1 ^

JUNE • 1962 • 50c • K c z Galaxy in

^ :i The Wall The

ilge

By James and Virginia Blish

For Love

By Algis Budrys

The Seed of o Earth

By Robert Silverberg YOURS THE NEXT 16 BIG ISSUES OF IF

FOR ONLY $3.95 -SAVING YOU $1 65- IF YOU ACCEPT THIS SPECIAL OFFER

If you wonder what happened to the "wonder” in your science-fiction stories — it's in iF! Every issue packed with new, fast taies of tomorrow and space!

THE KIND OF SCIENCE FICTION THAT YOU'VE MISSED FOR YEARS

IF brings you new stories by old masters, plus the best of today’s new writers-challenging ideas combined with skillful writing and all the adventure and thrills of interstellar space Itself!

The greatest names in science fiction WRITE FOR IF

Del Rcy, Clarke, Harmon, Schmitz, Pohl, Davidson, Simak, DIoch, Keyes, Sturgeon, Galouye, Sharkey, McIntosh, Fyfe: Dickson — they're all in IF!

.CUP COUPON AND MAIL TODAY

if 421 Hudson St., New York 14, N. Y.

Yes! Send me the next 16 big issues of IF! I enclose S3. 95. (Outside of N. and S. America add $1.35 postage.)

Name

Address

City Zone . State

Use coupon or order by letter if you wish llullnpuBCU§ied^a£ti-o^M^

brotherhood THERE are some things that cannot organization) an age-old be generally told - things you ought to of learning, have preserved this secret centu- know. Great truths are dangerous to wisdom in their archives for some — but factors for personal power ries. They now invite you to share the i their teachings. an^y accomplishment in the hands of practical helpfulness of the those who understand them. Behind Write today for a free copy of Within the tales of the miracles and mysteries book, "The Mastery of Life.” life oppor- of the ancients, lie centuries of their its pages may lie a new of secret probing into nature’s laws — tunity for you. Address: Scribe eX.E. their amazing discoveries of the hid- ^ SEND THIS COUPON den processes of man’s mind, and the ; E.C.E. 1 Scribe problems. Once shroud- | mastery of life’s The ROSICRUCIANS (AMORC) ed in mystery to avoid their destruc- i \ I Sao Jose, California i tion by mass feat and ignorance, these Please send me the /rw book, TAr { j useful heritage for the o/Z-r/tf, explains how I may learn to facts remain a I which | and powers of mind. thousands of men and women who pri- I use my faculties t I in their homes today. vately use them ' Name j

! Address THIS FREE BOOK } The Rosicrucians (not a religious

UBe Rosicrucians (AMORO SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A ALL STORIES NEW • NO REPRINTS eaiaxy MAGAZINE

JUNE, 1962 • VOL. 20 NO. 5 M-31 in Andromeda. 2,000,- CONTENTS 000 light-years away, this galaxy, nearly identical COMPLETE SHORT NOVEL to our own, is the farthest ob- THE SEED OF EARTH 105 ject visible to the naked by Robert Silverberg eye. It appears as a faint smudge of light south of NOVELETTES Cassiopeia. FOR LOVE 9 by Algis Budrys ROBERT M. GUINN Publisher ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 52 by James and Virginia Blish FREDERIK POHL Managing Editor SHORT STORIES THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 27 WILLY LEY by Richard Sabia Science Editor

DAWNINGSBURGH 76 SAM RUVIDICH by Wallace West Art Director

DREAMWORLD 98 GALAXY MAGAZINE is published by R. A. Lafferty bi-monthly by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. Main offices: 421 Hudson street. New York 14, ARTICLE N. Y. SOb' per copy. Subscrip- ORIGINS OF tion: (6 copies) S2.50 per year GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 85 in the United States, Canada, by Edward Wellen Mexico, South and Central America and U. S. Possessions. Elsewhere $3.50. Second-class SCIENCE DEPARTMENT postage paid at New York, N. Y. and Holyoke, Mass. Copyright, FOR YOUR INFORMATION 38 New Yorx 1962, by Galaxy Pub- lishing Corporation, by Willy Ley Robert M. Guinn, President. Ail rights, in- cluding translations reserved. FEATURES All material submitted must be accompanied by self-addressed EDITOR’S PAGE 5 stamped envelopes. The pub- lisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. All FORECAST 75 stories printed In this magazine are fiction, and any similarity between GALAXY’S FIVE STAR SHELF 191 characters and actual persons is coincidental. by Floyd C. Gale Printed in the U. S. A. By The Guinn Co., Inc. N. Y. Cover by TREMBATH illustrating The Lamps of the Angels Title Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Next issue (August) on sale June 7th. )

THE DEADLY MISSION OF PHINEAS SNODGRASS

^^HIS is the story of Phineas of Year One living habits. (He Snodgrass, inventor. He built stole the idea from a science- a time machine. fiction novel by L. Sprague de built Camp, called Lest He a time machine and in Darkness Fall. it he went back some two thou- His time machine wasn’t very sand years, to about the time of big, but his heart was, so Snod- the birth of Christ. He made him- grass selected his cargo with the self known to the Emperor Augus- plan of providing the maximum tus, his Lady Livia and other rich immediate help for the world’s and powerful Romans of the day people. The principal features of and, quickly making friends, se- ancient Rome were dirt and dis- cured their cooperation in bring- ease, pain and death. Snodgrass ing about a rapid transformation decided to make the Roman

5 world healthy and to keep its Everybody got healthy. people alive through 20th century Infant mortality dropped at medicine. Everything else could once, from ninety deaths in a take care of itself, once the human hundred to fewer than two. Life race was free of its terrible expectancies doubled immediate- plagues and early deaths. ly. Everyone was well, and dem- Snodgrass introduced penicillin onstrated their health by having and aureomycin and painless den- more children, who grew in health tistry. He ground lenses for spec- to maturity and had more. tacles and explained the surgical It is a feeble population that techniques for removing cataracts. cannot double itself every gener- He taught anesthesia and the ation if it tries. germ theory of disease, and These Romans, Goths and showed how to purify drinking Mongols were tough. Every water. He built Kleenex factories thirty years the population of the and taught the Romans to cover world increased by a factor of their mouths when they coughed. two. In the year 30 A.D. the world He demanded, and got, covers for population was a half billion. In the open Roman sewers, and he 60 A.D. it was a full billion. By pioneered the practice of the bal- the time Snodgrass passed away, anced diet. a happy man, it was as large as it Snodgrass brought health to is today. the ancient world, and kept his own health, too. He lived to more TT IS too bad that Snodgrass did than a hundred years. He died, in -* not have room in his time ma- fact, in the year 100 A.D., a very chine for the blueprints of cargo contented man. ships, the texts on metallurgy to When Snodgrass arrived in build the tools that would make Augustus’s great palace on the the reapers that would harvest Palatine Hill, there were some the fields — for the triple-expan- 250,000,000 human beings alive sion steam turbines that would in the world. He persuaded the generate the electricity that principate to share his blessings would power the machines that with all the world, benefiting not would run the cities — for all the only the hundred million subjects technology that two thousand of the Empire, but the other hun- subsequent years had brought dred millions in Asia and the tens about. of millions in Africa, the Western But he didn’t. Hemisphere and all the Pacific Consequently by the time of islands. his death conditions were no long-

6 GALAXY er quite perfect. A good many transmutation converted any people were hungry. A great matter into food. This was neces- many were badly housed. sary, because there was no longer On the whole, Snodgrass was any room for farms. The Earth pleased, for all these things could was getting crowded. By the mid- surely take care of themselves. dle of the 6th century the 60,000,- With a healthy world population, 000 square miles of land surface the increase of numbers would be on the Earth was so well covered a mere spur to research. Bound- that no human being standing less nature, once its ways were anywhere on dry land could studied, would surely provide for stretch out his arms in any di- any number of human beings. rection without touching another

Indeed it did. Steam engines human being standing beside on the Newcomen design were him. lifting water to irrigate fields to But everyone was healthy, and grow food long before his death. science marched on. The seas The Nile was dammed at Aswan were drained, which immediately in the year 55. Battery-powered tripled the available land area. street cars replaced oxcarts in (In fifty years the sea bottoms Rome and Alexandria before 75 were also full.) Energy which had A.D., and the galley slaves were come from the fusion of marine freed by huge, clumsy Diesel out- hydrogen now came by the tap- boards that drove the food ships ping of the full energy output of across the Mediterreanean a few the Sun, through gigantic “mir- years later. rors” composed of pure force. The In the year 200 A.D. the world other planets froze, of course; but had now something over twenty this no longer mattered, since in billion souls, and technology was the decades that followed they running neck-and-neck with ex- were disintegrated for the sake of pansion. Nuclear-driven plows the energy at their cores. So was had cleared the Teutoburg Wald, the Sun. Maintaining life on where Varus’s bones were still Earth on such artificial standards moldering, and fertilizer made was prodigal of energy consump- from ion-exchange mining of the tion; in time every star in the sea produced fantastic crops of Galaxy was transmitting its total hybrid grains. In 300 A.D. the power output to the Earth, and world population stood at a plans were afoot to tap Andro- quarter of a trillion. Hydrogen meda, which would care for all fusion produced fabulous quanti- necessary expansion for — thirty ties of energy from the sea; atomic years.

7 At this point a calculation was of the Galaxy; and in some fur- made. ther time it would equal and ex- Taking the weight of the aver- ceed the total mass of all galaxies age man at about a hundred and everywhere. thirty pounds -— in round num- This state of affairs could no bers, 6 X 10^ grams — and allow- longer be tolerated, and so a ing for a continued doubling of project was launched. population every thirty years (al- With some difficulty resources though there was no such thing were diverted to permit the con- as a “year” any more, since the struction of a small but important Sun had been disintegrated; now device. It was a time machine. a lonely Earth floated aimlessly With one volunteer aboard (se- toward Vega), it was discovered lected from the 900 trillion who that by the year 1962 the total applied) it went back to the year mass of human flesh, bone and 1. Its cargo was only a hunting blood would be 6 X grams. rifle with one cartridge, and with This presented a problem. The that cartridge the volunteer as- total mass of the Earth itself was sassinated Snodgrass as he only 5.98 x 10"^ grams. Already trudged up the Palatine. humanity lived in burrows p>ene- To the great (if only potential) trating crust and basalt and quar- joy of some quintillions of never- rying into the congealed nickel- to-be-born persons. Darkness iron core; by 1962 all the core blessedly fell. itself would have been trans- muted into living men and Vj^ELL, it isn’t exactly a true women, and their galleries would story. have to be tunneled through Not from this end, anyway. But masses of their own bodies, a . . . a population doubling every writhing, squeezed ball of living thirty years is close to the average corpses drifting through space. of “new” nations; even the United

Moreover simple arithmetic States does it in fifty ... so come showed that this was not the end. back two thousand years from In finite time the mass of human now and let’s see! beings would equal the total mass — THE EDITOR

INDEX TO GALAXY MAGAZINE AVAILABLE

Collectors or anybody else who wishes to look up any story published in Galaxy from its first issue through 1961 can secure a complete duplicated index. Lists all stories by title and by author. Includes complete listing by subject of Willy Ley columns. Only 100 copies available. Price, $1.50. Order from David F. Nolan, 4007 Dresden Street, Kensington, Maryland — not from Galaxy!

8 The aliens gave Earth's might the supreme

humiliation — they ignored it — and humanity replied with blazing, unconquerable hatred.

For men will do miracles for revenge ... or

By ALOIS BUDRYS Illustrated by WEST

ALACHI Runner didn’t distortion in front of him was like to look at General what Headquarters, several hun- M Compton. Compton the dred miles away under The Great lean, keen, slash-gesturing semi- Salt Lake, was pleased to refer to demagogue of a few years ago as an Invisible Weapons Carrier. had been much easier to live with It was hard to see — because it than Compton as he was now, and was designed to be hard to see. Runner had never had much But Malachi Runner was going stomach for him even then. So to have to take this thing up Runner kept his eyes firmly fixed across several hundred miles of on the device he was showing. terrain, and he was standing too

Keeping his eyes where they close to it not to see it. The In-

were was not as easy as it might visible Weapons Carrier was, in have been. The speckled, bulbous fact, a half-tone of reality. It was

FOR LOVE 9 large enough inside to contain a faction of knowing that his im- man and a fusion bomb, together patience was with the means pro- with the power supply for its en- vided, not with the opportunity. gine and its light amplifiers. It The war could not possibly be bristled with a stiff mat of flexi- permitted to continue the thirty ble-plastic light-conducting rods, years more given to it by Comp- whose stub ends, clustered togeth- ton’s schedule. Compton himself er in a tight mosaic pointing out- was proof of that. ward in every conceivable Not that proof required Comp- direction, contrived to bend ton. He was only one. There were light around its bulk. It was pres- many. ently conducting, toward Runner, a picture of the carved rock di- TIUNNER glanced aside at the rectly behind it. cadet officer who had guided The rock, here in this chamber him from the tramway stop to cut under the eastern face of the this chamber here, in one of the Medicine Bow Mountains, was side passages of the siege bore reasonably featureless; and the that was being driven under the light-amplifiers carefully con- Medicine Bows in the direction trolled the intensity of the of the alien spaceship that had picture. So the illusion was dominated the world for fifty marred by only two things: the years. The boy — none of these improbable angle of the pictured underofficers were older than floor it was also showing him, and seventeen — had a face that the fact that for every rod con- looked as if it had been made ducting light from the wall, an- from wet paper and then baked other rod was conducting light dry. His eyesockets were black from Runner’s direction, so that pits from which his red eyes to his eyes the ends of half the stared, and his hands were like rods were dead black. chicken’s feet. His bloated stom- “Invisibility,” Compton said ach pushed against the wide scornfully from behind and to white plastic of his sidearm belt. one side of Runner. Or, rather, he He looked, in short, like most whispered and an amplifier took of the other people Runner had up the strain in raising his voice seen here since getting off the to a normal level. “But it’s not tram. As he was only seventeen, bad camouflage. You might make he had probably been born un- it. Colonel.” derground, somewhere along the “I have orders to try.” Runner advancing bore, and had never would not give Compton the satis- so much as seen sunlight, much

10 GALAXY less eaten anything grown under derstandable. It was even wel- it. He had been bred and educa- come. Runner perversely ted—or mis-educated; show him cherished his failings. Not too something not printed in Military perversely, at that — Runner Alphabet and you showed him consciously cherished every hu- the Mayan Codex — trained man thing remaining to the race. and assigned to duty in a Runner could understand why tunnel in the rock; and never in a woman would choose to marry his life had he been away from the famous Corps of Engineers the sound of the biting drills. general who had already chivvied “You’re not eager to go, Colo- and bullied the Army — the or- nel?” Compton’s amplified whis- ganizing force of the world—into per said. “You’re Special Division, devoting its major resources to so of course this isn’t quite your this project he had fostered. line of work. I know your ideals, There was no difficulty in seeing you Special Division men. Find why Norma Brand might turn some way to keep the race from away from Malachi Runner in dehumanizing itself.” And now favor of a man who was not only he chose to make a laugh, re- the picture of efficiency and suc- membering to whisper it. “One cessful intellect but was thought way to do that would be to end likely to be the savior of Hu- the war before another generation manity. goes by.” But Compton several years Runner wondered, not for the later was — first time, if Compton would find Runner turned and looked; he some way to stop him without couldn’t spend the rest of the day actually disobeying the Head- avoiding it. Compton, several quarters directive ordering him years later, was precisely what a to cooperate. Runner wondered, man of his time could become if too, what Compton would say if he was engaged in pushing a he knew just how eager he was three hundred mile tunnel for the mission — and why. Run- through the rock of a mountain ner could answer the questions for chain, never knowing how much himself by getting to know Comp- his enemy might know about it, ton better, of course. There was and if he proposed to continue the rub. that excavation to its end, thirty Runner did not think he could years from now, whether the flesh ever have felt particularly civ- was willing to meet his schedules ilized toward anyone who had or not. married his fiancee. That was un- Compton’s leonine head pro- FOR LOVE n truded from what was very like crawled under the weapons car-

a steam cabinet on wheels. In rier. From that close it was no that cabinet were devices to assist longer “invisible,” only vaguely his silicotic lungs, his sclerotic dizzying to the eye. He opened blood vessels, and a nervous sys- the hatch and turned off the main tem so badly deranged that even switch. several years ago Runner had de- Compton could only have tected the great man in fits of meant he was going to show him spastic trembling. And God knew the ship. what else might be going wrong Of course, he had seen films of with Compton’s body that Comp- it often enough. Who had not? ton’s will would not admit. The Army had managed to keep spy-drones flying above the Mis- /~^OMPTON grinned at him. Al- sissippi plain. The ship ignored ^ most simultaneously, a bell them unless they took on aggres- chimed softly in the control panel sive trajectories. on the back of the cabinet. The Presumably there was some cadet aide sprang forward, read limit to the power the ship felt the warning in some dial or other able to expend. Or perhaps the and made an adjustment in the ship simply did not care what settings of the control knobs. Earthmen might learn from

Compton craned his neck in its watching it; perhaps it underesti- collar of loose gray plastic sheet- mated them. ing and extended his grin to the This latest in the long chain of boy. “Thank you. Cadet. I thought Compton’s command bunkers, I was starting to feel a little creeping mole-like toward the dizzy.” ship, was lighted a sickly orange- “Yes, sir.” The aide went back yellow. Runner seemed to recall to his rest position. a minor scandal in the Quarter- “All right. Colonel,” Compton master Corps. Something about a said to Runner as though nothing contractor who had bribed or had happened. “I’ve been curious cozened a Corps officer into be- to see this gimmick of yours in lieving that yellow light duplica- operation ever since it was de- ted natural sunlight. Contractor livered here. Thank you. You can and misled officer were no doubt turn it off now. And after that. long dead in one of the labor

I’ll show you something you’ve battalions at the bore face, but never seen.” some use for the useless lights had Runner frowned for a moment. had to be found. And so here they Then he nodded to himself. He were, casting their pall, just as

12 GALAXY if two lives and two careers had Colorado. Her shadow swept fifty not already gone toward settling thousand square miles. the account. A tower of pitted dull green But, of course, nothing settles and brown-gold metal, her fore- an account as derelict as Earth’s peak narrowing in perspective was. into a needle raking unseen In that light, Compton’s cabi- through the thinnest last margins net rolled forward to the bank of of the atmosphere, she had nei- hooded television screens jury- ther parleyed nor even communi- rigged against a somewhat water- cated with anything on or of proofed wall. A row of technicians Earth. No one had ever seen any- perched on stools watched what thing of what her crew might look the drones were showing them. like. To this day, she still neither “Lights,” Compton said, and spoke to Earth nor listened to the aide made the room dark. whatever Terrestrials might want “Here, Colonel — try this one.” to say to her. She was neither an He pointed his chin toward a embassy nor an invader. particular screen, and Runner For fifty years she had been stepped closer. For the first time broadcasting the same code group in his life, he saw something only into space, hour after hour, but a few hundred people of his time she had neither made nor re- had seen in an undelayed picture; ceived any beam transmissions he saw the ship. It was two hun- along any portion of the electro- dred miles away from his present magnetic spectrum. The presump- location, and two hundred fifty tion was she had a distress beacon miles high. out on general principles, but had no hope of communicating with a particular source of rescue. II She had come down a little erratically; there was some sug- riFTY years ago, the alien ship gestion of jury-rigging in the landed butt-down in the plates over an apparently buckled northwest quadrant of the central section of the hull shrouding her plain of the United States. Stern- stern tubes; there seemed to be first, she had put one of her four some abnormal erosion at one landing jacks straight down to segment of the lip around the bedrock through the town of main jet. Over the years. Head- Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, and the quarters Intelligence had reached diagonally opposite leg seventy- the decision that she was down five miles away near Julesburg, on Earth for a self-refit.

FOR LOVE 13 Landing, she had immediately foraging parties, with some im- put out surface parties and air mediate success. She then ex- patrols — there were turret- tended her air cover to the entire mounted weapons all along her civilized world, and began me- flanks; she was clearly a warship thodically smashing down every of some kind — in a display of military installation and every resources that badly upset the industrial complex capable of Terrestrial military forces observ- supporting one. ing her. The surface parties were It was a tribute to the energy squat-profiled, tracked, armored and perseverance of Twentieth amphibious machines with six- Century Man. And it was the teen-foot bogeys and a track-to- cause of Twenty-First Century turtledeck height of seventy-five man’s finding himself broken into feet. They had fanned out over isolated enclaves, almost all of the surrounding states and, with- them either underground or so out regard to road, river, fence or geographically remote as to be farmhouse, had foraged for min- valueless, and each also nearly erals. It had finally been conclud- incapable of physical communica- ed that the vehicles, equipped tion with any other. with power shovels, claws, drills, It did not take a great deal of ore buckets and whatever other Terrestrial surface activity to at- mining tools were necessary, were tract one of the ship’s nearly remote-controlled from the ship invulnerable aircraft. Runner’s on the basis of local topography journey between Salt Lake and but not with any reference to the the tunnel pit head had been works of Man. Or to the presence long, complicated by the need to of Man. The undeviating tracks establish no beaten path, and made as much of a hayrick as anxious. Only the broken terrain, they did of a company of anti- full of hiding places, had made tank infantry or a battalion of it possible at all. what the Army in those days was But the balance between birth pleased to call “armor.” and death rates was once more Whatever had hurt her, there favorable, and things were no was no point in Earthmen specu- longer going all the ship’s way — lating on it. No missile could whether the ship knew it or not. reach her. She had antimissile Still, it would be another thirty missiles and barrage patterns that, years before this siege bore in operation, had made the Mis- Compton was driving could reach, sissippi plain uninhabitable. An undermine and finally topple the attempt was made to strike her ship.

14 GALAXY 'HIRTY years from now, Run- “She’s got some kind of force- I ner and the other members field running over her structure,” of Special Division knew, the bi- Compton remarked, looking at ped, spindling, red-eyed creatures the image on the screen. “We emerging from the ground to loot know that much. Something that that broken ship and repay them- keeps the crystals in her metal selves for this nightmare cam- from deforming and sliding. She’d paign would be only externally collapse. If we had something like human — some of them. Some that field, we could build to her would be far less. Special Divi- size, too.” sion’s hope — its prospects were “Is there that much metal in not good enough to call it a task the world?” — was to attempt to shorten that Compton looked sideward at time while Humanity was still Runner. “A damned sight more. human. But if we had her, we wouldn’t And if the human race did not need it.”

topple the ship, or if the ship Yes, Runner thought, keeping completed its refit and left before himself from looking at the

they could reach it, then all this screen now as faithfully as he fifty years of incalculable material had prevented himself from look-

and psychic expenditure was ir- ing at Compton earlier. Yes, if retrievably lost. Humanity would we had the ship we wouldn’t need be bankrupt. They were all living this, and we wouldn’t need that, now on the physical and emotion- or the other thing. We could even al credit embodied in that tower engineer such wonderful cabinets

of alien resources. From it, they like the one in which Compton could strip a technology to make dwelt that none of us would have the world new again — nothing to fear a stop to our ambitions, less could accomplish that; in its and we could roll along on the conquest, there was a triumph to wonderfully smooth corridor renew the most exhausted heart. floors we could carve away from Or almost any such heart. Runner the places where storms and light- could only speculate on how ning strike. many of the victors would, like For how could you live, Comp- Compton, be unable to dance ton, out there where I have to go upon the broken corpse. tomorrow? If anyone on Earth doubted, no Compton, looking up at him, one dared to dwell aloud on the shrewdly said: “Do you know I enfeebling thought. approve of the Special Division? They had to have the ship. I think you people serve a very

FOR LOVE 15 necessary function. I need the standing single cot, rather than a pressure of rivals.” bunk, and a cleared area, faintly Runner thought; You are ugly. marked by black rubber wheel- marks, large enough for a cabinet i4T HAVE to go to sleep,” he to turn around in. A Compton- had said and left Compton to sized cabinet. his screens and schedules. But he “How are you, Norma?” he said did not take the lift down to the as if he could not guess, and she Bachelor Officers’ Quarters where did not trouble to answer him. he had been given an accommo- She shut the door and leaned dation — a two-man cubicle for against it as if they had both just himself alone; the aide, never fled in here. having experienced solitude, as “Are you going out in the morn- Runner had, had been envious. ing?” Instead, he puzzled his way Runner nodded. It seemed to through another of the branching him he had time at least to say temporary passageways that were a few conventional things to the crudely chopped out for living girl who had been his fiancee, and space near the advancing bore. then Compton’s wife. But she ap- He searched until he found the parently thought otherwise. proper door. The letter Norma “Are you going to make it?” had sent him did not contain the “I don’t know. It’s a gamble.” most exact directions. It had “Do you think you’ll make it?” spoken in local terms: “Follow the “No.” first parallel until you reach the It had never seemed reasonable fourth gallery,” and so forth. that he would. In the Technical He knocked, and the gas-tight Section of the Special Division door opened. there were men—fully his equals “I heard you would be here to- — who were convinced he could day,” Norma said in a choked succeed. They said they had cal- voice, and there was much for culated the ship’s weaknesses, and him to read in the waxiness of he believed they had figures and her skin and the deep wrinkles evaluations, right enough. He in that ran from the corners of her his own turn believed there were nose to the corners of her blood- things a man had to be willing to less mouth. do whether they seemed reason- He took the hands she offered, able or not, simply because they and stepped inside. seemed necessary. So neither fact There was one large room; that nor opinion could modify his tak- is, a room large enough for a free- ing the weapons carrier out

16 GALAXY against the ship tomorrow. “But since she had left Headquarters I hope I’ll make it,” he said. with Compton she had come to think back on Malachi Runner hope you’ll make it,” not as a man but as an embodi- Norma said tonelessly. She ment of that safe life. It was not reached out quickly and took his him she was shouting out to. It hands again. “What a forlorn was to all those days gone forever. thing to tell me! You know I And so I must be those days of won’t be able to stand it down life in a place where shafts lead here much longer. How do we to the wine-rich air of the surface, know the ship doesn’t have seis- and there is no sound of metal mic detectors? How do we know twisting in the rock. I am not it isn’t just letting us concentrate Malachi Runner now. I hoped I ourselves here so it can smash us could be. I should have read that before we become dangerous?” letter as it was, not as I hoped it “Well, we don’t know, but it was. Good-by, Runner, you aren’t seems unlikely. They have geo- needed here. logical probes, of course. The “No, I’m not on his side. But I gamble is that they’re only probes wouldn’t dare stop him if I could. and not detectors.” I wouldn’t dare shut off any hope “If they don’t smash us, there’s that things will end and the world only one reason — they know can go back to living.” they’ll be finished and gone before “End? Where can they end? He we can reach them!” goes on; he can’t move an arm or This was all wrong; he could a finger, but he goes on. He not talk to her about anything doesn’t need anything but that important before he had calmed box that keeps him alive and this her. He said, searching for some tunnel and that ship. Where can way to reach her: “But we have I touch him?” to go on as if they won’t. Nothing else we’ve tried has worked. At '' 'HEY stood separated by their I least Compton’s project hasn’t outstretched hands, and Run- failed.” ner watched her as intently as “Now you’re on his side! You!” though he had been ordered to She was nothing like the way make a report on her. she had been with him. She would “I thought I could help him, never have been like this. The but now he’s in that box!” way she was now, she and Mala- Yes, Runner thought, now he’s chi Runner could not meet. He in that box. He will not let death understood, now, that in the years rob him of seeing the end of his

FOR LOVE 17 plans. And you love him, but he’s one of those boxes just for fear,” gone where you can’t follow. Can she said. you? He had forgotten that; he had He considered what he saw in more than forgotten it — there her now, and he knew she was were apparently things in the lost. But he thought that if the world that had made him be sure, war would only end, there would for a moment, that it really was be ways to reach her. He could fear. not reach her now; nothing could He did not like hallucinating. reach her. He knew insanity was He did not have any way of de- incurable, but he thought that pending on himself if he had perhaps she was not yet insane; lapses like that. if he could at least keep her with- “Norma, how do I look to you?” in this world’s bounds, there he said rapidly. might be time, and ways, to bring She was still frowning at him her back. If not to him, then at in that way. “You look about the least to the remembered days of same as always,” she said. Headquarters. He left her quickly — he had “Norma!” he said, driven by never thought, in conniving for what he foresaw and feared. He this assignment with the letter pulled her close and caught her crackling in his pocket, that he eyes in his own. “Norma, you have would leave her so quickly. And got to promise me that no matter he went to his accommodation, what happens, you won’t get into crossing the raw, still untracked another one of those boxes so you and unsheathed echoing shaft of can be with him.” the tunnel this near the face, with The thought was entirely new the labor battalion squads filing to her. Her voice was much back and forth and the rubble lower. She frowned as if to see carts rumbling. And in the morn- him better and said: “Get into ing he set out. He crawled into one of those boxes? Oh, no — no, the weapons carrier, and was I’m not sick, yet. I only have to lifted up to a hidden opening that have shots for my nerves. A had been made for it during the corpsman comes and gives them night. He started the engine and, to me. He’ll be here soon. It’s only lying flat on his stomach in the if you can’t not-care; I mean, if tiny cockpit, peering through the you have to stay involved, like cat’s-eye viewports, he slid out he does, that you need the inter- onto the surface of the mountain rupter circuits instead of the tran- and so became the first of his quilizer shots. You don’t get into generation to advance into this

18 GALAXY territory that did not any more be- cramps, guided it at approximate- long to Man. ly the pace of a drunken man. But it moved forward. Ill After the first day Runner was ready to believe that the ship’s ^T^HE interior of the weapons radar systems were not designed carrier was padded to protect to track something that moved him from the inevitable jounces so close to the ground and so and collisions. So it was hot. And slowly. The optical detection the controls were crude; the car- system — which Intelligence re- rier moved from one foot to spected far more than it did another, like a turtle, and there radar; there were dozens of were levers for each of his hands countered radar-proof missiles to and feet to control. He sweated confirm them—also did not seem and panted for breath. to have picked him up. No other machine could pos- He began to feel he might see sibly have climbed down the face Norma again. Thinking of that of that mountain and then begun babbling stranger in Compton’s its heaving, staggering progress accommodation, he began to feel toward the spaceship’s nearest leg. he might someday see Norma It could not afford to leave tracks. again.

And it would, when it had covered the long miles of open country When he was three days out, he

that separated it from its first passed within a hundred yards of destination, have to begin another a cluster of mining-machines. inching, creeping journey of fifty- They paid him no attention, and five miles, diagonally up the he laughed, cackling inside his broadening, extensible pillar of egg. He knew that if he had the leg. safely come so close to an exten- It stumbled forward on pseudo- sion of the ship — an extension pods — enormous hollow pads of that could have stepped over and tough, transparent plastic, molded crushed him with almost no extra full of stress-channels that curled expenditure — then his chances

them to fit the terrain, when they were very good. He knew he were stiffened in turn by com- cackled. But he knew the Army’s pressed colorless fluid. Shifting drones were watching, unobtrus- its weight from one of these to ively, for signs of his extinction another, the carrier duck-walked or breakdown. Not finding them, from one shadow to another as they were therefore giving Comp- Runner, writhing with muscle ton and Headquarters the nega-

FOR LOVE 19 « tive good news that he had not streaked and overgrown metal yet failed. At Headquarters, other curving away from him, and only Special Division personnel would by shifting to one of the side view- be beginning to hope. They had ports could he make out its ap- been the minority party in the parent limits from where he now conflicts there for as long as they was. had been in existence at all. Looking overhead, he saw it But it did not matter, he rise away from him, an inverted thought as he lay up that night pylon thrust into the ground at an and sipped warm water from the angle, and far, far above him, in carrier’s tank. It didn’t matter the air toward which that angle what party was winning. Surely pointed, something large and even Compton would not be in- vague rested on that pylon. Ob- furiated by a premature end to scured by mist and cloud, dis- the war. And there were plenty torted by the curvature of the of people at Headquarters who tiny lens through which he was had fought for Compton not be- forced to look at it, it was nothing cause they were convinced his meaningful. He reasoned the py- was the only way, but only be- lon led up to the ship. He could cause his was a way that seemed not see the ship; he concentrated sure. If slow. Or as sure as any on the pylon. way could be. Gingerly, he extended a pseu- It came to Runner, for the dopod. It touched the metal of first time in his life, that any the ship, through which the sta- race, in whatever straits, willing bilizing field ran. There was an to expend so much of its resources unknown danger here, but it on what was really not a surety hadn’t seemed likely to Intelli- at all, must be desperate beyond gence that the field would affect all reason. non-metallic substances. He cackled again. He knew he It didn’t. The pseudopod cackled. He smiled at himself for touched the metal of the ship, it. and nothing uptoward happened. He drew it back, and cycled an ^1 'HE ship’s leg was sunken entirely new fluid through the through the ground down to pseudopods. Hairline excretory its anchorage among the deep channels opened on their soles, rock layers sloping away from the blown clean by the pressure. The mountains. It was, at ground level, pads flattened and increased in so far across that he could not area. He moved forward toward see past it. It was a wall of the pylon again, and this time he

20 GALAXY began to climb it, held by air leg here was several miles in di- pressure on the pads and the sur- ameter; the rat guard was a face tension on their wet soles. canopy several yards thick and He began, then, at the end of a several hundred feet wide from week’s journey, to climb upon the its joining at the leg to its lip. It ship no other aggression of Man’s was designed to prevent exactly

had ever reached. By the time he what was happening -— the at- was a thousand feet up, he dared tempted entry of a pest. look only through the fore ports. Runner extended the carrier’s Now he moved in a universe pseudopoda as far and wide as of sound. The leg thrummed and they would go. He pumped more quivered, so gently that he coagulant into the fluid that doubted anyone in the ship could leaked almost imperceptibly out

feel it. But he was not in the ship; of their soles, and began to make he was where the thrumming was. his way, head-downward, along It invaded his gritted teeth and the descending slope of the rat put an intolerable itching deep guard’s outer face. The carrier into his ears. This fifty-five miles swayed and stretched at the plas- had to be made without stop for tic membranes. He neutralized rest; he could not, in fact, take the coagulant in each foot in turn,

his hands from the controls. He slid it forward, fastened it again, was not sure but what he and proceeded. After three hours shouldn’t be grateful —- he would he was at the lip, and dangling have gouged his ears with his by the carrier’s forelegs until he nails, surely, if he had been free had succeeded in billowing one to work at them. of rear pads onto the lip as well. He was past laughter of any And when he had, by this kind now — but exultation sus- patient trial and error, scrambled tained him even when, near the successfully onto the rat guard’s very peak of his climb, he came welcome upward face, he found to the rat guard. that he was not past laughing after all. He shouted it; the car-

TTE had studied this problem rier’s interior frothed with it, and with a model. No one had even the itching in his ears was tried to tell him what it might be lost. Then he began to move up-

like to solve it at this altitude, ward again. with the wind and mist upon him. Not too far away, the leg en- The rat guard was a collar of tered the ship’s hull. There was a metal, cone-shaped and inverted opening at least as large as the downward, circling the leg. The carrier needed. It was only a well;

FOR LOVE 21 up here, the gleaming pistons that other parts had to take up the controlled the extension of the sudden drag. leg hung burnished in the gloom, but there was no entry to the TTE poured coagulant into the ship itself. Nor did he need or pad, and stopped the awful want it. series of sticks and slips. He He had reasoned long ago that slapped the other pads up into whatever inhabited this ship must place and levered forward, for- be as tired, as anxious, as beset as getting how firmly that one pad any human being. He needed no had been set in his panic. He felt new miseries to borrow. He resistance, and then remembered, wanted only to find a good place but by then the pull of the other to attach his bomb, set the fuse three pads had torn the carrier and go. Before the leg, its muscles forward and there was a long rip cut, collapsed upon the aliens’ through which stress fluid and hope of ever returning to what- coagulant dripped in a turgid ever peace they dreamed of. stream. When he climbed out of the He came down the last ten carrier, as he had to, to attach the miles of the leg like a runaway bomb, he heard one noise that toboggan on a poorly surfaced was not wind-thrum or the throb slide, the almost flaccid pads turn- of internal machinery. It was a ing brown and burnt, their plastic persistent, nerve-torn ululation, soft as jelly. He left behind him a faint but clear, deep inside the long, slowly evaporating smear of ship and with a chilling quality of fluid and, since no one had endurance. thought to put individual shut- He hurried back down the leg; offs in the cross-valving system he had only four days to get clear between the pads, he came down — that is, to have a hope of get- with no hope of ever using the ting clear — and he hurried too carrier to get back to the moun- much. At the rat guard’s lip, he tains. had to hang by his heels and cast It was worse than that. In the the fore pads under. He thought end, he crashed into the indented he had a grip, but he had only ground at the base of the leg and, half a one. The carrier slipped, for all the interior padding, the jerked and hung dangling by one drive levers bludgeoned him and pad. It began to slide back down broke bones for him. He lay in the short distance to the lip of the wreck with only a faint aware- the guard, rippling and twisting as ness of anything but his pain. He parts of its sole lost contact and could not even know whether the

FOR LOVE 23 carrier, with its silent power sup- man might not heal himself into ply, still as much as half hid him what he had been. But he would or whether that had broken, too. heal into something. It hadn’t broken, but he was For a time he had to be very still there when the bomb ex- wary of the mining machines, for ploded; it was only a few hours there had been a frenzied increase afterward that he came out of his in their activity. And there was latest delirium and found that the the problem of food and water. ground had been stirred and the But he was in well-watered coun- carrier was lying in a new position. try. The comings and goings of He pried open the hatch — not the machines had churned the easily or painlessly — and looked banks of the Platte River into a out. series of sinks and swamps with- The ship hadn’t fallen. The leg out making it impossible for a had twitched in the ground — thirsty, crawling man to drink. it was displaced by several hun- And he had his rations from the dred yards, and raw earth clung carrier while the worst of the to it far overhead. It had changed healing took place. After that, its angle several degrees toward when he could already scuttle on vertical and was much less deeply his hands and one knee, he was sunken into the ground. But the able to range about. In crawling, ship had not fallen. he had discovered the great va- He fell back into the carrier riety of burrowing* animals that and cried because the ship hadn’t live beneath the eye of ordinary come down and crushed him. man; once he had learned which ones made bolt-holes and which IV could be scooped out of the traps of their own burrows he began 'HE carrier had to be aban- ^ j to supply himself with a fair doned. Even if the pads had amount of protein.

been usable, it was three-quarters The ship, and its extensions, buried in the upheaval the leg did him no harm. Some of this had made when it stirred. The was luck, when he was in the machine. Runner thought con- zones traversed by the machines temptuously, had failed, while a as they went to and from the man could be holed and broken ship. But after he had taken up and heal himself nevertheless. a systematic trek back along the He had very good proof of that, North Platte, and presumably creeping back toward the moun- ought to have stopped being regis- tains. Broken badly enough, a tered in the ship’s detectors as

24 GALAXY an aimless animal, he was appar- You’d already been given a post- ently protected by his coloration, humous Medal of Honor. I don’t which was that of the ground, know what they’ll do now you’re and again by his slow speed and available for parades. And you ability to hug the terrain. Even certainly deserve them. I had without psuedopods and a fusion never had such a moment in my bomb to carry, his speed was no life as when I saw what you’d better than that. done to the ship.” When several months had And while Compton talked, passed he was able to move in a Norma — Norma with no at- half-upright walk that was an un- tention to spare for Runner; a relenting parody of a skip and a Norma bent forward, peering at jump, and he was making fair the dials of Compton’s cabinet, time. But by then he was well up one hand continually twitching into the beginnings of the Medi- toward the controls—that Norma cine Bows. reached with her free hand, took He thought that even though a photograph out of a file folder the ship still stood, if he could clipped to the side of the cabinet reach Norma soon enough she and held the picture, unseeing, might still not be too lost. for Runner to look at while she Not only the ship but the Army continued her stewardship of drones had missed him, until he Compton’s dials. The cadet had was almost back to the now re- been replaced. The wife was filled exit from which he and the homemaking in the only way she carrier had launched themselves. could. The passages were hurriedly un- The ship no longer pointed blocked — every cubic yard of directly away from the ground, rubble that did not have to be nor was she equally balanced on dispersed and camouflaged at the the quadruped of her landing pithead represented an enormous jacks. The bombed leg dangled saving of expenditure — and he useless, its end trailing in the was hauled back into the com- ground, and the ship leaned away pany of his fellow creatures. from it. “When the bomb went off,” TTIS rescue was nearly unendur- Compton was explaining, “she did -^*-able. He lay on a bed in the the only thing she could to save Aid Station and listened to Comp- herself for the time being. She ton’s delight. partially retracted the opposite “They went wild when I told leg to balance herself.” them at Headquarters, Colonel. Norma reached out and ad-

FOR LOVE 25 — justed one of the controls. The them, her hands were sure; she flush paled out of Compton’s face, seemed quite practiced; Runner and his voice sank toward the could calculate that she had prob- toneless whisper Runner remem- ably displaced the cadet very bered. soon after he had bombed the “I was always afraid she would ship. do that. But the way she is now, “You were right. General,” he I know — I know that when I said. “I never got the proper per- undermine another leg, she’ll fall! spective to see all that. It was And she can’t get away from me. acute of you to bring me that She’ll never take off with that drone’s photograph. I never knew leg dragging. I never had a mo- what an effect I’d produced until ment in my life like the moment I got back here.” I had when I saw her tilt. Now I “Yes!” Compton laughed into know there’s an end in sight. All Runner’s eyes, and Norma tender- of us here know there’s an end ly adjusted the controls to keep in sight, don’t you, Norma? The the laugh from killing him forty ship’ll puzzle out how you did it. years too soon. “It’s all a matter Runner, and she’ll defend against of perspective!” another such attempt, but she can’t defend against the ground T> UNNER comforted himself opening up under her. We’ll run with the thought that the the tunnel right through the rock aliens in the ship had also gone layers she rests on, get under- mad. And he thought it was a neath, mine out a pit for the leg very human thing to do — he to stumble into and blow the thought, with some pride, that it rock — she’ll go down like a tree was perhaps the last human thing in the wind. Runner. Thirty years — for him to refuse the doctors — well, possibly forty, now that who offered to give him artificial we’ve got to reach a farther leg replacements for the hopelessly and we’ll have her! We’ll swallow twisted legs he had come back her up. Runner!” with. Runner was watching Norma. “You will not!” he snapped, Her eyes darted over the dials while up in the bunker, all un- and not once, though most of the imaginable to him, Norma kissed gestures were abortive, did her Compton’s face and said: “You hands stop their twitching toward will get her — you will!” the controls. When she did touch —ALGIS BGDRYS

26 GALAXY 66\W7HY did you come creep- ing into the house last night like a thief?” Mrs. Sanchez asked her son. Lithe, dark Roberto set down his breakfast coffee and smiled up at her. “Ah, Mama, you are the owl. I was certain I moved quiet as moonlight.” “I always hear the sounds of my children. Even the little one when he stirs in his grave. It is the way of a mother.” She drew a cup of coffee and sat with them at the table in the small kitchen patio. “The hour was late,” Roberto said, “and I did not wish to dis- turb you with greetings that would keep until morning. You

sleep little enough as it is. Though the hard days are gone, the sun By RICHARD SABIA still rises after you.” Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS Roberto’s father looked up from his newspaper. “She will al- ways be full of the old ways,” he said with fond gruffness. “For her there is no change. Our children have grown proud and fine and } freed us from bondage to the soil. Yet she still behaves as a peon. To her we still toil in the fields of the patron, bent with exhaus- The golden guardians denied tion over the planting or harvest- mankind the stars. ing consoles, struggling to control the many field machines. She They were irresistible bakes her own bread. The market vegetables do not please her so in their might , , , and she chafes her hands with the but- they were something more! tons and switches of a garden.

THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 27 And a robot to scrub the floors Nyx. But it is very beautiful and she will not hear of. Perhaps she when I found it I thought of you.” thinks it would be prettier than she and I might run off with it to A BELL-LIGHT flashed on the Mexico City.” kitchen console. Mrs. Sanchez “Foolish old man,” Mrs. San- went to it as a shallow dish slid

chez said with mock severity, from the oven. She set it, sizzling “you have lost even the memory softly, on the table. “And a pres- of what it is to run.” ent for you,” she said. “Your “Mama,” Roberto said, “I have favorite, quinquanos. Fresh from a present for you.” Venus yesterday, or so the vendor Something of an eager little girl tells me.” She shrugged dubiously. looked out of the wise eyes. “In this sinful age even the ma- “I have no need of a present,” chines lie.” she said but her eyes searched the “But, Mama, the money I send leafy little patio. “All I ask as a is not to be wasted on me! These gift is for you to come out of the are so expensive.” sky for a little while and marry.” “And small,” Mrs. Sanchez said. Roberto smiled. “Have not my “Why is there not a garden manu- brothers and sisters given you factured that can be programmed grandchildren enough? And what for quinquanos so that I might woman will marry the captain of grow my own?” a space vessel? With my journeys “Because five fortunes could

to Jupiter and Saturn and outer- not pay for it,” Mr. Sanchez said. most Nyx I would forever be a “Try as they might, such delica- stranger to my children and an cies come only through the grace occasional guest to my wife.” of God and not General Electric.” From under his napkin he drew He set aside his newspaper and forth a small silvery box. “Mama, accepted another coffee. “Does your present.” this not complete your collec- She gasped with delight when tion?” he asked his wife. “Roberto she opened it. In a black velvet has brought for you a stone from womb nested a strange glittering every planet he has touched. jewel suspended on a delicate, Even the moon and the grand spider-strand, silver chain. asteroids.” “Roberto!” she exclaimed with a “I know not how many worlds feeble remonstrance. there are in the sun’s family. But

“Like the others I have brought if it is done, then it is done.” She it is not expensive,” Roberto said. tried to make her words uncon- “The stone is a common one on cerned but there was a shadow of

28 GALAXY regret across them. “The stones young man and yet I have taken are beautiful. But they are frivo- my ship to all the planets in many lous and the end to them is not to voyages. But of course that is not be mourned.” unusual,” he lectured, for he knew “Ha!” Mr. Sanchez snorted. that was what they wanted, “for “She pretends, the sly one, she in the thousand years since man does not care. But I know how first stepped forth on the moon she delights in them, these gifts the solar commerce has so in- from her son. I have seen her in a creased that there are hardly stolen moment open the box and enough suitable men for the ships gaze with pleasure upon them. that bridge the now familiar And when we go to the opera in worlds. So familiar, I could fly to Mexico City it is one of your the rings of Saturn or to dark Nyx single-stoned necklaces which in my slumber.” adorns her simple black dress. “Then you also must also feel a She will have no other ornarnent.” sadness because there will be no “I no longer have a husband in more stones to pluck from a new this house,” Mrs. Sanchez said, planet,” Mr. Sanchez said. “Per- “only an old woman whose mouth haps there is a thirteenth yet to talks away the day.” be found.” “Old woman, eh?” Mr. Sanchez “No, Papa. It is certain. There leered and playfully slapped his are no more children of our sun. wife on her backside. But I am not sad. The stones are She pretended to be shocked. not finished. Mama shall have “In front of the child! But what other pretty baubles to be caged can one expect from an evil old in fine silver or gold and hung lecher?” about her neck.” The three of them laughed and basked in the warmth of their IVTRS. Sanchez was program- blood bonds. Mr. Sanchez re- ming a day of cooking and sumed his coffee. “Is it really baking on the autochef. At her done, Roberto? Have you taken son’s words her hands poised in cargoes from all twelve planets?” mid-flight over the console. She “Yes.” did not quite comprehend but an “Even the one just beyond intuitive wisp of alarm darkened Pluto? Is it Oceanus or Atlas? I her face. can never remember which it is She turned to her husband, as

. . . but for a long while you were if for some reassurance that her missing one of them.” dread was of no substance. “I have them all. I am still a Mr. Sanchez said in perplexity,

THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 29 —

“I do not understand, Roberto. If ised Papa the last time, I have there are no more planets—” borrowed from the company a “In this system!” Roberto said. star projector. This time you must Neither of his parents said a put aside the household and word. They stared at him and watch and listen and learn some- waited. thing about the universe out of “In a few days it will be offi- which my life and my dreams are cially announced,” Roberto said. made. Of all your children I am “With the perfection of the new the only stranger to you. And be- Korenyik propulsion, a starship fore I go out to the stars I want will be built. A starship! And I you to know something of that have been selected to take it which fills my heart.” through the other space to Alpha He went to his room and re- Centauri.” turned with a foot-square case Mr. Sanchez embraced his son. which he set on a table in the liv- “Roberto, I am so proud.” He ing area. He pressed a stud. A turned— to his wife. “Is it not a transparent globe inflated over it great ” He stopped at the look to a four foot diameter. He of her. dimmed the lights, manipulated “This Alpha Centauri,” she said, the controls and a tiny sun pronouncing it badly, “it is a burned in the center of the globe. planet?” Another adjustment brought into “It is a star. Mama. Like our view the solar planets orbiting sun. It may have a family of around it. The device was an edu- planets. It will be exciting to dis- cational tool; it projected as de- cover them.” sired, within the envelope of gas, “Why?” she asked with a three-dimensional mockups of the mother’s quiet challenge. solar system, star clusters and gal- The word echoed in Roberto’s axies that moved almost as incan- mind why? The very core of his descently beautiful as the origi- being strained to shout out why. nals. Space was why! Each blazing star Mrs. Sanchez was delighted was a compelling, beckoning with the views of the solar system finger. Every constellation a cov- and the surface scenes of the vari- enant with his heart. And some- ous planets. She had as much gen- where out in the majestic, wheel- eral knowledge of the planets as ing Galaxy his soul wandered, she had of India or France — waiting for him to come. which had all come to her through “Mama, I will show you why,” the distorting medium of televi- he replied as quietly. “As I prom- sion dramas. The moon had ob-

30 GALAXY servatories and mad scientists; “Yesterday, yes. Today, not quite.

India had elephants and sinister Tomorrow . . . your own son is maharajas; Mars had deserts and going to the stars!” fragile ghost people; Venus had “It is beyond my understanding quinquanos and swamp dragons; why men cannot be content to re- and France was overflowing with main where they were meant to sin. be.” Roberto did not utilize the “But the stars were meant for projector narrative. He explained us. They are our destiny!” Rober- with his own intense words as he to realized he was speaking too took his parents across the gulf to loudly. the constellations. He skipped Mrs. Sanchez looked squarely about the Galaxy, astounding at her son. Her words were meas- them with the sheer billions of ured and solemn like some soli- stars. He insinuated the possibil- tary, tolling bell. “If God meant us ity of millions of inhabited to be on those stars he would planets and then he flung them have put us there. Roberto, take across the abyss of space to view care. Listen to the word of your the Local Group of the Milky mother. I have not the cleverness Way, its sister Andromeda and of my children but I know things the satellite galaxies. Then he here.” She touched her hand over plunged them into infinity for a her heart. “It may be as you say, time-lost glimpse of the billion all the millions of great .stars. But other galaxies thus far discovered. they are God’s high places and I tell you, my son, whoever dares '| 'HE globe deflated, the lights violate them will be struck down.” went on and Roberto leaned “But, Mama! In ancient times, toward his mother. “Does not the when man first took to the air, thought of all this catch at your there were those who proclaimed heart a little?” man presumed too much and There was an uncertainty in would be punished. And a thou- her voice that Roberto missed be- sand years ago there were people cause he was so intent upon her who spoke as you do when man answer. “All those stars,” she said. first went into space. They too “Something like that I saw once said God gave us the earth and to on the television—about strange covet the moon and the planets people who lived on those stars. was a grievous sin.” I did not like it very much. Per- Mrs. Sanchez shrugged. “There haps because it is not true.” are always the fanatics. Your “Not true?” Roberto echoed. mama is not one of them. God

32 GALAXY gave men the sun and the moon worlds. It is the eternal voice of and the planets and set them the heavy, peasant mind which apart from the stars for him to tries to shout down every soaring work out his salvation. It is natu- dream of mankind.” ral and right.” “Your words are too hard,” his “And he did not give us the father said. stars also?” Roberto’s lips curled to say “In the sky He put them as a something cruel but he refrained, testament to His glory. You have not wanting to hurt this fine, little shaken my poor head with the man whose blood was his own. measure of their distance. But it “Yes,” Roberto said, softening, serves to show that they would “for after all there are always the not have been placed out of reach minds which struggle free and lift

if they were intended for us to us up. They have carried us to have.” the threshold of the stars. And the “But Mama, soon they will no time will come, a thousand years longer be out of reach. Your own perhaps, when we will be ready to son will go to the first one in a try for our sister Galaxy, Andfo- great new ship.” meda.” Roberto smiled. “Of course Mrs. Sanchez turned troubled it is certain we will still have our eyes on her son. “I will pray for simple folk who will warn us and you.” She averted her face- and tell us to beware; that it is not the would no longer look directly at will of the Almighty that we him. leave the Milky Way; that we Roberto angrily snatched up presume too much and we will be the star projector and went to his struck down. And—” Roberto room. stopped in mild surprise. He saw His father followed. “You must in his father’s expression the re- understand,” he said, “your flection of his mother’s apprehen- mother is a simple woman. She sion. would rather think of the stars as Roberto turned away sadly and the lamps of the angels than the began to pack away the star pro- huge blazing spheres that they jector. are.” Someday, he thought, in spite “I do understand,” Roberto said of the little minds, we will have bitterly. “I have heard her words one of these that will show the a thousand times from as many other space as commonly as our mouths. They have sounded own. And all their phantom angels through history and are chains and devils shall not bar man from meant to bind man to his few the universe.

THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 33 passed. Black Space, Hell, the brood of -* The ship was launched. Satan has broken its bonds and Six long years, Roberto thought. penetrated the barrier! Long years of preparation, testing —how is it so? the Fallen were and training. Hard, bone-wearying shrivelled of substance and ener- hours of familiarization and gy; shorn of motion and thrust shakedown with nerve-straining, down into the Black Space with experimental jumps into the other no memory of their origin space. Now at last they were in —nevertheless they are here in that other space—that strange, a devious shape and White Space blazing white elsewhere that Kor- is once again threatened enyik had given to mankind as —they must be annulled NOW! the trail to the stars—the Horse-

head Nebula clear before them. !!! A-ROORRR-UH !!! A-ROO-

Six years of frantic activity . . . RRR-UH!!! and now he was launched and The Klaxon howled out the there was nothing to do in transit alarm. The control board erupted but wait. Six years since he had into a swiftly spreading plague of been to the little sun-faded stone red warning lights, indicating the house near Mexico City and felt Korenyik Matrix Units were be- the warm blood-tug of his parents. ing subjected to incredible strain. Papa now dead and Mama with Roberto punched a row of her dark forebodings of angels screen tabs. The normal-space and God. view screens showed nothing. He He gazed at the dark screens in punched in the E-screens. He the starship and wondered what gasped at the sight, struck with an he might see if they were on. awful dread. Great golden mists were clustering, bursting, swirling In the intense, brilliant region and spiralling in the blinding under the vault of heaven the two whiteness. They wreathed the great creatures, their golden cor- ship, and the KM units sobbed as uscating substance flung across they strained against the rending the white space, sensed their com- golden energies. Roberto fought ing. My-Ky-El limned the ship against odd, thick fear that tried with a golden halo and knew the to prostrate him on the deck and creatures within. He linked with make him grovel in utter, abject Ra-Fa-El and they communed in terror. This icy dread that freezes soaring crystal carillions of my blood is not of my making, thought. Roberto thought. With a desper- —they are come from the ate effort of will he hurled his

34 GALAXY leaden fingers at the keys and and plot the next jump. But, yes, punched in the Omega beams. I can do it.” Eyes burning, he saw ashen “I make you a gift of three whorls spin through the golden hours right now.” And perhaps mists and crystal screams seemed more we will need, Roberto to splinter in his mind. thought, to recover the courage For a fragment of time the KM lor venturing again into the White units ceased their belabored sob- Space. And my navigator spoke of bing and the fear drained from angels but where were the faces Roberto. In the instant he and wings? And why did I also slammed the jump bar and they think of angels almost as if I felt were in their own Black Space. a nebulous ancient memory of “We’ll never get home this them? And do the others feel as way,” the navigator said. He was my navigator and I? trembling with shock. They did! Roberto had gone Roberto struggled to keep his around the ship carefully ques- own body from quivering. “I will tioning his men. No matter how take us home. We will dodge in delicately he inquired, whenever and out of the two spaces. The he touched upon what they might danger seems unable to follow. have seen on the E-screen the fear Can you navigate such a course?” would come into their eyes. Some spoke directly of heavenly crea- r 'HE navigator was trembling I tures, others embarrassedly ad- violently and he began to sob. mitted such impressions and a “What were they? So ma—magni- few averted their eyes and denied

ficent . . . and . . . terrifying . . . such thoughts. But the words of .” like great golden angels . . them all were edged with terror “SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Ro- and awe. berto screamed, his control shat- Roberto and his shaken crew tering. He leaned to the limit of were slowly regaining confidence. his pad straps and struck once They had made a jump into the and again at the navigator. Rober- White Space and remained there to pulled his hands back and for some hours before being crowded his anger and fear to frightened back into the Black by the back of his mind. “Can you a vague alarm. Nothing more than skip us home?” he again de- a quivering needle and a lighter manded of the navigator. patch on an E-screen; but they The man’s voice was steadier. had remained hidden in Black for “I’ll need three minutes in black many hours and now they were each time to compute position ready to make another jump.

THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 35 Roberto pressed the jump bar, rs. SANCHEZ sat in the twi- throwing them into White M light with the darkened

Space . . . and the golden fury house at her back and unmoving- struck! ill A-ROORRR-UH!!!A ly faced the mountains. She heard ROORRR-UH!!! The board the jet whine of the taxi helicop- blazed red. There were screams ter but could not see it because it On the intercom. There was heat landed in front 6f the house. She and savage bucking with a crash- listened as the whine faded. And ing and screeching tear of ultra- in the silence she heard an odd steel. The E-screens flared with a step that she could not recognize. terrible molten dancing of golden “Mama.” fire. Roberto punched in the The voice was different. There Omega beams in a shell pattern, was no longer a smile under it. cut them and snapped on the But it was Roberto’s. force shield in full crackling She did not answer, but as she power. It flared greenly against stood the noise of her chair the golden furies. The reactive brought him limping toward her. thrust slammed hard against the She started to move to him but he hull and the ship went hurtling stopped abruptly and she sud- end over end. Roberto slapped the denly felt a new bitter distance jump bar but the ship remained between them that mere steps trapped in the White Space. Blue could never cross. In the dusk she energy licked along the heaving stared at his twisted leg. bulkheads and decks. There were “Roberto,” she whispered sadly. niore cries and an odor of “Call me Jacob,” he said harsh- Scorched flesh, and the corpse of ly. “I have wrestled with angels.” his first officer went spinning He thrust out his crippled leg.

limply through the control cabin. “. . . and behold a man wrestled Something wrenched loose and with him till morning. And when Crunched heavily on Roberto’s he saw that he could not over- leg before bouncing away. Too come him he touched the sinew of niuch red! Roberto cried within, his thigh and forthwith it shrank!” looking from his crimsoning leg With no triumph, but only a to the carmine lights of the board. mother’s distressed remonstrance, Re pounded his fists on the un- Mrs. Sanchez softly wailed, “O responsive jump bar. “Mama,” he Roberto, Roberto, I warned you. Whisijered in agony, and suddenly I told you.” Something connected, and the tor- “Yes, Mama, you told me,” he tured ship tumbled shudderingly said. “But you did not tell me into Black Space. the thing most important. You did

36 GALAXY not tell me that we are devils!” This is no longer my home, he She stared at him, uncompre- thought. And then, a moment hending. later: Was it ever? “Yes, my fine, good Mama! He looked up at the stars and With all your thoughts of heaven, thought of the pure brilliance of we are a world of devils. How or White Space and the magnificent why or from whence I do not yet golden creatures. Why the sweet know. But I am going back to anguish in the depths of my being the White Space to seek and I when I think of them and the only come now to see you once white place? Why in spite of my

more and say good-by . . . and fear am I drawn to it more than

.” . . Roberto faltered and leaned I am to this house which is my toward her as if straining to see home? Home? her face in the evening gloom that Roberto climbed into the ma- had almost deepened into night. chine and it moved upward a

“. . . and . . . ask your blessing.” little closer to the stars before The words were hardly more than turning south. a whisper. — RICHARD SARIA “Going back?” she said incredu- lously. “I must.” Anger was in her voice as she AND fAORE COMPLETE pointed to his leg. “Even with the SETS FOR SALE mark of wrath you carry? You 1. Complete set of MARVEL TALES, 1934- dare make more sacrilege?” 1935. 5 issues. $30.00.

She turned to go into the house. 2. Complete set of the “impossible” a steps after UNKNOWNS. Only 1 set. 39 issues, 1939- Roberto limped few 1943. $100.00.

her. “Mama, as you love me, your 3. Complete set of PLANET STORIES, 1940- blessing! For your son.” 1955. Over 70 issues, very good con- dition. $100.00.

She turned in the doorway, her 4. Complete set of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. face hard. “I can only pray for 1939-1952, very good condition, $100.00. you.” 5. Complete set of CAPTAIN FUTURE (17) and the 10 or so novelettes in STAR* Roberto watched her go inside. TUNG, 1943-1951, $50.00. No light appeared and he knew 6. Complete set AVON FANTASY READER (18), complete AVON Sv F. READER (3) -- she would be kneeling before the & complete F&SF READER (2) 23 issues, fine condition, $25.00. shelf of holy things in the small Many other complete sets. Send your want flickering light of the votive can- list. All prices F.O.B. Brooklyn, N. Y. dle. He made his way to the front JAY'S CORNER of the house to the waiting heli- 6401 24th Ave. Brooklyn 4, N. Y. taxi. He looked back at the house.

THE LAMPS OF THE ANGELS 37 By WILLY LEY NAMES IN THE SKY

' ’HE story I have in mind is I probably being told in Los Angeles with the Griffith Obser- vatory as its locale, in Chicago with reference to the Adler Plan- etarium and in any other city with mtimws reference to visitor’s night at the nearby astronomical observatory. I heard it for the first time at the irnsixtm Treptow Observatory east of Ber- lin. It goes like this: the visitor looks through the telescope at the moon, then at Jupiter. Then two or three well known stars are

38 GALAXY picked out to prove that a true two main categories: traditional star, even when seen through a names like those for the constel- telescope, still shows just as a lations, for a number of conspicu- pinpoint of light. The astronomer ous stars and for the naked-eye may say that Mars, unfortunately, planets; and names which have can’t be observed right now but been bestowed more recently by will reappear in a suitable loca- their discoverers, the names of a tion in the sky next November. few planets, the names of the And then the visitor says to an- asteroids and the names of visible other visitor: “I think I can un- features on the moon and on derstand how they measure the Mars. distance to Jupiter and how they But even with the recent names find out how big it is. I can imag- some confusion is possible . . . and ine how they make calculations therefore exists. telling them when a planet will Let us begin with the simplest be visible. What I don’t under- case, the names of comets. stand is how they find out their A good number of them do names!” not have a “real” name at all. The If you change the joke to the “Comet of 1577” is just that; no serious question of how a name name was given to it. If they do is established you not only have have names it is that of the dis- a legitimate question but you also coverer. Biela’s comet is Biela’s have a problem. The answer is, comet because it was first ob- of course, that somebody, at some served by Wilhelm von Biela time, gave a name to a star or to back in 1772. There is just one something more local, like a cra- comet which has a name other ter on the moon. But the names than that of its discoverer and it sometimes took hold and some- happens to be the most famous times did not. There are even a of all of them: Halley’s comet. Dr. few cases where everybody would Edmond Halley did not discover be quite willing to go along with it. He had compared the orbits of the name favored by the discov- earlier comets, arrived at the con- erer, provided we could be sure clusion that several observations that we know which astronomical seemed to refer to the same comet object he had in mind. Converse- and he predicted its return. ly, with some star names of Arab While big comets are rare — origin we know which star is we haven’t had a good one since meant but we cannot interpret the last passage of Halley’s comet the name. in 1910 — comets of smaller size The names in the sky fall into are not. Since several of them ap-

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 39 pear every year a special system named Ceres. As will be explained was devised for them. At first later, astronomers had reasons to they are listed as 1962a, 1962b, use names of the highest classical 1962c and so forth, in order of purity. their discovery. Early in the fol- The sequel to the story was lowing year the list is then re- that Ceres was lost for a while, arranged to read 1962 I, 1962 II, but the observed positions en- 1962 III, etc., in order of their abled Carl Friedrich Gauss to perihelion passages. Of course calculate (by means of a new the name of the discoverer is at- method which he invented for the tached too, and since one astrono- purpose) an ephemeris for the mer may discover more than one new planet. With the aid of the comet you might have a designa- position predicted by Gauss, tion like Whipple IV, which Heinrich Wilhelm Gibers, M. D., means that it was the fourth in Bremen, re-discovered Ceres comet discovered by Fred L. during the New Year’s Night from Whipple. 1801 to 1802! Soon after Gibers (Actually he discovered seven, discovered another small planet last time I checked.) in the same former gap which There is also a system for the was named Pallas. Two years naming of asteroids, the planet later Karl Harding came up with fragments which normally orbit a third one, which was named the sun between the orbits of Juno, and in 1807 Gibers followed Mars and Jupiter. The first of up with a fourth, to be named them had been discovered during Vesta. the New Year’s Night 1800-1801 By then the pattern was estab- by Father Giuseppe Piazzi, S.J. lished. Asteroids received classi- He first thought it was a comet; it cal female names. turned out to be a small planet in This would have been most sat- what up to that time had been isfactory as a system if there had considered a “gap” in the solar been not more than, say, five system. In fact, some two hundred dozen asteroids. At first Greek years earlier Johannes Kepler had and Latin classical names were been so annoyed by the gap, easy. Number 7 became Iris, num- which ruined his mathematical ber 27 was still Euterpe and num- explanations, that he wrote Inter ber 57 Mnemosyne. But soon Jovetn et Martem planetam in- both Homer’s Odyssey and terposui, “between Jupiter and Pliny’s Historia naturalis were ex- Mars I put a planet”. Now it had hausted. Gh, well, the Saga of been found by Piazzi and was Gudrun and the Nibelungenlied

40 GALAXY )

could be considered classical, too. Greeks, Luna to the Romans. Names like Gudrun and Kriem- (The latter is the name for the hild began to invade the area moon in quite of a number of populated by Leukothea and Kly- modern languages, including Rus- temnaistra and Polyhymnia. sian.) Our word moon is from Right now there is probably an the Anglo-Saxon mona (hence; actual need for female names, month, in German Monat and even though all common modern the other Germanic languages de- names in all languages, from rive their names from the same Anna via Gertrud to Marlene and root, e.g. Maan in Dutch and Natasha have been used. If a Mond in German. When Galileo philologist would prove tomorrow Galilei discovered the four large that there was a Carthaginian moons of Jupiter two problems goddess Ilu, her name would be came up simultaneously. In the attached to an asteroid the day first place, since there was now after tomorrow. not only the moon but moons, a There was some slight relief general term for “moons” was de- in 1898 when it was found that a sirable. Johannes Kepler supplied newly discovered asteroid orbited this by coining the word “satellite” partly inside the orbit of Mars. It (from satellos, which means at- was named Eros, a male name, to tendant.) But, Galilei felt, the indicate that it differed from moons of Jupiter should also have those in the by then very crowded individual names. “gap,” and it quickly became cus- He wrote to Cosmo de Medici, tomary to name all asteroids Fourth Grand Duke of Tuscany, which crossed the orbits of either that they should be called the Mars or Jupiter, or orbited outside Medicea Sidera, the Medicean the orbit of Jupiter or inside the Stars, and suggested the specific orbit of Mars, after males. In that names of members of the Medici sub-section of asteroid names all family for them. To astronomers names are still strictly classical. who were not Italians the name There is a large supply of classi- Medici simply did not have the

cal male names still available. exalted ring it had to Galilei and they kept silent on the proposal

'’''HE names of the satellites of —- except Herr Mayr in Kulm- our solar system are now bach who called himself Simon rather orderly but it wasn’t al- Marius and who, being court as- ways thus. Classical times, of tronomer to the Margrave of course, knew only one satellite, Brandenburg, suggested Sidera that of Earth: Selene to the Brandenburgica. Marius, who

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 41 claimed to have seen the moons Jupiter’s satellites looks wrong. If of Jupiter earlier than Galilei — you arrange it in the numerical and who did discover the Great order, which is the order of dis- Nebula in Andromeda — realized covery, the satellites form no pat- after a discussion with Kepler tern as regard to distance from that classical names were at least the planet. If you arrange them in neutral, if not superior, and sug- order of distance from the planet, gested naming the four major the numerals are out of sequence. moons after four love affairs of Jove: lo, Europa, Ganymed and A S FOR the moons of Saturn Callisto. With a long delay his the confusion became such suggestion was accepted even that finally names had to be though, to this day, astronomers called in. The first of them to be prefer to write J-I, J-II, J-III and discovered, by Christiaan Huyg- J-IV. Galilei had started that by hens in 1655, was Titan, but its

writing and . J. , J„ , J... J discoverer simply called it Luna The system began to get into Saturni, Saturn’s Moon. But then some trouble when E. E. Barnard, Giovanni Domenico Cassini dis- in 1892, discovered a fifth satel- covered four more moons of Sa- lite of Jupiter which happened to turn. Collectively he wanted them orbit inside the four Galileian to be known as the Sydera Lodoi- satellites. Barnard stuck to the cea (the stars of Louis XIV) but designation J-V even though individually he numbered them, many names were proposed. Ca- in the order of distance from the mille Flammarion in France sug- planet. This made Huyghen’s gested Amalthea (Jupiter’s nurse- moon S-4. The end of discoveries, maid in mythology) which is however, was not yet. William slowly coming into use, but usu- Herschel discovered two more, ally with the parenthetical re- both closer to Saturn than the mark that it is “not official.” known ones. How to number (Because it was suggested by now? Call them S-6 and S-7, as somebody other than the discov- Herschel suggested (with S-7 be- erer and not accepted by the dis- ing incongruously the closest to coverer.) Barnard’s insistence on the planet) or should everything the designation J-V did have the be re-numbered? And if that were result that the additional moons done, who could guarantee that of Jupiter were not given any any additional discoveries would names but are referred to as J-VI, kindly orbit Saturn at a greater J-VII and so forth up to J-XII. distance than those already num- The outcome is that any list of bered? It was Sir William Her-

42 GALAXY )

schel’s son, Sir John Herschel, others) he called it Miranda to who suggested to use the names stay within the mythology. of the mythological sisters and Neptune’s major satellite was brothers of Saturn. This is the also discovered by William Las- list — Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, sell (in 1846) and Camille Flam- Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion and marion suggested “Triton,” Nep- Japetus — which is now generally tune’s companion, as a name. Like used. Amalthea it is “not official” and

In 1898 Professor William H. for the same reason. But it is in Pickering added another moon use now, largely because Kuiper, and another sister of Saturn to when discovering a second satel- the list: Phoebe. lite of Neptune in 1949, named Sir John Herschel also named it “Nereid” which he, as the dis- the satellites of Uranus. His fa- coverer, had the right to do. ther had thought that he had The two moons of Mars, dis- discovered six satellites of Uranus. covered by Asaph Hall in 1877, Four of them turned out to be are, of course, Phobos and Deimos mistakes, but two were real. Wil- (Fear and Terror,) the attend- liam Lassell, in 1851, added two ants of Mars in the ninth book more so that four satellites were of the Iliad. known. Sir John Herschel’s pro- The names of the five naked- posed names Ariel, Urnbriel, Ti- eye planets are fairly easy. Still, tania, and Oberon were accepted it may be useful to mention first largely because Lassell, who had that the word “planet” comes discovered two of them, accepted from the Greek planetes (the the names. (Oberon and Titania wanderers) because they do not are, of course, the king and queen stand still in the sky like the of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “fixed” stars. The word “comet”, Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ariel incidentally, comes from the Lat- is a spirit in The Tempest while in word coma (“head of hair”) Urnbriel is a gnome and Ariel a and not from the Greek word sylph in Pope’s Rape of the which sounds the same (and Lock should be spelled “koma”) and .

Still, it is interesting that a full which means “deep sleep.” dozen satellite names originated Now Mercury, the innermost of with a man who had not dis- the planets, is the fastest moving, covered a single one of them. in reality as well as to the naked When Gerard P. Kuiper discov- eye. Hence it became, in Greek, ered a fifth satellite of Uranus Hermes (properly Hermeias) the (closer to it than any of the swift-moving messenger of the

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 43 gods. The Latin name Mercurius ir, the Celestial Warrior. To the also bears the connotation of swift Chaldeans he was Nergal, the god movement but is derived from of battle, to the Greeks Ares, also mercis, which means “wares.” the god of war, regardless of Hence Mercurius became the god whether the name is derived from of the traders and merchants but aro (to kill) or from ara (dis- also the god of the thieves — for aster.) The Germans also identi- which latter fact one may harbor fied the planet with their god of two different opinions; one is un- war, and Roman Mars is, of flattering to merchants, the other course, the god of war too. merely points out that a thief has As for Jupiter it probably was to move even faster than a trader. given the name of the chief deity The names for Mercury in the of the Romans — the name is eastern languages usually are the stated to be derived from lovis word for “arrow,” or a name de- pater — because of its steady rived from that word. light, being the brightest of the planets except Venus. Of course "Y^ENUS, bright and beautiful, Jupiter is the equivalent of Zeus. ' became female with all na- And it is also quite possible that tions except in India. The Chinese the naming went the other way called Venus Tai-pe, “the beauti- round, that the god was given the ful white one.” to the Germanic name of the serenely shining plan- tribes the planet was Frigga; to et, for when you said in Latin the Babylonians Ishtar; to the sub love it meant “under the open Romans Venus. Venus was origi- sky.” nally the Spring Goddess and Saturn, in Latin Saturnus, was, only later the goddess of love, mythologically speaking, the god equivalent to the Greek Aphro- of agriculture and the husband of dite. Since Venus can appear Ops, the goddess of wealth. The either as morning or as evening name is related to the verb serere, star, the Greeks originally had two “to sow”. The Greek equivalent names for the planet, Hesperos was Kronos. Why the name of the and Phosphoros. Pythagoras of god of agriculture was bestowed Samos is credited with having upon the planet is something that identified them as the same I would have considered a mys- planet. tery until about three months ago, As unanimously as white Venus when I found an interesting ref- became a beautiful woman, red erence in a very modern book on Mars became a warrior. The Per- the planet Saturn by the British sians called Mars Pahlavani Siph- astronomer A. F. O’D. Alexander.

44 GALAXY He states that the name most It was actually the offshoot of the often used for Saturn by the As- Herschel-Lalande-Bode contro- syrians was lubadsagush which, versy which produced the severe- since lubad meant “old sheep,” ly classical names for the first has to be translated as “the oldest asteroids some dozen years later. of the old sheep,” another agricul- The word Uranus is just the Latin tural comparison. Alexander version of the Greek Ouranos thinks that the name was due to which means heaven or sky. the fact that Saturn moves so slowly among the stars. Possibly ^I'HE pattern repeated sixty-five Saturn’s slow movement accounts years later when Galle in for its Latin name too, reminding Berlin discovered Neptune close the skywatchers of the slow gait to the point where Leverrier in of ploughing oxen. Paris had said it should be lo- For the remaining three planets cated. Leverrier had calculated its there is no mystery about their existence and position from the names. When William Herschel perturbations of the orbit of discovered Uranus he first pro- Uranus. The French scientist posed the name of Georgium Si- Francois Arago — who had a dus in honor of George III. Out- political in addition to a scientific side of Great Britain nobody was career and was, among other pleased with this suggestion, things, responsible for the aboli- which revived what Galilei and tion of slavery in the French col- then Cassini had tried to do. onies — revived the suggestion to Joseph Jerome Lalande in Paris name Uranus “Herschel’s Planet” suggested that the newly discov- so that the new one could become ered planet should be known as “Leverrier’s Planet.” It did not go Herschel’s Planet, in the same very far, for the French Bureau manner in which one speaks of des Longitudes decided that Nep- Halley’s Comet. tune was a fine name for a far But there was no enthusiasm distant greenish planet and Le- for this innovation. Other astron- verrier himself agreed. The name omers felt that it was enough to Neptunus is that of the Latin god be able to attach one’s name to of the seas, equivalent to the a comet (or to have a lunar crater Greek Poseidon, but neither Ro- named after one—posthumously, mans nor classical Greeks ever that is) and when Johann Elert had an opportunity to attach it Bode, the director of the Berlin to a planet. observatory, suggested Uranus Pluto, discovered by Clyde most astronomers agreed rapidly. Tombaugh in 1930, was named

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 45 for what might be called a per- terrestrial geographical names to sonal reason. Just as Leverrier, the moon, which is the reason why and also John Couch Adams in we speak of the Lunar Alps, the England, had calculated Nep- Lunar Caucasus, etc. But Giovan- tune’s existence from irregulari- ni Batista Riccioli, five years after ties in the motions of Uranus, Hevelius’s lunar map with terres- Percival Lowell had tried to cal- trial names, accepted Langrenus’s culate the existence and position suggestion. He even had a kind of of one more planet from the same a system. He named a large crater source. He had called it Planet X Plato, then attached the names of but after the discovery of a planet Eudoxus, Aristotle, Thales, Stra-

which is (for about two thirds of bo, etc., to craters not far from its orbit) farther from the sun Plato. Riccioli admired Tycho

than Neptune, it became obvious Brahe; therefore the most con- that that name could not be used spicuous crater was named Tycho. permanently. But the discovery Since Copernicus did not agree had been made at Lowell’s obser- with Tycho Brahe, the lunar vatory, though long after his crater Copernicus is far away death, and since the name Pluto from the crater Tycho. But since

begins with P-L it was chosen. It Kepler agreed with Copernicus, was correct mythologically too, the crater Kepler is near the for Pluto, the lord of the infernal crater Copernicus. region, was a brother of both Zeus (Jupiter) and Poseidon (Nep- '^''HE visible features of the tune.) planet Mars went through Before going on to the names a number of linguistic transforma- of stars the names of two sets of tions. It was only just about a cen- features must be mentioned. It has tury ago that telescopes became already been said that an astron- powerful enough to show surface omer’s name might be selected features on Mars and, logically, posthumously for a crater on the observers in different countries moon. Two people are responsible began making drawings of Mars. for this custom: Langrenus of And they started naming things, Brussels and Riccioli of Bologna. in their own tongues. Thus a map Langrenus made the suggestion of of Mars drawn by Richard An- naming lunar features after fa- thony Proctor in 1867, following mous people, especially astrono- Riccioli’s practice, is full of names mers, around 1640. Johannes of astronomers. There is a Her- Hevelius of Danzig, five years schel I Continent, a Herschel II later, opposed it and transferred Strait, Fontana Land. Laplace

46 GALAXY Land, Tycho Sea and so forth, all same in all languages, because in English, of course. On a map they are nobody’s language. drawn by Camille Flammarion We now come to the names of some of the names are the same, constellations and of some con- like the Herschel I Continent, but spicuous stars, but for practical others are changed. What Proctor reasons the evolution of the cur- had called the Kaiser Sea (after rent system has to be discussed the Dutch astronomer Kaiser) ap- first. peared on Flammarion’s map as Hipparch’s star catalogue, as Mer du Sablier. What Proctor preserved for us in the Almagest, had called Dawes Continent (af- listed a total of 1022 stars which, ter the Rev. William Dawes) be- of course, are all naked-eye stars, came the Continent Beer (after leaving out a number of faint ones the German Beer, the brother of and, naturally, neglecting the the composer Meyerbeer.) What southern hemisphere almost com- Proctor had named Maedler pletely. (At a later date the Land, after a German astronomer, French astronomer Houzeau became, on Flammarion’s map stated that a man with perfect Terre de Laplace; he named vision, if he first counted from a something else after Maedler. Of rather northern latitude and then course, the whole map was in continued from a southern lati- French. tude, would reach a total of 5719 Well, the third to draw a map stars.) Now all stars were sorted was Giovanni Virginio Schiapa- into six classes according to their relli in Italy. What Flammarion apparent brightness. The bright- had called Mer Terhy appeared est ones were in the first class on Schiaparelli’s map as Solis (later called the first magnitude) Lacus; what had been the Kaiser and the just visible ones formed Sea or the Mer du Sablier, re- the sixth class. spectively, appeared as Syrtis So far there was no special Major. The light area around problem, but this soon ceased to Lacus Solis, Terre de Kepler on be the case if a specific star was Flammarion’s map, became Thau- to be picked out. The invention masia. The Mer de Fontana be- of the constellations helped. A came Elysium and the Mer Oude- total of forty-eight are listed in mann became Trivium Charontis. the Almagest: the twelve signs of By the grace of God Schiaparelli’s the zodiac, twenty-one constella- system won out in all countries, tions north of the zodiac and fif- and most of his names are still in teen to the south of the zodiac. use. By being Latin they are the (The names of almost all of them

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 47 are still in use.) A constellation now. He labeled the stars in each was useful for stating which star constellation with Greek letters, one had in mind, in that it limited switching to the Latin alphabet the area of the sky. In fact, this only when there were more stars is the main reason why the names in a constellation that the Greek of constellations are still used, alphabet has letters. In his book, and at the Astronomical Congress the Uranometria, which appeared at Leyden (The Netherlands) in for the first time in 1603, he said 1928 the limits of the constella- that it was his system to call the tions were carefully established. brightest star of each constellation Modern star charts have the alpha, the next brightest beta, the eighty-eight constellations agreed third brightest gamma, the fourth upon during that congress. delta and so on. Of course, he But to go back to the Greek made a number of mistakes. His astronomers. The star he had in alpha is not always the brightest mind (Aldebaran) was in the star; but that his idea was good is constellation Taurus and had to proved by the simple fact that we

be described as “the bright star in still use it. Thus we say that the the southern eye of the bull.” Or first photographs of Pluto were another star (Rigel) had to be found on a plate centered on designated as “the bright star in delta GeminoTum, the fourth Orion’s left foot.” brightest star in the constellation One wonders why the Greeks Gemini. Bayer’s system is such a did not think of the simple device space-saving device; Aldebaran of just numbering the stars in a becomes alpha Tauri, Capella al- constellation after they had once pha Aurigae, Castor and Pollux been carefully described in the alpha and beta Geminorum and elaborate manner just quoted. But Sirius alpha Cams majoris. (If they didn’t. you have the Greek letters and Alessandro Piccolomini, in enter them in a chart of the con- 1568, took the first step in that stellation so that its name does direction. He omitted the usually not need to be repeated there is rather elaborate m3rthological pic- a real time and space saver.) tures, also all the faint stars, but tell the story of the names he gave a map showing the posi- ^ I 'O tions of the larger stars and of the constellations and how labeled them with the Latin they were devised would take this alphabet. A German lawyer who whole issue of Galaxy. It would was an ardent astronomer, Jo- take more than the whole issue hannes Bayer, did what we do if we knew in all cases how the

48 GALAXY Just peel off protective backing. Sticks to any smooth surface

N, ACTUAL SIZE IZ'/," x 2"

mp PP GET MiLES OF SMILES WITH # # ss^tfunpemks

An assortment of humorous Bumper Signs created to put fun back into driving. FITS ALL CARS. Big, bright Day-Glo letters for long range visibility. 25< EACH or SIX FOR $1.00 MAIL CHECK, CASH OR MONEY ORDER TO iBUMPERNIK BOX 188 • HARTSDALE, NEW YORK y z _ > > ^PASSING SIDE SUICIDE^ % Q. S DRIVE CARRFULIY nm ^ ^ O > HHiSini n ^ m /afP4»ify^ ACTIVE X n RADIO m _ 70 S m O ^srzWigy^SPEED TRAP < ^ AHEAD -< I'r you can read this O 70 YOU'RE TOO DAMN CLOSE o name came about. Most of them themselves are uncertain what we don’t know. the word really means but think But I do want to mention that the root word is dbr which means in the course of time stars at the “to be behind something” or “to border of one constellation have follow something.” The meaning, often been shifted into the neigh- astrognostically speaking, would boring constellation, sometimes then be “the star which follows deliberately, more often by mis- the Hyades.” take. Even the famous zodiac did What name could sound more not remain unaffected. The “Arabic” than Algol? Well, it is Greeks had only eleven zodiacal Arabic all right, but not originally signs for several centuries. Libra, so. The star Algol, beta Persei on in that zodiac, had turned into the charts, was the Gorgon’s head. pincers of the neighboring con- This designation, in Arabic, be- stellation Scorpio. Tracing the came ra’s al-gul, the head of the shifts of this type is a whole sub- Gul, a demon in Arabic mytholo- branch of the history of astrono- gy. As for Deneb, alpha Cygni, my which has the special name the current name is an abbrevia- of Astrognosis. This is the area tion. The Arabic original is danab where astronomy and archeology ad-dagaga, “tail of the chicken.” (plus “ordinary history”) touch I have mentioned earlier that and overlap. the star beta Orionis was de- Many of the individual names scribed by the Greeks as the of stars are Arabic but they are “bright star in Orion’s left foot”. not always “pure.” In addition to The Arabic version was rigl al- truly old Arabic names there are yusra, “Orion’s foot,” and the star many which are pseudo-Arabic, is called Rigel to this day — being Arabic adaptations of though nobody is quite certain names from other languages. And how it should be pronounced. later on many of them went While it is interesting to find through another transformation, out why a number of bright stars usually Latinization, to make bears the names they do, individ- them pronounceable for Euro- ual star names are slowly coming pean tongues. Aldebaran is a case out of use. Which, considering in point. The Arabic form ad- everything, is probably a logical dabaran was produced by trans- development. As distinct from the lating a Greek sentence. An ex- names of the constellations, which pert on Arabic astronomy. Dr. are useful as area designations, Paul Kunitzsch, a German living there is little need for individual in Cairo, says that Arab scholars star names. — WILLY LEY

50 GALAXY IF YOU ARE ... FASCINATED BY SPACE...... THE WONDERS OF SATELLITES, ROCKETS-THE MEN BEHIND THEM... SPACE WORLD is meant for you. Here, in a magazine edited by two great names in the world of science fiction, Willy Ley and Otto Binder, is the whole dynamic story of spacemen and

their spacecraft . . . from the tense moments during a countdown at Canaveral through the triumph of zooming into orbit around the earth, and on to the moon and the planets.

With Space World, you’re part of everything that happens. An Atlas streaks down the Atlantic Missile

. . Range . you’re in the tracking station. Project

Saturn is completed . . . you’re there for the test

shot. A soft landed load is placed on the moon . . . you're at the receivers getting the first information that comes across the vastness of space. The first man crosses the threshold to explore hidden mys-

teries of other worlds . . . and you’re beside him.

Space World brings this all to you every month . . . under the expert guidance of Willy Ley and Otto Binder, who know how to tell this dramatic story in clear, simple, exciting terms that anyone can under- stand. YOUR SATISFACTION GUARANTEED ^SPACE WORLD Magazine If for any reason you ore not com- I 250 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y, first pletely satisfied with your very Please enter my subscription to SPACE WORLD: I issue, we will send you a complete 1 year (12 issues) $5. (14 issues if payment enclosed)

refund immediately. If, at any later * Payment enclosed Bill me time, you wish to stop your sub- scription to Space World, we will NAME (Please print) I make a full refund of the unused ADDRESS I portion of your subscription with CITY ZONE STATE no questions asked. ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE

Illustrated by DYAS By JAMES & VIRGINIA BUSH

52 GALAXY I

TT had been John Brest’s custom -* to hike long distances every Sunday as far back as he could re- member. This Sunday was like any other. By stages, Brest had walked all the patterned superhighways that crisscross the state, enjoying the fecal odor of marsh gas and the arsenical exhalations of the coke plants. At dusk, before the mos- quitoes rose, he entered any town that offered itself and bussed it back to the larger city where he made his living. There was no one to make anything of his entrances and exits,., no one to bother him with Where are you going? and Why? He hovered this Sunday before the wings of an intersection intri- cate beyond anything encount- ered before. There was an un- familiar city on the horizon with a towering smokestack that poured clouds of white smoke in- to the humid air — not in a steady stream, but in unlikely pulses. He knew he had never seen it before. After so long, he was lost. He trudged down the cement incline and began to follow, duti- fully, the frozen dance-figure of the intricate cloverleaf. It was He was innocent — tragically growing dark by the time he innocent — in a place where reached the bottommost level, with layers of bridges and ramps only the guilty were secure!

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 53 piled above. The disused tunnel menaced him from behind the before which he was standing car- rails of the overpass.

ried no traffic; but he had come Never turning his back to it, he to terms with the meadows for went sideways along the chute, the day. He must risk traversing scrambling over two railings this deserted tube, without know- where they were level with each ing whether it led him to the un- other, until his feet touched the known city or nowhere. higher roadbed. An ominous He was heartened at once by thrumming came from the odd an enthusiastically obscene sug- car, but there was nobody at the gestion crayoned in red on the wheel. near wall. Someone had been Brest went to the near railing. there before him, breathing ex- He was now high enough out of haust and methane and hydrogen the pit to see a little way over sulfide and thinking of his private the meadows again. The smoke- pleasures. stack pulsed on the horizon. He In the exhaust-filled air breath- caught a movement, or the after- ing was becoming difficult, when ripple in the air of a movement, there was a sudden meowing of down among the twists and turns rubber on concrete, right over the he had just scaled. tunnel’s mouth. Here was his “Hey! Hi! Come back!” cried chance to get directions. Brest Brest.

ran. The squat figure, only its ro- The car had swerved to a stop tund torso visible and that decked on the sloping overpass to Brest’s out in some outlandish sporting right. Its nose pointed directly at costume, mostly red, stumbled him. He had the uneasy convic- when he called; flung out one arm tion that he had faced it before, as if to wave, or keep its balance; and that it meant to plunge leaped behind a pillar and dis- through the guard-rails if he made appeared. a wrong move. Brest ran a little way, peering He backed off, still staring at fruitlessly. the car, which seemed to stare in The man couldn’t have been return. Its high headlamps winked going for gas; the car was still on for a moment, blinding him but running. What then? “Clown!” reassuring him. It had never been He turned back to the strange like that. In none of his Sunday car and circled it warily. It had hikes had he traversed this tunnel no license plates, nor any mount- before, nor had he ever seen this ing brackets. There were dials on low-slung, foreign-looking car that the dashboard, but with mounting

54 GALAXY irritation he found he could not blanket in the back seat. He knelt

read them. He opened the right- and reached over for it, feeling hand door where the wheel was something roll free as he pulled. and slid tentatively onto the cush- There was an amazing amount ion. His elbow touched the horn of the fabric. It filled the floorwell button. The car responded with a right up to seat level by the time five-note call so wild that he he had got it all off. The object spread-eagled against the plush. left behind on the seat was a red thermos. T>UT nobody came. The car That was hardly a clue. It continued to throb, quite would be a break, though, if the

gently, now he was inside it. He thing contained hot coffee . . . fiddled with the levers and pedals, but it did not. It contained only thinking he just might point the a sticky, sweet odor, compounded car in a safer direction. The mo- of violets, alcohol and something ment his foot touched the gas, the that rankly suggested beef blood. whole car purred like a cheetah, He tossed it over the rim of the and the big meter that said RPM window without having meant to, ran itself up into the high thou- and heard it shatter with a grati- sands. If he was stymied, the car tude all the more intense for its was ready. senselessness. Cautiously he shifted it into The overcast sky between the reverse and let the clutch up. It loops of the cloverleaf was losing backed so smoothly away from its dun rose to the night-city’s sky- the railing that he hardly had glare, faintly lurid and anony- time to turn it to face- the right mously red. The car hummed, way. waiting for him to decide. He Or was it the right way? shrugged convulsively, released For him, perhaps it was. the brake and stepped on the gas. Throngs of mosquitoes had risen The overpass did not go down, on the flats by now. He could after all. The foreign car, thrum- simply drive the car to the strange ming like a plague of grasshop- city and turn it over to the police, pers, carried Brest through dips since the owner was so obstinately and darknesses as breathtaking as missing. a rollercoaster and then began to The suspicion of stealing climb again. touched him. He hesitated. He was pleased to see the light He looked through the car for patterns of traffic. With misgiv- some hint of identity. There was ings he realized that it was all nothing but a crumpled pink below him now. He was so high

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 55 ”

in the air he grew alarmed. The there was a cozy, unintelligible car bored on over the high hump murmuring in the car from the and began to descend, its mush- little speaker. room-like radiator cap singing ab- That was all right, but he was stractedly just under his nose. It frantic for his brights. Finally he went faster and faster, although felt a cold dot at his fingertip, he let up on the gas pedal at every pushed it and saw the dimpled faint relaxation of the endless road come lemon-alive, squirming curve. Screaming over onto two with rain. Safe? No, but a col- wheels, the car took the tight bind lision now wouldn’t be his fault. of a ramp and hurtled onto a nar- He turned up the volume on the row pitted road. radio and settled back to listen

Light poles blossomed, for it as he drove. was full dark suddenly, and they The voice was his. He froze on brought everything into relief like the wheel and began to sweat toys. The great knot of the inter- again. section, pricked out in yellow, dwindled and tightened in the i4T WAS making about sixty,” rear-view mirror. his own voice said. “It was It was beginning to rain. raining, and I was in a hurry. It Inside the car it was hot, and didn’t seem like much of a speed the windshield fogged. He de- — the car was old, and — cided he must wriggle out of his “Much of a speed!” The new shirt to wipe it clear. The car did voice was as pleasant and as cold not waver or weave; it seemed as enamel. A man’s voice, but not almost to be driving itself as he one he had ever heard before. pulled his cuff-buttons loose and “Sixty’s a fair speed, I’d say. And freed his back and belt of the those Daimlers can be cranked up soggy cloth. The car’s obedience to a hundred without much diffi- to his no-hands control made him culty.” smile. There was a glare of lightning, After a while he became aware and the radio chuckled and that the smile had fixed itself strangled the next words. The rain and he sucked his cheeks back in- hammered the car’s top. When to place. The rain fell harder and Brest could hear again, the glazed

“. there really seemed to be nothing voice was saying, . . so decrepit to smile about. For one thing, he to me. You could talk as if it had was driving without lights. The been about to fall apart under first button lit a tiny rectangle you. How could you be so familiar which turned out to be a radio; with a stolen car, anyhow?” A

56 GALAXY studio organ played an ominous sleep, and the crumpled pink gliss. blanket to comfort him. Let the This was too much. Better to car go to hell, then, unwatched. walk in the torrent — there The car pitched around a cor- wouldn’t be any mosquitoes in ner and braked, throwing Brest’s this rain anyhow. He put his foot head sharply against the wheel, hard on the brake pedal and it and that klaxon began to sound went all the way to the floor with- its wild call over and over. The out any compression. He yanked hard tires screamed, and then at the handle of the emergency there was a hollow denting noise brake. It came up so easily he and the fragmenting of glass. His knew it was connected to no cable head was so full of pain that he any more. did not realize for a while after The radio would not click off. he sat up again that the car had He could only turn the volume stopped. back down to that muted insect Outside, in the whisper of rain, hum he had found so cheering there was a sucking sound of foot- initially. steps coming toward him. He took his foot off the gas. “Hey, you.” The car bored purposefully on Brest took his ringing head out through the rain. He was afraid to of his hands. let go of the wheel. It would be the final admission that the car had run away with him. II Suddenly he said to himself, I’m dreaming, and the words were '| 'HE FACE which looked in at so great a tension that he felt his him through the near win- head swimming. dow was male, young and beauti- With a gasp, he let go of the ful. It regarded him out of black wheel and put his clammy shirt eyes as shining and smoky as back on. Let the damned car prize marbles. Then there were drive itself if it liked. It would two such faces, both topped by probably plunge him over a cliff black hair combed, neatly, or something like that at any mo- straight back. ment and let him back into his “Get out.” bed at the rooming house. He “Did I hit you?” he said. “Any- conceived a cunning plan for body hurt? I’m damned sorry if cheating the dream. He knelt up I did. It was accidental. This hack on the seat to crawl over and go ran away with me.” to sleep in the back; sleep within “Yeah,” one of the young men

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 57 said. “Get out of there before we other in low, precise voices. One come in and beat the living kek of them said, “You’re such a child. .” out of you.” If you kill them on sight . . “Now wait a minute,” Brest Cautiously, sprawling, Brest said, beginning to tremble. “I’m wriggled away. The other voice

“. trying to be decent about this. said: . . of chasing. Someday I’ve got insurance —” He realized you’ll learn love better. A fine day suddenly that he had, in effect, that’ll be, too. Full of screams.” stolen the foreign car. “What I “Yours, I warn you.” mean is, there’s no sense in pick- “Yes, mine. For joy, you . ing a fight. I’m willing to pay for There was silence. Brest got to any damage. I lost control of his hands and knees, his belly m-my car, and I was lost, anyhow. already as wet as if he had been By the way, what city is this?” sprayed. From that position he One of the young men took the saw the machine his own car had car door by the handle and tore wrecked. It was a slabsided it open with a wailing of metal. sedan at least thirty years old, He had actually pulled one hinge which had simply fallen apart on loose. Brest goggled. When they contact. The four wheels stood began to slide onto the seat he firmly on cobbles, but the frame grappled for the other door. The was askew and canted above young man on the seat reached them, and all the high rusty fend- out a deliberate hand and took ers had fallen off. The car had him by the wrist. His fingers were been fit only for a circus stunt in supple and hot, but hard. the first place; the owner of the “Now?” he said. “He’s just ask- foreign car could claim far more ing for it.” expensive damages than the total “No, let him go.” wreck of this caricature had in- “I don’t want to.” volved. But the continuing argu- “Let him go, I said. Can’t you ment did not move him to stay see the car isn’t his? He has a long around and press claims. run ahead if it isn’t. Or would you He crawled quietly to the like a dose of the law yourself?” wooden pavement. It was getting The other voice seemed eager. brighter still. He got around the The flat fingers released Brest’s corner of a windowless concrete wrist. He sat in acute tetany for building without incident, and an instant, and then tumbled out had just noticed that here the the other side of the car into the street was in much better con- mud. Inside the foreign car, the dition, when there was a cata- two young men argued with each mount scream behind him.

58 GALAXY ” —

T^ESPITE himself, he stopped applause. Brest listened, wonder- listen, but nothing came ing. through except a sort of yowling. “All right,” said the young man Then one of the voices said, very who had screamed. “Where’d he high and clear: “Now you’ll be- get to, anyhow? You and your have.” plays to the gallery!” There was another moan. “Around the corner flapping his “Yes, you will. You’re in a ears, or I miss my guess. He’s a minority, sweetheart, that I prom- sturdy boy. Let’s go.” ise you; you’ll learn. You can’t Sweating ice, Brest ran. take one of them where you find Despite the uncertainty of his them. You have to whip up a knees, he ran with fair confidence. chase, and have the stupes chas- His walking had settled him a ing with you. Even then you have little, but it had kept up his wind to show innocence, if you can. and his patience. Besides, he knew But the stupes will always chase that he was in a hurry and did with you, and when you catch not put more energy into bounc- one, then he’s yours. If you take ing up and down than into going them where you find them — forward. He ran on his toes and “Rrr,” the other voice said, al- for stride. most inaudible. “I’ll find yours, But when he looked over his damn you, I swear I will.” shoulder, he saw the young men “But that’s for jail, believe me,” — there were four of them now, the first voice said. “We’ll have three of them absolutely alike, no one but each other when the the fourth chubby and comical last pinch comes. Don’t think it flying down the broad, deserted won’t be fun, darling; I have plans street with huge zigzag bounds for you. Right now we’ve got that covered at least ten feet each. every jam that keeps on the white Brest had once seen a deer or line. It won’t last, but it’s worth some such animal run like that, prolonging. Don’t you know a but never a human being. He esti- good thing when you’ve got it? mated that he was making about Hell, of course you don’t. What a a nine-foot stride and the ad- sweetheart! You should live vantage the young men had was where they make the laws. But partly lost through the eccentric- this one won’t last; it’s a shorty. ity of their leaps. His stride-rate You’ve got to chase for it, or the was a fraction faster than theirs. stupes will catch on. That’ll be a He looked back again. hassel, believe me.” The chubby young man took There was a feeble sound of the lead, striking cement and

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 59 sailing with an effortlessness that object, which it hurled with blur- was not grace, but something to ring speed squarely at Brest’s which grace was irrelevant, like head. He ducked, and it missed the skipping of a flat stone on him, but he heard it singing as it water. Ahead, the street gleamed went by. He was sure that it with the merciless clarity of would have brained him, and had early dawn. Several of the flat- been intended for nothing else. faced white buildings had thin gutters of sunlight along their par- THE WOMAN, a young

apets. Brest found himself won- - woman in a dun-colored, no- dering why the sun should be style robe, had never looked at rising on the right, not the left. him. It had been as if the hand He realized that he had no idea had sought and flung its missile which way was East anyhow. automatically — as if, and this Also, it was too soon; the ride in to a man unused to being stoned the runaway car had lasted for- by young women was possible, it ever, but not all night. were the law in this city that a No people on the street, no running man must be stoned. fronts to the shops — if they were But a message, now? He shops — no cross-streets or alley- twisted to look back, but the ob- ways. Could it be that the road- ject had been a stone and nothing way itself, despite its broadness, else. At the same time Brest saw was really an alley and that the that his pursuers had halved the buildings had their backs to him? interval. Now he could see their Still, most buildings have back en- expressions: they were all smiling, trances. These had none. One quietly, the kind of smile that white concrete fagade had a small young noblemen wear in noble window in it, two or three stories old oil-paintings, and they did up. As he drew abreast of it, he not seem to be breathing. Brest’s opened his mouth to shout, though own lungs were twin sacs of acid. he had no idea what he would He faced front desperately. say — “Help!”, perhaps — for The street began to curve grad- the window had a figure in it, a ually. As he went around the woman leaning on her palms broad sweep, the buildings were looking blindly out into the sun. discontinued without notice. He Before he could make a sound, saw, across an impressive and however, the woman’s right- hand treeless public square, the chim- dropped away from her chin and ney of the power plant. It was so dipped below the level of the sill. close at hand that he was afraid It came up again with some small to look up; he would surely have

60 GALAXY ”

fallen down. He turned toward it smiling beneficently still, but their and ran harder. It seemed hardly eyes were smoke. likely that there was any safety Brest waited until he was in the place, but it was at least breathing at a reasonable rate, familiar, he had seen it before. realizing that he could do noth-

His guess that it was a power ing about his heart. Then he said, plant gave it a meaning where all “I don’t know what your game other meaning was lacking. is. You won’t tell me. But the It was hard to tell how close first one of you that takes a step he was, because he had no idea my way — of how high the chimney actually He stopped; he had no reserves was. For all he knew, it was big left. But at once a fresh wave of enough to be like a mountain, terror passed through his guts, which looks changelessly near for and left him something he could a long time before it is ready to use. It was black, bare and cruel: fall upon the traveler. No, it was a knowledge of teeth and finger- not so distant; he could see the nails, and of the vulnerability of bricks in its base. these men’s pretty faces. The Immediately behind his back, epiphany made him smile, and the he could head the light impacts of feeling of his mouth-muscles his hunters’ feet as they bounded drawing out his lips was pleasant- in his spoor. While he listened, ly nauseating. the sound changed to an even The four young men seemed to lighter trotting, and one by one all see it. They stopped smiling their four of the young men pulled up own smiles and moved, each one alongside him, moving easily, taking one step backward. They matching his own steps. They did said nothing. Brest kept his head not speak to him, nor attempt to swiveling gently, in order to see seize him. all of them. The chimney towered. All five sped abreast. With dif- He said: “What do you want?” ficulty, because he had already The buildings bounding the resigned himself to running for- square echoed every word sol- ever, he slowed down, scuffing emnly. his soles against the flags, and There was no answer. They stopped. In the silence his lungs watched him. They had the ad- whooped raucously, raling for vantage, as they surely knew. An rest and air. The four young men attack of his own was being scattered and came back, posting forced upon him — but he had themselves at the compass-points, done nothing to provoke their and looked at him. They were all enmity, except for the collision.

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 61 ” ”

which had not been his fault. That at Brest again with bored, dis- semblance of guiltlessness was interested eyes. worth defending. “Did you steal a car?” “Are you going to stand there “No,” Brest said, with a force- forever?” he said hoarsely. “If you fulness he could hardly have an- want something, open up and say ticipated even had he not felt so. I’ve done no harm!” sick and full of pain. One of the slender young men “No, what?” smiled again and Brest jerked “No, I didn’t steal a car,” Brest toward him, every cell quivering said, his indignation growing with with alertness. During the same every breath. “If you want me to motion the young man at the next say ‘sir’ to you, you’ll have to tell compass-point stepped and drop- me why. I don’t know who you kicked, with superb control, are, or where I am, or by what directly into Brest’s groin. The right these nances drag me in here. public square exploded, he fell, I’m a citizen and I’m — fighting only to scream, and eight There had been a stir among knees pinned him neatly to the the young men; the judge stared flagstones. at them and then back at Brest. “Be quiet,” he said. “You have Ill no rights here; you’re reported to me as a thief. You say you didn’t four young stood on ^ I 'HE men steal the car.” the left side of the room, “No, I didn’t.” with the chubby one at the end “Is the car your car?” of the line, and Brest stood on “No,” Brest admitted readily the right, the sweat stinging his enough. “The people who own it eyes and his kidneys burning. At abandoned it, and I couldn’t find the big scarred desk between them. I thought I’d drive it to them there was a man who looked the nearest city and turn it over with tired hatred on all of them to the police.” and wiped a bald head. “At way over the limit,” the After a while he said, in a dry, chubby man said pleasantly. “He almost soundless voice like finger- hit our car and knocked it to bits.” taps on cork; “The claim.” “I’ll ask you to testify when I “Theft, sir,” one of the young need you,” the judge said, without men said. turning. “Were you, in fact, “What of?” speeding, Mr. — “A car, sir,” the young man said “Brest,” Brest said. “John Brest. silkily. The judge turned to look I was making about sixty. It was

62 GALAXY ”

raining and I was in a hurry. It the judge rose to his feet, his didn’t seem like much of a speed mouth making a vicious square — the car was old, and — for a moment. Brest could not “Much of a speed!” the chubby hear what the judge was saying. man said. “Sixty’s a fair speed, He could not hear what anyone I’d say. And those Daimlers can was saying. The sense of having be cranked up to a hundred with- lived through these moments be- out much difficulty.” fore had gripped him in a new The judge looked at Brest, as paralysis, worse than his first if waiting. “I wasn’t making any- sight of the foreign car. thing like a hundred,” he re- His hearing returned. sponded stiffly. “The car couldn’t The judge was saying: “Take

it.” ‘ have taken it from . . . anything to say, Mr. The judge opened his dry Brest?’ ” mouth, but Brest never heard Brest started and swallowed. what came from between the “I didn’t steal the car,” he said.

shrunken colorless lips. In the “I can see that nobody here is bright morning light there was a going to believe a word I say. I long burst of thunder, with a was taking the car to the police,

sharp edge to it, more like an so its owners could be located. I artillery bombardment than a got lost. The car was hard to storm. As the sound finally died, control, and I hit somebody be- the man’s Brest heard chubby fore I even saw them . . . That’s enameled voice: all.” “— so decrepit to me. You talk The judge sighed, and at the as if it had been about to fall sound, the four young men leaned apart under you. How could you forward slightly. “Ignorance of the stolen car, .” be so familiar with a law . . the judge said, looking up anyhow?” at the ceiling. “Do you press the Somewhere an electric organ claim?” played an ominous gliss. The “Certainly,” snapped one of the judge cried out like a demented slim young men. “He’s as guilty hen; “CUT! CUT! CUT! CUT!” an innocent as I’ve ever de- fended.” chubby man stepped out “Perhaps so. This time, never- of line and struck an attitude theless, I’m not going to free the and waved his nancy fingers, “Oh, man.” you’re a thin figure of a thief!” “I object,” the chubby young There was a confused hubbub man said coldly. “For the record.” among the four young men, and “When was anything ever said

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 63 off the record? Take Mr. Brest the elbows and shoulders. The to the Policy Chambers. Maybe judge continued to stare at the they’ll give him over to you there. far high corner of the room, as if It’s a foregone conclusion, I sup- he had been turned to marble in pose; but I won’t. Clear out.” the white sunlight some time Brest said, astonished, “Is this back. what you call a fair trial?” “Trial?” the judge said. “Who IV said you were on trial? You’re fair game here, Mr. Brest; you’re place where the young lucky that you broke a law at all, men marched him was so ob- or you’d have been condemned viously a broadcasting station quite a while back. Your runaway that there was no connecting it car saved you, for a while, any- with any governmental function. how. These gentlemen here have Past every open door were banks made a good case for you. of tubes and control boards, or

They’ve shown, insofar as it can little knots of actors raving silent- be shown, that you have a real ly under glass. There had also status as a criminal — though been a theater, with fans of light actually they meant to show from baby spots, all amber, and nothing more than that you’re people screaming, screaming; dur- suspect, which is something else ing the next leg of his journey his again. That status, thanks to my head had whooped with that ruling, will keep you unharmed sound. The sign on the stage had much longer than mere inno- said: cence. If Policy takes any interest in you, you may even be jailed. You’ll learn to pray for that, I LAUGHTER promise you.” “I’d rather go home,” Brest said. The young men did not speak The judge smiled as if he were to him, but they did not forbid about to throw up and said, “Will him his hasty glances into the you get out?” studios and equipment-nests. He “We’ll see,” the chubby man stopped a moment where said. “We’ll see. Come along, you.” there was a multitude of beauti- It took Brest a moment to un- ful women, all expensively derstand that the order was clothed with high fashion figures meant for him. The four young beneath the drapes, and the faces men took him gently, tenderly, by of bisque china dolls. Their glass

64 GALAXY eyes met his without recognition with cynical hopelessness for an that they were alive, even that he out. was alive. He saw, several, all marked “Baloney,” said Brest. EXIT in illuminated smoky red. Two of the young men hit him The four young men turned and simultaneously, one fist per ear. looked at him. He stumbled and the other two Then they turned away again. yanked him erect. He was willing It took nothing more to con- to regret the comment, but he vince Brest that he was not going still did not feel intimidated; he to run, that running was the last would say what he damn pleased, thing he wanted to do. So they and once he saw someone in au- wanted him to run, did they? All thority they’d hear him talk, right then, hell would freeze over plenty. before he’d take a step. They arrived at lavishly fur- One of the expensive women nished rooms studded with tele- came up quietly from behind the vision screens. Here the air was chair and sat down upon its arm. especially mild and grateful to When Brest looked up, she bent, Brest’s grime-ground skin. The smiling, and touched his shirt women were more expensive, pocket, with two fingertips which lovely and repellent than ever, burned like dry ice. He wanted to the couches and carpets deeper, throw the hand off, but he was the modulations of polite talk afraid to touch it. He tried to around him gentler and emptier. shrink into the farthest corner of And the fright more intense. the cushions. No one really looked at the The woman smiled again and screens. The little human figures took her hand away to adjust her went through motions like some skirt. When he made no further I subdued form of dancing, or as if move, she arose and went away, some one had just set the clock- walking with the profound grace work going again after a long of murder for its own sake, like stasis. a half-grown leopard. The four young men slowed in Brest cradled his frozen ribs indecision, and muttered among in both hands and watched her go. themselves. Their voices rose al- Nothing in his experience could most to the point where Brest match that stab of demanding could hear what they were saying. coldness. They thrust him at once into a The young men went on argu- blue velvet armchair and turned ing. Brest’s frozen breast warmed their backs. Shivering, he looked gradually and painfully, and after

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 65 a while he noticed that there was structure, set in a patently fake a thin rill of cold moving over his forest. chest, as if the damaged breast “And the High Hunter?” the were secreting a milk, or bleeding. psychologist’s voice was saying, He touched his shirt tentatively. while the camera prowled about It was damp, but he was afraid the lodge, exposing wings set on to explore further — any notice- at random, and the crude-hewn able movement would surely be ends of logs. “I would suggest that rewarded. your father-image may have re- ligious significance as well; do you T>UT nothing happened. The agree?”

young men’s argument went “I think it does,” the child’s on and on like the life stories of voice said. “I saw the High Hun- drunks. Cupping his frost-bitten ter as a — a spirit that kept an heart with newly automatic eye on everything that happened, caution, Brest put his head back and was sometimes cruel without against the velvet and gave the wanting to be or not wanting to. nearest screen his attention. An opposite for the Clown, who A psychologist was interview- is cruel just to be cruel.” ing a child novelist. The child While they spoke, two figures looked as though it had been cos- walked across the screen; one a tumed for a Dickens film, and gigantic stony man bound in the psychologist was as bearded leaves; the other a squat, red- as the experts who testify for nosed creature, dressed in red, mouthwash ads. who reminded Brest simultane- They were exploring the situa- ously of — was it St. Nick and tion which might have led to the W. C. Fields? Of the two, he writing of the novel. Something rather preferred the Clown — called a “lodge” played a big part whom he knew he had seen some- in the story, and it seemed that where before. the child, in order to help himself The apocryphal stalkers faded visualize the place, had built with and the child and the psychologist his own hands a full-sized replica faced each other again. of the “lodge.” It seemed an un- “Ah, the Clown. You will ex- likely proposition, for the child cuse me —” a fatherly smile — did not look to be more than nine “if I say that the Clown seems out years old. of true with the rest of the book. The screen was showing, now, Cruel to be cruel, you say. A what the model lodge looked symbol of evil, then?” like. It was a low, disorderly The child stirred and showed

66 GALAXY

” ” ”

its first sign of discomfiture. “No, have their skins nailed on the sir, that’s not what I meant. It’s walls of the Lodge. The Hunted — well, the High Hunter isn’t who haven’t been good will have human. The Clown is.” their skins nailed on the walls of “He is? Even with his magics the Lodge. There is a difference, and all the rest?” but how can the Hunted see it?” “Don’t forget he’s the only hu- “But what about the Clown?” man in the book, so naturally “Well, the Clown is cruel for he has magics. I don’t think — pleasure. He would like all the well, look. The High Hunter is Hunted to survive the Hunt, so cruel because he has to be — they can be hunted again. He “Out of principle?” magics and does favors and tries “Yes, sir. That’s right. And the to be a good fellow because he Clown is only cruel because he en- himself isn’t ever hunted, which joys it. You know that about the makes him look like he must be Clown; you expect it. You under- a Hunter. The Clown does hunt, stand that that’s the way he is, of course, but he hunts only a and he’s not a bad fellow in most certain kind of pain. He doesn’t other ways. But with the High kill, and he doesn’t create, either. Hunter, you never know. He’s In that way, he’s human. But the cruel out of principle, that’s just High Hunter — it — And a lot more. Brest cupped his aching heart, and began to be ri^HE child was obviously warm- aware how tired he was, and ing up to his subject. “For one hungry. And guilty; away out on thing,” he said, “he has thousands the edges of his failing conscious- of wards, and he has to take care ness, he felt that he should be do- of them all, all the time. One of ing something before something the Hunted — the Mouse, say — happened for which he would be may have to be killed by the Owl blamed. He was almost asleep so that the Trout can escape the when a sharp finger made a gliss- Otter. How would the Mouse ando over his collapsed ribcage. know that? And would he like it “Hey, sissy!” any better if he did know it? He’s The four young men, unsmiling, more important to himself than stood over him, waiting tensely the Trout. You can’t ever know for his response to be delayed the kind of good the High Hunter further, perhaps long enough to is after. And so he’s the only one herd him with a blow. who can be satisfied with it. The “Get up, sweetheart.” Hunted who have been good will Brest got up, dizzily. The sound

68 GALAXY of the young men’s voices filled way, it was useless to question — him with sick fury. He said, “In but could he somehow flail his your eye, Junior.” way into the rheumless glance of The fight was short, but he the camera and scream to the

loved every second of it. He felt unknown audience for help? each blow as a compliment and a A kind of cloud where his vindication, and he fouled with memory had been kept him from

aseptic joy. All four of them it, not any fear of the young men: tumbled with him in a stunning this huge solid station had never hailstorm of knuckles and shoes broadcast so much as a racetrack on the yielding, bristly carpet. bulletin in the world where he Brest caught one throat against had lived up to now. There was the heel of his hand, and when no way of knowing if the broad- the rest hauled him battered and casts had an audience at all, twitching away, he saw the body really. remain, with darkening arterial The Lodge door opened, as a foam soaking into the nap, silent, bank of lights flared amber at motionless and beautiful. the base of the tower. It was While his muscles shivered and toward the lights his pursuers and his stomach buckled inside his captors were staring. Brest stag- belly, the opposite walls of his gered forward and through the skull rang with killing. That clap- opening. The door closed silently per could not be tied. Brest had behind him. killed; he had given an account There was a giant fireplace — of himself. impossible to believe the ring- It seemed undignified that his letted child had lifted or laid that own aching body should be drag- fieldstone! — and piled helter- ging its feet. skelter a miscellany of items easily ascribed to a nine-year- V old’s collecting instinct. Bags, boxes, a tandem bicycle, broken ^1 'HE young men released his toys and carpenter’s tools, and arms with abrupt unanimity food. Brest palmed a nibbled cin- and he staggered, bringing up namon bun and dispatched it in against the Lodge itself, startling- two bites. There was a sink, too, ly erected in the center of the its faucet dripping steadily on an square before the chimney. No open and remarkably complete trees; just as he had thought, the chemistry set. Brest put out a background had been faked. Or trembling hand to extract a small this Lodge was a copy. Either beaker from the soggy box. He

ON THE WALL OF THE LODGE 69 filled it with water and sipped it straight lips, high cheekbones and thirstily, so fast that a dribble ran a nose as straight as that of a down his chin and wetted his Pharaoh. It had, however, no ex- front. pression. The eyes — wonderful There was a polite knock. dark eyes, except for this—stared “Hey, sissy!” as if sightless; nor did they blink, Brest snatched up the nearest ever. The hands upon the desk item in the rubble — an open, were off-white as linen, and 'bore three-quarters full sack of flour. uselessly long, thin fingers which Enough had spilled so that there danced constantly on the glass. was slack at the neck of the bag “This is John Brest,” said the

and he could swing it like a black- voice of the chubby young man. jack. He put one hand on the “Judge Trafling remanded him to doorknob and faltered, “What? Policy, Mr. Hosmin.” What do you want?” “How do you do,” Hosmin said. “If you’re quite done, doll, Hos- His voice was soft, almost blurry, min’s ready. Let’s get it rolling, as if he were trying not to think shall we?” The speaker shoved about something else. The mask- the door open and reached in, his like stare did not shift. Making an

foot braced on the doorsill as if aborted gesture with the flour he dared not cross it. He caught sack which still hung from his Brest by the shoulder and yanked clenched hand, Brest said. “How him into the square again. do you do,” although he had There was a desk now between meant to say something explosive him and the huge smokestack, and self-righteous. but it seemed to Brest that the “I’m surprised to see you. Have sets were becoming more and you committed a crime?” more makeshift. No walls, no bookshelves, not even a clothes- ¥>REST remembered Trafling’s tree; just a desk, and a mqn sitting warning that his offenses, ac- behind it. The three young men cidental, imaginary or deliberate, shoved Brest to within respectful might be his only protection. distance, and stood back. Even so, he could not admit to Even close to, the man named having ‘committed’ anything. The Hosmin was small. His hair was verb implied retribution. He said, gray, with a richly silver grayness, “Everybody seems to think so. obviously a premature defection But I don’t even know where I of heredity; and his face, too, sug- am. gested youth of a kind. It was “You’re trembling. Sit down.” narrow, womanishly delicate, with Hosmin warped his gaze beyond

70 GALAXY the chubby one. “Is this only a hind him, the three young men request for a ruling? You are not sat on a curb, bunched, their expected to bring the game here. backs turned, transferring a word You’ve mistreated him?” syllable by syllable in muffled “No and yes. He wrecked our voices that only Brest could hear:

car and resisted arrest. We had Tat. Tie. Tale . . .Tat. Tie. Tale. to manhandle him a little. Later “I think I did kill the tall one,” he attacked us and we think he’s Brest added. “I was trying to, killed one of us. Naturally we had anyhow. I don’t know what kind to act accordingly.” of operation you’ve got here — “Naturally,” Hosmin said. He I can see that you make your own

lit a cigarette and pulled its coal laws — but by my lights I was down nearly to his lips in a single treated unjustly for something concentrated drag that made that wasn’t my fault. That makes V Brest’s own lungs ache. As Hos- us even. All I want to do is go

min laid it in a brimming and home. If I’m in your way here, smoldering ashtray, Brest now all you have to do is show me how saw that the man was dusty with to get out of it.” flocculent gray powder which “Well, Mr. Brest,” Hosmin made even his skin look granular. said, “you are not in our way, as “But,” said Hosmin, “you have you put it. And as a matter of not answered me.” fact you are not our first visitor. There was a brief silence. Fi- These violent people arrive, now nally the young man said, “No.” and then it cannot be helped, Hosmin swiveled so that his they bring with them their own attention was focused near Brest. kinds of self-righteousness. Pri- “We have been unwilling to listen vately, Mr. Brest, privately I very closely to your story, Mr. commend your killing. I had not Brest. I can see that you are dis- thought it possible; I am inter- turbed. We have a difficult situa- ested that it is, but the wages tion here, kept only delicately in of sin — with luck; do you under- balance, and our methods are ar- stand me? — are written down in bitrary most of the time because double columns here, too. To re- we have no choice. Now tell me lease you is unthinkable, there is all about it.” no precedent for that.” The blurry, eminently reason- able voice commanded him abso- "DREST had had no hope to lutely. Numbly, Brest told every- ^ lose, but he said stubbornly, thing, extruding the scalding “Why?” words one and two at a time. Be- “Because you would suffer in-

ONTHE WALL OF THE LODGE 71 ”

credibly,” Hosmin said. “Judge “I know where you live,” Hos- Trailing remanded you because min said. “You do not. You know you have status. Were I to turn nothing but a name. Would you you loose, or were you to attempt be able to tell me how you would to escape, that status would then find where you lived if you were vanish, and you would become freed — and freed also of the the object of what we call a chase penalties we have for freedom — sequence, a live doll to be filmed at this moment?” and dubbed later into some pro- “Naturally I can’t answer that. gram which we may or may not Are you pretending that you broadcast. It would never end. We can’t?” never stop chases, it is not eco- “No, Hosmin said. “We have nomical. The subjects are chosen card files, of course, on that kind by lot when they reach technical of information. My point is that obsolescence in the kind of oper- the information concerns fictions. ation we conduct here. To sen- You cannot go back. You are now tence a human being to a chase years away from your set, in any would be unthinkable.” event. Every second takes you “I don’t understand what the farther, every step many years hell you’re talking about,” Brest farther away. I can do nothing for said. “Look. You seem to be the you now but order that you die. big boss here. Is that right?” In your case it will be a little “Well,” said Hosmin, “no. Or premature and nothing more. To do you mean within this area? preserve your life from this point Of course, my orders are final on would be an impossible cruel-

within this operation, which is, ty.” indeed, quite extensive. But this Brest hunched down into the is only a communications enter- chair. He had given up under- prise, and does not make overall standing long ago. He said, with policy. That comes down from, a bitter stubbornness, “I want to ah, upstairs. We transmit in ac- live. I want to go home.” cordance with the decisions of “You cannot,” Hosmin said in others, which establish before- a low colorless voice. “You have hand what should and should not left your home. It was an illusion, be transmitted. About that I have which, somehow, you saw no say whatsoever.” through; we cannot now return

“That’s not what I mean. You you to it. It is impossible. Not

run this part of it. Why can’t you illegal, or unsuitable, or immoral: just order me back to where I physically impossible. As for liv- came from? I live in — ing, I could not be so unjust. I

72 GALAXY ” ”

must proceed as inevitably I pro- “Yes?” ceed, without consent or indeed ff any request for your consent.” “Wait. I was speaking. I repeal

A faint buzzing interrupted nothing. But escape is, after all, Hosmin. The mask remained as possible. I ask you to request if by necessity rigid and unsur- death.” prised. Only Brest was startled “Instead?” when Hosmin said, “Hosmin Hosmin sat, motionless except here.” for the slight never-ending tele- The air quivered. There was no graphy of his hands, while behind other voice; only a sort of itchy him on a sudden monitor colored electricity. shadows went through their sub- When it stopped, Hosmin said, dued ritual. The entire set was “I am often wrong. It appears that silent. Brest, convinced that the you will live. Don’t sit forward, world had been cut adrift upon Mr. Brest. I have tried to tell you his question, was too frozen even that the life you have requested to tremble. But then there was is an eternity in boiling oil. Now unmistakably boots-and-over- that I have been told, in effect, shoes music, a long-drawn sigh of who you are — my dear and only many distant people and the slid- friend — ing of many hurried feet. Slurred “I don’t — steps came up behind Brest and

died ostentatiously, as if waiting OREST stopped. The suddenly to be buried. Hosmin raised the beautiful voice had spoken burden of his hooded eyes to that phrase with so sudden a Brest’s. warmth and unmistakable bot- “Sir,” someone behind Brest tomless shallow cardiac-respira- urgently said. “There’s something tory shuddering happiness that wrong; a scramble in the tapes, Brest’s own diaphragm leaped or bad editing: something’s being and stopped. The masked eyes dubbed in under the board.” made coals; what was it, what was Hosmin turned in his chair, happening? He saw the trembling which turned with him, and the fingers snub the cigarette, and was thing squealed with a long and unable to move or feel. What? He unbearable torture. The whole felt intolerably lonely. He had hollow square squealed back, un- been condemned, and yet was alive and protesting. Hosmin was suddenly the object of some inti- looking at the screen, and Brest mate and umistakable king-mak- tried to look too. ing which made him tremble. It was the chimney, and it was

ONTHE WALL OF THE LODGE 73 pulsing too fast. It looked as had enough, and popped through though it were demented. the tension holding him, freeing “We’re trying to kill it,” that himself into flight. breathless voice said. He crossed the square, not hear- Hosmin snapped, “You can’t ing any pursuit, not looking to see kill it, from here or anywhere if it by now was him they flowed else. Send down for a new script.” upon, and hurled himself at the The pressure of someone-be- yellow brick wall, straight up, hind-Brest let up without an lunging staple by staple toward identifiable sound, and the remote the smoky mouthpiece. There was camera which was scanning the a crowd shout behind him: “An chimney soared until the public escape!” square had become included; the Tall on its flared rim, swaying chimney, steaming away into a in the smoke, he risked looking corner of the screen, was now in down, peering awkwardly past the foreground and not the center the flour sack still clutched in his of interest. It could be seen that hand. He heard the mob roar, thin it was built of yellow bricks and and eerie as the high whooping had staples driven into it. A man of terns, and saw the first figures came running — swarming up the base of the chim- ney. He sobbed once, “Coming, A CROSS the empty square the Mother,” and flung the sack over man came running. the lip and into the pulsing chim- He ran too fast. There was a ney. He flung his arms wide, river of black figures pouring out shouted his defiant acquiescence after him. Far behind Brest there to the High Hunter, and fell head- was a composite sigh; “A chase!” long toward the peopled square. The blurred man darted across Inside, the stack temperature the square, his legs twinkling, licked the wrapping off the floury while the black river divided into powder as he fell and fell, and wavefronts and made to surround he heard the beginnings of the him. The man twisted, darted, explosion so that it was no sur- dodged into the inevitable cul-de- prise when the great chimney sac, and the crowd surged in after erupted and fell with him. It him. crumbled at the base and came “Sound!” Hosmin cried. down quite majestically, remain-

Immediately it came through, ing almost at the vertical through- high and shrill and terrifying. out. The last third toppled and Brest, like a bubble, having fought hit the ground all at once. Bang its oily way to the surface, had and bang. Brest bounced to his or

74 GALAXY somebody’s feet, nodding and His crowd seethed beyond the smiling, although the brick dust door, and through the windows he obscured every thing and every could just make out the smiling body. The band played Billboard. flower-faces of girls, applauding Amid first and last things he his aplomb, admiring his — could hear the Machine, thrum- Escape. ming, thrumming, and reached He smoothed his red trousers out blindly and painfully to open over his stocky muscled legs, the door. settled the red jacket over his In the clearer air inside, he saw heavied torso, explored his face the Clown at the wheel, but as he with one sure hand for the surely slid onto the yielding cushion putty nose. The other skin, al- there was no one there but him- ready in the obliquity of justice, self. He locked the door, the sec- was on the Lodge again, all shed ret and sacramental door. He tatters until another time. reached behind him for the blan- All the lights turned green. ket, which was there, and shook The giggling girls waved a

it out, grabbing for the thermos. promise and withdrew, and Brest,

The cap was loose this time and knowing the car could take it, screwed off, easy in his fingers. He started off in second with a roar. smelled the bitter milky odor, Music. It would be his custom as shook out two white drops, and far as he could foresee to ride

laid it deeply safe back in the long distances every Funday, and blanket. He released the brake, this Funday was unlike any other. clutching and shifting this time Applause. with practiced ease. — JAMES & VIRGINIA BLISH

FORECAST

In August we have another complete short novel, and one of the finest science-fiction stories that has lately crossed our desk. The time is the far future; the place a star cluster, very far from Earth; the people Earthmen

. . . and others. The author is Jack Vance, and the name of the story is THE DRAGON MASTERS.

ONTHE WALL OF THE LODGE 75 By WALLACE WEST Illustrated by RUVIDICH DAWNINGSBURGH

A lean wind wails through the age-old avenues of Dawningsburgh.

Mornings, it brings sand from surrounding hills and scrubs at fresh paint, neon signs endlessly proclaiming the city’s synthetic name and street markers in seven languages.

At sunrise it prepares the dunes for footprints of scurrying guided tourists.

When icy night clamps down and the intruders scamper to their hotels, the wind howls as it flings after them a day’s collection of paper cups, bottle caps and other picnic offal.

76 GALAXY @ II (Q

3%(B 0^ Qi^Uzz^o^

:iD!

Tour Scarlet dine deserts on exotic Foods dance' COCKTAI ^ f=^REE: Mm iFi^m

ySAfi TO A4 V Your travel ACiENTORvoUR IliUdl Nearest s-piAWEnAa Y o:lEPiCE isrowi lARS! Cheats!” whimpered could make her feel a trifle less Betsy O’Reilly as she forlorn. tossed on the lumpy bed of her Betsy jumped out of bed and

third class room and recalled the rummaged in a closet. There it sky poster that had hypnotized was! A heated emergency gar- her. ment equipped with plastic hel- Now, Betsy was disappointed met, air pack and a searchlight. and bored. Slim, pretty, freckled Required by law but seldom used, and pert, but ten years older than since tourists were told to stay she wished, she had mortgaged off the 60° below zero streets at her secretarial salary to engage night. once more in The Eternal Quest. Wriggling into the clumsy And, as always, the quest was thing, she tested valves and proving futile. Eligible bachelors switches as she had been in- shunned Dawningsburgh as they structed. Then she tiptoed out of did other expensive tourist traps. her cubbyhole, down a corridor The “new friends” she had made and into the hotel lobby. were either loudmouthed, hairy The room clerk did not greet miners en route to or from the her with its usual trill. A robot, orichalcum diggings, or middle- built on Earth as a “stand-in” for

aged couples on tragic second one of the vanished Martians, it honeymoons, or self-styled emigre had turned itself off when the last artists and novelists intent on tourists left the dining room for

cadging free meals and any other their beds. But how lifelike it favors that lonely females might still looked, balancing on a perch grant. behind the ornate plastic desk. But maybe, Betsy tried to con- And how human too, despite the sole herself, there was something obviously avian ancestory of the real here; something glamorous race it mimicked. What was it that she could find and cling to the guides had said about the during the long months back in way in which all intelligent life- New York when she would have forms so far discovered closely to subsist on soups and salads in resembled one another? Why, order to pay her debt to Trans- even artificial Martians made the Plan. Mars had been great, the average human look drab and guides insisted. Once, they said, clumsy. it had even colonized Atlantis. Betsy circled the overdecorated Perhaps, under the sham and room like a shadow and pushed away from those awful conducted against the street door. Escaping tours, something was still left that air whistled through the crack.

78 GALAXY “Miss!” squawked the clerk, “No, no!” she interrupted. triggered alive by the noise. “What did the real Martians make

“Don’t . . here? Surely not junk jewelry for She was outside by then and tasteless tourists. Something running through the crazy half- beautiful, it must have been. light thrown by Mars’s nearer and Wind bells? Dreams? Snow- farther moons. Wind howled and flakes? Please tell me.” tugged at her. Cold turned the The robot twittered and breath from her helmet vent into flinched like a badly made toy.

snow. “I d-do not understand,” it ventured at last. “I am not pro- TF7HEN no pursuit developed grammed to answer such ques- she stopped, gasping, be- tions. Perhaps the guides can do .” fore one of the open-air shops she so. Now may I show you . . had toured that afternoon. Five “Thank you, no.” She touched “Martians” bent stiffly over lathes the thing’s cold, six-fingered hand

and other machines, just where with quick compassion. “But I’ll they had stopped after the last ask the guides. Good night.” visitor departed. Hoarfrost mot- Back in the street, she began to tled their leather harness, their retrace her tour of the afternoon. downy red skins and the scars on Here was what the guide had their shoulders where atrophied called a “typical home.” This time wings had supposedly been am- she did not disturb the mother, putated. No breath came from father and one furry child with their nostrils. How cold and small budding wings who clustered they looked! about what experts thought must On impulse, she approached have been a telepathic amplifier. briskly. It did not work any longer —

“Yes, Miss?” The , robot pro- none but the coarsest Martian prietor unkinked as its automatic machines did — yet the frost- relays turned it on. It came for- rimed robots sat stiffly enchanted ward with a grimace meant to before it, as they would do until represent a smile. “You’re out the sun rose and tourists resumed very late. What may I show their endless tramp. (The day’s you?” Its voice was like a rusted last, she noted, had left an empty bird song. pop bottle in the mother’s lap.) “Tell me,” said she, “what the Farther on she met a “police- Martians really made here.” man”, resplendent in metal har- “Why, we design jewelry. Miss. ness, leaning forlornly against an .” I have some nice . . anachronistic lamppost. Some

DAWNINGSBURGH 79 late-prowling jokester had stuck greedily farther and farther out a cigarette between its still lips. into the darkness of space. Surely not policemen here? So metal-paged books had long She looked up at the fairy towers vanished from the library’s stacks that laced the stars. Surely not and its sand-strewn halls were lit- in this grave place. It must be one tered with broken rolls of tape. of those human touches intro- How long would it be, she won- duced by Trans-Planetary to dered as she passed on with a make tourists smile and feel sigh, before the guides realized superior. Nevertheless, she re- that even those mute tapes could moved the cigarette and ground be sold as souvenirs? it under her heel. After walking half a mile I3HOBOS had set by now. She through the sand-whipped night, turned on the searchlight, Betsy paused before a structure checked her air tank — the gauge of translucent spires and flying showed enough reserve for an- buttresses where a library had other hour—and defiantly opened once been housed. No robots were the face plate of her helmet. The on duty there and no serious atmosphere was cold; cold as a attempt had been made at restor- naked blade. It had a heady tang ation. No Champollion had and she stood taking in great appeared in the early days of gulps of it until a warning dizzi- exploration to decipher some ness forced her to close the plate. Martian Rosetta stone, and by The guides were wrong again! A now the historical record had human could learn to breathe been hopelessly scrambled by this air! souvenir hunters. Leaving the gutted library, But that didn’t matter really, Betsy breasted the wind as she they said. Outside of the tourist ploughed through shifting dunes trade the only really valuable toward a structure shimmering on things on the dying planet were the other side of the plaza. This, extensive deposits of orichalcum, the guides pattered, was a cathe- an ore rich in pure radium. dral. When the place now called Thanks to the impartial mining Dawningsburgh had been alive, monopoly established by Trans- they said, its inhabitants gathered Planetary twenty years ago, or- at the shrine each evening to sip ichalcum supplied the nations of one ceremonial drink of precious Earth with sinews of war which water, shed two ceremonial tears they had not yet dared use, and for the days when Mars had been fuel for ships that were questing young and worship a flock of ata-

80 GALAXY vistic winged princesses who per- exactly, but of the few hucksters formed ceremonial flights under who debased its thirst for knowl- a pressurized, transparent dome edge and beauty. in the rays of the setting sun. Then a bird started to sing! This showplace had, of course, A bird? On Mars? This must been restored right down to its be a tape, triggered on somehow last perch, and had been equipped despite her care in avoiding the with a full complement of “wor- electric eye. Any moment now, shippers.” At the climax of each the robots would begin their mind- day’s final guided tour, visitors less worship. jammed themselves into the nave, She shuddered and turned to sipped cocktails, “ohed”, “ahed” escape. But something held her. and even shed tears along with She crept instead, step by sound- the robots as they gawked at man- less step, toward the source of nequins flying above them on in- that exquisite music. visible wires in the best Peter Pan An almost naked male robot tradition. had materialized before the mu- Ducking under the electric eye ral. It was singing, far better than that would have started a per- any nightingale, its strange hands formance, Betsy tiptoed into the outstretched to the radiance.

structure. It was quieter than any Such notes could not . . . should grave. Several hundred robots not . . . spring from the throat huddled there on their perches, of a machine. Heart in mouth, drinks in hand, ready to go into Betsy advanced with infinite care. their act. At the far end of the By the mural’s light she saw that transept a soaring mural, gleam- the newcomer had no hoarfrost ing phosphorescently, hinted at coating. And the moisture of its the lakes, seas and forests of breath condensed and fell to the Mars’s prehistory. Under the floor like a blessing. She reached dome a single flyer dangled, its out a small hand to touch its plumes trailing. scarred shoulder, then jerked For long minutes Betsy stood back. in the dimness, seeking to cap- The shoulder was warm! ture the mystery and wonder of this place. In ruins, it would have 44^REETINGS, girl,” Betsy’s swept her with ecstasy, as had brain whispered to her. her moonlit view of the Parthe- “You’re out late. Just let me finish non. Restored and “repopulated,” this thing and we’ll have a chat.” it made her sick and ashamed of The music soared, uninter- her race . . . no, not of her race. rupted, to a climax sparkling with

DAWNINGSBURGH 81 grace notes and glittering with of weeping. On this visit I plan to chromatic trills. wipe out you little humans who “Now,” fluted the creature, foul the nest of my ancestors.” turning and fixing her with gold- “How?” She gripped his arm, en, freewheeling eyes, “what fear racing through her. brings a tourist” (the word was a “Tomorrow all this junk —” he curse) “here at this hour?” nodded his handsome head at the “L-love,” she gulped, hardly robots—“will have been replaced

knowing what said. “I-I mean, . she by real Martians . . youngsters I wanted to find out if anything out for a lark with me. We’ll tend real was left. And, well, I ran shop, make jewelry and all that away from the hotel. They’ll be until I give a signal. Perhaps this coming after me, I suppose.” shrine would be the best place. “Don’t fret. Martians can play When it’s crowded, just at sunset. tricks with time. I’ll return you to Then we pounce!” your room well before they get Mura ruffled himself up and here.” sprang at her so convincingly that “You — you’re not just an- she shrieked. other, fancier, robot?” “How juvenile!” she managed “I’m alive enough.” He bowed to laugh shakily. with a sweep that seemed to in- “What did you say, human?” vest him with wings. “Pitaret The Pitaret was taken aback by Mura, at your service. A prince- this unexpected thrust. ling of sorts. An iconoclast. And “I said your plan is childish!” an atavist like you.” She stamped her foot. “So you cut “There are others here?” Her the throats of a few stupid people. eyes grew round. Then Earth sends up cobalt “Most of the others have fin- bombs and blows this cradle of ished with this outgrown eyrie and Martian civilization to smither- are away on larger affairs. Only I eens. The others won’t like that, return with a few friends once even if they are occupied with each year to sing of past glories larger affairs. You would be in and weep over present desecra- real trouble.” tions.” “Hmmm!” He looked at her “Two ceremonial tears?” she with new respect and a faint tinge asked with a return of bitterness. of uncertainty. “But some punish- There was something in his at- ment is justified. Even you can titude that she found disquieting. see that.”

.” “Many more than two. But . . “Yes,” she admitted, wrinkling he shrugged angrily, “I grow tired her nose at him, now that the

82 GALAXY worst was over. “This place is a “I-I don’t understand,” she horror. And we tourists are hor- whispered, strangely moved. rors too, for having let ourselves “That searchlight beam repre- be taken in by it. But death isn’t sents the living present. Where it punishment, just an ending.” shines, life pulses briefly on a vast “I hadn’t thought of it that mural that is painted across time, way.” Mura slipped an arm from its beginning to its end. Mar- around her shoulders and looked tians manipulate the light of the down at her impishly. “You sug- present as we please, living when gest a fitting punishment then.” we please, so long as we please.”

“How dreadful . . . Wonderful, TTERE was the final test. If she I mean.” She gazed at him wor- could keep the hold that she shipfully. “And you can do this had somehow gained over this for humans too?” immature superman, horrible “For short periods, yes. But things might be averted. Her stop fluttering your lovely eye- thoughts raced in circles. lashes at me. Punished you are “Martians can play tricks with going to be. If you can suggest time?” she asked at last. nothing better than my plan. I’ll “Oh, yes. Time is like this mu- go back to it and take the con- ral. Let me show you: Aim your sequences. Otherwise I’ll be tbe light at the left-hand corner of laughing stock of my friends.” the picture. See the sun and its “And you couldn’t stand that, planets forming out of cosmic could you, poor boy?” She patted dust? Now move the beam his hand before he snatched it toward the right. Slowly . . . Slow- away. “How is this, then, for an ly! Notice how Martian oceans alternative? Tonight, when I form and living things crawl out couldn’t sleep, I got to thinking of them. that there could be no more fit- “Now continue. There you see ting punishment for tourists than the winged Martians with their to be forced to live, for years and cities that long have crumbled to years, in a plush hotel at Atlantic dust. Next, water grows scarce City, Las Vegas ... or Dawnings- and canals are built. Here all but burgh. Think how miserable they a few of us have lost our wings. would become if they had to take

“Here we colonize Earth . . . the same tours over and over with to our eternal regret. Finally, you the same guides; stuff themselves see us abandon Mars rather than on the same meals; dance to the risk another test of strength with same orchestras with the same you pushing troglodytes.” new friends. Can you hold your

DAWNINGSBURGH 83 time spotlight still here for, say, ten years?” The Complete “Of course,” Mura crowed as he Guide To swept her into his downy arms and danced her about among the ORBITING SATELLITES robot perches. “A wonderful idea. By SPACE PRODUCTS CORP. You’re a genius. Even the others may come back, now, to watch

Jusf published ! The humans squirm, yawn — and per- $2.00 most complete up-to- haps learn to respect their elders. date understandable How can I repay you?” book on ORBITING SATEILITBS iiT ET ME GO back to New York,” she said, feeling like a traitor. “That wouldn’t be fair. You’re a tourist. You came here to prove to yourself that, as your Bible

puts it, ‘a living dog is better than a dead lion.’ You must learn your lessons along with others.” “I suppose you’re right.” She Each individual satellite is beautifully illustrated felt cleaner now, even though the in orbit. In simple terms. Series I explains the prospect of a decade at Dawnings- significance of each satellite and describes its role in the development of global systems for burgh, with The Quest unfinished, WEATHER, COMMUNICATIONS, NAVIGATION appalled her. To be forty-one and and RECONNAISANCE. still single when she returned to By use of a loose-leaf method this book can be Earth! Two tears trickled down kept current by periodic editions from Space her freckled nose. Products as new satellites are orbited. Essential for students and teachers of science and astro- “That’s better,” the Pitaret nautics in organizing and keeping up with our sang happily. “You’re already be- rapidly expanding satellite program. ginning to understand the mean- ing of our ancient ceremonial. j

To: SPACE PRODUCTS CORP, Dept. 2-6 i Give me ten years and I’ll make I 38 East 57th St., New York 22, N.Y. a real Martian of you!” I Enclosed is $ for copies of The Complete . Outside, the lean wind echoed Guide To Orbiting Satellites @ $2.00 per copy; | I his it Name I glee as tossed a hatful of I Address Good Humor sticks and sand- I I City ....Zone State | coated lollipops against the cathe- I * Add 250 outside U.S. ond Canado dral wall. — WALLACE WEST

84 GALAXY We plumb again the Origins of Almost Everything — and meet the great philosopher

who first learned Nothing!

By EDWARD WELLEN

N 300 day, 4004 U.E., the Radiation Disposal Corpo- O ration spacetug Oebouk, Sirius I registry, was in deep space jettisoning radioactive wastes. It was engaging in the questionable practice of dumping the stuff in packets at meaning- omaiNS ful intervals. Captain Goshall Rovwymu — as he tells us in his unblushing memoirs My Nine Lives — having accepted an un- OF der-the-table proposition. OALACTIC PHILOSOPHY

Illustrated by IVIE These faint chalkings on the no danger to life. Capt. Goshall blackboard of nothingness were thought salvage and his mind to spell out in dots of computer teemed with astronomical figures. morse a subliminal message urg- He recalled the launch, put on ing prospects to buy Shuvh his boarding party cap, strapped Transmutating Metal Polish. “I on his freezer and sent himself wouldn’t give a plugged dysaub to the derelict. for a shipload of Shuvh,” the The air seemed moldy but he captain tells us. But this was his let his chest inflate. Now and first dealing with the mighty Ad again he had to back through a Astra Agency, which handled the creeping of hydroponics jungle Shuvh account, and he meant to but deck after deck was jammed turn in a neat job. full of perfectly sound equipment. The craft was parsecs out in Out-of-date, of course, but there reaches where the pull of stars were a myriad primitive planets would not blur the message. But to unload it on. After a particu- when Goshall took off his cap- larly ferocious snarl of jungle he tain cap and put on his astro- was glad to come on a smile of gator cap he spotted at once that clearing. A park, he guessed, for the line of message was bellying beside a bench-rimmed, dust-cov- out of true. He traced the in- ered pool stood what he saw as a fluence to an asteroid where no surrealistic statue. He laughed. asteroid should be. He put on his “I wonder what you stand for,” captain cap and ordered the he said, and switched on his non- launch out to investigate. wipe timestream tape to record The launch sniffed around and his claim to the ship. determined that under the en- He froze. crusting and pitting the object He thought he had heard a was no asteroid but a vast ship. voice saying, “I stand for the The launch matched the spin of purpose of greeting you. That the ship, clanged airlock to air- and nothing more.” lock, and knocked. The tapping The statue was moving evoked no response. Sensing Cap>- squeakily. Not a statue but a tain Goshall on remote breath- robot. ing down its eye, the launch forced the spaceship’s lock. OSHALL’S hand shot casu- It poked its scanner down a ally to his freezer. If he had dusty passage. It found no sign of heard aright the robot knew sentient life, but found in its lingua galactica. “Hello, there. sampling of hydroponics-fed air I am—”

86 GALAXY “Yes. I see you, therefore you coming to the premises for female are.” aides.” Capt. Goshall didn’t like this Capt. Goshall reached for his

talk from robots. “Where’s your boarding party cap, to give it an master?” elbow-brushing, and discovered “Determinism is all about us.” that in his initial excitement, Goshall glanced uneasily back aboard the Oebouk, he had around. He looked more closely forgotten to remove his astro- at the robot. There was no ex- gator and captain caps. But they pression to read but the left eye were moving past tenantless seemed remarkably real. With a rooms. Another companionway chill of insight Capt. Goshall had brought them to a compartment a vision of a knight in armor. containing a bulkhead-to-bulk- “You mean there’s someone in- head computer. side you? I mean, you’re inside “Observe.” that?” They stood watching its crys- The robot tapped itself, had a tals pulse feebly. spell of coughing, then said, “In “Very nice,” Capt. Goshall a material sense, this is me. I’m said at last, “but where are the Lutil. I came into being — flesh- other survivors?” and-blood being — on Atik I. I’m Lutil patted the computer. one of the last surviving mem- “This is the other survivor.” bers of the SMP detachment.” The crystals brightened. Capt. Goshall introduced him- “Hello, Lutil. Say, I’ve hit on self, then said, “What happened four identical bars in Verdi’s to the others?” Otello, a Dwenolhep commercial, “Time. Come, I’ll show you.” and Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette.^' Lutil started down a spongy Lutil patted the computer. path. Capt. Goshall followed “Fine, fine.” He touched Capt. down a companionway. Goshall’s arm. When they were Lutil indicated cubicles. “Ob- out of photoelectricshot Lutil said, serve. Here, in what we liked to “Poor thing. We tried musical term our ‘logic-tight compart- therapy. Now all it does is that ments,’ we lived and contem- sort of business.” plated, separately concentrating.” “Oh?”

He stopped suddenly; Capt. Gos- “Yes, we asked too much of it. hall stopped and looked around, But it was no more than we hand on freezer. “Or should I asked of ourselves. To you it may ” say ‘concentrating separately?’ seem vanity, but our aim was He got under way again. “We’re nothing less than to grasp the

ORIGINS OF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 87 ”

universe whole. Is* this my com- I take that to be an idiom ex- partment?” They had returned pressing perplexity.” to the cubicles and Lutil ushered “Yeah.” Goshall into one and gestured “Well, then, the others of the him to a chair. “It makes no contingent knew me to be the difference now. I was saying, we last surviving adherent of the philosophers of the various Observationist school. I main- worlds agreed on one thing — tained nothing can exist unless that different p»oints of view led there’s an observer to observe it. to different images of the struc- In spite of their disbelief, every- ture of reality. We sought a uni- one was most kind to me. They fying vision, hoping to obtain a did their utmost to prolong my functional view of reality. To ac- existence, giving me first draw complish collectively what we on the SMP’s mechanatomical could not attain individually in prosthetics bank. As you see, I’m the turbulence of life, we planned largely patchwork. I believe it a Symposium on Metagalactic was for my sake — to strengthen Philosophy. With backing from my belief — rather than as a foundations we bought and self-preservative measure on their equipped this spaceship and part that they did this. If so, hired maintenance personnel. it’s sufficient reason to feel grate- This was to be our ivory tower, ful that they haven’t lived to a place where, away from violence learn I’ve grown zealproof, doc- and corruption, we could placidly trine-proof, and ultimately al- deliberate. Beginning circa 2000 most—” he curtailed a cynical U. E., the SMP ship planet- laugh— “proof-proof. Inwardly, hopped, gathering savants. I my- captain, I am smiling bitterly.” self came aboard in 2085.” “You were saying— Lutil was pacing. Capt. Gos- hall saw that over the centuries yes. About the ingather- Lutil had paced grooves of ing. It was not without thought in the flooring. The span misadventure. I am in mind of of years — 2085 to 4004 — sud- Ojuras, the renowned promulga- denly struck him. tor of Upspiraling Awareness. “How do you account for The SMP ship put in at Svati I your senior-citizenship?” to pick up Ojuras. The registrar “By the fact that it is not at first thought Ojuras was a no- quite my own.” show. She got no response when “You’ve lost me.” she called Ojuras’s home. On an “I see you, albeit blurredly, so off-chance, she searched the ship

88 GALAXY itself. In the hold, atop a heap of sented him with the SMP in- Ojuras’s effects, a portly svatii signia — glasses to wear pushed sat — amid the clangor and up on the brow. Speeches. When turmoil of servicing, loading and next he wakened he found him- refueling — with eyes closed as self alone. in deep meditation. Smiling, the “He shuddered to think what registrar trundled him bodily to the effect would be on their feel- the assigned cubicle. ings when they learned he wasn’t “Falirj wakened from a dream the great Ojuras. His serving tray of repast. Through the port he wheeled in. So it went. Now and saw stars. He sprang to his feet. again a savant had the wish to The door opened and a serving consult him on finer points of his tray wheeled itself in and forte. But the others looked arranged itself temptingly. A daggers of the mind at any who lesser being, without stopping to would disturb the great Ojuras. think, might have opened his And so, save for his own pro- mouth to shout his identity; it found snoring, an almost tangible should not be too late to shoot hush insulated Falirj. him home. Falirj opened his “Some thought they saw what mouth to devour the meal. The the great Ojuras was getting at. registrar followed, hastily in- Ultimate Awareness. His very formed Falirj she wasn’t the example was a teaching that dessert, and asked if he were sleep, instead of being a mere comfortable. Falirj was already means of restoring vitality to the nodding off. Pleased, the registrar individual, was an end. ‘Dreams’ tiptoed out and left the savant were the ‘real” life. Whereas to his meditating. most mortals compromise their “When next Falirj wakened a ‘dreams’ in order to meet the welcoming delegation was wait- ‘realities,’ the indomitable Ojuras ing on him. Falirj looked about compromised ‘reality’ in order to at a wisp of beards — a field meet his ‘dream.’ His strict ob- day for Occam’s razor — and servance of his discipline won his heart failed him. He started to many philosophers over to his tell them he was not the person doctrine, though none could excel they thought him. Their head him, by the time the ship sta- silenced him. Sat. Rang. A ban- tioned itself hereabouts. quet table entered. Falirj found “And when in fullness of time it useless — with his mouth full he went to his eternal dream his — to protest. They thought he name carried glory, even after it was being modest. They pre- came out that he was Falirj, a

ORIGINS OF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 89 ”

porter. As it did when the ship then we learned philosopher Ox- received a plaintive message novomri had been the cyst. It from the true Ojuras, who — came of a parasitic line, each concentrating on being aware, on being essentially a wen on and being aware of being aware, on using the vocal apparatus of its being aware of being aware of host parrotoid.” being aware ... — had been un- Capt. Goshall edged away. aware till too late that the ship Lutil took his arm. “Shall we had long since arrived and de- stretch our legs? No, not that parted.” way, I don’t want to set the poor computer off again. Oh, forgive ^APT. Goshall stood up. Now me, you’re no doubt impatient to

that he knew the ship was not hear what set it off in the first a derelict, ending all hope of place. It’s gestalt-oriented, you salvage, there seemed no percent- know, trained to discover simi- age in remaining aboard. “Speak- larities, analogies in masses of ing of going— data, to correlate cycles, and the “Ah, yes, captain. Dear old like. With its help we hoped to Falirj was not the first to go. achieve our unifying vision. That was the distinguished “Each of us philosophers re- philosopher Oxnovomri, Inten- duced his theory to holes sional Entropist of Alcyone IV. punched in tape. The computer How often I saw this parrotoid swallowed all this. We then fed run screaming through the ship, it the basis theorem and the terrified by the ultimate annihila- decomposition theorem for ideals tion of space-time. At length it of a cumulative field with as- collapsed of exhaustion. But Ox- cending chain condition. We novomri did not die of exhaus- crowded around, watching the tion. While the parrotoid was pulsing. Chill of anticipation. We recuperating the medical officer knew the computer should be found a throbbing cyst on its able to comprehend the universe person. The medical officer pre- as a single coherent function. We pared to excise it. The cyst grew stared. We knew it had the an- strangely calm, as though watch- swer. We asked it to tell us. It ing with detached interest its moved to answer. Then we saw own impending doom. After the it was mad, quite mad. operation, the parrotoid resumed “After that, most of us resigned its running about with all its old ourselves to the reality that in vigor. It screamed the same warn- the last analysis the real is un- ing, but it was not the same. And realizable. Oh, but not Czomec.

90 GALAXY 46/^ZOMEC of Anonymous I saw it steady and saw it whole. was the father of Fixed- We saw it as the concatenation Introspectionism. I can see him of Czomec’s own brain cells.” now, discoursing, turning his eye “Whether or not it was in patches on his hearers. ‘Finite reaction to this, many turned to mind can’t cope with infinite the quest of unreality. Camestres universe? Can.’ Czomec believed of Sol II loudly demanded that the world of perception, the in- we condense the ship’s atmos- ternal world of the mind, was not phere to thick fog to give an air simply a correlate of the external of unreality to the place. Wiser world but was part of the ex- lungs prevailed. ternal world. He believed any “The problem remained. sampling of the universe would ‘Where does Truth lie?’ The cold give insight into the essential light of reason should have helped nature of the whole. He believed to determine that. But, as the it followed that his mind would computer and Czomec both had reflect not merely subjectively shown, the cold light of reason but also objectively the reality was as the light of a dead star. of nature. My adherence to Observationism “And so Czomec turned his began to weaken. If the universe mind’s eye in upon itself. At last began to take on a new look at in fear and trembling he an- about that time perhaps it was nounced he could see the universe not simply because I was seeing steady and see it whole. He it with a new eye. would map it for us. We crowded “At many a get-together over around Czomec and watched our cups we sought the solution, while he traced his inner vision the animating principle, with on 3D paper. Finally he let his such good fellowship and such pen drop and fell back faint. careful and precise talk that we “We stared, amazed. Was that often thought we had found the what the continuum came to in answer. It would be later, when the end? It had a spongy look. we listened soberly to the play-

One likened it to moss. A closer back of our discussion, that we look showed it to be replete with would realize what we had taken folds — seeming to give substance for meaningful universals were to ancient conjectures of time drunken maunderings.” and/or space warps. Then one diffidently mentioned the thought T UTIL turned away, but not it had much the aspect of a before Capt. Goshall saw the nerve-ganglion. And at that we start of a tear at the right eye.

ORIGINSOF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 91 Ui/Y. vm

\ “Now I am not sure that we to come nearer apprehending this were not closer to the True Spirit. absurd bit of space-time. But at the time I agreed with “At first mention of the pro- the majority that reason must posal to screen out the bombard- prevail. Among the measures we ing rays Dwal went around took to minimize the possibility muttering his usual deliberate of irrational thinking was that of nonsense with extra emphasis. putting up a shield against cosmic ‘Uv-uzl-uzl!’ As the proposal rays. This because of the assump- gained in favor his nonsense tion that their bombarding gained in fervor. ‘Za-zeq-zeq! Ij- touched off random thoughts and inz-inz!’ You will forgive possible actions. This had to overcome distortions in my rendering? As fierce opposition from Dwal he strove never to repeat himself

Eglan of Beid I. his was no mean feat. He must “Dwal nominally held to the have known better than we the meaningful maxim of the Ambi- danger he ran of finding himself guist school. ‘Nothing is mean- out of nonsense. But he muttered ingless.’ None of the Ambiguists bravely, ‘Tu-tyk-tyk! De-diu-diu!’ would or could give a straight And some of us wavered. The answer as to its meaning. To me, staunchest of us looked despera- it implies that any meaningless tely for signs that Dwal was noise is potentially meaningful nearing the end, signs of logical — just as weeds are plants whose rigor. But he had nonsense in virtues have not yet been discov- reserve. ‘Op-otf-otf!’ It was his ered. I’m not sure whether Dwal last trumpet-call. It was clear that

himself took it as stating the if he spoke he would have to rationality of the absurd or, con- speak meaningfully. Frustration trariwise, the absurdity of the struck him speechless and his rational. At any rate, he appeared nay-saying had to manifest itself to believe that in an infinity of in glaring. That no doubt hastened universes there must be a universe his end. I’m sure it would’ve without purpose. And he seemed pleased him that owing to some to have concluded that from an malfunctioning of thrust the empirical point of view this was coffin-rocket headed his corpse

it. Ever since I had known Dwal, toward an anti-matter galaxy.” which was ever since he had come aboard, he had deliberately ^T^HE clearing. They had come spoken gibberish. I inferred that full circle. Goshall with a sigh he aimed at all costs to avoid forbore to protest as Lutil meaning, that he hoped thereby seated him beside the pool. Lutil

ORIGINS OF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 93 bent to pluck a butterwort, then a microvolume at random, smiled had compunction and straight- his thanks, and returned here. ened stiffly. “He sat down to meditate. His “Oh, vanity, vanity. With your thoughts strayed and he brought sigh, captain, you have expressed them back to the fold with diffi- it admirably, beyond the power culty. Abstractedly he smoothed of words.” He gazed into the his elliptical mustache. He found pool. “Ah, yes. By this pool the himself gazing into the pool. He Psychosocial philosopher Gurn- saw with a shock how gray his gev of Dhalim I spent years hair had grown. That evening he meditating on the best way of proposed to Raie and she, loving conducting one’s life. For the bet- impulsiveness, accepted. And so ter part of those years he never they affaired. lost sight of his objctive. He kept “They had seven charming his thoughts moving in a virtuous girls. Indeed, all offspring aboard circle. Then unrest beset him. ship were females. When it was Although he kept brushing the too late to test, the theory oc- thought away it came back, nag- curred to us that screening out ging him that he had forgotten cosmic rays might have engen- something vital that he should dered this state of affairs. In any have remembered. case, this factor and the preval- “One ship’s day, for the exer- ence of platonic love were the cise, he made for the stock room major reasons for the dying out instead of dialing his want. of SMP. Pigeonholes. Reigning categorists “Of course all was not platonic and dogmatists. Titanic Teutonic love. Of course all was not har- piling up of reference materials. mony. Of course there were dis- He was lost. Then he saw Raie, putes. I am smiling inwardly, the supply clerk, moving supply captain, as one such comes to toward him through the stacks. mind. In this corner was the Jim- He told her he was looking for nosophist, Fresion of Chara III. categorical imperatives. Vivaci- His method of philosophizing was ously Raie set about helping him to contort his face and furrow hunt. After a vigorous but vain his brow in imitation of thinking, while he said, ‘You do know what on James’s principle that emo- I mean?’ Raie said, ‘To be honest, tion follows bodily change. In the I don’t.’ And she laughed gaily. other corner was the Biliarist, ‘Let’s be honest, after all, shall Dsulrul of Gomeisa II. Her weP’ Shaken by he knew not what method of philosophizing was to wind of emotion Gurngev grabbed furrow her brow and contort her

94 GALAXY ” ”

face in outward expression of in- In putting his hands protectively ward struggle. over his face Uaim unmasked “They clashed not on the issue himself. Having lost face, neither of whether thought was a mode could bear to meet the other of emotional disturbance but on again. which came first, appearance or “Now I am frowning sadly, reality. When I attempted to captain, for I call to mind another bring this to their attention both contretemps which had truly turned on me and I desisted. serious consequences. A shocking Though their confrontations aj>- event, terrible at the time and peared extremely fierce the dis- disturbing even to recall — cussion between them never grew “If you’d rather not— heated. Indeed, on the principle “It involved on the one hand

that hate is akin to love they Fwyslanwushstadalq of Pollux I. set up housekeeping together. Owing to the pervasive lumi- nosity of his home planet all Tegmine IX came substance there was without another couple, though shadow. This gave rise to a sense whether loving or hating I never of unsubstantiality. Fwyslan- knew, Uain and his mate Yemr. wushstadalq’s Interstitch philo- Projective Stoics, each watched sophy epitomized this world-view, to see if the other was failing to I can sum up his philosophy by bear up under pain or pleasure. saying that he held all nets are But never once did either’s face as much complexes of nots as of give ansrthing away. At the ban- knots. His doctrine called for at quet celebrating their 59th mat- once countering a positive state- ing anniversary each extolled the ment with its negative. other in measured terms, for “And on the other hand it nothing had moved either — not involved Radu of Nodus Secun- fear, rage, jealousy, lust, revenge, dus IX. At first meeting and for love, hatred. some time thereafter, old Fwys- “It was a moving occasion but lanwushstadalq thought Radu neither showed signs of emotion was of a mind with him. The — till, proud of having stifled her excessive libration of Radu’s feelings for so long, Yemr in- home planet induced a permanent voluntarily gave a groan of wobbling in the inhabitants — pleasure. She clapped her hands not noticeable till they left the to her mouth and her face teet- planet. When Radu came aboard, ered on the fulcrum of nose, his way of shaking no and say- disclosing that she wore a mask. ing yes, and vice versa, at once

ORIGINS OF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 95 warmed Fwyslanwushstadalq to gerly lick of his own, he made a him. move, the backswing of a blow “But this wobbling couldn’t Fwyslanwushstadalq had aimed have been more misleading. Radu at his own shadow clove Radu’s couldn’t stand ambiguity; he skull. It quickly proved the end was partial to the all-inclusive. for both. As Fwyslanwushstadalq Fwyslanwushstadalq would say, bent mourning over his dead foe, ‘The obsolete absolute presup- he too received a fatal blow. Radu poses a fixed indeterminacy’ — had lashed out in tricky rigor or something to that effect — and mortis.” that would cause Radu to catch Lutil tenoned Capt. Goshall him up, saying, ‘But now you’re with an eye. “There’s an im- contradicting yourself.’ And portant issue here. You’re not to Fwyslanwushstadalq, thinking confuse Fwyslanwushstadalq’s Radu was nodding approvingly, doctrine with the 180°-ism of would say, ‘I thank you.’ And if Zvypalz, the pre-eminent Vector- Radu had not been wobbling he ist of Wasat III. Zvypalz, know- would have been trembling with ing his disciples would distort his fury. teachings, taught the opposite of “But once the venerable Fwys- what he actually believed and lanwushstadalq learned that wanted.” every nod was part of an all-in- “No. I mean yes.” clusive repudiating the fury was “Looking back, captain, I feel all his. The sage mustered his much as Spage must have felt. strength, took up a bust of Plato He was the supreme exponent of and, wielding it as a mace, came Retrogradism, you know. As he at Radu. Radu’s wobbling frus- would say, ‘A fly in amber can’t.’ trated Fwyslanwushstadalq, who That was his way of declaring sought to pepper Radu with that to comprehend the present, blows but landed not one. Fur- which in his view was^a synthesis ther hampering Fwyslanwushsta- of past and future, it was neces- dalq was the fact that his SMP in- sary to wait till it was past. signia slipped down his brow and “Retrogradism itself was an covered his eyes. outgrowth of Quotidianism. As an antidote to giving way to a assault flailed on, but sense of crisis and foreboding the Radu was safe so long as Quotidianists read the paper he made no move. But when, daily — but it was the paper of through failure of nerve or that day of a preceding year, all through seeking to get in a gin- the crises of the year before hav-

96 GALAXY ”

ing resolved themselves one way confirmed his second-guessing or the other. that history ran in cycles. “Spage came aboard with “Oh, to think we dreamed of microfiles of Dhalim I newspapers becoming the Platonic essence of spanning the past ten years and Philosophy, the eternal Philoso- with a mind blank to the hap- phy in heaven! Vanity.” Lutil penings of those years. He began squeaked to an edge of the clear- his studies. He rigidly refrained ing and several steps through from peeking ahead. To back his underbrush. He swept growth won’tpower the tamperproof aside to uncover a port. He viewer would not advance faster stared out, gazing thoughtfully at than the regulation issue per day. space-time and at his own image

So it went. Then tragedy threat- faintly imposed on it. ened. You no doubt recall the Capt. Goshall started. Not only disaster that befell Spage’s home no salvage here, but he now saw planet?” \ he had wastefully left the precious “Uh— nonwipe timestream tape — on “So naturally no new issues which he had meant to stake his would be forthcoming. We shrank claim to the derelict — running from thought of telling Spage and all along. He would have hurled equally from thought of letting his caps down and jumped on him learn abruptly. Meanwhile them, his way of taking it philo- the microfiles were running out, sophically, if Lutil’s thoughtful nearing the issue of the day Spage stance had not shamed him. Later left home for the SMP ship. The Capt. Goshall was to splice this supplement to bring him up to interview in his memoirs and so antedate did not and would not give our present-day philosophers arrive. to think. But at the moment his only thought was to make up for i4\¥7HILE we were wondering lost space-time. “Nice talking to ’’ what to do, the viewer, you, but I’ve got to go.” He with its built-in dread of idleness, made as if to return to the took it on itself to splice the end Oebouk. of the last issue to the beginning Lutil coughed. “Er —” He of the first. Those of us in the rubbed a discolored metallic jaw know held our breath, hoping awkwardly. Spage wouldn’t jump on encount- Capt. Goshall stopped. “Yes?” ering the abrupt transition. He “I wonder if you know where did jump — but for joy. The I can get some Shuvh.” return of the good old days —EDWARD WELLEN

ORIGINSOF GALACTIC PHILOSOPHY 97 By R. A. LAFFERTY Illustrated by GAUGHAN DRUM

was a TTE morning type, so it she ate at Cahill’s in the morn- was unusual that he should ings with her girl friend. feel depressed in the morning. He Grape juice, pineapple juice, tried to account for it, and could orange juice, apple juice . . . why not. did people look at him suspicious- He was a healthy man, so he ly just because he took four or ate a healthy breakfast. He was five sorts of juice for breakfast? not too depressed for that. And he listened unconsciously to the dark “Agnes, it was ghastly. I was girl with the musical voice. Often built like a sack. A sackful of 98 GALAXY It was the awfullest dream

in the world, no doubt about

it. In fact, it seemed to WORLD the only dream there was! be

skunk cabbage, I swear. And I was was a world where things just a green-brown color and had hair weren’t worth living. I can’t come .” like a latrine mop. Agnes, I was out of it. . . sick with rnisery. It just isn’t pos- “Teresa, it was only a dream.” sible for anybody to feel so low. little links I can’t shake it at all. And the Sausage, only four whole world was like the under- for an order. Did people think he side of a log. It wasn’t that, was a glutton because he had four though. It wasn’t just one bunch orders of sausage? It didn’t seem of things. It was everything. It like very much.

DREAMWORLD 99 “My mother was a monster. six of them scrambled. What law She was a wart-hoggish animal. says a man should have all of his And yet she was still recognizable. eggs fixed alike? Nor is there any- How could my mother look like a thing wrong with ordering five wart-hog and still look like my cups of coffee. That way the girl mother? Mama’s pretty!” doesn’t have to keep running over “Teresa, it was only a dream. with refills. Forget it.” Bascomb Swicegood liked to have bacon and waffles after the The stares a man must suffer egg interlude and the earlier just to get a dozen pancakes on courses. But he was nearly at the his plate! What was the matter end of his breakfast when he with people who called four pan- jump)ed up. cakes a tall stack? And what was “What did she say?” odd about ordering a quarter of He was surprised at the vio- a pound of butter? It was better lence of his own voice. than having twenty of those little “What did who say, Mr. Swice- pats each on its coaster. good?” “The girl that was just here, “Agnes, we all of us had eyes that just left with the other girl.” that bugged out. And we stank! “That was Teresa, and the We were bloated, and all the time other girl was Agnes. Or else that it rained a dirty green rain that was Agnes and the other girl was smelled like a four letter word. Teresa. It depends on which girl Good grief, girl! We had hair all you mean. I don’t know what over us where we weren’t warts. either of them said.” And we talked like cracked Bascomb ran out into the crows. We had crawlers. I itch just street. from thinking about it. And the “Girl, the girl who said it rained dirty parts of the dream I won’t dirty green all the time, what’s even tell you. I’ve never felt so your name?” blue in my life. I just don’t know “My name is Teresa. You’ve how I’ll make the day through.” met me four times. Every morn- “Teresa, doll, how could a ing you look like you never saw dream upset you so much?” me before.” “I’m Agnes,” said Agnes. ^^HERE isn’t a thing wrong with “What did you mean it rained ordering three eggs sunny- dirty green all the time? Tell me side up, and three over easy, and all about it.” three poached ever so soft, and “I will not, Mr. Swicegood. I

100 GALAXY ” ”

was just telling a dream I had to “It seems that I had the same Agnes. It isn’t any of your busi- depressing dream as the young ness.” lady, identical in every detail.”

“Well, I have to hear all of it. Tell me everything you dreamed.” I^OT knowing what dreams are “I will not. It was a dirty dream. ” (and we do not know) we It isn’t any of your business. If should not find it strange that two you weren’t a friend of my Uncle people might have the same Ed Kelly, I’d call a policeman for dream. There may not be enough your bothering me.” of them to go around, and most “Did you have things like live dreams are forgotten in the morn- rats in your stomach to digest for ing. you? Did they — Bascomb Swicegood had for- “Oh! How did you know? Get gotten his dismal dream. He away from me. I will call a police- could not account for his state of man. Mr. McCarty, this man is depression until he heard Teresa annoying me.” Ananias telling pieces of her own “The devil he is. Miss Ananias. dream to Agnes Schoenapfel.

Old Bascomb just doesn’t have it Even then it came back to him in him any more. There’s no more slowly at first, but afterwards with harm in him than a lamp post.” a rush. “Did the lamp posts have hair The oddity wasn’t that two on them, Miss Teresa? Did they people should have the same pant and swell and smell green— dream, but that they should dis- “Oh! You couldn’t know! You cover the coincidence, what with awful man!” the thousands of people running “I’m Agnes,” said Agnes; but around and most of the dreams Teresa dragged Agnes away with forgotten. her. Yet, if it were a coincidence, it “What is the lamp-post jag, was a multiplex one. On the night

Bascomb?” asked Officer Moss- when it was first made manifest it back McCarty. must have been dreamed by quite

“Ah—^I know what it is like to a number of people in one medi- be in hell, Mossback. I dreamed um-large city. There was a small of it last night.” piece in an afternoon paper. One “And well you should, a man doctor had five different worried who neglects his Easter duty year patients who had had dreams of after year. But the lamp-post jag? rats in their stomachs, and hair If it concerns anything on my growing on the insides of their beat, I have to know about it.” mouths. This was the first publica-

DREAMWORLD 101 tion of the shared-dream phe- refused frostily to answer ques- nomenon. tions on the subject at all. The squib did not mention the This was ten days after Bas- foul-green-rain background, but comb Swicegood had heard later investigation uncovered that Teresa Ananias tell her dream to this and other details were com- Agnes. mon to the dreams. Willy published the opinions of But it was a reporter named the three learned gentlemen Willy Wagoner who really put the above, and the theories and com- town on the map. Until he did the ments of many more. He also ap- job, the incidents and notices had pended a hatful of answers he had been isolated. Doctor Herome received that were sheer levity. Judas had been putting together But the phenomenon was not some notes on the Green-Rain local. Wagoner’s article was the Syndrome. Doctor Florenz Ap- first comprehensive (or at least pian had been working up his evi- wordy) treatment of it, but only dence on the Surex Ventriculus by hours. Similar things were in Trauma, and Professor Gideon other papers that very afternoon, Greathouse had come to some and the next day. learned conclusions on the inner It was more than a fad. Those meaning of warts. But it was who called it a fad fell silent after Willy Wagoner who went to the they themselves experienced the people for it, and then gave his dream. The suicide index arose conclusions back to the people. around the country and the world. Willy said that he had inter- The thing was now international. viewed a thousand people at ran- The cacaphonous ditty Green dom. (He hadn’t really; he had Rain was on all the jukes, as was talked to about twenty. It takes The Wart-Hog Song. People be- longer than you might think to gan to loathe themselves and each interview a thousand people.) He other. Women feared that they reported that slightly more than would give birth to monsters. sixty-seven per cent had had a There were new perversions com- dream of the same repulsive mitted in the name of the thing, world. He reported that more and several orgiastic societies than forty-four per cent had had were formed with the stomach rat the dream more than once, thirty- as a symbol. All entertainment two per cent more than twice, was forgotten, and this was the twenty-seven per cent more than only topic. three times. Many had had it Nervous disorders took a fear- every damned night. And many ful rise as p>eople tried to stay

102 GALAXY awake to avoid the abomination, awoke howling. There were hun- and as they slept in spite of them- dreds, then thousands, then mil- selves and suffered the degrada- lions. The voice spoke to all and tion. engendered a doubt. Which was the real world? Almost equal time TT is no joke to experience the was now spent in each, for the same loathsome dream all people had come to need more night every night. It had actually sleep and most of them had ar- come to that. All the people were rived at spending a full twelve dreaming it all night every night. hours or more in the nightmarish It had passed from being a joke to world. being a universal menace. Even “It could be” was the title of a the sudden new millionaires who headlined article on the subject rushed their cures to the market by the same Progressor Great- were not happy. They also suf- house mentioned above. It could fered whenever they slept, and be, he said, that the world on they knew" that their cures were which the green rain fell inces- not cures. santly was the real world. It could There were large amounts be that the wart-hogs were real posted for anyone who could cure and the people a dream. It could the populace of the wart-hog- be that rats in the stomach were people dreams. There was presi- normal, and other methods of di- dential edict and dictator decree, gestion were chimerical. and military teams attacked the And then a very great man thing as a military problem, but went on the air in worldwide they were not able to subdue it. broadcast with a speech that was Then one night a nervous lady a ringing call for collective sanity. heard a voice in her noisome It was the hour of decision, he dream. It was one of the repulsive said. The decision would be made. cracked wart-hog voices. “You are Things were at an exact balance, not dreaming” said the voice. and the balance would be tipped. “This is the real world. But when “But we can decide. One way you wake you will be dreaming. or the other, we will decide. I That barefaced world is not a implore you all in the name of world at all. It is only a dream. sanity that you decide right. One This is the real world.” The lady world or the other will be the awoke howling. And she had not world of tomorrow. One of them howled before, for she was a de- is real and one of them is a dream. mure lady. Both are with us now, and the Nor was she the only one who favor can go to either. But listen

DREAMWORLD 103 to me here: whichever one wins, it to group mania, which is mean- the other will have always been a ingless. And now there are those dream, a momentary madness who say that the dreams never soon forgotten. I urge you to the came at all, and soon they will be sanity which in a measure I have nearly forgotten. But the horror lost myself. Yet in our darkened of them! The loneliness!” dilemma I feel that we yet have “Yes, we hadn’t even pediculi to ” a choice. Choose! curry our body hair. We almost And perhaps that was the turn- hadn’t any body hair.” ing point. Teresa was an attractive girl. The mad dream disappeared as She had a cute trick of popping suddenly as it had appeared. The the smallest rat out of her mouth world came back to normal with so it could see what was coming an embarrassed laugh. It was all into her stomach. She was bulbous over. It had lasted from its incep- and beautiful. “Like a sackful of tion six weeks. skunk cabbage,” Bascomb mur- mured admiringly in his head, OASCOMB SWICEGOOD, a and then flushed green at his for- morning type, felt excellent wardness of phrase. this morning. He breakfasted at Teresa had protuberances upon Cahill’s, and he ordered heavily protuberances and warts on warts, as always. And he listened with and hair all over her where she half an ear to the conversation of wasn’t warts and bumps. “Like a two girls at the table next to his. latrine mop!” sighed Bascomb “But I should know you,” he with true admiration. The cracked said. clang of Teresa’s voice was music “Of course. I’m Teresa.” in the early morning. “I’m Agnes,” said Agnes. All was right with the earth “Mr. Swicegood, how could you again. Gone the hideous night- forget? It was when the dreams mare world when people had first came, and you overheard me stood barefaced and lonely, with- telling mine to Agnes. Then you out bodily friends or dependents. ran after us in the street because Gone that ghastly world of the you had had the same dream, and sick blue sky and the near-ab- I wanted to have you arrested. sence of entrancing odor. Weren’t they horrible dreams? Bascomb attacked manfully his And have they ever found out plate of prime carrion. And out- what caused them?” side the pungent green rain fell “They were horrible, and they incessantly. have not found out. They ascribe — R. A. LAFFERTY

104 GALAXY They were Earth's castoffs, doomed to live and die on a planet of Vega — spreading humanity, even at the cost of their own!

THE

SEED . OE EARTHtC.

By ROBERT SILVERBERG Illustrated by MACK

^T^HE day was warm, bright, sky blast off for a distant world with -* blue, thermometer in the a cargo of one hundred reluctant high sixties; a completely perfect colonists. In Chicago, where the October day in New York, morning mail had just arrived, a needing no modification by the wealthy playboy stared at a blue Weather Control Bureau. At the slip of paper with wide-eyed hor- Weather Station in Scarsdale, ror. In London, where the mail glum-faced weather-adjustment had arrived several hours before, men were piling into their planes a shopgirl’s face was pale with and taking off for Wisconsin, fear; she, too, had received her where a cold front was barreling notice from the Colonization in from Canada, and where their Bureau.

expert services would be needed. Around the world, it was an Twenty thousand miles above ordinary day, the ninth of Octo- Fond du Lac, the orbiting Weath- ber, 2116 A.D. Nothing unusual er Control Satellite beamed mes- was happening. Nothing but the

sages down. In Australia, tech- usual round of birth, death . . .and, nicians were completing the occasionally. Selection. countdown on a starship about to And in New York, on that per-

THE SEED OF EARTH 105 feet October day, District Chair- Plus Five or better, could pass man David Mulholland of the a Feldman fertility test, and were Colonization Bureau reached his not disqualified by one of the office at 0900 sharp, ready if not various social regulations, you precisely eager to perform his went when you were called, in routine functions. the name of Mankind’s Destiny. Before he left his office at 1400 There was no way to wriggle off hours, he knew, he would have the hook once you were caught — authorized the uprooting of one unless, of course, you could prove hundred lives. He tried not to that you were disqualified by think of it that way. He focused some technicality that the Com- his mind on the slogan em- puter had overlooked. The re- blazoned on blue-and-yellow maining child in a family which bunting wherever you looked, the had lost four or more children to slogan of the Colonization Bu- Selection was exempt. Mothers reau Do. Your Share for Man- of children under two years of kind’s Destiny. age were exempt. Even mothers But the trouble was, as Mul- of children under ten years of holland could never forget, that age were exempt, if their hus- mankind’s destiny was of only bands had been Selected and if trifling interest to the vast mass they had not remarried. A man of men. whose wife was pregnant was en- He entered his office, drawing titled to a single ten-month delay warm smiles from the clerks and in departure. There were half a typists and secretaries as he dozen more such technicalities. passed their cubicles. In the But, whatever the situation, sixty office, everyone treated Chairman ships, six thousand people, left Mulholland with exaggerated af- Earth every day in the week. fection. Most of the Bureau em- Someone had to be aboard those ployees were sufficiently naive to ships. Somewhat more than two believe that Chairman Mulhol- million Earthmen headed star- land, if he felt so inclined, could ward each year. arrange their exemption from the Two million out of seven bil- world-wide lottery. lion. The chance that the dark finger would fall upon your 1 were wrong, of course. re- 1 >HEY shoulder was inconceivably --No one who met the qualifi- mote. Even with the figure win- cations was exempt. If you were nowed down to the mere three between the ages of nineteen and and a half billion eligibles, the forty, had a Health Rating of percentage taken each year was

106 GALAXY slight: one out of every 1800 Requisition Form for the next persons. assignment with care. Do Your Share for Mankind’s Destiny, said the blue-and-yellow REF. Ilab762-31, File Seven. sign that hung behind Chairman 10 October 2116, notices to be Mulholland’s desk. He looked at sent. it unseeingly and sat down. Pa- Assignment: starship GEGEN- pers had already begun to accu- SCHEIN, blasting 17 October mulate. Another day was under 2116, from Bangor Starfield. way. Required: fifty couples selected His so-efficient secretary had by Board One. already adjusted his calendar, dusted his desk, tidied his papers. The form differed only in detail Mulholland was not fooled. Miss from hundreds of forms that Mul- Thorne was trying to make her- holland had found on his desk at self indispensable to the Chair- the beginnings of hundreds of man, as a hedge against the days past. He tried not to let him- always-to-be-dreaded day when self think of days past. He had the Computer’s beam lingered been Chairman for three years, over her number. In moments of now. It was of the essence that the cruelty he thought idly of telling high-ranking members of a Se- her that no mortal, not even a lection Board should not them- District Chairman, had enough selves be subject to Selection, and pull with fate to assure an exemp- Mulholland had received his tion. It was entirely in the hands present job a few weeks after his of Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. reaching the age of forty had re- Clotho put your number in the moved his name from the rolls of Computer. Lachesis riffled the eligibility. cards. Atropos selected, and se- lected inflexibly. The Fates could TTE was a political appointee. not be swayed. -"“According to the pollsters, his Mulholland lifted the top sheet party was due to succumb to a from the stack on his desk. It was Conservative uprising in the the daily Requisition Form. Five elections next month. Mulholland of the sixty starships that left faced his party’s debacle with re- Earth each day were manned by markably little apprehension. Americans, and one of the five Come January, he thought. Presi- American ships each day was dent Dawson would be back in stocked with Selectees drawn by St. Louis practicing law, and a Mulholland’s office. He read the few thousand loyal Liberal party

THE SEED OF EARTH 107 hacks throughout the country his desk. It was strict formality would lose their jobs, being re- for him to request and for her to placed by a few thousand loyal type the paper; mechanically,

Conservative party hacks. Mulholland scanned it. This had Which meant, Mulholland to go to the Computer, and any thought, that come January some- typing error would result in loud one from the other side of the and unpleasant repercussions. fence could sit in this chair hand- ing out Selection warrants, while As Chairman of the District David Mulholland could slip back One Board of Selection of the into the obscurity of academic Colonization Bureau, I hereby life and give his conscience a well- authorize the selection of one hun- needed rest. It was a mere seventy dred ten names from the roll of days to the end of President Daw- those eligible, on this ninth day son’s term. Mulholland shut his of October, 21 1 6, in order to fulfil eyes tiredly. Barring a political a departure quota of one hundred upset at the polls, he would only for the starship GEGENSCHEIN, have to pass sentence on seven blasting 17 October 2116. David thousand more human beings. Mulholland, Chairman District He buzzed for his secretary. Board One. She came at a gallop: a bony, horse-faced woman of thirty who Mulholland nodded; it was in ran the office with formidable en- order. He signed it in the space ergy and who never tired of quot- indicated, then provided cross- ing the Bureau slogan to visitors. check by pressing his thumb She probably believed the gospel down against the photosensitive of Mankind’s Destiny implicitly, spot in the lower right-hand cor- Mulholland thought. Which didn’t ner. The Authorization was com- give her much comfort when she plete. pondered the ten years that lay He handed the form to Jessie between her and freedom from Thorne, who deftly rolled it and Selection. stuffed it into a pneumatic tube. “Good morning, Mr. Mulhol- Mulholland took the tube from land.” her, affixed his personal seal, and

“Morning, Jessie. Type out an popped it in the open pneumotube Authorization.” vent under his desk. The little “Certainly, Mr. Mulholland.” morning ritual was over. Her agile fingers clattered over He buzzed Miss Thorne again. the machine. In a moment or “I’ve got the cards, Jessie. Do we two she placed the document on have any Volunteers today?”

108 GALAXY “One.” She gave him the card. Mary Jensen, 31, mother of four Noonan, Cyril F. Age thirty, un- children ages one to nine. She married. Mulholland read through had as much business being in the the rest of the data, nodded, list of eligibles as the President’s tossed Noonan’s card in a basket grandmother. Muholland initialed on the right side of his desk, and her card and buzzed for Miss made a sharp downstroke on a Thorne again. blank tally sheet in front of him. “Have her name pulled from Now there were only forty-nine the list,” he ordered crisply. “She’s men to pick for the voyage of the got a child born in 2115.” Gegenschein. Volunteers were Fate had been kind to Mrs. rare, but they did turn up from Jensen. time to time. Mulholland prepared the rest of the list. Fifty men, fifty women, jl/IULHOLLAND ran through with a reserve list of six men and the men first. He picked four women. In the afternoon, the out his forty-nine without any notices would go out. They would trouble, and stacked the six left- be received tomorrow morning, over cards in his reserve basket. and by nightfall, he knew, the Those six names would be held useless appeals would come flood- aside until it was determined ing in. None of the appeals ever whether or not the other forty- reached Mulholland’s office. They nine were still eligible. If Mul- were screened off by underlings, holland could fill his quota with- who were trained in the art of out recourse to the reserve giving gentle Nos. Mulholland basket, the six men would auto- himself had held such a job until matically become first on the next getting his promotion to the top. day’s Selection list. Mulholland He looked down the list he had no one left over from the day had compiled. A college student before, as it happened; there had from Cincinnati, an office worker been some trouble filling the Oc- in San Francisco, a lawyer from tober 9 quota, and he had used Los Angeles. A girl who gave her up his reserves completely yes- occupation as “entertainer,” from terday. New York. With the men’s half at least It was a cross-section'. Mulhol- tentatively finished, he skimmed land privately felt that this was through the fifty female names. a flaw in the Selection system, Here, occasionally, the computer because very often a group was tripped up. Mulholland winnowed sent out without a medical man, one name out immediately; Mrs. without any kind of religious

THE SEED OF EARTH 109 counsellor, without any expert laughed, played, sang, made love. engineer or scientist. But there Tomorrow they would no longer was no helping it. For one thing, belong to Earth. The inflexible it would be grossly unfair to see sword of Colonization would cut to it that the Computer picked them loose. one doctor for each hundred colo- Mulholland shrugged. He was nists. Generally it worked out that making his old mistake, thinking way, but not always. of the conscripts as people in- It was a sink-or-swim proposi- stead of as names on green cards. tion. Millions upon millions of That way lay crackup. He had stars waited in the infinite heav- to remember that he was only ens. The stellar colonization was a doing a job, that if he didn’t take far-sighted enterprise, and, like care of it someone else would. most far-sighted enterprises, was And it was for Mankind’s Destiny. cruel in the short run. But, cen- But he was weary of wielding turies hence, a far-flung galaxy the sword. It was less than a would shine with the worlds of month till Election Day, and he man. It was the only way. Even prayed devoutly that his party though the ships existed to take would be turned out of office. It man to the stars, only a handful was no way for a loyal party hack of people would consider uproot- to be thinking, but Mulholland ing themselves to go out into the didn’t care. It would be an ad- dark. If the colonization of the mission of weakness to resign. An stars had been left on a volunteer electoral defeat would get him basis, barely a dozen worlds out of the job much more grace- would be settled now, instead of fully. the thousands that already bore man’s imprint. They were small II colonies, to be sure; but they grew. Only a handful out of the had been rain over I ^HERE thousands had failed to take root. Ohio during the night. For And, thought Mulholland, a once, it had been natural rain. The week from tomorrow the starship Weather Control people engi- Gegenschein would take ninety- neered the weather with great nine conscripts and a lone Volun- care during the summer, when teer to the stars. He looked thirsty fields cried out for rain, through his cards. Herrick, Carol. and in the winter, when un- Dawes, Michael. Haas, Philip. checked snow might throttle civi- Matthews, David. And eight lization. But in October the fields dozen others. Tonight they lay empty. There was no need for no GALAXY artificial rain. The rain that fell stripped off his pajamas and in the early hours of morning over tossed them onto the bed; he Central Ohio was God’s rain, not groped for a towel and his robe, man’s, sent by the cold front found them, and made his way sweeping southward out of Can- down the hall to the shower. He ada. spent three minutes under the In his furnished room just off cold spray. When he returned to 11th Avenue, not very far from his room, the clock said 0813 the University, Mike Dawes hours. Dawes smiled. He was right pulled the covers up over his on schedule. If only he hadn’t head, retreating symbolically to forgotten about those verbs! But the womb in hope of finding it was too late to fret about that. warmth and security. But it was He’d have to hope for the best. no good. He was half awake, It looked as though this semes- awake enough to realize he was ter was going to be one long awake, but still too drowsy to dreary grind, he thought as he want to get out of bed. He could pulled clothes from the rickety hear the pattering of the rain. It old dresser and started to climb was a dark morning. into them. He was twenty; this The lumo-dial of his clock read was his third year at Ohio State. 0800 hours. He knew it was time If all went well, he would gradu- to get out of bed. This was Wed- ate the following year and move nesday, his busiest day of the on to medical school for four academic week. At 0900 there years. was old Shepperd’s Zoology lec- If all went well. ture, and German at 1000 hours. At 0821 hours he was ready to And I forgot to review those leave: teeth brushed, hair combed, verbs, Mike Dawes thought in ir- shirt buttoned, shoelaces tied. The ritation. If Klaus calls on me, I’m books he would need for his morn- sunk. ing classes were waiting on the He thought about getting out of edge of the dresser. He would bed for a few minutes; finally, he have time for some orange juice, rationed himself to sixty more toast, and coffee at the Student’s seconds of warmth. Counting off Union. The probability of a sur- a-thousand-one, a-thousand-two, prise Zoo quiz was too great to he sprang out of bed faithfully on allow for skipping breakfast; he the count of a-thousand-sixty, and needed all the energy he could shivered in the bleak morning muster. He was skinny, in the coldness. first place, stretching 150 pounds Routine took hold of him. He out for six feet and an inch. In

THE SEED OF EARTH in the second place, he liked to have est Colonization Bureau registry breakfast. center. You are now subject to the Dawes started downstairs. It provisions of the Interstellar Col- was still raining slightly, but not onization Act of 2099, and any hard enough to be troublesome. violation of these provisions wilt Anyway, it was only a four-block meet with severe punishment. walk from the rooming house By order of D. L. Mulholland, where he lived to the Union. District Chairman. First, though, came one morn- ing ritual. He stopped downstairs Mike Dawes read the contents in the hallway, where the mail- of the slip of blue paper four boxes were. His hand quivered a times, one after another, and with little as he pressed his thumb each reading the numbness grew against the opener-plate. The in him. He was finding it hard to scanner recorded his print and believe that he had really been obediently opened the mailbox. called. After all, the chance was He took out the letter. one in thousands, he thought. Why, in all his life he had only TT WAS a blue envelope, longer known two or three people to be than usual, with an official called. There had been Mr. Cut- penalty-for-private-use imprint ley, who ran the grocery store, where the stamp was supposed to and Teddy Nathan, who lived on be. Dawes’ eyes travelled over the next block. And Judy Welling- the return address almost casu- ton also, Dawes thought. ally. Colonization Bureau, Dis- And now me. trict Board Number One, New “Dammit, it isn’t fair!” he mut- York. tered. His stomach felt queasy as he “What isn’t?” a casual voice ripped the envelope hastily open. asked behind him. It was addressed to him, all Dawes turned. He saw Lon Ry- right. The letter, typed neatly in beck there — a senior who lived dark red on the standard blue on the first floor. Rybeck still paper, came quickly to the point. wore a dressing gown; he had no early classes, but came out to You have been selected to be look at the mail anyway. a member of the colonizing expe- Mutely Dawes held up the blue dition departing on 17 October slip. Rybeck’s eyes narrowed and from Bangor, Maine, aboard the his tongue flicked briefly across starship GEGENSCHEIN. You his lips. “They picked you?” he must report at once to your near- asked hoarsely.

112 GALAXY ”

Dawes nodded. “It just came. Dawes thought. Except that no- I have to report to the nearest body seemed very anxious to go. registry center right away.” Let the other guy colonize the “That’s a lousy break, Dawes!” stars. Me, I’ll stay here and read

“Damn right it is! Why’d they about it. have to grab me? I’m only twenty! So there was a conscription. I haven’t even finished college! And now, Dawes thought, I’ve I — been caught. He quit, realizing that he .... report at once to your sounded foolish. Rybeck was try- nearest Colonization Bureau reg- ing to look sympathetic, but be- istry center .... hind the expression of concern When they said “at once,” they

was a deeper amusement — and meant it, Dawes knew. They relief. Probability dictated that meant get there within the hour. the invisible hand would not And woe betide if they discovered reach into this house a second he had done anything to himself time; Dawes’ Selection meant Ry- to make himself ineligible. There beck could breathe more freely. had been cases of women slashing “It’s rough,” Rybeck said gent- at their ovaries with knitting- ly. “The morning mail comes and needles to disqualify themselves; all your plans explode like bub- naturally, only fertile colonists bles. Where are they sending you, were wanted. But the penalty for do you know?” intentional self-sterilization was Dawes shook his head. “It just a lifetime at hard labor. It wasn’t

says I’ll be leaving next Wednes- worth it. day from the Bangor starfield. Twice he reached for the Doesn’t give the destination.” phone, to call his parents in Cin- cinnati and let them know. Twice,

^ TWENTY years ago, they had he back. would have I drew They decided that mankind’s des- to be told sooner or later, he knew. tiny was in the stars. Mike Dawes But he steered away from bring- had been a gurgling baby when ing the bad news himself. Then he the decision was made that, twen- pictured how it would be if he ty years hence, would rip him remained silent and let the Bu- from the fabric of existence on reau send them its official notice. Earth. Get out to the stars, that He picked up the phone again. was the cry that swept newly- His father answered. Mike felt united Earth. Settle other worlds. a pang of regret as he heard the Spread Earthmen through the voice of his father, the newsstand universe. It had been a noble aim. proprietor who had scraped for

THE SEED OF EARTH 113 ”

years so his favorite boy could “Yes, Dad.” study to be a doctor. “Report where you’re supposed “Yes? Who is this?” to. Don’t do anything wrong, do “Dad, this is Mike.” you hear?” “Is everything all right?” said “I won’t. Dad.” the immediately suspicious voice. “Will we see you again?” “You got our letter? You didn’t “I — I suppose so. At least they run out of money so soon, did ought to let us say goodbye.” you?” “And there isn’t any way you “No, Dad. I — they’ve — can get out of this? I mean, once “Speak up, Mike. We must they call you, you can’t appeal?” have a bad connection. I can hard- “No, Dad. Nobody can appeal.” ly hear you.” “Oh. I see.” “I’ve been Selected, Dad!” There was another long pause. Dawes waited, not knowing what ' 'HERE was a pause, a sharp to say. felt strangely guilty, as I He indrawing of breath. Dawes if he were at fault somehow for heard indistinct muttering; no having brought this sorrow upon doubt his father had his hand his parents. over the mouthpiece and was tell- His father said finally, “So long,

ing his mother about it. Dawes boy. Take care of yourself. And was grateful, for the first time, let us know, soon as you know that he had never been able to anything about where you’re go- afford a visual attachment for the ing.” phone. Right now he did not want “Sure, Dad. Tell Mom not to to see their faces. worry. So long.” “When did you get the notice, He hung up the phone. After a boy?” moment, he walked to the win- “J-just now. I have to report dow. The rain had stopped; it to the registry center right away. was nearly nine, and the slackers I leave next Wednesday.” were hustling to get to classes on “Next Wednesday,” his father time. Out there on campus, life repeated musingly. was going on as usual. The foot- Dawes heard his mother sob- ball coach was sweating out tac- bing in the background. She cried tics for Saturday’s game, Shep- out suddenly, “We won’t let them perd was clearing his throat and take him! We won’t!” stepping forward to deliver his

“There’s no helping it, Ethel,” Zoology lecture, Klaus was be- said his father quietly. “Boy, can laboring hapless freshmen over you hear me?” irregular German verbs. Life went

114 GALAXY on. The world revolved serenely thought, you also get a wife. They around the sun. But, a week from send out fifty men, fifty women. now, Mike Dawes would be no If you happen to be married al- longer part of this world. ready but have no children, you He felt a quiet, seething anger can accompany your spouse as a at the injustice of it. He hadn’t Volunteer. If you’re married and asked to be part of Mankind’s do have children, and your mate Destiny. He had no itch to con- is Selected, you stay behind to quer other worlds. He wanted to take care of the children. Unless stay on Earth, marry some reason- you and your wife go to space ably pretty Ohio girl, raise some together, you are given one of reasonably normal Ohio children. the other colonists as a mate, and any Earthside relationship you %1^ELL, that dream was over. may have had was considered There was nothing left for terminated. So he would be mar- him to do now but to walk down ried soon — to someone. to the registry center and hand He took the stairs leading to himself in, like a wanted criminal. the registry center two at a time. He locked his room, wondering A few boys were waiting on a if he would ever come back here bench along the wall; they peered to collect his few belongings, and curiously at him as he came in. trotted downstairs and into the They had just turned nineteen, street. It seemed to him that and were waiting to register. everyone on the street turned to Dawes had registered here just look at him, as if they could see a year ago. Everyone had to reg- the words written in scarlet on ister at the age of nineteen; if you his forehead: MIKE DAWES failed to register, you were auto- HAS BEEN SELECTED. matically Selected. So he had The registry center was in a come in and filled out the forms, loft over the movie theater. Only and they had put him through the four days ago he had taken a girl diagnosing machines and then to a movie there. They had cud- given him the quick and efficient dled in the balcony, ignoring the and somewhat embarrassing fer- film on the tridim screen, and he tility test. And, a few weeks later, had groped haphazardly for he had received a card telling him tempting areas of her body and that he had passed. He had wondered about those aspects of shrugged and put the card in his life that were still mysteries to wallet, thinking that Selection him. was something that happened to When you were Selected, he other people.

THE SEED OF EARTH 115 But it had happened to him. men in their thirties come in, men Now. with families. You’d be surprised He put his blue slip down on how many of them want to blow the reception desk and the clerk me up. You aren’t married, are looked at it, nodding. Behind him, you?” Dawes heard the waiting boys “No, sir.” muttering. As a Selectee, he had “Parents?” a certain new notoriety. “They live in Cincinnati. I’ve “Come this way, please,” she phoned them already.” said solemnly to him, giving him “You don’t figure you have any a you-are-doing-your-share-for- grounds for disqualification, then.” mankind’s-destiny look. She led Dawes shook his head. In a him into an inner office, where a quiet voice he said, “I can’t get tall, balding man in his late forties out of it. I’m resigned to going. sat initialing some papers. But that isn’t going to make me

“Mr. Brewer, this is Michael like it.” Dawes, who was Selected by the “We assume that,” Brewer said. New York board today.” “But we also assume that you Brewer rose and extended a won’t spend all your time sulking hand. “Congratulations, Dawes. when you ought to be colonizing. Maybe you can’t see it right now, You don’t sulk for long on an but you’re about to take part in alien world and stay alive.” He mankind’s greatest adventure. shook his head. “If you think Thank you. Miss Donaldson.” you’ve got troubles, think about the last man Selected in this dis- lY/flSS Donaldson left. Brewer trict. Father of three children. Age sat down again, gesturing thirty-nine years, eleven months, Dawes toward a comfortable three weeks. One week to go and pneumochair. he’d be ineligible, but the Com- “Well?” Brewer asked. “You’re puter picked him. He said it was sore as hell, aren’t you?” a frame-up. But he went, he did.” “Am I supposed to be happy?” “Is that supposed to make me Brewer shrugged. “If you feel better?” Dawes asked. wanted to go to the stars, you’d “I don’t know,” said Brewer, have volunteered. It’s a rough sighing. “They tell me misery break, youngster. How old are loves company. You probably feel you?” awfully sorry for yourself, and I “Twenty.” don’t blame you.” “You’re still young enough to “Will I be allowed to see my adjust. Some mornings I have parents again?”

116 GALAXY ”

“You can fly to Cincy this af- a crisp ten-dollar bill wedged into ternoon, if you like. For the next the corner of her mirror. week you’ll be accompanied by a Rising, she unhooked the bill Bureau guard. As a precaution, and slipped it into her dresser you understand. Naturally, he’ll drawer. The apartment was a give you as much privacy as you mess. Two empty bottles sat on want — in case there may be a the floor near the bed; cigarette young lady you would like to pay ashes were sprinkled everywhere. a farewell visit to, or — Charlie had brought last night’s “Just my parents,” Dawes said. newspaper in with him, probably “All right. Whatever. You have to study the racing news, and now seven days. Make the most of the pages were scattered all over them. You’ll get a full physical the place. Well, it had been a next door right now. Maybe pleasant night. Thank goodness you’re no longer eligible.” for small blessings. In these tough

“Small chance of that!” times, it was good to know that “We can always hope, eh, somebody enjoyed your company. Mike?” Cherry thought. “Why do that? What do you She lugged the Cleanall out of care whether I go or not? Do you the closet, plugged it in, and set know what it’s like to be ripped it to work gobbling up the scat- up and tossed out into space? tered ashes while she herself You’re over age; you’re safe.” showered. The gentle cleansing Brewer smiled sadly. “I don’t spray felt good as it peeled away have a good heart; I never was the night’s grime. After ten min- eligible. But that doesn’t mean I utes under the water she stepped don’t know what you’re going out, stretched, yawned, did her through now. My wife was Se- calisthenics. Musn’t let the mid- lected ten years ago. Come with dle start to sag, dearie. You’re me, Mike. The doctor will have only as good as your body is. a look at you.” Morning duties over. Cherry flipped the switch on the radio; Ill music streamed into the apart- ment. She jabbed down on the ^HERRY Thomas came awake window-opaquer and the polarity all at once. In automatic of the glass shifted, letting in the need she reached out to her left, morning sunlight. It looked as if but the place next to her in bed New York would have another was empty, still faintly warm; perfect day. The wall clock said Charlie was gone. She could see 1123 hours, 10 October 2116.

THE SEED OF EARTH 117 She knew there wasn’t much ^HERRY ate without interest. time. At 1300 she was due down- Breakfast was just some- town for an audition; one of the thing that had to be eaten, not big sensie-theaters needed usher- any source of- pleasure. She was ettes. It was cheap work for a tense about the audition at 1300. girl who had once stripped in the An usherette had to prance up best establishments of three conti- and down the aisles in nothing nents, but time moved along; she more than a bit of hip-length was thirty-three, no longer in the translucent fluff. She was suie first golden bloom of youth, and she still had the figure for the these days the strip managers job, but her confidence was low. seemed to have a cradle-fetish: In the past year she had been the younger the better. Next year. gaining weight, slowly, inexorably, Cherry thought sourly, somebody unstoppably. would come up with the ultimate It wasn’t like this when Dan in that line — the ten-year-old was here, she thought. stripper. Dan had been the world to her: She punched out breakfast on manager, trainer, coach, father- the autocook. Cherry’s apartment confessor, agent. Dan had found was automatic in almost every her when she was a pickup girl respect. She had always dreamed in Philadelphia, and before Dan of living surrounded by the latest had finished with her she was the gadgets, and, one year when she’d toast of Las Vegas, Paris, Bucha- really been taking in the cash, she rest. Dan had slimmed her down, had bought herself all the gadgets taught her poise, forced her to there were. An automatic back- fight the temptations of food and scratcher that came out of the sex, found her the best jobs and bed’s headboard when she wanted compelled her to turn down it; an autocook; automatically everything but the very best. opaquing windows; light-dim- But Dan was gone. They had mers; a Cleanall. Her apartment Selected him, four years ago. And was a nest for electronic wizardry nothing had been the same since. of all kinds. In these latter days, And the worst of it was. Cherry when to fill out a skimpy income thought, rubbing the old wound she had taken to bringing men up with salt for the millionth time, for an evening, there were plenty that she could have gone with of wise remarks about the wealth him, if she had wanted to. “You of gadgetry in the place. It got can always become a Volunteer,” so she could practically anticipate Dan had told her as she wept the gags. hysterically that morning. “You

118 GALAXY can come with me wherever I’m ended yet. Every morning she going, if it means that much to realized that more clearly. you.” And he had knotted his But I was selfish. I stayed be- hands in his thick dark hair and hind. And what did I get for it? waited for her answer, and she had refused to say anything. ^HERRY shook her head sadly, Well, what the hell would YOU put her coffee cup into the do? she demanded fiercely of no- autowash, and took a Cheeriup body in particular. She had been pill from the medicine cabinet. twenty-nine, rolling in money, the The pill took effect practically at toast of the entertainment world. once: a fine, false buoyant feeling He was ten years older than she. of optimism and good cheer re- Sure, she had thought she loved placed the introspective mood of him, but how can anyone be sure gloom. She punched the dial three of that? It seemed like so much more times and three more little to ask, for her to give up her yellow pills popped out. One limousine and her apartment and every four hours would see her her pet ocelot and her cozy, lux- through the day without a mo- urious, pampered life to follow ment of depression; maybe the him out to the stars. good mood was phony, but it was So she had finally said No, she better than brooding about Dan would stay here, and Dan had all day. shrugged calmly, telling her that One last check in the mirror:

it was better that way, that she makeup was okay, hair well was probably not fitted for the -groomed, face scrubbed. Thanks rugged frontier life anyway. And to the Cheeriup, she looked hap- he had gone, leaving her behind. py, enthusiastic, eager. The audi- And then the anguish began for tioners would never be able to her in earnest. see the core of misery deep be- She had sold the fancy cars and neath the surface. given away the ocelot; she still “Good morning. Miss Thomas,” had the apartment, but very little said the elevator’s voice as she else. She had lost her cozy, lux- stepped in. A photoscanner in the urious life, and she had lost Dan. elevator’s roof was rigged to rec- There had been the quick, crazy, ognize all of the building’s tenants bad marriage the year after Dan and give them a personal greet- was taken, a marriage that lasted ing. only a couple of months, and after “Good morning,” she said. “Nice that the long, slow, gentle slide day.” downward. The slide hadn’t There was no reply. The ele-

THE SEED OF EARTH 119 vator’s brain-center was pro- By order of D. L. Mulholland, grammed only for one sentence. District Chairman. But she believed in returning the greeting, anyway. It was the least Her first reaction was an out- she could do. raged one: Who the hell are they The elevator deposited her in that they can grab hold of Cherry the glittering chrome-and-green- Thomas and say that she has to glass lobby. She started to break go out and go to the stars? They the photobeam that controlled the can’t push me around like that! front door; then, as an after- But after the first wild flare of thought, she decided to see if defiance came a quieter, more so- there had been any mail for her. bering thought: Maybe it won’t That was when she found the be so bad. I could use a change Selection notice from the Coloni- of air. I’m not going anyplace here zation Bureau. on Earth. In ten years I’ll be a Her Mirror-bright fingernails two-bit floozie. So why not go slashed the blue envelope open. where they want me to go? She read the message carefully, And then came the last thought, slowly; reading had never been the clincher: Maybe you can pick one of her strong points. When the place where you’re going! she had gone through the brief Maybe I can find Dan! notice the first time, she doubled She hurried upstairs. According back and read it again. to the notice, she had to report to

Yes; no doubt of it. It was a the nearest registry center at Selection notice. once. The phone directory told “Well, I’ll be a — So they got her that there was a center ten me too!” blocks away. To blazes with that audition! For the first time in You have been selected to be years she felt genuine enthusiasm. a member of the colonizing expe- dition departing on 17 October CHE took a cab to the registry from Bangor, Maine, aboard the ^ center — no need to worry starship GEGENSCHEIN. You about economizing now. She prac- must report at once to your near- tically ran up the stairs and into est Colonization Bureau registry the big office. A receptionist center. You are now subject to blinked at her and Cherry shoved the provisions of the Interstellar the blue slip forward. Colonization Act of 2099, and any “Here. I just got this. I’ve been violation of these provisions will Selected. Where do I go?” meet with severe punishment. “I’ll take you to the Director.”

120 GALAXY ” ”

The Director was a blank-faced been married up there for four man in his fifties who turned on a years?” smile when Cherry entered. She “Dan — married?” Cherry said at once, “I’m Cherry Thomas. shook her head. Stupid of me not I just got Selected.” to think of that! Of course, when “Won’t you have a seat? I’m they sent you up there you had Mr. Stewart. I realize this day is to be coupled off! Slowly her an unhappy one for you, but may fluttering nervous system calmed. I assure you — “I — hadn’t figured on that,” she She cut him off. “Look, Mr. said in a soft voice. “Sure. He got Stewart, I want you to do me married up there.” She felt a lump a favor. I don’t mind getting Se- sprouting at the base of her lected, I suppose. But I want you throat. to send me to the same planet Mr. Stewart leaned forward, where they sent Dan Cirillo in smiling now. “So you see, we 2112. I don’t know the name of couldn’t send you to him. Not the planet, but you ought to be now.” able to look it up somewhere for “But I could have gone four me, and — years ago! All I had to do was Mr. Stewart’s blank moon-face come here and say the word, and was furrowed by a frown. “You you would have sent me! And I’d don’t seem to understand. Miss be up there with him now! I’d be Thomas. You’re not being sent to bis wife!” Her voice reached a a planet that’s already been colo- pitch of near hysteria. She burst nized. You’ll be going to a com- into sudden tears and put her pletely untamed world, a virgin head in her hands. planet.” The peak of emotion passed in “But I want to be near Dan! a moment or two. When she Listen, he was everything to me, looked up, she saw Mr. Stewart

we were practically getting mar- watching her calmly, as if he went ried, and then you came along and through this sort of thing every Selected him. So he went out day. there. Well, now it’s my turn, and “So I’m going to some other I want to go to him! Can’t you see planet?” she asked quietly.

how important it is? Damn it, “Which one?” don’t you have any heart?” “Only the higher authorities Mr. Stewart shrugged gently. know that. Miss Thomas. Does “I’m afraid it’s utterly impossible it really matter?” for you to follow him now. For “No — no, I suppose it doesn’t.” one thing, don’t you see that he’s He fussed uncomfortably with

THE SEED OF EARTH 121 ”

papers on his desk. “I’ve sent for nymphomania, say.” Mr. Stewart

your records, but it’ll take a little reddened uncomfortably. “It isn’t while. You didn’t register at this generally known, but compulsive office.” promiscuity can get you disquali- “I registered in Philadelphia,” fied from eligibility. You can see she said. “Fourteen years ago.” It that an uncontrolled woman seemed like an eternity. And now, could do great harm in the small at last, her number had come up. community that an interstellar In her mind’s eye she pictured the colony is at the beginning.” Cherry Thomas of 2104, timidly Cherry peered at him gravely. filling out the registry form. Just “You mean I could get turned a scared kid of nineteen, then. A down because I like — because lot had happened in fourteen I was — years. “It’s a possibility, I say. The Mr. Stewart said, “I take it ideal colonial woman is one who you’re not currently married. Miss can adjust to marriage, take what- Thomas?” ever man she happens to be mated with and live with him iiivro. I was — three years ago. happily, raising as many children Not now.” as her constitution can manage. “I see. And — and there isn’t Do you think you’re psychologic- anyone who might possibly care ally suited for that sort of life?” to volunteer to accompany you?” Cherry frowned uncertainly. Cherry thought down the list Once, so far back she had trouble of the men she knew. No, none remembering it, she had been like of them had the stuff of a Volun- other girls, wanting a home, a teer in them. She shook her head man, children. Somewhere along silently. the way those desires had got “May I ask your profession?” lost in the shuffle. Mr. Stewart said. She smiled ironically. Ever “I’m — an entertainer.” since they had taken Dan away, Mr. Stewart moistened his thin, she had started every day by pale lips. “Do you plan to appeal cursing Selection and the men your Selection?” who ran it. But now that she her- “What good would that do?” self was meshed in the net, she “With your psychological back- saw that Selection was the thing ground, you might stand a chance she had waited for without know- of getting out.” ing. It offered escape — escape “What does that mean?” from the harsh tinsel world she “If you can prove a history of lived in, escape from the jeering

122 GALAXY men who grudgingly paid her troubled to project it. His shoul- price now and who in a few years ders were broad, his legs long would bargain and haggle with and sturdy, his skin tanned until

her, escape from the enclosing it looked like fine cordovan or ex- wall of loneliness and fear. pensive morocco leather. A new world; a husband; He had come to an important children. decision today. The decision had Her eyes felt misty with un- been a couple of years in the bud, accustomed moisture. “Look,” she years that he had spent hauling said. “I ain’t appealing. You see freight in Jamaica and policing they don’t turn me down, hear?” the troubled frontier of South Africa. His police term had ex- IV pired more than a month ago, and he had not put in an application I3EOPLE generally stepped to for re-enlistment. He was restless one side when they saw Ky on Earth. He had matured early, Noonan coming toward them left an unmourned home at four- down the street. It was not only teen, held a hundred jobs in on account of his size; there are twenty countries since then. big men whose very size serves Earth hemmed him in. The only to emphasize their essential prison of the blue sky irked him. innocuousness. But about Noonan He wanted to leave. there was that intangible air of They had let him have a tour authority, of quiet self-confidence, of duty under the Venus dome in silently admonished other 2111 but that was not what he that , people: Better watch out and get wanted, either. No place in the out of my way. Ky Noonan is Solar System suited him. In the coming through! System, a man either lived on At thirty, he was just ripening Earth or he lived under a dome. into his physical prime. He was Venus, Mars, Ganymede, Callisto, flamboyantly big, six feet four, Titan, Pluto — six human settle- a two hundred pounder who car- ments, plus one on Luna. But man ried no fat. His jet-black hair was bound there, bound by the swept backward in an untamed glimmering wall of duroplast that but somehow orderly mass that held away the encroaching poison • added seeming inches to his al- from outside. He had spent his ready impressive height. He had year on Venus gloweringly per- a voice to match his height, a forming routine activities under heavy growling rumble that could the dome, while staring with un- be heard blocks away when he disguised anger at the red and

THE SEED OF EARTH 123 green and blue and violet world And now he stood on a dingy, outside, the world of formalde- deteriorated street in Old Balti- hyde and foul gases and weird more on a mild October after- waxen plants, the world where no noon, outside an office on whose man dared go without a breath- door was inscribed in golden ing-suit and full shielding. letters, COLONIZATION BU- He did not need to visit the REAU, DISTRICT ONE, LO- other Solar System settlements to CAL BOARD OF REGISTRY know that it would be the same. #212. A few simple words and On Mars you looked out on dead he would place his private rights red desert; on Ganymede you forever out of his own reach. squinted past eye-searing white At the moment of decision he fields of snow to the giant unap- hung back, an act not character- proachable glory of Jupiter swell- istic of him. But he hesitated only ing in the sky. What good was it a handful of moments. He had if, bound as you were to the need come this far; he realized that for oxygen and water, you left there could be no turning back Earth only to be penned beneath now. a plastic dome? The office door was the old- No. The only world of the Solar fashioned kind, manually oper- System that allowed a man to ated. He grasped the handle and range freely over its surface un- pulled it open. He stepped inside. encumbered by apparatus for sur- A dozen teenagers, boys and vival was Earth, and Earth no girls, stood at a table to the left longer held any fascination for Ky of the door, frowning busily over Noonan. He longed for the stars. the registry questionnaire. To the right, several others stood on line, T IKE everyone else, he regis- waiting to be admitted to the tered for Selection when he medical office for their physical turned nineteen. At nineteen he examinations. All of them looked was belligerent, bellicose, loudly scared. Noonan smiled inwardly, warning the terrified technicians knowing that by his action today that they had better find him in- he was permitting some fright- eligible for Selection, or else. But ened, reluctant little person to they had ignored his threats and spend twenty-four extra hours on passed him as being fit and fertile, Earth. and for a day or two he had He strode to the reception desk stormed and raged at the intol- and said, clearly, so that every- erable invasion of his private one in the room could hear him, rights that Selection constituted. “My name is Noonan. I want to

124 GALAXY ” ” ”

volunteer for Selection — the t|''HE Bureau man reached for sooner the better.” a data blank and a pen. “We A dozen heads swivelled round might as well get the details down, to peer at him. There was a si- Mr. Noonan. Would you spell lence in the room. The reception- that first name, please?” ist muttered something automatic Noonan’s lips twitched with and conducted him inside, to an sudden annoyance. “Cyril. C-Y- office whose door bore the label R-I-L. Cyril Franklin Noonan. I Mr. Harness. call myself Ky.” The effete first Mr. Harness was a timorous- name had been his mother’s idea; looking, clerkish, dried-out little he detested it, but all his official man with a pretentiously solemn records bore that name, and he manner. He offered Noonan a was too proud a man to apply for chair and said, “Do I understand an authorized legal name-change. that you wish to volunteer for He called himself Ky, and let it Selection?” go at that. “You understand right.” “Date of birth?” Mr. Harness steepled his fingers “4 January 2086.” in a thoughtful way. “We don’t “Making you — ah —• thirty. get many Volunteers these days, Your occupation, please?” as you can imagine. You’re the “Most recently, I was a police- first in more than a month.” man. A lot of other things before Noonan shrugged. “Do I get a that.” medal?” “Any special training? Medi- Mr. Harness looked uncomfort- cine, the law, science, engineer- able. “Not exactly. But you do ing?” get certain privileges that the or- “I know how to use these — dinary conscripts won’t be en- Noonan held out his big hands — titled to. You’re aware of that, “and I know how to use this.” He aren’t you?” touched his forehead. “But no “I know that Volunteers get professional training, no.” their first pick of the women,” Harness looked up. “May I ask Noonan said bluntly. “Maybe why you’re volunteering, Mr. they get better food on the star- Noonan? You’re not required to ship going out, too. But the answer, of course, but for my own women angle is the only privilege personal curiosity — I’m interested in.” Noonan smiled. A Volunteer “Ah — yes. Of course, Mr. — had certain special privileges, and Mr. — reticence was one of them. So “Noonan. Ky Noonan.” long as he was deemed psycho-

THE SEED OF EARTH 125 ”

logically and physiologically fit “Why not? My affairs are in for colonization, and so long as order. I don’t have much property he was not rendered ineligible by and I don’t have much money, the existence of young children and I don’t have anybody to give who would be orphaned by his it to. So I’ll just hand over every- volunteering, and so long as he thing I own to charity. I won’t had not committed any serious be needing money where I’m go- crime, he was not required to ex- ing.” plain. But old-maidish men like “Very well,” Harness said Harness wanted to know all the crisply. “Today is October 8. Will gossip, Noonan thought. you report back here in three He said, “For your own per- days?” sonal curiosity. I’m volunteering “Three days? Why?” because I’m tired of staying on “According to law, you have Earth and want to try someplace three days to reconsider your de- else. I’m not in debt and I haven’t cision. If you still want to volun- ruined any innocent wenches teer at the end of the week, come lately and I’m not volunteering back here and we’ll finish process- to escape from a dominating ing your application.” mother. I’m just signing up be- Noonan shook his head. “I ain’t cause I want to see what it’s like gonna do any reconsidering. I out there.” made my mind up before I came Harness seemed terrified by in here.” the booming outburst. He shrank back in his chair and said, “Yes, V yes, of course, Mr. Noonan. I wasn’t implying — now, if you’ll I really have to go next simply fill out the rest of this week?” Carol Herrick data blank — asked hopefully. She sat tensely Noonan filled it out. When it rigid, back straight, knees pressed came to the section that asked. tightly together, staring across the How much time will you need to wide uncluttered desk at the el- settle your affairs?, he wrote in derly man who seemed, at the impressive capitals, NONE. Sign- moment, to have absolute control ing the sheet, he handed it back over her destiny. “I mean, isn’t to Harness, who skimmed through there some way I can get excused it and lifted his eyebrows prissily from having to go?” when he came to the final entry. The Colonization Bureau man “You’re willing to leave im- shook his head solemnly from mediately, Mr. Noonan?” side to side.

126 GALAXY ”

“None?” Carol asked. “Yes, I do, certainly. But — “If you qualify, you have to “But what?” go. That’s the law, and there’s no “I was waiting — waiting so way around it.” long for the right one to come Even delivered as gently as along. Turning down fellows, they were, they were stern words. waiting to see what the next one Carol fought desperately to hold would be like. And now it’s too back the tears. She wanted to let late, isn’t it? I could have been go, to throw herself at this man’s married, maybe had a baby by feet, to soak his knees with her now, and then I wouldn’t have to tears. How could they send her to go — out there.” some other world? It wasn’t right, “I’m sorry. I’m supposed to give she thought. She belonged here in you the standard speeches about San Francisco, with the fog and mankind’s destiny. Miss Herrick the bridges and the Sunday after- — Carol — but I suppose you noon strolls in Golden Gate Park, wouldn’t appreciate them. All I not out on some strange alien can say is, I’m sorry — but you’ll planet. have to accept your lot.” She said in a soft, confused She stared dreamily past the voice, “But — why send me? I man behind the desk, past the don’t know anything about space banner with its meaningless slo- — about the stars. I can’t even gan, past the wall itself into a cook very well. I’m not the sort gray void. She said half to herself, of person they want up there.” “I waited so long — and now “They want all kinds of people, they’ll marry me to the first one child. You’ll learn how to cook, who comes along. Won’t they?” to sew, to skin wild animals. Space “There’s a certain amount of will turn you into a regular pio- choice, Carol. You’re not required neer wife.” to accept if you don’t like the The redness came back into her man who selects you, you know. face. “That’s another thing. They You can say no.” are going to make me get married, “But I’ll have to marry one of aren’t they? All the colonists have them. I can’t say no to all of to marry.” them.” “Of course. And to bear chil- “Yes. You’ll have to marry one dren. We start each world with of them.” only fifty couples — but for the colony to survive, it has to mul- l^UMBLY, Carol let herself be | tiply. Don’t you want to get mar- put through the examination, ried, Carol? And have children?” unprotestingly, understanding lit-

THE SEED OF EARTH 127 tie, filled with a vague regret and Gegenschein, District Chairman with the mild resentment that Mulholland turned his attention was the only anger she was really to the next item on his daily capable of. routine: finalization, as they so

Carol Herrick had never really barbarously called it in Schedul- given much thought to the entire ing, of the previous day’s list. immense question of Selection. The October 16 ship was the Three years ago, on her nine- Skyrover, departing from the teenth birthday, she had gone Cape Canaveral base. Mulholland downtown to this registry center, had prepared the usual quota of because the law required her to. names; during the early hours of She had given her name, and the the morning, while he had been

doctors had examined her and a assembling the Gegenschein list, week or so later she had received word was coming in from the local the little card telling her that she boards on the previous day’s Se- had qualified, that her name was lections. Mulholland scanned the on file with the big Computer and long yellow sheets. The Skyrover that she was subject to Selection list would present no difficulties, until she turned forty. he saw. There were fifty-one elig- She had figured out on a scrap ible males, fifty-two eligible of paper that she would not be women. forty until 2034, and that was so He deleted the three surplus ridiculously far in the future that names, entered them on the prop- she could hardly visualize the er form, and gave the deletion list stretch of years that lay between. to Miss Thorne. During the day So, because her mind could deal three people somewhere in the neither with the concept of Se- United States would learn that lection nor with an interval of they had received a minute re- twenty years, she simply forgot prieve: instead of departing as the entire matter. She was sub- they had been told on the Octo- ject to Selection, she knew. Well, ber 16 ship, they would be held what of it? over until October 17, and, if not

Only the little blue slip in the needed to fill vacancies on the mailbox had finished all that. Gegenschein list, would certainly be included on the list of what- VI ever ship was scheduled for de- parture on the 18th. A FTER completing his list of His job, Mulholland thought, one hundred ten names for was like a kind of cosmic jigsaw the 17 October blasting of the puzzle: a puzzle in which he used

128 GALAXY human pieces, scooping up a hun- said his goodbyes — most of the dred at a time, discarding those clerical workers had two hours which might be bent or broken more before their day ended — and unsuitable for the pattern, and left. As he stepped outside, fitting the rest into place. Each into the bracing October wind, he day another pattern had to be tried to shrug off his day’s labor created; sometimes there were like an otter coming to shore and too many pieces, and some were shaking itself dry. Once 1400 put aside for another day. hours came, he could stop being He completed the Skyrover District Chairman Mulholland, list and sent it down the pneumo- wielder of the sacred staff; he tube to Brevoort, twenty stories could go back to being plain Dave below. Brevoort would phone Mulholland of White Plains, a Cape Canaveral and advise them short, reddish-haired, sadly stout- verbally of the completion of the ening man of 43, who twelve

list; the list itself woufil be sent years ago had left his post of As- to Florida by fax at the same sistant Professor of Political Sci- time. With the Skyrover under ence at C.C.N.Y. to go into the control, Mulholland was finished practice of Liberal Party politics, for the day. The time was 1400 and who as his reward for loyal hours. At the Bangor starfield service to the Cause was entitled that moment, the Enterprise to condemn one hundred people Three was blasting off, with one a day to Selection, so long as his hundred colonists aboard, people party happened to remain in who had been Selected a week power. before. It went on constantly, day and A T 0900 the next morning, night — people registering for Mulholland was at his office. Selection, people being Selected, The Requisition Form was wait- people reporting for blastoff, ships ing for him, as always; fifty cou- departing. Five ships leaving a ples were needed for the starship day from the United States alone, Aaron Burr, leaving Canaveral on sixty from the world, four hun- the 18th of October. He went dred twenty ships a week. And, through the standard morning so immense were the heavens, it routine, authorizing the selection would be untold centuries before of one hundred ten names for the the last habitable planet had Aaron Burr. been colonized by men of Earth. Two hours later, the first re- 1400 hours. The end of the day. plies began to come in from the Mulholland tidied his desk and local boards on the Gegenschein

THE SEED OF EARTH 129 Selectees. Mulholland put each Philadelphia Board #72: We form in the “Hold” basket and have examined registrant Law- forgot about them until it was rence T. Fowler and find him time to get back to the Gegen- acceptable for Selection . . . schein list. He had already for- And, mixed with the rest, a red gotten about the Skyrover; now slip that signified a turndown: that its list was complete, it faded Atlanta Board #243: We have into the long blur of unremem- examined registrant Louetta bered ships whose passengers Johnson and find her not accept- Mulholland had authorized. able for Selection for the reasons

After lunch — a tense affair as detailed below . . . always; he never digested well Mulholland paused, turned the

on a working day — he turned red slip over, and read it. Louetta his attention to the Gegenschein. Johnson had been found after due His notes told him that one slot medical examination to be in her had already been filled; Noonan, twelfth week of pregnancy, this the Volunteer sent through from fact being unknown to Miss John- Baltimore Board #212. Mulhol- son, who therefore had not noti- land needed forty-nine men, fifty fied the registry center of this women to make up the comple- change in her status. Mulholland ment. managed a wan smile. Louetta Most of the East Coast and Johnson’s lamentable lapse of Midwest reports had come in al- virtue had saved her from Se- ready. The western people, natu- lection, whatever other conse-

rally, would take longer; in most quences it might have for her in cases the mail was just being de- the future. livered now, out on the Coast. But He put her slip aside and there were enough early returns crossed her name from his list. to begin working with. Mulhol- Within the next hour, he lost two land began to sort through them, more of his possibles; the 93rd checking them off against his Board, in Troy, New York, re- master file. ported that Elgin MacNamara Columbus, Ohio Board #156: had been the victim of a fatal We have examined registrant auto accident the very day of his Michael Dawes and find him ac- Selection; the 114th Board, in ceptable for Selection . . . Elizabethtown, Kentucky, regret- New York Board #11: We fully informed the District Chair- have examined registrant Cherry man that registrant Thomas Thomas and find her acceptable Buckley had been taken into for Selection . . . custody after allegedly shooting

130 GALAXY .

his wife and another man, and column of male names quickly would not be eligible for a berth counted upward: fifty names in on the Gegenschein. all, headed by Cyril Noonan, Vol- unteer. He was short one woman. ¥>UT, despite these minor set- Now he reached into his re- backs, the list slowly filled. placement basket and drew out By 1320 hours, Mulholland’s tally the three cards that had been left showed forty-three men and thir- over from the Skyrover quota. ty-nine women assigned to the One man, two women. Muholland Gegenschein, with five of his put the man’s card aside. He original hundred and ten disqual- flipped the other two cards into ified and twenty-three yet to be the air. One landed face up; he heard from. Not long after that, snatched at it — the card of a the first reports began to come in woman named Marya Brannick. from the Far West: Marya Brannick’s name was San Francisco Board #326: We entered in the fiftieth slot on the have examined registrant Carol distaff side of the Gegenschein Herrick and find her acceptable list. Carefully putting the com- for Selection . . . pleted Gegenschein list to one Los Angeles Board #406: We side, Mulholland took tomorrow’s have examined registrant Philip Aaron Burr list from its pigeon- Haas and find him acceptable lor hole and inscribed the names of

Selection . . Irwin Halsey and Maribeth Jan- A red slip from Seattle Board sen at the heads of the two col- #360: Registrant Ethel Pines de- umns. clared ineligible on medical He buzzed for Miss Thorne. grounds; registrant Pines has can- “Jessie, I’ve assigned the three cer. Mulholland removed the leftovers from the Skyrover list. name of Ethel Pines from his list. Brannick goes into the Gegen- By 1340 hours, he was nearing schein, Halsey and Jansen are be- completion. A quick check indi- ing held over till tomorrow for cated that he had forty-eight men, the Aaron Burr.” forty-six women. Ten of his origi- Miss Thorne nodded efficiently. nal hundred and ten were “I’ll see that the notification goes scratched, ineligible. One Volun- out to the local boards. Anything teer. Seven reports were yet to else, Mr. Mulholland?” come in. “I don’t think so. Everything’s Ten minutes later, they were under control.” in: five acceptables, two rejects. She gave him a toothy smile Mulholland drew a line under the and scuttled back to her adjoin-

THE SEED OF EARTH 131 ing cubicle. Sighing, Mulholland He checked out the women’s checked the clock. 1358 hours. column next. Thomas, Cherry. Astonishing how smoothly the Martino, Louise. Goldstein, Erna. Selection mechanism works, he And down to the last, the ink not thought. The list gets filled as if yet dry on her name: Brannick, by clockwork. Marya. Mulholland nodded. Fifty here, A ND it had been clockwork, he fifty there. The list was okay. He realized, with himself doing scrawled his signature in the nothing that a robot was unable proper place. Another day, an- to do. He wondered what a film other shipload, he thought. An- of himself at work on a typical other cargo for his conscience. day would look like, speeded up The long list of names wavered, a little. Even more ridiculous blurred; he closed his tired eyes. than the ancient fast-camera But that was a mistake. His imag- films, no doubt. He would emerge ination responded by conjuring on the screen as an inane fat little up images of people; names took bureaucrat, busily pulling lists in on flesh, faces hovered accusingly and out of pigeonholes, inscribing in the air. Edward Sanderson, he names, juggling surpluses, carry- thought — and pictured, for no ing forth extra Selectees until particular reason, a short, slim, they were needed, signing docu- narrow-shouldered man with ments, self-importantly buzzing thinning brown hair. Erna Gold- for his secretary — stein—she might be a dark-haired It was an unflattering picture. girl with large eyes, who majored Mulholland tried to blank it out, in dramatics in college and had but the image refused to quit his hopes of writing a play, someday. mind. Thank God it was quitting Sidney Nolan — time, he thought! Muholland shook his head to

He studied the completed Geg- clear it. He had managed to keep enschein list again. It looked all this from happening all day, this right: the hundred names, fifty sudden taking on of flesh on the in each column, each on its ap- part of the names on his list. So pointed line. He skimmed down long as he thought of them simply the men’s list: Noonan, Cyril. as names, as strings of syllables, Dawes, Michael. Fowler, Law- everything was all right. But rence. Matthews, David. And once they began asserting their right along to the names at the humanity, he crumbled beneath bottom: Nolan, Sidney. Sander- the assault. son, Edward. Hastily he pressed his thumb

132 GALAXY against the sensitized spot, rolled waiting rooms, and concessions up the sheet, stuffed it in its little that cluttered every commercial cylinder, and sent it rocketing spaceport. The buildings at the down the pneumotube to the Bangor field were few: a moder- waiting Brevoort. The Gegen- ately elaborate barracks for the schein had her cargo, barring ac- permanent staff, a more sketchily cidents and possible suicides be- constructed housing unit for tween now and the seventeenth transients, a couple of staff of the month. amusement centers, and a small The clock said 1400 hours. The administration building. All these day was over. Mulholland rose, were huddled together in a com- sticky with sweat, eyes aching, pact group in the center of the mind numb. He was free to go cleared area. Fanning off in three home. directions were the blastoff fields At least you only get Selected themselves, kept widely separated once, he thought. I have to go because a starship likes a mile or through this every day. two of headroom when it can get

it. VII On the morning of 17 October, 2116, two of Bangor Starfield’s T> ANGOR Starfield, from which three blastoff areas were occupied. three ships of colonists de- On Field One stood the Andrew parted every week, covered six- Johnson, solemnly alone with a teen square miles of what had mile of heat-fused sterile brown once been virgin forest in north- earth on each side: a tall steel- ern Maine. The lofty firs were blue needle that towered erect on gone, now; the area had been its landing-jacks and retractile cleared and levelled and sur- atmospheric fins. The Andrew rounded by a fence labelled at Johnson was scheduled for de- thousand-yard intervals, NO AD- parture on the 20th of the month; MITTANCE EXCEPT TO tomorrow the service crews would CLASSIFIED PERSONNEL, by swarm out to Field One to begin order of Colonization Bureau. the three-day countdown that Within the fenced-off area prefaced every departure of a there was surprisingly little in the starship. way of construction. Since the At present the service techni- starfield was for government use cians were busily running the final only, not commercial, there was tests on the Gegenschein, which no need for the usual array of stood in the center of Field Three, terminals, passenger buildings. slim and straight, glinting golden

THE SEED OF EARTH 133 in the morning sunlight. The at the distant blue-tinted Andrew Gegenschein was due for blastoff Johnson, then, turning eastward, at 1600 hours that afternoon, and at the much closer Gegenschein.' with the countdown in its final six hours the service crews scut- 4 4 Vi^HICH one am I going on?” tled like busy insects through the he asked. ship, making certain that every- “The gold-colored one,” said thing was in perfect order. Only the uniformed Colonization Bu- once, twelve years before, had reau guard who had shown him there been a major starship acci- to his temporary room. “It’s on dent, but it was hoped that there Field Three, over there.” would never be another. Dawes nodded. “Yes. I see it.” Field Two remained empty. A “You’ve got an hour or so to returning starship, the Wanderer, rest here and relax. At 1100 hours was due back late that evening, there’s a preliminary briefing ses- and Field Two was being held sion downstairs in the central hall.

open for it. A small service crew You won’t be able to miss it, just was on duty at the Field Two turn to your left when you leave blockhouse, running final checks the elevator. The briefing lasts on the guidance system that about an hour. Then you’ll be would monitor the Wanderer into given lunch.” its landing orbit later in the day. “I’m not going to be very Nothing could be left to chance, hungry,” Dawes said. not with a hundred-million-dollar The guard smiled. “Most of starship. them never are. But the meal is From the upper floor of the always a good one.” housing unit for transients, look- At 1100 hours Dawes followed ing out past the squat yellow- the flickering neon signs down brick edifice that served as the the hall to the elevator, and from permanent staff residence bar- there to Room 101. Room 101 racks, both the Andrew Johnson was a huge auditorium in the and the Gegenschein could be center of the compound; several seen, one at the western end of men in blue-and-yellow uniforms the field, the other far to the east. bustled about on a dais, adjusting Mike Dawes, who had arrived at a microphone, while pale, tense- the Bangor starfield at 0945 hours faced civilians filtered in and took after an early-morning flight from seats as far away from each other New York, peered out the window as possible. of the small room to which he* Dawes slipped into an empty had been assigned, looking first row near the back and looked

134 GALAXY

around, seeing his fellow Selectees been a trying week for you, per- for the first time. One hundred haps virtually a tragic week for people were spread thinly about some, and I don’t intend to repeat in an auditorium big enough for the catch-phrases and slogans that ten times that number. He man- you’ve been handed for the past aged an ironic smile at the way seven days. You’ve been Selected; each Selectee had managed to you’re going to leave Earth, and

place himself on a little island, you’ll never return. I put it blunt- insulated by five or six empty ly like this because it’s too late seats on each side from his near- for illusion and self-deception and est neighbor, as if afraid of im- consolation. You’ve been picked pinging on the final hours of any- for the most important job in the one’s privacy. They seemed to be history of humanity, and I’m not ordinary people; Dawes noticed going to pretend that you’re going that most of them appeared to out on an easy assignment. You’re be in their late twenties or early not. You’re faced with the tre- thirties, and a few were older mendous challenge of planting a than that. He wondered whether colony on an alien world trillions the colonies were portioned out of miles from here. I know, right strictly at random, or whether now you feel frightened and lone- perhaps some degree of external ly and wretched. But never forget control was exerted. It was per- this: each and every one of you is fectly within the range of proba- an Earthman. You’re a represent- bility for the Computer to select ative of the highest form of life in fifty men of twenty and fifty the known galaxy. You’ve got a women of forty to comprise a reputation to live up to, out there. colony, but it seemed unlikely And you’ll be building a world. that such a group would ever be To the future generations on that allowed to go out. world, you’ll be the George Wash- Behind him, the auditorium ingtons and Thomas Jeffersons doors closed. An officer with an and John Hancocks. array of ribbons and medals on “The planet you’re going to is his uniform front stepped up to the ninth out of sixteen planets re- the dais, frowned at the micro- volving around the star Vega. phone, raised it a fraction of an Vega is one of the brightest stars inch, and said, “Welcome to Ban- in the sky, and also one of the gor Starfield. I’m Commander closest to Earth — 23 light-years Leswick, and your welfare will be away. You’re lucky in one re- my responsibility until you blast spect: there are two colonizable off at 1600 hours. I know this has planets in the Vega system, your

136 GALAXY world and the eighth planet, meal you’re ever going to eat on which is not yet settled. That the planet Earth, and also the first means you’ll eventually have a meal you will eat with each other. planetary neighbor, unlike most I hope you all have good appe- other colonies which are situated tites, because the meal is a special on the only habitable world in one. their system. The name of your “Before we go in, though, I’m planet, by the way, is Osiris, from going to call the roll. When you Egyptian mythology — but you hear your name, I want you to can call it anything you like, once stand up and make a complete you get there. three hundred sixty-degree revo- lution, letting everyone get a look trip will take about at you. This is as good a time as -* four weeks, even by Ein- any to start getting to know each stein drive. That’ll allow you other.” plenty of time to get to know each He picked up a list. “Cyril Noo- other before you reach your new nan.” planet. Captain McKenzie and his A rangy, powerful-looking man crew have made several dozen in a front row rose and said, in successful interstellar flights, and a booming voice that filled the I can assure you you’ll be in the auditorium easily, “The name I best possible hands. use is Ky Noonan.” “The name of your ship, as Commander Leswick smiled. you know, is the Gegenschein. We “Ky Noonan, then. Incidentally, draw the names of our ships from Ky Noonan happens to be a Vol- three sources: astronomical terms, unteer.” historical figures, and traditional Noonan sat down. Commander ship names. Gegenschein is an as- Leswick said, “Michael Dawes.” tronomical term referring to the Dawes rose, blushing unac- faint luminosity extending along countably, and stood awkwardly the plane of the ecliptic in the at attention. Since he was at the direction diametrically opposite back of the auditorium, there was to the sun — the sun’s reflection, no need for him to turn around. actually, bouncing back from an A hundred heads craned back- immense cloud of stellar debris. ward to see him, and he sat. “I think that covers all the es- “Lawrence Fowler.” sential points you’ll need to know A chunky man in the middle at the outset. We’re going to ad- of the auditorium came to his feet, journ to the mess hall now for a spun round, smiled nervously, and most significant occasion: the last sat down. Leswick called the next

THE SEED OF 'EARTH 137 name, and the next, until all fifty call. Maybe we ought to intro- men had been called. duce ourselves all over again. I’m He began on the women after Ed Sanderson from Milwaukee. I that. Dawes watched closely as used to be an accountant.” the woman rose. Most of them, he It went around the table. saw, were eight to ten years older “Mary Elliot, St. Louis,” said a than he. But he paid careful at- plump woman with streaks of tention. There was one girl named gray in her hair. “Just a house- Herrick who interested him. She wife before my number came up.” was young and looked attractive, “Phil Haas, from Los Angeles,” in a widfe-eyed, innocent way. said a lean-faced man in his late Carol Herrick, he thought. He thirties. “I was a lawyer.” wondered what she was like. “Louise Martino, Brooklyn,” said a dark-haired girl of twenty- VHI five or twenty-six, in a faltering, husky voice. “I was a salesgirl at TT was probably an excellent Macy’s.” meal. Dawes did not appreci- “Mike Dawes, Cincinatti. Jun- ate it, though. He ate listlessly, ior at Ohio State, pre-med stu- picking at his food, unable to en- dent.” joy the white, tender turkey, the “Rina Morris, from Denver,” dressing and trimmings, the cold said a good-looking redhead. “De- white wine. Although he had over- partment-store buyer.” come his initial bitterness over “Howard Stoker, Kansas City,” Selection, a lingering tension re- rumbled a heavy-set man with a mained. He had no appetite. It stubbled chin and thick, dirty was an inconvience shared by fingers. “Construction worker.” most of his fellow Selectees, evi- “Claire Lubetkin, Pittsfield, dently, judging by the way they Massachusetts.” She was a bland- toyed with their food. faced blonde with a nervous tic The Selectees had been dis- under her left eye. “Clerk in a tributed at ten tables. Dawes was video shop.” dismayed to find, when he took “Sid Nolan, Tulsa. Electrical his seat, that he could not recall engineer.” He was a thin, dark- the names of any of the other nine haired, fidgety man who toyed Selectees at his table. But his em- constantly with his silverware. barrassment was short-lived. A “Helen Chambers, Detroit,” round-faced, balding man to his said a tired-looking woman in her left said, “I’ll confess I didn’t thirties, with dark rings under her catch too many names during roll- eyes. “Housewife.”

138 GALAXY ””

Ed Sanderson chuckled uncom- so soon, he thought. But now I fortably. “Well, now we know don’t have any choice, I guess. everyone else, I hope. House- The meal dragged on to its wives, engineer, college student, finish around 1330 hours. Com- lawyer — mander Leswick appeared to an- “How come there ain’t any rich nounce a ninety-minute rest and people Selected?” Howard Stoker recreation period. Boarding of the demanded suddenly. “They just ship would commence at 1500 take guys like us. The rich ones hours, sixty minutes before actual buy themselves off.” blastoff time. “That isn’t so,” Phil Haas ob- They filed out of the mess hall jected. “It just happens that most — a hundred miscellaneous peo- of the wealthy executives and in- ple, each carrying his own burden dustrialists don’t get to be wealthy of fear and regret and resentment. until they’re past the age of Dawes walked along silently be- Selection. But don’t you remem- side Phil Haas, the lawyer from ber a couple of months ago, when Los Angeles. As they reached the they Selected that oilman from door, Haas smiled and said, “Did Texas — you leave a girl friend behind, “Sure,” Sid Nolan broke in. Mike?” “Dick Morrison. And none of his Dawes was startled by the sud- father’s millions could get him den intrusion on his reverie. “Oh out.” — ah — no, I guess not. There wasn’t anybody special. I figured OTOKER growled something I couldn’t afford to get very deep- ^ unintelligible and subsided. ly involved, not with four years Conversation seemed to die away. of medical school ahead of me. Dawes looked down at his plate, Not to mention interning and all still largely untouched. He had the rest.” nothing to say to these people “I know what you mean. I got with whom he had been thrown married during my senior year by the random hand of Selection. at U.C.L.A. We had a hard time They were just people. Strangers. of it while I was going to law Some of them were fifteen years school.” older than he was. He had only “You — were married?” just stopped thinking of himself Haas nodded. They stepped out as a boy a few years before, and into the open air. There was no now he was expected to live lawn, just bare brown earth run- among them as an equal, as an ning to the borders of the star- adult. I didn’t want to grow up port. “I have — had — two chil-

THE SEED OF EARTH 139 dren,” he said. “The boy’s going “But it ended all right. So — so to be seven, the girl five.” long to Earth.” “At least now your wife’s not Three motor-coaches waited eligible for Selection herself,” outside the barracks. ^Guards in Dawes said. blue-and-yellow uniforms effi- “Only if she doesn’t remarry. ciently herded the Selectees into

And I asked her to remarry, you the first coach until it was full, see. She’s not the sort of woman then began channelling people who can get along without a man toward the second. Dawes around.” A momentary cloud boarded the third coach; by that passed over Haas’ bony face. “An- time, the first one was halfway other two years and I would have across the immense spacefield.

been safe. Well, that’s the way it The uniformed men did their job goes, I guess. Take it easy, Mike. with a calm impersonality that I suppose I’ll see you at 1500 seemed faintly inhuman to hours.” Haas clapped Dawes Dawes. But, he reflected, they genially on the shoulder and had to do this three times a week. strode away. All over the world, now, people At 1500 hours, the gong in the were being herded into starships. hall rang again. The crisp voice By nightfall six thousand Earth- out of the speaker said, “Atten- men would be on their way to an tion. Attention. All Selectees are uncertain destination. to report to the front of the bar- Close up, the Gegenschein racks for boarding ship. All Se- seemed immense. Standing up-

lectees are to report to the front right on its tail, it reared two hun- of the barracks for boarding ship, dred feet above the bare brown at once.” soil. Its hull was plated with a molecule-thick sheath of gold, by TN THE hall, Dawes met Mary way of ornament; each of the Elliot; the older woman starships had its own distinctive smiled at him, and he returned color. The hatch was sixty feet the smile tensely. Several Selec- above the ground. To gain entry, tees whom Dawes did not know you had to ride up a gantry lift joined them at the elevator, and that held five people at a time. A they rode down together. catwalk was available for those “Well, this is it,” Mary Elliot who wanted to climb. said. “Goodbye to Earth. I thought Dawes was in no hurry. He this week would never end!” waited in line for his turn to “So did II” exclaimed a willowy enter the lift. Turning, he took thirtyish brunette behind Dawes. his last look at Earth, sucked in

140 GALAXY his last planetside breath of lift began to descend for its next Earth’s air. load. Within, fluorescent lights It was mid-afternoon. In the cast their cold beams on a cir- quiet isolation of the starfield the cular room which opened onto a air had a clear, transparent qual- spiral companionway at either

ity. There was a tangy nip in it; end.

it smelled of distant fir and “Men go up, women down,” spruce. The sun was low in the chanted a space-tanned young October sky, and a brisk breeze man in starman’s uniform. “Men swept in from the north. to the fore compartment, women Now, at the moment of ship- aft.” boarding, Dawes began to think of all he would never see again. ¥^AWES clambered up the lad- Never another sunset on Earth, der that lined the companion- never the moon full and pale in way at- the top of the circular the sky, never the familiar con- room. He realized that, in flight, stellations. Never again the glory gyroscopic balancers would keep of autumn-tinted maples, never the ship forever upright — but it the sight of football players rac- was difficult to visualize the way ing down a field, never again a the compartments would be hot dog or a hamburger or a oriented. vanilla sundae. Little things; but At the top of the ladder an- little things added up to a world, other crewman waited. “Men’s and it was a world he was leaving dorm is straight ahead,” he was forever behind. told. “Next five,” came the guard’s Dawes found himself in a voice. compartment large enough for Dawes shuffled forward and twenty-five persons. There was onto the metal platform. The lift nothing luxurious about the com- rose with a groaning of winches. partment: no money had been ex- Now that he was close to the pended on plush carpeting, mosaic ship’s skin, he could see the tiny tile walls, or the other trimmings pittings and indentations that customary in commercial space- told of previous service. The Geg- craft. The walls were bare metal, enschein looked newly-minted at unpainted, unornamented. a distance, but at close range the Dawes recognized Sid Nolan, appearance was far different. the engineer from Tulsa, already The lift halted at the lip of sprawled out in one of the accel- the entry hatch. Hands gathered eration cradles. Dawes nodded them in, and behind Dawes the hello and said, “What are we sup-

THE SEED OF EARTH 141 posed to do, now that we’re here?” “The Gegenschein carries a “Just pick out a cradle and sit crew of nine, and you’ll meet down. Once everybody’s aboard them all soon enough. But I’ll they’ll tell us what happens next.” have to point out now that this “Mind if I take this one?” isn’t exactly a luxury liner. My Dawes asked, indicating the cra- crewmen have their own jobs to dle that adjoined Nolan’s. do, such as navigating, controlling “Why should I mind? Suit the fuel flow, servicing the ship yourself.” in flight. You’ll be responsible for Dawes lowered himself into the the tidiness of your own cabins, cradle. It was like an oversize and each day ten of you will serve lounge chair, suspended on shock- with the crew to help prepare proof cables. At right and left meals and clean the ship. there dangled safety straps to be “Blastoff will take place, as you buckled before blastoff. know, at 1600 hours. We will The chamber filled quickly. travel on rocket drive for eighty- Dawes recognized Ky Noonan, three minutes. At 1723 hours the the husky Volunteer, who entered, rocket drive will cease to be op- picked out a cradle, and immedi- erative, and we will make the ately strapped himself in with an Einsteinian conversion to nospace expert hand. Ed Sanderson, the at 1730 hours. At 1800 hours din- accountant from Milwaukee, was ner will be served in the galley. three cradles to Dawes’ left. “We’ll continue on Einstein Dawes’ watch said 1520 hours drive for the next four weeks. In when the chamber was filled. A case any of you intend to get a loudspeaker overhead crackled last look at Earth as we blast off, into life. please be informed now that there “Settlers of the planet Osiris, are no vision outlets or pickups welcome aboard the starship Ge^- anywhere in the ship but in the enschein,” a deep, pleasantly res- main control cabin. The reason onant voice said. “I’m Captain for this is simple: any kind of McKenzie, and for the next four porthole constitutes a structural weeks I’ll be in command of your weakness in the hull, and since ship. The compartments you now better than 99% of the trip is are in will be your residences for going to be spent in nospace, the entire journey — but you where there’s nothing to see any- won’t be as cooped up as it may way, the designing engineers have seem now. There are two lounges, eliminated the visual outlets. one fore and one aft, and a galley “Let me ask you now simply where you’ll take your meals. to relax, lie back, and get to know

142 GALAXY your neighbor. Blastoff time is Gegenschein would breast the gulf thirty-five minutes from now. of light-years and emerge from Thank you.” nospace in the vicinity of Vega, The speaker clicked off. to make a landing on Osiris by Minutes ticked away. Dawes conventional chemical-rocket pro- tried to freeze in his mind the pulsion. image of the moon full in the Far beneath him, Dawes sensed night sky, the Big Dipper, the the rumbling of the giant rocket belt of Orion. Less than ten min- engines. There was a thunderous utes remained now. roar; a massive fist pushed down, He tried to picture the layout against his chest, as the ship lifted. of the ship. At the very top, at His heart pounded furiously un- the rounded nose, the control cab- der the strain of acceleration. He in and crew quarters were prob- closed his eyes. ably located. Then, he thought, He felt the pang of separation. below that were the two male His last bond with Earth, the dormitories, one on each side of bond of gravity, had been severed. the ship. Then the central lounge, and below that the two female IX dorms. In the rear, the other lounge, and the galley. And be- T^AWES had never known four hind them, the rocket combustion weeks could move so slowly. chambers and the mysterious The novelty of being space- compartment housing the Ein- borne wore off almost at the be- stein Drive. ginning. In nospace, there was no He knew very little about the sense of motion, no rocket vibra- Einstein Drive. Only that its tion, no feeling of acceleration. core was a thermonuclear gener- The ship hung motionless. And ator that, by establishing a con- the hundred passengers, crammed trolled field of greater than solar mercilessly into their tiny vessel, intensity, created a stress-pattern began to feel like prisoners in a in the fabric of space. And that large cell. the ship would nose through the As “day” dragged into “day” stress-pattern like a seal gliding and week into week, Dawes through a cleft in the Arctic ice, found himself going stale with and the ship would enter the the monotony and constant dis- realm termed nospace. comfort. He counted days, then And then? Somehow, travelling hours, until landing. He slept as faster than the normal universe’s much as he could, sometimes fif- limiting velocity, that of light, the teen and sixteen hours a day.

THE SEED OF EARTH 143 until he could manage to sleep The colonists assembled granted no more. him the right to rule by decree Little cliques were forming until a constitution could be aboard the ship as the weeks adopted, and some sort of colonial passed. Groups of six or eight council established. took shape: people from the same Dawes wondered about the geographical area, or people of unanimity of the election. Cer- the same general age and intelli- tainly there were other men gence groups, who saw something among the fifty who yearned for to share in their common misfor- power. Why had they kept polite- tune. Dawes joined none of these ly silent while Haas was being ac- groups. He was the youngest claimed? Men like Dave Mat- member of the colony, at twenty thews, Lee Donaldson: strong —by some fluke of the Computer, men, capable men, outspoken none of the other men was less men. Perhaps they were just bid- than twenty-five, and most were ing their time, Devers thought. in their early thirties — and he Waiting, letting Haas handle the stood to one side, unable to min- difficult task of getting the col- gle at ease with the older people. ony in motion, then making their Many of them had lost wives, bids. families, homes that had been Dawes shrugged. He had no in- built and furnished with care and terest in playing politics. He kept expense, jobs that had cost them to himself, intending to do his outlay of energy and vigorous ex- job as a colonist as best he could, ertion. He felt guilty, in a way, without looking for trouble. Let that he had lost nothing more others fight among themselves for serious than his education and his responsibilities; he was content chosen profession. Conscious that to drift passively along. After all, the other Selectees were adults he thought, he hadn’t asked to be and he himself something less sent here. Nor was he going to than that, though more than a ask for any great share in the boy, Dawes established and ob- responsibilities. served the gulf between them, and made few friends. A T the end of the fourth week,

In the third week an election finally — it seemed like the was held; Phil Haas was chosen fourth century since blasting off Colony Director, running unop- from Earth — a shipwide an- posed. He announced that he nouncement sent the Osiris colo- would serve for one year and nists scuttling back to their pro- then would hold new elections. tective cradles.

144 GALAXY “The time is 1443 hours, ship According to the survey team re- time. In exactly twelve minutes, port, there was no intelligent life at 1455, we’re going to make a on Osiris, at least not on the tem- transition out of nospace and back perate northern continent that to rocket drive. We’ll enter the had been chosen for the colony. It atmosphere of Osiris at 1600 was an easy statement to make; hours and take three hours to so far intelligent life had been complete our landing orbit. We’ll discovered nowhere else in the touch down on the day-side of universe. Many planets had spe- Osiris at 1900 hours, which will cies no more than a hundred be exactly noonday down below. thousand years away from intel- Everybody strap down now.” ligence, but nowhere but on Dawes’ fingers quivered ner- Earth was there a culture, a civili- vously as he lashed himself into zation, as much as a language. the acceleration cradle. This was Or so the findings had been so it! Landing in less than five hours! far. He wondered about Osiris. The At 1455 hours came the shock Colonization Bureau had pre- of transition. The Einstein gen- pared a couple of mimeographed erator lashed out, smashing a gap sheets about the planet for dis- in the fabric of nospace, and the tribution to the colonists, but the Gegenschein slipped through the information on them was scanty. aperture and back into the uni- He knew that the planet was verse of real things. Instantly the roughly Earthsize — 8100 miles rocket engines came into play, in diameter — and that the soil guiding the ship into orbit round was arable; that the air was like the planet below. In a series of the air of Earth, only with a trifle ever-narrowing spirals the Gegen- less oxygen, a trifle more nitrogen, schein would glide downward, not enough of a difference to matching velocities with Osiris, matter; that the planet had seven until its path grazed the skin of continents, of which two were the planet and the ship came to polar and thus uninhabitable. Sur- rest at last. vey team reports were never tre- Lying pinioned in his accel- mendously reliable: the survey eration cradle, Mike Dawes teams moved with desperate clenched his teeth against the haste, often scouting an entire pounding of the rockets. The Geg- solar system in a day or two, and enschein was not insulated very once they found a world to be well against engine vibration; it reasonably suitable they rarely was strictly functional, a tube de- bothered to look for drawbacks. signed to transport people from

THE SEED OF EARTH 145 one world to another, without pre- feted it. But the journey was end- tensions to comfort. ing. The Gegenschein hung low He regretted the lack of a over Osiris’ northern temperate vision screen. It might have been continent, dropping, dropping — inspiring to see Osiris growing Landing. steadily ahead as the Gegenschein The impact shuddered through landed. Much more inspiring than the ship. The Gegenschein wob- lying on your back in a badly ven- bled only an instant before the tilated compartment, Dawes landing-jacks took effect, digging thought, lying in the half-dark- into the ground. ness. Somewhere ahead in the Captain McKenzie said, “We’ve night was Osiris, Vega IX, four landed right on the nose. Wel- billion miles from the fourth come to Osiris, ladies and gentle- brightest star in Earth’s sky. men.” Would Sol be visible in Osiris’ We’re here, Dawes thought. night sky? Probably — as an in- He longed to burrow through significant white dot of negligible the ship’s wall and see the new magnitude. planet. But an hour more passed before the colonists could leave l^O ONE spoke as the Gegen- the ship. First, the routine atmos- ^ ' schein plunged planetward. pheric tests (“as if they’ll take us Each man in the compartment all back home if they discover was alone with his dreams and that the air’s pure helium,” Sid memories now. The minutes Nolan grumbled). Then, the passed; at 1600 hours Captain cooling-off period of fifteen min- McKenzie announced that the utes while nozzles beneath the ship had entered Osiris’ atmos- ship’s belly sluiced decontamina- phere at last. The actual landing ting fluids onto the landing area was still three hours away, as the to deal with the radiation prod- ship swung round the planet, ucts and chemical poisons of the coming closer and closer to the rocket exhaust. surface — After that, the opening of the 1900 hours. Within his cradle hatch, the lowering of the cat- Mike Dawes struggled to keep walk. No gantry lift waiting for his stomach under control. The them; descent from the ship last hour had been a bumpy, would be by ladder only. Phil bouncing ride downward through Haas and Mary Elliot were the thickening layers of atmosphere. first people out; after them came Atmospheric eddies jounced the the others, filing in slow shuffle golden ship; a storm layer buf- along the companionway until

146 GALAXY they reached the passenger exit bled hastily down the catwalk. hatch. The others were waiting below. Dawes was the twentieth to The pinkish sand crunched un- leave the ship. He stepped out derfoot. Feeling for the first time, onto the lip of the hatch. Dawes thought with awe and Osiris lay before him. The ship wonder, the touch of a human had landed in a clearing at the foot. shore of a glittering blue lake. Chill winds swept down on him Beyond the expanse of pinkish- as he stood huddling into him- red sand, the soil became more self for warmth, waiting for Haas fertile; not far away loomed a to organize things, to take charge. dark, ominous-looking forest, and As the colonists filed out of the high beyond rose arching black ship, they wandered about aim- cliffs. lessly on the beach, moving with- Gray clouds lay heavily in the out direction or purpose or words, dark-blue sky like greasy puffs of all of them struggling to minimize wool. High overhead burned giant the shock of concrete realization Vega, with its disc the apparent that they were alone on an alien size of the sun of Earth, even at a planet, never to see Earth again. distance of four billion miles. The At last all hundred had dis- air smelled subtly different — embarked, as well as Captain thin, with a salt tang to it that McKenzie and his crew. was nothing like the tang of the Haas had obtained a whistle open ocean. And it was cold. The from somewhere. He blew it now. temperature was about fifty, but “Attention! Attention, every- an icy wind came sleeting down body!” out of the forest, cutting into him The wanderers returned to the as he stood staring sixty feet group. Silence fell. The wind above the ground. hooted through the distant forest. Haas said, “Captain McKenzie T¥E hadn’t expected it to be tells me that he intends to blast this cold. For no specific off for Earth as soon as possible. reason he had anticipated tropic Our first job, then, is to unload heat. But Osiris, at least this con- the ship. We’ll do it in bucket- tinent at this time of year, seemed brigade fashion. Noonan, pick a bleak, inhospitable, uninviting. team of five men and go with “Come on, kid,” someone said Captain McKenzie: you’ll be the behind him. “Don’t stand there all ones to get the crates out of the day. Get down the ladder.” ship. Sanderson, choose three and Dawes reddened and scram- arrange yourselves near the ship

THE SEED OF EARTH 147 to take the crates as they come the crates away from the ship out. We’ll pass them along until and over to the supply dump. they’ve been placed over there, The cargo hold was nearly at the end of the beach, beyond empty when Dave Matthews the five hundred yard safety zone came trotting out of the forest, the Gegenschein is going to need.” shouting for Haas. Haas paused. “Matthews, take The Colony Director turned.

four colonists and go scouting “What is it, Dave?” around the area. Look around for Matthews raced up, panting. any lurking wildlife, and yell if Dawes and a few others stopped you see anything. The rest of work to listen to him. you just stay in the area; no Matthews gasped, “Aliens! I wandering off.” saw aliens!” Dawes was passed over by the Haas frowned. “What?” heads of the teams; he shrugged, “Skulking around in the edge thrust his hands in his pockets, of the forest. Dark shadowy and stood to one side. The cargo things. They looked like men, or hatch in the belly of the ship was apes, or something.” lowered open, and Noonan and A twinge of fear went through his team entered, while the Geg- Dawes. But Haas smiled. “Are enschein crew clambered back up you sure, Dave?” the catwalk to ready their ship “How can I be sure? They ran for departure. In a few minutes, away as soon as I went toward crates began appearing, heavy them.” wire-bound wooden crates that “Did anyone else in your team contained all of Earth that there see them?” Haas asked, looking had been room to bring along. at the other four members of the scouting patrol. i^THERS lugged the crates “Not me,” Sid Nolan said. across the clearing, out of “Me neither,” Paul Wilson the way of the ship’s rocket-blast agreed. “We came running when area. The job took nearly an Matthews shouted, but we didn’t hour. Haas inventoried each crate see anything.”

as it appeared, checking it off “And the survey team said against a master list. When half there was no intelligent life on had appeared, he whistled again Osiris,” Nolan pointed out. and rotated the teams, letting the Haas shrugged the matter off. tired men rest and putting fresh “We’ll check later. You might ones to work. Dawes took his have been mistaken, Dave.” place in the second team, hauling “I hope so. But I wasn’t.”

148 GALAXY The affair was allowed to drop the ship. There was always the there. At the moment, it was more chance of a stowaway. urgent to empty out the Gegen- He blew his whistle. “Attention, schein. all! The Gegenschein is about to The work made Dawes per- blast off! Everyone over by the spire, and then he felt colder cargo, right away! The Gegen- when a gust of wind came. But schein is leaving!” he enjoyed the mere activity of Final preparations took twenty moving around, of using his mus- minutes. Mike Dawes, standing cles after four weeks of dreary in the safe zone with the other confinement. colonists, felt a sharp inward tug At last the ship was unloaded. as he saw the ship seem to draw An assortment of packing-crates back on its haunches, retracting and smaller cases sat in disorder its landing jacks in the last few five hundred yards from the ship. moments before blastoff. This The crewmen bustled busily was the last link with Earth, the about, checking off items on a golden ship at the edge of the vastly accelerated count-down. It lake. took two days to prepare a ship The warning honk died away

for blastoff when it was laden and the ship sprang suddenly up with colonists and cargo; empty, from the ground, hovering on its

it could be readied in only a few blazing pillar of flame for a mo- hours. ment as it fought with Osiris’ pull, While the crewmen worked, then, breaking loose, shot upward the hundred colonists boarded the to the cloud-muddied sky. For ship for the last time, to prepare half a minute, perhaps, the re- a meal in the galley. It would be treating rocket-blast added a their third meal of the day. But second sun to the sky. A strange it was only, midday on Osiris, and luminous glow cast double shad- Haas had ordered that work ows over the ground, but faded would continue until sundown, rapidly. The Gegenschein was six or seven hours hence, so they gone. would be adjusted to the new A life hardly begun was fin- time-schedule from the very start. ished now, Dawes realized. Dawes was on the cleanup crew after the meal. When he emerged X from the ship, finally, he saw Haas and Captain McKenzie in ]PHIL HAAS mounted a pack- conference. Haas was counting, ^ ing-crate at the far end of to make certain everyone was off the clearing and blew his whistle.

THE SEED OF EARTH 149 ” ”

It was time to get things set up. important things — including the Dawes joined the gathering- marrying.” group. Dawes moistened his lips. Yes, “We’re on our own now,” Haas the marrying! He had pushed the said, speaking loudly to fight the thought into the back of his mind, insistent whistling of the wind. but now there was no avoiding

“That ship is gone and it isn’t ever it. coming back. We’ve got plenty to He drew his jacket tighter do how. The first thing is to set around himself. Like most thin up the stockade and inflate the people, he had little use for cold domes.” weather; the wind seemed to cut A voice from the back of the right through his jacket and be- group — Dave Matthews’ voice tween his ribs. The survey-team — called out. “Phil, what about report had said Osiris was Earth- those aliens I saw? I think we type, uninhabited, and fairly ought to have a permanent secur- fertile, but they hadn’t said ity patrol, just in case they come anything about that damned back.” nor’wester that ripped down con- Haas’ lean face darkened. “The stantly from the forest. important thing is to get the Haas stepped down from his stockade built immediately.” packing-crate and called over “But the aliens — Noonan, Stoker, Donaldson, and “There’s some doubt as to several of the other stronger men whether you actually did see of the group, to discuss plans for aliens, Dave. Remember, the sur- setting up the colony. According vey team didn’t find any such to the booklets that had been creatures here — distributed before landing, there “How long did they look? Half was a fixed and time-tested pro- an hour? cedure for setting up a new col- Haas said with a trace of im- ony — a procedure that had patience, “Dave, if you want to worked well on the hundreds of discuss this further, take it up in worlds to which humanity had private with me. We can’t spare already spread. men for a patrol until the stock- The first step was to establish ade’s been built. Besides which, a stockade, to mark the original your aliens, if they exist, are boundaries of the colony and to probably more afraid of us than provide a tangible measure of we are of them.” Haas chuckled. the colony’s foothold, as well as “Let’s get busy. We’ve got plenty to serve in keeping stray alien more things to do by nightfall — creatures away.

150 GALAXY Once the stockade was up, the lage, a town, a city, a city among bubble-houses went up, the homes other cities. One by one, a series of the colonists. No more the of new Earths would thus be painstaking hewing of logs for carved across the reaches of space cabins; the new bubble-houses by grumbling, miserable, con- sprouted simply and easily from scripted pioneers. the extrusion nozzles. A gallon of Haas took a while to formulate the self-polymerizing fluid could his plans for the first day’s work. serve to create homes for thou- Dawes waited at the edge of the sands of colonists; once it was clearing. The idle colonists, in no gone, the science of architecture hurry to receive their orders, had would begin on the new world. formed into the shipboard cliques again. Eight or nine women stood /^NCE the fifty couples were in one bleakfaced little clump not settled, the next matter was far away, their faces reflecting that of being fruitful and multi- their realization of where they plying. Since the colonists were were and how dead their past screened for fertility, it was lives were. Further away Dawes reasonable to expect thirty or saw a circle composed of the forty offspring in the first year younger unmarried men, joking of the colony, twenty or thirty tensely, nudging each other in the in each succeeding year. By the ribs. The four married couples — time ten years had passed, the the Wilsons, Zacharies, Frys and older children would be able to Nortons — remained apart, as if care for the new crop of babies. emphasizing the fact that they After fifteen years, the total pop- would not be concerned with the ulation of the colony might be as mass mating soon to take place. much as five hundred — and the Dawes stole a look at the little first second-generation marriages group of women. At least half of would be taking place. Given un- them were far too old for him to limited space and no economic begin to consider as a potential problems, breeding could be un- mate. If he had last choice, he limited for several generations. might indeed have one of them Population would expand: eight thrust at him, but he hoped not. hundred, a thousand, fifteen hun- A strange uneasiness stole over dred. It leaped upward by ex- Dawes and he turned his atten- ponential bounds in each genera- tion away from the women. One tion. And the colony spread out- of them would be his wife, on this ward into the alien wilds, until bitter, wind-tossed world. He the raw settlement became a vil- would know which one soon

THE SEED OF EARTH 151 enough. He did not dare specu- the limbs and the fragrant needly late on which. foliage, and sizing the trees to a Haas had finished working out uniform twenty-foot length. It his plans. He whistled once again took only a few minutes to pre- for attention. pare each tree; within half an “The order of business right hour, several dozen were stacked now is to get the stockade up. at the border between the forest You’ve been divided into six work and the clearing. gangs. Gangs one, two, and three At that point, Nolan’s group will be led by Ky Noonan, How- went into action. They had al- ard Stoker, and myself. We’ll dis- ready laid out their boundaries, tribute blasters to those three and now it was a simple matter gangs and you’ll gather tree- of scooping out a pit with the trunks for the backbone of the vacuum extractor, shoving the stockade. Work gang four will be sharpened point of the trunk under Sid Nolan, and that gang some four feet into the ground, will be in charge of placing the and tamping down the ground. trunks in the ground. Work gang Dawes hove to with the rest, feel- five, under Lee Donaldson, will ing a pleasant thrill at the thought bind the trunks together with per- that the colony was under way, mospray. Work gang six, under that his hands were helping to Mary Elliot, will unpack the shape its walls. crates and provisions.” As the row of stakes grew, placed regularly in the ground TT was neatly arranged. Most of three feet apart, Donaldson fol- the men were assigned to the lowed along with the extrusion three logging groups. Dawes and machines, spewing out a binding sixteen others went into Nolan’s layer of plastic between each group, which did the actual build- wooden rib. And within the stock- ing of the stockade. The women ade boundaries the women were split between Donaldson’s worked, ripping into the sealed group and Mary Elliot’s. crates and laying bare their con- The work went off smoothly tents. enough, thanks to the tools sup- After nearly two hours of plied by Earth. The forest was steady work, the stockade had thick with barkless trees twenty taken definite shape on three feet high and six or eight inches sides. After three hours, it was in diameter; the three logging practically finished, and Haas and groups made swift work of burn- his crew, no longer required to ing them down, trimming away supply more logs, were fashion-

152 GALAXY ing the gate and bolt for the asked. His voice echoed loudly stockade’s entrance. Already the inside the stockade. place seemed snug, the winds less A tense, apprehensive giggle cruel, Dawes thought. He felt ex- began among the women, and hausted from his work, the con- rapidly spread through the group. stant hoisting of logs and placing Haas held up his hand for silence. them in the ground, but it was “I was just getting to that part of a good kind of exhaustion, the it now. It’s the one remaining item warm feeling of constructive ex- of business.” ertion. Nightfall came. Giant Vega I^AWES tensed. His stomach had dipped far below the horizon, felt strange, and his hands and a sprinkling of unfamiliar were colder than they ought to constellations brightened the be. Wives. The moment had darkening sky. No moon had come. In a few hours, he was go- risen. But, by floodlights, the ing to have a woman for the first work had gone on. The stockade time. He wondered what it would was nearly perfect, having sprung be like — whether it would be the up miraculously in only a few way he expected it to be. hours. And the bubble-houses had Probably not. Somehow, noth- been blown: fifty of them, small ing ever was. opaque blue domes that glinted The women looked strained, dully in the floodlights’ glare. A oddly tense, as Haas organized fifty-first dome, larger than the them into a group for the mate- rest, stood in the very center of picking. Dawes studied their the stockade. It would be the cen- faces. Cherry Thomas was smil- tral gathering-place of the colony ing, openly expectant; she wanted in the early days. a mate, and it didn’t seem to Dawes hunkered down on his matter to her who she got. Some heels, resting. He was tired; his of the other women looked wor- muscles would ache in the morn- ried, pale, tense. Those were the ing. But the colony was off to a ones who had never been married, flying start. The stockade was who had dreamed of a different built and the homes were erected. sort of wedding-night, before “Swell job, everyone,” Haas their number came up. Others, congratulated them. “We’re right those who had left husbands be- on schedule. And it’s wonderful hind on Earth, were obviously the way you all pitched in and thinking of their loved ones tril- did your share.” lions of miles away. “What about wives?” Noonan Haas unfolded a sheet of paper

THE SEED OF EARTH 153 and frowned. “The time has come Noonan came forward, smiling to couple off. The instructions I calmly. He was the biggest, most have suggest the following recom- aggressive male in the group, and mended procedure for handling he gloried in the confident knowl- this. As a Volunteer, Ky Noonan edge of his own superiority. has the right to take first pick. He ran his eyes insouciantly As Colony Director, I get second down the row of waiting women. pick. After that, we proceed in A strange mixture of emotions order of Computer Registration appeared on fifty feminine faces. Number — an order known only Some of the women seemed fear- to me, at the moment. I think ful of being picked by him, others that way is better than any other openly hostile, others pleadingly system, and unless I hear any anxious. strong objections that’ll be the After a moment of hushed si- method we’ll use.” lence, Noonan said, “All right. I No one spoke. Dawes privately pick Cherry Thomas.” wished that someone would speak Dawes let his breath out ex- up in favor of a more gradual plosively. He had been certain system — say, letting things take that Noonan would pick Carol their natural course, couples Herrick — but he had bypassed forming as the days went by. But her in favor of the older woman, colonies were warned against for some reason. such arrangements. It was far Haas said, “Miss Thomas, is safer to establish couplings right this choice agreeable?” at the start, having everyone in Cherry Thomas stared levelly the small community settled at at Noonan, appraising him frank- once. ly. There were wrinkles creasing “Very well,” Haas said. “We’ll the skin around her eyes, and her go down the list. Each man will flashily metallic smile seemed in- select a woman, but she has the sincere and false. “I guess so,” she right of refusal. In case your said. “If Noonan wants me. I’ll choice refuses you, you don’t get go with him.” to pick again until every other man has spoken. If anyone re- TTAAS made an entry on his mains uncoupled after three run- list. “So be it. You can have throughs, I’ll make assignments your pick of any of the bubble- myself. Okay. Noonan, as a Vol- houses. Suppose I say now that unteer you’ve earned the privilege any marriage can be dissolved on of picking first. Step forward and Osiris by approval of the Council, name your choice.” once we have a Council. Until

154 GALAXY ” ”

then, let’s try not to have any was anything but friendly. “Sorry. split-ups.” I’ll wait a turn.” Dawes watched Noonan and Stoker scowled at her angrily. Cherry stroll away to take their “Okay. If you’re going to be that pick of house-site. No ceremony? way, to hell with you. I pick Carol He wondered. It didn’t seem so. Herrick instead.” The simple act of picking solem- Dawes whitened at the thought nized the marriage. Well, Dawes of Stoker pawing over Carol. He thought, it’s a brand-new world. wanted to shout out, to protest. Perhaps it’s better this way. But Haas said, “Sorry, Howard. Haas was next, and to no one’s I told you before that regulations surprise picked Mary Elliot, who don’t give you a second choice accepted. That was a foregone until everyone else has spoken.” conclusion, of course. “But — The Colony Director looked “You heard me. Stoker.” down at his list again, and an- “Dammit, I’m not going to wait nounced that Lee Donaldson had at the end of the line! Just be- next pick. Donaldson, a strong, cause that slut is too proud to commanding-looking man, strode have me, I — forward and announced his choice Haas said in a voice that sud- loudly: “Claire Lubetkin.” denly crackled with authority, Claire reddened, fidgeted, nib- “You’ll do whatever I tell you to bled her lower lip. Haas put the do, Howard. Get back in line and question to her. She wavered in- wait your turn. Mike Dawes has decisively, glanced around at the next choice.” other men, and finally nodded. “I Stoker grumbled something, accept the choice.” spat ostentatiously, and walked to After Donaldson came Howard the rear of the group. Dawes Stoker. He came forward in his stumbled forth red-faced, still as- bear-like, rumbling walk, with the tonished at the sudden reprieve. dirt of his day’s labor still clinging Carol had been picked by Stoker, to him. and Haas had refused to allow He eyed the women as if mak- the choice, and now it was his ing up his mind at the last mo- choice — ment and said, “Rina Morris.” A row of faces confronted him. Ninety-odd pairs of eyes fo- Kindly maternal faces; frightened cused on Rina Morris. The red- faces; amused faces. And one haired girl drew herself up stiffly. face above all others. Dawes She looked at the thickset, ugly searched for the words. Stoker with an expression that “I p-pick — I pick Carol Her-

THE SEED OF EARTH 155 rick,” he stuttered, not daring to They walked toward it, Dawes look at her. carrying his own suitcase and Haas smiled. “Miss Herrick?” hers, each with its twenty pounds Dawes waited for an agoniz- of personal possessions. At the ing span of time. He could not entrance to the dome he paused, look at Carol’s face. He stared wondering vaguely whether he away, at the ground, too tense should bother with the old ritual to draw a breath. of carrying his wife across the Finally she said, in a voice so threshold. He nearly put down soft it could barely be heard, the suitcases to turn to her; then, “I accept.” changing his mind, he simply walked inside the dome. She fol- XI lowed him in. Within, the dome covered an l^AWES and Carol left the area of perhaps two hundred clearing together, walking square feet. There would be rapidly away without speaking, room for a bed and perhaps a virtually without looking at each clothes cabinet of some sort, not other. much else. Plumbing would come He said to her finally, as they a while later; until that time, they approached the circular row of would have to make do with the bubble-houses, “We’d better pick nearby lake for washing and one out.” drinking. “Pick any one you like—Mike.” “It isn’t very impressive, is it?” He glanced at them. The he asked. domes were empty, merely arch- “No. Not very.” ing shelters against the down- “We’ll fix it up. These domes slanting winds, but they did pro- are just temporary, just places to vide a place to sleep if you didn’t stay until we can begin building mind the ground. Colonists were homes. We’ll have a swell place not supposed to mind little things some day, Carol.” like having to sleep on the ground He smiled encouragingly at until there was time to build beds. her. But she could not keep up He pointed at the bubble-house the pretense; she sank down onto that adjoined Noonan’s. It might her suitcase and stared bleakly be a good idea to have Noonan off into nowhere. Dawes began to as a neighbor, Dawes thought. wonder about the sleeping ar- Just in case of trouble. rangements for the night. They “Let’s take that one,” Dawes would have to spread out all their said. clothes, he thought, and huddle

156 GALAXY ”

together under layers of them for said. “Pre-Med. Ohio State. Well, warmth — that’s all finished too. We have to “I hadn’t expected it to be like start all over, here on Osiris.” this,” she said suddenly in a tone- “It’s like a blind date,” Carol less voice. “I mean, my life, and said quietly, when a few mo- all. I never really thought much ments had passed. “You and me, about what I was going to do put together like this. A blind with myself. But I didn’t figure date that’s for keeps.” I’d end up in a little bubble on “Why did you say yes when some other world.” I picked you?” “Neither did I. Neither did “What else could I do? I didn’t any of us, Carol.” want any of the others, the older “But we’re here, aren’t we?” men. You looked like somebody He nodded. After a moment I could talk to, somebody I’d be he said, “What did you do, on happy with. Even if you are a lit- Earth?” tle younger than me. It’s better “Do? Oh — I was a stenogra- than going with one of those old- pher. Typist, mostly. For a con- er ones.” struction firm in Oakland. I guess “I hope we’re happy together, I was just waiting around to get Carol.” married, when the time came. “I hope so too. But — Mike, Well, I guess the time did come I’m afraid — — sort of.” There were tears in the edges of her eyes. Dawes realized that l^AWES was disappointed. He she was rapidly losing her nerve had never asked her before and might well go off into wild — he had never dared to speak hysterics any moment. That was much with her on the ship — not the way he cared to spend his but he had privately hoped she wedding night. And he wouldn’t had been an actress, a writer, per- know how to handle her if she haps a singer. Someone with a burst out in tears. talent, someone he could be He said as firmly as he could, proud of, someone who would “We’re going to have to make stand out from all the other the most of things, Carol. You women. He decided he would know what I mean. It’s going to have to be content with her slim be this way, now that our num- prettiness, and let all else go. She ber came up. You and me, to- was, it seemed, just an ordinary gether on Osiris, and no turning girl, shyly innocent. back. Not ever.” “I was going to college,” he She nodded. And then, after a

THE SEED OF EARTH 157 ”

frozen moment of silence, he of Noonan and Cherry Thomas. found himself moving toward Dawes saw hunched, neckless her, putting his arms round her heads, thick shoulders, corded thin shoulders, kissing her. It was arms. He was too sick to run. He a tender, tremulous sort of kiss, stood where he was, listening to a tentative contact of dry lips, Noonan’s cursing. Cherry’s fear- and it had hardly begun when it sharpened voice, and the occa- was interrupted suddenly by a sional croaking grunt of a smitten harsh yell coming from the gen- attacker. eral direction of Noonan’s bub- Then he felt something cold ble at the left. and hairy touch him, and he He pulled back from her. “Did heard Carol scream. you hear something — a shout?” Other colonists were coming. “It sounded like it was Noo- Dawes fought, fought for the first nan. Do you think he’s having time since forgotten childhood. trouble with Cherry?” He fought with arms and legs, “I don’t know. But — whirled and butted with his The shouts came again. And shoulders, kicked out at chunky, this time the words were unmis- heavily furred figures he could takable. Noonan was bellowing, only partially see. His nails “Hey! Dawes! Dawes! Help!” clawed into a musky-smelling hide. He squirmed, wriggled, I^OONAN and Cherry were kicked again. And then he could ^ ^ outside their dome. They fight no more. He was held tight, were surrounded by dark shapes, solidly clamped by thick alien black forms against the black- arms. ness. Noonan was flailing at the “Mike!” Carol whimpered. shapes and shouting. He felt a pang of inadequacy. “Get away from me!” the big “I can’t do anything, Carol. Not man cried. “Hey, Dawes! Run! a thing. They’ve got me too.” Get help!” “It’s the aliens,” came Noo- Dawes froze, not knowing nan’s angry voice. “The ones which way to turn. He heard Matthews saw. Hostile aliens.” Carol catch her breath sharply. His booming cry seemed to carry His eyes, growing more accus- all over the colony ground. tomed to the dark, picked out “Aliens!” the scene clearly now. Dawes felt himself being Six or seven dark stubby fig- hoisted from the ground. Two ures — unhuman figures — clus- powerful hands gripped his tered around the struggling forms ankles, two his shoulders. He

158 GALAXY tried once again to resist, but it alien control; he could not even was like trying to break loose wipe his face. After a while the from the grip of a hydraulic trail of slime, running down the press. left side of his face from eye- He swayed. He realized he was brow to the corner of his mouth, moving. began to burn — whether for im- Dark shapes, and darker jun- aginary reasons or because of gle. He was being carried toward some chemically corrosive effect, the forest. He could see nothing, Dawes could not tell. He twisted neither Carol nor Noonan nor his head around and managed to Cherry. rub some of the slime off on the After a while, he stopped try- shoulder of his shirt. But an inch ing to break free. The aliens were or two remained, just to the left handling him gently enough. He of his eye, tormenting him by its simply could not move, but they inaccessibility. He wondered if it were carrying him along at a would leave some sort of mark, steady pace. Too bad there was perhaps a white scar or a pucker- no moon, he thought. He could ing of the skin. make out the shadowy shapes of At last the trek through the trees bending above him, but all forest came to its end. The aliens else was indistinct. He heard broke from^ the thicket and night-birds crowing harshly, Dawes could see the bald, bare mocking him from the treetops. faces of the jutting cliffs, the up- Fear enshrouded him; he was thrust fangs of black rock that too frightened even to be afraid, had looked so forbiddingly Goth- any more. Carried along in the ic when he had first viewed them soft alien grip, he offered himself from the lip of the Gegenschein’s up to fate, knowing he had no al- hatch. ternative. He began to feel the ascent. Going up the side of the moun- ^^HE journey went on for more tain was a terrifying experience

than an hour. Perhaps it was — the most terrifying since the two hours; it might just as well actual kidnapping. have been two months. Dawes The aliens, his night-sharpened lost all sense of the passage of eyes perceived, had thick bluish time. The forest was surprisingly pads on their palms and on the thick, for such a cold continent; soles of their blunt feet. Suction dangling vines brushed his face, pads. one of them leaving a nauseous The aliens gripped him firmly, trail of slime. His hands were in at shoulders and feet, and started

THE SEED OF EARTH 159 to ascend the naked face of the cave. Or vampire bats lurking in cliff. Dawes swung dizzyingly the darkness ahead, grateful for back and forth as they rose. They the sacrifice being brought to were climbing the unvegetated them. rock as if it were a ladder, and But none of the dire perils he with each new upward thrust he conceived came immediately to canted out over the emptiness, pass. The aliens simply left him wisely refusing to look down. in the cave. They put him down Then the upwardness ended, with surprising gentleness, leav- just when Dawes thought his ing him to lie in cold, moist sand, mind would snap from the con- turned their backs on him, stant danger of the climb, and walked away. In the utter dark- the aliens proceeded inward. Into ness he could see nothing at all. a cave of some sort, that ap- He sensed other aliens moving peared to be hewn out of the about; he thought he could tell face of the rock cliff. them by their ape-like shuffle. Dawes’ fertile imagination He wondered if the whole col- worked overtime. He pictured ony were to be carried off and strange alien sacrificial rites tak- deposited here in this cave. The ing place in this Haggardesque survey-team said the planet was

I uninhabited, he thought re- can’t see. What’s going to happen proachfully. But Dave Matthews to us?” was right after all. “I don’t know,” Dawes said. “Don’t move. Stay right where

TTE sat quietly in the darkness. you are and I’ll try to find you. The sound of sobbing was Damn this darkness, anyway!” coming from a point somewhere He looked around, trying to to his right. As background noise gauge the direction from which he could hear the gentle murmur- Carol’s voice had come. But he ing sound of flowing water, as if knew that no vector would be there were a stream bubbling in- accurate in here. The walls of side the borders of the cave. the caves would have a distort- “Who’s there?” he asked. “Who ing effect. are you?” A voice he recognized as “It’s Carol. Is that you, Mike?” Noonan’s broke in, saying, Some of his fear ebbed away. “Dawes, is that you?” At least, he thought, he was not It came from someplace deep- alone! er in the cave, behind him, high- “Yes. Where are you, Carol?” lighted by resonating echoes. “Sitting in sand, someplace. I “Yes,” Dawes said loudly. “And

THE SEED OF EARTH 161 Carol’s here too. Is anyone else cold wet sands that formed the there?” floor of the cave. Evidently the “I am,” said Cherry Thomas. brook he heard fan not too deep Her declaration echoed around under the sand, close enough to the cavern. No other voices en- the surface to impart a chill, and tered in. Staring unseeingly came bubbling out a few hun- ahead of him, Dawes waited a dred yards deeper in the cave. moment, then said flatly when No one spoke. There was the echoes died, “I guess it’s just steady sobbing, but he had little the four of us, then, up here in hint of direction. He had no idea this cave. What the hell do they even of how large the cave was. want with us?” “Carol! Carol!” he called out. Nobody answered. On hands and knees he groped Outside the cavern mouth, in the blackness. After minutes somewhere to his right, the end- of uncertain s' arrying, he felt a less wind whipped around the warm hand graze his, startling mountains, whistling, moaning. him a little. The hand found his Dawes shivered. In the darkness wrist and tightened comfortingly. he could just barely see his own “Thank God,” he murmured. hand held before his face — and Blindly he reached out and even then he could not really touched a yielding body. Arms be sure whether or not it was gathered him in. He almost felt imagination, not actual sight, like sobbing, out of gratitude, out that had put the image of the of shared terror. hand there. He had never ex- When morning flooded bright- perienced a darkness of such in- ly into the cavern, Dawes woke tensity before. reluctantly, groggily, from a bi- And he saw another darkness zarre dream of alien worlds. He more clearly now—the darkness looked around. of a life that yanked a person out With a dull sense of shock and of his rightful place and threw anguish he made the discovery him onto a strange world, and that he had spent his wedding then when he had begun to carve night in the arms of Cherry some meaning and familiarity Thomas. into the strangeness yanked him out again and tossed him in a XII windswept cave. He felt very alone, very young, more than a ^T^HE coming of daylight re- little frightened, just a little sick. vealed Carol’s location to He started to crawl across the him. She was lying about a hun-

162 GALAXY ”

dred feet up-cavern, a pathetic so dark — I didn’t know —” He little bundle sprawled on the paused. There was something he sand. She was still asleep, her had to know, but he could find knees drawn up into her body, no way of putting the question her hands tucked under one to Noonan. He said at last, “Tell cheek. me — did you — did you — And, at his side, he saw that He left the question unspoken. Cherry also slept — her clothes But Noonan grinned and said, disheveled, her bright blonde “No, I didn’t touch your sweetie. hair streaming every which way Couldn’t manage to find her, to (the hair I fondled lovingly last tell you the truth. But I’m not night, Dawes thought in guilty put out because of you and Cher- self-condemnation), her mouth, ry. Mistakes can happen. And vacuously open, lips drooping you weren’t the first with her, and apart. Dawes felt as if he had I’m not going to be the last, soiled himself. His body ached; either.” every muscle throbbed, his bones With one easy gesture Noonan were chilled by the damp and pushed himself to his feet and cold, and he felt a general lassi- ambled downcavern toward tude, the weariness of a body not Dawes, who stood waiting, con- yet accustomed to the exertions templating the shattered ruin of of love. his values as he glanced down at Noonan was awake already. the sleeping Cherry. Dawes saw him far back in the “These women will sleep cavern, over to the left on the through anything,” Noonan side away from Carol. He was sit- chuckled. His eyes narrowed as ting up, arms clasped in front of he saw Dawes more closely. him across his knees, looking “Christ, you look awful. Green in amusedly at Dawes. the face.” “Morning,” the big man said “I’m — pretty tired out.” with a grin. “You getting sick?” “Good morning,” Dawes said Dawes shook his head. “I just with a trace of primness that an- feel washed out.” noyed him as he detected it. “You look sicker than just be- “Seems you got mixed up a ing washed out.” little last night,” Noonan re- “How am I supposed to feel?” marked wryly. He didn’t look Dawes demanded. “Who knows concerned by the switch. “This where the hell we are? What are is your gal up here, you know.” these aliens planning to do to Dawes reddened. “I — it was us? We may be stew by lunch-

THE SEED OF EARTH 163 time, Noonan.” Dawes’ voice bluish-purpleness of the suction- sounded thin and high in his pads on the palms of their broad ears. hands. “I doubt it,” Noonan said cas- Dawes stepped back from the ually. “But let’s take a look.” rim of the cave-mouth, remark- Together they strolled forward ing with a levity he hardly felt, to the lip of the cavern. Dawes “It’s a long drop.” gasped. He glanced at the bigger man, who grinned and said, “Damned ^^HEY were at least a hundred right it is. I’d say we were stuck feet above the flat, dull- here a while. We’ll just have to brown surface of Osiris. The cave make the most of it.” was inset in an almost vertical Dawes quivered a little at rise of cliff. Above and below Noonan’s words, which uncom- them were flat walls of black fortably echoed the words he’d stone, gleaming faintly in the spoken consolingly to Carol just morning sun. And down below, before the alien attack. The re- on the distant ground, a few of minder of his unconsummated the aliens moved in aimless pat- marriage was painful. He turned terns as if standing guard. away, to survey the interior of Dawes pointed out past the the cave. thickly forested area. “Look The cavern was long and deep, there. That must be the colony, deeper than it was wide; it in that clearing all the way out slanted back downward, vanish- there!” ing into a wall of rock at the Noonan nodded. “A good ten rear beyond the penetrating miles or so. And we can see it range of the sunlight. Far to the easily. This is the damnedest flat back of the cave the little stream world I ever saw, except for these gushed forth out of the live rock, cliffs.” He gestured downward, at coursed along the cave floor for the aliens. “Nasty bunch down a space, and dropped below the there.” surface again, puddling up into Dawes looked out and down. a small fast-flowing narrow lake. The aliens, at this distance, ap- The morning air was cold and peared to be nothing but yellow- brisk; the wind wailed past the brown splotches against the open mouth of the cavern in deeper brown of the soil. They relentless pursuit of itself. were heavily furred, he saw, They were a hundred fifty feet neckless, thick-bodied. He above ground, in a cold little al- thought he could make out the cove in the side of a steep cliff.

164 GALAXY ” ”

They had fresh water. They gretted having to wake her. He could survive here indefinitely, knelt by her side, listened for a if — moment to the untroubled Hunger gnawed at Dawes’ rhythm of her breathing, and middle. He said to Noonan, “Sup- wondered how she could be so pose we’re left here to starve to calmly asleep in a place like this. death? What if they don’t bring He put his hand lightly to her us food?” shoulder. “Carol. Wake up, “We’ll eat each other,” Noo- Carol.” nan said amiably. “Women and She stirred, but her eyes re- children first.” He yawned, show- mained shut — as if she did not ing sharp, strong white teeth, and want to wake, Dawes thought. As Dawes half-thought he might be if she preferred the security of serious. There was never any tell- her dream. He shook her more ing what idea Noonan might put energetically, and she began to forth as a serious suggestion. awaken. Yet he was glad Noonan was “Carol? Are you up?” here. The older man radiated “What — oh — Mama, yes — strength and competence and I must have overslept — courage, all of them attributes Her eyes opened and she sat that Dawes knew he himself con- up. For an instant she stared at spicuously lacked. Noonan was Dawes, at the cave, with blank an adventurer. He had been a incomprehension. Then her Volunteer. That took a kind of dream of home faded and reality courage Dawes could hardly be- returned. gin to understand, and he re- “Oh — I was dreaming. I spected Noonan for it. slept so soundly all night — I “Let’s go wake up the women- thought you were going to come folk,” Noonan suggested. to me, but you didn’t, did you? “We might as well,” Dawes You — agreed. “Come,” he said quietly. “Let’s go down to the others. It’s morn- Y¥E headed to the back of the ing.” cavern, where Carol slept. Cherry had awakened by this Looking back, he saw Noonan time; she stood stretching, stooping over Cherry, shaking knuckling her eyes, adjusting her her urgently from side to side. clothing. Noonan, nearby, stood Carol still lay curled in her with arms folded. Dawes and quasi-fetal position. She seemed Carol went toward them, and so soundly asleep that Dawes re- Cherry nodded at Carol, smiled

THE SEED OF EARTH 165 ironically at Dawes as if to re- gally his wife. But he had never establish the rapport that had touched her, except for one fleet- existed between them in the dark- ing interrupted kiss. And he had ness of the vanished night. spent their wedding night with For a long moment the four of Cherry. them stood apart and looked at each other. Just looked. And 66^'^^E’RE not going to have Dawes saw suddenly that life in much privacy in here,” the cave was going to be compli- Noonan said at last, breaking a

cated. silence so taut it creaked. He knew Noonan and Cherry, “You can say that again,” certainly, grasped the general Cherry offered. picture. At the moment, he had “I won’t. But some of us are no way of telling whether or not going to have to change their Carol realized what he had done ideas a little. And I don’t know the night before, or, if she did, how long we’re going to be stuck whether she understood the im- up here, either — but I’d guess plications of his act. That mo- we don’t get out until someone ment of love, in his blind, grop- gets us out.” ing, panicky need in the darkness “You don’t figure there’s any of the night, drew the four of way we can get out ourselves?” them together in a way Dawes Dawes asked. only partly understood. Inward- Noonan hunched his shoulders ly he could be certain only that into a somber shrug. “I don’t he had betrayed Carol. have any snap ideas. It’s a long The four of them just looked way down, that’s all.” at each other. “Those aliens,” Carol said in a Noonan was eyeing Carol’s hesitant voice. “They’re down trim figure and high, full breasts there just watching us?” with unconcealed curiosity. Cher- Noonan nodded. “There’s a ry seemed divided: she was glar- bunch of them outside, in the ing at Noonan in a wifely, almost valley at the foot of the cliff. henpecking manner, and yet at We’re penned up here, and they the same time frankly studying can come get us any time they Dawes in a way both maternal want. But there’s no way for us and openly possessive. She to get out.” wanted everyone, it seemed. “And I don’t suppose the col- Dawes himself felt terribly ony is going to come rescue us,” unsure of his emotions. By the Cherry Thomas said. “They laws of the colony, Carol was le- won’t give much of a damn about

166 GALAXY US. Chalk us off as lost, I guess. T^AWES walked to the lip of They’ll be too busy defending the cavern and peered down their stockade.” the vertiginous height. He was “There isn’t any defense,” stunned to see alien faces peer- Carol said. “If they can walk up ing upward at him. There were the side of a cliff, they can climb about twenty of the aliens half- over a twenty-foot fence, can’t way up the side of the cliff, mak- they?” ing no attempt to move closer, Dawes said, “The colonists looking upward at him. Their won’t rescue us. They can’t. They blunt heads were almost entirely don’t even know where we are. covered with short bristly yel- If there still is a surviving colony, low-brown fur, from which dark that is.” blue eyes, piercingly intense, Noonan shook his head in stared out. agreement. “That’s a point. The Dawes turned away. Suddenly, aliens may have everybody he heard a thump behind him. cooped up, four to a cave. Or Surprised, he whirled and they may have just snatched the caught a glimpse of the purple four of us. There’s no way of tell- suction-pad of an alien as it ing.” flashed and disappeared. A bun- “Well, we’re stuck here,” Cher- dle lay at the mouth of the cave. ry said. “But what are we going Dawes ran to the edge of the to do about food?” cave and looked out. An alien Noonan shrugged. “We can’t was scampering down the side of eat sand. Maybe the aliens will the cliff to rejoin his fellows be- be nice about it and bring us low. something we can eat. Or maybe Dawes returned to the bundle. they won’t.” It was a package about the size “Suppose they don’t?” Carol of a man, wrapped in a reddish- asked. yellow animal hide that was “Then there are three things shaggy and rank. Frowning, we can do. We can sit around Dawes undid the coarse twine in here and wait to starve to that held the uncured hide to- death, or we can take turns eat- gether and lay back the wrap- ing each other, or we can simply ping. jump out the front of the cave.” His eyes widened. Rising, he Noonan laughed cavernously. cupped one hand to his mouth “I’d recommend the last idea. It and called out to the others. makes for a quicker death, that “Hey, food! Come here, all of way.” you! The aliens brought us food!”

THE SEED OF EARTH 167 As Noonan and Cherry and beat it. He looked like a big Carol came crowding around to brown spider skittering down the see, Dawes spread out the pro- rock wall.” visions. The largest item in the Using the blade, Noonan sliced bundle was a freshly-killed ani- into the animal, while Dawes and mal, small, foreshortened, vague- the women watched. Dawes was ly pig-like, with a hairless black fascinated with Noonan’s surgi- skin. A stiff little tail about six cal precision. The roughly-flaked inches long thrust out sharply at stone knife was razor-sharp, and them. There was a deep gash in the big man had a ready way with the animal’s throat, but other- the beast; he carved with the skill wise it was whole, from its tail of a professional butcher. He laid to its flattened snout and glassy the animal open speedily, pulling yellow buttons of eyes. Strapped back flaps of its dark red under- to the beast by a crude length belly-skin, and scooped out the of twine was a short, sharp knife warm entrails. He dumped them made of some shiny gray mate- to one side. rial very much like obsidian. “At least,” Noonan said, “the The bundle also included sev- alien blood is the right color.” eral clusters of milk-white fruits He efficiently carved chunks of the size of large grapes, and some meat from the small creature. oblong blue gourd-like vegeta- “Maybe this meat is poison and

bles with coarse, knobby skins. maybe it isn’t, but at least the Dawes’ mouth watered. blood’s right.”

“So it looks like they intend Carol shuddered. “I’ve never to feed us,” Noonan said. “That eaten raw meat. Isn’t there some may be good, or maybe it isn’t. way we can make a fire?” I hope they’re not fattening us Noonan paused to glance up for a sacrifice.” at her. “No, there isn’t,” he said “We’ll find that out soon emphatically. “I know you didn’t enough,” said Dawes. “We’ll want to come on this trip, girly. know whenever we get fed again. But you’re here, now. You’d bet- If they don’t throw us any more ter be ready to eat plenty of raw for a week, we can figure that the meat — and worse things.” fattening idea is wrong.” “How did the bundle get XIII here?” Cherry asked.

“An alien climbed up the side ^^HEY ate, and it was a strange, of the cliff and tossed it in the *- silent, almost shamefaced entrance,” Dawes said. “Then he meal. The veneer of civilization

168 GALAXY that still clung to all of them, When everyone was through even Noonan, dampened their eating, Noonan gathered together spirits as they ate the bloody the remnants of the meal, the meat. bones of the small animal and Dawes was voraciously hun- the shells of the gourds, and gry, and it wasn’t as hard for hurled them from the cavemouth. him to overcome his conditioning After a distinct pause came the against eating raw meat as he thudding sounds of landing. thought it would be. Still, some- “Why’d you do that?” Dawes thing about the sticky blood that asked. ran between his fingers, pasting “To show them that we appre- them together, made him queasy. ciated the stuff. There’s no better And he could see that Carol had way than to toss back a carcass to make a visible effort to choke that’s been cleaned of flesh. Any- the meat down. Noonan ate with- way, we can’t have that junk sit- out inhibitions; Cherry put away ting around in here.” her share with a certain reserve, Noonan pointed upcavern, but with no outward show of where the little stream split the revulsion. The meat had an odd, cavern floor into two roughly

pungent taste about it, even raw, equal sectors. that made it more appealing than “Look here, Dawes. Suppose

it might otherwise have been. you and Carol take the far corner There were ten of the blue up there, on the right.” gourds. After the meat course, “And you?”

Noonan doled out one gourd to “Cherry and I’ll stay on the each of them and put the remain- left, a little ways lower down to- ing six aside. “In case we don’t ward the cavemouth. That’s for get fed again too soon,” he ex- sleeping. It’s the best arrange- plained. “These things will keep. ment we can make.” The meat won’t.” “It’ll be something like living The gourds tasted sour, strong- in a goldfish bowl,” Cherry said. ly acidified; they had a stringy, Dawes shrugged. “We’ll have unpleasant texture, and needed to manage.” plenty of chewing. But they were He rose, walked to the front of nourishing, and filled up the the cave, and peered out. Seven stomach well. Dawes finished his or eight aliens squatted on the gourd quickly and turned his at- ground a hundred fifty feet be- tention to the white grapes. low, looking up. These were doughy in consisten- “More like a goldfish bowl cy, dry, and not very good. than you think,” he said, turning

THE SEED OF EARTH 169 around. “They’re watching us without using his hands. “I’ve got from down there. Just watching. an idea,” he said. “Maybe it isn’t As if — as if we were really fish worth much, but at least I can in a bowl, or pets in a cage.” try it.” “Maybe we are,” Noonan said. He began to strip off his shirt, He scooped up a handful of moist kicking off his shoes at the same sand, compressed it in his time. clenched fist until it was a hard “What are you going to do?” ball, and angrily hurled it down Dawes asked. at the staring aliens. It broke Noonan unsnapped his trous- apart in midflight and showered ers. “Take a look at that under- harmlessly down as a spray of ground stream up back. I’m going sand. Noonan turned away, curs- to get in there and wander ing softly. around a little. Maybe the stream comes out somewhere. day dragged along horri- Maybe we can all get out the bly. Four people in an es- other side.” cape-proof cell a hundred yards He picked up his clothes, long and perhaps seventy feet stuffed them under his arm, and, wide, without fire, without any- wearing only briefs, walked up- thing but themselves. And they cavern to the place where the hadn’t learned yet to like each stream broke the surface of the other much. cavern floor. Looking back he Dawes felt his nerves tighten- called, “Come on up here with ing like the tuned strings of a me, Dawes. If you hear me yell, fiddle. There was nothing to do come on in after me.” in the cave but stare at each Dawes joined him. Noonan other, talk, tell jokes. And there tossed down the bundle of his was so little to talk about. Noo- clothes, stepped out of his briefs, nan was monolithic; he spoke and, naked, entered the water. It only when he chose, never speak- swirled knee-deep as he waded ing just for the mere sake of farther upcavern, then abruptly making noise. Carol’s conversa- grew deeper. tion seemed to be limited to ex- As it approached the height of pressions of faint hopes and fears; his chest, Dawes said uneasily, Cherry’s, to jokes and acid-tipped “It’s dangerous to try this, Noo- reminiscences. . nan. You may get trapped under- It was Noonan who broke the neath, somewhere. I won’t be hypnosis. He snapped to his feet able to hear you if you yell.” out of a cross legged position Noonan turned to glance back.

170 GALAXY His lips were blue, and despite How long could a man stay himself he was shivering, but he under water? Even a man like smiled. “So? What of it? At least Noonan? I tried.” “You oughta go in and look He turned again and advanced for him,” Cherry said. “He may toward the point at which the be drowning.” stream dipped below ground lev- “Yeah. I know.” el again and swept back into the The counting mechanism in mountain. Dawes heard Noonan his mind functioning automatic- suck breath in gaspingly, and ally now, ticking away the sec- then Noonan went under. Tense- onds. With a cold hand Dawes ly Dawes began to count off the started to strip off his trousers, seconds. not worrying about modesty in “Where did he go?” Dawes the face of the cold stream that heard Cherry ask. awaited him. He turned and saw both Suddenly Noonan broke sur- women standing behind him. face, head first — leaping up That annoyed him; he did not high above the water, gasping want Carol to see Noonan’s loudly for breath, plunging back naked body when and if he came down like a sounding whale. out of the stream. He realized Choking, retching, he came up

it was a foolish, prudish sort of again, battled the swift current thing, but the real reason, he for an instant or two, and man- knew, lay deep in his own shy- aged to pull himself to the edge ness. of the water. Dawes waded in a “He went under,” Dawes said couple of feet, grabbed his arm, simply. and tugged him up on the sand. “He’s been gone half a min- Noonan was blue all over; ute,” Dawes said a few seconds goosebumps of enormous size later. “He ought to be up soon.” covered him. He lay there, “Suppose he doesn’t come up?” sprawled out with his face down Carol asked. in the sand, drawing in breath with great hoarse sobbing sighs. T^AWES did not answer. But Finally he looked up. he kicked off his shoes, “Cold,” he said. “Cold!" knowing he’d be expected t6 go “You find anything?” Dawes in after Noonan and try to find asked. him. He started to shiver a little, Weakly Noonan shook his and his hands went tentatively head. “No. Not a damned thing. to his belt. I followed the stream as far as I

THE SEED OF EARTH 171 could. Nothing. Came back and without looking up. “I’ll keep him couldn’t find the outlet. Thought warm.” I’d — thought I’d drown. Then I broke through.” T^O more food came that day. He shivered convulsively. ” The aliens obviously Dawes had never seen a man planned to give them just one look so cold and completely ex- meal a day — if that. hausted before. Noonan contin- “We need a hostage,” Noonan ued to sob for breath. said, talking more to himself “He’ll freeze to death,” Carol than to any of the others. “It’s said anxiously. “He’s all wet and the only way to get anywhere. the sand’s sticking to him. We Tomorrow we hang around the ought to warm him up somehow.” cavemouth until they bring the Dawes felt irritated by her food — if they bring the food. show of sympathy. Noonan’s wild When the alien shows up, we swim, he thought, had been noth- grab him.” ing but a grandstand play; show- “What good is that going to boating for the benefit of the do.” Dawes wanted to know. women, and nothing more. “I don’t know,” Noonan said.

“He’ll warm up by himself,” “But at least it’s something, dam- Dawes grunted. mit! A sign that we’re doing Cherry glared at him. “The something to get out. You want hell he will. You leave him like to sit on your can in here forever, that, he’ll catch pneumonia or kid?” something. But I’ll take care of “We probably will,” said Cher- him.” ry. “Like goddam pets. Birds in Dawes looked at her, startled. a gilded cave. Why couldn’t the As she spoke, the blonde had bastards have picked someone wriggled out of most of her cloth- else? Why us?” ing, and wore only a bra and Night was falling. Outside, in sheer white panties now. He the valley, a red alien bonfire glanced away, reddening, but flickered. caught a peripheral sight of Cher- “They’re watching us,” Dawes ry throwing down her remaining said. “Watching all the time. clothes defiantly. They want to see what we’ll do. Whitely nude, she lay down in They want to see how long it the sand next to the still gasping takes before we start fighting, be- Noonan. She put her arms fore we hate each other’s guts, around him. before we start jumping off this “You two go away,” she said damned cliff to get free.”

172 GALAXY “Shut up,” Noonan snapped. a tense reserve of tightstrung Dawes ignored him. “I mean nervousness. They were silent a it! It’s like a lab experiment. I long while, holding each other for had experiments like this in warmth, and then out of nowhere psych class, in college. You take she asked, “You slept with Cher- four rats, see, and you stick them ry last night, didn’t you?” in a cage. Or you put them on a Even in the darkness, Dawes treadmill, and toss them some reddened. “Does it really mat- food when they look bushed. ter?” That’s what we are, rats on a “I — suppose not.” treadmill. The experimenter “I didn’t know what I was waits and watches, taking notes, doing. The kidnapping, and all, looking to see how long it is until upset me. Cherry tricked me. She the rats start snapping at each let me think it was you, last other, until they drop from ex- night.” haustion.” “Oh,” Carol said. “I told you to shut up.” Noo- The whispered conversation nan rumbled threateningly. “We died again. Noonan and Cherry can take it.” were still noisily merry at their “Don’t kid yourself, Noonan,” end of the cave. Dawes listened said Cherry, half to herself. “The to his own breathing for a while, crackup’s coming. It won’t take longing to possess Carol but wait- long.” ing for some sort of cue. After a while the girl said, XIV “How long can we stay living like this? The four of us. I TN the darkness of that second thought you and Noonan were night, Dawes cradled Carol going to fight today.” in his arms. “Noonan can kill me with his His wife. Hollow mockery of pinky and thumb. It wouldn’t a honeymoon. have been much of a fight. But Beneath the constant bubbling I was asking for it. I started to of the stream came the sound of crack up.” Noonan’s harsh laughter, and Her lips grazed his, then pulled Cherry’s answering giggle. Noo- away. nan and Cherry had settled down “That was your first time last for the night somewhere down- night, wasn’t it?” she asked. caveriTi In the utter darkness, “Yes.” Hesitantly. Better not to

there was no knowing where. lie about it, Dawes thought. Carol was warm, pliable, with “Tonight’s mine,” she said.

THE SEED OF EARTH 173 TN three days, Dawes was be- busied themselves elsewhere, to ginning to think that cave provide at least the impression of life might almost become bear- privacy. But as he prepared to able. It was possible for human undress and join Carol in the beings to adapt to almost any water, Dawes glanced around kind of situation, he told himself. and saw Noonan leaning against Even living in a cold, windy cave the cave wall not far from the on an alien planet. mouth, watching them. Food came regularly, about For a surprised second or two, noon each day — the same as- Dawes had no idea of what to sortment each time, a newly- say. The convention in the cave killed beast, white grapes, gourds. had always been a completely Noonan’s plan of catching an unspoken one, and he knew Noo- alien and holding him as a hos- nan cared very little about his tage proved about as practicable own privacy or anybody else’s. as flying out of the cave, or walk- But still, thought Dawes in angry ing insectlike down the sheer annoyance, there was such a face of the cliff. Each day the thing as common decency, even alien messenger would fling the here in the cave. food package into the cave and While he stared silently at vanish before the watching men Noonan, the big man smiled could move. They kept guard for coldly and said, “Something two days, but without even com- wrong?” ing close to success. The alien “What are you looking at?” would climb the cliff, hurl the Dawes demanded. bundle in, and scamper away “You want me to tell you?” again. After two days Noonan “Just suppose you keep your and Dawes completely aban- eyes where they belong!” Dawes doned the idea of being able to was angered by the big man’s catch one. casual amorality. It was just as The blowup came on the easy for Noonan to look the other fourth day, when Dawes and way and avoid such frictions. Carol were bathing. Carol had “Mike,” Carol whispered warn- stripped, and crouched naked at ingly. “Don’t mate trouble with the water’s edge, cupping up him. Don’t start a ruckus. Why handfuls and rubbing her face can’t you just ignore him?” and body to break the shock of “No,” he said. “There are some climbing in. A sort of convention things you just don’t do. He isn’t had sprung up in the cave: when going to get away with this.” one couple bathed, the others He became uncomfortably

174 GALAXY aware of Cherry’s mocking eyes slap at Noonan’s face, trying to on him, and Noonan’s. Carol catch him off-balance.

stood at the water’s edge with The big man took it like the her hands uncertainly shielding brush of a gnat’s wing, laughed, her body from view. “Get into and tapped Dawes sharply in the the water,” he ordered the girl pit of the stomach. Dawes felt brusquely. “I don’t want him his knees start to buckle. He looking at you that way.” caught himself, sucked in his breath. ^ILENTLY, she obeyed him. He swung wildly at Noonan, ^ Dawes walked downcavern missed his face by a foot, and

to where Noonan waited, still swung again. This time Noonan leaning against the wall. The opened one big hand, grabbed older man seemed to tower two Dawes’ flailing arm, and twisted or three feet above him, even it. leaning. Yelling, Dawes tried to break Dawes said sharply, “Are you loose. He succeeded in clawing trying to make it worse in here? at Noonan’s throat with his free You didn’t have to look at her arm, distracting the big man’s at- that way when she got undressed. tention for a moment. Dawes There was no call for that.” ripped loose from Noonan. He “I’ll put my eyes wherever I danced back a couple of feet, damned please, sonny-boy. And panting, feeling the excitement of I’m tired of your niceness. This combat even though he knew he isn’t any private hotel we got was yet to score a telling point in here.” the contest. “You don’t have to go out of He darted forward and flicked your way to make life tough out a fist. Noonan clubbed his here,” Dawes returned. “I don’t hand aside, stepped forward, hit want you watching Carol when Dawes almost gently on the point we bathe, from now on, Noonan. of his right shoulder. The impact Do you understand that? We stunned him; he felt the surge can at least pretend we’re civil- of pain ripple down his arm to ized — even if some of us don’t his fingers. Desperately he tried happen to be.” to land a blow, but once again Noonan hit him. This time, Noonan caught his wrist. Dawes expected the blow, and This time there was no break- was ready for it. He rolled agilely ing loose. Noonan inexorably to one side and in the same forced him to the ground. motion directed an open-handed “I’m gonna put my eyes

THE SEED OF EARTH 175 wherever I please,” Noonan said downcavern, past Cherry and quietly. There was no malice in Noonan, to stare out the mouth his voice, nor anger; just a level of the cave. The clearing below affirmation of victory. “You hear was packed with aliens. He won- that, Dawes? You ain’t giving dered if they had enjoyed the any orders inside here. If I want performance. to look at your girl. I’ll look at her, and you ain’t gonna tell me XV

I can’t do it. Understand that, Dawes?” He walked away. A FTER that, there was a Carol had remained upcavern strange realignment of the by the stream during the entire tense relationships between the fight. Now she came over to him. four prisoners in the cave. The She was wet and still naked, but incident of the beating was a sort her nakedness didn’t seem to of dividing-point, separating what bother her now. After the fight, had been from what now was. any pretense toward modesty in Dawes suffered the most; he the cave would be irrelevant. had acted foolishly, rashly, in de- She looked down at him with- liberately inviting Noonan to out speaking, without smiling, trounce him, and he had lost without offering a word of sym- status in Carol’s eyes. That was pathy. Dawes could not tell clear. The only sort of respect whether the grave look in her she could have for him would be eyes was one of pity or of con- based on his intelligence — and tempt. After a while she walked he -hadn’t acted intelligently away, back to the stream, and toward Noonan. Further, Carol began to dress. really wanted a man who could Dawes elbowed himself' to a take care of her, who could pro- sitting position and massaged his tect her from the tensions and wrists. Downcavern he saw that rigors of existence in a frighten- Noonan had stretched out for ing world — and Dawes had not a nap. Cherry was drawing at all proved himself that kind sketches in the sand. The cave of person. was very silent. But sympathy came from an He walked slowly back to the unexpected quarter—from Cher- stream, knelt by it, and sloshed ry, who glared at the invincibly water over his face; the shock of self-sufficient Noonan, and of- the sudden coldness eased some fered soothing words to Dawes. of the pain of Noonan’s slaps. Noonan glared back at her an- Shaking himself dry, Dawes went grily. His possessiveness was ob-

176 GALAXY ”

viously beginning to irritate ears to catch their words; but the Cherry. Dawes wondered when expression on Noonan’s face told the open split between them him all he really needed to know. would come. Cherry crossed the cave, tak- The swirl of conflicting emo- ing a seat at Dawes’ side and put- tions tightened. Both women half- ting her hand on his wrist as he loved and half-pitied Dawes. began to clench his fists. Cherry was physically drawn to “Don’t pay any attention to Noonan, but was repelled by his it,” she murmured. “It was bound dominating ways, his assertion of to happen sooner or later. Don’t ownership. Noonan claimed Cher- make him have to hit you again.” ry as his own property, but quite “Is she going to listen to him?” clearly he was interested in Carol as well. Around and around it ^HERRY shrugged. “I don’t went, while the aliens gathered know. But she may. You outside, and the hours slid toward never can tell.” sundown and the moonless dark- “I hate him,” Dawes said dark- ness of Osiris’ night. ly. “I hate both of them. If he Dawes sat bitterly by himself, wasn’t twice my size — feeling that he had fallen into “Well, he is,” Cherry said. “So total disgrace. Cherry softly sang you might as well just relax.” her old night-club songs, muffling She shook out her long blonde their stridencies to avoid touch- hair. It was getting stringy from ing off some new dispute in the lack of combing, and it seemed cave. Carol did nothing. As for to Dawes that it was darkening Noonan, he bathed, slept for a at the roots. It didn’t surprise while, woke, and went to the him much to find that Cherry’s front of the cave, flattening him- blondeness was synthetic. self strangely at the mouth, pok- He tried to relax, to ignore the ing his head out and staring down fact that elsewhere in the cave for a long time as if measuring Noonan was successfully taking some distance. Carol away from him. After a time he came back and After a long silence Cherry spoke with Cherry for a few mo- said, “You know, Noonan thinks ments. Then, moving on, he went he knows a way out of here.” to Carol as she sat quietly against “What?” the cave wall, and nudged her. “Shh. He told me about it just Dawes glanced up from his a while ago. He says there’s a brooding. Noonan was saying little ledge down the side of the something to her. He strained his cliff a way. Thinks we could

THE SEED OF EARTH 177 ”

manage to reach it with a rop>e with Noonan. She bathed alone. ladder made out of our clothes. Dawes watched her, from the But he won’t say anything about distance, without getting up. it to you because he doesn’t want Carol had a lovely white body, to help you.” lean, beautiful. It was a magnifi- Dawes scowled. “He’s got no cent woman’s body. But she right to keep something like that wasn’t the right woman to be to himself — wearing such a body. She was “Noonan never worried about like a little child in so many ways rights. Besides, he doesn’t really — helpless, frightened, selfish. think his idea could work. We When Carol was through wash- might be able to get down, all ing, Noonan bathed, and after right, but then the aliens would him Dawes made his slow way just bring us right back up here.” to the rear of the cavern and Dawes had to acknowledge the plunged into the little stream, en- truth of that. He slumped back, joying the sharp pain of the ice- the momentary spark of hope dy- cold water against his skin. ing. The waiting jailers below At noon, the food-bundle was would never let them escape so hurled into the cave right on openly, he thought. schedule. They ate silently, Noo- Shadows deepened in the cave nan dividing the food as usual as the angle of sunlight sharp- and doing a reasonably fair job of ened. Four days, Dawes thought it. Not a word had been spoken leadenly. Four days of just Noo- in the cave since dawn. Dawes nan and Carol and Cherry, and looked out and saw the aliens the captivity might well go on massed below, in greater num- forever. bers than ever before. He knelt The sun dropped almost out of and peered down the face of the sight; no more remained to the cliff, trying to see Noonan’s ridge. day but a few dim red flickers. Yes, there it was, a narrow, pre- The eternal wind howled wildly. cipitous shelf of rock projecting In the dark, Dawes heard Carol’s no more than a few inches from laugh. the cliffside. Turning, Dawes said to Noonan, “I understand you ORNING. The fifth day. know how to get us out of here. And the invisible threads of Why the hell haven’t you spoken hatred coiled a little tighter up about it?” around the four in the cave. “Who in blazes told you that? Carol was unaccountably red- It’s not true!” eyed and sullen, after her night “The ledge down there,” Cher-

178 GALAXY ”

ry said. “Yesterday you told me "l^OONAN was astonished by that — ^ the assault. He glared at Noonan slapped her viciously. Dawes in amazement for an in- Glaring at Dawes, he said, “Okay, stant, and rumbled into action. so there’s a ledge down there. His fists shot out blindly, crash- But my idea won’t work, any- ing into Dawes’ stomach, pound- way. Even if we got out, the aliens ing him under the heart. Dawes would just grab us and put us fought back grimly. He landed right back in the cave. Well, a solid blow on Noonan’s lip; won’t they?” then Noonan snarled angrily and “Maybe not,” Dawes said. cracked him backward with two “Maybe not! Maybe not!” Noo- fast punches in the midsection. nan roared with laughter. “You Dawes landed hard, feeling can bet your pink bottom they pain lance through his body. He will! You think they’ll just sit gasped for breath. Noonan stood down there and let us traipse over him, dispassionately kicking past them?” him. Each blow was a new agony.

“Maybe. I know how to beat Finally it was over. Dawes the aliens,” Dawes said in a level lay crumpled on the ground, voice. shielding his face. Noonan stood Suddenly Carol started to over him, and a strange expres- laugh — a high, keening, mad sion of guilt was beginning to shriek of a laugh, a sharply in- cross his features. His lower lip drawn “Hoo-ha.' Hoo-ha.'” re- was swelling. peated over and over. It wasn’t Sitting up, Dawes put his hands hysteria, but the nearest approach to his ribs; nothing was broken. to hysteria. Moments later Cher- He said hoarsely to Noonan, ry was giggling, calmly, cynic- “Okay. You were spoiling to ally. kick me around again, and now

“Keep quiet!” Dawes shouted. you did it. You got it all out of “Let me talk!” your system. I hope you did, any- “We don’t want to hear any way.” crazy nonsense out of you,” Noo- Noonan looked completely nan snapped. “Shut your mouth.” drained of fight. He didn’t speak. Dawes grinned oddly and took Dawes mopped a trickle of blood two unhesitant steps forward. away from his lips and went on. There was only one way he could “Noonan, you’re a strong man, make Noonan listen to him. With and in some ways you’re a clever careful aim he jabbed the big man. But you couldn’t figure a man sharply in the ribs. way out of here, and you were

THE SEED OF EARTH 179 damned if you’d let me have a go were flowing smoothly, now that at it without beating me up first. he had been granted the floor, Okay. I got beat up.” but he wanted to allow time for “Listen —” Noonan began un- his ideas to sink into the other steadily. three minds. Dawes cut him off. Despite the “Go on,” Noonan said quietly. pain of the beating, he felt a kind “Finish telling us what you have of exhilaration. “You listen to to say.” me. We can get out of here, if “We don’t have to hate each we only cooperate. All four of other, that’s what I’m trying to us. get across. Sure, we get on each “I don’t know what kind of others’ nerves. Four saints in a things those aliens are — but cage like this would drive each they aren’t as primitive as they other batty. But we can turn the look. We’ve been writing them off hate outward. Hate them. And the as ugly ape-things, but they’re a best way we can show our hate lot subtler and smarter than that. for them is by loving each other I think they grabbed us out of instead of fighting. We’re playing the colony and stuck us up here into their hands by bickering and so they could listen in on our brawling. Let’s work together and emotions, soak them up, feed on try to understand each other. I’ll them. They took four of us. Four admit up to now I’ve been as people who hardly knew one an- selfish as any of you. We’re all other. They threw us here and equally to blame. But if we start left us alone. They knew damned cooperating now — hell, we’ll be well what would happen. They of no more use to them than knew we’d start hating each fighting cocks without any fight. other, that we’d fight and quarrel And we can build that rope lad- and build walls around ourselves. der and they’ll let us go.” That’s what they wanted us to No one spoke when Dawes had do. It would be a sort of circus finished. He let them think it for them — a purge, maybe. A over, and finally Cherry said, kind of entertainment. Okay. “They’re like parasites, then. Get- They were right. We put on a ting their kicks from our hate?” good show for them. And I’ll bet “You’ve got the idea.” Dawes they’ve been out there drinking looked at the big man. “Noonan, up every bit of friction and hate what do you say? You think what and fighting that’s gone on in this I said is worth anything?” cave since we got here.” Slowly, Noonan began to smile Dawes paused. The words despite the swollen lip. “Yeah.

180 GALAXY Maybe you’ve got something. I Noonan grasped the line,

guess we could try it.” tugged it to make sure it was fast, and lowered himself over the XVI edge. Just before he disappeared below the floor level of the cave, ^T^HE rope ladder took nearly he grinned, and Dawes grinned -*• every stitch of clothes they back. had. There was nothing else to “Good luck, Noonan.” use. “Thanks. I’ll probably need it.” “Okay,” Noonan said at last. Dawes watched tensely as Noo-

“Maybe this’ll do. Let’s test it. nan descended, hand under hand, Dawes, get yourself on the other swaying in the wind. He dangled end of this thing and pull hard.” at the very end of the line, his Dawes took a double grip on hands grasping the rope only an the rope and pulled, as hard as inch or two from its end, and still he could, digging his feet into the his feet were a couple of feet sand to keep from being dragged short of the ledge. He let go; his toward Noonan. The line held. feet scrabbled for purchase, his “Good,” Noonan grunted. arms flailed wildly to balance “She’s tight.” him, and then he stood solid, look- He anchored the end of the ing up at them and smiling. line to a jutting rock near the “Okay,” Noonan called. “Carol, mouth of the cave, hurled the you come down next. Keep your free end out, and let it dangle. feet clamped onto the rope and Leaning over the rim, Noonan hold on tight.” squinted speculatively and said, Pale, frightened beyond the “We’re still a couple of feet short. point of feeling fear, Carol took Let’s have underclothes.” hold of the rope. She paused for No one protested. Noonan an instant. hauled the line in and tied the “Go on,” Dawes said softly. garments on. Dawes grinned and “It’s safe. Just hold on let your- said, “Coming out of the cave is self down hand by hand.” like being born. We come out The girl grasped the rope with naked.” He shivered from the her small hands, wrapped her cold, but the new camaraderie in legs round it, and started to de- the group warmed him. scend. Dawes held his breath. Noonan said, “I’m going to The rope seemed tremendously climb down to the ledge. Carol long. Was she going to make it and Cherry will follow me. And all the way? Or would she fatigue then you, Dawes. All clear?” and topple off, still eighty feet

THE SEED OF EARTH 181 above the ground — with the un- and Noonan caught him around forgiving rock below?' the waist and pulled him down

She made it. She dangled in to safety. The line swung out mid-air a few feet above Noonan; over the valley and flapped back he stretched out his arms for her, against the side of the cliff. urged her to let go, and finally Dawes caught his breath and she did. He caught her and put looked downward from the ledge. her safely down on the ledge. “We’re still at least forty feet Cherry was next. She showed from the ground. What now?” no outward sign of fear, and she “I’m going to try to yank the negotiated the descent quickly line loose,” Noonan said. “All of and skilfully. Dawes waited until you hold on to me. “If I can pull she stood by Carol’s side on the it down, we tie it on here and ledge. Then, taking a last look climb down to the ground.” at the cave, he grabbed hold of “And if we can’t pull it down?” the rope himself. Dawes asked. Noonan glared for a moment. TTE had done plenty of rope- “You still haven’t lost your old climbing in high school, in habits. You ask too many dam- an ultimately fruitless attempt to fool questions. Come on—anchor put some muscle on his skinny me.” body. But those had been fifteen They held him, while he or twenty-foot ropes. This one tugged at the line, grunting bit- dangled for a hundred feet, and terly. Muscles corded and no protective mat waited beneath bunched along Noonan’s back

it. and shoulders, and tendons stood Positioning one hand beneath out sharply in the hollow of his the other, he let himself down, elbow. The line was tied too se- feeling the savage bite of the wind curely at the top, though. It against his bare skin. He knew would not come. Noonan pulled the others were waiting for him, harder — watching him, maybe praying. The rope snapped loose with Once, he glanced down, and saw an impact that nearly threw the he still had nearly half the dis- four of them off the ledge. Noo- tance to go. His muscles were nan looked at the end he held in quivering and his arms felt as if his hands, then up at the dangling they were about to part company line still fastened at the cave- with their sockets. But he made mouth. The rope had snapped in it. half. He hovered above the shelf Noonan cursed eloquently. “I

182 GALAXY hadn’t figured on that. But it toes were about eight feet above could have been worse, I guess.” the ground. Carol came down “How much rope do we have?” the rope; he could feel every im- Dawes asked. pact as she descended. Looking “Look for yourself.” up, he saw her coming down past Noonan let the line out over Noonan’s shoulders, then reach- the side of the ledge. It stopped ing his own shoulders. Her face short nearly fifteen feet from the was white with tension. She clung ground. And, Dawes thought, a for an instant to Dawes’ hips, slid fifteen-foot jump was an invita- down his legs, and let go. He tion for broken ankles or worse glanced down; she had landed in — and they still had a trek of a crumpled heap, but she was perhaps ten miles back to the getting up. colony. Cherry came next. Dawes’ arms He looked quizzically at Noo- ached mercilessly. He tightened nan. The big man said, “We can his grip on Noonan’s ankles. But

still manage it. But it’s going to it was no use; he could not hold take teamwork. Real teamwork. on. As Cherry’s foot grazed his I’ll go down the rope. Dawes, you shoulder, he let go and dropped follow, go right on down me and to the ground. He folded up as hang to my ankles. The girls will he hit, but was able to rise with- do the same, and jump when they out difficulty. Cherry still dangled reach your ankles. It can’t be from Noonan. more than a six or seven-foot “Go ahead,” Dawes called to

drop from there.” her. “Let go and I’ll catch you.” She released her hold; Dawes OOMEHOW, it worked. Noo- braced himself and broke her ^ nan scrambled down the fall, but the weight of her drop- truncated rope as far as he could ping on him knocked him over go, and hung there, waiting. again. A moment later, Noonan Dawes went next, descending the landed on top of them. rope until his feet touched Noo- After some instants of confu- nan’s shoulders, then carefully sion, they struggled to their feet clambering down Noonan’s body and began to laugh. Cherry was until he grasped the big man’s the first to start, and then Noonan feet. and Dawes and Carol took it up, “Okay, come on!” Noonan and they laughed for nearly a shouted. “We can’t hang this way minute at the ridiculous spectacle forever!” they must have made, solemnly Dawes strained to hold on. His clambering down each other and

THE SEED OF EARTH 183 landing in a confused heap of “That’s about right. We ought to arms and legs. find our way back there through “Damndest silly way to get the forest without much trouble. down a mountainside I ever saw,” If we start out now.” Noonan said, still laughing. “Right. We want to get there “Maybe so,” Dawes said. “But before nightfall,” Dawes said. it worked, didn’t it? It worked!” “We’ve still got a few hours left. They huddled together naked- We’d better start out now.” ly at the base of the cliff. Above them, two lengths of rope dangled ^T^HEY set out, in single file — in the wind. Noonan leading, followed by Cherry said, “And there isn’t an Carol, then Cherry and Dawes. alien in sight. Not anywhere.” Even though the sun was bright Dawes looked rapidly around, in the sky, the day was cold; the as if expecting to see the thick- temperature was barely above bodied ape-like beings clustered fifty, Dawes estimated. No tem- behind trees observing them. Per- perature at all for people to be haps they were. But certainly walking about in naked. they were keeping well out of He was thankful that they had sight. kept their shoes, even if their “You see?” Dawes said trium- stockings all had gone to rein- phantly. “They aren’t interested force the rope. The forest floor in us any more. We don’t have was covered with the dried anything to offer them, now that prickly cast-off needles of the we’ve stopped fighting with each conifer trees that abounded there. other. They don’t care what we The wind whipped through the do now.” forest, but the trees served as “I’m cold,” Carol said sudden- shielding for them against the ly- coldest blasts. “We all are,” said Cherry. “We It had taken about two hours better get a move on. Back to the to go through the forest the first colony, before the aliens decide time, in the hands of the aliens. they don’t want to let us go after By Dawes’ reckoning, nightfall all.” was not due for at least three Dawes nodded. He pointed hours more. With luck, if they toward the forest. “Standing with followed a true path, they would our backs to the cliff, the colony make it back to the colony before ought to be straight out that way. dark. Once night fell, of course, What do you think, Noonan?” they would simply have to squat The big man frowned and said. down and wait for morning be-

184 GALAXY fore going on with the search for now, and her thighs were puck- the colony. ered where the fat had gone, But Noonan led the way with leaving pouches of skin. Carol such a confident air that Dawes had taken the days in the cave did not worry. The big man worse than any of them. Noonan strode along with springing step, hardly showed a trace of his cap- looking back every few moments tivity; Cherry looked unkempt to make sure no one had fallen but healthy, with a sleek leanness behind, and seemingly felt no that she had not had before. discomfort from the cold or from Dawes ached all over, but he felt his own nakedness. splendid. Dawes realized that a few “Come on,” he said gently to months ago it would have been Carol. “We’re almost there. An- inconceivable for him to walk other hour’s walk, that’s all.” casually through a forest wear- Noonan lifted her to her feet ing nothing but a pair of battered and pointed her in the right di- shoes, in the company of two rection. They resumed their hike. women and another man. Now, it hardly mattered. new world, f 'HEY were following a path, A I new values, he thought. After the well-worn through the thick days in the cave, modesty was ir- forest. Looking back, Dawes relevant. He knew the three could see the black bulk of the bodies ahead of him as well as he cliffs — and, he thought, the two knew his own. strands of rope, red and yellow After an hour of walking, they and brown and green. As the sun stopped; Carol was exhausted. dropped, the forest became cold- Noonan eyed the angle of the er. Birds hooted in the trees; sun, wrinkled up his face, and an- small shiny-skinned animals that nounced that they had at least looked like lizards sprang up on two and a half hours before sun- rocks, chittered derisively at the set. “Plenty of time to make it,” group for an instant, and went the big man added. “If we don’t hustling off into the safety of the waste any time en route.” woods. “I’m cold,” Carol said. “Hungry. They plodded on. Dawes was Tired. I can’t keep walking like beginning to feel the effects of this.” his hunger — only one meal a Dawes looked at her pityingly. day for the last five, and that She looked drawn and exhausted. nothing very nourishing. He She had lost weight; her ribs lay longed to stop and try to shy close to the surface of her skin. a rock at one of the curious little

THE SEED OF EARTH 185 forest beasts, but he told himself up and cradled her roughly in that if they ever stopped they his arms. might not get started again. He “We’re almost there,” Noonan forced himself to drag one foot told them. “I’ll carry her the rest in front of the other. His legs of the way. You two all right?” ached. His feet, bare inside his “I’ll make it,” Cherry said. “If shoes, were slowly being rubbed I don’t freeze first, that is.” raw by the leather scraping his “You, Dawes?” heel. But Noonan strutted jaunt- “I’m okay.” ily along in the lead. “Let’s go, then.” They were on their way back Step after step after step; and to the colony. Something strange every step, Dawes told himself and mysterious had happened to sternly, brought him that much them, but it was over, and they closer to the colony, to food and were on their way back. Dawes warmth and clothing. Unless, of comforted himself with that course, Noonan had been leading thought. In a little while, they them in the wrong direction all would be seeing other people this time. That might be. No, again. Haas and Dave Matthews Dawes argued; the cliffs were still and Ed Sanderson and Sid Nolan at their backs, and so they had and all the others. They were to be going in the right direction. really strangers to him, but at His tired mind thought up cold the moment Dawes thought of fantasies: suppose the aliens had them as old friends, friends for been following them all this time, whose companionship he had maliciously feeding on their suf- longed for months and years. fering, and planned to massacre They stopped again a short them as they stood within sight time later. Again, it was Carol. of the stockade? Or perhaps the She threw herself down on the stockade itself would be empty, ground, sobbing, muttering little all of the colonists dead or cap- senseless sounds. tured, leaving Dawes and Carol, Noonan scooped her up. Dawes Noonan and Cherry as the sole hung back, even though techni- population of Osiris? cally she was his wife. She would He shook away the thoughts have to be carried, and he had and kept going. Abruptly they barely enough strength to carry emerged into a clearing. himself along. Therefore, Noonan “Take a look,” Noonan said ex- would have to carry her. It was as ultantly. simple as that. Dawes made no The stockade was a hundred protest as Noonan picked her yards ahead of them.

186 GALAXY ” ”

XVII “How did you get free?” Dawes shook all the question- ¥ TNSHEATHED gunsnouts ers off. “Where’s Haas?” he asked. greeted them as they ap- “We’d better talk to him first.” peared, footsore, dirty, chilled, at Dave Matthews shook his head the colony stockades. The gun- gravely. “Haas — isn’t here any barrels came snaking out of spy- more.” holes in the wall; the colonists “Did the aliens get him?” asked were on guard now against any Noonan.

shapes of the forest, it seemed. “No. Not the aliens.”

“Take it easy,” Noonan called “Where is he, then?” Dawes out. “We’re friends. Humans.” demanded. A voice said distinctly behind Matthews shrugged. “We had the stockade, “Christ! Those some trouble here, after the aliens aren’t aliens! It’s — broke in and kidnapped you. “They’ve come back!” someone Howard Stoker and a couple of else yelled. his buddies thought Haas ought The gunsnouts disappeared. to quit as Colony Director. He — The stockade gate creaked open got killed.” and people came rushing out, fa- “Killed? So Stoker’s in charge miliar people, friends. Dawes now?” recognized Sid Nolan, Dave Mat- Matthews smiled gloomily. thews, Matt Zachary, and Lee “No. There was a — well, a Donaldson. There were a few counter-revolution, you might call

others whose names he could not it. In the name of law and order at all remember. we executed Stoker, Harris, and They dragged the four return- Hawes. Lee Donaldson’s the Di- ees within, slammed the stockade rector now.” gate shut. As the colonists gath- “What’s happening to the four ered to greet them, Dawes for surplus women, if those men are the first time became uncomfort- dead?” ably aware of his nakedness. But “We’re having trouble over only for a moment; for Marya that,” Matthews admitted. “The Brannick appeared with blankets, colony’s kind of split on the sub- and the wanderers were quickly ject of polygamy right now. But clad. Inquisitive eyes goggled at we — the four weary ones. Questions “Let our troubles wait till bubbled up. later,” Lee Donaldson broke in “Where were you?” brusquely. “I want to hear about “What happened?” these people. Where were you?”

THE SEED OF EARTH 187 “We were taken to a cave in hasn’t been so easy to make the one of the cliffs beyond the for- people work together since Stok- est,” Dawes said. “We were er got his big idea. We do more prisoners. The aliens were keep- arguing than working these days.” ing us. But we escaped.” He Dawes sighed. He wanted to grinned. He felt very tired after tell Matthews and Donaldson the forest trek, but yet invigor- what they had learned in the ated. Tougher, harder. And he cave, how the aliens thrived vi- was saddened to learn that there cariously on strife, how the colo- had been dissension in the colony. nists would never be completely “Did they hurt you?” Donald- free of the shadowy neckless be- son asked. ings until they learned to function Dawes thought about that for like parts of a well-machined in-

a moment. “No,” he said finally. strument, as a colony must if it

“Not — not physically.” is to survive. But there was time for that TTE looked around. There later, he thought. You didn’t hadn’t been much progress make people see things in a in the colony in his absence. It minute, or in ten minutes. It still looked bare and hardly be- could take days—or forever. But gun. He saw troubled faces. There there was time to begin healing had been bitter quarrelling here, the colony’s wounds later. he realized. In a way, Dawes thought, it “What about the aliens?” he was a good thing that the colony asked. “Did they make any fur- had something like the aliens ther attacks?” waiting outside to feed on their “No,” Matthews said. “We’ve hate. It would be like having a seen them skulking around, out- perpetual visible conscience; hate side the stockade. But they would not enter the colony for haven’t tried to break in again. fear of the aliens without. We keep a constant patrol, now.” He turned away. Suddenly he “And there’s been trouble here, wanted to be alone with himself hasn’t there?” — with the new self that had “Trouble?” come out of the cave. Something Dawes nodded. “Argurnents. had grown with him in those five Dissension.” days, and it hadn’t been just the Lee Donaldson tightened his silky beard stubbling his cheeks. jaw-muscles tensely. “We’ve had It was something else. some difficulties. Haas was our He understood now why Se- best leader, and he’s dead. It lection was necessary, why the

188 GALAXY seed of Earth had to be carried virgin and 'come out otherwise, from world to world. It was be- or Cherry, whose metal shell had cause the stars were there, and broken open to give him a mo- because it was in the nature of ment of tenderness that he had man to climb outward, transcend- mistaken for a betrayal. ing himself, changing himself. As But Dawes knew that he had he had changed; for he had changed most of all, and yet not changed, in those few catalytic changed. The thing that was in- days in the cave. side him, the curiosity, the seek- They had been days of harden- ing mind — now, it was alive and ing for him. No longer was he truly working for the first time. filled with vague angry resent- How wrong it had been to dream ment; no longer did he hate Se- of that cozy, dead existence in lection and all its minions, local his nice Ohio home with his nice chairman Brewer and district Ohio wife and his nice Ohio chil- chairman Mulholland. He for- dren! He realized now that he gave them. More; he admired wanted to get out into the wilder- them, and pitied them because ness and see the aliens again, find they had to stay behind in this out why they were the way they greatest of all human adventures. were, what they had wanted from the prisoners in the cave, how

TN the twilight Dawes walked they had taken it, what they were -* away from the group, down really like. Osiris held a million toward the bubble-home he had mysteries. And through the mir- chosen and from which he had acle of Selection he had been put been taken by the aliens. His here to solve them. suitcase and Carol’s still lay half- I’m different now. open on the ground. The bubble It was a hard fact to assimilate. hadn’t been entered since the He realized with a jolt, looking at night of the kidnapping. Carol’s suitcase, that she was still Shrugging out of the blanket, his wife. He didn’t want her any he took spare clothing from his more. The boy Mike Dawes had suitcase and dressed slowly. He been taken by her innocence and stood for a long time, thinking. shyness, but that boy no longer They would none of them be the existed. And he needed someone same any more — not Noonan, more solid, someone who could who for the first time in his life share problems with him instead had run into a problem he could of simply clinging dependently. not solve with his fists, or' Carol, Someone was knocking out- who had gone into the cave a side the bubble.

THE SEED OF EARTH 189 “Come on in,” Dawes said. He said, “If Noonan’s with It was Cherry. Carol — where are you going She looked flustered and con- to stay. Cherry?” fused. “You just walked away “I haven’t figured that out yet.” from everybody like that,” she He smiled. Carol had left her said. “You feeling okay, Mike?” suitcase here, but nothing else. “I just wanted to think. I had If Noonan could be happy with to be by myself for a little while. her, let him be. I’m okay.” Cherry stepped forward awk- She was looking at him earnest- wardly. Dawes wanted to tell her ly; glancing away, she saw the that he forgave her and loved two suitcases. her and needed her, and that he “Carol’s with Noonan,” she saw through her toughness and said. through the scars life had left on “I figured as much,” said her. But he couldn’t say any of Dawes without a trace of a quiver those things out loud, and he in his voice. “I don’t care. Really, realized he wasn’t finished grow- I don’t.” ing up, quite yet. She would help him, though. And he would help TT was funny, he thought, how her. lousy deals turned out to be Funny. Getting picked in the the biggest things in your life. lottery had seemed like the end Being picked by the lottery, and of the world to him, once. But he then being grabbed by the aliens couldn’t have been wronger., on top of that. And losing your He smiled at Cherry. The girl girl to a man like Noonan. And before him was like a stranger, none of it mattered — each loss even after the days in the cave. was a find, each finish a begin- Everything was oddly brand new. ning. He tipped her face up the inch An animal honked in the forest, or two that separated them in and Dawes grinned. A whole height, and kissed her, listening world lay out there beyond the to the wind of the alien world — stockade, waiting to have its se- his world. crets pried open in the years to “Hello,” she said tenderly. come. “Hello,” he said.

And he’d do it. — ROBERT SILVERBERO

190 GALAXY TTAVING BEEN weaned on Individual stories have ex- science fiction back in 1928 ploded like H-bombs inducing

. . . “Doc” Smith’s history-making radical mutations in story genes Skylark of Space was the mar- by their fallout. A few of the velous epic that ensnared me . . . many prime examples: Skylark; I have seen the transition of SF Weinbaum’s A Martian Odyssey; from the original crude gimmick Charles Cloukey’s Paradox; yarn to today’s polished story of Stuart-Campbell’s Forgetfulness; ideas. Leinster’s Sidewise in Time; Van I have seen countless new au- Vogt’s Sian; Pohl-Kornbluth’s thors appear and prolific authors Gravy Planet, alias The Space vanish from the field without Merchants. trace. (Recent reprinting of Horizons have broadened, Drums of Tapajos solved the frontiers have disappeared. Thir- mysterious disappearance of Capt. ty-odd years ago, Hugo Gerns- S. P. Meek.) back felt there was a need for

SHELF 191 Air Wonder Stories. Today’s The yarn is emotionally grip- super-sonic jets and X-15s leave ping, astute in choice of locale, little to expect from really radical solution of technical and emo- changes in powered flight within tional problems . . . and so his- our atmosphere. torically correct that it measures But thirty years ago, the deep up to the very highest standard of Ocean was, and remains still, of his previous efforts. No praise a frontier of mystery and peril. can be higher. It demonstrates his Although we are plumbing its skill at capturing a fantastic sit- depths with super-subs and bath- uation realistically. yscaphes, and descending our- selves unarmored except for scu- A FALL OF MOONDUST by ba gear, the human mind still Arthur C. Clarke. Harcourt, remains horrified by the fear of Brace and World. gradual suffocation or slow death in an alien environment. AT FIRST glance, shipwreck on It is one of the strange quirks the moon seems grade-A fantasy. of human psychology that an in- Clarke, though, has developed a tense empathy is aroused by a scientifically conceivable situa- tragedy of duration. Unfortunate- tion; a tourist boat, propelled by ly, this sense of oneness is unaf- “fans,” a-sail on a surface of im- fected by large scale misfortune. palpable dust so fine that it has It becomes activated by an en- most of the characteristics (all trapment, usually of a child in a the bad ones) of a liquid. What well, a Floyd Collins in a Ken- would happen if said boat found- tucky cave, a miner deep in a ered? asks Clarke; and proceeds shaft, and is usually limited in to introduce all sorts of fascina- scope. The strange emotion is ting and deadly problems. Though barely aroused by, say, the plight the dust can flow like water to of millions of sufferers in Nazi seek its own level, its resistance concentration camps or political is so high that it cannot be prisoners anywhere in the world. pumped, effectively eliminating But millions will hang on the escape-hatch and spacesuit rescue. moment-to-moment efforts of res- What about survival problems of cuers to free a single individual. the trapped victims: oxygen, In this mood, one of the real pros water and food, morale? The tre- of our league, Arthur C. Clarke, mendous technical dilemmas fac- has penned a yarn so persuasive ing the rescuers who at first can’t and convincing that reader identi- even locate the wreck with their fication is inescapable. enormously efficient instruments?

192 GALAXY Clarke has done his job so well age, because the story’s essential that his reader had best refresh interest and action far outbal- amply before reading — since he anced the dead weight. will prove unable to stop until Stranger in a Strange Land is finished. an entirely different colored horse. Rating: ***** Being social satire with most

action on a cerebral level, it has STRANGER IN A STRANGE a heavy load to carry.

LAND by Robert A. Heinlein. Still, Heinlein is too much a G. P. Putnam’s Sons. pro to write a real stinkeroo. His monstrously wealthy bastard he- ROBERT A. HEINLEIN has ro, marooned on Mars for all his made his living from the future twenty-one years, is sole heir of but his occupation is not complete all the dead crew of the first Mar- preoccupation. He has become in- tian expedition and, through legal creasingly concerned with the mumbo-jumbo, legal offspring of state of the world today and has three of them. According to a le- exercised author’s privilege in gal precedent, he is also sole mounting degree to expound from owner of Mars. Returned unwill- his lectern. ingly to Earth, and then only on In his just-previous Starship direct order of the utterly alien Troopers, he expressed his dis- Martian Old Ones by whom he satisfaction with our present sys- was reared. Smith, the Man from tem of strewing the rights and Mars, constitutes a fundamental privileges of citizenship indiscrim- threat to the stability of the inately with a corresponding World Federation of Free States cheapening of its value. The merely by the fact of his exist- story’s proposed solution was to ence. Placed in dubious protective make citizenship contingent upon custody by direct order of the an honorable tour of duty in the Secretary-General, he is whisked armed forces. Theoretically, after to safety by an idealistic and the hardships of service life, it gorgeously endowed nurse and would .sc'em that intellectual and proceeds to become a pawn in political maturity would be a power politics. His haven is the natural r«\sult. But such a happy weird domicile of an Old School conclusion is highly problemati- rugged individual, a doctor-law- cal, considering the orientation of yer-writer and his trio of luscious our |ires

SHELF 193 al-medical-literary pundit who tunity to observe and evaluate pontificates in a too-cute way; our society through Smith’s eyes. impudent, brash, irritating but Smith’s solution to our prob- detestably lovable ... in the lems is the elimination of jealousy manner of a gruff old dog who by formation of a quasi-religious gums you to death. order that emphasizes the sharing Smith, as completely ignorant of self. Hence the scathing de- of human customs as an utter nunciation by many “main- alien, must be taught everything, stream” reviewers — notably the from tying shoelaces to the joys New York Times — of the book’s of sexual union. Needless to say, accent on sex. Of course, the the quartet of beauties are all- Times cannot be expected to re- around teachers. His Martian member the recent past when teachers, however, had taught space ships needed no sanitary him levitation, telepathy, slowing facilities and science-fictional of the time sense, teleportation, characters owned no sexual or- disco'rporation of enemies, articles gans. However, the book’s short- or self and also that food must not comings lie not so much in its be wasted. People are protein, emancipation as in the fact that protein is food; and with the Heinlein has bitten off too large severe shortage on Mars, bodies a chewing portion. But kudos to of the Old Ones are shared by him for the decision to write what their friends in a ritual of love he thinks. and devotion. Rating: ***1/2 Smith, therefore is a human superman with a completely alien THE PAPERS OF ANDREW outlook and set of mores. His MELMOTH by Hugh Sykes champion, detestably lovable Davies. William Morrow & Co. Harshaw, is such a wing-ding in everything he does that the legal- RATS BEING the objects of istic battle between him and the horror and loathing to many

Secretary-General is hardly fair; people, it is no surprise that he can’t lose. His legal maneuver- masters of the macabre, including ings are amusing, but the subse- Lovecraft and Kuttner, have quent incognito wanderings of woven tales of pure shiver about Smith to savor our culture are them. Davies, an Oxford don, has peculiarly uninspired and lacking written an understated and gen- in interest. Harshaw’s previous teel yarn that carries a shock. C5mical comments have caused Rating: * * * * Heinlein to gloss over an oppor- — FLOYD C. GALE

194 GALAXY THE ONLY PORTABLE OF ITS KIND!

IT’S A PHONO-RADIO

7 transistors — separate circuits, Plays 7", 10" and 12" records, 33 rpm 2 speeds big set quality and and 45 rpm. performance. Powered by four standard 1.5 volt s. The smallest and lightest portable flashlight batteries. radio-phonograph only 4"x8"x2". Handsome carrying case takes it Weight: only 2 lbs. anywhere with ease. Wheel drive takes place of turntable. Sapphire needle for longer wear. BE THE FIRST BARfMStAY IHC. 421 Hudson Si, New York 14, H. Y.

(Icnl lemon, rush me_ Portable Phono Radio TO OWN ONE!

PuM.riie I aid $49.85 ea. — Check enclosed.

NAMI -

ADDRESS ^ Paid CITY -3TATE-

! The BEMs in your neighborhood won't run off with your books

if you put inside the front cover of each book ... a gummed bookplate with your name printed on it!

FINAGLE SAYS — The umpteenth corollary of Finagle's General Law of Dynamic Negatives says: "No books are ever lost by loaning except ones you particularly want to keep.”

100 for $4; 200, $6; 300, $8 with owner's name imprinted

All Postpaid. Add state sales tax, if any.

ACTUAL SIZE, all designs, 3x4 inches No. CM-12 by Cullen Rapp No. CX-57 by Lynd Ward

The desij^ns shown above are the only ones we offer i

Order from GALAXY 421 Hudson Street, New York 14, N. Y.