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diff --git a/58659-0.txt b/58659-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15296d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/58659-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,655 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58659 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + +Ten miracles were arranged for the age-long flight. But they reckoned +without---- + + RESURRECTION SEVEN + + By Stephen Marlowe + +[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science +Fiction, May 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +The seventh tub shook gently, stimulating the hypothalamic region of +Eric's brain for the first time in almost two centuries. After a time, +his limbs trembled and his body began to shiver. The liquid in which he +floated boiled off at a temperature still far below that which would +permit his body to function. + +By the time all the liquid was gone he had uncurled and lay at the +bottom of the tub. Now his heart pumped three hundred times a minute, +generating warmth and activating his central nervous system. It took +many hours for his heart to slow--not back to the one beat every two +minutes it had known for a hundred-seventy-five years, but to the +normal rate of about seventy per minute. By then his body temperature +had climbed from below freezing to 98° F. + +Eric lay in stupor for a week, while fluids flowed into the tub and +massaged his muscles, while fatty tissue slowly turned into strength. +Finally, he climbed from his tub. + + * * * * * + +He found the locker which bore his name, and opened it. Six other +lockers were open and empty, as were six tubs. He found that hard to +believe. It had seemed only a night of deep and dreamless sleep, no +more. But each empty tub stood for twenty-five years, each open locker +meant a man had gone and lived his time with the new generations of the +ship, perhaps had sired children, had died with old age. + +[Illustration: _At intervals of twenty-five years, they would arise to +police the ship._] + +Eric found his clothing on a hook, took it down. Yesterday--he +laughed mirthlessly when he realized that had been almost two hundred +years ago--Clair had told him something about a note. He found it in +the breast pocket of his jumper, stiff and yellow. He read: + + _Darling: I will be ashes in the void between the stars when you + read this. That sounds silly, but it's the truth--unless I can give + old Methuselah a run for his money; I sadden when I think that you + will be gone tomorrow, the same as dead. But if they need ten and + if you are one who can withstand suspension--what can we do? Know + that my love goes with you across the ages, Eric._ + + _I just thought of something. You'll be the seventh of ten, with + the last one coming out at planet-fall. If you live to be a real + gray-beard, you might even see the landing on the Centaurian planet. + I love you._ + + _Clair_-- + +If Clair had married, her great-grandchildren might be alive now. Her +great-great-grandchildren would be Eric's age. Clair's progeny, not +Clair--because Clair was dust now, a light year back in space-- + +He found a package of cigarettes in his jumper, took one out and lit +it. He must not think of the past, not when it was only history now +although he still felt very much a part of it. Today mattered, today +and the new generations on the ship. + +It crossed his mind that they might regard him almost as a god, a man +who had seen Earth, who had slept while generations lived and died, +who came from his impossible sleep and would live with them now to see +that everything was going according to plan. + +Three minutes after he started the mechanism, the door slid ponderously +into the wall. It would open more simply from the other side, he knew, +but then only Eric and the three who still slept could turn its complex +tumblers. For a long while he stood there on the threshold and then he +watched the door slide back into place. + + * * * * * + +The corridor glowed with soft white light, which meant it was daytime +on the ship. Dimly in the distance, Eric heard voices, children at +play. Would they know of him? Would their parents know? Was he expected? + +Eric came closer. Through a doorway he could see the children, three of +them, although they had not yet seen him. A chubby, freckle-faced boy +said: + +"Let's play Lazarus. I must be the Captain, and you, Janie, you can be +the crew. George, you be Lazarus." + +George was a big ten-year-old with dark hair. "Like heck I will! It was +your idea, you be Lazarus, smart guy." + +Eric stepped through the doorway. "Hello," he said. "Can you take me to +your folks?" + +"Who're you, Mister?" + +"Hey, I don't know him! Where'd he come from?" + +The girl, Janie, said, "Lookit his clothes. Lookit. They're different." + +The children wore loose tunics, pastel-tinted, to their knees. +Freckle-Face said: "You know what today is, doncha?" + +George frowned. "Yeah, holiday. We're off from school." + +"What holiday, stupid? Which one?" + +"I--I dunno." + +"Lazzy-day!" Janie cried. "That's what it is. Then he's--he's--" + +"Lazarus!" Freckle-Face told her, and, as if on one impulse, the three +of them bolted away from Eric, disappeared through another doorway. + +He did not follow them. He stood there, waiting, and before long +he heard footsteps returning. A man entered the room, tall, thin, +middle-aged. + +"You are Eric Taine," he said, smiling. "I'm sorry no one was around to +greet you, but the way we had it figured, you wouldn't come out till +later this afternoon. History says that's how it worked with the six +before you, about four P.M. It's just noon now. Will you follow me, +please?" + +Then the man flushed faintly. "Excuse me, but it isn't often we +meet strangers. Everyone knows everyone else, of course. My name is +Lindquist, Mr. Taine. Roger Lindquist." + +Eric shook hands with him, stiffly, and he thought for a moment the man +did not know the gesture. "Ah yes, handshaking," Lindquist laughed. +"We simply show empty palms now, you know. But then, you don't know. I +rather imagine you'll have a lot to learn." + +Eric nodded, asked Lindquist if he might be shown about the ship. +There was a lot he had to see, to check, to change if change were +needed. + +"Relax, my friend," Lindquist told him. "I'd--ah, like to suggest that +we postpone your tour until you've met with our Council this afternoon. +I'd very much like to suggest that." + +Eric shrugged, said: "You know more about this than I do, Mr. +Lindquist. We'll wait for your Council meeting." + + * * * * * + +"Thus, Mr. Taine," said Captain Larkin, hours later, "tradition has it +that you become a king. King Lazarus Seven--with six Lazaruses before +you. The first one, the histories say, was a joke. But it's stuck +ever since. The people like this idea of a king who comes to them +every twenty five years--and they've dubbed him with the name Lazarus, +well, because if he didn't come back from the dead, he came back from +something a lot like it." + +Eric nodded. "What happened to Alan Bridges?" + +"Who?" This was Lindquist. + +"Alan Bridges, the man before me--your Lazarus Six." + +Captain Larkin cleared his throat. "He's dead, Mr. Taine." + +"Dead? He'd only be in his fifties now--" + +"I know. Sad. It was disease, hit him soon after he came to us. Lazarus +Six had a very short reign. Didn't he, Mr. Lindquist?" + +"He certainly did," Lindquist agreed. "Let's hope that Lazarus Seven is +here to step down for Eight--and to watch Nine come in, fifty years +from now!" + +Cheers filled the room and Eric smiled briefly. That reminded him of +Clair's note. Clair-- + +"So," said Captain Larkin, "you'll be crowned tomorrow. After that, +your people will see you, King Lazarus Seven on his throne. Don't +disappoint us, Mr. Taine. Their tradition means a lot to them." + +"It should," Eric said. "The planners made it that way. With nothing +but space outside, and the confining walls of the ship, they needed +something to bind them together." + +"Yes, that's true. But the people, as you'll see, have come up with +some of their own traditions over the years." Captain Larkin ran a hand +through his graying hair. "Like your kinghood, for example. You'll see, +Mr. Taine--or should it be Lazarus now, eh?" He laughed. + +"If you'd like," Eric said. He did not relish the idea particularly, +but then, it was their show. Still, he had everything to check--from +astrogation to ethics--and he would not want to be delayed by pomp +and ceremony. Well, there was time enough for that. Now he felt +weary--and that made him chuckle, because he had just concluded a +hundred-seventy-five year nap. + +They took him to his quarters, where the six before him had lived. +There he ate in silence, food from the hydroponic gardens on a lower +level of the ship. The line of light under his door had turned from +white to a soft blue. It was night on the ship. + +Eric showered and got into bed, but although he was tired he could not +fall asleep. He had expected to be an efficiency expert of sorts; +that was his job; but they told him, matter-of-factly, that he would +be a king. Well, you could expect change in nearly two hundred years, +radical change. And if indeed their tradition were deep-rooted, he +would not try to change it. The planners had counted on that to keep +them going, because there could be no environmental challenge to goad +them. Just an unreal past and an unreal Earth which Eric and their +great-great-grandparents had seen, and an even more unreal future when, +someday far far off, the ship reached the Centaurian System. + +Softly, someone knocked at his door. The sound had been there for +many moments, a gentle tapping, but it had not registered on his +consciousness. Now, when it did, he padded across the bare floor and +opened the door. + +A girl stepped in from the corridor, pushing him before her with one +hand, motioning him to silence with the other. She closed the door +softly behind her, soundlessly almost, and turned to face him. + +She wore the knee-length tunic popular with this generation, and it +covered a graceful feminine figure. + + * * * * * + +"Please," the girl said. "Please listen to me, Eric Taine. I may have +only a few moments--listen!" + +"Sure," he smiled. "But why all the mystery?" + +"Shh! Let me talk. Have you a weapon?" + +"Yes, I carry a pistol. I don't fancy I'll need it, though." + +"Well, take it with you and go back where you came. If anyone tries to +stop you, use your weapon. They have nothing like it. Then, when you +get there--" Her voice came breathlessly, and it made Eric laugh. + +"Hold on, Miss. Why should I do that? Don't tell me there's a plot and +someone wants to usurp the new king before he's crowned? No? What then?" + +"Stop making fun of me, Eric Taine. I'm trying to save your life." She +said it so seriously, her eyes so big and round, that Eric half wanted +to believe her. But that was fantastic. From what could she possibly be +saving him? + +The words came out in a rush as the girl spoke again. "The ship is +not on course. For twenty five years it has been off, heading back to +Earth--" + +"To Earth! That's crazy." + +"Listen, please. They killed Lazarus Six. He was a scapegoat. They +watched the old films of Earth and felt they had been cheated out of +their birthright. Why should they live here, alone in space? they +said. Why should their children's children face the hardships of a new +world? They didn't ask for it. It was thrust upon them by the planners, +by your generation. If they knew how to get into your room of tubs, +they would have killed you. Now there is a mock ceremony, everything +is blamed on the new Lazarus, and the people feel better when he is +killed. I know, my mother told me. You can ask her----" + +The girl was about twenty, Eric thought. A wild-eyed thing now, who so +wanted him to believe her impossible story. Her breath came quickly, +in little gasps, and Eric tried to hide the smile on his face. + +"You're laughing at me! Stupid, stupid--please--And when you get back +to your room of tubs, awaken your friends, the three who remain. +You four can control the ship, put it back on course, teach the +people--Ooo, stop laughing!" She pouted prettily. "All of us, we're not +all like that. We who are not can help you." + +Eric chuckled softly. "You try to picture it," he told her. "I'm sorry, +but everything's been sweetness and light, and you come in here with a +wild notion--" + +"It isn't wild, it's the truth. Why don't you ask to check our course +before they make you king?" + +He could do that, all right. But they'd be wondering what mad neurosis +compelled his actions, and he did not want that, not when he might have +so much to do. + +"Check it," she pleaded. And when he shook his head, she told him, +"You're acting like a child, you know. The records say you are +twenty-five, and you've slept for seven times that, but still. All you +have to do is check. Please--" + +The door burst in upon them, and Lindquist stood there, with Captain +Larkin and two others. + +Lindquist shook his head sadly. "I thought so," he said. + +Captain Larkin nodded. "A Cultist child. Shame, isn't it?" + +One of the other men strode forward, and the girl cowered behind Eric. +"Don't believe them!" she wailed. "Lies--" + +"There are so many of them," Lindquist explained. "Apparently, we're +in an area of high radiation now, Mr. Taine. So many of our people +are deranged. I won't guess at the cause, except to say it's probably +outside the ship." + +The man came around Eric, tch-tch'd when the girl jumped on the bed and +stood trembling against the headboard. "Now, Laurie," the man coaxed. +"Come on down, there's a good girl." + +Eric wanted to help her, but he checked the impulse. He only felt +protective. There could be nothing in the girl's story. Best if they +took her and treated her. + +"... a whole cult of them," Lindquist was saying. "All lacking +something up here." He tapped his head. "They don't trust anyone, only +members. Think we're doing all sorts of foolish things. I don't know, +what would you call it in your day. Paranoia?" + +Eric said he didn't know, he was not a psychologist. He watched +silently with Lindquist and Captain Larkin as the two other men took +Laurie, struggling, out the door. She kicked, bit, and cried lustily. +Once her dark eyes caught Eric's gaze, held it, and she whimpered, "I +don't care if they kill you! I don't care--" + +They started down the corridor, after Lindquist said, "You've had a +hard day. I think we'd better let you sleep." + +"She told you someone wanted to kill you?" Captain Larkin said, shaking +his head slowly. "What can we do, Lindquist?" + +"Well, we just better hope whatever's causing this sort of thing is +left behind in space soon. Goodnight Mr. Taine." + +"Goodnight, Lazarus," said Captain Larkin. + + * * * * * + +Eric recognized at once the great hall in which he had danced that last +night with Clair. Now Clair was gone. + +The place was crowded--probably the ship's entire population. Lindquist +led him through the crowd, and he could not tell what their faces +showed. There were mumblings of "Lazarus" and "king"--but why did +he get the faint suggestion of mockery? Oddly, what Laurie said +had troubled him--he had had a bad night's sleep, and it left him +irritable. Poor girl. He wondered how many more there were like her. +Well, in time he could find out, after this nuisance of a coronation +had become history. + +"Ah, Taine," Captain Larkin said as Lindquist brought him to the dais. +"As you can see, all the people are ready. I hope you won't think the +ceremony foolish. Are you ready?" + +Eric nodded, watched a man raise trumpet to lips, blow one clarion +note. A hush fell over the hall. + +"I am honored to present King Lazarus Seven to you," Larkin proclaimed +in a loud clear voice. "He has been sent, as you know, by the planners." + +Hoots from the crowd. Eric frowned. He had thought they would respect +the planners, the men whose vision had sent Man--here in this +ship--outward bound to the stars. + +Larkin's voice was honey now. "Don't judge our new king by those who +sent him. Don't--" + +Laughter, and shouts of "Hail, Lazarus!" The people, Eric suddenly +realized, were almost primitive. Larkin and Lindquist and a handful +of others ran the ship, had somehow maintained the science of another +generation. But the lack of conflict, of challenge, had sent the people +down a rung or two on the ladder of civilization. Handpicked, their +ancestors had been--but they were a common mob. + +Someone cried, "He's seen Earth. Ask him to tell us about Earth!" + +"Ask him!" + +Captain Larkin smiled. "Tell them, Taine. Tell your new subjects. You +have so little time." + +"What do you mean, so little time?" + +"Tell them!" And Larkin turned away, laughing. + +They were primitive, these people, and as the girl Laurie had said, +they needed a scapegoat. They didn't like it here on the ship. There +had been a first generation which had known Earth and could savor its +flavor through the long years like a delicate wine. And there would +be a last which could get out on the Centaurian planet, stretch its +legs, and build civilization anew. But these in between were in limbo. +They lived and they died on the ship, and it wasn't their idea. They +would breed so that the ship would still have a crew when it reached +Centauri. That was their function. But they didn't like it. + +All this went through Eric's mind. Perhaps the girl had no psychosis, +perhaps her warning had been sincere. He wondered if the long sleep had +dulled his instincts, his reflexes. + +He told them of Earth, of its wonders, of the wide meadows he +remembered, of the wind, brisk in spring, which brought the +sweet-scented rain, of summer and the big harvest moon which followed, +of a hundred other things. + + _Clair! Clair! Did you marry, have children? There was that Lou + Somebody who you'd flirt with to make me jealous, but we both knew + he loved you. I wonder._ + +He spoke of the planners, of the proud day when all the world had seen +them off, the video jets flashing by, circling, to send their pictures +to the waiting millions. + +The planners, he told them, had a vision. It was the same vision which +had first taken man--an ape with a brain that held curious half-formed +thoughts that gave him a headache--down from the trees. A vision which +would carry him one day to the farthest stars and beyond. + +They shouted. They stamped on the floor. They laughed. + +"What about us? We didn't have any say, did we? Who wants to spend his +whole life in this tin can?" + +"I don't know--" One of them at least was dubious, but the crowd +stilled him. What of Laurie and her Cult? He did not see the girl +anywhere in the great hall. + +"We've had enough, Captain. Too much, I'd say!" + +Larkin looked smug. Lindquist was grinning. No one did anything to stop +them as the crowd surged forward, threatened. + +Watching them, only now beginning to realize the whole thing, Eric +remembered history. Mock-kinghood was nothing new in the scheme of +primitive cultures. In ancient Babylonia, in Assyria--elsewhere--the +mock king ruled for a day and the people came to him with their +troubles. The king, cowering on his throne-of-a-day could perhaps see +his executioner waiting. The real king had nothing to lose: the pent up +dissatisfaction of his people would drown the mock-ruler like a wave, +and after it was all over the king would return to his throne with more +power than before. + + * * * * * + +Rough hands reached up, grabbed at him. Fists shook, voices threatened. +Someone pulled his boot, and Eric sat down on the dais, breathing +heavily. + +He got up fast, before they could swarm all over him, yanked the gun +from his jumper, poked it against Larkin's ribs. "You know what this +is?" + +"Yes--a gun." + +"Well, call your friends off or I'll kill you. I'm not joking, Larkin. +Call them off--" + +"I can't. Look at them, a mob. What can I do now?" + +"You'd better do something, because soon you won't have a chance to do +anything. Now!" + +Larkin made a motion to the trumpeteer. He blew two loud notes this +time, and uniformed men appeared, brandishing clubs. Evidently, they +were on hand in case the crowd became too wild, threatened Larkin, +Lindquist and the other nameless rulers. + +With their clubs they beat the mob back, slowly, held them off as Eric +pushed Larkin before him. The crowd surged close, fought once or twice +with the guards on their immediate flanks. Once Larkin tried to bolt +away, but thereafter Eric held him firmly until they reached an exit. + +Together they sprinted down a corridor, Larkin puffing and staggering. +"Beat it," Eric told him. "Go on, scram!" + +"You won't kill me as I run? I know that thing can kill over long +distances--" + +"Don't give me any ideas," Eric said, but he felt a little sick as +Larkin ran, whimpering, back toward the hall. This man was their ruler, +their leader. + +He found the door, activated its mechanism, waited impatiently while he +heard the sounds of pursuit. Something clanged against the door, and +again. They were throwing things. Eric ducked, felt pain stab at his +shoulder. + +He could see their faces in the corridor when the door began to slide +clear. He slipped in, punched the levers that would close it again, +saw a hand and a leg come through the crack, heard a scream. The limbs +withdrew, and Eric watched grimly as it slid all the way shut. + +Lazaruses Eight, Nine, and Ten, he thought, as he went to the three +remaining tubs. For a moment he gazed down through the pinkish liquid +at the men curled up, sleeping their long sleep. + +He shook the tubs gently. All it would take was that--direct motion. +Once that had started the cycle, each sleeper's hypothalamus took +over, twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five years ahead of schedule. He +watched them twitch, shiver, slowly uncurl, watched the vapors rising +from their tubs. He had plenty of time. + +In a week, he helped them from their tubs. They were ready to +listen--smiling baby-faced Chambers, gaunt Striker, rotund Richardson. + +He explained, slowly. He told them everything. + +"My God," Striker said when he had finished. + +"Be thankful you could get back here, lad," Richardson told him. "What +do we do now?" + +"What _can_ we do?" Chambers demanded. Then: "Will you look at that--a +hundred seventy five years and I haven't even grown a beard!" + +They all laughed, and the tension was broken. "We go back," Eric said, +"armed to the teeth. It won't be difficult. Some of them will die, but +we can set the ship on its course again, teach them--I'd hate to see +the disappointment on Earth if we went back after six generations." + +Striker frowned. "Have we the right to kill?" + +Eric said, "look--they might get back to Earth someday--their progeny a +bunch of savages; the hope and dreams of the race reduced to--nothing. +We can kill if we have to." + +It was agreed. Without saying anything, Striker himself activated the +lock. + + * * * * * + +Two men with clubs rushed them in the corridor, howling "Lazarus" and +"death." It was Striker who shot them where they stood, before they +could use the clubs. + +After that, they fired shots into the air, and people ran screaming +away from them. Their first rush carried them almost to the control +room and briefly Eric remembered when he had looked out from there +with Clair at the bright faraway stars. But he could not quite picture +Clair's face. He tried to, but he saw the girl, Laurie.... + +A dozen uniformed men stood before the control room. They looked badly +frightened, but they stood their ground, then advanced. + +"What do we do now?" Chambers asked. "We couldn't get them all, not +before--" + +There was a rush behind them as a score of figures marched into the +corridor. "We're trapped!" Striker cried. + +Eric grinned. "I don't think so." He had seen Laurie in the vanguard of +the newcomers. + +They did not have to use their guns, not as they had been meant to be +used. They fought with tooth and nail, using the guns as clubs. But +mostly, they stood back and watched their allies tear into the guards. + +The girl Laurie cried: "I told you there were some who believed, Eric +Taine. I told you!" + +They reached the control room door, battered at it. Half a dozen men +came up with a great post of metal, heaved. The door shuddered. Again. +Again. It crashed in. + +Lindquist and Larkin stood there, over a great pile of charts and +books. "You won't take this ship on to Centauri," Larkin yelled. + +A little flame flickered at the end of the tube in his hand. He +crouched. + +"If those are the astrogation charts--" said Striker. + +Eric dove, caught Larkin's midsection with his shoulder, threw the man +back. They struggled on the floor, and dimly Eric was aware of others +who held the writhing Lindquist. Larkin fought like a snake, twisting, +turning, gouging. + +Eric, out of the corner of his eye, saw Lindquist breaking loose, +watched him running with the brand to the pile of charts. A shot +crashed through the room, echoing hollowly. Lindquist fell over his +charts. + +Now Eric had Larkin down, was pinning him, felt the man's hands +twisting, clawing at his stomach, saw them come away with his gun. They +grappled, and Eric cursed himself for forgetting the gun. Larkin held +it, laughed, squeezed the trigger as Eric pushed clear. + +Then the laughter faded as Larkin stared stupidly at the gun he had not +known how to use. Larkin gasped once, held both hands to the growing +red stain on his middle. + + * * * * * + +"Dead," Richardson said later. "They're both dead. You know, I think +it's better this way. They would have been trouble. But now--now all we +have to do is find the course again, turn the ship around--" + +"It'll mean two extra generations in space," Chambers said. "They've +been heading back for Earth twenty-five years." + +With Eric, he studied the charts, assembled them, punched a few buttons +on the computing machine. "Like this," Eric said. He twirled a few +dials. "It takes a long time with the overdrive, but we'll be back on +course in three years." + +For a while he gazed out the port, fascinated by the huge sweep of the +Milky Way, clear and beautiful in the black sky. When he turned back +and away from it, Laurie stood beside him. + +"Hello, Lazarus." + +"Very funny," he said. "Call me Taine--better still, call me Eric." + +"Eric, then. Hello, Eric." + +He grinned. "I guess you're not psychotic, after all." + +"Nope. Normal as can be. But take my great-great-grandmother, now. She +was really neurotic. She married, all right, but they say she really +carried a torch all her life." + +There was laughter in the girl's eyes as she spoke. Eric had seen other +eyes like that. So familiar. So beautiful. + +"I am Laurie Simmons," the girl told him. "My great-great-grandfather's +name was Lou Simmons. His wife was Clair. My mother has a book of hers, +of poems she wrote to Eric." + +"Tell me about them, Laurie." A lovely girl; as pretty as her +great-great-grandmother. No--prettier--and part of today. "Never mind, +Laurie. Just tell me about yourself." + +He knew Clair would like it this way. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Resurrection Seven, by Stephen Marlowe + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58659 *** |
