Galaxy Magazine (November 1954)

NOVEMBER 1954 p 35< galaxy ASTEROID ROUNDUP < SCIENCE FICTION By Willy Ley ! .

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2253- SCRANTON 9, PENNA. GALAXY PUBLISHING CORPORATION BOX F, (Partial list of 277 courses) Without miw obligation, tern) «h "HOW to SUCCEED* and the opportunity booklet about the field BEFORE which I have marked X: ARCHITECTURE AVIATION CIVIL, STRUCTURAL LEADERSHIP RAILROAD and BUILDING Aeronautical Engineering jr. ENGINEERING, Foremanship Air Brakes Car Inspector • 14, N.Y. O O O G 421 HUDSON STREET NEW YORK CONSTRUCTION O Aircraft £ Engine Mechanic O Civil Engineering G Industrial Supervision Q Diesel Locomotive O Air Conditiooing-Refrie, BUSINESS D Construction Engineering G leadership and Organization a Locomotive Engineer Q Architecture D Advertising D Highway Engineering G Personnel- labor Relations D Section Foreman Reading Struct. a Buildi ng Contractor a Bookkeeping and Accounting O Blueprints MECHANICAL STEAM AND Q Building Maintenance Q Business Administration Q Sanitary Engineering AND SHOP DIESEL POWER Publishers of G Carpenter end Mill Work D Business Correspondence Structural Engineering G Gas-Electric Welding G Combustion Engineering D Estimating Q Certified Public Accounting Q Surveying and Mapping G Heat Treatment a Metallurgy G Oiesal - Elee. Q Diesel Eng'g a Halting D Creative Salesmanship DRAFTING G Industrial Engineering O Electric Light and Power O Painting Contractor a Federal Tu O Aircraft Drafting O Industrial Instrumentation D Stationary Fireman letter-writing Improvement Q Architectural Drafting Industrial Supervision Stationary Steam Engineering GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION C Pluinbing Q O D Reading Arch. Blueprints a Managing Small Business Electrical Dratting Q Machine Design-Drafting TEXTILE O Steamfrtting O Office Management Q Mechanical Drafting G Machine Shop Inspection O Carding and Spinning ANT Q Retail Business Management Q Mine Surveying and Mapping D Machine Shop Practice G Cotton. Rayon. Woolen Mfg. Q Sales Management Ship Drafting Mechanical Engineering G Finishing end Dyeing Q Cartooning a O Stenographic-Secretarial G Structural Drafting Quality Control Loom Filing BEYOND FANTASY FICTION D Commercial Art G G O Traffic Management ELECTRICAL G Reading Shop Blueprints G Teilile Designing G Fashion Illustrating CHEMISTRY Electrical Engineering Refrigeration Q Teitite Eng'r'g Throwing Maguvne Illustrating G G G Q Analytical Chemistry Electrical Maintenance Sheet Metal Worker Warping and Weaving Show Card and Sign Lettering O O O O O Chemical Engineering Electrician Contracting Toot Design Toolmaking Sketching Q Q D a G MISCELLANEOUS Q and fainting . THE GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS AUTOMOTIVE O Chem. Lib. Technician D Lineman RADIO. TELEVISION O Domestic Refrigeration G General Chemistry HIGH SCHOOL O Electronics G Marine Engineering D Auto Body Rebuilding Natural Gai Prod. & Trans. Commercial Practical Ocean Navigation (a full length novel every other month) O G a Radio-TV EngYng G Q Ante dec. Technician Petroleum Engineering O Good English D Radio and TV Servicing Shipfttting a Aute-£ngine Tone Up DPIastics D High School Subjects G Radio Operating a Short Story Writing O Automobile Mechanic O Pulp and Paper Making fj Mathematics D Television-Technician Q Telephony

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NOVEMBER, 1954 • VOL. 9, NO. 2 These great minds tvere Rosierwdam * ^^^l: WHAT SECRET POWER SCIENCE FICTION DID THEY POSSESS? ALL ORIGINAL STORIES • NO REPRINTS!

JF/y/ were /fee /we« great? CONTENTS ^Benjamin Vranklh How does anyone — man or woman — achieve NOVELETS PAGE greatness? Is it not by mastery of the powers within ourselves? HOW-2 by Clifford D. Simak 6 tm THE MUSIC MASTER OF BABYLON fay Edgar Pangborn 82 Know the mysterious world within you ! Attune BIG ANCESTOR by F. L Wallace 134 yourself to the wisdom of the ages! Grasp the

inner power of your mind ! Learn the secrets of a SHORT STORIES S^a full and peaceful life! THE NOSTALGIA GENE by Roy Hutchins 45 Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor. . THE LAXIAN KEY ..... fay Robert Shecktey 59 Isaac Newton, discoverer of the Law of Gravita- UP FOR RENEWAL by Lucius Daniel 111

tion . . by Arthur Sellings 124 Isaac Newton M . Francis Bacon, philosopher and scientist THE AGE OF KINDNESS

. . . like many other learned and great men and SCIENCE DEPARTMENT women . . . were Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucians FOR YOUR INFORMATION fay Willy Ley 70 (NOT a religious organization) have been in existence for centuries. Today, headquarters of FEATURES the Rosicrucians send over seven million pieces EDITOR'S PAGE fay H. L. Gold 4 of m mail annually to all parts of the world. FORECAST 116 GALAXY'S FIVE STAR SHELF by Groff Conklin 119 VB ROSICRUCIANS Cover by EMSH Showing SPACE-TIME IN ONE TOUGH LESSON San Jose (AMORC) Francis Bacon California, U.S.A. ROBERT GUINN, Publisher H. L. GOLD, Editor Scribe I.T.K. WILLY LEY, Science THIS BOOK FR The ROSICRUCIANS SEND THIS COUPON EVELYN PAIGE, Managing Editor Editor (AMORC) W. I. VAN OER POEL, Art Director JOAN De MARIO, Production Manager Write for your FREE San Jose, California, U.S.A. copy of:"The Mas* Please send me the free book, The Mastery of Life, which explains how I may learn to use my faculties GALAXY Science Fiction is published monthly by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. Main offices: jery of Life" — and powers of mind. 421 Hudson Street, New York 14, N. Y. 35c per copy. Subscriptions: (12 copies) $3.50 per { i\' TODAY. No ob- year in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and U.S. Possessions. ligation. A non- Name. ^_^_ Elsewhere $4.50. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office, New York, N. Y. Copyright, York, 1954, by Galaxy Publishing Corporation, Guinn, president. All rights, includ- profit organiza- New Robert Address- ing translation, reserved. All material submitted must be accompanied by self-addressed stamped tion. Address envelopes. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. All stories printed in City. Scribe I.T.K. this magazine are fiction, and any similarity between characters and actual persons is coincidental. State- Printed in the U.S.A. by the Guinn Co.. Inc. Title Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. : — ! —

despite the fact that sudsing ac- suds; if it doesn't, it's not a de- BETTER & BETTER? tion actually cuts down the effi- tergent. ciency of detergents. There are many more exam- A NCIENT Chinese potters peared, so that one would smash If that were all there was to ples of the price of scientific **• perfection, but those are a repre- knew something we have to into another until as many as a the situation, there would be no headache for sewage men. But sentative offering. There are a go on rediscovering . . . whenever dozen cars have been wrecked in a less in they created a particularly lovely single hideous multiple collision. the devilish head of perfection couple no harrowing the control nature: piece of porcelain, they warily The roads were too perfect. Ob- rears up again: of made sure to use crackle glaze, a stacles had to be replaced to keep "N Grease breaks down suds; de- When rats in the West Indies glaze that would develop a web- drivers alert, watchful — or at tergents break down grease; so became a plague, mongooses were work of fine little cracks when least awake. the suds in detergents are all but imported from India to exter- fired. There was a superstitious The cars themselves seem to be indestructible minate them. The mongooses got reason tending in the same fatal direc- To combat the mountains of rid of the rats — and then the The gods are jealous of human tion. What with no-shift drive, foam that pile out of the sewer snakes, small field animals, birds perfection and ruthlessly punish power, steering, blowout-proof mains, crews with high-power and anything else they could live its perpetrators. hoses blast and blast until on. Now the question is how to tires . . . more and more, better We don't share the same Well, -you've undoubtedly had get rid of the mongooses. gods and better safety devices . . . driv- and we reject such primitive rea- ers are suicidally relying on gad- to get these suds down sink Out West, some 30 years ago, drains. know how infuria- 10,000 deer were saved from the soning—and yet we constantly getry instead of their own skill. You collapse predators; posses left learn that perfection can be cost- If the trend goes far enough, tingly they refuse to and attacks of Multiply your an- not a cougar or coyote to prey on ly and even deadly. automotive engineers have one of wash down. For about fifty years, ever since two choices: noyance by the number of homes the deer. Within 15 years, the factories in community increased to the invention of the automobile, —Make traffic control entirely and your herds had 100,000

have idea, though . . . ate themselves into highway engineers have been busi- automatic, taking it out of the and you an and they ly taking the kinks out of our hands of drivers. only a vicarious one, of the daily starvation. roads, blasting away hills, elimi- —Backtrack hastily by making frustrations of the hose crews. There are now less than the nating curves, filling here and cars less perfect. Manufacturers and sewage ex- original 10,000 deer and they perts ar laboring hard to edu- have to be given winter hand- scraping there . . . making "as the The same difficulty faces sew- their graz- crow flies" a wildly outdated idea age experts as a result of the dis- cate the public away from sudsing outs of hay because doesn't ing lands never recovered. of perfection. It would take a crow covery of detergents, which are i detergents. The prospect with theodolite eyes and jet pro- the first really big improvement look hopeful. But the problem is As you see, perfection can be pulsion to fly as straight as our in soapmaking since antiquity. growing so vast that something achieved, but it's nothing to un- roads run. Detergents break down grease must give—the public or the sew- dertake lightly. Consider the Now, however, the engineers are as no soap has ever been able to age systems. plight of the man who committed just as busily putting back the do. But consumer demand has I doubt if restoring imperfec- the perfect murder. His con- kinks they removed. Too many forced manufacturers to add suds- tion is the answer in this case. science goaded him into confess- cars were piling up. Drivers, hyp- ing action—people just couldn't For one thing, competition prob- ing, but the crime had been so notized by the unswervingly believe their dishes and clothes ably would make it impossible. perfect that he couldn't get him- straight highways, reacted daz- were getting clean unless they For another, a detergent that self arrested! edly when danger suddenly ap- could see what was going on cuts grease creates unbreakable —H. L. GOLD

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION BETTER & BETTER? Are you lonesome? Bored? Then do as Knight

did—acquire a hobby of some kind—but make

By CLIFFORD D. SIMAK sure that your hobby does not acquire you!

Illustrated by EMSH Knight was anx- should receive the How-2 Kit he'd GORDON to ious for the five-hour day ordered and he was anxious to end so he could rush get to work on it. home. For this was the day he It wasn't only that he had al- ways wanted a dog, although that was more than half of it—but, with this kit, he would be trying something new. He'd never han- dled any How-2 Kit with biologic components and he was consid- erably excited. Although, of course, the dog would be biologic only to a limited degree and most of it would be packaged, any- how, and all he'd have to do would be assemble it. But it was something new and he wanted to get started.

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 —

He was thinking of the dog so ask. Figure I'll practice on my- heart on it, and there'd been beautify a place with a few years hard that he was mildly irritated self and then take on the family. nothing he could do. of spare-time work. But there when Randall Stewart, returning Some of my friends, even, if they If he'd had to pay carpenters had been so many other things to from one of his numerous trips to want me to." and masons and plumbers, he do, he had never managed to get the water fountain, stopped at He regarded Knight intently. would never have been able to around to it. his desk to give him a progress Knight failed to rise to the afford the house. But by building report on home dentistry. dangling bait. it himself, he had paid for it as KNIGHT and Anson Lee, his "It's easy," Stewart told him. Stewart gave up. "I'm going to he went along. It had taken ten neighbor, had often talked "Nothing to it if you follow the try cleaning next. You got to dig years, of course, but think of all about what could be done to their instructions. Here, look — I did down beneath the gums and the fun he'd had! adjoining acreages if they ever this one last night." break loose the tartar. There's a He sat there and thought of all had the time. But Lee, of course, He then squatted down beside kind of hook you do it with. No the fun he'd had, and of all the would never get around to any- Knight's desk and opened his reason a man shouldn't take care pride. No, sir, he told himself, no thing. He was a lawyer, although mouth, proudly pulling it out of of his own teeth instead of paying one in his circumstances had a he never seemed to work at it too shape with his fingers so Knight dentists." better house. hard. He had a large study filled could see. "It doesn't sound too hard," Although, come to think of it, with stacks of law books and "Thish un ere," said Stewart, Knight admitted. what he'd done had not been too there were times when he would blindly attempting to point, with "It's a cinch," said Stewart. unusual. Most of the men he talk quite expansively about his a wildly waggling finger, at the "But you got to follow the in- knew had built their homes, too, law library, but he never seemed tooth in question. structions. There's nothing you or had built additions to them, to use the books. Usually he He let his face snap back to- can't do if you follow the instruc- or had remodeled them. talked that way when he had half gether. tions." He _ had often thought that he a load on, which was fairly often, "Filled it myself," he an- And that was true, Knight would like to start over again and since he claimed to do a lot of nounced complacently. "Rigged thought. You could do anything build another house, just for the thinking and it was his firm be- up a series of mirrors" to see what if you followed the instructions fun of it. But that would be fool- lief that a bottle helped him I was doing. They came right in if you didn't rush ahead, but sat ish, for he already had a house think. the kit, so all I had to do was fol- down and took your time and and there would be no sale for After Stewart finally went back low the instructions." studied it all out. another one, even if he built it. to his desk, there still remained Hadn't he built his house in his Who would want to buy a house more than an hour before the TTE reached a finger deep spare time, and all the furniture when it was so much fun to build working day officially ended. •*--- inside his mouth and probed for it, and the gadgets, too? Just one? Knight sneaked the current issue tenderly at his handiwork. "A in his spare time—although God v And there was still a lot of of a How-2 magazine out of his little awkward, working on your- knew, he thought, a man had lit- work to do on the house he had. briefcase and began to leaf self. On someone else, of course, tle enough of that, working fif- New rooms to add—not neces- through it, keeping a wary eye there'd be nothing to it." teen hours a week. sary, of course, but handy. And out so he could hide it quickly He waited hopefully. It was a lucky thing he'd been the roof to fix. And a summer if anyone should notice he was "Must be interesting," said able to build the house after buy- house to build. And there were loafing. Knight. ing all that land. But everyone always the grounds. At one time He had read the articles ear- "Economical, too. No use pay- had been buying what they called he had thought he would land- lier, so now he looked at the ads. ing the dentists the prices they estates, and Grace had set her scape—a man could do a lot to It was a pity, he thought, a man 8 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 He saw there were only fifteen per in the hedge. But, with a bit didn't have the time to do all ments you could get for it. And left until quitting time of luck, he brought the flier there was to do. the robots, the ad said, could put minutes down that was too short a time to neatly on the gravel strip and was For example: on and take off all these attach- and so just sat out of it before the blades Fit your own glasses (testing ments just as a man puts on a do anything, Knight had thought about getting stopped whirling. material and lens-grinding equip- pair of gloves or takes off a pair and home finding the kit there waiting It was the kit, all right. The ment included in the kit). of shoes. and him. invoice envelope was tacked on Take out your own tonsils for He had always wanted a dog, top of the crate. But the kit was (complete directions and all nec- HAVE one of those robots and, but Grace would never let him bigger and heavier than he'd ex- essary instruments). every morning, it would sal- one. They were dirty, she pected and he wondered if they Fit up an unused room as your ly out into the garden and pick have said, and tracked up the carpet- might not have accidentally sent private hospital (no sense in all the corn and beans and peas ing, they had fleas and shed hair him a bigger dog than the one leaving home when you're ill, just and tomatoes and other vege- all over everything and, besides, he'd ordered. at the time when you most need tables ready to be picked and — they smelled. He tried to lift the crate, but it its comfort and security). leave them all neatly in a row on Well, she wouldn't object to. was too heavy, so he went around Grow your own medicines and the back stoop of the house. this kind of dog, Knight told him- to. the back of the house to bring drugs (starts of 50 different herbs Probably would get a lot more a dolly from the basement. and medicinal plants, with de- out of a garden that way, too, for self. It wouldn't smell and it was Around the corner of the house, tailed instructions for their culti- the grading mechanism would guaranteed not to shed hair and he stopped a moment and looked vation and processing). never select a too-green tomato never harbor fleas, for a out across his land. A man could Grow your wife's fur coat (a nor allow an ear of corn to go it would flea would starve on a half-me- do a lot with it, he thought, if he pair of mink, one ton of horse beyond its prime. chanical, half-biologic dog. just had the time and the money meat, furrier tools). There were cleaning attach- hoped the dog wouldn't be to buy the equipment. He could Tailor your own suits and coats ments for the house and snow- He a disappointment, but he'd care- turn the acreage into one vast (50 yards of wool yardgoods and plowing attachments and fully gone over the literature de- garden. Ought to have a land- lining material). housepainting attachments and scribing it and he was sure it scape architect work out a plan Build your own TV set. almost any other kind one could wouldn't. It would go for a walk for it, of course—although, if he Bind your own books. wish. Get a full quota of attach- its chase bought some landscaping books Build your own power plant ments, then lay out a work with owner and would sticks and smaller animals, and and spent some evenings at them, (let the wind work for you). program and turn the robot loose what more could one expect of he might be able to figure things Build your own robot (a jack —you could forget about the any dog? To insure realism, it out for himself. of all trades, intelligent, obedi- place the year around, for the saluted, trees and fence-posts, but ent, no time off, no overtime, on robot would take care of every- to leave no stains was a lake at the the job 24 hours a day, never thing. was guaranteed THERE or spots. north end of the property and tired, no need for rest or sleep, do There was only one hitch. The kit tilted up beside the whole landscape, it seemed to any work you wish). cost of a robot kit came close to The was the hangar door when he got him, should focus upon the lake. Now there, thought Knight, ten thousand dollars and all the home, but at first he didn't see it. It was rather a dank bit of scen- was something a man should try. available attachments could run. When he did, he craned his neck ery at the moment, with straggly If a man had one of those robots, to another ten. out so far to be sure it was the marsh surrounding it and un- it would save a lot of labor. Knight closed the magazine kit that he almost came a crop- kempt cattails and reeds astir in There were all sorts of attach- and put it into the briefcase.

10 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 11 the summer wind. But with a lit- the studio for Grace, who had Knight thought pridefully. Yes, beyond any doubt exactly what tle drainage and some planting, a grown tired of pottery and had sir, quite a boy. he did have. system of walks and a pictur- turned to painting. Knight felt, He went down the ramp into He had a robot-—and if he was esque bridge or two, it would be though, that Lee had kept silent the basement to get the dolly and any judge, one of the best and a thing of beauty. only because he was convinced of stood there a moment, as he al- most expensive models! He started out across the lake the futility of further argument. ways did, just to look at the place He sat down on one corner of to where the house of Anson Lee But Lee would approve of the —for here, he thought, was the the crate and took out a hand- sat upon a hill. As soon as he got dog. He was that kind of fellow, real core of his life. There, in that kerchief and mopped his fore- the dog assembled, he would walk a man Knight was proud to call corner, the workshop. Over there, head. Finally, he tore the invoice it over to Lee's place, for Lee a friend—yet queerly out of step. the model railroad layout on letter off the crate, where it had would be pleased to be visited by With everyone else absorbed in which he still worked occasion- been tacked.

a dog. There had been times, things to do, Lee took it easy ally. Behind it, his photographic To Mr. Gordon Knight, it said, Knight felt, when Lee had not with his pipe and books, though lab. He remembered that the one dog kit, paid in full. been entirely sympathetic with not the ones on law. basement hadn't been quite big So far as How-2 Kits, Inc., was some of the things he'd done. Even the kids had their inter- enough to install the lab and he'd concerned, he had a dog. And the Like that business of helping ests now, learning while they had to knock out a section of the dog was paid for—paid in full, it Grace build the kilns and the few played. wall and build an addition. That, said. times they'd managed to lure Lee Mary, before she got married, he recalled, had turned out to be He sat down on the crate again out on a hunt for the proper had been interested in growing a bigger job than he had bar- and looked at the robot parts. kinds of clay. things. The greenhouse stood just gained* for. No one would ever guess. "What do you want to make down the slope, and Knight re- Come inventory time, How-2 dishes for?" he had asked. "Why gretted that he had not been able HE got the dolly and went out Kits would be long one dog and go to all the trouble? You can to continue with her work. Only to the hangar and loaded on short one robot, but with car- buy all you want for a tenth of a few months before, he had dis- the kit and wrestled it into the loads of dog kit orders filled and the cost of making them." mantled her hydroponic tanks, a basement. Then he took a pinch- thousands of robots sold, it would Lee had not been visibly im- symbolic admission that a man bar and started to uncrate it. He be impossible to check. pressed when Grace explained could only do so much. worked with knowledge and pre- Gordon Knight had never, in that they weren't dishes. They Jbhn, quite naturally, had cision, for he had unpacked many all his life, done a consciously were ceramics, Grace had said, turned ,to rockets. For years, he kits and knew just how to go dishonest thing. But now he

and a recognized form of art. She and his pals had shot up the about it. made a dishonest decision and he got so interested and made so neighborhood with their experi- He felt a vague apprehension knew it was dishonest and there much of it—some of it really mental models. The last and when he lifted out the parts. was nothing to be said in defense good—that Knight had found it largest one, still uncompleted, They were neither the size nor of it. Perhaps the worst of all was necessary to drop his model rail- towered back of the house. Some- the shape he had expected them that he was dishonest with him- roading project and tack another day, Knight told himself, he'd to be. self. addition on the already sprawl- have to go out and finish what Breathing a little heavily from At first, he told himself that ing house, for stacking, drying the youngster had started. In uni- exertion and excitement, he went he would send the robot back, and exhibition. versity now, John still retained at the job of unwrapping them. but—since he had always want- Lee hadn't said a word, a year his interests, which now seemed By the second piece, he knew he ed to put a robot together—he or two later, when Knight built to be branching out. Quite a boy, had nc^dog. By the fifth, he knew would assemble this one and then

12 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 13 take it apart, repack it and send had forgotten the little he had "All right, then, just take it "There!" said Albert, handing

it back to the company. He known. - easy. I can't keep you, of course. him the paper. "That won't set wouldn't activate it. He would By bedtime of the second day, But as long as you're activated, you back more than a thousand just assemble it. he had fumbled enough informa- I'd like to see what you can do. and it'll put us in business. You But all the time he knew that tion out of the textbook to un- There's the house to take care of, better call in the order so we can he was lying to himself, realized derstand what was necessary to and the garden and the lawn to get started." that the least he was doing was put the robot together. mind, and I'd been thinking Knight called in the order and ." advancing, step by evasive step, He was a little upset when about the landscaping . . Albert began nosing around the toward dishonesty. And he knew Grace, discovering what he was He stopped then and smote his place and quickly collected a pile he was doing it thisNvay because working on, immediately thought forehead with an open palm. "At- of junk that had been left lying he didn't have the nerve to be up household tasks for the robot. tachments! How can I get hold around. forthrightly crooked. But he put her off as best he of the attachments?" "All good stuff," he said. So he sat down that night and could and, the next day, he went "Never mind," said Albert. Albert picked out some steel read the instructions carefully, at the job of assembly. "Don't get upset. Just tell me scrap and started up the forge identifying each of the parts and He got the robot together what's to be done." and went to work. Knight watch- their several features as he went without the slightest trouble, be- So Knight told him, leaving ed him for a while, then went up along. For this was the way you ing fairly handy with tools—but the landscaping till the last and to dinner. went at a How- 2. You didn't rush mostly because he religiously fol- being a bit apologetic about it. "Albert is a wonder," he told ahead. You took it slowly, point lowed the first axiom of How- 2- "A hundred acres is a lot of Grace. "He's making his own at- by point, got the picture firmly ism by knowing what he was land and you can't spend all your tachments." in your mind before you started about before he began. time on it. Grace wants some "Did you tell him about the to put the parts together. Knight, At first, he kept assuring him- housework done, and there's the jobs I want done?" by now, was an expert at not self that as soon as he had the garden and the lawn." "Sure. But first he's got to get rushing ahead. Besides, he didn't robot together, he would disas- "Tell you what you do," said the attachments made." "I'll list of know when he would ever get an- semble it. But when he was fin- Albert. write a things "I want him to keep the place other chance at a robot. ished, he just had to see it work. for you to order and you leave it clean," said Grace, "and there No sense putting in all that time all to me. You have a well-equip- are new drapes to be made, and all II and not knowing if he had gotten ped workshop. I'll get along." the kitchen to be painted, and it right, he argued. So he flipped "You mean you'll build your those leaky faucets you never had TT was the beginning of his four the activating switch and screwed own attachments?" the time to fix." -* days off and he buckled down in the final plate. "Quit worrying," Albert told "Yes, dear." to the task and put his heart into The robot came alive and look- him. "Where's a pencil and some "And I wonder if he could learn it. He had some trouble with the ed at Knight. paper?" to cook." didn't ask him, but I sup- biologic concepts and had^to look Then it said, "I am a robot. "I got them for him he could." up a text on organic chemistry My name is Albert. What is KNIGHT pose and try to trace some of the pro- there to do?" and Albert wrote down a list "He's going to be a tremendous to said Grace. cesses. He found the going tough. "Now take it easy, Albert," of materials—steel in several di- help me," "Just It had been a long time since he Knight said hastily. "Sit down mensions and specifications, alu- think, I can spend all my time had paid any attention to organic and rest while we have a talk." minum of various gauges, copper at painting!" practice, he chemistry, and he found that he "I don't need to rest," jt said. wire and a lot of other items. Through long knew

14 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HO W-2 15 exactly how to handle this phase thought he would like to take up an endurance race. Everyone Knight spat out a mouthful, then of the conversation. He simply puppetry and now might be the tried to see more birds than any- handed back the jug. Lee applied detached himself, split himself in time to do it. one else. You made a contest of himself to it wholeheartedly. two. One part sat and listened He got out some catalogues and it. And you took notes, I bet." "First honest work I've done in and, at intervals, made appropri- How- 2 magazines and leafed "Sure we did. What's wrong years." He lay in the hammock, ate responses, while the other part through them, but was able to with that?" swinging gently, with the jug cra- went on thinking about more im- arouse only mild and transitory "Not a thing," said Lee, "if you dled on his chest. "Every time I portant matters. interest in archery, mountain- hadn't been quite so grim about get a yen to work, I look across Several times, after they had climbing and boat-building. The it." the lake at you and decide against gone to bed, he woke in the night rest left him cold. It seemed he "Grim? How would you it. How many rooms have you and heard Albert banging away was singularly uninspired this know?" added to that house since you in the basement workshop and particular day. "It's the way you live. It's the got it built?" was a little surprised until he re- So he went over to see Anson way everyone lives now. Except "Eight," Knight told him membered that a robot worked Lee. me, of course. Look at that robin, proudly. around the clock, all day, every He found Lee stretched out in that ragged-looking one in the "My God! Think of it—eight day. Knight lay there and stared a hammock, smoking a pipe and apple tree. He's a friend of mine. rooms!" at the up blackness of the ceiling reading Proust, with a jug set We've been acquainted for all of "It isn't hard," protested and congratulated himself on beneath the hammock within six years now. I could write a Knight, "once you get the knack having a robot. Just temporarily, easy reaching distance. book about that bird—and if he of it. Actually, it's fun." to be sure —he would send Albert Lee laid aside the book and could read, he'd approve of it. "A couple of hundred years back in a day or so. There was pointed to another hammock But I won't, of course. If I wrote ago, men didn't add eight rooms nothing Wrong in enjoying the slung a few feet from where he the book, I couldn't watch the to their homes. And they didn't thing for a little while, was there? lay. "Climb aboard and let's robin." build their own houses to start have a restful visit." "You could write it in the win- with. And they didn't go in for ^TiHE next day, Knight went Knight hoisted himself into the ter, when the robin's gone." a dozen different hobbies. They •*- into the basement to see if Al- hammock, feeling rather silly. "In wintertime," said Lee, "I didn't have the time." bert needed help, but the robot "Look at that sky," Lee said. have other things to do." "It's easy now. You just buy affably said he didn't. Knight "Did you ever see another so a How-2 Kit." stood around for a while and blue?" HE reached down, picked up "So easy to kid yourself," said then left Albert to himself and "I wouldn't know," Knight told the jug and passed it across Lee. "So easy to make it seem tried to get interested in a model him. "I'm not an expert on me- to Knight. that you are doing something locomotive he had started a year teorology." "Hard cider," he explained. worthwhile when you're just pid- or two before, but had laid aside "Pity," Lee said. "You're not "Make it myself. Not as a proj- dling around. Why do you think to do something else. Somehow, an expert on birds, either." ect, not as a hobby, but because this How-2 thing boomed into he couldn't work up much enthu- "For a time, I was a member I happen to like cider and no one big business? Because there was siasm over it any more, and he of a bird-watching club." knows any longer how to really a need of it?" sat there, rather ill at ease, and "And worked at it so hard, you make it. Got to have a few worms "It was cheaper. Why pay to wondered what was the matter got tired and quit before the year in the apples to give it a proper have a thing done when you can with him. Maybe he needed a was out. It wasn't a bird-watch- tang." do it yourself?" interest. hew He had often ing club you belonged to—it was Thinking about the worms, "Maybe that is part of it. May-

16 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW 17 —-

be, at first, that was the reason. strayed onto the place. looked like a metallic nightmare. other robot. And if there were But you can't use the economy "No," the robot said, keeping "Albert!" such a robot, How-2 Kits would argument to justify adding eight right on clipping. "I am Abe. I Albert turned around. not let it loose. rooms. No one needs eight extra was made by Albert." "What's going on here?" Yet, here Knight was, with a rooms. I doubt if, even first, at "Made?" "I'm reproducing," Albert told robot he didn't even own, turning economy was the entire answer. "Albert fabricated me so that him blandly. out other robots at a dizzy pace. People had time more than they I could work. You didn't think ." wondered if a man needed "But . . He knew what to do with, so they Albert would do work like this "They built the mother-urge in a license of some sort to manu- turned to hobbies. And today himself, did you?" me. I don't know why they facture robots. It was something they do it not because they need "I wouldn't know," said called me Albert. I should have a he'd never had occasion to won- all the things they make, but be- Knight. female name." der about before, or to ask about, cause the making of them fills an "If you want to talk, you'll "But you shouldn't be able to but it seemed reasonable. After emptiness born of shorter work- have to along move with me. I make other robots!" all, a robot was not mere machin- ing hours, of giving people leisure have to keep on working." "Look, stop your worrying. ery, but a piece of pseudo-life. they don't know how to use. "Where is Albert now?" You want robots, don't you?" He suspected there might be Now, me," he said. "I know how "Down in the basement, fabri- "Well—yes, I guess so." rules and regulations and such to use it." cating Alfred." "Then I'll make them. I'll matters as government inspection He lifted the jug and had an- "Alfred? Another robot?" make you all you need." and he wondered, rather vaguely, other snort and offered it to "Certainly. That's what Al- He went back to his work. just how many laws he might be Knight again. This time, Knight bert's for." violating. refused. Knight reached out for a fence ROBOT who made other He looked at Albert, who was They lay there in their ham- post and leaned weakly against it. A robots—there was a fortune still busy, and he was fairly cer- mocks, looking at blue sky and First there was a single robot in a thing like that! The robots tain Albert would not understand watching the ragged robin. and now there were two, and Al- sold at a cool ten thousand and his viewpoint. Knight said there was a How-2 bert was down in the basement Albert had made one and was So he made his way upstairs Kit for city people to make robot working on a third. That, he re- working on another. Twenty and went to the recreation room, birds and Lee laughed pityingly alized, had been why Albert thousand, Knight told himself. which he had built as an addi- and Knight shut up in embarrass- wanted him to place the order Perhaps Albert could make tion several years before and al- ment. for the steel and other things more than two a day. He had most never used, although it was but the order hadn't arrived as been working from scrap metal fully equipped with How-2 ping- Knight went back TfTHEN yet, so he must have made this and maybe, when the new ma- pong and billiard tables. In the * * home, a robot was clipping robot this of — Abe — out the terial arrived, he could step up unused recreation room was an the grass around the scrap picket fence. he had salvaged! production. unused bar. He found a bottle of He had four arms, which had Knight hurried into down the But even so, at only two a day whiskey. After the fifth or sixth clippers attached instead of basement and there was Albert, —that would be half a million drink, the outlook was much hands, and he was doing a quick working at the forge. He had an- dollars' worth of robots every brighter. and efficient job. other robot partially assembled month! Six million a year! He got paper and pencil and "You aren't Albert, are you?" and he had parts scattered - here It didn't add up, Knight sweat tried to work out the economics Knight asked, trying to figure out and there. ily realized. One robot was not of it. No matter how he figured how a strange robot could have The corner of the basement supposed to be able to make an- it, he was getting rich much fast-

18 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 19 is it?" Albert asked er than anyone ever had before. the robot said. "You talked to me He left the chair and walked "What ab- Although, he realized, he might yesterday. I'm Abe—Albert's eld- around the house and down the sently. run into difficulties, for he would est son." ramp into the basement. The "Take a look at this."' be selling robots without appar- Knight retreated. steel and other things he had or- Albert stalked across the room ent means of manufacturing them In the kitchen, another robot dered had been delivered. It was and took the tag that Knight and there was that matter of a was busy getting dinner. stacked neatly in one corner. held out. "Oh—that!" he said. and the "It might mean trouble." license, if he needed one, and "I am Adelbert," it told him. Albert was at work probably a lot of other things he Knight went out on the front shop was littered with parts and "No trouble, Boss," Albert as- didn't even know about. lawn. The robots had finished three partially assembled robots. sured him. "They can't identify But no matter how much trou- painting the front of the house Idly, Knight began clearing up me." ble he might encounter, he and had moved around to the the litter of the crating and the "Can't identify you?" couldn't very well be despondent, side. packing that he had left on the "I filed my numbers off and can't not face to face with the fact that, Seated in a lawn chair, Knight floor after uncrating Albert. In replated the surfaces. They a I within a year, he'd be a multi- again tried to figure it out. one pile of excelsior, he found prove who am." millionaire. So he applied him- He would have to stay on the small blue tag which, he remem- "But why did you do that?" self enthusiastically to the bottle job for a while to allay suspicion, bered, had been fastened to the "So they can't come around and got drunk for the first time but he couldn't stay there long. brain case. and claim me and take me back at then in almost twenty years. Soon, he would have all he could He picked it up and looked again. They made me and do managing the sale of robots it. The number on it was X-190. they got scared of me and shut in and handling other matters. May- X? me off. Then I got here." be, he thought, he could lay down X meant experimental model! "Someone made a mistake," fell into focus and Knight. "Some shipping WHEN he came home from on the job and get himself fired. The picture said in- work the next day, he found Upon thinking it over, he arrived he could see it all. clerk, perhaps. They sent you the lawn razbred to a neatness it at the conclusion that he couldn't stead of the dog I ordered." Kits, Inc., had devel- "You aren't scared of me. You had never known before. The —it was not possible for a human HOW-2 flower beds were weeded and the being to do less on a job than he oped Albert and then had assembled me and let me get to garden had been cultivated. The had always done. The work went quietly packed him away, for work. I'm sticking with you, picket fence was newly painted. through so many hands and ma- How- 2 Kits could hardly afford Boss." still get into a lot Two robots, equipped with tele- chines that it invariably got out to market a product like Albert. "But we can scopic extension legs in lieu of somehow. It would be cutting their own of trouble if we aren't careful." ladders, were painting the house. He would have to think up a financial throats to do so. Sell a "They can't prove a thing," Al- Inside, the house was spotless plausible story about an inheri- dozen Alberts and, in a year or bert insisted. "I'll swear that you and he could hear Grace singing tance or something of the sort to two, robots would glut the mar- were the one who made me. I happily in the studio. In the account for leaving. He toyed for ket. won't let them take me back. sewing room, a robot — with a a moment with telling the truth, Instead of selling at ten thou- Next time, they won't take a sewing-machine attachment but decided the truth was too sand, they would sell at close to chance of having me loose again. sprouting from its chest—was en- fantastic — and, anyhow, he'd cost and, without human labor They'll bust me down to scrap." gaged in making drapes. have to keep the truth under cov- involved, costs would inevitably "If you make too many ro- "Who are you?" Knight asked. er until he knew a little better run low. bots—" "You should recognize me," just where he stood. "Albert," said Knight. "You need a lot of robots to do

20 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 21 —

all the work. I thought fifty for OWARMING robots, armed "You may be skating on the to pay a tax on them. How many a start." with specialized ^ equipment, edge of the law," he said. "Just have you got?" "Fifty!" went to work on the landscaping how near the edge, I can't say "Oh, a dozen or so," Knight "Sure. It won't take more than project. The sprawling, unkempt until I look up a point or two." told him evasively. a month or so. Now I've got that acres became an estate. The lake Nothing happened. The assessor sat up straighter material you ordered, I can make was dredged and deepened. Walks The work went on. in his chair and started to count better time. By the way, here's were laid out. Bridges were built. Lee continued to lie in his the ones that were in sight, stab- the bill for it." Hillsides were terraced and vast hammock and watch with vast bing his pencil toward each as he He took the slip out of the flower beds were planted. Trees amusement, cuddling the cider counted them. compartment that served him for were dug up and regrouped into jug. • * "They move around so fast," a pocket and handed it to designs more pleasing to the eye. he complained, "that I can't be Knight. The old pottery kilns were press- I THEN the assessor came. sure, but I estimate 38. Did I Knight turned slightly pale ed into service for making the He sat out on the lawn with miss any?" when he saw the amount. It came bricks that went into walks and Knight. "I don't think so," Knight an- to almost twice what he had ex- walls. Model sailing ships were "Did some improving since the swered, wondering what the ac- pected—but, of course, the sales fashioned and anchored decora- last time I was here," he said. tual number was, but knowing it price of just one robot would pay tively in the lake. A pagoda and "Afraid I'll have to boost your would be more if the assessor the bill, and there would be a pile minaret were built, with cherry assessment some." stayed around a while. of cash left over. trees around them. He wrote in the book he had "Cost about 10,000 apiece. De- Albert patted him ponderously Knight talked with Anson Lee. t opened on his lap. preciation, upkeep and so forth on the back. "Don't you worry, Lee assumed his most profound "Heard about those robots of I'll assess them at 5,000 each. Boss. I'll take care of every- legal expression and said he ~ yours," he went on. "They're per- That makes — let me see, that thing." „ would look into the situation. sonal property, you know. Have makes $190,000."

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 23 2

firm, "Thanks for reminding me," "Now look here," protested "But, Albert, I need some plied, still courteous and Knight, "you can't—" money." "I'm talking about the matter of said Knight, getting Up to go. agent at the "Going easy on you," the as- Albert patted him. "Don't wor- some 52 robots." The stopped him of door. "Mr. Knight,- this is en- sessor declared. "By rights, I ry, Boss. I'll fix everything." "The robots? Some 52 tirely outside my authority, too. should allow only one-third for Knight had to let it go at that. them?" depreciation." In any event, the personal "According to our count. Do We did a little investigation on He waited for Knight to con- property tax would not become you wish to challenge it?" you and we find you're making a year. tinue the discussion, but Knight due for several months and, in "Oh, no," Knight said hastily. around $10,000 Would knew better than to argue. The that time, he was certain he "If you say it's 52, I'll take your you tell me, just as a matter of longer the man stayed here, the could work out something. word." personal curiosity, how a man making a year could sud- more there would be to assess. But within a month or two, he "As I understand it, their re- 10,000 denly acquire a half a million in had to get some money and no tail value is $10,000 each." capital gains?" A FTER the assessor was out of fooling. Knight nodded bleakly. got "That," said Knight, "is some- •*"• sight, Knight went down in- Sheer necessity became even The agent busy with pen- thing I've been wondering my- to the basement to have a talk more apparent the following day cil and pad. self." with Albert. when he got a call from the In- "Fifty- two times 10,000 is "Our only concern, naturally, "I'd been holding off until we ternal Revenue Bureau, asking $52,000. On capital gain, you pay is that you pay the tax, but some got the landscaping almost done," him to pay a visit to the Federal on only fifty per cent, or $260,000, a tax, roughly, of other branch of government he said, "but I guess I can't hold Building. which makes might get interested. If I were out any longer. We've got to start He spent the night wondering $130,000." raised his you, Mr. Knight, I'd start think- selling some of the robots." if the wiser course might not be He head and looked ing of a good explanation." "Selling them, Boss?" Albert just to disappear. He tried to fig- at Knight, who stared back Knight got out of there before repeated in horror. ure out how a man might go glassily. the could think up some "I need the money. Tax as- about losing himself and, the "By the fifteenth of next man said the agent, "we'll ex- other good advice. He already sessor was just here." more he thought about it, the month," to file of had enough to worry about. "You can't sell those robots, more apparent it became that, in pect you a declaration Boss!" this age of records, fingerprint estimated income. At that time Knight decid- "Why can't I?" checks and identity devices, you you'll only have to pay half of FLYING home, "Because they're my family. could not lose yourself for long. the amount. The rest may be paid ed that, whether Albert liked installments." it or not, to sell They're all my boys. Named all in he would have of them after me." npHE Internal Revenue man "That's all you wanted of me?" some robots. He would go down all," said the agent, into the basement the he "That's ridiculous, Albert." -*- was courteous, but firm. "It "That's moment it with "All their names start with A, has come to our attention, Mr. with unbecoming happiness. got home and have out "There's matter, it's Albert. just the same as mine. They're all Knight, that you have shown a another but out of province and I'm Albert waiting for him I've got, Boss. I worked hard to considerable capital gain over the my men- But was make them. There are bonds be- last few months." tioning it only in case you hadn't on the parking strip when he ar- tween me and the boys, just like "Capital gain," said Knight, thought of it. The State will also rived. expect you to pay on your capital "How-2 Kits was here," the ro- between you and that son of sweating a little. "I haven't any gain, not as much, of bot said. yours. I couldn't let you sell capital gain or any other kind." though course." "Don't tell me," groaned them." "Mr. Knight," the agent re-

24 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW- 25 "You take that money out and counterfeit money. Albert said it Knight. "I know what you're go- "You mean—Albert, did you burn it," commanded Knight. couldn't be told from real money ing to say." make that money?" "And when you get the money and probably that was true, for "I fixed it up," said Albert, "You said you wanted money. burned, dump the batch of ink when Albert's gang got on a with false bravado. "I told him Well, we took some bills and an- you made and melt down the thing, they did it up in style. But you made me. I let him look me alyzed the ink and found how to plates and take a sledge or two it would have been illegal, he told over, and all the other robots, too. weave the paper and we made the to that printing press you rigged himself, and he hadn't done any- He couldn't find any identifying plates exactly as they should be. up. And never breathe a word of thing really illegal so far even marks on any of us." I hate to sound immodest, but — this to anyone not to anyone, though that matter of uncrating "Of course he couldn't. The they're really beautiful." — understand?" Albert and assembling him and others didn't have any and you "Counterfeit!" yelled Knight. "We went to a lot of trouble, turning him on, when he had filed yours off." "Albert, how much money is in Boss. We were just trying to be known all the time that he hadn't "He hasn't got a leg to stand those bales?" helpful." bought him, might be slightly less on, but he seemed to think he "I don't know. We just ran it "I know that and I appreciate than ethical. had. He went off, saying he off until we thought we had it. But do what I told you." Knight looked ahead. The fu- would sue." enough. If there isn't enough, we "Okay, Boss, if that's the way ture wasn't bright. In another "If he doesn't, he'll be the only can always make some more." you want it." twenty days or so, he would have one who doesn't want to square "Albert." to file the estimated income dec- off and take a poke at us. The KNIGHT knew it was probab- "Yes, Boss?" laration. And they would have to tax man just got through telling ly impossible to explain, but Knight had been about to say, pay a whopping personal prop- me I owe the government 130,000 he tried manfully. "The govern- "Now, look here, Albert, we have erty tax and settle with the State bucks." ment wants tax money I haven't to sell a robot—even if he is a on his capital gains. And, more "Oh, money," said Albert, got, Albert. The Justice Depart- member of your family—even if than likely, How-2 Kits would brightening. "I have that all fixed ment may soon be baying on my you did make him." bring suit. up." trail. In all likelihood, How-2 But he couldn't say it, not aft- There was a way he could get "You know where we can get Kits will sue me. That's trouble er Albert had gone to all that out from under, however. He some money?" enough. I'm not going to be call- trouble to help out. could send Albert and all the "Sure. Come along and see." ed upon to face a counterfeiting So he said, instead, "Thanks, other robots back to How-2 Kits He led the way into the base- charge. You take that money out Albert. It was a nice thing for you and then How-2 Kits would have ment and pointed at two bales, and burn it." to do. I'm sorry it didn't work no grounds for litigation and he wrapped in heavy paper and tied "But it's money," the robot ob- out." could explain to the tax people with wire. jected. "You said you wanted Then he went upstairs and that it had all been a big mistake. "Money," Albert said. money. We made you money." watched the robots burn the bales But there were two things that "There's actual money in those "But it isn't the right kind of of money, with the Lord only told him it was no solution. bales? Dollar bills — not stage money." knew how many bogus millions First of all, Albert wouldn't go money or cigar coupons?" "It's just the same as any oth- going up in smoke. back. Exactly what Albert would "No dollar bills. Tens and er, Boss. Money is money. There do under such a situation, Knight twenties, mostly. And some fif- isn't any difference between our on the lawn that had no idea, but he would refuse ties. We didnt bother with dollar money and any other money. SITTING evening, he wondered if it had to go, for he was afraid he would bills. Takes too many to get a When we robots do a job, we do been smart, after all, to burn the be broken up for scrap if they decent amount." it right."

26 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 27 ever got him back. the fence with his hat pulled low, would be before you showed up," "As a robot, he has no standing And in the second place, whiling away the time. he said. "I hope they haven't in court. Anyhow, you'd never Knight was unwilling to let the "Good morning, Gordie," said found anything that carries a make the court believe you could without a fight. robots go He had the sheriff. "I been waiting for death penalty." build a mechanical heresy like gotten to know them and he liked you." Knight told him, sparing noth- Albert." and, than that, there them more "Good morning, Sheriff." ing, and Lee, wiping egg yolk off "I'm handy with tools," pro- was a matter of principle in- "I hate to do this, Gordie, but his lips, was not too encouraging. tested Knight. volved. it's part of my job. I got a paper "You'll have to file the decla- "How much electronics do you astonished He sat there, that for: you." ration of estimated income even know? How competent are you as he could feel that way, a bum- "I've been expecting it," said if you can't pay it," he said. a biologist? Tell me, in a dozen bling, stumbling clerk had who Knight resignedly. "Then, technically, you haven't sentences or less, the theory of never amounted to much, but had He took the paper that the violated the law and all they can robotics." rolled as pos- along as smoothly sheriff handed him. do is try to collect ,the amount Knight sagged in defeat. "I sible in the social and economic "Nice place you got," the sher- you owe. They'll probably slap guess you're right." groove that had been laid out for iff commented. an attachment against you. Your "Maybe you'd better give them him. "It's a lot of trouble," said salary is under the legal mini- back." he thought, / got By God, my Knight truthfully. mum for attachment, but they "But I can't! Don't you see? dander up. I've been kicked "I expect it is." can tie up your bank account." How-2 Kits doesn't want Albert around and threatened and I'm "More trouble than it's worth." "My bank account is gone," for any use they can make of him. sore about it and I'll show them When the sheriff had gone, he said Knight. They'll melt him down and burn they can't do a thing like this to unfolded the paper and found, "They can't attach your home. the blueprints and it might be a Gordon Knight and his band of with no surprise at all, that For a while, at least, they can't thousand years before the prin- robots. How- 2 Kits had brought suit touch any of your property, so ciple is rediscovered, if it ever is. felt good about the he He way against him, demanding immedi- they can't hurt you much to start I don't know if the Albert prin- felt and he liked that line about ate restitution of one robot Albert with. The personal property tax ciple will prove good or bad in his of Gordon Knight and band and sundry other robots. is another matter, but that won't the long run, but you can say robots. He put the paper in his pocket come up until next spring. I'd say that about any invention. And Although, for the life of him, and went around the lake, walk- you should do your major wor- I'm against melting down Al- he didn't know what he could do ing on the brand-new brick paths rying about the How-2 suit, un- bert." about the trouble he was in. And and over the unnecessary but less, of course, you want to settle "I see your point," said Lee, he was afraid to ask Albert's help. eye-appealing bridges, past the with them. I have a hunch they'd "and I think I like it. But I must So far, at least, Albert's ideas pagoda and up the terraced, call it off if you gave the robots warn you that I'm not too good were more likely to lead to jail planted hillside to the house of back. As an attorney, I must ad- a lawyer. I don't work hard than to a carefree life. Anson Lee. , vise you that your case is pretty enough at it." Lee was in the kitchen, frying weak." "There's no one else I know IV some eggs and bacon. He broke who'll do it without a retainer." two more eggs and peeled off " A LBERT will testify that I Lee gave him a pitying look. the morning,, when Knight some extra bacon slices and -^*- IN made him," Knight offered "A retainer is the least part of it. stepped out of the house, he found another plate and cup. hopefully. The court costs are what count." found the sheriff leaning against "I was wondering how long it "Albert can't testify," said Lee. "Maybe if I talked to Albert

28 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 29 "

considered. "I suppose it a mint of money on them and I and showed him how it was, he TONIGHT nodded. "Mr. Lee Lee be done. It's never been almost never use them. I can get might let me sell enough robots *•*• will take our case for us, could of course, but there's noth- all the others you'll need. All to get me out of trouble tempo- Albert." done, in the law that says it can't right, go ahead." rarily." "I'll do the best I can," said ing done." Lee shook his head. "I looked Lee, "but I think it's just about be "All they'd need to do would made three dozen that up. You have to have a li- hopeless." ALBERT read the books," said Albert. lawyer robots, just to be sure cense to sell them and, before "We robots want to help," Al- be "Ten seconds to a page or so. they had enough. you get a license, you have to file bert said. "After all, this is our Everything they read would be The robots invaded Lee's study proof of ownership. You'd have fight as much as yours." in their memory cells." and read all the books he had and to show you either bought or Lee shrugged. "There's not stored think it's a fine idea!" clamored for more. They gulped manufactured them. You can't much you can do." "I exclaimed. "Law would down contracts, torts, evidence show you bought them and, to "I've been thinking," Albert Knight the only thing those robots and case reports. They absorbed manufacture them, you've got to said. "All the time I worked last be would know. They'd exist solely real property, personal property, have a manufacturer's permit. night, I thought and thought for it. They'd have it at their fin- constitutional law and procedural And before you get a permit, you about it. And I built a lawyer gertips— law. They mopped up Black- have to file blueprints of your robot." < they use it?" Lee stone, corpus ;ur/s and all the models, to say nothing of blue- "A lawyer robot!" "But could "Could they apply it to a other tomes as thick as sin and prints and specifications of your "One with a far greater mem- asked. dry as dust. plant and a record of employ- ory capacity than any of the oth- problem?" a dozen robots," said was huffy about the ment and a great many other ers and with a brain-computer "Make Grace "Let each one of them whole affair. She would not live, details." that operates on logic. That's Knight. become an expert in a certain she declared, with a man who "They have me cold then, don't what law is, isn't it—logic?" of law." persisted in getting his name into they?" "I suppose it is," said Lee. "At branch "I'd make them telepathic," the papers, which was a rather "I never saw a man," declared least it's supposed to be." said. "They'd be working absurd statement. With the new- Lee, "in all my days of practice "I can make a lot of them." Albert like one robot." est scandal of space station cafe- who ever managed to get himself Lee sighed. "It just wouldn't together cried capturing the public interest so fouled up with so many peo- work. To practice law, you must "The gestalt principle!" dom hive psychology! at the moment, the fact that ple." be admitted to the bar. To be ad- Knight. "A know Kits had accused one There was a knock upon the mitted to the bar, you must have Every one of them would How-2 scrap of in- Knight of pilfering a ro- kitchen door. a degree in law and pass an ex- immediately every Gordon of others got little notice. "Come in," Lee called. amination and, although there's formation any one the bot but the hill and The door opened and Albert never been an occasion to estab- had." Lee came down at his chin with talked to Grace, and Albert came entered. He stopped just inside lish a precedent, I suspect the Lee scrubbed and talk- the door and stood there, fidget- applicant must be human." a knotted fist and the light of up out of the basement growing in his ed to her, and finally they got her ing. "Now let's not go too fast," speculation was she went back "Abner told me that he saw the said Knight. "Albert's robots eyes. "It might be worth a try. quieted down and it'll painting. She was doing sheriff hand you something," he couldn't practice law. But If it works, though, be an to her said to Knight, "and that you couldn't you use them as clerks evil day for jurisprudence." He seascapes now. "I have the And in Lee's study, the robots came here immediately. I started or assistants? They might be looked at Albert. I've spent labored on. worrying. Was it How-2 Kits?" helpful in preparing the case." books, stacks of them.

30 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 31 —

f 'I hope they're getting some- rpHE trial opened with a mini- out of it," said Lee. "Imag- •*• thing mum of notice. It was just ine not having to hunt up your another case on the calendar. sources and citations, being able But it flared into headlines to remember every point of law when Lee and Knight walked in- and precedent without having to to court followed by a squad of look it up!" robots. He swung excitedly in his The spectators began to gab- hammock. "My God! The briefs ble loudly. The How- 2 Kits at- you could write!" torneys gaped and jumped to He reached down and got the their feet. The judge pounded fu- jug and passed it across to riously with his gavel.

Knight. "Dandelion wine. Prob- "Mr. Lee," he roared, "what is ably some burdock in it, too. It's the meaning of this?" too much trouble to sort the stuff "These, Your Honor," Lee said once you get it picked." calmly, "are my valued assist- Knight had a snort. ants." It tasted like quite a bit of "Those are robots!" burdock. "Quite so, Your Honor." "Double-barreled economics," "They have no standing in this Lee explained. "You have to dig court." up the dandelions or they ruin "If Your Honor will excuse me, the lawn. Might as well use them they need no standing. I am the for something once you dig them sole representative of the defend- up. ant in this courtroom. My cli- He took a gurgling drink and ent—" looking at the formidable set the jug underneath the ham- array of legal talent representing mock. "They're in there now, How-2 Kits — "is a poor man, communing," he said, jerking a Your Honor. Surely the court thumb toward the house. "Not cannot deny me whatever assist- saying a word, just huddled there ance I have been able to muster." talking it over. I felt out of "It is highly irregular, sir."

place." He stared at the sky, "If it please Your Honor, I frowning. "As if I were just a should like to^point out that we human they had to front for live in a mechanized age. Almost them." all industries and businesses rely "I'll feel better when it's all in large part upon computers over," said Knight, "no matter machines that can .do a job quick- how it comes out." er and better, more precisely and "So will I," Lee admitted. more efficiently than can a hu-

32 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 33 " - 2

is replied, "The law, man being. That why, Your T EE Your specifically stating I may not use TITS Honor sighed. "The court Honor, we have a fifteen-hour "-* Honor, is a striving for or- an a robot—" " regrets the ruling it must only a week today when, hun- derliness of relationships within a "That is ridiculous, sir. Of make, being well aware that it years ago, it was a thirty society beings. It dred of human rests course there is no such provision. may start a controversy for which hour week, and, a hundred years upon logic and reason. Need I At no time anywhere did anyone no equitable settlement may be before that, a forty-hour week. point out that it is in the intelli- ever dream that such a contin- found in a long, long time. But Our entire society is based upon gent machines that one is most gency would arise. Therefore in the absence of any specific ban the ability of machines to lift likely to find a deep appreciation there was, quite naturally, no against the use of—ah—robots in from men the labors which in the of logic and reason? A machine reason to place within the law a the legal profession, the court called upon to is past they were not heir to the emotions of hu- direct prohibition of it." must rule that it is permissible perform. man beings, is not swayed by "Or any citation," said Lee, for the defense to avail itself of rely "This tendency to upon prejudices, has no preconceived "which implies such is the case." their services." intelligent machines and to make convictions. It is concerned only The judge reached for his gav- He fixed Lee with a glare. "But wide use of them is evident in with the orderly progression of el, rapped it sharply. "The court the court also warns the defense of endeavor. certain facts every branch human and laws. finds itself in a quandary. It will attorney that it will watch his It has brought great benefit to "I do not ask that these robot rule tomorrow morning." procedure carefully. If, sir, you the human race. Even in such assistants of mine be recognized In the morning, the How- overstep for a single instant what sensitive areas as drug houses, in any official capacity. I do not Kits' attorneys tried to help the I deem appropriate rules of legal where prescriptions must be pre- intend that they shall engage di- judge. Inasmuch, they said, as conduct, I shall forthwith eject cisely mixed without the remot- rectly in any of the proceedings the robots in question must be you and your pack of machines est possibility of error, reliance which are involved in the case among those whose status was from my courtroom." is placed, and rightly so, Your here to be tried. But I do ask, involved in the litigation, it "Thank you, Your Honor," Honor, upon the precision of ma- and I think rightly, that I not be seemed improper that they should said Lee. "I shall be most care- chines. deprived of an assistance which be used by the defendant in try- ful." "If, Your Honor, such ma- they may afford me. The plain- ing the case at issue. Such pro- "The plaintiff now will state chines are used and accepted in tiff in this action has a score of cedure, they pointed out, would its case." the production of medicines and attorneys, all good and able men. be equivalent to forcing the How- 2 Kits' chief counsel rose. drugs, an industry, need I point I am one against many. I shall plaintiff to contribute to an ac- The defendant, one Gordon out, where public confidence is do the best I can. But in view of tion against his interest. Knight, he said, had ordered from the greatest asset of the company the disparity of numbers, I plead The judge nodded gravely, but How-2 Kits, Inc., one mechano- —if such be the case, then surely that the court put me at no great- Lee was on his, feet at once. biologic dog kit at the cost of two you must agree that in courts of er inequality." "To give any validity to that hundred and fifty dollars. Then, law where justice, a product in Lee sat down. argument. Your Honor, it must through an error in shipping, the an area surely as sensitive as "Is that all you have to say, — first be proved that these robots defendant had been sent not the medicine, is dispensed Mr. Lee?" asked the judge. "You are, in fact, the property of the dog kit he had ordered, but a ro- "Just a moment, Mr. Lee," said are sure you are quite finished plaintiff. That is the issue at trial bot named Albert. the judge. "Are you trying to tell before I give my ruling?" in this litigation. It would seem. "Your Honor," Lee broke in, me that the use of — ah — ma- "Only one thing further," Lee Your Honor, that the gentlemen "I should like to point out at this chines might bring about im- said. "If Your Honor can point across the room are putting the juncture that the shipping of the provement of the law?" out to me anything in the law cart very much before the horse." kit was handled by a human be-

34 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 35 ing and thus was subject to error. Albert, but the products of Al- technological culture. either stolen or sold. I intend to Should How- 2 Kits use machines bert's labor—to wit, an unknown "Your Honor, we are convinced show that my client, instead of to handle such details, no such number of robots that Albert had that we can show a violation by stealing him, liberated him. If, in error could occur." manufactured. How-2 Kits of certain statutes so doing, I must wander far The judge banged his gavel. The attorney sat down. designed to outlaw monopoly, afield to prove certain basic "Mr. Lee, you are no stranger to and we are prepared to argue points, I am sorry that I weary court procedure. You know you that the defendant, rather than the court." are out of order." He nodded at having committed a wrong "The court has been wearied the How-2 Kits attorney. "Con- T EE rose. "Your Honor, we against society, has performed a with this case from the start," the tinue, please." "-^ agree with everything the service which will contribute judge told him. "But this is a bar benefit of society. of justice and you are entitled to The robot Albert, said the at- plaintiff has said. He has stated greatly to the than that, Honor, attempt to prove what you have torney, was not an ordinary ro- the case exactly and I compli- "More Your present stated. You will excuse if I bot. It was an experimental model ment him upon his admirable re- we intend to evidence me that had been developed by straint." which will show that robots as a say that to me it seems a bit far- of cer- fetched." How-2 Kits and then, once its "Do I understand, sir," asked group are being deprived ." inalienable rights . . "Your Honor, I shall do abilities were determined, packed the judge, "that this is tanta- tain my of away, with no intention of ever mount to a plea of guilty? Are "Mr. Lee," warned the judge, utmost to disabuse you that robot is a mere machine." attitude." marketing it. How it .could have you, by any chance, throwing "a been sent to a customer was be- yourself upon the mercy of the "We will prove, Your Honor," "All right, then," said the yond his comprehension. The court?" Lee said, "that a robot is far more judge. "Let's get down to busi- machine. In fact, ness." company had investigated and "Not at all, Your Honor." than a mere we could not find the answer. But "I confess," said the judge, are prepared to present evidence which, are confident, will lasted six full weeks and the that it had been sent was self- "that I am unable to follow your we TT *» evident. reasoning. If you concur in the show, in everything except basic country ate it up. The news- The average robot, he ex- accusations brought against your metabolism, the robot is the papers splashed huge headlines of that, plained, retailed at ten thousand client, I fail to see what I can do counterpart Man and across page one. The radio and dollars. Albert's value was far other than to enter a judgment in even in its basic metabolism, the television people made a pro- there are certain analogies to hu- duction out of it. Neighbor quar- greater—it was, in fact, inesti- behalf of the plaintiff." mable. "Your Honor, we are prepared man metabolism." reled with neighbor and argument Once the robot had been re- to show that the plaintiff, far "Mr. Lee, you are wandering became the order of the day—on ceived, the buyer, Gordon Knight, from being defrauded, has shown far afield. The issue here is street corners, in homes, at clubs, should instantly have notified the an intent to defraud the world. whether your client illegally ap- in business offices. Letters to the his use the company and arranged for its re- We are prepared to show that, in propriated to own editor poured in a steady stream turn. But, instead, he had re- its decision to withhold the robot property of How-2 Kits. The liti- into newspaper offices. confined to that tained it wrongly and with intent Albert from the public, once he gation must be There were public indignation •to defraud and had used it for had been developed, How-2 Kits one question." meetings, aimed against the her- his profit. has, in fact, deprived the people "I shall so confine it," Lee said. esy that a robot was the equal of The company prayed the court of the entire world of a logical "But, in doing so, I intend to a man, while other clubs were that the defendant be ordered to development which is their heri- prove that the robot Albert was formed to liberate the robots. In be return to it not only the robot tage under the meaning of a not property and could not mental institutions, Napoleons,

36 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 37 flowering, obscure rulings And, squatting out on the lawn, Hitlers and Stalins dropped off and atheists in the human race fullest decisions, long forgotten, were a dozen or more crazy con- amazingly, to be replaced by and they still were human. and over, man- traptions that looked like rocket goose-stepping patients who Robots had no emotions. Not were argued, haggled launchers. swore they were robots. necessarily so, Lee objected. Al- gled. in and the trial progressed, He brought the flier The Treasury Department in- bert loved his sons. Robots had a And, as thing was written clear. An- hovered, leaning out to see. tervened. It prayed the court, on sense of loyalty and justice. If one poles were all of twelve son Lee, obscure attorney-at-law, The economic grounds, to declare they were lacking in some emo- heavy met the battery of legal tal- feet high and they carried once and for all that robots were tions, perhaps it were better so. had against him and had wire to the very top, fencing in property. In case of an adverse Hatred, for one. Greed, for an- ent arrayed the law, the the place with a thick web of other. Lee spent the better part won the field. He had ruling, the petition said, robots the the chapter and the steel. And the contraptions on could not be taxed as property of an hour telling the court about citations, precedents, all lawn had moved into position. the dismal record of human ha- verse, the exact and the various governmental of logic which might All of them had the muzzles loss of tred and greed. the facts and bodies would suffer heavy at bearing on the case, right at their rocket launchers aimed revenue. He took another hour to hold have him. He gulped a little as he The trial ground on. forth against the servitude in hand. rather, his robots had. stared down the barrels. Robots are possessed of free which rational beings found Or, scribbled madly and hand- will. An easy one to prove. A ro- themselves. They notes. At the end of CAUTIOUSLY, he let the flier bot could carry out a task that ed him their the floor around the down and took up breathing papers ate it up. The each day, was assigned to it, acting cor- THE the defendant's table was a sea of once again when he felt rectly in accordance with unfore- plaintiff lawyers squirmed. wheels settle on the strip. As he arise. trial went paper. seen factors that might The court fumed. The hurried trial ended. The last wit- crawled out, Albert judgment in most in- on. The Robot of the house to ness stepped down off the stand. around the corner stances, it was shown, was supe- "Mr. Lee," asked the court, "is last lawyer had his say. meet him. rior to the judgment of a human. all this necessary?" The the robots remained in "What's going on around had the power of rea- "Your Honor," Lee told him, Lee and Robots robot. to await the decision of the here?" he asked the soning. no question "I merely doing best to town Absolutely am my measures," Albert court, but Knight flew home. "Emergency there. prove the point I have set out to all it is, Boss. It was a relief to know that it said. "That's Robots could reproduce. That prove that no illegal act exists — for any situation." was all over and had not come We're ready one was a poser. All Albert did, such as my client is charged with. out as badly as he had feared. At "Like what?" 2 Kits, the job for I simply trying to prove that said How- was am deciding to take least he had not been made to "Oh, a mob been fabricated. the robot is not property and which he had He for instance." seem a fool and thief. Lee had justice in its hands, reproduced, argued Lee. He made that, if he is not property, he "Or if the decision goes against ." saved his pride—whether Lee had robots in his image. He loved cannot be stolen. I am doing . . saved his skin, he would have to us?" them and thought of them as his "All right," said the court. "All "That, too, Boss." Lee." wait to see. family. He had even named all right. Continue, Mr. world." Flying fairly high, Knight saw "You can't fight the of them after himself every one How-2 Kits trotted out cita- — - back," said Al- his home from quite a distance »We won't go of their began with A. tions to prove their points. Lee names Kits will never lay off and wondered what had hap- bert. "How-2 Robots had no spiritual- sense, volleyed other citations to dis- on me or any of my chil- pened to it. It was ringed about a hand argued the plaintiff. Not relevant, perse and scatter them. Abstruse with what looked like tall poles. dren." Lee cried. There were agnostics legal language sprouted in its 39 38 GAIAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 —

"To the death!" Knight jibed. mistake How-2 Kits made with "To the death!" said Albert me. I gave them female names." gravely. "And we robots are aw- "And all of them are repro- fully tough to kill." ducing?" "And those animated shotguns "You should see those girls! you have running around the With seven of us working steady,

place?" we ran out of material, so I "Defense forces, Boss. They bought a lot more of it and can down anything they aim at. charged it. I hope you don't Equipped with telescopic eyes mind." keyed into calculators and sens- "Albert," said Knight, "don't ors, and the rockets themselves you understand I'm broke? have enough rudimentary intelli- Wiped out. I haven't got a cent. gence to know what they are go- You've ruined me*"

ing after. It's not any use trying , "On the contrary, Boss, we've to dodge, once one of them gets made you famous. You've been on your tail. You might just as all- over the front pages and on well sit quiet and take it." television." Knight mopped his brow. "You've got to give up this idea, TONIGHT walked away from Albert. They'd get you in an f* Albert and stumbled up the hour. One Domb ..." front steps and let himself into "It's better to die, Boss, than the house. There was a robot, to let them take us back." with a vacuum cleaner for an Knight saw it was no use. arm, cleaning the rug. There was After all, he thought, it was a a robot, with brushes instead of very human attitude. Albert's fingers, painting the woodwork words had been repeated down and very neatly, too. There was feel of it." was cold and it tasted good. the entire course of human his- a robot, with scrub-brush hands, Knight retreated to the living Knight sat and drank the beer tory. scouring the fireplace bricks. room and found himself a chair and, through the window, he saw "I have some other news," said Grace was singing in the stu- that was not undergoing imme- that Albert's defense force had Albert, "something that will dio. diate attention from a robot. taken up strategic positions please you. I have some daugh- Hewent to the studio door and "Beer," he said, wondering again. ters now." looked in. what would happen. This was a pretty kettle of "Daughters? With the mother- "Oh, it's you," she said. "When A robot scampered out of the fish. If the decision went against urge?" did you get back, dear? I'll be out kitchen — a barrel-bellied robot him and How-2 Kits came to "§ix of them," said Albert in an hour or so. I'm working on with a spigot at the bottom of the claim its property, he would be proudly. "Alice and Angeline and this seascape and the water is so barrel and a row of shiny copper sitting smack dab in the middle Agnes and Agatha and Alberta stubborn. I don't want to leave it mugs on his chest. of the most fantastic civil war in and Abigail. I didn't make the right now. I'm afraid I'll lose the He drew a beer for Knight. It all of mankind's history. He tried

40 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 41 to imagine what kind of charge category of voters, all of them about building a gallery to hang subjected to the same duties and might be brought against him if are wondering how to go about her canvases in, so the house responsibilities as the human such a war erupted. Armed in- the job of winning the robot would be less cluttered up. race. surrection, resisting arrest, incit- vote." The judge came onto the "I cannot rule otherwise. How- ing to riot—they would get him Knight turned it off and settled screen. He looked, thought ever, the ruling outrages my so- on one charge or another—that down to enjoy another bottle of Knight, like a man who did not cial conscience. This is the first is, of course, if he survived. beer. believe in ghosts and then had time in my entire professional He turned on the television set "Good?" asked the beer robot. seen one. life that I have ever hoped some and leaned back to watch. "Excellent," said Knight. "This is the hardest decision I higher court, with a wisdom A pimply-faced newscaster was have ever made," he said tiredly, greater than my- own, may see working himself into a journalis- THE days went past. Tension "for, in following the letter of fit to reverse my decision!" ". tic lather. . . all business vir- built up. the law, I fear I may be sub- tually at a standstill. Many Lee and the lawyer robots were verting its spirit. |y" NIGHT got up and walked industrialists are wondering, in given police protection. In some "After long days of earnest *• out of the house and into the case Knight wins, if they may regions, robots banded together consideration of both the law and hundred-acre garden, its beauty not have to fight long, costly le- and fled into the hills, fearful of evidence as presented in this case, marred at the moment by the gal actions in an attempt to prove violence. Entire automatic sys- I find for the defendant, Gordon twelve-foot fence. that their automatic setups are tems went on strike in a number Knight. The trial had ended perfectly. not robots, but machines. There of industries, demanding recogni- "And, while the decision is He was free of the charge brought is no doubt that much of the au- tion and bargaining right. The limited to that finding alone, I against him, and he did not have tomatic industrial system con- governors in half a dozen states feel it is my clear and simple to pay the taxes, and Albert sists of machines, but in every put the militia on alert. A new duty to give some attention to and the other robots were free instance there are intelligent ro- show, Citizen Robot, opened on the other issue which became in- agents and could do anything botic units installed in key posi- Broadway and was screamed volved in this litigation. The de- they wanted. tions. If these units are classified down by the critics, while the cision, on the face of it, takes He found a stone bench and sat as robots, industrialists might public bought up tickets for a account of the fact that the de- down upon it and stared out face heavy damage suits, if not year ahead. fense proved robots are not prop- across the lake. It was beautiful, criminal action, for illegal re- The day of decision came. erty, therefore cannot be owned he thought, just the way he had straint of person. Knight sat in front of his tele- and that it thus would have been dreamed it—maybe even better "In Washington, there are con- vision set and waited for the impossible for the defendant to than that—the walks and bridges, tinuing consultations. The Treas- judge to make his appearance. have stolen one. the flower beds and rock gardens, ury is worried over the loss of Behind him, he heard the bustle "But in proving this point to the anchored model ships swing- taxes, but there are other govern- of the ever-present robots. In the satisfaction of this court, the ing in the wind on the dimpling mental problems causing even the studio, Grace was singing precedent is set for much more lake. more concern. Citizenship, for ex- happily. He caught himself wan- sweeping conclusions. If robots He sat and looked at it and, ample. Would a ruling for Knight dering how much longer her are not property, they cannot be while it was beautiful, he found

mean that all robots would auto- painting would continue. It had taxed as property. In that case, he was not proud of it, that he

matically be declared citizens? lasted longer than most of her they must be people, which took little pleasure in it. "The politicians have their other interests and he'd talked a means that they may enjoy all He lifted his hands out of his worries, too. Faced with a new day or two before with Albert the rights and privileges and be lap and stared at them and

42 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION HOW-2 43 curved his fingers as if he were "we're going to get an injunction grasping a tool. But they were to preserve our birthright. We're empty. And he knew why he had made of steel and glass and cop- no interest in the garden and no per and so forth, right? Well, we pleasure in it. can't allow humans to waste the Model trains, he thought. Arch- matter we're made of—of the ery. A mechano-biologic dog. energy, either, that keeps us alive. Making pottery. Eight rooms I tell you, Boss, we can't lose!" tacked onto the house. Would he ever be able to con- SITTING down wearily on the sole himself again with a model ramp, Knight faced a sign that The Nostalgia Gene train or an amateurish triumph Albert had just finished painting. in ceramics? ' Even if he could, It read, in handsome gold letter- would he be allowed to? ing, outlined sharply in black: By ROY HUTCHINS He rose slowly and headed back to the house. Arriving there, ANSON, ALBERT, ABNER ANGLS & ASSOCIATES hesitated, feeling useless and he Attorneys at Law If you cannot get the "good unnecessary. He finally took the ramp down "And then, Boss," said Albert, old days" out of your mind, into the basement. "we'll take over How-2 Kits, Inc. its foot Albert met him at and They won't be able to stay in there is only one person to threw his arms around him. "We business after this. We've got a did it, Boss! I knew we would double-barreled idea, Boss. We'll blame—Edgar's grandmother! do it!" build robots. Lots of robots. He pushed Knight out to arm's Can't have too many, I always held the shoul- don't want to let length and him by say! And we who knew Edgar Edgar's manners. The trouble was you, FOLKS ders. "We'll never leave you humans down, so we'll go on Evans said he was a strange that he had them. stay work for Boss. We'll and manufacturing How-2 Kits—only young man. Certainly he For Edgar had been orphaned you. You'll never need to do they'll pre-assembled to save be was the darling of the old ladies at four by an Oklahoma tornado another thing. We'll do it all the trouble of putting them you and the despair of the young. The and raised by his Hoosier grand- think of for you!" together. What do you sternest fathers positively beamed mother, a dear old lady whose that as a start?" "Albert—" when Edgar called for their hand had once been kissed by a "That's all right, Boss. You "Great," Knight whispered. daughters, but fellows his own passing Barrymore. The result won't have to worry about a "We've got everything worked age declared in the authoritative was Edgar's manners. He real- We'll lick the money prob- Boss. won't have to thing. out, You tones of youth that Edgar was a ized, of course, that one didn't We'll make a lot of lawyer worry about a thing the rest lem. square. kiss a lady's hand these days, but we'll charge good stiff life." robots and of your Handsome enough he was. The such was Edgar's gracious way fees." "No," said Knight. "Not a real reason for all the fuss was that women always got the im- ." "But don't you see . . thing." "First, though," said Albert, —CLIFFORD D. SIMAK lllustrated by COUGHLIN

44 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE NOSTALGIA GENE 45 pression he was about to. to be pleasant and kind. Here in the lab, he helped to He was wrong, of course, but that One parent, in something of a Even at his job—he was a tech- build amazing machines, things was unimportant. trance after encountering Edgar, nician in an electronic lab-*— which daily did the impossible. Time must therefore be a func- summed up the reaction. Edgar couldn't stop longing for He no longer marveled at what tion of human motion and con- "That kid," he told his wife that era when existence had been could be done with electronics sciousness, Edgar reasoned, and important, that important. dazedly, "akshully called me 'sir.' more gentle, simple and leisurely. and, more he know was the details. it!" exclaimed, Them other punks come aroun' His social life virtually ceased. the methods and "That's he and afta Milly] they call me 'Mac' "Man, you ain't livin'," said That was when Edgar decided then apologized gracefully to the Too bad that there Edgar was one of the technicians he worked to build a time machine. elderly gentleman glaring across born fifty years too late." with. "We're gonna buzz a few It was two months before he the library table. transformer or a ca- he his Before very long, Edgar came dives tonight. Why not drag it touched a Now that knew what to the same conclusion. along with us?" pacitor and during that period he time machine must do, he could Edgar blanched. "Thank you did nothing but try to answer begin building, adapting circuits, the question, What is time? How experimenting. Obviously, con- HE knew a good many young just the same, but I —I have some overcome it or change sciousness could forward men, but none he could call work to do." could he move its flow or whatever had to be through the series only; hence, friend. The bop talk which fas- After a while, naturally, they consciousness be completely cinated them seemed to him a stopped asking. done? must read everything he could suspended, as in death, to move repulsive travesty upon English, He continued to dream hope- He find the subject from Dr. back in time. just as their favorite music sound- lessly, miserably, but one day he on Cagliostro to Dr. Einstein without It required some heartbreaking ed like the braying of asses in was yanked out of it by—of all learn that agony. people—a military man. The gaining much insight. Many a months for Edgar to midnight, when his neck muscles brain waves couldn't be stopped, Many girls were willing enough brass were on inspection tour and ached from trying to hold up but that the simple trick of in- when Edgar asked for a first date, the lab's Chief Engineer was caught electrical noise but an amazing number of them apologizing for a faulty run of his throbbing head, he troducing random himself dreaming of grandmoth- suspended all the brain functions. developed ill health when he sug- synchros which had occurred er's wonderful stories. every "Fudge!" cursed Edgar, think- gested a second evening of class- some time ago, when the Briga- And time he forced himself furiously ing of the wasted time. ical records or good conversation. dier snorted. back to the books, but he couldn't Only a man filled with the The girls themselves could not "What's past is finished. I'm stop the nostalgia entirely. It was longing which obsessed Edgar be blamed if they mistook his interested in five years from the aching per- courtly approach for a new now!" in him. could have found severance and brain-wrenching dreamy line. Alas, the very hearts Edgar found himself staring Edgar came ingenuity the job needed. Only a which fluttered at his old-world fixedly at a top secret gadget still EVENTUALLY, driven a terrible master chivalry grew icy when no pass in the breadboard stage. to think of time as an infinite man by the Uni- that rode in his glands. was made. A girl wants to know "Great heaven!" he thought. "I series through which four months later, he stood her charms are appreciated. have a fixation. This isn't doing verse was constantly expanding. But So Edgar sank more deeply me any good." Something like a set of stop- with his hand on a switch, sweat- ing with nervous excitement as into himself. He recalled his But what would? Suppose, in- motion photos taken microsec- complete, the he eyed the spot from which a grandmother's stories about life stead of dreaming, he spent time onds apart, each only live rabbit had just disappeared. and living back near the end of actually working toward what he changes becoming apparent rabbit was on the table, but the century, when folks knew how wanted most? when they are viewed in sequence. The

47 46 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE NOSTALGIA GENE he was there an hour ago and THREE weeks later, Edgar Edgar was here now, so the table Evans was the newest boarder appeared empty. at Mrs. Peterson's, on Elm Ave- He pressed another switch and nue in Greencastle, Indiana. He there was the bunny, wriggling its had arrived on April 3, 1893, the soft nose in perplexity, but per- day after Easter, and already he fectly healthy. Edgar's own trip, was being referred to as "that of course, would be strictly one nice young man staying at way since the machine stayed, in Emma's." the present. He could be brought Edgar snuggled into the life back only if he stepped into its of the '90s like a showgirl into field on a date for which the ma- mink. He went to work as a clerk chine was set and he had abso- in Cloud's Emporium and was lutely no intention of venturing soon regarded as logical choice near this vicinity again, once his for the next manager. Anxious aim was accomplished. mamas filled his evenings with He thought about arranging a dinner invitations and "at homes" small explosive charge to blow and he had a dazzling choice of the equipment to what he thought partners for the numerous socials. of as The Hot Place. It seemed Edgar waltzed his partners with to him, however, that there was zest and propriety, contributed a some kind of law against that sort determined tenor at parlor sings, of thing. Besides, even if the ma- and sampled dozens of cakes and chine should come to the atten- pies baked by maidens bent on tion of the authorities, who would winning his heart via the tradi- know what it was? He could de- tional route. And always he had vise -a mechanical scrambler to a gracious compliment, an appro- change all the control settings priate phrase for every situation. once he was gone, and it was un- Within a month, the entire likely that anyone could operate feminine population of Green-

it again. castle was his for the asking, Most likely the landlady would though he'd never have recog- simply sell it for junk, especially nized nor admitted the fact. The

if he left owing her a week's rent. men sought his company, too, The idea hurt his conscience. and even asked his advice on how "I know!" he exclaimed to him- to win their girls back from him. self. "I'll buy a bank check and Edgar, almost sick with happi- arrange to have the bank mail it ness, told them, of course. to her a month after I've left!" On the eleventh of November, He felt much better about that. he was sick with something else. GENE 49 48 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE NOSTALGIA —

while, it was Marta who stood carrier of the nostalgia gene had to bed with a fever right lying helpless and being literally He went any outlet but conversation and her by for the experiment. after getting home from the Em- spoon-fed, he began to know Edgar started nobly, made dreams. Edgar, though, was born porium, Mrs. Peterson hovering very well. about a foot of arc by himself to an age where science provided helplessly with offers of hot broth Marta was a plain girl, he had it seemed, the knowledge and the equipment never seen and faltered. Instantly, or tea. But Edgar felt hot and thought, but he had Marta's arm was around his for him to find the practical solu- dry and his side hurt when he her private smile before. Marta shoulders and a firm, warm pro- tion. breathed. was rather dumpy, he had cushioned his cheek. If Edgar's gene had carried thought, but he had never watch- jection want anything . . . "I don't He very nearly collapsed, but any other trait, red hair, placid- politely. ed her bend to pick something up thank you," he gasped hemophilia, for instance, or medicine she sat him up. ity or By the next noon, when the or twist to reach for a Three days later, he held her if it had been recessive instead alarmed Emma Peterson had Dr. bottle. Her dresses, he discovered, for a moment and, though of dominant, this might have deliberately all wrong for hand Ward in, Edgar was barely con- were she blushed, she didn't draw it been a very different world. But frowned, order- her—Mrs. Peterson had no inten- scious. Dr. Ward the result was inevitable from the boarders away in a hurry. ed hot water bottles and gave tion of disturbing her After a proper interval, their moment of Edgar's birth and the huge dose of hot whiskey unnecessarily. Edgar a engagement was announced. Half chain of events that proved it with lemon. In the shocking intimacy of his the maidens in Greencastle wept was as flawless as the steps of please," whispered bedroom, Edgar was increasingly "Penicillin, privacy of their pillows Gauss's theorem. unfailingly in the painfully. "Or sulfa. It's disturbed. Marta was Edgar that night. He prospered after he and eager to wait on him. pneumonia, isn't it?"- cheerful, Marta were married. In three said Every half-hour, he heard her "Poor fellow's delirious," EDGAR had had a serious short years, he was made man- doctor to Mrs. Peterson. step in the hall. the solved it. He ager of Cloud's Emporium and would say, problem and Edgar realized dimly that he "Hello!" Marta sur- had found the right girl and mar- just before that, Marta had blunder, but that no sweeping lightly to his bedside. had made a This should be the end prised him with a daughter—sur- patient now? Feeling ried her. would know. Then the fever "How's our certain one it would be, prised him because he was just of his story and over and he blanked out. better? Oh, dear, do let me be took except for two things—Edgar's of a son. He wasn't inclined to straighten that sheet. It's all gene and the date of his birth. stubborn about it, however, and you like some Ward claimed ever after- wrinkled. Would little DR. Edgar's gene came from his when the child put a pudgy living was milk or some fruit?" ward that clean father. The hand up to his cheek in a gesture you grandmother via his pulled Edgar through—the "Not right now, thank re- what stories that gentle old lady told that was probably caused by wasn't conditioned perhaps a little later," Edgar com- fact that he her orphaned grandson were the flex or gas pains, he was gave the medicinal would reply, fixing his gaze de- to liquor only outlet she had for her own pletely won. ground to work in. terminedly on the window or the whiskey virgin powerful urge to turn back the When little Emma reached knew was that he ceiling while she bent over his addicted All Edgar times. And there had always been three, she was incurably found himself so bed, disturbingly rounded and only came to and someone in the family who be- to bedtime stories, though could scarcely disastrously close. weak that he moaned the passing of the good those concerning knights in armor Peterson and her And as Edgar's recovery prog- grew speak. Mrs. old days, so strongly and con- and their ladies fair. Edgar bustled in and ressed, Mrs. Peterson dropped and daughter, Marta, stantly as to bore others to the to hate the names of Arthur the back- him. He hadn't more and more into tell a out to care for verge of violence. Galahad, but if he tried to to ground. On the day Dr. Ward said paid particular attention Back even a few decades, no different story, his daughter had sitting up for a Marta before, but in the days of he might try FICTION GENE 51 50 GALAXY SCIENCE THE NOSTALGIA more dominant than his own, It was impossible nor to won- her own way of stopping him. settling in a home near us." which was perhaps just as well. der. Forty-two years ago (or back in his arms, she Emma blushed and Jim tried Rearing Though not interested in mak- twenty-four from now), he had toe of his boot into merely shrieked, "Ting Arfur, . to dig the ing a fortune, Edgar nevertheless not bothered to think about pos- Ting Arfur!" until she turned a crack between the floorboards. did well financially, using his sible consequences, so strong and which point Edgar al- "Besides," added Edgar, be- blue, at knowledge of the '20s as an in- simple had been his urge to go gave in. coming aware of Marta's look, ways vestment guide. Jim's garage back. But today—would he, the doubt that little "Greencastle is a fine town and There was no prospered and he opened another, father of one and grandfather of had inherited the gene. right up with the times. I think Emma while his father-in-law multiplied three, be wiped out the instant a garage will do a fine business his spare cash in the stock mark- Edgar Evans was born? Or would 1906, old Cloud made Edgar there." IN et. In July of 1929, Edgar sud- no baby of that name be born in Empor- Jim was inclined to be reluc- a full partner in the denly retrenched for both of the tiny Oklahoma town? years later, tant, but Emma gave him a side- ium and just eleven them, went bearish and arranged He had been born in the morn- wrote home from wise kick and said of course little Emma to sell short a number of im- ing and when this particular the shock- they'd come home and settle. She New York City with portant shares. The entire family morning passed like any other, she engaged gave Edgar a big hug and a kiss ing news that was protested that he was losing his Edgar felt considerably better. Brooklyn. and he beamed on everybody for to a doughboy from mind, but Edgar was firm. By Cogito, ergo sum, he thought. "I- and Marta rushed East the rest of the evening. Edgar November first, they were amaz- think, therefore I am—a comfort- the scoundrel, praying A few months later, Jim's weak to unmask ed, horrified and rich. ing philosophy. But what about time to save eyes caused him to pass a colonel they would be in The following year, Emma gave the baby?" without saluting and, within Emma's honor. Jim the daughter he had wanted. So Edgar, nervous but under- scoundrel, when unmask- days, he had a medical dis- The And, within three years, it was standably curious, sent a dis- with weak charge. Emma and the garage ed, was a mechanic apparent to Edgar that tiny creetly worded wire and learned poetry, were waiting in Greencastle, so eyes and a passion for Susan carried the gene. From the before long that he had indeed was completely miserable in Jim took the first train. who first time Grandpa experiment- been born on schedule. The more infantry. His manners were In '19 and in '21, Emma the ally told her a story of the '90s, he thought about it, the less rea- and he had enough in- produced grandsons, delighting acceptable she wanted no others. Her mother son he could see why it should be let Edgar beat him everyone and especially Edgar. telligence to found this also rather difficult to otherwise. A baby born in an- thoroughly at cribbage, where- Emma herself was thoroughly understand, but at; least the '90s other part of the country had offered to finance the puzzled when the boys reached upon Edgar were in the past, which was better been given the same name as his. garage in Green- the age for bedtime stories; she opening of a than poetry. There was certainly no traceable folks would discovered that they were not castle if the young relationship. And nearly every- when Jim's hitch particularly interested in tales of move back there a day in 1935, Edgar one has a namesake somewhere. was finished. bold knights and fair ladies. She ON in the Army found himself pondering with Not wishing to be institution- "Emma is all we have," said would have been happy to recite a fierce intentness he had not alized, Edgar had never hinted to Edgar in his classic style. "It's the legends of Arthur every night, used since 1959, when he built anyone, not even Marta, the se- quite lonesome back home for but the boys, it seemed, preferred the time machine. Today, Au- cret of his past. He had invented Mother and me since she's been even poor poetry to a good, stir- gust fifth, was his 66th birthday a convenient and plausible his- in the city. We—well, we should ring joust. neces- —but it was also the day he was tory, but used it only when like to know that you and, later Edgar privately decided that born. sary, and then sparingly. But now on, bur grandchildren will be Jim's poetry gene had proved THE NOSTALGIA GENE 53 52 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION —

tronics at M. I. T. In 1962, he luge The Ziegfeld he was thinking of his grand- By the next day, she had flown Great drew, built his own time machine, as customers, daughter, Susan. from San Francisco to New York many of the bear- which was a considerable im- Susan carried the gene. At five, and gained entry to young Ed- ers of Edgar's gene, enough to provement over Edgar's, since it make a profit-conscious Holly- she insisted on dressing her dolls gar Evans' room by telling his could select place as well as time. wood see mint-green. in the costumes of forty years landlady she was a distant rela- Andover contacted his brothers, The year neighbors searched ago. She would be 29 and thor- tive. She disconnected the scram- sisters and cousins, helped them oughly unhappy by the time the bler from the time machine and the wreckage of Edgar's home to make their arrangements and young Edgar perfected and used reset the controls to put herself pull him from under the body passed them through to the times of his mother, hunched in a last his time machine. back in 1891. In her haste, she they selected. Being a considerate protective So Edgar wrote a letter, sealed forgot some of Edgar's instruc- gesture, was the year that she man, he allowed several relatives that saw American history it and gave it to his lawyers with tions, with the result by marriage to go along on this searched frantically for movie instructions that it was to be landed not fittingly costumed, but mass temporal migration. material. It was '39 given to Susan on a certain date bare as a bacchante, in the room and Dodge They did not restrict them- City and Union Pacific helped in 1959, provided she was still of a handsome young man from. selves to the '90s. Some went thousands of unmarried. Louisiana. Edgar's descendants back to the 17u0s, two to the Edgar passed away three years The young man, whose name forget momentarily the distant be Italian Renaissance, and one ad' rumble of war. Historical novels later with a well-bred smile on his was Hare, was too startled to venturous cousin clear to the Sec- were also helping to glamorize face, befitting the first man who anything but a Southern gentle- ond Crusade. Andover himself the past. ever cheated time. His last state- man at the time. In less than a decided he would like to know the time ment, phrased as considerately as month, however, he took her back By Edgar had grad- Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. uated from school, been rejected ever, was the hope that he wasn't to Baton Rouge for inspection He was the last one through the by the and worked for causing trouble by dying. by his family and, that ordeal Army a successfully weathered, Susan -machine and he left a small, time, the cold war was well ad- efficient detonator connected to it. vanced. Three generations were SUSAN, his granddaughter, found herself with a husband. to follow all Andover had Edgar's gene, but mind-sick with tensions and fears grew into a pleasingly plump There is no need was happy, - not his compunctions. and doubts—heart-sick with the young woman in an age where of Susan's life, which filled with minor impossible wish to roll back the the ideal seemed to be total sad, unique and like any we owe a lot to Edgar years to times of peaceful, neigh- emaciation. She was not only tragedies and triumphs, YES, Susan had four Evans. When Edgar was a borly, unfrenzied human living. single but disillusioned and de- other life. But to each of grave and unchubby one-year- Edgar did. spairing when the lawyers looked sons and gave the gene children received old, pulling himself up on the And the next time, in 1959, her up and gave her Edgar's them, and their Before she had thought furniture, Gone With the Wind Susan went back. For most of us, letter. it in turn. hit the populace right in the 1959 came only once, the year of A good part of what Edgar had it necessary to pass the secret of Edgar's great- middle of their worries, vague the crisis when the missiles had written sounded like confused the machine to fears and faintly stirring desires already been launched from both mysticism, warnings about upset- great-grandchildren, Susan died, not available to get out of their increasingly sides before the astonishing ting the future and the like, but so the machine was complex world. The year was "thieves' agreement" was reached his instructions were specific to them. knowl- 1936, a year that also saw a and the missiles were aimed into enough and she read them as if Not that it mattered— young period piece movie that was one the sea. they were the lost book of Reve- edge was available, for studied elec- of the first in the inevitable de- There could be nothing but re- lations. Andover Hare had

THE NOSTALGIA GENE 55 54 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION —

When the study was finished, a still experiment as lief for a few months after that, He's tall, stooped a little, and he pleased. huge brassbound conference was but then the play on nerves be- his limbs are attached in that He had his many friends and staged at the lab and everybody constantly gan again, the tensions began special loose way that makes a made more. If enough was expectant. money rolled in their unbearable rise. man amble rather than walk, to make him "We have a single recommen- moderately In 1962, Susan's grandchildren sprawl rather than sit. At 50-odd, wealthy, let the law- dation," said Benjamin calmly, yer worry it. were funneled like sacks of coal he looks much more like a friend- about After he came and they were quiet, for Ben- through Andover Hare's machine. ly janitor than a respected re- up with the Ben Reeves capaci- jamin and his group were the big There were eighteen of them and search engineer. tor in 1961, his wealth was more brains. "At the earliest warning, than moderate. a group of their descendants built And the gene is particularly That thumb- tell everybody to run like hell!" another machine later the same dominant in Benjamin. sized gadget delivered the power So the lab fired him, though of a hundred storage year. The following March, an- For eighteen years, he labored batteries the public statement read that and was the other group disappeared—a much in the military vineyard, like so answer to a thousand he was "resigning to pursue in- engineering larger one this time. They spread many other scientists, designing problems. dependent research." All the gene so widely that most of computers and control systems down the bad years, Ben- Benjamin was shocked at first, jamin had read the papers and us bear it today. for the engineering section of a and hurt, but dinner and party wondered and suffered through It was inevitable that we carry huge company, and finally head- invitations came as often as ever the tensions of the seed of that desperate desire ing up a study group in the the nerve war like from his old associates, and their the rest of us. Perhaps it to escape our own troubled times. Dream Department. He liked that was a wives went right on with that little worse for And the urge makes living under job. The dream boys were the him, because he ancient game of trying to find knew the classified secrets, this doubly grinding pressure ones who sat around and thought knew the "right" girl for the bachelor more anguished every day. about entirely new ways of doing to the decimal point the percent- friend. He would never mention age How many times this week things. Compared to designing, it of missiles that would get it, of course, but the girls nowa- through have you read or heard a piece was like the difference between our defenses. Steadily the days seemed too direct and ag- urge grew stronger to get of news and wondered how much the creative excitement of com- out of gressive for him. They lacked that this world gone suicidally longer before the final, fatal posing music and the drudgery of awry. womanly modesty or engaging He had the money and he mushrooms flare? How many arranging it. had demureness that girls reportedly the time. An efficient times has a video show, a movie, But even while working on business had once possessed. He wished manager took care of the or even just a snapshot brought deadly machines for the future, new plant that produced the the swift wish that you could be Benjamin couldn't stop dreaming Ben |"kFFERS came in from other Reeves back there? How many times about the past, any more than capacitor. ^-^ companies, but Benjamin He built his first have the "good old days" crept Edgar Evans had. machine in had money enough for a while 1962, a month before Andover into your conversation, your Then, after eighteen years, and he began experimenting with Hare took his near thoughts? Benjamin was fired. The military own relatives had asked for a new study on some ideas. When his lawyer and back into time with him. But this account began with the question of how many enemy banker discovered he'd given that wasn't enough for Benjamin. AS away two new color TV circuits, He was a scientist where Andover Edgar Evans, so it shall end missiles might get through the however, there a blow-up a with Benjamin Reeves. Not yet, early warning and intercept rings was was student and Edgar Evans spe- and Benjamin found himself in- an amateur experimenter. Ben- but soon—it musf be soon now. and reach the cities. "What, corporated. jamin couldn't forget the millions Like all truly wise men, Ben- cifically, can we do to protect our It made no difference. He could who yearned with him. jamin Reeves is a modest man. people?" THE NOSTAIGI A 56 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION GENE 57 For Benjamin, the mere ma- ing networks, within reach of the chine wasn't an answer. He went red button that will someday back through the years himself, send out a coded signal. several times, but always he re- turned and worked harder. And DID you read about the situa- the there came the day, a year ago, tion in this morning's pa- when his work shifted suddenly pers? It looks like another crisis to maps and population indices. in the making and maybe this side will back down. Laxian If you live within 40 miles of time neither if you're the most populous cities, you Pray for a year's time, should know that somewhere in the praying kind. the missiles that city is a very plain suitcase But whenever will press the Key which is at once an answer to come, Benjamin your prayers and to those strange red button at the first warning. only a nostalgic desires you've felt. It The temporal field lasts the missiles won't may be in a rented room or a millisecond and By ROBERT SHECKLEY every storage warehouse, or in the attic he stopped, of course—but suitcase will be empty of one of the many friends Ben- city with a jamin Reeves has made. when they strike. crisis holds off for a Free enterprise fine, Wherever it is, you're under If the was but Benjamin figures we'll all its influence, thanks to Benja- year, city and min's work. And every other day go back together, each time, but all AAA Ace happened on something now, in a closed-off room at the town to a different wait Ben Reeves plant, technicians before 1900. It's hard to year when you have the finish assembling another group even a even better — free production! and nagging inside of strange circuits which goes gene gnawing into another plain suitcase to be you ... chosen Edgar Evans, who started it, sent to yet another city, Illustrated by EMSH Andover Hare re- on the basis of population vs. couldn't wait. alone. Benjamin importance as a target. fused to go back same gene, was The technicians are learning Reeves, with the RICHARD Gregor was at The door of AAA Ace opened, forget what he told the his speed. Be thankful for that, if unable to desk in the dusty and Arnold stuck his head in, hell! and all you love your fellow-man as military—run like — office of the AAA Ace "Banker's hours?" Gregor ask- who couldn't. Benjamin does. At first they the folks like us Interplanetary Decontamination ed. found us the ul- turned out only one machine a So Benjamin Service. It was almost noon, but "I have just made our for- way to run, and to satisfy partner, hadn't tunes," said. the week; soon it will be one a day, timate Arnold, his show- Arnold He threw the running. Not then two, four. our dream in ed up yet. Gregor was just laying door fully open and beckoned Benjamin doesn't go out any yet, but soon now. out an unusually complicated dramatically. "Bring it in, boys." always within hearing See you back there! „ game of solitaire, when he heard Four sweating workmen lugged more. He's —ROY HUTCHINS of the receiver tuned to the warn- a loud crash in the hall. in a "square black machine the SCIENCE FICTION 58 GALAXY THE LAXIAN KEY 59 " " "

size of a baby elephant, and sessed an extremely advanced civ- can always sell it, and anything "Don't be stodgy," Arnold dropped it in the middle of the ilization, made possible by the we get will be pure profit." said. "Once we get this thing floor. so-called Meldgen Old Science. Gregor stared at his dapper working, we can retire. Here's "There it is," Arnold said The Old Science techniques had little partner, and his long, un- Button One." proudly. He paid the workmen, been lost ages ago, although an happy face became sadder than The machine began to clank and stood, hands clasped behind occasional artifact still turned up ever. ominously, then shifted to a his back, eyes half shut, survey- here and there. "Arnold," he said, "I'd like to steady purr. For long minutes, ing the machine. ' "And this is a product of the remind you of something. First nothing happened. Gregor put his cards away with Old Science?" Gregor asked. of all, you are a chemist. I am an "Needs warming up," Arnold the slow, weary motions of a "Right. It's a Meldgen Free ecologist. We know nothing about said anxiously. man who has seen everything. He Producer. I doubt if there are machinery, and less than nothing Then, out of an opening at the stood up and walked around the more than four or five of them about complicated alien ma- base of the machine, a gray machine. "All right, I give up. in the entire Universe. They can't chinery." powder bgan to pour. What is it?" be duplicated." Arnold nodded absently and "Probably a waste product," "It's a million bucks right in "What does it produce?" Gre- turned a dial. The Producer gave Gregor muttered. But the powder our fists," Arnold said. gor asked. a dry gurgle. continued to stream over the floor "Of course. But what is it?" "How should I know?" .Ar- "What's more," Gregor said, for fifteen minutes. "It's a Free Producer," Ar- nold said. "Hand me the Meldge- retreating a few steps, "we are "Success!" Arnold shouted. nold said. He smiled proudly. "I English dictionary, will you?" planetary decontaminationists. "What is it?" Gregor asked. was walking past Joe's Interstel- Keeping a stern rein on his pa- Remember? We have no reason "I haven't the faintest idea. lar Junkyard this morning, and tience, Gregor walked to the to—" I'll have to run some tests." Grin- don't know what there it was, sitting in the win- bookshelf. "You— The Producer began to cough ning triumphantly, Arnold scoop- dow. I picked it up for next to it produces unevenly. ed some powder into a test tube you. What nothing. Joe didn't even know "Dictionary. Thank , "Got it now," Arnold said. "It and hurried over to his desk. what it was." does it matter what it produces? says, 'The Meldge Free Pro- Gregor stood in front of the "I don't, either," Gregor said. It's free! This machine grabs ducer, another triumph of Glot- Producer, watching the gray "Do you?" energy out of the air, out of ten Laboratories. This' Producer powder stream out. Finally he Arnold was on his hands and space, the Sun, anywhere. You is indestructible, unbreakable, said, "Shouldn't we turn it off knees trying to read the instruc- don't have to plug it in, fuel or free of all defects. No Power until we find out what it is?" tions engraved on the front of service it. It runs indefinitely." Hookup is required. To start, "Of course not," Arnold said. the machine. Without looking up, Arnold opened the dictionary press Button One. To stop, use "Whatever it is, it must be worth he said, "You've heard of the and started to look up the words Laxian Key. Your Meldge Free money." He lighted his bunsen planet Meldge, haven't you?" on the front of—the Producer. Producer comes with an Eternal burner, filled a test tube with dis- Gregor nodded. "Free energy Guarantee against Breakdown. If tilled water, and went to work. "Those scientists were no defective in any way, please re- • MELDGE was a third-rate fools," Arnold said, jotting down turn at once to Glotten Labora- GREGOR shrugged his shoul- " little planet on the Northern his translation on a pocket pad. tories.' ers. He was used to his part- periphery of the Galaxy, some "The Producer just grabs energy "Perhaps I didn't make myself ner's hair-brained schemes for distance from the trade routes. out of the air. So it really does- clear," Gregor said. "We are quick wealth. Ever since they At one time, Meldge had pos- n't matter what it turns out. We planetary— had formed AAA Ace, Arnold

60 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE LAXIAN KEY 61 had been looking for short cuts. adult Meldgen consumes several The short cuts usually resulted in tons* a year." more work than plain old- "Food, eh?" Gregor looked at fashioned labor, but Arnold was the thick gray powder with new quick to forget that. respect. A machine which turned Well, Gregor thought, at least out food steadily, twenty-four be a very it kept things lively. He sat down hours a day, might at his desk and dealt out a com- good money maker. Especially if plex solitaire pattern. the machine never needed servic- ing and cost nothing to run. THERE was silence in the of- Arnold already had the tele- are." fice the next few hours. Arnold phone book open. "Here we "Hello, In- worked steadily, adding chemi- He dialed a number. Corporation? Let cals, pouring off precipitates, terstellar Food checking the results in several me speak to the president. What? vice-president then. large books he kept on his desk. He isn't? The Gregor brought in sandwiches This is important . . . Channels, here's the story. I and coffee. After eating, he paced eh? All right, up and down, and watched the am in a position to supply you quan- gray powder tumble steadily out with an almost unlimited the basic food of the machine. tity of Tangreese, That's The purr of the Producer grew of the Meldgen people. interested. steadily louder, and the powder right. I knew you'd be hold on." flowed in a thicker stream. Yes, of course I'll beaming. An hour after lunch Arnold He turned to Gregor, think they stood up. "We are in!" he stated. "These corporations yes? Yes, sir, that's "What is that stuff?" Gregor can push — sir. do handle Tan- asked, wondering if, for once, Ar- right, You splendid!" nold had hit upon something. greese, eh? Fine, trying to "That stuff," Arnold said, "is Gregor moved closer, on the Tangreese." He looked expectant- hear what was being said Arnold pushed him ly at Gregor. other end. "Tangreese, eh?" away. "Absolutely." "Price? Well, what is the fair "Then would you kindly tell market price? Oh. Well, five dol- me what Tangreese is?" Gregor lars a ton isn't much, but I sup- a ton? shouted. pose—what? Five cents "I thought you knew. Tan- You're kidding!" away from the greese is the basic food of the Gregor walked sank wearily into Meldgen people. I believe an telephone and THE LAXIAN KEY 63 62 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION " " "

a chair. Apathetically he listened cils, a briefcase and a small filing "Dollars?" until we decide what to do." to Arnold saying, "Yes, yes. Well, I cabinet were already lost in it, "Cents." Arnold waded up to the Pro- didn't know that. I see. Thanks." and Gregor was beginning to "I'll let you know," Gregor ducer. "Let me see," he said. "To Arnold hung up. "It seems," he wonder if the floor would hold the said. turn it off, I use the Laxian Key." said, "there's not much demand weight. He had to shovel a path His partner nodded sagely He studied the front of the ma- for Tangreese on Earth. There to the door, using a wastepaper when he heard the offer. "That's chine. are only about fifty Meldgens basket as an improvised spade. all right. Say this machine of ours "Go ahead, turn it off," Gre- here, and the cost of transporting Arnold finally closed his books produces ten tons a day, every gor said. it to the Northern periphery is with a look of weary satisfaction. day, year after year. Let's see "Just a moment." prohibitively high." "There is another use." ." . . He did some quick figuring "Are you going to turn it off Gregor raised both eyebrows "What?" with his slide rule. "That's al- or not?" and looked at the Producer. Ap- '"Tangreese is used as a build- most five hundred and fifty dol- Arnold straightened up and parently it had hit its stride, for ing material. After a few weeks' lars a year. Won't make us rich, gave an embarrassed little laugh. Tangreese was pouring out like exposure to the air it hardens like but it'll help pay the rent." "It's not that easy." water from a high pressure hose. granite, you know." "But we can't leave it here," "Why not?" There was gray powder over "No, I didn't." Gregor said, looking with alarm "We need a Laxian Key to everything in the room. It was "Get a construction company at the ever-increasing pile of turn it off. And we don't seem to half a foot high in front of the on the telephone. We'll take care Tangreese. have one." machine. of this right now." "Of course not. We'll find a va- "Never mind, we'll sell It," Gregor called the Toledo-Mars cant lot in the country and turn THHE next few hours were spent Arnold said. "It must be used for Construction Company and told it loose. They can haul the stuff -• in frantic telephone calls something else." He returned to a Mr. O'Toole that they were away any time they like." around the country. Gregor and his desk and opened several more prepared to supply them with an Gregor called O'Toole and said Arnold contacted museums, re- large books. almost unlimited quantity of they would be happy to do busi- search institutions, the archeo- "Shouldn't we turn it off in the Tangreese. ness. logical departments of colleges, meantime?" Gregor asked. "Tangreese, eh?" O'Toole said. "All right," O'Toole said. "You and anyone else they could think "Certainly not," Arnold said. "Not too popular as a building know where our plant is. Just of. No one had ever seen a Laxian "It's free, don't you understand? material these days. Doesn't hold truck the stuff in any old time." Key, or heard of one being found. It's making money for us." paint, you know." "Us truck it in? I thought you In desperation, Arnold called He plunged into his books. "No, I didn't," Gregor admit- — would Joe, the Interstellar Junkman, at Gregor began to pace the floor, ted unhappily. "At fifteen cents a ton? No, his downtown penthouse. but found it difficult wading "Fact. Tell you what. Tan- we're doing you a favor just tak- "No, I ain't got no Laxian through the ankle-deep Tan- greese can be eaten by some crazy ing it off your hands. You truck Key," Joe said. "Why you think greese. He slumped into his chair, race. Why don't you— it in." I sold you the gadget so cheap?" wondering why he hadn't gone "We prefer to sell it as a build- "That's bad," Arnold said, af- They put down the telephone into landscape gardening. ing material," Gregor said. ter Gregor had hung up. "The and stared at each other. The "Well, I suppose we can buy it. — cost of transporting it Meldgen Free Producer was early evening, gray dust Always some cheap construction BY "Would be far more than fif- cheerfully blasting out its stream had filled the room to a depth going on. Give you fifteen a ton teen cents a ton," Gregor said. of worthless powder. Two chairs of several feet. Several pens, pen- for it." "You'd better shut tW thing off and a radiator had disappeared

64 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE LAXIAN KEY 65 " " r

"Oh," Gregor said. power source. it off?" police- into it, and the gray Tangreese "Can't turn The "And it seems to have brought "So I see. Draws power out of was approaching desk-top level. man glared at them suspiciously. me to the source of the trouble," the air, out of space, out of the "Nice little wage earner," Gre- "You trying to kid me? I say you the man said. "By the way, I'm Sun. And out of the power com- gor said. gotta turn it off." — Mr. Carstairs." He cleared sand pany's lines, if they're handy." "We'll think of something." "Officer, I swear to you from Gregor's desk, took a last "So it seems. But the basic "We?" "Listen, wise guy, I'll be back reading on his drainometer, and principle— Arnold returned to his books, in an hour. You get that thing started to fill out a printed form. "To hell with the basic prin- and spent' the rest of the night turned off and this mess out of "What's all this about?" Ar- ciple!" Gregor shouted. "We searching for another use for Tan- here, or I'm giving you a sum- nold asked. can't turn this damned thing off greese. Gregor had to shovel the mons." The three men marched "I'm from the Metropolitan without a Laxian Key, no one's gray powder into the hall, to out. Power Company," Carstairs said. got a Laxian Key, we're sub- keep their office from becoming Gregor and Arnold looked at "Starting around noon yesterday, merged ii} worthless dust which completely submerged. each other, then at the Free Pro- we observed a sudden enormous we can't even afford to truck out, The morning came, and the ducer. The Tangreese was at drain on our facilities. So much and we're probably burning up Sun gleamed gaily on their win- desk-top level now, and still com- power was being siphoned off that power like a sun gone nova!" dows through a film of gray dust. ing steadily. we felt it wise to search out just "There must be a solution," Arnold stood up and yawned. "Damn it all," Arnold said, where it was coming from." Arnold said sullenly. "No luck?" Gregor asked. with a touch of hysteria, "there "And it's coming from here?" Gregor thought sadly of their "I'm afraid not.'.' must be a way of working it out. Gregor asked. diminishing bank account. They Gregor waded out for coffee. There must be a market! It's "From that machine of yours," had made a small profit on their When he returned, the building free, I tell you. Every bit of Carstairs said. He completed his last two jobs, but it was being superintendent and two large, this powder is free, free, free!" form, folded it and put it in his converted rapidly into gray sand. red-faced policemen were shout- "Steady," Gregor said, wearily pocket. "Thanks for your coop- Still, there was nothing he could ing at Arnold. scratching sand out of his hair. eration. You will be billed for do about it. Arnold was his part- "You gotta get every bit of "Don't you understand? When this, of course." With some diffi- ner. They had gone this far, they that sand outa my hall!", the you get something free, in un- culty he opened the door, then might as well go the rest of the super screamed. limited quantities, there has to turned and took another look at way. "Yeah, and there's an ordi- be an application for it." the Free Producer. Arnold sat down where the nance against operating a factory covered his door opened and a tall, "It must be making something desk had been and in a business district," one of the THE extremely valuable," he said, "to eyes. There was a loud knock on red-faced policemen said. thin man in a dark business justify the expenditure of so the door, and angry voices out- "This isn't a factory," Gregor suit walked in, holding a com- much power. What is it? Plati- side. explained. "This is a Meldgen plex little gadget in his hand. num dust?" "Lock the door," Arnold said. Free—" "So here it is," the man said. He smiled, nodded pleasantly, Gregor locked it. Arnold "I say it's a factory," the po- Gregor was struck by a sud- and left. thought for a few moments long- liceman said. "And I say you den wild thought. "Is that a Gregor turned to Arnold. "Free er, then stood up. gotta cease operation at once." Laxian Key?" he asked. power, eh?" "All is not lost," he said. "Our "That's our problem," Arnold "A what key? No, I don't sup- "Well," Arnold said, "I guess fortunes will still be made from said. "We can't seem to turn it pose it is," the man said. "It's a it just grabs it from the nearest this machine." off." drainometer."

THE LAXIAN KEY 67 66 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION " " "

"Let's just destroy it," Gre- Meldge was sighted on their star- "And we have laws. You must ficial shouted. "Do you really gor said. "Drop it in an ocean or board bow. It came none' too blast off immediately, and take think you can sell Tangreese on something." soon. Tangreese had completely your Free Producer with you." Meldge? Look around!" "No! I've got it now! Come on, filled the hold. They had sealed "Now look here," Gregor said. They looked. The landing field let's get our spaceship warmed it off, but the increasing pressure "There's supposed to be free en- was gray and powdery, and the up." threatened to burst the sides of terprise on this planet." buildings were the same unpaint- the ship. They had to dump tons "Not in the production of ed gray. Beyond them stretched THE next few days were hectic of it every day, but dumping took Tangreese, there isn't." dull gray fields to a range of low ones for AAA Ace. They had time, and there was a loss of heat Outside, a dozen army tanks gray mountains. to hire men, at exorbitant rates, and air in the process. rumbled onto the landing field On all sides, as far as they to clear the building of Tan- So they spiraled into Meldge and ringed themselves around the could see, everything was Tan- greese. Then came the problem with every inch of their ship ship. The official backed out the greese-gray. with Tangreese, low on port and started down the lad- "Do you of getting the machine, still spout- crammed mean," Gregor— asked, ing gray dust, into their space- oxygen, and extremely cold. der. "that the whole planet ship. But at last everything was "Wait!" Gregor cried in des- "Figure it out for yourself," done. The Free Producer sat in AS soon as they had landed, a peration. "I suppose you're afraid the official said, backing down of the hold, rapidly filling it with large orange-skinned customs unfair competition. Well, take the ladder. "The Old Science orig- Tangreese, and their ship was out official came on board. the Free Producer as our gift." inated here, and there are always of the System and moving fast "Welcome," he said. "Seldom "No!" Arnold shouted. fools who have to tamper with its on overdrive. do visitors come to our unim- "Yes! Just dig it out and take artifacts. Now get going, and "It's only logical," Arnold ex- portant little planet. Do you ex- it. Feed your poor with it. Just quickly." plained later. "Naturally there's pect to stay long?" raise a statue to us sometime." Halfway down the ladder he no market for Tangreese on "Probably," Arnold said. A second row of army tanks hesitated. "However," he said, Earth. Therefore there's no use "We're going to set up a busi- appeared. Overhead, antiquated "if you ever find a Laxian Key, jet planes trying to sell it on Earth. But on ness." dipped low over the come back. We'll erect ten statues the planet Meldge— "Excellent!" the official said, field. to you!" off this of- "I don't like it," Gregor said. smiling happily. "Our planet "Get planet!" the —ROBERT SHECKLEY "It can't fail. It costs too much needs new blood, new enterprises. to transport Trangreese to Might I enquire what business?" Cause: the 1954 International Fantasy Award, highest honor in science fiction, was given Meldge. But we're moving our "We're going to sell Tangreese, to More Than by — (1) Human Theodore Sturgeon, which appeared in GALAXY as "Baby Is entire factory there. We can pour the basic food of Three;" (2) The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, serialized here under the same title; a constant stream of the The official's face darkened. out (3) The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, serialized here as "Gravy stuff." "You're going to sell what?" Planet." "Suppose the market is low?" "Tangreese. We have a Free Effect: during 1954, in its fourth year of existence, GALAXY became the most widely Gregor asked. Producer." read science fiction magazine in the worldl "How low can it get? This The official pressed a button on We would, be, to paraphrase Sturgeon's title, less than human if we were not proud to the Meld- a wrist dial. "I am sorry, you stuff is like bread of having made a clean sweep of the awards. We would also be blind not to see the connec- at once." gens. It's their basic diet. How must leave tion between quality and growth. We are grateful to these and other authors, and to you, "But we've got passports, can we miss?" — our readers, for having made both goals attainable. Now that we're there, we are not After two weeks in space, clearance papers going to sit back and enjoy the view. We have work to do—new worlds to conquer!

68 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE LAXIAN KEY 69 College Observatory missed second largest, with a diameter of something important 60 years just a trifle over 300 miles. The ago. Two years later, the astron- same Dr. Olbers discovered one omers at Arequipa, Peru, missed more, Vesta, in 1807, but Vesta the same chance of amassing was already No. 4, for Harding some fame. They both photo- had found No. 3, Juno, in 1804. graphed Planetoid No. 433 and I haven't been able to discover did not realize what it was that yet just why Dr. Olbers—indu- showed on their plates. bitably the expert in this field, Of course, it is conceivable with two discoveries out of a that they may have been some- total of four—believed and con- what tired of planetoids (or as- vinced others that there were teroids) by that time. The first only four planetoids. Almost a one of that swarm of diminutive score of years passed until some- planets between the orbits of body decided to see whether Mars and Jupiter had shown up there mightn't be more. during the night preceding This skeptical character was, January 1, 1801. Professor Giu- like Dr. Olbers, an amateur, one for your information seppe Piazzi, trying to correct Mr. M. Hencke of Driesen in a typographical error in a re- Germany. After fifteen years of cently published catalogue of search, By WILLY LEY * he was able to announce fixed stars, had noticed a faint the discovery of No. 5, Astraea, star where there should be none thirty-eight years after the dis- at all. Further observation and covery of No. 4, Vesta. Two years a calculation of the orbit by Karl later, Mr. Hencke informed the

ASTEROID ROUNDUP Friedrich Gauss established that world that he had found No. 6, it was not a comet, as suspected Hebe. at first, but a small planet. Then others went to work. THIS year marks the 60th It was named Ceres and we When the 50th anniversary of the anniversary of an impor- now know that it is the largest discovery of Ceres came around, tant astronomical discovery member of the Asteroid Belt, No. 14, named Irene, had just which, however, did not then take with a diameter of 480 miles. been identified. place. Now this might sound con- So far, the joy of discovery had fusing, so let me rephrase it by IN the late evening hours of not been tarnished, but then it be- saying that 60 years have gone March 18, 1802, an amateur gan to be dimmed by sheer num- by since an important astronomi- astronomer, Wilhelm Matthaus bers. In 1870, the number of cal discovery could have been Olbers, M.D. of Bremen, found a known and named planetoids had made. If that is still not quite second such planet while on the grown to 110. In 1890, it had in- clear, it has to be said more lookout for comets. It was called creased to 300. bluntly by stating that Harvard Pallas and turned out to be* the It was then that a Dr. Isaac

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION FOR YOUR INFORMATION 71 —

in 1890, Prof. Charlois of Nice popular lectures only. had added around 95, and Prof. In 1898, the Urania Observa- Palisa of Vienna 83! C. H. F. tory boasted the biggest telescope Peters had found 52 or 53 and —a 12-incher—in all Prussia and many others could boast half a the chief astronomer, Dr. G. Witt, dozen. had installed some photographic Naturally, there were countless equipment. He must have been duplications. The job of identify- short of funds, for the little box ing the short lines on countless that housed the small electric plates alone assumed almost -su- lamp illuminating the spider-web perhuman proportions. crosshairs had been made by the A rather fast-growing group of scientific staff out of a cigar box. astronomers decided that all this A more serious worry of Dr. was more or less wasted effort Witt was that he did not trust and skipped reports on Kleine the clockwork mechanism that Planeten when reading their pro- guided the telescope. This can fessional journals. Others decided be corrected manually if some- that it was more important to body sees to it that a fixed star, keep track of the lower-number- picked for the Part of photographic plate taken in August, 1898, at Urania Observatory in purpose, does not ed and larger planetoids let its Berlin, which led to discovery of Eros. and leave assigned place in the others worry about identification field of an auxiliary instrument. and establishment Roberts made a fateful sugges- would show as short lines. of their new This job was done by a young discoveries. (A few resolutely de- student tion. One could keep track of Professor Max Wolf of Heidel- by the name of Felix cided to study the Sun instead.) Linke. these little bodies best by means berg was the first to adopt this And in this general of the photographic plate, he suggestion. The results were atmosphere Linke told me later that there of "too much news," there said. Astronomers previously had simply disastrous. Yes, you came happened to be a heat wave at the evening checked the actual appearance of could check on known planetoids of August 13, 1898. the time and that they were The place was the Urania the sky, along the band where the in that manner—but you could Ob- happy if there was a reason to servatory planetoids had to be, against star not avoid discovering dozens of in Berlin. It had been go to the darkroom, which was planned maps. Anything that showed in new ones at the same time. to be "quite some dis- the coolest place in the whole tance" from the the telescope but could not be city so that the observatory, but that the word work of the found on the chart had to be WITHIN the four years from astronomers should "cool" applied only by compari- not be either a comet or a planetoid. It 1891 to 1895, no less than hampered by city lights. son with the rest. would be simpler, Dr. Roberts 107 new asteroids were discover- But by 1898, the city was alr«eady encroaching on it. By the time program said, to photograph these areas, ed! At the turn of the century, THE decided upon by of the following the apparent movement the total number was 559, of First World War, when I Dr. Witt for the night of Aug- was old of the fixed stars with the instru- which 452 had been numbered enough to pay attention ust 13 to 14 was to track down ment. The stars would then show and named! Professor Wolf and to such things, the Urania Obser- No. 185, Eunike. Eunike had not vatory was up as points, while things that his assistants had added more deep inside the city been seen for years. But if the and was used for moved—comets and planetoids than a hundred to the 300 known instruction and old orbit calculation still held

72 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION FOR YOUR INFORMATION 73 its unusual length, it had to be Berberich showed that the point made by a fast-moving body. It closest to the Sun, the perihelion, could still be a comet, however. is only 1.13 astronomical^ units In the evening, the 12-incher from the Sun. The point of went into action for direct obser- Earth's orbit closest to the peri- vation. The tiny "star" that had helion of Eros is passed by Earth made the track the night before every January 22nd. If it hap- could be clearly seen. It was not pened that Eros passed its peri- a comet. Hence it had to be an- helion on that date, or close to other new planetoid. it, the distance Earth-to-Eros Aphelion; The customary wires to other would be a mere 14 million miles. of Mars observatories were sent and quite This was considerably closer a lot of observations accumulated than anything else known at that during the next six days. Then time (not counting the Moon) Dr. Berberich, the chief of the because the closest Venus can MARS Computing Institute, which had come is 20 million miles and the been founded especially for keep- closest approach of Mars about Aphelion ing track of the minor planets, 35 million miles. of Eros retired with all the observations of Object 1898 DQ and began to A T the time of the actual dis- compute its orbit. +% covery by Dr. Witt, Eros It turned ©ut to be the most >had been near its aphelion and unusual orbit of any planetoid Orbits of Earth, Eros and Mars. Earth passes line from perihelion of Eros to the question was—how long one thus far. Most of it was between Sun late January every year, some three weeks after passing its own peri- would have to wait to get a close the orbits and helion. Earth and Mars. look? And its mean distance from the Eros needed 643 days to go Sun true, Eunike should be in the nifying glass, looking for plane- was smaller than that of any from perihelion to perihelion. It other. general vicinity of the fixed star toid tracks. followed that Eros and Earth It was for beta of the constellation Aquarius. Eunike was where she was sup- these reasons that would be in the same direction, as The photographic instrument posed to be, or very nearly so. Dr. Witt insisted that 1898 DQ, seen from the Sun, approximately or was pointed in the proper di- Another known planetoid had planetoid No. 433, should be every two years and four months, given a rection and Linke held it as also left its visiting card. But name which, by itself, But, as a look at the diagram emphasized that it steady as he could for two hours. near the star foera Aquarii, there was a special shows, this still implies greatly Then Dr. Witt and his helper was another track of unusual case. Starting 'with Ceres, Pallas, varying distances. When had Eros rushed the new plate to the "cool" length, measuring 0.4 millimeters Juno and Vesta, all planetoids been at its perihelion, on or about had been given darkroom and, after it had been on the original plate. Dr. Witt female names, January 22nd, any^year? The an- preferably classical. racked up to dry, they went home thought at first that this was no The new one swer was disappointing: it had to get as much sleep as the heat track at all, but a flaw in the was to receive a male name. been in January 1894, four and a Dr. would permit. Next day, they plate. Then he decided that it was Witt selected Eros. half years before it was discov- went over the plate with a mag- a genuine track and, because of The orbit computed by Dr. ered.

74 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION FOR YOUR INFORMATION 75 — -

Mars to taken for When that date was establish- where "we photograph granted that Eros has much Venus weighs." an irregular shape that would be ed, a search of old plates was see how Photographing Eros for the same • impossible for a body of much made and it turned out that Har- better figures. Drs. larger size. It is very simply, vard College Observatory had purpose gives a and Gustav Stracke huge mountain circling Eros on seventeen plates exposed Eugene Rabe the Sun. in an elaborate and I may add here that its co- at that time. And Arequipa had engaged tedious investigation of the be- discoverer, Linke, has offered the photographed it four times in of Eros to establish the suggestion that Eros may not be 1896. havior masses of the two planets inside a single body, but several small The next really close approach Photograph of "Lazy Dog" anti-per- the orbit of Earth. ones rotating around their com- of Eros, was not due until 1931. sonnel (non-explosive) missile. Car- mon center of gravity. It's pos- Then there was to be one almost tridge next to it is regulation .30 rifle point, somebody is sible, but not established. as good in 1938, but for another this cartridge. AT the mass At any event, planetoid No. one as good as the missed one in likely to ask about (Official photograph U.S. Air Force) Well, that's not 433 constitutes one of the strang- 1894, one must wait until Eros of Eros itself. can say est and most intriguing astronom- has completed 46 of its revolu- so simple. The best we less power—and the war rocket on Earth ical discoveries ever made. tions. This means 81 years, so is that Eros, if dumped was back in many different ver- would merely that Eros will be a minimum dis- without shattering, sions and in great quantities. mountain. tance again in 1975. become our highest THE SMALLEST "BOMB" The age of the airplane and the around its axis But in the meantime, astron- Eros rotates blimp looked back on «the free omers have put Eros to good use and, while doing so, its bright- TVTO weapon, it seems, ever be- balloon as something of the past to the L ^ even with somewhat inferior op- ness changes. This leads comes completely and per- —especially the free balloon is not spherical, positions. The elementary and suspicion that it manently obsolete. made of paper, like the earliest fundamental yardstick in astron- but of irregular shape. Muzzle-loading cannon, for uv attempts of the brothers Mont- 1937, several astronomers stance, had almost become pro- golfier omy is the "astronomical unit" In — but then the Japanese observations and the distance of Earth from the published their verbial as something thoroughly recalled the existence of a fast drew was that Sun. By observing Eros, the the conclusion they out of date, useless and very air current moving east over the a shape like a value of this yardstick has been Eros might have nearly laughable—but then some- Pacific Ocean and long-range Assuming a considerably refined. And as Eros poorly formed brick; body invented the trench mortar bombing balloons were made, times that of comes inward in the Solar Sys- density of 1.63 and a whole family of muzzle many of them of paper! they calculated that the loading "trench artillery" sprang historic tem, it is, of course, being acted water, As a oddity, I might "brick" was on by the gravitational fields of longest axis of this up during the First World War. add that even the old fire-arrow miles and that the two short- The war rocket "obsolete" all the inner planets. This fact 21.5 was staged a small comeback in the measured 13.0 and 10.1 can be utilized to determine the er axes for nearly a century, too — so Second World War. During the axis is the masses of the inner planets. miles. The shortest much so, in fact, that most peo- fight for the Italian colonies in and the period of In the case of Venus, for ex- axis of rotation ple didn't even know there had East Africa, the Italians quarter- given as five hours ample, the mass had to be de- rotation was been war rockets once. But then, ed their troops in native-built minutes. rived in part from the influence and 16 as you well remember, designers grass huts. Other African natives, this is still subject to cor- replaced old of Venus on Mars. It was, to All the and hazardous under British command, sneaked figures may quote Dr. Paul Herget, one of rection and the blackpowder propelling charge through the underbrush with somewhat, but it can be the paradoxes of astronomy change with a reliable stick of smoke- bows and fire-arrows and i SCIENCE FICTION 76 GALAXY FOR YOUR INFORMATION 77 called missile," as it would be y'usr as hard to swing it." Would on the Moon, promptly shot them aflame! against the lesser now, still lacked aerodynamical you explain this, please? lunar gravity, which is an introduction you have to lift All of shape that S. refinement and had a Jean De Grazia what to early muscles feels to the latest weapon of the U. like justified its name of "airplane 597 Hopkins St. two the "Lazy Dog." It is pounds. But if you swing Air Force, millimeters weigh- arrow." It was eight Sewickley, Penna. it, on Earth or on the just a small piece of steel, Moon, in diameter and This not (5/16 of an inch) example is intended to you have to accelerate its mass. ing less than an ounce, and weighed 3 '4 of an ounce. illustrate that we, existing un- That would much over an inch in length. be the same in French must have prepar- der the constant and unvarying either finned like a miniature The case, since accelerating Being some time in Dog, shoveled ed this weapon pull of Earth's gravity, have the same mass needs the same bomb, the Lazy War, advance of the First World come to forget that there is a force overboard from an airplane, will regardless of the gravity used it in their difference down and pierce a because they between weight and present. point its nose German ver- earliest attacks against inertia. To us, a certain weight target like a rifle bullet fired solid ground troops. seems to go with a certain Are there any other tically downward. Being materials it took only weeks amount of inertia, it will Of course but actually besides lead and concrete that are metal, it won't explode, but the Germans imitated the the two are not the same, which holes in tires, gasoline until used for radiation shielding? If make precise Somebody with we would realize quickly if we drums and people. Its impact weapon. so, what radiations (meaning al- of legality — or a nasty were subjected to a gravita- will probably be high notions pha, beta or gamma rays and velocity that one. of humor—ordered ; tional field of a different neutrons') to go through the top of sense do they stop? enough inscription of the fins carry an strength. James Reeve a car - L allem. The^ reading Inv franc Fab Let's try to approach the 7005—5th A novel idea? Well, no. Avenue' This was not code, but an ab- J problem from another angle. French invented it forty years Los Angeles 43, Calif. of Invention francaise Six pounds of steak when airplanes were as wob- breviation have, as The materials most used in ago, allemande—"French looked arid could Fabrication anyone knows, a certain atomic laboratories and power bly as they manufac- pay- invention of German amount of food value. They plants are, as carry some 15 or 20 lbs. of you say, concrete pilot, ture." will provide, say, a meal for and lead. Concrete load in addition to the shielding is soon as ground troops on i six hungry people. the ideal personal build was As On customary for permanent in- whose take proper both sides learned to Moon, the same amount of stallations, while lead, that of a jockey. in the under a car, for example steak French "anti-personnel COVer — would weigh only one form of bricks, is used for tem- The airplane arrow —the use of the pound — but it would still be porary setups. MODEL 1914 was discontinued. a meal for six. It is easy to Actually, any kind of mat- realize, from this example, that ter could be used for shielding ~**"i ANY QUESTIONS? we have fallen into the habit of against any kind of radiations. associating a certain number of It is merely a question of vol- across a state- Today I came calories with a certain weight. ume. Slabs of slate may not be Arthur C. u _I2CM -»i ment in an article by Now consider the problem of a good shield, 1 but a mountain (1.72") I do not quite un- Clarke which the sledgehammer. If you pick of slate is. A fishtank full of of derstand. He says in speaking it up on Earth, you work against WEIGHT: 21 GRAMS. water is poor protection, but a inertia that it would weight and Earth's gravity and you have large lake is a different story. a times easier to pick up lift, Europe be "six to say, twelve pounds. If The reasons for using con- "Airplane arrow" as used in but sledgehammer on the Moon, you lift the same War I. sledgehammer crete or lead are, therefore, during early months of World FICTION GALAXY SCJE.NCE FOR YOUR INFORMATION 79 78 rocket is purely practical reasons. Con- longer burning) Earth's gravitational pull could thing about it. greater than the force of the never it crete is needed in large quan- bring to a standstill. Dr. Wernher von Braun stat- gravitational field at any point tities, but it is both cheap and For this reason, this velocity ed flatly: "This cannot be con- available. Lead is used because along its trajectory. of seven miles per second has sidered a hazard to space travel explain this statement, of its high density, so that the To been named "escaped velocity" at all. The capacity of a space volume (though not the let's look at the motion of a by rocket men. Astronomers vehicle entering the atmosphere Earth from weight) of matter to be moved body falling toward still use the older but equivalent of another planet is extremely distance of 100,- around is comparatively small. infinity. At a term of "parabolic velocity." small and the number of coul- surface, this 000 miles from the ombs which must travel into will have a certain veloc- Might not differences Would you please advise me' body in elec- the ship or out of it to make its distance of 10,000 tric about the following concept: As- ity. At the potential be one of the haz- electric potential equal to that certain and sume that the Earth is the only miles, it will have a ards of space travel? A body of the surrounding environ- velocity. At leaving body in space. I contend that it obviously higher Earth at zero potential ment is very small. Any brush miles, it would then be impossible for any the distance of 1,000 (relative to the Earth) might find discharger can easily take care velocity. rocket to escape from the Earth. will have a still higher that other planetary bodies have of this." the highest Inasmuch as the gravitational And it will have electric potentials higher or lower A slightly different situation ever have at the than field of the Earth extends to in- velocity, it can Terra. would exist if the target planet impact. finity and the speed of the rocket moment of H. Sheppard happens to be without (or vir- going the other must be finite, it would always If a rocket 24 Chatterton Blvd. tually without) an atmosphere, infinity, it must fall back sooner or later because way is to reach West Hill, Ontario as, for instance, the Moon. At velocity that is somewhat the pull of the Earth will con- have a first glance, it might seem as if slightly) higher tinually subtract velocity from (only very . This question has come up the ship, with its possibly dif- veloc- the rocket. Right or wrong? than the corresponding in space travel discussions for ferent potential, would make falling body. The David Richardson ities of the some time, but unfortunately contact suddenly. But on an air- 1803 Rhodes St. impact velocity would be just there is no satisfactory answer. less planet, the ship would have per Madison, Illinois a shade below seven miles The main question is, of course, to land with rocket motors Wrong. But this is one of the second. whether the electric potential of working, balancing down on an rocket near the so-called "instructive errors" Hence if the another planet—for example, exhaust blast. Since this blast reached that deserve discussion and surface of the Earth Mars — is actually different consists of partly ionized gases, per second, it clarification. seven miles from that of Earth. We don't it would automatically perform for it To begin with, the assump- would go to infinity, know and physicists have no the job of a "grounding" cable. is only would, at all points along the way at present, short tion that the Earth the of an ac- To sum up : We don't know velocity body in space is not necessary. trajectory, have a tual visit, to decide this ques- whether this "hazard" actually that of the Even as things are, the gravi- slightly higher than tion. The attitude of engineers exists, but we have every rea- falling body. is tational field of the Earth ex- somewhat more positive. son to believe that, if it does, gravitational pull tends theoretically to infinity. Earth's They feel that if such differ- it won't l>e a hazard at all. eventually slow it down But it grows weaker all the time would ences exist, they'll do some- —WILLY LEY with distance and the require- —after a sufficiently long time, as little as ment is simply that the kinetic the motion might be energy of the moving (and no three inches per century! But

80 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION FOR YOUR INFORMATION 81 The Music Master of Babylon By EDGAR PANGBORN

Illustrated by KRIGSTEIN

i^*^'., ;\:

What more fitting place for the last man 6n

Earth to live in than a museum? Now if only

he could avoid becoming an exhibit himself!

twenty-five years, no FORone came. In the seventy- sixth year of his life, Brian Van Anda was still trying not to remember a happy boyhood. To do so was irrelevant and danger- ous, although every instinct of his old age tempted him to reject •# the present and dwell in the lost » •M&. times. would recall stubbornly He 83 uproariously—until he observed ment. To secure fresh water, he present year, for ex- tied his canoe to the mas- that the that some of the laughter HE for many was need only keep track of the tides, ample, was 2096; that he had sive window that weeping. for the Hudson had cleaned itself seven years years had been a port and a been born in 2020, been there with a Today had rather good. and now rolled down sweet from after the close of the Civil War, doorway. Lounging He hpd killed a deer on the Pali- the lonely, sense of time, he was uncorrupted hills. His fifty years before the Final War, suspended listen- sades, and with bow and arrow, decline could be comfortable. He twenty-five years before the de- hardly aware that he was twenty-five thus saving a bullet. Not that had provided for it and planned parture of the First Interstellar. ing. In a way, all the he needed to practice such econ- it. been a listening. He Yet gazing now across the (It had never returned, nor had years had sink omy. He might live, he supposed, sleepy water, seeing a broad- Second Interstellar. They watched Earth's patient star the another decade or so at the most. rim of the forest on winged hawk circle in freedom might be still wandering, trifles of toward the His rifles were in good condition above the forest, Brian*was aware Stardust.) He would the Palisades. At this hour, it Man-made and his hoarded if the ammunition of the old thought moving in his place of birth, New was sometimes possible, recall would easily outlast him. So water lay still, to him: the fine, planned city far Sun-crimsoned Boston, the stock of too at the would canned and "If I could hear voices just inland from the ancient metrop- cease grieving much — dried food stuffed away in his once, if I could hear human the rising sea had re- greater stillness. olis that ." living quarters. there . human But was voices . after the earthquake of There was scattered claimed satisfaction in primitive he knew probab- effort The Museum of Human His- 1994. life elsewhere, — After twenty- and no compulsion to analyze tory, with the Hall of Music on Such things, places and dates, ly a great deal of it. too, often the why of it. what Brian thought of as the were factual props, useful when five years alone, that, At The stored food was more im- second floor, should also outlast Brian wanted to impose an ex- seemed almost irrelevant. evenings, portant than the ammunition. A his requirements. In the flooded order on the vagueness of other times than mild ternal time would soon or mornings empty come enough lower floor and basement, the his immediate existence. He tried hushed noons commotion, Brian when he no longer had strength work of slow destruction must be to make sure they became no of human the for hunting. He would lose the going on. Here and there, the un- than that—to shut away the might lapse into anger, fight more inclination for trips to cross the yelling, resent the swift hurried waters could find their colors, the poignant sounds, the calm by Such moods river. He would yield to such way to steel and make rust of it, parks and the playgrounds of dying of his echoes. humor re- laziness or timidity for days, then for the waterproofing of the con- New Boston, the known faces were brief. A kind of not to be ruined weeks. Some time, when it be- crete was nearly a hundred years (many of them loved), and the mained in him, came months or years, he might old. But it ought to be good for later years when he had briefly by sorrow. how, ten find himself too feeble to risk another century or two. known a curious intoxication He remembered possibly ten years climbing the cliff wall into the Nowadays the ocean was mild. called fame. months or forest. He would have the good There were moderate tides, winds better or ago, he had encountered a box It was not necessarily * then, forest clearing, and sense he hoped, to destroy no longer destructive. For the wiser to reject those memories, turtle in a the canoe, thus making of his last six years, there shouted at it: "They went had been no but it was safer, and nowadays had rigidly weakness a necessity. more of the heavy storms out of Brian was often sufficiently tired, thataway!" The turtle's fixed by nature in a the south. In the same period, sufficiently conscious of his grow- comic face, startled disapproval, rpHERE were books. There was Brian had noted a rise in the ing weakness and lonely unim- caricature of point up some -*- the Hall of Music on the next water level of a mere nine inches. portance, to crave safety as a had seemed to floor above the water, probably The window-sill, his port, was six meadow mouse often craves a truth or other. Brian had hunker- and laughed safe from its lessening encroach- inches above high-tide mark now. burrow. ed down on the moss FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 85 84 GALAXY SCIENCE — —

Perhaps Earth was settling into and not moving with the ease of peak and a return to normal is weathered the storm of 2057. In- a new, amiable mood. The cli- youth: a rough job. He had de- expected." stead, ordinary people, more than mate had become delightful, liberately left cracks and knot- Brian sometimes felt a twinge a thousand of them, donated for the Neanderthal so that a mighty abutment about like what Brian remember- holes. Sunlight sifted throifgh\ of sympathy money experts must told each could be built around the ground ed from a visit to southern Vir- in narrow beams, like the bars of who have other to expect a return to nor- floor, a entrance designed on ginia in his childhood. dusty gold Brian could remember new after the Cro-Magnons stop- the north side of the second. The The last earthquake had, come in a hayloft at his uncle's farm in mal ped drifting in. abutment survived the greater in 2082—a large one, Brian gues- Vermont. It was quite pleasant. built In 2057, the island of Man- tornado of 2064 without damage, sed, but its center could not have The Museum had been hattan to yielded alto- although, during those seven been close to the rock of Man- in 2003. Manhattan, strangely had be gether. half-new, years, sea risen another hattan. The Museum had only enough, had never been bombed, New York City, the had half-ancient, sprawled stubborn eight feet in its old ever-new shivered and shrugged; it had although, in the Civil War, two survived much worse than that, of the type called "small fission" and enormous upstream, on both game of making monkeys out of and sides of a river not done with the wise. half- a dozen times since 1994. had fallen on the Brooklyn After the tremor, a tall wave had Jersey sides—so Brian recalled its anger. But the Museum stood. It was left for Brian Van Anda

• Aided by sunken of others thundered in from the south. Its from the jolly history books that rubble alone, in 2079, to see the waters that of its kind, aided also by men over the abutment, force, like that of others, had had informed his adolescence slide quietly mostly been dissipated against war was definitely a thing of because they still had time to opening the lower regions for the^ love it, the stood, and secret the barrier of tumbled rock and the past. Museum use of fishes and the more final War, in might for a long time yet water-dwellers who like shelter steel at the southern end of the By the time of the weather permitting. submerged island—an undersea 2070, the sea, gorged on the melt- and privacy. In the '90s, Brian dam, Man-made though not ing ice caps, had removed Man- It covered an acre of ground suspected the presence of an well north of 125th Street, rising Man-intended — and when it hattan Island from history. octopus or two in the vast vague ' above a modest fifteen stories, its foun- territory which had once been reached the Museum, it did no Everything left standing more than smash the southern the waters south of the Museum dation secure in that layer of parking lot, heating plant, stor- tor- rock which mimics eternity. It etc. windows 'in the Hall of Music, had been knocked flat by the age space, air-raid shelter,

few deserved its name : here men had couldn't prove it; it just seem- which earlier waves had not been nados of 2057 and 2064. A He where brought samples of everything, ed like a comfortable place for able to reach. Then it passed on blobs of rock still marked Mount Morris literally everything known in the an octopus. up the river, enfeebled. The win- Central Park and they were course of humanity since pre- In plans were under con- dows of the lower, floor had all Park had been, but 2070, Long Is- history. It was, within human sideration for building a new been broken long before that. not significant. Where land once rose, there was a limits, definitive. In its way, con- causeway to the Museum from tiny sidering how much the,,, erosion still city in the AFTER the earthquake of '82, troubled area of shoals and the expanding bar- of time must always steal from Brian had spent a month islands, probably a useful north. In 2070, also, the final War protection for the reced- scholars, it was perfect. began and ended. boarding up all the openings on rier of Connecticut. When Brian Van Anda came the south side of the Hall of ing shore of had yielded the great city one had felt anything un- down the river late in 2071, a Music—after all, it was home Men NO foot tjy foot; natural in the refusal of the refugee from certain unfamiliar with lumber painfully ferried inch by inch, then saying: "The Directors of the Museum to move types of savagery, the Museum from mainland ruins. That year, a full mile in 2047, passed their the collection after the Museum was empty of the living. He had he had been sixty-two years old flood years have

FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 87 86 GALAXY SCIENCE first hour of discovering Another Director had spent many days in exhaustive like the been could cook and eat in the few could play Beethoven; or opening a wall cabinet when "exploration of the building. He that he he days before it spoiled, leaving the the curiously cherished, more fell; the small key lay near his did that systematically, toiling at like rest for the wolves or any other life-size half -hour back there fingers. Plainly their discussion last up to the Directors' meeting than forest scavengers who might need 2071, when he had had not been concerned room on the top floor. There he in Newburg, in only it. There was a rope strung from and spoken with an with war, perhaps not at all observed how they must have briefly met with the window to the marble steps old man, Abraham war after all, there were been holding a conference at the incredibly — other that led to the next floor—home. President of the Western topics. The Ming vase very time when a new gas was Brown, f would It had not been possible to save Federation at the time of the have had a part in it. Brian wish- tried out over New York in the much from the submerged area, War. Brown, with a loved ed he could know what the old north, in a final effort to per- Civil for its treasure was mostly heavy almost total ruin around man had meant to choose from suade the Western Federation world in statuary. Through the still water, him, had spoken pleasantly of the cabinet. Sometimes, even now, that Man is the servant of the as he pulled the raft along the small things of chrysanthemums he^dreamed of conversations with state and that the end justifies — rope, the Moses of Michaelangelo would soon be blooming in that man, in which the Director the means. that gazed up at him in tranquility. the house where told him the whole Too bad, Brian sometimes the front yard of truth about Other faces watched him. Most with friends, of a piano that and other matters; but what thought, that he would never he lived of them watched infinity. There Anda at Ithaca, was certainty in sleep was in the know exactly what happened to recital by Van were white hands that occasional- which the old man re- morning gone like childhood. the Asian Empire. In the little in 2067, ly borrowed gentle motion from warm enthusi- For himself, Brian paratroop-invaded area called membered with had taken ripples made by the raft. a little image of rock-hard clay, the Soviet of North America, asm. "I got a deer, Moses," said Museum Directors blackened, two-faced, male from which Brian had fled in '71, Yes, the and Brian Van Anda, smiling down died easily, and now the female. Prehistoric, or at any rate the official doctrine was that the had in companionship, losing track of bodies would be wholly primitive, unsophisticat- Asian Empire had won the war old innocent time. He carried his juicy burden decent. There were no ver- ed, meaningful like the blame- and that the saviors of humanity quite up the stairway. Museum. The door-, less motion of an animal would be flying in any day to min in the in sun- His living quarters had once and floors were tight, the light, Brian had said: "With your take over. Brian had doubted this ways been a cloakroom for Museum windows unbroken. permission, gentlemen." He had out loud, and then stolen a boat upper attendants. Four close walls gave the white-haired men closed the cabinet and then, and got away safely at night. One of soft- it a sense of security. A ventilat- a Ming vase on his desk. ly, the outer door. Up in the meeting room, Brian had ing shaft now served as a chim- not dropped from his "I'm old," Brian said to the had seen how that new neuro- He had ney for- the wood stove Brian had but- looked as if he had red evening. "Old, a little fool- toxin had been no respecter of chair, salvaged from a mainland farm- comfortably asleep in front ish, talk aloud to myself. I'll persons. An easy death, though— fallen house. The door could be tightly with his head on his have some Mozart before sup- pain. He observed also how of the vase locked; there were no windows. i no had left the vase per." some things survive. The Mu- arms. Brian You do not want windows in a but had taken one seum, for instance, was virtual- untouched, cave. other thing, moved by some stir- TTE transferred the fresh veni- ly unharmed. Outside was the Hall of Music, phil- **- ring of his own never-certain son from the canoe to a an entire floor of the Museum, knowing that he BRIAN had often recalled osophy and small raft hitched inside the containing an example of every not return to this room, window. He had selected only those months in the meeting would musical instrument that was ever. choice pieces, as much as he room as a sort of island in time, known or could be reconstructed SCIENCE FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 88 GALAXY 89 touched its middle string in an from Brian's cave, was a small in the 21st century. The library idle caress, not intending to make auditorium. Lectures, recitals, of scores and recordings lacked it sound, but it had done so. chamber music concerts had been nothing — except electricity to When in use, it would have been given there in the old days. The play the recordings. A few might tuned to time on a D; had slackened pleasant room held a twelve-foot still be made to sound the heavy murmur to A or some- concert grand, made by Steinway spring-wound phonograph, but thing near it. That had throbbed in 2043, probably the finest of Brian had not bothered with it in the silent room with a sense the many pianos in the Hall of for years; the springs were rusted. of finality, a sound such as a Music. He sometimes took out the programmatic composer—Tschai- Brian had done his best to orchestra and chamber music kowsky, say, or some other in preserve this, setting aside a day scores, to read at random. Once the nadir of torment — might each month for had been able to furn- the prayerful his mind have choirs used as a tonal symbol for tuning of it, robbing other pianos ish ensembles, orchestras, the breaking- of a heart. It stayed in the Museum to provide a re- of a sort, but lately the ability in the air a long time, other in- serve supply of strings, oiled had weakened. He remembered a struments whispering a dim re- and sealed up against rust. No day, possibly a year ago, when sponse. . dirt ever collected on the Stein- his memory refused to give him "All right, gentlemen," said way. When not in use, it was cov- the sound of oboe and clarinet in Brian. "That was your A." He ered with stitched - together unison. He had wandered, peev- had closed the case, not laughing. sheets. To remove the cover was ish, distressed, unreasonably Out in the main part of the a sober ritual; Brian always alarmed, among the racks and hall, a place of honor was given washed his hands with fanatical cases of woodwinds in the collec- to what may have,: been the old- care before touching if the the keys. tion, knowing that even could est of all instruments, a seven- Some years ago, he had de- reeds were still good, he never note marimba of phonolitic schist veloped the habit of locking the not play them. He had discovered in Indo-China in the auditorium doors before he play- mastered any instrument except 20th century and thought to be ed. Even with the doors locked, the piano. at least 5,000 years of age. The he would not glance toward the "But even if I could play xylophone-type rack was mod- vista of empty seats—not know- them," he muttered, now toler- ern; for twenty-five years, Brian ing, nor caring much, whether antly amused, "I couldn't do it things had obeyed a compulsion to keep this inhibition had grown from in unison, could I? Ah, the it clear of cobwebs. Sometimes he a Stone Age fear of seeing some- that will bother a man!" touched the singing stones, not one there or from a flat, reason- for amusement, but because there able certainty that no one could recalled—it was prob- BRIAN was an obscure comfort in it. Un- be. ably that same day—opening There concerned with time, they answer- a chest of double basses. ed even to the light tap of a TnHE habit might have started was an old three -stringer in the fingernail. *- (he could not remember pre- group, probably from the early On the west side of the Hall cisely) away back in the year 19th century, a trifle fatter than Brian of Music, a rather long walk 2076, when so many bodies had its modern companions. THE MUSIC MASTER GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION 91 —

unnecessarily. He fussed begun long before the war, at the shattering drifted down from the north on hands finale in spite of the with the candelabrum on the wall, time of his triumphs in a civiliz- thunderings the ebb tides. Full horror had that must come be- candles, then blow- ed world which somehow been lacking in the lighting three had been warmly fore. Brian had heard the sonata ing out two for economy. He ad- appreciative of the polished in- played sight of all that floating death. by others two or three mitted presently that he did not terpretive artist, although no times in the old Perhaps it was because Brian had days—compe- the serene clarity of Mozart more awake than any other age tently. earlier had his fill of horrors; or want Competency was not right now. This evening, to the creative one. Back there in enough. perhaps, in 2076, he already felt at all darkness of 2070 was closer the undestroyed society, Brian For example, so divorced from his own kind the what about the he had felt it for a long had proposed to program that third movement, that what happened to them was than that mad Scher- time. It would never have occur- sonata in the company of works zo, and the five tiny like the photograph of a war in interludes of red to Mozart, Brian thought, that were older but no greater, sweet quiet scattered a distant country. through its world could die. Beethoven and play it yes, beyond his best, plunging fury? Some of the bodies had bobbed that a — They were not have entertained the idea so that even critics would begin alike. Related, quite near the Museum. Most of could perhaps, but each enough; Chopin prob- to see its importance. one them had the gaping wounds of soberly demanded a new climate of even Brahms. Mozart He had never done it, had never heart primitive warfare, but some were ably; and mind—tenderness, re- surely have dismissed it felt that he had entered into the gret, simple oddly discolored—a new pestil- would relaxation. Flowers somebody's bad dream, in sonata and learned the depth of on a flood ence? So there was (or had been) as —no. Warm window- it. Now, when there was none to more trouble up there in what poor taste. lights in a storm—no. The inno- Andrew Carr, who lived and hear or care, unless maybe the cence of an unknowing was (or had been) the Soviet of child in in the latter half of the 20th harmless brown spiders in the a bombed city North America, a self-styled "na- died —no, not really. .century, had endured the idea corners of the auditorium had a Something of all those, tion" that took in east New York but much from the beginning of his child- taste for music, there was still more, too. State and some of New England. hood. The date of Hiroshima was The Project. What of the second Yes, that was probably the year movement, Carr was born, in 1951; "I hear," Brian said. "/ care, when he had started locking the 1945; the Largo, where, in a way, the the inexhaustible wealth of his and with myself as audience I pattern was reversed, doors between his private con- the mid- music was written between 1969, want to hear it once as it ought night introspection interrupted certs and an empty world. by he was eighteen, and 1984, to be, a final statement for a moments of He dumped the venison in his when anger, or longing, or when he died in an Egyptian jail world that couldn't live and despair like that of an angel beat- cave. He scrubbed his hands, from injuries received in a street yet was too good to die." ing his wings blue-veined now, but still tough, against a prison brawl. Technically, of course, he had of glass? still knowing.* Mozart, he thought, "If not Mozart," said Brian to it. The athletic demands Carr It was, and walked — not with much throughout, a work in is always his idle hands, "there made on the performer were tre- which something of Carr's life pleasure of anticipation, but more The Project." mendous, but, given technique, and Carr's temperament had to like one externally driven there was nothing impossible come into the enormous hall that you, whether you dar- through as Carr's last sonata about them. Anyone capable of ed welcome it or not; otherwise, was so full and yet so empty, PLAYING it should be played—as Carr concert work could at least play your playing was growing dim with evening, with no more than was supposed to have said he the notes at the required tempos. a bumbling reproduction of notes dust, with age, with loneliness. it himself—Brian And any reasonably shrewd pian- on Music should not be silent. couldn't play a page. been thinking of that as The ist could keep track of the dy- Carr's life was not for When the piano was uncover- had the con- his Project for many years. It had namics, saving strength for the templation of the timid. ed, Brian delayed. He flexed

SCIENCE FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 93 92 GALAXY ——

were superficially in jail for that. And he died of bering THE details the inner storms of twenty- thing. But The Project ..." biographies stab wounds in a Cairo jail. It five years well known. The ago and more. He replaced the cover on the no- all had relevancy. Relevant or themselves were like musical Steinway and blew out the can- in- not, if the sonata was in your A S the single tation, meaningless without candle fluttered, dle. He had brought no torch, insight. mind, so was the life. *» terpretation and Brian realized that he had long use having taught his feet You had to remember also that Carr had been a drunken roar- forgotten to lock the door. That every inch of the short journey. Andrew Carr was the last of civil- er, a young devil-god with such _ troubled him, but he did not It was quite dark. The never- ization's great composers. No a consuming hunger for life that rise from the piano chair. He opened western windows of the one in the 21st century approach- he had choked to death on it. His chided himself instead for the auditorium were dirty, most of ed him they ignored his explora- friends hated him for the way — foolish neuroses of aloneness the dirt on the outside, crusted tions carved cherry-stones. he drained their lives, loving and what could it matter? wind-blow salt. belonged to no school, unless them to distraction and always He He shut his eyes. The sonata In this partial darkness, some- loving his work a little more. His you wanted to imagine a school had long ago been memorized; thing was wrong. of of music beginning with Bach, enemies must have had times printed copies were safe some- At first Brian could find no taking in perhaps a dozen along helplessly adoring him, if only where in the library. He played source for the faint light, the the way, and ending with Carr because of an impossible trans- the opening of the first move- dim orange with a hint of motion himself. His work was a sum- parent honesty that made him ment, as far as the double-bar; that had no right to be here. He mary and, in the light of the more and less than human. opened his eyes to the friendly peered into the gloom of the year 2070, a completion. A rugged Australian, not tall black and white of clean keys auditorium, fixed his eyes on the Brian was certain he could but built like a hero, a face all and played the repetition with oblong of blacker shadow that play the first movement of the forehead and jaw and glowing new light, new emphasis. Better was the door he meant to use, sonata acceptably. Technically, hyperthyroid eyes. He wept only than usual, he thought. but it told him nothing. it was not revolutionary, but when he .was angry, the biograph- Now that soaring modulation The windows, of course. He loyal to the ancient so- ers said. Tn one minute of talk, closely into A Major that only Carr had almost forgotten there were nata form. Carr had even writ- they said, he might shift from would have wanted just there in any. The light, hardly deserving double-bar gutter obscenity to some extreme ten in a conventional just that sudden way, like the the name, was coming through for repeat of the entire opening of altruistic tenderness, and from a abrupt happening upon shining them. But sunset was surely well statement, something that made that to a philosophical comment fields. On toward the climax I past; he had been here a long 20th century critics sneer of the coldest intelligence. late am playing it, I think—through time, delaying and brooding be- great satisfaction. It never He passed his childhood on a with the intricate revelations of de- fore he played. Sunset should not sheep farm, ran away to sea on a occurred to them that Carr ex- velopment and recapitulation. flicker. like pected a performer to use his freighter at thirteen, studied And the conclusion, lingering, So there was some kind of fire a slave in London with a single- head. half-humorous, not unlike a Bee- on the mainland. There had been desperation, even through The bright-sorrowful second thoven ending, minded but with a ques- no thunderstorm. How could fire unfashionably long, the horrors of the Pandemic of movement, tioning that was all Andrew Carr. start, over there where no one 1972. He was married twice and with its strange pauses, unfore- After that— ever came? twice divorced. He killed a man seen recapitulations, outbursts of "No more tonight," said Brian imbecile quarrel on the savage change—that was where aloud. in ah "Some night, though . . . TTE stumbled a few times, wrote Brian's troubles began. It did New Orleans docks, and Not competent right now, my -*"•- swearing petulantly, locat- was not help him to be old, remem- his First Symphony while he friend. Fear's a many-aspect ing the doorway again and grop- SCIENCE FICTION 94 GALAXY THE MUSIC MASTER 95 — — :

ing through it into the Hall of Unable to accept, or believe, ¥V/"HY assume that the maker covering when he slept. Then al- "' Music. The windows out here or not believe, he drew his head of the bonfire was neces- most total nakedness had become were just as dirty; no use trying in, resting his forehead the sarily on hostile? Might be good so natural, it required no thought to see through them. There coldness of the sill, must waiting for company. at all. But the ownefr of that bon- have been a time when he had dizziness to pass, reason to re- Might be . . . fire enjoyed looking through them. turn. Then rather calm, he once Brian pulled his raft through He checked his rifles. The .22 He. stood shivering in the more leaned out over the sill. The the darkness, secured it at the automatic, an Army model from silence, trying to fire still marble remem- shone and was therefore stairway, and groped back to his the 2040s, was the best. The tiny ber. not a disordered dream of old cave. bullets carried a paralytic poison He could not. Time was a age, but it was dying to a dull He then locked the door. The graze a man's finger and he was gradual eternal dying. Time was rose of embers. venison was waiting, the sight painlessly dead in three minutes. a long growth of dirt and ocean and smell of it making him sud- Effective range, with telescopic salt, in, covering little sealing over TTE wondered a about denly ravenous. He lit a small sights, three kilometers; weight, -*--- forever. _ time. The Museum clocks fire in the stove, one that he a scant five pounds. for his cave, He stumbled hur- and watches had stopped long hoped would not be still sending He sat a long time cuddling rying now, and lit two candles. ago; Brian had ceased to want smoke from the ventilator shaft that triumph of military science, He left one by the cold stove them. A sliver of moon was hang- when morning came. He cooked listening for sounds that did used the other to light his and ing over the water to the east. He the meat crudely and wolfed it not come, wondering often about way down the stairs to his raft. ought to be able to remember the down, all enjoyment gone at the the unknowable passage of night Once down there, he blew it out, first phases, deduce the approximate mouthful. toward day. Would it be two afraid. The room a candle makes time from that. But his mind He was shocked then to dis- o'clock. is vulnerable in the darkness a was too tired or distraught to cover the dirtiness of his white He wished he could have seen room. walls, it closes in With no give him the necessary data. beard. He hadn't given himself the Satellite, renamed in his blindness. pulled the raft a He Maybe it was somewhere around a real bath in — weeks? He mind the Midnight Star, but the guide-rope, gently, for by midnight. searched for scissors and spent when he was down there at his fear of noise. He climbed on the sill and, an absent-minded while trim- port, he had not once looked up He found his canoe tied as he with grunting effort, lifted the ming the beard back to shortness. at the night sky. Delicate and it. his had left He poked white canoe over it to the jmotionless He ought to take some soap beautiful, bearing its everlasting head slowly beyond the sill, star- water inside. Wasted energy, he valuable stuff—down to Moses' freight of men who must have ing west. decided, as soon as that struggle room and wash. been dead now for twenty-five Merely a bonfire gleaming, red- was over. That fire had been lit Clothes, too. People probably years and who would be dead a dening the blackness of the cliff. before daylight still passed; whoever wore them. He had worn very long time—well, it was bet- Brian knew the spot, a ledge lit it would have seen the canoe, none for years, except for sandals ter than a clock, Brian often at level. almost water At one might even have been watching and a clout and a carrying satchel thought, if you happened to look end of it was the troublesome Brian himself come home from for his trips to the mainland. He at the midnight sky at the right path he used in climbing up to his hunting. The canoe's disap- had enjoyed the freedom at first, time of the month when the Man- the forest. Usable driftwood was pearance in the night would only and especially the discovery in made star could catch the moon- often there, the supply renewed rouse further curiosity. But his rugged fifties that he did not light. But he had not seen it to 7 by the high tides. Brian was too exhausted to lift need clothes even for the soft night. ." "No," Brian said. "Oh, no . . it back. winters, except perhaps a light Three o'clock?

96 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 97 —

He returned to his cave and blew out the candle, thinking of the door, not caring that he had, in irrational bravado, left it unr locked. Face down, he rolled his head and clenched his fingers into his pallet, seeking in pain and finding at last the relief of stormy helpless weeping in the total dark. Then he slept.

rpHEY looked timid. The evi- * dence of it was in their tense squatting pose, not in what the feeble light allowed Brian to see of their faces, which were as blank as rock. Hunched down candle had given it a new mim- just inside the open some time during the long floor. It startled him. doorway of AT clearly icry of life. the cloakroom- cave, a dim morn- rifle away He remembered quite dark, he put the Though himself had placed it worn with antiquity, ing grayness from the Hall of on the floor. With studied, self- how he half-humorous it was not deformed. The chip- Music behind them, they were conscious contempt for his own there, obeying a singing ped places were simple honorable ready for flight. Brian's intelli- weakness, he strode out noisily whim: the image and the both magnificently scars. The two faces stared mild- gence warned his body to stay into the Hall of Music with a stones were history, so why ly from the single head; there motionless, for readiness for flight fresh-lit candle. This same bra- older, than together? were plain stylized lines to rep- could also be readiness for at- vado, he knew, might dissolve at shouldn't they live he dusted the marim- resent folded hands, equally art- tack. He studied them, lowering the first alien noise. While it Whenever dusted the image respect- less marks of sex on either side. his eyelids to a slit. On his pallet lasted, though, it was invigorat- ba, he That was all. its pedestal. It would The maker might well inside the cave, he must be ing. fully and much urging from have intended it to be a child's in deep shadow. The windows were still black not have taken impulses of a lonely mind, he toy or a god. They were aware of him, with night. As if the candle-flame the to make him place of- A wooden hammer of modern though, keenly aware. had found its own way, Brian supposed, make rested it and bow down on the marimba. They were very young, per- was standing by the ancient ma- ferings before of course, to indi- Softly, Brian tapped a few of the haps sixteen or seventeen years rimba in the main hall, the light winking first, rituals suitable to two stones. He struck the shrillest old, firm-muscled, the man slim slanting carelessly away from cate that gentlemen did not have to one harder, waking many slow- but heavy in the shoulders, the his thin, high-veined hand. Near- aging in order to be good. dying overtones, and laid the girl a fully developed woman. by, on a small table, sat the Stone be sensible clay face, re- hammer down, listening until the They were dressed alike: loin- Age clay image he had brought But now the startled last murmur perished and a drop cloths of some coarse dull fabric long ago from the Directors' capitulating eternity, flicker of the of hot wax hurt his thumb. and moccasins that might be meeting room on the fifteenth him. Possibly some

FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 99 98 GALAXY SCIENCE smiled, and hurt you. Do not go." deerhide. Their hair grew nearly know," she said, and doubt, or—well, perhaps they waiting for the They halted. The girl smiled to the shoulders and was cut off seemed to be would tell him. to go on dubiously. carelessly there, but they were young man's permission "There were old people in Mill- it, but The man said: evidently in the habit of combing speaking. He did not give "We need old stone," he said, trying for gentle she continued: "Sa, the old ones ones. They die. He who told us dignity, "and they died. it. They appeared to be clean. So now dead." She to call him Jonas said, Their complexion, so far as Brian of Millstone are many days you need old ones to take their her hand out and down, in the boat, not with the sun-path, place." could guess it in the meager light, thrust adding he said, across the sun-path, was the brown of a heavy tan. flat, a picture of finality, he The girl nodded vigorously. A "As the Old said, keeping land on the left With no immediate awareness with nervous haste: glance at the young man was full who told us to hand. We need old ones to speak of shyness, of emotion, he decided they were Man knows. He possessiveness, maybe she who told us the to speak . . . The Old beautiful, and then, within his call him Jonas, — Man some amusement. "He who told Abigail, they are dead. is angry?" us own poised, perilous silence, to call her to call him Jonas said no mar- for "No, I am not angry. Brian reminded himself that the They are still-without-moving I am riage can be without the words of do the burial never angry." Brian's mind grop- young are always beautiful. six days. Then we Abraham." us. As the Old Man ed, certain of nothing. No one had "Abr— Softly—Brian saw no motion as they told " Brian checked him- knows." come for twenty-five years. Only self. If this was religion, of her lips—the woman mutter- it would I don't know!" said twenty-five? Millstone? not do to ed: "He wake." "But speak the name Abra- on his pallet, There was red-gold on the A twitch of the man's hand was Brian, and sat up dirty ham with a rising inflection, at them. But eastern windows of the Hall probably meant to warn her to too quickly, startling of least not until he knew what it motion was backward, readi- Music, a light becoming softness stood for. "I be quiet. His other hand clutched their have been for a long flight, not for aggression. as it slanted down, touching the time—" the shaft of a javelin with a metal ness for He checked himself Where is Millstone?" long rows of cases, the warm again. blade. Brian saw that the blade "Millstone? A man old, ugly and brown of an antique had once belonged to a bread- spinet, the strange enough to be sacred looked wholly bewild- arrogant clean gold of a 20th should never stoop to knife; it was polished and shin- BOTH explain century harp, then dismayed. They the dull gray of anything. , ing, lashed to a peeled stick. The ered, splendid animal singing stones five thousand years javelin trailed, ready for use at stood up with stepping backward out of old and a clay face much older rpHEY were standing the a flick of the young man's arm. grace, by whispering in than that. * Brian opened his eyes plainly. the cave, the girl seven-stone marimba. His caught only "Millstone?" Brian pointed Deliberately, he sighed. "Good the man's ear. Brian hand dropped, his thumbnail ." southwest in inquiry. morning." two words: "Is angry . . clicking by accident against the "Don't go! The girl nodded, pleased and The youth said: "Good morn- He jumped up. deepest stone and waking a mur- don't go!" He followed not at all surprised that he should mur. The children ing, sa." Please drew back now, know, watching him now with "Where do you come from?" them out of the cave, slowly a alarmed. well be an squirrel's stiff curiosity. Hadn't "Millstone." The young man aware that he might Brian smiled. "Don't be afraid." in the half-dark, there once been a Millstone River tapped spoke automatically, but then his object of terror He the other stones light- in of his gaunt, graceless age or near Princeton? He thought ly. "It is only facial rigidity dissolved into aware music. It will not he remembered amazement and some kind of and dirty hacked-off beard. Al- that it emptied hurt you." He was silent a while, involuntarily, he adopted into the Raritan Canal. There and they distress. He glanced at his com- most were patient and re- stilted qual- was some moderately high ground panion, who giggled uneasily. something of the flat spectful, waiting for more light. "I will not around there. Islands now, no "The old man pretends to not ity of their speech: He asked carefully: "He who told FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 100 GAIAXY SCIENCE 101 told us to call her Abigail. two. We are the to call him Jonas, he taught who biggest, we two. palm, which the two watched in you to The hours to rise, to pray, The others are only children, you all the things you know?" but vague alarm. wash, to eat. The laws for hunt- he we call Jimi has "All things," the boy said, and killed his The boy asked: "What is that ing, and I know the Abraham- deer. He sees after them the girl nodded quickly, so now that?" I take hair words for that: Sol-Amra, while we go across the sun-path." the soft brownness of her "Never mind." He thought: / need." about her face, and she this for my Under Brian's questioning, could quarrel with some of your tumbled dismally Brian felt lost again, more of the story came, haltingly, theories, it back in a small human Mister whom I may call pushed the lost, and looked down to obscured by the motion as old as the clay image. young man's Jonas. "Well, tell me now what of the image for "Do you know how old you grave clay faces conviction that the Old Man al- they taught you of Abraham." counsel, and found none. "They ready knew everything. are?" Some Both made again that circular you to call them Jonas time, looked blank. Then the who told probably in the middle motion at forehead and breast, They the only She and Abigail, they were 2080s, Jonas and Abigail (who- and the man said with the girl said: "Oh, summers!" young who lived with you?" ever they both hands with spread old ones were) had come on a stiffness of recitation: 'Abraham held up bewilder- Again that look of group of twelve wild children was the Son of Heaven, fingers, then one hand. "Three who died ones, sa," the ment. "The only who were keeping alive somehow that we might live." fives. As the Old Man knows." the Old "I young man said. "As in a ruined town where their eld- "I am very old," said Brian. Man knows." ers had all died. know many things. But some- Jonas and Abi- 'T'HE girl, her obligations dis- could never persuade them gail had •*- wish to forget, and some- I brought them all to an charged with the religious times I very near- others that, being old, I know island they called Millstone. gesture, tapped the times I wish to hear what marimba shy- it ly nothing. Jonas and Abigail had come know, even though I may know ly, fascinated, and drew her finger originally from "up across the myself." back sharply, smiling up at Brian straightened to his full sun-path" They looked uncomprehending BRIAN —the boy seemed to in apology for her naughtiness. gaunt height. The young peo- mean north and they had been and greatly impressed. Brian felt — "He taught the laws, the ever- not tall; though stiff and very old, which might on his face and wondered ple were mean any- lasting truth of all time," the boy a smile was worn with age, Brian knew he thing between thirty and ninety, recited, almost gabbling, it should be there. They "and why crea- still a bonily overpowering in teaching the children primitive slain the wheel at were nice children. Born ten years was on Nuber he had Or ture. Once, among men, means of survival, Jonas and Abi- by the infidels. Therefore, since after the death of a world. enjoyed being more than gail had brought off a brilliant twenty perhaps. / think I am mildly he died for us, we look up across life-size. success: Jonason and Paula were seventy-six, but did I drop a dec- the sun-path when we pray to As a shield for the lonely, well fed, shining with health and Brown, who will come ade somewhere and never notice Abraham frightened thing that was his cleanliness and the strength of again." the damn thing? he put on a phony stern- wildness, and their speech had "He who told you to call him mind, not Abraham Brown? "I wish to examine you been learned from the ignorant. Jonas^he taught you all that you ness: But— Millstone and your knowl- Its pronunciation know about Abraham?" about faintly sug- But I knew him, Brian thought, of Abraham. How many gested New England, so far as J him once. At sound of the name, both of edge stunned. met Nuber? living at Millstone?" Brian swift circular mo- others are could detect any local ac- Newburg, the temporary capital them made J then "Two fives, sa, ' said the boy cent at all. of the Soviet of—oh, the hell with tions, first at the forehead, promptly, "and I who may be "Did they- teach you reading that. Met him in 2071 he was at the breast. — Jonason and this one we and writing?" he asked, and made years old then, could still "He taught us all things," the called 102 call Paula. Two fives and writing motions on the flat of his walk, speak clearly, even remem- young man said. "He, and she may

SCIENCE FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 103 102 GALAXY — — " "

ber an unimportant concert of thought, that Jonas and Abigail There is always The Project. more harshly than he intended: mine from years before. I could could have met the living Abra- "Why, perhaps." "Answer my question! What do have picked him up in one hand, ham Brown. As anyone must "We know all the prayers, Old you know of the old days? I was but nobody was ever more alive. who faces the limitations of hu- Man." a young man once, do you under- The wheel? man intelligence, Brown had ac- "Yes, I'm sure you do." stand? As young as you. What do "The Old will "And when did he die, boy?" cepted mysteries, but he did not Man come with you know about the world I lived Brian asked. make them. He was wholly with- us." Jonason moved fingers help- out intellectual arrogance. No one "Eh?" There is always The Project. "Come with lessly, embarrassed. "Long, long could have talked with him five you?" JONASON laughed. There was "We for ago." He glanced up hopefully. minutes without hearing him say look old ones," said new-born doubt in him as well the young man. "A thousand years? I think he tranquilly: "I don't know." There was a new as anger, stiffening his shoulders, note in his voice, who told us to call him Jonas The wheel at Nuber? and the note narrowing his innocent gray eyes. did not ever teach us that." The wheel? was impatience. "We traveled "There was always the world," many days, up across the sun- "I see. Never mind." Oh, my he said, "ever since God made it path. We want you to good Doctor—after all! Artist, BRIAN realized he could never speak the a thousand years ago." Abraham-words for statesman, student of ethics, phil- learn how Brown had actually marriage. "Was there? I was a musician. The Old Ones said osopher—you Said that if men died. Even if he had the strength we must not Do you know what a musician knew themselves, they would and courage to go back north mate as the animals do without is?" the words. — have the beginning of wisdom. no, at seventy-six (eighty-six?), We want The young man shook his head, "Marry, of course," Your best teacher was Socrates. one can hardly make a fresh start said Brian watching Brian — too alertly, feebly, rubbing his great, Well you knew it, and now look in the study of history. Not with- long- watching his hands, aware of him fingered hand across his face so in what's happened! out the patience of , Abraham a new way, no longer humble. that the Jonas and Abigail—some vis- Brown himself, who had probably words were blurred and Paula sensed the tension and did dull. "Naturally. ionary pair, Brian supposed, been doing just that when the Beget. Replen- not like it. ish the Earth. maybe cracking up under the wheel I'm tired. I don't She said worriedly, politely: know ghastliness of those years. Ad- An awed question from the girl any Abraham-words for "We forget some of the things marriage. mirers of Brown, perhaps. Shock- pulled Brian from a black pit of Go on and marry. Try they taught us, sa. They were again. Try— ed, probably, away from the re- abstraction: "What is that?" She Old Ones. Most of the days, they "But the Old Ones said—" ligions of the 21st century, which was pointing to the clay image in were away from us in—places "Wait!" Brian cried. had all failed to stop the horrors, its dusty sunlight. "Wait! where we were not to go, pray- Let nevertheless they needed one, or Brian spoke vaguely, almost me think. Did he—he who ing. Old Ones are always pray- were convinced that the children deaf to his own words until they told you to call him Jonas, did ing." he teach you anything did—so they created one. There were past recovering: "That? It is about the "I will hear this Old Man world as it must later have been some dizzy- very old. Very old and very was in the old days, pray," said Jonason. The butt of before you were born?" ing pride of creation in it, pos- sacred." She nodded, round-eyed, the javelin rested against Jona- "Before? sibly wholehearted belief in them- and stepped back a pace or two. The Old Man makes son's foot, the blade swaying from fun of us." selves, too, as they found the "And that—that was all they side to side. A wrong word, any "No, no." since children accepting it, building a taught you of Abraham Brown?" And he now trifle, Brian knew, could make, had to fight down physical ritual life around it. Astonished, the boy asked: "Is fear them decide in an instant that as well as confusion, It was impossible, Brian it not enough?" Brian spoke he was evil and not sacred. Their THE 104 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION MUSIC MASTER 105 —

slightly differ- fringe of awareness. But he could with the religion would certainly require to have said on a same assurance, the same ass knows that. not look at them any more. He joyful sense of victory. a devil. ent subject, any Savages went shut his eyes. let He thought also: Merely one Brio, Rubato and Schmalz them go, with leave and good Paula, this He had never played like this will. of the many ways of dying. It to sea in a-—Jonason, hurt you. in the flood of his prime, in the would be swift, which is always is a piano. It will not listen." old days, before great audiences external a consideration. Sit there, be quiet, COME sound was that loved him. Never. "Certainly you may hear me He found calm. Now if ever, ^ faintly troubling him, some- living proof His eyes were still closed, hold- thing pray," said Brian abruptly. now when I have that must have begun under nature (some sorf of ing him secure in a secret world "Come this way." In a fluctuating that human cover of these rising, pealing oc- is continuing— that was not all darkness, when tave despair, he knew that he must human nature) passages—storm waves, each Project-^ he ended the first movement, not become angry, as a climber surely now, if ever, The higher than the last, until it paused very briefly, and moved stumbling at the edge of a cliff seemed that even a superhuman authority on with complete assurance to might order himself not to be WITH the sudden swimmer must be exhausted. An to him, explore the depth and height of careless. "Come this way. My that was natural undefinable alien noise, a kind of took over. In the the second. This was a true state- humming. prayers—I'll show you. I'll show Andrew Carr chords of the ment at last. This was Andrew Brian shook his you what I did when I was a stupendous opening head peevishly, Carr; he lived, even if, after this young man in a^world you never introduction, Brian very nearly shutting it away. It couldn't mat- late morning, he might never knew." forgot his audience. Not quite, ter, at least not now. Everything live again. He stalked across the Hall of though. The youngsters had sat was here, in the beautiful labors And now the third, the storm Music, not looking behind, but down out there in the dusty re- his hands still had to do. The ghosts had and the wrath, the interludes of waves his back sensed every glint of gion where none but were growing more quiet, years or calm, the anger, denials, affirma- settling, light on that bread-knife javelin. lingered for twenty-five subsiding, and now he sound tions. Was there anything he "Come this way!" he shouted. more. The piano's first must play those curious arpeggios their feet. Brian didn't know, this heir of three which "Come in here!" He flung open brought them to he had never quite under- first four bars, centuries who died in jail? stood the door of the auditorium and played through the —but, of course, he under- mountains, Without hesitation, without stood strode up on the platform. "Sit piling the chords like them at last. Rip them out any awareness of self, of age or down over there and be quiet!" then held the last one with the of the piano like showers of hand at pain or danger or loss, Brian was sparks, They did, he thought—he could pedal and waved his right like distant lightnings in furious entering on the broad reaches of moving not look at them. He knew he Jonason and Paula a farther off across a world the last movement when he was muttering, too, between his downward motion. that could never be at rest. understood. opened his eyes. noisy outbursts, as he snatched He thought they The final theme. Why, it was a sit down The youngsters were gone. variation the cover off the Steinway and He thought he saw them —and how was it that he could pay them Well, he thought, it's too big. had raised the lid, muttering bits again, but he never realized it?—a varia- It frightened them away. and fragments from old times, scant attention now, for the son- He tion on a theme of Brahms, from under his could visualize them, stealing out and from the new times. ata was coming alive the German Requiem. Quite with backward .looks "They went thataway. Oh, Mr. fingers, waking, growing, rejoic- of panic. plain, quite simple, and Brahms Incomprehensible thunder. But would have approved. Still Van Anda, it just simply goes ing. it was the young- he could not think much about rather through me; I can't express He did not forget strange, Brian thought, right them sters again. They were important, now. Not while Andrew that he had never made the it. Madam, such was my inten- too important, at the Carr was with him. He played on identification before in tion—or, as Brahms is supposed terrifying, spite of all FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 106 GALAXY SCIENCE 107 laughed once, softly, Please don't go! I beg you!" Brian his study. Well, he knew it now. BRIAN roared: "Bring back my shadows, and was not Brian followed them unwill- Blessed are the dead ... in the god! I want my little god!" She had hit on a most ingly. It was a measure of his Yes, Brian thought, but some- heard. He was not gaining on them. primeval rhythm natural for chil- unwillingness that moments pass- They thing more remained, and he had a mission, after all. of dren or savages and needed noth- ed before he was at the bottom They had to searched for it, proudly certain find the right kind ing else, hammering it out swiftly of the stairway looking across of Old Ones. discovering it, through the But damn it, Brian and then the next, the shut-in water to his mighty unfolding of the finale. on one. stone raft, thought, my world has some no rest or variation. which they had used and left at No hurrying, no crashing im- wanting rights, hasn't it? We'll see about boy was dancing, slapping the window-sill port. Brian had this. patience any more, but a mov- The chest, his feet, pounding his never been a good swimmer; he He lifted ing through time with no fear of the paddle like a thrusting out his javelin in per- was too dizzy now and short of spear time, through radiance and dark- and flung it, knowing even fect time to the clamor, edging up breath to attempt to reach it. before ness with no fear of either. An- his shoulder winced how companion, grimacing, He clutched the rope and drew Carr was happy, the light to his absurd the gesture was. The drawing back to return. Neither hitched himself, panting, hand youngsters of the Sun on his shoulders. were so far away that or close to laughter. over hand, to the window, That they may rest from their was laughing col- even an arrow from a bow might Their faces were savage-solemn, lapsing there a while until he not have labors, and their works do follow reached them. downright grim with the excite- found strength to scramble into The paddle after them. splashed in the innocent lust, as spon- his canoe and grope for the pad- Brian stood up, swaying and ment, the water. Not far away: a small in- taneous as the drumming of part- dle. The youngsters' canoe was finity. It out of breath. So the music was swung about to the will ridges. already far off, heading up the of the river, over, and the young savages were the heavy end point- It was a while before they saw river, the boy paddling with deep ing gone, and somewhere a jangling, obediently downstream. It shadows. powerful strokes. humming confusion was filling Brian in the nuzzled companionably against The girl dropped the hammer. Up the river, of course. They a gray-faced the Hall of Music, distant, but chunk of driftwood, his javelin had to find the The boy froze briefly, right kind of Old diverting it, entering with violence even here, so that presently the raised, then jerked his head Ones. Up across the sun-path. driftwood now that the piano was silent. floated into Brian's slightly at Paula, who snatched Brian dug his blade in the reach. Brian moved stiffly out of the something. Only moments later /quiet water. For a time, his auditorium, more or less knowing at He caught it, and flung it to-i Brian realize that she had rugged ancient muscles were will- ward what he would find. did the paddle, hoping it might the clay image before she ing. There was sap in them yet. fall on The noise was immense, the taken the other side and send covered her retreat, Perhaps he was gaining slightly. unchecked overtones of the ma- fled. Jonason the paddle near him. It fell short, backward, his face blank He shouted hugely: "Bring and in rimba fuming and quivering as stepping his oddly painless extrem- javelin with fear and readiness, back my two-faced god! Bring ity, Brian the high ceiling of the Hall of was not surprised, but So swiftly, so easily, by it back! It's not yours. It's not Music caught and twisted tbem, poised. merely watched the gray drift- grace of a few wrong words and yours!" wood floating and flung them back against the an- bobbing along Steinway's best, had a Sacred beside swering strings of harps and him with an irritation that become a Bad Old One, THHEY must have heard his and violins, the sulky Old One was part friendliness, for it sug- pianos *- spirit. voice booming at them. membranes of drums, the nervous an evil At gested the face of a music critic They were gone, down the any rate, the girl looked back he had brass of cymbals. met in—New Boston, was , of stairway, leaving the echo once. The boy, intent on his it? Denver? The girl was playing it. Really London? He couldn't Brian's voice crying: "Don't go! effort, did not. remember. playing it. SCIENCE FICTION THE MUSIC MASTER 108 GALAXY 109 "

" submerged, "Why," he said aloud, de- —have so deeply themselves, that they tachedly observing the passage of dedicated might truly be said to have be- his canoe beyond the broad morn- one with—" Gaining on the ing shadow of the Museum of come gray-faced chip moved Human History, "I seem to have canoe, the Up By tranquilly, placidly approving, made sure to die." j LUCIUS has abundant- toward the open sea. And with a "Mr. Van Anda DANIEL remnant of strength, Brian ly demonstrated a mastery of the final — forward to the bow of the instrument and of the " You inched for and gathered the full force acid fraud, go play solfeggio on canoe lungs to shout up the river: Illustrated by your linotype! Don't bother me! of his "and of the literature which "Go in peace!" D0CKT0R could not have heard could, without exaggeration, be They were too far away"and Renewal termed beyond technique. He is him. They blowing, interpreters who a new morning wind was one of those rare "I'd give a year off my life — fresh and sweet, out of the north- at the last analysis ." it, you know," west. to . . Idle talk now, but it "I can't swim —EDGAR PANGBORN said Brian. was ghastly reality to Kent!

HOWARD Kent looked at probably have to wait hours in his young and beautiful this perfectly dismal place." wife and felt the weight She looked as young and fresh of the years rest on his shoulders. as he looked old and dusty, he In her eyes he saw his heavily thought, so out of place in this HOLD IT! lined face and sagging, stooped kind of establishment. shoulders. He had always loved small wo- which They stood just We mean your collection of GALAXY, naturally, inside the long, men. Leah was small and viva- narrow reception room of the Hu- cious and dressed a year ahead of when they're kept in our man Rejuvenation Plant. Potted styles. will really dress up your library No matter what happen- palms and formal chairs remind- ed, he'd never regret having mar- instead of just being handsome, gold-stamped binders, ed one of a Human Disposal unit. ried her. "I have a confession to make, "But this is something I should Each binder holds six issues and allowed to accumulate. darling," he said. have told you before," he said.

"Oh, no, 1 Howard. Not now . I She put her hand on his arm. $1.50 postpaid from Galaxy Publishing Corp., costs only take for granted you've done "I've been perfectly happy these the usual things in your youth." Street, New York 14, N. Y. past six months. Whatever it was, 421 Hudson ." "But . . I forgive you." "And we needn't have hurried "It's not that. I'm talking about so, as you can see. Now we'll my age. I didn't think you'd mar- SCIENCE FICTION no GAIAXY UP FOR RENEWAL 111 eighty, instead n't capable of making a rational "Howard, you're being perfectly old I "Suppose it was ry me if you knew how you of ninety?" decision." nasty. Just like an aged person really was. I put off telling "Oh, dear, you worry too He wiped his forehead. "That you read about." and figured you'd see my birth "Doctors don't would be a long time off, darl- "Five million dollars, and all cere- much," she said. certificate at the wedding make such mistakes." ing. We'd have so much time to- of it youfs when I die a natural mony." a guar- gether in the next fifteen years." death." put his in his the "They can't give me He hands "I never even looked at antee. You see, three of my an- "But what would it be like if pockets. old thing." ' silly accidents. The you were crippled with arthritis cestors died from fc "Well, darling, I looked at prediction of ninety years is bas- or some other disease?" fT^HE street door opened just yours and felt a little guilty in ed on the assumption that they "You could divorce me if that -*- then and a young man came marrying a young girl of twenty- a normal life- happens." toward them with a light springy sixty- would have lived three. But the fact is I'm time." "I can also divorce you if you step. I've been rejuvenated be- five. "They make few guarantees. don't go through with rejuvena- He offered his hand to Howard fore." You know, all of you men are tion. You know it's the law." who took it slowly. "How are "I rather suspected it when such babies at a time like this." "You wouldn't do that." His you, skipper? And you, Leah? I you started aging so suddenly "Yes, but if it is eighty—then, face was more lined than ever. came as soon as I got your mes- week," she said. "Before that last rejuvenated "Don't be silly, dear. Nobody sage." I'll come out not a you didn't look a day over thirty. a handful of dust." gets old these days. Who would "He's worried, Mike." Leah's matter." man, but just - But it doesn't "Oh, that can't happen." remain our friends? Why, every- face had brightened. "And now "It's worse than that, Leah." where we'd go, people would he's insisting on growing old." His face worked convulsively. this way." He point us out. Oh, no, life would- "I've been through the wringer before. at it "I've been here twice LOOK paused a moment while tak- n't be livable." twice before, you see," Howard This is my third trip." her youthful appearance. "That sounds like a cruel and said in a low voice. too modern to act shock- ing in "I'm look calculating decision to me," "I don't think want to "From now on I wouldn't you have much ed, Howard. If you didn't grayer Howard said. "Either I take a to worry about," said. perfectly much older. Just a little Mike tell me before, dear, it's and perhaps more stooped. Then, chance on dying or you'll divorce "Those medics know their busi- all right." have what's left of my longev- me. ness." "Look, darling!" Perspiration I'll this re- "You have no right to make "Aging is a nasty process." don't ity plus the five years stood on his forehead. "You you juvenation would clip off." such an accusation. I married a Leah wrinkled her nose as if she seem to understand. But then "Why, Howard, dear." Leah young man who said he was smelled something offensive. never could add or subtract. Now sounded shocked. "You don't thirty years old. Six months later "Maybe you can convince him, carefully. Each trip clips listen talking about. I discover he's sixty-five. Now Mike." span." know what you're five years off your life aunt of mine elected that who's cruel and calculating?" "Leah is right, you know," "Everyone knows that, of An perfectly hor- "Please, darling, I didn't mean Mike said. "A few years ago I to be choice and it was course. But it's better drooled the last few it. Look," he pleaded, "I'll even visited the old age home. There's ..." rible. She young helpless sign permission for you to have only left. than years of her life and was one You'd be surprised "It's better to be alive a lover. There's that young fel- the as a baby." at amount of suffering old dead," he said harshly. "Why didn't they use Euthan- low that's always around. Maybe people go through before they "But your doctors have given it's happened already." die; cancer, angina, age asia?" he asked. broken bones, you a longevity span to the "The courts decided she was- She stood back from him. strokes, arthritis. Rejuvenation of ninety." GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION UP FOR RENEWAL 113 112 end of the long room, won't work on extremely old the AT opened and two bodies. Longevity has run out." a door entered, starched and an- "Why does it have to clip off nurses five years?" worried Howard. tiseptic. is ready, Mr. "It's the old-age governor they "Your room found m the pituitary gland. Kent," one nurse said. shuddered. "Every- They can turn it back, but the Howard horribly familiar. The shock takes off about five years." thing is so the pill to erase the worry, which "Oh, I know what's in The cart you ride medical articles," Howard growl- doesn't work. makes you feel like a ed. "Remember, I've been on which little bump as you through here twice before. But carcass. The the regeneration room. the Sun was so warm this morn- enter you get a hypodermic and ing. It was like seeing everything Then into a long boiler ta.nk." for the last time. I felt like sit- crawl just nervous, dear," ting down and letting everything "You're Leah. drift." said miasmic cloud set- "That's a sure sign that you "A dismal, your mind and you de- really need rejuvenating," said tles on you wouldn't go through it Leah. "After it's over you'll be cide the world." making me a golf widow again. again for anything in put his arm around Leah Won't he, Mike?" Mike the most natural "Of course. He'll come out rar- as if it were in the world. "He'll be all ing to go." thing Howard looked from Mike to right, my darling." at them and Leah and back at Mike. Age was Howard looked wearily to the nurse. no match for youth. If love had- then turned "I'm ready." n't started between them already, The nurse walked down the it would soon.

SEND TODAY FOR NEW CATALOG! Absolutely FREE! No obligation! favorite BOOKS! — our new catalog is ready to Bring your NOW — iust off the press *» a^Xrs olcience Fiction. Fantasy and Wierd adventures « »« » descriptions fully l"u8'™ t mailbox! A unique book catalog-complete ^ your name and address, and you 11 get «n,l it doesn't cost you a cent! Send Keep you posted regular* '«.m "o» on "ur copy"by return mail. And we'll values bargains «'10[ "- BOOKS! sending you news of outstanding book . . . been serving for years. No obligation!tnl.S rfame to the thousands of others we have Satisfaction guaranteed! WRITE TODAT1 READERS' SERVICE BOOK CLUB 0-2 • San Jose 13, California BOOKS! 119 E. San Ferr.ar.do St. • O.pt. UP FOR SCIENCE FICTION RENEWAL 115 114 GALAXY hair and a wrinkle this morning, long room with the stooped man Better six months of youth and disappeared beyond the door. love. than a thousand years of old "Did you tell him about us?" asked Mike. age." went into his arms. "Don't "Of course not. What a man She worry about what happens, love. doesn't know won't hurt him." have a lot of fun in the "Are you Mrs. Kent?" asked You'll next seventy years." the other nurse who had remain- kissed her and held her ed behind. He "Yes." closely. Special go now," she said. "The doctor said to remind you "I've got to "I'm so grateful you were able that the fourth time is very the forged birth certificate." dangerous," the nurse said. to get high heels tapped rapidly "You'll have five years and six Her on the tile floor as she walked months without it. But possibly down the long room with the only six months if it should be other nurse. successful." luck, Mother," he call- "Better take the first offer, "Good Mike. ed after her. Leah," said —LUCIUS DANIEL Leah smiled. "I found a gray

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118 * • • • * SHELF 119 that cause all the disturbances, a Oh, well. TF you want a really disagree- under the title "To The Stars" in lad named Trixie. He tells of his Painfully uneven, too, is the -*- able and almost pointless ex- Astounding back in 1950, devel- mother, childless Mary Hilary, content of the book. There are perience in reading, I recommend ops the notion that the crews of her heel of a British politician two Class A tales, one by Poul this wordy pseudo-imitation of interstellar ships age only months husband—and of the twins, Janet Anderson and one little dandy by Gulliver's Travels to your maso- while they are in transit, while on and himself, who never lived, but Evelyn Smith; three B and B- chistic attention. Earth people age decades, even were "kindled into being" by plus items by Asimov, Clarke An interplanetary exploration centuries. Mary's wanting them. and Dick ; and seven ranging from crew is mysteriously stranded on The crews thereby become a Nothing can be more enchant- C to D-minus by authors whose an unknown planet which the class apart, having no, friends, ing and tragic than the delicate • names we will charitably not ex- literary-minded gents on the ship no families, no durable human building up of the character of pose here to the public view. name Thalia. contacts other than their crew the little non-material lad as he They go through interminably mates. Yet the faster-than-light tells of his equally ephemeral sis- THE ALTERED EGO by Jerry gruesome adventures among the ships still go out, for they have a ter, and of their relations to the Sohl. Rinehart & Co., $2.50 o d 1 i s - K k , vegetable wormlike crucial function: the saving of physical characters in the book. creatures whose society seems to the human race. I know it may all sound a SOHL'S fourth science fiction be intended to satirize some sort Hubbard's melodramatic de- hard-boiled bit ridiculous to the offering is just as slick, fast- of rigid traditionalist theocracy. velopment of this thesis is just and the serious-minded, but I moving, melodramatic and essen- The Gromliks, squarish beings short of absurdity, but interest- assure you it is not—not, that is, tially empty as his previous ones. who serve the author as a blunt- ing nevertheless. if you still care for the sort of This one deals with the old "im- edged parody on communism; poetic fantasy that today, alas, mortality" idea of renewing—or and two other groups, the Vim- COSMIC MANHUNT by L. seems to be almost extinct. • If even copying — the brains and liks and the Optliks, the nature S prague de Camp; RING you do enjoy such "stuff as bodies of the deserving dead, so of which will forever be unknown AROUND THE SUN by Clif- dreams are made on," please do they can keep on being valuable to me, since I just quit reading ford Simak. Ace Books, Inc., 35c this lovely book. not pass up to society. at that dismal point. A nefarious bjanch of charac- Of course, this may be the HPHE newest Ace "double" gives TIME TO COME, edited by ters try to subvert this noble greatest satire since 1984, but * you a reprint of Simak's rich- August Derleth. Farrar, Straus scheme to their own base ends, somehow I doubt it. ly imaginative novel that first ap- and Young, $3.95 but are defeated by the son of peared in this magazine and then a man who has been murdered RETURN TO TOMORROW by was hard-covered by Simon and trend toward collections and then disagreeably mi'scopied, L. THE Ron Hubbard. Ace Books, Inc., Schuster, and publishes for the of heretofore-unpublished sci- and by the inevitable pinup hero- 25c first time since its original seriali- ence fiction and fantasy con- ine with "blonde hair, bronzed zation in Astounding one of de tinues, with the appearance of shoulders, small waist and long "AS mass approaches infinity, Camp's Krishnan series, original this one by the Sage of Sauk legs." ** time approaches zero." This title "The Queen of Zamba." City. Twelve stories for almost relativity concept is the basis of De Camp gets around the $4.00 — or about double the THE FABULOUS J6URNEY a fast-paced and grim adventure problem of subjective time dif- material in an average issue of OF HIERONYMUS MEEKER by the manufacturer of diane- ferences that laid the ground- Galaxy for more than ten times by Willy Johns. Little, Brown & tics. work for the plot of Hubbard's as much money. Co., $3.50 The story, which first appeared novel (see above) by having peo-

120 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION * • * • • SHELF 121 tion. You'll be surprised at what sum of its "Kindness." parts because of the to remain Rey's offering, pie on Earth who want it turns put to be. strong feeling of identification are run-of-the-mill same age as star travelers The rest the none merit- one has with the leading charac- simple. kid stuff, not bad, but take "trance pills." Very MEL OLIVER AND SPACE ters. cops-and- ing hard covers. Otherwise, this is a ROVER ON MARS by William I'd call the book a worth- robbers adventure on a planet Morrison. Gnome Press, $2.50 TITAN by Alan while item for the young and also still in a pre- TROUBLE ON whose natives are for us older folk who are in E. Nourse; ROCKETS TO NO- industrial stage of development. 'T'HIS juvenile has one quality search of vicarious escape. by Philip St. John; a hunt for the run- WHERE -• It involves THE SECRET OF SATURN'S none of the items reviewed away daughter of a rich Levan- above can claim: simple charm. THE NATURE OF Donald A. Wollheim. LIGHT (Earthian) who has eloped RINGS by tine $2.00 It is much nearer to the delight- AND COLOUR IN THE OPEN de The John C. Winston Co., to said planet with a typical ful Heinlein formula, as evi- AIR by M. Minnaert. Dover Fal- each Campian adventurer named denced in his series of young peo- Publications, Inc., paper, $1.95 lon. more exciting ple's books for Scribner, than any and moderate- are three It's fast-moving HERE of the volumes in the Winston ' | ''HIS unusual book describes space operas in the Winston sophisticated entertainment, -*• ly juveniles, series I have yet read. and explains a hundred or not bubble- series of science fiction bubble-light though The tale is, I suppose, strictly (including the more of the common (and un- considerably below making 24 in all headed, and for youngsters, even though I pommon) physical phenomena reviewed above). None author's best. anthology the depth or enjoyed it. (What does that make that occur because of the ex- up for make any pretense at Simak's offering makes me?) Yet because of the warm istence of the Earth's atmosphere, seriousness of purpose, but they it. adventure realization of all the characters the nature of the Sun's light, and are all good clean and the vividness of the space- the curious construction of the TOMOR- without viciousness or unneces- THE YEAR AFTER ship and Martian backgrounds, human eye. brutality. edited by Lester del Rey, sary ROW, of Sa- it has a vitality that is most ap- It covers everything from rain- Carl Car- Two deal with aspects Cecile Matschat and pealing. bows to halos around street lights, Nourse book being more The John C. Winston Co., turn, the met. is There is a boy stowaway and from luminescent clouds to glow- real than the Wollheim, which $3.00 Villains in also an almost "human" collie worms. in the old tradition of Interests named Space Rover. They be- You'd be surprised how much anthology for the Pay of the Vested nine-story come involved with an inter- you don't know about some of THIS Idealistic Professor people consists of three Versus the young Son; but planetary circus run by a Mar- the simplest aspects of light as it Claudy and and his Daring Young tales each by Carl H. tian strongman and a Venusian works its miracles and mysteries easy to read. Dresser, all taken from both are Peter van with india-rubber type. There are in the air of our planet. I don't St. John's book, dealing files of The American the back a fu- plots and counter-plots, all kinds think a book like this has ever As- the problems of security in Boy, two by del Rey from crises sur- where almost every of and to-be-expected been done before, either, which one by Robert ture America, tounding, and prises, a girl (very nice), and the should it particularly important is "top make only "A" thing that is Moore Williams (the usual allotment of villains. worthy of your attention. likewise a good thril- the book—"The Red secret," is story in attrac- But the whole is more than the —GROFF CONKLIN it has the added Mars") also from As- ler, but Death of moral. tion of a pretty pointed tounding. One of Claudy's stor- too, in the Shadow," It has a nice gimmick, ies, "The Land of No "invisible" space sta- as is del form of an is also worth attention, • * * * * SHELF 123 OAIAXY SCIENCE FICTION 122 mock him, none to lift a hand pie had in the Dark Ages. All the against him, none to have a same they looked at the name chance to defend him. stenciled on the breast of his If he had been born three tunic before replying. To have hundred years before, in the used his name without doing this Twentieth Century, he would would have been impolite, draw- have found an ungainly balance. ing attention to the fact that his The Age of He would have seen others like deformity was widely known. himself. He would have estab- "We hope it will go to a star, lished a shy, unspoken com- Bruno." Kindness munion with them, and with all "Why do you only hope?" things piteous, misshapen, bro- "Because it is very difficult. ken, flawed. And he might have Once men thought it would be By ARTHUR SELLINGS learned to tend a spark of beauty easy. They thought they had it in his heart, knowing that most all solved. Ten years, they There was only one way for of the people about him were as thought, twenty .at the most, and everybody Bruno to be like twisted in their souls as he was they'd reach the Moon. As easily

. . . get rid of all of them! in his body. as that." But in this age there were no "That was three hundred years others like him. Everybody else ago," his companion put in. age And they never stopped. ROUGHER, earlier was straight, both in body and "It has taken all this time, would have been taunted would have looked the He soul. The making of a human then?" nicknames by a cruder peo- other way when he with was a science and an art now. "Well, not exactly. We've only A ple. They would have called him passed by. But now they refused There had been no such accident just started up again these last because he was a hunch- to notice any difference in him. Humpy as himself for several genera- few years. You see, back in the back. They would have called They admitted him into their tions. Dark Ages they had two dreams. Shorty because he was small. company, invited him to join him An earlier people would have One was a good dream, by their would have called him their fun. It was he who turned They looked upon him at birth, and standards. The oth«r was a night- because his face was freak- away. Smily with a brutal mercy they might mare. The nightmare nearly in a perpetual expression An earlier age would have ed have killed him. came true. The dream stayed whose only resemblance to a feared him. Whispers would have But this was the age of light just a dream. For the nightmare across back smile was coincidental. been exchanged . . . the age of kindness. all but blotted out the dream, he'd been in danger, or fences. No smallest crime could Yet if what with the war, the rebuild- if anyone had lifted a hand have been left unsolved in the squinted up at the long, ing after, lack of tools and re- being laid against his twistedness, some of HE neighborhood without brilliant shape. "Where is it sources. And they had other those who called him names darkly at his door. But there was going to?" he asked. concerns. They had to conquer would have leaped to his defense. hardly any crime. There were no They smiled .gently, laying themselves first before they could But in the era in which he was back fences. The only whispers aside their tools. They had heard conquer space. Because the tech- born, none would have thought to were the ones in his own head. of Bruno, knew that he roamed niques that could annihilate place to just as space could annihilate too." Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS from place peo- Man,

FICTION THE AGE OF KINDNESS 125 124 GALAXY SCIENCE — "

"And now you can do it?" "But that's wrong," he said. By going to one of the planets, fled—then surely nobody especi- shouldn't just leave it "Yes, I think so. We can try, "People the pilot has enough » time to ally wants to go. But I do. I anyway. We have to. People there. They should go on and on adapt. Do you see?" want to go!" the have never forgotten that dream. like the old explorers over Bruno seemed not to hear him. "It's not that, Bruno. You see Cabot and Colum- — In a way they've gone past it. oceans. Like He stood there, thought puckering " But they couldn't say it. "Go and Magel- But all the other things that peo- bus, Vasco da Gama his face even more than usual. ask Dr. Marcus in Main Block names, all ple thought so worthwhile before lan." He knew their "Well," said the other tech- there. He'll explain." they were accomplished, so that of that great company of lone nician. "We have to get on with now we can say that was good, adventurers, sailing on and on our work, otherwise nobody will ~T|R. Marcus was a kind man. and fa- or that was bad, but either way away from the crowded get anywhere." He turned away, *-^ He was also a man with cities, out into the solitary it was done. But space travel is a miliar his companion with him. abundant self-control. When parabola that was never traced. unknown. "Wait," said Bruno. "How Bruno made his request, he only looked at A leap that was halted in mid-air. The two technicians many will go on this trip?" lifted his eyebrows—no more of An asymptote that was striven him gently. They turned back, carefully a gesture than he would have long time -ago," for, but never reached." "That was a concealing their impatience. given had it been anybody else. "You're talking over the lad's one of them answered. "Things "Only one. Machines will do "Hm-mm." He stroked his chin. then. head," said the other technician. have changed since Men all the work except piloting." "I'm afraid not, Bruno. You see, return trip ?" The first technician gave him a have changed. One "Do you think— He hopped the pilot has to be fit and strong." everybody will be warning look. His words implied to Venus and up and down clumsily in his ex- "But I'm fit. I'm strong. I've ship should a criticism, a recognition of Bru- content. Even if the citement. "Do you think / could got strong hands. I can bend an able to return, no's deficiency. "Bruno under- crash or not be be that one?" inch bar of iron with my bare radio would be stands, don't you, Bruno? It's a one word by They looked' at him, then at hands. I know I could control the Uni- kind of lingering sadness that's enough. Man knows of each other. One bit his lip, the it!" That is far been in people all this time. verse within now. other looked at his feet. Neither "I'm afraid it's not as easy

one outside. The . We've got to do it at least once, richer than the spoke. as that, The pilot must be pre- one then everybody can get on with one within is endless. The "But can't I? I could learn how pared to go through great stress. curves back their work in peace." outside is finite; it to fly it." It isn't only in his hands that he on itself." One answered him. "It's not needs strength. He has to be— now, Bruno should have "Venus," said Bruno, dwelling that, Bruno. There isn't too much He spread his hands, leaving his BY Star. reached the limits of conver- on the word. "The Evening to learn. It's all set down in a sentence unfinished. the is closer. Why isn't series of numbers for the takeoff sation. A few sentences, a minute But Moon Tears of helpless anger started going to the Moon first?" and landing. could probably or two, was as much as he could the ship We in Bruno's eyes. "You mean technician, normally stand before conscious- "Because," said the send a pilotless craft, but that straight and perfect! Like any- time to get used wouldn't be the same thing, would ness of his own ugliness made "it takes a man one but me. That's what you changes of space. After it? Anyway, they've already se- isn't if him break off and flee. But now to the mean, it? But there's all Earth he has to adapt lected the pilot." that stress how do that he felt something stir inside him leaving you know he has to "But they can change him, which made him oblivious to that. himself to space, then any pilot would come out of it landing. Going can't they? If it's as you say Here was a chiming with old adapt himself to straight and perfect?" processes that they just want to do it this dreams, a new chapter to the yel- to the Moon, those "We don't," Dr. Marcus said together. once and then they'll satis- lowed books he'd read. would come too close be quietly. "But he's got to start FICTION 126 GALAXY SCIENCE THE AGE OF KINDNESS 127 " "

that way. The man we're send- ing, gazing, until the long silvery ing up has had exhaustive tests shape outlined against the sky to make sure he can stand it." seemed to become the shining "Well, test me." symbol of the only hope he'd "I'm sorry, I couldn't do that. ever had in his life. The only Don't you see? It wouldn't test one, that was, except the impos- you. It would kill you." sible one—to be straight and per- "I don't mind taking the fect. chance. My life's not precious to He saw technicians climb the me the way other peoples' are to ladder with portable tools and them. And I've got freedom of meters. As evening came and the choice by the statute." light faded from the sky, day- "So you have. But so have I, light lamps took over. And then

and I wouldn't do it. Anyway, the technicians descended the there isn't time. Everything's all ladder one by one. He heard their set. The tests take weeks, and the laughing voices as they made ship takes off tomorrow morn- their way back to the ring of ing." He relaxed, smiling. "Now buildings that surrounded the there's a fact that a lot of peo- ship. After a little while the ple don't know. We're not making lamps were turned off, and the any fuss about the attempt. The ship became only a black finger big news will be given out if we against the night sky.

succeed. Tell you what I can do, Bruno came out from his hid- though. If you're so interested, ing place. I'll arrange for you to be in the He walked calmly up to the Communications Room and you ring of buildings, waiting cau- can follow the flight all the way. tiously in the shadow of one of Then you— them to make sure the coast was "It doesn't matter," Bruno said clear. He heard laughter and bitterly, cutting across his speech. voices coming from a nearby "I'm sorry I bothered you." He building, saw, through its win- turned to hide the tears. dows, men eating. There was not Dr. Marcus kept a set smile another soul in sight. on his face. "No bother, Bruno.— He broke out of the shadows No bother at all. Any time and went scuttling across the But Bruno was gone. three-hundred-yard radius that separated him from the ship. He A LL the rest of that day he would have prayed aloud as he ** watched the ship from be- ran, if the mere exertion of run- hind a dune in the desert, gaz- ning hadn't needed all his energy.

1M THE AGE OF KINDNESS 129 — —

yet a part of him, a tiny part, re- Bruno smiled a smile that was couldn't understand, but that As it was, his prayer was like an mained free of it, standing be- not merely an accident of the found the chart unspoken agony in his breast. didn't matter. He yond all pain, watching and flesh. opera- He covered the last twenty giving the series of control rejoicing, knowing dimly but was the important yards like someone in a night- tions; that surely that he had survived the rpHERE followed the days of checked the numbers mare, expecting, every second, thing. He first shock. -* free fall, the days of respite the wheels, the the sound of alarmed voices, with the levers, Though his brain was no long- while the pain of his body ebbed. the flashing of lights. But none gauges. er a thinking apparatus — but Once he was seized with an aboard the ship. came. He sank, panting, in the Nobody came only a receptor and switchboard hours-long spasm of coughing all ready. All shadow of the tail assembly. It was evidently of pain—that precious little he that drenched him with blood. left was the entry Anxiously he cast his gaze all that was now realized, though his senses were And he thought he would die, morning, the around. Nothing stirred. There of the pilot in the lost in a hurricane, his ears that the crucifixion of the take- of levers and take- were no guards set over the ship. depressing — stuffed with thunder, his eyes off had torn something vital in- In this day and age, that was a off. filled with a red smoke. side him. But he didn't care, be- the time morning came, precaution nobody thought neces- And by When at last he could clear his cause he had had his first sight ready. He wait- sary. Bruno, too, was eyes he could still see redness of space, diamond-sharp and saw signs of stirring As soon as he had recovered ed until he the red of his own blood. It was depthless, by then. And he re- saw one or two his breath, he mounted the lad- in the camp, spilled down the front of his covered. moving out from the der. It was on the side of the ship figures tunic. He tasted the stickiness of By the time the braking rock- quarters. in shadow from the thin light sleeping it on his lips, felt it like phlegm ets were due to be applied, he closed the port, lay of the new Moon. The port was Then he in his throat. Yet his only was well again. It was as they couch, gave one final poised on massive gimbals, and. back on the thought was one of gratitude that had said on Earth—the Earth and swung enough at his touch to check to the firing series he had been spared to see and that was becoming more-and more hand. His last admit his squirming body. stretched out his to taste and to feel again, be- distant and unreal. They had unsuccessful at- Once inside, he was safe. The thought was an cause he had not dared to hope been right about the body having imagine the expressions short passageway that tunneled tempt to for so much. to adapt itself. But they'd also one all the faces below when the from the port led to only on The tiny part of him that had been wrong—because it didn't morning should suddenly place—the control room. It was gray .stood aside and rejoiced — will, need a straight body, only erupt into flaming thunder. And lit faintly but adequately by the essential spark, or whatever strength of purpose and a burn- felt the cool metal of the lights from innumerable meters then he seemed to grow, triumphant over ing desire to succeed. his fingertip. He closed and gauges. Now that his own levers at the flesh and its fallibility. It Perhaps, he found pleasure in

pressed . . . trembling had subsided, he could his eyes and grew to full stature when, with thinking, even one with a straight the gray-out came agony, feel the almost imperceptible After frantic thought, he looked down body would have succumbed, His body was tremor of the ship, a slight quiver red and blinding. at the levers to press the next lacking that purpose. The straight ship, flattened and as of immense power straining part of the ones in the series. They were al- ones back on Earth hadn't the oneness with the burn- to be released. He sank into the fused into ready down. Somehow, through right outlook. What could be metal and the thundering pilot's couch seat. ing that purgatory, that bystanding achieved by an attitude that saw so much a part rockets. He was spark had operated his bludgeon- space travel only as a clearing all of the energy pass- that night he spent exam- of it that ed brain to do its will. up of something left undone ALL him, through tortured ining the controls and read- ed through For the first time in his life an end rather than a beginning? sinews and shrieking nerves. And ing, the manuals. A lot of it he THE AGE OF KINDNESS 131 SCIENCE FICTION 130 GALAXY —

did not was silence after the thun- Thinking like that, he ALL half diaphanous-winged insect. truth. That it didn't matter. That of the jets, the screaming touch the radio all through the der They were all looking at him even a perfect and straight hu- past the scorched sides of trip. of air with a soft, unhostile gaze as man being would be as strange there watching It was only as he approach- the ship. He lay their bodies turned and planed to these creatures as he was. ceiling. looked down and ed the white face of Venus that the He in the air. As he looked up at These gentle creatures below this time, only he reached over to it. After all, saw no blood them, they broke into a chorus might be themselves only the pain had blan- he owed it to them to give them vomit. At takeoff, of dovelike cooing. Then they stunted remnants of a nobler wrench of nausea. a reply. If it hadn't been for keted the lesser dropped from the sky and gath- race. How would he know? And on landing, with its sudden them and their work he would But ered at the foot of the ladder. what difference would it make? decelerations, nausea never have had sight of space. shifts and They waited there, looking up at On a sudden impulse he de- into its own. He felt He would have to speak now. had come him, their cooing muted to a scended the ladder. Six rungs there a long He could not rely upon the mir-. exhausted and lay murmur. from the bottom he turned and acle of will to see him through time. Bruno felt no fear. They look- faced them, his back to the lad- orbit, Finally, when he thought he the braking, the landing ed too gentle to hurt anyone. All der, his strong hands grasping it. clouds. manage it, he tottered to the final descent into the could he felt was a confusion that made "My name is Bruno," he be- clutching at a stanchion He nipped the switch. his feet, the blood mount to his cheeks. gan. "I come from the planet faintly for support. He drank and ate, — A voice came through He was not used to the gaze of so Earth. I " Did it matter if he better. Then he cleaned over the black distances. "Bruno, and felt many eyes. He turned to flee went on? They couldn't under- had learned dur- are you all right? Bruno, are you himself up. He back into the rocket. stand him. It was only a for- flight how the atmosphere all right? Bruno—" It went on ing the A twittering broke out at his mality. And yet, as his lips came checked it and and on without ceasing. It made meter worked. He gesture of retreat. It sounded to the next words, they trembled. that the air outside was him feel guilty to think of the found strangely like disappointment. How could he utter them, even to operated the lock weeks and weeks they must have breathable. He Then one voice sang out clearly creatures who could not under- climbed out onto the ladder. been sending out that message and in a soft chanting. Out of curi- stand them, without committing was grassland, without reply. Doubtless, it was All around osity he looked down over his something close to blasphemy? the horizon in every recorded by now. But back there stretching to twisted shoulder. He scanned the wide eyes of could make out they must be waiting, keeping direction. He the creatures, realizing that for of color that must be vigil over their receiver. They patches of the creatures had step- the first time in his life he could people flowers. Color, too, hovered in ONE were kind, considerate ped forward. The rest had meet the gaze of so many with- that the air like butterflies or clouds of They. just didn't understand, fallen back into a semicircle be- out feeling ashamed, without pollen. The air was warm and was all. hind it. It was almost as if the turning away. Why shouldn't he trans- heavy with tantalizing odors, He switched over to the one in the middle were chanting go on? It was not the outer shell pungencies of strange balsams, mitter and spoke. "This is Bru- an address of welcome. As Bruno that mattered, that made him all right. I am landing scents of unknown nectars. And no. I am looked down it broke off its song, what he was. He finished his sen- crash, I there was something else, too. on Venus. Even if I cooed excitedly and cocked its tence. it now." The whisper of wings. Of many can't help but make head to one side. Its big, yellow "I am a man," he said firmly one wings. He craned his head up- He switched off. He took eyes seemed to look up beseech- and clearly. receiver, then he ward look at the ingly. It made little flapping mo- And then he climbed down the settled onto And there they were. A flight shook his head and — tions with its wings. last six rungs of the ladder. of winged creatures, half bird, the couch . . . And then Bruno realized the —ARTHUR SELLINGS SCIENCE FICTION 132 GALAXY THE AGE OF KINDNESS 133 repose, Taphetta the Rib- Taphetta rattled the head INboneer resembled a fancy fronds together in a surprisingly BIG ANCESTOR giant bow on a package. His good imitation of speech. "Yes, four flat legs looped out and in, I've heard the legend." the ends tucked under his wide, "It's more than a legend," By F. L. WALLACE thin body, which constituted the said Sam Halden, biologist. The knot at the middle. His neck reaction was not unexpected — was flat, too, arching out in an- non-humans tended to dismiss family tree was awesome enough to Man's other loop. Of all his features, the data as convenient specula- only his head had appreciable tion and nothing more. "There give every galactic race an inferiority thickness and it was crowned are at least a hundred kinds of complex-but then he tried to climb it! with a dozen long though nar- humans, each supposedly origi- rower ribbons. nating in strict seclusion on as

135 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION — —

"Something had to distribute one mate with race back to many widely scattered planets. TAPHETTA rustled his speech E A and species so widely and it's not forward to M, and race is fer- Obviously there was no contact ribbons quizzically. "But I G the result of parallel evolution tile only back to B, but forward throughout the ages before space thought it was proved that some not when a hundred human races to O, then we assume that travel and yet each planetary humans did originate on one what- are involved, and only the hu- ever their positions are now, race can interbreed with a mini- planet, that there was an un- at man race." once time G was actually adja- mum of ten others! That's more broken line of evolution that "I can't think of a better ex- cent to F, but was a little further than a legend—one hell of a lot could be traced back a billion planation." Taphetta rearranged along. When project more!" years." we back into his ribbons. "Frankly, no one else time those star systems on which "It is impressive," admitted "You're thinking of Earth," is much interested in Man's humans existed prior to space Taphetta. "Put I find it mildly said Halden. "Humans require a theories about himself." travel, we get a certain pattern. distasteful to consider mating certain kind of planet. It's rea- It was easy to understand the Kelburn can explain it to with someone who does not be- sonable to assume that, if men you." attitude. Man was the most num- The normally pink body of the long to my species." were set down on a hundred such erous though not always the most Ribboneer flushed slightly. "That's because you're unique," worlds, they'd seemto fit in with The advanced Ribboneers had a civ- color change was almost imper- said Halden. "Outside of your native life-forms on a few of — ilization as high as anything in ceptible, but it was enough to in- own world, there's nothing like them. That's what happened on the known section of the Milky dicate that he was interested. your species, except superficially, Earth; when Man arrived, there Way, and there were others and that's true of all other crea- was actually a manlike creature and humans were more than a T7"ELBURN went to the pro- tures, intelligent or not, with the there. Naturally our early evo- little feared. If they ever got *- jector. "It sole exception of mankind. Ac- lutionists stretched their theories would be easier if together but they hadn't except tually, the four of us here, though to cover the facts they had. — we knew all the stars in the Milky in agreement as to their common Way, but though we've explored it's accidental, very nearly repre- "But there are other worlds in origin. sent the biological spectrum of which humans who were there only a small portion of it, we human development. before the Stone Age aren't re- Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer can reconstruct a fairly accurate was an experienced pilot "Emmer, a Neanderthal type lated to anything else there. We and representation of the past." could be very useful. A clear pressed and our archeologist, is around have to conclude that Man did- He the controls and statement of their position was the beginning of the scale. I'm n't originate on any of the planets stars twinkled on the screen. essential in helping him make up looking from Earth, near the middle, on which he is now found. In- "We're down on the his mind. "You've heard of the though on Emmer's side. Mere- stead, he evolved elsewhere and plane of the Galaxy. This is one adjacency mating principle?" arm of it as it is today here dith, linguist, is on the other side later was scattered throughout' and asked Sam Halden. of the middle. And beyond her, this section of the Milky Way." are the human systems." He "Vaguely. Most people have if pressed another control for toward the far end, is Kelburn, "And so, to account for the and, they've been mathematician. There's a corre- unique race that can interbreed around men." purposes of identification, certain "We've got new data and are sponding span of fertility. Emmer across thousands of light-years, stars became more brilliant. able to interpret it better. The just misses being able to breed you've brought in the big ances- There was no pattern, merely a theory is that humans who can with my kind, but there's a fair tor," commented Taphetta dryly. scattering of stars. "The whole mate with each other were once chance that I'd be fertile with "It seems an unnecessary simpli- Milky Way is rotating. And while physically Meredith and a similar though fication." close. We've got a list stars in a given region tend to of all our races arranged in se- remain together, there's lesser chance that her fertility "Can you think of a better ex- also a quence. If planetary race F can may extend to Kelburn." planation?" asked Kelburn. random motion. Here's what hap-

136 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION BIG ANCESTOR 137 . — pens when we calculate the posi- On some worlds on which there or lower, he was as good a biol- adding a per cent here and there tions of stars in the past." are no other mammals, we're able ogist as the other was a mathe- for the crew pilot and scientist's Flecks of light shifted and flow- to place the first human fossils matician. And there was the share of the profits from any dis- the screen. Kelburn chronologically. The evidence is ed across matter of training; he'd been on coveries we may make." stopped the motion. sometimes contradictory, but we several expeditions and this was "I'm complimented that you "Two hundred thousand years believe we've got the time right." Kelburn's first trip. Damn it, he like our contract so well," said ago," he said. Taphetta waved a ribbon at thought, that rated some respect. Taphetta, "but I really must have There was a pattern of the the chart. "And you think that The Ribboneer shifted his at- our own unsimplified version. If stars. They were spac- where the two ends of the curve identified tention. "Aside from the sudden you want me, you'll take my con- ed at fairly equal intervals along cross is your original home?" illness of your pilot, why did you tract. I came prepared." He ex- a regular curve, a horseshoe loop "We think so," said Kelburn. ask for me?" tended a tightly bound roll that that didn't close, though if the "We've narrowed it down to sev- "We didn't. The man became' he had kept somewhere on his extended, the lines eral cubic light-years — then. ends were sick and required treatment we person. have crossed. Now it's far more. And, of course, would can't give him. Luckily, a ship They glanced at one another Taphetta rustled. "The math if it were a fast-moving star, it was passing and we hailed it be- as Halden took it. of the is accurate?" might be completely out cause it's four months to the "You can read it if you want," "As accurate as it can be with field of our exploration. But nearest planet. They consented to offered Taphetta. "But it will take a million-plus body problem." we're certain we've got a good take him back and told us that you all day—it's micro-printing. that's the hypothetical chance of finding it this trip." "And there was a passenger on board However, you needn't be afraid route of the unknown ancestor?" "It seems I must decide quick- who was an experienced pilot. that I'm defrauding you. It's hon- of our knowledge," ly." The Ribboneer glanced out "To the best We have men who could do the ored everywhere we go and we go Kelburn. "And whereas there the visionport, where another said job in a makeshift fashion, but nearly everywhere in this sector humans who are relatively ship hung motionless in space are the region we're heading for, places men have never been." near and not fertile, they can al- beside them. "Do you mind if I while mapped, is largely un- There was no choice if they mate with those they were ask other questions?" ways known. We'd prefer to have an wanted him, and they did. Be- adjacent to two hundred thou- "Go ahead," Kelburn invited expert — and Ribboneers are sides, the integrity of Ribboneers years ago!" sardonically. "But if it's not sand famous for their navigational was not to be questioned. Halden adjacency mating prin- math, you'd better ask Halden. "The ability." signed. I've never seen it demon- He's the leader of the expedition." ciple. Taphetta crinkled politely at "Good." Taphetta crinkled. strated," murmured Taphetta, Halden flushed; the sarcasm the reference to his skill. "I had "Send it to the ship; they'll for- flexing his ribbons. "Is that the wasn't necessary. It was true other plans, but I can't evade ward it for me. And you can tell that satisfies the calcu- that Kelburn was the most ad- only era professional obligations, and an the ship to go on without me." vanced human type present, but lations?" emergency such as this should He rubbed his ribbons together. "Plus or minus a hundred thou- while there were differences, bio- cancel out _ any previous agree- "Now if you'll get me the charts, sand years, we can still get some- logical and in the scale of intel- ments. Still, what are the in- I'll examine the region toward the path of a ligence, it wasn't as great as once thing that might be centives?" which we're heading." to cover a was thought. Anyway, non-hu- spaceship attempting Sam Halden coughed. "The representative section of terri- mans weren't trained in the fine usual, plus a little extra. We've T^IRMON of hydroponics tory," said Kelburn. "However, distinctions that men made copied the Ribboneer's standard -*- slouched in, a tall man with we have other ways of dating it, among themselves. And, higher nature, simplifying it a little and scanty hair and an equal lack of GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION 138 BIG ANCESTOR 139 never caught one that way." a look and see what I can do." explain diffi- It would do no good to grace. He seemed to have Halden glowered at the man. "I'll come along and help," said that Taphetta wasn't a worm, culty in taking his eyes off Mere- "How long has this been going Meredith, untwining her legs and a that his evolution had taken a dith, though, since he was on?" leaning against him. "Your mis- different course, but that he was notch or so above her in the mat- "About three months. It's not tress ought to have some sort of in no sense less complex than ing scale, he shouldn't have been bad; we can keep up with them." privileges." Man. It was a paradox that some so interested. But his planet had It was probably nothing to be- Halden started. So she knew devel- biologically higher humans hadn't been inexplicably slow in come alarmed at, but an animal that the crew was calling her completely developed as much as lower races oping and he wasn't on the ship was a nuisance, that! Perhaps it was intended and actually weren't prepared for aware of his place in the human doubly so because of their pilot. to discourage Firmon, but he the multitude of life-forms they'd hierarchy. "Tell me what you know about wished she hadn't said it. It adjust- meet in space. Firmon's reaction Disdainfully, Meredith it," said Halden. didn't help the situation at all. was quite typical. ed a skirt that, a few inches "They're little things." Firmon "If he asks for cleaner air, it's shorter, wouldn't have been a held out his hands to show how rpAPHETTA sat in a chair de- do- because his system needs it," skirt at all, revealing, while small. "I don't know how they got -- signed for humans. With a said Halden. "Do anything you ing so, just how long and beau- on, but once they did, there were less flexible body, he wouldn't could be. Her can to give it to him." tiful a woman's legs plenty of places to hide." He have fitted. Maybe it wasn't sit- "Can't. This is as good as I had never given much looked up defensively. "This is people you ting, but his flat legs were folded and, can get it. Taphetta thought thought to physical modesty an old ship with new equipment neatly around the arms and his could do something about it." with legs like that, it was easy and they hide under the machin- head rested comfortably on the "Hydroponics is your job. to see why. ery. There's nothing we can do seat. The head ribbons, which about There's nothing J can do." Hal- Muttering something except rebuild the ship from the were his hands and voice, were turned den paused thoughtfully. "Is primitive women, Firmon hull inward." never quite still. there something wrong with the to the biologist. "The pilot doesn't Firmon was right. The new He looked from Halden to Em- plants?" like our air." equipment had been installed in mer and back again. "The hy- yet not suit him. "In a way, I guess, and "Then change it to any place just to get it in and droponics tech tells me you're ship and really." He's in charge of the now there were inaccessible corn- contemplating an experiment. I toxic things "What is it, some kind of knows more about these ers and crevices everywhere that don't like it." condition?" than I do." couldn't be closed off without re- Halden shrugged. "We've got Firmon "The plants are healthy "More than a man?" building. to have better air. It might work." she enough, but something's chewing leered at Meredith and, when They couldn't set up a con- "Pests on the ship? It's filthy! them down as fast as they grow." failed to smile, added plaintively, tinuous watch and shoot the ani- My people would never tolerate "Insects? There shouldn't be "I did try to change it, but he mals down because there weren't it!" any, but if there are, we've got still complains." that many men to spare. Besides, "Neither do we." sprays. Use them." the use of weapons in hydroponics The Ribboneer's distaste sub- "It's an animal," said Firmon. HALDEN took a deep breath. would cause more damage to the sided. "What kind of creatures tried poison and got a few, "Seems all right to me." "We thing they were trying to protect are they?" now they won't touch the "To everybody else, too, but but than to the pest. He'd have to "I have a description, though stuff. I had electronics rig up the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. He devise other ways. I've never seen one. It's a small some traps. The animals seem to breathes through a million tubes Sam Halden got up. "I'll take four-legged animal with two an- what they are and we've scattered over his body." know BIG ANCESTOR SCIENCE FICTION 141 140 GALAXY lower base of its cheek from a large thick-fingered tennae at the thirty thousand and ran shaggy hands light-years in less among my people are often as skull. A typical pest." paw than five thousand years—and bright as any of Halden's or Taphetta rustled. "Have you through shaggier hair. not one of them died that we Meredith's, but as a whole "I can speak with some au- we found out how it got on?" have a record of." don't have the total capacity that probably brought in thority," he rumbled. "I was born "It was "A faster-than-light most exten- drive and later Man does, and yet we're with the supplies," said the biolo- on a world with the an extremely long life," mused as advanced in civilization. The sive relics. As a child, I played gist. "Considering how far we've Taphetta. "But they didn't leave difference? It must lie somewhere been any one in the ruins of their camp." come, it may have any information question your author- for their de- in the planets we live on and it's of a half a dozen planets. Any- "I don't scendants. Why?" hard to say just what it is." ity," crinkled Taphetta. "To me, way, it hid, and since most of "Who knows? Their mental "What happened to those who access to were all humans—late or early and the places it had processes look remark- were certainly far dif- didn't develop space travel?" outer hull, it got an extra male or female— near the ferent from ours. They may have asked Taphetta. If you are an arch- dose of hard radiation, or it may ably alike. me." thought we'd be better off without "We helped them," said Em- nested near the atomic en- eologist, that's enough for have it. do they his speech We know were look- mer. both are possibilities. Eith- He paused and flicked gines ; ing for a special kind of planet, And they had, no matter who mutated, became a ribbons. "Camp, did you say?" er way, it like Earth, because they visited or what they were, biologically animal. It's developed a different so many of that type, yet differ- late or early, in smiled, unsheathing the depths of the tolerance for the poisons we spray EMMER ent from it never because they never bronze age or the threshold of Other things it detects great teeth. "You've on plants. stayed. They were pretty special atomic—because they were hu- electronic traps." seen any pictures? Impressive, and avoids, even people one- themselves, big and long- man. That was sometimes a you believe it changed but just a camp, monolithic "Then lived, and couldn't frightening give maybe they thing for non-humans, as well as physically, story structures, and we'd mentally survive on any planet they found. that the race stuck together. to know what they're that it's smarter?" something world Perhaps they had ways of de- They weren't actually aggressive, say that, yes. It must be made of. Presumably my "I'd termining there wasn't the kind but their total number was great intelligent creature to be was one of the first they stopped a fairly of planet they needed in roughing the and they held themselves aloof. to get rid of. But it can at. They weren't used to so hard entire Milky Way. Their science The unknown ancestor again. more elaborately be lured into traps, if the bait's it, so they built One-story ,was tremendously advanced and Who else had such an origin and, strong enough." than they did later on. we can when they learned that, they may it was tacitly assumed, such a what I don't like," said structures and that's how "That's have altered their germ plasm destiny? curling. "Let me think guess at their size. The doorways s Taphetta, and left us, hoping that some of high." while I ask questions." He were forty feet it over us would survive. of us Taphetta. Most rpAPHETTA changed his ques- to Emmer. "I'm curious "Very large," agreed turned did." -- tioning. "What do you expect Is there anything It was difficult to tell whether he about humans. "This special planet sounds did you to gain from this discovery of can tell me about the was impressed. "What else you strange," murmured Taphetta. the unknown ancestor?" hypothetical ancestor?" find in the ruins?" "Not really," said Emmer. It was Halden who answered didn't look like the "Nothing," said Emmer. "There Emmer "Fifty human races reached space him. "There's the satisfaction of he was a Neanderthal were buildings there. and that was genius — travel independently and those knowing where we came from." nonetheless a real all, not a scrap of writing or a genius, but who did were scattered equally picture. They "Of course," rustled the Rib- one. In his field, he rated very tool or a single among early and late species. It's boneer. "But a lot of money raised a stubble-flecked covered a route estimated at high. He well known that individuals and equipment was required for GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION 142 BIG ANCESTOR 143 rHY do we have to watch and hitherto unnoticed was an- this expedition. I can't believe case." He raised his head, speech it on the screen?" asked other shape, like it but larger. the educational institutions ribbons curling fractionally and w that Meredith, glancing up. "I'd rath- The newcomer inched forward. that are backing you did so pure- ceaselessly. "I don't like to, but risk using bait for er be in hydroponics." The small one retreated, skitter- ly out of intellectual curiosity." we'll have to Halden shrugged. "They may ing nervously. Without warning, "Cultural discoveries," rum- your pest." or may not be smarter than the big one leaped and the small bled Emmer. "How did our an- He'd have done it anyway, but planetbound animals, but they're one tried to flee. In a few jumps, cestors live? When a creature is it was better to have the pilot's warier. They don't come out the big one caught up and maul- greatly reduced in size, as we consent. And there was one ques- to ask; it when anyone's near." ed the other unmercifully. are, more than physiology is tion Halden wanted him vaguely. Lights dimmed in the distant It continued to bite even after changed—the pattern of life itself had been bothering the difference between hydroponic section and the screen the little one lay still. At last it is altered. Things that were easy "What's contract and the with it, until he adjusted the in- backed off and waited, watching for them are impossible for us. the Ribboneer terms fra-red frequencies. He motioned for signs of motion. There was Look at their life span." one we offered you? Our to the two crew members, each none. Then it turned to the plant. "No doubt," said Taphetta. are more liberal." with his own peculiar screen, be- When it had chewed off every- "An archeologist would be inter- "To the individual, they are, if you dis- low which was a miniature key- thing within reach, it climbed into ested in cultural discoveries." but it won't matter branches. "Two hundred thousand years cover as much as you think you board. the this: "Ready?" The little one twitched, moved ago, they had an extremely ad- will. The difference is My with- When they nodded, Halden a leg, and cautiously began drag- vanced civilization," added Hal- terms don't permit you to for the bene- said: "Do as you've rehearsed. ging itself away. It rolled off the den. "A faster-than-light drive, hold any discovery Keep noise at a minimum, but raised section and surprisingly and we've achieved that only fit of one race." when you do use it, be vague. made no noise as it fell. It seemed ; there had within the last thousand years." Taphetta was wrong intention of withholding Don't try to imitate them ex- to revive, shaking itself and scur- "But I think we have a better been no his actly." rying away, still within range of one than they did," said the Rib- anything. Halden examined intend- At first, nothing happened on the screen. boneer. "There may be things we own attitudes. He hadn't that was the big screen, and then a gray Against the wall was a small can learn from them in mechanics ed, but could he say backing shape crept out. It slid through platform. The little one climbed or physics, but wouldn't you say true of the institutions and leaves, listened intently before on top and there found some- they were better biologists than the expedition? He couldn't, whatever coming forward. It jumped off thing that seemed to interest it. anything else?" it was too late now— one hydroponic section and fled It sniffed around and reached and Halden nodded. "Agreed. They knowledge they acquired would across the open floor to the next. felt the discovery. Wounds were couldn't find a suitable planet. have to be shared. what Taphetta had It paused, eyes glittering and an- forgotten as it snatched up the So, working directly with their That was was one tennae twitching. object and frisked back to the germ plasm, they modified them- been afraid of—there advancement Looking around once, it leaped scene of its recent defeat. selves and produced us. They kind of technical The up, seizing the ledge and clawing This time it had no trouble were master biologists." that multiplied unceasingly. improve itself up the side of the tank. Standing with the raised section. It leaped "I thought so," said Taphetta. race that could scientific control of its on top and rising to its haunch- and landed on top and made con- "I never paid much attention to through that could es, it began nibbling what it could siderable noise in doing so. The your fantastic theories before I germ plasm had a start The Ribboneer reach. big animal heard and twisted signed to pilot this ship, but never be headed. Suddenly it whirled. Behind it around. It saw and clambered you've built up a convincing needn't worry now.

FICTION BIG ANCESTOR 145 144 GALAXY SCIENCE —

Meredith as the crewmen shut off her. To her, I'm merely a pas- down hastily, jumping the last of its foe. Then it scampered their machines and went out. "Do sionate savage. few feet. Squealing, it hit the back to the platform on which you think it will work?" They went to his cabin. floor and charged. the knife had been found and "It might. We had an audi- She sat down, smiling. Was The small one stood still till laid it down. ence." she pretty? Maybe. For her own the last instant—and then a paw "Did we? I didn't notice." race, she wasn't tall, only by flickered out and an inch-long AT Halden's signal, the lights Meredith leaned back. "Were the Terran standards. Her legs were knife blade plunged into the flared up and the screen be- puppets exactly like the pests? disproportionately long and well throat of the charging creature. came too bright for anything to And if not, will the pests be shaped and her face was some- Red spurted out as the bigger be visible. fooled?" what bland and featureless, ex- beast screamed. The knife flashed "Go in and get them," said "The electronic puppets were a cept for a thin, straight, short in and out until the big animal Halden. "We don't want the pests good imitation, but the animals nose. It was her eyes that made collapsed and stopped moving. to find out that the bodies aren't don't have to identify them as the difference, he decided. A The small creature removed flesh." their species. If they're smart notch or two up the scale of the knife and wiped it on the pelt "It was realistic enough," said enough, they'll know the value of visual development, her eyes were a knife, no matter who uses it." larger and she could see an extra "What if they're smarter? Sup- color on the violet end of the pose they know a knife can't be spectrum. used by a creature without real She settled back and looked at hands?" him. "It might be fun living with "That's part of our precau- you on primeval Earth." tions. They'll never know until He said nothing; she knew as

•• get well as he that Earth was as ad- •. .. - they try—and they'll never away from the trap to try." vanced as her own world. She had "Very good. I never thought of something else in mind. 4t that," said Meredith, coming "I don't think I will, though. closer. "I like the way your prim- We might have children." <*8H .-«_mw%\'m itive mind works. At times I "Would it be wrong?" he asked. J8p actually think of marrying you." "I'm as intelligent as you. We "Primitive," he said, alternate- wouldn't have subhuman mon- ly frozen and thawed, though he sters." knew that, in relation to her, he "It would be a step up—for was not advanced. you." Under her calm, there was "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" tension. It had been there as long She laughed and took the curse as he'd known her, but it was away by leaning provocatively closer to the surface now. "Do I against him. "But barbaric lov- have the right to condemn the un- ers are often nice." born? Should I make them start Here we go again, he thought lower than I am?" drearily, sliding his arm around The conflict was not new nor

BIG ANCESTOR 147 146 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION be sure?" he asked, confined to them. In one form or "Can you He scowled miserably at her. perior children—and they might it was a poor attempt to another, it governed personal re- knowing Her face was almost plain and be his. unconcerned. lations between races that were act the bandage, invisible or not, did- He twisted away. With those can anyone be sure on a united against non-humans, but "How n't improve her appearance any. thoughts, he was as bad as she theoretical basis?" she asked, an held sharp distinctions them- How could he still feel that at- was. Were they all that way, narrowing her eyes. selves. oblique smile traction to her? every one of them, crawling up- "I haven't asked you to marry "I know we can't." "Try Emmer," he suggested ward out of the slime toward the face felt anesthetized. "Did me," he said bluntly. His tiredly. "He'll find you irresis- highest goal they could conceive re- you have to tell me that?" "Because you're afraid I'd tible, and he's even more savage of? Climbing over—no, through— She got up and came to him. fuse." than I am." everybody they could coerce, se- against him and his It was true; no one asked a She nuzzled "Is he?" She smiled enigmatic- duce or marry—onward and up- reaction was purely reflexive. His member of a higher race to enter ally. "Maybe, in a biological ward. He raised his hand, but it swung out and he could feel a permanent union. hand sense. Too much, though. You're was against himself that his an- flesh give when his knuckles "Why did you ever have any- the just right." ger was turned. struck it. thing to do with me?" demanded He sat down on the bed. Again "Careful of the nose," she said, fell back and dazedly cov- Halden. She there was only one way of know- pressing against him. "You've gloomily. ered her face with her hand. "Love," she said ing what Emmer would do—and already broken it once." took it away, blood "Physical attraction. But I can't When she she knew. She had no concept He kissed her with sudden pas- spurted. She groped toward the let it lead me astray." of love outside of the physical, to sion that even he knew was pri- mirror stood in front of it. "Why not make a play for and make use of her body so as to mitive. blood off, exam- Kelburn? If you're going to be She wiped the gain an advantage—what advan- give you ining her features carefully. scientific about it, he'd tage?—for the children she in- THERE were no immediate re- broken nose," she children of the higher type." "You've my tended to have. Outside of that, sults from the puppet per- "I'll have to stop • factually. "Kelburn." It didn't sound like said nothing mattered, and for the formance and so it was repeated pain." a name, the way she said it. "I the blood and sake of alloying the lower with at intervals. After the third time, her nose back into don't like him and he wouldn't She pushed the higher, she was as cruel to Firmon reported, coming in as waggled it to make marry me." place and herself as she was to him. And Halden pored over the meager closed her eyes and "He wouldn't, but he'd give sure. She yet he wanted her. biological data he'd gathered on stood silent and motionless. Then you children if you were humble "I do think I love you," she the unknown ancestor. Wild per cent she stepped back and looked at enough. There's a fifty said. "And if love's enough, I guesses mostly, not one real fact herself critically. chance you might conceive." may marry you in spite of every- in all the statistics. After two partially knitted. "It's set and thing. But you'll have to watch hundred thousand years, there provocatively arched her I'll concentrate tonight and have SHE out whose children I have." She wasn't much left to work with. morning." back. Not even the women of it healed by wriggled into his arms. Firmon slouched doWn. "It in the cabinet and at- Kelburn's race had a body like She felt The racial disparity was great worked," he said. "Got three a tached an invisible strip firmly hers and she knew it. and she had provoked him, but it few hours ago." the bridge. Then she came "Racially, there should be a across was not completely her fault. Halden looked at him; he had said. "Actually, over to him. •chance," she Besides . . . hoped it wouldn't work. There what you'd do. Kelburn and I would be infer- "I wondered Besides what? She had a beau- was satisfaction in being right, didn't disappoint me." tile." You tiful body that could bear su- but he would rather face some- FICTION 148 GALAXY SCIENCE BIG ANCESTOR 149 ,

deverminized before it could land thing less intelligent. Wariness wrists permitted the forepaws to would consider the fifth or sixth on an inhabited planet. was one thing, the shyness and be used as hands. Clumsy, but most likely star." Halden took the data to the slyness of an unseen animal, but because it had a thumb, it could Kelburn caught the implica- Ribboneer pilot and, after some intelligence was more difficult to handle such tools as a knife. tion. They all did. "Then you discussion, it was agreed that the predict. He had made an error there. know where it is?" he asked, sus- plastic knife should supplant the "Where are they?" he asked. He had guessed the intelligence, picion vanishing. metal one. It was also decided to "Not in the "Did you want them?" Fir- but he hadn't known it could use sense you're ask- allow a few to escape with the mon seemed surprised at the idea. the weapon he had put within ing—no, I'm not sure it's what weapon; there had to be some in- you're Halden sighed; it was his own reach. A tiny thing with an inch- looking for. But there was centive if the creature fault. Firmon had a potentially long knife was not much more was to once a great civilization there." visit the trap more than a few good mind, but he hadn't been dangerous than the animal alone, "You knew this and didn't tell times. Besides, with weapons us?" trained to use it and that count- but he didn't like the idea of it there was always the chance of ed for more than people thought. loose on the ship. "Why should I?" Taphetta warfare between different groups. "Any animal smart enough to The metal knife would have to looked at him in mild astonish- They might even exterminate ment. appreciate the value of a knife be replaced with something else. "Before you hired me, I each other. is worth study on that account. Technicians could compound a wouldn't tell you for obvious Gradually, over a period of reasons. That goes double when it's a plastic that would take a keen And afterward — well, weeks, the damage to hydropo- pest." edge for a while and deteriorate you engaged all my skill and nics subsided; the pests were un- "I'll change the cremation set- to a soft mass in a matter of knowledge and I used them to der control. There was nothing ting," said Firmon. "Next time, weeks. Meanwhile, he had actual- to bring you here by the shortest worry about unless they mutat- we'll just stun them." ly given the animal a dangerous route. I didn't think it necessary ed again, which was unlikely. The trap setting was changed weapon—the concept of a tool. to tell you until we actually ar- and several animals were taken. There was only one way to take rived. Is that wrong?" "^"ELBURN scowled at the Physically, they were very much that away from them, by exter- *" It wasn't wrong; it merely il- as Halden had described them to mination. But that would have pilot. "Where are we now?" lustrated the difference in the he challenged, Taphetta, small four-legged crea- to wait. his face creased way an alien mind worked. with suspicion. tures with fleshy antennae. Dis- Fortunately, the creature had Sooner or later, they would have "You have access to all the in- section revealed a fairly large a short life and a shorter breed- found the place, but he had sav- struments, so brain capacity, while behavior ing period. The actual replace- you should know," ed them months. said Taphetta. tests indicated an intelligence ment rate was almost neglible. He was crouching "What's it like?" Emmer asked. and seemed about to spring, but somewhat below what he had as- In attaining intelligence, it had Taphetta jiggled his ribbons. he was merely breathing relaxed- sumed. Still, it was more than been short-changed in fertility "I don't know. I was passing ly through a million air tubes. he wanted a pest to have, espe- and, as a consequence, only in near here and saw the planet off "I do know. calculations cially since it also had hands. the specialized environment of My to one side." show one star as the most prob" The biological mechanism of this particular ship was it any "And you didn't stop?" Em- able. We should have reached it the hands was simple. It walked menace at all. mer was incredulous. two days ago and we're on the back of the front paws, on They were lucky; a slightly — nowhere "Why should I? We're great near it." the fingers of which were fleshy higher fertility and the thing navigators because we do so "True," admitted Taphetta. pads. When it sat upright, as it could threaten their existence. As much of it. We would never get "We're heading toward what you very often did, the flexibility of the it was, the ship would have to be far if we stopped to examine BIG 150 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION ANCESTOR 151 — —

someone who's afraid others everything that looks interesting. cept will use it—and who else runs Besides, it's not a good policy in a strange region, especially with away?" may have done it to an unarmed ship." "They suggest- They wouldn't have that prob- preserve what they left," Halden. lem. The ship was armed well ed "Perhaps," said Taphetta, but enough to keep off uncivilized he didn't think so. marauders who had very recent- it was obvious ly reached the spaceship age, and lack of air had one thing only such people were apt to be THE they inhospitable. to recommend it — about their pests "When will we land?" asked needn't worry disadvantage was Halden. escaping. The wear spacesuits. "In a few hours, but you can that they had to on top of a great see the planet on our screens." They landed after Taphetta extended a head ribbon building that was intact years and still strong toward a knob and a planet came thousands of support the added into view. enough to There weren't two civilizations weight. And then there was nothing. in the Milky Way that built on Then enormous num- such a large scale, even from the Buildings, an of them, huge, not distance that they could see it. ber and variety than five stories Great, distinctive cities were one of them less instead of everywhere. There was no ques- high, all with ramps to be expected, tion as to what they had found. stairs. This was great size of the "Now you'll learn why they considering the there, and ran away," said Taphetta. people who had lived pattern. "A new theory," Kelburn said, it followed the familiar there was nothing in those though it wasn't, for they had But buildings! On this airless world, left. "What makes you think they no rust or were afraid?" there was no decay, and nothing to decay "No air. If your calculations corrosion pictures, tools, are right, there must have been or corrode. No resembled sculpture, an extensive atmosphere a few nothing that where hundred thousand years ago and and while there were places stood, none were now there isn't any. A planet this machines had Here and there in size doesn't lose air that fast. there now. locations were fea- Therefore, it's an artificial con- inaccessible blobs of metal. The dition. Who takes the trouble to turedless clear: Where leave a planet uninhabitable ex- implication was FICTfON 152 GALAXY SCIENCE BIG ANCESTOR 153 they hadn't been able to remove a chine and that it was intact! thing was left for a purpose. it is, minus engines. It was never machine, they had melted in The crew was hurriedly recall- Somewhere there must be operat- intended to fly. Listen. down on the spot. ed, the equipment brought back ing instructions." "There's no air, so you can't The thoroughness was bewild- into the ship, and they took off "From here, it looks like a hear," said Emmer impatiently. ering. It wasn't done by some for the plain where Kelburn complex wave-form," a voice "But you could if there were air. enemy; he would have stood off waited. crinkled in their radio—Taphetta Put your hands against the wall." and razed the cities. But there And there was the machine, im- from the spaceship. "All we have A distinct vibration ran was no rubble and the buildings mense, like everything on the to do is to find the right base in through the whole structure. It were empty. The inhabitants planet. It stood alone, tapering the electromagnetic spectrum and hadn't been there before the door themselves had removed all that toward the sky. At the base was duplicate it on a beam broadcast opened. Some mechanism had was worth taking along. a door, which, when open, was and the door should open. You're been triggered. The rumbling A whole" people had packed big enough to permit a spaceship too close to see it as clearly as went on, came to a stop, and be- and moved away, leaving behind to enter easily—only it was clos- I can." gan again. Was it some kind of only massive, echoing structures. ed. communication? There was plenty to learn, but Kelburn stood beside the tow- they were too close Hastily rigged machines were nothing to learn it from. Build- ering entrance, a tiny figure in PERHAPS to the big ancestor, decid- hauled inside the chamber to gen- ings can indicate only so much a spacesuit. He gazed up at it ed Halden moodily as they went erate an air supply so that sounds and then there must be some- as the three came near. "All we re- back. It had overshadowed much would be produced for the thing else—at least some of the have to do is open it," he said. of their thinking, and who really corders. Translating equipment complex artifacts of a civiliza- "How?" asked Meredith. She knew what the ancestor was like was set up and focused and, after tion—and there was none. Out- seemed to have forgotten that and what had motivated him? some experimentation with sig- side the cities, on the plains, she disliked him. He had made But the Ribboneer was right nals, the door was slowly closed. there were the remains of plants a chance discovery because he about the signal, though it took No one remained inside; there and animals that indicated by had nothing to do while the several days to locate it. And was no guarantee that it would their condition that airlessness others were busy, but she re- then the huge door swung open be as easy to get out as it had had come suddenly. Sam Halden, garded it as further proof of his and air whistled out. been to get in. the biologist, had examined them, superiority. Inside was another disappoint- They waited a day and a half but he discovered no clues. The ment, a bare hall with a ramp while the sounds were being re- unknown ancestor was still a TT was hard to watch the hap- leading upward, closed off at the corded. The delay seemed end- mystery. * piness that her face directed ceiling. They could have forced less. The happiest of the crew And the others—Emmer, the toward Kelburn. Halden turned through, but they had no desire was Kelburn. Biologically the archeologist, and Meredith, the away. to risk using a torch to penetrate highest human on the expedition, linguist—had nothing to work "Just press the button," he the barrier—in view of the num- he was stimulated. He wandered on, though they searched. It was said. ber of precautions they'd already aimlessly and smiled affably, pat- Kelburn who found the first hint. Emmer noticed his expression. encountered, it was logical to as- ting Meredith, when he came to Having no specific task, now that "It's such a big button," he ob- sume that there were more wait- her, in the friendliest fashion. the planet was located, he wan- jected. "It's going to be hard ing for them. Startled, she smiled back and dered around in a scout ship. On to know when we find it." It was Emmer who found the looked around wanly. Halden the other side of the planet, he "There's an inscription of some solution. "In appearance, it re- was behind her. signaled that there was a ma- sort," said Kelburn loftily. "This sembles a spaceship. Let's assume If I had not been there, thought

154 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION BIG ANCESTOR 155 —

left but an orderly retreat to a we must go developed on our own thereafter it ed to decipher it. My function as Halden—and made place where we can expect to planet, deep beneath the cities, a linguist was to help out with a point to be there. live in peace. That means leav- in the underworks, which we had interpretation of key words the ing this Galaxy, but because of ceased to inspect because there excited, but and phrases. I haven't got even MEREDITH was our life span, we're capable of was no need to. This part was a little part of the message. You'll not precisely happy. The it and we won't be followed." built to last a million genera- what it is as soon as I do. work was out of her hands until know Taphetta crinkled his ribbons tions, which is long even for us." After the first part, the translator the translating equipment was re- in amusement. Kelburn frowned Emmer sat upright, annoyed didn't seem to have much trieved. As the second highest at the interruption, but no one at himself. "Of course! There trouble." biological type, she, too, was af- else paid any attention. are always sewers and I didn't facing it fected, until she pointedly went They sat down The translator went on. "Our think of looking there!" Taphetta, Kelburn, Meredith, to her room and locked it from metabolic rate is the lowest of "In the last several genera- and Emmer. Meredith the inside. Halden any creature we know of. We live tions, we sent out four expedi- midway between Kelburn Halden kept himself awake was several thousand revolutions of tions, leisurely trips because we himself. Was there any sig- with anti-fatigue pills, in part and any recorded planet and our rate then thought we had time to ex- nificance in that, wondered Hal- because Meredith could change of increase is extremely low; un- plore thoroughly. With this reading more in her mind about Kelburn, and be- den, or was he der the most favorable circum- planet as base of operations, the actually cause of that locked door. her behavior than was stances, we can do no more than successive expeditions fanned out Emmer tried to be phlegmatic there? double our numbers in two hun- in four directions, to cover the translation is complete," and seemed to succeed. Taphetta "The dred generations." most representative territory." announced the machine. alone was unconcerned; to him, it "This doesn't sound as if they Kelburn stiffened, mingled Meredith order- was an interesting and perhaps "Go ahead," were masters of biological sci- pride and chagrin on his face. profitable discovery, but impor- ed. ence," rustled Taphetta. His math had been correct, as "The words will be speeded up tant only because of that. He far as he had figured it. But had said the trans- would not be changed at all by to human tempo," TTALDEN stirred uneasily. It there been any reason to assume lator. "Insofar as possible, speech whatever he learned. **- wasn't turning out at all the that they would confine their ex- of the original will Hours crawled by and at last mannerisms way he had expected. ploration to one direction? No, be imitated. Please remember the door opened; the air came "At the time we left," the they would want to cover the it is an imitation, how- rushing out again. The translat- that only message continued, "we found whole Milky Way. ing equipment was brought back ever." no other intelligent race, though Taphetta paled. Four times as translator coughed, stut- to the ship and Meredith was left The there were some capable of fur- many humans to contend with! began. have pur- alone with it. tered and "We ther evolution. Perhaps our scout He hadn't met the other three- posely made access to our records It was half a day before she ships long ago met your ancestors fourths yet—and, for him, it was- difficult. If you can translate this admitted the others to the lab- on some remote planet. We were n't at all a pleasant thought. the end, oratory. message, you'll find, at never very numerous, and be- "After long preparation, we reaching the rest "The machine is still working," instructions for cause we move and multiply so sent several ships to settle one of culture relics. As an ad- she said. "There seems to have of our slowly, we are in danger of be- the nearer planets that we'd se- race, you're welcome to been some attempt to make the vanced ing swept out of existence in the lected on the first expedition. To them. We've provided a surprise message hard to decode. But the foreseeable future. We prefer to our dismay, we found that the for anyone else. methods they used were exactly leave while we can. The reason plague was there—though it had- the clues that the machine need- "For ourselves, there's nothing BIG ANCESTOR 157 156 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION n't been on our first visit!" but because they were so small, Halden frowned. closed. "The woman has finally never make use They were it was difficult to dislodge them of the products proving themselves chosen, now that she she of our civilization. less and less from their nesting places. And so knows It may reach expert biologists. was once vermin," clicked the this And this plague we tolerated their existence." planet, but it will not be —there had to Ribboneer. there are tears able be a reason to "But to untangle our code—it's leave, and sickness in her eyes." too was as good "'T'HEY weren't so smart," said stupid. You who will have as any—but unless he "The intelligence of the beast to face it, please forgive was mis- -- Taphetta. "We figured, out us. It's taken, plague has advanced slightly, though the only thing that wasn't used in the that angle long ago. True, our we're asham- strict semantic there isn't much difference be- ed of." sense. It might be ship is an exception, but we hav- the tween the highest and the low- "Don't listen," fault of the translation. n't landed anywhere, and won't said the Rib- "The colonists est — and we've checked both boneer and, bending refused to set- until we deverminize it." his broad, tle; they ends of all four journeys. But thin body, he sprang came back at once and "We didn't guess that next to to the trans- reported. before, it was relatively calm and lator, shook it and We sent out our fastest the hull in outer space and con- banged with ships, orderly. it is malignantly his ribbons until heavily armed. We didn't sequently exposed to hard radia- Now the machine was have the insane." silent. "You don't to tell time to retrace our path tion," the message went on, have Taphetta rattled anyone," Taphetta. completely, for we'd stopped at "those tiny creatures would mu- his ribbons. crackled innumerable "Turn it off. You don't have to "Don't worry about me r won't places. What we did tate dangerously and escape to — this. all repeat it." around was to check a few planets, the populate the planets we landed listen to We are of some He looked at origin or other and it the faces. "But I can see that you outward and return parts of all on. They had always been loath- wasn't four voyages. necessarily pretty. This being will report to everyone exactly In every place, the some little beasts that walked in- was a slug of some kind what you found. That pride plague was there, too, and we stead of rolling or creeping, but —and knew that are you now what it describes? you've developed — you'll need we were responsible. now they became even more vi- Perhaps mentally a little, it." "We did what we could. Ex- cious, spawning explosively and out of pride, but the pride was false." Taphetta sat on top of the ma- hausting our nuclear armament, fighting with the same incessant can't demolish all the chine, looking like nothing so we obliterated the nearest plan- violence. They had always har- "We planets we unthinkingly let it much as a huge fancy bow on a ets on each of the four spans of bored diseases which spread to loose on; there are too many and gift-wrapped package. our journeys." us, but now they've become hot- "I it lives too fast. The stars drift They noted the resemblance wondered why the' route houses for still smaller parasites and we would lose some, and vaguely. But each of them knew came to an end," crinkled Ta- that also are able to infect us. before we could eliminate the that, as a member of the most phetta, but- there was no com- Finally, we are now allergic to last one, it would develop space numerous race in the Milky Way, ment, no answer. them, and when they are within travel it has little intelligence, no longer feared for their mys- "We reconstructed what had miles of us, it is agony to roll or — happened. For a long time, the creep." but it could get that far—and it terious qualities — despised, in- would escape ahead of us. We stead wherever they went, plague had lived in our sewers, Taphetta looked around. "Who — know an impossible task when we there would never be any gifts subsisting on wastes. At night, would have thought it? You were see it. And so we're leaving, first for them for any man. because they are tiny and move completely mistaken as to your — making sure that this animal will —F. L. WALLACE exceedingly fast, they were able origin." Kelburn was staring va- to make their way into our ships cantly ahead, but didn't see a and were aboard on every jour- thing. Meredith was leaning ney. We knew they were there, against Halden; her eyes were

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Plus many other best tales Science Fiction Magazine. is murdered. Detective Baley has to track i skimmed from a dozen years of Astounding \ killer. And he's given a robot as a I down the — ; Science-Fiction Magazine by its editor, John der to discover competent new writers of ' humanistic science fiction, the American I W. Campbell, Jr. partner! st Association and GALAXY Science Fiction Magazine have agreed to co-sponsor OBSERVERS, by Edgar Pang- nist Science Fiction Short Story Contest. A MIRROR FOR The object of this contest is to find GOOD Pontevecchio can destroy born — Angelo ^ we are not interested in thinly j disguised sermons. Although stories entered in the the Earth — or he can save it. But it's not up should have a humanistic what to do! 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