JflfIMBER

1944 "

Hme ifouU Uttu ^ To Scfuty Bo^j

0 MOMMA WAS LOSING PATIENCE WITH ME AGAIN. She says: “I’m getting plenty sick of you looking like Flaky Joe, Hair’s Horrible Example! And I’m tired of you spend- ing money for a lot of junk that doesn’t help. You’d never listen to me who has been a nurse most of her life, but you’ll liner, this time. Sonny Boy!"

^ ''THIS PROVES WHAT I'VE TOLD YOU for months,’* she went on. “You’ve got a case of infectious dandruff that ought to have repeated Listerine Antiseptic treatment and persistent mas- sage. I’ve seen the records on the Lambert research, and I know what Listerine Antiseptic can do in killing the ‘bottle bacillus.’ And so, Baby, we’re starting right now!”

"YOU'RE ALMOST EVERY MORNING ANV HUMAN AGAIN, NIGHT SHE HERDEV ME she said a few weeks after, into the bathroom and “and your hair looks like doused on Listerine Anti- it used to. After this, may- septic. Then she followed be you’ll listen to Momma It with a swell, vigorous when she tells you that massage. Boy! Did my you ought to use Listerine scalp feel like a million. Antiseptic, every time you And the way those ugly wash your hair, as a pre- flakes and scales began to caution against the infec- disappear is nobody’s bus- tion coming back.” Will iness. What a treatment! I listen? You said it!

Flakes? Scales? Itching? Germs? LISTERINE ANTISEPTIC-itfOlVI

hese common little symptoms may mean ugly flakes and scales and alleviates itching. T that you’re in for infectious dandruff. Your scalp glows and tingles and your hair Better start at once with Listerine Antiseptic feels wonderfully fresh. In tests, this twice-a- and massage, the treatment that has helped so day treatment brought complete disappearance of, or in, many . that may help you. Listerine Anti- marked improvement the symptoms septic goes after the infection itself— kills mil- of dandruff within a month to 76% of dandruff lions of germs, including the "bottle bacillus", sufferers. Listerine Antiseptic is the same solu- tion regarded by many authorities as a causative that has been famous for over sixty years agent of this type of dandruff in oral hygiene the same At time it helps to get rid of those Lambert Pharmacal Co., St. Louti, Mo. ; !

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BOX 4902-R, SCRANTON 9, PENNA. B99B99 Without cost or obligation, pleaso. send booklet and full particulars about course before which 1 have marked Z: hleehanical Engineering Business and ] RADIO SCHOOL D Lumber Dealer n 1 ELECTRONICS Sanitary Engineerms Patternmaking Academic Sehoola Structural Draftm* Reading Shop Blueprints j RADIO. GENERAL * Accounting RADIO OPERATING Q Surveying and Mapping: O Shop Practice Advertising i Tool Designing Air Conditioning and Eleotrieal Schools D Bookkeeping Welding, Gas Electric Plumbing Schoola O Electrical Drafting O & n Business Correspondence D Air Conditioning Electrical Engineering! Railroad School n Businesa Management Heating Plumbingj O Practical Electrician O Locomotive Engineer Certifiod Pub. Account'g Refrigeration O Practical Telephony Locomotive Fireman n Commercial P Cost Chomistry Schools Telegraph Engineering Railroad Sec. Foreman Accounting Fede.-alTax ' Chemical Engineering IntornsI Combustion Stoam Englnoorlng , 'Engines School n Foremanship/ G Chemistry. Analytical School High School D ChemUtry. Industrial Auto Technician Aviation P Boilermaking niustrating Q Plaatica Combustion Engineering] and Paper Making O Diesel-Electric D Motor Traffic D Pulp Marine F/Ogiuesi Salesmanship “Civil. Archittctural Steam Electric Secretarial , g D | P Steam Engin(»j Stenography* Traffic Management Aeronautical Engineering ToxtiioToxtilo School n Architecture D ^ O Bridge Engineeringj D Airplane Drafting OD Cotton'Manufacturing'Cotton' Manufacturing Language School Civil Engineering Foundry Work Rayon Weaving '5 O French D Contracting and Building D Heat Treatment of Metals D Textile Designing Spanish P HigWay Engineering Mechanical Drafting Woolen Manufacturing a Good English! Name. Aj/o Home Address Present Working City, ...State Position. Ilotrrs Canadian residents send coupon to Ini^nationol Correspondence Schools Canadian, Ltd., Montreal, Catiada. British residents send coupon to I. 0. S., 71 Kingsway, London, W. O. 2, England. AST—1P SCIENCE FICTION Ref. U. S. Fat SR.

CONTENTS

NOVEMBER, 1944 VOL. XXXIV, NO. 3

SHORT NOVEL

KILLDOZER! by Theodore Sturgeon 7 NOVELETTES WHEN THE BODGH BREAKS, hy LewU Padgett 75 REDEVELOPMENT, hy Wesley Long .... I.IC SHORT STORIES

DESERTION, by Clifford D. Simalc ..... 64

ALIEN ENVOY, by Malcolni Jameson . . . .116

THE HARMONIZER, by A. E. vem Vogt . . ,169

ARTICLE

TIME FOR A UNIVERSE, by R. S. Richardson . 89

} READERS’ DEPARTMENT THE EDITOR’S PAGE B

Editor COVER BY TIMMINS JOHN W. CAMPBELL, JR. Illustrations by Kramer, Orban and Williams

Tbe editorial contests bsee not Seen pnbUsliei) nefon. are proteetst lir copyright and cannot be reprinted vlthout pnbliaber’s permlssloii. AH stories In this magazine are Action. No actnal persona are designated by name or character. Any siinllarlty la coincidental.

Monthly publication issned by Street A Smith Publications. Incorporated, 122 Bast 42ud Street, New lorl 17, N. T. Allen L. Grammer, President: Gerald H. Smith, Vice President arid Treasnrer; Henry W. Ralston, Vice President and Secretary, Copyright, 1944, In U. S. A and Great Britain by Street A Smith Publications, Inc. Reentered as Second-class Matter. Vebmary 7, 1938, at the Post OIBce at New Terk, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Subscriptions to Countries in Pan American Union. 12.76 per year; elsewhere, $3.25 per year. We cannot accept respondblUty tor nnsoUcited manuscripts or artwork. Any material submitted must include reuicn postage

$2.50 per Year l« II. S. A. Printed tn e^^oiao the U. 8. A 25t per Copy

NEXT ISSUE ON SALE NOVEMBER 21, 1944 — CRT

When broadcast radio first ad- used in the larger television sets. vanced beyond the crystal detector The 1-inch miniature was extremely days, the triode amplifiers were the popular with radio “hams,” since it only type available—the UX-201-A made it possible to check the modu- and its brethren of dear memory. lation patterns of their transmitters, And I do mean dear—seven dollars and sold for a reasonably attainable a tube, they were, with a service price. The size was too small for life guaranteed to be all of one most purposes, however. hundred hours. They were popu- But the 2-inch, 3-inch, S-inch, larly known as bulbs—and why not ? 7-inch, 9-inch and 12-inch sizes in- They lighted up like a lamp bulb creased in price at an exponential

and it took a storage battery to run rate. Also, and worse, the power ’em. supply required, and the danger and When this war began, the cathode delicacy of the tube and its asso- ray tube—the CRT—was straggling ciated apparatus increased exponen- out of the high-powered pure- tially. The 1- and 2-inch sizes science laboratory into the engineer- could be powered from ordinary ing research departments of the 400-volt receiver-type power sup- electronics industries. They’d even plies. The 5-inch tube calls for a gotten into some consumers’ goods 2000-volt power supply—which —the television sets. happens to be about the standard Cathode ray tubes sell by the electric chair voltage. The 12-inch inch—the inch of screen diameter. job requires about 10,000 volts. One modified, simplified type of Apparatus properly designed and cathode ray tube had gotten very built can be perfectly safe, but the wide sale and application—the amateur couldn’t afford the special familiar greenish “Magic eye” tun- transformers, assorted high-voltage ing device is a small triode ampli- equipment, and the like. The re- fier combined with a simplified ceiver-type transformer sells for cathode ray tube. But the type of under five dollars because they're tube that has the greatest useful- made by the million; the cathode ness contains an accurately made ray transformers sell for twenty and aligned electron gun in a large dollars or so because they’re made glass tube shaped rather like an practically by hand on special order overgrown ice cream cone, ending —or were! in a flat, or near-flat end coated in- The cathode ray tube is coming ternally with a fluorescent material. into real use now—the war did it. Tlie smallest size commercially pro- Essentially, the cathode ray tube is duced before the war was a 1-inch a direct, visual indicating device miniature; the largest a 12-inch job which can show three different elec- CRT S a

trical values simultaneously and in- If the horizontal deflection is con- stantaneously—if is quite capable trolled by a device which is con- of following frequencies from zero stantly shifting the transmitting fre- —DC—to 20,000,000 cycles or so. quency of a signal generator, while A spot of light produced on the the vertical deflection is proportional fluorescent screen can be shifted by to the output voltage of a radio set applying electric potentials to elec- tuned to that frequency, the CRT trostatic deflection plates, or electric will plot out, with an infinite num- current to magnetic deflection coils, ber of plot-points, a graph repre- in vertical or horizontal directions senting frequency-vs-response for intensity the that receiver graph which shows or combinations ; the of —a spot can be varied by applying po- how sharply or broadly that set tential to a controlling grid. The tunes. A short-wave code receiver

cathode ray tube is, actually, a triple is best when it has a very sharply voltmeter. peaked response, extremely sharp- But modern electronics has de- tuning—^but a high-fidelity broad- vices, circuits and systems that can cast receiver should have a good, convert almost any measurable broad curve of response, so that it quantity, quality, or property into will pick up high and low notes electrical variations, Sound be- both, yet the curve should drop comes varying electrical currents, sharply on each side of the peaks, light is metered by photocells, pres- to avoid picking up two stations at sure, temperature, wetness, chemi- once. Aligning a set that way is cal impurities, almost anything any- simple—when you can see what one wants to measure can be evalu- happens to the response as you vary ated electrically. The cathode ray the tuning! tube can combine one, two, or three A CRT will plot a graphical pic- such indications and make them ture of any two or three quantities visible. Special circuits can be used which can be evaluated electrically to make the light spot move from —and such graphical analyses can left to right across the tube at a be used in tens of thousands of ways constant velocity, then snap back to we haven’t begun to apply. Tele- the starting point instantaneously, vision is a side line. But you can while a “blanking circuit” blocks make a cathode ray tube plot, in-, the CRT grid so that the return stantaneously, a curve of percent- trace doesn’t appear. Now if a age - reflection - vs - light - color — varying voltage is fed into the ver- curve which is a precise and defini- tical deflecting plates, the path of tive expression of the color of an the spot of light—the spot where object. Any object of that color the beam of electrons from the elec- will produce a curve of exactly the tron gun impinges on the fluorescent same shape. If you set up such a screen—will visibly and very accu- system, and paste a piece of opaque rately plot a graph of the variation tape across the face of the tube so of the input voltage a^inst time. iContinucd on page 9S) t ASTODNDING SC I E NCB-FrCTTO N Killdozer!

by THEODORE STURGEON

Sturgeon’s been missing for a long time now; he’s been doing heavy construction work. This yarn he got out

of that experience: it will, certainly, be long remembered.

Illustrated by Orban

Before the racg was the deluge, another. The other was truly alien, and before the deluge another race, a sentient cloudform, an intelligent whose nature it is not for mankind grouping of tangible electrons. It to understand. Not unearthly, not was spaivned in mighty machines by alien, for this was their earth and some accident of a science before their home. our aboriginal conception in its com- There was a war between this plexities. And the machines, ser- race, which was a great one, and vants of the people, became the peo-

KILLDOZER! 1 pie’s masters, and great were the scions exhaustion. There it found battles that fgUowed. The electron- shelter—shelter built by and for its beings had the power to warp the dead enemies. An envelope of neu- delicate balances of atom-structure, tronium, It drifted in, and its con- and their life-medium was metal, sciousness at last fell to its lowest which they permeated and used to ebb. And there it lay while the their oivn ends. Each weapon the neutronium, with its strange con- people developed was possessed and stant flux, its interminable striving turned against them, until a time for perfect balance, extended itself when the remnants of that vast civil- and closed the opening. And there- isation found a defense— after in the turbulent eons that fol- An insulator. The terminal prod- lozued, the envelope tossed like a duct or by-product of all energy re- gray bubble on the surface of the search—neutronium. roiling sphere, for no substance on In its shelter they developed a Earth would have it or combine

veeapon. What it was we shall with it. never know, and our race will live— The ages came and went, and or we shall know, and our race will chemical action and reaction did perish as theirs perished. For, to their mysterious work, and once destroy the enemy, it got out of again there zms life and evolution. hand and its measureless power de- And a tribe found the mass of neu- stroyed them with it, and their cities, tronium, which is not a substance and their possessed machines. The but a static force, and were azved very earth dissolved in flame, the by its aura of indescribable chill, crust ivrithed and shook and the and they worshiped it and built a

oceans boiled. Nothing escaped it, temple around it and made sacri-

nothing that we know as life, and fices to it. And ice and fire and nothing of the pseudolife that had the seas came and went, and the evolved within the mysterious force- land rose and fell as the years went fields of their incomprehensible ma- by, until the ruined temple was on chines, save one hardy mutant. a knoll, and the knoll was an island. Mutant it was, and ironically this Islanders came and went, lived and one alone could have been killed by built and died, and races forgot. So the first simple measures used now, somewhere in the Pacific to against its kind—but it was past the west of the archipelago called time for simple expediences. It Islas Revillagigeda, there was un- was an organized electron-field pos- inhabited island. And one day— sessing intelligence and mobility and a will to destroy, and little else. Chub Horton and Tom Jaeger Stunned by the holocaust, it drifted stood watching the Sprite and her over the grumbling globe, and in a squat tow of three cargo lighters lull in the violence of the forces dwindle over the glassy sea. The gone zvild on Ecmth, sank to the big ocean-going towboat and her steaming ground in its half-con- charges seemed to be moving out

8 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION !

of focus rather than traveling away. shoulders, four acres of plane-park, Chub spat cleanly around the cigar the access road and the short taxi- that grew out of the corner of his way. He saw the lay of each lift mouth. that the pawer shovel would cut as “That’s that for three weeks. it brought down the marl bluff, and How’s it feel to be a guinea pig?” the ruins on top of it that would

“We’ll get it done.” Tom had give them stone to haul down the

little crinkles all around the outer salt-flat to the little swamp at the ends of his eyes. He was a head other end, there to be walked in by taller than Chub and rangy, and the dozers. not so tough, and he was a real “We got time to walk the shovel operator. Choosing him as a fore- up there to the bluff before dark.” man for the experiment had been They walked down the beach to- wise, for he was competent and he ward the outcropping where the commanded respect. The theory of equipment stood surrounded by airfield construction that they were crates and drums of supplies. The testing appealed vastly to him, for three tractors were ticking over here were no officers-in-charge, no quietly, the two-cycle Diesel chuck- government inspectors, no time- ling through their mufflers and the keeping or reports. The govern- big D-7 whacking away its metro- ment had allowed the company a nomic compression knock on every temporary land grant, and the idea easy revolution. The Dumptors was to put production-line tech- were lined up and silent, for they niques into the layout and grading would not be ready to work until of the project. There were six op- the shovel was ready to load them. erators and two mechanics and They looked like a mechanical in- more than a million dollars worth terpretation of Dr. Doolittle's of the best equipment that money “Pushme-pullyou,” the fantastic could buy. Government acceptance animal with two front ends. They was to be on a partially completed had two large driving wheels and basis, and contingent on govern- two small steerable wheels. The ment standards. The theory obvi- motor and the driver’s seat were ated both gold-bricking and graft, side by side over the front—or

and neatly sidestepped the man- smaller—wheels ; but the driver power shortage. “ When that black- faced the dump body between the topping crew gets here, I reckon big rear wheels, exactly the oppo- we’ll be ready for 'em,” said Tom. site of the way he would sit in a He turned and scanned the island dump truck. Hence, in traveling with an operator’s vision and saw from shovel to dumping-ground, the

it as it was, and in all the stages operator drove backwards, looking

it would pass through, and as it over his shoulder, and in dumping would look when they had finished, he backed the machine up but he with four thousand feet of clean- himself traveled forward—quite a draining runway, hard-packed trick for fourteen hours a day

killdozer; 9 The shovel squatted in the midst of enough for them to count the revo- all the others, its great hulk loom- lutions. ing over them, humped there with “She’s a hunk of machine,” said its boom low and its iron chin on Tom. the ground, like some great tired “A hunk of operator, too,” dinosaur. gruffed Chub, and added, “for a Rivera, the Puerto Rican me- mechanic.” chanic, looked up grinning as Tom “The boy’s all right,” said Kelly. and Chub approached, and stuck a He was standing there with them, bleeder wrench into the top pocket watching the Puerto Rican operate of his coveralls. the dozer, as if he had been there all along, which the “She says ‘Sigalo’ ” he said, his was way Kelly

’ always arrfved white teeth flashlighting out of the places. He was tall, slim, with green smear of grease across his mouth. eyes too long and an easy stretch to the “She says she wan’ to get dirt on way he moved, like an attenuated said, dis paint,” he kicked the blade of cat. He “Never thought see the the Seven with his heel. Pd day when equipment was shipped set up Tom sent the grin back—always ready to run like this. Guess no a surprising thing in his grave face. one ever thought of it before.” "That Seven’ll do that, and she’ll “There’s times when heavy equip- take a good deal of? her bitin’ edge ment has to be unloaded in a hurry along with the paint before we’re these days,” Tom said. “If they through. Get in the saddle, Goony. can do it with tanks, they can do Build a ramp off the rocks down it with construction equipment. to the flat there, and blade us off We’re doin’ it to build something some humps from here to the bluff instead, is all. Kelly, crank up the yonder. We’re walking the dipper shovel. It’s oiled. We’re walking up there.” it over to the bluff.” Kelly swung up into the cab of 'I'he Puerto Rican was in the the big dipper-stick and, diddling seat before Tom had finished, and the governor control, pulled up the with a roar the Seven spun in its starting handle. The Murphy length and moved back along the Diesel snorted and settled down outcropping to the inland edge. into a thudding idle. Kelly got into Rivera dropped his blade and the the saddle, set up the throttle a sandy marl curled and piled up in little, and began to boom up. front of the dozer, loading the blade “I still can’t get over it,” said and running off in two even rolls Chub. “Not more’n a year ago at the ends. He shoved the load we’d a had two hundred men on a toward the rocky edge, the Seven job like this.” revving down as it took the load, Tom smiled. "Yeah, and the first blat blat Matting and pulling like a thing we’d have done would be to supercharged ox as it fired sloMdy build an office building, and then

10 A ST o U N m NO SCIENCE-FICTION !

quarters. Me, I’ll take this way. for boot-licking and back-stabbing No timekeepers, no equipment use accomplish even less out on the field reports, no progress and yardage than they do in an office. Tom, try- summaries, no nothin’ but eight ing so hard to keep his mind on his men, a million bucks worth of equip- work, had to admit to himself that ment, an’ three weeks. A shovel of all Dennis’ annoying traits the an’ a mess of tool crates’ll keep the worst was that he was as good a rain off us, an’ army field rations’ll pan operator as could be found keep our bellies full. We’ll get it anywhere, and no one could deny it. done, we’ll get out and we’ll get Dennis certainly didn’t. paid.” “I’ve seen the day when anyone Rivera finished the ramp, turned catching one of those goonies so

the Seven around and climbed it, much as sitting on a machine dur-

walking the new fill down. At the ing lunch, would kick his fanny.” top he dropped his blade, floated it, Dennis groused. “Now they give and backed down the ramp, smooth- ’em a man’s work and a man’s pay.” ing out the rolls. At a wave from “Doin’ a man’s work, ain’t he?” Tom he started out across the shore, Tom said. !’’ angling up toward the bluff, beat- “He’s a Puerto Rican ing out the humps and carrying fill Tom turned and looked at him into the hollows. As he worked, he levelly. “Where was it you said sang, feeling the beat of the mighty you come from,” he mused. “Oh motor, the micrometric obedience of yeah. Georgia.” that vast implacable machine. “What do you mean by that?” “Why doesn’t that monkey stick Tom was already striding away. to his grease guns?" “Tell you as soon as I have to,” he Tom turned and took the chewed flung back over his shoulder. Den- end of a match stick out of his nis went back to watching the mouth. He said nothing, because Seven. he had for some time been trying to make a habit of saying nothing Tom glanced at the ramp and then to Joe^ Dennis. Dennis was an ex- waved Kelly on. Kelly set his house- accountant, drafted out of an office brake so the shovel could not swing, at the last gasp of a defunct project put her into travel gear, and shoved in the West Indies. He had be- the swing lever forward. With a come an operator because they crackling of drive chains and a mas- needed operators badly. He had sive scrunching of compacting coral been released with alacrity from sand, the shovel's great flat pads the office because of his propensity carried her over and down the ramp. for small office politics. It was a As she tipped over the peak of the

game he still played, and completely ramp the heavy manganese steel aside from his boiled-looking red bucket-door gaped open and closed, face and his slightly womanish walk, like a hungry mouth, slamming up he was out of place in the field; against the bucket until suddenly it

KILLDOZER 11 latched shut and was quiet. The up with too many things at once. big Murphy Diesel crooned hol- Mechanicing is one thing; operat- lowly under compression as the ma- ing is something else.” chine ran downgrade and then the ‘Hasn’t got in his way much so sensitive governor took hold and it far, has it?”

took up its belly-beating thud. “Nope. Don’t aim t’ let it, either. Peebles was standing by one of ’Less you need him.” the door-pan combines, sucking on Tom swung up on the pan tractor. his pipe and looking out to sea. He "I don’t need him that bad, Peeby. was grizzled and heavy, and from If you want some help in the mean- under the bushiest gray brows time, get Dennis.” looked the calmest gray eyes Tom Peebles said nothing. He spat. had ever seen. Peebles had never He didn’t say anything at all. gotten angry at a machine—a rare “What’s the matter with Den- trait in a born mechanic—and in nis?” Tom wanted to know. fifty-odd years he had learned it was “Look yonder,” said Peebles, even less use getting angry at a waving his pipestem. Out on the man. Becapse no matter what, you beach Dennis was talking to Chub, could always fix what was wrong in Dennis’ indefatigable style, with a machine. He said around standing beside Chub, one hand on his pipestem, Chub’s shoulder. As they vratched “Hope you'll give me back my they saw Dennis call his side-kick, boy, there.” A1 Knowles. Tom’s lips quirked in a little grin. “Dennis talks too much,” said There had been an understanding Peebles. “That most generally don’t between old Peebles and himself amount to much, but that Dennis, ever since they had met. It was he sometimes says too much. Ain’t one of those things which exists un- got what it takes to run a show, spoken—they knew little about each and knows it. Makes up for it by other because they had never found messin’ in between folks.” it necessary to make small talk to “He’s harmless,” said Tom. keep their friendship extant. It Still looking up the beach, Pee- was enough to know that each could bles said slowly, expect the best from the other, “Is, so far.” without persuasion. Tom started to say something, “Rivera?” Tom asked. "Pll chase then shrugged. “Pll send you him back as soon as he finishes that Rivera,” he said, and opened the service road for the dipiDer-stick. throttle. Like a huge electric dy- Why—got anything on?” namo, the two-cycle motor whined “Hot much. Want to get that to a crescendo. Tom lifted the arc welder drained and flushed and dozer with a small lever by his right set up a grounded table in case you thigh and raised the pan with the guys tear anything up.” He paused. long control sprouting out from be- “Besides, the kid’s filling bis head hind his shoulder. He moved off.

12 ASTOUNDING SCI ENCR -FICTION a

setting the rear gate of the scraper “Oh, sho’,” said Al. so that anything the blade bit would “Man can take just so much,” run o£f to the side instead of load- Dennis said. “What they put a ing into the pan. He slapped the man like that on top for. Chub? tractor into sixth gear and whined What’s the matter with you ? Don’t up to and around the crawling you know grading and drainage as shovel, cutting neatly in under the good as Tom ? Can Tom stake out boom and running on ahead with a side hill like you can?” his scraper blade just touching the “Sure, sure, but what’s the dif- ground, dragging to a fine grade the ference, long as we get a field built? service road Rivera had cut. An’ anyhow, hell with bein' the boss-man. Who gets the blame if Dennis was saying, “It’s that little things don’t run right, anyway?” Hitler stuff. Why should I take Dennis stepped back, taking his that kind of talk? ‘You come from hand off Chub’s shoulder, and stuck Georgia,’ he says. What is he— an elbow in Al’s ribs. Yankee or something?” “You see that, Al? Now there’s “A crackah f’m Macon,” chortled a smart man. That’s the thing Uncle A1 Knowles, who came from Geor- Tom didn’t bargain for. Chub, you gia, too. He was tall and stringy can count on Al and me to do just and round-shouldered. All of his that little thing.” skill was in his hands and feet, “Do just what little thing?” asked brains being a commodity he had Chub, genuinely puzzled. lived without all his life until he “Like you said. If the job goes had met Dennis and used him as a wrong, the boss gets blamed. So reasonable facsimile thereof. if the boss don’t behave, the job “Tom, didn’ mean nothing by it,” goes wrong.” said Chub. “Uh-huh,” agreed Al with the “No, he didn't mean nothin’. conviction of mental simplicity. Only that we do what he says the Chub double-took this extraordi- way he says it. specially if he finds nary logical process and grasped a w'ay we don’t like it. Fou wouldn’t wildly at anger as the conversation do like that. Chub. Al, think Chub slid out from under him. “I didn’t would carry on thataway?” say any such thing! This job is “Sure wouldn’t,” said Al, feeling goin’ to get done, no matter what! it expected of him. Hitler ain’t hangin’ no iron cross on “Nuts,” said Chub, pleased and me or anybody else around here if I uncomfortable, and thinking, what can help it.” have I got against Tom ?—not know- “Tha’s the ol’ fight,” feinted Den- ing, not liking Tom as well as he nis. “We’ll show that guy what we had. “Tom’s the man here, Den- think of his kind of .sabotage.” nis. We got a job to do—let’s skit “You talk too much,” said Chub and git. Man can take anything for and escaped with the remnants of a lousy six weeks.” coherence. Every time he talked

KILIjOOZEE! 13 with Dennis he walked away feeling built. Hydraulic steerin’ clutches as if he had an unwanted member- and brakes that’ll bring you to a ship card stuck in his pocket that dead stop if you spit on ’em. For- he couldn’t throw away with a clear ward an’ reverse lever so’s you got conscience. all your speeds front and backwards. A little different from the old jobs. Rivera ran his road up under the They had no booster springs, eight-

bluff, swung the Seven around, ten years ago ; took a sixty-pound punched out the master clutch and pull to get a steerin’ clutch back. throttled down, idling. Tom was Cuttin’ a side-hill with an angle- making his pass with the pan, and dozer really was a job in them days. as he approached, Rivera slipped out You try it sometime, dozin’ with of the seat and behind the tractor, one hand, holdin’ her nose out o’ laying a sensitive hand on the final the bank with the other, ten hours drive casing and sprocket bushings, a day. And what’d it get you? ” checking for overheating. Tom Eighty cents an hour an’ —Tom pulled alongside and beckoned him took his cigarette and butted the up on the pan tractor, fiery end out—against the horny palm “Que pase, Goony? Anything of his hand “these.” wrong ?” "Santa Maria!” Rivera shook his head and “Want to talk to you, Goony. grinned. “Nothing wrong. She is Want to look over the bluff, too, at —’’ perfect, that ‘De Siete.’ She that stone up there. It’ll take Kelly “That what? ‘Daisy Etta’?” pret’ near an hour to get this far “De siete. In Spanish, D-7. It and sumped in, anyhow.” mean something in English?” “Got you wrong,” smiled Tom. They started up the slope, Tom “But Daisy Etta is a girl’s name feeling the ground under the four- in English, all the same.” foot brush, taking her up in a zig- He shifted the pan tractor into zag course like a hairpin road on a neutral and engaged the clutch, and mountainside. Though the Seven jumped off the machine. Rivera carried a muffler on the exhaust followed. They climbed aboard the stack that stuck up out of the hood Seven, Tom at the controls. before them, the blat of four big Rivera said “Daisy Etta,” and cylinders hauling fourteen tons of grinned so widely that a soft little steel upgrade could outshout any chuckling noise came from behind man’s conversation, so they sat his back teeth. He reached out his without talking, Tom driving, Riv- hand, crooked his little finger around era watching his hands flick over one of the tall steering clutch levers, the controls. and pulled it all the way back. Tom The bluff started in a low ridge laughed outright. running almost the length of the “You got something there,” he little island, like a lopsided back- said. “The easiest runnin’ cat ever bone. Toward the center it rose

14 ASTOUNDINO SCIENCE-FICTION ” —

abruptly, sent a wing out toward out of the topsoil. “Yeh. Goony, the rocky outcropping at the beach get your girl-friend over her and where their e()uipment had been un- we’ll root it out.” loaded, and then rose again to a Rivera sprinted back to the idling small, almost square plateau area, dozer and climbed aboard. He half a mile square. It was humpy brought the machine over to where and rough until they could see all Tom waited, stopped, stood up and of it, when they realized hov in- peered over the front of the ma- credibly level it was, under the chine to locate the stone, then sat brush and ruins that covered it. In down and shifted gears. Before he the center—and exactly in the center could move the machine Tom was they realized suddenly—was a low, on the fender beside him, checking overgrown mound. Tom threw out him with a hand on his arm. the clutch and revved her down. “No, boy—no. Not third. First. “Survey report said there was And half throttle. That’s it. Don’t stone up here,” Tom said, vaulting try to bash a rock out of the ground. out of the seat. “Let’s walk around Go on up to it easy ; set your blade some.” against it, lift it out, don’t boot it They walked toward the knoll, out. Take it with the. middle of Tom’s eyes casting about as he went. your blade, not the corner—get the He stooped down into the heavy, load on both hydraulic cylinders. short grass and scooped up a piece Who told you to do like that?” of stone, blue-gray, hard and brittle. “No one tol’ me, Tom. I see a “Rivera—look at this. This is man do it, I do it.” what the report was talking about. “Yeah? Who— was it?” See—more of it. All in small pieces, “Dennis, but though. We need big stuff for the “Listen, Goony, if you want to bog if we can get it.” learn anything from Dennis, watch “Good stone?” asked Rivera. him while he’s on a pan. He dozes “Yes, boy—but it don’t belong like he talks. That reminds me here. Th’ whole island’s sand and what I wanted to talk to you about. marl and sandstone on the outcrop You ever have any trouble with down yonder. This here’s a blue- him?” stone, like diamond clay. Harder’n Rivera spread his hands. “How blazes. I never saw this stuff on I have trouble when he never talk a marl hill before. Or near one. to me?” Anyhow, root around and see if “Well, that’s all right then. You there is any big stuff.” keep it that way. Dennis is O.K., They walked on. Rivera sud- I guess, but you better keep away denly dipped down and pulled grass from him.” aside. He went on to tell the boy then “Tom—here’s a beeg one.” about what Peebles had said con- Tom came over and looked down cerning being an operator and a at the corner of stone sticking up mechanic at the same time. Rivera’s

KII/UPOZERI IS ” ;

lean dark face fell, and his hand ing the back of his neck. Rivera strayed to the blade control, touch- got off the machine and stood be- ing it lightly, feeling the composi- side him. For a long time they said tion grip and the machined locknuts nothing. that held it. When Tom had quite The stone was roughly rectangu- finished he said, lar, shaped like a brick with one end “O.K., Tom—if you want, you cut at about a thirty-degree angle. break ’em, I feex ’em. But if you And on the angled face was a wan’ help some time, I run Daisy square-cut ridge, like the tongue on Etta for you, no?” a piece of milled lumber. The stone “'Sure kid, sure. But don’t for- was about 3x2x2 feet, and must get, no man can do everything.” have weighed six or seven hundred ‘‘You can do everything,” said pounds. the boy. “Now that,” said Tom, bug-eyed,

Tom leaped off the machine and “didn’t grow here, and if it did it Rivera shifted into first and crept never grew that way.” up to the stone, setting the blade "'Una piedra de una casa,” said gently against it. Taking the load, Rivera softly. “Tom, there was a the mighty engine audibly bunched building here, no?” its muscles Rivera opened the Tom turned suddenly to look at ; throttle a little and the machine set the knoll. solidly against the stone, the tracks “There is a building here—or slipping, digging into the ground, what’s left of it. Lord on’y knows piling loose earth up behind. Tom how old— raised a fist, thumb up, and the boy began lifting his blade. The They stood there in the slowly Seven lowered her snout like an ox dwindling light, staring at the knoll pulling through mud; the front of and there came upon them a feeling the tracks buried themselves deeper of oppression, as if there were no and the blade slipped upward an wind and no sound anywhere. And inch on the rock, as if it were on a yet there was wind, and behind ratchet. The stone shifted, and them Daisy Etta whacked away with suddenly heaved itself up out of her muttering idle, and nothing had the earth that covered it, bulging changed and—was that it? That the sod aside like a ship’s slow bow- nothing had changed? That noth- wave. And the blade lost its grip ing would change, or could,^ here ? and slipped over the stone. Rivera Tom opened his mouth twice to slapped out the master clutch speak, and couldn’t, or didn’t want within an ace of letting the mass of to, he didn’t know which. Rivera it poke through his radiator core. slumped down suddenly on his Reversing, he set the blade against hunkers, back erect, and his eyes it again and rolled it at last into wide. daylight. It grew very cold. “It’s cold,” Tom stood staring at it, scratch- Tom said, and his voice sounded le ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION —

harsh to him. And the wind blew us. We got a swamp down there warm on them, the earth was warm to fill.” under Rivera’s knees. The cold was Rivera hesitated, started to speak, not a lack of heat, but a lack of swallowed and then walked slowly something else—warmth, but the over to the Seven. Tom stood specific warmth of life-force, per- watching him, closing his mind to haps. The feeling of oppression the impalpable pressure of some- grew, as if their recognition of the thing, somewhere near, making his strangeness of the place had started guts cold.

it, and their increasing sensitivity The bulldozer nosed over to the to it made it grow. mound, grunting, reminding Tom Rivera said something, quietly, in suddenly that the machine’s Spanish Spanish. slang name was puerco—pig, boar. “What are you looking at ?’’ asked Rivera angled into the edge of the Tom. mound with the cutting corner of Rivera started violently, threw the blade. Dirt and brush curled up, fell up an arm, as if to ward off the away from the mound and crash of Tom’s voice. loaded from the bank side, out along the moldboard. The boy finished “I . . there is nothin’ to see. his pass along the mound, carried Tom. I feel this way wance before. the load past it it out — ’’ and wasted I dunno He shook his head, his on the flat, turned around and eyes wide and blank. “An’ after, started back again. there was being wan hell of a thun- derstorm—’’ His voice petered out. Ten minutes later Rivera struck Tom took his shoulder and hauled stone, the manganese steel scream- him roughly to his feet. “Goony! ing along it, a puff of gray dust You slap-happy?’’ spouting from the cutting corner. smiled, almost gently. The boy Tom knelt and examined it after The down on his upper lip held the machine had passed. It was the little spheres of sweat. “I ain’ same kind of stone they had found nothin’, I’m jus’ scare like Tom; out on the flat—and shaped the same hell.” way. But here it was a wall, the “You scare yourself right back angled faces of the block ends obvi- up there on that cat and git to ously tongued and grooved together. work,” Tom roared. More quietly Cold, cold as then, he said, “I know there’s some- Tom took one deep breath and thing—wrong—here, Goony, but wiped sweat out of his eyes. that ain’t goin’ to get us a runway “I don’t care,” he whispered, “I built. Anyhow, I know what to do got to have that stone. I got to about a dawg ’at gits gunshy. Ought fill me a swamp.” He stood back to be able to do as much fer you. and motioned to Rivera to blade Git along to th’ mound now and see into a chipped crevice in the buried if it ain’t a cache o’ big stone for wall.

KinnDOZBR! 17 ”

TVie Seven swung into the wall It was like a mad thing. Its and stopped while Rivera shifted moldboard rose and fell. It curved into first, throttled down and low- away from the mound, howling gov- ered his blade. Tom looked up into ernor gone wild, controls flailing. his face. The boy’s lips were white. The blade dug repeatedly into the He eased in the master clutch, the earth, gouging it up in great dips blade dipped and the corner sw'ung through which the tractor plunged, neatly into the crevice. clanking and bellowing furiously. The dozer blatted protestir^ly It raced away in a great irregular and began to crab sideways, pivoting arc, turned and came snorting back on the end of the blade. Tom to the mound, where it beat at the jumped out of the way, ran around buried wall, slewed and scraped and behind the machine, which w’as al- roared. most parallel with the wall now, Tom reached the edge of the pla- and stood in the clear, one hand teau sobbing for breath, and kneel- raised ready to signal, his eyes on ing, laid the boy gently down on the straining blade. And then every- the grass, — thing happened at once. “Goony, boy . . . hey With a toothy snap the block The long silken eyelashes flut- started and came free, pivoting out- tered, lifted. Something wrenched ward from its square end, bringing in Tom as he saw the eyes, rolled with it its neighbor. The block right back so that only the whites above them dropped, and the whole showed. Rivera drew a long quiv- mound seemed to settle. And ering breath which caught suddenly. something whooshed out of the He coughed twice, threw his head black hole where the rocks had been. from side to side so violently that Something like a fog, but not a Tom took it between his hands and

fog that could be seen, something steadied it.

huge that could not be measured. . . . Maria madre . . que "Ay . With it came a gust of that cold me pasado, Tom—w’at has happen which was not cold, and the smell to nne ?” of ozone, and the prickling crackle “Fell off the Seven, stupid. You ?” of a mighty static discharge. . . . how you feel Tom was fifty feet from the wall Rivera scrabbled at the ground, before he knew he had moved. He got his elbows half under him, then stopped and saw the Seven sud- sank back weakly. “Feel O.K. denly buck like a wild stallion, once, Fleadache like hell. W-w’at happen and Rivera turntng over twice in to my feets?” the air, Tom shouted some mean- “Feet? They hurt?” ingless syllable and tore over to the “No hurt—“ The young face boy, where he sprawled in the rough went gray, the lips tightened with grass, lifted him in his arms, and effort. “No nothin’, Tom.’’ ran. Only then did he realize that “You can’t move ’eth?’’

he was running from the machine. Rivera shook his head, still try-

ASTOONDINO SCI ENCE-rTCT ION ing. Tom stood up. “You take it But in any case, it was past reason easy. I’ll go get Kelly, Be right for any machine to act this way, back.” revving up and down, running, turn- He walked away quickly and ing, lifting and dropping the blade. when Rivera called to him he did The motor slowed as he ap- not turn around. Tom had seen a proached, and at last settled down man with a broken back before. into something like a steady and regular idle. Tom had the sudden At the edge of the little plateau crazy impression that it was watch- Tom stopped, listening. In the ing him. He shrugged off the feel- deepening twilight he could see the ing, walked up and laid a hand on bulldozer standing by the mound. the fender. The motor was running; she had The Seven reacted like a wild not stalled herself. But v/hat stallion. The big Diesel roared, and stopped Tom was that she wasn’t Tom distinctly saw the master idling, but revving up and down as clutch lever snap back over center. if an impatient hand were on the He leaped clear, expecting the ma- throttle—/troow hroooom, running chine to jolt forward, but appar- up and up far faster than even a ently it was in a reverse gear, for broken governor should permit, it shot backwards, one track locked, then coasting down to near silence, and the near end of the blade swung broken by the explosive punctuation in a swift vicious arc, breezing a of sharp and irregular firing. Then bare fraction of an inch past his it would run up and up again, al- hip as he danced back out of the most screaming, sustaining a r.p.m. way. that threatened every moving part, And as if it had bounced off a shaking the great machine like some wall, the tractor had shifted and was deadly ague. bearing down on him, the twelve- Tom walked swiftly toward the foot blade rising, the two big head- Seven, a puzzled and grim frown lights looming over him on their on his weather-beaten face. Gov- bow-legged supports, looking like ernors break down occasionally, and the protruding eyes of some mighty once in a while you will have a toad. Tom had no choice but to motor tear itself to pieces, revving leap straight up and grasp the top up out of control. But it will either of the blade in his two hands, lean- do that or it will rev down and quit. ing back hard to brace his feet If an o}>erator is fool enough to against the curved moldboard. The leave his machine with the master blade dropped and sank into the soft clutch engaged, the machine will topsoil, digging a deep little swale take off and run the way the Seven in the ground. The earth loading had—but it will not turn unless the on the moldboard rose and churned blade corner catches in something around Tom’s legs; he stepped unresisting, and then the chances wildly, keeping them clear of the are very strong that it will stall. rolling drag of it. Up came the

KILLDOZER! 19 blade then, leaving a four-foot pile monjcntum carried him around it, at the edge of the pit; down and and his feet crashed into the steer- up the tractor raced as the tracks ing clutch levers. Hooking one went into it; up and up as they with his instep, he doubled his legs climbed the pile of dirt. A quick and whipi>ed himself back, scrab- balance and overbalance as the ma- bling at the smooth warm metal, chine lurched up and over like a crawling frantically backwards un-

motorcycle taking a jump off a til he finally fell heavily into the ramp, and then a spine-shaking seat. crash as fourteen tons of metal “Now,” he gritted through a red smashed blade-first into the ground. wall of pain, “you’re gonna git Part of the leather from Tom’s operated.” And he kicked out the tough palms stayed with the blade master clutch. as he was flung off. He went head over heels backwards, but had his The motor wailed, with the load feet gathered and sprang as they taken off so suddenly. Tom grasped touched the ground; for he knew the throttle, his thumb clamped tiiat no machine could bury its blade dowti on the ratchet release, and like that and get out easily. He he shoved the lever forward to leaped to the top of the blade, got shut off the fuel.

one hand on the cap, off it went down radiator It wouldn’t shut ;

vaulted. Perversely, the cap broke to a slow idle, but it wouldn’t shut from its hinge and came away in off. his hand, in that split instant when “There's one thing you can’t do only that hand rested on anything. without.’’ he muttered, “compres- Off balance, he landed on his shoul- sion.” der with his legs flailing the air, He stood up and leaned around his body sliding off the hood's the dash, reaching for the compres- smooth shoulder toward the track sion-release lever. As he came up now churning the earth beneath. He out of the seat, the engine revved made a wild grab at the air intake up again. He turned to the throttle, pipe, barely had it in his fingers which had snapped back into the when the dozer freed itself and shot “open” position. As his hand touched backwards up and over the hump. it the master clutch lever snapped Again that breathless flight pivot- in and the howling machine lurched ing over the top, and the clanking forward with a jerk that snapped crash as the machine landed, this his head on his shoulders and threw time almost flat on its tracks. him heavily back into the seat. He The jolt tore Tom’s hand away, snatched at the hydraulic blade con- and as he slid back over the hood trol and threw it to “float” position ; the crook of his elbow caught the and then as the falling moldboard exhaust stack, the dull red metal touched the ground, into “power biting into his flesh. He grunted down.” The cutting edge bit into and clamped the arm around it. His the ground and the engine began to

20 ASTOCNDING S C I B NO E -F 1 CT 1 O N —

labor. Holding the blade control, sat up, his chin on his knees, washed he pushed the throttle forward with by wave after wave of pain. As his other hand. One of the steer- they gradually subsided, he crawled ing clutch levers whipped back and to the machine and pulled himself struck him agonizingly on the knee- to his feet, hand over hand on the cap. He involuntarily let go of the track. And groggily he began to blade control and the moldboard be- cripple the tractor, at least for the gan to rise. The engine began to night. turn faster and he realized that it He opened the cock under the was not responding to the throttle. fuel tank, left the warm yellow Cursing, he leaped to his feet; the fluid gushing out on the ground. suddenly flailing steering clutch He opened the drain on the reser- levers struck him three times in the voir by the injection pump. He groin before he could get between found a piece of wire in the crank- them. box and with it tied down the com- Blind with pain, Tom clung gasp- pression release lever. He crawled ing to the dash. The oil-pressure up on the machine, wrenched the gauge fell oflf the dash to his right, hood and ball jar off the air intake with a tingling of broken glass, and precleaner, pulled off his shirt and from its broken quarter-inch line stuffed it down the pipe. He pushed scalding oil drenched him. The the throttle all the way forward and

shock of it snapped back his waver- locked it with the locking pin. And ing consciousness. Ignoring the he shut off the fuel on the main blows of the left steering clutch line from the tank to the pump. and the master clutch which had Then he climbed heavily to the started the same mad punching, he ground' and slogged back to the edge bent over the left end of the dash of the plateau where he had left and grasped the compression lever. Rivera. The tractor rushed forward and spun sickeningly, and Tom knew he They didn’t know Tom was hurt was thrown. But as he felt him- until an hour and a half later self leave the decking his hand there had been too much to do—rig- punched the compression lever ging a stretcher for the Puerto down. The great valves at the Rican, building him a shelter, an cylinder heads opened and locked engine crate with an Army pup tent fuel and super- for roof. They brought out the open ; atomized a heated air chattered out, and as first-aid kit and the medical books Tom’s head and shoulders struck and did what they could—tied and the ground the great wild machine splinted and dosed with an opiate. rolled to a stop, stood silently ex- Tom was a mass of bruises, and his cept for the grumble of water boil- right arm, where it had hooked the ing in the cooling system. exhaust stack, was a flayed mass. Minutes later Tom raised his head They fixed him up then, old Pee- and groaned. He rolled over and bles handling the sulfa powder and

KILLDOZEE! 21 bandages like a trained nurse. And “That had nothin’ to do with it,” only then was there talk. Tom snapped. “I've seen a man. thrown off a Peebles spoke up quickly. “Tom pan," said Dennis, as they sat —what about the Seven ? Broke up around the coffee urn munching C any ?” rations. “Sittin’ up on the arm rest “Some,” said Tom. “Better look on a cat, looking backwards. Cat at the steering clutches. An’ she hit a rock and bucked. Threw him was hot.” off on the track. Stretched him out “Head's cracked,” said Harris, a ten feet long.” He in-whistled some burly young man with shoulders coffee to dilute the mouthful of food like a buffalo and a famous tliir.st. he had been talking around, and “How do you know?” masticated noisily. “Man’s a fool “Saw it when A1 and me went to set up there on one side of his up with the stretcher to get the kid butt even on a pan. Can’t see why while you all were building the th’ goony was doin’ it on a dozer.” shelter. Hot water runnin’ down “He wasn’t,” said Tom. the side of the block.” Kelly rubbed his pointed jaw. “You mean you walked all the “He set flat on th' seat an’ was way out to the mound to look at ?” th’owed that tractor while the kid was lyin’ !” “That’s right.” there ? I told you where he was After an unbelieving silence Den- “Out to the mound!” A1 nis said, “What was he doin’—driv- Knowles’ pop eyes teetered out of in’ over sixty?” their sockets. “We found that cat Tom looked around the circle of stalled twenty feet away from !” faces lit up by the over-artificial where the kid was brilliance of a pressure lantern, and “What!” wondered what the reaction would “That’s right, Tom,” said Har- be if he told it all just as it was. He ris. “What’s eatin’ you? Where’d had to say something, and it didn’t you leave it?” look as if it could be the truth. “I told you -. . . by the mound

“He was workin’,” he said . . . the ol’ building we cut into.” finally. “Bucking stone out of the “Leave the startin’ motor run- . ?” wall of an old building up on the nin’ mesa there. One turned loose an’ “Starting motor?’’ Tom’s mind as it did the governor must’ve gone caught the picture of the small, haywire. She bucked like a loco two-cylinder gasoline engine bolted boss and run off.” to the side of the big Diesel’s crank- “Run off?” case, coupled through a Bendix gcro' Tom oijened his mouth and closed and clutch to the flywheel of the it again, and just nodded. Diesel to crank it. He remem- Dennis said, “Well, reckon that’s bered his last glance at the still ma- what happens when you put a me- chine, silent but for the sound of !” chanic to operatin’.” water boiling. “Hell no

ASTOUND IN <5 SCIRNCE PIOTION A1 and Harris exchanged a Not without sarcasm, Dennis glance, “I guess you were sort of said, “Seems to me like the Seven slap-happy at the time, Tom,” Har- was out to get th’ goony. Made one ris said, not unkindly. “When we pass at him and then went back to were halfway up the hill we heard finish the job.” it, and you know you can’t mistake A1 Knowles haw-hawed extrava- that racket. Sounded like it was gantly. under a load.” Tom stood up, shaking his head, Tom beat softly at his temples and went off among the crates to with his clenched fists. “I left that the hospital they had jury-rigged machine dead,” he said quietly. “I for the kid. got compression off her and tied down the lever. I even stuffed my A dim light was burning inside, shirt in the intake. I drained the and Rivera lay very still, with his tank. But—I didn’t touch the eyes closed. Tom leaned in the starting motor.” doorway—the open end of the en- Peebles wanted to know why he gine crate, and watched him for a had gone to all that trouble. Tom moment. Behind him he could just looked vaguely at him and hear the murmur of the crew’s

shook his head. “I shoulda pulled voices ; the night was otherwise the wires. I never thought about windless and still. Rivera’s face the starting motor,” he whispered. was the peculiar color that olive Then, “Harris—you say you found skin takes when drained of blood. the starting motor running when Tom looked at his chest and for a you got to the top ?” panicky moment thought he could “No—she was stalled. And hot discern no movement there. He en- —awmighty hot. I’d say the start- tered and put a hand over the boy’s in’ motor was seized up tight. That heart. Rivera shivered, his eyes must be it, Tom. You left the flew open, and he drew a sudden startin’ motor runnin’ and some- breath which caught raggedly at the how engaged the clutch an’ Ben- back of his throat. “Tom . . . dix.” His voice lost conviction as Tom*” he cried weakly.

it he said —it takes seventeen sepa- “O. K., Goony . . . que pasef” rate motions to start a tractor of “She comeen back . . . Tom!” this type. “Anyhow, she was in “Who?” gear an’ crawled along on the little “£Z de siete.” motor.” — “I done that once,’’ said Chub. Daisy Etta “She ain’t cornin’ “Broke a con rod on an Eight, on back, kiddo. You’re off the mesa a highway job. Walked her about now. Keep your chin up, fella.” three-quarters mile the Rivera’s dark, doped eyes stared of a on , startin’ motor that way. Only I up at him without expression. Tom had to stop every hundred yards moved back and the eyes continued and let her cool down some.” to stare. They weren’t seeing any-

KILLOOZEKf aa tiling. “Go to sleep,” he whis- it don’t do any good to make com- pered. Tlie eyes closed instantly. parisons. But I’ve worked with that fella Rivera for a long time Kelly was saying that nobody now. an’ I've seen ’em as good but ever got hurt on a construction jol> doggone few better. As far as unless somebody was dumb. “An’ you’re concerned, you’re O. K. on a most times you don’t realize how j)un. but the kid could give you dumb what you’re doin’ is until card,s and spades and still make you somebody does get hurt.’’ look like a co.st accountant on a “The dumb part was gettin’ a kid. dozer." an’ not even an operator at that, u]> .Dennis half rose and mouthed on a machine," said Dennis in his something filthy. He looked at A1 smuggest voice. Knowles for backing and got it. “I heard you try to sing that He looked around the circle and song before,” said old Peebles qui- got none. Peehle.s lounged back, etly. “I hate to have to point out sucking on his pipe, watching from anything like this to a man because under those bristling brow's. Den-

24 ASTOO.N’mNO SCIENCE-FICTION ” ”

nis subsided, running now on an- ping forward raising a solid Texan other tack. boot. Peebles barked “Tom !” and “So what does that prove? The the foot came back to the ground. better you say he is, the less reason “Out o’ my sight,” rumbled the he had to fall off a cat and get him- foreman. “Git!” self hurt.” Dennis got. A1 Knowles said “I haven’t got the thing straight vaguely, “Naow Tom, y’all cain’t—” yet,” said Chub, in a voice whose “You, y’walleyed string-bean!” tone indicated T hate to admit it, Tom raved, his voice harsh and ” but—’ strained. “Go ’long with yer Si- About this time Tom returned, amese twin!” like a sleepwalker, standing with “O. K., O. K.,” said Al, white- the brilliant pressure lantern be- faced, and disappeared into the dark tween him and Dennis. Dennis after Dennis. rambled right on, not knowing he “Nuts to this,” said Chub. “I’m was anywhere near : “That’s some- turnin’ in.” He went to a crate thing you never will find out. That and hauled out a mosquito-hooded Puerto Rican is a pretty husky kid. sleeping bag and went off without Could be Tom said somethin’ he another word. Harris and Kelly, didn’t like an’ he tried to put a who were both on their feet, sat knife in Tom’s back. They all do, down again. Old Peebles hadn’t y’know. Tom didn’t get all that moved. basilin’ around just stoppin’ a ma- chine. They must of went round Tom stood staring out into the an’ round for a while an’ the goony dark, his arms straight at his sides, wound up with a busted back. Tom his fists knotted. sets the dozer to walk him down “Sit down,” said Peebles gently. while he lies there and comes —on Tom turned and stared at him. down here and tries to tell us “Sit down. I can’t change that His voice fluttered to a stop as Tom dressing ’less you do.” He pointed loomed over him. at the bandage around Tom’s el- Tom grabbed the pan operator bow. It was red, a widening stain, up by the slack of his shirt front the tattered tissues having parted with his uninjured arm and shook as the big Georgian bunched his in- him like an empty burlap bag. furiated muscles. He sat down. “Skunk,” he growled. “I oughta “Talkin’ about dumbness,” said lower th’ boom on you.” He set Harris calmly, as Peebles went to Dennis on his feet and backhanded work, “I was about to say that I his face with the edge of his fore- got the record. I done the dumbest arm. Dennis went down—cowered thing anybody ever did do on a ma- down, rather than fell. “Aw, Tom, chine. You can’t top it.” I was just talkin’.— Just a joke, “I could,” said Kelly. “Runnin’ Tom, I was just a crane dragline once. Put her in “Yellow, too,” snarled Tom, step- boom gear and started to boom her

KII.LDOZER! 25 up. Had an eighty-five- foot stick ‘Look down there, the way that wa- on her. Machine was standing on ter is movin’ an' shiftin’, looks like wooden mats in th’ middle of a the cat is workin’ down there.’ ” He swamp. Heard the motor miss and pursed his lips and tsk tsked. My, got out of the saddle to look at the that man said some nasty things to filter-glass. Messed around back me. there longer than I figured, and the ‘‘Where’d you get your next boom went straight up in the air job?” Kelly exploded. and fell backwards over the cab. “Oh, he didn’t fire me,” said Har- Th’ jolt tilted my mats an’ she ris soberly. “Said he couldn’t af- slid backwards ^ow and stately ford to fire a man as dumb as that. as you please, butt-first into the Said he wanted me around to look mud. Buried up to the eyeballs, at whenever he felt bad.” she was.” He laughed quietly, Tom said, “Thanks, you guys. “f.ooked like a ditching machine!” That’s as good a way as any of say- ‘‘I still say I done the dumbest in’ that everybody makes mistakes.” thing ever, bar none,” said Harris. He stood up, examining the new ‘Tt was on a river job, widening a dressing, turning his arm in front of channel. I come back to work from the lantern. “You all can .think a three-day binge, still rum-dumb, what you please, but I don’t recol- (lot up on a dozer an’ was workin’ lect there was any dumbness went around on the edge of a twenty- on on that mesa this evenin’. That’s foot cliff. Down at the foot of the finished with, anyway. Do I have

cliff was a big hickory tree, an’ to say that Dennis’ idea about it is growin’ right along the edge was a all wet?” great big limb. I got the dopey Harris said one foul word that

idea 1 should break it oft'. I put completely disposed of Dennis acid one track on the limb and the other anything he might say. on the cliff edge and run out away Peebles said, “It’ll be all right. from the trunk. I was about half- Dennis an’ his popeyed friend’ll way out, an’ the branch saggin’ hang together, but they don’t some, before I thought what would amount to anything. Chub’ll do happen if it broke. Just about then whatever he’s argued into.” it did break. You know hickory— “So you got ’em all lined u|). if it Breaks at all it breaks alto- hey?” Tom shrugged. “In the gether. So down we go into thirty meantime, are we going to get an feet of water—^me an’ the cat. I airfield built?”

got out . from under somehow. “We’ll get it built,” Peebles said. When all them bubbles stopped “Only—Tom, I got no right to give coinin’ up I swum around lookin' you any advice, but go easy on the clown at it. I was still paddlin’ rough stuff after this. It does a around when the superintendent lot of harm.” came rushin’ up. He wants to “I will if I can,” said Tom gruffly. know what’s up. I yell at him, They broke up and turned in.

2

Peebles was right. It did do of sixty percent dynamite and the harm. It made Dennis use the word craters filled with rocks, stone from "murder” when they found, in the the ruins, and surfaced with easily- morning, that Rivera had died dur- compacting marl, run out of a dean ing the night. deposit by the pan. And when he had his shop set up, The work progressed in spite of Peebles went up the hill to get the

everything that had happened. Seveh. When he got to it he just With equipment like that, it’s hard stood there for a moment scratch- to slow things down. Kelly bit ing his head, and then, shaking his two cubic yards out of the bluff head, he ambled back down the hill with every swing of the big shovel, and went for Tom. and Dumptors are the fastest short- “Been looking at the Seven,” he haul earth movers yet devised. said, when he had flagged the moan- Dennis kept the service road clean ing two-cycle and Tom had climbed for them with his pan, and Tom off. and Chub spelled each other on the “What’d you find?” bulldozer they had detached from Peebles held out an arm. “A list its pan to make up for the lack of as long as that.” He shook his the Seven, spending their alternate head. “Tom, what really happened periods with transit and stakes. up there?” Peebles was rod-man for the sur- “Governor went haywire and she veys, and in between times worked run away,” Tom said promptly, on setting up his field shop, keep- deadpan. ing the water cooler and battery “Yeah, but— For a long mo- chargers running, and lining up his ment he held Tom’s eyes. Then he forge and welding tables. The op- sighed. “O. K., Tom. Anyhow, I erators fueled and serviced their can’t do a thing up there. We’ll own equipment, and there was lit- have to bring her back and I’ll tle delay. Rocks and marl came out have to have this tractor to tow her of the growing cavity in the side down. And first I have to have of the central mesa— whole third some help—^the track idler adjust- of it had to come out—were spun ment bolt’s busted and the right down to the edge of the swamp, track is off the track rollers.” which lay across the lower end of “Oh-h-h. So that’s why she the projected runway, in the hor- couldn’t get to the kid, running on net-howling dump-tractors, their the starting motor. Track would big driving wheels churned up vast hardly turn, hey?” clouds of dust, and were dumped “It’s a miracle she ran as far as and spread and walked in by the she did. That track is really whining two-cycle dozer When jammed up. Riding right up on muck began to pile up in front of the roller flanges. And that ain’t the fill, it was blasted out of the the half of it. The head’s gone, way with carefully placed charges like Harris said, and Lord only

KILLDOZEK! J7 knows what I'll find when I open ground ivas level, she was not, for her up.” her right track was off its lower “Why bother,?” rollers, and she stood slightly “What?” canted, like a man who has had a “We can get along without that broken hip. And whatever passed dozer,” said Tom suddenly. “Leave for consciousness within her mulled her where she is. There’s lots over that i>aradox of the bulldozer more for you to do.” that every operator must go through “But what for?” W'hile he is learning his own ma- “Well, there’s no call to go to all chine. that trouble.” It is the most difficult thing of Peebles scratched the side of his all for the beginner to understand, nose and said, “I got a new head, that paradox. A bulldozer is a track master pins—even a spare crawling powerhouse, a behemoth starting motor. I got tools to make of noise and toughness, the nearest what I don't stock.” lie pointed at thing to the famous irresistible the long row of dumps left by the force. The beginner, awed and hurtling dump-tractors while they with the pictures of unconquerable had been talking. “You got a pan Army tanks printed on his mind tied up because you’re using this from the newsreels, takes all in his machine to doze with, and you can’t stride and with a sense of limitless tell me you can’t use another one. power treats all obstacles alike, not You’re gonna have to shut down one knowing the fragility of a ca.st-iron or two o’ those Dumptors if you go radiator core, the mortality of tem- on like this.” pered manganese, the friability of “I had all that figured out as soon overheated babbitt, and most of all, as I opened my mouth,” Tom said the ease with wdiich a tractor can sullenly. “Let’s go.” bury itself in mud. Climbing off They climbed on the tractor and to stare at a machine which he luis took off, stopping for a moment at reduced in twenty seconds to a use- the beach outcropping to pick up a less hulk, or which was running a cable and some tools. half-minute before on ground where

it now has its tracks out of sight, he Daisy Etta sat at the edge of the has that sense of guilty disappoint- mesa, glowering out of her stilted ment which overcomes any man on headlights at the soft sw^ard which having made an error in judgment. still bore the impression of a young So, as she stood, Daisy Etta was body and the tramplings of the broken and useless. These soft stretcher-bearers. Her general as- persistent bipeds had built her, and pect was woebegone—there were if they were like any other race that scratches on her olive-drab paint built machines, they could care for and the bright metal of the scratches them. The ability to reverse the was already dulled red by the earli- tension of a spring, or twist a con- est powder-rust. And though the trol rod, or reduce to zero the fric-

• as ASTOUNDING ,S C 1 1 ; N C E F I C T I O .N tion in a nut and lock-washer, was pump pulls it shut when the motor’s not enough to repair the crack in a runnin’. But not a gravity drain.” cylinder head nor bearings welded “Main-line valve?” Tom pulled to a crankshaft in an overheated the seat up and looked. One glance starting motor. There had been a was enough to show him tliat this lesson to learn. It had been learned. one was open. Daisy Etta would be repaired, and "She opened this one, too.” the next time—well, at least she "O. K.—O. K. Don’t look at would know her own weaknesses. me like that !” Peebles was as near Tom swung the two-cycle ma- to exasperation as he could possibly

chine and edged in next to the get. "What difference does it Seven, with the edge of his blade make ?” all but touching Daisy Etta’s push- Tom did not answer. He was beam. They got off and Peebles not the type of man who, when bent over the drum-tight right faced with something beyond his track. understanding, would begin to ‘'Watch yourself,” said Tom. doubt his own sanity. His was a "Watch what?” dogged insistence thafwhat he saw "Oh—nothin’, I guess.” He cir- and sensed was what had actually cled the machine, trained eyes prob- happened. In him was none of the ing over frame and fittings. He fainting fear of madness that an- stepped forward suddenly and other, more sensitive, man might grasped the fuel-tank drain cock. feel. He doubted neither himself It was closed. He opened it golden ; nor his evidence, and so could free oil gushed out. He shut it off, his mind for searching out the con- climbed up on the machine and suming "why” of a problem. He opened the fuel cap on top of the knew instinctively that to share tank. He pulled out the bayonet “unbelievable” happenings with gauge, wiped it in the crook of his anyone else, even if they had really knee, dipped and withdrew it. occurred, was to put even further The tank was more than three obstacles in his way. So he kept quarters fulj. his clamlike silence and stubbornly, "What’s the matter?” asked Pee- watchfully, investigated. bles, staring curiously at Tom’s drawn face. The slipped track was so tightly “Peeby, I opened the cock to drawn up on the roller flanges drain this tank. I left it with oil that there could be no question of runnin’ out on the ground. She pulling the master pin and opening shut herself off.” the track up. It would have to be “Now, Tom, you’re lettin’ this worked back in place—a very deli- thing get you down. You just cate operation, for a little force ap- thought you did. I’ve seen a main- plied in the wrong direction would line valve shut itself off when it’s be enough to run the track off al- worn bad, but only ’cause the fuel together. To complicate things, the

KILI.DOZER ! 29 blade of the Seven was down on machine. Peebles held the right the ground and would have to be track of the Seven with the brake lifted before the machine could be and released both steering clutches. maneuvered, and its hydraulic hoist The left track now could tufn free, was useless without the motor. the right not at all. Tom was run- Peebles unhooked twenty feet of ning at a quarter throttle in his low- half-inch cable from the rear of the est gear, so that his machine barely smaller dozer, scratched a hole in crept along, taking the strain. The the ground under the Seven’s Seven shook gently and began to blade, and pushed the eye of the pivot on the taut right track, unbe- cable through. Climbing over the lievable foot-pounds of energy com- moldboard, he slipped the eye on to ing to bear on the front of the the big towing hook bolted to the track where it rode high up on the underside of the belly-guard. The idler wheel. Peebles released the other end of the cable he threw out right brake with his foot and ap- on the ground in front of the ma- plied it again in a series of skilled, chine. Tom mounted the other deft jerks. The track would move dozer and swung into place, ready a few inches and stop again, force to tow. Peebles hooked the cable being applied forward and side- onto Tom’s drawbar, hopped up on ward alternately, urgiirg the track the Seven. He put her in neutral, persuasively back in place. Then, disengaged the master clutch, and a little jolt and she was in, riding put the blade control over into true on the five truck rollers, the “float” position, then raised an arm. two track carrier rollers, the driv- Tom, perched upon the arm rest ing sprocket and the idler. of his machine, looking backwards, Peebles got off and stuck his moved slowly, taking up the slack head in between the sprocket and in the cable. It straightened and the rear carrier, squinting down and grew taut, and as it did it forced the sideways to see if there were any Seven’s blade upward. Peebles broken flanges or roller bushes. waved for slack and put the blade Tom came over and pulled him out control into “hold.’* The cable bel- by the seat of his trousers. “Time lied downward away from the enough for that when you get her blade. in the shop,” he said, masking his “Hydraulic system’s O. K., any-* nervousness. “Reckon she’ll roll?” how,” called Peebles, as Tom throt-, “She’ll roll. I never saw a track tied down. “Move over and take a in that condition come back that strain to the right, sharp as you easy. By gosh, it’s as if she was !” can without fouling the cable on the tryin’ to help

track. We’ll see if we can walk this “They’ll do it sometimes,” said track back on.” Tom. stiffly. “You better take the

Tom backed up, cut sharply to the tow-tractor, Peeby. I’ll stav with right, and drew the cable out al- this’ll.” most at right angles to the other “Anything you say.”

30 ASTOUNBING SCI UN CIO -FICTION — — ” —

And cautiously they took the but you know what a tractor will steep slope down, Tom barely hold- do when the throttle control goes ing the brakes, giving the other out. It’ll idle or stall. It won’t machine a straight pull all the way. run away, whatever.” And so they brought Daisy Etta “Well, maybe so, but—

down to Peebles’ outdoor shop, “But nothin’ ! A guy that’ll com- where they pulled her cylinder head mit murder ain’t sane. If he did

off, took off her starting motor, it once, he can do it again and 1 pulled out a burned clutch facing, ain’t fixin’ to let that happen to had her quite helpless me.” And put her together again. Two things crossed Chub’s steady but not too bright mind at this. ‘T tell you it was outright, cold- One was that Dennis, whom he did blooded murder,” said Dennis not like but could not shake, was hotly. ‘‘An' liere we are takin’ or- trying to force him into something ders from a guy like that. What that he did not want to do. The are we goin’ to do about it ?” They other was that under all of his swift were standing by the cooler—^Den- talk Dennis was scared spitless, nis had run his machine there to “What do you want to do—call waylay Chub. up the sheriff ?’’ Chub Horton’s cigar went down Dennis ha-ha-ed appreciatively and up like a semaphore with a one of the reasons he was so hard

short circuit. “We’ll skip it. The to shake. “I’ll tell you what we can blacktopping crew will be here in do. As long as we have you here, another two weeks or so, an’ we he isn’t the only man who knows can make a report. Besides, I don’t the work. If we stop takin’ orders know what happened up there any from him, you can give ’em as more than you do. In the mean- good or better. An’ there won’t time we got a runway to build.” be anything he can do about it.”

“You don’t know what happened “Doggone it, Dennis,” said Chub, up there? Chub, you’re a smart with sudden exasperation. “What man. Smart enough to run this do you think you’re doin’—handin’ job better than Tom Jaeger even if me over the keys to the kingdom or he wasn’t crazy. And you’re surely something? What do you want to smart enough not to believe all that see me bossin’ around here for?” cock and ljull about that tractor He stood up. “Suppose we did rimnin’ out from—under that grease- what you said? Would it get the monkey. Listen ” he leaned for- field built any quicker? Would it ward and tapped Chub’s chest. “He get me any more money in my pay .said it %vas the governor. I saw envelope? What do you think I that governor myself an’ heard ol’ want—glory ? I passed up a chance Peebles say there wasn’t a thing to run for councilman once. You

wrong with it. Th’ throttle control think I’d raise a finger to get a rod had slipped off its yoke, yeah bunch of mugs to do what I say

KILOnOZER! 8t when they do it anyway?” itself in his speech and actions, and “Aw, Chub—I wouldn’t cause he had learned that complete hon- trouble just for the fun of it. That’s esty in dealing with men above and not what I mean at all. But unless below him was almost invariably we do something about that guy we painful to all concerned, but he had ain’t safe. Can’t you get that not the wit to act otherwise, and did through your head?” not try to. If he had a bad tooth,

“Listen, windy. If a man keeps he had it pulled out as soon as he busy enough he can’t get into no could. If he got a raw deal from a trouble. That goes for Tom—^you superintendent over him. that super- might keep that in mind. But it intendent would get told exactly goes for you, too. Get back up what the trouble was. and if he

on that rig an’ get back to the marl didn’t like it, there were other jobs. pit.” Dennis, completely taken by And if the pulling and hauling of surprise, turned to his machine. cliques got in his hair, he had al- “It’s a pity you can’t move earth ways said so and left. Or he had with your mouth,” said Chub as he off his sounded and stayed ; com- walked off. “They could have left pletely selfish reaction to things that you to do this job singlehanded.” got in the way of his evork had earned him a lot of regard from Chub walked slowly toward the men he had worked under. And outcropping, switching at beach so, in this instance, he had no hesi- pebbles with a grade stake and tation about choosing a course of swearing to himself. He was essen- action. Only—how did you go tially a simple man and believed in al>out asking a man if he was a the simplest possible approach to murderer ? everything. He liked a job where He found the foreman with an he could do everything required enormous wrench in his hand, and where nothing turned up to tightening up the new track adjust- complicate things. He had been in ment bolt they had installed in the the grading business for a long time Seven. as an operator and survey party “Hey, Chub! Glad cou turned boss, and he was remarkable for one up. I.et’s get a piece of pipe over thing—he had always held aloof the end of this thing and really from the cliques and internecine bear down." Chub went for the

politics that are the breath of life ]:iipe, and they fitted it over the han- to most construction men. He was dle of the four-foot wrench and disturbed and troubled at the back- hauled until the sweat ran down stabbing that went on around him their backs, Tom checking the track on various jobs. If it was blunt, clearance occasionally wdth a crow- he was disgusted, and subtlety sim- bar. He finally called it good ply left him floundering and bewil- enough and they stood there in the dered. He was stupid enough so sun gasping for breath. that his basic honesty manifested “Tom,” panted Chub, “did tmu

A s T o r N D I X c< s c I r: X c n - F I c T 1 0 X kill that Puerto Rican?” has queered this one. Now go ahead Tom’s head came up as if some- and think what you like, and dream one had burned the back of his up any story you want to tell the neck with a cigarette. boys. In the meantime you can- “Because,” said Chub, “if you pass the word—nobody runs that did you can’t go on runnin’ this machine but me, understand? No- job.” body!” Tom said, “That’s a lousy thing “Tom—” to kid about.” Tom’s patience broke. “That’s “You know I ain’t kiddin’. Well, all I’m going to say about it! If did you?” anybody else gets hurt, it’s going “No!” Tom sat down on a keg, to be me, understand? What more wiped his face with a bandanna. do you want?” “What’s got into you?” He strode off, boiling. Cliub “I just wanted to know. Some stared after him, and after a long of the boys are worried about it.” moment reached up and took the Tom’s eyes narrowed. “Some of cigar from his lips. Only then did the boys, huh? I think I get it. he realize that he had bitten it in Listen to me. Chub. Rivera was two; half the butt was still inside killed by that thing there.” He his mouth. He spat and stood there, ^ thumbed over his shoulder at the shaking his head.

' Seven, which was standing ready now, awaiting only the building of “How’s she going, Peeby?” a broken cutting corner on the Peebles looked up from the weld- blade. Peebles was winding up the ing machine. “Hi, Chub, have her welding machine as he spoke. “If ready for you in twenty minutes.” you mean, did I put him up on the He gauged the distance between machine before he was thrown, the the welding machine and the big answer is yes. That much I killed tractor. “I should have forty feet him, and don’t think I don’t feel it. of cable,” he said, looking at the I had a hunch something was wrong festoons of arc and ground cables up there, but I couldn’t put my fin- that hung from the storage hooks

ger on it and I certainly didn’t think in the back of the welder. “Don’t anybody was going to get hurt.” want to get a tractor over here to “Well, what was wrong?” move the thing, and don’t feel like

“I still don’t know.” Tom stood cranking up the Seven just to get up, “I’m tired of heatin’ around it close enough.” He separated the the bush. Chub, and I don’t much arc cable and threw it aside, walked care any more what anybody thinks. to the tractor, paying the ground There’s somethin’ wrong with that cable off his arm. He threw out Seven, something that wasn’t built the last of his slack and grasped the eight into her. They don’t make tractors ground clamp when he was better’n that one, but whatever it feet from the machine. Taking it was happened up there on the mesa in his left hand, he pulled hard.

; KILLDOZKR!

[ — ;

reaching out with his right to grasp seemed to lose some of its litheness. the moldboard of the Seven, trying Hour after hour Dennis’ flabby to get it far enough to clamp on to mouth worked, and he bit at his the machine. lower lip until it was swollen and Chub stood there watching him. tender. A1 Knowles seemed more chewing on his cigar, absent-mind- or less unaffected, as was to be edly diddling with the controls on expected from a man who had some- the arc-welder. He pressed the thing less than the brains of a starter-button, and the six-cylinder chicken. Chub Horton had snapped motor *responded with a purr. He out of it after a couple of hours and spun the work-selector dials idly, was very nearly himself again. And threw the arc generator switch in Tom Jaeger swirled a black, A bolt of incredible energy, thin, furious anger at this unknowable searing, blue-white, left the rod- curse that had struck the camp. holder at his feet, stretched itself And they kept working. There-

fifty feet across to Peebles, whose was nothing else to do. The shove? fingers had just touched the mold- kept up its rhythmic swing and dig, board of the tractor. Peebles’ head swing and dump, and the Dumptors and shoulders were surrounded for screamed back and forth between it a second by a violet numbus, and and the little that there was left of then he folded over and dropped. the swamp. The upper end of the

A circuit breaker clacked behind the runway was grassed off ; Chub and control board of the welder, but too Tom set grade stakes and Dennis late. The Seven rolled slowly back- began the tong job of cutting and ward, without firing, on level filling the humpy surface with his ground, until it brought up against pan. Harris manned the other and a road-roller. followed him, a cut behind. The Chub’s cigar was gone, and he shape of the runway emerged from

didn’t notice it. He had the the land, and then that of the paral-

knuckles of his right hand in his leling taxiway ; and three days went mouth, and his teeth sunk into the by. The horror of Peebles’ death pudgy flesh. His eyes protruded; wore off enough so that they could

he crouched there and quivered, lit- talk about it, and very little of the erally frightened out of his mind. talk helped anybody. Tom took his For old Peebles was almost burned spells at everything, changing over in two. with Kelly to give him a rest from the shovel, making a few rounds They buried him next to Rivera. with a pan, putting in hours on a There wasn’t much talk afterwards Dumptor. His arm was healing the old man had been a lot closer slowly but clean, and he worked

to all of them than they had realized grimly in spite of it taking a j>er- until now. Harris, for once in his verse sort of pleasure from the pain

rum-dumb, lighthearted life, was of it. Every man on the job quiet and serious, and Kelly’s walk watched his machine with the so-

»4 ASTOUNOIN'G SCI EN CE-PI OTION —

licitude of a mother with her first- short circuit anywhere through the born; a serious breakdown would armature or field windings could do have been disastrous without a such a thing.” highly skilled mechanic. “From what Chub said, he had The only concession that Tom al- been foolin’ around with the worlv lowed himself in regard to Peebles’ selector. I don’t think anyone

death was to corner Kelly one aft- touched the dials after it happened. ernoon and ask him about the weld- The selector dial was run all the ing machine. Part of Kelly’s rather way over to the low current appli- patchy past had been spent in a tech- cation segment, and the current nical college, where he liad studied control was around the halfway electrical engineering and women. mark. That’s not enough juice to He had learned a little of the get you a good bead with a quarter- former and enough of the latter to inch rod, let alone kill somebody get him thrown out on his ear. So, or roll a tractor back thirty feet on on the off-chance that he might level ground.” know something about the freak "Or jump fifty feet,” said Kelly. arc, Tom put it to him. “It would take thousands of volts Kelly pulled off his high-gauntlet to generate an arc like that.” gloves and batted sandflies with “Is it possible that something in them. "What sort of an arc was the Seven could have pulled that that? Boy, you got me there. Did arc? I mean, suppose the arc wasn’t you ever hear of a welding machine driven over, but was drawn over? doing like that before?” I tell you, she was hot for four “I did not. A welding machine hours after that.” just don’t have that sort o’ push. Kelly shook his head. “Never I saw a man get a full jolt from a heard of any such thing. Look; 400-amp welder once, an’ although just to have something to call them, it sat him down it didn’t hurt him we call direct current terminals any.” positive and negative, and just be-

“It’s not amperage that kills peo- cause it works in theory we say that ple,” said Kelly, “it’s voltage. Volt- current flows from negative to po.si- age is the pressure behind a cur- tive. There couldn’t be any more rent, you know. Take an amount j)ositivc attractive in one electrode of water, call it amperage. If 1 tlian there is negative drive in the

it it ?” throw in your face, won’t hurt other ; see what I mean you. If t put it through a small “There couldn’t be some freak hose you’ll feel it. But if I pump condition that would cause a sort of it through the tiny holes on a Diesel oversize positive field? I mean one injector nozzle at about twelve hun- that would suck out the negative dred pounds, it’ll draw blood. But flow all in a heap, make it smash a welding arc generator just is not through under a lot of pressure like wound to build up that kind of the water you were talking about voltage. 1 can’t see where any through an injector nozzle?”

KILLDOZEBJ AST—2P 86 ”

“No, Tom. It just don’t work known Tom too long to think that. that way, far as anyone knows. I If he won’t tell us what really hap- dunno, though—there are some pened up on the mesa, he has a rea- things about static electricity that son for it. How’d Dennis come to nobody understands. All I can say take the dozer?” is that what happened couldn’t hap- “Blew a front tire on his pan. pen and if it did it couldn’t have Came back heah to git anothah rig killed Peebles. And you know the —maybe a Dumptor, Saw th’ answer to that.” Seven standin’ theah ready to go.

Tom glanced away at the upper Stood theah lookin’ at it and cussin’ end of the runway, wliere the two Tom. Said he was tired of bashin’ graves were. There was bitterness his kidneys t’pieces on them othah and that turbulent anger naked there rigs an’ bedamned if he wouldn’t for a moment, and he turned and take suthiri’ that rode good fo’ a walked away without another word. change. I tol’ him ol’ Tom’d raise And when he went back to have an- th’ roof when he found him on it. other look at the welding machine, He had a couple mo’ things t’say Daisy Etta was gone. ’bout Tom then.” “I didn’t think he had the guts A1 Knowles and Harris squatted to take the rig.” together near the water cooler. “Aw, he talked hisself blind “Bad,” said Harris. mad.” “Nevah saw anythin’ like it,” They looked up as Chub Horton said A}, “or Tom come back f’m trotted up, panting. “Hey. you the shop theah jus’ raisin’ Cain. guys, come on. We better get up ‘Weah’s ’at Seven gone? Weah’s there to Dennis,” ’at Seven ?’ I never heered sech “What’s wrong?” asked Harris, cah’ins on.” climbing to his- feet. ?” “Dennis did take it, huh “Tom passed me a minute ago “Sho’ did.” lookin’ like the wratli o’ God and Harris said, “He came spoutin’ hightailin’ it for the swatnp fill. I around to me a while back, Dennis asked him what was the matter and did. Chub’d told him Tom said for he hollered that Dennis had took everybody to stay off that machine. the Seven. Said he was always Dennis was mad as a wet hen. Said talkin’ about murder, and he’d get Tom was carryin’ that kind o’ busi- his fill of it foolin’ around that ma- ness too far. Said there was prob- chine.” Chub went walleyed, licked ably somethin’ about the Seven Tom his lips beside his cigar. didn’t want us to find out. Might “Oh-oh,” said Harris quietly. incriminate him. Dennis is ready “That’s the wrong kind o’ talk for to say Tom killed the kid.” just now.” “Reckon he did, Harris?” “You don’t suppose he— Harris shook his head. “I’ve "Come on!”

36 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION ”

They saw Tom before they were crossed his mind w'bat tliese men halfway there. He was walking might think. slowly, with his head down. Harris "I—what?” shouted; Tom raised his face, “Al says you killed him.” stopped, stood there waiting with Tom’s eyes flicked at Al Knowles, a peculiarly slumped stance. and Al winced as if the glance had "Where’s Dennis?” barked Chub. been a quirt.

Tom waited until they were al- Harris said, “What about it, most up to him and then weakly Tom?”

raised an arm and thumbed over his "Nothing about it. He was killed shoulder. His face was green. by that Seven, You saw that for "Tom—is he” yourself.” Tom nodded, and swayed a little. “I stuck with you all along,” .said His granite jaw w'as slack. Harris slowly. "I took everything “Al, stay with him. He’s sick. you said and believed it.” Harris, let’s go.” “This is too strong for you?” Tom was sick, then and there. Tom asked. Very. Al stood gaping at him, fas- Harris nodded. "Too strong, cinated. Tom.” Chub and Harris found Dennis. Tom looked at the grim circle of All of twelve square feet of him, faces and laughed suddenly. He ground and churned and rolled out stood up, put his back against a tall into a torn-up patch of earth. Daisy crate. “What do you plan to do Etta was gone. about it?” There was a silence. "You think Back at the outcropping, they sat I went up there and knocked that with Tom while Al Knowles took windbag off the machine and run a Dumptor and roared away to get over him?” More silence. “Listen. Kelly. I went up there and saw what you "You saw him?” he said dully saw. He was dead before I got after a time. there. That’s not good enough Harris said “Yeh.” either?” He paused and licked his The screaming Dumptor and a lips. “So after I killed him I got mountainous cloud of dust arrived, up on the tractor and drove it far Kelly driving, Al holding on with enough away so you couldn’t see a death-grip to the dump-bed or hear it when you got there. guards. Kelly flung himself off, And then I sprouted wings and flew ran to Tom. "Tom—what is all back so’s I was halfway here when this? Dennis dead? And you . . . — you met me—ten minutes after I you !” spoke to Chub on my way up Tom’s head came up slowly, the slackness going out of his long face, Kelly said vaguely, "Tractor?” a light suddenly coming into his “Well,” said Tom harshly to Har- eyes. Until this moment it had not ris, “was the tractor there when you

KILt-DOZER! 87 ;

and Chub went up and saw Den- “Whaddaya know !” said Chub. nis?” “Sure, Tom, sure," said Kelly •‘No--” quietly. “That tractor is out to Chub smacked his thigh suddenly. get us. But don’t worry; we’ll

‘‘You could of drove it into the catch it and tear it down. Just swamp, Tom.” don’t you worry about it any more

Tom said angrily, ‘‘I’m wastin' it’ll be all right.” my time. You guys got it all fig- “That’s right, Tom,” said Harris. ured out. Why ask me anything at “You just take it easy around camp ?” all for a couple of days till you feel ‘‘Aw, take it easy,” said Kelly. better. Chub and the rest of us “We just want the facts. Just will handle things for you. You what did happen? You met Chub had too much sun.” and told him that Dennis would get “You’re a swell bunch of fel- all the murderin’ he could take if lows,” gritted Tom, with the deep- he messed around that machine, est sarcasm. “You want to live,” d'hat right ?” he shouted, “git out there and throw “That’s right.” that maverick bulldozer!”

“Then what?” “That maverick bulldozer is at “Then the machine murdered the bottom of the swamp where you him.” put it,” growled Chub. His head Chub, with remarkable patience, lowered and he started to move in. asked, “What did you mean the “Sure we want to live. The best day Peebles was killed when you way to do that is to put you where said that something had queered you can’t kill anybody else. Get the Seven up there on the mesa?” him!" Tom said furiously, “I meant He leaped; Tom straightarmed what I said. You guys are set to him with his left and crossed with crucify me for this and I can’t stop his right. Chub went down, trip- you. Well, listen. Something’s got ping Harris. A1 Knowles scuttled into that Seven. I don’t know what to a toolbox and dipped out a four- it is and I don’t think I ever will teen-inch crescent wrench. He cir- know. I thought that after she cled around, keeping out of trouble, smashed herself up that it was fin- trying to look useful. Tom loosened ished with. I had an idea that a haymaker at Kelly', whose head when we had her torn down and seemed to withdraw like a turtle’s; helpless we should have left her it whistled over, throwing Tom that way. I was dead right but it’s badly otf balance. Harris, still on too late now. She’s killed Rivera his knees, tackled Tom’s legs; Chub and she’s killed Dennis and she sure hit him in the small of the back had something to' do with killing with a meaty shoulder, and Tom Peebles. And my idea is that she went flat on his face. AI Knowles, won’t stop as long as there’s a hu- holding the wrench in both hands, man being alive on this island.” swept it up and back like a baseball *» ASTOUNDtNO SClENrU FICTION ! ”

bat; at the top of it’s swing Kelly said Knowles, not moving. reached over, snatched it out of his “I heard that,” said the voice hands and tapped Tom delicately from the— darkness. “If I wasn’t behind the ear with it, Tom went hogtied limp. “We know what you’d do,” said Chub. “How much proof do you It was late, but nobody seemed think we need?” to feel like sleeping. They sat “Chub, you don’t have to do any around the pressure lantern, talking more to him !” It was Kelly, fling- idly. Chub and Kelly played an ing his cards down and getting up. inconsequential game of casino, for- “Tom, you want water?”

getting to pick up their points ; Har- “Yes.” ris paced up and down like a man “Siddown, siddown,” said Chub. in a cell, and A1 Knowles was “Let him lie thei'e and bleed,” squinched up close to the light, his A1 Knowles said. eyes wide and watching, watch- “Nuts!” Kelly went and fdled

ing— a cup and brought it to Tom.' The “I need a drink,” said Harris. big Georgian was tied thoroughly, “Tens,” said one of the casino wrists together, taut rope between players. elbows and elbows behind his back, A1 Knowles said, ”We shoulda so that his hands were immovable killed him. We oughta kill him over his solar plexus. His knees now.” and ankles were bound as well, al- “There’s been too much kiltin’ though Knowles’ little idea of a already,” said Chub. “Shut up, short rope between ankles and you.” And to Kelly, “With big throat hadn’t been used. casino,” sweeping up cards. “Thanks, Kelly.” Tom drank Kelly caught his wrist and greedily, Kelly holding his head. grinned. “Big casino’s the ten of “Goes good.” He drank more. diamonds, not the ten of hearts. “What hit me?” Remember ?” “One of the boys. ’Bout the “Oh.” time you said the cat was haunted.” “How long before the blacktop- “Oh yeah.” Tom rolled his head ping crew will be here?” quavered and blinked with pain. A1 KnOwles. “Any sense asking you if you “Twelve days.” said Harris. blame us?” “And they better bring some lik- “Kelly, docs somebody else have ker.” to get killed before you guys wake "Hey you guys.” up?” They fell silent. “None of us figure there will be !” “Hey any more killin’—now.” “It’s Tom,” said Kelly. “Build- The rest of the men drifted up. ing sixes. Chub.” “He willing to talk sense?” Chub “I’m gonna go kick his ribs in,” wanted to know.

KinUDOZEK 99 A1 Knowles laughed, “Hyuk! came from the bluff behind their

hyiik ! Don’t he look dangerous camp. !” now It was the unmistakeable staccato Harris said suddenly, “Al, I’m of a starting engine. gonna hafta tape your mouth with “The Seven’.” “ the skin off your neck.” ’At’s right, Chub.” said Tom. “Am I the kind of guy that “Wh-who’s crankin’ her up?” makes up ghost stories ?” “Are we all here?” “Never have that I know of, “All but Peebles and Dennis and Tom.” Harris kneeled down beside Rivera,” said Tom. him. “Never killed anyone before, “It’s Dennis’ ghost,” moaned Al. either.” Chub snapped, “Shut up, lame- “Oh, get away from me. Get brain.” away.’’ said Tom tiredly. “She’s shifted to Diesel.” said “Get up and make us,” jeered Al. Kelly, listening. Harris got up and backhanded “She’ll be here in a minute,” said him across the mouth. Al squeaked, Tom. “Y’know, fellas, we can’t all 'took three steps backward and be crazy, but you’re about to have tripped over a drum of grease. “I a time convincin’ }murself of it.” told you,” said Harris almost plain- “You like this, doncha?” tively. “I told you, Al.” “Some ways. Rivera used to call Tom stopped the bumble of com- that machine Daisy Etta, ’cause she’s ment. “Shut up!” he hissed. de siete in Spig. Daisy Etta, she “SHUT UP!” he roared. wants her a man.” They shut. “Tom,” said Harris, “I wish “Chub,” said Tom, rapidly, you’d stop that chatterin’. You evenly. “What did you say I did make me nervous.” with that Seven?” “I got to do somethin’. I can’t “Buried it in the swamp.!’ run,” Tom drawled. “Yeh. Listen.” “We’re going to have a look,” “Listen at what?” said Chub. “If there’s nobody on “Be quiet and listen!” that cat, we’ll turn you loose.” “Mighty white of you. Reckon So they listened. It was another you'll get back before she does?” still, windless night, with a thin crescent of moon showing nothing “We’ll get back. Harris, come with me. We’ll get one of the pan true in the black and muffled silver tractors. They can outrun a Seven. landscape. The smallest whisper of, Kelly, take Al other surf drifted up from the beach, and and get the one.” from far off to the right, where the swamp was, a scandalized frog “Dennis’ machine has a flat tire croaked protest at the manhandling on the pan,” said Al’s quivering of his mudhole. But the sound that voice. crept down, freezing their bones. “Pull the pin and cut the cables,

40 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION !

then! Git!” Kelly and A1 Knowles Waited until Chub and Harris were ran off. about to pass, sixty, seventy feet “Good huntin’, Chub.” below. Tipped over the edge and Chub went to him, bent over. “I rolled elown on them with her thinl< I’m goin' to have to apologize clutches out. Must’ve been going to you, Tom.” thirty miles an hour when she hit. "No you ain’t. I’d a done the Broadside. They never had a

same. Get along now, if you think chance. Followed the pan as it

you got to. But hurry back.” rolled down the hill and when it

‘I got to. An’ I’ll hurry back.” stopped booted it again.” Harris said, ‘‘Don’t go ’way, boy.” “Want me to rub yo’ ankles?” Tom returned the grin, and they asked Al. wei'e gone. But they didn’t hurry “You! Get—outa my sight!” back. They didn’t cf>me back at all. “Aw, Tom ” whimpered Al.

“Skip it, Tom,” said Kelly. It was Kelly who came pounding “There ain’t enough of us left to back, with A1 Knowles on his heels, carry on that way. Al, you mind a half hour later. ”.A1 —gimme your your manners from here on out, knife.” hear ?” He went to work on the ropes. “Ah jes’ wanted to tell y’all. I His face was drawn. knew you weren’t lyin’ ’bout Den- ‘T could see .some of it,” whis- nis, Tom, if only I’d stopped to pered Tom. “Chub and Harris?” think. I recollect when Dennis said

Kelly nodded. “There wasn’t he’d take that tractuh out . . . nobody on the Seven like you said.” ’membah, Kelly? ... he went an’

He said it as if there were nothing got the crank and walked around else in his mind, as if the most rigid to th’ side of th’ machine and stuck

self-control was keeping him from it in th’ hole. It was barely in saying it over and over. theah befo’ the startin’ engine “I could see the lights,” said Tom. kicked off. ‘Whadda ya know !’ he

“A tractor angling up the hill. says t’ me. ‘She started by herse’f Pretty soon another, crossing it, I nevah pulled that handle !’ And I !’ ” lighting up the whole slope.” said, ‘She sho’ rarin’ t’go “We heard it idling up there “You pick a fine time to ‘recol- somewhere,” Kelly said. “Olive- lec’ something,” gritted Tom. drab paint—co'uldn’t see it.” “C’mon—let’s get out of here.” “I saw the pan tractor turn over “Where to?” —oh, four, five times down the hill. “What do you know that a Seven It stopped, lights still burning. can’t move or get up on.” Then something hit it and rolled it “That’s a large order. A big again. That sure blacked it out. rock, maybe.” What turned it over first?” “Ain’t nothing that big around “The Seven. Hanging up there here,” said Tom. just at the brow of the bluff. Kelly thought a minute, then

KIT.T.DOZEB ! «1 ”

snapped his fingers. “Up on the cold hold on his vitals that the first top of my last cut with the shovel,” faint growl of the big Diesel engine he said. “It’s fourteen feet if it’s snapped him erect. He tottered on an inch. I was pullin’ out small the edge of the tall neck of earth rock an’ topsoil, and Chub told me that they slept on and squeaked a.s to drop back and dip out marl from he scrabbled to get his balance. a pocket there. I sumped in back “What’s giving?" asked Kelly, of the original cut and took out a instantly wide awake. whole mess o’ marl. That left a “It’s coming.”— blubbered Al. “Oh f)ig neck of earth sticking thirty my, oh my feet or so out of the cliff. The Kelly stood up and stared into the narrowest part is only about four fresh, dark dawn. The motor feet wide. If Daisy Etta tries to boomed hollowly, in a peculiar way get us from the top, she’ll straddle heard twice at the same time as it the neck and hang herself. If she was thrown to them and echoed tries to get us from below, she can’t back by the bluffs under and around get traction to climb; it’s too loose them. and too steep.” “It’s coming and ' what are we “And what happens if she builds goin’ to do?” chanted Al. “What iiersclf a ramp?” is going to happen?” “We’ll be gone from there.” “My head is going to fall off,” “Let’s go.” said Tom sleepily. He rolled to a A1 agitated for the choice of a sitting position, holding the brutal- Uumptor because of its speed, but ized member between his hands. “If was howled down. Tom wanted that egg behind my ear hatches,

something that could not get a flat it’ll come out a full-sized jack- tire and that would need something hammer.” He looked at Kellv. really powerful to turn it over. They “Where is she?” took the two-cycle pan tractor with “Don’t rightly know,” said Kelly. the bulldozer blade that had been “Somewhere down around tiie Dennis’ machine and crept out into camp.” the darkness. “Probably pickin' up our scent.” “Figure it can do that?”

It was nearly six hours later that “I figure it can do anything,” said Daisy Etta came and woke them up. Tom. “Al, stop your moanin’.” Night was receding before a pale- The sun slipped its scarlet edge ness in the east, and a fresh ocean into the thin slot between sea and breeze had sprung up. Kelly had sky, and rosy light gave each rock taken the first lookout and A1 the and tree a shape and a shadow. second, letting Tom rest the night Kelly’s gaze swept back and forth, out. And Tom was far too tired back and forth, until, minutes later, to argue the arrangement. A1 had he saw movement. !" immediately fallen asleep on his “There she is watch, but fear had such a sure, “Where?” ASTOUNDING SC IKNCB-Ft CTION “Down by the grease rack.” that she’d only kick it around. If Tom rose and stared, “What’s she did knock a hole in it, how’s she doin’?” she going to lift it? She’s not

After an interval Kelly said, equipped to handle hose, so . . . see?' “She’s workin’. Diggin’ a swale in Look at her now! She just gets front of the fuel dnnns.” herself lower than the bottom drum “You don’t say. Don’t tell me on the pile, and punches a hole. she’s goin’ to give herself a grease She can do that then, with the job.” whole weight of the pile holding it

“She don’t need it. She was com- down. Then she backs her tank pletely greased and new oil put in under the stream of fuel runnin’ !” the crankcase after we set her up. out But she might need fuel.” “How’d she get the cap off?” “Not niore’n half a tank.” Tom snorted and told them how “Well, maybe she figures she’s the radiator cap had come off its got a lot of work to do today.” As hinges as he vaulted over the hood Kelly said this A1 began to blubber. the day Rivera was hurt. They ignored him. “You know,” he said after a mo- The fuel drums were piled in a ment’s thought, “if she knew as pyramid at the edge of the camp, much then as she does now, I’d be in forty-four-gallon drums piled on snoozin’ beside Rivera and Peebles. their sides. The Seven was mov- .She just didn’t know her way ing back and forth in front of them, around then. She run herself like close up, making pass after pass, she’d never run before. She’s gouging earth up and wasting it learned plenty since.” out past the pile. She soon had a “She has,” said Kelly, “and here’s huge pit scooi>ed out, about four- where she uses it on us. She’s teen feet wide, six feet deep and headed this way.” thirty feet long, right at the very edge of the pile of drums. She was. Straight out across the “What vou reckon she’s playin’ roughed-out runway she came, at?” grinding along over the dew-sprin- “Search me. She seems to want kled earth, yesterday’s dust swirl- tracks. Cross- fuel, but I don’t . . . look at that! ing up from under her the shoulder line, she took the She’s stopped in the hole ; she’s ing pivoting, smashing the top corner rougher ground skillfully, angling of the moldboard into one of the up over the occasional swags in the drums on the bottom!” earth, by-passing stones, riding free Tom scraped the stubble on his and fast and easily. It was the first jaw with his nails. “An’ you won- time Tom had actually seen her der how much that critter can do! clearly running without an operator, Why she’s got the whole thing fig- and his flesh crept as he watched. ured out. She knows if she tried The machine was unnatural, her to punch a hole in a fuel drum outline somehow unreal and dream-

KlLnDOZFR! 4.S A

like purely through the lack of the rose to a series of bellowing roars, small silhouette of a man in the as if she were backing and filling; saddle. She looked hulked, com- then they realized that she was try- T>act, dangerous. ing to take some particularly steep “What are we gonna do ?” wailed part of the bank and having trouble A1 Knowles. getting traction. But she made it: “We’re gonna sit and wait,” said the motor revved up as she made Kelly, “and you’re gonna shut your the brow of the hill, and she shifted trap. We won’t know for five min- into fourth gear and came lumber- utes yet whether she’s going to go ing out into the open. She lurched after us from down below or from up to the edge of the cut, stopped, up here.” throttled down, dropped her blade “If you want to leave,” said Tom on the ground and stood there idling. gently, “go right ahead.” A1 sat Al Knowles backed away to the down. very edge of the tongue of earth Kelly looked ruminatively down they stood on, his eyes practically at his beloved power shovel, sitting on stalks. squat and unlovely in the cut below “O.K.—put up or shut up,” them and aw^ay to their right. “How Kelly called across harshly. do you reckon she’d stand up against “She’s looking the situation over," the dipper stick?” said Tom. “That narrow pathway “If it ever came to a rough-and- don’t fool her a bit.” tumble,” said Tom, “I’d say it would Daisy Etta’s blade began to rise, be just too bad for Hflwy But and stopped just clear of the ground. she wouldn’t fight. There’s no way She shifted without clashing her you could get the shovel within gears, began to back slowly, still at punchin’ range; Daisy’ just stand little more than an idle. there and laugh at you.” “She’s gonna jump!” screamed “1 . can’t see her now,” whined Al. Al. “I’m gettin’ out of here!” Tom looked. “She’s taken the “Stay here, you fool," shouted bluff. She’s going to try it from Kelly. “She can’t get us as long up here. I move we sit tight and as we’re up here! If you go down, see if she’s foolish enough to try she’ll hunt you down like a rabbit,” to walk out here over that narrow The blast of the Seven’s motor neck. If she does, she’ll drop on was the last straw for Al, He her belly with one track on each squeaked and hopped over the edge, side. Probably turn herself over scrambling and sliding down the trying to dig out.” almost sheer face of the cut. Plei The wait then was interminable. hit the bottom running. Back over the hill they could hear the laboring motor ; twice they heard Daisy Etta lowered her blade and the machine stop momentarily to raised her snout and growled for- shift gears. Once they looked at ward, the blade loading. Six, seven, each other hopefully as the sound seven and a half cubic yards of dirt

44 ASTOUNDING SC I ENCE- P I CT I ON !

piled up in iront of her as she neared the edge. The loaded blade bit into the nanow pathway that led out to their perch. It was al- most all soft, white, crumbly marl, and the great machine sank nose

down into it, the monstrous over- load of topsoil sjjilling dowm on eacii side. 'She’s going to bury herself!” shouted Kelly. ‘No—wait.” Tom caught her •.arm. “She’s trying to turn— she made it! She made it! She’s ramping herself down to the flat!” "She is—and she’s cut us off !” from the bluff The bulldozer, blade raised as

high as it could possibly go, the hydraulic rod gleaming clean in the early light, freed herself of the last of her tremendous load, spun around and headed back upward, sinking lier blade again. She made one more pass between them and the bhiff, making a cut now far too wide for them to jump, particularly to the crumbly footing at the bluff’s edge. Once down again, she turned to face their haven, now an isolated pillar of marl, and revved down, waiting. "I never thought of this,” said Kelly guiltily. "1 knew we’d be .safe from. her ramping up, and I never thought she’d try it the other way !”

".Skip it. In the meantime, here w-e sit. What happens—do we wait up here until she idles out of fuel, or do we starve to death?” "Oh, thi.s won’t be a siege, Tom. That thing’s too much of a killer. Where’s AI? I wonder if he’s got

EIULDOZER 4S —

guts enough to make a pass near bellowing, and their little table was. here with our tractor and draw suddenly a foot shorter. her off?” “Awright,” said Kelly. "So “He had just guts enough to what do you want to do? Stay take our tractor and head out,” said here and let her dig the ground out Tom. “Didn’t jmu know?” from under our feet?” “He took our what?” Kelly “I’m just warning you,” said looked out toward where they had Tom. “Now listen. We’ll wail left their machine the night before. until she’s taking a load. It’ll take

It was gone. “Why the dirty little her a second to get rid of it when yellow rat!” she knows we’re gone. We’ll split “No sense cussin’,” said Tom —she can’t get both of us. You steadily, interrupting what he knew head out in the open, try to circle was the beginning of some really the curve of the bluff and get where flowery language. “What else could you can climb it. Then come back you expect?” over here to the cut, A man can Daisy Etta decided, apparently, scramble off a fourteen-foot cut how to go about removing their faster’n any tractor ever built. I’ll splendid isolation. She uttered the cut in close to the cut, down at .snort of too-quick throttle, and the bottom. If she takes after you, moved into their peak with the cor- I’ll get clear all right. If she takes ner of her blade, cutting out a huge after me. I’ll try to make the shovel swipe, undercutting the material and at least give her a run for her over it so that it fell on her side money. I can play hide an’ seek and track as she passed. Eight in an’ around and under that dip- inches disappeared from that side per-stick all day if she wants to of their little plateau. play.” “Oh-oh. That won’t do a-tall,” “Why me out in the open ?” said Tom. “Don’t you think those long laigs “Fixin’ to dig us down,” said o’ yours can outrun her in that dis- Kefly grimly. “Take her about tance ?” twenty minutes. Tom, I say leave.” “Reckon they got to,” grinned “It won’t be healthy. You just Kelly. “O.K.,'Tom.” got no idea how fast that thing can move now. Don’t forget, she’s a They waited tensely. Daisy Etta good deal more than she was when backed close by, started another she had a man runnin’ her. She pass. As the motor blatted under can shift from high reverse to fifth the load, Tom said, “Now!” and speed forward like— that”—he they jumped. Kelly, catlike a.s al- snapped his fingers “and she can ways, landed on his feet. Tom, pivot faster’n you can blink and whose knees and ankles were black throw that blade just where she and blue with rope bruises, took two wants it.” staggering steps and fell. Kelly The tractor passed under them, scooped him to his feet as the doz-

16 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION ! ;

cr’s steel prow eame around the the halfway mark, pulled up the bank. Instantly she was in fifth starter-handle, twitched the cut-out. gear and howling down at them. The motor spit a wad of blue smoke Kelly flung himself to the left and out of its hooded exhaust and Tom to the right, and they pounded caught. Tom put the rod back, away, Kelly out toward the run- studied the fuel-flow glass and pres- way, I'oin straight for the shovel. sure gauges, and then went to the Daisy Etta let them diverge for a door and looked out again. The moment, keeping her course, trying Seven had not moved, but it was to then she evidently revving and dowm in that un- pursue both ; up sized Tom up as the slower, for she even fashion it had shown up on swung toward him. The instant’s the mesa. Tom had the extraordi- hesitation was all Tom needed to nary idea that it was gathering itself get the little lead necessary. He to spring. He slipped into the sad- tore up to the shovel, his legs going dle, threw the master clutch. The like pistons, and dived down be- big gears that half-fille'd the cab tween the shovel’s tracks. obediently began to turn. He kicked As he hit the ground, the big the brake-locks loose with his heels, manganese-steel moldboard hit the let his feet rest lightly on the pedals right track of the shovel, and the as they rose. impact set all forty-seven tons of Then he reached over his head the great machine quivering. But and snapped back the throttle. As Tom did not stop. He scrabbled the Murphy picked up he grasped his way under the rig, stood up both hoist and swing levers and

behind it, leaped and caught the sill pulled them back. The engine of the rear window, clapped his howled; the two-yard bucket came

other hand on it, drew himself up up off the ground with a sudden and tumbled inside. Here he was jolt as the cold friction grabbed it. safe for the moment; the huge The big machine swung hard to the tracks themselves were higher than right; Tom snapped his hoist lever the Seven’s blade could rise, and forward and checked the bucket’s the floor of the cab was a good six- rise with his foot on the brake. teen inches higher than the top of He shoved the crowd lever forward the track. Tom went to the cab the bucket ran out to the end of door and peeped outside. The its reach, and the heel of the bucket tractor had drawn off and was wiped right across the Seven’s hood, idling. taking with it the exhaust stack, “Study away,’’ gritted Tom, and muffler and all, and the pre-cleaner went to the big Murphy Diesel. He on the air intake. Tom cursed. He unhurriedly checked the oil with the had figured on the machine’s leap-

bayonet gauge, replaced it, took the ing backward. If it had, he would governor cut-out rod from its rack have smashed the cast-iron radia- and inserted it in the governor cas- tor core. But she had stood stilt, ing. He set the master throttle at making a split-second decision.

KILLDOZKH 47 Now she moved, though, and there but eight or ten tons of solid quickly. With that incredibly fast steel. And he didn’t much care at shifting, she leaped backwards and the moment whether or not she pivoted out of range before Tom scratched his paint. could check the shovel’s mad swing. He swung back again, white marl Tlie heavy swing-friction blocks running away on both sides of the smoked acridly as the machine heaped bucket. The shovel rode slo^ved, stopped and swung back. perfectly now, for a shovel is coun- Tom checked her as he was facing terweighted to balance true when the Seven, lioisted his bucket a few standing level with the bucket

feet, and rehauled, bringing it about loaded. The hoist and swing fric- halfway back, ready for anything. tions and the brake linings had The four great dipper-teeth gleamed heated and dried themselves of the in the sun. Tom ran a practiced eye night’s condensation moisture, and over Cables, boom and dipper-stick, she answered the controls in a way liking the black polish of crater that delighted the operator in him. compound on the sliding parts, the He handled the swing lever lightly, easy tension of well-greased cables back to swing to the right, forward and links. The huge machine stood to swing to the left, following the strong, ready and profoundly sub- slow dance the Seven had started servient for all its brute power. to do, stepping warily back and Tom looked searchingly at the forth like a fighter looking for an Seven’s ruined engine hood. The opening. Tom kept the bucket be- gaping end of the broken air-intake tween himself and the tractor, pipe stared back at him. “Aha !” he knowing that she could not hurl a said. “A few cupfuls of nice dry tool that was built to smash hard marl down there’ll give you some- rock for twenty hours a day and thing to chew on.” like it. Daisy Etta bellowed and rushed Keeping a wary eye on the tractor, in. Tom snapped the hoist lever he swung into the bank, dropped back hard, and the bucket rose, let- his bucket and plunged it into the ting the tractor run underneath. marl. He crowded it deep, and the Tom punched the bucket trip, and Murphy yelled for help but kept on the great steel jaw opened, cascad- pushing. At the peak of the load ing marl down bn the broken hood. a terrific jar rocked him in the The tractor’s fan blew it back in a saddle. He looked back over his huge billowing cloud. The instant shoulder through the door and saw that it took Tom to check and dump the Seven backing off again. She was enough, however, for the tractor had run up and delivered a terrific to dance back out of the way, for punch to the counterweight at the when he tried to drop it on the back of the cab. Tom grinned machine to smash the coiled injector tightly. She’d have to do better tubes on top of the engine block, than that. There was nothing back she was gone.

*9 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION ;

The dust cleared away, and the realized what she was doing, his tractor moved in again, feinted to bucket was around in front of the the left, then swung her blade at tracks and between them, on the the bucket, which was just clear of ground. It was as swift and skill- the ground. Tom swung to meet ful a maneuver as could be imag- her, her feint having gotten her in ined, and it left the shovel without a little closer than he liked, and the ability to swing as long as Daisy bucket met blade with a shower of Etta could hold the bucket trapped sparks and a clank that could be between the tracks. heard for half a mile. She had Tom crowded furiously, but that come in with her blade high, and succeeded only in lifting the boom Tom let out a wordless shout as higher in the air, since there is noth- he saw tliat the A-frame brace be- ing to hold a boom down but its hind the blade had caught between own weight. Hoisting did nothing two of his dipper-teeth. He but make his frictions smoke and snatched at his hoist lever and the rev the engine down dangerously bucket came up, lifting with it the close to the stalling point. whole front end of the bulldozer. Tom swore again and reached Daisy Etta plunged up and down down to the cluster of small levers and her tracks dug violently into at his left. These were the gears. the earth as she raised and lowered On this type of shovel, the swing her blade, trying to shake herself lever controls everything except free. Tom rehauled, trying to crowd and hoist. With the swing bring the tractor in closer, for the lever, the operator, having selected boom was set too low to attempt to his gear, controls the travel—that is, lift such a dead weight. As it was, power to the tracks—in forward the shovel’s off track trying its reverse booming up and boom- was and ; best to get off the ground. But the ing down ; and swinging. The ma- crowd and rehaul frictions could chine can do only one of these

not handle her alone ; they began things at a time. If she is in travel to heat and slip. gear, she cannot swing. If she is hoisted a little the shovel’s in swing gear, she cannot boom Tom ; up off track came up a foot off the or down. Not once in years of ground. Tom cursed and let the operating would this inability bother

bucket dro]). and in an instant the an operator ; now, however, nothing dozer was free and running clear. was normal. Tom swung wildly at her, missed. The dozer came in on a long curve Tom pushed the swing gear con- Tom swung to meet her again, took trol down and pulled up on the a vicious swipe at her which she travel. The clutches involved were took on her blade. But this time jaw clutches, not frictions, so that she did not withdraw after being he had to throttle down to an idle hit, but bored right in, carrying the before he could make the castella- bucket before her. Before Tom tions mesh. As the Murphy revved

KILLDOZER! 49 —

down, Daisy Etia took it as a signal back against tl>e bank and her fuel that something could be done about tank crushed. There was every

it, and she shoved furiously into the possibility that, having her pinned bucket. But Tom had all controls there, Tom would have time to raise in neutral and all she succeeded in his bucket over her and smash her doing was to dig herself in, her to pieces. And if she turned before sharp new cleats spinning deep into she was forced against the bank, the dirt, she would have to free Tom’s Tom set his throttle up again and bucket. This she had to do. stioved the swing lever forward. The Murphy gave him warning, There was a vast crackling of drive but not enough. It crooned as load

chains ; and the big tracks started came off, and Tom knew then that to turn. the dozer was shifting into a re- Daisy Etta had sharp cleats; her verse gear. He whipped the hoist pads were twenty inches wide and lever back, and the bucket rose as her tracks were fourteen feet long, the dozer backed arvay from him. and there were fourteen tons of He crowded it out and let it come steel on them. The shovel’s big flat smasliing down—and missed. For pads were three feet wide and the tractor danced aside—and while twenty feet long, and forty-seven he was in travel gear he could not

tons aboard. There was simply no swing to follow it. Daisy Etta comparison. The Murphy bellowed charged then, put on track on the the fact that the work was hard, bank and went over almost on her but gave no indications of stalling. beam-ends, throwing one end of Daisy Etta performed the incredible her blade high in the air. So totally feat of shifting into a forward gear unexpected was it that Tom was while she was moving backwards, quite unprepared. The tractor flung but it did her no good. Round and itself on the bucket, and the cutting round her tracks went, trying to edge of the blade dropped between drive her forward, gouging deep; the dipper teeth. This time there and slowly and surely she was forced was the whole weight of the tractor backward toward the cut wall by to hold it there. There would be the shovel. no way for her to free herself Tom heard a sound that was not but at the same time she liad trapped part of a straining machine ; he the bucket so far out from the cen- looked out and saw Kelly up on ter pin of the shovel that Tom top of the cut, smoking, swinging couldn’t hoist without overbalanc- his feet over the edge, making ing and turning the mon.stcr over. punching motions with his hands as Daisy Etta ground away in re- if he had a ringside seat at a big verse, dragging the bucket out until fight—which he certainly had. it was checked by the bumper- Tom now offered the dozer little blocks. Then she began to crab choice. If she did not turn aside sideways, up against the bank and before him, she would be borne when Tom tried tentatively to re-

sa AST o u N D i N f) s c I E .V C K If ( e X i o N haul, she shifted and came right fuel, under pressure, from the pump with him, burying one whole end to the injectors. There were many of her blade deep into the bank. feet of it, running from the pump Stalemate, She had hung herself reservoir, stacked in expansion coils up on the bucket, and she had im- over the cylinder head. mobilized it, Tom tried to rehaul, As he spoke Daisy Ettas idle but the tractor’s anchorage in the. burst into that maniac revving up bank was too solid. He tried to and down characteristic of her. swing, to hoist. All the overworked “What do you know !” Tom called frictions could possibly give out above the racket. “Eavesdrop- was smoke, Toni grunted and ping !” throttled to an idle, leaned out the Kelly slid dowti the cut, stood window. Daisy Etta was idling up on the track of the shovel and too, loudly without her muffler, the poked his head in the window. stackless exhaust giving out an ugly “Well, you want tq get a bar and flat sound. But after the roar of try?” !” the two great motor.s the partial “Let's go silence was deafening, Kelly called down, “Double Tom w^ent to the toolbox and knockout, hey?” pulled out the pinch bar that Kelly

“Looks like it. What say we see used to replace cables on his ma- if we can’t get close enough to her chine, and swung to the ground. to quiet her down some?” They approached the tractor warily. Kelly shrugged. “I dunno. If She revved up as they came near, she's really stopped herself, it's the began to shudder. The front end first time. I resjiect that rig, Tom. rose and dropped and the tracks She wouldn’t have got herself into began to turn as she tried to twist that spot if she didn't have an ace out of the vi.se her blade had up her sleeve.” dropped into.

it easy, sister.” said Tom, “Look at her, man ! Suppose she “Take was a civilized bulldozer and you “You’ll just bury yourself. Set had to get her out of there. She still and take it, now, like a good can’t raise her blade high enough girl. You got it cornin’.” to free it from those clipper-teeth, “Be careful,” said Kelly. Torn y’know. Think you’d be able to Iiefted the bar and laid a hand on do it?” the fender. “It might take several seconds,” The tractor literally shivered, and Kelly drawled. “.She's sure high from the rubber hose connection at and dry.” the top of the radiator, a blinding “O.K., let’s spike her guns.” stream of hot water shot out. It “Like what?” fanned and caught them both full “Like taking a bar and prying out in the face. They staggered back, her tubing.” He referred to the cursing. coiled brass tubing that carried the “You O.K., Tom?” Kelly gasped

KiurmozBR! 51 ” — —

a nioincnt later. He had got most up slack the cable straightened as ;

of it across the mouth and cheek. it took the strain. The bucket Tom was on his knees, his shirt stirred under the dead weight of

tail out, blotting at his face. the bulldozer that rested on it and — ; “My eyes ... oh my eyes slowly, then, the great flat tracks “Let’s see!” Kelly dropped down began to lift their rear ends off the beside him and took him by the ground. The great obedient mass wrists, gently removing Tom’s of machinery teetered forwai'd on hands from his face. He whistled. the tips of her tracks, the Murphy “Come on,” he gritted. He helped revved down and under the incred-

rom up and led him away a few ible load, but it kept the strain. A feet. “Stay here,” he said hoarsely. strand of the two-part hoist cable He turned, walked back toward the broke and whipped around, sing- dozer, picking up the pinchbar. ing; and then she was balanced "You dirty — I” he yelled, and overbalanced flung it like a javelin at the tube And the shovel had hauled her- coils. It was a little high. It struck self right over and had fallen with the ruined hood, made a deep dent an Earth-shaking crash. The boom, in the metal. The dent promptly eight tons of solid steel, clanged inverted with a loud timng-g-g-! and down onto the blade of the bull-

flung the bar back at him. He dozer,- and lay there, crushing it ducked; it whistled over his head down tightly onto the imprisoning and caught Tom in the calves -of his row of dipper-teeth. legs. He went down like a poled Daisy Etta sat there, not trying ox, but staggered to his feet again. to move now, racing her motor im- “Come on!” Kelly snarled, and potently. Kelly strutted past her, taking Tom’s arm, hustled him thumbing his nose, and went back around the turn of the cut. “Sit to Tom. down! I’ll be' right back.” “Kelly ! I thought you were never ?” “Where you going? Kelly—be coming back ! What happened careful!” “Shovel pulled herself over on “Careful and how!” her nose.” ?” Kelly’s long legs ate up the dis- “Good boy ! Fall on the tractor tance back to the shovel. He swung "Nup. But the boom’s laying into the cab, reached back over the across the top of her blade. Caught motor and set up the master throt- like a rat in a trap.” tle all the way. Stepping up be- “Better watch out the rat don’t hind the saddle, he opened the run- chew its leg off to get out,” said ning throttle and the Murphy Tom, drily. “Still runnin’, is she?” howled. Then he hauled back on “Yep. But we’ll fix that in a the hoist lever until it knuckled in, hurry.” turned and leaped oflF the machine “Sure. Sure. How?” in one .supple motion. “How ? I dunno. Dynamite, The hoist drum turned and took maybe. How’s the optics?”

St ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION ”

Tc>m opened one a trifle and by the opening when it kited out. grunted. “Rough. I can see a lit- Rivera was upon the machine at the tle, though. My eyelids are par- time. It didn’t directly harm either boiled, mostly. Dynamite, you say ? of us. It got into the tractor, and Well—" the tractor did. By the same token, it can’t hurt a man when it’s out Tom sat back against the bank of a machine, but that’s all it wants and stretched out his legs. “I tell to do when it’s in one. O.K. ? you, Kelly, I been too blessed busy “To get on: once it’s in one ma- these last few hours to think much, chine it can’t get out again. We but there’s one thing that keeps know that because it had plenty of cornin’ back to me—somethin’ I was chances and didn’t take them. That mullin’ over long before the rest scuffle with the dipper-stick, f’r of you guys knew anything was up instance. My face woulda been at all, except that Rivera had got plenty red if it had taken over the hurt in some way I wouldn’t tell shovel—and you can bet it would you all about. But I don’t reckon have if it could.” you’ll call me crazy if I open my “I got you so far. But what are mouth now and let it all run out?” we going to do about it?” “From now on,” Kelly said fer- “That’s the thing. You see, I vently, “nobody’s crazy. After this don’t think it’s enough to wreck the

I’ll believe anything.” tractor. We might burn it, blast it, “O.K. Well, about that tractor. take whatever it was that got into What do you suppose has got into it up on the mesa.” her?” “That makes sense. But I don’t “Search me. I dunno.” see what else we can do than just “No—don’t say that. I just got break up the dozer. We haven’t an idea we can’t stop at T dunno’. got a line on actually what the thing We got to figure all the angles on is.” this thing before we know just what “I think we have. Remember I to do about it. Let’s just get this asked you all those screwy ques- thing lined up. When did it start? tions about the arc that killed Pee- On the mesa. How? Rivera was bles. Well, when that happened, I opening an old building with the recollected a flock of other things. Seven. This thing came out of One—when it got out of that hole there. Now here’s what I’m getting up there, I smelled that smell that at. We can dope these things out you notice when you’re welding; about it: It’s intelligent. It can sometimes when lightning strikes only get into a—machine and not real close.” into a man. It “Ozone,” said Kelly, “What about that? How do you “Yeah— ozone. Then, it likes know it can’t?” metal, not flesh. But most of all,

“Because it had the chance to there was that arc. Now, that was and didn’t. T was standing right absolutely screwy. You know as

KILLDOZEE! 53 well as I do—better—that an arc ing machine when Peebles got his. generator simply don’t have the Now, why did it do that just then?” push to do a thing like that. It “Reckon it didn’t like the brim- can’t kill a man, and jt can’t'throw stone smell, like it says in the Good an arc no fifty feet. But it did. Book,” said Kelly sourly. An’ that’s why I asked you if there “That’s pretty close, seems to me. could be something—a field, or Look, Kelly—this thing things. some such—that could suck current I mean, it can get sore. If it out of a generator, all at once, faster couldn’t it never vvoulda kept driv- than it could flow. Because this ing in at the shovel like that. It

thing’s electrical ; it fits all around.” can think. But if it can do all “Electronic,” said Kelly doubt- those things, then it can be scared! fully, thoughtfully: “Scared? Why should it be “I wouldn’t know. Now then. scared?” When Peebles was killed, a funny “Listen. Something went on in thing happened. Remember what that thing when the arc hit it. Chub said ? The .Seven moved back Wdiat’s that I read in a magazine —straight back, about thirty feet, once about heat—something about until it bumped into a roadroller molecules runnin’ around with their that was standing behind it. It did heads cut off when they got hot?” that with no fuel in the starting en- “Molecules do. They go into gine—without even using the start- rapid motion when heat is applied. ing engine, for that matter—and But—” with the compression valves locked “But nothin’. That machine was open! hot for four hours after that. But “Kelly, that thing in the dozer she was hot in a funny way. Not can’t do much, when you come right just around the place where the arc

down to it. It couldn’t fix itself liit, like as if it was a welding arc. up after that joy-ride on the mesa. But hot all over—from the mold- It can’t make the machine do too board to the fuel-tank cap. Hot much more than the machine can everywhere. And just as hot be- do ordinarily. What it actually can hind the final drive housings as she do, seems to me, is to make a spring was at the top of the blade where push instead of pull, like the con- the poc|

wouldn’t have to use the starting could into it, to get back from that motor! The absolute biggest job welding machin^. And after that, it’s done so far, seems to me, was she was sick. I say that because

when it walked back from that weld- in the whole time she’s had that

R4 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION ! —

whatever-ya-call-i t i« her, she’s whether that was a hunk of it, or never been near men without trying all of it rolled up into a ball. I to kill them, except for those two get the creeps again thinkin' about days after the arc hit her. She it.” had juice enough to start herself Kelly stood up. “Well, the heck

when Dennis came around with the with it. We been heatin’ our gums crank, but she still needed someone up here too long anyhow. There’s to run her till she got her strength just enough sense in what you say back.” to make me want to try something “But why didn’t she turn and nonsensical, if you see what I mean. smash up the welder when Dennis If that welder can sweat the Oi’ took her?” Nick out of that tractor, I’m on. “One of two things. She didn’t Especially from fifty feet away. have the strength, or she didn’t There should be a Dumptor around have the guts. She was scared, here somewhere; let’s move from maybe, and wanted out of there, here. Can you navigate now?” away from that thing.” “Reckon so, a little.” Tom rose “But she had all night to go back and together they followed the cut lor it!” until they came on the Dumptor.

“Still scared. Or . . . oh, that's They climbed on, cranked it up and

it ! She had other things to do first. headed toward camp. Her main idea is to kill men—there’s About half way there Kelly no other way you can figure it. It’s looked back, gasped, and putting what she was built to do. Not the his mouth close to Tom’s ear, bel- tractor—they don’t build ’em lowed against the scream of the

sweeter’n that machine ; but the motor, “Tom! ’Member what you thing that’s runnin’ it.” said about the rat in the trap bit- “What is that thing?” Kelly ing off a leg?” mused. “Coming out of that old Tom nodded. building—temple—what have you “W’ell, Daisy did too! She’s left how old is it? How long was it her blade an’ pushbeams an’ she’s

there? What kept it in there?" followin’ us in!” “What kept it in there was some funny gray stuff that lined the in- They howled into the camp, gasp- side of the buildin’,” said Tom. “It ing against the dust that followed was like rock, an’ it was like smoke. when they pulled up by the welder. “It was a color that scared you Kelly said, “Yon cast around and

to look at it, and it gave Rivera and see if you can find a drawpin to me the creeps when we got near hook that rig up to the Dumptor

it. Don’t ask me what it was. I with. I’m goin’ after some water

went up there to look at it, and it’s an’ chow!” gone. Gone from the building, Tom grinned. Imagine old Kelly anyhow. There was a little lump of forgetting that a Dumptor had no

it OB. the ground. I don’t know drawbar! He groped around to a

KILLDOZUR 55 !

toolbox, peering out of the narrow But it «’as too late. I'hc umgue slit beneath swollen lids, felt behind of the welding machine responded it and located a shackle. He climbed to that one bump too many. I'be up on tlie Dumptor, turned it around shackle junqjcd up off the hook, the and backed up to the w'elding ma- w'elder lurched wildly, slewed hard chine. He passed the shackle to the left. The tongue dropped to through the ring at tlie end of the the sand and dug in ; the machine steering tongue of the welder, rolled up on it and snapped it off, screwed in the pin and dropi>ed the finally stopped, leaning crazily sliackle over the front towing hook askews By a miracle it did not of the Dumptor. A dumptor being quite turn over. v\'har it is, having no real front and Kelly tramped on the brakes and no real rear, and direct reversing both their heads did their utmost to gears in all speeds, it was no trou- .sjiap off their shoulders. They ble to drive it “backwards” for a leaped off and ran back to the cliange. welder. It was intact, but towing

Kelly came pounding back, out of it was now out of the question. breath. “Fix it? Good. Shackle? “If there’s going to be a show- No drawbar! Daisy’s closin’ up down, it’s gotta be here.” fast ; I say let’s take the beach. The beach here was about thirty We’ll be concealed until we have 3’ards wide, the sand almost level, a good lead out o’ this pocket, and and undercut banks of sawgrass the going’s pretty fair, long as we forming the landward edge in a don’t bury this jalopy in the sand.’' series of little hummocks and head- “Good,” said Tom as they climbed lands. While Tom stayed with the on and he accepted an open tin of machine, testing starter and gen- K. “Only go easy; bump around erator contacts, Kelly walked up too mtich and the welder’ll slip off one of the little mounds, stood up the hook. An’ T somehow don’t on it and scanned the beach back want to lose it just now.” the way he had come. Suddenly They took off, zooming up the he began to shout and wave his beach. A quarter of a mile up, arms. they sighted the Seven across the “What’s got into you?” flat. It immediately turned and “It’s Al!” Kelly called back. took a course that would intercept “With the pan tractor!” them. Tom dropped what he was do- “Here she comes,” shouted Kelly, ing, and came to stand beside Kelly. ami stepped down hard on the ac- “Where’s the Seven? I can’t see.” celerator. Tom leaned over the “Turned on the beach and fol- back of the seat, keeping his C3^e lowin’ our track. .Al! Al! you on their tow. “Hey ! Take is easy little skunk, c’mere!” Watch it! Tom could now dimly make out “Hey! the pan tractor cutting across di- “Hey!” rectly toward them and the beach.

66 ASTOUNDING SCI BNG K- F) OT ION “He don’t see Daisy Etta,” re- time to stop rolling. Bucking and marked Kelly disgustedly, “or He’d jumping over the rough ground the sure be headin’ the other way.” fast machine whined for the beach. Fifty yards away A1 pulled up Tom was fumbling back to the and throttled down. Kelly shouted welder, his ears telling him better and waved to him. A1 stood up on than his eyes how close the Seven the machine, cupped his hands was—for she was certainly no around his mouth. “Where’s the nightingale, particularly without Seven ?” her exhaust stack. Kelly reached “Never mind that! Come here the machine as he did. with that tractor!” “Get behind it,” snapped Tom. “I’ll jamp the tierod with the

A1 stayed where he was. . Kelly shackle, and you see if you can’t cursed and started out after him. bunt her up into that pocket be- “You stay away from me,” he tween those two hummocks. Only said when Kelly was closer. take it easy—you don’t want to tear “I ain’t got time for you now,” up that generator. Where’s Al?” said Kelly. “Bring that tractor “Don’t ask me. He run down down to the beach.” the beach to meet Daisy.” “Where’s that Daisy Etta?” Al’s “He what?” voice was oddly strained. The whine of the two-cycle “Right behind us.” Kelly tossed drowned out Kelly’s answer, if any. a thumb over his shoulder. “On He got behind the welder and set the beach.” his blade against it. Then in a low Al’s pop eyes clicked wide almost gear, slipping his clutch a little, he audibly. He turned on his heel and slowly nudged the machine toward jumped off the machine and started the place Tom had indicated. It to run. Kelly uttered a wordless was a little hollow in between two syllable that was somehow more projecting banks. The surf and obscene than anything else he had the high-tide mark dipped inland the ever uttered, and vaulted into here to match it ; the water was only seat of the machine. “Hey!” he a few feet away. bellowed after Al’s rapidly dimin- Tom raised his arm and Kelly ishing figure. “You’re runnin’ stopped. From the other side of right into her.” A1 appeared not the projecting shelf, out of their to hear, but went pelting down the sight now, came the flat roar of the beach. Seven’s exhaust. Kelly sprang off Kelly put her into fifth gear and the tractor and went to help Tom, poured on the throttle. As the who was furiously throwing out tractor began to move he whacked coils of cable from the rack back out the master clutch, snatched the of the welder. “What’s the game?” overdrive lever back to put her into “We got to ground that Seven sixth, rammed the clutch in again, some way,” panted Tom. He threw

all so fast that she did not have the last bit of cable out to clear it

KILLDOZEE! 87 ” ” ”

of kinks and turned to the panel. out in front of him, talking a blue “How was it—about sixty volts streak. Daisy made far too much and the amix;rage on ‘special appli- racket for them to hear what he cation’ ?’’ He spun the dials, pressed was saying. the starter button. The motor re- “Do you reckon he’s got guts sponded instantly. Kelly scooped enough to stall her off for us?” up ground damp and rod holder said Tom. and tapped them together. The “If lie lias, it's the queerest thing solenoid governor picked up the load that’s happened yet on this old and the motor hummed as a good island,” Kelly breathed, “an’ that’s live spark took the jump, saying something.”

“Good,” said Tom, switching off The Seven revved up till she the generator. “Come on, Lieuten- shook, and then throttled back. She ant General Electric, figure me out ran down so low' then that they a way to ground that maverick.” thought she had shut herself down, Kelly tightened his lips, shook his but she caught on the last two revo- head. "I dunno—unless somebody lutions and began to idle quietly. actually clamps this thing on her.” And then they could hear. “No, boy, can’t do that. If one of us gets killed— Al’s voice ivas high, hysterical.

Kelly tossed the ground clamp “—-I come t’ he’p you, I come t’ idly, his lithe body taut. “Don’t he’p you, don’ kill me. I’ll he’p you give me that, Tom. You know I’m —” He took a step forward; the elected because you can’t see good dozer snorted and he fell to his enough yet to handle it. You know— knees. “I'll -wash you an’ grease you’d do it if you could. You you and change yo’ ile,” he said in He stopped short, for the steadily a high singsong. increasing roar of the approaching “The guy’s not human,” said Seven had stopped, was blatting Kelly wonderingly. away now in that extraordinary ir- “He ain’t housebroke either,” regular throttling that Daisy Etta Tom chuckled. “ affected. —lemme he’p you. I’ll fix you “Now, what’s got into her?” when you break down. —I’ll he’p Kelly broke away and scrambled you kill those other guys up the bank. “Tom!” he gasped. “She don’t need any help!” said “Tom—come up here!” Tom. Tom follo'wed, and they lay side “The louse.” growled Kelly. by side, peering out over the top of “The rotten little double-crossing the escarpment at the remarkable polecat !” He stood up. “Hey, you tableau. Al! Come out o’ that. I meah Daisy Etta was standing on the now! If she don’t get you I will, beach, near the water, not mpving. if you don’t move.” !” Before her, twenty or thirty feet .A.1 was crying now. “Shut up away, stood A1 Knowles, his arms he screamed. “I know who’s bawss

&8 ASTOUNDING SCIENOE-FICTION ”

hereabouts, an’ so do you!” He- tached it to the frame of the pan pointed at the tractor. “She’ll kill tractor. us all iff’n we don’t do what she “I’ll take it,” said Tom, and as wants !” He turned back to the ma- Kelly opened his mouth, Tom chine. “I’ll k-kill ’em fo’ you. I’ll shoved him back against the weld- wash you and shine you up and ing machine. “No time to argue,” f-fix yo’ hood. I’ll put yo’ blade he snapped, swung on to the ma-

back on. . . chine, slapped her in gear and was Tom reached out and caught off, Kelly took a step toward the Kelly’s leg as the tall man started tractor, and then his quick eye saw out, blind mad. “Git back here,” a bight of the ground cable about he barked. “What you want to do to foul a wheel of the welder. He —get killed for the privilege of stooped and threw it off, spread out pinnin’ his ears back?” the rest of it so it would pay off Kelly subsided and came back, clear. Tom, with the incredible threw himself down beside Tom, single-mindedness of the trained op- put his face in his hands. He w'as erator, watched only the black line quivering with rage. of the trailing cable on the sand “Don’t take on so,” Tom said. behind him. When it straightened, “The man’s plumb loco. You can’t he stopped. The front of the tracks argue with him any more’n you were sloshing in the gentle surf. can with Daisy, there. If he’s got He climbed off the side away from

to get his. Daisy’ll give it to him.” the Seven and tried to see. There

“Aw Tom, it ain’t that. I knew was movement, and the growl of

he ain’t worth it, but I can’t sit up her motor now running at a bit here and watch him get himself more than idle, but he could not killed. I can’t, Tom.” distinguish much. Tom thumped him on the shoul- Kelly picked up the rod-holder der, because there were simply no and went to peer around the head the protruding A1 on words to be said. Suddenly he stiff- of bank. was ened, snapped his fingers. his feet, still crooning hysterically, sidling over toward Daisy Etta, “There’s our ground,” he said Kelly ducked back, threw the urgently, pointing seaward. “The switch oil the arc generator, climbed water—the wet beach where the the bank and crawled along through surf runs. If we can get our the sawgrass paralleling the beach ground clamp out there and her — until the holder in his hand tugged somewhere near it and he knew he had reached the “Ground the pan tractor. Run end of the cable. He looked out it out into the water. It ought at the beach : measured carefully to reach partw'ay, anyhow.” — with his eye the arc he would travel

“That’s it—c’mon.” if he left iris position and. keeping They slid down tiie bank, the cable taut, went out on the snatched up the ground clamp, at- beach. At no ixiint would he come

Kri:.r,Do;?WR • 59 — ”

within seventy feet of the possessed on all fours, went over the edge of machine, let alone fifty. She had the baTik onto the beach, crouched to be drawn in closer. And she there. had to be maneuvered out to the A1 crooned, “1 love— ya, honey, 1 wet sand, or in the water love ya. ’deed I do .A.1 Knowles, encouraged by the machine’s apparent decision not to Kelly ran crouching, like a man move approached, though warily, under machine-gun fire, making and still running ofT at the mouth. liimself as small as possible and “ —we’ll kill ’em off an’ then we’ll feeling as big as a barn door. The keep it a secret and th’ bahges’ll torn-up sand where the tractor had come an’ take us offen th’ island passed w'as under Iiis feet now he ; and we’ll go to anothah job an’ kill stopped, afraid to get too much us lots mo’ ... an’ when yo’ tracks closer, afraid that a weakened, git dry an’ squeak we’ll w'et ’em badly grounded arc might leap from up with blood, and you’ll be rightly the holder in his hand and serve

king . o’ th’ hill . . look yondah, look only to alarm and infuriate the yondah, Daisy Etta, see them iheah, thing in the tractor. And just then by the otheh tractuh, theah they Al saw him. are, kill ’em, Daisy, kill ’em, Daisy, !’’ “There he screamed ; and the an’ lemnie he’p . . . heah me. Daisy, tractor pulled up short. “Behind heah — me, say you heah me ” and you! Get’m, Kill’ m, kill’ m, the motor roared in response. A1 kill’nt.” laid a timid hand on the radiator Kelly stood up almost wearily, guard, leaning far over to do it, and fury and frustration too much to the tractor still stood there grum- be borne. “In the water,” he y'elled, bling but not moving. A1 stepped because it was what his whole being back, motioned with his arm, began wanted. “Get’er in the water! !” to walk off slowly toward the pan Wet her tracks, Al tractor, looking backwards as he "Kill’m, kiU’m—” did so like a man training a dog. As the tractor started to turn, "C’mon, c’mon, theah’s one theah, there was a commotion over by the ” le’s kUl’m, kiWm, kill/m. . . pan tractor. It was Tom, jumping, And with a snort the tractor shouting, waving Iiis arms, swear- revved up and followed. ing. He ran out from behind his Kelly licked his lips without ef- machine, straight at the .Seven. fect because his tongue was dry, Daisy Etta’s motor roared and she too. The madman passed hftn, swung to meet him, Al barely danc- walking straight up the center of ing back out of the way. Tom cut the beach, and the tractor, now no sharply, sand spouting under his longer a bulldozer, followed him; pumping feet, and ran straight into and there the sand was bone dry, the water. He went out to about sun-dried, dried to powder. As the waist deep, suddenly disappeared.

tractor passed him, Kelly got up He surfaced, spluttering, still try- 80 astodnding scienob-fiotion ” —

ing to shout. Kelly took a better at all now, and the Seven w'as grip on his rod holder and rushed. standing in the surf, moving slowly Daisy Etta, in following Tom’s from side to side, backing out, crazy rush, had swung in beside ravening. Kelly held the rod-clamp the pan tractor, not fifteen feet and its trailing cable blinding be- too, now in fore him and ran straight at the away ; and she, was the surf. Kelly closed up the dis- machine. And then it came—that tance as fast as his long legs would thin, soundless bolt of energ)^ But let him; and as he approached to this time it had its full force, for within that crucial fifty feet, A1 poor old Peebles’ body had not been Knowles hit him. the ground that this swirling water A1 was frothing at the mouth, offered. Daisy Etta literally leaped gibbering. The two men hit full backwards toward him, and the wa- tilt; Al’s head caught Kelly in the ter around her tracks spouted up- midriff as he missed a straightarm, ward in hot steam. The sound of and the breath went out of him in her engine ran up and up, broke, one great whoosh! Kelly went took on the rhythmic, uneven beat down like tall timber, the whole of a swing drummer. She threw world turned to one swirling red- herself from side to side like a cat gray haze. A1 flung himself on the with a bag over its head. Kelly bigger man, clawing, smacking, too stepped a little closer, hoping for berserk to ball his fists. another bolt to come from the clamp “Ah’m go’ to kill you,” he gur- in his hand, but there was none, gled. “She’ll git one. I’ll git for — !” t’other, an’ then she’ll know “The circuit breaker cried Kelly covered his face with his Kelly. arms, and as some wind was sucked He threw the holder up on the at last into his laboring lungs, he deck plate of the Seven in front of flung them upward and sat up in the seat, and ran across the little one mighty surge. A1 was hurled beach to the welder. He reached upward and to one side, and as he behind the switchboard, got his hit the ground Kelly reached out a thumb on the contact hinge and long arm, and twisted his fingers jammed it down. into the man’s coarse hair, raised him up, and came across with his Daisy Etta leaped again, and then her motor other fist in a punch that would again, and suddenly have killed him had it landed stopped. Heat in turbulent waves square. But A1 managed to jerk to blurred the air over her. The lit- starting motor one side enough so that it only tle gas tank for the amputated a cheek. He fell and lay went out with a cannon’s roar, and fuel tank, still holding still. Kelly scrambled madly the big Diesel oil fol- around in the sand for his welding- thirty-odd gallons of itself open rather rod holder, found it and began to lowed. It puffed great run again. He couldn’t see Tom than exploded, and threw a KILLDOZER! 61 — —

curtain of flame over the ground beach. The Seven had run right to behind the machine. Motor or no the edge of it, had kept Tom there motor, then, Kelly distinctly saw out of his depth and the tractor shudder convulsively. He flailed wildly, struck out for There was a crawling movement the beach, so near and so hard to of the whole frame, a slight wave get to. He gulped a stinging lung- of motion away from the fuel tank, ful of brine, and only the lovely approaching the front of the ma- shock of his knee striking solid chine, and moving upward from beach kept him from giving up to the tracks. It culminated in the the luxury of choking to death. crown of the radiator core, just in Sobbing with effort, he dragged front of the radiator cap; and sud- Tom’s dead weight inshore and denly an area of six or seven square clear of the surf. It was then that inches literally blurred around the he became conscious of a child’s edges. For a second, then, it was shrill weeping; for a mad moment normal, and finally it slumped he thought it was he himself, and molten, and liquid metal ran down then he looked and saw that it the sides, throwing out little sparks was A1 Knowles. He left Tom and as it encountered what was left of went over to the broken creature. the cliarred paint. And only then “Get up, you,’’ he snarled. The was Kelly conscious of agony in weeping only got louder. Kelly his left ,hand. He looked down. rolled him over on his back—he The welding machine’s generator was quite unresisting—and belted had stopped, though the motor was him back and forth across the still turning, having smashed the mouth until A1 began to choke. friable coupling on its drive shaft. Then he hauled him to his feet and Smoke poured from the generator, led him over to Tom. which had become little more than “Kneel down, scum. Put one of a heap of slag. Kelly did not your knees between his knees.” Al scream, though, until he looked and stood still. Kelly hit him again saw what had happened to his and he did as he was told. hand “Put your hand on his lower When he could see straight again, ribs. There. O. K. Lean, you he called for Tom, and there was rat. Now sit back.” He sat down, no answer. At last he saw some- holding his left wrist in his right thing out in the water, and plunged hand, letting the blood drop from in it. after The splash of cold salt the ruined hand. “Lean. Hold it water on his left hand he hardly —sit back. Lean. Sit. Lean. Sit.” felt, for the numbness of shock had Soon Tom sighed and began to set in. He grabbed at Tom’s shirt vomit weakly, and after that he was with his good hand, and then the all right. ground seemed to pull itself out from under his feet. That was it, This is the story of Daisy Etta, then—a deep hole right off the the bulldozer that went mad and et ASTOUNDING SOIENCE-PICTION had a life of its own, and not the Knowles was tied up in the camp, story of the flat-top Marokuru of because they had heard him raving tlie Imperial Japanese Navy, which in his sleep, and it seemed he could has been told elsewhere. But there not believe that Daisy was dead and is a connection. You will remem- he still wanted to go around kill- ber how the Marokuru was cut off ing operators for her. They knew from its base by the concentrated that there must be an investigation, attack on Truk, how it slipped far and they knew just how far their to the south and east and was sunk story would go ; and having escaped nearer to our shores than any other a monster like Daisy Etta, life was Jap warship in the whole course of far too sweet for them to want to the war. And you will remember be shot for sabotage. And murder. how a squadron of five planes, hav- The first stick of bombs struck ing been separated by three verti- three hundred yards behind them at cal miles of rvater from their flight the edge • of the camp, and at the deck, turned east wdth their bomb- same instant a plane w'histled low loads and droned away for a sui- over their heads, and that was the cide mission. You read that they first they knew about it. They ran bombed a minor airfield in the out- to A1 Knowles and untied his feet side of Panama’s far-flung de- and the three of them headed for fenses, and all hands crashed in the the bush. They found refuge, best sacrificial fashion. strangely enough, inside the mound Well, that w'as no airfield, no mat- where Daisy Etta had first met her ter what it might have looked like possessor. from the air. It rvas simply a “Bless their black little hearts,” roughly graded runw'ay, white marl said Kelly as he and Tom stood on against brown scrub-grass. the bluff and looked at the flaming wreckage of a camp and five

'I'he planes came two days after medium bombers below them. And the death of Daisy Etta, as Tom he took the statement they had been and Kelly sat in the shadow of the sweating out and tore it across. ?” pile of fuel drums, down in the “But what about him said Tom, coolth of the swag that Daisy had pointing at A1 Knowles, who was dug there to fuel herself. They sitting on the ground, playing with were poring over paper and pen- his fingers. “He’ll still spill the

cil, trying to complete the impos- whole thing, no matter if we do try sible task of making a written state- to blame it all on the bombing.” tnent of what had happened on the “What’s the matter with tliat?” island, and why they and their com- said Kelly. pany had failed to complete their Tom thought a minute, then contract. They had found Chub grinned. “Why, nothing! That’s and Harris, and had buried them just the sort of thing they’ll expect next to the other three. A1 from him!” THE END.

KlEfcDOEHRi 63 Desertion

bv CLIFFORD D. SIxMAK tf

Exploring a really alien planet is almost impossible— it taJees a form adapted to the conditions of the planet. Bat even when men •were given that properly adapted form, they didn’t come back—

Mlustrated by WHHamB

Four men, two by two, had gone the desk of Kent Fowler, head of into the howling maelstrom that Dome No. 3. Jovian Survey Com- was Jupiter and had not returned. mission. They had walked into the keening Under Fowler’s desk, old Towser gale—or rather, they had loped, scratched a flea, then settled down bellies low against the ground, wet to sleep again. sides gleaming in the rain. Harold Allen, F’owler saw with For they did not go in the shape a sudden pang, was young—too of men. young. He had the easy confidence Now the fifth man stood before of youth, the straight back and

A STOUNDING .SCIENCE-FICTION — —

straight eyes, the face of one who verted without mishap. They left never had known fear. And that the converter in apparently perfect' was strange. For men in the domes condition. You will be in thor- of Jupiter did know fear—fear and oughly competent hands. Miss Stan- humility. It was hard for Man to le3' is the best qualified conversion reconcile his puny self with the operator in the Solar System. She mighty forces of the monstrous has had experience on most of the planet. other planets. That is why she’s “You understand,” said Fowler, here.” “that you need not do this. You Allen grinned at the woman and understand that you need not go.” Fowler saw something flicker across It was formula, of course. The Miss Stanley’s face—something other four had been told the same that might have been pity, or rage thing, but they had gone. This or just plain fear. But it was gone fifth one, Fowler knew, would go again and she was smiling back at too. But suddenly he felt a dull the youth who stood before the hope stir within him that Allen desk. Smiling in that prim, school- wouldn’t go. teacher! sh way she had of smiling, “When do I start?” asked Allen. almost as if she hated herself for There was a time when Fowler doing it. might have taken quiet pride in “I shall be looking forward,” that answer, but not now. He said Allen, “to my conversion.” frowned briefly. And the way he said it, he made “Within the hour,” he said. it all a joke, a vast, ironic joke.

Allen stood waiting, quietly. But it was no joke. “Four other men have gone out It was serious business, deadly and have not returned,” said Fow- serious. Upon these tests, Fowler ler. “You know that, of course. knew, depended the fate of men on We want you to return. We don’t Jupiter. If the tests succeeded, the want you going off on any heroic resources of the giant planet would rescue expedition. The main thing, be thrown open. Man would take the only thing, is that you come over Jupiter as he already had taken back, that you prove man can live over the other smaller planets. And in a Jovian form. Go to the first if they failed survey stake, no farther, then come If they failed, Man would con- back. Don’t take any chances. tinue to be chained and hampered Don’t investigate anything. Just by the terrific pressure, the greater come back.” force of gravity, the weird chem- Allen nodded. “I understand all istry of the planet. He would con- that.” tinue to be shut within the domes, “Miss Stanley will operate the unable to set actual foot upon the converter,” Fowler went on. “You planet, unable to see it with direct, need have no fear on that particular unaided vision, forced to rely upon point. The other men were con- the awkward tractors and the tele-

DESEETI02* 65 ”

visor, forced to work witlr clumsy “Is there anything else?” asked tools and mechanisms or through Allen. the medium of robots that them- Fowler shook his head. “Per- selves were clumsy. haps there’s something you want to For Man, unprotected and in his do,” he said. “Perhaps you— natural form, would be blotted out He had meant to say write a by Jupiter’s terrific pressure of fif- letter and he was glad he caught teen thousand pounds per square himself quick enough so he didn’t

inch, pressure that made Terres- say it. trial sea bottoms seem a vacuum by Allen looked at his watch. “I’ll comparison. be there on time,” he said. He Even the strongest metal Earth- swung around and headed for the men could devise couldn’t exist un- door. der pressure such as that, under the pressure and the alkaline rains that Fowler knew Miss Stanley was forever swept the planet. It grew watching him and he didn’t want brittle and flaky, crumbling like to turn and meet her eyes. He fum- clay, or it ran away in little streams bled with a sheaf of papers on the and puddles of ammonia salts. Only desk before him. by stepping up the toughness and “How long are you going to keep strength of that metal, by increas- this up?” asked Miss Stanley and ing its electronic tension, could it she bit off each word with a vicious be made to withstand the weight of snap. thousands of miles of swirling, Ele swung around in his chair choking gases that made up the at- and faced her then. Her lips were mosphere. And even when that drawn into a straight, thin line, her was done, everything had to be hair seemed skinned back from her coated with tough quartz to keep forehead tighter than ever, giving away the rain—the bitter rain that her face that queer, almost startling was liquid ammonia. death-mask quality. Fowler sat listening to the en- He tried to make his voice cool gines in the sub-floor of the dome. and level. “As long as there’s any Engines that ran on endlessly, the need of it,” he said. “As long as dome never quiet of them. They there’s any hope.” had to run and keep on running. “You’re going to keep on sen- For if they stopped the jxiwer flow- tencing them to death,” she said. ing into the metal walls of the dome “You’re going to keep marching would stop, the electronic tension them out face to face with Jupiter. would ease up and that would be You’re going to sit in here safe and the end of everything. comfortable and send them out to Towser roused himself under die.” Fowler’s desk and scratched another “There is no room for sentimen- flea, his leg thumping hard against tality, Miss Stanley,” Fowler said, the floor. trying to keep the note of anger

6« ASTOtJNDTNO SCIENCE-FICTION ”

from his voice. “You know as “Some day,” she said, “you will well as I do why we’re doing this. be a great man. You never let a You realize that Man in his own chance go by. This is your chance. form simply cannot cope with Jupi- You knew it was when this dome ter. The only answer is to turn was picked for the tests. If you tnen into the sort of things that put it through, you’ll go up a notch can cope with it. We’ve done it on or two. No matter how many men the other planets. may die, you’ll go up a notch or “If a few men die, but we finally two.” succeed, the price is small. Through “Miss Stanley,” he said and his the ages men have thrown away voice was curt, “young Allen is go- their lives on foolish things, for ing out soon. Please be sure that foolish reasons. Why should we your machine— hesitate, then, at a little death in a “My machine,” she told him, thing as great as this ?’’ icily, “is not to blame. It operates Miss Stanley sat stiff and along the co-ordinates the biologists straight, hands folded in her lap, set up.” the lights shining on her graying He sat hunched at his desk, lis- hair and Fowler, watching her, tening to her footsteps go down the tried to imagine what she might corridor. feel, what she might be thinking. What she said was true, of course. He wasn’t exactly afraid of her, The biologists had set up the co- but he didn’t feel quite comfort- ordinates. But the biologists could able when she was around. Those be wrong. Just a hairbreath of dif- sharp blue eyes saw too much, her ference, one iota of digression and hands looked far too competent. the converter would be sending out She should be somebody’s Aunt something that wasn’t the thing sitting in a rocking chair with her they meant to send. A mutant that knitting needles. But she wasn’t. might crack up, go haywire, come She was the lop-notch conversion unstuck under some condition or unit operator in the Solar System stress of circumstance wholly un- and she didn’t like the way he was suspected. doing things. For Man didn’t know much about “There is something wrong, Mr. what was going on outside. Only Fowler,” she declared. what his instruments told him was “Precisely,” agreed Fowler. going on. And the samplings of “That’s why I’m sending young those happenings furnished by those Allen out alone. He may find out instruments and mechanisms had what it is.” been no more than samplings, for “And if he doesn’t?” Jupiter was unbelievably large and “Fil send someone else.” the domes were very few. She rose slowly from her chair, Even the work of the biologists in started toward the door, then getting the data on the Lopers, ap- stopped before his desk. parently the highest form of Jovian

DESERTION AST—3P 07 life, had involved more than three minor defect. If there were, the years of intensive study and after biologists said, it would take years that two years of checking to make to find it. sure. Work that could have been And Fowler knew that they were done on Earth in a week or two. right. But work that, in this case, couldn’t So there were five men now in- be done on Earth at all, for one stead of four and Harold Allen had couldn’t take a Jovian life form to walked out into Jupiter for nothing Earth. The pressure here on Jupi- at all. It was as if he’d never gone ter couldn’t be duplicated outside of so far as knowledge was concerned. Jupiter and at Earth pressure and Fowler reached across his desk temj>erature the Lopers would sim- and picked up the personal file, a ply have disappeared in a puff of thin sheaf of paper neatly clipped gas.^ together. It was a thing he dreaded Vet it was work that had to be but a thing he had to do. Some- done if Man ever hoped to go how the reason for these strange about Jupiter in the life form of the di.sappearances must be found. And Lopers. For before the converter there, was no other way than to could change a man to another life send out more men. form, every detailed physical char- Fie sat for a moment listening acteristic of that life form must to the howling of the wind above be known—surely and positively, the dome, the everlasting thunder- with no chance of mistake. ing gale that swept across the planet in boiling, twisting wrath. Allen did not come back. Was there some threat out there, The tractors, combing the nearby he asked himself ? Some danger terrain, found no trace of him, un- they did not know about? Some- less the skulking thing reported by thing that lay in wait and gobbled one of the drivers had been the up the Lopers, making no distinc- missing Earthman in Loper form. tion between Lopers that were bona The biologists sneered their most fide and Lopers that were men ? To accomplished academic sneers when the gobblers, of course, it would Fowler suggested the co-ordinates make no difference. might be wrong. Carefully they Or had there been a basic fault pointed out, the co-ordinates in selecting the Lopers as the type worked. When a man was put into of life best fitted for existence on the converter and the switch was the surface of the planet? The evi- thrown, the man became a Loper. dent intelligence of the Lop'ers, he He left the machine and moved knew, had been one factor in that away, out of sight, into the soupy determination. For if the thing atmosphere. Man became did not have capacity Some quirk, Fowler had sug- for intelligence, Man could not for gested; some tiny deviation from long retain his own intelligence in the thing a Loper should be, some such a guise.

6S ASTOUNDING SCIENC E -F I CT ION Had the biologists let that one the desk, bone between his paws. factor weigh too heavily, using it For a long moment his rheumy

to offset some other factor ^ that old eyes regarded his master and might be unsatisfactory, even dis- Fowler reached down a hand to astrous? It didn’t seem likely. Stiff- ruffle a ragged ear. necked as they might be, the biolo- “You still like me, Towser?” gists knew their business. Fowler a.sked and Towser thumped Or was the whole thing impos- his tail. sible, doomed from the very start? “You’re the only one,” said Fow- Conversion to other life forms had ler. “All through the dome they’re worked on other planets, but that cussing me. Calling me a murderer, did. not necessarily mean it would more than likely.” work on Jupiter. Perhaps Man’s He straightened and swung back intelligence could not function cor- to the desk. His hand reached out rectly through the sensory appara- tus provided Jovian life. Perhaps the l.opers w^erc so alien there was no common ground for human knowledge and the Jovian concep- tion of existence to meet and work together. Or the fault might lie with Man, be inherent with the race. Some mental aberration wdiich, coupled with what they found outside, wouldn’t let them come back. Al-

though it might not be an aberra- tion, not in the human sense. Per- haps just one ordinary human men- tal trait, accepted as commonplace on Earth, would be so violently at odds with Jovian existence that it would blast all human intelligence and sanity.

Claws I'attled and clicked down the corridor. Listening to them, Powder smiled w^anly. It w'as Tow- ser coining back from the kitchen, where he had gone to see his friend, the cook. Towser came into the room, car- rying a bone. He wagged his tail at Fowler and flopped down beside

D15.SERTION ”

and picked up the file. heartedly on the bone. Towscr’s Bennett? Bennett had a girl teeth were getting bad. waiting for him back on Earth. “Miss Stanley,” said Miss Stan- Andrews? Andrews was plan- ley’s voice. ning on going back to Mars Tech “Just wanted to tell you. Miss just as soon as he earned enough to Stanley, to get ready for two more.” see him through a year. “Aren’t you afraid,” asked Miss Olson? Olson was nearing pen- Stanley, “that you’ll run out of sion age. All the time telling the them? Sending out one at a time, boys how he was going to settle they’d last longer, give you twice down and grow roses. the satisfaction.”

Carefully, Fowler laid the file “One of them,” said Fowler, back on the desk. “will be a dog.” !” Sentencing men to death. Miss “A dog Stanley had said that, her pale lips “Yes, Towser.” scarcely moving in her parchment He heard the quick, cold rage face. Marching men out to die that iced her voice. “Your own while he, Fowler, sat here safe and dog! He’s been with you all these comfortable. years—

They were saying it all through “That’s the point,” said Fowler. the dome, no doubt, especially since “Towser would be unhappy if I left Allen had failed to return. They him behind.” wouldn’t say it to his face, of course.

Even the' man or men he called be- It was not the J upiter he had fore this desk and told they were known through the televisor. He the next to go, wouldn’t say it to had expected it to be different, but him. not like this. He had expected a

They would only say : “When do hell of ammonia rain and stinking we start?” For that was formula. fumes and the deafening, thunder- But he would see it in their eyes. ing tumult of the storm. He had He picked up the file again. Ben- expected swirling clouds and fog nett, Andrews, Olson. There were and the snarling flicker of mon- others, but there was no use in go- strous thunderbolts. ing on. He had not expected the lashing Kent Fowler knew that he downpour would be reduced to couldn’t do it, couldn’t face them, drifting purple mist that moved like couldn’t send more men out to dfe. fleeing shadows over a red and pur- He leaned forward and flipped up ple sward. He had not even guessed the toggle on the intercommuni- the snaking bolts of lightning would cator. be flares of pure ecstacy across a “Yes. Mr. Fowler.” painted sky. “Miss Stanley, please.” Waiting for Towser, Fowler He waited for Miss Stanley, list- flexed the muscles of his body, ening to Towser chewing half- amazed at the smooth, sleek strength

70 ASTOUNl'ING SCIENCE-FICTION —

he found. Not a bad body, he de- them. There was no way to say cided, and grimaced at remember- them. He had nothing to say them ing how he had pitied the Lopers with. when he glimpsed them through the For a moment his mind swirled in television screen. muddy terror, a blind fear that ed-

For it had been hard to imagine died in little puffs of panic through a living organism based upon am- his brain. monia and hydrogen rather than How did Jovians talk? How upon water and oxygen, hard to be- Suddenly he was aware of Tow- lieve that such a form of life could ser, intensely aware of the bum- know the same quick thrill of life bling, eager friendliness of the that humankind could know. Hard shaggy animal that had followed to conceive of life out in the soupy him from Earth to many planets. maelstrom that was Jupiter, not As if the thing that was Towser knowing, of course, that through had reached out and for a moment Jovian eyes it was no soupy mael- sat within his brain. strom at all. And out of the bubbling welcome The wind brushed against him that he sensed, came words. with what seemed gentle fingers and “Hiya, pal.” he remembered with a start that by Not words really, better than Earth standards the wind was a words. Thought symbols in his roaring gale, a two-himdred-mile an brain, communicated thought sym- hour howler laden with deadly bols that had shades of meaning gases. words could never have. Pleasant scents seeped into his “Hiya, Towser,” he said. body. And yet scarcely scents, for ”1 feel good,” said Towser. “Like it was tiot the sense of smell as he I was a pup. Lately I’ve been feel- remembered it. It was as if his ing pretty punk. Legs stiffening whole being was soaking up the up on me and teeth wearing down sensation of lavender—and yet not to almost nothing. Hard to mum- lavender. It was something, he ble a bone with teeth like that. Be- knew, for which he had no word, sides, the fleas give me hell. Use undoubtedly the first of many enig- to be I never paid much attention mas in terminology. For the words to them. A couple of fleas more or he knew, the thought symbols that less never meant much in my early served him as an Earthman would days.” — not serve him as a Jovian. “But . . . but ” Fowler’s The lock in the side of the dome thoughts tumbled awkwardly. opened and Towser came tumbling “You’re talking to me!” out—at least he thought it must be “Sure thing,” said Tow.ser. “I Towser. alv/ays talked to you, but you He started to call to the dog, couldn’t hear me. I tried to say his mind shaping the words he things to you, but I couldn’t make meant to say. But he couldn’t say the grade.”

DESEKTION 71 . ”

f “1 understood you sometimes,” cliff was white because it was oxy- Fowler said. gen, solidified. “Not very well,” said Towser. He skidded to a stop beside Tow- “You knew when I wanted food and ser where tlie waterfall broke into

' v\ lK-n I wanted a drink and when I a glittering rainbow of many hun- wanted out, but that’s about all you dred colors. Literally many hun- ever managed.” dred, for here, he saw, was no “I’m sorry,” Fowler said. shading of one primary to another "Forget it,” Towser told him. as human beings saw. Init a clear- “I'll race you to the cliff.” cut selectivity tjiat broke the prism

For the first time, Fowler saw down to its last ultimate classifica- the cliff, apparently many miles tion. away, but with a strange crystalline “The music,” said Towser. beauty that sparkled in the shadow “Yes, what about it?" of the many-colored clouds. “The music,” said Tow.ser, “is Fowler— hesitated. “It’s a long vibrations. Vibrations of water way falling.” “All, come on,” said Towser and “But Towser, you don’t know even as he said it he started for the about vibrations.” cliff. “Yes, I do,” contended Towser. “It just popped into my head.” Fowler followed, testing his legs, Fowler gulped mentally. “Just !” testing the strength in that new body popped of his, a bit doubtful at first, amazed And suddenly, within his own a moment later, then running with head, he held a formula—the form- a sheer joyousness that was one ula for a process that would make with the red and purple sward, with metal to withstand the pressure of the drifting smoke of the rain across Jupiter. the land. He stared, astounded, at the As he ran the consciousness of waterfall and swiftly his mind took music came to him, a music that the many colors and placed them in beat into his body, that surged their exact sequence in the spec- throughout his being, that lifted trum, Just like that. Just out of him on wings of silver speed. Music blue sky. Out of nothing, for he like bells might make from some knew nothing either of metals or of steeple on a sunny, springtime hill. colors. As the cliff drew nearer the mu- “Towser,” he cried. “Towser, sic deepened and filled the universe something’s happening to us!” with a spray of magic sound. And “Yeah, I know,” said Towser. he knew the music came fi'om the “It’s our brains,” said Fowler. tumbling waterfall that feathered “We’re using them, all of them, down the face of the shining cliff. down to the last hidden corner. Only, he knew, it was no water- Using them to figure out thit^s we fall, but an ammonia-fall and the should have known all the time.

72 ASTOUNDING SO I EN.OE -F ICTION Maybe the brains of Earth things learn a few of the things we are naturally are slow and foggy. to know—a few of the things that Maybe we are the morons of the were kept from us as human beings, universe. Maybe we are fixed so perhaps because we were human we have to do things the hard way.” beings. Because our human bodies And, in the new sharp clarity of were poor bodies. Poorly equipped thought that seemed to grip him, for thinking, poorly equipped in he knew that it would not only be certain senses that one has to have the matter of colors in a w'aterfall to know. Perhaps even lacking in or metals that would resist the pres- certain senses that are necessary to sure of Jupiter, he sensed other true knowledge.” things, things not yet quite clear. He stared back at the dome, a A vague whispering that hinted of tiny black thing dwarfed by the dis- greater things, of mysteries beyond tance. the pale of human thought, beyond Back there were men who even the pale of human imagina- couldn’t see the beauty that was tion. Mysteries, fact, logic built Jupiter. Men who thought that on reasoning. Things that any brain swirling clouds and lashing rain ob- should know if it used all its rea- scured the face of the planet. Un- soning powei'. seeing human eyes. Poor eyes. “We’re still mostly Earth,” he Eyes that could not see the beauty said. “We’re ju.st beginning to in the clouds, that could not see

ProducecI By The Famous Gillette Blue Blade

DESERTION 7* ” ”

through the storms. Bodies that the compelling sense that here lay could not feel the thrill of trilling a life of fullness and of knowledge. music stemming from the rush of That, he knew, was why they had broken water. not returned. Men who walked alone, in ter- “I won’t go back,” said Towser. rible loneliness, talking with their “We can’t let them down,” said tongue like Boy Scouts wigwag- Fowler. ging out their messages, unable to Fowler took a step or two, back reach out and touch one another’s toward the dome, then stopped. mind as he could reach out and Back to the dome. Back to that touch Towser’s mind. Shut off for- aching, poison-laden body he had ever from that personal, intimate left. It hadn’t seemed aching be- contact with other living things. fore, but now he knew it was. He, Fowler, had expected terror Back to the fuzzy brain. Back inspired by alien things out here on to muddled thinking. Back to the the surface, had expected to cower flapping mouths that formed signals before the threat of unknown others understood. Back to eyes things, had steeled himself against that now would be worse than no disgust of a situation that was not sight at all. Back to squalor, back of Earth. to crawling, back to ignorance. But instead he had found some- “Perhaps some day.” he .said, thing greater than Man had ever muttering to himself. known. A swifter, surer body. A “We got a lot to do and a lot sense of exhilaration, a deeper sense to see,” said Towser. “We got— a of life. A sharper mind. A world lot to learn. We’ll find things of beauty that even the dreamers Yes, they could find things. Civ- of the Earth had not yet imagined. ilizations, perhaps. Civilizations that would make the civilization of ‘‘Let’s get going,” Towser urged. Man seem puny by comparison. ‘‘Where do you want to go?” Beau^ and more important—an un- “Anywhere,” said Towser. “Just derstanding of that beauty. And a start going and see where we end comradeship no one had ever known

up. I have a feeling . . . well, a before—that no man, no dog had feeling— ever known before. “Yes, I know,” said Fowler. And life. The quickness of life For he had the feeling, too. The after what seemed a drugged exist- feeling of high destiny. A certain ence. sense of greatness. A knowledge “I can’t go back,” said Tow.ser. that somewhere off beyond the hori- “Nor I,” said Fowler. zons lay adventure and things “They would turn me back into greater than adventure. a dog,” said Towser.

Those other five had felt it, too. “And me,” said I-’owler, “l>ack Had felt the urge to go and see. into a man,” THE END.

74 ASTOUNDING SC I ENC B-Fl CT I ON When The Bough Breaks

by LEWIS PADGETT

The hoy was a super-baby. His parents didii’t know it, though, till the strange little servants came back through time to set up a strange sort of school—and a strange sort of inemtable dilemma.

Illustrated by Williams

They were surprised at getting landlords presumably expected par- the apartment, what with high rents thenogenesis in their tenants, if that and written-in clauses in the lease, was what she meant. Anyhow, it and Joe Calderon felt himself lucky was where an organism .split in two to be only ten minutes’ subway ride and the result was two mature speci- from the University. His wife, mens. Calderon grinned, said, "Bi- Myra, fluffed up her red hair in nary fission, chump,” and watched a distracted fashion and said that young Alexander, aged eighteen

WHEfJ THE BODGH BB.BAKS 76 —

months, backing up on all fours sity. Myra was a rather fragile red- across the carpet, preparatory to as- head, with a tilted nose and sardonic suming a standing position on his red-brown eyes. She made depre- tat bowlegs. catory noises. It was a pleasant apartment, at “If we can get a maid. Other- that. into it times, wise I’ll , The sun came at char.” and there were more rooms than “You sound like a lost soul,” they had any right to expect, for Calderon said. “What do you the price. The next-door neighbor, mean, you’ll char?" a billowy blonde who talked of little “Like a charwoman, Sweep, cook, excejrt her migraine, said that it clean. Babies are a great trial.

M'as hard to keep tenants in 4-D. It Still, they’re worth it.’’ wasn't exactly haunted, but it had “Not in front of Alexander. the queerest visitors. The last les- He’ll get above himself.’’ see. an insurance man who drank The doorbell rang. Calderon un- heavily, moved out one day talking coiled himself, wandered vaguely about little men who came ringing across the room, and opened the the bell at all hours asking for a door. He blinked at nothing. Then Mr. Pott, or somebody like that. he lowered his gaze somewhat, and Not until some time later did Joe what he saw was sufficient to make identify Pott with Cauldron—or him stare a little. Calderon. Four tiny men were standing in

They were sitting on the couch the hall. That is, they were tiny ill a pleased manner, looking at below' the brows. Their craniums Alexander. He was quite a baby. were immense, watermelon large Like all infants, he had a collar of and rvatermelon shaped, or else they fat at the back of his neck, and his were w'earing abnormally huge hel- legs, Calderon said, were like two mets of glistening metal. Their vast and trunkless limbs of stone faces w'cre wizened, peaked tiny at least they gave that effect. The masks that w'ere nests of lines and eye stopped at their incredible bulg- W'rinkles. Their clothes were gar- ing pinkness, fascinated. Alexan- ish, unpleasantly colored, and der laughed like a fool, rose to his seemed to be made of paper. feet, and staggered drunkenly to- “Oh ?” Calderon said blankly. ward his parents, muttering unin- Swift looks were exchanged telligible gibberish. “Madman,” among the four. One of them said, Myra said fondly, and tossed the “Are ?’’ you ‘Joseph Calderon child a floppy velvet pig of whom “Yeah.” he was enamored. “We,” said the mo.st wrinkled “So we're all set for the winter,” of the quartet, “are your son’s de- Calderon said. He was a tall, thin, scendents. He’s a super child. harassed-looking man, a fine re- We’re here to educate him.” search physicist, and very much in- “Yes,” Calderon said. “Yes, of terested in his work at the Univer- course, I . . . listen!"

73 ASTOUN0IXG SCIBNC’E-FICTION ” ”

"To what?”— none of that in 2450.” "Super Calderon sighed. “No,— I mean "There he is,” another dwarf it. A gag’s a gag. But cried. “It’s Alexander! We’ve hit "Time and again we’ve tried. In the right time at last 1” He scuttled 1940, 1944, 1947—all around this past Calderon’s legs and into the era. We were either too early or room. Calderon made a few futile too late. But now we’ve hit on the snatches, biit the small men easily right time-sector. It’s our job to evaded him. When he turned, they educate Alexander. You should were gathered around Alexander. feel proud of being his parents. We Myra had drawn uj) her legs under worship you, you know. Father her and was watching with an and mother of the new race.” amazed expression. “Tuh!” Calderon said. "Come !” “Look at that,” a dwarf said. off it “See his potential tefeetzie?” It “They need proof, Dobish,” sounded like tefeetzie. someone said. “Remember, this is “But his skull, Bordent,” another their first inkling that Alexander is put in. “That’s the important part. homo superior.” The vyrings are almost perfectly “Homo nuts,” Myra said. “Alex- coblastably.” ander’s a perfectly normal baby.'^ “Beautiful,” Bordent acknowl- “He’s perfectly supernormal,” edged. He leaned forward. Alex- Dobish said. "We’re his dc.scend- ander reached forward into the nest ents.” of wrinkles, seized Bordent’s nose, “That makes you a superman,” and twisted painfully. Bordent Calderon said skeptically, eyeing

bore it stoically until the grip re- the small man. laxed. “Not in toto. There aren’t many “Undeveloped,” he said toler- of the X Free type. The biological antly. “We’ll develop him.” norm is specialization. Only a few are straight-line super. Some spe- Myra sprang from the couch, cialize in logic, others in vervainity, picked up her child, and stood at others—like us—are guides. If we bay, facing the little men. “Joe,” were X Free supers, you couldn’t she said, “are you going to stand stand there and talk to us. Or look for this? Who are these bad-man- at us. We’re only parts. Those

nered goblins?” like - Alexander are the glorious “Lord knows,” Calderon said. whole.” He moistened his lips. “What kind “Oh, send them away,” Myra of a gag is that? Who sent you?” said, getting tired of it. “I fee! “Alexander,” Bordent said. like a Thurber woman.”

“From the year . . . ah . . . about Calderon nodded. “O.K. Blow, 2450, reckoning roughly. He’s prac- gentlemen. Take a pow'de^ I mean tically immortal. Only violence can it.”

kill one of the Supers, and there’s “Yes,” Dobish said, “they need

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS 71 ”

proof. What’ll we do ? Skyskinate ?” his first lesson. Have you got the “Too twisty/’ Bordent objected. basics, Finn?” “Object lesson, eh? The stiller.’’ “In the bag.” Finn extracted a “Stiller?” Myra asked. foot-long bag from his garments. Bordent took an object from his Things came out of that bag. They paper clothes and spun it in his came out incredibly. Soon the car- hands. His fingers were all double- pet was littered with stuff—prob- jointed. Calderon felt a tiny elec- lematical in design, nature, and use. tric shock go through him. Calderon recognized a tesseract. “Joe,” Myra said, white-faced. The fourth dwarf, whose name, “I can’t move.” it turned out, was Quat, smiled “Neither can—I. Take it easy. consolingly at the distressed par- This is . . . it’s ” He slowed and ents. “You watch. You can’t stopped. learn you’ve not got the potential. ; “Sit down,” Bordent said, still You’re homo sap.s. But Alexander, twirling the object. Calderon and now— Myra backed up to the couch and Alexander was in one of his sat down. Their tongues froze with moods. Fie was diabolically gay. the rest of them. With the devil-possession of all Dobish came over, clambered up, babies, he refused to collaborate. and pried Alexander out of his Fie crept rapidly backwards. Fie mother’s grip. Horror moved in burst into loud, squalling sobs. He her eyes. regarded his feet with amazed joy. “We won’t hurt him,” Dobish Fie stuffed his fist into his mouth said, “We just want to give him and cried bitterly at the result. Fie ” — ”

talked about invisible things in a same time as the original visitation, soft, cryptic monotone. He punched they were with Alexander in a the- Dobish in the eye. ater, watching the latest technicolor The little men had inexhaustible film. The four little men could patience. Two hours later they scarcely find them here were through. Calderon couldn’t Calderon felt Myra stiffen, and see that Alexander had learned even as he turned, he suspected the much. worst. Myra sprang up, her breath Bordent twirled the object again. catching. Her fingers tightened on He nodded affably, and led the re- his arm. treat. The four little men went out “He’s gone!” of the apartment, and a moment “G-gone?” later Calderon and Myra could “He just vanished. I was hold- move. ing him . . . let’s get out of here.” She jumped up, staggering on “Maybe you dropped him,” Cal- numbed legs, seized Alexander, and deron said inanely, and lit a match. collapsed on the couch. Calderon There were ciies from behind. rushed to the door and flung it open. Myra was already pushing her way The hall— was empty. toward the aisle. There were no “Joe ” Myra said, her voice babies under the seat, and Calderon small and afraid. Calderon came caught up with his wife in the back and smoothed her hair. He lobby. looked down at the bright fuzzy “He disappeared,” Myra w’as head of Alexander. babbling. “Like that. Maybe he’s “Toe. We’ve got to—do some- in the future. Joe, what’ll we do?” thing.” Calderon, through some miracle, don’t know,” he said. “If it “I — got a taxi. “We’ll go home. That’.s happened the most likely place. I h(y)e.’’ “It happened. They took those “Yes. Of course it is. Give me things with them. Alexander. Oh!” a cigarette.” “They didn’t try to hurt him,” — “He’ll be in the apartment Calderon said hesitatingly. “Our baby! He’s no superchild.” He was, squatting on his “Well,” Calderon said, “I’ll get haunches, taking a decided interest out my revolver. What else can in the gadget Quat was demonstrat- I do?” ing. The gadget was a gayly-colored ’T’ll do something,” Myra prom- egg beater with four-dimensional attachments, and it talked in a thin, ised. “Nasty little goblins ! I’ll do something, just wait.” high voice. Not in English. And yet there wasn’t a great deal Bordent flipped out the stiller and they could do. began to twirl it as the couple came in. Calderon got hold of Myra’s Tacitly they ignored the subject arms and held her back. “Hold the next day. But at 4 p.m., the on,” he said urgently. “That isn't

WBJEN THE BOUGH BREAKS 79 ” ” ”

necessary. We won’t try any- “Not too fast,” Bordent said. thing.” “He’ll be rational in a week, and “Joe!” Myra tried to wriggle— then we can speed up the process. free. “Are you going to let them Now, Calderons, please relax. Any- “Quiet!” he said. “Bordent, put thing you want?” that thing down. We want to talk “A drink.” to you.” “They mean alcohol,” Finn said.

"Well—if you promise not to in- “The Rubaiyat mentions it. remem- terrupt— ber?” “We promise.” Calderon forci- “Rubai}'at ?” bly led Myra to the couch and held “The singing red gem in Twelve her there. “Look, darling. Alexan- Library.” der’s all right. They’re not hurt- “Oh, yes,” Bordent said. “That ing him.” one. I was thinking of the Yahveh “Hurt him, indeed!” Finn said. slab, the one with the thunder ef- fects. Do you want to make some alcohol, Finn?” Calderon swallowed. “Don’t bother. I have some in that side- board. May I— “You’re not prisoners.” Bor- dent’s voice was shocked. “It’s just that we’ve got to make you listen to a few explanations, and after that —well, it’ll be different.” Myra shook her head when Cal- deron handed her a drink, but he scowled at her meaningly. “You

won’t feel it. Go ahead.” She hadn't once taken her gaze “He’d skin us alive in the future if from Alexander. The baby was we hurt him in the past.” imitating the thin noise of the egg “Be quiet,” Bordent com- beater now. It was subtly unpleas- manded. He seemed to be the ant. leader of the four. “I’m glad you're “The ray is working," Quat said, co-operating, Joseph Calderon. It “The viewer shows some slight cor- goes against my grain to use force tical resistance, though.” on a demigod. After all, you’re “Angle the power,” Bordent told Alexander’s father.” him, Alexander put out a fat paw and Alexander said, “Modjewabba ?” tried to touch the whirling rainbow “What’s that?” Myra asked in a egg beater. He seemed to be fas- strained voice. “Super language?” cinated. Quat said, “The kivelish Bordent smiled at her. “No, just is sparking. Shall I vastinate?” baby talk.” ao ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION ”

Alexander burst into sobs. Myra didn’t know my potential myself. said, “Super baby or not, when he And that’s bad.’ It is bad, you cries like that, there’s a good rea- know,” Bordent digressed. “The son. Does your tutoring extend to full capabilities of an organism that point?” can’t emerge unless it’s given the “Certainly,” Quat said calmly. fullest chance of expansion from He and Finn carried Alexander out. birth on. Or at least from infancy. Bordent smiled again. Alexander said to me, ‘It’s about “You’re beginning to believe,” he five hundred years ago that I was said. “That helps.” born. Take a few guides and go Calderon drank, feeling the hot into the past. Locate me as an in- fumes of whiskey along the backs fant. Give me specialized training, of his cheeks. His stomach was from the beginning. I think it’ll ex- crawling witlt cold uneasiness.— pand me.” “If you were human ” he said “The past,” Calderon said. “You doubtfully. mean it’s plastic?” “If we were, we wouldn’t be “Well, it affects the future. You here. The old order changeth. It can’t alter the past without altering had to start sometime. Alexander the future, too. But things tend to a temporal i.s the first homo superior.” drift back. There’s “But why us?” Myra asked. norm, a general level. In the origi- nal time sector, Alexander wasn’t "Genetics. You’ve both worked visited by us. Now that’s changed. with radioactivity and certain short- So the future will be changed. But wave radiation.s that effected the not tremendously. No crucial tem- germ plasm. The mutation just poral apexes are involved, no key- happened. It’ll happen again from stones. The only result will be that now on. But you happen to be the the mature Alexander will have his first. You’ll die, but Alexander potential more fully realized.” will live on. Perhaps a thousand years.” Alexander was carried back into Calderon said, “1'his business of the room, beaming. Quat resumed

coming from the future . . you his lesson with the egg beater. say Alexander sent you?” “There isn’t a great deal you can “The adult Alexander. The ma- do about it,” Bordent said. 'T ture superman. It’s a different cul- think you realize that now.” ture, of course—beyond your com- Myra .said, “Is Alexander going prehension. Alexander is one of to look like you?” Her face was the X Frees. He .said to me, strained. through the interpreting-machine, no. He’s a perfect physi- of course, ‘Bordent, I wasn’t recog- “Oh, specimen. I’ve never seen liini, nized as a super till I was thirty cal course, but— years old. I had only ordinary of homo sa]i development till then. I Calderon said, “Heir to all the

WHEN THE nOIlOTl BRE.rKS 81 ”

ages. Myra, are you beginning to “His horizons will be broader. ?” get the idea His mind is capable of grasping “Yes. A superman. But he’s and assimilating far more than our baby.” yours. The world is really his “He’ll remain so,” Bordent put oyster. He won’t be limited. But in anxiously. “We don’t want to it’ll take a while for his mind, his remove him from the beneficial personality, to shake down.” home and parental influence. An “I want another drink,” Myra infant needs that. In fact, toler- said. ance for the young is an evolution- Calderon got it. Alexander in- ary trait aimed at providing for the serted his thumb in Quat's eye and superman’s appearance, just as the tried to gouge it out. Quat sub- vanishing appendix is such a prepa- mitted passively. ration. At certain eras of history “Alexander!” Myra said. mankind is receptive to the prepara- “Sit still,” Bordent said. “Quat’s tion of the new race. It’s never tolerance in this regard is naturally been quite successful before—there higher developed than yours.” were anthropological miscarriages, “If he puts Quat’s eye out,” so to speak. My squeevers, it’s Calderon said, “it’ll be just too important! Infants are awfully ir- bad.” ritating. They’re helpless for a very “Quat isn’t important, compared

long time, a great trial to the pa- to Alexander. He knows it, too.” tience of the parents—the lower the Luckily for Quat’s binocular vi- order of animal, the faster the in- sion, Alexander suddenly tired of fant develops. With mankind, it his new toy and fell to staring at takes years for the young to reach the egg beater again. Dobish and an independent state. So the pa- Finn leaned over the baby and rental tolerance increases in propor- looked at him. But there was more tion. The superchild won’t ma- to it than that, Calderon felt, ture, actually, till he’s about “Induced telepathy,” Bordent twenty.” said. “It takes a long time to de- Myra said, “Alexander will still velop, but we’re starting now. I be a baby then?” tell you, it was a relief to hit the “He’ll have the physical stand- right time at last. I’ve rung this ards of an eight-year-old specimen doorbell at least —a hundred times. of homo sap. Mentally . . . well, But never till now call it irrationality. He won’t be “Move,” Alexander said clearly. leveled out to an intellectual or “Real. Move.” emotional norm. He won’t be sane, Bordent nodded. “Enough for any more than any baby is. Selec- today. We’ll be here again tomor- tivity takes quite a while to develop. row. Y'ou’ll be ready?” But his peaks will be far, far above “As ready,” Myra said, “as we’ll the peaks of, say, you as a child.” ever be, I suppose.” She finished “Thanks,” Calderon said. her drink. s« ASTOT!NI>IXG SCIENCP/ FTCTION ”

They got fairly high that night talk, too. Vopishly woggle in the and talked it over. Their argu- grand foyer. So there.” ments were biased by their realiza- “It’s a language to them,” Cal- tion of the four little men’s obvi- deron said. ous resources. Neither doubted “Alexander’s going to talk Eng- any more. They knew that Bor- lish. I’ve got my rights.” dent and his companions had come “Well, Bordent doesn’t sdem anx- from five hundred years in the fu- ious to infringe on them. He said ture, at the command of a future Alexander needed a home environ- Alexander who had matured into a ment.” fine .specimen of superman. “That’s the only reason I haven’t “Amazing, isn’t it?’’ Myra said. gone crazy,” Myra said. “As long

“That fat little blob in the bedroom as he . . . they . . . don’t take our turning into a twelfth-power Quiz baby away from us— Kid.”

“Well, it's got to start some- A week later it was thoroughly where. As Bordent pointed out,” clear that Bordent had no intention “And as long as he isn’t going to of encroaching on parental rights look like those goblins—ugh!” —at least, any more than was neces- “He’ll be super. Deucalion and sary, for two hours a day. During what’s-her-name—that’s us. Par- that period the four little men ful- ents of a new race.” filled their orders by cramming “I feel funny,” Myra said, “As Alexander with all the knowledge though I’d given birth to a moose.” his infantile but super brain could “That could never happen,” Cal- hold. They did not depend on deron said consolingly. “Have an- blocks or nursery rhymes or the other slug.” abacus. Their weapons in tire bat- “It might as well have happened. tle were cryptic, futuristic, but ef- Alexander is a swoose.” fective. And they taught Alexan- “Swoose ?” der, there was no doubt of that. As “I can use that goblin’s double- B-i poured on a plant’s roots forces

WnE.V THE BOUGH BREAKS ss ;

growth, so the vitamin teaching of “No?” the dwarfs soaked into Alexander, “I understand it,” Alexander and his potentially superhuman said. “That’s enough.” brain responded, expanding with “I see.” Calderon regarded the brilliant, erratic speed. prodigy with faint apprehension. He had talked intelligibly on the “You don’t want to tell me.” fourth day. On the seventh day “No.” he was easily able to hold conversa- “Well, all right.” tions, though his baby muscles, lin- “Get me a drink,” Alexander gually undeveloped, tired easily. said. For a moment Calderon had His cheeks were still sucking-di.sks a mad idea that the infant was de- he was Jiot yet fully human, except manding a hig’nball. Then he in sporadic flashes. Yet those sighed, rose, and returned with a flashes came oftener now, and closer bottle. together. “Milk,” Alexander said, refusing

The carpet w’as a mess. The lit- the potation. tle men no longer took their equip- “You said a drink. Water’s a

ment back with them left it drink, isn’t it ?” Calderon ; they My God, for Alexander to use. The infant thought. I’m arguing with the kid.

crept—he no longer bothered to I’m treating him like . . . like an walk much, for he could crawl adult. But he isn’t. He’s a fat with more efficiency—among the little baby squatting on his behind Objects, selected some of them, and on the carpet, playing with a tinker- put them together. Myra had gone toy. out to shop. The little men The tinkertoy said something in wouldn’t show up for half an hour. a thin voice. Alexander murmured, Calderon, tired from his day’s work “Repeat.” The tinkertoy did. at the University, fingered a high- Calderon said. “What was that?” ball and looked at his offspring. “No.” “Alexander,” he said. “Nuts.” Calderon went out to Alexander didn’t answer. He the kitchen and got milk. He fitted a gadget to a Thing, inserted poured himself another shot. 1’his it peculiarly in a Something Else, was like having relatives drop in and sat back with— an air of satis- suddenly— relatives you hadn’t seen faction. Then “Yes?” he said. It for ten years. How the devil did wasri’t perfect pronunciation, but it you act with a superchild? was unmistakable. Alexander He stayed in the kitchen, after talked somewhat like a toothless old supplying Alexander with his milk. man. Presently Myra’s key turned in the “What are you doing?” Calderon outer door. Her cry brought Cal- said. deron hurrying. “No.” Alexander was vomiting, with “What’s that?” the air of a research man absorbed “No.” in a fascinating phenomenon.

84 ASTOUNDING S CJ K NCB- FIf’XI ON ” ^

“Alexander !“ Myra cried. “Dar- “He's coming along. He’s devel- ling, are you sick?” oping.” “No,” Alexander said. “I’m “I’m wondering. What about ?” testing my regurgitative processes. discipline I must learn to control my di- Alexander looked up from his gestive organs.” rapport with Quat, “Homo sap discipline doesn’t apply to Calderon leaned against the door, me, Joseph Calderon.” grinning crookedly. “Yeah. You’d “Don’t call me Calderon. better start now, too.” Joseph I'm 3'our father, after all.” “I’m finished,” Alexander said. “A primitive biological necessity. “Clean it up,” You are not sufficiently well de-

veloped to‘ provide the discipline I Three days later the infant de- require. Your purpose is to give cided that his lungs needed develop- me parental care.” ing. He cried. He cried at all “Which makes me an incubator,” hours, with interesting variations— Calderon said. whoops, squalls, wails, and high- “But a deified one,” Bordent pitched bellows. Nor would he stop soothed him. “Practically a logos. till he was satisfied. The neigh- The father of the new race.” bors complained. Myra said, “Dar- “I feel more like Prometheus,” ling, is there a pin sticking you? the father of the new race said Let me look— dourly. “He was helpful, too. And “Go away,” Alexander said. he ended up with a vulture eating “You’re too warm. Open the win- his liver.” fresh air.”. dow. I want “You will learn a great deal from “Yes, d-darling. Of course.” Alexander.” She came back to bed and Calderon “He says I’m incapable of un- her. put his arm around He knew" derstanding it.” there would be shadows under her “Well, aren’t you?” eyes in the morning. In his crib “Sure. I’m just the papa bird,” Alexander cried on. Calderon said, and subsided into a sad silence, watching Alexander, So it w'ent. The four little men under Quat’s tutelary eye, put to- came daily and gave Alexander his gether a gadget of shimmering lessons. They were pleased wdth glass and twisted metal. Bordent the infant’s progress. They did not said suddenly, “Quat! Be careful eomplain when Alexander indulged of the egg!” And Finn seized a in his idiosyncrasies, such as bat- bluish ovoid just before Alexan- ting them heavily on the nose or der’s chubby hand could grasp it. ripping their paper garments to shreds. Bordent tapped his metal “It isn’t dangerous,” Quat said. helmet and smiled triumphantly at “It isn’t connected,” Calderon. “He might have connected it.”

WHEN THE BOUGH BRB.4.KS 85 ”

“1 want that,” Alexander said, “Everything all right in there?

“(jive it to me.” Take a look. J worry.” "Not yet, Alexander,” Bordent “It’s all right.” refused. “You must learn the cor- “I know, but that blue egg— Bor- rect way of connecting it first. Oth- dent said it was dangerous, you erwise it might harm you.” know. I heard him.” "I could do it.” Calderon peeped through the "You are not logical enough to door-crack. The four dwarfs were balance your capabilities and lacks sitting facing Alexander, whose as yet. Later it will be safe. I eyes were closed. Now^ they opened. think now, perhaps, a little philoso- The infant scowded at Calderon. phy, Dobish—eh?” “Stay out,” he requested. Dobish squatted and went en “You’re breaking the rapport.” raj)])ort with Alexander. Myra “I’m so sorry,” Calderon said, came out of the kitchen, took a retreating. “He’s O. K., Myra. quick look at the tableau, and re- His owm dictatorial little self.” treated. Calderon followed her out. “Well, he is a superman,” she "1 will never get used to it if I said doubtfully. live a thousand years,” she said “No. He’s a superbaby. There’s with slow emphasis, hacking at the all the difference.” doughy rim of a pie. “He’s my “His latest trick,” Myra said, baljy only when he's asleep.” busy with the oven, “is riddles. Or "We won’t live a thousand something like riddles. I feel so years,” Calderon told her. “Alex- small when he catches me up. But ander will, though, f wish we he says it’s good for his ego. It could get a maid.” compensates for his physical frail- “1 tried again tod.ay,” Myra said ness.” wearily. “No use. They’re all—in “Riddles, eh? 1 know a few war plants. I mention a baby too.” “You can’t do all this alone.” “They won't work on Alexan- “You help,” she said, “when you der,” Myra said, with grim assur- can. But you’re working hard too, ance. fella. It won’t be forever.” “I wonder if we had another Nor did they, "What goes up a baby . . . if--” chimney up?” was treated with the

his. it Her sober gaze met “Lve contempt deserved ; Alexander w'ondered that, too. But I should examined his father’s riddles, think mutations aren’t as cheap as turned them over in his logical that. Once in a lifetime. Still, we mind, analyzed them for flaws in don't know.” semantics and logic, and rejected “Well, it doesn’t matter now, any- them. Or else he answered them, way. One infant’s enough for the with such fine accuracy that Cal- moment.” deron was too embarrassed to give Myra glanced toward the door. the correct answers. He was re-

st ASTOUNDING SCI EN CB-PICTION duced to asking why a raven was audience, He had found a new like a writing desk, and since not way of making imbecilic noises with even the Mad Hatter had been able his fingers and lips. At times the to answer his own riddle, was child’s normal phases were more slightly terrified to find himself lis- trying than his super periods. After tening to a dissertation on compara- a month had passed, however, Cal- tive ornithology. After that, he let deron felt that the worst was yet Alexander needle him with infantile to come. Alexander had progressed gags about the relations of gamma into fields of knowdedge hitherto rays to photons, and tried to be untouched by homo sap, and he had philosophical. There are few things developed a leechlike habit of suck- as irritating as a child’s riddles. His ing his father’s brains dry of evpry mocking triumph pulverizes itself scrap of knowledge the wretched into the dust in which you grovel. man possessed. “Oh, leave your father alone,’’ It was the same with Mjma. The Myra said, coming in with her hair disarranged. “He’s trying to read the /paper.”

“That news is unimportant,” “I’m reading the comics,” Cal- deron said, “i want to see if the Katzenjammers get even with the Captain for hanging them under a waterfall.” “The formula for the humor of an incongruity predicament,” Alex- ander began learnedly, but Calderon disgustedly went into the bedroom, where Myra joined him. “He’s ask- ing me riddle.s again,” she said. “Let’s see what the Katzenjammers did.” world was indeed Alexander’s “You look rather miserable. Got oyster. He had an insatiable curi- a cold?” o.sity about everything, and there 'T'm not wearing make-up. Alex- was no longer any privacy in the ander say.s the .smell makes him apartment. Calderon took to lock- ill.” ing the bedroom door against his “So wliat? He’s no petunia.” son at night—Alexander’s crib was “Well.” Myra said, “he does get now in another room—but furious ill. .But of course he does it on squalls might waken him at any purpose.” hour. “Listen, There he goes again. In the midst of preparing dinner, What now?” Myra would be forced to stop and But Alexander merely wanted an explain the caloric mysteries of the

WHEN THE BOnOH Br;K.\KS 8T oven to Alexander. He learned all Myra stopped singing, he li.stened .she knew, took a jump into more for Alexander’s wails, but there

abstruse aspects of the matter, and was no sound till a slightly hysteri- sneered at her ignorance. He found cal Myra burst in on him, dither- out Calderon was a physicist, a fact ing and wide-eyed. which the man had hitherto kept “Joel” She fell into Calderon’s carefully concealed, and thereafter arms. “Quick, give me a drink or pumped his father dry. He asked ... or hold me tight or something.”

questions about geodetics and geo- “What is it?” He thrust the bot- politics. He inquired about mono- tle into her hands, went to the door, tremes and monorails. He was and looked out. “Alexander? He’s curious about biremes and biology. quiet. Eating candy.” And he was skeptical, doubting the Myra didn't bother with a glass. depth of his father’s knowledge. The bottle’s neck clicked against her "But,” he said, “you and Myra Cal- teeth. “Look at me. Just look at deron are my closest contacts with me. I’m a mess.” homo sap as 3'Ct, and it’s a begin- "What happened?”

ning. Put out that cigarette. It “Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. isn’t good for my lungs.” ^ Alexander's turned into a black ma- "All right,” Calderon said. He gician, that’s all.” .She dropped rose wearily, with his usual feeling into a chair and passed a palm these dav^s of being driven from across her forehead. '“Do you know room to room of the apartment, what that genius son of ours just and went in search of Myra. “Bor- did?” dent’s about due. We can go out “Bit you,” Calderon hazarded, ?” somewhere. O. K. not doubting it for a minute. “Swell.” She was at the mirror, “Worse, far worse. He started

fixing her hair, in a trice. “I need asking me for candy. 1 said there a permanent. If I only had the wasn’t any in the house. He told !” time— me to go down to the grocery for ‘I’ll take off tomorrow and stay some. I said I’d have to get dressed here. You need a rest.” first, and I was too tired.” "Darling, no. The exams are “Why didn’t you ask me to g'J?” coming up. You simply can’t ’do “I didn’t have the chance. Be- it.” fore I could say boo that infantile Alexander yelled. It developed Merlin waved a magic wand or that he wanted his mother to sing something. I ... I w'as down at for him. He was curious about the grocery. Behind the canjly the tonal range of homo sap and counter.” the probable emotional and soporific Calderon blinked. “Induced am- effect of lullabies. Calderon mixed nesia ?” himself a drink, sat in the kitchen “There wasn’t any time-lapse. It and smoked, and thought about the was just phweet—and there I was. glorious destiny of his son. When In this rag of a dress, without a 88 ASTOONDINO SCtKXOB-Ii'ICTION speck of make-up on, and my hair want to concentrate on the taste.” coming down in tassels. Mrs. Bush- “No. I said you’d make yourself erman was there, too, bu3nng a sick. Chocolate’s 'too rich for you. chicken—^that cat across the hall. Give it here. You’ve had enough.” She was kind enough to tell me I Calderon reached for the paper ought to take more care of myself. sack. Alexander disappeared. In Meow,” Myra ended furiously. the kitchen Myra shrieked. “Good Lord.” Calderon moaned despondently, “Teleportation. That's what and turned. As he had expected, Alexander says it is. Something Alexander was in the kitchen, on new he’s picked up. .I’m not go- top of the stove, hoggishly stuffing ing to stand for it, Joe. I’m not a candy into his mouth. Myra was rag doll, after all.” She was half concentrating on the bottle. hysterical. “What a household,” Calderon said. “The baby teleporting him- Calderon went into the next room self all over the apartment, you get- and stood regarding his child. ting stewed in the kitchen, and me There was chocolate smeared heading for a nervous breakdown.” around Alexander’s mouth. He started to laugh. “O. K., Alex- “Listen, wise guy,” he said. ander. You can keep the candy. I “You leave your mother alone, hear know when to shorten my defensive me ?” lines strategically.” “I didn’t hurt her,” the prodigy “Myra Calderon,” Alexander pointed out, in a blobby voice. “I said. “I want to go back into the was simply being efficient.” other room.” “Well, don’t be so efficient. Where “Fly in,” Calderon suggested. trick, did you learn that anyhow?” “Here, I’ll carry you.” “Teleportation? Quat showed “Not you. Her. She has a bet- me last night. He can’t do it him- ter rhythm when she walks.” self, but I’m X Free super, so I “Staggers, you mean,” Myra said, can. The power isn’t disciplined but she obediently put aside the bot- yet. If I’d tried to teleport Myra tle, got up, and laid hold of Alex- Calderon over to Jersey, say, I ander. She went out. Calderon might have dropped her in the Hud- was not much surprised to hear her son by mistake.” scream a moment later. When he Calderon muttered something un- joined the happy family, Myra was complimentary. Alexander said, “Is sitting on the floor, rubbing her that an Anglo-Saxon derivative?”, arms and biting her lips. Alex- “Never mind about that. You ander was laughing. shouldn’t have all that chocolate, anyway. You’ll make yourself sick. “What now?” You’ve already made your mother “H-he sh-shocked me.” Myra sick. And you nauseate me.” said in a child’s voice. “He’s like “Go away,” Alexander said. “I an electric eel. He d-did it on pur- WHBN THE BOUGH BREAKS 89 pose, too. Oh, Alexander, will you “I hope so, too.” stop laughing!” “Well—here’s Bordent. Let’s ‘‘You fell down,” the infant talk to him.” crowed in triumph. “You yelled and fell down.” Calderon answered the door. The Calderon looked at Myra, and four little men came in solemnly. his mouth tightened. “Did -you do They wasted no time. They gath- that on purpose?” he asked. ered about Alexandei', unfolded "Yes. She fell down. She fresh apparatus from the recesses looked funny.” of their paper clothes, and set to “You’re going to look a lot fun- work. The infant said, “I tele- nier in a minute. X Free super or ported her about eight thousand not, what you need is a good pad- feet.” dling.” “That far, eh?’' Quai said. "Joe—” Myra said. "Were you fatigued at all?” “Never mind. He’s got to learn “Not a bit.” to be considerate of the rights of Calderon dragged Bordent aside. others.” “I want to talk to you. I think “Fm homo superior,” Alexander Alexander needs a spanking.” !” said, with the air of one clinching “By voraster the dwarf said, an argument. shocked. "But he’s Alexander! “It’s homo posterior I’m going to He’s Free X type super!”

deal with,” Calderon announced, “Not yet. Fle’s .still a baby.” and attempted to capture his son. “But a superbaby. No, no, There was a stinging blaze of jolt- Joseph Calderon. 1 must tell you ing nervous energy that blasted .up again that disciplinary measures only sufficiently through his synapses ; he went can be applied by backwards ignominiously, and intelligent authorities.” slammed into the wall, cracking his “You?”

head hard against it. Alexander “Oh, not yet,” Bordent said. laughed like an idiot. “We don’t want to overwork him. “You fell down, too,” he crowed. There’s a limit even to super brain “You look funny.” power, especially in the very forma- “Joe,” Myra said. “Joe. Are tive period. He’s got enough to do, you hurt?” and his attitude's for social con- Calderon said sourly that he sup- tacts won’t need forming for a posed he’d survive. Though, he while yet.” added, it wotild probably be wise to Myra joined them. “I don’t lay in a few .splints and a supply of ;.!gree with you there. Like all blood plasma. “In case he gets in- babies, he’s antisocial. He may terested in vivisection.” have superhuman powers but he’s Myra regarded Alexander with subhuman as far as mental and emo- troubled .speculation. “You’re kid- tional balance go.” ding, I hope.” “Yeah,” Calderon agreed. “This

90 ASTOIJNDTNO SOIEXOR-FICTION ”

business of giving us electric “Look, it’s normal for a mother shocks— to want to hug her baby. But how “He’s only playing,” Bordent can she do that if she expects him said. to throw her halfway across the “And teleportation. Suppose he room?” teleports me to Times Square when Calderon was brooding, “Will

I’m taking a shower?” he pick up more . . . more super “It’s only his plav. He’s a baby powers as he goes along?”

.still.” “Why, yes. Naturally.” “But what about us?” “He’s a menace to life and limb. “You have the hereditary char- I still say he needs discipline. Next acteristic of parental tolerance,” time I’ll wear rubber gloves.” Bordent explained. “As I told you “That won’t help,” Bordent said, before, Alexander and his race are frowning. “Besides, I must insist the reason why tolerance was cre- . . . no, Joseph Calderon, it won’t ated in the first place. There’s no do. You mustn’t interfere. You’re great need for it with homo sap. I not capable of giving him the right mean there’s a wide space between sort of discipline—which he doesn’t normal tolerance and normal provo- need yet anyway.” cation. An ordinary baby may try “Just one spanking,” Calderon his parents severely for a few mo- said wistfully. “Not for revenge. ments at a time, but that’s about Only to show him he’s got to con- all. The provocation is far too sider the rights of others.” small to require the tremendous “He'll learn to consider the store of tolerance the parents have. rights of other X Free supers. You But with the X Free type, it’s a dif- must not attempt anything of the ferent matter.” sort. A spanking—even if you “There’s a limit even to toler- succeeded, which is far from prob- ance,” Calderon said. “I’m won- able—might warp him psychologi- dering about a creche.” Bordent shook his shiny metal- lic'sheathed head. “He needs you.” “But,” Myra said, “but! Can’t you give him just a little disci- pline ?” “Oh, it isn’t necessary. His mind’s still immature, and he must concentrate on more important things. You’ll tolerate him.” “It's not as though he’s our baby any more,” she murmured. “He’s not Alexander.”

“But he is. That’s just it. He’s Alexander!”

WHKN THE BOUOH 8RHAK9 »i —

cally. ^Ve are bis tutors, his men- w’ould probably be profoundly tors. We must protfct him. You amused by the squirmings of his ?” understand victim in the seething kettle. A man "I think so,” Catderon said slips on a banana peel and breaks slowly. ‘‘That’s a threat.” his back. The adult stops laugh- "You are Alexander’s parents, ing at that point, the child does not. but it’s Alexander who is im- And a civilized ego finds embarrass- portant. If I must apply discipli- ment as acutely distressing as physi- nary measures to you, I must.” cal pain. A baby, a child, a moron, “Oil, forget it,” Myra sighed. is incapable of practicing empathy. “Joe, let's go out and walk in the He cannot identify himself with an- park while Bordent’s here.” other individual. He is regrettably in “Be back two hours,” the lit- autistic ; his own rules are arbi- ile man said. “Good-by.” trar}^ and garbage strewn around the bedroom w^as funny to neither As time went past, Calderon Myra nor Calderon. could not decide whether Alexan- There was a little stranger in the der's moronic phases or his periods house. Nobody rejoiced. Except of keen intelligence were more irri- Alexander. He had a lot of fun. tating. The prodigy had learned “No privacy,” Calderon said,

new powers ; the worst of that was “He materializes everywhere, at all that Calderon never knew wdiat to hours. Darling, I wish you’d see a expect, or when some astounding doctor.” gag would be sprung on him. Such “What would he advise?” Myra as the time when a mess of sticky asked. “Rest, that’s all. Do you taffy had materialized in his bed, realize it’s been two months since lilched from the grocery by deft Bordent took over?” teleportation. Alexander thought it “And we’ve made marvelous was very funny. He laughed. progress,” Bordent said, coming And, when Calderon refused to over to them. Quat was en rap- go to the store to buy candy, be- port with Alexander on the cai'pet, cause he said he had no money while the other two dwarfs pre- “Now don’t try to teleport me. I’m pared the makings of a new gad- broke.”—Alexander had utilized get. “Or, rather, Alexander ha.s mental energy, warping gravity made remarkable progress.” lines shockingly. Calderon found “\Ve need a rest,” C.alderon himself hanging upside-down in growled. “If I lose my job, who’ll midair, being shaken, wdiile loose support that genius of yours?” coins cascaded out of bis pocket. Myra looked at her husband He went after the candy. quickly, noting the possessive pro- Humor is a developed sense, noun he had used. stemming basically from cruelty. Bordent was concerned. “You The more primitive a mind, the less are in difficulty?” selectivity exi,sts. A cannibal “The Dean’s spoken to me once

91 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION or twice. I can’t control my classes went away, muttering, to join Myra any more. I'm too irritable.” in the kitchen. “You don’t need to expend tol- Alexander worked with facility erance on your students. As for at his gadgets, his pudgy fingers al- money, we can keep you supplied. ready stronger and surer. He still I’ll arrange to get some negotiable had an illicit passion for the blue currency for you.” ovoid, but under Bordent’s watch- “But I want to work. I like my ful eye he could use it only along job.” the restricted lines laid out by his “Alexander is your job.” mentors. When the lesson was fin- “I need a maid,” Myra said, look- ished, Quat selected a few of the ing hopeless. “Can't you make me objects and locked them in a cup- a robot or something? Alexander board, as was his custom. The scares every maid I’ve managed to rest he left on the carpet to provide hire. They won’t stay a day in this exercise for Alexander’s ingenuity. madhouse.” “He develops,” Bordent said. “A mechanical intelligence wmuld “Today we’ve made a great step.” have a bad effect on Alexander,” .Myra and Calderon came in in Bordent said. "No.” time to hear this. “What goes?” “I wish we could have guests in he asked. once in a while. Or go out visit- “A psychic bloc-removal. Alex- ing. Or just be alone,” Myra ander will no longer need to sleep.” sighed. “What?” Myra said. “Some da}'- Alexander wdll be ma- “He won’t require sleep. It’s ture, and you’ll reap your reward. an artificial habit anyway. The The parents of Alexander. Did I super race has no need of it.” ever tell you that we have images “He won’t sleep any more, eh?” of you two in the Great Fogy Calderon said. He had grown a Hall?” little pale. “They must look terrible,” Cal- “Correct. He’ll develop faster deron said. “I know we do novw” now, twice as fast.” “Be patient. Consider the des- tiny of your son.” At 3 :30 a. m. Calderon and Myra “I do. Often. But he gets a lit- lay in bed, wide awake, looking tle wearing sometimes. That’s through the open door into the full quite an understatement.” blaze of light where Alexander “Which is w'here tolerance comes played. Seen there clearly, as if in,” Bordent said. “Nature upon a lighted stage, he did not planned well for the new race.” look quite like himself any more.

“Mm-m-m.” The difference was subtle, but it “He is working on sixth-dimen- was there. Under the golden down sional abstractions now. Every- his head had changed shape slightly, thing is progressing beautifully.” and there was a look of intelligence “Yeah,” Calderon said. And he and purpose upon the blobby fea-

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS 93 winking toward him. Alexander’.s cries filled the apartnjent. After a moment w'indows began to slam across the court, and presently the phone rang. Calderon reached for

it, sighing. When he hung up he looked across at Myra and grimaced. Above the steady roars he said, "Well, we have notice to move.” Myra said, “Oh. Oh, well.” “That about covers it.” They were silent for a moment. Then Calderon said, “Nineteen

jears more of it. I think w'e can expect about that. They did say tures. It was not an attractive he’d mature at twenty, didn’t they ?” look. It didn’t belong there. It “He’ll be an orphan long before made Alexander look less like a then,” Myra groaned. “Oh, my .super-baby than a debased oldster. bead! I think I caught cold when All a child’s normal cruelty and he teleported us up to the roof just selfishness—perfectly healthy, natu- before dinner, joe, do you sup- ral traits in the developing infant pose w'e’re the first parents who

flickered across Alexander’s face ever got . . got like this?” — . caught as he played absorbedly with solid “What do you mean?” crystal blocks which he was fitting “I mean, was there ever another into one another like a Chinese super-baby before Alexander? It puzzle. It was quite a shocking does seem like a waste of a lot of face -to watch. tolerance if we’re the first to need Calderon heard Myra sigh beside it.” him. “We could use a lot more. We’ll "He isn’t our Alexander any need a lot.” He said nothing more more,” she said. “Not a bit.” for awhile, but he lay there think- Alexander glanced up and his ing and trying not to hear his super- face suddenly suffused. The look child’s rhythmic howling. Toler- of paradoxical age and degeneracy ance. Evei'y parent needed a great upon it vani.shed as he opened his deal of it. Every child was intol- mouth and bawled with rage, toss- erable from time to time. The race ing the blocks in all directions. bad certainly needed parental love Calderon watched one roll through in vast quantities to permit its in- the bedroom door and come to rest fants to survive. But no parents upon the carpet, spilling out of its before had ever been tried con- solidity a cascade of smaller and sistently up to the very last degree smaller .solid blocks that tumbled of tolerance. No parents before

84 ASTOUNDING SCrENOB-PICTION — ” ” ”

had ever had to face twenty years Joe remarked, getting out of bed. of it, day and night, strained to “I’ll go. You crawl back in. And the final notch. Parental love is a in another year he may reach the great and all-encompassing emotion, elevation of a bushman. After that, but if we’re still alive, we’ll have the “I wonder,” he said thoughtfully, pleasure of living with a super- wonder if we are the first.” powered cannibal. Eventually he Myra’s speculations had been may work up to the level of prac- veering. “I suppose it’s like ton- tical joker. That ought to be in- sils and appendix,” she murmured. teresting.” He went out, muttering “They’ve outlived their use, but to himself. they still hang on. This tolerance is vestigial in reverse. It’s been Ten minutes later, returning to hanging on all these millenniums, bed, Joe found Myra clasping her waiting for Alexander.” knees and looking into space. “Maybe. I wonder— Still, if “We aren’t the first, Joe,” she there ever had been an Alexander said, not glancing at him. “I've before now, we’d have heard of been thinking. I’m pretty .sure we him. So— aren’t.” Myra rose on one elbow and “But we’ve never—heard of any looked at her husband. “You think supermen developing so?” she said softly. “I’m not so She turned her head and gave sure. I think it might have hap- him a long, thoughtful look. “No,” pened before.” she said. Alexander suddenly quieted. The They were silent. Then, “Yes, 1 apartment rang with silence for a see what you mean,” he nodded. moment. Then a familiar voice, Something crashed in the living without words, spoke in both their room. Alexander chuckled and the brains simultaneously. .sound of splinteri:^ wood was loud “Get me some more milk. And in the silence of the night. Another

I want it just warm, not hot.” window banged somewhere outside. Joe and Myra looked at one an- “There’s a breaking point,” Myra other again, speechless. Myra said in a quiet voice. “There’s got sighed and pushed the covers back. to be.” “I'll go this time,” —she said. “Some- “Saturation,” Joe murmured. thing new, eh? I “Tolerance saturation—or some- “Don’t dawdle,” said the word- thing. It could have happened.” less voice, and Myra jumped and Alexander trundled into sight, gave a little shriek. Electricity clutching something blue. He ^at crackled audibly through the room, down and began to fiddle with and Alexander's bawling laughter bright wires. Myra rose suddenly. was heard through the doorway. “Joe, he’s got that blue egg! He “He’s about as civilized now as a must have broken into the cup- well-trained monkey, I suppose,” board.”

WHEN THE BODfiH BREAKS 9S —

Calderon said, “But Quat told deron said, “It looks like an Easter him—'’ egg. I never heard of an Easter “It’s dangerous!” egg hurting anybody.” Alexander looked at them, “I suppose we’re doing him a grinned, and bent the Mures into a favor, really,” Myra .said in a low rradle-shape the size of the egg. voice. “A burnt child dreads the Calderon found himself out of fire. Once a kid burns himself on bed and halfway to the door. He a match, he stays away from

stopped before he reached it. “You matches.” know,” he said slowly, “he might 'rhey stood in silence, watching. hurt himself with that thing.” It took Alexander about three “We’ll have to get it away from more minutes to succeed in his de-

him,” Myra agreed, heaving herself sign, whatever it was. The results up with tired reluctance. were phenomenally effective. There “Look at him,” Crdderon urged, was a flash of white light, a crackle "just look.” of split air, and Alexander vanished Alexander was dealing compe- in the dazzle, leaving only a faint tently with the wires, his hands burnt smell behind him. flickering into sight and out again When the two could see again, as he balanced a tesseract beneath they blinked distrustfully at the the cradle. That curious veil of empty place. “Teleportation?” knowledge gave his chubby face the Myra wdiispered dazedly. debased look of senility which they “I’ll make sure.” Calderon had come to know so well. crossed the floor and stood looking “This M'ill go on and on, you down at a damp spot on the car-

know,” Calderon murmured. “To- pet, with Alexander's shoes in it. morrow he’ll look' a little less like He said, “No. Not teleportation.” himself than today. Ne.xt v^eek Then he took a long breath. “He’s next month—what will he be like gone, all right. .So he never grew in a year?” up and sent Bordent back in time “I know.” Myra’s voice was an to move in on us. It never hap- echo. “.Still. I suppose M'e’ll have pened.” to—” Her voice trailed to a halt. ‘YVe weren't the first,” Myra She .stood barefoot be,side her hus- said in an unsteady, ’oemused voice.

band, Mratching. “There’s a breaking point, that’s all. “1 suppose the gadget will be fin- How sorry I feel for the first par- ished,” she said, “once he connects ents wdio don't reach it!” up that last wire. We ought to take She turned away suddenly, but it away from him.” not so stuldenly that he could not ?” “Think we could see she was crying. He hesitated, “We ought to try.” watching the door. He thought he They looked at each other. Cal- had better not follow her ju.st yet.

THE END.

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CRT tubes, quantity produced, will be- come cheap. The modern radio (Coiitinued from page 6) tube, infinitely finer and more com- £Ut as to just cover the curve pro- plex than the old broadcast receiver duced, no light will appear unless tubes, sells for as little as seventy the object is of the wrong color cents. The CRT, in the 5- to 9- has a different color response curve. inch size, will sell for two dollars A photocell can sit around and look and fifty cents to five dollars instead at the blank face of such a CRT all of twenty-five to seventy-five dol- day, without daydreaming for an lars. The expensive transformers instant—and can work a device to will sell for less than receiver trans- kick off of passing conveyor belt formers the CRT needs only two a ; any unit of the wrong color! Or, or three watts of power, for all the by inversion, kick off only those high voltage involved. units which do have the selected And there is, of course, no rea- color-curve. son why special tubes plotting four, The complete color curve can be five or six quantities simultaneously plotted, inspected, and acted on in cannot be made for si>ecial jobs. It’s 1/10,000th of a second if desired. customary, of course, to use graphi- The precision of color match can cal axes at 90° angles, but 60° axes be made as high as desired, even can be, and have been used. finer discriminations than the human Plotting complex quantities can eye can detect could be made. be used for analytical jobs, too The only known device that can as well as production control. A. plot graphs visibly and instantly, chemist would have a fancy time, tbe cathode ray tube has, unques- for instance, determining whether tionably, more applications than this alloy-steel bolt were heat-treated anyone today can think up—appli- or not. Heat-treatment doesn’t alter cations iu production-line control, the chemical composition. But it where thousands and tens of thou- raises Ned with the magnetic prop- sands of them can be applied to in- erties. A CRT will do a beautiful spect and select millions of units, job of plotting the hysteresis loop tirelessly, n'ever becoming bored or of a piece of metal in a coil—and careless, with any degree of dis- with a plot of the magnetic prop- crimination the problem requires. erties, it’s a cinch to separate treated Photocells and cathode tubes com- from untreated steel. Or steel in- bined can, and will, do an enormous gots containing one percent nicked number of high-speed routine checks from ingots containing none. It that would drive the most placid, can separate brasses, bronzes and the most cowlike human being into copper, too. They have magnetic a nervous breakdown. And do properties—even if no magnet will

them at a speed nothing living could pick up cojijter shavings I match. That means, of course, that the The Editor. ASTOUNDINO SCIENCE-FICTION

Time for a Universe

by R. S. RICHARDSON

The Earth »eevi» to be two billion years old. There are a lot of things that seem to indicate the universe itself is 'Jl,0

—there are a lot of others that need more time. Hoic old is the Universe?

Photographs from Mount Wilson Observatory.

In February of 1933 two topics he did his tricks with mathematics dominated the news columns of the instead of mirrors. At a time when Los Angeles papers. One was tlie life w^as a pretty dreary struggle depression which was sagging to- for existence he told us about a ward the bottom of the Bank Holi- magic world where all kinds of day; the second was Professor Al- wonderful things could happen. And

bert Einstein. it was true! The smartest people Of the two Professor Einsteiti said so. As a result, Professor made much the better copy. The Einstein received an ovation that citizens of Southern California, who must have set some kind of a record enthusiastically embraced the Epic in a section of the country that Plan (End Poverty In Califomiaf, has never lieen noted for its reti- Ham and Eggs (Thirty Dollars cence.

Every Thursday), T-ownsend Old Quiet little seminars at the Cali- Age Pension, and Technocracy, also fornia Institute of Technology and came, out wholeheartedly in favor of the Mount Wilson Observatory Relativity. Here was a man who composed of a few dozen earnest talked like a conjurer except that Searchers after the Truth were now

100 ASTOl NDING SCIENCE FICTION )

covered as- thoroughly as a sensa- Mary Pickford and Charlie Chap- tional courtroom trial. Peering lin. ) I recall listening to the broad- through the window an artist cast of one j)remiere that was a sketched Profe,ssor Einstein sur- classic. A huge crowd had assem- rounded hy fellow scientists while bled which the police had difficulty they were trying to look uncon- keeping under control. Their en- cerned and concentrate on a lecture thusiasm swelled with the arrival of about the zero jxtint of the Period- each celebrity. The clima.x came

Luminosity Curve for Cepheids. I when Professor Einstein i)ut in his came to my office one morning aiul apf)earance. The mob went sim- discovered a photographer in the ply wild. They broke loose, tore act of shooting Professor Einstein up the decorations, smashed the shaking hands with Dr, E. A. Path microphone, and generally contrib- of Carleton College in the doorway. uted to the success of the evening. It was news when Professor Ein- stein made- a mistake while writing I think my most pleasant mem- a formula on the blackboard and ory is of a meeting which occurred several members of the audience between Professor Einstein and the corrected him instantly. (Who said ."Mibe (jeorge Lemaitre, the Belgian there were only a dozen men in the clergyman, whose brilliant pajjer de- world who understood relativity ? veloping the consefjuences of uni- The rotogravure section carried verses containing different propor- photos of Professor Einstein gazing tions of matter and motion had at the Riemann-Christotfel tensor. attracted world-wide attention. Professor Einstein meeting the gov- Originally published in 1927 in an

ernor, Professor Einstein looking obscure scientific journal it had been slightly depressed being welcomed overlooked almost entirely. Then

by a group of leading citizens, et it was discovered by Eddington, cetera. who realized its worth immediately, Not only was he feted by the and had it republished in the much scientific part of the Southland but better read Monthly Notices of the also by that much better publicized Royal Astronomical Society. The section lying over the hills to the Abbe Lemaitre. a modest unassum- west known as Hollywood and Bev- ing young man of about twenty- erly Hills. Here he was escorted to nine, had for several weeks been gorgeous opening-night ceremonies jrarticipating in .seminars at Pasa- during our Blue-White or Premiere dena traveling from one to another Period. The elite of filmdom eag- on a bicycle, a method of locomotion erly sought his opinion on this and formerly used only by flippant that. What did he think of Shirley youths but now- employed by some Temple? How did he like Mickey of the flower of Pasadena’s savants Mouse? (It developed later that since gasoline rationing went into the only two screen actors Professor effect. Einstein had ever heard of were In a brief discussion Lemaitre

TIME FOR A UNIVERSE 101 had proposed a solution to the prob- guments over the respective merits lem of the expanding universe in of different universes—universes which he envisaged a primitive state that expand without limit, universes wherein all matter was packed into that both expand and contract, uni- a single huge atom which exploded verses that you can see around if in a shower of cosmic fireworks, you keep looking for 550,000 mil- whose tiniest sparks were the star- lion years—have temporarily sub- clouds and nebulae of our present sided. But war or no war, the system. debate on the time-scale goes on as After he had concluded there was lively as ever. The reason may be brief applause followed by several because there is some remote pos- seconds of silence. The chairman sibility of obtaining a definite an- asked if there were any comments. swer to the time-scale question Finally Professor Einstein arose whereas the universe problem looks and began to -speak in German. pretty hopeless. In particular, you There had been some newspaper can get answers from so many en- talk of the “Battle of the Universes” tirely independent sources. between Einstein’s world that con- Briefly, what we are after is

tained matter but no motion and something of this sort : how shall William de Sitter’s that contained we rate our cosmic clock in order motion but no matter. As a con- to get a time unit of convenient sequence, 'his words were followed length? Shall we adjust the length closely although only a few in the of the pendulum to beat thousands room could understand them. What of years, or millions, or billions? was Einstein saying? Was he de- For e.xample, it would be incon- fending his own universe and at- venient to give a man’s age in tacking Lemaitre’s hyjx)thesis ? terms of months because it is so Suddenly the Abbe’s face flushed seldom that he undergoes any sig- with emotion which he was unable nificant change in so short a period. to conceal. /\ friend sitting next Only during infancy does an indi- to me supplied the answer. He vidual develop rapidly enough to whispered that Einstein had just make the month a convenient inter- stated he considered Lemaitre’s hy- val. But a man seen every five or pothesis to constitute one of the ten years would certainly show most thoroughly satisfactory uni- marked changes in appearance. For verses he had ever encountered.* other events shorter units are han- dier. The changes during a terres- A subject that grew and devel- trial magnetic storm—^violent fluc- oped more or less parallel with tuations in the '-Eiarth’s magnetic these cosmological theories is tlmt of the time-scale for the universe. Ar- ^ Indromeda nebida at great magnifi- cation, resolving central portion into Recently, Professor Einstein was again in the news but for a different reason than in individual star images. On page 99 1933. He had to call in an expert to help him figure out his income tax! is a shot of the entire Great Nebula. 102 •VSTOr NDING SCIENCE- FICTION

—

Canes Venatici i.c a typical spiral nebula of the extragalactic t\pe.

field ])resuniably due to sunspots— one of the order of not to exceed are given in terms of "Storm Time,’’ three billion years, as contrasted or the number of hours after the with a “long” scale of perhaps five usually—sudden commencement of trillion years. Formerly the ten- a magnetic storm. Thus geophysi- dency among cosmologists was to cists speak of the sudden increase favor the long time-scale on the

of intensity at two hours storm time, general principle that it was a good the rapid fall at ten hours storm idea to grab all the time available time, et cetera. For other events so as to have plenty on hand in the day or hour is far too long. We case their theories unexpectedly de- might announce that a man had just manded a few extra 100 million run the 100-yard dash in 0.0001 1574 years or so. Recently, however, so clays but ten seconds flat sounds much evidence has accumulated in more intelligible over the loud favor of the short scale that cos- s])eaker. mologists have been forced to trim During the last twenty-five years their theories accordingly. But

the chief arguments have centered there still remain several cases that over the relative merits of the so- stublKtrnly refuse to abide by this called short and long time-scales. contracted scheme of things. And By a “short” time-scale is meant until these are satisfactorily ex-

H'4 .\ STor N t)l NO SCI nXCF-FU'T ION plained neither one can be consid- ure, are the positions of three ragged ered as settled in any sense of the gaps in a tiny strip of silver grains word. on a photographic plate about as long as your little finger. You need Let us start with what is {>erhaps a pocket lens to see if there is any- the simplest and most direct method thing on the plate at all. Measure- of getting at the age of the uni- ments under higher jwwer show the verse. Photographs of the extra- lines are shifted by about 1/64 of galactic nebulae show their spectral an inch from their normal positions. lines are shifted toward the red by- And from this fact alone we are amounts indicating velocities of re- asked to believe that the universe is cession that are simply enormous. blowing up. The fainter and presumably more Now one of the pitfalls into which distant the nebulae the faster they the most astute scientist can tumble appear to be speeding away. When is failure to see the obvious ex- their admittedly somewhat shaky planation. The solution escapes him

distances are plotted against these because it is so simple. He builds velocities of recession the result is up an elaborate hypothesis to ac- a straight line as nearly as we can count for an effect when all the judge. This means that the speed time the real answer is staring him with which a nebula is dying off in the face.

depends directly on how far off it For example, practically all the

is. A nebula one million light-years plates upon which the rate of ex- distant is receding at the rate of one iwinsion of the universe is based hundred miles per second—remark- were taken by one man at the 100- able how convenient that turned out inch telescope. The nebulae are so to be!—a nebula two million light- faint that to record their spectra years distant is receding at two hun- required exposures of from ten to dred miles per second, and so on. forty hours. Before a sjiecial cam- Therefore, to find when the uni- era with a focal ratio of F/0.6 was verse started all we have to do is installed the exposures ran up to run the film in reverse. The more sixty hours. This -meant that for

distant the nebula the faster it flies as long as forty hours the telescope backward. With the result that they must l)e kept centered by “guiding” all collapsed together at an e}X)ch or making minute changes in its 1,840 million years ago when things direction to compensate for inevit- must have been in a condition re- able errors due to the rate of the sembling that of Washington, D. C.. driving clock or varying atmos- today. pheric refraction. Of course, the Naturally you are under no com- ex|x)sure is not made continuously pulsion to accejrt this interjiretation but from night to night, the plate of the red shift if ^ou would rather being left in the telescope and pro- not. Remember, all that we really tected from light during the day- observe, all that we actually meas- time. Now maybe during those

TIME FOR A UNIVERSE 105 forty hours something went wrong silver. While they were busy devis- with the telescope. It wouldn't take ing a theory to account for it the much to produce a shift of 1/64 of school janitor came by and reversed an inch. Maybe there was some- the position of the globe. “ thing wrong with the comparison 1 liave to keep turning it around spectrum of helium imprinted along- every once in a while on these hot side the nebular spectrum used as days,” he remarked. a reference in measuring the red The story is pretty good except shift. Maybe something went that it seems doubtful whether a wrong with the astronomer himself. reflecting surface as good as silver Although in this case these supposi- would heat up so seriously. tions can be safely ruled out, they illustrate the sort of thing it is Xow let us glance liriefly at evi- necessary to keep in mind lie fore dence of a radically different nature announcing a theory of the universe. that applies particidarly to the age

In this connection, there is a of the liarth and solar system. story told about Robert Kirchoff, Uranium, actino-uranium, and the physicist, and Wilhelm von Bun- thorium undergo transformations sen, inventor of the Bunsen burner, into isotopes of lead of atomic that is worth repeating. The two weights 206, 207, and 208, respec-

were' strolling across the campus tively. at a rate which is absolutely of the University of Heidelberg one insensible to their environment. sunny afternoon deep in conversa- Tliey liave achieved that happy state tion upon some abstruse subject. to which we all aspire but so sel- As they passed a silver-coated globe dom attain of being able to proceed set on the lawn as an ornament Bun- serenely about their business irre- sen absent-mindedly ran his fingers spective of what happens around over the reflecting surface. To his them. Neither extremes of tem- amazement the side exposed di- perature, pressure, chemical reac- rectly to the sun was cooler than the tions, nor great lapses of time can side in shadow. in the least alter the rate at which Immediately the two stopped and uranium disintegrates into lead and

began excitedly to investigate this helium. For this reason it consti- anomalous heating effect. Here jier- tutes one of the best clcK;ks for haps was a new phenomenon in heat measuring vast intervals of time we conduction involving some mysteri- have. If a mineral containing ura- ous interaction between solar radia- nium is left alone in a rock for a tion and the reflecting proj>erties of liillion years, at the end of that time fourteen percent of the uranium atoms will have become lead atoms. Hence, if we find a mineral which These star-clouds in Sagittarius, part is eighty-six percent uranium and of our own island universe, are fourteen percent lead of the correct

similar to those shown on page 103. atomic weight, then we know it is

TIME FOB .V UNIVEBSE 107 —

one billion years old. The process can be made to give us an age for might be compared with that of the universe iJerhaps not quite so liquidating a debt at the rate of reliable — second-class determina- ten dollars or one percent per month, tions ?

although the analogy is by no means exact. The length of time the note P'rom the size of a cluster, its has run could then be determined density, and degree of concentra-'

merely by comparing the percentage tion toward the center, it is pos- jjaid —amount of lead formed—with sible to make an estimate of its life- the un()ai(l Italance—amount of time. Dr. S. Chandra.sekhar of the uranium left. Tlius if the lialance Verkes Observatory thus finds a is five hundred dollars the note has lifetime of 3000 million years for run for fifty months; if three hun- the Pleiades. And since clusters dred fifty dollars remains unpaid it like the Pleiades are evidently an has run for sixty-five months, et essential part of the make-up of the cetera. galaxy he concludes that their ex- Up to

an upper age limit for the Earth units — 1 A.U. = 92,897,416 statute and meteorites in striking agreement niile.s—a certain percentage with with that given by the red shift. separations of from 2000 to 3000 The barker on the Midway wants A.U.'s, and so on up to 9000 to a quarter if he c-an guess your age 10,000 A.U. But the Russian within a coujde of years. Hut if we astronomer, V. A. Amlierzumian— take the values for the Earth only, these names are as bad as chess here we have two estimates of the chani])ions and football players age of the universe tliat differ at has found tliat binary systems in mo.st by only 300 million years or the higher brackets from 7000 to fifteen percent. aXK), 8000 to 9000, and 9000 to These are at present our two most 10,000, occur far hss often than if definite and reliable methods—our tidal forces had been at work upon

first-class determinations, as it were. them for 10,000 million years.

Are there still other objects that Chandrasekhar, therefore, believes

108 .VSTOT'NIHNG SC I K NOE -FICTION And this S-sliapcd Dark Nebula in 0|)hiuchus is probably similar to the clouds of obscuring matter seen in the extragalaetic nebulae bexond.

that tidal forces have not yet had riie Uranium clixrk 1900 million years Expansion of the universe. 1S40 “ sufficient time to take hold ap])re- ' “ Dynamics of clusters. ... 3000 ciably; at the most he douhts if Statistics of binaries 5000 “ they can have been actiii" for more “ .Average 29,30 than a scant 5000 million years. The evidence thus obtained from lapping off the extra 30 million four widely different sources hangs years as incon.sequential we get for together incredibly well. Summar- the age of the universe the value of izing. we have in favor of the short- 2‘XX) million years. time scale the following results : There is no gainsaying the fact

TIMK KOli I N I vniisi: IO!i N

that the champions of the short sequence that some two billion years time-scale who are at present in the ago intergalactic space, as we know

overwhelming majority can sum- it today, was nonexistent, the nebu- mon an impressive array of evidence lae being crowded so closely to- in their behalf. But anyone who gether as to be virtually in contact. attempts to construct a consistent Yet even in this congested state of

scheme of the universe based upon affairs there would still be ample a fixed time-scale also puts himself room for the Earth and the sun, into a highly vulnerable position. for double stars and clusters, and For if a single object can be found there would seem to be no valid that definitely will not fit in then reason why in the course of two bil- the whole structure is put in jeop- lion years such objects could not ardy. It is like the detective story have arranged themselves according where the villain plants evidence to their present jxisitions. with meticulous care .so as to make In order, therefore, to be able to his murder look like suicide by in- reject the short time-scale as com- serting a gun in the victim’s hand, pletely inadequate we must find ob- leaving a note, et cetera, until there jects which .satisfy two conditions: apparently is not a shadow of sus- 1. They could clearly not have picion cast in his direction. Then existed in their present form in a the detective uncovers the one sig- contracted universe, and nificant clue he had forgotten to 2. Their formation requires in- alibi—somebody was^ left-handed, tervals of time far longer than two or color-blind, or forgot to wind his billion years. watch—and the whole ca.se coIlav)ses It is contended that the great clus- immediately. ters of nebulae such as those in the In the same way, no matter how constellations of Coma Berenices, tight a case the short time-scale j5eo- Hydra, and Perseus .satisfy these

I)le may have built up if we can re(|uirements. put our finger on objects that ob- viously could not have been formed Taking the first condition,* sup- within such limits then all the evi- fxrse that the nebulae existed in the dence just cited is subject to ques- ^ This discussion on nebulae is taken mostly tion. We won’t say “disproved” from articles by Dr. F*. Zwicky in the Pro* reedings of the National Academy of Sciences because in the present state of our and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. knowledge we can hardly hoi^e to prove or disprove anything. l.et us now therefore hearken to coun.sel These nebulae, save foe NGC 4449, for the opposing or long time-scale. might all he taken for other island We will begin by accepting for universes—but each represents a the moment the hypothesis of the type of non-galactic nebula. NGC expanding universe and the alarm- 3115 is a ringer for a very distant ingly restricted time-scale which it spiral nebula seen edge-on—but demands. We also accept the con- for the total lack of detail feature.

T I ( ( 10 .S K T O ' N D I N G S I E X ’ - F I C TI 0

N

contracted universe of two TiiHion Is there a cluster in which the nebu- B. C. in a highly condensed form. lae appear to be arranged as they During the ensuing period of in- would l)e in a stationary state? Yes, flation the cluster grew to its pres- the great Coma cluster would seem ent size due to the individual mo- to satisfy predictions very closely. tions of the nebulae themselves. The following table includes all the That is, nebulae that were originally nebulae that can be observed per moving away from the center with •St[uare degree at various distances the highest velocities should natu- from the center of the Coma cluster rally now be found on the outskirts. on ithotographs taken with an 18- However, this does not seem to be inch Schmidt telescope on Mount liorne out by the facts. For an in- Palomar. Beside these counts are vestigation of the Virgo cluster re- the numljer calculated from theory veals that nebulae at the center are at the same distance. moving at the same speed as those near the edge. Distance from Center Nnniiter Number As for the second, the way in in minutes of arc Observed Calculated 160' which enormous masses separatee- 120 12 10.5 have under the of gravitation law KKt 23 19.5 can l)e predicted theoretically, l^ven- 8(i 15 33 tually tliey shoukl arrange them- 00 6() ' 55 50 95 74 selves into a sphere in a very defi- 40 120 103 nite way so tliat the nelmlae are 50 193 158 greatly concentrated tow'ard tln’ 20 285 28! center. Such an arrangement is 10 643 795

.s called a stationary stale. It is a 1431 1763 2.5 2777 2692 state with the highest proltability of existence wliich represents an exceedingly stable conditiop, one Considering the errors to be ex- able to maintain itself against out- ))ected in making such a count the side influence for a tremendous agreement between the last two col- time. You might say that a man umns is remarkably close. who has gotten into a comfortable Why should it take so long for

rut and 'is satisfied to remain there nebulae to arrange themselves in desjjite tlie eflForts of his' family to this way? Because in order to get

make him snap out of it is in a a bunch of nebulae scattered at ran- stationary state. The feature alwut rloiu to start condensing around a

a stationary state that makes it of point they must lose velocity. And interest in connection with the age the only way they can lose velocity of the universe is the length of time is l)v colliding with each other. And

required to get into it. Conijrared tliat is where the rub comes. By with the short time-scale the inter- far the most probable type of col-

val is as two years is to a second. lision is one in wliich only two

< U < - 1 iv:> .A ST < ' N I ) I X G S I E N ' K F I *' T 0 ;

nebulae are concerned. But it can of the formula as Newton’s “uni- be shown that such a simple col- versal" law of gravitation. But is lision is not enough. Unless they it. So far we have merely tested •meet nearly head-on their motion it for small bodies separated by a will not be cut down enough to get few astronomical units. Will it them started hovering around a cen- still hold for huge aggregations of ter. In order to form a cluster we Ixxlies separated by tens and mil-

must have not double but triple, lions of light-years ? quadruple, quintuple collisions. Now We can easily calculate every it can easily lie imagined that wait- twist and turn that a planet should ing for three nebulae to make up take according to the law of grayi* their minds to collide would become tatioii and compare our results slightly monotonous, to say the minutely with those actually ob- least. Think how many times you served. But not so with the extra- have seen two automobiles bump galactic nebulae. We can scarcely into each other as compared with clock them wheeling around their the number of times you have wit- common center of gravity as we do nessed collisions anjong three and the planets and double stars. It four automobiles. Dr. Zvvicky has would take a massive shot of time calculated that in a rei^resentative acceleration indeed to make these cluster 330,000 billion years alone motions visible. would have to elapse before a sin- In fact, we cannot predict motion gle triple collision occurred. And at all. But we can predict the kind for enough triple collisions to occur of structures the law of gravitation to make a well-marked cluster more should mold if left to work for than a billion billion— 1,000,000,- immense eons undisturbed in space. 000,000,000,000—years would be And .as we have just seen, from needed, which is more than 500 study of clusters such as the one miUion times greater than tlie puny in Coma the inverse square law interval the short time scalers con- would still seem to hold— for nebu- sider sufficient. Here then may be lae a niillion light-years apart or tile fatal flaw, the one significant |}eas in a pod. clue, that is needed to destroy the In addition to the nebular clus- whole case for the short time-scale. ters, there is anotlier type of object that stubbornly refuses to regiment Incidentally, these giant clusters itself according to the short-scale. furnish us with a unique test of the These are the extremely brilliant law of gravitation. The first appli- siqjer-giant stars at the top of the cation of Newton’s formula to stellar luminosity diagram such as bodies outside the solar system came Y Cygni and 29 Canis Majoris when it was applied to double stars and the weakly glowing white dwarf in 1830. It was found to work so' stars such as the comi>anion of well that forever afterward astron- Sirius down at the bottom. omers have unhesitatingly sjx^en We now flatter ourselves that we

TIME FOR A UNIVEK.se H3 understand the process that keeps highlv compact state to await ex- stars like the §jin shining. It is the tinction. But this business of using carbon cycle in which a series of up stellar energy is not something encounters starting with a hydrogen that is accomplished in a single day. carbon nuclei builds a chain and up For a star like the sun to run of isotoj)es ending with helium and through all its hydrogen supply the carbon nucleus ready to start and gravitational energy of contrac- work all over again, (jamma rays tion would take several billion more given off in the process work their years than the meager allotment slowly out from the interior of way doled out by the short time-scale the star finally emerging mostly in rationing board. the form of visible or invisible If we assume that stars like 29 light. Canis Majoris are very young and riie rate at which hydrogen is the companion of Sirius very old, converted over into helium with the we get into difficulty over binary emission of energy increases rap- s.ystems composed of a super-giant idly w'ith the temi)erature so that and a wdiite dwarf. There is every stars much hotter than the sun must reason for believing that the com- he u.sing up hydrogen at a prodigi- ponents of a Ijinary have led paral- ous speed. Thus Y Cygni which is lel lives since their common birth. tliirty thomsand times brighter than But to find a super-giant and a the sun is converting hydrogen into white dwarf sy.stem would be like helium two thousand times faster finding twins who had matured at while Canis Ma- than the sun ; 29 such radically different rates that joris believed to be seven hundred at the age of forty one was still a thousand times as bright as the sun wee toddler while the other was a is operating ten thousand times doddering old graybeard. faster. 'I'hese stars .seem to live The boldest answer to the ques- with no thought for the morrow. tion of Why the White Dwarfs was .And like the famous candle of Hdna given by the late William de Sitter. St. Vincent .Millay’s that "burns at He suggested that they are older both ends, it will not last the night,” than the Milky Way, older than the so it is hard to see how the super- external galaxies, older than any- giant stars can last for more than thing else in the universe because 100 million years tiot to mention a they came through from Outside couple of billion more or less. the last time when space was small. Boy! That is really going back- their If the super-giants are in vvarfl in time. gay youth, then the degenerate ,\s a convenient unit of time sup- white flwarfs are in their senile old pose that we adopt the one proposed age. After having gotten rid of bv Dr. Bart J. Bok of Harvard every source of energy available to called the Cosmic V'ear. It is the a ^tar they have settled down in a time taken by the sun to make one

’ I I 1 I u A S T O l N r> l N « S E N 0 E F C T 0 X . — 5

complete revolution of the galaxy. end should be in sight. The whole The Cosmic Year is equal to 200 of creation will have sunk into a million of our ordinary years. dull apathetic state in which there

On this basis, if we adopt the is no longer energy available to op- short time-scale, the universe was erate the universe. The radioactive closely contracted from ten to fif- atoms will have run down, the spiral teen Cosmic. Years ago. The Earth, nebulae will have receded from view, stars, and galaxies all were born at and only a handful of fair>t about the same time. During the stars remain. Peering ahead we see next ten Cosmic Years clusters like nothing but death and stagnation in the Hyadcs will have had time to a world where there is no more hot become disrupted due to penetration or cold, up or down, black or white. of intruding field .stars and by the A period of infinite peace when tidal force of the central galactic everything has happened that can nucleus. Denser clusters like the happen and there is nothing to Pleiades may resist much longer worry about any more. but in the end they, too. are doomed. Then the universe will probaldy A one hundred Cosmic Years more start contracting and wind every- thing and we will search for the familiar up again. Seven Sisters in vain. According to our present ideas THE END. on stellar evolution, the sun should keep increasing in luminosity until

fifty Cosmic Years from now it will be one hundred times brighter than at present. By that date its supply DONT WAIT of hydrogen will have been largely Until there isn't an available copy used up so that the sun will have of your favorite magazine. A whole no other recourse than to draw iq^on year of reading pleasure, thrills its energy (jf gravitational contrac- and chills, can be hod by just fill- tion. But like a gambler mortgag- ing in this coupon and sending it ing his household possessions this to us immediately. Don't wait act now! is a tem}X)rary expedient at best.

The gravitational energy is soon ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION exhausted so^that in a mere five 122 EAST 42nd STREET million years the sun will have NEW YORK 17, N. Y.

liincloerd is .$2.50. dropped from a star as luminous as KiiuDv send me fl year’s subscription to ASTOUNDING Arcturus down to the feeble white SCIENCE-KICTION.

dwarf stage. NAME ; If things keeiJ on as we antici- ADDRESS pate at present, by the close of the CITY STATE next five hundred Cosmic Years the

TIME FOR A r.N'IVBR.SK AST—5P 1 1 Those aliens 'were really alien. As totally different from

man as is a cactus plant. Would that difference lead to ineviialde e.vtermmation war—or complete lark of confiictf Alien Envoy by MALCOLM JAMESON

Illustrated by Williams

'!1if telecom rattled throatily, |examining aside. It was the usual then cleared. The voice was that slush about the unrest among the of Terry, biminy fieldman. talags of Darnley Valley on Venus ‘Hey, chief, there’s something and dire prognostications of revolt, coming in over the visio you ought as if talag grousing was something to have a squint at. Think it’s new. They ahvays bellyached, and right down our alley.” nothing ever came of it. That’s

r.llwood shoved the file he was the way talags weic. Anyhow, it ua ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION —

was routine and never should have “We finally penetrated one! Who been sent up to the chief’s desk. did it?” The ace bimmy—so-called from col- “Commander Norcross, in the lapsing the initials of the Bureau Penelope. He slammed a Mark IX of Interplanetary Military Intelli- torp into it, and it took. But, say, gence—preferred not to be bothered chief, that ain’t all the story. The with trifles. whole battle was as screwy as could “I heard you, Terry,” he barked. be. The Ursan didn’t fight back, “I.et ’er flicker.” and you know how toug’n they usu- The big screen across the room ally are. All it did was set up a came to life. For a moment there terrible howl that sounded like all was nothing but swirling gray the static this side of Magellan chaos, and then the color deepened rolled up in one ball. And take a to a velvety purple-black. The gander at the co-ordinates.” screen gained depth and the coldly Ellwood’s gaze dropped to the burning stars came out one by one. pale white figures in the lower cor- For some seconds that was all, then ner. There were thi-ee of them an object drifted into the field. It celestial latitude and longitude and was a bulky, tetirdrop shaped thing the angle of tilt. The wrecked of shimmering silvery green and Ursan was less than a million miles atop it sat a squat turret out of away—^beyond the moon a little dis- which peeped the blunt nose of tance and up about twenty degrees. some kind of lethal projector. But “What in thunder w'as he doing the violet aura that usually sur- this far in ?” asked Ellwood. “They rounded the stubby gun was miss- haven’t ventured in past Jupiter in ing. forty years.” That was but one detail. Ell- “Search me. That’s why I called wood gasped as he ran his eye over you. Norcross says he’s done his the image of the entire ship as it stuff. He’s put the Ursan on the inched its way into the middle of fritz, and there aren’t any more the field of view. The after half around. He wants to know whether

of it glowed and sparkled with in- he should just call the derelict candescent lemon-yellow fire, fad- squad, kick the wreck into an orbit,

ing slowly to a dull orange and or haul it in so you can have a look- then a cherry-red as the tortured see.” hull radiated its fierce heat into Ellwood fairly yelled his answers space. The vessel had been caught into the telecom. in a katatron beam. That was evi- “Park it in the lot by Lab Q-S,

dent, but it was not all. There was of course, }'ou dope. Isn’t this a gaping hole through the stern out what we’ve been waiting for all our of which glowing gases were blow- lives ?” ing, only to be instantly dissipated The telecom ci'ackled and died. in the vacuum of space. Ellwood’s fingers were racing “An Ursan !” exclaimed Ellwood. across a panel of buttons.

.AMEN ENVOY 117 —

“Q-5? Standby for a triple-pri- prove the technics of w'arfare ority job . . . cruiser got an Ursan against them? It was a grim ques-

. . . no, I mean got it . . . it’s hang- tion that .had agitated the Earth ing dead in space, and it’s fairly in- races ever since the Ursans had tact. They’re towing it in to you, first invaded their system. and it ought to be there by this Ellwood thought back over re time tomorrow. Recall Twitcherly, cent liistory. The first intruders and be sure that Darnhurst is there. had come in a wave of some fifty Tm leaving here right now by strato- ships, dropping into the ken of the line £ind I’ll bring Gonzales with Space Patrol from the general di- me. You have everything all set rection of Ursa Major. On that oc- complete metallurgy, chemistry, casion they visited most of the and inagrietonic examination of the planets, conducting what was un-

Imll . . . the Valois procedure will mistakably a reconnaissance in spite be the best, I think. And I want of all the heroic space fighters a board of outplanet medicos there. could do. Dozens of the invader.s We want to find out what an Ursan were caught in the quick blasts of looks like, what makes him tick, katatrons, but they failed to disinte and the rest. That means an au- grate. They merely glowed for a topsy such as never was, right down moment in blinding incandescence, to the histology of every last cell and proceeded to carry on. They in the monsters. That is, if they’re woidd answer the kat blast with a nionsters, and there’s anything left bolt of iruissive pink lightning from of them.” their own squat guns, and tliat “I get you, chief. Everything’ll would be the end of another ter- be ready to roll.” restrian ship and crew. Until now Ellwood snapped out a score of not one of our vessels had managed other calls. Then he sat back and to stay in action long enough to relaxed. launch its slower but more positive torpedoes. It had started out to be a dull, It was strange. d'he Ursans dreary day of stifling details. Now came, and they went aw^ay, leav- that was changed. It was the day ing behind them the burned out of days, the day of opportunity hulks of the flower of the Space every bimmy chief before him had Navy. A decade passed, and they yearned for and never got. Wliat did not return. Boasters claimed were Ursans, anyway? Where did our defense had taught them a les- they come from, and what did they son : they would not dare come want? And since they were aliens back. The Pollyannas took the from an unknown outer world who view that it was apparent we had always fought back with murderous nothing they wanted, therefore they savagery while being at the same were not to be feared hereafter. time virtually impregnable them- Blit there were other.s who took a selves. what could be done to im- soberer view. The fleet was re-

119 ASTOUNDlNfi .SOI r-lN'CK FICTION built and strengthened. Kat pres- were making an advance base on sure.? vvere built up; the speed of Jupiter. For twenty years their torps increased. Other weapons ships came and went, but they did were devised under the spur of ne- not come inside the asteroid belt cessity. again. Doggedly the dwindling The Ursan.s did come back. That Space Navy harried them, but ap- time they came in not one wave, parently to no avail. In a duel but ten. and each wave had more between a Terrestrian and an than a thousand ships. That was Ursan, the Ursan always won. It the year of the great running bat- was a dispirited, losing business. tle from past Neptune all the way Then came a day when the whole in to Jupiter. The Earth forces Ursan armada took off in one va.st attacked them at- the perimeter of cloud and went back toward the the system and hung on to the bit- upper Northern sky. Until this lone ter end. There were many enemy ship came wandering in, there bad casualties that time, but the surviv- not been another visitation. ing Ursans crowded round them “I wonder,” mused Ellwood, “do and herded them into what was for these creatures come in successive them safety—down through the waves like the Goths and the Mon- swirling ammonia clouds of Jupi- gols and the Huns did, and is this ter to a landing where no terrestrian the advance scout for a new inva- dared follow. The tired remnants sion? Or what? Why did this of wliat liad been a mighty defensive Ursan give Norcross time to slip fleet had no stomach for the killing a torpedo into him? .\sleep? gravity of Sol’s greatest planet. Sick? Internal difficulty?” They withdrew to lick their He rose. Well, they had the wounds. ship. That was something. For awhile terror reigned on the inner planets. The Ursans did not Ellwood leaped from the plane follow up their attack, but they did and strode across the field. 'I'he not go away. It was evident they bimmy guards saluted and made

ALIEN ENVOY 119 gangway. .A. hundred yards from Ellwood said nothing. A gang the grounded wreck Ellwood of men were just then loading glimpsed three sheeted forms on something onto a heavy truck be- stretchers. side the wreck with the aid of a "Who are they?” he asked. crane. They had brought it out ‘‘Tolliver, Sewheitzer, and Wang through the gaping hole left by the C hiang. They got theirs trying to torpedo. Ellwood walked over .and get into the forepart—passed out looked at it. It was truly a in the lock. It’s hot in there, and monstrous thing. hea\y. and what the Ursans use The dead Ursan partook of the for air is out of this world. It’s qualities of an articulated deep sea all over with those three lads.” turtle, crossed with an octupus and Itllwoocl frowned. He didn’t rel- recrossed with a giant horned frog. i.sh losing men. Moreover, men There were seven segments, squat with the (|ualilIcations for being and heavily plated, each supported good bimmies were as scarce as the by one thick, elephantine foot no proverbial hen’s teeth. Yet he was more than four inches long. Some glad they had done their duty. If ’of the segments were topped with the forward half of the hostile ship a cluster of bony spikes, each in a was still intact it was important different arrangement. Some were that it be left that way. The easy triple, some quintuple, one a sim- way would have been to blast it ple jtair. None were of the same open, but then they would liave length or thickness, and, their spac- had to reconstruct the conditions ing varied. The non-horned seg- there. This way they had only to ments were ttvo in number, one ob.scrve them. near each end. Instead of horns "Did anyone come out—alive?” they were crowned with flat, lumpy "\'e,s. Darnhurst. He says there superstructures from which dangled is at least one living Ursan still in a score of octupoid antennae. Some tlieie. He saw it crawling around hung lose and flabby, others were in the control room, and then he half retracted into the parent shell. got out quick.” They w^ere variously tipjx;d at their

‘‘Did it go for him?” outer ends. About half ended in "(hi, no. He just couldn’t bear hand! ike arrangements of several up against the pressure and the fingers and an opposing thumb, oth- rest. There is some kind of gravity ers terminated in vacuum-grip cups, de\ ice operating in there and inside still others in horny, toollike finials you have to work against 3-G’s. —chisels, socket wrenches, and the 'I'hc temperature is around a thou- like. But of organs such as the sand, and the atmosphere is a mix- fauna of the Solar System pos- ture of ammonia, methane, helium, sessed there was no sign. There nitrous fumes, and about nine other was nothing corresponding to eyes, gases that haven’t yet been identi- ears or noses, nor yet the semblance fied.” of a mouth. The creatures were

120 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION all plate and horn and tentacle, and tension and then launching them at incredibly massive. near the speed of light. But what “How many of these are there?” was radically different was the sys- tem of control. human, or “Three. The black gang, I guess No of that could be they were. They aren’t damaged any group humans contained in either the turret or the much. It must have been the loss engine room could possibly have of their atmosphere that killed ” queer them. manipulated the scattered, shaped controls. None but Bri- “Rush them along to the lab, arean handed creatures could do then, and let the boys there at the job. The set-up was strictly them.” Ursan, by Ursans, for Ursans. Sig- nificantly there was nowhere a sin- There followed a hectic seventy gle gauge, meter, label or other hours during which no bimmy at visual aid to the operator. that post slept more than a cat nap As for the control room where or ate more than a bolted sand- the surviving monster still dwelt, wich. By the time Ellwood’s spe- whining unceasingly on forty dif- cial harness was completed a lot of ferent short-wave radio frequen- preliminary work had been cleared cies at once, Ellwood left that away. The easiest part of it was strictly alone. He was not finished the accessible part of the ship itself. tooling yet for his entry into it. The hull was of immense strength The only precautions he took with built of an alloy that as yet de- and it was to see that a reserve supply strength fied analysis. Its tensile of the gases needed to replenish mil- was of the order of a half a what the monster used was at hand to the square inch. It lion pounds if needed. But he made one star- It no attain- was acid proof. had tling discovery without entering the point. It was a wonder able melting difficult chamber. One of his that even a katatron could heat it bimmy engineers deduced the loca- it. Only white, let alone atomize tion of the monster’s air-purifying the direct hit of a Mark IX torp system and tapped it in mid cycle. could have punctured it. The waste product was amazing. It The main drive was atomic, not was steam Just steam. He led ! different from the terrestrial much it into a condenser. The end prod- guns were simply mag- kind. The uct was distilled water, a fact versions of the katatron. The netic grabbed onto with great interest by bimmies whose s5>ecialty was ord- the medic gang. nance swarmed over them, delight- They, too, had done their work, edly taking stotes. Here was some- but in the end it had to be tgken thing really fearsome in the way of armament. The Ursans had learned out of their hands. Electronicists the trick of accumulating balls of and magnetonic sharks took over magnetrons under terrific initial where they left off. If the beast’s

ALIEN ENVOY 121 a

body chemistry was topsy-turvy, its “There you are.” said Gonzales, nervous system was a thing to drive “It’s screwy, but it is what we men mad. It was a mess of tan- found.” gled wire—metallic wire, loaded He handed Ellvvood tlie rough with radium—and weird ganglia draft of the preliminary report, that might have served as distribu- The Ursans neither ate nor tion boxes. There were sets of flat, drank. They breathed—breathed semi-bone, metalloid plates that the outlandish blend of gases found could only be a variety of con- in their ship. There were gills un- denser. There were other screwy der the after edge of each segment’.s arrangements that were probably plate except the end ones, and in transformers, and the horns that each segment was a separate lung, adorned the spiked segments proved The lungs themselves were fantastic to be combination triodes and send- beyond expression, an impossible ing and receiving antennae. Bimmy blending of leathery membrane and after bimmy looked, and bugged his flexible quartz tubing. In the tub- eyes. A thing like that just ing coursed the creature's blood— couldn't be. It violated —well, just solution of silicon, radium salts, about all the laws of electronics sulphur, iron, zinc, and a score of there were. Yet— And they other metals in a mixture of acids would go back to work. What they of which nitric was the dominant dreamed of in their snatches of member. This blood fed the sleep they did not divulge, but it stumpy, clumsy feet and the agile was wild enough to start the doctors tentacles. It also fed the ganglia shooting hypnophrene as a regular and notirishcd the other electric thing. gadgetry. There were sinuses

188 A.STOUND tNQ SriENCK FICTION filled with the liquid where it putting his finger at spots on the seemed to act as an electrolyte. diagram. “A current fed to this five-pronged arrangement makes an “If I believe what I see here,” amateur do funny things when you said Ellwood tapping the document, make noises in the vicinity. I’d call

“we are going to have to throw a it an audio converter. The Ursans lot of preconceived notions out the apparently don’t care a hang about window. Here we have monsters listening as such, but they evidently with intricate nervous systems, but have found it useful to change what no brain, 'fet they are intelligent, we call sound into something else even if they do think with their re- that has meaning for them.” flexes. They have no organs of “Yes,” said Ellwood, thought- sight, touch, or liearing, but they fully. “You’re on the right trail. evidently perceive the stars well I wonder which frequencies in the enough to navigate, and ns well band the creature uses for com- enough to make ns targets. 'I'his munication with his mates. Once

requires a radical approach." we have that I’ll have a jutnping off “They ]rerceive by means of point for what I intend to do.”

short-wave radio," (ionzales re- “We’ll see it we can pick it out minded him. "Tiiat set in the cor- for you, chief. There are three ner is tuned in on the steady drone or four waves he uses only inter- that surviving Ursan in the cruiser mittently, and that stutteringly. It is sending out. f think that is what sounds very much to me as' if he he keeps track of his surroundings had been listening in on the chit- by. Here's why. We have acti- chat between our ships and was try- vated the nerve circuits to this pair ing to imitate it. Being electroni- of horns on number three segment. cally minded, the Ursans could They gave off the identical continu- hardly fail to have picked up our ous tone, and they also pick it up ethergrams. We have recorded a on the rebound. The return im- lot of the jabber already and turned pulses go down to a certain ganglia it over to the cryptograph gang, but and from there are fed to this set so far they haven’t cracked the of bone plates. Unless somebody code. It may be as you suggest-— talks me down. I'm going to label one of those waves is the Ursan those bone.s the retina.” speech w'ave.” lillwood chuckled. It was not “Maybe, and maybe not." mur- too ab.surd a thought. For cen- mured Ellwood, "but it’s a turies men had been using short- thought.” wave radio for night detection. That night he made several im- Here was a living organism that portant changes in his plans. He used it all the time. burned up the air with urgent mes- “Now these other spikes and sages, and before morning the fir.st horns perform similar, but differ- of the planes bearing rush etjuip- ent duties,” continued Gonzales, ment began dropping down beside

.4lib;n knvov 12S the Ufsan prize. By ten Ellwood would enable him to endure the was ready to test out a theory he cruel temperatures so dear to his had spent the night in evolving. He visitor, and at the same time shield meant to go into the sealed control his lungs from the noxious atmos- room and have a direct interview Iihere. Then he let them hoist him with the captive monster. into the chair while they rigged his ’ Better play it safe, chief,” spoke accessory tools handily about him. up the bimmy in charge of the The chair itself had been specially guard. ‘‘That thing may act up. built for the occasion. It was mas- Non ought to carry along a sive and mounted on a truck car- lilaster.” ried by thick dollies, and jxiwered

I'-llwood shook his head. by a small atomic. In it Ellwood ”I think,” he said, smiling mildly, could sit in relative ease despite the ‘‘that we got off on the w'rong foot 3-G pull of the control room deck. witl) these creatures right from the He nodded, and the cranemen beginning. I don’t mean with this hoisted him into the open lock door.

shif) or what our gang is doing They closed it. Ellw'ood was in the

about it. I mean the whole dismal anteroom of the visitor from tlie history of our dealings with the stars. The rest was up to him.

L'rsans. I’ve been thinking it over. The lock grew warm, and the Has it ever struck you that there foul atmosphere of the ship whis-

Iia.s never been an instance of an tled in and filled it. The pressure l/rsan ship firing on one of ours built up. Shortly conditions except when ours had first attacked? matched those in the interior. The Could it not be that they are an es- inner lock door slid open with a sentially peaceful race of brutes and hiss, and as Ellwood piloted his

not prone to fight except in self- sturdy vehicle through it. it clicked

defense ? I’ve come to that conclu- shut behind him. sion, and I’m staking my next move To human eyes the visibility was accordingly. Whatever that fellow bad. Ellwood saw everything ill there was up to, coming straight through a thick, milky haze, but at- toward Earth the way he was, I tached to his chair were powerful refuse to believe it was aggression.” lights, and after a minute or so he “You’re the boss,” said the man, could sc-e sufficiently well. shrugging, but the look of uneasi- The control room was a hemis- ness did not leave his face. plierical affair, a roundish room with a domed ceiling. Except for The iwnderous chair was ready. the floor there was hardly any part It .stood on the ground just out- of it that was not encrusted with side the Ursan entry port, and there fantastic, intricate machinery. It was a heavy crane beside it. Ell- rose in banks along the curving wood let them dress him in the walls; it hung from the overhead. heavy-duty, high-resistant spacesuit Only creatures with long multi- fitted with cooling coils. That tentacles could have reached its

Hi s T o r N r> 1 N 0 s c 1 n X c E - V ! CT 1 < > y scattered controls. As a piece o£ for a relatively flat spot and finally functional design it was doubtless found one—a huge plate that splendid—but from the Ursan point seemed to be the cover for a por- of view. Ellwood swept it with one tion of an elaborate arrangement slow, wondering glance, and then of magnetic gears. That was well. put its intricacies out of his mind. Ellwood relaxed and devoted his In time the technicians would un- attention to the little black box in ravel tire mysteries. His job was his lap. He seized its tuning knobs nrore comprehensive. and began .searching the short-wave The Ur.san lay motionless on the band. far side of the room. Ellwood The two adversaries remained could only assume that his entry thus for the space of hours. Ell- had been noted. For there was not wood simply sat and tv/iddled the slighte.st sign on the part of knobs, groping for the meaning of the monster of any change in his what he heard. The monster could attitude toward his environment. well have been as dead as the di.s- Ellwood drove his chair part way sected ones in the laboratory. It across the room and stopped it never moved an inch or twitched a there. He scanned the walls afresh tentacle. But it kept on doing in- ;

teresting things with its steady out- say, than Chinese. Yet all those Ian-’ pourings of radiation. guages expressed human thoughts It was not long before Ellwood in terms of human visual and aural was aware that inside him some ex- images. How did an Ursan, a ceedingly queer sensations were be- creature who had no eyes, ears, or ing born. Pimple-raising thrills tongue, think of the things his

would creep up and down his spine “brain” conceived ”f That was the elfin fingers reached inside his ear- crux of the problem. drums and thumped them; once Ellwood was eager to delve into there were sudden shooting pains that aspect. It was for that the in his eyeballs; and there was a extra stuff had been rushed through \’ery trying period several minutes the stratolanes of the night, and he long when his heart action went was prepared. For that reason he craz}'. Ellwood accepted it stoi- persisted with the exchange of gib- cally. He was sure of himself and berish only a little while. Then he felt no fear. He was being probed, reached into his bag of tricks and examined, mentally dissected by a brought out item number two. diffuse electronic mind that felt its It was a small, self-contained, way by reflected radiation. He magazine projector. Loaded into knew his own immense curiosity as it were the excellent films devised to the nature and purix)ses of the by the Outplanet Cultural Society thing opposite to him. It was not for the education of the Venusian illogical that the feeling was mutual. talag. the Martian phzitz, and the .A-t last there was a lull. It was odd life forms that haunted the time for overtures, the preliminary Jovian satellites. Ellwood focused sizings up having been completed. it on the flat plate he was lucky

Ellwood flipped a switch and be- enough to find. Then he' started it gan .sending. Dot-dash, dot-dot- to running. dot-dash, and so on, using the wave The golden key to successful he thought most likely the creature pedagogy is the association of ideas. communicated ideas on. He sent That was how the OCS had solved on for one minute, then grinned the outland language problem. It grimly as he ended with the stand- was true that Ursans could not see, !’’ ard” “Over but neither could phzitzti. It was The monster caught on. There true that a talag is congenitally \t'as an answering rattle of mean- deaf, but they learned. With an ingless ta-ta-ta-daa-daas. It made Ursan it would surely be harder, no sense, but the channel had been but Ellwood was hopeful. found. Later the cryptographers Nouns, the names of things, are could develop the recording tapes always the obvious starting point. and try their hand at unraveling the Ellwood’s first showing was that meaning. But it would not be sim- of the sun, taken close up, near ple. Spanish is different from Mercury. The impressive parade Norse, but closely akin—more so, of raging sunspots was there, and

1 '2« ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION —.

the streaming prominences. “Sun,” he sent, in the interplan- etary code, and simultaneously ut- tered the word out loud. Then he diminished the diameter, showing the^sun successively as it appeared on Earth, on Jupiter, and on Uranus. Each time he reiterated the noun, both in dot and dash, and by voice. He repeated the perform- ance from the beginning, then sent “Over!” “Sun,” came liack the Ursan’s !” reply. “Over Ellwood beamed beneath his hel- met, though hot sweat was trickling over his eyes. The Ursan was smart. He wa.s catching on. Now HE GOT for another noun, and coupled with THE PURPLE HEART . . it a bit of .semantic logic. He started the machine off again, and this time shrank the sun to a mere WILL A BOND PROVE pinpoint of scintillating white light. TOO COSTLY FOR YOU? “Star,” was his dual message. “Star,” said the Ur.san.

Then came the planets, all of It's left to youf own conscience, be- them, however different, and each cause that's the kind of country we ere. Ellwood called simply jdanet. After Somewhere else in the world, the money that he went through them again, needed to carry on the war would be but tliat time he put the emphasis gotten through odded taxes, compulsory on their differences. He called savings. But not here. Because we're them successively Mercury, Earth, still free . . . and it's still up to you Mars, and on in order. The Ursan ond no one else—to decide whether or followed. Now be was beginning not* your country, or your boy, is worth to grasp the bunmi communicative another bond. pattern. There were all-embracing words—the generic terms that in- BUY IT NOW! I cluded ;i whole class of related THE WORLD'S things: There were :dso specific BEST INVESTMENT! words applying to individual varia- tions. Ellwood rested. Cnriou.sIy. the WAR BONOS Ursan rested, too. Perhaps he was pondering what he learned, thought

ATIBN KNVOT 1^7 lUlwood. At any rate he waited, And what is internal pressure in- motionless and with much of his crements when 3-G‘s is standard? radiation stilled. Ellwood was con- I doubt if there is any way to kill

\inccd now that his plan would these things itnless it is to deprive \v(»rk. The monster’s perceptions them of the precious stink they were those of another world, yet breathe.” titey did perceive. That was what He rested most of the afternoon, mattered. and then went back, in the tedious Presently Ellwood repeated the weeks of instruction that followed show, hopeful that this time the Ellwood made great progress. Ersaii would take another step and Where the monster’s memory re- supply Iris version of the word dis- sided he could not say, but there was played. He did not. Evidently one. Imr when he finished with the there were no corresponding con- concrete words he held a review. eef>ts in Ursan thought. He flashed the series beginning with Ellwood let it go. He must be the sun, though without naming the content for the time being with one- objects. The Ursan faithfully sup- way teaching. Later—who knew? plied the appropriate nouns. He He showed next two spaceships. had acquired a vocabulary of more Tlie first was a Terrestrian. cruiser, than a thousand words. the other a typical Ursan craft. EIc The verbs were harder, and, the established one after another the abstractions worse. .But the course general words “spaceship,” “war- the Society had contrived was cle^•- shi]}." and then proceeded to dif- erly put together. Ellwood fol-

ferentiate into classes. The last lowed it religiou.sly. He depicted lesson of the day was the intro- various human activities, each duction of adjectives. There were neatly illustrated to emphasize the the terms Terrestrian and Ursan to principle concerned. In the end he define. came to the concept of rivalry, and showed how rivalry grew into Ellwood was exhausted when lie strife. Combat w'as shown in vari- came out. and surprised to find that ou.s aspects, but all of it was com- he had spent hut two hours within. bat. And then Ellwood played his It had seemed far longer under the trump, -A scene showing a fight terrible conditions suitable to Ursan ended in one party crawling across life. ,'\ group of anxious bimmies the lines w-aving a white flag. The hoisted him out of the lock and re- two combatants then embraced. leased him from his harness. At this point Ellwood got his fir,st '‘Phew," he whistled. “Now I reaction from the monster that was understand why a katatron won’t more than mere parroting. It was work against these babies. They sending agitatedly in English, It heat up a ship that can’t be melted, was a queer sort of English, tinged but what is heat to creatures who as it was with an Ursan accent, for start at one thousand as normal? even in code there is such a thing.

az8 A S T O II X D I X 0 r T K X c F, - F r r T 1 0 X The creature got in all the words, was a concept not hitherto ex- but the syntax was his own. Some plained. But he took up his of the invers-ions almost defied un- harangue again. scrambling. but Ell wood thought he “I have been a prisoner in this knew what the Ur.san was driving impossible place for a long time listened. at. He quit .sending and now,” sent the Ursan, "and 1 have "Peace!” the visitor kept repeat- listened to your teachings. Very I ing. "Peace. that is what well. Now 1 know about you and ,came for. We are not enemies, your strange race, and the hideous but friends. Vou are puny yet planets you choose to live on. It’s savage monster.s m our eyes, but my turn. Let me teach you our close now that 1 have seen you at way. Leave off torturing me with range I sec that you are not wholly your crude electronic devices and iiiany thiitgs in clumsy bad. You do just sit and absorb. I assure you over that. ways, but we will pass that what you have done to me is That is your alfaiv. You are not to quite painful, but in your ignorance equipment blame that your sensory you could not help that. 1 will mentality are a.s limited as they and show you that the Ursan way is I m>w concede that you are. but better.” have done remarkably well in spite Ellwood turned off his set meekly. of your handicaps." It had not occurred to him before "Thank you very much." said mechanically generated radia- Ellwood dryly. that differences Being thanked seemed to discon- tion might have subtle characteristics from the organi- cert the Ursan for a moment, as it in

AJjJEN ENVOY 129 caily generated variety. He found that he knew that up to then human himself praying that now that it was science had no more than scratched his turn and he was on the receiv- the surface of general knowledge. ing end the converse effect would He saw how chemistry, physics, not be equally painful. all the sciences underwent pro- found modifications under the ter- It proved not to be, though there rific pressures and temperatures he were times when Ellwood felt he encountered on certain far off plan- would go mad from the exquisite ets. Everything wa.s—well, was ecstasies that sometimes rose to in- different. tensities amounting almost to ag- What the Ursan was giving him ony. For the Ursan discarded all was a general orientation course. dots and dashes and went straight Ellwood M^as shown score.s of plan- to the source of thought. By means ets compared with which Jupiter of its own uncanny mechanism it would be but small fry. He saw managed to tune in on the neural races of other monstrous creatures currents of the brain itself. that were as different from the It was a dreamlike experience, Ursan before him as the Ursan was verging occasionally on the night- from him, yet they lived in the marish. Ellwood had a hard time same environment. It was analogous later conveying some stretches of to the mutual enjoyment of the It to the Grand Council. Indeed, earth by such diverse creatures as he had a hard time even remember- eagles, elephants, snakes, man, fish ing part of what he experienced, so and streptococci, Each had its own utterly alien to human conception needs and duties, though each im- were many of the bizarre scenes he pinged at some points on the oth- saw and activities witnessed. er.s. There w^as co-operation among P'irst he the had giddy feeling them, and also strife. And what one has when succumbing to a gen- strife! Ellwood grew faint wdien eral anesthetic. It was as if his he saw the fighting modes of some soul being was torn from his body species o f monsters. and forced to float in space. There But there was civilization, com- Was never a time when he could be prising manufacturing and com- sure that he saw what he saw, or merce, and attended and regulated heard what he heard, or felt what by a sort of ethic. There were he felt. Sensed? Divined? Per- governmental organizations, and ceived intuitively? Some such verb what must have been religious seemed more appropriate. But bodies. It was the industrial set- shortly Ellwood quit caring. He vtp with its mighty factories that was in another world, a world so interested Ellwood most. He saw weird, so fantastic, so amazing in that on those planets certain sub- its extremes and distortions of or- stances quite rare with us were dinarily accepted laws of nature commonplace, and also the con- 180 ASTOUNDTNG SCIENCE OMCTION trary. Gold was abundant enough to be used for roofing, whereas ordinary salt was extremely rare. The geatest dearth lay in the .scarcity of radium, a vital com- modity since it was to the Ursan what the more important vitamins are to us. It was on account of radium hunger that they had been so insistent on mining the Red Spot on Jupiter, despite our inliospitable reception of their ships. Imperceptibly Ellwood was brought back from the realm of the distant planets, and was kept for awhile in what can only be termed an abstract state. There were no pictures or sound in that. Only a flow of ideas. The Ursan was pouring the Ursan philosophy of inter-creature relationship into his consciousness. It w^as not at all a bad philosophy, ft was co-opera- tive. It recognized the rights of other.s to live in their own queer ways, and where they conflicted there existed an elaborate code by mand available to those with the wdiich they could be compromised. Ursan metabolism. Somehow the At length the Ursan reached his raw, basic idea came over all at finish. Ellwood was back in his once. It was amorphous, instan- ow'u personality, dazed and tired, taneous, and beyond logical analy- but immensely satisfied. He knew, sis. But one communicated. wfithout knowing how he felt, that Ellwood knew his task was suc- henceforth intercourse between him cessfully completed. The wordless and this monster would be easy. It message given him boiled down to would not be in dots and dashes or this, words in any form. It would not “We, the rulers of the Arniadian be simple telepathy, which after all planets about the great sun Gol mid- is but the mysterious conveyances way between you and Polaris, have of thinkable pictures. It tran- looked your system over and find scended that. It was super-telepa- there is a basis for us to work for thy, made possible by the amazing mutual advantage. We saw that electro-magneto-neuro current com- you were in useful occupation of

ALIEN ENVOt t»i certain small planets utterly unsuit- radium, and nose about at will, it able for us. We meant to leave you will be but a question of time until alone, and have left you alone. We they exterminate us. Moreover, it also found that you have two other is an ultimatum. We cannot enter- planets, one rich and the other less tain an ultimatum from . . . from so, sufficiently large to support our . . . from—” colonies. They are useless to you, He sputtered off into angry si- and must always be, since your lence, still groping for a word personal structure is so puny and beastly enough to describe the your science elementary. We, there- Ursan creatures as he saw them. fore, claimed them for ourselves, Ellwood regarded him with quiet resisting your ignorant and vicious contempt. attacks only iii so far as we were “It is not an ultimatum,” he .said, compelled to. coldly. “Alternatives were never ‘Since I find that you are now mentioned, though there has not ruled by fear, and actuated at times been a time in the past half century by greed and envy, we know that when the TJrsans could not have you will never be satisfied with sim- seared our inner planets from pole ply ceding to us what is of no value to pole whenever they chose. I to you. You want recompense. have seen their engines of destruc- Very well, at great risk and no small tion and they are unimaginably ter- inconvenience, I have come as an rible. They are asking only tiiat emissary. In our part of the gal- we stop beating our brains out and axy there are many small planets sacrificing our ships in futile nib- that would be paradisical to you, bling at their radium convoys. We and on most of them the life forms have had half a million fatal castial- are even more primitive than your ties to their three. The inmates own. If you will grant us unmo- of the ships \\e warmed up were lested access to Jupiter and Saturn, only momentarily stunned. The we will lead you to these trivial three they lost they lost in offering minor planets amongst us and grant this friendly gesture.” you equal privileges in return. I “Bah,” snorted Dilling. ‘‘Wh.at am the envoy of Armadia. I offer is friendly about proposing to rob you a treaty.” us of untold tons of pure radium “I will convey your message to when we put such high value on the our ruling body,” said Ellwood. few pounds we own ?”

“But it is unthinkable,” ex- “The radium in question,” said claimed Dilling, chairman of the Ellwood, "'might as well not exist Council. “Why, think of the risks. as far as we are concerned. Our ships have neither the structural How do we know these . . . these monslers have any honor? If we strength or the power to negotiate allow them to build up immense the gravity field of Jupiter, nor our bases, strip our system of its men the stamina to work the mines

132 ASTOUNDING .SCIENCE-FICTION if they could go there. You are Shortly another Ursan ship would playing dog in the manger. Yet appear, this time with safe con- knowing that, and our weakness, duct, and take his envoy home. they have made an offer. They will Meantime there were the ultimate cede us planets as valuable to us as formalities to be observed.

the radium sought is to them. They Ellwood carried with him the

do it from their sense of fair play. English text of the treaty. B^th You will accept the treaty because the Terrestrian and the Ursan copies engraved in basic, sys- you have no other choice. They were temic English on thick sheets of will take the radium in any event un- and keep on slapping down any pure beryllium, a metal totally the heavy planets. cruisers of ours that try to inter- known on He was to sign with the monster and fere. They offer peace instead, and commerce. Think, jou other gen- leave him one set. In his turn -the monster to over copy tlemen, of what that promises. In- was hand a of the Colic version. ter-systemic commerce, not only astronomically speaking, but be- When Ellwood’s chair rolled out tween systems of life that are on onto the floor of the control room, radically different chemical and the Ursan did what it had never physical levels. Trade between the done before. It moved. Inching tropics and the cold counti'ies was along on its line of monopods cater- profitable. Trade between Venus pillar fashion, it slowly crossed and and us and Mars is profitable. met Ellwood midway. Long dor- Here you are offered a prospect mant tentacles slithered out of their that staggers the imagination.” sockets and went to work. Two that terminated in the semblance of Ellwood chopped off his speech hands took the beryllium sheets and sat down. He had said what from Ellwood, shuffled them rap- was to be said. The rest was up to idly, and returned them to him. the Council. They then reached into a locker The discussion that followed was overhead and produced a half dozen heated and lengthy, but in the end golden metallic balls. Another ten- common sense won. When he left tacle snaked toward a shelf and the chamber it was with authoriza- brought forward an instrument. tion to negotiate. Ellwood knew, as if by instinct, what he had to do. Ellwood approached the Ursan The Colic text of the treaty ship for his final interview with the turned out to be the oddest docu- alien ambassador. Sliortly he would in libraries of man. It inherit the interesting wreck for ment the whatever study he wanted to make contained not words, but pure

of it. For the Ursan had broadcast thought—thought impressed on the to a waiting horde far out in space surface of the strange metallic that terms had been arrived at. spheres in the form of I'egenerative

ALIEN ENVOY IBS neuronic di.arges. J’o ooinprehenu Ellwood signed it by merely giv- their meaning any intelligent human ing his mental assent, which by some had only to run them through the nniracle of alien science became at instrument provided with them. It ,once a part of the document. Then was a .scanner, and as the balls he put his own signature to the tin rolled through, the hidden message sheets, using a stylus. The Ursan on their surfaces suddenly and mys- signed in similar manner, but em- terimisly became clear to anyone ploying a special tentacle that ter- nearby. minated in the suitable tool. What Elmwood scanned the Golic text. he put down for his name was an

It was a marvel of clarity of ex- unintelligible symbol, but it did not pression. The stipulations con- matter. The Solar version would tained were the whole thought, always be subordinate to tlie Golic. without a jot of qualification or It was an anachroniam, a sop to reservation. One knew what was legalistic tradition, a thing to be meant. 'I'here was no room for filed in archive vaults and forgot- quibbling, even it a .galaxy of law- ten. If ever there should arise a yers undertook the task. There question, the thought spheres would were no sltades of meaning, or mis- provide the answer. placed commas. There were no ifs .A.fter the exchange of documents and huts and and/ors, or whereases there was a moment of stillness. or parties of this part and that part The two tmerly different organ- as cluttered up the Solar version, ism.s—the Earthman and the Ursan The Golic text said what the Solar —were as motionless as if hewn did, but perfectly. from stone. They were lost in in-

1»4 A STOUNDI NO SO) ENOIC FIOTION : : :

timate psychic rapport. There was wrist joint of Ellwood’s armor and gratitude and friendliness in it, and found his gloved hand. The hand- mutual congratulations. Each rec- like Ursan tentacle tip grasped Ell-

ognized that the other load done a wood’s hand and shook it solemnly,

superlative job, and each under- up and down. Then it dropped stood the purity of the other’s mo- away, and retired to its .sheath. It tive. Then the tuood abruptly was good-by, and good luck. faded, as if a counectio-n had been Out in the lock Ellwood waited snapped. Ellwood felt completely for the pressure to fall, and the at a loss a.s to how lie should ter,- good, clean, cool terrestrial air to minate the interview. come in. There was a lump in his At that instant the Ursan did an throat and his eyes were moist, and

astonishing thing. .A. handed tenta- all of the moisture was not sweat. cle crept over to Ellwood’s chair “How did that Ursan know we and rested lightly for a moment on shook hands on things?” he mut- the padded arm. Then it slid for- tered. ‘7 never told him. Not ward past the, bnlbous hinge of the once.”

THE END.

Statement of the Ownership, Manage- Ormond V. Gould, 122 East i2ud Street,

New' York 17, N. Y. ; Allen B. Grummer, 122 ment, etc., required by the Acts of East 42ud Street, New ITork 17, N. Y. Congress of August 24, 1912, and >'!. That the bondholders, March 1933, of Astounding known mort- 3, gagees, and other security holders owning or Science-Fiction published monthly, holding 1 per cent or nn're (>f total amount at New York, N. Y., for October of bonds, mortgtiges or other securities are None, 1, 1944. 4. That the two paragraphs next above, State o[ New York, Counr.v or' .\«w Vork (ss.) giving the names of the owners, stockholders, Before me, a Notar.v I'ablie, luamlforttio and security holders, if any, contain not only State and county aforeiiaid. personally ap. the list of stockholders and security holders peared II. W. Ralston, who, having been duly ns they appear upon the books of the oom- sworn according to law, deposes and says pauy, hut also, in cases where the stock- that he Is Vice President of Street & Smith holder or security holder aiipears upon the Publications, Inc., publishers of Astounding books of tlie company as trustee or in any Sciencc-rictlon, and that tho following is, other fiduciary relation, the name of the per- son or to the best of his knowledge and bclhsf, a corporation for w'hom such trustee i.s acting, is gliAm also true statement of the ownership, manage- ; that the said two para- ment, etc., of the aforesaid piiblicathm for graphs contain statements embracing afflant’s the date' shown in the .above t'aption, re- full knowledge and belief as to tlie circura- quired by the Act of August 21. IblC. as stances and conditions under wiiieli stock- holders and security holders amended by the AH: of ' March .1, lltSd, wlio do not ap- embodied in section ,’>"7. Postal f.aw.s and pear upon the books of the company as Regulations, to wit irustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity otlier th.an that of a bona fide 1. That the names and addresses owner of ttm ; and this affiant has no reason to publisher, editor, managing editor, and believe that any oilier person, association, business managers are: PutliKhms. Street & or corporation has any intere.st direct or Smith Publications, Inc., 122 Ea.st V^iul iudirect in the said stock, bonds, or other Street, New York 17, N. Y. ; alUnr. .iohn W. securities than as so stated by him. Campbell, Jr.. 122 Bast 42nd Street, New H. W, RALSTON, Vice President, York 17, N. Y. managing rditors, ; none Of Street & Sruitli Publieations. Bimness managers, none. Inc., publishers. 2, That the owners are : Street & Smltt Sworn and ^blicatione, to subscribed before me this Inc., 122 East 42nd Street, New 29th day of September, YO'rk N. 1944. Edward P. 17, y., a corporation owned througl Kasmire, Notary Public No. stock holdings by 415. New York Gerald H. Smith, 121 County. (My commission expires Bast 42nd Street, March ilO, New York 17, N, Y', 1945. > AT.IBN ENVOY 1.15 Redevelopment

by WESLEY LONG

Snndru Drake teas a, clever girl, but slightly spoiled. .4 strikingly beautiful woman can get a, way u'ith a, lot of things. But—not when she tangles with em alien race with different ideals of hennty!

Miustrated by wnifams

Jolin McBride hung the phone the wiping tended to remove tlie on the hook and wiped his face. awed look, replacing it with a Tliis face-wiping was not the usual slightly dazed smile, the surprise gesture of a man whose face is must not have been too unpleasant. dirty, or covered with perspiration. He shook his head, as though to

It was the dazed sort of gesture clear it, and then made bis way made by a man who has just been through Station 1 of tlie Plutonian subjected to a surprise, and since Lens to the landing platform, just

136 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION inside tlie gigantic lock, a medium- Hayzuire Queen did me a lot of sized spaceship stood, and sitting on good, too, you loiow. 1 got my the_ edge of the space lock, swing- license back for that one. We both ing her feet, v;as Sandra Drake. gained.” “Hello,” she said brightly. “I know. I’m glad we did. But “Hi,” said John. This' was en- what can you possibly want that tirely new. Sandra Drake w'as not is so big that you’re afraid to ask ?” usually given to greeting men as “Well, and maybe it isn’t too big. anything but absolute imbeciles. either. Steve is a friend of both “What brings you out here? And of us, isn’t he? I’d do anything how did you make it?” for Steve—and wouldn’t you?” “Oh,” said Sandra lightly, “I “Yes. If any favors are owing. remembered the charge on Station 1 I think it i.s both of us to him.” and brought along a charge-com- “That’s what I’m getting at. I pensator. We hardly .sparked when need help—for Steve.” we lit.” “You sure go a long way around One of the attendants said, in a to get it,” grinned McBride. “Why. low aside: “About three hundred didn’t you tell me that first instead ex- amperes ! She’d call a major of warning me about a favor?” plosion a snap of the fingers ! You “It’s pretty big. But look, John, could hide an egg iii the crater she Steve took- the Hayzvire Queen on made.” a run to Sirius more than six weeks But Sandra was still talking. ago. He took along enough stuff she said in a voice that to stay week said he’d “John,” a ; he be back would have caused Shyloek to give after one hundred and seventy her his last gold piece, “I want hours of stay at, on, or near Sirius. help." This was just a trial hop to try “You need help? What can we the new drive you cooked up and do for you?” a longer, better equipped expedition “It’s pretty liig.” warned Satidra. would be made later.” Her low contralto dared him to ask “He did say something about it what it was—and also dared him to the last I saw him. He said he deny it to her. wasn’t particularly interested in “Look, Drake, you did us a favor exploring a new system. He’d leave not too long ago. I think we owe that for the explorers. He was in- you one.” terested in the drive and so on, and Sandra smiled uncertainly. “I after he’d paved the way for get- was afraid that that little stunt wa.s ting to the stars and had proven his

only repaying you for the first drive, he’d turn it over to those meeting we had.’’ interested in colonization. But six “Shucks,” said McBride. “Any- weeks ago, you say? Gosh, -.that’s one can make a mistake. Forget a long overstay, isn’t it?” it.” “It is. I happen to know he “But being pilot for you on the didn’t take more supplies than he

RBDEVEUOPMBNT 187 needed. So Tni worried about To Sandra, he said: “I hope him.” you’ve got plenty of what it takes.” "And where do 1 come in? You “I have,” she said, sensing his want me to go and help you look meaning. “Matter of fact, I’ve got for him?” the latest thing in alphatrons—two Sandra smiled wanly. ‘‘Hardly. of ’em. And all the E-grav gen- I’m sure Enid would enjoy that, erators we’ll need are all tacked too. \o, John, what I want is for into what 1 think are the right you to hook iij) the stuff I’ve got in places to make this crate into a the Lady Luck to make me one of super-speed job. There are spares those drives you invented so that for all three fields, and a couple of

I can go myself.” spare cupralum bars, too. Even ‘You’re taking a cltaiice. you part of the wiring is done. I got know.” just so far and then realized that ‘‘That's where tiie favor part I don’t know too much about grav- comes in. I want to go and look ities. That’s when 1 decided to for .Steve Hammond, I need your come here for help." drive. And if yon don’t help me, “Good thing,” said McBride.

I 'll go out in space and tinker with ‘‘You might have killed yourself.” the junk until 1 get it. I was Sandra didn't answ'cr, and at that there when yatii cooked it up, re- moment, McBride’s men came with inemher, and I have a good memory their tools. Wordlessly, they for details." nodded to Sandra and then fol- " But it'.s dangerous.” lowed McBride into the Lady Luck. "Is it? ‘Might be dangerous’ is what you mean. And I’ve been tak- McBride wasted no time. “Al,” ing harebrained chance.s for a long he said, “you fit the mag-G for ver- time, now'. Do I or don’t I?” tical bi-lobar field to cover the nose McBride thought for a long time. of the crate with the top lobe, and “Yott get it," he said at last. “On Westy, you see that the mech-G one condition. That you return in generator in the nose induces the not less than one month. If you proper vectors in tlie cupralum bar. do not, I'm going to take it upon f’ll get Hank and Jim to touch up myself to follow. .So tn.i matter tlie w'iring and safety devices. We’ll what yon find, get hack. Is that have this crate back in space within a promise ?" the hour!” "ft is." "Working a little fast, aren’t "O.K.. Sandra.” McBride went you?” asked Sandra.

to the wall Ilf the big lock and "No. 1 don’t think so. You’ve spoke over the communicator. got most of the main stuff in place. ‘‘Tommy! Get A1 and "Westy and It’s merely a matter of running the tell 'em to bring their tools to the alphatron lines correctly—remem- landing lock. We’re going to jug- ber, Sandra, alphons are not elec- gle a few generators arottnd.” trons and even low-alphon lines re-

13 « ASTOI'NDINO .SOI KNCK-PICTION quire siiiooTh, round bends, utlier- making a corona at the same time. wise they squirt off in a crackling Rarefied air makes pretty lights alphonic discharge that will eat the when it comes under a few trillion side out of a steel tank. You’ve volts—and being a cathode is no done most of the heavj- work. It worse than being an anode when just requires toucliing up here and your voltage is running up into a there getting the proper tield-in- bushel of zeroes—either is equally : tensity ont of the gra\dtic. gener- disconcerting, flow' do you intend ators and adjusting the output of to spot any planets?" the alphatrons. Then there is .some "Fve got a pair of hemisphere tricky relay work with tlie safety lense.s. I’ll sail through the Sirian

circuits ; it w’ouldn’t improve your sky at about forty- thousand miles beauty to suddenly find yourself per second and e.xpose for ten min- sitting in the. pilot’s chair at .seven utes. The stars will still appear as thousand gravities." spots, but anything close enough to Sandra shuddered. be planet-wise will make streaks

"Oh, and look, since you’ve got unles.s it is dead ahead. the compensator. You'll find a ‘Tn which case you'll see it per- static-charge rnetet handy, perhaps. sonally," grinned McBride. "That’s If there are planets around Sirius, the best stunt I’ve heard of yet who knows what their intrinsic to find planets." charge is. We’ll loan you one so "It isn’t new. They used it to that you can make planet withotit see if there were any planets out-

R K I> E V R T, O P M K N •

side of Pluto several years ago, an asset. Forget it. G’wan out ' though they exposed for several there and get Steve Hammond— hours while running at ten or fif- and do not forget for one minute teen thousand. Steve has a pair of I’m coming after you if you’re gone hemis with him, too.” more than thirty days. Seven hun- A1 came trudging in with a roll dred and twenty hours! Get me?” of alphon cable over his shoulder "Sure thing,” said Drake. and dropped it on the floor. ‘‘She's "And, John, you’re pretty swell.” in—my end, anyway.” "Nuts!” "Running already?” "All right, ‘Nuts!’ But some "On test power. Drake had the day I’m going to settle down and hi-lobar field almost on the ball. be a good girl, and then you can VVesty found about the same thing. believe me.”

I think another couple of days and "That, I’ll believe w'nen 1 see it. Drake wouldn’t have needed help.” Go on, Sandra, go out and get "I couldn’t make it W’ork,” com- Steve.” j)lained .Sandra. ‘‘I’ll get Steve,” promised .San- "Well, you missed a few minor dra. "Oh, but definitely.” points,” .said Al. "Never, never "Well, good luck.” run alphon lines anywhere near a "Thanks.” relay rack. It induces crosscur- The space lock dosed, and the rents in the windings and either men retreated inside of the Station’s makes 'em more sensitive or almost air lock. The gigantic doors swung dead, depending on the polarity. It open, letting a huge puff of air out won’t hui't AC relays, but they into space. Then the Lady Luck aren’t used too much on a space- lifted gracefully for all of her tons shi)), so it’s best to play safe.” of mass, and wafted out through "ril remember that, too,” Sandra the opened door. It was a dead- promised him. center jjassage, one that could be "O.K.” made only with a master pilot run- ning the board personally. And so an hour passed, and an- Then she was gone. Halfway other one added to it before the around the lens she would have to Lady Luck was fitted for super go before .Sirius came into a safe drive. It was finished, then, and line of flight. Sandra was taking Sandra Drake was more than volu- no more chances on contacting the ble in her thanks. surface of that mighty .space-warp "Never mind the thanks,” said that focused Sol on Pluto.

McBride, "or we’ll be into that McBride wondered ; ffas Sandra original wrangle as to who owes learned her lesson?' who what kind of a favor. Where we sit out here in the lens, favors One week passed. One week, are not weighted and set down as filled to the very brim with all of

140 A ,S T O U X D I N G S C I K N 0 E • F I C T I O N those routine things that make life McBride looked up as the door to full of wonder—as to whether there his office opened, and his jaw fell isn’t something better in the here- away down to here. He blinked. after. The sheer millions of miles Pie looked again, and then jumped of gravitic-induced space-warp re- to hi.H feet. "She found you!” he fracted Sol’s light endlessly and said. perfectly to make for Pluto a syn- “Who found who?” asked Stese ?” thetic sun that sported a dozen Hammond. “Has that dame— darting points. On Pluto, men “Drake? Yep. She came here lived and worked and pursued hap- and we fixed that drive for her. piness, and the valuable ore came She's changed, Steve. Even 1 can up from the ground in the Styx see it." Valley and created the need for “So she was here?" Pluto and the lens. Over Mephisto, “You bet. Sandra has changed.” the smelters cast their glow against “Pfas .she?” the sky, which the inhabitants of “Why, Steve, she was actually Hell always called “The Eternal worried about jmu. Near frantic.” Fire.” Across the River Styx from “Was she?”

Hell. Sharon lay like a city of mar- “She may have concealed it from ble by day and a string of pearls you. After all, she’s been a pretty by night. hard-boiled girl and the change is Nor was Plell; as seen from a little abrupt. She’s probahlv con- Sharon, any less beautiful. The cealing her real feelings.” twin cities of Pluto, rivals in every- “Would she?” thing, fought as usual. And the “Probably. After all she’s said bone of contention for tliat particu- about men in general, she’s prob- lar week was a simple, age-old epi- ably fighting an internal battle. But thet. It is a sorry fact that with she let it go right here." the entire solar system running as “Did she?"

it always did. Sharon and Hell “Did she ! Why. she tried to

found it possible to make the head- hook up the super drive herself, and lines of all the cities of the system when it didn’t work, she came here by their arguments. for help. I'd say she was really Sharon lost. Hell succeeded in interested in finding \ou. Going bringing to mind the fact that Hell, out of her way to help you, Steve, Pluto, was a fine place to be. and is quite a difference from the San- the poor citizens of Sharon were dra as I know her.” forced into second consideration. “Do you?’’ But then, Sharon had not been a “Say! What is the matter with running business for centuries. you? ‘Pfas she?’ ‘W^as she?’ Go to Sharon! had no familiar ‘Would she?’ ‘Did she?’ is that the ring. best you can do?” But the Road to Hell was a broad “L.ook. John, how long ago was highway. that?”

EBDEVEnOPMF.N 141 ” ” —

“About a week or so.” further than a long stone’s throw?” “What did she do, exactly.” “Shucks. I haven’t even been out “She came here and told us that to the Los Angeles city limits.” you’ve been a month or six weeks “Darn her hide!” overdue on that trip to Sirius. She “Yeah. I’ve been looking for wanted the drive fixed so that she her—and I’m as big a dope as you. could go out and look for you. I I wanted to offer her the chance offered to go along, but she said to pilot the Haywire Queen out no. So we fixed her drive and she there. I couldn’t find her in the took off like the devil was in her inner system and so I was going hair.” to take a squint at Pluto. I .stopped “Mac, you’re a sucker!” off to ask if you’d care to take the "Oh, now look—” run with me.” "So she’s changed, has she? Full “You know I would.” of remorse. Sputtering like a leaky “Well, that takes care of both alphatron field because she was answers. Drake is on her w'ay hamstrung without a drive. Her shucks, she’s there already—and heart was reeking with love for me, the second part is )'ou—and you and she wanted, if she couldn’t have want to go.” me, to go out into the deep, un- “I’ll ask Enid,” said McBride. known void of interstellar space “Come on, we'll go right down and and die where I had died, so we see her now.” could be together in that last, long resting place.” Enid McBride smiled. “.His a.sk- “What are—” ing me is a matter of form,” she "So John, please, for the small told Hammond. “Naturally he’ll help I was to you, and for the love go. T think it will be swell for of Steve that lies within both of us, him to go. He needs a vacation give me the drive so that I may anyway.”— go forth and seek he whom I crave. “But 1 want so little, John,— and Steve is “No huts. You'll go and like it. .such a fine fellow I wouldn't want you to miss any- "Say! Flave I been took?” thing like this for the world.” “The proper word is ‘Taken* and “How about you ?” the answer is in the affirmative.’’ Enid smiled again. “Pm no "I’ll be damned.” pioneer type, John. You know ‘ATu probably will,” smiled that. I’d be out of place—and Hammond. “Mac, all that dame what would John Junior do? Oh, wanted was to be the first human we could leave him with Anna, if being to set foot on another, extra- I wanted to go, but somehow this solarian planet! She wanted to be is as far as I care to get from home known as the first person to ever —my folk’s home, I mean. It’s seek another star.” funny how after seven years a

"1 take it that you haven’t been woman still .speaks of her parents’

14S ASTOUND! .Vfl SCIBNOB-FICTION home as her home in spite of the about it, so he has to inspect it fact that she ha.s a home and fam- every time he sees it to ascertain ily of her own,” whether or not it is turning green, ‘What’ll you do?” or my finger is falling off, or that “I’m going to take this oppor- it hasn’t sublimed and disappeared. tunity to go lionie —my parents’ Yon can’t detect the wearing, .so home, I mean. You seCj Steve, Dad then accuses John of either

Dad and John talk different lan- buying a new one every time 1 conic guages. Dad i.s a metal broker on home or making me keej) it in a Pluto. The only reason why he safe wdiile I’m here.” tolerated John at all was because “Cupralum, to Enid's father, is John’s lens kept Dad in business. something that he shunts around by

Dad wouldn’t know a ciipralum pig signing papers and which, if ho from an acceleration cushion, shunts fast enough, will increase his though he deals in a million tons of bank account, though if the other the stuff every year. It’s all on guy shunts faster, will cau.se liim paper, On the other hand, John no end of deficit. Space, to him, is wouldn’t know how to sell the stuff, something that you can’t breathe, hut he sure can make it do tricks. and the stars are little bits of bright- So they sit and glare at one another ness that twinkle on a clear night. and each one wonders how the other Oh, we get along,” smiled McBride. makes a living. Dad’s money is ‘After all, he’s Grandpa now. and obvious, and John's success is John Junior is likely to get a slab equally well-known, but how and of Cupralum. Preferred, for his why are lost on each other. birthday. The kid’ll prefer some-

“So f keep 'em as far apart as I thing he can chew on. I’ll bet.” can." “So that’s neither here nor there,” “I get it," smiled Hainmotid. .said Enid. “Ypn take your space “Pretty bad, hey?’’ hop, and I’ll take Little Johnny to Enid laughed. “This ring is pure Pluto to see his grandparents. iridium. Dad was horrified because Frankly, Steve, I’ve been wonder- he first thought that iridium was ing just what excuse I could use to radioactive like radium and that I’d run off alone for a month. This get burned or worse. Then he makes it perfect.’' found out it wasn't—and offered to “'We’ll stop at Hell on the way buy a real, honest- to-goodness back and pick you up.” said Mc- platinum ring if John couldn’t af- Bride. ford it. Then he discovered that “Fine. How soon are yon leav- iridium is so rare that they do not ing?” have a market price per gram and Hammond said; “Anytime he's that was all right, but he also con- ready. How soon can yon cut loose fused it with iodine, and worried from the lens, John?” about its chemical action on my “Give me an hour to get things liand. Poor Dad still is not sure cleaned up and f’ll be on the beam.”

R KDE V E r,0 P iVf R N’T 143 ;

“Right.” one pair of socks, and a bar of “I’ll pack you a bag,” said Enid. soap; and so on—with a bar of “Have any preferences?” soap. Well, keep ’em coasting, “Shirts, shoes, socks, and shav- Steve, and see that he doesn’t run ing kit, mostly.” off with any red-headed watches.” “Want your dinner clothing?” "If we see any. I’ll bring ’em

“Oh sure. And pack my swim- back for me,” laughed Steve . “See ming suit, too. Also my tennis you later.” racket, and see that the golf bag McBride w'as not as abrupt as has plenty of spare balls. Have he sounded. His business clean-up Timmy wax the skis and sharpen consisted of dictating a letter, put- my skates, and I’ll also take along ting all things in the hands of his the shotgun, a pup tent, the oil chief assistant. The rest of the stove, a fur coat, a quart of whis- time he spent with Enid, saying key, six lemons, an orange, a lime, good-by. Wharever transpired, and a bottle of Angostura. Might whatever they discussed, whatever pack me a light lunch, too.” plans they made—and they must "Don’t bother, Enid. We’ve got have talked of many things and most of that stuff with us,” laughed made many plans, for in spite of Hammond. the familiarity of running all over

"All right,” chuckled Enid. "He'll I he solar system, this was a big get one slu'rt and a bar of soap step, indeed, since for the first time

144 4ST0DNDING SCI KNCE-FICTION in history, man and wife would be at the splendor of the first binary light-years apart—they did it well ever seen by man. Hammond men- enough in private so that their part- tioned it, as a matter of fact. ing was simple and quick. “How about Drake?’’ asked Mc- John kissed Enid adequately, and Bride. said: “Stay healthy." “We're still the first men,” re-

Enid laughed and said : “Stay turned Hammond. !” whole “Wouldn’t Drake howd to hear And then McBride was in the you say that,” laughed McBride. Haywire Queen and the air lock “She’s been suffering under the was cracked. The big ship lifted fact that every time she did any- gently and zipped out of the lock thing new, she had to qualify— it by with a casual disregard for dis- saying: ‘The first woman ’ Well, tances, Unlike Drake’s precision she’s got something this time.’’

take-off, the Haywire Queen went “Think it’ll satisfy her?” through the open door with the air “Not until someone proves defi- of wanting to leave quickly because nitely that Thomas Edison, Frank- there were better things to do than lin Roosevelt, William Shakespeare, worry about hitting the center plus George Washington, Richard the or minus an inch. First, Julius Caesar, and Jack Frost Enid pointed out the Dog Star w'ere all women.” to, John McBride, Junior. “That’s “Well, let’s get the hemis work- where your daddy is going,’’ she ing. We’ll never know whether told him. Junior McBride was Sirius has planets until we do. I'd more interested in the teething bone hate to sit in the Queen and go that he had clamped between tooth- through all the growing pains of less gums, chan he was in the stellar looking for planets by observation.” regions. “Yeah, that w’ould take years. tie knew his daddy would be What’s our velocity, Larry?” back. Timkins looked at the velocim- eter; squinted through the instru- The Haywire Queen approached ment quickly, adjusting the thumb-

light said : “Thirty-four and passed" the speed of from screw' ; and then tlie hard side, and her terrific veloc- thousand and dropping at one hun- ity dropped down to a figure that dred feet per second, per second, was expressible in miles per second per second.” without running out of zeroes. Be- “We can get good pix of any- low, and thirty degrees from the thing close enough to the jn'imary axis of the ship, Sirius and the to support life—also big enough, Dark Companion beckoned from too—in about thirty minutes ex- less than a thousand million miles. posure,’’ said Hammond. “We’ll The lower dome of the ship sported take two shots in each direction, the faces of the men, who were lay- since I’ve got six hemispherical ing on their stomachs, looking down cameras. That’ll give us complete REDEVELOPMENT 146 overlapping coverage and doubki humanoid life at that distance. T.et’s protection against dust streaks.. jconcentrate on it.” Let’s go. Also cut the drive byj "Good. It’s in fine position to be half.” . Iconcentrated on. Let’s see, now, For thirty minutes the ship |what should we be looking out plunged on through the Sirian sys- .for?” tem at the double deceleration. Then “Might be seetee matter,” .sug- for fifteen minutes, the entire per- gested Larry. sonnel was in the darkroom, wait- “Good. How do we find out?” ing for the, first glimmer of the “We don’t until the last ditch. plates. And at the time that the But it is the most important, never- plates were finished, the velocity of theless. We wait until everything the Haywire Queen had dropped else has been disposed of and then from thirty thousand-odd miles per make for tlie planet. Just outside second to velocities normally used of the atmosphere we heave ’em a in mere interplanetary travel. rock or two .and watch what ha))- The super drive was cut and the pens.” ship coasted under standard drive “A slow moving rock ?” grinned at thirty feet per second, per sec- McBride. ond, ticceleration, and the men hung “Doesn’t really matter. If it is the plates up in the darkroom and slow enough to keej) from friction- began to inspect them for telltale incandescence. fine. But the erup- streaks. tion made by seetee contact is quite "Here’s one,” said McBride. a bit different, spectroscopically. "About four hundred million miles Also we can check the explosion from Sirius.” with counters. The by-products of such a bit of eruption is full of ".\nd another,” offered Larry, nuclear radiations. Mere incan- plying dividers and log tables, descence i.s just that and nothing "about three thousand million.” more.” “Got another,” offered Ham- “Well, that’s that. We can wait. mond. “but it’s doubtful as pos- a What’s next?” sible lauding place. Almost ten “Radiaactivity. How much and thou.sand million miles from the pri- what Ifind? .\tmos])here. How mary. Bet it’s colder than a pawn- much and what ki<«»'l? Et cetera. broker’s heart.” .Mso how much and what kind? "Couple more on my plate,” said Do we intend to land?" •McBride. He went to the formerly ‘I don’t know. .After all, we eiupty .solar map and added the dis- came for the express purirose of coveries according to scale. “But trying out our drive on an interstel- that one at four hundred million is lar basis, you know. It can be done my best bet.” with ease, neatness, and dispatch. "Sounds reasonable,” agreed .Seems to me that a landing on one Hammond. "Siriiis would support of those planets will have, to be i-tfi A STOUNOI NO ,SC) R.VCK-PlOTtOX ” —

made attractive or v\.e won’t. We're til the signal came in clear and equipped for all kinds of spacial re- clean. search, power research, and so on. “What happened to Drake?” But we’re not equipped for much asked Timkins. “Listen, licre she planetary investigation, exploration, is.” or diplomatically involved intrigue.” The gravitic radio was calling : “Going to let Drake get away “—Haywire Queen. Calling Hay- with being the only person making wire Queen. This is Sandra Drake the first landing on an alien star calling the Haywire Queen. This is system?" an automatic transmission .set for “I don't give a care what hap- break-in. As soon as this call gets pens to Drake. She can come bust- to you, answer please. The ansn er ing in with the safety valve tied will register here and we will be down if she wants to. Some day able to make this tw'o-way. This is she’ll learn that sticking that pretty Sandra Drake— little sn{)Ot of hers into strange “Uh-huh,” said Hammond, turn- places is a fine way to have it ing down the gain to a reasonable knocked right off of the front of her level. “Lurry, shoot her an an- face. We’re interested in techni- swer.” calities, not in getting involved in a Timkins snapped on the trausiuit- storybook adventure. Meanwhile, ter, tuned it to the same band, and let’s it strictly the ea.sy side take on said: “This is the Haywire Queen and investigate everything from the calling Sandra Drake. Haywire Sirius the solar radiation from to Queen answering Drake. Come in. secondary radiation produced by Sandra Drake. Airswer.” Sirian radiation in the super- They listened to the auLornatie stratosphere." broadcast for some minutes, and then in the middle of a sentence Larry began to fiddle with the “This is Sandra Drake calling the radio. nothing on the There was Haywire Queen—” Click “Hello, electronic radio at all, and Larry fellows. Got here finally, didn’t said: “Well, didn't e.xpect it, you? Glad to have you come in. really. worthy of the No culture What’s new ?” name w'ould be using radio in space. Hammond took the mike. “Hello, Too inefficient. And if they got Sandra.” be aaswered. “Nothing off of their planets, they’d be using new'. Where are }'ou?" gravities." He turned to the space planet number five. That is radio, and covered the communica- “On the that I think is somewhere tion bands of the electrogravitic one million miles spectrum, switching from band to about five hundred it?” band quickly. Halfway across the from Sirius. Know third band, the panoramic tuner “We think so. It's dead ahead. came to a definite stop and retraced Yeah, wait a minute. Larry has a itself minutely, vacillating a bit un- directional bearing on you and it is

AST—6P 14T R E D li: y F. 1 . 0 T' M n N X the one we're approaching. That plained Sandra. ‘‘Give me a takes care of that.” break, .Steve. You shouldn’t take ''Well, come on in and I'll build issue with me for a statement of you a cup of tea.” that kind. After all, it was just a “You find everything all right?” sort of slip of the tongue. I’m not “Everything’s perfect. Only really thinking of skinning one of thing, they would like to have some- them for my coat.” one here that know.s all about the "If I were you,” put in McBride, gravities. They’re not too sharp, “I’d think hard of one other thing l-'rankly, neither am I, so you're the that might be closer to home. guys who’ll have to do it.” D'jever think that you are in no “'S’ou’ve been there quite a bit,” position to do any skin collecting? said Hammond, "How’s condi- The odds are agin’ it. But, Sister tions ?” Drake, those birds are ! You might "Pretty good. .Air is O. K., enhance the Iteauty of one of their though slightly pungent in smell. females some day. How would the 'J'hi.' people are very much like hu- pelt of .Sandra Drake look on the mans, though they have their big living room floor, nine light-years differences which take them out of from Terra? Take it clean and tile human class.” easy, Drake, or you might not get “Eor instance.'’ back to Terra with that satiny, soft, “Well, they arc all covered with practically flawless hide of yours in- a funny kind of hair. It's a sort tact.”' of half-hair, half-featlier.s kind of “'\'v !iat do }'ou mean, 'practically Stuff. It’s as soft as a baby’s scalp flawless’?'’ .snapped .Sandra. and on a dog or something like "Well,” ..drawled McBride, 'Tve that it would be beautiful. I'd like never seen all of it.” a coat made of it, frankly.” “Why don't you gi\ e me the beuc- 'Til bet they appreciate your of- fit of the doubt?” fer to wear one of ’em for a winter “I wouldn't give you any benefit coat," said Hammond drvly. 'H’ou of any doubt,” McBride told her. haven't changed a bit, have yon, “\oirre jirohably concealing some- Drake ?” thing.” — "Oh, 1 wouldn't .say that,'’ said "Why ” the radio broke down Sandra. ".After all, I was merely into a series of liquid, 'spluttering trying to explain the beauty of their sotinds as Sandra strove to keep skin.” that throaty contralto from sound- “Yon gave yourself away,” said ing like a Itshmonger’s. Steve Hammond. "Like as u.sual, "Whistle,'’ chuckled Tirakif)s. Sandra Drake thinks of everything “Then count ten. 'J'licn let’s get in accordance with how it will back to the problem of the Sirians.” couple to her, or Iier name, or her “Take it, .Sandra,” laughed Ham- reputation.” mond. “We were only kidding ‘‘Now, you're being hard,” com- you. Or— can’t you take it?” 148 A.STOrjNDlNG SCIENCE-FICTION The spluttering died, and then “O. K.. sister,” grinned Ham- that throaty laugli came back again. mond, winking at McBride. “But It was slightly forced and they you’ll find out that there is some-

knew it. The chances are that thing to those old adages. I’m

• Sandra knew they knew it, but she thinking of the one that begins didn’t want to give them any more ‘When in Rome, et cetera.’ Those reason for laughter at her expense. old boys used to dust off some old Then she spoke, directly and hon- saws, but tliere is a lot of meat on estly, both factors due to the fact them,’’ that she was sure of herself and “And contradictioiis. No. fel- now could afford to laugh at them. lows, Sandra doesn’t like talking “Well, stop worrying about in something that sounds like a Sandra’s hide,’’ she told them. phonograph record plat’ed back- “This gang down here are fine peo- wards. Besides, these fellows have ple except that they can’t talk Ter- a pretty sharp capacit}' for under- ran. They’ll do anything for me standing, I've- been here for a that I can make them understand. week or so. and already tliev can That’s the trouble—getting them to understand a lot of what T say. understand. But that's coming. I'm Frankly, better than T could." teaching them to speak Terran, “Pla\- it your way. then,’’ said That should fix things up fine.” McBride. “But look, yon say “Why not learn to speak Sirian ?’’ they’re nice guys?’’ asked McBride. “Sure. When 1 landed, they gave “Why? Let them do the work. me the old send-off. I was taken Learning a new language is not to the royal house and gi\'cn the prize suite. I’m given everything. Drake’s idea of a 3'ear's fun.”

REDEVELOPMENT 149 as 1 said before. They look upon the way of historic gain. The old me as the guy who’ll give their moola, sure; and there’s plenty of world the benefit of the Terran and it to be had for all of us. You’ll Solarian scientific achievements. go down in their histories as the That’s not true, of course. It’ll be geniuses that gave them a boot in fellows like yourselves who really the tail rvorth a hundred years of

under.stand it. But nevertheless, I’m solid research. 1, and I’m sure the harbinger of spring. I’m the you’ll permit me, will ride in on the guy who pointed the way for the tail of your coat." rest of Sol’s children.” “O. K, Well, we’ll come in. "The Moses in the bulrushes?” But not for long this time. x\fter "Sort of like. I’m just ludcy, all, we’re interested in tinkering and I know it. If I’d come second, with the new drive, not making dip- they woukln’t pay any attention to lomatic overtures to a bunch of me at all. But since I came first aliens. We’ll leave the latter for and now that I’m talking to my the Solarian Government.” friends, they will obviously think “How soon'll you be landing?” that I’m calling for them to come “Not too sudden,” said Ham-

and help the , . their world’s name mond. “We’re going to make a

is Telfu, by the way , . . Telfans few space-checks first. We’re get- out of their scientific rut. They ting cautious in our old age.” have the glimmerings of the gravi- “Shucks,” said Sandra disparag-

tic spectra, but it’s like the differ- ingly, “there’s nothing to it at all.” ence between the Leyden Jar and “Well, could be, but we’ll run the electron microscope. It’d take this show our way. There is no ob- a hundred years before they got off jection to your leaving?” of Telfu if we hadn’t got here “No. Definitely not. They’d

first.” be sorry to see me go, but it is “If they’re really O. K.,” sai3 personal affection .and the possi- McBride, “we’ll help.” bility for their ultimate gain that

“Thanks,” said Sandra simply. 'I'liey . makes it so. wouldn’t dare "That’ll be for me, too, you know.” detain me even though they might

“Yes?” consider it. To my knowledge, “Sure. They’ll thank me for they haven’t even considered it.” coming first, even though they “Why wouldn’t they dare?” know I’m not the bright guy with asked McBride. the answers under my skull. I’ve “Afraid. After all, they know got a good thing here, and I know that both of us came from a star all of you well enough to know that nine light-years away. They you won’t spoil it.” haven’t even got the primary drive, “No?” let alone the third-derivative drive. “Sure you won’t. After all, there Any untoward move to a Solarian isn’t one of you that would care a would bring the devil hinnself down rap for what they have to offer in about their ears and they know it.”

260 ASTOUNDING SCIENCR-PICTION ”

“I suppose so. We could drop all right. So we’ll go to work on plenty of stuff on ’em with a half the electrical properties, the nuclear dozen space cans. And a couple properties, and also see if there’s of monolobar mechano-gravitics anything running around loose in would scramble up the works of the gravities other than the inher- any fleet of stratosphere planes they ent mechanogravitic property of could send against us. Never gave matter.” the gravitic armament much Larry Timkins set up a series of thought, but it could be done. plungers on the control board and O. K., Sandra, as soon as we sniff locked the pre-set operations into the air and check our gas and wa- the autopilot. “This,’' he said, ter, we’ll be in.” “will hang us on a logarithmic “I’m going back to bed, then,” spiral approaching Telfu. Wliile said Sandra. “Slip me another call w?e’re roaming around the planet, before you land and I'll have the we’ll check the hot-properties of the village band out to meet you. neighborhood. Any comment?” That’s a promise.” “Nope. Give ’em the works.” Timkins drove the coupler but- Steve Hanimoiid turned to Mc- ton home and the Haywire Queen Bride after Sandra had clicked her swung gently to follow the pre-de- transmitter off, and said: “No use termined course. checking for seetee matter, is “You know, Steve, there's a cod- there? Seems to me that Drake liver-oil smell about this, some- would have found it out the hard where.” way.” “So? What’s fishy?" “No, we can skip the seetee. But “The old tub isn’t behaving like Drake may not worry about radio- a lady.” activity but we will. We’ll check “What do you mean?” for it ; I’d like for John Jr. to have “There’s a big drop in efficiency a brother or sister some day— with comi)ared to when w'e left the Plu- the proper amount of arms, legs,— tonian Lens.” fingers, toes, ears, eyes, noses “How much?” “What’s the proper amount of “Not too much. But it’s getting noses for a son ?” asked Hammond. progressively worse." “One,” grinned McBride. “Y’don’t suppose we’ve hit upon “A kid with two noses coul4 some saturation factor in the sec- smell a lot,” observed Timkins. ondary drive?” “Phc-vo!" said McBride holding “I’m not saying. What do we his nose. “That was fierce. Man know about it? What does it work the counter and check the region on ?” for hot stuff, Larry. Looks like “Glibly speaking, it works on the the landing of I.aDrake saves us a inherent qualities of space. We lot of work. The physical prop- wrap ourselves up in a space warp erties of . . . Telfu . . . seem to be of sorts, and then shoot out a cou-

EEDKVELOPMENX' 1st pie of hooks that catch pn to the The counters clicked for a few gravitic-propagational continuum minutes, and McBride finally re- that permits the planetary masses to ported that Telfu was no higher exert Newton’s Law of Universal than Terra in radioactivity. Ham- Gravitation. It has been called mond established the intrinsic elec- ‘sub-ether’ but that is like multiply- tronic charge on Telfu as being only ing with unreal numbers. After a few million volts negative with all, the ‘ether’ has never been de- respect to Terra. fined, isolated, explained, or held "Not enough to worry about,” in one hand. If the prime ‘ether’ he said. "The first touch with the has never been satisfactorily estab- stratosphere layers will take care lished, we shouldn’t go on building of that without a glimmer. our houses on a foundation that Wouldn’t dare without an atmos- doesn't have any sound basis.” phere, but we have plenty of air to

“Both electronic and gravitic cushion the charge and let it leak spectra must rely upon something off in the upper layers where it is for propagation,” objected Mc- ionized by Sirius’ radiations. What’s Bride. ‘‘For lack of taking it apart, with the gravities?” brick by brick, and feeling each “Bit of something in the electro- stone, let’s continue to call them gravitic. Can’t place it. Not ” ’ether’ and ‘sub-ether.’ enough to worry about,” "O.K., sport. But to get back "What is it like?” to the drive. Have we got a sat- "Well, it is not E-grav radiation. uration point? Or some sort of It’s a sort of dip, or valley, in the gravitic fatigue? Either of these radiation-pattern of this part of would be indicated by a gradual de- sjrace. A place where the normal crease in efficiency.” density of E-grav is less.” "Larry, set up a sigma recorder "How much ?” and let's see if we can check the "You tell me. The free-running curve of inefficiency. It’s getting gravitons are never high enough to vvor.se, you say?” do more than flicker the finest in- "Apparently. I didn't notice it strument. The threshold is way, before. But it is quite apparent .way, way, way down in the mud. now. Must be non-linear, because So here’s a place where we have if this falling-off had been linear, less.” I would have noticed it long before nothing and this, .^n increasing curve would "Sort of like having not be noticeable until a sufficient wanting to .share it with someone?” interval had been passed for it to “Not much better. Oh well, a become evident. Yeah, I'll slap a lack of free E-grav energy surely sigma recorder on him and see what isn’t anything to write home about. makes.” Might be a factor of the Sirian “Meanwhile, let’s get busy with Double. After all, who knows what the detectors.” kind of effect that little, dark-red,

1S2 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTtON ” ’ !

dense-as-hell devil will do to grav- spectrograph to the table and seated itic threshold levels.”— himself in the chair. “So it’s a safe bet “Woah, Nellie,” grunted Mc- Timkins came running in. wav- Bride as the alarm bells ceased. ing a sheet of cross-ruled paper. “Where do Vy'C go from here and “Hell’s bells,” he yelled. “We’re how fast?”

is zero “I dunno, we're leaving both it ! Our drive approaching — but efficiency as the third power of Sirius and Sol at a terrific velocity and a deceleration of eleven feet Above, in the working innards per. From a mental calculation of of the Haywire Queen, great circuit the fundamental drive at this veloc- breakers crashed open. Smaller ity. I’d say it would take about switches added to the din as they fourteen y^ears to get down to a clicked open, one after the other. stop.” Pilot lights on the polished black “What happened to the emer- panel began to glow- an angry red gency relays?” and alarm bells created such a din “They worked,” said Steve dryly. that speech became almost impos- “Yeah, they worked. But the in- sible. efficiency extends to the fundamen- The drive went off. tal drive, too, it seems. I'm begin- And the men and their portable ning to think that this is not in- equipment left the solid floor and herent.” began to float aimlessly across the “That's a quick decision,” room in midair. “Sure. But the prime drive is Hammond clutched wildly at a O.K. The meters say so. It’s just spectrograph, and caught it. inefficient as the devil which is not “Catch !” he yelled at McBride, true of a good drive. Holy smoke !” hurling the heavy instrument at We’re getting efficient again John. Timkins picked himself off of McBride folded himself over the the floor painfully. “Uh-huh,” he instrument with a grunt of escap- grunted. “Also, we’re leaving Telfu ing breath. The act did two things. behind at a fierce rate. Can you It sent Hammond across the room keep that eleven feet prime accel- to the emergency panel in one di- eration for a bit?” rection and McBride went in the “We’re going to.” opposite direction to the navigator’s “I'm going to dash madly up- calculating machine. McBride stairs and hang the sigma recorder caught the navigator’s table at the on again. Something is slippery same time that Hammond caught here.” the emergency panel. “What's our velocity at the pres- Steve fought with the emergency ent time?” asked McBride. panel and succeeded in setting up “Up in the fifteen thousand miles about eleven feet per second de- per second,” answered Hammond. celeration, McBride lowered the “Hm-m-m. Then at what point

REDEVELOPMENT 163 with respect to Telfu did the drive “Something must not,” laughed go out ?” Hammond shakily. “About a million and a half “Telfu?” asked Timkins enter- miles, roughly.” ing with the last sigma curve. “A minute and forty seconds “What does it say?” from spot to conjunction,” mused “We passed through a negative

McBride. "If, little playmate, rve peak. We hit a new low in effi- can get ])ow'er again after one more ciency at conjunction with Telfu.” minute and thirty seconds-odd, we’ll “How much?’’ feel more or less sure that it is “Less than a halt percent." Telfu and not us. Larry!” he “Jeepers. That is a new low in yelled. "Any sign of upswing?” gravities. Can we ihink our way “Yup,” said Larry. “.Sure out of this (iue ?” !” thing "Why ?” “.Set the .super drive up on test "As much as 1 dislike seeing power with automatics to turn it .Drake, I’d not force her to live on on as soon as the overload point is an alien planet. I’d feel better at passed,” said McBride. "We won’t marooning her for a couple of years blow any fuses with test power.” if I knew we c(.nild go in and get her.” Hammond hit the test buttons McBride laughed. "Got to have and then settled down to wait. the last laugh, hey?” Then the drive cut in again, and “Meaning?" they all .slid down in their chairs. "Marooning !ier wouldn't be half

McBride grinned. "They must .so much fun it it is impossible to not like

rs4 A STOIJKU) NG SCIENCE- FICTION we have the means to get her out “Frankly, Sandra Drake is an puts it strictly in our own lap. awful lot of woman, and she knows Right?” it. She’d make a plaster saint turn “I suppose so. We could laugh to whistle at her if she turned on at her honestly then.” the old charm. And with no com- “She’s strictly a stinker,” agreed petition, we’d be fighting one an- McBride. “I get that cod-liver-oil other for the privilege of polishing smell now. All that soft soap and her shoes.” palaver she was handing out about “Fine future.” our being the boys with the brains. “No thanks.” We were the guys who would be “I’ll have a bit of tliat, too. Well, responsible for lifting a struggling how can we slip her the old triple- civilization up from the primordial cross ?” slime by our brain and our genius. “Steve, you’d throw a woman to Baloney !” the lions?” “I get it,” growled Hammond. “With that woman. I'd hale to “She’s stuck. God knows how she do it. The S.P.C.A. would haul landed—probably emergency and me in to court for subjecting poor, shot her load of battery juice. Any- dumb, defenseless lioii.s to cruelty way, she could land under emer- and inhuman tortures. You’re gency battery, but taking off is a darned right I’d heave her into the megawatt of another color, battery- drink. But I want to do it in such wise. They aren’t equipped to a way that .Sandra Drake will kuotv make a take-off. Idea being the that it was far from purely coin- old one— don't start if you can’t cidental.” stop.” “O.K., Steve. We re with you. “She’s a bright girl in her own Larry, throw the Haywire Queen stinking way,” said McBride. into an orbit around Telfu just out- “She’s been around this gang long side of the danger zone and skip enough to know that if a way is another recorder on the drive. possible, we’ll think of it. Oh, sure, Make it a high velocity orbit, pow- that’s a brag but we’ve done pretty ered all the w-ay. We should be well so far. So inveigle us into able to circle Telfu in about fifteen the same trap she’s in and then minutes with the super drive. ride out with us. She’d roast in Check?” the brimstone of the nether re- “Sure. Here we go.” gions before she’d wail for help “Meanwhile, Steve, tve'll cheek honestly. But if we get stuck with a few items on the drive itself. I’m her she’s got two outs. One, we beginning to suspect a huge and may be able to think our way out. celestial soak-up of gravitic power Two, at least we are Terrans like in the region of Telfu.” she is.” “We can set up the small, ex- “Meaning?” asked Hammond perimental drive-model complete darkly. with power recorders, spring bal-

BEOEVF.nOPMTilNT l.Sli ances, and torque measuring de- Hammond slapped the curve vices and work on that.” down on a drawing board and be- ‘Swell. That’s the ticket. Let’s gan to plot efficiency against a polar co-ordinate. The curve was Hammond hauled the model from roughly circular, but exhibited a the cabinet and plugged in a com- tendency towards a cardioid. Mc- plex cable from the master control Bride played with the figures for panel. He juggled the dials until a minute, and as he opened his the gadget started to work, and mouth to say something, the Hay- then they began to check the effi- tvire Queen gave that sickening ciency of the device. lurch and changed abruptly from

McBride muttered : ‘Tower gen- super drive to the emergencies. erating equipment is running O.K.” "Darn !” said McBride. “This "Yeah,” agreed Hammond. everlasting acceleration changing "Everything’s on the beam from the business is going to make a nervous explosion chamber to the inverted wreck of me yet.” aJphatron. We’ve got plenty of po- "Also physical if it is taken in tential pow'er handy. Larry, zoop too large doses,” grinned Steve. in close and check the power equip- “The human anatomy can accept ment on a pure, resistive load.” velocity without limit—W'cll, up to "You mean shut off the drive and the point where the ultimate veloc- coast through the zero region with ity is reached. We’ve gone a goodly no drive and with the gravitron run- hunk of stuff over the speed of ning at full output on resistance light.” load?” "That’s questionable.” "Right. This fishy smell has. a “We came over from Terra in a rare odor. I think we're on the lot less time than light. That’ll be trail of it.” arriving nine years from now.” "O.K., Steve. Can you wait ‘’Uh-huh. But don’t forget we about three minutes? The tir.st en- wrapped ourselves in a space warp circlement of Telfu will be over and ran the space warp. I think then and we’ll have our first ex- that we can safely assume that the perimental curve.” warp is another space and that we •‘We’ll w'ait.” wore not traveling better than the speed of light with respect to our The sigma curve was completed, own space.” and Larry circled far out and made “Whoof ! What a theory ! Drag a fast run toward the planet, in a that one past again, slow enough course similar to the one they used so I can climb aboard.” on their first try. “You got it,” laughed McBride. Meanwhile, Hammond looked at “And if it smells, you fling out a the curve and grinned. better one for us to .shoot holes in.” McBride looked over his shoul- “O.K. But to get back to veloc- der and grinned, too. ity, the human anatomy can stand

156 > .STOtTNDING SCfRXfE.Fl CTTON ” !

velocity without limit. Period. Hammond. “With a defunct drive Argue if you like, Mac, but that’s and a wild idea, Jawn McBride my statement. No one has ever hauls a satellite out of the sky and been able to prove that velocity plants it— Here!” alone is harmful to man, beast, bird, “What do you think?” or fish!” “Who am I to argue with peo- “I’m as silent as the tomb.” ple wdio understand the mysteries “Acceleration can be adapted to of A to the Xth pow'er equals zero, —in meagre doses. A man can divided by the date of the month stand up under 4-G. On his tummy, times the ace of spades, equals lying down, 8- or 9-G isn’t too hard eleven o’clock. All joking aside, on him. Dunk him up to the Mac, it looks right to my uniniti- breatlring-vents in a good grade of ated mind.” oxidized hydrogen and 15-G is pos- “Does, hey?” sible without too much harm,” “Sure. That means that said “Yes. O Learned Scholar.” moonlet—I say moonlet because “But, students,” said Hammond our pix show that Telfu hasn’t any- standing up and taking a bow. He thing w'orthy of the name of a was interrupted by the resumption full, honest moon—must be high in of the super drive which, being set cupralum.” at ninety feet per second per sec- “Sort of hard to believe.” ond apparent instead of eleven feet, “Yeah, but not impossible. It’s caught him oti balance and almost quite believable that the right alloys dropped him on the end of his should be found an mfurel, so to nose. speak. There’s nothing tricky

‘A'Vhat T was saying.” laughed about cu])ralum. Mix it together McBride, “was the effect that rates and smelt it Aown—voila —cupra- of change of acceleration have upon lum. A totally useless and good- the anatom\’.” for-nothing alloy prior to the dis-

“As I demonstrated,” grinned covery of the gravitic spectrum.” Hammond from the floor, “it is “Must be fairly large,” suggested changes in acceleration—that cause Timkins. havoc. It causes jerks “Sure—according to man-made “To sit on the floor,” chuckled standards. Celestially, it might be McBride. “Get up. Stop playing a mere scrap of dirt. A sub-sub- on the floor, Steve, and take a sub-microscopic bit of cosmic dust squint at this curve. Plotting an less than a hundred miles in diam- exponential factor for the ordinates eter.” of the graph, using Telfu for the “Ugh,” grunted Larry. “You center, wc find a locus of equal make man and his works sort of power-soak-up out here—which I insignificant.” estimate to be a little more than two “We are. Do the planets care hundred thousand miles!” wdiat we do on their miles-thick “Ah, tlie wonders of analyst,” said hides? Do the suns care that we

KEDEVK LOP WENT 1ST ” —

wonder at them? Does the cosmos “Is that syllogistic reasoning?” give a rap that we chase from planet asked Hammond. “Or sheer con- to planet and from sun to sun?” jecture? How about shadow?” ‘‘You mal-ce it sound as though “This is quite a wide effect.” they are capable of thinking.” “Any shading of Soaky’s sphere ‘‘If they did, we wouldn’t know of influence would tend to deepen about it ; and they wouldn’t know the cusp like that. That cardioid we existed. Proportionally, man is such a curve; there’s no reason is smaller than the filterable virus. to doubt that Telfu would tend to So we have a slab of cupralum, shade the field.” which is—according to Mac “Larry. Can you calculate the Here! That’s fine. It blankets field absorption of a standard model Telfu like a complete .shroud, as far planet with the above figures?” as the good old gravities go.” “The attenuation ?” Larry Timkins looked up from a “Yes.” page of scrawled equations. “A “.Sure. It’d help it I knew the slab of cupralum a hundred miles chemical components, mass, physi- in diameter, rotating in the me- cal constants, electrical properties, dianogravitic field thrown out by gravitic properties, and nuclear Sirius would certainly soak up every emanations. How clo.se do you bit of power. Must be a slick tie- want it ?” in. The gravitron puts our O.K. “Plus or minus twenty percent.” on a resistive load. Hooked to the “I can give that to you without drive, everything goes fhhht.” ailculating,” said Timkins. “Telfu “Sure. That’s part of the trou- is similar to Terra within twenty ble. It’s the drive, coupled with percent. Terra’s attenuation the general gravitic interference cut amounts to twenty-nine percent; in up by Soaky.” other words, the attenuation due “Soaky?” the presence of Terra in the light- “I have hung a name on the sat- line between source and measuring ellite. Heretofore it has been device is twenty-nine percent

nameless. We have named it greater than it would be if Terra Soaky.” were not there and the spacial at- tenuation only cut the strength.” "There is a slight discrepancy “Thirty percent, roughly, because between this cardioid and the calcu- it’s easier to figure,” said McBride. lated curve,” said McBride. “Ob- He made calculations, set them viously, the cusp would be on a down linearly as to the magnitudes, line between Telfu and Soaky, pro- and then transferred the vectors to jected from the sattellite through the curve. the planet to the far side. We “That’s one large bit closer,” he orbited around the planet and were said. “We’ll better that, some day. closer— to Soaky on the side he was But for now, playmates, I’ve had on my Idea- for-the-Week. Let’s cut 169 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FrCTION US another caper around Telfu at right angles to this curve. One side will pass the peak and the op- posite side will cut the cusp. Same distance, same speed, same every- thing. Follow?” “At some distance.” “I believe that we will find a place where the cusp really comes down closer to Telfu,” said Mc- Bride. “How much drive ineffi- ciency can we tolerate and still lift?’- “From Telfu? Not enough to keep the breakers from blowing. And don't say wire ’em shut. They’re right on the ragged edge now, on account of we know what we’re doing and do not want to can take a chance on one day, plus blow circuit breakers during experi- whatever angular movement Soaky ments unless they are really in trou- makes with Telfu as center.” ble. But the gravitron-cupralum “Think Soaky’s ecliptic is fairly driving equipment is not our only close to Telfu’s equator?” ace in the bucket, The emergency “Within twenty or thirty de- batteries, though inefficient, can still grees. Pm assuming the old theory put us down and get us off. Pro- of the Planitesimal Hypothesi.s.

viding, of course, that your map Sling out your molten stuff, let it there gives us a chance.” condense, and you’ll find everything “Not knowing the orbital con- rotating in the same direction in

stants of Soaky : the plane of about the same plane. Might be

Soaky’s ecliptic : the rotational fea- , clockwise or counter-clockwise, but tures of Telfu. we are taking only one way per solar system. One chances. One rotation of Telfu moon in all of the junk that goes might be plenty safe if we hit it around Sol is contrariwise—and on the nose. Two might put us they think that was a captured w'an- out here and then we’d have to derer. The greatest obliquity is go through seven years of astro- somewhere near forty degrees, nomical investigations before we most of the large planets being less found the place where that cusp than ten, I think.”

came in again—and we’d probably “Celestially, I believe it may be have to wait anything from sixteen impossible for a satellite to hold to nine thousand years before an orbit w'hose plane is vertical to Soaky passed overhead again. The the planet’s orbit. Pve never given

latter might get boring. But w'e it any thought, but it sounds dan-

REOnVEI.OPMTSNT 1S3 — ”

gerous to the satellite. Also, placed there with more delicacy; Sirius’ tidal drag would tend to adding just the right touch of deco- bring all the planets’ axes into ver- ration to the nude. The center of tical line, too.” the cord depended across the chest “Oh the devil. I want to land. of the statue in a graceful loop, the If waiting overnight is dangerous, bottom of which crossed just above we’ll slide in there and out again the upper pair of breasts. The ends

inside of an hour. But, darn it, of the^cord passed once more about 1 want to plant my number eleven the throat in opposite directions, EE’s on that planet. Anyone and the ends crossed the looped agree ?” center to dangle between the lower “Anyone who doesn’t like the breasts. idea may get out and walk,” said The decorative touch did not Hammond. “Hold your hat, fel- strike a responsive chord in Sandra lows. Here we go again— Drake. She wanted rip-roaring ac- tion, not interior decoration. So .Sandra Drake reached out of her she stamped over and jerked the luxurious bed and pulled a cord. cord from the statue and tried to She did it in a languorous move, rend it in her hands. She was not like a lithe and lazy cat. She did strong enough to do the cord any it with a sort of God-given right damage but she did succeed in to do so, and her expression was breaking a one-inch fingernail. one of deep self-delight. What- She stormed and stamped, atid ever she got from Telfu, they owed said a few things that are better to Sandra Drake mentioned in the abstract, including Her second pull on the call-cord references to the statue’s maker and was more of an impertinent yank. his family for several generations Her self-delight changed to exas- coming and going. To Sandra’s peration that they should keep her Terran-minded ideas of beauty, the waiting. Yet she would forgive statue was an abomination in spite them, for they w^ere ignorant, in of its perfection of workmanship. forgiving them her grace would be It was not merely un-Terran and more evident. They would love her therefore strange, it was almost- the more for forgiving them their but-not-quite human, and therefore sins of omission downright repulsive, and Sandra .Sandra’s third pull caused the said so in unladylike language. That collapse of the call-hell box, and the same reactions, in reverse, ap- the cord fell, landing in long, grace- plied in the Telfan-Sandra relation- ful loops over her outstretched arm.' ship was not yet clear to her. Her Sandra rolled out of bed and language sounded more adapted to threw the cord across the room, caisson rvorkers, space-ship build- where it draped itself about the ers, or mule skinners than it did the throat of a marble nude of a Telfan luxury of her present abode. woman. It could not have been Then at long and. exasperating

160 JkSl'OUNDlNG SCIENCE-FICTION last, the door opened gingerly and a serving woman entered. “Well!” exploded Sandra. “Where have you been?” The woman s«id something clear and articulate, which meant she was very sorry but which meant noth- ing to Drake. That made Drake boil merrily. “Can’t you speak Terran?” stormed Sandra. The woman came into the room, followed by another. “Who are you?” shouted Sandra. “Where's that other one—I can hardly tell you apart.” The first Telfan woman turned to her friend and said: “She’s And what a leader! throwing another fit.” “She wants the Lady Thani. Thani is the only one who can speak Me knew oil the allied plans—enemy na- much of her language.” tions would sell their souls to get HIM. “If I were Thani, I’d slip a thumb into each eye and pry.” “I wouldn’t waste my time on And somewhere in an Arctic storm his that,” returned the second woman. plane went down. He was safe but “I’d just make away with her and only one man knew just where he forget about it. I wouldn’t care to have my sleep disturbed by blood, was. , • . screams, and torture.”

Sandra huffed up tall. “Will you Doc Savage didn't find it very easy to two creatui'es stop gabbling at one get to this one man. Especially, with another and get me Thani. Where is that creature?” some complications brought in by—of

“Yes, slie wants Thani. I heard all things—figure skating. her mention her name.” “If Thani isn’t here, get me Tet'h. Or Gormal. Or Elyon.” You'll thrill to THE LOST GIANT in the “How can we tell her that Thani, December issue of Tet’h, Gormal, and Elyon went to meet the other Terrans?” Sandra heard the names and the DOC SAVAGE word Terrans. “Did they run off and leave me here?” she yelled. AT ALL NEWSSTANDS

EEPEVELOPMENT 161 They shook their heads. Telfu is to gain. Why shouldn’t

"Go . . yes?’’ asked Sandra. they all , go?” !’’ "Go . . yes answered Delya. “Had I the right, I’d have sent . "1 want to go, too.” them,” said Tonla. “We’d better

"I . . go . . . no,” said Delya. get out of here before this woman . "Not you, me.” gets violent. I think she’s about

"You . . . no?” to start throwing things.”

"Me . . yes.” "She should throw fit," sneered . a

"Me . . agreed Delya. Delya. "Only the very beautiful . yes!” Sandra put both palms against can behave in that arrogant man- tier cheeks and gave vent to a yell ner.” of sheer frustration. Then she "Or the very rich.” calmed once more, "Did every one "Name it the very desirable. of you that knows a word of Ter- Thani is very desirable, and yet she ran go?” does not raise hob with Tet’h. And "Tonla, I think she’s asking about Thani is not only beautiful, but Thani and the rest.” she is wealthy, too.” "But how can we tell her?” "And Tet’h is not without his "Do we want to? If all are like own desirability," smiled Tonla. her—this Terra must be a bad, bad "Nor his w'ealth. Beauty walks in place indeed. And she is but a the arms of grace. .She has neither.” female. What must the males be ?” "Let’s get out. And let us hope that all Terrans are not as nasty

At this point it must be recorded as this one.” that the first Interstellar incident "I fear, though. If I W'ere a was averted by Sandra Drake’s re- Terran, I’d never have come to get fusal to work in learning the Tel- her,” said Tonla. "Lnless she and fair language. Drake’s possible ac- they are well met.” tions if she had been able to under- "Perhaps they are afraid of the stand Delya’s remark might have bad impression she’ll make if they led to the First Interplanetary War. leave her here.” Amicable relations resulted from "You hope for that?” Sandra Drake’s ignorance. "No race could be that bad.” "After all,” said Tonla, "they Sandra mustered enough coher- went because there isn’t much of ency to ask another que.stion. “How her language between all of them. can 1 get to my friends?” All together they may be able to Much negation. converse with the Terrans.” "Can’t anyone understand me?” "And Elyon says that she is More gestures of complete mis- quite uninformed as to the tech- understanding. nicalities of this device which will “Get out!” yelled Sandra, and not work on Telfu. She inferred then as they started to leave, San- that these others know much about dra exploded again. The slamming it. They are the ones to contact if of the door coincided with the first

162 .iSTOUNmNO SCIENCE-FICTION :

eruption, but the molten lava and understand that she was speaking hot ashes fell on an empty room. in an alien language to them. “If she’d bothered to learn one “Crano 1” she snapped. She didn’t word of Telfan, they’d have taken know its meaning, but it was the her,’’ said Delya. “But they only Telfan word she knew, and couldn’t weigh down that little flier she did know that it was a term with one more—especially one who signifying that the receiver of the could be of no use to them. They’ll epithet was slightly less than edu- return for her later.’’ cated. “Too bad we can’t put postage The elderly man went white. Two on her and mail her back to this of the younger men arose, came Terra of hers.” forward, took Sandra Drake by the “She’d come back stamped: arms—one to each—and removed ‘Mail not wanted!’” her from the chamber. They were Sandra swore a few blood-cur- not gentle, and on any inhabited dlers and won her point by making planet employing the use of the an itnpression on the marble statue Terran vernacular, she had been with the hard, sharp corner of a “Bounced!” heavy metal box that stood on the And Sandra knew it. table beside her bed. Then she And then there came a bit of un- ripped out of her pajamas and derstanding. It hit hard. And in dressed quickly. She ran from her the brief minutes that Sandra looked room and confronted the first man facts in the face before she took she met. to demanding impossible things “Where are they?” she snapped. once more, she realized that she He shook his head and pointed had backed into her own trap. .She down the hall. had been demanding. She had ’ Drake followed the pointing fin- chosen to teach those who met her ger to a large room. She stamped the Terran language instead of in, obviously interrupting some sort learning Telfan. Now those who of governmental meeting. understood any bit of Terran had “1 want to go to my friends,” gone to meet the Haywire Queen, .she said imperiously. leaving her among those who could The man at the head of the table not understand her at all. She shook his head sadly. could not communicate her desires

“I must go to them ! Or,” she to any of them. asked superciliously, “"are they com- She could not even tell them of ing here ?” the desire that they wanted to hear More shaking of the patriarchal That she wanted to leave. bead. “Can’t you understand, either?” The whole city would have she stormed. broken a blood vessel to get her out. A shrug of the shoulder and a But they didn’t talk the same lan- shake of the head gave Sandra to guage.

»BI>B!VEI.OPMRNT J68 —

The Haywire Queen came down welded joints disagreed. But space- in a screaming, wild landing. She ships are rigid structures, made for rifled down out of the sky, careen- hard usage and considerable stresses ing. She slanted for a half mile, and strains. It weathered the hard and then squared away and came landing, though the angle was plummeting down vertically. In- slightly cocked due to the uneven- side. the accelerometer was making ness of the turf’s hardness. The wild gyrations as Timkins fought Hayivire Queen was still .space- the controls. worthy. The whistling of the big ship’s “Rotten pilot." muttered Ham- passage through the air slid down mond. the audible scale as the velocity “Terrible,’’ agreed McBride. dropped. The ship slowed, and “Look, you two grinning apes. came to a perfect landing I missed Telfu by exactly one hun- Twelve feet above the surface! dred and forty-four inches. Twelve Like a slug of' lead, the Haywire feet in 2,630,000,000,000,000,000 Queen poised for the barest instant, feet. Well within the experimental and then dropped the intervening error, I think.’’ distance. The landing plates sank “Twelve feet in nine light-years into the soft soil of Telfu for sev- isn’t bad,” said McBride. “Some eral feet and the plates groaned, a day, Larry, you can bend that rivet or two squeaked, and some mathematical mechanism you use

164 1 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-PICTION ”

instead of a brain into calculating and forefinger conveyed the idea whether the landing effect would excellently. have been worse at plus tw&he feet “Telfans ... no like Drake.” instead of minus.” “No?” ‘A mere matter of kinetic energy “No. Tall. Ugly-bald.” Tet’h dissipated— indicated his own luxurious pelt “Yeah, we know. Well, you and then became confused as he didn’t kill us,” laughed Hammond. realized that the Terrans were of “So let’s go out and take a look at the same, “Ugly-bald” complexion. the wonders of the Telfan scenery.” He covered his face with both hands “Take a quick look,” said Mc- and muttered something that Bride. “Here come some Telfans sounded apologetic and humble. to take a look at some Terran sci- “Forget it,” laughed McBride.

ence.” “We . . . like Telfans.” “Wonder how they got here so “Not like Drake,” said Tet’h. quick,” asked Timkins of no one “Thanks,” said Hammond hon- in particular. estly.

“Ask 'em.” "How know . . . here?” asked Timkins stepped out of the space Timkins. lock and smiled at the Telfans. “You here?” asked Tet'h point- “Ave, Canis Majoris,” he said in ing to the ship and the surrounding a deep voice. landscape. “Lousy Latin,” snorted McBride. “Aren’t we?” grinned Timkins. "That’s where they live.” “Save the fine rhetoric for later "Do they know that?” when they get the point of double The foremost Telfan, who was talk,” suggested Hammond. Tet’h, stepped forward and smiled.

“You . . . Terrans?” Tet'h led them to the plane and “Yes.” Gormal and Ely on lifted a large “ He pointed to the ship. "Ay- case out. Tet’h opened it and zvire Queen?” handed McBride a little instrument. “Yes.” It was a cabinetless job, every part Tet’h smiled once more and of- exposed. fered his hand. “Holy spinach,” he said. '‘A “Universal gesture?” asked Ham- mechanogravitic detector.” mond. Hammond got a small mechani- “No. Drake must have taught cal planetarium showing Telfu and them that.” a minute sphere. Tet’h pulled a “Drake?” asked Tet’h. "You roller-map out of tlie base and in- like?” dicated Telfu and the sphere. The “Extremely doubtful,” said Ham- map w'as a fairly accurate contour mond. He was misunderstood. map of the blanketed region’s con- McBride said nothing but that tour. pinching of the nose between thumb Tet’h signified the cusp and then

REDF. VKT.OPMItNT 3G5 pointed to the position of Soaky. mile planet here to support it. They Below the eusp, Tet’h indicated the can’t power their machinery with planet and then pointed to the gravitrons, but electronics is an art ground. worth remembering. One of the “Here,” he said. earlier atomic gadgets would do McBride and Hammond tangled plenty.” in an effort to shake Tet’h’s hand. “Might bore a large hole in it The Telfan looked proud. and pack in a mile of Atomite,” “Many years,” he said haltingly. suggested McBride. “I’d hate to “Work,” indicating the detector. support that, though.” He made assembly motions. He “Better get some seetee meteors pulled a book of mathematical iden- and pelt it by remote control,” said tities from a pocket and said: Hammond. “Well, we can cover

. . later.” Tet’h he said : “You “Found . here.” Then he made that To vast motions indicating a large con- come in?” struction. “Many years . . . try Tet’h and Thani held a quick like hell ... no work.” He indi- conference. “She come, too?” he cated the small satellite. “He make asked. stop.” “All of you.” “Bright lads,” grinned Ham- “No. They stay. We go Terra.” mond. “Their civilization was “Terra!” exploded Hammond. ready to discover the gravitic spec- “Much to learn—both of us. You tra. They did. They found it in and I. You learn Telfan. We learn math. They tried it and it didn't Terrari. Better talk. This . . . click too well. They discovered lousy.” why. Never having anything of any “Easy to see Sandra’s delicate great power operating, they never hand in this language lesson,” got to the point where they could grinned Timkins. build anything big enough to get “Better call that wild woman. off of Telfu. Just plain stuck. Tell her we’re going to take off in Well, fellers, if that moonlet is one hour and ten minutes because if cupralum, I can see a lot of birds we don’t, we’ll be as stuck as she mining it.” is and we don’t like that. As long “How’re they going to land on as wc have a bit of Telfu to take it? Nothing gravitic will be worth back with us in the shape of Tet’h a hoot that close.” and his woman Thani, we needn’t “Lift ’em off the dead spot by stick around. I’ll feel better about battery-powered gravities. Ineffi- getting off on this rotation anyway. cient as hell. Get into space and G’wan, we’ll listen to you make the then use rockets to land on that excuses, Larry.” moonlet. Mine it. Load it full of “My turn to poke her on the detonite and blast.” pretty little schnozzola ?” “A hundred-mile moonlet?” “You won that by that three times “They’ve got a nine-thousand- something to the minus umpty-

1(16 ASTOUND I NO SC I RNC H-PI C'TI ON —

timpth power percentage of landing error. Twelve feet in what?” “2,630,000,000,000,000,000 feet.” “Was that the same he said be- fore ?” asked McBride with a smile. “Or was he working that old gag about our not remembering?” “1 don’t remember either.” “So, 3'ou win,” said McBride to I.arry Timkins.

Timkins called, and .Sandra Drake's slightly hysterical voice re- plied. “How you doing?" asked I.arry. “Where are you?” “I don’t know.” CURE .... “Don’t know?” said .Sandra. Her voice went up in a cresendo and hit OR KILL! “G” above High “C” on tire last note. The waters of a rest home seem to brew “No," said Larry. “Chicago, more in the way of intrigue ond mur- Venuland, Canalport, and Sharon are my best landmarks and they’re der than in the way of recoveries. . . , all equally distant and in the same direction from here.” And stolen gems odd a gaudy ponoromo

“Go to hell.” of mystery to the strange cose of THE “That’s across the River Styx FOUNTAIN OF DEATH ... in which from Sharon, on Pluto,” said Tim- Lament Cranston olios The Shodow kins. “And tliat expression is mak- — ing the Sharonites unhappy because hod to pit his innermost resources there for people have been going against a slick killer. thousands of years. Sharon hasn’t the popularity.” This complete SHADOW novel is yours “But look, Larry, 1 want to go in the November issue plus many ex- along.” — guoron- “Can you get here in one hour citing, fost-poced short stories— and eleven minutes. That’s the ab- teed for thrills! solute. deadline until we can get to Terra and cook up a drive thaCs detuned enough from the cupralum- THE SHADOW absorption region to permit us to On Sole October 6 tinker off and on around here.” “Where are you? How can I AT ALL NEWSSTANDS KEDEVEl/OFMKNT 167 get there if you don’t know where nates: South Longitude . . . Hey, you are?" Tet’h, how do you pronounce these “Ask someone." figures ?” Sandra’s language became some- Tet’h caught his meaning and thing that the communications com- said: “Me tell.” mission has legislated against. He addressed the microphone, “Can you come here and get and spoke in Telfan. “There,” he ?’’ !" me finished, “is where . . . are

“We’ll be doing fine if we get off Timkins added : “So now you can with our skin,” said Larry. “We get here all right.” definitely have not enough power to He closed the mike as the speaker go roaming all over Telfu. We’re started to make little animal sounds. on the one spot that will allow us “Fellows,” said Larry. “She’s !” to leave under the emergencies. An mad hour and thirty minutes from now “Crazy mad or angry mad?” that spot will be somewhere else. “Boiling mad.” We’ll wait an hour and ten and take “She’ll be hard-boiled by the titne off on the edge of the spot.” she gets through stewing in her “Won’t they come back and get own juice,” grinned Hammond. me ?’’ “Let’s get some sky, fellows. O.K. “Wait a minute.” Then he turned ... we go?” he asked Tet'h. to Tet'h. “Could you send them “We go,” said Tet'h cheerfully. back for Drake?” There was a quick conference be- “Yes,” answered Tet’h. “Better tween the two men who were to not, though. She bad . . . but lazy. stay and Tet’h. Then the air-lock

Teach Terran so not . . . learn door was closed, and Timkins Tel fan.” started to set up the controls.

“Sandra? No dice. That’s it, Up in the emergency room, the toots. Take it or leave it.” batteries started to fume and fret “Look, Larry, isn’t there some- as the terrible overload hit them. thing you can do?” The Haytvirc Queen lifted uncer-

“I doubt it. Give you a tip, tainly, gained a little speed, and though. Next time you poke some- then took off into the cloudless sky one clse’s nose into a mess remem- at an acceleration that varied con- ber that he who laughs last isn’t tinuously between nine to twenty always too dumb to catch on quick. feet per second per second per sec-

At the next sound, it will be exactly ond under the super drive. three people making with deep belly Not too long after, t’ne gvavitron- laughs. So long, until we meet cupralum drive took over, and the again—in about six months ! In- Hayimre Queen pointed her dome you, we're at these Telfan co-ordi- upwards at tiny Sol, blinking there ci dentally, if you should find some- in the sky between the constellations one who would like to get rid of Aquila and Ophiuchus. THE END.

168 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-PICTION ibis plant yoas a very deli- cate thing—in some ways. A sen-

sitive flower. But so utterly un-

killahle that geologic time hadn't

been able to exterminate it or

its tremendous urge.

The Harmonizer

by A. E. VAN VOG

yiustrated by Kramer

After it had sent two shoots out Like a newborn puppy, it reacted

of the ground, the ibis plant began to stimuli. But it had no purpose

to display the true irritability of as yet, and no thought. And it was

intelligent living matter ; It became not even dimly aware that it had

aware that it was growing. been alive previously. process, The awareness was a dim .Slash! Snip! The man's lioe largely influenced by the chemical caught the two silvery slioots, and reaction of air and light upon the severed them about two indies be- that formed countless membranes low the ground. its life structure. Tiny beads of “I thought I’d got all the weeds acid were precipitated on these deli- out of this border,” said tbe man. cate colloidal films. The rhythm of pain-pleasure that followed surged His name was Wagner, and he down the root. was a soldier scheduled to leave for It was a very early stage in the the front the next day. He didn't development of an ibis plant. Very. actually use the foregoing words.

THE HARMONIZER !«• but the gist of his imprecation is in These pushed along in the soil dark- them. ness, balancing by the simple process The ibis plant was not immedi- of being aware, like all plants, of ately aware of what had happened. gravitation. The series of messages that had be- On the eighth day, one of the gun when the first shoot pushed up new roots contacted the root of a through the soil, were still trickling shrub. And began to wind in and down the root, leaving the impact around it. Somehow then a rela- of their meaning on each of a multi- tion was established, and on the tude of- colloidal membranes. This fifteenth day, a second set of shoots impact took the form of a tiny forced the soil at the base of the chemical reaction, which in its small shrub, and emerged into the light. way caused a sensation. The radical, the astounding thing Instant by instant, as those mes- about this second set of shoots was sages were transmitted by the slow that they were not of a silvery hue. electricity that obtained in the mem- They were a dark green. In color, branous films, the ibis ^plant came shape and texture the leaves, as they more alive. And tiny though each developed seemed more and more chemical consciousness was in it- exact duplicates of the leaves of self, no subsequent event could can- the shrub. it slightest degree. cel in the Rapidly the new shoots shot up. plant alive, and knew The was As the weeks sped by, the “fear” it. hoeing out of its shoots and The that had induced chaineleonism part of its root merely the upper faded, and the leaves reverted to second wave of reactions caused a their silver color. Slowly, the plant to sweep downward. became conscious of human and ani- The chemical effect of this sec- mal thoughts. But not till two hun- ond wave was apparently the same dred days later did the ibis begin as the earlier reaction: Beads of to show its basic sensitivity. acid composed of not more than The reaction which followed was half a dozen molecules each, formed as potent and far reaching as had on the colloid particles. The reac- been the results of that same sen- tion seemed the same, but it wasn’t. sitivity in its previous existence. Before, the plant had been excited, That eighty million years be- almost eager. was fore. Now, it grew angry. After the manner of plants, the results of this reaction were not at The ship, with the ibis plants once apparent. The ibis made no aboard, was passing through the immediate attempt to push up more solar system when the catastrophe shoots. But on the third day, a happened. very curious thing started to hap- It came down onto an earth of pen, The root near the surface marsh, fog and fantastic reptilian came alive with horizontal sub-i'oots. monsters. It came hard and out of

170 ASTOUNDING SOIBNC B-FICTION control; its speed as it struck the All that day and night, remnants thick atmoijphere was approxi- of the ship burned and fused, and mately colossal. And there was ab- flared again, in a white, destroying solutely nothing that the superbe- incandescence. When that first, fire- ings aboard could do about it. shattered darkness ended, not much What had occurred was a pre- remained of what had been a mile- cipitation of the matter held in sus- long liner. Here and there ovef pension in the drive chambers. As the Cretaceous land and water and a result of the condensation,, the primeval forest, unburnt sections crystalloids in the sub-microscopic lay, jagged lumps of metal rearing twilight zone above the molecule up towards the perpetually muggy state lost surface area. Surface ten- heavens, their lower parts sunk for- sions weakened to a tenth, a hun- ever into a thick fetid soil that dredth, a thousandth of what was would eat and eat at their strength necessary. And at that moment, until at last, the metal defeated, its by the wildest accident, the ship elements would dissolve into earth passed near Earth and tangled with and become earth. the dead mass of the gigantic plan- Long before that happened, the et’s magnetic field. ibis that were still alive had reacted sent creepers Poor ship poor beings ! Crashed to the dampness, and ! now, dead now nearly eighty thou- out over the broken metal of what sand thousand years. had been their culture room, out to-

TBK HARSiONIZER S7» wards the gaping holes that opened ing of the ground. It was no minor into the soil. earthquake. Contineqts shook in There had been three hundred the throes of rebirth. Oceans plants, but in that last terrible pe- rushed in where had been land ; and riod before the crash, some effort land surged wetly out of the warm had been made to destroy them. seas. Altogether eighty-three ibis sur- There had been a wide expanse vived the deliberate attempt at their of deep marsh water separating the destruction ; and among them there forest of ibis trees from the main- was a deadly race to take root. land. When the shuddering of a Those that came last knew instinc- tortured planet ended in the partial tively that they had better move on. stability of that uneasy age, the Of these latter, weakened by an marsh was joined to the distant injury in the crash, was the ibis. higher ground by a long, bare, hill- It reached the life-giving earth last like ridge. of all. There followed a painful At first it w'as merely mud, but and timeless period when its creep- it dried and hardened. Grass ers and its roots forced their way sprouted and shrubs made a tangle among the massed tangle of its of.parts of it. Trees came up from struggling fellows, towards the re- drift seed; the young growth raced mote edge of the gathering forest for the sky and simultaneously of silver shrubs. waged a bitter battle for space, but But it got there. It lived. And, all that was unimportant beside the having survived, having taken pos- fact that the ridge existed ; the gap session of a suitable area in which that isolated the ibis had been to develop without interference, it bridged. lost its feverishness, and expanded The new state of things was not into a gracious silver-hued tree. long in manifesting. One timeless A hundred, a hundred and fifty, day a creature stamped boldly along two hundred feet tall it grew. And the height, a creature with a rigidly then, mature and satisfied, it set- upheld armored tail, teeth like knives tled down to eternal existence in a and eyes that glowed like fire with grotesque yet immensely fertile the fury of unending bestial hunger. land. Thus came Tyrannosaur Rex to It had no thought; it lived and the peaceful habitat of the ibis, and enjoyed and experienced existence. awakened from a latent condition a For a thousand years no acid beads plant that had been cultivated and formed on its colloidal membranes developed by its creators for one except the acids of reaction to light, purpose only. heat, water, air and other extrania of simply being alive. Animals were no new thing to The idyllic life was interrupted the ibis trees. The surrounding one gray soggy morning by a dull marshes swarmed with great placid but tremendous thunder and a shak- vegetarians. Gigantic snakes crawled

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among the ferns at the water edge, necessity of carrying along the mul- and writhed through the muddy titonned dinosaur. water. And there was an endless Like a drunken giant, the great scurrying of young, almost mind- beast staggered blindly towards the

less, beasts in and out among the marsh water. If it saw the ibis tree, silver trees. it was a visualization that meant It was a world of hungry life, nothing. but the hunger was for vegetation, The crash knocked the bronto- or for living things that were saurus off its feet, a virtual death scarcely more than plants, for the sentence for a creature that, even long lush marsh grass, the leaf- under the most favorable circum- laden shrubs, the soggy roots of stances required ten minutes to re- water plants, and the plants them- cover from such an unbalanced selves, for primitive fish, for wrig- prostration. gling things that had no awareness In a few minutes, the dinosaur of pain or even of their fate. In administered the coup de grace; the quiet torpor of their existence, and, with a slobbering and bloody the plant-eating reptiles and am- ferocity, started gorging. phibians were little more than Gar- It was still at this grisly meal gantuan plants that could move half an hour later when the ibis about. began reacting in a concrete fashion. The most enormous of all these The initial reactions had begun well-behaved creatures, the long- almost the moment the dinosaur necked, long-tailed brontosaurus, arrived in the vicinity. Every sen- was eating away on the generous sitive colloid of the tree caught the leaves of a tall fern on the morning blasts of palpable lusts radiated by that the flesh-eating dinosaur stalked the killer. The thought waves of the onto the scene with all the tact of beast were emitted as a result of a battering ram. surface tensions on the membranes The struggle that followed was of its embryo brain; and as these not altogether one-sided. The bron- were electric in nature, their effect tosaurus had, above everything else, on the delicately balanced films of weight and a desire to get out of the ibis’ membranes was to set off a there. feverish manufacture of acids. The process of getting was made Quadrillions of the beads formed especially difficult by the fact that and, though once again they seemed Tyrannosaur Rex had his amazing no different from similar acids cre- teeth sunk into the thick lower part ated as a result of other irritations, of the big fellow’s neck ; and also in the difference began to manifest it- some unsubtle fashion he had dug self half an hour after the bron- his claws into the thick meat of the tosaurus grunted its final agony. great slab of side to which he was The ibis tree and its companions clinging. Movement for the bron- exuded a fragrance in the form of tbsaurus was strictly limited by the billions on billions of tiny dust 174 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION .

motes. Some of these motes drifted down to the, dinosaur, and were What Can You gulped into its lungs from where, in due course, they were absorbed Read In This into its bloodstream. The response was not instantly aiJparent. After several hours, the dinosaur’s gigantic stomach was satiated. It stalked off to wallow and sleep in a mudhole, quickly made extraodorous by its own enor- mous droppings and passings, a process that continued as easily in sleep as during consciousness.

Waking, it had no difficulty scent- ing the unrefrigerated meat of its recent kill. It raced over eagerly to resume feeding, slept and ate again, and then again. It took several days for its un- FINGERPRINT? tiring digestion to absorb the bron- study it carefully. There is a secret tosaurus to the extent that it was hidden in it, just as there is in every finger print. For years we have once more ravenously hungry. 28 been training men to become Finger Oddly, then, it didn’t go hunt- Print experts. Over 63% of all Amer- ican Identification ing. Instead, it wandered around Bureaus employ LA.S. trained men. Get into this aimless and terribly restless, look- Bteady-employment, good pay profes- ing for carrion. All around, am- sion. Learn at home. Small cost. Fine phibians and snakes moved and had opportunities. VTHE their being—ideal prey. The dino- BLUE BOOK OF CRIME*! m This thrilling book tells all saur showed no interest. i Ilf V about many famous crime casea I m and how you can qualify for Except for hopelessly inadequate one of the fine positions in the Identification field. Write for it, atatlng your age. carrion of small reptiles, it spent INSTITUTE APPLIED the next week starving to death in OF SCIENCE Dept. 1407 1920 Ssnayside Avc.« Chicog* 40, IIL the midst of plenty. MAIL THIS On the fifteenth day a trio of COUPON NOW small, common dinosaurs came INSTITUTE OF APPUED SCIENCE V Dept.l4079t920Stiw$hteAye.pChiciBgo40pllL across its wasted body, and ate it Gentlem^ Without obligation, send me the I *'Blue Bock of Crime" and complete list of without noticing that it was still Identification Bureaus employing I.A.S. students or graduates. Also give me information regard- alive. ing cost and terms. I (Literature sent only to persons stating age.) I

On the wings of a thousand Kame. . . Age.. breezes, the fragrant spores drifted. Address

There was no end to them. Eighty- St«t« three ibis trees had started manu-

'rHB HARMONIZER 174 — facturing that for which they had in a world that would have been been created ; and, once started, idyllic except for one4hing: There there was no stopping. was not enough food. The spores did not take root. Every bit of reachable green, That wasn’t what they were for. every root, vegetable and shoot was

They drifted ; they hung in the ed- snatched by eager jaws before it dies above quiet glades, sinking re- could begin to mature. luctantly towards the dank earth, For a time the remnants of the but always swift to accept the em- killers- feasted. And then, once brace of a new wind, so light, so more, a balance was struck—that airy themselves that journeys half- ended again and again ag; the pro- way around the earth proved not lific vegetarians dropped their beyond their capabilities. young into a world made peaceful In their wake they left a trail by the exudation of plants that of corpses among the killer reptiles. couldn’t stand brutality, yet felt Once tantalized by the sweet-scented nothing when death came by starva- motes, the most massive murderers tion. in the history of the planet lost The centuries poured their mist their brutality, their will to kill of forgetfulness over each bloody and died like poisoned flies. dip of that fateful seesaw. And all It took time of course, but of the while, as the millenniums .slipped that at least there was a plenitude. by, the ibis maintained their peace- Each dead carnivore provided car- ful existence. For long and long it rion meat for the hungry hordes that zvas peaceful, without incident of roamed the land; and so after a any kind. For a hundred thousand fashion, over the decades, tens of years the stately silver trees stood thousand of individuals lived on on their almost-island, and were because of the very abundance of content. dead meat eaters. During that vast expanse of time, In addition there was a normal the still unstable earth had rocked death rate among the non-meat eat- many times to the shattering and ers that had always provided a re-forming fury of colossal earth- measure of easy food; and since quakes, but it was not until they there were fewer meat eaters every were well into their second hundred year, the supply of meat per capita thousandth year that they were increased, at first gradually, and again affected. then with a suddenness and totality A continent was rift and torn. that was devastating. The gap was about a thousand miles The death of so many killers long, and in some places as much as had created an imbalance between twenty-five miles deep. It cut the the carnivore and their prey. The edge of the island, and plummetted vegetarians in their already huge the ibis tree into an abyss three numbers began to breed almost with- miles deep. out danger. The young grew up Water raged into the hole, and

17« ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION dirt came roaring down in almost liquid torrents. Shocked and buried, the ibis tree ^ccumbed to its hew environment. It sank rapidly to the state of a root struggling to remain alive against hostile forces; It was three thousand years later that the second last act of the ibis, trees was played out on the sur- face of the planet.

A ship clothed in myriad colors MliiwesI HadTo Corperofroti — since slipped down through the murk and 1920, famous for fine radios, and their the gloom of the steaming jungle faclory-to-you selling plan with savings up fo 50%— looks to fhe pos!-wor fu- that planet was Cretaceous earth. ture. To build the kind of radio you As it approached the silverhued want, they ask you now fo submit a letter on the subject: "What I Want In grove, it braked its enormous speed, My Post-War Radio.” For the 11 best and came to a full stop directly over letters. Midwest will give $1,000.00 in the island in the marsh. War Bonds. Letters must not exceed 200 words and you may send as mony It a smaller was much machine entries os you wish. Letters will be than the grand liner that had crashed judged on the practical value of the contained therein and the de- to a fiery destruction so many, many ideas cision of the fudges will be final. In years before. But it was big case of ties, duplicate prizes will be enough to disgorge, after a short awarded. All entries must be post- marked not later than midnight Decem- interval, .six graceful patrol boats. ber 31, 1944. Contest is open to oil Swiftly, the boats sped to the except employees of Midwest Radio ground. Corporation, their advertising agency, and members of their families. Win- Tlie creatures who emerged from ners will be notified on January 31, them were two-legged and two- ,1945. Prizes will be awarded as follov/s; armed, but there the resemblance Rrst Prize. . .$500 in Wor Bonds to human form ended. Second Prize $200 in Wor Bonds They walked on rubbery land Third Prize. .$100 in War Bonds with the ease and confidence of ab- ond eight prizes of a $25 War Bond each. solute masters. Water was no bar-

rier; they strode over it as if they were made of so much buoyant fluff. Reptiles they ignored; and for some reason, whenever a meet-

ing threatened, it was the beasts that turned aside, hissing with fear. The beings seemed to have a pro- found -natural understanding of purposes, for there was no speech among them. THE HAEMONIZEB m s

Without a sound or waste mo- “It must be concluded,’’ the com- tion, a platform was floated into mander noted finally in his logbook, position above a small hill. The “that the lost ibis was destroyed by platform emitted no visible or audi- one of the calamities so common on ble force, but beneath it the soil unfinished planets. Unfortunately spumed and ripped. A section of great damage has already been done the drive chamber of the old, great to the natural evolution of the jun- ship catapulted into the air, and gle life. Because of this acceler- was field captive by invisible beams. ated development, intelligence, when No dead thing this. It sparkled it finally does emerge, will be dan- and shone with radiant energy. Ex- gerously savage in its outlook. posed to the air, it hissed and roared “The time lapse involved pre- like the deadly machine it was. cludes all advance recommendation.

Torrents of fire poured from it un- for rectification.” til something—something green— Eighty million years passed. was fired at it from a long gunlike tube. Wagner hurried along the quiet The greenness must have been suburban road and through the gate. a-energy, and potent out of all pro- He was a thick beefy soldier with portion to its size. Instantly, the cold blue eyes, coming home on roaring, the hissing, the- flaring of leave; and at first, as he kissed his the energy in the drive chamber was wife, he didn't notice that there snuffed out. As surely as if it had been bomb damage to his house. were a living thing mortally struck, He finally saw the silver tree. the metal lost its life. He stared. The super-beings turned their He was about to exclaim, when concentrated attention on the grove he noticed that one whole wing of of ibis trees. First they counted the house was an empty shell, a them. Then they cut incisions into single wall standing vacuously in a several roots, and extracted a length precarious balance. of white pith from each. These “Die !-!?!-!?!? Americannerin !” were taken to the parent ship, and he bellowed murderously. “ !-!?-! subjected to chemical examination. !?!-?-!’’ It was in this way that the dis- It was less than an hour later covery was made that there had that the sensitive ibis tree began to been eighty-three trees. An inten- give off a delicious perfume. sive search for the missing tree be- gan. First Germany, then the rest of But the mighty rent in the plan- the world breathed the spreading et’s great belly had been filled in “peace.” by drift and mud and water. Not It all worked out a.s beautifully a trace of it remained. as that.

THE END.

ASTOUND [NG StUENCE FICTION 'It just comes natural to me, sir— I used to play an oboe with the philharmonic!'

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