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THE GOLDEN MAN by Phillip K

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WORLDS of SCIENCE FICTION APRIL 1954 All Stories New and Complete Editor: JAMES L. QUINN Assistant Editors: THOR L. KROGH EVE P. WULFF COVel' by Ken Fagg: A SPace Nation Composed of Independent City Planets ~III1IlIlIlIlIllIlUtIIllIllJllIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJIJIIIIIIIUIIIIIUllllrIIlIlIllIlIlIlIllIlIIUIlI1Il1l1l1l1nl1l11ll11l11lll1l1l11ll11l11UIIIIIIIIIIII~llIIllIli 5 5 ==1__ NOVELETTES 4 -_=; _ THE GOLDEN MAN by Phillip K. Dick _ ;ii CARRIER by Robert Sheckley 50 ;E i SHORT STORIES 29 I ~ BREEDER REACTION by Winston Marks ii ; WAY OF A REBEL by Walter Miller, Jr. 39 ! ALL IN THE MIND by Gene L. Henderson 849 9 =_1 el PROBABILITY by Louis Trimble I THE LAST CONQUEROR by Morton Kloss 107! = E i ~ ~ FEATURES ~ E E ~ . A CHAT WITH THE EDITOR 2 5 5 = ~ "IT'S ABOUT TIME •••" ~ § (Fact Article) by R. S. Richardson 77 § g i ~ . OUT OF THIS WORLD 83 ~ ! SCIENCE BRIEFS 119 i " COVER PICTORIAL: Homes of the Future e I By Ed Valigursky I =itllollllllllllllllllllU1l1l11l1l1lln'UllllnnuIIIIIUIIIIIIIIRlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIIIlIfIIllIlIllIlIlIlI1II11I1UIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlllllllIlIllIlIlUlIIIIIIIU~ = IF is published monthly by Qumn Publishing Company, Inc. Volume 3, No.2. Copyright 1954 by Quinn Publishing Co., Inc. Office of publication, 8. Lord Street, Buffalo New York. Entered a. Second Class Matter at Post Office, BulIalo, New York. Subscription $3.50 for 12 issues in U.S. and Possessions; Canada $4 for 12 issues; elsewhere $4.50. Allow four weeks for change of address. All stories appear­ ing in this magazine are fiction; any similarity to actual persons is coincidental. Not responsible for unsolicited artwork or manuscripts. 35c a copy. Printed in U.S.A. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES, KINGSTON, NEW YORK Next issue on sale March 10th The powers of earth had finally exterminated the last of the horrible tribes of mutant freaks spawned by atomic war. Menace to homo sapien supremacy was about ended-but not quite. For out of the countryside came a great golden, godlike youth whose extraordinary mutant powers, combining the world's oldest and newest methods of survival, promised a new and superior type of mankind • .• The GOLDEN MAN By Phillip K. Dick Illustrated by Kelly Freas s IT AI. WAYS hot like this?" bean soup and rolls. A lean, weath­ I the salesman demanded. He ad­ ered farmer. An elderly business­ dressed everybody at the lunch man in a blue-serge suit, vest and counter and in the shabby booths pocket watch. A dark rat-faced cab against the wall. A middle-aged fat driver drinking coffee. A tired man with a good-natured smile, woman who had come in to get off rumpled gray suit, sweat-stained her feet and put down her bundles. white shirt, a drooping bowtie, and The salesman got out a package a panaMa hat. of cigarettes. He glanced curiously "Only in the summer," the wait­ around the dingy cafe, lit up, ress answered. leaned his arms on the counter, None of the others stirred. The and said to the man next to him : teen-age boy and girl in one of the ''What's ·the name of this town?" booths, eyes fixed intently on each The man grunted. "Walnut other. Two workmen, sleeves rolle-l. Creek." up, arms dark and hairy, eating The salesman sipped at his coke 5 6 PHILLIP K. DICK for awhile, his cigarette held loose­ brushed it off. Carefully, almost ly between his plump white fingers. tenderly, he restored it to his wal­ Presently he reached in his coat let. The waitress' eyes flickered as and brought out a leather wallet. she caught a glimpse of it. For a long time he leafed thought­ "Damn nice," the salesman ob­ fully through cards and papers, served, with a wink. "Wouldn't bits of notes, ticket stubs, endless you say so?" odds and ends, soiled fragments­ The waitress shrugged indiffer­ and finally a photograph. ently. "I don't know. I saw a lot He grinned at the photograph, of them around Denver. A whole and then began to chuckle, a low colony." moist rasp. "Look at this," he said "That's where this was taken. to the man beside him. Denver DCA Camp." The man went on reading his "Any still alive?" the farmer newspaper. asked. "Hey, look at this." The sales­ The salesman laughed harshly. man nudged him with his elbow "You kidding?" He made a short, and pushed the photograph at him. sharp swipe with his hand. "Not "How's that strike you?" any more." Annoyed, the man glanced brief­ ly at the photograph.. It showed a nude woman, from the waist up. HEY WERE all listening. Even Perhaps thirty-five years old. Face T the high school kids in the turned away. Body white and flab­ booth had stopped holding hands by. With eight breasts. and were sitting up straight, eyes "Ever seen anything like that?" wide with fascination. the salesman chuckled, his little "Saw a funny kind down near red eyes dancing. His face broke San DiegO'," the farmer said. "Last into lewd smiles and again he year, some time. Had wings like a nudged the man. bat. Skin, not feathers. Skin and "I've seen that before." Disgust­ bone wings." ed, the man resumed reading his The rat-eyed taxi driver chimed newspaper. in. "That's nothing. There was a The salesman noticed the lean two-headed one in Detroit. I saw old farmer was looking at the pic­ it on exhibit." ture. He passed it genially over to "Was it alive?" the waitress him. "How's that strike you, pop? asked. Pretty good stuff, eh?" . "No. They'd already euthed it." The farmer examined the picture "In sociology," the high school solemnly. He turned it over, stud­ boy spoke up, "we saw tapes of a ied the creased back, took a sec­ whole lot of them. The winged kind ond look at the front, then tossed from down south, the big-headed it to the salesman. It slid from the one they found in Germany, an counter, turned over a couple of awful-looking one with sort of times, and fell to the floor face up. cones, like an insect. And-" The salesman picked it up and "The worst of all," the elderly THE GOLDEN MAN 7 businessman stated, "are those Eng­ a year. They thought it was over, lish ones. That hid out in the coal around here." mines. The ones they didn't find "It's been dwindling," the taxi until last year." He shook his head. driver said. "Frisco wasn't too bad "Forty years, down there in the hit. Not like some. Not like De­ mines, breeding and developing. AI­ troit." mo~t a hundred of them. Survivors "They still get ten or fifteen a from a group that went under­ year in Detroit," the high school ground during the War." boy said. "All around there. Lots "They just found a new kind in of pools still left. People go into Sweden," the waitress said. "I was them, in spite of the robot signs." reading about it. Controls minds at "What kind was this one?" the a distance, they said. Only a cou­ salesman asked. "The one · they ple of them. The DCA got there found in San Francisco." plenty fast." The waitress gestured. "Common "That's a variation of the New . type. The kind with no toes. Bent­ Zealand type," one of the work­ over. Big eyes." men said. "It reads minds." "The nocturnal type," the sales­ "Reading and controlling are two man said. different things," the businessman "The mother had hid it. They said. "When I hear something like say it was three years old. She got that I'm plenty glad there's the the doctor to forge the DCA chit. DCA." Old friend of the family." "There was a type they found The salesman had finished his right after the War," the farmer coke. He sat playing idly with his said. "In Siberia. Had the ability cigarette, listening to the hum of to control objects. Psychokinetic talk he had set into motion. The ability. The Soviet DCA got it high school boy was leaning excit­ right away. Nobody remembers that edly toward the girl across from any more." him, impressing her with his fund "I remember that," the business­ of knowledge. The lean fanner and man said. "I was just a kid, then. the businessman were huddled to­ I remember because that was the gether, remembering the old days, first deeve I ever heard of. My the last years of the War, before the father called me into the living­ first Ten-Year Reconstruction Plan. room and told me and my brothers The taxi driver and the two work­ and sisters. We were still rebuilding men were swapping yams about the house. That was in the days their own experiences. when the DCA inspected everyone The salesman caught the wait­ and stamped their anns." He held ress' attention. "I guess," he said up his thin, gnarled wrist. "I was thoughtfully, "that one in Frisco stamped there, sixfy years ago." caused quite a stir. Something like "Now they just have the birth that happening so close." inspection," the waitress said. She "Yeah," the waitress murmured. shivered. "There was one in San "This side of the Bay wasn't Francisco·this month. First in over really hit," the salesman continued. 8 PHILLIP K. DICK "You never get any of them over CARLET-FACED, the boy here." S sagged in his seat. His voice "No." The waitress moved wavered and broke off. He peered abruptly. "None in this area. Ever." hastily down at his hands and swal­ She scooped up dirty dishes from lowed unhappily. the counter and headed toward the The salesman paid the waitress back.
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