Galaxy 1951 01 Text

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JANUARY 1951
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SCIENCE FICTION
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Galaxy
SCIENCE FICTION
January, 1951 Vol. 1, No. 4
Editor-in-Chief
VERA CERUTTI
CONTENTS
Editor H. L GOLD
BOOK-LENGTH SERIAL—Installment 1
Art Director
i TYRANN .*•*•*.
W, L VAN DER POEL
by Isaac Asimov 4
NOVELETS
RULE OF THREE
by Theodore Sturgeon 74
Cover by John Bunch
Illustrating
Tyrann
MADE TO MEASURE . *
by William Campbell Gautt 1 08
THE RELUCTANT HEROES . .
GALAXY Science Fiction

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New York, N. Y. Copyright,

1950, by World Editions, MacDonald 27
Inc. President Georpe A.
:
by John D. 1
Gogniat. Vice-President
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: FEATURES
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are fiction, and any simil-
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by Groff Conklin 1 37
and actual persons is co-
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Next Issue at your newsstand first week in January
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Old Business and New
THIS issue, you can see the The maintenance of this level is
INchanges that you, the readers, not easy, of course. Any number
have voted for: of usable stories come in that don't
• 50% more illustrations, and have the strong . characterization,
several new artists. the human conflict, the psychologi-
• Shorter book review. cal suspense that are coming to be
• Article skipped this month, with identified with GALAXY Science
others scheduled every other issue Fiction, and must thus be rejected.
or so. General subjects, of course, Others have those qualities and not
in layman's terms. freshness of theme. The right blend
• A short editorial page, discussing was a rarity to begin with, but it is
matters related directly to GAL- becoming less so as authors with
AXY Science Fiction. integrity recognize the objective-
• Next month's contents page in stories with believable characters,
place of a formal forecast. I'd like human motivations against a
to keep it in the same spot every background of shrewd specula-
issue, but that takes mechanical lay- tion.
out, and nobody is ever going to be Appearing in GALAXY, in
able to accuse GALAXY of that. other words, is a distinction that
• Constant improvement. Several authors are willing to work hard to
readers have commented that GAL- achieve. The result is progressively
AXY started at a level that other better issues.
magazines hope to attain. (Their Next month, by way of proof,
italics, not mine.) But magazines, we have "The Fireman" by RAY
like civilizations, must advance or BRADBURY, 25,000 a word v
decline; there is no possibility of story of immense impact a hyp- —

stasis. notic cover by CHESLEY BONE-
This issue, for example, is better, STELL — the second installment of
in my opinion, than any of the "Tyrann" by ISAAC ASIMOV—
previous three . . . better in editorial short by FRITZ LEIBER,
stories
balance, art, and layout, a direct re- LESTER DEL REY and others.
sult of close and sympathetic col- After that? Well, GALAXY has
laboration between editor and kept improving, hasn't it?
reader. —H. L. GOLD
GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

TYRANN
By ISAAC ASIMOV
Part 1 of a 3 part serial
Being young, handsome, son of the chief noble of a planet is

—
a pleasant setup if it doesn't turn out to be a death trap!
I GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

Illustrated by JOHN BUNCH
CHAPTER I yet quite unmistakable and deadly.

But it wasn't that which awak-
The Bedroom Murmured ened Biron Farrill and dragged
him out of a heavy, unrefreshing
THE bedroom
gently to itself.
murmured
It was al-
slumber.
lessly from
He turned his head rest-
side to side in a futile

most below the limits of struggle against the periodic burr
hearing; an irregular little sound, on the end table.
TYRANN
He put out a clumsy hand with- have indicated a live sending-cir-
out opening his eyes and dosed cuit was not on. He swore under
contact. his breathand pushed the switch.
"Hello," he mumbled. It stayed Then Jonti gave up,
off.
Sound tumbled instantly out of and the screen went blank, and
the receiver. It was harsh and loud, was merely a small square of fea-
but Biron lacked the ambition to tureless light.
reduce the volume. Biron turned it off. He hunched
It said, "May I speak to Biron his shoulder and tried to burrow
Farrill?" into the pillow again. He was
Biron said, fuzzily, "Speaking. annoyed. In the first place, no one
What do you want?" had the right to yell at him in the

"May I speak to Biron Farrill?" middle of the night. He looked
The voice was urgent. quickly at the gently luminous fig-
Biron's eyes opened on the thick ures just over the headboard.
darkness. He became conscious of Three-fifteen. House lights would
the dry unpleasantness of his not go on for nearly four hours.
tongue and the faint odor that re- Besides, he didn't like having to
mained in the room. wake to the complete darkness of
He said, "I'm Biron Farrill. Who his room. Four years' custom had
is this?" not hardened hint to the Earth-
It went on, disregarding him, man's habit of building structures
gathering tension, a loud voice in of reinforced concrete, squat,
the night: "Is anyone there? I thick, and windowless. It was a
would like to speak to Biron Far- many-thousand-year-old tradition
rill." dating from the days when the
Biron raised himself on one el- primitive nuclear bomb had not
bow and stared at the place where yet been countered by the Force-
the visiphone sat. He jabbed at the field- defense.
vision control and the small screen But that was all in the past.
was alive with light. Atomic warfare had done its worst
"Here I am," he said. He recog- to Earth. Most of it was hopelessly
nized the smooth, slightly asym- radioactive and useless. There was
metric features Sander Jonti.'
of nothing left to lose, and yet archi-
"Call me in the morning, J6nti." tecture mirrored the old fears, so
He started to turn the instrument that when Biron woke, it was to
off, when Jonti said, "Hello. Hello. pure darkness.
Is anyone there? Is this University
Hall, room 526? Hello." BIRON rose on his elbow again.
Biron was suddenly aware that That was strange. He waited.
the tiny pilot-light which would It wasn't the fatal murmur of the

bedroom he had become aware of. Biron sat on the bed, placed his
It was something perhaps even less large hands on his hard-muscled
noticeable and less deadly. thighs and considered. Ordinarily,
He missed the gentle movement a thing like this would call for a
of air that one took so for grant- nasty discussion with the service
ed, that trace of continuous re- staff. No
one expected hotel serv-
newal. He swallow easily
tried to ice in a collegedormitory, but, by
and failed. The atmosphere seemed Space, there were certain minimum
to become oppressive even as he standards of efficiency one could
realized the situation. The ventilat- demand. Not that it was of vital
ing system had stopped working, importance just now. Graduation
and now he really had a grievance. was coming and he was through.
He couldn't even use the visiphone In three days, he'd be saying a last
to report the matter. good-by to the room and to the
He tried again to make sure. University of Earth; to Earth itself.
The milky square of light sprung he might report it anyway,

Still,
out and threw a faint, pearly luster withput particular comment. He

on the bed. It was receiving, but could go out and use the hall
it wouldn't send. Well, it wasn't phone. They might bring in a self-
important. Nothing would be done powered light or even rig up a
about it before day, anyway. fan so he could sleep without psy-
He yawned and groped for his chosomatic choking sensations. If
slippers, rubbing his eyes with the not, to Space with them. Two more
heels of his palms. No ventilation, nights.
eh? That would account for the
queer smell. He frowned and
sniffed sharply two or three times.
INhe THE light of the visiphone,
located a pair of shorts.
No use. It was familiar, but he He slipped a one-piece jumper over
couldn't place it. it and decided that that would be
He made his way to the bath- enough for the purpose. He re-
room, reached automatically for the tained his slippers. There was no
light switch, although he didn't danger of waking anybody even if
really need it to draw himself a he clumped down the corridors in
glass of water. It closed uselessly. spiked shoes, considering the thick,
He tried it several times, peevish- nearly soundproof partitions of this
ly. Wasn't anything working? He concrete pile, but he saw no point
shrugged, drank in the dark, and in changing.
felt better. He yawned again on He strode toward the door and
his way back to the bedroom where pulled at the lever. It descended
he tried the main switch. All the smoothly and he heard the click
lights were out. that meant the door release had
TYRANN
been activated. Except that it metallically across the floor. He
wasn't. And although his biceps just made out its shadow move
tightened as he pulled harder, through the dim visiphone light.
nothing was accomplished. He reached under the bed, patting
He stepped away. This was the floor in a wide arc. He brought
ridiculous. Had there been a gen- it out and held it close to the light.
eral power There couldn't

failure? "They weren't so smart," he
have been. The clock was going. said. "They should have put the
The visiphone was still receiving visiphone entirely out of commis-
properly. sion, instead of just yanking out
Wait! It could have been the the sending-circuit."
boys, bless their erratic souls. It He found himself holding a
was done sometimes. Infantile, of small cylinder with a little hole in
course, but he'd taken part in these the blister on top. He put it close
foolish practical jokes himself. It to his nose and sniffed at it. That
wouldn't have been difficult, for explained the smell in the room,
instance, for one of his buddies to anyway. It was Hypnite. Of course,
sneak in during the day and the boys would have had to use it
arrange matters. Well, no, the ven- to keep them from waking him up
tilation and lights had been work- while they were busy with the cir-
ing when he went to sleep. cuits.
Biron could reconstruct the pro-
VERY well, then, during the ceedings step by step now. The
door had been jimmied open, a
night. The Hall was an old,
outmoded structure. It wouldn't simple thing to do, and the only
have taken an engineering genius dangerous part since he might have
to hocus the lighting and ventila- wakened then. The door might
tion circuits. Or to jam the door, have been prepared during the day,
either. And now they would wait as a matter of fact, so that it
would
for morning and see what would seem and not actually do
to close
happen when good old Biron found so. He hadn't tested it. Anyway,
he couldn't get out. They would once it was open, a can of Hyp-
probably let him out toward noon nite would be put just inside and
and laugh very hard. the door would be closed again.
"Ha, ha," said Biron, grimly, The anesthetic would leak out
under his breath. All right, if that's slowly, building up to the one par-
the way it was. But he would have ticle in ten thousand of air- neces-
to do something about it; turn the sary to put him definitely under.
somehow.
tables Then they could enter; masked, of
He turned away and his toe course. Space! A

wet handkerchief
kicked something which skidded would keep out the Hypnite for

fifteen minutes and that would be his hand, as he was turning away,
al! the time needed. the entire structure of his theory
It explained the ventilation sys- collapsed in a horrible instant. He
tem That had to be elim-
situation. stiffened, his abdomen ridging
inated to keep the Hypnite from with tension and held his breath,
dispersing too quickly. That would listening.
have gone first, in fact. The visi- For the first time since awaken-
phone elimination kept him from ing, he heard the murmuring of
getting help; the door- jamming the bedroom. He heard the quiet,
kept him from getting out; and irregular chuckling conversation it
the absence of lights in order to was holding with and recog-

itself,
induce panic. Nice kids! nized the nature of the sound at

Biron snorted. It was socially once.
impossible to be thin-skinned about It was impossible not to recog-
this. A joke was a joke and all nize it. The sound was "Earth's
that.Ha-ha! Right now, he would death-rattle." It was the sound that
have liked to break the door down had been invented several thousand
and have done with it. The well- years before.
trained muscles- of his torso tensed To be exact, it was the sound of
at the thought, but it would be a radiation counter, ticking off the
useless.. The door had been built charged particles and the hard
with atom-blasts in mind. Damn gamma waves that came its way,
that tradition! the soft clicking electronic surges
But there had to be some way melting into a low murmur. It was
out. He them get away
couldn't let the sound of a counter, counting
with it. First, he would need a the only thing it could count
light; a real one, not the immov- death
able and unsatisfactory glow of the a
visiphone. That was no problem. QOFTLY, on tiptoe, Biron back-
He had a self -powered flashlight in C^ed away. From a distance of
the clothes closet. six feet he threw the white beam
For a moment, as he fingered the into the recesses of the closet. The
closet door controls, he wondered counter was there, in the far cor-
if they had jammed that, too.- But ner, but seeing it told him nothing.
it moved open naturally, and slid It had been there ever since his
smoothly into its wall socket. Biron freshman days. Most freshmen
nodded to himself. It made sense. from the Outer Worlds bought a
There was no reason, particularly, counter during their first week on
to jam the closet, and they didn't Earth. They were very conscious of
have too much time, anyway. Earth's radioactivity then, and felt
And then, with the flashlight in the need of protection. Usually,
TYRANN
they were sold again to the next
class, but Biron had never disposed
of his. He was thankful for that
now.
He turned to the desk, where he
kept his while sleep-
wristwatch
ing. It was His hand was
there.
shaking a little as he held it up to
the flashlight's beam. The watch
strap was an interwoven flexible
plastic of an almost liquidly smooth
whiteness. But was it still white?
He held it away and tried it at
different angles. It was white.
That strap had been another
10 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

freshman purchase. Hard radiation
turned it blue, and blue on Earth
was the color of death. It was easy
to wander into a patch of radiat-
ing soil during the day if you were
lost or careless. The government
fenced off as many areas as it could,
and, of course, no one ever ap-
proached the huge lethal sections
that began several miles outside
the city. But the strap was insur-
ance.
If should ever turn a faint
it
blue, you would show up at the

hospital for treatment. There was
no argument about it. The com-
pound of which it was made was
precisely as sensitive to radiation
as you were and appropriate photo-
electric instruments could be used
to measure the intensity of the
blueness so that the seriousness of
the case might be determined
quickly.
A bright royal blue was the fin-
ish. Just as the color would never
change back, neither would you.
There was no cure, no chance, no
hope. You just waited anywhere
from a day to a week, and all the
hospital could do was to make final
arrangements for cremation.
But at least it was still white,
and some of the clamor in Biron's
thoughts subsided.
There wasn't much radioactivity
then. Could it be just another angle
of the joke? -Biron considered and
decided that it couldn't. Nobody
would do that to anyone else. Not
on Earth, anyway, where illegal
TYRANN 11
handling of radioactive material only a fuse. Somewhere inside the
was a capital They took
offense. box a tiny atomic-pile was con-
radioactivity seriously here. They structed. Short-lived artificial iso-
had to. Nobody, therefore, would topes heated it slowly, permeating

do this without overpowering it with the appropriate particles.
reason. When the threshold of heat and

He stated thought to him-
the particle density was reached, the
self carefully and explicitly, facing pile reacted. Not in an explosion
it boldly. The overpowering reason, usually, although the heat of reac-
for instance, of a desire to murder. tion would serve to fuse the box
But why? There could be no mo- itself into a twist of metal, but in
tive.. In his twenty-three years' of a tremendous burst of deadly rad-
life,he had never made a serious iation that would kill anything liv-
enemy. Not this serious. Not muring within a radius of six feet to
der serious. six miles, depending on the bomb's
Hetugged despairingly at his size.
clipped hair. This was a ridiculous There was no way of telling

line of thought, but there was no when the threshold would be
escaping it. He stepped cautiously reached. Perhaps not for hours, per-
back to the closet. There had to be haps the next moment. Biron re-
something there that was sending mained standing helplessly, flash-
out radiation, something that had light held loosely in his damp
not been there four hours earlier. hands. Half an hour before, the
He saw it almost at once. visiphone had awakened him, and
he had been at peace then. Now
WAS a little
ITthan box not more he knew he was going to die.
six inches in any dimen- Biron didn't want to die, but he
sion. Biron recognized it and his was penned in hopelessly, and
lower lip trembled slightly. He had there was no place to hide.
never seen one before, but he had He knew the geography of the
heard of them. He lifted the room. It was at the end of a corri-
counter and took it into the bed- dor, so that there was another room
room. The little murmur fell off, only on one side, and» of course,
almost ceased. It started again one above and below. He could do
when the thin mica partition, nothing about the room above. The
through which the radiation en- room on the same floor was on the
tered, pointed toward the box. bathroom side and it adjoined via
There was no question in his mind. its own bathroom. He doubted
It was a radiation bomb. that he could make himself heard.
The present radiations were not That left the room below.
in themselves deadly; they were There were a couple of folding

chairs in the room, spare seats to tually feel the vibrations set up in
accommodate company. He took the air of the room. Then there
one. It made a flat, slapping sound followed a splitting noise and the
when it hit the floor. He turned it door was flung inward. Light
edgewise and the sound became poured in from the corridor.
harder and louder. Biron dashed out, arms flung
Between each blow, he waited, wide. "Don't come in," he yelled.
wondering if he could rouse the "For the love of Earth, don't come
sleeper below and annoy him suffi- in. There's a radiation bomb in
ciently to have him report the dis- there."
turbance. He was facing two men. One
Abruptly, he caught a faint was Jonti. The other was Esbak,
noise and paused, the splintering the superintendent. He was only
chair raised above his head. The partly dressed.
noise came again, like a faint "A radiation bomb?" he stut-
shout. Itwas from the direction of tered.
the door. But Jonti said, "What size?"
He dropped the chair and yelled Jonti's blaster was hand,
still in his
in return. He crushed his ear up and only that jarred with the
where door joined
against the crack dandyish effect of his clothes, even
wall, but the was good, and the
fit at this time of night.
sound even there was dim.
But he could make out his own BIRON could only gesture.
name being called, "Farrill ! Far- "All right," said Jonti. He
rill !" several over, and
times seemed quite cool about it, as he
something Maybe, "Are you
else. turned to the superintendent.
in there?" or, "Are you all right?" "You'd rooms
better evacuate the
He roared back, "Get the door in this area,and if you have lead
open." He shouted it three or four sheets anywhere on t'he University
times. He was in a feverish sweat grounds, have them brought out
of impatience.The bomb might be here to line the corridor. And I
on the point of letting loose even wouldn't let anyone in there before
now. morning."
He thought they heard him. At He turned to Biron. "It prob-
least, the muffled cry came back, ably has a twelve to eighteen foot
"Watch out. Something, something, radius. How did it get there?"
blaster." He knew
meant what that "I don't know," said Biron. He
and backed hurriedly away from wiped his forehead with the back
the door. of his hand. "If you don't mind,
There were a couple of sharp, I've got to sit down somewhere."
cracking sounds, and he could ac- He threw a glance at his wrist,
TYRANN 13
then realized his wristwatch was "No," he said, softly, "leave the
still in the room. He had a wild lights out. We don't need them to
impulse to ,return after it. talk."
There was plenty of action now. "I've had enough of the dark
Students were being hustled out of for one night," objected Biron.
their rooms. "We'll leave the door ajar."
"Come with me," said Jonti. "I Biron lacked the will to argue.
agree that you had better find a He dropped into the nearest chair
place to sit down and relax. You're and watched the rectangle of light
white and shaking." through the closing door narrow
Biron said, "What brought you down to a thin line. Now that it
out to my room? Not that I'm not was all over, he had the shakes.
thankful, you understand, just Jonti steadied the door and
curious. Wondering." rested his little swagger-stick upon
"I called you. There was no an- the crack of light on the floor.
swer, and I had to see you." "Watch it. It will tell us if anyone
"To see me?" He spoke care- passes, or if the door moves."
fully, trying to control his irregu- Biron said, "Please, I'm not in a
lar breathing. "Why?" conspiratorial mood. If you don't
"To warn you that your life was mind, I'd appreciate your telling
in danger." me whatever it is you want to tell
Biron laughed raggedly. "I me. You've saved my life, I know,
found out." and tomorrow I'll be properly grate-
"That was only the first attempt. ful. Right now, I could do with
They'll try again." a short drink and a long rest."
"
"Who are the 'they?' "I can imagine your feelings,"
"Not here, Farrill," said Jonti. Jonti said, "but the too-long rest
"We need privacy for this. You're you have had has been
might
a marked man, and I may already avoided, momentarily. I would like
have endangered myself as well." to make it more than just momen-
tarily. Do you know that I know
CHAPTER II your father?"
The question was an abrupt one,
The Net Across Space and Biron raised his eyebrows, a
gesture lost in the dark. He said,
THE student lounge was empty; "He has never mentioned knowing
dark as well. At four-thirty in you."
the morning it could scarcely have would be surprised if he did.
"I
been otherwise. Yet Jonti hesitated He doesn'tknow me by the name I
a moment as he held the door open, use here. Have you heard from your
listening for occupants. father recently, by the way?"

"Why do you ask?" man, and you are wasting my time.
"Because he is also in great dan- Don't you see that the situation is
ger." beyond verbal fencing? I'll say it
"What?" outright. Your father is in the cus-
Jonti's hand found the other's tody of the Tyranni. He may be

aim in dimness and gripped
the dead by now."
it firmly. "Please! Keep your voice "I don't believe you."
as it has been." Biron realized, for "I am in a position to know."
the first time, that they had been "Let's break this off, Jonti. I am
whispering. in no mood for mystery and I re-
Jonti resumed, "I'll be more spe- sent this attempt of yours to —

cific. Your father has been taken "To what?" Jonti's voice lost
into custody. You understand the some of its refined edge. "What do
significance?" I gain by telling you this? Let me
"No, I certainly don't under- remind you that this knowledge of
stand. Who has taken him into cus- mine, which you will not accept,
tody, and what are you getting at? indicated to me that an attempt
Why are you bothering me?" might be made to kill you. Judge
Biron's temples were throbbing. by what has happened, Farrill."
The Hypnite and the near-death
had made it impossible to fence on BIRON said, "Start again and
even terms with the cool dandy tell it straight. I'll listen."
sitting so close to him. "Very well. I imagine, Farrill,
"Surely," came the whisper, "you that you know me to be a fellow
have some inkling of the work your countryman from the Nebular
father is doing." Kingdoms, although I've been pass-
"If you know my father, you ing myself off as a Vegan."
know he is Rancher of Widemos. "I judged that might be a pos-
That is his work." sibility by your accent. It didn't
Jonti said, "Well, there is no seem important." .
reason you should trust me, other "It is important, my friend. I
than that I am risking my own life came here because, like your father,
for you. But I already know all you I didn't like the Tyranni. They've
can tell me. As an example, I been oppressing our people for fifty
know that your father has been years. That's a long time."
conspiring against the Tyranni." "I'm not a politician."
"I deny that," said Biron, tensely. Again Jonti's voice had an ir-
"Your service to me tonight does ritated edge to it. "Oh, I'm not
not give you the right to make such one of their agents trying to get
statements about my father." you into trouble. I'm telling you the
"You are foolishly evasive, young truth. They caught me a year ago
TYRANN 15
as they have caught your father enough. Devious methods, intrigue,
now. But I managed to get away assassinations are their devices.
and came to Earth, where I The net they weave across space is
thought I might be safe until I was a wide one and close-meshed. I can
ready to return. That's all I need well believe that it extends across
tell you about myself." five hundred light years to Earth."
"It is more than I have asked Biron was still in the grip of his
for." Biron could not force the un- nightmare. In the distance, there
friendliness out of his voice. Jonti were the faint sounds of the lead
affected him unfavorably with his shields being moved into place. In
too-precise mannerisms. his room, the counter was still mur-
"I know that. But it is neces- muring.
sary to tell you so much at least, for He said, "It doesn't make sense.
it was in manner that I met
this I am going back to Nephelos this
your father. He worked with me, week. They would know that. Why
or, rather, I with him. He knew me should they kill me here? If they
not in his official capacity as the wait, they'd have me." He was re-
greatest nobleman on the planet of lieved to find the flaw, eager to be-
Nephelos. You understand me?" lieve his own logic.
Jonti leaned closer and his spiced
BIRON nodded uselessly in the breath stirred the hair on Biron's

darkness and said, "Yes." temple. "Your father is popular.
"It is not necessary to go into His death —and once imprisoned by
that further. My sources of infor- the Tyranni, execution becomes
his
mation have been maintained even a probability you must — face will
here, and I know that he has been be even by the cowed
resented
imprisoned. It is knowledge. Even slave-race the Tyranni are trying
if it had been merely suspicion, to breed. You could rally that re-
this attempt on your life would sentment as the new Rancher of
have been sufficient proof." Widemos and to execute you as
"In what way?" well would double the danger for
"If the Tyranni have the father, them. To make martyrs is not their
would they leave the son at large?" purpose. But you were to die in
if
"Are you trying to tell me that a faraway world, by accident, it

the Tyranni set that radiation bomb would be convenient for them."
in my room? That's impossible." "I don't believe you," said Biron.
"Why is it impossible? Can't you It had become his only defense.
understand their position? The Jonti rose, adjusting his thin
Tyranni rule fifty worlds; they are gloves. He said, "You go too far,
outnumbered hundreds to one. In Farrill. Your role would be more
such a position, simple force is not convincing if you pretended to no

such complete ignorance. Your fa- said, "My
lands have been con-
ther may have been shielding you Before my exile, it was not
fiscated.
from reality for your own protec- comfortable to be forced to take

tion, presumably, yet I doubt that orders from those dwarfs. And since
you could remain completely unin- then it has become more imperative
fluenced by his beliefs. Your hate than ever to become once again the
for the Tyranni cannot help being man my grandfather had been be-
a reflection of his own. You can- fore the Tyranni came. Is, that
not help being ready to fight them." enough of a practical reason for
Biron shrugged without answer- wanting a revolution? Your fa-
ing. ther would have been a leader of
Jonti said, "He may even recog- that revolution. Failing him, you!"
nize your new adulthood to the "I? I am twenty-three and know
point of putting you to use. You nothing of all this. You could find
are conveniently here on Earth and better men."
it is not unlikely that you may be "Undoubtedly I could, but no one
combining your education with a else is the son of your father. If
definite assignment. An assignment, your father is killed, you will be

perhaps, for the failure of which Rancher of Wi demos, and, as such,
the Tyranni are ready to kill you." you would be valuable to me if you
"That's melodrama."
silly were only twelve and an idiot be-
"Is it? Let be so, then. If the
it sides. I need you for the same rea-
truth will not persuade you now, son the Tyranni must be rid of you.
events will later. There will be other And if my necessity is unconvincing
attempts on your life and the next to you, surely theirs cannot be.
one will succeed. From this moment There was a radiation bomb in your
on, Farrill, you are a dead man." room. It could only have been
meant to kill you. Who else would
BIRON looked up. "Wait! want to kill you?"
What's your own private in- Jonti waited patiently and picked
terest in me?" up the other's whisper.
"I am a patriot. I would like to "No one," admitted Biron re-
see the Kingdoms free again, with luctantly. "No one would want to
governments of their own choos- kill me that I know of. Then it's
ing." true about my father."
"No, your private interest," Biron "It is true. View it as a casualty
insisted doggedly. "I cannot ac- of war."
cept idealism only, because I won't "You think that would make it
believe it of you. I am sorry if that better? They'll put up a monument

offends you." to him someday, perhaps ? One with
Jonti seated himself again. He a radiating inscription that you can
TYRANN 17
see ten thousand miles out in "Why?"
space?" His voice was becoming "Because Hinrik, at least, has in-
harsh, savage. "Is that supposed to fluence with the Tyranni; as much
make me happy?" influence as a lick-spittlepuppet
Jonti waited, but Biron said may have. He may arrange to have
nothing more. you reinstated."
Jonti said, "What do you intend "I don't see why. He's more
doing?" likely to turn me over to them."
"I'm going home." "So he is. But you'll be on your
"You still don't understand your guard against it, and there is a
position, then." fighting chance that you may avoid
"I said I'm going home. What it. Remember, the title you carry
do you want me to do ? If he's alive, is valuable and important, but it is
him out of And not In business

— —
I'll get there. if all-sufficient. this
he's dead, I'll .Jll of conspiracy, one must be practical

"You'll do nothing!" The older above all. Men will rally about you
man's voice was coldly annoyed. out of sentiment and respect for
"You can't go to Nephelos. Don't your name, but to hold them, you
you see that you can't? It would be will need money."
just what the Tyranni would want
you to do." BIRON hesitated. "1 need time
Biron muttered, "What do you to decide."

suggest ?" "You have no time. Your time
"Do you know the Director of ran outwhen the radiation bomb
Rhodia?" was planted in your room. The only
"The friend of the Tyranni? thing left now is action. I can give
Everyone in the Kingdoms knows you a letter of introduction to Hin-
who he is. Hinrik V, Director of rik of Rhodia."
Rhodia." "You know him so well, then."
"Have you ever met him?" "Your suspicion never sleeps,
"No." does it? I once headed a mission
"That is what I meant. If you to Hinrik's court on behalf of the
haven't met him, you don't know Autarch of Lingane. Hinrik's im-
him. He is an imbecile, Farrill. I becile's mind will probably not re-
mean it literally. But when the member me, but he will not dare
Ranchy of Widemos is confiscated to show he has forgotten. My letter
—
by the Tyranni and it will be, as will serve as introduction and you
—
my lands were it will be awarded can improvise from there. I will
to Hinrik. There the Tyranni will have it for you in the morning.
feel them to be safe, and there you There is a ship leaving for Rhodia
must go." at noon. I have tickets for you. I

am leaving myself, but by another SANDER JONTI looked briefly
route. Don't You're all
linger. out over the University campus
through here, aren't you?" as he paused on the steps of the
"There is the diploma presenta- dormitory. Certainly there was no
tion." admiration in his glance.
"A scrap of parchment. Does it Stepping down the bricked walk
matter to you?" that wound unsubtly through the
"Not now." pseudo-rustic atmosphere affected by
"Do you have money?" all urban campuses since antiquity,
"Enough." he could see the lights of the city's
"Very well. Too much would be single important street gleam just
suspicious." He spoke sharply. ahead. Past it, drowned in daytime,
"Farrill!" but visible now, was the eternal
Biron stirred out of what was radioactive blue of th» horizon,
nearly a stupor. "What?" mute witness of the historic wars.
"Get back to the others. Tell no Jonti considered the sky for a
one you are leaving. Let the act moment. Over had passed
fifty years
speak." since the Tyranni had come and put
Biron nodded dumbly. Far down a sudden end to the separate lives
in the recesses of his mind, there of two dozen sprawling, brawling
was the thought that his mission political units in the depths beyond
had remained unaccomplished and the Nebula. Now, suddenly and

that in this way, too, he had failed prematurely, the peace of strangu-
his doomed father. He was racked lation lay upon them.
with a futile bitterness. His father The storm that had caught them
might have told him more. He in one vast thunder-clap had been
might have shared the dangers. He something from which they had
should not have been allowed to not yet recovered. It had left only
act in ignorance. a sort of twitching that futilely agi-

And now that he knew the tated a world here and there, now
truth, or at least more of it, and then. To organize those twitch-
concerning the extent of his father's ings, to align them into a single
role in conspiracy, was anthere well-timed heave would be a dif-
added importance to the document and a long one. Well, he
ficult task,
he was to have obtained from had been on Earth

rusticating here
Earth's archives. But there was no long enough. It was time to return.
time any longer. No time to get The others, back home, were
the document. Ncrtime to wonder probably trying to get in touch with
about it. No time to save his father. him at his rooms right now.
No time, perhaps, to live. He lengthened his stride a bit.
He said, "I'll do as you say." He caught the beam as he entered
TYRANN 19
his room. It was a personal beam, to set up the highly specific carrier
for whose were as yet
security there wave would carry back to the
that
no fears and in whose privacy there contact beyond the Nebular. That
was no chink. No formal receiver was contained in the ornamental
was required; no thing of metal button that Jonti carried on his
and wires to catch the faint, drift- right shoulder.. It was automatically
ing surges of electrons, with their activated when he stepped into his
whispered impulses swimming volume of space-polarization, and
through hyper-space from a world after that he had only to think pur-
half a thousand light years away. posefully and with concentration.
Space itself was polarized in his "Here I am!" No need for more
room, and prepared for reception. specific identification.
Its fabric was smoothed out of The dull repetition of the call
randomness. There was no way of halted and became words that took
detecting that polarization, except form within his mind, "We greet
by receiving. And in that particular you, sir. Widemos has been exe-
volume of space, only his own mind cuted. The news is, of course, not
could act as receiver, since only the yet public."
electrical characteristics of his own "It does not surprise me. Was
particular nerve-cell system could anyone else implicated?"
resonate to the vibrations of the "No, sir. The Rancher made no
carrier beam that bore the message. statements at any time. A brave
The message was as private as the and loyal man."
unique characteristics of his own "Yes. But it takes more than
brain waves and in all the universe, simply bravery and loyalty, or he
with its quadrillions of human would not have been caught. A lit-
beings, the odds against a duplica- tle more cowardice might have been
tion sufficiently close to allow one useful. No matter. I have spoken to
man to pick up another's personal his son, the new Rancher, who has
wave was a twenty-figured-number already had his brush with death.
to one. He will be put to use."
Jonti's brain throbbed to thg call "May one inquire in what man-
as it whined through the endless, ner, sir?"
empty incomprehensibility of hyper- "It is better to let events answer
space. your question. Certainly I cannot
"... calling . . . calling . . . call- foretell consequences at this early
ing . . . calling ..." date. Tomorrow he will set off to
see Hinrik of Rhodia."
SENDING was not quite as "Hinrik! The young man will
simple a job as receiving. A run he aware
mechanical contrivance was needed that
—a fearful risk. Is

"I have told him as much as I lowed by the slow soughing of air
can," responded Jonti, sharply. "We as the locks screw inward auto-
cannot trust him too far until he matically, like gigantic drills, be-
has proved himself. Under the cir- coming air-tight.
cumstances as they exist, we can Then the portentous silence and

only view him as a man to be the red signs flicking in every
risked, like any other man. He is room: "Adjust acceleration suits
expendable, quite expendable. Do . Adjust acceleration suits."
. .
not call me here again, as I am The stewards scour the corri-
leaving Earth." dors,knocking shortly on each door

And, with a gesture of finality, and jerking it open: "Beg pardon.
Jonti broke the connection men- Suits on."
tally. You battle with the suits, cold,
Quietly and he
thoughtfully, tight, uncomfortable, but cradled in
went over the events of the day and a hydraulic system which absorbs
the night, weighing each event. the sickening pressures of the take-
Slowly, he smiled. Everything had off.
been arranged perfectly, and the There is the faraway rumble of

comedy might now play itself out. the motors, on low
atom-driven
Nothing had been left to chance. power for atmospheric maneuver-
ing, followed instantly by the giv-
CHAPTER III ing back against slow-yielding oil
of the suit-cradle. You recede al-
Chance and the Wristxvatch most indefinitely back; then very

slowly forward again as the ac-
THE hour of a spaceship's

first celerationbecomes negative. If you
survive nausea during this period,
rise from planetary thraldom
is the most prosaic. There is the you are probably safe from space-
confusion of departure, which is sickness for duration.
much the same in essence as that The viewroom was not open to
which must have accompanied the the passengers for the first three
shoving off of the first hollowed- hours of the flight. There was a
out tree trunk on some primeval long line waiting the atmos-when
river of Earth. phere had been left behind and the
You have your accommodations; double-doors were ready to separate.
your luggage is taken care of; there There were present not only the
is the first stiff moment of strange- usual hundred per cent turnout of
ness and meaningless hustle sur- all Planetaries — those, in other
rounding you. The shouted last- words, who had never been in space
moment intimacies, the quieting, the before — but a fair proportion of the
muted clang of the airlocks, fol- more experienced travelers as well.
TYRANN 21
The vision of Earth from space, horror under a night-induced play
after all, was one of the tourist of jewels. The radioactivity of the
"musts." soil was a vast sea of iridescent blue,
The viewroom was a bubble on sparking in strange festoons that
the ship's "skin," a bubble of a spelled manner in which
out the
curved two-foot-thick, steel-hard the nuclear bombs had once landed,
transparent plastic. The retractile a full generation before the force-
iridium-steel lid which protected it field defense against nuclear ex-
against the scouring of the at- plosions had been developed, so
mosphere and its dust particles had that no other world could commit
been rolled back. The lights were suicide in just that fashion again.
out and the gallery was full. The The eyes watched until, with the
faces peering over the bars were hours, Earth was a bright little
clear in the Earthshine. half-coin in the endless black.

For Earth was suspended there Among the watchers was .Biron
below, a gigantic and gleaming Farrill. He sat by himself in the
orange- and - blue- and- white-patched front row, arms upon the railing,
balloon. The hemisphere showing eyes brooding and thoughtful. This
was almost entirely sunlit; the con- was not the way he had expected to
tinents between the clouds, a desert leave Earth. It was the wrong man-
orange, with thin scattered lines of ner, the wrong ship, the wrong
green. The seas were blue, standing destination.
out sharply against the black of His tanned forearm rubbed
space where they met the horizon. against the stubble of his chin and
And all around in the black, un- he felt guilty about not having
dusted sky were the stars. shaved that morning. He'd go back
to his room after a while and cor-
THEY waited patiently, those rect that. Meanwhile he hesitated to
who watched. leave. There were people here. In

It was not the sunlit hemisphere his room, he would be alone.
they wanted. The polar cap, blind- Or was that just the reason he
ing bright, was shifting into view as should leave?
the ship maintained the slight, un- He did not like the new feeling
noticed sidewise acceleration that he had, that of being hunted, of
was lifting it out of the ecliptic. being friendless.
Slowly the shadow of night en- All friendship had dropped from
croached upon the globe and the him. It had shriveled from the
huge "World Island" of Eurasia- moment he had been awakened by
Africa majestically took the stage, the phone call less than twenty-four
north-side "down." hours earlier.
Its diseased unliving soil hid its Even in the dormitory, he had

become an embarrassment. Old Es- be most unhappy to have publicity
bak had pounced upon him when arise as a result of this incident."
he had returned after his talk with
Jonti in the student lounge. Esbak
was in turmoil, his voice over-
HOW he kept referring to it as
an"incident." Biron said,
shrill. dryly, "I understand you. But don't
"Mr. Farrill, I've been looking worry. I'm not interested in in-
for you. It has been a most unfor- vestigations or in the police. I'm
tunate incident. I can't understand leaving Earth shortly and I'd jus^
it. Do you have any explanation?" as soon not have my own plans dis-
"No," Biron had half-shouted, "I rupted. I'm not bringing any
don't. When can I get into my room charges. After all, I'm still alive."
and get my stuffout?" Esbak had been almost inde-
"In the morning, I am sure. cently relieved. It was all they
We've managed to get the
just wanted from him. No unpleasant-
equipment up here to test the room. ness. It was-just an incident to be
There no longer any trace of
is forgotten.
radioactivity above normal back- He got into his old room again
ground level. It was a very for- at seven in It was
the morning.
tunate escape for you. It must have quiet and there was no murmuring
missed you by only minutes." in the closet. The bomb was no
"Yes, yes, but if you don't mind, longer there, nor was the radiation
I would like to rest." counter. They had probably been
"Please use my room till morn- taken away by Esbak and thrown
ing and then we'll get you relo- into a contaminated area. It came
cated for the few days remaining under the head of destroying evi-
you. Umm, by the way, Mr. Far- dence, but that was the school's
rill, if you don't mind, there is an- worry. Biron tossed his belongings
other matter." into suitcases and then called the
He was being overly polite. Biron desk for assignment to another
could almost hear the eggshells give room. The were working
lights
slightly beneath his finicky feet. again, he noticed, and so, of course,
"What other matter?" asked was the visiphone. The one remnant
Biron, wearily. of last night was the twisted door,
"Do you know of anyone who its lock melted away.
might have been interested in er — They gave him another room.

— hazing you?" That established his intention to
, "Hazing me like this} Of course stay for anyone who might be lis-
not." tening. Then, using the hall phone,
"What are your plans, then? The he had called an aircab. He did not
school authorities would, of course, think anyone saw him. Let the
TYRANN 23
school puzzle out his disappearance read the message later in his room.
however they pleased. It was a simple introduction with
For a moment, he had caught minimum wordage.
sight of Jonti at the spaceport. Biron's thoughts
rested for a
They met in the fashion of a glanc- while upon
Sander Jonti as he
ing blow. Jonti said nothing; gave watched Earth shrivel with dis-
no sign of recognition, but after tance through the viewroom bub-
he had passed by, there were in ble. He had known the man very
Biron's hand a featureless tiny superficially until Jonti had whirled
black globe that was a personal so devastatingly into his life, first
message capsule and a ticket for to save it and then to set it upon a
passage to Rhodia. new and untried course. Biron had
He spent a moment upon the per- known his name; he had nodded
sonal capsule. It was not sealed. He whenever they had passed; had

exchanged polite formalities occa- baggage has already been shifted.
sionally, but that was all. He had If you will see the purser, you will
not liked the man, had not liked be given your new key and asked
his coldness, his overdressed, over- to surrender your old. We trust that
mannered personality. But all that this will cause no inconvenience for
had nothing to do with affairs you."
now. "What's all this?" Biron whirled
Biron rubbed his crew-cut with a in his seat, and several of the thin-
restlesshand and sighed. He actual- ning group of passengers, still
ly found himself hungering for watching, looked up at the explo-
Jonti's presence. The man was at sive sound. "What's the idea?"
least master of events. He had 'Of course, it was no use arguing
known what to do; he had known with a machine that had merely
what Biron was to do; he had made fulfilled its function. The messenger
Biron do it. And now Biron was bowed its metal head respectfully,
alone and feeling very young, very its gently fixed imitation of a hu-
helpless, very friendless, and al- man smile of ingratiation unchang-
most frightened. ing, and left.
Biron strode out of the viewroom

THROUGH it all, he studiously and accosted the ship's officer at the
avoided thinking of his father. door with somewhat more energy
It would not help. than he had .planned.
"Mr. Malaine." "Look here, I want to see the
The name was repeated two or captain."
three times, before Biron started at The officer showed no surprise.
the respectful touch upon his shoul- "Is it important, sir?"
der, and looked up. "It sure as Space is. I've just
Therobot messenger said again, had my stateroom shifted without
"Mr. Malaine," and for five sec- my permission and I'd like to know
onds, Biron stared blankly, until the meaning of it."
he remembered that that was his Even at the time, Biron felt his
temporary name. It had been pen- anger to be out of proportion to the

ciled lightly upon the ticket which cause, but it represented an ac-
Jonti had given him. A stateroom cumulation of resentment. He had
had been reserved in that name. nearly been killed; he had been
"Yes, what is it? I am Malaine." forced to leave Earth like a skulk-
The messenger's voice hissed very ing criminal; he was going he-
faintly as the spool within whirled knew-not-where to do he-knew-
have been asked
off its message. "I not-what; and now they were push-
to inform you that your stateroom ing him around aboard ship. It
has been changed, and that your was too much.
TYRANN 25
Yet through it all, he had the low as possible for him. We had
"
uncomfortable feeling that Jonti, in no choice v
his shoes, would have acted dif- "All right, but why pick on me
ferently, perhaps more wisely. Well, as the one to be shifted?"
he wasn't Jonti. "It had to be someone. You are
The officer said, "I will call the traveling alone; you are a young
purser." man who, we felt, would have no
"I want the captain," insisted difficulty in taking a slightly higher
Biron. gravity." His eyes moved automati-
"If you wish, then." And after a cally up and down Biron's six-feet-
short conversation through the small two of hard musculature. "Besides,
ship's communicator suspended you will find your new room rather
from his lapel, he said urbanely, more elaborate than your old one.
"You will be called for. Please You have not lost by the exchange.
wait." No, indeed."
The captain stepped from behind
CAPTAIN HIRM GORDELL his desk. "May I show you your
was a rather short and thick- new quarters personally?"
set man, who rose politely and Biron found difficulty in main-
leaned over his desk to shake hands taining his resentment. It seemed
with Biron when the latter en- reasonable, this whole matter, and,
tered. then again, not reasonable, either.
"Mr. Malaine," he said, "I am The captain was saying as they
sorry we had to trouble you." left his quarters, "May I have your
He had a rectangular face, iron- company at my table for tomorrow
gray hair, a short, well-kept mus- night's dinner? Our first Jump is
tache of slightly darker hue, and v a scheduled for that time."

clipped smile. Biron heard himself saying,
"So am I," said Biron. "I had a "Thank you. I will be honored."
stateroom to which I
reservation Yet he thought the invitation
was and I feel that not
entitled strange. Granted that the captain
even you, sir, had the right to was merely trying to soothe him, yet
change it without my permission." surely the method was stronger than
"Granted, Mr. Malaine. But you necessary.
understand, it was rather an emer-
gency. A last minute arrival, an THE captain's table was a long
important man, insisted on being one, taking up an entire wall of
moved to a stateroom closer to the the salon. Biron found himself near
gravitational center of the ship. He the center, taking an unsuitable
had a heart condition and it was precedence over others. Yet there"
important to keep ship's gravity as was his placecard before him. The

steward had been quite firm; there reached MOD, his first room, the
was no mistake. one he had never slept in.
Biron was not particularly over-

modest. As son of the Rancher of
Widemos, born to the nobility, he
HE STOPPEDand
to light a cigaret
in the interval spent thus,
would have felt entitled to this kind the only passenger in sight turned
of respectful treatment. But as a corridor. Biron touched the signal
Biron Malaine, he was just an light briefly and there was no an-
ordinary citizen, and these things swer.
never happened to ordinary citi- Well, the old key had not been
zens. taken from him yet. An oversight,
For one thing, the captain had no doubt. He placed the thin ob-
been perfectly correct about his new long sliver of metal into its slot and
stateroom. It was more elaborate. the unique pattern of leaden opacity
His original room had been what within the aluminum sheath ac-
his ticket called for, a single, sec- tivated the tiny photo-tube. The
ond class, while the replacement door opened and he took one step
was a double room, first class. inside.
There was a bathroom adjoining, It was all he needed. He left and
private, of course, equipped with the door closed automatically be-
a stall-shower and an air-dryer. hind him. His old room was not
It was near "officer's country" occupied; neither by an important
and the presence of uniforms was personage with a weak heart nor by
almost overpowering. Lunch had anyone else. The bed and furnish-
been brought to his room on silver ings were stripped down; no .trunks,
service. A barber made a sudden no toilet articles were in sight; the
appearance just before dinner. All very air of occupancy was missing.
this was perhaps to be expected So the luxury they were sur-
when one traveled as a nobleman on rounding him with served only to
a luxury spaceliner, first class, but prevent his taking further action to
itwas too good for Biron Malaine, get back his original room. They
unknown commoner. were bribing him to stay quietly
It was far too good, for by the out of the old room. Why? Was it
time the barber had arrived, Biron the room they were interested in,
had just returned from an after- or was it himself?

noon walk that had taken him And now he sat at the captain's
through the corridors in a purposely table with the questions unanswered
devious path. There had been crew- and rose politely with the rest as
men in his path wherever he had the captain entered, strode up the
turned; polite, much too attentive. steps of the dais on which the long
He shook them free somehow and table was set, and took his place.
TYRANN 27
Why had they moved him? "Ladies and gentlemen, we are
There was music in the ship and ready for our first Jump. Most of
the walls that separated the salon you, I suppose, know at least theo-
from the viewroom had been re- retically what a Jump is. Many of
tracted. The lights were low and you, however, have never experi-
tinged with orange-red. Even the enced one. It is to those last I
queaziest passengers' space-sickness would like to speak in particular.

had passed after the original ac-. "The Jump is exactly what the
celeration, or as the result of first name implies. In the fabric of
exposure to the minor gravity space-time itself, it is impossible to
variations between various parts of travel faster than the speed of light.
the ship. The salon was full. That is a natural law, first discov-
ered by one of the ancients; the
THE captain leaned forward

"Good
traditional Einstein,
many
perhaps, ex-
and said to Biron, cept that so things are
evening, Mr. Malaine. How do you credited to him. Even at the speed
find your new room?" of light, of course, it would take
"Almost too satisfactory, sir. A years, in subjective time, to reach
little rich for my way of life." He the stars. •
said it in monotone, and it

a flat "Therefore one leaves the space-
seemed to him that a faint dismay time fabric to enter the little-known
passed momentarily across the cap- realm of hyper-space, where time
tain's face. and distance have no meaning. It
Over the dessert, the skin of the is like traveling across a narrow
viewroom's glass bubble slid isthmus to pass from one ocean to
smoothly back into its socket, and another, rather than remaining at
the lights dimmed to nearly sea and circling a continent to reach
nothing. Neither Sun, Earth, nor the same objective.
any planet was in view on that "Great amounts of energy are re-
large, dark screen. They were fac- quired, of course, to enter this
ing the Milky Way, that lengthwise 'space within space,' as some call
view of the Galactic Lens, and it it, and a great deal of ingenious
made a luminous diagonal track calculation must be made to insure
among the hard, bright stars. re-entry into ordinary space-time at
Automatically, the tide of con- the proper point. The result of the
versation ebbed. Chairs shifted so expenditure of this energy and in-
that all faced the stars. The dinner telligence is that immense distances
guests had become an audience, the 'can be traversed in zero time. It is
music a faint whisper. only the Jump which makes inter-

'The voice over the amplifiers was stellar travel possible.
clear in the gathered quiet. "The Jump we are about to make

will take place in about ten minutes. across the black velvet vacuum in a
You There is never
will be warned. fine powder, backdropping the oc-
more than some momentary minor casional brightness of the nearby
discomfort; therefore, I hope all stars.
of you will remain calm. Thank Biron, against his "will, remem-
you." bered the beginning of a poem he
himself had once written at the
THE ship lights went out alto-

gether, and there were only the
sentimental age of nineteen, on the
occasion of his first space flight; the
stars left. one that had first taken him to the
It seemed a long while before a Earth he was now leaving:
crisp announcement filled the air
momentarily. "The Jump will take The stars, like dust, encircle me
place in exactly one minute." And In living mists of light;
then the same voice counted the And all of space I seem to see
seconds backward: "Fifty forty . . . In one vast burst of sight.
. . . thirty . . . twenty . . . ten . . .
five two one

three ." . . . . . . . . The lights went on then, and
. . .
It was as though there had been Biron's thoughts were snapped out
a momentary discontinuity in exis- of space as suddenly as they had
tence, a bump which joggled only entered it. He was in a spaceliner's
the deep inside of a man's bones. salon again, with a dinner drag-
In that immeasurable fraction of ging to an end, and the hum of
a second, one hundred light years conversation rising to a prosaic
had passed, and the ship, which level.
had been on the outskirts of the He glanced at his wristwatch,
Solar system, was now in the depths half looked away; then, very slow-
of interstellar space. ly brought the wristwatch into
Someone near Biron said, shakily, focus again. He stared at it for a
"Look at the stars!" long minute. It was the wristwatch
In a moment, the whisper had he had left in his bedroom that
taken life through the large room night. It had withstood the killing
and hissed itself across the tables: radiation of the bomb, and he had
"The stars! See!" collected it with the rest of his
In that same immeasurable frac- belongings the next morning. How
tion of a second, the star-view had many times had he looked at it since
changed radically. The center of the then? How many times had he
great Galaxy, which stretched thirty stared at it, taken mental note of
thousand light years from tip to tip, the time, and no note at all of the
was closer now, and the stars had other piece of information it
thickened in number, They spread shouted at him?
TYRANN 29
For the plastic wrist band was Biron sank down upon the
white, not blue. // was white! double bed and thought furiously,
Slowly the events of that night, but it didn't help. The trap had
all of them, fell into place. Strange been perfect. Everything had been
how one fact could shake all the planned. Had it not been for the
confusion out of them. completely unpredictable chance of
He rose abruptly, murmuring, his leaving his wristwatch in the
"Pardon me!" under his breath. It bedroom that night, he would not
was a breach of etiquette to leave even now have realized how close-
before the captain, but that was meshed the Tyranni's net through
a' matter of small importance to him space was.
then. There was a soft burr as his door
He hastened to his room, striding signal sounded.
up the ramps rapidly, rather than "Come in," he said.
waiting for the non-gravity ele- It was the steward, who said re-
vators. He locked the door behind spectfully, "The captain wishes to
him and looked quickly through know if there is anything he can
the bathroom and the built-in do for you. You seemed ill as you
closets. He had no hope of real left the table."
catching anyone. What they had had "I'm all right," Biron said, feel-
to do, they must have done hours ing very far from all right.
ago. How
they watched him! And in
he went through his
Carefully, that moment, he knew that there
baggage. They had done a thorough was no escape, and that the ship
job. With scarcely any sign to show was carrying him politely, but sure-
that they had come and gone, they ly, to his death.
had carefully withdrawn his iden-
tification papers, a packet of let- CHAPTER IV
ters from his father, and even his
capsular introduction to Hinrik of Free?
Rhodia.
SANDER JONTI met the other's
THAT was why they had moved eyes coldly. He repeated,
was neither the old room
him. It "Gone, you say?"
nor the new that they were inter- a hand over his
Rizzett passed
ested in; merely the process of mov- ruddy "Something is gone. I
face.
ing. For nearly an hour they must don't know its identity. It might
have legitimately legitimately, by have been the document we're after,
Space —concerned themselves with certainly. All we know about it is
his baggage, and served their own that it had been dated somewhere
purposes thereby. in the fifteenth to twenty-first cen-

tury of Earth's primitive calendar, "It does not matter. It cannot mat-
and that it is dangerous." ter."
"Is there any definite reason to "Why so?"
believe that the missing" one is the "Because I have been here on
document?" Earth for months. Before I came, it
"Only circumstantial reasoning. was easy to believe that there might
It was guarded closely by the Earth be information of value on ' the
government." planet. But consider now. When
"Discount that," Jonti said im- Earth was the only inhabited planet
patiently. "An Earthman will treat in the Galaxy, it was a primitive
any documents relating to the pre- place, militarily speaking. The only
Galactic past with veneration. It's weapon had ever invented
they
their ridiculous worship of tradi- worth mentioning was a crude and
tion." inefficient nuclear-reaction bomb for
"But one was stolen and yet
this which they had not even developed
they never announced the fact. Why the logical defense." Jonti's nattily
should they guard an empty case?" sleeved arm made a delicate gesture
"I can imagine their doing that to where the blue horizon gleamed
rather than find themselves forced its sickly radioactivity.
to admit that a holy relic has been He went on, "All this is placed
stolen. Yet I cannot believe that in sharp focus for me as a tem-
young Farrill obtained it after all. porary resident here. It is ridiculous
I thought you had him under ob- to assume that it is possible to
servation." learn anything from a society at that
level of military technology. It is
RIZZETT smiled confidently. always very fashionable to assume

"He didn't get it." that there are lost arts and lost
"How do you know?" sciences, and there are always these
"Because," said Rizzett, "the people who make a cult of primi-
document has been gone twenty tivism, making all sorts of ridicu-
years." lous claims for the prehistoric civi-

"What?" lizations on Earth."
"It was lost or stolen twenty "Yet the Rancher was a wise
years ago," Rizzett explained. man," Rizzett objected. "He told
"Then it can't be the right one. us specifically that it was the most
It was less than six months ago dangerous document he knew. You
that the Rancher learned of its remember what he said. I can quote
existence." it. He said, 'The matter is death for
"Then somebody else beat him the Tyranni, and death for those
to it by nineteen and a half years." who use it as well; but it would
"
Jonti thought silently. He said, mean final life for the Galaxy.'
TYRANN 31
"The Rancher, like all human secret as this might be? Aratap!
beings, can be wrong." The one man, now that the Rancher
"Consider, sir, that we have no was gone, who remained unpre-
idea as to the nature of the docu- dictable; th? most dangerous Tyran-
ment. It could, for instance, be nian of them all.
somebody's laboratory notes which

IIMOK ARATAP
hud never been published. It might
be something that could relate to a
S
O
!
man;
was a small
a little bandy-legged, nar-
weapon that Earthmen had never row-eyed fellow. He had the
recognized as a weapon; something stumpy, thick-limbed appearance
which on the face of it might not of the average Tyrannian,
appear to be a weapon
— though he faced an exceptionally
yet,
"Nonsense. You are a military large and well-muscled specimen of

man and should know better. If the subject worlds, he was com-
there is one science into which Man pletely self-possessed. He was the
has probed continuously and suc- confident heir (in the second gen-
cessfully, it is that of military tech- eration) of those who had left their
nology. No potential weapon would windy, infertile worlds and sparked
remain unrealized for ten thousand across the emptiness to capture and
years. I think, Rizzett, we will re- enchain the rich and populous
turn to Lingane." planets of the Nebular Regions.
Rizzett shrugged. He was not His father had headed a squad-
convinced. ron of small, flitting ships that had
Nor, a thousandfold, was Jonti. struck and vanished, then struck
It had been stolen and that was again; and had made scrap of the
significant. It had obviously been lumbering titanic ships that had op-
worth stealing. Anyone in the posed them.
Galaxy might have it now. The worlds of the Nebula had
Unwillingly the thought came to fought in the old fashion, but the
him that the Tyranni might have Tyranni had learned a new one.
it. The Rancher had been most eva- Where the huge, glittering vessels
sive on the matter. Even Jonti, him- of the opposed navies attempted
self, had not been trusted suffi- single combat, they found them-
ciently. The Rancher had said it selves flailing at emptiness and
carried death; it could not be used wasting their stores of energy. In-
without having it cut . both ways. stead, the abandoning
Tyranni,
Jonti's lips clamped shut. The fool power alone, speed and
stressed
and his idiotic hintings! And now cooperation, so that the opposed
the Tyranni had him. kingdoms toppled one after the
What if a man like Aratap were other, singly, each waiting half -joy-
now in the possession of such a fully at the discomfiture of its

neighbors, fallaciously secure be- perfunctorily, the Tyranni would
hind its steel-shipped ramparts, un- check his books.
til its own turn came. The Rancher himself would as-
But those wars were fifty years sist them out of their small ves-
in the past. Now the Nebular re- sels. They would sit at the head
gions were satrapies that required of the table at mealtimes where
merely the acts of occupation and they would be served first. When
taxation. Previously there had been they spoke, all other conversation
worlds to gain, Aratap thought stopped instantly.
wearily, and now there was little As a child, he wondered that
left to do but to contend with in- such small, ugly men should be
dividual men. so carefully handled, but he learned
He looked at the young man who as he grew up that they were, to his
faced him. A very young man. A father, what his father was to a
tall fellow with good shoulders in- cowhand. He even learned to speak
deed; an absorbed, intent face with softly to them himself, and to ad-
the hair of his head cut ridiculously dress them as "Excellency."
short in what was undoubtedly a He had learned so well that now
collegiate affectation. In an unoffi- that he faced one of the overlords,
cial sense, Aratap was sorry for one of the Tyranni, he could feel
him. He was obviously frightened. himself stiffen with tension.
The ship which he had consid-
B1RON did not recognize the ered his prison became officially one
feeling inside him as "fright." on the day of landing upon
If he had been asked to put a name Rhodia. They had signaled at his
to the emotion, he would have de- door and two husky crewmen had
scribed it as "tension." All his life, entered and stood on either side of
he had known the Tyranni to be him. The captain, who followed,
the overlords. His father, strong had said in a flat voice, "Biron
and vital though he was, unques- Farrill, I take you into custody by
tioned on his own estate, respectful- the power vested in me as captain
ly heard on others, was quiet and of this and hold you for
vessel,
almost humble in the presence of questioning by the Commissioner of
the Tyranni. the Great King."
They came occasionally to Wide- The Commissioner was this small
mos on polite visits, with questions Tyrannian who sat before him now,
as to the annual tribute they called seemingly abstracted and uninter-
taxation. The Rancher of Widemos ested. The "Great King" was the
was responsible for the collection Khan of the Tyranni, who still
and delivery of these funds on be- lived in the legendary stone palace
half of the planet Nephelos and, on the Tyrannian's home planet.
TYRANN 33
The Commissioner spoke for the
first time, his voice high-pitched,
thin. "The old Rancher of Wide-
mos, your father, has been executed
for treason."
His faded eyes were fixed on
Biron's. There seemed nothing be-
yond mildness in them.
Biron remained stolid. It both-
ered him that he could do nothing.
It would have been so much more
satisfying to howl at them, to flail

madly at them, but that would not
make his father less dead. He
thought he knew the reason for this
initial statement. It was intended to
break him down, to make him give

himself away. Well, it wouldn't.
He said, evenly, "I am Biron
Malaine of Earth. If you are ques-
tioning my identity, I would like to
communicate with the Terrestrial
Consul."
"Ah, yes, but we are at a purely
informal stage just now. You are
Biron Malaine, you say, of Earth.
And yet," Aratap indicated the
papers before him, "there are let-
ters here which were written by

Widemos to his son. There are col-
lege registration receipts and tickets
to commencement exercises made
out to Biron Farrill. They were
Biron looked furtively about him. found in your baggage."
He was not physically constrained Biron felt desperate, but he did
in any way, but four guards in the not let it show. "My baggage was
Tyrannian "Outer
slate-blue of the searched illegally, so that I deny
two and two.
Police" flanked him, that this is evidence."
They were armed. A fifth, with a "We are not in a court of law,
major's insignia, sat beside the Mr. Farrill or Malaine. How do you
Commissioner's desk. explain them?"

"If they were found in my bag- "No, that is mine." Biron had
gage, they were placed there by planned that. The introduction did
someone else." not mention his name. He said,
The Commissioner passed "There is a plot to assassinate the
Biron felt
it
amazed. His statements

by.
Director
—
sounded so thin, so patently foolish, He stopped, appalled. It sounded
yet the Commissioner did not re- so unconvincing when
completely
mark upon them, but only tapped he finally put the beginning of his
the black capsule. "And this intro- carefully prepared speech into ac-
duction to the Director of Rhodia? tual sound. Surely, the Commis-
Also not yours?" sioner was smiling cynically at him.
TYRANN 35
But Aratap was not. He merely who left with Aratap re-
Biron.
sighed a little and with quick, placed his contact an action
lenses,,
practiced gestures removed contact which changed instantly that look

lenses from his eyesand placed of vague incompetence their ab-
them carefully in a glass of saline sence had seemed to induce.
solution that stood on the desk be- He said to the major, who had
fore him. His naked eyeballs were remained, "We will keep an eye, I
a little watery. think, on young Farrill."

this
He said, "And you know of it? The officer nodded shortly. "For
Even back on Earth, five hundred a moment I thought you might have
light-years away? Our own police been taken in. To me, his story was
here on Rhodia have not heard of pure nonsense."
it." "It was. It's just that which
"The police are here. The plot is makes him maneuverable for the
being developed on Earth." while. All young fools who get
"I see. And are you their agent? their notions of interstellar intrigue
Or are you going to warn Hinrik from the video spy-thrillers are
against them?" easily handled. He is, of course, the
"The latter, of course." son of the ex-Rancher."
"Indeed? And why do you intend
to warn him?"
"For the substantial reward
NOW the major hesitated,
you sure? It's a vague
"Are
and
which I expect to get." unsatisfactory accusation we have
Aratap smiled. "That at least against him."
rings true, and lends a certain "You mean that it might be ar-
truthful gloss to your previous ranged evidence after all? For what
statements. What are the details of purpose?"
the plot you speak of?" "It could mean that he is a decoy,
"That is for the Director only." sacrificed to divert our attention
A momentary hesitation, then a from a real Biron Farrill else-
shrug. "Very well. The Tyranni where."
arc not interested and do not con- "No. Improbably theatrical. Be-
cern themselves with local politics. we have a photocube."
sides,
We will arrange an interview be- "What? Of the boy?"
tween yourself and the Director and "Of the Rancher's son. Would
that will be our contribution to his you like to see it?"
safety. My men will hold you until Aratap paperweight
lifted the
your baggage can be collected, and upon his was a simple
desk. It
then you will be free to go. Re- glass cube, three inches on each
move him." side, black and opaque. He said,
The last was to the armed men, "I meant to confront him with it,

if it had seemed best. It is a shrewd vision. Major, it would be a new
process, this one, Major. I don't art form." A mounting enthusiasm

know if you're acquainted with it. had crept into his voice.
It's been developed recently But the silent major looked
among the inner worlds.. Outward- faintly scornful, and Aratap left his
ly, it seems an ordinary photo- artistic reflections to say, abruptly,
cube, but when it is turned upside "You will watch Farrill?"
down, there's an automatic mole- "Certainly."
cular rearrangement which renders "Watch Hinrik as well."
it totally opaque. It is a pleasant "Hinrik?"

conceit." "Of course. It is the whole pur-
pose of freeing the boy. I want
TURNED Why
HE side up. The
the cube right-
opacity shim-
some questions answered.
Farrill seeing Hinrik? What is
is
the
mered for a moment, then cleared connection between them? The
slowly like a black fog wisping and dead Rancher did not play a lone
feathering before the wind. Aratap hand. There was there — must
watched it calmly. —
have been a well-organized con-
And then it was water clear, and spiracy behind him."
a young face smiled brightly out "But surely Hinrik could not be
of it, accurate and alive, trapped involved. He lacks the intelligence,
and solidified in mid-breath for- even if he had the courage."

ever. "Granted. But it is just because
"An item," said Aratap, "in the he is half an idiot that he may
ex-Rancher's possessions. What do serve them as a tool. If so, he rep-
you think?" resents a weakness in our scheme of
"It is the young man, without things. We obviously cannot afford
question." to neglect the possibility."
"Yes." The Tyrannian official He gestured absently; the major
regarded photocube
the thought- saluted,swung on his heel and left.
fully. "You know, using this same Aratap sighed, turned the photo-
piocess, I don't see why six photocube thoughtfully in his hand and
graphs could not be taken in the watched the blackness wash back
same cube. It has six faces, and by like a tide of ink.
resting the cube on each of them Life had been simpler in his
in turn, a series of new molecular father's time. To smash a planet
orientations might be induced. Six had a cruel grandeur about it,
connected photographs, flowing while this careful maneuvering of

one into another as you turned; a an ignorant young man was simply
phenomenon turned dynamic
static cruel.
and taking on new breadth and And yet necessary.
TYRANN 37
CHAPTER V The exact number of these which
are actually occupied is disputable.
Uneasy Lies the Head According to the Galactic Almanac,
admittedly dependent on imperfect
THE Directorship of
not ancient, when
Rhodia is
compared
records,
world
Rhodia was the
settled by Man.
1,098th
with Earth, as a habitat for Homo Ironically enough, Tyrann,

scpiens. It is not ancient even when eventually Rhodia's conqueror, was
compared with the Centaurian or the 1,099th.
Sirian worlds. The planets of Arc- The pattern of history in the
turus, for instance, had been settled Trans-Nebular region was distress-
for two hundred years when the ingly similar to that elsewhere dur-
first spaceships circled the Horse- ing the period of development and
head Nebula to find the nest of expansion. Planet governments
hundreds of oxygen-water planets were up in rapid succession,
set
behind. They clustered thickly and each government confined to its

ic was a real find, for although own world. With expanding econ-
planets infest space, few can main- omy, neighboring planets were
tain human life. colonized and integrated with the
There are between one and two home society. Small "empires" were
hundred billion radiant stars in the established and these inevitably
Galaxy. Among them are some five clashed.
hundred billion planets. Of these, Hegemony over sizable regions
some have gravities over 120% was established by first one, then
that of Earth, or less than 60%, another of these governments, de-
and are therefore unbearable in the pending upon the fluctuations of
Ions? run. Some are too hot; some the fortunes of war and of leader-
too cold. Some have poisonous at- ship.
mospheres, and planetary atmos-
pheres consisting largely or entire- ONLY Rhodia maintained a
ly of neon, methane, ammonia, lengthy stability, under the
chlorine, even silicon tetrafluoride able dynasty of the Hinriads. It
have been recorded. Some planets was perhaps well on the road to
lack water, one with oceans of al- finally establishing a universal
most pure sulfur dioxide having Trans-Nebular Empire in a stolid
been described. Others lack carbon. century or two, when the Tyranni
Any one of these failings is suffi- came and did the job in ten years.
cient, so that not one world in a Ironical that it should be the men
hundred thousand can be lived on. of Tyrann. Until then, during the
Yet this still leaves an estimated seven hundred years of its existence,
four million habitable planets. Tyrann had done little better than

maintain a precarious autonomy, was a smoldering girl, dark of hair
thanks largely to the undesirability and of eyes, and, at the moment,
of its barren landscape, which, be- loweringly dark of complexion.
cause of a planetary water-dearth, She said, again, "I can't do it!"
was largely desert. Hinrik said pleadingly, "But,
But even after the Tyranni came, Arta, this is unreasonable. What
the Directorship Rhodia con-
of am I do? What can I do? In my
to
tinued. It had actually grown. The position, what choice have I?"
Hinriads were popular with the "If mother were alive, she
people, so their existence served as would find a way out." She stamp-
a- means of easy control. The Tyr- ed her foot. Her full name was
anni did not care who got the Artemisia, a royal name that had
cheers as long as they themselves been borne by at least one female
received the booty and power. of the Hinriads in every generation.
To be sure, the Directors were "Yes, yes, no doubt. Bless my
no longer the Hinriads of old. The soul,what a way your mother had
Directorship had always been elec- with her. There are times when
tive within the family so that the you seem all of her and none of
ablest might be chosen. Adoptions me. But surely, Arta, you haven't
into the family had been encour- given him a chance. Have you ob-
aged for the same purpose. served his —ah— better points?"
But now the Tyranni could in-
fluence the elections for other reas- "TTTHICH are?"
ons, and twenty years earlier, for VV "The ones which . .
."
instance, Hinrik (fifth of that He gestured vaguely, thought a

name) had been chosen Director. while and gave It up. He ap-
To the Tyranni, it had seemed a proached her and would have put
useful choice. a consoling hand upon her shoul-
Hinrik had been a handsome der, but she squirmed away from
man at the time of his election, and him, her scarlet gown shimmering
he stillmade an impressive appear- in the air.
ance when he addressed the Rho- "I have spent an evening with
dian Council. His hair had grayed him," she said, bitterly, "and he
smoothly and his thick mustache tried to kiss me. It was disgust-
remained, startlingly enough, as ing!"
black as his daughter's eyes. "But everyone kisses, dear. It's
At the moment, he faced his not as though this were your grand-
daughter, and she was furious. She mother's time. Kisses are nothing,
lacked only two inches of his less than nothing. Young blood,
height, and the Director lacked Arta, young blood!"
less than an inch of six feet. She "Young blood, my foot. The
TYRANN 39
only time that horrible little man you know what he said? Do you
has had young blood in him these have any idea what he said? It was
fifteen years hasbeen immediately the last straw. It was absolutely
after a He's four
transfusion. the limit. I made up my mind then
inches shorter than I am, father. that I couldn't stand that man if
How can I be seen in public with he were ten feet tall."

a pygmy?" "But what did he say?"
"He's an important man. Very "He said — straight out of a
important!" video, father —he said, 'Ha! A
"That doesn't add a single inch spirited wench! I like her all the
to his height. He is bowlegged, as better for that!' And two servants
they all are, and his breath smells." helped stagger him to his feet. But
"His breath smells?" he didn't try to breathe in my face
again."
ARTEMISIA wrinkled her nose Hinrik doubled into a chair,
at her father. "That's right; leaned forward and regarded Arte-
it has an unpleasant odor. I didn't misia earnestly. "You could go
like it and I made sure to let him through the motions of marrying
know it." him, couldn't you? You needn't be
Hinrik dropped his jaw word- in earnest. Why not merely for the
lessly for a moment, then said in sake of political necessity. .
.?"
a hoarse half-whisper, "You let "How do you mean, not in earn-

him know it? You implied that a est, father? Shall I cross the fingers
high official of the Royal Court of of my left hand while signing the
Tyrann could have an unpleasant contract with my right?"
personal characteristic?" Hinrik looked confused. "No, of
"He did! I have a nose, you course not. What good would that
know! So when he got too close, I do? How would crossing fingers
just held it and pushed. A figure alter the validity of the contract?
of man to admire, that one is. He Really, Arta, I'm surprised at your
went flat on his back, with his legs stupidity."
sticking up." She gestured with Artemisia sighed. "What do you
her fingers in illustration, but it mean, then?"
was lost on Hinrik, who, with a "Mean by what? You see, you've
moan, hunched his shoulder and disrupted things. I can't keep my
put his hands over his face. mind on matters properly when
He peered miserably from be- you argue with me. What was I
tween two fingers. "What will saying?"

happen now? How can you act "I was merely to pretend I was
so?" getting married, or something. Re-
"It didn't do me any good. Do member?"

"Oh, yes. I mean, you needn't horror. Automatically, he looked
take it too seriously, you see." over his shoulder. Then he said,
"I can have lovers, I suppose." hoarsely, "Don't ever say anything
like that again."
H1NRIK and frowned.

stiffened "I will if I feel like it. Besides,
"Arta! I brought you up to be the man has had three wives al-
a modest, self-respecting girl. So ready." She forestalled him, "Not

did your mother. How can you say the Khan, the man you want me
such things? It's shameful." to marry."
"But isn't that what you mean?" "But they're dead," Hinrik ex-
"I can say it. am a man, a ma-
I plained, earnestly. "Arta, they're
ture man. A girl like you ought not alive. Don't think that. How
not to repeat it." can you imagine I would let my
"Well, have repeated it and I
I daughter marry a bigamist? We'll
don't see how
talking is worse than have him produce documents. He
doing. I'll probably have to have married them consecutively, not
them if I'm forced to marry for simultaneously, and they're dead
reasons of state, but there are lim- new, entirely dead, all of them."
its." She placed her hands upon "It's no wonder."
her hips, and the capelike sleeves "Oh, bless my soul, what shall
of her gown slithered away from I do?" He made a last effort at
her tanned and dimpled shoulders. dignity. "Arta,
the price of
it is
"But he would still be my husband being a Hinriad and a Director's

and I just can't bear that particu- daughter."
lar thought." "I didn't ask to be a Hinriad
"He's an old man, my dear. Life and a Director's daughter."
with him would be short." "That has nothing to do with
"Not short enough, thank you. it. It is just that the history of all
Five minutes ago, he had young the Galaxy, Arta, shows that there
blood. Remember?" are occasions when reasons of
Hinrik spread his hands wide State, the safety of planets, the best
and let them drop. "Arta, the man interests of peoples, require that
."
is a Tyrannian, and a powerful one. uh. . .
He is in good odor at the Khan's "That some poor girl prostitute

court." herself."
"The Khan might think it's a "Oh, this vulgarity! Someday,
good odor. He probably would. He you'll see, someday you'll blurt
must smell even worse -maybe that — something of the sort in public."
is how they judge rank, by rank- "Well, that's what it is, and I
ness." won't do it. I'd rather die. I'd
Hinrik's mouth was an O of rather do anything. And I will."
TYRANN 41
The Director got to his feet and You just rest. You'll feel better
held out his arms to her. His lips after a nap. You'll see, you'll see.
trembled and he said nothing. She It's just that you're a little on edge
ran to him sudden agony of
in a now."
tears and clung desperately to him. Artemisia looked after him and
"I can't. Don't make me." frowned. Her face was intensely
He patted her awkwardly. "But thoughtful, and for minutes only
if you don't, what will happen? If the gentle tide of her breasts be-
the Tyranni are displeased, they trayed life.
will remove me, imprison me, There was the sound of stum-
maybe even exec " He gagged on
— bling feet at the door. She turned.
the word. "These are very unhappy 'What is it?" The tone was
times, Arta, very unhappy. The sharper than she had intended.
Rancher of Widemos was con- It was Hinrik, his face sallow
demned last week and I believe he with fear. "Major Andros was call-
has been executed. You remember ing."
him, Arta? He was at court half a "Of the Outer Police?"
year ago. A big man, with a round Hinrik could only nod.
head and deep-set eyes. You were Artemisia cried, "Surely, he's
frightened of him at first." not.
4
." She paused reluctantly
.
"I remember." at the threshold of putting the hor-

"Well, he is probably dead. And rible thought into words, but wait-
who knows, myself next, perhaps. ed in vain for enlightenment.
Your poor, harmless old father "There is a young man who
next. It bad time. He was at
is a wants audience. I don't know him.
our court and that's very suspi- Why should he come here? He's
cious." from Earth." He was gasping for
i
breath and shivering as he spoke,

as though his mind were on a
SHE suddenly held herself out
"Why should
at
turn-table and he had to follow it
arm's length. it
be suspicious? You weren't in- in its gyrations.

volved with him, were you?" The girl ran to him and seized
"I? Indeed not. But if we open- his elbow. She said, sharply, "Sit
ly insult the Khan of Tyrann by down, father. Tell me what has
refusing an alliance with one of his happened." She shook him and
favorites, they may choose to think some of the panic drained out of
even that." his face.
Hinrik's hand-wringing was in- "I don't know he whis-
exactly,"
terrupted by the muted buzz of the pered. "There's a young man com-
extension. He started uneasily. ing here with details concerning a
"I'll take it in my own room. plot on my life. On my life! And

they tell me I ought to listen to CHAPTER VI
him." He smiled foolishly. "I'm
loved by the people.No one would That Wears a Crown!
want to kill me. Would they?"
He was watching her eagerly, BIRON FARRILL waited un-
and relaxed when she said. "Of easily in one of the outer
course, no one would want to kill buildings on the Palace Grounds.
you. Foi the first time in his life, he
Then he was tense again. "Do experienced the deflating sensation
you think it might be they?" of being a provincial.
"Who?" Widemos Hall, where he had
He leaned over to whisper, "The grown up, had been beautiful in
Tyranni. The Rancher of Widemos his eyes, and now his memory en-
was here yesterday, and they killed dowed it with a merely barbaric
him." His voice ascended the scale. glitter. Its curved lines, its filigree
"And now they're sending some- work, its curiously wrought turrets,
one over to kill me." its elaborate "false- windows" —He
Artemisia gripped his shoulder winced at the thought of them.
with such force that his mind Earth was mellower, but it was
turned to the present pain. minute and dreaming. The public
She said, "Father! Sit quietly! buildings had been of white, glossy
Not a word ! No one
Listen to me. stone; the private homes, of plas-
will kill you. Do
y6u hear me? No tic "near-stone" in pastel shades.
one will kill you. It was six. months The net effect had been one of
ago that the Rancher was here. Do gingerbread and sugar-candy. It
you remember? Wasn't it six was a toy world.
months ago? Think!" But this ? This was different.
"So long ago?" whispered the The Palace Grounds of Rhodia
Director. "Yes, yes, it must have was no mere lump of .ostentation
been." built by the petty lords of a cattle
"Now you stay here and rest. kingdom; nor was it the childlike
You're overwrought. I'll see the expression of a fading and dying
young man myself and then I'll world. It was the culmination, in
bring him to you if it's safe." stone, of the Hinriad dynasty.
"Will you, Arta? Will you? He The buildings were strong and
won't hurt a woman. Surely, he quiet. Their lines were straight and
wouldn't hurt a woman." vertical, lengthening toward the
She bent suddenly and kissed center of each structure, yet avoid-
his cheek. ing .anything as effeminate as a
"Be careful," he murmured, and spire effect. They held a bluntness
closed his eyes wearily. about them, yet lifted into a climax
TYRANN 43
that affected the onlooker without forces upon a single ruddy shaft of
revealing their method of doing so metal. Biron had never seen one
at a casual glance. They were re- before. He paused before entering.
served, . self-contained, proud. The little carriage, big enough
And as each building was, so for five or six at the most, swayed
was the group as a whole, the huge wi[h the wind, a graceful teardrop
Palace Central becoming . a cre- returning the gleam of Rhodia's
scendo. One by
one, even the few splendid sun. The single rail was
remaining in the mas-
artificialities slender, scarcely more than a cable,
culine Rhodian style had dropped and ran the length of the carriage's
away. The very "false-windows," underside without touching. Biron
so valued as decoration and so use- bent and saw blue sky all the length
less in a building of artificial light between them. For a moment, as
and ventilation, were done away he watched, a lifting gust of wind
with. And that, somehow, without raised it, so that it hovered a full
loss. inch above the rail, as though im-
It was only line and plane, a patient for flight and tearing at the
geometrical abstraction that led the invisible force-field that held it.
eye upward to the sky. Then it fluttered back to the rail,

The Tyrannian major stopped closer and still closer, but never
briefly at his side as he left the touching.
inner room. "Get in," said the guard behind
"You will be received now." him, impatiently, and Biron climb-
Biron nodded, and after a while ed two steps into the carriage.
a larger man in a uniform of scar- The steps remained long enough
let and tan clicked heels before for the guard to follow, then lifted
him. It struck Biron with sudden quietly and smoothly into place,
force that those who had the real forming no break in the carriage's
power did. not need the outward even exterior.
show and could be satisfied with Biron became aware that the
slate-blue. He recalled the splendid outer opacity of the carriage was
formality of a Rancher's life and an illusion. Once within, he found
bit his lip at the thought of its himself sitting in a transparent
futility. bubble. At the motion of a small
"Biron Malaine?" said the control, the carriage liftedupward.
Rhodian guard, and Biron rose to Itclimbed the heights easily, buffet-
follow. ing at the atmosphere which
whistled past. For one moment,
THERE gleaming
was a little Biron caught the panorama of the
monorail carriage that was sus- Palace Grounds from the apex of
pended delicately by diamagnetic the arc.

The structures became a gorge- For the moment, no one was push-
ous whole —could they have been ing him, but he felt no comfort
originally conceived other than as because of it. He was under no
an air-view? laced— by the shining illusions. Ever since that damned
copper threads, along one or two night, others had forced his moves.
of which the graceful carriage- Jonti had placed him on the ship.
bubbles skimmed. The Tyrannian Commissioner had
He felt himself pressed forward, placed him here. And each move
and the carriage came to a dancing had increased the measure of his
halt. The entire run had lasted less desperation.
than two minutes. It was obvious to Biron that the
A door stood open .before him. Tyrannian had not been fooled. It
He entered and it closed behind had been too easy to get away from
him. There was no one in the him. The Commissioner might have
room, which was small and bare. called the Terrestrial consul. He
TYRANN 45
night have hyper-waved Earth, or Biron said, "I was told I would
taken his retinal patterns. These see the Director."
things were routine, could not have "That is impossible. If you have
been omitted accidentally. . anything to say, say it to me. If
He remembered Jonti's analysis your information is truthful and
of affairs. Some of it might still be useful, you will be well-treated."
valid. The Tyranni would not kill "May I ask who you are? How
•him outright to create another do I know you are authorized to
martyr. But Hinrik was their pup- speak for the Director?"
pet, and he was* as capable as they The seemed annoyed. "I am
girl
of ordering an execution. In that his Please answer my
daughter.
case,Biron would have been killed questions. Are you from outside
by one of his own, and the Tyranni the System?"
merely be disdainful onlookers. "I am from Earth." Biron
Biron clenched his fists tightly. paused, then added, "Your Grace."
He was tall and strong, but he was The addition pleased her.
unarmed. The men who would "Where is that?"
come for him would have blasters "It is a small planet of the Sirian
and neuronic whips. He found sector, your Grace."
himself backing against the wall. "And what is your name?"
"Biron Malaine, your Grace."
WHIRLED
HE small
quickly at the
sound of the opening
She stared at him thoughtfully.
"From Earth? Can you pilot a
door to his left. The man who en- spaceship?"
tered was armed and uniformed, Biron smiled. She was
almost
but there was a girl with him. He testing She knew very well
him.
relaxed a bit. At another time, he that space-navigation was one of
might have observed the girl close- the forbidden sciences in the
ly, since she was worth observation Tvranni-controlled worlds.
and approval, but at the moment He said, "Yes, your Grace." He
she was only a girl. could prove that when the perfor-
They approached together, stop- mance test came, // they let him
ping some six feet away. He kept live that long. Space-navigation was
his eye on the guard's blaster. not a forbidden science on Earth,
The girl said to the guard, "I'll and in four years one could learn
speak to him first, lieutenant." much.
There was a little vertical line She said, "Very well. And your
between her eyes, as she turned to story?"
him. She said, "Are you the man He made his decision suddenly.
who has this story of an assassina- To the guard alone, he would not
tion plot against the Director?" have dared. But this was a girl,

and she was not lying, if she
if the doorway. His eyes, widely
reallywas the Director's daughter, spaced and were taking
brilliant,
she might be a persuasive factor on in all of Biron with an amused
his behalf.
- sharpness. He cocked his narrow
He said, "There is no assassina- face upward at Biron's height and
tion plot, your Grace." said to the girl, "Don't you recog-
The girl was startled. She turned nize him, too, Artemisia?"
impatiently to her companion. Artemisia hurried to him, her
"Would you take over, lieutenant? voice troubled. "Uncle Gil, what
Get the truth out of him." are you doing here?"
Biron took a step forward and "Taking care of my interests,
met the cold thrust of the guard's Artemisia. Remember that if there
blaster. He said, urgently, "Wait, were an assassination, I would be
your Grace. Listen to me! It was the closest of the Hinriads to the
the only way to see the Director. possible succession." Gillbret oth
Don't you understand?" Hinriad winked elaborately, then
He raised his voice and sent it added, "Oh, get the lieutenant out
after her retreating form: "Will of here. There isn't any danger."
you tell his Excellency, at least, She ignored that and said,
that I am Biron Farrill and claim "Have you been sounding the com-
my Sanctuary Right?" municator again?"
It was a feeble straw which to at "Of course. Would you deprive
clutch. The old feudal customs had me of an amusement? It is pleas-
beer, losing their force with the ant to eavesdrop on them."
generations even before the Tyr- "Not if they catch you."
anni came. Now they were arch- "The danger is part of the game,
aisms. But there was nothing else. my dear. The amusing part. After
Nothing. all, the Tyranni do not hesitate to
sound the Palace. We can't do

SHE turned, and her eyebrows much without their knowing. Well,
were arched. "Are you claim- turnabout, you know. Aren't you
ing now to be of the aristocratic going to introduce me?"
order? A moment ago, your name "No, I'm not," she said, short-
was Malaine." ly. "This is none of your business."
A newvoice sounded unexpect- "Then I'll introduce you. When

edly."So it was, but it is the second I heard his name, I stopped listen-
name which is correct. You are ing and came in." He moved past
Biron Farrill indeed, my good sir. Artemisia, stepped up to Biron, in-
Of course you are. The resemblance spected him with an impersonal
is unmistakable." smile, and said, "This is Biron
A small, smiling man stood in Farrill."
TYRANN 47
"I have said so myself," said said, "You might satisfy my curios-
Biron. More than half his attention ity. You really came for Sanctuary?
was upon the lieutenant, who still Here?"
held his neuronic whip in firing po- "I'd rather discuss that with the
sition. Director, sir."
"But you have not added that "Oh, get off it, young man.
you are the son of the Rancher of You'll find that very little business
Widemos." can be done with the Director. Why
"I would have, but for your in- do you suppose you had to deal
terruption. In any case, you've got with his daughter just now? That's
the story now. Obviously, I had to an amusing thought, if you'll con-
get away from the Tyranni and sider it."
that without giving them my real "Do you find everything amus-
name." Biron waited. This was it, ing?"
he felt. If the next move was not "Why not? As an attitude to-
an immediate arrest, there was still ward life, it's an amusing one. It's
a trifling chance. fit. Ob-

the only adjective that will
Artemisia said, "I see. This is a serve the universe,young man. If
matter for the Director then. You you can't force amusement out of
are sure there is no plot?" it, you might as well cut your
"None, your Grace." throat, since there's damned little
"Good. Uncle Gil, will you re- good in it. I haven't introduced
main with Mr. Farrill? Lieutenant, myself, by the way. I'm the Direc-
come with me." tor's cousin."
Biron felt weak. He would have Biron said coldly, "Congratula-
liked to sit down, but no sugges- tions."
tion to that effect was made by Gillbret shrugged. "You're
Gillbret, who still inspected him right. It's not impressive. And I'm
with an almost clinical interest. likely to remain just that indefinite-
"The Rancher's son! Amusing!" ly since there is no assassination to
Biron brought his attention be expected, after all."
downward. He was tired of cau- "Unless you whip one up for
tious monosyllables and careful yourself."
phrases. He said, abruptly, "Yes, "My dear sir, your sense of hu-
the Rancher's son. It is a congeni- mor! You'll have to get used to
tal situation. Can I help you in any the fact that nobody takes me
other way?" seriously. My remark was only an
expression of cynicism. You don't
GILLBRET showed no offense. suppose the Directorship is worth
iHis thin face merely creased anything these days, do you? Sure-
further as his smile widened. He ly you cannot believe that Hinrik
48 GALAXr SCIENCE FICTION

was always like this. He was never state now. Highly irregular, in fact,
a great brain, but with every year Why don't you see Aratap?"
he becomes more impossible. I for- "I do not know him, Excel-
get, you haven't seen him yet. But lency."
you will! I hear him coming. "Aratap? The Commissioner?
When he speaks to you, remem- The Tyrannian Commissioner?"
ber that he is the ruler of the larg- "I have seen him and he sent
est of the Trans-Nebular kingdoms. me here. you understand
Surely,
It wjjl be an amusing thought." that I dare not let the Tyranni
—
Hinrik bore his dignity with the But Hinrik had grown stiff. His
ease of experience. He acknowl- hand had wandered to his lips, as
edged Biron's painstakingly cere- though to keep them from trem-
monious bow with the proper bling and his words were conse-
degree of condescension. He said, quently muffled. "Aratap sent you?"
showing a trace of abruptness, "I found it necessary to tell
"And your business with us, sir?" him
—
was standing at her
Artemisia "Don't repeat what you told
father's and Biron noticed,
side, him; I know," said Hinrik. "I can
with some surprise, that she was do nothing for you, Rancher uh —
quite pretty. He said, "Your Ex- Mr. Farrill. It is not in my juris-
cellency, I have come on behalf of diction alone. The Executive Coun-
my father's good name. You must cil —stop pulling
at me, Arta. How
know his execution was unjust." can pay attention to matters when
I
Hinrik looked away. "I knew you distract me? must be con- —
your father slightly. He was in sulted. Gillbret! Will you see that
Rhodia once or twice." He paused, Mr. Farrill is taken care of? I will
and his voice quavered a bit. "You do what can be done. Yes, I will
are very like him. Very. But he was consult the Executive Council. The
tried, you know. At least I imagine forms of law, you know. Very im-
he was. And according to law. portant. Very important."
Really, I don't know the details." He turned on his heel, mum-
. "Exactly, your Excellency. But I bling.
would like to learn those details. Artemisia lingered for a mo-
I am sure that my father was no ment, and touched Biron's sleeve.
traitor." "A moment. Was it true, your
statement that you could pilot a
HINRIK broke in hurriedly, "As spaceship?"
his son, of course, it is un- "Quite true," said Biron. He
derstandable that you should de- smiled at her and after a moment's
fend your father, but, really, it is hesitation, she smiled briefly in re-
difficult to discuss such matters of turn.
TYRANN 49
"GilLbret," she said, "I want to ments are made and the waking-
speak to you later." sleeping periods are tailored to fit.
She hurried off. Biron looked On many more, the almost uni-
after her, till Gillbret tweaked at versal use of conditioned atmos-
his sleeve. pheres and artificial lighting makes
"I presume you are hungry, per- the day-night question secondary,
haps thirsty, would like a wash?" except insofar as it modifies agri-
asked Gillbret. "The ordinary culture. On a few planets — those
amenities of life continue, I take of the extremes — arbitrary divisions
it?" are made which ignore the trivial
"Thank you, yes," said Biron. facts of light and dark.
The tension had almost entirely But always, whatever the social
washed out of him. For a moment, conventions, the coming of night
he was relaxed and felt wonderful. has a deep and abiding psychologi-
She was pretty. Very pretty. cal significance, dating back to
Hinrik, on the other hand, was Man's pre-human arboreal exis-
not relaxed. In his own chambers, tence. Night will always be a time
his thoughts whirled at a feverish of fear and insecurity, and the
pace. Try as he might, he could heart will sink with the Sun.
not wriggle out of the inevitable Inside Palace Central, there was
conclusion. was a trap! Aratap
It no sensory mechanism by which
had sent him and it was a trap one could tell the coming of night,
He buried his head in his hands yet Biron felt that coming through
to quiet and deaden the pounding, some indefinite instinct hidden in
and then he knew what he bad to the unknown corridors of the hu-
do. man brain. He knew that outdoors,
the night's blackness was scarcely
CHAPTER VH relieved by the futile sparks of the
Stars. He knew that, if it were the
Musician of the Mind right time of year, the jagged "hole
in space" known as the Horsehead
NIGHT settles in time on all Nebula, so familiar to all the
habitable planets. Not al- Trans-Nebular Kingdoms, inked
ways, perhaps, at respectable inter- out half the stars that might other-
vals, since recorded periods of wise have been visible.
rotation varyfrom fifteen to fifty- And he was depressed again.
two hours. That fact requires the He had not seen Artemisia since
most strenuous psychological ad- the little talk with the Director and
justment for those traveling from he found himself resenting that.
planet to planet. He had looked forward to dinner;
On many planets, sudi adjust- he might have spoken to her. In-

stead he had eaten alone, with two can properly call it music." A shelf
guards lounging discontentedly of book-films slid out and aside at
just outside the door. Even Gill- a touch. "This is not really much
bret had left him, presumably to of a hiding-place, but nobody takes
eat a less lonely meal in the com- me seriously, so they don't look.
pany one would expect in a palace Amusing, don't you think? But I
of the Hinriads. forget, you're the unamused one."
So that when Gillbret returned It was a clumsy, boxlike affair,
and said, "Artemisia and I have with that singular lack of gloss and
been discussing you," he obtained polish that marks the home-made
a prompt and interested reaction. object. One side of it was studded
It merely amused him and he with little gleaming knobs. He put
said so. "First, however, I want to it down with that side upward.
show you my laboratory," he "It isn't pretty," Gillbret said,

added. He gestured and the two "but who in Time cares? Put the
guards moved off. lights out. No, no! No switches
"What kind of laboratory?" or contacts. Just wish the lights
asked Biron with a definite loss of were out. Wish hard! Decide you
interest. want them out."
"I build gadgets," was the And the lights dimmed with the
vague response. exception of the faint pearly luster
of the ceiling that made them two
WAS not a
ITeye. laboratory to the ghostly faces in the dark. Gillbret
"
It was more nearly a laughed lightly at Biron's exclama-
library, with an ornate desk in the tion.
corner. one of the tricks of my
"Just
Biron looked it over slowly. visi-sonor. It's keyed to the mind
"And you build gadgets here? just as personal message capsules

What kind of gadgets?" are. Do you know what I mean?"
"Well, special sounding devices "No, I don't, if you want a plain

to spy out the Tyranni spy-beams, answer."
in a brand-new way. Nothing they "Well," Gillbret said, "look at
can detect. That's how I found out it this way. The electric field of
about you, when the first word your brain cells sets up an induced
came through from Aratap. And I one in the instrument. Mathemati-
have other amusing trinkets. My cally, it's fairly simple, but as far
visi-sonor, for instance. Do you as I know, no one has ever jammed
like music?" all the necessary circuits into a box
"Some kinds." this size before. Usually, it takes a
"•Good. I invented an instru- five-story generating plant to do it.
ment, only I don't know if you It works the other way, too. I can
TYRANN 51
close here and impress
circuits lighted room, laughing. Biron felt
them upon your brain, so
directly an acute dizziness and wiped shak-
that you'll see and hear without ily at a chilled, moist forehead. He
any intervention of eyes and ears. sat down abruptly.

Watch!" "What happened?" he demand-
There was nothing to watch at ed, in as. stiff a tone as he could
first, and then something fuzzy manage.
scratched faintly at the corner of Gillbret said, "I don't know. I
Biron's eyes. It became a faint blue- stayed out of it. You don't under-
violet ball hovering in mid-air. It stand? It was something your brain
followed him as he turned away, had lacked previous experience
remained unchanged when he with. Your Was sensing di-
brain
closed his eyes. And a clear, mu- rectly -and it had no method of
sical tone accompanied it, was part interpretation for such a phenom-
of it, was it. enon. So as long as you concen-
trated on the sensation, your brain
WAS growing and expanding
ITand could only attempt, futilely, to
Biron became disturbingly force the effect into the old, famil-
aware that it existed inside his iar pathways. It attempts separately
skull. It wasn't really a color, but and simultaneously to interpret it
rather a colored sound, though as sight and sound and touch. Were
without noise. It was tactile, yet you conscious of an odor, by the

without feeling. way? Sometimes it seemed to me
It spun and took on an irides- that I smelled the stuff. With dogs
cence while the musical tone rose I imagine the sensation would be
in pitch till it hovered above him forced almost entirely into odor.
like falling silk. Then it exploded I'd like to try it on animals some
so that gouts of color splattered at day.
him in touches that burnt momen- "On the other hand, if you
tarilyand left no pain. ignore it, make no attack upon it,
Bubbles of rain-drenched green it fades away. It's what I do when
rose again with a quiet, soft moan- I want to observe its effects on
ing. Biron thrust at them in con- others, and it isn't difficult."
fusion and became aware that he He placed a little veined hand

could not see his hands or feel upon the instrument, fingering the
them move. There was nothing, knobs aimlessly. "Sometimes I
only the little bubbles filling his think that if one could really study
mind to the exclusion of all else. this thing, one could compose
He cried out soundlessly and the symphonies in a new medium; do
fantasy ceased. Gillbret was stand- things one could never do with
ing before him once again in a simple sound or sight. I lack the

I'm afraid. How- worthwhile use in-
capacity for it,
ever, just a light touch, not enough

tific
stead of
—
ability to
to confuse the established mental "Wasting it on useless toys? I

patterns, is sometimes rather in- don't know. It may not be entirely
teresting. It heightens perception,, useless. This is against the law, you
releases the psychological censor, know."
accentuates wishful thinking . . . "What is?"
or expectant dread." "The visi-sonor. Also my spy
He moved the knobs minutely devices. If the Tyranni knew, it
before Biron could object. The could easily mean a death sen-
moaning now was sweet cerebral tence."
music, which, for an. instant, "Surely, you're joking."
threatened to become, hollowly "Not at all. It is obvious that
menacing before Biron thought of you were brought up on a cattle
Arta. He thought of her and she ranch. The young people cannot
was real against the background even remember what it was like in
of the room and Gillbret with the the old days, I see." Suddenly, his
box of dreams in his hand. The head was to one side and his eyes
music rose to hungry longing more were narrowed to slits. He asked,
intense than any emotion Biron "Are you opposed to Tyranni rule?
had ever experienced. She was Speak freely. I tell you frankly that
beautiful and he wanted her. . . . / am. I tell you also that your
father was."
IT ENDED and she was gone;

still stood with his fists tight
he
Biron said, calmly, "Yes,
"Why?"
I am."
and his heart beating in race "They are strangers, outlanders.

rhythm. Gillbret looked hastily What right have they to rule in
down at the sono-visor, as though Nephelos or in Rhodia?"
embarrassed by the intensity of "Have you always thought that?"
Biron's visible yearning. He should Biron did not answer.
have been amused, yet he was not, Gillbret sniffed. "In other
and Biron, relaxing unhappily, was words, you decided they were
grateful for that. strangers and outlanders only after
"I suppose it could have great they executed your father, which,
therapeutic value," said Gillbret, after all, was their simple right.
"by revealing to us our suppressed Oh, look, don't fire up. Consider
wishes and fears
— it reasonably. Believe me, I'm on
"I'd like to ask you a question," your side. But think! Your father
Biron said, abruptly. was Rancher. What rights did his
"By all means." herdsmen have? If one of them
"Why don't you put your scien- had stolen cattle for his own use
TYRANN 53
or to sell to others, what would too Hinrik
unpredictable. was
have been his punishment? Impris- tall, handsome, and, above all,
onment as a thief. If he had plot- pliant. Yet not pliant enough, ap-
ted the death of your father, for parently.They hound him continu-
whatever reason, for perhaps a ously, him into a pitiful
grind
worthy reason in his own eyes, puppet, make sure he cannot even
what would have been the result? itch without permission. You've
Execution, undoubtedly. And what seen him. He's deteriorating by the
right had your father to make laws day now. His continual state of
and visit punishment upon his fel- fear is pathetically psychopathic.
low human beings? He was their But that, all that, is not why I want
Tyrannian. to destroy Tyrannian rule,"
"Your father, in his own eyes "No?" said Biron. "You have
and in mine, was a patriot. But invented an entirely new reason?"
what of that? To the Tyranni, he "An entirely old one, rather.
was a traitor and they removed The Tyranni are destroying the
him. Can you ignore the necessity right of twenty billion human be-
of self-defense? The Hinriads ings to take part in the develop-
have been a bloody lot in their ment of the race. You've been to
time. Read your history, young school. You've learned the eco-
man. All governments kill as part nomic cycle. A new planet is
of the nature of things. settled," he was ticking the points

"So find a better reason to hate off *>n his fingers, "and its first
the Don't think it is
Tyranni. care is to feed itself. It becomes an
enough to replace one set of rulers agricultural world; a herding
by another, that the simple change world. It begins to dig in the
brings freedom." ground for crude ore to export,
and sends its agricultural surplus
BIRON pounded a fist impatient- abroad to buy luxuries and ma-
ly into his cupped palm. "Ail chinery. That is the second step.
this objective philosophy is fine. It Then, as population increases and
is very soothing to the man who foreign investments grow, an in-
lives apart.But what if it had been dustrial civilization begins to bud,
your father who was murdered?" which is the third step. Eventually,
"Well, wasn't it? My father was the world becomes mechanized, im-
Director before Hinrik and he was porting food, exporting machinery,
killed. Oh, not outright, but subt- investing in the development of
ly. They broke his spirit, as they more primitive worlds and so on.
are breaking Hinrik's now. They The fourth step.
wouldn't have me as Director when "Always the mechanized worlds
my father died; I was just a little are the most thickly populated, the

most powerful, militarily, since war neighbors on all sides, those not
is a function of machines, and they under Tyrannian control, will be
are usually surrounded by a fringe strong and urbanized. The King-
dependent worlds.
of agricultural, doms will be semi-colonial areas
"But what has happened to us? They may never catch
indefinitely.
We were at the third step, with up and we may be merely observ-
a growing industry. And now? ers in the great drama of human
That growth has been stopped, advance."
frozen, forced to recede. It would Biron said, "What you say is
interfere with Tyrannian control of not completely unfamiliar."

our industrial necessities. It is a "Naturally, if you were educated
short-term investment on their part on Earth. Earth occupies a very
because eventually we'll become un- peculiar position in social develop-
profitable as we become impover- ment."
ished. But, meanwhile, they skim "Indeed?"
the cream. "To be sure. All the Galaxy has
"Besides, if we industrialized been in a continuous state of ex-
ourselves, we might develop weap- pansion since the first discovery of
ons of war. So industrialization is interstellar travel. We have always
stopped; scientific research is for- been a growing society, therefore
bidden. And eventually the people an immature society. It is obvious
become so used to that, they lack that that human society reached
the even that anything
realization maturity in only one place and in
is missing. So that you are sur- only one time and that this was
prised when I tell you that I could on Earth immediately prior to itj
be executed for building a visi- catastrophe. There we had a so-
sonor. ciety which had temporarily lost
all possibility for geographical ex-
C0URSE some da y we pansion and was therefore faced
"(~Y
v_y
.
with such problems as overpopula-

will beat the Tyranni. It is
fairly certain. They can't rule for- tion, depletion of resources and so
ever. No one can. They'll grow on; problems that have never faced
soft and lazy. They will intermarry any other portion of the Galaxy.
and lose much of their separate "They were forced to study the
traditions. They will become cor- social sciences intensively. have We
rupt. But it may take centuries, be- lost much or all of that and it is a
cause history doesn't hurry. And pity. Now amusing thing.
here's an
when those centuries have passed, When Hinrik was a young man,
we will
still all be agricultural he was a great Primitivist. He had
worlds with no industrial or scien- a library on things Earthly that was
tific heritage to speak of, while our unparalleled in the Galaxy. Since
TYRANN 55
he became Director, that's gone by pleading, but Biron frowned cold-
the board along with everything ly. "Why?"
else. But, in a way, I've inherited Gillbret continued, speaking
it. Their literature, such scraps as rapidly, "As I said, Artemisia and
survive, is fascinating. It has a I have discussed you and arranged
peculiarly introspective flavor to it this.When you leave here, pro-
that we don't have in our extro- ceed directly to her room, where
verted Galactic civilization. It is she is waiting for you. I have
most amusing." drawn a diagram so that you won't
Biron said, "You relieve me. have to ask your way through the
You have been serious for so long corridors." He
was forcing a small
that I began to wonder if you had sheet of metallene upon Biron. "If
lost your sense of humor." anyone does stop you, say that you
Gillbret shrugged. "I am relax- have been summoned by the Di-
ing and it is wonderful. First time rector, and proceed. There will be
months, Do you know no trouble, if you show no uncer-
in
what it is
I think.
to play a part? To split tainty
—
your personality deliberately for "Hold on!" said Biron. He was
twenty- four hours a day? Even not going to do it had
again. Jonti
when with friends? Even when chivied him to Rhodia and, con-
alone, so that you will never forget sequently, succeeded in bringing
inadvertently? To be eternally him before the Tyranni. The Tyr-
amused? To be of no account? To annian Commissioner had then
be so effete and faintly ridiculous chivied him to Palace Central* be-
that you have convinced all who fore he could feel his own secret
know you of your own worthless- way there and, consequently, sub-
ness? All so that your life might jected him, nakedly unprepared, to
be safe, even though it means it the whims of an unsteady puppet.
has become barely worth living. But' But that was all His moves, hence-
!
even so, once in a while, I can fight forward, might be severely limited,
them." but, by Space and Time, they
would be his own. He felt very
HE LOOKEDwas
up, and his voice
earnest, almost pleading.
stubborn about
He
it.
"I'm here on what is

said,
"You can pilot a ship. I cannot. important business to me, sir. I'm
Isn't that strange? You talk about not leaving."
my scientific ability, yet I cannot "What? Don't be a young idiot."
pilot a simple one-man spacegig. For a moment, the old Gillbret
But you can, and it follows then was showing through. "Do you
that you must leave Rhodia." think you will accomplish anything
There was no mistaking the here? Do you think you will get

out of the Palace alive if you let "Surely the Director would never
the morning sun rise? Why, Hin- allow such a thing."
rik will call in theTyranni and you "The Director will allow any-
will be imprisoned within twenty- thing. Nobody waits upon his per-
four hours. He is only waiting this mission."
while because it takes him so long Biron thought of Artemisia as
to make up his mind to do any- he had last seen her. Her hair had
thing. He is my cousin. I know been combed back from her fore-
him, I tell you." head and allowed to fall in simple
Biron said, "And if so, what is straightness, with a single inward
that to you? Why should you be wave at shoulder level. Tanned
so concerned about me?" He was skin, black eyes, red lips. Tall,
not going to be chivied. He would young, smiling. Probably the de-
never again be another man's scription of a hundred million
obedient marionette. girls throughout the Galaxy. It
But Gillbret was standing, star- would be ridiculous to let that sway
ing at him. "I want you to take me him.
with you. I'm concerned about my- Yet he said, "Is there a ship
self. I cannot endure life under the ready?"
Tyranni any longer. It is only that Gillbret's face wrinkled under
neither Artemisia nor I can handle the impact of a sudden smile. But
a ship or we would have left long before he could say a word, there
ago. It's our lives, too." came a pounding at the door. It
Biron felt a certain weakening was no gentle interruption of the
of his resolve. "The Director's photo-beam, no soft sound of po-
daughter? What has she to do lite knuckles on hard plastic. It
with this?" was the clang of metal, the over-
powering thunder of the weapon
"T BELIEVE that she is the most of authority.
-L desperate of us. There is a It was repeated, and Gillbret
special death for women. What said, "You'd better open the
should be ahead of a Director's door."
daughter who is young, personable, Biron did so, and two uniforms
and unmarried, but to become were in the room. The foremost
young, personable and married? saluted Gillbret with abrupt effi-
And who, in these days, should be ciency, then turned to Biron:

the delightful groom? Why, an "Biron Farrill, in the name of the
old, lecherous Tyrannian court Resident Commissioner of Tyrann
functionary who has buried three and of the Director of Rhodia, I
wives and wishes to revive the fires place you under arrest."
of his youth with a young girl." "On what charge?"
TYRANN 57
"High treason." little raised, as though inspecting
Alook of infinite loss twisted a distasteful fact with a faint tinge
Gillbret's face. He looked away. of regret.
"Hinrik was quick this once; "Very amusing," he said.
ruicker than I had ever expected. "Please follow me," said the
An amusing thought!" guard, and Biron was aware of the
He was the old Gillbret, smil- neuronic whip resting easily in the
ing and indifferent, eyebrows a other's hand.

CHAPTER VIII
A Lady's Skirts
B IRON'S throat was growing

dry. He could have beaten
either of the guards in fair fight.
He knew and he itched for
that
the chance. He
might even have
made a satisfactory showing against
both together. But they had the
whips and he couldn't have lifted
an arm without having them para-
lyze it instantly. Inside his mind,
he surrendered. There was no
other way.
But Gillbret said, "Let him take
"men."
his cloak,
Biron, startled, looked quickly
toward the little man and retracted
his mental surrender. He had not
brought a cloak.
The guard whose weapon was
out clicked his heels as a gesture
of respect. He motioned his whip
at Biron. "You heard Milord. Get
your cloak and make it quick.""
Biron stepped back as slowly as
he dared. He retreated to the book-
case and squatted, groping behind
the chair for his non-existent cloak.
And as his fingers clawed at the
empty space behind the chair, he
waited tensely for Gillbret.
The sono-visor was just a queer
knobbed object to the guards. It
would mean nothing to them that
Gillbret fingered the knobs gent-
ly. Biron watched the muzzle of
the whip intensely and allowed it
to fill his mind. Certainly nothing
TYRANN 59
else he saw or heard {thought he BUT Biron did
enough. The
not turn quickly'
saw or heard) must enter. second guard was
But how much longer? bearing him down again. It was a
The armed guard said, "Is your blind attack. What it was that the
cloak behind that chair? Stand up!" guard thought he was grasping, it
He took an impatient step forward, was impossible to tell. That he
and then stopped. His eyes nar- knew nothing of Biron at the mo-
rowed in deep amazement and he ment was certain. His breath rasped
looked sharply at his left. in Biron's ear and there was a con-
That was it! Biron hunched and tinuous incoherent gurgle bubbling
threw himself forward at the in his .throat.
guard's knees. The guard went Biron twisted in an attempt to

down with a jarring thud, and Bi- bring his captured weapon into
ron's large fist closed over the play and was frighteningly aware
other's hand, grasping for the neu- of the blank and empty eyes that
ronic whip it held. must be staring at some horror in-
The other guard had his weapon visible to anyone else.
out, but for the moment he was Biron braced his legs and shifted
useless. With his free hand, he was weight in an effort to break loose,
brushing wildly at the space before quite uselessly. Three times he felt
his eyes. the guard's whip flung hard against
Gillbret' s high-pitched laugh his hip, and flinched at the con-
sounded. "Anything bothering you, tact.
Farrill?" And then the guard's gurgle dis-

"Don't see a thing," Biron solved into words. He yelled, "I'll
grunted, "except this whip I've got get you all!" and the very pale,
now." almost-invisible shimmer of the

"All right, leave then. They ionized air in the path of the whip's
can'tdo anything to stop you. Their energy beam made its frightening
minds are full of sights and sounds appearance. swept wide through
It
that don't exist." Gillbret skipped the air, and the path of the beam
out of the way of the writhing intersected Biron's foot.
tangle of bodies. It was as though he had stepped

Biron wrenched his arms free into a bath of boiling lead. Or as
and heaved upward. He brought if a granite block had toppled upon
his arm down solidly just below it. Or as if it had been crunched
the other's ribs. The guard's face off by a shark. Actually nothing had
twisted in agony and his body happened to it physically. It was
doubled convulsively. Biron rose, only that the nerve endings that
whip in hand. governed the sensation of pain had
"Careful," cried Gillbret. been universally and maximally

stimulated. Boiling lead could have Gillbret shrugged. "There'll be
done no more. more here soon. Get to Artemisia's
Biron's yell tore his throat raw, room. Please! Quickly!"
and he collapsed. It did not even Biron realized the justice of that.
occur to him that the fight was His foot had subsided to a quiet
over. Nothing mattered but the quiver of pain, but it felt swollen
ballooning pain. and puffy. He put on a stocking
Yet, though Biron did not know and tucked the shoe under his el-
it, the guard's grip had relaxed, and bow. He already had one whip,
minutes later, when the young man and he relieved the second guard of
could force his eyes open and blink the other. He stuffed it precariously
away the he found the guard
tears, within his belt.
backed against the wall, pushing He turned at the door and asked
feebly at nothing with both hands with a sense of crawling revulsion,
and giggling to himself. The first "What make them see?"
did you
guard was still on his back, arms "I don't know. I can't control it.
and legs spread-eagled now. He was I just gave them all the power I
conscious, but silent. His eyes were could and the rest depended on
following something in an erratic their own psychological makeup.
path, and his body quivered a lit- Please don't stand there talking. Do
tle. There was a little froth on his you have the map of Artemisia's
lips. room?"
Biron forced himself to his feet.
He limped badly as he made his BIRON nodded, and set off
way to the wall. He used the butt down the corridor. It was
of thewhip and the guard slumped. empty. He could not walk quickly,
Then back to the first, who made since trying to do so made his walk
no defense either, his eyes moving a hobble.
silently to the very moment of un- He looked at his watch, then re-
consciousness. membered that he had somehow
Biron sat down again, nursing his never had the time to adjust it to
foot. He stripped shoe and stock- Rhodian local chronometry. It still
ing from it, and stared in surprise ran on Standard Interstellar Time as
at the unbroken skin. He chafed it used aboard ship, where one hun-
and grunted at the burning sensa- dred minutes made an hour and a
tion. He looked up at Gillbret, who thousand a day. So the figure
had put down his visi-sonor and "876" which gleamed pinkly on the
was now rubbing one lean cheek cool metal face of the watch meant
with the back of his hand. nothing now.
"Thank you," said Biron, "for Still, it had to be well into the
the help of your instrument." night, or into the planetary sleep-
TYRANN 61
ing-period, at any rate (supposing sleeve flapped loosely, that his
the two not to coincide), as other- clothes were grimy and his face
wise the halls would not be so welted. He remembered the shoe he
empty and the bas-reliefs on the was still carrying, dropped it and
wall would not phosphoresce un- wriggled his foot into it.
watched. He touched one idly as he Then he said, "Mind if I sit
passed, a coronation scene, and down?"

found it to be two-dimensional. Yet She followed him to the chair,
it gave the perfect illusion of stand- and stood before him, a little an-
ing out from the wall. noyed. "What happened? What's
It was sufficiently unusual for wrong with your foot?"
him to stop momentarily in order "I hurt it," he said, shortly. "Are
to examine the effect. Then he re- you ready to leave?"
membered and hurried on. She brightened. "You'll take us,
then?"
THE emptiness of the corridor
him as another sign of
But Biron was in no mood to be
struck sweet about it. His foot still
the decadence of Rhodia. He had twinged and he cradled it. He said,
grown conscious of these symbols "Look, get me out to a ship. I'm
of decline now that he had become leaving this damn planet. If you
a rebel. As the center of an inde- want to come along, I'll take you."
pendent power, the Palace would She frowned, "You might be
always have had its sentries and its more pleasant about it. Were you in
quiet wardens of the night. a fight?"
He consulted Gillbret's crude "Yes, I was. With your father's
map and turned to the right, mov- guards, who wanted to arrest me
ing up a wide, curving ramp. There for treason. So much for my Sanc-
might have been processions here tuary Right."
once, but nothing of that would be "Oh! I'm sorry."
left now. "I'm a lot sorrier. It's no wonder
He leaned against the proper the Tyranni can lord it over fifty
door and touched the photo-signal. worlds with a handful of men. We
The door moved ajar a bit, then help them. Men like your father
opened wide. would do anything to keep in
"Come in, young man." power; they would forget the basic
It was Artemisia. Biron slipped duties of a simple gentleman Oh, —
inside and the door closed swiftly forget it!"
and silently. He looked at the girl, "I saidI was sorry. Lord Ranch-
saying nothing. He was gloomily er." She used the title with a cold
conscious of the fact that his shirt pride. "Please don't set yourself up
was torn at the shoulder so that one as judge of my father."

'Tm not interested in discussing They glared at each other, Biron
it. We'll have to leave in a hurry, standing on one foot and raging.
before more of your father's pre- In a way, he was trying to help
cious guards come. Well, I didn't her,too. "There is no reason for
mean to hurt your feelings. It's all you to be insulting," he told her,
right." Biron's surliness cancelled just barely controlling his anger.
out any meaning of his apology, She said, "I'm sorry," and looked
but, damn he had never been
it, away.
hit by a neuronic whip before and "I meant your tone of voice, not
it wasn't fun. And, by Space, they what you said. You're entitled to
had owed him Sanctuary. your opinion of me."
Artemisia felt angry. Not at her "You don't have to say the
father, of course, but at the stupid things you do about my father. You
young man. He was so young, don't know what being Director is
practically a child, she decided, like. He's working for his people,
scarcely older than herself, if that. whatever you may think."

The Communicator sounded and "Oh, sure. He has to sell me to
she said, sharply^ "Please wait a the Tyranni for the sake of the
minute and we'll go." people. That makes sense."
"Certainly it does. He has to
ITingWAS Gillbret's voice, sound-

faintly. "Arta? All right at
show them
they might depose
he's loyal.
him and
Otherwise,
take
your end?" over the direct rule of Rhodia.
. "He's here," she whispered back. Would that be better?"
"Fine, fine. Don't say anything. "If a nobleman
Just listen.Don't leave your room. tuary
— can't find Sanc-
Keep him there. There's going to be "Oh, you think only of yourself.
a search of the Palace, which -That's what's wtong with you."
there's no way of stopping. I'll try "I don't think it's particularly
to think of something, but, mean- selfish not to want to die. At least
while, don't move." He waited for for nothing. I've got some fighting
no reply. Contact was broken. to do before My father fought
I go.
"So that's that," said Biron. He them." He knew
he was beginning
had heard, also. "Shall I stay and to sound melodramatic, but she af-
get you into trouble, or shall I go fected him that way.
out and give myself up? There's She said, "And what good did it
no reason to expect Sanctuary any- do your father?"
where on Rhodia, I suppose." "None, I suppose. He was
She faced him in a rage, crying killed."
in a choked whisper, "Oh, shut up, Artemisia felt unhappy. "I keep
you big, ugly fool." saying I'm sorry, and this time I
TYRANN 43
really mean I'm all upset." Then,
it. "Just what you see," said Gill-
in defense,"I'm in trouble, too." bret. "They came to make their
Biron remembered. "I know. All arrest,and the young man did not
right, let's start all over." He tried submit. He is gone, Space knows
to smile. His foot was feeling bet- where."
ter anyway. "That is of little moment, my
She said, in an attempt at light- Lord," said the captain. "The
ness, "You're not really ugly." Palace is honored tonight with the
Biron felt foolish. "Oh, I don't presence of a personage, so
know
— well-guarded despite the hour.
it is
He
Then he stopped, and Artemi- cannot get out and we will draw the
hand flew to her mouth.
sia's net through the interior. But how
There was the sudden, soft sound did he escape ? My men were armed.
of many ordered feet on the semi- He was not."
mosaic that floored "He fought like a From
elastic plastic
the corridor outside. Most passed that chair, behind which
tiger.
I hid
—
by, but there was a faint, disciplined "I am sorry, my Lord, that you
heel-clicking just outside the door, did not think to aid my men against
and the night signal purred. an accused traitor."
Gillbret looked scornful. "What
GILLBRET hadwork quickly.
to an amusing thought, captain. When
Damn Hinrik for making up your men, with doubled advantage
his mind so quickly this once, for in numbers and weapons, need help
not waiting till morning. Gillbret from myself, it is time that you te-
had to get away; he might never cruited yourself other men."
have another chance. But he had to "Very well. We will search the
hide his sono-visor. For the first Palace, find him, and see if he can
time, he wished he had a better, repeat the performance."
hiding-place. "I shallaccompany you, captain."
Then he called the captain of the It was the captain's turn to raise
guard. He couldn't very well his eyebrows. He said, "'I would
neglect a little matter of two un- not advise it, my Lord. There would
conscious guards and an escaped be some danger."
prisoner. It was the kind of remark that
The captain of the guard was one did not make to a Hinriad.
grim about it. He had the two un- Gillbret knew that, but he only
conscious men cleared out, and then smiled and let the wrinkles fill his
faced Gillbret. lean face. "I know that," he said,
"My Lord, I am not quite clear "but occasionally I find even dan-
from your message exactly what ger amusing."
happened," he said. It took five minutes for the com-

pany of guards to assemble. Gill- He looked about him and won-
brer, alone in his room during that dered if they would search Arte-
time, called Artemisia. misia's room. He was helpless if a
search took place. There was no
BIRON and Artemisia had way out of the dressing-room but
frozen at the purring of the theway he had entered.
little sounded a second
signal. It Along one wall there hung a
time and then there was the cau- row of gowns, and the air
tious rap upon the door, and Gill- shimmered very faintly before it.
bret's voice was heard. His hand passed easily through the
"Do let me try, captain," it said. shimmer, with only a faint tingling
Then, more loudly, "Artemisia?" where it crossed his wrist, but then
Biron grinned his relief and took it was meant to repel only dust so
a step forward, but the girl put a that the space behind it could be
sudden hand upon his mouth. She kept aseptically clean.
called out, "One moment, Uncle He might hide behind the
Gil," and pointed desperately to- skirts. Itwas what he was doing,
ward the wall. really. He had manhandled two
Biron could only stare stupidly. guards, with Gillbret's help, to get
The wall was quite blank. Arte- here, butnow that he was here, he
misia shook her head impatiently was hiding behind a lady's skirts.
and stepped quickly past him. Her A Lady's skirts, in fact.
hand on the- wall caused a portion Incongruously, he found himself
of it to slide noiselessly aside, re- wishing he had turned a bit sooner
vealing a dressing room. Her lips before the wall had closed behind
motioned, "Get inside!" and her him. She had quite a remarkable
hands were fumbling at the orna- figure. It was ridiculous of him to
mental pin at her right shoulder. have been so childishly nasty a
The unclasping of that pin broke while back. Of course, she was not
the tiny biostatic force-field that to blame for the faults of her
held an invisible seam tightly father.
closed down the length of the And now he could only wait,
dress. She stepped out of it. staring at the blank wall; waiting
Biron turned around after walk- for the sound of feet within the
ing through what had been the room, for the wall to pull back
wall, and its closing lasted just once more, for the muzzles facing
long enough for him to see her him again, this time without a
pulling a white-furred dressing sono-visor to help him.
gown around her proud body. The —ISAAC ASIMOV
scarlet dress lay crumpled upon the
chair. Continued Next Month
.TYRANN 45
Dark
Interlude
By MACK REYNOLDS and FREDRIC BROWN
" GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION
Justifiable homicide is a solidly established
point of law, but the justification of murder
depends on where the killer lives... and when!
SHERIFF BEN RAND'S hysterical I had to try and

a while.
eyes were grave. He said, quiet her down, and then I had
"Okay, boy. You feel kind trouble starting the jalopy."
of jittery; that's natural. But if your "Don't worry about waking me
story's straight, don't worry. Don't up, boy. Being sheriff's a full-time
worry about nothing. Everything'!! job. And it ain't late, anyway; I
be all right, boy." just happened to turn in early to-

"It was three hours ago, Sheriff," night. Now let me get a
few things
Allenby said. "I'm sorry it took me straight. You Lou
say your name's
so long to get into town and that 1 Allenby. That's a good name in
had to wake you up. But Sis was these parts, Allenby. You kin of
Illustrated by DAVID MAUS
DARK INTERLUDE 67
Ranee Allenby, used to run the parts must, itself, be infinite,
feed business over in Cooperville? whereas we know that an infinite

I went to school with Ranee number of elements make up
Now about the fella who
.
said he
. .
nite total. Besides

— a fi-
come from the future . .

." Matthe smiled gently and held
up & hand. "Please, sir, don't mis-
understand me. I do not deny that
THE Presidor of the Historical today we understand Zeno's
dox. But believe me, for long cen-
para-
Research Department was skep-
tical to the last. .He argued, "I am turies the best minds the human
still of the opinion that the project race could produce could not ex-
is not feasible. There are paradoxes plain it."
involved which present insurmount- The presidor said tactfully, "I

able
— fail to see your point, Doctr
Doctr Matthe, the noted physi- Matthe. Please forgive my inade-
cist, interrupted politely, "Un- quacy. What possible connection
doubtedly, sir, you are familiar has this Dichotomy of Zeno's with
with the Dichotomy?" your projected expedition into the
The presidor wasn't, so he re- past?"
'mained silent to indicate that he "I was merely drawing a parallel,
wanted an explanation. sir. Zeno conceived the paradox
"Zeno propounded the Dichot- proving that was impossible to
it
omy. He was a Greek philosopher cover any distance, nor were the
of roughly five hundred years be- ancients able to explain it. But did
fore the ancient prophet whose that prevent them from covering
birth was used by the primitives to distances? Obviously not. Today,
mark the beginning of their calen- my assistants and I have devised a
dar. The Dichotomy states that it method to send our young friend
is impossible to- cover any given here, Jan Obreen, into the distant
distance. The argument: First, half past. The paradox is immediately
the distance must be traversed, then pointed out —suppose
he should
half of the remaining distance, then kill an ancestor or otherwise change
again half of what remains, and so history? I do not claim to be able
on; It follows that some portion of to explain how apparent para-
this
the distance to be covered always dox is overcome in time travel; all
remains, and therefore motion is I know is that time travel is pos-
impossible." sible. Undoubtedly, better minds
"Not analagous," the presidor than mine will one day resolve the
objected. "In the first place, your paradox, but until then we shall
Greek assumed that any totality continue to utilize time travel,
composed of an infinite number of paradox or not."

Jan Obreen had been sitting, Obreen, yet you have volunteered
nervously quiet, listening to his dis- and I have no right to interfere.
tinguished superiors. Now he Your most important task is to
cleared his throat and said, "I be- leave a message that will come
lieve the hour has arrived for the down to us; if you are successful,
experiment." other attempts will be made to still
The presidor shrugged his con- other periods in history. If you
tinued disapproval, but dropped the fail
—
conversation. He let his eyes scan "He won't fail," Matthe said.
doubtfully the equipment that The presidor shook his head and
stood in the corner of the labora- grasped Obreen 's hand in farewell.
tory. Jan Obreen stepped to the equip-
Matthe shot a quick glance at the ment and mounted the small plat-
time piece, then hurried last min- form. He clutched the metal grips
ute instructions to his student. on the instrument panel somewhat
"We've been all over this be- desperately, hiding to the best of
fore, Jan, but to sum it up —You his ability the shrinking inside him-
should appear approximately in the self.
middle of the so-called Twentieth

Century; exactly where,
know. The language will be Amer-
we don't rHE —you
fella
sheriff said, "Well,
say he told
this
you he
English, which you have studied came from the future?"
thoroughly; on that count you Lou Allenby nodded. "About
should have little difficulty. You four thousand years ahead. He said
will appear in the United States of itwas the year thirty-two hundred
North America, one of the ancient and something, but that it was
nations —
as they were called a po- — about four thousand years from
litical division of whose purpose now; they'd changed the number-
we are not quite sure. One of the ing system meanwhile."
designs of your expedition will be "And you didn't figure it was
to determine why the human race hogwash, boy? From the way you
at that time split itself into scores talked, I got the idea that you kind
of states, rather than having but one of believed him."
government. The other wet his lips. "I kind
"You have to adapt your-
will of believed him," he said dogged-
self to the conditions you find, Jan. ly. "There was something about
Our histories are so vague that we him; he was different. I don't mean
can help you but little in informa- physically, that he couldn't pass for
tion on what to expect." being born now, but there was . . .
Thepresidor put in, "I am ex- something different. Kind of, well,
tremely pessimistic about this, like he was at peace with himself;
DARK INTERLUDE 69
gave the impression that where he Jan Obreen was fortunate; he
came from everybody was. And he didn't hit anything. It was, in fact,
was smart, smart as a whip. And the other way around. He came out
he wasn't crazy, either." ten feet in the air over a -plowed
"And what was he doing back field. The fall was nasty enough,
here, boy?" The sheriffs voice was but the soft earth protected him;
gently caustic. one ankle seemed sprained, but not
"He was —some kind of student. too badly. He came painfully to his
Seems from what he said that al- feet and looked around.
most everybody in bis time was a The presence of the field alone
student. They'd solved all the prob- was sufficient to tell him that the
lems of production and distribu- Matthe process was at least par-
tion, nobody had to worry about tially successful. He was far before
security; in fact, they didn't seem his own age. Agriculture was still
toworry about any of the things ive a necessary component of human
do now." There was a trace of wist- economy, indicating a definitely
fulness in Lou Allenby's voice. He own.
earlier civilization than his
took a deep breath and went on. Approximately half a mile away
"He'd come back to do research in was a densely wooded area; not a
our time. They didn't know much park, nor even a planned forest to
about it, it had
seems. Something house -the controlled wild life of
happened in between there was a — his time. A haphazardly growing
bad period of several hundred years wooded area —almost unbelievable.
— and most books and records had But, then, he must grow used to
been lost. They had a few, but not the unbelievable; of all the his-
many. So they didn't know much toric periods, this was the least
about us and they wanted to fill in known. Much would be strange.
what they didn't know." To his right, a few hundred
"You believed all that, boy? Did yards away, was a wooden building.
he have any proof?" It was, undoubtedly, a human
dwelling despite its primitive ap-
pearance. There was no use putting
IT WAS the dangerous point;
was where the prime risk lay.
this it off; contact with his fellow
would have to be made. He limped
man
They had had, for all practical pur- awkwardly toward his meeting
poses, no knowledge of the exact with the Twentieth Century.
contours of the land, forty centuries The girl had evidently not ob-
back, nor knowledge of the pres- served his arrival, but
precipitate
ence of trees or buildings. If he by the time he arrived in the yard
appeared at the wrong spot, it of the farm house, she had come
might well mean instant death. to the door to greet him.

Her dress was of another age, half hearing her words. Something
for in his era the clothing of the —something phenomenal was —
feminine portion of the race was growing within Jan Obreen, affect-
not designed to lure the male. Hers, ing oddly and yet pleasantly his
however, was bright and tasteful metabolism.
with color, and it emphasized the He knew now what Matthe and
youthful contours of her body. Nor the presidor meant by paradox.
was it her dress alone that startled
him. There was a touch of color on
her lips that he suddenly realized
couldn't have been achieved by na-
rHE sheriff
were away when he
"Well,
said,
got to youf
you
He had read
ture. that primitive -place —however he got there?"
women used colors, paints and pig- Lou Allenby nodded. "Yes, that
ments of various sorts, upon their was ten days ago. I was in Miami
faces —somehow or other, now that taking a couple of weeks' vacation.
he witnessed it, he was not repelled. Sisand I each get away for a week
She smiled, the red of her mouth or two every year, but we go at
stressing the even whiteness of her different times, partly because we
teeth. She said, "It would've been it's a good idea to
figure get away
easier to come down the road from one another once in a while
'stead of across the field." Her eyes anyway."
took him had he been
in, and, "Sure, good idea, hoy. But your
more experienced, he could have Sis, she believed this story of where
read interested approval in them. he came from?"
He said, studiedly, "I am afraid "Yes. And, Sheriff, she had
that I am not familiar with your proof. I wish I'd seen it too. The
agricultural methods. I trust I have field he landed in was fresh
not irrevocably damaged the prod- plowed. After she'd fixed his ankle
ucts of your horticultural efforts." she was curious enough, after what
Susan Allenby blinked at him. he'd told her, to follow his foot-
"My," she said softly, a distant hint steps through the dirt back to
of laughter in her voice, "somebody where they'd started. And they
sounds like maybe they swallowed ended, or, rather, started, right
a dictionary." Her eyes widened smack in the middle of a field, with
suddenly, as she noticed him favor- a deep mark like he'd fallen there."
ing his left foot. "Why, you've hurt "Maybe he came from an air-
yourself. Now
you come right on plane, in a parachute, boy. Did you
into the house and let me see if I think of that?"
can't do something about that. "I thought of that, and so did
Why—" Sis. She says that if he did he
He followed her quietly, only must've swalloived the parachute.
DARK INTERLUDE 71
She could follow bis steps every bit Susan and John to stay
tatively, for
of the way // —
was only a few at thefarm until John had learned
—
hundred yards and there wasn't the ropes somewhat. Then he ex-
any place he could've hidden or pected to be able to find some man-
buried a parachute." ner in which to make money he —
The "They got mar-
sheriff said, was quite optimistic about his abil-
ried right away, you say?" ity in that line —
and spending his
"Two days later. I had the car time traveling, taking Susan with
with me, so Sis hitched the team him. Obviously, he'd be able to
and drove them into town—he learn about the present that way.
didn't know how to drive horses — The important thing, the all-
and they got married." embracing thing, was to plan some

"See the license, boy? You sure message to get to Doctr Matthe and
they was really — the presidor. If this type of re-
Lou Allenby looked at him, his search was to continue, all depend-
lips beginning to go white, and the ed upon him.
sheriff said hastily, "All right, boy, He explained to Susan and Lou
1 didn't mean it that way. Take it that itwas a one-way trip. That
easy, boy." the equipment worked only in one
direction, that there was travel to
the past, but not to the future. He
SUSAN had sent her brother a was a voluntary exile, fated to
telegram telling him all about spend the rest of his life in this
it, but he'd changed hotels and era. The idea was that when he'd
somehow the telegram hadn't been been in this century long enough
forwarded. The firsthe knew of to describe it well, he'd write up
the marriage was when he drove his report and put it in a box he'd
up to the farm almost a week later. have especially made to last forty
He was surprised, naturally, but centuries and bury it where it could
—
John O'Brien Susan had altered —
be dug up in a spot that had been
the name somewhat seemed lik- — determined in the future. He had
able enough. Handsome, too, if a the exact place geographically.
bit strange, and he and Susan He" was quite excited when they
seemed head over heels in love. told him about the time capsules
Of course, he didn't have any that had been buried elsewhere. He
money, they didn't use it in his knew that they had never been dug
day, he had told them, but he was up and planned to make it part of
a good worker, not at all soft. his report so the men of the future
There was no reason to suppose could find them.
that he wouldn't make out all right. They spent their evenings in long
The three of them planned, ten- conversations, Jan telling of his

age and what he knew of all the other, I forget its name — all the
long centuries in between. Of the races had blended into one. That
long fight upward and man's con- the whites and the yellows had
quests in the fields of science, medi- mostly killed one another off and
cine and in human relations. And /hat Africa had dominated the
they telling him of theirs, describ- world for a while, and then all the
ing the institutions, the ways of races had begun to blend into one
life which he found so unique. by colonization and intermarriage
Lou hadn't been particularly and that by his time the process
happy about the precipitate mar- was complete. I just stared at him
riage at first, but he found himself and asked him, 'You mean you
warming to Jan. Until . . . got nigger blood in you?' and he
said, just like it didn't mean any-
thing, 'At least
"
one-fourth.'
fHE
*•
sheriff said, "And he didn't "Well, boy, you did just what
you had
tell you what he was till this to do," the sheriff told
evening?" him earnestly, "no doubt about it."
"That's right." "I just saw red. He'd married
"Your sister heard him say it? Sis; he was sleeping with her. I was
She'll back you up?" so crazy-mad I don't even remem-
"I ... I guess she will. She's ber getting my gun."
upset now, like I said, kind of hys- "Well, don't worry about it, boy.
terical. Screams that she's going to You did right."
leave me and the farm. But she "But I feel like hell about it.
heard him say it, Sheriff. He must He didn't know."
of had a strong hold on her, or she "Now that's a matter of opinion,
wouldn't be acting the way she is." boy. Maybe you swallowed a little
"Not that I doujtt your word, too much of this hogwash. Coming
boy, about a thing like that, but from the future—huh! These nig-
d be
it better if she heard it too. gers'll think up the damnedest
How'd come up?"
it tricks to pass
themself off as white.
"I got to asking him some ques- What kind of proof for his story is
tions about things in his time and that mark on the ground? Hog-
aftera while I asked him how they wash, boy. Ain't nobody coming
got along on race problems and he from the' future or going there
acted puzzled and then said he re- neither. We
can just quiet this up
membered something about races so it won't never be heard of no-
from history he'd studied, but that where. It'll be like it never hap-
there weren't any races then. pened."
"He said that by his time — start- —MACK REYNOLDS and
ing after the war of something-or- FREDRIC BROWN
DARK INTERLUDE 73
RULE OF THREE
Illustrated by KARL ROGERS

Of course you'd be host to guests
from outer space; it's common
courtesy. But being a host can
have a peculiarly nasty meaning!
THEY tion
were a decontamina-
—
squad three energy-
not be too
there. When
difficult to handle out
infection spreads near
entities (each triple) on a — the heart of a Galaxy, it can be
routine check of a known matter- troublesome."
entity culture. What they traveled MakMykMok cautioned, "Don't
in was undoubtedly a 'ship, since it underestimate the job until it's sur-
moved through space, except that veyed."
it was not a physical structure of "It's a very small sun," said Ril.
metal. It slowed down like a light "Which one of the planets is it?
wave that had suddenly grown The fourth?"
tired. "No, the greenish-blue one, the
"There it is," said RilRylRul. third."
The two other merged
triads "Very well."
their light-perceptions and observed In due time the ship —
a bubble
it. "Out at the edge," said Kad- of binding energy and collapsed,
KedKud, in satisfaction. "It should rarefied gas molecules — entered the
RULE OF THREE 75
atmosphere. It reshaped itself grad- of the neck. Contact was made and'
ually into a round-nosed, tapered broken almost in the same moment
transparency and dropped sharply, of time, and Mak hurtled back in
heading due west over the planet's horror to the skin of their ship.
equator. "Get clear!" he ordered.
"Busy little things, aren't they?" In three microseconds the invisi-
As the world turned under them, ble ship was in the upper atmos-
they watched. They saw the ships, phere, with Mak still clinging to
the cities. In the microscopic, in- the outer skin.
tangible fluxes of force which were "What was it?"
nerve and sinew and psyche to their "Pa'ak, the most vicious, most
triple structure, they stored their contagious energy-virus known.
observations. They recorded the That creature is crawling with
temperature of steel converters and them! Never have" I seen such an
ships' power plants, calculated the infestation! Examine me. Irradiate
strength of materials of buildings me. Be careful, now be sure." —
and bridges by their flexure in a It was strong medicine, but ef-
simply computed wind velocity, fective. Mak weakly permeated

judged and compared the flow- through the ship's wall and came
shapes of air and ground vehicles. inside. "Disgusting. Utterly demor-
"We could return right now," alizing. How can the creature live
said Kad. "Any race which has in that condition?"
progressed this far in such a brief "Worse than Murktur III?"
time must be a healthy one. Other- "Infinitely worse. On Murktur I
wise how could
— never saw a concentration higher
"Look!" Ril flashed. than and that was enough to
14,
reduce natives to permanent
the
THEY watched, appalled. "They bickering. These bipeds can appar-

are killing one another!" ently stand a concentration of over
"It must be a ritual," said Kad, 120 on the same scale. Incredible."
"or perhaps a hunt. But we'd better "Perhaps that individual is quar-
investigate closer." antined."
They dropped down, swiftly "I doubt it. It was flying its own
overtook a low-flying open-cockpit machine; can apparently land at
it
biplane with a black cross on the will anywhere. But we will check
fuselage, and settled on the cowl- further. Mak, you were quite right,"
ing behind the pilot's head. Mak said Ril. "Don't underestimate the
interpenetrated the ship's wall and, job, indeed. Why, with an infesta-
treading and passing the air mole- tion like that, and a drive like that
cules which fled past, reached the . .what couldn't they accomplish
.
pilot's leather helmet at the nape if they were clean?"

They swooped close to the land, "Hungry," Kad supplemented.
barely touched the hair of a child "Especially for our kind. Shall
on a hilltop, and soared again, we begin?"
shaken and frightened. The ship disappeared, bursting
"From what we've seen, that one like a bubble. The three dropped,
was no more than 15% of maxi- sharing a wordless thought that was
mum size. How do you read the like a handclasp. Then each of
Pa'ak concentration?" them separated into three, and the
"Over 70. This place is a pest- nine particles drifted down through
hole. These creatures must be the atmosphere.
stopped —
and soon. You know how * * *
soon such a technology reaches for
The news is apples for the un-
the stars."
employed . . . disarmament . . .
"Shall we send for reinforce-

the Model A Ford.
ments?"
"Before investigating? Certainly
not.
of us."
"We
And
shall
after
have
all, there are three
to protect our-
A YOUNG ach under a
on her stom-
girl lay
reading. She
yawned widely, choked a little,
tree,
selves," Ril pointed out. swallowed, and went back to her

"You mean — dissociate? Divide book.
our triple selves?" Two friends shook hands. Later,
"You know that's the only way one absentmindedly palmed the
we can remain undetected by the back of his neck. Something was
Pa'ak. Of course, once we know rubbed into his skin. The other
exactly how they have developed young man scratched his wrist as
here,and have analyzed the psychic he walked away.
components of the natives, we can Something was in the drinking
re-synthesize." water, though neither the nurse, as
"I hate the thought of dividing she filled the glass, nor the little
myself. So weak, so impotent . .

." girl, as she drank, knew of it.
"So safe. Don't forget that. Once Some dust settled on a tooth-
we've encased ourselves in the brush.
minds of these creatures and an- A small boy sank his teeth into
alyzed them, we'll have to join our- his bread-and-jam. The rich, red
selves again to fight the Pa'ak." preserve drooled to the table. The
"Yes, indeed. And we'll be to- boy put his finger in it, thrust the
gether again soon. Take care," finger into his mouth.
added Mak, the cautious one. "The Another youngster ran through
Pa'ak are mindless, but exceedingly the dewy morning grass in his bare
dangerous." feet.
RULE OF THREE 77
Somewhere, two dust motes were smiled. He knew, as a matter of
waiting their turn. fact, that she had a small brown
And a number of years went by. mole on the inside of her left thigh.
* * *
Irving was still singing. Of
course it had to be "Black Is the
The news is Korea and Tibet
Color of my True Love's Hair."
. . . protein synthesis . . . Aureo-
Priscilla pressed Jon's hand, gently.
mycin leaf and grain hormone
. . .
He leaned toward her.

poisons . . . the McCarran Act.
She whispered, "Who's the
* * * charmer? Someone you know?"
There was a character at the party He hesitated. Then he nodded
named and Jonathan Prince,
Irving, and said, without smiling, "My ex-
Consulting Psychologist, didn't like wife."
him. This Irving played guitar and Priscilla let his hand go.
sang folksongs in a resonant bari-
tone, which was fine; but after that JONATHAN waited until Irving
he would put a lampshade on his finished his song and, in the
head and be the "March of the applause, rose. " 'Scuse . .
." he
Wooden Soldiers" or some such, muttered. Priscilla didn't seem to
and that was as funny, after the be listening.
fourth viewing, as a rubber crutch. He crossed the room and stood
So Jonathan let his eyes wander. in front of the dark girl until she
When his gaze came to the dark looked up at him. He saw the
girl sitting by the door, his breath little crinkle by her eyes before he
hissed in suddenly. saw the smile.
was sitting next to him.
Priscilla "Edie."
She said "Ouch," and he realized "Jon! How are you?" Then she
he had squeezed her hand pain- said, in unison with him, "Can't
fully. complain." And she laughed at him.
"What's the matter, Jon?" He flushed, but it was not anger.
"I just —nothing, Pris." He knew He sat on the ottoman by her feet.
it was tactless, because he knew the "How've you been, Edie? You
sharpness of Priscilla's tilted eyes, haven't changed."
but he couldn't help it; he stared nodded serious-
"I haven't," she
back at the dark girl. ly. There was an echo in his mind.
The was blue-black
girl's hair "We'll always be friends, Jon.
and metal, yet he
gleamed like Nothing can change that." Was
knew how soft it would be. Her that what she meant? She said,
eyes were brown, wide apart, deep. "Still trying to find out how the
He knew how they would crinkle human mind works?"
on the outside ends when she "Yes, on the occasions when I

find one that does. Are you in town Communication was dim and la-
for long?" bored.
"I've come back. They closed the "We're trapped . .
."
Great Falls office. Jon ..." "Don't give up. Ked is very close
"Yes?" to me now."
"Jon, who's the redhead?" "Yes, you and Ked can achieve
"Priscilla. Priscilla Berg. My as- proximity. But these creatures won't
sistant." combine emotionally in threes!"
"She's lovely, Jon. Really lovely. —
"They can they must!"
Is she . . . are you . .
." "Do not force them. Remain en-
At last he could smile. "You can and work carefully. Did you
cysted
ask, Edie," he said gently. "Here, know the Pa'ak got Mak?"
I'll ask .you first. Are you mar- "No! How horrible! What about
ried?" Myk and Mok, then?"
"No." "They will be guardians, watch-
"I didn't think so. I don't know ers, communicators. What else can
why, but I didn't think so. Neither they do?"
am I." "Nothing . . . nothing. How ter-
He looked down hands beat his rible to be one-third dead! What
cause he knew she was smiling, and happened to Mak?"
somehow he didn't want to look "The creature Mak occupied
into her eyes and smile too. "I'll killed itself, walked in front of a
get us a drink." speeding vehicle as Mak tried to
She waited until he was on his synthesize. Mak could not get clear
feet and a pace away before she in time from the dead thing."
said what she used to say: "Come "We must hurry or these beasts
back quickly." will leap off into space before we
Someone jostled him at the bar. join our strength again."
"What's up, Doc?" said Irving,
and nickered. "Hey, that assistant
of yours, she drinks scotch, doesn't THE club
hours
wouldn't be open for
but Derek knew
she?" yet,
"Rye on the rocks," he said ab- which of the long row of herculite
sently, and then realized that the doors would be unlocked. He shoul-
scotch suggestion was Irving's shot dered it open and sidled in, being
in the dark, and that he'd given careful not to let it swing shut on
the idiot an opening gambit with his bass viol.
Priscilla. He was mildly annoyed Someone was playing the piano
as he ordered two Irish-and-waters out back. Piano . . . hadn't Janie
and went back to Edie. been knocking herself out looking
for a piano man before he went
RULE OF THREE 79
away? He mumbled, "Hope Right hand
she
—and then Jane was on, over,
"
about
sad
it.
little
is crazy.
character, Derek. Gets the
Real
and all around him. by-himself blues and plays boogie

"Derek, you tall, short under- about it. Worse he feels, the better
done yuk, you!" she crooned. She he plays. Sing with him? Man! All
hugged him, and put a scarlet print his chords are vocal cords for little
of her full mouth on his cheek. Janie. He's back there now. Listen
"Why didn't you wire? God, man, at him!"
I missed you. Here, put down that
Steinway and smooch me once. Am DEREK listened. The piano back
I glad to see your ugly head . . . was talking to itself
there
Look man," she demanded
at the about something rich and beautiful
of. theempty club as he leaned the and lost. "That just one man?" he
big bass against the wall and strok- asked after a moment.
ed its rounded flank with the tips "Come on back and meet him,"
of his fingers. "Hey, this is me she said. "Oh, Derek, he's a sweet-
over here." heart."
"How are you, Janie?" He de- "Sweetheart?"
livered a hug. "What's been giving She thumped his chest and
around here?" chuckled. "Wait till you see him.
"Me," she said. "Giving, but You don't need to lie awake nights
out. Ma-an ... a hassel. For ten over him. Come on."
days I had a sore throat clear from He was a man with a hawk face
neck to tonsil, carrying that piano and peaceful eyes. He huddled on
man. Damn it, I got a way I sing, the bench watching what his hands
and a piano's got to walk around did on the keyboard as if he hadn't
me when I do it. Chopsticks this seen them before but didn't much
square makes eggs ack ly on — — — care. His hands were extraordinar-
the— beat," she stressed flatly. "And ily eloquent. He didn't look up.
then a bass player I had, a dog- Derek said, "I'm going to go get
house complete with dog, and tone- my fiddle."
deaf to boot. I booted him. I work- He did, and picked up the beat
ed the last three nights without a so quietly that the pianist didn't
bass, and am I glad you're back!" hear him for three bars. Then he
"Me too." He touched her hair. looked up and smiled shyly at
"We'll get you a piano player and Derek and went on playing. It was
everything'll riff like Miff." very, very good. They volleyed an
"A piano I got," she said, and intro back and forth for a while
her voice was awed. "Little cat I arid Derek fully real-
then, before
heard in a joint after hours. Gives ized what they were playing, Janie
his left hand a push and forgets was singing "Thunder and Roses":

"When you gave me your heart "No joke. Just no."
You gave me the world . .
." Jane breathed, "Derek, what are
you on? Goof balls?"
And, was a chord
after, there Derek threw up his hands. "No.
with a tremendous emphasis on an It's a good word. Ain't 'no' better
added sixth, and then it was aug- than a whole lot of yak? No, that's
—
mented a hungry, hungry leading all."
—
tone, which led, with a shocked "Derek
sort of satisfaction, into silence. "Mr. Jax," said Derek.
Derek put by his bass, carefully, "Mr. Jax, please think it over,"
so wouldn't make any sound.
it Henry said. "I've been wanting to
Jane said, in a mouselike voice, work with you ever since you re-
"I can breathe now?" corded 'Slide Down.' You know
The He was not
pianist got up. how long ago that was. I don't just
tall. He "You're Derek Jax.
said, want to play piano someplace. I
Thanks for letting me play along want to play here —
with you. I
with you. I always wanted to." don't care about the pay. Just let
"Thanks, he says." Derek ges- me back up that bass."
tured. "You play a whole mess of "He never talked like that to
piano. What's your name?" me," said Jane with a small smile.
"Henry. Henry Faulkner." "You've made yourself a conquest,
"I never heard of you." puddinhead. Now
—
"He was head of the Orchestra- "I don't want to hear that kind
tion Department at the Institute for of talk," exploded Derek. "I don't
twelve years," said Jane. want to hear any kind of talk. I
"Hey? That's all right," said said no!"
Derek. "Symphony stuff. What'd Jane came to him. She squeezed
you leave for?" Henry's forearm and gave him a
"Squares," said Henry. To long look. "Walk around some,"
Derek, it was a complete explana- she said kindly. "Come back and
tion. "I'd like to work here." see me later."
Jane closed her eyes and clasped Derek stood looking at the piano.
her hands. "Yummy." Jane watched Henry go. He walked
Derek said, from a granite face, slowly, holding himself in, his head
"No." forward. At the other side of the
dance floor he turned and opened
JANE stood frozen. Henry came his mouth to speak, but Jane
outfrom behind the piano. waved him on. He went out.
He —
walked he all but trotted up Jane whirled on Derek. "Now
—
to Derek. "No? Oh, please! A what the God
joke?" Derek interrupted her, rasping,
RULE OF THREE 81
"If you got any more to say about
this, you can look for a new bass
man too."
Pallas Mccormick was

fifty-three years old and knew
what she was about. She strode
briskly down Eleventh Street, a
swift, narrow figure with pointed
shoulders and sharp wattles at the
turn of her thin jaw. It was late
and the tea room would be closed
before long.
Verna was there before her, her
bright white hair and bright blue
eyes standing out like beacons in
the softly lit room.
"Good evening, Pallas." Verna's
voice was soft and pillowy, like her
pudgy face and figure.
"Evening," said Pallas. Without
preliminaries she demanded, "How
are yours?"
Verna sighed. "Not so well.
Two are willing, one isn't. The
little fool."
"They're all fools," said Pallas.
"Two billion stupid fools. Never
heard of such a place."
"They want to do everything by
twos," said Verna. "They're all
afraid they'll lose something if they
don't pair off, pair off. They've
been schooled and pushed and or-
dered and taught that that's the way
it must be, so " she sighed
—
again — "that's the way it is."
"We haven't much more time.
wish we hadn't lost " There fol-
— I
lowed a dim attempt to project

"Mak," a mental designation for

RULE OF THREE 83
which there was no audible equiva- parts and Kad's three parts can
lent. never become one again. To allow
"Oh, dear, stop saying that! them that emotional freedom is to
You're always saying that. Our first allow the Pa'ak virus which infests
third is gone, all eaten up, and them to remain active, since they
that's the way it is." tend to be attracted to one another
for neurotic reasons. At least we
E
E'RE much
"W
to be.
two,"
t ically,
Are you all

said Pallas caus-
"and we don't want
right?"
don't have that
was so
else left in
little
these
trouble.
neurosis or anything
minds when we
There
"Thoroughly encysted, thank took them over that they were poor
you. Pa'ak can't get to me. I'm so feeding grounds for Pa'ak. And
well encased can barely get that's the
—
through to control
I
— " she lift- "Verna, can you spare me that
ed her arms and them
this
dropped everlasting
—
heavily on the table "this bag of
— "
— way
the it is," finished Verna
bones. And I can't telepath. I wish inexorably. "I'm sorry, Pallas,
I could communicate with you and truly. There's a horrid little push-
the others directly, instead of button in this mind that plays that
through this primitive creature and phrase off every once in a while no
its endless idioms. I've even got to matter what I do. I'm rebuilding
use that clumsy terrestrial name of the mind as fast as I can; I'll get to
yours — there's no vocalization for it soon. I hope."
our real ones." Again there was an "Verna . .
." said Pallas with an
effort to identify the speaker as air of revelation. "We can speed
"Myk" and the other as "Mok," this thing up. I'm sure we can.
which failed. Look. These fools won't group in
"I wish I could get through to threes. And Ril and Kad can't com-
the others. Goodness! A weak sig- plete themselves unless their three
nal once in a while — mere 'come
a hosts are emotionally ready for it.
close' or 'go away' — and in be- Now She leaned forward

then."
tween, nothing, for weeks on end." over her teacup. "There's no im-
"Oh, but they've got to stay portant difference between two
closed up so tight! You know how groups of three and three groups
the Pa'ak infection works — increas- of two."
ing the neurotic potential so that "You really think . . . why,
the virus can feed on the released Pallas, that's a marvelous idea.
nervous energy. There two You're so Now,
groups of three people
are
who must first
clever,
thing we'll have to
dear!
— the
come together by their own free They both froze in an attitude

emotional merging, or Ril's three of listening.

"My word," said Verna. "That's to how many millions of people
a bad one." who need their help? There's a
"I'll go," said Pallas. "That's one crying need for some kind of
of the creatures I'm guarding. Ril is simple, standardized therapy, and
in it." people refuse to behave either simp-
"Shall I come too?" ly oraccording to standards. Some-
"You stay here. I'll take a taxi where, somehow, there's a new
and keep in touch with you. When direction in therapy. So-called
I'm far enough away I'll triangu- orthodox procedures as they now
late. Keep watch for that signal exist don't show enough promise.
again. Goodness! What an urgent They take too long. If by some
one!" miracle of state support and stream-
She trotted out. Verna looked lined education you could create
across at Pallas' untouched teacup. therapists for everyone who needed
"She left me with the check." A them, you'd have what amounted to
sigh. "Well, that's the way it is." a nation a world of full-time
or
Someone's got to bake
therapists.
bread and drive buses, you know."
The news is the artificial satellite "What about these new thera-
program and flying discs . . . three- pies I've been reading about?" Edie
stage rockets and guilt by associa- wanted to know.
tion. "Oh, they're a healthy sign to a
certain extent; they indicate we
know how sick we are. The most
JONATHAN PRINCE was
DR.saying, encouraging thing about them is
"The world's never There are tools and
their diversity.
been in such a state. Industrializa- schools and phoneys and fads.
tion is something you can graph, There's psychoanalysis, where the
and you find a geometric increase. patient talks about his troubles to
You graph the incidence of
can the therapist, and narcosynthesis,
psychoneuroses the same way and where the patient's troubles talk to
find almost the same curve, but it's the therapist, and hypnotherapy,
a much larger one. I tell you, Edie, where the therapist talks to the
it's as something were cultivat-
if patient's troubles.
ing our little traumas and anxieties "There's insulin to jolt a man
like plowed fields to increase their out of his traumas and electric
yield, and then feeding off them." shock to subconsciously frighten
"But so much is being done, him out of them, and CO, to choke
Jon !" his ex-wife protested. the traumas to death. And there's
Jon waved his empty glass. the pre-frontal lobotomy, the trans-
"There are 39,000 psychotherapists orbital leukotomy, and the topec-
RULE OF THREE 85
tomy to cut the cables between a right direction, we'd see what's do-
patient's expression of his aberra- ing it to us, plain as day. Here we
tions and its power supply, with the sit with our psychological bottle of
bland idea that the generator will arnica and our therapeutic cold
go away if you can't see it any more. compresses, trying to cure up an
And there's Reichianism which, attack of lumps on the headbone.
roughly speaking, identifies Aunt And if we could only turn and
Susan, who slapped you, with an look in the right place, there would
aching kneecap which, when cured, be an invisible maniac with a stick,
cures you of Aunt Susan too. beating us over the head, whom
"And there's —but why go on ? we'd never detected before."
The point is that the mushrooming "You sound depressed."
schools of therapy show that we "Oh, I'm not, really," he said.
know we're sick; that we're anxious He stood up and "But I
stretched.
—but not yet anxious enough, en almost wish I'd get away from that
—
masse to do something about it, recurrent thought of looking in a
and that we're willing to attack the new direction; of correlating neu-
problem on all salients and sec- rosis with a virus disorder. Find the
tors." virus and cure the disease. It's
"What kind of work have you panacea; wishful thinking. I'm

been doing recently?" Edie asked. probably getting lazy."
"Electro-encephalographics, most- "Not you, Jon." His ex-wife
ly.The size and shape of brain- smiled at him. "Perhaps you have
wave graphs will show a great deal the answer, subconsciously, but
once we get enough of them. And what you've learned won't let it
—did you know there's a measur- come out."

able change in volume of the finger-
tips that follows brain-wave inci- "T TERY astute. What made you
dence very closely in disturbed V say that?"
cases? Fascinating stuff. But some- "It's a thing you used to say all
times I feel it's the merest dull the time."

nudging at the real problems in- He laughed and helped her up.
volved. Sometimes I feel like a "Edie, .do you have to get up early
hard-working contour cartographer tomorrow?"
trying to record the height and "I'm unemployed. Didn't I tell
grade of ocean waves. Every time you?"
you duplicate an observation to "I didn't ask," he said ruefully.
check it, there's a valley where there "My God, I talk a lot. Would you
was a mountain a second ago. like to see my new lab?"
"And sometimes I feel that if "I'd love to! Oh, I'd love it.
we could just turn and look in the Will it be— all right?"

"All right? Of course it — oh. I more time do you think we have
see what you mean. Priscilla. Where before they start to spread the virus
is she, anyway?" through this whole sector of the
"She went out. I thought you cosmos? They are improving rock-
noticed. With that man who plays ets, aren't they? We should have
the guitar. Irving." She nodded to- sent for reinforcements. But then
ward the discarded instrument. — how could we know we'd be
"I hadn't noticed," he said. Over trapped like this in separate enti-
his features slipped the poker ex- ties which refuse to merge?"
pression of the consulting psychol- "We couldn't," Ril answered.
ogist. "Who did you come with?" "We still have so much to learn
"The same one. Irving. Jon, I about these creatures. Sending for
hope Priscilla can take care of her- reinforcements would solve noth-
self." ing."
"Let's go," he said. "And we have so little time," Rul
mourned. "Once they leave Earth,
the Pa'ak pestilence will no longer
and with exasperation,
Faintly, be isolated."
Ril's thought came stumblingly Ril responded: "Unless they are
through to Ryl and Rul: cured of the disease before they
"How can a thinking being be leave."
so stupid? Have you ever heard a "Or prevented from leaving,"
more accurate description of the Ryl pointed out. "An atomic war
Pa'ak virus than that? 'Cultivating would lower the level of culture. If
our little traumas and anxieties like there is no choice, we could force
plowed fields to increase their yield, —
them to fight we have the power
and then feeding off them.' And —and thus reduce their technology
'a new direction.' Why haven't to the point where space flight
these people at least extrapolated would be impossible."
the idea of energy life ? They know It was a frightening idea. They
that matter and energy are the same. broke contact in trembling silence.
An energy virus is such a logical
thing for them to think of!"
And Rul's response: "They can THEY had had a drink, and then
no more isolate their experiments coffee, and now Irving was
from their neuroses than they can leading her homeward. She hadn't
isolate their measuring instruments wanted to go through the park, but
from gravity. Have patience. When it was late and he assured her that
we are able to unite again, we will it was much shorter this way.
have the strength to inform them." "There are plenty of places through
Ril sent: "Patience? How much here where you can cut corners." It
RULE OF THREE 87
was easier not to argue. Irving ly lit by a street-lamp at the cross-
commanded a flood of language at ing of the walks, and the light
low pitch and high intensity that followed the path in a straight
she could do without just now. She band through the undergrowth. It
was tired and bored and extremely seemed so safe and then Irving
. . .
angry. turned off to still another path. She

It was bad enough that Jon had turned with him, unthinking, and
deserted her for that bit of flotsam blinked her eyes against a sudden,
from his past. It was worse that she oppressive darkness.
should have walked right past him was a small cul de sac, com-
It
with her hat on without his even pletelysurrounded by heavy under-

looking up. What was worst of all growth. As her eyes became accus-
was that she had let herself be so tomed to the dim light that filtered
angry. She had no claims on Jona- through the trees, she saw benches
than Prince. They were more than and two picnic tables. A wonderful,
friends, certainly, but not any more secluded, restful little spot, she
than that. thought — for a picnic.
"Who's the girl you came to the "How do you like this?" whis-
party with, Irving?" she asked. pered Irving hoarsely. He sounded
"Oh, her. Someone trying to get as if he had been running.
a job at the plant. She's a real "I don't," she said immediately.
bright girl. Electronics engineer "It's late, Irving. This isn't getting
can you imagine?" either of us anywhere."
"And—" "Oh, I don't know," he said. He
put his arms around her. She
GLANCED
HE"And down at her. leaned away from him with her
what? I found out she head averted, swung her handbag
was a cold fish, that's all." back and up at his face. He caught
Oh, she thought. So you ditched her wrist deftly and turned it be-
her because you thought she was a hind her.
cold fish, and scooped me up. And "Don't," she gasped. "Don't •."
. .
what does that make me? Aloud "You've made your little protest
she said, "These paths wind like a real lady, honey, so it's on
around the park so. Are you sure the record. Now save us some time
it's going to take us out on the and trouble. Let's get to it."
downtown side?" She kicked him. He gasped but
"I know everything about these stood solidly. There was a sharp
woods." He peered. "This way." click behind her. "Hear that?" he
They turned off the blacktop said. "That's my switch-blade.
walk and took a graveled path away Push a button and zip! —seven
to the right. The path was brilliant- inches of nice sharp steel. Now

don't you move or make a sound, There was someone else standing
sweetheart, and this'll be fun for there .someone in black. Some-
. .
both of us." one who looked like a high-school

Locking her against him with his teacher Priscilla had once had. Gray
left arm, he reached slowly up un- hair, thin, wattled face.
der the hem of her short jacket. Moving without haste but with
She felt the knife against her back. great purpose, the spinsterish ap-
It slipped coldly between her skin parition stooped, raised her skirts
and the back of her low-cut dress. daintily and kicked Irving accurate-
"Don't you move," he said again. ly in the groin. He emitted a croak-
The knife turned, sawed a little, ing sound and dropped to a crouch,
and the back strap of her brassiere and began a small series of agon-
parted. The knife was removed; she ized grunts. The old lady stepped
heard it click again. He dropped it forward as if she were dancing a
into his jacket pocket. minuet, put out one sensible shoe
"Now," he breathed, "doesn't and shoved. Irving went down on
that feel better, lamb-pie?" his knees and elbows, his head
hanging.
SHE filled her lungs to scream, "Get out," said the old lady crisp-
and instantly his hard hand ly. "Now." She clapped her hands
was clamped over her mouth. It once. The sound stiffened Irving.
was a big hand, and the palm was With a long, breathy groan he stag-
artfully placed so that she couldn't gered to his feet, turned stupidly
get her mouth open wide enough to get his bearings and hobbled
to use her teeth on it. rapidly away.
"Let's not wrestle," he said, his "Come on, dear." The woman
voice really gentle, pleading. "It got her hands under Priscilla's arm-
just doesn't make sense. I'd as soon pits and helped her up. She half-
kill —
you as not you know that." carried the girl over to one of the
picnic tables and seated her on the
She stood trembling violently,
her eyes rolled up almost out of bench. With an arm around Pris-
sight. Her mouth sagged open when cilla's shoulders, she held her up-
he kissed it. Then he screamed. right while she put a large black
His arms whipped away from handbag on the table. Out of it she
her and she fell. She lay looking rummaged a voluminous handker-
dully up at him. He stood straight chief which she thrust into Pri-
in the dim light, stretched, his face scilla's hands. "Now, you sit there
up and twisted with pain. He had and cry a while."

both hands, apparently, on one of Priscilla said, still trembling, "I
his back pockets. He whirled around can't," and burst into tears.
and her eyes followed him. When it was over she blew her
RULE OF THREE 89
nose weakly. "I don't . . . know because you were afraid he'd get
what to say to you. I he would — together with her again."
have killed me." "I — I suppose so."
"No, he wouldn't. Not while I'm "Do you want to marry him?"
alive and carry a hatpin." "Why, I— I don't .... No, I
"Who are you?" wouldn't. It isn't that."

"A friend. If you'll believe that, The old lady nodded. "You
child, that's good enough for me think if he married her again or —
and it'll have to be good enough anyone else —
would make athat it
for you." big difference in the work you do

"I believe that," said Priscilla. together, in the way he treats you?"
She drew a long, shuddering breath. "I .don't suppose there would
. .
"How can I ever thank you?" be any big difference, no," Priscilla
"By paying attention to what I said thoughtfully. "I'd never
tell you. But you must tell me some thought it through."
things first. How did you ever get "And," continued the old lady
yourself mixed up with such an relentlessly,"have you thought
animal? You surely have better through any other possible course
sense than that." of action he could have taken to-
night? He was married to her for
"T}LEASE don't scold ... I was some time. He apparently hasn't
-L silly, that's all." seen her for years. It must have
"You were you mean.
in a tizzy, been a small shock to him to find
You were, weren't you?" her there. Now, what else might
"Well," sniffed Priscilla, "yes. he have done? 'Goodness gracious,
You see, I work with this doctor, there's my old used-up wife. Pris-
—
and he and I it isn't anything for- cilla, let's dance.' Is that what you
mal, you understand, but we work expected?"
so well together and laugh at the At last she giggled. "You're
same things, and it's nice. And wonderful. And you're right, you
then he
— . . .
are so absolutely right. I have been

"Go on." sil—Oh!"
"He was married once. Years "What is it?"
ago. And he saw her tonight. And "You called me Priscilla. How
he didn't look at me any more. I did you know my name? Who are
guess I'm foolish, but I got all up- you?"
set." "A friend. Come along, girl;
"Why?" you can't sit here all night." She

"I told you. He
wanted to
just drew the startled girl to her feet.
talk to her. He forgot I was alive." "Here, let me look at you. Your
"That isn't why. You were upset lipstick's smeared. Over here.

That's better. Can you button that "You'll do," she said.
jacket? I think perhaps you should.
Not that it should matter if your HENRY FAULKNER sat in a
bust does show, the way you brazen booth, from the belly-
far
things dress nowadays. There now, thumping juke box and the knot of
come along." people chattering away at the head-
She hurried Priscilla through the end of the bar. Henry's elbows were
park, and when they reached the on the table and his thumbs, fitted
street, turned north. Priscilla carefully into the bony arches over
tugged at the black sleeve. "Please his eyelids, supported the weight
— wait. I live that way." She of his head. The cafe went round
pointed. and round like a Czerny etude, but
"I know, I know. But you're not with a horizontal axis. The walls
going home just yet. Come along, moved upward in front of him and
child!" down behind him, and he felt very
"Where are you —we—going?" ill. Once he had forced down three
"You'll listen to me.

see. Now beers, and that was his established
Do you trust me?" capacity; it had bloated him hor-
!"
"Oh, my goodness, yes ribly and he'd had a backache in
"Very well. When we get where the morning. Tonight he'd had four
we're going, you'll go inside alone. double ryes.
Don't worry now, it's perfectly safe. "There he shtood," he said to
Once you're inside you'll do someone of the blonde giris who sat
thing very stupid indeed." opposite, "nex' to the conductor,
"I will?" watching the orch'stra, an' some-
"You will. You'll turn around times he'd beat time wiz arms.
and try to leave. Now, then, I want When the last movement ended, th'
you to understand that you must audience rozhe up as one man an'
not leave. be standing out- roared. An' there he shtood, nex'
side to see that
I shall
you don't." to the conductor
—
"But I—<But why? What am I "You said that before," said the
supposed where ..."
. . . girls. They spoke in unison, and
"Hush, child You do as you're ! the pair of them had only one
told and you'll be all right." doubled leading tone
voice, like the
Priscilla walked along in silence in a major chord.
for a time. Then she said, "All "There he shtood," Henry went
right." The old lady turned to look on, "shtill beating time after the
into the softest-smiling,most trust- music stopped. An' the conductor,
ing face she had ever seen. She put wi' eyes in his tears — wi' tears in
her arm around Priscilla's shoul- his eyes —turned him around so he
ders and squeezed. could shee the applause."
RULE OF THREE 91
"What was the matter with ly. "Get to the point and let's get
him?" asked the girls. out of here."
"He was deaf." "With a string bass. A bull, as
"Who was?" it were, fiddle." He nodded sol-
"Beethoven." Henry wept. emnly.

"My God. Is that what you're "Ah, fer Pete's sake," she said
tying one on about?" scornfully.She stood up. "Look,
"You said to tell you the sad mister, I can't waste the whole
story," said Henry. "You didn't say night. Are you comin' or ain't
tell you my sad story." you ?"
"Okay, okay. You got money,
ain't you?" HENRY scowled up at her. He
Henry lifted his head and reared hadn't asked for her com-
back to get perspective. It was then pany. She'd just appeared there in
that the girl merged and became the booth.She had niggled and
one; he realized that there had been nagged he was about to tell
until
one all along, in spite of what he her all the things he had come here
had seen. That explained why they to forget. And now she wanted to
both had the same voice. He was walk out. Suddenly he was furious.
extravagantly pleased. "Sure I got He, who had never raised his hand
money." or his voice in his whole life, was
"Well, come on up to my place. suddenly so angry that he was, for
I'm tired uh sittin' around here." a moment, blind. He growled like
"Very gracious," he intoned. "I the open D
on a bass clarinet and
shall now tell you the sad story of leaped at her. His clawed hand
my laysted wife." swept past her fluffy collar and got
"What type wife?" caught, tore the collar a little, high
"I beg your pardon? I've never on the shoulder.
been married." She squealed in routine fear. The
The girl looked perplexed. bartender hopped up sitting on the
"Start over again." bar and swung his thick legs over.
"Da capo," he said with his fin- "What the hell's going on back
ger beside his nose. "Very well. I there?" he demanded, pushing
repeat. I shall now tell you the himself off onto the floor.
story of my wasted life." The blonde said, shrilly and in-
"Oh," said the girl. dignantly, exactly what she thought
"I have had the ultimate in re- Henry was trying to do.
jections," said Henry solemnly. "I "Right there in the booth?" said
a bourbon up the row.
—
fell in love,
dee
deeply, deeply, deeply,
"That I got to see," replied a
"Who with?" said the girl tired- beer.

They started back, followed by kindly. "This character's got it
the rest of the customers. comin' to him."

The bartender reached into the "You'll let him go this instant!"
booth and lifted Henry bodily out said the lady, and stamped a small
of it. Henry, sick and in a state of foot. "And that's the way it is."
extreme panic, wriggled free and "Al," said the heavy man to the
ran —two steps. The side of his bartender, "just lead this lady off
head met the bridge of the bour- to one side while I paste this bast-
bon's nose. Henry was aware of a ard."
dull crunch. There were exploding "Don't you put a hand on me."
lights and he went down, rolled, "Watch your language, Sylvan,"
got to his feet again. said the bartender to the heavy
The was screaming in a
girl man. He put a hand on the lady's
scratchy monotone somewhere shoulder. "Come over her a sec
around high E flat. The bourbon uh!"
was sitting on the floor with blood
spouting from his nose.
THE final syllable was his stac-
"Get 'im!" somebody barked. cato response to the old lady's

Powerful hands caught Henry's elbow in the pit of his stomach.
thin biceps. A heavy man stood in That, however, was not the end of
front of him, gigantic yellow mal- her — literally — chain reaction. She
lets of fists raised. swung her crocus reticule around in
"Hold him tight," said the heavy a full-armed arc and brought it
man. "I'm gonna let him have it." down on the heavy man's head. He
And then a sort of puffball with sank to the floor without a whim-
was between Henry
bright blue eyes per. In the same movement she put
and the heavy man. In a soft, her other hand swiftly but firmly
severe voice it said, "Leave him against Henry's jaw and pushed it
alone, you —
you bullies! You let violently. His head tipped back and
that man go, this very minute!" smashed into the face of the man
Henry shook his head. He re- who stood behind him holding his
gretted the movement, but among arms. The man staggered back-
the other things it made him ex- ward, tripped, and fell, bouncing
perience was clearing sight. He his skull off an unpadded bar stool.
looked at the puffball, which be- "Come along, Henry," said the
came a sweet-faced lady in her old lady cheerfully. She took him
fifties. She had gentleness about by the wrist as if he were a small
her mouth and sheer determination boy whose face needed washing,
in her crackling blue eyes. and marched him out of the cafe.
"You better stay out of this, On the street he gasped, "They'll
Granny," said the bartender not un- chase us . .
."
RULE OF THREE 93
"Naturally," said the lady. She
put two fingers into her mouth and
blew a piercing blast. A block and
a half away, aparked taxicab slid
away from the curb and came to-
ward them. There was shouting
from the cafe. The taxicab pulled
up beside them. The lady whipped
the door open and pushed Henry
in. As four angry men shouldered
out on the sidewalk, she reached
deep into her reticule and snatched
a dark object from it. She stood
poised for a moment, and in the
neon-shot half-light Henry saw
what was in her hand — an old-
fashioned, top-of-stove flat iron.
He understood then why the heavy
man had drowsed off so readily.
The lady hefted the iron and let
it fly. It grazed the temple of one
of the men and flew straight
through a plate glass window. The
man who was hit went to his knees,
his hands holding his head. The
other three over each other
fell all
trying to getback out of range.
The lady skipped into the cab and
said calmly, "Young man, take us
away from here."
"Yes, ma'am!" said the driver in
an awed tone, and let in his clutch.
They jounced along in silence
for a moment, and then she leaned
forward. "Driver, pull up by one
of these warehouses. Henry's going
to be sick."
"I'm all right," said Henry
weakly. The cab stopped. The lady
opened the door. "Come along!"
"No, really, I—"

The lady snapped her fingers.
"Oh, all right," said Henry
sheepishly. In the black shadows by
the warehouse he protested faintly,
"But I don't want to 'be sick!"
"I know what's best," she said
solicitously. She took his hand,
spread and presented him with
it,
his long middle finger, point first,

as if it were a' clinical thermometer.
"Down your throat," she ordered.
"No!" he said loudly.
"Are you going to do as you're
told?"
He looked at her. "Yes."
"I'll hold your head," she said.
"Go on."
She held his head.
Afterward, in the cab, he asked
her timidly if she would take him
home now.
"No," she said. "You play the
piano, don't you, Henry?"
He nodded.
"Well, you're going to play for
me." She reached forcefully into
her reticule again, and his protest
died on his trembling lips. "Here,"
she said, and handed him an old-
fashioned mint.
PRISCILLA mounted the stairs.
She had a "walking-under-

water" feeling, as if she were
immersed in her own reluctance.
She had trod these stairs many
times at night — usually downward
after a perplexing, intriguing series
of experiments. She did not know
why she should be returning to the
laboratory now, except that she had
RULE OP THREE 95
been ordered to do so. She freely She would doubtless say, "I told
admitted that if it were not for the you you would want to leave, and
straight figure in black who that it would be foolish."
thin,
waited downstairs, she would cer- "But they were " said Priscilla
—
tainly be in bed by now. But there in audible protest.
was an air of command, of com- Then came the thought of trust-
plete certainty about the old lady fulness: "Listen to me. Do you
who had saved her that was utterly trust me?"
compelling.
She walked quietly down the car- PRISCILLA took her hand away
peted hall. The outer door of the from the knob. She thought
lab office was ajar. There was no she heard the murmur of low
light in the office, but a dim rad- voices upstairs.
iance filtered in from the lab itself, She remembered the talk about
through the frosted panel of the Jon and his meeting with Edie at
inner door. She crossed to it and the party. She remembered herself
went in.
Someone gasped.
saying,
through."
"I — just didn't think it
Someone said, "Priscilla!" She turned and faced the stairs.
Priscilla said, "Excuse me!" and "I can't, I can't possibly go back.
spun around. She shot through the Not now. Even if even if it . . .
office and out into the hall, her didn't make any difference to me,
cheeks burning, her eyes stinging. they'd they'd hate me. It would
— he—
. . .
"He " she sobbed, but could be a terrible thing to do, to go

not complete the thought, would back."
not review the picture she had seen. She turned until the big brass
At the lower landing she raced knob nudged her hip. Its touch
to the street door, valiantly holding projected a vivid picture into her
back the tears and the sobs that mind — the old lady, straight and
would accompany them. Her hand waiting in the lamplight.
went out to the 'big brass doorknob, She sighed and started slowly up
touched it the stairs again.
As the cool metal greeted her When she got to the office this
hand she stopped. time the light was on. She pushed
Outside that door, standing on the door open. Jon was leaning
the walk by the iron railings, rad- against the desk, watching it open.
iating strengthand rectitude, would Edie, his ex-wife, stood by the lab-
be the old lady. She would watch oratory door, her wide-spaced eyes
come out of the building.
Priscilla softand bright. For a moment no
She would probably nod her head one moved. Then Edie went to Jon
in knowledgable disappointment. and stood beside him, and together

they watched with ques-
Priscilla you think I have." She raised her
tions on theirand something
faces, eyes to them. "I'll try to live up
like gentle sympathy. Or was it to it, though. I will .
." .
empathy? The phone

Priscilla came in slowly. She "Now who
rang.
could that
—" Jon
went up to Edie and stopped. She reached for it.
said, "You're just what he Priscilla took it out of his hand.

needed." "I'll take it."
The wide dark eyes filled with Edie and Jon looked at each
tears. Edie put her arms out and other. Priscilla said into the phone,
Priscilla was in them without quite "Yes . yes, it's me. How in the
. .
knowing which of them had moved. world did you Tonight? But. . .
When she could, Edie said, "You it's so late! Will you be there?
are so lovely, Priscilla. You're so Then so will I. Oh, you're wonder-
very lovely." And Priscilla knew ful .. yes, right away."
.
she was not talking about her red She hung up.
hair or her face. Jon said, "Who was it?"
Jon put a hand on each of their Priscilla laughed. "A friend."
shoulders. "I don't understand Jon touched her jaw. "All right,
what's happening here," he said, Miss Mysterious. What's it all
"but have the feeling that it's
I about?"
good. Priscilla, why did you come "Will you do something if I ask
here?" you? You, too, Edie?"
She looked at him and said noth- "Oh, yes."
ing. laughed again. "We do
Priscilla
"What made you come back?" have something to celebrate, don't
She shook her head. we?" When they nodded, she
"You know," he smiled, "but laughed again. "Well, come on!"
you're just not talking. You've
never done a wiser thing than to WAS easier to carry the chop-
ITsticks
come back. If you hadn't, Edie and piano-player with Derek
I would have been driven apart just to help, Jane concluded. She
as surely as if you'd used a wedge. watched the rapt faces in the club.
Am I right, Edie?" The house counted good, and it
Edie nodded. "You've made us was going great, but she couldn't
very happy." help thinking what it would be like
Priscilla felt embarrassed. "You if Derek hadn't been so pigheaded
are giving me an awful lot of about little Henry. She finished her
credit," she said in a choked voice. chorus and the piano took it up
"I didn't really do anything. I wish metronomically, nudged on the up-
I had the — the bigness or wisdom beats by the authoritative beat of
RULE OF THREE 97
Derek's bass. She looked at him. the business. I told you I don't
He was playing steadily, almost ab- want to talk about it. You don't
sently. His face was sullen. When believe that, do you?"
he gotabsentminded he wasn't "I believe it," she said. Her eyes
colossal any more; only terrific. glittered. "Derek Jax, I love you."
The piano moved through an ob- "Cut it out."
vious C-sharp seventh chord to "I'm not kidding. I'm not chang-
change key to F-sharp, her key for ing the subject, either. I love you
the windup. She drifted into the this much. I'm going to call your
bridge section with a long glis- hand, kid. I love you so much that
sando, and disgust moved into her I'm going to make you talk about
face and Derek's in perfect sychron- what's with this business of Henry,
ization as they realized that the or I'm going to see you walk out
pianist was blindly going into an- of here with, and into, your dog-
other 32 bars from the beginning. house."
Derek doubled his beat and "That don't make a hell of a lot
slapped the strings hard, and the of sense, Janie," he said uncom-
sudden flurry of sound snapped the fortably.
pianist out of it. Blushing, he re- "No, huh? Listen, the guy I love
covered the fluff. Jane rolled her talks to me. I understand him
eyes up in despair and finished the enough so he can talk to me. If he
number. To scattered applause she won't talk to me, it's because he
turned to the piano and said, thinks I won't understand. I think
"Tinkle some. Derek and I are go- you see what I mean. I love the guy
ing to take ten. And while you're I think you are. If you won't talk
tinkling," she added viciously, about it, you're just not that guy.
"practice, huh?" Maybe that doesn't mean anything
She smiled at the audience, to you."
crossed the stand and touched Der- "Could be," he growled. He
ek's elbow."I'm going behind that rose and stretched. "Well, guess
potted palm and flip my lid. Come I'll be going. Nice working with
catch it." you, Janie."
He put his bass out of harm's "So long," she said. She went
way and followed her into the and opened the door.
office. She let him pass her and "By God," he said, "you really
slump down on the desk. She mean it."
banged the door. She nodded.

"You—"
He looked
know what
at her sullenly.
you're going to say. I
"I
HE LICKED
them. He sat
his lips, then bit
down. "Shut the
threw out the best ten fingers in door, Janie."

She shut the door and put her seemed to know the instant I got
head against it. He flashed her a tangled. He couldn't swim worth
look. "What's the matter?" a damn, but in he came. Got me
She said hoarsely, "I got some- out, too."
thing in my eye. Wait." Presently He dragged on his cigarette, still
she swung around and faced him. hungry, hot and harsh. The words
Her smile was brilliant, her face came smoking. "There was a
out,
composed. The vein in the side of lot of stuff ... we played ball, we
her neck was thick and throbbing. run away from home, we broke
"Jane ." he said with diffi-
. . into an ol' house and pried loose a
culty, "that Henry —
did he ever toilet and threw it out a fourth-
make a pass at you?" floor window onto a concrete walk.

"Why, you egghead. No! To him We done a lot.
I'm something that makes music, "We jived a lot. He had natural
like a saxophone. It's you he's in- rhythm. We used to bang away on
terested in. Hell, did you see his his ol' lady's piano. I played
face when you came in with your trumpet for a while, but what I
bass this afternoon? He'd rather wanted to do was play string bass.
play to that bass than go over the I wanted that real bad.
falls in a barrel with me. If that's "We grew up and he moved
all that was on your mind, forget away. Some lousy job trying to
it" learn cabinet-making. Saw him a
"You make tough for me," he
it couple times. Half-starved, but real
said heavily. "I'll play it through happy. I was playing bass by then,
for you a note at a time. Got a some. Had to borrow a fiddle.
stick?" Wanted my own instrument so bad,
She rummaged in the desk never had the money. So one day
drawer and found him a cigarette. he called me up long distance.
He lit it and dragged until he Come over. I didn't have no train-
coughed. She had never seen him fare, so I hitchhiked. Met him at a
like this. She said nothing. barrelhouse joint in town. He was
He seemed to appreciate that. real excited, dragged me out to his
He glanced at her and half his place. A
When we
shack — practically a
mouth flashed part of a smile. Then shanty. got in sight of it
he said, "Did I ever tell you about he started to run. It was on fire."
Danny?"
"No." DEREK closed his eyes and
"Kids together. Kids get close. went on talking. "We got to
He lived down the pike. I got it and it was pretty far gone. I got
caught in a root one time, swim- there first. One wall was gone. In-
ming in a rock quarry. Danny side everything was burning.
RULE OF THREE 99
Danny, —
he he screamed like a out of it. He left. He was half-
stung kid. He tried to jump inside. crazy, all eaten up. Like the time
I hung on to him. Was much big- we watched the bull-fiddle burn up.
ger'n him. Then I saw it — a string He wouldn't say what was the trou-
bass. A full-size string bass, burn- ble. So after he went I milled
ing up. I sat on Danny and watched around the joint trying to make
it burn. knew why he'd moved
I sense out of it and I couldn't. Then
out of town. I knew why he cook I—
up cabinet-making. I knew why he Derek's voice seemed to desert
was so hungry an' an' so happy. — him. He
coughed hard and got it
Made the box with his own two back. " —ThenI went and looked
hands. We watched it burn and he out the window. Somebody'd wrote

tried to fight me because I would our names on the fence. Drew a
not let him save it. He cried. Well heart around 'em.
—we cried. Just two kids." "I never gave a damn what any-
Jane said a single, unprintable one thought, see? But Danny, he
word with a bookful of feeling be- did. I guess you can't know how
hind it. someone else feels, but you can get
"We got over it. We roomed to- a pretty fair idea. First I was just
gether after that. We done every- mad, and then I pretended I was
thing together. Crowd we ran with Danny looking at a thing like that,
used to kid us about it, and that and I got an idea how bad it was. I
just made it better. I guess we were ran out lookin' for him.
about nineteen then." "Saw him after a time. Up by
He squeezed out a long breath the highway, staggering a bit like
and looked up at her with stretched, he was half-soused. He wasn't,
blind eyes. "We
had something, though. I ran after him. He was
see? Something clean and big that waiting for the light to change.
never happened before, and wasn't There was a lot of traffic. Tried to
nothing wrong with it. get to him. Couldn't begin to. He
"Then I come home one night sort of pitched off the curb right
and he's at the back window star- under oh my God I can still see it
ing into the yard. Said he was mov- the big dual wheel it run right over
ing out. Said we weren't doing each his head . .
." he finished in a rapid
other any good. He was in bad monotone.
shape. Somebody'd been talking to
him, some lousy crumb with a JANE put her hand on his shoul-
sewer mouth and sewer ideas. I der. Derek know
said, "I didn't
didn't know what it was all about. then and I don't know now and I
We were still just kids, see? never will know if he was so tore
"Anyway, I couldn't talk him out up and sick he just fell, or if he

done it on purpose. All I know is looked back over the afternoon and
I've lived ever since with the idea evening and words flitted through
I killed him just by being around her mind: "You won't have to lose
him so much. Don't try to talk me any sleep over him" "Looks . . .
out of it. I know it don't make like you've made a conquest" . . .
sense. I know all the right answers. "Did he ever make a pass at you?"
But knowing don't help. Aloud she told him, "I've sure said
"That's the whole story." all the right things . . . take a swing
Jane waited a long time and then at me, pudd'nhead."

said gently, "No, Derek." Derek pulled her hand close
He started as if he had suddenly against cheek and pressed it

his
found himself in an utterly strange there so hard it hurt her. She let
place. Gradually his sense of pres- him do it as long as he wanted. "I
ence returned to him and he wiped love you, Janie," he whispered. "I
his face. shoulda told you all that about
"Yeah," he said. "Your boy Danny a long time ago."
Henry. Danny —he played piano, "How could you tell you
till
Janie. I started with him. Danny tried?" she asked huskily. "Let's go
played piano like nothing that ever on out there before ol' Kitten on
lived except this Henry. Everything the Keys drives all the customers
I ever drug out of a string bass was away."
put in there first by the way he
played piano. He used to sit and "T CAN'T go in there," said

play like that and every once in a J- Henry Faulkner in genuine
while grin at me. Shy. panic.
"So I walk in here on a guy "You can and you will," said the
playing that kind of piano and he old lady firmly.
grins shy like that when he plays, "Listen, there's a man in there
and besides, here's that real close who'll throw me out on sight."
stuff around him like a fog. That "Have I been wrong yet? This
Henry's a genius, Janie. And he's is your night to do as you're told,

a — he's the type of guy they ought young man, and that's the way it
to use for a mold to make people is."

out of. And he just wants to be In spite of himself he grinned.
near my fiddle. And me. And you They went in through the herculite
want me to keep him around here doors. Janie was just finishing a
until he knocks hisself off. number. The piano fluffed the last
"Janie," he said, with agony in chorus badly. Henry and the old
his voice, "I'm not goin' through lady stood in the back of the club
that again!" until Derek and Jane walked off
Jane squeezed his shoulder. She the floor.
RULE OF THREE 101

"Now," she said briskly, "go on psychological steno I've ever run
up there and play for me. Play across. And you're a genius with
anything you want to." the machines. Why, between us we
"But they have a piano player!" will do research that'll make his-
"He's in a pet. Just go up there." tory."
"Wh-what'll I say to him?" "Of course we
?"
will. But — isn't
"Don't say anything, silly! Just three a crowd
stand there. He'll go away." Priscilla said, without malice,
He hesitated, and the lady gave "From anyone but you I'd consider
him a small shove. He shambled that a hint. Don't worry about me.
around the dance floor and diffident- I have the most wonderful feeling
ly approached the piano. that the miracles aren't finished."
The pianist was playing a ding- "Pris, are you ever going to tell
dong version of Stardust. He saw us about the miracles?"
Henry coming. "You again." "I don't know, Jon. Perhaps."
Henry said nothing. Her eyes searched Sud- the club.
"I suppose you want to take my denly they fixed on a distant corner
job again." table. "There she is!"
Henry still said nothing. The "Who?" Jon twisted around.

man went on playing. Presently, "Well, I'll be damned!"
"You can have it. How anyone can "What is it?" asked Edie.
work with a couple sourpusses like "Excuse me," said Jon, and rose.
that . .
." He got off the stool in "Someone I've got to see." He
mid-chorus, leaving Stardust's gar- stalked over to the corner table and
den gate musically ajar. Henry's glowered down at its occupants.
right hand shot out and, catching "May I ask what you're doing
the chord as if it had been synco- here?"
pated instead of shut off, began "Why, Dr. Prince!" said Pallas.
molding it like a handful of soft "Imagine meeting you here!"
clay. He sat down still playing. "What are you two doing here
at this time of night?"
EDIE said, "I can't help feeling "We can go where we like," said
a little peculiar. This is won- Verna, smoothing her snowy hair,

derful, so wonderful but there — "and that's the way it is."
are two of us and one of you."
still "We're not due to report to you
.
"Three of us," corrected Pris- until the day after tomorrow," said
cilla. Pallas self-righteously.
"In some ways that's so," said "There's no law against a lady
Jon. He
swallowed the rest of his having a spot at bedtime," amend-
drink and beckoned the waiter. ed Verna.
"Pris is the best statistician and "You two never cease to amaze

me," Jon said, chuckling in spite about them," said Edie. "Do invite
of himself. "Just be careful. I'd them, Jon."
hate to see my prize exhibits get He shrugged and returned to the
hurt." other table. In a moment he was
They smiled up at him. "We'll back with the two spinsters. He
be all right. We'll talk to you again drew out chairs for them in courtly
later, won't we, Verna?" fashion, and called a waiter. Pallas
"Oh, yes," said Verna. "Definite- ordered a double rye, no chaser.
ly. That's the way it is." Verna smiled like a kitten and or-
dered scotch on the rocks. "For our
STILL chuckling, Jon went back colds," she explained.
to his table. "There sits the "How long have you had colds?"
damnedest pair of human beings he demanded professionally.
I've encountered yet," he said as he "Oh, dear, we don't get colds,"
sat down. "Three years ago they explained Verna sweetly. "That's
were senile psychotics, the two of because we drink our liquor
them. As far as I can determine straight."
they had no special therapy they — Dr. Jonathan Prince felt it with-
were in the County Home, and as in him to lay down the law at this
mindless as a human being can get point. A patient was a patient. But
and stay alive. First thing you know there was something in the air that
they actually started feeding them- prevented He found himself
selves
— laughing again.
it.
He
thought he saw
and Verna!" said Pris-
"Pallas Pallas wink at Priscilla and shake
cilla. "You've mentioned holy — her head slightly, but he wasn't
Pete! Are you sure?" sure. He introduced the girls. With-
"Of course I'm sure. I'm on the out the slightest hesitation he in-
Board out there. You know the case troduced Edie as "my wife." She
history. They have to report to me colored and looked pleased.
every sixty days." "Listen to that music," breathed
"Well—1—will—be— damned," Priscilla.
Priscilla intoned, awed. "Thought you'd notice it," said

"What is it, Pris? I didn't think and smiled at Verna.
Pallas,
you'd ever seen them. They've never They all listened. It was a modal,
been to the lab Say, how did
. . . moody, rhythmic invention, built
you recognize them just now?" around a circle of chords in the
"Could could you bring them
. . . bass which beat, and beat, and beat
over?" on a single sonorous tone. The
"Oh, come now. This celebration treble progressed evenly, regularly,
is only for
— tripped up on itself and ran gig-
"I've heard enough to be curious gling around and through the steady
RULE OF THREE 103

structure of the bass modulations, playing by ear. He began to sight-
then sobered and marched again, read.
but always full of suppressed mirth. Note followed note followed
Priscillawas craning her neck. "I note for the line of her nose, and
can't see him!" doubled and curved and turned
Verna said, "Why don't you go back for her nostrils. The theme
up there, dear? I'm sure he would became higher and fuller and
not mind." rounded and there was her fore-
"Oh . really not?" She caught
. . head, and then there were colorful
Pallas's eye. Pallas gave her one waves up and back for her hair.
firm nod. Priscilla said, "Do you Here was a phrase for an earlobe,
mind?" She slipped out of her chair and one for the turn of the cheek,
and went up past the dance floor. and now there were mysteries, two
"Look at her," breathed Edie. of them, long and subdued and
"She's got that — that 'miracle' ex- agleam and end-tilted, and they
pression again . . . Oh, Jon, she's were her eyes . . .
so lovely."
Jon said, looking at the spinsters, DEREK came out of the office
"What are you two hugging each and stopped so abruptly that
other about?" Jane ran into him. Before she could
utter the first startled syllable, her
HENRY looked up from the key- breath was taken away in a great
board and smiled shyly. gasp.
"Hello," Priscilla said. Derek turned and gestured
"Hello." He looked at her face, music. "You
— at the
her hair, her body, her eyes. His She looked up at him, the furious
shyness was there, and no boldness eyes, the terrified trembling at the
was present; he looked at her the corners of his mouth. "No, Derek,
way she listened to his music. It so help me God, I him
didn't ask
was personal and not aggressive. to come back. I wouldn't do that,
He moved over on the bench. "Sit Derek. I wouldn't."
down." "You wouldn't," he agreed gent-
Without hesitation she did. She ly. "I know it, hon. I'm sorry. But
looked at him, too — the hawk pro- out he goes." He strode out to the
file, the gentle gray-green eyes. stand. Jane trotted behind him, and
"You play beautifully." when they turned the corner she
"Listen." caught his arm so violently that her
He played with his eyes on her long fingernails sank into his flesh.
face. His hands leaped joyfully like "Wait!"
baby goats. Then they felt awe and There was a girl on the bench
hummed something. Henry stopped with Henry, and as he played he

His eyes moved
stared at her face. Each of the six had a part that was
over own face moved closer.

it, his different from all of the others, but
His hands made music like the al- the shape of them all was a major
most visible current which flowed chord, infinitely complete and com-
between them. Their lips touched. pletely satisfying.
There was a tinkling explosion
of sound from the piano that built "piL!"
up in fullness and sonority until IX "Oh, make it formal, Kad-
Jane and Derek all but blinked KedKud!"
their eyes, as if it were a blaze of "RilRylRul, then . .
."
light. And then Henry's left hand "If only Mak

were here."
picked up a theme, a thudding, joy- "Myk is with us, and Muk. Poor
ous melody that brought the few partial things, and how hard they
late-owls in the club right to their have worked, guarding and guiding
feet. He no longer looked at the with those pitifully inadequate hu-
girl. His eyes were closed, and his man bodies as instruments. Come,
hands spoke of himself and what Ril; we must decide. Now that we
—
he felt a great honest hunger and can operate fully, we can investi-
new riches, a shy and willing expe- gate these creatures."
rience with a hitherto undreamed- Just as had investigated,
they
of spectrum of sensation. compared, computed and stored
Jane and Derek looked at each away observations on industrial
other with shining eyes. Jane said, techniques, strength of materials,
deliberately, "Son, you got a rival," stress and temperature and power
and Derek laughed in sheer re- and design, so now they took in-
lieved delight. stant # and total inventory of their
"I'm going to get my fiddle," he hosts.
said. RilRylRul found classicism and
When Derek started to play, four inventiveness, tolerance and em-
people and came up
left their table pathy in Henry. In Derek were loy-
to the piano as if cables drew them. alty and rugged strength and a
Hand in hand, Jon and Edie powerful interpretive quality. In
stopped close by Priscilla and stood Jane was the full-blown beauty of
there, rapt as she. Pallas and Verna sensualism and directive thought,
stood at the other end of the bench, and a unique stylization of the
their eyes glowing. products of artistic creation.
And out of the music, out of the KadKedKud separated and ana-
bodies that fell into synchroniza- lyzed a splendid systematization in
tion with the masterful pulse of the Priscilla, a superior grasp of ap-
great viol, came a union, a blending plied theory in Edie, and in Jon
of forces from each of six people. that rarest of qualities, the asso-
RULE OF THREE 105

ciative mind — the mind that can would not predict which is more
bridge the specialties. likely."
"A great race," said Ril, "but a "Neither would I," Ril returned.
sick one, badly infected with the "So if the forces are that closely
Pa'ak pestilence." balanced, I have hope for the one
"The wisest thing to do," re- we join. Are you with me?"
flected Kad, "would be to stimu- "Agreed. Myk Muk — will . . .
late the virus to such an extent that you join us?"

humanity will impose its own quar- Faintly, faintly came the weak
antine — by reducing itself to sav- response of the two paltry parts of
agery through atomic warfare. a once powerful triad: "Back in our
There is such a great chance of sector we would be considered
that, no matter what we do, that it dead. Here we have a life, and
would seem expedient to hasten the work. Of course we will help."
process. The object would be to So they considered, and, at
force atomic warfare before space length, decided.
That at least would
travel can begin. And their meeting and considera-
keep the virus out of the Galaxy, tion and decision took four micro-
which is what we came here to seconds.
effect."
"It's a temptation," conceded
Ril. "And yet —what a tremendous THE six people looked at one an-
species this human race could be! other, entranced, dazed.
Let us stay, Kad. Let us see what "It's —gone,"what said Jon. He won-
we can do with them. Let us move dered, then, he meant by
on to other human groups, . now that.
that we know the techniques of Henry's fingers slid off the keys,
entry and merging. With just the and the big bass was silent. Pris-
right pressure on exactly the right cilla opened her tilted eyes wide
points, who knows? Perhaps we and looked about her. Edie pressed
can cause them to discover how-to close to Jonathan, bright-faced,
cure themselves." composed. Jane stood with her head
"It will be a close race," wor- high, her nostrils arched.
ried Kad. "We can do a great deal, They felt as if they were sudden-
but can we do it soon enough? We ly living on a new plane of exis-
face three possibilities: Mankind tence, where colors were more vivid
may destroy itself through its own and the hues between them more
sick ingenuity; it may reach the recognizable. There was a new rich-
stars to spread its infection; or it ness to the air, and a new strength
may find its true place as a healthy in their bodies; but most of all it
species in a healthy Cosmos. I was as if a curtain had been lifted

from minds for the first time
their He turned to Edie. "We have
They had all reached work to do ."
in their lives. . .
a high unity, a supreme harmony She pressed his hand, and Pris-
in the music a second before, but cilla looked up and smiled.
this was something different, infin- Derek and Jane looked into each
itelymore complete. "Cured" was other's eyes, into depths neither
the word that came to Jonathan. had dreamed of before. There
He knew instinctively that what he would be music from that, they
now felt was a new norm, and that knew.
it was humanity's birthright. Henry said, with all his known
"My goodness gracious!" gentleness and none of the fright-
Verna and Pallas stood close to- ened diffidence, "Hey, you with the
gether, like two frightened birds, red hair. I love you. What's your
darting glances about them and name?" And Priscilla laughed with
.twittering. a sound like wings and buried her
"I can't think what I'm doing face in his shoulder.
here," said Pallas blankly, yet
EARTH
aware.
spells . .
"I've
."
had one of my
ON kind of partnership of three.
there was a new
"We both have," Verna agreed. And . . .
"And that's the way it is." The news is new aggression

Jonathan looked at them, and threatens unleashing of atomic
knew them instantly as incomplete. weapons .... President calls for
He raised his eyes to the rest of universal disarmament .... First
the people in the club, still stirring flight to Moon possible now with
with the final rustle of applause sufficient funds Jonatbon ....
from the magnificent burst of mu- Prince announces virus cause of
sic they had heard, and he recog- neurosis, promises possible cure of
nized them as sick. His mind all mental diseases . . .
worked with a new directiveness Watch your local newspapers for

and brilliance to the causes of their latest developments.
sickness. —THEODORE STURGEON
The big news next month is . . .
RAY BRADBURY
His short novel — 25,000 dynamic words— is a giant chunk of life snatched
alive and throbbing from the future! For many years you'll be haunted by
the emotional power and intellectual dilemma projected with full-dimen-
sional color, motion, feeling, sound in his profoundly stirring . , .
"THE FIREMAN"
Complete in the February issue of GALAXY Science Fiction.'
RULE OF THREE 107

Made
to
Measure
By WILLIAM
CAMPBELL
GAULT
Somewhere is an ideal mafe

for every man and woman,
but Joe wasn't willing to
bet on it. He was a man
who rolled his own!

THE pressure
clicked behind them, as the
tube locks and
women
growing preponderance
over men, something had
of
train moved on. It was a to be done. I think we've done it."
strange, sighing click and to Joe it Sam was the Director of the Do-
sounded mestic Center and a man sold on
like,
she's not right —

"She's not
she's not right
right
— his job.
So, finally, he said it. "She's not "You've done as well as you
right." could," Joe agreed in an argumen-
Sam, who was riding with him, tative "You've given some
way.
looked over wonderingly. "Who reason and order to the marital
isn't?" competition among women. You've
"Vera. My wife. She's not almost eliminated illicit relations.
right." You've established a basic security
Sam frowned. "Are you serious, for the kids. But the big job?
Joe? You mean she's — ?" He You've missed it completely."
tapped his temple. "Thanks," Sam- said. "That's a
"Oh, no. I mean she's not what very small knife you've inserted
I want." between my shoulder blades, but
why we have the Cen-
"That's I'm thin-skinned." He took a deep
ter,"Sam answered, as if quoting, breath. "What, in the opinion of
which he was. "With the current the Junior Assistant to the Adju-
MADE TO MEASURE 109

tant Science Director, was the big anything about cybernetics, Sam?"
job?" "I know just as much about cy-
Joe looked for some scorn in bernetics as you know about peo-
Sam's words, found it, and said, ple. Nothing."
"The big job is too big for a so-
ciologist." "rpHAT'S not quite fair. I'm
Sam seemed to flinch. "I didn't J- not sentimental about people,
think that axe would fit alongside but it's inaccurate to say I don't
the knife. I underestimated you." know anything about them. I'm a
"No offense," Joe said. "It's just person. I think I'm — discerning
that you have to deal with human and sensitive."
beings." "Sure," Sam said. "Let's drop
"Oh," Sam said. "Now it the subject."
comes. You know, for a minute I "Why?"
forgot who you were. I forgot you "Because you're talking non-
were the greatest living authority sense. A person without faults is
on robots. I was thinking of you not a person. And if it or he — —
as my boyhood chum, good old she were, I don't think I'd care to
Joe. You're beyond that now, know him or her or it."
aren't you?" "Naturally. You're a sentimen-

"Beyond my adolescence? I talist. You've seen so much misery,
hope so, though very few people so much human error, so much stu-
are."Joe looked at Sam squarely. pidity that you've built up your
"Every man wants a perfect wife, natural tolerance into a sloppy and
doesn't he?" unscientificsentimentality. It hap-
Sam shrugged. "I suppose." pens to sociologists all the time."
"And no human is perfect, so "Joe, I'm not going to argue
no man gets a perfect wife. Am I with you. Only one thing I ask.
right, so far?" When you —break the news to
"Sounds like it." Vera, break it gently. And get her
"Okay." Joe tapped Sam's chest back to the Center as quickly as
with a hard finger. "I'm going to you can. She's a choice, rare num-
"
make a perfect wife." He tapped ber^
his own chest. "For me, just for Joe said nothing to that. Sam
me, the way I want her. No hu- looked miserable. They sat there,
man frailties. Ideal." listening to the swishing, burring
"A perfect robot," Sam objected. clicks of the airlocks, two friends
"A wife," Joe corrected. "A per- —one who dealt with people and
son. A human being." had grown soft, the other who
"But without a brain." dealt with machines and might not
"With a brain. Do you know have grown at all.

As the car rose for the Ingle- "You're awfully quiet," Vera
wood station, Sam looked over, but said.
Joe's eyes were straight ahead. Sam "I'm thinking."

got up and out "of the seat. "About what?" Her voice was
There was a whispering sigh of suddenly strained. "Sam didn't try
escaping air and the sunlight glare to sell you
—
of the Inglewood station, synthetic "A new wife?" He looked at
redwood and chrome and marble. her. "What makes you think
Sam was out of the cylindrical, that?"
stainless steel car and hurrying for "You're thinking about me,
the Westchester local when Joe about trading me in. Joe, haven't
came out onto the platform. Sam I — darling, is there — ?" She broke
was annoyed, it was plain. off, looking even more miserable

Joe's glance went from his hurry- than Sam had.
ing friend to the parking lot, and "I don't intend to trade- you in,"
his coupe was there with Vera be- he said quietly.
hind the wheel. It was only a three She took a deep breath.
block walk, but she had to be there He didn't look at her. "But
to meet him, every evening. That you're going back to the Center."
was her major fault, her romantic She stared at him, a film of mois-
sentimentality. ture in her eyes. She didn't cry or
"Darling," she said, as he ap- ask questions or protest. Joe
proached the coupe. "Sweetheart. wished she would. This was worse.
Have a good day?" "It's not your fault," he said,
He "Ordin-
kissed her casually. after a moment. "I'm not going to
ary." She slid over and he climbed get another. You're as ideal, al-
in behind the wheel. "Sat with Sam most, as a human wife can ever
Tullgren on the train." be."
"Sam's nice." "I've tried so hard," she said.
He turned on the ignition and "Maybe I tried too hard."
said, "Start." The motor obedient- "No," he said, "it isn't your
ly started and he swung out of the fault. Any reasonable man would
lot, onto Chestnut. "Sam's all right. be delighted with you, Vera. You
Kind of sentimental." won't be at the Center long."
"That's what I mean." "I don't want a reasonable
man," she said quietly. "I want
JOE was silent. The coupe went you, Joe. I — I loved you."
past a homes and
row of solar He had started to get out of the
turned on Fulsom.
Three houses car. He paused to look back.
from the corner, he turned into "Loved? Did you use the past
their driveway. tense?"
MADE TO MEASURE 111

"I used the past tense." She "You don't have to leave to-
started to get out on her side of the night,you know."
car. "Idon't want to talk about it." "I know."
"But I do," he told her. "Is this "You're being very unreason-
love something you can turn on able."
and off like a faucet?" "Am I?"
"I don't care to explain it to "I wasn't trying to be intention-
you," she said. "I've got to pack." ally cruel."
She left the car, slammed the door, "Weren't you?"
and moved hurriedly toward the His voice rose. "Will you stop
house. talking like some damned robot?
Joe watched her. Something was Are you a human being, or aren't
troubling him, something he you?"
couldn't analyze, but he felt cer- "I'm afraid I am," she said,
tain that if he could, it would prove "and that's why I'm going back to
to be absurd. the Center. I've changed my mind.
He went thoughtfully into the I want to get registered. I want to
living room and snapped on the find a man."
telenews. He saw troops moving She started to go past him, her
by on foot, a file of them dispersed grip in her hand. He put a hand
along a Brazilian road. He turned on her shoulder. "Vera, you
—
the knob to another station and Something flashed toward his
saw the huge stock market board, face. It was her slim, white hand,
a rebroadcast. Another twist and but it didn't feel slim and white.
he saw a disheveled, shrieking wo- She said, "I can see now why you
man being transported down some weren't made Senior Assistant to
tenement steps by a pair of police- the Adjutant Science Director.
men. The small crowd on the side- You're a stupid, emotionless me-
walk mugged into the camera. chanic. A machine."
He snapped it off impatiently He was still staring after her
and went into the kitchen. The when the door slammed. He
dinette was a glass-walled alcove thought of the huge Domestic Cen-
off this, and the table was set. ter with its classes in Allure, Bou-
There was food on his plate, none doir Manners, Diet, Poise, Budget-
on Vera's. ing. That vast, efficient, beautifully
decorated Center which was the
HE WENT to the living

and then, with a mutter of
room brain child of
which had
still
Sam
to
Tullgren,
deal with im-
but
impatience, to the door of the back perfect humans.

bedroom. She had her grips open People, people, people . . . and
on the low bed. particularly women. He rose, after

a while, and went into the dinette. "In all ways." Joe's face was
He sat down and stared moodily grave. "Someone ideal to live
at his food. with."
Little boys are made of some- "How about Vera? What was
thing and snails and puppydogs' wrong with her?"
tails. What are little girls made "A sentimentalist, too romantic,
of? Joe didn't want a little girl; kind of —— well, maybe not dumb,
he wanted one about a hundred exactly, but
and pounds and five
twenty-two "But not perfect. Who is, Joe?"
feet, He wanted
four inches high. "My new wife is going to be."
her to be flat where she should be Pete shrugged and began putting
and curved where she should be, together the ingredients for the
with blonde hair and gray-green kind of skin Joe had specified.
eyes and an exciting smile. They're all the same, Joe
He had a medical degree, among thought, Sam and Pete and the
his others. The nerves, muscles, rest. They seemed to think his idea
flesh, circulatory system could be childish. He built the instillers and

made —and better than they were incubator that night. The mold
ever made naturally. The brain would be done by one of the De-
would be cybernetic and fashioned partment's engravers. Joe had the
after his own, with his own men- sketches and dimensions ready.
tal background stored in the mem- Wednesday afternoon, Burke
ory circuits. called him in. Burke was the Sen-
So far, of course, he had de- ior assistant, a job Joe had expected
scribed nothing more than a robot and been miffed about. Burke was
of flesh and blood. The spark, now a jerk, in Joe's book.
—what distinguished the better- This afternoon, 'Burke's long
grade robots from people? Pre- nose was twitching and his thin
natal heat, that was it. Incubation. face was gravely bleak. He had a
A mold, a heated mold. Warmth, clipped, efficient way of speaking.
the spark, the sun, life. "Tired, Joe?"
"What do you mean?"
FOR
Celano,
the skin, he went to Pete
the top syntho-derma-
"Not hitting the ball, not on the
beam, no zipperoo."
tologist in theDepartment. —
"I'm yes, I guess you're right.
"Something special?" Pete asked. I'vebeen working at home on a
"Not just a local skin graft? What private project."
then?" "Scientific?"
"A wife. A perfect wife." "Naturally."
Pete's grin sagged baffledly. "I "Anything in particular?"
don't get it, Joe. Perfect how?" Joe took a breath, looked away,
MADE TO MEASURE 113

and back at Burke. "Well, a wife." the incubation period, feeding the
A
frown, a doubtful look from adolescent memories to the reten-
the cold, blue eyes. "Robot? Dish- tive circuits. She would 'really
washer and cook and phone an- spend her mental childhood in the
swerer and like that?" mold, while the warmth sent the
"More than that." human spark through her body.
Slightly raised eyebrows. Robot? Huh! What did they
"More?" know? A human being, a product
"Competely human, except she of science, a flaivless human being.
willhave no human faults." The rise, the big hiss of the final
Cool smile. "Wouldn't be hu- airlock, and Inglewood. Joe stood
man, then, of course." on the platform a second, looking
"Human, but without human for his car, and then realized she
faults, 1 said!" wasn't there. She hadn't been there
"You raised your voice, Joe." for a week, and he'd done that
"I did." every night. Silly thing, habit. Hu-
"I'm the Senior Assistant. Jun- man trait.
ior Assistants do not raise their Tonight, he'd know. The flesh
voices to Senior Assistants." had been in the mold two days.
for
"I thought you might be deaf, The synthetic nerves were plump
as well as dumb," Joe said. and white under the derma-ray, the
A silence. The granite face of fluxo heart was pumping steadily,
Burke was marble, then steel and the entire muscular structure kept
finally chromium. His voice under pneumatic massage for
matched it. "I'll have to talk to the muscle tone.
Chief before I fire you, of course. He'd thought of omitting the
Department rule. Good after- frowning muscles, but realized it
noon." would ruin the facial contours.
"Go to hell." They weren't, however, under
massage and would not be active.
JOE went back to his desk and And the mind?
burned. He started with a low Well, naturally it would be
flame and fed it with the grievances tuned to his. She'dknow every-
of the past weeks. When it began thing he knew. What room was
to warm his collar, he picked up there for disagreement if the
his hat and left. minds were the same? Smiling, as
Click, burr, click went the air- she agreed, because she couldn't
locks. Very few riders, this time frown. Her tenderness, her ro-,
of the afternoon. The brain would manticism would have an intensity
go in, intact, and then the knowl- He didn't want
variable, of course.
edge instiller would work during one of these grinning simperers.

He remembered his own words: Then he went into the living
"Is this love something you can room and snapped on the ball
turn on and off like a faudet?" game.
Were his own words biting him, or Martin was on third and Pelter
only scratching him? Something was at bat. On the mound, the lank
itched. An intensity variable was form of Dorffberger cast a long,
not a faucet, though unscientific grotesque shadow in the afternoon
minds might find a crude, allegori- sun. Dorffberger chewed and spat
cal resemblance. and wiped his nose with the back
To hell with unscientific minds. of his glove. He looked over at
He went down to the basement. third and yawned.
The mold was 98.6. He watched, At the plate, Pelter was digging
the knowledge instiller send its in. Pelter looked nervous.
minute current to the head end of Joe said, "Bet that Dorffberger
the mold. The meter read less than fans him. He's got the Indian sign
a tenth of an amp. The slow, plas- on Pelter."
tic pulse of the muscle tone mas- Then he realized he was talking
sage worked off a small pump near to himself. Damn it. On the tele-
the foot of the mold. news screen, looked
Dorffberger
On the wall, the big master right into the camera and nodded.
operating clock sent the minute He was winding up, and the direc-
currents to the various bodily sector put the ball into slow motion.
tions, building up the cells, main- Even in slow motion, it winged.
taining the organic functions. In "Ho-ho!" Joe said. "You can't
two hours, the clock would shut off hit what you can't see."
all power, the box would cool, and Pelter must have seen it. He
there would be his Alice. Well, — caught it on the fat part of the
why not Alice? She had to have a bat, twisting into it with all his
name, didn't she? hundred and ninety pounds. The
impact rattled the telenews screen
WARMTH, that was the differ- and the telescopic cameras took
ence between a human and over. They followed the ball's
a robot, just warmth, just the flight about halfway to Jersey and
spark. Funny he'd never thought then the short-range eyes came back
of it before. Warmth was it had — to show Pelter crossing the plate,
unscientific connotations. It wasn't, and Martin waiting there to shake
though. his hand.
He went
upstairs and fried some Joe snapped off the machine im-
eggs.Twice a day, for a week, he patiently. Very unscientific game,
had fried eggs. Their flavor was baseball. No rhyme or reason to it.
overrated. He went out onto the porch.
MADE TO MEASURE 115

The grass was dry and gray; he'd
forgotten to set the sprinkler clock,
Vera's old job. Across the street,
Dan Harvey with his wife, each

sat
with a drink. Sat with his human
wife, the poor fish. They looked
happy, though. Some people were
satisfied with mediocrities. Unscien-
tific people.
Whywas he restless? Why was
he bored? Was he worried about
his job? Only slightly; the Chief
thought a lot of him, a hell of a
lot. The Chief was
a great guy for
and Burke had it, or Joe
seniority
would certainly have been Senior
Assistant.
The him he didn't
stirring in
want and he thought of
to analyze He got up and went into the
the days he'd courted Vera, going living room; fighting the stirring
to dances at the Center, playing in him, the stirringhe didn't want
bridge at the Center, studying to analyze and find absurd. He
Greek at the Center. A fine but went into the bathroom and studied
too well-lighted place. You could his lean, now haggard face. He
do everything but smooch there; looked like hell. He went into the
the smooching came after the dec- back bedroom and smelled 'her per-
laration of intentions and a man fume and went quickly from the
was bound after the declaration to house and into the backyard.
go through with the wedding, to He sat there until seven, listen-
N
live with his chosen mate for the ing to the throb from J:he base-
minimum three months of the ad- ment. The molecule agitator should
justment period. have the flesh firm and finished
now, nourished by the select blood,
ADJUSTMENT period ... an- massaged by the pulsating plastic.
other necessity for 'humans, At seven, she should be ready.
for imperfect people. Across the At he went down to the
seven,
street, the perfectly adjusted Har- basement. His "heart should have
veys smiled at each other and been hammering and his mind ex-
sipped their drinks. Hell, that pectant, but he was just another
wasn't adjustment, that was sur- guy going down to the basement.
render. The pumps had stopped, the agi-

"They are lovely.'
While she dressed, he phoned
the Harveys. He explained about
Vera first, because Vera was what
the Harveys considered a good
neighbor.
Dan Harvey said sympathetically,
"It happens to the best of us.
Thinking of getting a new one,
Joe?"
'Tve got one right here.
Thought I'd drop over, sort of
break the ice."
"Great," Dan said. "Fine.
Dandy."
The event was of minor impor-
tance, except for the revelation in-
volved.
tator, the instiller. He felt the The Harveys had a gift for put-
mold; it was cool to the touch. He ting guests at ease, the gift being
lifted the lid, his mind on Vera for a cellar full of thirty-year-old bour-
some reason. bon the elder Harvey had be-
A beauty. The lid was fully back queathed them at the end of their
and his mate sat up, smiled and adjustment period.
said, "Hello, Joe." The talk moved here and there,
"Hello, Alice. Everything all over the bourbon, Alice sharing in
right?" it rarely, though nodding when
"Fine." Joe was talking.
Her hair was a silver blonde, her Then, at mention of someone or
features a blend of the patrician other, Mrs. Harvey said tolerantly,
and the classical. Her figure was "Well, none of us are perfect, I
neither too slim nor too stout, too guess."

flat nor too rounded. Nowhere was Alice smiled and answered,
there any sag. "Some of us are satisfied with
"Thought we'd drop over to the mediocrities in marriage."
Harveys' for a drink," Joe said. Mrs. Harvey frowned doubt-
"Sort of show you off, you know." fully. "I don't quite understand,
"Ego gratification, Joe?" dear. In any marriage, there has to
"Of course. I've some clothes up- be adjustment. Dan and I, for ex-
stairs for you." ample, have adjusted very well."
"I'm sure they're lovely." "You haven't adjusted," Alice
MADE TO MEASURE 117

said smilingly. "You've surren- He went to the office with very
dered." little of the absurdity mood stirring
Joe coughed up half a glass of in him. He'd had a full breakfast,
bourbon, Dan turned a sort of red- naturally.

green and Mrs. Harvey stared with At the office, there was a note
her mouth open. Alice smiled. on his desk: Mr. Bebrens wants to
Finally, Mrs. Harvey said, see you immediately. It bore his
"Well, never—" secretary's Mr. Behrens
"Of
I
all the
— " Dan Harvey said.
initials.
was the Chief.

Joe rose and said, "Must get to He was a fairly short man with
bed, got to get to bed." immense shoulders and what he'd
"Here?" Alice asked. been told was a classical head. So
"No, of course not. Home. Let's he let his hair grow, and had a
go, dear. Have to rush." habit of thrusting his chin forward
Alice's smile had nothing senti- when he listened. He listened to
mental about it. Joe's account of the interview with
Burke.
When
HE DIDN'T berate her until
morning. He wanted time to Chief's
had finished, the
Joe
was tolerant. "Rib-
smile
cool off, to look at the whole thing bing him, were you? Old Burke
objectively. It just wouldn't get ob- hasn't much sense of humor, Joe."
jective, though. Joe said patiently, "I wasn't rib-
At breakfast, he said, "That was bing him. I took her out of the
tactless last night. Very, very tact- mold last night. I ate breakfast
less." with her this morning. She's
"Yes, Joe. Tact requires decep- beautiful, Chief. She's ideal."
tion. Tact is essentially deception." The Chief looked at him for
When had he said that? Oh, yes, seconds, his head tilted.
at the Hydra Club lecture. And it Joe said, "Heat, that's what does
was true and he hated deception it. If you'd like to come for din-
ner with us tonight, Chief, and see
and he'd created a wife without
one. for yourself
—
He said, "I'll have to devise a The Chief nodded. "I'd like
character distiller that won't re- that."
quire putting you back in the

mold." THEY left a little early to avoid
"Of course, dear. Why?" crowd in the tube. Burke
the
"You need just a touch of de- saw them leaving, and his long
ception, just a wee shade of it." face grew even longer.
"Of course, Joe." On the trip, Joe told his boss
So she had tact. about the cybernetic brain, about

his background and his beliefs The Chief finished in a whisper,
stored in the memory and circuits, and looked up from the carpet he'd
the boss listened quietly, not com- been staring at through the ac-
mitting himself with any com- count.
ments. And there was Alice, sitting
But he did say, "I certainly erect, a smile of perfect joy on her
thought a lot of Vera. You face. "How touching," she said,
wouldn't have to warm her in any and grinned.
incubating mold." For one horror-stricken second,
"Wait'll you see this one," Joe the Chief glared at her, and then
said. his questioning eyes went to Joe.
And when she walked into the "She can't frown," Joe ex-
living roomhome, when she ac-
at plained. "The muscles are there,
knowledged the introduction to the but they need massage to bring
Chief, Joe knew the old boy was them to life." He paused. "I want-
sold. The Chief could only stare. ed a smiling wife."
Joe took him down to the base- The Chief inhaled heavily.
ment then to show him the mole- "There are times when a smile is
cule agitator, the memory feeder, out of order, don't you think, Joe?"
the instillers. "It seems that way."
The old boy looked it over and It didn't take long. Massage,
said, quite simply, "I'll be orientation, practice, concentration.
damned!" It didn't take long, and she was so
They went up to a perfect din- willing to cooperate. Golly, she
ner —and incident number two. was agreeable. She was more than
The Chief was a sentimentalist that; she voiced his thoughts before
and he'd just lost a fine friend. he did. Because of the mental affin-
This friend was his terrier, Murph, ity, you see. He'd made sure of
who'd been hit by a speeding car. that.
The story of Murph from birth She could frown now and she
to death was a fairly long one, but had enough deception to get by in
never dull. The Chief had a way almost any company. These flaws
with words. Even Joe, one of the were necessary, but they were still
world's top-ranking non-sentiment- flaws and brought her closer to be-
alists, was touched by the tale. —
ing human.
When they came to the end, where
Murph had
arms,
lain
whimpering, as though to
in his master's
AT THE
morning,
office
Sam
on Saturday
Tullgren
comfort him, trying to lick his face, dropped in. Sam said, "I've been
Joe's eyes were wet and the drink hearing things, Joseph."
wobbled in his hand. "From Vera? At the Center?"
MADE TO MEASURE 119

Sam shook his head. "Vera's She won it with six diamonds,
been too busy to have much time and went down nine tricks, dou-
for the director. She's our most bled. Sam started to say something,
popular number." Sam paused. after the debacle, but one look at
"About the new one. Hear she's his wife's anguished countenance
something to see." stopped him short of audibility.
"You heard right. She's practic- Sam said consolingly, "I'm such
ally flawless, Sam. She's just what a lousy bidder, dear. I must have
a man needs at home." His voice, given you the wrong idea of my
for some reason, didn't indicate the hand."
enthusiasm he should have felt.
Sam chewed one corner of his NEXT time, Sam made up for
mouth. "Why not bring her over, his timidity. Sam, with one
say, tonight? We'll play some heart in his hand, tried a psychic.
bridge." "One heart," he said firmly.
That would be something. Two Sam knew there was a good
minds, perfectly in harmony, syn- chance the hearts were in the oppo-
chronized, working in partnership. sitions' hands, and this looked like
Joe's smile was smug. "We'll be a fine defensive tactic.
there. At eight-thirty." However, his wife, with a three-
Driving over to Westchester that suit powerhouse, couldn't conceive
night, Joe told Alice, "Sam's a of a psychic from Sam. She had
timid bidder. His wife's inclined need of only a second round stop-
to overbid. Plays a sacrificing game per in hearts and a small slam in
when she knows it will gain no trump was in the bag. She had
points. Our job will be to make no hearts, but timid Sam was un-
her oversacrifice." doubtedly holding the ace-king.
Sam's eyes opened at sight of She bid six no-trump, which was
her; his wife's narrowed. Joe took conservative for her. She didn't
pride in their reaction, but it was want to make the mistake of hav-
a strange, impersonal pride. ing Sam let the bid die.
They had a drink and some Joe had the ace, king, queen and
small talk, and settled around the jack of hearts and a three to lead
table. It was more like a seance to Alice's hand. Alice finished up
than a game. the hearts for a total of seven
They bid and made four clubs, tricks, and this time it was Mrs.
a heart. Sam's wife got that deter- Tullgren who opened her mouth
mined With
look. the opposition to speak.
holding down one leg of the rub- But she remembered Sam's kind-
ber, she figured to make the next ness in the former hand, and she
bid a costly one. said, "It was all my fault, darling.
T20 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

To think I couldn't recognize a a female, that is. I think you'll
psychic, just because it came from have to have a go with the knowl-
you. I think we're overmatched, edge-instiller. In reverse, of
sweet." She paused to smile at Joe. course."
"Up against the man who invented "Of course," she agreed.
the comptin-reduco-determina." She "I don't object to females know-
added, as an afterthought, "And ing a lot. The world does."
his charming, brilliant new wife." "Of course," she said.
Which brought about incident She was a model and, there-
first
number three. fore, These bugs

experimental.
Alice turned to Mrs. Tullgren were bound to show up. She was
sweetly and you
asked, "Don't now less knowing, more deceptive,
reallyunderstand the comptin-re- and she could frown.
duco-determina ?" She began to remind him of
"Not even faintly," Mrs. Tull- Vera, which didn't make sense.
gren answered. She smiled at Alice was sad when he was sad,
Alice. gay when he was gay, and romantic
The smile faded after about ten to the same split-degree in the same
minutes. For Alice was telling her split-second. She even told him his
all about the comptin-reduco-de- old jokes with the same inflection
termina. For an hour and nineteen he always used.
minutes, Alice talked to this wo- Their mood affinity was geared
man who had been humiliated as closely as the comptin-reduco-de-
twice, telling her all the things termina. What more could a man
about the famous thinking machine want? And, damn it, why should
that Mrs. Tullgren didn't want to Vera's perfume linger in that back
know. bedroom ?
It wasn't until Alice was through
talking animatedly
tranced Joe began to suspect that
that the en-
THE ing.
fumigators could do noth-
They left, after the third
perhaps the Tullgrens weren't as trip,shaking their heads. Joe stood
interested in the dingus as a scien- in the doorway, insisting he could
tific mind would assume. still smell it.
They weren't. There was a strain Alice said, probably men-

"It's
after that, a decided heaviness to tal, dear. Perhaps
you still still —
the rest of the evening. Sam seemed what's that word? Perhaps you still
to sigh with relief when they said love her."
good night. "How could you think that?" he
In the car, Joe was thoughtful. asked. "How? How could you
Halfway home, he said, "Darling, think that unless I was thinking
I think you know too much for — it?"
MADE TO MEASURE 121

"I couldn't. I love you, too, Joe, her own. He labored until mid-
but you know why that is." night, and tumbled into bed with
"What do you mean?" a headache.
"We both love you, Joe." Next morning, at breakfast, he
"Both? You and Vera?" told her, "We'll try it out tonight.
"No. You and I, we both love After that, you'll be a person."
you." "Of course. And will you love
"That," Joe peevishly, "is
said me, Joe?"
ridiculous. If you could think for "More coffee, please," he an-
yourself, you'd know it was ridicu- swered.
lous." At the office, there was another
"Of course," she agreed. And note from his secretary: Mr. Burke
frowned, because he was frown- wants to see you. At your conven-
ing. ience.
"You act like a robot," Joe said. At your convenience ? Was Burke
She nodded. going soft? Joe went right in.
"That's all you are," Joe went
on evenly, "a robot. No volition." BURKE was smiling, a miracle
She nodded, frowning. in Burke's voice was
itself.
"I'm sick of it." jovial. "The Chief's been telling

She said nothing, sympathetical- me about the new wife, Joe. I guess
ly looking sick. I owe you an apology."
And then he smiled and said, "Not at all," Joe said. "I had
"I'm not stumped. Not the inventor no right to be rude. I was a little
of the comptin-reduco-determina. overworked— at home. I wasn't my-
By Harry, I'll give you volition. self."
I'll give you enough volition to Burke nodded smugly, soaking

make you dizzy." it up. "Beautiful, the Chief tells
And because he was smiling, she me. Am going to meet her, Joe?"
I
was smiling. And only a very per- "If you want. How about to-
ceptive might notice that
person night, for dinner? I've got some-
her smile seemed to have an in- thing new planned. I'm giving her
tensity, an anticipation slightly be- volition. Maybe you'll want to
yond his. watch."
He got to work on it that night. "Volition?"
He would have to erase some of Joe went on to explain about
his mental background from her volition, making it as simple as he
brain. He wanted her no less in- could, to match Burke's mind.
telligent, no less discerning, but "That," Burke said when he'd
with enough of a change in back- finished, "I want to see."
ground to give her a viewpoint of They went home in the crowded

Inglewood tube. Sam was there, but ory of her past few days of exis-
Sam seemed to avoid them, for tence as his alter ego. She'd have
some reason. All the way home, volition.
Joe had the uncomfortable feeling The contact clock took over. Her
that Burke didn't believe any part eyes remained closed, but her smile
of this business, that Burke was began to fade as the second hand
making the trip only to substantiate moved around and around the big,
his own misconceptions. contact-studded dial.
But when Alice came into the Joe was smiling, though she
living room, smiling brightly, ex- wasn't. Joe was filled with a sense
tending her hand to the Senior As- of his own creative power, his own
sistant, Joe had a gratifying glimpse inventive and gratification
genius
of Burke's face. at the worried frown on the face
Burke was lost. Burke stared and of the imbecile Burke.
swallowed and grinned like a green
stage hand at a burlesque show. THEN the clock stopped and
Burke's smile was perpetual and was a buzz; the meters
there
nauseating. Even in the face of dropped to zero. Alice opened her
Alice's cool reserve. eyes. For the first time, as a person,
The dinner was fine, the liquor she opened her eyes.
mellow. Her smile was back. But she
Then Joe said, "Well, Alice, it's was looking at Burke. Looking at
time for the volition. It's time for Burke and smiling!
your birth as a person." "Baby," she said.
"Of course," she said, and Burke looked puzzled, but defi-
smiled. nitely pleased. In all Burke's adult
They went down into the base- life, no female had ever looked at
ment, the three of them; she sat in him like that.
the chair he'd prepared and he Joe said tolerantly, "You're a
clamped on the wired helmet and confused
little yet, Alice. I'm your
adjusted the electrodes. husband."
Burke said weakly, "It isn't "You?" She stared at him. "Do
dangerous, is it?" you think I've forgotten you? Do
"Dangerous?" Joe stared at him. you think I don't know you, after
"Of course not. Remember how living inside your brain, almost?
explained it?" You monster, you egocentric, self-
I
"I —uh—my memory

— " Burke ish, humorless walking equation.
subsided. You're not my husband and I'd
She closed her eyes and smiled. like to see you prove that you are."
Joe threw the switch.She'd have Now it was only Burke who
knowledge; she'd have the mem- smiled. "By George," he said,
MADE TO MEASURE 123

"that's right. There's no wedding worst shock, however, was that he
on record, is there, Joe?" had studied psychology and honest-
"Wedding?" Joe repeated blankly had believed he was an objective
"I made her. I created her. Of thinker.
ly.
course there's no
— But who, he realized, could be
"Of course, of course, of course," completely honest about himself?
Alice shrilled. "That's all you
know. You're the original 'of HE LOOKED at the machine
course' kid. Things aren't that cer-
and saw the non-rationaliza-
tion electrodes. He had used that
tain, Junior. I've known you just
long enough and just well enough
on her and she had seen clearly
to detest you." Now she pointed what he still couldn't recognize.
at Burke. what I want.
"That's
What he needed, apparently, was
That's my kind of man." a good, objective look at his own
Burke gulped and grinned, nod- mind.
ded. "To coin a phrase, you said it, He set the contact clock for ob-
kiddo." He smiled at Joe. "I'll run

her right down to the Center and
get her registered, and take out an
intent option. I guess we can't fight
fate, Joe, can we?"
Joe took a deep breath of air.
"I guess not. I guess it's ikismet." —
He was still standing there when
he heard the front door slam. He
kept staring at the machine, not
seeing it, hearing instead all she
had said. She knew him better than
anyone who lived. Better, actually,
than he knew himself, because she
didn't rationalize, being outside his
mental sphere now. You might say
she'd been in his mind and de-
tested what she had found there.
was a crawling feeling, the
It
knowledge that he had been guilty

of rationalization himself, that he
had faults his mind refused to ac-
knowledge. He couldn't doubt that
he was all the cold and gruesome
things she had called him. The

jectivity maximum and clamped the There was a final buzz and the
electrodes on his head. He reached clock stopped. Joe opened his eyes,
for the switch, had to close his eyes both figuratively and literally. He
before he could throw it. undamped the helmet with the
He didn't see the second hand electrodes and stepped from the
going around and around the chair, holding onto the arm, look-
clock, but he felt the preju- ing at the mirrored inside walls of
dice-erasing impulses, the objec- the mold.
tive-appraisal stimuli, revealing He had made an image of him-
memories had shaped him,
that selfand it had turned on him. Now
humiliations that had twisted him —
he had made what? An image of
and been forgotten, urgings and his image's image of him? It was
longings and guilts that he had very confusing, yet somehow clear.
never known existed. He went slowly up the stairs,
He saw himself. It was highly smelling the perfume. It wasn't

unpleasant. Alice's and that was peculiar, be-
cause she had practically swabbed
herself with the stuff, knowing he
liked it, and she had just left.
It was Vera's perfume.
He remembered her waiting at

the station, making her ridiculous
bids at the card table, gossiping
witlessly with Mrs. Harvey, hitting
her thumb when she tried to hang
his pictures in the study.
Vera . . .
He prowled dissatisfiedly
through the house, as though in
search of something, and then went
out to the car. He took the super-
pike almost to the Cen-
all the way
ter. There were bright cards on
posts every few hundred feet:
NOT TOO LATE

IT'S
TO GET A MATE
THE GIRLS ARE GREAT
AT THE DOMESTIC CENTER
He pulled into the sweeping cir-
cular drive at the huge group of
MADE TO MEASURE 125

buildings. A troupe of singing girls hall, familiar steps, and he smelled
came out, dressed in majorette cos- the perfume before she came in.
tumes, opened the door, helped him She stood timidly at the arch-
out, parked the car, escorted him way, but Joe was even more unsure
into the lavish reception room. Mu- and, weak in the legs and he had
siccame from somewhere, soft and trouble with his breathing.
moody. There were murals all over "Joe," Vera said.
the walls, every one romantic. A "Vera," he answered.
dispensing machine held engage- It wasn't much,
but it seemed
ment and wedding rings with a to be what both had in mind.
series of finger-holes on the left "Was there something you want-
side for matching sizes. ed to tell me?" she asked. "Some-
thing important?"
THE matron recognized him and

said, "Mr. Tullgren has gone said
important to me, Vera," he
"It's
humbly. "I hope it's just as
home for the day. Is there anything important to you."
I can do?" She looked brightly at him.
He told her what he wanted "I find it very difficult to put
and she thumbed through a reg- into words," he stumbled. "The
ister. usual expressions of this emotion
"Yes, she's still here," the mat- are so hackneyed. I would like to
ron said finally. "She's refused find some other way to say it."
exactly thirty-two offers up to yes- "Say what?"
terday. You were thinking of a "That I love you."
reconciliation?" She ran to him. The impact
Joe nodded with a new knocked the breath out of both of
humility. "If she'll have me." them, but neither noticed.
The matron smiled. "I think she "Isn't the old phrase good
will. Women are more understand- enough, silly?" she scolded and
ing than men, usually. More ro- kissed him. "I love you too, lover
mantic, you might say." baby."
Nine-tenths of the building was Behind them, at the key words,
brightly lighted, one-tenth rather the sonic-signal closed the hidden
dim. In the dim tenth were the doors in the archway and they
post-intent rooms, the reconciliation were alone in the reconciliation
chambers. chamber.
Joe sat on a yellow love-seat in Joe discovered that Sam Tull-
one of the empty reconciliation gren, Director of the Domestic
chambers, leafing through, but not Center, had thought of everything
seeing, a copy of a fashion mag- to make reconciliations complete.
azine. Then there were steps in the —WILLIAM CAMPBELL GAULT

Susceptibility
By JOHN D. McDONALD
SEAN MALLOY
edge
ticed at the
stood unno-
of the clear-
of the soft yellowish wood, veined
with green. Exertion had put a
ing and frowned as he sheen of perspiration on her shoul-
watched the girl work. Exposure to ders.
the rays of the yellow-white sun, The proper paleolingual word
half again the size of Sol, had eluded him. Suddenly he remem-
turned her to copper bronze, bered. Of course — it was an ax.
against which the mane of yellow The sound of it, biting into the
hair was quite startling. He found wood, resounded across the clear-
that he was taking pleasure in ing, a sharp, metronomic sound.
watching the smooth play of He heard the crackle of fibers and
muscles in her naked back as she saw her step back from the tree.
swung the instrument against the Sean Malloy glanced up then, and
tree. Each stroke bit out a chunk saw the great mass o.f branches and
Illustrated by JAMES VINCENT
The colonists on this world needed help urgently. It

was as if they had deliberately decided to set their
civilization back to some harsh era out of the past!
SUSCEPTIBILITY 127
leaves sway toward him. He gave pleasure in watching her. He made
a gasp of alarm, and forgetting all a mental note to apply, on his re-
the dignity of a Praecursor from turn to the Bureau, for deep psy-
the Colonial Adjustments Bureau, chological analysis. Praecursors who
he ran at right angles to the line of became emotionally involved with
fall. After fifty feet of surprising colonial women suffered a loss of
fleetness, he struck a hummock of efficiency. It would be wise to have
grass and fell just at the moment this susceptibility tracked down and
the tree thundered to the ground, eliminated. In the meantime, to
so close behind him that the end take his attention away from the
of a branch rapped him smartly swing of her walk, he asked hastily,
across the shoulders. He crawled "What were you planning to do
out from under the leaves and with the tree, Thomason?"
stood up. The tall woman was "Cut off the branches today, saw
hurrying toward him, buttoning on it tomorrow, then split it and carry
a shirt of coarse fabric, quick con- the pieces back to my place."

cern in her eyes. "But why?" he asked, baffled.
"You're not hurt?"
"It so happens that I'm not," he SHE stopped so suddenly that he;
said acidly. almost ran into her. She turned-
He saw her glance take in his around and he saw a mixture of
uniform, the CAB seal, the tiny amusement and irony in her gray
gold question mark of the Prae- eyes.
cursor blazoned upon it. She no "Our winter season is coming,
longer looked concerned. Malloy," she said. "I burn the
"People who wait for trees to wood in order to keep warm."
fall on them generally get hurt," She was almost as tall as he. He
she said indifferently. said, as though reasoning with a
"I am Sean Malloy, Praecursor. child, "Wouldn't it be much sim-,
They told me, in the village, that I pier to ask for a heat unit? There's
should talk to you. You are Deen a field station here, an unlimited
Thomason ?" power source. All you have to do
She nodded. She looked regret- is . .
."
fully at the tree. "I suppose I can "Of course, Malloy. It just so
just as well finish it tomorrow. happens that I'd rather do it this
Come along, Malloy." way."
She shouldered the ax and head- "But ." . .
ed across the clearing to the mouth She had turned again and was
of a narrow trail. Her stride was striding along the trail. He had to
long. Once again Malloy found trot to catch up with her. They
himself taking a rather surprising emerged into a second clearing. A
SUSCEPTIBILITY
129
crude wooden house sat at the base "Let us be accurate, Malloy. This'
of a hill, and he was forced to ad- year it happened to be my turn to
mit that the setting, with the small represent the village at general
busy stream foaming through the meeting, and also the turn of my
rocky channel, was superb. Primi- village to supply the chairman for
tive, though. the meeting."
He followed her to the door of
the house. It was open. MALLOY gave her a pained
"Where is your mate?" he asked, look. "My dear young wo-
realizing too late that his choice of man, my
duty involves contacting
words had been a bit hasty. It was the person in charge here. Are you
undiplomatic to point out the back- or are you not in charge?"
wardness of this unfortunate social "If you could say anyone is in
order without shrewd preparation. charge, suppose I am."
I
She looked more amused than "Then you keep the records, I
angered. "Sit down, Malloy. I have gather. Issue orders. Take care of
not yet mated, if that's what you administration."
Bureau people prefer to call it." "There are no records to keep,
"You built this house yourself?" Malloy. I issued one order, I think.
"No. I selected the spot. All the I set the day of the next meeting.
others helped me. It was built in And the villages administer them-
two days. The Bureau would have selves."
been horrified. Everyone working Malloy stood up, walked to the
with their hands. Dancing and stone fireplace, turned abruptly.
food that didn't come from the "Please, Thomason. A Praecursor
field station and a strong brew named Zedder was sent here to
made from fruits. Very barbaric." Able XII seven Earth years ago,
He sat at a bench beside a five and a half of your years. His
wooden table. She lifted a trap job was to find out why the field
door, went down
and returned steps station was almost unutilized, why
with a corked earthenware -jug. She there were no entertainment im-
poured a cup of water and handed ports, why you were canceled off
it to him. The day was warm, the the tour schedules for lack of busi-
water cool and sweet. ness. Zedder came here and put his
"Thank you," he said. She sat ship on homing automatic with his
opposite him. resignation fastened to the flight
He smiled officially. "Well, shall panel.That was so unusual that
we get to it, Thomason ? It took me Able XII was put on emergency
a long time to find you. And I priority. Our press of business is so
didn't expect anyone like you to great that this is the first time you
be . . . head of the planet." have had Bureau contact since then.

"I came here expecting to find four more emergency priority cases
most of the population gone. At to cover in other parts of the
first I thought I was right. No one Galaxy."
seems to live at the Centers the "Then why don't you just get
Bureau built for you people. Then back into whatever you came here
I found you of Able XII living out in and go take care of them?"
here in these crude villages and
shacks. It has taken me two full
weeks to locate you, Thomason.
HE LIFTED his
the Colonial Bureau sets
chin. "When
up
I'm a busy man. A very busy man. proper resident facilities on a planet
The field station is in perfect work- and stocks the planet with col-
ing order. I've tested it. I projected onists, and when said colonists fail
a perfectly satisfactory little flier, to use the facilities provided, it is
synthesized foods at random from the duty of the Colonial Adjust-

the list that checked perfectly, even ments Bureau to send a Praecursor
used the tele-tubes from Center to to make investigation and recom-
Center. My job is to find out what's mendation as to what sort of ad-
wrong here, Thomason." justment team should be sent to
"Does something have to be rectify said non-utilization of
wrong?" she demanded. standard facilities."
"Don't try my patience, Thom- She looked amused. "I assume
ason." you're quoting from some sort of
Her gray eyes narrowed a bit. "I absurd manual, Malloy. Does it ac-
can think of very few things I'm tually use the word 'stock' ? As with
more indifferent to, Malloy, than fish in a pond?"
your patience or lack of patience. "There is a case on record where
This is my home. You have all the one colonial planet suffered such an
normal privileges of a guest. An emotional degeneration that the
autocratic attitude is not one of colonists acquired a superstitious
those privileges." fear of Center facilitiesand moved
He sat down wearily. "I'm sorry. off into the woods."
It's just that I'm upset. Where's "And they were adjusted?" Deen
Zedder?" Thomason asked mildly.
"I'm sure I haven't the faintest "Re-educated," Malloy amended.
idea." "That sounds dreadful. Just re-
"Isn't any central record
there port, Praecursor, that the inhab-
of population? Any index?" itants of Able XII prefer a so-called
"We don't find that necessary, primitive life, and that the facili-
Malloy." ties of the Centers and the field

"I can't spare the time to hunt station are used when emergencies
in every village for him. I've got arise."
SUSCEPTIBILITY 131
"That will make no sense to the I suppose," he said hesitantly.
Bureau," he said hotly. "You peo- "And have to keep fit because
I
ple live out here in absolute sometimes I run into strenuous . . .
squalor. All the Center homes are situations. But no one forced me
empty. Insects have gotten in. Of to be a Praecursor."

course they can do no damage, but "Exactly," she said.
they have spun webs on the projec- "I hope you realize that you are
tor dials. It's untidy, a criminal not making sense, Thomason."
waste. You could move to a Cen- "Indeed? I thought I was mak-
ter. Everything you could possibly ing a great deal of sense. Anyway,
desire would be no farther from you can report that we are not com-
your hand than the nearest dial. It pletely lost. One of the Centers is
is incomprehensible to me, Thom- occupied, you know."

ason, that you should prefer to "Is it? Good! Which one?"
walk back into the earliest history "Number Six. I'd like to visit it
of your race. Every possible comfort with you. have a reason, Malloy."
I
was made available when this co- He pressed the stud on his time
lonial planet was set up for ." . .
ring and the correct sun time of the
She raised her hand. "Please, Able XII twenty-hour day came
Malloy. Stand up a moment." into his mind. He knew that she
He stood up, puzzled. She was standing near enough to him
walked around the table, smiled so that she caught it, too, though
enigmatically at him and suddenly, less strongly. She chuckled, and it
clenching her fist, she struck him was a surprisingly warm sound.
hard in diaphragm. He had
the "Why are you laughing?" he
just enough warning so that he was asked.
able to tense his muscles against the "That toy. See the sun pattern
blow. Even so, it almost took his on the floor? From that I could
breath. have told you the time within a
"To strike a Praecursor is . .
." half hour."
"Oh, stop being so stuffy! Why "Not much of a degree of ac-
are you a Praecursor? Why are you curacy."
reasonably lean and hard and fit?
Why aren't you sitting plump and << A GAIN you've missed the
happy within arm's reach of a dial xX point, Malloy. It's accurate
on your home planet?" enough."
He stared at her. "Why, I . . . "I can't argue with unreason.
there have to be Praecursors!" Come on. That flier I projected is
"That point is debatable. But beyond the clearing where I found

I'm asking why you are one." you. I'll leave it with you when I
"I like problems and new places, go."

"Thank you. I'd have no use for wish to look directly at her. Prae-
it. And we should eat before we cursors were trained to adapt them-
go-" selves readily to many odd folk-
"We'll eat at the Center." ways. But in spite of his intentions
"Thank you, no. I'll get us some- he found himself gawking at her as
thing here. First, though, I must she stood by the pool, tall and
bathe." tanned and lithe. She smiled down
He looked around the room. "No the slope at him as she toweled her
cleansing unit here." shining hair and he made a com-
"There's a perfectly good one in parison oddly damaging to the soft
the stream, Malloy." She went to pallid women of home.
the shelves near the fireplace, se- She belted the short aqua tunic
lected a tunic of softer fabric than around her slim waist and he fol-
her work clothes, and a heavy lowed her back to the house. As
towel. "You can make yourself use- he watched her she put some dried
ful, Malloy. Build a small fire in moss under the sticks in the fire-
the fireplace. But first come here a place, scratched an object which he
moment. That's my garden. See recognized as being one of the
those spiky green things? Pull up crude firemaking devices of earliest
about a dozen of them and wash times. It was called, he remembered,
them in the stream." a "match." The small fire blazed.
Before he could decide whether She brought ovoid white objects
or not to refuse the request, she from the cellar, cracked them into
had gone, walking toward the an earthenware dish, chopped the
stream with that long stride of hers, bulbous white growths with a
supple and somehow wild. He se- crude knife and stirred them into
lected small sticks and tried with the mixture. The dish was then sus-
infuriating lack of success to start pended over the flame while she
them burning by using a short hot sawed off heavy slabs of coarse
focus of his pocket heat unit. Angry bread, spread them with a yellow
at failing in so simple a task, he substance.
walked out and yanked up a dozen
of the growths she had indicated. MALLOY watched closely. This
Black moist soil clung to the bulb- primitive substitute for the
ular white ends that came out of extremely simple procedure of op-
the ground. erating the synthesizer would form
He took them to the stream, be- an interesting portion of his report.
low the wider part that formed a The odor that filled the room, how-
pool. Remembering the extreme ever, made his salivary glands sur-
variations in attitudes of modesty The mixture firmed
prisingly active.
on the colonial planets, he did not and she took the dish from over
SUSCEPTIBILITY 133
the fire, divided the contents into "Several days, Malloy. Through
two parts, placed one part between country where pine woods cover the
two heavy slabs of bread and put hills, where silvery fish leap high
it on another dish, set it in front in the lakes,where the trees hold
of him. wild honey. At dusk you come to a
Malloy took a cautious bite and You are always made wel-
village.
then a much larger one. The taste come. Cheese and bread and wine
was harsher and more concentrated, and dancing in the dusk, and the
the texture far coarser than any fireflies are like little lanterns."
food he had ever tasted before. "Oh," he said distantly.
Before he knew it, his share was "But your way is, of course, much
gone. She washed the dishes in the quicker," she added.
stream and replaced them on the "I see the Center," he said.
shelf.
said.
"That was very interesting," he
HE BROUGHT
swooping
in a long
the flier around
curve and
"But nothing you'd care for day dropped it lightly onto cleared land
in and day out?" outside the gates. Even as he got
"N-no," he said. out he saw people walking in the
She smiled. "I'm ready, Malloy. wide pastel streets of the Center.
Shall we go?" It was like a scene from home. They
They walked to the small flier. wore clothes of all shades, hues,
Malloy watched her closely. She fancies, whims. A completely anach-
had no awe of it, accepted it as ronistic shack stood outside the
something routine and unimpres- gate, though. A tall young man
sive. He ducked under the low with a full blond beard sat with his
door, sat down beside her, lifted back against the door frame. He
the flier off the ground, swung grinned and stood up as Malloy
around the crest of a clump of trees. and Deen approached. He wore the
"Let me see," he would
said, "six crude garments of the villagers.
be . .
." "Thomason, isn't it?" he asked.
"Turn it a bit to your right, "That's right. This is just an in-
Malloy. That's enough." spection trip."
Air whined by as he upped the "Go right ahead," he said.
speed. Cabin heat increased and the He turned to a metallic plate set
cooling unit came on. The ground beside the rude door, depressed a
streamed by far below, flattened by switch. Malloy, slightly baffled,
the height. followed Deen through the gate.

He said, in a fatherly tone, "This As he passed through he felt the
would be a long trip afoot, the way momentary tingle of a space-twist
you people seem to travel." fence temporarily reversed.

Then he straightened his shoul- "Why put it around any area?"
He walked beside Thomason.
ders. he shouted into her face.
"You see how pleasant life can be "You are rude," she said coldly.
in a Center?" he asked proudly. "And more stupid than I thought.
A well-larded woman sat in the We'll walk back slowly. Look at
sun playing with two romping fuzzy their faces, Malloy. Look long and
creatures she had created out of the well. You see, this is the penal
mental projector. Beyond her a man colony for this planet."
sleptpropped against a wall, half- The breath whoofed out of him.
empty bottles surrounding him. "Penal? But . Wait. Anybody
. .
"Very pleasant," Thomason said. who lives here can have every last
"They all have everything they thing they want."
want. Who would want to live out "Exactly," she said.
in the brush when everything is Subdued, he walked beside her
right here, within arm's reach? Ex- and he looked at their faces.
otic foods, toys,amusement."
"Who indeed?" Thomason WAS dusk in the heart of the
ITvillage.
stressed with gentle irony. He heard the thin eager
Malloy beamed at the colonists. voices of children at play. Smoke
They had the familiar triple chins from the cook fires lost itself in
of the home planet, the same short- the grayness overhead where the
ness of breath, the same bland look first strange star patterns were be-
that comes of satiety in all things. ginning to appear. Deen sat with
But he was puzzled by the way they her back against a tree. Sean Mal-
stared at the two of them. Dulled loy lay stretched out on the grass
eyes, with the glow of resentment on his back, the concavity of the
almost submerged. nape of his neck fitting comfortably
At the end of the street he over the warm convexity of her
stopped. "But the rest of the Cen- thigh.
ter is empty!" he said. An insect lit on the back of his
"Yes. There's just this one hand and he slapped it. He
street. We can't go any farther. squirmed a 'bit. He wasn't yet ac-
The fence will stop us." customed to the scratchiness of
She turned and started back. He homespun clothes. He squinted up
caught her in two quick strides, at the skies and thought of his ship
grasped her arm and pulled her speeding toward Bureau headquar-
around roughly. "Why have you ters, the resignation affixed to the
people installed a twist fence automatic controls. This was the
around this street?" third night back at her home.
"Because there's no need to put "A crazy thing to do," he mut-
it around a bigger area." tered.
SUSCEPTIBILITY 135
She took her cool fingertips from find that anyone who has become a
his forehead abruptly. "Sorry you Praecursor seems peculiarly . . .
did it, Sean?" she asked a bit frig- susceptible to this sort of exist-
idly. ence."
He captured her hand, kissed the
palm. "Not the way
ship will get
it
back there.
sounded.
They'll
My HE WAS silent for a long time,
and then he laughed. "Poor
give Able XII a double priority. A Zedder," he said.
new Praecursor will be here in "And poor Malloy," she added
probably less than four years. He teasingly.
may send an adjustment team." Suddenly he became suspicious.
The children were being called "Did you have orders to to — —
in from play. A few hundred feet "Seduce the Praecursor? How
down the unpaved main street strangely short your memory is, my
came' the -first tentative sounds of Sean! seem to remember that the
I
music. shoe was on the other foot." She

"I wouldn't worry about that, stood up quickly and held out her
Sean," she said softly. hand. "Come. They will expect us
He sat up, faced her. "Why in to dance. I shall teach you. It will
Sol not?" make you hungry for the wedding
She smiled at him. "Because feast."
when he comes, he'll go looking "How barbaric!" muttered the
for the person in charge, won't ex-Praecursor as he urgently up-
he?" tilted her mouth.
"Naturally." "How primitive you're becom-
was decided a long time ago
"It ing!" she taunted, and writhed out
that what little centralized admin- of his arms.
istration we need should be han- He caught her finally, but only
dled by those of us least likely to because she let him. He needed
be hungry for that sort of power." some woodchopping and farming,
"I don't get the connection." maybe some hunting and hiking,
"Village representatives to the too, before he could outrun her
general meeting are always unmar- legitimately. A couple of months
ried girls, and are always those con- and she would see who was the
sidered to be the most pleasing to stronger.
the eye. And we are beginning to —JOHN D. MacDONALD
COMING SOON
Results of the spectacular FLYING SAUCER contest!
Don't miss the ingenious solutions.'

BY GROFF CONKLIN
THE pickings are

month. Three books, one of
slim this
is
It is true that the present opus
no masterpiece of vari-colored
them not science fiction and writing, and that its romantic ele-
another a minor effort by a major ments are handled with all the sen-
author, make up our quota. sitiveness of the Sweet Singer of
The book which, despite its Michigan. But if you pass up these
various faults, stacks up as a worth- defects, you will find it one of the
while addition to one's science fic- most interesting and believable
tion collection is Stanton A. Cob- anti-Utopias of recent decades.
lentz's After 12,000 Years (Fan- The book was first published, ac-
tasy Publishing Co., Inc., 295 cording to the copyright notice, in
pages, $3-00). It comes as a sur- 1928; in many ways it sounds much
prise to find myself enjoying this older.For example, Coblentz's de-
book, for I have heretofore found scription of aircraft is more like
Coblentz's tales almost painfully Jules Verne than what has come
gauche and sententious in style and since the Wright brothers. Yet the
idea. ideas in the book are valid more —
• ••*• SHELF 137
so today, I believe, than when the "Financial Democracy" of Pana-
book was written. Coblentz con- mica, by whose soldiery the hero of
ceives of a world in which the class the story was captured. The armies
society has been frozen rigid by of insects, bred for enormous size,
ruthless selective breeding and vicious temper and specialized ac-
genetic manipulation. tivity (they include wasps, bees, sol-
By the time the story takes place, dier ants, and such) are
locusts
14101 A.D., the people of the tended by Bornean slaves and by
world are differentiated into the Small Head Workers.
Political-Financial species or "Wolf After adventures including a
Faces" —
owners, the
politicians, dictators, slave-
elite of the society; the
jello-like affair
named
with a Bornean
Luellen, the hero is
girl
trans-
"Large Heads;" and
Intellectuals, or ferred to the Panamican army,
the "Small Heads," subdivided into given a mission to spread termites
Workers and Soldiers. In addition over A-Uria.from an airship, cap-
there is a remnant of normal hu- tured by the set to work
enemy and
man beings occupying caves on the as a farmer. However, before any-
island of Borneo, defending them- thing drastic can happen to him, the
selves as best they can against Wolf whole civilization is wiped out by
Face hunting bands. termites, which turn on their mas-
The peoples of organized society ters and consume every bit of food
(but not the Borneans) are kept left in the world —

including the
under control by automatic propa- starved corpses of the people. All of
ganda reminiscent of that in George the world is theirs except for
Orwell's 1984, and also of the Borneo, to which the hero and his
Nazis' own "Big Lie" technique Bornean beloved escape.
a remarkable prevision of Hitler- —
Make no mistake this is not one
ism by Coblentz. of science fiction's works of
The hero of the story is from our genius. But it is fresh and full of
times, and survives 12,000 years as uncomfortable ideas about the fu-
the result of a faulty experiment ture.
with suspended animation. He is
much like the Borneans in appear- THE other science fiction item on
ance; and, like them, when they are our month
list this is A. E. van
captured,he is enslaved, forced to Vogt's The House That Stood Still
become a "Keeper of the Insects," (Greenberg: Publisher, 210 pages,
a frightful job. $2.50). This is a potboiler that de-
The insects he tends comprise the velops no head of steam — a routine
armies of the empires of the world, attempt at a detective story of the
Panamica, A-Uria, and Afalia, of frenetic "West Coast" school, forced
which the most aggressive is the into a science fiction mold by in-

serting "Immortals" and their diabolism. It is of the same genre
never-changing house (built around as E. R. Eddison'sThe Worm Ouro-
the spaceship of a prehistoric visitor boros, (which of course surpasses
to Earth) which keeps them im- our current item). Even so, Robert
mortal. E. Howard's Conan The Conqueror
The story, with its various dreary {Gnome Press, Inc., 255 pages,
murders, revolves around the strug- $2.75, originally published under
gles between two factions of the the title The Hour of the Dragon
Immortals, one of which wants to in one of the 1935 pulps) is a col-
quit Earth in the spaceship and go orful action story, in many ways a
to Mars before Earth's inevitable delightful piece of relaxation read-
atomic war blasts them to bits, and ing.
the few — including the bee-you- Much of the action in the story,
tiful heroine— who want to stay and which takes place in semi-mythical
try to stop the war with their super- places and times, concerns the con-
human powers. spiracies of Xaltotun, a sorcerer
Allison Stephens, estate agent 3,000 years dead, revived for pur-
for the richest of the Immortals, is poses of the plot by a clique of
an Erie Stanley Gardner type of empire-seekers who use the redis-
hero. At the end of 7 out of 23 covered "Heart of Ahriman" as
chapters, he is knocked out, held their revivifying instrument. Conan,
up, or in other ways pushed around a king against whom the others con-
the landscape to make him stop in- spire, is a and full-
believable
terfering. bodied character; one could wish
Of course, he wins out in the that Howard had done more with
end, getting the heroine, fame, him and less with his villains and
gold, immortality in one big, de- black magics.
licious economy package. As a straight creation of the
The book is readable, no ques- imagination, the world of Conan
tion about it. But in science fiction and his co-players on their swash-
more is needed, as van Vogt's other buckling stage has real merit. As a
works brilliantly show. Ideas, imag- piece of writing it is only average,
ination, scope — these things, essen- being pretty well laden with bom-
tialin good science fiction, this bast. As supernatural literature it
book has in minimal quantities. I is faintly ridiculous.

would class it as a rental library Nevertheless, for those who
property. like to lean back and read with
their minds closed, Conan will be
THE month's third book is highly acceptable and enjoy-

pseudo-historical romance, with able.
a tablespoonful of Mack magic and —GROFF CONKLIN
**••* SHELF 139
The Reluctant
t ^
Pioneers have always resented their wanderlust, hated
new grudge
their hardships. But the future brings a
when pioneers stay put and scholars do the exploring!
i-»..i » i . , Z vmmmumHBa&m
i
By FRANK M. ROBINSON
rHE the
young man sat on
very
edge of the sofa and
The
noyed.
verv young man was an-
looked nervous. He care- "I don't think I want to go," he

fully studied his fingernails and ran blurted. "I don't think I would care
his hands through his hair and to spend two years there."
picked imaginary lint off the uphol- The older man blew a smoke
stery. ring and watched it drift toward
"I have a chance to go with the the air exhaust vent.
first research expedition to Venus," "You mean you would miss it
he said. here, the people you'veknown and
The older man studied the very grown up with, the little familiar
young man thoughtfully and then things that have made up your life
leaned over to his humidor and here. You're afraidthe glamor
offered him a cigaret. "It's nice to would wear off and you would get
have the new air units now. There to hate it on Venus."
was a time when we had to be very The very young man nodded
careful about things like smoking." miserably. "I guess that's it."

H
•*B*-A«ft®RKSJ5ft
Illustrated by DON SIBLEY
"Anything else?" sooner than you think. And the

The very young man found his goal is worth it."
fingernails extremely fascinating "I suppose so, but —
again and finally said, in a low The older man smiled. "Still the
voice, "Yes, there is." reluctant heroes," he said, some-
"A girl?" what to himself.
A nod confirmed this.
It was the older man's turn to CHAPMAN stared at the radio

look thoughtful. "You know, I'm key.
sure, that psychologists and research Three years on the Moon and
men agree that research stations they didn'twant him to come back.
should be staffed by couples. That Three years on the Moon and
is, of course, as soon as it's practi- they thought he'd be glad to stay
cal." for more. Just raise his salary or
"But that might be a long time!" give him a bonus, the every-man-
the very young man protested. has-his-price idea. They probably
"It might be —
but sometimes it's thought he liked it there.
THE RELUCTANT HEROES 141

Oh, sure, he loved it. Canned and Bening were lying perfectly
coffee, canned beans, canned pills, still, their covers not mussed, sleep-
and canned air until your insides ing very lightly.
felt as though they were plated Lord, Chapman thought, I'll be
with tin. Life in a cramped, smelly happy when I can see some other
little hut where you could take only faces.
ten steps in any one direction. "What'd they want?" Klein had
Their little scientific home of to- one eyelid open and a questioning
morrow with none of the modern look on his face.
conveniences, a charming place "They wanted me to stay until
where you couldn't take a shower, the next relief ship lands," Chap-
couldn't brush your teeth, and your man whispered back.
kidneys didn't work right.
"What did you say?"
And for double his salary they He shrugged. "No."
thought he'd be glad to stay for an- "You kept somebody
it short,"
other year and a half. Or maybe else whispered. It was Donley, up
three. He should probably be glad and sitting on the side of his ham-
he had the opportunity. mock. "If it had been me, I would
The key started to stutter again, have told them just what they could
demanding an answer. do about it."
He tapped out his reply: "No!"
There was a silence and then the
key stammered once more in a sud-
THE others were awake now,
with the exception of Dahl who
den fit of bureaucratic rage. Chap- had his face to the bulkhead and a
man stuffed a rag under it and ig- pillow over his head.
nored it. He turned to the ham- Dowden rubbed his eyes sleep-
mocks, strung against the bulkhead ily. "Sore, aren't you?"
on the other side of the room. "Kind of. Who wouldn't be?"
The chattering of the key hadn't "Well, don't it throw you.
let
awakened anybody; they were still They've never been here on the
asleep, making the animal noises Moon. They don't know what it's
that people usually make in slum- like. All they're trying to do is get
ber. Dowden, half in the bottom a good man to stay on the job a
hammock and half on the floor, was while longer."
snoring peacefully. Dahl, the poor "All they're trying to do," Chap-
kid who was due for stopover, was man said sarcastically. "They've got
mumbling to himself. Julius Klein, a fat chance."
with that look of ineffable happi- "They think you've found a
ness on his face, looked as if he had home here," Donley said.
just squirmed under the tent to his "Why the hell don't you guys
personal idea of heaven. Donley shut up until morning?" Dahl was

awake, looking bitter. "Some of us could still see the footprints in the
still have to stay here, you know. powdery soil where the group had
Some of us aren't going back to- gathered about the grave. It had
day." been more than eighteen months
No, Chapman thought, some of ago, but there was no wind to wear
us aren't going back. You aren't. those tracks away. They'd be there
And Dixon's staying, too. Only forever.
Dixon isn't ever going back. That's what happened to guys
Klein jerked his thumb toward like Dixon, Chapman thought. On
Dahl's bunk, held a finger to his the Moon, one mistake could use
lips, and walked noiselessly over to up your whole quota of chances.
the small electric stove. It was his Klein came back with the coffee.
day for breakfast duty. Chapman took a cup, gagged, and
The others started lacing up their forced himself to swallow the rest
bunks, getting ready for their last of it. It had been in the can for so
day of work on the Moon. In a few long you could almost taste the
hours they'd be relieved by mem- glue on the label.
bers of the Third research group
and they'd be on their way back to DONLEY was warming himself
Earth. over his cup, looking thought-
And me, Chapman
that includes ful. Dowden and Bening were
thought. going home. I'm
I'm struggling into their suits, getting
finally going home. ready to go outside. Dahl was still
He walked silently to the one sitting on his hammock, trying to

small, quartz window in the room. ignore them.
It was morning the — Moon's "Think we ought to radio the
"morning" and — he shivered space station and see if they've left
slightly. The rays of the Sun were there yet?" Klein asked.
just striking the far rim of the "I talked to them on the last
crater and long shadows shot across call," Chapman said. "The relief
the crater floor. The rest of it was ship left there twelve hours ago.
still blanketed in a dark jumble of They should
— get here" —he looked
powdery pumice and jagged peaks at his watch "in about six and a
that would make the Black Hills of half hours."
Dakota look like paradise. "Chap, you know, I've been
A hundred yards from the re- thinking," Donley said quietly.
search bunker he could make out "You've been here just twice as
the small mound of stones and the long as the What's the
rest of us.
forlorn homemade cross, jury- first thing you're going to do once
rigged out of small condensed milk you get back?"

tins slid over crossed iron bars. You It hit them, then. Dowden and

Bening looked blank for a minute to rent a room over Times Square,
and blindly found packing cases get a recording of a rikky-tik piano,
to sit on. The top halves of their and drink and listen to the music
suits were hanging on the bulk-
still and watch the people on the street
head. Klein lowered his coffee cup below. Then I think I'll see some-
and looked grave. Even Dahl body."
glanced up expectantly. "Who's the somebody?" Donley
"I don'tknow," Chapman said asked.
slowly. "I guess I was trying not to Chapman grinned. "Oh, just
think of that. I suppose none of us somebody. What are you going to
have. We've been like little kids do, Dick?"
who have waited so long for Christ- "Well, I'm going to do some-
mas that they just can't believe it thing practical. First of all, I want
when it'sChristmas Eve."
finally to turn over all my geological sam-
Klein nodded in agreement. "I ples to the government. Then I'm
haven't been here three years like going to sell my life story to the
you have, but I think I know what —
movies and then why, then, I
you mean." He warmed up to it as think I'll get drunk!"
the sank in. "Just what the
idea Everybody laughed and Chap-
you going to do?"
hell are man turned to Klein.
"Nothing very spectacular," "How about you, Julius?"
Chapman said, smiling. "I'm going Klein looked solemn. "Like

Dick, I'll first get rid of my obli-
gations to the expedition. Then I
think I'll go home and see my

wife."
They were quiet. "I thought all
members of the groups were sup-
posed to be single," Donley said.
"They are. And I can see their
reasons for it. But who could pass
up the money the Commission was
paying?
"If I had to do it all over again?
Me," said Donley promptly.
They laughed. Somebody said:
"Go play your record, Chap. To-
day's the day for it."
The phonograph was a small,
wind-up model that Chapman had
smuggled in when he had landed
with the First group. The record
was old and the was nearly
shellac
worn off, but the music was good.

The roads are the dustiest, Chapman stopped them at the
The winds are the gustiest lock. "Remember to check your
The gates are the rustiest, suits for leaks," he warned. "And
The pies are the crustiest, check the valves of your oxygen
The songs are the lustiest, tanks."
The friends the trustiest, Donley looked sour. "I've gone
Way back home* out at least five hundred times," he
said, "and you check me each time."
THEY ran through it twice. "And I'd five hun-
check you
They were beginning to feel it dred more," Chapman said. "It
now, Chapman thought. They were takes only one mistake. And watch
going to go home in a little while out for blisters under the pumice
and the idea was just starting to crust. You go through one of those
sink in. and that's it, brother."
"You know, Chap," Donley said, Donley sighed. "Chap, you watch
"it won't seem like the same old us like an old mother hen. You see
Moon without you on it. Why, we check our suits, you settle our
we'll look at it when we're out arguments, you see that we're not
spooning or something and it just bored and that we stay healthy and
won't have the same old appeal." happy. I think you'd blow our noses
"Like they say in the army," for us if we caught cold. But some
Bening said, "you never had it so day, Chap old man, you're gonna
good.You found a home here." find out that your little boys can
The others chimed in and Chap- watch out for themselves!"
man grinned. Yesterday or a week But he checked his suit for leaks
ago they couldn't have done it. He and tested the valve of his tank
had been there too long and he had before he left.
hated it too much. Only Klein and Chapman were
The party quieted down after a left in the bunker. Klein was at the
while and Dowden and Bening fin- work table, carefully labeling some
ished getting into their suits. They lichen specimens.
still had a section of the sky to map "I never knew you were mar-
before they Donley was right
left. ried," Chapman said.
after them. There was an outcrop- Klein didn't look up. "There
ping of rock that he wanted a sam- wasn't much sense in talking about
ple of and some strata he wished to it. You just get to thinking and
investigate —
wanting and there's nothing you
And the time went faster when can do about it. You talk about it
you kept busy. and it just makes it worse."
"She let you go without any fuss,
•Copyright by
Dregman, Vocco & Conn, Inc. huh?"

"No, she didn't make any fuss. "Yes."
But I don't think she liked to see "You're not like Dahl. You've
me go, either." He laughed a little. never mentioned it."
"At least I hope she didn't." "Same reason you didn't mention
your wife. You get to thinking
THEY were silent for a while. about it."
"What do you miss most, Klein flipped the lid on the spec-
Chap?" Klein asked. "Oh, I know imen box. "Going to get married
what we said a little while ago, but when you get back?"
I mean seriously." Chapman was at the port again,
Chapman thought a minute. "I staring out at the bleak landscape.
think I miss the sky," he said quiet- "We hope to."
ly. "The blue sky and the green "Settle down in a small cottage
grass and trees with leaves on them and raise lots of little Chapmans,
that turn color in the Fall. I think, eh?"
when I go back, that I'd like to go Chapman nodded.
out in a rain storm and strip and "That's the only future," Klein
feel the rain on my skin." said.
He stopped, feeling embarrassed. He put away the box and came
Klein's expression was encourag- over to the port. Chapman moved
ing."And then I think I'd like to over so they both could look out.
go downtown and just watch the "Chap." Klein hesitated a mo-
shoppers on the sidewalks. Or may- ment."What happened to Dixon ?"
be go to a burlesque house and "He died," Chapman said. "He
smell the cheap perfume and the was a good kid, all wrapped up in
popcorn and the people sweating in science. Being on the Moon was
the dark." the opportunity of a lifetime. He
He studied his hands. "I think thought so much about it that he
what I miss most is people — all forgot a lot of little things — like
kinds of people. Bad people and how to stay alive. The day before
good people and fat people and the Second group came, he went
thin people, and people I can't un- out to finish some work he was in-
derstand. People who wouldn't terested in. He forgot to check for
know an atom from an artichoke. leaks and whether or not the valve
And people who wouldn't give a on his tank was all the way closed.
damn. We're a quarter of a million We couldn't get to him in time."
miles from nowhere, Julius, and to "He had his walkie-talkie with
make it literary, I think I miss my him?"
fellow man more than anything." "Yes. It worked fine, too. We
"Got a girl back home?" Klein heard everything that went through
asked almost casually. his mind at the end."

Klein's face was blank. "What's "No, I wouldn't."
your real job here, Chap? Why "Do you think Dahl will do as
does somebody have to stay for good a job as you've done here?"
stopover?" Chapman frowned. "Frankly, I
"Hell, lots of reasons, Julius. hadn't thought of that. I don't be-
You can't get a whole relief crew lieve I care. I've put in my time;
and let them take over cold. They it's somebody else's turn, now. He
have to know where you left off. volunteered for it. I think I was
They have to know where things fair in explaining all about the job
are, how things work, what to when you talked it over among
watch out for. And then, because yourselves."
you've been here a year and a half "You did, but I don't think
and know the ropes, you have to Dahl's the man for it. He's too
watch them to see that they stay young, too much of a kid. He vol-
alive in spite of themselves. The unteered because he thought it
Moon's a new environment and you made him look like a hero. He
have to learn how to live in it. doesn't have the judgment that an
There's a lot of things to learn older man would have. That you
and some people just never learn." have."
"You're nursemaid, then." Chapman turned slowly around
"I suppose you could call it and faced Klein.
that." "I'm not the indispensable man,"
he said slowly, "and even if I was,
KLEIN said, "You're not a scien- it wouldn't make any difference to
tist, are you?" me. I'm sorry if Dahl is young. So

"No, you should know that. I was I. I've lost three years up here.
came as the pilot of the first ship. And I don't intend to lose any
We made the bunker out of parts more."
of the ship so there wasn't any- Klein held up his hands. "Look,
thing to go back on. I'm a good Chap, I didn't mean you should
mechanic and I made myself use- stay. I know how much you hate
with the machinery. When it it and the time you put in up here.
ful
occurred to us that somebody was It's just
—" His voice trailed away.
going to have to stay over, I volun- "It's just that I think it's such a
teered.I thdught the others were so damn important job."
important that it was better they Klein had gone out in a last
should take their samples and data search for rock lichens and Chap-
back to Earth when the first relief man enjoyed one of his relatively
ship came." few moments of privacy. He wan-
"You wouldn't do it again, dered over to his bunk and opened
though, would you?" his barracks bag. He checked the

underwear and his toothbrush and he heard the rumble of the airlock
shaving kit for maybe the hun- and the soft hiss of air. Somebody
dredth time and pushed the cloth- had come back earlier than ex-
ing down farther in the canvas. It pected. He watched the inner door
was foolish because the bag was al- swing open and the spacesuited
ready packed and had been for a figure clump in and unscrew its hel-
week. He remembered stalling it met.
off for as long as he could and then Dahl. He had gone out to help
the quiet satisfaction about a week Dowden on the Schmidt telescope.
before, when he had opened his Maybe Dowden hadn't needed any
small gear locker and transferred help, with Bening along. Or more
its meager belongings to the bag. likely, considering the circum-
He hadn't actually needed to stances, Dahl wasn't much good at
pack, of course. In less than twenty- helping anybody today.
four hours he'd be back on Earth Dahl stripped off his suit. His
where he could drown himself in face was covered with light beads
toothpaste and buy more tee shirts of sweat and his eyes were fright-
than he could wear in a lifetime. ened.
He could leave behind his shorts He moistened his lips slightly.
and socks and the outsize shirts he "Do —do you think they'll ever
—
had inherited from who was it? have relief ships up here more
Driesbach? —of the First group. often than every eighteen months,
Dahl could probably use them or Chap?
maybe one of the boys in the Third. vance of
I
—mean, considering the ad-
"No," Chapman interrupted

BUT it wasn't like going home bluntly. "I don't. Not at least for
unless you packed. It was part ten years. The fuel's too expensive
of the like marking off the
ritual, and the trip's too hazardous. On
last three weeks in pencil on the freight charges alone you're worth
gray steel of the bulkhead beside your weight in platinum when they
his hammock. Just a few hours ago, send you here. Even if it becomes
when he woke up, he had made the cheaper, Bob, it won't come about
last check mark and signed his so it will shorten stopover right
name and the date. His signature away." He stopped, feeling a little
was right beneath Dixon's. sorry for Dahl. "It won't be too
He frowned when he thought of bad. There'll be new men up here
Dixon and slid back the catch on and you'll pass a lot of time getting
the top of the bag and locked it. to know them."
They should never have sent a kid "Well, you see," Dahl started,
like Dixon to the Moon. "that's why I came back early. I
He had just locked the bag when wanted to see you about stopover.

It's that —
well, I'll put it this way." "Well, yes, more or less. Oh,
He seemed to be groping for an God, Chap, I know you want to go
easy way to say what he wanted to. home! But I couldn't ask any of
"I'm engaged back home. Really the others; you were the only one
nice girl, Chap, you'd like her if who could, the only one who was
!"
you knew her." He fumbled in his qualified
pocket and found a photograph and
put it on the desk. "That's a picture DAHL looked as though he was
of Alice, taken at a picnic we were going to be sick. Chapman
on together." Chapman didn't look. tried to recall all he knew about
— —
"She we expected to be married him. Dahl, Robert.Good mathema-
when I got back. I never told her tician.Graduate from one of the
about stopover, Chap. She thinks Ivy League schools. Father was a
I'll be home tomorrow. I kept manufacturer of stoves or some-
thinking, hoping, that maybe some-
how — thing.
It still didn't add, not quite.
He was fumbling it badly, Chap- "You know I don't like ithere any
man thought. more than you do," Chapman said
"You wanted to trade places with slowly. "I may have commitments
me, didn't you, Bob? You thought at home, too. What made you think
I might stay for stopover again, in I would change my mind?"
your place?" Dahl took the plunge. "Well,

It hurt to look in Dahl's eyes. you see," he started eagerly, too far
They were the eyes of a man who gone to remember such a thing as
was trying desperately to stop what pride, "you know my father's pretty
he was about to do, but just couldn't well fixed. We would make it
help himself. worth your while, Chap." He was

"It would mean eighteen
feverish. Itwould eat at him like a cancer.
more months, Chap, but they'd be Cowardice is the one thing for
well-paid months!" which no man ever forgives him-
Chapman felt tired. The good self.
feeling he had about going home

was slowly evaporating. DONLEY was eating a sand-
"If you have any report to make, wich and looking out the port,
I think you had better get at it," he so, naturally, he saw the ship
cut in, keeping all the harshness he first. "Well, whaddya know!" he
felt out of his voice. "It'll be too shouted. "We got company!" He
late after the relief ship leaves. It'll dashed for his suit. Dowden and
be easier to give the captain your Bening piled after him and all three
report than try to radio it back to started for the lock.
Earth from here." Chapman was standing in front
He Dahl than he
felt sorrier for of it. "Check your suits," he said
could ever remember having felt softly. "Just be sure to check."
for anybody. Long after going' "Oh, what the hell, Chap!" Don-
home, Dahl would remember this. Then he shut up
ley started angrily.
and went over his suit. He got to
his tank and turned white. Empty.
It was only half a mile to the re-
lief rocket, so somebody would

probably have got to him in time,
but . . . He bit his lips and got a
full tank.
Chapman and Klein watched
them dash across the pumice, mak-

ing the tremendous leaps they used Some of the men in the Third
to read about in theSunday supple- had their luggage with them. One
ments. The port of the rocket had of them- —a husky, red-faced kid
opened and tiny figures were climb- named Williams —was
opening a
ing down the ladder. The small box about a foot square and six
figures from the bunker reached inches deep. Chapman watched him
them and did a short jig of wel- curiously.
come. Then the figures linked arms "Well, I'll be damned!" Klein
and started back. Chapman noticed said."Hey, guys, look what we've
—
one it was probably Donley pat — got here!"
the ship affectionately before he Chapman and the others crowded
started back. around and suddenly Donley leaned
They were in the lock and the air over and took a deep breath. In the
pumped in and then they were in box, covering a thick layer of ordi-
the bunker, taking off their suits. nary dirt, was a plot of grass. They
The newcomers were impressed and looked at it, awed. Klein put out
solemn, very much aware of the his hand and laid it on top of the
tremendous responsibility that grass.
rested on their shoulders. Like "I like the feel of it," he said
Donley and Klein and the members simply.
of the Second group had been when Chapman cut off a single blade
they had landed. Like Chapman with his fingernail and put it be-
had been in the First. tween his lips. It had been years
Donley and the others were all since he had seen grass and had the
over them. luxury of walking on it and lying
on its cool thickness during those
HOW
Who
was
had
it back on Earth?
won the series?
sultry summer
too hot to sleep indoors.
nights when it was
Was so-and-so still teaching at the Williams blushed. "I thought we

university? What was the interna- could spare alittle water for it and
tional situation? maybe use the ultraviolet lamp on

Was the sky still blue, was the it some of the time. Couldn't help
:
grass still green, did the leaves still but bring it along; it se emed sort
turn color in the autumn, did peo- of like a symbol ..." He looked
ple still love and cry and were there embarrassed.
still people who didn't know what Chapman sympathized. If he had
an atom was and didn't give a had any sense, he'd have tried to
damn ? smuggle something like that up to
Chapman had gone through it the Moon instead of his phono-
all before. But was Ginny still graph.
Ginny ? "That's valuable grass," Dahl

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said sharply. "Do you realize that Chapman jerked a thumb to-
at current freight rates up here, it's ward Dahl. "Ask him. He's in
worth about ten dollars a blade?" charge now."
Williams looked stricken and The captain didn't bother. He
somebody said, "Oh, shut up, put the pack away. "You know we
Dahl." have big plans for the station," he
One of the men separated from said.
the group and came over to Chap- "I hadn't heard of them."
man. He held out his hand and "Oh, yes, big plans. They're
said, "My name's Eberlein. Captain working on unmanned, open-side
of the relief ship. I understand rockets now that could carry cargo
you're in charge here?" and sheet for more bunkers
steel
Chapman nodded and shook like this. Enable us to enlarge the
hands. They hadn't had a captain unit, have a series of bunkers all
on the First ship. Just a pilot and linked together. Make good labora-
crew. Eberlein looked every inch a' tories and living quarters for you
captain, too. Craggy face, gray hair, people." His eyes swept the room.
the firm chin of a man who was "Have a little privacy for a change."
sure of himself. Chapman nodded. "They could
"You might say I'm in charge use a little privacy up here."
here,"Chapman said. The captain noticed the pronoun.
"Well, look, Mr. Chapman, is "Well, that's one of the reasons
there any place where we can talk why wanted to talk to you, Chap-
I
together privately?" man. The Commission talked it

They walked over to one corner over and they'd like to see you stay.
of the bunker. "This is about as They feel if they're going to en-
private as we can get, captain," large it, add more bunkers and
Chapman said. "What's on your have more men up here, that a man
mind?" of practical experience should be
running things. They figure that
EBERLEIN found a packing you're the onlyman who's capable
and made himself com-
crate and who's had the experience."
fortable. He looked at Chapman. The captain vaguely felt the ap-
"I've always wanted to meet the proach was all wrong.
man who's spent more time here "Is that all ?"
than anybody else," he began. Eberlein was ill at ease. "Natu-
"I'm sure you wanted to see me rally you'd be paid well. I don't
for more reasons than just curios- imagine any man would like being
ity." here all the time. They're prepared
Eberlein took out a pack of cigar to double your salary —maybe even
rets. "Mind if I smoke?" a bonus in addition —and you let

have You'd be Director
full charge. read it in privacy. It was a short
of the Luna Laboratories." letter, very short.
All this and a title too, Chapman It started: "Dear Joel: This isn't
thought. going to be a nice letter, but I

"That's it?" Chapman asked. thought it best that you should
Eberlein frowned. "Well, the know before you came home."
Commission said they'd be willing There was more to it, but he
to consider anything else you had hadn't even needed to read it to
in mind, if it was more money know what it said. It wasn't or-
or . .
." iginal, of course. Women who
"The answer is no," Chapman change their minds weren't ex-
said. "I'm not interested in more actly an innovation, either.
money for staying because I'm not He crumpled the paper and held
interested in staying. Money can't a match to it and watched it burn
buy it, captain. I'm sorry, but I'm on the steel floor.
afraid that you'd have to stay up Three years had been a long
here to appreciate that. time. It was too long a time to
"Bob Dahl is staying for stop- keep loving a man who was a quart-
over. If something impor-
there's er of a million miles away. She
tant about the project or impending could look up in the night sky
changes, perhaps you'd better tell when she was out with somebody
him before you go." else now and tell him how she had
He walked away. once been engaged to the Man in
the Moon.
CHAPMAN held the letter in It would make good conversation.
both hands, but the paper still It would be funny. A joke.
shook. The others had left the He got up and walked over to
bunker, the men of the Second tak- his phonograph and put the record
ing those of the Third in hand to on. The somewhat scratchy voice
show them the machinery and ap- sang as if nothing had happened.
paratus that was outside, point out
the deadly blisters underneath the The home food's the spreadiest,
pumice covering, and show them The old wine's the^ headiest,
how to keep out of the Sun and The old pals the readiest,
how to watch their air supply. The home gal's the steadiest,
He was glad he was alone. He The lore the liveliest,
felt something trickle down his face The life the loveliest,
and tasted salt on his lips. Way back home.
The mail had been distributed
and he had saved his latest letter The record caught and started
until the others had left so he could repeating the last line.

He hadn'tactually wanted to play at them questioningly. Some mem-
it. had been an automatic re-
It bers of the Third looked embar-
sponse. He had played it lots of rassed, like outsiders caught in a
times before when he had thought family argument.
of Earth. Of going home. "Look, Julius, I'm not going
He crossed over and threw the back," Chapman repeated dully. "I
record across the bunker and haven't anything to go back for."
watched it shatter on the steel wall "You're doing a much braver
and the pieces fall to the floor. thing than you may think," a voice
The others came back in the cut in. It belonged to Eberlein.
bunker and the men of the Second Chapman looked at him. Eber-
started grabbing their bags and lein flushed, then turned and
few belongings and getting ready walked-stiffly to the lock to join the
to leave. Dahl sat in a corner, a others.
peculiar expression on his face. He Just before the inner door of the
looked as if he wanted to cry and lock shut, they could hear Chap-
yet still felt that the occasion was man, hands on his hips, break:
his
one for rejoicing. ing in the Third on how to be
Chapman walked over to him. happy and stay healthy on the
"Get your stuff and leave with the Moon. His voice was ragged and
others, Dahl." His voice was quiet strained and sounded like a top-
and hard. sergeant's.
Dahl looked opened his

up,
mouth to say something, and then DAHL and Eberlein stood in the
shut up. Donley and Bening and outer port of the relief ship,
Dowden were already in the air- staring back at the research bunker.
lock, ready to leave. Klein caught It was half hidden in the shadows
the conversation and came over. He of a rocky overhang that protected
gripped Chapman's arm. itfrom meteorites.
"What the hell's going on, "They kidded him a lot this
Chap? Get your bag and let's go. morning," Dahl said. "They said
I know just the bistro to throw a he had found a home on the
whing-ding when we get
— Moon." j
"I'm not going back," Chapman "If we had stayed an hour or so

said. more, he might have changed his
Klein looked annoyed, not believ- mind and left, after all," Eberlein
ing him. "Come on, what's the mat- mused, his face a thoughtful mask
ter with you? You suddenly de- behind his air helmet.
cide you don't like the blue sky and "I offered him money," Dahl
trees and stuff? Let's go!" said painfully. "I was a coward and
The men in the lock were looking I offered him money to stay in my

—
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place." His face was bitter and "Perhaps you could have," Eber-
full of disgust for himself. lein said."But I doubt it. I don't
Eberlein turned to him quickly think there were many men who
and automatically told him the could have. And we couldn't take
right thing. the chance. Chapman knows how
"We're all cowards once in a to live on the Moon. He's like a
while," he said earnestly. "But your trapper who's spent all his time in
offer of money had nothing to do the forests and knows it like the
with his staying. He stayed because palm of his hand. He
never makes
he had to stay, because we made mistakes, he never fails to check
him stay." things. And he isn't a scientist. He
"I don't understand," Dahl said. would never become so preoccupied
"Chapman had a lot to go home with research that he'd fail to make
for. He was engaged to be mar- checks. And he can watch out for
ried." Dahl winced. "We got her those who do make mistakes. Ginny
to write him a letter breaking it off. understood that all too well."
We knew it meant that he lost one "How did you know all this
of his main reasons for wanting to aboutChapman?" Dahl asked.

go back. I think, perhaps, that he "The men in the First told us
still would have left if we had some of it. And we had our own
stayed and argued him into going. observer with you here. Bening
But we left before he could change kept us pretty well informed."
his mind."
—
"That was a lousy thing to do!" EBERLEIN stared at the bunker
"We had no choice. We didn't thoughtfully.
use it except as a last resort." "It costs a lot of money to send
"I don't know of any girl who ships up here and establish a col-
would have done such a thing, no ony. It will cost a lot to expand it.
matter what your reasons, if she And with that kind of investment,
was in love with a guy like Chap- you don't take chances. You have
man," Dahl said. to have the best men for the job.
"There was only one who would You get them even if they don't
have," Eberlein agreed. "Ginny want to do it."
Dixon. She understood what we He
gestured at the small, blotchy
were trying to tell her. She had to; globe of blue and green that was
her brother had died up here." the Earth, riding high in the black
"Why was Chapman so impor- sky.
tant?" Dahl burst out. "What could "You remember what it was like
he have done that I couldn't have five years ago, Dahl? Nations at
—
done -would have done if I had each other's throats, re-arming to
had any guts?" the teeth? It isn't that way now.

We've got the one lead that nobody Maybe somehow, someway, this one
can duplicate or catch up on. No- can be patched up. We'll try to."
body has our technical background. He started the mechanism that
I know, this isn't a military base. closed the port of the rocket. His
But it could become one." face was a study of regret and help-
He paused. lessness. He was thinking of a fu-
"But these aren't even the most ture that, despite what he had told
important reasons, Dahl. We're at Dahl, wasn't quite real to him.
the beginnings of space travel, the "I feel like a cheap son of a
first bare, feeble start. If this base bitch," Eberlein said.
on the Moon succeeds, the whole
human race will be Outward rT'HE very young man said, "Do
Bound." He waved at the stars. *- they actually care where they
"You have your choice a frontier — send us? Do they actually care what
that lies in the stars, or a psychotic we think?"
littleworld that tries and fails The older man got up and
and spends its time and talents try- walked to the window. The bunkers
ing to find better methods of sui- and towers and squat buildings of
cide. the research colony glinted in the
"With a choice like that, Dahl, sunlight. The colony had come a
you can't let it fail. And personal long way; it housed several thou-
lives and viewpoints are expend- sands now.
able. But it's got to be that way. The Sun was fust rising for the
There's too much at stake." long morning and farther down
Eberlein hesitated a moment and shadows stabbed across the crater
when he it was on a
started again, floor. Tycho was by far the most
different "You're an odd
track. beautiful of the craters, he thought.
bunch of guys, you and the others It was nice to know that the very
in the groups, Dahl. Damn few of young man was going to miss it. It
you come up for the glamor, I had taken the older man quite a
know. None of you like it and none long time to get to like it. But that
of you are really enthusiastic about —
was to be expected he hadn't been
it. You were all reluctant to come on the Moon.
in the first place, for the most part. "I would say so," he said. "They
You're a bunch of pretty reluctant were cruel, that way, at the start.
heroes, Dahl." But then they had to be. The goal
The captain nodded soberly at was too important. And they made
the bunker. "I, personally, don't up for it as soon as they could. It
feel happy about that. I don't like didn't take them too long to re-
having to mess up other people's member the men who had traded
lives. I hope I won't have to again. their future for the stars."

The very young man said, "Did "Oh, there was the idea behind
you actually think of it that way Commis-
the project, the vision the
when you first came up here?" sion had in mind. But it took a
The older man thought for a while for that to grow."
minute. "No," he admitted. "No, A woman came in the room fust
we didn't. Most of us were strictly then, bearing a tray ivith glasses on
play-for-pay men. The Commission it. The older man took one and
wanted men who wouldn't fall said, "Your mother and I were
apart when the glamor ivore off notified yesterday that you had been
and there was nothing left but pri- chosen to go. We would like to see
vation and hard work and loneli- you go, but of course the final de-
ness. The men who fell for the cision is up to you."
glamor were all right for quick He sipped his drink and turned
trips,but not for an eighteen-month to his wife: "It has its privations,
stay in a research bunker. So the but in the long run we've never re-
Commission offered high salaries gretted it, have we, Ginny?"
and we reluctantly took the fobs. —FRANK M. ROBINSON
NEXT MONTH'S CONTENTS PAGE

COVER by Chesley Bonestell
BOOK-LENGTH SERIAL— Installment 2
TYRANN fay Isaac Asiwov
NOVELET
THE FIREMAN fay Ray Bradbury
SHORT STORIES*
THE PROTECTOR fay Betsy Curtis
PEN PAL fay Milton Lesser
ARTICLE*
WHERE WERE WE? fay L. Sprague de Camp
FEATURES
EDITORS PAGE GALAXY'S FIVE STAR SHELF
*All bets ore off on short stories and article. With one-third of a genuinely
book-length novel plus 25,000 words complete in one issue, it's possible only
to guess what else will fit in. This lineup looks just about right, however.

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of AKKA, mysterious last hope of humanity in the 30th
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Whether you've met these famous characters of

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by William Campbell Gautt 1 08

THE RELUCTANT HEROES . .

GALAXY Science Fiction

New York, N. Y. Copyright,

accompanied by self -ad-

printed in this magazine

r At a copy, 12 issues of the magazine cost $3.00

Send GALAXY Science Fiction for One Year as

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decline; there is no possibility of story of immense impact a hyp- —

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

Being young, handsome, son of the chief noble of a planet is

I GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

CHAPTER I yet quite unmistakable and deadly.

side to side in a futile

What do you want?" had the right to yell at him in the

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

The milky square of light sprung he might report it anyway,

out and threw a faint, pearly luster withput particular comment. He

eral power There couldn't

ing when he went to sleep. cuits.

Biron could reconstruct the pro-

and laugh very hard. the door would be closed again.

He turned away and his toe course. Space! A

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

the absence of lights in order to was holding with and recog-

induce panic. Nice kids! nized the nature of the sound at

10 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

blue, you would show up at the

had to. Nobody, therefore, would topes heated it slowly, permeating

reason. When the threshold of heat and

clipped hair. This was a ridiculous There was no way of telling

12 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

14 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

Jonti's hand found the other's tody of the Tyranni. He may be

Jonti resumed, "I'll be more spe- sent this attempt of yours to —

reason you should trust me, other "It is important, my friend. I

BIRON nodded uselessly in the breath stirred the hair on Biron's

"Are you trying to tell me that a faraway world, by accident, it

16 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

from reality for your own protec- comfortable to be forced to take

definite assignment. An assignment, your father is killed, you will be

believe it of you. I am sorry if that better? They'll put up a monument

him out of And not In business

he's dead, I'll .Jll of conspiracy, one must be practical

Biron muttered, "What do you to decide."

18 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

had remained unaccomplished and the Nebula. Now, suddenly and

act in ignorance. a sort of twitching that futilely agi-

he was to have obtained from had been on Earth

20 GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION

cumstances as they exist, we can Then the portentous silence and

not call me here again, as I am The stewards scour the corri-

leaving Earth." dors,knocking shortly on each door

been arranged perfectly, and the There is the faraway rumble of

Chance and the Wristxvatch most indefinitely back; then very

THE hour of a spaceship's

clear in the Earthshine. half-coin in the endless black.