or something, like a triangle Rushmore winced at in there. "But who'd have bled to death anyway. with two hands?" want it if we found it? I didn't hit the road or The prostheses had looked fine, but No-Neck twisted emphatically. because I wanted a hugger armchair for with a twenty-four-hour TV or a computer to bal- since then the road had tanned and hard- "Guess I know the sign a man telling ened his real skin until his leathery forty- gun," the punk sulked. "Just like I know a ance my checkbook. Crazy, you me politics for year-old face had pulled away slightly to cross means a free meal if you listen to you'd give up some machine leave a purple seam around the firm nose some God-talk, and two w's mean a barking making you hamburgers?" and square jaw of the twenty-year-old he'd dog. We saw what we saw." "Course not." Crazy said brusquely. "The Big Mountain is where all the been. It was his eternally heroic plastic pro- "What's the problem, Rushmore?" Rock Candy the file that had earned him the tag Rushmore Stumpie asked. "We found the way at last- hoboes'll be eventually, and that's be- among the hoboes and jockers. to the Big Rock Candy Mountain." She ginning of solidarity." But the nightmares hadn't changed. Al- poked at the dogs crisped and blackened "Well," Rushmore said, squatting down,

till ways he was clawing at the hatch of the flesh with the skeletons of her artificial fin- "all I know is. I never heard of this thing a lumbering jack, lungs bursting, burning to gers. Their plastic skin had worn away year or so ago." filmy black lace as yellow gas snaked from years before, and the metal armature inside "That's perfectly logical," Crazy said. after war till the the jammed vents, then emerging, gasp- had rusted into a hooked claw, but it served "You've got to allow time the

it, their scientists ing, the air outside corrupted, a roiling, yel- well enough. Stumpie's needs, like the oth- first hobo found or one of low cloud transected by laser beams re- ers', were modest. hit the road himself and started to blab. And fracting into sudden, thin, bright sticks of "I don't get it," the punk said. "It's just a then more time for word to get around. I it old stiff on the I some red. It was fate a gas team had found him story, isn't it? mean, the idea of someplace heard about from on the desert sand in time. Fate. where there's always food and no crushers coast quite a while ago." He looked glumly at the cartridge. Just or bum weather and whatnot. How could "If there really is such a place." Rush- about shot. Have to buy a new one soon, anybody believe that?" more snorted, "it's Eden, and there'll be an and they are expensive. But without them "Oh, it's true, right enough," Stumpie angel at the gate. The huggers are too self- he coughed up blood. So he did odd jobs said, licking the grease from her fingers. ish to let us get at it." knife?" the asked. like splitting cordwood or painting windmills "Every truck barnacle knows it. Way I heard "Anybody got a punk when he needed replacements. Even work it, some corporation like IBM or Coke was "I think Fido's done." talking during dinner, but was better than coughing up blood, and on building it during the war, but when they There was no the road you learned to order your priorities. went bust in the crash, the banks boarded later, warmed by the fire and bellies full, No use complaining about fate. the place up. Afraid everybody and their they debated what to do. Crazy thought Stiffly he rose and went back down the mother would be beating down the doors if they should travel in a group. "That way slope to where the punk and No-Neck were word ever got out." we're each other's eyes and ears." he said. talking with the others and watching the "If you think it was that simple," Crazy "That's like this guy told me once," dog revolving slowly on a spit over the fire. said, Adam's apple jerking like a bobber Stumpie said. "A real smart customer, a The trouble was that the hoboes, cut off with a bass at the hook, "you're dumber professor writing this book about how we from the network of television and comput- than mud. The government was behind it. stick together and we're a separate society ers that linked the isolated hugger home- The whole idea was a string of pleasure pal- and everything. Said he was calling it invisi- enslave the ble World and he'd put my name in the ac- steads, lived in a world of rumors and su- aces across the country to — perstitions as primitive as Cro-Magnon working classes." knowledgments if I'd man's. Moreover. Rushmore hadn't known Rushmore smiled. Crazy was always "Anyway." Crazy said loudly, "the sign the punk long enough to trust her, and No- saying things like that because he was a No-Neck saw is probably smudged and Neck couldn't talk. No-Neck had been with Communist or revolutionary or whatever gone by now. The best thing would be to

their it city." the Hundred-First in Umm Sa'id, but if he and claimed the huggers had forfeited head the way said, toward the had nightmares like Rushmore's, fate rights by deliberately letting welfare go "Even if I wanted to find this place," travel alone. hadn't left him a way to scream. down the can in the postwar crash, and Rushmore burped, "I always Rushmore paused to examine the sign anyway all wealth came from the earth, You can't scarf a ride behind an articulated No-Neck had scratched in the dirt to show which really belonged to the whole human with five people." what they'd seen: a half-circle peeking from race. Crazy wanted to organize the hoboes "So what?" Crazy said. "You can't look tor behind a triangle like a sun rising or setting to get their just deserts by force, but that signs hanging on the backof a drag by your behind a mountain. was because he wasn't a true hobo. He was fingers. Got to walk." "You sure this is what you saw, No- a submarine hiding out from the FBI, and he In the end Rushmore agreed despite Neck?" You absolutely sure?" didn't understand hoboes for shit. The last himself; it was always easier to go with the current, and he was still free to change his said. "They sell your parts to an organ bank the planting, you know?" mind at any point. So the next morning, after and grind up the leftovers for fertilizer "Let's have the details." the crusher said, a duck's breakfast of cold water, they set off That's what /heard." licking his lips nervously, his hand on one of across the fields. Trespassing was better "You're scaring the punk," Rushmore the pistols. "You know the law." than running into a crusher on the road. said. "Over in Stratford." Rushmore said, Near the outskirts of lown, however, they "But did you ever actually meer a stiff that "Farmer by the name of Mancini." found the road again and a sign. Mot a se- came back from a roundup?" Stumpie Rushmore knew the crusher could check cret hobo sign scratched on handy trees or asked. "They just d/sappear." on it but wouldn't. Even police were too posts, official but an one: "That's a dumb rumor." Rushmore said. busy hugging their homesteads and things; WARNING "I've met lots of guys been in jail. Been there a farm two towns away was as remote and PERSONS FOUND GUILTY OF VAGRANCY myself often enough." exotic to a hugger as China, computer SUBJECT TO FULL FORCF OF 30TH AMENDMENT "In the good old days, maybe," Stumpie phones or no. Underneath, a jocker had chalked two said, "but not recently, I bet." "You just make sure I don't find you inside curved lines like the upper halves of two cir- Behind them swelled an insectlike buzz- the town limits in an hour," the crusher said. cles side side by and put a dot inside each; ing, and Rushmore turned to see a figure on "Because you lazy scarfers steal every- open eyes, a town on the lookout for ho- a motor scooter tipping toward them along thing that's not nailed down. That's why boes. A town for hoboes to avoid. a side road and up across the crazed pave- you're vermin, and every honest person "They was a rumor about a state roundup ment of the highway into town. Itwasalocal thinks you ought io be hunted down and ex- in these parts a few months back." Stumpie crusher, fitted out in a helmet and uniform terminated like rats." said, absently scratching her chin with her leathers, his belt sagging like an October "I don't remember you in the war," rusted fingers. apple branch with two pistols, a bo-stick, Stumpie muttered as the crusher gunned "What happened to them?" the punk and handcuffs. A badge tugged at his shirt the scooter and jerked away, making a slow asked. pocket inside his open jackef. He eased circle around them before he headed to- "Guess they're rotting in some hugger to a stop several yards from them and ward town, his motor's chatter diminishing jail," Rushmore said. dropped his feet to steady himself. into a dry and distant buzz. "No, they diddle head," your Crazy said. "Where you scum headed?" the crusher Rushmore watched until he had disap- "When you come out. you wanftoworkina called over the burble of his motor. peared. Obviously a town bully, used to lacfory. Call it retooling." "Headed for a job a couple towns over," beating up on hoboes but too chicken to "That would cost too much." said. "Helping Stumpie Rushmore out a farmer with take on five at once. Still, there was no use templing late Together they made too easy farm machinery. He stepped up on the to find a square of corn bread and some a target Ignoring Crazy's protests. Rush- back porch to knock, home-canned peaches in a cracked bowl. more hopped the fence behind the sign The door opened the barest crack. "Get He squatted and ate, using the stoop as a and said good-bye. At first he felt their re- off the porch." said a frightened voice in- table. No! much of a mooch, but better than proachful eyes on his back, but after only a side. An old voice, female. nothing. called when he lew minutes o) walking it seemed a great Smiling and nodding, and showing he "You know, ma'am," he weight had been lifted from him. Sharing a held no weapons. Rusftmore backed down was done, "there're lots of jobs that need can ot coffee or chow was one thing, but he to Ihe ground. Typical pokeoul, scared of doing around here. I could help out for a was basically a loner. Mooching a meal was her shadow. "Just wondered, ma'am, if you day or so for a little food and maybe some easier with one. and you alone decided had any chores an honest man down on his change." He was thinking of the filters he'd when to rest and when to move, iiow fast to luck could do for a handout?" be needing to replace. go and in what direction. Absolute solitude "My dog died," said the pokeout through A blind moved in one of the windows, but was absolute freedom. If the others wanted the crack. there was no answer. to bunch together like so many grapes wait- "Sorry to hear that, ma'am," He won- "I'm a veteran, you know." he called. "Got ing to be plucked, that was their business. dered whether she was telling him to ex- Ihis in your war!" He reached up and As the sun peaked in the noontime sky, plain why she was afraid to open the door. opened his nose in a show of friendship and Rushmore's stomach began to grumble, "She needs a grave." Ihe voice said. patriotism, but the house was silent. her. irony that if he'd and it was a relief when at last he found "You jusl tell me where she's laid," Hell with The was like in scrawled on a gatepost the rear half of an ft Rushmoresaid. "and I'll take care of every- been Crazy, he could have broken written backward, intersecting a perpen- thing.". and taken anything he wanted. But if she dicular and surmounted by a cross: Good "No," she said. "1 know you people. You'll wanted to starve instead of trust somebody food in return for work. Signs were the ho- steal her and eat her. You just dig the grave, enough to accept help, that was her choice. hungrily eyeing boes' answer to computers. and I'll do fhe rest after you go. There's a He cut across the farmyard, The farm was set on a rise about a mile shovel around at the side of the house," the solitary, bedraggled chicken roosting from the gate. Its outbuildings were sag- In the houses shadow, Rushmore found on the seat of a dead tractor, and headed ging and dilapidated, and the only culti- a patch of grass and began to dig, wonder- through the fields ioward the highway. five-unit vated land was a small plot beside the ing whether it should be a big hole tor a big As luck would have it, a drag house Beginning to doubt the sign, he dog or a small one for a little yap-yap. When flashed by just before he reached the road. made his way past a collapsed composter he'd had enough, he leaned the shovel He watched its articulated sections glinting for collecting methane for use in running against the house and returned to the stoop in the afternoon sun as it snaked up Ihe hill

beyond It could be a long wail before the next one would come by.

With a shrug, he followed up the hill At the top of the grade the semis would be slowing with lost momentum and easiest to jock. Further, he could catch a drag in either direction. So the decision of whether to fol- low the signs to the Big Rock Candy Moun- tain would depend on which way the next

truck was headed. Leave it to fate: Life was

best when you kept it simple. Halfway up the hill, he noticed the hulk of an old automobile rusting in the grass just

off the pavement. He walked over to it try- ing to remember whether he'd actually seen cars on the roads when he was a kid or his memory was fooling him with photos he'd seen. The doors and seats had been ripped out long ago. but a rusted tin can on the floor told him a brother or sister hobo had made this ancient artifact a temporary home awhile back. He was about to go on when he noticed something scratched into the rust of the front fender: the triangle and half-circle of the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Shit, there

was no getting away from it. "Gotcha!" said a voice behind him. He whirled to find the crusher in his greasy leathers, face twisted in a smile and "

bo-stick in hand. "Guess you didn't believe skirts of the city Most hoboes came by way was tar up a side street and looking the me," he grinned. of the old railroad classification yard be- other way. "Look, I've been moving all day," Rush- cause there were still some derelict box- There were perhaps a dozen more signs more said. "I must be outside Ihe town lim- cars and empty yard buildings good for before they found the last of them halfway its by now." sleeping or trading news. down an alley behind what had been an el- "Well, maybe you are," the crusher said, But this time the yard seemed empty. A egant hotel, chalked on the brick over a licking his lips. "But I don't think anybody's solitary scrap of paper or tarp roiled for- huge, brass-sheathed door. Beside it was a gonna complain, do you?" ward in the wind, like a manta ray drifting circle with a line through it tor a good road, Rushmore's eyes darted to either side, over the ocean floor. and an arrow pointing downward. trying to calculate the best escape. "Where'd everybody go?" Rushmore Crazy's hand trembled as he reached The crusher stepped closer. "You bought asked of nobody in particular. forward and tried the old-fashioned handle. yourself a mess of trouble coming into town "Roundup, maybe," Stumpie said. It took all his strength to pull Ihe door open. this morning, you want my opinion." "Something scared them off." Inside was blackness. "It's a stairway," he

Rushmore feinted to the left, then sprang "Maybe not," the punk said, pointing to a said, peering in. "Must lead down to Ihe tun- to the right, but the crusher was too fast and lineman's shack nearby. The paint had long nels under the city." caught him a smashing blow on the calf. ago been scoured away by wind and rain, "You really think this is it?" Stumpie Rushmore's leg collapsed under him as he but across the silvery gray of the weathered breathed. brought it forward to sprint away, and he wood had been scrawled with a burned "Of course," Crazy chuckled. "Don't you toppled forward. The crusher was on him stick the triangle and hatf-circle. get it? Those Washington types — they must instantly, bo-stick coming down hard "Sweet Jesus, were on the track!" have figured down there was the safest across Rushmore's back, his arm. the side Stumpie exulted. "Thai's where they've all place in the world. Never even guessed ho- of his head, his ear burning and stinging gone— the Big Rock Candy Mountain!" boes have been living here for generations 1 exquisitely. All at once something heavy They followed the arrow under the sign to Whatalaughi" toppled across him. Claustrophobic at the a second sign scratched through the blis- "Maybe it never rains down there," thing covering him, Rushmore twisted des- tered paint of a decommissioned mailbox Rushmore said, "but that doesn't make it perately and heaved it aside. at the station. A third was soaped on the the Big Rock Candy Mountain." He stared The crusher rolled beside him faceup, window of an empty store across the street. at the horrible cell of darkness inside the unblinking eyes staring at the sky. Crazy Farther and farther the signs led them in to- door as Crazy, and then the punk, stepped stood at his feet, a rock in his hand, ward the populated center of the city. Once in, and then he felt a tugging at his sleeve. It "Where'd you come from?" Rushmore they even saw a city crusher in blue, but he was No-Neck, pleading with him to follow. gasped, his ear ringing, "Just following the signs." Crazy said. Behind him appeared No-Neck and Stump- ie and the punk. Rushmore looked over at the unmoving crusher again. "You didn't kill him, did you?" he asked. Crazy prodded the man with his foot.

"Looks like it."

"But we never kill anybody." Rushmore was kneading his calf to—unknot the terrible cramp. "It's like a code "We did in the war," Crazy said. "And they hale us because we remind them of it." He bent over to take Ihe crusher's bo-stick and guns, "That'swhythisisawarnow. It's kilt or be killed, and you don't stand a chance without your buddies. That's what I've been trying to tell you." From the crusher's leg pouch he extracted a long, heavy-duty flashlight. "Siumpie, you and No-Neck help me drag this crud into the bushes. You go- ing to stick with us now, Rushmore?" Rushmore stared glumly at his leg, then at the sign scratched on the car. "Got no choice," he said. "It's fate." They kept to stream banks and roads that had been abandoned and overgrown, and it took two days to reach the railless ties of what had been the train tracks on the out- " —

"All right.' he managed. "I guess I've come small break and they ran with their hands head down, the cloud brightening as it this far." up to protect their faces from the hot mist's swallowed his light, the ragged shadows of Heart racing. Rushmore followed Stump- sting, and Rushmore contracted with the Stumpie and No-Neck and the punk follow- ie and No-Neck, their footsteps echoing horrible, gagging claustrophobia of the yel- ing. Rushmore plunged after them, afraid to hollowly down through the miles of metal low gas cloud of his memories. Sometimes be left in the darkness, but touching his stairs between which now flickered the at ceiling level the walls opened into crawl nose shell to reassure himself. However, the crushers flashlight in Crazy's hand below spaces and recesses that echoed with steam wasn't hot and wet; it was cold and lag- them its bright beam swirling with the dust scratchings and squeakings. while along dry. He nearly tripped on No-Neck's they'd disturbed. At the first landing they the edges bright and hungry eyes glittered ging heel. No-Neck was staggering, his found an old shoe planted against the wet in the flashlight like a star field stretching face drawn up in an unearthly smile. and oozing stone wall, and tarther down an into infinity. "You okay?" Rushmore grabbed him by ancient felt hat trampled into the slime of They found the next sign scratched in the shoulders to steady him and found him- wet concrete crumbs. A roach stilted hur- spidery white scars with a concrete chip self bumping into Stumpie's back. He real- riedly behind its monstrously elongated across the grimy brick of a square column ized that the cloud was no longer glowing shadow to escape the light as Crazy found at the intersection of three tunnels; the ar- with Crazy's flashlight but with a strong the sign scratched into the rough wall and row directed them down a descending pas- light, pink as a Colorado sunrise, that came an arrow pointing downward still. sage to the left. from the far end of the tunnel. At the bottom, perhaps five stories be- "It's funny." Stumpie whispered. "You fig- "Okay?" Stumpie beamed, "Course he's neath the street, a door stood open, and the ure these was dug before the buildings, okay. It's great!" She began to giggle. flashlight showed them a slice of endlessly right? So they ought to be laid out neat and Rushmore pushed past them and found twisting tunnel. Along its ceiling ran an arte- square like what's above. But they curve the punk sagging on Crazy's arm. Crazy ." the rial maze of small pipes dripping sudden around like. . reeled under her weight and dropped diamond flashes of water through the "Like worm holes," Rushmore said, biting flashlight, and Rushmore stepped angrily beam, and on either side were huge steam his lip. to pick it up. Didn't Crazy think he'd need it pipes fat with asbestos wrappings. They heard the rushing hiss of the steam to get out again?

Crazy led the way into the pounding heat. break before the flashlight actually found it. In another moment they were out of the Sometimes they waded up to their ankles The passage was choked with mist that cloud in a vast, low-ceilinged room. On all through urine-warm puddles quivering to swirled and glowed in the light. No. Rush- four walls video screens glowed with end- drips from the pipes above; occasionally more thought. Can't breathe, can't breathe. less meadows beneath perfectly blue the passage fogged with steam from a But Crazy was already plowing into it skies, and there were just enough wisps of white cloud to add depth without threaten- ing anything but eternally fair June weather. "But will you look at the food!" Stumpie was crowing. "A goddamned endless feast! Dig in!" Here and there about the room were fold- ing caterer's tables on which had been piled wrapped sandwiches and cupcakes and sott-drink tubes; some were gnawed by rats that looked back contemptuously at the newcomers; others crawled with roaches and black beetles. Rushmore stared up at the ceiling: hung from the pipes were theatrical spotlights, shining through pink gels. "What's the mat- " ter with you all 7 he called as they stumbled toward the tables, scattering the rats and insects. "It's like a goddamned mission

stale food and hard chairs. It's all soft lights and TV screens." Crazy was giggling and trying to unwrap a pink-trosted cupcake topped with a bright red cherry. "And where is everybody?" Rushmore demanded "Where are the hoboes trom "mm the railroad yard? Where's the one that left us the signs? Tell me, where the hell is he?" "The administration unveiled its new economic policies today, but. fortunately, no "Aw," Stumpie said, "he's out making one paid any attention and no harm was done. more signs to show the way. Hell of a swell guy, right? Hell of a swell." "

"Philanthmgist," Crazy said thickly, for the war and the doctors! Fate again, alone. He owed them. mouth full—of frosting. "Philanthrokist, that's what it was. And the huggers. He'd thought he could phurandro He was only a block away from the brass coexist with them by staying out of their Rushmore suddenly felt light, his head door he'd entered —an hour ago? A day? A way, but they had reached out after him. spinning. He grabbed the edges of a table week? He had no idea. Warily he ap- had even gone so far as to appropriate and and shook his head to try to clear it. He proached it and gazed up at the triangle pervert the signs he and every other hobo looked up to see that several figures had and half-circle above it. had learned to stake their lives on. And in appeared at the far end of the room with Stumpie. No-Neck. Crazy, the punk. No creating that shabby, fake Eden of stale strange, insectlike faces. telling what had happened to them, no way sandwiches and rancid sweets under the Gas masks, he thought groggily. The to gauge how deep the hugger fears and city, they had shown their contempt for the steam in the tunnel ... a gas of some kind. resentments had grown. Would they be hoboes' dreams and myths. He would pay His nose filters had protected him from given lobotomies and sent off to work in fac- them back for that. what had happened to the others, but he'd tories? Would their organs be saved and He rose to his toes and rubbed his sleeve still absorbed some through his skin and the leftovers ground into fertilizer? Maybe slowly and deliberately across the chalk un- was feeling its effects. once Rushmore had understood the hug- til it had blurred into the rough brick. Then, Now one of the figures was beside No- ger mind well enough to guess, but he had with a chip of fallen cornice from the

Neck. He raised a club and brought it down been cut off from their world too long, and ground, he scratched three horizontal lines: sharply, connecting with a loud crack, and things had changed. danger here.

No-Neck spun away, fell stiffly across the No use mourning, he thought. Fate had The huggers would be back to replace it table, and spilled to the floor. gotten him out, and it was time to hit the to lure more hoboes to destruction. No mat- A hugger trap to get rid of hoboes. Whole road again, alone and independent, just ter how many signs he obliterated, he knew thing a big rat cage, a Venus's-flylrap filled like before. there would always be more. But. lurking in with sticky sweets. Should have known. He paused. He'd never been indepen- doors and alleyways, he would outlast them Rushmore struggled to open his mouth, It dent, not really. The signs that had steered for the sake of No-Neck and the rest. He felt as if it had marbles in it. "Run!" he him away from danger and pointed him to- would trade his freedom to repay those who gasped. ward mooches and places to bunk had had left their marks to guide him along the The figures looked up, surprised by his been scratched for him on posts and build- roads and highways he had followed for the voice. Then one lashed out, and Stumpie ings by nameless hoboes who'd gone that last twenty years. It was simply what fate slumped onto a folding chair that collapsed way before. They had always been beside had always meant for him to be, the angel at with her and clattered on the floor. Crazy him, even when he'd imagined he was the gate. and the punk glanced dreamily toward the sound, indifferent. For an instant longer Rushmore watched helplessly. Then he spun on his heel and bolted back into the passageway from which he and the others had emerged. "One's getting away!" came a muffled shout from behind him. "He won't get far!" Back through the billowing doorway of blinding gas he ran. back along the beam the flashlight stabbed into the darkness, floor stretching like rubber under him, pant- ing, feet splashing through puddles on the stone floor. The dark walls closed in on ev- ery side; the glittering rats' eyes above ex- panded into burning suns. He telt as if he was in the tank again, and he ran. He didn't remember getting out. When he awoke, he found himself sprawled on a matted compost of mattresses, cushions, and newspapers, refuse from the hotel that had been decomposing for years. What better place for him. he thought. Human refuse. Used up in the war, tossed aside and forgotten. His skull throbbing, he managed to gel himself into a sitting position and finally to stand unsteadily. His head was still light, but he was better, much better. Thank God Trees from the seeds of discontent were springing up all over the city STANDING WOMAN

BYTSUTSUIYASUTAKA Translated from the Japanese by David Lewis

stayed up all night and finally middle of a cramped residen- They'll eat just about any-

finished a forty-page short tial district. It's quiet here. So I thing you give them.

story. It was a trivial enter- always include the park in my "You brought him some-

I tainment piece, capable of morning walk. Nowadays even thing? I slipped up today. I for-

neither harm nor good. the scanty green provided by got to bring my bread.' I said to

"These days you can't write the ten or so trees is priceless the elderly man. stones that might do harm or in the megalopolis. He smiled softly. good; it can't be helped," / should have brought some "Ah. you like this fellow,

That's what I told myself while I bread, I thought. My favorite too?" fastened the manuscript with a dogpillar stands next to the "Yes," I replied, sitting down paper clip and put it into an park bench. It's an affable beside him. "He looks exactly envelope. dogpillar with buff-colored fur. like the dog I used to have."

As to whether I have it in me The liquid-fertilizer truck had The dogpillar looked up at to write stories that might do just left when I reached the me with large, black eyes and

harm or good. I do my best not park; the ground was damp wagged its tail.

If to think about that, I were to and there was a faint smell of "Actually, I kept a dog like

it. think about I might want to chlorine, The elderly gentle- this fellow myself." the man try man I often saw there was sit- said, scratching the ruff of the The morning sunlight hurt ting on the bench next to the dogpillar's neck. "He was

my eyes as I slipped on my dogpillar feeding the buff post made into a dogpillar when he wooden clogs and left the what seemed to me meat was three. Haven't you seen house with the envelope. Since dumplings. Dogpillars usually him? Between the haber- there was still time before the have excellent appetites. dashery and the film shop on first mail truck would come, I Maybe the liquid fertilizer, ab- the coast road. Isn't there one turned my feet toward the park. sorbed by the roots sunk deep there that looks like this fel- In the morning no children in the ground and passed on low?"

come to this park, a mere up through the legs, leaves I nodded, adding. "Then that eighty square meters in the something to be desired. one was yours?"

PAINTING BY VICTOR CUPSA

—

"Yes. he was our pet. His name was saw my sudden depression. they don't even move their ears. Even if a Hachi. Now he's completely vegetized A "That was rude. I'm not criticizing you. I'm cat's face can still be made out, it may be beautiful dogtree." the one who should feel ashamed." better to call these cattrees,

I It's better to "Now that you mention it, he does look a "No," I told him, alter looking quickly Maybe, thought, make lot lite this fellow. Maybe they came from around us, "I can't give up writing, because dogs into dogpillars. When their food runs vicious turn peo- the same stock." 1 haven't the courage. Giving up writing! out, they get and even on "And the dog you kept?" the elderly man Why. after all, that would be a gesture ple. But why did they have to turn cats into asked. "Where is he planted?" against society." catpillars? Too many strays? To improve the stroking the situation little? Or perhaps "Our dog was named Buff." I answered, The elderly man continued food by even a shaking my head. "He was planted beside dogpillar. After a long while he spoke. for the greening of the city . . . the entrance to the cemetery on the edge of "It's painful, suddenly giving up writing. Next to the big hospital on the corner town when he was four. Poor thing, he died Now that it's come to this, I would have where the highways intersect are two man- is right after he was planted. The fertilizer been better off if I'd gone on boldly writing trees, and ranged alongside these trees trucks don't get out that way very often, and social criticism and had been arrested. a manpillar. This manpillar wears a post-

1 uniform, can't tell far its I think that. But how it was so far I couldn't take him food every There are even times when man's and you day. Maybe they planted him badly. He was just a dilettante, never knowing pov- legs have vegetized because of its trou- is died before becoming a tree." erty, craving peaceful dreams. I wanted to sers. It male, thirty-five or thirty-six years "Then he was removed?" live a comfortable life. As a person strong in old, tall, with a bit of a stoop.

I held out enve- "No. Fortunately, it didn't much matter self-respect, I couldn't endure being ex- approached him and my there if he smelled or not. and so he was left posed to the eyes of the world, ridiculed. So lope as always. mail, please." there and dried Now he's a bonepiliar. He I quit writing. A sorry tale." "Registered makes fine material for the neighborhood He smiled and shook his head. "No, no, The manpillar, nodding silently, ac- stamps and elementary-school science classes. I let's not talk about it, You never know who cepted the envelope and took hear." might be listening, even here on the street." a registered-mail slip from his pocket.

I after paying the "That's wonderful." I changed the subject. "Do you live near looked around quickly

The elderly man stroked the dogpillar's here''" postage, There was no one else there. I de-

parlor the to try to him. I gave him mail head. "This fellow here. I wonder what he "Do you know the beauty on cided speaking was called before he became a dogpillar." main street? You turn in there. My name is every three days, but I still hadn't had a "No calling a dogpillar by its original Hiyama." He nodded at me. "Come over chance for a leisurely talk. ." 9 " l in voice. . . low name," I said. "Isn't that a strange law?" sometime. I'm married, but "What did you do asked a The man looked at me sharply, then re- "Thank you very much," The manpillar looked at me in surprise. his plied casually, "Didn't they just extend the I gave him my own name. Then, after running eyes around the with a sour look, "Won't laws concerning people to dogs? That's I didn't remember any writer named Hi- area, he answered why they lose their names when they be- yama. No doubt he wrote under a pen do to go saying unnecessary things to me. " come dogpillars He nodded while name, I had no intention of visiting his Even me, I'm not supposed to answer." scratching the dogpillar's jaw. "Not only the house. This is a world where even two writ- "I know that," I said, looking into his eyes. old names, but you can't give them new ers getting together is considered illegal When I wouldn't leave, he took a deep names, either. That's because there are no assembly. breath, "I just said the pay's low. What's proper nouns tor plants." "It's time for the mail truck to come." more, I got heard by my boss. Because a dark I fs Why, of course, I thought. Taking pains to look at my watch, stood. postman's pay really low." With a mantrees He looked at my envelope with manu- "I'm afraid I'd better go," I said. look, he jerked his jaw at the two script enclosed written on it.. He turned a sadly smiling face toward me next to him. "These guys were the same. "Excuse me," he said. "Are you a writer?" and bowed slightly. After stroking the Just for letting slip some complaints about

little, I left pay. them?" asked me. I was a little embarrassed. dogpillar s head a the park low Do you know he

I the "I re- "Well yes. Just trivial little things." I came out on the main street, but there pointed at one of mantrees. :

After looking at me closely, the man re- was only a ridiculous number of passing member this one. because I gave him a lot turned to stroking the dogpillar's head. "I cars; pedestrians were few. A cattree, of mail. I don't know the other one. He was also used to write things." about thirty to forty centimeters high, was already a mantree when we moved here." He managed to suppress a smile, planted next to the sidewalk. "That one was my friend, "he said. chief clerk or "How many years is it now since I Sometimes I come across a catpillar that "Wasn't that other one a stopped writing? It feels like a long time." has just been planted and still hasn't be- section head?" "That's right clerk." I stared at the man's profile. Now that he come a cattree. New catpillars look at my He nodded. Chief or cold?" said so, it was a face I seemed to have seen face and meow or cry, but the ones where "Don't you get hungry

don't feel it that replied, somewhere before. I started to ask his all four limbs planted in the ground have "You much," he name, hesitated, and fell silent. vegetized, with their greenish faces stiffly still expressionless. Anyone who's made The elderly man said abruptly, "It's be- set and eyes shut tight, only move their ears into a manpillar soon becomes expression- come a hard world to write in." now and then. Then there are catpillars that less. "Even 1 think I've gotten pretty

plantlike. only in I feel things, but in I lowered my eyes, ashamed of myself, grow branches from their bodies and put Not how

I who still continued to write in such a world. out leaves. The mental condition of these the way I think, too. At first. was sad, but

The man apologized flurriedly when he seems to be completely vegetized now if doesn't matter. I used to get really "

hungry, but they say the vegetizing goes He brought a hard smile to his cheeks with pain, trying to forget. It was the anguish faster when you don't eat." and shook his head. of trying to forget

He stared at me with lightless eyes. He The red mail truck stopped beside him. " / turn the corner at this candy store and

I ' was probably hoping he could become a I moved on past the hospital. go straight, thought, can go to where my mantree soon. wife is standing. I can meet my wife. I can

'Talk says they give people with radical Thinking I'd check in on my favorite book- see my wife. But it won't do to go. I told my-

ideas a lobotomy before making them into store, I entered a street of crowded shops. self , There's no telling who might see you; if manpillars, but I didn't get that done, either. My new book was supposed to be out any the woman who informed on her ques-

Even so a month after 1 was planted here I day now, but that kind of thing no longer tioned you, you'd really be in trouble. I didn't get angry anymore." made me the slightest bit happy. came to a halt in front of the candy store and He glanced at my wristwatch. "Well, you A little before the bookstore in the same peered down the road. Pedestrian traffic better go now. It's almost time for the mail row is a small, cheap candy store, and on was the same as always. It's all right. Any- truck to come." the edge of the road in front of it is a manpil- one would overlook it if you just stand and

"Yes." But still I couldn't leave, and I hesi- lar on the verge of becoming a mantree. A talkabit You'll just have a word or two. De-

tated uneasily. young male, it is already a year since it was fying my own voice screaming, "Don't go!" I "You," the manpillar said. "Someone you planted. The face has become a brownish went briskly down the street. know didn't recently get done into a manpil- color tinged with green, and the eyes are Her face pa\e. my wife was standing by lar, did they?" tightly shut. Tall back slightly bent, the pos- the road in front of the hardware store. Her

it Cut to the quick, I stared at his face for a ture slouching a little forward. The legs, legs were unchanged, and only seemed moment, then nodded slowly. torso, and arms, visible through clothes re- as if her feet from the ankles down were bur-

"Actually, my wife." duced to rags by exposure to wind and ied in the earth, Expressionlessly, as if striv- "Hmm, your wife, is it?" For a few mo- rain, are already vegeiized. and here and ing to see nothing, feel nothing she stared ments he regarded me with deep interest. there branches sprout. Young leaves bud steadily ahead Compared with two days

"I wondered whether it wasn't something from the ends of the arms, raised above the before, her cheeks seemed a bit hollow. like that. Otherwise nobody ever bothers to shoulders like beating wings. The body, Two passing factory workers pointed at her. talk to me. Then what did she do. your which has beome a tree, and even the face made some vulgar joke, and passed on,

all. wife?" no longer move at The heart has sunk guffawing uproariously. I went up to her "She complained that prices were high at into the tranquil world of plants and raised my voice.

a housewives' get-together. Had that been I imagined the day when my wife would "Michiko!" I yelled right in her ear. all. fine, but she criticized the government, reach this state, and again my heart winced My wife looked at me. and blood rushed too. I'm starting to make it big as a writer, and I think that the eagerness of being that writers wife made her say it, One of the women there informed on her She was planted on the left side of the road looking from the station toward the assembly hall and next to that hardware store."

"Ah, that place." He closed his eyes a lit- tle, as if recollecting the appearance of the buildings and the stores in that area, "It's a fairly peaceful street. Isn't that for the bet- ter?" He opened his eyes and looked at me searchingly. "You aren't going to see her, are you? It's better not to see her too often. Both for her and for you. That way you can botn forget faster."

"I know that."

I hung my head. "Your wife?" he asked, his voice turning slightly sympathetic. "Has anyone done anything to her?" "No. So far— nothing. She's just standing, but even so "Hey." The manpillar serving as a post- box raised his jaw to attract my attention. "It's come. The mail truck. You'd better go." "You're right."

Taking a few wavering steps, as if pushed by his voice. I stopped and looked back. "Isn't there anything you want done?" '

to her cheeks. She brushed one hand you. I'm happy that you come to see me. "Well, see you later." through her tangled hair. but then the sadness drags on that much "ltd be better if you didn't come again," "You've come again? Really, you mustn't." longer. For both of us." — she said in a murmur, looking down, "leant help coming." "Of course you're right, but " Despising "I know. That's my intention. But I'll prob- The hardware store mistress, tending this self that could do nothing for his own ably come anyway."

I for- silent. shop, saw me. With an air of feigned indif- wife, I hung my head again "But won't For a few minutes we were ference, she averted her eyes and retired to get you." I nodded. The tears came. "I won't Then my wife spoke abruptly the back of the store. Full of gratitude for her forget Ever" "Good-bye."

I consideration. I drew a few steps closer to When raised my head and looked at her "Umm."

Michiko and faced her again, she was gazing steadily at me with I began walking.

"You've gotten pretty used to it?" eyes that had lost a little of their luster, her When I looked back as I rounded the cor- With all her might she formed a bright whole face beaming in a faint smile like a ner, Michiko was following me with her smile on her stiffened face, "fvlmm. I'm used carved image of Buddha. It was the first eyes, still smiling like a graven Buddha. to it." time I had ever seen her smile like that. Embracing a heart that seemed ready to

I I that "Last night it rained a little." I felt I was having a nightmare. No, told split apart, I walked. noticed suddenly

Still gazing at me with large, dark eyes, myself, this isn't your wife anymore. I had come out in front of the station. Uncon- she nodded lightly. "Please don't worry. I The suit she had been wearing when she sciously, I had returned to my usual walking hardly feel anything." was arrested had become terribly dirty and course. small coffee I I is "When I think about you, I can't sleep." filled with wrinkles. But of course wouldn't Opposite the station a hung my head. "You're always standing out be allowed to bring a change of clothes. My shop I always go to called Punch. I went in

I ordered I skirl. in here, When I think that, can't possibly eyes rested on a dark slain on her and sat down a corner booth. 7 " 7 Until I al- sleep. Last night I even thought I should "Is that blood What happened coffee, drinking it black. then had bring you an umbrella.'' "Oh, this." she spoke falteringly, looking ways had it with sugar. The bitterness of "Please don't do anything like that!" My down at her skirt with a confused air. "Last sugarless, creamless coffee pierced my

it wife frowned just a little. "It would be terrible night two drunks played a prank on me." body, and I savored masochistically.

if black. That if you did something like that." "The bastards!" I felt a furious rage al From now on ill always drink

A large truck drove past behind me their inhumanity. If you put it to them, they was what I resolved. White dust thinly veiled my wife's hair and would say that since my wife was no longer Three students in the next booth were shoulders, but she didn't seem bothered. human, it didn't matter what they did. talking about a critic, who had jusi been ar-

"Standing isn't really all that bad." She "They can't do that kind of thing! It's rested and made into a manpillar, spoke with deliberate lightness, working to against the law!" "I hear he was planted smack in the mid- keep me from worrying. "That's right. But I can hardly appeal," dle of the Ginza."

I lived in I perceived a subtle change in my wife's And of course couldn't go to the police "He loved the country. He always in expressions and speech from two days be- and appeal, either. If I did. I'd be looked on the country That's why they set him up a fore. It seemed that her words had lost a as even more of a problem person. place like that. — ." shade of delicacy, and the range of her "The bastards! What did they " I bit my "Seems they gave him a lobotomy emotions had become somewhat impover- lip. My heart hurt enough to break. "Did it "And the students who tried to use force ished. Watching from the sidelines like this, bleed a lot?" in the Diet, protesting his arrest — they've all seeing her gradually grow more expres- "Mmm, a little." been arrested and will be made into man- sionless, it's all the more desolating forhav- "Does it hurt?" pillars, too." ing known her as she was before— those "It doesn't hurt anymore." "Weren't there almost thirty of them? keen responses, the bright vivacity, the Michiko, who had been so proud before, Where'll they plant them all?" rich, lull expressions. now showed just a little sadness in her face. "They say they'll be planted in front of

"These people," I asked her, running my I was shocked by the change in her. A their own university, down both sides of a eyes over the hardware store, "are they group of young men and women, pene- street called Students Road." " good to you 7 tratingly comparing me and my wife, "They'll have to change the name now "Well, of course. They're kind at heart. passed behind me. Violence Grove, or something.

Just once they told me to ask if there's any- "You'll be seen," my wife said anxiously. The three snickered.

still yourself talk it. thing I want done. But they haven't done "I beg of you, don't throw away." "Hey. let's not about We don't want anything for me." "Don't worry." I smiled thinly for her in someone to hear." 7 " "Don't you get hungry self-contempt. "I don't have the courage." The three shut up.

She shook her head. "You should go now." When I left the coffee shop and headed

I if "It's better not to eat." "When you're a mantree," I said in part- home, I realized that had begun to feel as

So. Unable to endure being a manpillar, ing, "I'll petition. I'll get them to transplant I was already a manpillar myself. Murmur- she was hoping to become a mantree even you to our garden." ing the words of a popular song to myself. I so much as a single day faster. "Can you do that?" walked on

"So please don't bring me food." She "I should be able to," I nodded liberally "I / am a wayside manpillar. You, too, are a hell, stared at me. "Please forget about me. I should be able to." wayside manpillar. Whaf the the two of think, certainly, even without making any "I'd be happy if you could," my wife said us, in this world. Dried grasses that never particular effort, I'm going to forget about expressionlessly. flower. *%frn

Born of Hewitson's obsession, the machine was built to vanquish mankind's greatest foe BY IAN WATSON

PAINTING BY MARSHALL ARISMAN — "

Ralph Hewitson's Thanatoscope wasihe ul- nate. But I had taken a liking to his black enough of the pheromone. limate product of that strange man's obses- jokes, which seasoned his obsession with a True to form, Hewitson had managed to sion with death. Thanatology is, of course, dash of pepper. get tiny amounts of this corpse sweat syn- the study of dying, and Hewitson's machine No doubt this was the way he performed thesized, and he had built a number of pro- was intended to enable us to see. and ide- in his own counseling of the dying— he totype death traps designed to release afly to "trap," Death itself. Or himself. Ralph made death seem something of a farce, a quantities of it and to snap shut on whatever Hewitson always took il very personally that Marx Brothers' comedy. That approach vectored in upon the molecule—with no he or anyone else should have to die. could probably work wonders with some success. So he concluded that a dying No doubt all of us go through this stage of people. I've met them. They hate to be con- body actually needed to be there. horror and affront when we are children. templative about their demise. They think Despite his qualms at taking life— which Then we file the trauma away in the back of that it's sanctimonious. Whereas with other he regarded as sacrificing to Death— Hew- our mind. We lock it up in the mental lumber people who are still scared -well, a joke itson had equipped his second-generation room, and it creeps out again only in our last could be a fine nerve tonic. traps with dying animals. But again with no days. Sometimes it remains as offensive as Of course, to Ralph deep down this was result. Whereupon, he conceived the idea ever, but increasingly nowadays— thanks no joking matter. that the deaths of animals and the deaths of to the Thanatology Foundation's centers I was being given a guided tour of his ma- people may be different in essence. (He across the land and the reinterpretation of chine up in his office on the fourth floor of became interested in the Catholic doctrine dying as an altered state of consciousness the center. It was a pleasant, sunny room that animals have no souls and are auto-

— it is transfigured into a friend, an intrinsic with a gilt-framed medieval Dance of Death matic objects.) part of oneself, the keystone of the arch of on one wall and, by contrast, on another a Incorporated in his perfected machine as life. large color photograph of the Taj Mahal. well, then, were tiny pheromone taps with Hewitson, however, kept intact the old The machine, which took up most of the the stored drops of the chemical isolated by animist vision of some invisible thief of life. spare floor space, was the "excluded mid- vacuum and mini-Faraday cages His Thanatoscope— his deathwatch de- die" between horror and blissful peace. His idea was to imitate death: to hypno- vice—was to be the tripwire camera, and Ralph had, however, included it: a way not tize oneself into a deathlike trance, then turn cage, that surprised Death himself. of greeting death with alarm or with joy but the taps on, True, scientific testing of of well him. some death has damned capturing "Do you want me to lie down in there?" I been conducted in the centers in addition There was a waterbed-cum-bier. im- asked him. "Is that what all this is leading up to the psychological studies and therapies planted with medisensors, set within a deli- to?" in filigreed — but only the sense of weighing the cately Faraday cage, which could "And then I release the nonexistent whiff body before and after death to see whether block out any kind of electromagnetic radi- of cyanide?" he suggested with a chuckle. any tiny weight loss occurs, as of a depart- ation or isolate any radiation arising within it. "Oh, no, Jonathan, nothing like that But of ing soul, or using aura photography to try to Enclosing this cage were polarizable glass course you can try it out for size and com- this record departure on film. None of these walls that could be rendered opaque fort if you like. This'H be a pretty famous bed fringe investigators have ever tried to dem- turned into an infinite internal mirror. Various soon. Much more famous than your historic onstrate the converse occurrence: the tiny cameras and mirrors were mounted beds whereGood Queen Bess or Lincoln or arrival of Death as an active force, within on silver rods, and outside the glass Shakespeare slept. Go ahead. I'm not pro- Hewitson was a tall, black-haired man walls were fluorescent screens, an electron prietorial." with a slight permanent stoop as if he never scanner, and a kind of hooded periscope. "Well thanks, but no thanks." trusted doorways to be quite high enough Also within were small, highly sensitive (to "I wonder whether I should equip it with to let him through. one part in a billion) chemical sniffers alert cyanide or gas something similar. Then I

"I wonder whether Death's doorway will to the pheromone of death, the complex not only catch Death, but kill him. too. After let me pass when my time comes," he said chemical released in minute traces by the all, if you can legitimately shoot someone to me one day, darkly humorous. "Or will I dying body, that we sometimes call corpse you catch burglarizing your apartment- get stuck in it? Halfway in, halfway out'?' You sweat. This chemical is akin to all sexual at- well, Death's a mass murderer by compari- know, I've been thinking that zombies could tracted pheromones released by humans son. The biggest criminal."

simply stuck I be people who get in that door. and all other creatures, and personally I couldn't tell whether he was serious. Their conscious mind has gone through, think it is a normal evolutionary by-product: "I wonder in that case whether I'd be kill- but the automatic mind gets left on our side a warning signal to others in the vicinity. ing Death in general, or just the personal of it, running the body mechanically." Most deaths in ancient times would have death of whoever was m the machine." "You mean the autonomic nervous sys- been violent, in one way or another, and "A whole lot of people die every second. tem, don't you, Ralph?" spelled trouble. Hewitson, of course, Ralph. They die simultaneously. Even if this "Do I? Dot?" thought differently. He had the notion of this Death of yours skipped about at the speed

I'd come to the Sixth Street Thanatology molecule as an attractor signal, too. It was of light— Center only three earlier trom months Neo- something that Death would smell and de- "Okay. I see your point I suppose death Theology College after majoring in Death- scend on like a mating moth. The death or- could be general and particular, though." of-God counseling, and it was something of gasm couldn't until happen Death had He hemmed and hawed awhile. "If I killed a shock for me to tind if called. for someone who— he been This accounts certain the particular death— if I zapped the bullet plainly didn't in believe God— nevertheless overly protracted deaths: the bodies of with this person's own special name on it, firmly espoused the doctrine of death incar- such people simply couldn't produce right out of the way, swatted it. squashed it. 114 "

itself a vaporized it- would this person, " and his deeper into the oceanic unity slate of death empty bier reduplicated perhaps directipns before losing it- hand drifted over ihe imaginary contours of insertion than anyone else I have ever met. dozen times in all his subject volunteer, as sensuously as a Ananda has used deep meditation and self in a thickening golden fog while the fili- fantasizing soldier stuck in a jungle hun- self-hypnosis technigues, of Indian origin, gree network of the Faraday cage over- dreds of kilometers from a brothel, "would to plumb this way station into nothingness lapped and overlapped itself within the dying mirrors. fhis person live forever'' Would I have per- sometimes accompanying Ihe fected an immortality treatment? Rich irony. down, or up Ihere, in deep rapport with Jonathan, for the Thanafology Foundation them— before returning to full life to report Tuesday came Besides Hewitson and also present thus to defeat its own purpose!" His voice on it. Needless to say, Mr. Ananda has the Swami and me. [here was hushed, mock-conspifatorially. "Don't never met Death— Mr D—on his journeys. in his office Dr. Mary Ann Sczepanski, our breathe a word of this to anyone. Your Neo- "I've been taking lessons," Ralph nod- foundatipn medic, looking lovely in light sil- rigueur white coat carv- Theology College would be up in arms," ded. "Admittedly. I haven'l spent years at it ver pigtails, her de

I in marble. "I guess it's a way of persuading people as he has. Bui I think I can turn the trick. ing her Hanks ivory with the I gel my Here, then, was the mousetrap !o volunteer," I joked in turn. "Roll up, roll up! think so. When down deep enough, Come into Hewitson's Death Cage and he'll own theta-lhanatos brain waves will start big cheese— Hewitson soon to be laid make Ihee immortal with a hiss ... of cya- the pheromones of death dripping." out in it, synthetically Gorgonzola-scented nide gas. Oh. but you're forgetting some- "When's all this going to happen?" with death (ihough it wouldn't be an odor thing, Ralph. You'd Kill the subject thai "Next Tuesday. I'll need a few observers. that any of us could pick up consciously), a way, before you nailed his dealh. Baby and Ananda has volunteered, though he thinks trap of the nonlethal variety the bathwater Ralph. Baby and Ihe bath- my motives are — well, you understand. But "It is a far. far better thing I do now, " Ralph water!" he's cleared a space in his schedule." grinned, hamming it up a little— to Swami ." Ralph." evident disapproval— as, clad in . . Ananda's "Ah Ralph looked crestfallen. "I can spare Ihe time. too. — Bui this was all just horsing around. "Good man Now look down here a thin linen smock, he wriggled through the the periscope, the of the Faraday cage, careful not to "You're going to try it out yourself, then?" I He showed me how door asked, more seriously. "But by jusl simulal- optic fiber, and the mirrprs lei the outside buckle any of the surrounding thin wires. He

il the inside of the stretched himself out on the water bier. ing death? By pretending? I take that'll be observer see around whole

it with Ralph's with the Swami's help?" cage even when the glass walls are mirror I shut the door and locked instructions. key The Swami is our pet name for our Indian opagued. As I gazed through the hooded golden key, as per The

I counselor, Mr. Ananda. Ananda has delved periscope into the pearly-lit interior. Ihe chain I slipped round my own neck, Then " —

unison in all the mirror turned on the current to the cage, at very What I saw then didn't record on the vid- flections grabbed in

if couldn't register cages. seemed to know exactly what he low power. It hummed faintly. eotape— as the tape He

if The glass walls descended and locked light of Ihe wavelength I saw, as it came was doing. frantically the cir- together, stili in their see-through mode. Air from a different spectrum entirely! But my Death flapped around

it. cuit, from to the next, to evade his recycling on. eyes saw it — I swear one cage

it all to Ralph. "You look like Snow White." shouted Mary A red (except that it wasn't "red") thing hands. But was one cage Ann, checking his vital signs on the read- appeared abruptly, perching on Ralph's He caught it. He caught it! In a cage original, his reflec- outs. "But where's the poisoned apple?" chest. It was like a bat; it was like a giant thrice removed from the

it tightly. Hearing her. Ralph nodded ironically in moth; it was like an angel on a Christmas tion's hands closed on it and held the direction o( Mr. Ananda. Then Ralph tree illuminated by firelight. It flickered, His own hands and those of an the other in him were empty, But not composed himseli as Ananda began loudly strobelike. It seemed to dance and out of reflections of — pair. thing. to intone a monotonous tape-loop refrain in existence. It had big glassy eyes and a tiny that Not those. They held the red

beak. It scalpel claws on its veil- The bat-moth. Death. Sanskrit, which Ralph took up— I suppose sharp had like wings- -if they were wings like the Death slashed at his hands with its wing — in duet, though 1 couldn't hear his voice, are fastened on fighting cocks, (I claws and gouged with its beak. Blood ran Soon Ralph raised his hand, and I spurs that wrists of that re- opaqued the glass walls realized that I was seeing only what my down the hands and one brain could see, not necessarily flection. The real Ralph cried out in pain. Yet When I peered in through the periscope. eyes and Only he was lying utterly still, looking suilably what was actually there.) his hands showed no trace of wounds blanched and corpselike in the pearly inner "Theta finale! ' sang the Swami. who the hands of the one mirror image that held felt light. He lay beside his mirrored self, which couldn't see any of this. "Stimulants. Mary the creature were flayed, but he the pain. He continued to wrestle with the crea- lay beside another mirrored self Toe to toe Ann Administer Ihe stimulants!" — with yet others. Each in their gilded cage. "I already have! The signs show ture. Face distorted, he held on: two empty the in midair, sinews standing the barsot which grew thicker as the bodies I squeezed my button, too. ai same hands cupped however it hurt him. however proliferated further It was quite easy to lose time. It wasn't needed. Whatever Ralph had out And much the center of focus and get lost. set up to trigger the powering of the cage much flesh it tore from his phantom fingers, The descent into the death trance took had already done its job. The cage crack- his finger bones still held it securely out in the best part of an hour. Mary Ann moni- led with fiftyfold insulation. the reflection 7 " tored Ralphs vital signs dutifully the whole The needle had slid into Ralph's calf. He "What's happening Mary Ann called time. The sun shone in through the window jerked, like one of Galvani s frogs. "He's overreacting to the stimulant! What's 7 " upon what seemed like a great marble He sat upright on the water bier, his eyes happening. Jon

block, a white kaaba. a mausoleum. A be- wide open. "He's fighting Death." I cried. "He's draggled pigeon strutted to and fro for a The red thing leaped from him. flickering, caught Death, and he's fighting it!" while on the window ledge. Distant street phasing in, phasing out (but more in than Just then Ralph turned to face me to-

1 "Depolar- sounds drifted up. and a few limes the whir- out). It hit the side of the cage and seemed ward where he knew must be.

ring of copters beat down. Otherwise it was to pass Through the electrified filigree. And ize! Transluce the glass!' he shouted.

very quiet. the glass walls, too. But no. it passed I tore myself from the periscope hood.

hit it all Mr Ananda peered at the brain-wave through, yet not into, the room we were in. Ii found Ihe switch and Immediately screens. He lapped one with a slim brown passed through into one of the reflected of us could see through the cage. And of finger and impeccably manicured nail. doubles of the cage, actually into it. leaving course all of the reflection worlds had dis-

"Here's the beginning of the theta-thanatos no "original" behind in the real cage. I real-

sl'ill thin air! His rhythms." ized, as I hadn't earlier, that there had been But Ralph wresl led with

it still could what all from of fingers clutched. Ah. I I hugged the periscope hood around my only "one" of along, the moment see head and heard only the Swami's voice. its first appearance. No reflections. No du- he was doing, though to the others it must 'The other rhythms have flattened out now. plicates. Many reflections of Ralph, but have seemed an rnsane pantomime. He

it. I free thai he could hold It'll take four or five minutes more before the none of How could something could see was tearing Death so theta-thanatos is full enough to switch on with my eyes not possess a reflection m a it in one clenched hand to. throw it far

mirror? it to with its in- from him? No, he d never give up his the pheromone drip." But I wasn't aboul to Perhaps had do own away divisible hold on Death now that hed succeeded. pull away. I had no intention of missing any- essence, hetd that imprisonrng hand aloft in a thing—not that I believed there would be The red moth beat from one phantom He one anything (and a videotape was running, cage to the next, circling outward from the kind of open-fisted salute, grinning through

anyway). real Ralph Hewitson. Bui as it got farther his agony, baring his teeth.

thickened. it "Cut the current!" he ordered harshly. "Ah . . . Pheromone drip on now." Mr. away, the golden bars Now

Ananda announced. was flying into a wall of increasingly thick i squeezed the bulb. The crackling hiss

It farther through the I watched the point of the needle, near syrup. could get no out faded away Ralph's bare calf, waiting — at Mary Ann's reflections. "Unlock the cage, Jonathan!" Even in his command — to plunge a massive dose of Ralph, sitting upright and following it with pam he refused to abbreviate my name.

air I briefly. I. in effect, letting stimulants into him should the need arise. I his gaze, grabbed in the with both hesitated Was 7 kept my hand on the button that would mul- hands. The air above the real water bier Death out into the world But with the cur-

tiply Ihe power ted into the Faraday cage was, of course, empty. The thing — Death rent no longer flowing. I suppose a mesh of fiftyfold. wasn't there But all the hands of all his re- wires could be no obstacle, Ralph saw my hesitation. "You fool, IVe hasn t slept a wink. I doubt that he could let was virtually in a state of sensory depriva-

if got hold of him! " he shouted in my face from go now he wanted to. His hand and Death tion. I was hallucinating freely and gran- the other side of the wires —which he could are too intermixed; claws trapped in bones, diosely when Ralph jerked upright and be- have burst through by main force, but even bones binding wings. His hand remains gan his phantom fight. I was seeing a mote

in extremis he had no wish to damage any bent like that of the worst victim of arthritis, in my own eye. I gave it unreal life— just as part of his invention, "Anyway, he isn't here. unable to flex, yet to all other appearances Ralph, torn out of deepest trance, blood

Not in this 'here,' He's still in the reflection— a perfectly unblemished hand. pounding through his heart, saw that blood and I've got him tight there!" "Hysterical cramp" is what Dr. Scze- personalized in midair as the rooster, the Had he? Had he really? Or was the pain panski diagnoses about his hand. She bat, the moth of death.

so deeply etched into his torn nerves and doesn't believe what I saw. Neither does "You believe me now. Jonathan." scoured finger bones that he only thought Swami Ananda. They know there's no such "Believe? I know." he had 7 Was he only feeling the ongoing thing as Death, and the videotape only So Ralph sits before me, holding Death at fight in the way that an amputee still feels in- shows Ralph alone in the cage, then sud- arm's length-— though for how long 7 When tense pain from a severed phantom limb? denly jerking erect and scrabbling at the Death at last escapes from him, does it

As he continued to clutch the air and bite empty air. wing elsewhere, or does it come directly his lip, I couldn't believe that The reflec- I'm alone with him now in the office. It's here? Homing in, to perch on fhe real hand tions had gone away, wherever retlections night Many deaths occur at three o'clock in whose mirror image holds it at bay, captive go when they're off duty, but his reflected the morning: That's the dead point between in the realm of reflections? hand was still clutching Death out there, night and day. the hour of despair, the low "It feels as if my bones are coming apart," mimicking the shape and stance of his point of the body rhythms. Right now it's Ralph groans. But maybe they aren't at all. flesh-and-blood hand here. one-thirty. Ralph sifs slumped in his chair, "This hand's still solid. Oh. my too, too solid

I tore the key from my neck, snapping the kept awake by pain, his clenched hand flesh! But I can't see them: the other bones.

chain in I it my haste. jabbed at the lock a resting on his desk. I only feel. God, whaf I feel!" few times before I got it in and turned it. "You saw. Jonathan." "Let him go. Open your hand."

I pulled the door open. Ralph crawled out "I saw. Yes." "I can't, Jonathan I can't."

and stood, his clenched empty hand at Mary Ann believes that I autohypnotized It's a quarter to two. Outside, the city is as arm's length, triumph and torment on his myself by staring through that periscope still as a sepulcher. Silent night; Ralph is too tired, ashen face. into the reduplicating mirror room too long. weary to scream.

Three days have gone by now. Ralph My attention drifted away into the mirrors. I Together, we wait. optic, il elchsna techniques, maybe. Bulmicrobol-

jj*;;iiTil|;ir(ii;i ;ii|it#ij^

^.^.itry that morni Bristol's pBK i Royal InfirrT"

k ML M THE MICRDBDTIC REVOLUTION msmmm®m

persuade Bristol's Royal I bone-culting for —"

They'd agreed it was a marvelous idea and to microbots in stages — your suggestion builds a copy of itself, it does it on one-tenth shown me the new lasers they'd just bought — involves too long a chain of command. sca/e!" from Takahashi Optronics. Still, I did get So the errors accumulate too much." "Clever idea, Oliver," I said. "You make them lo promise to order their pelvic pin Oliver's eyes glazed over completely. For one big one, and that makes a medium-

it joints through us in the future; so the journey a moment I thought was the ale. Then he sized one, and that makes a small one, and wasn't entirely wasted after all. slammed his mug down on the counter that makes an even smaller one ... but it

Whenever I'm in Bristol, I try to look up "I'll just have to find a way to stop them won't work." Oliver Gurney. He's lived there tor years from accumulating," he said. Have you ever tried to tell a mother that and knows the city like the wrinkles on his her newborn offspring resembles an apo- elbow. Especially the pubs. I didn't see Oliver again for a month. plectic capuchin monkey? He actually

It was a cold night, but the fire in the though I was in the Bristol area twice during snarled ai me. "Why not?" lounge bar of the Tall Ship was burning that time. Decal Electronics seems to have "The smaller it gets, the more the molecu- brightly as the ale flowed, and i warmed to a finger in every pie from laser-powered lar structure of the materials changes in re- the topic, "Control. Oliver, that's the prob- loasters to particle-beam benders, and lation to the size ot the components. You lem. Like threading a needle from a dis- Oliver often gets dragged halfway across can't shrink atoms, Oliver."

tance often feet in a hurricane." I lowered the world on business with only ten minutes' "Thank God. I thought maybe you'd the level of my mug by a good two inches notice. thought of an obstacle I'd missed. I've pro- and leaned my elbow on the bar. "Same The third occasion, I phoned from Car- grammed it to modify the design as it again, please, Janice." diff, and Oliver was back in circulation. We shrinks in size." This involved other modifi-

Oliver is some sort of Top Frog in a firm agreed to meet at the Tall Ship. He breezed cations, too It was rather complicated, but called Decal Electronics. He likes to think of in with a tatty-looking cardboard file under he seemed to have it all worked out. The himself as an engineering entrepreneur. His one arm, hauled me off into a corner, and process had to stop at some point anyway, enthusiasm for a new idea is boundless and shoved an engineering diagram in front of and he had programmed the machine to often clouds his judgement, which is lousy ai me It looked like a cross between a me- stop reproducing when it had reached the best of times. But every so often he has chanical grab and a helter-skelter, and I macromolecular size. an idea that is truly mind-boggling in its au- said as much. He hastened to explain, "But what about the error buildup?" dacity, and he makes it work. I suppose you "It's the preliminary blueprint for the "There isn't one. I've arranged it so that could call him an erratic genius. This time Oliver Gurney Reduplicating Engine." he the machine corrects its own structure on he had a bee in his bonnet about pea-sized said proudly the basis of its internal programs. And robots. His pudgy face, with its beetle- "Reduplicating?" those are just copied. With a good error-

browed eyes, bore an expression that I had Portmanteau word. Cross between re- correcting code, there's no difficulty."

known of old, ducing and duplicating." I tried another tack. "It looks very compli- "What we need,'' he said, "is a new ap- "Engine?" cated. Won't the first stage be rather big''' proach. I'll concede, Johnny, that you can't "Makes for a better acronym. OGRE." "Not with off-the-shelf components. " build microscopic robots directly. But I "Oh." I asked how il worked About the size of aHelibug think you could do it in stages." He edged closer in conspiratorial fash- "Expensive?"

"Maybe. What's the limiting factor on the ion, and I edged away, and we both moved "Not as much as you'd think. You'll be size of pocket computers?" some two feet along the seat, until I was glad you invested in this idea."

He grinned. "The size of pockets." wedged into the corner. "Basically," he "I'm sure I What did you say?"

I wasn't very amused. "You loon. I mean said, "it's a modificalion of one of the stan- He clulched at my arm, perhaps to slop on how small they can get. not how large." dard replicating automata." me from getting away. "It's a money spin-

"Ah. Serious talk. Er . . . making the but- For once I understood whal he was talk- ner. Jonathan! Imagine it: a robot no larger tons big enough for fingers lo push them." ing about. "You mean that thing at MIT that than a bacterium! It'll be the biggest thing

"Right I Whatever size you want to end up builds copies of itself?" since the microchip!" with, it all starts here. People. And people "Yes, The Japanese have one, too, and "I think you mean smallest. Oliver. Now are pretty big in mechanical lerms. Billions the Russians have one." look, I've got better things to do with my of cells, trillions maybe. I forget. Compared "But thai relies on a supply of spare money than to a single virus, that's huge." parts, and a slock of magnetic cards to "Oh. come on! All I need is three hundred ." Oliver looked at me thoughtfully. "Have copy the program on, and . pounds! I can get a lot of the stuff out of my you ever noticed how similar viruses are to He held up both hands as if to ward off research budget at Decal. and I've got a tiny robots?" he asked "I remember a pic- the flow of words. "Mine doesn't." few quid put away for a rainy day myself. ture of a bacteriophage that looked rather There are times when it pays to listen to but I'm three hundred short!" like a lunar lander, with a kind of syringe on Oliver, carelully, He's very bright, but also a "Get a bank loan." stilts up the middle. And the flagellae of trifle sloppy, and about one crazy idea in "Llmm. Well, you remember how I got an bacteria are little Archimedean screws run- twenty actually works. But when it does, it overdraft to finance that development proj-

ning on circular bearings." makes up for the nineteen others. I guess ect for microwave socks, lo keep feet warm

"But nobody builds a virus! We can't that's how Decal Eleclronics sees it. too in cold weather. National Westminster even synthesize one of any real complex- "Mine makes its own spare parts out of caught a bit of a cold on lhat one."

I ity!" I Then realized we had strayed from the any material that comes to hand. Metal, "Say no —more. I get the picture Anyway, point. "Anyway, what I mean is, to get down mostly, and bits of plastic. And when it don't have 120 "

"You'll regre! it if you refuse. Think of the "Aha. Reviving the ancient art of mat- derby, seeing how OGRE was progressing. possibilities! And you'll have —a stake in the riphagy. But isn't if rather costly to let them And the more I watched il, the more the ground floor. Once if takes off eat up all that machinery?" clanking of metallic scrap came to resem- "Oily, it's a funny ground floor—that can "They won't eat much. There's only one ble the cheerful chinking of coin. It really lake off with a stake in it. It's just " On the machine in each generation. I suppose looked as if Oliver had tapped the mother

other hand, maybe he was right. It was a they might bite a few chunks out of Mama's lode this time. small enough risk, and the returns might be caterpillars. The scavenging has to be fairly On the evening ot the third day a minia-

huge . . , efficient for the process to stand any ture OGRE aboul a fool long duly rolled off

"All right. I'll forgo the new hall carpet. chance of working at all. Frankly. I'm not the ramp at the end of the assembly line. It

Half shares?" sure I could stop the babies from eating whirred across the door and began to rum-

"Of course!" Mama if I wanted to. You see, to do that, mage happily around in one of the smaller

He'd said that too quickly. "Hang on! I they have to recognize who Mama is, and bins. Within a quarter of an hour a sub-sub-

want half shares in the profits. I absolutely that means a lot of extra programming, OGRE had begun its spiral descent.

if refuse to accept responsibility anything memory, and such," Suddenly I truly believed: not just an intel- goes wrong!" "But in any case—" he broke off, seem- lectual acceptance, but a warm glow in the

"Done! A check will do fine. Payable to ingly a little embarrassed. "Well, the big ma- gut. It was overwhelming. "My God, Oliver!

'Oliver B, Gurney,' Lovely!" chine is mostly made up out of Hong Kong Look at that thing! It's building inch-long ." He tucked il into his wallet. "Painless, copies bought at knockdown prices on the robots 1

wasn't it?" black market. But don't let IBM know, or "If you think (hat's astonishing, wait a few

"So far. I'll answer that when the analge- they'll cancel all our service contracts." generations more. You'll need a micro-

sic effect of the alcohol wears off," I looked around me. A thick cable ran scope to see anything at all."

Irom a plug on the wall. "Where do the off- We stared at it. Motherhood must be Deca! Labs is on the outskirts of Bristol, in spring get their power from?" something like this. The tiny scraps of junk

an old country house in the village of Men- "There. I cheated. The second, third, and metal went "tinkle-tinkle-tinkle." Oliver had derby, not far Bristol railway from Parkway fourth generations use batteries. After a sloppy smile on his face. "Oh look," I said.

station. The building's exterior is much as it that, they get small enough to rely on solar "It's feeding.'' We looked at each other, and was two hundred years ago, but the inside power. By the seventh generation there's we both burst out laughing,

has been ripped out and totally rebuilt. enough energy in starlight." "You'll be checking it for colic next," he

Oliver had built OGRE in the basement. I "Much more to do?" I asked said. "Wake up, man. it's just a machine! was astonished at how quickly he had man- "Nope. Just some final programming, I've got a better idea than just standing

aged it. He explained to me that once the Hang on ten minutes, and I'll have it done." around here!"

design was specified, the construction was So I hung on. It was almost certainly the "Oh?" easily performed by using a standard as- biggest mistake of my life, because it made "The Carpenter's Arms, at Portishead. sembly critical robol and a tree quasi-boot : Oily rush the programming job and not Prawn cocktails and jugged hare."

strap technique. check it properly. Anyway he rattled away We left hurriedly. Conceited bastard! at a keyboard in the corner for a while, then

Bull had to admit it was impressive. It just grabbed the magnetic programming card We arrived home in a taxi, well after mid- about filled the basement. The bulk was a and shoved it info a narrow slot in the side of night, as plastered as the ceiling of the Sis-

lol of electronic modules, with a few induc- OGRE-1 : first generation matriarch. tine Chapel We didn't look into the base- tion motors and belt drives. Around Ihis was He threw the switch. ment at Decal Labs until midmorning the a kind of machine-tool assembly line, next day, when Oily drove us over. wound from top to bottom in a spiral. Right Progress was pretty slow fo begin with. OGRE was a lotal wreck. on the top was a hopper, with a mechanical "It should take about three days," Oliver At first we thought that someone had van- arm. thing grab The whole was mounted on said. "But that time shrinks as the machines dalized it Then I suggested to Oliver thai it caterpillar tracks, and if you looked careful- get smaller Everything goes by a factor of had perhaps tallen to bits of its own accord, ly, you could see a retractable hook in each ten at first. The next size takes about seven and he lost his temper. Only when he felt segment of track. hours, then forty minutes. Ihen four minutes, something scamper up his leg did he stop

Apparently the hooks were for climbing and so on, and so forth. The whole process shouting at me. He thought it was a spider,

up things. drops off eventually when it gets down to and he hates spiders.

"Where's the barn door, Oily!" milliseconds, mind you." It was a fourth-generation OGRE, about a

Eh? Oh, no, this one stays put. The It may have been slow, but I was fascinat- tenth of an inch across tracks are lor later generations to scavenge ed. Oliver is a skillful engineer, and OGRE It seemed to be trying to eat his belt for materials. I put them on this one only to was functioning smoothly, as far as I could buckle.

see how they'd look." tell. Already a kind of chassis had been as- "Oliver," I said, "what's that funny rasping

"And where does this one get the materi- sembled, and as it began to descend the noise?" We listened. Besides the rasping, als it needs?" helix, it acquired exlra parts, there were faint clanks and clicks and

He poinled. "Those garbage cans over I rearranged all my work schedules to hums, and behind them all a persistent there. The next generation uses these little keep me in the Bristol area lor the next few background whine, like a lethered swarm of bins here, and later generations cannibal- days, but my mind was only half on the job mosquitoes.

ize previous ones." Every spare moment I spent over in Men- "It's coming from OGRE," he said. He 121 will change bent down to take a closer .look. "Get me a "Which does what?" from highway service stations of magnifying glass!' "Controls the ratio of numbers in succes- hands for inflated sums! It will be the End Civilization II." "Where?" sive generations. It should have been set at as We Know that al stage I "You're overwrought! It's not come to "Look in Ihe filing cabinet, under 'M'!" I J, to keepjust one machine each yet!" found Hand passed it to him. He hitched up seem to have put an extra zero on the end."

it I dismally. it oc- his trousers, squatted on his haunches, and "You loon." "No, but will." said "Has

it mistake." curred to that we're both carriers of the peered through it at Ihe wreckage. "Well, was only a tittle you 9 all our "Oh. my God!" he said. "Look!" "Surely. But as a result, we get ten times disease The virus must be over 9 " idid. as many OGREs at each stage clothing, to judge by the damage it's doing All we'll The OGRE matriarch was crawling with "Yes." to it! Where are we going anyway? sub-sub-sub-etcetera-OGREs. like a rotten "Oliver, you've got a population explo- do is spread the infection everywhere!" cheese afflicted with mites. They were dis- sion on your hands. Lord knows how much Oliver grabbed me by the shoulders. else 9 We have to warn mantling it. Cockroach-sized OGREIets damage these things will do!" "What can we do shut up. keep walk- were hacking Mama to pieces with teeny- "Now don't get upset. It isn't as bad as people somehow! Now ing, let think!" weeny chain saws on retractable arms, you Ihink. I put in a stop code at macromo- and me 9 gouging chunks out of her plating with their lecular size, remember Once they reach Eventually managed to hitch lift into little laser cutters, and stripping the insulat- that generation, they stop reproducing and we a

Bristol. I nde waiting for the car to ing plastic off her wiring to melt it down for switch off. They die out. The damage area spent the

I could their own use. And as they pursued their shouldn't be too big." fall apart, but it seemed unaffected. gruesome task, even tinier OGREIets "Oh. Wait a minute, Ihough. Shouldn't we only assume that the virus had not in fact swarmed over them, sawing and rasping have reached that stage by now 9 What's been carried on our clothing, but for the life possible. I that and hacking so fast that all you could see Ihe formula for summing a geometric pro- of me couldn't see how was street was a blur. The larger OGREs were trying gression?" The car dropped us at the corner time, That's near Oliver's flat, The door key was a bit frantically to repair themselves, and I saw "You've forgotten foraging a

it to let several of them sweeping up piles ot the limiting factor, and it's random. It will slow mangled, but held together enough smaller ones with devices resembling dust- them down a bit. We just have to wait." us m Oliver headed for the telephone. pans and pouring them into their own hop- We waited. We made occasional forays Half an hour later he put it down. "Oof! I lo have to go through anything pers. It wasn't doing them much good: The down the stairs. The activity continued un- don't want again!" Finally I like thai little OGREs were eating the hoppers faster abated. In fact, it seemed to grow. than the big ones could digest them. suggested we take another look at the pro- "What did you do?" "I called the managing director of Decal It was a jungle in there. gram. high-level lan- Electronics and put Ihe position to him. He's It looked as if nothing could possibly sur- Oliver had been using a there vive. But the smaller OGREs reproduced so guage that accepts commands in Anglish agreed to inform the authorities that much taster that they had a considerable — Analog-Engtish — and. instead ot telling has been a sudden and inexplicable inci-

it rapid corrosion in the vicinity of advantage, Their numbers were obviously it to slop reproducing, he'd told to stop dence of increasing. reducing. North Bristol, resembling an epidemic.

Its whal you've built?" I said. Cause as yet unknown." I handed the magnifying glass back. "You know metal rim was dull and pitted: They'd He groaned "But—' started on that. "A rapid-breeding artificial virus, One "But we can reveal the cause only by ad-

it is all our fault, neither you nor I "I don't understand." said Oliver. "There that ears metal." mitting and ought to be only one machine in each gen- nor Decal Labs would want that. Nor does it ." first to call the police, do any harm, because Decal will spear- eration. I wonder whether . . Suddenly he Our thought was thrust his hand into the wreckage and be- but the phone didn't work. None of the head the investigation ci The internal telephone ex- I know the managing recto'. He's a gan groping around. "It should be— gerr- phones worked. bird. If it's possible gel out of this rofff! Yes. here it is." He extracted a mag- change was in the basement. tough to he'll il." netic card, mostly intact, although it looked The car wouldn't start, nol surprisingly for with our nocks intact do

Stilton "Fine. what if the disease jus! keeps as if mice had been at it around the edges. something that looks like cheese. So But

tor- 9 It really end of civili- "They don't need much plastic, fortunate- we departed on foot. It was raining in spreading will be Ihe ly," he said. He shoved Ihe card into his ter- rents. zation, Oily!" minal and switched on. Half a mile down the road. Ihe sole of my He looked glumly at his fingernails. "I There was a shower of sparks, and the lefl shoe fell off. They'd eaten the nails. know. But there's still hope. Have you no- 9 " terminal collapsed They'd started to scav- Oliver was having trouble with his zip. ticed anything enge that, too. "This is terrible!" I exclaimed. "Like what?' lights still There were many more terminals in the "Too right! It hasn't rained like this "Well, for instance, the are

Decal labs, and we tried one three floors since—" working. So was Ihe phone when I put it the hi-fi. It was up. It worked. Presumably the OGREs "I mean your bloody virus! Communica- down." He switched on hadn't yet moved that far afield. Oliver ran tions will fail, machines will break down, working, too. through the program listings and soon there'll be no transport, TV stations will go "So it hasn't reached here yet." off the air. people will die of boredom! "No. but we have. Something killed off found his mistake. Damn! I mispunchedthe and card for OGRE's fertility factor." Coins will crumble to dust! Plastic cutlery the OGRE virus particles on our clothes I 122 " " " "

noticed on [he way here thai the corrosion every penny they've— "Cheap Hong Kong copies!" he hissed,

seemed to have stopped. I only wish I knew "No," he said "Not yet anyway Oxford from the corner of his mouth. why\" hasn't suffered any damage yet. The "Come again?" plague seems to have stopped spreading. "Those, and our worthy British climate."

Oily and I did as wed been told. We somewhere between Bampton and King- "Stop being obscure." stayed put. And we had never felt so use- ston Bagpuize." "Very well. Itwasrust." less in our lives. We drank coffee and "Why? Has the wind dropped'?" "Rust?"

played records and kept an on the it's blowing eye TV "No, a gale. I just don't under- "Exactly. It's a good job you're such a for new bulletins, all the time half-expecting stand it. skinflint, only prepared to invest a pittance the percolator to suffer a meltdown and the "Perhaps it's voodoo. in my sound business ventures. The proto- hi-fi and TV to go on the blink. "Eh?" type OGRE was made of cheap steel. Not It was an eye-opening experience for I waved vaguely toward the map, "All too many generations down, the compo- anyone with a fond belief in of the openness those pins we've stuck into it have killed if." nents got so small that they rusted away British government. The world was about to The area ot active infection began to faster than new ones got built." grind to halt, a and there was not one word, shrink. Within forty-eight hours reports had "I safd your inability to scale the molecu- on TV or radio, to let the public know. ceased altogether. lar structure would cause trouble! It's pre- There were a few hints, though. Like an Something had wiped out Oliver's artifi- cious hard to make a layer of paint less than item about a pub in Lennard's Green (just cial virus. Bui we still had no idea what had one molecule thick. And that's the last time down the road from really Menderby) whose beer happened, or even whether it would I'll invest a penny in one of your 'sound' kegs had suddenly decided they preferred stay wiped out. Oliver was whisked off to business ventures, you ungrateful— to look like colanders, spraying the clientele Decal's Manchester branch to assist the in- "Ob, hold on there! I know exactly what with cold lager. Oily groaned aloud — at the quiries, and I was patted on the head and went wrong! You have to expect a few waste. I suspecf. And something horrible sen! home. I drove back to Coventry with teething troubles! We can have another go had happened to the railway lines fingers near my crossed, and I took a delour east now, using Japanese equipment in stain-

Bristol, but they weren't saying what. of Oxford, just incase. ," less steel casings . . His voice trailed off. Every so often we got an updated report "Never! Oliver Boswell Gurney. I refuse!" the true on state of affairs, over the tele- There was never even the barest hint of a "Oh, perhaps you're right. OGRE had too phone, For the first twenty-four hours the whisper in the newspapers, not a pussycat, many bugs." epidemic advanced eastward along a nar- as my father used to say. but from various "You can say that again!"

front, until it affected row had I an area about sources pieced together a fair picture. The "Anyway Decal Labs is sending me off to fifteen long miles and two broad. We plot- plague of the metal eaters had confined it- Paris for a few months. To recuperate. Prob- ted its progress on a map. with pins, It was self to a region of some fifty square miles, ably the real reason is to get me out of the heading straight for Swindon, an important largely fields, ol the open and most country, I dam- Thus won't see you for a bit. Can I railway junction, a center for heavy industry age was superficial. It had died before out buy you a pint before I go?" with a population of one hundred thousand. anything really serious happened. "No thanks." So far it had passed only through rural The newspapers knew something odd "Wo'" areas, but this would of be orders magni- had occurred, ot course. But they'd been "I'll have a malt whisky. A treble." tude worse. fed some tale about national security, and the Then wind changed, and it turned (he government had slapped a "D" notice So that was the end of Oliver's metal-eat- slightly northward just enough to miss the story, on So they had shut up. ing virus. It rusted away. We should've Swindon. But relief any felt I we was short- By the time managed to gel in touch with known: The bodywork always goes first. lived. Thirty miles along Thames the Valley, Oliver again, things were pretty much back So it seems. right in its path, Oxford. was to normal, but he looked distinctly sub- But, since Oliver left, I've never been The advancing front had narrowed dued, even a shade thinner lhan his usual quite convinced. You see, viruses can mu- again, to less than a mile. There fewer were degree of rotundity, and I told him so. "I'm tate. Suppose one of the nth-generation damage reports in. but it's very coming a surprised you aren't in jail," I added OGREs misread its own program and built rural area, it and so was hard to tell whether "So am I, But the thing that stopped the its offspring out of gold, or plalinum, or that significant. was plague also destroyed (he evidence. It's stainless steel. Or suppose one learned to

waited. It We was torture. been officially classified as a 'natural disas- copy anything. When the rust killed off the

The phone rang. Oily beat me to it by a ter.' Of course. Decal Labs chaired the plague, it would leave a few members of a nose. He didn't say anything; he just sfood commitlee that made the final report. That rusf-resistant strain. there with a tunny look on his face, shaking may have had something to do with it." I'm probably worrying needlessly. his head slowly from side to side. It didn't I "They sacked you, of course. think I If only Oliver hadn't gone to Pahs, the look very encouraging. might be able to wangle you a job in—" idea would never have entered my head. He put the telephone down. He looked "Eh? Good Lord, no! Decal gol a huge You see, there was a report on television stunned. contract for reconstruction work!" this evening. " "Don't tell I said. is in ruins. me "Oxford "There just ain't no such thing as justice in The Eiffel Tower just fell down. The British Leyiand plant at Cowley is a this cruel world no more. Oliver, please, the The French authorities have attributed it scrap heap. All the university computers suspense is agony. What did stop the to metal fatigue. are wrecked, and they're suing Decal for from taking plague over the entire globe?" I hope they're right. 123 Alvin Menlar's newest lady friend was beautiful, graceful, and perfect on the dance floor- she was programmed that way LAST WALTZ BY WARREN BROWN

A ivin Menlar loved toys. He loved morality itself was meaningless to him. /\them because he loved playing. His latest toy sat lacing him across a / \ /-famo Ludens was his motto, table of Oriental pattern, upon which sat

/ \ and through it he had man- two glasses of pure crystal, filled with aged to acquire a vast and interplane- rare wine. She was tall and graceful, with tary fortune. Since he first held a toy rocket a flawless Grecian tace and eyes an in his hands as a child, he had dreamed emerald-green set off by the pale yellow of having space and planets to play with. cascade of her curly hair. Her dress was

He became one of the first great space rose silk, and it was diaphanous. entrepreneurs. His companies mined the Menlar was dressed in white as some- moon and farmed Mars. His satellites thing between mandarin and sheikh. beamed lasered solar power to an earth He wore a fabulous jeweled, curved made affluent and peaceful by cheap dagger. With his close-cropped, curly and abundant energy. white hair and pale blue eyes he most He would never have called himself resembled some cruel and haughty a cruel man, and certainly not a tyran- prince of an ancient and decadent civi- nical one. He did not even think of him- lization. He was pleased with the effect; self as a manipulator. As far as he was he thought it rather playful. He hoped concerned, he was simply a player, it would make an impression on Mar- better than most other players. He gret when she came. And she would though! humans were the best game of come if he had moved correctly. all, for they were not only players but also As if to confirm the rightness of his pieces in the game. Morality was a word move, a soft chime sounded through the he occasionally found a place for in penthouse, followed by Margret's voice crossword puzzles. Beyond such use, asking permission to come up. He rose PAINTING BY WOLFGANG HUTTER "

and extended his hand to his beautiful com- some kind of trouble. I'm leaving." She "I hate you," she said flatly. panion who stood by attentively. turned and started toward the elevator. "1 don't hold that against you. Many peo- "Would you get that, love 7 Take my hand." "Stop her," Menlar ordered the android. ple do," She look his hand without replying and Faster than a human could have moved, "You can't play any more games with me. rose gracefully. Sweeping past him with a the automaton's arm shot out to bar the way. I'm leaving. Harris is leaving. There are whisper of silk, she went to the elevator Margref threw herself against it. She was a plenty of positions for good engineers." cove and placed her palm on (he access- strong woman, but the arm that blocked her "With good work records.'' he said permission plate. The machinery ac- exit might have been stone. Menlar thought smoothly. knowledged her palm-print code with a soft the sight of Margret trying to get past Mar- "Try to blackball us. That would be just warble, and the floor indicator showed that gret was worth the high price of his new toy. like a recommendation to some of your the elevator was starting up. It would take "I'd say you're beside yourself, sweet- competitors." nearly a minule to ascend the two hundred heart." he chuckled. "Perhaps true. My competitors do want floors to the penthouse Seeing escape was hopeless, the wom- honest people, though."

Menlar placed his palm al his throat as he an turned to face him again. , "What do you mean'?" watched Ihe floor indicator's soft lights. He "You won't get away with this," she spat, "Simply that your lover, Harris, had pad- had noticed a slight distortion in his speech her voice burning with anger. ded his research-and-development ac- a moment before and wondered whether "Get away with what?" Menlar replied count rather thickly," the speech synthesizer that made up for his softly. "You're free to leave. I just thought "You bastard. You wouldn't dare birth-defective vocal cords was malfunc- you might be interested to know what's in "I can make it appear that he's stolen tioning. He thought of going to his bedroom store for your lover," quite a lot from me." for the spare, but he dismissed the idea, Margret froze. "You'll never manage a frame-up like because he wanted to be present when the "Let her pass," he ordered the android, that." elevator doors opened. It would be the whose arm sfill paralleled the tloor. The arm "I have proof in my safe," Menlar said, playful thing to do. lowered. Menlar shook his head. "She's pointing to an ornate wooden cube. "In- "Smile at our visitor when she steps out of beautiful, but so literal. No real intelligence voices, receipts, that sort of thing." the elevator," he said to his beautiful com- Not like you, Margret." "You're a monster." panion. "Hold out your hand and wish her a Margret stared at him, unmoving. "I'm a player. And I keep what I've won. good evening." "Well, aren't you going?" he said. You, in this case." The woman regarded him for a second "What have you done?" she asked, ig- "What do you want?" with bright emerald eyes and then turned noring his question, an edge of panic in her "I wan! you at work bright and early every silently toward the ornate mosaic of the ele- voice. "Where's Harris?" day. and here afterwards every night until vator doors. The floor indicator lit its last "Would you like to come in and talk about I say otherwise." light. The guest had arrived. The doors it?" Menlar inquired, smiling. "We can have "What about Harris?" hissed open, and Margret Lewis stepped a drink for old times' sake." "He can do as he pleases Its you I want." into the room, fvlenlar's companion held out Her shoulders drooped. The life seemed "You can't intimidate him." her hand to the new arrival. "Good eve- to go out of her. Menlar swept his arm to- "You misunderstand me. Margret." ning." she said. ward the living room in an expansive ges- Menlar stood up, "I'm not trying to intimi- Margret reached out for the offered ture of hospitality. She followed him in date anyone. I've simply made a move. You hand, but she turned toward Menlar as if to numbly. may reply to it in any way you choose." speak to him. In that brief moment her eyes "Why can't you leave me alone?" she Margret's eyes flicked to the camou- adjusted to the subdued light of the pent- whispered. flaged safe, then back to Menlar. He caught house alcove and she saw she was shaking "Because the thought of you alone is a the furtive movement, hands with herself. She pulled back her tragic one." Menlar replied. "The safe is durite. ten centimeters thick. alarm hand as if it had been burned. Stepping "I was always alone with you," she shot with a self-powered tamper beamed backward, she found herself against the el- back, standing stiffly as he seated himself straight to police central. It's molded to the evator doors. Menlar heard her quick intake in a deep, soft chair. floor and palm-keyed to one person only. will else's im- ot breath and laughed Margret stared at "And I thought you cared for me once." The alarm sound al anyone Ihe android; the android stared back- he said in a voice filled with exaggerated print. So think before you act Mafgret." Regaining her composure, she turned to hurt. Margret's hand moved smoothly into the her host, her eyes narrowed. "What the hell "What have you done to Harris?" she de- pocket of her business suit. Menlar smiled. is this, Alvin? Another sick game?" manded. He knew what she was reaching for: he had "Why. Margret." Menlar purred, "that's no "He's one of my best engineers. Why given it to her, ele- way to speak to your employer. should I do anything to him?" "Before you try to coerce me with that ." I think "Ex-employer," she hissed. "But you said . . gant little weapon you carry, you

it that I if that isn't palm keys He took her arm. "Yes. well, that's one of "I didn't say I asked. asked you you should know my in store for him." the safe." the matters I called you here to discuss, wanted to know what's your resignation." Menlar watched the play of emotions on Her hand came out ot her pocket empty. She pulled her arm away. "So this is one her face; indecision, fear for her lover, an- "What do you mean?" "I mean only someone of your jokes. I should have known you were ger. It was a cool anger. Menlar liked that; He shrugged, lying when you called to say Harris was in he had always appreciated her control. very close to me can open that sate. Get 126 that person to open it and you will win what- corner of the spacious room. "Embrace me, swung him breathlessly around. It'll bring ever is inside of it." love," he cried, and the android put its arms the police. "You have other faked records hidden tightly around him. "You see," he shouted But she lowered the weapon and stood somewhere." as a great swell of music swept them past through a whole waltz, then another, then He shook his head. Margret again, "your loyal twin would never another. Menlar's legs were starting to "You'd make up others." let me go." cramp. A haze of burning sweat filled his "Ah, no, Scout's honor This is only His voice distorted my was by the taulty syn- eyes. Fire it, he thought desperately, lire it.

play against Harris." thesizer. It had a devilish, wavering ring fire it, fire it. that "Does mean there's one against Margret turned her back on the scene. The android swung him to the far end of me?" Menlar watched her as he whirled across the room. He tripped and the automaton's

Menlar liked her quickness. It floor made for a the in the android's embrace. The foot crashed down indifferently on his. He good game. waltz merged into another, and still she kept felt his bones snap, and red pain flashed "Just something in reserve." He handed her back to him and his tireless partner, He behind his eyes. They danced closer to her a holograph vrewer. "Here's a holi you knew at that moment he had won. To be Margret. She had put the laser away and have may missed. You never much liked the sure, he'd have to be on his guard forever was very close to the safe, her palm held blue scene." after. But what was the game without excite- out tentatively. Margret looked through the eyepiece for ment? that distressing As though! crossed She can't have guessed who it opens for. a few seconds, gasped, and flung the his mind, Margret turned to look at him. he thought. His injured foot tripped him up, viewer at Menlar, who sidestepped adroitly. "You win!" she shouted over the music. and the beautiful machine trod on it. A "Where did you get that filth? I've never "You win, damn you!" spasm of nausea hit him with the pain, and ." done . . Menlar opened his to mouth say. "Of he felt vomit rising in his throat. Choking it 1 "What's the matter ? Not for public course, con- " but nothing came out. He caught a down, he swung around just in time to see sumption?" He grinned, "The master is in puzzled look on Margret's face as he and Margret's palm press firmly against the key the safe." the android swept by her, without missing a plate of the safe. The door clicked open. He him She stared at speechlessly, hate in beat. glimpsed her carefully examining the con- her eyes. "You win, I said," she screamed out. tents, putting them in her handbag. Then he "It's a little your something twin partici- "Stop that obscene dancing." was yanked around again and waltzed to- pated in." his He swung hand toward the Menlar opened his mouth to command ward the glass wall. The lights of the city android standing silent and beautiful be- the android to stop and release him, but whirled dizzily below. The music played on. side the elevator. "She even dances as well nothing came out. Damn synthesizer, he He began to beat at the android, pound- as you." He beckoned to the android and thought, trying to get his hand to his throat ing his fists into the resilient plastiflesh. opened his mouth No sound came out. He to tap the disk. But the android's embrace pounding and pounding until his hands tapped the ]eweled disk of the speech syn- held him too closely. A stab of fear shot were bruised and bleeding from impacting thesizer at his throat. "Technical difficul- through him as the dance went on. He gave the durite skeleton beneath the almost-hu- 1 ties,' he chuckled distortedly, "Come a mighty wrench of his body; the dance man skin. He tried to let himself fall into the here," he directed the android, which si- barely faltered. A new waltz merged with encircling arms, to rest. But his smashed lently approached. the fading of the old one. "The music," he foot was pummeled again, and he pulled Menlar keyed a waltz on the penthouse's silently mouthed to Margret, "you must stop himself up with his bloody hands and tried sound system. the music." desperately to keep time with the intermi- "Will you have the first dance?" He He saw her step toward the sound-sys- nable waltz. bowed to Margret. tem controls. Her hand hesitated over Through a haze of pain he saw that Mar- "Go to hell." them. Then her eyes locked with his, and gret was standing over the music controls, "Then perhaps the second." He smiled at she suddenly pulled her hand away, In- watching him and her twin intently. She the android as it joined him. "Walt? with stead of working the controls, she angled can't go through with it. he thought. me, 'he ordered the machine. "Margret has toward the dancers, matching the motion of As her hand went down to the controls, something to decide," the waltz. he was pulled smoothly around by the ro- The man and the machine were soon Her arm shot out, and he felt her fingers bot. He felt a surge of strength in the gliding around the polished-wood floor be- around the disk at his throat. Wifh a mighty thought of release and the thought of re- fore the tall windows that formed one wall of yank she savagely ripped the synthesizer match, No one beats me twice, he thought. the penthouse. It was a Cinderella scene, from his neck. Swinging around, he saw that Margret was the gallant handsome prince and his The waltz whirled him around, and he lost still at the music controls. Stupid for an en- breathtakingly beautiful love dancing in a sight of her momentarily. When the android gineer, he thought in pain, can't even work magic ballroom high the lights of the above swung him back, he saw she had opened it. The green button, he mouthed sound- city. Margret, ignored by both of them, the wooden cabinet enclosing the safe. The lessly. Then he was dragged again across watched with icy eyes. dull black durite surface had no dial, no visi- the room. You'd like to kill me, wouldn't you?" ble hinges, only the gray square of the When the android turned him once more Menlar sang out over the music as he and palm-key plate. Margret stood in front of the in the dance, he saw that Margret was the counterfeit Margret swept by to Vien- safe. She held the powerful laser steadily in gone. When he heard the music speeding nese time. "But your Harris would be both her hands. up, he opened his mouth and tried to blamed.' The music carried them to the far Fife it. Menlar thought as the android scream. GOD IS AIM IRON

She had lived a life of unending pain,

so it was only natural that her method of committing suicide would be through pleasure BY SPIDER ROBINSON

fifty-liter water-cooler I triple curve to the big I could see a Ismelled her before 1 saw her. Even so, where now stood floor plainly meant the first sight of her was shocking. socket in the wall beneath Ihe window. boltleon the She had suicide to last: She had arranged to She was sitting in a tan plastic-sur- Into it were plugged the lamp, Ihe clock, her rather lhan thirst, which faced armchair, ihe Kind where the front and her. die of hunger wireheading, of course would have been quicker. She could comes up as the back goes down. It was I knew about acquaintances take a drink when she happened to think I of back as far as it would go, It was placed — had lost a couple

it; if forgot, what the hell. beside the large living-room window. and one friend to the juice, But I had of and she intention have showed on my whose curtains were drawn. A plastic never seen a wirehead. It is by definition My must it all public usually face and I think she even understood block table next to ft held a digital clock, a solitary vice, and the fade. That decided a dozen unopened packages of Peter gets to see is a sheeted figure being car- —the smile began to could force her Jackson cigarettes, a glass jar full of ried out to the wagon. me. I moved before she lo react, whipped the packs of matches, an empty ashtray, a The transformer lay on the floor be- neglected body plug out of the wall and stepped back full vial of cocaine, and a lamp with a side the chair where it had been warily. bulb of at least 150 watts. It illuminated dropped. The switch was on, and Ihe did nol go rigid as if her with brutal clarity. timer had been jiggered so that instead Her body It already so for She was naked. Her skin was the color of providing one five- or ten- or fifteen- galvanized. had been it did was the exact of vanilla pudding. Her hair was in rats, second jolt per hour, it allowed continu- many days. What effect was just as strik- her nails unpainted and untended, some ous flow. Thai timer is required by law on opposite, and the shrink. Her overlong and some broken. There was all juice rigs sold, and you need special ing, She seemed to eyes

file. in- slammed shut She slumped. Well, I dust on her. She sat in a ghastly sludge tools to defeat it. Say, a nail The nigh! be- of feces and urine. Dried vomit was put cord was long, fell in crazy coils from thought, it'll be a long day and caked on her chin and between her Ihe wall socket. The output cord disap- fore she can move a voluntary muscle

again, then hit me before I knew breasts and down her ribs to the chair. peared beneath the chair, but I knew and she left chair, breaking my nose it It in the tangled she had the These were only part of what I had where ended. ended bouncing the smelled, The predominant odor was of snarl of her hair, at the crown of her with the heel of one fist and plug other off the side of my head. We can- fresh-baked bread. It is the smell of a head, ended in a mmiplug. The was

off other and I managed to person who is starving to death. The snapped into a jack surgically implanted noned each whirled and combined effluvia had prepared me to in her skull, and from the jack tiny wires keep on my feet; she stapled find a senior citizen, paralyzed by a snaked their way through Ihe wet jelly to grabbed the lamp. Its cord was floor not yield, so she stroke or some such crisis. the hypothalamus, lo the specific place to the and would twenty-five in the medial forebrain bundle where the set her feet and yanked and it snapped I judged her to be about dark- years old major pleasure center of her brain was off clean at the base. In near-total She had sat there in total tran- ness she' raised the lamp on high and I moved to where she could see me, located. inside arc and she did no! see me. Thai was proba- scendent ecstasy for at least five days. came to me, and I lunged the of punched her m the so- I closer, which her swing and I finally. bly just as well, because I had just seen moved, moved guifi went the two most horrible things. The first surprised me. She saw me now, and im- lar plexus. She said and

was the smile. They say that when the possibly the smile became a bit wider. I down.

I to a and sat down I staggered couch bomb went off at Hiroshima, some peo- was marvelous. 1 was caplivating. was felt fainted. ple's shadows were baked onto walls by her perfect lover. I could not look al the and my nose and

I long The small plastic tube ran from one I don't think was out very it. I think that smile got baked on the sur- smile; a

followed blood tasted fresh. I woke with a sense face of my brain in much the same way. I corner of the smile and my eyes small of terrible urgency It took me a while to don't want to talk about that smile. it gratefully. It was held in place by The second most horrible thing was bits of surgical tape at her jaw, neck, and work out why. When someone has been and unceasingly the one that explained all the rest. From shoulder, and from there it ran in a lazy simultaneously starved

PAINTING BY MARSHALL ARISMAN > 1 • >* like losing of stimulated for days on end, it is not the best water adjusted and then left, with one hand her life out on her desk a hand idea in the world to depress that someone's on my nose and the other beating against solitaire and studied it with a growing frus- of liquor. tration. respiratory center. I lurched to my feet. my hip, in search her Shavitski, I Karen and she It was not completely dark: there was a There was plenty to choose jrom. found Her name was

I moon somewhere out there. She lay on her some Metaxa in the kitchen I took great used the name Karyn Shaw, which back, arms at her sides, perfectly relaxed. care not to bring it near my nose, sneaking it thought phony She was twenty-two. Her ribs rose and fell m great slow swells. A up on my mouth from below. It tasted like Divorced her parents at fourteen, uncon- spring no-fault. then been, at pulse showed strongly at her throat. As I burning lighter fluid and made sweaf tested Since she had roll waitress, secretary to a knelt beside her, she began to snore, out on my forehead. I found a of paper various times, lamp deeply and rhythmically. towels, and on my way back to the bath- salesman, painter, free-lance typist, motor- cycle mechanic, library assistant, unli- It I great of to and I had time for second thoughts now. room used a wad them swab seemed incredible that my impulsive action most of the sludge off the chair and rug. censed masseuse. The most recent pay- had not killed her. Perhaps that had been There was a growing pool of water siphon- check stub was from The Hard Corps, a

It my subconscious intent. Five days of wire- ing from the plastic tube, and I stopped massage parlor with a cut-rate reputation. eight bal- heading alone should have killed her, let that. When I got back to the bathroom the was dated months ago. Her bank alone sudden cold turkey. water was lapping over her bloated belly, ance combined with paraphernalia I'd tendrils in the closet to tell that she was I probed in the tangle of hair, found the and horrible were weaving up from found me empty jack. The hair around it was dry. If beneath her. It took three rinses before I currently self-employed as a tootlegger. a richness of the apart- she hadn't torn the skin in yanking herself was satisfied with the body. I found a hose- cocaine dealer. The loose, itwas unlikely that she had sustained and-spray under the sink that mated with ment and furnishings told me that she was a

that hair foolish one; if the narcs missed her. any more serious damage within. I contin- the tub's faucet, and made the even ued probing, found no soft places on the easy. very shortly the IRS was going to come her like ton of bricks. Perhaps skull. Her forehead felt cool and sticky to my I had to dry her there in the tub. There down on a hand. The fecal smell was overpowering was only one towel, none too clean. I found subconsciously she had not expected to be the baking bread now. sourly fresh. a first-aid spray that incorporated a good around.

There was no pain in my nose yet, but it topical anesthetic, and I put it on the sores Nothing there; I kept digging. She had at-

I located her community college for one semes- felt immense and pulsing. I did not want to on her back and butt. had bed- tended ter, failing. touch it, or to think about it. My shirt was room on the way to the Metaxa. Wet hair as an art major, and dropped out

it corner. I carried her there. She had defaulted on a lease three years soaked with blood; I tossed into a slapped my arms as She car once and been It took everything I had to lift her. She was seemed even heavier, as though she had ago. She had wrecked a

I the shafted her company, Trivia. unreasonably heavy, and I have carried become waterlogged. eased door by insurance drunks and corpses. There was a hall off shut behind me and tried the light-switch Only one major trauma in recent years; A the living room, and all halls lead to a bath- trick again, and it wasn't there. I moved for- year and a half ago she had contracted out lost host-mother to couple named Lom- room. I headed that way in a clumsy stag- ward into a footlocker and her and went as a

putting all bard/Smyth. It a pretty fee she gering trot, and just as I reached the deeper down amid multiple crashes, my was good — darkness, with my pulse at its maximum, my attention into guarding my nose. She made had good hips and the right rare blood type all, they nose woke up and began screaming. I no sound at not even a grunt, — but six months into the pregnancy nearly dropped her then and clapped my The light switch turned out to be a pull had caught her using tobacco and can- hands to my face; the temptation was over- chain over the bed. She was on her side, celed the contract. She fought, but they had naturally. whelming. Instead I whimpered like a dog still breathing slow and deep. I wanted to photographs. And better lawyers, and kept going. Childhood feeling; runny punt her up onto the bed. My nose was a She had to repay the advance, and pay for

lift for nose you can't wipe. At each door I came to blossom of pain. I nearly couldn't her the the abortion, of course, and got socked

it I with frustration court costs besides. I teetered on one leg and kicked open. third time. was moaning by

It clean lungs and the third one gave the right small-room, the time I had her on her left side on the didn't make sense. To show acoustic-tile echo. The light switch was king-size mattress. It was a big brass four- at the physical, she had to have been off

it pillow- cigarettes for at least three to six months. where they almost always are: I rubbed on poster bed, with satin sheets and with my shoulder and the room flooded with cases, all dirty. The blankets were shoved Why backslide, with so much at stake? Like

it felt like effect light. to the bottom. I checked her skull and pulse the minor traumas, more an

Large aquamarine tub, Styrofoam re- again, peeled up each eyelid and found than a cause. Self-destructive behavior. I cliner pillow at the head end, nonslip bot- uniform pupils. Her forehad and cheek still kept looking. tom. Aquamarine sink with ornate handles, felt cool, so I covered her. Then I kicked the Near the bottom I found something that cluttered with toiletries and cigarette butts footlocker clear into the corner, turned out looked promising. Both her parents had and broken shards of mirror from the medi- the light, and left her snoring. been killed in a car smash when she was cine cabinet above Aquamarine com- Her vital papers and documents were in eighteen. Their obituary was paper-clipped mode, lid up and seat down. Brown throw her study, locked in a strongbox on the to her father's will. It was one of the most ex- rug. expensive. Scale shoved back in a cor- closet shelf It was an expensive box, quite traordinary documents I've ever read. I proof against anything short of father cutting ner. I made a massive effort and managed sturdy and could understand an angry to set her reasonably gently in the tub. I ad- nuclear explosion. It had a combination off his only daughter without a dime. But worse. justed her head, fixed the chinstrap. I held lock with all of twenty-seven possible com- what he had done was worse. Much

I laid it either. sui- both feet away from the faucet until I had the binations. II was stuffed with papers. Dammit, didn't work So- there 130 of taut skin. Her pulse was steady. At her cides don't wait four years. And they don't nose more. I wake up hard in the best and would not have been very attrac- I threw best use such a garish method either: It deval- times. She was still snoring. nearly she ei- her. tive by conventional standards. Passable. ues the tragedy. I decided it had to be the empty glass at waist, not enough neck, upper ther a very big and dangerous coke deal It was just past noon now; light came Too much her. It's hard gone bad, or a very reptilian lover. No, not a strongly through the heavy curtains, illumi- legs a bit too thick for the rest of

I unconscious coke deal They'd never have left her in her nating so much mess and disorder that to evaluate a starved and square, her own apartment to die the way she wanted could not decide whether she had trashed face, but her jaw was a bit too

it tossed nose a trifle hooked, her blue eyes just the to. It could not be murder: Even the most her bedroom herself or had been former: least little bit too far apart. Animated, the unscrupulous wire surgeon needs an by a pro. I finally settled on the The awake, consenting subject to place the armchair I'd slept on was intact. Or had the face might have been beautiful— any set of wire correctly. pro found what he wanted before he'd got- features can support beauty— but even a far? superb makeup job could not have made A lover then. I was relieved, pleased with ten that myself her pretty. There was an old bruise on her I it to my sagacity, and irritated as hell. I didn't gave up and went make hair blond, long and it felt chin. Her was sandy know why. I chalked up to my nose. It

thin; it in snarls that would fake an as though a large shark with rubber teeth It took me an hour or two to clean up and had dried trans- hour to comb out. Her breasts were magnif- was rhythmically biting it as hard as he air out the living room. The cord and went down the oubliette, along with icent, and that saddened me. In this world, could. I shoveled the papers back into the former fridge. breasts are her best fea- box, locked and replaced it, and went to the most of the perished items from the a woman whose bathroom. The dishes took three full cycles for each ture is in for a rough time. picture of a life I putting together a Her medicine cabinet would have im- load, a couple of hours all told. I passed the was pressed a pharmacist She had lots of aller- time vacuuming and dusting and snooping. that would have depressed anyone with the

I first significance. I sensitivity of a rhino. Back when had gies. It took me five minutes to find aspirin. I learning nothing more of was list about fifteen min- seen her, when her features were alive, she took four. I picked the largest shard of mirror making up a shopping sensitive. 0' that been a I looked had out of the sink, propped it on the septic utes later when I heard her moan. reached had now tank, and sat down backward on the toilet. her bedroom door in seconds, waited in the trick of the juice? Impossible to say

I find nothing My nose was visibly displaced to the right, doorway with both hands in sight, and said But damn it all io hell, could skull. You and the swelling was just hitting its stride. slowly and clearly, "My name is Joseph to really explain the socket in her life stories in any bar. on any I friend. are all hear worse There was a box of Kleenex on the floor I Templeton. Karen. am a You can her corner. I prepared to match ripped it apart, took out all the tissues, and right now," street was of small tormented scar for scar myself. Wireheads are usually stuffed them into my mouth. Then I grabbed Her eyes were those a my nose with my right hand and tugged out animal. addictive personalities, who decide at last shit. There were no tracks and to the left, flushing the toilet simultane- "Please don't try to get up. Your muscles to skip the small nasal damage, no sign ously with my left hand. The flushing coin- won't work properly and you may hurt your- on her anywhere, no cided with the scream, and my front teeth self." that she used any of the coke she sold. Her history, pitiful and fragmented as it met through the Kleenex. When I could see No answer. work again, the nose looked straight and my "Karen, are you hungry?" was, was too steady for any kind of serious is said despair- habit; she had undeniably been hitting the breathing was unimpaired. I gingerly "Your voice ugly," she washed my face, and then hands, and left. ingly, and her own voice was hoarse. sauce hard lately, but only lately. Tobacco clearly incapable of movement. seemed to be her only serious addiction. A moment later I returned; something had She was

That left the hypothetical bastard lover. I I right to caught my eye. It was the giass-and-tooth- I told her would be back and went

clear strong worried at that for while to see if I could brush holder. There was only one tooth- the kitchen. I made up a tray of a

toast, tea with too much make it fit. Assume a really creatively sadis- brush in it. I looked through the medicine broth, unbuttered chest again and noticed this time that there sugar, and Saltine crackers. She was tic son of a bitch had gutted her like a trout,

I fun of it. can't that to was no shaving cream, no razor either man- staring at the ceiling when I got back. put for the pure You do ual or electric, no masculine toiletries of any the tray down, lifted her. and made a back- someone as a visitor or even a guest; you world- kind. All the prescriptions were in her name rest of pillows. have to live with them. So he did a her his- and seeemed perfectly legitimate. "I want a drink." class job of crippling a lady who by little when he I said agreeably tory is a tough cookie, and I went thoughtfully to the kitchen, mixed "After you eat," myself a Preacher's Downfall by moonlight, "Who'reyou?" had broken her. he vanished. Leaving not even as empty space in drawers, and took it to her bedroom. The bedside "Mother Templeton. Eat." so much Not the toast." She closets, or medicine chest. Unlikely. So clock said five. I lit a match, moved the "The soup, maybe. scrubbed tootlocker in front of an armchair, sat down, got about half of it down, accepted some perhaps after he was gone she ." drink all traces of him out of the apartment— and I overfill her. and put my feet up. I sipped my drink and tea. didn't want to "My that there is only one really listened to her snore and watched her "Sure thing." I took the tray back to the then discovered

list, put to scrub memories. No. I couldn't breathe in the feeble light of the clock. I de- kitchen, finished my shopping away good way cided to run through all the possibilities, the last of the dishes, and put a frozen steak picture such a sloppy housekeeper being

into the for my lunch. When I got back, so efficient. and as I was formulating the first one, day- oven that light smacked me hard in the nose. she was fast asleep. Then 1 thought of my earlier feeling for might have been tossed by a My hands went up reflexively. and I Emaciation was near total; except the bedroom poured my drink on my head and hurt my breasts and bloated belly she was all bone pro, and my blood turned to ice water Sup- pose she wasn't a sloppy housekeeper? inside me that demanded an explanation. I banged my head real hard." The jolly sadist returns unexpectedly for dialed a game of four-wall squash, and Feeling began to come into her voice for one last nibble. And finds her in the living made sure the computer would let me win. I the first time. The feeling was fear. I dared room, just as I did. And leaves her there. was almost enjoying myself when she not move.

After five minutes' thought I relaxed. That screamed. "When I woke up, it was day. Mama must didn't parse either. True, this luxury co-op It wasn't much of a scream; her throat have bandaged my head and put me to

I did inexplicably lack security cameras in was shot. But it fetched me at once. I saw bed. My head hurt a lot When came out of the halls— but for that very reason its rich the problem as I cleared the door. The topi- the bathroom, I heard him call me. He and tenants would be sure to take notice of cal anesthetic had worn off the large "bed- Mama were in bed. He started in on me. He comings and goings. If he had lived here for sores" on her back and buttocks, and the wouldn't let me talk, and kept getting mad- any time at all, his spoor was too diffuse to pain had waked her. Now that I thought der and madder. Finally I hollered back at erase —so he would not have tried. Be- about it, it should have happened earlier; him. He got up off the bed and started in hit- sides, a monster of that unique and rare that spray was only supposed to be good ting me again. My robe came off. He kept his fists kind thrives on the corruption of innocence. for a few hours. I decided that her pleasure- hitting me in the belly and tils, and Karen was simply not loothsome enough. pain system was weakened by overload. were like hammers. Slut, he kept saying.

I kill At that point I went to the bathroom, and The sores were bad; she would have Whore. thought he was going to me, so

if. I I bit. like that settled When I lifted the seat to uri- scars. resprayed them, and her moans grabbed one arm and He roared a

I room. nate, I found written on the underside with stopped nearly at once. could devise no dragon and threw me across the felt-tip pen: "It's so nice to have a man means of securing her on her belly that Onto the bed. Mama jumped up. Then he around the house!" The handwriting was would not be nightmare-inducing, and de- pulled down his underpants and it was big

hers. She had lived alone. cided it was unnecessary. I thought she and purple. I screamed and screamed and there. I was relieved, because I hadn't relished was out again and started to leave. Her tore at his back and Mama just stood thinking about my hypothetical monster or voice, muffled by pillows, stopped me in Her eyes were big and round, just like in the necessity of tracking and killing him. But my tracks. cartoons. I screamed and screamed

I was irritated as hell again. "I don't know you. Maybe you're not even and—"

I wanted to understand. real, lean tell you." She broke off short and her shoulders

For something to do, I took my steak and "Save your energy, Karen. You—" knotted. When she continued, her voice a mug of coffee to the study and heated up "Shut up, You wanted the karma, and was stone dead again. "I woke up in my her terminal. I tried all the typical access now you got it." own bed again. I took a real long shower codes, her birthdate and her name in num- I shut up. and went downstairs. Mama was making

bers and such, but none of them would un- Her voice was flat. dead. "All my friends pancakes. I sat down and she gave me one

I it, I it there lock it. Then on a hunch I tried the date of were dating at twelve. He made me wait un- and ate and then threw up right

it. til I door. her parents' death, and that did I ordered fourteen. Said couldn't be trusted, on the table and ran out the She never the groceries she needed, instructed the Tommy came to take me to the dance, and said a word, never called me back. After

lobby door to accept delivery, and tried ev- he gave Tommy a hard time. I was so em- school that day I found a Sanctuary and

I erything I could think ot to get a diary or a barrassed. The dance was nice for a cou- started the divorce proceedings. never journal out of the damned thing, withoul ple of hours. Then Tommy slarted chasing saw either of them again. I never told this to success. So I punched up the public library after Jo Tompkins. He just left me and went anybody before." and asked the catalog for Britannica on off with her. I went in the ladies' room and The pause was so long I thought she had wireheading. It referred me to brainreward, cried for a long time. A couple of girls got fallen asleep. "Since that time I've tried it

autostimulus of. I skipped over the history, the story out of me, and one of them had a with men and women and boys and girls, in

from discovery by Olds and others in 1956 bottle of vodka in her purse. I never drank the dark and in the desert sun. with people I to emergence as a social problem in the before. When I started tearing up cars in the cared for and people I didn't give a damn late '80s when surgery got simple; declined parking lot, one of the girls got ahold of about, and I have never understood the the offered diagrams, graphs, and techni- Tommy. She gave him shit and made him pleasure in it. The best it's ever been for me

cal specs; finally found a brief section on take me home. I don't remember it. I found is not uncomfortable. God, how I've won-

I motivations. out later." dered , . . now know." She was starting to

There was indeed one type of typical Her throat gave out and I got water. She drift. "Only thing my whole lite turned out

it user I had overlooked. The terminally ill. accepted without meeting my eyes, better'n cracked up to be." She snorted

Could that really be it? At her age? I went turned her face away, and continued. sleepily. "Even alone.''

to the bathroom and checked the prescrip- "Tommy got me in the door somehow. I I sat there for a long time without moving. tions. Nothing for heavy pain, nothing indi- was out cold by then. He must have been My legs trembled when I got up, and my cating anything more serious than allergies. too scared to try and get me upstairs. He hands trembled while I made supper,

Back before telephones had cameras I left me on the couch and my underpants on might have conned something out of her the rug and went home. The next thing I That was the last time she was lucid for

I personal physician, but it would have been knew I was on the floor and my face hurt. He nearly forty-eight hours. plied her with suc-

a chancy thing even then. There was no was standing over me. Whore, he said. I got cessively stronger soups every time she

way to test the hypothesis. up and tried to explain and he hit me a cou- woke up, and once I got some tea-soggy

It called was possible, even plausible — but it ple of times. I ran for the door, but he hit me toast into her. Sometimes she me by jus! wasn't likely enough to satisfy the thing hard in the back. I went into the stairs and others' names, and sometimes she didn't 132 .

know I was there, and everything she said called you every day for a week and were just the leasf little bit too far apart.

was disjointed. I listened to her tapes, banged on your door a few times. But I They say everyone has a double some-

watched some of her video, charged some know you're there, now anyway. I walked where. And Fafe is such a witty little mother-

books and games to her computer. I took a past your place an hour ago and I seen your fucker, isn't he?

lot of her aspirin. And drank surprisingly lit- bathroom light go on and off. Sharon, will I don't remember how I got to bed. 9 tle ot her booze. you please tell me what the hell is going on I woke later that night with the feeling that

I It was a time of frustration for me. 1 still Are you listening to me? I know you're lis- would have to bang my head on the floor a

couldn't make it all fit together, still could not tening to me. Look, you gotta understand, I couple of limes to gel my heart started

quite understand. There was a large piece thought it was all set, see? I mean I thought again. I was on my makeshift doss of pil-

missing. The animal who sired and raised it was set. Arranged. I put it to Terry, cause lows and blankets beside her bed, and

I her had planted the charge, of course, and she's my regular, and she says not me, when I finally peeled my eyes open she was

perceived that it was big enough to blow lover, but I know a gal. Look, was she lying sitting up in bed, staring at me. She had

her apart. But why had it taken eight years to me or what? She told me for another bill fixed her hair somehow, and her nails were

to go off? If his death four years ago had not you play them kind of games." trimmed. We looked at each oiher for a long

it, triggered what had? I could not leave un- Regular two-hundred-dollar bank depos- moment. Her color was returning some-

til I I knew, did not know why not. I prowled its plus a cardboard box full of scales, vials, what, and fhe edge was off her bones. her apartment like a caged bear. bags, and milk powder makes her a coke "What did Jo Ann say when you told Midway through the second day her dealer, right, Travis McGee? Don't be mis- her?"

plumbing started working again; I had to led by the fact that the box was shoved in a I said nothing. change the sheets. The next morning a comer, sealed with tape, and covered with "Come on. Jo Ann's got The only other key

noise woke me and I found her on the bath- dust. After all, the only other illicit profession to this place, and she wouldn't give it to you

room floor on her knees in a pool of urine I that pays regular sums at regular intervals if you weren't a friend. So what did she

got her clean and back to bed. and just as I is hooker, and two hundred dollars is too say?"

thought she was going to drift off again she much for square-jawed, hook-nosed, wide- I got painfully up out of the tangle and started yelling at me. "Lousy son of a bitch, eyed little Karen, breasts or no breasts. walked to the window. A phallic church

it I'll could have been over! never have the For a garden-variety hooker , . steeple rose above the low-rises, a couple guts again now! How could you do that, you "Dammit, she told me she ca//edyou and of blocks away.

It it bastard? was so nice'." She turned vio- set up; she gave me your apartment num- "God is an iron," I said. "Did you know

lently away tram me and curled up. I had to ber." He shook his head violently. "I can't that?"

make a hard choice then, and I gambled on make sense of this. Dammit, she couldn't I turned to look at her, and she was

what I knew of loneliness and sat on the be lying to me. It don't figure. You le! me in, staring, She laughed experimentally,

edge of the bed and stroked her hair as didn't even turn the camera on first, it was stopped when I failed to join in. "And I'm a

gently and impersonally as I knew how. It all arranged. Then you screamed and . . pair of pants with a hole scorched through

was a good guess. She began to cry, in and I done like we arranged, and I thought the ass?"

great racking heaves first, then the steady you was maybe overdoin' it a bit, but Terry "If a person who indulges in gluttony is a

wail of total heartbreak. I had been praying said you was a terrific actress. I was real glutton, and a person who commits a felony

it for this and did not begrudge the strength careful not to really hurt you, I know I was. is a felon, then God is an iron. Or else He's

cost her Then I put on my pants and I'm putting the the dumbesf designer that ever lived." She cried for so long that every muscle in envelope on the dresser and you bust that Of a thousand possible snap reactions,

my body ached from sitting still by the lime chair on me and come at me with that knife she picked the most flattering and hence

she fell oft ihe edge inio sleep. She never andlhaddabustyouone. It jus! don't make most irritating. She kept silent, kepf looking

felt I me get up, stiff and clumsy as was. no sense, will you goddammit say some- at me, and thought about what I had said. At

There was somefhing different about her thing to me? I'm twisted up inside going on last she said, "I agree. What particular de- " It 7 sleeping face now. was not slack but re- two weeks now. I can't even eat." sign fuckup did you have in mind

laxed. I limped out in the closest thing to I went to shut off the phone, and my hand "The one that nearly left you dead in a pile

I I I I peace had felt since arrived, and as I was was shaking so bad missed, spinning the of yourown shit," said harshly. "Everybody passing the living room on the way to the volume knob to minimum. "Sharon, you talks about the new menace, wireheading.

liquor, I heard the phone. gotta believe me," he hollered from far, far fifth most common cause ot death in only a

Silently, I looked over the caller. The pic- away. "I'm into rape fantasy, I'm not into decade. Wireheading's not new— it's just a

ture was undercontrasted and snowy; it rape!" And then I had found the right switch technical refinement." ." was a pay phone. He looked like an immi- and he was gone. "I don't follow grant construction worker massive and I got up very slowly and toddled oft to fhe "Are you familiar with the old cliche 'Ev-

florid I and neckless. almost brutish. And, at liquor cabinet, and stood in front of it fak- erything I like in the world is either illegal, the moment, under great stress. He was ing pulls from different bottles at random immoral, or fattening'?"

crushing a hat in his hands. until I could no longer see his face his ear- "Sure." "Sharon, don't hang up," he was saying. nest, baffled, half-ashamed face hanging "Didn't that ever strike you as damned

"I gotta tind out what this is all about." before me. odd? What's the most nutritionally useless Nothing could have made me hang up. Because his hair was thin sandy blond, and physiologically dangerous 'food' sub-

"Sharon? Sharon. 1 know you're there. and his jaw was a bit too square, and his stance in the world? Sugar. And it seems to Terry says you ain't there: she says she nose was a trifle hooked, and his blue eyes be beyond the power of the human nervous

133 " " ,

without system to resist it. They put it in virtually all said. "Maybe pleasure is the root of all evil. Something that can make you do the processed food there is, which is next to But God! life is bleak without it," pleasure or even accept a lot of pain to get all the tood there is, because nobody can "One of my most precious possessions," it. Slinky you're talking about, that's resist it. And so we poison ourselves and I said, "is a button that my friend John "That thing whipsaw our dispositions and rot our teeth, used to hand-paint and sell below cost. He there, that's true. What's messing us up is instincts Isn't (hat odd? There is a primitive program- was the only practicing anarchist I ever the animal nervous system and we ming in our skulls that rewards us. literally met. The button reads: 'go, lemmings, go!' A inherited. But you said yourself, Man is the overwhelmingly, every time we do some- lemming surely feels intense pleasure as he animal that outgrows and moves, Ever thing damned silly. Like smoke a poison, or gallops to the sea. His self-destruction is since the first brain grew a mind we've been eat or drink or snort or shoot a poison. Or programmed by nature, a part of the very trying to outgrow our instincts, grow new overeat good foods. Or engage in compli- same life force that insisted on being con- ones, By Jesus, we will yet. Evolution works cated sexual behavior without procreative ceived and born in the first place. If it feels pretty slow, is all. Couple of hundred million intent, which if it were not for the pleasure good, do it." I laughed, and she flinched. years to develop a thinking ape. and you lousy hundred would be pointless and insane. And which, "So it seems lo me that God is either an iron want a smart one in a few drive is there but when pursued for the pleasure alone, or a colossal jackass. I don't quite know thou? That lemming — quickly becomes pointless and insane any- whether to be admiring or contemptuous." there's another kind of drive, another kind of

working against it. else there way, A suicidal brain-reward system is built All at once I was out of words, and out of force, that's Or still people there into us." strength. I yanked my gaze away from hers wouldn't be any and

"But the reward system is for survival." and stared at my knees for a long time. I felt wouldn't be the words to have this conver- "So how the hell did ours get wired up so vaguely ashamed, as befits one who has sation and—" She looked down at herself. that survival-threatening behavior gets re- thrown a tantrum in a sickroom. "And I wouldn't be here to say them," warded best of all? Even the pro-survival After a time she said, "You talk good on "That was just random chance." pleasure stimuli are wired so that a danger- your feet." She snorted. "What isn't?"

I "That's fine. ous overload produces the maximum plea- I kepi looking at my knees. " I was an eco- "Well, that's fine." shouted. sure. On a purely biological level Man is nomics teacher for a year once." Since the world is saved and you've got it programmed to strive hugely for more than "Will you tell me something?" under control. I'll just be going along." he needs, more than he can profitably use. "If lean." I've got a lot of voice when I yell. She ig-

"The error doesn't show up as glaringly in "What was the pleasure in putting me nored it utterly, continued speaking as if other animals. Even surrounded by plenty, back together again?" nothing had happened. "Now I can say that plea- I of the a stupid animal has to work hard simply to I jumped. have sampled the spectrum meet his needs. But add in intelligence and "Look at me. There. I've got a half-ass sure system at both ends— none and all

is I life I will everything goes to hell. Man is capable of idea of what shape I was in when you met there — and think the rest of my of the outgrowing any ecological niche you put me, and I can guess what it's been like dedicate myself to the middle road

is if I'd works out. Starting with him in —he survives at an because he the since. I don't know have done as much and see how that animal that moves. Given half a chance, he for Jo Ann, and she's my best friend. You the very weak tea and toast I'm going lo ask kills himself of surfeit." don't look like a guy whose favorite kick is you to bring me in another ten mintues or

My knees were trembling so badly l had sick ferns, and you sure as bell don't look so. But as for this other stuff, this joy thing.

I like exploring, in as to sit down, I felt feverish and somehow like you're so rich you got time on your that would to begin

intensity possible. I don't really larger than myself, and I knew I was talking hands. So what's been your pleasure, these much as much too fast. She had nothing whatever to last few days?" know a goddamn thing about it, but I under-

it with sharing say, with voice, face, or body. "Trying to understand," I snapped. "I'm stand has something to do your "Given Man's gregarious nature." I went nosy." and caring, and what did you say on. fingering my aching nose, "it's obvious "And do you understand?" name was?"

"It I that kindness is more pro-survival than cru- "Yeah. I put it together." doesn't matter!" yelled. elty. But which fee/s better? Which provides "So you'll be going now?" "All right. What can /do for you?" 9 more pleasure Poll any hundred people at "Not— yet," I said automatically. "You're "Nothing!" random and you'll find at least twenty or not "What did you come here for?"

thirty who know all there is to know about And caught myself. I was angry enough to be honest. "To psychological torture and psychic castra- "There's something else besides plea- burgle your fucking apartment!" tion—and maybe two that know how to give sure," she said. "Another system of reward, Her eyes opened wide, and then she pillows a terrific back rub. That business of your fa- only I don't think it has much to do with the slumped back against the and

here. until the tears I tried ther leaving all his money to the Church and one I got wired up to my scalp Not laughed came, and leaving you 'a hundred dollars, the going brain-reward. Call it mind-reward. Call it joy and could not help myself and laughed, feel laughter for long time, rate'— that was artistry. I can't imagine a — the thing like pleasure that you when too, and we shared a way to make you feel as good as that made you've done a good thing or passed up a as long as we had shared her tears the you feel rotten. That's why sadism and mas- real tempting chance to do a bad thing. Or night before. ochism are the last refuge of the jaded, the when the unfolding of the universe just And then straightfaced she said, "You'll gonna most enduring— of the perversions; their pi- seems especially apt. It's nowhere near as have to wait a week or two; you're quancy is tlashy and intense as pleasure can be. Be- need help with those stereo speakers. But-

"Maybe the Puritans were right," she lieve me. But it's got something going for it. ter on the toast." 134 PICTDRIML rUUimiBEK THREE

PHOTOGRAPHER A futuristic trip through the tens of a master photographer

BY ROBERT SHECKLEY

Pete Turner's studio is a great white cube with polished wood floors. It is an appropriate place tor the highly sophisticated advertising photography for which Turner is famous. Tall and thin, wearing denims and boots. Turner manipulates images on a white screen. "There are a lot of possible places to

begin, but I chose Stonehenge. It's a symbol of man pulling himself out of neolithic unconsciousness, building something never before imagined. And

Ihe road is my symbol for the human journey. Roads go on forever, and this is just road, a moving straight out to infinity," I notice the shapes to the right of the road, out of scale, ominous. What are they? "Something concrete, but unknow- able. They are the mystery— the reason we keep on traveling down the road."

* r "The bubble is what's

structure . stabilized by pressure, /injected a very spacy object

inside It. And I used a very intense light

source. It's almost

coherent light. I put the two objects to- gether and ask mysell whether it's too com- plex. There are unlim-

ited options in this. It becomes an alien vi- sion ... a sort of magic."

Turner is nol al ease wilh words. He is suspicious of them, a maker of images rather than a teller of tales. He shapes his thoughts with long,

thin fingers, trying to make them palpable, hoping they will fit the wordless matters he has photographed. "And here we have light, trans- parency the bubble of consciousness. Transparent bubbles with cohe- rent light at the core— that's us. We are simultaneously the light source and the thing illuminated. Our lives are spent seeing what there is to be seen by our own light. And what we see, no other species on Earth has ever seen before." Any sentient creature can see the sky. but only man, only a Turner, can see the window in the sky and pass

through it, even though it isn't there, to the beyond that lies within us.

Turner nods. "That's it. We see through ourselves into the universe."

^Transparent bubbles with coherent light at the core — that's who we really are* The images symbolize states of mind as well as future actualities.

Here's the present, and here's what it leads to. "It's something the ancient world never knew; geometric sterility, the possibility of a world

entirely divorced from nature. It scares me. the way those walls rise up toward the stars, and there's nothing inside them or outside them." The

image is even more frightening, because it has no indication of scale. But if man were there, he would be an insect, an insignificant ink spot

marring the mindless regularity of those perfect walls. "Yes, and this is the linal city, perched upon the barren earth, its slab-sided buildings naked to the stars. And there's the final graveyard, where the only monu- ments to our long history are cones and spheres, signifying nothing."

4/f's new, this geometric sterility, the possibility of a world divorced from nature' .

*These aliens are real, but indefinable. I think they are what we are going to become?

Turner is an optimist; his images are cautionary rather than predictive. "When you work with these forms, you have to feel what they mean

rather than tell it literally. Here is an ultimate landscape, crystalline in its purity." What about those shapes above the plain, those entities com- ing through the foreground? "It's the aliens, of course. They're ambiguous— visually definite, verbally indefinable. And they're more

than just aliens. I think they're also us in our next stage of development. I think we can escape from the trap we're building for ourselves, escape

from our fatal geomelricity. I think we transform ourselves." Into what?

Turner doesn't know, since the caterpillar can't imagine the butterfly it will become The process of transformation can only be hinted at.

"I called it Moon's

Moon. I wanted to symbolize what would happen Iowa id the

end . . nothing apocalyptic, just old age looming closer, the moon's orbit decaying. Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that lor every human who has walked the lace ol the earth, there is a

The oid transforms onnrui THE NEW FRONTIER