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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af31de8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51240 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51240) diff --git a/old/51240-h.zip b/old/51240-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index baf2054..0000000 --- a/old/51240-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51240-h/51240-h.htm b/old/51240-h/51240-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index a1b83cd..0000000 --- a/old/51240-h/51240-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,965 +0,0 @@ -<!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=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Addicts, by William Morrison. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Addicts, by William Morrison - -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/license - - -Title: The Addicts - -Author: William Morrison - -Release Date: February 17, 2016 [EBook #51240] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADDICTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="362" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>The Addicts</h1> - -<p>By WILLIAM MORRISON</p> - -<p>Illustrated by ED. ALEXANDER</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction January 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>Wives always try to cure husbands of<br /> -bad habits, even on lonely asteroids!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>You must understand that Palmer loved his wife as much as ever, or he -would never have thought of his simple little scheme at all. It was -entirely for her own good, as he had told himself a dozen times in -the past day. And with that he stilled whatever qualms of conscience -he might otherwise have had. He didn't think of himself as being -something of a murderer.</p> - -<p>She was sitting at the artificial fireplace, a cheerful relic of -ancient days, reading just as peacefully as if she had been back home -on Mars, instead of on this desolate outpost of space. She had adjusted -quickly to the loneliness and the strangeness of this life—to the -absence of friends, the need for conserving air, the strange feeling of -an artificial gravity that varied slightly at the whim of impurities in -the station fuel. To everything, in fact, but her husband.</p> - -<p>She seemed to sense his eyes on her, for she looked up and smiled. -"Feeling all right, dear?" she asked.</p> - -<p>"Naturally. How about you?"</p> - -<p>"As well as can be expected."</p> - -<p>"Not very good, then."</p> - -<p>She didn't reply, and he thought, <i>She hates to admit it, but she -really envies me. Well, I'll fix it so that she needn't any more.</i> And -he stared through the thick, transparent metal window at the beauty of -the stars, their light undimmed by dust or atmosphere.</p> - -<p>The stories told about the wretchedness of the lighthouse keepers who -lived on asteroids didn't apply at all to this particular bit of cosmic -rock. Life here had been wonderful, incredibly satisfying. At least it -had been that way for him. And now it would be the same way for his -wife as well.</p> - -<p>He would have denied it hotly if you had accused him of finding -her repulsive. But to certain drunks, the sober man or woman is an -offense, and Palmer was much more than a drunk. He was a marak addict, -and in the eyes of the marak fiends, all things and all people were -wonderful, except those who did not share their taste for the drug. The -latter were miserable, depraved creatures, practically subhuman.</p> - -<p>Of course that was not the way most of them put it. Certainly it was -not the way Palmer did. He regarded his wife, he told himself, as an -unfortunate individual whom he loved very much, one whom it was his -duty to make happy. That her new-found happiness would also hasten -her death was merely an unfortunate coincidence. She was sure to die -anyway, before long, so why not have her live out her last days in the -peace and contentment that only marak could bring?</p> - -<p>Louise herself would have had an answer to that, if he had ever put the -question to her. He was careful never to do so.</p> - -<p>She laid the book aside and looked up at him again. She said, "Jim, -darling, do you think you could get the television set working again?"</p> - -<p>"Not without a mesotron rectifier."</p> - -<p>"Even the radio would be a comfort."</p> - -<p>"It wouldn't do any good, any way. Too much static from both Mars and -Earth this time of year."</p> - -<p>That was the beauty of the marak, he thought. It changed his mood, -and left him calm and in full command of his faculties, able to handle -any problem that came up. He himself, of course, missed neither the -radio nor the television, and he never touched the fine library of -micro-books. He didn't need them.</p> - -<p>A shadow flitted by outside the thick window, blotting out for a moment -the blaze of stars. It was the shadow of death, as he knew, and he was -able to smile even at that. Even death was wonderful. When it finally -came, it would find him happy. He would not shudder away from it, as he -saw Louise doing now at the sight of the ominous shadow.</p> - -<p>He smiled at his wife again, remembering the six years they had lived -together. It had been a short married life, but—again the word -suggested itself to him—a wonderful one. There had been only one -quarrel of importance, in the second year, and after that they had got -along perfectly. And then, two years ago, he had begun to take marak, -and after that he couldn't have quarreled with anyone. It was a paragon -among drugs, and it was one of the mysteries of his existence that -anybody should object to his using it.</p> - -<p>Louise had tried to argue with him after she had found out, but he had -turned every exchange of views into a peaceful discussion, which from -his side, at least, was brimming over with good humor. He had even -been good-humored when she tried to slip the antidote into his food. -It was this attitude of his that had so often left her baffled and -enraged, and he had a good chuckle out of that, too. Imagine a wife -getting angry because her husband was too good-natured.</p> - -<p>But she was never going to get angry again. He would see to that. Not -after tonight. A big change was going to take place in her life.</p> - -<p>She had picked up another book, and for the moment he pitied her. He -knew that she wasn't interested in any books. She was merely restless, -looking for something to do with herself, seeking some method of -killing time before the shadows outside killed it for her for good and -all. She couldn't understand his being so peaceful and contented, doing -nothing at all.</p> - -<p>She threw the second book down and snarled—yes, that was the word, -"You're such a fool, Jim! You sit there, smug and sure of yourself, -your mind blank, just waiting—waiting for them to kill you and me. And -you seem actually happy when I mention it."</p> - -<p>"I'm happy at anything and everything, dear."</p> - -<p>"At the thought of dying too?"</p> - -<p>"Living or dying—it doesn't make any difference. Whatever happens, -I'm incapable of being unhappy."</p> - -<p>"If it weren't for the drug, we'd both live. You'd think of a way to -kill them before they killed us."</p> - -<p>"There is no way."</p> - -<p>"There must be. You just can't think of it while the drug has you in -its grip."</p> - -<p>"The drug doesn't have you, dear." He asked without sarcasm, "Why don't -you think of a way?"</p> - -<p>"Because I lack the training you have. Because I don't have the -scientific knowledge, and all the equipment scattered around means -nothing to me."</p> - -<p>"There's nothing to be done."</p> - -<p>Her fists clenched. "If you weren't under the influence of the drug—"</p> - -<p>"You know that it doesn't affect the ability to think. Tests have shown -that."</p> - -<p>"Tests conducted by addicts themselves!"</p> - -<p>"The fact that they can conduct the tests should be proof enough that -there's nothing wrong with their minds."</p> - -<p>"But there <i>is</i>!" she shouted. "I can see it in you. Oh, I know that -you can still add and subtract, and you can draw lines under two -words which mean the same thing, but that isn't really thinking. Real -thinking means the ability to tackle real problems—hard problems that -you can't handle merely with paper and pencil. It means having the -incentive to use your brain for a long time at a stretch. And that's -what the drug has ruined. It has taken away all your incentive."</p> - -<p>"I still go about my duties."</p> - -<p>"Not as well as you used to, and even at that, only because they've -become a habit. Just as you talk to me, because I've become a habit. If -you'd let me give you the antidote—"</p> - -<p>He chuckled at the absurdity of her suggestion. Once an addict had -been cured, he could not become addicted again. The antidote acted -to produce a permanent immunization against the effects of the drug. -It was the realization of this fact that made addicts fight so hard -against any attempt to cure them. And she thought that she could -convince him by argument!</p> - -<p>He said, "<i>You</i> talk of not being able to think!"</p> - -<p>"I know," she replied hotly. "<i>I'm</i> the one who blunders. <i>I'm</i> the -fool, for arguing with you, when I realize that it's impossible to -convince a marak addict."</p> - -<p>"That's it," he nodded, and chuckled again. But that wasn't quite it. -For he was also chuckling at his plan. She had thought him unable to -tackle a real problem. Well, he would tackle one tonight. Then she -would simply adopt his point of view, and she would no longer be -unhappy. After she had accepted the solution he had provided, she would -wonder how she could ever have opposed him.</p> - -<p>He fell into one of his dozes and hardly noticed her glaring at him. -When he came out of it at last, it was to hear her say, "We have to -stay alive as long as possible. For the sake of the lighthouse."</p> - -<p>"Of course, my dear. I don't dispute that at all."</p> - -<p>"And the longer we stay alive, the more chance there is that some ship -will pick us up."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no, there's no chance at all," he asserted cheerfully. "You know -that as well as I do. No use deceiving yourself, my love."</p> - -<p>That, he observed to himself, was the way of non-addicts. They couldn't -look facts in the face. They had to cling to a blind and silly optimism -which no facts justified.</p> - -<p><i>He</i> knew that there was no hope. <i>He</i> was able to review the facts -calmly, judiciously, to see the inevitability of their dying—and to -take pleasure even in that.</p> - -<p>He reviewed them for her now. "Let us see, sweetheart, whether I've -lost my ability to analyze a situation. We're here with our pretty -little lighthouse in the middle of a group of asteroids between Mars -and Earth. Ships have been wrecked here, and our task is to prevent -further wrecks. The lighthouse sends out a standard high-frequency -beam whose intensity and phase permit astrogators to estimate their -distance and direction from us. Ordinarily, there's nothing for us to -do. But on the rare occasions when the beam fails—"</p> - -<p>"That will be the end."</p> - -<p>"On those occasions," he continued, unruffled by her interruption, "I -am supposed to leave my cosy little shelter, so thoughtfully equipped -with all the comforts of Earth or Mars, and make repairs as rapidly as -possible. Under the usual conditions, lighthousekeeping is a boring -task. In fact, it has been known to drive people insane. That's why -it's generally assigned to happily married couples like us, who are -accustomed to living quietly, without excitement."</p> - -<p>"And that," she added bitterly, "is why even happily married couples -are usually relieved after one year."</p> - -<p>"But, darling," he said, his tone cheerful, "you mustn't blame anyone. -Who would have expected that a maverick meteor would come at us and -displace us from our orbit? And who would have expected that the meteor -would have collided first with the outer asteroids, and picked up a -cargo of—those?"</p> - -<p>He gestured toward the window, where a shadow had momentarily paused. -By the light that shone through, he could see that the creature was -relatively harmless-looking. It had what appeared to be a round, -humorous face whose unhumorous intentions would be revealed only at -the moment of the kill. The seeming face was actually featureless, for -it was not a face at all. It had neither eyes, nor nose, nor mouth. -The effect of features was given by the odd blend of colors. Almost -escaping notice because of their unusual position and their dull brown -hue were the stomach fangs, in neat rows which could be extended and -retracted like those of a snake.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="430" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He noticed that Louise had shuddered again, and said, in the manner -of a man making conversation, "Interesting, aren't they? They're rock -breathers, you know. They need very little oxygen, and they extract -that from the silicates and other oxygen-containing compounds of the -rock."</p> - -<p>"Don't talk about them."</p> - -<p>"All right, if you don't want me to. But about us—you see, my dear, -no one expected us to be lost. And even if the Lighthouse Service has -started to look for us, it'll take a long time to find us."</p> - -<p>"We have food, water, air. If not for those beasts, we'd last until a -rescue ship appeared."</p> - -<p>"But even a rescue ship wouldn't be able to reach us unless we kept the -beam going. So far, we've been lucky. It's really functioned remarkably -well. But sooner or later it'll go out of order, and then I'll have to -go out and fix it. You agree to that, don't you, Louise, dear?"</p> - -<p>She nodded. She said quietly, "The beam must be kept in order."</p> - -<p>"That's when the creatures will get me," he said, almost with -satisfaction. "I may kill one or two of them, although the way I feel -toward everything, I hate to kill anything at all. But you know, -sweetheart, that there are more than a dozen of them altogether, and -it's clumsy shooting in a spacesuit at beasts which move as swiftly as -they do."</p> - -<p>"And if you don't succeed in fixing what's wrong, if they get you—" -She broke down suddenly and began to cry.</p> - -<p>He looked at her with compassion, and smoothed her hair. And yet, under -the influence of the drug, he enjoyed even her crying. It was, as he -never tired of repeating to himself and to her a wonderful drug. Under -its spell, a man—or a woman—could really enjoy life.</p> - -<p>Tonight she would begin to enjoy life along with him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Their chronometer functioned perfectly, and they still regulated their -living habits by it, using Greenwich Earth time. At seven in the -evening they sat down to a fine meal. Knowing that tomorrow they might -die, Louise had decided that tonight they would eat and drink as well -as they could, and she had selected a Christmas special. She had merely -to pull a lever, and the food had slid into the oven, to be cooked at -once by an intense beam of high-frequency radiation. Jim himself had -chosen the wine and the brandy—one of the peculiarities of the marak -was that it did not affect the actual enjoyment of alcoholic drinks in -the slightest, and one of the sights of the Solar System was to see an -addict who was also drunk.</p> - -<p>But it was a rare sight, for the marak itself created such a pervading -sensation of well-being that it often acted as a cure for alcoholism. -Once an alcoholic had experienced its effect, he had no need to get -drunk to forget his troubles. He enjoyed his troubles instead, and -drank the alcohol for its own sake, for its ability to provide a -slightly different sensation, and not for its ability to release him -from an unhappy world.</p> - -<p>So tonight Palmer drank moderately, taking just enough, as it seemed -to him, to stimulate his brain. And he did what he now realized he -should have done long ago. Unobserved, he placed a tablet of marak in -his own wineglass and one in Louise's. The slight bitterness of taste -would be hardly perceptible. And after that Louise would be an addict -too.</p> - -<p>That was the way the marak worked. There was nothing mysterious about -the craving. It was simply that once you had experienced how delightful -it was, you wouldn't do without it.</p> - -<p>The tablet he had taken that morning was losing its effect, but he felt -so pleased at what he was doing that he didn't mind even that. For the -next half hour he would enjoy himself simply by looking at Louise, and -thinking that now at last they would be united again, no longer kept -apart by her silly ideas about doing something to save themselves. And -then the drug would take effect, and they would feel themselves lifted -to the stars together, never to come down to this substitute for Earth -again until the beam failed, and they went out together to make the -repairs, and the shadows closed in on them.</p> - -<p>He had made sure that Louise had her back to him when he dropped the -tablet into her glass, and he saw that she suspected nothing. She drank -her wine, he noticed, without even commenting on the taste. He felt a -sudden impulse to kiss her, and, somewhat to her surprise, he did so. -Then he sat down again and went on with the dinner.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="361" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He waited.</p> - -<p>An hour later he knew that he had made her happy. She was laughing as -she hadn't laughed for a long time. She laughed at the humorous things -he said, at the flattering way he raised his glass to her, even at what -she saw through the window. Sometimes it seemed to him that she was -laughing at nothing at all.</p> - -<p>He tried to think of how he had reacted the first time he had taken -the drug. He hadn't been quite so aggressively cheerful, not quite -so—hysterical. But then, the drug didn't have exactly the same effect -on everyone. She wasn't as well balanced as he had been. The important -thing was that she was happy.</p> - -<p>Curiously enough, he himself wasn't happy at all.</p> - -<p>It took about five seconds for the thought to become clear to him, -five seconds in which he passed from dull amazement to an enraged and -horrified comprehension. He sprang to his feet, overturning the table -at which they still sat. And he saw that she wasn't surprised at all, -that she still stared at him with a secret satisfaction.</p> - -<p>"You've cured me!" he cried. "You've fed me the antidote!"</p> - -<p>And he began to curse. He remembered the other time she had tried it, -the time when he had been on the alert, and had easily detected the -strange metallic taste of the stuff. He had spat it out, and under the -influence of the drug from which she had hoped to save him, he had -laughed at her.</p> - -<p>Now he was unable to laugh. He had been so intent on feeding the tablet -to her that he had forgotten to guard himself, and he had been caught. -He was normal now—her idea of being normal—and he would never again -know the wonderful feeling the drug gave. He began to realize his -situation on this horrible lonely asteroid. He cast a glance at the -window and at what must be waiting outside, and it was his turn to -shudder.</p> - -<p>He noticed that she was still smiling.</p> - -<p>He said bitterly, "You're the addict now and I'm cured."</p> - -<p>She stopped smiling and said quietly, "Jim, listen to me. You're wrong, -completely wrong. I didn't give you the antidote, and you didn't give -me the drug."</p> - -<p>"I put it in your wineglass myself."</p> - -<p>She shook her head. "That was a tablet I substituted for yours. It's -an anti-virus dose from our medicine chest. You took one of the -same things. That's why you feel so depressed. You're not under the -influence of the drug any more."</p> - -<p>He took a deep breath. "But I'm not cured?"</p> - -<p>"No. I knew that I wouldn't be able to slip you the antidote. The taste -is too strong. Later you'll be able to start taking the drug again. -That is, if you want to, after experiencing for a time what it is to -be normal. But not now. You have to keep your head clear. You have to -think of something to save us."</p> - -<p>"But there's nothing to think of!" he shouted angrily. "I told you that -the drug doesn't affect the intelligence!"</p> - -<p>"I still don't believe you. If you'd only exert yourself, use your -mind—"</p> - -<p>He said savagely, "I'm not going to bother. Give me those marak -tablets."</p> - -<p>She backed away from him. "I thought you might want them. I took no -chances. I threw them out."</p> - -<p>"Out there?" A horrified and incredulous look was on his face. "You -mean that I'm stuck here without them? Louise, you fool, there's no -help for us! The other way, at least, we'd have died happy. But now—"</p> - -<p>He stared out the window. The shadows were there in full force. Not -one now, but two, three—he counted half a dozen. It was almost as if -they knew that the end had come.</p> - -<p>They had reason to be happy, he thought with despair. And perhaps— -he shrank back from the thought, but it forced itself into his -mind—perhaps, now that all happiness had gone, and wretchedness had -taken its place, he might as well end everything. There would be no -days to spend torturing himself in anticipation of a horrible death.</p> - -<p>Louise exclaimed suddenly, "Jim, <i>look</i>! They're <i>frolicking</i>!"</p> - -<p>He looked. The beasts certainly were gay. One of them leaped from -the airless surface of the asteroid and sailed over its fellow. He -had never seen them do that before. Usually they clung to the rocky -surface. Another was spinning around oddly, as if it had lost its sense -of balance.</p> - -<p>Louise said, "<i>They've</i> swallowed the tablets! Over a hundred -doses—enough to drug every beast on the asteroid!"</p> - -<p>For a moment Palmer stared at the gamboling alien drug addicts. Then -he put on his spacesuit and took his gun, and, without the slightest -danger to himself, went out and shot them one by one. He noted, with a -kind of grim envy, that they died happy.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Addicts, by William Morrison - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADDICTS *** - -***** This file should be named 51240-h.htm or 51240-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/2/4/51240/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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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/license - - -Title: The Addicts - -Author: William Morrison - -Release Date: February 17, 2016 [EBook #51240] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADDICTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Addicts - - By WILLIAM MORRISON - - Illustrated by ED. ALEXANDER - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction January 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Wives always try to cure husbands of - bad habits, even on lonely asteroids! - - -You must understand that Palmer loved his wife as much as ever, or he -would never have thought of his simple little scheme at all. It was -entirely for her own good, as he had told himself a dozen times in -the past day. And with that he stilled whatever qualms of conscience -he might otherwise have had. He didn't think of himself as being -something of a murderer. - -She was sitting at the artificial fireplace, a cheerful relic of -ancient days, reading just as peacefully as if she had been back home -on Mars, instead of on this desolate outpost of space. She had adjusted -quickly to the loneliness and the strangeness of this life--to the -absence of friends, the need for conserving air, the strange feeling of -an artificial gravity that varied slightly at the whim of impurities in -the station fuel. To everything, in fact, but her husband. - -She seemed to sense his eyes on her, for she looked up and smiled. -"Feeling all right, dear?" she asked. - -"Naturally. How about you?" - -"As well as can be expected." - -"Not very good, then." - -She didn't reply, and he thought, _She hates to admit it, but she -really envies me. Well, I'll fix it so that she needn't any more._ And -he stared through the thick, transparent metal window at the beauty of -the stars, their light undimmed by dust or atmosphere. - -The stories told about the wretchedness of the lighthouse keepers who -lived on asteroids didn't apply at all to this particular bit of cosmic -rock. Life here had been wonderful, incredibly satisfying. At least it -had been that way for him. And now it would be the same way for his -wife as well. - -He would have denied it hotly if you had accused him of finding -her repulsive. But to certain drunks, the sober man or woman is an -offense, and Palmer was much more than a drunk. He was a marak addict, -and in the eyes of the marak fiends, all things and all people were -wonderful, except those who did not share their taste for the drug. The -latter were miserable, depraved creatures, practically subhuman. - -Of course that was not the way most of them put it. Certainly it was -not the way Palmer did. He regarded his wife, he told himself, as an -unfortunate individual whom he loved very much, one whom it was his -duty to make happy. That her new-found happiness would also hasten -her death was merely an unfortunate coincidence. She was sure to die -anyway, before long, so why not have her live out her last days in the -peace and contentment that only marak could bring? - -Louise herself would have had an answer to that, if he had ever put the -question to her. He was careful never to do so. - -She laid the book aside and looked up at him again. She said, "Jim, -darling, do you think you could get the television set working again?" - -"Not without a mesotron rectifier." - -"Even the radio would be a comfort." - -"It wouldn't do any good, any way. Too much static from both Mars and -Earth this time of year." - -That was the beauty of the marak, he thought. It changed his mood, -and left him calm and in full command of his faculties, able to handle -any problem that came up. He himself, of course, missed neither the -radio nor the television, and he never touched the fine library of -micro-books. He didn't need them. - -A shadow flitted by outside the thick window, blotting out for a moment -the blaze of stars. It was the shadow of death, as he knew, and he was -able to smile even at that. Even death was wonderful. When it finally -came, it would find him happy. He would not shudder away from it, as he -saw Louise doing now at the sight of the ominous shadow. - -He smiled at his wife again, remembering the six years they had lived -together. It had been a short married life, but--again the word -suggested itself to him--a wonderful one. There had been only one -quarrel of importance, in the second year, and after that they had got -along perfectly. And then, two years ago, he had begun to take marak, -and after that he couldn't have quarreled with anyone. It was a paragon -among drugs, and it was one of the mysteries of his existence that -anybody should object to his using it. - -Louise had tried to argue with him after she had found out, but he had -turned every exchange of views into a peaceful discussion, which from -his side, at least, was brimming over with good humor. He had even -been good-humored when she tried to slip the antidote into his food. -It was this attitude of his that had so often left her baffled and -enraged, and he had a good chuckle out of that, too. Imagine a wife -getting angry because her husband was too good-natured. - -But she was never going to get angry again. He would see to that. Not -after tonight. A big change was going to take place in her life. - -She had picked up another book, and for the moment he pitied her. He -knew that she wasn't interested in any books. She was merely restless, -looking for something to do with herself, seeking some method of -killing time before the shadows outside killed it for her for good and -all. She couldn't understand his being so peaceful and contented, doing -nothing at all. - -She threw the second book down and snarled--yes, that was the word, -"You're such a fool, Jim! You sit there, smug and sure of yourself, -your mind blank, just waiting--waiting for them to kill you and me. And -you seem actually happy when I mention it." - -"I'm happy at anything and everything, dear." - -"At the thought of dying too?" - -"Living or dying--it doesn't make any difference. Whatever happens, -I'm incapable of being unhappy." - -"If it weren't for the drug, we'd both live. You'd think of a way to -kill them before they killed us." - -"There is no way." - -"There must be. You just can't think of it while the drug has you in -its grip." - -"The drug doesn't have you, dear." He asked without sarcasm, "Why don't -you think of a way?" - -"Because I lack the training you have. Because I don't have the -scientific knowledge, and all the equipment scattered around means -nothing to me." - -"There's nothing to be done." - -Her fists clenched. "If you weren't under the influence of the drug--" - -"You know that it doesn't affect the ability to think. Tests have shown -that." - -"Tests conducted by addicts themselves!" - -"The fact that they can conduct the tests should be proof enough that -there's nothing wrong with their minds." - -"But there _is_!" she shouted. "I can see it in you. Oh, I know that -you can still add and subtract, and you can draw lines under two -words which mean the same thing, but that isn't really thinking. Real -thinking means the ability to tackle real problems--hard problems that -you can't handle merely with paper and pencil. It means having the -incentive to use your brain for a long time at a stretch. And that's -what the drug has ruined. It has taken away all your incentive." - -"I still go about my duties." - -"Not as well as you used to, and even at that, only because they've -become a habit. Just as you talk to me, because I've become a habit. If -you'd let me give you the antidote--" - -He chuckled at the absurdity of her suggestion. Once an addict had -been cured, he could not become addicted again. The antidote acted -to produce a permanent immunization against the effects of the drug. -It was the realization of this fact that made addicts fight so hard -against any attempt to cure them. And she thought that she could -convince him by argument! - -He said, "_You_ talk of not being able to think!" - -"I know," she replied hotly. "_I'm_ the one who blunders. _I'm_ the -fool, for arguing with you, when I realize that it's impossible to -convince a marak addict." - -"That's it," he nodded, and chuckled again. But that wasn't quite it. -For he was also chuckling at his plan. She had thought him unable to -tackle a real problem. Well, he would tackle one tonight. Then she -would simply adopt his point of view, and she would no longer be -unhappy. After she had accepted the solution he had provided, she would -wonder how she could ever have opposed him. - -He fell into one of his dozes and hardly noticed her glaring at him. -When he came out of it at last, it was to hear her say, "We have to -stay alive as long as possible. For the sake of the lighthouse." - -"Of course, my dear. I don't dispute that at all." - -"And the longer we stay alive, the more chance there is that some ship -will pick us up." - -"Oh, no, there's no chance at all," he asserted cheerfully. "You know -that as well as I do. No use deceiving yourself, my love." - -That, he observed to himself, was the way of non-addicts. They couldn't -look facts in the face. They had to cling to a blind and silly optimism -which no facts justified. - -_He_ knew that there was no hope. _He_ was able to review the facts -calmly, judiciously, to see the inevitability of their dying--and to -take pleasure even in that. - -He reviewed them for her now. "Let us see, sweetheart, whether I've -lost my ability to analyze a situation. We're here with our pretty -little lighthouse in the middle of a group of asteroids between Mars -and Earth. Ships have been wrecked here, and our task is to prevent -further wrecks. The lighthouse sends out a standard high-frequency -beam whose intensity and phase permit astrogators to estimate their -distance and direction from us. Ordinarily, there's nothing for us to -do. But on the rare occasions when the beam fails--" - -"That will be the end." - -"On those occasions," he continued, unruffled by her interruption, "I -am supposed to leave my cosy little shelter, so thoughtfully equipped -with all the comforts of Earth or Mars, and make repairs as rapidly as -possible. Under the usual conditions, lighthousekeeping is a boring -task. In fact, it has been known to drive people insane. That's why -it's generally assigned to happily married couples like us, who are -accustomed to living quietly, without excitement." - -"And that," she added bitterly, "is why even happily married couples -are usually relieved after one year." - -"But, darling," he said, his tone cheerful, "you mustn't blame anyone. -Who would have expected that a maverick meteor would come at us and -displace us from our orbit? And who would have expected that the meteor -would have collided first with the outer asteroids, and picked up a -cargo of--those?" - -He gestured toward the window, where a shadow had momentarily paused. -By the light that shone through, he could see that the creature was -relatively harmless-looking. It had what appeared to be a round, -humorous face whose unhumorous intentions would be revealed only at -the moment of the kill. The seeming face was actually featureless, for -it was not a face at all. It had neither eyes, nor nose, nor mouth. -The effect of features was given by the odd blend of colors. Almost -escaping notice because of their unusual position and their dull brown -hue were the stomach fangs, in neat rows which could be extended and -retracted like those of a snake. - -He noticed that Louise had shuddered again, and said, in the manner -of a man making conversation, "Interesting, aren't they? They're rock -breathers, you know. They need very little oxygen, and they extract -that from the silicates and other oxygen-containing compounds of the -rock." - -"Don't talk about them." - -"All right, if you don't want me to. But about us--you see, my dear, -no one expected us to be lost. And even if the Lighthouse Service has -started to look for us, it'll take a long time to find us." - -"We have food, water, air. If not for those beasts, we'd last until a -rescue ship appeared." - -"But even a rescue ship wouldn't be able to reach us unless we kept the -beam going. So far, we've been lucky. It's really functioned remarkably -well. But sooner or later it'll go out of order, and then I'll have to -go out and fix it. You agree to that, don't you, Louise, dear?" - -She nodded. She said quietly, "The beam must be kept in order." - -"That's when the creatures will get me," he said, almost with -satisfaction. "I may kill one or two of them, although the way I feel -toward everything, I hate to kill anything at all. But you know, -sweetheart, that there are more than a dozen of them altogether, and -it's clumsy shooting in a spacesuit at beasts which move as swiftly as -they do." - -"And if you don't succeed in fixing what's wrong, if they get you--" -She broke down suddenly and began to cry. - -He looked at her with compassion, and smoothed her hair. And yet, under -the influence of the drug, he enjoyed even her crying. It was, as he -never tired of repeating to himself and to her a wonderful drug. Under -its spell, a man--or a woman--could really enjoy life. - -Tonight she would begin to enjoy life along with him. - - * * * * * - -Their chronometer functioned perfectly, and they still regulated their -living habits by it, using Greenwich Earth time. At seven in the -evening they sat down to a fine meal. Knowing that tomorrow they might -die, Louise had decided that tonight they would eat and drink as well -as they could, and she had selected a Christmas special. She had merely -to pull a lever, and the food had slid into the oven, to be cooked at -once by an intense beam of high-frequency radiation. Jim himself had -chosen the wine and the brandy--one of the peculiarities of the marak -was that it did not affect the actual enjoyment of alcoholic drinks in -the slightest, and one of the sights of the Solar System was to see an -addict who was also drunk. - -But it was a rare sight, for the marak itself created such a pervading -sensation of well-being that it often acted as a cure for alcoholism. -Once an alcoholic had experienced its effect, he had no need to get -drunk to forget his troubles. He enjoyed his troubles instead, and -drank the alcohol for its own sake, for its ability to provide a -slightly different sensation, and not for its ability to release him -from an unhappy world. - -So tonight Palmer drank moderately, taking just enough, as it seemed -to him, to stimulate his brain. And he did what he now realized he -should have done long ago. Unobserved, he placed a tablet of marak in -his own wineglass and one in Louise's. The slight bitterness of taste -would be hardly perceptible. And after that Louise would be an addict -too. - -That was the way the marak worked. There was nothing mysterious about -the craving. It was simply that once you had experienced how delightful -it was, you wouldn't do without it. - -The tablet he had taken that morning was losing its effect, but he felt -so pleased at what he was doing that he didn't mind even that. For the -next half hour he would enjoy himself simply by looking at Louise, and -thinking that now at last they would be united again, no longer kept -apart by her silly ideas about doing something to save themselves. And -then the drug would take effect, and they would feel themselves lifted -to the stars together, never to come down to this substitute for Earth -again until the beam failed, and they went out together to make the -repairs, and the shadows closed in on them. - -He had made sure that Louise had her back to him when he dropped the -tablet into her glass, and he saw that she suspected nothing. She drank -her wine, he noticed, without even commenting on the taste. He felt a -sudden impulse to kiss her, and, somewhat to her surprise, he did so. -Then he sat down again and went on with the dinner. - -He waited. - -An hour later he knew that he had made her happy. She was laughing as -she hadn't laughed for a long time. She laughed at the humorous things -he said, at the flattering way he raised his glass to her, even at what -she saw through the window. Sometimes it seemed to him that she was -laughing at nothing at all. - -He tried to think of how he had reacted the first time he had taken -the drug. He hadn't been quite so aggressively cheerful, not quite -so--hysterical. But then, the drug didn't have exactly the same effect -on everyone. She wasn't as well balanced as he had been. The important -thing was that she was happy. - -Curiously enough, he himself wasn't happy at all. - -It took about five seconds for the thought to become clear to him, -five seconds in which he passed from dull amazement to an enraged and -horrified comprehension. He sprang to his feet, overturning the table -at which they still sat. And he saw that she wasn't surprised at all, -that she still stared at him with a secret satisfaction. - -"You've cured me!" he cried. "You've fed me the antidote!" - -And he began to curse. He remembered the other time she had tried it, -the time when he had been on the alert, and had easily detected the -strange metallic taste of the stuff. He had spat it out, and under the -influence of the drug from which she had hoped to save him, he had -laughed at her. - -Now he was unable to laugh. He had been so intent on feeding the tablet -to her that he had forgotten to guard himself, and he had been caught. -He was normal now--her idea of being normal--and he would never again -know the wonderful feeling the drug gave. He began to realize his -situation on this horrible lonely asteroid. He cast a glance at the -window and at what must be waiting outside, and it was his turn to -shudder. - -He noticed that she was still smiling. - -He said bitterly, "You're the addict now and I'm cured." - -She stopped smiling and said quietly, "Jim, listen to me. You're wrong, -completely wrong. I didn't give you the antidote, and you didn't give -me the drug." - -"I put it in your wineglass myself." - -She shook her head. "That was a tablet I substituted for yours. It's -an anti-virus dose from our medicine chest. You took one of the -same things. That's why you feel so depressed. You're not under the -influence of the drug any more." - -He took a deep breath. "But I'm not cured?" - -"No. I knew that I wouldn't be able to slip you the antidote. The taste -is too strong. Later you'll be able to start taking the drug again. -That is, if you want to, after experiencing for a time what it is to -be normal. But not now. You have to keep your head clear. You have to -think of something to save us." - -"But there's nothing to think of!" he shouted angrily. "I told you that -the drug doesn't affect the intelligence!" - -"I still don't believe you. If you'd only exert yourself, use your -mind--" - -He said savagely, "I'm not going to bother. Give me those marak -tablets." - -She backed away from him. "I thought you might want them. I took no -chances. I threw them out." - -"Out there?" A horrified and incredulous look was on his face. "You -mean that I'm stuck here without them? Louise, you fool, there's no -help for us! The other way, at least, we'd have died happy. But now--" - -He stared out the window. The shadows were there in full force. Not -one now, but two, three--he counted half a dozen. It was almost as if -they knew that the end had come. - -They had reason to be happy, he thought with despair. And perhaps-- -he shrank back from the thought, but it forced itself into his -mind--perhaps, now that all happiness had gone, and wretchedness had -taken its place, he might as well end everything. There would be no -days to spend torturing himself in anticipation of a horrible death. - -Louise exclaimed suddenly, "Jim, _look_! They're _frolicking_!" - -He looked. The beasts certainly were gay. One of them leaped from -the airless surface of the asteroid and sailed over its fellow. He -had never seen them do that before. Usually they clung to the rocky -surface. Another was spinning around oddly, as if it had lost its sense -of balance. - -Louise said, "_They've_ swallowed the tablets! Over a hundred -doses--enough to drug every beast on the asteroid!" - -For a moment Palmer stared at the gamboling alien drug addicts. Then -he put on his spacesuit and took his gun, and, without the slightest -danger to himself, went out and shot them one by one. He noted, with a -kind of grim envy, that they died happy. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Addicts, by William Morrison - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADDICTS *** - -***** This file should be named 51240.txt or 51240.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/2/4/51240/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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