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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:53:02 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:53:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/30044-h/30044-h.htm b/30044-h/30044-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f492ae --- /dev/null +++ b/30044-h/30044-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,501 @@ +<!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" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Carnivore, by G. A. Morris + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h2,.hd1 {text-align: center;} + h1 {text-align: left;} + hr {width: 45%; margin: 2em auto; visibility: hidden;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .rgt {text-align: right;} + .figr {float: right; clear: right; margin: 1em 0 1em 1em; padding: 0; width: 346px;} + img {border: none;} + a:link,a:visited {text-decoration: none;} + p.cap:first-letter {float: left; margin-right: .05em; padding-top: .05em; font-size: 300%; line-height: .8em; width: auto;} + .dcap {text-transform: uppercase;} + .figt {float: left; clear: left; margin: 15px; padding: 0; width: 144px;} + .trn {border: solid 1px; margin: 3em 15%; min-height: 230px;} + .trn p {margin: 15px;} + .bk1 {margin: 0 auto 2em; width: 18em;} + .bk2 {margin: 2em auto; width: 22em;} + .sp1 {font-size: 200%;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30044 ***</div> + +<div class="bk1"><h1>the<br /> +<span class="sp1">carnivore</span></h1></div> + +<h2>By G. A. MORRIS</h2> + +<p class="hd1"><b>Illustrated by BURCHARD</b></p> + +<div class="bk2"><p><big><b><i>Why were they apologetic? It +wasn't their fault that they +came to Earth much too late.</i></b></big></p></div> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> beings stood around +my bed in air suits like ski suits, +with globes over their +heads like upside-down fishbowls. +It was all like a masquerade, with +odd costumes and funny masks.</p> + +<p>I know that the masks are +their faces, but I argue with them +and find I think as if I am arguing +with humans behind the +masks. They are people. I recognize +people and whether I am +going to like this person or that +person by something in the way +they move and how they get excited +when they talk; and I know +that I like these people in a +motherly sort of way. You have +to feel motherly toward them, I +guess.</p> + +<p>They all remind me of Ronny, +a medical student I knew once. +He was small and round and +eager. You had to like him, but +you couldn't take him very seriously. +He was a pacifist; he wrote +poetry and pulled it out to read +aloud at ill-timed moments; and +he stuttered when he talked too +fast.</p> + +<p>They are like that, all fright +and gentleness.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">I am</span> not the only survivor—they +have explained that—but +I am the first they found, +and the least damaged, the one +they have chosen to represent the +human race to them. They stand +around my bed and answer questions, +and are nice to me when I +argue with them.</p> + +<p>All in a group they look half-way +between a delegation of nations +and an ark, one of each, big +and small, thick and thin, four +arms or wings, all shapes and +colors in fur and skin and feathers.</p> + +<p>I can picture them in their +UN of the Universe, making +speeches in their different languages, +listening patiently without +understanding each other's +different problems, boring each +other and being too polite to +yawn.</p> + +<p>They are polite, so polite I almost +feel they are afraid of me, +and I want to reassure them.</p> + +<p>But I talk as if I were angry. +I can't help it, because if things +had only been a little different ... "Why +couldn't you have come +sooner? Why couldn't you have +tried to stop it before it happened, +or at least come sooner, afterward...?"</p> + +<p>If they had come sooner to +where the workers of the Nevada +power pile starved slowly behind +their protecting walls of lead—if +they had looked sooner for +survivors of the dust with which +the nations of the world had slain +each other—George Craig would +be alive. He died before they +came. He was my co-worker, and +I loved him.</p> + +<p>We had gone down together, +passing door by door the automatic +safeguards of the plant, +which were supposed to protect +the people on the outside from +the radioactive danger from the +inside—but the danger of a +failure of politics was far more +real than the danger of failure +in the science of the power pile, +and that had not been calculated +by the builders. We were far underground +when the first radioactivity +in the air outside had +shut all the heavy, lead-shielded +automatic doors between us and +the outside.</p> + +<p>We were safe. And we starved +there.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you come sooner?" +I wonder if they know or guess +how I feel. My questions are not +questions, but I have to ask them. +He is dead. I don't mean to reproach +them—they look well +meaning and kindly—but I feel +as if, somehow, knowing why it +happened could make it stop, +could let me turn the clock back +and make it happen differently. If +I could have signaled them, so +they would have come just a little +sooner.</p> + +<p>They look at one another, turning +their funny-face heads uneasily, +moving back and forth, +but no one will answer.</p> + +<p>The world is dead.... George +is dead, that thin, pathetic creature +with the bones showing +through his skin that he was when +we sat still at the last with our +hands touching, thinking there +were people outside who had forgotten +us, hoping they would remember. +We didn't guess that +the world was dead, blanketed in +radiating dust outside. Politics +had killed it.</p> + +<p>These beings around me, they +had been watching, seeing what +was going to happen to our world, +listening to our radios from their +small settlements on the other +planets of the Solar System. They +had seen the doom of war coming. +They represented stellar civilizations +of great power and technology, +and with populations that +would have made ours seem a +small village; they were stronger +than we were, and yet they had +done nothing.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you stop us? You +could have stopped us."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">A rabbity</span> one who is closer +than the others backs away, +gesturing politely that he is giving +room for someone else to +speak, but he looks guilty and +will not look at me with his big +round eyes. I still feel weak and +dizzy. It is hard to think, but I +feel as if they are hiding a secret.</p> + +<p>A doelike one hesitates and +comes closer to my bed. "We discussed +it ... we voted...." It +talks through a microphone in +its helmet with a soft lisping accent +that I think comes from the +shape of its mouth. It has a muzzle +and very soft, dainty, long +nibbling lips like a deer that nibbles +on twigs and buds.</p> + +<p>"We were afraid," adds one +who looks like a bear.</p> + +<p>"To us the future was very terrible," +says one who looks as if it +might have descended from some +sort of large bird like a penguin. +"So much— Your weapons were +very terrible."</p> + +<p>Now they all talk at once, +crowding about my bed, apologizing. +"So much killing. It hurt +to know about. But your people +didn't seem to mind."</p> + +<p>"We were afraid."</p> + +<p>"And in your fiction," the doelike +one lisped, "I saw plays from +your amusement machines which +said that the discovery of beings +in space would save you from +war, not because you would let +us bring friendship and teach +peace, but because the human +race would unite in <i>hatred</i> of the +outsiders. They would forget their +hatred of each other only in a +new and more terrible war with +us." Its voice breaks in a squeak +and it turns its face away from +me.</p> + +<p>"You were about to come out +into space. We were wondering +how to hide!" That is a quick-talking +one, as small as a child. +He looks as if he might have +descended from a bat—gray +silken fur on his pointed face, big +night-seeing eyes, and big sensitive +ears, with a humped shape +on the back of his air suit which +might be folded wings. "We were +trying to conceal where we had +built, so that humans would not +guess we were near and look for +us."</p> + +<p>They are ashamed of their fear, +for because of it they broke all +the kindly laws of their civilizations, +restrained all the pity and +gentleness I see in them, and let +us destroy ourselves.</p> + +<p>I am beginning to feel more +awake and to see more clearly. +And I am beginning to feel sorry +for them, for I can see why they +are afraid.</p> + +<p>They are herbivores. I remember +the meaning of shapes. In the +paths of evolution there are grass +eaters and berry eaters and root +diggers. Each has its functional +shape of face and neck—and its +wide, startled-looking eyes to see +and run away from the hunters. +In all their racial history they +have never killed to eat. They +have been killed and eaten, or +run away, and they evolved to +intelligence by selection. Those +lived who succeeded in running +away from carnivores like lions, +hawks, and men.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">I look</span> up, and they turn their +eyes and heads in quick embarrassed +motion, not meeting my +eye. The rabbity one is nearest +and I reach out to touch him, +pleased because I am growing +strong enough now to move my +arms. He looks at me and I ask +the question: "Are there any +carnivores—flesh eaters—among +you?"</p> + +<p>He hesitates, moving his lips +as if searching for tactful words. +"We have never found any that +were civilized. We have frequently +found them in caves and tents +fighting each other. Sometimes +we find them fighting each other +with the ruins of cities around +them, but they are always savages."</p> + +<p>The bearlike one said heavily, +"It might be that carnivores +evolve more rapidly and tend +toward intelligence more often, +for we find radioactive planets +without life, and places like the +place you call your asteroid belt, +where a planet should be—but +there are only scattered fragments +of planet, pieces that look as if a +planet had been blown apart. We +think that usually ..." He looked +at me uncertainly, beginning to +fumble his words. "We think ..."</p> + +<div class="figr"><img src="images/001.png" width="346" height="500" alt="" title="" /></div> + +<p>"Yours is the only carnivorous +race we have found that was—civilized, +that had a science and +was going to come out into +space," the doelike one interrupted +softly. "We were afraid."</p> + +<p>They seem to be apologizing.</p> + +<p>The rabbity one, who seems to +be chosen as the leader in speaking +to me, says, "We will give you +anything you want. Anything we +are able to give you."</p> + +<p>They mean it. We survivors +will be privileged people, with a +key to all the cities, everything +free. Their sincerity is wonderful, +but puzzling. Are they trying to +atone for the thing they feel was +a crime; that they allowed humanity +to murder itself, and lost +to the Galaxy the richness of a +race? Is this why they are so +generous?</p> + +<p>Perhaps then they will help the +race to get started again. The +records are not lost. The few survivors +can eventually repopulate +Earth. Under the tutelage of +these peaceable races, without the +stress of division into nations, we +will flower as a race. No children +of mine to the furthest descendant +will ever make war again. This +much of a lesson we have learned.</p> + +<p>These timid beings do not realize +how much humanity has +wanted peace. They do not know +how reluctantly we were forced +and trapped by old institutions +and warped tangles of politics to +which we could see no answer. +We are not naturally savage. We +are not savage when approached +as individuals. Perhaps they +know this, but are afraid anyhow, +instinctive fear rising up from the +blood of their hunted, frightened +forebears.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> human race will be a good +partner to these races. Even +recovering from starvation as I +am, I can feel in myself an energy +they do not have. The savage in +me and my race is a creative +thing, for in those who have been +educated as I was it is a controlled +savagery which attacks +and destroys only problems and +obstacles, never people. Any human +raised outside of the political +traditions that the race +inherited from its bloodstained +childhood would be as friendly +and ready for friendship as I am +toward these beings. I could never +hurt these pleasant, overgrown +bunnies and squirrels.</p> + +<p>"We will do everything we can +to make up for ... we will try to +help," says the bunny, stumbling +over the English, but civilized +and cordial and kind.</p> + +<p>I sit up suddenly, reaching out +impulsively to shake his hand. +Suddenly frightened he leaps +back. All of them step back, +glancing behind them as though +making sure of the avenue of +escape. Their big luminous eyes +widen and glance rapidly from +me to the doors, frightened.</p> + +<p>They must think I am about to +leap out of bed and pounce on +them and eat them. I am about +to laugh and reassure them, about +to say that all I want from them +is friendship, when I feel a twinge +in my abdomen from the sudden +motion. I touch it with one hand +under the bedclothes.</p> + +<p>There is the scar of an incision +there, almost healed. An operation. +The weakness I am recovering +from is more than the weakness +of starvation.</p> + +<p>For only half a second I do not +understand; then I see why they +looked ashamed.</p> + +<p>They voted the murder of a +race.</p> + +<p>All the human survivors found +have been made sterile. There +will be no more humans after +we die.</p> + +<p>I am frozen, one hand still extended +to grasp the hand of the +rabbity one, my eyes still searching +his expression, reassuring +words still half formed.</p> + +<p>There will be time for anger +or grief later, for now, in this instant, +I can understand. They are +probably quite right.</p> + +<p>We were carnivores.</p> + +<p>I know, because, at this moment +of hatred, I could kill them +all.</p> + +<p class="rgt"><b>—G. A. MORRIS</b></p> + +<div class="trn"><div class="figt"><a href="images/002-2.jpg"><img src="images/002-1.jpg" width="144" height="200" alt="" title="" /></a></div> + +<p><big><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></big></p> + +<p>This etext was produced from <i>Galaxy Science Fiction</i> October 1953. +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.</p></div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30044 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/30044-h/images/001.png b/30044-h/images/001.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1875172 --- /dev/null +++ b/30044-h/images/001.png diff --git a/30044-h/images/002-1.jpg b/30044-h/images/002-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..103d197 --- /dev/null +++ b/30044-h/images/002-1.jpg diff --git a/30044-h/images/002-2.jpg b/30044-h/images/002-2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dc70bf --- /dev/null +++ b/30044-h/images/002-2.jpg |
