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diff --git a/23799.txt b/23799.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3077a9c --- /dev/null +++ b/23799.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1058 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cry from a Far Planet, by Tom Godwin + +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: Cry from a Far Planet + +Author: Tom Godwin + +Illustrator: Martinez + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23799] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRY FROM A FAR PLANET *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + CRY FROM A + FAR PLANET + + By TOM GODWIN + + ILLUSTRATOR MARTINEZ + + * * * * * + +_The problem of separating the friends from the enemies was a major one +in the conquest of space as many a dead spacer could have testified. A +tough job when you could see an alien and judge appearances; far tougher +when they were only whispers on the wind._ + + * * * * * + + _A smile of friendship is a baring of the teeth. So is a snarl of + menace. It can be fatal to mistake the latter for the former._ + + _Harm an alien being only under circumstances of self-defense._ + + _TRUST NO ALIEN BEING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES._ + + --From _Exploration Ship's Handbook_. + + +He listened in the silence of the Exploration ship's control room. He +heard nothing but that was what bothered him; an ominous quiet when +there should have been a multitude of sounds from the nearby village +for the viewscreen's audio-pickups to transmit. And it was more than six +hours past the time when the native, Throon, should have come to sit +with him outside the ship as they resumed the laborious attempt to learn +each other's language. + +[Illustration: Was the cat native to the planet, or to his imagination?] + +The viewscreen was black in the light of the control room, even though +it was high noon outside. The dull red sun was always invisible through +the world's thick atmosphere and to human eyes full day was no more than +a red-tinged darkness. + +He switched on the ship's outside floodlights and the viewscreen came to +bright white life, showing the empty glades reaching away between groves +of purple alien trees. He noticed, absently, that the trees seemed to +have changed a little in color since his arrival. + +The village was hidden from view by the outer trees but there should +have been some activity in the broad area visible to him. There was +none, not even along the distant segment of what should have been a busy +road. The natives were up to something and he knew, from hard experience +on other alien worlds, that it would be nothing good. It would be +another misunderstanding of some kind and he didn't know enough of their +incomprehensible language to ask them what it was-- + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, as it always came, he felt someone or something standing close +behind him and peering over his shoulder. He dropped his hand to the +blaster he had taken to wearing at all times and whirled. + +Nothing was behind him. There never was. The control room was empty, +with no hiding place for anything, and the door was closed, locked by +the remote-control button beside him. There was nothing. + +The sensation of being watched faded, as though the watcher had +withdrawn to a greater distance. It was perhaps the hundredth time +within six days that he had felt the sensation. And when he slept at +night something came to nuzzle at his mind; faceless, formless, utterly +alien. For the past three nights he had not let the blaster get beyond +quick reach of his hand, even when in bed. + +But whatever it was, it could not be on the ship. He had searched the +ship twice, a methodical compartment-by-compartment search that had +found nothing. It had to be the work of the natives from outside the +ship. Except.... + +Why, if the natives were telepathic, did the one called Throon go +through the weary pretense of trying to learn a mutually understandable +form of communication? + +There was one other explanation, which he could not accept: that he was +following in the footsteps of Will Garret of Ship Nine who had +deliberately gone into a white sun two months after the death of his +twin brother. + +He looked at the chair beside his own, Johnny's chair, which would +forever be empty, and his thoughts went back down the old, bitter paths. +The Exploration Board had been wrong when they thought the close bond +between identical twins would make them the ideal two-man crews for the +lonely, lifetime journeys of the Exploration Ships. Identical twins were +too close; when one of them died, the other died in part with him. + +They had crossed a thousand light-years of space together, he and +Johnny, when they came to the bleak planet that he would name Johnny's +World. He should never have let Johnny go alone up the slope of the +honey-combed mountain--but Johnny had wanted to take the routine record +photographs of the black, tiger-like beasts which they had called cave +cats and the things had seemed harmless and shy, despite their ferocious +appearance. + +"I'm taking them a sack of food that I think they might like," Johnny +had said. "I want to try to get some good close-up shots of them." + +Ten minutes later he heard the distant snarl of Johnny's blaster. He ran +up the mountainside, knowing already that he was too late. He found two +of the cave cats lying where Johnny had killed them. Then he found +Johnny, at the foot of a high cliff. He was dead, his neck broken by the +fall. Scattered all around him from the torn sack was the food he had +wanted to give to the cats. + +He buried Johnny the next day, while a cold wind moaned under a +lead-gray sky. He built a monument for him; a little mound of frosty +stones that only the wild animals would ever see-- + + * * * * * + +A chime rang, high and clear, and the memories were shattered. The +orange light above the hyperspace communicator was flashing; the signal +that meant the Exploration Board was calling him from Earth. + +He flipped the switch and said, "Paul Jameson, Exploration Ship One." + +The familiar voice of Brender spoke: + +"It's been some time since your preliminary report. Is everything all +right?" + +"In a way," he answered. "I was going to give you the detailed report +tomorrow." + +"Give me a brief sketch of it now." + +"Except for their short brown fur, the natives are humanoid in +appearance. But there are basic differences. Their body temperature is +cool, like their climate. Their vision range is from just within the +visible red on into the infrared. They'll shade their eyes from the +light of anything as hot as boiling water but they'll look square into +the ship's floodlights and never see them." + +"And their knowledge of science?" Brender asked. + +"They have a good understanding of it, but along lines entirely +different from what our own were at their stage of development. For +example: they power their machines with chemicals but there is no steam, +heat, or exhaust." + +"That's what we want to find--worlds where branches of research unknown +to our science are being explored. How about their language?" + +"No progress with it yet." He told Brender of the silence in the village +and added, "Even if Throon should show up I could not ask him what was +wrong. I've learned a few words but they have so many different +definitions that I can't use them." + +"I know," Brender said. "Variable and unrelated definitions, +undetectable shades of inflection--and sometimes a language that has no +discernibly separate words. The Singer brothers of Ship Eight ran into +the latter. We've given them up as lost." + +"The Singers--dead?" he exclaimed. "Good God--it's been only a month +since the Ramon brothers were killed." + +"The circumstances were similar," Brender said. "They always are. There +is no way the Exploration men can tell the natives that they mean them +no harm and the suspicion of the natives grows into dangerous hostility. +The Singers reported the natives on that world to be both suspicious and +possessing powerful weapons. The Singers were proceeding warily, their +own weapons always at hand. But, somehow, the natives caught them +off-guard--their last report was four months ago." + +There was a silence, then Brender added, "Their ship was the ninth--and +we had only fifteen." + +He did not reply to the implications of Brender's statement. It was +obvious to them all what the end of the Plan would be. What it had to +be. + + * * * * * + +It had been only three years since the fifteen heavily armed Exploration +ships set out to lead the way for Terran expansion across the galaxy; to +answer a cry from far planets, and to find all the worlds that held +intelligent life. That was the ultimate goal of the Plan: to accumulate +and correlate all the diverse knowledge of all the intelligent +life-forms in the galaxy. Among the achievements resulting from that +tremendous mass of data would be a ship's drive faster even than +hyperspace; the Third Level Drive which would bring all the galaxies of +the universe within reach. + +And now nine ships were gone out of fifteen and nineteen men out of +thirty.... + +"The communication barrier," Brender said. "The damned communication +barrier has been the cause behind the loss of every ship. And there is +nothing we can do about it. We're stymied by it...." + +The conversation was terminated shortly afterward and he moved about the +room restlessly, wishing it was time to lift ship again. With Johnny not +there the dark world was like a smothering tomb. He would like to leave +it behind and drive again into the star clouds of the galaxy; drive on +and on into them-- + +A ghostly echo touched his mind; restless, poignantly yearning. He swung +to face the locked door, knowing there could be nothing behind it. The +first real fear came to him as he did so. The thing was lonely--the +thing that watched him was as lonely as he was.... + +What else could any of it be but the product of a mind in the first +stage of insanity? + + * * * * * + +The natives came ten minutes later. + +The viewscreen showed their chemically-powered vehicle emerge from the +trees and roll swiftly across the glade. Four natives were in it while a +fifth one lay on the floor, apparently badly injured. + +The vehicle stopped a short distance in front of the airlock and he +recognized the native on the floor. It was Throon, the one with whom he +had been exchanging language lessons. + +They were waiting for him when he emerged from the ship, pistol-like +weapons in their belts and grim accusation in their manner. + +Throon was muttering unintelligibly, unconscious. His skin, where not +covered by the brown fur, was abnormal in appearance. He was dying. + +The leader of the four indicated Throon and said in a quick, brittle +voice: "_Ko reegar feen no-dran!_" + +Only one word was familiar: _Ko_, which meant "you" and "yesterday" and +a great many other things. The question was utterly meaningless to him. + +He dropped his hand a little nearer his blaster as the leader spoke +again; a quick succession of unknown words that ended with a harshly +demanding "_kreson!_" + +_Kreson_ meant "now," or "very quickly." All the other words were +unfamiliar to him. They waited, the grim menace about them increasing +when he did not answer. He tried in vain to find some way of explaining +to them he was not responsible for Throon's sickness and could not cure +it. + +Then he saw the spray of leaves that had caught on the corner of the +vehicle when it came through the farther trees. + +They were of a deep purple color. All the trees around the ship were +almost gray by contrast. + +Which meant that he _was_ responsible for Throon's condition. + +The cold white light of the ship's floodlights, under which he and +Throon had sat for day after day, contained radiations that went through +the violet and far into the ultraviolet. To the animal and vegetable +life of the dark world such radiations were invisibly short and deadly. + +Throon was dying of hard-radiation sickness. + +It was something he should have foreseen and avoided--and that would not +have happened had he accepted old Throon's pantomimed invitation, in the +beginning, to go with him into the village to work at the language +study. There he would have used a harmless battery lamp for illumination +... but there was no certainty that the natives were not planning to lay +a trap for him in the village and he had refused to go. + +It did not matter--there was a complex radiation-neutralizer and +cell-reconstructor in the ship which would return Throon to full, normal +health a few hours after he was placed in its chamber. + +He turned to the leader of the four natives and motioned from Throon to +the airlock. "Go--there," he said in the native language. + +"_Bron!_" the leader answered. The word meant "No" and there was a +determination in the way he said it that showed he would not move from +it. + +At the end of five minutes his attempts to persuade them to take Throon +into the ship had increased their suspicion of his motives to the point +of critical danger. If only he could tell them _why_ he wanted Throon +taken into the ship ... But he could not and would have to take Throon +by first disposing of the four without injuring them. This he could do +by procuring one of the paralyzing needle-guns from the ship. + +He took a step toward the ship and spoke the words that to the best of +his knowledge meant: "I come back." + +"_Feswin ilt k'la._" + +Their reply was to snatch at their weapons in desperate haste, even as +the leader uttered a hoarse word of command. He brought up the blaster +with the quick motion that long training had perfected and their weapons +were only half drawn when his warning came: + +"_Bron!_" + + * * * * * + +They froze, but did not release their weapons. He walked backward to the +airlock, his blaster covering them, the tensely waiting manner in which +they watched his progress telling him that the slightest relaxation of +his vigilance would mean his death. He did not let the muzzle of the +blaster waver until he was inside the airlock and the outer door had +slid shut. + +He was sure that the natives would be gone when he returned. And he was +sure of another thing: That whatever he had said to them, it was not +what he had thought he was saying. + +He saw that the glade was empty when he opened the airlock again. At +the same time a bomb-like missile struck the ship just above the airlock +and exploded with a savage crash. He jabbed the _Close_ button and the +door clicked shut barely in advance of three more missiles which +hammered at its impervious armor. + +So that, he thought wearily, is that. + +He laid the useless needle-gun aside. The stage was past when he could +hope to use it. He could save Throon only by killing some of the +others--or he could lift ship and leave Throon to die. Either action +would make the natives hate and fear Terrans; a hatred and fear that +would be there to greet all future Terran ships. + +That was not the way a race gave birth to peaceful galactic empire, was +not the purpose behind the Plan. But always, wherever the Exploration +men went, they encountered the deadly barrier; the intangible, +unassailable communication barrier. With the weapons an Exploration man +carried in his ship he had the power to destroy a world--but not the +power to ask the simple questions that would prevent fatal +misunderstandings. + +And before another three years had passed the last Exploration man would +die, the last Exploration ship would be lost. + +He felt the full force of hopelessness for the first time. When Johnny +had been alive it had been different; Johnny, who had laughed whenever +the outlook was the darkest and said, "_We'll find a way, Paul--_" + +The thought broke as suddenly, unexpectedly, he felt that Johnny was +very near. With the feeling came the soft enclosure of a dream-like +peace in which Johnny's death was vague and faraway; only something that +had happened in another dream. He knew, without wondering why, that +Johnny was in the control room. + +A part of his mind tried to reject the thought as an illusion. He did +not listen--he did not want to listen. He ran to the ship's elevator, +stumbling like one not fully awake. Johnny was waiting for him in the +control room--alive--alive-- + + * * * * * + +He spoke as he stepped into the control room: + +"Johnny--" + +Something moved at the control board, black and alien, standing tall as +a man on short hind legs. Yellow eyes blazed in a feline face. + +It was a cave cat, like the ones that had killed Johnny. + +Realization was a wrenching shock and a terrible disillusionment. Johnny +was not waiting for him--not alive-- + +He brought up the blaster, the dream-like state gone. The paw of the +cave cat flashed out and struck the ship's master light switch with a +movement faster than his own. The room was instantly, totally, dark. + +He fired and pale blue fire lanced across the room, to reveal that the +cave cat was gone. He fired again, quickly and immediately in front of +him. The pale beam revealed only the ripped metal floor. + +"_I am not where you think._" + +The words spoke clearly in his mind but there was no directional source. +He held his breath, listening for the whisper of padded feet as the cave +cat flashed in for the kill, and made a swift analysis of the situation. + +The cave cat was telepathic and highly intelligent and had been on the +ship all the time. It and the others had wanted the ship and had killed +Johnny to reduce opposition to the minimum. He, himself, had been +permitted to live until the cave cat learned from his mind how to +operate the almost-automatic controls. Now, he had served his purpose-- + +"_You are wrong._" + +Again there was no way he could determine the direction from which the +thought came. He listened again, and wondered why it had not waylaid him +at the door. + +Its thought came: + +"_I had to let you see me or you would not have believed I existed. It +was only here that I could extinguish all lights and have time to speak +before you killed me. I let you think your brother was here...._" There +was a little pause. "_I am sorry. I am sorry. I should have used some +other method of luring you here._" + +He swung the blaster toward what seemed to be a faint sound near the +astrogator unit across the room. + +"_We did not intend to kill your brother._" + +He did not believe it and did not reply. + +"_When we made first telepathic contact with him, he jerked up his +blaster and fired. In his mind was the conviction that we had pretended +to be harmless animals so that we could catch him off-guard and kill +him. One of us leaped at him as he fired the second time, to knock the +blaster from his hand. We needed only a few minutes in which to +explain--but he would not trust us that long. There was a misjudgment of +distance and he was knocked off the cliff._" + +Again he did not reply. + +"_We did not intend to kill your brother_," the thought came, "_but you +do not believe me_." + + * * * * * + +He spoke for the first time. "No, I don't believe you. You are +physically like cats and cats don't misjudge distances. Now, you want +something from me before you try to kill me, too. What is it?" + +"_I will have to tell you of my race for you to understand. We call +ourselves the Varn, in so far as it can be translated into a spoken +word, and we are a very old race. In the beginning we did not live in +caves but there came a long period of time, for thousands of years, when +the climate on our world was so violent that we were forced to live in +the caves. It was completely dark there but our sense of smell became +very acute, together with sufficient sensitivity to temperature changes +that we could detect objects in our immediate vicinity. There were +subterranean plants in the caves and food was no problem._" + + * * * * * + +"_We had always been slightly telepathic and it was during our long stay +in the caves that our intelligence and telepathic powers became fully +developed. We had only our minds--physical science is not created in +dark caves with clumsy paws._ + +"_The time finally came when we could leave the caves but it was of +little help to us. There were no resources on our world but earth and +stone and the thin grass of the plains. We wondered about the universe +and we knew the stars were distant suns because one of our own suns +became a star each winter. We studied as best we could but we could see +the stars only as the little wild animals saw them. There was so much we +wanted to learn and by then we were past our zenith and already dying +out. But our environment was a prison from which we could never escape._ + +"_When your ship arrived we thought we might soon be free. We wanted to +ask you to take some of us with you and arrange for others of your race +to stop by on our world. But you dismissed us as animals, useful only +for making warm fur coats, because we lived in caves and had no science, +no artifacts--nothing. You had the power to destroy us and we did not +know what your reaction would be when you learned we were intelligent +and telepathic. A telepathic race must have a high code of ethics and +never intrude unwanted--but would you have believed that?_" + +He did not answer. + +"_The death of your brother changed everything. You were going to leave +so soon that there would be no time to learn more about you. I hid on +the ship so I could study you and wait until I could prove to you that +you needed me. Now, I can--Throon is dying and I can give you the proper +words of explanation that will cause the others to bring him into the +ship._" + +"Your real purpose--what is it?" he asked. + +"_To show you that men need the Varn. You want to explore the galaxy, +and learn. So do the Varn. You have the ships and we have the telepathic +ability that will end the communication problem. Your race and mine can +succeed only if we go together._" + +He searched for the true, and hidden, purpose behind the Varn proposal +and saw what it would have to be. + +"The long-range goal--you failed to mention that ... your ultimate aim." + +"_I know what you are thinking. How can I prove you wrong--now?_" + +There was no way for the Varn to prove him wrong, nor for him to prove +the treachery behind the Varn proposal. The proof would come only with +time, when the Terran-Varn co-operation had transformed Terrans into a +slave race. + +The Varn spoke again. "_You refuse to believe I am sincere?_" + +"I would be a naive fool to believe you." + +"_It will be too late to save Throon unless we act very quickly. I have +told you why I am here. There is nothing more I can do to convince you +but be the first to show trust. When I switch on the lights it will be +within your power to kill me._" + + * * * * * + +The Varn was gambling its life in a game in which he would be gambling +the Plan and his race. It was a game he would end at the first sound of +movement from the astrogator unit across the room.... + +"_I have been here beside you all the time._" + +A furry paw brushed his face, claws flicked gently but grimly reminding +along his throat. + +He whirled and fired. He was too late--the Varn had already leaped +silently away and the beam found only the bare floor. Then the lights +came on, glaringly bright after the darkness, and he saw the Varn. + +It was standing by the control board, its huge yellow eyes watching him. +He brought the blaster into line with it, his finger on the firing stud. +It waited, not moving or shrinking from what was coming. The translucent +golden eyes looked at him and beyond him, as though they saw something +not in the room. He wondered if it was in contact with its own kind on +Johnny's World and was telling them it had made the gamble for high +stakes, and had lost. + +It was not afraid--not asking for mercy.... + +The killing of it was suddenly an act without savor. It was something he +would do in the immediate future but first he would let it live long +enough to save Throon. + +He motioned with the blaster and said, "Lead the way to the airlock." + +"_And afterward--you will kill me?_" + +"Lead the way," he repeated harshly. + +It said no more but went obediently past him and trotted down the +corridor like a great, black dog. + + * * * * * + +He stood in the open airlock, the Varn against the farther wall where he +had ordered it to stand. Throon was in the radiation chamber and he had +held his first intelligible conversation with the natives that day. + +The Varn was facing into the red-black gloom outside the lighted +airlock, where the departing natives could be heard crossing the glade. +"_Their thoughts no longer hold fear and suspicion_," it said. "_The +misunderstanding is ended._" + +He raised the muzzle of the blaster in his hand. The black head lifted +and the golden eyes looked up at him. + +"I made you no promise," he said. + +"_I could demand none._" + +"I can't stop to take you back to your own world and I can't leave you +alive on this one--with what you've learned from my mind you would have +the natives build the Varn a disintegrator-equipped space fleet equal to +our own ships." + +"_We want only to go with you._" + +He told it what he wanted it to know before he killed it, wondering why +he should care: + +"I would like to believe you are sincere--and you know why I don't dare +to. Trusting a telepathic race would be too dangerous. The Varn would +know everything we knew and only the Varn would be able to communicate +with each new alien race. We would have to believe what the Varn told +us--we would have to trust the Varn to see for us and speak for us and +not deceive us as we went across the galaxy. And then, in the end, +Terrans would no longer be needed except as a subject race. They would +be enslaved. + +"We would have laid the groundwork for an empire--the Varn Empire." + +There was a silence, in which his words hung like something cold and +invisible between them. + +Then the Varn asked, very quietly: + +"_Why is the Plan failing?_" + +"You already know," he said. "Because of the barrier--the communication +barrier that causes aliens to misunderstand the intentions of +Exploration men and fear them." + +"_There is no communication barrier between you and I--yet you fear me +and are going to kill me._" + +"I have to kill you. You represent a danger to my race." + +"_Isn't that the same reason why aliens kill Exploration men?_" + +He did not answer and its thought came, quickly, "_How does an +Exploration man appear to the natives of alien worlds?_" + +How did he appear?... He landed on their world in a ship that could +smash it into oblivion; he stepped out of his ship carrying weapons that +could level a city; he represented irresistible power for destruction +and he trusted no one and nothing. + +And in return he hoped to find welcome and friendship and +co-operation.... + +"_There_," the Varn said, "_is your true barrier--your own distrust and +suspicion. You, yourselves, create it on each new world. Now you are +going to erect it between my race and yours by killing me and advising +the Exploration Board to quarantine my world and never let another ship +land there._" + +Again there was a silence as he thought of what the Varn had said and +of what it had said earlier: "_We are a very old race...._" There was +wisdom in the Varn's analysis of the cause of the Plan's failure and +with the Varn to vanquish the communication stalemate, the new approach +could be tried. They could go a long way together, men and Varn, a long, +long way.... + +Or they could create the Varn Empire ... and how could he know which it +would be? + +How could anyone know--except the telepathic Varn? + +The muzzle of the blaster had dropped and he brought it back up. He +forced the dangerous indecision aside, knowing he would have to kill the +Varn at once or he might weaken again, and said harshly to it: + +"The risk is too great. I want to believe you--but all your talk of +trust and good intentions is only talk and my race would be the only one +that had to trust." + +He touched the firing stud as the last thought of the Varn came: + +"_Let me speak once more._" + +He waited, the firing stud cold and metallic under his finger. + +"_You are wrong. We have already set the example of faith in you by +asking to go with you. I told you we did not intend to hurt your brother +and I told you we saw the stars only as the little wild animals saw +them. The years in the dark caves--you do not understand--_" + +The eyes of the Varn looked into his and beyond him; beautiful, +expressionless, like polished gold. + +"_The Varn are blind._" + + THE END + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + + This etext was produced from _Amazing Science Fiction Stories_ + September 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling + and typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cry from a Far Planet, by Tom Godwin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRY FROM A FAR PLANET *** + +***** This file should be named 23799.txt or 23799.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/9/23799/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell 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. 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