NE

Galaxy^ M A 6 AZ

THE CITY
OF FORCE
by
I N E
APRIL 1959
^ 6
PAGES
DANIEL F.

GALOUYE
KINGSLAYER
by
J.T.
MclNTOSH
THE MAN IN
THE MAILBAG
by

GORDON R.
DICKSON
THE ATLANTIC
MISSILE RANGE
X by
WILLY LEY
LOVE CALLED
o THIS THING

I
by

AVRAM
DAVIDSON
and
LAURA
GOFORTH
And Other Stories
 APRIL, 1959
Galaxy VOL. 17, NO. 4

MAGAZINE
Also Published in
Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Finland and Sweden

CONTENTS
NOVELLA
THE CITY OF FORCE by Daniel F. Galouye 8
NOVELETS
KINGSLAYER by Mcintosh
J. T. 96
THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG By Gordon R. Dickson 160
SHORT STORIES
SECURITY PLAN by Joseph Farrell 58
THE BITTEREST PILL by Frederik Pohl 85
LOVE CALLED THIS THING by Avram Davidson and
Laura Goforth 118
THE SWEEPER OF LORAY by Finn O'Donnevan 129
WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL by Cordwainer Smith 147
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
FOR YOUR INFORMATION by Willy Ley 69
The Atlantic Missile Range
FEATURES
EDITOR'S PAGE byH . L. Gold 6
FORECAST 57
GALAXY'S FIVE STAR SHELF by Floyd C Gale 143

Cover by WOOD showing a full house beats togetherness.

ROBERT M. GUINN, Publisher H. L. GOLD, Editor
WILLY LEY, Science Editor W. VAN DER POEL, Art Director
I.

fl JOAN J. De MARIO, Asst. to the Publisher SONDRA GRESEN, Asst. to Editor

C
GALAXY MAGAZINE is published bi-monthly by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. Main offices-
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Copyright
New York 1959, by Galaxy Publishing Corporation, Robert M. Gulnn, president. All rights, includ-
ing translations reserved. All material submitted must be
accompanied by self-addressed stamped
envelopes. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.
All stories printed in
tnis magazine are fiction, and any similarity between characters
and actual persons is coincidental
Printed in the U.S.A. by The Guinn Co., Inc., N. Y.
Title Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.
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 SO FAR
T^ OR those who somehow man-
-*- aged to miss the past couple of
here is a brief recap:
issues,
In going to a big, roomy 196
pages, we have, as we did back
in 1950, turned over to our read-
ers every single policy concerning
everything that fits between the
covers, and the covers themselves
— with the assurance, same as just
short of a decade ago, that every
vote would be counted and that
only they would set our policies.
Why? Well, there's a monstrous
lot of mystic nonsense written and
orated about democracy, but near-
ly all of it misses the real point:
people in general generally know
what's good for them. Like a few
politicians, a few editors can be
spooky in their divining of reader
wishes. But why guess when it's
only necessary to ask?
So we did, in 1950, and by lis-
tening hard and obeying honestly,
Galaxy inperhaps the shortest
time on record took command of
its field — and then crossed oceans
into the British Empire, France
(including Belgium and Switzer-
land), Germany, Italy, Sweden,
Finland, with other countries now
negotiating for editions in their
own languages — to become, be-
yond challenge, the most widely
read science fiction magazine on
Earth.
What's mystical about results
like those?By doing just what we
did,but calling it survey in depth,
smart manufacturers put the same
phenomenon to work: their cus-
tomers know what they want. If
that's so with impersonal goods,
think how much truer it is with
anything so personal as one's fav-
orite kind of reading.
Nine years is long enough for
tastes to change, new readers to
come in, policies to need overhaul-
ing.Expanding to a giant new size
isthe best possible opportunity for
updating our poll.
The response resembles a board
meeting of thousands all talking
excitedly and at once. Spotting the
trends is not easy; the figures
bounce and jiggle because letters
are still — no, by blue, this is no
time for modesty — letters are still
pouring in, fully as many and as
passionately helpful as the 1950
flood — and practically every let-
ter has one or more subscriptions
enclosed!
Remarkably few readers join
Norman Schwarz of Camden,
N. J., in wondering "just what ef-
fect a letter to the editor has on
actual policies. I hope for the best
and fear the worst." Most feel as
does Mrs. Weston Baker of Clay-
ton, N. M.: "I appreciate the
chance to tell you how to run a
GALAXY
magazine," which may sound look synthetically hefty, and more
cheeky to non-believers, but is ex- novelets and novellas? Or do you
actly what we are asking. have other ideas on content and
Whether a Mr. Schwarz or a balance?
Mrs. Baker, however, not much Even at this midpoint, with so
less than 100% are warm in their many still unheard from,
counties
friendship, keenly intelligent in the trend appears clear: contents-
their preferences and dislikes, so padding fillers are not wanted;
realistic about publishing that one full-scale treatments are.
would think they had been in it Some amplification is needed
all their lives — until it's realized here. A number of readers felt we
they know that the facts of life, ought to be told to buy material
economic and otherwise, apply as on the basis of quality instead of
inexorably to a magazine as a length. We do, of course, as near-
home, a lab or a business. ly always as human fallibility
There are crabs among us, of will allow. But quality and length
course, but statistically insignifi- are often the same thing: a good
cant. This discovery is a shock story idea appropriately devel-
every time it happens. More about oped, free both of padding and ex-
it later on. cessive compression.
For story ideas are more com-
"JVTOW lefs start plotting interim pressible and expandable than you
-L ^ curves as well as incomplete might imagine, and arbitrary
returns will allow. length limitations are often im-
• To begin with, the heart of the posed on stories — how long they
magazine — stories. As we said, all must be, rather than how long they
sorts of combinations are possible should be. By not bloating our
with 196 pages to move around contents page, we can give stories
in. Many magazines strive for very their head. True enough, writers
long contents pages by using very tend to inflate more than com-
short stories — often no more than press, but a good many memorable
one-page anecdotes — and a med- items have been made so by our
ium-length novelet or two. This asking for fuller treatment — and
policy, we added, makes sense only one of our most famous serials was
if readers prefer clumps of dwarf formed of two intended short
items to fewer but very much stories which, combined, swiftly
sturdier stories. Well, we asked, do reached critical mass!
you? Or would you rather have So the question of length vs.
the short stories held down, even quality is really settled only by
if they make the contents page (Continued on page 192)

GALAXY
 streets paved not with gold but raw energy
Its
—sudden murder lurking everywhere—and was
it
here that a country cousin meant to conquer . . .

The City

GALAXY
of Force
BY DANIEL F. GALOUYE

Illustrated By DILLON

THE City of Force was a

huge expanse of radiant
beauty that dominated the
plain like a thousand curtains of
vivid flame. Staring at it, Bruno
pulled his robe more tightly about
him and clutched his staff. The
bold suggestion of dawn reflected
lividly against his thin face. But
it was the glare of the City's great
sheets of energy — its ribbons and
spires of force, its magnificent
auras and beams and sparkling
discharges —that cast his shadow
back into the forest from which
he had come.
Resolutely, he shifted his pack
to a more comfortable position
and continued toward the holo-
caust of light.
''Where do you think you're
going, son?"
The voice, magnified by its un-

THE CITY OF FORCE

 expectedness, had come like a able to get through to them. But
clap of thunder from the trees it's got to be done someday."

behind him. "So you're taking it upon your-

"Nothing to be afraid of, boy."
There was a dry laugh. "I'm just
a harmless old codger."
Bruno turned and watched the
man approach. He had a small,
wry face and a fringe of hair that
encircled his almost bald head like
a wreath. The full folds of his
robe only gave emphasis to his
pot-belly and failed to hide a pair
of dusty, sandaled feet.
"What are you doing here?"
Bruno demanded.
"Getting away from the bright
lights."
"You live in the City?"
"Always
did. It's a pretty easy
life,but kind of tiring once in a
while. Name's Everard." The old
man drew up before him and stood
staring into his face. "New around
here, eh?"
"I'm Bruno, from one of the
forest clans."
Everard laughed, his hands out-
stretched over his paunch as
though to hold it steady. "Come
for some lush City life?"
"I've come to contact
Spheres," Bruno said stiffly.
The agedface displayed a se-
quence of expressions that ended
in a broad, almost toothless grin
and another burst of laughter.
"Contact the Spheres? Boy, you
got a lot to learn!"
"I know nobody's ever been
self to learn their lingo, eh?" There
was a kindly cynicism in the old
man's voice now. "Us fellows who
live in the Cities with 'em — al-
most under their ieet — can't even
do it. And you're going to step in,
fresh from the haystack, and show
us how!"
T3 RUNO turned indignantly and
*-* strode off toward the shim-
mering masses of pure force.
Everard shuffled to keep up
with him. "Determined, eh? Thaf s
the spirit, son," he taunted.
"Beat it, Pops." Bruno put a
hand against the other's chest and
shoved him off. "I know what I'm
doing."
The ol dmat stood scratching
his head. "You are serious. Ever
been in one of the Cities?"
Bruno shook his head.
"They got all kinds of force
fields and energy areas. Some of
'em are deadly. If you just touch
the wrong glob of light or the
wrong wall of ray stuff, you're a
the goner."
"You live there, don't you?"
Bruno asked challengingly.
"Yup. But — don't you see? —
I had a ma and pa to show me
the ropes right from infancy."
Bruno propped his hands on his
hips and stared once more at the
City of Force. His eyes swept

10
GALAXY
over to another corner of the plain his staff indifferently on the
and, in the rising sun, sought out ground. "We wait here," he an-
the once-great city of men. Over- nounced.
grown with trees and smothering Bruno glanced at the coruscat-
in its own dust, it was hardly more ing curtainsand auras and shields
than a centuries-old rubbish heap of the immaterial City, still miles
now. away.
The words man had
the old "What for?"
spoken were wise
in derisive jest "There's an easier way than
ones, Bruno conceded. He was a walking there."
fool to think he could contact the "I suppose one of the Spheres
Spheres. Even the great intellects is going to come out and carry

who ran men hun-

the world of us piggyback," Bruno said face-
dreds of years ago had failed to tiously.
communicate with the aliens. His eyes, however, remained on
Otherwise they might have saved the City as he tried to pick out at
their own cities. least one material object in the
"I'm going ahead anyway," he concentration of visible forces —
said. the fountains and hills of radiant
"I can't stop you?" energy, the sparkling geometrical
"Try it." nimbuses, the sheets of lazy light
"Then I'll go along. Least I can that floated from tenuous spire to
do is see you don't get yourself tenuous spire. But there was none.
killed right off." And yet it didn't seem odd that
They headed for the City. there should be nothing solid in
"Know anybody by the name the City. For the inhabitants, the
of Hulen?" Bruno asked. shining Spheres, were said to be
"Used to belong to the Spruce but creatures of pure force them-
clan? Tall, dark fellow who came selves.
here about five years ago?" And even as he stared at the
"That's him. He's my cousin." wondrous edifice the aliens had
"I know him." built, a filament of pale green ener-
"Can you take me to him?" gy arched swiftly outward from
"Glad to. Leastwise, he's some- one of the lesser structures. Los-
one I can turn you over to so's ing its perspective smallness as it
I won't have the responsibility." approached, the end of the huge
tubular projection speared back

AN hour
beating
later,
down
with the
against
sun
their
down to the ground only yards
from where Bruno stood.
faces, Everard drew up and tossed He turned to flee. But the old

THE CITY OF FORCE 11

 man seemed unconcerned as he bolt slammed down against the
surveyed the transparent chute of ground behind him.
raw energy.
restless, "But - I thought they couldn't
Finally Everard backed off. even notice us!" he stammered.
"Get ready, son. We're going to Everard, a few feet away now,
have to keep on our toes in a shuffled to his left, spun around
minute." and trotted off agilely in a new
"Why?" Bruno demanded ap- direction. He easily escaped the
prehensively. "What is it?" third blast.
There was an almost inaudible "Not notice us! Ha! Thafs ridic-
whine as a swiftly moving form ulous. How do you suppose they
came streaking down the length of destroyed all the cities? They see
the force tube, drew to a halt and us, all right. But they think we're
drifted out the end of the shaft. just dumb life-forms — pests."
The enormous Sphere, towering Bruno slowed his evasive tac-
higher than four men, hovered a tics and almost took a searing bolt
few inches off the ground, its fea- broadside.
tureless yellow surface seething "Random movement!" Everard
likethe disc of the setting sun. urged, panting. "And don't repeat
Bruno had the sickening feeling any moves or you'll get it for sure.
that, even though the alien pos- Still want to go on to the City?"
sessed no eyes, it was somehow "I'll make out all right," Bruno
looking at him. said doggedly. Then he noticed
"Hop!" Everard shouted, seiz- that the Sphere's surface had lost
ing his arm. its veneer of boiling energy.
And even as Bruno was jerked
to one side, the
over the surface
coalesced into a
play of forces
of the Sphere "
??i~kKAY, you can
Everard
relax now,"
said. "It's lost in-
fierce shaft of terest."
jagged light that streaked out to The old man darted into the
sear the ground where the two shadow of the Sphere, ran around
men had stood. it once and, for a fraction of a

"Keep on the go!" the old man second, stood there with his tongue
instructed. "The stuff he throws out, thumbs in his ears and his
is fast as hell. But his reactions fingers wiggling at the alien. He
ain't. If you move quick enough, managed to coax one final burst
he'll always hit where you just of lightning from the creature be-
been." fore it drifted disinterestedly away.
Bruno took three steps forward "What next?" Bruno asked, col-
and five to the left. And another lecting his pack and staff.

GALAXY
 "It's happening now." Everard the City. "Come on. This is how
indicated a brilliant speck of green we're going the rest of the way."
light that was shimmering in mid- "In there?" Bruno shied away
air about a hundred yards to the from the seemingly solid shaft of
south. radiant energy while he tried to
The point began expanding and keep the yellow Spheres in the
Bruno watched it grow into a periphery of his vision.
many-faceted geometrical figure. "Beats walking," the old man
Through the transparent planes of said. "You want me to take you
its surface were visible ten or to Hulen, don't you?"
twelve bright yellow Spheres. The Bruno gestured nervously at
gemlike force structure expanded the aliens. "But they're going in
until its top towered scores of feet the tube too!"
above the ground. The lone alien "Won't notice us if we keep
drifted over and joined the other down at the bottom. Anyway, we'll
Spheres as they floated out be ahead of 'em. Use the green
through the side. chutes all the time myself—when-
Bruno backed away misgiving- ever I can find one." Everard
ly. stepped in through the glowing end
"Nothing to be afraid of now, of the tube and pulled Bruno
boy," Everard assured him. along. "Just relax now, son, and
"They'll be too busy to notice us." think of wanting to go on into
"Where did they come from?" the City and see your cousin."
"Another world, most likely. The tenuous shaft of force
One that's maybe not even in this closed in pleasantly around Bruno
universe." like a blanket of warm, green sun-
"But how did they get here?" shine. Then suddenly the entire
"You just saw it for yourself— beam of energy seemed vibrantly
from some kind of new direction. alive, as though a thousand hands
My grandpa said they're probably were materializing out of the mist-
coming from another world in this like substance to push him in the
new direction and using Earth as direction of the City. It was like
a sort of way station." sliding down an endless tunnel
"How did he know?" and eventually he relaxed and let
"Either figured it out himself or the forces move him along. The
passed it down from somebody plain below slipped by at an unbe-
else up the line." Everard took his lievable speed.
wrist and began leading him to- Somewhere along the way, he
ward the tunnel of green light started tumbling buoyantly in his
that extended like a bridge into passage through the green nimbus.

THE CITY OF FORCE 13

 During his less forceful gyrations, discharged a lance of crackling
he glanced over at Everard. The light that set upa quivering vibra-
other seemed to be thoroughly en- tion all along the chute but fell
joying the jostling he was receiv- short of its mark.
ing from the docile power. "They've seen us!" Bruno
They swept past the outer force warned, pulling to a halt beside
structures of the City - past dense the old man.
walls of lambent light and fiercely "That's all right."
glowing pseudo-architectural forms "But have the whole City
they'll
that Bruno imagined might have out looking for us!"
vaguely resembled some of the Everard laughed scornfully.
buildings of the long-dead human "You must think we're somebody.
cities. Back in your village, would you
The chute curved past a great call out the whole clan to help
cataract of pure red energy that you look for a couple of cock-
seemed to be spilling out of no- roaches you saw scurrying down
where and then it arched down to the street?"
what appeared to be the ground "You mean we don't even mat-
level - a gently glowing carpet of ter?"
pale pink Stardust. An occasional "Oh, we're a nuisance, all right,"
Sphere drifted along below, either the old man said almost boastful-
emerging from or disappearing "They
ly. set traps now and then.
into a wall of shimmering azure And every once in a while they
nothingness. have an extermination. But we
ain't so dumb. We know what to
II do. They end up wiping out only
a few of us at most."
'T'HE rambling shaft of motile Another bolt discharged along
* energy curved right between the chute, reaching closer to the
two massive monoliths of pure pair before it played itself out in
white effulgence and weaved a splattering of weak sparks that
above a progression of huge, daz- were quickly swallowed up in the
zling blue mounds of force stuff. green nimbus of the tube.
"We get off up ahead." Everard "This way," Everard said, div-
spread both arms to arrest his ing out through the side of the
tumbling motion. "Start thinking shaft.
about slowing down." His easily relaxed body fell per-
Like pellets in a blowgun, the haps a hundred feet before crash-
Spheres from the plain were rapid- ing into the sloping wall of one
ly overtaking them. The foremost of the dazzling blue mounds. He

14
GALAXY
MMM
bounced twice, almost disappear- Matt. How's the missus? Hope we
ing into the feathery energy for- didn't jar you when we dropped
mation each time, before sliding down."
fifty feet down to the surface. Bruno could make out the shape
Gingerly, Bruno extended an of the man who smiled out at
arm through the side of the chute. them. It was as though he were
Another bolt from the advancing encased in the semi-transparent
Spheres, however, ended his hesi- substance of the wall. But he
tancy and he dived out, plunging didn't seem to mind his imprison-
toward the same huge mound on ment.
which Everard had dropped. "Didn't touch us," laughed the
He was aware of his own voice man called Matt. "But you prob-
shouting hoarsely throughout the ably shook hell out of old Blub-
vertiginous fall. Then there was ber Ball's nerves, if he has any."
the soft impact of his body against More Bruno could see
faintly,
the force structure's cushioning the huge Sphere moving around
wall of radiance and he slid down beyond the man in what appeared
the slope. It wasthough a
as to be one of several energy-free
thousand solicitous hands material- spaces within the immaterial
ized to clutch him by his arms mound. The compartment seemed
and legs and pass him down, one to be furnished with a fantastic
to the other, until he reached the assortment of odd-shaped and odd-
ground level. sized force of objects.
Everard chuckled. "Wouldn't be
l^VERARD helped him to his surprised to see old Blubber Ball
-" feet. He stood staring uncer- setting more traps from now on.
tainly at the undulant pink force This here's Bruno of the Spruce
stuff of the surface that seemed to clan. Brought him in from the
be rippling around his ankles. forest."
Glancing about, he surveyed the "Spruce? Spruce?" Matt mulled
somehow not-quite-orderly ar- over the name.
rangement of huge but squat "Sure. Hulen's cousin. You
mounds of energy that stretched know Hulen."
away in all directions, like muskrat Grinning, the other poked his
hills ina swamp. head out through the glimmering
"Morning, Everard," a muffled blue material of the wall. "Know
voice called out. "Back already?" him well enough to say you should
Bruno's self-appointed guardian have brought him a wife instead
turned and addressed the tenuous of a cousin. Needs one to tame
blue wall behind them. "Morning, him down. Hi, Bruno."

THE CITY OF FORCE 15

 "Hi, Matt," Bruno returned people live right there too?"
weakly. "You — you live in there Everard grimaced disdainfully
- with that Sphere?" at his bumpkinlike ignorance. "You
"Where else?" sure got a lot to learn, boy."
"Bruno still has to learn the "How many people live in the
ropes." Everard effected a theat- City?"
rical sneer. "Then he's going to "Thousands. Place is crawling
show us how to communicate with with 'em. I expect they'll have
the Spheres." some kind of general extermina-
Matt snickered. "Aren't they tion pretty soon now and — watch
all? Give my regards to Hulen." out, boy!"
Everard planted his hands
TEARING Bruno by the arm, against Bruno's back and gave
-*- Everard said, "Lefs go. It ain't him a shove. Bruno fell forward,
far from here." skidding across the surface and
Bruno tried to stride off, but gaining impetus from the accom-
fell on his face when he couldn't modating wave of the carpet.
lift his feet out of the radiant pink It wasn't until after the bolt of
carpet of rubbery force. fierce energy had discharged that
"Don't walk - just think," Ever- he realized the purpose behind the
ard explained patiently. "The old man's rude action. As he
force stuffll take care of the rest." coasted around behind the closest
Dismayed, Bruno watched the mound, with Everard skimming
old man glide forward without along beside him, he looked back
moving his feet as the carpet piled and saw the Sphere that had come
up at his heels and smoothed out drifting out of one of the struc-
in a steady incline before the toes tures. The bolt had melted the
of his sandals. Then, even before energy where it struck, laying bare
he realized it, he also was gliding the coarse ground of the plain.
along. Safe behind the mound, Everard
"A couple or three more houses again helped him up. "You got to
down is all we have to go," Ever- keep your eyes peeled, son, if you
ard offered encouragingly. aim to stay alive around here."
"These are - houses?" Trembling, Bruno started to
"You see the Blubber Balls in lean back against the wall.
'em, don't you?" "No! No!" the old man shouted,
Bruno was aware now that he jerking him away by the arm.
could make out several of the "Look!"
spherical forms through the trans- With the end of his staff, he
parent walls of the mounds. "And prodded the section of force ma-

16 GALAXY
 against which Bruno had force structure of the wall.
terial
almost propped his shoulder. Con- "Damned if you ain't a problem,
even blue radiance of son!" The old man shook his head
trasting the
worriedly. "Now, dammit, stick
the rest of the mound, the small,
roughly circular section was a close to my heels!"

sparkling red. On touching it, the As they continued along inside

final six inches of the staff's length
the wall, Bruno watched the play
disintegrated in a shower of hissing of ominous light along the Sphere's

sparks. surface subside. Apparently the

"Lesson Number One for sur- force material of the building was
the Blubber
but Balls,
vival," Everard said grimly. "Don't solid to

mess around with no red force completely immaterial to the hu-

mans who resided in the mounds
stuff."
The old man moved ten feet with them.
and stepped But even that observation, he
farther along the wall
through, disappearing into the soft decided, was not altogether cor-
blue radiance like a figure being rect. "Why is it," he asked, "that

swallowed by a dense fog. Bruno we can move around in this blue

followed. stuff as though wasn't here, yet
it

it was solid enough to break our

from the tube?"
INSIDE, the pleasant warmth of fall

the force stuff pressed ten- "This force matter does what
derly against his face and arms you want it to — within certain
and set up a myriad tingling, limits, anyhow."
soothing sensation all along his Bruno nodded pensively. "We
skin. As though expecting that the think about it being hard enough
coalesced energy might impede his to stop our fall and it is? We de-
movements, he went forward, per- cide we want to walk around in it
haps feet, with arms out-
ten and, to us, it becomes as thin as
stretched and groping. air? Is that it?"

Suddenly he was out of the wall "Right."

again and in one of the inner com- "Does it do what the Spheres
partments, standing practically want it to, too?"
face-to-face with a Blubber Ball. Everard continued on around
inside the curving wall. "Yup.
The Sphere's surface promptly as-
of a Some of at least. Never seen
sumed the angry appearance it,

boiling yellow sun. 'em do nothing with the blue stuff.

Before the discharge came, But they can make the pink and
though, Everard's arm reached out green stuff move 'em around too,
and jerked Bruno back into the just like we can."

17
THE CITY OF FORCE
a.
 "Don't you see what that force substance that seemed to be
means?" Bruno reached forward, a projection of the pink surface.
caught the old man's arm and There was a cradlelike depression
turned him around. in the crest of the elevation and in
"Nope." it lay a sleeping form.
"The way we think can't be too Bruno recognized his cousin and
different from the way they think! went gliding forward eagerly on
We think of different things, of the undulant carpet. "Hulen!"
course, but—" The slumbering man, stout and
"Look, son," Everard said ir- with a thick cast of contentment
ritably. "For hundreds of years on his florid face, stirred lightly
we been trying to figure out how and mumbled, "Go 'way."
they think so's we can get in con- Blackness swallowed them.
guess everybody except you
tact. I But the
light returned as Ever-
knows it can't be done." ard coasted up to the base of the
"All this force stuff— what keeps delicately soft elevation. "Wake
it up? Where does come from?"
it up, Hulen!"
The old man made dismayed The man turned over, opened
gestures with his hands. "How his eyes without seeing anything
should I know? Ever hear of an and was instantly blotted out by
airyplane?" returning darkness.
Bruno was acquainted with the This time it was Bruno who
legend. "Machines that were sup- thought Hulen's artificial night
posed to fly." away.
Now you figure those
"Right. "I'll fix him," vowed Everard,
cockroaches in your village could staring at the comfortable hill on
understand what made them ma- which the man slept. Then the
chines stay up? For that matter, elevation began melting down,
think you could understand it?" flowing back into the pink carpet.
Bruno's cousin was deposited on
r T HEY
,
found Hulen in what his ear.
Bruno assumed was the rear Hulen awakened finally, yawned,
outer wall of the mound. They had saw Everard and asked, "You got
come upon an area of impenetrable my new robe?"
blackness in the force stuff, but "Wasn't ready yet I'll pick it
Everard had waved his hand in up next time I go out."
annoyance and the blue glow had Hulen sat up scratching his
extended instantly into the murky head. "Whafre you trying to pull
region. off, old man? I give you two
Directly ahead was a hill of force-food balls to trade off with

18 GALAXY
the forest folks for anew robe and The old man glided off through
you come back—" the wall and headed for another
"Brought you a visitor," Ever- force structure across the way.
ard cut him short, gesturing toward And Bruno realized, watching the

Bruno, who had been standing out robed figure depart, that he was
of his cousin's field of vision. seeing outside the mound for the
Hulen looked around, frown- first time since he had entered it.
ing momentarily. Then his face The wall's outer surface, like its

broke out in a grin of recognition inner one, evidently was opaque

as he leaped up and seized Bruno's as long as he felt no desire to
shoulders. look beyond it.
"I didn't figure you'd ever make
it here, fellow! Welcome to the Ill
easy life!"
em- T>RUNO and Hulen stood un-
Bruno returned the
brace of the Spruce
special
clan. "Didn't U comfortably for a while, try-
come here for the easy life," he ing to find something in common
said soberly. to talk about.
"Oh, no! Not another one!" "How're all the folks?" Hulen
Hulen glanced in distress at asked at last.
Everard. "Fine," said Bruno, and thought
"Yup. Warns to get chummy what else he might add. "Just fine."
with the Blubber Balls. Tried to "Old Chief Cedric still in
talk him out of it, but ." Ever-
. . charge?"
ard completed the sentence with "Well — more or less, I guess
a futile gesture. you'd say. He's been quiet since a
Hulen cuffed Bruno on the arm. Sphere came along a couple of
"We'll soon get you off it. Just wait years ago and tamed him down."
till you see how swell life can be. "What happened?"
I know a couple of classy babes— "Found an old — I believe he
Elm clan. You've run across that called it a generator, with instruc-
brand before, haven't you?" tions on how to get it to work.
Bruno smiled noncommittally There were these two glass things
as Hulen's elbow dug into his ribs. that were supposed to light up."
"Gotta be going," Everard said. "Yes?" Hulen coaxed, laughter
"Keep a close eye on him, Hulen. waiting in his eyes.
He's a natural-born stumbler. He "Well, he got the thing going
almost got it half a dozen times with a hand crank and for a whole
since I picked him up this morn- night it was just like day in his

ing." hut."

THE CITY OF FORCE 19


"And then?"
"This Sphere came along in one
of those green air tunnels and
boom! up went the whole hut!
Cedric was outside at the time,
but close enough to get his hair
singed!"
Hulen laughed until
ran. "They'll do it, all right!
just can't stand anything
makes that electricity stuff. Thaf
why they blew hell out of all the
old cities. The human cities were
full of electrical things."
"Now Cedric has fits
anybody tries to dig something out
of one of the ruins."
say I blame him."
"I can't
Hulen glanced tentatively be-
hind him and a section of the pink
carpet flowed upward like a grow-
ing toadstool. When it attained a
convenient height and
rigidity, he seated himself com-
fortably upon it. Then he indicated
a spot behind Bruno where a sec-
ond mound of force stuff was ris-
ing. The improvised seat, Bruno
found, was even softer than it ap-
peared.
"You have to learn to do these
things for yourself," Hulen said.
Then, "Seriously, about contacting
the Blubber Balls - I had the
same idea at first. That's why I
left the clan and came here. I
was going to say, 'Look here,
Spheres, we're dignified, intelligent
people. You can't simply step in
and take over as though there
20
s
wasn't an ounce of brains any-
where on Earth'."
"And you gave up when you
found out you couldn't get through
to them?"
Hulen smiled. "I got wise,
Cousin. What could be better than
his eyes this?" He spread a hand to in-
They clude all the wonderful effects of
that the City of Force. And everywhere
the hand swept, the outer surface
of the wall beyond it became
transparent, laying bare the splen-
did panorama of the City's magnif-
whenever cent edifices.
Bruno sprang up. "What's that?"
he asked anxiously, pointing out-
side.
Thousands of fluttering ribbons
of silver were extending upward
from each immaterial structure,
reaching eagerly toward the noon-
sufficient day sun.
Hulen laughed at his country
cousin's alarm. "Nothing to be
afraid of. Watch."
rW^ HE ribbons seemed to be draw-
-*- ing
something out of the sun-
light — tiny beads of pure yellow
energy that formed along the
length of the streamers and rolled
slowly down until they embedded
themselves in the force substance
of the buildings. Gradually the
beads rolled together, forming
balls of increasing size as they
sank farther into the walls.
Bruno constricted his vision and
cut out the exterior scene. Now
GALAXY
he was watching the orbs course Bruno realized that until then
through the material of their own he had been both thirsty and hun-
mound. Still collecting into big- gry, and now there was only a feel-

ger balls, they continued moving ing of very comfortably satisfied

inward until they came to rest em- well-being.
bedded in the inner surface of the "Blubber Ball really goes for
walls, protruding into the alien's them too." Hulen gestured with
compartments. a casual thumb.
One floated close by Bruno's When Bruno looked, the inner
head 'and he ducked. But Hulen was transparent
surface of the wall
only laughed and snatched it out and, in the compartment beyond,
of the air.He handed it to his the twenty-foot Sphere was drift-
cousin and trapped another for ing along, absorbing each force-
himself. food ball with which it came into
Bruno cautiously handled the contact.
glowing yellow orb, acutely aware The sight of the alien reminded
of intense sensation in the palms him of his resolve and he rode
of his hands, in his fingers. It was the wavering pink carpet toward
a soothing, comfortable feeling of the compartment
fullnessand satisfaction that spread But his cousin Hulen darted
up his arms and into his shoulders around in front of him. "Where do
as the grapefruit-sized ball began you think you're going?"
shrinking. "I came here to communicate
Dumfounded, he held the thing with them. This one's as good as
in one hand and raised the other any for a start."
incredulously to his face. And Hulen put an arm around his
where his fingers brushed against shoulder. "You've come a long
his lips, there was the composite way and had a lot of new experi-
taste of all the good food he had ences. Why don't you get a little
ever eaten, of the best of the rest first?"

Grape clan's wine he had ever A hill of pink fluffiness reared

drunk. up from the floor and formed an
inviting depression in its crest. It

66l^ ORCE-FOOD balls," Hulen was, Bruno admitted, a good sug-

-- explained, vigorously rolling
the rapidly dwindling orb between
his hands and plopping what was
left of it into his mouth. "You don't
have to eat them, but they taste
even better this way."
gestion. Hedid feel tired. Even
before he fully decided, however,
a wave of radiant force billowed
behind him, rolled him up the soft
ramp and deposited him on the
cloudlike bed.

THE CITY OF FORCE 21

 OOUSED finally by the sound They were blondes — a general
-"-*•
of amused voices, Bruno ele- trait of the Elm clan, Bruno re-
vated himself on an elbow. Glanc- membered. Both were attractive
ing downhill, he saw Hulen sitting and rather well put together, their
at a mushroom-shaped table which figures being allowed some free-
had sprouted from the glistening dom of expression by virtue of
floor. Across from him were two sleeveless, low-cut robes and broad,
girls whose uninhibited laughter constricting belts. A little plump,
filledthe inner-wall cavity. perhaps, but not so much so that
Hulen stared down and a sec- a couple of months in a forest vil-
tion of the lambent carpet rolled lage wouldn't harden them up and
back, bearing a small subsurface slim them down.
compartment which were stored
in "Bruno, meet Lea and Sal. Girls,
He handed
several force-food balls. my cousin Bruno. He'll be a regu-
one to each of the girls. Then he lar cosmopolitan as soon as he
raised a third above his upturned shakes the hayseed out of his hair."
face and squeezed it like a grape- Both girls gave out with delight-
fruit. A maroon liquid flowed into ful laughter. Sal's, however, was
his waiting mouth. more restrained, somewhat less de-
He saw his cousin and rose. risive and a bit more sympathetic
"Come on down," he invited. "We than Lea's. Moreover, Sal re-
got company." garded him with interested con-
When Bruno hesitated, the cern rather than pure amusement.
mound deflated under him and he He decided he liked her better
pawed the air frenziedly on his and went and sat beside her. Hu-
way down to the floor. The girls' len, too, seemed satisfied with the
high-pitched laughter italicized arrangement. It was clear that he
Hulen's guffaws. preferred someone high-spirited, as
He tossed one of the force-food Lea seemed to be.
balls into Bruno's lap. "Some of "Hulen says you're going to con-
the best stuff you ever drank. I tact the Blubbers," said Lea, a
spent all afternoon thinking up a tinge mockery in her
of voice.
storm — impressing the taste of But Bruno only nodded.
claret on it." "It won't be easy," Sal said quite
Bruno raised the ball, squeezed seriously.
it and drank. It was delicious. Hulen smote him again on the
Hulen came over and slapped shoulder. "We'll getit out of his
him on ? the back. "See what I system, won't we, girls? A few
mean about the lush life?" He days of the easy life is all ifll
winked at the girls. take."

22 GALAXY
LEA leaned forward on the table. ward, shaping itself into a goblet.
She squeezed the food ball over
"You never had it so good,
Bus—" Obviously she had started the container and filled it to the
to call him Buster, but had stopped brim.
to grope for a more practical word Hulen tilted his head back again
as she regarded his lean, sinewy and compressed what was left of
arms. "You never had it so good, his globe into a final trickle of
kid." wine. He rolled back the carpet
Bruno realized that Buster with a brief glance and grimaced
would probably be an appropriate when he saw that the cache was
name for anyone living in the City already empty, the last of the balls
of Force.The easy life, with its having gone to his cousin.
complete absence of effort, must "Have to round up some more,"
indeed be conducive to chubbi- he said disappointedly.
ness. Bruno, however, was just then
"Just take it easy, Bruno." Sal looking at several of the bright
laid a hand on his forearm. "Keep golden orbs. He had extended his
your eyes open and watch. Learn vision curiously into the Blubber
all you can before you try to glide thing's inner compartment and had
off on your own. After a few weeks, spotted the cluster embedded in
you'll know what you want to do." the wall.
She was quite young, too, he "I'll take care of it," he said
decided — a good deal younger confidently, the wavering
letting
than the other Elmite. Somehow floor carry him through the inner
he had the notion she hadn't been surface of the wall and into the
in the City too long. There wasn't huge room. He stood on his toes
the same casualness that he'd and reached for the food balls.
found in the others he'd encoun- But a hurtling form came div-
tered. ing through the wall and he looked
"We'll change your mind, Cuz," down in time to see Sal's shoul-
Hulen promised jovially. "After der ramming into his stomach.
we get through showing you how The breath knocked out of him, he
rich can be, you'll start pray-
life flailed backward across the com-
ing that nobody ever succeeds in partment and collapsed, a billow of
contacting the Spheres and getting the carpet surging up to break his
them to go back where they came fall.

from." Sal, off balance, plunged down

Sal fastened her eyes on the on top of him.
surface of the pink table and a "It's a trap, Bruno!" she
projection of force stuff shot up- shouted. "Don't touch it!"

THE CITY OF FORCE 23

 Hulen and Lea were in the com-
partment by now. "Boy, is he ever
a rube," she said disparagingly.
"Watch, Cousin," Hulen in-
structed, "and you'll learn Lesson
Number Two for survival."
He fashioned a pellet of pink
stuff from the material of the floor
and hurled it at the cluster of food
balls.
As it sailed toward the
get, Bruno noticed the tiny spot
of red radiance, almost completely
hidden by the orbs. The pellet
struck the lowest ball and the con-
cealed crimson globule exploded
into a blinding flame that surged
through half the room before it
extinguished itself.
"Bruno," Sal said patiently, let-
ting a ground swell of the floor
form under her back and lift her
to her feet, "you've got to be more
careful. You can't go bungling
around and expect to live very
long in the City."
She said it, Bruno imagined,
though she were more than casu-
ally interested in his survival.
the fact that he had to take criti-
cism from a girl was an embarrass-
ment.
He started to get off the floor
and two projections of force stuff
reared up, each wedging itself
crutchlike under one of his arms
and providing assistance as they
continued to rise. Angrily, though,
he batted the props away and got
up under his own power.
24
IV
r ''HE near disaster not. only
|
*-
broke up the party, but also
brought about postponement of a
nocturnal tour of the City which,
in Sal's words, would have
"brought out the wonderful beau-
ty of the force lights."
Although the experience had
tar- shaken Bruno's determination and
confidence, by the next morning
he nevertheless felt somewhat re-
dedicated to his purpose of com-
municating with the Spheres. He
was about to enlist his cousin
Hulen's advice on the matter when
Everard came gliding in through
the outer wall.
"Morning, fellows." The old man
straightened the folds of his robe
and scowled at Bruno. "Just heard
about your close shave. Ain't you
learned nothing yet?"
Hulen laughed. "He learned a
you, Cuz?"
lot last night, didn't
as Bruno looked away uncomfort-
ably.
Yet "Don't feel bad," Hulen reas-
sured him. "I had as much trouble
myself when I first came here."
"They all do," Everard admitted
grudgingly. "But the easy life is
well worth it."
Hulen ordered up three stools
from the force material of the
floor and sat facing his relative.
"Lopk, here are some thumb rules:
The pink and green and blue stuff
— they're all okay. Anything bright
GALAXY
red is deadly. Purple'll knock hell Indeed, it was the easy life, re-

out of you, but if s usually not quiring no exertion except defen-

fatal." sive maneuvers whenever an alien
"Orange is rough too," the old happened along. And he could
man added, digging with one hand see that one would rarely be
inside his robe. "Ifll reach out caught in a perilous situation with
after you and . .
." He drew a fin- just a little more caution than he

ger demonstrably across his neck. had learned in the forest.

Continuing the search of his

clothes, he produced three food BRUNO glanced around, ex-
balls from an inner pouch and tending his vision beyond the
shared them with the other two inner surface of the wall. One of
men. "Figured you'd be out of the Spheres was in the nearest
provisions, so I brought along some compartment. He watched it glide
breakfast." over to a cube of orange force. The
Bruno munched avidly on the color of the object seemed to flow
glowing yellow orb, determined into the Sphere. When
only a gray
this time not to have it melt in form was left, the alien deserted
his hands. The taste was curious- the cube and coasted to the center
ly like that ofbacon and eggs, hot of the compartment, where it drew
buttered biscuits and rich milk, all up beside a fountain of splashing
rolled into each mouthful. And he white sparks. The orange hue
could actually feel the composite which had once belonged to the
flavor spreading through his body. cube drained from the surface of
There was no doubt about it, he the Sphere and became part of the
uneasily conceded — this was the fountain.
ideal life in many respects. The The purpose of the function —
temperature was always perfect or ritual? — escaped Bruno com-
(he wondered to what extent men- pletely. He saw there would be
tal control governed that com- no point in even attempting to
fort) and one's clothes seemed understand what he had wit-
never to get soiled. Only a half- nessed.
hour earlier, Hulen had shown "Eat up," Hulen said, gesturing
him how proper concentration toward what was left of the food
could make the entire outer sur- ball in Bruno's hand. "I got a

face of the mound ice cold, and program mapped out. We're go-
how the water that condensed on ing to pick up the girls and show
it could be channeled into a tub- you some of the sights."
like depression in the wall's in- Everard sighed. "Lef s me out."
terior. "Why?" Bruno wanted to know.

THE CITY OF FORCE 25

He was becoming fond of the little But he didn't
his benefit, of course.
man, despite his cynical criticism. need them to look out for him.
"Wenever take the chance of "Tell Sal I'll see her later," he
letting 'em find more'n four of said firmly.
us together at one time, else they
might get the idea we're running "C«VERARD'S
away with the place. That'd mean ^ direct stare
intense with suspicion. "What
was

another extermination." are you going to do?"

Bruno glanced back at the "I came here to reach the
Sphere in the adjacent compart- Spheres. I may as well get along
ment. "You go along with them, with the job. And here's as good
Everard. I'm staying." a place as any to start." Bruno
Hulen and the old man ex- indicated the alien in the nearest
changed uncertain looks. "Why?" compartment.
they both asked. Everard lifted an eyebrow.
"I'm going to be busy. I don't "Just what have you got in mind?"
feel I'm accomplishing anything." "Finding some way to talk with
"You're not supposed to accom- them — telling them we're intelli-
plish anything!" Hulen pointed gent too."
out. "This is the easy life. There's "Don't you suppose that if we
nothing to do, nothing to worry were intelligent by their standards,
about — if you watch your step. they would have found it out by
Just relax and enjoy things." now?"
"Don't have to put out no ef- "Maybe they already know
fort here," Everard said, further we're intelligent," Hulen suggested.
defining this strange new philoso- "They can't," Bruno said, "or
phy of existence. "Nobody in all they'd have respect for other think-
history never had a better deal. ing things."
Talk about that the welfare state "How do we know that they
of the Budding Ages—" think?" Everard asked.
"You fellows go ahead," Bruno It had developed into a rapid-
insisted. "I have something to do." fire question-and-answer session,
"But Sal's expecting you!" and Bruno wondered whether it

Hulen said. "She's the one who might not be intended solely to
planned the tour!" confuse him. He ignored the old
The setup became even clearer, man's last question and said, "I
as far as Bruno was concerned. don't think they'd treat us like
Apparently it was all a conspiracy pests if they knew we were a
to get his mind off communicating civilized race. They'd—"
with the Spheres. It was all for "Ain't every creature civilized

26 GALAXY
J
 own standards?" Everard in- dainful grin, "Old Blubber Ball's
by its
going to see you making with some
terrupted.
"They destroyed all our cities," geometrical lingo and he's going
Bruno went on, "because our cities to sit down respectfully and watch.

were nests of forces that clashed Let me ask you this: Do you think
in some way with
their own setup, a parrofs intelligent just because

or with the Spheres themselves. it can imitate human speech?"

when we kill mosqui-
It's just like
Bruno rose impatiently.
"Just
toes because they interfere with
the same, I'm going to give it a
try." He let the now wavering floor
us.'
Everard frowned. "I don't get push him along swiftly toward the
it."
inner wall.
"Don't you see that if we ever His cousin glided ahead to block
found intelligent mosquitoes—talk- his path before he could pass
ing mosquitoes — we wouldn't de- through into the inner compart-
stroythem? Instead, we'd tell them ment.
we don't like to be buzzed and bit- But Everard shot forward and a
ten. We'd lay down the law
— projection of force material sprang
give them a list of terms they'd up to seize Hulen's arm. "Let him
have to meet if they wanted us to go. If he wants to be a dumb
stop swatting them. .We might hick, let him find out for himself—

even help them after that." if he lives that long."

"But we can't contact the
Spheres!" Hulen sputtered. "Would T> RUNO stood gaping up at the
-*-* huge but only for a
we notice a particular ant on the alien,

ground if it tried to communicate second. When he saw its surface

with us?" cloud over with a threatening play
"Maybe, if it tried hard enough. of sparkling yellow force, he
Since it would be the one trying to hopped sideways and let the
establish contact, it would have radiant carpet carry him several
to discover the symbols that would feet to the rear. The maneuver was
do the trick." executed just in time to escape
Everard laughed jeeringly. "And the Sphere's first searing blast of
you're going to look for symbols which curled back
lancelike force,
that'll let us talk with the Blub- the material of the floor where it
ber Balls?" struck.
"I think maybe some of the geo- Still taking evasive action, both
metrical forms they're familiar under his own power and with the
with might work." help of the motile carpet of force,
"So," Hulen said, with a dis- he concentrated on piling up a

THE CITY OF FORCE 27

 heap of energy material in the cen- as he could manage to make it
ter of the room next to the Sphere. The Sphere loosed another inef-
Another bolt barely missed him fectual bolt that tore the top
off
before he could manage sufficient the fountain of silver sparks and
concentration to mold the force sent the coruscating material
stuff in a four-foot tube. spraying against the far wall. It
Stalking him, the alien drifted trickled down the blue surface like
ominously forward. But Bruno, stars flowing across the velvet of
bobbing and weaving, prevented space.
the Sphere from getting set for an Bruno maneuvered skillfully
effective shot. And
the while he
all toward the center of the room,
kept his eyes on the other objects carefully avoiding a miniature
in the room, making certain he waterfall of intense red radiance
wasn't blundering into any of the that gushed forth from nowhere.
red, purple or orange force things. The cataract changed color as it
Another streak of jagged energy spilled down upon and became
leaped from the Sphere but missed part of the pink carpet, flowing
by a considerable margin. Follow- outward in concentric wavelets. At
ing the discharge, Bruno realized, the point where the red force ma-
it would be at least several sec- terialized from nothing were a
onds before the alien could gener- large ring of yellow energy and
ate sufficient energy for the next a smaller halo of glittering green
searing blast. So he returned to substance.
his task of constructing symbols He returned his attention to the
of communication. two geometrical forms he had con-
Glancing back toward the cube structed and began molding a
he had formed, he concentrated on third — a pyramid. With this crea-
a nearby section of the pink floor- tion, though, he tried another in-
ing. Like a geyser in slow motion, novation. While he fashioned it,
the pastel carpet flowed upward, he concentrated on a different
assuming the shape of a lumpy color. And as the pink hue faded
ball. He smoothed out its surface from the form, it was replaced by
and snipped off the thin stem. To a golden yellow cast.
his surprise, the weightless mass This object, too, he left sus-
remained suspended. pended while he mentally detached
As the alien paused before the the cube from the floor and ele-
two objects, Bruno glided around vated it to the height of the first
the room, making the undulating form.
surface carry him left, forward, Apparently, he summed up, not
back, right in as random a pattern only could the force substance be

GALAXY
THE CITY OF FORCE 29
 changed from one kind of energy, ness. He lay on an elevation in
or one color, to another, but it his cousin's quarters.
could also be shaped into any "You okay?" Everard asked.
form and moved about in any di- Bruno groaned and rolled over.
rection or at any speed. He was aware of a slight blister-
Bruno glanced back through the ing sensation along his left arm,
wall and saw Hulen shaking his the one that had been next to the
head while Everard watched with cylinder of orange force. His robe
a disdaining interest. was charred and there was the bit-
The stalking Sphere had, by ing smell of burned hair about his
now, generated almost enough head.
power for another discharge. Its The force substance beneath his
surface was ablaze with restless back reared up slowly, elevating
energy that crackled and threw off him to a sitting position. A solici-
a myriad scintillating sparks. tous hand materialized from the
Only this time the alien hurled pastel matter of the mound and
not one but two bolts of destruc- tenderly explored his aching arm.
tive force. Bruno easily managed "I- I- Damn! What happened?"
to escape the first. But the sec- "You stumbled into some of
ond released its full fury on the that orange stuff," Everard ex-
three geometrical forms he had plained. "Told you to watch out
constructed. They disintegrated, for it."

scattering bitsyellow
of the Blubber took another whack
"Ol'
pyramid and the pink cube and at you you passed out," added
after
ball about the room. Hulen. "But we pulled you out in
Again the Sphere began its time."
stealthy advance and Bruno gave Bruno looked into the inner
way warily. He didn't see the compartment The Sphere having
orange cylinder until he had al- gone, it was now dominated by
most backed into it. By then it the red cataract that flowed out
was too late, for already it was of the air between the yellow and
spewing out a spray of solid light. green rings. Fragments of his
As meshlike substance en-
the pyramid, cube and ball were still
snared him, searing pain stabbed plastered against the wall.
deep into his consciousness, bring- Everard laughed, derisively.
ing down a curtain of blackness. "Now that you've — ah — con-

? ^^ OME it, Bruno!" Hul-

out of
booming in his
en's voice,
tacted the
tell you?"
Hulen roared
Sphere, what did he

in raucous amuse-
ear, jarred him back to wakeful- ment.

30 GALAXY
 Bruno managed a weak
"Guess it wasn't such a good idea.
But did you notice the three forms
I used to get his attention?"
"What about them?" Hulen
asked.
"I made them float.
changed the color of the pyramid."
"So?" Everard raised a patient-
ly inquiring eyebrow.
"I haven't seen anybody do any-
thing like that with the force sub-
stance."
Hulen shrugged. "So you did
something different. So what?"
"Hasn't anybody thought of
studying the stuff — seeing just
what can be done with it?"
Everard said irritably. "Look,
son. We know what we got here.
It suits usfine. None of us plan
to go around experimenting to get
something better. Might mess
things up."
Nodding Hulen said,
severely,
"Everard's right. Keep away from
that experimental nonsense. Leave
things like they are. We got
fect here. Understand?"
Bruno's thoughtful silence was
apparently interpreted as acquies-
cence and the other two resumed
their chuckling.
Regarding his cousin's
robe, Hulen peeled back a section
of the flooring and dug out an-
other garment. "This'll keep you
covered till we make a food-ball
trade with the forest folks."
Bruno rose beside the mound on
THE CITY OF FORCE
grin. which he had been lying. More
pink arms than were needed
sprouted out of the elevation to
help him change into the new
robe.
"Still want to talk with the
even
I Spheres?" asked Everard.
"I see where I made my mis-
take."
"Yeah?" Hulen prompted.
"It was foolish to try to contact
just any Sphere."
"How do you figure that?" Ever-
ard wanted to know. "What makes
you think you wouldn't get the
same treatment from all of them?"
"Let's go back to the example of
the make-believe ant. Its chances
would be pretty slim if it tried to
communicate with just any hu-
man."
"Why?" Hulen leaned forward
interestedly.
"Because it might accidentally
select, say, a fussy old woman, or
a two-year-old kid, maybe even a
drunk or a psycho. What chance
it per- would it have then? But if it found
somebody in authority—"
"Oh, hell!" Everard broke in.
"Let's forget about the Spheres."
singed
BRUNO could well appreciate
the possibilities of force ma-
terial that reacted to individual
thought, becoming opaque or trans-
parent as one wished. Neverthe-
less, he turned his back on the
31
 huge mound and modestly re- — sharing them all with Sal.
garded, instead, the clear night "What'll it be tonight, boys?"
sky that shrank before the bril- Lea asked, her brassy voice cut-
liant display of lambent energy ting off his line of thought.
emanating from all immaterial ob- Grinning, Hulen faced Bruno.
jects of the City. "Ever hear of an automobile?"
Hulen, less patient and certain- Bruno dredged up the informa-
ly less inhibited, continued to stare tion from his school days: "Four-
into the mound as he called out wheeled contraption that went un-
boisterously for Lea and Sal to der its own power. Saw the ruins
hurry it up for their night out on of one once."
the City. "Well, we're going to get around
An elderly man poked his head tonight in the next best thing."
through the wall of the adjacent Hulen rubbed his hands together
structure. "Knock it off! We're expectantly. "As a matter of fact,
trying to get some sleep!" it might even be better than
an
Another pair of shoulders and automobile. Who knows?"
head popped out the side of a "Oh,
that'll be fun," said Lea
second mound. "Quiet! What's all flatly,conveying the impression
the commotion out there?" that this wouldn't be their first
Hulen lowered his voice and experience with such a device.
cupped his hands. But before he Hulen waved his arms and a
could call out again, the two girls section of the radiant surface be-
came gliding through the radiant gan reacting to the matrixlike in-
wall. fluence of his thoughts. Two broad
"Now," Sal said consolingly, benches formed, one in front of the
"that didn't take too long, did it?" other, and they both developed
Her hair was swept up into a wide, slanting backs.
double braid that wound around Hulen extended a hand inviting-
her head like a garland. It gave ly and ushered Bruno and Sal into
a classic appearance to her smooth the rear seat. He and Lea took
face and Bruno eagerly extended the one in front. "I'll drive," he
his arm. He realized now that she said, and gave Bruno a wink.
had seemed a bit plump only in A parapet, shoulder high, reared
comparison with the inordinately up all around them and Sal
thin girls of his own clan. And for squealed, "Away we go!"
a moment he wistfully wondered
how it would be living permanent- i^URIOUSLY, Bruno watched
ly in the City of Force and enjoy- ^ the force stuff ahead of the
ing all the luxuries and adventures vehicle flow up into the forward

32 GALAXY
 work its way down onto by no less than a hundred feet.
parapet,
of the automobile, up "No danger here," he reassured
the floor
and his passengers. "They couldn't be-
and over the front seat, up
and out over gin to keep up with our speed."
over the back seat
Lea, acting frightened and en-
the rear parapet. And all
the while
of the wheelless vehicle joying every hiinute of it, moved
the shape
— not the car itself — moved for- closer to Hulen and clung to his
neck while he laughed like a
ward, carrying the occupants along
youngster bedeviling grownups.
with it as it gained speed.
The automobile, Bruno realized, Sal held a firm grip on Bruno's
arm and kept her face close against
was like a wave spreading across
shoulders avoid swaying
to
the surface of a pond. The water
his

itself didn't move forward; its

con- with the motions of the careening
figuration did. He and Hulen and car.

the girls were part of the wave To Bruno, the novel experience
and were being swept along with was an utter delight as the wind
it, wholly undisturbed by
the com- whipped his robe about him and
pletely frictionless flow of force sportively mussed his hair. The
beneath their bodies.
stuff
speed was incredible — easily two
The car, under Hulen's direc- or three times as fast as he had

tion,went streaking past row after ever gone before, even on the
back of the Spruce clan's swift-
row of gigantic force mounds,
swerving between pylons and est horse.

spires and sparkling fountains, "How about it, Cuz?" Hulen

darting under tunnels of glimmer- shouted boastfully above the roar
ing green-light stuff, curving around of the wind. "Won't find anything
ponderous and magnificent edi- like this in the clan areas, eh?"

fices ofunfamiliar geometrical de-

sign and altogether new concepts BRUNO tried to answer, butface all

of color. he could manage in the

Occasionally, they zipped past a of the wind was an expressionless
Sphere or a group of them mov- gulp.
ing along the broad, level ways be- "This is only one of the things
tween the force buildings. Twice we do for fun," Hulen went on ef-

Hulen sent the automobile in loop- fusively. "Of course it takes a lot
ing circles around one of the aliens of practice to do this stunt, but
and zipping in between the ranks you'll learn."

of several of them. He drew a bolt He produced a food ball for

of destructive energy from a par- each and passed them around. "I
ticularly irate Sphere, but it missed decided on brandy for tonight.

THE CITY OF FORCE 33

Take a taste and tell me what you now," she went on. "It shouldn't
think." be too long before I decide to set
As Bruno expected, it was ex- up moundkeeping on my own and
But he retreated guardedly
cellent. get on with my job of raising a
into his thoughts. It was clear family."
enough that an intensive campaign "With one of those friends?"
was under way to win him over "Not necessarily."
to their way of life, and for the
moment he couldn't blame them. HP HE car tilted backward sharp-
In many respects, for those lucky * and Bruno's gangly legs
ly
enough to be living in Cities of came up from the floor as though
Force, it was Utopia. defying gravity. He reached for-
Sal set her liquor ball on the ward and seized the
frantically
seat beside her and retrieved her front seat to keep from tumbling
grip on his arm. "What did you out the rear. Sal gasped and strug-
do in theSpruce village, Bruno?" gled through a busy few seconds,
"Farmed. Had a place on the clinging more frenziedly to him
outskirts, not too far from the mar- and trying to pull her robe down
ket area." over her legs at the same time.
"It's fun doing things with the Then Bruno noticed that the
soil, isn't it?" color of the force stuff flowing up
"I enjoyed it." He wondered from the surface ahead to take the
why he had put the verb in the shape of the speeding car was no
past tense. longer the pastel pink that it had
"You don't ever see any soil been. Now it was a light blue.
around here, unless you peel back After he had steadied himself
all the pink stuff underfoot. Then with one hand and secured a pro-
you find nothing but rocks." tective grip around the girl's shoul-
"Don't you like it here?" He der with the other, he glanced
studied her face, brilliantly illu- around. They were climbing the
minated by the intense light radi- steep face of a huge pylon that
ating from the force edifices all dwarfed all the other force edi-
around them. fices of the City. It reared so high
Her eyes, however, were focused above the other structures that it
on something remote. "Of course would have lost itself in the black-
I do. It's the soft life, isn't it? What ness of night, had it not carried
could be better?" its own soft effulgence along with
Yet she didn't sound too con- it.

vinced. They swept past a towering

"I've plenty of friends here fountain of inchoate green energy

34 GALAXY
 [that gushed out the side of the of light. And Bruno let his eyes
itructure and sent its flowing rove over the smaller, irregular
iquid force splattering down the hills and mounds, the cubes and
/slope, emitting coruscating emer- fountains, the serpentine tunnels,
ald sparks all the way to the the pyramids and truncated cylin-
surface. ders of coruscating energy. Beyond
Hulen turned around, grinning — beyond the magnificent pattern
at his cousin's dismay. "Over the of metropolitan lights — stretched
topwe go," he shouted gleefully. the dark, dismal plain. Out there
"—And here we are!" it seemed like another world.
The car leveled off abruptly and "Still think the clan
has life
jerked to a halt on a small, flat anything to offer?" Hulen prodded.
surface that capped the crest of "Nothing like this," Bruno ad-
the pylon. Bruno, relaxing his grip mitted. "I nevei thought anything
too soon, went flying past the front could be so — luxurious."
seat and shot through the air,
plunging over the brink ahead. TTUMAN cities, too, he under-
But an alert arm of blue force -"-- stood, had arrogantly pre-
stuff shot out the side of the struc- sented blazing shields of light to
ture and wrapped itself around his the night sky. But underneath
Tjvaist as he started the terrifying those lights had been the solid
sjlide down the slope. It lifted him matter that produced them. Un-
gently back to the top and set him derneath these was only more light
down beside Hulen and the girls. — and uncanny force matter that
'
Like rapidly melting lumps of became almost anything you
ice, the form of the automobile wanted it to be.
shrank and lost itself in the level "This is just a small town," Lea
op of the pylon. In its place, Hul- said casually. "I know someone
n ordered up a table and chairs who went through a green tunnel
and spread several liquor balls to one of the other Force Cities.
out before them. The small orbs It's ten times bigger than this
glowed »
golden
like apples and one.
their radiance blended elegantly "Where is it?" Sal asked, inter-
with the pastel-blue luster of their ested.
setting. "Know the Mississippi?"
A cool breeze drifted out of the "I studied about it."
sky and spilled over the
star-filled "Well, it's not too far from the
brink of the pylon, to go cascad- ."
mouth and it's got
of the river . .

ing down onthe lesser force

all Bruno, whose eyes were becom-
structures of the iridescent City ing accustomed to the splendid

THE CITY OF FORCE 35

^M
display of illumination, lost inter-
est in the conversation and stared
down on the rest of the City. Now
he could see some of the humans.
There was another party of four
atop a truncated pyramid a short
distance to the south. Closer, off
to hisleft, two men and a girl had
constructed a table upon a bulky
silver cube. Three parties of four,
spaced at intervals of about a
block, went shooting down the
shaft of an otherwise deserted
chute that spiraled around the
base of a shining gray obelisk. Be-
low, next to the bottom of their
own towering pylon, a huge cloud
of pink stuff went drifting by.
Comfortably seated on its soft-
ness were a man and woman and
two children.
wasn't. He had been, until a mo-
ment earlier, but now his gaze was?
fastened on a great waterfall of
radiant energy that dominated the
City south of the central pylon.
CASCADING down from the
blackness of night, the crim-
son cataract seemed to be replen-
ishing the immaterial substance of
the force structures, flowing into
and assuming the color of the
green chutes and the pink surface,
the blue mounds, the silver cubes
and the orange cylinders.
It was as though the very es-
sence of the alien City were pour-
ing out of nowhere, spilling in from
some unguessable source in an-
other world, another universe. And
its point of entry was the mouth

There were only a few alien of a large yellow ring and a small-
Spheres here and there. For the er green one that hung, one with-
most part, their movements were in the other, above the apex of the
confined to the surface below or cataract.
to the curving chutes green
of It was the same arrangement

light. And they seemed never to he had seen in the mound's inner
notice the humans. compartment when he had tried te !
"This building we're on," Bruno communicate with the Sphere. Andi
asked, "what is it?" now, as he scanned the City, hej
Hulen grinned. "Could be their noticed the lesser crimson water-
city hall —
that's what you might falls, each surmounted by its pair,
call it, I mean." of yellow and green rings that
He looked away, then snapped were suspended motionlessly.
his eyes suspiciously back on "I said," Hulen repeated, "you're ,

Bruno. "Say, you're not still think- not still thinking about contacting
ing about that damned-fool plan the Spheres, are you?"
of contacting the chief Sphere, are Sal, too, seemed to be awaiting !

you?" Bruno's answer, her eyes fixed on |

As a matter of fact, Bruno his lips.

36 GALAXY
 Absently, Bruno said, "That's fer thatit weren't and that Bruno

what I came here for." could go ahead with his plan.

But all the while he was staring
beyond the table, concentrating on W/"ITH the smaller ring beside
the force material of the pylon's "
the larger one, he paused, ab-
surface. He mentally ordered up ruptly apprehensive over the re-
a slender projection of the pale sults the experiment might pro-
blue substance, detached it and duce. He glanced at the others.
formed it into a ring, changing its None of them was aware that he
color to a soft yellow. was up to anything.
"He's certainly obstinate," Lea "We could break the rule of
observed, peevishly lowering her four for something as important as
chin onto a handlike projection of contacting the Spheres," he said,
blue force stuff that rose obligingly to divert their attention.
from the table top. Hulen's teeth showed in a look
"A Hulen agreed,
real crusader," of exasperation. A blunt hand of
with no small amount of scorn. force stuff reached out from the
"Why don't you forget it, Cuz?" surface of the table, seized Bruno's
Bruno maneuvered the yellow robe and jerked him roughly for-
ring into a horizontal position, sta- ward.
bilizing it several feet above the "Didn't I already tell you," Hul-
pylon and away from the table. en shouted, "that thousands of peo-
Next, he raised another projection ple have tried all the schemes —
from the flat surface and fash- for hundreds of years?"
ioned a smaller, light green circle. And a dozen tiny mouths had
"Trying to communicate with formed on the surface of the table,
them might still be a good idea," each pair of blue lips soundlessly
he offered, keeping the talk alive echoing the rebuke.
so they wouldn't notice what he Lea folded her arms disgustedly.
was doing. "Man, is he ever a creep!"
Hulen snapped.
"I said forget it!" "I wouldn't say that exactly,"
Bruno sent the smaller ring Sal retorted.
floating up toward the larger one. "Go ahead, side with him!" Lea
"If this building we're on is their shot back. "I guess you
got still
center of government, we could a lot of hayseed to shake out of
make an impressive show out of your hair too!"
it. We
could get together a whole Hulen assume the role
rose to
bunch of people and march—" of and the hand of
conciliator,
"Four's the limit," Sal reminded force substance that had gripped
evenly, as though she might pre- Bruno's robe sank back into the

THE CITY OF FORCE 37

table. "Look, kids, this is no way them. "I did it. I made the rings!
to enjoy a night out." and-"
Exempt from the conversation Hulen and Lea were gawking at
for the moment, Bruno returned him as though he were crazy.
his attention to the rings of frozen "You did it?" Lea asked, her
energy. Once more he moved the voice skeptical and vehement.
smaller toward the larger. "Experimenting again, eh?" Hul-
Lea stood there arrogantly, her en said.

hands thrust on her hips, as she
glowered at Hulen. "I don't ex-
pect to enjoy a night on the City
with this drip! What's he trying
to do, anyway?"
"Whatever it is," Sal
least he thinks it's right."
"Yeah. And you probably do
too."
"What if I do?" Sal returned de-
fiantly.
"Well, you can have the lunk-
head! We got the best deal any-
body ever had. And he wants to
yank it out from under us!"
Just then Bruno finally got the
small green ring centered directly
above the large yellow one. He
lowered it carefully into
until the, one was perfectly en-
closed within the other.
There was a great'flare of crim-
son brilliance as billows of pure
energy began spilling from the
mouth of the double halo.
Lea and Sal screamed and
sprang aside, riding a crest of blue
pylon material to the far edge of
the truncated surface.
lunged up, seized Bruno's
and dragged him to safety.
Bruno separated the rings and
the cataract was snipped off.
"That settles it!" said Lea. "I'm
going home. Hulen, either you're
going to see that I get there safe-
said, "at ly or you're going to stay here
with - with that!"
Scores of slender fingers sprang
up from the blue pylon substance
to point incriminatingly at Bruno.
Then Lea cast herself over the
edge of the mesa and went skid-
ding down the incline.
Hulen caught his robe up be-
tween his legs and leaped over
after her. "See you later," he threw
back. "Keep him out of trouble,
Sal."
place, Bruno watched the pair slide
down the slope. As they neared
the bottom, a ripple of force stuff
built up before them and grew
into a restraining wave that
checked their speed.
VI
SAL walked to the edge and
Hulen stood gazing thoughtfully out(
arm over the City. "Why did you have)
to spoil everything and start ex-j

"It's all right," Bruno assured perimenting with that red stuff?"

38 GALAX 1
she asked him reproachfully. can be formed from any of the
Reminded of the pair of rings, force substance."
he glanced back and, with a brief "But why would anyone want
volition, sent them hurtling away that deadly stuff?"
— over the city, past the outer "Because it's obviously the basic
wall of force, through the dismal force material of the City. From
night air above the plain. He it come all the other kinds of
watched the faint, luminous specks energy matter."
disappear over the horizon. Sal was showing a more direct
"I thought you were with me, interest now. "But where does it
Sal. I got the impression you come from?"
wanted to see me contact the "Everard said the Spheres prob-
Spheres, that maybe you'd like to ably came from another universe.
find out how this force stuff works." Maybe the red force stuff is what
"But don't you see that's not the separates our universe from theirs
point?" She turned abruptly to- — a sort of sandwiched-in layer.
ward him. "The fact is that the And when you put the two rings
Spheres can'r be contacted." together, it opens a door for the
He pretended to concede the energy to gush through."
argument "All right. But why not "What do the two rings have
find out all we can about this force to do with it?"

stuff?" He laughed. "How would I

She raised her knuckles know? But the important thing is

troubledly to her lips. "I don't that we don't have to know! Sup-
know. I'm confused. Maybe we pose a super-intelligent mouse
ought to be satisfied with what we learns he can produce fire by rub-
have and not expect more out of bing two sticks together? He could
a perfect setup." do it without knowing why, couldn't

"But things aren'r perfect," he he?"

pointed out. "Not as long as peo-
ple like you and me are looked
on as pests. Not as long as there
AN alarm sounded in the depths
ofBruno's consciousness.
are Hulens and Leas who are Then he noticed the pale blue cast
satisfied with that role." suffusing the girl's features had
She hid her uncertainty in si- taken on a subtle yellow tinge.
lence. Instinctively, he flung her to the
"That red energy is interesting," floor and hurled himself down be-

he said, thinking aloud. "All it side her. And the pylon sprouted a
j
takes to get as much of it as you pair of solicitous arms that reared
!

want is a pair of rings — rings that up to grasp them protectively, like

;THE CITY OF FORCE 39

m-
a mother clutching her children to said bitterly. "It looks soft ani
her bosom. luxurious. But death can come at
The bolt of destructive energy almost any instant!"
crackled inches over their heads "I know, I know. Come, let's get
and spent itself in the empty night away from here."
air. Bruno found he had no aptitude
They both then saw the Sphere for duplicating Hulen's wave-form
that had emergedthrough an automobile. So, instead, he saw
opening in the structure. Its yellow Sal home on a simple tobaggan-
surface clouded over with a faint like contraption. It served almost
purple-white hue as it generated as well, except that when they
energy for another blast. neared their destination, he failed
Bruno shoved the girl over the to maintain control over the up-
brink and leaped after her. They turned edge. Losing its identity as
went tumbling down the incline part of the mobile wave configura-
together. Near the bottom, he tion, the forward curve had sud-
gradually piled up a wave of force denly swept back, swiping him
stuff in front of them to slow their and the girl from the pseudo-sled.
descent. He enlarged the obstruc- After he watched her go into
tion and brought them to a com- her mound, he turned reluctantly
plete stop just as they reached the and headed back for Hulen's place.
surface. Before he could take a second
"Youall right?" he asked. wave
step, though, the inevitable
She rose unevenly. Three props up behind his
of pink force built
reared up out of the energy ma- heels and began moving him ef-
terial to steady her. fortlessly forward.
"Nothing broken." She smiled Without resisting, he let the un-
shakingly. "Say, you are learning! dulating carpet carry him along
And thanks. We could have both while he concerned himself with a
been-" nagging indecision.
Her composure snapped and she Of course he intended to con-
was caught up in a helpless reac- tact the Spheres! Wasn't that his
tion to the narrow escape. She fell only motive for coming to the
against him and sobbed with her City? But somehow he suspected
face buried in his robe. he might ultimately be diverted
An arm of
excessively solicitous from his purpose. Or maybe his\

up to offer her
force stuff sprang uncertainty was simply a reaction
the support he was already pro- to the unreasonable and unex-
viding. Angrily, he slapped away.
it pected opposition he was meeting.
"It's horrible here, Bruno!" she He, Bruno of the Spruce clan,
40 GALAXY
z.
 i

was going to come blustering into ly by the elbow to draw him for-
i,
the City and merely announce his ward.
i intention of setting up Man's first He thrust the congenial hand
contact with the Spheres. Thou- aside and lashed out in a vicious
sands were going to strew rose kick. The entire complex of com-
petals in his path and cheer him fort shrank away, flowing regret-
on like a conquering liberator. fully back into the amorphous pink
Then, when it was all over, they carpeting.
were going to hoist him to their That was his trouble, he de-
shoulders in a triumphant march cided abruptly. The entire City
back to the clean area, joyously must be luring him with its lux-
proclaiming freedom from the uries and pleasures, captivating
the aliens. him as it had bewitched Hulen
Nuts! He sneered at his own and Everard and Lea.
naivete — at his failure even to sus- But then, as his surge of emo-
pect the City dwellers might re- tional resentment abated, he real-
sent his interference. ized, after all, that the City itself
was not a living thing — that what-
GLANCING up at the glim- ever it did to accommodate him
mering mounds and towering was but an impersonal manifesta-
force structures that were limned tion, a peculiar reaction of the
brilliantly against the night sky, force stuff to the pressure of either
Bruno felt suddenly depressed. As conscious or wishful thought.
though in response to his vague And if Hulen and the others had
thoughts of fatigue and disillu- been captivated, it wasn't as much
sionment, the wave that had been by the City as it was by their own
pushing him along washed to a insatiable desire for the easy way.
halt and the omnipresent carpet He was determined it wouldn't
rolled upward in him.
front of happen to him.
Swiftly, it burgeoned into the He started forward again and
shape of a reclining chair with a once more the energy layer came
stout arm rest that bore an ornate- alive to form an impelling wave.
ly curved pitcher and tumbler. Rejecting the offering, he stamped
Within seconds, the surface of vehemently on the rippling carpet.
the pitcher frosted over, inviting And, for as far as he could see,
attention to the icy water that was the ground thrust up a thousand
condensing both within and with- ill-shaped legs, each ending in a
out the container. The other arm hobnailed boot that struck down
rest grew a slender hand that vengefully in a sympathetic ges-
reached out and took him enticing- ture of self-punishment.

THE CITY OF FORCE 41

 Bruno, suddenly struck with the sipated in a shower of useless
humor of the incident, bent back- sparks.
ward, laughing aloud. And all the The Sphere lurched backward^
extended legs retracted into the collided with the mound from
parent mass while scores of faces, which he had emerged, bounced off
featureless except for full lips and and went scurrying away.
bulging jowls, materialized in their
places. They shared his amuse- VII
ment, roaring in soundless mirth.
Striding resolutely forward un- Tl OLLING over on his back,
der his own power now, he turned -*-*-Bruno awakened to a vague
sharply around the projecting wall awareness that he was being stu-
of a mound and almost collided diously watched. He raised him-
with a Sphere which was just self on an elbow and discovered
emerging from the blue structure. that the crude sleeping mound he
Even before he could get set, had constructed the night before
the alien loosed a searing bolt had metamorphosed into a dupli-
that struck close enough to singe cate of his four-poster back home.
his robe. The spruce headboard was au-
Helunged aside, berating him- thentically colored and even its
self having been caught off
for grain looked real. The pink force
guard. As he continued maneuver- material on which he lay had taken
ing defensively, his resentment on the soft white color of a sheet.
grew and, almost unconsciously, he Everard and Hulen stood be-
found himself swiftly fashioning side the bed, looking soberly down
a yellow and green ring out of the at him.
force substance. The old man ran a stiff, specu-
While he escaped another dis- lative finger over his chin. "Hulen
charge, he sent one circlet hurtling says you're still thinking about
to proper position within the
its messing around chummylike with
other. When the stream of red the Blubber Balls."
energy rushed through, he mental- Actually, Bruno was still uncer-
ly molded it into a lance of light- tain whether he should go through
ninglike force and hurled it at with his intention of contacting the
the Sphere. Spheres. Would the aliens recog-
The alien had been generating nize human intelligence and with-
another discharge. But the impact draw, leavingi the people free to
of the crimson force rocked him develop their iwn world as they
visibly and the flush of yellow had once befd :? Would there be
energy along his surface was dis- cooperation a 1 help from the

42 GALAXY
Spheres? Or would the result be are thousands having a rough time
something awful — something he in the forests. Why
should we be
hadn't even considered? But the entitled to the easy life?"
men's attitude decided him. Hulen drew indignantly erect.
He threw his legs over the side "Because we are willing to take
of the bed and sat up. "I think our chances with the Spheres and
I'll give another try. Maybe
it the force stuff!"
this round I'll pick the right place "That may be so, but the main
and time." point that things are tough in
is

Two arms of the floor

servile the clan areas because the Spheres
groped for found them
his sandals, own the world. And I don't think
and slipped them on his feet. Hul- the Spheres even realize we're at
en and Everard watched the inter- all put out. So I figure we might
lude with impatient misgiving. as well try to get through to them.
"You're not going to communi- What can we lose?"
cate with the Spheres," Hulen said Everard shook his head dis-
finally, his words heavy with deter- traughtly. "What can we lose? By
mination. agitating 'em, you'll make 'em
"What the hell, son!" Everard aware of our presence. Then
exclaimed. "You want to bring there'll be an extermination. Plen-
on another extermination?" ty of us'll get killed — we ain't
"You ever been in on one of had that kind of big-scale work-
them?" Hulen persisted. "Women out in years. And it'll be months
grabbing up kids and running for before those who are left can get
their lives. Old folks like Everard back in the City."
here scurrying for safety and not
making it. Everybody pouring out TTULEN placed a patronizing
of the City." *--*- hand on his cousin Bruno's
Bruno rose and one of the bed- shoulder. "We got unwritten laws,
posts extended a hand that began Cuz. They say
don't do anything
smoothing his robe about him. "We to our presence; keep
advertise
might find the Spheres willing to under cover; if you gotta go out
help. Once they learn—" of your hole, don't congregate;
"Like hell!" Hulen shot back. don't go in the open any oftener
"The only thing they're interested than you have to."
in about us is stamping us out!" Uncertainly, Bruno looked
'
"They might change their mind down Another pair
at his palms.
if they knew we weren't just dumb of hands shot up from the floor
pests. Anyway, for every one of to present themselves eagerly for
us taking it easy in the City, there his inspection.

THE CITY OF FORCE 43

 "Changed your mind?" Everard force stuff, sure, but you shoulda\
asked anxiously. seen 'em!"
If he had, it wouldn't have been "What are you getting at?"
as a result of their arguments. Any- "We had a meeting last night-
way, the goal of contacting the after we watched you put on that
Spheres had been with him for show outside the girls' mound,"
as long as he could remember. Hulen explained. "We decided it
Still waiting for an answer, Hul- would be too dangerous for you
en said, "We don't have any courts to stay on in the City."
here, but the boys have their own "And," Everard concluded, "the
brand of kangaroo justice. How boys said to tell you that you got
about it?" till tonight to get out."
"No."
Everard and Hulen exchanged
grim looks.
AS far as Bruno was concerned,
that practically settled it. He
"We watched you last night," was just obstinate enough to react
Hulen said. "Know something? the wrong way to their threats.
You're developing a rare sort of And the great pylon they had
if

control over this force stuff. Take visited the night before was the
this bed here, for instance—" City's seat of government, he
"It's a form of subconscious con- would have plenty of time, before
trol," Everard added. "Pretty the day was over, to attempt an-
damned dangerous." other contact.
"How so?" The determined manner in
"Why, your emotions can run which he went gliding through the
away with you when you get ex- wall of the mound must have left
cited. You might make the energy Hulen and Everard with no doubt
material do things to hurt others." as to his purpose.
"Fifteen, twenty years ago, we Fortified by the brightness of
had another fellow with the same a warm summer's sun overhead,
kind of control," Hulen offered. the brilliant array of force struc-
"He ended up killing without even tures cast an intense glare and
knowing it. His subconscious ran he shaded his eyes with a hand
away with him. They found two as he struck out for Sal's quar-
guys strangled by hands of force ters. But when he rounded the
stuff." next mound, he saw the girl glid-
Everard winced reminiscently. ing anxiously in his direction.
"Even before that, he gave us hell "Bruno!" She reached him and
with his nightmares. The monsters caught his arm. "They had a meet-
he dreamed up became real — ing last night and—"
44 G A LAXY
 "Yes, I know. They decided to "They figure it's going to be that
run me out of town." bad?"
"Thafs not all. A delegation She nodded. "Maybe we ought
from the other side of town at- to get out too, Bruno."
tended. On the way home, the He ran a hand uncertainly
whole bunch of them were seen by through his hair. It seemed that
a group of Spheres!" everything was lining up against
He glanced at the broiling sun him, trying to keep him from com-
and wiped a film of perspiration municating with the aliens.
from his forehead. "I suppose that
means—" TTE dropped to the lumpy, pink
But Sal drew in a dismayed -*--'-
But even as he seated
surface.
breath and backed away, staring himself and drew his knees up re-
apprehensively over his shoulder. flectively under his chin, the force
At the same time, he was conscious stuff smoothed out and sprouted
of a dark shadow moving over a neatly clipped carpet of artifi-
them. He whirled around. cial grass.
The thing that had seized her "Are you still going to try to
attention was a tree. Rising out contact the Spheres?" she asked,
of the omnipresent pink carpet, it down on her knees beside him.
grew expanding its trunk,
swiftly, "I want to. I think it's the right
sending out a branch here, a twig thing to do. But I'm afraid of what
there, covering itself with a lux- might happen. I don't know what
uriant dome of green foliage. Then to expect — how the Spheres will
he recognized it. It was a replica react."
of the shade tree behind his house. "Well, they'll realize we're
"It's all right," he said, turning worthy of their help and respect,
back toward Sal. won't they?" she asked hopefully.
The shadow of the tree brought He didn't answer. Instead, he
a delightful coolness. Its branches absently watched all the energy
swayed gently, sending down soft structures around him send glisten-
currents of refreshing air. ing streamers toward the sun to
She dismissed the phenomenon collect droplets of food stuff from
with a shrug. "About those men its rays. Then, as he remembered

being seen by the Spheres— every-
body's afraid there'll be an exter-
mination! Some of the people on
the South Side are already pack-
ing up and heading toward the
plain."
THE CITY OF FORCE
that he hadn't ha'd breakfast yet,
thin ribbons of silver also began
growing out of the foliage of the
tree. The food energy that con-
densed on them rolled into clus-
ters and drifted through the
45
 1
leaves to attach themselves to the Spruce clan with me — now?"
lowest branches, hanging there like She fixed her eyes on an irides-
golden grapes. He picked a clus- cent spire and said, "Yes, if you
ter for himself and handed one want me to."
to the girl. Heglanced at her hair, gold
"They've got to accept us!" he like the color of a food ball filled
said. "I don't seehow they could with energy and sustenance from
react any other way. But the the sun, and at her eyes, more
others have made me doubt my deeply blue than the most vivid
own judgment." mound in the radiant City.
"You've planned on contacting "Thanks," he said, rising reso-
them for a long time, haven't lutely. "That's what I want too.
you?" But I'm going through with what
"All my life. It's been like a I came here for."
goal."
She graspedhis arm. "Maybe VIII
not so important anyway. May-
it's

be you're seeing it all out of pro- A BRANCH of the tree, absorb-

portion." -^*- ing its foliage to develop a
"But doesn't the world belong hand, reached down and tugged
to us?" he protested. urgently on his robe. Another
"I don't mean that. I mean grew a half-balled with a long,
fist

about feeling you had to contact curving finger that tapped him in-
the aliens. Don't you see that's a sistently on the shoulder and
dream everybody has, to a degree? pointed behind him. Only then
It's like wanting to hunt treasure did he realize that what he had
on a desert island, or become chief mistaken for the sibilant swish of
of the superclan, or — like they leaves over the past few seconds
used to say before the Spheres — had actually been whispered
make a million dollars. Maybe it's voices.
nothing more than an idle child- He whirled around. On the other
hood fancy that you've viewed side of the tree Hulen,Everard
out of proportion. But even if you and a score other robed figures
don't contact the Spheres, you've were advancing furtively. Know-
been luckier than most. You've ing they had been discovered, the
come to the City. You've had a crowd of men drew erect with de-
chance at your goal." termination.
"Sal—" He placed a hand over "Don't try to pull anything fan-
hers, not quite sure what he wanted cy with the force stuff," Everard
to say. "Would you go back to the warned gruffly.

46 GALAXY
 '
Hulen gestured with a fist. 'We
\ brought along enough help to over-
ride your control, no matter how
good you are."
Several hostile arms of force
material sprang up all around
Bruno and jockeyed for vantage
points. He gave Sal a shove and
sent her coasting away on a hastily
devised sled. The tree, which he
had been maintaining with a prac-
tically subliminal intent, collapsed
and was quickly reabsorbed by
the radiant carpet.
"So you're going to go through
with it anyway?" Everard laughed
challengingly.
"Look, Cuz," Hulen said. "You
already got us in enough trouble,
but maybe it ain't too late. How
about clearing out without rais-
ing any more stink?"
"You said I had till tonight."
"We changed our minds. Out
you go now!"
One of the arms of force darted
forward, seized his robe and spun
him around. Another changed in-
stantly into a booted foot and
aimed a kick that only grazed his
thigh.
Bruno sent the pink stuff bil-
lowing up in a great wave which
swept down on the others. But a
second enormous swell formed in
! front of the first and met it in
| a head-on clash that shot a gey-
ser of radiance skyward along the
entire front.
The nearest menacing arm de-
THE CITY OF FORCE
veloped a gigantic hand which
thrust forward and caught Bruno
in its grip, pinning his elbows to
his side. Before the breath could
be squeezed out of him, though,
he went on the defensive — half
a dozen smaller arms material-
ized beside him to grapple with
the attacking hand, prying it loose
and forcing it back down into the
parent mass.
But the force carpet convulsed
suddenly beneath him and he lost
his balance, falling over forward.
With the speed of striking snakes,
tendril after tendril lashed out of
the sea of pink substance, ensnar-
ing his arms and fastening him
against the surface.
A gigantic fist came crashing
against his temple and drew back
for another blow. He shook his
head to clear it, glanced at the
others. They were still compactly
assembled, faces tense with the
mental effort behind their assault.
rpHEN he noticed the halo of
*• green force material hovering
several feet above them. It wasn't
until he watched the yellow cir-
clet rise like a smoke ring from
the surface, however, that he real-
ized his own unconscious direc-
tion was behind the preparation to
send a stream of deadly red energy
pouring down on his attackers.
He halted the meeting of the
rings. Hulen and Everard were,
after all, only following their con-
47
victions. And even though they fronted him. It was as though
were fanatically resisting the threat somewhere deep within the alien
to their easy life, they weren't out form there was a pair of hidden
to kill him. eyes that held him in a speculative
He summoned the rings for- stare.
ward to a point halfway between But there was no violent dis-
himself and the others. Then he play of coalescing energy across
moved one decisively within the the thing's surface. And it wasn't
other. The coruscating flow of advancing. Instead, it drifted slow-
crimson energy gushed forth, cas- ly — curiously? — over to the pair
cading down to the surface. of rings Bruno had molded.
There was instant defeat in the The impulse to follow the others
terrified expressions of the others in flightabated and was quickly
as they retreated before the cata- replaced by the triumphant aware-
ract. Everard bolted first, scurry- ness that here, at last, was the op-
ing for the closest mound. portunity to reach his goal. Here,
The tendrils that had held finally, was a Sphere whose first
Bruno captive relaxed their grip reaction to the presence of a hu-
and slipped off. And, all around man wasn't a vengeful, impulsive
him, the other threatening pro- lance of lethal energy — a Sphere
jections of force stuff melted away whose inquisitiveness invited trial
as Hulen and the rest of the group of Bruno's plan to contact the
followed Everard in full flight. aliens.
Bruno swiftly regained his feet He felt both humble and proud
and, with a casual hand gesture, as he realized that within his reach
separated the rings. The energy was the goal of a lifetime — that
flow ceased and he turned to look now he might accomplish the pur-
for Sal. pose which had drawn him through
But suddenly she went streak- miles of forest and across stretches
ing past, frenziedly gliding away of plain to the City of Force.
on an wave of propelling
erratic And when he returned to his
force. She was headed for the clan,he might well be bringing the
same mound into which the others news that the period of Man's
had disappeared. humiliation upon his own world
Even before he turned to see was at an end.
what had frightened the girl, he The Sphere drew up before !

knew what he would find there. Bruno's hovering rings and re-
The huge Sphere, faint ripples mained mctionless for perhaps two
of quiescent energy coursing lan- minutes. Then, obviously in com-
guidly across its surface, con- pliance with the alien's direction,

48 GALAXY
 i the circlets came together sudden-
" ly and released a spurt
energy. They separated again and
drifted to a new position
Bruno.
A LTHOUGH there were no
•** discernible features on the
Sphere's surface, Bruno imagined
the creature had turned to "face"
him expectantly and observe what
he, in turn, would do with the pair
of force objects.
Heordered one halo inside the
other, producing another brief
gusher of crimson force.
The alien conjured up two new
rings from the glimmering mate-
rial of the surface and used them
to create a waterfall of
energy.
Bruno duplicated the feat with-
out hesitation.
And, as the Sphere drifted ani-
matedly around in an expression
of excitement, Bruno was even
more exultant the conviction
in
that at last his efforts were meet-
ing with full success. Now he
could almost sense the sudden re-
spect the alien creature must feel
toward him. He drew haughtily
erect with newfound self-assurance
and dignity.
But wait — there was more!
As the Sphere towered over
him, he was aware of a curious
sensation at the back of his eyes.
Or maybe it was deep within his
inner ears. The vague "feeling,"
f THE CITY OF FORCE
however, wasn't restricted to his
of fiery sight and hearing. It was some-
thing he could even taste and
near smell.
Frightened by the incomprehen-
sible assaulton all his senses at
the same time, he gave ground.
But a calm sensation of satisfac-
tion and reassurance swept over
him and he was at once certain
there was no immediate danger.
He closed his eyes and his per-
ception of things that had no ap-
parent existence became stronger,
more vivid. It was as though he
could still "see" the Sphere and as
though the alien had extended a
gossamer web of light and sound,
feeling, taste and smell toward him.
radiant In his hyperphysical perception,
Bruno eagerly watched himself
put forth a similar bridge of com-
municative thought toward the
Sphere - a web that might have
been woven of imperceptible force
threads.
There was an abrupt meeting
of thetwo projections and instant-
ly Bruno's mind seemed to be
caught up in a vortex of ideas and
symbols — words that weren't
words at all but more like fierce,
raw units of basic meaning, stripped
of all linguistic character.
It was ashe were encounter-
if
ing the symbols for the first time
and indelibly learning their mean-
ing simultaneously.
If he had been called upon to
translate the impressions, the
49
closest he could have come to
transposing them
language
into
would have been: "What the hell,
little vermin! What gives?"

T> UT there was no threat behind

*-* the communication, only
amused
curiosity.
excitement and intense

Bruno pressed his success and

%
quickly sent back picture images ***?
of men — proud men — and the
knowledge at their disposal. In one
great outburst of emotion, he pre-
sented the case of humanity sur-
rounded by its once-huge cities
and vast and intricate machines,
of Man the thinker, dealing in ab-
stract thought, of Man the ex-
perimenter, traveling in his land,
air and underwater contraptions.
He conjured up idea pictures
of people in their compact and ef-
ficient settlements, and he even
threw in the concept of destructive
and annoying insects and rodents
and small winged creatures that
always followed humans wherever
they went.
These, he proposed with great
dignity, were the pests — the real
pests. Not Man himself. -

In his next series of picture sym-

bols, he likened humanity to the
Spheres and offered the sugges-
tion that there should be intellec-
tual kinship between the two
species.
To demonstrate his point, he
transmitted the formula for the

50 GALAXY
 " :
.»f t

/THE CITY OF FORCE 51

 circumference of a circle, the rec- managed to seem like words: "Col-
ipe for making corn pone, the lector ring trick — each pest cab
number of feet in a mile, how to tap all-powerful force?"
find the height of a tree by triangu- Bruno responded with a con-
lation, the method of determining vincing surge of affirmation. No
the volume of a sphere. sense in letting the Sphere find
Bruno felt reasonably certain out the others were too content
that the last bit of knowledge he with their roles as parasites even
I had offered in evidence, hitting to think of experimenting with
close to home as it did, was bound the force substance.
to gain a special degree of respect "Do it again, the collector ring

from the alien. feat," the Sphere urged against a

And he knew he was succeed- background of persistent skepti-
ing! He was convinced the Sphere cism.
was tremendously impressed by Breaking contact with the crea-
his mental qualifications, by the in- ture,Bruno directed the formation
telligence of humanity as a whole. of another pair of halos from the
Moreover, he suspected that the sparkling carpet. He tinted them
alien must now be regretting its yellow and green and willed their
race's arrogance and disdain over mid-air meeting. He let the crim-
the centuries for the creatures they son force pour through momen-
had regarded only as vermin nuis- tarily, then separated the circlets.
ances. "Is enough," the alien conceded,
This last thought, too, he sent beginning to move about excitedly
over the web of communication — once more.
in the form of a mildly chiding
question. IX
The gossamer bridge of em-
pathy quivered with the surprised HPHERE was an abrupt, thun-
incredulity of the Sphere. And a -*-derous surge of thought from
swell of conceptual impulses the Sphere. Only this time it
flooded Bruno's senses and ar- wasn't directed at Bruno. Rather,
ranged themselves into a meaning- it seemed to spread out over the

ful sequence: "Is true, ugly little immediate area and toward the,
pest?" center of the City. He recognized!
Bruno began a discourse on the the purpose behind this flow ofj
cultural achievements of mankind. pure meaning that required noi
But the alien cut him short with medium of language for trans-/
another avalanche of picture im- mission. It was an anxious sum-'
ages and symbols that somehow moning of other nearby aliens, of

52 GA LAX Yi
those of authority who were else- to come through to Bruno not
where in the City. quite as crudely as before.
And the response was almost in- "This is the one, Excellency,"
stantaneous. Spheres came drifting 3.14. gM replied respectfully. "You
out of their mounds, discharging will observe it is not scurrying

paraphysical emanations of curi- away."

osity and surprise. "You probably tried to stomp it
Bruno glanced back at the struc- and only scored a near miss."
in which Sal and the others were "Oh, no, Excellency! It con-
hiding. Most of them were now verses rationally. It knows how to
staring puzzledly out at him and manipulate the collector rings."
the aliens. They couldn't know Evidently they weren't aware
what was going on, but it wouldn't that, by virtue of the psychic
be long before they would find out. bridge 3.14. gM had helped him
There were more than a score construct, Bruno was attuned to
him their exchange. Or, if they were,
of Spheres collected around
and the other alien now, all direct- they were ignoring it.
ing eager questions at the latter. "Are you sure you haven't taken
And as Bruno acquired more ex- on too much of a charge?" asked
perience with direct psychic com- the other tube-traveling Sphere.
munication, it was even easier for "Of course not,Eminence. Test
him to understand the exchange it for yourself and you'll see."
of meaning among the creatures. Bruno shifted uneasily before
Hegathered eventually from the creatures, realizing only now
their conversation that the alien the compromising position he was
with which he had established con- in. If anything should go wrong,
tact was 3.14. gM. he was virtually hemmed in by
A huge tube of green radiance an entire assembly of Spheres. But,
came hurtling over the nearby of course, nothing could go wrong.
force structures and arched down Still, Excellency and Eminence

to the surface. Two Spheres zipped were emitting disconcerting em-

down the shaft and drifted out its anations, as were all the other
end. They hurried over to 3.14. aliens in the circle. Nor was there
gM. .
anything markedly friendly about
Bruno only stood there, waiting their paraphysical background
patiently. The next move,, after hum.
sill, was up to them. "We shall see that it's properly
| "Is this the super-pest?" one of tested," Excellency promised dis-

tlSe newcomers asked skeptically, "But first, just in case it

dainfully.
t!he direct flow of meaning seeming should check out as intelligent,

HE CITY OF FORCE 53
we'llprepare an immediate exter- ing of the intellectual com-
mination and nip this thing before plexity of Man. Maybe he couid
it starts." discredit 4.13. gM's credibility. At
least he had the caustic skepticism
T1RUNO rocked back incredu- of Excellency on his side. And all
*-* lously. Extermination! What the while he could sense the
did the Sphere mean by that? alien's examining, questioning
"Even if it's not true that they're probe.
growing intelligent," Eminence After the pressure finally let up,
stated, "an extermination is long Bruno gingerly extended an im-
overdue. I'm glad this happened, if perceptible web of psychic percep-
that's what it takes to get some tion toward the others.
action." "I see nothing intelligent in this
Eminence went streaking back creature," Excellency told 3.14.
to the green tube. gM quite angrily.
Excellency drifted over toward "But that's impossible! It has
Bruno and 3.14. gM followed orderly thoughts! It can — Pest
close behind. thing!" 3.14. gM's attention was
do hope you're wrong," said
"I suddenly directed full on Bruno.
Excellency, badly upset. "We've "Form the rings! Collect the basic
been plagued enough by these force!Show Excellency!"
creatures, considering that they're There was a burst of peevish
mere vermin. Great Energy! Think amusement from Excellency, then
how awful it would be if it turned a facetious taunt: "Yes, creature,
out that they were smart enough form the rings and tap the energy!"
to manipulate our own basic Bruno inched away from the
forces!" pair of Spheres and glanced hope-
So that was it! Horrified, Bruno lessly around for a breach in the
shrank away from the pair of circle of aliens. A projection of
Spheres. He felt the vivid bridge force material rose obligingly from
of direct communication spread the surface and started to form a
out from Excellency to engulf him. hand to point the way. But he
Desperately, he fought to avoid stomped it down deliberately, de-
contact. He forced his attention termined not to betray his facility
away from the creatures surround- with the energy stuff.
ing him, away from the City itself. "Intelligent indeed!" said Excel-
And he dwelled, instead, on the lency scornfully, jeering at Bruno';
simple thought of an idle stroll action.
through the forest — a mental pre- "But," 3.14. gM began, "I tel
occupation that would betray noth- you it did — "

54 GALAXV
 "Enough! First X2.718 reports gliding forward, occasionally losing
being attacked by one of these control over his propelling wave,
creatures. And now this!" tripping and falling.
"But that proves it, doesn't it?" "They're coming from the
proves nothing! X2.718 has
"It south!" he shouted at the group.
already submitted himself for "Spread the warning!"
shock rebalancing. After this dem- Hulen and the others exchanged
onstration of hysteria, I suggest frightened glances, then turned and
you do the same." shot away in various directions.
Theconcept translated as "sug- Sal over and seized
glided
gest," but actually was much more Bruno's hand. "We've got to get
severe. Bruno was aware of the in- out of the City! They're coming
tense emanation of confused fear with the red stuff! It goes through
that poured from 3.14. gM. The everything — nothing can stop
Sphere lunged backward, bolted it!"

through the circle of aliens and People were pouring out of the
lumbered off between two mounds. mounds now, stumbling over them-
"After him!" Excellency ordered. selves in a frantic rush for the
Bruno barely escaped being outer force walls.
trampled in the rush of alien forms And yet Bruno resisted the girl's

past him. He conjured up an im- insistent tug, his eyes focused

mense wave of propelling force sickly on infinity.
and let himself be washed off "Iwas wrong, Sal," he said. "To
toward the mound where Sal was Hulen and Everard, I was nothing
hiding. more than a pest that they had to
Grim-faced, Hulen and Everard put up with. Oh, they figured all
came out to meet him. along they might have to get
tough to keep me from going
e ?T? X-TERM-E-NASHUN!" through with my plan. But when
"-^The frenzied cry came from they found out I had a special
the direction of the next mound. control over the force stuff, I was
The wave form dissipated be- no longer a simple inconvenience.
neath Bruno, lowering him back to I became an intolerable nuisance."
the surface, as he turned his atten- "There's no time to discuss it,
tion to the new distraction. Sal and Bruno! We've got to get out!"
the others came out of the mound With her words, several de-
arid stared off into the distance. cidedly feminine arms reached up
"Ex-term-e-nashun! Ex-term-e- from the radiant carpet to pull
nashun!" urgently on his robe.
I
A robed figure came into sight, "It would be the same thing if

HE CITY OF FORCE 55
we contacted the Spheres and
proved we're intelligent creatures,"
he continued soberly. "As long as
they think we're just dumb pests,
they won't mind us hanging
around, if we don't disturb them
too much. But if they learn we
have brains too, then they'd really
go to work on us — in the City, in
the forests, everywhere!"
He moved forward slowly, his
preoccupation creating a resistance
that made it harder for Sal to
manipulate her wave of propulsion.
"It would be the same thing,"
he concluded, "if we suddenly
found out mice were many times
more intelligent than we supposed.
We wouldn't greet them with open
arms. We'd be all the more de-
termined to stamp them out, be-
cause we'd know that smart mice
would be much more of a menace
than dumb ones."
DRUNO glanced back at the
-*-* then turned
line of Spheres,
and fled with the girl. He would
have liked to stay behind for a
while and see how they would
react to a few really searing blasts
of crimson energy from the double
rings.
But then he realized that the
pointwas not to let them know
what formidable foes the humans
would someday make — given
enough time to build their own
cities of force and learn more
about manipulating the energy.
56
Sal tightened her grip on his
hand. "Those rings — they're fol-
lowing us, Bruno!"
Helooked back. Only a few
feet behind and above them, the
yellow and green circlets that had
hovered over the heads of Hulen's
group came drifting along like
trained birds.
Bruno smiled appreciatively. It
was as though the rings, which were
actually reacting to his uncon-
were well ahead
scious directives,
of him in foreseeing the need he
would soon have for them.
In a moment, they were through
the glistening white outer wall.
Their smooth glide stopped as the
propelling wave form ran out of
the pink radiance and came to an
end.
He stood briefly at the foot of
the wall and watched the exodus
of humans, stumbling across the
rock-strewn plain and filtering into
the forest.
With an expression of patient
sympathy, Sal gazed after them.
"It'll be months before they can
get back into the City."
"If we can round them up," he
said, "I don't think they'll ever
want to go back."
She looked puzzedly at him.
He sent his two force rings
drifting ahead and positioned the
smaller within the larger. As the
cataract of raw red energy poured
forth, he changed it into pink tie
diance. Then he sent the ring
floating toward the forest, letting that provided the substance for its

them lay down a narrow carpet form.

of pastel Stardust. As they drifted along, the river
The bulky proportions of a river of light dissipated into nothingness
barge took shape before them, behind them, leaving once again
centered on the glistening strip, only the bare plain,
and several courtly hands stretched And, in their wake, scores of
out to help him and the girl aboard, hands reared above the surface of
Smoothly, the craft moved off, the pseudo-stream to wave fare-
maintaining a distance of several well,
feet behind the radiant waterfall — DANIEL F. GALOUYE

FORECAST
Putting the next issue together is an exciting guessing game, and as
you can probably sense in this one, we're having fun with it. We intend to
go right on seeing how many different combinations can be found. In this
issue, for instance, are one novella and two novelets that are regulation
length; they'd have fitted fine, no trouble at all, into the old Gaiaxy. But the
five short stories, without a skinny little vignette or squib with a title among
them? And the expanded editorial? Not a chance! They'd have exploded
the works!
Well, let's start the next issue with another challenge:
There's a big —
but big —
novella on hand by Frederik Pohl that
would have jammed all else against the walls like a circus giant in a subway
train at rush hour. Too huge to be a novella, not long enough to be a serial,
it frustratingly stood around in Pohl's workshop with absolutely no place to

go. Instead of asking you to be surprised how many stories are not being
written because they can't be housed in any ordinary magazine, we'd rather
have you rejoice with us that now we can invite the authors to go right ahead
and write them.
Pohl's burly —novella? Short novel? We'll call it novella, but you know
what we mean. In his novella, there are the most sinister aliens you've ever
met, sinister not because they are hostile, but because they are not! They
merely have to know all about us —whatever makes us go, whatever makes
us stop, but particularly — WHATEVER COUNTS.
And with that towering, powerful Pohl story to build an issue around,
the supporting cast of stories and features can't, we assure you, be anything
but interesting!

THE CITY OF FORCE 57

 security plan
By JOSEPH FARRELL

I had something better than

investing for the future . . .

the future investing in me!

Illustrated by WOOD

^"1% M"Y mother warned me," mind too much that I spend my

I
M' Marilyn said again,
"to think twice before
married a child prodigy. Look
spare time and money building a
time machine. Sometimes she even
believes thatit might work.

for somebody good and solid, she
said, like Dad — somebody who
will put something away for your
old age."
I tapped a transistor, put a
screwdriver across a pair of wires
and watched the spark. Marilyn
was just talking to pass the time.
She really loves me and doesn't
She kept talking. "I've been
thinking — we're past thirty now
and what do we have? A lease on
a restaurant where nobody eats,
and a time machine that doesn't
work." She sighed. "And a draw-
erful of pawn tickets we'll never
be able to redeem. My
silver, my
camera, my typewriter ..."

58 G ALAxi
 I added a growl to her sigh. "My time. Time became my am-
travel
microscope, my other equip- bition and was sure I saw a way
I
ment . .
." to build a time machine. But it
"Uncle Johnson will have them took years to work out the details,
for his old age," she said sadly. and nobody seemed interested in
"And we'll be lucky if we have my work, so I had to do it all
anything." myself. Somehow I stopped work-
I felt a pang of resentment. ing longenough and
to get a wife,
Uncle Johnson! It seemed that we had So we ran this little
to eat.
every time I acquired something, hash house and lived in the back
Uncle Johnson soon came into pos- room, and at least we got our food
session of it. We'd been kids to- wholesale.
gether, although he was quite a And Johnson's uncle, fell down
few years older, a hulking lout in the cellar stairs and split his skull
the sixth grade while I was in the open. So Johnson became the
first, and I graduated from gram- owner of a thriving business after
mar school a term ahead of him. giving his uncle a simple funeral,
Of course I went on to high school because he knew his uncle wouldn't
and had a college degree at fif- have wanted him to waste any
teen, being a prodigy. Johnson more money on that than he had
went to work in his uncle's pawn to.

shop, sweeping the floor and so "But we have a time machine,"

on, and that's when we started Marilyn said fondly. "That's some-
calling him Uncle. thing Johnson would give us a lot
This wasn't much of a job be- on — if it worked."
cause Johnson's uncle got him to "We almost have a time ma-
work for almost nothing by prom- chine," I said, looking around at
ising he would leave him the pawn my life's work. Our kitchen was
shop when he died. And it didn't the time machine, with a great
look as if much would come of winding of wires around it to
this, because the uncle was not create the field I had devised. The
very old and he was always tell- doors had been a problem that I
ing people a man couldn't afford solved by making them into
to die these days, what with the switches, so that when they were
prices undertakers were charging. closed the coils made the complete
circuit of the room.
O EFORE
-*-*
I had even started to "Almost," I repeated.
twenty years of work, I am through
"After
shave, I had a dozen papers
published in scientific journals, all except for a few small items—"
having to do with the nature of I looked at her pleadingly.

SIECURITY PLAN 59
60 GALAXY
 "It will run about twenty dol- and square, Ted, now haven't I?"
lars. Do you think—?" I looked over his shelves. Too
She didn't care much for the many of those dust-covered items
idea, but finally she slid off the were mine. And I didn't have to
wedding ring. be a telepath to know what he
redeem this first
"You'll thing, was thinking.
Ted? Before any of the rest of the "Maybe you'd like a paper with
stuff?" the stock market quotations,
I promised and took off at a Uncle? From about thirty years
dead run. from now, say?"
Johnson didn't have to inspect The smirk was completely gone
the ring; he'd seen it before, and now. "You get something like
he counted out twenty dollars. that, Ted, I'll pay you! Wouldn't

That was the only item he'd give help you out any, because you
me a decent price on. He knew have nothing to invest. Me now,
I'd be back for it. I could buy something that will

"How's the time machine com- keep me in my old age. I'd give
ing along, Ted?" He had a little you a — hundred bucks for some-
smirk, the way some people do thing like that."
when they hear I'm building a I laughed at him. A hundred
time machine. "Get in touch with dollars! Uncle always had his
Mars yet?" nerve. He was scowling when I
"I have no interest in Mars," I left, still trying to figure how he
told him. "I plan to make contact could get in on the gravy, because
with the future — about thirty outside of Marilyn he was the
years from now. And for your in- only person who ever thought I

formation, the time machine is might succeed.

practically finished. The first test

will be tonight." lyf ARILYN cooked dinner for

He wasn't smirking now, be- -L"-"-
us while I was putting the
cause he never forgot the way I final touches on the time machine.

passed him in school and he had "Tonight we celebrate," she

a good respect for my brain. He said. "Steak."

looked a little thoughtful — only It smelled wonderful, but the

a little, because thaf s all he was
capable of.
"You get to the future, Ted,
suppose you bring me a news-
paper. I'll make it worth your
while. I've always treated you fair
SECURITY PLAN
occasional whiff of ozone from my
equipment was more exciting. I'd
told Marilyn we had about an
hour before I could make the test,
but with my working faster than I
had expected and her getting be-
61
hind with the meal, she was just just where did he come from?"
putting the steaks on the table The gaily dressed youth got out
when I was done with the ma- of the chair and smiled at us. Each
chine. of his shoulders had padding the
"Oh, but let's eat first, Ted!" size of a football. His coat tapered

she said. from four feet wide at the shoul-

"I couldn't eat! After so much ders to a tightly bound waist, the
work—" I stared in fascination at lapels from a foot at the top to

the master switch — the door. zero. The trousers widened out to

"This is it, Marilyn! What I've wide stiff hoops that ended six
been working toward all these inches above his shoes. And the
years!" shoes! But at least they weren't

She saw the way I felt and may- really alive, as I had thought at
first.
be she was a little excited her-
self. "How is it," asked Marilyn,
"Go ahead, Ted," she told me. "that a cool cat from the future
I closed the door. comes to visit us in a time ma-
There was more ozone and a chine? I would expect a more
blurring in the middle of the room. scholarly type."
We stepped away from the thick- "Not so, doll-o. The angleheads
est of the blurring,where some- don't reach the real science. The
thing seemed to be gathering sub- scientist pros believe that all

stance. knowledge is known. They delve

The something, we soon saw, not into the sub-zero regions of
was a man sitting in a chair sur- thought. That is done by us
rounded by strange apparatus, amateurs."
most of which I couldn't guess the
purpose of. It was a very young
man, when I could see him bet-
HE did a short bit of synco-
pated tap and introduced
ter, probably nineteen, wearing himself. "I am Solid Chuck Rich-
bright clothes in what I figured ards, ambassador to the past, cour-

must be the style of 1989. tesy of the Friday Night Bull

"Man-o!" he said. "This time Session and Experimentation So-
machine is low Fahrenheit, o-dad- ciety."

dy! Right to the bottom! Ifs the "Are they you?" I asked.
all like

deepest!" "No, o-daddy-man. Some are

I blinked. "Parlez vous Fran- deep, some are high on the scale,
cais?" but all of them reach together on
Marilyn said, "I think he means one thing — they all feel that the
he likes it. But who is he and pro-scientists have grown angular

62 GALAXY
and lost the sense of wonder. So work, and I started to argue with
we gather together on Friday him about it. But his attention
nights to work on the off-beat side wasn't on the conversation. He was
of science. We read your books — sniffing thoughtfully, the thing he'd
if you are Ted Langer— ?" called sense of wonder shining in
admitted it.
I his eyes. He was looking at the
Hedanced a rhythmic circle steaks Marilyn had set on the
around me, staring in what was table.
evidently adoration, and kept mur- "Reach that!" he said, awed.
muring, "Reach that deep man! "Gen-you-wine solid flesh! Man-o!
Ted Langer — the father of time I haven't seen a steak like that
travel! O-man-o! Deep! Real in all my off-beat life!"
deep!" So naturally we invited him to
"Now see here," I finally broke sit down at the table and he
in. "Don't they talk English where didn't have to be asked more than
you come from? And just how do once. It seemed that food was
you come to be here anyway? I pretty expensive in 1991, which
built a time machine to travel into is the year he came from, and

the future, and instead I get you what there was of it mostly came
telling me how deep I am. Are you from factories where they shov-
here or am I there?" eled soy beans and yeast into a
"You are here, o-daddy-boy, machine and it came out meat at
and I also am here. But, to explain the other end, if you didn't make
this, I may have to use some too much fuss about what you
angle talk, which is what you mean called meat. But with so much of
by English. We
read your books — the good farm land ruined by
which are collectors' items, by the atomic dust, and so much more
way — and we decided you were turned into building lots on ac-
way under the zero mark, espe- count of the growing population,
cially when we saw that the angle- it was the best they could do.

heads wouldn't touch any of your

ideas. So we got together and WHEN we heard this, we
made our time machine. But I pushed the second steak in
am sad to report, doctor-o, that front of him and he showed he
your theory was a bit less than two- was a growing boy by finishing
hundred-per-cent correct. There every scrap, along with a double
were a few errors, which we found." order of French frieds and half a
It was something of a shock to dozen ears of corn on the cob. But
hear this future rock-and-roller tell he had to give up after two pieces
me there were mistakes in my of pie.

SECURITY PLAN 63

He satback in the chair, patted
his stomach and looked as if he
had just won the Irish sweepstakes.
He looked at the big refrigerator.
When Marilyn opened it to put
things away, his eyes
popped out at the sight of
meat stored there.
"Man-o!" he said. "You must be
rich!"
Marilyn laughed. "No, not rich
—far from it. We operate a res-
taurant and that's our stock you
see."
"Oh, doll-o! I should not have
eaten so much. What do you
charge for a meal like that?"
"We would get three and a half
for each order," I said, diplomati-
cally not mentioning all his side or-
ders, "although we don't get much
carriage trade here. But don't let
it worry you. Nothing's too good
for a guest from the future."
"Three and a half?" He looked
amazed. "Why, such a feed would
bring twenty-five or thirty where
I come from — if you could find
it! Let me pay, o-daddy-friend, at
least your price."
And he pulled out some bills. I
started to push them back, for of
course I wasn't going to spoil this
great moment in my
life by ask-
ing a traveler from the future to
pay for a meal.
But then I saw what he was
ing to give me.
I picked up the bills and stared.
Marilyn's head was over my shoul-
64
"
der and she was staring just as
hard. She took one out of my hand.
"It's not real," she said. "There's
not that much money in the
world."
almost She had the
five. I had the ones.
the The five-thousand and the one-
thousand-dollar bills, that is. I
looked up at Solid Chuck Rich-
ards.
"When you said that meal would
cost twenty-five or thirty, did you
mean twenty-five or thirty thou-
sand?"
"You reach me, man. Inflation,
you know. It's terrible. I remem-
ber when a gee would keep the
beat rocking in a juke palace for
an hour. Now you pay half a gee
a number. It's terrible."
A FTER we explained to him
** that the inflationwas even
worse than that, he decided it was
something more than terrible. It
seems he hadn't paid much atten-
tion to money in his younger days,
though he did recall now that when
he was very small he'd been able
to get a good nickel candy bar for
twenty dollars, but he hadn't seen
anything smaller than a hundred
in some time now.
"There should be a law against
this sort of thing," he said indig-
nantly. "It's enough to turn a man
try- into an anglehead, the way they
keep pushing up the price of
fumes. And what they charge for
Bulgy Sanders records —
GALAXY
r He picked up the bills and
looked at them.
"But I think maybe we can find
a way to profit on this, daddy-boy!
I have a deep thought—we mem-
bers of the Friday Night Bull
Session and Experimentation So-
ciety will come to your restaurant
and pay you five gees for a steak
dinner, which is a fine price for
you but very little for us. In that
way, we will eat good food and
you will gather a good bundle of
the stuff of life."
There was a thudding noise at
the window. I looked over quick.
Somebody was hanging on outside,
off balance, as if he had been
standing on a ladder outside and
had fallen against the window.
I ran for the door, forgetting
was a switch. But Solid
Richards realized it. He
back into his chair and called,
"Reach you later, o-daddy!" He
disappeared as I pulled the door
open.
The sudden flash as the time
machine stopped operating re-
minded me about those switches
on the door, but it was too late
now. I ran out and around the
side just in time to see a figure
disappearing up the alley. Sure
enough, there was a ladder against
the window.
I didn't bother chasing the man
very far, because, after a fast look
at him, I had a pretty good idea
who it was. I'd speak to him later.
\
S E C U R I T Y\ P L A N
It/T
-*•"-•
ARILYN and I sat around
looking at the big bills. They
were the size of present-day cur-
rency, and were beautifully made,
and would have passed easily ex-
cept for a few things. Such as that
"Series 1988" inscribed alongside
the signature of Irving P. Wal-
court, Secretary of the Treasury.
And the Treasurer of the United
States in 1988 would be Kuru
Hamonoto. From the State of
Hawaii, I wondered, or—?
"They're no use to us at all,"
said Marilyn. "Unless we hold
them until 1988. I was talking
about security for our old age. Do
you suppose—?"
"You forget," I said, "that steak
will run you twenty-five or thirty
it thousand in 1988. This is going to
Chuck be a great disappointment to the
dived members of the Friday Night Bull
Session and Experimentation So-
ciety, but I fear we must explain
to Solid Chuck Richards that we
just cannot afford to do much
business of this type."
I pushed aside the money and
began thinking about some of the
things the youth from 1991 had
told me. There were holes in my
theories— a lot of holes. True, I had
succeeded in building a time ma-
chine, but I could never go any-
place in it. Because time travel
was possible only by traveling from
one time machine to another. The
amateurs of 1991, knowing from
my books (I must remember to
65
 write

to
them) that
time machine in 1959, were able
make contact.
Richards was selected by
I had

Solid
built

Chuck
from
lot
a available in 1991. Marilyn and I
had gone on a second honeymoon
— on the first commercial passen-
ger liner to Mars.
1
several volunteers to try the ma- "And so," I told her, "you don't
chine. I met the other members have to worry about security in
of the Society later and learned your old age. Tickets to Mars i
that and a number of other things must cost a few trillion dollars.
from them. We won't be poor."
The reason Solid Chuck came Marilyn was still looking at the
back instead of my
going forward currency of the future.
made solid sense. I could see it "We will be," she said, "if we
now. My
time machine had never keep selling steak for the price
existed in 1991. His had existed of soy-bean hamburger. By the
in 1959, or at least its parts had. way, Ted, I wonder who that was
I could overcome that problem — at the window?"
if I had the full power of the Sun The answer came to me then. I
for severalminutes to work with, put the bills into my pocket and
and a way to handle it. Then I kissed her.
could change things so that my "We will not have to eat soy-
time machine would have existed bean hamburger, o-doll. And I
in the future . . . will take you to Mars for your
Even the verb tenses were go- second honeymoon — as soon as
ing wrong on me. they start passenger service. I am
These amateur experimenters, going out to make a down pay-
it seemed, were considered a bit ment on the tickets right now."
on the crackpot side, taking such
pseudo-science as mine seriously. TNCLE Johnson took the glass
Not knowing enough science to **' from his eye. He
looked very
realize that the ideas I wrote about tense, like a fisherman with a prize
were impossible, as any profes- catch on a very thin line.
sional scientist would have, they "It's good," he said, and his
followed them through. They tried voice trembled a little. "I— suppose
to get in touch with me in their your time machine worked?"
time, but I wasn't available, which "Surprised, are you, Uncle?"
saved me another paradox. Sup- "Yes, yes. But I see your situ-
pose I had joined the Society and ation, Ted. You, of course, can't af-
come back as a volunteer? ford to hold these for thirty years.
But it was encouraging to know Now - ah - I can. And Fll be
the reason I was going to be un- glad to help you out by,-iaking

66 GALAXY
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i ECURITY PLAN 67
them off your hands. Naturally I
have to hold them a long time,
so — lefs say twenty dollars a
thousand?"
"Lefs not say that." I took the
all the other articles, I got to feel-
ing mellow and even a bit grateful.
He'd started me in business, so to
speak. I couldn't stick him with
all those millions that would just

bill from his hand. "I figure fifty
is a fair price. There'll be lots
more, Uncle. And, as you say, I
am always broke and cannot af-
ford to put them away for my
old age. But running the time ma-
chine is expensive and I can't af-
about buy him a helicab ride to
the poorhouse in 1988.
So when Marilyn and I got just
as deep in the black, because the
Society members gave us some
books on stock-market statistics,
I started giving Uncle tips every

ford to take less than fifty." now and then. Not free, of course
He looked as if he were going — I asked for half and we settled
to snatch the bill right out of my on seventy-thirty. With that plus
hand, he was so eager. the ones I bought, both for now
"All right, Ted, I realize there and the long pull, I guess we're
are expenses. Thirty-five." the only people living today who
Wecompromised on forty. can be sure of having a second
"But I want a promise," he said honeymoon on Mars, although
emphatically. "I'm to be the only Solid Chuck Richards tells me he
one you sell these bills to!" hears Mars is overrated, there not
"You reach me, o-uncle." I being a juke on the whole planet,
handed him the bills. "You're deep, and even if there were you couldn't
man. Real deep!" jump to any decent kind of beat
Real deep in the hole, that is— in that low gravity.
he mortgaged his house and his wouldn't say so to Solid Chuck
I

regular inventory to buy up all the Richards, but that sounds like ab-
money I began taking in. Once solute zero to me.
we redeemed the wedding ring and — JOSEPH FARRELL

| FOR 2500 YEARS

| Man has sought the state of "CLEAR"

| This state is now attainable for the first time in Man's History.
| The goal of all Mystic and Occult Science has been attained.
§ It can be done for you.
I Write H A S I

1812 19th Street, N.W. Washington 9, D.C.

|

GALA xf
68
4
 THE ATLANTIC
MISSILE RANGE
the fall of 1944, a commis-
IN sion of U. S. Army officers,
from the Office of the Chief
of Ordnance and from the Chief
VfJHftltVS of Engineers, received orders to

Simvmw look for an area which was suit-

able for the test firing of large mis-
siles.

The why this happened

reason
in the fall of1944 is simple. Dur-
ing the middle of June of that
year, the German V-l buzz bombs
had been streaking across the
FOR YOUR INFORMATION 69
Fig. 1: Sketch map of Atlantic Missile Range. Firing range goes all the way to Ascension
Island, 5,000 miles from Florida

Channel from France to England. area became established and later

Early in September, the first V-2
rockets followed. The missile age
was on. The United States needed
a missile proving ground, but no
longer for a war that happened to'
be still going on.
famous as the White Sands Prov-
ing Ground. It begins at the Texas-
New Mexico state line to the
north of El Paso and runs due
north from there for 125 miles.
Its greatest width, from Alamagor-

The commission studied maps, do on to the north, is 41 miles.

read annual weather summaries "An immense area for the ballis-

and then made a few trips. As the tics of the future has been staked
outcome of their studies and in- out," said the editor of a New
spection they recommended
trips, Mexico newspaper as soon as the
an area north of El Paso, Texas. facts could be released.
The Secretary of Defense ap-
proved the choice on February 20, "C1 IRST rocket to be fired from
1945—the war in Europe had only -*•
the new proving ground was
some weeks yet to run — and the a WAC-Corporal, on September

All Photographs: COURTESY U.S. AIR FORCE

70 GALAXY
 On April 16, 1946, the first V-2

rocket was fired. It misbehaved

and its flight had to be terminated
by radio command. The next V-2
was ready on May 10 and rose, as
programmed, to about 70 miles,
hitting the desert 31 miles to the
north of the firing site.

Counting from the date of the

Secretary's approval, the White
Sands Proving Ground was one
year, two months and three weeks
old. And it was too small!
The Germans had fired their
V-2s for range, reaching between
190 and 200 miles; the lower
value being the operational aver-
age, the upper value the opera-
tional record. At White Sands, you
could V-2 rockets for altitude,
fire

but not for range. It took a few

months until the facts of life were
courageously faced, but in October
1946, another committee was es-
tablished. It was to look for a long-
range proving ground.
know whether some of
I don't
Fig. 2: First racket fired from Cape Canaveral,
Bumper No. on July 24, 1950
the members of the new commis-
8,
sion had also been members of the
first commission, but the new com-

26 of the same year. It went to a mission surely could read the re-
height of 43 miles in a vertical port made by the first and retrace
shot. its reasoning. The reasoning then
Anybody who knew some- had been that the missile should
thing about ballistics could calcu- be recovered for inspection and
late in his head that that meant a study after impact. Logically,
maximum range of about 85 miles then, the impact areahad to be a
— if the WAC-Corporal had been desert. Inhabited land was out
a missile and not a research rocket, and a swamp would not do. And
that is. naturally the impact area had to
FOR YOUR I NFORMATION 71
 Fig. 3: Redstone rockets ready for shipment to Cape Canaveral

be in the continental United But what about in between? In

States, not some other country. between, there should be a place,
Fortunately, we don't have or places, where somebody had the
deserts much larger than the one necessary instruments to track the
that was picked. For longer ranges flight of the missiles. The Pacific
than 200 miles — and those Ger- coastline has hardly any nearby
man engineers cheerfully wrote islands. In the northern portion of

equations proving a range of at the Atlantic shore, you could, on

least 600 miles with a single stage a map, draw a flight path which
and any range at all with three first skirted Long Island for its

stages — only the ocean would do.
Now, of course, we do have two
long shorelines and the firing
could be just about wherever
was convenient. Impact would
whole length and continued over
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
site But these are waters which are
it not only well traveled but virtual-
ly congested.

have to be in the ocean in a sec- A place in the southern portion

tor where ships did not normally of the Atlantic shore remained the
sail. These two points were easy. only choice. There was an island
72 GALAXY
 Fig. 4: Snark intercontinental cruising missile taking off from extreme corner of Cape

chain that could be used, the Ba- this: Between the mainland and
hamas. Beyond that island chain the land farther to the east, you
there was Puerto Rico. The Baha- firsthave the Indian River. Then
mas are British, but maybe we comes Merritt Island. Then the
could come to terms with the Brit- Banana River, and then the next
ish government. Now, supposing strip of land which terminates to
the Bahamas could be used for the east in a sandy cape: Cape
tracking stations, what should one Canaveral.
pick for the launching area? The Cape is sandy. So is Mer-
ritt Island and so is the mainland.

HP HE commission looked at a Where the land is not cultivated,

*- map There was one
of Florida. you have mostly scrubby under-
place that jutted out into the growth, interspersed with palmet-
ocean; on the map, measured a
it tos; as soon as you cross the Indian
little over 16 miles from the main- River, these begin to look under-
land. The geographical situation is nourished. In short, the Cape does
FOR YOUR INFORMATION 73
 Fig. 5: (Left) Jupiter-C, carrying Explorer
satellite in its nose, taking off

Fig. 6: (Above) Atlas missile taking off, Pad

13, Atlantic Missile Range
74 GALAXY
not look "tropical." The tempera- the steps that had to be taken.
ture is tropical,however — at least The next was to start negotia-
in August, where it is rarely less tions with Great Britain about the
than 95 degrees during the day establishment of tracking stations
with the humidity being about the on the Bahamas. These negotia-
same figure. tions were actually concluded in

people that, when

It is typical of
February, 1949, but at that mo-
asked about animal life in their ment they were still useless. First
area, they mention the unpleasant Congress had to pass legislation
types first. The answer I got was: which made the long-range missile-
"Well, we have coral snakes, and proving ground possible at all. Con-
gress, naturally, would not pass
cottonmouth and plenty of rattle-
snakes. And, of course, alligators."
any legislation involving a foreign
I am sure that other things must
power if it was not certain that said
foreign power would play along.
live there too, but they were not
mentioned in conversation. Then things happened with rea-
As for signs of civilized activity, sonable speed. Congress passed
Cape Canaveral had, for years, a the necessary legislation which
lighthouse. The lighthouse is still President Truman signed on May
there among the missile pads, but 11, 1949. On October 1st of the
for a long time it was all by itself. same year, the proving ground was
At some time, the Navy had activated. The signing of the agree-

picked out a few square miles of ment with Great Britain was, for
land and designated it the Banana reasonsunknown to me, delayed

River Naval Air Station. until July 21, 1950.

On June 20, 1947, the commis-
sion recommended Cape Cana- TT was high time that those sig-
veral as the most logical available
* natures were put on paper —
long-range missile-launching site Cape Canaveral fired its first

and suggested the Naval Air Sta- rocket only three days later! It

tion as the headquarters area. This was a Bumper rocket, consisting of

recommendation was approved a V-2 as first stage and a WAC-
three weeks later, and with that Corporal as the second stage.
the wheels could be set in motion. Three days later, another Bumper
Quite a large number of wheels was fired.
were involved. First the area had Well, Cape Canaveral may have
to be transferred from the Navy been in legal existence and also
to the Air Force. I'm not sure activated as a military establish-
that thiswas a simple step, but it ment but one could not say that
certainly was the simplest of all it was "ready." Robert P. Havi-

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 75

 land, who was in charge of these
two Bumper shots, reminisced
later that at White Sands there
had been ten feet of concrete be-
tween him and the missile; at the
Cape, it was a pine board one inch
thick! He lacked confidence in
the strength of a pine wall. Luck-
ily, that strength did not have to
stand a test
All this has changed since then.
I remember the blockhouse
near one of the Atlas launching
pads. Its shape is best described
as that of the carapace of a marine
turtle. I don't know its size in feet,
yards or meters. But it is large. As
for position, imagine that the giant
marine turtle points to the launch-
ing pad with its tail. Where the
hole for the neck would be in the
carapace is where you enter. There
is a steel door that looks like the
door to a bank vault. Everybody,
no matter what secrecy may pre-
vail in other matters, will assure
you that the people in the block-
house might be trapped for a while
if a missile fell on top of it, but

that they would be safe.

The arrangement of the various
launching pads follows a simple
plan. The extreme corner of the
Cape is reserved for the Snark
and the Bomarc. As you look
north (more or less) from that cor-
ner, you have four launching pads
for the Atlas. Beyond that are the

Fig. 7: Thor-Able rocket taking off from

Pad 17B
76 GALAXY
launching pads for the Titan. Be- called Sea Missile Motel, Van-
yond that there is room for things guard Motel, Satellite Motel and
still to come. Starlite Motel, all efficiently air-

Look the other way (more or conditioned, all temporarily filled

less southwest) and you first have with service brass and missile men
the area for the Navaho. Then and all also inhabited by tourists

comes the launching pad for the who stare at the generals and the
Vanguard, then three pads for the missile men.
Thor (one of them for lunar For reasons which are probably
probes), then the Army's launch- historical, the Starlite is consid-
ing pads for Jupiter, Redstone and ered the center. Convair Astro-
satellite-throwing Jupiter-C rock- nautics has its office there. There
ets, and finally the "ship's motion is also a press room with Western

simulator" for the Polaris rocket. Union in evidence — if only dur-

Then comes a canal for a harbor ing daylight hours. (What do you
which is called the turn-around do when they fire at night? But
basin. let's not go into the problems of
Farther inland are three build- the press.)
ings I recall for personal reasons. I derived a small amount of
Let me mention the cafeteria private amusement from the fact
first, because my personal reason that the manager of the Starlite

is so simple: it is beautifully air- bears the name of Landwirth. This

conditioned, which, after riding German word has two meanings;
around in 95-degree heat, is a the one that flashed into my mind
major point. The second building is meaning of "Country Inn
its

I remember especially is Central Keeper." Country? Well, yes, you

Control, about which more later. can say so, since it isn't a city.
And the third is officially called But inn? With neon signs, hot and
Telemetry 3. It is fairly in the cold water, long lines of Cadillacs
center of the whole complex. I and air-conditioning?
haven't been inside, but for three Just to finish up the geography:
nights in a span of five days I was to the south of the civilian area
on top of it, seeing (in that order) is Patrick Air Force Base. There
a Jupiter-C rocket, carrying Ex- doesn't seem to be much secret
plorer V, a Jupiter missile and a there. Airplane hangars, an Air
three-engine Atlas fired. Force Weather Station and office
buildings. And — oh, yes, an offi-
room named
TOyou have the south of the Cape area,
twelve miles of civil-
cers' club with a
which stands for Thank
T.G.I.F.,
ian territory. It is full of motels, God It's Friday. Unimaginative
FOR YOUR I NFORMATION 77
outsiders might think it is just a next one, Mayaguana, is 544 miles
bar. away. Station No. 7 (Patrick is
Having made clear, I hope, that counted as Station No. 1) is on
Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Grand Turk Island, 660 miles
Canaveral are not the same thing away. Station No. 8 is on a big-
(everybody seems to make that ger island, in the territory of the
mistake; I myself did before I got Dominican Republic. And Station
there), it remains to give Cape No. 9 is on the west coast of Puer-
Canaveral's official name. For to Rica It is named Mayaguez
years it was known as A.F.M.T.C. Air Force Base, after a city on
or Air Force Missile Test Cen- Puerto Rico which is about 30
ter.But it is not all Air Force as miles from the tracking station.
far as the missile pads are con-
cerned. The Navy is there and so
is the Army. More recently the
AT first, this thousand-mile
range from Florida to Puerto
N.A.C.A. (National Advisory Com- Rico was thought to be long
mittee of Aeronautics) has moved enough. Then "down range" had
in with a number of high-altitude to be extended to the tiny island
research rockets, and when the of Santa Lucia, all of 27 miles
new National Space Agency gets long and 14 miles wide. This made
going, they'll no doubt send a rep- "down range" 1400 miles long.
resentative to see General Yates, The next logical checkpoint would
asking for a corner of the Cape to have been the extreme eastern
put up their things. tip of South America. But it was
So the new official name is At- not necessary to go to the main-
lantic Missile Range. land; there was another small
Now we come to what is called island available which one Count
"down range," those island sta- de Noronha had discovered in
tions which are the real reason 1503. Logically, the island is

why Cape Canaveral became the named Fernando de Noronha.

Atlantic Missile Range. This one is really small, like
The first of the down-range sta- the tropical isles of the story books.
tions is still in Florida, near Palm It is 5Vfe miles long by of a %
Beach. Its name is Jupiter Inlet. mile wide. The Brazilian govern-
The first island tracking station ment maintains a military base
is on Grand Bahama Island, 152 there,manned by 150 soldiers.
miles away. The next one is on The non-military population is

Eleuthera, 290 miles from the about 650. an ichthyophagous

It is
Cape. Then comes the one on San — all right: "fish-eating" — com-
Salvador, 414 miles away. The munity and probably not by
78 GALAXY
choice. The distance from the tailed; it is just a testing labora-

Cape to Fernando de Noronha is tory. They don't "invent" missiles

3,585 miles and the island is some at the Cape. They don't even build
distance to one side of the missile missiles. All they do is test them.

flight path. This does not harm Testing means to find out (A)
the tracking; after all, these mis- whether something goes wrong
siles do not skim the surface of the and (B) what did go wrong if
ocean. (Having written this, I feel something did. Since testing means

a premonition that some day some- finding out, you have the para-
body will build one that does.) dox that what looks like a spec-
The current last link in the tacular failure can be rather suc-
chain, or Station No. 12, is Ascen- cessful as a test.

sion Island in the middle of the

South Atlantic, about four times THE example
favorite
around the Cape the
told
as large as Fernando de Noronha is failure

in area. It is 4400 miles from the of the first Atlas. The rocket
Cape. Beyond it is mostly open started gyrating, tumbling and in

sea, but the simple facts of physics general misbehaving. Finally it

are that ifyou shoot a rocket much had to be deliberately destroyed

faster than you need for this in midair. But when all the test
range, it go into orbit.
will results were in, it was discovered

Now a 2000-mile gap

there is that these amounted to about 95
between Puerto Rico and Fernan- per cent of what the engineers
do de Noronha, and another 800- had wanted to find out. The press
mile gap between the latter and labeled it a failure, plain and
Ascension.To fill these gaps, there simple, and one newspaper even
are sea-going tracking stations, wrote an editorial that the whole
trim ships full of instrumentation. program ought to be scrapped
They are of two types and their since the missile was so obviously
total number was thirteen in Sep- unworkable. Now if that rocket
tember 1958. had made a flight which the spec-
It seems hard for the outsid- tators had thought perfect, it would
er to grasp that all this, the area have been only five per cent bet-
of the Cape with and
its buildings ter than the "failure" that actually
equipment worth $400,000,000, its happened.
19,000 people and all the down- That does not apply to every
range stations over thousands of shot that goes wrong. Testing is

miles, should just be considered a one thing, but if you shoot for a
laboratory. As a matter of fact, the mission, the story is different. A
term should be even more cur- lunar probe that does not go to

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 79

the Moon, a Jupiter-C that does
not throw its top stage into an
orbit, these are near-failures. I use
this term because something
learned even in such a case. But
a rocket is fired just for testing,
there cannot be a failure.
Now what happens to a missile
when it gets to the Cape?
It arrives from the manufac-
turer often by air lift, some, such
as the Atlas, by trailer truck. The
first job is what is called a han-
gar check. Was anything damaged
in transit? Do all the electrical
presence was not authorized, but
the engineers were in no mood for
legal points — they rarely are —
is and called a hold until somebody
if removed the visitor.
In time, everybody is satisfied
that things should go well. The
event itself is called a "shoot" —
except by the people who do it
They prefer the term "launch,"
which inevitably gave rise to the
telephone reply: "No, you can't
talk to Dr. Soandso now; he's out
to launch."
The time for the launch is set,

connections work? Did sand or let's say, at 2300, or 11 p.m. EST.

dust get into the missile? After the Incidentally, depends on the
it

hangar check is completed, the test phase a missile is in whether

missile goes to its launching pad. the launch is during the day or
In its Gantry crane, the check- during the night. When the missile
ing begins all over. This time is new, visual observation is ob-
other things are added. More in- viously important, hence firing
strumentation, for instance. In gen- takes place in daylight. Later on,
eral, all the missiles are weighed when all the information still to

down with instrumentation which be gathered has to come from the

nobody in his right mind would instruments, the firing might just
put into the finished product. as well be scheduled after sunset,
They are testing, remember, not when it is cooler.
firing rockets for amusement.
A test fueling is part of the test- SINCE this is testing, one has
ing procedure on the pad, during to count on something going
a dress rehearsal count-down. Such wrong, in which case the missile
a count-down will be interrupted must not be permitted to fall
for all kinds of reasons. The where it could do harm. To insure
strangest such "hold" on record safety for outsiders, linesmust be
occurred when the contractor's established on a map. In the cen-
testing crew suddenly discovered ter is the line which indicates the
an alligator in their block house. desired flight path. At some dis-
One of the officers tried to console tance to the right and left of this
them by saying that the alligator's line, two lines are drawn which

80 GALAXY
are called the impact lines. If the The Range Safety Officer's
missile has to fall, it must fall in- means of interfering consist of
side these impact lines. But how? two toggle switches. One is labeled
Let us assume that missile runs "fuel cut-off," and when thrown,
off course in the direltion of one the result is what the label says.
of the impact lines. Then it has The other switch is labeled "de-
to be destroyed and its pieces struct" and it also does what the
must still fall inside the impact label says. They must be used in

lines.Naturally there is a point succession —

the "destruct" switch
which marks the last possible mo- will do absolutely nothing if the

ment for destruction. All these cut-off switch has not been used.

points form the two "destruct" So time has been set for 2300.

lines inside the impact lines. If a At T-150 (minutes), all down-

missile crosses a "destruct" line,
must be destroyed.
The width of the band between
the destruct lines and the bands
between destruct and impact lines
vary for every type of missile;
of course, no actual figures are
it range stations are ready. All radars
are in fine tune and no tracking
camera is jammed. The devout
hope is that they'll stay that way
and at T — 150 two airplanes take
off. One is radar-equipped and
sees to it that there are no ships

handed out. The Range Safety Of- between the impact lines. The
ficer in the Central Control build- other monitors all the radio fre-

ing cannot see anything directly, quencies to be used to see that

just like the people in the block-
there is no interference.

house. They don't look through The damnedest things can hap-
windows — they look at TV pen. Once a radio-equipped laun-
screens. And the Range Safety Of- dry delivery van in a town many
has another device to aid him,
ficer hundreds of miles away caused
the impact computer. interference!

The impact computer gets its Another safety measure is to

information from the radars and divert scheduled airliners. If
all

from instruments in the rocket and no shoot is planned, the New York
goes through a continuous process to Miami non-stop flight goes

of calculation. The results of its straight through the missile track,

labor appear on a map with two though probably at a different alti-
pointers. One pointer shows where tude.
the missile is at this instant. The
other pointer shows where
hit the water if its
it would
propulsion
ATanT-150,
ounce
there is

of fuel in the mis-

still not

failed at that instant. sile, unless it is a solid-fuel job.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 81

Fueling comes last, after the prob- "T minus 15."
ability that anything else may go To anybody who did not know
wrong has dwindled to virtually what was going on and who looked
nothing. Visitors usually assemble at the rocket through binoculars,
at T-90 in the office building at it must have seemed as if some-

Patrick Air Force Base and are thing had gone badly wrong. The
brought to the Cape by Air Force rocket just spouted white vapor,
bus. The bus stops at Telemetry top and bottom. The white vapor
No. 3. (Usually a coffee and sand- — actually atmospheric moisture
wich wagon arrives at the same condensing because of the cold
time.) When the visitors emerge oxygen gas that came from the
from their bus, a message waits for tank vents — looked luminous and
them. It says "T-50 and count- quite dense under the floodlight
ing." Fifty minutes to go and no And the flashing red warning light
problems. made it appear as if a flame were
By the time everybody is on developing any moment.
top of the building, where there "T minus 8."
are a dozen phone booths for the "She's still loxing," said some-
use of the press, and by the time body who had just looked through
the newsmen have set up their the viewfinder of a powerful tele-
cameras, a loudspeaker has been photo camera. That strange term
connected. "T minus 25 and count- is derived from the unpretty ab-
ing," it will say suddenly. On the breviation for liquid oxygen: lox.
evening I have
mind, the sky
in "T minus 2."
was clear, with
the stars out.
all The white vapor thinned. The
Fairly high up, there was a nearly valves must have been closed, or
full Moon, and lower in the sky at least some of them.
a red star was conspicuous: Mars. "T minus 45 seconds."
Things looked as if they had been Close now, last and probably un-
arranged by Chesley Bonestell. necessary camera adjustments.
Near the missile being made "T minus 15," and then, ap-
ready, a bright red light kept flash- parently without pause, "7 . . .

ing. It is the customary signal that 6... 5... 4... 3..."

a missile is being readied. Ex- At "T minus 3," the two small
pressed in words, it just means vernier rocket began
engines
"Stay Away." As the loudspeaker spouting their thin Im-
flames.
said "T minus 20," a battery of mediately afterward, the whole
floodlights was switched on. The launching pad lit up as if from an
big rocket — it was an Atlas — was explosion: All three major engines
clearly visible. spouted fire. The rocket lifted.

82 GALAXY
After two seconds or so, it had The rocket now seemed to be
lifted itself out of the area illu- overhead and the flames were
minated by the floodlights. The foreshortened. They changed into
rocket became invisible; only the a most brilliant star which dwin-
bright flames from the exhaust dled in size but did not seem to
nozzles were there against the lessen in brilliance.
dark sky. Meanwhile, the loudspeaker
All this was apparently without continued counting, the so-called
the faintest whisper of a sound. plus count, sounding unemotional
But at about the instant the rocket and impersonal.
itselfbecame nearly invisible, the "Plus 150."
sound had traveled the distance At that instant, the star got
from launching pad to Telemetry much smaller. The two boosters
No. 3. The thunder hit us and the had used up their fuel and only
roar seemed to get even stronger the main rocket motor kept going.
as the triple flame lifted upward. I kept it in my glasses. The star
was quite small now but still bril-

T THOUGHT somewhat auto- liant.

-*- matically that the exhaust At "Plus 250," it suddenly
flames looked "good" and that the disappeared. Brennschluss — burn-
roar was "normal," but these were out.
side thoughts. I followed the The missile was on its way.
flames as they lifted up. Higher, And we went on ours.
going faster, up, up. — WILLY LEY

AMERICAN

FOR YOUR I NFORMATION 83

 TWICE IN TIME FOUR GREAT NOVELS
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GALAXY
 THE Honestly, I was content to be the

richest man in Levittown . . . if not

for McGhee, I'd have happily left

PILL something for all the rest of you!

By FREDERIK POHL

MARGERY
phone the
tried putting
back on the
tional
It
League standings were.
was Patrolman Gamelsfelder.
hook, but it immediately "Man to see you, Mr. Binns.
rang again. She kicked the stand, Says it's important." He was sweat-
picked up the phone and said: ing—you could see the black
"Hang up, will you? We don't patches on his blue shirt. I knew
want any!" She slammed the phone what he was thinking: We had
down to break the connection and air conditioning and money, and
took it off the hook again. he was risking his life day after
The doorbell rang. day for a lousy policeman's pay,
"My turn," I said and put down and what kind of a country was
the paper— it looked as though I this anyhow? He'd said as much
never would find out what the Na- that afternoon.

Illustrated by JOHNSON
TH E B ITTEREST PILL 85
 "It might be important to him, "That fellow's still here," Patrol-
but I don't want to see anybody. man Gamelsfelder said sourly. "I
Sorry, officer." I closed the door. think he's sick."
Margery said: "Are you or are "Too bad." I tried to close the
you not going to help me change door.
the baby?" "Anyway, he says to tell Cud-
I said cheerfully: be glad
"I'll dles that Tinker is here."
to, dear." And it was true—besides I grabbed the door. "Tell Cud-"
being good policy to say that, be- "That's what he said." Gamels-
cause she was pretty close to ex- felder saw that that hit me and
ploding. was true because I
It it pleased him. For the first time,
wanted something to do myself. I he smiled.
wanted some nice simple demand- "What-what's his name?"
ing task, like holding a one-year- "Winston McNeely McGhee,"
old down with my knee in the said Officer Gamelsfelder happily,
middle of one hand
his chest, while "or anyway that's what he told
held his feet and the other one me, Mr. Binns."
pinned the diaper. I mean it was "Send the son of a— Send the
nice of Uncle Otto to leave me fellow in," and jumped to
I said,
the money, but did they have to get the baby away from the ash-
put it in the paper? tray where Margery had left a
cigarette burning.
r ''HE doorbell rang again as I
I Winnie McGhee. It was all I
*- was finishing. Margery was up- needed to finish off my day.
stairs with Gwennie, who took a lot He came holding his head
in
of calming down because she al- as though weighed a thousand
it

ways does, so I stood the baby on pounds. He was never what you'd
his fat little feet and answered the call healthy-looking, even when
door myself. Margery stood me up at the altar
It was the policeman again. in order to elope with him. It was
"Some telegrams for you, Mr. charm, and maybe
his frail, poetic
Binns. I wooden let the boy de- he still had that and maybe he
liver them." didn't, but the way he looked to
"Thanks." I tossed them in the me, he was sick, all right. He
drawer of the telephone stand. looked as if he weighed a fast
What was the use of opening hundred pounds, not counting the
them? They were from people who head; and the head looked like a
had heard about Uncle Otto and balloon.
the money, and they wanted to He moaned, "Hello, Harlan, age
beg, borrow or sell me something. thirty-one, five-eleven, one seventy-

86 GALAXY
THE B ITTEREST PILL 87
three. You got an acetysalicylic with it, but there wasn't anything
acid tablet?" in the medicine chest that looked
I said: "What?" right, and besides it's against the
But he didn't get a chance to law.
answer right away because there I don't mind admitting it, I
was a flutter and a scurry from the never liked Winnie McGhee, and
expansion attic and Margery ap- it isn't just because he swiped my

peared at the head of the stairs.
"I thought—" she began wildly,
and then she saw that her wildest
thought was true. "You!"
She betrayed pure panic—she
began fussing with her hair with
one hand and smoothing her Ber-
muda shorts with the other, while
she was simultaneously trying to
wiggle,no hands, out of the sloppy
bride away from me. Sure, she
got smart after six months, and
then when she turned up with an
annulment and sincere repentance
—well, I've never regretted marry-
ing her. Or anyway, not much.
But you can't expect me to like
McGhee. Hell, if I'd never seen
the man before, I'd have hated his
little purple guts at first sight, be-

old kitchen apron that had been cause he looked like a poet and
good enough for me. talked like a scientist and acted
like a jerk.
lyfcGHEE said pallidly: "Hello. I started back to the living room
*** Please, don't you have an and yelled: "The baby!"
acetylsalicylic acid tablet?" Margery turned away from sim-
"I don't know what it is," I told pering at her former husband and
him. sprang for the puppy's dish. She
Margery chuckled ruefully. "Ah, got it away from the baby, but not
Harlan, Harlan," she said with fond quite intact. There was a good
tolerance, beaming lovingly at me baby-sized mouthful of mixed milk
as she came down the stairs. It and dog-biscuit that she had to
was enough to turn the stomach of excavate for, and naturally the
a cat. "You forget, Winnie— Har- baby had his way of counter-at-
lan doesn't know much chemistry. tacking for that.
Won't you find him an aspirin, "No bite!" she yelled, pulling
Harlan? That* s all he wants." her finger out of his mouth and
"Thanks," said Winnie with a putting it in hers. Then she smiled
grateful sigh, massaging his sweetly. "Isn't he a darling, Win-
temples. nie? He's got his daddy's nose, of
I went and got him an aspirin. course. But don't you think he has
I thought of adding a little mixer my eyes?"
to the glass of water that went "He'll have your fingers, too, if

88 GALAXY
you don't keep them out of his about your trip around the world
mouth," I told her. later."
Winnie said: "That's normal.
After with twenty-four paired
all,
BUT
had
that hadn't been what he
Conquer the world.
chromosomes to form the gamete, said.
it is perfectly obvious that the I heard plain as day. I went to
it

probability of inheriting none of fetch the mop, because that was

his traits from one parent—that is, as good a way as any to think over
being exactly like the other— is one what to do about Winston Mc-
chance in 8,388,608. Ooh, my Neely McGhee. I mean what did
head." I want with the world? Uncle Otto
Margery gave him a small had already bequeathed me the
frown. "What?" world, or anyway more of it than
He was like a wound-up phono- I had ever hoped to own.

graph. "That's without allowance When I came back, Winnie was

for spontaneous mutation," he tottering around the room, fol-
added. "Or induced. And consider- lowed at a respectful distance by
ing the environmental factors in my wife, holding the baby. She
utero— that is,broad-spectrum anti- was saying to the prospective con-
biotics, tripling of the background queror of all the world: "How did
radiation count due to nuclear you hear about Harlan's good hi—
weapons, dietary influences, et about the tragic loss of his dear
cetera— yes, I should put the proba- uncle, I mean?"
bility of induced mutation rather He groaned: "I read it in the
high. Perhaps of the order of—" paper." He fiddled aimlessly with
I interrupted. "Here's your aspi- the phone.
rin. Nowwhat do you want?" "It's all for the best, I say," said
"Harlan!" Margery said warn- Margery in a philosophic tone, fish-
ingly. ing damp graham-cracker crumbs
"I mean — well, what do you out of the baby's ear. "Dear Uncle
want?" Otto lived a rich and full life.
He leaned his head on his hands. Think of all those years in Yemen!
"I want you to help me conquer And the enormous satisfaction it
the world," he said. must have given him to be per-
Crash-splash. "Go get a mop!" sonally responsible for the instal-
Margery ordered; the baby had lation of the largest petroleum-
just spilled the puppy's water. She cracking still west of the Suez!"
glared at me, then smiled at Win- "East, my dear. East. The Muta-
nie. "Go ahead," she coaxed. "Take wakelite Kingdom lies just south
your nice aspirin and we'll talk of Saudi Arabia."

THE BITTEREST PILL 89

 She looked at him thoughtfully, ing very slowly. Each word came
but all she said was: "Winnie, out by itself, as though he had to
you've changed." choose and sort painfully among
And so he had; but, for that all the words that were rushing to
matter, so had she. It was not like his mouth. "I — invented some-
Margery to be a hypocrite. thing. You understand? And
Simpering over her ex-husband when I heard about you inherit-
I could understand— it wasn't so ing money—"
bad; she was merely showing the "You thought you could get
poor guy how very much better some of it away from me."
off she was than she ever would "No!" He sat up sharply— and
have been with him. winced and clutched his head. "I
But the tragic loss of my dear want to make money for you."
uncle had never occasioned a mo- "We've got closets full," I quoted
ment's regret in her— or in me; be- Margery.
cause the plain fact of the matter He said in a desperate tone:
is that until the man from the As- "But can give you the world,
I
sociated Press called up, she didn't Harlan. Trust me!"
even know I had an Uncle Otto. "I never have—"
And Ihad pretty nearly forgotten "Trust me now! We can own
it myself. Otto was the brother that the world, the two of us, if you'll
my mother's family didn't talk just give me a little financial help.
about. How were they to know I've invented a drug that gives me
that he was laying up treasures of total recall."
oil and gold on the Arabian Penin- "How nice for you," I said,
sula? reaching for the knob of the door.
The phone rang; Winnie had
thoughtlessly put it back on the THEN I began to think. "Total
hook. "No!" Margery cried into it, recall?" I asked.
hardly listening. "We don't want He said, sputtering with eager-
any uranium stock! We've got ness: "The upwelling of the un-
closets full of it!" conscious—the ability to remember
I said, taking advantage of the everything— the eidetic memory of
fact that her attention was di- an idiot savant and the indexing
verted: "Winnie, I'm a busy man. system of a quiz winner! You want
How about if you tell me what to know the first six kings of
you want?" England? Egbert, Ethelwulf, Ethel-
Hedown with his head in his
sat bald, Ethelbert, Ethelred and
hands and made a great effort. Alfred. You want to know the mat-
"It's — difficult," he said, speak- ing call of a ruff-necked grouse?"

90 GALAXY
He demonstrated the call of the terested. I can't wait to hear what
ruff-necked grouse. the swindle is."

"Oh," said Margery, coming "Harlan!" warned Margery.

back into the room with the fresh- Winnie said: "There's no
ly diapered baby. "Bird imita- swindle, I promise you. To repeat,
tions." knowledge power, Harlan. Why,
is

"And more!" cried Winnie. "Do with my we can outwit

super-brain
you know about the time the Unit- the rulers of any country any-
ed States had two presidents?" where. We
can own the world!
"No, but-" And— money, you say? Knowledge
"March the third," he said, is money, too. For instance—" he
"eighteen seventy-seven. Ruther- winked— "worried about taxes? I
ford B. Hayes— I'd better say can tell you the minority opinion
Rutherford Birchard Hayes—was in U. Govt, versus Oosterhagen,
S.
about to succeed Grant and he was 486 Alabama 3309. There's a
sworn in a day early. I ought to loophole there you could drive an
explain that—" armored truck through and come
"No," I cut in. "Don't explain." out with it loaded!"
"Well, how about this? Want
me to name the A.B.C. bowling TVTARGERY sat down with a
champions from 1931 to date? -L" cigarette in the long, long
Clack, Nitschke, Hewitt, Vidro, holder I'd bought her to square a
Brokaw, Gagliardi, Anderson— oh, beef the year after we were mar-
wait a minute. I forgot 1936. ried. She looked at me and then
That's Warren. Then Gagliardi, at the cigarette; it penetrated and
Anderson, Danek— I raced over with a match.
"Winnie," I said, "quit it." "Thank you, darling," she said
"But this is the key to conquer- throatily.
ing the world!" She had changed herself as well
"Hah," I said. "Being boring as the baby. She now wore some-
from within by naming bowling thing more suitable for the co-
champions?" heiress of a big fat hunk of money
"Knowledge is power, Harlan." to wear while entertaining an ex-
He rested his head on his palms husband. It was a gold lame house-
briefly. "But it does make my head coat; she had bought it within an
ache." hour of the time the AP man had
I took my hand off the knob of called, on a charge account we'd
the door. never owned until the early edi-
I said grudgingly: "Sit down, tions of the papers hit the stores
Winnie. I admit you've got me in- around Levittown.

TH E B ITTEREST PILL 91
 And that reminded me. Money. "With all our money?" I de-
Who needed money? What was manded. "Who needs it?"
the use of inheriting all that loot
from Uncle Otto if I couldn't WINNIE clutched his head.
throw Winnie out on his ear? "Oh," he moaned. "Wait, Har-
Politeness made me temporize: lan. All I need is a stake. I've got
"All this is very interesting, Win- the long-term cycles of every stock
nie, but—" on the Exchange down in my head
"Harlan, the baby!" Margery —splits and dividends and earnings
yelled. "Get him out of the records since nineteen ought four!
pretzels!" I know the private brokers' hand
I did, while Winnie said faintly signals on the Curb— wave up for
behind me: "The shape of a buy, wave down for sell; look, see
pretzel represents children's arms how my are bent? That
fingers
folded in prayer— or so it was means the spread between bid and
thought in the seventh century. A asked is three-eighths of a point.
good pretzel bender can bend more Give me a million dollars, Harlan."
than thirty-five a minute. Of "No."
course, machines are faster." "Just a million, that's all. You
I said: "Winnie-" can spare it! And I'll double it in
"Like to know the etymology of a week, quadruple it in a month—
the word 'navvy? Most people in a year, we'll have a billion. A
think it has something to do with billion dollars!"
sailors." I shook my head. "The taxes—"
"Winnie, listen to me—" "Remember U. Govt, versus
S.
"It doesn't, though. It comes Oosterhagen! And a bare be-
that's
from the laborers on the Inland ginning. Ever think what a billion
Navigation Canals— eighteenth-cen- dollars could do in the hands of a
tury England, you know. Well, super-genius? Here!" he yelled,
the laborers—" grabbing at his temple with one
I said firmly: "Winnie, beat it." hand, pulling something out of
"Harlan!" his pocket with the other. "Look
"You stay out of this, Margery," at this, Harlan! It's yours for a
I ordered her. "Winnie's after my million dollars— ah, make it a
dough, that's all. Well, I haven't hundred thousand. Yes, a hundred
had it long enough to want to thousand dollars and you can have
throw it away. Besides, who wants it! I'll sell it for that and then I

to rule the world?" won't split with you— we'll both

"Well—" Margery said thought- be super-geniuses. Eh? Fair
fully. enough?"

92 GALAXY
 I was trapped by my own
osity. "What is it?" I asked.
He waved it at me— a squat little
bottle, half filled with pale
sules.
"Mine," he said proudly. "My
hormone. It's a synapse relaxer.
One of these and the blocks be-
tween cell and cell in your brain
are weakened for an hour. Three
of them, for every twenty pounds
of body weight, and you're a su-
per-genius for life. You'll
ber things you think have passed
out of your recollection years ago!
You'll recall the post-partum slap
that started you breathing. You'll
remember the name of the nurse
who carried you to the door of
your Maxwell. Harlan,
father's
there simply no limit to—"
is
"Beat it, Winnie," I said, and
pushed him.
DATROLMAN Gamelsfelder
-- appeared like a genie from a
lamp.
"Thought so," he said somber-
ly, advancing on Winnie McGhee.
"Extortion's your game, is it? Can't
say I blame you, brother, but it's
a trip to the station house and a
talk with the sergeant for you."
"Just get rid of him," I
and closed the door as Winnie was
challenging the cop to name an
opera by Krenek, other than John-
ny Spielt Aui.
Margery put the baby down,
breathing hard.
TH E B ITTER EST PILL
curi- She said: "Scuffling and push-
ing people around and bad man-
ners. You weren't like this when
cap- we were married, Harlan. Some-
thing's come over you since you
inherited that money!"
I said: "Help me pick these
things up, will you?" I hadn't
pushed him hard, but all the same,
those pills had gone flying.
Margery stamped her foot and
burst into tears. "I know how you
remem- feel' about poor Winnie," she
sobbed, "but it's just that I'm
sorry for him. Couldn't you at
least be polite? Couldn't you at
least have given him a couple of
lousy hundred thousand dollars?"
"Watch the baby," I warned
her. At the head of the stairs,
Gwennie appeared, attracted by
the noise, rubbing her eyes with
her fists and beginning to cry.
Margery glared at me, started to
speak, was speechless, turned her
back and hurried up to comfort
Gwennie.
I began to feel a little bit
ashamed of myself.
I stood up, patting the baby ab-
sent-mindedly on the head, look-
ing up the stairs at the female half
had been, when
of our household. I
said, you stopped to think of it, some-
thing of a clunk.
Item, I had been rough on poor
old Winnie. Suppose it had been
I who discovered the hormone and
needed a few lousy hundred
thousand, as Margery put it so
93
well, as a stake in order to grasp Margery stood up, holding
undreamed-of wealth and power? Gwennie, beginning to smile.
And, item, Margery did have a "Why, that sounds like fun, Har-
tough time with the kids and all, lan! Why not, as you say? Only
and on this day of all days, she —do you remember Mrs. Schroop's
was likely excited. number?"
And, item— "It's written down," I told her.
I had just inherited a bloody "No, that was on the cover of
mint! the old directory." She frowned.
"It isn't listed in her own name-
r T HE
1
thought came to me with it's her son-in-law. Oh, what is
-*•sudden appalling clarity—why that number—"
wasn't I using some of Uncle Otto's A thin voice from down the
money to make like easier? stairs said: "Ovington Eight Zero
I galloped up the steps two at Zero Fourteen. It's listed under
a time. "Margery! I'm sorry!" Sturgis, Arthur R., Forty-one Uni-
"I think you should—" she be- verse Avenue."
gan, and then looked up from I said sharply: "Who the devil
Gwennie and saw my face. said that?"
I said: "Look, honey. Let's start "I did, Daddy," said the owner
over. I'm sorry about poor Win- of the voice, all of eighteen inches
nie, but forget him, huh? We're tall,appearing at the foot of the
rich. Let's start living the way steps.He had to use one hand to
rich people do. Let's go out, just steady himself, because he didn't
the two of us— it's early yet! We'll walk so very well. But in the other
grab a cab and go into New York hand, he held the squat glass bottle
—all the way by cab— why
not? that Winnie McGhee had dropped.
We'll eat at the Colony and see The bottle was empty.
My Fair Lady from the fifth row
on the aisle—" ^WTELL, we don't live in Levit-
Margery looked up at me and " town any more— of course.
suddenly smiled. "But-" She Marjorie and Gwennie and I
patted Gwennie's head. "The kids. have tried everything — changing
What about them?" our name, dyeing our hair, even
"Get a baby-sitter. Mrs. plastic surgery once. It didn't work,
Schroop'll be glad of the work." so we had the same surgeon
"But it's such short notice—" change us back.
"Margery," I said, "we don't in- People kept recognizing us.
herit a fortune every night. Call What we mostly do now is

her up." cruise up and down the coast of

94 GALAXY
the U.S.J.I. in our yacht, inside the three tablets for every twenty
twelve-mile limit. When we
need pounds of body weight. The baby
supplies, we send some of the crew only weighed thirty-one pounds
in with the motor launch. That's then, last time we'd taken him to
risky, yes. But it isn't as risky as the pediatrician; naturally, we
landing in any other country would couldn't take him again after he.

be and we just don't want to go swallowed the pills. > And he

back to J.I.—as they've taken to must've swallowed at least a dozen.
calling it these days. You can't
blame us. How would you like it? BUT guess Winnie was
At the very
I
the world
right.

The way it goes, we just cruise least, is

up and down, and every once in well on its way to being conquered
a while he remembers us and calls now.
up on the ship-to-shore. He called The United States fell to Ju-
yesterday, matter of fact. vens Imperator, as he calls him-
He said: "You can't stay out self (and I blame Margery for

there forever, Daddy. Your main that— I never used Latin in front
engines are due for a refit after of the kids) in eighteen months,
eleven months seven days of run- after his sensational coup on the

ning and you've been gone ten $256,000 Question and his later
months six. What are you using success in cornering soybean fu-
for dairy products? The load you tures, the common stock of United

shipped in Jacksonville must have States Steel, other shares and com-
run out last Thursday week. There modities, then just about all of

isn't any point in your starving them. The rest of the world is

yourself. Besides, it's not fair to just a matter of time. And not
Gwennie and Mom. Come home. very much time at that. And don't
We'll make a place for you in they just know it, though; that's
the government." why we daren't land abroad.
"Thanks," I said. "But no, But who would have thought it?
thanks." I mean
I watched his inaugura-

"You'll be sorry," he cautioned, tion last October on television. The

pleasantly enough. And he hung country has had some pretty pecul-
up. iar people running it, no doubt.

Well, we should have kept him But did you ever think you'd live
out of those pills. to see the oath of office adminis-
I guess it was my fault. I should tered to a little boy with one hand
have listened when old Winnie- upraised and the thumb of the

heaven rest his soul, wherever he other in his mouth?

is— said that the lifetime dose was — FREDERIK POHL

TH E B ITTER EST PILL 95

 .

Piloting one routine sightseeing space jaunt

was all he had done . . . and it landed him in a

one-man peep show billed as the notorious . .

KINGSLAYER
By J. T. MclNTOSH

Illustrated by WOOD

THE Spurcans behind Al-

lan Simber in the control
cabin of the little ship were
whistling excitedly. Shaped rather
like. balloons shaped like human
beings, theyhad no backbone and
virtually no bones, and the sibi-
lant way they spoke showed they
had no teeth either.
The members of the royal party
were happy. They were delighted
and relieved that this brief trip
into outer space, just to be able to
say they'd been, had gone so
smoothly.
It was one of the least queer
charters Allan had ever taken, for
a private charter space pilot gets a
lot of queer jobs. Except for the
passengers, it was completely rou-
tine.
On landing at Spurc with a one-
shot cargo from Rigel, he had been

96 GALAXY
_4
asked his ship was absolutely
if
safe and he was fully compe-
if
tent to handle it alone. He said
yes, of course, was asked if he
would so state in an affidavit, re-
plied he would, signed the afore-
said affidavit — and was given a
contract to take King Phunk and
several members of the
retinue out into the void to see
what it was like. One of the King's
was King of Heaven, so it
titles
was only natural that he should
want to take a close look at his
own property.
Now, having flown
Spurc's two small satellites,
King and his retinue were not
sorry to see the surface of their
all
own world in the screens, gently
coming up to meet them. This
they understood. Though the Spur-
cans had never developed space
travel, they had been using flying
machines of one kind or another
for centuries.
OOTIN, the only member of
•- the royal party who could
speak English, lollupped up to
Allan and asked in a whispered
whistle if he was going to be able
to land anywhere near the palace
at Pluc.
"Sure," Allan said. "I mean yes.
In the courtyard, if you like."
"Take no risks," warned the
Spurcan. "Do it gentle, please, and
agitate not the King."
"This landing," Allan said reas-
98
suringly, "willbe as gentle as—"
didn't get a chance to com-
He
plete the simile. The ship lurched
abruptly and began to spin violent-
ly. Checking his controls, Allan
found that a braking jet had failed,
and the compensator which was
supposed to fix such a situation
royal had failed too.
It took five minutes' desperate
work that demanded all his consid-
erable skill to get any sort of or-
der into the story his dials told
him, and by that time he knew
that the landing wasn't going to
around be gentle at all, but exceedingly
the hard. Also there was no longer any
at guarantee where they would land.
He'd settle for any kind of land-
ing, anywhere, that left the ship
in one piece.
He glanced over his shoulder.
The bulbous little Spurcans had
clustered protectively round their
King and there was no more whis-
tling. They
didn't have to be told
there was something wrong. Well,
there was nothing he could tell
them that would make any dif-
ference. They'd just have to take
their chances, like him and the
ship.
He still couldn't understand the
the ship? Potin and the other Eng-
failure. Could some political
enemy King have sabotaged
of the
lish-speaking Spurcans had pooh-
poohed any suggestion of putting a
guard on the ship in which the
King was to travel. The idea that
GALAXY
 a Spurcan should wish to harm
King Phunk was unthinkable, and
Potin refused to consider it.
Allan wasn't so sure. And he
wished cordially that any disgrun-
tled Spurcan subject who felt a
pressing need to liquidate his mon-
arch could have arranged it with-
out involving Allan Simber and his
ship.
An instant before contact, Al-
lan shouted: "Now!" and curled
himself into shock position.
The long slim ship landed on
hard rock on a single fin. The fin
crumpled, but its resilience had
been enough to bounce the ship
back in the air, where she fell over
like a leaping salmon and crashed
back on her belly. This time, as
she bounced again, she turned
nose-down and plunged at the rock,
piling up on a broadening base of
crumpled metal.
Deafened and bruised, but still
conscious, Allan looked around the
mangled cabin. The King and his
retinue were smears of various
sizes, shapes and colors on the
floor, walls and ceiling.
1
1 ''HE conditions of imprison-
*
ment on Spurc varied with the
crime and the degree of guilt. A
Spurcan decidedly guilty of a
small crime was kept in an ex-
ceedingly confined space. Anyone
only potentially guilty of a large
crime was kept in an exceedingly
^ar
arge space.
INGSLAYER
ft
Allan Simber, accused of the
murder of King Phunk, was po-
tentially guilty of so vast a crime
that the only fit place for his in-
carcerationwas the palace at Pluc.
It was duly emptied of all its oc-
cupants and sentried by all ten
thousand members of the Royal
Guard.
He wasn't badly treated, and,
having the entire palace to roam,
he didn't feel too restricted. True,
the largest couches or beds were
less than four feet square, and the
whole place had an overpowering
scent of Spurcans, but men who
spend their working lives in small
spaceships, ferrying every conceiv-
able cargo under the suns, get
used to cramped bunks and sour
air and learn to bear them philo-
sophically.
He knew he could expect no
help from Earth. It always took
the attitude that Terrans who in-
sisted on going to other worlds
would just have to take pot-luck
with the local laws and the local
legal system. But Allan still wasn't
worried about the outcome.
No doubt it was inevitable that
any pilot under whose care the
King came to an unpleasant end
should be formally charged with
negligence. Allan's case was clear
— anyone who had evil designs on
the King logically wouldn't risk
killing himself merely on the off-
chance that he'd escape and King
Phunk wouldn't.
99
 Besides, these little
were reasonable enough creatures,
though they had some queer ideas
— housing a major defendant in
a vast prison, for example. Yet
even that made sense of a
The was an
reasoning was that
insult to accuse any man of any
crime, and the bigger the crime,
the bigger the insult. Consequent-
ly, though someone suspected of
a mammoth crime couldn't be
lowed to roam around loose, he
was given as much freedom as
possible and treated with respect
and consideration.
The only disturbing feature was
that nobody told him anything and
nobody came to see him. He was
left alone in a palace which could
house twelve thousand people.
The first day he amused him-
self by painting SIMBER ^->
at strategic points on
all over the palace, the arrows
pointing to the suite he had re-
served for himself. After
Spurcans didn't want their palace
desecrated, they shouldn't have
left any paint about.
On the outer door of the suite
he painted:
ALLAN H. SIMBER
CHIEF PILOT
KNOCK AND ENTER
The second day he was wonder-
ing what to do when he heard foot-
steps — human footsteps — ring-
100
Spurcans ing in the corridors far away. They
paused, presumably while the vis-
itor looked for another arrow.
Then they restarted again, pre-
sumably when he had found one.
sort. Presently there was a knock
it and John Carruthers entered.
FEW hundred humans, gab-
A eroids and minscods lived in
the cosmopolitan quarter of Pluc,
al- trading or studying the customs,
law, psychology, history, topog-
raphy or botany of Spurc. Allan
had seen Carruthers at the space-
port, but had no idea what exact-
ly he was or did.
Anyway, he was glad to see him
now. Carruthers was unbelievably
British. He wore riding breeches,
though there had never been a
horse on Spurc, and spoke with an
accent which would have made
the walls most people think of Oxford or
Cambridge, except possibly grad-
uates of Oxford or Cambridge.
all, if the "Well, old boy," said Carruthers
genially, "you do seem to have
got yourself into a spot of bother."
"I do," Allan admitted. "What
are you— counsel for the defense?"
"No," said Carruthers apolo-
getically. "There's no defense, you
see. Actually, I'm your American
ambassador."
"American?" Allan automati-
cally echoed, though it was what
Carruthers had said first which was
occupying his mind to the exclu-
sion of all else.
GALAX' 'X ^\
 "American— also British, French,
Chinese, Italian, German, Nor-
wegian and Dutch. The other
countries have made no arrange-
ments to be represented."
Allan went back to the main
point. "What do you mean, there's
no defense? You mean they're not
proceeding with the charge?"
"No, my dear fellow. I mean
you're guilty. You are,you know.
Incidentally, before you start un-
burdening your soul, perhaps I'd
better point out that the whole
palace is probably wired."
Allan shut his mouth abruptly.
Was that a warning that Car-
ruthers himself couldn't say what
he liked, that he had said Allan
was guilty simply because the
Spurcans might be listening? No,
that was ridiculous.
"I'm guilty?" Allan said incredu-
lously.
"Oh, indubitably! You must
have been out of your mind when
you signed that affidavit, old chap.
You did nothing less than make
yourself personally responsible for
the safety of the King and his
party."
Allan remembered the affidavit
with misgivings. "But surely—"
"These people have no space-
ships of their own, you know— just
whatever old barges we can fob off
on them. All they know about
space is what we've chosen to tell
was sound and an accident was
practically impossible — naturally,
ifthe King was killed, you mur-
dered him."
C LOWLY, Allan therealized
^ import
full what Carruthers
of
was saying. "You mean they're
not even going to try me?"
"Oh, there'll be a trial tomor-
row. You won't be there. It'll be
formal, with a verdict of guilty.
I came to talk to you about your
punishment. Thought you'd better
know what to expect."
Allan sank weakly on one of
the four-foot-square couches. Sure-
ly if all this was true, Carruthers
would hardly be so breezily cheer-
ful about it all.
"Is this some kind of a joke?"
he asked.
"No joke at all, old boy. I must
say you asked for it. Everybody
knew for days that you were going
to take the rajah up. That you'd
promised it was safe. That there
was no guard on the ship. Any-
body who had any reason to want
the old gentleman out of the way
had only to—"
"But that's exactly it!" Allan ex-
claimed. "That's precisely what
must have happened! When the
ship cracked up I — well, I was
ninety-five per cent certain there
had been sabotage. Surely I can
bring this up in court and . .
."

them. We, of course, are the ex- He Carruthers was

stopped.
perts. When you said your ship shaking his head. "Apart from the

Kl NGSLAYER 101
fact that that's not legally relevant, starvation, a Spurcan is three-quar-
it just isn't so. Take it from me, ters dead."
old boy, I've been here ten years "And they won't modify this for

and if anybody knows the Spur- a human? Are you sure?"

cans I do. Some murders are rela- "Quite sure, for all of us here
tively unimportant. I expect Phunk run foul of their laws at one time
had quite a few characters knocked or another and are sentenced to
off in his time, so I daresay he the first two penalties. No non-
only got what was coming to him. native has ever been sentenced to
But no Spurcan — absolutely none your particular third penalty so
— would King, any more
kill his far. You'll be making history, my
than you'd throw a million dol- dear fellow. The three penalties—"
lars into space. The King is valu- "Look," said Allan, making up
able, you see. You'll be punished his mind. "You may be right about
not because these people felt great all this, but I'd rather wait for the

affection for King Phunk, but be- verdict."

cause you destroyed a valuable Carruthers was surprised and
property." pained. "You don't want me to tell

"But ."
. .
you any more?"
"Anyway," Carruthers went on "Not now."
cheerfully, "even if you don't take "But don't you want to know
my word for it, the fact remains about-"
that the of defense you
line "Is there anything I can do to
planned holds no water, so to get out of this? Anything I per-
speak. You made yourself respon- sonally can do?"
" 'Fraid not, old chap."
sible for King. He's dead.
the
That's all that matters in Spur- "All right then, I've got to leave
can law. Now about your punish- it to you. You'll do what you can?"
ment. There will be three penal- "Naturally, but .This is most
. .

ties-" embarrassing. You see, there's ab-

"Is that all fixed too?"
asked dazedly.
"More or less. The first punish-
ment is starvation. For five hours."
ALLEN frowned. "Five hours?"
"That's inflexible— you know
Allan solutely nothing I can do."
Allan's brain raced. "Just a mo-
ment. There are humans here, and
some gaberoids from Deneb and
Merkat, and a few minscods from
Mars, Sirius and Cephis. Right?
What if one of them wanted to

the Spurcans have to eat or drink murder the King? They might
something every half-hour or so. have sabotaged the ship."
You're lucky. After five hours' For the first time, a hint of mild

102 GALAXY
irritation crossed Carruthers' face.
"Can't you get your head,"
it into
he said, "that it wouldn't do you
any damn good even if you could
prove that somebody tinkered
your ship? Suppose I went into
court tomorrow and said I burned
half your braking fin off. They
might put me on trial too, but that
wouldn't do you the slightest good.
You still would be guilty of regi-
cide."
"I see," said Allan. "Oh, well.
Can you come tomorrow and tell
me what* s been decided?"
"Of course. You don't want me
to tell you about .? No, I see
. .
you don't. Still, there's one thing
I must tell you—"
"If you don't mind," said Allan,
"I'd rather wait."
"Butthis is-"
"Look," said Allan, "I learned a
long time ago to take things as
they come. I'd have terrified my-
self to death a dozen times if I'd
assumed the worst, and the worst
after that, and the worst after that.
Right at this moment, nobody's
slapping me on the belly with a
wet fish. Let's leave it at that —
okay?"
Carruthers shrugged, hurt.
Tj1 ORnow, at least, the Spur-
-* cans certainly weren't starv-
ing him. Every third or fourth
room had tables covered with fruit,
sweetmeats, salads, cold meat,
drinks of all kinds, and Allan let as
KINGSLAYER
little of it as possible go to waste.
Long ago he had found out that
one man's meat was very seldom
another man's poison, at any rate
on worlds of similar metabolism.
The Spurcans were warm-blooded,
carbon - based oxygen - breathers.
Most of their food suited humans.
The rare exceptions looked,
smelled or tasted unpleasant.
Eating with considerable enjoy-
ment, Allan reflected that there
was a lot to be said for Spurc. The
climate was excellent and the food
was wonderful. The little Spur-
cans,though definitely non-human,
were by no means repulsive and
they were pretty reasonable. He
had found no difficulty in getting
along with them.
The present situation was awk-
ward but unlikely to be fatal.
True, it was pretty silly of him to
have signed that affidavit. Some-
body should have told him. He ad-
mitted fairly, however, that he
could easily have sought out the
ambassador for advice, and hadn't.
Every pilot who takes a small
ship around the Galaxy alone must
be an optimist. And every pilot
who has done it reasonably suc-
cessfully for five years must have
good reason for his optimism.
At least twenty times in the
past five years, Allan Simber had
been in situations from which the
only person who expected him to
emerge alive had been Allan Sim-
ber. And if 'a thing goes on hap-
103
pening long enough, one develops Whoever or whatever was try-
skill in waiting it out. ing to conceal presence must
its

For something to do, he be trying to conceal it from Allan.

searched for the concealed micro- So he stood behind the door and
phones and wires against which waited for a while to surprise his
Carruthers had warned him. He visitor if it elected to come in.

found no sign of any such thing. Allan wasn't excited, merely in-
Apparently he was under no direct terested. As he waited, he won-
supervision. Ten thousand Spur- dered whether to throw himself on
cans guarded the entrances, exits the visitor the instant the door
and walls. Within the generous opened, if it did open. Might as
boundaries of his prison, he was well, he thought. If it was some-
free. thing he couldn't handle, at least
The only thing that irked him he'd probably manage to bowl it

was the silence. Poor little King off its feet — providing it had any
Phunk had liked silence, apparent- feet.
ly. Every room was sound-dead- Whatever it was, it could hardly
ened; there were no windows in be friendly.
the palace and every ventilator Seconds passed and there was
seemed to have a sound-trap fitted. no sound. Allan was sure that the
If Allan wanted to hear a sound, visitor was on the other side of
he had to make it himself. the door, also listening. Well, in
It was because of the blank still- any contest of patience, Allan
ness that he heard something he would win. Space pilots are un-
would normally have missed. beatable at waiting for nothing to
Someone or something was mov- happen.
ing in the corridor outside. Not The door opened a crack, then
boldly, openly, like Carruthers, but opened wider.
stealthily, so silently that a breath Allan sprang. Under him was
of wind or even a ticking clock something wet, slippery, but not
might have covered the soft pad- repulsive.
ding. It was a completely female
Maybe they were guarding him feminine human mammal. He
closely after all. Yet the furtive could see that with both eyes.
sound didn't suggest Spurcans to
Allan. They made a kerplunk, A She helped her up apologeti-
kerplunk, kerplunk on their short, **• cally, Allan began to wonder
heavy legs, no more capable of who was crazy.
tiptoeing than bipedal pigmy ele- The girl was a tall, well-stacked
phants. blonde with curves about which

104 GALAXY
her two-piece swim suit was not "and I'm going back the same way.
Despite the swim suit and
reticent. Can you swim?"
the water glistening on her skin, "Yes."
she was anything but an Amazon. "Under water?"
She was definitely the crinoline, "Yes."
powder-and-patch type, the type "Then you're okay. Only you
whose bathing suit seldom gets can'tcome now — we'd have to
wet. come up in the middle of a pub-
In fact, she looked like an lic pool. It'll have to be at night,

actress making an improbable ap- and not tonight either. I'm busy.
pearance in a not very good movie. I'll come for you tomorrow night."

"Don't tell me," he said. "You've "Can't I make it myself?"

come to rescue me." "Not without a guide. Don't try.
She was still gasping and rub- You'd drown."
bing her diaphragm, with which She slipped into the fountain
Allan's knee had made violent and began to lower herself toward
contact a grating in the clear, cool water.
"As a matter of fact, I did," she "Wait," Allan protested. "Why
said in an injured tone. are you doing this? What—"
"Did what?" "I haven't time," she said nerv-
"Come to rescue you. I know a ously, not looking at him. "I've
way out." got to get back to the pool before
"You think you can get me out I'm missed. See you tomorrow
of here?" said Allan incredulously. night"
"I know I can, but not now. Fol- Drawing a deep breath, she
low me." dropped under the surface to the
He did so, willingly. grating. It was hinged. Once she
"Who are you?" he asked. had pushed herself through the
"Dawn Clifford. As if it mat- aperture, the grating closed firmly
ters." behind her.
"I think it matters."
She was almost running through i^ ARRUTHERS made his sec-
the corridors. Once Allan steadied *~* ond appearance the next day.
her as her bare foot slipped on "Well, old boy," he said apolo-
the polished floor. getically, "it was just as I told
Right in the center of the pal- you."
ace, they came to a fountain in "You mean the trial's over?"
the floor. "Such as it was. You were
"Ah," he said softly. guilty. All that was needed was a
"I came this way," said Dawn, verdict. It's the three penalties, of

KINGSLAYER 105
course. The first one will begin
immediately I leave. You get no
food for five hours."
"You mean that really is
same for me as for them?"
"Yes. They like to regard them-
selves as a very just race, and all
aliens on Spurc are subject to ex-
actly the same law and exactly
the same penalties as a native.
The second penalty is three in
one. It's the Three Unwishes."
"The which?"
"That's a literal translation.
Three Opposites-of-Wishes.
third penalty is—"
"Hold on. Lefs stick to the
Three Unwishes. What are they?"
"They'll find out the three
things you most desire, reverse
them and do them."
"How would they learn things
like that about me?"
"By asking you, by truth drugs
and other methods, they'll find out
the three things you want most.
You won't be able to stop them.
Then they do the opposite."
He shrugged. "There are cer-
tain semantic difficulties, but I'm
afraid a prisoner isn't allowed to
argue his case. You have to ac-
cept their version of what's op-
posite. Suppose, for example, you
wanted to be able to play Rach-
maninoff's Second Piano Concerto.
Some people might say that the
opposite was not being able to
play Rachmaninoff's Second Piano
Concerto and that consequently
106
they wouldn't have to do anything
about it. I'm afraid that in such
a case, however, the Spurcans
the would probably take the view that
to prevent you ever being able to
play Rachmaninoff's Second Piano
Concerto, they'd have to break
your fingers or cut off your hands."
Allan shuddered.
"It may not be so bad," said
Carruthers encouragingly. "I had
to undergo the Three Unwishes
once and nothing happened to me.
The Depends if you can get them to
The accept comparatively harmless de-
sires or not. Obviously if what you
most want is to live forever, the
Three Unwishes could be pretty
serious."
"I thought you said I wouldn't
be able to stop them finding out
the things I most want."
"You won't, but you might be
able to finagle a little, knowing
what's going to happen. I did."
"When does this start?"
"After your five hours' starva-
tion are over. They'll find out your
three main and be-
desires tonight
gin to punish you tomorrow."
Tomorrow. That meant that if
Dawn Clifford succeeded in help-
ing him to escape, he had nothing
to worry about.
"They won't take me away from
here?"
"Certainly not." Carruthers' gaze
became quite keen. "Has anything
happened since I saw you last?"
"What could happen?"
GALAXY
KINGSLAYER 107
 "There might have been some do it, I'll tell you. She's an actress.
spurious attempt to rescue you, Came here two years ago with a
Probably by a girl of
for example. touring company. Fell foul of
about your own age or a little Spurcan law and isn't allowed to
less." leave. Q.E.D."
Allan stared at him in open dis- "Why does any human ever
like. come here?" Allan exploded.
"I wanted to tell you," said Car- "I don't know. Why did you
ruthers virtuously,"but you come here?" Carruthers inquired
wouldn't let me. Traditions count politely.
for a lot on Spurc. Just as we see
to it that people are defended in THAT night the doctors, psy-
court whether they deserve it or chologists and scientists ar-
not, Spurcans have attempts to es- rived at the Simber suite. None of
cape. It doesn't seem decent to them could speak English except
them that while a man is awaiting the interpreter, whose job was
sentence, his friends and relatives, simply to interpret anything the
and particularly his wife or girl Spurcans wanted translated, not
friend,shouldn't make any at- to enable Allan to say all he felt
tempt to have him released. So inclined to say.
they see to it that jailbreak at- They fastened plates against his
tempts are made." skin, measured his blood pressure,
"But in the case of a human, checked his brain patterns. Tech-
how could they get another hu- nologically, they were several hun-
man to cooperate?" dred years out of date, but that
"Easily enough. For money. If
' merely meant the methods were
there was any such attempt — and crude, not the results. Allan could
I can't imagine there not being one be sure that since they were deal-
— I think I can guess who you saw. ing with an alien, comparatively
Dawn Clifford." unfamiliar life-form, they had con-
Allan himself growing hot
felt sulted the official intergalactic or-
under the collar. He didn't neces- ganism standards and consequent-
sarily trust Carruthers and he had ly would be able to interpret his
no intention of betraying anything reactions only a little less accurate-
to him. Nevertheless, he couldn't ly than human psychologists.
help saying bitterly: "How
could The first thing they established
any human collaborate with those was that he particularly wanted
inhuman little balloons to torture to get out of Spurc. They didn't
another human?" say anything, or at least the inter-
"If you mean how could Dawn preter didn't translate anything.

108 GALAXY
But it needed very little imagina- Clifford as the most beautiful girl
tion to see that that would mean in the Galaxy?
he was to be kept a prisoner for Obviously it was in his best in-
life on Spurc. terests to say no. Then they'd
Now Allan remembered what have to find somebody else, some-
Carruthers had said about Dawn body he would accept. There
Clifford. She had fallen foul of couldn't be many human girls in
Spurcan law too, had been sen- Spurc, and it would be a long
tenced to starvation and the Three time before any girl elsewhere
Unwishes — and naturally one of could be persuaded to work for
the things she most wanted had them in whatever way they
been to get away from Spurc. planned. Maybe he could stall
It must be a not uncommon cir- them for years over this. But what
cumstance among visitors to Spurc would he gain by stalling?
who happened to get into legal In a sudden spurt of impatience,
trouble. he said, "Yes." Let them get on
The second thing Allan desired with it. Whatever happened, the
was the most beautiful girl in the sooner the better.
Galaxy. The third was a million After that, they left him. And
dollars. that night Dawn Clifford didn't
Three simple, straightforward come.
desires.He wondered what they He climbed into the fountain
would make of the last two. Make into which she had disappeared,
him a present of the ugliest woman and found all the gratings as solid-
in the Galaxy? Claim that he ly latched as the back and side
owed them a million dollars? doors of the palace.
The interpreter was speaking.
Would he accept Dawn Clifford as 1VTEXT day he had an official
the most beautiful girl in the •*- ' not from Carruthers this
visit,
Galaxy? time but from Verin, the public
His thoughts raced. They knew prosecutor. He looked exactly like
he knew her. Therefore Carruthers all Spurcans except that he had
was right — she had been hired to the brownness of extreme age.
act a part. There had never been There were about thirty members
any real prospect of escape. The of the Guard with him to protect
Spurcans had fixed the whole thing. him against the dangerous alien
He felt sick. How could a girl creature who had murdered King
like that do a thing like that? Phunk.
The interpreter repeated his The Spurcans arranged them-
question. Would he accept Dawn selves in V formation, with Verin

KINGSLAYER 109
at theapex of the V, farthest from prisoner for a couple of years, they'd
Allan. Then he passed sentence findit harder to watch over a com-

in a musical whistle, and the in- petent space pilot.

terpreter interpreted. He had no particular objection
"Allan Simber, human, regicide, to spending a night with Dawn
this is your punishment. Having Clifford, even if that was all he
already been starved near to was allowed to do. And the idea
death-" of not being given a million dol-
"Near death?" Allan exclaimed. lars didn't terrify him. It didn't
The interpreter wasn't allowed even disappoint him. He hadn't
to do anything but interpret "Hav- ever counted on getting those mil-
ing already been starved near to lion dollars.
death-" "The third penalty," said the in-
"When?" Allan asked. He didn't terpreter, "is death according to
remember any five-hour fasting the manner of the crime."
period. Then he realized that he'd Allan stopped laughing. "Huh?"
slept most of the previous after- he said.
noon. They must have counted "The third penalty is death ac-
that. Well, if that was typical of cording to the manner of the
the way they were going to punish crime," the interpreter repeated
him for his terrible crime, it was obediently.
a good thing he hadn't lost any "Wait a minute," said Allan.
sleep worrying about it. "Whafs this all about?"
"Okay," he said. "I follow you. The Spurcans turned and
Go ahead." trooped out, Verin in the lead now.
"Having already been starved This time, when he'd have liked
near to death," the interpreter con- Carruthers to come and explain
tinued, "you are now sentenced to things to him, Carruthers didn't
the following Unwishes: One, you come.
will remain on world forever.
this The first penalty he hadn't even
Two, you will spend this night noticed. The second, the Three
with the most beautiful girl in the Unwishes, didn't seem to amount
Galaxy and will not possess her. to anything except that he was
Three, you will not be given a never to leave Spurc — and he had
million dollars." his own ideas about that.
But a sentence of death — that
ALLAN burst out laughing. He was no joke. Semantic differences
didn't want to live the rest of didn't stretch far enough to make
his life on Spurc. But though they'd it anything else but capital pun-
been able to keep Dawn Clifford a ishment.

110 GALAXY
r T HAT
,
night Dawn came to tion, one interest in life — to get
-*•
him. She entered wearing a away from Spurc. She really would
long black cloak and stood across sacrifice him or anybody or any-
the room from him. No Spurcans thing to do so.
came with her. "I like the Spurcans," Allan ob-
"I hope you're pleased with served. "They really are fair, ac-
yourself," said Allan bitterly. cording to their lights. Carruthers
She didn't give the impression gave me the idea they'd be pretty
of acting a part now. "I'm sorry," tough in their interpretation of
she said, not sounding very sorry, the three Unwishes, but they seem
"but I had no choice. Just as I to have been honest enough.
have no choice now. You have my They-"
sympathy, but I have much more "Don't talk to me about them!"
sympathy for myself. Frankly, I'd said Dawn with suppressed pas-
sacrifice you without uncurling a sion.
hair if I could get off this world." "Why not? We're on their
He liked her better for that. world."
When people were honest, at least "I hate them! I loathe them! My
you knew how you stood with skin crawls when I'm near them!"
them. "Why, what have they done?"
He looked around. "Where are "They didn't have to do any-
the Spurcans?" thing! I just hate them!"
She shrugged indifferently. "Be- She shuddered, and Allan saw
hind the walls. You've been under with interest that she could barely
closer watch than you knew all control her physical loathing of
the time you've been here." the Spurcans. It must be like
"And what happens now?" some people's dread of spiders, or
"Nothing unless you touch me." rats, or snakes.
"Then what?"
"I don't know. But something TTE began to her
feel sorry for
will. You'll have to try it to find "•" imagining what
in his turn,
out." it must be like to be imprisoned

"I will. Later. Mean to say we on Spurc with so strong an aver-

just stay here all night, and as sion to the bulbous little Spurcans.
long as I don't touch you, nothing "Why did you come here then?"
happens? That it?" he asked.
She shrugged again. "I guess so." "How could I know? I'd never
He saw now her love-
that for all seen any of them on Earth. Look,
ly face and figure, she was a beau- I said let's not talk about them."
tiful monomaniac with one ambi- "Tell me one thing. After the

KINGSLAYER 111
Three Unwishes, they say I'm to "The hell it is! When they sen-
die according to the manner of tence you to stay here forever,
my crime. What does that mean?" they mean it. I do as I'm told be-
"I don't know. For Pete's sake, cause I've got to, thaf s all. I don't
don't get the idea I'm in their con- get anything out of it but my food
fidence. I just do what I'm told. and shelter. Now shut up about
All I want is to get back to Earth." the Spurcans, will you? Talk
"And if you work for them long about Earth if you must talk."
enough, they let you go — is that With a casual movement, she
it?" undid the strings about her throat.

112 GALAXY
 The black cloak fell from her.
"Do you have to do that?" Allan
exclaimed.
She nodded composedly. "Sure.
You're supposed to be driven mad
with desire, rush to embrace me,
and thejn they do whatever it is
they're going to do."
She started to walk about the
room with slow, voluptuous steps.
KINGSLAYER
"Do you have to do that too?"
Allan asked in a strangled voice.
"Of course. You don't have to
look."
Allan bore it for a few seconds.
Then he stood up. "I'm going to
he said. "Do you mind?"
find out,"
She shrugged her shoulders. She
was always doing that. "Doesn't
make any difference whether I
113
mind or not. I hope they remem-
ber it's you who's supposed to be
getting punished, not me."
Allan leaped at her and took her
slight but curvy body in his arms.
Instantly everything went black.
When he came to, he was on
one couch and Dawn was on an-
other, about two feet away, so that
when he opened his eyes he was
staring at her.
She opened her eyes a few sec-
onds after he did, looked around
and shuddered.
"If you have no objections," she
said, "I'd rather you didn't do that
again. After they knocked us out
with the beam, they must have
come in and lifted us here. I don't
mind you touching me, but the
Spurcans ." She shivered. "Let's
. .
just accept the situation, shall we?"
"Okay," Allan sighed. "It's
cepted."
They weren't allowed to sleep.
Bells rang when their heads
drooped, and once, to Dawn's vis-
ible horror, a dozen Spurcans came
in to shake her awake. She showed
no desire to sleep after that.
They spent the night talking
about Earth.
AS he took off, Allan was rea-
-^*- sonably happy. If he had to
die, he'd rather have it this
than any other.
The old, patched ship they had
given him in place of his own han-
dled like a tranquilized cow, but
114
nevertheless he'd have enough con-
trolwhen the time came to make
the end as neat and instantaneous
as anyone could wish.
The Spurcans had told him
that he had enough fuel to get into
space, no more. They hadn't told
him what was wrong, how they
had ensured that when the old
ship fell back into Spurc's atmos-
phere, he wouldn't be able to land
her. It wasn't difficult to guess,
however. The braking fins would
go,same as before.
That was what they'd meant by
"according to the manner of the
crime."
He hadn't seen either Carruthers
or Dawn Clifford again. He had
no particular desire to see them.
It was more than possible that on
any other planet, even in space,
ac- 'Dawn Clifford might be worth
knowing. On Spurc, however, she
was nothing but a cold, beautiful
phonograph record which played
nothing except: Ler me away from
here! God, how I hate them!
He'd been glad to see the last of
the palace, glad to get out into the
city of Pluc, where at least there
were sounds, happiest of all to get
into a ship — even this antiquated
derelict.
If he could manage it, he pro-
way posed to blow up right in the mid-
dle of the palace — to spit his life,
at least symbolically, in the Spur-
cans' face. The annoying thing
was that he didn't think they
GALAXY
would mind particularly. They "No, you don't know me," she
were more concerned that their said. "We never met, did we?"
version of justice should be done "I guess you're right at that,"
than over any damage he might confessed Allan. "Pleased to meet
succeed in doing. you. And to my surprise, I mean
The ship climbed. The drive it."

had been he could not

set so that She laughed. go make some
"I'll

cut it inthan ten minutes.

less coffee," she said. "Spurcan coffee,
Now, however, he found he could I'm afraid. I don't mind any more.
control it. He reached out to cut Oh, if s wonderful to be clear of
the drive, wanting to preserve as that place!"
much fuel as he could.
"Don't," said a voice behind WHEN she went out, Allan
him. turned to Carruthers. "What
He turned and saw Carruthers is all this? Are you telling me this
and Dawn Clifford. Dawn was ship is all right?"
smiling, happy. He hardly recog- "Anything but, my dear fellow,"
nized her. said Carruthers genially, "but
"Let it rip, old boy," said Car- there's no need to crash on Spurc.
ruthers. "I don't know how good a I knew the Spurcans wouldn't
pilot you are, but if you're good guard this ship any more than
enough, you may be able to get us they guarded your own. Why
to somewhere civilized." should anyone tamper with a ship
."
"But . . that's already been damaged so
"We took care of the fuel. that it must blow up?"
There's plenty. Also we patched "I guess I've a lot to thank you
up the damage they'd done before for," said Allan. "And if itcan be
giving you this ship. Not very well, done,I'll get you both away safely.

perhaps, but well enough to give But what are you doing here, Car-
you a chance." ruthers? I know how much Dawn
Dawn was still smiling at him. wanted how about
to get away, but
"Hello," she said, offering her hand. you?"
"I'm Dawn Clifford." "I told you," Carruthers replied,
"I know," he said, a little dazed. Three
"that I'd fallen foul of the
She looked like another person, Unwishes as well as you. Sooner
with clothes on, and he found he or later, every visitor does. And
liked this one better. She was naturally one of the wishes is al-
bubbling over with happiness now, ways to get away from Spurc."
a warm, vital creature he had "I see," said Allan. "This was
never seen before. the only way we could all get

KINGSLAYER 115
away. You were pretty smart, Car- ing in had to get Miss Clif-
this. I
ruthers." ford's cooperation, but if you want
Carrurthers nodded. "I was," he to whitewash her, it's easy enough
agreed. — I didn't tell her about the plan
"When did you get this idea?" until afterKing Phunk was dead.
"Not long before you took the By that time, there was nothing
King up," said Carruthers blandly. for her to do but play along with
me."
"C1 OR a moment, Allan didn't Allan found
himself relieved
* understand. Then anger spread that Dawnhadn't been a party to
through him as he realized what the plan from the beginning. But
Carruthers meant. his rage against Carruthers didn't
"So you -" lessen. Carruthers had murdered
"Well, after all, I've been a poor little King Phunk and all his
prisoner on Spurc for ten years. I retinue and landed Allan in deadly
didn't come here to be ambassa- trouble just to get himself off
dor.. took the job because I
I Spurc. And now he was gleefully
had eat. Every time a ship
to proud of himself.
has blasted off, they've searched "I feel like smashing this ship
her to make sure that people like on the nearest lump of rock," Allan
Dawn and me haven't managed to said viciously.
stow away. It seemed to me the "But you won't," said Car-
only ship that wouldn't be searched ruthers, unperturbed. "Not with
was a ship that was meant to yourself and Miss Clifford aboard.
crash.So I had to fix myself up Particularly Miss Clifford. Her
with a pilot and a ship that was presence makes a difference,
meant to crash. That meant . . . doesn't it?"
but I won't insult your intelligence "Yes," Allan admitted. "I can't
by explaining the obvious." wring your neck without upsetting
"You sabotaged my ship so the and maybe alienating her. Was
King would be killed?" thatwhy you fitted her into your
"Of course. I knew you'd make plan?"
some sort of landing and would Carruthers looked hurt. "Natu-
probably get out unhurt. But these rally," he said. "You don't suppose
puffy little Spurcans wouldn't have I'd leave a thing like that to
a chance in a rough landing. With chance, do you?"
your and a little finagling
affidavit He was shocked, horrified and
in court by me, that meant the still more hurt when Allan hit him.
three penalties for you culminat- —J. T. McINTOSH

116 GALAXY
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 LOVE
CALLED
THIS
THING
By AVRAM DAVIDSON AND LAURA GOFORTH

It wos all over and done with

between him and eternity ... so
he had to come down to Earth!

NAN Peter Baker Fottr This

Nan Peter Baker How
Is
do You Receive Me Over
and we've got to get word
Fort colon congestion is absolutely
to the

unnecessary in men and women

and now a word from Our Spon- over torty at any one of the ninety-
sor interviewed in his office the one offices of the Clinton National
Commissioner said but Ruth I can Bank and Trust . . .

explain everything there is nothing "Embarasse de richesse," the

to explain David ifs all too ob- French count had said when he
vious I'm Bert Peel Officer and looked at all the pretty girls on
this is my brother Harry a cold the high school swim team, and
front coming down irom Canada explained what it meant in Eng-
lllustrated by MARTINEZ
118 GALAXY
lish. Penny wasn't really in love CQ, CQ, CQ . . . SOS, SOS,
with him; she only thought she SOS . . .

was, after pretending she was, to
make David jealous, which she
certainly did. But after the count
gently explained to her, she and
David made up just in time for the
Spring Prom, which made the dis-
tant observer very happy.
And then the other kinds of
sounds, oh, very different These
were voices. This was "radio." And
music. It was too different; the
distant observer knew distress
without even knowing that it was
distress. But he grew used to it —

At least he thought it did- "What that is, distress ceased: but not
is happy?" he often asked himself. wonder. Urgency came with the
Maybe just pretend. You never voices. What? What? He groped
really loved me Rick it was just for meaning, not even knowing
a pretense wasn't it? Like the dis- what meaning was.
tant observer thinking of himself
as "him" when, really, he knew T>RESENTLY there was another
now — had known long — he was * kind of sight, not just the dark
only an "it" Ifs about time we and the stars any longer, but pic-
faced up to reality, Alison. Yes. It tures — flickering, fading, dancing,

was about time. We can't go on clear, pictures upon pictures. Grad-

like this. No, certainly not. It was ually he learned selectivity — how
time. to concentrate upon one, how to
In the beginning, there was no not-see, not-hear the others. Still
time. There was sight— here dark, later: how to see and hear all with-
there bright. He did not know out confusion. How to match sound
then, of course — and how long had and That things had names.
sight.

"then" lasted? Memory did not What people were, who made the
tell that the bright was stars. And voices and the music. What mean-
there was sound — whispering, ing was.
crackling, shrilling. What do you About himself, he learned noth-
mean, Professor, when you say For a while, he had
ing directly.
that outer space is not a place of tried tospeak to them, but it was
silence? And then (he knew now apparent that nothing of him
that this "then" was about fifty reached Earth. He had learned
years ago) there had begun a new Earth, yes. And knew what this
kind of sound. Not steady, but in- place was, where he was. An as-
terrupted, and interrupted accord- teroid. How
had he come to be
ing to patterns. Awareness had there? This was in space. There
stirred, gradually, and wonder. He were spaceships — he saw the
knew later that this was "wireless." scenes on television. Meteors were

LOVE CALLED THIS THING 119

120 GALAXY
dangerous to spaceships. He knew It was true, what the people said.
meteors. Sometimes spaceships It was all true, every word and
crashed. He scanned all his little picture of it. There ain't no prob-

world, but there was no spaceship, lem—

crashed or otherwise. And so when it came time for
You've got to help me — J don't his favorite Wednesday evening
know who I am! But that was program, the distant observer was
more easy, oh, so much more so — ready. Summoning all his effort,
that onewas a man, and there husbanding all his energy, he
were many men. The sponsors (in passed along the wave length as a
this case,Muls, the creamy-smooth man walks down a street. There
deodorant) were men, too. Every- was a slight jar, a click. He
body was very kind to this man. undo
realized that he could never
He had amnesia. What was odor? what had just been done. There
This the observer could not un- was a new body now, a new
stand. But to have no memory, metabolism. The past is dead,
this he understood very well. This David. We have to live for the
he shared with men. future.
Gradually he had come to share "And what is your name — my,
many things with men. They spoke you got up here but quick!" bur-
different languages, but the one bled Keith Kane, the M.C. of Cash
which came with the first pictures or Credit "I've never known a
was English. English from Amer- volunteer from our happy studio
ica. Later on, there was English audience to manage it quite so
from England, there was French, suddenly. Thisis just the warm-

Russian, Spanish, Japanese — but up, you needn't be nervous.

sir, so
American was first and best So Not that you need the reassur-
much more interesting than the ance — cool as a cucumber, isn't
Red Army and the hydroelectric he, folks? Say, did you folks ever
dams, these stories of real life. Of hear the story about the little Sun-
love and sadness and of happiness. day School boy who said that King
Kid, there ain't no problem in Solomon had three hundred wives
all this world you can't lick if you and six hundred cucumbers? Wow!
really try. Very well, the observer I'm naughty! You other
really
would try. You never know what folks who volunteered just take
you can do till you try. His first seats right there—"
attempt at taking shape wasn't
good. It didn't look much like a TPHE first lady volunteer was
man. So he tried again and again. -*- old and pretty. Well, maybe
Each time he grew better at it. not so old. But maybe like Mary
LOVE CALLED THIS THING 121
Clay who realized that she was the end everyone loved them. And
too old for young David Webster see: nice Keith Kane beaming.
and after she cried she accepted The lady, too.
the fact and sent him back to "Well, David, what'll it be?
Madge Barkley whom he really Cash—or— Credit? You know the
loved all the while, only they had rules: you pick Cash, we spin
If
this silly quarrel. this wheel. If it comes up
little
The lady smiled at him. He with a number, you go on to an-
smiled back. / — feel — GREAT! swer — if you can, hah-ha— a ques-
"—So that's the way the rules tion worth however many thousand
work, and now, folks, in just five dollars follow thatnumber. If it
seconds we'll be on the air! Five- comes up blank — you're out.
four — three — two — one — Good Whereas, if you pick Credit, you
evening, all you lovely people out take your place among the volun-
there in TV Land! This is Keith teers andany contestant makes
if

Kane, bringing you the great — a boo-boo, why, you step into his
the greater — the GREATEST shoes and he is out. Soooo— ?"
quiz program ever: Cash or "Take the cash and let the credit
Credit?" go," saidDavid.
Now he felt his heart beating Grinning from lobe to lobe,
very fast. So that was what it Keith Kane asked the same ques-
was like! And now he knew what tions of the lady, whose name was
was But the lovely lady vol-
odor. Mrs. Conar, Mrs. Ethel-Mae
unteer next to him smelled, yes, Conar, a widow; and received the
that was sweet. But if it was same answer. The audience ap-
Muls or Van Art Number Three, plauded, the wheel was spun, and
this he would learn later. it came up 10.
"—just rinse and dry, folks, thaf s "Ten-thousand - DOLLARS!"
all there is to it: Clear-o, the all- screamed Keith Kane. "Thafs
purpose vegetable detergent. And what your first question is worth
now whom have we here? What is and here it is: What former Presi-
your name, sir?" dent of the United States is asso-
Here it was. And how terrible if ciated with this tune, and what is
he should break down and press the name of the tune, which refers
his hands to his head and sob, to his State? Remember, you have
"I - I - don't - know!" But he did thirty seconds to think it over . .
."

know; he had it all ready. "David. David and Mrs. Conar won two
My name is David Taylor." All hundred and eighty-five thousand
the ones named David were good. dollars in cash before the program
Oh, they had their troubles, but in was over, as well as a year's sup-
122 GALAXY
 :

ply of Clear-o, and fifty shares of She sighed, nodded. Then —

stock in a mink ranch; and the "You're a rather strange young
band played "The Stars and man," she said. "Do you know
Stripes Forever" as Keith Kane that?"
counted money. Mrs.
out the Certainly he knew it.

Conar had kissed him and kissed He leaned closer. "This is big-
David and was now clasping his ger than both of us," he said hus-
hands and sobbing that she didn't kily. "Let me take you away from
believe it. all this . .
."

"Oh, it's true,"David assured "I certainly will," she said brisk-
her. "It's all true; that's the funny ly, "right over to my place in the
part of it." (David Mackay said Surrey-Regis on Park Avenue—"
that, in Marinee, when he admitted That meant she was unhappy
his wife was an alcoholic.) Sight despite her money! — "where we
and sound and touch (kissing was can have a decent cup of coffee."
pleasant; no wonder it was so The counterman scowled at the
much done) and smell and — and bill David offered him. "Whatsis?

—what was the other? Taste. Keith Play-money? A five-hunnerd-dolla

Kane bawled at him the question bill? Whuddya, wise guy?"
of what he was going to do with David arose slowly, buttoning
all his money. David deliberated. his and leaned over. "If
jacket,
What was it that Clem Clooten, on you're bud-
looking for trouble,
Saddle-Galled, had said, the time dy ." he said. But the guy
. .

he broke the faro bank in Dogie chickened out. Anyway, Ethel-Mae

City? Taste ... yes: "I'm goin' had some change in her purse.
out 'n buy m'self a cup o' Java . .
." "Taxi!" David called happily. He
The audience went wild. helped her in, sank back in the
seat, and when the driver asked

JAVA tasted. Taste was as ex- Where To, David said crisply,
citing as the other four sensa- "Follow that cab!"
tions. And sitting next to him on The driver (Herman Bogancz,
the counter-stool was Mrs. Ethel- the license read) half -turned, half-
Mae Conar, gazing at his distin- growled. Ethel-Mae laughed. "Oh,
guished profile. It was clean-cut; if you aren't — never mind, driver
all Davids were clean-cut. He the Surry-Regis, on Park near—"
gazed down at her. He was tall, of But H. Bogancz muttered that he
course. knew where the place was.
He searched for the right words. David gazed out the window ex-
It turned out to be singular. "Hap- citedly. Everywhere, men and
py?" he asked. lights and women and automo-

LOVE CALLED THIS THING 123

 "Little old New York," he
biles. rkAVID didn't quite understand
murmured. *-* why Mrs. Coran made him
Suddenly she yelped, dug her apply for a room at the Surrey-
fingers into his arm. Regis by himself while she went
"Darling!" heexclaimed. "Are up to her room through the side
you anything wrong?"
all right? Is entrance. In fact, he didn't under-
"No," she said. "Oh, no-" stand at all. The clerk looked at
"Something must be wrong," he him rather oddly when he ex-
insisted. "You can tell me, dear. plained this to him and asked for
I trust you. No matter what you've a room near hers. He looked even
done-" odder when he saw the $500 bill.
"What I've done?" she screamed. Once again David buttoned his
"I've just won a half-share in jacket (it had been necessary to
$285,000 is what-" unbutton it first) and leaned over.
He seized her, turned her fac- "I hope," he said, "that I'm not go-
ing him. "Are you out of your ing to have any trouble with you."
mind?" he gritted. And then, mem- "Oh, dear me, no," said the
ory returning, he released her. clerk. "Not at all my good-
. . .

"Yeah Gee
. thafs right.
. . . . . ness, Mr. Taylor, but you really
Yeah how about that? Do you
. . . are tall, aren't you? Suite 516.
know what this means? Ethel-Mae, Mrs. Coran's is Suite 521 - thafs
we're rich! we're rich!" the best I can do right just this
The driver twisted his chin very minute, and—"
slightly to the right. "Do y' mind, Another gentleman materialized
mister? Not so loud with the deci- at David's elbow. "Good evening,
bels. I gottanear condition." sir," he said suavely. "I am Mr.
David said, shocked, "If there's Feltz, the manager. Is everything
anything I can do — anything at all right?"
all — if you need money — we'll "The boy's not to blame," David
get the best surgeon there is—" said, gesturing toward the clerk.
Herman Bogancz shrugged. "My "Society is to blame—we're all to
cousin Sidney is the best surgeon blame. It's these crazy, mixed-up
there is, and he says an operation times we live in."
wouldn't help." Behind David's back, the clerk
"Then," said David, "there's spread open the $500 bill for Mr.
nothing more that any of us can Feltz's inspection.
do — except wait — and pray—" "How right you are, sir," said
"—and wash it out three times a Mr. Feltz.
day with a boric acid solution," "About the gentleman's — Mr.
said Herman Bogancz. Taylor's change, Mr. Feltz—?"

124 GALAXY
 David turned, put his hand on naive. But that nasty little nance

the clerk's shoulder. The man down at the desk wouldn't under-
flushed, sucked in his lower lip. stand."
"That's for you, sonny. There is Since David didn't understand
no such thing as a bad boy. I never either, he made no comment, but
met a man I didn't like." covered her face with kisses. "Dar-

"Front!" said the clerk, his voice ling, I love you," he said. "Please
tremulous. believe me." And she said, But she
Mr. Feltz handed the keys to did — she did. "Do you know what
516 to the bellboy himself, urged it's like to be alone — always alone
Mr. Taylor to make his wants — never to know love? Do you?
known immediately. As David Do you? No. Of course you
walked toward the elevator, the don't-"
manager turned to his subordi- Her answer was exactly correct.
nate. "The Rich," he said simply. "Hush, darling," she said. "Every-
The clerk nodded solemnly. "We thing's going to be all right." He
know their ways," said Mr. Feltz. sighed, kissed her again. Then—
"Eh? Well, thafs very generous of "Ethel-Mae? Ethel-Mae? Mrs.
you, Robert— but, no, sixty-forty Coran? What—? Why are you—"
is good enough. He seems to have But she seem to hear him.
didn't
taken a liking to you. Send up Nothing he had ever heard on
flowers, the morning papers, a split radio or seen on television pre-
of champagne. And include my pared him for what was happening
card, Robert." now. But — he decided after a
As soon as the bellboy had gone moment or so — what was happen-
(rather like a satisfied customer on ing now was — though strange —
his way out of a high-class opium not unpleasant. "This is wrong,"
den, with a $500 bill clutched in he groaned happily. "Ifs all wrong.
his hot hand), David went down But I — I don't care. Do you hear,
the corridor and knocked on the I don't care!"

door of Suite 521. "Ethel-Mae?"

he asked, his face close to the
door. "Dearest? This is David.
Please open. I can explain every-
thing."
And, sure enough, her words as
she opened the door and fell into
his arms were, "There is nothing
to explain!" Then she said, "Ifs
— and
just that you're so sweet
IT was two in the morning before
- he stumbled back to his own
room, and bed. At half-past two,
he was awakened by the bellboy's
father and mother (smuggled up
on the service elevator) who had
come all the way from Mulberry
Street to kiss his hands. At three,
he was half-awakened by a scratch-

LOVE CALLED THIS THING 125

ing noise at his door. After a few
minutes, he got up and after
approaching it as cautiously as the
Sheriff of Hangtown on the pro-
gram of the same name — threw it
suddenly open.
A prettywith her red hair
girl
in a pony-tail
uttered a little
scream. Pencil and notebook fell to
the floor. "Why — you —
only a child!" he said, in a hushed
voice.
"Mr. T-Taylor - " she began
very nervously. "I saw you at the
studio and I fol—followed you—"
she gulped — "over here. But it
took till now for me to get up
nerve—"
"Why, you're he
frightened,"
said, looking down at her. "Don't
be frightened. You don't ever have
to be frightened of me. Come in,"
he urged. "Please come in."
She picked up her notebook and
followed him in obediently. Then,
taking the seat he gestured to, she
said, "And I'm not such a child,
told him that her name was
— Pamela Novack. And he said that
Pamela was a lovely name. She
told him that she'd hated it as a
child,but that lately — in fact,
just this very minute — she'd got-
ten to like it a whole lot more. And
they laughed. They laughed a
whole lot.
you're Before they knew it, it was get-
ting light.
"Oh, golly," Pamela sighed. "Oh,
gee, have I got a story! In a way,
if s so sad, you having such an
unhappy childhood, I mean; your
mother dying from the brain tumor
and your father being an alco-
holic-"
He said that was all in the past.
He said they had to start looking
toward the future. She nodded so-
berly. Then
she stretched and said
she was hungry.
"Hey, how about that!" David
laughed, catching sight of his face
in the mirror. It was a nice face.
He had done well in making it;

either. I'm a senior at Barnard. it looked like all the Davids he

Journalism major. And I want a had ever seen. "You know some-
story from you, Mr. Taylor, be- thing? I'm hungry, too! I haven't
fore all the other reporters get had a bite to eat since that cup
here. Please, Mr. Taylor, please." of coffee after the show. Would
He looked at her admiringly. you have some breakfast?
like to
"That took guts," he said. "Where You would? Hot diggety! Hel- . . .

I come from, the men get sepa- lo? I want Room Service, please."
rated from the boys mighty young. The narcoleptic tones of the
But—don't call me 'Mr. Taylor'- operator said, Not till ha'pas'six.
Mr. Taylor has gray hair at the And then suddenly were clear and
temples. Call me 'David'." alert and saying, "Oh, Mr. Tay-
She called him David. And she lor? Pardon me — of course, Mr.
126 GALAXY
Taylor — what would you like? beside her and looked into her
Scrambled eggs and coffee and flushed, pretty face.
toast and gallons of orange juice. "Darling," he said brokenly, tak-
Yes, sir, Mr. Taylor." ing her hands. "Trust me — I can't

Then, suddenly, the smile was explain now—but just trust me—"
gone from David's face. Anxious- There was a sound from the
ly, Pamela asked what the matter door. They looked up. Ethel-Mae
was. Scowling, he mimicked, Conar stood there, holding her
" 'Yes, Mr. Taylor, certainly, Mr. throat with both hands. After a
Taylor'— it isn't me they like—no- moment, she said, "I must have
body likes me — it's the money. hurt you very much, David, for
Once you been in reform school, you to have done — this — to me
nobody has any use for you, the — to have forgotten. So quickly."
cops are always watching you, the Exquisitely miserable, he
nice girls don't want to have any- shouted, "Leave me alone! Can't
thing to do with you—" you leave me alone? Can't you un-
Pamela was troubled. "Oh, you derstand that it's all over between
mustn't say that. I — I — well, I us?" And then, his voice dropping,
think I'm a nice girl—" she blushed "Oh, Ethel-Mae, forgive me. I
suddenly, looked down— "and I — didn't mean to say that. I didn't
like you— David." mean it. I— I can explain."
Letting her hands drop resigned-
TIE got up and walked back ly, she said, "There's nothing to
"-•* and forth, rubbing his left explain, David. I understand. It
arm with his right hand. He swung could never have worked out. I'm
around and faced her. "You!" he —I'm just—too old for you, David."
jeered. "Whadda you know? You're She walked over, lifted his head
just a fresh young kid—" (he had hung it, of course), placed
"I am not!" she snapped. her palms on his cheeks and kissed
"A senior at Barnard! Whadda him gently on the forehead. Then
you know about life? You—" she turned to Pamela and said soft-
He stopped. He had been enjoy- ly, "Be good to him, my dear.

ing the experience of emoting so And give him lots of love." She
much that the significance of the went out, her head high, a wist-
scene had escaped him. They were ful smile on her lips, and the

quarreling! That meant they were awareness that she had half of the
in love! Of course—Davids always $285,000, the year's supply of
quarreled with the girls they were Clear-o (the vegetable detergent),
really in love with. and the fifty shares of stock in a
He dropped down on one knee mink ranch.

LOVE CALLED THIS THING 127

 There was a moment's silence. like this to his wife. He would
Then, "Gosh," said Pamela. almost do it — and then, at the
"Golly," she said. last moment, not. But TV is
David turned to her. "Darling, maturing.The Davids do it all the
don't cry any more," he begged. time. All the damned time.
"Everything's going to be all right "But how could you?" Pam Tay-
from now on." lor weeps. "David, how could
"I'm not crying," she said. Her you?"
eyes were shining. "The hell with And young DavidTaylor, his
the story and the journalism course face twisted
with anguish, cries,
and the hell with Barnard, too. "Don't you understand? Won't you
With your money," she said,
all even try to understand? I'm sick!
falling his welcoming arms,
into I need help!"
"we can get married and start a Well. Naturally Pam is very
family right away. Kiss me," she sad that her husband is sick, sick,
said, "hold me tight, don't ever sick— but, after all, it's the thing to
leave me!" And so she's happy she
be, isn't it?
can him and happily she
help
Tl/F R. and Mrs. David Taylor drives the two of them down to
*-'--
house
live in a fifteen-room Dr. Naumbourg. David is very sad
in Westport with two picture win- that he's made his lovely wife un-
dows, three boxers, and three cars. happy, but he's happy that he's
They have two children and a fulfilling his destiny as a David.
third is on the way. They are as Dr. Naumbourg always insists on
happy as any couple in Westport both husbands and wives Going
has a right to be in these crazy, Into Therapy at the same time.
mixed-up days. David is a highly Pamela's case is a common enough
successful writer of television one, merely a routine phallic envy.
with an unerring nose for
scripts, Naumbourg them every day.
gets
what the public wants. It is per- But the years since Vien-
in all
haps unfortunate that his work na, Dr. N. has never had another
brings him into contact with so patient whose womb-fantasy takes
many clever and attractive women. the form of being a Thing on an
He is, of course, unfaithful to his asteroid. And so, while all three
wife with one of them at least of them are very happy, Dr. Naum-
twice a year (or at least once a bourg is perhaps the happiest of
year with two of them). all.

There used to be a time when — AVRAM DAVIDSON

a David would never do a thing AND LAURA GOFORTH

128 GALAXY
 THE SWEEPER
OF LORAY
By FINN O'DONNEVAN

You wish a universal panacea?

A simple boon to grant — first

decide what part of you it is

that you wish to have survive!

Illustrated by GOODMAN

W BSOLUTELY
sible,"
impos-
declared Pro-
leaning forward expectantly.
They had left their spaceship be-
A" fessor Carver.
"But I saw it," said Fred, his
fore dawn, in order to witness the
sunrise ceremonies in the village of
companion and bodyguard. "Late Loray, upon the planet of the same
last night, I saw it! They carried in name. Sunrise ceremonies, viewed
this hunter — he had his head half from a proper distance, are often
ripped off — and they
— colorful and can provide a whole

"Wait," Professor Carver said, chapter for an anthropologist's

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 129

 book; but Loray, as usual, proved a TJ~ E
leaned against the gnarly
disappointment. -*••*•
bole of a stabicus tree, folded
Without fanfare, the sun rose, in his arms across his meager chest
answers to prayers made to it the and glowered at the thatch-roofed
preceding night. Slowly it hoisted They had been on Loray for
village.
its dull red expanse above the hori- nearly two months and Fred de-
zon, warming the topmost branches tested the village more each day.
of the great rain-forest that sur- He was an underweight, unlovely
rounded the village. And the natives young man and he wore his hair in
slept on . .
a bristling crewcut which accentu-
Not all the natives. Already the ated the narrowness of his brow. He
Sweeper was out, cleaning the de- had accompanied the professor for
bris between huts with his twig close to ten years, had journeyed
broom. He slowly shuffled along, with him to dozens of planets, and
human-shaped but unutterably had seen many strange and won-
alien. The Sweeper's face was a derful things. Everything he saw,
stylized blank, as though nature had however, only increased his con-
drawn there a preliminary sketch of tempt for the Galaxy at large. He
intelligent life. His head was desired only to return, wealthy and
strangely knobbed and his skin was famous, or wealthy and unknown,
pigmented a dirty gray. to his home in Bayonne, New
The Sweeper sang to himself as Jersey.
he swept, in a thick, guttural voice. "This thing could make us rich,"
In only one way was the Sweeper Fred accused. "And you want to
distinguishable from his fellow Lo- pass it up."
rayans painted across his face was
:
Professor Carver pursed his lips
a broad black band. This was his thoughtfully. Wealth was a pleasant
mark of station, the lowest possible thought, of course. But the professor
station in that primitive society. didn't want to interrupt his impor-
"Now then," Professor Carver tant scientific work to engage in a
said, afterthe sun had arisen with- wild goose chase. He was now com-
out incident, "a phenomenon such pleting his great book, the book
as you describe could not exist. And thatwould fully amplify and docu-
it most especially could not exist ment the thesis that he had put
upon a debased, scrubby little forth in his first paper, Color Blind-
planet like this." nessAmong the Thang Peoples.
"I saw what Fred main-
I saw," He had expanded the thesis in his
tained. "I don't know from impos- book, Lack of Coordination in the
sible, Professor. I saw it. You want Drang Race. He had generalized
to pass it up, that's up to you." it in his monumental Intelligence

130 GALAXY
 . -PI;

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 131

 "

Deficiencies Around the Galaxy, in "Looks done for, huh?" Fred

which he proved conclusively that whispered.
intelligence among Noh-Terrans Professor Carver nodded. Last
decreases arithmetically as their month he had photographed a srag,
planet's distance from Terra in- from a vantage point very high in
creases geometrically. a very tall, stout tree. He knew it
Now the thesis had come to full for a large, ill-tempered, quick-mov-
flower in Carver's most recent work, ing beast, with a dismaying array
his unifying effort, which was to be of claws, teeth and horns. It was
titled Underlying Causes of the Im- also the only non-taboo meat-bear-
plicit Inferiority of Non-Terran ing animal on the planet The na-
Peoples. tives had to kill srags or starve.
"If you're right —" Carver said. But the wounded man had not
"Look!" Fred"They're
cried. been quick enough with spear and
bringing in another! See for your- shield, and the srag had opened
self!" him from throat to pelvis. The
Professor Carver hesitated. He hunter had bled copiously, even
was a portly, impressive, red- though the wound had been hastily
jowled man, given to slow and de- bound with dried grasses. Merci-
liberate movement. He was dressed fully, he was unconscious.
in a tropical explorer's uniform, al- "That chap hasn't a chance,"
though Loray was in a temperate Carver remarked. "It's a miracle
zone. He carried a leather swagger he's stayed alive this long. Shock
stick, and strapped to was
his waist alone, to say nothing of the depth
a large revolver, a twin to the one and extent of the wound —
Fred wore. "You'll see," Fred said.
"If you're right," Carver said The village had suddenly come
slowly, "it would indeed be, so to awake. Men and women, gray-
speak, a feather in the cap." skinned, knobby-headed, looked
"Come on!" said Fred. silently as the hunters marched
toward the medicine hut. The
~T^ OUR srag hunters were carry- Sweeper paused to watch. The vil-
•* ing a wounded companion to lage's only child stood before his
the medicine hut, and Carver and parents' hut, and, thumb in mouth,
Fred fell in beside them. The hunt- stared at the procession. Deg, the
ers were visibly exhausted; they medicine man, came out to meet the
must have trekked for days to bring hunters, already wearing his cere-
their friend to the village, for the monial mask. The healing dancers
srag hunts ranged deep into the assembled, quickly putting on their
rain-forest. makeup.

132 GALAXY
 "Think you can fix him, Doc?" /^ARVER and Fred moved
Fred asked.
"One may hope," Deg
^ the edge of the rain-forest for
to

replied a conference. The professor walked

piously. like a man in a dream. His pendu-
They entered the dimly lighted lous lower lip was thrust out and
medicine hut. The wounded Loray- occasionally he shook his head.
an was laid tenderly upon a pallet "How about it?" Fred asked.
of grasses and the dancers began "It shouldn't be possible," said
to perform before him. Deg started Carver dazedly. "No substance in
a solemn chant. nature should react like that. And
"That'll never do it," Professor you saw it work last night also?"
Carver pointed out to Fred, with "Damned well right," Fred said.
the interested air of a man watching "They brought in this hunter — he
a steam shovel in operation. "Too had his head pulled half off. He
late for faith healing. Listen to his swallowed some of that stuff and
breathing. Shallower, don't you healed right before my eyes."
think?" "Man's age-old dream," Carver
"Absolutely," Fred said. mused. "A universal panacea!"
Deg finished his chant and bent "We could get any price for stuff
over the wounded hunter. The like that," Fred said.
Lorayan's breathing was labored. It "Yes, we could— as well as per-
slowed, hesitated . . forming a duty to science," Profes-
"It is time!" cried the medicine sor Carver reminded him sternly.
man. He took a small wooden tube "Yes, Fred, I think we should ob-
cut of his pouch, uncorked it, and tain some of that substance."
held it to the dying man's lips. The They turned and, with firm
hunter drank. And then — marched back to the village.
strides,
Carver blinked, and Fred grinned Dances were in progress, given
triumphantly. The hunter's breath- by various members of the beast
ing was becoming stronger. As they cults. At the moment, the Sathgo-
watched, the great gash became a hani, a cult representing a medium-
line of scar tissue, then a thin pink sized deerlike animal, were per-
mark, then an almost invisible white forming. They could be recognized
line. by the three red dots on their fore-
The hunter sat up, scratched his heads. Waiting their turn were the
head, grinned foolishly and asked men of the Dresfeyxi and the
for something to drink, preferably Taganyes, cults representing other
intoxicating. forest animals. The beasts adopted
Deg declared a festival on the by the cults were taboo and there
spot. was an absolute injunction against

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 133

their slaughter. Carver had been un- are sacred. They are not to be
able to discover the rationale be- touched by profane hands."
hind this rule. The Lorayans re- "Are you crazy?" Fred whispered
fused to speak of it. in English.
Deg, the medicine man, had re- "You Deg said
are a wise man,"
moved his ceremonial mask. He gravely. "You understand why I
was seated in front of his hut, watch- must refuse you."
ing the dancing. He arose when the "Of course. But it happens, Deg,
Earthmen approached him. I am a medicine man in my own
"Peace!" he said. country."
"Sure," said Fred. "Nice job you "Ah? I did not know this!"
did this morning." "It is so. As a matter of fact, in
Deg smiled modestly. "The gods my particular line, I am the highest
answered our prayers." medicine man."
"The gods?" said Carver. "It "Then you must be a very holy
looked as though the serum did man," Deg said, bowing his head.
most of the work." "Man, he's holy!" Fred put in
"Serum? Oh, the sersee juice!" emphatically. "Holiest man you'll
Deg made a ceremonial gesture as ever see around here."
he mentioned the name. "Yes, the "Please, Fred," Carver said,

sersee juice is the mother of the blinking modestly. He said to the

Lorayan people." medicine man, "Ifs true, although
"We'd like to buy some," Fred I don't like to hear about it. Under
said bluntly, ignoring Professor the circumstances, however, you
Carver's disapproving frown. "What can see that it would not be wrong
would you take for a gallon?" to give me some sersee juice. On
"I am sorry," Deg said. the contrary, it is your priestly duty
"How about some nice beads? to give me some."
Mirrors? Or maybe a couple of The medicine man pondered for
steel knives?" a long time while contrary emotions
"It cannot be done," the medicine passed just barely perceptibly over
man asserted. "The sersee juice is his almost blank face. At last he
sacred. It must be used only for holy said, "It may be so. Unfortunately,
healing." I cannot do what you require."
"Don't hand me that," Fred said, "Why not?"
a flush mounting his sallow cheek. "Because there is so little sersee
"You gooks think you can — juice, so terribly little. There is

"We quite understand," Carver hardly enough for the village."

broke in smoothly. "We know Deg smiled sadly and walked
about sacred things. Sacred things away.

134 GALAXY

IFE in the village continued
^simple, invariant way. The
Sweeper moved slowly along, clean-
ing with his twig broom. The hunt-
ers trekked out in search of srags.
The women of the village prepared
food and looked after the village's
one child. The priests and dancers
prayed nightly for the sun to rise
in the morning. Everyone was satis-
fied, in a humble, submissive fash-
ion.
Everyone except the Earthmen.
They had more talks with Deg
and slowly learned the complete
story of the sersee juice and the
troubles surrounding it.
The sersee bush was a small and
sickly affair. It did not flourish in
a state of nature. Yet it resisted
cultivation and positively defied
transplantation. The best one could
do was to weed thoroughly around
it and hope it would blossom. But
most sersee bushes struggled for
a year or two, then gave up the
ghost. A few blossomed, and a few
out of the few lived long enough to
produce their characteristic
berries.
From the berry of the sersee
bush was squeezed the elixir that
meant life to the people of Loray.
"And you must remember," Deg
pointed out, "how sparsely the ser-
see grows and how widely scattered
it is. We must search for months,
sometimes, to find a single bush
with berries. And those berries will
save the life of only a single Loray-
THE SWEEPER OF LORAY
"
its an, or perhaps two at the most"
"Sad, very sad," Carver said. "But
surely some form of intensive fertil-
ization —
"Everything has been tried."
"I realize," Carver said earnestly,
"how important the sersee juice is
to you. But if you could give us a
little — even a pint or two — we
could take it to Earth, have it ex-
amined, synthesized, perhaps. Then
you could have all you need."
"But we dare not give any. Have
you noticed how few children we
have?"
Carver nodded.
"There are very few births. Our
life is a constant struggle against
the obliteration of our race. Every
man's life must be preserved until
there is a child to replace him. And
this can be done only by our con-
stant and never-ending search for
the sersee berries. And there are
never enough," the medicine man
sighed. "Never enough."
"Does the juice cure every-
thing?" Fred asked.
red "It does more than that. Those
who have tasted sersee add fifty
of our years to their lives."
Carver opened his eyes wide. Fif-
ty years on Loray was roughly the
equivalent of sixty-three on Earth.
The sersee was more than a heal-
ing agent, more than a regenerator.
It was a longevity drug as well.
He paused to consider the pros-
pect of adding another sixty years
to his lifetime. Then he asked,
135
"What happens if a man takes ser-
see again after the fifty years?"
"We do not know," Deg told him.
"No man would take it a second
time while there is not enough."
Carver and Fred exchanged
glances.
"Now listen to me carefully,
Deg," Professor Carver said. He
spoke of the sacred duties of science.
Science, he told the medicine man,
his assistant. "Another week's work,
two weeks at the most!"
"Urn," Fred replied, staring at
the village through a porthole.
"This will do it," Carver said.
"This book will prove, once and
for all, the natural superiority of
Terrans. We have proven it by
force of arms, Fred, and we have
proven it by our technology. Now
it is proven by the impersonal proc-

was above race, above creed, above esses of logic."

religion. The advancement of sci- Fred nodded. He knew the pro-
ence was above life itself. What fessor was quoting from the book's
if a few more
did it matter, after all, introduction.
Lorayans died? They would die "Nothing must interfere with the
eventually anyhow. The important great work," Carver said. "You
thing was for Terran science to have agree with that, don't you?"
a sample of sersee. "Sure," Fred said absent-minded-
"It may be as you say," Deg ly. "The book comes first. Put the
said. "But my choice is clear. As a gooks in their place."
priest of the Sunniheriat religion, "Well, I didn't exactly mean that.
I have a sacred trust to preserve the But you know what mean. Under
I
lives of my people. I cannot go the circumstances, perhaps we
against this trust." should forget about sersee. Perhaps
He turned and walked off. The we should just finish the job we
Earthmen frustratedly returned to started."
their spaceship. Fred turned and faced his em-
ployer. "Professor, how much do
A FTER coffee, Professor Carver you expect to make out of this
-^*-opened a drawer and took out book?"
the manuscript of Underlying "Hm? Well, the last did quite
Causes for the Implicit Inferiority well,you will remember. This book
of Non-Terran Races. Lovingly he should do even better. Ten, perhaps
read over the last chapter, the twenty thousand dollars!" He per-
chapter that dealt with the special- mited himself a small smile. "I am
ized inferiorities of the Lorayan fortunate, you see, in my subject
people. Then he put the manuscript matter. The general public of Earth
away. seems to be rather interested in it,

"Almost finished, Fred," he told which is gratifying for a scientist."

136 GALAXY
 Say you even make fifty thou- 'T'HEY found Deg near the medi-
sand. Chicken feed! Do you know <> cine hut. Carver said, without
what we could make on a test tube preamble, "We must have some
of sersee?" sersee."
"A hundred thousand?" Carver "But I explained to you," said
said vaguely. the medicine man. "I told you why
"Are you kidding? Suppose a rich it was impossible."
guy was dying and we had the only "We gotta have it," Fred said.
thing to cure him. He'd give every- He pulled his revolver from its hol-
thing he owned! Millions!" ster and looked ferociously at Deg.
"I believe you're right," Carver "No."
agreed. "And it would be a valuable "You think I'm kidding?" Fred
scientific advancement. But the
. . . asked. "You know what this weapon
medicine man unfortunately won't can do?"
give us any." "I have seen you use it."

"Buying isn't the only way." Fred "Maybe you think I won't use it

unholstered his revolver and on you."

checked the chambers. "I do not care. You can have no
"I see, I see," Carver said, his sersee."
red face turning slightly pale. "But "I'll shoot," Fred warned, his
have we the right?" voice rising angrily. "I swear to
"What do you think?" you, I'll shoot"
"Well, they are inferior. I believe The Loray slowly
villagers of
I have proven that conclusively. gathered behind their medicine
You might indeed say that their man. Gray-skinned, knobby-head-
lives don't weigh heavily in the ed, they moved silently into posi-
scheme of things. Hm, yes — yes, tion, the hunters carrying their
Fred, we could save Terran lives spears, other villagers armed with
with this!" knives and stones.
"We could save our own lives," "You cannot have the sersee,"
Fred said. "Who wants to punk out Deg said.
ahead of time?" Fred slowly leveled the revolver.
Carver stood up and determined- "Now, Fred," said Carver, "there's
ly loosened his gun in its holster. an awful lot of them. Do you really
"Remember," he told Fred, "we think -"
are doing this in the name of Fred's thin body tightened and
science, and for Earth." his finger grew taut and white on
"Absolutely, Professor," Fred the trigger. Carver closed his eyes.
said, moving toward the port, grin- There was a moment of dead
ning. silence. Then the revolver explod-

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 137

ed. Carver warily opened his eyes. A spear arced high and buried
The medicine man was still erect, itself at their feet
although his knees were shaking. "Too many of them," said Carver.
Fred was pulling back the hammer "Let's run for it!"
of the revolver. The villagers had They
sprinted to their ship with
made no sound. It was a moment spears and knives singing around
before Carver could figure out them, reached it safely and bolted
what had happened. At last he saw the port.
the Sweeper. "Too close," Carver said, panting
The Sweeper lay on his face, for breath, leaning against the
his outstretched left hand still dogged port. "Have you got the
clutching his twig broom, his legs serum?"
twitching feebly. Blood welled from "I got it," said Fred, rubbing his
the hole Fred had neatly drilled arm. "Damn!"
through his forehead. "What's wrong?"
Deg bent over the Sweeper, then "My arm. It feels numb."
straightened. "He is dead," the
medicine man
^ ARVER examined
Z^ 1
said. the wound,
"That's just the first," Fred pursed his lips thoughtfully, but
warned, taking aim at a hunter. made no comment.
"No!" cried Deg. "It's numb," Fred said. "I wonder
Fred looked at him with raised if they poison those spears."
eyebrows. "It's quite possible," Professor
"I will give it to you," Deg said. Carver admitted.
"I will give you all our sersee juice. "They did!" Fred shouted." Look,
Then you must go!" the cut changing color already!"
is

He ran into the medicine hut and The edges of the wound had a
reappeared a moment later with blackened, septic look.
three wooden tubes, which he thrust "Sulfa," Carver said. "Penicillin,
into Fred's hands. too. I wouldn't worry much about
"We're in business, Professor," it, Fred. Modern Terran drugs —

Fred said. "Lefs get moving!" "— might not even touch this
They walked past the silent vil- stuff. Open one of those tubes!"

lagers, toward their spaceship. "But, Fred," Carver objected,

Something bright flashed in the "we have so little of it. Besides —
sunlight. Fred yipped and dropped "To hell with that," Fred said. He
his revolver. Professor Carver hast- took one of the tubes and uncorked
ily scooped it up. it with his teeth.

"One of those gooks cut me," "Wait, Fred!"

Fred said. "Give me the revolver!" "Wait, nothing!"

138 GALAXY
 Fred drained the contents of the 'Wear's happened to me?"
tube and flung it down. Carver said Carver tried to speak, but no
testily, "I was merely going to point words came. He watched as Fred's
out that the serum should be tested features slowly altered, smoothed,
before an Earthman uses it. We became blank, rudimentary, as
don't know how it'll react on a though nature had drawn there a
human. It was for your own good." preliminary sketch of intelligent
"Sure it was," Fred said mocking- life. Strange knobs were coming out

ly. "Just look at how the stuff is on Fred's head. His complexion
reacting." was changing slowly from pink to
The blackened wound had gray.
turned flesh-colored again and was
sealing. Soon there was a line of 46T told you to wait," Carver
white scar tissue. Then even that * sighed.
was gone, leaving firm pink flesh "Whafs happening?" asked Fred
beneath. in a frightened whimper.
"Pretty good, huh?" Fred gloat- "Well," Carver said, "it must all

ed, with a slight touch of hysteria. be residual in the sersee. The Lor-
"It works, Professor, it works! Drink ayan birth-rate is practically non-
one yourself, pal, live another sixty existent, you know. Even with the
years. Do you suppose we can syn- sersee's healing powers, the race
thesize this stuff? Worth a million, should have died out long ago. Un-
worth ten million, worth a billion. less the serum had another purpose
And if we can't, there's always good as well — the ability to change lower
old Loray. We can drop back every animal forms into the Lorayan
fifty years or so for a refill. The stuff form."
even tastes good, Professor. Tastes "Thaf s a wild guess!"
like — what's wrong?" "A working hypothesis based
Professor Carver was staring at upon Deg's statement that sersee is
Fred, his eyes wide with astonish- the mother of the Lorayan people.
ment. I'm afraid that is the true meaning
"What's the matter?" Fred asked, of the beast cults and the reason
grinning. "Ain't my seams straight? they are taboo. The various beasts
What you staring at?" must be the origins of certain por-
Carver didn't answer. His mouth tions of the Lorayan people, per-
trembled. Slowly he backed away. haps all the Lorayan people. Even
"What the hell is wrong!" Fred the topic is taboo; there clearly is

glared at Carver. Then he

ran to a deep-seated sense of inferiority
the spaceship's head and looked in about their recent step up from
the mirror. bestiality."

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 139

 Carver rubbed his forehead "I will if I must," Carver assured
wearily. "The sersee juice has," he him. "I'll shoot you and throw you
continued, "we may hazard, a role- out"
sharing in terms of the life of the He took aim. Fred backed to the
race. We
may theorize — port, undogged it, opened it The
"To hell with theory," Fred said, villagers were waiting quietly out-
and was horrified to find that his side.
voice had grown thick and guttural, "What will they do to me?"
like a Lorayan voice. "Professor, do "I'm really sorry, Fred," Carver
something!" said.
"There's nothing I can do." "I won't go!" Fred shrieked, grip-
"Maybe Terran science — ping the edges of the port with both
"No, Fred," Carver said quietly. hands.
"What?" Carver shoved him into the wait-
"Fred, please try to understand. ing hands of the crowd and threw
I can't bring you back to Earth." the remaining tubes of sersee after
"What do you mean? You must him. Then, quickly, not wishing to
be crazy!" see what was going to happen, he
"Not at all. How can I bring you sealed the port.
back with such a fantastic story? Within an hour, he was leaving
They would consider the whole the planef s atmospheric limits.
thing a gigantic hoax."
"But -" YfTHEN he returned to Earth, his
"Listen to me. No one would be- " book, Underlying Causes of
lieve! They would consider, rather, the Implicit Inferiority of Non-
that you were an unusually intelli- Terran Peoples, was hailed as a
gent Lorayan. Your very presence, milestone in comparative anthro-
Fred, would undermine the whole pology. But he ran into some diffi-
thesis of my book!" culty almost at once.
"You can't leave me," Fred said. A space captain named Jones
"You just can't do that." returned to Earth and maintained
Professor Carver still had both that on the planet Loray, he had
revolvers. He
stuck one in his belt discovered a native who was in
and leveled the other. every significant way the equal of
"I am not going to endanger the a Terran. And he had tape record-
work of a lifetime. Get out, Fred." ings and motion pictures to prove
"No!" it
"I mean it. Get out, Fred." Carver's thesis seemed in doubt
"I won't! You'll have to shoot for some time, until Carver exam-
me!" ined the evidence for himself. Then
140 GALAXY
he pointed out, with merciless logic, in spite of his so-called abilities, to
that the so-called super-Lorayan, reach any higher position in the de-
this paragon of Loray, this supposed based society in which he dwelt?
equal of Terran humanity, occupied The question silenced the space
the lowest position in the Lorayan captain and his supporters, de-
hierarchy, the position of Sweeper, molished the entire school, as a
clearly shown by the broad black matter of fact. And the Carverian
stripe across his face. Doctrine of the Implicit Inferiority
The space captain admitted that ofNon-Terrans is now accepted by
this was true. reasoning Terrans everywhere in
Why then, Carver thundered, the Galaxy.
was this Lorayan Superior not able, — FINN O'DONNEVAN

*••*•*•••••*****•*••**•••••*••••*••*••••*••******••*
tr

J ANY IMPROVEMENT? I
*
We asked last year how communities were doing for supplies of
*
*
Galaxy — adequate or inadequate numbers of copies, regular or £
* irregular distribution? J
* Readers wrote A lot of them. *
* i n.

* The result was remarkably

like a revised battle plan. Reserve *
copies were sped into lightly held towns. Fortified positions that +
had held out against science fiction were breeched. Copies were J
* liberated from under-the-counter concealment and put in the front *
lines. *
*
Everybody benefited, and our thanks to those reader-scouts ¥
who did a terrain-mapping job that we could never have done on I
our own. *
But that was a year ago. How are things now? *
For swift, resourceful action, write directly to headquarters: +
Circulation Department.
£
Galaxy Publishing Corp.
$
t 421 Hudson Street New York 14, N.Y. J
+ *
*•**••**•••*•*•*•**•**••*•**•**••****••••••••••****•

THE SWEEPER OF LORAY 141

 The BEMs
in your neighborhood
won't run off with your books if you
put on the inside front cover of each
one a gummed bookplate by EMSH
with your name printed on it.

YOUR NAME HERE

Bookplate No. GF-612

FINAGLE SAYS. . .

The umteenth corollary of Finagle's

General Law of Dynamic Negatives
states: "No books are lost by loaning
except the ones you particularly
want to keep."

AN IDEAL
S. F. GIFT
IMPRINTED
with owner's name:

100-54, 200-56
300-58
ALL POSTPAID
{Add State Sales Tax, if any)

Actual Size 3" x -4"

No. GF-614

Order from GALAXY

421 Hudson Street. New York 14. N. Y.
GALAXY'S

5 Star Shelf
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE by handle acceptably does not dis-
James Blish. Ballantine Books, qualify it. The reverse, rather — a
N.Y., $2.00 challenge of this magnitude de-
mands talent and skill equal to
f^ ENERALLY, SF authors steer it.

*~* clear of religious themes with Given that, the result is bound
greater reason than mainstream au- to be a significant one.
thors. It's a ticklish task even for Blish's choice of a Jesuit as a
the In our specialized field,
latter. member of a Planetary Commis-
such necks stuck out usually mean sion is logical: have long
Jesuits
heads lopped off. Very few success- been explorers and scientists and
ful examples pop into mind. Mil- doubtless will continue even be-
ler's "Canticle for Liebowitz" and yond the Earth's atmosphere. His
certain shorts of Boucher's are concepts and precepts are particu-
most easily recalled. larly controversial, as they must be
However, religion is a most in so foreign an environment.
valid theme. That it is difficult to Although the book tends to ex-
• • • • • SHELF 143
treme unevenness, this profound Random questions:
story of an alien moralistic para- 1. Why is twilight shorter in the
dise, its inhumanly good code of What was
tropics? 2. the Star of
ethics and the unintended threat Bethlehem?3. What is the solar
to Earth's equanimity that it rep- phenomenon known as Bailey's
resents, is a provocative, serious, Beads?
commendable work. Such trail- Incidentally, the title is too
blazers are exceedingly hard to modest. There are 1049 questions
come by. by actual count

FIVE GALAXY SHORT ON AN ODD NOTE by Gerald

NOVELS, edited by H. L. Gold. Kersh. Ballantine Books, N. Y.,
Doubleday & Co., Inc., N.Y., $3.95 $2.00

A S indicated by the title, all HAVE always had small quar-

•** appeared in this
five novellas
magazine: "Tangle Hold" by F. L.
Wallace, "World Without Chil-
dren" by Damon Knight, "Wher-
ever You May Be" by James E.
Gunn, "Mind Alone" by J. T. Mc-
intosh and "Granny Won't Knit"
by Theodore Sturgeon. With intro-
duction by Gold.
1001 QUESTIONS ANSWERED
ABOUT ASTRONOMY
I with the Ballantine squibs.
rel
However, to describe as science
fiction this Kersh collection is con-
siderable point-stretching.
A handful of stories touch the
outer perimeter of fantasy-science:
"The Eye," a transplant story such
as underwent multiple jeopardy
during Hollywood's "Karloff Peri-
od," but in Kersh's treatment head,
shoulders, knees and ankles above
by its ilk; "Frozen Beauty," concern-

James S. Pickering. Dodd, Mead ing a resuscitated Siberian Ice Age

& Co., N.Y., $6.00 female; the time-warp effect of
the Hiroshima bomb in "The
TTERE are questions and an- Brighton Monster"— these qualify,
*-•*• swers in quantities sufficient but the remaining ten do not.
to satisfy the most persistent as- Good fiction, yes. Science fiction,
tronomical pest. no.
Pickering, assistant astronomer Kersh is a phrase-turner of
and lecturer at the N.Y. Hayden prime distinction: "To die, that's
Planetarium, has supervised their nothing. It's easier to die than to

program of special performances live, once you get the hang of it."
for school children, business groups If off-trail, well-written fantasy
and conventions. is your dish, here's a tureen of it.

144 GALAXY
THE TORTURED PLANET by locks and disclaim sadly that
C. S. Lewis. Avon Publications, "They don't hardly write them like
Inc., N.Y., 35<f this no more."

THIRD of a trilogy, (Perelan- WHAT'S GOING ON IN SPACE

dra,Out oi the Silent Planet) by Commander David C. Holmes.
this book is another of Lewis's Funk and Wagnalls Co., N.Y.,
allegorical treatments of the con- $3.95
flict between biblical Good and
Evil. Though less
famous predecessors,
known than its WITH Commander Holmes,
it bears the the Armed Services have
authentic stamp of its creator's added yet another to their group
awesome imagination — awesome of exceedingly articulate spokes-
in the archaic sense. men. His breezily titled book is

A tiny English college town is informative, authoritative and jam-

the apex of conflict; a stuffy young filled and chockpacked with quot-
Fellow of Sociology and his clair- able bromides.
voyant wife are the axis around "The only way we could tell
which the story revolves, the hus- old time test pilots apart (sole
band an unthinking tool of the interests: women and planes) was
evil N.I.C.E. - National Institute by the altitude at which we found
of Coordinated Experiments, and them."
the wife the seer of the 78th Pen- Following his conquest of space,
dragon of Logres in direct line of "man as we know him today may
succession from King Arthur. become a period piece in the vast
However, both earthly rival groups furniture of life."
are merely tools of infinitely su- "IPBM's (Interplanetary BM's)
perior supra-normal forces. with H-bomb warheads could
From calm beginnings, Lewis's create new moon craters with
Apocalyptic warning is soon in full unique opportunities for perpetu-
shriek, aided by such grisly shock- ating the names of presidents,
ers as the living Pavlovian head prime ministers and party secre-
of a guillotined French murderer, taries."
the body of Merlin the Druid dug Additionally, this is the best
living from its age-old tomb, and treatment to date of the first two
a viciously sadistic female boss Sputniks, three Explorers and first
of secret police known as "Fairy" Vanguard. And, basing his guess
Hardcastle. on some sound information,
This is the kind of yarn over Holmes is convinced that a suc-
which oldtime Fen shake grizzled cessful moon shot by 1960 is a
• • • • • SHELF 145
certainty. Maybe he and I are al- JUNIOR EDUCATIONAL CORNER
ready too late with this bit of in-

side outfo. SPACE BOOK FOR YOUNG

PEOPLE by Homer E. Newell,
THE BLUE BARBARIANS by Jr. Whittlesey House, N.Y., $2.95
Stanton A. Coblentz. Avalon Books
N.Y., $2.75 THE
seen
period since Sputnik I has
scores of space books pub-
COBLENTZ'S social satires lished and I find arresting the fact
hew to the formula laid down that so many authors are part of
in Dean Swift's Gulliver. But the space program in one way or
where Swift is still highly readable another. This a far departure
is

centuries afterward, in only a quar- from the close-mouthed attitude of

ter century the field has so far out- our Armed Services pre-Oct. '57.
distanced Coblentz that his books For instance, Newell has such un-
seem older — and ever so much usual qualifications that I find it
slower — than Swiff s. even more edifying to review the
However, technical faults aside, author than his lucid little book.
Coblentz frequently gets across a Three years teacher of math-
tellingblow at our sociopolitical ematics at U. of Wise, four at U.
setup. Twenty-seven years, one of Maryland; joined Naval Re-
universal war and countless police search Lab 1944; 1947, named
actions later, some of his observa- head of Rocket Sonde Branch in
tions are as valid as most of Swift's charge of rocket upper-air research
are. In fact, now that we have the program; 1955, Acting Superinten-
comic opera posturings and moral- dent of Atmosphere and Astro-
istic blatherings in the United Na- physics Division which includes
tions while conflict abounds at Rocket Sonde, Radio Astronomy,
large, his picture of a ridiculous Atmospheric Electricity and Aer-
culture on Venus, highly indus- ology. Also Science Program Co-
trialized yet socially nonsensical, ordinator for Project Vanguard.
has parallels that hurt. There's still more, but best of
So, although Pohl and Korn- all — it's a good book, written by
bluth, among others, have done one with knowledge to impart and
far superior satirical jobs, Coblentz the knowledge of how best to im-
does retain a certain historical part it.

value. — FLOYD C. GALE

146 GALAXY
When the Peopl e Fell
By CORDWAINER SMITH

The biggest news story In all

history had happened centuries

ago—but he was an eyewitness!

Illustrated by SIEGEL

AN you imagine a rain of bygone ages. He did not expect

people through an acid Dobyns Bennett to flare up at
fog? Can you imagine him.
thousands and thousands of hu- Dobyns Bennett thrust home
man bodies, without weapons, the psychological he
advantage
overwhelming the unconquerable had gotten by taking the initiative.
monsters? Can you — "Can you imagine showhices in
"Look, sir," interrupted the re- their parachutes, a lot of them
porter. dead, floating out of a green sky?
"Don't interrupt me! You ask Can you imagine mothers crying
me silly questions. I tellyou I saw as they fell? Can you imagine
the Goonhogo itself. I saw it take people pouring down on the poor
Venus. Now ask me about that!" helpless monsters?"
The reporter had called to get Mildly, the reporter asked what
an old man's reminiscences about showhices were.

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 147

 "
"That's old Chinesian for chil-
dren," said Dobyns Bennett. "I
saw the last of the nations burst
and die, and you want to ask me
about fashionable clothes and
things. Real history never gets
into the books. If s too shocking.
I suppose you were going to ask
me what I thought of the new
striped pantaloons for women!"
"No," said the reporter, but he
blushed. The question was
notebook and he hated blushing.
"Do you know what the Goon-
hogo did?"
•"What?" asked the reporter,
struggling to remember just
a Goonhogo might be.
"It took Venus," said the old
man, somewhat more calmly.
Very mildly, the reporter mur-
mured, "It did?"
"You bet it did!" said Dobyns
Bennett belligerently.
"Were you there?" asked the
reporter.
"You bet I was there when the
Goonhogo took Venus," said the
old man. "I was there and it's the
damnedest thing ever seen.
I've
You know who I am.
I've seen
more worlds than you can count,
boy, and yet when the nondies
and the needies and the showhices
came pouring out of the sky, that
was the worst thing that any man
could ever see. Down on the
ground, there were the loudies the
way they'd always been —
The reporter interrupted, very
148
gently. Bennett might as well have
been speaking a foreign language.
All of this had happened three
hundred years before. The re-
porter's job was to get a feature
from him and to put it into a
language which people of the pres-
ent time could understand.
"DESPECTFULLY he said,
** "Can't you start at the begin-
in his ning of the story?"
"You Thafs when I mar-
bet.
ried Terza. Terza was the prettiest
girl you ever saw. She was one of
the Vomacts, a great family of
what scanners, and her father was a
very important man. You see, I
was thirty-two, and when a man
is thirty-two, he thinks he is pretty
old, but I wasn't really old, I just
thought so, and he wanted Terza
to marry me because she was such
a complicated girl that she needed
a man's help. The Court back
home had found her unstable and
the Instrumentality had ordered
her left in her father's care until
she married a man who then
could take on proper custodial
authority. I suppose those are old
customs to you, boy—"
The reporter interrupted again.
"I am sorry, old man," said he. "I
know you are over four hundred
years old and you're the only per-
son who remembers the time the
Goonhogo took Venus. Now the
Goonhogo was a government,
wasn't it?"
GALAXY
 "Anyone knows that," snapped even said to have mysterious con-
the old man. "The Goonhogo was nections with the lost world back
a sort of separate Chinesian gov- in the age of nations when people
ernment. Seventeen billion of could still put numbers on the

them all crowded in one small part years.

of Earth. Most of them spoke He fell in love with her and
English the way you and I do, felt like a fool for doing it.
but they spoke their own lan- She was so beautiful, it was
guage, too, with all those funny hard to realize that she was the
words that have come on down to daughter of Scanner Vomact him-
us. They hadn't mixed in with self. The scanner was a powerful
anybody else yet. Then, you see, man.
the Waywanjong himself gave the Sometimes romance moves too
order and that iswhen the people fastand it did with Dobyns Ben-
started raining. They just fell right nett because Scanner Vomact
out of the sky. You never saw himself called in the young man
anything like it—" and said, "I'd like to have you
The reporter had to interrupt marry my daughter Terza, but I'm
him again and again to get the not sure she'll approve of you.
story bit by bit. The old man kept If you can get her, boy, you have
using terms that he couldn't seem my blessing."
to realize were lost in history and Dobyns was suspicious. He
that had to be explained to be in- wanted to know why a senior
telligible to anyone of this era. scanner was willing to take a
But his memory was excellent and junior technician.
his descriptive powers as sharp All that the scanner did was to
and alert as ever . . . smile. He "I'm a lot older
said,
than you, and with this new san-
VTOUNG Dobyns Bennett had taclara drug coming in that may
-*- been at Experimental
not give people hundreds of years,
Area A very long, before he realized you may think that I died in my
that the most beautiful female he prime if I die at a hundred and
had ever seen was Terza Vomact. twenty. You may live to four or
At the age of fourteen, she was five hundred. But I know my
fully mature. Some of the Vo- time's coming up. My
wife has
macts did mature that way. It been dead for a long time and we
may have had something to do have no other children and I know
with their being descended from that Terza needs a father in a
unregistered, illegal people cen- very special kind of way. The
turies back in the past. They were psychologist found her to be un-

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 149

stable. Whydon't you take her
outside the area? You can get a
pass through the dome anytime.
You can go out and play with the
loudies."
Dobyns Bennett was almost as
insulted as if someone had given
him a pail and told him to go play
in the sandpile. And yet he real-
ized that the elements of play in
courtship were fitted together and
that the old man meant well.
The day that it all happened,
he and Terza were outside the
dome. They had been pushing
perfectly clear message on the
typewriter. The message had read,
"Why don't you Earth people go
back to Earth and leave us alone?
We are getting along all—"
And that was all the message
that anybody had ever got out of
them in three hundred years. The
best laboratory conclusions was
that they had very high intelli-
gence if they ever chose to use it,
but that their volitional mech-
anism was so profoundly different
from the psychology of human
beings that it was impossible to

loudies around. force a loudie to respond to stress

Loudies
were not dangerous as people did on Earth.
unless you killed them. You could
knock them down, push them out 'PHE name loudie was some
of the way, or tie them up; after -* kind of word in the old Chi-
a while, they slipped away and nesian language. It meant the "an-
went about their business. It took cient ones." Since it was the Chin-
a very special kind of ecologist esians who had set up the first out-
to figure out what their business posts on Venus, under the orders of
was. They floated two meters high, their supreme boss the Waywon-
ninety centimeters in diameter, jong, their term lingered on.
gently just above the land of Dobyns and Terza pushed
Venus, eating microscopically. For loudies, climbed over the hills and
a long time, people thought there looked down the valleys
into
was radiation on which they sub- where it was impossible to tell a
sisted. They simply multiplied in river from a swamp. They got
tremendous numbers. In a silly thoroughly wet, their air convert-
sort of way, it was fun to push ers stuck, and perspiration itched
them around, but that was about and tickled along their cheeks.
all there was to do. Since they could not eat or drink
They never responded with in- while outside —
at least not with
telligence. any reasonable degree of safety —
Once, long before, a loudie the excursion could not be called
taken into the laboratory for ex- a picnic. There was something
perimental purposes had typed a mildly refreshing about playing

150 GALAXY
WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 151
child with a very pretty girl-child lTTIS heart sinking within him,
— but Dobyns wearied of the **- he ran the last few meters of
whole thing. the way, and beat the ceramic
Terza sensed his rejection of gate with his bare hands until it

her. Quick as a sensitive animal, opened only just enough to let

she became angry and petulant. him in.

"You didn't have to come out with "What's wrong?" he asked the
me!" doortender.
"I wanted to," he said, "but now The doortender muttered some-
I'm tired and want to go home." thingwhich Dobyns could not
"You treat me like a child. All understand.
right,play with me. Or you treat "Speak up, man!" shouted Do-
me like a woman. All right, be a byns."Whafs wrong?"
gentleman. But don't seesaw all "The Goonhogo is coming back
the time yourself. I just got to be and they're taking over."
a little bit happy and you have to "Thafs impossible," said Do-
get middle-aged and condescend- byns. "They couldn't-" He
ing. I won't take it." checked himself. Could they?
"Your father—" he said, realiz- "The Goonhogo's taken over,"
ing the moment he said it that it the gatekeeper insisted. "They've
was a mistake. been given the whole thing. The
"My father this, my father that. Earth Authority has voted it to
If you're thinking about marrying them. The Waywonjong has de-
me, do it yourself." She glared at cided to send people right away.
him, stuck her tongue out, ran They're sending them."
over a dune, and disappeared. "What do the Chinesians want
Dobyns Bennett was baffled. with Venus? You can't kill a
He did not know what to do. She loudie without contaminating a
was safe enough. The loudies thousand acres of land. You can't
never hurt anyone. He decided to push them away without them
teach her a lesson and to go on drifting back. You can't scoop
back himself, letting her find her them up. Nobody can live here
way home when she pleased. The until we solve the problem of
Area Search Team could find her these things. We're a long way
easily if she really got lost. from having solved it," said Do-
He walked back to the gate. byns in angry bewilderment.
When he saw the gates locked The gatekeeper shook his head.
and the emergency lights on, he "Don't ask me. That's all I hear
realized that he had made the on the radio. Everybody else is
worst mistake of his life. excited too."

152 GALAXY
 Within an hour, the rain of You'll have to find out Lefs just
people began see what happens."
Dobyns went up to the radar Scanner Vomact came into the
room, saw the skies above. The the room. He said, once he had
radar man himself was drumming taken a quick, experienced glance
his fingers against the desk. He at the screens, "This may be the
said, "Nothing like this has been strangest thing we'll ever see, but
seen for a thousand years or more. I have a
feeling they're dropping
You know what there is up there? people. Lots of them. Dropping
Those are warships, the warships them by the thousands, or by the
left over from the last of the old hundreds of thousands, or even
dirty wars. I knew the Chinesians by the millions. But people are
were inside them. Everybody coming down there. Come along
knew about it. It was sort of like a with me, you two. We'll go out
museum. Now they don't have any and see it. There may be some-
weapons in them. But do you body that we can help."
know — there are millions of
people hanging up there over Ve- ¥JY thistime, Dobyns' con-
-*-*
nus and I don't know what they was hurting him bad-
science
are going to do!" ly. He wanted to tell Vomact that

He
stopped and pointed at one he had left Terza out there, but
of the screens. "Look, you can he had hesitated — not only be-
see them running in patches. cause he was ashamed of leaving
They're behind each other, so her, but because he did not want
they cluster up solid. We've never to tattle on the child to her father.
had a screen look like that." Now he spoke.
Dobyns looked at the screen. It "Your daughter's still outside."
was, as the operator said, full of Vomact turned on him solemn-
blips. ly. The immense eyes looked very

As they watched, one of the tranquil and very threatening, but

men exclaimed, "Whafs that mil- the silky voice was controlled.
ky stuff down there in the lower "You may find her." The scan-
left? See, ifs — it's pouring," he ner added, in a tone which sent
said, "it'spouring somehow out of the thrill of menace up Dobyns'
those dots. How can you pour back, "And everything will be well
things into a radar? It doesn't really if you bring her back."
show, does it?" Dobyns nodded as though re-
The radar man looked at his ceiving an order.
screen. He said, "Search me. I "I shall," said Vomact, "go out
don't know what it is, either. myself, to see what I can do, but I

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 153

leave the finding of my daughter
to you."
They went down, put on the
extra-long-period converters, car-
ried their miniaturized survey
equipment so that they could find
their way back through the fog,
and went out. Just as they were
at the gate, the gatekeeper said,
"Wait a moment, sir and excel-
lency. I have a message for you
here on the phone. Please call
Control."
Scanner Vomact was not to be
called lightlyand he knew it. He
picked up the connection unit and
spoke harshly.
The radar man came on the
phone screen in the gatekeeper's
wall. "They'reoverhead now, sir."
"Who's overhead?"
"The Chinesians are. They're
coming down. I don't know how
many there are. There must be
two thousand warships over our
heads right here and there are
more thousands over the rest of
Venus. They're down now. If you
want to see them hit ground, you'd
better get outside quick."
Vomact and Dobyns went out.
Down came the Chinesians.
People's bodies were raining right
out of the milk-cloudy sky. Thou-
sands upon thousands of them with
plastic parachutes that looked like
bubbles. Down they came.
Dobyns and Vomact saw a
headless man drift down. The par-
achute cords had decapitated him.
154
A woman fell near them. The
drop had torn her breathing tube
loose from her crudely bandaged
throat and she was choking in her
own blood. She staggered toward
them, tried to babble but only
drooled blood with mute choking
sounds, and then fell face forward
into the mud.
Two babies dropped. The adult
accompanying them had been
blown off course. Vomact ran,
picked them up and handed them
to a Chinesian man who had just
landed. The man looked at the
babies in his arms, sentVomact a
look of contemptuous inquiry, put
the weeping children down in the
cold slush of Venus, gave them a
last impersonal glance and ran off
on some mysterious errand of his
own.
Vomact kept Bennett from pick-
ing up the children. "Come on,
let's keep looking. We can't take
care of all of them."
'T' HE world had known that the
*- Chinesians had a lot of un-
predictable public habits, but they
never suspected that the nondies
and the needies and the showhices
could pour down out of a poisoned
sky. Only the Goonhogo itself
would make such a reckless use of
human life. Nondies were men
and needies Were women and
showhices were the little children.
And the Goonhogo was a name
left over from the old days of
GALAXY
nations. It meant something like The self-disposing parachutes
republic or state or government. were bursting like bubbles in the
Whatever it was, it was the organ- misty air, a moment or two after
ization that ran the Chinesians in they touched the ground. Some-
the Chinesian manner, under the one had done a tricky, efficient
Earth Authority. job with the chemical conse-
And the ruler of the Goonhogo quences of static electricity.
was the Waywonjong. And as the two watched, the air
The Waywonjong didn't come was heavy with people. One time,
to Venus. He just sent his people. Vomact was knocked down by a
He sent them floating down into person. He found that it was two
Venus, to tackle the Venusian Chinesian children tied together.
ecology with the only weapons Dobyns asked, "What are you
which could make a settlement of doing? Where are you going? Do
that planet possible— people them- you have any leaders?"
selves. Human arms could tackle He got cries and shouts in an
the loudies, the loudies who had unintelligible language. Here and
been called "old ones" by the first there someone shouted in English
Chinesian scouts to cover Venus. "This way!" or "Leave us alone!"
The loudies had to be gathered or "Keep going ." but that was
. .

together so gently that they would all.

not die and, in dying, each con- The experiment worked.
taminate a thousand acres. They Eighty-two million people were
had to be kept together by human dropped in that one day.
bodies and arms in a gigantic liv-
ing corral. A FTER four hours which
Scanner Vomact rushed forward. ^*- seemed barely short of end-
A wounded Chinesian man hit less, Dobyns found Terza in a
the ground and his parachute col- corner of the cold hell. Though
lapsed behind him. He was clad Venus was warm, the suffering of
in a pair of shorts, had a knife at the almost-naked Chinesians had
his belt, canteen at his waist. He chilled his blood.
had an air converter attached next Terza ran toward him.
to his ear, with a tube running into She could not speak.
his throat. He shouted something She put her head on his chest
unintelligible at them and limped and sobbed. Finally she managed
rapidly away. to say, "I've — I've — I've tried to
People kept on hitting the help, but they're too many, too
ground all around Vomact and many, too many!" And the sentence
Dobyns. ended as shrill as a scream.

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 155

 Dobyns led her back to the ex- very different kind of Chinesian
perimental area. — these late arrivals were uni-
They did not have to talk. Her formed, educated, cruel, smug
whole body told him that she men. They knew what they were
wanted his love and the comfort doing. And they were willing to
of his presence, and that she had pay any sacrifice of their own
chosen that course of life which people to get it done.
would keep them together. They brought instructions. They
As they left the drop area, put the people together in gangs.
which seemed to cover all of Ve- It did not matter where the non-
nus so far as they could tell, a dies and needies had come from
pattern was beginning to form. on Earth; it didn't matter whether
The Chinesians were beginning to they found their own showhices or
round up the loudies. somebody else's. They were shown
Terza kissed him mutely after the jobs to do and they got to
the gatekeeper had let them work. Human bodies accomplished
through. She did not need to what machines could not have
speak. Then she fled to her room. done — they kept the loudies
The next day, the people from firmly but gently encircled until
Experimental Area A tried to see every last one of the creatures was
if they could go out and lend a starved into nothingness.
hand to the settlers. It wasn't Rice fields began to appear
possible to lendhand; there
a miraculously.
were too many settlers. People by Scanner Vomact couldn't be-
the millions were scattered all over lieve The Goonhogo biochem-
it.

the hills and valleys of Venus, ists had managed to adapt rice to

sludging through the mud and wa- the soil of Venus. And yet the
ter with their human toes, crush- seedlings came out of boxes in
ing the alien mud, crushing the the scout cars and weeping people
strange plants. They didn't know walked over the bodies of their
what to eat. They didn't know own dead to keep the crop moving
where to go. They had no leaders. toward the planting.
All they had were orders to Venusian bacteria could not kill
gather the loudies together in large human beings, nor could they dis-
herds and hold them there with pose of human bodies after death.
human arms. A problem arose and was solved.
The loudies didn't resist. Immense sleds carried dead men,
After a time-lapse of several women and children — those who
Earth days, the Goonhogo sent had fallen wrong, or drowned as
small scout cars. They brought a they fell, or had been trampled by

156 GALAXY
others — to an undisclosed desti- happening on any world again.
nation. Dobyns suspected the ma- Because now, after all, there isn't
terial was to be used to add Earth- any separate Goonhogo left. There's
type organic waste to the soil of only one Instrumentality and they
Venus, but he did not tell Terza. don't care what a man's race may
The work went on. have been in the ancient years.
The nondies and needies kept Those were the rough old days,
working in shifts. When they the ones I lived in. Those were
could not see in the darkness, they the days men still tried to do
proceeded without seeing — keep- things."
ing in line by touch or by shout. Dobyns almost seemed to doze
Foremen, newly trained, screeched but he roused himself sharply
off,

commands. Workers lined up,
touching fingertips. The job
building the fields kept on.
^HPHAT'S a big story," said the
*- old man, "eighty-two million
people dropped in a single day.
And later I heard that the Way-
wonjong said it wouldn't have
mattered if seventy million of
them had died. Twelve million
survivors would have been enough
to make a spacehead for the Goon-
hogo. The Chinesians got Venus,
all of it.
"But I'll never forget the non-
dies and the needies and the
showhices falling out of the sky,
men and women and children with
their poor scared Chinesian faces.
That funny Venusian air made
them look green instead of tan.
There they were, falling all around.
"You know something, young
man?" said Dobyns Bennett ap-
proaching his fifth century of age.
"What?" said the reporter.
"There won't be things like that
and said, "I tell you, the sky was
of full of people. They fell like wa-
ter. They fell like rain. I've seen
the awful ants in Africa, and
there's not a thing among the stars
to beat them for prowling horror.
Mind you, they're worse than any-
thing the stars contain. I've seen
the crazy worlds near Alpha Cen-
tauri, but I never saw anything
like the time the people fell on
Venus. More than eighty-two mil-
lion inone day and my own little
Terza lost among them.
"But the rice did sprout. And
the loudies died as the walls of
people held them in with human
arms. Walls of people, I tell you,
with volunteers jumping in to take
the places of the falling ones.
"They were people still, even
when they shouted in the dark-
ness. They tried to help each other
even while they fought a fight that
had to be fought without violence.
They were people still. And they
did so win. It was crazy and im-
possible, but they won. Mere hu-

WHEN THE PEOPLE FELL 157

man beings did what machines needies weeping and the helpless
and science would have taken an- nondies comforting them and lead-
other thousand years to do . . . ing them off to nowhere. She re-
"The funniest thing of all was the membered the cruel, neat officers
first house that I saw a nondie put coming out of the scout cars. She
up, there in the rain of Venus. I got home and saw the rice come up,
was out there with Vomact and with and saw how the Goonhogo made
a pale sad Terza. It wasn't much of Venus a Chinesian place."
a house, shaped out of twisted Ven- "What happened to you person-
usian wood. There it was. He built ally?" asked the reporter.
it, the smiling half-naked Chinesian "Nothing much. There wasn't
nondie. We went to the door and any more work for us, so we closed
said to him in English, What are down Experimental Area A. I mar-
you building here, a shelter or a ried Terza.
hospital?' "Any time later, when I said to
"The Chinesian grinned at us. her, 'You're not such a bad girl!'

'No,' he said, 'gambling.' she was able to admit the truth and
"Vomact wouldn't believe it: tell me she was not. That night in
'Gambling?' the rain of people would test any-
"'Sure,' said the nondie. 'Gam- body's soul and it tested hers. She
bling the first thing a man needs
is had met a big test and passed it.
in a strange place. It can take the She used to say to me, 'I saw it once.
worry out of his soul." I saw the people fell, and I never
"Is that all?" said the reporter. want to see another person suffer
again. Keep me with you, Dobyns,
T\ OBYNS Bennett muttered that keep me with you forever.'
*-* the personal part did not "And," said Dobyns Bennet, "it
count. He added, "Some of my wasn't forever, but it was a happy
great-great-great-great-great-grand- and sweet three hundred years. She
sons may come along. You count died after our fourth diamond an-
those greats. Their faces will show niversary. Wasn't that a wonderful
you easily enough that
I married thing, young man?"
into the Vomact Terza saw
line. The reporter said it was. And yet,
what happened. She saw how when he took the story back to his
people build worlds. This was the editor,he was told to put it into
hard way to build them. She never the archives. It wasn't the right
forgot the night with the dead Chi- kind of story for entertainment and
nesian babies lying in the half-illum- the public would not appreciate it
inated mud, or the parachute ropes any more.
dissolving slowly. She heard the —CORDWAINER SMITH

158 GALAXY
 MISSING SOMETHING?

TWICE IN TIME ADDRESS CENTAURI MISSION OF GRAVITY THE FOREVER MACHINE

By Manly Wade Wellman By F. L. Wallace By Hal Clement By Mark Clifton and
Frank Riley
Ironic destiny of a visi- Earth was too perfect All the science on earth
tor from the future try- for these extraordinary might not be able to Genuinely mature philos-
ing to take advantage of exiles — to belong to meet the demands of ophy tinged with gentle
things to come. it, they had to flee it. this alien race.. irony. That rare event:

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Name- Address.......

City ..lone.. ..State

160 GALAXY
in the Mailbag
BY GORDON R. DICKSON

Traveling inside an official pouch gave Tardy

no immunity whatever, diplomatic or otherwise

— his destination was the dead-letter office.'

Illustrated by WOOD

THE Right Honorable

Joshua Guy, Ambassador
Plenipotentiary to Dilbia,
was smoking tobacco in a pipe.
The fumes from it made John
Tardy cough and strangle — or, at
least, so it seemed.
"Sir?" wheezed John Tardy.
"Sorry," said Joshua, knocking
the pipe out in an ashtray where
the coals continued to smolder
only slightly less villainously than
before. "Thought you heard me
the first time. I said that natural-
'
ly as soon as we knew you were
being assigned to the job, we let
out word that you were deeply
attached to the girl."
"To-" John gulped air. Both
men were talking Dilbian, to exer-
cise the command of the language
John had had hypnoed into him

161
 on his way here from the Belt for Earth-Dilbian relations." He
Stars, and the Dilbian nickname looked severely at John. "I
don't
for the missing Earthian female expect anything like that from
sociologist came from his lips au- you." The ambassador's eye
tomatically — "this
Greasy Face?" seemed to weigh John's chunky
"Miss Ty Lamorc," nodded body and red hair.
Joshua, smoothly slipping into Ba- "No, no," said John hastily.
sic and then out again. "Greasy
"Decathalon winner in the
Face, if you prefer. By the by, you
Olympics four years back, weren't
mustn't go taking all these Dilbian you?"
names The two old
at face value.
"Yes," said John. "But what I
gentlemen you're going to meet- really want is to get on an Ex-
Daddy Shaking Knees and Two ploration team to one of the new
Answers — aren't what they might
planets. I'm a fully qualified bio-
sound like. Daddy Shaking Knees
chemist and —
got his name from holding up one "I read your file. Well," Joshua
end of a timber one day in an ^
Guy "do a good job here and
said,
emergency — after about forty-five who knows?" He glanced out the
minutes, someone noticed his knees
window beside him at the sprawl-
beginning to tremble. And Two ing log buildings of the local Dil-
Answers is a tribute to the Dilbian bian town of Humrog, framed
who can come up with more than against the native conifers and the
one answer to a problem."
mountain peaks beyond. "But it's
your physical condition that'll
/
A BOUT to ask Joshua about his count. You understand why you
-*-*- own Dilbian nickname of Lit- have to go it alone, don't you?"
tle Bite, John Tardy shifted to "They told me back on Earth.
safer ground. "What about this But if you can add anything—"
Schlaff fellow who-" "Headquarters never under-
"Heiner Schlaff," interrupted stands the fine points of these situ-
Joshua Guy, frowning, "made a ations," said Joshua, almost cheer-
mistake. You'd think anyone fully. "To put — we want
it tersely
would know better than to lose his to make friends with these Dil-
head when a Dilbian picks him bians. They're the race nearest to
up. After the first time one picked ours in intelligence that we've run
up Heinie, he wasn't able to step across so far. They'd make fine
out onto the street without some partners. Unfortunately we don't
Dilbian lifting him up to hear him seem to be able to impress them
yell for help. The
Squeaking very much."
Squirt, they called him — very bad "Size?" asked John Tardy.

162
GALAXY
 "Well, yes — size is probably the She-Built, the Basic translation of
biggest stumbling block. The fact which was only a pale shadow of
that we're about lap-dog propor- its Dilbian original. While not by

tions in relation to them. But it any means a shy person, John

shows up even more sharply in a rather hesitated to look a father
cultural dissimilarity. They don't in the eye and refer to the female
give a hang for our mechanical child of his old age as — further
gimmicks and they're all for per- reflections were cut short as he
sonal honor and a healthy out- entered the room.
doors life." He
looked at John. "Ah, there, Little Bite!" boomed
"You'll say, of course, why not a the larger of the two black-furred
show of force?" monsters awaiting them. The one
"I should think—" began John. who spoke stood well over two and
"But we don't want to fight a half meters in height — at least
them — we want to make friends eight feet tall. "This the new one?
with them. Let me give you an Two Answers and I came right
Earth-type analogy. For centuries, over to meet him. Kind of- bright-
humans have been able to more or colored on top, isn't he?"
less tame most of the smaller John Tardy blinked. But Joshua
wild animals. The large ones, how- Guy answered equably enough.
ever, being unused to knuckling "Some of us have that color hair
under to anyone—" back home," he said. "This is John
Beep! signaled the annunciator Tardy— John, meet Shaking Knees.
on Joshua's desk. And the quiet one is Two An-
"Ah, they're here now." Joshua swers."
Guy rose. "We'll go into the re- "Quiet!" roared the other Dil-
ception room. Now remember that bian, bursting into gargantuan
Boy-Is-She-Built is old Shaking roars of laughter. "Me quiet!
Knees' daughter. It was the fact That's good!" He bellowed his
that the Streamside Terror wanted merriment.
her that caused all this ruckus and John stared. In spite of the
ended up with the Terror's kid- hypno training, he could not help
napping Ty Lamorc." comparing these two to a couple
of very large bears who had stood
II E led the way through the up on their hind legs and gone on
** door next room.
into the a diet. They were leaner than
John Tardy followed, his head, in bears — though leanness is rela-
spite of the hypno training, still tive when you weigh upward of
spinning a little with the odd Dil- a thousand pounds —
and longer-
bian names — in particular Boy-Is- legged. Their noses were more pug,

THE MAN I N THE MAILBAG 163

their lower jaws more humanlike
than ursinoid in the way of chin.
But their complete coat of thick
black hair and their bearishness
of language and actions made the
comparison almost inevitable —
though in fact their true biological
resemblance was closer to the hu-
mans themselves.
"Haven't laughed like that since
old Souse Nose fell in the beer
vat!" snorted Two Answers, grad-
ually getting himself under con-
trol. "All right, Bright Top,
what've you got to say for your-
self? Think you can take the
Streamside Terror with one hand
tied behind your back?"
"I'm here," said John Tardy,
"to bring back — er — Greasy
Face, and—"
"Streamside won't just hand her
over. Will he, Knees?" Two
swers jogged his companion with
a massively humorous elbow.
"Not that boy!" Shaking Knees
shook his head. "Little Bite, I
ought never have let you talk me
out of a son-in-law like that.
Tough? Rough? Tricky? My little
girl'd do all right with a buck like
that."
"I merely," demurred Joshua,
"suggested you make them wait
a bit. Boy-Is-She-Built is
rather young—"
"And, boy, is she built!" said
Shaking Knees in a tone of fond,
fatherly pride. "Still, it's hard to
see how she could do much bet-
164
ter." He peered suddenly at
Joshua. "You wouldn't have some-
thing hidden between your paws
on this?"
JOSHUA Guy spread his hands
in a wounded manner. "Would
I risk one of my own people?
Maybe two? All to start some-
thing that would make the Terror
mad enough to steal Greasy to
pay me back?"
"Guess not," admitted Shaking
Knees. "But you Shorties are
shrewd little characters." His
words rang with honest admira-
tion.
"Thanks. The same to you," said
Joshua. "Now about the Terror—"
"He headed west through the
Cold Mountains," replied Two An-
swers. "He was spotted yesterday
An- a half-day's hike north, pointed
toward Sour Ford and the Hol-
lows. He probably nighted at Brit-
tle Rock Inn there."
"Good," said Joshua. "We'll
have to find a guide for my friend
here."
"Guide? Ho!" chortled Shaking
Knees. Wait'll you see what we
got for you." He shouldered past
Two Answers, opened the door
and bellowed, "Bluffer! Come on
still in!"
There was a moment's pause,
and then a Dilbian even leaner
and taller than Shaking Knees
shoved his way into the room,
which, with this new Dilbian ad-
GALAXY
 became decidedly crowded.
dition, If you're going to carry him, you'll
"There you are," said Shaking have to do it humanely."
Knees, waving a prideful paw.
"What more could you want? ??¥ WON'T wear it!" the Hill
Walk all day, climb all night, and I Bluffer was still roaring, two
start out fresh next morning after hours later. The cause of his up-
breakfast. Little Bite, meet the set,a system of straps and pads
Hill Bluffer!" arranged into a rough saddlebag
"That's me!" boomed the new- that would ride between his shoul-
comer, rattling the walls. "Any- ders and bear John, lay on the
thing on two feet walk away from crushed rock of Humrog's main
me? Not over solid ground or liv- street. A few Dilbian bystanders
ing rock! When I look at a hill, it had gathered to watch and their
knows it's beat, and it lays out flat bass-voiced comments were not
for my trampling feet!" of the sort to bring the Hill Bluf-
"Vevy good," said Joshua dry- fer to a more reasonable frame of
ly. "But I don't know about my mind.
friend here keeping up if you can "Listen, you tad!" Shaking
travel like that." Knees was beginning to get a little
"Keep up? Hah!" guffawed hot under the neck-fur himself.
Shaking Knees.
"No, no, Little "This is your mother's uncle's first
Bite — don't you recognize the cousin speaking. You want me to
Bluffer here? He's the postman. speak to the great-grandfathers of
We're going to mail this half-pint your clan—"
friend of yours to the Terror. Only "Arright — arright — arright!"
way. Cost you five kilos of nails." snarled the Hill Bluffer. "Buckle
"Nobody stops the mail," put me up in the obscenity thing!"
in the Hill Bluffer. "That's better!" growled Shak-
"Hmm," said Joshua. He glanced ing Knees, simmering down as
at John Tardy. "Not a bad sug- John Tardy and Joshua Guy went
gestion. The only thing is how to work to put the saddle on.
you plan to carry him — "Not that I blame you, but—"
"Who? Him?" boomed the Bluf- "Don't feel so bad at that," said
fer, focusing on John."Why, I'll the Hill Bluffer sulkily, wriggling
handle him like he was a week- his shoulders under the straps in
old pup. I'll wrap him in some real experimental fashion.
soft straw and tuck him in the "You'll find it," grunted Joshua,
bottom of my mailbag and—" tugging on a strap, "easier to car-
"Hold it," interrupted Joshua. ry than your regular bag."
"That's just what I was afraid of. "That's not the point," groused

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 165

the Hill Bluffer.
dignity. He
"A postman's got
just don't wear—" He
HAD it not been for the hypno
training, John Tardy would
exploded suddenly at a snickering not have been able to recognize
onlooker. "Whafs so funny, you? this fast and unexpected start for
Want to make something out of the Dilbian trick it was. He real-
it? Just say the—" ized instantly, however, that the
"I'lltake care of him!" roared Hill Bluffer, having lost his en-
Shaking Knees, rolling forward. thusiasm for the job at first sight
"What's wrong with you, Split of the harness which was to carry
Nose?" John, was attempting a little
The Dilbian addressed as Split strategy to get out of it. Outright
Nose swallowed his grin rather refusal to carry John was out of
hastily as the Humrog village chief the question, but if John should
took a hand in the conversation. object to the unceremoniousness
"Just passing by," he growled of his departure, the Bluffer would
defensively, backing out of the be perfectly justified — by Dil-
crowd. bian standards — if he threw up
"Well, just pass on, friend, pass his hands and refused to deliver a
on!" boomed Shaking Knees. He niece of mail that insisted on im-
was rewarded by a hearty laugh posing conditions on him. John
from the crowd, and Split Nose shut hismouth and hung on.
rolled off down the street with All the same, it was awkward.
every indication his hairy ears John had intended to work out a
were burning. plan of action with Joshua Guy
John had taken advantage of before heleft. Well, there was al-

this little by-play to mount into ways the wrist-phone. He would

the saddlebag. The Hill Bluffer
grunted in surprise and looked
back at him.
"You're light enough," he said.
"How is it? All right back there?"
"Feels fine," said John, unsus-
pecting.
"Then so long,
boomed the Hill Bluffer, and, with-
out further warning, barreled off
down the main street in the direc-
tion of the North Trail, the Cold
Mountains and the elusive but
dangerous Streamside Terror.
call Joshua at the first convenient
opportunity.
Meanwhile, it was developing
that the Hill Bluffer had not exag-
gerated his ability to cover ground.
One moment they were on the
main street of Humrog, and the
everybody!" next upon a mountain trail, green
pinelike branches whipping by as
John Tardy plunged and swayed
motion like a
to the Hill Bluffer's
man on the back of an elephant. It
was no time for abstract thought.
John clung to the straps before

166 GALAXY
him, meditating rather bitterly on John Tardy, recalling the Cob-
that natural talent of his for ath- blies were the Dilbian equivalent
leticswhich had got him into this, of fairies, brownies, or what-have-
when by all rights he should be you, peered at the woodsman to
on an exploration team on one of see he was serious. John de-
if

the frontier planets right now. He
was perfectly qualified, but just
because of that decathalon win...
He
continued to nurse his griev-
ances for something better than an
hour, when he was suddenly inter-
cided he wasn't. Which still left
the problem of how he had recog-
nized John.
T> EMEMBERING the best Dil-
*-*- bian manners were made of

rupted by the Hill Bluffer's grunt- sheer brass, John Tardy horned
ing and slowing down. Peering for- in on the conversation.
ward over the postman's shoulder, "Who're you?" he demanded of
John discovered another Dilbian the woodsman.
who had just stepped out of the "So it talks, does it?" The
woods before them. The new- woodsman grinned. "They call me
comer was on the shaggy side. He Tree Weeper, Half Pint. Because
carried an enormous triangular- I chop them down, you see."
headed axe and had some native "Who told you about me?"
herbivore roughly the size and "Oh, that'd be telling," grinned
shape of a musk-ox slung casually Tree-Weeper. "Say, you know
over one shoulder. why they call him the Streamside
"Hello, woodsman," said the Hill Terror, Half Pint? It's on account
Bluffer, halting. of he likes to fight alongside a
"Hello, postman." The other dis- stream, pull the other feller in and
played a gap-toothed array of drown him."
fangs in a grin. "Got some mail "I know," said John shortly.
for me?" "Do you now?" said the other.
"You!" the Hill Bluffer snorted. "Well, ought to be something to
it

"Not so funny. I could get mail," watch. Good going to you, Half
growled the other. He peered Pint, and you too, postman. Me for
around at John. "So thafs the home."
Half Pint Posted." He turned away into the brush
"Oh?" said the Hill Bluffer. alongsidethe trail and it swal-
"Who told you?" lowed him up. The Hill Bluffer
"The Cobbly
Queen, that's took up his route again without a
who!" retorted the other, curling word.
the right side of his upper lip in "Friend of yours?" inquired
the native equivalent of a wink. John, when it became apparent

THE MAN IN THE M A I L B AG 167

the Hill Bluffer was not going to I can tell you," interrupted Joshua.
comment on the meeting. "You've had your hypno train-
"Friend?" the Hill Bluffer ing. It's up to you. Find the Ter-
snorted angrily. "I'm a public of- ror and get the girl back. You'll
ficial!" have to figure out your own means,
"I just thought—" said John. my dear fellow."
"He seemed to know things." "But—" John stopped, staring
"That hill hopper! Somebody helpless at the phone.
ahead of us told him!" growled the "Well, good luck, then. Call me
Bluffer. But he fell unaccountably tomorrow. Call me anytime."
silent after that and said no more "Thanks," said John.
for the next three hours, until — the "Not at all. Luck. Good-by."
two of them having left Hum- "Good-by."
rog a couple of hours past noon —
they pulled up in the waning sun- JOHN Tardy clicked off the
light before the roadside inn at phone and walked somberly
BrittleRock, where they would back to the Inn. Inside its big
spend the night. front door, he found a wide com-
The first thing John Tardy did, mon room filled with tables and
after working some life back into benches. The Hill Bluffer, to the
his legs, was to stroll off to the amusement of a host of other
limits of the. narrow, rocky ledge travelers, was arguing with a
on which the Inn stood — Brittle female Dilbian wearing an apron.
Rock was hardly more than a wide "How the unmentionable should
spot in the narrow mountain gorge / know whatto feed him?" the
up which their road ran — and put was bellowing. "Give
Hill Bluffer
in a call toJoshua Guy with the him some meat, some beer — any-
phone on his wrist. As soon as thing!"
Joshua got on the beam, John re- "But you haven't had the chil-
lievedly explained the reason be- dren dragging in pets like I have.
hind his call. It did not go over, Feed one the wrong thing and it
apparently, very well. dies.And then they cry their little
"Instructions?" floated the faint- hearts-"
ly astonished voice of the ambas- "Talking about me?" John Tar-
sador out of the receiver. "What dy broke in.
instructions?" "Oh!" gasped the female, glanc-
"The ones you were going to ing down and retreating half a
give me. Before I took off so sud- step. "It talks!"
denly-" "Didn't I say he did?" de-
"But there's absolutely nothing manded the Bluffer. "Half Pint,

168 GALAXY
what kind of stuff do you eat?"
John fingered the four-inch
tubes of food concentrate at his
waist. Dilbian food would not
poison him, though he could ex-
pect little nourishment from it,
and a fair chance of an allergic
reaction from certain fruits and
vegetables. Bulk was all he needed
to supplement the concentrates.
"Just give me a little
said.
The room buzzed approval. This
little critter, they seemed to
could not be too alien if he liked
to drink. The female brought him
a wastebasket-sized wooden mug
that had no handles and smelled
like the most decayed of back-lot
breweries. John took a cautious
sip and held the bitter, sour, flat-
tasting liquid in his mouth for an
indecisive moment.
Heswallowed manfully. The as-
sembled company gave vent to
rough-voiced approval, then ab-
ruptly turned their attention else-
where. Looking around, he saw
that the Hill Bluffer had gone off
somewhere. John climbed up on
a nearby bench and got to work
on his food concentrates.
After finishing these, he con-
tinued to sit where he was for the
better part of an hour, but the
Hill Bluffer did not return. Struck
by a sudden thought, John Tardy
climbed down and went back to-
ward the kitchen of the Inn. Push-
ing his way through a hide curtain,
THE MAN IN THE MAI LBAG
he found himself in it — a long
room with a stone fire-trough
down the center, carcasses hang-
ing from overhead beams, and a
dozen or so Dilbians of both sexes
equally immersed in argument and
the preparation of food and drink.
Among them was the female who
had brought John the beer.
He stepped into her path as she
beer," he headed for the front room with a
double handful of full mugs.
"Eeeeek!" she exclaimed, or the
feel, Dilbian equivalent, stopping so
hastily she spilled some of the
good little Shorty,"
beer. "There's a
she said in a quavering, coaxing
tone."Good Shorty. Go back now."
"Was the Terror really here last
night?"John asked.
"He stopped to pick up some
meat and beer, but I didn't see
him," she said. "I've no time for
hill-and-alley brawlers. Now shoo!"
John Tardy shooed.
A She was heading back to his
-^~*
bench, however, he felt him-
self scooped up from behind. Look-
ing back over his shoulder, he saw
he was being carried by a large
male Dilbian with a pouch hang-
ing from one shoulder. This in-
dividual carried him to a table
where three other Dilbians sat and
dropped him on it. John Tardy in-
stinctively got to his feet.
"There he be," said the one
who had picked him up. "A gen-
uine Shorty."
169
 "Give him some beer," sug- of beer into their staring faces.
gested one with a scar on his face, Then he was off the table and
who was seated at the table. dodging among Dilbian and table
They did. John prudently drank legs toward the front entrance. The
some. rest of the guests, roaring with
"Don't hold much," commented laughter, made no attempt to halt
one of the others at the table, him. He ducked into the outer
examining the mug John had set darkness.
down after what had been actually Fumbling in the gloom, he made
a very healthy draft for a human. hisway around the side of the Inn
"I wonder if he-" and dropped down on a broken
"Couldn't. Not at that size," re- keg he found there. He was just
plied the one with the pouch. "He's making up his mind to stay there
chasing that female Shorty, though. until the Hill Bluffer came and
You reckon—?" found him, when the back kitchen
Scarface regretted that they did door opened and closed very soft-
not have the Shorty female there ly, off to his left.
at the moment. Her presence, in He off the keg into
slipped
his opinion,would have provided deeper shadow. He had caught
the opportunity for interesting and just a glimpse out of the corner of
educative experimentation. his eye, but he had received the
"Go to hell!" said John in Basic. impression of a Dilbian female in
He then made the most forceful the doorway. There was no sound
translation he could manage in now.
Dilbian. He began to creep backward.
"Tough character!" said the Dilbia's one moon was not show-
pouched one, and they all laughed. ing over these latitudes at this
"Better not get tough with me, season of the year, and the star-
though." light gave only a faint illumina-
He made a few humorous swipes tion.He stumbled suddenly over
at John's red head that would have the edge of an unseen slope and
split it on contact. They laughed froze, remembering the cliff edge
again. overhanging the gorge below.
"I wonder," said Scarface, "can A faint reek of the Dilbian odor
he do tricks?" came to his nostrils — and a sound
"Sure," John answered prompt- of sniffing. Dilbians were no bet-
ly. He hefted his still-full mug of ter than humans when it came to
beer. "Watch. I take a firm grip, a sense of smell, but each had a
rock back, and—" He spun sud- perceptible odor to the nostrils of
denly on one heel, sloshing a wave' the other — an odor partly depend-

170 GALAXY
ent on diet, partly on a differing he did not stop to figure. It was
physiologicalmakeup. The odor deep enough.
John Tardy smelled was part-piny, He twisted around and looked
part-musk. up the distance of a couple of
The sniffing ceased. John held meters to the ledge on which the
his breath, waiting for it to start Inn was built. It was not far. He
again. The pressure built up in could climb it. After a little while,
his chest, and finally he was forced with his heart in his throat, John
to exhale. He turned his head Tardy did.
slowly from side to side. When he came back around the
Silence. front of the Inn, in the morning
Only the inner creak of his sunlight, it was to find the Bluffer
tense neck muscles turning. There! orating at a sort of open-air meet-
Was that something? John began ing, with the four who had har-
to creep back along the edge be- ried John standing hangdog be-
side him. tween two axemen and before an
There was a sudden rush, a rear- elderly Dilbian judgelike on a
ing up of some huge dark shape bench.
in the darkness before him. He "-the mail!" the Hill Bluffer
dodged, felt himself slipping on was roaring. "The mail is sacred!
the edge, and something smashed Anyone daring to lay fist upon the
like a falling wall against the side mail in transit—"
of his head, and he went whirling John, tottering forward, put an
down and away into star-shot end to the trial in progress.
darkness. Later on, after washing his slight
scalp-wound and having taken on
¥¥E opened his eyes to bright some more food concentrates and
** sunlight. flat beer for breakfast, John Tar-

The sun, just above the moun- dy climbed back up on the Bluf-
tain peaks, was shining right in his fer's back and they were under
eyes. He blinked and started to way once more. Their route today
roll over, out of its glare, into— led from Brittle Rock through the
— And grabbed in a sudden cold mountains to Sour Ford and the
sweat for the stubby trunk of a Hollows. The Hollows, John had
dwarf tree growing right out of learned, was clan-country for the
the cliffside. Terror, and their hope was to
For a second then, he hung catch him before he reached it.

there, sweating and looking down. The trail now led across swinging
He lay on a narrow ledge and the rope suspension bridges and along
gorge was deep below. How deep, narrow cuts in the rock — all of

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 171

which the Hill Bluffer took not knuckles. 'What happened?' says
only with the ease of one well ac- everybody. 'Nothing,' says Ham-
customed to them, but with the mertoes. 'Something mustVe hap-
abstraction of one lost in deep pened — look at your hand,' every-
thought. body says. 'I tell you nothing hap-
"Hey!" said John, at last. pened!' yells Hammertoes. 'He
"Huh? What?" grunted the Hill wouldn't let me in where I could
Bluffer, coming to suddenly. grab hold of him, so I come away.
"Tell me
something," said John, And as for my hand, that's got
reaching out for anything to keep nothing to do with it. He didn't
his carrier awake. "How'd the am- hurt my hand hardly at all. He
bassador get the name Little just give it a little bite!'"
Bite?" The Hill Bluffer's laughter
"You don't know that?" ex- rolled like thunderbetween the
claimed the Hill Bluffer. "I thought mountain walls. "Old Hammer-
you Shorties all knew. Well, it toes never did live that down.
was old Hammertoes down at Every time since, whenever he
Humrog." goes to give somebody a hard
The Blufferchuckled. "Got time, they all tell him, 'Look out,
drunk and worked up about
all Hammertoes, or I'm liable to give
Shorties. 'Gimme the good old you a little bite!'"
days,' he said, and went down to
just make an example of Little JOHN Tardy found himself
Bite — Shorty One, we called him laughing. Possibly it was the
then. He pushes the door open time and place of the telling, pos-
far as it'llbut Little Bite's got
go, sibly the story, but he could see
it fixed to only open part way. the situation in his mind's eye
So there's Hammertoes, with only and it was funny.

one arm through the door, feeling "You know," said the Bluffer
around and hollering, 'All right, over one furry shoulder when
Shorty! You can't get away! I'll John stopped laughing, "you're
get you—' when Little Bite picks not bad for a Shorty." He fell
up something sharp and cuts him silent, appeared to wrestle with

a couple times across the knuckles.
Old Hammertoes yells bloody
murder and yanks his hand back.
Slam goes the door."
The Hill Bluffer chortled
himself."Then old Hammertoes
comes back uptown, sucking his
himself for a moment, then came
to a stopand sat down in a con-
venient wide spot on the trail.
"Get off," he said. "Come around
to where I can talk to you."
John complied. He found him-
self facing the seated Dilbian, their

172 GALAXY
heads about on a Behind the quately, "I don't exactly know—"
level.
large, black-furred a few "Well," growled the Bluffer in
skull,
white clouds floated in the high his turn, "not my problem. Get
blue sky. on." John went around behind his
"You know," the Bluffer said, furry back. "Oh, by the way, know
"the Streamside Terror's mug's who it was tried to pitch you over
been spilled." the cliff?"
"Spilled?" echoed John - then "Who?" asked John.
remembered this as a Dilbian "The Cobbly Queen - Boy-Is-
phrase expressing loss of honor. She-Built!" translated the Bluf-
"By me? He's never even seen fer John looked blank. "She
as
me." heard about you and got ahead of
"By Little Bite," the Bluffer us somehow . .
." The Bluffer's
said. "But Little Guest
Bite's a voice trailed off into a mutter. "If
in Humrog and the North Coun- they're thinking of monkeying
try. The Terror couldn't call him with the mail ." . .

to account personally for speaking John paid no attention. He had

against Shaking Knees giving the his own fish to fry, and very fishy
Terror Boy-Is-She-Built. He had indeed they smelled just at the
to do something, though, so he moment. Swaying on top of the
took Greasy Face." enormous back as they took off
"Oh," said John. again, he found himself scowling
"So you got to fight the Terror over the situation. Headquarters
if you want Greasy back." had said nothing about his being
"Fight?" John blurted. expected to fight some monstrous
"Man's got his pride," said the free-style scrapper of an alien race
Bluffer. "That's why I can't figure — a sort of gargantuan Billy the
you out. I mean you aren't bad for Kid with a number of kills to his
a Shorty. You got guts — like with credit. Joshua Guy had not men-
those drunks last night. But you tioned it. Just what was going on
fighting the Terror — I mean hell!" here, anyway?
said the Bluffer, in deeply moved Abruptly casting aside the secu-
tones. rity regulation that recommended
a "discreet" use of the instrument,
CILENTLY, John Tardy found John lifted the wrist that bore his
^himself in full agreement with wrist-phone to his lips.

the postman. "Josh—" he began, and suddenly

"So what're you going to do checked. A fine trickle of sweat
when you meet Streamside?" ran coldly down his spine.
"Well," said John, rather inade- The phone was gone.
THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 173
XXE had the rest of the morning to
•*-*• ponder this new development
in the situation, and a good por-
tion of the afternoon. He might
have continued indefinitely
had not been for a sudden
ruption in their journey.
They had crossed a number
spidery suspension bridges during
the course of the day, and now
they had come to another one,
somewhat longer than any met so
far. If this had been the only dif-
ference, John might have been left
to his thoughts. But this bridge
was different.
Somebody had fixed it so they
couldn't get across.
It happened that their end of
the bridge had its anchors sunk
in a rock face a little back and
some seven or eight meters above
their heads. All that had been
done, simply enough, was to tight-
en the two main support cables
at the far end. The sag of the span
had straightened out, lifting the
near end up above them, out of
reach.
The Hill Bluffer bellowed ob-
scenely across the gap. There was
no response from the windlass on
the far side, or the small hut be-
yond.
"What's happened?" John Tar-
dy asked, t It occurred to him, after he had
"I don'tknow," said the Bluffer,
suddenly thoughtful. "It isn't sup-
posed to be rucked up except at
night, to keep people from sneak-
174
ing over and not paying toll."
He reached as high as he could,
but his fingertips fell far short.
"Lift me up," suggested John.
if it They tried it, but even upheld
inter- by the ankles, at the full stretch
of the Bluffer's arms, John was re-
of warded only by a throat-squeezing
view of the Knobby River below.
"It'll take five days to go around
by Slide Pass," growled the Bluf-
fer,putting John down.
John went over to examine the
rock face. What he discovered
about it did not make him happy,
though perhaps it should have. It
was climbable. Heart tucked in
throat, he began to go up it.
"Hey! Where're you going?"
bellowed the Hill Bluffer.
John did not answer. He needed
his breath;anyway, his destination
was obvious. The climb up the
rock was not bad for someone who
had had some mountain experi-
ence, but a reaction set inwhen he
wrapped his around the
arms
rough six-inch cable. He inched his
way upward and got on top, both
arms and both legs wrapped around
the cable, and began a worm-creep
toward the bridge end, floating on
nothingness at a rather remark-
able distance — seen from this
angle — ahead of him.
slowly covered about a third of
the cable-distance in this fashion,
that a real hero in a place like this
should stand up and tightrope-
GALAXY
walk to the bridge proper. This, in
addition to impressing the Bluffer,
would shorten the suspense con-
John Tardy concluded
siderably.
he must be a conservative and
went on crawling.
Eventually he reached the
bridge, crawled out on it and lay
panting for a while, then got up
and crossed the gorge. At the far
end, he knocked loose the lock on
the windlass with a heavy rock,
and the bridge banged down into
position, raising a cloud of dust.
Through this same cloud of dust,
the Hill Bluffer was shortly to be
seen advancing with a look of grim
purpose. He stalked past John and
entered the hut — from which sub-
sequently erupted thunderous
crashes, thuds and roars.
John Tardy looked about for a
place of safety. He had never seen
two Dilbians fight, but it was only
too apparent now what was going
on inside.
He was still looking around,
however, when the sound ceased
abruptly and the Hill Bluffer
emerged, dabbing at a torn ear.
"Old slaver-tongue," he growled.
"She got at him."
"Who?" asked John.
"Boy Is-She-Built. Well, mount
up, Half Pint. Oh, by the way,
thatwas pretty good."
"Good? What was?"
"Climbing across the bridge that
way. Took guts. Well, let's go."
John climbed back up into his
THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG
saddlebag and thought heavily.
"You him?" he asked,
didn't kill
as they started out once more.
"Who? Old Winch Rope? Just
knocked a little sense into him.
Hell, there's got to be somebody
work the bridge. Hang on now.
It's all downhill from here and it'll
be twilight before we hit the Ford."
IT was indeed twilight before
-* they reached their stopping
place at Sour Ford. John Tardy,
who had been dozing, awoke with
a jerk and sat up in his saddle,
blinking.
In the fading light, they stood
in a large, grassy clearing semi-
circled by forest. Directly before
them was a long low log building,
and behind it a smooth-flowing
river with its farther shore
shrouded in tree shadow and the
approaching dusk.
"Get down," said the Bluffer.
Stiffly, John Tardy descended,
stamped about to restore his circu-
lation, and followed the Bluffer's
huge bulk through the hide-cur-
tain of the doorway to the build-
ing's oil-lamplit interior.
John discovered a largeroom
like that at the Brittle Rock Inn
— but one that was cleaner, airier,
and filled with travelers a good
deal less noisy and drunken. Gaz-
ing around for the explanation be-
hind this difference, John caught
sight of a truly enormous Dilbian,
grizzled with age and heavy with
175
fat, seated like a patriarch in a calmly at John. "What you might
huge chair behind a table at the call an impossible undertaking."
room's far end. "Some of them caught him on a
John and the Bluffer found a trail once," put in the Hill Bluffer.
But as
table and set about eating. "He killed all three.''
soon as they were through, the "That was possible," murmured
postman led John up to the pa- One Man. His eyes were still on
triarch. John. "Tell me, Half Pint, what
"One Man," said the Bluffer in are you Shorties doing here, any-
a respectful voice, "this here's the how?"
Half Pint Posted." "Well-" John blinked. "I'm
John Tardy blinked. Up close, looking for Greasy Face—"
One Man had turned out to be "I mean the entire lot of you,"
even more awe-inspiring than he One Man said. "There must be
had seemed from a distance. He some plan behind it. Nobody asked
overflowed the carved chair he you all here, you know."
sat in, and the graying fur on top "Well—" said John again, rather
of his head all but brushed against lamely, and proceeded to try an
a polished staff of hardwood laid explanation. It did notseem to go
crosswise on pegs driven into the over very well, a technological
wall two meters above the floor. civilization being hard to picture
His massive forearms and great with the Dilbian vocabulary.
pawlike hands were laid out on the
table before
of
him like swollen clubs
bone and muscle. But his face
ONE Man nodded when
Tardy was through. "I
John
see.
was almost biblically serene. what makes you
If that's the case,
"Sit down," he rumbled in a think we ought to like you Shor-
voice so deep it sounded like a ties?"
great drum sounding far off some- "Ought to?" said John, jolted in-
where in a woods. "I've wanted to to a reactive answer, for he did
see a Shorty. You're my Guest, not have red hair for nothing.
Half Pint, for as long as you wish. "You don't ought to! It's up to
Anyone tell you about me?" you."
"I'm sorry—" began John. One Man nodded. "Pass me my
"Never mind." The enormous stick," he said.
head nodded mildly. "They call One of the Dilbians standing
me One Man, Half Pint, because I around took down the staff from
once held blood feud all by my- its pegs and passed it to him. He

self — being an orphan — with a laid it on the table before him —

whole clan. And won." He looked a young post ten centimeters in

176 GALAXY
THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 177
thickness — grasping it with fists
held over two meters apart.
"No one's ever been able to do
this but me," he said.
Without lifting his fists
contact with the table, he rotated
them to the outside. The
sprang upward in the center like
a bow, and snapped.
"Souvenir for you," said One
Man, handing the pieces to John.
"Good night."
He closed his eyes and sat as
ifdozing. The Bluffer tapped John
on a shoulder and led him away,
off to their sleeping quarters.
Once in the Inn dormitory, how-
ever, John found himself totally
unable to sleep. He had passed
from utter bone-weariness into a
sort of feverish wide-awakedness,
through which the little episode
with One Man buzzed and circled
like a persistently annoying fly.
What had been the point of
that talk and wood-breaking?
Suddenly and quietly, John
up. Beside him, on his heap
soft branches, the Bluffer
without stirring, as did the rest
of the dormitory inhabitants. A
single lamp burned high above,
hanging from the rooftree. By its
light, John got out and examined
the broken pieces of wood. There
was a little node or knot visible
just at the point of breakage. A
small thing, but—
John frowned. He seemed sur-
rounded by mysteries. The more
178
he thought of it, the more certain
he was that One Man had been
attempting to convey some mes-
sage to him. What was it? For that
from matter, what was going on between
humans and Dilbians, and what
staff had his mission to rescue Greasy
Face to do with the business of
persuading the recalcitrant Dil-
bians into a partnership? If that
was indeed the aim, as Joshua
Guy had said.
John swung out of the pile of
boughs and to his feet. One Man,
he decided, owed him a few more
— and plainer — answers.
He went softly down the length
of the dormitory and through the
door into the common room of the
Inn.
There were few Dilbians about
— they went early to bed. And
One Man was also nowhere to be
seen. He had not come into the
all dormitory, John knew. So either
he had separate quarters, or else
sat he had stepped outside for some
of reason . . .
slept John Tardy crossed the room
and slipped out through the Inn
entrance. He paused to accustom
his eyes to the darkness and moved
off from the building to get away
from the window light. Slowly the
night took shape around him, the
wide face of the river running
silver-dark in the faint light of the
stars, and the clearing pooled in
gloom.
He circled cautiously around
GALAXY
the Inn to
its back. Unlike Brittle
Rock, the back yard here was
clear of rubbish, sloping gradually
was given over to
to the river. It
smaller huts and outbuildings.
Among these the darkness was
more profound and he felt his way
cautiously.
Groping about in this fashion,
quietly, but with some small, un-
avoidable noise, he saw a thin
blade of yellow light. It cut through
the parting of two leather cur-
tains in the window of a hut close
by him. He stepped eagerly to-
ward it, about to peer through the
crack, when, from deep wall
shadow, a hand reached out and
took his arm.
"Do you want to get yourself
killed?" hissed a voice.
And, of course, it was human.
And, of course, it spoke in Basic.
WfHOEVER had hold of him
" drew him deeper into the
shadow and away from the build-
ing where they stood. They came
to another hut whose door stood
ajar on an interior blackness, and
John was led into this darkness.
The hand let go of his arm. The
door closed softly. There was a
scratch, a sputter, and an animal-
oil lamp burst into light within
the place.
John squinted against the sud-
den illumination. When he could
see again, he found himself look-
ing into the face of one of the best-
THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG
looking young women he had ever
seen.
She was a good fifteen centi-
meters shorter than he, but at
first glance looked taller by reason
of her slim outline in the tailored
coveralls she wore. To John Tar-
dy, after two days of Dilbians, she
looked tiny — fragile. Her chest-
nut hair swept back in two wide
wings on each side of her head.
Her eyes were green above sharp-
ly marked cheekbones that gave
her face a sculptured look. Her
nose was thin, her lips firm rather
than full, and her small chin was
determined.
John blinked. "Who-?"
"I'm Ty Lamorc," she whispered
fiercely. "Keep your voice down!"
"Ty Lamorc? You?"
"Yes, yes!" she said impatient-
ly. "Now-"
"Are y-you sure?" stammered
John. "I mean-"
"Who were you expecting to run
into way out here in — oh, I see!"
She glared at him. "If s that Greasy
Face name the Dilbians gave me.
You were expecting some horror."
"Certainly not," said John stout-
ly.
"Well, for your information,
they just happened to see me
putting on makeup one day. Thaf s
where the name came from."
"Well, naturally. I didn't think
itwas because—"
"I'll bet! Anyway, never mind
that now. The point is, what are
179
 "

you doing out here? Do you want stand? The Hill Bluffer's honor is
to get knocked on the head?" involved, too."
"Who'd knock-" John Tardy He was silent
"Oh," said John.
stiffened. "The Terror's here!" for a while."You mean he'd insist
"No, no!" She sounded annoyed. on delivering me?"
"Boyls-She-Built is." "What do you think?"
"Oh." John frowned. "You "I see." John was silent again.
know, I still don't get it — her "Well, to blazes with it," he said
angle on all this, I mean." at last. "Maybe we can make it
"She loves him, of course," said across a bridge and cut the ropes
Ty Lamorc. "Actually, they make and get away from it all. We can't
an ideal couple, by Dilbian stand- leave you here."
ards.Now let's get you back to the Ty Lamorc did not reply at
Inn before she catches you. She once. When she did, it was with a
won't follow you in there. You're pat on his arm.
a Guest." "You're nice," she said softly.
"Now wait—" John took a deep "I'll remember that. Now get back
breath. "This is silly. I came out to the Inn." And then she had
here to find you. I've found you. blown out the lamp and he could
Lef s head back right now. Not to hear her go.
Humrog—
"You Ty with
don't," interrupted TVTEXT morning, One Man was
feeling, "understand a blasted -1
- ^ still nowhere to be seen. Nor,
thing about these people, Half in the half hour that elapsed be-
Pint-I mean, Tardy." fore they got going, did John
"John." Tardy catch any glimpse Ty, or of
"John, you don't understand the a female Dilbian who might be
situation.The Streamside Terror Boy Is-She-Built. He mounted into
left mehere with Boy-Is-She- the Hill Bluffer's mailbag with
Built because I was slowing him his mind still engrossed by the
down. That Hill Bluffer of yours happenings of the night before,
is too fast for him, and he wanted and it continued to be engrossed
to be sure to be in his own clan- as they began their third day of
country before you caught up with journey.
him, in case there would be—" her They were descending now into
voice faltered a little— "repercus- a country of lower altitudes,
sions to what happens when you though they were still in hill coun-
meet. If s all a matter of honor, try. The ground was more gently
and that's the point. You're a piece hollowed and crested, and several
of mail, John. Don't you under- new varieties of trees appeared.

180 GALAXY
 But John had no time to con- between the buildings and plunged
sider this. He
rode through the into the trees again.
cool hours of the morning and However, none of this claimed
into noon's heat still trying to find John's attention after the first sec-
a common solution to the riddles ond. He blinked, instead, at a liv-
that occupied his mind — about ing wall of five large Dilbians with
One Man, about the abduction of axes.
Ty Lamorc, and about his own "Who do you think you're stop-
peculiar lack of briefing. ping?" bellowed the Hill Bluffer.
"Tell me," said John finally to "Clan Hollow's in full meeting,"
the Hill Bluffer, "is ita fact no responded the central axeman.
other Dilbian could break that "The Great-Grandfathers want to
stick of One Man's that same see you both. You come with us."
way?" The axemen formed around the
"Nobody ever can," replied the Blufferand John. They led off
Bluffer, as they rounded a small down and through the village and
hill and plunged through a thin beyond to the amphitheater that
belt of trees. "Nobody ever will." was swarming with Dilbians of all
"Well, you know," said John, ages. Several hundred of them
"back where I come from, we have were there, and more accumulat-
a trick with something called a ing, below a ledge of rock where

phone directory—" six ancient Dilbians sat.

He stopped. For the Hill Bluf-
fer himself had stopped, with a
jolt that almost pitched John from
the mailbag. John sat up, looked
around the Dilbian's head — and
stared.
They had passed through the
woods. They had emerged into a
small valley in which a cluster of
buildings stood in the brown color
of their peeled and weathered logs,
haphazardly about a stream that
ran the valley's length. Beyond
these houses there was a sort of
natural amphitheater made by a
curved indentation of the far rock
wall of the valley. Past this the
path went when it emerged from
"This is the mail!" stormed the
Hill Bluffer as soon as they were
you Clan Hollows—"
close. "Listen,
"Be quiet, postman!" snapped
the old Dilbian at the extreme
right of the line as it faced John
and the Bluffer. "Your honor will
be guarded. Call the meeting."
"Great-Grandfathers of Clan
Hollows, sitting in judgment upon
a point of honor!" chanted a young
Dilbian standing just below the
ledge. He repeated the cry six
times.
HERE was a stir in the crowd.
r W^
Looking around, John saw Ty
Lamorc. With her was a plump

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 181

young female that was most like- great men can in the company of
ly Boy-Is-She-Built. Boy-Is-She- their peers.
Built was currently engaged in "One Man is always welcome to
herding Ty to the foot of the speak," piped an ancient who had
ledge.She accomplished this and not spoken before, and whose
immediately began talking, voice, with age, had risen almost to
"I'm Boy Is She-Built," she an- the pitch of a human baritone.
nounced. "Thank you," said One Man.
"We know you," said the Great- He raised his head and his voice
Grandfather on the right end. rose with carrying easily out
it,

"I'm speaking here for the over the assembled Dilbians. "Just
Streamside Terror, who's waiting think this over. That's what I've
over at Glenn Hollow for the got to say. Think deep about it—
Shorty known as the Half Pint because it may
be Clan Hollows'
Posted. That Shorty over there. decision here going to be bind-
is

His mug has been spilled—the Ter- ing on just about everybody — us
ror's, I mean. This Shorty belongs and Shorties alike."
to him — the male over there, I He waved to the judges and
mean. Not that this female Shorty went back into the crowd.
here with me doesn't belong to "Thanks, One Man," said the
him, too. He took her fair and right-end judge. "Now, having
square, and it serves those Shorties heard from everybody important
right. After all, nobody has more who had something to say, here's
honor than the Terror—" our opinion. This is a matter con-
"That's enough," said the judge. cerning the honor of the Stream-
"We decide-"
will side Terror—"
"I should think you wouldn't "How about me?" roared the
even have to call a meeting over "The mail must-"
Hill Bluffer.
it. After all, it's perfectly plain—" "Hold your jaw about the mail!"
"I said thafs enough! Be quiet, snapped the right-end judge. "As
female!" roared the end judge. I was saying, Terror's mug was
"Well?" interjected one of the spilled by the Guest in Humrog.
other judges testily. "We've heard Quite properly, the Terror then
the arguments. The Shorties are spilled the mug of the Guest by
both here. What's left to say?" stealing off one of the Guest's
"Can I speak?" boomed a new househqld. This by itself is a dis-
voice, and the crowd parted to let pute between individuals not
One Man come up before the touching Clan Hollows. But now
The Great-Grand-
ledge of rock. here comes along a Shorty who
fathers thawed visibly as only wants to fight Terror for the stolen

182 GALAXY
Shorty. And the question is, can ranks at the picture conjured up.
Clan Hollows honorably allow the "Silence!" snapped another of
Terror to do so?" the judges. "This is not a house-
raising."
T¥E paused for a moment, as if The crowd went silent.
** to let the point sink in on "Your display of bad manners,"
the crowd. said the right-end judge severely,
"For us to do this in honor," he "has pointed up the same conclu-
continued, "the combat mentioned sion we came to — by orderly
must be a matter of honor. And process of discussion. It is ridicu-
honor possible
this point arises— is lous to suppose a Shorty existing
between a man and a Shorty? as an honor-bound equal in our
We Great-Grandfathers have sat world. Accordingly, the rules of
up a full night finding an answer, honor are not binding. Both Shor-
and to do so we have had to ask ties here be returned un-
will
ourselves, 'What is a Shorty?' harmed Guest in Humrog.
to the
That is, is it the same thing as us, The Terror has lost no honor. The
a being capable of having honor matter is closed."
and suffering its loss?" He stood up. So did the other
He paused again. The crowd five Great-Grandfathers.
muttered its interest. "This meeting," he said, "is

"A knotty question," said the ended."

spokesman, with a touch of com- "Not yet it isn't!" bellowed the
placency in his voice. "But your Hill Bluffer.
Great-Grandfathers have settled He plunged forward to the edge
it." of the rock bench, hauling John
The crowd murmured this time Tardy along by the slack in John's
in admiration. jacket.
"What makes honor?" de- "What do you all know about

manded the spokesman rhetori- Shorties?" he demanded. "I've

cally. "Honor is a matter of rights seen this one in action. When a
— rights violated and rights pro- bunch of drunks at Brittle Rock
tected. Have the Shorties among tried to make him do tricks like
us had any rights? Guest-rights, a performing animal, he fooled
only. Failing Guest-rights, can one them all and got away. How's
imagine a Shorty defending and that for defending his honor? On
maintaining its rights in our our way here, the Knobby Gorge
world?" Bridge was cranked up out of
A chortle broke out in the crowd our reach. He risked his neck
and spread through its listening climbing up to get it down again,

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 183

 "

so's not to be slowed in getting postman — the Bluffer was out-

his paws on the Terror. How's that running them!
for a willingness to defend his John felt the thrill of competi-
rights? I say this Shorty here's tion in his own soul. He and the
as good as some of us any day. Hill Bluffer might be worlds apart
Maybe he isn't any bigger'n a biologically, but, by heaven, when
two-year-old baby," roared the Hill it came to real competition . . .

Bluffer, "but I'm here today to tell
you he's all guts!"
He spun on John. "How about
it, Shorty? You want Greasy Face
handed back to you like scraps
from a plate —
John's long cogitations at last
paid off. These and something just
witnessed in the Clan Meeting
had thrown the switch he had been
hunting for.
"Show me that skulking Terror!"
he shouted.
'T^HE words had barely passed
*- his lipswhen he felt hims*elf
snatched up. The free air whistled
past his face. The Hill Bluffer had
grabbed him in two huge hands
and was now running toward the
far woods with him, like a foot-
ball player with a ball. A roar of
voices followed them; looking
back, John saw the whole of Clan
Hollows in pursuit.
John blinked. He was being
jolted along at something like fifty
kilometers an hour, and the crowd
was coming along behind at the
same rate. Or were they? For a
long second, John hesitated, then
allowed himself to recognize the
inescapable fact All praise to the
Abruptly, the shadow of the
further forest closed about them.
The Hill Bluffer ran on dropped
needles from the conifers, easing
to a lope. John Tardy climbed
over his shoulder into tlie mailbag
and hung on.
The forest muffled the roar of
pursuit They descended one side
of a small hollow and, coming up
the other, the Bluffer dropped to
his usual ground-eating walk. On
the next downslope, he ran again.
And so he continued, alternating
his pace as the ground shifted.
"How far to the Terror?" asked
John.
"Glen Hollow," puffed the Hill
Bluffer. He gave the answer in
Dilbian units that worked out to
just under eight kilometers.
About ten minutes later, they
broke through a small fringe of
trees to emerge over the lip of
a small cuplike valley containing
a meadowsplit by a stream which,
in the meadow's center, spread into
a pool. The pool was a good fifty
meters across and showed the sort
of color that indicates a fair depth.
By the poolside, a male Dilbian
was just looking up at the sound
of their approach.

184 GALAXY
 John leaned forward and said
quietly to the Hill Bluffer, "Put
me down by the deepest part of
the water." Reaching to his waist,
he loosened the buckle of the belt
threaded through the loops on his
pants.
The Hill Bluffer grunted
continued his descent.
water's margin, some dozen meters
from the waiting Dilbian, he
stopped.
JOHN Tardy threw one quick
glance at the water alongside
and slid down from the Bluffer's
back. The Bluffer moved off and,
with no attempt at the amenities,
the Streamside Terror charged.
John turned and dived deep
and into the pool.
At the He expected the Terror to fol-
low him immediately, reasoning
the other was too much the profes-
sional fighter to take chances, even

"Hello, postman," said the Dil- with a Shorty. And, indeed, the
bian. water-shock of the big body plung-
"Hello, Terror," answered the ing in after John made him
Bluffer. "Mail." imagine the Terror's great clawed
The Terror looked curiously hands all but scratching at his
past the Bluffer's head at John. heels. John stroked desperately for

"So thafs the Half Pint Posted, depth and distance. He did have
is it?" he said. "They let you a strategy of battle, but it all de-
come?" pended on time and elbow room.
"No, we just came," said the He changed direction underwater,
Bluffer. angled up to the surface, and,
While the Terror stared at John flinging the water from his eyes

Tardy, John had been examining with a jerk of his head, looked
the Terror. The other Dilbian did around him.
not, at first glance, seem to live The Terror, looking the other
up to his reputation. He was big, way, had just broken water four
but nowhere near the height of meters off.
the Hill Bluffer, nor the awe-in- John dived again and proceeded
spiring massiveness of One Man. to get rid of boots, pants and
John noted, however, with an eye jacket. He came up again prac-
which had judged physical capa- ticallyunder the nose of the Ter-
bilities among his own race, the ror and was forced to dive once
unusually heavy boning of the more. But this time, as he went
other's body, the short, full neck, down, he trailed from one fist the
and, more revealing than any of belt he had taken from his trous-
these, the particularly poised bal- ers, waving in the water like a

ance exhibited by the Terror's dark stem of weed.

thick body. Coming up the third time at a

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 185

fairly safe distance, John discov- this he saw the final proof he
ered the Terror had spotted him needed. He had guessed that, ef-
and was coming after him. John fective as the Terror might be
grinned to himself and dived, as against other Dilbians, in the water
if to hide again. But under the his very size made him slow and
water he changed direction and clumsy in comparison to a human
swam directly at his opponent. He — in possibly all but straightaway
T
saw the heavy legs and arms churn- swimming.
ing toward him overhead. They Now John let his opponent pass
moved massively but relatively him overhead. Then, as it went by,
slowly through the water, and in he grabbed the foot. And pulled.

186 GALAXY
 The Terror instinctively checked
and dived. John, flung surface-
ward, let go and dived — this time
behind and above the Dilbian. He
saw the great back, the churning
arms, and then, as the Terror
turned once more toward the sur-
face, John closed in, passing the
belt around the thick neck and
twisting its leather length tight.
At this the Terror, choking,
should have headed toward the
surface, giving John a chance to
breathe. The Dilbian did, John got
his breath— and there the battle
departed from John's plan entirely.
John had simply failed to give
his imagination full rein. He had,
in spite of himself, been thinking
of the Dilbian in human terms —
as a very big man, a man with
vast but not inconceivable strength.

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 187

It isnot inconceivable to strangle "Oh, shut up!" she said. She was
a giant man with a belt. But how wiping his damp face with a rag
conceivable is it to strangle a of cloth that was nearly as wet as
grizzly? he was.
John was all but out of reach, "No—" he managed. "I mean—
stretched at arm's-length by his what're you doing here?" He tried
grip on the belt, trailing like a to sit up.
lamprey attached to a lake trout. "Lie down!"
But now and then the Terror's "I'm all right - I think." He
huge hand, beating back at him struggled into sitting position. The
through the water, brushed against whole area of Glen Hollow, he
him. Only brushed — but each im- saw, was aswarm with Dilbians. A
pact slammed John about like a short way off, a knot of them were
chip in the water. His head rang. gathered on the pool-bank around
The water roared about him. His something.
shoulder numbed to a blow and his "What-?" he began.
ribs gave to another. "The Terror, Half Pint," said
His senses began to fog; and he a familiar voice, and he looked up
tightened his grip on the belt — at the looming figure of the Hill
for it was, in the end, kill or be Bluffer, mountainous from this
killed. If he did not do for the angle. "He's still out. It's your
Terror, there was no doubt the fight, all right." He went off, and
Terror would ... do for him . . . . . they could hear him informing the
other group down the bank that
CHOKING and gasping, he the Shorty was up and talking.
found his hands no longer on John Tardy looked at Ty.
the belt, but clawing at the grassy "What happened?" he asked.
edge of the pond. Hands were help- "They had to pull him out. You
ing him. He pulled himself up on made it to shore by yourself." She
the slippery His knees
margin. found a handkerchief somewhere,
found solid ground. He coughed wiped her eyes and blew her nose
water and was suddenly, ungrace- vigorously."You were wonderful."
fully sick. Then he blacked out. "Wonderful?" said John, still too
He came around after an inde- groggy for subtlety. "I was out of
terminate time to find his head in my head to even think of it!" He
someone's lap. He blinked upward felt his ribs gingerly. "I better get
and a blur of color slowly turned back to Humrog and have an X-
into the face of Ty Lamorc, very ray of this side."
white and taut — and crying. "Oh, are your ribs broken?"
"What?" he croaked. "Maybe just bruised. Wow!"

188 GALAXY
said John, coming on an especially work, I may put in a good word
tender spot. foryou people here and there."
"Oh!" wept Ty. "You might "Mighty nice of you — now,"
have been killed! And it's all my said John, a little bitterly.

fault!" "Nothing wins like a winner,

"Your fault?" said John. He Half Pint," rumbled One Man.
spotted the massive figure of One "You Shorties should have known
Man breaking away from the that. Matter of fact, I'm surprised
group around the fallen Terror it took you so long to show some

and hissed quickly at her. "Hurry. common sense. You just don't
Help me up." She assisted him come and sit down at a man's
in
clumsily to his feet. "Tell me, did table and expect him to take your
they find anything around the word for it that you're one of the
Terror's neck when they pulled family. As I said to you once be-
him out?" fore, who asked you Shorties to
come here, anyway, in the first
place? And what made you think
SHE stared at him and wiped
we had to like you? What if, when
her eyes. "Why, no. What
should they find around his neck?" you were a lad, some new kid
"Nothing," whispered John. moved into your village? He was
"Well!" he said as One Man rolled half your size, but he had a whole
up to a halt before them. "What lot of shiny new playthings you

do you think of the situation?" didn't have, and he came up and

"I think, Half Pint," said One tapped you on the shoulder and
Man, "that it's all very interest- said, 'C'mon, from now on we'll

ing. Very interesting indeed. I play my sort of game!' How'd you

think you Shorties may be getting think you'd have felt?"
a few takers now on this business He eyed John shrewdly out of
of going off into the sky and his hairy face.
learning things." "I see," said John, after a mo-
"You do, eh? How about you, ment. "Then why'd you help me?"
for one?" "Me? Help you? I was as neu-
"No-o," said One Man slowly. tral as they come. What're you

"No, I don't think me. I'm a little talking about?"

too old to jump at new things that "We've got something back
quick. Some of the young ones'll be home called a phone directory —
ready, though. The Terror, for one, a book like those manuals Little
possibly. He's quite a bright lad, Bite has down at Humrog. It's
you know. Of course, now that about this thick—" he measured
you've done the preliminary spade- with thumb and forefinger. "And

THE MAN IN THE MAILBAG 189

 for one of us Shorties, you'd say bian emotional situation — to con-
itwas a physical impossibility vince them we weren't the utter
to pick it up and tear it in two. little aliens we seemed to be.
But some of us can do it." He eyed They've got a very unusual cul-
One Man. "Of course, there's a ture here. They
really have. I
trick to it." never thought
Boy-Is-She-Built
"Well, now," said One Man ju- would catch up with you and near-
diciously, "I can believe it. Direc- ly kill you and take your wrist-
tories, thick sticks, or first-class phone away. You were supposed
hill-and-alley scrappers — there's to be able to stay in contact with
a trick to handle almost any of Joshua Guy so he could always
them. Not that I'd ever favor a rescue you from the other end."
Shorty over any of us in the long "I see. And why," queried John,
run -
don't get that idea." He very slowly and patiently, "did
looked around them. The Stream- you decide not to let me in on
side Terror was being helped out what was going on?"
of the Glen and most of the crowd "Because," she wailed, "I
was already gone. "We'll have to thought it would be better for you
get together for a chat one of these to react like the Dilbians in a
days, Half Pint. Well, see you in natural, extroverted, uncerebral
the near future, Shorties." way!"
"I see," said John again. They
JOHN Tardy wiped a damp nose were standing beside the pool.
still
with the back of his hand and He picked her up — she was quite
stared after One Man. Then he light and slender — and threw her
turned to Ty Lamorc. in. There was a shriek and a satis-
"Now," he said, "whafd you fying splash. John turned and
mean — it was all your fault?" walked off.
"It was," she said miserably. After half a dozen steps, he
"It was all my
Earth knew
idea. slowed down, turned and went
we weren't getting through to the back. She was clinging to the bank.
Dilbians, so they sent me out. And "Here," he said gruffly, extend-
I—" she gulped — "I recommended ing his hand.
they send out a man who con- "Thag you," she said humbly,
formed as nearly as possible to the with her nose full of water, as he
Dilbian psychological profile and hauled her out.
we'd get him mixed up in a Dil- — CQRDON R. DICKSON

190 GALAXY
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 (Continued from page 7) and we asked our readers to con-
you. If you had voted for many sider, before voting, whether they
little stories at the cost of large would have wanted to miss the
ones, we'd have had no choice but we have run.
book-lengths
to demand terse — even if pain- And consider they did, for the
fully terse — handlings. really immense majority wants
We're grateful that many of you serials. We are all unhappy about
pointed out the time factor in the wait, but it's either that or no
reading. A. H. Feldman of Los book-lengths.
Angeles, Cal., speaks for a sizable Well, no, not none at all; there
t and hurried group: "Please leave
in the short stories as I can easily
are always seconds and factory re-
jects that can be had for the whis-
scan one in a break or lunch hour," tling, but not the top-notchers.
and Dorothy B. Sommers of May- Magazine earnings, especially from
ville, N. Y., explains harrowingly Galaxy, enable writers to turn
just whymother of three boys
a good-enough books into the best
had better have a passion for short they can produce.
stories or give up reading alto- We'll hold the serials down to
gether. two installments, as promised. It
means a two-month wait — but
T¥TE had no intention of not isn't that a gain over the third of
*' using short stories; they're a year needed for four-parters?
too important for editorial bal- • What, we asked, do you think
ance, a word that, thanks to those of articles? Is our science depart-
who bothered to say why, now has ment a good solution?
temporal as well as length and Here again the choice is unmis-
theme meaning. takable: Willy Ley's "For Your In-
• How, we asked, about serials? formation" gets a mandate. The
The best solution — running them suggestions made for improving
complete in one issue—we showed it still further will be heeded:
to be financially impossible for au- more speculation,
return of the
thors: books, reprint and club pub- "Any Questions?" section, and
lishers won't touch novels that wider range of subjects.
have appeared uncut in single is- "Any Questions?" became a real
sues. That applies whether we are problem— the scientifically literate
discussing Galaxy or Galaxy and semi-literate, after a first burst
Novels, which some readers sug- of enthusiasm, left it entirely to
gested as a way out of the prob- the untutored, and how many
lem. If we're going to have book- times could Ley explain that
lengths, they must be serialized — rockets do not push against air,

192 GALAXY
 and the like? If you want a depart- tions?" prosper or fall — your
ment that depends on you for sup- support, you are among the
if

port, it seems logical that you many who want a letter column,
should support it, no? Keep or leaving it by default to the —
queries coming and it will flourish. Well, here is the place to com-
Relinquish it and it'll wither and ment on the crabs among us men-
same as before.
die, tioned earlier, and the shock re-
f Your
• editor baffledly admits ceived each time we find them
that his editorials seem liked and statistically so insignificant.
*V*.
/ consents to go on writing them. At any given time, there are
*
His reluctance was neither lazi- no more than 200 or so active, in
ness nor modesty. Being a devout the volcanic sense, letter writers.
entertainer, he lives in horror of Some are loves —a few, like H. M.
lecturing and talking through his Sycamore, nothing short of living
hat, the two greatest pitfalls of snookies. But the steaming, fum-
editorializing. His attempts to ing, roaring most of them won't
scrabble out of said pitfalls do not get off people's ears, editors' least
always succeed, and they feel less of all. They take over letter col-
often than that — but you ought umns only if nobody else is

to see him chucking away ideas around, for no editor prefers their
that lead to these temptations, and livid lava — they're always mad:
whacking out the incipient bore- mad for, mad at, or just plain mad
doms or sillinesses that obstinate- — to sensible mail from reason-
- ly creep into all editorials. able human beings whom every-
one is glad to hear from.
"DUT if the editorials are liked, We intended at this point to in-
"-* he asks, how come writing them clude some samples, decided not
hold a spirited
feels like trying to to; why quease stomachs unneces-
conversation with a dead phone? sarily? Besides, you've seen enough
Why, he persists, doesn't some- in their occupied columns. What
body answer? So, when you hear you can't really realize is how
an editorial ringing, pick it up. strenuously they have been pret-
It's for you. tied up for you in editing. Worse
• The vote on the letter column than unprintable, they are un-
couldn't have been clearer in 1950. speakable.
It couldn't be more deadlocked No, we had no intention ever
than now — almost exactly half of letting these quarrelsome oafs
against and half for. The deciding dominate any letter department
factor is actually the same as the in Galaxy. Nor is the alternative
one that will make "Any Ques- no letter department. Not with so

GALAXY 193
many intelligent readers to chat, if he is nipped and nagged into
bull or fun around with. Agree? stopping. Gale will evaluate books
Apparently 50% of you do. Now as buys, not their authors' taste
let's hear from you — and keep in shirts, or in relation to James
hearing, for the column can exist Joyce, terms of
or in Gypsy
only as long as you write to it Dreambook symbology.
• How, we inquired, about our • Many readers want covers tied
book reviews? Another clear ma- to stories, but many like our odd-
jority, including endorsement of ball ones, so we'll try to please
the tone that was deliberately set both factions. And we aim to dress
in advance — one early voter's up layouts and art still more.
letter, put aside for quote, got • Reprinting some of our early
quickly drifted over and buried stories, available nowhere else,
and would need a rescue expedi- got a mixed vote. We'll see if we
tion to be uncovered, so our apolo- can't come up with a solution
gies for a nameless citation from favorable to all.
memory: "It's not easy to locate
science fiction and related books |~|N the really big policies, we
in my town
and Mr. Gale's reviews ^-^ have just about enough to go
make a very useful shopping list." on, and we mean to go on it, at
Shopping list, not public execu- least until we hear otherwise, for
tion block, is what we intended the voting continues.
the department to be; now, as There was some confusion about
many readers request, we are re- our math — half again as much
instating coverage of paperbound magazine for only 15<£ more. We
books to extend its usefulness. meant 50% as much
again as our
Since these are all but complete- 130-page competitors. But the
ly reprints, they will be reviewed whole thing is in process of change
briefly — no sense in discussing even as this is written, with some
titles twice and sometimes more. titlesgoing out of business, others
Speaking for a hungry little increasing price, and the rest
crowd is Bruce Pelz, Tampa, Fla., watching us very closely before
who says: "Put more teeth in the deciding what to do.
reviews!" Sorry, Mr. P., this field They will have to watch us even
has an exportable surplus of more narrowly than they are do-
fanged critics, bunnies in company, ing, though. For the plans we have
sabertooth rabbits in print. We in mind will cause them — and
feel that as long as an author is you — the utmost damned aston-
writing, even if badly, there's a ishment!
chance he'll improve, none at all — H. L. GOLD
194 GALAXY
.
 Galaxy goes
to 196 pages
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.001700 PER PAGE
—
New York, New York Publisher
announces change to bigger and bet-
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ing in. Low rate of $2.50 per six
issues (one year) ;
$4.50 12 issues
(two years) $6.50 18 issues (three
;

years; $8.50 24 issues (four years) ;

$10.00 30 issues (five years). Clip
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