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ASTOUNDING
SCIENCEflCnON
Tit 1 1 uinMMl i ft Tarikt imki
CONTENTS DECEMBER. I?39 VOL. XXIV NO. 4
Th* «♦ tM •«»«! •« *4» Mt »«*• MV« 1*4 »• K* -
IfttH ft/ C |M IM •*.»! Mt ft* '»»• *1*1 • •«•**«• 1 t»t Plf mu>
§
NOVELETTES
-DISCOID IN SC At LET A. E. voa Vo qY . . . t
1 !!fT?» MftiJU^y » **•! *<4 4 » iJ**1
««S i« a <tjt*** n 4 kW r«I*J it «U
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIND . Not Sckockaor . . . 45
\ «r» Pf. I*»T IbEbt* • » k
-I « 'C' •ia*'
SHORT STORIES
THUNDERING PEACE K*«l Cot.y . ... 35
|<4a k 4t>] Dr i««s f 1 *»' •* /l !*•* tk* I f>» • *
SCULPTORS OF LIFE Wolloc. Wo»* ... 71
IN rW I ran# ar» '«^ra • • »^'arv iW 44 *«»*- •
4 j«r I t«fM •! •» » !• a: ♦* I #«a*m •
THE NOVA . . Edwin K. Sloo* . . . U
I v* l «OHi »■»« w »T*i P» -*f% mj
iW l«t«r k»'.I4 l'*4 *•• A "r*
. ARTICLE
"THERE AIN'T NO SUCHr . . . L. Spyog.. d« Camp . tj
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READERS- DEPARTMENTS
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IN TIMES TO COMC 91
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AM Ai TT)C AX LAtOIATOtT 91
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MASS TACIS AMD VC 1 1 MCI DISCUSSIONS Ill
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STREET E SMITH PUBLICATIONS. INC. • 7T 7H. AVE. NEW TOR)£ N. T.
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(ID flSIfifl, ET CETERfi- f
Mottoes, promises and high-sounding phrase* being pleasant. « still fed practical test* of what can be <V*r count foe more. With F.uhmai. Dr. .Snhh's character. are agree on one print, at least : it's easy to give orders impossible of fulfillment, and promises equally unattainable. We'd loir to promise that, hence* forth. Astounding wrU hate two-color iThtstrationv.
Probably it won't. This is an cxperinsmtal issue, made possible even so by a gradual accumulation of factors which you hare seen creep in month by month — the first few pages of smoother paper, the addition of the two-color ^advertisements, the spread of the smoother paper to include the entire first folio of the mpnws
* So-b seem*, perhaps, a somewhat spectacular improvement, suddenly come by. like most ad ranee*, it has arrived step by step— and b at present in the. experimental stage. I cannot promise its continuance, nor whether next month's issue will be so illustrated. It b not sudden, however, hot a continuation of an advance started a good many months bade.
A number of letters recessed bare said that the October issue, starting the “Gray Lensman"— «ad Astounding" s seventh Street & Smith year — was the best isMjr in the history of -the magazine. That, too. was not arrived at mhkilfy. bat by a similar, and continuing, process of growth and evolution. Dr. Smith, typically, appears in Astounding. Backing up Dr. Smith in that October issue were stories by Malcolm Jameson — who firw appeared in Astounding. John Berryman who likewise first appeared in .Wounding; Harry Walton; Lee Gregor; and Joseph Krfleam. also found and developed by .Astounding.
. • *
.Astounding doesn't have any particular motto. I suppose, though we might n adopt the defightful one de Camp proposed in hi* “Divide and Ruler* which ajyeared in (fd«etr»— Crrr ’Fm thf IlVh.'
But sc go ahead and try to progress — and. I think. •]■> fairly well at it —
The Hunts*.
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WHAT ALL*AMEKICA? — H. O. (FrtaJ
Crnler. Umwu^ el Michigaa't keod coock, tp«ah out on lU bwtfa and t*i ia Hw pr**eat vfitmm of picking Al Awerieaer.
HOLD Ud. PITTSBUtCH— The mmidm oory el ike Pet Farther Uetfeci thuatioe fay o to moot iportt writer »io fared inegll k.
MAKE! OF CHAMPIONS— Cooch We Toley gim tke ImerJa fae ha* wed ie iwnuig out grid, court and daoeaeod chow p*OJn •) prwMOP ot ptoo^riwo x^oc*,
W. J.
Ako article* by Beylty More* wfao Cod* two oCm Target! oe aHdetet; Fred
leur* lek ie Awerico aed top eotck tforiet by Jecfc Kefaed. El chord McCooo and
\l Licit;
om uu mo'
it*
Xu ipnvltd mowlea ce the bosocn patches of light gleamed coldly a: him. of endless eight. Time dragged drearily whole galaxies of blaring start shrunk
toward infinity, and 'fact was dark. by incredible distance to shiamg swirls
Unutterably dark ! The horrible pitch- of mitt.
blackness of mtergalactic immensity! Life was out there, spanning on the Across the miles and the years, vague myriad planets that whirled eternally
N - ASTOUNDING SCIRNCK-FICTIOS
aroonibthe myriad win .And He had once crawled oat of the primer*! mad of aocicat Oar — before crwmsr explo- sion destroyed a mighty race and Amg hi* — XtT* — body out into the deep* of spoor, the prey of chance .
Ha brain pulsed oo and an in the our old. old cycle. of thought — think- • mg: one chance in derilfians that hi* body *ould ever ccanr near a galactic system. One chancr in infamy itself that he hll oo * planet and find a pre- cious fmmJ. And oeirr. never a hope that hb race. would hre ag£n.
A UQjcn time* tint thought had pounded to its dreary coochtsior. m his brain, until it mat a part of him. until it was Kkr a picture unroBn*; before his eye* — it and those remote wisps of shmingnrvs out there in that blackness. And that picture was more real than the reality. He had no oon»r*«x«oeas of the spaceship, until he touched the metal
Hard, harrfaess — «*nrthmg material ! • The rague sense perception fumbled into hit dollnf brain, bringing a bv.rsg pam — See a disused muscle, briefly . ago-' niiiagly brought into action.
The though: skanpnL Hts brain slid back into its sleep of ages, seeing again the old picture of hopelessness and the ihasgnrst in the black. The eery idea of hardness became a dream that faded. Some remote corner of his mind, cun- ously alert, witched it fade, watched the shadow* creep with reaching, en- veloping folds of Ightltssatsi. arising to re-engtdf the dim ermsaoasaess that tad Sashed into such an anguish of ephemeral existence. /
And then, once tnurr. his groping fingers sent that duO pulse of awareness tapping its uncertain message to his sodden, hopeless brain.
His rkogated iudy cuctuleO in senseless movement, for arms tidied out. four legs jackknifes] with I first, un- reasoning strength. There was a dis- tinct sense of a blow and of a pa»hmg
away from the hard matt.
Hts diced, staring eyes, his stultified ris son galvanised into file; and be saw that, in the contort'd fury of his move- ments. he bad puifaed himself away from the surface of a itx. round, dark- bodied metal monster, studded with row on row of glaring fights, idee diamonds The spaceship flouted there m the velvet darkness, glowing like an immense jewel, 'fine scent bat afire, enormously. ritaSy alive, bringing nrwtalgir and . vivid suggestion of a thousand far-fhmg planets, and of an indomitable, boaster- nos bfr that had reached for the s^ars and graced them. Bringing — hope?
The Toario tenor of his thoughts ex- ploded mto chaos. His mmd. grooved through the uncounted ages to.ulfimstrf despair, soared up. up. insanely. Life 'urged from the klpn jxxct of static to the swirling. irresistible height of dynamism, that jarred every atom of his scarlet, cylindrical body and his roond. vnevuus head. His legs and arms gfis- tenrd like tongues of firing fire, as they twisted and writhed in the blare of fight from those da riling portholes. His mcesfa. a gash in the center of hts hideous bead, slavered a white frost that floated away in little hosts globules.
His brain couldn't bold the line of that terrific hope. His mind kept dss- tolricg. blurring. Through that fahsr. he saw a thick vein of fight torus a circular bulge m the mrtxMir surface of the ship. The bulge became a huge dpor > that rotated open and tilled to one sale.
A flood of brilliance tpsDed out the great opening, followed by a dam two- legged beings in transparent metal ar- mor. dragging great floating machines.
Swiftly, the machines were concen- trated around a dark projection oo the ship's surface. Intolerable light flared up a« what was obvioudy repair rod proceeded at an alarming pace.
He was no Geiger falling away from the ship. The taint pressure of grari-
DISCORD IK SCARLET
11
talimal poll n> dn<c< him down again — >o slowly. Frantically. be ad* justed his ajocisc structure to the full- est measure of attraction. But even bis poorly mfoodaf brain could see that hr would never make it.
The work seas finished. The mean- descent giarg of atomic welders died to spluttering darkness. Machines were unchmprd. denied toward the opening of the ship, down into it and oat of sight. The two-legged beings -scram- bled after them. The vast, cursed plain of metal was suddenly as deserted and bieless as space itself.
Terror struck Rato XtL He'd hate to tight, base to get there somehow. He couldn't Irt them get away now. when the whole urn terse was in his grasp— twer.ty-hte short yards away. Hit ktching arms reached out stupsdJv. as if be would hold the ship by sheer fury of. need. His brain ached with a slow, rhythmical hart. His mind spaa to- ward a blade, bottomless pit — then poised just before the final phage/
The great door was slowing tn Rs swifi rotation . A solitary being squeezed through the ring of fight and ran to the dark projAioa. just repaired. He picked up an instrument that gleamed weirdly, a tool of some kind forgotten, and started back toward the parth open lick. V.
He stopped. In t&r glow from the portholes. Xil could ice the other's face through the transparent armor. The face stared up at him. eyes wide, mouth epen. Then the mouth moved rapidly, opening and shutting. apparently a form of ounmunieation with the cithers.
A moment later the door was rotat- mg again, opening wide. A group of the beings came out. two of them mounted oa tije top of a large, metal-barred cage, steering it under power. He sea* to be captured. *
Oddly, his brain feh no sense of bft. no scaring hope, none of that mind-in- flaming miiir It wa« n if i Hmg
was dragging him down. down, into a black night of taague. AppwOed. he ioqght off the enveloping stupa*. He must hold to his semes. His nil, that had attained the very threshold of uki- mateikaow ledge, must live again.
The voice, a strained, unrecognizable voice, came to Commander Morton through, l hr communicators in his trans- parent spamthc: l"Hour in the name of alf the bells can anything bvr in inter - galactic space:"
It seemed to the commander that the •question made the little group of men crowd closer together. The proximity of the others made them fid easier. Then they suddenly grew aware of the impalpable yet afire weight of the in-, ctracrivabie night that coiled about them, pressing down to the very blaring port-
t- - 1^ ■ W
rjr*e*-
For the first time in yean, the im- mensity of that night squeezed idjr into Morton's consciousness. Long famil- iarity had bred indifference into his very bones — but now-, the incredible vastness of that blackness reaching a bdboo triF lion years beyond the farthest frontiers of man stabbed into his mind, and brought an almost dismaying awareness. His deep voice, clattering into the com- municators. spfit that scared silence Hoe some harsh noise, startled him:
"Gunfir Lester, here's something for your astronomstaf-mathctmtical brain. Will you please grie us the ratio of change that blew out a driver of the BeagU at the exact point in space where that thing was floating? Take a frw hours to work it out."
The astrooamrr replied immediately: “I don't have to think about «. The .hance is unscalable in human arithme- tic. I: can't happen, mathematically -peaking. Herr we are, a shipload « f human beings, stepping foe repairs half- way between two galaxies — the firs*, time we've ever made a trip outside of <<ir own fibn _ Here we are. I say. a tray
/
12 ASTOUXDIXG SCIENCE-FICTION
point intersecting without preamop- torot oucihr the path o f another, tinier point. Impossible. neleu space it satu- rated with »oeh— creatures !“
“I hope not." another roan shuddered. "We ought to turn a awhile unit on anything that looks late that, on general praapfes."
The shudder seemed to run along the communicators. Commander- Morton shook his great, lean body as if con- ■ scioosly trying to throw off the chill of it. Jfis eyes on the maneuvering cage above. he said:
“A regular blood-red deni spewed out of some fantastic nightmare ; ugly as sin — and probably as harmless as our beautiful pussy las: year was deadly. Smith, what do you think?-
The cadaverous-lac^, biologist said in his cold, logical \ cice^CSSfcis thing has arms and legs, a purely planetary evo- lution. If it is BKcCigcr.: it will begin to react to environment the roomer.: it b inside the cage. It may be a ven- erable old sage, meditating in the silence of distract sanies 5 space. Or it may tic a young murderer, condemned to eter- nal exile, consumed with desire to sneak back home and resume the life he lived. "
“I wish Korita had come cast with us." said Pennons, the chief engineer, in his quiet, practical voice. “Korita's histori- cal analysis of pussy last year gave us an advance idea of wha: wc had to face and — “
“Koarra speaktr.g. Mr. Pennons." came the meticulously clear voter of the Japanese archeologist on the com- munxatorv "Like many of the oth»ts. I have been hstenkg to what is hap- pening as a welcome break m this, the longest journey the spaceship RtagU has ever undertaken flu: I am afraid analysis of the creature would be dan- gerous at this factless stage. In the case of pussy, wc had the barren, food- i less planet on which we lived, and the
architectural realities of his crumbled city.
‘Here we have a creature living in space a million years from the nearest planet, apparently without food, and without means of spatial locomotion I suggest you make certain that you get him m:o the cage, and then study him — every action, every ration. Take pictures of his internal organs working in the vacuum of space. Find out every possible thing about him. so that we shall know what we have aboard as soon as possible. Now, when we are fully staffed again and heading for a new galaxy for the first time in the history of man. we cannot afford to have anything go wrong, or anybody killed before we reach there. Thank
r**i
‘And that." said Morton, “is sense. You ve got . your fluorite camera.
Smith r
‘Attached to oiy suit.” Smith ac- knowledged-
Morton who knew the capabilities of the mournful- lucking biologist turned his attention bock to the cage fifty feel away. .He said in bis deep, resonant voice: "Open the door as wide as
possible, and drop over him. Don't let his hands, grab the bars.”
“Just a minuter a guttural voice broke in. Morton turned question ingly to the big. plump German , physicist. Von Grossen continued: ‘Let us not rash this capture. Commander Morton. It is true that I was not aboard last year when you had your encounter with the creature you persist in calling pussy. But when you returned to the base planet before embarking on the. present voyage, the story you told to the world was not reassuring, not to roe. anyway."
His hard, gray-dark face stared grimly at the others: "It is true that I can see no real objection to capturing this creature in a cage. Bo: it happens that I am replacing a man who was
DISCORD IN SCARLET
killed by tint — pour. Therefore I
speak fa* him when 1 ujr : Such a thmg nab! never happen ifun."
Morton frowned. hi» face hned with Joule. rYou pc: me m a spot, ion Grossen. As human being*, we must take eiery possible precaution. . At scientists. however. all is grist for onr ■nil; everything must be mi estigalcd. There can be no thought of shunning 'Unger before we eren know it to be danger. If this voyage is to be ruled by fear, we might as well head for home now."
"Fear it not what I had in mind." iaid the physicist quietly. “But 1 be- lieve in counting ten before acting."
Mortou a»kcd. “Any other objec- tion} y •
He feh >«ldly annoyed that there were ntmr.
Xt£ .waited. His thoughts kept would meal his purpose. rTpoae the breaking up into little pieces of fight pccoons object f concealed within his and figbtles* — a chain of darrle and breast ; and that must out be. dark— that somehow connected up with His tardy-bright eyes in tax-
til the things he had ever known or ious dismay over the donen figures in
thought. Visions of a long -dead planet transparent armor. Then his mind
trickled into bis coescicmaiicss bringing calmed. They were inferior ejeaturei. y tague cobcrit — and a contempt of obviooslyr! Puny foes before his ova ihoc cmioftk who Lhoogfal to capture remarkable power. Their very need of him. ipaccsants proved their inability to adapt
W hy. be could remember a time tfaemse+re* to environment. proved they when his face bad had spaceships a existed on a low plane of twilnwi Yet hundred times the sire of tin* marhinr he must not underestimate them Here that swam below hsn. That was far* were keen brains, capable of creating fore they had dispensed completely with and using mighty machines. . space travel, and just fired a quirt „ Each of the beings had weapons in
homey life building beauty from natural holster at the side of hb space armor
forces. — weapbns with sparkling, translucent
He watched, as the cage was driven handles.* He had noticed the same wrap* toward turn unerringly. There was <ms in the bolsters of the men at the top
nothing he could do. even had he wanted <4 the cage. That, then.- would he bis
to. The gaping mouth of the large, method if any of these creatures flashed
metal-barred construct ski dosed »irr ' a camera on him.
him and mapped shut the moment hr .Vs the cage dropped into the belt of was inside. lmdiiTused blackness between two port~
Xtl clawed at the nearest far. caught holes. Smith stepped forward with his hold with grim strength. He dung camera — and Xtl jerked himself with
there an ini*ar.s. sick and diary with effortless ease up the bars to the ceiling
M
ASTOCXOCKG SCXENGE-FICTIOX
of the cage. The psh of hit mouth in the center of hit mod. vnoth he«l ns spfit in a silent savl of fury at the unutterable bad lode that ns forcing this* more upon him. His srisioo snapped foil on ; and now hie could tee Nurrihr through the hard metal of the ceiling. ,
One arm. with its eight wirelike fin- gers. lashed out with indescribable swift- ness at the ceiling, tkroufk it. and then he had a gun from the holster of one of the men.
He did not attempt to readjust its atomic structure as he had adjusted his arm. It yr as important that thee should not guess that it was he who fired the gun. Straining in his awkward position, bo aimed the weapon straight a: Smith and the little group of men behind . him — released . the flaming power.
These was a flare of incandescent vio- lence that blotted the men from view. A swirl of dazzling light coruscated virulently across the surface of the shijv And there was another light, too. A blue sparkle that told of automatic de- fense screens driving out from the armored suits of the men.
In one continuous movement. Xtl re- leased the gun. withdrew his hand :'and. by the act. pushed himself to the floor. His immediate fear was gone. No sensi- tive camera film could have bred through the blare of penetrating energy. And what was overwhelmingly more important — the gun seas no good against himself. N'othmg bet a simple affair which employed the method of trans- mutation of one dement to awxber. the ' process releasing tor or two electrons jfnxn each atom systet^ It would re- quire a dozes such guns to do .damage to his body. •>
The caorr of men stood quite still : and Morton knew they were fight- ing. as he was. the blindness that fin- gered from the spray of violent fight.
• •
Slowly, his eyes became adjusted; and then, he could see again the curved metal on which he stood, and beyond that the brief. barren crest of the ship and the limitless miles of lightless, heatless space — dark, fathomless, unthinkable -gulfs. Theqr too. a bhtr among the bhps of shadows, stood the cage.
"I'm sorry, commander.** one of the men on the cage apologized. “The ato- gun must have fallen out of my bck. and discharged.”
"Impossible r Smith's voice came to Morton, low and tense. "In this gravi- tation. k would take several minutes to fall from the holster, and k wouldn't discharge in any event from such a slight jar of landing.”
“Maybe I Haded against it. sir. without noticing."
"Maybe r* Smkh seemed to yield grudgingly to the explanation. “But I could almost swear that, just before the flare of fight dazzled me. the crea- ture moved. I admit k was too black to see more than the eaguest blur .bat — “ “Srnkh." Morton said sharply, “what are yon trying to prove?"
He saw thg long-faced biologist hunch his narrow shoulders, as if patfiog hun- ’ self together. The biologist mumbled : “When you put st like that. I don't know. The truth is. I suppose, that I've never gotten over the way 1 in- sisted on keeping pussy alive, with such desperately tragic results I suspect everything now. and — " •
Morton stared in surprise. It was hard to realize that it was really Smkh speaking — the • scientist who. k had seemed sometimes in the post, was ready to sacrifice his own life and everybody rise's if k meant adding a new. im- portant fact to the science of bioJogv._ Morten fours! his voice at last :
"You were perfectly right in what you did! L'ntfl we realized the truth, you expressed the majority tnmd of this ship's company.- The development of the situation in thl case of pussy
IS
DISCORD IX SCA
R L^f
changed . <ir opmua u well as \xjot Mm. butrt did no* dasp <w method rx w orkirg bjr evidence iloor. I <ir (hat »t should continue to makr such logic the lass of our work.”
"Right. And beg four pardon, chief !" Smith was brisk-vflcrd apk “Crane, turn the cage fight on. and let’* tee what we're got here.”
To Mono*, the uknte that fol- lowed seemed fifce a sodden, oppressive weight, as the Mate of fight showered - down oa Xll crouching at the bottwn cif the cage. The almost mrtalhc sheen of the cylindrical body, the eyes hke coals of fire, the srirehke fingers and toes, the scarlet hideoasoc** of it star- tled etea these men who were accus- tomed to alien farms of life? He broke the spell of horror. haH-fareathlesri> :
“lie's probably very handsome — to humrff!”
“If fife » evolution." said South at a stiff voice, “and nothing evolves ex- cept for use. how can a creature firing in space hare highly developed kgs -and anas? Its insides should be interest -
about ibis thing, why are we taking it aboard?”
"Because” — Snath beat Morton to the reply — "we're not tied down to pic- tures and notes. There win. however.' be mdlioos of forms of life on every planet, and we shall be forced to the barest kind of record in most cases. This moostrr is different. In our fear* we hare almost forgotten that the existence of a creature capable of firing in space is the most extraordinary thing we've .ever nm across. Even pussy, who could fire without air. needed warmth of a kind, and would have found the absolute cold of space intolerable. If. as we suspect, this creature's oatural habitat is not space, then we must find out why and bow he cable to be where he is Speaking as a biologist—”
“I see.” interrupted Morton dryly, “that Smnh u taucH again.” He directed a command at the men an the cage. "Take that muusacr inside, and put a wall of force around the cage. That should satisfy even the moat cau- tious.” ,
Xll fell the faint throb of the motors
ing. But now — my camera's useless 1 That dare of entip would have .the effect of tutting the electrified lens, and of course the film's mined Shall I get
“X-n-no-J!” Morton's dean-cut. handsome face grew dark with a frown. "Wave wasted a lot of time here: and after all. we can re-create vacucmi of apace Cumbrians inside IMJiip'i labora- tory. and be traveling at top acceleration while we’re doing it."
"Just a rr-mute 1“ Von Grosses. the plump but bard-boiled physicist. «pokr< “Let's get this straight. The ftewpfr » gumg to another galaxy on an ex- ploration voyage — the first trip of the land. Our business is to study fife in this new: system, but vre're not taking any *prcimms. only pictures and notes— studio of the creatures m their various emircoudUs If we re all so tiers wus
of the cage. Uf saw the tan more, then grew conscious of a sharp, pin sane tingling irwrvrinei. brief physical activity wvthsn hi* body that stopped the work- ing! of his and for a bare second Be- fore he could think, there was the cage fioor rising above bun — and fie was lying on the bard surface of the spnee- riup's outer shefl.
\Vsh a snarl of black dismay that al- most cut his face in two. he realised the truth. He had forguctcn to readjust the atcxns m his body after firing the gun. .And now he had fallen. through'
“Good Heaven r Morton be Bowed.
* A scarlet streak of elongated body, a nightmare shadow in -that braid of shadow and hght. Atl darted across the impenetrable heavy metal to the air lock. He jerked him sell down into tts darrhng depths. His adjusted hdy dissolved through the two other locks .And then
DISCORD IK SCARLET
17
he wu at one end of. i lone, Rkanrng K» iptnunl. the physiolt looked not *o corridor — safe lor the moment ! much pknnp u tag and rnx>-hard_ "And
There would be Kardng lor him : that goes lor me all the way. . I have
and — he knew with a cold, hardening not been long on this ship. but I have twohe — the creatures woold never found Commander Morton to be a moat trust tine a being who could vhp able intellect and leader of men. So through solid metal. Their reason 'let us not waste time A useless seW- would tell them he was a superbemff. reproach.
unutterably dangerous to them. “In capturing this berrg we most first
One advantage only he had— they did % of all straighten our minds about fains, not know the deadlines* of bis purpose. He has arms and legs, this creature, yet
floats in space, anil remains afire. . Hr Tax vixens lalrr. Morton's gray- •allows himself to be caught in a cage, eyes' flacked qorstfanmgly over the stem hut knows all the-thae that the cage can - faces if the men gathered in the great not bold him. Then be drops through reception room. His huge and power- the bottom of the cage, which is very fnl body irk oddly rigid, as if his trios- uBy if be doesn't was us to Ipo* that do could not quite relax. His voice hr can do it. Which mans that he is was airflow rr. deeper, richer than nor- a very foolish creature. indeed, and we mal: don't have to worry very much about
"I am goings to offer my resignation him. There is a reason why iimKgrm on the jpumds that, for the second time living things make mistakes — a fonda- tmdrr my leadership, an abnormal beast mental reason that should make it easy has gotten aboard this craft. I must far us to analyze him right back to where assmae that these it a basic lack in my he came from, and why he it here, mental make-op; for results, and oh >path. analyze bis biological make-up." excuses, do emmt in tins fare eve of Smith stood up, lank and grim, ours; even apparently bad hack is "We're already ifiscusard the obvious rigorously hound op with character. 1. planetary origin of Ins hands and feet, therefore, agpit that Korita or won The ability to fire in space, however, is Gmsscn be named commander ha ms an abnormal development; haripg no place ' Korea because of the care ^he connection with natural evolution, bat advocated, and von Gmsscn on the is the product of brain power and sea- strength of his objection to taking any ence. pure and” simple. I suggest that firing specimens aboard — both are more here is a member of a race that, has fined to bold the command than 1 am." solved the final secrets of biology; and.
“The honorable commander has far- if I knew how we should even begin gotten one thing." Korita said softly. to start looking far a creature that can “The creature was not carried into the slip through walls, my advice would be : ship. 1 admit it was our oofleexhe'in- Hunt him down and kaB him within an tension to bring him aboard, bet it wa> 'hour." he himself who entered- I suggest that:
even if we had decided doc to bring • “EaT Knur, the sociologist, said, him iuo the interior, we could one have He was a bald-headed man with pee- per-rented his entry in view of his trrnaxuraBr intelligent eyes that gleamed ability to slip through metal. 'It. rt owlishly from behind tus ptner-aez. absolutely absurd for Commander Mor- "Ex, any being who could fit himself ton to feel responsible." to vacuum of space condition would be
Von Gtwsjen heaved hsmse-K out of lord of the universe. His kind koukl ha chair. Now that he was oct of .dwell on every planet, clutter up every
u
ASTOUNDING SOEXCE-nCTION
pbctic iptna. Snnnt of him maid for us to prntot this bml rntrriuf oar be fluting in space. if tftn floating it ship. Because of hii {rat innate mtrib-
■lit: they go m f<r. Yet. we know for pwt, he would nuke no errors of any
' a fact that his race floes not rule cur kind."
galactic area. A paradox, which is "But he has already made an error T" worthy of investigation." von Grosser! sax! in a silken voice. "He
"I don't stole understand what yon very foolishly fell through the bottom of
mean. Keffie f" Mortoc frowned. the cage. It is the kind of blunder a
. “Simply. er. that a race which has peasant would make — ~ solved the final secrets of biology mast “Suppose." Morton asked, "he were be millions, even tyllxxis of scars in ad- in the peasant stage?" srance of man ; and. as a pure sytnpodul “Then." Korita rephed. "his basic kn- - —capable of adaptation to any environ- pulses would be much simpler. There
ment — would, according to the lay of would be first of all the desire to repro-
vcal dynamics, expand to the farthest dace, to have a son. to know that his
frontier of the universe, just as mat: is blood vras being carried on Assuming
slowly pushing himself to the remotest great fundamental intelligence, this sm-
planets." pulse might, m the superior being, take
"It is a contradiction." Morton agreed, the form of a fanatic drive toward race
“and would seem to prove that the survival — "
creature is not a superior brmg. Korita. Hr stopped, as half a doom mm came what is this thing's history ?" through the doorway.
The Japanese scientist shrugged: Morton said: "Finished. Prances?"
"I'm afraid I can only be of the slightest The chief engineer nodded. Then in
assistance on present evidence. You a wanung vovee: "It is absolutely esseo-
know the prevailing theory: That Mr * tial that every man on the ship get into proceeds upwards by a series of cycles. his rubberise suit, and wear rnbbente
Each cycle begins with the peasant, who gloves."
is rooted to his bit of sod. The peasant Morton explained, grimly. “We're comes to market : and slowly the mar- mergued the walls around the bed-
ket place transforms to a town, with re* ms There may be some delay m
ever less 'inward' connection to the catdung this creature, and we're taking
earth. Then we have cities and nations, tso chances of brmg murdered in our
Anally the soulless world cities and a teds. We — " Sharply: "What is it.
devastating struggle foe puwer — a senes Pennons ?~
of frightful wars which sweep men hack Pennons was staring at a small in- to the peaaart stage. The question be- st rumen: m his hand : be said in a-qocer
-comes: Is this creature in the peasant voice: “Are we all here. Morton?"
port of this particular cycle, or in the big “Yes. except for four men guarding city 'mrgak jpoMan' era?" the engine room."
Morton’s voice slashed across the si- "Then . . . then something's caught lepce: "In view of our limned know!- in the wall os' forte. Quick — we must edge of this ereaturr. what basic traits surround it.” should we look for. supposing him to
J be in !be/t*g city stage?" To Xti. returning from a brief ex-
"He would be a cold, invincible in- pk -ration of the monster ship's interior,
trllcct. formidable to the ultimate de- the shuck was devastating, the surprise
gree. undefeatable — except through or- unutterable and complete,
cumstancev I refer to the land of One moment he was thinking com- circumstances that made it impossible [Aacetuly of the metal sections in the
f
w
DISCORD IX SCARLET
bold of the ship, where he would secrete his 9**U; the next ao—t he was caught in the full sparkling fury of an enwpr screen.
His bode writhed with an agony that blackened has brain. Thick clouds of free electrons rose up within him in that hell of pais, and flashed from sys- tem to system seeking union, only to be violently repelled by the tortured, madly tpinr.au atom systems. For those long seconds, the wonderfully bal- anced awtabifay of hb structure nearly - • collapsed into an abyss of disintegration.
But the incredible genius that had created has marvelous body had fore* even this evenrmhty. Like his body endured readjust- ment after automatic readjustment, each new-built structure carrying the intoler- able loud for a fraction of a fraction of a second. And then, he had jerked back from the wall, and seas safe.
la a. Rare of thought, hb roand investi- gated the immediate pcasihitities Oh- viously. the men had rigged up this de- fense wall of force. It meant they would have an alarm system and they would swoop down every corridor in an or- ganised attempt to corner him.
XtT» eyes were glowing pools of white fire as he realised the opportu- nity. He must catch one of these mesa, whale they were scattered, investigate his fmml properties, and use him for his first gtaJ.
So tame to waste. He darted into the -nearest walk a tall, gaudy, ungrace- ful streak, and. without pausing, sped through room after room, roughly parallel to a main corridor. His sensi- tive feet caught the vibrations of llyr ap- proaching men: and through the wall his full visaon followed the blurred fig- ures rushing past. One. two. three, four — five— on this corridor. The fifth man was some distance behind the others.
I jke a wraith. Xtl glided into the wall just ahead of the last man — and pounced \ forth in an irresistible charge. A rear-
AST— 4
r
mgi frightful skape of glaring eyes and ghastly mouth, blood-red. metal-hard body, and four arms of fire that clutched with batter strength at the human body.
The man tried to fight. His big form twisted, jerked; his lashing fists fek vaguely painful as they pounded des- perately against the hard, sheeny crust of Xtl's body. And then, by sheer weight and ferocity, he was over- whelmed: the force of hit fall jarring Xtl's sensitive frame.
The man was lying on his bade, and Xtl wauhed cariously as the mouth opened and shut spasmodically. A tingling sensation sped along XtTs fed. and his mouth opened in a snarl. In- capable though he was of hearing sounds, he realised that he was picking up the vibrations of a call for help.
He pounced forward, one great hand mashing at the man’s mouth. Teeth broke, and crushed back into the throat. The body sagged. But the man was all alive, and conscious, as Xtl plunged two hands into the feebly writhing body.
The man ceased suddenly even that shadow of struggle, hb widened eyes staring at the arms that vanished under his shirt, stirred around in hb chest, stared in petrified terror at the moa- strous blood-red cylindrical body that loomed over him. with its round bright eyes glaring at him as if they would see right through him.
It was a blurred picture the frantic Xtl saw. The inside of the man's body seemed solid flesh. He had to find an opes space, or one that could be pressed open, so kng as the pressing did not kill the man. He must have living flesh.
Hurry, hurry — Hts feet registered the vibrations of approaching footsteps — from one direction only, but coming swiftly, swiftly.
And then, just like that, it was all over. His searching fingers, briefly hardened to a state of srnasofcdity, touched the heart. The man heaved
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION
eonrulsirely. sh adder rd. tad stamped into death.
The next instant. Xtl dixoitnd the stomach. For a moment. black dismay flooded him. Herr »u wrhat he was searching for. and he had killed it. ren- dered it welest ! He stared in cold fury at the stilled body, uncertain, alarmed.
Then - suddenly his actions became deliberate. weighted with contempt. Never for an instant had he suspected these mte&igrnt beings would die so easily. It chanced, simplified every- tW. There was no need to be any- thing more than casually careful in deal- ing with them.
Two mefl with drawn ato-guns whipped arowtxf the nearest comer, and slid to a halt at the sight of the appari- tion that snarled at them across the dead body. Then, as they came out of their brief paralysis Xtl stepped into the nearest wall, a Uur of scarlet in that brightly lit corridor, fooe on the in- stant. He ffh the fury of the energy rays that Tore futile!) at the metal be- hind him.
His plan was quite dear now. He would capture halt a dorm men. and make pwwlr of them. Then kill all the others, proceed on to the pUcoc system toward which the ship was headinc. and take control of the first inhibited planet. After that, domination of the entire uni- verse would be a natter of a shost time only.
Covvissa Morrow stood eery stiffly there m the f learning corridor, every muscle in his huge body Eke a taift wire. Only a dorm mm were farh- tfM round the dead body, but the audio- scopes were on ; nearly two hundred tense mm throuchout the ship were watching that scene. Morton's vwce was only a whisper, but it cut across the silence like a whiplash.
"Wefl. doctor?"
Dr. Eggert. rose up from his kneelinc position beside the body, frownmc-
-Heart failure." .
“Hrmrt friwr,r
-All right. all rigjit !** The doctor put up his hands as if to defend himself against physical attack. “I know bis teeth look as if they've been smashed back into his brain, and I know Dar- jeeling's heart was perfect, but heart failure is what it looks Eke to me."
"I can bebeve it." a man said sourly. "When I came around that corner, and saw that thing. I nearly had bean failure myself."
“We're wasting time !" von Grossen's voice stabbed from behind Morton. "We can beat this feQow. but not by talking about him. and feeling sick every time be makes a move. If I’m next on the list of victims. I want to know that the best damned bunch of scientists in the system are not crying over my fate, but putting their best brains to the yob of avenging my death-"*
"You 'ye right." Smith said. “The trouble with ns is. we've been permit-* tmg ourselves to feel inferior. He's only been on the ship about an hour but I can see now that some of us are going to get killed WeiL I accept my chance ! But let's get organised fair combat !"
Morton snapped: "Pennons, here's a problem. We've got about two square sales ot wall and floor space in our twenty levels. How long will it take to mergue every inch of it?"
The chief m. finer r stared at him. aghast : then answered swiftly : "I could sweep the ship and probably wreck it complete!) within an hour. I won't go into details But uncontrolled energiza- tion is ahvohitrlr out. It would kill every bring thing aboard — "
"N'ot everything?" von Grosser, re- jected. “Not the creature. Remem- ber. that damn thing ran into a wall of force. Your instrument. Pennons, registered activity for several seconds Several seconds! Let roe show you what that means The principle tender - lying his ability to slip through walls
DISCORD IN SCARLET
a
n simple enough. The Uoau of his body slide through the empty spaces be- tween the atoms of the wills. There is a basic electronic tensioo that holds a body together, which would hare to be overcome. but apparently his race has sotted the ddfieufcy. A wall of force would increase those electronic tensions lo a point where the atoms themselves would be emitting free electrons; and, theoretically, that should have a deadly effect on any interferiag body. IH wager he didn't like those few seconds he was in the wall — but the point is, he stood them."
Morton's strong face was hard: “You could feed more energy to those walls, couldn't you. Pennons?”
" h" -no !” said Pennons, reluctantly. "The walls couldn't stand it. They’d melt." j
"The wilt eouUn'l ttmd ixF a man gasped. "Man. man, do you know what you're making this creature out to be?”
Morton saw the consternation that leaped along that line of stem facts. Korita's thin, dear voice cut across that pregnant silence :
"Let us not forget, my honorable friends, that be did blunder Wo the wall of force, and recoiled in dismay, though apparently without damage to his person. I use the word 'blunder' with discretion. His action proses once again tfq* be does make mistakes which, in turn, shows him to be something less than a seperbeing — ”
"Suppose." Morton barked, "he's a peasant of his cycle. What would he his chief intellectual characteristic ?”
Korita replied almost crisply for ooe who usually speke so slowly: "The inabibty to understand the full power of organisation. He will think probably that all he has to fight in order to get control of this ship would be the men who are in it. His exist instinctive reasoning would tend to discount the fact that we are part of a vast galactic
civilization or organization, and that the spirit of that cirifixatioo is fighting in us. The mind of the true peasant is very individualistic, almost anarchic. His desire to reproduce is a form of egoism, to have his own blood particu- larly carried on. There can be no such thing as a peasant co-cperative or or- ganization. But this creature may want to have numbers of beings similar to himself beside him to' help him with his £ght. But. though there wocld be a loosd union, they wocld Sght as in- dividuals. and not as a group."
"A loose union of those fire-eaters ought to be enough 1" a crew member commented acidly. "I . . . a-a-a-a — "
His voice' sagged. His lower jaw dropped two inches. His eyea under Morton's gaze, took on a hafnblv gog- *W stare. The ctxrzrandfr whipped around with an oath. I
Xtl stooo uui. forhidclrg specter from a scarlet hell, his ey«4 pools of Uaring alertness. He knew with a vast contempt that be could plunge into the nearest wall before any gun could leap out at him in ravening fury. But he felt himself protected by another fact. These were tctelhgeat beings. They wocld be more anxious to discover why he had deliberately come out of the wall than to IdU kirn immediately. They might even consider it a friendly move; and. when they discovered dif- ferently. it would be too late.
Hb purpose, which was twofold, was simplicity itself. He had come for his first pw ml. By snatching that ?»a l from their very midst, he wocld demoralize them thoroughly.
Morton felt a curious ware of un- realky sweep over him. as he stood just behind vco Grossen there in that gut- tering hallway, faerg the tall, thick, cylindrical reakty of All. Instinctively, hb fingers groped downward toward the sparkling, translucent handle of the ato-gun that protruded from hb bolster.
a
ASTOUNDING SOENCE-ncnOK
“Don't touch roar fx.i- He can wort like a Suh ; and he wouldn't be Sere if he thought we could draw on him. IU take his opinion any day on that point. Beside*. we can't risk (ail- we. This mar lg our only chance!"
He continued m a swift. slightly higher. more urgent tone: “Every man hjlewing in on the aadsoscopes get above and below and around thi> corridor. Bring up the beanett portable*. even moat of the sent portable* and burn the walls down. Cut a dear path all around this area, and have your' beams sweep that space at narrow focus. Mover
“Good boy. Morton r Pennons’ face appeared for an mutant on the plate of the andioioope. “Well be there— if you can stall that heUhotmd three minutes-**
Koetta's sibilant voice hissed out of the audioocope : “Morton, take this
chance, but do not coast on success. Notice that be has appeared once again before we have had tone for a discus- sion. He is rushing us. whether in- tentionally or accidentally matters not. because the result is that we're on the rut scurrying this way and that, futilefy. So far we have not clanfird our thoughts. I am convinced the vast resources of this ship can defeat any creature — any single creature— that has ever existed, or that ever will epist. but only if we have tznv. to use them
His voice blurred briefly in Morton's ears. Von Groneo had taken a note-
toward von Grotarn. then paused tm- oertaialy.
“What the devil have you done?" Mortoh demanded his voice sounding unnaturally tSrif even to himself.
Vox Giosstx took several steps back- ward. until he stood level with Mar- ton. To the commander's amazement, he was grinning: \
“I've just shown him." the German physicist said softly, “how we can defeat him — neutronium alloy, of course add he
Too late. Morton stepped forward, in- stinctively trying to interpose hit huge form in front of von Grosses. A blur of red smept by him. Something — a hand moving so fast that it was invisible — struck him a stunning blow, and knocked him spinning against the nearest walL For an instant, his body threatened to collapse from sheer*, dazed weakness. The world went "black, then white, then black
With appalling effort, he fought the weakness aside. The immejne reservoir of strength in his magnificent body surged irresistibly forward: his knee* stopped watering, but his vision was stiS a crazy thing. As through a dis- torted glass, he saw that the thing was holding ton Grossen in two fire-colored arms. The t w-o- hundred -and -trn -pound physicist gate one convulsive heave of dismay: and then seemed to accept the overpowering strength of those thin, hard muscles.
With a bellow. Morton clawed for
book from h» pocket, and vra* sketching rapidly.. He tore the sheet loose, and stepped forward, handed"^ to the crea- ture. who examined it cunously.
Von Grossen stepped back, and began to sketch again or the second page, with a swift deftness. This sheet he handed also the creature, who took one glance at it. and stepped back with a snarl that spht his face.' His eyes widened to blaz- ing pools ; ooe arm half reached forward
his gun. And it wa» then tha: the maddest thing of all happened. The creature took a naming dire, and van- ished into the trail. stiH holding ran Grossen Foe an instant, it seemed to Morton like a crazy trick of vision. Hot there was only the smooth gleamingaes* of the wall and eleven staring, perspir- ing men. seven of them with drawn weapons, which they fingered helplessly.
“We’re lost!" a man whispered. "If
DISCOID IX SCARLET
O
be na adjust oor atomic structure, and take us through walls, we can't fight him.”
Morton chilled his heart to the dis- may he read in that rough semicircle erf faces. He said coldly:
“Your report. Penned TT
There was a brief delay, then the engineer's lean leathery (ace. drawn with strain and effort, stared into the plate: “Nothing r be repbed succinctly. "Clay, one of my assistant s. thinks he saw a Hash of scarlet disappearing through a floor, going down. That's a clue of course. It means our search will be narrowed to the lower half of the ship As for the rest, we were just lining up our units when it happened. You gave us only two minutes. ' We needed three!”
Mortoa nodded, hit thoughtful mood interrupted by the abrupt realisation that his fingers were shaking. With a mut- tered imprecation, be clenched them, and said idly:
“Konta has giren us our coe — organi- zation. The implicaiioas of that word must be fuQy thought out. and co-ordi- nated to the knowledge we hare of the creature. Von Grossen. of course, has given us our defense — oeutrociuns al- loy."
“1 don't follow the argument/* inter- jected Zeller, the metallurgist.
It was Smith who explained T^Ybe commander means that only, two parts of the ship are composed of that in- credibly dense metal, the outer shell and the engine room. If you had been with us when we first captured this creature, you would have noticed that, when the damned thing fell through the floor of the cage, it was stopped short by the hard metal of the ship's crust. The conclusion is obviously that it can- not slip through such metal ; and the fact that it ran for the air- lock is proof. The wonder is that we didn't think of it before.”
Morton barked: “Therefore, to the
bean of the ship— the engine room. And we won't go out of there till we've got a plan. Any other way, hell nn us ragged.”
“What about von Grosser! TT a man ventured.
kl crun snapped harshly: “Don't make us think of von Groom. Do you want us all to go craxy TT
lx that vast room of vast machines, the men were dwarfs in pyssiica It - was a world apart ; and Morton, for the first time in years, felt the aben. ab- normal tremendousness of it. Hit nerves jumped at each special bunt of unholy blue hgbt that sparkled and coruscated upon the great, glistening sweep of the cnlmg. Blue light that was alive, pure energy that do eliminators had ever been able to eliminate: no condensers absorb.
And there was something else that tawed on his nerves now. A sound imprisoned m the very air ! A thin haws of terrifying power, a vague rumble, the faintest, quivering reverberation of an inconceivable flow of energy.
Mortoa glanced at his watch, and stood up with an explonve sigh of rebel He swept up t small sheaf of notes from a metal desk. The silence of unsmiling men became the deeper, tenser silence of men who fixed him with their ryes. The commander began:
“This is the first breathing spell we've had since that creature came aboard less than— incredible as it may seem— lesa than two hours ago. I've been glanc- ing through these notes you're given me. and I've divided them into two sections: those that can be discussed while we're putting into effect the purely mechanical plans for cornering the thing — these laner must be discussed now. There are two. First. Zeller !”
The metallurgist stepped forward, a brisk, middle-aged, young- looking man. He started: “The creature made no at-
M . ASTOUNORKC SCIENCE- FICTION'
tempt to keep the drawing* which too hack one o f the boldest minds aboard the
Crosses showed it— proof. incidentally, that roo Grosses was not seized because of the drawings. They fell on the floor ; aad I picked them up. I're been show- ing them around, so most of you know that the first drawing is a likeness of the creature stepping through a metal wall ; and .beside the wall is an en- larged atom system of the type of which the wall is composed — two hundred electrons arranged about the nucleus, forming a series of triangles.
“The second picture was a rough, un- finished but unmistakable single atom of neutronium alloy, with only eight hundred of the forty thousand electrons showing, but the design of each eighty electrons with their sixteen sides dearly indicated. That kind of language is sntergalactic : and the creature under- stood the point instantly. He didn't like it. as we all saw by his actions ; but apparently he had no intention of being thwarted ; and perhaps saw the difficulty we might hare in using such knowledge against him. Because, just as we eanaat energize the walls of the whole ship— Pennons has said it would take' days— so we hare no materials to plate the ship throughout with neutronium aBoy. The stud is too rare.
"However. we have enough for me to build a suit of space armor, with which one of us could search for von Grosses, whom the thing is obviously hiding be- hind some walk For the search, natu- rally. we’d use a fluorite camera. My assistant is already working out the suit, but we'd like suggestions — "
There were none; and. after a mo- ment. Zeller disappeared into the ma- chine shops adjoining the engine room. Mortoo's-grim face relaxed slightly.
“Foe tnyseli. I feel better knowing that, once the suit is built — in about an hour — the creature will have to keep moving von Grossen in order to prevent us from discovering the body. It's good to know that there's a chance of getting
ship."
“How do you know he’* alive?" a sun asked.
"Because the creature could have taken Darjeeling's dead body, but didn't. He wants u* ah re — Smith'* notes have . given us a possible due to his purpose, but let that go now. ^’ertnonj. outline the plan you have — this is our mam plan, gentlemen; and we stand or fd) by h." .
Tkz chief engineer came forward; and it worried Morton to note that he was frowning blackly. His usually dynamic body lacked briskness and sug- gested uncertainty. The implications of the tack of confidence were mmd -shak- ing The mechanical wizard, the mas who knew more about energy and its practical application that any other br- ing human being — this sun ensure of himself —
His voice added to Morton'* dismay. It held a harsh, nasal tone that the commander had never dseard from him in all the years he tiad known the man.
"Mr news isn't pleasant. To energize this ship under a controlled system ■would requite about a hundred Sours. There are approximately two square miles of floors and walls, mostly walls. And of course; as I said before, uncon- trolled energization would be suicide.
"My plan b to energize the seventh level and the ninth, only the floors and rot the walls. Our hope is this: so far the creature has made no organized at- tempt to kill us. Korita says that this is because he is a peasant, and does not fully realize the issues at stake. As a -peasant he is more concerned with re- production. though what form that is taking, and why he has captured too Grossen is a matter for our bmlogvW. We know, as apparently he does no*, that it's a case of destroy him. or brU destroy us. Soooer or later, even a peasant will realize that killing us cornea
DISCORD IN SCARLET
35
first, before anything else, a tsd from that moment we're lost. Ovr chance b that hell delay too ioo( — a vague chance, but we most accept it because it b based on the only analysis of the creature that we hare — Korita's ! If he doesn't inter- fere with our work, then well trap him oo the eighth lr\cl. between the two energired floor*-"
Somebody interjected with a swift question : “Why not energize the sev- enth and eighth levels, so that hell be in hell the moment he starts down ?"*
"Because" — Pennons' eyes glittered with a hard, unpleasant light — "when he starts down. heU hare one of us with him. We want that man to hare a chance for hie. The whole plan b packed with danger. It win take about an hour and a half to prepare the floors for energising.
Hb voice became a harsh, grating sound: "And during that ninety min- utes well be absolutely helpless against him. except for our heavy service guns. It b not beyond the bounds of possi- bility that he will carry us off at the rate of oo e every three minutes."
"Thirty out of a hundred and eighty f" Morton cut in with a chill mdsireness. "One out of every six in this room. Do we take the chance? Those in favor raise their hands."
He noted with intense satisfaction that not one man's hand but was raised.
Tut lurmuva of the me* brought Xtl up to the seventh level with a rush. A vague anxiety pushed into hb consciousness, but there was no real sense of doubt, not even a shadow of the mental sluggishness that had af- flicted him at first. For long minutes, he was an abnormal shape that flitted fake some evil monster from a forgotten . hell through that wilderness of walls and corridors.
Twice he was seen; and ugly guns flashed at him — guns as different from the simple action a:o-guns as life from
death. He analyzed them from their effects, the way they smashed down ihe walls, and made hard metal run like water. Heavy duty electronic guns these, discharging completely disinte- grated atoms, a stream of pure electrons that sought union with stable matter in a coruscating fury of senseless desire.
He could face guns like that, but only for the barest second would the spin- meg atom system within hb body carry that intolerable load. Evan the bioto- . gists, who had perfected the Xtl race, had found theit_limitaxiocs in the hot. ravening energy of smashed atoms.
The important thing was: "What were the men doing with such deter- mination? Obviously, when they shut • themselves up in the impregnable engine room, they had conceived a plan — " With glittering. unwinking eyes. Xtl watched that plan take form.
In every corridor, men slaved over atomic furnaces, squat things of dead- black metal. From a hole in the top of each furnace, a white glare spewed up. blazing forth in uncontrollable ferocity at the ceilings ; intolerable flares of liv- ing fire, dazzlmg almost beyood en- durance to Xtl protected by a solid metal wall as well as by his superlatively con- ditioned body.
He could see that the men were half dazed by the devastating whiteness that beat against their vision. They vote their space armor with the ordinary transparent glass; if electrically dark- ened. But no light metal armor could ward off the full effect of the deadly rays that sprayed, violent and untamed, in every direction.
Out of the furnaces rolled long duDy glowing strips of some material, which were instantly snatched into the maw of machine tools, skillfully hacked into exactly measured sections, and slapped onto the floors. Not an inch of floor. Xtl noticed, escaped being inclosed in seme way or another by these strips. And the mcment the strips were laid.
ASTOCXDDfG SdEXCE-FlCnOK
numt nfeynao hagd doae to them, lad froze the heat oat of them.
His mind refused it tint to accept the result of his observations. His brain persisted in searching for deeper purposes, for i ginning of nst tad not easily discernible scope. Somewhere there must be a scheme that would ex- plain the appalling effort the men were maldag. Slowly, be realized the truth.
There was nothing more. These brings were actually intending to aaempt the building of walls of torce through- out the entire ship under a strict system of controls — anything less, of course, was out of the question. They could not be so foolish as to think that a partial energization could hare the faintest hope of success. If such hope smoldered, it was doomed to be snuffed out.
And total energization was equally impossible. Coukl they not realize that he would not permit such a thing: and that it would be a simple matter to fol- low them about, and tear loose their energizatioa connections?
In cots coman, Xli dismissed the Rtachioatioes of the men from his masd. They were only playing into bis hands, making it easier for him to get the pauh he still needed.
He selected his neat victim as care- fully as he had selected von Grosses. He had discovered m the dead man — Darjeeling — that the stomach was the place he wanted; and the men with the largest stomachs were amomatieally oa his list. ^
The action was simplicity itself. A cold, merciless survey of the situation from the safety of a wall a deadly swift rush and — before a single beam could blaze out in sullen rage — he was gone with the writhing, struggling body.
It was simple to adjust his atomic structure the instant he was through a ceiling, and so break his fall on the floor beneath ; then dissolve through the
floor onto the lewd Mow in the same fashion Into the vast bold of the ship, be half fefl. half lowered himself.
The hold was familiar territory now to the sure-footed tread of his long-toed feet. He had explored the place briefly but thoroughly after he first boarded the ship. And the handling of von Grosses had given him the exact experience he needed for this nun.
Unerringly, he headed across the dimly hi interior toward the far waU- Great packing cases piled up to the ceding. Without pause, he leaped into them; and. by dexterous adjustment of his structure, found himself after a mo- ment in a great pipe, big enough far him to stand upright — part of the miles of air-coodkioning pipes in the vast ship.
It was dark by ordinary light, but to his full visou a vague twilight glow suf- fused the place. He saw the body of von Gro&sen, and deposited his new vic- tim beside the physicist. Carefully now, be inserted one of his slender hands into his own breast; and removed one pre- cious egg — deposited it into the stomach of the human being.
The man had ceased straggling, but Xtl waited for what he knew must hap- pen. Slowly, the body began to stiffen, the muscles growing rigid. The man stirred; then, in evident panic, began to fight as he realized the paralysis that was steafing over him. But remorse- lessly Xtl held him down.
Abruptly, the chtmical action was completed. The man lay motionless, every muscle stiff as a rode, a horrible thing of taut flesh.
There were no doubts now in XtTs mind. Wkhin a few hours, the eggs would be hatching inside each man's stomach; and in a few hours more the tiny replicas of tumsdT would have eaten themselves to full size.
Grimly complacent, he darted up out of the bold. He needed more bitching places for his eggs, more fow It.
DISCOID IX SCARLET
V
Ok the math level now. (be men •laved. Waves of beat rolled aloof the corridor, a veritable inferno wind ; erea the refrigeration unit in each spacesuit was hard put to handle that furious, that deadly blast of superheated air. Men sweated in their suits, side from the beat^daxed by the glare, laboring almost by instinct.
At last. Morton shut off his own furnace. “Thanlt Heaven, that's fin- ished P he exclaimed; then urgently: “Pennons, art you ready to put you r plan into effect?"
“Ready, aye. ready!" came the engi- neer's dry rasp of a voice on the com- municators. He finished even more harshly: “Four men gooe and one to go. We’ve been lucky — but there is one to go!"
“Do you bear that, you spacehouads !" Morton barked. “One to go. One of us win be bait — and don't hold your guns in your hands. He must have the chance at that bait. Kefise. elaborate on those note* you gave me before. It wiD dear up something very important, and keep our minds off that damned thing."
"Err The cracked voice of the sociologist jarred the communicators. "Er. here is my reasoning. When we discovered the thing it was floating a million light-years from the nearest sys- tem. apparently without means of spatial locomotion. Picture that appalling dis- tance. and then ask youndf how long it would require for an object to float it by pure chance. Gunbc Lester gave me my figures, so I wish he would tell you 1 what he told me."
“Gunhe Lester speaking !“ The voice of the astronomer sounded surprisingly brisk. “Most of you know the prevail- ing theory of the beginnings of the pres- ent universe: that it was formed dry the disintegration of a yrnvw universe several million million years ago. and that a few million million years hence our universe will complete its cycle
in a torrent -of explosions, and be replaced by another, which wfl develop from the maelstrom. As for Kellie’s question, it is not at all impossible; » fact, it would require several mil- boo million years for a creature floating by pure chance to reach a point a tnd- bon light-years from a planet. That is what you wanted. Kellie?"
"Er, yes. Most of you will recall my mentioning before that it was a paradox that a pure sympodial development, such as this creature, did not populate the en- tire universe. The answer is that, logi- cally. if his race ikouU have controlled the universe, then they 4td control k. We human beings have discovered that logic is the sole stable factor in the al; and we cannot shrink even from the most far-reaching conclusions that the mind may arrive at. This race did con- trol the universe, but k was the previous universe they ruled, not our present one. Now. naturaly. the creature intends that bis race shall also dominate this uni-
VCTKL •
"In short." Morton snapped, “we are faced with the survivor of the supreme race of a universe. There is no reason to assume that they did not arrive at our present level of progress any later than we did : and we're still got several mil- lion million yean to go before our uni- verse crashes into flaming death. There- fore. they are mx only bdbons of years ahead of us. but millions of millions of years." Hts voice took on a strained oote : "Frankly, it scares me. We’re not doing enough. Our plana are too sketchy. We must have more informa- tion before we can hope to win against such a super-human monster. I’m very much afraid that — ”
The shrill scream of a man protruded horribly into his words, and there came a gurgling “■ — got me . . . quick . . . ripping me out of my suit — "
The voice collapsed: and somebody shouted in frank dismay: "Good
Heaven ! That was Dack. my asuwawt !”
ASTOCNWSC SCIENCE- FICTION
The moun of ship bramt, (or Mor- tA, a long. diming corridor that per- ftird in blurrinf before his eyes. And it *11 suddenly as if he mere lockiaf. not out at it. but down into its depths — fearsome depths that made his brain reel. *
Aps seemed to pas*. But Morton, schooled now to abnormal calm, knew that only fractions of seconds were draff trig by. Just as his nerves threat- ened to break, he heard a voice. Per- jsens’ voice, cool, steady, yet almost unrecognizable :
“One !“ said Pennons : and it sounded absolute mumbo-jumbo in that moment when out there another man was going through a hell of fear and torment.
"TwoT said Pennons, cold as ice.
Morton lewd himself staring curi- ously at his feet. Sparkling, brilliant, beautiful blue fire throbbed there. Lit- tle tendrils of that gorgeoas flame reared up hungrtly a few inches from his suit, as if baffled by some invisible force pro- tecting tbe suit.
There was a distinct dick in Morton's mind. Instantly, his brain jumped to full gear. Iq a flash of thought, he real- ised that Pennons had energised floors seven and nine. And that it was blue ferocity of the enrrgization that was Mrugxhrg to break through the fu3- drisen screens of his space armor.
Through his communicators came the mgineer s hiss of indrawn breath: “If I'm right.” Francos ahno«X*wrhbpered. all the 'trer-gth gone from his voice, “we've now got that— devtl— cornered on the eighth floor.”
“Then.” barked Morton efficiently, “well carry on according to plan. Group one. follow me to the seventh floor."
The men behind Morton stepped short as be halted abruptly at the second corner. Sickly, he went forward, and wood staring at the htsnan body that sagged against the floor, pasted to the metal by almost unbearably brilliant fin-
gers of blue fire. Hb voice, when be spoke, was only a whisper, but it cut across the strain of silence like 4 whip- lash:
“Pull him loose!"
Two men stepped gingerly forward, and touched the body. The blue fire leaped ravenously at them, straining with futile ferocity to break through the fuU-drivra defense screens of their suits. The men jerked, and the unholy bonds snapped. They carried the body up the nearest suirs to the unenergued eighth level The other men followed silently, and watched as the body was taid on the floor. .
The lifeless thing continued to kick for several minutes, discharging tor- rents of energy, then gradually took on the quietness of natural death.
“I’m waiting for reports!" Morton said stiffly into hb communicators.
Pennons' voice came. “The men are spread out over the eighth floor ac- cording to plan, taking continuous pic- tures with fluorite cameras. If he's anywhere on the Boor, well get a pic- ture of hb swift -moving body ; and then h will be a matter of energizing the Boor pircrmeaL ItU take about thirty min- utes yet — ”
And finally the report came: "Noth- ing !" Pennons’ voice held an merrdu- 1 ®us note tinged with dismay. "Mor- ton. he’s not here. It can only mean that he passed through the energized floor as easily as through ordinary metal We know he must have gone through it because Duck’s dead body was on ikit side."
Somebody said hopelessly : “And now what are we going to do?"
Morton didn't answer. It struck him abruptly, with a shock that tore away his breath, that he had no answer.
The silevce in that shjyung corridor was a form of death. It pressed against Morton, a queer, murky, iightless thing. Death was written too in the faces that
a
ASTOUNDING SdEXCE-nCTlON
blurred voood him. the cold, kfial death expectancy of men who could tee tx> way out.
Morten broke the silence: “I am wiD- inf to accept too Grosscn's asalna of bow the thing passes through metal. But he intimated the creature recoiled from the energized walL Can anyone explain then — how?"
"Zeller ipeakmg !" The brisk voice of the metaDurgist came through the communicators. "I re finished the neu- tToohtm-alloT suit, and I re started my search at the boctom of the ship — I heard your question. Morton. To my mind, we sussed one point the first time the creature struck the wall of lorcr : The point b that he «u in rt. And what basic difference is there between being partially inside the wall, and actually |»«»f through? He could pass through in leas than a second. The first time, he touched the wall lor several seconds, which probably means that, in his surprise, he recoiled and lost his balance. That mast have made his position very unpleasant. The second time, however, be simply released poor Dade and passed on through with a minimum of discomfort."
"Hm-m-m!" Morion pondered. "That means he's still vulnerable to walls of force, provided we could keep turn inside one lor a long enough time. And that would mean complete energiza- tion of the ship which, it tuna, would depend on hts allowing us to make the connect sons without interference. I think he would interfere. He let us get sway with enrrguing the two floors because he knew it didn't mean any- thing— and k gave him a good opportu- nity to kidnap some more men. Fortu- nately. he didn't grab off as many as we expected, though Heaven help those lour."
Smith said grimly, kis first words in a long time : "My firm opinion is that anything that would require more than two hours to complete wiQ be fatal. We
arc dealing with a creature who has everything to gain by killing us. and obtaining control of the ship. Zeller, how long would it take to build neu- troeium-aBoy suits for every man on this ship?" %
"About two hundred hours." the metallurgist replied coolly, “mainly be- cause I used up nearly all the available alloy lor this one suit. We'd have to break down the walls of the ship, and build the alloy from an electronic base. We're act in the habit of carrying a lot of metal on this ship, as you know, because there's usually a planet a few minutes from anywhere. Now, we've still get a two weeks' trip either way."
'"Then that's cut!" frowned Smith blackly. He looked stunned. "And since the complete energization is out — we've got nothing else."
The usually lazy voice of Gocrtay. the communications chief, snapped ' "1
don't see why tboae ways are out. WtV stiff akve ; and I suggest we get to work, and do as much as we can as sqdn as we can— everybody working first at snaking suits for the men who go out 4? prepare the walls lor energizing. At least, that will protect them from being kidnaped"
"What makes you think." Smith asked coldly, "that the creature b not capable of swathing down neutrenium alloy ? As a superior being, his lusow ledge of physics should make k a simple matter lor him to construct a beam that could destroy anything we have.. Heaven knows there's plenty of tools lying in the various laboratories."
Tut two mix glared at each other wkh the (lashing, angry ryes of men whose nerves have been strained to the utmost Kmk. Before Morten could speak. Korka's sibilant voice cut across the tense silence: "I am indiaed to agree wkh South We are dealing wkh a being who must now know that he can- not allow us tunc for anything important.
DISCORD IX SCARLET
a
* agree with the fWiKniwW when he »n that the creature will interfere if we attempt to prepare (he ship for copi- plete coc: rolled energi ration . The honorable gentlemen most not forget, however, that we are dealing with a creature whom we have decided is m the peasant stage of his particular cycle.
“Let me enlarge on that. Life is an ebb and flow. There is a foil tide of glorious accomplishment, and a low tide of recuperation. For generations, cen- turies. the Vtxyf flows in the peasant, turgid, impure, gathering strength from the soil ; and then it begins to grow, to expand, reaching finally for the re- motest stars. At this point, aaiaringly . enough, the blood grows weary; and. in this late mrgapolitaa era. men no longer desire to prolong their race. Highly cultivated people regard having children as a question of pros and cons, and their general onrknlr on life b tinged • with a noble skepticism.
“Nature, qc. the other hand, knows txwhmg of and coo. You cannot reason with a peasant — and be cannot reason except as a peasant Hit bad and hb son. or — to pot a higher term to it — hb property and hb blood are sacred. If a bourgeoisie court orders him off hb land, he fights blindly, ignorantly, for hb own. It matters not to him that be may have accepted money for a mortgage. He only knows they're trying to take hb property, to draw hb roots from the toil where hb blood has been nourished.
“Honorable sirs, here b my point: • Thb creature cannot begin to imagine anyone else not feeling about his patch of home — hb own property the way he does.
"But we ... we can make such a sacrifice without suffering a spiritual collapse."
Every muscle in Morton's body grew taa6is hr realised the implications. Hb rxciasnadon was almost a whisper: “Korea, you've got it! It means sacri-
ficing von Gfoasen and the others. It means sacrifice that makes my brain rceL but property is not sacred to us. And as for von Grossen and the other three- — hb voice grew stern and hard, hb eyes wide with a chill horror — "I didn't tell you about the notes tfcot Smith gave me. I didn't tell yoa.be- cmase be suggested a possible parallel with a certain species of -wasp bade home on the earth. The thought b so horrible that I think instantaneous death will come as a release to these bold men." .
“The. wasp!" A man gasped. “You're right. Morton. The sooner they're dead the better!"
“Then." Morton cried, “to the en- gine room. We — "
A swift, excited voice clamored into his communicators : it was a long second before be recognised it as beVxjgiog to Zeller, the metallurgist:
"Morton— quick! Down to the hold ! I’ve found them — in the air-condition- ing pipe. The creature's here, and I’m bolding ham off as best I can. He's try- ing to sneak upon me through the waffs. Hurry!" -* -
Morton snapped orders with ma- chine-gun precision, as the men swarmed toward the elevators: "Sands, take a docen men and get Kent down from the bedrooms to the engine room. I'd al- most lot gotten about him and hb broken leg! Pennons, take a hundred men to the engine room and make the prepara- tions to carry out Korita’s plan. The rest take the four heavy freight eleva- tors and follow me!"
He finished m a ringing voice: "We won't loll him in the hold of course. ®- leas he's gone stark mad. But the crisis has come ! Things are breaking our way at last. And we've got him ! We've got him!" .
Xtl retreated rehxtaatly, sullenly, as the men carried off hb four fmfr. The
a
ASTOUNDING SOENCE-ncnOK
fin* ikHnlddf fear o I defeat dosed over has trim} hVr the night that brooded bncod the nclcua* vrxIH of the ship. Ha impulse wt to dash into their midst. i whirlwind of ferocity. and smash them.! Bo* those o(!r, glittering weapons con- gealed that wild race.
He retreated with a damaging sense of disaster, conscious that he had lost the initiative. The men would discover his up now ; and. in destroying them, wonld destroy hit immediate chances of being reinforced by other Xlh. And. what was more, they were temporarily safe in the engine room.
His brain span into a cold web of purpose. From this moment, he must kiB. and kill only. It seemed suddenly incredible that he had thought first of reproduction, with everything else com* ing secondary, even his every other thought blurred by that subordination to his one flaming desire.
His proper action was pretcreato* rally dear now. No* to get his fait fin*, but to Ids these dangerous enemies, to control the ship, then head (or the nearest inhabited planet, where it would be a simple matter to find other, more stupid fnaii.
To loll he must have an irresistible weapon, one that could smash — any- thing! And valuable time had already been wasted. After a moment's thought, he headed for the nearest laboratory, conscious of a burning urgency, unlike anything he had ever known.
As he worked — tall, nightmare body and hideous face bent intently over the gleaming metal of the queer-shaped me- chanism-— his sensitive feet grew aware of a difference in the symphony of vibrations that throbbed in discordant melody through the ship.
He paused, straightened, alert and tense; and realized what it was. The drive engines were silent. The mon- ster ship of space had halted in its head-
long flight, and was lying quiescent in the black deeps.
An abrupt, mdefinahlr sense of urgency came to Xtl — an icy alarm. His long, black. wirelike fingers became flashing things as he made delicate con- nections. deftly and frantically.
Suddenly, he paused again. Through his brain pulsed a distinct sensation of something wrong, dangerously, des- perately. terribly wrong. The muscles of his feet grew taut with straining. Abruptly, he knew what it was.
He could no longer feel the vibrations of the men. They kU Ujt I hr tkiff
Xtl whirled from hit nearly finished weapon, and plunged thgpqgh the near- est watt. He knew his doom with a burning certainty that found hope only in the bfaclmcta of space.
Through deserted corridors he fled, slavering skt-faced hate, scarlet monster from ancient, incredibly ancient Gor. The gleaming walls seemed to mock him. The w hole world of the great ship, which had promised to much, was now only the place where sudden intolerable hefl would break loose in a devastating, irre- sistible torrent of energy.
He saw the air lock ahead and flashed through the fin* section, then the second, the third — then he was oat in space. There was a sense of increaa- iag lightness as his body fhmg by mo- mentum darted from the side of the ship, out into that blackest of black nights.
For a brief instant, his body glinted and flashed a startling scarlet, reflecting the filing hgfat from the row on row of brilliant portholes.
The queerest thing happened then. The porthole bghts snuffed owl. and were replaced by a strange, unearthly blue glow, that flashed out from every square mch of that dark, sweeping plain of metaL
The blue glow faded, died. Some of the porthole lights came cm again, flickering weakly, uncertainly; and then, as mighty engines recovered from
DISCOID nr SCAXLET
X
dot dmsatin{ Sire of Woe power, the lights already shining grew stronger. Others began to Sash on.
XtJ was a bond red yards {ram the ship when he law the first of the tor* pedohlce craft dan oat of the surrotmd- mg night, into an opening that yawned in the side of the mighty rend Foot other dark craft followed, down in swift arcs, their the
Tagnety visible in the light that glowed now. strong and steady from the lighted portholes.
The opening shot : and — just Bee that —the ship vanished. One instant, it was there, a vast sphere of dark metal; the next be was staring through the space where it had been at a vague swirl of light, an eoormoQS galaxy that beyond a golf of a fashion years.
Time dragged drearily toward ■
XU sprawled moveless and louifterahfy hope<ss on the boaom of endless n^hf He couldn't help thinking of the sturdy * tons he might bore had. and of the verse that was loot because of bis takes. But it was the thought of the sons, of companionship, that reaSy
« * - J * -
Of ipi» r .
Morton watched the tiaDfnl 'fingers of the surgeon, as the electrified knife cot into the fourth mao’s stomach. The last egg was deposited in the bottom of the tall neutranium alloy rat.
The eggs were round, grayish ob- jects, one of them slightly cracked.
As they watched, the crack widened ; an ugly, round, scarlet head with tiny, bendy eyes and a tiny slit of a mouth poked out The head twisted on its short neck, and the ryes gbscred up at them with a hard ferocity.
And then, with a swiftness that al- most took them by surprise, it reared up and tried to run out of the vat. shd buck — sod dissolved into the flame that Morton poured down upon it.
Smith, belong his dry Kps, said :
"Suppose he’d got away, and into the nearest waH!"
Nobody said anything. They with intent eyes, staring into the sat. The eggs melted reluctantly, under the merciless fire of Morton’s gun. and then burned with a queer, golden light.
“Ah." said Dr. Eggert ; and turned to him. and the body of Grosses, over which he was “His muscles are beginning to relax. I bis eyes arc open and alive. I be knows what’s going on. It was a form of paralysis- induced by the egg. and fading now that the egg b no longer present. Nothing fundamentally wrong. They'D all be O. K. shortly. What about the big fellow r
Morton replied: "Zeller swears he saw a fiaih of red emerge from the main lode just as we swept the ship with uncontrolled energisation. It must have been, became we haven’t found his body. However, Pennons is ostf with half the men. taking pictures with ameras: and well know for in a few hours. Here fag it now. Wdl. Pamsons r
The engineer strode in briskly, mi placed a misshapen thing of metal on one of the tables. ‘Sochn* definite to report yet — bat I found this in the mam physics laboratory. What do you make
of *r
Morton frowned down at the fragile- object with its intricate net- of wires. There were three db- tubes that might have been i tto and through three round balls, that shone with a silvery light. The fight penetrated the table, making it as transparent as gWxs- ke. And. strangest of aS. the balls irradiated, not heat, bat cold.
Morton put hb hands near, bat the cold was of a raid, water -freezing variety, apparently harmless. He coached the metal balL It fch as doled metal might fed
ASTOVWDDIG SOEMX-ncnOM
H
*1 think we’d better leave this lor oar chief pkfiient to examine- Von Gtomcb ought to be op and around toca You uj you found it in the laboratory f
Pennons codded: and Morton car- ried on hit thought: “Obviously. the creature was working on it. when he suspected that tomethinj was amiss — he most have suspected the troth, (or be left the ship. That seems to dis- count your theory. Korita. You said that, as a true peasant, be couldn't even anagine what we were going to do.”
The Japanese historian smiled faintly through the fatigue that paled his face. 'Honorable commander.” be sa^jo* htdy. “a peasant can realize destructive insentient as easily as you or 1. What be cannot do is bring himself to destroy his own property, or imagine others de- stroying theirs. We have no such Ban-
Pennons groaned: “I wish we had. Do you know that it will take us three months at least to get this ship properly repaired after thirty seconds of uncon- trolled energization. For those thirty seconds, the ship created a held in space minims of times more intense than the energization output. I was afraid that — "
He stepped with a guilty look. Moe-
* ton grinned : “Go ahead and finish what you were going to ay. You were afraid
‘ the ship would be completely destroyed. Don’t worry. Pennons, your previous
* statements as to the danger involved made us realize the risks we were tak- ing: and we knew that our lifeboats could only be given partial astiaocelera-
boe; so we'd have been stranded here a million years from home.”
A man aid. thoughtfully: “Well, per- sonally. I think there was nothing actu- ally to (ear. After all. he did belong to another unrrersr. and there is a special rhythm to our present state of existence to which man is probably attuned. We . have the advantage in this sauverse of momentum, which, I iVsft, a creature from any other universe could hope to overcome. And in the world of man there is no just place lor a creature that can even consider hying its eggs ia the bring flesh of other sensitive beings. AO other iotrOigent life would unite against such a distinctly personal men- ace.”
Smith shook his head: “There b no biological basis (or your opinion, and therefore it (alls in the category of imp GMiXJy fpoku irt ainuj mol It dominated once, and it oouU dominate again. You assume far too readily that man b a paragon of justice, forgetting apparently that be fives on meat. «n- shves his neighbors, murders kb oppo- nents. and obtains the moat unholy sadisrical joy from the agony of others. It b not impooihfe that we shal, in the course of our travels, meet other intelligent creatures far mote worthy than man to rule the universe.-
“By Heaven !* replied the other, “na creature b ever getting on hoard this ship again, no matter bow htnnfeas he looks. My nerves are all shot ; and I'm not so good a man as I was when I first came aboard the Bm ffr two long r«ts ago."
“You speak (or us aD!“ said Morton.
Urf+m* Jmkm West WOr.TM TM *r* fc*ci wH h mm
tMftmmmUm i *f ft* aeyifwy mt
By Kent
"ThiuV unlj one' way lo int ifait fori* »jr." John Wr>l insisted. piJar- mg aith his unhixK "We've «o™fly thnthol the L’nnusi fwj timr me'*e found *rm ibrax) untr JXc. httr. found oat htm to n air a tmmic-riT screen. As lnt(. hnaorr. as *t lease Uranus itself alone, they Veep ccnimj. They're using bttle speed -craft now mV rad of bruiser* ; and the nnnute a Ter ran freight rr gets out of the patrolled btnet she'* attacked. (V K_ D. We must attack l ran us and make 'em say Uncle' "
"Fair mrjojhr assent n I Captain Mowbray "That woods kfinl. but it ioa'l. I’ve chased a kjt of tW bUh hone ami it’s aim ass the same story. He lead* me right uj» to his stratosphere, ruts his screen arm! dues kkr a bat out of hrTl fcic the ground. Sometimes 1 can get a hit bef.ee he’s through, but mostly I can't. Ami if | try to follow into the stratosphere, all my instrument* go haywire ami the men do. too There most !e jo) air under that blanket, because me all know that Uranus was cokmirrd by our own sort of people, am] thry can still treat Sr conii.trtabiy anywhere we can. Ami they couldn't do that if their- atn»*s{ here is methane, hkr the books say."
"Why ilon't a kit of you imitate the Uranianv— dive thncigb ami fight 'em undrr if*; stratosphere asked I>r. son ThesL
"You can't maneuver when you're
ft* aryf fcr— ftff Urf**J
Casey
«
h w*
usmg grants ntdhberv. especially with enough power to keep from crashing on Uranus. It has fifteen times the mass of Earth. -you know. At>l if you land, you're got to wear a nullifier yourself m order to mote at all ami you'd he about as much use in a battle as a lamp- post." MUm lea* rxpiamrd.
"High altitude bailing!" West grunted.
"Yeah? When you can't see a dam thing through that gray cloudbank ? 1- mbs enough to coser that big hun- moi of a planet mould take more ship* than well rser hare} And sporadic limbing here and them might not hit a thing. If it del. it woukJ just make the I ranians ma»i*ler.“ "
Yon Theil kaned back in his chair. 1. king at the ceiling ami patting his fingertips together. "Suppose you did know what you were shouting at; lave y**i got bombs that would be rrhakle v* hen released outside the stratosphere y~ he asked. r
"W'c-ell." West admitted reluctantly, "1 wouldn't let on 'em. Tbey'ce g*< a W of range in empty space, but I'm afraid they'd exclude pretty high up in an atmosphere."
Mowbray maided confirmation. "They can't stand much skin- friction." he said. ” Moreover, they're built to attack a ship, in! their here is concentrated in a pretty small area when they go off. I don't think they'd do niuch^itunage to
THUNDERING PEACE
TO
a city except by a lucky hit on a power line or a water main.”
Voa Theil seemed to find the ceiling interesting. "From mhat you say. I should think the things to bomb would be their atmptphrre plants.” he mused. ' The two soldiers turned suddenly. “Atmosphere plants?"
“Sure! We aU know that the Ura- rtians are oxygen breathers like us. CH. would do them no good. .And the natural atmosphere of Uranus is— or. anyhow, used to be — plain CH«. We know that, too.”
"But how — “ West began.
Von Theil suddenly sat forward and brought his eyes down to face the tiro captains. "That's what we got to find out!" he said, snwbng. “Sow. you two stop your wishful thinking and ted me all you know about Urartians. I know they are very hke us except for their tremendous hone and muscles. I know they look facially hke some of our races. 1 hadn't heard that they are actually of Earth stock, however That makes the problem simpler, but not simple enough yet. Who were they? When did they go?"
« v
"As t remember, the first humans to go to Uranus were early in the twenty- first century— oil men. weren't they?" West said turning to Mowbray.
.“Yes. but they didn't stay. They had a few small stations and worked m spacesuits. Working the big lakes of crude oil- Then the sickness came and the oil business had to be abandoned, even though they relieved the men every month or so.”
"Sickness?" ton The. I interrupted "Yes. sonyrthing queer AB of a sud- den. the men on duty in the stations began to get hysterical- Sometimes com- pletely nuts Visiting ships had to carry 'em out. every Last r.ian of them. Most of them had deep, stubborn burns, too. with nothing to account lor them. In-
vestigators landed with all the precau- tions they could think of ; but in a few hours they were as bad as the men they had rescued. So the oil is still there unless the present-day I ranians have used it up.J
His eyesDbght anf'fus hands fiat on the table, thq little doctor was leaning forward eagerly. “And when did the present-day ones go 5 Who were they?"
"Remember the accounts of the Brigands’ War in the twenty-first cen- tury? When a 2. the outlaws of the world gathered in the countries where there were the fewest riviSred men and started a rebellion? They really forced the formation of the Planetary govern- ment. It took all the decent people several years to quiet them. Wed. they „ stopped raiding suddenly, and things were at a stalemate for nearly thirty years. Then aU of a sudden they aban- doned the Earth in a huge fleet of space- ships and went to Uranus. They stayed quiet there, too. until eight years ago when they attacked the Earth without warning."
Dr. von Theil was softly pounding one pudgy fist into the palm of the ocher hand. "And it was during the time of stalemate on Earth that the sickness came to Uranus, eh?"
Mowbray nodded in surprise. “Yes. That's what makrs it purxling. They didn't seem to be bothered by the sick- ness at all when they went to Uranus, ah Sough- they were just as human then as we are. They hadn't even adjusted their bodies to jhe enormous gravity, and probably didn't foe several genera- tions.”
“Do you rrmemhrr the names of any of their leaders?” von Theil asked.
"Their military commander wa> named Gobelin or Gossehn or something hke that. But the real leader was sup- posed to be an American professor who had got into scene sort of trouble. Poisooed his 'wife or something J can't think of his name. Began with an RT
M
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION
“Rrtrtoden ?“ no Theil almosl ifctotoL
“That's it. Kditadcn. Why?”
The bjtle doctor crowed vilh CW. “Now I've jot it' Now I bet I know! Ritrhaden' Thr first non who pot injr from the wily old noboa of trying to bm* down hn*y element* to make lighter one* oat of them. Hr worked the other way. Hr built up light ele- ment * into heavy one*. Hr the fins nan. for instance. who node the manu- facture of phosphorus from silicon com- mercialh practicable. Now I know !”
He crammed thr last of hi* sandwich into hi* mouth and gulped hi* coder. “Come on. you two ! We gut to see the general right away f
Gcx ual BaiMiv wa* about to close hi* desk and start on hi* daily tour of inspection of the barracks and han- gar* when the too, tardy waiting for the orderly to announce them, entered hi* office. West and Mowbray remained silent at attention ; but ran Theil did not esen spore the time to answer Brumby'* “How d'ye do. doctor?”
“ General. “ he cried. "1 think I got it now. but I got to see something Can I hate John here and a little ship this afternoon ?” s
Long inured to the volatile little man's outbursts, the general betrayed no sur- prise. “What hate you got. doctor? Miyb we can find a ship ti it's neces- sary.’
"I think I've got it. How to stop this foolish war. Bus 1 got to look at Uranus to make sure."
“lx* i. at Uranus y‘ .
“Of course. How else could I t d/?~
Brumby '» forehead wnnkled m a put- tied frown. “But. doctor, we can't land you on Uranus. We don't esen try to enter that jeculiar stratosphere of theirs: and the clouds make any Lc.g- range *thsersa:ion of the surace unre- liable.
The little professor was dancing with
impatience. “PfaiT he shouted. “Get a ship and rig your long-range riew- plales with an infrared cloud-breaker ray. So simple esen your young scien- tific men in the gosemment laboratory can do it. This is important, general! Hurry!”
The two captains had 'froren into ex- pressionless immobility. The bewil- dered general looked up at them. “Do you gentlemen know what this ‘ is about r
“No. sir.” West replied. “Dr. too Theil was lunching with us and asked afoul the colonization of Uranus. When be heard it had been done by a man named Ritrbadrn. he got excited and insisted on coming to you at once.”
“Don't you see?” interrupted von Theil pleadingly. “The only way to make the Uranian* behasre b to End out just what methods they are using to overcome the methane. Then we can know how to counteract those method*, and. Kite John say*, they win have to say •Unde.’"
After a brief stare. Brumby turned to hb telephone. “Have an armed cornet speedster on the ramp in. thirty min- ute*," he directed. “Replace her usual far-risioc gear with a cloud-breaker of. say. right hundred miles range. No pilot needed. Just have the ship ready.” He turned to the three with a gesture of outflung. resigned hands. “I'm com- ing along.” he said. “West. trU Colonel Morrow to Hake over the desk until I return. You're on leave at present, aren't youlhCapcain Mowbray?”
“Yes. sir." Mowbray answered, “but ray leave's up Friday- If you're go«ng out to the hkekadr. I could rejorn my ship in a sjace-beh — “
Brumby chuckled. “Want to come, eh? I. guess we can do better than that. Come along. Well land you on your ship without making you body-dive for it.”
“Ha!” ccoed von Theil. “A party we will be. eh? Well, all nglit. Bring the
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«l^r 1‘ilrtJ if yr*i *is! lo. bd let John fly He tine* «lu! I tdl him."
“I take «." Writ uid as the (our aeramlJed through the little comet's air- hck. “that ;ou want to harry. Doc ?"
“Of owe I van: to hurry5:"
“Then, mister, you pi into a pres- sure suit rijht no*. I'm p«nj to make this hal»y sizzle f« you.”
“ I'rcsurr suit? Inside the ship? Wise r i
“Yep. You’se talked hurry for the last hour and a half. No* you're going" to jet action, and it wouldn't do you a let of pod lo hare your whisker* wrapped around a chair back."
As the comet reeled through the sky. her very frames humming to the mighty thrust of her rockets, it was not the professor who gradually became worried. Gallantly refraining from in- terfering with West's navigation, the general moved silently alnut the ths{>. his eyes and ears cocked to the song of the tortured metals and his fingers grop- ing for heated rivets When the lights of the blockading fleet ringing the enemj [Janet caused West to slacken his ter- rific pace, the general's shoulders straightened- "My hat?” he exclaimed. "I thought you were going to yank the tube* out of her!"
Mowbray joined in West's laugh. “These comets are tough, general -They aren't the sleazy little packets we had to fly a! the legiraring of the war. You can spin 'em at that speed without do- ing much more than buckle a maistplatc here and there.”
"Hm-m-m !" was Crumby's - reply. "I'm getting too old for stuns flying. I guj" What do you wan: West to do now. ifcctorr"
"Get down as dose as he can and circle. i‘u: out tie spy-bram and every - lody look for them."
"For 'what, doctor?”
You Thci! stared incredulously. "You don't get it yet ? Well, for bttle inter-
n
mittens flashes <«i the ground like.' say. artificial liglitning ping sidewise. Then maybe fre ball-topped towers. 1‘rohaMr then for columns of force Kite vertical chimneys straight up a few miles.”
West ijcif undrr his breath to Mow- bray. "Belter man the gun. Dick. Close as we are. we may get a welcoming com- mrttee.”
Tien West snapped current into the spy-tram and threw it in a wide arc on the dense gray ekiudbank leksw. "IH gise uu a wide field first to Ink for your flashes. Poe. If you >}rt one. IH concentrate so you can for your
towers easier.”
Foe a few minutes at the doud- be raker fought its sray through the murk, little coukl Ir seen. Then. "There’s a city. Doc. You want that?"
"Nix ? Foolish ? They wouldn't hive anything so dangerous dote to a city! Look at where it looks like prairies or maybe muuntaintopx Do you think they want to invite the sickness again ?”
Brumby looked up. a gleam of cOuv- prrhension in his frosty ^yes. "By jore! I begin to see daylight, doctor !"
"There you are — Sector A-16 on the board. Doc! Is that it?” West said suddenly. Faintly through the eerie illumination of the infrared beam ap- peared liny coruscations on the writer of Cranus. flying like sparks between sphere-topped towers.
"That's it r crowed un Theil. "That's one of them, anyhow. Don’t get too dose to it! The stratosphere ought to he po«>on right above it. Ah! Let's see — Yes. by golly. < la: makes k com- plete! Right alongsiie the towers! That is the final jin»>f — the refrigerating plant. Kitxbaden! Wliat a man! What a [«ty he had to kill his wife aaX'cun away. All that science wasted for malN mg fighting foolishness!”
"Refrigeration ?” the general asked.
"Sure Mike! For a healthy, atmo- sphere. they got to lave same helium don't they?"
\
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION
Uovua Y , hi* qn intern on hi* Krrrn u he watched foe possible Ura- man {unhaiv. -p kr ovy hi* shoulder. “I wras a pretty knjh Ale doctor my- self before this cruel wrr nv*5e a space- jop out of me." he sasd. "I thought I knew scene physic*, but I can't make sense to ail th»v What'* it about ~f
"Not physics except to plant the ap- paratus. mister. Chemistry. Air. • To breathe, you know. Like we got at home."
"1U bite. too. Doc. You hasen’t taught me anything abdut that. Not rve-n hot air." West addgj.
The httle profe-ssor shook hi* head sadly. “Thi* modem education !* he mourned. "They teach you everything test how to use what you • sight to knpw.
I juen. my chiklrru' The first oil men came here to the erurle oiL It didn't need anything but pump*. It be* in open lake* on the ground, eh? Well.* no great budding matured there. Tow oat a big caisson and dump it right side up on the ground. Two. three men can bee in it for some weeks . while they psp its bold full of o*L Come* the rebel ship and chops another caisson and tow* back the fuH one. eh?"
"That'* right. Then they got tick."
"Sure Mike! Because « wa* gening loo hot for the Brigand*, and they didn't lie firing in equatorial Africa anyhow. So — they crane cat here. The people cooped up in the caisson* don't see them. They don't lease their big drum* except to enonret thg suction hose in space armor and duck back to Mart the pumps rhe Brigand* Mart their firM station. Ihra another and another. By and by they are getting result* — in about twrnty-fi*e cie thirty year*, rray be. eh?"
"What kmd of statical. Doc? What result*?"
Von Thetl sighesl patiently. "A pic- ture might helpi. WrU try again l Auk. bag man. the atmosphere of Uranus then was methane. Of, Now what jt car- bon’s atomic weight ?"
“Twelve point* 0 one.*
"So. They bombard the methane with alpha particle*. They break up and rebuild the carbon atoms. Heavier. Carbcai is No. 6 in the table. What is No 7?
"Nitngen. Fourteen point O-O-eight. I know that one. too."
" And No
“Oxygen. Sixteen."
"And what Is air?"
"Nitrogen and — Wtjl, fry my hide! I see it now ! They transmuted the car- bun by building it up into nitrogen and oxygen, and the left-over hydrogen evaped upward. Must have a layer of it several times thicker than our upper layer" /
"Ye*." went cai von TheiL "And. naturally, where there is so much crude cal there is bound to be natural gas. It’s pretty cold, but not cold enough, so they freeze it a lot more and what do they get ? Nitrogen, bquid. of course, liquid methane and helium. They let the helium and the nitrogen out into the air; and the frozen methane hrlpis run the refrigerator, or else they turn it loose, too. and break it up. Idee they do the methane they had to Matt with."
Mowbray w hist led softly under hit breath. "And to think I graduated first at medical school ! Tket's what the sick- ness was ' The new nitrogen and oxygen and hydrogen would be in- tensely radioactive when it was first made. Radio- neurone* and X ray burns — that was the sickness, huh?"
Yon Theil nodded. "It would take several years lor h to become safe. They waited thirty, so yew I old me. Now they just have occasional plants to keep their air stable, and the new gases are six* high into the stratosphere so they lose their danger a* they filter down through good air.”
"So now," said Brumby grimly, "all we have to do is brenh one of their air plant* ami threaten the rest. Surrender or MiSe in methane, slowly. What a
THU. vp EKING PEACE
choice! Doctor. I'm a hard-boiled old soldier and 1 don't mind blowing a man or a ship to chunks. bat I’m gUd I never thought of anything aAvclHsh a* that !"
Vos Tit tit.'* blue rye* widened in astonishment. “Why. no ! I wouldn't do that, ol course. Why not just tell *rm you know W to do it ? They surely will hare some sense then ?~ He looked, puttied, from one to another of the of- ficers.
“You don't know those Urar.iacs. Doc." West said gently. “You can't tefl 'em anything. They'd give us the horselaugh. • We'd hare to bomb an air plant. aQ right — maybe several "before they would really begjn to worry.”
“Yes.” Brumby took up the story, “we'd hare to blow up several of their plants. The effect would not be imme- diate. and they would merely push their shipbuilding a bit. trying- to drive the blockade away. But. meanwhile, the methane would be spreading and spread- ing. It wouldn't get to the dues for a long time, but it would hit first the most helpless ones — women and kids in the sparsely settled country nearest the plants. Don't you see?”
“They're tough cituens. professor,” Mowbray added. “It afl take some- thing sudden and drastic and risible to make them knuckle under, and blowing up all the plants at once would be neces- sary. That would make Uranus the sanse old death trap it was before people came here."
The little doctor sank into a seat, his face troubled- "Hm-ro-m! That woqfe^j, be too had!” he said "Nix to that!
He began pulling at his snowy sideburns and his forehead wrinkled in a porten- tous frown. "Bah!" he said under his breath. “I should hare thought of that! Hm-m-m. There must be something — " He leaned back, closed his eyes and be- gan to tap his fingers together. "Hm-m-m" — suddenly sitting up— "how
high is the hydrogen layer above ground T
"I should say fifty or sixty miles " "And it should be pretty deep- deeper than ours, eh ? Lots of hydrogen freed in the air-making and most of it up there." He leaned forward with his hands oo his knees and gated fixedly into Brumby's face.
"How about a simultaneous storm all over the planet ? Noise, probably very heavy rainfall, very exciting? Not so much damage. Maybe a fire here and there. And wind damage. Hm-m-m . . . yes . . . and cloudbursts, of course. That first. Then tell 'em that is a sample and do they want any
"It would have to be a tolerably hefty show. Something not easily attributable to natural causes." Brumby replied.
"But if it is, then it might work?"
"If it was spectacular enough, it might make them think. Why. what are yew thinking about T For von Theirs round, pink face was tinning joyously.
"About getting home if two little ships, instead of ooc.^sufoyrow . John can't fly but one. How about you JT And he turned to Mowbray. "Can you fly pretty good ? Can you calculate a beam- curve ?"
Mowbray glanced helplessly at his commander-in-chief. "I can fly," he said, "but you 11 have to ask' General Brumby — "
The general smiled. "Captain Mow- bray is battle -pilot of Colonel Tihoo's flagship." be said. "If you want to use him. we can get his leave extended a day or so. I imagine; that is. if he volunteers for this duty. He's officially on leave at present."
"Yes. sir. I'm volunteering." Mow bray answered eagerly. •
"Fine! Good! Now. somebody fix my pressure suit and let's go home. ztrrie — the way we came." and von Theil again leaned back in his seat, frowning studiously and with eyes
I
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION
>
o
closed. "Put roe down u dose to err laboratory as sou ran." he asked. “I jot work to do tonigfa." The three officers, bps twitchinj with asms emeus, resumed their Sight stations.
“Aye. aye. Doc !" West repfaed cheer- fully. and set the little comet cc her screaming course hack to Earth.
“Think up just what you want to tell the Uranians tomorrow after the busi- ness is oser." son Theil murmured drowsily. He leaned hack comfortably and wens to sleep.
Howrvr*. he was wide awake the rooming following arrisal a: his labo- ratory and was a! the flying held sery early, the back seat of his cab filled srith apparatus. “Easy with that !" be or- dered. “It should be handled carefully. Those are strung tubes, but you might pop one and then maybe things wrifl go wrong." He began to supervise the mounting of the machines in the two ships that lay ready in the cradles.
“Some sort of ray projector, huh commented West. What is it. Doc. an ' improved pebble-buster?"
“It looks hke it. don't it? You wrait and see. But you know you couldn't use my Dirac ray in the war zone. Not with your screen turned on. So. of coarse, this is different."
"What wiU these things do? And why two of 'em?"
"WeC. I hope Captain Mowbray it pretty good at calculations. We aren't going to shoot at anything you can see. That's w ha: makes it hard."
The two tiny ships dsd not race at such breakneck speed to L'ranus do the second voyage. "All. that pressure makes the eyes jump. We want good sighting when we get there." said the doctor. Once well clear, he kept a running con- versation over the viior-screen wnh Mowbray in the other ship. "When we get there, you get an accurate hundred miles away from us at the same altitude above the surface, eh?"
"Right, doctor."
"Fine. I tell you some more then."
Warned by General Brumby, the blockade ships gave the two bttle craft a wide berth ; but practically the entire • fleet hung in a quadrant behind them, eagerly watching. Dr. von Theil's ex- ploits were tradition now. and this was the first time most of the fleet had had opportunity to watch.
"His Ceres show was a hooey." Colo- nel Tthoo remarked to his chief of staff. "This time he's promised something to dazzle the whole planet, so the general says.. I don't wan: to miss it."
From time to time, von Tffel glanced uneasily into the screens as division after division of ships became visible. "Bcttw tel! all these people to V*rp wefl behind us." he warned. “Pfm! You’d think it was a football game!"
At last, after long searching of the instrument dials, the bttle doctor began to twist the small handwheel which con- trolled his ray projector. "Mr. Mow- bray." he barked into his transmitter, "are you an accurate hundred miles from us T
"Yes. sir." Mowbray answered. "Maybe ten yards either way. Not more."
"What's your altitude now in relation to Uranus?"
"One hundred and fifty pslfls as near as may be."
"pine ! Hold it there! Now train your ray dead ahead, but at an angle of sixty degrees to the ship-to-ship baseline and keep it there steady. Ready?"
"All set. doctor!"
m
"Then here we go!" and the bttle doctor pressed down the button of his instrument, slowly twisting his vernier as if searching for something.. Up and down, be played his ray. bke a whip- ping searchlight, and as be crossed and recrossed Mowbray's beam, brilliant flashes snapped and crackled.
. “HO running down Mowbray's beam
THC'.VDEJUJv'G PEACE
4)
koi-inj for sometltiiig. Do jou bov •to: hr'* ificrT West whispered over hi* shoulder to thr generaL
"I ni not sure. but I think — "
Till St\mCT was nrw fin- ished. L’ranu*. which had been an ■Rnnnoui sphere covered with an al- most solid gr^y cloudbank. became al- most instantaneously a great hall of lambent blue Same with jets Scaping high into outer *{iace. and Scary coo- atssiocu could be detected deep in the stratosphere, glaring dashes lie con- centrated sheet bghtnij^; and as the Aimr« died a* ay. swirling black rain clouds. Then these in turn cleared, and Uranus, divested of its cloud-blanket, showed plain in the visor*, apparently every square mile drenched, but with forests and buildings smoking as if re- cently extinguished.
The bttle doctor smiled and looked at his watch. "Sixteen minutes." he giggled. . “You can talk to 'em now. general. Was that storm good enough Y"
The general, his face strained, was staring into the visor, setting magnifica- tion at maximum. “I can't talk to them now.” he said grimly. “Look! They're rioting aO over the place. Can't say I blame them. What a racket you lacked up!"
"You can go closer to look if you want." too Theil said calmly. “I think* t Sr _ stratosphere is pretty well clear of noxious gases now foe a while. But see — I didn’t wreck the air plants at all.
I didn't hurt anything but their feeling* Scorched the roofs, maybe, but the ram put that out quick **
In every city and town as the visors feckcd them up one by one. frantic crowds were storming the government houses and swarming about Arcing ar- mored car* which converged swiftly along the network of broad roads. "Those cars are making foe Fleet Bate ! Loci, there it is — Inis like most of the
Uranian Aeet is cradled there f* cried West.
Car after car outdistanced its pursu- ing mob and reached the giant drome. Brumby rapidly spun the tuning dials of hi* speaker . "Calling Colonel Tilton's flagship!" he yelped. “Stand by foe mass sortie of Uranian ships! They're coming out in force T
However1, as ship after ship took off. it became apparent that Aighi. not fight, was all that occupied the minds of the Uranian pilots. They wished only to get away from their home planet and their aroused and frantic population. They shot out into space at crary an- gles and reckless speed, dodging the Trrran ships without even offering to fire on them. One or two were shot down, a few were captured; but scores escaped into the blackness of spocr. never to return to their homeland, but to become a haunting, desperate Aeet of pirates on the fringes of known space.
The visor plate began to hum and glow. "They're calling us from the ground." Brumby shouted.
The plate soon Ailed with the images of squat. .heavily built Uranian men and women, their palhd faces and drawn features betraying their excitement. An old nun spoke.
"Fartboienr* be called in a hoarse voice, "as chairman of the Revofotiooar) Committee of Uranus. 1 am suing (or peace! We have driven out our over- lords. taking advantage of the trmbie storm which we have reason to believe you caused. The overlords have Aed with all the government treasure, so vre hope you wiQ be lenient in your terms. We. who are now in charge, have never favored this war and have striven vainly to end it. We are at jour mercy."
"Brace is what we want oursehrei." Brumby replied. "I accept your sur- render. but have no authority to grant terms other than a temporary armistice. The blockade will continue until those term* are settled, but you need fear no
44
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION
hoflilc mom nmrahik. If you hitt a small sky ha! handy, send your peace tttaanicoftt to this «r«d and I «i!l take them to Kartb to treat with the Planetary Council. Do you wed any help or topplio?”
The Uranian chairman breathed a keg jifti of relief. “Many thanks. We are in no immediate need. We will be aboard your vhrp in hah' an hour.** and the tereen faded
"Now !“ e»(ided John Wot. peach- ing the little doctor into a vat and mra- aoeg hun with a brown forefinger. Tee waitrd long rough to law what you did? Spell K. Doc. if you dret'l want nr l© butt?"
"My. no! Don't bu<. You tee. when I made my exploder three yeart ag>\ I fixed it to it couldn't be a war » capon, at you know. But this time 1 uvd it not only for prate, but for health, too I cleaned out the (sawn kitrbwdrn'4 work left in the ttral<MQh^fi|a__L'ranu« will be kti oxer t«a whde.“ and KW
"But what thej
"1 jn<t vet fire
It matt hate hern'
lor a while. Thote • -ist
an appbealiro of thr old rr
tuhant of force*. Fadi it ^mir harmless by itself. but whm they meet at the preprr angle, they bump, and you got my r-plodrr Pan/* So. 1 fell
along Mr. Mowbray** beam with mine, exploding little bit* of stray gat. until the ray* joined just* where thr hydro- gen layer merged with the atmospheric gate*. And then — kUm' — it pipped and burned. One big thunderttorna over a whole planet'* surface? So. that made a lot of water all at cnee, and it ranted down and put out the fire. And m. the Uranian* overlords (it in dutch and scrammed. and now we get peace!” A email bfeboat »bd alongside and lour spamtnted figures stepped through the air lock. Through the transparent helmet* showed the face* of three white- haired men and one burly, rather hand- wane youth. Qwckly they introduced tbemvbe*. showing credentials authoe- iriwg them as member* of the peace nemaitioa ".And I made bold to bring ms sou Madoc." the leader added, nod- «!mg tow ard the huge boy. “A* a mem- let of the retro! ut weary party he has been debarred from our umversttiex. Me hsprs you will alow hmy to come . to Faith to study."
“'Mai you want to study?” asked a Thesl. hi* eye* twmkbng.” flii oc*. sir ^ atkl the hoy sainted
tr- ibe little doctor ran an appeasing rye «p and down the young man's sturdy bif*. "You come with me and 1 mil! v» that you learn some physics.” he chuckled. “And. mister. Jkm r my ura- versity can use a fuEWk blcg you!”
I
Cliy Of THE CORPORATE AID
Pmst. frtutf o»d frfy> im (W ymiM W tiree of Hum >>w Iwrads • crty •# t fk for fifir*— • sfruapu. hrhW iichk
t
By (lal Schachner
iMniM trw.A. turn
The Red Sea rrade in oily pilch beneath To the left stretched the vast, unbroken jungles oi Africa. On the rich* the sac dizzied back from aa icOTnaMc expanse oi barren sand and rock. .Everywhere there « is science — deep, brooding. tubs.
Och the toil roaring oi rocket jets punctuated the hash as the stoles ship oi Harf fled north and west, cleaving the upper air like a siher bird in flight.
“Still nothing — and always nothing!-' groaned Sam Ward, mas oi the twen- tieth century, his gray eyes ictrst on thf unpeopled solitudes below. "Per- haps my hunch is wrong. Perhaps Dadrlon was the last outpost of the isolated cities of Earth. And eves that curious flying city a gone." be added wryly.
Behan. CHgarch of Hispsa, turned his tawny, aristocratic head with a faint souls. “You forget that my native city is still intact." he reminded. "Its neutron walls will defy both the rocket horde oi Harg and the mightier thought- waves of Ria ~
"A lot of good that w£3 do us— or Earth V- Sam reclamed. “Your feflow Olgarchs consider you a traitor tact you helped us escape. They’d put us all to death if they ever laid hands on us."
"I am not afraid of death." snapped Kleon. Greek oi Alexander’s time. His golden hair was surmounted by a bat- tered helmet, h is dean-chiseled features
and bright -bloc eyes gave him the ap- pearance of a Pfckjjan god. The shield that ever burg from his shoulder dashed brazenly agamst his tarnished armor, the javelin tV.it never left bis hand de- scribed an angry arc. “It isn’t death I mind." he repeated, "as long as my feet are firmly planted on the solid ground and my sword can strike ax-enemies that are palpable and within reach. But these newfangled weapons of the future, that IriO at a distance and in cowardly fashion, and this boat that cleaves, the air Eke Icarus with bis waxen wings, are beyond me."
Sam Ward* thrust a quick, anxious glance to the rear. "We seem to have escaped the hordes oi Harg temporarily. There’s nothing in sight.**
RAm with dis-
taste at the smoked hindquarters oi a hare. They had captured it daring a hurried descent off the Gulf oi Aden w here they had synthesized fresh rocket fuel and laid in fresh stores oi water and game.
"Sooner or later." he observed calmly, "the horde will catch up to us. The thought -tentacles oi Ras are far-reach- ing. And when we go. the last chance oi warning whatever cities may still exi^ goes with us. Vardu oi Harg and W of Asto will rule triumphant."
"Which means Ras — that spindle- legged. swollen-headed apology for a man." declared Kleon with magnificent
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIND
contempt. “Vardu’s just fait tool.” Sam’s ere* burned ahead. They were right — both of these comrades with whom he ted come to be to strangely ivyraln! Ris. who had unscrupu- lously joined form with the totalitarian horde of Harj against hit own race, who had tent Ikadcluci hurtling to destruc- tion. would never submit to equality with hit fellow conquerors In hit teheming brain, mighty with concen- trated thought, there must be plant — The rocketship sped oser the sluggish Nile and. where once the Pyramidi were thought to stand eternal, nothing remained but the lone and level sands. The Sue! Canal wat gone, choked by lo*h. fantastic weeds. The Mediter- ranean ghmmrrcd bluely beyond. This cradle of civilization. home of earliest empires, broad thoroughfare for thou- sands of years to the traffickings of men. was now silent and desolate, rimmed with unfamiliar contours, tomb of van- ished hopes and (ears.
Yet K Icon's eyes kindled at the sight. “HomeT His voice was a prayer. “Home to Greece after ten thousand years of absence ! Sorely the great Alexander's seed has nht perished with the rest ; surely the glory of Pericles and Plato, of Thraastodes and Aristotle have left eternal marks. Here, if any- where. vre shall find that free people of whom you dream. Sam Weed!”
But Sam shook his bead in sadness. “The glory that was Greece, bke the grandeur that was Rome, had died even Wore my day. eight thousand years ago. However, we can look.”
Foe hours of precious. waning time they flew feverishly over the deep- in- dented coast, hurtled over fabled Olym- pus. sought signs that men stiD existed in that oner-glorious land.
But they found nothing !
The flame of longing in K Icon's eyes died slowly to bitter tragedy. "Gone' All gone!” he whispered, and towed his head.
a
Sam and Urban moved softly to the peow of the rocket ship, respecting fab grief. Once again they were high over the Mediterranean. .
“Were there any other chilizatioas that might have survived in this . land you call Europe Y~ asked Behan. I
Sam’s face clouded. “If you can cal them civilizations.” he said unw abc*. “In the twentieth century they had mostly turned into dsctalorxal stales, massed nations liky the horde of Marg itself. Megalomaniacs ruled them and brought than eventually to that destruc- tion in a later century which buried al mankind and made of Earth a shambles. But farther to the west there may stifl be some forgotten survivor that — ”
K leoet lifted his head and stared moodily over the side. It had been impossible for him to believe that hb native land could have shared the gen- eral debacle that overtook the world. AO through hb adventures, since hit awakening from the radium induced sleep in the land of the Mayas, had nm the unexpressed hope of revisiting the purple hills of Attica and the windy plains of Thrace and hearing once more the rolling surge of Homer’s tongue. A sodden homesickness griped hb vitals and left him weak-. To a Greek all other races are barbarians, all other lands sterile. To be sure Sam Ward and Britan were comrades, fit even to have partaken in the godlike Alexander’s wide-marching expeditious: but they were except iocs. In all Earth he would find no others. And now the hope that had buoyed him up was gone, shattered beyond redemption!*
The sea blinked up at him. beckoning. Only that hadn't changed- The blue Mediterranean, over which the lordly triremes had sailed, and the hawk- nosed merchants of Sidon and Tyre bad sent their wares —
T Htae was no wind, and the heat of summer lay breathless on earth and sky.
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FI CTIOM
j<1 the Unbmwnn was suddenly m Klron blinked and kwfcrd A long shudder rippled wtr the surface. Kke if* [erkihic woitnecl cl a gigantic stem. Then the water bubbled up in a rad arc and over- whelmed the rimming >hofrv The bob- ble nfiapvd and swelled again, rhyth- iriaEj', in regular pulsation : while underneath dim thing* moved and stirred.
Klron dung to the edge of the rush- ing rocket craft (or support. “By tWkloB r* he cried hoarsely. “A mown rocs serpent writhes and stirs within the sea. lark yonder !™
Hit comrade* rushed to the side and peered down. The pulsations were to- rn violence. The whole Medi- fran the const of Syria to the Strait of Gibraltar, foamed with ex- pansion. The low coast of Africa juried under roomless tons of brky
“Good Heavesi !” exclaimed Sam. “The sea’s alive! There's something rrneath."
than remained calm. His prood poise never deserted him. Excitement, or sign of emotion, was unbefitting an Ofgarch of Htspaa. His long, shm lin- gers moved crTvrtlessly over the con- trols. The silver ship swung in spiral- ing descent until it barely skimmed the surface of the pulsing sea.
"There is Me below." he admrtted. keen eyes searching the roiling depth*. "But not of the type friend Klron sup- poses. A city is incased within the *ea — a city with flexible walls of water.”
"But that’* im(ii*>iUe." ga*ped Sam. “How can water create a disiding bne ?"
“Look out r shouted the Greek anil thrust up his shield in vain defense.
Behan tugged hard at the control*, the sweat beading m his pale, patrician countenance Sam dripped flat to the rounded bottom of the ship.
The sea ru*hed up to meet them One hundred feet it heaved into the air. while
the skimming vessel wrenched in every strut and rochet blasts jetted furiMy in swift, upward thrust.
The bubble of waters caaghl thews in irresistible tide, swung over an.) above them. The roar of flames quenched in the smothering medium ; Sam gulped salt water and mstinctrvely braced him- self against the furiocs surge of the sea.
Then, magically, everything chared. Choking and spattering. Sam staggered lo fcis feet. coughing up a lungful of spray, clearing las blinded ryes of^aky immersion. The gigantic wave had re- ceded. leaving m its wake only a thin film of water at the bottom of the rocket-
jhlp.
“Belton ' Klein 1“ he gasped. “Where are you?"
The Greek rose lithefy to his het, thrusting aside the shield under which he had crouched against the invading ride. “Here. Sam Ward.” He spot nut a mouthful of water. “By Poseidon, bat that was a narrow escape? f thought surely the lurking monsters of the deep had caught os that time. It were best that we leave this place — ”
The CXgarch of Hripan shook the spume from hif tawny head. Hit face was grim and taut. His fingers leaped over the bunked instrument* and frfl away with a despairing gesture.
“We can’t get away, friend Klron?/ The rocket tubes no longer furctioni We are underneath the sea?" *
Saw looub blankly around. For the first time the muted silence of the rockets struck him. an] the snklen cessation of accustomed motion. But that was not all? The fierce blare of a flood less sun was gone, -replaced by a fihrrrd.' soothing lllumtnarim The sky it -elf had ranishevl; in its place over- head was a green overarching of snwthly racing waters, rounded in a catenary dome and stretching to misty hotirocis as far as the eye could see.
In d tint anh he docked, while Klron
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIND
«
invoiced the entire pantheon of pds lor succor. Bat the liquid roof — countless miihoctt of toas oi rushing ocean — krpt its form and contour and failed to fall in catapulting catastrophe.
“We were plucked under deliberately." Sam said hoarsely. “We were seen and caught."
“By whom?" demanded Klee®.
“That." observed Bekin. “we will find out fast enough. In the meantime, vre are moving.”
A thin, transparent film formed around the captive ship. Swiftly, si- lently. like a helpless pupa in a cocoon, they slipped alor-g. The three men of dissimilar times gripped their respective weapons and stared.
The filmy bubble- in winch they were inclosed picked op speed. It honied along a strangely carving track. Oat- side. Sam could barely see the circum- scribing walls of the tube — transparent, shmsnertcg. glittering with little flecks of Same.
“We're in a tunnel of sorts." he whis- pered. crouching. The automatic that had served hint well, though millennia old. snouted outward.
“Or rather, an artery." corrected Bel- tan. He held his electro-blaster in negligent gnp JT
“Good Lord l exclaimed Sans. "And we’re the nucleus of a cell The waH that surrounds as is the cell wall."
"Exactly." The Olgarch frowned. "I'm afraid — "
"You speak in riddles." Kleoa bant oat. “bat here come human beings whose appearance I much dislike."
A moment before the shimmering tunnel along which they sped had been empty except for themselves. Mow. suddenly, it swarmed with hurtling men. But they were men such as Sam Ward had never seen before.
Of two types they were. One was a pale, sickly white, elongated and thin. The other was a brownish-red. chunky and rounded. Both had legs that held
firmly together with tough connective tis- sue and their arms weaved in front of them as though they were swimming. Their bdless. lashless eyes were wide . and unblinking ; pale hair and reddish t reamed backward with the wind of their flight. They came swarming down upon the rockelshtp like divers cleaving an in- visible fluid. There was no expression upon their faces, but lx tie knobs bulging on their foreheads quivered with strange vibrations. -
They burst through the shimmering babble that surrounded the plane *0 though it were merest tissue. On they came, directive, purposive, straight for the three men. arms weaving and dutch- «C
“Don't resist!" Behan said quickly, but too late.
A pallid, elongated figure whipped writhing fingers around the startled Greek.
"Ha!" be gasped angrily. A mild shock quivered through his graining muscles, brought red fury to bis dacot- less spirit. He was not used to tame submission. His short, keea-bbded javelin came up with lightning speed and plunged deep into the dead-white body of the offender. ,
The man fell away, spurting a sickly- colored blood.
"Ha!" cried the Greek again, brand- ishing his weapon. "Let that teach you not to lay hands on a free-born Athenian “
"We’re in for it now," groaned Bel- tan. “Kleon will never learn. All right. Sam Ward, well have to fight and may Heaven help us!"
The plunging figures had hesitated momentarily at the wounding of their fellow. The little knobs on their fore- heads increased their vibration. A blue glow surrounded them in pulsing globules. Then they came on again, faces expressionless, eyes unwinking.
Kleon ejaculated an ancient oath as he
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION
Had hit jtidin >pm. The mao rr.to whom be had plunged the weapon had galvanized into life again; m darting forward with his fellows as though be had not been duemb—cfed. The gap- ing woaad in his side had closed and the ichor that issued was reduced to a tiny trickle.
Sam pumped twentieth-century bullets into the oncoming horde. K level’s jaida thpist again and again. Bel- tan 's electro-blaster flamed at bolts of destruction.
But still they came, hundreds on hun- dreds. Neither bullets nor javcln blows could stop their assauh. The wounded (eS bade with red or white spurts of . blood, and came on again, suddenly healed- Only the flaznmg disintegra- tion of the electro-blaster ripped through their serried ranks and spattered them 1 into nothingness
Sam emptied his ebp and cursed. Kleon staggered bade and reached for the henry sword that swung from his th*h_ As far as the ere could see. new- comers were swarming to the attack, diving headlong, arms outstretched.
Wherever they touched, fierce electric shocks quivered through the defenders Sam tried to dub his useless gun. but - his quivering muscles refused to obey his vrilL Long fingers darted over his body. The contact jolted him with strange feres It was torture to move. As in a hate he saw Kleon 's brawny arm sick slowly to his side and Bel- tan’s face contract with pun
Stiff, unable to move, jet jerking at the touch of their captors' fingers, they were horned along The rocketshrp and its immobile contents increased their pace. Platoons of white and reddish men. as though obedient to scene distant command, wheeled in unison and van- ished. Only a handful — fingertips rest- ing on their victims — accompanied them as they careened along the shimmer of inclosing walls.
Tuoioh the transparency Sam watched with moveless eyes the shifting panorama of a strange city and stranger Land. Scores of similar hollow tubes, varying in color from glassy visibility to red and purple hues, converged m huge arcs from the outermost reaches of the circumscribing watery arch, toward the destination to which they were traveling. Crisscrossing channels tied them into a connected system. Red and white Wings, similar to the ones who had seited upon them, sped along the tidies and arteries in purposeful, orderly array, best upon unknown errands.
At stages the channels threw off sup- plementary tubes that ended in mon- strous machines of gleaming metaL Some were like pumps, intricate in pas- tern. others pulsed with interior glow, some whirred in concentric rings like huge gyroscopes, others seemed manu- factories from which- endless, ftreams of rounded pellets. held in a mates of sticky fluid, sprayed into bloc, connect- ing arteries and bathed their denizens m its depths.
Each machine had a cupola at its top. a bubble of sheer transparency. Within the shell sat a mar., more humanlike than the others, his knobbed forehead aglow with electric aura, and tending the controls. Here and there, as they rushed along. Sam got glimpses of other types of men — tome powerful giants and ruddy of complexion, others attenuated and ethereal of hue. who slipped through the atmosphere vrth the ease and swiitaess of a rocker plane.
Then, suddenly, they were whirled out of their transparent channel into a smaller tube of yellow hue. Three brawny men wxerd for them there. Their muscles bulged and their bodies were squat and powerful. They caught the speeding ship and brought h to a hah as easily as though it were a toy. The escort of pale and reddish men touched them with whispering hands, then turned and darted back the way
SI
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIN'D
they had come. The three jerked for- ward Uce unleashed bolts of -lightning.
Sam feh the blood once more surge through his body. At the release of those electric fiegers the shock cored from his. system. He flung around on his comrades. They# too. were stirring hack to Dormahty again. The three men who piloted the ship with muscled grips did not seem to be aware of their existence.
Kleon muttered fiercely and hefted his javelin with stiB-tmghng fingers.
“What do you make of these peo- ple?" Sam asked the Ofgarrh.
Be kin's noble forehead creased into little frowns. He studied the powerful forms of the men who had the ship in tow. "Carious r he murmured. "A total subdivision of labor and of hmc- tion. Each group, different from the others, has its specified task. Each member of the group performs his ap- pointed duty regardless of death, or wounds, or obstruct iocs. Those who first picked us up were scavengers — so to speak— detailed to keep the arteries of communication dean and free of aQ aben matter
"Are we then icum.’or garbage ?" de- manded Kleon heatedly. *
Sam grinned a bit ruefully. “In this city we are. As aliens we have no place in their economy.**
. "Their job performed." pursued the Olgarch. “they turned us over to these different creatures. They are the mus- cular type, swift of motion, powerful — the carriers."
“.And those fcQcm s in the machines ?" Sam pointed to the interior of the city.
"The tenders, the sc bdi rectors of the city's hie." Bekon shook his head, periled. “Hi spun had its division of labor, but nothing like this. Each man. -regardless of his position; nevertheless was an individual, with a will and a mind of his own. Even the hordes of Harg have the power, if each so de-
AST — «
sires, to rebel or refuse to do hb al- lotted task. But here — *
"I noticed ibsi too," Sam almost whispered. "They seem to be practi- cally automatic, without power to act for themselves. Orders awe given, and their response is mechanical, immediate."
"Do you mean then they are not men?" Kleon demanded.
"They're men. all right, but men who have evolved into subordinate parts of a total economy. Htspan and Harg are be: steps along the way. This is the ultimate totalitarian stale, the goal toward which Earth's evolution was ob- viously working. A single corporate existence, in which human beings are tut mechanical cogs, specialircd in function and obedient to the common purpose."
The Greek shivered a bit. “1 do not like your evolution. Man has lost bis dignity, his sole reason for existence. Why. I prefer even the Individualists of Asta. or the variants of Dtaddon to these — slaves."-
"They're not slaves." Sam pointed out, "but component parts of an or- ganized community. No one b greater than his comrade, but all are equally and efficiently subordinate to the com- mon good. Take your own body, for example. There b a similar division of labor. You have your heart and lungs, your arteries and blood cocpusdes'f'ench — " He started violently. "Good
Lord r he husked.
"1 thought you'd finally get the idea, friend Sam." nodded Behan. "It's been in my aand ever since we were first attacked. Your simile b not only apt: it's exact. Thu city b a monstrous body. These tubes are its arteries : those white and reddish creatures who fiVst attacked us are its corpusdcs; . these correspond to the muscular ele- ments. Out beyond, joe note the at- tenuated. swift -darting creatures. They are doubtless the messengers — the nerves of the car. The machines are the me-
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION
S
chanieal organ, heart, lungs, rt jwj wish. that keep the body functioning smoothly. In each sits a director — spe- cialist in the operation at hand — relating bb machine to the others — a minor executrix."
KJeon snorted. “Bah! Eren Plato, who once compared the state to a human body, as you do. knew that it was mere analogs, not the truth.”
"He spoke better than he knew." Sam said softly "Bat if you are right. Behan, where is the brain?"
"We're being taken to it — the master person or mechanism that co-ordinates aB the others. If you're noticed the strange peoturberances on their fore- heads. you're also noticed their vibratory glow. These creatures receive their im- pulses to act and automatically report back what they see. hear and . the state of their reaction, through those receiv- ing and broadcasts^ knobs."
Kleoo gripped his sword tightly. "Then we'd better try to fight our way dear now," he exclaimed. "We've killed their men ; we can expect co mercy.
"We could nerer fight clear." ob- served the CHgarch. "We've got to take our dunces."
CaocCMtxc. they awaited the end of their strange journey. It came with a curiou* suddenness. They switched abruptly from the main artery into a short channel that ended in a domed • globule where sat a man with bulging forehead and concentrated irucn He did not even look at them. Instead, his receptor knobs quivered at their ap- proach and he threw a- switch The action ‘seemed wholly automatic. An are blared electrically. One filament touchfd the forehead of the three brawny men. Instantly they relaxed their grip on the captive ship, wheeled around in uniion and catapulted back the way they had come.
"Well !" Sam pursed his lips. "We've
evidently reached the cad of the road. Thu bird must be the brain — "
But he was wrong. Foe the other Bickering surge of the arc reached along a connecting • channel. A pallid, elongated, wavering creature darted into vew. Hb speed was of the order of a rocket ship
“Ai-eef* Kleoo sputtered. The at- tenuated man's incredibly mobile fingers had barely touched the prow of the boat, yet it jerked forward along the new tube at a furious rate.
"You might call him a messenger nerve cell." nodded Behan with a kind of scientific satisfaction. "We just were switched at an automatic reflex from the motor ur the sensory units."
"I'm getting dizzy at all this switch- ing." said Sam wryly.' "What I want to know b where we're being taken."
"If the analogy b correct — to the brain, the seat of co-ordination."
Outside the transparent walls of their conducting channel they saw hundreds of others, all converging with them as they hurtled along toward a central source. To Sam it looked for all the world like the tentacles of an octopus with their as yet unknown destination at the maw itself.
"Our speed b slackening." Kleoo said quickly. Hb knuckles whitened over the kih of hb sword. Come what may. be did not intend to go down un resist - ing.
Sam felt a curious lamp in hb throat. The attenuated man pushed them smoothly into a bubbly with flexible walls which expanded even as they penetrated to conform in size and shape to its captive food. Then he turned ar.d slid like greased lightning bock the way he had come.
"We've reached the brain — the cen- tral control." said Behan without emo- tion.
As with everything else in thb strange undersea ary the circumscribing walls of their flexible cell were transparent.
CITY OF THE COtFOKATE MIND
SI
Through them they looked into a hop (loUhr chamber. Its shimmering wall •paaglcd with thoonads pf flashing IfhtL Each light concreted with a tube that naked oat ward iota the city peeper. They aJB Sashed an and off in defisskc sequences, i— MimloiM’ brnUemif. Hath in the twentieth century Sam had once risked a* telephone exchange with as automatic dialing system. This was something like that.
The interior < 4 the chamber held no furnishings or apparatus of any lrindr> But a score of figures span slowly around and aroond in three concentric bring wheels. The outer wheel mowed the swiftest, the interior one the slowest, so that ahaa)s the figures kept invariable diUanrf and sectoral direction with re- sped to each other.
They were men of an obviously intel- lectual cast. Limbs and body were shriveled and dangling, as though they were long-mmscd appendages. Huge heads dwarfed aB else;. heads bulging with inirHrrtinl calm and utterly hair- less. Instead of two Irwoha, however, lifting from their skulk, there were drums, constantly quiicripg with little dairies of cold flame. that synchronised with similar ftashrs an the heads of the* others and with the pairing lights tfaqt spangled the chamber.
phed- “The totality of them constitutes the beam. The analogy holds perfectly. Think of your own brain. It is not a single, unitary mechanism. Rather, k b a republic of individual cells. There are minions of them. No single one controls them alL Instead. aB-are equal in power and influence. The ultimate decision represents their common coun- sel. the end result of their mutual inter- actions.** *
Hundreds of nodules pulsed and glowed. Filaments of Uoe flame darted outward from— the resolving heads, coalesced into a sheeted glow.
'“Befcan. Olgarch of the distant city of Hispan. has correctly analysed the fundamental gosemanee of the cky of Lyv."
Sau started; K Iron's head jerked around in amairmrnt. The wheeling figures had not slackened their pace; their pursed-op bnlr mouths had not opened; no sounds had echoed within the chamber. Yet each of the three comrades had heard the words distinctly within himself. To Sam k sounded hkc perfect Engbsh of twcntirth-centwry New York. To Kleoo the syllables were Attic Greek of the time of Demosthenes. To Befcan they held the clipped, slurred speech of Hispan.
"Bui where b the rmlcr who controls the cky T" ejaculated Klron. disap- pointed.
“I had expected a brans.** said Sam. equally disappointed. Somehow be had expected, by analogy, a ht^e brain Ik that cf a htian being, dbeiahodied. Dialing in some rutrient liquid, that rintroOrd the city. These harmless- luoking individuals, however, were more like the dcr-urns of Asto. Indmduaksis.
“They know my native tongue gasped Kleoo.
. Befcan smtlrvL “They did not speak. Their common thought invaded your mind, set your own processes in morion You yourself translated k into words."* “Telepathy, of courie."* said Sam. “But bow did they know your name, and where you cane from?”
“Your fittlc minds are naked to my examination." came the half-contempt -
unable to co-operate effectively in any uous Interior response. “Yet in their common enterprise. way they unfold interesting things I
The Olgarcb surveyed the gyrating had not known before of the existence
wheels of men with keen attention. - To of any other cky cm Earth bit Ljnr. Kkon he said : “There n no smgle ruler. - When my ancestor fashioned this pres- Tcgether they rule." To Sam he re- ent abode under the pre* retire waters
DING SCIENCE FICTION
ASTOC
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIN’D
53
ihoQtandi of years ago. hf did it to es- cape the plagues and fierce »iri that swept the surface. Genera: sons later, expedition* that lectured out reported Earth to be desolate and lifeless. Man had lulled . himself off with efficiency and dispatch Therefore we remained in oat new home. evolrin( aVjog pre- determined lines. I am the ultimate re- sult—the city of Lyv"
“They — or rather, he — it's pretty con- fusing— talks as though he were the cite, and the city was he.” Sam ejacu- lated
“Why not?” countered Behan. "Lye is actually a single organism, just as sow are: though made up of a multitude of component parts — just as jvm are"
“In sooth.” muttered Kleon. “Aristotle wrote of the body politic ; so did Plato. But I neser expected their winged words to take form and meaning like this "
Sam decided it was time to get down to brass tacks. “As lotg as you can read our minds." he told the three re- solving wheels of men. “you must know three things. First, our stories and backgrounds.” * v
JThe circles quivered in uniform agree- ment. It was more than confusing; it was a bewildering strain. Sam did not know just w here to focus his eyes. One man sras just isle another ; the synchro- nized resolutions shifted them like a shutting pack of cards to his gaze. With an effort of will he solved the problem. He concentrated his stare cc a single one of the small interior circle, and fol- lowed him steadily on his slower, turn- ing arc.
“Secood.” he pursued, “that we hare slain members of your City. That, how- ever.” he added in seli-defense. “was breause they appeared to be on the verge of killing uv”
“The member* you slew were part* of myself.” Lyv replied logically, though it sounded starthng enough
Klein grunted, half lifted his sword.
Behan’s wonted calm was broken; his hand moved toward his blaster. Vet even a* it moved, he knew that he could never draw it : that before he did. strange and powerful Mtapum of Lyv would have come into alay. »
“You are quite rghtNn your sur-
mise.” the inner voter mocked him. “Your electro-blaster was effective enoqgh agamst my channel segment*, be- cause I wished to explore thoroughly its potentialities. Had 1 wished, even then it would have been utterly futile.”
“You mrza sou permitted yourself, so to speak, to hr disintegrated m part?”
demanded Sam m amazement.
“Why nr ?“ came the unexpected reply. “What happens in your own body when an ahra disease' organism in- vade* jour blood stream?”
"Why . . . why." stammered Sam. “the phagocytes or white blood cor- puscles rush to the attack m an attempt to surround and. kill them.”
“And in the process many of your phagocytes die also, do they not f “Why. sure, naturally. But. good Lord !” exploded Sam. “They’re only ceils ; they’re not complete human beings, like . . . lie — There are plenty
more beirg manufactured all the time.” “And so do / manufacture new cell beings all- the time. Their place as individuals is no more important in my economy than that of a handful of phagocytes in yours."
“Wefl. of course, if you pur it that way.” Sam muttered helplessly. It sounded logical : but damn it. those crea- tures Behan’s blaster had disintegrated had been mm — human beings — not mere taonioccs. simple cells!
It was Klem. however, who struck
at once to the heart of the problem. “Tien vtti do not propose to punish us for 'laving your — whatever-vou-eall- tbrm Y~ \
“I never punish.” he beard the wheel’s response in purest Greek. “The word ywjEiihiwcicf ha* no place in an
56
f
ASTOCNDI.'^C SCIENCE- FI CTIOK
ordered orpin: «n However. if I cannot uh litre your alien frames and minds profitably * ithin myself, or if you repre- sent a focus of irrhatsoo or danper. then you must be eliminated."
“As though sre «rrr pathopenic bac- teria.” nodded Behan. He seemed to be discussing a mere scientific point in- stead of his probable destruction.
"Exactly.”
“But wait a minute." Sam said des- perately. “Before you dispose of us summarily there is the third point The fnrde of Harp, headed by Vardu and its eo-leader. Ras. is on the loose. They hare sworn to conquer all the Earth. Perhaps we can help — "
“I require no aid. especially from men of limited capacities such as yourselves." cut m Lyr. “I am safe from detection, and even should I be discovered, their boasted weapons hold no terror for me. Even the mighty thought of Ras must bow before my concentrated unity. Now be quiet foe a mrenent."
Lrv was thinking. The impact of his multifarious, yet single mind, on the three compdes was like a physical blow. Kleon muttered resentfully . Sam swore under his breath. Only the proud Olgarch waited with calm fatalism.
The innumerable disks of light on the rounded chamber walls glowed and ebbed * the atmosphere was electric with crisscrossing vibrations. Along far-dis- tant channels motor and sensory, beings galvanized into activity. Reflex arcs sputtered in the globe-machines.
“N'ow. by Heracles !" growled the Greek irascibly. “What is the meaning of afl this?"
“Lyv is seeking a place ioc us in his economy." Behan said quietly. "If we fit in. we Kve: if we don't — " He shrugged his shoulders; but the mean- ing was plain.
Sam knew his dip was empty . knew that even if it were full, he'd never live to raise-the gun. Kleon knew the same
about his javelin ; knew as well that his thoughts were open to those queer Kftle revolving men. Nevertheless, if the de- cision should prove adverse —
The inner voice came to theta sud- denly. "I have found places for the- three of you. It is frankly an experi- ment on my part. If you prove properly efficient. I save the labor and expendi- ture of materials in replacing three con- stituents who have aged and must be eliminated. If you do not. then you win follow in their paths."
“I am no slave to labor foe you on such terms." commenced Kleoa indig- nantly.
"Hush!" warned Behan. “We have no choice. Besides, it will be aa inter- esting experiment foe us as wefl."
“Where are we to be placed?” Sam demanded.
“Behan of Hi spin, u the farthest ad- vanced. win direct the central machine that activates the motor -ping hoc sys- tem. It's a position of considerable re- sponsibility. Much of the decisions wilt be your own. subject only to emerpency surpenrisioc by. myself. The move- ments of the entire city will be under your control."
Behan said proudly: “I am honored. You need not fear that I cannot han- dle it." ,
“As for you. Sam Ward of New York, since you are not quite as iqteOectuaBy and scientifically capable, you will be placed at one of the peripfiyal centers, on the surface of the containing skin of water. Under your control vnll be the tactile members, the information feeders from the outside world of water and earth. Such a one discovered your pres- ence in the outer air."
“Thanks!" Sam said ironically. "From the way you started I thought I was Icing relegated to scavenger work."
“That." replied I.yv. “will be the duty of Kleon of Athens.”
“What!" exploded tie Greek. Hiv
ft
•^CTTY OF THE CORPORATE WIND * S7
ryes flamed darfrrnm); ; hit javelin lifted “I. Klrcn, heir of the mUnl civilization that ever herd. i'iattii(n! Now by Castor and IVJJut — “
"Kiir Act it." warned Sai»
"You writ hr in charge oi cbnunatiun [e«nm,~ mttmonj the inner voice of Lrr imperttirhalfy “The corpuscular •Wenders of the body politic agair.it all aJara and inarmcal intrusion will be tzndrr your care.”
“Well. now. that's differ era !" K Iron's fyrvlmmr face wreathed into a satisfied * '"A. “Why didn't you say to in the first place?"
"He dwf." (pmnrd Sam to htmsrH "I.yv is evidently a diplrenal— or rather, twenty dphenal*. It all depends on how a thing is said." But he was care- ful to keep hit thoughts from his highly sensitive cvmradr.
T»««* isn't so had. decided Sam. He sat in his thin-bulbed globule on the cuter surface of the city of I.yv Natu- rals. he had been a bit sick at fin* when the man he displaced had been taken away for chromatin by the scav- enger men under Ktrra's control. But "i he man had been old and worn out; his bids was already in the process of •bsintegratiu. After all. thought Sain philosophically, we all grow old and die. This is just another method of dying, that's all.
The vrnek itself. he stun discovered, was for thr most part automatic, requir- ing a minimum of intervention cei his pari. The machine hr tended was a marvel of mechanical efficiency. To it. frem the »ra «xh-rarif g fk«d yf waters that indeed Lit. came a tremendous rrnplraity <>f membranous tubes Akesg thew s{e»l the transmitteil re- ar! in s of the tactile members — very •lehcate. fragile-taking" men with srn- _ vitivr skms ami hirers on which the faintest disturliancr anywhere made rWtriea! oniaot Tleir reacts ns ferl into art imrvcatr hid of vacuum tubes
and sensitLml electric celK There they were sorted ami graded according to intensity of impulse, directional ap- proach and quality of impression.
Differential analyzers took up the tad. broke down the reactions into com- ponent elemental parts, then, synthesizers built up pncentials according to kind. The machine clicked and whirred, the tubes glowed and flashed, gears meshed smoothly, and new impulses raced out along the network of channels, impinged upon the vibratory knobs of the tactile men and shunted them into appropriate responses to the impressions received. The w hole process was completed in less than a second, much astt is dene m the human Indy it sell
Sam's job was simply that of a watch- man Only occasionally. when the ma- chine faltered, or a part went wrong, or an emergency arose mvolwng novel ele- ments to which it was not geared, did he intervene. This had happened alert a dozen times since he had been in- stalled in the globule, a week of Earth- days ago The only way he could de- termine time in this internal underwater daylight was by his original ccmpomcrt of the steady brat of the machine to his own pulse. His watch had been irreso- cabfy damaged by the radium emana- tions daring those thousands of' years of suspended tnnaiin within the sealed chamber of Quetzal
So far the revolving brain of I.yv had not found it necessary to utrrsme. He was quite proud of that, preening himself . icordmaiely on hrs skill “That *vll show him.- he thought grimly, "that a man of the twentieth century has just as g«d a beam, when it comes down to cases, as cue of the ninety- seventh century, or any convhiwvfiou of men. Show me oner how it works, and the rest omes natural-
Vainglory, without doubt, and slue wnn to a most rude awakening. But in thr meantime Sam studied thr strange corporate city into which he had come.
a ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- FICTION’
The bcrri«inj; <1. hr «■« lirymrftd. ill licld rn (Axe' by a (■•irriul report in the im center U the city. It^i encircled In a nrjrtin <4 <nallrr ma- chine* that feil cneleiJv a tyje i4 furl into it* mu. whrrr it n> Innuimird into frmrr Atomic energy. he de- cided. and turned hi* (nhrj; nind r!*e- abcrr
Iinmrin m u(.-|>ir. Thr tube* arte rfurpil a ith line* of efevfm- mag- netic force In*idr the dp-ight rltim *4 the creature* of Lyre acre Wan metal- lic plate*. By ajpcr^eutr shirldmg afll energiiirg. the aearrr aa* catapulted almg at any <ie*irril sjerd "Sam and hi* friend* had hrrn pirn the plates foe their u<e-
I.y v a a* efficient, without dmh. Foe more than tao thou*and year* he had leen approximately tn hi* jeeseot cor- porate state and everything a rn! on sAoothly and without a hitch. New rnemhrr* aerr regenerated a* old one* required elimination: rim among the components of the central team. Yet' always the city at a ihle kept its identity, gaming in wisdom with the passage of the year*, yet immortally I lie same individual in tlnught. m imagina- tion and in memory
For centuries he had deemed himself uni|ur on an otherwise dead world, creiiionl within the surrounding jiaters of the Mediterranean. He aa* too ta*t a ttea! entity to pt»h hi* way nt! through the Strait of Gthejltar. etrn if he aided, and thu* gam the huge, al- mri'! limit lr*« expanse of the Atlantic and the cteinectmg reran* But hr fiad never aided it. What del it matter to I .ye where le aa*? All hi* hoeinei* aiull le thr *amr featurrle** water m any event, and thought could le pe.- drred ju*t a* well in one [Axe a* m another.
The coming <4 the *t ringer*, hrm - ri rr. had clangul the vtual*«i some- what The* ’ leuught with them thr. knowledge of a!*rn otic* anil alen tnnr*.
t4 a luedc on the koe abuse sole burn- ing desire aa* conquest.
N et etrn thi* did not disturb Lye's totalitarian equanimity. He was cun- fident in hi* protective, overarching Avdi anil in the compact, unified strength tliat aa* inherent in himself. Hr personally had no such desire for alien domination •
Saw trsoni hi* machine and Va* fairly well content. Naturally, in time hr would fere of hi* duties and thr en- forced limitation to hi* lengthy wan- dering* And there aa* always before hi* vision that phantom ideal he had set up for himself — thr existence some- where. somrhoa. of a (immunity, a ciriluation that conformed to his twenti- eth-century notion* of democracy and nuhlr freedom for all. So far he had not found it. Httpan. Harg. Asto. Dadehm. and now l.yv. a ere each in his corn way utterly hostile and alien to that ideal.
When lie felt restless hkr that. Sam would get in touch with his comrade* Brit in. accustomed as he was to the strict order and ea*te system of Htspan.. found the combined singleness of I.rv quite satisfactory. Hr was ia a position of authority ; the greatest, in lac*, under the brain- Thr city's activities, com- plicated in detail, yet unified in pur- pose. passed through his motor ma- chine* S' (dung hajpened anywhere that required movement, energy, with- out it* ctgniiance. It wa* true tha* met c4 his circuits were closed and self- acting. receiving sensory report* and automatically relaying the requisite motor rr»f ernes. but there wa* oeiselrr- ahic cl* Ace in many fields in which he gave decision. Hr. U*». wav undrr the ultimate cmtriJ t4 the brain men. yet he in turn by hi* decision* ami machine ropnev exercised a mca*urr of crmtrol over do*. Ju»t a* tlsc deliberate clerJtlung <4 a fi*t in a normal iivan will *et lane certain rractiiei* which nutl nrve**ari!y affret In* twain and
ary of the corporate hind
»
make him unwittingly infry.
Bat Kleoo m disgusted. He scop discovered thu hit high-sounding title mas: nothing. The twitch i: which he hid teen placed was wholly automatic. It *1). in £ict. of the order of an ia- ttinctive reflex. Perhipt ooce in i hundred thousand operations would i: require direction. The Greek tat ffamly in his cubicle, fingering his fut-rustinf twoed. tii ring with moody eyes at the shield that lonf ifo had been the re- cipient of a thousand hicks and blows. The plume on his helmet drooped be- d raffled, yet be never doffed the bronze casque. It was hit sole present claim to self-respect.
■ ni-tmelhnf products of disistef ration were shunted almott to his very door by the seavrnfrr men; members who had outbted their usefulness staffered by him to rhmisation. Hit proud not-
• trils contracted wnh fierce tension ; day by day his choice rose. Sam and Bel- tan tried to cheer him up; couldn't. Sooner or later, they knew i meanly, Kleon mutt explode, and tbe-'tonse- quraces would be incalculable.
Now that they were intefral cops in Lyv. they no longer saw the concentric circles of men who made up the cells of the brain. Yet always they were under invisible supervision, submerged in a close knit system.
“Curious." remarked Sam one day into his liny broadcast :nf unit. “We must have given Ras the slip com- pletely. Haven't seen a thinf of the horde of Harf sioct the destroctioa of Dade Ion.”
The CHjarch stared inscrutably across the interveninf transparencies. “We're not rid of them.” he shook his head. “Sooner or later the thought -tentacles of Ras will ferret out Lyv ; and then — ”
Kleon’s eyes Sashed for the first time m days. “I hope he does." he said vio- lently. “I am sick to death of this foul mactico; of this work that is fit for slaves and women I'd rather blaze
into glorious extinction with my sword in my hand and the Macedonian cry in my threat than rust away in here, con- demned never to see the blue sky afain or the flush of dawn in the East or bear the stronf wind singing in my ears."
The Greek's impassioned words stirred something in Sam. He had not missed the freedom of earth and sea and sky until now. Restlessness seized him. He stared up at the smooth-racing wall of waters with a sudden distaste; they reminded him of prison bars.
The daje-shpped by. Sam watched his machine, the circumferential waters, the ceaselessly busy tactile men. His gorge rose. He became as moody as Kleon. Vainly he sought foe schemes of escape, knowing all the time that his thoaght processes were open to the re- volving brain men. The rocket ship of - Harg lay in a separate cubicle, quiescent, just as it had been at the time of their capture. But rack his writs as he might, there was no way to pilot the ship -through the ictervenmghjna of water overhead. They were doomed, to re- main.
Os THt fifteenth day of their im- mersion in Lyv. barely had Sam taken his seat at the controls when he noted that something was wrong. For one thing, the tactile men at the periphery were in a state of ur. w ouled agitation. They fluttered m wild gyrations through the connective channels ; their knots literally beared with blue streamers of
flame.
The macfJEc was haywire, too. The messagws that came in from the dis- tracted tactile men were a jumble of meaningless confusion ; gears meshed irregularly, ports clanked and whined, and nothing emerged. Sam jerked for- ward. startled- Nothing lie this had ever happened before. He wrestled with the controls, sought to make the proper adjustments. But the uproar in- creased rather than diminished. The
I
<0 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION
delicate tactile men were literally run- three men. faptim from oar wiH. They
' ning in circles ; the channels blared with distraction.
~Pknc!~ whistled Sam. “This seems to be a case for the brain. Either all Ljnr has turned screwy, or there's high jinks talcing place somewhere in the Mediterranean." -
Then he sat down abruptly. An in- risible hand had pressed him down. In- risible fingers plucked at the secret re- cesses of his mind, probing, exploring. The pressure increased. The sweat Started out on his forehead. He uttered 'a hoarse cry. his weighted hand caught at his microphone.
“Behan! KVoo !" he stammered into the instrument. “Ras has found us out ! He's sucking me dry ! Notify the brain men— quickly — the hordes of Haig are cm their way!"
Then be collapsed on his seat.
Kieoa sprang to his feet in his cubicle, eyes filled with banle lust. But Behan made swift connect son with the central brain. “The horde of Harg is here! Make ready for defense f”
All of Lyv roiled with agitation. Re- Sex machines worked furiously, scaven- ger men massed in overwhelming num- ber* at the peripheries, messengers raced along the channels with lightning speed. Even the circling brain men in- creased their pace until they seemed like a blur of motion.
A voice rushed along the tubes, per- meated every sector of the body cor- porate. Sam. staggering weakly to his feet, the pressure lifted from him. heard it burring in his head.
“City of Lyv." it spoke, “know that l am Ras. and with me is the rocket horde of Harg. headed by Vardu. its leader. Know that we hare conquered all of Earth, ard submit. Nothing can withstand our combined prowess; noth- ing on earth or in the air or under ocean. Take heed from the fate of those who had tried resistance and yield to our sovereignty. Within jour city are
have seen and they can tell jou. I give you but a moment to make up your mind."
"Don't yield !" Sam ihouad. "Fight them back. Lyv! Or you will be en- slaved forever!"
The confusion in Lyv stilled. Or- dered quiet took the place of wild scurry- mgs. Overhead the rushing waters paled and seemed to have become translucent. Through them, as through a glass. Sam saw the blue sky above.
It was darkened with count leas shapes. The great ship of Harg. in the prow of which stood Vardu. black hair brtsthag. dark face filled with fanatical triumph. Next to him sfbod Ras. a caricature of a man. with bulbous head supported by a weak and sway- ing body. Around them hovered a hundred thousand fierce robot warriors of Harg. each incased tn his steBene rocket sheath and bearing in his hand the flaming rod of disintegration. A mighty armament, fresh from the de- struction of Aslo and of Dadeloo.
A collective sound welled up through the covering waters from Lyv. Sam could not place its origin: it seemed to come from every unit of the city, from scavengers as weB as neurone men. from themselves as well as from the- swift- whirling brain.
“I. Lyv. do not fear you or any other group of things or beings in this or other worlds." it stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "I am a peaceful individual, h- tenfym myself and seeking no domma- tioo over others. For thousands of years I hare lived within these waters in peace and quiet I am content to continue so It does not matter to me what happens on the face of the earth or in the sky. as long as I am not dis- turbed. Therefore go about your af- fairs and seek jour conquests else- where."
Vardu's face darkened with fury, but Ras merely chuckled. "Unfortunately
CITY OF THE CORPORATE MIND
(I
k n not as simple as that, my dear Ljt." he vail “We rartrx afford to lease intact any independent body in the bosom of our domain ; it mould remain a constant temptation and focus for future revolt. Betides, you hate in you / the three stjangers — Sam Ward, Bef- tan and Klcon— mho hate debed us these past months and sought to stir up trouble apaiibt us mbrreacr they hate fled.- ,
“The three you mention are part of me.” replied l.yr. “They remain where they are and too remain mhere you are. or k mill be the morse tor you.-
Attaboy?- yelled Sam delightedly.
■*- K Iron's mar cry rang loud and loc( ; bk smord clashed mith martial sound against his shield. Behan said ribthieg. but toolc out his blaster and inspected it carefully.
x Vardu screamed with 'maniacal rage. "What are me making for. Ras? Let us blast the presumptuous fool out of the maters in which he is hiding.”
The I dtb ndoaiist turned to him with a gesture of edhtempe. "You do not understand, friend Vardu." he purred "Lyv is a different ease front your former conquests. At Aslo, against my former people, you mould hate lost had I not aided, and their stubborn individu- alism aided as me!L At Dade Ion it mas the same thing. But here is a single unified body, each part obedient to the mill of the whole. It will not be an easy vsrtory.”
“Bah!” snarled the Hargian. “You oserrate I.y's power and jour own services as well We shall attach, whether yoa want it oe not.”
The humous head of Ras turned a bluish-green. Lightnings flashed from his coil gray eyes. Then he homed suddenly. “Wry well Vardu. lei it be as you say."
The Hargian sneered in triumph. “It had better be. Ras. You are wise to submit.- Then be turned to his making
liocde. “Attack, men of Harg!” he screamed. “Kill. bum. slay for the glorv of Harg and of Vardu. your leader f~
A llsHlsc, whistling sound cn- srijped Earth. As though they mere a single man the htmdrepl thousand war- riors hurtled downward to the attack. Stellene erne lyes cushioned in a flame of rxpluimg gases; earth and xi thun- dered wmh huge vibrations of sexmd.
each fanatical rye glared a reckless rary ; in eacfvJisted hand gleamed the typed stellene rod.
Dome, down they cane, smashing through resistant air. straight for the sea of maters. Idaring with speeds of hundreds of nalrs an hour. Iitsohm- tanly Sam threw up his hand to shield Isis eyes from tie molten glare. No power on earth, k seemed to him then, could mkhstand that massed attack. In water as well as in air the stellene sheaths were impermeable to ordinary weapons ce the shock of steel while the sirllrac rod* cook] blast their flames through the uni-may metal against their foes.
Helpless, his futile gun in hand, he awaited the shark of contact. In an- other globule Klron danced and shouted indistinguishable things, mild with rage at his inability to get at the baud foe. But the Olgarch sal calmly in his com- portment. electro-blaster ration less in his lap. curiously undisturbed.
The (orward-drismg squadron* hk the sea smmhanruusly. The Mediter- ranean Heated upward in a gey seeing roar if seething, baling, steaming waters. A huge tidal mare lashed out- ward in all directions, snnundated the "surrounding coasts undrr a smothering foam of irresistible fury. Great c foods of hissing tape rose into the welter- ing air. The oeatton shouk all Europe and Africa to their rooted foun- dations.
<2
astocxdixc science-fiction
At it they »rrt to many sharp l®im fJunjjtn; into soft butter. the rocket horde tlfiird tl»e tumlbng tatrrs. Rocket tohr. sealed tight to guard against the influx (7 alien rktnrUs. hut the momentum id bimliMr arfrlrralitn hurtled them dun through the fram- ing green deptiiv _ •
IVm n. dn»n. du*n. lie slurp- toothed sharks, each Marxian clear!) dis- placed m his lucent death, ea.h warrior ready to bum and snudi and slay in accordance with tie o *nnur»] of the inetTalile trader!
Sam stared ups in silent horror. What could Lit. lx all its eonipart unity, do against this massed assault?
Within, ever) thing mas silent and moveless. The clustered component CTeature* mere at their various posts, un stirring No visible meapor.s mete
in their hands. The hush of death per- vaded atL Even Kleon had ceased his Macedonian shoots and stared with the rest.
Down. down, through a hundred fathoms, down jo the smooth, racing dome of withheld waters. In another spit second the horde mould pierce ; and l her —
There had lern no command; there was no sign of new activity in the whirling brain. But suddenly the body corporate of l.yv sprang Into fierce mo- tion. The knobbed foreheads of the countless constituents quivered with
crackling Kghtrings. Th^ machines Uaard and sparkled and spun like mad. The great network of cnamaeit flared with a sunlike briDiancc: electric cur- rents of bnmenvc amperage and tre- mendous {■cental swept outward in a storm of cosmic |ower. .
Tl* wall of waters disintegrated into a seething madness of primordial de- ments The down-rushing horde was caught in a fury of crashing vibrations that stopped them in their tracks and swept them backward with accelerating speed. ,
The stdlene rods blasted and sirrted their lightning lulls. The outer chan- nels of l.yv flamed red and hundreds of tactile men crisped into nothingness.
Titanic bottle had been joined. *
Never, since the first molten surface of Earth had stormed under the con- stant fury of downpouring waters from an overladen sky. had the seas been in such frightful turmoil. As far as the polar oceans and stress of conflict raged. Ice caps, fixed for eons.^ tumbled into the boding waters: huge sections of the coastal regions of the world groaned under the oorushmg floods.
Thrust back into the air. the rocket tubes flamed again, and again the liar- gran hordes flashed to the attack. Deeper now they hurtled, basing rocket tubes flaming even as they sliced the waters. Hundreds more of channels flared into disintegration.
CITY OF THE CORPORATE WIND
Sam rtncd and njrf. If or.lv he «xild do something. reach some weapon of unimaginable power before Lrr were overwhelmed, and he and his comrades with it ! At least co Asto and Dade loo • there had been means of escape, but here there was none. They were condemned to die with tSeir host, like rats in a trap.
Then be blinked.
Fzow all sectors, aloag every channel, swarmed the scavenger men of i-yv. Thousands on thousand in endless. " rushing array, bullet mg upward the area of destruction and fantastic conflict.
There was no expression in their eyes — pallid. elongated men and chunky, ruddy ones alike. The membraned feet were dose together: their flexible arms were wide outspread. Against the fanatical hordes of Haig they pitted the equal obedience of totalitarian unity.
The great magnetic currents swept them on. zooms of cohesive destruction, through the radiating tubes, into the area of blasted channels, into the welter of seething overhead waters.
“They’ll all be drowned T whispered Sam. watching with a thrill of horror.
Like swimmers springing back to the surface they plummeted, arms wide, eager. Each grappled with a stdJece- cbd warrior. Hundreds fell away in an explosion of flame and steam But others took their places, grappled with self-annihilation. Their questing Angers wrapped around the steamy surfaces of the sleilere -sheaths ; the out rushing flow of magnetic fury coursed through their knobs and infused them with tremendous potential*. Inside the sheaths. Marxi- ans screamed and sittled into smoking ruin, while strKene weapons clanged harmlessly to the hollow cylinders.
Yardu. in his flagship overhead, cursed and sent new hordes downward to attack. To meet them streamed equally fresh battalions of the scaven- ger men. For each ltargian who died
in the depths half a dozen Lyvians dis- fetegrate«l
“How much longer can this keep ttpr cried Sam. though no one was listening. “There aren't enough scaven- ger men for replacements at the rate they're going. While Varda has — ”
“Lock. Sam! Look around you!" Behan's voice was sharp and hurried in the receiver.
Sam whirled. Throughout the cen- tral mass of Lyv long, white cylinder* were scattered. Sam had often won- dered at their functions, but never until now had they been active. Now they were incandescent, reciting furiously. The white glow of their surfaces ren- dered them translucent, and in their interiors he noted little whirling blob* of shadowy maner that pulsed and grew into shape and form. From the ends of the cylinders, fitted snugly into snail, coencctive tubes, catapulted endless streams of scavenger men. still glowing with the fiery energy of their creation.
Without hesitation, they flung them- selves into the ommerptng currents and raced upward to join their fellows in the battle.
Sam thrust a shaking hand over his forehead to wipe away the sweat. "So that’s the way it is !" he csstered to him- self. “I might have known. Com- pcotr.t men are cheap in Lyv; just as individual cells in a human body. Plenty more can be manufactured. What a placer
L> a»cvt. the tide of battle had turned. Varda, frantic with rage, thrust more and more of his obedient horde into the maefstuxn. fot every one that died a half-dozen Lvviaro went along. But the horde of Harg was bnuted. while Yyv poured always new supplies to the front.
The waves of Hargians* thinned, but still Vardu^would not yield. He seemed insane now; his eyeballs glared like
64
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE- nCTlOX
bracocs. hi* piitirrcd hair^was di- • sbrrrled-
‘Moft! Mo re!" be shrieked. and the robot soldiers wee: down to destruc- tioo.
At last there were no more. Above, the sky not lorg Wore darkened with what seemed an i^mikibie horde, was cloodlrss now. Only the hovering ship of Harg with iu two occupants. Varda and Ras.
Yards Aurg foe- the controls. AH measure of sanity had quit him at the sigh* of the immolation of his once re- sistless horde. -Writ get them jet. Why do you stand there lie a mummy. Ras? Where is that vaunted thought- sheO you bragged about? Turn it on. while I dive the sftp. Turn it on!" ‘
But Ras stood quietly, making no move. A thin smile of cold contempt wTmkledbis thin little bps. “You fool !~ he said. '‘You've shot your boh. In your pride you thought to overreach me. who am worth a million lie you. Well, you're through now. Know that I've merely used you for a tool. Your use- fulness to me is at an rod ; I foresee new and greater possibilities than ever be- fore."
Yardu jerked up. startled. Sanity and alarm swept into his eyes. His hand went lightning -swift toward the stcllese rod at his side. But swift as he was. Ras was swifter. A shimmer of expanding force moved outward from his skull. It touched Vardu. The Har- gian dictator had no chance even to scream. An outward rush of flaming, incandesces: gas was all that remained of him. Ras leaned on the rail a mo- ment. his pale bps smiling, his cold gray eyes contemplative on the still heav- ing wreckage beneath.
Sam was doing a jig in the confines of his globulr. Kleon clashed his shield with braren clangor in a. pain of vic- tory The incredible had happened. Harg. the destroyer, the conqueror of
halt the Earth, was wiped out. vanished into the 1ra«s and obloquies of time as though it had never been. Not a single one remained of that once ruthless, power-mad horde. And Lyrv had done it — Lyrv. that by hi* own avowal, wished only peace and self-sufficiency. Earth was saved ! Sooner or later they would be permitted to go. to seek more of the hidden remnants of an ancient world that had burst asunder through the greediness and blood Hist of men Idee Vardu. Perhaps among them there would be one —
But Be ban. Oigarch of Hispan. did not join their rejoicing. His aristocratic brow was furrowed with frowning thought. His bps were tight against all utterance.
Sam stopped his impromptu jigging. “What's the matter with you. Bekan T" he demanded.
“Ay. man of Hispan." called Kleon. “wby do you not join the pan of vic- tory? Such a battle have 1 never seen, not even when mighty Alexander thrust through the Persian host or the elephant army of Porus.“
The Olgareh stared with wry counte- nance from one to the other of his fel- lows. "You forget." he said gently. "Ras of Asto."
“Holy smokes!" grunted Sam. His eyes jerked up and outward.
The overarching ve3 of waters was still torn to shreds. Debris and sooty wreckage floated tumultuously is the outraged air. The great silver skip of Vardu floated with it. But its prow was empty.
Ras. mighty with evolved thought, had finished!
"But where the devil — “ Sam sput- tered m bewilderment.
Th Olgarch's face was a proud. eo'«l mask. His words dropped like dis- tilled police into their astounded ears. "Ras? he said, "has twrrgd kttmjrlj in Lyvr
From the spinning whet! of dwar&sb men that were the mind of the Corporate City, be snatched a a nit — and slipped into its place !
Ras had laid hit plant carefully. He the destruction of DaJelon. But Varda
ha<J joosrd Yardu and the rocket horde had swelled with arrogant .pride and
of Harg because he rojuirrd their aid to deemed himself the strenger is the alfi- o Ter cone firs feDowr Individualrstt on an ce. Therefore it was tune to gel rid the island of Asia. He utdued them in of him.
u
astoc'xdixc sctrxcr. ncnox'
rVtbpi tcfctSrr they might hire <Wo!cd Lrr. But Ras. with fight- nmg thought, had derided othtnrw. Let them _ tattle each . other alone while he stood aloof, conserving hit foftn. Harg. he fek certain, would he destroyed in the |ewnv. a» indeed it »ii- There were pouibriitiet in the uni- fied fracture of Lrr and its ttahtaria® economy that intrigued him. With such a (oeged weapon it his cmrrond noth- ing on Earth, nothing from the planets, nothing even in the distant reaches of interstellar space, could stop its irre- sistible advance.
Therefore, in the instant that Vardu flamed into a blare of fiery gas. he acted. He sped along the cursed potentials of his expansive thought toward the point which he had predetermined on before. .
Within the inner, slowly whirling ring of Lrr a brain man flashed sudden alarm. But even as his rotating figure poised its message to the others, it was too hte.s Ras. grim and bulging, tna- terialued at his very throat. A shim- mer of force touched the startled brain man. He puffed out as a thm trickle of smoke. Ras slipped mto his place, whirled exactly as he had whirled, held with nice attention to axes and vectors the position of the crButar brain man for whom he had substituted to ruthlessly.
The three concentric circles quivered, hesitated in their endless gyrations the split millionth of a second ; then took up their whirring round as though nothing had ever changed.
Ras had become an integral cell in. the interdependera bram of Ljt!
He had anticipated just such a result. With his powerful though: -tentacles he had probed the structural lose of Lyv. and plotted his course accordingly. Component brain mm of Lyr would age and die. just as individual icings might. But at the met ant of their death fresh, newly manufactured ceils would spring
at once into the proper place in the orbital swing, so that the brain a* an ratify atuld remain unchanged, im- mortal in its continuity.
Rat settled himself into his orbit with a grin of satisfaction. Everything had worked out acrordmg to plan. He was a constituent winter of the great brain that directed the uniary organism known as Lyr. His mind, evolved through count less centuries.- he hue w to be mightier than that of any indiiid—l cell of Lyr. It would therefore be an easy task to u lunw ore Hardship of the whole. An irrautiblr weapon, tem- pered. compact, terrible was at bis cons- •nand.
None of the other gyrating brain men seemed to have noticed l^e alien sub- stitution. Placidly they continued an their interminable wheels, building up potentials of ilmio nugmir energy by their patterned turnings.
Ras chuckled silently, and thrust out bis mighty t Sought -shefL He wcwkl
take over. but. as he gathered up re- sources for the outpouring of has wii. a strange tUcg happened. Fdameats of thought, bf ttwerrt Isted energy, webbed him in from aO fades. He fdt them coursing subtly through his mind: be irk his own thought processes reach owt and interpenetrate in similar fasfwon the minds of all the others. ' He seemed to bathe in a universal bath of merging energies: he war one with his fedowrs and they were one with him !
At first be tried to fight against the lapping bath. But his uwhridwahty began to slip away from him : he was a part of a whole, a being incomplete m him -elf but v^orwus and mighty in the totality. It was pleasant, soothing. He liad never had such an exjwnence be- fore.
With a violent effort he retracted his thought -shell hark into humrK. Hr had not bargained for such a drnouement. He. individual of imiivvduab. to be a
CITY OF THE CORPORATE HIND
a
■m«{ ia » nrpmwi ! For the mo- mm he m frightened. There might Mill he tine to break Irene, and flee this vvpp—g interplay. Then he grinned again.
Very well then, he would remain and become a cog. But inasmuch as his soli- tary, giant isteOeci was greater than that erf any other tingle cefl. though in- ferior In the totality, he would not waste his energies in violent attempts at alien donwnatsoo. Instead, be wonld merge himself, adjust himself to the whole and
terrier. bis plan * would interpenetrate the dmghc-procrues of the others, feed ic turn on their giant unity. Together they wonld make op Lye. He wookk lose his individuality. k was true, bot the greater Lye. of which he weald be a part, woofd tom loathe things he had desired. From a peaceful, self -contained treat ore. content with its present status within the narrow am- ine* of thf Med cetane ran. Lye wonld more toward restless coofesl and sub-
» v
JS.
He adjusted Ids thought-shell accord- ;ly, not knowing that be could not himself. It was a strangely pku.
An ecstasy of merge rTorf y. The concentric circles continued to whirl gravely on their or-
dered paths, gjthoot a hitch, m about a tremor.
BciTaX was the first to feel the alien turn of events. Queer pfcitka%* at his brain, feeble at first, but momentarily grow mg stronger. He stired uneasily.
‘’Something has taken place in the brain of Lye.** he spoke low into his microphone.
“Whit Y" detnantJed Sam.
Wrth a firm gesture the Ofgardi pulled the muter switch of the moeor -sensory machine. It was an emergency switch, to be contacted only in the almost incoo- crtvaMe possibility that the economy of
AST — i
Lye had gone haywire and the Wain men had failed to take over.
Every member of the organism, out- side the Brain chamber, came to a sud- den. immobile hah. AH activity par- alyzed. Scavenger men. nruroors. tac- tile men on the periphery, warders of the manufactories and regulators. VII the numerous functions of Lye stopped in their trades.
“Her. what's the idea?" veiled Sam.
But Behan’s gaze was directed with curious intensity upon the single chan- nel that remained open. The channel that £pnnected his globule with the mas- ter chamber of the brain. On tads a pulling of the switch, a warning impulse leaped with the speed of light to the errar.t brain which, thus warned, could make the necessary adjustments to re- deem the perilous situation that had, theoretically arisen.
The brain began to wheel faster. The disks of multicolored lights on its curv- ing walls flashed on and off with blur- ring speed, as Lyv scanned all of its vast organism for signs of danger.
The Olgarch's eyes widened on die whirling figure in the inner ring. A figure alien to the others. The figure of Ras of Astot
Recognition was mnfnal Ras glowed with curious luster; the visible shell of bit thought reached oat for his fellows, bathed in their filaments in turn. Slowly, but surely, he was inducing a single, unified thought ; a single, powerful wvIL
“Quick!" shouted Britan. His fare paled; then veined with furious energy. "Ras has merged with Lyv ! He’s in the brain! Smash every instrument; crip- ple him as long as possible. Our lives, the fives of every hidden race upon Earth depend on it"
He snatched up a bar. smashed down with powerful, crashing strokes upon the delicate machinery. Tubes splintered into a thousand shards, metal crunched under hn blows.
ASTOL'N'DIXG SCIEXCT-nCTlOX
Sam did Dot m: fur a second warn- ing. He cao(lt at a similar bar. Seared with ifl bit strength. In the distance he beard the great strokes ol Kleoo as has heavy sword rose and irfi.
Stirring adhritjr in l.jnr (me Mid- deni/ again- Tactile men. scavengers, motor -sensor/ components, remained exact)/ as the/