initial commit of ebook 30474HEAD main

author: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-14 19:53:49 -0700
committer: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-14 19:53:49 -0700
commit: b6a61d176fb3509c80ab1bf74fb94deabeff4f19 (patch)
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+<head>
+	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
+
+	<title>They Also Serve, by Donald E. Westlake</title>
+
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+
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30474 ***</div>
+
+	<div class="transcriber_note">
+		<p>This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact &amp; Fiction September 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="the_beginning">&nbsp;</div>
+	<div id="title_page"><a class="pagenum" id="page49" title="49"> </a>
+		<div id="title_image_1" class="image">
+			<img src="images/title-1.png" width="472" height="135" alt="Various scenes of a satellite circling the moon" />
+		</div>
+		<div id="title_image_2" class="image">
+			<img src="images/title-2.png" width="286" height="709" alt="A lumpy man-like alien with 4 eyes holds what appears to be a coffee cup." />
+		</div>
+		<h1>THEY ALSO SERVE</h1>
+		<p class="author">By DONALD E.
+		WESTLAKE</p>
+		<p class="prolog">Why should people hate
+		vultures? After all, a vulture
+		never kills anyone…</p>
+		<p class="author">Illustrated by Douglas</p>
+	</div>
+
+
+<p class="first_paragraph"><a class="pagenum" id="page50" title="50"> </a><img src="images/t.png" width="73" height="70" alt="T" /><span class="first_word">The</span> launch carrying the
+mail, supplies and replacements
+eased slowly
+in toward the base,
+keeping the bulk of the
+Moon between itself and Earth. Captain
+Ebor, seated at the controls, guided
+the ship to the rocky uneven
+ground with the easy carelessness of
+long practice, then cut the drive, got
+to his walking tentacles, and
+stretched. Donning his spacesuit, he
+left the ship to go over to the dome
+and meet Darquelnoy, the base commander.</p>
+
+<p>An open ground-car was waiting
+for him beside the ship. The driver,
+encased in his spacesuit, crossed tentacles
+in a sloppy salute, and Ebor returned
+the gesture quite as sloppily.
+Here on the periphery, cast formalities
+were all but dispensed with.</p>
+
+<p>Ebor stood for a moment and
+watched the unloading. The cargo
+crew, used to working in spacesuits,
+had one truck already half full. The
+replacements, unused to spacesuits
+and, in addition, awed and a bit
+startled by the bleakness of this satellite,
+were moving awkwardly down
+the ramp.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied that the unloading was
+proceeding smoothly, Ebor climbed
+aboard the ground-car, awkward in
+his suit, and settled back heavily in
+the seat to try to get used to gravity
+again. The gravity of this Moon was
+slight, of course—barely one-sixth
+the gravity of the Home World or
+most of the colonies—but it still
+took getting used to, after a long
+trip in free-fall.</p>
+
+<p>The driver sat at the controls, and
+the car jerked into motion. Ebor,
+looking up, noticed for the first time
+that the dome wasn’t there any more.
+The main dome, housing the staff and
+equipment of the base, just wasn’t
+there.</p>
+
+<p>And the driver, he now saw, was
+aiming the car toward the nearby
+crater wall. Extending two of his
+eyes till they almost touched the
+face-plate of his helmet, he could see
+activity at the base of the crater wall,
+and what looked like an air-lock entrance.
+He wondered what had
+caused the change, which had obviously
+been done at top speed. The
+last time he’d been here, not very
+long ago, the dome had still been intact,
+and there had been no hint of
+any impending move underground.</p>
+
+<p>The driver steered the car into the
+open air lock, and they waited until
+the first cargo truck had lumbered in
+after them. Then the outer door
+closed, the pumps were turned on,
+and in a minute the red light flashed
+over the inner door. Ebor removed
+the spacesuit gratefully, left it in the
+car, and walked clumsily through the
+inner door into the new base.</p>
+
+<p>A good job had been done on it,
+for all the speed. Rooms and corridors
+has been melted out of the rock, the
+floors had been carpeted, the walls
+painted, and the ceiling lined with
+light panels. All of the furnishings
+had been transferred here from the
+original dome, and the result looked,
+on the whole, quite livable. As livable
+as the dome had been, at least.</p>
+
+<p>But the base commander, Darquelnoy,
+<a class="pagenum" id="page51" title="51"> </a>waiting for his old friend Ebor
+near the inner door of the lock,
+looked anything but happy with the
+arrangement. At Ebor’s entrance he
+raised a limp tentacle in weary greeting
+and said, “Come in, my friend,
+come in. Tell me the new jokes from
+home. I could use some cheering up.”</p>
+
+<p>“None worth telling,” said Ebor.
+He looked around. “What’s happened
+here?” he asked. “Why’ve you
+gone underground? Why do you
+need cheering up?”</p>
+
+<p>Darquelnoy clicked his eyes in despair.
+“Those <em>things</em>!” he cried.
+“Those annoying little creatures on
+that blasted planet up there!”</p>
+
+<p>Ebor repressed an amused ripple.
+He knew Darquelnoy well enough to
+know that the commander invariably
+overstated things. “What’ve they
+been up to, Dar?” he asked. “Come
+on, you can tell me over a hot cup of
+restno.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been practically living on the
+stuff for the last two dren,” said Darquelnoy
+hopelessly. “Well, I suppose
+another cup won’t kill me. Come on to
+my quarters.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve worked up a fine thirst on the
+trip,” Ebor told him.</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p class="post_thoughtbreak">The two walked down the long
+corridor together and Ebor said,
+“Well? What happened?”</p>
+
+<p>“They came here,” Darquelnoy
+told him simply. At Ebor’s shocked
+look, he rippled in wan amusement
+and said, “Oh, it wasn’t as bad as it
+might have been, I suppose. It was
+just that we had to rush around so
+frantically, unloading and dismantling
+the dome, getting this place
+ready—”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean, they <em>came</em>
+here?” demanded Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“They are absolutely the worst
+creatures for secrecy in the entire
+galaxy!” exclaimed Darquelnoy in irritation.
+“Absolutely the worst.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you’ve picked up at least
+one of their habits,” Ebor told him.
+“Now stop talking in circles and tell
+me what happened.”</p>
+
+<p>“They built a spaceship, is the long
+and the short of it,” Darquelnoy answered.</p>
+
+<p>Ebor stopped in astonishment.
+“No!”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t tell me no!” cried Darquelnoy.
+“I <em>saw</em> it!” He was obviously at
+his wit’s end.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s unbelievable,” said Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” said Darquelnoy. He led
+the way into his quarters, motioned
+Ebor to a perch, and rang for his orderly.
+“It was just a little remote-controlled
+apparatus, of course,” he
+said. “The fledgling attempt, you
+know. But it circled this Moon here,
+busily taking pictures, and went right
+back to the planet again, giving us all
+a terrible fright. There hadn’t been
+the slightest indication they were
+planning anything <em>that</em> spectacular.”</p>
+
+<p>“None?” asked Ebor. “Not a
+hint?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, they’ve been boasting about
+doing some such thing for ages,”
+Darquelnoy told him. “But there was
+never any indication that they were
+finally serious about it. They have all
+sorts of military secrecy, of course,
+and so you never know a thing is
+<a class="pagenum" id="page52" title="52"> </a>going to happen until it does.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did they get a picture of the dome?”</p>
+
+<p>“Thankfully, no. And before they
+had a chance to try again, I whipped
+everything underground.”</p>
+
+<p>“It must have been hectic,” Ebor
+said sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>“It was,” said Darquelnoy simply.</p>
+
+<p>The orderly entered. Darquelnoy
+told him, “Two restno,” and he left
+again.</p>
+
+<p>“I can’t imagine them making a
+spaceship,” said Ebor thoughtfully.
+“I would have thought they’d have
+blown themselves up long before
+reaching that stage.”</p>
+
+<p>“I would have thought so, too,” said
+Darquelnoy. “But there it is. At the
+moment, they’ve divided themselves
+into two camps—generally speaking,
+that is—and the two sides are trying
+like mad to outdo each other in everything.
+As a part of it, they’re shooting
+all sorts of rubbish into space and
+crowing every time a piece of the
+other side’s rubbish malfunctions.”</p>
+
+<p>“They could go on that way indefinitely,”
+said Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” said Darquelnoy gloomily.
+“And here we sit.”</p>
+
+<p>Ebor nodded, studying his friend.
+“You don’t suppose this is all a waste
+of time, do you?” he asked, after a
+minute.</p>
+
+<p>Darquelnoy shook a tentacle in
+negation. “Not at all, not at all.
+They’ll get around to it, sooner or
+later. They’re still boasting themselves
+into the proper frame of mind,
+that’s all.”</p>
+
+<p>Ebor rippled in sympathetic
+<a class="pagenum" id="page53" title="53"> </a>amusement. “I imagine you sometimes
+wish you could give them a little
+prodding in the right direction,”
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Darquelnoy fluttered his tentacles
+in horror, crying, “Don’t even <em>think</em>
+of such a thing!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know, I know,” said Ebor hastily.
+“The laws—”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind the laws,” snapped
+Darquelnoy. “I’m not even thinking
+about the laws. Frankly, if it would
+do any good, I might even consider
+breaking one or two of the laws, and
+the devil with my conditioning.”</p>
+
+<p>“You <em>are</em> upset,” said Ebor at that.</p>
+
+<p>“But if we were to interfere with
+those creatures up there,” continued
+Darquelnoy, “interfere with them in
+any way at all, it would be absolutely
+disastrous.”</p>
+
+<p>The orderly returned at that point,
+with two steaming cups of restno.
+Darquelnoy and Ebor accepted the
+cups and the orderly left, making a
+sloppy tentacle-cross salute, which
+the two ignored.</p>
+
+<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+<p class="post_thoughtbreak">“I wasn’t talking necessarily about
+attacking them, you know,” said Ebor,
+returning to the subject.</p>
+
+<p>“Neither was I,” Darquelnoy told
+him. “We wouldn’t have to attack
+them. All we would have to do is let
+them know we’re here. Not even <em>why</em>
+we’re here, just the simple fact of our
+presence. That would be enough.
+<em>They</em> would attack <em>us</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>Ebor extended his eyes in surprise.
+“As vicious as all that?”</p>
+
+<p>“Chilling,” Darquelnoy told him.
+“Absolutely chilling.”</p>
+
+<p><a class="pagenum" id="page54" title="54"> </a>“Then I’m surprised they haven’t
+blown themselves to pieces long before
+this.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well,” said Darquelnoy, “you
+see, they’re cowards, too. They have
+to boast and brag and shout a while
+before they finally get to clawing
+and biting at one another.”</p>
+
+<p>Ebor waved a tentacle. “Don’t make
+it so vivid.”</p>
+
+<p>“Sorry,” apologized Darquelnoy.
+He drained his cup of restno. “Out
+here,” he said, “living next door to the
+little beasts day after day, one begins
+to lose one’s sensibilities.”</p>
+
+<p>“It has been a long time,” agreed
+Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“Longer than we had originally
+anticipated,” Darquelnoy said frankly.
+“We’ve been ready to move in for
+I don’t know how long. And instead
+we just sit here and wait. Which
+isn’t good for morale, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, I don’t imagine it is.”</p>
+
+<p>“There’s already a theory among
+some of the workmen that the blow-up
+just isn’t going to happen, ever.
+And since that ship went circling by,
+of course, morale has hit a new low.”</p>
+
+<p>“It would have been nasty if they’d
+spotted you,” said Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“Nasty?” echoed Darquelnoy. “Catastrophic,
+you mean. All that crowd
+up there needs is an enemy, and it
+doesn’t much matter to them who
+that enemy is. If they were to suspect
+that we were here, they’d forget their
+own little squabbles at once and start
+killing us instead. And that, of course,
+would mean that they’d be united, for
+the first time in their history, and
+who knows how long it would take
+them before they’d get back to killing
+one another again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” said Ebor, “you’re underground
+now. And it can’t possibly
+take them <em>too</em> much longer.”</p>
+
+<p>“One wouldn’t think so,” agreed
+Darquelnoy. “In a way,” he added,
+“that spaceship was a hopeful sign.
+It means that they’ll be sending a
+manned ship along pretty soon, and
+that should do the trick. As soon as
+one side has a base on the Moon, the
+other side is bound to get things
+started.”</p>
+
+<p>“A relief for you, eh?” said Ebor.</p>
+
+<p>“You know,” said Darquelnoy
+thoughtfully, “I can’t help thinking I
+was born in the wrong age. All this
+scrabbling around, searching everywhere
+for suitable planets. Back when
+the Universe was younger, there were
+lots and lots of planets to colonize.
+Now the old problem of half-life is
+taking its toll, and we can’t even hope
+to keep up with the birth rate any
+more. If it weren’t for the occasional
+planets like that one up there, I don’t
+know what we’d do.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t worry,” Ebor told him.
+“They’ll have their atomic war pretty
+soon, and leave us a nice high-radiation
+planet to colonize.”</p>
+
+<p>“I certainly hope it’s soon,” said
+Darquelnoy. “This waiting gets on
+one’s nerves.” He rang for the orderly.</p>
+
+<div id="the_end">
+	<p>THE END</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30474 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:53:49 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:53:49 -0700
commit	b6a61d176fb3509c80ab1bf74fb94deabeff4f19 (patch)
tree	ca13ee415d7982c09a2f5347836ca5db988459ab /30474-h