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diff --git a/29525.txt b/29525.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5aad2a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/29525.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1286 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Leech, by Phillips Barbee + +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: The Leech + +Author: Phillips Barbee + +Illustrator: Connell + +Release Date: July 27, 2009 [EBook #29525] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEECH *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Illustrated by CONNELL] + + + the + Leech + + By PHILLIPS BARBEE + + + _A visitor should be fed, but + this one could eat you out of + house and home ... literally!_ + + +The leech was waiting for food. For millennia it had been drifting +across the vast emptiness of space. Without consciousness, it had spent +the countless centuries in the void between the stars. It was unaware +when it finally reached a sun. Life-giving radiation flared around the +hard, dry spore. Gravitation tugged at it. + +A planet claimed it, with other stellar debris, and the leech fell, +still dead-seeming within its tough spore case. + +One speck of dust among many, the winds blew it around the Earth, played +with it, and let it fall. + +On the ground, it began to stir. Nourishment soaked in, permeating the +spore case. It grew--and fed. + + * * * * * + +Frank Conners came up on the porch and coughed twice. "Say, pardon me, +Professor," he said. + +The long, pale man didn't stir from the sagging couch. His horn-rimmed +glasses were perched on his forehead, and he was snoring very gently. + +"I'm awful sorry to disturb you," Conners said, pushing back his +battered felt hat. "I know it's your restin' week and all, but there's +something damned funny in the ditch." + +The pale man's left eyebrow twitched, but he showed no other sign of +having heard. + +Frank Conners coughed again, holding his spade in one purple-veined +hand. "Didja hear me, Professor?" + +"Of course I heard you," Micheals said in a muffled voice, his eyes +still closed. "You found a pixie." + +"A what?" Conners asked, squinting at Micheals. + +"A little man in a green suit. Feed him milk, Conners." + +"No, sir. I think it's a rock." + +Micheals opened one eye and focused it in Conners' general direction. + +"I'm awfully sorry about it," Conners said. Professor Micheals' resting +week was a ten-year-old custom, and his only eccentricity. All winter +Micheals taught anthropology, worked on half a dozen committees, dabbled +in physics and chemistry, and still found time to write a book a year. +When summer came, he was tired. + +Arriving at his worked-out New York State farm, it was his invariable +rule to do absolutely nothing for a week. He hired Frank Conners to cook +for that week and generally make himself useful, while Professor +Micheals slept. + +During the second week, Micheals would wander around, look at the trees +and fish. By the third week he would be getting a tan, reading, +repairing the sheds and climbing mountains. At the end of four weeks, he +could hardly wait to get back to the city. + +But the resting week was sacred. + +"I really wouldn't bother you for anything small," Conners said +apologetically. "But that damned rock melted two inches off my spade." + +Micheals opened both eyes and sat up. Conners held out the spade. The +rounded end was sheared cleanly off. Micheals swung himself off the +couch and slipped his feet into battered moccasins. + +"Let's see this wonder," he said. + + * * * * * + +The object was lying in the ditch at the end of the front lawn, three +feet from the main road. It was round, about the size of a truck tire, +and solid throughout. It was about an inch thick, as far as he could +tell, grayish black and intricately veined. + +"Don't touch it," Conners warned. + +"I'm not going to. Let me have your spade." Micheals took the spade and +prodded the object experimentally. It was completely unyielding. He held +the spade to the surface for a moment, then withdrew it. Another inch +was gone. + +Micheals frowned, and pushed his glasses tighter against his nose. He +held the spade against the rock with one hand, the other held close to +the surface. More of the spade disappeared. + +"Doesn't seem to be generating heat," he said to Conners. "Did you +notice any the first time?" + +Conners shook his head. + +Micheals picked up a clod of dirt and tossed it on the object. The dirt +dissolved quickly, leaving no trace on the gray-black surface. A large +stone followed the dirt, and disappeared in the same way. + +"Isn't that just about the damnedest thing you ever saw, Professor?" +Conners asked. + +"Yes," Micheals agreed, standing up again. "It just about is." + +He hefted the spade and brought it down smartly on the object. When it +hit, he almost dropped the spade. He had been gripping the handle +rigidly, braced for a recoil. But the spade struck that unyielding +surface and _stayed_. There was no perceptible give, but absolutely no +recoil. + +"Whatcha think it is?" Conners asked. + +"It's no stone," Micheals said. He stepped back. "A leech drinks blood. +This thing seems to be drinking dirt. And spades." He struck it a few +more times, experimentally. The two men looked at each other. On the +road, half a dozen Army trucks rolled past. + +"I'm going to phone the college and ask a physics man about it," +Micheals said. "Or a biologist. I'd like to get rid of that thing before +it spoils my lawn." + +They walked back to the house. + + * * * * * + +Everything fed the leech. The wind added its modicum of kinetic energy, +ruffling across the gray-black surface. Rain fell, and the force of each +individual drop added to its store. The water was sucked in by the +all-absorbing surface. + +The sunlight above it was absorbed, and converted into mass for its +body. Beneath it, the soil was consumed, dirt, stones and branches +broken down by the leech's complex cells and changed into energy. Energy +was converted back into mass, and the leech grew. + +Slowly, the first flickers of consciousness began to return. Its first +realization was of the impossible smallness of its body. + +It grew. + + * * * * * + +When Micheals looked the next day, the leech was eight feet across, +sticking out into the road and up the side of the lawn. The following +day it was almost eighteen feet in diameter, shaped to fit the contour +of the ditch, and covering most of the road. That day the sheriff drove +up in his model A, followed by half the town. + +"Is that your leech thing, Professor Micheals?" Sheriff Flynn asked. + +"That's it," Micheals said. He had spent the past days looking +unsuccessfully for an acid that would dissolve the leech. + +"We gotta get it out of the road," Flynn said, walking truculently up to +the leech. "Something like this, you can't let it block the road, +Professor. The Army's gotta use this road." + +"I'm terribly sorry," Micheals said with a straight face. "Go right +ahead, Sheriff. But be careful. It's hot." The leech wasn't hot, but it +seemed the simplest explanation under the circumstances. + +Micheals watched with interest as the sheriff tried to shove a crowbar +under it. He smiled to himself when it was removed with half a foot of +its length gone. + +The sheriff wasn't so easily discouraged. He had come prepared for a +stubborn piece of rock. He went to the rumble seat of his car and took +out a blowtorch and a sledgehammer, ignited the torch and focused it on +one edge of the leech. + +After five minutes, there was no change. The gray didn't turn red or +even seem to heat up. Sheriff Flynn continued to bake it for fifteen +minutes, then called to one of the men. + +"Hit that spot with the sledge, Jerry." + +Jerry picked up the sledgehammer, motioned the sheriff back, and swung +it over his head. He let out a howl as the hammer struck unyieldingly. +There wasn't a fraction of recoil. + +In the distance they heard the roar of an Army convoy. + +"Now we'll get some action," Flynn said. + + * * * * * + +Micheals wasn't so sure. He walked around the periphery of the leech, +asking himself what kind of substance would react that way. The answer +was easy--no substance. No _known_ substance. + +The driver in the lead jeep held up his hand, and the long convoy ground +to a halt. A hard, efficient-looking officer stepped out of the jeep. +From the star on either shoulder, Micheals knew he was a brigadier +general. + +"You can't block this road," the general said. He was a tall, spare man +in suntans, with a sunburned face and cold eyes. "Please clear that +thing away." + +"We can't move it," Micheals said. He told the general what had happened +in the past few days. + +"It must be moved," the general said. "This convoy must go through." He +walked closer and looked at the leech. "You say it can't be jacked up by +a crowbar? A torch won't burn it?" + +"That's right," Micheals said, smiling faintly. + +"Driver," the general said over his shoulder. "Ride over it." + +Micheals started to protest, but stopped himself. The military mind +would have to find out in its own way. + +The driver put his jeep in gear and shot forward, jumping the leech's +four-inch edge. The jeep got to the center of the leech and stopped. + +"I didn't tell you to stop!" the general bellowed. + +"I didn't, sir!" the driver protested. + +The jeep had been yanked to a stop and had stalled. The driver started +it again, shifted to four-wheel drive, and tried to ram forward. The +jeep was fixed immovably, as though set in concrete. + +"Pardon me," Micheals said. "If you look, you can see that the tires are +melting down." + +The general stared, his hand creeping automatically toward his pistol +belt. Then he shouted, "Jump, driver! Don't touch that gray stuff." + +White-faced, the driver climbed to the hood of his jeep, looked around +him, and jumped clear. + +There was complete silence as everyone watched the jeep. First its tires +melted down, and then the rims. The body, resting on the gray surface, +melted, too. + +The aerial was the last to go. + +The general began to swear softly under his breath. He turned to the +driver. "Go back and have some men bring up hand grenades and dynamite." + +The driver ran back to the convoy. + +"I don't know what you've got here," the general said. "But it's not +going to stop a U.S. Army convoy." + +Micheals wasn't so sure. + + * * * * * + +The leech was nearly awake now, and its body was calling for more and +more food. It dissolved the soil under it at a furious rate, filling it +in with its own body, flowing outward. + +A large object landed on it, and that became food also. Then suddenly-- + +A burst of energy against its surface, and then another, and another. It +consumed them gratefully, converting them into mass. Little metal +pellets struck it, and their kinetic energy was absorbed, their mass +converted. More explosions took place, helping to fill the starving +cells. + +It began to sense things--controlled combustion around it, vibrations of +wind, mass movements. + +There was another, greater explosion, a taste of _real_ food! Greedily +it ate, growing faster. It waited anxiously for more explosions, while +its cells screamed for food. + +But no more came. It continued to feed on the soil and on the Sun's +energy. Night came, noticeable for its lesser energy possibilities, and +then more days and nights. Vibrating objects continued to move around +it. + +It ate and grew and flowed. + + * * * * * + +Micheals stood on a little hill, watching the dissolution of his house. +The leech was several hundred yards across now, lapping at his front +porch. + +Good-by, home, Micheals thought, remembering the ten summers he had +spent there. + +The porch collapsed into the body of the leech. Bit by bit, the house +crumpled. + +The leech looked like a field of lava now, a blasted spot on the green +Earth. + +"Pardon me, sir," a soldier said, coming up behind him. "General +O'Donnell would like to see you." + +"Right," Micheals said, and took his last look at the house. + +He followed the soldier through the barbed wire that had been set up in +a half-mile circle around the leech. A company of soldiers was on guard +around it, keeping back the reporters and the hundreds of curious people +who had flocked to the scene. Micheals wondered why he was still allowed +inside. Probably, he decided, because most of this was taking place on +his land. + +The soldier brought him to a tent. Micheals stooped and went in. +General O'Donnell, still in suntans, was seated at a small desk. He +motioned Micheals to a chair. + +"I've been put in charge of getting rid of this leech," he said to +Micheals. + +Micheals nodded, not commenting on the advisability of giving a soldier +a scientist's job. + +"You're a professor, aren't you?" + +"Yes. Anthropology." + +"Good. Smoke?" The general lighted Micheals' cigarette. "I'd like you to +stay around here in an advisory capacity. You were one of the first to +see this leech. I'd appreciate your observations on--" he smiled--"the +enemy." + +"I'd be glad to," Micheals said. "However, I think this is more in the +line of a physicist or a biochemist." + +"I don't want this place cluttered with scientists," General O'Donnell +said, frowning at the tip of his cigarette. "Don't get me wrong. I have +the greatest appreciation for science. I am, if I do say so, a +scientific soldier. I'm always interested in the latest weapons. You +can't fight any kind of a war any more without science." + + * * * * * + +O'Donnell's sunburned face grew firm. "But I can't have a team of +longhairs poking around this thing for the next month, holding me up. My +job is to destroy it, by any means in my power, and at once. I am going +to do just that." + +"I don't think you'll find it that easy," Micheals said. + +"That's what I want you for," O'Donnell said. "Tell me why and I'll +figure out a way of doing it." + +"Well, as far as I can figure out, the leech is an organic mass-energy +converter, and a frighteningly efficient one. I would guess that it has +a double cycle. First, it converts mass into energy, then back into mass +for its body. Second, energy is converted directly into the body mass. +How this takes place, I do not know. The leech is not protoplasmic. It +may not even be cellular--" + +"So we need something big against it," O'Donnell interrupted. "Well, +that's all right. I've got some big stuff here." + +"I don't think you understand me," Micheals said. "Perhaps I'm not +phrasing this very well. _The leech eats energy._ It can consume the +strength of any energy weapon you use against it." + +"What happens," O'Donnell asked, "if it keeps on eating?" + +"I have no idea what its growth-limits are," Micheals said. "Its growth +may be limited only by its food source." + +"You mean it could continue to grow probably forever?" + +"It could possibly grow as long as it had something to feed on." + +"This is really a challenge," O'Donnell said. "That leech can't be +totally impervious to force." + +"It seems to be. I suggest you get some physicists in here. Some +biologists also. Have them figure out a way of nullifying it." + +The general put out his cigarette. "Professor, I cannot wait while +scientists wrangle. There is an axiom of mine which I am going to tell +you." He paused impressively. "Nothing is impervious to force. Muster +enough force and anything will give. _Anything._ + +"Professor," the general continued, in a friendlier tone, "you shouldn't +sell short the science you represent. We have, massed under North Hill, +the greatest accumulation of energy and radioactive weapons ever +assembled in one spot. Do you think your leech can stand the full force +of them?" + +"I suppose it's possible to overload the thing," Micheals said +doubtfully. He realized now why the general wanted him around. He +supplied the trappings of science, without the authority to override +O'Donnell. + +"Come with me," General O'Donnell said cheerfully, getting up and +holding back a flap of the tent. "We're going to crack that leech in +half." + + * * * * * + +After a long wait, rich food started to come again, piped into one side +of it. First there was only a little, and then more and more. +Radiations, vibrations, explosions, solids, liquids--an amazing variety +of edibles. It accepted them all. But the food was coming too slowly for +the starving cells, for new cells were constantly adding their demands +to the rest. + +The ever-hungry body screamed for more food, faster! + +Now that it had reached a fairly efficient size, it was fully awake. It +puzzled over the energy-impressions around it, locating the source of +the new food massed in one spot. + +Effortlessly it pushed itself into the air, flew a little way and +dropped on the food. Its super-efficient cells eagerly gulped the rich +radioactive substances. But it did not ignore the lesser potentials of +metal and clumps of carbohydrates. + + * * * * * + +"The damned fools," General O'Donnell said. "Why did they have to panic? +You'd think they'd never been trained." He paced the ground outside his +tent, now in a new location three miles back. + +The leech had grown to two miles in diameter. Three farming communities +had been evacuated. + +Micheals, standing beside the general, was still stupefied by the +memory. The leech had accepted the massed power of the weapons for a +while, and then its entire bulk had lifted in the air. The Sun had been +blotted out as it flew leisurely over North Hill, and dropped. There +should have been time for evacuation, but the frightened soldiers had +been blind with fear. + +Sixty-seven men were lost in Operation Leech, and General O'Donnell +asked permission to use atomic bombs. Washington sent a group of +scientists to investigate the situation. + +"Haven't those experts decided yet?" O'Donnell asked, halting angrily in +front of the tent. "They've been talking long enough." + +"It's a hard decision," Micheals said. Since he wasn't an official +member of the investigating team, he had given his information and left. +"The physicists consider it a biological matter, and the biologists seem +to think the chemists should have the answer. No one's an expert on +this, because it's never happened before. We just don't have the data." + +"It's a military problem," O'Donnell said harshly. "I'm not interested +in what the thing is--I want to know what can destroy it. They'd better +give me permission to use the bomb." + +Micheals had made his own calculations on that. It was impossible to say +for sure, but taking a flying guess at the leech's mass-energy +absorption rate, figuring in its size and apparent capacity for growth, +an atomic bomb _might_ overload it--if used soon enough. + +He estimated three days as the limit of usefulness. The leech was +growing at a geometric rate. It could cover the United States in a few +months. + +"For a week I've been asking permission to use the bomb," O'Donnell +grumbled. "And I'll get it, but not until after those jackasses end +their damned talking." He stopped pacing and turned to Micheals. "I am +going to destroy the leech. I am going to smash it, if that's the last +thing I do. It's more than a matter of security now. It's personal +pride." + +That attitude might make great generals, Micheals thought, but it wasn't +the way to consider this problem. It was anthropomorphic of O'Donnell to +see the leech as an enemy. Even the identification, "leech," was a +humanizing factor. O'Donnell was dealing with it as he would any +physical obstacle, as though the leech were the simple equivalent of a +large army. + +But the leech was not human, not even of this planet, perhaps. It should +be dealt with in its own terms. + +"Here come the bright boys now," O'Donnell said. + + * * * * * + +From a nearby tent a group of weary men emerged, led by Allenson, a +government biologist. + +"Well," the general asked, "have you figured out what it is?" + +"Just a minute, I'll hack off a sample," Allenson said, glaring through +red-rimmed eyes. + +"Have you figured out some _scientific_ way of killing it?" + +"Oh, that wasn't too difficult," Moriarty, an atomic physicist, said +wryly. "Wrap it in a perfect vacuum. That'll do the trick. Or blow it +off the Earth with anti-gravity." + +"But failing that," Allenson said, "we suggest you use your atomic +bombs, and use them fast." + +"Is that the opinion of your entire group?" O'Donnell asked, his eyes +glittering. + +"Yes." + +The general hurried away. Micheals joined the scientists. + +"He should have called us in at the very first," Allenson complained. +"There's no time to consider anything but force now." + +"Have you come to any conclusions about the nature of the leech?" +Micheals asked. + +"Only general ones," Moriarty said, "and they're about the same as +yours. The leech is probably extraterrestrial in origin. It seems to +have been in a spore-stage until it landed on Earth." He paused to light +a pipe. "Incidentally, we should be damned glad it didn't drop in an +ocean. We'd have had the Earth eaten out from under us before we knew +what we were looking for." + +They walked in silence for a few minutes. + +"As you mentioned, it's a perfect converter--it can transform mass into +energy, and any energy into mass." Moriarty grinned. "Naturally that's +impossible and I have figures to prove it." + +"I'm going to get a drink," Allenson said. "Anyone coming?" + +"Best idea of the week," Micheals said. "I wonder how long it'll take +O'Donnell to get permission to use the bomb." + +"If I know politics," Moriarty said, "too long." + + * * * * * + +The findings of the government scientists were checked by other +government scientists. That took a few days. Then Washington wanted to +know if there wasn't some alternative to exploding an atomic bomb in the +middle of New York State. It took a little time to convince them of the +necessity. After that, people had to be evacuated, which took more time. + +Then orders were made out, and five atomic bombs were checked out of a +cache. A patrol rocket was assigned, given orders, and put under +General O'Donnell's command. This took a day more. + +Finally, the stubby scout rocket was winging its way over New York. From +the air, the grayish-black spot was easy to find. Like a festered wound, +it stretched between Lake Placid and Elizabethtown, covering Keene and +Keene Valley, and lapping at the edges of Jay. + +The first bomb was released. + + * * * * * + +It had been a long wait after the first rich food. The greater radiation +of day was followed by the lesser energy of night many times, as the +leech ate away the earth beneath it, absorbed the air around it, and +grew. Then one day-- + +An amazing burst of energy! + +Everything was food for the leech, but there was always the possibility +of choking. The energy poured over it, drenched it, battered it, and the +leech grew frantically, trying to contain the titanic dose. Still small, +it quickly reached its overload limit. The strained cells, filled to +satiation, were given more and more food. The strangling body built new +cells at lightning speed. And-- + +It held. The energy was controlled, stimulating further growth. More +cells took over the load, sucking in the food. + +The next doses were wonderfully palatable, easily handled. The leech +overflowed its bounds, growing, eating, and growing. + +That was a taste of real food! The leech was as near ecstasy as it had +ever been. It waited hopefully for more, but no more came. + +It went back to feeding on the Earth. The energy, used to produce more +cells, was soon dissipated. Soon it was hungry again. + +It would always be hungry. + + * * * * * + +O'Donnell retreated with his demoralized men. They camped ten miles from +the leech's southern edge, in the evacuated town of Schroon Lake. The +leech was over sixty miles in diameter now and still growing fast. It +lay sprawled over the Adirondack Mountains, completely blanketing +everything from Saranac Lake to Port Henry, with one edge of it over +Westport, in Lake Champlain. + +Everyone within two hundred miles of the leech was evacuated. + +General O'Donnell was given permission to use hydrogen bombs, contingent +on the approval of his scientists. + +"What have the bright boys decided?" O'Donnell wanted to know. + +He and Micheals were in the living room of an evacuated Schroon Lake +house. O'Donnell had made it his new command post. + +"Why are they hedging?" O'Donnell demanded impatiently. "The leech has +to be blown up quick. What are they fooling around for?" + +"They're afraid of a chain reaction," Micheals told him. "A +concentration of hydrogen bombs might set one up in the Earth's crust or +in the atmosphere. It might do any of half a dozen things." + +"Perhaps they'd like me to order a bayonet attack," O'Donnell said +contemptuously. + +Micheals sighed and sat down in an armchair. He was convinced that the +whole method was wrong. The government scientists were being rushed into +a single line of inquiry. The pressure on them was so great that they +didn't have a chance to consider any other approach but force--and the +leech thrived on that. + +Micheals was certain that there were times when fighting fire with fire +was not applicable. + +Fire. Loki, god of fire. And of trickery. No, there was no answer there. +But Micheals' mind was in mythology now, retreating from the unbearable +present. + +Allenson came in, followed by six other men. + +"Well," Allenson said, "there's a damned good chance of splitting the +Earth wide open if you use the number of bombs our figures show you +need." + +"You have to take chances in war," O'Donnell replied bluntly. "Shall I +go ahead?" + +Micheals saw, suddenly, that O'Donnell didn't care if he did crack the +Earth. The red-faced general only knew that he was going to set off the +greatest explosion ever produced by the hand of Man. + +"Not so fast," Allenson said. "I'll let the others speak for +themselves." + +The general contained himself with difficulty. "Remember," he said, +"according to your own figures, the leech is growing at the rate of +twenty feet an hour." + +"And speeding up," Allenson added. "But this isn't a decision to be made +in haste." + +Micheals found his mind wandering again, to the lightning bolts of Zeus. +That was what they needed. Or the strength of Hercules. + +Or-- + +He sat up suddenly. "Gentlemen, I believe I can offer you a possible +alternative, although it's a very dim one." + +They stared at him. + +"Have you ever heard of Antaeus?" he asked. + + * * * * * + +The more the leech ate, the faster it grew and the hungrier it became. +Although its birth was forgotten, it did remember a long way back. It +had eaten a planet in that ancient past. Grown tremendous, ravenous, it +had made the journey to a nearby star and eaten that, replenishing the +cells converted into energy for the trip. But then there was no more +food, and the next star was an enormous distance away. + +It set out on the journey, but long before it reached the food, its +energy ran out. Mass, converted back to energy to make the trip, was +used up. It shrank. + +Finally, all the energy was gone. It was a spore, drifting aimlessly, +lifelessly, in space. + +That was the first time. Or was it? It thought it could remember back to +a distant, misty time when the Universe was evenly covered with stars. +It had eaten through them, cutting away whole sections, growing, +swelling. And the stars had swung off in terror, forming galaxies and +constellations. + +Or was that a dream? + +Methodically, it fed on the Earth, wondering where the rich food was. +And then it was back again, but this time above the leech. + +It waited, but the tantalizing food remained out of reach. It was able +to sense how rich and pure the food was. + +Why didn't it fall? + +For a long time the leech waited, but the food stayed out of reach. At +last, it lifted and followed. + +The food retreated, up, up from the surface of the planet. The leech +went after as quickly as its bulk would allow. + +The rich food fled out, into space, and the leech followed. Beyond, it +could sense an even richer source. + +The hot, wonderful food of a sun! + + * * * * * + +O'Donnell served champagne for the scientists in the control room. +Official dinners would follow, but this was the victory celebration. + +"A toast," the general said, standing. The men raised their glasses. The +only man not drinking was a lieutenant, sitting in front of the control +board that guided the drone spaceship. + +"To Micheals, for thinking of--what was it again, Micheals?" + +"Antaeus." Micheals had been drinking champagne steadily, but he didn't +feel elated. Antaeus, born of Ge, the Earth, and Poseidon, the Sea. The +invincible wrestler. Each time Hercules threw him to the ground, he +arose refreshed. + +Until Hercules held him in the air. + +Moriarty was muttering to himself, figuring with slide rule, pencil and +paper. Allenson was drinking, but he didn't look too happy about it. + +"Come on, you birds of evil omen," O'Donnell said, pouring more +champagne. "Figure it out later. Right now, drink." He turned to the +operator. "How's it going?" + +Micheals' analogy had been applied to a spaceship. The ship, operated by +remote control, was filled with pure radioactives. It hovered over the +leech until, rising to the bait, it had followed. Antaeus had left his +mother, the Earth, and was losing his strength in the air. The operator +was allowing the spaceship to run fast enough to keep out of the leech's +grasp, but close enough to keep it coming. + +The spaceship and the leech were on a collision course with the Sun. + +"Fine, sir," the operator said. "It's inside the orbit of Mercury now." + +"Men," the general said, "I swore to destroy that thing. This isn't +exactly the way I wanted to do it. I figured on a more personal way. But +the important thing is the destruction. You will all witness it. +Destruction is at times a sacred mission. This is such a time. Men, I +feel wonderful." + +"Turn the spaceship!" It was Moriarty who had spoken. His face was +white. "Turn the damned thing!" + +He shoved his figures at them. + +They were easy to read. The growth-rate of the leech. The +energy-consumption rate, estimated. Its speed in space, a constant. The +energy it would receive from the Sun as it approached, an exponential +curve. Its energy-absorption rate, figured in terms of growth, expressed +as a hyped-up discontinuous progression. + +The result-- + +"It'll consume the Sun," Moriarty said, very quietly. + +The control room turned into a bedlam. Six of them tried to explain it +to O'Donnell at the same time. Then Moriarty tried, and finally +Allenson. + +"Its rate of growth is so great and its speed so slow--and it will get +so much energy--that the leech will be able to consume the Sun by the +time it gets there. Or, at least, to live off it until it can consume +it." + +O'Donnell didn't bother to understand. He turned to the operator. + +"Turn it," he said. + +They all hovered over the radar screen, waiting. + + * * * * * + +The food turned out of the leech's path and streaked away. Ahead was a +tremendous source, but still a long way off. The leech hesitated. + +Its cells, recklessly expending energy, shouted for a decision. The food +slowed, tantalizingly near. + +The closer source or the greater? + +The leech's body wanted food _now_. + +It started after it, away from the Sun. + +The Sun would come next. + + * * * * * + +"Pull it out at right angles to the plane of the Solar System," Allenson +said. + +The operator touched the controls. On the radar screen, they saw a blob +pursuing a dot. It had turned. + +Relief washed over them. It had been close! + +"In what portion of the sky would the leech be?" O'Donnell asked, his +face expressionless. + +"Come outside; I believe I can show you," an astronomer said. They +walked to the door. "Somewhere in that section," the astronomer said, +pointing. + +"Fine. All right, Soldier," O'Donnell told the operator. "Carry out your +orders." + +The scientists gasped in unison. The operator manipulated the controls +and the blob began to overtake the dot. Micheals started across the +room. + +"Stop," the general said, and his strong, commanding voice stopped +Micheals. "I know what I'm doing. I had that ship especially built." + +The blob overtook the dot on the radar screen. + +"I told you this was a personal matter," O'Donnell said. "I swore to +destroy that leech. We can never have any security while it lives." He +smiled. "Shall we look at the sky?" + +The general strolled to the door, followed by the scientists. + +"Push the button, Soldier!" + +The operator did. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the sky lit up! + +A bright star hung in space. Its brilliance filled the night, grew, and +started to fade. + +"What did you do?" Micheals gasped. + +"That rocket was built around a hydrogen bomb," O'Donnell said, his +strong face triumphant. "I set it off at the contact moment." He called +to the operator again. "Is there anything showing on the radar?" + +"Not a speck, sir." + +"Men," the general said, "I have met the enemy and he is mine. Let's +have some more champagne." + +But Micheals found that he was suddenly ill. + + * * * * * + +It had been shrinking from the expenditure of energy, when the great +explosion came. No thought of containing it. The leech's cells held for +the barest fraction of a second, and then spontaneously overloaded. + +The leech was smashed, broken up, destroyed. It was split into a +thousand particles, and the particles were split a million times more. + +The particles were thrown out on the wave front of the explosion, and +they split further, spontaneously. + +Into spores. + +The spores closed into dry, hard, seemingly lifeless specks of dust, +billions of them, scattered, drifting. Unconscious, they floated in the +emptiness of space. + +Billions of them, waiting to be fed. + + --PHILLIPS BARBEE + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Galaxy Science Fiction_ December 1952. + 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 The Leech, by Phillips Barbee + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEECH *** + +***** This file should be named 29525.txt or 29525.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/5/2/29525/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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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