SCIENCE FICTI

COLLECTOR' > EDITIOOJ FOUR NEW STORIES • SF CLASSIC NINETEEN MASTERPIECES FEATURING ORSON SCOTT CARD, FRITZ LEIBER, ROBERT SHECKLEY EDITED BY BEN BOVA AND DON MYRUS THE BEST OF Dnnrui SCIENCE FICTION NO.3

EDITED BY BEN BOVA AND DON MYRUS

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Credits Fioni cover painting by R Berliana. Text by Durant FC III. Soace Witness, leil by Ellen DaBow. 4 HOW PRO WRITERS REALLY WRITE-OR TRY TO by Robert Sheckley Stellar Technicians, text by Robert Sheckley. Toured the Universe Ce'esw,'; ;.»:*:'-= find Orders of 8 RENT CONTROL by Walter Tevis Magnitude.

12 SPACE WITNESS. Pictorial. Paintings Acknowledgement r>>= 7?=?. reoumedby by Bob T. McCall perm ssioti Ol Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Inc and

; " bv v'af Socter S Warourg. Ll'J n:heUK-Ihe 20 CLAP HANDS AND SING by Orson Scott Card

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ri IPS" :er'![o e= irom rates c'Pim Hie Prtol by Stanislaw 25 THE FUTURE LOST by Robert Sheckley Lem. translated by Louis Mbarne. English translation copy.-j-jrit _=- - 'y.-'yc.- 3:3:;si:, : ,,vv^ 5 28 THE TEST by Stanislaw Lem mm: mf- 'ron Titer •- '<"? Universe by Robert HolrJslock and -- V-j ~ E;.vi-jj -.-Qlng v cut' -"isa r :te u £ A r 36 TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE. Pictorial. . ,'.= ;-- . • ;-;--= Paintings by Robert Holdstock o, Vj,-' 5::^5. Na-.-, : j£-:ar "- and Malcolm .?cp. - '»; n-, VourigA-risisL'a i ue:ra:o-; Edwards l""JT ;• ";.;.v !:, " r J;' L-.a-" ,'«r=r' i;? ryrj-rii , ;. GLiL:ishi^.:i -r. . -srei Catalog o/ Science Fiction 42 A HISS OF DRAGON by Gregory Benford and Marc Laidlaw Hardware by Vincent Di Fate and Ian Summers. published by Workman Publishing Company. 1980 50 MESSAGE FROM EARTH by Ian Stewart r The Empatr =.r. -j ..'::= 5='. =;-;<== es'.nted by permission of 'he 3 u:ho- ana ' s agent. Curtis Brown 52 NEWTON'S GIFT Paul J. Associate. Lid Copyright £ 1979 by John by Nahin

SiiiiiiiiiifiSissMsa " , T f/o-'sssy J ;:-i:-:;- ^•-e- l".-^:.-.-^ ::':'; --^ Planet 56 CELESTIAL VISITATIONS. sassssassa«ii by R McOuar.'ie C Lucastilm Ltd.{LFL) Pictorial. Paintings by Gilbert Williams S5iiSiiii 1977 All rights reserved CourtesyolLucastHm. Ltd. _ The Cure, copyrtghl s 1945 by Lewis Padgett 60 GOD BLESS THEM by Gordon R. Dickson (ps«ldpriym CH Henry Kultner). renewed 1973. M,MMi Reprinted by permission oi IMIiMMHI!S5S!! "i Harold Matson Co Inc 70 ADVENTURE OF THE METAL MURDERER by Fred Saberhagen Copyright i. 79S1' by Orr.-i P.jd cavons Interna! ionj 74 THE ROCKS THAT MOVED by John Keefauver - Ltd.909ThirdAvenue.NewVork.NV 10033 All rights . reserved No part may be reproduced or in any THE VACUUM-PACKED PICNIC leiiism Iransni tied iorni or by any means, electronic by Rick Gauger or mechanical, including photocopying, recording. or any information storage- and- retrieval system. SCIENCE FICTION AND SURVIVAL by Ben E without pric permission ol the publisher Published simultaneously in ihe United Slates ol America and 86 THE MAN WHO WAS MARRIED TO SPACE AND TIME by Fritz Leiber m Canada FirstedHton Printed in the Uniteo States or America by Meredith Printing Corporation and 90 STELLAR distributed the TECHNICIAN. Pictorial Paintings by Vincent Di Fate m U S A . Canada. U S. territorial

possessions and the world (except the U.K ) by Curtis C'rcuiation Company 21 Henderson Drive 96 GRAVESIDE WATCH by Edward H.Gandy West Caldweli. N J 07006 Distributed in the U K by Comag Ltd.. Tavistock Road West Drayton. 102 THE EMPATH AND THE SAVAGES by John Morressy Middlesex. U87 7QE. England. Certain ol the materials contained herein were previously 108 THE THOUSAND CUTS by Ian Watson published in Qmn, and were copyrighted in 1978. 1979 1980 and 19B1 by Omni Publications 114' HELL CREATURES OF THE International Ltd The editor-publisher and design THIRD PLANET by Stephen Robinett

director of Ontm is Bob Gucoone: the president i; 117 KathyKeeton Special editor THE MADAGASCAR EVENT by Robert Haisty

Notman ano Betsy Vayda 120 THE EYES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS by Patrice Duvic

126 OIL IS NOT GOLD by Sam Nicholson

132 THE CURE by Lewis Padgett PHOTOGRAPHTONYGUCCIONE 138 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. Pictorial. Paintings by John Harris HOW TO WRITERS REALLY WRITE- OR TRY TO BY ROBERT SHECKLEY

In which Ke ™^cs; aulho's of sci. a veteran author, avid readet Sack and dree hen. as an aspiring write' as well renowned for his ironic humor, wanted to know N3W orc- describes to aspiring ! essicnal wnts-s actually dc Hie i writers SF L pp Hew dc ihey develop Ehs i the tribulations of iceas. plot their stories overcome tneir cftf- ficuties? the trade Now. twenty-five years later I r Know a little about it. He's on the ve-ge of u::c trag.c defeat. Process oral writers are extremely indi- ~hen, at the last moment, you get r m out of vidualistic in ins ways They approach iheir trouble. How does this happen? In a flash :ask. II you are among a lucky few, it is of insight, your hero solves his problem by relatively simple You get an icea which in some logical means inherent m the situa- turn plot suggests a and characters. With tion but overlooked until now; Done prop- that much m nand. you go lo a typewriter erly, your solution makes the reader say. Of and basn cui a slory. When it's oone. a few course! Why didn't i think of that?" Vou then hours - !a;er. you correct the gramma' and cing the story to a swift conclusion -and spelling This editing usually results in a that's all there is to it, messy-looking manuscript, so you type out This straightforwarc app'oach saw me the who^e thing again. For better or worse, through many stories, Inevitably, however, your story is now finished. sophistication set in ard I began to experi- That's pretty much now I went abcu" i: ence difficulties. I began to view writing as

early in rry caree' If anyone asked, I wouid a problem and to look for ways of dealing sxplam that plolting a sJQry consists merely with that prob'em. of giving your hero a serious problem, a I locked to my colleagues and their mci-

PAINTING BY KENT G. BELLOWS —

I did not vidual methodologies. Lester del Rey, tor sparkling sea, olive trees and solitude. So I ment. The substance of what wrote

It anything, even gib- example, told me that he wrote out his sto- moved to the island of Ibiza. There I rented matter could be ries in his head— word for word, sentence a 300-year-old farmhouse on a hill overlook- berish, even lists of disconnected words, over over again. All that for sentence — before committing them to ing the Mediterranean. The house lacked even my name and wordage in paper. Months, even years, would be de- electricity, buf it did have four rooms, any mattered was producing daily voted to this mental composition. one of which I could use as my office. First I quantity.

Only when he was ready to type out a tried to work in the beautiful, bright rooms Perhaps that sounds simple. It was not, I you. The first day went well enough. story would Lester go to his office, which upstairs. Alas, I couldn't concentrate on my assure

second, however, I exhausted was about Ihe size of a broom closet, writing here because I spent too much time By the had

I found myself though not so pretty. He had built it in the admiring the splendid view from the win- my ready stock of banalities. creating something like this; middle of his living room. After cramming dow. So I moved downstairs where there himself inside, Lester would be locked in were no such distractions. These two 'Ah yes, here we are at last, getting near place by a typewriter that unfolded from a rooms had only one narrow window with the bottom of the page. One more sen-

just more words . . . that's it, go, wall onto his lap. Paper, pencils, cigarettes bars over it in case of attack by pirates. tence, a few and ashtray were there, and a circulation Formerly a storage place for potatoes, baby, go, do those words ... Ah, page 19, and now we are at the' fan to keep him from suffocating. It was these rooms were dark and dank. There done. That's page top of the last page for the much like being in an upright coffin, but was nothing to divert my attention. But I page 20— with the disadvantage that he was not couldn't work here either. My kerosene day— or night, since it is now 3:30 in the dead. lamp gave off too much smoke. bloody morning and I have been at this for

It what feels like a hundred years. But only Philip Klass, better known as William At last I saw what the real trouble was. Tenn, had many different work methods stemmed from my working indoors. Hence- one page to go, the last, and then I can put

in it aside this insane nonsense and do some- back in those days. He developed them forth I would toil outdoors, as was meant else, in the order to cope with a blockage as tenacious lobe. So I set up on the beach— only to be thing else, anything anything and enveloping as a love-stricken boa frustrated once again, this time by the heat world except this. This, this, this. Damn, still three-quarters of a page to go. Oh words, constrictor. Phil and I used to discuss our writing problems at great length. Once we wherefore art thou words, now that I need invented a method that would serve two you? Come quickly to my fingers and re- writers. The scheme involved renting a lease me of this* horror, horror, horror ... Oh

1 mind studio and furnishing it with a desk, type- God, am losing my mind, mind,

/ chain him to the chair, it writer and heavy oaken chair. The chair was 6 would But wait, is it possible? Yes, here is, the s of the coming up. Oh welcome, to be fitted with a chain and padlock. Ac- leaving his arms free to type. I end page cording to our scheme, we would lake turns kindly end of page, and now I am finished, him there, would then leave finished, finished!" in the studio. When it was, say, Phil's turn to

I this, I realized that write. I would chain him to the chair, leaving despite his piteous pleas. ..until After a few days of working very hard and not getting paid his arms free to type. I would then leave him he had produced a given was words a there, despite his piteous pleas and en- for it. Since I was turning out 5,000 prose. At that point I treaties, until he had produced a given amount of day anyway, and since I was getting tired of long streams of mean- amount of cogent prose. At that point I would release him and take typing meandering would release him and take his place. ingless verbiage. I asked myself why I his place. 9 write a story. We never did carry out our scheme, shouldn't

And I did just that. I sat down and wrote a probably because of the unlikelihood of story. And it was easy! finding a chair strong enough to restrain a

I had'the master key to writer determined to escape work. But we Could it be that story. This I wrote another did try something else. We agreed to meet writing at last? not so easy, but it was not unduly at a diner in Greenwich Village at Ihe end of of a searing sun and by the ceaseless on- one was

either. there I with two com- each day's work. There we showed each shore breeze blowing sand into my type- difficult So was a shady plete stories on paper, and each had taken other the pages we had done. If either of us writer. I tried composing under

only a to wrap up. I thought proudly of I day had failed to fulfill his quota that day, he tree, but the flies drove me away. When stories for at least a year or so after- would pay the other ten dollars. tried to do my writing in a cafe, the waiters these into wards. I've never employed this technique It seemed ioolproof, but we soon ran were loo noisy.

to get anything else written, but I know it a contretemps. Neither of us was willing to I gave up on Ibiza and moved to London, problem works. Someday when I'm feeling desper- let the other actually read his rough, un- firmly-convinced now that my was ate enough, I'll probably rely on it again. finished copy. We got around this by pre- a shortage of self-discipline. I began to however, I'm still seeking a senting our pages upside down. But this search in earnest for ways of doing by ar- Meanwhile, Here, less-agonizing method. tifice I done naturally. procedure made it impossible to tell if we what once had the- Wordage, after all, is not the sole consid- had really written new copy that day or if we in no particular order, are a few of eration. Writing a story can be a strange I utilized. were showing pages from years ago. It be- methods have fearsome business. You want so badly I is and came a point of honor for each of us to When am blocked, my tendency to it exactly right. You try so hard and present new copy that the other could not avoid writing. That's quite predictable. But to get judge yourself so severely that you may 1 feel capable of read. We did this for about a week, then the less I write, the less confusing yourself. spontaneously and joyously reverted loour writing. A sense of oppression increases as succeed only in Perhaps you've written many thousands of former practice of just talking about writing. my output dwindles, and I begin to dread sorely dissatisfied with As the years passed, my own blockage writing anything at all.- How to break this words and you're

it them, It's all chaos, and you can't seem to became wider, deeper and blacker. I vicious cycle? The hard truth is that can get an orderly course. That was my next how- only be done by writing. I must practice my on thought I knew what my trouble was, maintain any facility problem. Wordage, yes, but also an unwill- ever. My trouble was my wife. As soon as I craft regularly if I am to of How ingness, a fear of submitting myself to the it. I to ajlow words. did something about her, I reasoned, every- at need produce story. when I tortures of actually turning out a thing would be okay. Two divorces later I 'am I to achieve that flow am My solution, typically enough, was to knew it was not my wife. blocked? there seemed at juncture I sidestep the problem. Since The trouble, I next decided, was New To solve this dilemma, one day. Type, no way of writing a story without plunging York How could I possibly work in such a set myself to type 5,000 words a

only require- myself into utter despair. I decided I would place? What 1 needed was sunshine, a not write. Wordage was my not write a story. Instead, I would write Working a with diagrams is fun. At first I "I don't know" simulation of a story. made mine with an ordinary fountain pen. "Of course you know, Bob. Name a way in simulations My are the same length as a Then I switched to colored Pentels. For which you could speed it up." story, and they are made up of narration, greater efficiency, I out worked set of I a "Well, suppose I could delete the two- dialogue, exposition and all the other ele- color-coded symbols, which was well worth thousand-word description of a sunset on ments of a proper story The difference is the lime it took. I also experimented with Mars." that in a proper story the words you choose different modes of lettering to improve clar- "Would that solve the problem''" are vitally important; in a simulation they are ity. "No. My characters slink, too." of no importance whatever. When I write a My diagrams grew larger and more com- "In what way?"

simulation, it doesn't if plex, matter I my images whereupon switched to larger "They just sit around wishing they were are trite and my dialogue It sheets of leaden. isn't a paper After that I got into colored somewhere else." story, remember, but only inks. The something like a commercial brands weren't quite "What could you do about that?" story. It's but a formal exercise rather than a right, so I began to mix my own. But the "Give them something to do, I guess." piece of careful still creation. I lacked never con- system something. It was be- "Like what?" sciously attempt to work into simulation coming too a mechanical and lackluster. So I . . "I don't know. . Wait. I've got it! They the beauty, precision, began to illustrate humor and pathos my diagrams, first with can look for an alien civilization!" that a proper story must contain. little sketches, then with line and wash This method works well, but it does de- Using this method has I drawings, taught me that and finally with watercolors. My mand a certain degree of concentration. have a certain gift for self-deception. Curi- skill as an illustrator left something to be That's the only tough part about ft. Occa- ous to relate, I've discovered that— except desired, so I began looking around for a sionally I can't even get my questions into for a few rough spots here and there— good art course. Unfortunately, I my had to focus, let alone the answers. At such times simulated stories are very much like the drop the whole thing and get some salable my solo dialogue is apt to go like this: real ones I've written. writing done. Still, it was not a total waste. "Well, Bob, how's the lad?" What this obviously means is that I a market can When opens up for fancy dia- "I'm fine, thanks. How about you?"

only write as I write, not much better or "Oh, I'm fine." worse no matter I how hard try Trying too "That's nice." hard, in fact, has an adverse effect upon "Yes,- it is, isn't it?" performance. my The whole purpose of "Yes." simulation is to work rapidly, with a certain "Was there some problem you wanted to lightness of touch, as one ^Thinking, not writing is would do a discuss with me?" watercolor rather than an oil painting. Ttes sometimes the problem. Various "Problem? Oh, yes. It's this story." method does work. But there are a couple ideas must be regarded from "What story?" of obstructive thoughts I have to watch out "The one I've been trying to write for the for. The first is, "Hell, this is I'd different angles before I going badly; can last three months." better start again." The other is, "Hey, this is begin writing. "Oh, that story." going well; I'd better tighten up and make it "Yes."" really good." Both these Critical decisions judgments are "You mean the story with the two- counter-productive. must be weighed. Bits of data thousand-word description of a Martian Thinking, not writing, is sometimes the sunset?" need to be juggled.9 problem. Various ideas must be regarded "That's the one." from different angles before I can begin "Have you got any ideas?"' writing. Critical decisions must be formu- 'About what?" lated. Alternatives must be weighed. Bits of 1 'About the story, Bob. How can I fix it?' data need to be juggled, fit into place, dis- "Well, you could always expand the de- ." carded or altered. Such problems are elu- grams. I'll be all set. scription of that sunset. . .

sive. They refuse to solidify. I My trials and tribulations make some have brought And so it goes — you win some and you notes or go for a long walk or discuss it with me to one firm conclusion— namely, that lose some. OO my wife, but nothing seems to help much. confusion and anxiety will never be al- It's all so nebulous and unclear. There are together eliminated from the process of too many things to consider at once, and creative writing. Ideas frequently have to This article was adapted from a speech Bob no means of arranging my data. At times incubate in an author's subconscious until Sheckley gave before an enthusiastic audience

like this, it can be helpful to make a dia- something clicks into place. Often, at least of science-fiction fans, many of whom aspired to gram. in my case, this gestation period is allowed be professional writers. What Bob didn't tell them

Here's the of I sort diagram find useful. to persist too long, which serves as a det- then, as he was making the speech, was that You pencil key in the a word center of a riment to the later stages of the work. You devilishly he had devised a perfect way not to sheet of paper and draw a circle around it. reach a stage where the idea should be write too often or too much. He had taken a day Then you draw radiating lines from it and hatched, but something is still amiss and job as fiction editor of Omni magazine. write, as succinctly as possible, the various you don't know what it is. It sits there, a After about a year and a halt, however, the call considerations associated with the idea. soggy dark mass in your mind, a subtle to true duty became too much tor even the shirk- The resulting diagram sums up your knowl- unpleasantness that will not permit you to ing Sheckley. He left New York City for Miami on the subject. entire continue. to edge The question What do then? Beach, giving up hisjobin charge of fiction to ac- and all its ramifications can be taken in at a There is an extraordinarily direct method cept the less demanding role of Contributing Edi- glance, enabling you to see what you have that I've devised to answer this very prob- tor, thereby returning to his typewriter full-time and, equally important, don't lem. what you A psychologist would probably de- and, as he puts it, to a life of "free-lance noveliz- have. Hookups parts of the scribe it between dia- as a catharsis. A typical session ing and unstructured poverty." The result will no will finds gram sugest themselves. Pertinent me talking to myself aloud, asking doubt be additions to an oeuvre totalling some areas can be enclosed or connected. Dif- and answering questions. half-dozen novels (e.g. The Tenth VictimJ and ferent colors can be used for emphasis. "Well, Bob, what exactly is wrong?" hundreds ol stories, published injust about every "The New data can be easily added. Areas of story stinks, that's what's wrong." relevant magazine from Imagination Science Fic- special significance can be removed as "But how, precisely, does it stink?" tion to Galaxy to Omni itself.-D.M. the-bases of new diagrams or sub- "It moves too slowly, for one thing." diagrams. "So how could you speed it up?" RENT CONTROL

Lovers dream of making

time stand still; so they learned how to stop the clock

BY WALTER TEVIS

ly God," Edith said. "that was the most real experience of my life." She put her arms around him, put her cheek against his bare chest, and pulled him tightly to her. She was crying. He was crying, too. "Me, too, darling." he said, and he held his arms around her. They were in the loft bed of her.studio apartment on the East Side. They had just had orgasms together. Now they were

sweaty, relaxed, blissful. It had been a perfect day. Their orgasms had been foreshadowed by their therapy. That evening, after supper, they had gone to Harry's group as always on Wednesdays, and somehow everything had focused for them. He had at last shouted the heartfelt anger he bore against his incompetent parents; she had screamed her hatred of her sadistic mother, her gutless father. And their relief had come together there on the floor of a New York psychiatrist's office. After the screaming and pounding of fists, after the real and potent old rage in both of them was spent, their smiles at each other were radiant. They went afterwards to her apartment, where they had lived together half a year. climbed up the ladder into her bed, and began to make love slowly, carefully. Then frenetically. They

were picked up bodily by it and carried to a place where they had never been before. Now, afterwards, they were settling down in that place, huddled together. They lay silently for a long time. Idly she looked toward the ledge next to the mattress, where she kept cigarettes, a mason jar with miniature roses, a Japanese ashtray, and an alarm ciock. "The clock must have stopped," she said. • He mumbled something inarticulate. His eyes were closed.

"It says nine-twenty," she said, "and we left Harry's at nine." "Hrnmm," he said, without interest.

PAINTING BY GEORGE TOOKER self-recriminations. He evening. There was no it could She was silent for a while, musing. Then explanations and dark— way hard; she would not in knew he had she said, "Terry, what time -does your watch- had trouble staying be ten the morning. But he

herself only with it. say?" lubricate and could excite slept a whole night. He knew His hand afraid of him and cigarette trem- "Time time," he said. "Watch watch." He his hands on her. She was holding the second was often with resentment. shifted his arm and looked. "Nine-twenty," made love dutifully, bling, by his unreliable Slowly and carefully he put out his he said. He was embarrassed withdrawal from his back the ladder "Is the second hand moving?" she member, sensed her cigarette, then climbed up asked His watch was an Accutron, not ardor, was afraid to tell her so. Often they to the loft bed. Edith was still asleep. to do. laid his given to being wrong or stopping. were miserable. Somehow he knew what He

take him his watch . As He looked again. "Nope. Not moving." But she had the good sense to hand on her leg and looked at good sense he touched her the second hand stopped. He let his hand fall on her naked behind, to her therapist, and he had the not breathe. now cool fo his touch. Then he said, "That is to go. Finally, after six months of private For a long moment he did Still holding her leg, he looked out the funny. Both stopping at once." He leaned sessions and of group, it had worked. They time there was a group of ov.er her body toward the window, pried had had the perfect orgasm, the perfect window. This perfect intimacy. people outside; they had just left the res- open a space in her Levoior blinds, and release from tension, the their omelets in bed from taurant. None of them moved. The taxi had looked out. It was dark outside, with an odd Now they ate his silver and with it the station wagon, but the shimmer to the air. Nothing was moving. Spode plates, using mother's gone still there. One of the people There was a pile of plastic garbage bags forks. Sea salt and Java pepper. Their legs garbage was from the Toreador was in the process of on the sidewalk opposite. "It can't be elev- were entwined as they ate. afterwards. putting on his raincoat. One arm was in a en yet. They haven't taken the garbage They lay silent for a while He sleeve and the other wasn't. There was a from 'the Toreador." The Toreador was a looked out the window. The garbage was his visible from the third-story Spanish restaurant across the street; they still there; there was no movement in the frown on face lay looking at him. kept promising they would eat there some- street; no one was on the sidewalk. There apartment where Terry time but never did. was a flatness to the way the light shone on Everything was frozen. The light was pecu- if they liar, unreal. man's frown did not "It's probably about ten-thirty," she said. the buildings across from them, as The "Why don't you make us an omelet and turn were pafnted— some kind of a backdrop. change. let of Edith, man finished the TV on? Make mine with cheddar. And He looked at his watch. It said nine- Terry go and the drove in the three eggs." forty-one. The second hand wasn't moving. putting on his coat. Two cars by normal. "Sure, honey," he said. He slipped on his "Shit!" he said, puzzled. street. The light became this time lay- I Terry touched Edith again, bikini briefs and eased himself down the "What's that, honey?" Edith said. "Did ing his hand gently on her bare back. Out- ladder. Barefoot, he went to the tiny Sony do something wrong?" he said. "You're the best side the window everything stopped, as near the fireplace, turned it on. and padded "No, sweetie." when a switch is thrown on a projector to over to the stove and sink at the other end of thing that ever happened. I'm crazy about arrest the Terry let out his breath the room, He heard the TV come on as he you." He patted her ass with one hand and movement. said, "Wake up, Edith. I've located the omelet pan, which he had gave her his empty ptete with the other. audibly. Then he something fo show vou." bought her, under the sink, nestling be- She set the two plates on the ledge, got it, they told tween the Bon Ami and the Windex. He got which was barely wide enough for them. They never understood and decided. They out, cracked one, looked at his She glanced at the clock. "Jesus," she nobody. It was relativity, they eggs ," perfect to- said, "that sure is strange . . had found, indeed, a place watch. It was running. It said nine-twenty- "I'll explain gether, where subjective time raced and six. "Hey, honey," he called out. "My watch "Let's go to sleep," he said. relativity in morning." external world stood entirely still. is running." the theory of the the in her loft After a pause she said, her voice slightly It did not work anywhere but

it wasn't morning. only when they touched. They hushed, "So is the clock up here." But when he woke up, bed — and there for hours or days, He shrugged and put butter in the pan He felt refreshed, thoroughly rested; he had could stay together they could tell and finished cracking the eggs, throwing the sense of a long and absolutely silent although there was no way really the shells into the sink. He whipped the sleep, with no noises intruding from the how long the "time" had been; they read, talk, and no eggs with a fork, then turned on the fire world outside, no dreams, no complica- could make love, sleep, under the pan and walked back to the Sony tions. He had never felt better. time passed whatever. the light discovered, after a while, that only if for a moment. A voice was saying, "... When he looked out the window, They it fail, and then the clock nine-thirty" He looked al his watch. Nine- from the streetlamp was the same and the they quarreled did still front of the watch would run even though they thirty. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed. garbage bags were piled in and

It required intimacy, even of They were both thirty-five years old, boih Toreador and — he saw now — what ap- were touching. the intimacy of casual youthful, good-looking, smart. They were peared to be the same taxi stood motion- a slight kind — station for it to work. both Pisces, with birthdays three days less in front of the same green touching — Street. their lives to it quickly, and apart. Both had good complexions, healthy wagon in the middle of Fifty-first He They adapted life's It said nine-forty-one. at first it extended their sense of pos- dark hair, clear eyes. They both bought looked at his watch. belly, with It bathed them in a clothes at Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Edith was still asleep, on her sibilities enormously being and Bloomingdale's; they both read the one arm across his waist, her hip against perfection of the lovers' sense of rest of the world and better Sunday Times, spoke fair French, ana his. Not waking her, he pulled away and apart from the watched Nova, and each had read The started to climb down from the bed. On an than it. It Their careers improved; they had more Stories of John Cheever. He was a maga- impulse he looked again at his watch. still, the second for work and for play than anyone else zine illustrator, she a lawyer; they could was nine-forty-one but now time If of them ever under serious have afforded a bigger place, but her hand was moving. had. one was competilion, of the need studio was rent-controlled and had a terrific He reached out and turned the electric pressure — of job to where he could see its to make a quick decision — one could get Midtown address. It was too much of a clock on the ledge the other in and they would have all fhe bargain to give up. "Nobody ever leaves a face. It said nine-forty-one also, and when bed its necessary to decide, to think up the rent-controlled apartment," she told him. he held it to his ear. he could hear gears time His heart began to speech, to plan the magazine cover, or to So they lived in one and a half rooms to- turning quietly inside. details of the case going to trial. gether, and money piled up in their bank beat stronger and he found himself catch- review the what they called accounts. ing his breath. Sometimes they took buying and cooking enough They were terribly nervous lovers at first, He looked at his watch. It said ten Weekends, in the it was food for five or six meals, and just staying too unsure of everything to enjoy it, full of o'clock. He looked out window; 10 the loft bed, touching, while reading or She didn't look at him. "Get on up here. wanted morning to come— just so they

meditating or making love or working. He Dum-dum." she said, still in that controlled, could go to work, a change of pace. had his art supplies in shelves over the bed playful voice. "I want you to touch me." But less and less did either of them want now, and she had reference books and note He climbed up and laid a hand on her the pace to change. Each had learned to pads on the ledge. He had put mirrors on shoulder. Outside the window a walking spend "hours" motionless, staring at a mir- two of the walls and on the ceiling, partly for man froze in mid-stride and the sunlight ror or out of the window, preserving his or

sex, partly to make the small place seem darkened as if a shutter had been placed her youth against the ravages of real time bigger, less confining. over it. and real movement. Each became ob- The food was always hot. unspoiled; no "What do you mean, 'older for- nothing'?" sessed, without sharing the obsession, time had passed for it between their meals. he asked with a single idea: immortality. They could They could not watch television or listen to She looked at him thoughtfully. "It's been live forever, young and healthy and fully records while in suspended lime; no ma- about five years now, in the real world." she awake, in this loft bed. There was no ques- chinery worked while they touched. replied. The "real world" for them meant the tion of interestingness or of boredom; they Sometimes for fun they would watch time lived by other people. "But we must had moved, deeply in their separate souls, people out the window and stop and start have spent five years in suspended time far beyond that distinction, that rhythm of them up again comically, but that soon here in bed. More than that. And we haven't life. Deep in themselves they had become grew tiresome. been aged by it." a pharaoh's dream of endless time; they ?" both . They got richer and richer, earning He looked at her "How could . . had found the pyramid that kept the flow of higher "I promotions and pay and the low rent don't know, "she said. "But I know we're the world away. helped them to save plenty of money. Of not any older than anybody else." One autumn morning that had been like course there was now truly no question of He turned toward the mirror at her feet two weeks for them he looked at her, after leaving the apartment; there was no other and stared at himself in it. He was still waking, and said, "I don't want to leave this bed in which they stop could time— no youthful, firm, clear-complexioned. Sud- place. I don't want to get old." other place. denly smiled, he at himself. "Maybe I can She looked at him before she spoke. For a year they about would always stay Then she said, "There's nothing I want to do " later at parties than anyone else; they outside." would taunt acquaintances and colleagues He looked away from her, smiling. "We'll when they were too tired to accompany need a lot of food," he said. them to all-night places for scrambled eggs or a final drink. Sometimes they an- mEach was obsessed with one They had already had the apartment noyed colleagues by showing up bright- single notion: filled with shelves, and a bathroom was eyed and rested in the morning, no matler installed beneath the bed. Using the bath- immortality. They could live how late the party had gone on, no matter room was the only concession to real lime;

. forever how many drinks had been drunk, no mat- in the loft to make the water flow, it was necessary for ter how loud and fatiguing the revelry They bed. Deep in themselves them npt to touch. were always buoyant, healthy, awake, and They filled the shelves that autumn after- they just a bit smug. became noon with hundreds of pounds of food- But after the first year they tired of party- a pharaoh's dream of time cheeses and hot chickens and sausages ing, grew bored with friends, and went ou! without end. 9 and milk and butter and big loaves ot bread less often. Somehow they had come to a and precooked steaks and pork chops and place that they were never bored with, and hams and bowls of cooked vegetables, all Edith referred to it as "our little loft bed." prepared and delivered by a wondering The center of their lives had become a caterer and five assistants. They had cases king-sized foam with mattress a foot-wide of wine and beer and cigarettes. It was like ledge' and inches ot a few head and foot fix it so I can shave in bed." an efficient, miniature warehouse. room a,t each end. They were never bored Their Weekends became longer. Al- When they got into bed and touched, she in that when small space. though they could not measure their spe- said, "What if we quarrel? The food will all What they had to learn was not to quarrel. cial time, the number of times they slept spoil." not to lose the modicum of intimacy that and the times they made love could be "I know," he said. Taking a deep breath, relativity their phenomenon required. But counted; both those numbers increased he added. "What if we just don't talk?" that came easily, too; without discussing it, once they realized the time in bed together She looked at him for a long time. Then each learned to give only a small part of self was "free"— thai they did not age while she said, "I've been thinking that, too." to intimacy wifh the other, fo cultivate a touching in the loft bed, while the world So they stopped talking, and they turned state of mind that -was distant, remote outside was motionless and the sun neither toward their own mirror and thought of liv- enough to be safe from conflict, yet with a rose nor set. ing forever, back to back, touching. controlled closeness They practiced yoga Sometimes they would pick a time of day for body and spirit and Transcendental and a quality of light they both liked, and No friend found them, for they had no Meditation. They never told each other their they'd stop their time there: at twilight, with friends. But when the landlord came in mantra. Often they found themselves star- empty streets and a soft ambience of light. through the empty shelves on what was for ing at different mirrors. Now they seldom They would allow for the slight darkening him the next day, he found them in the loll looked out the window effect, and then they'd touch and stay bed. back to back, each staring into a dif- touching for eight or ten sleeping periods. ferent mirror. They were perfectly beautiful,

It Edith the major was who made second six or eight orgasms, fifteen meals. with healthy, clear complexions, youthful . discovery. One day when Terry was in the The world outside became less interest- figures, dark and glistening hair. But they bathroom shaving, and his watch was run- ing for them. They both had large bank had no minds at all. They were not even like ning, he heard her shout to him, in a kind of accounts, and both had high-Jevel yet un- beautiful children; there was nothing there cool playfulness, "Quit dawdling in there, demanding jobs; her legal briefs were pre- but prettiness. Terry. I'm getting older for nothing." There pared by assistants; three young men in his The landlord was shocked at what he was some kind of urgency in her voice, and studio made the illustrations thai he de- saw But he recognized soon afterwards he caught it. He rinsed his face off in a signed, on drawing pads, in the loft bed. that they would be sent somewhere and hurry, dried, and walked to the bedroom. Of-ten the nights were a terrible bore, and that he would be able to charge a profitable "What do you mean?" he asked. they had let of rent, to go each other if they at last, from someone new DO SPACE WITNESS

// anyone paints

in space, it should be Bob McCail: He's all packed

AVlist in residence— in space? Why not. Eventually an artist will record the wonders of space firsthand while spending a week in orbit aboard the space shuttle. Prime candidate tor this honor is space artist Robert T. McCail. More people have bough! more reproductions of McCall's work than of any other space artist's. Usually the owner turns it over, licks it, and mails it to someone else. Six U.S. commemorative postage stamps issued in the past ten years bear McCail reproductions, among them Sfcy/ato,,4po/fo/Soyuz, the P/bneer flight to Jupiter, and the Viking missions to Mars. His Decade of Achievement double stamp was hand-canceled on the moon by astronaut David Scott during the Apollo 15 mission. McCail is working on another stamp right now The heroic mural McCail designed for the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington. DC, has been seen by 40 million visitors. Two other large murals were completed by the artist at NASA centers in California and Texas. McCail helped interpret the beginnings of the Space Age for Life magazine by rendering dozens of on-the-spot paintings from his vanlage point at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and later became a key contributor to the NASA art program. He created the promo- tional art for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and submitted futuristic concepts for such films as Star Trek and Meteor and for Walt Disney studios. McCall wants lo go into orbit. Broad-shouldered and now sixty, he keeps fit and exercises purposefully so that he can accept the NASA invitation if and when it comes. Comfortably dressed for work in a faded jump suit splashed with vivid

daubs of paint, he asserts, "Of course I want to go. I want to see how the view and

perspective change when you're not standing on Earth . . . and to experience

Preceding page: Concept of spaceship for Black Hole; one-man space robot. Above: Me- tropolis 4000; Disney studios' giant space station. Right: Astronaut firing maneuvering unit.

Q'd like to communicate the sense of what it's like up there.! weightlessness, observe others; to sort out the emo- tional impact of being in space and to put it on canvas.

I'd give il my best." McCall's best has always been outstanding. Born in Ohio, he won a scholarship and studied at the Colum- bus Art School. "As a kid, I liked airplanes because they armor, were dramatic and moved last. I drew knights in of astronauts in space suits and I guess my paintings are analogous — adventurous men risking everything, facing new challenges." As an illustrator in New York in 1949, McCall worked for Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, and several adver- tising firms. His interest in flight did not abate. He sent a to- "To Whom It May Concern" letter to Life magazine

1 illustra- gether with a portfolio of his World War 1 combat going to the tions. "I told them I believed man would be launch and represent moon, that I wanted to watch the eventually them when it happened." he recalls. Life acknowledged the arlist's query with a "we'll keep you in mind." They did. A year later he was commissioned to do 20 paintings in observance of the fifteenth anniver- sary of the attack on Pearl Harbor Sputnik was launched the next year. Lite soon required illustrations depicting the expanding space program. Kubrick's as- signment for 2001: A Space Odyssey followed.

^Future generations should feel proud of our accomplishments in space We are destined to explore and colonize the universe.^ The talented space artist is astonished that "so few educated people appreciate the immensity of space and know so little about the cosmos." A neophyte as- tronomer who owns a three-inch reflector telescope, McCall is well aware that the view from space is a deep, inky black. The mural at the Air and Space Museum, however, is painted "as beautiful and inviting rather than black and ominous. Tome, the adventure in space offers incredible opportunities and rewards. "Wernher von Braun hoped to Jly in space. He wanted to be 'the world's first orbiting grandfather.' " McCall paused. Then, softly, "I'd give anything to be."OQ

Preceding page: Mars astronaut; fueling port. Left: The Future in Johnson Space Center mural. Above: Shepard, Grissom. and Young in mural detail: manned rockets from NASA/Dryden.

<• McCalt's enthusiasm for science reflects faith in the future. 3 CLAP

HANDS r AND ^, SING

BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

On [he screen the crippled man screamed al the lady, insist- thought he saw— who? Name? From the distant past. A girl, ing that she must not run away. He waved a certificate. "I'm a Before the name came to him, there came another memory: a registered rapist, damnit!" he cried. "Don't run so fast! You have small hand resting lightly on his knee as they sat together, as to make allowances for the handicapped!" He ran after her with light as a long-legged fly upon a stream, In his memory he did an odd. left-heavy lope. His enormous prosthetic phallus not turn to look at her; he was talking to others. But he knew just swung crazily. like a clumsy propeller that couldn't quite get where she would be if he turned to look. Small, with mousy hair, started. The audience laughed madly, Must be a funny, funny and yet a face that was always the child Juliet. But that was not her name. Not Juliet. Ihough she was Juliet's age in that mem-

Old Charlie sat slumped in his chair, feeling as casual and ory. / am Charlie, he thought. She is — Rachel. hers the permanent as glacial debris. I am here only by accident, bul I'll Rachel Carpenter. In the flicker on the screen was never move. He did not switch off the television set. The audi- face the random light had brought him, and so he remembered ence roared again with laughter. Canned or live? After more Rachel as he pulled his ancient body from the chair; thought of than eight decades of watching television, Charlie couldn't tell Rachel as he peeled the clothing from his frail skeleton, deli-

If . i anymore. Not that the canned laughter had got any more real: It cately lest some rough motion strip away the wrinkled skin like was the real laughter that had gone finny, premeditated. As if cellophane. the laughs were timed to come now, no matter what, and the And Jock, who of course did not switch himself off with the poor actors could strain to get off their gags in time, but always television, recited: they were just this much early, that much late. "An aged man is a paltry thing, atatfered coat upon a stick." "it's late," the television said, and Charlie started awake, "Shut up," Charlie ordered. vaguely surprised to see that the program had changed: Now it "Unless Soul clap its hands." was a demonstration of a convenient electric breast pump to "1 said shut up!" store up natural mother's milk for those times when you just "And sing, and louder sing, for every tatter in its mortal dress." can't be with baby. "It's late":" "Are you finished?" Charlie asked. He knew Jock was

"Hello, Jock," Charlie said. finished. After all, Charlie had programmed him to recite— it to "Don't sleep in front of the television again, Charlie," recite— just that fragment every night when his shorts hit the "Leave me alone, swine," Charlie said. And then: "Okay, turn floor. it off." He stood naked in the middle of the room and thought of

He hadn't finished giving the order when the television flick- Rachel, whom he had not thought of in years. It was a trick of ered and went white, then settled down into its perpetual being old, that the room he was in now so easily vanished, and springtime scene that meant off. But in the flicker Charlie in its place a memory could take hold. I've made my fortune

PAINTING BY GERVASIO GALLARDO tried to all the people in the world, you can. from time machines , he thought, and now I Of course. Dead, of course. He discover thai every aged person is his own imagine her— where? "Where did she die?" And he thought he saw Rachel look back time machine. For now he stood naked. No, "Not pleasant." at him, bright with finding herself beautiful that was a trick of memory; memory had "Tell me anyway. I'm feeling suicidal to- at fourteen, laughing at the vast joke of these damnable tricks. He was not naked. night." knowing she was admired by the very man wanted, Laugh all you like. He only felt naked, as Rachel satin the car "In a home for the mentally incapable." whom she, too.

his vision ot her. I too beside him. Her voice— he had almost tor- It was not shocking; people often out- Charlie said to was gotten her voice — was soil. Even when she lived their minds these days. Bui sad. For kind to you then. I'm afraid I'll undo my youthful goodness now. shouted, it got rnorewhispery, so that if she she had always been bright. Strange, "Find shouted, it would have all the wind of the perhaps, but her thoughts always led to "I'm going back," he said aloud, world in it and he wouldn't hear it at all. something worth the sometimes-convo- me a day," purpose?" Jock asked. would only feel it cold on his naked skin. luted path. He smiled even before he re- "For what That was ihe voice she was using now, say- membered what he was smiling at. Yes. "My business." Seeing through your knees. She had been "I have to know your purpose, or how can ing. yes, I loved you when I was twelve, and 7 " playing Helen Keller in Miracle Worker. I find you a day when I was thirteen, and when I was four- The teen, but when you gol back from playing and she told him how she had finally come And so he had to name it. "I'm going to

God in Sao Paulo, you didn't call me. All to understand blindness. "It isn't seeing the have her if I can."

I small those letters, and then for three months you red insides of your eyelids, I knew that. Suddenly a alarm sounded, and

it isn't even geeirg black. It's like try- Jock's voice was replaced by another. I knew didn't call me and I knew thai you thought to where never had eyes at all. "Warning. Illegal use of THIEF for possible was just a child and I fell in love with— ing see you Name? Name gone. Fell in love with a boy, Seeing through your knees. No matter how present-altering manipulation of ihe past." and ever since then you've been treating hard you try, there just isn't any vision Charlie smiled. "Investigation has found me like. Like. No. she'd never say sflit, not there." And she had liked him because he that the alteration is acceptable. Clear." in that voice, And take some of the anger hadn't laughed. "I told my brother, and he And the program release: "Byzantium." said Jock. . . "You're of bitch," out, that's right. Here are the words . here a son a they come: You could have had me, Char- "Find me a day. A day when the damage ." lie, but now all you can do is try to make me will be least— when I can . . 1973." miserable. It's too late, the time'sgone by, "Twenty-eight October the time's over, so stop criticizing me. That was after he got home from Sao in THIEF before, Leave me alone. • He had gone a Paulo, the contracts signed, already a capitalist before he was twenty-three, That First to last, all in a capsule. The words had taken some of the are nothing, Charlie realized. A dozen was during the time when he had been standard trips into the past. only women, not least his dear departed wife, afraid to call her, because she was had said exactly the same words to him Gone into the mind of an fourteen, for God's sake. "What will it do lo her Jock?'" and it had just as maudlin, since, sounded audience member at the first just as unpleasantly uninleresting every "How should I know?" Jock answered. of Handel's time. The difference was that when the performance 'And whal difference would it make to you?" He looked in the mirror again. "A differ- others said it, Charlie felt himself insulated Messiah and listened.... That with a thousand layers of unconcern. But ence." was safe, to sit and listen. 5 I won't do it, he told himself as he went to when Rachel said it to his memory, he stood that his most ostentatious naked in Ihe middle of his room, a cold the THIEF was wind drying the parchment of his ancient sign of wealth, a private THIEF in his own skin. rooms. I won't do it. he decided again as he "What's wrong?" asked Jock. set the machine to wake him in twelve Oh, ye"s, dear computer, a change in the laughed." she said. But Charlie had not hours, whether he wished to return or not, routine of the habitbound old man, and you laughed. Then he climbed into the couch and pulled suspect what, a heart attack? Incipient Charlie's affection for her had begun the shroud over his head, despairing thai death? Extreme disorientation? then, with a twelve-year-old girl who could even this, even doing it to her, was not "A name," Charlie said. "Rachel Car- never stay on Ihe normal, intelligible track. beneath him. There was a time when he penter." but rather had to stumble her own way had automatically held back from doing a

"Living or dead?" through a confusing underbrush that was thing because he knew that it was wrong. Charlie winced again, as he winced thick and bright with flowers. "I think God Oh, for that time! he thought, but knew as every time Jock asked that question; yet it stopped paying attention long ago," she he thought it that he was lying to himself, He was an important one, and far too often the said. "Any more than Michelangelo would had long since given up on right and wrong answer these days was Dead. "I don't want to watch them whitewash the Sistine and settled for the much simpler standards know." Chapel." of effective and ineffective, beneficial and

would do it even detrimental. "Living and dead, I have two thousand And he knew that he four hundred eighty in the company ar- before he knew what it was that he would He had gone in a THIEF before, had chives alone." do. She had ended in an institution, and he, taken some of the standard trips into the the of audience "She was twelve when I was— twenty. with the best medical care that money past. Gone into mind an Yes, twenty. And she lived then in Provo, could buy, stood naked in his room and member at the first performance of Han- Utah. Her father was a pianist. Maybe she remembered when passion still lurked be- del's Messiah and listened. The poor soul became an actress when she grew up. She hind the lattices ot chastity and was. more whose ears he used wouldn't remember a wanted to." likely to lead to poems than to coitus. bit of it afterward. So the future would not be "Rachel Carpenter. Born 1959. Provo, You overtold story, he said io the wizened changed. That was safe, to sit in a hall and Utah. Attended-" man who despised him from the mirror. You_ listen. He had been in the mind of a farmer "Don't show off, Jock. Was she ever mar- are only tempted because you're bored. resting under a tree on a country lane as ried?" Making excuses because you're cruel. Wordsworth walked by and had hailed the "Thrice." Lustful because your dim old dong is long poet and asked his name, and Wordsworth 'And don't imitate my mannerisms. Is she past the exercise. had smiled and been distant and cold, de-

Still alive?" Arid he heard the old bastard answer lighting in the countryside more than In

it beautiful. But "Died ten years ago." silently, You will do it, because you can. Of those whose tillage made

22 those were legal trips — Charlie had done at his wristwatch; it must be a habit of the her wear. Her hair is tousled, and her eyes nothing thai could alter the course of his- body he is in, for he hasn't worn a wrist- show that she had been asleep. tory. watch in decades. The arm is tanned from "I didn't mean to wake you." This time, though. This time he would Brazilian beaches, and it has no age spots, "I wasn't really asleep, The first ten min- Rachel's life. change Not his own. of no purple veins drawing roadmaps under utes don't count anyway." course. That would be impossible. But the skin. The time is ten-thirty. She'll doubt- He smiles. Tears come to his eyes. Yes. Rachel would not be blocked from remem- less be in bed. he says silently. This is Rachel, yes. The bering what happened. She would re- almost He stops himself. Few things are narrow face; the skin so translucent ;hsi he member, and it would turn her from the path left in his private catalog of sin", but surely can see into it like jade; the slender arms she was meant to take. Perhaps little. only a this is one. He looks into himself and tries to lhat gesture shyly, with accidental grace. Perhaps not importantly. Perhaps just find the will. to resist his own desire solely "I couldn't wait to see you." enough for her to dislike him a little sooner. because its fulfillment will hurt another "You've per- been home three days. I though! or a little more, But too much to be legal, if son. He is out of practice- so far out of you'd phone." he were caught. practice that he keeps losing track of the He smiles, In fact he will notphone herfor He would not be caught. Not Charlie. Not reason for resisting. months. But he says, "I hate the telephone the man who owned THIEF and Iherefore lights are The on, and her mother— Mrs, I want to talk to you. Can you come out for a could have owned the world. It was all too Carpenter, dowdy and delightful, scatter- drive?" bound up in secrecy. Too many agents had brained in the most attractive way— her "I have td ask my mother" his to used machines attend the enemy's mother opens the door suspiciously until "She'll say yes." most private conferences. Too often the At- she recognizes him. "Charlie," she cries She does say yes. She jokes and says torney General had listened to the most out. that she trusts Charlie. And the Charlie she perfect of wiretaps. Too often politicians 'Is Rachel still Lip?" knows was trustworthy. Butnotme, Charlie were willing who to be in Charlie's debt had "Give me a minute and. she will be!" thinks, You are putting your diamonds into been given permission to lead their oppo- And he waits, his stomach trembling with the hands of a thief. nents into blunders that cost them votes. All anticipation. / am no! a virgin, he reminds "It is cold?" Rachel asks. far beyond what the law allowed; who himself, but this body does not know that. "Not in the car.'" And so she doesn'i take

would dare complain now if Charlie also This is alert, it body for has not yet formed a coat. It's all right. The night breeze isn't bent the law to his own purpose? the habits of meaningless passion that bad.

No one / but Charlie. can 'J do Shis to Charlie knows far too well. At last she As soon as the door closes behind them, Rachel, he thought. then And the THIEF comes down the stairs. He hears her run- Charlie begins. He puts his arm around her carried him back and put him in his own ning on the hollow steps, wooden then waist. She does not pull away or take it with mind, in his own body, on 28 October 1973, stopping, coming slowly, denying the hurry indifference. He has never done this be- ai ten o'clock, just as he was going to bed, She turns the corner, looks at him, fore, because she's only fourteen, just a weary because he had been wakened that is in her She bathrobe, a faded thing ihat child, but she leans against him as they morning by a six a.m call from Brazil. he does not remember ever having seen walk, .as if she had done this a hundred As always, there was the moment of re- sistance, and then peace as his self of [hat time slipped into unconsciousness. Old Charlie took over and saw not the past, but the now

A moment before, he was standing be- fore a mirror, looking at his withered, hang- ing face; now he realizes that this gazing

into a mirror before going to bed is a

lifelong habit, / am Narcissus, he tells him- self, an unbeautifut idolaior at my own shrine. But. now^ he is not unbeautiful. At twenty-two, his body still has the depth of

young skin. His belly is soft, for he is not athletic, but still there is a litheness to him thai he will never have again. And now the vaguely remembered needs that had im- pelled him to this find a physical basis; what had been.a dim memory has him on fire. He will not be sleeping tonight, not soon. He dresses again, finding with surprise the quaint print shirts that once had been in style. The wide-cuffed pants. The shoes with inch-and-a-half heels. Good God, / wore that! he thinks, and then wears it. No questions trorn his family; he goes quietly downstairs and out to his car. The garage reeks of gasoline. It is a smell as nostalgic as lilacs and candlewax. He still knows the way to Rachel's house, though he is surprised at the buildings-Jhat have not yet been built, which roads have not yet been paved, which intersections still don't have the lights he knows they'll have soon, should surely have already. He looks times before. As .always, she takes him by walks toward her mother, to waken her. She don't you see?" surprise. turns and motions for Charlie to leave, then "It's a lie." "I've missed you," he says. smiles again and waves. He waves back "No, it isn't. "I can't lie, Charlie, You pro-

She smiles, and there are tears in her and goes out of the door and drives home. grammed me not to lie. Do you think I would eyes. "I've missed you, too," she says. He lies awake in this bed that feels like have let you go back and harm her^"

I re- They talk of nothing, It'sjustaswell. Char- childhood to him, and he wishes it could "She was the same. She was as

- lie does not remember much about the trip have gone on forever like this. It should membered her." to Brazil, does not remember anything of have gone on like this, he thinks. She is no "Her body was." old what he's done in the three days since get- child. She was no child, he should have "She hadn't changed. She wasn't an ting back, No problem, for she seems to thought, for THIEF was already transport- woman, Jock, She was a girl. She was a want to talk only of tonight. They drive to the ing him home. girl. Jock." Castle, and he tells her its history He feels And Charlie thought of an old woman in institution, surrounded by yel- an irony about it as he explains. She, after "What's wrong. Charlie?" Jock asked. dying an all, is the reason he knows the history. A few Charlie awoke. It had been hours since low walls and pale gray sheets and cur- years from now she will be part of a theater THIEF brought him back. It was the middle tains. He imagined young Rachel inside company that revives the Castle as a public of the night, and Charlie realized that he that withered form, imprisoned in a body in that amphitheater. But now it is falling into ruin, a had been crying in his sleep. "Nothing," he that would not move, trapped a mind monument to the old WPA. a great castle said. could never again take her along her with turrets and benches made of native "You're crying, Charlie. I've never seen bright, mysterious trails. "I television," stone. It is on the property of the State you cry before." flashed her picture on the mental hospital, and so hardly anyone "Go plug into a million volts, Jock. I had a Jock said.

is it knows it's there. They are alone as they And yet, Charlie thought, how less leave the car and walk up the crumbling "What dream?" bearable than that beautiful boy who steps to the flagstone stage. "I destroyed her." wanted so badly to Co the right thing that he She is entranced. She stands in the mid- "No, you didn't." did It all wrong, lost his chance, and now is dle of the stage, facing the benches. He "It was a goddamned selfish thing to do." caught in the sum of .all his wrong turns? I all watches as she raises her hand, speech "You'd do it again. But it didn't hurt her." got on the road they wanted totake, and waiting at the verge of her lips. He remem- "She was only fourteen." I reached the top, but it wasn't where I bers something. Yes, that is the gesture she "No, she wasn't." should have gone. I'm still that boy I did not

lie I to her. made when she bade her nurse farewell in "I'm tired. I was asleep. Leave me alone." have to when went home Romeo and Juliet. No, not made, Will make, "Charlie, remorse isn't your style." "I know you pretty well. Charlie," Jock rather. The gesture must already be in her, Charlie pulled the blanket over his head, said. "I knew that you'd be enough of a of waiting for this stage to draw it out. feeling petulant and wondering whether bastard to go back. And enough a She turns to him and smiles because the this childish act was another proof that he human being to do it right when you got place is strange and odd and does not was retreating into senility after all. there. She came back happy Charlie. She story." belong in Provo, but it does belong to her. "Charlie, let me tell you a bedtime came back satisfied." She should have been born in the Renais- "I'll erase you." His night with a beloved child was a lie sance, Charlie says softly, She hears him. "Once upon a time, ten years ago, an old then; it wasn't young Rachel any more than He must have spoken aloud. "You belong in woman named Rachel Carpenter it was young Charlie. He looked for anger an age when music was clean and soft and petitioned for a day in her past. And it was a inside himself but couldn't find it. For a there was no makeup. No one would rival day with someone, and it was a day with dead woman had given him a gift, and you then." you. So the' routine circuits called me, as taken the one he offered, and it still tasted She only smiles at the' conceit. "I missed they always do when your name comes up, sweet. to for sleep, Charlie. Go to sleep you," she says. and I found her a day. She only wanted "Time there's He touches her cheek. She does not shy visit, you see, only wanted to relive a good again. I just wanted you to know that

it. I to feel for No away. Her cheek presses into his hand, and day. I was surprised, Charlie. didn't know no reason any remorse he knows that she understands why he you ever had good days." reason to feel anything bad at all." brought her here and what he means to do. This program had been with Jock too Charlie pulled the covers tight around his that habit Her breasts are perfect but small, her long. It knew too well how to get under his neck, unaware that he had begun buttocks are boyish and slender, and the skin. years ago, when the strange shadowy only hair on her body is that which tumbles 'And in fact there were no days as good- shapes hid in his closet and only the blan- onto her shoulders, that which he must as she thought," Jock continued. "Only an- ket could keep him safe. Pulled the covers felt brush out of her face to kiss her again. "I ticipation and disappointment. That's all high and tight, and closed his eyes, and Charlie. Anticipa- her hand stroke him, felt her breast and hip love you," she whispers. "All my life I love you ever gave anybody, you." tion and disappointment." and thigh, and heard her voice as breath against his cheek. And it is- exactly as he would have had it "I can count on you." "0 tree," said, had in a dream, except that Ihe flesh is tangible. "This woman was in a home for the men- chestnut Jock as he ", her day. been taught to say, . . great rooted blos- the ecstasy is real, and the breeze turns tally incapable. And so I gave a colder as she shyly dresses again. They Only instead of a day of disappointment, or som er, say nothing more as he takes her home. promises she knew would never be fulfilled, "Are you the leaf, the blossom, or the bole? Her mother has fallen asleep pn the living- I gave her a day of answers. I gave her a "0 room couch, a jumble of the Da;7y Herald night of answers, Charlie." body swayed to music, O brightening piled around her feet. Only then does he "You couldn't know that I'd have you do glance, know the dancer from the remember that for her there will be a tomor- this. You couldn't have known it ten years "How can we row, -and on'that tomorrow Charlie will not ago." dance?" call. For three months Charlie will not call, "That's all right, Charlie. Play along with The audience applauded in his mind

1 ' and she'll hate him. me. You're dreaming anyway, aren't you? while he slipped into sleep, and he thought

it remarkable that they sounded genuine. He tries to soften it. He tries by saying, "And don't wake me up'." nodding at "Some things can happen only once." It is "So an old woman went back into a He pictured them smiling and the sort of thing he might then have said. young girl's body on twenty-eight October the- show. Smiling at the girl with her hand But she only puts her finger on his lips and 1973, and the young girl never knew what raised so; nodding at the man who paused stage. says, "I'll never forget." Then she turns and had happened; so it didn't change her life. forever, then came on DO 24 A moment in time so fantastic

it had to be real BY ROBERT SHECKLEY THE FUTURE ' .

like really nice future. Nothing exotic, but Leonard Nisher was found in front of the cently? Aha! I thought so! That was a local a walking Plaza Hotel in a state of erotic agitation so space-time anomaly and it has carried you nice. And there were people tunics, they all extreme thai it took the efforts of three away from your own time and into the fu- around in their Grecian and policemen and a passing tourist from ture." looked happy and well fed. It was like a Biloxi. Mississippi, to subdue him. Taken to "The future?" Nisher said. "The future Sunday in Central Park. Sf. Clare's Hospital, he had to be put into a what?" Then Nisher noticed one couple who had wet pack— a wet sheet wound around the "Just the future," the old man said. "We're gone beyond the talking stage. They had patient's arms and upper body. This im- about four hundred years ahead of you, taken their clothes off. They were, to use a mobilized him long enough for an intern to give or take a few years." twentieth-century expression, making it. get a shot of Valium into him. "You're putting me on," Nisher said. He No one seemed to think this was un- ' The injection had taken effect by the time asked the old man in various ways where usual. Ogun didn't comment on it; so Dr. Miles saw him. Miles told two husky he really was, and the old man replied that Nisher didn't say anything, either. But he walked aides, one of them a former guard for the he really was in the future, and it was not couldn't help noticing, as they

making it, Detroit Lions, and a psychiatric nurse only true, it wasn't even unusual, though of along, that other people were After passing the named Norma to wait outside. The patient course it wasn't the sort of thing that hap- too. Quite a few people. wasn't going to assault anyone just now. He pens every day. At last Nisher had to ac- seventh couple so engaged, Nisher asked this some sexual holi- was throttled way back, riding the crest of a cept it. Ogun whether was Valium wave where there's nothing to has- "Well, okay," he said. "What sort of future day or whether they had stumbled onto a sle and where even a wet pack can have its is this?" fornicators' convention. Iriendly aspects. 'A very nice one," the old man assured "It's nothing special," Ogun said. their "Well, Mr. Nisher, how do you feel now?" him. "But why don't these people do it in Miles asked. "No alien creatures have taken us over?" homes or in hotel rooms?" most of them hap- "I'm fine, Doc," Nisher said. "Sorry I "Certainly not." "Probably because fossil fuels our pened to meet here in the street." caused that trouble when I came out of the "Has lack of reduced space-time anomaly and landed in front of That shook Nisher. "Do you mean that the Plaza," these couples never knew each other be-

"It couid affect anyone that way," Miles fore?" said reassuringly. 'Apparently not," Ogun said. "If they had,

I have arranged for a "I g.uess it sounds pretty crazy," Nisher suppose they would £The injection had comfortable place in which to make said. "There's no way I can prove it, but I more have just been into the future and back taken effect by the time Dr. love." Nisher just stood there and stared, He again." Miles saw him. Miles "Is the future nice?" Miles asked. knew it was rude, but he couldn't help it. "The future,!' Nisher said, "is a pussycat. told two husky aides, one Nobody seemed to mind, He observed looked each other as they And what happened to me there— well, of them a former how people at you're not going to believe it." walked along, and every once in a while Detroit Lions, The patient, a medium-sized white male guard for the somebody would smile at someone, and smile back, and they "of about thirty-five, wearing an off-white and a nurse named someone else would wet pack and a broad smile, proceeded to * would sort of hesitate for a moment, and Norma to wait outside. tell the following story then . . Nisher tried to ask about twenty ques-

Yesterday he had left his job at Hanratty tions at the same time. Ogun interrupted. & Smirch, Accountants, at the usual time "Let me try to explain, since you have so and gone to his apartment on East Twenty- little time among us. You come from an age fifth Street. He was just putting the key in standard of living to a bare subsistence of sexual repression and rebelliousness. To the lock. when he heard something behind level?" you this must appear a spectacle of unbri- him. Nisher immediately thought, mugger, "We solved the energy crisis a few dled license. For us it is no more than a and whirled around in the cockroach pos- hundred years ago when we discovered an normal expression of affection and solidar- ture that was the basic defense mode in the inexpensive way of converting sand into ity" Taiwanese karate he was studying. There shale." "So you've snlvec :he problem of sex!" was no one there. Instead there was a sort "What are your major problems?" Nisher said. of red, shimmering mist. It floated toward "We don't seem to have any" "More or less by accident," Ogun told Nisher and surrounded him. Nisher heard "So this is Utopia?" him. "We were really trying to abolish war weird noises and saw flashing lights before The old man smiled. "You must judge for before it obliterated us. But to get rid of war. he blacked out. yourself. Perhaps. you would like to look we had to change the psychological base When he regained consciousness, around during your brief stay here." upon which it rests. Repressed sexuality someone was saying to him, "Don't worry, "Why brief?" was found to be the greatest single factor. it's al! right." Nisher opened his eyes and "These space-time anomalies are self- Once this was recognized and the informa- saw that he was no longer on Twenty-fifth regulating," the old man said. "The uni- tion widely disseminated, a universal Street. He was sitting on a bench in a beau- verse won't tolerate for long your 1 being plebiscite was held. It was agreed that tiful little park with trees and ponds and here, when you ought to be there. But it human sexual mores were to be modified promenades and strangely shaped usually takes a little while for the universe to and reprogrammed for the good of the en- there were catch up. Shall we go for a stroll? My name tire human race. Biological engineering statues and tame deer: and people strolling around wearing what is Ogun." and special clinics — all on a voluntary looked like Grecian tunics. Sitting beside basis, of course— took care of that. Di- him on the bench was a kindly white-haired They left the park and walked, down a vorced from aggression and possessive- old man dressed like Charlton Heston play- pleasant, tree-lined boulevard. The build- ness, sex today is a mixture of aesthetics ing Moses. ings were strange to Nisher's eye and and sociability."

"What is this?" Nisher asked. "What's seemed to contain too many strange an- Nisher was about to ask Ogun how that happened?" gles and discordant colors. They were set affected marriage and the family when he "Tell me," the old man said, "did you back from the street and bordered with noticed that Ogun was smiling at an attrac- her direc- happen to run into a reddish cloud re- well-kept green lawns. It looked to Nisher tive blonde and edging over in 26 tion. "Hey, Ogun!" Nisher said. "Don't leave "How do you feel now?" Miles asked. fair amount of evidence that space-time me now!" ."I'm tired and disappointed, and I've anomalies did exist. The old looked surprised: man "My dear come back to my senses, if that's what you Abruptly he decided to visit his patient fellow, I wasn't going to exclude Quite it. you. want to call Maybe it was all a hallucina- again. He left his apartment and went back the contrary, I want io include you. We all tion. That doesn't matter. What counts is to the hospital, hurrying now, impelled by a do." that I'm back and in my own day and age strange sense of.urgency Nisher saw that a lot of people had when we still have wars and energy crises There was no one at the reception desk stopped. were looking They at him. smiling. and sexual hang-ups. and nothing I can do on Wing 2. The policeman normally sta-

t "Now wait just a minute," he said, au- will change that." tioned in the corridor was missing. Miles tomatically taking up the cockroach pos- "You seem to have made a very rapid ran down the hall. Leonard's door was ture. aojustment," Miles said. open, and Miles peered in. But by then a woman had hold of his leg, "Hell, yes. No one ever accused Leonard Someone had folded Leonard's cot and and another was snuggling his of up under Nisher being a slow adjuster." leaned it against the wall. That left just -armpit, and somebody else was pinching "You sound good to me," Miles said. "But enough room on the floor for two aides (one his fingers. Nisher got a little hysterical and I would like you to stay here for a few days. a former guard for the Detroit Lions), a psy- shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing This is not a punishment, you understand. It chiatric nurse named Norma, two student this?" is genuinely meant as an assistance to nurses, a policeman, and a middle-aged "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our you." woman from Denver who had been visiting great pleasure at the novelty and poig- "Okay, Doc," Nisher said drowsily. "How a relative.

of It nancy your presence. happens long must I stay?" "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles. whenever a from the appears man past "Perhaps no more than a day or two. I'll "That guy musta hypnotized me," the among us, We feel so sorry for him and release you as soon as I'm satisfied with policeman said, struggling into his trou- what he has to go back to, we want to share your condition." sers. with him, share all the love we have. And so "Fair enough," Nisher mumbled. And "He preached a message of love." said this happens." then he fell asleep. Miles told the orderlies Ihe woman from Denver, wrapping herself Nisher felt as though he were in the mid- to stand by and alerted the psychiatric in Leonard's wet pack. dle of a Cinemascope mob scene set in nurse. Then he went to his nearby apart- "Where is he?" Miles shouted. ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The ment to get some rest. White curtains flapped at the open win- street was crowded with people as far as dow. Miles stared out into the darkness. the eye could see, and they were all making Nisher's story haunted Miles as he Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by it with one another and on top of one broiled a steak for his dinner. It couldn't be his brief vision of the future, he was sure to another and around and under and over true, of course. But suppose, just suppose, be preaching his message of love up and and in between, But what really got to it had actually happened. What if the future down the country. He could be anywhere. Nisher was the feeling that the crowd gave had achieved a state of polymorphous Miles thought. How on earth can i find him? off-. It went completely sex. It felt beyond perverse sexuality? There was, after' all, a How can I join him? DO like a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's face reced- ing in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does this thing go?" "Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted back. "This will probably go all the way," All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean — planetwide?" Ogun grinned, and then he was gone.

Nisher sawtheway it had to be— this group of people loving one another and pulling more and more people into it as the vibes got stronger and stronger until everybody in the world was in on it. To Nisher this was definitely Utopia. He knew he had to figure out some way of bringing this message back to his own time, some way to convince people. Then he looked up and saw that he was on Central Park South in front of the Plaza.

"I suppose the transition was just too much for you?" Miles asked. Nisher smiled. His eyelids were droop- ing. The Valium rush was passing, and he was coming down fast. "I guess ljustfreakedout,"Nishersaid."l

I it thought could explain to everyone. I

thought I could just grab people and make them give up their hang-ups, that I could show them how their bodies were shaped for love. But I went at it too hysterically, of course; I scared them. And then the cops grabbed me." ' -

Before he could qualify as a space pilot, Cadet Pirx had to prove his skills, his courage, and his luck THE TEST BYSTANISLAWLEM

Pirx!" slot machines. Oh, what if the lief. They weren't disappointed. tion textbook. Cadet Boerst!" CadetBullpen's harsh voice machine suddenly went hay- "Very good." Bullpen said in Pirx sat down at his desk as it snapped him out of his wire and coughed up so many a fatherly sort of way. "Then it were made of uncongealed daydreaming. He had coins into his waiting hands what would you do?" glass. He wasn't even sore at

just had visions of a thai he couldn't stuff his pock- "I would stop," Pirx blurted Smiga; that's the kind of guy he two-crown piece lying tucked ets fast enough? Well, why not? out, sensing that he was drifting was, always one to play a joke. vastly of away in the fob pocket of his It happened to Smiga, didn't off into realms that lay He didn't catch a word what old civvies, the ones stashed it? Pirx was already reeling beyond his competence. Furi- Boerst was saying; Boerst was at the bottom of his locker. A under the burden of his unex- ously he racked his empty trying to plot a graph while jingling, shiny silver coin — all pected windfall when Bullpen brains in search of the appro- Bullpen was up to his old trick of but forgotten. A while ago he roused him with a bang. priate paragraphs from his turning down the electronic could have sworn nothing was Folding his hands behind Space Manual, but it was as if computer, leaving the cadet to his there, an old mailing stub at his back and shifting his he had never laid eyes on it. get bogged down in compu- best, but the more he thought weight to his good leg, his in- Sheepishly he lowered his tations. School regulations the of a com- about it. the more persuaded structor asked, "Cadet Pirx, gaze, and as he did so, he permitted use Bullpen of a dif- he was that one might be whai would you do if you were noticed thai Smiga was trying puter, but was there, so that by the time Bull- on patrol and encountered a to prompt him— with his lips ferent mind. 'A computer is only pen called out his name he ship from an alien planet?" only One by one he deciphered human," he used to say, "It, too, can break down." Pirx wasn't was absolutely sure of it. The Pirx opened his mouth wide. Smiga's words and repeated sore at Bullpen, either. Fact is, coin was now sufficiently real as if the answer were there and them out loud, before he had a wasn't sore at anyone. that he could feel it bulging in all he had to do was to force if chance to digest them fully he his pocket, so round and sleek out. He looked like the last per- "I'd introduce myself." Hardly ever Five minutes later to the touch. There was his son on Earth who knew what to A howl went up from the he was standing in front of a ticket to the movies, he do when meeting up with a class. Bullpen struggled for a shop window on Dyerhoff thought, with half a crown to vessel from an alien planet. moment; then he, too, ex- Street, his attention caught by a display of pistols, for spare. If he settled for some "I woutd maneuver closer," ploded with laughter, only to gas good newsreel shorts, that would he answered, his voice muted assume a serious expression firing blanks or live ammo, a set leave a crown and a half, of and strangely hoarse. once again. consisting of one pistol and a which he'd squirrel away a The class froze in welcome" 'Cadet Pirx. you will report to hundred cartridges priced at crown and blow the rest on the anticipation of some comic re- me tomorrow with your naviga- six crowns. Needless to say, he

PAINTING BY DON MAITZ only imagined he was windc-.v -browsing on He was standing in his unpressuri2ed said of Pirx. Dyerhoff Street. suit on the metal catwalk, just under Ihe They walked the distance of the cat- with neither hand walk, threading their way between the gird- The bell rang and the class emptied, hut hangar ceiling, and. the ers, filing past the rockets parked next to without all that yelling and stampeding of free, was bracing himself against he one another in a row, before emerging in lower classmen. No, sir, these weren't kids cable railing with his elbow. In one hand other the the shaft of light that fell vertically through anymore! Half of the class meandered off held his navigation book, in the crib Smiga had lent him. The whole a two-hundred-meter sliding panel in the in the direction of ihe cafeteria because, sheet this. cone-shaped giants— some- although no meals were being served at school was alleged to have flown with ceiling. Two to.find its they always reminded Pirx of that time, there were other attractions to be pony, though how it managed how all the each measuring forty-eight me- had— a new waitress, for example (word way back every time was a mystery, giants— so since, after completing the flight ters in height and eleven meters in diame- had it she was a knockout). Pirx strolled more booster section, . first-stage stood leisurely past the glass cabinets where the test, the cadets were immedialely trans- ter, in the north, to the side side on an assembly of concrete stellar globes were stored, and with every ferred from the institute to the by step he saw his hopes of finding a two- base camp, where they began cramming exhaust deflectors. re- The hatch covers were open and the crown piece in the pocket of his civvies for their final exams, Still the fact back. gangways already in place for boarding. dwindle a little more. By the time he mained; If always came Some At aoout the midway point the gangways reached the bottom of the staircase, he claimed that it was parachuted down. Fa- blocked by a lead stand, planted realized thai the coin was just a figment of cetiously, of course. were little red pennon on a flexible staff. his imagination. So Pirx stood on the metal catwalk and with a procedure. Question: "Pilot, Hanging around the lobby were Boerst, waited for ihe CO to show up in the com- He knew the your mission?" Smiga, and Payartz. For a semester he pany of both instructors. What is keeping are you ready to carry out

Lift-off sched- Answer: "Yes. sir. I am"-and then, for the and Payartz had been deskmates in cos- them? he wondered. was it first time in his life, he would proceed to modesy, and he had Payartz to thank for uled for 1 940 hours, and was already heard footsteps ap- move aside the pennon. Suddenly he had all the inkblots in his star atlas. 1927. Suddenly he but in the a premonition; During the boarding cere- "You're up for a trial run tomorrow," proaching from the other end, rail- it took him a mony he saw himself tripping over the Boerst let drop just as Pirx was about to dark under the hangar ceiling

it nose dive all the way to , overtake them. while before he could make out who was. ing and taking a spiffy: As the bottom. Accidents like that happened. "No sweat," came his lackadaisical re- All three were looking very they And if such accidents happened to any- ply He was nobody's fool. was customary on such occasions, were bound to happen to Pirx. In "Don't believe me? Read for yourself," were decked out in full uniform — especial- one, they however, Pirx's fact, there were times when he was apt to Boerst said, tapping a finger on the glass ly the CO. Even uninflated, graceful as twenty think of himself as a born loser though his pane of Ihe bulletin board. space suit looked as together, not to instructors were of a different opinion. To Pirx had a mind to keep going, but his football uniforms stuck radiophone was just a moron and a bumbler, head involuntarily twisted around on its menfion the long intercom and them he dangling from either side of hi's whose mind was never on the right thing at axis. The list showed onlythree names— terminals neck-ring-disconnect, the respirator hose the right moment. and there It was, right at the top. as big as near his throat, and Out of the corner of his eye he noticed blazes: Cadet Pirx. bobbing up and down tightly Boerst had stationed himself in the For a second his mind was. a total blank. the reserve oxygen bottle strapped that from the Then he heard a distant voice, which to his back— so tightly that it pinched. prescribed place, a step away began to he was standing at at- turned out to be his own. Suddenly the whole catwalk gangway, and that undulate as someone came up from be- tention, his hands pressed flat against ihe "Like I said, no sweat." wearing the bladders of his space suit. Leaving them, he headed down a walk- hind. It was Boerst. He was rubber air of suit, and he" gave Pirx that wacky costume. looks tai way lined with flower beds. That year the same kind space On him : all, on it look's beds were planted with forget-me-nots, a stiff salute, mammoth glove and and tor-made, Pirx thought, and me if just soccer balls. How come artfullyarranged in Ihe pattern of a de- went on standing in this position as like a bunch of uninflated his own all scending rocket ship, with streaks of now- aching to knock Pirx overboard. Boerst's looked and faded buttercups suggesting the exhaust When the others had gone ahead. Pirx puffy in places? caught only snatches of what was flare. But right now Pirx was oblivious of asked, somewhat bewilderedly, "What're He ramrod-stiff, Boerst everything— the flower beds, the pathway, you doing here? Your name wasn't on the said to Boerst, and, off his answers so quickly that Pirx the forget-me-nots — and even of Bullpen, flight list," fired stand a chance. Then it was his turn, who at that very instant was hurriedly "Brendan got sick. I'm taking his place." didn't started addressing ducking out of the institute by a side en- Pirx was momentarily flustered. This was No sooner had the CO suddenly remembered some- trance, and whom Pirx narrowly missed the one area— the one and only area — in him than he be three of bumping into on his way out. Pirx saluted which he was able to climb just a millime- thing: There ware supposed to Ihe third? Luckily as they stood cheek to jowl. ter higher, to those empyreal realms that them flying. Where was effortlessly. for him, he caught the CO's last words and "Oh, it's you, Pirx." said Bullpen, "You're Boerst seemed to inhabit so just in the nick of flying tomorrow, aren't you? Well, have a Not only was Boerst the brightest in the managed to blurt out, good takeoff. Maybe you'll be lucky program, for which Pirx could fairly easily time. "Cadet Pirx, ready for lift-off."

forgive him could even muster some "Hm ... I see," said the CO. "And do you . those he enough to . . . er . . meet up with — physically people from alien planets." respect for the man's mathematical declare that you are fit. bolh

. , . . . within limits Once inside his room-it was too genius, ever since the time he had and mentally . ahem the your capabilities?" cramped to serve as anything but a sin- watched Boerst take on the computer, fal- of - The was fond of lacing routine ques- gle—he debated whether he should open tering only when it came to roots of the CO flourishes- something he ' the locker. He knew exactly where his old fourth power— and not only were his par- tions with such pants were stashed. He had held onto ents sufficiently well-heeled that he didn't could allow himself as the CO. Pirx declared that he was fit. them, despite the fact thai it was against have to bother dreaming about two-crown

I aes'gna:e you as pilot for the rules — or maybe because of that — pieces lying tucked away in the pocket of "Then hereby said, re- and even though he had hardly any use for his civvies, but he was also a top scorer in the duralion of the flight." the CO them now. Closing his eyes, he crouched gymnastics, a crackerjack of a jumper, a peating the sacred formula, and he went down, stuck his hand through the crack in terrific dancer, and', like it or not. he was half booster the door, and gave the pocket a probing handsome to boot. Very handsome in "Mission: vertical launch at not exactly power. Ascent to ellipsis B-sixty-eight. Cor- pat. Sure enough, it was empty. fact— something that could be reciion to slable orbital path, with orbital aft, and on one side), computer displays, overhead, and the thunderous roar grew period of four hours and twenty-six min- and astrograph, as well as that holy of fainter, more like a distant thunderstorm, utes. Proceed to rendezvous with shuttle- holies, the traiectometer. before giving way to a dead silence. craft vehicles of the JO-two type. Probable Once in the proper reclining position, he Then a hissing and a humming, but so zone of radar contact: sector three, satellite trouble had bending over at the waist to sudden he had hardly any time to panic. PAL, with possible deviation of six arc sec- attach all the loose cables, hoses, and The automatic sequencer had activated onds. Establish radio contact for the pur- wires— the ones dangling from his suit— to the previously dormant screens, which pose of maneuver coordination. The ma- the terminals sticking out of the seat. Every were always disconnected by remote neuver: escape orbit ai sixty degrees twen- time he leaned forward, his suit would control to protect the camera lenses from ty-four minutes north latitude, one hundred bunch up in the middle, pinching him. so being damaged by the blinding atomic fifteen degrees three minutes eleven sec- that it was no wonder he confused the radio blast of a nearby launch. onds east longitude. Initial acceleration: cable and the heating cable. Luckily, each These automatic controls sure come in two-point-two-g. Terminal acceleration: threaded was differently, but he had to handy, thought Pirx. He was still miles zero. Without losing radio contact, escort break out in a terrific sweat before discover- away in his thoughts when his hair sud- both ships JO-two in trifonnation to moon, ing his mistake. As the compressed air in- denly stood on end underneath his commence lunar insertion for temporary stantly inflated his suit with a whishing dome-shaped helmet. equatorial orbit per ver- noise, as LUNA PELENG, he leaned back with a sigh and My Gawd, I'm next. Now it's my turn! ify orbital injection of 'both piloted ships, began to fasten his thigh and shoulder suddenly flashed through his mind. then escape orbit at acceleration and straps, using both hands. "Pilot Pirx aboard AMU-twenty-seven!" course of your own discretion, and return to The right strap snapped into place, but The voice booming into his ear roused him stationary orbit in the radius of satellite PAL. the left one was more defiant. Because of from his predicament. "Lift-off on automat- There await further instructions." the balloon-sized neck dam. he had trou- ic countdown of zero! Attention, are you "Pilot Pirx, are you ready for blast-off?" ble turning around. So he had to fumble ready, pilot?" "Ready!" Pirx replied. Right now he was around blindly for the large snap hook, Just Not yet! he felt like yelling; instead he conscious of only one desire: to be in the said, "Pilot Boer- Pilot Pirx aboard AMU- control cabin. He dreamed of the moment for , . . . . twenty-seven and ready . uh lift- when he could unzip his space suit, or at off on-automatic countdown of zero." least the neck ring. He had been on the verge of saying, The back. CO stepped "Pilot Boerst," because he still had "Board 6 He was standing your rocket!" he bellowed in a Boerst's words fresh in his memory. "You magnificent voice a voice that — rose in his unpressuhzed suit on nut." he said to himself in the ensuing si- above the muffled roar of the cavernous — the metal catwaik. lence. Then the automatic countdown hangar like a cathedral bell. why did these recorded voices always Pirx did an about-face, grabbed the red in one hand he held his have to sound like an NCO?- barked. pennon, bumped against the railing, but ." navigation book, "Minus. sixteen, fifteen, fourteen . . regained his balance in" the nick of time, Pirx broke out in a cold sweat. There in the other the crib sheet. and marched down the narrow gangway was something he was forgetting — some- like a zombie. across He was not . halfway . . The whole school thing terribly important, a matter of life and when Boerst, looking tor all the world like a death. had flown with this pony. 5 ." soccer ball from the back, had already ". .. six, five, four . . boarded his rocket ship. His sweaty fingers squeezed the hand-

Pirx stuGk his legs inside, braced him- grip. Luckily, it had a rough finish. Does self against the metal housing, scooted everyone work up such a sweat? he won- down the flexible — it —chute without touching dered. Probably crossed his mind just the ladder rungs "Rungs are only for the then he heard muffled voices coming over before the earphones snarled, "Zero!" goners." was one of Bullpen's pet say- his earphones: "Pilot Boerst aboard His left hand instinctively pulled back on AMU-eighteenl Lift-off ings— and proceeded to button up the on automatic count- the lever until it reached the halfway mark. cabin. down of zero. Attention, are you ready?" There was a terrific blast, and his chest The interior lights automatically went on "Pilot Boerst aboard AMU-eighteen and and skull were flattened by some resilient, the moment he closed the outside hatch. ready for lift-off on automatic countdown of rubberlike press. The booster! was his last After sealing- off the cabin, he climbed a- zero!" the cadet fired back. thought before his eyesight began to dim. small flight of steps padded with a rough Damn that hook, anyhow! At last it But only a little, and then not for long. but pliant material, before reaching the clicked into place, and Pirx sank back into Gradually his vision improved, though the the soft pilot's seat. contour couch, as bushed as if he'd unrelenting pressure had spread to the Now why in hell's name do they have to just returned from a deep-space probe. rest of his body. Before long he could squeeze the pilot into a glass blister three' "Minus twenty-three, twenty-two, make out all the video screens — at least -" meters in diameter when these one-man twen The count rambled on in his ear- the three opposite him— now inundated rockets are cramped enough as it is? Pirx phones with a steady patter. with a torrent of milk gushing from a million wondered. The blister, though transparent, "Zero!" a voice blared in his earphones. overturned cans not of glass, of All at Pirx was made course, but of once heard a muffled but pro- / must be breaking through the clouds. some Plexiglas material having roughly longed rumble, his contour couch shook. he thought. the same texture and resilience as ex- and flickers of light snaked across the He was just starting to make himself tremely hard rubber. The pilot's encapsu- glass canopy, under which he lay staring comfortable, pressing the armrest to raise . lated contour couch was situated in the up at the ceiling panel, taking readings: the seat in back, when he suddenly went very center of the control room proper. astrograph. air-cooling gauges, main- numb all over, Thanks to the cabin's cone-shaped de- stage thru'sters, sustaining and vernier The crib! Where's the crib sheet? sign, the pilot, by sitting in his "dentist's jets, neutron flux density iso'.opic-ccita- This was that awfully important detail he chair"— as it was called in space pilot's ination gauge, not to speak of the eighteen couldn't remember at the time. He parlance— and rotating on its vertical axis, other instruments designed almost exclu- scoured the deck with his eyes, now totally was able to monitorthe entire instrument sively to monitor the booster's perfor- oblivious of the swarm of pulsating panel through the walls of the blister, with mance. The vibrations then began to gauges. The crib sheet had slipped down all its dials, video screens (located fore. slacken, the sheet of racket tapered off under the contour couch. He tried to bend . .

over, but he was held back by his torso engine prop plane. Mounted on the com- message: "JO-two Terraluna. JO-two Ter- straps; without a moment to lose, with a puter's upper frame was a backup micro- raluna, calling AMU -twenty-seven, AMU- twenty-seven. Over." sinking sensation as if perched on top of phone, which gave a pilot access to the Pirx mused, some collapsing tower, he flipped open his computer outside the encapsulated seat in / wonder who he's calling, navigation book — which until now had the event his on-board phone was discon- and he nearly jumped out of his straps. been stored in his thigh pocket— and nected and he found himself without a AMU. he wanted to say, but not a sound throat. His yanked the flight plan from the envelope. A laryngophone. One of the many backup could he emit from, his hoarse mental blackout. Where the hefi is orbi! systems aboard the ship. earphones were buzzing. The fly. He closed B-sixty'-eight, anyway? That must be it Bzzzzz ... He winced; the fly was crawl- his eyes. there! He checked the trajectory and went ing around on the computer in the vicinity 'AMU-twenty-seven to JO-two Terraluna, position quadrant four, sector PAL, am turn- into a roll. Much to his surprise, it worked. of the mike. Then nothing, dead silence, as navigation lights. Over," Being strapped to his seat, except tor a it stopped to preen its wings. You lousy ing on feeling of weightlessness, he hardly bastard! He switched on his navigation lights- noticed the loss of gravitation. The forward Then a fain! but steady bleeping came two red ones at the side, two green ones on screen was blanketed with stars, with a over his earphones: dot-dot-dot— dash — the nose, a blue one aft — and waited . Not a brilliant white border skirting (he very bot- dot-dot — dash-dash — dot-dot- dot — sound except for those made by the fly. tom, The lateral screens showed nothing dash. "JO-two ditto Terraluna, JO-two Terra- ." hum-hum . . but a star-studded black void. But the deck Okay, Pirx, now keep your eyes peeled! luna, calling . . Buzz-buzz, screen— ah! Earth was. now so immense he told himself. He raised the couch a lit- Does he mean me? to JO-two ditto Ter- that it took up the whole screen, and he tle, as if to take in all three video screens at 'AMU-twenty-seven four; perimeter feasted his eyes on it as he flew over at an once, checked the sweeping phos- raluna, position quadrant altitude of seven hundred kilometers at phorescent radar beam, and waited. sector PAL. all navigation lights on. Over," perigee and twenty-four hundred kilome- Though nothing showed on the radar When both JO ships started transmitting ters at apogee. Hey. isn't that Greenland screen, he distinctly heard a voice calling: at the same time, Pirx switched on the se- down there? But before he could verify "A-seven Terraluna. A-seven Terraluna, quence selector, but there was too much of what it was, he was already sailing over sector three, course one hundred thirteen, interference. The buzzing fly, course. northern Canada. The North Pole was PAL PELENG calling. -Request a reading. /'// hang myself! It never occurred to him capped with iridescent snow, the ocean Over." that such a remedy was out of the question weightlessness. stood. out round and smooth — violet-black, Oh, crap, how am I ever going to hear my because of the effects of like cast iron— there were strangely few two JOs now? Just then he sighted both ships on the clouds, and what few there were looked like The buzzing in his earphones suddenly radar screen. They were following him on gobs of watery mush splattered on top of stopped. A second later a shadow fell parallel courses, spaced no more than nine

Earth's highest points of elevation. across his face, from above, much as if a kilometers apart, which was prohibited;

He glanced at the clock. He had been bat had landed on an overhanging lamp. It being in the pilot ship, it was up to him to spaceborne for exactly seventeen min- was the fly, which was now crawling across make them adhere to the prescribed dis- utes. the blister and exploring its interior, The tance of-fourteen kilometers. Just as he blips It was time to pick up PAL's radio signal, blips were coming with greater frequency was checking the location of the on to start monitoring the radar screens as he now, and it wasn't long before he sighted the radar screen, his old friend the fly passed through the satellite's contact the eighty-meter- long aluminum cylinder, landed on one of them. In a fit of anger he zone. Now, what were their names again? mounted with an observation spheroid, as threw his navigation book at it, but the book deflected by the blister's Plexiglas RO? No— JO. And let's see, their numbers it flew over him at a distance of roughly was down, it were ... He glanced down at the flight four hundred meters, possibly more, and wall; instead of sliding bumped ' ceiling, where, because of the plan, stuck it back into his pocket along gradually overtook him. against the aimlessly about in with the navigation book, and turned up "PAL PELENG to A-seven "Terraluna, zero gravity, it fluttered unruffled, the fly strolled the intercom on his chest. At first there was one-hundred-eighty-point-fourteen, one- space. Seemingly the screen. just a lot .of screeching and crackling — hundred-six-point-six. Increasing linear merrily on its way across cosmic interference. What system was deviation. Out." "AMU-twenty-seven Terraluna to JO-two are PAL using? Oh, yeah — Morse code, He lis- "Albatross-four Aresterra, calling PAL ditto JO-two. I have you in range, You tened closely, his eyes glued to the video Central, PAL Central. Am coming down for hard aboard. Switch over to parallel course screens, and watched as Earth slowly re- refueling, sector two. Am coming down for with a correction of oh-point-oh-one. Stand volved beneath him and stars scudded refueling, sector two, Running on reserve by on completion of maneuver Out." by-butnoPAL supply. Over." Gradually the distance between the Then he heard a buzzing noise. 'A-seven Terraluna, calling PAL PELENG blips began to widen, all communication Could that be it? he wondered, but im- being temporarily interrupted by the fly as it mediately he rejected the idea. You're The rest was lost in the buzzing. Then si- embarked on a noisy little promenade crazy Satellites don't buzz. But what else lence. around the computer's microphone. Pirx things to throw; the flight could it be? Nothing, that's what. Or was it "Central to Albatross-four Aresterra, re- had run out of something else? fuel quadrant seven. Omega Central, re- book was still hovering overhead, lithely A critical malfunction? fuel quadrant seven. Out." flapping its pages, to AMU-twenty-seven Ter- Then he spotted it. They would pick out this spot to rendez- "PAL Central outer quadrant, abandon It was a giant of a fly, one of those ugly, vous, thought Pirx, who was now swim- raluna. Abandon greenish-black brutes specially designed ming in his sweat-absorbent underwear, outer quadrant, am assuming transsolar Over." to make life miserable — a pestering. This way I won't hear a thing course. things Pirx pesky, idiotic, and by the same token The fly was describing frenetic circles on He would try to screw up!

if turned. What the hell do I care shrewd and cunning fly, which had miracu- the computer's console, as hell-bent on mentally lously—and how else?— stowed away in catching up with its own shadow. about the transsolar? Anyone knows that lor ion the ship's control cabin and was now zoom- 'Albatross-four Aresterra. Albatross -four' spaceships flying in group mat have in reply, and in ing about in the space outside the blister, Aresterra to PAL Central, approaching priority. He began shouting his occasionally ricocheting off the illuminated quadrant seven. Request radio guidance." this shouting of his there was vented all the fly. instrument gauges like a buzzing pellet. The radio static grow ?:oaoily fainter until impotent fury, caused by "AMU-twenty-seven Terraluna to PAL Whenever it took a pass at the computer, it was drowned out by the buzzing. But not following Central. Negative, am not abandoning it came over his earphones like a four- before he managed to catch the 32 .

outer quadrant, to heft with your transsolar. mating flies. They were not the least bit graphic exercises in the Tycho Crater am flying in triformatiflgn. AMU-twenly- fazed by the acceleration; on the contrary, Boerst, with the help of a portable theodo- seven, JO-two ditto JO-two, squadron they looked to be in seventh heaven. . . it, lite . Damn what a pro that guy was! ieader AMU-twenty-sevenTerraluna. Out." He verified the position of the two ships Pirx kept an eye out for Luna Control on the / didn't have to say, 'To hell with your again thought and of Boerst, picturing to outer slope of Archimedes. It was camou- transsolar," he thought. That'll cost me a himself how very much the movie star he flaged so well among the rocks that it was few points for sure. Oh, they can all damn must have looked. What a jaw that guy had! almost invisible from high altitude, all ex- well go to hell! I'll probably get docked for Not to mention that perfectly straight nose, cept for the smooth surface of the landing the fly, too. those steely gray eyes . . . You can bet he strip with its approach lights— when in the It could only have.happened to him. A fly! didn't rely have to on any crib sheet! But night zone, that is, and not, as presently,

Wow, big deal! He could just see Smiga to think of it, come so far neither I . . have when it was illuminated by the sun. At the and Boerst bursting a gut when they got He adjusted the automatic reducer to moment the base was straddling the cra-

wind of that crazy-assed It fly was the first achieve a zero acceleration after eighty- ter's shadow line, the contrast with the time since lift-off that he caught himself three minutes, as instructed, and then saw blinding lunar surface being so intense that thinking of Boerst. But right now didn't something that turned he his sweat-absorbent it overpowered the weaker approach lights. have a moment to lose, because PAL was underwear to ice. That's funny — I don't hear any more dropping farther and farther behind. They Above the dashboard a white panel had buzzing. He glanced sideways and had been flying in formation for a good five come undamped. Not only that, but it was flinched. minutes. starting to work its way down, a millimeter at One of the flies was sitting and cleaning "AMU-twenty-seven to JO-two ditto a time. It had probably been loose to begin its wings on the exposed side of the panel, JO-two Terraluna. It is now twenty hours with, he reasoned, and all the vibrating dur- while the other fly was busy courting it. A seven minutes, Insertion parabolic orbit ing the recent yaw maneuvers — Pirx's few millimeters away, its copper terminal "Vraluna to commence at twenty hours ten handling of the ship hadn't exactly been gleaming below the spot where the insula- m.nutes. ." Course . . one hundred eleven gentle — had loosened the pressure tion ended, was the nearest cable. All four And he read off the course data from the cables were exposed, about as thick in '.ight sheet, which, by a feat of acrobatics, diameter as a pencil, and all in the one- he was able to retrieve from overhead. The thousand-volt range, with a contact clear- two JO ships radioed their reply. PAL | ance of seven millimeters. It was just by dropped out of sight, but he could still hear accident that he knew it was seven. iPirx stuck his Once, it signaling ever so faintly. Or was that the fly as an exercise, they had torn down the he hearing? was legs inside, braced himself entire circuitry system, and when Pirx For a moment the fly seemed multiply, to against the metal couldn't come up with the exact clearance, in different to be two places at once. Pirx his instructor had read him off the riot act. rubbed his housing, scooted down the eyes. It was just as he sus- In the meantime, the one fly took time off pected: There not but was one, two of them. flexible chute from its wooing and started venturing out Where did the second one come from? without so along the live terminal. A harmless enough Wow I'm really a goner, he reflected with much as touching thing to do— unless, of course, it suddenly absolute calm, without sign . a of any emo- the . . rungs. got an urge to hop over to the next one, and, tion. He even felt relieved somehow, know- judging by the way it sat there, humming, . at "Rungs are . , for goners.? ing that it longer mattered. no Either way he the very end of the terminal, that's precisely was sunk. His thoughts were diverted by a what it intended to do. As if it didn't have glance at the clock: It was 2010 hours, the room enough in the cabin! Now, Pirx time he himself had scheduled for the ma- thought, what would happen if it put its front neuver, and he had yet to even place his feet on the one wire and kept its hind feet hands on the controls. clamps even more. With the acceleration on the other? Well, so what if it did! In the The daily grind of training exercises must still running at one-point-seyen-g, the worst case it might cause a short circuit, have taken its toll because its without a mo- panel kept inching way down as if it were But then— a fly! Would a fly be big enough ment's hesitation he grabbed both control being pulled by an invisible thread. Finally to do that? But even if it were, nothing much

sticks, pressed first it the left one and then sprang loose altogether slid down the could happen; there- would be a momen- the right, and all the time kept his eye on the outer side of the Plexiglas wall, and settled tary blowout, the circuit breaker would trajecto meter. The engine with motionlessly responded a on the deck, exposing a set of switch oftthe current, the fly would be elec- hollow roar until it gradually tapered off four to a gleaming copper high-voltage wires trocuted, and the power would be re- whisper. Ouchi Something landed on his and fuses at the back. stored—and goodbye fly! As if in a trance, forehead, just under his visor, and re- Why all the panic? he thought. An electri- he kept his eyes fixed on the high-tension

mained stationary. navigation It cal panel The book! has come loose. So, big deal! A box, secretly cherishing the hope that the was blocking his vision, but he couldn't ship can get along without a panel, can't it? fly would think better of it. A short circuit brush it aside without his There still removing hands were twenty-seven minutes of was nothing serious, a minor foul-up. but from the controls. His earphones were alive accelerated flight to go when it hit him that who knows what else might happen . . .7 and astir as the two flies went about pursu- once the engines were shut down, the Only eight more minutes of gradual de- ing their love life on the computer. If only I panel would become weightless. it Could celeration until touchdown. He was still had a gun on me, he thought, feeling the do any damage? he wondered. staring at the dial when there was a flash. navigation book start to flatten his nose with What were the flies up to? He followed Then the lights went out. It was a momen- the increase in acceleration. In desperation them with his gaze as they zoomed and tary blackout, lasting no more than a frac- he began tossing his head around like a buzzed and circled and chased each other tion of a second. The fly! he thought, and he madman; he had to be able to see the around the outside of the blister before waited with bated breath for the circuit trajectometer, for crying out loud! Suddenly landing the of on back the fuse panel. breaker to flip the power back on. It did. the book crashed to the floor with a That's when he lost track of them. The lights stayed on for a while— dimmer bang and small wonder: — At four-g it must He took a reading of the' two JO ships on and more orange-brown than white— have weighed nearly three kilos. the He im- radarscope: Both were on course. The before the fuse blew a second time. A total mediately decelerated to the level required face of the moon now loomed so large on blackout. Then the power came on again. by the maneuver at two-g and he put the the front screen that it took half of it. Off up He again. On again. And so it went, back levers on hold. He threw a glance at recalled the how during a series of seleno- and.forth, with the lights burning at only half 33 . .

tore his arm out of its their normal amperage. What was wrong? ance. Pirx jumped behind the contour lever and almost to cry. It During the brief but regular intervals oi light couch. socket, now so frantic he wanted he managed, with considerable squinting The master switch was housed in a cas- was all so dumb . . . Where was the key? and straining of the eyes, to pinpoint the sette inserted in the floor. The cassette And why the malfunction in the emergency trouble: The insect was trapped between turned out to be locked. Natch! He tried lever? The altimeter. With one sweeping key. two of the wires, a charred sliver of a corpse yanking on the lid; it wouldn't give, The glance, he read off the displays: ninety-five that continued to act as a conductor. Where was the key? hundred kilometers. The saw-toothed ridge forcing the lid the Only four minutes left until engine cutoff. There was no key. He tried of Timocharis now stood out against Well, that was one load off his mind— the again. No luck. luminous background in sharp relief. He reducer was programmed to shut the en- He sprang to his feet and stared blindly even had visions of where his ship was gine down automatically. Suddenly an icy into the forward screen, where, its surface about to drill a hole in the pumice-covered snow-white, explosion, chill ran down his spine. How could the kill no longer silver but an alpine rock. A loud crash, a blinding gigantic Craters there now loomed a moon. . . switch work if the circuit was shorted? and -For a second he couldn't recollect came into view, their long, serrated shad- During a brief interval of light, his franti- whether they operated on the same circuit, ows creeping stealthily along the surface. cally shifting gaze fell on the set of four whether these were the main fuses for the He could hear the radar altimeter clicking copper wires. The little black speck span- rocket's entire power supply. Of course, steadily away. How long has it been operat- ning the cables— all that was left of the they had to be. But what about the reactor? ing? he wondered. Little green digits incinerated fly— was clearly discernible, Surely the reactor must have had its own flashed in the dark, and he read off his even from a distance. Sticking out his neck altitude: goalie about to power network . . present twenty-one thousand and shoulder like a soccer The reactor, yes, but not the automatic kilometers. make a flying save, Pirx lunged forward ship was now flying a perfectly almost switch. He knew because he had set it The with all his weight. He was knocked gaining velocity the re- himself. Okay, so now all he had to do was straight course, as unconscious by the force of the collision. point-two-g blister's Plexiglas wall to shut off the power. Or maybe he should sidual acceleration reached He bounced off the the gravitational pull grew crumpled to just sit back and give it a chance to work on and moon's like an inflated inner tube and to do! its own. stronger. What to do? What He the floor. The outer shell did not so much as The engineers had thought of every- rushed back to the cassette and kicked it. jiggle. Struggling to his feet, panting, with a thing—everything except what to do when The metal casing refused to budge. bleeding mouth, he got ready to make

everything! Gawd, how could I at the Plexiglas wall. a fly gets into your cabin, a fuse panel Hold My another flying lunge comes undamped, and you wind up with have been so stupid! All he had to do was That's when he happened to glance such a screwy short circuit! to find a way to reach the other side of the down. Meanwhile the lights kept shorting out. blister. And there was a way! Near the exit, The manual override. Designed to give Something had to be done about it. Bui at the point where the blister narrowed tun- rapid, full-thrust acceleration in the ten-g what? nellike !o form a funnel ending with the air range. Operated by direct mechanical con- Simple. All' he had to do was to flip the lock, there was a special lever painted a trol and capable of providing an emergen- master switch, located in the floor behind bright enamel red, beneath a plate that cy thrust lasting less than a second. his seat. That would shut off all the main read for control systems emergency only But the greater the rate of acceleration, power circuits and trip the emergency sys- One switch of the lever was all that was he suddenly realized, the faster his de- lem. Then all his worries would be over needed to raise the glass cocoon a meter scent to the lunar surface. Or would it be?

enough clear- it Hmm, he thought, not bad the way these off the ground, leaving just No. it would do just the opposite; would buckets are rigged. ance underneath. Once on the other side, have a braking effect. But wouldn't the He wondered whether Boerst would have all he had to do was to clear the lines, and reaction.be too short to act as a brake? The for been as quick on his feet, Probably, if not with a piece of insulation ... braking had to be continuous. So much leftl He was at the handle in less than no time. the override. Or was it? quicker . . . Yikes, only two minutes Not enough time for the maneuver! He sat up. You moron! he thought, and he grabbed He made a dive for the control stick, until his for He had clean forgotten about the others. the metal handle and yanked grabbing it on his way down, and pulled "AMU-lwenty-seven squadron leader shoulder joint cracked. The lever, its metal all he was worth. Without the contour couch Terraluna, calling JO-two ditto JO-two. Re- rod glistening with oil, was fully extended, to cushion his impact, he could have sworn porting short circuit in control room. Will be but the blister hadn't wiggled an inch. In all his bones had been fractured when he necessary for me to postpone lunar-inser- stunned bewilderment, he stood staring at hit the deck. Another pull on the stick, tion maneuver tor iemporary equatorial the glass bubble, at the video screens another powerful lurch. This time he landed

with moonlight, at the blinking light his if it hadn't been for his . ablaze head, . . and . . exe- on orbit . uh indefinitely. Proceed to liner, his skull would cute maneuver at previously designated overhead , . , He jerked on the lever again, helmet's foam-rubber

time, Over," even though it was out as far as it would go. have been shattered. "JO-two ditto to squadron leader Ter- Nothing. The fuse panel started sizzling, the blink- soft raluna. Will commence joint lunar-insertion The key! The key to the cassette! He fell ing suddenly stopped, and a and maneuver for temporary equatorial orbit. flat on the floor and searched under the steady electric light lit up the interior of the You are nineteen minutes away from lunar seat. There was nothing to be seen except cabin. landing. Good luck. Good luck. Out." the crib sheet. The two bursts of acceleration, tired in control, Pirx hardly heard a word because in the The lights blinked: the circuit breaker quick succession by manual had meantime he had disconnected the radio- switched. Now when the lights dimmed, been enough to dislodge the tiny sliver of phone cable, the air hose, and another the moonlight cast everything in "a stark, carbon from between the wires, thus small cable (his straps were already un- skeleton-bone white. eliminating the short circuit once and for all. fire the salty taste of blood in his mouth, done). No sooner had he made it to his feet It's alt over, he thought. Should he the With for the couch, but, lhan the kill switch flashed a ruby-red. The ejection rocket and bail out in the encapsu- Pirx made a diving leap

in it, he sailed high up cabin sprang briefly out of the dark, only to lated seat? No. it wouldn't work; without any instead of landing be plunged back into an orange-brown atmospheric drag, the parachute wouldn't over the back and rammed his head into blur. The engine cutoff had failed. The red brake. Help! he wanted* to yell, but there the ceiling, the blow softened only some- signal light kept staring at him from out of was no one to whom he could call in dis- what by his helmet. into the the dark, imploringly. A buzzer sounded: tress. He was all alone. What to do? There Just as he was getting set to leap kill switch off the the warning signal. The automatic reducer just had to be a way out! air, the now-activated cut dis- was inoperative. Fighting to keep his bal- He scrambled back to the emergency rocket, and the last trace of gravitation . .

appeared. Propelled by its own momen- close he had shaved it. The altimeter must He made an attempt to get up, was re- tum, the spacecraft was falling straight to- have recorded the exact amount of clear- strained by the straps, and fell back ward the rocky ruins of Timocharis. ance, but somehow he was in no mood to against the seat, convinced that he was The altimeter showed eighteen hundred take a readout. Suddenly the alarm signal hallucinating. Out of nowhere the CO sud- kilometers to lunar surface. Would he be stopped. My Gawd, it has been on the denly appeared in the passage separating able to brake in time? Impossible — not at a whole time! A big help that was.' Why not the glass shell from the rest of the cabin. He velocity of forty-five kilometers per second. hang a church belt from the ceiling? If stood before him in his gray uniform, fixed He would have to pull out of the nose dive you're headed for the cemetery, then at him with his gentle gray eyes, and smiled. by describing a steep turn. There was no least let a guy go out in style!. There was Pirx was altogether confused. other way. another buzzing noise, this time very faint. The moment the glass bubble went up. Firing his pitch rockets, he accelerated The other fly! It was alive, the bastard! Alive Pirx automatically started undoing his to two, three, four gs. Not enough! Nol and buzzing the blister's ceiling. Suddenly straps, then rose to his feet The video nearly enough! he had an awful taste in his mouth, a taste screens behind the CO went blank. As applied full thrust for the pullout he . . similar to that of coarse canvas . The 'A good performance. Pirx." the CO said. recovery, the lunar surface, shimmering safety belt. He had been munching on it "Quife good." quicksilverlike on the video screen, so and absentmindedly the whole time. Pirx was still dumbfounded. Then, as he like a permanent fixture until now, began to He fastened the safety belt and grabbed was standing at attention in front of the CO, quiver and slowly subside, his contour hold of the controls; he still had to steer the he did something that was strictly against couch squeaking under the increasing ship back onto the assigned orbit. The two the rules: He tufned'his head around, twist- pressure of his body. The ship-was going ships in sight, JO were nowhere which ing it as far as his partially inflated neck info directly sur- a steep arc over the lunar came as no surprise. Even so, he had to dam would lei him. face—an arc with a radius large enough to complete the mission and report to Luna To his amazement, the entire access compensate for the tremendous velocity. Navigation. Or should he report first to Luna tunnel had been dismantled, hatchway The control stick was pushed to the limit. Control — because of the malfunction? and all, making it look as if the rocket ship Pressed against the spongy backrest, with had broken In half. In the evening light he his space suit not connected to the air made out the catwalk, where a group of compressor, he could feel the air being people were now standing - the cable rail- squeezed out of his lungs and his ribs ings, the ceiling girders . . . Pirx stared at being bent inward. He began seeing gray the CO with a gaping mouth. mThe fly . . . embarked spots and waited for the blackout, his eyes "Come along, son." said the CO. who

riveted to the radar altimeter, which kept on a , , , promenade around the reached out and shook Pirx's hand firmly. grinding out one set of digits after another: computer's micro- "On behalf of Flight Command. I commend

nine . . . . hundred ninety nine hundred . you and . . . offer you my personal apology. phone. Pirx had run out of eighi hundred forty . . . seven hundred sixty Yes, it's . . . only right. Now come along. You things to throw; can clean up at my place." His eyesight began to dim-the five gs The CO started for the exit, with Pirx trail- the flight book was still were beginning to exact their toll— but he ing his footsteps, still a little stiff and wobbly remained conscious. lay there, partially He hovering overhead, on his feet, it was chilly outside. A breeze r blind, his finge s t-cjhtiy gripping the con- was blowing lithely flapping its pages. 9 through the sliding panel in trols, and felt the seat's foam-rubber cush- the ceiling. Both ships were parked in the ion give way under the g force. Somehow exact same place as before. Attached to he couldn't quite bring himself to believe the nose of each were several long and that he was clone for. Unable to his move thick cables, droopingly suspended in lips, he started counting mentally in the space. They had not been there before. dark: slowly deliberately: Twenty-one and Damned if he knew. Or maybe he should His instructor, who was among those

. . . Iwenty-lwa . . . twenty-three . . . twenty- just keep quiet. No way! The moment he waiting on the catwalk, made a remark, .'. four . touched down, they would spot the which Pirx had trouble hearing through his At the counl of fifty it crossed his mind blood— which, as he now noticed for the helmet.

that if there it were to be an impact," would first time, was splattered all over the ceiling. "What?" he instinctively blurted out, have to be now. Even so. he kept his hands Besides, the on-board flight recorderwould "The air! Let the air out of your suit!"

the It on controls. was starting to get to him have the whole story on tape— the way the "Oh, the air ..." now the suffocating — sensation in the circuit breaker went berserk, the malfunc- He pressed the valve, and the air made a chest, the ringing in the ears, a throat all tion in the . . . emergency lever Boy, a swell hissing sound as it was released, From clogged with blood, the reddish-black in piece of machinery these sports give us! where he stood on the catwalk, he could the eyes. He'd reached his physical limits. They might as well send us up in a coffin! make out the two men in white smocks His fingers relaxed their grip, and the Okay, so he'd report it. But where? Then waiting behind the railing. His rocke! ship control stick slid back of its own. He saw he had a brainstorm. He leaned forward, looked as if it had a fractured beak. At first nothing, heard nothing, By degrees the loosened his shoulder strap, and groped he felt only a strange apathy which turned darkness began to lift and turned grayer, under the seat for the crib sheet. Why the to amazement, then disillusionment, and and breathing easier. became He Iried hell not? Now's when it could really come in finally anger— pure and unmitigated anger. opening his eyes, only to discover that they handy. They were opening the hatch of the other had been open the whole lime -his eyelids At that instant he heard something creak ship. The CO was standing on the catwalk, were completely dried out. behind him, as if a door were being listening to something the men in white, sat up. He opened. shocks were telling him. The gravimeter showed two gs; on the A door? Behind him? He knew perfectly A faint banging noise could be heard forward screen, nothing but siar-embel- well there was no door behind him. But coming from inside. lished blackness. of Not a sign the moon. even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have Then, from out of the cabin staggered a What had happened to it? turned around because of the straps. A writhing hulk of a man in a brown uniform, It there, all was right— below him. He'had streak of light fell across the screens, wip- his helmetless head bobbing around like a pulled out of his deadly nose dive and was ing out the stars still visible on them, and blurry blotch, his face contorted in a mute now cruising up and away with a diminish- next thing the he heard was the CO's soft shriek . . ing escape velocity. He wondered how and subdued voice: "Cadet Pirx." Pirx's knees buckled. DO 35 Strange experiences among the alien races of Magellan's Cloud TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE

s what? Caroline and I just won a tour of the universe! We'll see Dykstra's World, where mu- coid parasites communicate with their host through dreams. And Addler's Planet, where time oscillates across a two-hour span, making everyone late for work. We'll also see the Magellan Sin- gularity where the space/time distortion can do strange things to cosmic voyagers. Good-bye, Ring City (right); hello, Universe.

PAINTINGS BY ROBERT HOLDSTOCK AND MALCOLM EDWARDS We got off ihe Jupiter shuttle on Ganymede and were taken to the interstellar terminal (left). On the lower far right you can seethe Stargate Magellan, parked on the Singularity that makes our trip to another galaxy possible Some ruins we visited on Pluto (lower near right) are supposed to have been left by a people so alien they didn't possess the numbers 9 through 72. In the Magellan System we visited two arach-

noid life forms that gave us some interesting tips on double-entry book- keeping. The creature between them is Caroline. When we through the Singularity, her molecular- reassembly process went hay-

wire. Our ship's doctors say she'll snap out of it after our next space/ time jump. You'd think they would have worked out the kinks by

mlhe association of Pluto's most ancient ruins with these long-vanished aliens is dubious.^ The vibrating Prismoids of Annax IV are the most enigmatic of known intelligent life anywhere-*

On our next stop we mei the carnivorous Behemoths of Ononis Delta III (far left). Intelligent and sulky, the Behemoths would be exlremely dangerous if their teeth hadn't grown together in an evolutionary devel- opment whose meaning is still not entirely clear On the lower left is an artist's rendering of a coffee break during the Bailie of Shiva's Rift. At the Upper near left are some of the intelligent crystal forms of Annax IV emitting short bursts of light (their way of clearing their throats). Finally. on the right is a complex symbiotic multiple organism from the Pliax System Caroline is visible as one of the spires in its upper lefl-hand corner, That last space/time jump was too much for her The doctors advised her to stay put. I'll miss her on the trip back to Earth DO A HISS OF DRAGON

His gene tinkering turned the berry gatherers into fire-breathing behemoths.

BY GREGORY BENFORD & MARC LAIDLAW

Incoming Dragon!" Leopold yelled, and ducked to the

left. I went right. Dragons come in slow and easy. A blimp with wings, this one settled down like a

wrinkled brown sky falling I scrambled over boulders, irying lo be inconspicuous and

fast at the same time. It didn't seem like a promising beginning for a new job.

Leopold and I had been working on the ledge in from of Ihe Dragon's Lair, stacking berry pods, This Dragon must have flown toward its Lair from the other side of the mountain Spire, so our radio tag on h:m

didn't transmit through all the rock. Usually they're no? so direct. Most Dragons circle their Lairs a few times. checking for scavengers and

egg stealers. If they don't circle, they're usually too fired. And when they're tired, they're irritable. Something told me I didn't want to be within reach of this one's throat flame.

I dropped my berrybag rig and went down the rocks teet

first. The boulders were slippery with green moss for about 20 meters below the

ledge, so I slid down on them.

I tried to keep the falls to under four meters and

banged my butt when I missed I could hear Leopold knocking loose rocks on the other side, moving down toward where our skimmer was parked.

PAINTING BY ERNST FUCHS —

in A shadow fell over me. blotting out Beta's Leopold gasped. "You'll draw full wages pollen sets off the mating urges big yellow disk. The brown bag above and commissions, from the start." Dragons— steps up their harvest, but it

thrashed its wings and gave a trumpeting I didn't say anything, I'd just noticed that also makes 'em meaner."

I puffbush 1 "I'm allergic to shriek. It had caught sight ot the berry bags somewhere back there had pissed my "Great," said. and knew something was up. Most likely, boots full. pollen. I'll have to fight off Dragons with stuffy nose." with its weak eyes, the Dragon though! the running eyes and a absently; strip. I Leopold shook .his head he bags were eggers— off season, but what I covered it pretty well back at the do Dragons know about seasons?— and twisted out of the skimmer and slipped into hadn't heard me. "I can't understand it

would attack them. That was the optimistic the maintenance bay. I had extra clothes in there's nothing wrong with my Dragon de-

theory The pessimistic one was that the my bag, so I slipped on some fresh socks signs." to me you could have toned Dragon had seen one of us. I smacked and thongs. "Seems

I said. "Calm painfully into a splintered boulder and When I was sure I smelled approximately down the behavior plexes," outgrown I they've glanced up. its underbelly was heaving, human, I tromped back out to Leopold. I them down a bit — mean, competition to the point that they don't turning purple: anger. Not a reassuring was damned if I would let my morning's their sign. Eggers don't bother Dragons that success be blotted out by an embarrass- even need to be mean anymore. They don't going to much. ing accident. It was a hirer's market these browse much as it is. . .nobody's Then its wings fanned the air, back- days. My training at crop dusting out in the bother them." for wards. It drifted off the ledge, hovering. flat farmlands had given me an edge over "No way—there's, just not the money the The long neck snaked around, and two the other guys who had applied. I was de- it, Drake. Look, I'm operating on margin nearsighted eyes sought mine. The nose termined to hang on to this job. here. My five-year rights to the genetic pat- expanded, catching my scent. The Dragon Leopold was the guy who "invented" the ents just ran out, and now I'm in competition hissed triumphantly. Dragons, five years ago. He took a life form with Kwalan Rhiang, who owns the other Our skimmer was set for a fast takeoff. native to Lex. the bloats, and tinkered with half of the forest. Besides, you think gene

But it was 200 meters down, on the only their DNA. Bloats are balloonlike and nasty. splicing is easy?"

wide spot we could find I made a "Still, if they can bioengineer humans upforstrength megaphone of my hands and shouted into . . . Imean, wewere beefed the thin mountain mist. "Leopold! Grab air!" and oxy burning nearly a thousand years

1 jumped down to a long boulder that ago." jutted into space. Below and a little to the "But we weren't blown up to five times the

made those Dragons size of Drake. I made left I could make out the skimmer's shiny Q our progenitors, of- wings through the shifting green log. I out of mean sonsofbitches— those Dragons out of mean sons sucked in a breath and ran off the end of bitches — blimps with teeth is what they blimps with teeth the boulder. were. It gets tricky when you mess with the Dragons are clumsy at level flight, but is what they were. It gets life cycles of something that's already that they can drop like a brick. The only way to unstable. You just don't understand what's tricky when you beat this one down to the skimmer was by involved here." the life cycle of falling most of the way. mess with I nodded. "I'm no bioengineer granted." I banked down, arms out. Our gravity is something that's only a third of Earth normal. Even when He looked at me and grinned, a spread- already that unstable. 9 falling, you have time to think things over. 1 ing warm grin on his deeply lined face.

can do the calculations fast enough— it "Yeah, Drake, but you're good at what you came out to nine seconds— but getting the do— really good. What happened today, count right with a Dragon on your tail is well, I'm getting too old for that sort of thing,

If another matter. I ticked the seconds off and and it's happening more and more often.

then popped the chute. It fanned and filled. Leopold made them bigger, tougher and you hadn't been there I'd probably be stew- The skimmer came rushing up, wind spliced in a lust for thistleberries that ing in that Dragon's stomach right now— whipped my face. Then my harness jerked makes Dragons hoard them compulsively skimmer and all."

me to a halt. I drifted down. I thumped the It had been a brilliant job of bioengineering. I shrugged. That gave me a chance to release and fell free. Above me, a trumpet- The Dragons gathered thistleberries, and roll the slabs of muscle in my shoulders, ing bellow. Something was coming in at four Leopold stole them from the Lairs. neck, and pectorals— a subtle advertise-

I o'clock and I turned, snatching for my Thistleberries are a luxury good, high in ment that had enough to keep a skimmer

blaser. Could it be that fast? But it was protein, and delicious. The market for aloft for hours.

Leopold, on chute. I sprinted for the skim- them might collapse if Lex's economy got "So," he continued, "I'm giving you full

mer. It was pointed along the best out- worse—the copper seams over in Bahinin pilot rank. The skimmer's yours. You can fly

bound wind, flaps already down, a stan- had run out last month. This was nearly the it home tonight, on the condition that you

dard precaution. I belted in, sliding my feet only good flying job left. More than anything meet me at the Angis Tavern for a drink later

Evelaine, if into the pedals. I caught a dank, foul reek of else, I wanted to keep flying. And not as a on. And bring your girl too, you Dragon. More high shrieking, closer. crop duster. Clod-grubber work is a pain. want." Leopold came running up, panting. He Leopold was leaning against his skim- "It's a deal, Leopold. See you there."

wriggled into the rear seat. A thumping of mer, a little pale, watching his men husk

wings. A ceiling of wrinkled leather Some- thistleberries. His thigh muscles were still I whistled like a dungwarbler all the way thing hissing overhead. thick; he was clearly an airman by ancestry, home, pedaling my new skimmer over the

Dragons don't fly, they float. They have a but he looked tired. treetops toward the city. I nearly wrapped

big green hydrogen-filled dome on their "Goddamn," he said. "I can't figure it out, myself in a floating thicket of windbram-

backs to give them lift. They make the hy- kid. The Dragons are hauling in more ber- bles, but not even this could destroy my drogen in their stomachs and can dive ries than normal. We can't get into the Lairs, good mood.

quickly by venting it out the ass. This one though. You'd think it was mating season I didn't notice any Dragons roaming

was farting and falling as we zoomed away around here, the way they're attacking my around, though I saw that the treetops had berries I banked, turned to get a look at the huffing men." been plucked of their and then brown mountain hooting its anger at us, "Mating season? When's that?" scorched. Leopold had at least had the and grinned. "Oh, in about another six months, when foresight, when he was gene tinkering, to for thistleberries' constant re- "I take back what 1 said this morning," the puftbushes bloom in the treetops. The provide the

44 —

plenishment. He gave the Dragons a throat a great deal of the 1200 years humans had "Well take it somewhere else. I'm cooking flame to singe the treetops with, which been on Lex. As the wood of the lower dinner," makes the berries regrow quickly. A nice stories rotted, and as the building crum- "I'll hop in the cycler. You can cook up the

touch. bled away, new quarters were just built on steaks I brought, then we're going out to

It would have been simpler, of course, to top of it and settled into place. Someday celebrate." have men harvest the thistleberries them- this city would be an archaeologist's selves, but that never worked out. econom- dream. In the meantime, it was an inhabit- The Angis Tavern is no skiff joint, good for ically. Thistleberries grow on top of virtually snf's nightmare. a stale senso on the way home from work. unclimbable thorntrees, where you can't Five minutes later, having negotiated It's the best. The Angis is a vast old place, even maneuver a skimmer without great several treacherous ladders and a splinter- perched on a pyramid of rock. Orange fog

difficulty Andifamanfelltotheground . . . ing shinny pole into the depths of the old nestles at the base, a misty collar separat-

well, if it's I on the ground, it has spines, building, crept quietly to the wooden door ing it from the jumble of the city below. that's the rule on Lex. There's nothing soft to of my apartment and let myself in, clutch- Evelaine pedaled the skimmer with me, fall on down there. Sky life is more complex ing the mudskater steaks that I'd picked up having trouble in her gown. We made a than ground life. You can actually do some- on the way home-. It was dark and cramped wobbly landing on the rickety side deck. It thing useful with sky life namely, bioen- inside, the smell of — rubbed wood strong. I would've been easier to coast down to the gineering. Lex may be a low-metal could hear Evelaine moving around in the city, where there was more room for a glide world which low-technology — means — but kitchen, so I sneaked to the doorway and approach, but that's pointless. There are our bioengineers are the best. looked in. She was turned away, chopping thick cactus and thornbushes around the

clapping sound, I A to the left. stopped thistleberries with a thorn-knife. Angis base, hard to negotiate at night, In whistling. Down through the greenish haze I it grabbed her, throwing the steaks into the old days kept away predators; now it

I could see a dark form coming in over the the kitchen, and kissed her. keeps away the riffraff. treetops, its wide rubbery wings slapping "Got the job, Evey!" I said. "Leopold took But not completely: two beggars ac- together at the top of each stroke, A me out himself and I ended up saving costed us as we dismounted, offering to smackwing. Good meat, spicy and moist, his—" shine up the skimmer's aluminum skin. I

But hard to catch. Evelaine and I had good "\tis you!" She covered her nose, squirm- growled convincingly at them, and they

to I news celebrate tonight; decided to ing away from me. "What is that smell, skittered away. The Angis is so big, so full of

bring her home smackwing for dinner. I Drake?" crannies to hide out in, they can't keep it rook the skimmer down in the path of the "Smell?" clear of beggars, I guess. smackwing, meanwhile slipping my blaser "Like something died. It's all over you." We went in a balcony entrance. Fat bal- from its holster. I remembered the afternoon's events. It loons nudged against the ceiling, ten me- The trick to hunting in the air is to either the get was smell of Dragon, which I'd ters overhead, dangling their cords. I beneath your prey so that you can grab it got from scrambling around in a Lair, or that snagged one and stepped off into space.

it falls, while but this smackwing was flying of urine. I it safe "I played and said, think it's Evelaine hooked it as I fell. We rode it down, too low I headed in fast, hoping to frighten it Dragon." past alcoves set in the rock walls. Well- into rising above me. but it was no use. The smackwing saw me, red eyes rolling. It missed a beat in its flapping and dived toward the treetops. At that instant a snag- ger shot into view from the topmost branches, rising with a low farting sound. The smackwing spotted this blimplike thing '^~~- that had leaped into its path but apparently didn't think it too threatening. It swerved a about a meter under the bobbing crea- ture 000 - And stopped flat, in mid-air. ?

I laughed aloud, sheathing my blaser. The snagger had won his meal like a real hunter. Beneath the snagger's wide blimplike = 7^0 body was a dangling sheet of transparent sticky material. The smackwing struggled — in the moist folds as the snagger drew the J ft, sheet upward. To the unwary smackwing that clear sheet must have been invisible

i until the instant he flew into it. A V

Within another minute, as I pedaled past the spot, the snagger had entirely engulfed the h smackwing and was unrolling its sticky sheet as it drifted back into the treetops. Tijjll Pale yellow eyes considered me and re- 7jL jected the notion of me as food. A ponder- ous predator, wise with years.

I flew into the spired city: Kalatin. *"* I parked on the deck of our apartment ^y building, high above the jumbled wooden buildings of the city Now that my interview had been successful, we'd be able to stay in Kalatin, though I hoped we could find a better apartment. This one was as old as "It doesn'l want to gel involved the city—which in turn had been around for — . "

right out that she wasn't much impressed dressed patrons nodded as we eased come to that. with city life. "Farmlands are quiet and rest- down, the balloon following. The Angis is a They were short as children but ful. Everybody has a job," she murmured, spire, broadening gradually as we de- heavyset. with narrow chests and skinny "You're right that getting around is scended. Phosphors casl creamy glows on limbs. Spindly people, unaugmented for in the updrafts. like that had col- harder— but we can glide the tables set into the walls. I spotted Lex oxy levels. But men tor in re- in summer It's heaven." Leopold sprawled in a webbing, two empty onized here long ago. paying it

I said, "an I "Speaking of the farmlands," tankards lying discarded underneath. duced lifetimes. I felt as though was old friend of mine came out here five years "You're late," he -called. We stepped off watching my own ancestors. all, ago. He wanted in on your operations." onto his ledge. Our balloons, released, Lex shouldn't have any oxy at by the It's "I was hiring like crazy five years ago. shot back to the roof. usual rules of planetary evolution. a "You didn't set a time. Evelaine. small planet, 0.21 Earth masses, a third What was his name?" "Lorn Kramer. Great pilot." Leopold." Nods, introductory phrases. gee of gravity. Rules of thumb say we tonight," shouldn'l have any atmosphere to speak of. Leopold shook his head. "Can't re- "It seems quite crowded here He's not with me now, anyway. Evelaine murmured. A plausible social re- But our sun, Beta, is a K-type star, redder member. Rhiang got him." mark, except she'd never been to an inn of than Sol. Beta doesn't heat our upper at- Maybe with ultraviolet, Our drinks arrived. The steward was this class before, mosphere very much so we though Rhiang was right be- Leopold shrugged. "Hard times mean retain gasses. Even then, Lex would be. bribable, — tinglers- airless for accidents of birth. It hind him. full taverns. Booze or sensos or except "You haven't answered my 'gram." pick your poison," started out with a dense cloak of gas, just Leopold, ignoring Evelaine has the directness of a country as Earth did. But dim old Beta didn't blow Rhiang said directly to

I there wasn't us. I guess he didn't figure was worth any girl and knows her own limitations; she the atmosphere away, and compressional it- more time, stuck to a mild tingler. Service was running enough heating by Lex stuck "Didn't need to," Leopold said tersely. I slid down self to boil away the gasses. So they slow, so I went to log our orders. "Sell out, I'll give you a good price." a shinny pole to the first bar level. Mice around, shrouding the planet, causing casually sank his massive flank on zipped by me, eating up tablescraps left Rhiang our table edge. "You're getting too old." by the patrons; it saves on labor. Amid the flickered Leopold's eyes; our order with a Something in jam and babble I placed he said nothing. steward and turned to go back. voice said. "Talk is," Rhiang went on mildly, "market's "You looking for work?" a thick ii looked into the The man was falling." I glanced at its owner. "No." of the Dragons "Maybe," Leopold said. "What you been big, swarthy, and sure of himself. Lair again. One getting for a kilo?" "Thought you wanted Dragon work," His was prodding at the "Not saying." eyes had a look of distant amusement. other, making low, whuffling to- in "Tight lips and narrow minds go "How'd you know that?" 1 wasn't known gether." the city. sounds. . , . The other Rhiang stood, his barrel chest bulging. "Friends told me." wheeled and headed Dragon "You could a little instruction in polite- "Leopold hired me today." use he's paying." for the entrance . . ness." "So I hear. I'll top whatever "From you?" Leopold chuckled, "You "I didn't think business was that good." and I saw my chanced paid oft that patent clerk to release my "It's going to get better, Much better, once Leopold's out of the action. A gene configs early. Was that polite?" Rhiang shrugged. "That's the past. The monopoly can always sell goods at a higher reality is that there may be an over- price. You can start tomorrow." present of thistleberries. Market isn'f big So this was Kwalan Rhiang. "No thanks. supply Earth. winds enough for two big operations like ours. I'm signed up." Actually, I hadn't signed taster erosion than on The — There's too anything, but there was something about moved dust horizontally, exposing crustal much Lifi the isostatic balance in the "Too much of you, that's my problem. this man I didn't like. Maybe the way he was rock. That upset off, Rhiang." so sure I'd work tor him. surface, and split open faults. Volcanoes To surprise, he did, He nodded to me, "Flying for Leopold is dangerous. He poked up. They belched water and gas my Evelaine, and gave Leopold a look doesn't know what he's doing." onto the surface, keeping the atmosphere ignored up with low gravity of contempt. Then he was gone. "See you around," I said. A senso was dense. So Lex ended were taking one of Fine, except that I heard them first. We starting in a nearby booth. I took advan- and a thick atmosphere. pushed many the outside walks that corkscrew around tage of it to step into the expanding blue Beta's wan light also never at the phos- cloud, so Rhiang couldn't follow and see heavy elements out this far, so Lex is the Angis spire, gawking metal-poor. Without iron and the rest you phored streets below. A stone slide clat- where we were sitting. I got a lifting, bright

without technol- tered behind us. I saw two men duck be- sensation of pleasure, and then I was out of can't build machines, and jutting ledge. One of fhem had the misty confusion, moving away among ogy you're a backwater. You sell yourtourist hind a in his hand that glittered. the packed crowd. attraction— (lying —and hope for the best. something offworlders came up to me "You're jumpy, Drake." Evelaine said. I saw them on the stairway. They were One of the sparkers in this "Maybe. " It occurred to me that if we went picking their way down it delicately. I and said, "You got any spire, hundreds of thought they were deformed, but the funny place?" over the edge of this shook head. he didn't know meters into the thorn scrabble below, it Eight clothes gave them away. Offworlders, I my Maybe would very convenient for Rhiang. "Let's here for the flying. That was the only reason lhat getting a sendup by tying your frontal be here. move on." anybody came to Lex. We're still the only lobes into an animal's is illegal Maybe Leopold glanced at me. then back at the place men can seriously fly longer than a he didn't care. Ancestor or not, he just along the trail of I strolled few minutes. Even so, our lack of machines looked like a misshapen dwari to me, and inky shadows. We volcanic rock, part of the natural formation keeps mosl offworlders away; they like it walked away pebbles describing life in the flat- that made the spire. Rough black easy, everything done for them. I watched Evelaine was rapt, slipped underfoot. In the distant star- them pick their way down the stairs, think- lands when I got back. Leopold was face nearly gone. flecked night, skylight called and boomed. ing that if the depression got worse. the worry lines in his natural under a phosphor. At fhe next offworlders would be able to hire servants Evelaine does that to people. She's We passed was telling him turn Leopold looked back and said, "I saw here, even though it was illegal, It could and straightforward, so she . —

one of (hem. Rhiang's right-hand man." judge my position. The bulk of the Dragon poked at the uniform. Something glittered

We hurried away. I wished for a pair of was silhouetted agans- theg are of the sky. near one empty sleeve: an identification to off this place. Evelaine un- wings get us which was clear of fog today. The beast bracelet. I picked it up, shifted it in the light,

derstood instantly that this was serious. seemed to be preening itself. That was and read the name on it: Lorn Kramer.

"There's a split in the trail ahead," Leopold something I never thought they did outside Lorn Kramer! So he had been in ." said. "If they follow, we'll know . . He of the mating season—which was six Leopold's group after all. But that still didn't didn't finish. months away. explain why he'd'left his clothes here.

"I I I We turned. They followed. think know scrambled backward into the nest. The I tugged at the uniform, dragging it to-

a way to slow them down," I said. Leopold buzzer in my pocket went off again, though ward me. It was limp, but tangled in the

looked were trying avoid slip- it at me. We to was supposed to signal just once, for ten nest. I jerked harder and some long, pale

ping in the darkness and yet make good seconds. I figured the thing must have bro- things rattled out of the sleeve.

time. "Collect some of these obsidian ken. It quieted and I moved on, thinking. For Bones,

frags," I said. one thing, the Dragon that occupied this I winced. 1 was suddenly aware that my We got a bundle of them together "Go on Lair was supposed to have been far from present situation must be somewhat like

up ahead," I said. We were on a narrow home right now—which meant that my the one that had brought him here.

ledge. I sank back into the shadows and guest didn't really belong here. Dragons I looked into the Lair again. One of the

waited. The two men appeared. Before never used the wrong Lair unless it was the Dragons was prodding its snout at the

they noticed me I threw the obsidian high mating season. other, making low. whuffling sounds. It

into the air. In low gravity it takes a long time I frowned. Why did that keep coming up? didn't look like a hostile gesture to me. In

for them to come back down. In the dark- Suddenly there was a rush of wind and a fact, it looked like they were playing. The ness the two men couldn't see them com- low, thrumming sound. The light from out- other Dragon wheeled about and headed

ing. side was cut off. I poked my head into the for the entrance. The first one followed, and

I stepped out into the wan light. "Hey!" I open. in a minute both of them had left the Lair yelled to them. They stopped, precisely Another Dragon was lumbering into the again— as abruptly and inexplicably as where i thought they would. "What's going Lair. This was really impossible. Two Drag- they had entered it. on?" I said, to stall. ons sharing a Lair —and the wrong one at I saw my chance. I ran across the Lair,

The biggest one produced a knife. that! Whatever iheir reasons for being here, grabbed my skimmer, and took off. I moved

"This." I was sure they were going to start fighting out. pedaling furiously away from the first hit, The rock coming down from over pretty soon, so I burrowed deeper, moving Dragons, and glanced down.

hundred above. It into toward the nearest wall. For a meters slammed a minute I thought I was seeing the boulder next to him. Then three more My elbow caught on something. Cloth. I things. The landscape below me was crashed down, striking the big one in the brushed it away, then looked again. A blurred, though the day had been clear and shoulder, braining the second. They both Dragonrobber uniform like my own. It was crisp when I'd flown into the Lair. I biinked.lt crumpled. directly beneath me, half-buried in the nest- didn't go away, but got clearer. There was a

1 turned and hurried along the palh. if ing material. I caught my breath, then cloud of yellowish dust spreading high they'd seen me throw they'd have had time to dodge. It was an old schoolboy trick, but it worked The implications, though, were sobering.

If Rhiang felt this way, my new job might not last long.

I was bagging berries in the Paramount Lair when the warning buzzer in my pocket went off. A Dragon was coming

I still in. had time, but not much. I decided to finish this particular bag rather than abandon the bagging-pistol. The last bit of fluid sprayed over the heap of berries and began to congeal instantly, its tremen- dously high surface tension drawing it around the irregular pile and sealing per-

fectly. I holstered the gun, leaving the bag

for later. I turned— A slow flapping boom. Outside, a wrin- kled brown wall. Well, I'd fooled around long enough now I dived for safety. The Dragon's Lair was carpeted with a thick collection of nest- ing materials. None were very pleasant to burrow through, but I didn't have any

choice. Behind me I could hear the Dragon moving around; if I didn't move out of his way in a hurry I might get stepped on. The emergency chute on my back tangled in a branch, just as the stench in the Lair inten- sified. I hurried out of it and went on. I'd just

I stuck my head up through the nest to above the fores'., billow'ng up and around the blue shadows as the first Dragon noise was coming from,

it inside, dome was deflating. the Lairs I could see, Where had come thumped to the ledge. It waddled Her hydrogen Here the from? reeking. I moved back farther. Its four I nearly laughed aloud. was

I deflate the I answer to problem. could 1 sneezed, passing through a high plume friends were right behind. kept moving my of the dust. Then my eyes began to sting back. Dragons, leaving them stranded, unable to

fly, I climbed this spire without I while down I the they and I sneezed again. brought skimmer Well, at least now knew why were

vision set- fear of pursuit. I lifted my blaser and aimed out of the cloud , but by this time my doing this. Kwalan Rhiang had been the rear of the Lair. was distorted with tears. I began to cough ting off their mating urges by dusting the at the male nearest A and choke all at once, until the skimmer Dragons with puffbush-pollen, messing up near miss, then a hit. Hydrogen hissed out

control, life cycle, fooling with their al- of his well. Then I got the second faltered as I fought to stay in my their whole dome as directly eyes streaming. ready nasty tempers, it made sense. Any- female, and another male who was across from I knew what thai dust was. thing less subtle might have gotten Rhiang me.

Nothing affected me as fiercely as into a lot of trouble. As it was, he'd doubt- One Dragon to go. The others were roar- waddling. Lair full of the puffbush pollen; it was the only thing I was less fly safely home, waiting for Leopold's ing and The was

really allergic to. Dragons to kill off Leopold's men. h ssing sound.

Lair, I last opponent. He wasn't I stopped pedaling. Out in the cavernous the Dragons turned to my blocking my It affected Dragons, too. It set off their began to move around, prodding at each looking my way, but he was blaser. mating urges. other like scramblemice, hooting their airy exit. 1 moved in closer and lifted my But where was the damned stuff coming courting sounds. The ground shook with Then he saw me. just he bellowed I myself aside as from? It was six months out of season. I th.elr movement. Two seemed to be flung filling the entrance started pedaling again, legs straining. I females, which suggested that I might look and pounded forward, turned to get a better view, forward to some fighting between the other to the Lair, blocking out the sunlight. I rolled

A flash of light needled past my head, three. Great. into the thorny nest. I fired once, hitting him his me, I at for in the snout. He swung head toward and I knew. Three skimmers shot into view fumbled my pockets something from around the spire of Paramount Lair. pushing me around toward the outer ledge,

The tip oi one of my wings was seared away bellowing. 1 fired again, and once more

by a blaser. My skimmer lurched wildly, but missed his hydrogen dome. I made a dash

it his rump just as he spun my way, tail I held on and brought up just as the first around nar- skimmer came toward me. Its pilot was lashing against me. His dark little eyes iOne dragon to go. wearing a filtermask. Attached to the rowed as he sighted me, and his throat skimmer were some empty bags that must The others were roaring and began to ripple. to blast have held the putfbush pollen. But what I waddling. My time was up. My time was up. He was about was looking at was the guy's blaser. It was me with his throat flame.

. . I aimed at me. . froze. Rhiang aimed his The Dragon opened his mouth, belched

ignited it striking spark I reeled into updraft, pulling over my hydrogen, and by a an blazer at my head. . . . attacker, grabbing for my own blaser. The from his molars— His legs jerked convulsively skimmer soared beneath me, then That was the wrong thing fo do.

. . . I careened into a sharp turn. It was too danced away as a I saw it coming and ducked. blew The sharp. The guy turned straight into the path daggerbush snapped at me3 The cavern shuddered and up. of his companion. The two skimmers orange explosion rumbled out, catching crashed together with a satisfying sound, the Dragons in a huge rolling flame. I buried then the scattered parts and pilots tell myself in the nesting strands and grabbed slowly toward the treetops. Seconds later, onto the lashing tail of my attacker, Terrified the forest swallowed them up. by the blast, he took off. My eyebrows were

I for the third just that of help. warning buzzer singed, my wrists burned looked man , as he came might be My tendril of up beside me. The bastard was grinning, had shattered in my rough landing; I threw The world spun beneath me. A drifted just below, mingled I It but it into view and recognized that grin. was Kwalan it away. I still had my bagging-gun, smoke Rhiang's. wouldn't do me a lot of good. My blaser with flaming bits of nesting material and the

it hide of Then my view He nodded once, affably, and before I seemed okay. I unholstered and began to leathery Dragons.

I I the sky It could remember to use my blaser, Rhiang move along the wall. If I went carefully, spun again and was looking at took a single, precise shot at the chain- might be able to get onto the outer ledge. gradually dawned on me that I was clinging guard of my skimmer. The pedals roiled Two of the males were fighting now, lung- to a Dragon's tail.

uselessly. 1 was out of control. Rhiang lifted ing, the sounds of their efforts thundering It occurred to the Dragon at the same leaving away and cruised out of sight, me around me. I made a short run and gained time. I saw his head swing toward me, flailing at the air in a ruined skimmer. a bit of ground. One of the Dragons re- snapping angrily. His belly was flashing let a I had exactly one chance, and this was to treated from the battle— apparently the purple. Every now and then he out

I couldn't quite get at get back to the Lair I'd just abandoned. loser. I groaned. He had moved directly in tongue of flame, but he

I life. was slightly higher than the opening, so 1 my path. me. Meanwhile, held on for my glided in, backpedaled for the drop—and A huge tail pounded at the ground near The Dragon flew on, but my weight crashed straight into the wall, thanks to my me and a female started backing my way, seemed to be too much tor it. We were

it still to slowly the trees, as easily ruined pedals. But I made in alive, not looking at me. There was no place dropping toward

I it with able to stand up and brush the dirt from my go. And I was getting tired ot this. decided as I'd punctured his bony dome my

it landing. I shot her blaser. But rough And uniform, I stood at the mouth of the- Lair, to warn her off. made a quick at would be a staring out over the forest, considering the back, nipping her in the hydrogen dome. I'd have to deal with the Dragon afterward.

long climb that lay below me. She squawked and shuffled away, con- I spied something rising from the trees

It shot swiftly into the air after a And just then the Dragons returned. fused. I went on. below us. transparent Not one, this time— not even two. Five I stopped. There was a hissing sound' high-flying bulletbird, its sheet its It a shadows wheeled overhead; five huge behind me. Turning, I could see nothing but rippling beneath blimplike body. was I'd snagger big as skimmer. beasts headed toward the Lair where I was the Dragon just shot. She didn't appear huge — as my own

it standing. And finally, five Dragons dropped to be making the sound, but it was coming I kicked on the Dragon's tail, dragging

right on top ot me. from her direction. I peered closer, through sideways. The Dragon lurched and spun the blue then where the then directly over the snagger. I leapt back just in time, scrambling into gloom, and saw and we were I let go of the tail and dropped, my eyes He shrugged. "Gave you a chance to succeeded only in melting the bag enough closed. prove yourself. Come on, you're wasting to let the weapon break away, It fell out of In a second, something soft rumpled be- your time with Leopold," sight. neath me. I had landed safely atop the 'And you're wasting your time with me." His eyes were wide. He was considering

snagger. I opened my eyes as the He shrugged again, utterly sure of him- death by suffocation. lost Dragon— having my weight— shot self. 'As you wish, I gave you a chance." "No." he choked.

I it glide I suddenly upward. watched away, I nodded. "Now just go away." But didn't fire at his head. I put the next then looked down at the snagger. my savior. 'And leave you to tell Leopold about all bag right over his feet, sealing the pedal

I patted its wide, rubbery body. My weight this? You don't think I'm going to let you mechanism tight. His legs jerked convul-

it if was pushing slowly down, as I were back alive, do you?" sively. They slowed. Rhiang began to riding the balloons in the Angis Tavern. I I froze. Rhiang slid a blaser from its hol- whimper, and then he was out of control. to looked forward a comfortable trip to the ster at his waist and aimed it at my head. His skimmer turned and glided away as he ground. His grin widened. The muzzle dropped a hurried to catch any updraft he could. He

fraction, and I breathed a little easier, vanished behind Paramount Lair, and was

"I like your style, kid." "No," he said distantly, "why kill you gone.

I jumped, nearly losing my place on the straight off? Slow deaths are more interest- I turned back to observe the treetops. snagger. The voice out of mid-air. I it. had come ing, think. And harder to trace." Rhiang might be back, Put I doubted

Literally. He aimed at the snagger. If he punctured First he'd have a long walk ahead of him.

"You," I said. it No more was necessary. He I'd drop into the trees. It was a long fall. I over unpleasant terrain, back to his base

was banking around behind me. wouldn't make it. , . Jf he could maneuver his skimmer well

Kwalan Rhiang had returned in his I growled and grabbed for the gun at my enough to land in the treetops. and make skimmer. He circled easily about me as I fell waist, bringing it up before Rhiang could the long, painful climb down.

the treetops. in close, smil- I toward He came move. He stared at me for a moment, then But didn't worry about it. I watched the ing, his legs gentle huge pedaling him on a slarted laughing. I looked at what I was thomtrees rise about me, and presently the

course. I to turn to had my head keep an holding. snagger brought me gently to the ground. I eye on him. "What're you going to do with that?" he dismounted, leaving the snagger to bob "I said before I'd lop what Leopold was said. "Bag me?" back into the air, and began to walk gin- paying you." he shouted, his thick voice It was my bagging-pistol, all right. I'd gerly across the inhospitable ground.

cutting the high air. 'After today, I think I'd dropped the blaser back in the Lair. But it avoiding the spines. A daggerpush

I pay doub/e. could use someone like you." would still serve a purpose. snapped at me. I danced away. It was

I felt my face harden. "You bastard. "Exactly." I said, and fired. going to be a rough walk out. Somewhere You're responsible for what just happened. The gray fluid squirted across the narrow behind me, Rhiang might be facing the

Why would I work for someone who's tried gap between us, sealing instantly over same problem. And he wanted me dead. to kill Rhiang's me?" hands. He fired the blaser but But I didn't have as far to go. DO The meaning seemed clear until the aliens sent us their responses

"Friends of space, how are you all? Have across three star lanes and rammed head- you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have long into his warp field, which blew up, time." along with five nearby systems. The

— Arnoy greeting carried by Voyager 1. phonograph record, which miraculously NASA launched Voyagert inthe summer MESSAGE survived the explosion, provided sufficient of 1977. Early in 1979 it skimmed past lo evidence for tracking down the guilty party. and Ganymede, sending back to Earth The government of the Solar Republic, in magnificent pictures of Jupiter and its the year 7241 , received a demand for com- pensation from the Galactic Regulators: satellites. In 1980 it swung past the ringed FROM giant Saturn, headed on to Uranus, and three hundred years' Gross Industrial Pro- whirled off into interstellar space toward duction for the solar system. When the gov- the M-class dwarf star AC+79 3888 in Ursa ernment refused to comply the Regulators Minor. Voyager 2 followed halt a year later. confiscated the sun, Mounted on the side of each craft was a EARTH Palaestrin III was the seat of the greatest twelve-inch phonograph record, made ot civilization ever to have emerged in the gold-anodized copper and packed in an BY IAN STEWART Third Galaxy. A culture composed entirely aluminum jacket. Impressed into its spiral of philosophers, it remained aloof from the groove were one hundred sixteen pictures ordinary material aims of the rest of the of life on Earth, greetings in tifty-five lan- were intended as a friendship offering. galaxy, seeking, instead, the Final Synthe- guages, and sounds ranging from a Overcome with emotion, it conveyed to sis. Long ago the Palaesthni philosophers foghorn to. a ("strictly heterosexual"— Earth a creation of pure harmony and joy, as had deduced the logical structure of the NASA) kiss. The record also contained a a gift of reciprocity. universe, and each successive discovery pulsar map indicating the position of the When this harmonious veil of ecstasy en- of new intelligences served only to rein- solar system within (he galaxy. veloped the solar system, the people of force the pattern ot rationality perceived. The record's object: to inform any alien Earth wept with happiness at its almost un- When news reached them of the alien intelligence that it might encounter of the bearably poignant distillation of wisdom artifact, they did not doubt that it would existence and whereabouts of terrestrial and solemnity. All other activity ceased confirm, yet again, the pattern of the Final life, Its lifetime: one billion years. while they contemplated its perfection, Synthesis: There was great intellectual ex- Seventeen years and four months after All other activity. citement, for only one more confirmation launching. Voyager 1 collided with a small A Jangaldrian texor spotted Voyager 1C was required for Utmost Certainty. black hole. The distortions ot space and limping through a region of micro- But the culture of Earth, as recorded on time within the hole led to the reemergence meteorites and interstellar dust. Voyager 1F. seemed to lack any logical pat- not of one but of seven copies of the craft, in The orbital detector nudged gently away tern at all. In a desperate attempt to recon- seven different alternate universes. from Jangaldria 101 in a minimal energy cile mind and not-mind, the philosophers Voyager 1A traveled a further 1,342.87 trajectory, with its magnetostatic feelers ex- began an intensive reevaluation of all pre- light-years before it was intercepted by a tended. It successfully grappled, the re- vious work. But before they traced the sub- Japft-class superdreadnaught in the ser- mains of Voyager 1C into its safety cell and tle error that had crept into their system a vice of the Imperial Navy of Her Radiant switched to "remote." million years before, they suffered a psy- Magnificence the Lady Protectress of The trillion-byte multibrain analyzed the chic overload that resulted in racial suicide. Dug'ga-Zhuu, a globular cluster containing intruder. The artifact was a spacegoing ve- Voyager 1G traveled farthest of all, into a some fourteen thousand inhabited worlds. hicle. Its pilot was dead: Only a pitted, region thin in stars but rich in hydroxyl radi- A full Emergency Session of the Strategic fused mass of silicon circuitry paid mute cals. Here dwelt the simurghs, free-floating Collective met to consider the report of the testimony to the departed intelligence. creatures of monstrous size, with scaly Military Science Assessment Group. The Information analysis of the disc attached alloy hides and crystalline claws, breath collective listened, aghast, to projections ot to the vehicle revealed the purpose of the like a fusion torch, and hearts as black as the level of technological capacity, which brave machine's desperate- quest: Here intergalactic space. was extrapolated from the technology in- was a race of electroform intelligences sub- The tiny craft was captured and placed corporated into the vehicle itself and exhib- jugated by anorganic species — mechani- in a universal sensorium. For a time they ited on the phonograph record. cal slaves to the protein monsters. puzzled over the record. But later on they The upstart race, within a mere five An army of liberators, composed of four realized that some .of the signals were thousand cycles, might possess the capa- hundred thousand transports, began the audio analogs of visual information. bility to challenge Dug'ga-Zhuu itself! journey to free the slaves of Earth. With increasing excitement, the A salvo of forty-nine nova bombs, dis- Voyager ID encountered a second black simurghs viewed the pictures. Was thai not patched by transspatial jump to the coor- hole, of opposite 'polarity to the first. This an organic molecule? A rudimentary sys- dinates shown on the pulsar map, elimi- short circuit of the continuum caused a dis- tem for personal transport? If that was a nated the menace. location to propagate instantaneously city, the population must be huge. It was

Voyager IB impinged on the sensory back along the connecting line. A slight promising, but was it what they hoped for? zone of a wandering Betelgeusian Ange- overshot compressed all the matter in the Then came a picture ot a group of children, lus. This creature of innocence-, wisdom, solar system into a ball two miles across. and the simurghs sighed a satisfied sigh, and supreme beauty pondered almost the The leading topologist on Cynoceph- licked their jaws in anticipation, and fifth part ot an eon before concluding that aly-B was honey-clustering with his two readied the mass-propulsion units. the baffling messages on the golden disc betrotheds when Voyager l£ ricocheted Friends of space, have you eaten yet? DO

PAINTING BY TIM WHITE It would be so easy to change history, now that the time machine was avaitabie.

NEWTON'S GIFT

BYPAULJ.NAHIN

Wallace John Steinhope was a sensitive human being, a per- son deeply concerned aboui the welfare of his fellow crea- tures. Any act of injustice, however slight, made his breast pound with righteous indignation. He was a champion of fair play, and his motto in life was taken from the ancient English rule of law—"Let right be done!"

Even while still a lonely, reclusive child, Wallace's heart ached might- ily when he read of the laborious, boring, mind-dulling calculations endured by the great mathematicians of old. Just knowing, thinking, of

Gauss's marvelous mind wasting literally months of its precious exis- tence grinding out tedious mathematics that even a dullard could do today in a minute, on a home computer, was sheer agony for Wallace. Contemplation of the God-like Newton suffering endless delays in his gravity research, all because of a simple miscalculation of the length of a degree of longifude, was almost unbearable.

Indeed, Newton played a special roie in Wallace's life {and he in Newton's, as we shall soon see). While the other great mathematical physicists had merely been hindered in their work by the lack of modern computational aids. Newton had squandered so much valu- able time in other, nonscientific pursuits! His quasireligious writings alone, over half a million words, exceeded his scientific writings. What a waste! Wallace wondered endlessly over the reason for this strange misdirection of talent and bored his friends to the edge of endurance with his constant brooding on the mystery. Still, they all liked and admired Wallace enormously so put up with it. But more than one of them had sworn io throw up the next time Wallace mentioned Newton

PAINTING BY RUDOLF HAUSNER .

during a wedding (but that's another story). dreary calculation. Wallace's gift would slip corner and ioined Wallace. "You have a speech, stranger. So deep was Wallace's anguish for his the lock on those chains! Accelerate genius! strange sound to your from hereabouts, or have you trav- predecessors that even as he grew older It was early evening when, guided by a Are you your tale." and his own tremendous talents as a math- map of the area prepared by a friend who eled far?Please commence slowly ematical physicist gained him an interna- was both a cartographer and amateur his- Wallace laughed aloud at this question, a tional reputation, thoughts of the un- torian, Wallace reached the quiet little town response prompted by his nervous ex- measurable misery of his scientific ances- of Woolsthrope-by-Colsterworth. It was citement, and it quite surprised him. It also is tors were never far from his mind. It was here, in a small farmhouse, that Wallace startled Isaac. "Please forgive me. It just most appropriate, then, that his greatest would meet his hero of the ages. A cold, that I have traveled so very, very far to see discovery gave him an opportunity to do gentle rain was falling as he approached you. You see, I am from the future." Wallace something! And Wallace John Stemhope the door. The soft, hazy light of an oil lamp was not one to play his cards close to his vowed tone/p. He became convinced that glowed inside, revealing through the trans- chest.

over Now it was Isaac's turn to laugh. 'Oh, this it was his purpose on Earth — he could not, lucent glass the form of a man bent a he would not hesitate. As he strapped the table. The fragrant smoke of well-dried is most ridiculous. Are you a friend of Bar- knapsack-size time machine onto his burning wood curled from the chimney, an- row's at Trinity? It would be so like him to chest, his excitement was, therefore, easy nouncing a warm fire within. play such a trick. From the future, indeed!" at sight of the to .understand. With his heart about to burst from ex- Wallace's eyes ached the the door. papers on the table where Isaac had been I Wallace "It is done! And I am ready. will travel citement, rapped upon back and bestow this gift of appreciation, After a pause, the shadow rose and moved working. What wonders must be there this key to mental relief, on the great New- away from the window. The door opened, about to be born! In any other situation, ton himself!" Wallace cradled a small, yet and there stood Isaac Newton, a young Wallace would have asked about their con- the die cast. to powerful hand-calculator in his palm. It was man of 23 with an intellect that Hume and tents, bul had been He had a marvel of modern electronics. Incorporat- Voltaire considered "the greatest and rarest convince Isaac of the truth of his lale. ing large-scale integrated circuitry and a genius that ever rose for the adornment and But he had to walk a tight line, too. It just Z-8000 microprocessor solid-state chip, wouldn't do to misdirect Isaac's interest the calculator required only a small, self- away from the calculator and toward the itself! must do something contained nuclear battery for its power. It time machine He could add, subtract, multiply, divide, do dramatic, something that would rivet his square and cubic roots, trig and hyperbolic idol's attention and hold it. functions, take powers, find logarithms, all iWith his heart about to burst "Yes, yes, I understand your reluctance to believe me. But, look here. This will con- in mere microseconds. It was programma- from excitement, he of ble, too, able to store up to 500 instructions vince you of the honesty my words." Wal- rapped upon the door. After a lace the shiny black plastic-cased in its micromemory The answers it dis- pulled calculator from his shirt pocket and flipped played on its red, light-emitting diode pause, the shadow liberate young Isaac from the power switch on. The array of LEDs readouts would rose and moved away from the the chains of his impoverished heritage of glowed bright in the gloomy room as they mathematical calculation. No more window. The door flashed on in a random, sparkling red burst. and he pushed his Napier's bones for Newton! opened, and there was Isaac Isaac's eyes widened, But Wallace John Steinhope was no fool. chair back. Was he frightened? Newton, a young man ... 9 He understood, indeed feared, time 'As the Lord is my Savior, is it a creation of paradoxes. He knew Newton could be Lucifer? The eyes of it shine with the color of his of his earthly trusted with the secret, but it wouldn't do for domain. Are you one the calculator to survive Newton's time. So agents?" Wallace had incorporated a small, self- "Oh my, no! Look here, Master Newton, is destructing heat mechanism into it, After instruction of the species." But for the im- let me show you that (here no black

chicanery involved. It is all per- five years of use, it would automatically melt portance of his self-appointed mission, magic or itself into an unrecognizable, charred slag Wallace would have fainted dead away fectly understandable in terms of the laws

I automatic mass. But that would be enough time for its from the thrill of it all. of Nature. What have here is an task to be completed. The emancipation of calculator, a device to perform all of your Newton's mighty brain from tedium! "Is this the home of Isaac Newton?" he laborious mathematical labors." Pleased enormously at the thought of the asked in a voice quavering with the trem- great good he was about to confer, Wallace bling tones normally used by lovers about So saying, Wallace squeezed the sides set the time and space coordinates for to reveal their deepest feelings. of the calculator case together, releasing merry old England, flipped the power The young man, of medium height and pressure snap-fittings, and flipped the switch on, and vanished. with thick hair already showing signs of case open on a hinge at the top. Revealed gray, swung open the door and replied, "My to Isaac were fhe innards of the electronic

Materializing in the Lincolnshire coun- home it is, indeed, stranger. Come into the marvel—a tightly packed interior of printed tryside in the spring of 1666, he began his parlor, please, before the wetness takes circuit boards, a mass of integrated cir-

rendezvous with destiny. It was the second you ill." cuitry, the small LED display, and the and final year of the greal bubonic plague, Isaac followed Wallace into the room and sealed nuclear battery. Isaac stared in- and Newton, seeking refuge from the stood quietly watching as his visitor re- tently at the sight, and Wallace could see agony and death plundering London and moved his soaked coat and hat. The porta- the natural curiosity of Newton's great mind threatening his- college of Trinity at Cam- ble time machine was gently placed on the begin to drive away the initial apprehension. bridge, had returned home to work in se- floor next to a wall. The calculator was snug "Butwhere are the gears, levers, springs, clusion. The years of the Black Death were and safe in its plastic case in Wallace's and ratchets to carry out the calculations? that Newton's golden years, when the essen- shirt pocket. "Thank you, Maste.r Newton. All I see is a black box with lights glow tials of calculus would be worked out, when May we sit while we talk?-! am atraid you red —and how is that done, where is the the colored spectrum of white light would, may wish to take some time to consider my lamp or candle to provide the light! —and be explained, and when the principle of the words." many little isolated fragments of strange law of gravitation would be grasped. But shapes. There is clearly nothing in your box

how much easier it would all be if Newton Motioning to a chair near the fable, Isaac that moves!" of were released from the binding chains pulled a second chair from a darkened "Oh, it is all done with electronics, Master " '

Newton! The central processing unit has his number is six hundred threescore and beast from hell, or by the heavens above, access to a solid-state memory that six.!' shall destroy you!"

contains the decoding logic necessary to - As he shrilled these words, Isaac implement the appropriate algorithmic Rising lo his feet, Newton tell back into brought the poker down in a wild swing that processes to provide the answers to the his chair. "Your cursed box bears the brand barely missed Wallace's head.

specific requests entered through these of its master. There can be no doubf now, it Struck dumb with' confusion at the un- buttons. The actual performance ot the box is the creation of the fallen archangel!" controlled outburst, Wallace stuffed the is achieved by the controlled motion of Wallace was aghast at Isaac's violent calculator into his shirt, grabbed his hat, electrons and holes in suitably doped semi- reaction. The 17th century genius had now coat, and time machine and rushed from conductor material under the influence of stumbled backward from his chair and had the house. As he hurried into the cold, wet electric fields induced—" Wallace, still grasped a poker from the hot coals of the night, he turned back, just once, to see

overcome by his excitement, had rambled fireplace. "Wait, please wait! Watch this. I'll Isaac Newton framed in the light of the on wildly without thought of the essentially multiply two other numbers together for open door. "Go, go, you foul messenger infinite technological gap that separated you, watch!" Wallace quickly punched in from the Lord of Evil! Back into your stinking

himself from Newton. the data, and then the answer gleamed pit of burning hell-fire! This is a house that

"Stop, stop," cried Isaac. "I understand steadily in burning red characters on the honors the Divine Trinity and is no haven for only a few ot the words you use and nothing LEDs. Isaac's eyes first went wide with fear the likes of you!" Wallace rushed away into

at all of their meaning! But it is obvious that as he again saw the wizard electronics do the blackness, the time machine bouncing for calculations to be performed, mechan- their marvelous assignment, and then he unheeded upon his chest. ical work must be done, and that implies shut them light. motion. Pascal's adding machine has Wallace was becoming desperate—this He ran, for how long he couldn't recall,

shown the veracity of that. I say again, noth- wasn't the way it was supposed to be! until he fell exhausted next to a stream run-

ing moves in the box. How can it work?" "Don't you see — imagine the tedious work, ning heavy with the rain. Tears of rage, Wallace was embarrassed. The mistake the mind-deadening labor this machine will fruslration, and shock streamed from his of overlooking the hundreds of years of eyes. Rejected by the great Newton! Well, progress after Newton's time was one a damn him! Wallace flung the calculator into child might make. "I am sorry, Master New- the stream in his terrible anger and acti- ton. I'm going too fast for you." Isaac looked vated the return coordinates. He faded at Wallace with a frown, but Wallace failed from Newton's world as quickly and as

technology. It was just too much, and be- ure before the Lord God Jehovah. Taking sides, there was the danger! The potential quill in hand, he wrote the first of the many :ne paradoxes of all that knowledge out of hundreds of thousands of words that his (s proper time sequence! Could Newton, in religious tracts would devour from his allot- tfinocence, reveal some critical bit of save you from. And it is yours!" ted lime. Knowledge oul of its natural place in his- "Yes? But only for" the exchange of my ory? Wallace hesitated, and seeing the soul! That is always the Devil's price for his Five years later, long after Newton had suspicion grow again in Isaac's eyes, he seductive gifts from Hell!" returned to Cambridge, a group of picnick- 'ealized he had to do something, anything, As Isaac shrieked these last words at ing children were frightened when a near- immediately. Wallace, he raised the poker over his head. by stream suddenly erupted into a geyser

I "You cannot deny your own eyes," an- "Begone, you emissary of the Dark World! I of steam. Moments later, as the eruption

swered Wallace. "Let me show you it works. know now you must be in the employ of the subsided, the bravest (or most foolhardy] of Ill divide two numbers for you with just the Father of Ihe Antichrist, buf the Lord God the boys cautiously examined the stream-

punch of a few buttons. Watch this." And, at Almighty will protect me if I do not waver in bed—all he found were some twisted, hoi random, he entered 81 ,918 divided by 123. my resolve. Begone, or I'll strike your brains pieces of what he thought was a hard black Poor Wallace, of all the numbers to use, out on the floor where you stand!" rock, and he tossed them back. The inci- ihey were the worst. Isaac's eyes were wide with fear nearly dent was soon forgoften.

Within milliseconds the answer glowed rolling back to show all white. Spittle brightly in fiery red characters. Wallace sprayed from his mouth as he yelled at Well over 300 years later, Wallace John looked with pride af the result and then, Wallace, who stared in shock at the wild Steinhope reappeared in his own time. He already enjoying in his mind what he knew man who threatened him with death. was essentially the same man as before he would be Isaac's amazement, turned his "Please, please, listen to me, please!! left—kind, generous, and sensitive. Ready eyes to the great man. What he saw made beg you to understand— I'm a scientist, 'to come to the aid of any man or beast that his spine lingle and the gooseflesh stand just like you. The concept of the devil, and might need help, he was giving of himself

high on his neck! Newton had fallen to his all it stands for, is contrary to everything I to a fault. As far as his friends were con- knees, with raised eyes bulging and hands believe. How could I be in the devil's em- cerned, in fact, he had even improved (nat-

if as in prayer ploy, when I don't even accept his exis- urally, they didn't know what had brought

"The mark of the Beast, it is the mark of tence? You must believe me!" about the welcome change, but if they had,

the Beast! It is so written in the Book of "Blasphemy!" screamed Isaac. "Your they would have applauded it). Revelalion— 'Here is wisdom. Lethim that own words condemn you. Todenylhe real- Wallace John Steinhope, you see, never hath understanding count the number of ilyof Satan in a sinful world is to deny that of again had another kind word for Newton, or

the beast: for it is the number of man; and God, too. Now leave my home, you dark for that matter, any words for him at all.OO Gilbert Williams portrays a universe of archetypes

CELESTIAL VISITATIONS

painlings of Gilbert Williams, a Theyoung California artist now living in Marin County, are good examples of what visionary art is all about. The images are dreamlike— landscapes filled with glowing color, forms that could have sprung from your own unconscious, painstaking in their attention to symbolic detail.

"When I work," Williams says, "I start from a general idea that grows and takes on a life and direction of its own. I don't know the direction a

painting will take until I start really getting into it. The process is one of " nonverbal evolution Williams was born and raised in Los Angeles. He has had little formal training, relying instead on his own imagination and development of technique. In 1973 Williams moved to Mount Shasta, California, an area he describes as "steeped in metaphysi- cal legend and natural beauty." There he met his wife, Valerie, and produced most of the paintings shown here. Williams is an exponent of visionary art, a genre that emerged in northern California with its spiritual home in the llluminarium Gallery, in Mill Valley. The movement grew out of the psyche- delic and fantastic art of the Sixties

it . and.Seventies, and combines spiritual seeking with an eye for detail. Its roots, however, lie deeper, with the surrealist painters of the Twenties — most especially Salvador Dali and Giorgio de Chirico. The bidet and satiric edge of Ihe the '•Among most surrealists is gone now; visionary art searches tor the next trans-

potent of symbols are the formation in man. It is an optimistic art, akin to science in its humanistic view man's medieval unicorn, of potential. The futurist trend in Williams's art is apparent: saucer-shaped representing innocence; objects moving through a light-dazzled sky: man-made con- the jewel, denoting structions floating in space: strange buildings on alien land- scapes Although Williams uses potent images from the transcendence; past, wisdom and such as winged horses, sailing ships, spiritual messengers, mys- the pyramid, for tical roses, and gigantic statuary, his work suggests the next step in mankind's development — a step foreshadowed science firmness and stability^ by as well. It looks forward to a time when we will live out among the stars and discover in the newness of the universe the ancient symbols of man's dreaming past.OO

Clockwise, from below: Sky Messenger. Dragon Song; Sea of Visions.

M , BY GORDON R. DICKSON

Nobody in Congress or the federal govern- ment or the public has put forward a case for a U.S. manned Mars Mission," Press said in an interview. "And if the Soviets de- cide to spend $70 billion to tand men on Mars in live years, we say: God bless them"

-Los Angeles Times, reprinted in the Minne- apolis Star. Thursday, October 12. 1978- (from an interview with Frank Press, science adviser to U.S. President James Carter and chairman of the presidential review commit- tee whose four-month study formed the basis for Carter's policy statement on the space effort.)

There was no mail at the Main Min- neapolis Post Oftice for Merlin Swenson. Almost no one got any mail at General De- livery on Mondays now. But people went there, anyway, although lately the air condi- tioning was always off. Merlin left the post office and walked slowly the twenty-seven blocks to the slave market. It was a blue-bright July morning. already turning hot, and he could (eel the heat of the sidewalk through the thin soles of his shoes. At Twelfth Avenue and Third Street, he stepped on something hard and stopped in a panic to check the sole of the

PAINTING BY MICHEL HENRICOT .

"I've waiting nine months," Merlin right shoe. But whaleva' it was, he discov- America's civil space policy centers on been ered, standing on one foot, had not gone these Jenets: that activities will reflect a said gruffly He was sorry now he had talked through— although the sole was now like balanced strategy ol application, science to this man at all, Luckily, Church seemed to soft cardboard and gave at a touch. and technology development ... It is be the only one who had heard his mention He started walking again, The shoes neither feasible nor necessary at this time of a professional job interview. They were all would be too expensive for him to replace, to commit the U.S. to a high-challenge in the same straits. Church lowered his these days, and there was no hope of get- spa* e to voice. ;'" Who with?" ting any worthwhile work without them. Apollo , "Where? Merlin said. When the soles finally wore through there The man stopped reading, folded his "International Positions." would be several things he could do to paper and turned to Merlin. "One o'clock." Church again. sniffed the patch them, temporarily, but it would be the "Can you imagine that?" he said. "Just "God!" said He air. took a shower, too." beginning of the end. And it was inevitable fifteen years ago, a While House statement "You that they would wear through. Any day now. says that. What were they using tor brains?" Merlin's small, bitter laugh caught in his In the narrow waiting room of the slave "What good docs it dote keep re-reading throat market, the hard, upright chairs along the that sort of thing?" Merlin said dully. "It "Not damn likely!" he said. "I used the

floor, it cost walls were all filled. The air conditioning, doesn't change anything." washbasin on my crash and me blind?" three hundred for five minutes. My own - roaring from the ventilator grills, barely re- "But how could anyone be so towel, hundred to hire moved the stink oi unwashed bodies. Mer- It was a trite question. Merlin felt no urge soap and and a guard." lin, himself, was clean this morning. It had to answer, but he was not surprised to hear somebody to stand had changed, cost him, but this was a special day. it asked. Although probably his own age, Church's attilude He was "You planning to work dressed like that?" the other man had the kind ot appearance now utterly the awestruck neophyte looking asked the hiring z crk behind She desk. His that made him seem barely out of adoles- at an old hand. narrow, white face, under an. upright shock cence. Curly black hair, slight body, pate "You're office-crashing?" he said. "How of brown hair, was pinched by an expres- face — an innocent in a time when inno- dangerous is if?" sion of habitual annoyance. "If you know what you're doing, it's work- able," Merlin said. "I am if you can get me something clean for half a day." Merlin said. In the mirror tile "You carry a knife?" behind the clerk's desk he saw his own "Of course." Merlin felt trapped by the face, square, large-boned, trained now to conversation but unable to think of a way to narrow waiting show no expression at all. "I've got an en- & In the room change the subject. "That doesn't mean always around gineering job interview this afternoon." of the slave market, much. There's someone "Oh?" said the clerk, staring at his com- who's better with a knife. The real trick is the air conditioning barely puter screen. He punched the keys of the knowing who's sharing the otfice with you. You've terminal. 'All right. You're on the half-day removed the stink and all of you take turns on watch, got to know how to wheel and deal with the I right much list. can tell you now there's not of unwashed bodies. Merlin chance." hall-patrol' guards, too." clean this softly. "I could manage another ten percent," was Church breathed out He looked enviously at Merlin's large frame. Merlin said. morning. It had cost him, but couldn't it," said. The clerk's shrug told the true story. It "I do he this was his special day. was too much to expect a clean job some- 9 Merlin looked at him. He was quite ready

not it. where for just half a day. Still, the chance to believe that the other could do could not be passed up. Money was "every- would not be able to survive in one of the thing. empty office buildings that had been con- Merlin waited tor a chair; then, sitting, he verted to dormitories. Only the fittest sur- tried to rest with his eyes open. You could vived very long. live?" to lose your, connection with a place like this if "Where do you he asked, 7 '' ihey caught you dropping off— that ex- "Does it matter new Merlin finally said. change the subject. plained the hard chairs and'the ioy air con- "There 'd still be a chance for this country "I've only been married five months. My ." I, got a with in- ditioning. Everybody wanted a safe place if . . the other broke off. "Oh. my name's Wife and we've room my to sleep. But this was the best of the slave Sam Church. My degree's in electronics. laws." ." markets. They were honest and made a How about you?" "Wife . . Merlin caught himself just in specialty of hiring people who had de- "Flow mechanics, gravityless." time. He had had a sudden, unbearably grees. The Qualified Laborer Is a Consci- "Graviiyless? You must really have poignant, vision of someone to go home to, only one other person and a room where entious Laborer was their slogan, Merlin thought you'd make it with an oft-world job. of you. drifted into a mindless period hearing noth- But don't you know you shouldn't wear you could be alone, just the two

asked. . ing until the man next to him began reading good clothes for this kind of place? No "You're married too?" Church aloud from a morning newspaper. telling what kind of work they'll offer you." "Yes. She's on the west coast." "All hope of possible U.N. assistance for The assumption of experience by some- "Oh." the U.S. economy seemed doomed today one obviously new here irritated Merlin Church did not make the mistake of ask- that— there were limits even in light of comment by the Soviet Represen- enough to rouse him from the chronic ing more than apparently. families tative, Anatoly Pirapich, that this country fatigue he shared with most adults nowa- to his innocence, Many had historically refused to fund its space days. had been split by the galloping inflation program adequately and that aid now to "I'm dressed like this because I've got a and the lack of jobs. U.S. orbital industries, in particular would job interview this afternoon," he said. "In "Do you hear from her much?" Church be an open invitation to impoverished na- my own field." asked. tions to rely on other countries for large He was sorry .he had mentioned it, the "No." investment capital. moment the words were out of his mouth. The monosyllable finally stopped "Pirapich read aloud in session a 1978 Sam Church's pale face' was suddenly Church's questioning. They sat a while at quote from the Los Angeles Times, re- wiped naked of pretension; it was now longer in silence; then, glancing the printed in the Minneapolis Star on October desperate with longing. clock, Merlin saw that it was almost noon. twelfth of that year; "Qh, God!" Church breathed. "You really His mindless period had lasted longer than

"'The While House statement says have an interview?" it seemed. He stood up. went over to the desk and told the clerk he was checking "Hurry! Mr. Ghosh is waiting for you. Merlin knew his bitterness was showing. He out. Straight ahead and to your right!" felt a twinge of fear at the though! that he "Right." The clerk punched keys on his Merlin hurried into the corridor beyond might already have prejudiced the inter- computer terminal, not looking up. As he her desk and found his way to the open view, but the words had come by them-

turned away from the desk, Merlin bumped doorway of a wide room, brightly lit by a selves before he could stop them. Ghosh, into Church, also on his feet. wall-wide window. The room was pleasant however, did not seem oflended. "I haven't gotten anything all morning with air conditioning and the green of pot- "Very true," he said, nodding. "But you

here, either," said Church. "Do you mind-if I ted plants. Behind a wood-and-chrome can't blame otf-Earth installations and fac- walk along with you?" desk sat a dark-skinned man in his forties, tories 'for giving first chance to their own "Yes," said Merlin. wearing a chalk-striped blue suit— the nationals. Many people, you know, want to

Church blinked. "Yes? You do mind?" value of which would have given Merlin fi- work in space these days." "That's right. No company" nancial security for a year. Ram Ghosh, As many, thought Merlin, as want to enter "Oh." Church fell back. Merlin turned said the nameplate on his desk. But his heaven. and went past him and out the door into eyes were not unkind, and he did not exhibit "No experience," Ghosh went on. "Well, midday heat that was now like radiation the condescension, the air of veiled we could wish you had. But, in this case,

from the hearth ot a blast furnace. exasperation and impatience with Ameri- the fact you don't isn't a complete barrier. I

He walked back the way he had come, cans, that so many foreigners showed can offer you a job in your specialty. But I downtown toward the International Trade these days. warn you to treat this offer, and alt informa-

Center. On the way he stopped at a dis- "Mr. Swenson? Sit down, please." Ram tion concerned with it, as a matter of sec- count market and bought a quarter-liter foil Ghosh's English was almost accentless, recy whether you accept the job or not." package of uncooked Quaker Oats for with only a slight prolongation of the vow- Merlin felt an icy shock that gave way to a

eighteen dollars. A small detour took him to els. Merlin took a chair. Ghosh tapped the glow of hope so powerful that he feared it Almsbury Park, where he ripped open the papers on his desk with the nail of an index showed on his face. package and ate the dry oats by the hand- finger. "Of course." he said, slowly and clumsily. ful, washing Ihem down with water from a "Six months," he said, "You've waited a "Professional confidentiality ... I under- public fountain. The oat flakes, under their long time for a job offer from us." stand."

dustiness, had an almost nutly taste. They "Lots of people wait longer," Merlin said. "Good," said Ghosh, smiling again. "All were the most food available for the money, Ghosh smiled at him, a little sadly. right. The job will be in the metals-forming he felt better with something in his and "Yes . . ."he said. He became more brisk. group of an electronics research unit to be stomach. "Courage is food; food is cour- "Well, the matter at hand is that you now placed in high orbit in the next two years. age." Someone had told him that when he have an offer. Your education was in null- Your work would be classified and would young. was gravity flow mechanics, I see. But no expe- have to be explained to you later if you

ft was nearly one o'clock. He went on to rience?" accept the job. But it's within your ability the International Trade Center, to the office "They aren't hiring many U.S. citizens to and education, and you'd be paid at going of International Positions, and gave his work outside the atmosphere these days." rates for a space-qualified engineer of your name to the receptionist. "Oh, yes." She checked her computer screen. "Mr. Ghosh will see you. Just a few minutes ... if you'll sit down."

It was, of course, more than just a few minutes. His mouth began to feel dry from the oat flakes, and he got to his feet.

"Would I have time to find a drinking foun- tain?" he asked. "I'm sure you will," she smiled at him. She was thin-, in her forties, and in spite of hav- ing a steady job, she seemed prey to inner anxiety. "There's one just outside, to your left." He went out through the glass door and found the fountain. After drinking, as he straightened up. he heard a throat cleared behind him. He turned to see Church standing there.

"I hope you don't mind," Church said. "I just wanted to see how you'd come out ..." Under his immediate irritation, some- thing he thought he had long since re- pressed, something dangerous- sympathy for another human being- stirred in Merlin. Church was so helpless, so inoffensive, it was impossible not to feel sorry for him. 'All right," said Merlin. "But don't hang around here. Wait for me outside and I'll tell

it you about when I leave." "Thanks," said Church, looking up at him. "Really, I mean thanks!" "I'm not doing anything special for you," said Merlin. He went back into the .office. y mo'isicrs, listen up! We're running over budget. " "Oh, good. There you are," said the re- So tef's fry to destroy Tokyo in one take. ceptionist as he stepped through the door, '

," wary. teristic of newcomers like himself, he was specially and experience . . Church nodoed. his face suddenly Merlin's mind reeled. The pay rate Ghosh "Go in there right now," said Merlin. "You unable to resist the luxury of immediately was talking aboul would make him com- may 'be able to get hired yourself. Tell the soaking himself in the shower. shower fortably well oft in any other society In the secretary you heard about it at the post He was stepping out of the when familiar-looking at I man standing world. Here in the U.S.. it would make him office— anything. Just don't tell them sent he saw a get a wealthy, by comparison with those at the you. The name of the outfit is Trans-Space one of the washbasins. He circled to income level at which he had been living (or Electronics. Remember, you didn't hear glimpse of the other's face, reflected in the mirror the washstands. It was the last five years. about it from me." long above

"I should say, that's what your pay rate Church stared as if he had just heard Church. would be once you were in orbit and on the some unknown language. Then his eyes "You made it!" he said. job," Ghosh continued. "During your train- opened wide. He spun on his heel, ran to Church turned around. ing period, here on the surface, you'd be the entrance of the offices and let himself "Yes, I made it!" he said. They shook paid at a standby rate of half your space- hands solemnly ." "I didn't at any of the processing . you borne pay. Should you accept . Merlin departed, clutching his check see Merlin said, a towel In a euphoric daze. Merlin found himself and the other papers. sessions," wrapping signing papers, shaking Ghosh's hand and His transportation. vouchers got him on around his waist. .receiving congratulations as a new em- the evening flight to Salt Lake City. He "I had some special interviews," said ployee of something called Trans-Space boarded carrying a new suitcase with noth- Church. I'm to be considered for cadre. If betier quarters." Electronics. ing but his old clothes and shoes in it. After could mean a move fo at "I "You'll report to the training center in being so poor for so long, he found he "Cadre?" Merlin stared him. thought Huntsville, Utah," Ghoshsaid. "The recep- could not bring himself to throw things all cadre would be previous employees."

"I rather have it that way. Bui all the necessary infor- away. think they'd tionist outside has ."

project's expanding so fast . . mation, transportation vouchers and the It was only the first of his conflicts with the this ." an unconscious habits of near-starvation. "But how did you get picked for that?" rest . . He coughed. "It you could use ." "Well ..." Church looked at the open advance on your first month's wages . . door to the latrine. He stepped over so he "I . . . yes," Merlin said. He had been so overwhelmed by good fortune that he had could see through it! then stepped back "1 completely forgotten he would need de- again. think they picked me because I cent clothes, luggage, a dozen other told them I'd had experience. Didn't you?" wood-and-chrome » Behind a I things he had once taken ''or granted bulno "How could I? haven't ever been in longer owned. desk sat a dark-skinned space." "My secretary can give you a check for "Well, neither have I, of course. But it man. But his eyes were not up to a third of your first pay period's doesn't hurt to fib a little. By the time they wages." unkind and he did not check, they'll have already tried you out in a position. If they like what you've done; then "Thank voir," said Merlin. "I don't know exhibit the condescension and how to thank you." it doesn't matter, and if they're displeased, impatience with Americans that just tell them you didn't under- "Not at all." Ghosh smiled. "I must admit I then you stand the original question or blame it on like this job. I've had less happy ones. If you so many foreigners know of anyone else whom you think might computer error. They're not going to go to ," showed these days. . . 9 the trouble of checking personally with . workout for us . "I'm afraid not," Merlin said quickly. The whoever it was that hired you," hard years had taught him not to recom- "It could still catch up with you," Merlin mend anyone. There was too much risk; the said. other person's actions- might recoil againsl "Oh, I don't think so." Church's manner one's own record. Life had become too When he got to the training camp at was almost airy. "Weil. I've gotto run. One of brutal for casual favors. Huntsville, he found the Recepiion Center the advantages of being considered like

They 'shook hands and Merlin went out. closed for the day and only the thought of this is that I can phone from the offices, With the advance check and other maleri- the consequences to his employment rec- instead of stancing in lire like the rest of I'd call." als in hand, he stepped back out into the ord, if he should be picked up for vagrancy, you. I told my wife lobby of the Trade Building. For a moment drove him to a hotel. There, in the palatial "Yes, see you later." said Merlin. he hesilated. his mind whirling, unable to privacy of his single room, in the luxury of He watched fhe other man go. Later, think of what to do first. his mattressed bed, he finally fell asleep. dressed and standing in line himselt at the He turned toward the drinking fountain. In the morning he reported to the Recep- phone booths in the communications build- The cold water tasted like expensive wine. tion Center He was put through process- ing, he felt his first touch of envy Even if Then he saw Church, ing, presented with a schedule of refresher Church's lie caught up with him, it was al-

"I got the job," said Merlin. and training classes and assigned to a bar- most worth it not to have to wait here like "God!" said Church. racks with other new employees. The bar- this. The camp had a direct satellite "Engineering, in my specialty," said Mer- racks were two-story wood frame build- hookup. Long-distance phone charges upstairs against first six-months' lin. "Half-pay at the trainee level until I go ings, wilh a large dormitory room could be put your into space, then full pay." and a day room and a latrine downstairs. salary. Everyone just hired was desperate Church said nothing, but there was a White partitions surrounded the individual to talk with someone, with the mail as unre- look on his face— one of incredulity and beds in the dormitories, giving each em- liable as it was and the cost of ordinary envy and disbelief, all mixed. ployee the privacy of a tiny cubicle. phoning asfronomically out of reach. phone at last and called And it was a look that touched Merlin's There were no women in the barracks. He got to a inner core. In this moment of incredible He was told that new employees were everyone he could think of on the west happiness, he saw himself standing where segregated by sex, even those husband- coast who might know where his wife could Church was, hearing of someone else's and-wife pairs who had signed. their -five--' be reached. But. as he had half-expected, good fortune. He knew too well what the year employment contracts logether. he learned nothing. With his last call he other must be feeling. Impulsively, he In the latrine he found showers in which hired a detective agency in San Francis- spoke. hot water was available day and night. co—another indulgence that would have "You've got an electronics degree, you Soap and towels were provided. Although been impossible two days before, but his said''" he 'understood thai this must be charac- only real chance of finding her. Ona had no

64 engineering degree, but (here might be peace. tector, and he felt embarrassed at not giv- other work this openings on space factory. The next few weeks were filled with ing Church more credit. In a way this warn- Even if that did not pan out. his own salary classes and training. He found himself ing repaid the favor Merlin had done him by would be enough to make life secure for going to bed exhausted every night. He did putting him on the track toward getting his her, and once a year he would be getting not miss Church, so it was something of a job. It testified lo an awareness of obliga- furloughs to .come back and see her. shock, when he was next in the central tion in Church that Merlin had not ex- He returned to the barracks, looked for administration building, to see him there, pected. 'hunch's cubicle and found him sifting on dressed in a regular civilian office suit. Mer- He got the contingency payment ap-

: bed. talking with of two the other lin had come in to get approval for a draw proved and stood in line at the phones to against his wages to pay the detective tell the detective agency "Oh, hello, Merlin," Church said, looking agency, "Fine, fine!" the voice of the woman at the. up. "Come in and shut the-, door. We're just "Church!" he said, as the other walked agency crackled in his ear. "I think we've comparing notes on the situation here." hastily by him in the corridor. "Sam just about located your wife, Mr. Swenson, He introduced Merlin to the other two: a Churchl" With this payment against expenses we niddle-aged, slightly overweight man .Church looked around and saw him. He should find her this week." named Stoller Fread, with the patient lace came over to shake hands. "Splendid," said Merlin. "You'll call me?" a basset hound, and a blond young man "Merlin!" he said. "How're you doing? I 'As soon as we've got something to re-

named Bill Sumash. who looked as if he meant to get down to the barracks and look port. Now, Mr. Swenson, it was explained to

; just out of school. The comparing of you up, but they've got us ail so busy here you that your payment in full would have to ." notes Church referred to was clearly a gos- on planning . . be in our hands before we released any sip and rumor session. Merlin sat on a "You did make cadre, then!" said Merlin. hard information?" ;r of Church's bed and listened. ' Good for you!" "Of course." said Merlin. "I've already "Oh, it's a scam," Church was saying. "Thanks," said Church. He lowered his talked to my employers here, and there'll be 'The idea's not so much to set up a factory voice and looked around, but the corridor no problem getting an advance for the rest. station in orbit as to get their share of U.N. They just want to be sure I've really found development funds for nations with low her, and they won't have to turn around and GNP like ours." " give me another advance next week." "But," said Stoller, "the U.N. doesn't fund "Good. We'll be calling you this week, Mr. private corporations," Swenson," "The point is isn't a private corporation," said • that the U.S. lost He went back to the barracks, his mind Shurch. "It's a consortium of corporations the original virtues full of Ona and her happiness when she with federal backing. As that, of course, it would learn what had happened to him. that made it what it was, " Church "'II can't gei U.N. funds directly, but the He had completely forgotten about

.1 government can. and then make said. "And like an Church's warning, when, two days later, he funds of its own available to the consor- old, fat-bellied ex-athlete, was called out of class wish orders to report jm." to Conference Suite 460 in the Head- it "But that's a great thing, isn't it?" said wouldn't exert quarters Building. Suite 460 turned out to Sumash. "it could fhe be beginning of a itself while a bad situation be a spacious room with a long table ca- rational space-based industry, after all," pable of seating perhaps sixteen people. "Don't said. ran downhill..." 3 be a dupe," Church "This But when Merlin stepped in, the only ones I country's too impoverished to maintain a there were a fiftiesh, tired-looking man and space-based industry. If we'd already had a woman of about the same age, raw- one— if the government had pushed one boned and with graying red hair. They were when they should've, twenty years seated side by side at the far end of the

— we could be in a position to compete was momentarily deserted. "I really was table.

wadays. But we're not." going to get in touch wifh you. in fact. Work- "Come sit here. Mr. Swenson," said the "We out," said 'dropped Sumash. "Now ing in this place, I hear about things ahead woman. She pointed to the first chair on the % don't have the chips to get back into ihe of time. They've got wind of some agitators long side of the table, at her right. He game." in the trainee corps. They're going to begin obeyed.

"The point is that the U.S. lost the original making inquiries tomorrow. I wanted to "Now," said Ihe woman, glancing at a virtues that made it what' it was," Church warn you." printout sheet before her. "Of those trainees ;aid. "And like an old, fat-bellied ex-athlete, "Me?" Merlin laughed, "I don't know any presently in your barracks, Mr. Swenson, it wouldn't exert itself while a bad situation agitators." were fhere any you knew before you came ran downhill and got to be a situation no- "Of course not. I don't think there actually here?" rody could get out of. You're right, you are any. That's why I was going lo warn you. "No," said Merlin. He did not have to stop ;now, we don't have. the chips to get back Investigations like this are under pressure. and think in order to answer. "No" came nto the space game— and we never will. They've got to produce results to justify automatically to everyone's lips these days. ir golden is gone." age whoever authorized them. That means It was a "yes" answer that called for thought Merlin got up. He had heard all this too they're going to be picking up on anything and hesitation. often. It was all true, but life had no room for at all that can be made to seem socially The woman looked again at her printout. such large concerns now. Life lying in destructive. was You remember how you sat in So- far the man had said nothing, It oc- the blessed privacy of his cubicle and a on some of those sessions in my cubicle curred to Merlin that the psychological pro- dream about Ona being found by the de- file they had worked up on him might have tective agency, and of their being together "Once," said Merlin, indicated that he was more likely to trust a gain, "Only once? Well," said Church, "at any

"Sorry," he said to Church, "I can't keep rate, you know how harmless they were. I've "Do you know a Stoller Fread or a Bill ,"

. my eyes open. Next time . already told the investigation team' all about Sumash, Mr. Swenson?"

He nodded to the other two as he them and no one's worried. But just the "I think they're in the barracks." stepped to (he door of Church's cubicle! same, you might want to say you didn't "This Fread and Sumash," the woman to ." "Glad have . met you," he said, and a know anything about them . said, "have you ever noticed them talking moment later he was out on the barracks Merlin stared at Church. He had not together, or attempting to gather others in floor, headed for his own cubicle and thought of the other man in the role of pro- the barracks to talk?" .

"No," said Merlin. "What's- this?" Merlin asked. "Let's go." "Have either of them ever tried to talk to "Just your account to date. We need a They marched Merlin to the door of the car you privately, Mr. Swenson?" signature." building, put him in a gleaming white 'All right," said Merlin. bearing the Trans-Space emblem on its "No," said Merlin. "Not that I can re- member, anyway." He signed. The clerk took back the form front doors and rode with him to the com- "Do you know anyone here whom you and separated a top copy from a bottom pound by the entrance gale where person- might have cause to suspect as an activist one. He pushed the bottom copy to Merlin, nel on pass waited -far the. hover-bus into or subversive?" along with the other paper. Ogden. "I'm afraid," said Merlin, "I've been so He took both sheets and started. to turn "Who've you got there, Gus?" called the at the paper. Sud- guard at the gate, busy with the training courses. I haven't away, glancing second called back. He really had a chance to talk with the others denly, he stopped and turned hack. 'Another of them," Gus much." "What's this?" and his cohort walked a small distance otf

it that's all," said the and stood together, talking and glancing at 'Yes or no to the question I asked, Mr. "I just hand to you, Swenson?" clerk. He turned and walked out of sight Merlin from time to time. his stared out "Definitely no," said Merlin. "I haven't met inside the cage. Merlin turned back and mesh that fenced anyone like that." Merlin stared at the second paper, through the heavy wire compound. Beyond, he could see the "But you'd tell us if you did, wouldn't you. the of supply area, Mr. Swenson?" Termination Notice warehouse buildings the lines in the morning sunlight. I'd tell you anything I needed to, true or As ol the present date ... the blurred gray silhouettes false, thought Merlin grimly. I'd cry, dance, in Merlin's vision, then came back into "Merlin!" or crawl on the floor to keep this.job, now focus, ... services no longer required. He looked around, but saw no one. that 'Ona's almost found. After advances and expenses of the Cor- "Merlin, over here!" that along the fence to his "I surely would," he said aloud. poration, it has been determined the He looked down "Thank you." she said. The man con- balance of your employee account with left. About ten meters away was a gate, glanced at the tinued to sit. With eyes pouched in finely now padlocked. Merlin wrinkled flesh, he silently studied Merlin. guards, but they seemed indifferent to the Merlin was released, finally, and the next situation. He walked along the fence until looking be- few days went by swiftly. He struggled with he saw Sam Church's face his training courses and impatiently won- tween the vertical iron pipes that sup- dered when the detective agency would £ He was facing one of the ported the gate-door ." "I phone with word of Ona's whereabouts. "Merlin . . he said. got here as soon gray-uniformed ." But no call came. On the Thursday after as I could . . his security interview, he discovered a security guards. The other guard "I don't know what's happened. They're kicking me out without a chance to talk to memo in his message box that asked him was holding Merlin s to report to fhe Payroll Center at nine anyone!" Merlin clung to the bars. "It has to o'clock the next morning. arms in a painful backlock. be a computer error, or something like that.

it something to But how do I do anything about when He assumed it must have A dull throbbing without do with the last advance against his wages. they're running me out like this, a had already begun in the socket Annoyed that he would be late for his sec- chance to talk to anyone?" ." ond class of the morning, he hurried to the of each shoulder. 9 "You can't, ot course . . Church began. to Center, hoping that whatever it was would "Sam, listenl Try and get someone! not take too long. You're cadre. You can find out what went

. . At the Center he was directed to the wrong and tix it, can't you? Sam . can't Pay-Outs Cashier. Only one window was you?" open, with two security guards standing "Well . .."said Church. nearby. Merlin stood in line behind three Trans-Space Fiearorms snows an indebt- "You've got to! Don't you know what this men, two- of whom were cadre. From their edness of $43,419.72. Payment should be means? It's not just this job. What outfit, conversation, he assumed they were here made within three months, or arrange- anywhere, is going to hire me for anything to get an advance on wages. The third man ments must be made at the end of that time but slave labor as long as the records here It . . merely signed a torm and left. Now Merlin to repay any amount still outstanding say I was a subvert? I've got to get was facing the clerk behind the window. straightened out! What's the matter with "Merlin Swenson?" asked the clerk. He. "Come back here!" Merlin shouted you, Sam? Won't you even try?" searched below the counter level on his through the window— and found himself "Oh, I'll try," said Church. side and came up with two pieces of paper. seized from behind, his elbows pulled to- 'And something else— something else "Sign this," he said, pushing one ahead ward the small of his back and his whole, you can do for me right away, Sam, and it that of the other at Merlin. "The second one you body wrenched away from the window. won't be hard, Not for you. You know

keep." He was facing one of the gray-uniformed detective agency I had hunting my wife? With his. pen poised in his hand, Merlin security guards. The other guard was hold- They called, just Monday, and said they'd read the first paper ing Merlin's arms in a painful backlock. A almost tound her, that they'd be calling this ."

already begun in the week to tell me where she is. Sam . . "I . Merlin James Swenson, acknowledge dull throbbing had the following indebtedness to Trans-Space socket ot each shoulder. He tumbled in his shirt pocket and came Electronics Corporation, Limited; "You subverts are all alike," said the se- up with a pen and a piece of paper. He Advances: $43,432.54 curity guard facing Merlin, "The minute scribbled on the paper and passed it be- Per diem: 22,806.00 things stop going your way, you start yelling tween the vertical pipes into Church's Equipment issued: 28,099.10 and pretending you're being picked on. hands. Miscellaneous: 9,847.78 Well, you're fired and you're leaving. How "It's easy for you to phone out. Call them, ' Subtotal: $104,185.42 do you want to go? It's up .to you." Sam. Don't tell them what's happened to Less trainee wages Merlin choked back theTDubble of fury in me, but tell them they can reach me at— ." to date: 60,765.70 his chest. they can leave a message at . .

Total: $43.,419.72 "I'll go easy." he said. He stopped and searched his mind des- "Qood," said the guard. He nodded, and perately Signed the other guard released Merlin's arms. "I know!" he burst out. "You remember •tat slave markel m Minneapolis, where you reinstated with Trans-Space, if Church Church's last words were clear. He had in- lirst met rne? The Availab.les. Fifth and First could get to the right person — sured his own job. security by throwing the TAvenue North? Tell them ihey can leave a His thoughts broke off suddenly as he corporate people a substitute victim and

message for me there. I'll be back Monday. remembered Church's parting words. telling them that victim would deny every-

1 [ can pay off that dayclerk. and he'll go What had he meant by saying he couldn't rh.ngwh;:;n questioned. Then he made sure along with it." help it— that he had his own wife to think of? by advising Merlin to do just thai. "All right." Sam Church looked at him Understanding exploded in Merlin. A deep wave of rage erupted in Merlin.

strangely. "The haslard!" he screamed. It rose, crested, and broke. But fury was ." 'And another thing you can do for me. . He woke to the fact that he had half-risen useless. Church was out of reach and he He was interrupted by the roar of blowers out of his seat. Remembering where he had always been just what he was. The way

as the bus turned a corner into the com- was, he sank back down again. The few life was now, it had been up to Merlin to pound. other passengers on the bus and the driver, protect himself— and he had tailed to do

'All right, Swenson!" shouted one of the in his rear-view mirror, were all staring at so. He remembered, in The Availables" ' 7 guards. "Get over here! him. slave market, how he had taken Church for ." "Sam, listen, if you have a chance . . Merlin sat stunned, the whole pattern tak- an innocent. Not Church. He, himself, had "There's no more time, Merlin." Church ing shape before him like a puzzle picture been the innocent. was thrusting a white envelope at hrm be- that suddenly becomes comprehensible. Fifty-six hours later, at midnight, he

tween the pipes. "It's not much, but it's all I He remembered how Church had lied stumbled off the Greyhound bus at the could raise in a hurry." about having space experience in order to Minneapolis terminal. He had enough

Merlin took it automatically. The guards qualify for the cadre. He remembered money left for a week's crash space in one were coming for him. There was not even Church wanting io walk ccwntown with him of the office buildings-- but this late at e to take Church's hand, to his interview, Church meeting him there night, he would be taking unreasonable

n sorry, Merlin," said Church. "I'm re- after all— which he could only have done if chances. His roommates might be rela-

ally very sorry. I couldn't help it. I have my he had followed Merlin— and wanting to tively honest, but any stranger was fair own wife to think of." hang around and see how this perfect game for the pack. Better to take his The guards grabbed Merlin, whirled him stranger made out in an interview. Merlin chances on the streets than pay to lie around and marched him toward the bus. remembered the look. of terrible longing on awa*.e all night with his eyes open. Dazedly, he found himself aboard. Church's face when Merlin told of his own He headed east toward the University "Company billing, Jake," said one of the good fortune. How many limes, he won- area, where people would be on the streets guards. "This one to Denver Central. If he dered now, sickened, must Church have all nigh!. The time ,'iad been when someone pyes you any trouble, let us know." used that look on other people? like himself could ease his way into a party They stood back. There were no other He should have. been on his guard when of students, go back with them to whatever jers boarding. The doors of the bus Church warned him to deny having been at apartment, room or warehouse they were closed with a pneumatic hiss. The driver any of the obviously subvert talk sessions headed to, and pick up free crash space lifted the vehicle on the downward thrust of in Church's cubicle. The meaning of by pretending to pass out in a corner. But

:s underjets until it floated free. He turned it t its own length and headed toward the highway. Merlin, catching at teatbacks to keep his jalance in the turning bus, stumbled to the mid-section of the vehicle and sat down.

Only then he realized he was still clutching /elope that Church had given him. f Numbly, he opened it. Inside were twenty

lundred-dollar bills. He laughed bitterly. This, together with the twenty-five hundred or so he had in his wallet, might be just enough to buy a bus ticket back to Minneapolis. He would have

to take a bus to get there by next Monday If I you were caught hitchhiking, the police either beat you up so badly that you ran the chance of being crippled, or shot you on some pretext or other to save themselves the trouble of beating you up. He tucked the envelope into an inside pocket. His old work clothes and every- thing else he owned were getting farther behind him by the minute. Once back in Minneapolis he would have to work in what

he was wearing now— lor as long as it stood up. Ironically, he had been saving his good new shoes lately by wearing his old ones with the paper-thin soles; he had found out that the instructors did not care: Shoes would be a critical matter once he W- went back to daywork. The money that I would buy his bus ticket could be used to purchase a pair of heavy work boots in-

stead. With those, at slave markets in. Den- ver, he could last indefinitely. Given enough time, anything could happen. He could be those easy days were gone. The best to come around we again as

if I than what I gave you they were left alone;' and so he made it opened Ihe half-door in the barricade that here had more

through until Monday, and was waiting first joined his desk to the wall on either side of it already?" in line outside the door when the slave mar- to create a small privacy space. Merlin "Oh, what the hell!" the clerk said. He left ket opened at six o'clock that morning. walked in and followed him through a door the table, sat down before the phone termi- The clerk came up the street to the door, in the back wall to a tiny office. nal at the desk, and punched buttons. The recognized him as a familiar face and "Here you are, "the clerk said. His tone screen lit up with the face of a young man. " grunted at him sleepily before unlocking was cheerful and friendly once the office "Yes7 he said, "who's calling, collect,

all inside. took been closed behind them. He . the door and letting them He door had his time', yawning as he set up for the day pulled down a sheet of paper that was "Merlin Swenson, The Availables." said Finally, he was ready, seated behind his Ihumbtacked to a cork bulletin board. "I the clerk. Availables or I computer screen and keys. didn't understand a word of it, but I figured "I'm sorry. don't have any "Name?" ho said ritually. no" glancing up. someone like you would be along asking Merlin Swenson on my list lo accept."

it. it!" "Merlin. Merlin Swenson. Did a long- for it. That'll be two hundred and eighty." "Well then, just forget man. Forget d stance- phone call com;- ne r e for mc-7 He kept his grip on the paper until Merlin barked the clerk. "You people called here.

held If to talk to us, sure don't Now look," said Merlin, swiftly, "I know this had counted over the money. Then he you don't want we

it. isn't the sort of thing you do, but I can it out in his fingertips. Merlin snatched want to talk to you!" reimburse you for your trouble. Did a long "This is no message!" said Merlin. "It's 'Are you Merlin Swenson?" asked the ." distance call come in here for me. Thurs- only a telephone number!" young face. "If you're Merlin . . day afternoon or Friday?" "You expected more?" The clerk was "Me? Merlin Swenson? You people must "Maybe," said the clerk and looked sour. curious. "That's all they gave me." think a lot of yourselves. Merlin Swenson got to call long dis- doesn't answer any outfit that calls and "It was collect. I had to pay two hundred "But now I've them talk I for him to call back. Lei me and eighty to accept it for you." tance!" said Merlin. "And you cleaned me eaves word " called him, I'll decide "Two hundred and — out. I don't have any money left!" to whoever and "Look, man!" said the clerk loudly, "You "Call them collect," advised the clerk. whether it's something to bother Merlin want to stiff me on money I've already paid "I can't call collect to a detective Swenson about" "Just said the face, "let out for you, that's all right. I'll live. Bui don't agency," said Merlin, desperately. "And I've" a minute," me ."

check with . . "Never mind. Forget it!" shouted the clerk, and warded off Merlin with one hand. "I've wasted enough time wilh you already. ." and all you've done is stall . . "Wait. Wait just a minute," said theother

"I think it was Maria Balsom who wanted to ."

talk to Merlin Swenson. Just a minute . . The screen went blank for a moment, then the face of the woman Merlin had spo- ken with before at the agency came on the screen. "Hello? Mr. Swenson?" Her face was puzzled. "One moment," said the clerk. He slid out of the seat and Merlin replaced him.

"I don't understand, Mr. Swenson," said Maria Balsom. "we don't accept collect ."

calls from clients who owe us money . . "Have you found her?" The words burst from Merlin. "Of course. That's what we called you about. Then we had a message to find you at this number, so we called and left word for you to call us. But you were not being

invited to call us collect. As I say. we don't ."

accept calls from . .

-Where is she?" "Really, Mr. Swenson. You don't expect this agency to furnish information before it's paid? You've got a balance outstanding of fifteen thousand, four hundred and eigh-

teen dollars and twelve cents. If you'll make ."

your payment to us in that amount . .

"But that's why I had to talk to you, "Merlin said quickly. "You see, just for the next week

or so, there's been a little hitch. There was a crazy mix-up in my computer records, and he sat had retreated until it coUld not much "I know," said the old man, after a long until it's cleared up, they're holding up my longer protect him. He felt chilled in the pause. It was as if he were so far olf that the ability to get advances of the kind I've been midst of heat, naked and lonely. sound of Merlin's voice took some time to paying with. It's just a temporary thing be- He squinted along the bench at the old reach him.

cause they're understaffed in the records man. still sitting squarely in the sunlight. "I'll never find my wife now," said Merlin.

section, but it'll hold things up for a couple The other looked very old and weary A "I'll never get a job now. It's all gone. That's

of weeks. But I have to make a decision lifetime of outdoor living had once dark- the worst part, knowing there's no use. ." wife while his skin to the color of old leather, housing . about my I'm in orbit, ened but Once, I had hope, .but now .

and I need to talk to her about this right age and general debility had p_aled and He found himself telling the old man all

away. So I thought, if you could just let me faded the leather-tone to a gray shade. The about it. There was no one else to tell, and know what you've turned up so far— after bones of his face seemed unnaturally large he had to tell someone. The old man sal in i all, I have paid you over thirty thousand under the thin mask of old skin. A white the sun, smelling faintly of death. He said ." dollars already . . stubble blurred the outlines of his lower jaw nothing. As Merlin talked, a fly circled and ." "Mr. Swenson . . Maria Balsom's voice and his wrinkled eyelids rested dn his landed on the pocket of the old mans

had stepped far back from him. "Are you cheeks. He did not move, but his chest checked shirt. It stayed there, resting with telling me that you're not connected with stirred slowly under his heavy checked the old man in the sun. Trans-Space any longer?" shirt, its colors — like his— grayed by time. "You see," Merlin went on, "there's noth-

"Yes and no. The point is. I can't pay your Merlin leaned toward the man. at which ing to be done. Nowhere to go." ."

bill right now, but if you'll wait . . the smell of death came faintly into his nos- He stopped talking, but the old man still "Of course." Maria Balsom's voice came trils. A wisp of feeling he thought he had said nothing. Merlin leaned into the sun now from a different world. "When you've lost, stirred within him. and put his lips close to the gray ear got what you owe us, Mr. Swenson, send us "Why don't you move this way?" he said nearest him.

a credit voucher, and we'll be glad to give to the old man. "There's still shade enough "I say," he said loudly, "there's no place to you the full results of our investigations." for both of us at this end." go, is there? Where can you go?" ." . "Don't you understand . Merlin be- There was no answer. He said it again. The eyelids twitched sightly. The dry lips gan. "Leave me be," said the other without parted.

"I understand perfectly, Mr. Swenson. Do opening his eyes. "Get off the Earth," said the old man. "If

you?" said the woman, grimly. "Like every- "The sun'll kill you," you can't scratch a living down here, you

one else in this business I live on my com- "It feels good." go! to get off the Earth."

missions from accounts collected!" They sat together. It was not much, but She broke the connection. Merlin's racking loneliness had eased Merlin sat back. The advancing sun had "Well, there you are," said the clerk. He slightly with the exchange of those few found the thin sole ot his left shoe again. slapped Merlin on the shoulder "Come on words with the weary figure beside him, The heat was burning his foot now, but he

out and I'll find you a job with some over- "I'm at the end of my rope," Merlin said. could not summon up the will to pull it back

time." "You know how it is?" into the shade. He sat. DO Merlin shook him off. He stalked out of the office, out through the half-door, past

the other day-laborers still lined up at the- counter, staring at him, and out of the build- ing. The heat of the day was stifling as he hurried away from The Availables office. He paid no attention to where he was going until he felt grass beneath his feet and looked around at Almsbury Park. He stared about like someone just awakened from a heavy sleep. At this hour of the day, the park was only sparsely oc- cupied. The nearest bench to him, half in sunlight, half in shadow, had only one per-

son on it. a very old man, apparently asleep on the end in sunlight that was growing hotter by the minute.

It was a consolation prize of fate. The shady ends of the bolted-down benches were normally occupied on a hot summer day like this. Merlin gratefully sat down in the shade. An empty hour passed. But then, slowly,

little by little, the desire to live crept back

into him like a dull ache. Life was still with

him. Everything was lost, but his heart still

beat. His chest still pumped. In a few hours — whatever else might happen — he would be hungry again. And soon after that, he would once more need to sleep. The heat of the advancing sunlight against the thin sole of his right shoe roused him from his thoughts. Any day now. he thought, the sole would wear through

and there would be no replacing it. The day was heating fast, and the shadow in which ADVENTURE OF THE METAL MURDERER

faT* • ers, murderous machines themselves, must take place before the It took the ED Conglomerate an hour and were able to devise and build. Still, they falling in. The supervisor crisply issued or- a half to answer that. could be seen as obvious frauds when ders. At once his computers on the world The first two volunteers perished in at- closely inspected by any humans, below, the Earth Defense Conglomerate, tempted launchings before the method

"Only twenty-nine accounted for?" the took up the problem, giving it highest prior- could be improved enough to offer a rea-

supervisor of Defense demanded sharply. ity. What could one berserker android do to sonable chance of survival. When the third Strapped into his combat chair, he was gaz- Earth? Probably not much. But to the man was ready, he'was called in, just be- ing intently through the semitransparent in- supervisor, and to those who worked for fore launching, for a last private meeting formation screen before him, into space. him, defense was a sacred task. The tem- with the supervisor. The nearby bulk of Earth was armored in ple of Earth's safety had been horribly pro- The supervisor looked him up and down, the dun-brown of defensive force fields, the faned. taking in his outlandish dress, strange normal colors of land and water and air To produce the first answers took the hairstyle, and all the rest. He did not ask invisible. machines eleven minutes. whether the volunteer was ready but began '.'Only twenty-nine." The answer arrived "Number thirty did go into the black hole, bluntly: "It has now been confirmed that,

on the flagship's bridge amid a sharp sput- sir. Neither we nor the enemy could very whether you win or lose back there, you will tering of electrical noise. The tortured voice well have foreseen such a result, but—" never be able to return to your own time,"

I the . continued, "And it's quite certain now that "What is the probability that the android "Yes, sir. had assumed that would be there were thirty to begin with." emerged intact?" case." "Then where's the other one?" "Because of the peculiar angle at which "Very well." The supervisor consulted still There was no reply. it entered, approximately sixty-nine per- data spread before him. "We are uncer- cent." tain as to just how the enemy is armed,

1 All of Earth's defensive forces were still "That high!' Something subtle, doubtless, suitable for a on full alert, though the attack had been "And there is a forty-nine-percent saboteur on the earth of our own time— in tiny, no more than an attempt at infiltration, chance that it will reach the surface of the addition, of course, to the superhuman and seemed to have been thoroughly re- physical strength and speed you must ex- pelled. Berserkers, remnants of an ancient pect to face. There are the scrambling or interstellar war, were mortal enemies of ev- the switching mindbeams to be consid- erything that lived and the greatest danger ered; either could damage any human so- universe had yet re- ciety. There are the pattern bombs, de- to humanity that the He blinked away vealed. 4 signed to disable our defense computers A small blur leaped over Earth's dun- some London rain, pulled by seeding them with random information, that are always possibilities of biological brown limb, hurtling along on a course out his heavy, There would bring it within a few hundred kilome- warfare, You have your disguised medical ticking timepiece if ters of the supervisor's craft. This was as kit? Yes, I see. And of course there is always Power Station One, a tamed black hole. In he were checking the chance of something new." time of peace the power-hungry billions on "Yes, sir." The volunteer looked as ready the hour, and stood on the the planet drew from It half their needed as anyone could. The supervisor went to

. opening his for a ritual farewell energy, Station One was visible to the eye pavement . . like a him, arms embrace. only as a slight, flowing distortion of the man waiting for a friend. 9 stars beyond, Another report was coming in, "We are He blinked away some London rain, searching space for the missing berserker pulled out his heavy ticking timepiece as if android, Supervisor," he were checking the hour, and stood on "You had damned well better be." the pavement before the theater as if he "The infiltrating enemy craft had padded earth in functional condition, at some point were waiting for a friend. The instrument in containers for thirty androids, as shown by in our past, However, the computers offer his hand throbbed with a silent, extra vibra- computer analysis of its debris. We must reassurance. As the enemy device must tion in addition to its ticking, and this spe- assume that all containers were tilled." have been programmed (or some subtle cial signal had now taken on a character Life and death were in the supervisor's attack upon our present society, it is not that meant the enemy machine was very tones. "Is there any possibility that the miss- likely to be able to do much damage at the near to him. It was probably within a radius ing unit got past you to the surface?" time and place where it—" of fifty meters. "Negative, Supervisor." There was a "Your skull contains a vacuum of a truly A poster on the front of the theater read:

slight pause. "At least we know it did not intergalactic order. / will tell you and the PLAYER reach the surface in our time." computers when it has become possible THE IMPROVED AUTOMATON CHESS "Our time? What does that mean, bab- for us to feel even the slightest degree of MARVEL OF THE AGE Meanwhile, get me more fig- UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT bler? How could . , . ah." reassurance. The black hole flashed by. Not really ures." tamed, though that was a reassuring word, The next word from the ground came "The real problem, sir," proclaimed one nearby, in conversation and humans applied it frequently. Just har- twenty minutes later. top-hatted man nessed, more or less. "There is a ninety-two-percent chance with another, "is not whether a machine can Suppose — and, given the location of that the landing of the android on the sur- be made to win at chess, but whether it may all." the skirmish, the supposition was not face, if that occurred, was within one possibly be made to play at unlikely — that berserker android number hundred kilometers of fifty-one degrees, Wo, that is not the real problem, sir, the count thirty had been propelled, by some acci- eleven minutes north latitude; zero de- agent from the future thought. But fortunate that you can still believe it dent of combat, directly at Station One. It grees, seven minutes west longitude." yourself hole. time?" is. could easily have entered the black "And the .. . bought a ticket and went in. taking a According to the latest theories, it might "Ninety-eight-percent probability of He conceivably have survived to reemerge in- January 1,1880 Christian Era, plus or minus seat. When a sizable audience had tact into the universe, projected out of the ten standard years." gathered, there was a short lecture by a hole as its own tangible image in a burst of A landmass, a great clouded island, was short man in evening dress, who had some- virtual-particle radiation. presented to the supervisor on his screen. thing predatory about him and also some- Theory dictated that in such a case the "Recommended course of action?" thing frightened, despite the glibness and

72 . .

the ir of his talk. agent's watch pocket. It was a signal quite given, the agent never learned. The belt At length the chess player itself ap- disjinct from any previously generated by sounded below, suspending conversation. peared. It was a desklike box with a figure his fake watch. It meant that the enemy had He heard the servant girl answering the seated behind it. the whole assembly managed to detect his detector; it was in door, and a moment later his roommate's wheeled out on stage by assistants. The fact locked onto it and tracking. brisk feet on the stairs. The death machine figure was. that of a huge man in Turkish . Sweat mingled with the "drizzle on the took a small object from its pocket and garb. Quite obviously a mannequin or a agent's face as he began to run. It must sidestepped a little to get a clear view past dummy of some kind, it bobbed slightly have discovered him in the theater, though the agent toward the door. with the motion of the rolling desk, to which probably it could not then single him out in Turning his back upon the enemy, as if its chair was fixed. Now the agent could the crowd. Avoiding horse-drawn cabs, with the casual purpose of greeting the feel the excited vibration ot his watch with- four-wheelers, and an omnibus, he turned man about to enter, the agent casually drew out even putting a hand into his pocket. out of Oxford Street to Baker Street and from his own pockel a quite functional briar The predatory man cracked another slowed to a last walk for the short distance pipe, which was designed to serve another joke, displayed a hideous smile, then, from remaining. He could not throw away the function, too, Then he turned his head and among several chess players in the audi- telltale watch, for he would be unable to fired the pipe at the berserker from under ence who raised their hands — the agent track the enemy without it. But neither did his own left armpit. was not among them — he selected one to he dare retain it on his person. For a human being he was uncannily challenge the automaton. The challenger As the agent burst into the sitting room, fast, and for a berserker the android was ascended to the stage, where the pieces his roommate looked up. with his usual, meanly slow and clumsy, being designed were being set out on a board fastened to somewhat shallow, smile, from a leisurely primarily for imitation, not dueling. Their the rolling desk, and the doors in the front of job of taking books out of a crate and put- weapons triggered at the same instant. the desk were being opened to show that ting them on shelves. Explosions racked and destroyed the there was nothing but machinery inside. "I say," the agent began, in mingled relief enemy blasts shaiteringly powerful but The agent noted that there were no can- and urgency, "something rather important compactly limited in space, self-damping dles on this desk, as there had been on that has come up, and 1 find there are two er- and almost silent. of Maelzel's chess player a few decades rands I must undertake at once. Might I The agent was hit. too. Staggering, he earlier. Maelzel's automaton had been a impose one of them on you?" knew with his last clear thought just what clever fraud, of course. Candles had been The agent's own brisk errand took him no weapon the enemy had carried -the placed on its box to mask the odor of burn- farther than just across the street. There, in switching mindbeam. Then for a moment ing wax from the candle needed by the the doorway of Camden House, he shrank hecould no longer think at all. He was dimly man who was so cunningly hidden inside back, trying to breathe silently. He had not aware of being down on one knee and of his amid the dummy gears. The year in which moved when, three minutes later, there ap- fellow lodger, who had just entered, stand- the agent had arrived was still too early, he roached from the direction of Oxford Street ing stunned a step inside the door. knew, tor electric lights, at least the kind that a. tall figure that the agent suspected was At last the agent could move again, and would be handy for such a hidden human not human. Its hat was pulled down, and he shakily pocketed his pipe, The ruined to use. Add the fact that this chess player's the lower portion of its face was muffled in body of the enemy was almost vaporized opponent was allowed to sit much closer bandages. Across the street it paused, already. It must have been built to self- than Maelzel's had ever been, and it be- seemed to consult a pocket watch of its destruct when damaged badly, so that hu- came a pretty safe deduction that no own, then turned to ring the bell. Had the manity might never learn its secrets. Al- human being was concealed inside the agent been absolutely sure it was his ready it was no more than a puddle of box and figure on this stage. quarry, he would have shot it in the back. heavy mist, warping in slow tendrils out the

Therefore . . But without his watch, he would have to get slightly open window to mingle with the fog.

The agent might, if he stood up in the closer to be absolutely sure. The man still standing near the door had audience, get a clear shot at it right now. After a moment's questioning from the put out a hand to steady himself against the But should he aim at the figure or the box? landlady, the figure was admitted. The wall. "The jeweler ... did not have your

And he could not be sure how it was armed. agent waited for two minutes. Then he drew watch," he muttered dazedly.

And who would stop it if he tried and failed? a deep breath, gathered up his courage, I have won, thought the agent dully, It was

Already it had learned enough to survive in and went after It. a joyless thought because with it came nineteenth-century London. Probably it The thing standing alone at a window slow realization of the price of his success, had already killed, to further its designs — turned to face him as he entered the sitting Three quarters of his intellect, at least, was

"under new management" indeed. room, and now he was sure of what it was. gone, the superior pattern of his brain-cell No, now that he had located his enemy, The eyes above the bandaged lower face connections scattered. No. Not scattered. he must plan thoroughly and work patiently. were not the Turk's eyes, but they were not The switching mindbeam would have Deep in thought, he left the theater amid human, either reimposed the pattern of his neurons white swathing muffled its gruff the crowd at the conclusion of the perfor- The somewhere farther down its pathway . . mance and started on foot back to the voice. "You are the doctor?" there, behind those gray eyes with their rooms that he had just begun to share on "Ah. it is my fellow lodger that you want." newly penetrating gaze. Baker Street. A minor difficulty at his The agent threw a careless glance toward "Obviously, sending me out for your launching into the black hole had cost him the desk where he had locked up the watch was a ruse." His roommate's voice watch, the some equipment, including most of his desk on which some papers was suddenly cnsper, more assured than it counterfeit money. not time bearing his roommate's were scat- There had been name had been. "Also. I perceive that your desk as yet for his adopted profession to bring tered. "He is out at the moment, as you see. has just been broken into, by someone who him much income; so he was for the time but we can expect him presently I take it thought it mine." tone softened The some- . being in straitened financial circum- you are a patient.'' what: "Come, man, I bear you no ill will. Your stances. "1 The thing said, in its wrong voice, have secret, if honorable, shall be safe-. But it is

He must plan. Suppose, now. that he been referred to him. It seems, the doctor. plain that you are not what you have repre- were to approach the frightened little man and I share a certain common background. sented yourself to be," in evening dress. By now that one ought.to Therefore the good landlady has let me kind have begun to understand what of a wait in here. I trust my presence is no in- The agent got to his feet, pulling at his tiger he was riding. The agent might ap- convenience." sandy hair, trying desperately to think. proach him in the guise of — "Not in the least. Pray take a seat. Mr. — ?" "How— how do you know?" A sudden tap-tapping began in the What name the berserker might have "Elementary!" the tall man snapped. OO 73 THE ROCKS THAT MOVED

Who would believe that the rocks not only moved but had a goal In mind?

BY JOHN KEEFAUVER

/ hen old Kirby Neson came into town that first W

He showed how he'd done it, once he finally got Burt Kolodzie and Fred Knotts out there after they'd got tired of listening to him every time he came into town. Kirby knew that if Burt and Fred said those rocks were moving, everybody, by God, would know they were. Problem with Burt and Fred,

PAINTING BY DE ES SCHWERTBERGER though, thai first time, was that they'd never out there Burt and Fred went, along with "What's that?" seen where the rocks had been before, and some others, and, as Burt was to say, the But Kirby wasn't saying. He jumped into so there was no way they could really tell if rocks he'd marked had sure enough his battered pickup and bounced out of they'd moved. They saw the chalk marks moved — one of them, in fact, about two town in the direction of the rocks. that Kirby had put on them, and they saw hundred feet, and it must have weighed how flat everything was all around, like ev- close to five hundred pounds. And this time It wasn't long before Ed Furrow, who runs erybody knew would be the case in this he and Fred could see the tracks the boul- a weekly paper over, in Gilroy, came nosing part ot Texas (there wasn't any hill for the ders had made because there had been a around, asking Burt and Fred a lot of ques- rocks to roll down, that is), and they saw of rain so heavy, before the rocks had moved, tions and trying to find Kirby in town. Kirby course how big the- rocks were, each of that the wind hadn't had time to dry the land wasn't to be found, though. So Ed and Burt them weighing at least a few hundred enough to blow away the tracks— any and Fred and a bunch of others, including pounds. But what they couldn't see were tracks. Tire tracks of Kirby's rock-pushing me, went on out to the moving-rocks place. any tracks to show the rocks had moved, pickup, say. Or tracks of a bunch of practi- Ed took some pictures, but it was plain that which wasn't unusual, though, seeing as cal jokers doing the pushing. Because, you he, not knowing Fred and Burt the way we how the wind was almosl iorever blowing see, there wasn't a rock small enough that did and being ot a suspicious nature any- out where they were and would have cov- Kirby could have pushed by himself, by way, didn't believe that the rocks had ered up any tracks. Besides that, it had hand; in fact, as old and scrawny as Kirby moved by themselves. He wanted to talk to rained the day before, this being the rainy was, he could hardly push a marble, not Kirby but Kirby wasn't to be seen there, season. that he wasn't tough. He was about ninety either, and, of course, like I say, nobody Kirby finally convinced Burt and Fred, pounds of meanness, getting meaner the knew where his shack was. though, to do their own marking with the older he got. ... In other words, the only So the next issue of Ed's paper had a chalk— writing their initials on the rocks — tracks there were those left by rolling rocks. front-page picture story about "Moving and walking off the distance to the stick There were about a dozen of them, all Rocks Puzzle Progreso," which is the name he'd put in the ground. He had them dig weighing into the hundreds of pounds, and of our town, not that there's any progress their own design around the stick so that he going on, in my opinion. All ot it was written couldn't be accused of moving it on them. up in a tongue-in-cheek way, and that was

Then he said he'd bring them on back to how it was treated, too, a day or so later in the place the next time the rocks changed the Houston paper, which had sent a re- positions. They did all this and said they'd porter and photographer to the place after Old Kirby thought the rocks come back, maybe to humor him, maybe * they read the story in Ed's paper, I guess. not Maybe because they were just curious. were moving because Nature That, in turn, led to a geologist driving out Because, funny or not, old Kirby could be from the space center there in a few days, was fed up with being tampered very convincing when he was talking about and it was raining to beat hell. This was all his "communing with Nature," as he calls it. with by men and their happening just after we'd started bringing

And it turned out, so Burt and Fred said, rocks back from Mars, and so there were atom bombs and going to the that old Kirby thought the rocks were mov- some geologists at the center. all ing because Nature was fed up with being moon and that, and that The geologist didn't believe it, either, as tampered with by men and their atom she was showing her anger by you might imagine— at first, anyway. But he bomb and going to the moon and all that, did decide to do his own tests. He made his flexing her rocky muscles. 9 and that she was showing her anger by own markings on the rocks— chipped the "flexing her rocky muscles," as he put it, boulders— and measured their distance secretly amazed at his own wit. from each other and then took some pic- tures of them to set their location, too. He

Of course, in a way. whether the rocks estimated their weights with some measur- were were moving or not was secondary to the they had all moved. ing gadget he had and then said they fact that the rocks were there in the first Well, now, when Burt and Fred got back all too heavy to be moved by human hand big mechanical place, which was actually the biggest part to town and told it around that rocks were unless you used some which would give itself away by tear- of Burt's and Fred's being curious — at first, moving on their own out there, it got a dif- mover, anyway. Ordinarily in this part ot the country ferent reaction from old Kirby's telling it, you ing up the land. you didn't see rocks the size of Kirby's. You can bet. Besides looking respectable, both About a week passed before he came might see one once in a while, but not a of them were, and they weren't a couple ot back, and maybe we wouldn't have known dozen or so grouped together. All you'd see kids, either. People believed them, and it if he hadh't stopped in town en route from were mesquite and cactus and maybe most everybody wanted to see tor them- Houston and asked Fred to show him the think he could- find it him- some scrubby oaks, and some little selves, but by then it was too late in the day place. He didn't patches ot scrawny grass in January and for rock watching. self. When he and Fred and some others there, you could .tell right February when it rained, and with the wind That evening Kirby came on into town, got including me, blowing the way it does in these parts, noth- proud as a scrubby peacock, but when he away that the rocks had moved even if there ing stayed still unless it was tied down, not heard how most everybody was planning to weren't any tracks to see— some of them that the wind could move rocks big as Kir- go out and see his moving rocks in the hundreds of feet. And somebody, most by's, of course. morning, he got mad. "Leave them rocks likely Kirby, everybody thought, had tried to Anyway, Burt and Fred promised to go alone!" he said, and kept saying. "Some- cover up the chipped-out markings the back to the place — it was about thirty or so body's gonna get hurt out there- if you geologist had made by slapping some ce- miles out of town, in the middle of don't!" ment on the scars. Kirby still wasn't to be in nowhere— the next time Kirby told them the Some, making light of it, asked him if he seen, though. Nobody had seen him, rocks had moved. Kirby lived someplace thought the rocks would jump on them. He fact, since the day he'd shown Burt and out there; he wouldn't say exactly where his got madder at thai. "If you don't want no- Fred the rocks, which wasn't unusual, con- shack was. He didn't want any visitors in- body there, why'd you tell us about it?" Sue sidering his ornery ways. terfering with his communing with Lady Na- Weioacher asked him. ^She's been the Well, this geologist measured the dis- ture. postmistress ever since her husband died tance the rocks had moved and looked at a Well, in a couple days or so, sure enough, three years ago of gout.) book and some charts and did some calcu-

I gadgets. he old Kirby came into town and told the two of "Because didn't know then what I know lations and used more When them that the rocks had moved again, and now!" Kirby said, getting even madder. had finished, he told us that the wind was 76 •moving Ihe rocks. "Winds funnel through distance in such a short time, and I say We got in Burt's four-wheel-drive and here pretty strong," he said after saying short time because it just so happened that started after them. We figured the boulders that the rocks were actually in a dry lake I saw the movement the boulders had had gone maybe just out of our sight, and

Ded so shallow you'd never know it. We had made on consecutive days because I hap- that the man from Houston would find us realized, though, that the soil was sandier pened to be passing by the place both and the rocks easily enough by following and harder here than most soil in the area. days, and I'd driven off the road to the site the tracks. "When the surface gets wet tram rain, the both times. Well, we drove and drove without seeing ground gets extremely slick, and when Also, it seemed that the rocks— all. of any rocks, and Burt started giving the truck conditions are just right, movement oc- them— were getting bigger. Of course, I more gas until we were going along at a curs," he said. thought this was my eyes or imagination. good clip, just about being bounced to the Well, some believed him and some But when I got Burt and Fred to go out there roof because, of course, we weren't follow- didn't, and, as you'd expect, among those with me in a few days, they thought the ing any road. It was all desolation for miles who didn't was Kirby same thing, but, like me, they couldn't be- and miles, all the way into Progreso and

Just as everybody was getting into cars lieve it. beyond, A good ten or fifteen minutes and trucks to go back to town, Kirby came Another thing-: There were more rocks passed, and we still didn't see the boul- gunning up in his beat-up pickup. He moving now. We were positive of that be- ders. We saw more rock tracks, though. A jumped out of it before it had hardly cause one of the first things we'd done was lot more. New ones came in from either stopped and started yelling and cussing to count the rocks that were moving. There side Then we began to hear a strange and screaming soon as he saw the blue were fourteen of them to begin with. Now sound at about the same time we saw what NASA sign on the side ot the geologist's there were twenty-three. The extra ones appeared to be a cloud of dust ahead. As brand-new white truck. had just appeared out of nowhere, it looked the size of the cloud grew, the sound began "Get the goddamn hell out ot here!" he like. getting louder— a rumbling, a crashing. yelled at the man from Houston. "You bas- Thenthestrangestthingotall happened. The ground began to shake. tards can tear up the moon and Mars and We went out there one day after it'd been In less than a minute we saw them, or at bring Nature's rocks back here where they least the tail end of them. After Burt gave ain't supposed to be, but you leave these the truck even more gas, we could see earth rocks alone!" more of the dozens of boulders making up "But, sir," the geologist said, turning the rear end of the rolling mass, and al- nearly as white as his truck, "we haven't though we were now traveling at about forty bothered these rocks. We haven't moved * We were just barely gaining miles an hour, we were just barely gaining them an inch. Wind and rain have done it." on them-hundreds on them— hundreds of boulders, maybe "Wind and rain!" old Kirby roared. "Wind thousands, with more coming from either of boulders, maybe thousands, and rain! Nature is doing it!" He was point- side all the time, all monsters, all heading in ing into the sky. "Nature! God!" with more coming the same direction, as the crow flies,

I believe if Kirby had had a gun, he would straight toward Progreso! from either side all the time, have shot the man right there. As it was. he Burt,' who was driving, must have suddenly ran toward his truck, and every- all monsters, all thought the same thing I did at the same got out of there fast. When looked body we heading in the same direction... time, because as I yelled, "Let's get on the back, he sure enough had his old rifle in road!" he had already started to whip the straight toward Progreso I his hand. 9 pickup to the left toward the road into Pro-

Fred and I and some others made trips greso, the idea being that we might reach out to the area in the coming days, regard- town before the boulders did and give a less of Kirby; we didn't think the old buz- warning. But even before we were halfway zard would shoot us. We never saw him, as to the road, we could see that the rocks it turned out. But we did see that the racks were over the highway and beyond as far as moved most every time it rained (we were we could see. still in the rainy season) as long as the wind horrible thought thirty-seven — had all moved at least And then a made me hard, just like the geologist was blowing I three quarters of a mile; we were sure of look to the far left and then behind us, and had said. that because there had been — and saw hundreds more of the huge monsters And they always in the di- moved same was— such a small amount of wind that the bearing down on us. huge, aiming right for rection the wind was blowing. Still it was tracks weren't blown over by sand, espe- us. Pointing at them. I screamed for Burt to hard for believe us to that wind and rain cially those made by the big rocks, and turn right and speed up. were moving those god-awful rocks. big they were all big now The tracks were so He did. But now the rocks ahead of us But, unlike Kirby, we never thought God deep that there didn't have to be any rain- were rolling faster, leaving us, while the was doing it. softened ground to show them up. Big, ones behind were gaining. In minutes we We began to wonder though, as time deep grooves! would be crushed flatter than a couple of passed. First of all, we went out there once But what I'm getting at is this: All the cockroaches, and saw that the rocks had moved a lot rocks had changed direction. They were Then, as if on command, the direction of more than they ever had before. Although now going in just about the opposite way the boulders changed, both those in front of those behind. They — there was a wind, It wasn't a particularly they had been for months— against the us and began to split

right, I strong wind, It had rained just before, wind now. some to the some to the left, And though. This happened more than once. When we phoned the geologist at the realized what was happening. They were More and more we'd go out there and dis- space center, he said he'd meet us at the going around Progreso, and in the process, cover that the boulders had moved one site the following day. as far as I could guess, they would miss us. helluva distance with hardly any wind. Fi- The town was saved because the rocks had a nally, one time one of them moved about a When we went out there the. next day to different purpose in mind. quarter of a mile and there'd been no rain meet the man, the rocks, were gone. Not a On the far side of Progreso, though, they for at least a week and the wind hadn't single one anywhere. They hadn't been converged (we would learn), and without amounted to a damn thing. And this was gone long, though, because we could still ever changing direction again they headed the biggest rock— a monster, big- enough see their tracks leading off in the dry soil, directly, ever faster and growing more mon- to knock down a house, You knew that rock and there was a very stiff wind that day. The strous at every mile, toward the space cen- really moving all had to be to cover that rocks were heading right Into it, ter in Houston. DO 77 It was an innocent

little "outing"— on the bare lunar surface THE VACUUM- PACKED PICNIC BYRICKGAUGER As she approached my table across the pilots' crowded ready room with her

teacup in her hand, I felt an

urge coming over me. I had an urge to bite her — on the smooth, ivory neck, which emerged from the heavy aluminum collar ring of her close-fitting pilot's vacuum

suit. Maybe it was the way she

jangled all those pockets, tubes, clipboards, and electronic terminals as she made her way through the mob toward me. The typical space pilot's swagger— but

female. Maybe it was the merry brown eyes and the humorous twist of her lips as she sat down in front of me. "You're Captain Suarez, aren't you?" "Yeah. My friends call me—" "Pancho. Right?"

"Right. I hope you're one of

my friends,'' I said, my figurative tail wagging furiously. Worsl case of vibes

I'd ever had. It seemed to be mutual. She studied me amusedly while her tea cooled.

I said, "Surely we've never

met before. I know I'm pretty ."

absent-minded, but . . "Your friend Arunis Pittman

told me about you. I met him on the polar sky station. He

thought I should look you up

! PAINTING BY LUDEK PESEK one-hundred- area around West Limb. It was a brilliant when I got to West Limb. He said you would about a picnic wasn't probably offer to keep me amused. You percent baloney. No one had ever really piece of applied astronomy. were highly recommended." been on a picnic on the moon before, but That afternoon my rocket hopper was "Old Arunis! Damn! How is he?" the West Limb intellectual elite (my pals scheduled to haul a load of hung-over en-

I) discussing the idea for to Polar Solar from their "He's fine. He said I should ask you and had been gineers back whether you're still keeping the high in quite a while. We regarded our project as a monthly spree at Grimaldi, and we had to C02 your spacecraft life-support system, in- noble pioneering effort, an expansion of make a lot of local trips, too. I let my copilot stead of doing the regulation aerobic exer- man's capability in the space environment, do all the flying while I studied one of those cises, the way you're supposed to." but, mainly, as a way to get some. privacy maps. Each time we boosted out of the

"Damn again! How could he know about with our female colleagues. The base at West Limb hopper pad, I compared the

with the territory (or is it lunitory?) that? I'll bet he's trying to warn me that the West Limb hadn't yet become the luxurious map agency is monitoring my life-support sys- suburb that it is loday. In those days it was round about. By quitting time, I had the a selected a promising rock field a short dis- tem again. I appreciate that. Thanks, Cap- more like a big locker room on moon,

noisy of tunnels north of the base. It all tain . . . er . . crowded, set and domes, tance seemed so paint. safe and "Cramblitt. I prefer Stacy, however." which reeked of old socks and new easy.

After a pause she asked, "Well, are you?" We all lived in this warren like so many rats That night I cashed in on the accumu- transients us, from lated favors that people on the "Not anymore. I don't-want to be In a hole. The among base owed grounded again. I'll do my exercises like a months of isolation, were nearly barbar- me. I got the next day off and a free re- good boy—" ians, while the permanent residents were charge of my vacuum-suit backpack, and I "I don't mean that," she said. "I mean, antagonistic from never being able to get borrowed two one-man vacuum-survival are you going to amuse me? This is the first away from one another. Life on the old high tents. I arranged for an airtight case sir! with cold chicken, salad, time I've been on the moon. I don't have frontier was rough, yes, packed potato anything to do until the passenger shuttle Unfortunately, plans for outings a deux cole slaw, some vegetables, a fresh loaf of begins its preflight countdown tomorrow hadn't gotten past the speculative stage French bread with real butter, lemonade, night." yet. One of my friends had analyzed the and two bottles of Boordy Vineyards' vin An opening big enough to drive a truck problem of picnic-site selection, Using lots gris. West Limb may have been a real sty in time, had deter- those the pigs and drank well. into. I had to think of something, im- of stolen computer he days, but ate mediately, that would capture her imagina- mined which areas on the lunar surface The cafeteria manager had heard tion. She tucked an errant strand of glossy around West Limb could be inhabited by a rumors. He drew me into a corner of the black hair into her chignon as my mind man — and a woman— for a reasonable kitchen, looked around carefully, and raced. length of time in a standard vacuum- leered at me. 'A picnic. How would you like to go on a survival tent. Of course, the idea was to "Suarez," he said confidentially, "what

I really?" picnic? With me," 1 said, blurting out the obtain a comfortable shirt-sleeves-or-less are you up to? mean, is first idiocy that came into my mind. "If you habitat. "Porkner," I said, "a gentleman, who survival are. like, I'll take you to one of my favorite spots. You know what tents They're entrusted—" kidding. Is it—" It's not far.just a short walk from the base." what's inside those emergency boxes you "No, I mean, really. No

the Buggies got it. It's a technical operation. Her reaction was everything I could have see everywhere on moon. "You

new," I said, leering back at him. hoped for. Her delicate mouth dropped have to carry one per passenger; so do the Something he oh-ho- I while was open a little. "You're kidding. An outdoor rocket hoppers. You've undoubtedly got made my escape picnic?" several small ones under the bed in your ho-ing at me. It doesn't do to antagonize other the cafeteria manager, or to tell him any- "Why, sure," I lied. "It's a new recreation hotel room. Solo prospectors and we have come up with here on the moon. outdoor workers use them regularly when thing, either. I went to bed early that eve- Gets us away from the madding crowd. A they can't get to any other pressurized ning. Lucky for me, it was my turn in the great view, the hills, some nice rock colors. shelter. They climb into a tent, seal the shower.

it air. Cramblitt waiting for at the Perfect time of the month for it, too." opening, and inflate with their reserve Stacy was me All the Bridges were flaming behind me. Why do I The tents blow up into a transparent plastic hatch when I got there at ten hours. do these things? "Of course you'd proba- dome. Once the dome is pressurized, you running around and plotting I had done bly rather not go to the trouble. You're can take off your vacuum suit and relax a had seemed a little sordid to me, I guess. probably too tired, right?" bit. The old-timers say they're for leaks, But the way she looked, standing there, Her excitement showed on her face. Her whether you get one or have to take one. cool and amused, in her tailor-made, fluorescent-pink pilot's vacuum suit, made eyes began to twinkle. "Oh, no! I wouldn't That's a joke. miss this for anything!" she exclaimed. "A Anyway, the most important element of my conscience clear up right away. "Everything set?" she asked. picnic on the moon ! That's fantastic ! Arunis my friend's analysis was the temperature was right about you, Pancho." inside the tent. Sunshine was everything. "Not quite yet," I said, putting my load of giv- his survival tents, blankets, and the food case "Aw," I mumbled, standing up and Anyone exposing ass to the direct rays into the airlock. For once there wasn't any- ing her my boyish grin. "Just leave it all to coming through the plastic would be me. Meet me at Hatch Seven-Charlie— rapidly rump-roasted. Complete lunar one in the corridor near the hatch. I held her her close to anyone can tell you where it is— at ten nighttime would be a glacial and gloomy by the arms and drew me. hours tomorrow, Put on your vacuum suit experience, to say the least. No, what we "I'm setting your suit radio on my private

I I at face and bring a fully charged backpack. I'll wanted was a cheerful, sunshiny, picnicky channel," said. She looked my as scenery, clicked the knob on her chest module. A take care of the rest. I have to make a sort of experience, with lots of hopper run now. See you then." close to. but not in sight of, the base or any delicate perfume rose from her collar ring. Her smile followed me across the ready of the main trails. A flat, shady spot on a' •"You have nice eyes," she said. "Now sunlit with you're blushing." room as I made my way to the hopper dock. slope facing a landscape, an "Nonsense. After you." I waved goodbye before turning into the illuminated boulder nearby to reflect corridor. Male residents of the base who warmth toward the picnickers, would be We stepped into the airlock and went happenedtobein the ready room watched ideal. through the rest of the suit-checkout pro- the outside, all this enviously. They didn't see the The computer in my friend's office, prop- cedure. I locked us through to grimace that appeared on my face as soon erly (and illegally) stroked, coughed up a The sun was glaring in the west. The struc- tures scattered on the surface extended as I was out of sight. I had really jumped number of map overlays, one for each rutted, into it with both feet this time. standard day in the lunar month, showing inky shadows across the walked, Sta- Well, the business I had handed her where such sites might be looked for in the pockmarked ground. As we cy's helmet swiveled. taking in She was the like lines radiated from the center of the After a while Stacy and I emerged, so to

torn-up ground, the glinting litter ot pattern. The lines looked as if someone had speak, from a forest of boulders into a aluminum scraps and shards, the awkward drawn them in the dust with a fine needle. clearing. The scene was extraordinary, re-

tangle of antenna towers and guy wires, The entire formation was about the size of a ally. It was like a natural Stonehenge, with a and the humped and ugly buildings. dime. There were also concentric arcs in circle of rough columns surrounding a sort

"It's not pretty," I said. very the pattern I had discovered. of terrace in the hillside. The circle was "The human race takes its mess with it "What is it?" Stacy asked. open to the east, and we could see far out

everywhere it said. goes," she "I call them dust flowers," I said. "Don't over the flatlands. A nearly full Earth hung

"Better here than the earth," I said. on touch it; it'll fall apart if you do. A. friend ot low over the razor horizon. I almost ex- "Besides, it's not all like this. This is a little mine thinks they're micrometeorite craters. pected to see a sail on that dappled, zit on the face of a whole world. We're just a Where the glass is in the middle is where oceanlike expanse and surf rolling in on the short walk from the real moon, where no the micrometeorite-struck, and the pattern beach several kilometers below us.

has it one ever set foot. Give a chance. " I around it was formed by shock waves Stacy was superimpressed. She just took hold of one of her gloved hands. traveling in the dust. My friend says they stood there and said, "Glorious. Glorious. It

"Okay," she said, looking at me. I can form only on this kind of fine-dust sur- really is." She lurned to me. "No one else couldn't see her face through her mirrored face. He's writing a paper about it." has ever been here, have they?"

sun visor, but I felt her squeeze my hand. "What do you think they are?" "Don't see any footprints, do you? I've

We must have been an odd sight as we "I think they're dust flowers. We'll proba- been saving it for someone special." first hiked out of view over the ridge north of bly find more of them if we look around Someday God is going to punish me, t the base. There were undoubtedly a carefully." thought. hundred people peeking at us from the "Let's keep our eyes open." "Let's get out of these suits and have

windows of the base buildings. I was lug- We started off again, passing among some lunch." I said. "I'm starving." ging the rolled-up tents and the food case. shattered heaps of rocks and skirting I untied the roll of survival tents and laid Stacy had a blanket over each shoulder. around the lesser craters. them out on the ground, arranging them so

One of the blankets was a garish plaid; the Stacy said, "You know, it seems odd to that their door openings faced each other. that other was white with green and orange me there should be so much fine dust The openings in tents of the kind I had are

stripes and the words fuerzas armadas de on the ground around here. I thought the round,. surrounded by a complicated, flex-

Mexico printed on it. lunar soil wasn't supposed to be ible gasket. You can seal up a single tent

An hour later we were crossing the vast, differentiated— no wind or water to sort it with its own door, or double up two tents by boulder-strewn slopes of Hevelius Crater, out into particles of varying sizes, and so pressing their door gaskets together. The forth." overlooking the flat Oceanus to our right. I gaskets are supposed to interlock tightly

noted that our feet were in the shade, but "That's right," I said. "Somebody's not when the tents are filled with air.

the tallest boulders reflected a lot of sun- following the rules." I held up the entrance oi one of the tents

light onto the ground. We could see well We marched along in silence. I kept look- to allow Stacy to crawl in, dragging the food

enough to Pick our way along, and my ing for an open spot to pitch the tents in. case and the blankets. Then I crawled into blackbody thermometer registered in the middle teens. The map supplied by my computer-pushing pal was proving re- markably reliable.

"You know, it's not just all gray, black,

and white," Stacy said. "I can see all kinds of subtle colors. Look at that greenish 1-1 streak in the rocks over there. See it?" "I sure do. You've really got good eyes. "is® Most people cant see these things until they've been on the moon for a year or more. Most don't care. There's a lot of

beauty here It just doesn't smack you in the eye the way it does back on Earth. God didn't make this scenery for clods. You

have to have some talent and sensitivity." I was laying it on a bit thick, but it wasn't all crap. Stacy was having a good time in the low gravity, bouncing around me as I went striding along. She kicked up a big cloud of dust in front of us. "Look at that," she said. "That dust set- tled so quickly that I could almost hear the thump it made on the ground. I've logged a lot of hours in space, but this is the first time I've ever been on my feet like this on another world. Do you ever get used to the strangeness?"

"Not really," I answered. "I never really get completely used to it. I'm always find- ing new things to look at." I stopped sud- denly and stooped to look at the ground. "Look here."

As she bent over, I pointed out a. circular pattern in the dust. In the center of the These k!!)c::tg umbacks have bcon murder on our simulator training program." circle was a tiny grain of shiny glass. Hair- in with noth- I left It. Crouching on my knees, I carefully I'm so glad he's not here now," joked. were buck-naked the tent, sealed [he two tents together. After two hours I was feeling pleasantly ing but the blankets and my backpack, for "That looks airtight," I said. "Let's see tight around the middle. Stacy was pouring Stacy gulped several seconds, finally said in small voice, what happens when I lettheairoutofoneof refills for us from our second bottle. The "Well," she a these reserve bottles. If it doesn't hold, we'li atmosphere in the tent was tropical. The "now we won't have to wash the dishes." have to call it off and go back to the base." brilliant earth, blazing cobalt, turquoise, There was only one reason we weren't "That would be miserable," Stacy said, and white, shone down on us, We lay, hips already dead of explosive decompression: poking me playfully in the backside. touching, Stacy's head on my shoulder. I had sealed the door of our tent after get-

ting rid of the last of our clothes, I could I opened the valve on the air bottle. The I raised my glass to the home-planet. see tents stirred like living things, then bal- "Here's to everybody who happens to be my vacuum suit and helmet less than a looned into a pair of dome shapes. looking at us right now. Here's looking at meter away through the transparent plastic

"It's like being inside a waterbed mat- them." My speech was only a little slurred. of the tent. I studied Stacy's backpack. A tress," Stacy remarked. "They can't see us," Stacy whispered. little red tag was sticking out of the air- regulator For reason, "Or two jellyfish kissing," I answered, finishing her wine. "We're in the new-moon compartment. some watching the other tent through the trans- the safety on her air bottle had blown, allow-

parent plastic walls ot our tent. I turned to her and said, "Well, here's ing the bottle to vent freely in the sealed Stacy began to spread the blankets on looking at you, anyway," and, what the hell, tent. The excess pressure had blown the of the tents apart. the tent floor. "Why did we bring two tents?" I kissed her on the mouth. She kissed me door gaskets two The she asked. back, clutching at my neck. storage tent lost its pressure suddenly; if it

suits oft, in it, it "For storage. When we take our Well, I never kiss and tell, but I will say hadn't had all our equipment proba- it'll in here." flown like be like having two extra people that Stacy and I peeled each other out of bly would have away a released lunch. holding air just "So long as they don't want any our remaining clothing. I threw the food box balloon, Our own tent was Did you notice what's happening to the and our long Johns into the other tent with fine, although the plastic door was bulging blankets?" she asked, holding up a the other stuff. Infrared from the ground outward unnervingly. ripped-otf handful. "Looks like vacuum and and the surrounding boulders shone on our I dragged my backpack toward me and Four hours, at the sunlight aren't good for wool." naked bodies, but it was nothing com- looked at the readouts. most, of- reserve air and absorption. "They were getting pretty worn out any- pared to the glow that was in the tent al- COz way." ready. Her breasts flushing dark rose, The arm's length of vacuum that separated "How's the inflation going?" she said. Stacy spread herself on the blankets and us from the radios in our helmets might as of kilometers. "Looks okay so far," I answered. The two held her arms out to me. well have been millions Our tents, joined at their doorways, had be- Now you're not going to believe this, but I ass was really in a sling, and my face

it I the come rigid, The air temperature had hesitated at this point. I was, after all, an old must've shown as looked up from leveled off at twenty-five degrees centi- space hand, and the open doorway lead- backpack. grade, and the air pressure was holding ing to the other tent had been troubling me. Stacy covered my hand with hers. As she said to steady at an alpine two hundred thirteen There was no reason to worry about it, but calm and, beautiful as an angel, millibars. open hatches of any kind hover in my me, "Don't be afraid, Pancho." Guilt replaced terror in my wretched "Can we take off our suits now?" mind's eye until I get up and close them.

soul, "N-no," I said. "We're not dead yet, I ro- of like that "Let me go first," I said. Cautiously Most us out here are eh, Stacy." tated the locking ring on my suit collar. "Don't go away," I said, rising to my 'Although we might as well disregard Nothing happened. So I removed my hel- knees. I found the tent's door, a flat disk of here met. The air in the tent felt fine, On my flexible, transparent plastic, rolled up in a the chances of anybody finding us out ijs by accident," she said firmly. cheeks I could feel the cheery warmth of corner. I unrolled it and pressed gasket the nearest boulders. into place around the circumference of the Oh, yes. And my own stupid fault, too.

"Well, I shouldn't have pressured you "It's great," I said, disconnecting my doorway between the two tents. into bringing me out here," she said. backpack hoses. Soon we were both "Now I can give you the attention you

"Don't that, Stacy. I think I I say always shucking ourselves out of our vacuum deserve," I said, and embraced her. Stacy

I ever! this suits. snuggled in my arms and gave me a kiss. I know what I'm doing." Don't By

In her long Johns, Stacy looked like a really was enjoying every moment of this. time she was holding me, stroking me. tax-free million. She removed her inner While Stacy was tickling the lobes of my There I was, lower than a crater's bottom, gloves and socks and sat, twiddling her ears, we were interrupted by a strange and she was trying to comfort me. The sky over our heads was black. The toes at me and smiling. I gathered up our noise. It sounded like a sudden release of suits, helmets, and boots and passed them steam. The total silence of the lunar moun- stars were waiting to see what I could come through the now-rigid doorway into the tainside had seeped into our unconscious up with. "Whatever we do, we'll have to do it other tent. That made enough room in our during the afternoon, and this uncanny soon," I quavered. "Any suggestions?" first is, say the hell tent for us to spread out the blankets I kept sound made us leap off the floor. There was "Only two. The one we my backpack with us and shoved Stacy's one second of panicky thrashing as we with it, hope for rescue, and have a good, through the doorway into the other tent with disentangled our arms and legs. I but short, time." the rest of our gear. crouched like a cornered alley cat, glaring "I'm not up to it."

it. other idea is to open the "All righty," I said, unlatching the food around at the motionless landscape out- "Forget The try of I grab container, "luncheon is served at noon, side the tent. I didn't see anything Then entrance of our tent and to one under the stars. We have chicken, cold, noticed Stacy was staring goggle-eyed at the helmets before the decompression kills and French bread, hot. We have slaw, to- the entrance of our tent. us." really not to it," matoes, and chilis. Have a glass ot this "Holy Mother of God," I moaned. The "Now I'm up

it, it. get the and good rose, my dear Captain Cramblitt " I other tent, the one with our stuff in had "Nothing to You helmet

in. door. I let out all the air from your .poured some wine into our glasses. Then I become detached from the tent we were .'eseal the dished up big platefuls of everything. We The two door gaskets had separated,. the, backpack reserve bottle to repressurize lay down together on the blankets, resting air had escaped, and now the other tent our tent. One, two, three. Then we radio for our backs on my backpack. was lying collapsed over our suits, our help." "Pancho, this is delicious," Stacy mum- helmets, our boots, our underwear, the "I could never reclose the door gasket bled through a mouthful of Porkner's warm food container, Stacy's backpack, the dirty fast enough." in bread, dishes. All of it was out there in the clean, "We could wrap ourselves strips of pre- "Yep. My compliments to Cookie, and fresh vacuum I had been talking about. We blanket, mummy-style, really tight, to vent embolism." much as the dome roof on my left side. The big wheel, wobbling this way and that, but

"Darling, it sounds like a brave way to floor was made of the same kind of trans- never quite falling over. Whenever we commit suicide. If we can't think of anything parent plastic as the dome was. I tapped came to one of the huge boulders, we

it its else, we'll try it, all right?" on to knock off the dust that stuck to would walk a little to one side of the edge of "Okay," she said, crestfallen. outside surface. Very little dust actually fell the dome, forcing the tent to curve its path "Besides, the blankets are falling apart," off, but at least we could see through the in that direction. Occasionally we had to

I said, holding one up. The blankets had material. stop and put the* tent into reverse. Gener-

dried flimsy that they "Okay," I said. "Luckily, we're already become so out and ally, I followed the footprints we had made were turning to shreds as we moved facing the way we want to go. S.tacy, stay on our way to the picnic site, but, as we close behind me. idea is to step along around in the tent. The came to more open country, I started tak- carefully tent roll like There was a long silence. We sat hud- and make the a wheel ing shortcuts, I carefully avoided the rims of dled, arms around each other, like a pair of on its edge." any craters more than a few meters across; in "I hope we don't have to make any sharp monkeys a thunderstorm. Stacy had I didn't care to find out whether we could been doing her best to encourage me. Her turns." develop enough traction to climb up out of proposal, to chance letting the air out of our We took a tentative step. As I put my one of them. tent, was a long shot, but it was basically weight on the plastic that curved up in front Things went better than I'd hoped. We

of it until foot the practical. Definitely worth a try. But I me, stretched my was on movedsteadilydownhill.withmestillcounting couldn't face it right away. She was a better ground. Alarming stress wrinkles devel- cadence until Stacy yelled at me to shut up. in man than I was. oped the dome and floor. Abruptly the On and on we trundled the tent, my

Stacy started to droop a little. I hugged tent lurched forward. Stacy fell against me arches flattening in little craters, sharp little her more tightly, and she straightened up from behind. We both staggered, but we rocks jabbing my soles. As we tramped out again. Damn it! I visualized the path we had managed to keep the tent upright. of the dust area into coarser soil, I started

walked from West Limb. Just a short walk, if "What happened?" I asked Stacy over worrying about puncturing the tent. There we didn't stop for sightseeing and fooling my shoulder. wasn't a single damn thing I could do about around. Between the rocks, the ground "When I picked up my foot, the tent rolled it at all. Stacy was cussing under her breath was smoother than usual for the moon, like forward and pushed me into you," she with pain as she marched behind me. a beach made of fine ash instead of sand. said. "If we want the tent to roll smoothly, The blankets had turned to scraps and

We could do it barefooted. I was beginning I've got to take my trailing foot off the fuzz by this time, sliding down to the lowest lead- to have a thought. ground at the same time you put your part of the tent as it rotated. I attempted to "Stacy-" ing foot down on the plastic. We'll have to walk on the stuff, but the effort threw Stacy She responded with a loud sniff. Then march in step. I'll have to hold on to your and me out of step.

I she said. "I'm sorry. I thought was being backpack." "Even if we had our boots with us," I said, brave. It's just such adamn rotten break—" "Jesus Christ! All right, forward, march. "we probably couldn't wear them in this ..." "I should be shot for getting you into Left, right, left, right, left, right tenl. The cleats would hurt the tent worse

it went. The tent rolled'along like a this," I said'. "When we get back to the And so than the ground outside does." base, you should turn me in for disciplinary action."

"I d-definitely will. Corrupting my morals—" By this time tears were running down my face, too. "Listen, Stacy, there's another thing we can do. We can try to walk back to the base. We could stand the tent on its edge and roll it along from the inside. We'll just leave 'all our stuff here. There's enough air in my backpack for us to make it if we start now."

She thought about it for a moment. "Why not?" she said, finally. "Even if the tent rips and we depressurize, we won't be any worse off than we are now, will we?" "Nope." "Let's do it," she said, jumping up and pulling me to my feet.

I lifted up my backpack and hung it on my back, tucking the dangling air and coolant hoses under one of the shoulder straps. Stacy helped me adjust the harness

to fit my naked torso. Stooping, we both pushed against the

wall on one side of the tent, trying to tip it over. The plastic felt icy cold against my hands. "Try to shuffle your feet toward the edge

of the floor," I said. The tent slowly rolled onto its side, the scraps of blanket sliding downward as the tent floor tilted upward. The rim of the tent flattened on the ground.

It was like standing inside a huge flat 'tire. The floor of the tent was now a wall to my

right. Since it was no longer resting on the

ground, it was bulging outward almost as - "

"Yeah," said Slacy. "Let's keep moving." "Don't stop now honey. We're getting of my backpack and whirled me around.

I didn't have a watch, but we must have there," I said, doggedly pacing on. There I stifled the impulse to bolt. "Double gone on that way about three hours. We left were ho more sunlit places to cross. I had time!" I barked. "Leftrightleftrightleftright!" the boulders behind us, and the air grew to consider the problem of how to get in- We were lucky again, Though fog was chilly in the tent. If the ground hadn't been side the buildings. The quickest thing to do forming in the tent, I could see that the warm, we would have had trouble with would be to head for the buggy hatch, the buggy hatch stood wide open. This was in frostbite. The pocked fields of the moon only airlock big enough to allow us to roll violation of base safety directives, but I'll be were around us. It seemed as if we were the tent inside without collapsing it first. eternally grateful to whoever was responsi- ble. With making our way down the sides of an end- I explained all this to Stacy while .we ap- me in front and Stacy clinging less ash heap. My bare skin cringed from proached the buildings. "Fortunately, it'll behind, we bustled across the open space the sharp stars overhead. be easy to get somebody to cycle the air- in front of the window.

I of "At least it's a nice cloudy day," Stacy lock for us," I said. "The trail to the buggy caught a glimpse round eyes, open said. hatch runs right under the picture window mouths, and hands holding drinks in sus- "What?" of the staff bar and lounge. My instincts tell pended animation. Porkner just happened

"On Earth. We can see where we're go- me it must be about Happy Hour now. The to be tending the bar that night. He later ing." bar will be full of people. It'll be easy to told me that it was the only dead silence he "Oh." attract their attention—" had ever heard in that place.

I ran into the airlock fast I wondered whether we could jump the Stacy came to an abrupt halt, jerking on Stacy and so that

if I got a black eye colliding with the inside tent over an obstacle we had to. I was my backpack so hard that I almost fell. taking bigger chances, leading us into un- "What did you say?" she said thickly. door. Icepicks in my ears, heart slamming, I familiar ground, trying to make our return to "Huh?" pounded at the airlock controls through the

West Limb along a more nearly straight line "You expect me to walk in front of the tent plastic. I managed to hit the emergency than the route we had taken to reach the West Limb Base staff bar and lounge dur- close button; the outer door clanged down. place where we had our picnic ing Happy Hour on Friday night stark- The tent folded around us as the airlock As we got closer to the base, the sloping roared itself full of that wonderful air. side of Hevelius trended more to the west. I staggered against the wall, fighting the The sun began to peep among the undulat- tent. Stacy sat down hard on the floor. We ing hills on our right horizon. When we were, both gasping for air. I was about to say came to the first long strip of sunlight shin- we had made it, or words to that effect, ing directly on the ground, it was like step- 6 She had been carrying me when I became aware of the sound of ping on a hot griddle. through an ordeal so trampling feet and the murmur of voices "Yow! Back up, quick!" from behind the inner door. The Happy harrowing that it stiil gives "Is your foot burnt?" Stacy asked. me Hour stampede had arrived. "No, thank God." the creeps just thinking Stacy ripped the plastic door off the en- "Will the tent plastic be able to stand the trance of the tent and stepped out. She about it. We were sunburned heat?" said through clenched teeth, "I'll kill the first "Oh, sure. It's designed for use on hotter salmon-pink; our feet were bastard who—"

this. we'll "Hey! Suarez! You all right?" It was Pork- surfaces than But need to protect bleeding; we were in deadly our feet with something." ner's voice, coming over the airlock danger otjust standing there. We allowed the tent to topple over. Then 9 speaker. He had won the footrace down the we sat down for a breather. corridor from the bar to the buggy hatch. I "How far do we still have to go?" Stacy jumped out of the tent and palmed the lens asked me as we bound our bruised and of the TV camera that surveilled the airlock. blistered feet with strips of disintegrating "We're all right," I said into the intercom blanket. naked?" grille. "We, uh, we need some clothes,"

"Less than a kilometer. The base is right "Stacy," I said, turning to face her, "we're 'Already taken care of," Porkner's voice around the corner of that ridge." Good lucky to be alive, and—" answered. "We've got a red light on the burst into She tears. "I can't. I won't." airlock out here. We'll to thing, too. I had taken advantage of our halt panel have open to inspect the condition of our tent. The She had been carrying me through an the hatch by hand. Stand by." plastic was frosty and scratched and was ordeal so harrowing that it still gives me the Stacy and I stood to one side. After much obviously starting to wear out. creeps just thinking about it. We were sun- talk and clanking, the hatch opened a After tying up our makeshift booties, we burned salmon-pink; our feet were bleed- crack, and Porkner's arm came through, got the tent up and rolling again. The re- ing; we were in deadly danger just standing proffering a couple of white tablecloths. maining distance had to be covered more there. She had bolstered my morale and Blessed be the name of Porkner, and I'll slowly than we had been proceeding. We kept me from despair. This was the first never malign his spaghetti again. were forced to go from one patch of shade crack in her bravery and her sense of Stacy and I emerged discreetly togaed, the to another Crossing the strips of sunlight humor I had seen during the whole terrible to plaudits of the multitude, and entered short-tempered of the dusty Stacy escorted if I thing. other a buggy bay was was hell. I felt as was being roasted in a Some son bonfire. At each stopping place in the bitch might have raised his voice at that to her quarters, and I had to answer a lot of questions. There sly shade I tried to plan the next sunlight cross- point, but not I. were some remarks ing so we could as much as possible avoid I held her close, then looked her up and about my, ah, alleged physical state, which running over rocks. The tent plastic was down. My hands ran up her back, caressed had not gone unnoticed as we sprinted beginning to make little crackling noises her hair, fondled her breasts, rubbed past the picture window I always say that

against her downy belly. I wasn't it's up to us pioneers to point the for- with each step we took. I kept slogging almost way away on my throbbing feet. Whatever was aware of what I was doing. ward, as it were.

"Stacy, Stacy, darling," 1 choked. "You'll As for my relationship with Captain bad for me was worse for Stacy, I knew. At last, the base buildings came in sight. be the most beautiful thing any of them has Cramblitt, her goodbye kiss at the shuttle ever seen, I never thought I could be so happy to see you know" Just'then my left ear pad the next day seemed promising. The

popped. It had always sensitive I her, I that dump as I was just then. "Stacy!" 'I been the next time saw she asked me whether cried. "You see that? We're almost there!" one. The air pressure in the tent was falling. wanted to go skiing. We were on the north finally the leak! I couldn't see her behind me, but I could We had sprung dreaded polar icecap of Mars at the time, but that's feel her leaning heavily on my backpack. Stacy feit it, too. She grabbed the straps another story. DO struck me, as I sat watching the movie but how much do you really know about NASA put the Apollo astronauts into ItAlien, that readers of science fiction are them? Perhaps they're aggressive, car- quarantine on a "better safe than sorry" better prepared to face extraterrestrial nivorous, sex-starved^ Anything. is possi- policy. And" Michael C.richton go! rich and emergencies than movie people' are. ble. Vou certainly don't want to invite them famous by scaring millions o' people with Here was a shipload of officers and crew, to Earth until you are absolutely certain The- Andromeda Strain. Bui science-fiction scared to death because they had set they won't wipe out mankind or enslave us, readers were bored with both NASA and aside the rules and had brought a vora- use- us for -pet food,.or steal all our wimmin- Crichtoh. 'We could have saved a lot of

ciously carnivorous', thoroughly nasty alien folk. As H, G. Wells Once put it, when a money there, if the rest of you had listened creature aboard their vessel, and they highly superior extraterrestrial race tells us to us.

didn't know how to get rid of if. that they want only "to serve, mankind," we However, human biochemistry is proba- "Jump into your spacesuits and open all should inquire whether they wish io serve bly- poisonous to aliencreatures. And vice the hatches!" the science-fiction readers us baked or fried. versa. If you ever visit ex-rarerreslrial re-

among the audience-shouted. Yet what have Carl Sagan and. the as- sorts, don't' drink the water! II an alien car- nivore The actors playing the idiotic crew of the . tronomers done? On each Voyager and takes a bite out of you, ii may be

doomed ship Nostromo ignored that ad- Pioneer -probe that's been hurled out be- unpleasant for you, but il might prove fatal vice. Until the very end of the .film, of yond the solar system they have put maps to the alien. The chemicals that make us course, when the last remaining member of aboard that tell' any- alien with eyestalks strong and healthy may very well be

the crew- donned herspaeesuit, opened all exactly where Earth is! (Another

: the hatches, and b!.ew the alien into the final Just because it may take a million' or. sirike against the tiliv Alh>n.)

d red its. more years for these Judas-goat space- There are- seemingly endless implica- Okay. So they had to give the audience a craft to reach another' star system is no. tions here for extraterrestrial ---.ex. bui tnese couple of hours of chills and frights for their reason tor us to feel safe or complacent. We are clearly without issue. price of admission. But most science-fic- do. care about our descendants' welfare, Further survival hints known to science- tion readers lost interest in the film-very don't we? fiction aficionados: early, simply because they knew how to There are all kinds of survival facts Ybut will never die of loneliness m spaoi- handle the alien and because the crew of known to readers .of science fiction thai the No matter' where you are marooned, all ' ihe ship obviously didn't. average person has never even thought sorts of "people" and/or things w-!l croc This set me io thinking. There- are tots of about. for. visits. Just read the literature. Even fhings that science-fiction aficionados No matter where you travel, you really Robinson Crusoe had his hands full before don't . know so well that they, take the knowledge have much to fear from alien- germs. tOo many chapters had gone by.

for granted , and they assume that everyone Persons who don't read science fiction Perhaps- the most important piece of

else knows these things, too^ worry about contracting some alien dis- survival knowledge that is familiar to sci- Not so. ease only slightly less than. about being ence-fiction readers and few others is this: For instance, consider the problem of gobbled up by an' enormous alien camf- In most movies, scientists are portrayed as First Contact; You're in a spacecraft, way vore. Neither threat is much of a possibility, having the intelligence and moral scruples

out there among the: stars, and you meet in actualify. of movie producers (That is, virtually none the spaceship of an alien. ..race. You ex- Alien critters— microscopic or masto- of either quality] This is not true in real life. change pleasantries with them. After all. it's don-sized— are alien-. Their biochemistry Scientists are about as intelligent and mor- not every day that you make contact with an is net our bio.ehemi.stry. Earthly viruses and ally straight as, say science-fiction authors.

intelligent extraterrestrial species. bacteria make us- ill because they are Therefore, we have very little to fear from But you don't tell them where your home adapted to our biochemistry and can live scientists. They are really fine people, lor world is! parasitically upon us. the most part. But we do have rather a lot to The aliens may seem, kindly disposed, Alien microbes- can't. And won't. Sure, fear. from movie producers. DO THE MAN WHO WAS MARRIED T0 5R\CE AND TIME

BY FRITZ LEIBER

Guy Manning was in love with space and lime all his pastel supers til ions, who had Ihe distinciion of living and keep- lunar calendar, in which Oldlife, noi only during the months preceding his mysterious ing time by her personally-embellished yet oddly unspectacular disappearance He didn't wrile all the full moons have names, not just the Harvest and Hunters. poetry about them, although he sometimes spoke of There are the Sowers Moon and the Loners, for example, the them poetically, and ii did not lead him to become a professional Ghosts and, of course, the Lovers. By her calendar, incidentally. physicist or aslronomer (the stars being supreme examples of old Guy Manning disappeared on the nighl of the Murderers distan'ce and of greal use in timekeeping). No. it was altogether a Moon, the one nearest the summer solstice, the full moon that humbler sort of affection, and in his last years, after his wife's steals across the sky low in the south, latest to rise and earliest to death (there were no children) and his retirement Irom his minor set. short-lived and dim. editorial job. when he was living along in a big-cily apartment he Manning's other young friend (who was also Joan's friend) was interest in both the leased by the year ii had some of the humdrum elements of a Jack Penrose, a restless chap with a keen long marriage. It was the sort of affection or devotion that kept occult and science, and with ambitions of becoming a writer of him interested in science and science-fiction all his life, kept him fantasy romances He was the one to whom Manning told some staring speculatively into the distance and. toward the end, kepi of his dreams. him compulsively concerned with small numbers and with count- Then there was Mr Sarcander, a sallow and lean-jawed clinical ing (which is. after all. the simplest way we measure both time psychologist who worked mainly in geriatrics. Originally Man- and space). ning had consulted him about his recurrent depressions, but And yet this humble, humdrum, rather metaphysical love was their relationship had become social also. Those who knew him so obvious to Ihe few friends of his last years that none of them well found Mr. Sarcander the mosl cynical and sardonic man was exactly startled by Ihe fanciful suggestion made, after his alive, shockingly harsh in his evaluation of human motives, and casual yet eerie disappearance, that old Guy had somehow they were occasionally hurt when he applied such value judg- melted away into space and time, lhat he had become "married" ments to them or their friends. Actually, however, Mr. Sarcander to them in the sense of having merged with them. was harshest of all on himsetf, expending all his optimism, flat- And indeed, old Guy Mannings disappearance did have an tery and cheerfulness on his patient-clients, reserving his hon- unstudied air to it, as if he had simply stood up one day (as if esty for the people he could relax with. going to get a drink of water) and walked out of life, or at least Finally, there was the amiable and tolerant Dr Lewison, Man- than away from life as we know it. Though in what direclion that would ning's medical doctor, with whom he had something more a be. it's puzzling (perhaps meaningless) to ask purely professional relationship. He had keys to Manning's

II was Joan Miles who made the fanciful "melting into space- apartment, as did jack Penrose. lime" suggestion She was a mildly eccentric young person, These four persons had become mutually acquainted while unseriously addicted to astrology, white witchcraft and other Manning was still alive (undisappeared. rather) and after his

PAINTING BY DON IVAN PUNCHATZ vanishing, they met a few times lo talk his time. He had a geometric mind." told me of a dream- he'd had," the young about il and him, especially when police Mr. Sarcander snorted faintly. "Old man reminisced. "He was standing on this investigations developed no leads— or any people." he said, "are forever checking out perfectly flat expanse of fine silvery sand.

push at all, for that mailer. their eyesight, trying to prove to themselves The illumination was general, but he knew Such was the surprisingly small circle of that it's as good as ever — or even better." he was in a desert. He could feel on his Manning's last friends, unless we include Jack Penrose said defensively, "He was back the infrared rays of a very hot sun (and we probably should) Mr. Breen, a very careful about all his sensations. They beating rhythmically down through a thin

burly, dark, not unhandsome Irishman with were more like observations, He paid atten- cloud layer. And. as if in time with the beat- — permanently bewildered eyes and given to tion to details. He watched the. city ing of those rays, he could feel the hard-— fits of absentmindedness, who was the almost as if that were his special job." packed sand vibrating very rapidly apartment manager of the building where 'All old people do that," Mr. Sarcander about five or six tight tiny shakes to every

Manning lived on the top floor. Breen wasn't said. "You see their white faces at windows one of his heartbeats, as it the earth be- the first to notice Manning's absence (Joan and in shadowed porches. They watch neath were quaking constantly. There was was), but he made a small discovery in their little worlds, their microcosms in which mist all around him, but it was slowly dis- first connection with it that became somewhat each has become God. They're waiting for sipating upward. As it rose, he could at puzzling as he recalled more of Ihe atten- their miniworlds to crumble. It's the only see nothing but the endless, silver, invisibly dant circumstances. occupation life has left them," vibrating plain extending out in all direc- lonely. "I was up on the roof," he said, "when I "Mr. Manning," Joan murmured, "be- tions. He felt terribly noticed this small ring of keys sitting on one came more and more immersed in distance "Then, as the mist continued gradually to of the steps leading up to the little room and duration." rise, there came into view — about two over the elevator shaft. Right next to the And indeed that was a very fair way of miles away, he judged — a squat tower of

width. It like fort, really. edge of the roof, too. At first I didn't think of describing the way Guy Manning's life had considerable was a noticed rather thin dark wings Manning especially, but then I remembered gone. Early on, he'd traveled as much as he Then he two how he'd go up there once or twice a could, experiencing distance that way. jutting out from the tower for miles and day — nights, too — to check out the He'd liked to watch the sea. Laler, this urge miles— an impossible job of cantilevering. out the of one of weather or the stars. I remembered times had expressed itself in a love of maps, He He could barely make end when he'd forgotten and left other things in liked to measure distances on them with a them in the far distance. And. as he swung about the same spot— his pipe or matches small ivory ruler he carried, When he took his eyes back to the other wing, the longer or a half-filled cup of coffee, and once his walks, he'd head for the nearest hill or high one, and continued to watch it, he got the

it moving very slowly binoculars. So I checked out the keys and place so that he could watch distance impression that was they were Manning's. Which is sort of funny emerging from the scene around him as he toward him over the silver sand. because you need them to get down from mounted. And always there were the vastly 'At that point the mist rose higher. He the roof. The one for the front door to the far. infinitely regular stars at night, or the noticed a shadow rapidly traveling across building also unlocks the roof door. The clouds filling the middle distances. During the plain toward him. He looked up and saw police have them now," one period his interest shifted to great inte- the tower's third and highest-set wing slic- "Mo," Jack Penrose contradicted, "the riors, those of cathedrals, industrial as- ing Ihrough ihe misty air, a quarter-mile lock on the roof door doesn't snap shut sembly buildings wherein small aircraft overhead, like a gigantic revolving dark unless you make it. He took me up there could fly and huge extraterrestrial struc- scythe, He glanced down at his wrist to several times and -he always left the door tures such as those envisioned in Arthur C. time the scythe's speed. ... As he saw the hanging ajar and then pulled it tight shut, Clarke's Rendevous with Rama and John skinny sweep second hand crawling silvery dial, so it locked, after we came back in. And Varley's Titan. rapidly around the he realized even if you were locked out on the roof As with distance, so with duration. Atone where he was." without a key, you could always climb down time of his life, he was greatly interested in "Trapped under a wristwatch crystal," vi- the outside ladder to the fire escape," clocks, and if he'd had more money, he Joan heard herself say. "Its ticking the "That's true." Breen admitted, frowning might have become a collector and ended bration of the sands? Did the mists clear all doubtfully, up with a house full of tickings and chim- away? Was it his room outside? Did he peer Dr. Lewison smiled to himself, thinking of ings. But, in the long run, he was more down?" how lightly young people contemplated drawn to the commoner and more ordinary "He woke up feeling the watchband such athletic feats. aspects of timekeeping, the adjustment of gripping his wrist oppressively. He'd forgot- Meanwhile. Joan Miles was visualizing watches and alarm clocks, the calls to Time ten to take it off the night before. He said an ovoid space shuttle landing silently on of Day, the counting out of seconds accu- you became more aware of tiny pressures the pale, tar-set gravel overhead by the rately, the estimation of the duration of a like that as you grew older," Jack's eyes light of Ihe Murderers Moon. And a door moment of awareness (that vital surface widened a trifle, and then he frowned — as opening in its glassy skin and old Guy which patches together the subjective and though what he had just said had reminded difficult Manning bowing courteously toward it and objective, the mental and material, the mi- him of another memory one more to then climbing inside. He wouldn't have crocosm and the macrocosm), and the disentangle. needed a key to get down from the roof slow circling march across the sky of the "A wristwatch ticks five times a second," then, she thought. Or any Earth keys any timekeeping stars. Dr. Lewison observed, "though it's harder more, if it were going to be that sort of "He never cared for those new digital for me to hear it these days. That compul- journey. watches and clocks," Dr. Lewison re- sion of his to count, the concern with small What she said was, "He had a way of marked, "especially the kind that show a numbers, You know, somewhere Guy narrowing his eyes and moving his head black empty face until you press a button. picked up the habit of segregating his

around from side to side as he looked out at Neither do I for that matter. For a wristwatch coins in different pockets according to their kind of value. the additional the city. I wondered about it, and then I or clock, he preferred the simplest Then he acquired realized he was lining up things very pre- face: upright black numerals evenly habit of reaching in and counting them by ." cisely— buildings, flagpoles, clouds, stars. spaced, minutes marked around the rim, touch. . . He'd move his head the same way when he and three hands," 'A test of tactile acuity!" Mr. Sarcander

used his binoculars. He was learning all the "I know," Joan Miles agre*ed. "He said you put in sharply. "The elderly reassure them- stars, he told me once, not just the constel- could see the face of time that way, judge selves that way, filling their empty time with lations but also the smaller asterisrns that its expression, and sometimes guess what little tasks, so they won't have to think un- make them up and often look so much it was up to." pleasant thoughts about what's coming." involving small alike. He said it was a job that would last out Jack Penrose lifted his eyes. "He once "He had another habit numbers and counting," Dr. Lewison each other, because the central wall was he'd be back si the pom: where the dream

pressed on. "He'd read or been told by thicker with a crack down its middle, and had started, or near it. and all that crawling someone, he told me, about how people wlnenhehad to cross over that wall — as he and terrified crouching to do again in the have been traced down by the characteris- did several times in the dream, moving rap- windy wet darkness, and no comfort ex- tic pattern in which they tear matches out of idly— he was always at 'aid here 'd be noth- cept sometimes a like-uniformed faceless matchbooks. That inspired him lo experi- ing on the other side or that something gray soldier to crouch against, shoulder to ment with" different patterns of tearing out drastic would happen. shoulder.

matches when he smoked his pipe— every "It was night, with a heavy overcast and a "It was only when he'd at last made it all other match in a rank, every third one, from biting wind that blew irregular splatters of the way around and was huddled down

in front, from behind, from the sides in, from rain, but enough light leaked up from the with all the oiher dark gray dream soldiers the center out. Sometimes he said he'd streets for him to make out his surround- and they began without warning to vanish give each match a weight, depending on ings. He was wearing some sort of dark two by two that he finally realized he was

its position, and try to tear them out in such gray unilorm— it felt uncomfortable and part of a backgammon game being played .a way that the two sides continued to bal- harsh to the skin; like a uniform — but with- with living, feeling men. And as he waited ,"

. insignia. ance without being symmetrical. . out any his unpredictable turn to be borne off — lo

'Anyone tracing him would have thought "He wasn't.alone. In fact there were quite vanish, as it were — there began to build up he was a dozen different people," Jack a few people on the roof, but they were all in him a fear and a pressure. ..." interrupted, relieved to be able to grin at crouched down against the walls, just as Jack snapped his fingers as he broke off.

something. he was, some of them alone, some in pairs "Pressure!" he said. "That's what I was try- "He told me about that too," Joan Miles and small huddles, and he couldn't see ing to remember Once, apropos of nothing said. "Eventually he came to think of the them any too well.. During his whole dream. special, maybe we'd been talking about matches as actors on a stage, with the he never got to look one of them in the science-fiction, certainly not backgam-

matchbook cover their backdrop. The trick face— or address a single word to any of mon. Manning asked me if I'd ever had the was to tear them out so that you'd always them, or they to him— though later on he feeling of being under a kind of pressure have an effectively balanced stage." occasionally got comfort, or at least a that would suddenly squeeze me out ol the Mr Sarcander's brusque shrug told what sense of safety, from being close to one of world altogether, shoot me away in any di- ." he thought of such matchbook charades. them and moving side by side without their rection like an appleseed or . .

". Dr. Lewison leaned forward. "But the ever looking at each other. They all seemed . . or just melt away info space-time." strongest indication by far," he said, "of to be wearing the same sort of nondescript Joan murmured. Guy's obsession with counting and the fas- gray uniform as his own, only some— about "Seriously Joan," Jack asked her, "how cination small numbers held for him, was half, in fact— were wearing uniforms of a could something like awareness 'melt when he gave up chess for backgammon. lighter shade of gray. Being near one of away' into the material world?" In that game you're constantly counting these never gave him reassurance. "Everything has an awareness side, even and juggling small numbers in your head, "Most of the time, the figures held very the atoms, else reality wouldn't balance

combining 'and recombining them as you still, watching each other closely, he sup- out. Manning once said that. And I re- consider your move. In a way the largest posed, as he was doing.. But every so often member another thing he told me— that a number you work with is six, because there a couple of them would scurry-crawl along person ought always to keep a packed

is none higher on a single die. the wall and then suddenly hold still again. suitcase handy, in case he were called

'As he explained it to me," the doctor If one of them had to cross the central wall, away at short notice. Only I don't remember

continued, "one reason he made the he'd hump over it as swiftly as he could. whether he said he followed his own ad-

change was that he'd come to think that always keeping a low profile. It struck him vice."

backgammon is much more like real life that their actions were a lot like those of Mr. Breen broke in. He'd been listening to

than chess is. In chess you're operating in soldiers practicing to advance across a everything with the same worried look. "I an ideal universe where all the laws and broken field under enemy fire. seem to remember there always used to be forces are known to you and where you 'And every once in a while- he'd get the a little suitcase at the foot of his bed," he

control half of the pieces. You can make the overpowering urge- to do likewise, He'd said. 'And it's not there now." He continued most far-reaching and elaborate plans and crawl as fast and inconspicuously as he to look worried and puzzled.

nothing can upset them but your adversary. could for as long as he felt the urge. When it "After you found his keys," Jack ad- But, in backgammon, blind chance enters lefi him, he'd hold still wherever he hap- dressed him. "I went up and searched

the picture on each move, at every throw of pened to be, alone or beside others, but every inch Of the roof. I found three items the dice. There are no certainties, only always as close to the wall as he could gel. that could have been Manning's — a back- possibilities and probabilities. You can't That part was like musical chairs, he said, gammon doubling cube, a lens cap from plan in the same way as in chess. All you except there was no music to tell you when his binoculars, and a matchbook with live

can do is make your arrangements so that to start and slop. It was only the urge that matches left in a pattern of two side by whatever comes, good or bad, you can gave you those orders. side, one alone, and two one space apart." maximize benefits or minimize harm." His "He noticed that the dream soldiers in "There's five of us," Breen groped. He voice was growing more animated. "It lighter gray always moved in one direction touched the side of his head and winced

exemplifies the Pythagorean injunction: Be- along and around the walls, while he and his eyes. "I knew I'd remember," he said

lieve that anything that can happen in the the others in darker uniforms always ad- guiltily. "When I found the keys, they were

world can happe.n to you. You can only fight vanced in the opposite direction. When on a scrap of paper, holding it down. I

on for victory or survival, while chance rains opposing soldiers neared or went past started to pick the paper up too. although I

down its blows unendingly." He took a deep each other, the sense of peril increased. never thought it might be important then,

breafh and settled back. Whenever the light-gray soldiers moved, •but it blew off the roof. It was ragged along

"Manning once told me of another dream especially if Manning were alone against one edge, like it was torn out of a spiral

he'd had." Jack Penrose broke in. "He was the wall, he'd huddle down, trying to hide notebook. I think il had writing on it. tiny

on this rather large, flat, square roof' that his head, in horrid anticipation of one of capitals."

seemed strangely famikar It had a parapet, them landing on his back or just so much'a's They looked around at each other for a a iittle less than waist high. There was also touching him. while, Then, as by common consent, they a wall of the same height that went across "Yet, whenever that did happen, there went up to the roof together and watched

the middle of the roof, dividing It into equal wouldn't be any terrible pain or shock such the rising of the Loners Moon, which is also

rectangles. Later in the dream, he figured it as he anticipated, but only a break in the called the. Overlapped linking each year was the roofs of two buildings abutfing dream, a momentary blackout, after which with the next. DO 89 STELLAR TECHNICIAN

D.ark, moody, and powerful, the paintings of Vincent Di Fate depict mechanical marvels and far frontiers of a future technocracy built on complicated machinery and human resourcefulness. 3

£Art brings the concept of intelligent machines to life

y

"I have a Victorian belief in the mystical powers of the machine," says Di Fate, who at thirty-six is something of a grand old man in the highly specialized field of technological space art, Stirring images of far-flung environments have been his trademark for more than a decade, In his A.S Wappingers Falls, New York, studio. Di Fate paints scores of award-winning book-jacket covers and magazine illustrations. 47b survive, humankind must embrace technology. 9

iX

r-r*

' *!•>. "•»!

^ With bold strokes and somber colors, Di Fate accents the powerful tools that will enable humankind to assert its citizenship in the universe. Our thrust outward toward the hostile environment of space makes us increasingly dependent

on technology. "Even so," Di Fate maintains, "it is man who must bear the responsibility for his actions, not his s< or his machines." DO GRAVESIDE WATCH

The time capsule would be buried there — but who would dig

it up again? And when?

BY EDWARD H. GANDY

T.hGy just finished dig- ging the grave today. We could bring our sleep- ing bags and lie beneath the stars all night." said Frank, pressing the phone receiver to his ear and waiting for her answer. He peeked in- side the coin-return mouse hole of the public phone There were no forgotten dimes, but

someone had left in it a dead fly. to discourage refunds to the more timid. "Hell, every teacher gets bummed out at the end of spring term. That's why you're so depressed. Elaine. It hap- pens to me, too. But a good view of the Milky Way puts the whole college year in perspective. proletarian." What do you say? I hear it's very Using his shoulder to pin the receiver to his ear, Frank finished reading the graffiti on the side of the phone booth. Graffiti were important elements in anthropology. A bulletin board for Ihe anonymous. A scratch pad for the long min- utes on hold. Raw thoughts. Raw art. Raw life. He checked on the fly again. Still dead. He started to lean against the glass wall of the phone booth, but he slumped down, dejected. "What? What do you mean? It's not like we're spending ihe night in a cemetery.- It's the only grave there is on Raven Hill. And besides, it snot really a grave, just a huge hole." • on the It was hot in that little glass house sidewalk. After a couple of minutes he was

PAINTING BY GAGE TAYLOR persoirmg ano speculating about photo- demonstrate a genuine hand-in-hand ef- allowing his car to get down on the flesh of synthesis. Damn. Two days in this phone fort toward casualty prevention. More spe- the earth. Spinning wheels, groaning en-

booth would have saved Elaine's African cifically, it was a good excuse to spend the gine, soft shoulders, loose gravel, rocking violets. They died today. She was telling night under the stars with Elaine. back and forth in a hole that gets deeper-

him about it for Ihe fourth lime. He opened He could just see her white skin glowing it was all too Freudian. He would walk. the door, stepping back to try to catch in the moonlight, her softness contrasting Frank shook his head to nudge his some of the early evening breeze, but the with the ruggedness of the outdoors. He thoughts in another direction. Too much phone cord wasn't long enough. They could see them slipping into the lush forest, idle speculation, he reminded himself as he never were. rolling naked in the grass, bits of straw and shouldered his backpack. Always specu-

"I'll buy a loaf of bread and some wine," pebbles clinging briefly to her dreamlike lating on this or that. Problem was, "this or he cut in. "What do you say?" After a polite flesh, which fluttered at the slightest touch. that" could run from the rational to the

. . pause, Elaine took up the slack in the con- . Unfortunately, the idea of exposing one- ridiculous in a flash. versation with some straight talk about sun- self to the universe next to an open grave He took a deep breath of pine-scented

light and humidity. Not to mention bugs— did not sizzle when it hit the fire of other air to clear .his head and then walked up which she did. people's imagination. the road to the grave. Frank extended his arm, braced his "Ah, c'mon, Elaine." Although the hill was thick with trees, there clearing the . hand on the phone, and did some more Reality was no match against Frank's was a grassy at very top. leaning. What else was there to do in a remarkable imagination. Never was and Frank was almost there when, suddenly, he phone booth? He began thinking about to- never would be. Even the psychiatrists had smelled smoke. He looked up and noticed

morrow's burial. After all, he had a right to been unable to help. Frank had stopped a light. It was the glow of a flickering be proud of his efforts. He was only a teach- seeing them long ago, but he was still pay- campfire. He moved to the side of the road ing assistant, and yet he was the one who ing the bills. and walked toward the edge of the clear-

put in for the grant, landed it, formed a "Yeah, I understand. Maybe some other ing. As he got closer, he heard the crack- committee, and launched the whole time- time. Right. Talk to you later." He slammed ling of the fire. Peering through a bush, he capsule project. He even wrote up the the receiver down on its cradle. Great, he saw an old man in a tight vest and baggy press releases. Not to mention licking the thought, as he jumped into his car with his pants bending over to pour himself a cup of postage stamps — which he did. Hundreds camping gear. Cut to the quick by a dead coffee. Frank could see the open grave a of them. plant. The world was definitely after him. couple of feet from the fire and a large And there were other drawbacks. Like mound of dirt next to the hole. The old man

camping out on the top of Raven Hill to- Frank raced through town as if the world sat down and spoke without bothering to night, to keep an eye on the hole. Not that was gaining on him, although he knew he look up.

anyone was. going to steal it— the college shouldn't be treating his Pontiac like this. "Not five minutes ago I saw a snake glide president had assured him with a smile- He downshifted to take the steep incline of into that bush you're hiding behind, son." but liability-insurance rates dictated the the hill. Frank gingerly stepped into the open presence of a hole watcher. Trying to make He finally stopped his car when the and then became embarrassed at being the best of a bad situation. Frank had pavement ended. The last quarter mile to flushed out of the brush like a common fhoughf two hole watchers would better the top was bare dirt. He decided against quail. "Excuse me," said Frank, trying to ap- pear casual. "But what are you doing here?" The old man looked away Frank's eyes followed his until they came upon a wagon, a medicine-show wagon. A lantern, attract- ing the attention of a number of flying in- sects, hung from a rusty hook at a corner of the old wagon. Frank could barely make out the dimly lighted sign painted on one side of the rig. The red lettering formed two half circles, one inside the other: G. o. 5AGEHORN AND HIS TRAVELIN' MEDICINE SHOW. "Want some coffee, son?" "Wha-?" "Coffee." He whistled sharply, and Frank stepped back at the sound of movement under the wagon. A German shepherd came trotting out. Frank thought the dog

was beautiful even though it was quite dusty. The old man banged the side of the coffeepot with a stick, and the dog jumped

into the back of the wagon. Moments later it came out with a tin cup in its mouth and ran up to him. "Sit down, son." He took the cup and

filled it. "What's your name?" "Frank," he said, hesitating. "Frank Hen- derson."

"Well, I hope you like your coffee black." 'Ah ... yeah," Frank said, sitting down rather slowly and eyeing the man. said, 'Thy faith hath thee whole' told "He made and me to come "Good. Sagehorn's the name, and this is " back' in two for a checkup. weeks Plato." The dog raised its head at the sound of its name. Frank nodded to both of them .

as Sagehorn handed him his coffee. other foot? Elaine walked down on the way to the cam- Sagehorn was an odd-looking man. His ;'Well," said Frank, "we've printed up pus— talking about their students, sharing long hair and bushy eyebrows were white, hundreds of small books. They describe the morning air. And over there— three his eyes watered, his nose twitched, and the time capsule's location and ask that it streets down, just this side of the neon Boulevard that his face was pushed forward slightly, as if not be opened until the year 2980. In fact," lights of Manchester — was he were squinting into a strong wind. In- and his tongue grew dry at the memory, "I her street. And over there, that dark area deed, Frank would bet that the old man spent most of last week mailing them out to must be the park. No ... the golf course

. . , . . could stand in fronl of a closed window and museums and the rare-book sections of maybe . . . no not big enough seat and make it appear to be windy. libraries all over the world. Even a few Sagehorn swung back over the "Quite a hole." said Sagehorn, gazing at monasteries." He shrugged. "The time dropped to the ground. The wagon (he grave. capsule will probably survive and be re- squeaked and nodded its relief. "Just put "Yeah," Frank turned to look back at the membered." this inside your time capsule." He held out wagon again, noi sure of what to think. He "Well, if it is found and opened a a small metal box. full. of noticed ahorse by the trees. He could feel thousand years from now, I'll know about it "Capsule's already Invention his boyish imagination rioting inside him. within two weeks." yours?" trying to get out but not succeeding. Frank Frank concealed a smile behind his cup. "Hardly. To talk to someone from our fu- sort inven- was too edgy in these strange surround- "Oh? How?" ture does not require some of his heavy ings to be anything less than alert. A "I'll show you." Sagehorn got up and tion." He raised, or rather hoisted, thought occurred to him. walked over to his wagon. Brushing by the eyebrows. "Simple logic will suffice." "Did you come to see the burial?" he lantern and the insects, he climbed into the Frank looked down and aimlessly asked. front of the rig and disappeared over the swirled the coffee around in his cup. "Logic? To talk to someone from our fu- "Most assuredly. As soon as I heard seat. in hand, Frank wandered over ture?" about this time capsule. I packed in my With cup simple theory of time show put my horse and wagon in a truck, to examine the old sign more closely but "It's based upon a circuit, know." He and headed for Oregon." became distracted by the lantern. It re- travel. Lecture you Frank gave Sagehorn a cold look, "Buri- sembled the nucleus of an atom. Bugs be- tugged at his vest. "Speak at colleges, festivals, and such, al's not until tomorrow. Are you camping came electrons in their various orbits. He county fairs, outdoor here tonight?" turned and took a deep breath, to clear his using the frontier medicine show as my Sagehorn surveyed Frank's sleeping head and cool his imagination, format. Adds a bit of flavor to my lectures. tricks in Although, I confess, it's my card that bag and backpack. "I might ask you the But it didn't work. Through a break the same question." He seemed offended. trees he could see the lights of the city in bring the people to my wagon." "Lighthouse keeper," Frank explained. the distance. He searched through the pat- "Well," said Frank, looking back over his

"I think the wagon itself would "It seems that I've been elected to come up tern of quiet lights until he recognized those shoulder, here and throw a light on the hole. Make of the university. There was the glitter of suffice, I mean, draw the crowds." sure some poor astronomy student doesn't Washington Boulevard, the street he and Sagehorn didn't see the humor. So Frank drop out of sight in mid-stride." "Yes, that would be a nasty fall."

Frank nodded. "Yeah, it's a deep one, all right. But the time capsule will be there for a long time." Sagehorn smiled. "Yes, indeed. I'm sure

it will. And, as a matter of fact, I have a plan that will determine whether the capsule will be found and opened a thousand years from "now," "Well, we've taken a few steps to make sure it will be found," "Such as?"

"Nabbed a government grant. Need I say more?" But Frank did, for he never passed up a chance to talk about his cap- sule. "The capsule wasn't built in metal shop." he concluded, after running through a list of problems the subcontractors had had in building something that could sur- vive for a thousand years. Sagehorn seemed to be really inter- ested. Intensely almost like a child would have been. "What other steps have you taken to ensure its discovery?" Sagehorn asked. Frank looked up in time to see a shooting star over the trees. He remembered search- ing the sky for them for hours when he was a boy. But shooting stars aren't really stars at all. He knew that now. Sometimes it was better to have a child's faith. At least it didn't get bruised as badly. He looked at Sagehorn and studied his wind-blown face "First lime In life I ever won anything, Ed. for any hint of a second childhood. The old my solar-powered wristwatch." man certainly had one foot in the past, with A that wagon. Question was, Where was his cleared his throat to suppress the tickle in Why. take a single penny, double it twenty- "Ah, but the scroll is never purported to his thoughts. They both walked back to the seven times, and you're a millionaire! Twen- be written by the time traveler himself. It's grave and sat down. The lire was warm, ty-seven times! With that kind of accelera- written by a friend who knows of his true and Frank was glad to be next to it again. tion of learning, can you imagine what will origin, who helps him survive in this primi-

He heard the wind start to blow— first in the happen after doubling our knowledge two tive century. Unfortunately, the time traveler trees to the left, and then in the trees over hundred times? Can you really say that time himself has become delirious, and the the wagon. He wished he was here with travel will remain an impossibility forever? friend is worried about him having a mental Elaine instead of this crazy old ... con Well?" breakdown, going crazy, becoming most man? Maybe. Sagehom was obviously try- "Okay," said Frank, too tired to face off dangerous. So he tries to get a message to ing to arouse his curiosity. But why? Frank and go toe to toe with him on a verbal mat. the future." finally relented a bit. "What's your theory He was beginning to realize that he was Frank pressed the palm of one hand about time travel?" outclassed anyway. Sagehorn might be against the knuckles of the other. Three Sagehorn poked at the fire with a stick crazy, but he was also well prepared to knuckles discharged, each at a different and smiled. "Simply put, that there are time defend his theory. pitch. There was a dangerous logic to travelers among us right now." "So, what's in the box?" Frank asked. Sagehorn's theory In a weaker moment, Frank began swirling his coffee again, Sagehorn grinned, picked up the box, Frank might have embraced that logic. and the fire crackled in agreement. and brushed some imaginary dust off the Maybe. He glanced up at the stars, One of

"Really," Sagehorn said, "it's a most logi- lid with the back of his hand. 'A scroll that them seemed brighter than the others, but cal theory if you assume that man will even- tells a most interesting story. Used a special he knew that the light he was seeing had all tually accomplish anything he puts his paper and ink to ensure that it survives the left that star thousands of years ago. For mind to, In a thousand years he will most thousand years. Yes, I've baited this hook he knew the star might not be there any- assuredly discover the secret of time travel. very carefully." more. Sometimes it was better not He will journey into his past to discover how "What are you using for bait?" knowing. the Pyramids were built, to attend the trial of "Well, what better way to lure a time "Well, even if I believed in your theory, I Socrates, to witness the crucifixion of couldn't get your box in that capsule any- there Christ. So it must be logical to assume that way The contents are already laid in there are time, travelers among us right now. like a three-dimensional puzzle. Nothing

Only problem is flushing one out into the more will fit."

it open. And I have a plan that will do just "Smuggle in. Remove something and that." 6 Frank could see put my box in its place." for a "I see, What's your plan got to do with my the open grave a couple of "Remove something — box and time capsule?" some half-baked theory?" feet from the fire "Your time capsule, if it survives a "I'm a time-capsule seeder. Been seed- thousand years, will be opened by a soci- and a large mound of dirt on ing time caps for the past twenty years. My ety that has the ability to travel back the other side theory is hardly . . . half-baked." through time." Frank was disappointed, although he of the hole. The old sat Frank rolled his eyes up in disbelief. man didn't know why. "You mean, this isn't your "Impossible?" said Sagehorn. first?" down . , , without "What, time travel? The whole concept 'Ah. no, son. I'm afraid it isn't." He bothering to look up3 contains too many contradictions." frowned, but then his face brightened. "But Sagehorn looked down at his metal box yours shows the most promise for survival. and rubbed the edge of it with his index Prospects are as good as those for the finger as if there was a smudge on it. "Con- capsule the Northingale Corporation tradiction is a most tricky word, son. After buried back in Sixty-three. However," he all, what's in a contradiction?" traveler out into the open than with another looked off to the side tor a moment, "appar-

Sagehorn let the question dangle in the time traveler? Specifically, a supposedly ently it will never be found." wind for a moment while he pulled a cigar stranded time traveler in need of rescue. I "You've been testing this theory for the out of his vest. He bit off one end and em- mean, iftheydoanykind of exploring in this past twenty years, and it's never worked?" ployed the grave as a spittoon. "Point of time dimension, they're bound to lose a few "Time caps are tricky. Some will be dug poor souls. People who never come back up much too soon. Say, one or two hundred "Oh?" from their journey through the past. People years at the most. Well before the age of "For example, twenty-five hundred years lost in a strange dimension, stranded in time travel." ago Pythagoras claimed the earth revolved some ancient era. An Amelia Earhart- type Frank felt sorry for the crazy old guy. around the sun. Well, anyone could see it of disappearance in the oceans of time. I Twenty years! He wondered how many he was the sun rising and setting. So obvi- think it's safe to assume such an occur- had "seeded" and then chuckled at the ously, from their point of view it was the sun rence." thought of future scientists scratching their

doing the revolving." He pulled his stick out "Murphy's Law." collective heads. "I just wish I could be of the coals and lit his cigar with it. 'Ah," he "Precisely. And suppose you were a time around when they open up a capsule and continued between puffs, "but that appar- traveler grounded in the twentieth century. find one of your scrolls." ent contradiction didn't disturb Pythagoras How else to get a message to the future, "Oh, they'll probably start popping them in the least, not in the least." telling of your plight, than through a time open in the next century. Course, they "Truly admirable of him, but we've pro- capsule?" might think the first one amusing, as you gressed a little since then." How else, indeed? It struck Frank as an do." "Exactly! In the past thirty years we've interesting notion. He couldn't help thinking Frank raised his eyebrows in a polite pro- advanced more in science than in all of about it for a moment, "One question," he test. history. For the first time we're experiencing said. "As I understand it, your scroll por- "But when they discover that the second, a geometric progression of knowledge. trays a time traveler stuck in this" century. third, fourth—" He stopped and extended

Our scientific information is doubling every Now, it seems to me that o'ur language is his arm to indicate a whole crop of cap- _ five years. My God, if that acceleration rate' bound to go through some drastic changes sules. "When they see that almost every remains the same, then we're talking about in the next few centuries. Wouldn't a real long-range time capsule buried in the twen- doubling something two hundred different time traveler jot down his S.O.S. in some tieth century has the same message in it, times before that capsule will be opened. language of the future?" they may find it most disquieting." "And you're counting on that, aren't you?" scroll — to bring my time traveler friend to a Suddenly it hit him. What the whole con- Sagehorn raised his shoulders and specific location at a certain date and time versation had been leading up to but never made his neck disappear. "Sure. That's the to await a rescue attempt. Exact time and quite touching. The thought burst into kind of mystery that legends and myths are place, mind you. Therefore, when they re- focus, stunning him for just a moment. Was spun from. If my lime caps don't survive ceive this message, some time travelers reality finally outstripping his imagination? hundreds of years, maybe a fascinating will be dispatched to the Raven Hill Tavern." Had he been overlooking his basic an- legend or two may" 'The tavern?" thropology?

This was too well thought out for Frank to "That's where I'll be at exactly five pm., a He had to know for sure. simply dismiss it. The plan had some depth week from Friday. I've already described "Okay, Mr. Sagehorn," he said, finding his to it. Suddenly Frank realized that he was in my physical features in the scroll.' So, if my voice again. "I'll get it in the capsule," the presence of an imagination as wild as plan works, then some actual time travelers Sagehorn smiled, reached down to pet his. A fellow sufferer! Was this the old man will contact me there." his dog, and then raised his cup to Frank. that he would become in thirty years? A 'And you'll prove their existence." "But I just had an interesting thought," hopeless dreamer with a curious obses- "Precisely" said Frank, recovering somewhat and join- sion? Frank raised the cup to his lips and eyed ing in the toast. He took a sip of his coffee

Instinctively, he picked up the box and Sagehorn over the rim. So far he had man- and then set it down next to the fire. "Don't carefully tried to open it, as if it would allow aged to confine his observations to just the know why I didn't think of it before." him a glimpse into the future. theory. The theory held up, but what about "What's that?" asked Sagehorn.

"It's sealed," said Sagehorn. the old man himself? He hesitated when it With hands clasped behind his head. "Why?" came to Sagehorn. Somehow he could Frank leaned back against his camping "An extra precaution. The scroll is pre- sense a magic in his face. Or his voice. Or gear and gazed up at the glittering stars. with served in a vacuum." was it just his own imagination? Well, They glistened the polish of fime. A few at "Oh?" sometimes it was better not to know how the even winked him. Frank turned the box over in his hands a trick was done. "Well, Mr. Sagehorn, suppose there re- couple of limes. II had an oily film on it, like But the questions kept coming. Who was ally was a time traveler stuck in this century a new pair of garden shears. He could even this old man? Where did he come from? And suppose that a time capsule was, in- smell the greasy freshness of ihe metal. He Was he crazy or brilliant? There were too deed, the only way he could get a message set the box down. many questions, and despite the man's to thefuture. Now. the question is," he "Just curious about what you had written appearance, Frank knew that Sagehorn glanced back at Sagehorn. "How would this on the scroll." had the razor-sharp, steel-trap mind that time traveler go about convincing someone "Time and place is the essential part. But could tear the meat off a convoluted ques- to smuggle his message into the capsule?" most of the scroll is simply a carefully writ- tion. He paused and then held out a bony Sagehorn shrugged, but he couldn't ten portrait of a delirious time traveler "Why?" hide the twinkle in his eye. "Oh, he'd prob- stranded in this century. However, the gist "Why what?" ably think of something," he said with a

of the matter is that I promise— in the "Well, why have you spent twenty years—" wink.OQ They were a wild, turbulent race of savages, and studying them led to danger, madness

THE EMPATH AND THE SAVAGES

BYJOHNMORRESSY

Anpreene observed the onrush Theof human history with cold curiosity. They were perplexed by a race so heterogeneous and so volatile, and fascinated by a planet so perfectly suited to the projected needs of their own people. Water was abundant on this world, and the atmosphere was rich. Wherever this world differed from the home worlds of the Domination, the difference favored the new planet. Its dominant race was energetic, with some physical resemblance to the earlier, smaller stages of

Anpreene development. It appeared strong enough to provide useful servants while not sufficiently durable or intelligent to be a source of danger The residents of this pleasant planet

were brisk, scampering little creatures who lived their lives at an incredibly accelerated pace. Study of them promised to be interesting. The Anpreene were a long-lived people; their ways were methodical and unhurried. They investigated every action and its possible consequences with great care and did not undertake a conquest lightly. Their race disliked surprises. Concealed from human perception, fhey narrowed the focus of thei r instruments, closing on a suitable objective. Earthly years whirled by beneath them, and earthly creatures scurried through their little lifetimes. The selector focused on a sequence of events and probabilities. It locked

PAINTING BY GILBERT WILLIAMS on a single person and a single instanl, The throat or the rising smoke and flame die," he said in a tongue quite different from Empath and the Conceptualizes look their brought an end to long agony. The selector that of the first group. "Tell me, where are Where are the fat places around the selector locus, and the could riot erase memories, but it could take the rest of the tribunal? Assessors gathered to observe. specimens who would never have the op- priests and the nobles who dine on the portunity to 1 speak those memories to people's flesh? Are they hiding some- The selector hummed. The Anpreene others of their species. where, cowering in fear of the words of a ship, the surrounding space, the narrow All those from that period reacted in a condemned man?" - gathering beam that reached downward to similar manner. When the selector had hur- He looked at the featureless walls, then voice, the robed figure, and the heap of smolder- tled the last one back to his destined end shook a fist and cried in a thundering words, you ing green wood were all instantaneously on the block, the Anpreene returned their "Well may you hide from my butchers! But seek where you will, noplace plucked from the weave of space and time ship and all aboard it to normal time and refuge. You will kill me, but and held suspended in an otherwhere and space and turned to the next stage of their will give you my rouse the to ac- otherwhen. The first specimen was drawn exacting duties. words will live and people aboard the ship. For the Empath alone, there was no task tion. We will burn your churches, burn your chateaus, burn your tax rolls, and feed the It was a female of the earthly species. awaiting. The Empath was released at She collapsed in a heap on the base of the once to enter the trancelike state, called flame with your bloated guts. Oh, yes, my focal area, her wrenched legs and lacer- pentrecane by the Anpreene, which re- lords and masters, the people will rise. ated feet unable to support her weight. stored body and mind after close commun- They've long been patient, but their pa- Raising herself on one bruised, bloody ion with an alien identity. Deprived of pen- tience is coming to an end. Does my lady hand, she lifted the other high and cried, trecane, an Empath would be over wish a new pendant to grace her white "Praise God! Praise to Thy name, Lord! whelmed by the sheer vital force of an in- bosom? Squeeze the blood from a Thou hast delivered Thy servant from the truding presence; the alien manner and thousand peasants, and she shall have her wrath of the enemy!" thinking process would be ineradicable. bauble. Does my lord desire a new team for She attempted to rise but could not. She While the Empath restored its mental and his carriage? Take the food from a began to recount her sufferings and told of thousand hungry children, and give my torments inflicted on her and others for rea- lord his horses. Or perhaps my lord the ..." sons the Anpreene Conceptualizes had archbishop difficulty assimilating. Her speech grew He spoke on, in a torrent of words and Conceptualizes wild and incoherent. They let her rant on, angry gestures, while the uninterrupted, until she slumped forward 6T/ie Assessors fitted his speech into the cultural patterns had gathered and and was silent. communed; the Empath and the ship's instruments for "The creature believes that she is in the the Empath probed his mind a the Conceptual- presence of a superior being from her ra- framework in which to structure communi- advised cial myth," the Conceptualizes trans- izers prepared themselves cation when the Conceptualizes mitted. "This myth appears to hold great it. But the Conceptualizers concluded, for the next his function is the significance for these creatures. We sug- "This creature believes of a fixed gest immediate action in accordance with contact; the earth spun repeated and forceful expression Productive communica- her belief." through more betiet-structure. unlikely. recommend no in a gentle, melodious human voice, the tion extremely We years. The ship moved 9 Empath asked, "Why hast thou suffered so, exchange." my daughter?" She raised her head and gazed upon the When the specimen had completed his towering white-clad figure of the Anpreene, speech, he was returned whence he had shining with a subdued golden aura. "I come. The second specimen said much would not deny Thee! Not even on the rack physical integrity, the others aboard the the same as the first, but the third said the vessel busy. Conceptualiz- opposite of the first two, though he would I deny my God and Savior and His Anpreene were exact one true faith, and Thou hast plucked me es structured and collated their findings; used many of the same terms and con- from the flames!" Assessors evaluated them; and all the cepts. In all, the selector took nineteen The Empath searched deep in her tor- while the selector replenished its power for specimens from this period, and the As- tured mind for the proper terms in which to the next gathering of specimens. sessors found them to represent eleven

couch its response. It stretched forth a pale After long deliberation, the Assessors distinct and irreconcilable views of the so- hand in a gesture of benediction. "My child, concluded that the physical heterogeneity cial reality. the cup cannot pass. This is but a foretaste of this race had directly and drastically in- Deliberation on these specimens re- of the joy that awaits when thou hast fluenced its social development. Unlike the sulted in a strong reaffirmation of the orig- passed through the flame. Be steadfast," Anpreene, who were a single people with a inal conclusion and created much con- the Empath said. single purpose, these creatures were fusion among the Assessors. A race so A look of fear came into the hollow, fragmented to the point of chaos. Their dif- utterly disunited as to border on total indi- haunted eyes, and then the woman said, ferences appeared to be deep-seated and vidualism was all but unimaginable to the of "Thou art just in all things, Lord. Thy will be the cause of great cruelty. It remained to be Anpreene. Such a race might be spoken done." determined whether this fragmentation in theory, but in existence it could not long The selector hummed once again, and was a phase on the race's way to civiliza- survive. Survival requires unity, and unity the woman vanished, returning to her pyre tion or a racial characteristic inherent in all. ensures survival: This was the basic law of within a nanosecond of her departure. Her The Assessors communed; the Empath the Anpreene Domination, the fundamental scream as the flames rose around her was and the Conceptualizes prepared them- principle governing the lives and thoughts drowned out by the rumble of the fire and selves for the next contact. The earth spun of twelve planets and sixteen colonies, and the cries of the crowd. through more years; the ship moved to it was beyond question. another part of the planet; and the instru- And yet this race not only survived its

From that time and place, the selector ments began their search once more. fragmentation but appeared to thrive on it.

1 took a total of twenty-eight specimens, This time the first specimen was a male. During the interval — brief by Anpreene snatching each one from the instant before He blinked, looked hard at the Empath, standards — in which the Acquisitors were death— when the blade was at the nape or then smiled sardonically. "So. A clever trick, gathering information and the Zetetics

I it for mission of the the knot was just about to close on the I admit, whisking me here just as expect to were organizing the next

104 Conceptualizers and the Empath, the a look of fearful reverence, then bowed tered the words, the Empath felt a sense ot population of the planet increased twen- deeply. peace, fulfillment, and happiness deep tyfold. Their technology advanced to the "What is the marked cloth binding this within the boy. level of powered transportation and atmo- specimen's forehead?" the Empath asked. "The boy believed that an Empath was spheric flight. "/ sense a significance, but its purpose is something that at once partook of both di- " On the advice of the Zetetics, specimens not clear to me. vinity and the boy's own nature," reported from this period were gathered not from a The Conceptualizers explained at once. the Empath when the youth was gone. single locus but from a variety of sites on "It is symbolic, not functional. The sym- "This race seems to have as many divinity

the planet. And, as a cautionary measure, bolism relates to a period on which.our data myths as it has individuals." the Anpreene ship was moved to a higher, are incomplete, but there are indications "Perhaps a stage in development. The safer orbit. that the wearing of this cloth proclaims specimens of the second taking strongly one's willingness to die in battle." denied divinities and related myths," the The first specimen was a woman, "It is strange that a people so eager to Conceptualizers pointed out. "They ap- dressed in layers of worn and dirty clothing. die should instead thrive. What is the nature peared to worship an abstract communal She fell to the base of the focal area but of their battle?" concept of selective application" quickly clambered erect and looked about "It is a conflict of machines guided by "But that is irrational, considered in rela- wildly until her eyes fell upon the Empath. members of this race. This specimen seeks tion to the beliefs of those we've probed in "Who the hell are you? Where is this to inflict damage on a large water-transport the first taking." place? What happened to the tank?" she vehicle by hitting it with the atmospheric- "The irrational appears to be not merely demanded. Her language was utterly un- flight machine in which he travels," the tolerated but highly valued among this like all the others'. Conceptualizers explained. race, and its acceptance increases as the The Empath probed for a proper re- The specimen straightened, bowed race grows," the Conceptualizers informed sponse. "You will be returned soon enough, again from the waist, then fell to his knees the Empath. "The battle in which these

comrade. All we ask of you is a few minutes and prostrated himself. When he began to specimens are engaged is almost planet-

of intelligent talk." speak, the Empath was perplexed by his wide. It appears to us that they have care-

She spat. "Talk, hell! Get me back so I revelations, although the desired response fully divided the planet into imaginary units, can stop that tank." was clear at the first brush with the boy's and groupings of these units are systemat-

"You will stop the tank, I promise you. But consciousness. ically endeavoring to destroy one another."

you will die." "Like the true Divine Wind, you fall upon "Is there unity within each grouping?

"Do you think I don't know thai?" She took the vessel of the enemy and destroy it ut- Have they progressed to at least that level?" a step toward the Empath, shielded her terly You have blossomed into a flower of "They have not. The groupings are tem- eyes from the surrounding light, and death to bring honor upon your Emperor porary. Within the groupings, and within the studied the white-robed figure closely. and your family. You will be forever num- units, are strong indicators ot latent frag- "What are you, anyway? Some kind of bered among the samurai," the Empath mentation leading to repetitions of this con-

priest? No, a priest wouldn't call me com- said in the boy's language. Even as it ut- flict among reorganized groupings. The rade. Well, you can keep your comrade, too. f'm not dying for the party any more than I'm dying for God." "Why are you dying, then?" the Empath asked the woman. "To blow a tankful of those bastards to hell. To let my friends escape so they can kill more of them. Satisfied? Now get me

back where 1 belong."

"You -will be returned." "Do you think you can keep me here until

I lose my nerve? I don't know who you are or how you got me here, but you won't keep me without a fight, "the woman said, reach- ing into her ragged coat and lurching to- ward the Empath. She was returned at once.

The Empath weighed what it had drawn from her and informed the Conceptualiz- ers, "She did not believe that she was in the presence of a deity. She was willing to take

Anpreene lite in order to return to her com- panions and destroy the aggression vehi- cle." "She was extracted from an extreme ag- gression condition. The vehicle she sought to destroy had already caused harm to those in close bond with her," the Concep- tualizers explained.

"She wished to make it possible for others to live on. But she could do so only by the sacrifice of her own continued exis- tence. She was aware of that." /^^fi^^W_. The Conceptualizers made no response. The second specimen was a young boy, slightly built, barely of the age at which this "He's learned a lot. The other day he corrected Edwin Newman." race matured. He gazed at the Empath with "

deliberations, the popula- race appeals to be self-destructive," con- yet they could form collectivities and feel During these world had doubled cluded the Conceptualizers. loyal to them to the point of death, even tion of the below them nearby The Empalh paused and reflected, Yet though the collectivity was temporary and and redoubled. The satellite and madness. They believed planets had been visited. they go on . arbitrary That was ship withdrew to a safe Further specimens from this taking re- in things imperceptible to the senses and The Anpreene distance, beyond the orbit of the satellite, vealed little. They were fatigued, or their extraintellectual, and believed with an in- for a fourth and minds were warped with hatred or befud- tensity that endured great suffering and and began preparations opinion of the Asses- dled with horror, and the Empath was accepted a horrible death. Yet they could final sampling. In the impossible; pained by contact with them. suffer such pains and repudiate the very sors, a fifth sampling would be extinct. The last specimen from this period was myth that justified them. That was mad- the race would be of single drawn from a crowded place behind the ness. They fought one another, with every The final sampling consisted a male, plucked from an enor- battle lines. He was naked, and the bones weapon of mind and body and all that their specimen, a constructed in orbit above the showed through his dry, taut skin. His head developing sciences could provide, and mous craft such craft, and was shaven, his dark eyes sunk deep into a they used those same powers of mind and planet. It was one of three that it would be de- skull-like face He stood motionless in the body and science to preserve and en- all indications were internal malfunction as it tocal area, blinking those hollowed eyes, hance life. Madness. They were irrational. stroyed by an the solar system. The and when the Empath touched him, there Atmosphere, genetic history, some malign reached the rim of selector focused, hummed to life, and was nothing within except numb, hopeless radiation . . . something had made this race out for the gray-haired man who resignation. of beings absolutely mad, the Assessors reached on the operations bridge of the great Then the eyes focused. The blinking concluded. stood stopped. The specimen looked directly at This conclusion was not altogether dis- orbiting ship. His subdued reaction surprised the An- the Empath, robed in white, seated above couraging. It was clear by now that the race preene. him, and the Empath gasped and turned of Earth was sure to destroy itself in a very about the focal area and aside, shaken. The specimen vanished short time. There would thus be no need for He glanced the situation at immediately an Anpreene contact and no risk of having seemed to comprehend " bring military power to beai once. Folding his arms, smiling, he said to "He believed I was his deity, the Empath to Anpreene the Empath, "So, you're out here after all. murmured. "And he hated me!" against these little creatures. For all theii ferocity, they could not withstand the uni- Wew n'tn specimen in friendly terms, No more specimens were taken from that fied might of the Anpreene Domination. "Address this equal," the Conceptualizers in- period. The Empath, exhausted by the con- They would resist, and it would be neces- as an tacts of this taking, the largest of all, went at sary to destroy them. And the destruction structed. and friendship. once to sink deeply into pentrecane. The of even such a race as this would leave a "We come in peace We are your friends," Assessors labored mightily to evaluate the scar upon the Anpreene memory. Far better are the Anpreene, and we Empath, findings and saw in their work a tangle of to let them bring about their own inevitable said the Quite paradoxes. These creatures were isolates; downfall. "You even speak my language. well, too. Telepathy, or have you been study- ing us from up here? Or perhaps you've been living among us?" "A portion of the Anpreene are Empaths, with a power akin to what you would call

telepathy It cannot be explained further in terms you would comprehend. We have

been studying you since . . . since your year 1560." The man from the Earth ship made a low. whistling sound and shook his head slowly. "You must have seen some incredible things," he said. "Tell me, what have you learned about us?" "Relate our conclusions, " the Concep- tualizers ordered. "Your race is irrational."

The man seemed startled, then amused. He looked directly at the Empath and said,

"If it took you five hundred years to see that, you certainly aren't a race that jumps to conclusions. We've all known about that for a long time." The Empath struggled with the man's reactions. This one was not like the others. Words were seldom a clear reflection of inner states in any case, but with this particular man, words and inner states seemed to be self-contradictory on almost every level.

"I do not understand your reaction," the Empath admitted. "Did you expect me to be terrified? To "Yes, I've got that. Edith wants me to pick up attack you? To beg and scream for your two pounds of mozzarella cheese. mercy?" "None of those things. You are not given to such reactions. What is puzzling is your tualizes and then said yes. life patterns of alien races and had done so immediate understanding and acceptance "Is this your doing?" the man asked cau- on several earlier expeditions, but never of the situation. It is unlike the reactions of tiously with a race so frenzied and spasmodic in the other specimens." "No. It is a predicted malfunction." its ways. Attuning to the human race had

The man nodded and said. "I suppose The man was silent for a moment. Then been an exhausting duty. Even penlrecane that's true. The others must have thought he looked up, past the Empath, and asked. had been scarcely enough to sustain you were a god. Or a demon." "Will the others make it?" wholeness.

"That is accurate." 'All indications are that they will survive." "An interesting race," the Conceptualiz-

"Well, I don't consider you either, and I'm "Then I suppose it's worthwhile.." es observed. "But mad. Their frenzy is the " glad to see you. In fact, I was hoping to find 'Again your attitude is confusing," the working out ot their madness. you, or someone like you." Empath admitted. "Your race seems fond of "/ found much good in them," the Em-

"Explain." life, and yet it accepts death willingly. You path responded.

"Those ships — the one 1 was on, and the are dying not in some struggle based on a "Observe the discipline of the Empath. two others— are going out to look for other belief, as your race often does, but in a Do not overlook the fact that these crea- worlds like Earth and other intelligent mere mechanical malfunction. Yet you tures are inferiors and potential enemies. races. And betore I've even left the solar seem undisturbed." Also, that they are mad." system, you've proved to me that my mis- "My race doesn't like dying quite as The Empath, still steeped in human at- sion can succeed. Of course I accept the much as you think. But we can accept titudes and reactions, made no immediate situation. I rejoice in it!" death if it has a purpose." response. After a time, in inner communi-

"Have you no fear that an intelligent alien "What is the purpose of your death?" the cation, which in weariness was left un- race might constitute a danger to your own Empath asked. guarded, open to the Conceptualizes, the race?" the Empath asked. "I've helped to bring my people to the Empath reflected, Yes, they are mad. But

"There's always that possibility. I'm sure stars. Even if I don't make it, others most there is splendor in such madness. it's occurred to every people that ever certainly will." The Anpreene left the solar system in looked up at the stars." He hesitated, something more of a hurry than was their looked carefully at the Empath, then went When the man had been returned to his custom. The journey home was uneventful. on. "Still, you've been here for five centuries ship, the Assessors declared the proxi- The Empath spent the entire trip in deep and haven't attacked us or interfered with mate phase of the mission complete and penlrecane and arrived fully restored and us'in any way we've been aware of. You ordered preparations for the long home- revitalized. This proved to be fortunate, for aren't too different from us in appearance, ward voyage. The Empath and the Concep- much unexpected work lay ahead lor the and you can speak our languages. These tualizes, their hardest work done, started Empath. are encouraging signs. Apparently you're wearily for their respective living compart- When the Anpreene ship returned to a much longer-lived race than we are, ments, normal space within the Domination, the probably with a totally different time ori- The Empath felt drained of vitality. It had armada from Earth was waiting peacefully entation and value system. A very rational been trained from youth to assimilate the to greet it. DO people, too: thoroughgoing, cautious in judgment, farsighted. I don't know why you're here, but I see no evidence of out- _0 . ward hostility. What is the nature of your FASTFOoP5> [ mission?" "Tell him all," instructed the Concep- Tnstant desserts tualizes. "Our mission is like yours," said the Em- ZOOM i-ENSES path. "We seek new worlds for the An- preene Domination. Yours is the most suit- SPEEP R£AVIHL able we have discovered." "Do you intend to try to take it?" |RAPIP TtMAlSlT> "Our Assessors judge that aggressive action will not be necessary. Your race will ^QUICKIE DIVORCES] soon destroy itself. According to Anpreene calculations, your destruction is long over- J HftSTV PUPPM6> due."

"I'm not a spokesman for my race, but I think it's safe to say that we'd rather be your friends than your enemies. I hope we can be. But tell me, Empath, what do you plan to do with me now?" "You will be returned to your ship and to normal time and space, Your absence will not have been noticed. A faulty coolant valve will cause the ship to explode in seven to eighteen seconds after your re- turn." "The main valve on C deck, the one just aft of the food processors?" the gray-haired man asked. The Empath conferred with the Concep- -7**&ft^ THE THDUSRND CUTS

BY IAN WATSON

The Petmshka restaurant was a large Soon after, sounds of crashing and dim cellar, with theirs the only table oc- breakages, a woman's scream and inco- cupied. Ballet Russe murals writhed dimly herent shouting came fron the upstairs ves- the walls; exotic on , ghosts. tibule of the Petrushka . .

As the waiter unloaded the chilled "This isn't one of your practical iokes. is glasses of Vodka, Don Kavanagh ob- it. Hugh?" asked Martha anxiously, "Tape served, "I don't think Russian restaurants recorder upstairs? Is it?" are very ." popular these days." "No. it damn well . . "That's why we came," Hugh Carpenter At that moment two brawny men wearing said. "Bound to get a table." lumber jackets crowded down the stairs, "Don't blame me." said the waiter. "I'm a thrusting the waiter, who was bleeding from Londoner, born and bred." the mouth, and the manager and his "Maybe there's a good sketch there." beige-blonde receptionist ahead of them. suggested Martha Vine, who was the ugly A third man stayed up top. All three were sister of the team. "You know, restaurants armed with machine guns. run by the wrong sort of people. Such as an "Slay where you are!" The armed man's Eskimo Curry House ... Or. wait a minute. accent was southern Irish, "You three, get how about a slaughterhouse for vegeta- 10 a table and sit down!" bles? Wait. I've got it. protests at vegetable The manager, cashier and waiter did so, vivisection! quickly. Hugh dismissed the notion, and the The momentary silence that followed waiter, with the same toss of his head. The was broken by the approaching wail of a whole sparkle ot their TV show relied on police siren. cultivating a blind spot for the obvious. "I take it." said Hugh loudly, "that we are "Not quite mad enough, darling." He all hostages in yet another bungled terrorist cocked his head. "What's that?" Don listened. "Be quiet!" "A car backfiring." Out of the corner of his mouth. Don mur- " "That many times 7 mured. "Hush. You're most likely to get "More like gunfire," said Alison Samuels. murdered in the first few minutes. Then

shaking her impeccably corn-rowed red rapport starts building up. Just . . . medi- hair. She was beauty, to Marthas beast. tate. Do nothing." "So it's somebody gunning their engine." "Zen and the art of being a hostage, eh?"

Hugh grinned triumphantly "Okay, where Hugh whispered. He sat still as a Buddhist -.- -. .:p,p. .. : : e

PAINTING BY WILSON McCLEAN . .

A police loudspeaker spoke, close "That was Don. He ... he reacted very "breaks" lasted as long as the first one had. by... rationally, tor a clown. He's in the same fix Some swallowed up two or three days, and others only a few hours. But there was no "Don't come any nearer!" cried the up- we are. After Don hung up. I tried io phone lines sign that they were winding down. stairs man. "We have hostages in here! Martha. But I can't get through. All the explana- police. I Nor was there any conceivable We'll kill them!" are jammed. I tried to phone the god- tion. Lumber jacket number two ran to the even tried to call ... I tried to call the

clock. Can't get it either. Ev- Nor could people get used to having kitchen door and kicked it open . . damn talking erybody is phoning to find out what the their lives repeatedly broken at random. got For this not simply like fainting or Hugh's tongue moved inside her mouth. bloody time is! It Isn't just us. Alison. It's was His finger traced the curve of her hip. nothing specifically to do with the Pe- falling asleep. When awareness re- who could promise that it He pulled away instantly. He was naked. trushka. It's everybody." sumed—and next time? - all the world's activities So was Alison. They were on the bed in his "Where's your radio? Switch it on." would, found to have flowed on as usual. Chelsea flat. Outside was bright with June "Kitchen." were jetted to and fro between sunlight. Hugh fled, still naked, and she followed Airplanes had York. Contracts had been Alison gazed at Hugh, wide-eyed. his bouncing rump. London and New babies born. Newspapers had "But." she managed to say. A punk rock band was singing: signed, and been printed — and the newsdealers'cry of "But we're in the Petrusbka, Alison ... I yer boobs! "Read all about it!" was now an imperative, mean, correct me il I'm crazy, but I wasn't . . , they'll bomb find out in detail aware that I'm subject to bouts of amnesia! they'll bomb yer brains! tor how else could anyone what had happenned? A woman would find I yer bums! . . they'll bomb I mean . how the hell did we get here? herself locked in a jail cell, but the police mean, you can tell me, can't you?" faded. would have to consul! their records before "Hugh, I ... I can'i tell you anything. The song the they could break the news to her that she We're in the restaurant. Those IRA men are The deejay said, "You've just heard latest track from The Weasels. Hot stuff. had murdered, say, her husband— which ... at least ... I suppose that's what they questions about guilt were, But we aren't. We're here." raised strange new Hugh sat up. Dumbly he stared at a and innocence it oneself newspaper lying on the yellow shag-piled Distressing was indeed, to find carpet. suddenly at the controls of a jumbo jet The headlines were: PETRUSHKA heading in to land at an unexpected air- reality itself is really SIEGE ENDS PEACEFULLY. i "What if port, or lying in a hospital bed after a mys-

terious operation, or running down a street I He read the story, hardly understanding a sort of film?...... for what reason? it. But he understood the accompanying Suppose the world is being photograph of himself with his arm

if middle of wrapped round Alison's shoulders, both of projected. It's a "What we find ourselves in the a nuclear war. with all the sirens wailing?" them grinning and waving. solid movie made of matter, driving "Just look at the date! June the ninth. asked Martha. "I can't stand it. It's not of light. We're poured herself another glass This is next week's newspaper." me mad." She "So we're in the middle of next week." an entry in the Film Festival of gm. Don. Alison began to laugh hysterically, then "It's driving everybody mad," said of the Universe." 3 like old with deliberate irony she slapped her own They were in Hugh's flat. "It's that torture." cheek. "I must remember this trick next Chinese "Which, the water dripping down on your . . . either time I visit the dentist's. Why can't of us remember a bloody thing?" skull till it wears a hole in it?"

I mean the Death of a Thousand "No : "I wish I could remember us making

if poor victims I the love."" eh? Like, radio-active . . . and that's what a Cuts. always wondered

it have Alison started to dress. radio's supposed to be: active. So I'm car- died from loss of blood. But must all from the accumulated shock. One "I always wanted us to get into bed," rying straight on. even if you're as con- been shock after another. One, you could Hugh went on. "It was one of my big ambi- fused as I am. That's right, loyal listeners, painful studio survive. A dozen, you could survive. But a it still have of. here in the has any idea tions. I suppose is! We must none us Never! That's what'll destroy the been celebrating our freedom. Our re- how we got here today. Or how it got to be thousand? Life of Thousand today. But if you're all feeling the way I'm human race. This is the a for you: Cuts." "Gas," he decided suddenly. "That's it. feeling, I've got this word of advice They must have used some new kind of stay cool, and carry on doing what you're "Good heavens," said Hugh, " you've got psychochemical to knock everybody un- doing. Keep on trucking that truck. Keep it." He rubbed his hands briskly. "Cuts! conscious or confuse us. This is a side the traffic moving. Cook the lunch, Ma That's brilliant." went on, effect." Jones, and don't set fire to the pan — the "It means we're like robots." Don conscious- He studied the newspaper more care- kids'll be soon home, And now to help you ignoring him. "We don't need aware. bird fully. all, here comes a track from an old group. ness. We don't need td be A But that ddesn't stop it from "Doesn't say a thing about gas. It says Traffic. It's called, In a Chinese Noodle Fac- isn't aware. ,',; courting and raising young and migrating. the police talked the gunmen out. I sup- tory , . dial. station Actually, it helps. No swallow with self- pose you can muzzle the press a little . . Hugh tuned across the One would bother flying all the way no. this was all too public. The story has to had simply gone off the air; on others only awareness back every be true as written." music was being broadcast. to the tip of South Africa and His telephone rang. 'Try short-wave," urged Alison. "Abroad." year." Hugh hurried naked into the next room to When he picked up a gabbled French- "Do you mean we've evolved too much it's end?" take the call. language broadcast fom Cairo, he realized self-awareness, and a dead Alison was sitting at the dressing table, that whatever had happened, had maybe asked Alison. robots concenirating on braiding her hair, when happened world-wide. "And now we're going to become more he returned. He noticed how she was trem- again, and the world will run a lot it. more bling. His own body telt hollow and his skin Before the end of June, and during July smoothly. But we won't know Any was covered with goose bumps, though and August, the effect repeated itself a than a sparrow or a mouse knows. They just war. the air was warm. dozen times. None of the subsequent are. Martha, you mentioned nuclear . "

But have you realized how smoolhly the the way from A to B. They just leave, then a fiction?" he asked. "Maybe this is a very

Arms Limitation Talks are going all of a they arrive. Otherwise a film would last as subtle, artistic touch. Maybe the director sudden?" long as real life. Or the director would be has suddenly gone into experimental "That's because both sides are more Andy Warhol," cinema. He was making a real-stic film be- ."

scared of an accident than they've ever As long as real life used to last . . fore. But now he's into New Wave

been." "Quite. And what if reality itself is really a techniques— mefa-film — like a French di-

"No, it isn't. I've been checking back. All sort of film? A millennia-long Warhol movie rector I still say we're all really living robots.

the significant advances have occurred with a cast of billions? Suppose, as holog- But we never knew it before. Now we do." during breaks." Don chuckled softly. raphy is to flat photography, so -to holog- Don concluded.

"Breakthroughs, during breaks! And re- raphy is . . . solldography . Suppose the "But that isn't a decline of awareness," member, too, that the Petrushka siege world is being projected. It's a solid movie Alison pointed out. "Thais an increase in ended peacefully— during a break." made ot matter, not of light. We're an entry awareness." ."

"During a cut," Hugh corrected him. intheFilmFestivalofthe.Universe.su!. . "It's a bloody decline in our sense of "The Petrushka thing could so easily He paused emphatically control over what happens in the world. The ". have ended in a bloody shoot-out, with the . . Are we the completed masterpiece? important things are all happening off-

restaurant being stormed. But it didn't Or are we the rushes on the cutting room stage. They're happening off everybody's ."

happen that way. . . floor. . .of realty? 3ocaL.SG suddenly we've stage. Look at this progress in arms control Don was driving hs red Metro along the lost our own sense of continuity. Two days ... you heard Robin on the news." elevated section of the motorway into Cen- drop out. Three days drop out." "Maybe," said Alison, "God has decided

tral London, in fast heavy traffic. Some dis- The music on the radio stopped. to cut reality, and re-edit it, Because it

tance behind, a Vokswagen failed to over- "Shush!" hissed a roomful of snakes. wasn't working out. Or it didn't work out the

take a large tractor-trailer. The tractor-trailer "This Is the BBC Emergency Service, first time. It bombed out. literally. We're in a

rammed it, skidding and jackknifing. As and I am Robin Johnson. The date is Sep- remake of the film of the world," following traffic slammed into the wreck- tember the first. The time is one-twenty-five Hugh teased her, saying. "Maybe these age, a ball of flame rose up. in the afternoon. The most recent break breaks are for advertisements. Only, we "Bloody hell!" Don glanced at the calen- measured approximately fifty hours. At the can't see them any more than the charac- dar watch he had thought to equip himself Helsinki disarmament talks, preliminary ters in a film can see the commercials!" with in the aftermath ot the first break, be- agreement has been reached on the reduc- "Rubbish. When you have a commer-

. fore stocks ran out. "Two days, this lime." tion of . cial," said Alison, "the film just stops. Then

Alison was sitting next to him. Hugh was "Come on, we can read all that stuff it starts up again from the same moment." in the back seat. No sign of Martha. He later'" "In that case, you're right. Something

hoped she was still alive. Don had not yet started the engine of the must be editing reality," Hugh acknowl-

"For Christ's sake, get us off here!" Metro. "Wouldn't it spoil the natural flow of edged,

I begged Alison. "It's a death trap." this' film of yours if all the characters sud- "How can possibly agree with that? But I "More like a bloody buffalo stampede! denly became aware that their lives are just can't disagree, either. Lord knows, reality Why don't the idiots slow down?" Somehow, Don reached the next exit ramp safely. The ramp was crowded with vehicles descending. Horns blared. Fen- ders and bumpers scraped and banged. "Mustn't forget what we were talking about," Hugh reminded him, over his shoulder "The Life of a Thousand Cuts." "There'll be a thousand cuts in the ."

paintwork of this baby . . "Stop- at the nearest pub, Don. We have to talk before we lose the continuity." ;

'About cuts." said Hugh, cradling a dou- ble scotch. The bar of the Duke of Kent was packed, but remarkably hushed as people waited for the filler music on the landlord's radio to stop, and the first hastily assembled news to take its place. Many people were not drinking at all, but merely waiting, "You mentioned the Death of a Thousand Cuts, and of course, those were cuts in the flesh with a knife. But what do we mean by cuts''" 'A film," said Alison. "Editing. Switching scenes." "Good girl!" "I'm not a girl. Girls are twelve years old or less." "Okay, sorry."

"That's why I wouldn't ever go to bed with you."

"Okay, okay. I prostrate myself. Now.

that's it exactly, the editing of a film— the culling from one scene to the next. You

don't need to see your characters drive all "

needs editing." eotape afterward ... Swing us around, Alison. An ambulance wailed by, bearing some- Don. We're going back to my flat to get the "I've been going through this heap of one from the motorway pile-up. A police whole'thing set up. And we'll need to get notes, I'll get them knocked into shape with rehearsing car raced the other way, blue light flashing hold of Martha. If somebody's editing real- Martha, then we can start on on its roof. ity. I'm joining in, We'll call the show 'The videotape. Thursday. See what runs, and "It's the Thousand Cuts," said Don. "And Making of Reality, the Motion Picture'!" what doesn't run."' please switch the radio on for it'll drive us mad with stress. Like rats in an "Don't you mean 'Remaking'?" "Could we Alison. electrified maze. We'll go catatonic. We'll "Yes, I do: Quite right, love. 'The Remak- a moment?" asked

I what's become a planet ot zombies— a world on ing of Reality, the Motion Picture' — that's it. "Why? Oh, to check out been autopilot. Like the birds and the bees." stand corrected." He slouched back in the happening in the," and Hugh grinned 7 He started the engine, Driving out of the seat of the Metro. broadly, "real world Why not? We might car park of the Duke o! Kent, he turned left "So do we all, Hugh, if you're right. So do harves: some more ideas." all." Fetching the radio, she set it on the bar. because it was easier to do so, before re- we ". membering that he had no idea where they "Do what?" . . Helsinki. This agreement represents ." in the of interna- had been heading. He slowed, to let "Stand corrected. . . a major advance lessening ..." another ambulance race by. tional tension Hugh suddenly began to laugh. Two weeks later. Hugh cradled a phone "How on Earth can an advance lessen

"I've just got it! Don't you see, we've got a and turned to his friends. something?" Martha asked. "You should, publisher." quip- way to test my idea. We may even have a "Well. I .don't know exactly what I've been meet my way to communicate with the director him- doing the past four days. But I must have ped Don. ". self! Listen, we'll do a special show. We'll do been busting my ass, as our American . . first genuine reduction in weapons a show about editing reality. We'll make a friends so colorfully put it. Our show's been systems, with inspection and verification by film within The Film — a film about that Film. given the green light for Octoberthe fourth, neutral observers from the Third World. The ."

I'll package this as a great morale- booster, right after the nine o'clock news. Seven actual dismantling and downgrading of , . which indeed it might well be! We'll get the European countries are hooking up, using "It seems even God can't manage mira- whole country laughing at what's happen- subtitles— and two major networks in the cles overnight," Hugh remarked. "They're all ing. It'll help keep people sane during the States are running us the same evening, "Blah to that," said Alison. Thousand Cuts." with Australia and Japan following suit the scared ofwhat could happen during one of Alison clapped her hands. next day. Even Russia is going to screen the "the zombie intervals. Or just after one, "Thank you," show— subject, that is, to content when everyone's confused."

". . figures following "Just so long as we aren't cut off," said analysis." , reported casualty Don. "You know, 'Normal transmission re- Martha sneezed. She had caught a cold. the most recent break are already in the sumes as soon as the show is over' "Shouldn't be a problem," she sniffled. thousands. The worst disaster occurred at ..." "If we are cut off, we'll still be going full "Soviets have always laughed at God." Heathrow Airport, where - steam ahead. We can watch it all on vid- "Okay, so where were we. Don?" asked "See? It just lakes one poor jerk to jab his

finger at the wrong button. And poof. If this is an example of divine intervention, it's the most hamfisted miracle I've ever come across," Alison said. "When you're cutting film, love," said Hugh, "you waste a lot of good material for the sake of the picture as a whole."

"You sound as if you sneakingly admire

what's going on," protested Don. "All this bloody cutting of our lives." Hugh poured himself a brandy, and squirted some soda into the glass.

"No, it's ludicrous, and dangerous, and

it's soul-destroying. But you've got to laugh

at it, to get it in the right perspective— and

yes, to keep our dignity and free will. It's a

mad universe— and it's just turned out io be even madder than anybody could have imagined. Well, in my humble opinion the highest human art isn't tragedy. It's satire,

And. " here he node co cs' si vely toward the ceiling, "speaking as one trickster to

another, I want whoever or whatever is di- recting this big show, Life, to notice that I've spotted what's going on, I've found out that reality is just a movie — and I can stay sane and even laugh."

", . . have been inundated with requests for Librium and Valium ..."

"I laugh, therefore I am. Birds don't iyiAhc " 4^u^Ly laugh. Cows don't laugh. There's the differ- -ence, Now let's get on with it. Let's make

everyone kill themselves laughing. They

deserve it."

"The Remaking of Reality, the Motion Pic- lure " was prerecorded during the after- I

Yugoslavia „-vas msadect by War- noons of October the first and second — with Martha and Alison behind. Martha was October. tightly forces on the eighteenth, two with Hugh Carpenter in the role of Cosmic wearing an orange headscarf tied saw Pact Director and the lovely Alison as his around her black curls— which was re- days ago. Currently, Soviet armor is mass- her, for weekend on the West German border. The NATO continuity-person— and it was edited into markably impromptu of a ing

. . Wait! Alliance is full alert, but so far . shape on the third. with friends. on report fuel was showing empty, . , . I've just received.an unconfirmed It was, in the opinion of all concerned, The gauge well filled. that several tactical'nuclear weapons have just about the sharpest and funniest half- though Don always kept the tank really, been exploded inside iVes: Germany. This report hour of TV in the history of the world. Slowing — and he had unconfirmed ..." Hugh turned from the video monitor to speeding, doing nearly sixty along this is as yet "But," said Hugh lamely. wave back to the technicians. Peter Rolfe, country lane — he relaxed and admired the "So that's why we're all trying to gel down who had produced (he show, pumped trees in the reddening sunset of their

. on an empty tank . We're Hugh's hand and slapped him on the back, foliage. to the cottage ones." then embraced Alison and kissed her. After Hugh loosened up too. "You've got to trying to be the luckily engined. missed several times, a moment's hesitation, he kissed Martha laugh, haven't you?" he asked reflectively. The his watch. It coughed, then q.uietly gave out. The Metro too. Though the show was prerecorded, the And then Don looked at midweek. coasted to a halt. whole team had decided to be present for wasn't the weekend at all; it was said Alison quietly, "that we the transmission. "Good God, it's October the twentieth. "It seems," 070" kill ourselves laughing, after all." Hugh popped open one of Ihe cham- That's the longest break yet. We're at Pe- fifth mean," whispered Martha. pagne bottles he had brought along. ter's place in Hampstead, on the. — "Do you of two whole " 'God— or somelhing — is not mocked'?" "Out she flies, out she flies! To Manches- mean, we were. That's a cut "I don't know about 'God-or some- ter and Munich, to Tulsa and Tel Aviv! To weeks." said Sarah. thing'." said Don bitterly. "But I suppose we Alpha Centauri and all points in the uni- "I've got the radio here." well, a negative filler music was Beethoven's. It have to describe this as, verse, if there's anybody out there! The And somehow it doesn't seem Cheers!" played jubilantly on and on. reaction. axed." lot catch up on." remarked comical. The movie's been Before long, Rolfe 's telephone was flash- "There's a to

"Post-holocaust scenes now, I presume." ing for his attention, Hugh idly, Hugh. "No damn sense of con- 7 Oh superb!" he enthused. Finally the music died away. grumbled "Yes? Really ."'

". I is tinuity . . . Johnson. The date "Hugh! The switchboard is absolutely . and am Robin He wound the window down. jammed. The viewers are just bubbling "Cut!" he screamed at the sky. '"Cut! over. You've stopped them from throwing "We'll be at the cottage in another ten themselves under a bus tomorrow. You've minutes," Don said. "I've got a couple of Cut!" But the sky in the north brightened intol- stopped them from overdosing tonight. spare gallons I keep there." a '. grave shock to erably for a. few seconds. Not long after, You've made the first real sense out of this . . news will come as a fierce hot wind tore the red and gold leaves ghastly mess. You've made the world fun you all. Briefly, the Helsinki disarmament from the trees. DO again!" talks collapsed in ruins on the eleventh of "What, no negative reactions at all?" in- terrupted Don. "Oh, there's a teeny little bit from the blasphemy brigade. But. my dear fellow, you can expect that."

it. negative "I do. I look forward to The reactions are so comical." "Not this time, old son. It's heartfelt grati- tude all. round. The country's laughing its collective head off."

"Do you realize," asked Rolfe, as he hosted the celebration party at his Hampstead house the next evening, "this has been a new high for TV? In the last twenty-four hours, you must have clocked up viewing figures of half a billion people? Give or take the Soviets, who don't believe in ratings, mean beasts."

.' The carpet was strewn with telegrams. Kicking his way among them, Rolfe pressed another whiskey and water on Ali- son and kissed her again. "You've probably outdone Armstrong stepping onto the Moon." he called to Hugh. Tipsy p.eople sprawled on the floor, watching a rerun of the show, chortling and whinnying at the high points. It was almost all high points. "Salud!" Rolfe toasted, "The whole world ." must be laughing tonight. . .

"Damn!" swore Don. He glanced at the passing road sign. "Petworth, half a mile... We' must be heading down to the cottage." Hugh was hunched tensely on Don's left, _ J _ J J

llVkM*.

*H|

forest Girt of deepest space they came out ol the night sky like on- -flick —and the sky lit up like a of

something out of Close Encounters of the Christmas trees. I couldn't see one real star on came! Bullets They Third Kind. No organ music but plenty ol either side, not thai you can see real stars through

fire is. I said, couldn't stop them; lights and a big mother of a mother ship. I the LA smog, but the point like the mother ship was a big mother. couldn't kill was on duty at the time, making sure no one stole Bruce, the mechanical shark on the studio tour. It stood there in midair, not making a sound. them. All Earth lay at That grabbed me right away, this immense thing I had just locked up the set for The Six- their mercy! But Million-Dollar Man and was walking through quiet as a cat on tiptoe. When my eyes and my Six Points, Texas, the Western town left over mind started getting used to what they were what did they really want? i I at, began to make out parts ol the ship, from silent days— I think was in front of the looking metal little with or saloon —when I saw it. At first, I thought it was the plates, and windows people— BY STEPHEN ROBINETT freeway spotter helicopter in trouble. There's something—moving around inside', just like in plenty of room on the back lot for a helicopter Star Wars or Galactica (I get them conlused) or PAINTING BY R.McQUARRIE in trouble to land. Then those lights came 2007. Okay, probably you've guessed it by now. .

I'm a film buff. I'm also a cinematography The canisters fell back and gassed a half- sauntered down the ramp, slung all over

'student at UCLA. That's why I took the dozen policemen. with funny-looking equipment. The Big Red summer job as a studio night watchman, to About this time, the cops figured out they One fixed bayonets and charged. The be near the business I love and maybe were doing about as much good as creatures paid no attention to them what- learn something. Richard Carlson in the first half of The Mag- soever. Halfway to the saucer, the scream- Eventually, my mind started working netic Monster. Still, the mechanical arms ing, psyched-up GIs ran square into the

I again, and I figured should notify some- did pop back into the saucer, and the force field, Wke the orie \n Forbidden Planet. one. Alter all, they were trespassing, and I hatches did snap shut. The saucer backed The bayonets went in and stuck, spidery was responsible 'for things like that. I trotted off, fast, disappearing through the -hole in clue sparks bursting out at the points of to the phone behind the facade of the the mother ship. We heard the immense impact. The GIs couldn't get their weapons marshal's office and called the police. stone door sound, and the mother ship unstuck and had to retreat without them,

it the into of the force Okay, okay, I know was dumb. But who closed up tight, plunging back lot leaving the rifles- sticking out ship lifted slowly at in cheese. else was I supposed to call? The Presi- darkness. The mother — field like toothpicks dent? Maybe. They say he saw one once. first, then faster—and streaked off toward The creatures trotted around, setting up thing do. the Pacific in wink, their bodies constantly chang- Still, I admit itwas a dumb to What a equipment, could the police do against beings who The cops went crazy, cheering, yelling, ing colors: subtle, rippling hues like light had boldly gone where no alien had gone throwing their hats in the air. One man was seen through quartz. Evidently, they talked before, right? What could a few black- injured when a motorcycle helmet came that way. Finally, they settled down. Since and-whites throw against a big mother of a down. They were all as happy as the crew of we couldn't do much of anything, we set- mother ship that had crossed the infinite the Enterprise after extracting Captain Kirk tled down too. Lieutenant McGraw passed void of space unscathed, right? I guess I from a tight spot. They figured they had me a doughnut and a cup of coffee. two creatures wasn't thinking. I just ran 1o the phone and won, all of them but one, Lieutenant At the top of the ramp, called. McGraw, a pot-bellied, thirty-year veteran appeared, one flimsier and more translu-

The first black-and-white showed up in of the LAPD. He came over to me, flipped cent-looking than the others. I could see about three minutes. The two kids in it got open the cylinder on" -his .38 police special, the skeleion and maybe an internal organ out and stared at the ship, their faces a ejected the spent casings on the ground at or two in the light from- the doorway of the the sickly shade of green. I still don't know my feet, and began reloading, stuffing saucer. They promenaded slowly down whether the green came from them or the each new cartridge Into its chamber with ramp, reached the foot of it next to the lights on the ship. One of them almost grim determination. He finished loading, robot, and began changing colors: pink, broke his neck diving through the open car flipped the cylinder closed, and looked at red, blue, green, orange, like a beer sign, window to get at his radio. He screamed me, saying, "They'll be back." McGraw said he thought it was real pretty. changing into the mike, saying I wasn't a nut after all He was right. Six hours later, after the They had no more than started and to send every unit in L.A. — in the state! governor had ordered out the National colors when a short one ran out from be- That's when we heard something for the Guard and the President had flown in the. hind the equipment, jumped up and down first time, a sort of buzzing, crackling hum finest combat troops he could find (the Big in front of. them, and turned scarlet, He like the light bridge in Flash Gordon, fol- Red One all the way from Fort Benning, waved a flipper at the ramp. The two lowed by a scraping rumble as if a hun- complete with tanks and artillery support), turned, hurried back up the ramp, and dis- dred-ton stone door were opening above the mother ship came back. The door in the appeared inside. rumbled open, light flooded the back almost immediately us. I think (hey had a noise like it in The belly They reappeared Mummy. We looked up. The bottom of the lot; the saucer, its arms already out and and started the slow promenade down. mother ship was opening. moving, began its slow descent. This time, the flimsiest one tripped and fell Blinding light spilled out of the widening Nobody waited. The National Guard cut off the ramp, landing on a bunch of equip- rectangle and lit up the entire back lot like a loose with bazookas, the Big Red One with ment. The short scarlet one, once it saw the klieg light. A second ship, momentarily rocket launchers, the cops with handguns. flimsy one was okay, jumped up and down dimming the light from the belly of the A wing of F-1 5s from March Air Force Base again. They started over. . . mother ship, appeared in the rectangle of thundered in and blasted both ships, The fourth time they showed up, the mili- light and began a slow, almost impercepti- mother and child. It was the most stupen- tary finally got it through their heads that ble descent out of the bay. It looked like dous display of fire power since the baitle the aliens were invulnerable. They stacked your basic flying saucer trom Invasion scenes in The Cosmic Man or Invaders rifles (and bazookas and rocket launchers Earth 2150 A D. from Mars. Flash! Bang! Boom! It was and F-15s) and just watched,

Now black-and-whites were pouring into something! I was proud of our boys. That caused the short alien to go apo- the back lot, sirens wailing, lights flashing, In spite of our best efforts, the saucer plectic. It ran over to the edge of the force full of cops turning a sickly green. They slid kept coming, settling smoothly to the field and fumed at us in bright crimson. It to stops on Six Points, Texas, the set of ground. A door in the side slid open, and a waved its flippery arm and clenched a little Thoroughly Modern Millie, in front of the ramp extruded, like the alien landing in The fist on the end of the flipper Then it fainted Psycho house, anywhere and everywhere. Day the Earth Stood Still. A robot—the dead away. Other aliens rushed to it, exam-

it A black van roiled up in front of Uncle Tom's- thing must have been six meters tall I —ap- ined it, and carried back up the ramp and cabin, and a tac squad spilled out, just like peared at the head of the ramp and lum- into the saucer. The others picked up their they used to do on SWAT. bered toward us. Bullets, rockets, bazooka equipment and got aboard. The saucer Then everyone froze. shells whinged off its tough hide without disappeared into the mother ship. The Dead silence, except for the Flash leaving a scratch. mother ship went straight up, dwindling to in Gordon -light-bridge noise. The small ship It stopped at the foot of the ramp. Its visor a point of light and vanishing —all the was about hallway to the ground, mechan- winked up. A beam of blue light zapped out blink of an eye. ical arms popping out, devices—who from the eye-slit, and our weapons were Lieutenant McGraw came over to me. knows what they were— ominously pan- useless. You think I'm kidding. I'm not. frowning, puzzled, shaking his head, say-

it." ning back and forth on the ends of the. That's the part that blanked out on- TV and. ing, "I don't get it. I just don't get arms. that no one will talk about That robot had He never did. Almost no one did. The Someone yelled, "Weapons!" and the awesome, unheard-of powers. police, the Pentagon, all the thousands of

cops opened up. They blasted it with every- Behind it, a bunch of transparent flimsy- scientisfs who worked on it under govern- thing they had: pistols, shotguns, automat- looking creatures like a cross between ment grants —none of ihem got it. Most of

ic weapons. The SWAT team tried to lob fear something out of Invasion ol the Hell Crea- us around the lot got it. We're film buffs. We gas into the open bay of the mother ship. tures and Duel of the Space Monsters know the value of location shooting. CO .

No deaths. No births. The whole world

, hung suspended, waiting. ,

THE MADAGASCAR EVENT

BY ROBERT HAISTY

sat very still and shake your precious copy in doughnuts anc gulp.ng ooid [ho way down the hall you Heclosed his eyes. and your face: "... lousy chicken coffee between phrases, could still hear him yelling at

. . usually tried to imagine being scratchings . Je-eezus without eve- locking up— as someone, several-

if . :f times day: "This is , a smaller— as he could Christ! . you call this everything were perfectly

step into the large end of a reporting?" In less than a normal. Mark shook his head . supposed !o be a telescope and recede year a! the Morning News. sharply, trying to clear it. newspaper office, not a ' through the eyepiece, on Mark had seen three pretty There could be no more goddamn: circus, . and on until he was a speck, capable guys thrown out. delaying. The midnight schr.'Gihouse insurance "

. . apoint. gone. and each time Thompson deacsiine was now exactly office . — or whatever else Mark Wynette was not a had said, "Trie story is nine minutesaway. He seemed 'o fit the totally unseasoned reporter, always out there If by some should have acted before misdemeanor athand. but now he had two fears in miracle there's not a story, it's this. Long before this. An aura of Prohibition and his belly, sicknesses rolling your job to find out, by God, He made a right turn, crime reporters permeated against each other like the why\" which brought Thompson's the space within his virulent clouds which had Mark stood up and shoved cubicle in view straight half-walls;, evoked probably enveloped them through the his chair back without even ahead of him. Thompson by the ancient hangings, day and on into- the night. pulling from his typewriter hated the antiseptic new dippings, and photographs One was the indescribable the page on which he had offices, hated being and by Tnonpson's own uneasiness about the thing written a single sentence. removed from the traditional skinny Ira'me and balding itself. The other was Up and down the line of center of the newsroom. head. A slightly built man, he

Thompson.. Thompson would reporters' desks the Everybody knew what a fight more than made up for it by be in no mood for it. Never. machines were rattling along he had put up before he was the power of his lungs and afraid of frantically, the finally allowed to hold the sharpness of his words.. Sure, he was and people onto : Thompson. City editors pecking at them were ni^ ballered old maple desk "he ciueasiness in Mark's scream at their desks. They stealing hurried bites of stale and-his green eyeshade. All stomach reached a new

PAINTING BY ALDO SESSA " .

height as he entered. Sure, he should have seems to require no nourishment at ail. Then drugs recovered. The sale of painkill- done something about it hours ago. It was The other side says yes, but would you ers and tranquilizers has skyrocketed. It is easy to see that now But what, actually? condemn the poor woman in the ninth calmer around the hospital now. For a while Call the Herald? Christ! month to go around like that forever? "How there was a panic rush to have major opera-

it "Uhh . . . about the obits, Mr. do we know it is forever?" the first school tions done before this thing, whatever is, — Thompson asks. "We must wait and see what hap- came to an end. Then we saw it was not "Yeah. Where the hell are they?" pens." This argument seems reasonable to ending, and people began to fear they

Thompson was scribbling on his yellow me. What can it hurt to wait? But Ann is might come oul of the operation as perma- pad and scarcely looked up when Mark strongly with the Cesareanists.. "Who nent hiberoids, though it has happened so came in. "You're an hour late with 'em, knows what it may ultimately do to the far only in accidents involving severe burns Wynette." mother's health — and the baby's, for that or massive tissue destruction. Even so, the

To Mark, it was entirely as if someone matter? Who knows if it will end? How long undertaking establishments— all of which facilities else's voice responded. He was numb, and should we wait?" I do not have the answers. rapidly converted their into stor- frozen. Even his cheeks were numb. He I have only a vague thought that, given an age vaults for the hiberoids — are reaching said, "I'm afraid nobody died yesterday." infinite time, everything will happen. We capacity limits. Imagine! Only five days left,

have evidently entered a segment of infinity if you believe the fringies. I don't. But you MARK'S CHRONICLE in which births and deaths are not allowed. can't help thinking about it. There is much

The First Day: It wasn't as bad as I had It follows that this arrangement will also talk about time warps, but no evidence. thought it would be. Thompson choked at change. In a billion years? Perhaps even Atomic clocks, relative to mechanical first and grabbed ai his chest. He told me to a trillion? movements, or crystal oscillators or— for get the hell out, he didn't have time for any The Sixth Day: The burn victims and the that matter— sundials have not shown the goddamn comedians. drowned and the ones who have lost too slightest deviation.

Then Thompson called Herby Squires at much blood— they fill the hospitals, remain- The Forty-first Day: Well . . . nothing hap-

the Star. And the hospitals. I was right. He ing in a state of hibernation, just like the pened. If we counted right, we should have refigur- was only mildly furious that I hadn't said had itby now The fringe groups are anything earlier. He knows nobody ever ing. I noticed an item, on the wire service starts on the obits before the last hour. today about something called the Moss-

No time to do a story on it. We just ran the bauer Effect. I don't think we put it in the line "No deaths reported." The other morn- paper. 6 Panic growing. ing papers did the same thing, even on the The Forty-second Day: Who has ever heard

WestCoast. Wire services started picking it Trading suspended on the of the Mdssbauer Effect? The Nobel com- up about 8 a.m. major markets mittee must have. They awarded the guy The Second Day: It is worldwide! There've the prize in physics in 1958. Thompson di- President on TV twice a been no births reported, either rected me to find out about it. The Third Day: Panic growing. Trading sus- day. Says nothing The Forty-fourth Day: A graduate assistant pended on the major markets. DJI down in the physics laboratory at the university to be frightened about over a hundred points. Most schools agrees to talk to me about the MOssbauer closed. Government offices ordered to stay Fringe groups say Effect. "It is based on the recoilless reso- open. President on TV twice a day. Says nance fluorescence of gamma rays," he . . . the end of the world.9 nothing to be frightened about. We don't told me. I did not understand. He went understand it yet, but scieniists have sev- through it again. "When a radioactive atom eral possible explanations. May be the emits a gamma," he said more slowly, pok- dawn of a new era. Fringe groups say forty ing his finger at the desk pad with each days to the end of the world. word, "the energy of the gamma is that of Trie Fourth Day: Not much else in the news. cesarean babies, until they are revived with the excited state of the emitting nucleus

You get used io it. The creepy feeling can't oxygen or plasma or medications. But the minus the recoil energy imparted to the go on forever Forever— what's that? number of hiberoids, as doctors are calling nucleus itself." "Like when you shoot a is steadily increasing. "Like Thompson is amazingly mild. Almost them, There have gun," I said, and nodded wisely when cherubic. We don't understand it. This been reports of several accidental decapi- you shoot a gun," he agreed. "Now if the thing has gotten to him. We never used to tations being repaired, but in every case gamma passes through an absorber where have staff meetings; now we have them all the victim has not come out of the hiber it could give up its energy— conserve en- the time. He wants human interest. God, state. There are also bizarre rumors of un- ergy and momentum— by exciting an atom there's enough of that. He assigned me to successful experiments with tanks of hy- there to the same state, the probability of its cover Parkland Hospital. Then he decided drochloric acid. being absorbed would be very high. That

It Ann should work with me on it, because". . The Twenty-second Day: There has been would be a resonance absorption. wasn't there may be some women-stuff, " My heart no time for journal entries. Too much to observed originally, because the recoil almost red-lined. Me, a seasoned reporter. I cover, and we are too few. Ann is practically energies were too variable. MOssbauer gulped, and probably squeaked, when I batty about this cesarean thing. I try to showed that by embedding the source and said, "Yes, sir." I am so crazy about Ann's humor her, and she knows that's what I'm absorber nuclei in a crystal lattice, he could

it. level blue eyes and perky hips I would be doing, and she hates The little bit of make the recoil energy equal to zero in a

happy doing a story with her in the depths progress I had made toward sleeping with large fraction of the transitions. Thus, he of hell. Which may be where we are. her is totally lost. She doesn't want to think could observe greatly enhanced absorp- The Filth Day: Thompson was right about about love now A lot of women don't. Some tion. the hospital. What they're mostly trying to men, too. We are doing stories on impo- "Now, if he arranged for a Doppler shift figure out has to do with babies. There are tence. It hasn't affected me that way. by moving the source relative to the ab- no labor pains starting. No new pregnan- Maybe it is the wailings of the fringe groups sorber, even by as little as a few millimeters cies. We hear it from the nurses— there is that bother them. They say we have only' per second, he could cause the absorption already feverish debate in medical circles eighteen more days. Many have joined to be measurably decreased. From the way about doing cesareans. Some say it their movement. this reduction occurs, we can deduce a amounts to abortion. The baby remains in The Thirty-fifth Day: The markets have great many things about the structure of the the fetal position, has a slow but steady opened again. Drug stocks crashed. Air- material and the position of the active heartbeat, does not respond to stimuli, lines and entertainment went up sharply. atoms." 118 "

"That is the Mossbauer Effect," I said, least believe. The Mossbauer measure- yellow paper? Roger Foreman was on his

it secretly hoping I could explain to ments are hard to dispute. way back from the Coke machine, and he Thompson with some reasonable degree of Ann was right about the cesareans, of must have noticed something about the lucidity. course, as the women everywhere have way I was looking. Roger is one of the old

Effect, If "That was the Mossbauer "the as- long realized. I could find a pregnant hands, and he can put a story together sistant said dryly woman today, I'd have quite a story for the from a mosquito belch and a chigger egg,

the Effect," I said, cor- it kind of ability for "Was Mossbauer front page. but I don't think Took that recting myself. The three Hundredth Day: Something big him to see there was something terribly

"We don't see it anymore. That can only has happened. We felt the vibrations here, wrong. shift. mean there is no Doppier The halfway around the world. Communications "Hey. Mark—" he said. I hadn't noticed

Mossbauer lines are so sharp we used to are still sketchy The first satellite photos he was behind me, and I jumped six be able to see energy shifts so small they show it as a white blob in the region where inches. would correspond to a temperature of one Madagascar should be. Pilots in the area "It's over. Roger Like somebody pulled ten-millionth of a degree. Now there is reported a water funnel that opened the the stopper. Hundreds are dead. Thou- something funny with the Doppier shift. ocean five miles down, all the way to the sands! And some of them are— Time is screwed up." bottom. One of them claimed to have seen "You better get this in to Thompson," The Seventy-third Day; Apparently, the a flash of greenish-yellow streamer, curving Roger snapped.

graduate assistant was right. Scientists all in a parabolic arc as far as the eye could I looked up at the clock and headed out over the world seem to agree: We are at a see. in a run. The deadline! There was still time.

nodai point in an extended geocentral time There was an eternal instant of vacuum, "We've got obituaries.. Mr. Thompson," I warp. Which is another way of saying we then the horrible, grinding quake— and the shouted as I rounded the corner to his of- are an intermediate stop for some kind of tidal wave. fice. "People are dying everywhere. But the space voyagers. It's not entirely as physi- The Three Hundred Firs! Day; It was nearly weird thing is, it's like a lot of them have

cists used to think it would be, and there is midnight when I got the call from Parkland already been dead lor a long ti—" no way of telling whether it is permanent or. Hospital. I sat there nodding, the instru- I stopped, because Thompson was not if not, how long it will last. It could all end in ment clamped tight against my ear upon there. Only a chalky skeleton in rotting, the last minute. my right shoulder, as I mechanically took it shredded garments was sprawled in his

The Two Hundred Sixty-first Day: Suddenly all down on the yellow pad. I even managed chain with the bony fingers still clutching at it's summer, and so beautiful again. I don't to ask a couple of questions. "Okay, thanks. the rib cage, and the green eyeshade all

know how we got through the winter. Mostly Keep me posted," I said, incredibly— as if askew.

I with liquor, I guess. And that was only the there was nothing else to say. Then hung Roger had come up beside me, and after first winter The first of eight hundred mil- up and sat there struggling with com- a minute he said, "God, there's going to be lion, perhaps, they say. The theories about prehension, stannc; unfocused at my notes. a lotto sort out." the warp are beginning to congeal into How is it possible that a thing like this can I didn't answer. I had the reeling it was his of something I can almost understand or at be reduced to a few scribbles on a piece way of praying. DO . . .

l**fci*U- THE EYES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS

They wanted to break free of this controlled society,

but fear kept them all prisoners

BY PATRICE DUVIC

Everybody sat and waited. Maybe the butterfly would go Dreaming.

away. . . Colors.

The butterfly with the eyes on its wings, watching. He was on the point of waking up, and images were still

But, deep inside, they knew it would stay. Or would pretend lingering before his eyes. Colors. As if he were in deep forest. to go away and then sneak back, unnoticed. So they didn't say And under the trees, flowers that were not really flowers but anything. Didn't even talk about something else. more like butterflies on a stem, bullerflies made of feathers. And were frightened that their silence would give away what He tried to stay asleep or, ralher, in this state between sleep

they were thinking, It they were thinking. . . and awakening. To remain in his bed for a while. And to They tried not to. Succeeded more or less. Less. More. But remember his dream. couldn't keep themselves from watching one another. Asked To remember a dream, one of his friends had once told him, themselves, Why is he moving his lingers Why is he looking you've got to go backward. You've got to try to remember the

at me? Why is he thinking? Why won't he stop thinking? I can image just beiore the one you have in mind. Never lei yourself tell he's thinking. With that butterfly here in the room! Why get trapped by Ihe scene that comes next, because then

won't he STOP thinking? Why can't I stop thinking? you'll find out very soon that you're wide awake and the whole Watching one another would reveal too much. And without dream's fading away The scene that comes before; once

being positive that they were deceiving the butterfly or that it you've got that, just go on backward, always backward. was gone, they didn't dare close their eyes. My bladder hurts So they stared at the eyes on the butterfly's wings. And let I'm walking in the forest, looking for some kind of castle. No. themselves be hypnotized into oblivion. Oblivion was sale. In fact, it's not exactly a castle, more like a very large house, and, after all, tomorrow would be another day. a colonial mansion but somehow very Arabic. Arches, colored

A very slow fluttering of the wings. And you wait for it to tiles arranged in an intricate Escher pattern underfoot.

cease, and it almost does, but it doesn't. It slackens, pauses, Nearby there's a swimming pool. The water is green with and then starts again. Over and over. tiny floating plants. But they've emptied it. And the ladder Then, after a while, the butterfly left the room. doesn't reaeh downlo the concrete bottom. I'm playing there

So did they. Anyway, they didn't (eel like talking any more. with my balloon. I often do. And I'm telling myself stories, More like sleeping. inventing imaginary adventures. Can'! remember which.

PAINTING BY BILL MARTIN ......

I'm a kid, and my parents are up there, in only problem, because before turning into of paper. He was supposed to Xerox it.

if front of the colonial mansion . They can'l see winged adults, imagoes, butterflies were Twenty copies, more he could make them. me from where they are. My bladder is hurt- caterpillars, and farmers thought of the As long as he took the necessary precau- ing, worse and worse, and I don't want to caterpillars that ate their crops as a plague. tions. To spread revolutionary thinking all jump to catch hold of the ladder climb the So the time of pesticides came. And at the over the world. He hadn't even read it, ladder, and walk to the house, to the tiled beginning, they were very effective. which, he had to admit, was very signifi- bathroom Except that insects, and especially but- cant. A year earlier,. when he'd entered the The concrete bottom of the swimming terflies, adapted very quickly. And caterpil- Movement, he really hadn't been able to pool is still wet in places, green with algae. lars not only began to find pesticides very wait to read the things, would even take

It wouldn't show. And I have to pee. nice seasonings, they became addicted to risks to read them as soon as possible. To Wake up! You know what kind ot dream them and got to the point where they him, then, they had had tremendous impor- this is, where you dream you're pissing. But needed greater and greater quantities. tance. But he didn't care for them anymore. it's not just a dream, and you're going to And where do you think they could find Nor for the meetings. wake up and find the sheets wet and cold. these very high concentrations? He didn't even know why he was still "So he got to the bathroom, still half Ever hear about food chains? attending them, and he got the definite im- asleep, with a vague memory that he'd The highest concentration of pesticides pression that they never led anywhere ex- been dreaming. Pretty soon, though, he can be found in the vital organs of carnivo- cept to more meetings. Meetings that, like couldn't say what the dream had been rous animals. Men, for example. the last one, would stop in the middle of a about. Just that there'd been colors in it. As you can see, these stories very much sentence, as soon as a butterfly appeared After a while, he wasn't even sure of that. resembled the kinds of stories parents al- in the room. He got to the kitchen, put some water in a ways tell their children to frighten them. "If Strange thought, but, in a way we really kettle, turned on the electric stove, and you don't stop it, if you don't drink ydur need to believe that they're watching us, opened the window. soup, if you keep on being naughty, the and we'd be — they'd be —very disap- A few butterflies flew past him out of the butterfly is gonna come. He's gonna lay his pointed if we found out that they don't, be- open window. Who knew how long they'd cause it confirms our belief that we're im- been hiding in the apartment? portant, that we constitute some kind of a

And how many were still in it, behind one peril for the System. That we're dangerous piece of furniture or another. and that'we're working in the right direction Maybe that's what the butterflies are for, There were strange and terrifying stories 6 There were strange not only to spy on us but also to convince us told on the subject of butterflies, the sort of and terrifying stories told on that we can be dangerous to the Estab- rumors that no one really dared talk about lishment. the subject of but that everyone had heard at one time or But why? another. And you'd wonder why such sto- butterflies, the sort of rumors So that we go on doing the same thing ries spread so easily. But they did. that no one dared that we've always done! Twenty Xerox

It was said that these stories began as copies of- Xerox thinking. . . facts taken from old entomology books. talk about but . . . everyone Xerox thinking. The idea made him smile. Supposedly taken from old entomology had heard at The problem was, he didn't know what books. But no one dared to go to a library else he could do. one time or another. 5 and ask for an entomology book any more.

It would have looked very, very suspicious. As he entered the photocopy room, with Was there some legitimate reason to try the leaflet hidden in the middle of a bunch to learn more about insects? For what rea- of other documents, he saw that someone sons would one be interested in entomol- was already there, which was quite unusual ogy? Except , . eggs in your liver and in your kidneys and in for that time of day. He decided to come

So it was difficult to know if the rumors your brain. And the caterpillars will eat you. back later.

were reliable or not. They sure looked like And you'll be very, very sorry. . . "No, wait! I'm nearly finished. Five min-

if pseudoscientific paranoia. But, . . "But there'll be nothing we can do. It'll be utes at most, But you're in a hurry, you can

Anyway, before they all died, when you too late. We'll be very sorry for you, but it'll make your copies now. I'll wait. Really." could still find them outside natural history be too late." "No, no hurry. But I've got a lot of docu- museums, birds used to feed on insects, all "But Daddy, the butterfly won't know if ments to Xerox, so you'd better finish yours kinds of insects, including butterflies. At we're bad. If you don't tell him, he won't first." least, certain species of birds did. Be- "Okay." cause there were also birds of prey that fed "Oh, he'll know. You see, he's got eyes on He didn't know precisely why, but there on smaller birds, the very birds that fed on his wings." was something about the guy that he didn't the butterflies. But grown-ups are no longer kids. And like. Just a little too friendly, and there was

So to protect themselves, the butterflies for one thing, they know that it would be too much interest and curiosity in his eyes. learned (or maybe they didn't learn; maybe nearly impossible— no, quite impossi- He made you think of a friendly spider. it was just some kind of Darwinian selec- ble — for a butterfly to lay its eggs in a Exactly the kind of situation he was afraid tion, but that wouldn't change anything human brain and for a caterpillar to survive of. Especially now that he had made his either way) to mimic birds of prey. in a human body. decision. The next Movement's meeting A sparrow would try to catch a butterfly Unless they get help. would be the last for him. And the tracts he and, suddenly, find itselt faced with an Now, sometimes when you need help, was going to Xerox were the last he would eagle and fly away. But the eagle wduldn't and even if you're a butterfly, you'll find do. It would be too stupid if after a year of really be an eagle, just a small butterfly people willing to help you. Especially when clandestine Xeroxing it was precisely this pretending to be an eagle, a butterfly with they've got something to gain from it. last time that he got into trouble. eyes on its wings. And that kind of butterfly And if people could use these-butterflies But he had to do it, He didn't want the would survive and reproduce and spread to spy on everyone, they'd have something others to think he was quitting out of cow- all over the world. Millions, billions, of but- to gain from it indeed. ardice. He wanted that to be quite clear. In terflies with eyes on their wings. fact, the ideal would be to make a huge Butterflies, you see, really had a knack When he looked for the cigarettes in his number of copies, ten times what they for survival. But sparrows were not their pocket, he found the carefully folded sheet asked for, two hundred copies—throw

122 " . . " " " .

them in their faces or tear all two hundred His eyes were brilliant with inner convic- "Excuse me, I'm just—"

apart in front o( them. tion, with an obsessive drive. Probably the "I said, Cooler, isn't it?"

No. Let them have the lucking copies guy' thought of it as joy, convincing himself "Yes indeed. Yes."

and do whatever they want with them; bet- he was happy. But his eyes were just too "But I can see I'm interrupting your ter take what they've written and make cor- brilliant for happiness, for anything but in- thoughts. What were you going to say?" rections, ot sanity. add comments my own, and "No, nothing. I was just, you know, think- bring them copies of that. Religious nut. ing about what you said, butterflies being He'd really like to do that. And he loves the butterflies. angels — But he knew what that would lead to. How can someone love butterflies? Ver- "They are, you know, they really are. Many

Accusations, speeches on the Right party min just there to watch us , to on people people are spy , don't like them, afraid of them, line, on the dangers of political heresy, the and we would be supposed to love them! but they're wrong. There's nothing to fear dangers of individual thinking, individual But people loved God, didn't they? from them. I've heard stories you wouldn't initiative, ot objective compromise with the Where's the difference? When you think believe about butterflies eating people. Establishment, the dangers of leftism. about it, God is the ultimate dictator, his That's absurd. They're so beautiful, and What about the dangers of stupidity? universe the ultimate police state. He they love us, you know, they really do," ." Might as well talk to a brick wall. Endless knows everything; you can't hide from him. "Like God does. .. discussions. They're so sure they know the Everything you do, your most intimate "Exactly" truth. Always putting themselves in the role thoughts. He kills, can kill (no, call back to "And you know, I used to be afraid of the

of the find I judge, always anxious to you him. Sweet euphemism) anyone, whenever butterflies too. didn't teel right; I wasn't guilty, That, precisely, was what made him he likes. Even in death you can't escape comfortable in my skin. Doubts and so on. I sick. The mere thought of it made his him; he's got his torture chamber. Hell, couldn't communicate with other people, stomach twist. His throat was dry. He tried where he can imprison you forever. with my brothers. Life didn't have any to swallow, couldn't. A good thing he didn't believe in God, at meaning then. And I even thought of joining In a way the Movement looks almost least in that kind of a God. some of those underground political exactly like the System. Mimicry? Am I really sure I don't? movements. Jesus, he knows. And I can

Like the butterflies. In fact, police states use that resem- understand why people do that. I don't Trying to protect itself, to go unnoticed, blance —mimicry again?—use our super- condemn them. He knows, that's for sure. the Movement begins to resemble what it's stition to control us, use our fear of God, Because they just haven't met God yet, and

supposed to fight. even if it's so deeply buried in our brains they don't know the truth. But I know the

Or has it always been that way? Was I just that we don't think we have it, to manipulate Truth now, and I'm happy." too blind to see it? us. His eyes were more brilliant than ever.

The idea made him even more uneasy. Butterflies everywhere. The Eyes of God He would hypnotize me if he could. He

Sweat was dripping from his forehead, and, everywhere. It fitted. There was some logic also thinks he knows the truth, the one and of course, the friendly spider saw it, in that. only Truth. They're all cut from reality, all of "It's really hot in here, isn't it? Something "Cooler, isn't it?" them, imprisoned in their cocoon of truth wrong with the heating."

"Yes." The second he said it, he knew it was a mistake He knew what the guy would say next.

"I think I'll open the transom. It you'd help memovethatcaseovertherej'dclimbonit and do it." 'Are you sure thai — "Yes. I've got more work to do in here this afternoon. And if there's no one to help me—

"Okay, I'll help you." "Thanks."

Open the transom. It seemed more and more like a nightmare. If he opens the

transom . . A minute later, there were at least fifteen butterflies flying around them. "Oh, butterflies!" The guy was en- tranced. "They're so beautiful,— aren't they? So beautiful! Those colors "Yup."

"Creatures of God. Angels. You know, I really think they are. Guardian angels. Messengers of peace and beauty, the very image of paradise on earth, helping men to follow the right path. We're all sinners, and every one of us is weak. "Who knows what would have happened to us if God hadn't sent them to help us? Mankind would have gone on to inevitable destruction, Violence, murder, riots, disor-

der, anarchy. . .

"And they're so beautiful. I can stay hours just watching them."

God, HE watches THEM' What did I do to deserve HIM? He's insane! It is Evil. That things won't "Well, I must go now." Nearly crushed his tchak looked like an animation film, as "Change way fingers, put something in his hand, and left. if the butterflies were still alive and trying to change. When everyone has been copied, "Good-bye, Brother, and don't hesitate to escape from the sheets of paper but failing. the world will be perfect, a world of images call on us." Try and fail. Over and over. in which no one will die anymore. A world He found himself alone in the photocopy After a while, there was no more paper, that will last forever." room. He and the Xerox machine, sur- The machine stopped. The Xeroxed but- Then, more clouds came over the hori- rounded by butterflies. He was on the terflies froze forever. zon. And suddenly all the sky was like verge of a nervous breakdown, still wonder- He waited for the guy to come back and black rubber, a gigantic flap that was going ing why he'd kepi his mouth shut. Wilh all kill him, for lightning to strike him, for some- to crush him against the glass surface. the shit the guy had been pounding at him. thing to happen. Nothing did. And this flap was made of butterflies, their He took the thing that the guy had So, very quietly, so quietly it surprised billions of them, with eyes on wings. slipped in his hand: a sheet of paper, quite him, he took the dead butterflies, put them So he tried to escape, to run away. Ar- evidently a Xerox copy of a leaflet, a tract. in an envelope, threw it in the incinerator, rived in a deep forest, a jungle. The friendly spider was also using the cleaned the glass, took all the copies with He knew that within the limits of the forest machine to make leaflets. That was proba- him, and left. he would be safe. And he came to a very bly funny, but he didn't feel like laughing. small primitive village, just a gathering of There were now at least twenty butterflies He woke up screaming. huts. The people were in the village square, in the room. They might have followed this And this time it wasn't difficult to re- holding a meeting. He knew these people guy who loved them so much, but they member the nightmare. The images were were the last Incas. And he thought that he hadn't. They'd preferred to stay, obviously so vivid he felt he would never forget them, should take a few photos of them and of the they'd preferred to stay with him, a poor even though, at first, they didn't seem to village, He pointed his camera. The people little fellow with his problems and who make sense. turned their heads, hid their faces behind their didn't feel at ease. They were so full of love He was walking on a transparent glass their hats, behind headdresses made that they couldn't leave him alone. surface. It was huge and reached to the of colored feathers and tropical butterfly Probably wanted to show him the way to wings, blue and silver wings like mirrors, God, to the ultimate Truth that would That was something he'd heard about, change his life forever. that primitives didn't want to be photo- Shit. graphed, that they were afraid you would

He didn't know why he did it. Just that he steal their soul. How stupid. Magical think- better. Afraid some witch doctor would felt terrible afterward, terrible but All 6He didn't know precisely ing. that the tension released, suddenly gone. use their photos to cast spells on them. He why, there something Everything had added up together: his but was felt pity for them and went to explore the guilt toward the Movement, that guy who about the guy that village. looked so satisfied with the System, his fear A little away from the meeting a man was he didn't tike. . . . There was too

. . . and the butterflies fluttering all around sitting in front of his house. He wanted to him, everywhere. He was at the point where much interest and take a picture of the man's face but the he would have made the copies anyway, curiosity in his eyes. He made man's back was turned. He walked very even with the butterflies, hundreds of them, quietly, silently, like a feline, so as not to think ofa... spider. 9 whatever the consequences might have you frighten him. Then ran, surprising him, and been. Just to prove to himself that he took the picture. The man didn't have the wouldn't fall into paranoia, let paranoia get time to hide his face. In fact he didn't even the best of him: Butterflies just couldn't try to. Just smiled. read, even less when they could see just Then came understanding and fear. The the back of the leaflet. man was himself, or rather his double, his But they just wouldn't let him use the horizon. Under his feet, deep below, there mirror image. photocopier. There were always four or five was a blazing light moving forward and And he thought: "Now you haven't got a of them on the glass. Waiting, making fun of back, forward and back. soul any more, just a Xerox copy of a soul." him. When he tried to shoo them away, more The sky was uniformly red, except for a And that's when he woke up screaming. came. yellow cloud with a black lining. And the Always the same hypnotic movement. cloud was coming in his direction. There Not loo difficult to figure out where all the

And they wouldn't leave, as if the situa- was a voice. Not a voice of thunder but a Xerox imagery came from. tion amused them. friendly voice, the sound of which re- But there was something more. Some-

He saw himself, as if he were someone minded him of his father. thing that linked up with all his conscious else, fold back the flap. Crush the but- "We now have all the data we need to and unconscious fears, with everyone's

terflies under it. The barely perceptible Xerox you. And that's what we are going to fears. The fear of no! being me anymore, of noise of the crushed thoraxes. He didn't let do, make a copy of you, a three-dimen- being replaced by something thai wouldn't

them escape. sional copy. And no one will ever notice the even know it wasn't me -anymore.

Set the switch of the copier on "color." difference. The only person who'll know it's A fear as old as mankind, and maybe And pressed the button. A flash. A copy a copy will be you. But you won't be there even more ancient. of the dead butterflies went out of the ma- anymore. There was the folk belief that you can see chine. The eyes on the wings, the yellow- "It won't be a puppet or a robot or a your double just before you die. Or rather

green splashes of squeezed abdomens, a zombie. It'll be something more and some- that all through your life your double is part

wing folded, as if one of the butterflies had thing less. An image. of you, and that sometime before your tried to fly away at the very last moment. 'And, just like you, this image will think, death, a month, a week, perhaps a few A very impressive image. will love, will experience joy and fear. And hours, he goes away.

He made one more copy, then another, the funny thing is that it will even be afraid to The primitives who were afraid of the then ten more. be replaced by a copy." camera. He lifted the flap, put the leaflet very "Why? But why?" In a way we share the same fear. carefully on the dead things, and set the His whole body was covered with sweat. No witch doctors any more. Computers. machine on "automatic," Drops were falling to the glass surface, And we're afraid that a computer wilt get He sat and watched the copies coming splashing green oily splashes. an accurate image of ourselves. Yes, accu- out, Tchak, todo, tchaktodo, tchaktodo, The voice answered. rate enough to be used for imitative magic. 124 "

Wo more dolls with needles stuck In them, stance, a male butterfly can smell a female "We're just like mice, hypnotized by a but magnetic tapes, video recordings, per- butterfly from more than fifteen kilometers snake, waiting to be devoured." forated cards, data banks. away and go and find her. He looked at them. He knew it wasn't a "Now, when you're angry, or anxious, good speech, but he'd hoped for some He made his first attempt at the very be- when you don't feel okay, and most of the reaction. And they were doing their best not ginning of the meeting, in a quite awkward time we don't, I mean, if you don't like soci- to see him, not to, listen to what he was way. Raised his hand and said, "I've got ety the way it is, and you want to change it, saying. It was exactly like addressing an something to tell you about— the butterflies. to do something about it, I mean, meetings assembly of salt sculptures. I've been thinking, and like this one, although I don't think they lead "Well, sorry to have upset you. It's been a "I'm sorry It's not on the agenda. No un- anywhere, in a way you're frightened. hard day. Good-bye." scheduled matters. We can't afford to Right? You're filled with anguish, very ex- He went to the door and opened it. No waste time. We don't know how long we'll cited, and distressed. And when you are one moved. In a way he would have pre- be allowed to continue this meeting. So like that, you emit a very specific smell. ferred to have them attack him, even kill

priorities first. Okay?" "You are right now. I can't smell it, but I him, but, ironically enough, the presence of So they got to priorities, until they noticed know you are." the butterfly was protecting him, that, of course, there was a butterfly in the "Shut up. You're insane. What do you The room must have been stinking with room. want? To compromise us all? We don't want anguish and fear and hatred, because the . Everybody sat and waited. to have anything to do with you. We don't minute he opened the door, a hundred but- Everybody but him. even know you." terflies flew in.

That was the moment for which he'd "Neither do I. But I won't shut up. Be- "Sorry, again. I just forgot something."

been waiting, cause I'm not afraid of (he butterflies. And I He tossed all his leaflets in the middle of "Well, as no one seems to have anything don't think you should be either. I'm not the room, toward the ceiling, closed the

I think they're butterflies flutter- more to say, maybe I should tell you what I afraid of them, and don't spy- door on live and Xeroxed want to tell you." ing on us. I think they just come when we're ing together in an intricate, nearly surrealis-

They looked at him as if he were mad. afraid of being spied on, when we give off tic, aerial ballet. And left. Anxious glimpses in the direction of the that specific smell that says, 'I'm afraid to He didn't know what he was going to do butterfly. be watched.' The Establishment, the dic- next, orwhatthe future would be like, but he

He didn't feel too good himself and de- tatorship, whatever you want to call it, felt better than he had in years. livered his speech like an automaton, very doesn't need to spy on us. It just needs to Not a single butterfly followed him. quickly, without looking at them, have us think it's spying on us. Because A wasp did, though. But maybe it was we're paralyzed, don't just ordinary 'As I tried to tell you a little earlier this then dare do any- an wasp. DQ evening, I've been thinking. You probably thing, don't even dare think.

know that butterflies, I mean certain spe- 'And these eyes on the butterflies wings cies of butterflies, have a particularly de- aren't there to watch us, but to make us veloped sense of smell, so that, for in- think that we're being watched.

^fcf^W jlmjju The invention solved the energy

problem, but it took a sea captain to solve the inventor's problem

OIL IS NOT GOLD BY SAM NICHOLSON

II admit I was patting myself

on the back when I got home from the asteroids True. I had

stepped on a few toes and bloodied a few noses— I have always iound troubleshooting to be a dirty job, whether at sea or in space— but the Company subsidiary Space Min- ing, Inc., had swept up two billion dollars' worth of metals for the moon smelters.

I figured (he Company's main office was feeling pretty good about the asteroid haul, so when Mickleberry in Operations ordered me to New York from Space Mining's

Assembly/Launch Complex at Canaveral, I assumed the old fox just wanted to take soundings, as usual.

I barged into his office —and thought uh-oh! Mickleber- ry was giving me his curt nod and thin smile. He waved me to the hot seal.

I eased my bulk into the worn wooden chair and waited. He cleared his throat. "Captain Schuster, the Company is not exclusively concerned with dollars and cents."

"That so?" I said genially. He interpreted this as oh yeah? and go! his pinched- nose superior expression. "In both departments—the sea fleet and the space metals—we must maintain our image as a solid yet progressive and fair-minded organization.

PAINTING BY DON DIXON — " . — " "

Executive-level utterances can make or "Can they fire him?" "Flew the coop, hey?" I commented, mar this image." "You're the sea lawyer, Captain." Mickle- wondering who Von Reinstad was. A guy

Whenever Mickleberry started talking berry tore off a memo sheet and handed it gets out of touch, in space. "What's this hassle all image, he was leading up to the fact that I to me, "Your flight leaves Kennedy in two Taccon about?" "Would you like a drink? It's a long story." tend to shoot off my mouth. I complained, hours Pick up your ticket at the airline

"Jeez, Mickleberry, we've been through desk "Fine. Make it a long scotch," I grinned, with this lecture before." I just sat there and eyed Mickleberry. When we were settled comfortably "Not this lecture, Captain Schuster. Your "You want me to maintain a low profile our glasses, he took his copy of the charter recent space exploits have made you a and you're sending me to tangle-with a party from his desk and handed it to me. prime media object, at a time when triple-dealing, public-be-damned, price- "When the ship was chartered to Malverde special-interest groups are highly articu- gouging oil company?" Oil—" late and able to —uh—hype their critics to Mickleberry smiled his pale smile. "I "Malverde Oil?" death." think you will find, Captain, that Taccon Oil 'A Taccon intermediary. Malverde was to He put his fingertips together and con- is bigger than all of us," pump up the liquefied shale and sell it to tinued. "We are living in a jungle of intoler- Taccon, who would sell it further—Japan, I ant minorities who effectively deny free The ship's agent met me at the New Or- guess," speech to everyone but themselves. Re- leans airport and drove me the consider- "Which company owns the converter cently Captain Schuster, you have been able distance to the dockyard. Mickleberry operation?" voicing opinions Third World grifters —fat had been misinformed on one point. The R. "Taccon. So the oil would go from Taccon dames in pants —and the Company has J. Hoimen was not in the dry dock but to Malverde to Taccon to X— been under considerable pressure to fire alongside the dockyard pier. "And to Taccon again?" you." The watch officer at the top of the ac- "Eventually, with a cost jump at each first. "Okay, fire me. It wouldn't be the first commodation ladder had spotted the car level. Everything worked fine, at We time." entering the gate, so a seaman was waiting delivered a couple cargoes to the Taccon His blue eyes were cold. "Yield to minor- pier, here in New Orleans —and then Tac- ity pressure? We would rather persuade con shut down the converter." you, Captain, to employ the secret weapon "Why?" of the Silent Majority — namely, silence, "They don't want to market the oil. The which presents no target for —uh—hyster- world is glutted with oil. They wanted to 6 That it should happen ical yapping, while it exerts its power at make sure the process worked—and then relevant levels, such as the ballot box." in America—/ think that makes tie it up and sit on it. But they hadn't ex- Reinstad deliver the I Von to goods I pected thought this over. personally got a me craziest! A — charge out of mixing it up with the yap- so fast free country —but is free? scientist- who . Reinstad the pers— but I did not want the Company vi- So Von was ciously smeared or boycotted. Nobody who buys inventor. " Mickleberry went on, "It would be best if —and the Holmen's charter had a long oil! There is no Congress —only you maintained a low profile during the next time to run. So Malverde put us into the crude-oil ring-around-a-rosy" months—and therefore we are taking you an oil lobby! There is . . off the space-mining projects." "Which ring?" only oil —oil! 9 off I told myself Mickleberry had opened "Oh, we'd pick up crude the South with the Bad News. Now would come the American west coast, discharge it at the of canal, Good News. I grinned, "I'm gonna be work- Balboa end the pick up more ing on the old briny, hey?" crude somebody else had discharged,

"Not exactly on the sea, captain. You re- carry it through the canal, discharge it at call the experimental tank ship we char- on the dock to take my suitcase. some Caribbean terminal, pick up more tered to Taccon Oil, specifically for their I thanked the agent for the ride, climbed crude somebody else—" field-shift shale-converter in the Gulf of the accommodation ladder, shook hands "Alaskan oil routed through Japan?" Mexico?" with the officer, and continued topside to "Hell, nobody knows where the razzle-

the skipper's quarters, I really or I had been in space when the deal was where be- dazzle begins ends— except Taccon.

i enjoy myself. office — You've ships, made, so I was not up on the details. As gan to His had room skippered these tank Captain

if I Schuster understood it, a scientist had found a way and the air conditioner conked out, —you know the drill," to field-block an air chamber in the sea would not need to grab for a space suit. "Okay, so you've been ferrying crude. and, by the same principle of molecular The skipper was a decent young chap What came unstuck''" control, to convert shale to a heavy liquid at named Cummings. Sober-faced, some- "Well, the old Hoimen is just a carrier for the source and pump the liquid into tank what inflexible— but I had approved Mick- heavy crude, She's only rated for dirty ships for further refining, leberry's decision to promote him to Mas- cargoes—and Taccon/Malverde have de-

Of course, Taccon had their own world- ter. I figured he would loosen up as he be- cided to put her into the higher-freight wide fleet, but they needed a different came older and more sure of himself. He clean. They told me to dry-dock her for tank pumping system —larger-diameter lines, was smart and handled personnel prob- cleaning, and they sent along her next stronger pressures, tank circulators to lems well, and apparently was managing to charter— high-grade refined." keep the sludge from solidifying. It was stonewall Taccon Oil. "Her tanks are probably gummed a foot cheaper for Taccon to charter a ship from He had been writing at his desk, but he thick. She'll never clean up enough to pass

us than to withdraw one of their own tankers stood up when I appeared in the doorway inspection." from profitable trade. and came forward to meet me. "Malverde says not to worry about the

I Mickleberry, kind of char- inspectors. But, Schuster, I can't asked "What As we shook hands I noticed that the Captain ter party?" table in front of the settee held a-pipe in an. risk my Master's license trying to run a dirty

"Since the Hoimen is experimental, we ashtray a half-filled glass, and a turned- rust bucket in the clean trade. I told Mal- insisted upon our own ofticers aboard. down paperback. verde the Company had not empowered However, they take orders from Taccon, and Cummings followed my glance and me to break the law." a dispute has arisen. The Hoimen is now smiled, "Dr. Von Reinstad split when the I could not help saying, "You protested dry-docked in New Orleans, and Taccon third mate phoned up here that you were at too quick about the clean charter, didn't has fired our skipper." the gate," you? There's nothing illegal in dry-docking

128 " " — —I "

or tank cleaning. You should have let Tac- trace of an accent. "I cannot stay all the 'And what good is a silent majority?"

con clean our tanks at their expense—and time on the rig— I would go entirely "The silence. No telegraphing punches then refused to break the relevant laws." crazy— so sometimes I come aboard the until a haymaker sends the yappers to the

"Yes, I know. You could have played it that Holmen." He tamped the pipe with shaking canvas. Every action, you know, has its

"I reaction. way, "he said earnestly. "You've established fingers. have a— a monomania. I think I And when 200 million fed-up a reputation as an honest man who enjoys have been cheated— but, as Mr. Ealing people finally reacr. Taccon Oil won't know

leading crooks right down to the wire and says, I am just a little crazy." what hit 'em."

"I pushing them over. The inspectors know "Who is Ealing?" hope I live to see the day!" you, and they'd just get a laugh out of the "He calls himself a coordinator for fvlal- A snowball in hell had a better chance,

deal. I verde Oil, He is a fixer —an errand boy but at any rate had cheered him up. I said, "But they don't know me. And the evi- between Malverde and Taccon. He also "I'd kinda like to see your invention, Doctor.

dence of the clean charter and Ihe impos- keeps an eye on me and the shale rig. In I don't understand how you can make an air

sibly dirty ship would indicate that I went case a monomaniac sabotages a useless chamber out of lines of force." along with Taccon in their hopes of diddling invention." "By a shifting of molecules. The field

the inspection. I felt I I had to make my own could see the guy wanted to talk, so I makes a wall of solidified water."

intentions clear, right at the start. waited while he got the pipe started. He ! jingled my drink. "You mean ice?"

"You must realize. Captain Schuster, that puffed it and went on. "Ealing can explain "Captain, 'cooking' and 'freezing' are

you I can get away with a lot of stuff the rest anything away. How can I think have been temperature-oriented concepts. But we of us couldn't have a hope of pulling off." cheated? I have been well paid for my in- can 'cook' food without heat—by micro-

As I say, somewhat inflexible and unsure. vention. Taccon pays everybody very well. I waves that induce kinetic energy. And we However, it's hard for a guy to make intelli- am rich, almost. But,— Captain, life is not all can solidify water without cold. Oh, the gent decisions when he's up to his neck in dollars and cents chamber walls are very elementary. And crooks. He was going on, "What bothers The sentiment sounded better from Von once we know how to rearrange molecular me most is what Taccon has done to Von Reinstad than from Jvlickleberry. lattices in a force field, we can do many Reinstad." things, like liquefying shale for oil in a mo- "Oh? What's that?" ment." "Well, here's a genius with a solution to "And making gold from lead?" the energy problem—cheap instant oil "No, no, Captain. For that we must rear- from the sea bottom, with a minimum of range atomic structure, an infinitely more £ We set down on the forward hardware and easy transportation. And difficult operation. I would like to show you Taccon Oil buys all legal rights and sits on deck and walked my shale-converter, but you must ask Mr.

1 them . Von Reinstad could give his blue- Ealing. I no longer own it. I am only the aft to the square. A crewman prints away on the front page of The New janitor," switch York Times —and nobody could use them! pressed a "Where can I get hold of Ealing?" He's being throttled!" "Why, believe to the and thick-lensed lights glowed J he was come to "Get Von Reinstad up here. His drink is ship. Yesterday your Company told Taccon

from the darkness . . . into — already warm." you would be arriving

Cummings lifted his phone receiver and an enormous . . . well that went Yeah, the fixer I took another swallow and dialed. "Doctor? The all clear has sounded. wondered about Ealing. down . , . six fathoms. 9 And Captain Schuster can't stand to see a The desk phone rang. Von Reinstad rose

drink get warm," hastily, grabbing pipe and paperback. I

He smiled, hung up, and said, "The doc- said, "Hey, take it easy!" but he was gone tor may not be himself. He stays mostly on like a rearranged molecule, the shale rig, monitoring the chamber and I answered the phone. The watch officer " is sea-bottom equipment. He's got the idea —and I want my invention to be used, said, "Captain Schuster, Mr. Ealing here into his bead that Taccon would shoot him if not suppressed! But Ealing says, 'Who is to see you."

he wandered too far afield. I don't believe suppressing? There it is in plain sight The charter party was still on Cum-

they would go to that length—they're only fully operable. Ready to be used when the mings's desk. I picked it up and said, interested in stifling his invention— but it's time comes.' "Okay, thanks, we're ready for him." an indication of his depression. He laughed and did sound a little crazy.

if I "He might talk more freely weren't "Ready when the price comes, is what he When Ealing entered the office, I re- around," continued Cummings, rising from means! Taccon is so poor, Captain, you flected that all the errand boys — the his chair, "so I'll just go below and discuss wouldn't believe! Wot even a cent profit do jackals —the fixers — looked alike. Cheaply some things with the chief engineer." they get at the gas pump! But how many sharp but shabby. They were not well paid,

"Good idea." I swallowed a slug of cents between Alaska and Japan and Tac- since double-dealing is not a rare skill that scotch and waited for the inventor. con and Malverde and Taccon— can demand good money. They were puffy "But the good they do with their profits! eyed and always slightly hung over from the A guy whose spirit has been broken is a Research — big laboratories — laser three-martini lunch. They boasted about pathetic sight. Von Reinslad was tall, thin, beams— fusion-fission — solar— beautiful being "in oil" or "with Taccon," and gray-haired, with dark, sad eyes that pie in the sky! But do they tell the truth, 'We scrounged freebies, usually timing their should have been flashing with intensity or can give you cheap energy now"? No— it ship visits to arrive on board at a mealtime. schmerz or whatever the poetic-type Ger- must be tomorrow, when the price is high Ealing was typical of the lot, perhaps a man flashes with. I had seen guys like him and they can squeeze and squeeze little more stupid. He lunged into the office on the ships— a different breed from the "That it should happen in America — with a show of self-confidence and gave me chunky, roundheaded, Achtung blonds. think that makes me craziest! A free a clammy handshake. "Good to have the

He looked relieved when I turned out to country — but who is free? Nobody who Old Man aboard. Your young skipper ain't be Schuster. God knows what he had ex- buys oil! There is no Congress —only an oil dry behind the ears." pected, after hearing Cummings talk about lobby! There is no president — no antitrust "Yeah — but Taccon could've gone me. We shook hands, sat at the table, and laws—no courts—there is only oil —oil ahead and cleaned the tanks, anyhow." freshened our drinks. oil—!" "We should clean tanks for the Com-

"Captain Cummings has been very 'Well, there's the Silent Majority" I inter- pany? You're a real gas, Captain." He kind," said the scientist, with the barest helped himself to Cummings's "repre-

129 " "

sentation" booze and joined me at the ta- "I hope you get the guys out of the room, I asked Von Reinstad if I had permis- ble. "Why all the hoo-hah about a rerating? chamber before you slam the hatch cover sion to descend alone. Tankers go from dirty to clean, every day in shut!" "Of course, Captain." the week." "It closes automatically. This is a robot "Got a walkie-talkie?" "When they're in a condition that can be operation, Only rarely is a human being in "Yes, we have minicommunicators, Cap- cleaned up enough to pass inspection, the chamber— myself—or a visiting fire- tain."

it sure. It's how the Holmen will be rerated man," he smiled. "Shall we descend to the He gave me a powerful little box. I put in that concerns the Company" bottom?" my pocket, descended on the lift, and "Not anymore. As the charterer, Taccon "Not me!" said Ealing. "I don't trust-these tramped mysteriously around the sea bot- determines how the ship will be used." nothing-can-go-wrong robot operations! A tom. I squinted up now and then to see you've it!" Ealing watching from the top gallery. "Yeah." I scanned the fine print confi- fuse blows —and had me

dently, knowing Mickleberry had put it to- "Oh, no, Mr. Ealing," insisted the inventor. When I had him on the hook, I ascended to

gether. "As long as the ship is used for the "I really can't visualize what could fail. In a the gallery, laughing to myself. specific purpose ot carrying dirty car- storm, yes, perhaps— —the hatch cover is a "What did you find down there?" he de- goes." storm precaution manded.

"Our lawyers can talk to your lawyers." "Taccon would have a fit if they knew!"

"Nuts. All we have to do is call the tank I was willing to take Von Reinstad's word I ambled away. Out of the corner of my

inspectors and blow the whistle." for the safety of the chamber. Every time I eye I could see Ealing work up his courage He gave me a fishy grin. "You'll never blasted off from Canaveral in a space- and descend.

I into control The panel make a million, Captain, if you take that mining shuttle, I was taking a scientist's nipped the room.

attitude." word that nothing would fail. And, so far, was still lifted. I carefully wiggled a center bells "Life is more than dollars and cents." I nothing had failed. peg loose. If lights flashed and rang,

folded the tine-print pages. "Mr. Ealing, be- Von Reinstad and I climbed down the the deal was off.

fore I fly back to New York, I'd like to see Dr. gallery ladders to a small lift platform and Nothing happened— but the peg was

Von Reinstad's invention." took the lift to the dried-mud sea bottom. definitely out of contact. Apparently

"Sure. Let me check with the Taccon dis- Well, the converter said nothing to me. I emergency procedures were triggered by

patcher. There's always a tanker heading saw it could be moved on caterpillar treads the sea-bottom robot.

lift past the rig. on her way out from the New as the shale was stripped. Presumably the I legged it to the platform, called the Orleans terminal." whole "flattop" could be shifted around. back up from the mud, and descended. footsteps. He "How about a helicopter?" I saw also that the chamber had a pump- Ealing was retramping my He hesitated, and the corners of his ing system similar to a dry dock. Naturally, said, "1 don't see anything." mouth blanched. He did not like helicop- after the water wall had solidified, the en- "Naturally not. Metals are difficult to rec- ters. But he said, "Okay. At the Taccon pier, closed water would have to be removed. ognize. We learned that in the asteroids." didn't find tomorrow morning. Is the old gink coming I touched the wall. It was solid. My fin- "The geologists anything

along?" gers stuck to it and seemed white burned down here but shale." looking for shale "You view Dr. Von Reinstad as an old when I took them away. I commented, "They were only —and gink?" "Yeah, you really have something here." the place is lousy with molluskite, the rarest

"He's as dumb as they come. He invents He smiled. "I will show you the control earth there is! And you thought Von a do-it-yourself oil-extractor that would console, Captain." Reinstad was crazy, hanging around the knock the bottom out of oil prices, and he We ascended to the lower gallery. Von rig! All he's waiting for is for you guys to go

sells it to Taccon!" Ealing laughed heartily. Reinstad lifted a long, horizontal panel and away and leave him alone!"

"And he sells it to Taccon!" showed me what seemed to be several zil- "I don't see anything — oh, God, look at lion microelectronic components. the wall! It's wet!"

The next morning Von Reinstad and I met Only one small section made a recog- "Condensation," Ealing at the Taccon pier The physical nizable pattern, like a pegboard with little "It's running down, all over! Let's get out

plant was neat and pollution free, just like in gray pegs. I asked, "What part do the pegs of here!" the ads. It might have been a cover off the control?" Ealing stampeded to the lift. I plowed old Saturday Evening Post. In an unconsciously proud gesture, he through ankle-deep water and jumped

A twelve-man chopper flew us out with brushed his hand over the pegs. "They de- aboard as he sent the lift upward. several maintenance crewmen. From the termine how the molecular lattices block Far above, a siren wailed —and the au- air, the shale rig looked like the deck of a each other— like a basket woven so tightly tomatic hatch slid shut. Pumps began flattop, except it seemed to rest upon the that it holds water." thumping. wave surface and had a large dark square "Suppose a peg was defective." We came to a stop short of the closed

in the center. "They are pretested and are thereafter hatch. The communicator was buzzing. I

We set down on the forward deck and permanent. If a peg were to be removed," took it from my pocket, clicked it on, and walked aft to the square. A crewman he speculated thoughtfully, "the blockage held it to my ear. Von Reinstad said, "Cap- pressed a switch, and thick-lensed lights would be incomplete, and leaks would tain! Are you and Ealing all right?"

glowed from the darkness. I was looking occur—the extent of the damage depend- "Yeah, we're on the lift. How long will it into an enormous, glossy-sided well that ing, of course, on the peg position." take?"

went down about six fathoms, to assorted He should not have left the controls so Quickly, I blanked Von Reinstad's reply

hardware on the sea bottom. casually unlocked, even though the con- and continued talking to myself. "That so? I Below deck on the rig were two galleries verter had been shut down—and the rig- understand. How many days—?"

leading to what I assumed were control maintenance staff would no more fool with "Daysf" Ealing was shaking me. "What

rooms and living quarters. the controls than they would lift up the hood did he say about days?"

"Everything is submarine and self- of a friend's car and start poking and pry- I returned the communicator to my contained." explained Dr. Von Reinstad. ing. Any unattended control system is pocket. "Well, Von Reinstad's kinda short "Yeah, but if your force-field walls col- bound to give an ingenious bastard ideas. on spare parts — didn't— bother, with the lapse, you'll be flooded out!" I objected. It given beaut of an idea hardware shut , had me one how down "No, Captain," he smiled. "The sections to get the converter rights back for Dr. Von "They can fly out spare parts!" are like space capsules. But for backup Reinstad. "It ain't all that simple. You oughtta un- security, a watertight hatch cover closes derstand, being familiar with Taccon/

between the chamber and the sections." After lunch in the upper-gallery mess Malverde operations. I mean, you guys — " — "" "

can't afford to sell Alaskan oil to Americans, "Cummings had described you to me— with amusement. "No, Captain, you have when you've got all that Arab oil to rid of. get how you played tricks and beat crooks at already shown me where I belong —with sell oil their So you Alaskan to Japan—and own game. So when I heard you say the Silent Majority. You took away my bitter- bring Indonesian oil to the Canal and sell 'Relax,' Ealing talking — and about signing ness when you made me realize I was not

it to Taccon and Taccon brings Peruvian something, I knew you had tricked — — him with standing alone. Two hundred million are all oil to the Canal and sells it to Malverde the wall, and I went immediately to the pat- around me, standing firm. And in a few "What's that got to do with—?" tern board that had interested you. I began years, the oil cartels will have gone to join "Well, it's the same in electronics. A daisy testing —and as soon as the wall solidified the manufacturers of buggy whips." again, chain, like. Mow, the molecular calitran is we could open the hatch." I was glad he had got over his frustrated

"I still manufactured in Boston and then flown to say your emergency system works depression, but I knew Big Oil would be

Japan for the microdigital and then re- ass- backwards," I growled. around for a long while yet. rig turned to Boston for inspection before The crew had brought me up before I

being sent to Seattle for the toggle splint—" had gone down for the third time. My back Ealing stayed aboard the rig. I felt he

"But there must be other manufacturers!" was sore and stiff, and I felt waterlogged, would not leave until he had conned the

but I okay, "Well, yeah, but like Oil, they're all playing was and the cook had dried my paper out of Von Reinstad, and I hoped the

pattycake in the same cartel. An outfit in St. clothes (by caloric, not kinetic, energy). inventor would not give it up,

Petersburg makes the same calitran, bul He had also dried the contents of my I flew back to the Taccon terminal that

pockets, I they send it to Hong Kong for the micro-— and handed the blurred scrap of evening. Someone on the rig had tipped off digital and Sydney for the toggle splint paper to Von Reinstad. He read it and the media to the "accident," and a gang "But the water is pouring in! The pumps smiled. "Thank you, Captain — but Ealing with recorders was waiting lor me can't handle it! We'll drown! For God's has already explained that the signature is I guess it struck me the wrong way—the sake, get them to break the daisy chain!" not legal." surface slickness of the Taccon operation "True. But fortunately "Break the daisy chain?" I took a deep for you, Dr. Von and the ring-around-a-rosy buildup of breath, "Yeah, go ahead and scream Reinstad, we are not living in a country of costs. When the media asked me to com-

'Break the daisy chain,' you goddamned ment, I blew my stack. I reviewed the whole son of a bitch! In the bad winters of 76 and record and went on, "Sure, the oil cartels 77 Americans froze to death while the oil are experimenting with other energy cartels played with their daisy chains and sources—to monopolize them as they've laughed all the way to the bank!" monopolized oil. In twenty years a person "Stop talking —and do something!" with solar panels on his roof or a windmill in Ealing to the lift. I • stampeded The water was rising pretty fast. said, his backyard will pay more for sunlight— and "Maybe, if we could make it worth Von wind than he pays for oil! I tell you — I plowed through Reinstad's while " I took out my notebook I told them, all right. I got the whole thing ankle-deep water andjumped and pencil and scribbled, "On behalf of off my chest. When I had run down, the Taccon Oil and their intermediaries and aboard as he sent media persons clicked off their recorders,

subsidiaries, I hereby return to Dr. Von said, "Thank you, Captain Schuster!" and the lift upward. Sirens wailed Reinstad all rights in his air chamber and ran for their cars. the automatic shale-converter." I held up the notebook, -and I taxied back to the Ho/men and slept like

"Sign this." hatch slid shut. 9 atop. The next morning I caught an early jet

Ealing peered at the page in the wavery to New York. I did not bother to read a

light from water-distorted lamps. "But I newspaper or look at a TV screen. I knew don't have any authority to sign such a what I had said —and I felt truer words had statement!" never been spoken.

"You seem to have plenty of authority to Of course, I had shot my "low profile" all deal under the table." to hell. My severance pay would be waiting laws "No agreement signed under duress is but of government by media pres- for me. I went directly to the Company of- any good!" sures. Now, what you should do is hire a fices from the airport.

"Your lawyers can talk to our lawyers." good PR expert. He will build a campaign The Operations floor was quiet. I could

He signed. I tucked the notebook away, on the fact that utilization is implied in the not understand it. At least a few of my old took the communicator from my pocket, purchase of any invention, unless the con- pals would be giving me a grin and a and snapped it on. "Doctor?" trary is explicitly stated. You naturally as- wisecrack. But Operations hummed along

"Schuster! Thank God! We're check- sumed Taccon would put your invention as if it were just another day and I were ing—" full — into operation. Since this was not done, making a routine visit. "Relax. The only thing is wrong the deal is null and void." I left my suitcase with the receptionist Ealing grabbed the communicator and "But—?" and was admitted into Mickleberry's office. !" yelled, "I signed! I signed! the I Get parts— 'As recognition of this fact," went on, I squared my shoulders as I walked toward He was like a wild man, shaking and "Mr. Ealing, in remorse and wanting to his desk. sobbing. The communicator spurted from make restitution before what seemed in- He looked up, smiled what he thought his hands, plopped into the rising water, evitable death, gave back your invention." was his approving smile, and offered me and disappeared. "The courts—?" his hand. I took it, muttered something, and Well, there went the old ball game. About "The case will never go near a court. Your sank into the worn old chair. He said, "Tac- a zillion microscopic parts to test out PR expert will sway public opinion to your con is keeping the Holmen in the crude-oil Ealing was still raving. "Damn you. side. He'll make you an effectively orga- trade —and Captain Cummings will stay Schuster! I'll drown you first!" nized minority. Enraged sympathizers will aboard. Your usual smooth, efficient work, My mind was on some way of tapping a stone Taccon gas pumps and loot Taccon Captain Schuster."

Morse on the hatch I message cover, and stations. "Anybody who speaks against you I felt completely flummoxed. "Then was not paying attention. Ealing lunged or mentions legal action will b"e viciously you're not sore about the interview I gave against me and pushed me from the lift, smeared and silenced. And Taccon will last night?"

I fell on my back, hitting the water hard. have to give in or be vandalized out of busi- "Interview? What interview?" He raised

last thing I The remembered was the sight ness. As Mickleberry says, if you can't beat his eyebrows and seemed genuinely sur- of the hatch rolling back the media-nourished tyrants, join 'em." prised. "No interview was reported — any- "You see, Captain," smiled Von Reinstad, Von Reinstad's poetic eyes flashed— where— Captain Schuster." DO

131 "

When Dawson got back from his vacation in Florida, he was feeling no belter. He hadn't expected a miraculous cure. In fact he hadn't expected anything. Now he sat morosely at his desk, staring out at the tower of the

Empire State and vaguely hoping it would topple. Carrulhers. his partner in the law firm, came in and bummed a cigarette. "You look lousy, Fred." he remarked, "Why not go out and have a drink?"

"I don't want a drink," Dawson said, "Besides, it's too early. I had enough liquor in Florida." "Maybe too much."

"No. What griped me was — I dunno." "Great psychoses from little acorns grow," Carrulhers said, his plump, pale face almost too casual. "So now I'm nuts?" "You could be. You could be. Give yourself time. Why this abnormal tear

of psychiatrists, anyway? I got psychoanalyzed once." "What happened?" "I'm going to marry a tall, dark woman," Carruthers said. "Just the same, psychiatry isn't in the same class with astrology Maybe you bit your

grandmother when you were a child. Drag it out in the open. As long as you keep thinking. 'What big teeth you have.' you'll dwell in a morass of mental misery." — "I'm not In a morass," Dawson said. "It's just "Yeah, Just — Listen, didn't you go to college with a guy named Hen- dricks?"

"I did."

"I met him in the elevator last week. He's moved here from Chicago. Got offices upstairs, on the twenty-fifth floor. He's supposed to be one of the best psychiatrists in this country. Why not go see him?"

"What could I say?" Dawson asked. "I'm not followed by little green THE CURE BY LEWIS PADGETT

PAINTING BY MICHEL HENRICOT 1 man.' a dream. And that really I'm somewhere dummy, and it doesn': comer you ary "Lucky man," Carruthers said. "lam. Day smellirjg dead flies on a dusty window-

and night, They drink my liquor, too. Just loll pane." "What if it isn't a straw dummy?"

Hendricks you smell dead flies. You proba- "Like the Red King? You think some- "Then, at least, you've recognized it, and bly pulled the wings off an anopheles when body's dreaming you?" can take steps to get rid of the incubus."

you were a tot, It's as simple as that, see?" "Nc. I'm dreaming — this." Dawson "I see," Dawson said slowly, "If I'd been

He rose from his chair, put his hand on looked around the restaurant. responsible for a man's death years ago, I Dawson's shoulder and added quielly. "Do "Well." Hendricks said, "possibly you could buy peace of mind by taking care of

it. Fred. As a lavor to me." are." He stubbed out his cigarette. "We get his orphaned children." "Urn. Well-O.K." into mefaphysics at that point, and I'm lost. "Read Dickens," Hendricks said.

"Good." Carruthers said, brightening. It doesn't matter which is the dream. The "Scrooge is a beautiful case history, Hal- He looked at his wristwatch. "You're due at main thing is to believe in the dream while lucinations, persecution complex, guilt at his office in five minutes. I made the ap- you're having it. Unless it's a nightmare." complex — and atonement," He glanced

pointment yesterday." He fled, ignoring Ihe "It isn't," Dawson said. "I've had a pretty his watch. "Ready?" curse Dawson flung at his head. "Room good ife so far." "Ready" twenty-five-forty," he called, and slammed "Then where are we? You don't know When they had finished, Hendricks the door what's worrying you. The dream's merely a blinked at the results. "Normal." he said. symbol. Once you realize what the symbol "Too normal. A few odd quirks— but it takes Scowling, Dawson located his hat, left represents, the whole structure collapses, more than one test to get any definite result. word with the receptionist as to his where- and any neuroses you may have are gone. We don't want to be empirical— though it's abouls and rode the elevator up. He met a As a general rule, anyway," sometimes necessary. Next time you have short, fat. cherubic man in tweeds emerg- "Ghosts can't stand light, is that it?" that daydream, move the gadget under

ing from twenty-five-forty. Mild blue eyes "That's it, exactly. Don't misunderstand your hand."

considered him through glistening contact me. Neuroses can build up eventually to "I don't know if I can." Dawson said. lenses. But Hendricks only laughed. "Neural "Hello, Fred," the man said. "Don't know paralysis of the as:'al." ns suggested. "I'm me now, eh?" relieved, Fred. I'd rather gathered you were "Raoul?" Dawson's voice was doubtful. slightlly off your rocker. But the layman al- "Right. Raoul Hendricks, somewhat fat- ways overestimates mental quirks. Y^ur ter after fwenty-five years, I'm afraid. You 4 He knew he was lying close friend Carruthers has probably got you a bit worried." look the same, though. Look, I was just against it, his "Maybe." going down to your office. I didn't have a nose almost touching the glass, chance to eat breskfasi this morning. What "So you've got a hallucinatory daydream. about a bite downstairs?" inhaling dust with every That isn't uncommon. Once we find the " tell — cause, you'll have nothing left to worry "Didn't Carruthers you breath, and the smothering, "We can kick that around better over about. Come in tomorrow, any time— give food." Hendricks steered Dawson back to dreary, somehow me a call first — and we'll give you a physi- cal More coffee?" I checkup. the elevator "There's a lot want to ask you brownish odor of dead flies, it and presently left about. The college chaps. I didn't keep in "No," Dawson said, singularly horrid... 9 was Hendricks at the elevator. He was feeling touch. I was in Europe most of the time."

"I kept in touch," Dawson said. "Re- irrationally relieved. Though he discounted member Willard? He's just been indicted in a good deal of the psychiatrist's profes- " an oil mix-up - sional optimism, he felt that the man's ar-

They talked over onion soup and through gument held water. There'was logic in it.

the entree. Hendricks listened, mostly. true psychoses. Ycu've got something like And certainly it was illogical to let a day- Sometimes he watched Dawson, though an olfactory hallucination. But there's no dream influence his moods so strongly. not pointedly. They were in an isolated accompanying delusion. You know the booth, and. after coffee had been served, wiricowpane isn't there." Back in his office, Dawson slood at the Hendricks lighted a cigarette and blew a "Yeah." Dawson said, "but there's some- window, staring out over the serrated smoke ring. thing under my hand," skyline. The low, hushed roar of traffic

"You want a snap diagnosis?" he asked. "Tactile hallucination? What does it feel mounted from the canyons below, In forty- "O.K." like''" two years he had come a long way, partner

"You're worried about something. Do you "Cold and hard. I don't know what it is. If I in a law firm, member of a dozen clubs,

know what it is?" move it. something will happen." taking an active interest in a variety of

"Certainly I know," Dawson said. "It's a "Do you move it?" matters— a long way for a boy who had sort of daydream. But Carruthers told you After a long moment, Dawson said, "No," begun his career in an orphan asylum, He thai." very softly had married once, but there had been a

"He said you smelled dead flies." "Then move it," Hendricks advised. He divorce, amicable on both sides. Now it Dawson laughed. "On a windowpane. A took out pencil and paper and adjusted his was more convenient to maintain a

dusty windowpane. Probably it isn't that at watch. "Let's have a jury-rigged word- bachelor apartment near Central Park. He

all.. I just got the impression, no more than association test. O.K.?" had money, prestige, power — none of

if that. I never see anything. It's a sort of ex- "Well -why?" which would help him the hallucination tension of sensory consciousness." "To find out the causation of your win- developed.

"It never occurs in your sleeping dowpane. If there's a. mental block, if the On impulse he left Ihe office and visited a

dreams?" censor's working, it'll show up. Spring medical library. What he found only con-

If "If it does, I don't remember It's always a cleaning. you clean a house regularly, you firmed Hendricks' remarks. Apparently, as

fash. The worst part is that I know at the save a lot of work later. No chance for cob- long as he didn't believe in the real exis- time lhat il's the windowpane that's real.. webs to accumulate. Whereas if you let the tence of the dusty windowpane, he was

Usually it happens when I'm doing some stuff pile up, you're apt to get a real psy- fairly safe. When he did, dissociation routine stuff. chosis, with all the trimmings. just said, in. all but subjective, false Suddenly I get this flash. It's As! stepped and

instantaneous. I feel, very certainly, that it's a.question of finding the cause. Once logic would fail. Men have a vital need to

whatever I happen to be doing at the time is you locate that, you know it's a straw believe they are acting rationally — and,

134 " "

since so many has.c motives are too hid- match into the vvas'eoasxe;— and shrugged. kets." den and complicated lo .unscramble, they "Sorry. I'd thought Instead, he telephoned Hendricks. The assign arbitrary meanings to (heir actions. "Oh, I'm all right- Hendricks is pretty psychiatrist could see him in an hour. Daw- But why a dusty windowpane? good, really. My nerves are a bit shot." son passed the time with a crossword puz- "Yeah," Dawson thought, thumbing Comforted, Carruthers said something zle, and. atten, went upstairs and stripped.

through pages. "If I believed in this dream, and went back to his office. Dawson turned Hendricks used stethoscope, blood- I'd— uh — erect secondary delusions. I'd a page, read a few words and felt things pressure gadget and other useful devices. think of a good reason why there was a close in, The morning sunlight, slanting "Well?"

windowpane. Only there isn't any reason, through the window, faded abruptJy. Under "You're all right." luckily." his hand was a cold, hard object, and "Sound as a nut, eh?" As he walked out of the library and saw strong in his nostrils was the dusty smell of "A nut?" Hendricks said, "Come on. Let's the stream of street traffic before him, he despair. And this time he knew it was reality. have it. What happened?"

suddenly felt that he was dreaming. And It did not last long. it When had gone, he Dawson told him. "It's like epilepsy. I the windowpane was back again. sat quietly, staring at the hollow desk and don't know when I'll have these attacks.

He knew he was lying close against it. his the hollow wall beyond it. The sounds from They've never lasted long so far, but they nose almost touching the glass, inhaling the traffic below were dream noises. The might. And afterward- the dream feeling dust with every brealh. and curl the smothering, of smoke spiraling up from the waste- hangs over. I knew very well that there was dreary, somehow brownish odor of dead basket was dream smoke. a fire in the wastebasket, but it wasn't a real flies. It was singularly horrid — that feeling "I hope you don't think you're real,"

of suffocation and dead despair, He could Tweedledum said scornfully. "Daydreams are apt to carry over a bit. feel the hard something under his hand, He noticed that the smoke had changed Reorien:ation isn'". always nstantaneous." and he knew with a sudden sense of to orange flame. The curtain caught fire. Dawson chewed on a fingernail. "Sure, urgency that unless he moved it—now— Presently he would waken. but— suppose Carruthers was falling out of he was more than likely to there smother Someone screamed. Miss Anstruther. his a window I wouldn't have tried to stop him.

- with his nose against the glass, smother secretary stood in the doorway, pointing. Hell, I'd have walked off a roof myself. I'd from sheer inertia, inability to move. He After that there was confusion, shouting have known it wouldn't have hurt me. It's a knew he must not slip back into the dream and the spurting of a tire extinguisher. dream." of being Dawson. This was reality. There The flames died. The smoke vanished. "Do you feel you're dreaming now?" was nothing tangible about Dawson and "Oh, dear," Miss Anstruther said, wiping "No," Dawson said, "not now, of course! his fool's paradise and his dream city of a smudge from her nose. "It's lucky I came It's only during these attacks, and

New York. Yet he could lie here and die with in when I did. Mr Dawson. You had your afterward—" the smell of dead flies in his nostrils, and nose in that book— "You felt that hard object under your Dawson would never suspect until that "Yeah." Dawson said. "I didn't even hand?" dreadful last moment between waking and notice. I'd better speak to Mr. Carruthers "Yeah. And the smell. There was some- death, when it was too late to move the — about throwing matches in the wastebas- tVig sise too." the hard object beneath his hand. Traffic roared at him. He stood at the curb, white and sweating. The unreality of the scene before him was briefly shocking. He stood motionless, waiting until the hol- low world had resumed its tangibility. Then, his lips tight, he hailed a taxi. Two stiff shots of whiskey were comfort- ing. He was able to contemplate working on the current brief, a liability case which presented no difficulties. Carruthers had gone to court, and he didn't see his partner that afternoon. Nor did the — hallucina- tion— recur But, after dinner, Dawson telephoned his ex-wife, and spent the evening with her al a roof garden. He didn't drink much. He was trying to recapture something of the vital reality that had existed during the early part of their marriage, But he wasn't too suc- cessful.

The next morning Carruthers came in. perched on Dawson's desk and cadged a cigarette. "What's the verdict?" he wanted to know "Do you hear voices?" "Often," Dawson said. "I'm hearing one now Yours." "But is Hendricks any good, really?" Dawson felt unreasonably irritated. "Do you expect him to wave a magic wand? All therapy takes time," "Therapy, huh? What did he say was

"Mothing much." Dawson didn't want to "You can inform the American pubhc that the scientific discuss it, He opened a law book pointedly. community is not quite finished with the testing of sacchai

Carruthers lit his cigarette, dropped the . .

"What?" emerge. Instead, he found himself stand- To the left, some: 'ling [old .nim. To the left.

"I don't know." ing on a gibbet, a rope about his neck. It was hard to battle that lethargy, that "Move that object, It's 'a compulsion, in Hendricks came rushing up, waving a smothering, dusty suffocation of despair. four-bit words. And don't worry about it." paper roll tied with a blue ribbon. "You're And it was hard to move. Sut he strained to

if "Not even I walk off a roof?" reprieved!" the psychiatrist shouted. send fhe impulse down his arm, into stiff "Stay away from roofs for a while," Hen- "Here's your pardon, signed by the Gover- fingers, and the effort told. He felt some- dricks said. find "Once you outihe mean- nor!" He thrust the roll info Dawson's hands. thing click into place, and — and . , ing of this symbolism, you'll be cured." "Open it," he ordered urgently. "Untie the

if "And I don't. I'll get secondary delu- ribbon." Dawson didn't want to. but Hen- He remembered. sions." dricks kept insisting. He pulled at the rib- The last thing before . .

"You've been reading up on it. eh? Look. bon. As he did, he saw that it was tied to a Before what?

If you think you're the richest man in the long cord that snaked across the platform worid, and you haven't go! a dime in your and vanished from sight beneath it. A bolt "Vital therapy," a voice said. "We grow pooket, how'll you rationalize that?" clicked. He felt the trap door quiver under fewer yearly. And we must guard against "1 don't know." Dawson said. "Maybe I'm his feet. By pulling at the ribbon, he had that plague." eccentric." opened the drop; he was tailing. Karestly ran an eight-fingered hand over Hendricks shook his head, his plump He woke up, sweating. The room was his sweating, bald head. "The tests show cheeks bobbing. "No, you'll develop the dark and silent. Cursing under his breath, you need it, Dawsao." logical delusion — a supplementary one — Dawson got up and took a cool shower. He "I hadn't—" that you're the victim of an organized plot to had not had nightmares for years. "You wouldn't know, of course. It'd be rob you. Catch' Don'l try to assign phony There were, after that, two more inter- imperceptible except by the instruments. meanings to your dusty windowpane. Don't views with Hendricks. Each time the psy- But you need the therapy, that's certain." start thinking a little man named Alice is chiatrist probed more deeply. But the re- "I can't spare the time," Dawsao said. popping out of the woodwork with a win- frain never altered. Recognize the symbol. "The simplification formulas are just begin- dowpane tucked under his arm. Or that the Move your hand. Remember. ning to clear up. How long must I stay in the glassblowers' union wants to persecute On the third day, as Dawson sat waiting in vorkyl?" you. Just find the real meaning behind the Hendrick's outer office, he remembered. "Half a -year." Karestly said. "It doesn't

symbolism. As I fold you. Move thai gadget The familiar leaden, sick inertia swept matter." under your hand. Don't simply be passive over him. Desperately he tried to focus on "And Pharr went in last month," about it." the buildings outside the window. But he "He needed it."

"O.K.." "I'll it. not Dawson said, move If I could battle the tide. -At the last mo- Dawsao stared at the wall, made a men- ment, Hendricks' advice occurred to him, tal signal, and opaqueness faded to irans- and, as he felt the cold, hard object under lucence and transparency. He could see his palm, he made a tremendous effort to the City. move nis hand. Karestly said, "You've never vorkyled be-

fore. You're one of the youngest. It isn't bad. It's stimulating, curative and necessary."

"But I feel normal."

"The machines don't lie. The emotion factor is wrong. Listen to me, Dawsao. I'm a great deal older than you, and I've been in :he vorkyl twelve times." Dawsao stared. "Where to?" "Different eras each time. The one best

fitted for my particular warp. Once it was Brazil, in 1890. Another time, Restoration London. the And Second Han Empire. I

had plenty to do. I spent ten years in Brazil, building a rubber empire." "Rubber?"

Karestly smiled. 'A substance — it was

important at the time. I kept busy. It's fine therapy. In those days the only therapy they knew involved painting, construction- visual and tangible, not the emotional and psychic therapy we use. However, their minds weren't developed."

"I hate the idea of being shut up in a five-sensed body," Dawsao said. "You wouldn't know any better, There's the artificial mnemonic angle. Your life- force will take possession of the body that's created for you at the therapeutic epoch we choose, and you'll have a full set of false memories, created especially for that period. You'll probably begin as a child. There may be temporal compression, so

you'll be able to live thirty or forty years in a half year of our time."

"I still don't like it." "Time travel," Karestly said, "is the best therapy known today. You live in a new envi- ronment, with a new set of values. And ing, the last stronghold of the race, It had better."

that's the vital part. You get away from the altered, too. A long time must have passed "Am I?" Dawson said. "Maybe I know current herd instinct that's caused all the since he had entered the vorkyl. For ruin what the symbol represents now." trouble," had touched the great tower, and the white, Hendricks looked at him sharply, "Do "But—" Dawsao said. "But! Only four naked shapes that crawled up and down you?" thousand of- us still sane, in all the world! the structure showed no sign of intelli- "Maybe it isn't a symbol at all. Maybe it's And unless we work fast—" gence. The last light had gone out, then. a reality." "We're not immune. The whole trouble is The tide of madness had engulfed the four Then the familiar sensation came back, that for hundreds of generations the race thousand. the dusty, suffocating claustrophobia, and has followed false values, which conflicted He used his seventh sense of percep- the windowpane, and the brownish, dry with the primary instincts. Overcomplica- tion, and his guess was confirmed. In all the smell, and the sense of terrible urgency. But tion plus oversimplification, both in the world, there was no sanity. The herd instinct there was nothing to be done about it now, wrong places. We haven't kept pace with had triumphed. nothing at all. He waited. In a moment it was our growing mentality. There was a And he could not breathe. That suffocat- gone again, and he looked across the desk man— Clemens— who owned a mechan- ing horror was a reality now The last oxygen at Hendricks, who was saying something ical typesetter thai was perfect except tor left in the sealed case was rapidly being about the danger of secondary delusions, one thing. It was too complicated. When it absorbed by his now-active lungs. He of rationalizing. worked, it was ideal, but it kept breaking could, of course, open the vorkyl — "It's a matter of finding the right sort of down." To what? therapy" insisted the hollow man. DO

"Old stuff." Dawsao said. "I know the Dawsao moved his hand, The control trouble. The machines are so enormously swung to the right again. complicated now that humans can't keep Veteran SF fans wilt happily remember Lewis up with them." He was sitting in the psychiatrist's outer Padgett's byline from the pulp-magazine era of

"We're solving it," Karestly said. "Slowly office, The receptionist was at her desk, the forties and fifties. Actually is was only one ol but surely There are four thousand of us. scribbling something; she didn't look at at least seventeen different pseudonyms used by And we know the right therapy now. After him. The white light of morning sunshine the late great Henry Kuttner and his equally gifted you've had six months in the vorkyl, you'll made patterns on the rug. wife and collaborator, C. (for Catherine) L be a new man. You'll find temporal therapy The reality — Moore. Together and separately they produced a is foolproof and absolutely certain." "You may go in now, Mr. Dawson." significant body of literary works in the fantasy genre. close their collaboration "I hope so. I want to get back to my work." Dawson stood up and walked into Hen- and SF So was

"If you went back to it now, you'd be in- dricks' sanctum. He shook hands, mut- that, in most of their stories, it is impossible to sane in six months," Karestly pointed out. tered something and sank into a chair. know which of them wrote what. The Cure, one of

"Temporal travel is like preventive serum Hendricks referred to his charts. his andlor her best stories, first appeared in 1945 shots. You'll be occupied; we'll send you "O.K., Fred," he said, "Feel up to another in Astounding Science Fiction. back to the twentieth century." word-association test? You're looking a bit "That far back?" "That period's indicated, in your case. You'll be given a complete set of artificial memories, and. while you're in the past, you'll have no consciousness of reality. Of this reality, I mean." ." "Well . . Dawsao said. "Come on." Karestly rose and floated to- ward the transporter-disk. "The vorkyl's ready for you. The matrix is set. All you have " to do is —

Dawsao got into the case. It closed be- hind him. He took a last look at Karestly's friendly face and tightened his hand on the control. He moved it toward the right. Then he was Fred Dawson, with a com- plete set of artificial memories, in the or- phan asylum in Illinois.

But now he lay in the vorkyl, his nose against dusty glassocene that smelled of dead flies, and the vitiated air tore at his throat as he tried to breathe. All was in gray semidarkness around him. He sent out a frantic thought-command. Somewhere light grew The distant wall faded to transparency. He could see the City.

It had changed. It was older. And a heaped pile of dust made a canopy atop the vorkyl in which he rested. The immense, red sun washed the City in bloody gloom. There was no sign of orga- nized activity. Figures moved here and there in the ruins. He could not make out what they were doing. He looked for the Administration Build- ' . .

' ! " "'-' ': ' ' at i ' ; ^*- :.3 7 ™ fill

.

/-. : J-'?/ /'••'i i \ Tr*% 1*v

hite spots danced • J; in front o! our eyes, J:-''.! W'[here was a momentary - i i sensation of vertigo, and then — 8|< we had emerged from subspace. •• s ' • ! 1 Our trusty ship, Endeavor, powered by its twin GM distrac- tors. had taken us safely from " - our own universe to GG233, „, ! ; J a universe tangential to us in subspace directionality. Our .: . H party had gone there to look at <• j 1 some of the greatest structures ever built, A universe, »i. m by definition, is infinite, but some infinities are larger than others.

GG233 is a relatively small s universe. This does not, however,

prevent it from having some of the largest fabricated structures ! "•»*•«*•*'" I in the entire megaverse. Our first • stop was the planet Gropetz V jj f r where we stayed at the Hotel j| Schroeding, right next door to the Combined Galactic Churches

1 ' building. No fewer than 8,567 ", J! deities are worshiped in this immense edifice. The combined n prayer power of the 483,000 1 beings who worship here * 1 . ^^^^^^ ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE

A survey of megastructures in the universe GG233 PAINTINGS BY JOHN HARRIS ^ r h ^"^^|i« kJUM^

SflSH

Bill

IP %^H ai^^fl Hj^H Wt&r

Preceding pages, below; generates enough psychoelectric power to light three cities the size ol Galactic Churches Cleveland. Between 50and 100 miracles take place daily in the CGC. A building shows miracle few parsecs away, dominating the barren moon Lii XIV, is the Central Interstellar Penitentiary for Dysfunctioning Life Forms. Malefactors from more than 200 different worlds are incarcerated here, some for crimes that we of Earth would consider minor such as spitting on toadstools, Clockwise irom ; an aggravated felony in the Chang-dong civilization. The penitentiary Endeavor break) was built to house 1 million beings in three different atmosphere-tem- of subspace; C

perature configurations. Unfortunately, it now has nearly 4 million, many Penitentiary cell of them forced to endure incompatible life-support systems. We artilicial meat fac

paused briefly at Loum'a III to see Carnivoron, which, when completed, showing tne ;mi will be the largest factory in the world for the fabrication of artificial meat products. Only the Italian sausage section is operating today. Next on our list was a visit to the Albertus Magnus, the biggest spaceship ever built, now resting in zero gravity above the ocean world of Sargasso IV

mSome infinities are larger than others. We found GG233 to be a reiativety small universe.?1 Its construction beggared the Sargassians, who have lived in a state of primitive savagery ever since. The Albertus Magnus is now used to store grain and potatoes, though there has been some talk of transform-

ing it into a shopping mall. We then flew to the Big Computer, near

Alcindor II. Housed within a hollowed-out moon, this computer is capa- ble of solving income-tax problems and performing mortgage calcula-

tions for an entire galaxy. An even larger computer is being assembled to verify the results obtained by this one. For our last sojourn we visited the largest artificial world in the galaxy capable of moving on its own power. This is the Mega- Ark. which crossed the galactic gulf entirely on

autopilot, its crew having perished from acute ennui. The Mega-Ark is

now in stable orbit around a red dwarf star It is a popular vacation spot for beings who can breathe its methane atmosphere. DO

»The Big Computer has enough capacity to project the megagalactic Gross National Product.^ ' LOOK THROUGH "ME WINDOWS OF TOMORROW

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