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diff --git a/old/51274.txt b/old/51274.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6847b3f..0000000 --- a/old/51274.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1449 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ambition, by William L. Bade - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Ambition - -Author: William L. Bade - -Release Date: February 21, 2016 [EBook #51274] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMBITION *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - AMBITION - - By WILLIAM L. BADE - - Illustrated by L. WOROMAY - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction October 1951. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - To the men of the future, the scientific - goals of today were as incomprehensible - as the ancient quest for the Holy Grail! - - -There was a thump. Maitland stirred, came half awake, and opened his -eyes. The room was dark except where a broad shaft of moonlight from -the open window fell on the foot of his bed. Outside, the residential -section of the Reservation slept silently under the pale illumination -of the full Moon. He guessed sleepily that it was about three o'clock. - -What had he heard? He had a definite impression that the sound had come -from within the room. It had sounded like someone stumbling into a -chair, or-- - -Something moved in the darkness on the other side of the room. Maitland -started to sit up and it was as though a thousand volts had shorted his -brain.... - -This time, he awoke more normally. He opened his eyes, looked through -the window at a section of azure sky, listened to the singing of birds -somewhere outside. A beautiful day. In the middle of the process of -stretching his rested muscles, arms extended back, legs tensed, he -froze, looking up--for the first time really seeing the ceiling. He -turned his head, then rolled off the bed, wide awake. - -_This wasn't his room!_ - -The lawn outside wasn't part of the Reservation! Where the labs and -the shops should have been, there was deep prairie grass, then a green -ocean pushed into waves by the breeze stretching to the horizon. This -wasn't the California desert! Down the hill, where the liquid oxygen -plant ought to have been, a river wound across the scene, almost hidden -beneath its leafy roof of huge ancient trees. - -Shock contracted Maitland's diaphragm and spread through his body. -His breathing quickened. _Now_ he remembered what had happened during -the night, the sound in the darkness, the dimly seen figure, and -then--what? Blackout.... - -Where was he? Who had brought him here? For what purpose? - -He thought he knew the answer to the last of those questions. As -a member of the original atomic reaction-motor team, he possessed -information that other military powers would very much like to obtain. -It was absolutely incredible that anyone had managed to abduct him from -the heavily guarded confines of the Reservation, yet someone had done -it. How? - - * * * * * - -He pivoted to inspect the room. Even before his eyes could take in -the details, he had the impression that there was something wrong -about it. To begin with, the style was unfamiliar. There were no -straight lines or sharp corners anywhere. The walls were paneled in -featureless blue plastic and the doors were smooth surfaces of metal, -half ellipses, without knobs. The flowing lines of the chair and table, -built apparently from an aluminum alloy, somehow gave the impression -of arrested motion. Even after allowances were made for the outlandish -design, something about the room still was not right. - -His eyes returned to the doors, and he moved over to study the nearer -one. As he had noticed, there was no knob, but at the right of this -one, at about waist level, a push-button projected out of the wall. He -pressed it; the door slid aside and disappeared. Maitland glanced in at -the disclosed bathroom, then went over to look at the other door. - -There was no button beside this one, nor any other visible means of -causing it to open. - -Baffled, he turned again and looked at the large open window--and -realized what it was that had made the room seem so queer. - -It did not look like a jail cell. There were no bars.... - -Striding across the room, he lunged forward to peer out and violently -banged his forehead. He staggered back, grimacing with pain, then -reached forward cautious fingers and discovered a hard sheet of stuff -so transparent that he had not even suspected its presence. Not glass! -Glass was never this clear or strong. A plastic, no doubt, but one he -hadn't heard of. Security sometimes had disadvantages. - -He looked out at the peaceful vista of river and prairie. The character -of the sunlight seemed to indicate that it was afternoon. He became -aware that he was hungry. - -Where the devil could this place be? And--muscles tightened about his -empty stomach--what was in store for him here? - -He stood trembling, acutely conscious that he was afraid and helpless, -until a flicker of motion at the bottom of the hill near the river drew -his attention. Pressing his nose against the window, he strained his -eyes to see what it was. - -A man and a woman were coming toward him up the hill. Evidently they -had been swimming, for each had a towel; the man's was hung around his -neck, and the woman was still drying her bobbed black hair. - -Maitland speculated on the possibility that this might be Sweden; he -didn't know of any other country where public bathing at this time -of year was customary. However, that prairie certainly didn't look -Scandinavian.... - -As they came closer, he saw that both of them had dark uniform suntans -and showed striking muscular development, like persons who had trained -for years with weights. They vanished below his field of view, -presumably into the building. - -He sat down on the edge of the cot and glared helplessly at the floor. - - * * * * * - -About half an hour later, the door he couldn't open slid aside into the -wall. The man Maitland had seen outside, now clad in gray trunks and -sandals, stood across the threshold looking in at him. Maitland stood -up and stared back, conscious suddenly that in his rumpled pajamas he -made an unimpressive figure. - -The fellow looked about forty-five. The first details Maitland noticed -were the forehead, which was quite broad, and the calm, clear eyes. -The dark hair, white at the temples, was combed back, still damp from -swimming. Below, there was a wide mouth and a firm, rounded chin. - -This man was intelligent, Maitland decided, and extremely sure of -himself. - -Somehow, the face didn't go with the rest of him. The man had the head -of a thinker, the body of a trained athlete--an unusual combination. - -Impassively, the man said, "My name is Swarts. You want to know where -you are. I am not going to tell you." He had an accent, European, but -otherwise unidentifiable. Possibly German. Maitland opened his mouth -to protest, but Swarts went on, "However, you're free to do all the -guessing you want." Still there was no suggestion of a smile. - -"Now, these are the rules. You'll be here for about a week. You'll have -three meals a day, served in this room. You will not be allowed to -leave it except when accompanied by myself. You will not be harmed in -any way, provided you cooperate. And you can forget the silly idea that -we want your childish secrets about rocket motors." Maitland's heart -jumped. "My reason for bringing you here is altogether different. I -want to give you some psychological tests...." - -"Are you crazy?" Maitland asked quietly. "Do you realize that at this -moment one of the greatest hunts in history must be going on? I'll -admit I'm baffled as to where we are and how you got me here--but it -seems to me that you could have found someone less conspicuous to give -your tests to." - -Briefly, then, Swarts did smile. "They won't find you," he said. "Now, -come with me." - - * * * * * - -After that outlandish cell, Swarts' laboratory looked rather -commonplace. There was something like a surgical cot in the center, and -a bench along one wall supported several electronics cabinets. A couple -of them had cathode ray tube screens, and they all presented a normal -complement of meters, pilot lights, and switches. Cables from them ran -across the ceiling and came to a focus above the high flat cot in the -center of the room. - -"Lie down," Swarts said. When Maitland hesitated, Swarts added, -"Understand one thing--the more you cooperate, the easier things will -be for you. If necessary, I will use coercion. I can get all my results -against your will, if I must. I would prefer not to. Please don't make -me." - -"What's the idea?" Maitland asked. "What is all this?" - -Swarts hesitated, though not, Maitland astonishedly felt, to evade an -answer, but to find the proper words. "You can think of it as a lie -detector. These instruments will record your reactions to the tests I -give you. That is as much as you need to know. Now lie down." - -Maitland stood there for a moment, deliberately relaxing his tensed -muscles. "Make me." - -If Swarts was irritated, he didn't show it. "That was the first test," -he said. "Let me put it another way. I would appreciate it a lot if -you'd lie down on this cot. I would like to test my apparatus." - -Maitland shook his head stubbornly. - -"I see," Swarts said. "You want to find out what you're up against." - -He moved so fast that Maitland couldn't block the blow. It was to the -solar plexus, just hard enough to double him up, fighting for breath. -He felt an arm under his back, another behind his knees. Then he was on -the cot. When he was able to breathe again, there were straps across -his chest, hips, knees, ankles, and arms, and Swarts was tightening a -clamp that held his head immovable. - -Presently, a number of tiny electrodes were adhering to his temples and -to other portions of his body, and a minute microphone was clinging to -the skin over his heart. These devices terminated in cables that hung -from the ceiling. A sphygmomanometer sleeve was wrapped tightly around -his left upper arm, its rubber tube trailing to a small black box -clamped to the frame of the cot. Another cable left the box and joined -the others. - -So--Maitland thought--Swarts could record changes in his skin -potential, heartbeat, and blood pressure: the involuntary responses of -the body to stimuli. - -The question was, what were the stimuli to be? - -"Your name," said Swarts, "is Robert Lee Maitland. You are thirty-four -years old. You are an engineer, specialty heat transfer, particularly -as applied to rocket motors.... No, Mr. Maitland, I'm not going to -question you about your work; just forget about it. Your home town is -Madison, Wisconsin...." - -"You seem to know everything about me," Maitland said defiantly, -looking up into the hanging forest of cabling. "Why this recital?" - -"I do not know everything about you--yet. And I'm testing the -equipment, calibrating it to your reactions." He went on, "Your -favorite recreations are chess and reading what you term science -fiction. Maitland, _how would you like to go to the Moon_?" - -Something eager leaped in Maitland's breast at the abrupt question, and -he tried to turn his head. Then he forced himself to relax. "What do -you mean?" - -Swarts was chuckling. "I really hit a semantic push-button there, -didn't I? Maitland, I brought you here because you're a man who wants -to go to the Moon. I'm interested in finding out _why_." - - * * * * * - -In the evening a girl brought Maitland his meal. As the door slid -aside, he automatically stood up, and they stared at each other for -several seconds. - -She had the high cheekbones and almond eyes of an Oriental, skin that -glowed like gold in the evening light, yet thick coiled braids of -blonde hair that glittered like polished brass. Shorts and a sleeveless -blouse of some thick, reddish, metallic-looking fabric clung to her -body, and over that she was wearing a light, ankle-length cloak of what -seemed to be white wool. - -She was looking at him with palpable curiosity and something like -expectancy. Maitland sighed and said, "Hello," then glanced down -self-consciously at his wrinkled green pajamas. - -She smiled, put the tray of food on the table, and swept out, her cloak -billowing behind her. Maitland remained standing, staring at the closed -door for a minute after she was gone. - -Later, when he had finished the steak and corn on the cob and shredded -carrots, and a feeling of warm well-being was diffusing from his -stomach to his extremities, he sat down on the bed to watch the sunset -and to think. - -There were three questions for which he required answers before he -could formulate any plan or policy. - -Where was he? - -Who was Swarts? - -What was the purpose of the "tests" he was being given? - -It was possible, of course, that this was all an elaborate scheme -for getting military secrets, despite Swarts' protestations to the -contrary. Maitland frowned. This place certainly didn't have the -appearance of a military establishment, and so far there had been -nothing to suggest the kind of interrogation to be expected from -foreign intelligence officers. - -It might be better to tackle the first question first. He looked at -the Sun, a red spheroid already half below the horizon, and tried to -think of a region that had this kind of terrain. That prairie out there -was unique. Almost anywhere in the world, land like that would be -cultivated, not allowed to go to grass. - -This might be somewhere in Africa.... - -He shook his head, puzzled. The Sun disappeared and its blood-hued -glow began to fade from the sky. Maitland sat there, trying to get -hold of the problem from an angle where it wouldn't just slip away. -After a while the western sky became a screen of clear luminous blue, -a backdrop for a pure white brilliant star. As always at that sight, -Maitland felt his worry drain away, leaving an almost mystical sense of -peace and an undefinable longing. - -Venus, the most beautiful of the planets. - -Maitland kept track of them all in their majestic paths through the -constellations, but Venus was his favorite. Time and time again he -had watched its steady climb higher and higher in the western sky, -its transient rule there as evening star, its progression toward the -horizon, and loved it equally in its _alter ego_ of morning star. Venus -was an old friend. An old friend.... - -Something icy settled on the back of his neck, ran down his spine, and -diffused into his body. He stared at the planet unbelievingly, fists -clenched, forgetting to breathe. - -Last night Venus hadn't been there. - -Venus was a morning star just now.... - -_Just now!_ - -He realized the truth in that moment. - - * * * * * - -Later, when that jewel of a planet had set and the stars were out, -he lay on the bed, still warm with excitement and relief. He didn't -have to worry any more about military secrets, or who Swarts was. -Those questions were irrelevant now. And now he could accept the -psychological tests at their face value; most likely, they were what -they purported to be. - -Only one question of importance remained: - -What year was this? - -He grimaced in the darkness, an involuntary muscular expression of -jubilation and excitement. The _future_! Here was the opportunity for -the greatest adventure imaginable to 20th Century man. - -Somewhere, out there under the stars, there must be grand glittering -cities and busy spaceports, roaring gateways to the planets. -Somewhere, out there in the night, there must be men who had walked -beside the Martian canals and pierced the shining cloud mantle of -Venus--somewhere, perhaps, men who had visited the distant luring stars -and returned. Surely, a civilization that had developed time travel -could reach the stars! - -And _he_ had a chance to become a part of all that! He could spend -his life among the planets, a citizen of deep space, a voyager of the -challenging spaceways between the solar worlds. - -"I'm adaptable," he told himself gleefully. "I can learn fast. There'll -be a job for me out there...." - -_If--_ - -Suddenly sobered, he rolled over and put his feet on the floor, sat -in the darkness thinking. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would have to find a -way of breaking down Swarts' reticence. He would have to make the man -realize that secrecy wasn't necessary in this case. And if Swarts still -wouldn't talk, he would have to find a way of forcing the issue. The -fellow had said that he didn't need cooperation to get his results, -but-- - -After a while Maitland smiled to himself and went back to bed. - - * * * * * - -He woke in the morning with someone gently shaking his shoulder. He -rolled over and looked up at the girl who had brought him his meal the -evening before. There was a tray on the table and he sniffed the smell -of bacon. The girl smiled at him. She was dressed as before, except -that she had discarded the white cloak. - -As he swung his legs to the floor, she started toward the door, -carrying the tray with the dirty dishes from yesterday. He stopped her -with the word, "Miss!" - -She turned, and he thought there was something eager in her face. - -"Miss, do you speak my language?" - -"Yes," hesitantly. She lingered too long on the hiss of the last -consonant. - -"Miss," he asked, watching her face intently, "what year is this?" - -Startlingly, she laughed, a mellow peal of mirth that had nothing -forced about it. She turned toward the door again and said over her -shoulder, "You will have to ask Swarts about that. I cannot tell you." - -"Wait! You mean you don't know?" - -She shook her head. "I cannot tell you." - -"All right; we'll let it go at that." - -She grinned at him again as the door slid shut. - - * * * * * - -Swarts came half an hour later, and Maitland began his planned -offensive. - -"What year is this?" - -Swarts' steely eyes locked with his. "You know what the date is," he -stated. - -"No, I don't. Not since yesterday." - -"Come on," Swarts said patiently, "let's get going. We have a lot to -get through this morning." - -"I _know_ this isn't 1950. It's probably not even the 20th Century. -Venus was a morning star before you brought me here. Now it's an -evening star." - -"Never mind that. Come." - -Wordlessly, Maitland climbed to his feet, preceded Swarts to the -laboratory, lay down and allowed him to fasten the straps and attach -the instruments, making no resistance at all. When Swarts started -saying a list of words--doubtlessly some sort of semantic reaction -test--Maitland began the job of integrating "csc^3x dx" in his head. -It was a calculation which required great concentration and frequent -tracing back of steps. After several minutes, he noticed that Swarts -had stopped calling words. He opened his eyes to find the other man -standing over him, looking somewhat exasperated and a little baffled. - -"What year is this?" Maitland asked in a conversational tone. - -"We'll try another series of tests." - -It took Swarts nearly twenty minutes to set up the new apparatus. He -lowered a bulky affair with two cylindrical tubes like the twin stacks -of a binocular microscope over Maitland's head, so that the lenses at -the ends of the tubes were about half an inch from the engineer's -eyes. He attached tiny clamps to Maitland's eyelashes. - -"These will keep you from holding your eyes shut," he said. "You can -blink, but the springs are too strong for you to hold your eyelids down -against the tension." - -He inserted button earphones into Maitland's ears-- - -And then the show began. - -He was looking at a door in a partly darkened room, and there were -footsteps outside, a peremptory knocking. The door flew open, -and outlined against the light of the hall, he saw a man with a -twelve-gauge shotgun. The man shouted, "Now I've got you, you -wife-stealer!" He swung the shotgun around and pulled the trigger. -There was a terrible blast of sound and the flash of smokeless -powder--then blackness. - -With a deliberate effort, Maitland unclenched his fists and tried to -slow his breathing. Some kind of emotional reaction test--what was the -countermove? He closed his eyes, but shortly the muscles around them -declared excruciatingly that they couldn't keep that up. - -Now he was looking at a girl. She.... - -Maitland gritted his teeth and fought to use his brain; then he had it. - -He thought of a fat slob of a bully who had beaten him up one day -after school. He remembered a talk he had heard by a politician who had -all the intelligent social responsibility of a rogue gorilla, but no -more. He brooded over the damnable stupidity and short-sightedness of -Swarts in standing by his silly rules and not telling him about this -new world. - -Within a minute, he was in an ungovernable rage. His muscles tightened -against the restraining straps. He panted, sweat came out on his -forehead, and he began to curse. Swarts! How he hated.... - -The scene was suddenly a flock of sheep spread over a green hillside. -There was blood hammering in Maitland's temples. His face felt hot and -swollen and he writhed against the restraint of the straps. - -The scene disappeared, the lenses of the projector retreated from his -eyes and Swarts was standing over him, white-lipped. Maitland swore at -him for a few seconds, then relaxed and smiled weakly. His head was -starting to ache from the effort of blinking. - -"What year is this?" he asked. - -"All right," Swarts said. "A.D. 2634." - -Maitland's smile became a grin. - - * * * * * - -"I really haven't the time to waste talking irrelevancies," Swarts said -a while later. "Honestly. Maitland, I'm working against a time limit. -If you'll cooperate, I'll tell Ching to answer your questions."' - -"Ching?" - -"Ingrid Ching is the girl who has been bringing you your meals." - -Maitland considered a moment, then nodded. Swarts lowered the projector -to his eyes again, and this time the engineer did not resist. - -That evening, he could hardly wait for her to come. Too excited to sit -and watch the sunset, he paced interminably about the room, sometimes -whistling nervously, snapping his fingers, sitting down and jittering -one leg. After a while he noticed that he was whistling the same theme -over and over: a minute's thought identified it as that exuberant -mounting phrase which recurs in the finale of Beethoven's Ninth -Symphony. - -He forgot about it and went on whistling. He was picturing himself -aboard a ship dropping in toward Mars, making planetfall at Syrtis -Major; he was seeing visions of Venus and the awesome beauty of Saturn. -In his mind, he circled the Moon, and viewed the Earth as a huge bright -globe against the constellations.... - -Finally the door slid aside and she appeared, carrying the usual tray -of food. She smiled at him, making dimples in her golden skin and -revealing a perfect set of teeth, and put the tray on the table. - -"I think you are wonderful," she laughed. "You get everything you -want, even from Swarts, and I have not been able to get even a little -of what I want from him. I want to travel in time, go back to your 20th -Century. And I wanted to talk with you, and he would not let me." She -laughed again, hands on her rounded hips. "I have never seen him so -irritated as he was this noon." - -Maitland urged her into the chair and sat down on the edge of the bed. -Eagerly he asked, "Why the devil do you want to go to the 20th Century? -Believe me, I've been there, and what I've seen of this world looks a -lot better." - -She shrugged. "Swarts says that I want to go back to the Dark Age of -Technology because I have not adapted well to modern culture. Myself, -I think I have just a romantic nature. Far times and places look more -exciting...." - -"How do you mean--" Maitland wrinkled his brow--"adapt to modern -culture? Don't tell me _you're_ from another time!" - -"Oh, no! But my home is Aresund, a little fishing village at the head -of a fiord in what you would call Norway. So far north, we are much -behind the times. We live in the old way, from the sea, speak the old -tongue." - - * * * * * - -He looked at her golden features, such a felicitous blend of -Oriental and European characteristics, and hesitantly asked, "Maybe -I shouldn't.... This is a little personal, but ... you don't look -altogether like the Norwegians of my time." - -His fear that she would be offended proved to be completely -unjustified. She merely laughed and said, "There has been much -history since 1950. Five hundred years ago, Europe was overrun by -Pan-Orientals. Today you could not find anywhere a 'pure' European -or Asiatic." She giggled. "Swarts' ancestors from your time must be -cursing in their graves. His family is Afrikander all the way back, but -one of his great-grandfathers was pure-blooded Bantu. His full name is -Lassisi Swarts." - -Maitland wrinkled his brow. "Afrikander?" - -"The South Africans." Something strange came into her eyes. It might -have been awe, or even hatred; he could not tell. "The Pan-Orientals -eventually conquered all the world, except for North America--the -last remnant of the American World Empire--and southern Africa. The -Afrikanders had been partly isolated for several centuries then, and -they had developed technology while the rest of the world lost it. They -had a tradition of white supremacy, and in addition they were terrified -of being encircled." She sighed. "They ruled the next world empire and -it was founded on the slaughter of one and a half billion human beings. -That went into the history books as the War of Annihilation." - -"So many? How?" - -"They were clever with machines, the Afrikanders. They made armies -of them. Armies of invincible killing-machines, produced in robot -factories from robot-mined ores.... Very clever." She gave a little -shudder. - -"And yet they founded modern civilization," she added. "The grandsons -of the technicians who built the Machine Army set up our robot -production system, and today no human being has to dirty his hands -raising food or manufacturing things. It could never have been done, -either, before the population was--reduced to three hundred million." - -"Then the Afrikanders are still on top? Still the masters?" - - * * * * * - -She shook her head. "There are no more Afrikanders." - -"Rebellion?" - -"No. Intermarriage. Racial blending. There was a psychology of guilt -behind it. So huge a crime eventually required a proportionate -expiation. Afrikaans is still the world language, but there is only one -race now. No more masters or slaves." - -They were both silent for a moment, and then she sighed. "Let us not -talk about them any more." - -"Robot factories and farms," Maitland mused. "What else? What means of -transportation? Do you have interstellar flight yet?" - -"Inter-what?" - -"Have men visited the stars?" - -She shook her head, bewildered. - -"I always thought that would be a tough problem to crack," he agreed. -"But tell me about what men are doing in the Solar System. How is life -on Mars and Venus, and how long does it take to get to those places?" - -He waited, expectantly silent, but she only looked puzzled. "I don't -understand. Mars? What are Mars?" - -After several seconds, Maitland swallowed. Something seemed to be the -matter with his throat, making it difficult for him to speak. "Surely -you have space travel?" - -She frowned and shook her head. "What does that mean--space travel?" - -He was gripping the edge of the bed now, glaring at her. "A -civilization that could discover time travel and build robot factories -wouldn't find it hard to send a ship to Mars!" - -"A _ship_? Oh, you mean something like a _vliegvlotter_. Why, no, I -don't suppose it would be hard. But why would anyone want to do a -thing like that?" - -He was on his feet towering over her, fists clenched. She raised her -arms as if to shield her face if he should hit her. "Let's get this -perfectly clear," he said, more harshly than he realized. "So far as -you know, no one has ever visited the planets, and no one wants to. Is -that right?" - -She nodded apprehensively. "I have never heard of it being done." - -He sank down on the bed and put his face in his hands. After a while he -looked up and said bitterly, "You're looking at a man who would give -his life to get to Mars. I thought I would in my time. I was positive I -would when I knew I was in your time. And now I know I never will." - - * * * * * - -The cot creaked beside him and he felt a soft arm about his shoulders -and fingers delicately stroking his brow. Presently he opened his eyes -and looked at her. "I just don't understand," he said. "It seemed -obvious to me that whenever men were able to reach the planets, they'd -do it." - -Her pitying eyes were on his face. He hitched himself around so that he -was facing her. "I've got to understand. I've got to know _why_. What -happened? Why don't men want the planets any more?" - -"Honestly," she said, "I did not know they ever had." She hesitated. -"Maybe you are asking the wrong question." - -He furrowed his brow, bewildered now by her. - -"I mean," she explained, "maybe you should ask why people in the 20th -Century _did_ want to go to worlds men are not suited to inhabit." - -Maitland felt his face become hot. "Men can go anywhere, if they want -to bad enough." - -"But _why_?" - -Despite his sudden irrational anger toward her, Maitland tried to stick -to logic. "Living space, for one thing. The only permanent solution to -the population problem...." - -"We have no population problem. A hundred years ago, we realized that -the key to social stability is a limited population. Our economic -system was built to take care of three hundred million people, and we -have held the number at that." - -"Birth control," Maitland scoffed. "How do you make it work--secret -police?" - -"No. Education. Each of us has the right to two children, and we -cherish that right so much that we make every effort to see that those -two are the best children we could possibly produce...." - -She broke off, looking a little self-conscious. "You understand, what -I have been saying applies to _most_ of the world. In some places like -Aresund, things are different. Backward. I still do not feel that I -belong here, although the people of the town have accepted me as one of -them." - -"Even," he said, "granting that you have solved the population problem, -there's still the adventure of the thing. Surely, somewhere, there must -be men who still feel that.... Ingrid, doesn't it fire something in -your blood, the idea of going to Mars--just to go there and see what's -there and walk under a new sky and a smaller Sun? Aren't you interested -in finding out what the canals are? Or what's under the clouds of -Venus? Wouldn't you like to see the rings of Saturn from, a distance -of only two hundred thousand miles?" His hands were trembling as he -stopped. - -She shrugged her shapely shoulders. "Go into the past--yes! But go out -there? I still cannot see why." - -"Has the spirit of adventure _evaporated_ from the human race, or -_what_?" - -She smiled. "In a room downstairs there is the head of a lion. Swarts -killed the beast when he was a young man. He used a spear. And time -traveling is the greatest adventure there is. At least, that is the -way I feel. Listen, Bob." She laid a hand on his arm. "You grew up in -the Age of Technology. Everybody was terribly excited about what could -be done with machines--machines to blow up a city all at once, or fly -around the world, or take a man to Mars. We have had our fill of--what -is the word?--gadgets. Our machines serve us, and so long as they -function right, we are satisfied to forget about them. - -"Because this is the Age of _Man_. We are terribly interested in what -can be done with people. Our scientists, like Swarts, are studying -human rather than nuclear reactions. We are much more fascinated by the -life and death of cultures than by the expansion or contraction of the -Universe. With us, it is the people that are important, not gadgets." - -Maitland stared at her, his face blank. His mind had just manufactured -a discouraging analogy. His present position was like that of an -earnest 12th Century crusader, deposited by some freak of nature into -the year 1950, trying to find a way of reanimating the anti-Mohammedan -movement. What chance would he have? The unfortunate knight would argue -in vain that the atomic bomb offered a means of finally destroying the -infidel.... - -Maitland looked up at the girl, who was regarding him silently with -troubled eyes. "I think I'd like to be alone for a while," he said. - - * * * * * - -In the morning, Maitland was tired, though not particularly depressed. -He hadn't slept much, but he had come to a decision. When Ingrid woke -him, he gave her a cavalier smile and a cheery "Good morning" and -sat down to the eggs and ham she had brought. Then, before she could -leave, he asked, "Last night when we were talking about spaceships, you -mentioned some kind of vessel or vehicle. What was it?" - -She thought. "_Vliegvlotter?_ Was that it?" - -He nodded emphatically. "Tell me about them." - -"Well, they are--cars, you might say, with wheels that go into the -body when you take off. They can do, oh, 5,000 miles an hour in the -ionosphere, 50 miles up." - -"Fifty miles," Maitland mused. "Then they're sealed tight, so the air -doesn't leak out?" Ingrid nodded. "How do they work? Rocket drive?" - -"No." She plucked at her lower lip. "I do not understand it very well. -You could picture something that hooks into a gravity field, and pulls. -A long way from the Earth if would not work very well, because the -field is so thin there.... I guess I just cannot explain it very well -to you." - -"That's all I need." Maitland licked his lips and frowned. "On that -point, anyway. Another thing--Swarts told me I'd be here for about a -week. Is there any set procedure involved in that? Have other persons -been brought to this period from the past?" - -She laughed. "Thousands. Swarts has published nearly a hundred case -studies himself, and spent time adding up to years in the 19th and 20th -centuries." - -Maitland interrupted incredulously. "How on Earth could he ever manage -to keep that many disappearances quiet? Some of those people would be -bound to talk." - -She shook her head definitely. "The technique was designed to avoid -just that. There is a method of 'fading' the memories people have of -their stay here. The episode is always accepted as a period of amnesia, -in the absence of a better explanation." - -"Still, in thousands of cases...." - -"Spread out over centuries in a total population of billions." - -He laughed. "You're right. But will that be done to me?" - -"I suppose so. I can't imagine Swarts letting you take your memories -back with you." - -Maitland looked out the window at the green horizon. "We'll see," he -said. - - * * * * * - -Maitland removed his three-day beard with an effective depilatory cream -he discovered in the bathroom, and settled down to wait. When Swarts -arrived, the engineer said quietly, "Sit down, please. I have to talk -with you." - -Swarts gave him the look of a man with a piece of equipment that just -won't function right, and remained standing. "What is it now?" - -"Look," Maitland said, "Ingrid has told me that men never reached the -planets. _You_ ought to know how I feel about space flight. It's my -whole life. Knowing that my work on rockets is going to pay off only in -the delivery of bombs, I don't want to go back to the 20th Century. I -want to stay here." - -Swarts said slowly, "That's impossible." - -"Now, look, if you want me to cooperate...." - -The big man made an impatient gesture. "Not impossible because of me. -Physically impossible. Impossible because of the way time travel works." - -Maitland stared at him suspiciously. - -"To displace a mass from its proper time takes energy," Swarts -explained, "and it's one of the oldest general physical principles that -higher energy states are unstable with respect to lower ones. Are -you familiar with elementary quantum theory? As an analogy, you might -regard yourself, displaced from your proper time, as an atom in an -excited state. The system is bound to drop back to ground state. In the -atomic case, the time which elapses before that transition occurs is a -matter of probabilities. In the case of time travel, it just depends on -the amount of mass and the number of years the mass is displaced. - -"In short, the laws of nature will insist on your returning to 1950 in -just a few days." - -Maitland looked at the floor for a while, and his shoulders sagged. -"Your memories of this will be faded," Swarts said. "You'll forget -about what Ingrid has told you--forget you were ever here, and take -up your life where you left off. You were happy working on rockets, -weren't you?" - -"But--" Maitland shook his head despairingly. Then he had an idea. -"Will you let me do one thing, before I go back? I realize now that -our time is limited, and you have a lot of tests to give me, but I'm -willing to help speed things up. I want to see the stars, just once, -from deep space. I know you'll make me forget it ever happened, but -once in my life.... You have vessels--_vliegvlotter_, Ingrid called -them--that can go into space. If you'd give me just a couple days to go -out there, maybe circle the Moon...?" There was a pleading note in his -voice, but he didn't care. - -Swarts regarded him dispassionately for a moment, then nodded. "Sure," -he said. "Now let's get to work." - - * * * * * - -"The Earth doesn't change much," Maitland mused. Sitting on the cot, -his arm around Ingrid's yielding waist, he was wearing the new blue -trunks she had given him to replace his rumpled pajamas. The room -was full of evening sunlight, and in that illumination she was more -beautiful than any other woman he could remember. This had been the -last day of tests; tomorrow, Swarts had promised, he would begin his -heart-breakingly brief argosy to the Moon, with Ingrid as pilot. - -Over the past four days, he had been with the girl a lot. In the -beginning, he realized, she had been drawn to him as a symbol of an era -she longed, but was unable, to visit. Now she understood him better, -knew more about him--and Maitland felt that now she liked him for -himself. - -She had told him of her childhood in backward Aresund and of loneliness -here at the school in Nebraska. "Here," she had said, "parents spend -most of their time raising their children; at home, they just let us -grow. Every time one of these people looks at me I feel inferior." - -She had confided her dream of visiting far times and places, then had -finished, "I doubt that Swarts will ever let me go back. He thinks -I am too irresponsible. Probably he is right. But it is terribly -discouraging. Sometimes I think the best thing for me would be to go -home to the fiord...." - -Now, sitting in the sunset glow, Maitland was in a philosophic mood. -"The color of grass, the twilight, the seasons, the stars--those things -haven't changed." He gestured out the window at the slumbering evening -prairie. "That scene, save for unessentials, could just as well be -1950--or 950. It's only human institutions that change rapidly...." - -"I'll be awfully sorry when you go back," she sighed. "You're the first -person I've met here that I can talk to." - -"Talk to," he repeated, dissatisfied. "You're just about the finest -girl I've ever met." - -He kissed her, playfully, but when they separated there was nothing -playful left about it. Her face was flushed and he was breathing faster -than he had been. Savagely, he bit the inside of his cheek. "Two days! -A lifetime here wouldn't be long enough!" - -"Bob." She touched his arm and her lips were trembling. "Bob, do you -have to go--out there? We could get a couple of horses tomorrow, and -we would have two days." - -He leaned back and shook his head. "Can't you see, Ingrid? This is my -only chance. If I don't go tomorrow, I'll never get to the Moon. And -then my whole life won't mean anything...." - - * * * * * - -He woke with Ingrid shaking him. "Bob! Bob!" Her voice was an urgent -whisper. "You've got to wake up quick! Bob!" - -He sat up and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "What's the matter?" - -"I didn't really believe that Swarts would let you go into space. It -wasn't like him. Bob, he fooled you. _Today_ is when your time runs -out!" - -Maitland swallowed hard, and his chest muscles tightened convulsively. -"You mean it was all a trick?" - -She nodded. "He told me just now, while he was putting something in -your milk to make you sleep." Her face was bitter and resentful. "He -said, 'This is a lesson for you, Ching, if you ever do any work with -individuals like this. You have to humor them, tell them anything they -want to believe, in order to get your data.'" - -Maitland put his feet on the floor, stood up. His face was white and he -was breathing fast. - -She grasped his arm. "What are you going to do?" - -He shook her hand off. "I may not get to the Moon, but I'm going to -teach one superman the advantage of honesty!" - -"Wait! That won't get you anywhere." - -"He may be bigger than I am," Maitland gritted, "but--" - -She squeezed his arm violently. "You don't understand. He would not -fight you. He'd use a gun." - -"If I could catch him by surprise...." - -She took hold of his shoulders firmly. "Now, listen, Bob Maitland. I -love you. And I think it's the most important thing in the world that -you get to see the stars. Swarts will never let me time travel, anyway." - -"What are you thinking?" - -"I'll go down to the village and get a _vliegvlotter_. It won't take -twenty minutes. I'll come back, see that Swarts is out of the way, -let you out of here, and take you--" she hesitated, but her eyes were -steady--"wherever you want to go." - -He was trembling. "Your career. I can't let you...." - -She made as if to spit, then grinned. "My career! It's time I went home -to the fiord, anyway. Now you wait here!" - - * * * * * - -The _vliegvlotter_ was about 50 feet long, an ellipsoid of revolution. -Maitland and Ingrid ran hand in hand across the lawn and she pushed -him up through the door, then slammed it shut and screwed the pressure -locks tight. - -They were strapping themselves into the seats, bathed in sunlight that -flooded down through the thick plastic canopy, when she stopped, pale -with consternation. - -"What's the matter?" he demanded. - -"Oh, Bob, I forgot! We can't do this!" - -"We're going to," he said grimly. - -"Bob, _sometime this morning you're going to snap back to 1950_. If -that happens while we're up there...." - -His jaw went slack as the implication soaked in. Then he reached over -and finished fastening the buckle on her wide seat belt. - -"Bob, I can't. I would be killing you just as surely as...." - -"Never mind that. You can tell me how to run this thing and then get -out, if you want to." - -She reached slowly forward and threw a switch, took hold of the wheel. -Seconds later they were plummeting into the blue dome of the sky. - -The blue became darker, purplish, and stars appeared in daylight. -Maitland gripped the edge of the seat; somewhere inside him it seemed -that a chorus of angels was singing the finale of Beethoven's Ninth. - -There was a _ping_ and Ingrid automatically flicked a switch. A screen -lit up and the image of Swarts was looking at them. His eyes betrayed -some unfamiliar emotion, awe or fear. "Ching! Come back here at once. -Don't you realize that--" - -"Sorry, Swarts." Maitland's voice resonated with triumph. "You'll just -have to humor me once more." - -"Maitland! Don't you know that you're going to snap back to the 20th -Century in half an hour? You'll be in space with no protection. You'll -explode!" - -"I know," Maitland said. He looked up through the viewport. "Right now, -I'm seeing the stars as I've never seen them before. Sorry to make you -lose a case, Swarts, but this is better than dying of pneumonia or an -atomic bomb." - -He reached forward and snapped the image off. - - * * * * * - -Twenty minutes later, Maitland had Ingrid cut the drive and turn the -ship, so that he could see the Earth. It was there, a huge shining -globe against the constellations, 10,000 miles distant, 100 times the -size of familiar Luna. North America was directly below, part of Canada -covered with a dazzling area of clouds. The polar ice-cap was visible -in its entirety, along with the northern portions of the Eurasian land -mass. The line of darkness cut off part of Alaska and bisected the -Pacific Ocean, and the Sun's reflection in the Atlantic was blinding. - -And there was Venus, a brilliant, white jewel against the starry -blackness of interstellar space, and now he could see the Sun's -corona.... - -The ship was rotating slowly, and presently the Moon, at first quarter, -came into view, not perceptibly larger than seen from Earth. Maitland -heaved a sigh of regret. If only this could have been but the beginning -of a voyage.... - -Ingrid touched his arm. "Bob." - -He turned to look at her golden beauty. - -"Bob, give me one more kiss." - -He loosened his seat strap and put his arms around her. For a moment he -felt her soft lips on his.... - -Then she was gone, and the ship had vanished. For perhaps as long as -a second, alone in space, he was looking with naked, unprotected, -ambition-sated eyes at the distant stars. - -The luring white blaze of Venus was the last image he took with him -into the night without stars. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ambition, by William L. 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