THE MAGAZINE OF f ontosv AND Science Fiction

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· Pacifist

by MACK REYNOLDS

DAMON KNIGHT

ISAAC ASIMOV

ZHURAVLEVA VA

WENZELL BROWN Including Y enture Science Fiction

Pacifist MACK REYNOLDS s Starlight Rhapsody ZHURAVLEVA VALENTINA 21 The Follower WENZELL BROWN 29 Books A VRAM DAVIDSON 40 The Tree of Time (2nd of 2 parts) DAMON KNIGHT 46 Thaw and Serve ALLEN KIM LANG 88 Nackles CURT CLARK 97 Science: Round and Round and ••• ISAAC ASIMOV 104 The Book of Elijah EDWARD WELLEN 114 Ferdinand Feghoot: LXVIII GRENDEL BRIAilTON 122

Appointment at Ten O'clock BOBEB.T LORY 123 F&SF Marketplace 129

Cover by Ed Emsb (illustrating ''The Tree of Time")

Joseph W. Ferman, PUBLISHER Avram Davidson, EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jsaac Anmov, SCIENCE EDITOR Edward L. Ferman, MANAGING EDITOR Ted Whitt, ASSISTANT EDITOR

The Magazine of Fantasy and ScieNCe Fiction, Vol..,.e Z6, No. 1, Wlwle No. 1,Z, Jan. 1964. Published monthly by Mercury Press, Inc., at 40~ a copy. Annual subscription $4.50; $5.00 in Canada and the Pan American Un1on; $5.50 in all other countries. Publi­ cation office, 10 Ferry Street, Concord, N. H. Editorial and general mail should be sent to 347 East Hrd St., New York 22, N. Y. Seco11d Class postage paid at Cot~cord, N.H. Prixted in U. S. A. C) 1963 by Mercury Press, Inc. All rights, includit~g translations into other lln•UIIIJfiiS, reserved. Submissions must be accompanied by stamp_ed, self-addressed novdD,es; tlw Pulilloer fU~t<-s "" responsibility for rdvrn Df N~UDiieited •antUCri,ts. Christmas Gift Rates

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Address •••.•••••••••.•...•••••••••••••..••••.•..•...... •...•..•••• 1-6-' City .•.•••••••••••••••••••••• Zone •.•••. State •.•.•.••••....•....•••• ENTER my own subscription 0 new 0 renewal Check one: 0 I enclose $ ____; 0 Bill me after Christmas Please send me a gift card for each person on my list-to be personalized with my own signature and mailed from my house. MERCURY PRESS, 347 East 53 St., New York, N.Y., 10022 It is one of life's little ironies that pacifists flourish only in countries where there are men unpacific enough to be willing to fight for the right of the fellows not to fight. Conscientious objectors were not tolerated in Nazi Germany, they are not tolerated in Soviet Russia nor in Soviet China (reports from Soviet Cuba seem to be silent on the point); pacifists there most probably are in these countries­ they suffer, die, are silent, without having advanced the causes of peace by an inch. The martyr's crown is easily gained; the martyr's cause ... is something else. Still, who shall say that a more noble purpose than ending war exists? And who can say how really to attain it? Revolutions, civil wars, underground movements-all uni­ formly dedicated, of course, to the triumph of ethics, have often employed and with clear conscience the most unethical tactics: what we might term The Brazen Mean: that mean which is fusti­ fied by the end. World traveller and political student Mack Rey­ nolds grasps another nettle here, and carries certain premises to their logical confusion. Suppose ••• fust suppose • • •

PACIFIST

. by Mack Reynolds

IT WAS ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER along, son. I've been sent to pick space, another continuum. you up." The boy saw a man in his mid­ Warren Casey called, "Boy! thirties, a certain dynamic qual­ You're Fredric McGivern, aren't ity behind the facial weariness. you?" He wore a uniform with which The lad stopped and frowned young McGivern was not familiar, in puzzlement. "Well, yes, sir." but which looked reassuring. He was a youngster of about nine. "Me, sir?" the boy said. A bit plump, particularly about "You've been sent to pick me up?" the face. "That's right, son. Get into the Warren Casey said, "Come car and I'll tell you all about it. • 5 6 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "But my father said • • ." her as he lit the pipe. "It's all "Your father sent me, son. Sen­ been worked out, Mary." ator McGivern. Now, come along "Of course," she said. Her or he'll be angry." voice tightened. "I'll have him in "Are you sure?" Still frowning, the cell behind the rumpus room." Fredric McGivern climbed into Down below he went to the the helio-car. In seconds it had room that had been assigneJ him bounded into the second level and stripped from the uniform. and then the first, to speed off to He went into the bath and show­ the southwest. ered thoroughly, washing out a It was more than an hour be­ full third of the hair that had fore the kidnapping was discov­ been on his head and half the ered. color in that which remained. He emerged from the bath, little re­ Warren Casey swooped in, freshed and some five years olJer. dropped two levels precipitately He dressed in an inexpensive and brought the helio-car down suit not overly well pressed and in so dainty a landing that there showing wear. His shirt ''"as not was no perceptible touch of air clean, as though this was the sec­ cushion to garage top. ond day he had worn it, aml there He fingered a switch with his was a food spot on his tie. left hand, even as he brought his At the small desk he picked up right out of his jacket holding a an automatic pencil and clipped badly burned out pipe. While the it into the suit's breast pocket and garage's elevator sunk into the re­ stuffed a bulky notebook into a cess below, he was loading the side pocket. He stared down at the aged briar from an equally an­ gun for a moment, then grimaced cient pouch. and left it. He departed the house In the garage, Mary Baca was by the front door and made his waiting nervously. She said, even way to the metro escalator. though she must have been able to The nearest metro exit was see the boy, "You got him?" about a quarter of a mile from "That's right," Casey said. "I've Senator McGivern's residence given him a shot. He'll be out for and \Varren Casey walked the dis­ another half hour or so. Take over, tance. By the time he arrived he will you Mary?" had achieved a cynical quality in The nurse looked down at the his expression of boredom. He crumpled figure bitterly. "It didn't bother to look up into the couldn't have been his father. We face of whoever opened the door. have to pick on a child." "Jakes," he said. "H.N.S. Mc­ Casey flicked a quick glance at Givern expects me." PACIFIST 'l "H.N.S.?" the butler said stifHy. He went over to the heavy "Hemisphere News. Hemis­ door which the butler had indi­ phere News Service," Warren cated as Senator McGivern's Casey yawned. "Fer crissakes, we study, and knocked on it. In a gonna stand here all day? I gotta moment it opened and a husky in deadline." his mid-twenties, nattily attired "\Veil, step in here, sir. I'll and of obvious self-importance, check." The other turned and led frowned at him. the way. "Yes?" he said. Casey stuck a finger into his "Steve Jakes of Hemisphere back. His voice went flat. "Don't News," Warren Casey said. "The get excited and maybe you won't editor sent me over . . ." As he get hurt. Just take me to the Sena­ talked, he sidestepped the other tor, see? Don't do nothing at all and emerged into the room be­ might make me want to pull this yond. trigger." Behind the desk was an older The butler's face was gray. edition of nine-year-old Fredric "The Senator is in his study. I McGivern. A Fredric McGivern warn you . . . sir . . . the po­ at the age of perhaps ,fifty, with lice shall know of this immedi­ what had been boyish plump ately."" cheeks now gone to heavy jowls. "Sure, sure, 1\bc. Now just let's 'What's this?" he growled. go to the study." Casey stepped further into the "It's right in there . • . sir." room. "Jakes, Senator. My edi­ "Fine," Casey said. "And what's tor ..." that, under the stairway?" Senator Phil McGivern's abili­ 'Why, that's a broom closet. ties included cunning and a high The downstairs maid's broom survival factor. He lumbered to " his feet. "Walters! Take him!" he Casey brought his flat hand snapped. "He's a fake!" He bent around in a quick clip. The ser­ over to snatch at a desk drawer. vant folded up with a lung-emp­ Walters was moving, but far too tying sigh and Casey caught him slowly. before he hit the floor, dragged Warren Casey met him half him to the broom closet, pushed way, reached forward with both and wedged him inside. He da_rt­ hands and grasped the fabric of ed a hand to a vest pocket and the foppish drape suit the secre­ brought forth a syrette. 'That'll tary wore. Casey stuck out a hip, keep you out for a couple of twisted quickly, turning his back hours," he muttered, closing the halfway to the other. He canie closet door. over and around, throwing the 8 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION younger man heavily to his back. The other, who had half risen Casey didn't bother to look again, slumped back into his down. He stuck a hand into a chair. "But that's different." side pocket, pointed a finger at "I do not find it so." McGivern through the cloth. In his hard career, Phil Mc­ The other's normally ruddy Givern had faced many emergen­ face drained of color. He fell back cies. He drew himself up now. into his chair. "\Vhat do you want-criminal? I Warren Casey walked around warn you, I am not a merciful the desk and brought the gun the man. You'll pay for this, 1\.fr. • ." other had been fumbling for from "Keep calling me Jakes, if you the drawer. He allowed himself a wish," Casey said mildly. ''I'm not deprecating snort before dropping important. Just one member of a it carelessly into a pocket. widespread organization." Senator Phil McGivern was no "What do vou want?" the Sena­ coward. He glowered at \\'arren tor snapped.· Casey. "You've broken into my "How much do you know about home-criminal," he said. the Pacifists, McGivern?" "You've assaulted my secretary and "I know it to be a band of threatened me with a deadly vicious criminals!" weapon. You will be fortunate to Casey nodded, agreeably. "It's be awarded no more than twenty according to whose laws you go years." by. We have rejected yours." Casey san];: into an easy chair "What do you want?" the Sen­ so situated that he could watch ator repea·ted. both McGivern and his now" un­ "Of necessity," Casey contin­ conscious assistant at the same ued, evenly, "our organization is a time. He said flatly, "I represent secret one; however, it contains the Pacifists, Sep.ator. Approxi­ some of the world's best brains, mately an hour ago your son was in almost every field of endeavor, kidnapped. You're one of our top even including elements in the priority persons. You probably re­ governments of both Hemis­ alize the implications." pheres." "Fredric! You'd kill a nine Phil McGivern snorted his con­ year old boy!" tempt. Casey's voice was flat. "I have Casey went on, an eye taking killed many nine year old boys, in the fact that Walters, laid out Senator." on the floor, had stirred and HAre you a monster!" groaned softly. "Among our num­ "I was a bomber pilot, Sena­ ber are some capable of charting tor." world developments. By extrapo- PACIFIST 9 lation, they have concluded that a minor matter, an immediate if your policies are continued nu­ bargaining point to emphasize our clear war will break out within position. Senator, we have inves­ three years." tigated you thoroughly. You have The other flushed in anger, a wife of whom you are moderate­ finding trouble in controlling his ly fond, and a mistress whom you voice. "Spies! Subversives! Make love. You have three adult chil­ no mistake about it, Jakes, as you dren by your first wife, and four call yourself, we realize you're grandchildren. You have two nothing more than catspaws for children by your second wife, the Polarians." Fredric and Janie. You have a The self-named Pacifist chuck­ living uncle and two aunts, and led sourly. "You should know five first cousins. Being a politi­ better, Senator. Our organization cian, you have many surface is as active on the Northern Hem­ friends, which we shall largely ig­ isphere as it is on this one." Sud­ nore, but you also know some denly he came quickly to his feet thirty persons who mean much to and bent over Walters who had you." 'begun to stir. Casey's hand flicked McGivern was beginning to out and clipped the other across adjust to this abnormal conversa­ the jawbone. The secretary col­ tion. He growled, "What's all this lapsed again, without sound. got to do with it?" Warren Casey teturned to his Warren Casey looked into the chair. "The point is that our ex­ other's eyes. ''We shall kill them, perts are of the opinion that you'll one by one. Shot at a distance have to drop out of politics, Sena­ with a rifle with telescopic sights. tor McGivern. I suggest a resigna­ Blown up by bomb. Machine tion for reasons of health within gunned, possibly as they walk the next week." down the front steps of their There was quick rage, then homes." steaming silence while thought "You're insane! The police. processes went on. "And Fred­ The ..." ric?" McGivern growled finally. Casey went on, ignoring the Casey shrugged. "He will be interruption. ''We are in no hurry. freed as soon as you comply." Some of your children, your rela­ The other's eyes narrowed. tives, your friends, your mistress, "How do you know I'll stick to my may take to hiding in their panic. promise? A contract made under But there is no hiding-nowhere duress has no validity." on all this world. Our organiza­ Casey said impatiently, "Hav­ tion is in no hurry, and we are ing Fredric in our hands now is rich in resources. Perhaps in the 10 UNTASY AND SCIENCE PICnON doing some of us will be cap­ ways, in the past, they have been tured or dispatched. It's besides laughed at or sneered at in times the point. We are dedicated. of peace, and imprisoned or That's all we'll be living for, kill­ worse in time of war." ing the people whom you love. "Cowards," Senator McGivern When they are all gone, we will muttered in distaste. kill you. Believe me, by that time Casey shook his head and it will be as though we're moti­ chuckled. "Never, Senator. Don't vated by compassion. All your look for cowards among pacifists friends, your loved ones, your and conscientious objectors. It near-of-kin, will be gone. takes courage to buck the current "We will kill, kill, kill-but in of public opinion. A coward is all it will be less than a hundred often better off in the ranks and people. It will not be thousands usually safer. In modern war, at and millions of people. It will least until the advent of nuclear only be your closest friends, your conflict, only a fraction of the relatives, your children and final­ soldiers ever see combat. The rest ly you. At the end, Senator; you are in logistics, in a thousand will have some idea of the mean­ branches of behind the lines ing of war." work. One man in twenty ever By the end of this, although it glimpses the enemy." was delivered in an almost emo­ McGivern snapped, "I'm not tionless voice, Phil McGivern interested in your philosophy, was pushed back in his swivel criminal. Get to the point. I want chair as though from physical at­ my son back." tack. He repeated, hoarsely, "This is the point, Senator. To­ "You're insane." day we Pacifists have become real­ Warren Casey shook his head. ists. We are willing to fight, to "No, it is really you, you and kill and to die, in order to pre­ those like you, who are insane. vent war. We are not interested Wrapped up in your positions of in the survival of individuals, we power, in your greed for wealth are of the opinion that another in the preservation of your prive­ war will destroy the race, and to leges, you would bring us into a preserve humanity we will do lit­ conflagration whir.h would de­ erally anything." stroy u_s all. You are the ones who McGivern thumped a heavy are insane." fist on his chair arm. "You fool! The Pacifist agent leaned for­ The Northern Hemisphere seeks ward. 'Throughout history, Sena­ domination of the whole world. tor, there have been pacifists. But We must defend ourselves!" never such pacifists as we. AI- The Pacifist was shaking his PACIFIST 11 head again. "'We don't care who teen minutes earlier, and let him­ is right or wrong-if either side self out the front door. is. It finally gets to the point where that is meaningless. Our His cab pulled up before the colleagues are working among the aged, but well-preserved'; man­ Polarians, just as we are work­ sion, and he dropped coins into ing here in the Southern Hemis­ the vehicle's toll box and then phere. Persons such as yourself, watched it slip away into the on the other side, are courting traffic. death just as you are by taking He walked to the door and steps that will lead to war/' let himself be identified at the Warren Casey stood. "You have screen. When the door opened he one week in which to resign your strolled through. office, Senator. If you fail to, you A young woman, her face so will never see your son Fredric very earnest in manner that her again. And then, one by one, you natural prettiness was all but de­ will hear of the deaths of your stroyed, sat at a desk. relatives and friends." Rising, she led the way and The Pacifist agent came held the door open for him and quickly around the desk and the they both entered the conference older man, in an effort to escape, room. There were three men pushed his chair backward and there at the table, all of them tried to come to his feet. He was masked. too clumsy in his bulk. \Varren Casey was at ease in their Casey loomed over him, slipped a presence. He pulled a chair up syrette into the other's neck. across from them and sat down. Senator Phil McGivern, swear­ The girl took her place at the table ing, fell to his knees and then and prepared to take notes. tried to come erect. He never The chairman, who was made it. His eyes first stared, then flanked by the other two, said, glazed, and he dropped back to "How did the McGivern affair go, the floor, unconscious. Casey?" \Varren Casey bent momentar­ "As planned. The boy proved ily over Walters, the secretary, no difficulty. He is now at the but decided that he was safe for a hideaway in charge of Operative time. He shot a quick look about Mary Baca." the room. What had he touched? "And the Senator?" Had he left anything? "As expected. I gave him full He strode quicldy from the warning." room, retracing the path by which 'The secretary, Walters. He the butler had brought him fif- was eliminated?" 12 FANTASY AND SCIENCE l'ICTION "Well, no. I left him uncon· people will be able to threaten scious." others with his fate. We'll see it There was a silence. through, as planned." He looked One of the other masked men at Casey. 'We have another as­ said, "The plan was to eliminate signment for you." the secretary to give emphasis to Warren Casey leaned back in the Senator as to our determina­ his chair, his face expressionless, tion." aside from the perpetual weari­ Casey's voice remained even. ness. "All right," he said. "As it worked out, it seemed ex­ The second board member took pedient to follow through as I up an assignment sheet. "It's a did." Priority One. Some twenty oper­ The chairman said, "Very well. atives are involved in all." He The field operative works with cleared his voice. "You've had in­ considerable range of discretion. terceptor experience during your No one can foresee what will de­ military career?" velop once an operation is under- Casey said, "A year, during the way. " last war. I was shot down twice Warren Casey said nothing. and they figured my timing was The second board member going, so they switched me to sighed. "But we had hoped that medium bombers." the sight of a brutal killing, right "Our information is that you before him, might have shocked have flown the Y-36G." Phil McGivern into submission 'That's right." Casey wondered immediately. As it is now, if our what they were getting to. estimates of his character are cor­ . The board officer said, "In two rect, the best we can hope for is weeks the first class of the Space capitulation after several of his Academy graduates. Until now, intimates have been dispatched." warfare has been restricted to Casey said wearily, "He will land, sea and air. With this grad­ never capitulate, no matter what uation we will have the military we do. He's one of the bad ones." erupting into a new medium." The third board member, who "I've read about it," Casey said. had not spoken to this point, said "The graduation will be spec­ thoughtfully, "Perhaps his imme­ tacular. The class is small, only diate assassination would be best." seventy-five cadets, but already The chairman shook his head. the school is expanding. All the "No. We've thrashed this all out. other services will be represented We want to use McGivern as an at the ceremony." example. In the future, when Warren Casey wished the other dealing with similar cases, our would get to the point. PACIFIST 13 "\Ve want to make this a very ative is forced to take an assign­ dramatic protest against military ment he doesn't want. I'd rather preparedness," the other went on. skip this, so you'd best not tell me "Something that will shock the any more about it. That way it's whole nation, and certainly throw impossible for me to crack under fear into everyone connected with pressure and betray someone." arms. " "Very well," the chairman said, The chairman took over. "The his voice brisk. "Do you wish a air force will put on a show. A vacation, a rest from further as­ flight of twenty Y-36Gs will buzz signment at this time?" the stand where the graduating "No. Just give me something cadets are seated, waiting their else." commissions." One of the other board mem­ Realization was beginning to bers took up another piece of pa­ build within Casey. per. "The matter of Professor "You'll be flying one of those Leonard La Vaux," he said. Y-36Gs," the chairman pursued. His next sentence came slowly. Professor Leonard La Vaux "And the guns of your craft will lived in a small bungalow in a be the only ones in the flight that section of town which had never are loaded." pretended to more than middle Warren Casey said, without class status. The lawn could have emotion, ''I'm expendable, I sup­ used a bit more care, and the pose?" roses more cutting back, but the The chairman gestured in ne­ place had an air of being com­ gation. "No. \Ve have plans for fortably lived in. your escape. You make only the Warren Casey was in one of one pass, and you strafe the ca­ his favored disguises, that of a dets as you do so. You then pro­ newspaperman. This time he bore ceed due north, at full speed a press camera, held by its strap. " There was a gadget bag over one Casey interrupted quickly. shoulder. He knocked, leaned on "You'd better not tell me any more the door jam, assumed a bored about it. I don't think I can take expression and waited. this assignment." Professor La Vaux seemed a The chairman was obviously classical example of stereotyping. taken aback. "Why, Warren? Any producer would have hired You're one of our senior men and him for a scholar's part on sight. an experienced pilot." He blinked at the pseudo-journal­ Casey shook his head, unhap­ ist through bifocals. pily. "Personal reasons. No oper- Casey said, "The Star, Profes- 14 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION sor. Editor sent me to get a few "A housekeeper," the Professor shots." said. The professor was puzzled. "Maybe we could work her in "Photographs? But I don't know on a shot or two." of any reason why I should be "I'm afraid she's out now." newsworthy at this time." Casey took the chair the other Casey said, "You know how it had offered. His voice changed is. Your name gets in the news tone. "Then we can come right to sometimes. We like to have some­ business," he said. thing good right en hand to drop The professor's eyes flicked be­ in. Editor wants a couple n!ce hind the bifocals. "I beg your shots in your study. You know, pardon?" like reading a book or something." Warren Casey said, ''You've "I see," the Professor said. heard of the Pacifists, Professor?" "Well, well, of course. Reading a "Why . . • why, of course. An book, eh? What sort of book? Come underground, illegal organiza­ in, young man." tion." The professor added, "Quite "Any book will do," Casey said oiten accused of assassination and with journalistic cynicism. "It other heinous crime, although can be Little Red Riding Hood, I've been inclined to think such far as I'm concerned." reports exaggerated, of course." "Yes, of course," the Professor "Well, don't," Casey said curt­ said. "Silly of me. The readers ly. would hardly be able to see the "I beg your pardon?" title." "I'm a Pacifist operative, Pro­ The professor's study was a fessor La Vaux and I've been as­ man's room. Books upon books, signed to warn you to discon­ but also a king-size pipe rack, a tinue your present research or small portable bar, two or three your life will be forfeit." really comfortable chairs and a The other gaped, unable to couch suitable for sprawling upon adapt his mind to the shift in without removal of shoes. identity. LaVaux took one of the chairs, Warren Casey said, "You're waved the supposed photographer evidently not knowledgeable to another. "Now," he said. ''What about our organization, Profes­ is procedure?" sor. I'll brief you. We exist for Casey looked about the room, the purpose of preventing further considering. "You live here all armed conflict upon this planet. alone?" he said, as though mak­ To secure that end, we are will­ ing conversation while planning ing to take any measures. We are his p~otography. ruthless, Professor. My int~rest is PACIFIST 15 not to convert you, but solely to of this dummy camera. So tiny is warn you that unless your pres­ the dart that when it imbeds itself ent research is ended you are a in your neck, hand, or belly, you dead man." feel no more than a mosquito The pr_ofessor protested. "See bite." here, I'm a scientist, not a poli­ The professor was motivated tician. My work is in pure re­ IDore by curiosity than fear. He search. What engineers, the mili­ bent forward to look at the de­ tary and eventually the govern­ \'ice. "Amazing," he said. "And ment do with applications of my you have successfully used it?" discoveries is not my concern." "Other operatives of our organ­ "That's right," Casey nodded ization have. There are few, poli­ agreeably. "Up to this point, you, ticians in particular, who can es­ like many of your colleagues, have cape the news photographer. not concerned yourself with the This camera is but one of our eventual result of your research. items of equipment, and with it Beginning now, you do, Professor, an assassin has little trouble get­ or we will kill you. You have one ting near his victim." week to decide." The professor shook his head in "The government will protect all but admiration. "Amazing," me!" he repeated. "I shall never feel Casey shook his head. "No, safe with a photographer again." Professor. Only for a time, even \Varren Casey said, "You have though they devote the efforts of a no need for fear, Professor, if you hundred security police. Through­ abandon your current research." out history, a really devoted Leonard LaVaux said, "And I group, given sufficient numbers have a week to decide? Very well, and resources, could alwavs suc­ in a week's time I shall issue no­ cessfully assassinate any l>erson, tice to the press either that I have in time." given up my research, or that I "That was the past," the pro­ have been threatened by the Paci­ fessor said, unconvinced. "Today, fists and demand protection." they can protect me." Casey began to stand, but the Casey was still shaking his professor raised a hand. "Wait a head. "Let me show you just one moment," he said. "I'd like to ask tool of our trade." He took up his you a few questions." camera and removed the back. The pacifist looked at the other "See this little device? It's a warily. small, spring powered gun which LaVaux said, ''You're the first projects a tiny, tiny hypodermic member of your organization to needle through the supposed lens whom I've ever spoken." 16 FANTASY AND SCIENCE PicnON "I doubt it," Casey said. who knows only four other sec­ "Ah? Very secret, eh? Mem• tion leaders with whom he works, hers are everywhere, but unde­ and so forth right to the top offi· tected. Then how do you recruit cials of the organization." new membership? Being as illegal "I see, H the professor mur­ as you are, of course, the initial mured. "So an ordinary member approach must be delicate in· can at most betray four others, of deed." course. But when the police cap­ "That's right," Casey nodded. ture a coordinator?" "We take every precaution. A 'Then twenty-five persons are prospect isn't approached until it endangered," Casey admitted. is obvious he is actually seeking "And occasionally it happens. an answer to the problem of out­ But we have tens of thousands of lawing war. Many persons, Pro­ members, Professor, and new fessor, come to our point of view ones coming in daily. We grow on their own. They begin discuss­ slightly faster than they seem ing the subject, seeking answers, able to catch us." seeking fellows who think along The professor switched sub­ the same line." jects. "Well, no one would accuse The professor was fascinated. you of being a patriot, certainly." "But even then, of course, mis­ Casey contradicted him. "It's a takes must be made and some of different type of patriotism. I your membership unmasked to don't identify myself with this the authorities." Hemisphere." "A hazard always faced by an The other's eyebrows went up. underground." "I see. Then you are a Polarian ?" "And then," the professor said Casey shook his head. "Nor do triumphantly, "your whole or· I identify myself with them. Our ganization crumbles. One betrays patriotism is to the human race, the next, under police coercion." Professor. This is no longer a Casey laughed sourly. "No. matter of nation, religion or hem· That's not it. We profit by those isphere. It is a matter of species who have gone before. The history survival. \Ve are not interested in of underground organizations is a politics, socio-economic systems long one, Professor. Each unit of or ideology, other than when they five pacifists know only those be­ begin to lead to armed conflict longing to their own unit, and between nations." one coordinator. The coordina­ The professor considered him tors, in tum, know only four for a long silent period. Finally, other coordinators with whom he said, "Do you really think it they work, plus a section leader, will work?'' PACIFIST 17 "How's that?" Warren Casey pear, but simply assassinate him said. For some reason, this ear· and all you'll get is another dic­ nest, fascinated, prying scientist tator." appealed to him. He felt relaxed The other's words bothered during the conversation, a relax­ Warren Casey. Not because they ation, he realized, that had been were new to him, subconsciously denied him for long months now. they'd been with him almost "Trying to keep the world at from the beginning. He looked at peace by threatening, frighten­ the scientist, waiting for him to ing, even assassinating those go on. whom you decide are trending to­ La Vaux touched himself on ward war. Do you think it will the chest with his right forefinger. work?" "Take me. I am doing work in a All the wariness was back, field that can be adapted to mili­ suddenly. The months-long tired­ tary use, although that is not my ness, and doubt, and the growing interest. Actually, I am contemp­ nausea brought on by violence, tuous of the military. But you violence, violence. If only he threaten my life if I continue. could never hear the word kill Very well. Suppose you coerce me again. and I drop my research. Do you He said, "When I first joined think that will stop investigation the Pacifists, I was positive they by a hundred, a thousand other had the only answer. Now I've capable men? Of course not. My taken my stand, but perhaps I am branch of science is on the verge not so sure. Why do you think it of various breakthroughs. If I won't?" don't make them, someone else The scientist pointed a finger will. You don't stop an avalanche at him. "You make a basic mis­ by arresting the roll of one rock." take in thinking this a matter of A tic began in the cheek of individuals. To use an example, Casey's usually emotionless face. in effect what you are saying is, "So you think •••" he prompt­ kill the dictator and democracy ed. will return to the country. Non­ LaVaux' eyes brightened be­ sense. You put the cart before the hind the bi-focals. He was a man horse. That dictator didn't get of enthusiastic opmmns. He into power because he was so fab­ said, "Individuals in the modern ulously capable that he was able world do not start wars. It's more to thwart a whole nation's desire basic than that. If the world is for liberty. He, himself, is the going to achieve the ending of product of a situation. Change warfare, it's going to have to find the situation and he will disap- the causes of international con- 18 FANTASY AND SCIENCE PICnON flict and eliminate them." He was physically as well as men­ chuckled. "\Vhich, of course, op­ tally worn. He was going to have ens up a whole new line of inves­ to tal{e the board up on that offer ·tigation." of a prolonged vacation. Warren Casey stood up. He Taking the usual precautions said, "Meanwhile, Professor, I in the way of avoiding possible represent an organization that, pursuit, he returned to his own while possibly wrong, doesn't apartment. It had been a week, agree with you. The ultimatum what with one assignment and has been served. You have one another, and it was a pleasure to week." look forward to at least a matter Professor Lavaux saw him to of a few hours of complete relax­ the door. ation. "I'd like to discuss the subject He shed his clothing, show­ further, some day," he said. "B..1t, ered, and then dressed in com­ of course, I suppose I won't be fortably old clothing. He went to seeing you again." the tiny kitchen and prepared a "That's right," Casey said. He drink, finding no ice since he twisted his mouth wryly. "If we had unplugged the refrigerator have to deal with you further, before leaving. Professor, and I hope we don't, Casey dropped into his reading somebody else will handle it." He chair and took up the paperback looked at the other and consid­ he'd been reading when sum­ ered momentarily rendering the moned a week ago to duty. He stereotyped-looking scientist un­ had forgotten the subject. Ah, conscious before he left. But he yes, a swashbuckling historical shook his head. Lord, he was tired novel. He snorted inwardly. It of violence. was all so simple. All the hero As he walked down the garden had to do was kill the evil duke path to the gate, Professor La­ in a duel and everything would Vaux called, "By the way, your resolve itself. disguise. You'll find there are sev­ He caught himself up, Profes­ eral excellent oral drugs which sor LaVaux' conversation coming will darken your complexion even back to him. Essentially, that was more effectively than your present what he-what the Pacifists method." were trying to do. By filling the Almost, Warren Casey had to equivalent of the evil duke-in­ laugh. dividuals, in other words-they were hoping to solve the problems He was between assignments, of the world. Nonsense, on the which was a relief. He knew he face of it. PACIFIST 19 He put down the novel and There might still be a seTVice he stared unseeing at the wall oppo­ could perform. Some way of warn­ site. He had been an operative ing the organization of McGiv­ with the Pacifists for more than ern's method of tracking him three years now. He was, he re­ down. "How did you find me? alized, probably their senior How do you know my name?" hatchetman. An agent could McGivern snorted. "You're a hardly expect to survive so long. fool as well as a criminal. You It was against averages. sat in my office and spoke in the It was then that the screen of accent of your native city. I pin­ his telephone lit up. pointed that, immediately. You Senator Phil McGivern's face told me you'd been a bomber pilot glowered at him. · and obviously had seen action, Warren Casey started, stared. which meant you'd been in the McGivern said, coldly, delib­ last war. Then as a pseudonym erately, "The building is sur­ you used the name Jakes. Did you rounded, Casey. Surrender your­ know that persons taking pseudo­ self. There are more than fifty nyms almost always base them security police barring any chance on some actuality? \Ve checked in of escape." your home city, and, sure enough, The Pacifists's mind snapped there was actually a newspaper­ to attention. Was there anything man named Jakes. We questioned he had to do? Was there anything him. Did he know a former bomb­ in the apartment that might pos­ er pilot, a veteran of the last war. sibly betray the organization or Yes, he did. A certain \Varren any individual member of it? He Casey. From there on the job was wanted a few moments to think. an easy one-criminal. Now, He attempted to keep his voice where is my son?" even. "What do you want, Mc­ For a moment, Warren Casey Givern?" felt weary compassion for the "My son!" The politician was other. The senator had worked glarin~ his tdumph. hard to find his boy, hard and ''I'm afraid Fredric is out of brilliantly. "I'm sorry, McGiv­ my hands," Casey said. Was the ern, I really don't know." Casey senator lying about the number of threw his glass, destroying the tel­ police? Was there any possibility ephone screen. of escape? He was on his feet, heading for "Then whose hands is he in? the kitchen. He'd explored this You have him, Warren Casey, but escape route long ago when first we have you." acquiring the apartment. "He's not here," Casey said. The dumbwaiter was sufficient- 20 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ly large to accommodate him. He but then the long weariness over­ wedged himself into it, slipped took him. No more killing. Please. the rope through his fingers, No more killing. He lowered the quickly but without fumbling. He gun, turned and headed quietly shot d~nward. in the opposite direction. In the basement, his key A voice behind him yelled, opened a locker. He reached in "Hey! Stop! You-" and seized the submachine pistol He ran. and two clips of cartridges. He The burst of fire caught War­ stuffed one into a side pocket, ren Casey as he attempted to slapped the other into the gun, vault to the next building. It threw off the safety. Already he ripped through him and the dark­ was hurrying down the corridor ness fell immediately, and far, toward the heating plant. He was far up from below, the last counting on the fact that the secu­ thought that was ever signalled rity police had not had sufficient was That's right! time to disco,·er that this building Fifteen minutes later Senator shared its central heating and air­ Phil 1\kGivem scowled down at conditioning plant with the the meaningless crumpled figure. apartment house adjoining. "You couldn't have captured Evidently, they hadn't. him?" he said sourly. A freight elevator shot him to "No, sir," the security sergeant the roof of the next building. defended himself. "It was a mat­ From here, given luck, he could ter of shoot him or let him es­ cross to a still further building cape." and make his getaway. l\fcGivem snorted his disgust. He emerged on the roof, shot a The sergeant said wonderingly, quick glance around. "Funny thing was, he could've Fifty feet away, their backs to finished off the three of us. We him, stood three security police were the only ones on the roof agents. Two of them armed with here. He could've shot us and automatic rifles, the other with a then got away." handgun, they were peering over One of the others said, "Prob­ the parapet, probably at the win­ ably didn't have the guts." dows of his apartment. "No," McGivern growled. "He His weapon flashed to position, had plenty of guts." you can't hardly get more international than a st01f} originally written in Russia and in Russian, translated into Esperanto and published for a second time in an Esperanto magazine issued in Sweden and edited by a Hungarian, and subsequently translated into English by an American. Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof, the peace­ loving eye-doctor who devised Esperanto as a means of increasing understanding among peoples of diverse languages, would be proud. The literary magazine Norda Prismo (North Prism) of Stockholm described Zhuravleva Valentina as a "Soviet engineeress [who] has written many fantasy-scientific stories." Starluma Rap­ sodio was translated into Esperanto by Alexi I. V ershinin of Odessa (which, come to think of it, raises the possibility that Ukrainian, and not Russian, was its first language). So much for the linguistic provenance and progress of the story. As for the story itself-scientifically, it is intriguing; but it presents not only an intellectual appeal, it says something to and about the emotions as well. And we find in it, in these troubled times, a note of hope, too. Asked to point out the star Procyon, the astronomer ]ungovs­ kaya replies that it is "There beyond the neighbors' house, to the right." This is not the language of pure science. It is the language of the heart-and this, after al~ is more international even than Esperanto.

STARLIGHT RHAPSODY

by Zhuravleva Valentina

(translated by Donald J. Harlow)

THE WEATHER ON THAT NEW slowly spreading apart, like the Year's Eve was peaceful, which curtain in a theater, and uncov­ is an uncommon occurrence. The ering the starry sky. clouds that had hung over the The fir trees stood straight and city only the day before were unmoving, silvered with snow, 21 22 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION like an honor-guard waiting fer lamp post he suddenly found that the New Year, along the Kremlin his way was barrel:{ by a snow­ wall. From time to time a weak castle, whose turret shimmered gust of wind pushed a handful of with snowy diamonds under the snowflakes away from their electric street-light. branches, showering them down "Unfinished," he thought, no­ onto the passersby. ticing a child's sled and shovel But people took no notice of lying nearby. Suddenly he was the night's charm. They were in struck by an absurd desire to too much of a hurry. In half an finish the fortress wall. That hour the New Year would arrive. would really be a New Year's The flow of people, noisy and ex· Morning surprise for the chil­ cited, loaded down with pack­ dren. ages and packets, moved faster Rusanov leaned over to pick and faster. up the tiny shovel, but at that Only one person seemed not to moment someone struck him from be in a hurry. His hands were behind. Falling into the snow, shoved deep into the pockets of he heard the sound of broken his overcoat; attentive eyes glim­ glass and the cry: mered from under the rim of his "Oh, I'm very sorry!" soft hat. Many people from the There was so much embarrass­ human flood recognized his lean ment in the voice that Rusanov face and short grey beard. For could not be angry. A pair of that reason he had turned off into hands helped him to his feet. A a side street. There he did not small girl in a green sport-jack­ need to respond to the number­ et stood before him. Confusion less greetings, nor explain to his was visible in her eyes. acquaintances why he preferred ''I'm very sorry," she stam­ to wander on the streets during mered again. the New Year's night. The poet She stepped carefully around Constantine Alexeevitch Rusanov Rusanov and picked up a small could not have said what un­ packet that lay ncar the street­ known power was forcing him to lamp post. seek solitude in the New Year "Broken ••. I think .••" evening. He felt no desire to think said the girl sadly. about poetry. Perhaps that was Rusanov felt guilty. "What sad, because this New Year was happened?" he asked. the sixtieth of Rusanov's life. "I was carrying the plate," she Rusanov moved on, fixedly explained, "a negative •.• and listening to the grinding of snow pushed it against the pole." under his soles. Beside a street· The girl unwrapped the pack· STARLIGHT RHAPSODY 23 et. A strange enough negative, he spoke rapidly, from time to time thought, for he saw a black back­ asking: "Are you certain that you ground and on it a light ribbon understand?" streaked with thin black lines. She did not stick to chrono­ "What is it?" wondered Rusa­ logical order in her tale, and Ru­ nov. sanov could only conjecture "A spectrum. That is the spec­ about much of it. trum of the star Procyon. Do you It seemed that she had be­ understand?" come enthusiastic about astron· Rusanov looked at the girl omy while still in high school. with some interest. After graduation from the Depart· "About sixteen," he thought, ment of Physics of Moscow Uni· and immediately corrected him­ versity she had departed to work self: "No, older! Perhaps twenty­ in_ the observatory in Siberia's five or twenty-six .•." Altai Mountains. "Listen to me," he said. ''Where The first disillusionment: in· were you running to in the mid­ stead of making world-shaking dle of the night with the photo?" discoveries, she had carried out "To the telegraph office," the trying and tedious work about girl replied. "It's a great discov­ classification of photographs of ery." stellar spectra. Rusanov laughed mildly. He After four months of this she liked unexpected and out-of-the­ imagined that she had made a ordinary meetings. His humor discovery. But the director of the suddenly improved. observatory had dryly explained: "Discovery?" he asked again. an error. "Yes, Constantine Aleyeevitch. Three more months and the I knew you at once." second burst of joy and . • . a Rusanov laughed. new error, the other disillusion· The girl looked at his face ment. suspiciously. Should she tell him The months passed. Work, or not? work, and more work. Nothing "Look here," she began. "I even slightly romantic. Number· found in the spectrum of Procy­ less photographs of stellar spec· on . . . But do you know tra. Calculations. Classifications. enough about spectra? Wait a mo­ And not even a single discovery. ment, I'll explain everything to It seemed that her whole life you." would pass in this monotonous Rusanov did not immediately way. And suddenly • . . understand the essence of her "You understand," she contin· somewhat garbled story. She ued, "from the beginning even I 24 FANTASY AKD SCIENCE FICTION could scarcely believe it. It's cer­ sounds that can be heard in na­ tainly not very agreeable to repeat ture. Well, if you listen to the ceaselessly, as though to a child: same sounds arranged as a musi­ "you have to work, but not to cal scale, can that be without the dream . . .' Yes, but it was so help of a being endowed with evident. 350 spectra from Procyon wisdom? lay before me. The other astrono­ "I was afraid of telling any· mers had seen the spectra sepa­ thing about this discovery, sup­ rately, but I looked at them all at posing that it would just be an­ -one time. And, you understand, it other error. Later my vacation be­ seemed that a picture was formed gan. I left as though in a dream. out of the separate lines. Such During the trip I reproached my· things happen, don't they? From self: Why had I not told anyone • 350 spectrograms I chose 90 ac­ .Although I had already arrived in cording to the order in which they Moscow, my thoughts were still in were_ photographed. All of them the observatory.'' had the same background: the They were still standing under lines of non-ionized metals. That the street-light on the quiet side was the spectrum of Procyon, al­ street; Rusanov was looking fixed­ ready long known. But besides ly at the snow-castle in silence. that on every spectrogram I saw "You ... you don't believe the line of one more element. The me, do you?" asked the girl. first spectrogram had the hydro­ To be completely honest, Rusa· gen line, the second the helium, nov believed her no more than he the third the lithium . . . They would have believed someone followed in natural order to thor­ who had stated that the seventh ium, the ninetieth element of the continent had been discovered Mendeleevian periodic table of somewhere in the Caspian· Sea. the elements. You understand, "Can you tell me your name, that seemed as though someone girl of science, who with a blow had intentionally placed the ele­ knocks people from their feet and ments in a precise sequence­ takes pictures of the stars," he that is, according to the periodic said, avoiding the definitive word. table. There is no explanation in "Alia," she answered. "Alia nature for this fact, except for Vladimirovna Jungovskaya, as· one : those lines are signals sent tronomer." by intelligent beings.'' "Alia Vladimirovna Jungov· "Do you really believe that?" skaya, astronomer," Rusanov re­ asked Rusanov, very seriously. peated to himself, and thought: "Certainly!" the girl cried out. "No, she doesn't look older than "Take, for example, the separate sixteen.'' STAltLIGHT :RHAPSODY 25 Then he felt that he should most easily used would be the say something kind to her. electromagnetic waves with inter­ "Let's have a look at that . spatial wavelength, or, in other that spectrogram," he finally of­ words, light waves, light. fered. "Think further about the idea: "Please," said the girl with joy, what would have to be sent across "let's go to my home. I'll show -that would have to be some­ them to you there." thing understandable to all ra­ Until now Rusanov had under­ tional beings. Letters of the alpha­ stood only one thing: in his new bet? But they differ. Ciphers? But acquaintance were mixed the there exist different systems of traits of maturity and youthful­ calculation. We can generally ness. Life had taught Rusanov to say that there exist on diverse come to conclusions about the peo­ worlds no two objects similar to ple around him: While still in each other besides one-the Men­ Spain he had memorized the deleevian table of chemical ele­ words of a commissar of the Inter­ ments. It is something common to national Brigade, an ex-instructor all worlds. On all planets the of mathematics: "Judge men only lightest chemical element is hy­ after a second encounter." drogen-afterwards helium, lith­ "Anything can happen. Out of ium, and so forth. The Mendeleev the mouths of babes,' he smiled table is easily sent across via light. internally, "but she does not seem Every chemical element has its at all like a child • . . Astrono­ own spectrum, its own passport. mer . . . Alia Vladimirovna You understand, when I think Jungkovskaya." about it, it seems to me that my The girl apparently felt a need discovery is not just chance, but a to say something. law ••." "Look here," she said, "that dis­ Rusanov raised his hand, as covery seems simple and under­ though he were inviting her to standable after it has been made. listen, and Jungovskaya became See here. Let's suppose that Pro­ silent. They stopped. The Kremlin cyon has its own planetary sys­ tower bells resounded clearly in tem. Let's also suppose that ra­ the frosty air. tional beings from one of those "Happy New Year!" said Rosa­ planets has decided to broadcast nov and Alia responded with a si­ a signal into space. Radio waves lent smile. are useless: they spread out too They stood quietly, listening to easily. Not gamma-rays or Ront­ the sound of the bells, which died gen-rays-they would be quickly away with distance. absorbed. That shows that the Mterwards they walked faster. 26 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION

"Answer me, respectable guard~ "The whole thing seems incred~ ian of the stars," began Rusanov. ible," she said; "it even seems to "Maybe that is some part of the me. at times that I am dreaming processes taking place on the . . . I will awake and everything star." will disappear ..." She became "No, no! The temperature of silent. The dull sounds of music Procyon is only 8000° C. and came from somewhere nearby. conforming to the lines in the "I chose twenty more spectro­ spectrum the origin of this radia~ grams apart from these. They were tion has more than a million de~ all different from the ordinary grees. It must be some type of ar~ spectrum of Procyon. Look here, tificial brilliance, produced on Procyon is a star similar to our one of the planets of the Procyon sun. Spectral class-the fifth. The system. Its power is so tremendous lines of neutral metals, like cal­ that we can only try to imagine cium, iron and others, are clearly . . . and nonetheless . . . expressed. But in these the back­ Here, please, we've arrived . • ." grounds are ordinary, but contain She led him into her tiny cham~ completely extraordinary lines. her, in which the piano and book~ And what is more wonderful, case took up almost half the space. those of some elements together. There was also a map of the That forces me to believe that heavens, hanging from the wall, ninety previous spectrograms are and on the table stood a lamp un­ a kind of alphabet, and these der a green shade. twenty-two ar~ a message . . . a Alia invited Rusanov to sit letter . · .•" down and brought him an album. "And you have deciphered it?" It was an ordinary album; people interrupted Rusanov. usually save family photographs Alia shook her head. in such. That was· the first time "No. The task was too difficult in Rusanov's life that he had ex­ f~r me. From a logical viewpoint amined spectrograms, and they it would have to be a very simple told him nothing. But he felt-he system. I don't know . . . I felt but did not understand­ tried . . . but nothing hap­ that she had indeed made a dis~ pened. But the two spectrograms covery. And he believed her, com­ . . . You understand, I am not pletely, without argument. even certain mvself . . . Don't "Will you ••• you ..• be~ laugh • . • Maybe it's only au­ lieve me?" she asked quietly. tosuggestion. Who knows? ..• Rusanov answered without a But these two spectrograms imme­ amile . diately drew my attention. There ."Yes, I believe." was a feeling that I was. looking STARLIGHT RHAPSODY Z7 at something truly intimate but how to show in poetry that which written in a foreign language. And Levitan had demonstrated with only when I was on the train, the brush. Rusanov had written traveling to Moscow, did I con­ quite a bit of poetry about love, jecture that . . • You probably and in his very intimate and know that in the Mendeleevian slightly sad verses a smile some­ table of the elements the proper­ times penetrated through, like a ties of elements are repeated after sunbeam through a veil of cloud. every eight numbers. If we leave And the stars remained for Rusa­ out the last number we get the oc­ nov the symbol of the faraway and tave . . . Just as in music. The unattainable. sounds repeat after every seven "Yes," Rusanov answered quiet­ tones. And then I saw a scale on ly, "play it, please!" the spectrogram. They say that it's He understood nothing about dangerous for researchers to guess spectral analysis. But he knew mu­ ahead. But I intended to find a sic. Only music could tell him musical score on the spectrograms, whether the girl was right or not. and it seems that I found it . . . " And Rusanov grew emotional. "And you ... transcribed It was only with tremendous will­ that .•. music?" asked Rusanov power that he could force himself and shivered: his voice sounded te leave the window, to sit down. strange, as though it had come Jungovskaya raised the piano from far away. cover. Her hands paused over the "Yes, I wrote it." Jungovskaya keyboard for a fraction of a sec­ went, to the piano. "If you want ond. Then she touched the keys. The first chord sounded. There "A moment." Rusanov nervously was something alarming in it. The paced across the room. He stopped sounds flew upward and slowly before the window. died away. And new chords fol­ "Is it possible to see Procyon lowed immediately. from here?" In the first moments Rusanov Jungovskaya shoved the cur­ heard nothing besides the savage tain aside. combination of sounds. But then "There beyond the neighbors' the melody-two melodies!­ house, to the right . . . Do you emerged. They wound together see? .•• Its light has been trav­ and the first of them slowly seemed eling for eleven years ..." to carry the fast and impetuous Rusanov regarded the shining second. The sounds became in­ star. He was a lyric poet and knew flamed, like sparks from a fire, and how to observe the mild charm of died; in their combination there the middle-Russian nature, knew was something intimate up to 28 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION pain, and at the same time foreign called more strongly, more obsti­ and incomprehensible. nately .•• It was music, but of a type not The music spurred his heart, at all customary. In the beginning here throwing itself skyward like a its internal characteristics caused whirlwind, there ending in a it to oppress, to humble. It seemed painful sigh. to carry inhuman, alien, superior, It was full of all human feel­ higher feelings. ings, and yet it had no feeling, just Sometimes the hands of the pi­ as the sunbeam remains colorless anist paused on the keys. And despite its being the combination again they suddenly seemed to ac­ of all colors of the rainbow . . • quire new strength. And then the For a moment the music ceased, strange double melody flared up. and then burst forth with new It sounded louder and more con­ force. No, it did not burst forth, it vincingly. It seemed to attract, exploded! In a savage whirling and Rusanov went unconsciously, the sounds flew up, joined togeth­ as though obeying that attraction, er, and ... disappeared. Only to the piano. the single sound, soft and delicate, He saw neither walls nor table died away adagio, like the last nor lamp-he saw nothing be­ flame of a burned-out fire . • . sides the fingers feverishly run­ And then there was silence. It ning over the keyboard. His heart seemed incredibly drawn-out. beat crazily, as though it were try­ Then into the room there came ing to hold to the speed of the mu­ the customary Terrestrial sounds sic. His eyes misted . • • -a distant train whistle, voices. The sounds shivered, pounded, Rusanov went to the window. as though they were trying to pull Over the roof twinkled the bright themselves out of the crude instru­ star Procyon of the constellation ment. The piano could not sound Canis Minor. And its light seemed out the whole melody, but com­ to emit a mysterious and solemn pressed and broken it lived and music.

WATCH FOR OUR MARCH ALL STAR ISSUE (on sale January 30) Wenzell Brown has travelled widely over the surface of the Earth (graduate scholar in London, research fellow in Denmark, school teacher in Puerto Rico, college professor in China), and widely under the surface of men's minds. His interests rest "in particular [on] what lies behind the malformation of character, and what has brought about such complete deviations from the norm. This, of necessity, requires original research, as there is ap­ parently no book on the subject." In this story, his first for F&SF, Mr. Brown combines an original interpretation of a classical Fan­ tasy theme with a unique reversal of a classical form of obsession. He is one of our few contributors to have received the "Edgar" award of the Mystery Writers of America.

THE FOLLOWEB

hy Wenzell Brown

HENRY AND I ARE BOTH INTEL­ diversion. I have read them by ligent men. But Henry is not as the hundreds but, if there is an intelligent as I. That is why we exact duplication of the mental have decided that it is I who aberration which is mine, I doubt should attempt to elucidate the that it has ever been chronicled. details of our joint crime, the mo­ In appearance I am an ordi­ tives of which appear to baffie the nary man. Middle-aged. Medium police. in height. Perhaps a bit slight of Henry suffers from, or I might build. My coloration is medium say indulges himself in, a perse­ too and my features undistin­ cution complex. I, too, have cer­ guished. People who meet me sel­ tain obsessive or compulsive dom remember me and my com­ drives but they do not fall into monplace name, George Jordan, such a pat classification. rarely sticks in their minds. During my mother's long During my school days I re­ drawn-out final illness, there was ceived average grades though I ample time for reading. Psychi­ sometimes suspected that teach­ atric case studies were my favorite ers, having no recollection of me 29 30 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION at the time that grades were dis­ to the radio or, in more recent pensed, automatically jotted a C years, watching television. beside my name. I was close to forty at the time My school mates tended to ig­ of her death. I was not wracl,ed nore me but, though I had no by grief but I experienced a more friends, this was compensated for terrible suffering, that of utter by the fact that I was never the desolation. A more aggressive target for bullying or ridicule as man might have successfully al­ were some of my more conspicu­ tered his life. I had no idea ous fellow students. I passed un­ where to start. The rent on our noticed in the school yards and shabby apartment was frozen corridors and, when I wished, I and, as I had spent my entire life could attach myself to the fringe in the neighborhood, it seemed of a group without causing com­ wise for me to remain there. My ment. job anesthetized my days but the After graduation from high long evenings were nightmares of school I secured a pOsition as a loneliness. stock clerk. The work did not tax I could rationalize my subse­ my skills and I suffered from quent action but to do so would boredom. In time I drifted away be false. I acted out of blind in­ but, after a period of unemploy­ stinct. Somewhere there was ment, I was forced to take an someone whom I must persecute, identical position with another an individual who must feel the firm. This pattern was repeated explosive wrath of my accumu­ until I accepted the inevitably of lated frustration. But who? How my status and made no further at­ did I establish the contact? tempt to find release from the I wish to make it clear that I monotony of routine. had no sense of being persecuted My mother was the one person myself. Manl

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SPECTRUM D, Kingsley Amis ·and enthusiasms • • • The outstand· Robert Conquest, ed., Harcourt ing inclusions are the, alas, late Brace & World, $4.50 Henry Kuttner's "Vintage Season" and Wyman Guin's "Beyond Bed­ Here is another collection of lam". The former, a beautifully American SF, edited by Britons styled and crafted tale of decadent for the British, and now published diletantes who visit the past and in the United States. This round­ view disasters for kicks, probably about fashion confused me when requires no further comment here. the first volume of what is seem­ It is the latter which knocked me ingly destined to be a series was for a loop. Who is Wyman Guin? published, and I'm not clear about He has written about a future so­ it yet. I suppose the likeliest an­ ciety of schizoids whose masterful swer is the name of Kingsley use of drugs has not only limited Amis, whose publication of NEW the multiple personalities to two MAPS OF HELL guaranteed that per body, but has arranged for henceforth much attention would them (called here, hyperalter and be paid his opinions on the field. hypoalter) to share the body in Inasmuch as one of his opinions five-day shifts. Mr. Guin's is a was that Fredrik Pohl was proba­ love story, too, and the details of bly the leading American SF writ­ the society are worked out in such er, it comes as a surprise that the beautifully logical detail that I most remarkable thing about Mr. must urge it be read by everyone Pohl's name in relation to this vol­ who has not done so already. ume is its entire absence from it. I There are also stories by James do not quite share Mr. Kingsley Blish (vivid description of Jupi· Amis's earlier opinion, but surely ter's surface), Philip K. Dick my distinguished colleague the edi­ (much too long-robots-made-by· tor of Galaxy, If, and Worlds Of robots-made-by-robots, etc. -One Tomorrow has written stories bet­ of-us-must-be-an-alien), Isaac ter than some of those included. Asimov (rediscovery of mental/ One hopes that the author of manual arithmetic by future com• NMOH is not given to transient puter-using people), Mark Clifton 40 BOOKS 41 (psi, too long), A. E. Van Vogt more recently, Richard Hayden's (aliens-tricked-by-human). One Edwin Carp-mild, acid, amus­ cavil, re. Guin-a Mrs. Grania ing, veddy British and very good. Davidson points out that schizo­ The Moon comes nearer and near­ phrenia and multiple personality er on each revolution, Hopkins al­ are not, despite popular misusage, ternately shudders and tenderly the same thing: take note. feeds his hens. The catastrophe occurs, the results are not as ex­ THE HOPKINS MANUSCRIPT, R. C. pected, civilization totters . • • I Sherriff, Macmillan, $4.95 must confess that I like a good narrative of a tottered civilization, Here's an interesting point­ even an over-tottered one; par­ Macmillan brings out an attrac­ ticularly if it is British and Bomb­ tive book with illustrations for at less. Mr. Sherriffs is just first-rate, least a dollar less than others moving, dramatic without ever be­ charge for a lot of less attractive ing melodramatic, tender, thor­ books without. And I doubt that oughly engrossing. There is an in­ the extra buck goes to the authors, tro by Yale Drama Prof. John either. Anyway-does Journey's Gassner, needlessly patronizing to­ End ring anything like the same wards SF (good as Hopkins is, it bell in the 60's as it did in the 30's, won't compare, all told, with The when it was the War and Anti­ War of the Worlds, sir); and an War play? I doubt it. Pity. Any­ epilogue by Astromony Prof. Gass­ way, again, its author, unnoticed ner explaining why Mr. Sherriff's by me at the time, in 1939 pro­ catastrophe is impossible (hoity­ duced this very, very readable toity, sir-and who asked you?); story of what happens when the plus a very fine title-page-are Moon is scheduled to collide with title-pages coming back? Goody!­ the Earth, and thereafter. This and equally fine illustrations by theme will scarcely startle my two Joe Mugnaini. Also, good cover by or three readers by reason of its S. A. Summitt. A thoroughly well­ novelty; no matter: read it any­ done volume. Don't just read it­ way, do you hear me? It is in the buy it. form of a memoir written by one Edgar Hopkins, of the lesser gen­ EXPLORERS OF 11IE INFINITE, Sam try of England, poultry-breeder, Moskowitz, World, $6.00 member of the British Lunar So­ ciety, and not a man of the largest Subtitle is, Shapers Of Science mind. Some of the social com­ Fiction. Sam has always been con­ ment reminds me of the classical sidered by this field to be its own Diary of A Disappointed Man and, historian, and this book should do 42 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION much to advance his right to the would, probably be dull. A must position in the eyes of those out­ for every SF library. side the field. Gone is the ponder­ ous prose of THE IMMORTAL DR. ox's EXPERIMENT, Jules Veme, sTORM, his 20-years-ago-or-so his­ Macmillan, $3.95 tory of SF fandom down to WW II; what we have here will not When the learned and amiable rank with, say, Coleridge's essays Anthony Boucher, one of my Aug­ on Shakespeare, but it is good, ust Predecessors, told me that readable informative stuff on Cy­ Jules Verne had a sense of humor, rano De Bergerac (yes, kiddies, I listened with a politeness that the very same Cyrano De Bergerac was neither conviction nor doubt. who), Mary Wollstonecraft Shel­ If Mr. Boucher had said it, it was ley (the poet's much put-upon so; from the recollections of 20,- wife, creator of Frankenstein and 000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Monster: gee, the darned people Mysterious Island, and one or two have written this stuff, haven't Gernsback magazine reprints-all they?), Edgar Allan Poe, Fitz­ fuzzy and muzzy in my memory­ James O'Brien (expatriate Irish ! could recollect no evidence to and American author of a few fine support the statement. The evi­ gothick SF stories), Jules Verne, dence is now before me in Dr. Edward Everett Hale (first to Ox's Experiment, whose publica­ write of an artificial satellite; still, tion by Macmillan is in the nature I wonder at his inclusion), of an experiment itself: the text "Frank Reade, Jr." (Lu Senarens, runs along the length of the page prolific dime-novelist), H. G. and not along its width, and every Wells, M. P. Shiel, A. Conan page-every single page, mind Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. you!--has an illustration. This Merritt, Karel Capek, Hugo Gems­ includes the introduction by Willy back, H. P. Lovecraft, Olaf Staple­ Ley (Professor Willy Ley now, I don, Philip Wylie, and Stanley G. am glad to say, he having obtained Weinbaum-whereby I for the some of his long-overdue honor by first time learned that Weinbaum being co-opted to the staff of Fair­ was (as "John Jessel'') the author leigh Dickinson University), the of The Adoptive Ultimate. Sam's epilogue by Dr. Hubertus Strug­ not-quite-accurate comments on hold, and a bibliography-also by medieval Judaism raise questions }>rofessor Ley. Dr. Ox himself is in my mind as to his absolute ac­ scarcely the protagonist of this curacy on other matters-but droll tale, that place being more­ probably no one but an academi­ or-less conjointly held by the cian could do better • • • and Flemish and phlegmatic village of BOOKS 43 Quiquendone. Nothing of mo­ life for manslaughter, is framed by ment, no deed of action, no word a prison informer, and a brutal of excitement, has occurred­ warden tries to "break" him in the been done-or spoken there since "jacket." So far, a straightforward the Crusades. King Log and his piece of special pleading for prison loyal supporters have had a reign reform. of unequalled and unbroken Under the torture of the jacket, peace. To this outpost of quietness Standing learns from a fellow and slow time (principal indus­ prisoner how to "die in the jacket" tries: barley sugar and whipped -abandon his body-and thus, cream) comes the inquisitive Dr. freed of space and time, begins to Ox-King Stork, personified in re-live his past lives; as a Renais­ the cause of Pure Science-with sance cavalier, as a small boy his scheme for piping the town for crossing the Mormon desert, as a illuminating gas. Perish forbid marooned sea-cuny, as a wander· that I disclose what happens next. ing Norseman in Rome•s legions. Buy three copies of this delightful Each of these stories, complete in volume-one for your nephew, itself, is a typical Jack London one for your aunt, and one for story of struggle and survival yourself. The illustrations of Wil­ against agonizing odds, giving the liam Pene du Bois are rather bet­ book strength and unity. ter than his cover, and the period Essence of London, essence of illustrations of Verne and his sto­ fantasy-and so convincing is this ries are enchanting. book that the publishers evidently -AVRAM DAVIDSON feared a Bridey Murphy outbreak of reincarnation-hysteria; for they have descended to the depths of 11IE STAR ROVER, Jack London, the ridiculous by appending a Macmillan, $4.5 0 careful epilogue by Gardner Mur­ phy-whoever he may be-care­ The Star Rover (first published fully disclaiming scientific validity in 1915, and now brought out in for London's reincarnation hy· a new deluxe wrapping) is a curi­ pothesis. The book is just that ously unclassifiable book, and the convincing. reader who startS reading it with­ -MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY out some knowledge of what it is will probably get a few shocks be­ THE DUNWICH BO~OR AND OTHERS, fore he's through. It starts like a H. P. LoYecraft, Arkham, $5.00 horrible-and horribly realistic­ novel of prison life; Darrell Stand­ Here is the next best thing to ing, an "intellectual" sentenced to owning one of the 1200 copies of 44 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION The Outsider and Others: a gen­ rifying figure." In fact, I'd say that erous selection of the finest stories the essay covers all the important in that volume, a good 190,000 of points except the one Sam Mosko­ its 375,000 words of Lovecraft's witz and I have been hammering best fiction by my estimate, printed away at for years: that many of the on the same Winnebago Eggshell beings in the M ythos are not gods which the decades do not darken. I or devils, but finely-wrought and enthusiastically recommend it to ingeniously-historied extraterres­ readers and libraries everywhere. trials, and that most of Love· The stories and novelas included craft's later tales are science fiction are: In the Vault, Pickman's Mod­ with a slight-to-moderate super­ el, The Rats in the Walls, The Out­ natural dusting. sider, The Colour Out of Space, Since I still have my pen (You The Music of Erich Zann, The don't catch me saying foot!) in the Haunter of the Dark, The Picture F&SF Books section, and a few in the House, The Call of Cthulhu, words to go, I'll use them comment­ The Dunwich Horror, Coal Air, ing on Avram Davidson's recent The Whisperer in Darkness, The comments on Eddison's The Worm Terrible Old Man, The Thing on Ouroboros (Oct. 19 6 3). the Doorstep, The Shadow Over Dear Avram, the common peo­ lnnsmouth, and The Shadow Out ple are as much in The Warm as of Time. they are in Shakespeare, even if the This is a definitive rooster of princes and princesses do steal the Lovecraft's best. I'd admit a couple spotlight most of the time: they to include The Silver Key, The appear as rustics and menials, it's Festival, The Temple, and The true, but they're there-see Mi­ Dreams in the Witch-House-per­ varsh, see the rustic narrator of the sonal preference is inescapable! Battle of Krothering Side, see the Leading off the book is August sousing of Corund with ordure by Derleth's most thoughtful essay to the Demon soldiery before the burg date on HPL. He is content to de­ of Eshgrar Ogo. Moreover, the nominate him as "a major writer princes and princesses do not mere­ in the minor macabre division of ly "kiss and dedaim and posture"; literature," he admits that the they have guts and homely sides­ Cthulhu M ythos was not to HPL attend the colloquies of Gro and the formalized thing it was made Corund, hist the pillow-talk of after his death, he concedes the Corund and Prezmyra the night influence of Dunsany on a few of before the Battle of Carce, dice and the minor tales, and he shrewdly drink with Corinius, die with Co­ and amusingly answers Colin Wil­ rund, observe Corsus firing his son's view of Lovecraft as "a hor- daughter Sriva with strong wine BOOKS 45 before sending her as a love-offer· mark how the Witchlanders bet ing to King Goryce and venture on the fight between the spiders (if you dare) inside the Iron Tow· and toad under the upended crys· er to witness the King's receiving tal banquet goblet • . . Hell, if of that embassage, watch Goryce this be nothing but marionettry towel away his sweat from the hunt, and romantic puppet-squeakings, sniff (cautiously!) at Jus and Bran· then Webster and Toumeur never doch Daha besmeared with the gave us anything else! blood of the mantichore, -fRITZ LEIBER

PUBLICATION NOTED Asimov, Isaac. Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Doubleday. $3.50 each. Budrys, Algis. Budrys' Inferno. Berkley. 50¢. De Camp, L. Sprague. The Bronze God of Rhodes. Bantam. 60¢. Galouye, Daniel F. Lords of the Psychron. Bantam. 40¢. Jenkins, Cecil. Message From Syrius. Bantam. 40¢. Simak, Clifford D. All The Traps of Earth. Macfadden. 50¢. Parrinder, E. G. Witchcraft: European and African. Barnes Be Noble $5.00,

A Gorgeous Blonde­ Coming •oon in F & SF A Post-Sputnik J. G. BALLARD Soldier of Fortune­ These are the main ingredients MILDRED in CLINGERMAN Robert A. RON GOULART Heinlein's HARRY HARRISON NEW NOVEL

J. T. MciNTOSH GLORY ROAD The best book yet /rom the 2-time Hugo Award Winner B.TRAVEN $3.95 at all bookstores, or from G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS 00 Madison Avo., N.Y. 1001 THE THEE OF TIJIE

hy DaJDon Knight

( Conclwion)

SYNOPSIS: "What is a Zug?" Naismith, aroused and angry, did A nonsensical phrase! But Gordon not wait. He left Wells' office, caught Naismith could not put it out of his a cab and went looking for Churan. mind. It was odd what .a shock had He found the man's office, but it was gone through him when the East empty, deserted-with an odd smell Indian girl, Miss Lall, had stepped lingering in the air. • • • up and spoken those words during Back at his apartment, another one of his classes . . . as if, deep unpleasant surprise was waiting for down in his subconscious, the ques- him. The body of Mrs. Becker, his tion did mean something-and some- cleaning woman, lay on the floor. thing vital. She was dead-horribly burned, like Could it have something to do Ramsdell. with the lost thirty-one years of his Naismith called the police and life, before the bomber crash that was arrested. Three hours later, a had wiped out his memory? lawyer he did not know got him out Then the machine that Bursar on a writ. When Naismith asked who Ramsdell had handed him that same had sent him, he answered, "Your afternoon, saying it was from a man friend Churan." .•• named Churan-blue, satiny metal, . There was a common denominator all its curves flowing together. What in the two deaths, Naismith realized was its function? Why had it been -the machine. Both Ramsdell and sent to him? Mrs. Becker must have held it; Part of the answer came that eve- Naismith had found it moved from ning while he was being interviewed the table, where he had left it, to a by Dr. Wells, the U.C.L.A. psychia- closet shelf. Yet the machine had not trist. The phone rang: it was Dean harmed Naismith himself! Orvile, almost hysterical, calling to Next day, still in a mood of sup­ say that Ramsdell was dead-horrl- pressed fury, he went back to the bly burned to death-and Naismith campus and cornered Miss Lall. A had been the last one to see him Zug, she told him, was a monster­ alive! "I'm sending the police!" be very fierce, very intelligent; some shrilled. ''Don't let him get away!,. grew thirty feet long. She and Chu- C J 963 by Damon Knight 46 THB TUE OP TIMB 47 ran wanted him to kill one. The Cburan told htm, .. you would sim­ Zug was in a certain place, hard to ply fall through the Earth, and go on reach. When he was "ready,'' they fallin~." would take him there. She would What Naismith had to do was to say no more. Angered, Naismith finish the vehicle, using the plans seized her arm, but let go at once. and tools he would find here, and Her flesh was as cold as if she were then go forward again, to the City, a lizard-or a corpse .••• where the monster was waiting. His only chance, Naismith Where were the technicians who thought, was to clear up the mystery had been working on the machine? of his own past. He went back to Dead, Lall told him-"Killed in the Wells, forced him to use a dangerous first attack. That black cloud you deep-probe technique: When he came saw, just before we stopped-that out of it, Wells was dead-battered was the bombs." and broken. Pursued by police, When he got out of the force Naismith ran into a tube station, bubble, the aliens' expressions found Lall and Churan waiting for changed. "One thing she forgot to him. Now he had nowhere . to go tell you," said Churan, with an un­ except to them; now he was "ready." pleasant smile. "The second attack is The two aliens, using a transparent going to ta~:e place in just thirty sec· bubble of force created by the ma­ onds. Th~t is the one that pulverizes chine they had given Naismith, this city to a depth of fifty meters." transported him into the future to a The aliens had told him two con­ buried spaceship near the site of flicting stories. One was a lie­ Denver. Their purpose, they told which? As the final seconds ticked him, was to train him for the task he away, Naismith made his decision. had to do. After teaching him their He leaped to the skeletal machine, language with a mechanical educa­ found· a lever under his hands, tor, they took him forward again, pulled it over hard. into a cavern below the city that had The world went grayish and un­ once been Chicago. Here, they told real around him. As it toppled, the him, was the prototype of the first machine began to sink into the floor time vehicle-a tapered bar of met­ -falling, as if the stone floor and the al, six feet long, with mto cross­ earth beneath it were so much mist. pieces. It was unfinished, the pro­ Before the darkness closed over his pulsive unit not installed. "If you head, the last things he saw were the boarded the machine as it now is,'' triumphant smiles of the aliens.

CHAPTER SEVEN crossbar, flung his body upward­ As THE DARKNESS CLOSED OVER and was hurled back again by a his head, Naismith's first emotion curved, elastic wall. He landed was a consuming rage. Gathering hard against the metal framework, himself, he kicked against the which began to revolve slowly and 48 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION dizz~ ingly ·around him. The fall­ ing its direction, so far as he could ing sensation continued. tell, by a hair's breadth. His one opportunity was gone: The thought of the gulf below for a moment that was all he could him was hideous. What, actually, think of. If he had been able to was happening to him at this mo­ leap out of the machine's field dur­ ment? The answer came at once. ing the first second of his fall He was acting out one of the old­ . • . but it was impossible to get est physics problems in the book, out of the field without turning something that every freshman off the machine, as he had just was familiar with-the imaginary discovered. tunnel drilled through the Earth. In fact, the opportunity had In fact, his body was a har­ been illusory. He had been monic oscillator. Assuming a ho­ doomed from the moment he mogenous Earth and a non-rota­ turned on the machine. Now he ing frame, he would describe a was falling, falling endlessly-to long, narrow eclipse around the what fate? Earth's center. His grip on the The aliens had told him one crossbar tightened convulsively. truth and one lie; he had taken Of course-and unless friction re­ the lie for the truth, exactly as tarded him too much, he would thev had intended him to do. rise at the antipodal point to ex­ Rage and despair all but actly the same level he had started choked him, as he clung to the from! metal framework, falling, in dark­ Wait, now-he had fallen from ness and silence. He wanted to the floor of an underground cham­ live! ber perhaps a hundred feet or so A faint hope came, as his fingers under the surface. • • • Whers touched the control knobs on the was he going to come out? crossbar. If the aliens had lied The moment the question oc­ about this, too. . • . Cautiously curred to him, he realized that it he tried one knob after another, was of vital importance. He had avoiding the lever which had entered the Earth near Lake Mich­ turned the machine on. There was igan, probably not far from the site no perceptible result, except that, of Chicago. If he went straight when he had turned the third through the planet, he should knob, he felt a cool breath of air. come out somewhere in the Indian There was something he had Ocean . • • and Chicago, he was not even considered : at least he sure, was several hundred feet would not smother on his way above sea Ievell down. • • • But he did not suc­ Wait a moment ••• he was ceed in arresting his fall, or chang- neglecting the rotation of the THE TREE OP TIME 49' Earth; that would bring him out less than five minutes. Assume, some distance westward of the then, that he had begun his fall at antipodal point. How far depend­ 9: 0 5 by this watch. The time it ed on the period of his motion. showed was local California time . . . Call the radius of the Earth as of 2002 A.D.-curious to think four thousand miles-about twen­ of this mechanism still faithfully ty million feet, for convenience. keeping track of the minutes now Gravity at the surface of the buried thousands of years in the Earth, thirty-two feet per second past • • • but that did not mat­ per second. The square root of ter. twenty million over thirty-two At 10:29, he should emerge. If would be two hundred and fifty friction was a negligible factor, times the square root of ten . . . and he could not assume otherwise, times pi ... about twenty-five then he would rise to a height of hundred seconds. Call it forty-two two or three hundred feet above minutes. He ran through the calcu­ the ocean . • . too high. He felt lation once more, found no error. himself begin to sweat, as he real­ Very well, in eighty-four min­ ized that it would be necessary to utes, if he was right, he would be chance falling back through the emerging from the far side of the Earth-all the way through to the planet. In the meantime, the rota­ Western hemisphere, then back tion of the Earth would have again, hoping that in those two brought his exit point about twen­ additional passages, friction would ty-one degrees westward. . . . It bring him out at a level from was all right: that would still be which he could hope to fall safely. in the ocean. Luckily, there was plenty of He took a deep breath. At least room in the ocean. Two more pas­ he would come out, not cycle in­ sages would bring him westward side the Earth until his momentum only forty-odd degrees. . • • was used up. If his calculations A feeling of discomfort drew were right- his attention. He was uneasy1 Hmu long had he been falling? what had he been neglecting? Cursing himself, he fumbled Friction: what if it were not for his wristwatch. The dial was negligible? For that matter, what not luminous, but with a nail-file about the interior heat of the from his pocket he pried up the Earth? crystal, felt the hands with his He was to pass near the center fingertips. They indicated about of the core, which was thought to ten minutes after nine. He had be at about four thousand degrees been falling for what seemed hal£ Centigrade. • an hour or more, but was probably Something was wrong. He 50 FANTASY AND SCIINOI fiCTION reached out quickly, touched the falling, and in this case it hap­ hollow curve of the force-shell. It pened to be true-he was falling. was neither warm nor cool to his He touched the hands of the senses. But he had already been watch once more. They seemed falling . • • he felt the hands of hardly to have moved. He held the the watch again . • . more than watch to his ear to listen for the six minutes . . • t-squared, call whirr of the motor, then swore at it a hundred thirty thousand, times himself impatiently. Of course the one-half the acceleration-two watch was running: it was his million feet, or something close to own perception of time that was four hundred miles. at fault. While part of his mind tried to If he only had a light. • • • He grasp that, another part went on would be seeing what no man had coldly calculating. ever seen, the rocks of the deep Temperature of the Earth's crust mantle. In a few minutes he would increased with depth, by about be passing through the rim of the thirty degrees Centigrade every kil­ outer core, into that curious re­ ometer. And the shell he was in gion where nickel-iron was com­ was transparent to visible light. pressed into a liquid ..•. Therefore .•• The watch again. The minute He was through the crust, fall­ hand had moved, just perceptibly. ing through the mantle. Falling into this dark emptiness, He should have passed the red­ Naismith could not help thinking heat stage long ago; by now he again of lost spirits, wandering should be well into the white. forever under the Earth. The And yet- Greeks had imagined a Hell like He touched the shell again. It that; the Egyptians, too. A phrase was still neither hot nor cold. The from some chance reading came darkness was unbroken. back to him: "the chthonic ouro­ Doubt struck him. Was he real­ bouros." ly. falling? Suppose he was simply He shuddered, and gripped the hanging here, suspended, without crossbar hard. I am a man, not a gravity . . . drifting, like a dis­ ghost. embodied spirit, forever under the He wondered if what he was Earth?' experiencing had ever happened He gripped the crossbar fiercely. before: if any other living soul The Universe obeyed certain laws, had made this incredible plunge. among these were the mutual at­ Such a man, failing to reach the traction of material bodies and the surface again, swinging back and equivalence of grawity .and inertia. forth, thousands of times • • • His senses told him that he was until eventually his lifeless body THE TREE OP TIME 51 came to rest at the center of the blinked irritably, then closed his Earth. eyes, but the shapes remained. He What would have happened felt himself growing drowsy. then, when the machine's power He came awake with a start, ran out? A gigantic explosion, realizing that time had passed. He probably violent enough to cause felt the hands of the watch. It was vulcanism all over the planet, per­ nine-thirty. Twenty-five minutes haps even shift the balance of the had gone by. But- continents. , •. Therefore it had N aismith clutched the crossbar probably never happened. hard, as the icy shock struck him. But suppose the power had In twenty-two minutes, he should never run out? Then what was left have reached the center of the of the man must be still hanging Earth. Surely, at that depth, there there • . • or perhaps a cluster of would be some rise in tempera­ corpses, each in his shell of force. ture in the capsule! He reached out, touched the Time passed. In the darkness shell. It was just perceptibly warm. and silence, Naismith found him­ He deliberately let five minutes self becoming intensely aware of go by, then touched the shell his physical substance-his body's again. It was definitely warmer. attitude, the partly flexed limbs, Was there a delay factor in the the sense of half-perceived proces­ capsule's transmission of heat? Or ses going on inside him. What a had he somehow taken longer than curious and almost incredible twenty-two minutes to reach the thing it was, after all, to be a living center? But that was impossible. man! Again he waited five minutes For four years he had believed before he touched the shell. This himself to be Gordon Naismith. time there was no mistake: it was Then he had been told that this hot. identity was a mask, that in reality After a moment, even the air in he was a member of a different the capsule began to seem unpleas­ race, from a world twenty thou­ antly warm and heavy. Naismith sand years in the future. . . . But found he was sweating; his clothes this identity was no more real to began to stick to him. him than the other. After five minutes more, it was What was the truth? Where had not necessary to touch the wall he really come from, and what again. It was glowing dull red. was the goal to which he felt him­ Two minutes dragged by. The self so irresistibly driven? shell brightened through the red, Blurred, illusory shapes swam into the orange, yellow, then before his eyes in the darkness. He white. 52 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Naismith was in agony. Even But he had just passed through with his eyes tight shut, the glare a zone of heat that could only and heat were unendurable. He be the core! was being burnt alive. The air in the capsule was He buried his face in his arms, growing cooler by the moment. The sobbing for breath. The heat shell faded from dull red into hot pressed in relentlessly upon him darkness again. A few minutes la­ from all sides; he could feel it like ter, Naismith dared to touch it; a heavy weight on his clothing. it was hot, but bearable. Now he could smell his hair be­ Naismith felt totally bewild­ ginning to crisp and smolder. ered. The period of his transit The metal framework grew too through the Earth had to be ap­ hot to touch. Naismith retreated proximately eighty-four minutes, from it as far as he could, touching no matter from what height he be­ it only with the soles of his feet; gan his fall. Could his watch be but to do so was to draw nearer running too slowly? Was time in to the white-hot shell. the capsule moving at a rate dif­ He groaned aloud. ferent from that of time outside? It seemed to him, after a move­ As the fall continued in dark­ ment, that the heat and glare had ness, Naismith grew aware of both abated a little. He opened his eyes hunger and thirst. He had been warily. It was true: the shell had penned up here for only about an turned from white to orange. As hour and three-quarters, and that he watched, it faded slowly into ought to be well within his toler­ the red. ance; but how long was this go­ Naismith breathed in a great ing on? How long could he last? tortured gasp of relief. The crisis Once more, by an effort of will, was over-he was going to live! he calmed his mind. The shell Time-he must notice the­ steadily cooled; otherwise no time. Ignoring the pain of his blis­ change was perceptible. tered skin, he felt for the hands of If he assumed a lag in the cap­ the watch. It was exactly ten forty­ sule's absorption and re-radiation four. of -heat, Naismith drowsily His passage through Inferno thought, then it could be supposed had taken about fifteen minutes. that he had reached the mid-point Ten forty-four-ninety-nine of his orbit iD just about twice the minutes from the beginning of his predicted time. That would imply fall. Fifteen minutes ago, if his that there was a difference of time­ calculations had been correct, he rate inside the capsule, or else that should have emerged on the far some other factor had been re­ side of the planet. duced for unknown reasons. , , • THE TIU!E OF TJMI. 53 For a moment he allowed him­ His breath caught, and tears self to speculate on what he would came to his eyes. He was out, out do to the two aliens, if by some in­ in the free air at Jasti He made an credible chance he came out of this instinctive attempt to squinn alive and met them again; but he around right-side-to, but gave it up cut off the thought. He felt him­ immediately; that did not matter. · self drifting again into sleep, and What did matter, he realized abandoned himself to it willing­ with sudden alarm, was that he ly. was rising too high! The wrinkled, He snapped back to awareness starlit face of the water was draw­ with a start. How long had he been ing away overhead-five hundred dozing? feet, a thousand, with no -sign of He felt the watch. It was slowing down. 11:3 5. He had been in free fall The time had been too long; his for nvo and a half hours. speed was too great. Tension began to build in him Coming down, Naismith real­ again. Unless his understanding ized with horror, he would be go­ of the situation was simply, gross­ ing much too fast to dare turn off ly wrong, then the zone of heat he the machine. • , , had passed nzust have been the He would have to go all the core of the Earth; and his period way through, past that inferno of must be about twice what he had heat-at least once, perhaps twice. originally calculated. But why? He was grimly sure that he could Time dragged. It was 11 :40; not survive even one more passage. then 11 :47; then 11:50. Nai­ The globe above him continued smith waited tensely. Eleven fifty­ to recede. Now it was concave, a nvo. Now if ever- gigantic silver-lit bowl: now it One moment he was still in ut­ turned convex. The sky beneath ter bleakness. The next, stars changed from blue-black to pur­ bloomed out beneath him, a galaxy ple, to ebony. The stars shone with of them, blindingly brilliant in a crueler sharpness. their half-glove of night. Above Veils of cloud whisked by and him was a dark orb that occluded receded, dwindling. How was it the other half of the sky; it was possible that he should be rising so drifting away as he watched. far? He must be nearly into the Naismith blinked up at it in stratosphere. incomprehending wonder for a Now his speed was diminish­ moment, until he realized that it ing. He hung fixed in space for an was the night side of the Earth­ instant, then saw the Earth creep­ that he had burst out of it feet­ hag nearer again. foremost. On the whole broad, overhang- 54 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ing curve of the ocean, there was ter of his orbit would be displaced not one light, not a ship. He as­ a few miles, just enough to account cent haJ taken perhaps a minute for this rise. • •• and a half; in the same length of The globe of the Earth was rush­ time he must plunge back into the ing toward him. Naismith watched sea. it grimly, thinking that the next Naismith stared at the immense time he approached the surface it globe as it swelled toward him. would be somewhere in the Paci­ There must be some explanation! fic, about eighty-four degrees west It was out of the question for a of Lake Michigan. Then eighty­ falling body to come up ten or fif­ four minutes back again; this time teen miles higher than the point he would come out somewhere it had started from .••• Unless near the 63rd meridian, still in the Indian Ocean. Suddenly Naismith remem­ His best chance, he thought dis­ bered the instant of his fall, and tantly, was to make two more the seeming nightmare slowness of crossings after that. The first one it, while he fought to escape the would bring him up in the North shell of the force-field he was in. Pacific, his highest point a hun­ Make this assumption: That the dred feet or so underwater. But the relation of the machine to the nor­ second should bring him out some mal physical universe was such hundreds of miles off the Cape of that its gravitational interactions Good Hope, and it would then be were reduced • . . that it fell, shortly before dawn. say, with half or a quarter the nor­ Then the Sun would be perpen­ mal velocity. dicular to his line of motion, and He ran through the calculations the displacement would be hori­ quickly, with growing excitement. zontal, not vertical-he would Substituting one-quarter gave him rise only five hundred feet or so a figure of one hundred seventy above the water; if he were then minutes, which was almost exact­ alive, he could turn off the ma­ ly right. chine just above the surface, and There was an apparent viola­ easily survive his fall into the tion here either of the conserva­ ocean. tion of energy or the principle of Then it would be a matter of equivalence, but never mind that luck; but at least he would have now • • • The consequence was stacked L.'le. cards in his own favor. that during his fall, he would It would be daylight; he would be tend to swing out away from the in well-traveled waters. • • • Sun, being less attracted to that If the war had not destroyed all body than the Earth was .. The cen- life on Earth .••• THE TREE OF TIME 55 If there were still any ships on the aliens had used: the shape was theoceans •••• similar, but not identical. Now the dark surface was hur­ He reached for it, and found tling down at express-train speed. himself held back, although he Naismith involuntarily braced could neither see nor feel any ob­ himself, even though he knew stacle. Incredulous, he put out his there would be no sense of con­ full strength, straining until the tact. He saw a whorl of bluish blood roared in his ears; but he light just above him, expanding, could not force his body an inch rushing down. His eyes widened; closer to the machine. he had just time to gasp, then After a moment he gave it up, something struck him a murder­ and cautiously got to his feet. He ous blow. felt no restraint, and was able to The universe wheeled majesti­ stand; but when he tried to take a cally around him; there was pain step toward the machine, the same deep in his head. The stars slowly impalpable barrier held him back. darkened and went out. He straightened again, looking out over the sea of grass. At first He was aware of having been he saw only the rolling yellow unconscious, of a pain in his waves, with an occasional green head, and of a wordless anxiety treetop in the distance, and a line that had driven him up out of of misty hills along the horizon. sleep. Then he became aware of move­ He opened his eyes. ment. He was looking up into a gulf A. few hundred yards away of blue sky, dotted with clouds. across the plain, a human form Hardness pressed against his back; was moving slowly through the the air he breathed was cool and grass. It was a girl, the upper part pure. Something dry and flexible of her body either nude or lightly brushed his cheek as he turned his clothed; her legs and hips were head; vague yellowish rod-shaped hidden by the grass. She was walk­ moved across his vision. He sucked ing with leisurely grace, halting in a breath, rolled over and sat up. occasionally, with her face turned He was on the ground, with up to the sun. He could not make grass shoulder-high all around out her features, but something in him. A few feet away, on the the lines and the motion of her trampled grass, lay a small blued­ body made him think she was steel machine. young. Naismith stared at it in frozen She had not noticed him. Nai­ surprise for an instant, before he smith glanced again at the ma­ reaJized it was not the same one chine on the ground, then 56 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION crouched out of sight and once She was watching him with an more began a desperate effort to amused expression .. "Well, don't approach it. He found that he stand there-back away." could walk in a circle around the Naismith did not move. ''Who machine, but could never come are you-what is this place?" any nearer. He dug his feet in and "Earth, of course. Now back off pushed, with some idea of forcing so that I can get in." the machine to move ahead of him, Naismith glanced down at the but did not succeed. machine, then back at the girl. He stopped, gasping for breath, "What if I don't?" and looked over the tops of the "I'll leave you here until you grasses again. The girl was much get hungry. closer. This time she saw him. Naismith shrugged, backed off a Naismith stood up and waited. few steps into the tall grass. The The girl walked unhurriedly to­ girl waited, then darted forward to ward him. Her skin was tanned, the machine. She sat down on the her hair coppery, shining in the ground beside it, folding her legs light. She was dressed, or half neatly, and looked up at him with dressed, in bits of contoured metal a mocking smile. "All right, you and fabric that clung to her body can come back." here and there, in a pattern more Naismith looked at her, then esthetic than functional. Her eyes stared around at the grassy plain, were narrowed as she walked, as if peaceful and silent under the sky. she were aware of nothing but the Absently he let his fingers trail caress of sun and air on her body. through the dry, bearded grasses. She waited until she was only a Far off, the tiny dot of a bird few yards away before she spoke. launched itself from one of the iso­ "Awake already?" she said. The lated treetops; he followed it across language she used was BoDen. the sky untU it alighted again. Naismith did not reply. Seen so "This is a beautiful spot," he near at hand, the girl had a star­ said. tling, provocative beauty. Her skin Her laughter made him turn. was satiny, as if covered by an al­ "Like to see what it's really like?" most invisible sheer tissue-spi­ she said. She tossed something derweb-stuff that ended, without toward him. "Here." a visible border, at the edges of her Naismith's hand went up auto­ lips and eyes. The red-violet of her matically to bat the thing away; at lips might have been natural or ar­ the last moment he changed his tificial. Her eyes were pale green, mind, plucked it out of the air. fringed with dark lashes, startling It was a shaped blue grip of against her brown face. some smooth, waxy substance. THE TREE OP TIME 57 When his hand closed around it, a flatly. 'Who would do such a disk of dark color glowed into be· thing?" ing just above it. "They say Zugs did it," she an­ He stared at the thing in per­ swered indifferently. "The proof is plexity for a moment before he that only human beings see any of realized that he was looking this-a camera will not photo­ through the disk, at a three-dimen­ graph it, and the illusion will not sional scene beyond. He turned pass through that viewer. Give it the grip this way and that, swung back." it around, and discovered that the After a moment's hesitation, view through the disk correspond­ Naismith tossed the grip to her. ed with the landscape around him The disk winked out as it left his -horizon, hills, the plain itself hand, winked on again as she were all there, but all changed. caught it. She glanced through it, Grass and trees were gone; in­ said with a trace of bitterness, stead, there was raw earth and "All dust and stone," and put it rock-blackened, cratered and away in her silver belt. barren under a starred purple sky. "Then why were you walking The sun blazed overhead-not the out there?" Naismith asked curi­ ordinary ball of light, but a mon­ ously. strous thing with flames spreading She shrugged her bare shoul­ high from either side. Naismith ders. "It's beautiful," she said. lowered the disk, puzzled. "Why shouldn't I enjoy it, just be­ "What is that-another time cause it's an illusion?" She gazed line?" he asked. up at him. "Well, get in." "I told you," she said looking up Naismith stepped closer, watch­ at him serenely. "That is what is ing as she picked up the machine. really here. Everything you see is "Where are you taking me?" only a clever illusion." She indi­ Without replying, she touched cated the landscape around them. the controls of the machine. A "Earth is a dead planet now­ faint jolt came, and they were en­ destroyed by wars. You could not closed in a transparent bubble, even breathe here, if you were not through which the landscape shone protected by this machine." spectral blue. Almost at once, Naismith frowned, and put out without any feeling of motion, the a hand to touch the nearest clump earth dropped away underneath, of grass. The dry stems, the beard­ the sky began to. darken. ed tips, were real to his fingers. Naismith leaned forward slight­ He pulled up a few, wadded them ly, found that the same barrier in his palm, watched them fall. kept him from approaching the '1 don't believe you,'' he said girl. She smUed up at him mock- 58 PANTASY AND SCIENCE PICTION ingly, and lit a green cigarette "I won't !dll you now," she with jeweled fingers that trem­ whispered in English. "That would bled slightly. "Sit down, Shefth." be too easy. When I kill you, it Naismith obeyed slowly, staring will be slowly and painfully, to at her. "I remember now," he said. teach you not to speak that way to "I saw something blue coming up, Liss-Y ani." then-" Naismith caught his breath, She nodded, blowing a jet of then pointed a finger at her. greenish smoke. "I didn't dare take "Now I know you," he said. "It a chance with you," she said. "I hit was your voice, that night, when you with a force rod as I pulled I saw the Zug. You said 'Kill it' in you in. Then I thought I might as just the same tone. You sent that well wait till you woke up, so I -vision, whatever it was. Why?" went forward a few thousand She blinked at him. "Aren't you years, and landed down there." afraid?" She moistened her lips. "You're "Why should I be? You said strong," she said. "By all the rules, you're not going to kill me now." you should have been unconscious "And later?" for at least another twenty min­ "Later, maybe I'll be afraid." utes. Anyway, I had time to put "I wonder," she said, licking a mind helmet on you and read all her moist violet lips. She stubbed your little secrets." the cigarette abruptly into a hole Naismith felt his body tensing. in the floor, and it vanished. "What secrets?" "What's your name?" she asked. "I know them all," she said, "Gordon Naismith." wagging her head wisely. "All "Not that. Your real name, about California, and the two U g­ what is it?" lies you called Lall and Churan." "I don't reme.mber," said Nai­ She laughed. "And what they smith. wanted you to do." She looked at him thoughtfully. Naismith stared at her, eyes "And you don't remember any­ narrowed. "Do you speak Eng­ thing about the City, or the Death lish?" he asked abruptly. Collars, or Thera-Yani?" She did not respond. "No." "Do you know that you are a She sighed. "I wish I could be­ dirty little slut?" he asked in the lieve you. Come here and kiss me." same even tone. She tilted up her face and sat Her eyes blazed at him. Her waiting, hands on the control lips pulled away from her teeth, box. and for an instant Naismith felt a After a surprised instant, Nai­ chill of alarm. Then it was gone. smith slid toward her. The invisi- THE nEE OF TIME 59 ble barrier halted him, then seemed clear," she said absently, stroking to soften; it melted away until his the machine under her hand. face approached hers; but when "How did you know where to he tried to extend his arms, they find me?" he asked in BoDen. were stopped in midair. "Were you watching, all that time "Well, come on," she said, half­ I was with Lall and Churan ?" closing her eyes. "Of course. U glies are very stu­ Naismith, half annoyed, half pid. They thought you would sim­ intrigued, leaned forward and ply drop into the Earth and never kissed her. Her lips were soft, hot come out again. But I knew better. and moist; they parted under his at I computed your orbit, and-" once, and her soft tongue probed She shrugged. "Then it was easy." into his mouth. Her fingers were sluwly strok­ After a few moments, she lay ing one of the buttons on the con­ back and pushed him away. trol box she held on the floor. N ai­ "Is that your best effort?" she smith said, "You know, of course, asked. "Go on, sit down." She that it was on your account the plucked another green cigarette Uglies decided they couldn't trust out of the floor and lit it. "Well, I me?" never heard of a Shefth that could "I know." kiss." "Then why can't you trust me?,. Nettled, he asked, "Then why he demanded. "Either I'm on one did you suggest it?" side or the other.'' "I wanted to see what you "Bec-ause there's something would do. A real Shefth would not wrong about you," she said, and kiss a Yani." She cocked her head blew green smoke at him. "I felt it at him. "Actually, it was not too when I kissed you, and I am never bad." mistaken. I don't know what it is Nasmith stared at her in sur­ -you seem to be just what you prise for a moment, then laughed. say, a Shefth who has lost his A scrap of knowledge floated up to memory. But there is • . . some­ the surface of his mind. The Yani thing. Oh, well-forget it.'' She • . . that was the entertainers' touched the control box, then caste. No, of course a Shefth leaned back against the wall. "Are would not kiss one; and she had you hungry? Thirsty?" all the stigmata-the coppery skin At once Naismith was again and hair, green eyes, slender, ta­ acutely aware of both needs. pering fingers. • , , Watching him, the girl reached "I thought you knew all my se­ behind her to the wall, withdrew crets," he said. a cup of foaming white liquid and "Some of the traces are not a brownish, solid cake. She broke 60 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION the cake in half, offered him the In spite of himself, Naismith cup and one piece of the brownish smiled. "Is that your idea of a stuff. friend-someone who had to do Naismith accepted both, but what you say because you've poi­ cautiously watched the girl nibble soned him?" at the cake before he tried it him­ "Please don't be dull," she said, self. It was chewy and rich-tast­ with a moue of distaste. "After all, ing, something like figs. He sipped we are going to be in this traveler the liquid, found it agreeably as­ together for another ten minutes." tringent. "Then what happens?" The girl laughed suddenly. "I hand you over to the Circle," "What is it?" Naismith de­ she said without interest. She manded, lowering the cup. thrust out one hand, looking com­ "You were so easy;'' she said. placently at the nascrous violet of "How do you know I did not put her nails. "Do you like this color?" ten-day. poison in the fruit or "It's very pretty. The Circle­ wme.,, what do they want from me?" Naismith stl!red at her. "Did "They think you can kill the you?'' Zug. They are terribly worried "Maybe." Her eyes glittered about it." with amusement. "If I did, you "Then that part was true." can only get the antidote from me. "About the Zug? Oh, yes. This So if I ask you a favor, later on, is total access clothing, did you you may want to do it." know that?" She touched the "What sort of a favor?" Nai­ curved and ornamented plaques smith asked. He glanced at the that clung to her body one after food, laid it down. another. Each one winked briefly "Go on, eat! If there is poison out of existence, revealing an arm, in it, you've had enough already­ a breast with a rather startling the rest won't make any differ­ violet nipple, a hip, a thigh. ence." Nasmith felt an intense, mo­ Naismith looked at her grimly, mentary interest in that tender­ then nodded and took another bite looking flesh, but he put it aside. of the cake. "What sort of a favor?" 'Which faction is ascendant in he repeated. the Circle now?" he demanded. "I don't know," she said indif­ The girl frowned. "What a dull ferently. ''Things were becoming thing you are! You Shefthi, actu­ a little difficult when I left. The ally . . ." She yawned once more Barrier is so close now. It doesn't and stretched back against the hurt to have friends at a time like curved blue-mist wall. "I think I that." shall rest." Her eyes closed. THE TUB OP TIMB 61

Naismith gazed at her in an­ CHAPTER EIGHT noyance, but before he could speak, something new in the sky THROUGH THE WALLS OF THB caught his attention. It was a time vehicle, Naismith found him­ mass of spectral blue gloves, hang­ self looking into a huge globular ing motionless at eye level. room-a hollow, pale-green "What is that?" Naismith de­ sphere, with regular markings at manded. intervals on its surface, in which The girl opened her eyes briefly. floated a confusing array of ob- "The City," she said. jects. _ At first her words seemed irrel­ Liss-Yani smiled at him side­ evant. Then a shock went through long, her hand on the control box. Naismith's body. "Do you mean "Are you ready?" that is the City?" he demanded. He stared back at her, said She sat up, eyes wide open. nothing. "What's wrong with you?" Smiling, she did something to Naismith did not reply. His the controls. The time vehicle pseudo-memories of the City were winked out of being. all of gigantic rooms, corridors, At the same instant, something floating shapes, crowds of people. dark and incredibly swift flapped Now that he looked for it, the toward them, enclosing them. Nai­ knowledge was there: but it had smith flung up his arms in instinc­ never once occurred to him that tive defense, then relaxed. Some­ the City was not on Earth. where a bell was ringing. His inner agitation increased. "What is this?'' Here was the danger, not in Liss­ "A precaution," she said, en­ Yani's petulant threats. joying his reaction. "What if we His knowledge of essential had been U glies ?" things was incomplete, badly or­ Through the dark transparency ganized, not readily available. around them, Naismith could dim­ What other blunders might be not ly perceive motion in the great make at some crucial moment? globe. Angular machines drifted • • • And how much longer did he nearer, lenses glowing sullen red, have to prepare himself? like coals in the heart of a fire. A Outside, the huge, complex little above them, another shape shape ponderously revolved as they was moving: Naismith realized drew nearer. A bull's-eye pattern suddenly that it was a man. Some­ rolled into view, centered itself in thing was wrong with the legs, the mass, grew steadily larger. The but he could make out pipestem inner circle yawned and swal­ arms, a head, the glint of eyes lowed them. They were inside. staring. 62 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Abruptly the bell stopped; the "the attempt was successful. We darkness winked out. They were have the Shefth." floating in the middle of the green The sarcophagus clicked, sphere, surrounded by machines hummed, drifted away again. in whose lenses the red glow was "Probably it will take a while to dying. Nearer, the man Naismith get her attention," said Prell. "Do had seen before was floating to­ you want to look at the work, in ward them, body at an angle to the meantime?" theirs, hands gripping his fore­ "Yes, all right," said the girl in· arms, like a Mandarin. He was differently. The two of them dressed in a fantastic, puffed and turned, drifted rapidly away from ruffied garment of yellow and Naismith. After a moment, al­ white stripes, the top a short­ ready tiny in the distance, they sleeved singlet, the lower part a paused and looked back, with tube covering both legs and closed comical expressions of surprise on at the bottom wjth a yellow bow. their faces. His face was lean and gnomish, at "I forgot," said Prell's distant once anguished and ironic. His voice; "he doesn't have a director. eyes glittered; his wide mouth Wait a moment." He spoke the twitched. "You got him, I see," he harsh word again; another ma­ said. chine drifted toward him. This "Yes, here he is, Prell." one was box-shaped, ornamented "Is he dangerous?" with red and green arabesques on The girl turned slowly in mid­ a black ground. "A director for !lir and gazed at Naismith. "I'm that man," said Prell, pointing. not sure," she said thoughtfully. The box dipped slightly, turned, "We'd better keep the auto­ and came rocketing down at N ai­ matics on him, for the time being. smith. At the last moment it Later they'll give him a collar." slowed, came to a halt facing him Prell turned in the air, spoke a a yard away. single, harsh word. "For my information sir," said Out of the clutter of objects a musical voice from the box, hanging in the vast space, one "what is that man's name?" drifted nearer: it was a miniature "Naismith," said Naismith, white sarcophagus, with a design looking at it curiously. painted on it in blue and yellow. "Excuse me, sir, but that is not The drawing was a crude sketch of a catalogued name," said the box a young girl with yellow hair, eyes politely. closed, lips demurely smiling. Her The voices of Prell and the girl hands were crossed over her breast. murmured together a moment; "Tell the Highborn,'' said Prell, then Prell said, 'We'll get him a THE l'llU OP TIMB 63 name presently. For now,' just call one they were in. In the vast space, him 'that man.' " myriads of tiny shapes were mov· "Thank you, sir," said the box. ing: some were human, some were A hopper in its center slowly the symmetrical forms of machines opened; out floated a narrow, flexi­ -boxes, sarcophagi, vase-shapes. ble band of some cream-colored As Naismith's vision adjusted to substance. the scene, he began to make out "Put it on your wrist," called serried ranks of dark objects, not the girl. Naismith did so, and the visibly connected to one another, stuff curled around his wrist as if among which the human and ro­ half-alive, clung to itself and bot forms came and went. seemed to melt together; the seam Prell reached out again, and disappeared. the scene appeared to drift near· "Now point in the direction er. They were looking down upon you want to go and just tense your one of the thousands of ranked wrist slightly," her voice went on. machines, over which a gnomish Naismith did as he was told, young man in a dress like Prell's and found the vast green sphere ro­ was hovering. tating slowly around him, while "This is the Barrier control net· certain distant clumps of machines work," the girl's voice explained. drifted nearer. When Prell and "They've been working on it for the girl came into view again, he fiv~ years. It's almost finished." pointed toward them, and this "Is this an actual entranceway time managed to keep them cen­ into that room," Naismith asked, tered. He lowered his arm, came to fumbling for words, "or a-a view· rest a few feet away. screen?" "You'll get used to it," said Liss­ Prell looked at him curiously. Yani. "Come on!" "What is the difference?'' She and Prell moved off again, Naismith realized, in confu­ but came to a halt almost imme­ sion, that there was no difference, diately. Naismith jockeyed up be­ in the question as he had asked it: side them. Prell was moving some the two phrases, in BoDen, were small glittering object across the almost identical. vacant air before him: suddenly While he was still thinking there was a shimmer, a crackle, and dazedly of the implications of a great round sheet of silvery re­ this, Prell reached out again. flection came into being. "Would you like to see what Prell touched it again; the disk they're doing?" he asked. Without turned transparent, and they were waiting for a reply, he gestured looking into another room, darker once more with the shining object. and even more enormous than the Part of the scene before them 64 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION seemed to expand. Where one of The sarcophagus robot drifted the floating machines had been, up, and discreetly, "The Highborn there was a dim lattice of crystals, has received your message. She growing more shadowy and in­ asks you to send that man to the substantial as it swelled; then social room." darkness; then a dazzle of faint "All right," said Prell. "Liss­ prismatic light-tiny complexes y ani, you might as well take him in a vast three-dimensional array, over. Come back later, I want to growing steadily bigger. . •• talk to you." Naismith caught his breath. He "Yes," she said. Turning, she realized that he was seeing the took Naismith's arm. "This way." very molecules that made up the Naismith's body was trembling substance of the machines being in alarm. The thought came: Prell built in the next chamber. is dangerous. He knmt•s what l am. "This is why it takes so long," Brain working furiously, he al­ Prell said, rubbing his forearms lowed the girl to lead him away nervously. He grimaced. "Every from Prell. His reactions are slow channel has to be built up mole­ -he is still thinking about it. But cule by molecule, under rigid con­ in another few seconds . . • trol. Like to see it closer?" The girl came to a halt in mid­ The magnification increased. air; awkwardly, Naismith stabil­ In luminous darkness, Naismith ized himself beside her. Before saw molecules scattered like tiny them, faintly, he could make out planets. A moving dot of light ap­ a silvery circle in the air. Liss­ peared, slowly traced a mathe­ Yani reached out, touched it with matical arc across the blackness. a glittering object, as Prell had Other arcs of light sprang out from done before. The ten-foot circle it, like ribs from a spinal column; quivered, rippled: and they were slowly, the dots that were mole­ looking into a gigantic room full cules drifted across to take posi­ of color and motion. "Come,'' said tion upon them. the girl, pulling him through. "Is that direct vision, or a dis­ On the opposite side, Naismith play of some kind?" Naismith brought himself to a halt, looking demanded, fascinated. back. He could still see the scien­ "It's a mathematical analogue," tist, hovering in thought beside Prell answered. "Just a toy, really." one of his machines. The girl's arm His mouth twitched; he scrubbed reached past him, touched the cir­ at his wrists as if in pain. cle, and the scene blanked out. "It's beautiful,'' said Naismith. Naismith whirled. "Teach me Prell shot him a startled glance how to operate these doorways," he then seemed to go into a revery. said angrily. THB TUB OP TIMB 65 "It's perfectly easy," she said, esthetic responses. • • ." His face staring at him. "You just touch contorted with sudden malev~ them with the opener and think lence. "I know what you are­ about where you want to go. help!-" His lungs filled, he There'll be plenty of time for that opened his mouth to shout. -come on." Naismith gripped his frail body "Give it to me," he said, hold· with one arm, put the other fore· ing his hand. After a moment she arm against his chin, pressed. shrugged, put a smooth silvery o~ There was a gurgling sound as the ject into his palm. It felt like plas· man's wind was cut off; then a tic rather than metal; it was an dry, loud snap. The body sagged. elongated ovoid, fitting naturally As Naismith turned, one of the into his hand so that the blunt tip ubiquitous machines drifted near· of it projected. er. "For my information, sir," it Naismith reached out, touched said musically, "what has ha~ the circle. The view sprang into pened to Master Prell?" being again. Prell had turned "Uglies attacked him," said slightly, was massaging his for~ Naismith at random, moving arms with his hands; there was an away. "They appeared suddenly, anxious expression on his face. killed Prell, then vanished." ''One moment," said Naismith. "The automatic weapons did He propelled himself through the not fire," said the machine. opening, turned, touching it with "They were out of order," Nai· the silvery object again; it blanked smith said. He glanced around; out. Instantly Naismith hurled none of the other floating robots himself at Prell. seemed to have noticed anything. The scientist turned, with a Could he disable this one, if he startled expression, as Naismith had to? Was it necessary? hurtled up .. Nasmith seized the "For my information, sir," said man by the front of his robe, the robot, "which were out of or· yanked Prell toward him. Terror der, the automatic weapons or the sprang into the little man's eyes. Uglies?" "What was my mistake?" Nai· "The weapons," Naismith told smith demanded. "Tell mel" He it, staring at the intricate design tightened his grip. on the front of the box. "Beautiful,'' the little man "Thank you, sir." gasped. His mouth opened and "For my information,'' Nai· closed like a fish's, making no smith said suddenly, "tell me, are· sound, until Naismith impatient· you intelligent?" ly shook him. ''You're not...:..a "I am intelligent. I have a rna• Shefth • • • They have no- chine intelligence of plus forty." 66 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Naismith. frowned. ''That was other time, when he had blanked not what I wanted to know. Are out and discovered later that he you-are you conscious?" had killed Wells. This time, some­ "I am not conscious, sir." thing in his own brain had said, "Have you volition?" Prell knows what I am. For the "I have no volition, sir." moment, he had known exactly "Thank you." what he had to do and why. Now "Thank you, sir." The machine it was fading. . • . In God's name, dipped politely, turned, drifted he thought suddenly, what Ttind of away. a monster am I? On the other side of the door­ He was aware that the girl had way, the girl was waiting. Nai­ taken his hand, was tugging him smith slipped through, closed the off toward the center of the sphere. circle quickly behind him. After a moment Naismith cooper­ "What took you so long?" she ated, using his own director. They demanded. passed a little shoal of brightly­ "I had trouble finding the door­ dressed people, then .another. The way again," he said. Breathing room was full of the tiny sarco­ hard, he stared around at the phagus-shaped robots, too, Nai­ crowded immensity behind her. smith noticed. Then, with a shock, The room was globular, and so vast he realized that many of the float­ that he could not estimate its ex­ ing bodies were those of green­ tent. In a pale greenish haze, what skinned U glies. seemed to be thousands of floating They were carrying things, bodies were ranked: some coming moving this way and that on er­ and going, in a slow circling move­ rands, their faces expressionless. ment, others fixed. In a given Some of the brightly-dressed peo­ group, large or small, all the heads ple were self-propelled, like him­ would be pointing one way and self and Liss-Yani; but others the bodies spaced about equally, were being moved from one place like fish in a school. Some were to another by U glies or by robots. right-side up from his point of All of them wore garments like view, others upside down, others Prell's that seemed to hide stunted at all angles. It gave him a verti­ or atrophied legs. ginous feeling. Naismith and the girl rounded "\Veil, come on," said the girl. a huge, complex spray-shape of Naismith hesitated. Things glittering golden material, through were moving too fast; he needed the branches of which tiny fish­ time to think. It was incredible shaped robots swam. On the further that he had just committed a mur­ side, past a throng of floating peo­ der. . . • This was not like the ple, Naismith caught sight of an- THE TREl! OF TIM:& 67 other huge object, this one as hide­ with an entourage of young men ous as the other was beautiful. and women. Her face was noble It was the shape of a femal Ug­ and sad; she looked straight ahead, ly, magnified to the size of a ten­ without expression. · story building. Gigantic and gro­ 'That's Thera-Yani," said the tesque, it loomed over the glitter­ girl in a muted voice. "Isn't she ing throng like a human body sur­ wonderfull" rounded by mayflies. Its arms "I don't see it," Naismith said. were secured behind its back; its "Why wonderful?'' skin was pierced here and there by "She was the best-loved Yani in long needles, from which drops of the city until last month, when dark blood were slowly oozing. the new mutations were released Through the echoing talk and and .the fashion changed. Now laughter, Naismith suddenly heard there is nothing left for her. She a hoarse bawling sound-a groan, took twenty-day poison, and she is immensely amplified, that seemed saying her farewells to the City." to come from where the Ugly's Naismith snorted, unimpressed. head should be. The talk died away Up ahead, a green-skinned female for a moment, then there was a servant was pushing a tremendous­ scattering of laughter, and the ly fat old woman across the air by hum of conversation began again. the small of her back. The Ugly, Naismith felt sickened. "What's Naismith noticed, was wearing a that?" he demanded. bright metal collar around her "A solid," the girl answered in­ neck; he now recalled seeing sim­ differently. "That's one of the reb­ ilar collars on other greenskins. el Uglies they captured. They A fragment of speech .drifted made a big solid of her so everyone back: "But why must all the Ug­ can watch. Look over there." lies die, Mistress? Haven't I alw~ys Naismith turned his head, saw been good, haven't I always-" a girl of Liss-Yani's caste entwined "Oh, don't be tiresome, Menda. in a sexual embrace with a slen­ I explained to you before, I can't der, muscular man. There was a de~ anything about it. It's some­ little ring of spectators around thing to do with science . • ." them, and some languid applause. Now they were approaching the "No, not them," the girl said center of the enormous room, impatiently. "Look farther up." where the largest and most tightly Naismith did so, and saw noth­ packed mass of people floated. The ing of interest except still another shrill hum of conversation grew woman of the entertainer class­ leuder. Naismith's nerves prick­ dressed, this one, in long gossamer led; the closeness of all these peo­ robes-drifting across the room ple was subtly unpleasant. 68 PANTASY AND SCIENCE PICTION Up ahead, a raucous female "Highborn,'' said another man, YOice was screaming, like an artic­ almost as fat as the first, "try to be ulate parrot's: the words were not calm. You may want to wait a lit­ distinguishable. Naismith and the tle before you have another of girl moved nearer, threading their those, recall that you've already way patiently through the press, had ten this period .•••" sometimes horizontally, sometimes "Don't tell me how many I've in the vertical plane. had, how dare you!" She choked At last Naismith could make apoplectically, took something out the screaming . woman. She the greenskin was holding out, hung in the middle of a little swallowed it and glared, speech­ group of gaudily dressed people. less for a moment. The servant She was hugely, obscenely fat in handed her a tube leading to a her puffed and ornamented gar­ flask of reddish fluid, and she ment of white and scarlet. When sucked at it, her old face hollowing she swung around, Naismith could deeply and her mad eyes bulging. see her body quake like a jelly in­ Liss-Y ani spoke to a robot, side the fabric. Her face was sal­ which glided forward and said low and lined, the eyes bright with politely, "Highborn, here is the madness. ".•. come in here and Shefth you sent for." tell me, who do you think you Her head swiveled; she glared, are, be silent and listen, I tell you spat out the drinking tube. "And I will not have such disrespect, high time, tool" Why can't I get why don't you observe the rules, any obedience any more, why do don't talk back to me, I tell you, you all make things so difficult for listen. • ••• me, do you want to kill me, is that "Highborn, if you please," said a it? Come forward, you, what's your fat man in brown, with ruffies name?" around his worried pink-baby face. Unwillingly, Naismith floated ". . . never in three hundred toward her. "Naismith," he told years have I been treated like this, her. be quiet, Truglen, I wasn't speak­ "That's not a name, are you ing to ,you, how can I bear these making a joke of me? What is his constant interruptions, Reggl name, I say, what is this Shefth's Reggl where is the creature, name?" Reggl" "He does not know his name, "Yes, Highborn," said a green­ Highborn," said the robot. "He is skinned man, floating up beside to be referred to as 'that man.' " her. "Be quiet," screamed the fat "Give me a pickup, can't you woman. "You, are you a Shefth?'' see the &tate I'm in?" "As you see, Highborn," said THE TREE OF TIME 69 Naismith. A globe of watchers, globe. The chime came again. most of them hugely fat, was be­ The pink man tilted himself near­ ginning to form around them. er, staring at the face of the ma­ "Impertinence! When have I chine. Naismith could see words ever had to bear such insults! Do forming in threads of white light, you know how to kill a Zug, answer one, then a gap, two more, an­ me directly, and mind your man­ other gap ..•• ners!" " 'Danger . . • Zug alive . • • "I don't know," said Naismith. send Shefth.' " The pink man "He is the only Shefth we have, paused, then straightened. He Highborn," said the babypink fat sighed. "That's all. Almost the man, bending near. same as last time." 'Well, I don't like him! Go "\Veil, it's clear enough, isn't back and get another one at once, it?" the woman screamed. "Dan· do you hear me, take this one ger, send Shefth-to kill the Zug, away, I won't have him, I won't!" that's clear, isn't it, what more do "Highborn, there is not enough you want?" time-" said the fat man. "But the words left out, High­ "Time, time, don't we manu­ born," the pink man said despair­ facture time, how can you be so ingly. cruel and thoughtless, don't con­ "Never mind, you're only try­ tradict me, I say, go and get an­ ing to confuse mel They want a other!" Shefth to kill the Zug-we want a Two or three of the men around Shefth, up there in the future, the fat woman exchanged glances. that's clear, isn't it? Well, then, "\Veil, what's wrong with you what's the matter?" all, are you deaf or paralyzed, why There was motion in the globe can't I get a simple order obeyed of watchers; a hawk-nosed man, in mind's name, oh, why are you leaner than the rest, came plung­ all ..." ing through and stopped before A chime sounded nearby; the fat woman. Behind was a heads turned. "One moment," gnome in brown and red stripes, said the pink man anxiously. one of the scientists. "Highborn, "Highborn, the message." this man says Prell has been killed The woman fell silent, gaping in the workrooms!" and blinking. There was a move­ "Prell? Killed? Who killed ment in the globe of people as the him? Who is Prell?" pink man drifted back. Now Nai­ "The time laboratory director, smith could see a yellow box­ Highborn! His spine was broken, shaped machine with a lighted not more than five minutes ago." face, suspended in a transparent "There is the man who did it!" 70 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION blurted the gnome suddenly; "Is this the man who told you pointing his finger at Naismith. Uglies had killed Prell?" Heads turned; there was agitated "Yes, sir." motion in the group. "Did you see it happen?" "He did it? Then kill him, "No, sir." ·quickly, quickly, you idiots, before "Did the automatics fire, or did he does it to somebodv else! What the alarm sound?" are you waiting for, kill him!" The "No, sir. That man said they :woman grew yellow-faced and were out of order, sir." shrunken; her little eyes glistened "\Vere they?" with fear. "No, sir." "One moment," said the hawk­ The hawk-faced man turned to faced man. "Autos-that man." Naismith again. "That seems con­ Three of the dark, red-lensed ma­ clusive. Have you anything else to chines drifted toward Naismith, say?" taking up positions around him. "Kill him!" screamed the woman "Kill him!" squalled the woman. again. "Kill him! Kill him!" "That can be done in a moment, "What about the Zug, High­ after we ask one or two questions," born?" ventured the pink man. said Hawkface. He turned to Nai­ "The Zug, I don't care about the smith. "Don't make any sudden Zug ..." motion, or the guns will fire. Did "But who wUI kill it, if we kill you kill Prell?" the Shefth ?" "No,'' said Naismith. He caught "Get another one," she stormed. sight of Liss-Y ani hovering in the "Don't bother me with these de­ background. tails, I've told you a million times, "Who did, then?" I don't want to be bothered, can't "Uglies," said Naismith. "They you understand that, I only want came into view, killed him, disap­ to be left alone-" peared again." "One moment," said Hawkface. "You saw this?" He gestured toward the nearest of "Yes." the machines. Blackness flapped 'Why didn't you speak of it?" suddenly toward Naismith. "No one gave me an- opportu- For a heart-freezing instant, he nity." thought the gun had fired; then he The man's lips quirked in a realized he had been enclosed by half-smile. 'Where is that robot?" another of the dark globes. he asked, turning. Through it he could hear their The box drifted up to him; Nai­ voices, but could not make out the smith recognized the red and words. green arabesques. "Yes, sir?" Time dragged unendurably. THE TREE OF TIME 71 Then, suddenly, the little group about to enjoy some amusing spec­ broke up; the dark globe vanished. tacle. Clawed up and etzten alive "Well, that's settled," said • .• Would that amuse them? A Hawkface agreeably. "You're to cold fury came to drive back his have a reprieve, Shefth. We're go­ fear. Somehow, somehow, he ing to let you kill a Zug-here, on would cheat them of that pleasure. this side of the Barrier. If you do, Darting ahead, the gnome well and good. If not-" He checked at one of the mirror disks. shrugged, turned to the gnome be­ He touched it briefly. The disk side him. cleared: they were looking into a "Give him some equipment and tiny, blue-walled room, on the far get the gate ready," he said. "A few wall of which glimmered another of you go along and watch-you, silvery disk. you and you. Anyone else want to "Go ahead, get in," said the go? All right, four vehicles, then. gnome impatiently. See to it." Naismith entered the chamber As he turned away, there was a slowly, glancing around him. The babble of voices around Naismith. gn61me handed him a clutter of the gnome had darted away and harness and equipment. "Put these disappeared; other bright forms on." were clustering nearer. Naismith Naismith examined the objects. caught sight of Liss-Y ani, and of a There was a pistol-like weapon in smooth-limbed, athletic man who a holster, a helmet with a curious might have been her brother. Two forward-jutting spike, and a com­ gorgeous fat men in candy stripes plex wcbwork of plastic straps with of violet and pink drifted up, chat­ metal insets. tering excitedly to each other. "Here, let me show you," said With a look of sullen hostility, the man who resembled Liss-Yani, the gnome reappeared carrying a coming forward. "Rab-Yani is my small bundle of equipment. "This name. You may call me Rab." He way." took the harness from Naismith's As the group followed him, he hands, deftly looped it around his edged closer to Naismith and mut­ torso, arms and legs. tered, "You animal, you're going to 'What's this for-to protect me be clawed up and eaten alive in­ from the Zug?" Naismith demand­ side half an hour. I'll be watching, ed. and I'll laugh!" Rab-Yani gave him an odd look. Naismith felt chilled. The holi­ "It gives some momentary protec­ day mood of the people around tion," he said. "Nothing short of a him, their laughter and bright force field will protect you against faces, suggested that they were a Zug, however. What this does 72 FANTASY AND SCIENCl! PICTION principally is to seal off wounds Naismith relaxed. his jaw; the and prevent shock. In that way, disk winked out. you can go on fighting for another "Well, we're ready," the enter­ few seconds before you lose con­ tainer said. Two more ghostly bub­ sciousness.'' bles floated past. In one of them Naismith watched grimly as the crouched the gnome, who gave entertainer passed the holster strap Naismith a malevolent glance be­ around his chest. The projecting fore he disappeared. gun-butt looked familiar; he Turning, Naismith saw Rab grasped it, drew it half out of the join Liss-Y ani: he floated close to holster. her, she touched the controls of the Yes, it was the same-the mas­ machine she held, and a blue bub­ sive, powerful grip and barrel. ble formed around them. "That's your flamer," said Rab­ The bubble floated nearer: Rab­ Yani. "It projects a spear of in­ y ani gestured toward the gateway tense flames which will cut through in the wall ahead, and Naismith even a Zug's hide, if you are close saw that it was now open, reveal­ enough. It is good for three shots ing blue-violet depths. before it gecomes too hot to hold." Feeling very much alone, he Naismith thought this over in took a deep breath and floated silence. Behind him, the excited through. voices continued; then the sound The gigantic, deserted corridors faded, and suddenly ~ ghostly blue of the Old City had a dream-like bubble floated past him; in it were familiarity to Naismith : again and the two fat men, staring back at again he recognized places he had him with onion eyes. The bubble encountered before, in the ma­ passed through the wall ahead and chine memory the aliens had given disappeared. him: but they were all changed, "Now the helmet," said Rab­ empty, shadowed. Here was a great Yani, fitting it onto Naismith's concourse, on whose elaborate, head. "This contact goes here, on fluted central stem Naismith re­ your cheekbone. Clench your jaw." membered seeing a colorful crowd Naismith did so, and at once a perched, fluttering, coming and faintly shimmering disk appeared, going like a flock of tropical birds: hanging in front of his face from now it was an echoing vault. the spike of the helmet. Later, they drifted along the "That's for illusions," Rab-Yani tops of hundreds of ranked cylin­ said. "The Zug may appear in some drical shells, each twenty feet confusing shape, but look through wide, in whose purple depths that, and you will be able to see its vague, indecipherable shapes could real aspect." be made out. "The Shefthi growth THE TREE OF TIME 73 cells," Rab commented, drifting man;" he said slowly. "They eat close in his bubble. ''You came out our flesh, and plant their eggs in of one of those •.. do you remem- our bodies. There are men at this be r.';I" moment, hidden away down here, Naismith shook his head. Part paralyzed, while Zug larvae grow of his mind was aware of the blue inside them. Yes, we could deal bubbles, with their clattering oc­ with the Zugs, but only on their cupants, drifting insubstantially terms. Do· you think you would around, behind, above him. An­ like that, Shefth ?" other part was listening to what Naismith said stubbornly, "But Rab-Yani said. The rest was fierce­ why try to kill them with weapons ly alert for danger. like this?" He touched the gun at "What about you -did you his chest. ''You could be safe inside come out of one of those, too?" he one of those bubbles, shooting asked abstractedly. them down with rods of force. Floating beside Rab in the bub­ They wouldn't have a chance." ble, Uss-Yani laughed. "No-then Rab exchanged glances with the he would have been a Shefthl The girl beside him, then looked gravity in those cells is set at one around. The other bubbles had and seven tenths Earth nonnal. spread out; neither was within He would have too many muscles!" earshot. She put her arm around Rab with ''Listen to me, Shefth," he said casual affection. in a low voice. "Are you really as The gnome's bubble darted sud- ignorant of the Zugs as you pre­ denly forward, disappeared tend?" through the solid wall. "I don't remember anything "And you abandoned all this, about them," Naismith said flatly. just to get away from the Zugs?" "Then you are probably Naismith asked. "Why?'' doomed, because Pendell has gone "When they mutated, they be­ ahead to find one, and it will not came very strong and very intelli­ be hard. You must realize this: gent. The Old City is full of tun­ these creatures are the fiercest man­ nels and passages, too many ever killers in the. history of the uni­ to flush them all out. That's why verse: but they are not mindless you Shefti were created. We never animals. If we hunt them with su­ needed a warrior caste before­ perior weapons, they stay in hid­ not for thousands of years." ing. That is why you have no ar­ "If they're so intelligent, why mor that will protect you for more not deal with them?" than an instant, and no gun more Rab gave him a surprised look. powerful than that one. If you "The Zugs are predatory upon were trained, there would be one 74 FANTASY AND scmNCE PIC110N chance In two of success; as it is, Naismith's ·hand slapped Ids you will have only a few seconds chest instinctively, came up with to kill the Zug before it kills you. the cool metal of the gun, even as It is incredibly fast and agile. It his mind registered the incon­ .. gruity of what he was seeing. The He broke off suddenly as the thing that was now hurtling to­ gnome's bubble reappeared ahead. ward him with incredible speed, The expression on the little man's winged, glittering, was no Zug-it face was one of malicious tri­ was an angel. umph. Naismith had an impression of "Quickly," said Liss-Y ani in an blazing eyes, a manlike face of in­ urgent voice. human beauty, powerful arms out­ "You must hold your fire until stretched. it is almost upon you," Rab fin­ In that frozen moment, he was ished tensely. "It will dodge your aware of the passengers in the bub­ first flame and come at you from a bles, all facing around, bright­ different direction. Your only eyed, intent, like spectators at a chance is to anti<;ipate that direc­ boxing match. He saw the gnome's tion, and-" bubble begin to move. Then his A scattered chorus of shouts jaw clenched, and the view-disk broke out from the bubbles behind sprang into being in front of his them. Tense, hand on his gun, face. The angel disappeared; in Naismith stared around. its place was a many-legged mon­ What he saw was nothing more ster, red-eyed, clawed and hideous. frightening than a small bald man "Zugl" shouted the voices in white robes, who had just en­ around him. Then the beast was tered the corridor from a narrow upon him. opening ahead. His pale blue eyes Naismith fired. A spear of flame stared across at Naismith without shot out of the pistol, blue-bright, expression; then he turned and twenty feet long. The monster was gone. wheeled in midair, seemed to van­ "Now the Zug will certainly ish. come," Rab muttered. ''That was a Naismith whirled desperately, scout." knowing as he brought his gun "A man?" Naismith asked in­ around that he had no chance. He credulously. "There are human be­ saw the gnome hanging close be­ ings serving them?'' hind him in his blue bubble, al­ "I told you," Rab began, then most close enough to touch. stopped abruptly. From the open­ There was no time for conscious ing ahead something else had thought: he simply knew. The gun emerged into view. fired in his hand: the lance of THE TUE OP TIME 75 flame shot out, straight through was noble and beautiful; the eyes the gnome's insubstantial body. stared blindly. The great limbs A wailing chorus went up. The tensed spasmodically; the sharp gnome, unharmed, whirled to look tail curled up and then was still. behind him. Then he began to howl with fury. Drifting in the air, its huge body CHAPTER NlNB still writhing, armored tail lash­ ing, the Zug lay with its massive NAISMITH WAS DREAMING. PART head cut half from its body, and a of his mind knew that his body trail of violet-red blood streaming was afloat, curled up in midair in from the wound. the green-walled cubicle; another The spectators in their bubbles part was drifting through dream began to close in, shouting with images, memories, distorted and excitement. Rab and Liss-Yani menacing-the pale Zug, more were hugging each other. horrible than in life, with fangs Naismith felt himself begin to and gleaming eyes, looming to­ tremble. It was over; he was still ward him, while he hung para­ alive. lyzed, unable to ·reach for the "How did you do it? How did gun ••• you ever do it?" shouted one of the Naismith groaned, trying to candy-striped fat men, edging awaken. The image faded. Now he Jiea!'er, cheeks shining with pleas­ was wandering through the de­ ure. serted corridors of the Old City, "Pendell was too close," Nai­ somehow confused and blurred to­ smith said with an effort. "He gether with the corridors of the came up behind me, knowing the spaceship. The greenish faces of Zug would use him for cover." He Lall and Churan floated into view; took a deep breath, and smiled at they were dead, their dull eyes the gnome. "Thank you," he said. turned up. Pendell flinched as if he had And a part of his mind, sepa­ been struck; his face writhed. As rate from the other two, was laughter burst out around him, he watching in fascinated horror as a turned and darted away. door trembled, about to open. The viewing disk in front of The crack widened. In the dark­ Naismith's helmet had winked out ness, something stirred, came into again. Curious, he turned to look view ... at the Zug: and where the mon­ Naismith awoke, with his own ster had been a moment before, an hoarse cry echoing in his ears. angel lay slain. His clothing was sweat-sodden; The pale head, half severed, his head ached, and he was trem- 76 FANTASY AND SCII!NCB FICTION bling all over. A shout echoed in lowed, still talking, and so they the distance, outside the cubicle. moved jerkily across the hail. Nai­ For a moment he wondered if he smith drifted after them and lis­ were still dreaming: then the tened. sound carne again. It was a shout ", •. to kill me like this," the of alarm, of fear. Other voices an­ greenskin was saying in a hoarse, swered it; then carne a rolling, indistinct voice. "Tell them not to rumbling avalanche of sound-an do it, please teil them-" explosion! "Leave me alone," muttered the Naismith gathered himself and man, gazing into his viewscreen. shot to the doorway, looked out. He moved away again. Again the A man of the entertainer caste, servant followed. armed and helmeted, face intent, "Don't let them kill me, that's went by down the corridor. ail I ask," he said thickly. "I'll do "What is happening?" Nai­ anything, I'll be good, I'll never be smith called after him, but the man slow when you call again-just was gone. please teil them-" On the way to the social room, Without speaking or looking up, he passed two groups of hurrying the man moved away. The servant automatic guns, their red lenses feil silent and gazed after him. His aglow; the second was accompa­ heavy face turned blank; then he nied by a robot, which did not re­ shuddered, his face darkened, his spond to his questions. Some­ muddy eyes bulged. With an inar­ where, very distant, sounded the ticulate sound, he launched him­ rumble of another explosion. self through the air, arms out­ The huge globular hail was stretched. filled with motion. People were He never reached the man in rushing in all directions, interfer­ white. In mid-air, his head sud­ ing with each other, often colliding. denly dropped, his body went Robots and automatic guns limp. He floated, turning slowly, were everywhere. There were a past the man in white, who did not few green-skinned servants, all even glance up. with the metal collars around their From the hack of the metal col­ necks, all with wild, stunned ex­ lar around the dead greenskin's pressions. He passed one male neck, a thin trickle of blood crept green-skin who was arguing or into sight. pleading with a stout man in Naismith turned, went on his a viewscreen on which a tiny pic­ way. Here and there in the huge ture was visible, shifted a few space, he saw other drifting, yards away from the servant, not greenskinned bodies. One or two looking at him; the servant fol- were being towed away by sarcoph- THE TltEE OF TIMB 71 agus robots; the rest were being He felt as if the door were about ignored. to open, and as if its opening He noticed, too, that the man in would destroy him. white was not the only one with a "Shefth, what's the matter with viewscreen. Almost every member you?" of the ruling caste had one; and He looked up. It was a fat little where the people clustered thick­ man in brown and green stripes, ly, he discovered, they were watch­ gazing at him with anxious eyes. ing larger screens that hung in the The shrill voice went on, "Don't city. you know the Highborn has been Naismith moved on. Movement asking for you? Where have you flowed around him, voices called been? Come along, hurry!" in excitement; once he saw an en­ Naismith followed toward the tertainer with a bloody face being center of the hall, where the larg­ carried past by a robot. But it was est cluster was located. As they all dreamlike, distant. made their way slowly through the What was wrong with him? He close-packed, moving bodies, the felt a tension in himself that was little man panted back at him, slowly, steadily increasing, and it "Hurry, hurry-she wants you seemed to him that it had been there before it happens!" building continuously all this "Before what happens?" Nai­ while, ever since that first day in smith asked dully. The pressure in­ the ·multiple classroom in Los An­ side him was so great that he could geles. Every step, from the death scarcely breathe. His head ached, of Ramsdell, his imprisonment, his hands were cold. then Wells' murder ... traveling "The Barrier!" the little man forward with the two aliens, the shrilled. ''They are going to put up buried spaceship, all the way to the Barrier any minute! Hurry!" the City . . . that tension had been Squeezing his way through the remorselessly growing inside him. inner ring, Naismith came into He felt as if his body were being view of the fat woman and her physically distended by it, till he entourage, gathered around a row must burst if he could not find re­ of big circular screens. One showed lief. His fore!tead was sweating; a view of the time laboratory work­ there was a tremor in his arms. rooms, with a gnome in the fore­ Something inside him ... that bur­ ground-Pendell, or another ied mystery, the thing that had like him. The fat woman was taken over in the psychiatrist's of­ screaming hysterically, "Isn't it fice, and again in Prell's labora­ ready yet? How soon, then, how tory . • • the black secret of his be­ soon?" ing.••• "A few minutes, Highborn." 78 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "Why can't you be more specif­ tom. "Seven hundred fifty-three, ic? A few minutes, a few minutes Highborn," he said. -how many?" "Good! And how many Zugs?" "By my estimate, not more than The group's attention turned to five," said the gnome. His face was another, similar screen, in which strained; he was giving part of his the dots of light glowed sullen red. attention to the aristarch, part to a "The same as before, Highborn," control box he held in his hands. said a man. "Five hundred eighty­ "But I want to know exactly," seven." the fat woman shrilled. Her eyes The old woman snorted with were mad in her yellow face. "Go indignation. "Still so many?" she forward in time and find out, as I said. ''Why, I say why?" asked you to before!" ''The Barrier will kill them, The hawk-faced man drifted up Highborn," Hawknose reminded and said, "That would pinch out her, gently. the loop, Highborn. It is contrary "Then haw long is it till the to the basic laws of time." Barrier?'' she demanded. "Pinch out the loop, pinch out "Less than one minute," said the loop, that's all I hear!" the old the gnome. Drops of sweat stood woman screamed. "I'm tired of it, on his brow. tired of it! How many minutes In his mounting distress, it now?" seemed to Naismith that the whole "Perhaps three," said the gnome, great gathering had turned sordid tight-lipped. and ugly, the colors dulled; even "Highborn, the trap worked!" the air he breathed smelled over­ said a grime-streaked entertainer, perfumed and fetid. This was a darting up, his face jubilant. ''The sorry climax to the drama of the Uglies were destroyed-we have human race, he thought-this their time vehicle!" pampered oligarchy of piggish lit­ "Good!" said the fat woman, tle men and women, selfish, igno­ looking momentarily pleased. rant and stupid-less worthy to "How many does that leave?" survive than the entertainers who The men beside her turned to­ amused them, or even the neuras­ ward one of the floating screens, thenic technicians who kept their in which nothing showed but a city functioning. And now there scattering of greenish points of would be no threat to their do­ light. As Naismith watched, a few minion, for ever and ever ... That, winked out, here and there. somehow, was the most intolerable · The nearest man touched the idea of all. edge of the screen, peered at the "Ready!" the gnome snapped. numbers that appeared at the bot- His eyes gleamed with excitement THE TREE OF TIME 79 as he glanced around. Behind him gnome said. His face twitched; he in the darkness, Naismith could blinked, rubbed his thin arms with see the other technicians floating his hands. "In theory it is impos­ beside their machines, all with sible, but-" faces upturned toward Pendell. "But there it is!" she shouted. "Now!" said the gnome harshly, 'Well, what are you going to do? and his fingers touched the control How can we be safe if there's a box. Zug still alive? Where is that Naismith felt an instant's vio­ Shefth? I say where is he?" lent and inexplicable alarm. Some­ Several hands thrust Naismith thing seemed to compress his forward. "Here, Highborn." lungs; a band of pain clamped "Well?" she demanded, whirl­ around his forehead. ing, her mad eyes staring into his. Shouts of excitement echoed in "Well? Are you going to kill it? his ears. All across the vast space, What are you waiting for?" men and women in gaudy cos­ Naismith tried to speak, and tumes were swirling about each failed. His body was on fire with other in rapid, motion. pain; he could barely see. "How many greenskins left?" "What's the matter with him?" the old woman cried. "How many, the old woman squalled. "I say I say how many?" what's the matter?" ' "None, Highborn!" a man Hands probed his body. Dimly called triumphantly. In the screen, he heard the hawlmosed man's every green light had winked out. voice: "Are you ill?" Glancing across the hall, Nai­ Naismith managed to nod. smith saw many drifting green­ "Look at him, just look!" the old skinned corpses, but not one living woman shouted. 'What good is he servant. now? Put a death collar on him "And how many Zugs?" called and be done with it!" the old woman. "But the Zug, Highborn!" called A hush -fell. In the second an anxious voice. 'Who will kill screen, one ruddy light was still the Zug?" burning. "Put the collar on him, I say!" "One," said the nearest man re­ the woman's hysterical voice railed luctantly. "One Zug left alive, on. "I can't stand the sight of him. Highborn." Put the collar on him-kill him, "Fool!" she screamed at Pen­ kill him!" dell. "Fool, fool! How could you · Naismith felt a moment of in­ be so careless? Why didn't your tolerable tension, then a sudden Barrier kill them all?" release. He was afloat in darknesss, "I don't know, Highborn," the safe, protected. 80 FANtASY AND SCIENCE FICTION The woman's shout seemed to With grim satisfaction, he real­ echo from a distance. "Well, why ized that the game was over, the don't you put the collar on?" long-maturing plan had been suc­ A pause. Another voice an­ cessful. His know ledge of his own swered: "Highborn, this man is kind came only from human dead." sources, but logic alone made it certain that he represented his In the darkness, the being who species; counter-blow to the hu­ knew himself as Naismith awak­ mans' Barrier. Encysted in a hu­ ened. Memory returned. He knew man body, his mind radiations where he was, and what he was. mingled with those of a human He was alive, though the rapid­ brain, he alone of all his kind ly cooling body in which he lay could pass through that Barrier. was not. He could remember, now, He was the one surviving Zug: he all the things it had been necessary himself was the monster he had for "Naismith" to forget. been sent to kill. He remembered killing Wells. Now, as his strength returned, Earlier, he remembered standing he was aware of motion. The host beside the wreckage of a bomber, body was being towed off out of and coolly selecting the dogtags of the way, probably by a robot. He one of its crewmen, the one who waited, tensely, until the motion most resembled him in age and was arrested and the sounds of height: dogtags that read "NAI­ voices diminished. It was evident SMITH, GORDON." that he had been taken out of the He remembered stripping the great hall, into some smaller body, carrying it on his shoulders chamber. to a ravine, throwing it in and cov­ He waited again, to make sure, ering it with boulders. . . . but there was no further move­ Earlier still, he remembered his ment. first grublike awareness-warmth, Ever since the host body died, protection, motion. He had put out he had been injecting dessicants pseudoganglions, first cautiously, into it to harden it and make it then with gathering sureness and brittle along the center line of the skill. He had linked his own nerv­ torso. Now he stretched himself, ous system with that of his host, a applied pressure : and the body Shefthi warrior returning belated­ split. Light came into his prison. ly from a Zug hunt. For the first time, he saw with Then he could see, feel, hear, his own eyes; and he was dazzled. with his host's human senses. The world was so much more He was inside the Shefth; he brilliant and beautiful than hu­ was the Shefth. . . • man senses could convey! THE TREE OP nMB 81 Now he saw that he was 8oating During these first few minutes, in a small, bare cubicle, among the he was vulnerable and weak, easy corpses of dozens of greenskins. prey for any determined man Carefully he drew himself out with a weapon. of the hollow he had made in the At intervals, cautiously, he body of his host. He felt his limbs tested his wings. The curved ribs and wings stretching in the air, were hardening, the membranes hardening. drying. He flexed his grasping A fresh babble of voices came members, watching the armored from outside the cubicle. He segments slide in their casings. gripped the empty host-body and Strength and alerbtess began to drew it quickly to the back of the flow into his body. Soon- room, hiding it behind the other His thoughts broke off abruptly floating bodies. A moment later, as another robot entered the cham­ there was a commotion: a body ber. Naismith felt a tug, and saw crashed heavily into the room, fol­ the greenskinned bodies around lowed by another. The first was him bob and wheel, as they fol­ babbling in a thin, terrified voice, lowed the robot out into the corri­ "No, no, no . . ... dor. He risked a glance. A robot, as Naismith went along, caught in he watched, was affiixing a death the same web of force. Outside, he collar to the scrawny neck of a saw that his small group of bodies technician. Its task done, the ro­ was being joined to a much larger bot turned and floated away. It one. All the greenskinned corpses, was carrying a cluster of the metal evidently, were being brought to­ collars. gether for disposal. Naismith could The technician, left behind, have broken free of the weak at­ tugged vainly at his collar. Tears traction that held him, but he ran glittered in the little man's eyes. less chance of detection in staying With a choked sound, after a mo­ where he was. Besides, if his idea ment, he turned and followed the of his whereabouts was correct, robot. the procession was headed where The being who called himself he wanted to go. Naismith waited grimly. Now that Other groups of bodies were the Shefthi and the greenskins added as they went, but always at were gone, the City's rulers were the head of the procession, and it evidently making sure of the tech­ was not until they crossed a large nicians-perhaps of the enter­ haiJ that anyone noticed Naismith. tainers as well. However that "Look-a Zug, isn't it?" an ef­ might be, Naismith waited be­ fete voice remarked. "How fright­ cause he had to. ening, even dead as it is!" 82 FANTASY A.ND SCIENCE FICTION "Yes, and imagine that we aren't Now he headed directly for one even seeing its true form," another small doorway, half-hidden behind voice replied. The sound faded as floating machines. He opened it the procession moved on. "If we with a thought, dived in. had a viewer to look at it with-" There was a gnome before him A pause. "But, Willot, what is a in the narrow, blind tube. He had dead Zug doing here, in the New the rear panel already open, and City?" was fingering the controls. He Naismith waited no longer. turned a snarling face as Naismith With a surge of his wings, he was entered; then his eyes widened, his out of the cluster of bodies, dart­ face paled. ing straight across the hall toward Naismith killed him with one the nearest doonvay. blow, pushed his body aside, and Shouts echoed behind him as he turned his attention to the con­ gathered speed. Ahead, a littie trol board. group of gorgeously dressed fat Here, carefully concealed and men blundered squarely into his guarded, was the central control path. He burst through them like a system for all the automatic de­ rocket, sending them flying with vices that made life possible in the bruised limbs and broken bones. City-air generators, synthesiz­ Then he was at the doorway, ers, automatic weapons, robots. thinking his destination. He dove Naismith examined the control through, into the workrooms •f disks carefully. Some had the deatlt the technicians. symbol on them, meaning their Here everything was confusion settings could not be altered with· -machines unattended and out killing the operator-an un· adrift, unidentifiable instruments derling would have to be sacri· floating in clusters. A few techni­ ficed for each such adjustment. cians were visible, most of them These were the controls for the wearing the Death Collars. Of the force fields which made up the few who were still without them, walls of the New City; the p~ one was being pursued by a robot. caution was understandable. The dim memories of his last Others, of a slightly different sleep were now clear. Naismith re­ color, also bore the death symbol, membered stealing out of the cub­ but in these cases it was a bluff, icle, going to the workrooms, cap­ and Naismith touched them with· turing and subduing one of the out hesitation. He turned off all technicians. He had put a mind the automatic weapons in the helmet on the little man, had City, neutralized the robots, and forced out of him the one secret he opened the gateways between the wanted to know. Old and New Cities: Then, work- THE TREE OF TIME S3 ing more slowly, he opened the SHEFTH." The machine was panel and altered the thought sig­ glowing, the message incomplete. nals required to approach the con­ He turned it off, and went on his trol board. Now only he could way. make any further changes in its He was here, nothing they settings. could do could alter that. That He was hungry, so he made a had been obviouS from the begin­ light snack from the food he found ning: but let them try. in the corridor. Then, at his lei­ The vast concourses and gal­ sure, he went back the way he had leries of the New City absorbed come and began the tour of the his attention; he was beginning to City. catalogue the treasures of his new Everywhere, the Lenlu Din domain, a task that would occupy gawked at him with pasty faces, an many months. Yet the silent silent, all shaking. Those nearest throngs, the glittering color, the the doorways fled in a panic when miles of records and information they saw him enter: the rest did capsule&, did not please him as not even try to escape, but only they should. After a long time he hung where they were, passive, realized what the trouble was. It staring. was the phantom personality of He paused to examine his re­ the man, Naismith. It was oppres­ flection in the silvery disk of a mir­ siTe, as if he were wearing an in­ ror. It was strange, and yet per­ visible overcoat. Irritably he tried fectly natural, to look at himself to shrug it off, but it stayed. and see this pale, unearthly 6.z­ Now that he was aware of it, ure, with its blazing eyes in the in­ the feeling was more annoying human mask of the face. He flexed than ever. He stopped and floated his great arms, and the smaller still, appalled. Every thought, ev­ grasping members; then the tail, ery feeling that Naismith had had watching the sharp sting emer~. during the months their minds He moved on, giving new or­ were linked together was recorded ders to the robots as he went. In in his brain. It was not merely the social room, he came upon a lit­ that he remembered Naisrnith:­ tle group of fat men frantically at he was Naismith. He was a mem­ work upon an instrument he recog­ ber of the race of conquerors; and nized. he was also a man. They scattered as he ap­ He made a violent mental ef­ proached, and he read the mes­ fort to throw off that phantom sage they had been trying to send mind, but the thing clung to him into the past: "DANGER-ONE stubbornly, like the ghost of an ZUG ALIVE. DO NOT SEND amputated limb. It was no use 84 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION telling himself that Naismith was The entertainers deserve their dead. Naismith's ghost was in his chance, Naismith's voice said. mind-no, not even a ghost; his No. living personality. He turned as another robot He whirled in sudden anger, floated up: he recognized it as one and the fat little people scattered he had sent into the Old City on around him. Were these the rulers an errand. of Earth's ultimate City, the in­ "Lord, I found no Masters alive, heritors of four hundred thousand but I have taken eggs from their years of human evolution? These bodies as you ordered. They are puffed little parasites, selfish, neu­ under the care of the technicians rotic and cruel? in the biological laboratories." Their race produced some great He made a sign of dismissal men, Naismith's voice said soberly and the robot went away. He went in his mind. on with his tour of inspection. Ev­ There are none among these! he erywhere, the eyes of the little fat answered. Nor will they ever people stared at him in dull mis­ produce any, if they live a million ery. years. Woe to the vanquished, said a Not under your rule. voice in his brain: was it his own, And if I had left them to them­ or Naismith's? . selves, what then-would they With a sense of panic, he dis­ have done any better? covered that he could not tell the No, there is no hope for them, difference. The two were one. nor perhaps even for the techni­ He was all triumph and mas­ cians. But there is hope for the en­ tery; yet he was all commisera­ tertainers. tion, all regret. Pride stiffened his body. They Give them their lives, and their are my property. chance, said the voice. They are human beings. Where? In doubt and confusion, he Where but on Earth? turned to the nearest robot, a sar­ Naismith hung frozen for a mo- cophagus-shape with geometric fig­ ment, remembering the sea of ures inscribed in red on a gold and grass, under the cloud-dotted sky. silver ground. 'Tell me briefly, A little man in white drifted up. what is a human being?" "Master, are there any orders?" The robot whirred, hummed. "Yes. Find me the entertainers "A human being," it said, "is a po­ Liss and Rab." As the man bobbed tentiality." his head and darted off, Naismith After a moment, he gestured. beckoned the nearest robot. "Bring The robot drifted away. me a vehicle." THE Tllf.E OF TINE 85 Still, when the robot had gone, threugh the wet grass. After a mo­ he hung in the air, oblivious to the ment they linked hands. color and movement around him, "Wait," Naismith called after astonished by the purpose that was them. They turned. "How far does in his mind. Could a Zug feel this the influence of this machine ex­ passion of mercy, and remain a tend?" Zug? "About half a mile," the girl The robot came first with the said dully. control box, then the entertainers, "Then if I take it farther away looking frightened and desperate. than that-or, better, if I remove Naismith took the control box. it in time-you will die?" "Come near, and don't be afraid," "You know we will." he said to the entertainers. "We "Then watch." Naismith are going to Earth." touched the controls, forming the "To Earth? I don't understand," bubble. He depressed and rotated said Liss-Y ani. the time control gently. "Are you going to exile us The two silent figures van­ there?" Rab burst out. He turned ished; the plain writhed, darkened, to the girl. "Let him do it," he said glowed with sunlight, darkened fiercely. "It's better than staying again. Touching it more gently, here to be food for him." Naismith turned the control the Liss-Yani's face paled. After a other way. The same sequence un­ moment, she stepped nearer, and rolled in reverse, like a film strip Rab followed. Naismith touched run backward. the controls. The blue-tinted bub­ The two figures appeared once ble of force sprang up around more, then a third-Naismith them; the hall drifted away. They himself, wings busy as he hovered passed through one partition, then in air, his grasping members hold­ another . . • then a third, and ing the machine. they were in space, under the cold Invisible in the bubble, he majesty of the stars. watched himself leave. He saw the They stood on the grassy plain two entertainers stiffen, saw them just at dawn, when the greenish­ clutch each other. After a moment blue sky to eastward was lit with he saw them separate, open their yellow fires along the horizon, and eyes, look around in wonder. the sun bulged up red as a blood­ Still he waited, until they dared orange above the mountaiits. to walk a few steps into the grass, Naismith switched off the bub­ calling to each other, breathing ble. The two entertainers looked at deep. Dawn was diffusing half the him without expression, then sky; across the plain, birdsong turned and began to walk away echeed. 86 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Naismith lowered the bubble, ''Yes, often,'' said Liss, her eyes brought it into phase and turned glinting. it off. The two humans did not "Why didn't you do so?" even see him. "If we had stayed in the past, "Liss-Rabl" he called. that would have changed history, They turned, with incred11lous changed the City-so it was im­ faces. "It didn't kill us!" said Liss­ possible-it would have pinched Yani. "Is this real?" out the loop." "It is real," he told her. · "And why didn't you settle "But then-" she whispered, here, in your own present?" and fell silent. The two looked at each other. "They said that you Zugs made "Because they made us think it the illusion," said Rab. was a wasteland," Rab said. "They also told you we were hid­ Naismith inclined his head. eous monsters," Naismith replied ''We will go back to the City now," drily. "Which is easier-to make he said. "You will tell the other en­ an illusion you can see with your tertainers, gather them all to­ own eyes, or to make one that can gether. I will give you vehicles, only be seen through a 'viewer'?" tools, records, everything you They stared at him. "This is need." your true form?" Liss-Yani ven­ They came toward him slowly. tured. "But why are you doing this?" Liss "It is my only form." asked. "And all this is real?" ''You would 'not understand," Naismith did not reply. They said Naismith. were a pretty pair, he was think­ ing, especially the female; it would ••• In truth, he hardly un­ be interesting to breed them and derstood himself. But as he moved see-He stopped. Was that the through the glittering throng in Zug's thought, or the man's? the great hall, listening to the mu­ It was neither, he realized, but sic and the voices, seeing the re­ a blend • • • and how curious to spectful looks on the faces of the think that this detached pleasure, Lenlu Din when they glanced his half cool, half warm, was possible way, it seemed to Naismith that only to the mythological creature somehow, through accident and be had become. . • • willfulness, he had woven himself "But why would they do this?" precisely and symmetrically into Rab asked. the grand design. "Tell me, when you left the City Always, he thought, the uni­ on their errands, did you ever verse tended to strike a balance think of staying on Earth?" between two excesses: long life THE TREE OF TIME 87 ·and short, intelligence and mind­ "But won't that be unpleasant?" lessness, mercy and cruelty. The she asked, letting herself be led tapestry unrolled, and there was away. never an end to it. "You will not mind it at all," "Lord," said a robot, drifting Naismith promised her, and floated up, "the last of the Lenlu Din are off in another direction. being processed now in the gold Three fat little men, arms chamber. In one hour they will all linked, drifted across his path with have been treated, as you ordered." respectful glances. To them, he Naismith dismissed it, and was no monster, but a revered watched it float off among the idle counsellor and guide. The absence pleasure-seekers. He was pleasant­ of the entertainers did not strike ly hungry; in half an hour it would them as odd: Drugged and hyp­ be time to eat. After all, this way notized, they had forgotten there was best. In the old days, a Zug had ever been such a caste, or any would have leaped upon his vic­ other state of things. tim and devoured it on the spot. They were cattle. Now ..• Was this mercy? Then a Zug A few hundred yards away, could be merciful. Was it cruelty? from the midst of a large group, he Then there was cruelty in a man. heard the screeching of the old woman, the Highborn, hysterical The game, Naismith realized and angry as ever. Other voices now, was not over. The pattern were soothing her. All was nor­ was still unfolding, in this small mal, all was for the best in this and unimportant comer of the best of worlds. universe of stars. Naismith drifted over; the gaily Here, in the closed world of the dressed little people parted re­ City, he tasted triumph-domin­ spectfully to let him through. Even ion was his. Yet it was good to the mad old woman interrupted know that down there on Earth, her screeching to bob her head. the human species was still free, "Highborn," said Naismith, still evolving in its pattern. "have you forgotten that you are It was pleasant to think that in a about to retire for extended medi­ thousand years, or ten thousand, tation?" Zug and Man might meet again, "I am? Am I?'' she said uncer­ and this time blend their powers tainly. "When am I going?" into something greater. It would "Almost immediately," Naismith take that long, or longer; Naismith told her gently, and beckoned to a and his kind could afford to wait. passing robot. "Show the High­ For God is not born in a day. born to her chambers." ~ Pettifogle discovered Allen Kim Lang in, of aU camp places, the blood bank at Indiana University. "I've shaken hands with Harry Truman," said AKL, "submitted fuller biographical material than this to Dr. Alfred Kinsey, sold my first story a dozen years ago to PLANET (same magazine Bradbury began in: he's rather far ahead), drunk mild-and-bitter with Arthur C. Clarke in London's White Horse pub, and barely missed meeting Messrs. Davidson and Sturgeon at the Chicago SF Convention, which I visited with Holly Cantine (Hell of a good writer) on leave from a Peacenik encampment on Oak Street. I'm chief technician in the ARC blood program here," said Lang, holding up a test-tube to the light, "processing 20,000 liters (I prefer to ignore English mensuration outside of public house pints) of blood yearly. (BE A BLOOD­ DONOR •.• Commercial.f Pettifogle swallowed, turned green. "I spent four years in the Infantry and four in the Air Force, where I discovered and espoused pacifism. If you don't start WW III, I won't either. Middle name, Kim, is the gift of a Korean family; it's the commonest Korean name, and means gold. All of this fam­ ily, including the 17 -year-old ROC youngest son, who learned to use a slide-rule without understanding the English in which I demonstrated it to him, are dead. Except me. My agent, splendid man, signs his name in Chinese. We Orientals are taking over. See Otto v. Bismark for details." Mr. Lang went on to explain the scientific basis for the fast-moving, stylistically-sparkling story below: whole blood is currently being stored in liquid nitrogen at c. -820° C; hypothermia is now a standard surgical procedure; and experiments with cooling rats indicates that it has no adverse effect on the ability to think. Pettifogle has not been altogether the same since , . . and perhaps, after reading this little goody from the gory crypts, you will not be, either.

88 THAW AND SERVE

by Allen Kim Laug

Doc WARNER's BLOOD LUBRI­ hers of the Full-Service Bank I fa­ cated the handcuffs onto my vored was won with qat, an herb wrists. A police-sergeant draped harvested in the sheikdoms of me in a sweated sheet to lead me Yemen and unknown, until I in­ from the bedroom where Mildred troduced it, to our wholesomer \Varner crouched in a comer, clime. While fat-rumped lawmen screaming. slashed down groves of marijuana "McWha," his Honor said, in the public parks, a weed benign "you've led busy life." as wine, Wolfman McWha Indeed. pushed at schoolside soda-foun­ The years my contemporaries tains a brand of tea habit-forming spent at basketball saw me at Bos­ as sins against chastity; and I won ky Knoll, an asylum where wolf­ for my industry at import the price cub claws are blunted with Freu­ of a harem of Yemen's only other dian snips. My talons proved market-worthy crop, to be disposed tougher than my keepers' clippers. of through a consortium of used­ At fifteen, sated with cant and flesh dealers in another hemis­ honey, I parolled myself across phere. the chain-link fence and rode the Competition was a bother until Citrus Express into the city I discovered arguments devel­ Establishing my stake with the oped in the Carribean from Pros­ aid of a stocking filled with grav­ sian· pilot-models. Distrusting el, I entered the pharmaceutical dangerous electrical parapherna­ field. Unlike a certain fool who, lia, I used above all other tools a asked why he held up banks, ex­ rod of steel long as a man's fore­ plained: "Because that's where arm and of the diameter of his the money is," I had decided that least external orifice; a device wealth is most easily pried from which served all commercial pur­ the fists of the poor, whose grip poses from a mild reproof to the is weak. Proffer a Kopyright Kure manufacture of a corpse mute to for Kancer, and the carriage­ the canniest coroner's physician. trade wrinkles its nose. But it A carnivore in a world where clix on the brix. gruel had become the native dish, My welcome to the inner cham- I was too proud to hide my bris- 90 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ties under sheepskin. Had Slick penultimate commercial, the next McWha deigned to dole out step in the McWoeful way of Mc­ dimes to starvlings (the Wicked's Wha; the Helium Chamber of the Mite) he'd never have been exiled !;riminal Crypts. into Paradise. What doomed ~:-.e Insidious Fu Manchu, thou was the lack of wit to be a hypo­ shouldst have lived this houri crite. Vide: silicone straps to hold the The only revenge I had in­ delinquent while the smoking vats tended taking upon Doctor War­ of liquid gas are tilted over his ner was the seduction of his wife; limbs. The medusoid head-dress to however, to be brisk as surgery lend a classic touch, together with ante Morton, he surprised us in junior lightnings that leap the the consumation of his shame. I eleavage of brass breasts. The vic­ seized the nearest object sufficient tim, calling out details of his re­ to parry the doctor's violent walk­ gretted turpitude as he's lowered ingstick (a bookend; the Warners into his tub of Time. • . • were a literate couple) and swung. That schtick's worn thin. The He lay dead and she stood scream­ truth is this: ing. A bed. A.nurselet, cozy in blue­ In gyves, Slick McWha served striped blouse and starched white Telstar's bouncy purpose. The apron (and nymphettophageous camera showed the killer fenced Wolfman knows cozydom!) leans in before the solemn bench, where primly over dexter deltoid with a fat black bat twittered disclaim­ two-cc. syringe and stainless nee- ers to his sup of blood: "Ours is a dle. "This won't hurt a bit, Mister civilization that no longer kills, Son-of-\Voe." but only cools." The sentence, then She stings. Two hundred years (C. U. my murderer's face, pan to are gone. my clenching fists): No sleep, no chill from my two ''Kevin McWha, the servants of centuries' soak at I 0 Absolute. Just the State are directed to sequester a bee-sting that still smarts, a doz­ you for en decades after the dimpled bee's "TWO HUNDRED YEARS, decayed. "at the end of which time, by The Future's machines wake me the Grace of God and the Pace of and pat me to shape A naked citi­ SCience, you will awake in a zen, Tarzan, comes to walk me in world prepared to deal with mon­ the park. On his left biceps is sters healingly." strapped a silver disc. Anti­ On the Stevie-set over the cash­ McWha device, I posit. 'We register at your neighborhood tav­ know why you're with us, Kevin." ern you might have seen, after the Wry mouth. "Your dossier is foxed THAW AND SERVE 91 a bit, but we've read it." with me?" ask I, the devil's will· Nudism is the style of these ingest advocate. comely pedestrians; they've tamed "We'll study you," my ribbon· the weather to make it bearable. clerk replies. "You'll do well to co­ Wolfman slavers, two centuries operate. We'll use force if need celibate, as a girls' gym-class be." prances past to the tennis-courts. HShame!" "No cities; we're beyond the "... to prevent, say, murder. need for efficiency." Milder than Rape." Taut look. milk, which presupposes active "You remember the four-letter glands, my cicerone smiles. lyrics, but you've lost the four-let· Wolfman smiles, too. Six Trix ter lilt," I comment. Fix Hix flix his inner pix. "No "You appear to think that civil­ drug-addiction?" I ask. ized means soft," protests History's "Goodness, no." The fink from Minion. He sees a honeybee light the future frowns. "We do have on a golden Bower and closes his something of a coffee-problem," eyes. he confesses. 'The truth with this Future," I Add another Black Battalion, muse, "is that it's trimmed of tes· thinx Slick McWha. Illicit Java. ticularity. Fortunately, thanx to "No other vice?" the magic of cryogenics (Anything "Perhaps self-satisfaction," says That Goes In Can Be Frozen; the sweet meech. "Break the Law," You'll Freeze & No license, I, to peddle ennui. Thaw, etc.), your hormone-gap is "You've got Cloud-Cuckoo-Land about to be plugged." Dead to indeed," says cloud-dispelling, shame, Slick McWha voyeurs hon­ cuckoo-cuckolding, landgrabbing eybee twiddling butt-up in butter· Slick McWha. cup, wondering, Do monsters on "We like it here." pulp-magazines seize macromastic "So do I • . . to visit," testi­ Earthgirls to sup such innocent fies the sheep-thief dew? "You can't go back." A lion, Virgil opens his eyes, pale blue curry-combed to a comeliness no like watered milk. 'We want no President's-daughter's-pony had in snakeseed scattered here in Eden," my day yet attained, stalks up to he says. "In any case, our women a nearby yew-tree, where he lies wouldn't have you." down with a lamb. Leo yawns. "Like Poland wouldn't have the Lambkin, big-eyed as a peace­ SS," growls the Wolf. No response. walker discovered in a Legion bar, The Future has no nasty Past. feels her cud tum sour. I think then the thought upper­ 'What do you intend to do most in the mind of every fictive 92 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Sleeper Waking, the urgency to dice-fall of my genes,'' I tell him. inspect the headlines that I've "I am, by gland-drive and by missed. ''You're at peace?" I in­ training, an entrepreneur." quire. "A thief,'' interprets my man "Of course," my dainty super­ from Intourist. "\Ve've seen your man agrees, his mouth a butter­ dossier, remember?" He touches cooler. "Through antenatal condi­ pinkies tip-to-tip,_ the top tip to tioning, we've eliminated the his lips, a curate counting in his birth-trauma. Since there's no pov­ head the cucumber-sandwiches he erty, there's no anxiety. Look requires for the Parsonage tea. there:" Twin teenaged darlings, "There's no business here for dope­ Geminae, dusted with freckles like peddlers," he says. "Nor do we, cinnamoned sweetcakes, stroll Kevin McWha, solicit the serv­ hand in hand past Wolf and Rab­ ices of panders, cancer-quacks, or bit, nod golden heads and pass, Big-Board· bandits." not ceasing to sing together in "A man from the past deserves voices like young violins. "The subsidy," I suggest. "Like a Ming body is no longer the- vessel of vase, he should be preserved as a shame," Rabbit babbitts. "Our Ids national treasure." are sanitary as our Superegos." "Ming vases of your pattern are Wolfman licks his lips, tasting commoner than milk-bottles," sugared cinnamon. "I spoke," I Mister Interlocutor tells me. "Do say, "not of you alone, gentle you forget the crime statistics of pewt; but of your world." your unkempt day? How your "Earth is no more a circle of courts, more merciful to contem­ blood-sprent sand," says my beef­ poraries than to descendants, cake Fauntleroy. Then, like the chilled the mis~;hief-makers and handsome stranger in a ladies' shipped you ahead like frozen fish, magazine, he croons, "But let's to be thawed out stinking in our talk now about you." He indicates gentler age?" two stone benches, dos-a-dos, cush­ "The Judge assured me you'd ioned with a moss velour. A little have new techniques," I point out. stream, fast-moving, runs to our "He said you'd have a medicine right, fraying against the three for misdemeanants." stepping-stones. The air smells of "We have a rod," answers Ex­ cold water, of pine-needles and quisite, tracing a steely line in the grass bruised by naked childfeet. air, "two hand-breadths long, and I lust after an atavistic cigar. "It's very thin." my privilege to help you find your "I know that rod,'' says Wolf­ new career," the milksop says. man, his insides gone albino. "My work was chosen in the "The conjunctiva of one eye- THAW AND SUVE 93 socket is pierced, the eyeball be­ "Is there no need in this plea. ing cushioned on the sufferer's ure-park of demolition?" I de­ cheek," my new unfriend elabo­ mand. "Are assassins' blades now rates. "Through a small incision in dry letter-openers, coy fingernail­ the upper orbit, the rod probes for parers?" and disrupts those precincts of the "Do I hear rightly, Kevin Mc­ brain-mantle where the Id lives. Wha?" asks the nude frontiers­ The eye is then screwed back into man, his cheeks flushed with rude its socket, and the whilom socio­ hemoglobin. "Had you really rath­ path returns to the company of er kill than be cured?" his fellows clean and open-heart­ "Five-by-five;" I answer. "Yes!" ed as a child." Kewpie glances up, gauging the "Charming," I say. "Is it not altitude of the sun. "You must be true, however, that your brain­ hungry," he suggests. scoured convalescent is apt to "I haven't had a bite to eat in find poetry a bore, and love a fic­ six generations," Wolfman points tion?" out. "A ham sandwich could "Ah, yes," sighs this coaxial­ bridge the void of centuries." clipper. "To be quite candid, Kev­ "Ham? No, Kevin. We no long­ in, our prefrontal philanthropy of­ er exploit our fellow-beasts for ten leaves our new brother paret­ protein." ically impotent. But the new you "No matter," I sigh, rising to will find celibacy no heavy bur­ follow him down the garden path. den." "I'm sure there's no mustard, eith­ "How absolute the knave is!" I er, here." cry, crossing my legs. "If you're We pass the mausoleum. Son­ bound to prune me, you'll come of-Woe shudders with a chilly at me with an honest gelding­ thought of the two hundred years knife, not short my fuses like a he lay there, ripening like a cicada burglar." There is some asperity in in the earth. I consider the gelid my tone. My therapist fondles the thousands buried still in that silver Wolfbane on his left arm, timeproof dungeon, waiting for a and I unclench my fists. Lincoln to strike free their icy "Most of you say that," sheep­ chains. dog says. "We're not bound, all The park cuddles about the vil­ the same, to let the sinners of our lage of Adamites, who are stroll­ forefathers visit upon us un­ ing its paths placidly soaking sun­ checked. We must, as you say, de­ light, not flinching even at the fuze you, as one would defuze a sight of preserved great-great­ .•. what was the thing called? grandpa's Twentieth-Century Bomb?" walking-shorts. The houses, Black 94 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Forest clock-cases, scatter about On the stereo screen blooms the playing-fields where snowtopped planet Earth, photographed from gentlefolk croquet with balsa balls, perhaps the moon. A Zeus-size zoo­ and wading-pools where bare ba­ mar hurls us down. Space-sick, I bies laugh and slop their feet. I grip the table-edge to make it see virgins whose breasts have not creak. We're falling toward Aus­ conceded gravitation bouncing tralia, old continent of exile. about a-bowling on the green. We drop into the woods of Ar­ The community hall bears nam Land, the front ear of the above its entrance a motto my host kangaroo I saw in the atlas as a translates to mean Don't Rock The child. "This used to be an Aborigi­ Boat. nal Area," chuckles Constant We enter the dining-ball and Companion. "Unfortunately, the take a table between the fountain little brown boomerangers have and the orchestra. Gymnosophs of lost their forests to a fiercer breed." all shades, patent-leather Zulu to The camera that feeds our screen chamois-skin Finn, stop to gossip swoops and ducks through fat­ with my tour-director. Their lan­ stemmed gum-trees. Tropical birds, guage is soft and open-mouthed, blood-red bile-green, caw and like Hawaiian. My English speech, chatter from the tufts of screw­ raucous echo from Baltic marshes palms. The swampmud belches and Rhenish forests, is not un­ bubbles. known. "Welcome," one says; an­ One man appears, wearing a other, "Eat hearty!" A young man kilt of pounded bark. His blond grins. "We'll be seeing you," he beard is streaked with the yolk of says. his breakfast eggs; his feet are After a refection of biscuits and wrapped in buskins of croco­ crisp greens, we move to a table dile-hide He waves his right arm in the small motion-picture thea­ -the left holds a nine-foot spear ter. The film is patently a love­ -and companions scruffy as him- story. We are in, so to speak, at self skulk from behind the cycad­ the kill. The hero and heroine are palms and stringybark trees into sealing their troth in a triumphant the clearing. Our camera perches act of kind, string-music racing on a convenient wild-fig tree to bedsprings to crescendo. Drums, kibitz the making-camp. hautboys, and a trumpet-blast; "That's a death-spear the leader Fade Out. carries," my interpreter whispers. "Now," announces Adonis, "the "Bits of shell and stone are stuck Feature." He hands me a sweet to its point with resin, to wipe off from the shallow bowl on our ta­ in the wound and cause a fester­ ble. ing death." THAW AND SERVE 95 The camera flutters off its perch who carries coals in an earthware to inspect the band of junglemen pot, piles up the jungle-duff the in detail. A red-bearded giant children bring her and starts the whose right eye lies buried in its cookfire. The men rest on their crushed arch swings his morning­ haunches, crutching up exhaus­ star about his head, cursing the tion on their spear-shafts. camera. One-eye's weapon, a rock _ As though the perfume of the size of two hands clasped, roasting fish were their signal, a bagged at the end of a Iiana, second troop screams from the whips up toward the eavesdrop­ jungle. Ambush! One of the at­ ping automaton. The camera tackers swings his string of pawn­ hops in the air; the rock drops broker-balls about his head, re­ back to its hurler. leases it, and straps Blondy to his The rest of the primitives ig­ useless spear. Another kneels at nore our watchbird. Some twenty the jungle-edge to fit flints into men beat about in the bamboo­ the pouch of his pellet-bow, fling­ clumps for hidden enemies. All ing bullets against the skulls of the clear. Blondy whistles through his defenders. The blind boy, howl­ teeth. Four hags, leeched dry by ing, blunders into the legs of a heat and protozoa, herd children man with a mace, who swats him from the bush. The camera peers. dead with a hammerblow. Kids are everywhere. These Victory for the ambushers. One youngsters are skinny, their hair hero drags the girl with yaws to plastered back with mud We're the fringes of the clearing, where treated to a closeup of one of the he bangs her head against a log girls, some twelve years old. Her and rapes her. The camera swoops skin is pebbled with rasberry le­ to remind its audience of the sions, and her hair has mostly Psalmist's Fourth Wonder, the fallen out. A boy of six is led to way of a man with a maid. the center of the clearing by his Blondy is trussed between sister. The camera holds a clinical forks above his cookfire. The win­ conference on his white-filmed ners snatch fish from under his eyes. A worm uncoils behind one screaming body to tear and finger­ translucent pupil. "My God!" I lick. Others gather about the vic­ bark. tims with stone knives, giggling "\Ve're not religious here,'' Nig­ and holding up from time to time Nog remarks. "But watch now, bits of bloody flesh. The women Kevin-lad." are enjoyed in order of the vic­ One of the leather women takes tors' rank. a sack of fish from her ·shoulder After half an hour, the stolen and spits bits on twigs. Another, fish all eaten, the battered women 96 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION are led off into the jungle on hal­ need, making the blood sing ters. Flies settle to police the area. through our veins in the ancient Wolfman fights back peristal­ poetry of slaughter." sis. "I thought you didn't have He is strong, but with his right war," I sav. arm broken he can't trigger the "We don't," says my fello\V­ Wolfman-gun on his left. He viewer, leading me into the sun­ belches as I hold his golden head light. "But you fellows do. It's under the singing creek. At last I your nature." wedge him between the first and We sit again on the mossy second stepping-stone. I strap to benches by the stream. "It really my arm his silver disc and run. I happened?" I ask. run past the Crypts, where com­ "Ten minutes ago," he says. panions wait an unhallowed res­ "You give the men and women urrection. you thaw from the Criminal I hear dogs, now, baying beside Crypts a choice," I say. "Zombi­ the little stream where I washed hood or transport to Australia." away the trail. I'm heading into "The first is the wiser option," the mountains, wolf-country. says the surgeon's nark. "Some of When I come downhill again, our most pleasant citizens were when I've crowned myself King of once as. wild as you arc, Kevin. the Frozen Pirates, I'Jl make the The others, as you saw, furnish us blood sing through the veins of the excitement healthy humans these loving folk. And from them.

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Address ..•••...••...... •••. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · • • • • · • · · · · · • • • City ...... Zone ...... State ...... • This is pe1'haps not quite the Yuletide tale to read to your little nephew or your sweet old aunt. StiU, while its theology is ques­ tionable, its sociology is rather sound. As for the author, we have been absolutely unable to learn anything about him or his where­ abouts, and this, too, makes us wonder • • •

HACKLES

by Curt Clark

Dm Gon CREATE MEN, oR DOES And we ourselves know God and Man create gods? I don't know, Satan. and if it hadn't been for my rotten But of course it's entirely possi­ brother-in-law the question would ble I have nothing to worry about. never have come up. My late It all depends on whether Santa brother-in-law? Nackles knows. Claus is or is not a god. He cer• It all depends, you see, like the tainly seems like a god. Consider: chicken and the egg, on which He is omniscient; he knows every came first. Did God exist before action of every child, for good or Man first thought of Him, or evil. At least on Christmas Eve he didn't He? If not, if Man creates is omnipresent, everywhere at his gods, then it follows that Man once. He administers justice tem­ must create the devils, too. pered with mercy. He is superhu­ Nearly every god, you know, man, or at least non-human, has his corresponding devil. Good though conceived of as having a and Evil. The polytheistic an­ human shape. He is aided by a cients, prolific in the creation (?) corps of assistants who do not of gods and goddesses, always have completely human shapes. worked up nearly enough Evil He rewards Good and punishes ones to cancel out the Good, but Evil. And, most important, he is not quite. The Greeks, those in­ believed in utterly by several mil­ credible supermen, combined lion people, most of them under Good and Evil in each of their the age of ten. Is there any quali­ gods. In Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda, fication for godhood that Santa being Good, is ranged forever Claus does not possess? against the Evil one, Ahriman. And even the non-believers give 97 98 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION him lip-service. He has surely tak­ wouldn't explain how she fell in en over Christmas; his effigy is ev­ love with him in the first place. erywhere, but where are the man­ Frank is-Frank was-I just ger and the Christ child? Retired don't know what tense to use. The rather forlornly to the nave. (San­ present, hopefully. Frank is a very ta's power is growing, too. Slowly handsome man in his way, big and but surely he is usurping Chanu­ brawny, full of vitality. A football kah as well.) player; hero in college and defen­ Santa Claus is a god He's no sive line-backer for three years in less a god than Ahura Mazda, or pro ball, till he did some sort of ir­ Odin, or Zeus. Think of the white reparable damage to his left knee, beard, the chariot pulled through which gave him a limp and forced the air by a breed of animal which him to find some other way to doesn't ordinarily fly, the prayers make a living. (requests for gifts) which are an­ Ex-football players tend to be­ nually mailed to him and which so come insurance salesmen, I don't baffie the Post Office, the specially­ know why. Frank followed the garbed priests in all the depart­ form, and became an insurance ment stores. And don't gods reflect salesman. Because Susie was then their creators' (?) society? The a secretary for the same company, Greeks had a huntress goddess, they soon became acquainted and gods of agriculture and war Was Susie dazzled by the ex­ and love. What else would we have hero, so big and handsome? She's but a god of giving, of merchan­ never been the type to dazzle eas­ dising, and of consumption? Sec­ ily, but we can never fully know ondary gods of earlier times have what goes on inside the mind of been stout, but surely Santa Claus another human being. For what­ is the first fat primary god. ever reason, she decided she was in And wherever there is a god, love with him. mustn't there sooner or later be a So they were married, and five devil? weeks later he gave her her first Which brings me back to my black eye. And the last, though it brother-in-law, who's to blame for mightn't have been, since Susie whatever happens now. My broth­ tried to keep me from finding out. er-in-law Frank is-or was-a I was to go over for dinner that very mean and nasty man. Why I night, but at eleven in the morn­ ever let him marry my sister I'll ing she called the auto showroom never know. 'Vhy Susie wanted to where I work, to tell me she had a marry him is an even greater mys­ headache and we'd have to post· tery. I could just shrug and say pone the dinner. But she sounded Love Is Blind, I suppose, but that so upset that I knew immediately NACIU.BS 99 something was wrong, so I took a And after which I was Frank's demonstration car and drove over, best friend. and when she opened the front People like that are so impossi­ door there was the shiner. ble to understand. Until the base­ I got the story out of her slowly, ball bat episode, Frank had noth­ in fits and starts. Frank, it seemed, ing for me but undisguised con­ had a terrible temper. She wanted tempt. But once I'd knocked the to excuse him because he was stuffings out of him, he was my forced to be an insurance sales­ comrade fot life. And I'm sure it man when he really wanted to be was sincere; he would have given out there on the gridiron again, me the shirt off his back, had I but I want to be President and wanted it, which I didn't. . I'm an automobile salesman and I (Also, by the way, he never hit don't go around giving women Susie again, He still had the bad black eyes So I decided it was up temper, but he took it out in throw­ to me to let Frank know he wasn't ing furniture out windows or to vent his pique on my sister any punching dents in walls or going more. downtown to start a brawl in some Unfortunately, I am five feet bar. I offered to train him out of seven inches tall and weigh one maltreating tlie house and furni­ hundred thirty-four pounds, with ture as I had trained him out of the Sunday Times under my arm. maltreating his wife, but Susie said Were I just to give Frank a piece of no, that Frank had to let off steam my mind, he'd surely give me a and it would be worse if he was black eye to go with my sister's. forced to bottle it all up inside Therefore, that afternoon I bought him, so the baseball bat remained a regulation baseball bat, and car­ in retirement.). ried it with me when I went to see Then came the children, three Frank that night. of them in as many years. Frank He opened the door himself and Junior came first, and then Linda snarled, "What do you want?" Joyce, and finally Stewart. Susie In answer, I poked him with the had held the forlorn hope that end of the bat, just above the belt, fatherhood would settle Frank to to knock the wind out of him. some extent, but quite the reverse Then, having unethically gained was true. Shrieking babies, smelly the upper hand, I clouted him five diapers, disrupted sleep, and dis­ or six times more, and then stood tracted wives are trials and tribula­ over him to say, "The next time' tions to ·any man, but to Frank you hit my sister I won't let you off they were-like everything else in so easy." After which I took Susie his life-the .last straw. home to my place for dinner. He became, in a word, worse. 100 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Susie restrained him I don't know for Frank's purposes, so last how often from doing some severe Christmastime he invented damage to a squalling infant, and Nackles. as the children grew toward the Who is Nackles? Nackles is to age of reason Frank's expressed at­ Santa Claus what Satan is to God, titude toward them was that their what Ahriman is to Ahura Mazda, best move would be to find a way to what the North Wind is to the become invisible. The children, of South Wind. Nackles is the new course, didn't like him very much, Evil. but then who did? I think Frank reaily enjoyed Last Christmas was when it creating Nackles; he gave so much started. Junior was six then, and thought to the details of him. Ac­ Linda Joyce five, and Stewart cording to Frank, and as I remem­ four, so all were old enough to ber it, this is Nackles: Very very have heard of Santa Claus and still tall and very very thin. Dressed all young enough to believe in him. in black, with a gaunt gray face Along around October, when the and deep black eyes. He travels Christmas season was beginning, through an intricate series of tun­ Frank began to use Santa Claus's nels under the earth, in a black displeasure as a weapon to keep chariot on rails, pulled by an octet the children "in line", his phrase of dead-white goats for keeping them mute and immo­ And what does Nackles do? bile and terrified. Many parents, Nackles lives on the flesh of little of course, try to enforce obedience boys and girls. (This is what the same way: "I£ you're bad, Frank was telling his children; can Santa Claus won't bring you any you believe it?) Nackles roams presents." Which, all things con­ back and forth under the earth, in sidered, is a negative and passive his dark tunnels darker than sub­ sort of punishment, wishy-washy way tunnels, pulled by the eight in comparison with fire and brim­ dead-white goats, and he searches stone and such. In the old days, for little boys and girls to stuff into Santa Claus would treat bad chil­ his big black sack and carry away dren a bit more scornfully, leaving and eat. But Santa Claus won't let a lump of coal in their stockings in him have good boys and girls. lieu of presents, but I suppose the Santa Claus is stronger than Depression helped to change that. N ackles, and keeps a protective There are times and situations shield around little children, so when a lump of coal is nothing to Nackles can't get at them. sneer at. But when little children are In any case, an absence of pres­ bad, it hurts Santa Claus, and ents was too weak a punishnJ,ent weakens the shield Santa Claus NACKLES 101 bas pla<.ed around them, and if ed Nackles, used him to further they keep on being bad pretty soon intimidate his already-intimidat­ there's no shield left at all, and on ed children, and spread the story Christmas Eve instead of Santa of him to everyone he met. On Claus coming down out of the sky Christmas Day last year I'm sure with his bag of prseents Nackles there was more than one child in comes up out of the ground with this town who was relieved and his bag of emptiness, and stuffs somewhat surprised to awaken the the bad children in, and whisks same as usual, in his own trundle them away to his dark tunnels and bed, and to find the presents the eight dead-white goats. downstairs beneath the tree, prov­ Frank was proud of his inven­ ing that Nackles had be.en kept tion, actually proud of it. He not away yet another year. only used Nackles to threaten his Nackles lay dormant, so far as children every time they had the Frank was concerned, from De­ temerity to come within range of cember 25th of last year until his vision, he also spread the story this October. Then, with the around to others. He told me, and sights and sounds of Christmas his neighbors, and people in bars, again in the land, back came and people he went to see in his Nackles, as fresh and vicious as job as insurance salesman. I don't ever. "Don't expect me to stop know how many people he told him!" Frank would shout. "When about Nackles, though I would he comes up out of the ground guess it was well over a hundred. the night before Christmas to And there's more than one Frank carry you away in his bag, don't in this world; he told me from expect any help from mel" time to time of a client or neigh­ It was worse this year than bor or bar-crony who had heard last. Frank wasn't doing as well the story of Nackles and then financially as he'd expected, and said, "By God, that's great. That's then early in November Susie dis­ what I've been needing, to keep covered she was pregnant again, my brats in line." and what with one thing and an­ Thus Nackles was created, and other Frank was headed for a thus Nackles was promulgated. real peak of ill-temper. He And would any of the unfortunate screamed at the children con­ children thus introduced to Nackles stantly, and the name of Nackles believe in this Evil Being any less was never far from his tongue. than they believed in Santa Claus? Susie did what she could to Of course not. counteract. Frank's bad influence, This all happened, as I say, but he wouldn't let her do much. last Christmastime. Frank invent- All through November and De- 102 PANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION cember he was home more and ranged them under the tree. more of the time, because the Then, not wanting to see or hear Christma~ ~ason is the wrong her husband any more that night time to . .sell insurance anyway -he was like a big spoiled child and also hecaMe he was hating throwing a tantrum-she herself the job more every· df!y and thus went to sleep on the living room giving ·it less nf his time. The sofa. more he hated the job, the worse Frank Junior awoke her in the hls .temper became, and the more morning, crying, "Look, Mama! he drank, ·ahd the worse his limp Nackles didn't come, he didn't got, and the louder were his come!'' And pointed to the pres­ shouts, and the more violent his ents she'd placed under the tree. references to Nackles. It just The other two children came built and built and built, and down shortly after, and Susie reached its crescendo on Christ­ and the youngsters sat on the mas Eve, when some small or Boor and opened the presents, imagined infraction of one of the enjoying themselves as much as children-Stewart, I think-re­ possible, but still with restraint. sulted in Frank's pulling all the There were none of the m.ual Christmas presents from all the squeals of childish pleasure; no closets and stowing · them all in one wanted Daddv to come storm­ the car to be taken back to the ing dmvnstairs in one of his stores, because this Christmas for rages. So the children contented sure it wouldn't be Santa Claus themselves with ear-to-ear smiles who would be visiting this house, and whispered exclamations, and it would be Nackles. after a while Susie made break­ By the time Susie got the chil­ fast, and the day carried along as dren to bed, everyone in the pleasantly as could be expected house was a nervous wreck. The under the circumstances. children were too frightened to It was a little after twelve that sleep, and Susie was too un­ Susie began to worry about nen·ed herself to be of much Frank's non-appearance. She help in soothing them. Frank, braved herself to go up and who had taken to drinking at knock on the locked door and home lately, had locked himself call his name, but she got no in the bedroom with a bottle. answer, not even the expected It was nearly eleven o'clock snarl, so just around one o'clock before Susie got the children all she called me and I hurried on quieted down, and then she over. I rapped smartly on the bed­ went out to the car and brought room door, got no answer, and all the presents back in and finally I threatened to break the NACKLES 103 door in if Frank didn't open up. better-behaved trio of youngsters When I still got no answer, break you won't find anywhere. But the door in I did. Nackles, being brand-new and And Frank, of course, was never having had a meal before, gone. would need somebody. Somebody The police say he ran away, to whom he was real, somebody deserted his family, primarily be­ not protected by the shield of cause of Susie's fourth pregnancy. Santa Claus. And, as I say, Frank They say he went out the win­ was drinking that night. Alcohol dow and dropped to the back makes the brain believe in the yard, so Susie wouldn't see him existence of all sorts of things. and try to stop him. And they Also, Frank was a spoiled child say he didn't take the car be­ if there ever was one. cause he was afraid Susie would There's no question but that hear him start the engine. Frank Junior and Linda Joyce That all sounds reasonable, and Stewart believe in Nackles. doesn't it? Yet, I just can't be­ And Frank spread the gospel of lieve Frank would walk out on Nackles to others, some of whom Susie without a lot of shouting spread it to their own children. about it first. Nor that he would And some of whom will spread leave his car, which he was fonder the new Evil to other parents. of than his wife and children. . And ours is a mobile society, But what's the alternative? with families constantly being There's only one I can think of: transferred by Daddy's company Nackles. from one end of the country to · I would rather not believe another, so how long can it be that. I would rather not believe before N ackles is a power not that Frank, in inventing Nackles only in this one city, but all and spreading word of him, made across the nation? him real. I would rather not be­ I don't know if Nackles ex­ lieve that Nackles actually did ists, or will exist. All I know for visit my sister's house on Christ­ sure is that there's suddenly a mas Eve. new level of meaning in the But did he? If so, he couldn't lyric of that popular Christmas have carried off any of the chil­ song. You know the one I mean: dren, for a more subdued and You'd better watch out. ~ SCIENCE 0

ROUND AND ~· ROUND AND ...

by Isaac Asimov

ANYONE WHO WRITES A BOOK ON ASTRONOMY FOR THE GENERAL public eventually comes up against the problem of trying to explain that the Moon always presents one face to the earth, but is nevertheless rotating. To the average reader who has not come up against this problem before and who is impatient with involved subtleties, this is a clear contradiction in terms. It is easy to accept the fact that the Moon always presents one face to the Earth because even to the naked eye, the shadowy blotches on the l\loon's surface are always present in the same position. But in that case it seems clear that the Moon is not rotating, for if it were rotating we would, bit by bit, see every portion of its surface. Now it is no use smiling gently at the lack of sophistication of the average reader, because he happens to be right. The Moon is not rotat­ ing with respect to the observer on the Earth's surface. When the astronomer says that the Moon is rotating, he means with respect to other observers altogether. For instance, if one watches the Moon over a period of time, one can see that the line marking off the sunlight from the shadow pro­ gresses steadily around the Moon; the Sun shines on every portion of the Moon in steady progression. This means that to an observer on the surface of the Sun (and there are very few of those), the Moon would seem to be rotating, for the observer would, little by little, see every portion of the Moon's surface as it turned to be exposed to the sunlight. 104 .llOUND AND .llOUND AND • • o 105 But our average reader may reason to himself as follows: tiJ see only one face of the Moon and I say it is not rotating. An observer on the Sun sees all parts of the Moon and he says it is rotating. Clearly, I am more important than the Sun-observer since, firstly, I exist and he doesn't, and, secondly, even if he existed, I am me and he isn't. There­ fore, I insist on having it my way. The Moon does not rotate!" There has to be a way out of this confusion, so let's think things through a little more systematically. And to do so, let's start with the rotation o£ the Earth itself, since that is a point nearer to all our hearts.

One thing we can admit to begin with: To an observer on the Earth, the Earth is not rotating. If you stay in one place from now till dooms· day, you will see but one portion of the Earth's surface and no other. As far as you are concerned, the planet is standing still. Indeed, through most of civilized human history, even the wisest of men insisted that "reality" (whatever that may be) exactly matched the appearance and that the earth "really" did not rotate. As late as 1633, Galileo found himself in a spot of trouble for maintaining otherwise. But suppose we had an observer on a star situated (for simplicity's sake) in the plane of the Earth's equator; or, to put it another way, on the Celestial Equator. Let us further suppose that the observer was equipped with a device that made it possible for him to study the Earth's surface in detail. To him, it would seem that the Earth rotated, for little by little, he would see every part of its surface pass before his eyes. By taking note of some particular small feature (say, you and I standing on some point on the equator) and timing its return, he could even determine the exact period of the Earth's rotation.-That is, as far as he is concerned. We can duplicate his feat, for when the observer on the star sees us exactly in the center of that part of Earth's surface visible to himself, we in tum see the observer's star directly overhead. And just as he would time the periodic return of ourselves to that centrally located po­ sition, so we could time the return of his star to the overhead point. The period determined will be the same in either case. (Let's measure this time in minutes, by the way. A minute can be defined as 60 sec· onds, where 1 second is equal to 1/31,556,925.9747 of the tropical year.) The period of Earth's rotation with respect to the star is just about 1436 minutes. It doesn't matter which star we use, by the way, for the apparent motion of the stars with respect to one another, as viewed 106 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION from the Earth, is so vanishingly small that the constellations can be considered as moving all in one piece. The period of 1436 minutes is called Earth's "sidereal day." The word "sidereal" comes from a Latin word for "star" and the phrase therefore means, roughly speaking, "the star-based day." Suppose, though, that we were considering an observer on the Sun. If he were watching the Earth, he, too, would observe it rotating, but the period of rotation would not seem the same to him as to the ob­ server on the star. Our Solar observer would be much closer to the Earth; close enough, in fact, for Earth's motion about the Sun to intro­ duce a new factor. In the course of a single rotation of the Earth (judging by the star's observer), the Earth would have moved an ap­ preciable distance through space and the Solar observer would find himself viewing the planet from a different angle. The Earth would have to turn for four more minutes before it adjusted itself to the new angle of view. We could interpret these results from the point of view of an ob­ server on the Earth. To duplicate the measurements of the Solar ob­ server, we on Earth would have to measure the period of time from one passage of the Sun overhead to the next (from noon to noon, in other words). Because of the revolution of the Earth about the Sun, the Sun seems to move from west to east against the background of the stars. After the passage of one sidereal day, a particular star would have returned to the overhead position, but the Sun would have drifted eastward to a· point where four more minutes would be required to make it pass overhead. The Solar day is therefore 1440 minutes long, 4 minutes longer than the sidereal day. Next suppose we have an observer on the Moon. He is even closer to the Earth and the apparent motion of the Earth against the stars is some thirteen times greater for him than for an observer on the Sun. Therefore, the discrepancy between what he sees and what the star­ observer sees is about thirteen times greater than is the Sun/star dis­ crepancy. If we consider this same situation from the Earth, we would be meas­ uring the time between successive passages of the Moon exactly over­ head. The Moon drifts eastward against the starry background at thir­ teen times the rate the Sun does. After one sidereal day is completed, we have to wait a total of 54 additional minutes for the Moon to pass overhead agam. The Earth's "Lunar day" is therefore 1490 minutes long. We could also figure out the periods of Earth's rotation with respect aOUND AND R.OUND AND , , • 107 to an observer on Venus, on Jupiter, on Halley's Comet, on an artificial satellite and so on, but I shall have mercy and refrain. We can instead summarize the little we do have as follows:

Sidereal day 1436 minutes Solar day 1440 minutes ·Lunar day 1490minutes

By now it may seem reasonable to ask: But which is the day? The real day? The answer to that question is that the question is not a reasonable one at all, but quite unreasonable; and that there is no real day, no real period of rotation. There are only different apparent periods, the lengths of which depend upon the position of the observer. To use a prettier-sounding phrase, the length of the period of the Earth's rota­ tion depends on the frame of reference, and all frames of reference are equally valid. But if all frames of reference are equally vaild, are we left nowhere? Not at all! Frames of reference may be equally valid, but they are usually not equally useful. In one respect, a particular frame of refer­ ence may be most useful; in another respect, another frame of refer­ ence may be most useful. \Ve are free to pick and choose, using now one, now another, exactly as suits our dear little hearts. For instance, I said that the Solar day is 1440 minutes long but actually that's a lie. Because the Earth's axis is tipped to the plane of its. orbit and because the Earth is sometimes closer to the Sun and sometimes farther (so that it moves now faster, now slower in its orbit) the Solar day is sometimes a little longer than 1440 minutes and some­ times a little shorter. These deviations add up and if you mark off "noons" that are exactly 1440 minutes apart all through the year, there will be times during the year when the Sun will pass overhead fully 16 minutes ahead of schedule and other times when it will pass over­ head fully 16 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, the errors cancel out and by the end of the year, all is even again. For that reason, it is not the Solar day itself that is 1440 minutes long, but the average length of all the Solar days of the year; this aver­ age is the "mean Solar day." And at noon of all but four days a year, it is not the real Sun that crosses the overhead point but a fictitious body called the "mean Sun." The mean Sun is located where the real Sun would be if the real Sun moved perfectly evenly. The Lunar day is even more uneven than the Solar day, but the 108 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION sidereal day is a really steady affair. A particular star passes overhead every 1436 minutes virtually on the dot. If we're going to measure time, then, it seems obvious that the sidereal day is the most useful, since it is the most constant. Where the sidereal day is used as the basis for checking the clocks of the world by the passage of a star across the hairline of a telescope eye-piece, then the earth itself, as it rotates with respect to the stars, is serving as the refer­ ence-clock. The second can then be defined as 111,436.09 of a si­ dereal day. (Actually, the length of the year is even more constant than that of the sidereal day, which is why the second is now officially de­ fined as a fraction of the tropical year.)

The Solar day, uneven as it is, carries one important advantage. It is based on the position of the Sun, and the position of the Sun deter­ mines whether a particular portion of the Earth is in light or in shad­ ow. In short, the Solar day is equal to one period of light (daytime) plus one period of darkness (nighttime). The average man throughout history has managed to remain unmoved by the position of the stars and couldn't have cared less when one of them moved overhead; but he certainly couldn't help noticing, and even being deeply concerned, by the fact that it might be day or night at a particular moment; sun­ rise or sunset; noon or twilight. It is the Solar day, therefore, which is by far the most useful and important day of all. It was the original basis of time measurement and it is divided into exactly 24 hours, each of which is divided into 60 minutes (and 24 times 60 is 1440, the number of minutes in a Solar day). On this basis, the sidereal day is 23 hours 56 minutes long and the Lunar day is 24 hours 50 minutes long. So useful is the Solar day, in fact, that mankind has become ac­ customed to thinking of it as the day, and of thinking that the Earth "really" rotates in exactly 24 hours, where actually this is only its ap­ parent rotation with respect to the Sun, no more "real" or "unreal" than its apparent rotation with respect to any other body. It is no more "real" or "unreal", in fact, than the apparent rotation of the Earth with respect to an observer on the Earth-that is, to the apparent lack of rotation altogether. The Lunar day has its uses, too. If we adjusted our watches to lose 2 minutes 5 seconds every hour, it would then be running on a Lunar day basis. In that case, we would find that high tide (or low tide) came exactly twice a day and at the same times every day-indeed, at twelve hour intervals (with minor variations). ROUND AND ROUND AND • • • 109 And extremely useful is the frame of reference of the Earth itself; to wit, the assumption that the Earth is not rotating at all. In judging a billiard shot, in throwing a basball, in planning a trip cross-country, we never take into account any rotation of the Earth. We always assume the Earth is standing still.

Now we can pass on to the Moon. For the viewer from the Earth, as I said earlier, it docs not rotate at all so that its "Terrestrial day" is of infinite length. Nevertheless, we can maintain that the Moon rotates if we shift our frame of reference (usually without warning or explanation so that the reader has trouble following). As a matter of fact, we can shift our plane of reference to either the Sun or the stars so that not only can the Moon be considered to rotate but to do so in either of two periods. With respect to the stars, the period of the Moon's rotation is 2 7 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.5 seconds, or 27.3217 days (where the day referred to is the 24-hour mean Solar day). This is the Moon's sidereal day. It is also the period (with respect to the stars) of its revo­ lution about the Earth so it is almost invariably called the "sidereal month." In one sidereal month, the Moon moves about 1/13 of tbe length of its orbit about the Sun and to an observer on the Sun, the change in angle of viewpoint is considerable. The Moon must rotate for over two more days to make up for it. The period of rotation of the Moon with respect to the Sun is the same as its period of revolution about the Earth with respect to the Sun and this may be called the Moon's Solar day or, better still, the Solar month. (As a matter of fact, as I shall shortly point out, it is called neither.) The Solar month is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds long, or 29.5306 days long. Of these two months, the Solar month is far more useful to mankind because the phases of the Moon depend on the relative positions of Moon and Sun. It is therefore 29.5306 days, or one Solar month, from new Moon to new Moon, or from full Moon to full Moon. In ancient times, when the phases of the Moon were used to mark off the seasons, the Solar month became the most important unit of time. Indeed, great pains were taken to detect the exact day on which successive new Moons appeared in order that the calendar be accurate­ ly kept. It was the place of the priestly caste to take care of this and the very word "calendar," for instance, comes from the Latin word meaning "to proclaim" because the beginning of each month was pro­ claimed with much ceremony. An assembly of priestly officials, such 110 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION as those that, in ancient times, might have proclaimed the beginning of each month, is called a "synod." Consequently, what I have been calling the Solar month (the logical name) is, actually, called the "synodic month."

The further a planet is from the Sun and the faster it turns with re­ spect to the stars, the smaller the discrepancy between its sidereal day and Solar day. For the planets beyond Earth, the discrepancy can be ignored. For the two planets closer to the Sun than the Earth is, the dis­ crepancy is very great. Both Mercury and Venus turn one face eternally to the Sun and have no Solar day. They turn with respect to the stars, however, and have a sidereal day which turns out to be as long as the period of their revolution about the Sun (again with respect to the stars). If the various true satellites of the Solar system (see JUST MOON­ ING AROUND, F & SF,-May 1963) keep one face to their primaries at all times, as is very likely true, their sidereal day would be equal to their period of revolution about their primary. If this is so I can prepare a table (not quite like any I have ever seen) listing the sidereal period of rotation for each of the 32 major bodies of the Solar system: the Sun, the Earth, the eight other planets (even Pluto, which has a rotation figure, albeit an uncertain one), the Moon, and the 21 other true satellites. For the sake of direct compari­ son, I'll give the period in minutes and list them in the order of length. After each satellite, I shalt put the name of the primary in parenthesis and give a number to represent the position of that satellite, countin& outward from the primary.·

Bod7 Sidereal Day (minutes) Venus 324,000 Mercury 129,000 Iapetus (Saturn-8) 104,000 Moon (Earth-1) 39,300 Sun 36,060 Hyperion (Satum-7) 30,600 Callisto (Jupiter-5) 24,000 Titan (Saturn-6) 23,000 Oberon (Uranus-5) 19,400 Titania (Uranus-4) 12,550 I.OUND AND ROUND AND , , • 111 Ganymede (Jupiter-4) 10,30Q Pluto 8,650 Triton (Neptune-I) 8,450 Rhea (Saturn-5) 6,500 Umbriel (Uranus-3) 5,950 Europa (Jupiter-3) 5,100 Dione ( Satum-4) 3,950 Ariel (Uranus-2) 3,630 Tethys (Saturn-3) 2,720 Io (Jupiter-2) 2,550 Miranda (Uranus-1) 2,030 Enceladus (Saturn-2) 1,975 Deimos (Mars-2) 1,815 Mars 1,477 Earth 1,436 Mimas (Saturn-1) 1,350 Neptune 948 Amaltheia ( J upiter-1 ) 720 Uranus 645 Saturn 614 Jupiter 590 Phobos 460

These figures represent the time it takes for stars to make a com­ plete circuit of the skies from the frame of reference of an observer on the surface of the body in question. If you divide each figure by 720, you get the number of minutes it would take a star (in the region of the body's Celestial Equator) to travel the width of the Sun or Moon as seen from the Earth. On Earth itself, this takes about 2 minutes and no more, believe it or not. On Phobos (Mars' inner satellite, on which men will be standing before the end of the century, I hope), it takes only a little over hal£ a minute. The stars will be whirling by at four times their customary rate, while a bloated Mars hangs motionless in the sky. What a sight that would be to see. On the Moon, on the other hand, it would take 55 minutes for a star to cover the apparent width of the Sun. Heavenly bodies could be studied over continuous sustained intervals nearly thirty times as long as is possible on the Earth. I have never seen this mentioned as an advantage for a Moon-based telescope, but, combined with the ab­ sence of clouds or other atmospheric interference, it makes a Lunar 112 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION observatory something astronomers ought to be willing to undergo rocket trips for. On Venus, it would take 450 minutes or 7~ hours for a star to travel the apparent width of the Sun as we see it. What a fix astronomers could get on the heavens there-if only there were no clouds.

I would like to end the discussion of rotation here, somewhat short of the usual length, in order to take time out to make a few points concerning a couple of recent articles. In THE ISAAC WINNERS (F & SF, July, 1963) I nominated 72 scientists as the greatest of all time. In doing so, I made one factual error. I recorded Louis V. de Broglie (nominee #7) as having died in 1960. Professor Linus Pauling (nominee #57) was kind enough to write me and .remind me that ·it was de Broglie's brother, and not de Broglie himself, who died then. Louis V. de Broglie is still alive, I am glad to say. Readers have written in to nominate additional scientists, such as: Robert H. Goddard, the first to devise a liquid-fueled rocket; Euclid, the organizer of mathematics; Charles H. Townes, the inventor of the maser and inspirer of the laser; Percival Lowell, the reporter of the Martian canals and the searcher for Pluto; Leonardo da Vinci, great artist and proto-scientist; Roger Bacon, another proto-scientist; Hi~ pocrates, the father of medicine; Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio; George Gamow, pioneer in cosmology; Socrates, ancient seeker after knowledge; Alfred B. Nobel, inventor of dynamite; Emil Fischer, organic chemist extraordinary; Michael Servetus, near-dis· coverer of the circulation of the blood; and so on. All these are perfectly valid nominees and, as I think it over, I would include most of them if I had to prepare my list again. A number of readers had the courage to prepare a list of ten Isaac Winners with, naturally, a great many disagreements, both with me and among themselves. (One Gentle Reader, however, reported with great glee that, working out a list on his own, he found, upon checking, that he had obtained one that was identical with mine. His was clearly a great mind.) It might be of interest to point out that only two men were included on every list of ISAAC WINNERS sent me. One of them was Newton, but I plugged so hard for the Greatest Isaac of Them All in my article that it was nearly impossible to omit him, I suppose. The second name JlOUND AND ROUND AND • • • 113 included on every list was that of Louis Pasteur, and that isn't bad. I yield to no one in my admiration of the Greatest Louis of Them AIL

As forT-FORMATION (F & SF, August 1963) that drew consid­ erable mail, too, as my occasional mathematical pieces invariably seem to do. In this case, a good portion of the mail dealt with the fact that I had seemed to call the number 7,641 a prime, whereas actually it is a composite number equalto(3) ( 3) (3) (283 ). This is how that came about. I listed three prime numbers: 7 and 641 and 5,237, each of them an honest-to-goodness prime. However, I foolishly wrote the numbers thus "7, 641, and 5,237". The Noble Printer, very naturally, thought the first two numbers belonged together and it came out"7,641 and 5,237." Mr. Robert Higgins, of Chicago, Tilinois, having read the article, hooked up an IBM 1401, and spent a total of 20 minutes time, pro­ gramming the machine and having it work out the first 614 Fibonacci numbers. It took exactly 1 minute for the machine to print them all and it would have gone on longer but for the fact that the 615th Fi­ bonacci number required more digits than the machine was equipped toprint. , Mr. Higgins largest Fibonacci number, F ... , is somewhat over T-10.5. Mr. Joseph S. Madachy, editor of Recreational Mathematics Maga­ zine reports that he now has a list of the first thousand Fibonacci numbers and that F1ooo has 209 digits which would make it something overT-17. · In T -FORMATION, I also dealt with the Mersenne primes and re­ ported that the largest then-known Mersenne prime was equal to just over T-111. Since I wrote the article, Donald B. Gillies of the Uni­ versity of Illinois has located three still larger Mersenne primes. These are M-, M... 1 and Mlll11.1. These are numbers with 2917, 2992, and 3375 digits respectively. They are therefore equal, approximately, to T-243, T-249 and T-281 respectively. There still remains, however, the fact that the largest number ever to have occurred in a mathematical proof, a number far, far larger than a googolplex, is called "Skewes' number." Who Skewes might be and what it was he proved that required so vast a number, I have re­ cently discovered. That will require a separate article someday. The eult of Elifah -the Prophet both encompasses and transcends such diverse religious groups as to make it surprising that only re­ cently. have folklorists begun to compare notes on the subject, which seems to have taken on a character almost apart from (though not in any way opposed to) his career as related in the Scriptures. Elijah it was whp consistently opposed the "Phoenician matron," ]ezebel, and who foretold her death in rather sickening detail; it was Elijah who, hiding in the wilderness, perceived the Lord neither in the storm, the earthquake, the fire, but in "the small, murmuring voice/' he it is whose footsteps increase the yields of the fields of Russia, is the patron of the furriers of Greece, who is honored in the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, whose inter­ cession is entreated by the wandering Bedouin of Stony Arabia, for whom a cup of wine is filled at every table of the Passover Feast-and the manner of whose abrupt departure from the Earth has intrigued speculation both sacred and profane ever since. Edward Wellen, who earlier dealt with a religious theme in SEVEN DAYS WONDER (F&SF, March 1963), now considers how the hairy man of Gilead might have fared between his de­ parture and his return: a return which Jewish tradition has seen set as "one day before the Coming of Jhe Messiah ••••

THE BOOK OF ELIJAH

by Edward Wellen

CHAPTER 1 2 I shot upward as I were a grain and as it were a winnowing 1 AND IT CAME TO PASS, All I shovel that shot me upward. crossed over Jordan with Elisha, 3 And Elisha bent to take up and we went on, and we talked, my mantle and I saw the round that, behold, there appeared a gleam of his head, and it shrank chariot of fire, and parted us both swiftly. And I saw the round asunder; and I went up by a whirl­ gleam of the world, and it shrank wind into heaven. swiftly. 114 THE BOOK OF EUJAH 115 4 And I saw no more for a 16 And one answered, saying, time. We are Students of Comparative 5 When I came to myself I Religion, which is to say, we seek lay on softness in a room like a to know the ways the many peo­ cave, but with smooth walls and ples manifest faith. And to that we bright without flame. will wander among the worlds, 6 And there stood beside me and search out peoples, and watch two beings having raiment as of them at their devotions. You, as a the sun. being of one kind, responding to 7 I gazed upon them with a the ways of beings of other kinds, chill of joy and raised myself and will if you are willing be our said unto them, Are you angels? touchstone, that we twain may be 8 They turned to one another, of an open mind. and laughed, and said, No. (And I 7 And I thought, They have it was as they spake in my head.) taken me away to where the morn­ 9 Though my mantle had fall­ ing star and the evening star are en from me, I am an hairy man, one And if they seek to tempt m~ and girt with a girdle of leather with strange gods they will have about my loins, yet would I have sown the whirlwind, for I shall felt a chill of fear had I not been call upon the God of Wrath and a man of God. the God of Mercy, One God, Who I 0 I gazed upon them And I is everywhere, and whose altar is said unto them, I am a man of an anvil whereon He beats my God. Are you demons? heart, shaping it to His will. I I They looked upon one an­ other, and showed gaudy teeth, CHAPTER 2 and said, No. I 2 Then one said, We come 1 And we put in at Mekbuda from another world than yours, III, and saw unseen a town where tethered to another star than two preachers had but lately come yours. Algorab V is our home. among the people. I 3 I marveled, and spake 2 And the people gave ear, not again, saying, What place is this wishing to wound the feelings of where we are now? the preachers. But the people I 4 And one touched the wall found hard to understand that and it opened a window like an they lived in the shadow of eye, and I gazed out and saw the doom, that the peace and ease chariot stood in a void place, they dwelt in were a false peace where stars froze to stillness. and a false ease, that they must I 5 After a space I said, Where confess, bow to judgment, and do you take me? win forgiveness. 116 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION 3 And the preachers went other preacher, bursting to con­ about, one this way and one that, fess to him. preaching the need to confess. I4 And I thought, What is And the people listened, desiring fire to the sinner is light to the to please. just; but it may be that what is 4 And I saw one of the people fire to the just is light to the creep up and slay one of the sinner. preachers and run off weeping. I5 Thus I remained wonder­ 5 In my wrath I would have ing, so that I knew it not when the slain the slayer, but the Students Students left off restraining me held me from leaping out. and we departed thence. 6 Then I saw the slayer seek out the other preacher. CHAPTER 3 7 And I whirled in wrath upon the Students, and said, See! I Then we came to Naosll and 8 They writhed their tails in un­ and we watched a people in a ease but did not move else, nor great city, and they were building did they free me to move. a temple to their high god, Iluh 9 And the slayer fell on the the god of Light. preacher joyfully. 2 And the stones, shot through I 0 And he confessed to him with gold, mounted ever higher, he had slain his fellow. and the building rose up to meet II The preacher drew back the sky. from the hand still gaudy with 3 But, midway in the raising blood, saying, You have done a of the temple, it chanced that great wrong. And the slayer smiled those who builded it laid down humbly, as though the preacher their tools. praised him. 4 But it was not as it was in I2 And the slayer told how mine own world when the people that he had felt great liking for the of the earth sought to storm heav­ other preacher, and, hearkening en and the Lord confounded their unto his teachings and burning language, that they might not un­ with shame at having nothing to derstand one another's speech. confess, he did a great wrong that 5 Rather was it that money, he might have that which to con­ which talks everywhere with one fess. tongue, and all understand it, was I3 But before the slayer could silent; there lacked gold where­ bow to judgment, and win for­ with to pay the builders when giveness, another crept up and they should finish. slew tne preacher and ran oft 6 Then the priests of Iluh weeping joyfully, and sought the said, Let there be wagering, and THE BOOK OF EUJAH 117 giving of prizes by lot, whereof the hour of the evening devotions, the Holy House of Iluh will take and, as he passed by, men and a share. women grudged to look up from 7 And the people flocked, and scanning the scroll and answer the coffers filled to overflowing. his greeting, though some nodded 8 And the builders took up with stiffnecked piety, and some their tools and began again to in slumber, but he made signs of build, and soon topped off the blessing as he went, and stopped temple. not. 9 And there was great rejoic­ 3 And he came to the dwelling ing in the temple and in the of a young widow and fair, and he streets about the temple. told her he came to borrow a cloth 10 But it was not the temple for the altar. of Iluh the god of Light. 4 The woman had but one 11 The people had so won good cloth to give, and that was themselves over to kneeling to unclean, for the woman had used Nuzsa the god of Chance, and it to dust the scroll when she saw praying to Nuzsa the god of the holy man coming. Chance, that the temple became 5 But the holy man looked not the gaudy sanctuary of Nuzsa the to see if it was clean or unclean, god of Chance. but took it. 12 I cursed them in my heart. 6 And he thanked her and 13 And, behold, there sounded blessed her. thunder as of the roll of a lot of 7 And he went on, and came mighty dice. to the dwelling of a young maid 14 For, lo, the builders had and fair, and asked to borrow a secretly hollowed out the stones to cloth for the altar. take of the gold that shot through 8 And she gave him one, and the stones, to have, themselves, it was without spot. And he took wherewith to wager, and the tower it. toppled and fell down dust. 9 And he thanked her and blessed her. CHAPTER 4 10 And he went on, and came to the dwelling of yet a third 1 And we came to Adhara IV, young woman and fair, and asked and we saw a holy man, purple to borrow a cloth for the altar. with dust of the road, and he was 11 And she gave him a gaudy setting up an altar of his goddess cloth, not seemly for an altar, but in a wavside shelter near a town. he took it. 2 A~d when he had done, he 12 And he thanked her and set out for the town, and it was at blessed her. 118 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION I3 Now word of these bor· I9 And he fell silent, looking rowings sped about the town, and sad, yet proud. many fretted because he had not 20 And he was perfect and stopped and asked of them. And upright in their eyes. And they the place grew full of eyeings and bade the young ·.and fair tempt whisperings. him. I4 Now, the altar was a cast· 2I And they themselves gave ing in the form of the goddess re­ over their evening devotions to clining, and he draped all three tempt one another with all man­ cloths, one atop the other, over her ner temptations. face, which had holes for' eyes, 23 For, they said, is it not a and he lighted a fire within the goodly thing to help one become a image, and the eyes of the goddess saint? glowed through the stuff of the cloths, and he prayed the goddess CHAPTER 5 to watch over him. IS And with the days, as he I And we visited N ashira V, sought out cloths, ever of the and I smiled, though it troubled young and fair, and draped them me, to see a people forging chains over the others, the eyes of the for their idols, lest their idols tire goddess dimmed, though he kept of the pinpricking of multitudes of the fire burning bright. petitionings, and run off. I6 Then came the townsp~ 2 Then I saw this was in ple unto him and upbraided him mockery, for the idols, had they for seeking out not the pious, but been living, and without chains, only such as were light-minded, could not have run off. For this and they bade him beware the people hewed all arms and all legs temptations of the flesh. from the graven images of their I 7 But when they had spoken gods (one by one till all were he said, Yea, though I haYe failed, gone, then they made them a new and though I fail now, I strive to image), to punish them for failing be worthy of sainthood. And as to answer the petitionings. there is no sainthood where there 3 And I saw this was in fur· is no temptation to overcome, the ther mockery, for this people held sight of the goddess must grow themselves as greater than their feeble that she watch blindly, gods. that her dread gaze stay me no 4 For that the images could longer, that the time of testing not regenerate limbs as this people come. could; for when one of this people IS There is no telling to what lost an arm or a leg, a new arm or a depths of sin I sink if I fail. new leg would grow in its place. THE BOOK OF ELI] AH 119 5 Sometimes an ann in place new offspring turned to alarm at of a leg or a leg in place of an arm, the growing numbers, the people but it grew. so busied themselves making and 6 And this people, indulging administering laws of accident in scorn, held themselves to petty control (and none more busy in prayers; and even these their gods this than many among the new­ could not answer; the smaller the grown persons), and providing petition the harder it was for the for the multitudes of new mouths gods to answer. to feed that they forgot their gods. 7 For it is easier to pass a mira­ IS And their gods slumbered, cle than to grant a small prayer; resting easy in rusting chains, and to turn back the foaming tide is peradventure they sleep yet. easier than to choose out and pick up one grain of sand from out of CHAPTER6 the path of the foaming tide. 8 And I saw how petitioning I On Galatea I we saw a peo­ for petty ends, though it be the ple bowing down to a machine, greatest of challenges, diminishes reverencing this their god Molurg, the petitioner's god to a petty god. forgetting that they themselves 9 And I reflected, and I pitied had fashioned it. this people more than I pitied 2 For Molurg answered all their gods. their needs. I 0 And I spake of this to the 3 And the people slothed into Students and said, What this apathy, so that they remembered people need is a great miracle, to not that they had fashioned Mol­ restore great wonder. urg to answer questions. II. Whereupon the Students 4 But one day a child put into eyed one ~other, and smiled the mailing slot a writing to her their gaudy smile, and began to mother in Heaven. mix Biochemical Powders. 5 And Molurg sent it back to I2 And they scattered them the child, saying, Returned for broadcast over the land, and did better address. this people great mischief. 6 Now the child thought, and I3 For, thenceforward, when put into the question slot a ques­ a person lost an ann or a leg (and tion, What place is better than there were many such, for this Heaven? people had grown exceeding care­ 7 And Molurg, scrupling to less), it was not simply as before. say that which would shatter the Now the lost arm or the lost 1eg simple faith of the child, an­ grew also a new person. swered, saying, Molurg does DOt I4 And when wonder at the make value judgments. 120 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION 8 And the child questioned sins as to those who had never again, asking, But where is Heav­ sinned. en? 3 And the wicked carne and 9 And Molurg hesitated, then washed away their sins, and answered, saying, The coordinates walked proudly in their glistening of the construct Heaven are in­ virtue. determinate. 4 And those old in virtue took I 0 And the child questioned this ill, and spake loudly, dis­ again, asking, Is there a Heaven? praising the high priest. II And Molurg wavered, 5 And they began to sin, say­ grew gaudy with winking lights, ing, Better were it that we sinned and trembled, until I thought he now and received absolution at would perish. But Molurg an­ the end; then should we profit swered at last, saying, Corne unto more. For what shall it profit us, me, and I will show you. if we shall gain grace, if we have I2 And the child went out not first lost our soul? from her home, and made her 6 Now whether it was that the way unto the great building that high priest knew he had followed housed Molurg, and went in, and the way of wisdom, yet feared to came not out again. let the people believe him foolish, I3 And I saw that a god needs 7 Or whether it was that the a people more than a people need high priest saw that those long a god. habited in virtue knew not how to sin and would work harm to 0HAPTER7 themselves and to others in striv­ ing to sin, I We lighted upon Alkes V 8 Whether it was either of and tarried there. And by a tem­ these things or not, the high priest ple ran a brook wherein the wick­ said, Hold. . ed, repenting them of their wick­ 9 And he dammed the brook edness, might come to wash away and made it to flow into a pool, their sins; but few came, because so that when the wicked washed the virtuous stood by and mocked, in the brook their sins would col­ for the virtuous were old in virtue lect in the pool; and he bade the and their knees horny with kneel­ virtuous purge them of their vir­ ings, whereas these had been old tue in the pool, in the sin-polluted in sin. waters of the pool, saying, You 2 Now the high priest saw will profit manifold, for when you this, and gave out that their god step forth from the pool you will granted as much grace to those have the sins of many to wash who newly washed away their away in the brook. THE BOOK OP EUJAH 121 I 0 And they lusted after the 7 And the Students marveled unlustral waters, and they spake that this people had endured with· loudly, praising him now for what out pain, saying, Pain is a Sur­ they dispraised him before. vival Mechanism. 8 Yet this people had endured CHAPTERS to become a great people, and the most of them lived to ripen. And I Then we touched at Al­ this was by reason of busying phard I, where the people showed their eyes with dartings, against no sign of worshiping, neither in something fall from overhead or their talk with one another did give from underfoot, lest some they utter a holy name. evil chance spill their blood or 2 Yet ever they kept their eyes bum their flesh or break their busy with dartings, as though bones, and they not know it until things unseen were all around; they lay hurt even unto dying. the which seemed to evidence 9 And my heart moved against awareness of a Presence, and gave them for that they did show no me to hope for them. sign of worshiping; and I prayed 3 But then I saw that when, they should, that they be false to as now and again happened de­ the True God or, even as Jezebel, spite the dizzying busyness of true to a false god, that I might their eyes, one of this people met pour out my wrath. with an accident and sustained a 1 0 Yet I could find no great hurt, such a one did not cry out in sin among them. And I asked my­ anguish and take the name of self in wonder, Is it that they do some god in vain; the which not sin because they cannot, hav­ caused me to doubt. ing no soul? Or is it that they be 4 Still I thought, Surely they too busy? silently call on some god to give I1 But then I saw they them strength to bear their hurt paused at whiles for courting, so in silence. that the race might go on, and 5 But after a space I grasped they painted their bodies gaudy the state of things (and to hear hues and stopped all traffic. And truth is a harder thing than to at such a time I beheld a moment speak it), and I gazed upon this of sin. people aghast. 12 A lover, striking out at his 6 For this people did not feel rival, struck his beloved instead, pain of the flesh; and it unsouled and she died without crying out, them in mine eyes, for solely by with her eyes upon his and his permeating the flesh has the soul upon hers. being. I3 And I saw that the pain of 122 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION loss being the greatest pain there the soul to return to mine own needs none other. place, the Land of Promise. 6 And the Students heard me CHAPTER9 sigh, and saw me grieve, and they sought to know why. So I I And many were the worlds spake of my longing, that it ra­ we visited and many were the vened my heart. wonders we viewed. 7 Then they writhed their 2 I remember a people whose tails in unease, and one said, We priests in their zeal had elaborated are able to carry you home to your rituals and lengthened sermons own place, but we cannot carry and multiplied holy days till little you home to your own time. And time remained to the people to the other related how that it was scratch the earth for their daily a problem of Co-ordinates and bread. Vectors, and began to make a reck­ 3 And I remember a people oning of years, but fell silent. who had a heaven on earth, noth­ 8 I bent my head and was ing wanting; and the heaven they still. Then a small voice that longed for was a place where few was mine own said, So be it. wishes found fulfillment. 9 And the chariot swung low 4 And I remember a people over earth. And they set me down who prayed their god forsake in green pastures. And I said, Go, them, they finding it burdensome and prosper. And they departed. always to do good in the sight of 10 And a barking dog gave me their god. greeting. And, lo! I saw mine 5 But now I felt a whirling of own folk flock from all about.

Through Time And Space With Ferdinand feghoot: LXVIII

When wed in 3000 A.D Feghoot flouted tradition's decree That a smoked salmon's-head lie in each nuptial bed- "For love laughs at lox myths," said he. -GRENDEL BRIARTON (with thanks again to Simon Kahn) (See Feghoot advertisement in "F&SF Marketplace," page 129.) Robert Lory is a 26-year old P.R. writer who lioes in up$late New York on a gtreet with the lovely name of Stella Ireland Road. This, his second SF (or F) story to be published, is the wry tale of Harry Spender and the Eternal Now-a new twist on the moving finger theme which Omar never thought of.

APPOINTMENT AT TEN O'CLOCK

by Robert Lory

SPENDER AWOKE SUDDENLY the light: -he opened his eyes a with the noises of street traffic fraction-morgues are dark. And honking and roaring through his the softness under him certainly brain. Daylight pierced his shut was no slab, whatever it is those eyelids. He closed them tighter, slabs are made of. He opened his submerging his mind in darkness. eyes wide and exhaled in relief. letting it communicate-letting it He was in bed. tell him where he was. He sat up and shook his head. His fingers and toes told him he He had been in bed. He hadn't was laying on something soft and been •.• well, wherever he springy. His sweating shoulders dreamed he had been. He tried to said they were naked, and the small recall, but the dream had gone. It of his back and his legs reported was too late. lAte. that they were- covered by a single He realized at once that there sheet. He had begun to smile, when was too much light coming he had an unsettling thought: through his apartment window. They cover people with a single The clock confirmed his suspicion sheet in a morgue. that something was wrong. Nine: At least, Spender had seen mov­ fifty, it said. He snorted as a pic­ ies where a single sheet covered ture of Medwin came into his the corpses. But he was on his mind. Mousy Medwin, who would stomach; in the movies the dead stare over his thick glasses, tap his were always on their backs. And foot, look down at his watch and, 123 124 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION in his squeaky voice, say something He hurried through the side­ clever like, "And what time zone walk traffic, sidestepping, shoving are accountants observing this and elbowing ("Sorry, lady.") his morning, Mr. Spender?" way closer to the end of the block Time zone, yet. Real original where three men and a girl were stuff, that Medwin. Nine:fifty. He climbing on the bus. He :-light felt his fac_c. At least, he wouldn't make it yet, he thought. have to shave. He'd done that last And then he saw the little man night, before going to see Laura. in the green derby hat coming Laura. Spender smiled and sank straight toward him. back on the bed. Something told Spender that Laura with the lips he'd first the little man wasn't going to give tasted last night. Laura with the way. The man was somehow famil­ endless chain of martinis, telling iar, and the green hat too, but him over and over again that she Spender had no time to dwell on wanted him, needed him. Laura in these thoughts. Instead, he was the light blue negligee, and later thinking about how he'd spin the her body of ivory fur on the blue little guy on his tail if he stayed bedspread. Laura with the crook­ in his way. He chuckled inside. edest nose in the world. Well, you Maybe he could even knock the can't have everything. Despite the green hat into the street. nose, he'd had his eye on her for a Spender swung to his left, but long time, watching her as she the little man moved directly into pranced around the office, as she his path. To the right! The little took dictation from Medwin. man was there also. And when the Medwin. And Laura. Medwin little man stopped, Spender and Laura. Now, that would be a stopped too, wondering why. real couple. He laughed out loud, The little man tipped his hat then his eyes lit on the clock again. cordially. "Harry Spender?" Pants on, socks on, shirt and "Er, yes. 1-" , , • blasted necktie-thirty-one Spender had no chance to fin­ years old and still can't tie a four­ ish whatever it was he was going to in-hand. A quick swipe of the say. For, in the next few fractions toothbrush and downstairs to the of a second, hands of superhuman noisy outdoors. strength clamped down on his He reached the outside steps shoulders and pitched him into when he saw the bus pull away the street. There were sounds of a from the corner. "Hey!" he yelled, woman screaming and brakes and his feet began to move. May­ screeching. There was the sight of be he could catch the bus at the an oncoming r.ar and the feeling next block. of being crushed • • • APPOINTMENT AT TEN o'cLOCK 125 Spender awoke suddenly. Daylight might have time to make it. • • • pierced his shut eyelids. He closed Then he spotted a little man in them tighter. He heard what might a green hat. . have been the sounds of traffic out­ Spender knew, somehow, that side. It reminded him of . • . the little man wasn't going to let what? His body told him he was in him by. The man's eyes focussed bed, but the feel of the sheet on on Spender as he came closer. And his back suggested something else. when the man stopped, Spender They cover people with a single did also. There was something sheet in a morgue, he thought. awfully familiar about this whole But the light! He opened his eyes a crack. l\·lorgues don't have "Harry Spender?" light. And there was softness that "Er, yes. I-" Hands grasped certainly was no slab. Spender. He was falling. A wom­ He breathed a sigh of relief. Bed. an screamed, brakes screeched. Then it must have been a dream. There was a car coming. And a He had just imagined that he . . . crushing weight. what was it he had imagined? A dream, something about a green He woke suddenly with the light of hat? He couldn't recall in time. day piercing his eyelids and street Time. sounds in his ear. He became .nvare of the ravs of He was in bed, he discovered. sun coming through his window. But he hadn't been a moment ago. Too mu!=h light for this time of­ Then, he'd been . . . blast it, nine:fiftv, the clock said. he'd been ... There had been Nine:flfty. He thought of Med­ sounds, he could still hear them win the Mouse and laughed. He echoing in his brain. They were felt his face. No need to shave, at dimming. He couldn't catch them least. He'd done that last night be­ in time. fore ... Laura. Time. Of the blue negligee. On the Clock. Nine:fifty. Late! blue spread. Her ridiculous nose at Shave. No need-last night. the office. Office. Laura of the blue, Laura at He dressed hurriedly and ran . . U'ork! down the stairs. He had just Dressing, running, "Hey!" stepped outside when the bus The sound of his own voice pulled away. caused a snap somewhere inside "Hey!" his head. It was a very minor snap, He ran, pushed, elbowed and but it gave Spender the knowledge sidestepped. At the next corner, that he was doing things as he'd people were getting on the bus. He done them before. He ran after the 126 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION bus, knowing he wasn't going to ''Dead. Me?" SpeJtder released make it, knowing that any moment the little man and looked at the he'd see .•• frozen forms around him. ''Then The little man in the green hat . . . this is what it's like . . • was coming toward him. And afterwards?" Spender knew why he was coming. "Dear me, no. Not at all. Surely "Harry-" you have ideas about the Realm of ''Not this time," Spender the Afterlife-immortality, eter­ growled and, grabbing the man's nity and all that sort of thing?" lapels, slammed him against a Spender nodded. "Well, for the building. most part, your ideas are quite cor­ "Please-don't interfere," the rect." The man sighed. "Ah yes, little man said, flushing. ''You don't eternity •.• · understand." "Only one thing wrong with "Maybe not," Spender said eternity, Mr. Spender. It's eternal. through his teeth, "but nobody's The everlasting Now. As your sci­ pushing me in front of a car if I entists might put it, it's one space­ can help it." time." "A truck," the little man cor­ "And something's wrong with rected. that," Spender said. "Truck?" "Indeed yes-simply because "Truck, Mr. Spender. There, it an area of space can contain only hits you from behind." The little one thing at one time. Therefore, a man pointed to a truck in the segment of space-time-no matter street. Spender turned and saw a how large-can eventually get strange scene. The truck wasn't filled up." The little man looked moving. Nothing was moving. frankly at Spender. "And that, sir, Cars, pedestrians, dogs on leashes is exactly what's happened. The -everything except himself and After-Realm is crowded." the green-hatted man looked as if Spender paced around two fro­ they had been- zen women. "Crowded? But how "Frozen in mid-motion." The could that be? I mean, didn't any­ man smiled. ''We had to stop the one . . . someone provide any time-flow, of course. After all, if advance planning?" you're to die at ten o'clock sharp, The little man supressed a gig­ ten sharp it has to be." gle. "\Veil, there were a few at­ "Die?" Spender's hold on the tempts at urban renewal, but your man's lapels relaxed. population explosion has also hit "Why, yes. You're dead now, in us, quite hard. To pun one of the a manner of speaking. But I forget sacred writers, there is no room at -you don't know about that." the In." APPOINTMENT AT TEN o'CLOCK 127 Spender began to laugh, and And your not liking it could mess then realized that being told you up everything, because your record are dead is not very funny. 'What's of living is pretty clean. If you this got to do with me?" were one of the bad ones, it would­ "Everything. Since we were n't matter if you didn't like it­ running out of space in the ever­ kind of a punishment, you know." lasting future, it was decided to He sat down beside Spender, place a few test cases in space­ and immediately jumped up again. time points in the past, where "Suppose we set you further back? there could be no crowding prob­ Say, for instance, you die now and lem. Sort of a revolving cycle­ wake up the moment you are you are where you are and that's born. Then . . ." He slumped that." back to the curb. "No-then it Spender pondered this. "My would be just a matter of a few 'cycle', I take it, starts every morn­ years before you recalled every­ ing when I awake up-at nine: thing again." fiftv. Then I live for ten minutes "No way out, huh?" Spender and die, is that it?" was beginning to feel sorry for the "Precisely." green-hatted man. "And every morning-or this "If only," the little man said, one morning over and over-1 "if only we could get you to like have to get up knowing I'm going the cycle, even while knowing to get killed?" you'd have to die at a time you The green-hatted man laid a knew was coming ..."His face hand on Spender's shoulder. "I screwed up in concentration. know the idea isn't pleasant. In Like the cycle, Spender thought. fact, it's theoretically impossible How could that be possible? And that vou should be able to have then he thought how. ' that knowledge. If you're actually The little man beamed when he re-living the moments as they heard Spender's proposal. "Why, really happened, how can you yes. I'm certain it could be ar­ know what's ahead of you?" ranged," he said. "And that would Spender sat on the curb. "Well, make you happy?" I do know what's ahead, and I Spender pointed to the truck don't like it." and laughed. At ten sharp, a The little man shook his head. woman screamed and brakes "I'm sorry to hear that, for my own screeched. sake as well as yours. You see, this cycle business was my idea in the He woke slowly. The light was first place. If it doesn't work out, dim. His body told him he was in my advancement may be blocked. a sitting position. Good. He wig- 128 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FicnON gled his toes and discovered that and planted a kiss on his forehead. his shoes were on. Good, good. He "Maybe we'd better take away your opened his eyes wide. Old Green glass. There's work to be done in Hat had done it. the morning, you know." "Well, I thought for a moment As he bent down to unlace his the martinis had put my handsome shoes, Spender told her not to wor· man under," Laura said. Ivory ry about tomorrow morning. He Laura. Laura in blue. had only one appointment, and She crossed over to his chair that was at ten o'clock.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (Act of October 23, 1962; Section 4369, Title 391 United States Code.) 1. Date of filintr1 Sept. 27, 1963. 2. Title of publication, The Ma.raztne of FANTASY 1: SCIENCE FICTI01'1. 3. Frequenc7 of issue, month!)'. 4. Location of known office of publication, 10 Ferey St. Concord, N. H. 5. Location of the headquarters or general business offices of the publishers (not printers), 347 East 53 St., New York, N. Y. 10022. 6. Names and addresses of publisher, edito~ and managin.r editor: Pub­ lisher: Joseph W. Ferman 347 East 53 St. New York, N. Y. 10022, .!!.ditor: Avram Davidson 347 Eaot 53 St. New York, N. Y. 10022, Managing editor: Edward L. Ferman 347 East 53 St. New York, N. Y. 10022. 7. Owner: Mercur7 Press, Inc. 347 East 53 St. New York, N. Y. 10022, Joseph W. Ferman 347 East 53 St. New York, N. Y. 10022, Edward L. Ferman 347 East 53 St. New York, N. Y. I 0022. 8. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other securit;r holders owning or holding I percent or more of total amount of bonds, mort.rages or other securtties: none. 9. Para• graphs 7 and 8 include, in cases where the stockholder or securit7 holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the nan1e of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, also the statements in the two paragraphs show the affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and securit7 holders who do not appear upon tbe books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacit)' other than that of a bona fide owner. Names and addresses of individuals who are stock­ holders of a corporation which itself is a stockholder or holder of bonds, mortgages or other securi­ ties of the publishing corporation have been included in paragraphs 7 and 8 when the interests of such individuals are equivalent to 1 percent or more of the total amount of the stock or securities of the publishing corporation. 10. A. Total no. copies printed (net press run): average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 108,462; single issue nearest to filin.r date: 107,969. B. PaiU circulation. 1. To term subscribers by mail, carrier delivery or by other means: average no.. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 14,772; single issue nearest to filing date: 14,559. 2. Sales through agents, news dealers or otherwise: average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 37,304; single issue nearest to filing date: 41,041. C. F.-ee distribution (mcluding samples) by mail, carrier delivery, or by other means: averag-e no. copies each issue. during!.reced· ing 12 months: 191; single issue nearest to filing date: 190. D. Total no. of copies distribute . (Sum of lines Bl, B2, and C): average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 52,267; single issue nearest to filin~r date: 55,790. I certif7 that the statements made b7 me above are correct and complete. ]. W. Ferman, Publisher. r·u•******************! MARKET PLACE : t• ¥ •'''''''***********'****** • BOOKS-MAGAZINES HYPNOTISM

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If you have a product or service of merit, tell them about it. The price is right: $2.50 for a minimum of ten ( 10) words, plus 25¢ for each additional word.

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130 MATHEMATICS CAN BE FUN! ifCRtATitJlfAI:.ATHfMATICS '" magazine " ... a fascinating periodical which I heartily recommend ... ,· -ISAAC ASIMOV

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