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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18105-h.zip b/18105-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c4b369 --- /dev/null +++ b/18105-h.zip diff --git a/18105-h/18105-h.htm b/18105-h/18105-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c65829b --- /dev/null +++ b/18105-h/18105-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1474 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Genesis, by H. Beam Piper + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr {width: 65%; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em;} + hr.mid {width: 45%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Genesis, by H. Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Genesis + +Author: H. Beam Piper + +Release Date: April 2, 2006 [EBook #18105] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<hr /> + +<p><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> + +<p>This etext was produced from "Future combined +with Science Fiction Stories" September 1951. Extensive research did not +uncover any evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed.</p> + +<p>A number of typographical errors found in the +original text have been corrected in this version. A <a href="#note">list</a> of these +errors is found at the end of this book.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1>GENESIS</h1> + +<h3>By</h3> +<h2>H. Beam Piper</h2> + +<h3>FEATURE NOVELET<br /> + OF LOST WORLDS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud, old race—or the +beginning of a new one?</p> + +<p>There are strange gaps in our records of the past. We find traces +of man-like things—but, suddenly, man appears, far too much +developed to be the "next step" in a well-linked chain of +evolutionary evidence. Perhaps something like the events of this +story furnishes the answer to the riddle.</p></div> + +<p>Aboard the ship, there was neither day nor night; the hours slipped +gently by, as vistas of star-gemmed blackness slid across the +visiscreens. For the crew, time had some meaning—one watch on duty and +two off. But for the thousand-odd colonists, the men and women who were +to be the spearhead of migration to a new and friendlier planet, it had +none. They slept, and played, worked at such tasks as they could invent, +and slept again, while the huge ship followed her plotted trajectory.</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard, the army officer who would lead them in their new home, had +as little to do as any of his followers. The ship's officers had all the +responsibility for the voyage, and, for the first time in over five +years, he had none at all. He was finding the unaccustomed idleness more +wearying than the hectic work of loading the ship before the blastoff +from Doorsha. He went over his landing and security plans again, and +found no probable emergency unprepared for. Dard wandered about the +ship, talking to groups of his colonists, and found morale even better +than he had hoped. He spent hours staring into the forward visiscreens, +watching the disc of Tareesh, the planet of his destination, grow larger +and plainer ahead.</p> + +<p>Now, with the voyage almost over, he was in the cargo-hold just aft of +the Number Seven bulkhead, with six girls to help him, checking +construction material which would be needed immediately after landing. +The stuff had all been checked two or three times before, but there was +no harm in going over it again. It furnished an occupation to fill in +the time; it gave Kalvar Dard an excuse for surrounding himself with +half a dozen charming girls, and the girls seemed to enjoy being with +him. There was tall blonde Olva, the electromagnetician; pert little +Varnis, the machinist's helper; Kyna, the surgeon's-aide; dark-haired +Analea; Dorita, the accountant; plump little Eldra, the armament +technician. At the moment, they were all sitting on or around the desk +in the corner of the store-room, going over the inventory when they were +not just gabbling.</p> + +<p>"Well, how about the rock-drill bitts?" Dorita was asking earnestly, +trying to stick to business. "Won't we need them almost as soon as we're +off?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll have to dig temporary magazines for our explosives, +small-arms and artillery ammunition, and storage-pits for our +fissionables and radioactives," Kalvar Dard replied. "We'll have to have +safe places for that stuff ready before it can be unloaded; and if we +run into hard rock near the surface, we'll have to drill holes for +blasting-shots."</p> + +<p>"The drilling machinery goes into one of those prefabricated sheds," +Eldra considered. "Will there be room in it for all the bitts, too?"</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard shrugged. "Maybe. If not, we'll cut poles and build racks +for them outside. The bitts are nono-steel; they can be stored in the +open."</p> + +<p>"If there are poles to cut," Olva added.</p> + +<p>"I'm not worrying about that," Kalvar Dard replied. "We have a pretty +fair idea of conditions on Tareesh; our astronomers have been making +telescopic observations for the past fifteen centuries. There's a pretty +big Arctic ice-cap, but it's been receding slowly, with a wide belt of +what's believed to be open grassland to the south of it, and a belt of +what's assumed to be evergreen forest south of that. We plan to land +somewhere in the northern hemisphere, about the grassland-forest line. +And since Tareesh is richer in water that Doorsha, you mustn't think of +grassland in terms of our wire-grass plains, or forests in terms of our +brush thickets. The vegetation should be much more luxuriant."</p> + +<p>"If there's such a large polar ice-cap, the summers ought to be fairly +cool, and the winters cold," Varnis reasoned. "I'd think that would mean +fur-bearing animals. Colonel, you'll have to shoot me something with a +nice soft fur; I like furs."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard chuckled. "Shoot you nothing, you can shoot your own furs. +I've seen your carbine and pistol scores," he began.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>There was a sudden suck of air, disturbing the papers on the desk. They +all turned to see one of the ship's rocket-boat bays open; a young Air +Force lieutenant named Seldar Glav, who would be staying on Tareesh with +them to pilot their aircraft, emerged from an open airlock.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me you've been to Tareesh and back in that thing," Olva +greeted him.</p> + +<p>Seldar Glav grinned at her. "I could have been, at that; we're only +twenty or thirty planetary calibers away, now. We ought to be entering +Tareeshan atmosphere by the middle of the next watch. I was only +checking the boats, to make sure they'll be ready to launch.... Colonel +Kalvar, would you mind stepping over here? There's something I think you +should look at, sir."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard took one arm from around Analea's waist and lifted the other +from Varnis' shoulder, sliding off the desk. He followed Glav into the +boat-bay; as they went through the airlock, the cheerfulness left the +young lieutenant's face.</p> + +<p>"I didn't want to say anything in front of the girls, sir," he began, +"but I've been checking boats to make sure we can make a quick getaway. +Our meteor-security's gone out. The detectors are deader then the Fourth +Dynasty, and the blasters won't synchronize.... Did you hear a big +thump, about a half an hour ago, Colonel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I thought the ship's labor-crew was shifting heavy equipment in +the hold aft of us. What was it, a meteor-hit?"</p> + +<p>"It was. Just aft of Number Ten bulkhead. A meteor about the size of the +nose of that rocket-boat."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard whistled softly. "Great Gods of Power! The detectors must be +dead, to pass up anything like that.... Why wasn't a boat-stations call +sent out?"</p> + +<p>"Captain Vlazil was unwilling to risk starting a panic, sir," the Air +Force officer replied. "Really, I'm exceeding my orders in mentioning it +to you, but I thought you should know...."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard swore. "It's a blasted pity Captain Vlazil didn't try +thinking! Gold-braided quarter-wit! Maybe his crew might panic, but my +people wouldn't.... I'm going to call the control-room and have it out +with him. By the Ten Gods...!"</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>He ran through the airlock and back into the hold, starting toward the +intercom-phone beside the desk. Before he could reach it, there was +another heavy jar, rocking the entire ship. He, and Seldar Glav, who had +followed him out of the boat-bay, and the six girls, who had risen on +hearing their commander's angry voice, were all tumbled into a heap. +Dard surged to his feet, dragging Kyna up along with him; together, they +helped the others to rise. The ship was suddenly filled with jangling +bells, and the red danger-lights on the ceiling were flashing on and +off.</p> + +<p>"Attention! Attention!" the voice of some officer in the control-room +blared out of the intercom-speaker. "The ship has just been hit by a +large meteor! All compartments between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen are +sealed off. All persons between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen, put on +oxygen helmets and plug in at the nearest phone connection. Your air is +leaking, and you can't get out, but if you put on oxygen equipment +immediately, you'll be all right. We'll get you out as soon as we can, +and in any case, we are only a few hours out of Tareeshan atmosphere. +All persons in Compartment Twelve, put on...."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard was swearing evilly. "That does it! That does it for +good!... Anybody else in this compartment, below the living quarter +level?"</p> + +<p>"No, we're the only ones," Analea told him.</p> + +<p>"The people above have their own boats; they can look after themselves. +You girls, get in that boat, in there. Glav, you and I'll try to warn +the people above...."</p> + +<p>There was another jar, heavier than the one which had preceded it, +throwing them all down again. As they rose, a new voice was shouting +over the public-address system:</p> + +<p>"<i>Abandon ship! Abandon ship!</i> The converters are backfiring, and +rocket-fuel is leaking back toward the engine-rooms! An explosion is +imminent! Abandon ship, all hands!"</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard and Seldar Glav grabbed the girls and literally threw them +through the hatch, into the rocket-boat. Dard pushed Glav in ahead of +him, then jumped in. Before he had picked himself up, two or three of +the girls were at the hatch, dogging the cover down.</p> + +<p>"All right, Glav, blast off!" Dard ordered. "We've got to be at least a +hundred miles from this ship when she blows, or we'll blow with her!"</p> + +<p>"Don't I know!" Seldar Glav retorted over his shoulder, racing for the +controls. "Grab hold of something, everybody; I'm going to fire all jets +at once!"</p> + +<p>An instant later, while Kalvar Dard and the girls clung to stanchions +and pieces of fixed furniture, the boat shot forward out of its housing. +When Dard's head had cleared, it was in free flight.</p> + +<p>"How was that?" Glav yelled. "Everybody all right?" He hesitated for a +moment. "I think I blacked out for about ten seconds."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard looked the girls over. Eldra was using a corner of her smock +to stanch a nosebleed, and Olva had a bruise over one eye. Otherwise, +everybody was in good shape.</p> + +<p>"Wonder we didn't all black out, permanently," he said. "Well, put on +the visiscreens, and let's see what's going on outside. Olva, get on the +radio and try to see if anybody else got away."</p> + +<p>"Set course for Tareesh?" Glav asked. "We haven't fuel enough to make it +back to Doorsha."</p> + +<p>"I was afraid of that," Dard nodded. "Tareesh it is; northern +hemisphere, daylight side. Try to get about the edge of the temperate +zone, as near water as you can...."</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>2</h2> + + +<p>They were flung off their feet again, this time backward along the boat. +As they picked themselves up, Seldar Glav was shaking his head, sadly. +"That was the ship going up," he said; "the blast must have caught us +dead astern."</p> + +<p>"All right." Kalvar Dard rubbed a bruised forehead. "Set course for +Tareesh, then cut out the jets till we're ready to land. And get the +screens on, somebody; I want to see what's happened."</p> + +<p>The screens glowed; then full vision came on. The planet on which they +would land loomed huge before them, its north pole toward them, and its +single satellite on the port side. There was no sign of any rocket-boat +in either side screen, and the rear-view screen was a blur of yellow +flame from the jets.</p> + +<p>"Cut the jets, Glav," Dard repeated. "Didn't you hear me?"</p> + +<p>"But I did, sir!" Seldar Glav indicated the firing-panel. Then he +glanced at the rear-view screen. "The gods help us! It's yellow flame; +the jets are burning out!"</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard had not boasted idly when he had said that his people would +not panic. All the girls went white, and one or two gave low cries of +consternation, but that was all.</p> + +<p>"What happens next?" Analea wanted to know. "Do we blow, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, as soon as the fuel-line burns up to the tanks."</p> + +<p>"Can you land on Tareesh before then?" Dard asked.</p> + +<p>"I can try. How about the satellite? It's closer."</p> + +<p>"It's also airless. Look at it and see for yourself," Kalvar Dard +advised. "Not enough mass to hold an atmosphere."</p> + +<p>Glav looked at the army officer with new respect. He had always been +inclined to think of the Frontier Guards as a gang of scientifically +illiterate dirk-and-pistol bravos. He fiddled for a while with +instruments on the panel; an automatic computer figured the distance to +the planet, the boat's velocity, and the time needed for a landing.</p> + +<p>"We have a chance, sir," he said. "I think I can set down in about +thirty minutes; that should give us about ten minutes to get clear of +the boat, before she blows up."</p> + +<p>"All right; get busy, girls," Kalvar Dard said. "Grab everything we'll +need. Arms and ammunition first; all of them you can find. After that, +warm clothing, bedding, tools and food."</p> + +<p>With that, he jerked open one of the lockers and began pulling out +weapons. He buckled on a pistol and dagger, and handed other +weapon-belts to the girls behind him. He found two of the heavy +big-game rifles, and several bandoliers of ammunition for them. He +tossed out carbines, and boxes of carbine and pistol cartridges. He +found two bomb-bags, each containing six light anti-personnel grenades +and a big demolition-bomb. Glancing, now and then, at the forward +screen, he caught glimpses of blue sky and green-tinted plains below.</p> + +<p>"All right!" the pilot yelled. "We're coming in for a landing! A couple +of you stand by to get the hatch open."</p> + +<p>There was a jolt, and all sense of movement stopped. A cloud of white +smoke drifted past the screens. The girls got the hatch open; snatching +up weapons and bedding-wrapped bundles they all scrambled up out of the +boat.</p> + +<p>There was fire outside. The boat had come down upon a grassy plain; now +the grass was burning from the heat of the jets. One by one, they ran +forward along the top of the rocket-boat, jumping down to the ground +clear of the blaze. Then, with every atom of strength they possessed +they ran away from the doomed boat.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>The ground was rough, and the grass high, impeding them. One of the +girls tripped and fell; without pausing, two others pulled her to her +feet, while another snatched up and slung the carbine she had dropped. +Then, ahead, Kalvar Dard saw a deep gully, through which a little stream +trickled.</p> + +<p>They huddled together at the bottom of it, waiting, for what seemed like +a long while. Then a gentle tremor ran through the ground, and swelled +to a sickening, heaving shock. A roar of almost palpable sound swept +over them, and a flash of blue-white light dimmed the sun above. The +sound, the shock, and the searing light did not pass away at once; they +continued for seconds that seemed like an eternity. Earth and stones +pelted down around them; choking dust rose. Then the thunder and the +earth-shock were over; above, incandescent vapors swirled, and darkened +into an overhanging pall of smoke and dust.</p> + +<p>For a while, they crouched motionless, too stunned to speak. Then shaken +nerves steadied and jarred brains cleared. They all rose weakly. +Trickles of earth were still coming down from the sides of the gully, +and the little stream, which had been clear and sparkling, was roiled +with mud. Mechanically, Kalvar Dard brushed the dust from his clothes +and looked to his weapons.</p> + +<p>"That was just the fuel-tank of a little Class-3 rocket-boat," he said. +"I wonder what the explosion of the ship was like." He thought for a +moment before continuing. "Glav, I think I know why our jets burned out. +We were stern-on to the ship when she blew; the blast drove our flame +right back through the jets."</p> + +<p>"Do you think the explosion was observed from Doorsha?" Dorita inquired, +more concerned about the practical aspects of the situation. "The ship, +I mean. After all, we have no means of communication, of our own."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shouldn't doubt it; there were observatories all around the +planet watching our ship," Kalvar Dard said. "They probably know all +about it, by now. But if any of you are thinking about the chances of +rescue, forget it. We're stuck here."</p> + +<p>"That's right. There isn't another human being within fifty million +miles," Seldar Glav said. "And that was the first and only space-ship +ever built. It took fifty years to build her, and even allowing twenty +for research that wouldn't have to be duplicated, you can figure when we +can expect another one."</p> + +<p>"The answer to that one is, never. The ship blew up in space; fifty +years' effort and fifteen hundred people gone, like that." Kalvar Dard +snapped his fingers. "So now, they'll try to keep Doorsha habitable for +a few more thousand years by irrigation, and forget about immigrating to +Tareesh."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe, in a hundred thousand years, our descendants will build a +ship and go to Doorsha, then," Olva considered.</p> + +<p>"Our descendants?" Eldra looked at her in surprize. "You mean, then...?"</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>Kyna chuckled. "Eldra, you are an awful innocent, about anything that +doesn't have a breech-action or a recoil-mechanism," she said. "Why do +you think the women on this expedition outnumbered the men seven to +five, and why do you think there were so many obstetricians and +pediatricians in the med. staff? We were sent out to put a human +population on Tareesh, weren't we? Well, here we are."</p> + +<p>"But.... Aren't we ever going to...?" Varnis began. "Won't we ever see +anybody else, or do anything but just live here, like animals, without +machines or ground-cars or aircraft or houses or anything?" Then she +began to sob bitterly.</p> + +<p>Analea, who had been cleaning a carbine that had gotten covered with +loose earth during the explosion, laid it down and went to Varnis, +putting her arm around the other girl and comforting her. Kalvar Dard +picked up the carbine she had laid down.</p> + +<p>"Now, let's see," he began. "We have two heavy rifles, six carbines, and +eight pistols, and these two bags of bombs. How much ammunition, +counting what's in our belts, do we have?"</p> + +<p>They took stock of their slender resources, even Varnis joining in the +task, as he had hoped she would. There were over two thousand rounds for +the pistols, better than fifteen hundred for the carbines, and four +hundred for the two big-game guns. They had some spare clothing, mostly +space-suit undergarments, enough bed-robes, one hand-axe, two +flashlights, a first-aid kit, and three atomic lighters. Each one had a +combat-dagger. There was enough tinned food for about a week.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to begin looking for game and edible plants, right away," +Glav considered. "I suppose there is game, of some sort; but our +ammunition won't last forever."</p> + +<p>"We'll have to make it last as long as we can; and we'll have to begin +improvising weapons," Dard told him. "Throwing-spears, and +throwing-axes. If we can find metal, or any recognizable ore that we can +smelt, we'll use that; if not, we'll use chipped stone. Also, we can +learn to make snares and traps, after we learn the habits of the animals +on this planet. By the time the ammunition's gone, we ought to have +learned to do without firearms."</p> + +<p>"Think we ought to camp here?"</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard shook his head. "No wood here for fuel, and the blast will +have scared away all the game. We'd better go upstream; if we go down, +we'll find the water roiled with mud and unfit to drink. And if the game +on this planet behave like the game-herds on the wastelands of Doorsha, +they'll run for high ground when frightened."</p> + +<p>Varnis rose from where she had been sitting. Having mastered her +emotions, she was making a deliberate effort to show it.</p> + +<p>"Let's make up packs out of this stuff," she suggested. "We can use the +bedding and spare clothing to bundle up the food and ammunition."</p> + +<p>They made up packs and slung them, then climbed out of the gully. Off to +the left, the grass was burning in a wide circle around the crater left +by the explosion of the rocket-boat. Kalvar Dard, carrying one of the +heavy rifles, took the lead. Beside and a little behind him, Analea +walked, her carbine ready. Glav, with the other heavy rifle, brought up +in the rear, with Olva covering for him, and between, the other girls +walked, two and two.</p> + +<p>Ahead, on the far horizon, was a distance-blue line of mountains. The +little company turned their faces toward them and moved slowly away, +across the empty sea of grass.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>3</h2> + + +<p>They had been walking, now, for five years. Kalvar Dard still led, the +heavy rifle cradled in the crook of his left arm and a sack of bombs +slung from his shoulder, his eyes forever shifting to right and left +searching for hidden danger. The clothes in which he had jumped from the +rocket-boat were patched and ragged; his shoes had been replaced by high +laced buskins of smoke-tanned hide. He was bearded, now, and his hair +had been roughly trimmed with the edge of his dagger.</p> + +<p>Analea still walked beside him, but her carbine was slung, and she +carried three spears with chipped flint heads; one heavy weapon, to be +thrown by hand or used for stabbing, and two light javelins to be thrown +with the aid of the hooked throwing-stick Glav had invented. Beside her +trudged a four-year old boy, hers and Dard's, and on her back, in a +fur-lined net bag, she carried their six-month-old baby.</p> + +<p>In the rear, Glav still kept his place with the other big-game gun, and +Olva walked beside him with carbine and spears; in front of them, their +three-year-old daughter toddled. Between vanguard and rearguard, the +rest of the party walked: Varnis, carrying her baby on her back, and +Dorita, carrying a baby and leading two other children. The baby on her +back had cost the life of Kyna in childbirth; one of the others had been +left motherless when Eldra had been killed by the Hairy People.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>That had been two years ago, in the winter when they had used one of +their two demolition-bombs to blast open a cavern in the mountains. It +had been a hard winter; two children had died, then—Kyna's firstborn, +and the little son of Kalvar Dard and Dorita. It had been their first +encounter with the Hairy People, too.</p> + +<p>Eldra had gone outside the cave with one of the skin water-bags, to fill +it at the spring. It had been after sunset, but she had carried her +pistol, and no one had thought of danger until they heard the two quick +shots, and the scream. They had all rushed out, to find four shaggy, +manlike things tearing at Eldra with hands and teeth, another lying +dead, and a sixth huddled at one side, clutching its abdomen and +whimpering. There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled all +four of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished the wounded +creature with his dagger, but Eldra was dead. They had built a cairn of +stones over her body, as they had done over the bodies of the two +children killed by the cold. But, after an examination to see what sort +of things they were, they had tumbled the bodies of the Hairy People +over the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted human +dead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game.</p> + +<p>Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and when +they met with them, they killed them without mercy. These were great +shambling parodies of humanity, long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavy +as men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy bone-crushing jaws. They +may have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts on the very +threshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on this +planet, Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million or +so years, they might evolve into something like humanity. Already, the +Hairy ones had learned the use of fire, and of chipped crude stone +implements—mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in the hand, +without helves.</p> + +<p>Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them—once while +they were on the march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beaten +off without loss to themselves, but at cost of precious ammunition. Once +they had caught a band of ten of them swimming a river on logs; they had +picked them all off from the bank with their carbines. Once, when Kalvar +Dard and Analea had been scouting alone, they had come upon a dozen of +them huddled around a fire and had wiped them out with a single grenade. +Once, a large band of Hairy People hunted them for two days, but only +twice had they come close, and both times, a single shot had sent them +all scampering. That had been after the bombing of the group around the +fire. Dard was convinced that the beings possessed the rudiments of a +language, enough to communicate a few simple ideas, such as the fact +that this little tribe of aliens were dangerous in the extreme.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>There were Hairy People about now; for the past five days, moving +northward through the forest to the open grasslands, the people of +Kalvar Dard had found traces of them. Now, as they came out among the +seedling growth at the edge of the open plains, everybody was on the +alert.</p> + +<p>They emerged from the big trees and stopped among the young growth, +looking out into the open country. About a mile away, a herd of game was +grazing slowly westward. In the distance, they looked like the little +horse-like things, no higher than a man's waist and heavily maned and +bearded, that had been one of their most important sources of meat. For +the ten thousandth time, Dard wished, as he strained his eyes, that +somebody had thought to secure a pair of binoculars when they had +abandoned the rocket-boat. He studied the grazing herd for a long time.</p> + +<p>The seedling pines extended almost to the game-herd and would offer +concealment for the approach, but the animals were grazing into the +wind, and their scent was much keener than their vision. This would +preclude one of their favorite hunting techniques, that of lurking in the +high grass ahead of the quarry. It had rained heavily in the past few +days, and the undermat of dead grass was soaked, making a fire-hunt +impossible. Kalvar Dard knew that he could stalk to within easy +carbine-shot, but he was unwilling to use cartridges on game; and in +view of the proximity of Hairy People, he did not want to divide his +band for a drive hunt.</p> + +<p>"What's the scheme?" Analea asked him, realizing the problem as well as +he did. "Do we try to take them from behind?"</p> + +<p>"We'll take them from an angle," he decided. "We'll start from here and +work in, closing on them at the rear of the herd. Unless the wind shifts +on us, we ought to get within spear-cast. You and I will use the spears; +Varnis can come along and cover for us with a carbine. Glav, you and +Olva and Dorita stay here with the children and the packs. Keep a sharp +lookout; Hairy People around, somewhere." He unslung his rifle and +exchanged it for Olva's spears. "We can only eat about two of them +before the meat begins to spoil, but kill all you can," he told Analea; +"we need the skins."</p> + +<p>Then he and the two girls began their slow, cautious, stalk. As long as +the grassland was dotted with young trees, they walked upright, making +good time, but the last five hundred yards they had to crawl, stopping +often to check the wind, while the horse-herd drifted slowly by. Then +they were directly behind the herd, with the wind in their faces, and +they advanced more rapidly.</p> + +<p>"Close enough?" Dard whispered to Analea.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I'm taking the one that's lagging a little behind."</p> + +<p>"I'm taking the one on the left of it." Kalvar Dard fitted a javelin to +the hook of his throwing-stick. "Ready? Now!"</p> + +<p>He leaped to his feet, drawing back his right arm and hurling, the +throwing-stick giving added velocity to the spear. Beside him, he was +conscious of Analea rising and propelling her spear. His missile caught +the little bearded pony in the chest; it stumbled and fell forward to +its front knees. He snatched another light spear, set it on the hook of +the stick and darted it at another horse, which reared, biting at the +spear with its teeth. Grabbing the heavy stabbing-spear, he ran forward, +finishing it off with a heart-thrust. As he did, Varnis slung her +carbine, snatched a stone-headed throwing axe from her belt, and knocked +down another horse, then ran forward with her dagger to finish it.</p> + +<p>By this time, the herd, alarmed, had stampeded and was galloping away, +leaving the dead and dying behind. He and Analea had each killed two; +with the one Varnis had knocked down, that made five. Using his dagger, +he finished off one that was still kicking on the ground, and then began +pulling out the throwing-spears. The girls, shouting in unison, were +announcing the successful completion of the hunt; Glav, Olva, and Dorita +were coming forward with the children.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>It was sunset by the time they had finished the work of skinning and +cutting up the horses and had carried the hide-wrapped bundles of meat +to the little brook where they had intended camping. There was firewood +to be gathered, and the meal to be cooked, and they were all tired.</p> + +<p>"We can't do this very often, any more," Kalvar Dard told them, "but we +might as well, tonight. Don't bother rubbing sticks for fire; I'll use +the lighter."</p> + +<p>He got it from a pouch on his belt—a small, gold-plated, atomic +lighter, bearing the crest of his old regiment of the Frontier Guards. +It was the last one they had, in working order. Piling a handful of dry +splinters under the firewood, he held the lighter to it, pressed the +activator, and watched the fire eat into the wood.</p> + +<p>The greatest achievement of man's civilization, the mastery of the +basic, cosmic, power of the atom—being used to kindle a fire of natural +fuel, to cook unseasoned meat killed with stone-tipped spears. Dard +looked sadly at the twinkling little gadget, then slipped it back into +its pouch. Soon it would be worn out, like the other two, and then they +would gain fire only by rubbing dry sticks, or hacking sparks from bits +of flint or pyrites. Soon, too, the last cartridge would be fired, and +then they would perforce depend for protection, as they were already +doing for food, upon their spears.</p> + +<p>And they were so helpless. Six adults, burdened with seven little +children, all of them requiring momently care and watchfulness. If the +cartridges could be made to last until they were old enough to fend for +themselves.... If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People.... +Some day, they would be numerous enough for effective mutual protection +and support; some day, the ratio of helpless children to able adults +would redress itself. Until then, all that they could do would be to +survive; day after day, they must follow the game-herds.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>4</h2> + + +<p>For twenty years, now, they had been following the game. Winters had +come, with driving snow, forcing horses and deer into the woods, and the +little band of humans to the protection of mountain caves. Springtime +followed, with fresh grass on the plains and plenty of meat for the +people of Kalvar Dard. Autumns followed summers, with fire-hunts, and +the smoking and curing of meat and hides. Winters followed autumns, and +springtimes came again, and thus until the twentieth year after the +landing of the rocket-boat.</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard still walked in the lead, his hair and beard flecked with +gray, but he no longer carried the heavy rifle; the last cartridge for +that had been fired long ago. He carried the hand-axe, fitted with a +long helve, and a spear with a steel head that had been worked painfully +from the receiver of a useless carbine. He still had his pistol, with +eight cartridges in the magazine, and his dagger, and the bomb-bag, +containing the big demolition-bomb and one grenade. The last shred of +clothing from the ship was gone, now; he was clad in a sleeveless tunic +of skin and horsehide buskins.</p> + +<p>Analea no longer walked beside him; eight years before, she had broken +her back in a fall. It had been impossible to move her, and she stabbed +herself with her dagger to save a cartridge. Seldar Glav had broken +through the ice while crossing a river, and had lost his rifle; the next +day he died of the chill he had taken. Olva had been killed by the Hairy +People, the night they had attacked the camp, when Varnis' child had +been killed.</p> + +<p>They had beaten off that attack, shot or speared ten of the huge +sub-men, and the next morning they buried their dead after their custom, +under cairns of stone. Varnis had watched the burial of her child with +blank, uncomprehending eyes, then she had turned to Kalvar Dard and said +something that had horrified him more than any wild outburst of grief +could have.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Dard; what are we doing this for? You promised you'd take us +to Tareesh, where we'd have good houses, and machines, and all sorts of +lovely things to eat and wear. I don't like this place, Dard; I want to +go to Tareesh."</p> + +<p>From that day on, she had wandered in merciful darkness. She had not +been idiotic, or raving mad; she had just escaped from a reality that +she could no longer bear.</p> + +<p>Varnis, lost in her dream-world, and Dorita, hard-faced and haggard, +were the only ones left, beside Kalvar Dard, of the original eight. But +the band had grown, meanwhile, to more than fifteen. In the rear, in +Seldar Glav's old place, the son of Kalvar Dard and Analea walked. Like +his father, he wore a pistol, for which he had six rounds, and a dagger, +and in his hand he carried a stone-headed killing-maul with a three-foot +handle which he had made for himself. The woman who walked beside him +and carried his spears was the daughter of Glav and Olva; in a net-bag +on her back she carried their infant child. The first Tareeshan born of +Tareeshan parents; Kalvar Dard often looked at his little grandchild +during nights in camp and days on the trail, seeing, in that tiny +fur-swaddled morsel of humanity, the meaning and purpose of all that he +did. Of the older girls, one or two were already pregnant, now; this +tiny threatened beachhead of humanity was expanding, gaining strength. +Long after man had died out on Doorsha and the dying planet itself had +become an arid waste, the progeny of this little band would continue to +grow and to dominate the younger planet, nearer the sun. Some day, an +even mightier civilization than the one he had left would rise here....</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>All day the trail had wound upward into the mountains. Great cliffs +loomed above them, and little streams spumed and dashed in rocky gorges +below. All day, the Hairy People had followed, fearful to approach too +close, unwilling to allow their enemies to escape. It had started when +they had rushed the camp, at daybreak; they had been beaten off, at cost +of almost all the ammunition, and the death of one child. No sooner had +the tribe of Kalvar Dard taken the trail, however, than they had been +pressing after them. Dard had determined to cross the mountains, and had +led his people up a game-trail, leading toward the notch of a pass high +against the skyline.</p> + +<p>The shaggy ape-things seemed to have divined his purpose. Once or twice, +he had seen hairy brown shapes dodging among the rocks and stunted trees +to the left. They were trying to reach the pass ahead of him. Well, if +they did.... He made a quick mental survey of his resources. His pistol, +and his son's, and Dorita's, with eight, and six, and seven rounds. One +grenade, and the big demolition bomb, too powerful to be thrown by hand, +but which could be set for delayed explosion and dropped over a cliff or +left behind to explode among pursuers. Five steel daggers, and plenty of +spears and slings and axes. Himself, his son and his son's woman, +Dorita, and four or five of the older boys and girls, who would make +effective front-line fighters. And Varnis, who might come out of her +private dream-world long enough to give account for herself, and even +the tiniest of the walking children could throw stones or light spears. +Yes, they could force the pass, if the Hairy People reached it ahead of +them, and then seal it shut with the heavy bomb. What lay on the other +side, he did not know; he wondered how much game there would be, and if +there were Hairy People on that side, too.</p> + +<p>Two shots slammed quickly behind him. He dropped his axe and took a +two-hand grip on his stabbing-spear as he turned. His son was hurrying +forward, his pistol drawn, glancing behind as he came.</p> + +<p>"Hairy People. Four," he reported. "I shot two; she threw a spear and +killed another. The other ran."</p> + +<p>The daughter of Seldar Glav and Olva nodded in agreement.</p> + +<p>"I had no time to throw again," she said, "and Bo-Bo would not shoot the +one that ran."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard's son, who had no other name than the one his mother had +called him as a child, defended himself. "He was running away. It is the +rule: <i>use bullets only to save life, where a spear will not serve</i>."</p> + +<p>Kalvar Dard nodded. "You did right, son," he said, taking out his own +pistol and removing the magazine, from which he extracted two +cartridges. "Load these into your pistol; four rounds aren't enough. Now +we each have six. Go back to the rear, keep the little ones moving, and +don't let Varnis get behind."</p> + +<p>"That is right. <i>We must all look out for Varnis, and take care of +her</i>," the boy recited obediently. "That is the rule."</p> + +<p>He dropped to the rear. Kalvar Dard holstered his pistol and picked up +his axe, and the column moved forward again. They were following a +ledge, now; on the left, there was a sheer drop of several hundred feet, +and on the right a cliff rose above them, growing higher and steeper as +the trail slanted upward. Dard was worried about the ledge; if it came +to an end, they would all be trapped. No one would escape. He suddenly +felt old and unutterably weary. It was a frightful weight that he +bore—responsibility for an entire race.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>Suddenly, behind him, Dorita fired her pistol upward. Dard sprang +forward—there was no room for him to jump aside—and drew his pistol. +The boy, Bo-Bo, was trying to find a target from his position in the +rear. Then Dard saw the two Hairy People; the boy fired, and the stone +fell, all at once.</p> + +<p>It was a heavy stone, half as big as a man's torso, and it almost missed +Kalvar Dard. If it had hit him directly, it would have killed him +instantly, mashing him to a bloody pulp; as it was, he was knocked flat, +the stone pinning his legs.</p> + +<p>At Bo-Bo's shot, a hairy body plummeted down, to hit the ledge. Bo-Bo's +woman instantly ran it through with one of her spears. The other +ape-thing, the one Dorita had shot, was still clinging to a rock above. +Two of the children scampered up to it and speared it repeatedly, +screaming like little furies. Dorita and one of the older girls got the +rock off Kalvar Dard's legs and tried to help him to his feet, but he +collapsed, unable to stand. Both his legs were broken.</p> + +<p>This was it, he thought, sinking back. "Dorita, I want you to run ahead +and see what the trail's like," he said. "See if the ledge is passable. +And find a place, not too far ahead, where we can block the trail by +exploding that demolition-bomb. It has to be close enough for a couple +of you to carry or drag me and get me there in one piece."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think?" he retorted. "I have both legs broken. You can't +carry me with you; if you try it, they'll catch us and kill us all. I'll +have to stay behind; I'll block the trail behind you, and get as many of +them as I can, while I'm at it. Now, run along and do as I said."</p> + +<p>She nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can," she agreed.</p> + +<p>The others were crowding around Dard. Bo-Bo bent over him, perplexed and +worried. "What are you going to do, father?" he asked. "You are hurt. +Are you going to go away and leave us, as mother did when she was hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, son; I'll have to. You carry me on ahead a little, when Dorita +gets back, and leave me where she shows you to. I'm going to stay behind +and block the trail, and kill a few Hairy People. I'll use the big +bomb."</p> + +<p>"The <i>big</i> bomb? The one nobody dares throw?" The boy looked at his +father in wonder.</p> + +<p>"That's right. Now, when you leave me, take the others and get away as +fast as you can. Don't stop till you're up to the pass. Take my pistol +and dagger, and the axe and the big spear, and take the little bomb, +too. Take everything I have, only leave the big bomb with me. I'll need +that."</p> + +<p>Dorita rejoined them. "There's a waterfall ahead. We can get around it, +and up to the pass. The way's clear and easy; if you put off the bomb +just this side of it, you'll start a rock-slide that'll block +everything."</p> + +<p>"All right. Pick me up, a couple of you. Don't take hold of me below the +knees. And hurry."</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>A hairy shape appeared on the ledge below them; one of the older boys +used his throwing-stick to drive a javelin into it. Two of the girls +picked up Dard; Bo-Bo and his woman gathered up the big spear and the +axe and the bomb-bag.</p> + +<p>They hurried forward, picking their way along the top of a talus of +rubble at the foot of the cliff, and came to where the stream gushed out +of a narrow gorge. The air was wet with spray there, and loud with the +roar of the waterfall. Kalvar Dard looked around; Dorita had chosen the +spot well. Not even a sure-footed mountain-goat could make the ascent, +once that gorge was blocked.</p> + +<p>"All right; put me down here," he directed. "Bo-Bo, take my belt, and +give me the big bomb. You have one light grenade; know how to use it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, you have often showed me. I turn the top, and then press in +the little thing on the side, and hold it in till I throw. I throw it at +least a spear-cast, and drop to the ground or behind something."</p> + +<p>"That's right. And use it only in greatest danger, to save everybody. +Spare your cartridges; use them only to save life. And save everything +of metal, no matter how small."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Those are the rules. I will follow them, and so will the others. +And we will always take care of Varnis."</p> + +<p>"Well, goodbye, son." He gripped the boy's hand. "Now get everybody out +of here; don't stop till you're at the pass."</p> + +<p>"You're not staying behind!" Varnis cried. "Dard, you promised us! I +remember, when we were all in the ship together—you and I and Analea +and Olva and Dorita and Eldra and, oh, what was that other girl's name, +Kyna! And we were all having such a nice time, and you were telling us +how we'd all come to Tareesh, and we were having such fun talking about +it...."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Varnis," he agreed. "And so I will. I have something to +do, here, but I'll meet you on top of the mountain, after I'm through, +and in the morning we'll all go to Tareesh."</p> + +<p>She smiled—the gentle, childlike smile of the harmlessly mad—and +turned away. The son of Kalvar Dard made sure that she and all the +children were on the way, and then he, too, turned and followed them, +leaving Dard alone.</p> + +<p>Alone, with a bomb and a task. He'd borne that task for twenty years, +now; in a few minutes, it would be ended, with an instant's searing +heat. He tried not to be too glad; there were so many things he might +have done, if he had tried harder. Metals, for instance. Somewhere there +surely must be ores which they could have smelted, but he had never +found them. And he might have tried catching some of the little horses +they hunted for food, to break and train to bear burdens. And the +alphabet—why hadn't he taught it to Bo-Bo and the daughter of Seldar +Glav, and laid on them an obligation to teach the others? And the +grass-seeds they used for making flour sometimes; they should have +planted fields of the better kinds, and patches of edible roots, and +returned at the proper time to harvest them. There were so many things, +things that none of those young savages or their children would think of +in ten thousand years....</p> + +<p>Something was moving among the rocks, a hundred yards away. He +straightened, as much as his broken legs would permit, and watched. Yes, +there was one of them, and there was another, and another. One rose from +behind a rock and came forward at a shambling run, making bestial +sounds. Then two more lumbered into sight, and in a moment the ravine +was alive with them. They were almost upon him when Kalvar Dard pressed +in the thumbpiece of the bomb; they were clutching at him when he +released it. He felt a slight jar....</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>When they reached the pass, they all stopped as the son of Kalvar Dard +turned and looked back. Dorita stood beside him, looking toward the +waterfall too; she also knew what was about to happen. The others merely +gaped in blank incomprehension, or grasped their weapons, thinking that +the enemy was pressing close behind and that they were making a stand +here. A few of the smaller boys and girls began picking up stones.</p> + +<p>Then a tiny pin-point of brilliance winked, just below where the +snow-fed stream vanished into the gorge. That was all, for an instant, +and then a great fire-shot cloud swirled upward, hundreds of feet into +the air; there was a crash, louder than any sound any of them except +Dorita and Varnis had ever heard before.</p> + +<p>"He did it!" Dorita said softly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he did it. My father was a brave man," Bo-Bo replied. "We are +safe, now."</p> + +<p>Varnis, shocked by the explosion, turned and stared at him, and then she +laughed happily. "Why, there you are, Dard!" she exclaimed. "I was +wondering where you'd gone. What did you do, after we left?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" The boy was puzzled, not knowing how much he looked +like his father, when his father had been an officer of the Frontier +Guards, twenty years before.</p> + +<p>His puzzlement worried Varnis vaguely. "You.... You are Dard, aren't +you?" she asked. "But that's silly; of course you're Dard! Who else +could you be?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I am Dard," the boy said, remembering that it was the rule for +everybody to be kind to Varnis and to pretend to agree with her. Then +another thought struck him. His shoulders straightened. "Yes. I am Dard, +son of Dard," he told them all. "I lead, now. Does anybody say no?"</p> + +<p>He shifted his axe and spear to his left hand and laid his right hand on +the butt of his pistol, looking sternly at Dorita. If any of them tried +to dispute his claim, it would be she. But instead, she gave him the +nearest thing to a real smile that had crossed her face in years.</p> + +<p>"You are Dard," she told him; "you lead us, now."</p> + +<p>"But of course Dard leads! Hasn't he always led us?" Varnis wanted to +know. "Then what's all the argument about? And tomorrow he's going to +take us to Tareesh, and we'll have houses and ground-cars and aircraft +and gardens and lights, and all the lovely things we want. Aren't you, +Dard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Varnis; I will take you all to Tareesh, to all the wonderful +things," Dard, son of Dard, promised, for such was the rule about +Varnis.</p> + +<p>Then he looked down from the pass into the country beyond. There were +lower mountains, below, and foothills, and a wide blue valley, and, +beyond that, distant peaks reared jaggedly against the sky. He pointed +with his father's axe.</p> + +<p>"We go down that way," he said.</p> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p>So they went, down, and on, and on, and on. The last cartridge was +fired; the last sliver of Doorshan metal wore out or rusted away. By +then, however, they had learned to make chipped stone, and bone, and +reindeer-horn, serve their needs. Century after century, millennium +after millennium, they followed the game-herds from birth to death, and +birth replenished their numbers faster than death depleted. Bands grew +in numbers and split; young men rebelled against the rule of the old and +took their women and children elsewhere.</p> + +<p>They hunted down the hairy Neanderthalers, and exterminated them +ruthlessly, the origin of their implacable hatred lost in legend. All +that they remembered, in the misty, confused, way that one remembers a +dream, was that there had once been a time of happiness and plenty, and +that there was a goal to which they would some day attain. They left the +mountains—were they the Caucasus? The Alps? The Pamirs?—and spread +outward, conquering as they went.</p> + +<p>We find their bones, and their stone weapons, and their crude paintings, +in the caves of Cro-Magnon and Grimaldi and Altimira and Mas-d'Azil; the +deep layers of horse and reindeer and mammoth bones at their +feasting-place at Solutre. We wonder how and whence a race so like our +own came into a world of brutish sub-humans.</p> + +<p>Just as we wonder, too, at the network of canals which radiate from the +polar caps of our sister planet, and speculate on the possibility that +they were the work of hands like our own. And we concoct elaborate jokes +about the "Men From Mars"—<i>ourselves</i>.</p> + + +<h3>The End</h3> + + + + +<hr /> + + +<p><a name="note" id="note"><b>TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED</b></a></p> + + +<p>The following typographical errors in the text were corrected as +detailed here.</p> + +<p>In the text: "... an automatic computer figured the distance to the +planet,..." the word "computor" was corrected to "computer."</p> + +<p>In the text: "Then, with every atom of strength they possessed they ran +away ...," the word "posessed" was corrected to "possessed."</p> + +<p>In two places in the text "Anelea" was corrected to "Analea."</p> + +<p>In the text: "If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People ..." +the word "collisons" was corrected to "collisions."</p> + +<p>In the text: "Some day, an even mightier civilization than the one he had +left would rise here ... " the word "that" was corrected to "than."</p> + +<p>In the text: "There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled all +four of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished..." the word "Klav" +was corrected to "Glav."</p> + + +<hr /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Genesis, by H. Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENESIS *** + +***** This file should be named 18105-h.htm or 18105-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/1/0/18105/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Beam Piper + +Release Date: April 2, 2006 [EBook #18105] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +This etext was produced from "Future combined +with Science Fiction Stories" September 1951. Extensive research did not +uncover any evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. + +A number of typographical errors found in the +original text have been corrected in this version. A list of these +errors is provided at the end of the book. + + * * * * * + + + + + + GENESIS + + By H. Beam Piper + + FEATURE NOVELET + OF LOST WORLDS + + + Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud, old race--or the + beginning of a new one? + + There are strange gaps in our records of the past. We find traces + of man-like things--but, suddenly, man appears, far too much + developed to be the "next step" in a well-linked chain of + evolutionary evidence. Perhaps something like the events of this + story furnishes the answer to the riddle. + + +Aboard the ship, there was neither day nor night; the hours slipped +gently by, as vistas of star-gemmed blackness slid across the +visiscreens. For the crew, time had some meaning--one watch on duty and +two off. But for the thousand-odd colonists, the men and women who were +to be the spearhead of migration to a new and friendlier planet, it had +none. They slept, and played, worked at such tasks as they could invent, +and slept again, while the huge ship followed her plotted trajectory. + +Kalvar Dard, the army officer who would lead them in their new home, had +as little to do as any of his followers. The ship's officers had all the +responsibility for the voyage, and, for the first time in over five +years, he had none at all. He was finding the unaccustomed idleness more +wearying than the hectic work of loading the ship before the blastoff +from Doorsha. He went over his landing and security plans again, and +found no probable emergency unprepared for. Dard wandered about the +ship, talking to groups of his colonists, and found morale even better +than he had hoped. He spent hours staring into the forward visiscreens, +watching the disc of Tareesh, the planet of his destination, grow larger +and plainer ahead. + +Now, with the voyage almost over, he was in the cargo-hold just aft of +the Number Seven bulkhead, with six girls to help him, checking +construction material which would be needed immediately after landing. +The stuff had all been checked two or three times before, but there was +no harm in going over it again. It furnished an occupation to fill in +the time; it gave Kalvar Dard an excuse for surrounding himself with +half a dozen charming girls, and the girls seemed to enjoy being with +him. There was tall blonde Olva, the electromagnetician; pert little +Varnis, the machinist's helper; Kyna, the surgeon's-aide; dark-haired +Analea; Dorita, the accountant; plump little Eldra, the armament +technician. At the moment, they were all sitting on or around the desk +in the corner of the store-room, going over the inventory when they were +not just gabbling. + +"Well, how about the rock-drill bitts?" Dorita was asking earnestly, +trying to stick to business. "Won't we need them almost as soon as we're +off?" + +"Yes, we'll have to dig temporary magazines for our explosives, +small-arms and artillery ammunition, and storage-pits for our +fissionables and radioactives," Kalvar Dard replied. "We'll have to have +safe places for that stuff ready before it can be unloaded; and if we +run into hard rock near the surface, we'll have to drill holes for +blasting-shots." + +"The drilling machinery goes into one of those prefabricated sheds," +Eldra considered. "Will there be room in it for all the bitts, too?" + +Kalvar Dard shrugged. "Maybe. If not, we'll cut poles and build racks +for them outside. The bitts are nono-steel; they can be stored in the +open." + +"If there are poles to cut," Olva added. + +"I'm not worrying about that," Kalvar Dard replied. "We have a pretty +fair idea of conditions on Tareesh; our astronomers have been making +telescopic observations for the past fifteen centuries. There's a pretty +big Arctic ice-cap, but it's been receding slowly, with a wide belt of +what's believed to be open grassland to the south of it, and a belt of +what's assumed to be evergreen forest south of that. We plan to land +somewhere in the northern hemisphere, about the grassland-forest line. +And since Tareesh is richer in water that Doorsha, you mustn't think of +grassland in terms of our wire-grass plains, or forests in terms of our +brush thickets. The vegetation should be much more luxuriant." + +"If there's such a large polar ice-cap, the summers ought to be fairly +cool, and the winters cold," Varnis reasoned. "I'd think that would mean +fur-bearing animals. Colonel, you'll have to shoot me something with a +nice soft fur; I like furs." + +Kalvar Dard chuckled. "Shoot you nothing, you can shoot your own furs. +I've seen your carbine and pistol scores," he began. + + * * * * * + +There was a sudden suck of air, disturbing the papers on the desk. They +all turned to see one of the ship's rocket-boat bays open; a young Air +Force lieutenant named Seldar Glav, who would be staying on Tareesh with +them to pilot their aircraft, emerged from an open airlock. + +"Don't tell me you've been to Tareesh and back in that thing," Olva +greeted him. + +Seldar Glav grinned at her. "I could have been, at that; we're only +twenty or thirty planetary calibers away, now. We ought to be entering +Tareeshan atmosphere by the middle of the next watch. I was only +checking the boats, to make sure they'll be ready to launch.... Colonel +Kalvar, would you mind stepping over here? There's something I think you +should look at, sir." + +Kalvar Dard took one arm from around Analea's waist and lifted the other +from Varnis' shoulder, sliding off the desk. He followed Glav into the +boat-bay; as they went through the airlock, the cheerfulness left the +young lieutenant's face. + +"I didn't want to say anything in front of the girls, sir," he began, +"but I've been checking boats to make sure we can make a quick getaway. +Our meteor-security's gone out. The detectors are deader then the Fourth +Dynasty, and the blasters won't synchronize.... Did you hear a big +thump, about a half an hour ago, Colonel?" + +"Yes, I thought the ship's labor-crew was shifting heavy equipment in +the hold aft of us. What was it, a meteor-hit?" + +"It was. Just aft of Number Ten bulkhead. A meteor about the size of the +nose of that rocket-boat." + +Kalvar Dard whistled softly. "Great Gods of Power! The detectors must be +dead, to pass up anything like that.... Why wasn't a boat-stations call +sent out?" + +"Captain Vlazil was unwilling to risk starting a panic, sir," the Air +Force officer replied. "Really, I'm exceeding my orders in mentioning it +to you, but I thought you should know...." + +Kalvar Dard swore. "It's a blasted pity Captain Vlazil didn't try +thinking! Gold-braided quarter-wit! Maybe his crew might panic, but my +people wouldn't.... I'm going to call the control-room and have it out +with him. By the Ten Gods...!" + + * * * * * + +He ran through the airlock and back into the hold, starting toward the +intercom-phone beside the desk. Before he could reach it, there was +another heavy jar, rocking the entire ship. He, and Seldar Glav, who had +followed him out of the boat-bay, and the six girls, who had risen on +hearing their commander's angry voice, were all tumbled into a heap. +Dard surged to his feet, dragging Kyna up along with him; together, they +helped the others to rise. The ship was suddenly filled with jangling +bells, and the red danger-lights on the ceiling were flashing on and +off. + +"Attention! Attention!" the voice of some officer in the control-room +blared out of the intercom-speaker. "The ship has just been hit by a +large meteor! All compartments between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen are +sealed off. All persons between bulkheads Twelve and Thirteen, put on +oxygen helmets and plug in at the nearest phone connection. Your air is +leaking, and you can't get out, but if you put on oxygen equipment +immediately, you'll be all right. We'll get you out as soon as we can, +and in any case, we are only a few hours out of Tareeshan atmosphere. +All persons in Compartment Twelve, put on...." + +Kalvar Dard was swearing evilly. "That does it! That does it for +good!... Anybody else in this compartment, below the living quarter +level?" + +"No, we're the only ones," Analea told him. + +"The people above have their own boats; they can look after themselves. +You girls, get in that boat, in there. Glav, you and I'll try to warn +the people above...." + +There was another jar, heavier than the one which had preceded it, +throwing them all down again. As they rose, a new voice was shouting +over the public-address system: + +"_Abandon ship! Abandon ship!_ The converters are backfiring, and +rocket-fuel is leaking back toward the engine-rooms! An explosion is +imminent! Abandon ship, all hands!" + +Kalvar Dard and Seldar Glav grabbed the girls and literally threw them +through the hatch, into the rocket-boat. Dard pushed Glav in ahead of +him, then jumped in. Before he had picked himself up, two or three of +the girls were at the hatch, dogging the cover down. + +"All right, Glav, blast off!" Dard ordered. "We've got to be at least a +hundred miles from this ship when she blows, or we'll blow with her!" + +"Don't I know!" Seldar Glav retorted over his shoulder, racing for the +controls. "Grab hold of something, everybody; I'm going to fire all jets +at once!" + +An instant later, while Kalvar Dard and the girls clung to stanchions +and pieces of fixed furniture, the boat shot forward out of its housing. +When Dard's head had cleared, it was in free flight. + +"How was that?" Glav yelled. "Everybody all right?" He hesitated for a +moment. "I think I blacked out for about ten seconds." + +Kalvar Dard looked the girls over. Eldra was using a corner of her smock +to stanch a nosebleed, and Olva had a bruise over one eye. Otherwise, +everybody was in good shape. + +"Wonder we didn't all black out, permanently," he said. "Well, put on +the visiscreens, and let's see what's going on outside. Olva, get on the +radio and try to see if anybody else got away." + +"Set course for Tareesh?" Glav asked. "We haven't fuel enough to make it +back to Doorsha." + +"I was afraid of that," Dard nodded. "Tareesh it is; northern +hemisphere, daylight side. Try to get about the edge of the temperate +zone, as near water as you can...." + + + + +2 + + +They were flung off their feet again, this time backward along the boat. +As they picked themselves up, Seldar Glav was shaking his head, sadly. +"That was the ship going up," he said; "the blast must have caught us +dead astern." + +"All right." Kalvar Dard rubbed a bruised forehead. "Set course for +Tareesh, then cut out the jets till we're ready to land. And get the +screens on, somebody; I want to see what's happened." + +The screens glowed; then full vision came on. The planet on which they +would land loomed huge before them, its north pole toward them, and its +single satellite on the port side. There was no sign of any rocket-boat +in either side screen, and the rear-view screen was a blur of yellow +flame from the jets. + +"Cut the jets, Glav," Dard repeated. "Didn't you hear me?" + +"But I did, sir!" Seldar Glav indicated the firing-panel. Then he +glanced at the rear-view screen. "The gods help us! It's yellow flame; +the jets are burning out!" + +Kalvar Dard had not boasted idly when he had said that his people would +not panic. All the girls went white, and one or two gave low cries of +consternation, but that was all. + +"What happens next?" Analea wanted to know. "Do we blow, too?" + +"Yes, as soon as the fuel-line burns up to the tanks." + +"Can you land on Tareesh before then?" Dard asked. + +"I can try. How about the satellite? It's closer." + +"It's also airless. Look at it and see for yourself," Kalvar Dard +advised. "Not enough mass to hold an atmosphere." + +Glav looked at the army officer with new respect. He had always been +inclined to think of the Frontier Guards as a gang of scientifically +illiterate dirk-and-pistol bravos. He fiddled for a while with +instruments on the panel; an automatic computer figured the distance to +the planet, the boat's velocity, and the time needed for a landing. + +"We have a chance, sir," he said. "I think I can set down in about +thirty minutes; that should give us about ten minutes to get clear of +the boat, before she blows up." + +"All right; get busy, girls," Kalvar Dard said. "Grab everything we'll +need. Arms and ammunition first; all of them you can find. After that, +warm clothing, bedding, tools and food." + +With that, he jerked open one of the lockers and began pulling out +weapons. He buckled on a pistol and dagger, and handed other +weapon-belts to the girls behind him. He found two of the heavy +big-game rifles, and several bandoliers of ammunition for them. He +tossed out carbines, and boxes of carbine and pistol cartridges. He +found two bomb-bags, each containing six light anti-personnel grenades +and a big demolition-bomb. Glancing, now and then, at the forward +screen, he caught glimpses of blue sky and green-tinted plains below. + +"All right!" the pilot yelled. "We're coming in for a landing! A couple +of you stand by to get the hatch open." + +There was a jolt, and all sense of movement stopped. A cloud of white +smoke drifted past the screens. The girls got the hatch open; snatching +up weapons and bedding-wrapped bundles they all scrambled up out of the +boat. + +There was fire outside. The boat had come down upon a grassy plain; now +the grass was burning from the heat of the jets. One by one, they ran +forward along the top of the rocket-boat, jumping down to the ground +clear of the blaze. Then, with every atom of strength they possessed +they ran away from the doomed boat. + + * * * * * + +The ground was rough, and the grass high, impeding them. One of the +girls tripped and fell; without pausing, two others pulled her to her +feet, while another snatched up and slung the carbine she had dropped. +Then, ahead, Kalvar Dard saw a deep gully, through which a little stream +trickled. + +They huddled together at the bottom of it, waiting, for what seemed like +a long while. Then a gentle tremor ran through the ground, and swelled +to a sickening, heaving shock. A roar of almost palpable sound swept +over them, and a flash of blue-white light dimmed the sun above. The +sound, the shock, and the searing light did not pass away at once; they +continued for seconds that seemed like an eternity. Earth and stones +pelted down around them; choking dust rose. Then the thunder and the +earth-shock were over; above, incandescent vapors swirled, and darkened +into an overhanging pall of smoke and dust. + +For a while, they crouched motionless, too stunned to speak. Then shaken +nerves steadied and jarred brains cleared. They all rose weakly. +Trickles of earth were still coming down from the sides of the gully, +and the little stream, which had been clear and sparkling, was roiled +with mud. Mechanically, Kalvar Dard brushed the dust from his clothes +and looked to his weapons. + +"That was just the fuel-tank of a little Class-3 rocket-boat," he said. +"I wonder what the explosion of the ship was like." He thought for a +moment before continuing. "Glav, I think I know why our jets burned out. +We were stern-on to the ship when she blew; the blast drove our flame +right back through the jets." + +"Do you think the explosion was observed from Doorsha?" Dorita inquired, +more concerned about the practical aspects of the situation. "The ship, +I mean. After all, we have no means of communication, of our own." + +"Oh, I shouldn't doubt it; there were observatories all around the +planet watching our ship," Kalvar Dard said. "They probably know all +about it, by now. But if any of you are thinking about the chances of +rescue, forget it. We're stuck here." + +"That's right. There isn't another human being within fifty million +miles," Seldar Glav said. "And that was the first and only space-ship +ever built. It took fifty years to build her, and even allowing twenty +for research that wouldn't have to be duplicated, you can figure when we +can expect another one." + +"The answer to that one is, never. The ship blew up in space; fifty +years' effort and fifteen hundred people gone, like that." Kalvar Dard +snapped his fingers. "So now, they'll try to keep Doorsha habitable for +a few more thousand years by irrigation, and forget about immigrating to +Tareesh." + +"Well, maybe, in a hundred thousand years, our descendants will build a +ship and go to Doorsha, then," Olva considered. + +"Our descendants?" Eldra looked at her in surprize. "You mean, then...?" + + * * * * * + +Kyna chuckled. "Eldra, you are an awful innocent, about anything that +doesn't have a breech-action or a recoil-mechanism," she said. "Why do +you think the women on this expedition outnumbered the men seven to +five, and why do you think there were so many obstetricians and +pediatricians in the med. staff? We were sent out to put a human +population on Tareesh, weren't we? Well, here we are." + +"But.... Aren't we ever going to...?" Varnis began. "Won't we ever see +anybody else, or do anything but just live here, like animals, without +machines or ground-cars or aircraft or houses or anything?" Then she +began to sob bitterly. + +Analea, who had been cleaning a carbine that had gotten covered with +loose earth during the explosion, laid it down and went to Varnis, +putting her arm around the other girl and comforting her. Kalvar Dard +picked up the carbine she had laid down. + +"Now, let's see," he began. "We have two heavy rifles, six carbines, and +eight pistols, and these two bags of bombs. How much ammunition, +counting what's in our belts, do we have?" + +They took stock of their slender resources, even Varnis joining in the +task, as he had hoped she would. There were over two thousand rounds for +the pistols, better than fifteen hundred for the carbines, and four +hundred for the two big-game guns. They had some spare clothing, mostly +space-suit undergarments, enough bed-robes, one hand-axe, two +flashlights, a first-aid kit, and three atomic lighters. Each one had a +combat-dagger. There was enough tinned food for about a week. + +"We'll have to begin looking for game and edible plants, right away," +Glav considered. "I suppose there is game, of some sort; but our +ammunition won't last forever." + +"We'll have to make it last as long as we can; and we'll have to begin +improvising weapons," Dard told him. "Throwing-spears, and +throwing-axes. If we can find metal, or any recognizable ore that we can +smelt, we'll use that; if not, we'll use chipped stone. Also, we can +learn to make snares and traps, after we learn the habits of the animals +on this planet. By the time the ammunition's gone, we ought to have +learned to do without firearms." + +"Think we ought to camp here?" + +Kalvar Dard shook his head. "No wood here for fuel, and the blast will +have scared away all the game. We'd better go upstream; if we go down, +we'll find the water roiled with mud and unfit to drink. And if the game +on this planet behave like the game-herds on the wastelands of Doorsha, +they'll run for high ground when frightened." + +Varnis rose from where she had been sitting. Having mastered her +emotions, she was making a deliberate effort to show it. + +"Let's make up packs out of this stuff," she suggested. "We can use the +bedding and spare clothing to bundle up the food and ammunition." + +They made up packs and slung them, then climbed out of the gully. Off to +the left, the grass was burning in a wide circle around the crater left +by the explosion of the rocket-boat. Kalvar Dard, carrying one of the +heavy rifles, took the lead. Beside and a little behind him, Analea +walked, her carbine ready. Glav, with the other heavy rifle, brought up +in the rear, with Olva covering for him, and between, the other girls +walked, two and two. + +Ahead, on the far horizon, was a distance-blue line of mountains. The +little company turned their faces toward them and moved slowly away, +across the empty sea of grass. + + + + +3 + + +They had been walking, now, for five years. Kalvar Dard still led, the +heavy rifle cradled in the crook of his left arm and a sack of bombs +slung from his shoulder, his eyes forever shifting to right and left +searching for hidden danger. The clothes in which he had jumped from the +rocket-boat were patched and ragged; his shoes had been replaced by high +laced buskins of smoke-tanned hide. He was bearded, now, and his hair +had been roughly trimmed with the edge of his dagger. + +Analea still walked beside him, but her carbine was slung, and she +carried three spears with chipped flint heads; one heavy weapon, to be +thrown by hand or used for stabbing, and two light javelins to be thrown +with the aid of the hooked throwing-stick Glav had invented. Beside her +trudged a four-year old boy, hers and Dard's, and on her back, in a +fur-lined net bag, she carried their six-month-old baby. + +In the rear, Glav still kept his place with the other big-game gun, and +Olva walked beside him with carbine and spears; in front of them, their +three-year-old daughter toddled. Between vanguard and rearguard, the +rest of the party walked: Varnis, carrying her baby on her back, and +Dorita, carrying a baby and leading two other children. The baby on her +back had cost the life of Kyna in childbirth; one of the others had been +left motherless when Eldra had been killed by the Hairy People. + + * * * * * + +That had been two years ago, in the winter when they had used one of +their two demolition-bombs to blast open a cavern in the mountains. It +had been a hard winter; two children had died, then--Kyna's firstborn, +and the little son of Kalvar Dard and Dorita. It had been their first +encounter with the Hairy People, too. + +Eldra had gone outside the cave with one of the skin water-bags, to fill +it at the spring. It had been after sunset, but she had carried her +pistol, and no one had thought of danger until they heard the two quick +shots, and the scream. They had all rushed out, to find four shaggy, +manlike things tearing at Eldra with hands and teeth, another lying +dead, and a sixth huddled at one side, clutching its abdomen and +whimpering. There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled all +four of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished the wounded +creature with his dagger, but Eldra was dead. They had built a cairn of +stones over her body, as they had done over the bodies of the two +children killed by the cold. But, after an examination to see what sort +of things they were, they had tumbled the bodies of the Hairy People +over the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted human +dead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game. + +Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and when +they met with them, they killed them without mercy. These were great +shambling parodies of humanity, long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavy +as men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy bone-crushing jaws. They +may have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts on the very +threshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on this +planet, Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million or +so years, they might evolve into something like humanity. Already, the +Hairy ones had learned the use of fire, and of chipped crude stone +implements--mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in the hand, +without helves. + +Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them--once while +they were on the march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beaten +off without loss to themselves, but at cost of precious ammunition. Once +they had caught a band of ten of them swimming a river on logs; they had +picked them all off from the bank with their carbines. Once, when Kalvar +Dard and Analea had been scouting alone, they had come upon a dozen of +them huddled around a fire and had wiped them out with a single grenade. +Once, a large band of Hairy People hunted them for two days, but only +twice had they come close, and both times, a single shot had sent them +all scampering. That had been after the bombing of the group around the +fire. Dard was convinced that the beings possessed the rudiments of a +language, enough to communicate a few simple ideas, such as the fact +that this little tribe of aliens were dangerous in the extreme. + + * * * * * + +There were Hairy People about now; for the past five days, moving +northward through the forest to the open grasslands, the people of +Kalvar Dard had found traces of them. Now, as they came out among the +seedling growth at the edge of the open plains, everybody was on the +alert. + +They emerged from the big trees and stopped among the young growth, +looking out into the open country. About a mile away, a herd of game was +grazing slowly westward. In the distance, they looked like the little +horse-like things, no higher than a man's waist and heavily maned and +bearded, that had been one of their most important sources of meat. For +the ten thousandth time, Dard wished, as he strained his eyes, that +somebody had thought to secure a pair of binoculars when they had +abandoned the rocket-boat. He studied the grazing herd for a long time. + +The seedling pines extended almost to the game-herd and would offer +concealment for the approach, but the animals were grazing into the +wind, and their scent was much keener than their vision. This would +preclude one of their favorite hunting techniques, that of lurking in the +high grass ahead of the quarry. It had rained heavily in the past few +days, and the undermat of dead grass was soaked, making a fire-hunt +impossible. Kalvar Dard knew that he could stalk to within easy +carbine-shot, but he was unwilling to use cartridges on game; and in +view of the proximity of Hairy People, he did not want to divide his +band for a drive hunt. + +"What's the scheme?" Analea asked him, realizing the problem as well as +he did. "Do we try to take them from behind?" + +"We'll take them from an angle," he decided. "We'll start from here and +work in, closing on them at the rear of the herd. Unless the wind shifts +on us, we ought to get within spear-cast. You and I will use the spears; +Varnis can come along and cover for us with a carbine. Glav, you and +Olva and Dorita stay here with the children and the packs. Keep a sharp +lookout; Hairy People around, somewhere." He unslung his rifle and +exchanged it for Olva's spears. "We can only eat about two of them +before the meat begins to spoil, but kill all you can," he told Analea; +"we need the skins." + +Then he and the two girls began their slow, cautious, stalk. As long as +the grassland was dotted with young trees, they walked upright, making +good time, but the last five hundred yards they had to crawl, stopping +often to check the wind, while the horse-herd drifted slowly by. Then +they were directly behind the herd, with the wind in their faces, and +they advanced more rapidly. + +"Close enough?" Dard whispered to Analea. + +"Yes; I'm taking the one that's lagging a little behind." + +"I'm taking the one on the left of it." Kalvar Dard fitted a javelin to +the hook of his throwing-stick. "Ready? Now!" + +He leaped to his feet, drawing back his right arm and hurling, the +throwing-stick giving added velocity to the spear. Beside him, he was +conscious of Analea rising and propelling her spear. His missile caught +the little bearded pony in the chest; it stumbled and fell forward to +its front knees. He snatched another light spear, set it on the hook of +the stick and darted it at another horse, which reared, biting at the +spear with its teeth. Grabbing the heavy stabbing-spear, he ran forward, +finishing it off with a heart-thrust. As he did, Varnis slung her +carbine, snatched a stone-headed throwing axe from her belt, and knocked +down another horse, then ran forward with her dagger to finish it. + +By this time, the herd, alarmed, had stampeded and was galloping away, +leaving the dead and dying behind. He and Analea had each killed two; +with the one Varnis had knocked down, that made five. Using his dagger, +he finished off one that was still kicking on the ground, and then began +pulling out the throwing-spears. The girls, shouting in unison, were +announcing the successful completion of the hunt; Glav, Olva, and Dorita +were coming forward with the children. + + * * * * * + +It was sunset by the time they had finished the work of skinning and +cutting up the horses and had carried the hide-wrapped bundles of meat +to the little brook where they had intended camping. There was firewood +to be gathered, and the meal to be cooked, and they were all tired. + +"We can't do this very often, any more," Kalvar Dard told them, "but we +might as well, tonight. Don't bother rubbing sticks for fire; I'll use +the lighter." + +He got it from a pouch on his belt--a small, gold-plated, atomic +lighter, bearing the crest of his old regiment of the Frontier Guards. +It was the last one they had, in working order. Piling a handful of dry +splinters under the firewood, he held the lighter to it, pressed the +activator, and watched the fire eat into the wood. + +The greatest achievement of man's civilization, the mastery of the +basic, cosmic, power of the atom--being used to kindle a fire of natural +fuel, to cook unseasoned meat killed with stone-tipped spears. Dard +looked sadly at the twinkling little gadget, then slipped it back into +its pouch. Soon it would be worn out, like the other two, and then they +would gain fire only by rubbing dry sticks, or hacking sparks from bits +of flint or pyrites. Soon, too, the last cartridge would be fired, and +then they would perforce depend for protection, as they were already +doing for food, upon their spears. + +And they were so helpless. Six adults, burdened with seven little +children, all of them requiring momently care and watchfulness. If the +cartridges could be made to last until they were old enough to fend for +themselves.... If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People.... +Some day, they would be numerous enough for effective mutual protection +and support; some day, the ratio of helpless children to able adults +would redress itself. Until then, all that they could do would be to +survive; day after day, they must follow the game-herds. + + + + +4 + + +For twenty years, now, they had been following the game. Winters had +come, with driving snow, forcing horses and deer into the woods, and the +little band of humans to the protection of mountain caves. Springtime +followed, with fresh grass on the plains and plenty of meat for the +people of Kalvar Dard. Autumns followed summers, with fire-hunts, and +the smoking and curing of meat and hides. Winters followed autumns, and +springtimes came again, and thus until the twentieth year after the +landing of the rocket-boat. + +Kalvar Dard still walked in the lead, his hair and beard flecked with +gray, but he no longer carried the heavy rifle; the last cartridge for +that had been fired long ago. He carried the hand-axe, fitted with a +long helve, and a spear with a steel head that had been worked painfully +from the receiver of a useless carbine. He still had his pistol, with +eight cartridges in the magazine, and his dagger, and the bomb-bag, +containing the big demolition-bomb and one grenade. The last shred of +clothing from the ship was gone, now; he was clad in a sleeveless tunic +of skin and horsehide buskins. + +Analea no longer walked beside him; eight years before, she had broken +her back in a fall. It had been impossible to move her, and she stabbed +herself with her dagger to save a cartridge. Seldar Glav had broken +through the ice while crossing a river, and had lost his rifle; the next +day he died of the chill he had taken. Olva had been killed by the Hairy +People, the night they had attacked the camp, when Varnis' child had +been killed. + +They had beaten off that attack, shot or speared ten of the huge +sub-men, and the next morning they buried their dead after their custom, +under cairns of stone. Varnis had watched the burial of her child with +blank, uncomprehending eyes, then she had turned to Kalvar Dard and said +something that had horrified him more than any wild outburst of grief +could have. + +"Come on, Dard; what are we doing this for? You promised you'd take us +to Tareesh, where we'd have good houses, and machines, and all sorts of +lovely things to eat and wear. I don't like this place, Dard; I want to +go to Tareesh." + +From that day on, she had wandered in merciful darkness. She had not +been idiotic, or raving mad; she had just escaped from a reality that +she could no longer bear. + +Varnis, lost in her dream-world, and Dorita, hard-faced and haggard, +were the only ones left, beside Kalvar Dard, of the original eight. But +the band had grown, meanwhile, to more than fifteen. In the rear, in +Seldar Glav's old place, the son of Kalvar Dard and Analea walked. Like +his father, he wore a pistol, for which he had six rounds, and a dagger, +and in his hand he carried a stone-headed killing-maul with a three-foot +handle which he had made for himself. The woman who walked beside him +and carried his spears was the daughter of Glav and Olva; in a net-bag +on her back she carried their infant child. The first Tareeshan born of +Tareeshan parents; Kalvar Dard often looked at his little grandchild +during nights in camp and days on the trail, seeing, in that tiny +fur-swaddled morsel of humanity, the meaning and purpose of all that he +did. Of the older girls, one or two were already pregnant, now; this +tiny threatened beachhead of humanity was expanding, gaining strength. +Long after man had died out on Doorsha and the dying planet itself had +become an arid waste, the progeny of this little band would continue to +grow and to dominate the younger planet, nearer the sun. Some day, an +even mightier civilization than the one he had left would rise here.... + + * * * * * + +All day the trail had wound upward into the mountains. Great cliffs +loomed above them, and little streams spumed and dashed in rocky gorges +below. All day, the Hairy People had followed, fearful to approach too +close, unwilling to allow their enemies to escape. It had started when +they had rushed the camp, at daybreak; they had been beaten off, at cost +of almost all the ammunition, and the death of one child. No sooner had +the tribe of Kalvar Dard taken the trail, however, than they had been +pressing after them. Dard had determined to cross the mountains, and had +led his people up a game-trail, leading toward the notch of a pass high +against the skyline. + +The shaggy ape-things seemed to have divined his purpose. Once or +twice, he had seen hairy brown shapes dodging among the rocks and +stunted trees to the left. They were trying to reach the pass ahead of +him. Well, if they did.... He made a quick mental survey of his +resources. His pistol, and his son's, and Dorita's, with eight, and six, +and seven rounds. One grenade, and the big demolition bomb, too powerful +to be thrown by hand, but which could be set for delayed explosion and +dropped over a cliff or left behind to explode among pursuers. Five +steel daggers, and plenty of spears and slings and axes. Himself, his +son and his son's woman, Dorita, and four or five of the older boys and +girls, who would make effective front-line fighters. And Varnis, who +might come out of her private dream-world long enough to give account +for herself, and even the tiniest of the walking children could throw +stones or light spears. Yes, they could force the pass, if the Hairy +People reached it ahead of them, and then seal it shut with the heavy +bomb. What lay on the other side, he did not know; he wondered how much +game there would be, and if there were Hairy People on that side, too. + +Two shots slammed quickly behind him. He dropped his axe and took a +two-hand grip on his stabbing-spear as he turned. His son was hurrying +forward, his pistol drawn, glancing behind as he came. + +"Hairy People. Four," he reported. "I shot two; she threw a spear and +killed another. The other ran." + +The daughter of Seldar Glav and Olva nodded in agreement. + +"I had no time to throw again," she said, "and Bo-Bo would not shoot the +one that ran." + +Kalvar Dard's son, who had no other name than the one his mother had +called him as a child, defended himself. "He was running away. It is the +rule: _use bullets only to save life, where a spear will not serve_." + +Kalvar Dard nodded. "You did right, son," he said, taking out his own +pistol and removing the magazine, from which he extracted two +cartridges. "Load these into your pistol; four rounds aren't enough. Now +we each have six. Go back to the rear, keep the little ones moving, and +don't let Varnis get behind." + +"That is right. _We must all look out for Varnis, and take care of +her_," the boy recited obediently. "That is the rule." + +He dropped to the rear. Kalvar Dard holstered his pistol and picked up +his axe, and the column moved forward again. They were following a +ledge, now; on the left, there was a sheer drop of several hundred feet, +and on the right a cliff rose above them, growing higher and steeper as +the trail slanted upward. Dard was worried about the ledge; if it came +to an end, they would all be trapped. No one would escape. He suddenly +felt old and unutterably weary. It was a frightful weight that he +bore--responsibility for an entire race. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, behind him, Dorita fired her pistol upward. Dard sprang +forward--there was no room for him to jump aside--and drew his pistol. +The boy, Bo-Bo, was trying to find a target from his position in the +rear. Then Dard saw the two Hairy People; the boy fired, and the stone +fell, all at once. + +It was a heavy stone, half as big as a man's torso, and it almost missed +Kalvar Dard. If it had hit him directly, it would have killed him +instantly, mashing him to a bloody pulp; as it was, he was knocked flat, +the stone pinning his legs. + +At Bo-Bo's shot, a hairy body plummeted down, to hit the ledge. Bo-Bo's +woman instantly ran it through with one of her spears. The other +ape-thing, the one Dorita had shot, was still clinging to a rock above. +Two of the children scampered up to it and speared it repeatedly, +screaming like little furies. Dorita and one of the older girls got the +rock off Kalvar Dard's legs and tried to help him to his feet, but he +collapsed, unable to stand. Both his legs were broken. + +This was it, he thought, sinking back. "Dorita, I want you to run ahead +and see what the trail's like," he said. "See if the ledge is passable. +And find a place, not too far ahead, where we can block the trail by +exploding that demolition-bomb. It has to be close enough for a couple +of you to carry or drag me and get me there in one piece." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"What do you think?" he retorted. "I have both legs broken. You can't +carry me with you; if you try it, they'll catch us and kill us all. I'll +have to stay behind; I'll block the trail behind you, and get as many of +them as I can, while I'm at it. Now, run along and do as I said." + +She nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can," she agreed. + +The others were crowding around Dard. Bo-Bo bent over him, perplexed and +worried. "What are you going to do, father?" he asked. "You are hurt. +Are you going to go away and leave us, as mother did when she was hurt?" + +"Yes, son; I'll have to. You carry me on ahead a little, when Dorita +gets back, and leave me where she shows you to. I'm going to stay behind +and block the trail, and kill a few Hairy People. I'll use the big +bomb." + +"The _big_ bomb? The one nobody dares throw?" The boy looked at his +father in wonder. + +"That's right. Now, when you leave me, take the others and get away as +fast as you can. Don't stop till you're up to the pass. Take my pistol +and dagger, and the axe and the big spear, and take the little bomb, +too. Take everything I have, only leave the big bomb with me. I'll need +that." + +Dorita rejoined them. "There's a waterfall ahead. We can get around it, +and up to the pass. The way's clear and easy; if you put off the bomb +just this side of it, you'll start a rock-slide that'll block +everything." + +"All right. Pick me up, a couple of you. Don't take hold of me below the +knees. And hurry." + + * * * * * + +A hairy shape appeared on the ledge below them; one of the older boys +used his throwing-stick to drive a javelin into it. Two of the girls +picked up Dard; Bo-Bo and his woman gathered up the big spear and the +axe and the bomb-bag. + +They hurried forward, picking their way along the top of a talus of +rubble at the foot of the cliff, and came to where the stream gushed out +of a narrow gorge. The air was wet with spray there, and loud with the +roar of the waterfall. Kalvar Dard looked around; Dorita had chosen the +spot well. Not even a sure-footed mountain-goat could make the ascent, +once that gorge was blocked. + +"All right; put me down here," he directed. "Bo-Bo, take my belt, and +give me the big bomb. You have one light grenade; know how to use it?" + +"Of course, you have often showed me. I turn the top, and then press in +the little thing on the side, and hold it in till I throw. I throw it at +least a spear-cast, and drop to the ground or behind something." + +"That's right. And use it only in greatest danger, to save everybody. +Spare your cartridges; use them only to save life. And save everything +of metal, no matter how small." + +"Yes. Those are the rules. I will follow them, and so will the others. +And we will always take care of Varnis." + +"Well, goodbye, son." He gripped the boy's hand. "Now get everybody out +of here; don't stop till you're at the pass." + +"You're not staying behind!" Varnis cried. "Dard, you promised us! I +remember, when we were all in the ship together--you and I and Analea +and Olva and Dorita and Eldra and, oh, what was that other girl's name, +Kyna! And we were all having such a nice time, and you were telling us +how we'd all come to Tareesh, and we were having such fun talking about +it...." + +"That's right, Varnis," he agreed. "And so I will. I have something to +do, here, but I'll meet you on top of the mountain, after I'm through, +and in the morning we'll all go to Tareesh." + +She smiled--the gentle, childlike smile of the harmlessly mad--and +turned away. The son of Kalvar Dard made sure that she and all the +children were on the way, and then he, too, turned and followed them, +leaving Dard alone. + +Alone, with a bomb and a task. He'd borne that task for twenty years, +now; in a few minutes, it would be ended, with an instant's searing +heat. He tried not to be too glad; there were so many things he might +have done, if he had tried harder. Metals, for instance. Somewhere there +surely must be ores which they could have smelted, but he had never +found them. And he might have tried catching some of the little horses +they hunted for food, to break and train to bear burdens. And the +alphabet--why hadn't he taught it to Bo-Bo and the daughter of Seldar +Glav, and laid on them an obligation to teach the others? And the +grass-seeds they used for making flour sometimes; they should have +planted fields of the better kinds, and patches of edible roots, and +returned at the proper time to harvest them. There were so many things, +things that none of those young savages or their children would think of +in ten thousand years.... + +Something was moving among the rocks, a hundred yards away. He +straightened, as much as his broken legs would permit, and watched. Yes, +there was one of them, and there was another, and another. One rose from +behind a rock and came forward at a shambling run, making bestial +sounds. Then two more lumbered into sight, and in a moment the ravine +was alive with them. They were almost upon him when Kalvar Dard pressed +in the thumbpiece of the bomb; they were clutching at him when he +released it. He felt a slight jar.... + + * * * * * + +When they reached the pass, they all stopped as the son of Kalvar Dard +turned and looked back. Dorita stood beside him, looking toward the +waterfall too; she also knew what was about to happen. The others merely +gaped in blank incomprehension, or grasped their weapons, thinking that +the enemy was pressing close behind and that they were making a stand +here. A few of the smaller boys and girls began picking up stones. + +Then a tiny pin-point of brilliance winked, just below where the +snow-fed stream vanished into the gorge. That was all, for an instant, +and then a great fire-shot cloud swirled upward, hundreds of feet into +the air; there was a crash, louder than any sound any of them except +Dorita and Varnis had ever heard before. + +"He did it!" Dorita said softly. + +"Yes, he did it. My father was a brave man," Bo-Bo replied. "We are +safe, now." + +Varnis, shocked by the explosion, turned and stared at him, and then she +laughed happily. "Why, there you are, Dard!" she exclaimed. "I was +wondering where you'd gone. What did you do, after we left?" + +"What do you mean?" The boy was puzzled, not knowing how much he looked +like his father, when his father had been an officer of the Frontier +Guards, twenty years before. + +His puzzlement worried Varnis vaguely. "You.... You are Dard, aren't +you?" she asked. "But that's silly; of course you're Dard! Who else +could you be?" + +"Yes. I am Dard," the boy said, remembering that it was the rule for +everybody to be kind to Varnis and to pretend to agree with her. Then +another thought struck him. His shoulders straightened. "Yes. I am Dard, +son of Dard," he told them all. "I lead, now. Does anybody say no?" + +He shifted his axe and spear to his left hand and laid his right hand on +the butt of his pistol, looking sternly at Dorita. If any of them tried +to dispute his claim, it would be she. But instead, she gave him the +nearest thing to a real smile that had crossed her face in years. + +"You are Dard," she told him; "you lead us, now." + +"But of course Dard leads! Hasn't he always led us?" Varnis wanted to +know. "Then what's all the argument about? And tomorrow he's going to +take us to Tareesh, and we'll have houses and ground-cars and aircraft +and gardens and lights, and all the lovely things we want. Aren't you, +Dard?" + +"Yes, Varnis; I will take you all to Tareesh, to all the wonderful +things," Dard, son of Dard, promised, for such was the rule about +Varnis. + +Then he looked down from the pass into the country beyond. There were +lower mountains, below, and foothills, and a wide blue valley, and, +beyond that, distant peaks reared jaggedly against the sky. He pointed +with his father's axe. + +"We go down that way," he said. + + * * * * * + +So they went, down, and on, and on, and on. The last cartridge was +fired; the last sliver of Doorshan metal wore out or rusted away. By +then, however, they had learned to make chipped stone, and bone, and +reindeer-horn, serve their needs. Century after century, millennium +after millennium, they followed the game-herds from birth to death, and +birth replenished their numbers faster than death depleted. Bands grew +in numbers and split; young men rebelled against the rule of the old and +took their women and children elsewhere. + +They hunted down the hairy Neanderthalers, and exterminated them +ruthlessly, the origin of their implacable hatred lost in legend. All +that they remembered, in the misty, confused, way that one remembers a +dream, was that there had once been a time of happiness and plenty, and +that there was a goal to which they would some day attain. They left the +mountains--were they the Caucasus? The Alps? The Pamirs?--and spread +outward, conquering as they went. + +We find their bones, and their stone weapons, and their crude paintings, +in the caves of Cro-Magnon and Grimaldi and Altimira and Mas-d'Azil; the +deep layers of horse and reindeer and mammoth bones at their +feasting-place at Solutre. We wonder how and whence a race so like our +own came into a world of brutish sub-humans. + +Just as we wonder, too, at the network of canals which radiate from the +polar caps of our sister planet, and speculate on the possibility that +they were the work of hands like our own. And we concoct elaborate jokes +about the "Men From Mars"--_ourselves_. + + +The End + + + + + * * * * * + + +TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED + +The following typographical errors in the text were corrected as +detailed here. + +In the text: "... an automatic computer figured the distance to the +planet,..." the word "computor" was corrected to "computer." + +In the text: "Then, with every atom of strength they possessed they ran +away ...," the word "posessed" was corrected to "possessed." + +In two places in the text "Anelea" was corrected to "Analea." + +In the text: "If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People..." +the word "collisons" was corrected to "collisions." + +In the text: "Some day, an even mightier civilization than the one he +had left would rise here ..." the word "that" was corrected to "than." + +In the text: "There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled all +four of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished..." the word "Klav" +was corrected to "Glav." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Genesis, by H. 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