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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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..ee6d01a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51247 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51247) diff --git a/old/51247-h.zip b/old/51247-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 92c4b89..0000000 --- a/old/51247-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51247-h/51247-h.htm b/old/51247-h/51247-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 641996d..0000000 --- a/old/51247-h/51247-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1082 +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 Dead End, by Wallace MacFarlane. - </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 Dead End, by Wallace Macfarlane - -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: Dead End - -Author: Wallace Macfarlane - -Release Date: February 18, 2016 [EBook #51247] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD END *** - - - - -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>Dead End</h1> - -<p>By WALLACE MACFARLANE</p> - -<p>Illustrated by DAVID STONE</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>Sparing people's feelings is deadly.<br /> -It leads to—no feelings, no people!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Scientist William Manning Norcross drank his soup meticulously and -scooped up the vegetables at the bottom of the cup, while his attention -was focused on the television screen. He watched girls swimming in -formation as he gnawed the bone of his steak. He stolidly ate the -baked potato with his fingers when the girls turned around, displaying -"Weejees Are Best" signs pasted to their shapely backs. The final -flourish was more formation swimming, where they formed a wheel under -water, swimming past the camera to display in individual letters stuck -to their bare midriffs: "Wonderful Weejees!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="373" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Norcross chuckled appreciatively when a fat old man swam after -them with an "Is That Right?" strung across his behind. Young -men followed him, each carrying a one-word card that spelled: -"You—Bet—It's—Right—Don't—Be—Left—Buy—Weejees—!" The scene -ended on the surface. The grotesque old man was far in back, while the -young men caught the young women, and together they kicked up a cloud -of spray in the distance, which by a trick of photography mounted to -the sky and the words swept around the globe in monstrous letters: -"BUY WEEJEES!"</p> - -<p>The dessert was apple pie, and Scientist Norcross turned the screen -to the "Abstractions" channel. Watching the colors and patterns form -in response to the music, he finished the pie and licked his fingers -appreciatively. He pressed a stud to reveal the mirror wall before he -activated the molecular cleanup.</p> - -<p>Not many people would do that. It was not contrary to morals, exactly, -but it was like scratching in public, and it took a scientific mind to -study the human form unshaken, immediately after ingestion. There was -pie on his tunic and gravy in his hair and a smear of grease from cheek -to ear. With no sign of squeamishness, he smeared beet juice on his -nose and studied the effect before he depressed the "Clear" stud.</p> - -<p>He stretched and stood up while the tray disappeared, then turned -and glanced in the mirror again. Nothing on him. Clean. He yawned -luxuriantly before he tapped the "Finish" panel on the door and stepped -forth, an immaculate and well-fed gentlemen of the year 2512.</p> - -<p>He had a well-trained sense of humor, and a smile crossed his lips -as he thought of the terror a 21st Century man would feel in such an -eating chamber. When he pressed the clear button, the barbarian would -be clean—really, sterilely clean—for the first time in his life, and -without clothes, too. Oh, what a jape that would be, for the molecular -cleanup would immediately disintegrate such abominations as the fur -of animals, and much clothing 400 years ago was actually made of such -things as sheep hair.</p> - -<p>He bowed to a pretty woman just entering a cubicle and thought -defiantly that a scientific mind afforded much amusement. There was no -illusion in his icy clear thoughts, for they were not befogged by moral -questions.</p> - -<p>With a sigh, Scientist William Manning Norcross returned to the -difficult problem he had set aside while having lunch. The garden city -was beautiful outside, but he gave only passing attention to the rain -slithering down the huge dome of force over the buildings. He did not -pause to admire the everlasting flowers in their carefully simulated -beds of soil.</p> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter was in a state of crisis again, and Scientist -Norcross was worried.</p> - -<p>His fears were well founded. The young man wheeled on Scientist -Norcross the minute he stepped through the hedge into the force field -under the giant live oak tree.</p> - -<p>"Where are they?" he demanded. "I am coming to believe, Scientist, -that your reputation is exceeded only by your inability to live up -to it. The problem is only an extension of your own early work. You -volunteered cooperation, and I accepted it gladly, but your delays are -very distressing!"</p> - -<p>"Johnny," said Scientist Norcross, "the press of my own experiments—"</p> - -<p>"Then tell me you won't do it!"</p> - -<p>"I want to help you. Don't you remember the years we spent together in -your training to the high calling of scientist? I took your young hand, -Johnny, and helped you over the juvenile stumbling blocks. Why, your -first mind machine was one I gave you, and when—"</p> - -<p>"You're a fraud, Scientist!" said the young man bitterly.</p> - -<p>"The young never appreciate the old," sighed Norcross.</p> - -<p>"Go suck a mango!"</p> - -<p>Norcross was shocked. "There's no call for being obscene, John Davis -Drumstetter," he said sternly. "To mention eating to another person, -and right in public, where you might be overheard—"</p> - -<p>"Eat a slippery, sloppery mango on <i>television</i>, you old fool! Smear it -all over your face while you ingest it into your unspeakable digestive -tract!"</p> - -<p>"John Davis Drumstetter," said the scientist with great control, "I -have been your friend since you were born. Your father and I became -scientists on the same day. You are young and over-eager. Just -remember," he finished with a warning shake of his finger, "Satellite -Station One wasn't built in a day!"</p> - -<p>Drumstetter stopped his furious pacing and subdued his rage with -visible effort. He chilled, like red steel hardening, and when he spoke -he was in full command of himself.</p> - -<p>"Now listen to me, Norcross, and keep your mouth shut. For the past -forty years I've been working on the stellar overdrive. We have the -Solar System in our reticule, colonies have been established on -every planet, and ships have been sent to Alpha Centauri, with every -chance that mankind has established itself in that solar system. But -in the four hundred years since science emerged from the dark ages, -we've managed to creep only four light years away from home! And you, -Scientist, are withholding your work on the overdrive relay. Do you -understand why your plea of old friendship does not affect me? In the -past two years, you've done nothing—"</p> - -<p>"Experiments that must be kept secret," mumbled Norcross.</p> - -<p>"And it is my belief," said the young man in a clipped, cold voice, -"that you have sold yourself to your taste buds and digestive tract. -Either that," and here his burning rage came into the open, "or you are -a pseudo-life!"</p> - -<p>At this ultimate insult, Scientist Norcross was silent with -indignation. He watched Drumstetter shrug into a stole, turn down the -power to the huge mind machine, sling his reticule over his shoulder, -and stalk off through the hedge.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norcross slumped into a chair, his mind in confusion. He heard -Drumstetter's plane as it left the ground. Plane, he thought, his -mind avoiding the problem. Plane. What a curious name, handed down -through the ages, to call a swift skip powered by Earth's magnetism. An -original plane fought the air, buoyed up by the lift of plane surfaces -in movement. When the movement stopped, it died.</p> - -<p>Died. Death. Pseudo-life.</p> - -<p>Scientist Norcross shuddered. His well-trained sense of humor did not -include abominations.</p> - -<p>He took the communication from his pocket and cleared to Prime Center. -When the prim, grim face of Prime Center himself in the little disc was -sharp, Norcross reported what had happened, even to the suggestion -Drumstetter had made that he was pseudo-life.</p> - -<p>"This is very bad," said Prime Center. "Monica Drake Lane is now -pseudo-life, too."</p> - -<p>"God's name!"</p> - -<p>"Took her skip into a cliff in the Sierra Mountains yesterday. -Disconnected the anti-collision. A clear case."</p> - -<p>"What will this do to Drumstetter?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing," said Prime Center, "unless he learns."</p> - -<p>"Is she ready?"</p> - -<p>"I'm sending her to you right now for indoctrination. Reports are that -Drumstetter is visiting scientists on the West Coast, and Probability -reports that he may cover the world before he returns. Do you -understand? Her indoctrination must be perfect."</p> - -<p>"It always has been." Norcross pulled his lip. "The same limitation -will be in Monica Drake Lane?" he asked hopelessly.</p> - -<p>"Of course," said Prime Center. "We'll keep you posted on developments."</p> - -<p>"You'd better try women," said Norcross.</p> - -<p>"Women, narcotics, or anything else! I'd eat a blueberry pie with my -hands behind my back at high noon," said Prime Center with fierce -obscenity, "if I thought it would do any good!"</p> - -<p>He cut the connection.</p> - -<p>Norcross was still under the oak tree, lost in contemplation of a color -abstraction on his little communication, when a tall blonde girl, brown -as a berry, stepped hesitantly through the hedge. She walked to him -and, when he looked up, she buried her face in her hands. He stood and -held her shoulders.</p> - -<p>"Now, now," said Scientist Norcross, "don't cry, my dear."</p> - -<p>"But this is so puzzling—and I wasn't crying," she answered. "What's -happened to me?"</p> - -<p>"Sit down, Monica, and tell me what you think has happened."</p> - -<p>"But I don't know. You see, the last I remember is walking through the -Psych Lab in San Francisco, and suddenly—suddenly, I'm in New York and -they're sending me to you. What has happened?"</p> - -<p>"Where do you first remember being in New York?"</p> - -<p>"In the—oh, I don't know!" She was in a flush of embarrassment.</p> - -<p>"I'll help you, my dear. You were in the pseudo-life clinic. You -are not <i>exactly</i> Monica Drake Lane any longer. She died. You are -pseudo-life."</p> - -<p>Her eyes were bright and the pupils were pinpointed from shock.</p> - -<p>"You are the pseudo-life Monica Drake Lane. To all outward appearances, -you are an exact counterpart of the girl. Inwardly? Well, your -internal organs have been simplified, and you cannot reproduce. Aside -from such minor changes, you are identical, and incidentally a much -more efficient creature than your prototype. And if your mind, which -is a very good one, was a human mind, I could not tell you this. -Pseudo-life is a most remarkable thing, but Lewis and Havinghurst -and Covalt, who developed it 300 years ago, were never able to imbue -pseudo-life with what they called the minus-one factor, which includes -the phenomenal human emotional sensitivity, among other things. Are you -feeling better now?"</p> - -<p>"Why, yes—" Her voice trailed off.</p> - -<p>"You are no longer a slave of your emotions," said Scientist Norcross -complacently. "None of us are."</p> - -<p>"You—you are—?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes. We generally don't speak of such things, but since I'm to -introduce you to pseudo-life, I can tell you that I died two years ago."</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid I never did know—or Monica Drake Lane never—that is, I—"</p> - -<p>"You <i>are</i> Monica Drake Lane. If you will sit quietly, I'll tell you -about it." Scientist Norcross took two cigarettes from his reticule -and offered the girl one. The lip play was considered somewhat daring -between the sexes, but under the circumstances he thought the mild -narcotic would be good for her, as well as the sharpening of the senses -brought on by actually smoking together.</p> - -<p>"When the Americans, who inhabited this continent, gained domination -of the world in the 21st Century, they consolidated their position by -carrying their customs to the ends of the Earth. For that matter, to -Alpha Centauri, if the ships did get through.</p> - -<p>"Forgive me," he interrupted himself, "if I seem improper or even -immoral in this little talk of ours. Believe me, it's not with an easy -disregard of proprieties that I bring myself to speak of such things.</p> - -<p>"Well, the Americans believed, and rightly so, that death is a dreadful -thing. Until Lewis and Havinghurst and Covalt developed pseudo-life, -a great deal of time and effort and money went into such things -as cemeteries—places where they literally buried their dead with -elaborate ceremonials and much anguish. They had other equally wasteful -practices, such as madhouses and jails, which were done away with when -it became practical to replace a useless person with another, who -matched the original to near absolute perfection, but without fatal -flaws of body or weaknesses of the mind.</p> - -<p>"Emphasis has shifted since those early years, when the abnormals -were dealt with, to the comforting of human beings. Should John Davis -Drumstetter suffer greatly at the loss of his mentor, the man who -guided him in the ways of science? Of course not. He never knew I died."</p> - -<p>Norcross puffed complacently, sending iridescent rainbow smoke rings -over the mind machine.</p> - -<p>"And I am his fiancee," said the girl.</p> - -<p>"Should he suffer because you died? No reason for it," said Norcross -heartily. "A psychic trauma of that nature would make him desperately -unhappy. Happiness is the proper state in life, as everyone knows. -In fact, you will make him much happier than Monica Drake Lane, the -original, ever could."</p> - -<p>"Yes, I shall be happy," mused the girl, as if feeling a more limited -capacity for sorrow within herself. "But you spoke of a minus-one -factor."</p> - -<p>"Yes, it takes in a lot of things. Though we are immortal, barring -accidents, and we retain all the knowledge we had as human beings, the -flaw to pseudo-life is that no original thought is possible. Students -of the matter compare it to glancing at a page in a dictionary. -Of course you don't consciously remember the words there, but in -pseudo-life you are capable of remembering and using them properly, so -to speak, but not using them creatively. That is our trouble with John -Davis Drumstetter. I was a brilliant physicist, but the understanding -of new problems is beyond my limitations, and he is beyond me."</p> - -<p>"But I woke in New York," she said irrelevantly.</p> - -<p>"Because your master pseudo-life file was kept there," explained -Scientist Norcross. "As a human being, you were required to visit the -psych lab every month, where your changed pattern was recorded by the -mind machine. The pseudo-life girl could never lose more than a month -of the human being's life. What was your regular appointment date?"</p> - -<p>"The 21st."</p> - -<p>"Let's see—you died yesterday, so that would be only three days gone. -We're very fortunate."</p> - -<p>"But won't he notice a difference in me?"</p> - -<p>"Absolutely not."</p> - -<p>"Am I—still capable of love?"</p> - -<p>Scientist Norcross blew a plume of rainbow smoke into the air. -"Suppose, my dear, we find out."</p> - -<p>Monica Drake Lane agreed, for morality, which is essentially organized -taboo that changes as society changes, had, in the 26th Century, been -confined exclusively to eating. Scientist Norcross had often amused -himself by imagining how people of other ages would have been outraged -by the moral standards of his own era, but his famous sense of humor -was not rugged enough to be amused by the moral standards of the past. -Not, at any rate, if he had had to endure them, though he found them -sufficiently comic as history.</p> - -<p>She built a bower, an attractive courtship custom that had been adopted -from the birds, and the day ended much more pleasantly than Scientist -Norcross had expected at lunch.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The reports came in from Prime Center. Drumstetter stayed in Los -Angeles two days, in San Francisco three, and then consulted with -Dowson in Honolulu. He skipped to New Zealand, back north to Japan, -and swung across Siberia with short stops at various laboratories and -universities. He was in Finland for three days with old Scientist -Theophil Gertsley, who, though little better than a witch doctor, -called himself a psychologist.</p> - -<p>When John Davis Drumstetter set his skip down beside the live oak -tree, Scientist Norcross and Monica Drake Lane were waiting for him. -He was gaunt from hunger and weary from travel, but the expression in -his eyes was not one to be assuaged by any food cubicle. Nor was it -love he had been seeking and not found, for Prime Center had seen to -it that opportunities were offered, from austere tropical girls to the -warmth-seeking women of the north, who would even eat with a member of -the opposite sex.</p> - -<p>He greeted Scientist Norcross and his fiancee with an offhandedness -that Norcross had not expected, and asked that he be excused from any -long immediate association with them, due to the press of uncompleted -work.</p> - -<p>"But, Johnny," said Monica Drake Lane, "I've made a bower close by, and -you seem very tired."</p> - -<p>"There's work to be done," said the young man firmly. "I have no time -to—Wait. I'll see your bower."</p> - -<p>As they walked over the lush artificial grass, Scientist Norcross -explained that his results from the overdrive relay equations were in -the mind machine even now, but John Davis Drumstetter only patted him -on the shoulder in a friendly way and told him not to bother.</p> - -<p>When they reached the bower, Scientist Norcross expected that -Drumstetter would sleep there after all, for it was an exceptionally -pleasant design. The force field was night, and the sky was filled with -adapted creatures from Mars dancing to their susurrate music, and -the air was permeated with the bitter-sweet and exciting scent of a -Venusian lake, the very odor of romance. In the background was the song -of the sea.</p> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter stepped out of the bower and said gently, "It's -one of the nicest I've ever seen, and we spent some happy nights in it -a year ago, didn't we, Monica?"</p> - -<p>He kissed her gently, as he might kiss a child, and walked back to the -oak tree.</p> - -<p>"He's behaving very oddly," reported Norcross to Prime Center, as soon -as he could, and gave the details.</p> - -<p>"I'd give a lot to have him meet a human female," said Prime Center -wistfully.</p> - -<p>"What shall I do?"</p> - -<p>"Stay with him and wait," ordered Prime Center. "This is the first -time the hopes of humanity lie in one man. Remember that. We can only -serve," he added bitterly. "He hasn't tested the final limitation? -Good. Keep me informed."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter stayed beside his huge mind machine for nearly a -week, and, though he was only sixty, he looked like an old man when he -greeted Monica and Norcross at the end of that time.</p> - -<p>"The relay is finished," he announced. "It's being installed in the -<i>Last Hope</i> now. That's what I'm calling my ship, the ship to make -mankind free of the stars. My work on Earth is nearly done."</p> - -<p>"But, Johnny darling," said Monica Drake Lane, looking up at him -through her eyelashes, "what about our marriage?"</p> - -<p>He looked at her with grim pity. "The bower was an old bower," he -answered. "Did you have the courage to be a unique in a patterned -world? Can you reproduce, Monica Drake Lane?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, Johnny—"</p> - -<p>"The final limitation!" he said. "Humans have the power to command -pseudo-life. Pseudo-life, answer! I command!"</p> - -<p>She sank to the ground.</p> - -<p>"No," she said, "no, Johnny, I can't have a baby. I died over a month -ago. I'm sorry you found out."</p> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter turned on Scientist William Manning Norcross. -"You've done no new work because you have no capacity for it. Correct? -Answer, pseudo-life, I command!"</p> - -<p>Norcross lifted a calm face. "Why, yes," he said, "I'm pseudo-life. -Have been for over two years. But don't you worry, Johnny, it's better -this way and only natural that—"</p> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter paid no attention. He spoke as if explaining -to himself. "You see, they're pseudo-life, dancing to the very end of -the masquerade ball that started so long ago. It began when measurable -science, the science of finity, made a finite man, a man <i>nearly</i> -as good. It was the mental climate of an age that wanted its books -digested, and then abandoned reading for television. They froze -food and precooked it and said it was even better than garden fresh -vegetables.</p> - -<p>"Do it the easy way, they said, never knowing that the hard way is the -only way in the last analysis. Why try to cure a neurotic when you can -make a pseudo-life of him? Don't let his grieving friends and relations -suffer; provide them with a pseudo-life. He's just the same, they said, -and he's not sick. And should a man die? Oh, no! Make a pseudo-life for -his wife and children."</p> - -<p>"But, Johnny—"</p> - -<p>"Be still, pseudo-life! Why bother with men who were beginning to -understand the human mind, when you can create pseudo-life? The cheap -drives out the good every time. Oh, with the kindliest intentions, with -the softest sympathies! Hide. Conceal. The truth be damned!"</p> - -<p>"But, Johnny darling—" began Monica Drake Lane.</p> - -<p>"Be still, pseudo-life. There's one more thing, the final capstone to -mankind's pyramid of folly." He got Prime Center on the communication. -"Answer, pseudo-life, I command. Am I the last human being on Earth?"</p> - -<p>"Since you put it that way," said Prime Center reluctantly, "you are."</p> - -<p>"And in the Solar System?"</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid so."</p> - -<p>The communication dropped from John Davis Drumstetter's hand.</p> - -<p>"This is the logical conclusion," he said slowly. "The actors are -playing on a stage of worlds for an audience of one. At the solar -observatory on Mercury, astronomers study the Sun and send in their -reports, in case I should glance at them. In the mines of Pluto, miners -dig ore to provide a market quotation I might see in the telepapers."</p> - -<p>He kicked the communication across the floor.</p> - -<p>"Get out," he told them with infinite weariness. "The last human being -commands."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He slept for a day and had breakfast in <i>full public view</i> under a -tree. Peeping Toms of both sexes watched him.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="365" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Prime Center appeared in person just as he finished mopping up the last -of his once-over-lightly egg. Prime Center coughed and blushed and -looked away, and John Davis Drumstetter laughed aloud, humorlessly.</p> - -<p>"Good morning," he said cheerfully.</p> - -<p>"Hm, yes," said Prime Center.</p> - -<p>"Sit down. Have an egg?" A wicked light appeared in his eyes, and he -went on in a low, sinister voice, "A coddled egg, soft and white and -runny? Maybe you want to gulp some coffee? Or snap your way through -a piece of crackling toast? No?" His guest was turning pale and -sick-looking. "Well, let me finish this bacon, and state your business."</p> - -<p>He threw back his head and slipped the bacon into his mouth. Prime -Center shuddered.</p> - -<p>"Scientist Drumstetter," he said, keeping his gaze fixed on the trunk -of the tree, "I have come to offer you all the worlds. Yes, the whole -Solar System, including the asteroids and Pluto. You will be more -powerful than Alexander or Caesar or Stalin or O'Toole. We will create -a new office—Prime <i>Squared</i> Center—to rule the Solar System. Do you -mind not doing that?"</p> - -<p>John Davis Drumstetter was licking his fingers thoughtfully. He nodded.</p> - -<p>"Then you accept?"</p> - -<p>"No, I'm through licking my fingers. I'll give you your answer on a -systemwide communication. Arrange it, pseudo-life, immediately."</p> - -<p>As a concession to morality, John Davis Drumstetter agreed to step -into a molecular cleanup booth. When he came out again, he spoke to the -worlds and all the ships in space:</p> - -<p>"My friends, from now on the blind will lead the blind. Moral obliquity -has triumphed and becomes common morality." He laughed and rubbed his -nose. "I'm sorry. I was speaking to an audience of one—myself. What -I want you billions to do is to continue your work, to maintain the -system as it now stands. Pseudo-life will be replaced with pseudo-life -till the end of time. It will be a static world. It will be a -nearly-as-good world. It will be a pleasant world by your standards. -I wish you to do this, and you must, of course, obey my command. My -purpose reaches a little beyond your natural inclination; this system -will serve as a fertile warning to any beings with intelligence who may -come after me.</p> - -<p>"I will not be with you long, myself—"</p> - -<p>"Suicide?" asked Prime Center hopefully.</p> - -<p>"Alpha Centauri," said John Davis Drumstetter with a chuckle. "The -colonists left because they didn't like pseudo-life, either. Good-by to -you all."</p> - -<p>He snapped off the communication, waved to the little group under -the tree, and entered the <i>Last Hope</i>. The entry port swung closed. -The force field glowed, and then the ship was gone, leaving behind a -whirlwind of dust.</p> - -<p>"Alpha Centauri?" asked Monica Drake Lane.</p> - -<p>"Following the others of his wild, unstable breed," said Scientist -Norcross.</p> - -<p>"Easy come, easy go," the girl said, shrugging.</p> - -<p>Prime Center had the last word. "Yes, and good riddance. Human beings -have always been a nuisance."</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead End, by Wallace Macfarlane - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD END *** - -***** This file should be named 51247-h.htm or 51247-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/2/4/51247/ - -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: Dead End - -Author: Wallace Macfarlane - -Release Date: February 18, 2016 [EBook #51247] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD END *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Dead End - - By WALLACE MACFARLANE - - Illustrated by DAVID STONE - - [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.] - - - - - Sparing people's feelings is deadly. - It leads to--no feelings, no people! - - -Scientist William Manning Norcross drank his soup meticulously and -scooped up the vegetables at the bottom of the cup, while his attention -was focused on the television screen. He watched girls swimming in -formation as he gnawed the bone of his steak. He stolidly ate the -baked potato with his fingers when the girls turned around, displaying -"Weejees Are Best" signs pasted to their shapely backs. The final -flourish was more formation swimming, where they formed a wheel under -water, swimming past the camera to display in individual letters stuck -to their bare midriffs: "Wonderful Weejees!" - -Norcross chuckled appreciatively when a fat old man swam after -them with an "Is That Right?" strung across his behind. Young -men followed him, each carrying a one-word card that spelled: -"You--Bet--It's--Right--Don't--Be--Left--Buy--Weejees--!" The scene -ended on the surface. The grotesque old man was far in back, while the -young men caught the young women, and together they kicked up a cloud -of spray in the distance, which by a trick of photography mounted to -the sky and the words swept around the globe in monstrous letters: -"BUY WEEJEES!" - -The dessert was apple pie, and Scientist Norcross turned the screen -to the "Abstractions" channel. Watching the colors and patterns form -in response to the music, he finished the pie and licked his fingers -appreciatively. He pressed a stud to reveal the mirror wall before he -activated the molecular cleanup. - -Not many people would do that. It was not contrary to morals, exactly, -but it was like scratching in public, and it took a scientific mind to -study the human form unshaken, immediately after ingestion. There was -pie on his tunic and gravy in his hair and a smear of grease from cheek -to ear. With no sign of squeamishness, he smeared beet juice on his -nose and studied the effect before he depressed the "Clear" stud. - -He stretched and stood up while the tray disappeared, then turned -and glanced in the mirror again. Nothing on him. Clean. He yawned -luxuriantly before he tapped the "Finish" panel on the door and stepped -forth, an immaculate and well-fed gentlemen of the year 2512. - -He had a well-trained sense of humor, and a smile crossed his lips -as he thought of the terror a 21st Century man would feel in such an -eating chamber. When he pressed the clear button, the barbarian would -be clean--really, sterilely clean--for the first time in his life, and -without clothes, too. Oh, what a jape that would be, for the molecular -cleanup would immediately disintegrate such abominations as the fur -of animals, and much clothing 400 years ago was actually made of such -things as sheep hair. - -He bowed to a pretty woman just entering a cubicle and thought -defiantly that a scientific mind afforded much amusement. There was no -illusion in his icy clear thoughts, for they were not befogged by moral -questions. - -With a sigh, Scientist William Manning Norcross returned to the -difficult problem he had set aside while having lunch. The garden city -was beautiful outside, but he gave only passing attention to the rain -slithering down the huge dome of force over the buildings. He did not -pause to admire the everlasting flowers in their carefully simulated -beds of soil. - -John Davis Drumstetter was in a state of crisis again, and Scientist -Norcross was worried. - -His fears were well founded. The young man wheeled on Scientist -Norcross the minute he stepped through the hedge into the force field -under the giant live oak tree. - -"Where are they?" he demanded. "I am coming to believe, Scientist, -that your reputation is exceeded only by your inability to live up -to it. The problem is only an extension of your own early work. You -volunteered cooperation, and I accepted it gladly, but your delays are -very distressing!" - -"Johnny," said Scientist Norcross, "the press of my own experiments--" - -"Then tell me you won't do it!" - -"I want to help you. Don't you remember the years we spent together in -your training to the high calling of scientist? I took your young hand, -Johnny, and helped you over the juvenile stumbling blocks. Why, your -first mind machine was one I gave you, and when--" - -"You're a fraud, Scientist!" said the young man bitterly. - -"The young never appreciate the old," sighed Norcross. - -"Go suck a mango!" - -Norcross was shocked. "There's no call for being obscene, John Davis -Drumstetter," he said sternly. "To mention eating to another person, -and right in public, where you might be overheard--" - -"Eat a slippery, sloppery mango on _television_, you old fool! Smear it -all over your face while you ingest it into your unspeakable digestive -tract!" - -"John Davis Drumstetter," said the scientist with great control, "I -have been your friend since you were born. Your father and I became -scientists on the same day. You are young and over-eager. Just -remember," he finished with a warning shake of his finger, "Satellite -Station One wasn't built in a day!" - -Drumstetter stopped his furious pacing and subdued his rage with -visible effort. He chilled, like red steel hardening, and when he spoke -he was in full command of himself. - -"Now listen to me, Norcross, and keep your mouth shut. For the past -forty years I've been working on the stellar overdrive. We have the -Solar System in our reticule, colonies have been established on -every planet, and ships have been sent to Alpha Centauri, with every -chance that mankind has established itself in that solar system. But -in the four hundred years since science emerged from the dark ages, -we've managed to creep only four light years away from home! And you, -Scientist, are withholding your work on the overdrive relay. Do you -understand why your plea of old friendship does not affect me? In the -past two years, you've done nothing--" - -"Experiments that must be kept secret," mumbled Norcross. - -"And it is my belief," said the young man in a clipped, cold voice, -"that you have sold yourself to your taste buds and digestive tract. -Either that," and here his burning rage came into the open, "or you are -a pseudo-life!" - -At this ultimate insult, Scientist Norcross was silent with -indignation. He watched Drumstetter shrug into a stole, turn down the -power to the huge mind machine, sling his reticule over his shoulder, -and stalk off through the hedge. - - * * * * * - -Norcross slumped into a chair, his mind in confusion. He heard -Drumstetter's plane as it left the ground. Plane, he thought, his -mind avoiding the problem. Plane. What a curious name, handed down -through the ages, to call a swift skip powered by Earth's magnetism. An -original plane fought the air, buoyed up by the lift of plane surfaces -in movement. When the movement stopped, it died. - -Died. Death. Pseudo-life. - -Scientist Norcross shuddered. His well-trained sense of humor did not -include abominations. - -He took the communication from his pocket and cleared to Prime Center. -When the prim, grim face of Prime Center himself in the little disc was -sharp, Norcross reported what had happened, even to the suggestion -Drumstetter had made that he was pseudo-life. - -"This is very bad," said Prime Center. "Monica Drake Lane is now -pseudo-life, too." - -"God's name!" - -"Took her skip into a cliff in the Sierra Mountains yesterday. -Disconnected the anti-collision. A clear case." - -"What will this do to Drumstetter?" - -"Nothing," said Prime Center, "unless he learns." - -"Is she ready?" - -"I'm sending her to you right now for indoctrination. Reports are that -Drumstetter is visiting scientists on the West Coast, and Probability -reports that he may cover the world before he returns. Do you -understand? Her indoctrination must be perfect." - -"It always has been." Norcross pulled his lip. "The same limitation -will be in Monica Drake Lane?" he asked hopelessly. - -"Of course," said Prime Center. "We'll keep you posted on developments." - -"You'd better try women," said Norcross. - -"Women, narcotics, or anything else! I'd eat a blueberry pie with my -hands behind my back at high noon," said Prime Center with fierce -obscenity, "if I thought it would do any good!" - -He cut the connection. - -Norcross was still under the oak tree, lost in contemplation of a color -abstraction on his little communication, when a tall blonde girl, brown -as a berry, stepped hesitantly through the hedge. She walked to him -and, when he looked up, she buried her face in her hands. He stood and -held her shoulders. - -"Now, now," said Scientist Norcross, "don't cry, my dear." - -"But this is so puzzling--and I wasn't crying," she answered. "What's -happened to me?" - -"Sit down, Monica, and tell me what you think has happened." - -"But I don't know. You see, the last I remember is walking through the -Psych Lab in San Francisco, and suddenly--suddenly, I'm in New York and -they're sending me to you. What has happened?" - -"Where do you first remember being in New York?" - -"In the--oh, I don't know!" She was in a flush of embarrassment. - -"I'll help you, my dear. You were in the pseudo-life clinic. You -are not _exactly_ Monica Drake Lane any longer. She died. You are -pseudo-life." - -Her eyes were bright and the pupils were pinpointed from shock. - -"You are the pseudo-life Monica Drake Lane. To all outward appearances, -you are an exact counterpart of the girl. Inwardly? Well, your -internal organs have been simplified, and you cannot reproduce. Aside -from such minor changes, you are identical, and incidentally a much -more efficient creature than your prototype. And if your mind, which -is a very good one, was a human mind, I could not tell you this. -Pseudo-life is a most remarkable thing, but Lewis and Havinghurst -and Covalt, who developed it 300 years ago, were never able to imbue -pseudo-life with what they called the minus-one factor, which includes -the phenomenal human emotional sensitivity, among other things. Are you -feeling better now?" - -"Why, yes--" Her voice trailed off. - -"You are no longer a slave of your emotions," said Scientist Norcross -complacently. "None of us are." - -"You--you are--?" - -"Oh, yes. We generally don't speak of such things, but since I'm to -introduce you to pseudo-life, I can tell you that I died two years ago." - -"I'm afraid I never did know--or Monica Drake Lane never--that is, I--" - -"You _are_ Monica Drake Lane. If you will sit quietly, I'll tell you -about it." Scientist Norcross took two cigarettes from his reticule -and offered the girl one. The lip play was considered somewhat daring -between the sexes, but under the circumstances he thought the mild -narcotic would be good for her, as well as the sharpening of the senses -brought on by actually smoking together. - -"When the Americans, who inhabited this continent, gained domination -of the world in the 21st Century, they consolidated their position by -carrying their customs to the ends of the Earth. For that matter, to -Alpha Centauri, if the ships did get through. - -"Forgive me," he interrupted himself, "if I seem improper or even -immoral in this little talk of ours. Believe me, it's not with an easy -disregard of proprieties that I bring myself to speak of such things. - -"Well, the Americans believed, and rightly so, that death is a dreadful -thing. Until Lewis and Havinghurst and Covalt developed pseudo-life, -a great deal of time and effort and money went into such things -as cemeteries--places where they literally buried their dead with -elaborate ceremonials and much anguish. They had other equally wasteful -practices, such as madhouses and jails, which were done away with when -it became practical to replace a useless person with another, who -matched the original to near absolute perfection, but without fatal -flaws of body or weaknesses of the mind. - -"Emphasis has shifted since those early years, when the abnormals -were dealt with, to the comforting of human beings. Should John Davis -Drumstetter suffer greatly at the loss of his mentor, the man who -guided him in the ways of science? Of course not. He never knew I died." - -Norcross puffed complacently, sending iridescent rainbow smoke rings -over the mind machine. - -"And I am his fiancee," said the girl. - -"Should he suffer because you died? No reason for it," said Norcross -heartily. "A psychic trauma of that nature would make him desperately -unhappy. Happiness is the proper state in life, as everyone knows. -In fact, you will make him much happier than Monica Drake Lane, the -original, ever could." - -"Yes, I shall be happy," mused the girl, as if feeling a more limited -capacity for sorrow within herself. "But you spoke of a minus-one -factor." - -"Yes, it takes in a lot of things. Though we are immortal, barring -accidents, and we retain all the knowledge we had as human beings, the -flaw to pseudo-life is that no original thought is possible. Students -of the matter compare it to glancing at a page in a dictionary. -Of course you don't consciously remember the words there, but in -pseudo-life you are capable of remembering and using them properly, so -to speak, but not using them creatively. That is our trouble with John -Davis Drumstetter. I was a brilliant physicist, but the understanding -of new problems is beyond my limitations, and he is beyond me." - -"But I woke in New York," she said irrelevantly. - -"Because your master pseudo-life file was kept there," explained -Scientist Norcross. "As a human being, you were required to visit the -psych lab every month, where your changed pattern was recorded by the -mind machine. The pseudo-life girl could never lose more than a month -of the human being's life. What was your regular appointment date?" - -"The 21st." - -"Let's see--you died yesterday, so that would be only three days gone. -We're very fortunate." - -"But won't he notice a difference in me?" - -"Absolutely not." - -"Am I--still capable of love?" - -Scientist Norcross blew a plume of rainbow smoke into the air. -"Suppose, my dear, we find out." - -Monica Drake Lane agreed, for morality, which is essentially organized -taboo that changes as society changes, had, in the 26th Century, been -confined exclusively to eating. Scientist Norcross had often amused -himself by imagining how people of other ages would have been outraged -by the moral standards of his own era, but his famous sense of humor -was not rugged enough to be amused by the moral standards of the past. -Not, at any rate, if he had had to endure them, though he found them -sufficiently comic as history. - -She built a bower, an attractive courtship custom that had been adopted -from the birds, and the day ended much more pleasantly than Scientist -Norcross had expected at lunch. - - * * * * * - -The reports came in from Prime Center. Drumstetter stayed in Los -Angeles two days, in San Francisco three, and then consulted with -Dowson in Honolulu. He skipped to New Zealand, back north to Japan, -and swung across Siberia with short stops at various laboratories and -universities. He was in Finland for three days with old Scientist -Theophil Gertsley, who, though little better than a witch doctor, -called himself a psychologist. - -When John Davis Drumstetter set his skip down beside the live oak -tree, Scientist Norcross and Monica Drake Lane were waiting for him. -He was gaunt from hunger and weary from travel, but the expression in -his eyes was not one to be assuaged by any food cubicle. Nor was it -love he had been seeking and not found, for Prime Center had seen to -it that opportunities were offered, from austere tropical girls to the -warmth-seeking women of the north, who would even eat with a member of -the opposite sex. - -He greeted Scientist Norcross and his fiancee with an offhandedness -that Norcross had not expected, and asked that he be excused from any -long immediate association with them, due to the press of uncompleted -work. - -"But, Johnny," said Monica Drake Lane, "I've made a bower close by, and -you seem very tired." - -"There's work to be done," said the young man firmly. "I have no time -to--Wait. I'll see your bower." - -As they walked over the lush artificial grass, Scientist Norcross -explained that his results from the overdrive relay equations were in -the mind machine even now, but John Davis Drumstetter only patted him -on the shoulder in a friendly way and told him not to bother. - -When they reached the bower, Scientist Norcross expected that -Drumstetter would sleep there after all, for it was an exceptionally -pleasant design. The force field was night, and the sky was filled with -adapted creatures from Mars dancing to their susurrate music, and -the air was permeated with the bitter-sweet and exciting scent of a -Venusian lake, the very odor of romance. In the background was the song -of the sea. - -John Davis Drumstetter stepped out of the bower and said gently, "It's -one of the nicest I've ever seen, and we spent some happy nights in it -a year ago, didn't we, Monica?" - -He kissed her gently, as he might kiss a child, and walked back to the -oak tree. - -"He's behaving very oddly," reported Norcross to Prime Center, as soon -as he could, and gave the details. - -"I'd give a lot to have him meet a human female," said Prime Center -wistfully. - -"What shall I do?" - -"Stay with him and wait," ordered Prime Center. "This is the first -time the hopes of humanity lie in one man. Remember that. We can only -serve," he added bitterly. "He hasn't tested the final limitation? -Good. Keep me informed." - - * * * * * - -John Davis Drumstetter stayed beside his huge mind machine for nearly a -week, and, though he was only sixty, he looked like an old man when he -greeted Monica and Norcross at the end of that time. - -"The relay is finished," he announced. "It's being installed in the -_Last Hope_ now. That's what I'm calling my ship, the ship to make -mankind free of the stars. My work on Earth is nearly done." - -"But, Johnny darling," said Monica Drake Lane, looking up at him -through her eyelashes, "what about our marriage?" - -He looked at her with grim pity. "The bower was an old bower," he -answered. "Did you have the courage to be a unique in a patterned -world? Can you reproduce, Monica Drake Lane?" - -"Oh, Johnny--" - -"The final limitation!" he said. "Humans have the power to command -pseudo-life. Pseudo-life, answer! I command!" - -She sank to the ground. - -"No," she said, "no, Johnny, I can't have a baby. I died over a month -ago. I'm sorry you found out." - -John Davis Drumstetter turned on Scientist William Manning Norcross. -"You've done no new work because you have no capacity for it. Correct? -Answer, pseudo-life, I command!" - -Norcross lifted a calm face. "Why, yes," he said, "I'm pseudo-life. -Have been for over two years. But don't you worry, Johnny, it's better -this way and only natural that--" - -John Davis Drumstetter paid no attention. He spoke as if explaining -to himself. "You see, they're pseudo-life, dancing to the very end of -the masquerade ball that started so long ago. It began when measurable -science, the science of finity, made a finite man, a man _nearly_ -as good. It was the mental climate of an age that wanted its books -digested, and then abandoned reading for television. They froze -food and precooked it and said it was even better than garden fresh -vegetables. - -"Do it the easy way, they said, never knowing that the hard way is the -only way in the last analysis. Why try to cure a neurotic when you can -make a pseudo-life of him? Don't let his grieving friends and relations -suffer; provide them with a pseudo-life. He's just the same, they said, -and he's not sick. And should a man die? Oh, no! Make a pseudo-life for -his wife and children." - -"But, Johnny--" - -"Be still, pseudo-life! Why bother with men who were beginning to -understand the human mind, when you can create pseudo-life? The cheap -drives out the good every time. Oh, with the kindliest intentions, with -the softest sympathies! Hide. Conceal. The truth be damned!" - -"But, Johnny darling--" began Monica Drake Lane. - -"Be still, pseudo-life. There's one more thing, the final capstone to -mankind's pyramid of folly." He got Prime Center on the communication. -"Answer, pseudo-life, I command. Am I the last human being on Earth?" - -"Since you put it that way," said Prime Center reluctantly, "you are." - -"And in the Solar System?" - -"I'm afraid so." - -The communication dropped from John Davis Drumstetter's hand. - -"This is the logical conclusion," he said slowly. "The actors are -playing on a stage of worlds for an audience of one. At the solar -observatory on Mercury, astronomers study the Sun and send in their -reports, in case I should glance at them. In the mines of Pluto, miners -dig ore to provide a market quotation I might see in the telepapers." - -He kicked the communication across the floor. - -"Get out," he told them with infinite weariness. "The last human being -commands." - - * * * * * - -He slept for a day and had breakfast in _full public view_ under a -tree. Peeping Toms of both sexes watched him. - -Prime Center appeared in person just as he finished mopping up the last -of his once-over-lightly egg. Prime Center coughed and blushed and -looked away, and John Davis Drumstetter laughed aloud, humorlessly. - -"Good morning," he said cheerfully. - -"Hm, yes," said Prime Center. - -"Sit down. Have an egg?" A wicked light appeared in his eyes, and he -went on in a low, sinister voice, "A coddled egg, soft and white and -runny? Maybe you want to gulp some coffee? Or snap your way through -a piece of crackling toast? No?" His guest was turning pale and -sick-looking. "Well, let me finish this bacon, and state your business." - -He threw back his head and slipped the bacon into his mouth. Prime -Center shuddered. - -"Scientist Drumstetter," he said, keeping his gaze fixed on the trunk -of the tree, "I have come to offer you all the worlds. Yes, the whole -Solar System, including the asteroids and Pluto. You will be more -powerful than Alexander or Caesar or Stalin or O'Toole. We will create -a new office--Prime _Squared_ Center--to rule the Solar System. Do you -mind not doing that?" - -John Davis Drumstetter was licking his fingers thoughtfully. He nodded. - -"Then you accept?" - -"No, I'm through licking my fingers. I'll give you your answer on a -systemwide communication. Arrange it, pseudo-life, immediately." - -As a concession to morality, John Davis Drumstetter agreed to step -into a molecular cleanup booth. When he came out again, he spoke to the -worlds and all the ships in space: - -"My friends, from now on the blind will lead the blind. Moral obliquity -has triumphed and becomes common morality." He laughed and rubbed his -nose. "I'm sorry. I was speaking to an audience of one--myself. What -I want you billions to do is to continue your work, to maintain the -system as it now stands. Pseudo-life will be replaced with pseudo-life -till the end of time. It will be a static world. It will be a -nearly-as-good world. It will be a pleasant world by your standards. -I wish you to do this, and you must, of course, obey my command. My -purpose reaches a little beyond your natural inclination; this system -will serve as a fertile warning to any beings with intelligence who may -come after me. - -"I will not be with you long, myself--" - -"Suicide?" asked Prime Center hopefully. - -"Alpha Centauri," said John Davis Drumstetter with a chuckle. "The -colonists left because they didn't like pseudo-life, either. Good-by to -you all." - -He snapped off the communication, waved to the little group under -the tree, and entered the _Last Hope_. The entry port swung closed. -The force field glowed, and then the ship was gone, leaving behind a -whirlwind of dust. - -"Alpha Centauri?" asked Monica Drake Lane. - -"Following the others of his wild, unstable breed," said Scientist -Norcross. - -"Easy come, easy go," the girl said, shrugging. - -Prime Center had the last word. "Yes, and good riddance. Human beings -have always been a nuisance." - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead End, by Wallace Macfarlane - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD END *** - -***** This file should be named 51247.txt or 51247.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/2/4/51247/ - -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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