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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59172 ***
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+                            WILLIE'S PLANET
+
+                             BY MIKE ELLIS
+
+               _The most fitting place for a man to die
+              is where he dies for man. Yet Willie chose
+               a sterile, alien world that wouldn't even
+                 see a man for millions of years_....
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+               Worlds of If Science Fiction, April 1955.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+Tom stood in front of the filtered porthole of the tiny cabin and
+soaked up the sunlight that came through. It felt good after ten months
+of deep space blackness.
+
+"By golly, Willie, this is luck," he said to the little man standing
+at the cabin's instruments, "our hundredth and last star, and it's an
+Earth type sun. How much difference is there from our sun?"
+
+Willie held the color chart up beside the spectrum screen. "Almost on.
+Couple of degrees difference." He tossed the chart on the desk and came
+to stand at Tom's side, the top of his head even with Tom's erect
+shoulder. His thin face was tense and worried.
+
+"Tom," he said, "I have a hunch about this star." He stared at the
+screen morosely.
+
+"I don't receive a thing," Tom chuckled, stretching his flat muscled
+arms to the low ceiling, his body making a triangle from his narrow
+hips to his wide shoulders. "What's the hunch?"
+
+"Ever have the feeling you'd been some place before when you'd actually
+never been there? I feel that about this star." Willie glanced at Tom
+with his bright blue eyes, then looked quickly away, a bit of a red
+flush high on his cheeks.
+
+"It's just because it's like our sun, that's all," Tom said.
+
+"No, it's not that, Tom. It's something else. I feel like we ought to
+get out of here. Maybe it's the planet."
+
+"Planet?" Tom said.
+
+"Yes," Willie said quietly, "an Earth type planet."
+
+"Earth type!" Tom shouted. "Ten thousand credits bonus! Get it on the
+screen, Willie. Let's see that spending money baby."
+
+Willie turned on the viewer. Dark and shadowy on one side, bright with
+blue-green color on the other, the planet floated on the screen.
+
+"The blue must be water and the green continents," Tom murmured in awe.
+"Damn, it's beautiful. We going to pass it close?"
+
+"In about five more minutes of this spiral," Willie answered. "Say,
+Tom," Willie said hesitantly, "will you check over these figures? I'm
+not sure I've allowed enough for the pull of the sun." He shifted the
+papers aimlessly.
+
+"My gosh, Willie," Tom said, "the only thing I know about navigation is
+what you've taught me this trip. Your figures are right."
+
+"I just wanted to make sure I'm right," Willie said. "I don't like to
+navigate close in." He pushed the papers back on the desk. "I guess I'd
+better call the big shot and let him take over." He pressed the button
+that rang the buzzer in the Captain's tiny cabin.
+
+"Might as well let Pudge in on it too," Tom said, "or the food will be
+lousy for days."
+
+"Yeah," Willie said, and buzzed the galley.
+
+Captain Bart strode into the cabin, his barrel chest bare and hairy
+above the shorts he had been napping in. He went straight to the
+porthole and stood with his fists on his hips, appraising the sun. Then
+he caught sight of the blue-green ball on the scope.
+
+"Earth type planet! Nice going, Willie," he shouted, and clapped Willie
+on the back.
+
+Willie flinched slightly, then moved over to the chart desk, a frown
+making vertical creases in his forehead.
+
+Bart turned to Tom without noticing. "Ten thousand credits, Tom. I knew
+we'd do it. Even in this forty year old tub. Willie, are we going to
+pass it close?"
+
+"Two more minutes," Willie murmured, busy with the charts on the desk.
+"You'd better check my course, though."
+
+"O.K.," Bart said. "Let her go as she's headed."
+
+Pudge came in from the galley and took his place beside Tom without
+comment.
+
+"Okay," Bart said, as he sat down in the control board chair, "let's
+get to work. Willie, I'll run us past just outside the atmosphere. Tom,
+you do the life search. Pudge, get the pictures."
+
+The cabin was silent except for the hum of the instruments. The radar
+probed the height of the mountains, the depth of the seas, the shape of
+the continents by recording the patterns of the reflections.
+
+The electron telescopes hunted down the movement of life, the
+artificial straight lines of civilization, the classification of
+plants; and typed the metals in the ground with the aid of a spectrum.
+
+The wave lengths of radio and TV were checked and recorded.
+
+One special instrument, sealed in its cabinet and booby-trapped with
+explosives against tampering, probed for the faint waves of any kind of
+life, down to single cells in the seas.
+
+They made four passes, the last one at a hundred miles from the ground
+at its closest point. Then, as each man finished his task and relaxed
+from his instruments, they waited for the automatic tally of the
+results.
+
+The computer glowed and clicked in its dull grey cabinet on the
+bulkhead, then dropped the tally card in the slot.
+
+Bart snatched it out, his grin fading to a blank look as he read it.
+"Nothing. Not a damn thing, no life at all." He went over to the
+screen, folded his thick arms across his chest, and stared at it in
+disgust.
+
+Tom picked up the card and studied it. "This is goofey," he said aloud,
+"the planet's got plant life, plenty of it, but not a trace of animal
+life, not even plankton in the sea. How'd that happen?"
+
+Willie came over and studied the card with Tom. "Could have bacteria we
+didn't get from this height, but it sure as hell hasn't got anything
+else."
+
+Pudge held up the pictures; they showed close-ups of a tangled mass of
+plants. "All ferns," he said. "Doesn't seem to be anything else."
+
+"Why would a planet have ferns and nothing else, not even the beginning
+of animal life?" Tom wondered aloud.
+
+"I once read an account of finding the tiny seeds of Earth's plants
+millions of miles out in space," Willie said. "Seems the winds blow
+them right off the planet and they're so light they just keep going."
+He looked at the pictures, then at Tom. "Suppose some of them drifted
+here?"
+
+"That's as good a guess as anything else," Tom said. "Maybe the master
+minds at home can figure it out."
+
+"Only seven or eight Earth-type planets in all these years of star
+mapping and I had to find one with nothing but ferns on it," Bart said
+in disgust to the screen. "Oh, well, maybe it'll do as a colony. No
+alien life to worry about, anyway. We'll call it Bart McDonald Planet."
+
+"Hey," Tom spoke up, "Willie found the planet. He should get to name
+it."
+
+Bart was curt. "I'm the captain of this ship; new planets are named
+after the captain that discovers them."
+
+"Nuts," Tom muttered. "We all had a hand in this. It ought to be named
+after all of us."
+
+"How about calling it the ship's name," Willie put in quietly.
+
+Bart strode over and yanked the log's keyboard out. He banged furiously
+on the keys for a moment, and then read aloud. "At 1430 this date,
+discovered McDonald's planet, an Earth class planet, signed, Bart
+McDonald, Captain." He slammed the log shut.
+
+Tom snorted.
+
+Bart gave him a dirty look and went over and sat in the control board
+chair. Pudge had disappeared in the galley as he always did when there
+was an argument. There were a few minutes of strained silence as they
+worked over the instruments.
+
+Bart turned from the control board. "As long as this place has no life,
+we'd be safe in landing. Suppose we earn the bonus by bringing back a
+full report on whether it's fit for a colony or not?"
+
+Willie's head jerked up, his face white.
+
+Tom frowned, and said nothing. He wanted to land but he didn't want to
+agree with Bart on anything.
+
+"What say?" Bart said. "I'll even put it up for a vote."
+
+"Okay," Tom said, thinking of walking in the sun, feeling firm ground
+under his feet. "It would be a shame to come all this way and then not
+be able to say we had explored the country."
+
+"No," Willie said quickly. "It's dangerous. And--and besides, we'd have
+to go in quarantine when we got back."
+
+"So we go in quarantine," Bart said. "We'll get paid for it." He turned
+to the control board. "Buzz Pudge, so he can get ready." He began
+punching buttons.
+
+They went around to the middle of the day side of the planet, swinging
+in closer. The continents formed a rough belt around the equator of the
+planet, with no land extending to the small ice caps on the poles.
+
+Tom felt his stomach knot with the thrill of going into the unknown as
+he watched the screen, but part of the time he was running the lights
+of the control board through his mind, checking the actions of Bart's
+big fingers as Bart confidently punched the keys. Then he caught sight
+of Willie's tense face. It was white, with little splotches of pink,
+and his slender hands were gripping the chair he was sitting in.
+
+"Here we go," Bart shouted exultantly, as the big green light flashed
+on. He hit the big green key with a stubby forefinger. The auto pilot
+fired the jets, the ship slowed in its descent, and they were pushed
+down gently in their chairs. As the spot Bart had picked came up on the
+screen, they could see the bare red of the ridge sticking up out of the
+yellow-green of the flat land. Then the yellow-green was right below
+them, turning black as the jets burned it to ashes. They hovered a
+minute, then came to rest with a creaking thud that echoed through the
+ship. The jets cut out, leaving their ears ringing.
+
+"Didn't know whether we'd make it or not," Willie said. He
+unobtrusively wiped the glistening sweat off his slender palms on his
+coveralls, as he took his place at the panel.
+
+When the tests were done, Bart grabbed the tally card as soon as the
+computer dropped it. "No bacteria at all. Planet's completely sterile.
+Let's get outside."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tom stopped beside Bart on the narrow strip of red sand at the edge of
+the vast blue plain of smooth water. The water came right up to their
+feet without movement, just small ripples that lapped the red sand. The
+air was clean and brisk, and the wind was soft on his cheek.
+
+Bart arched his thick chest and pulled in a great lung full of air.
+"This is wonderful. Makes a man feel alive again." He yanked the
+zipper on his coveralls and pulled them off. Then he jumped in the air,
+swinging his thick arms.
+
+Tom grinned at the calisthenics as he peeled off his own coveralls. The
+sun was warm on his bare white skin.
+
+Bart had pulled off his boots and with just his shorts left, charged
+into the water, and made a flat smashing dive. He leaped and splashed
+the water like a porpoise.
+
+Tom grinned at him, and just as he had done during most of his boyhood
+on Earth, took a gulp of air and dived down into the clear silent
+depths to the twenty foot deep bottom. He drifted slowly among the
+rocks. Bart drifted beside him as the seconds ticked by. Tom wished
+this was Earth and there were some fish to hunt in the clear water with
+a three pronged spear. Then, as his lungs seemed bursting and he had
+to have air, he put his feet against the bottom and shoved himself to
+the surface. Several seconds later, Bart burst through the surface and
+bobbed beside him. They floated until they got their wind back.
+
+"You don't use a suit and oxygen tanks," Bart said. "You couldn't stay
+under two seconds if you did."
+
+"I learned to hunt as a boy," Tom said. "I even had to make my own
+spear out of scraps. Kids don't have the credits for suits and stuff."
+
+"No sport to it with a suit," Bart said, as they paddled lazily along
+with their heads up, toward shore. "As bad as hunting animals with
+rifles. They killed off all the animals with guns, now they're fishing
+out the seas with suits."
+
+"Yeah," Tom answered, "might as well buy the fish from the hatcheries
+as to go after them with a portable sub."
+
+They dived under, and worked their way along the bottom toward shore,
+coming up for air, then diving again, until they were back to the beach.
+
+They walked out and dropped on the sand to rest, the sun warm on them.
+
+"Notice the water?" Tom asked.
+
+"Yeah," Bart said, "no waves. Calm as hell. Can't be waves without a
+moon to pull them."
+
+"Doesn't seem to be as salty as the seas at home, either," Tom said.
+
+"Yeah, I noticed that too. Must not be as much salt in the ground as at
+home."
+
+"Could be it's a young planet that hasn't had much time to wash it out
+of the ground, too," Tom said.
+
+They rested in silence for a few minutes, the only sound all about them
+was the wind blowing across the empty land.
+
+Then Bart jumped to his feet and started pulling on his clothes. "Come
+on, Tom," he said, "Let's take a look around while it's still light."
+
+After they dressed, Bart led the way along the strip of red sand
+towards the ridge. The tangled mass of yellow-green vegetation grew
+right down to the strip of red sand, and in some places, grew right
+over it to stop at the sea.
+
+"I'll be darned," Tom said, stopping at the edge of the plants. The
+ferns covered the ground solidly; small ones, medium ones, big ones. He
+crashed back into the thicker growth and kicked some of it aside with
+his boot. The cloud of dust choked him for a minute.
+
+Bart came crashing in to Tom. "What you got?"
+
+"Look," Tom said. "All these dead ferns underneath, then just the
+sand. They haven't decayed." He searched under the dead growth. "The
+dead ones just fall down underneath and the live ones just grow on
+top. There's not only no life here, but no decay either. Just ferns. I
+wonder if Willie was right."
+
+"Don't ask me," Bart said. "Come on, let's look from that ridge."
+
+They followed the sand around the impassable vegetation to the
+ridge and scrambled a little way up the barren red rocks. As far as
+they could see over the flat land, it was covered with the sickly
+yellow-green of the ferns.
+
+They looked out and rested, then noting the sun was getting close
+to the horizon, they made their way back to the huge grey splotched
+aluminum hulk of their ship.
+
+As Tom was about to follow Bart up the ladder, he noticed a solitary
+figure sitting at the edge of the sea.
+
+"Hey, Willie," he hollered, "Come to chow." His voice echoed in the
+quiet. The figure waved and Tom turned back to join him. He sat down on
+a small boulder near where Willie was sitting and lit his tiny pipe.
+
+Willie was sitting leaning back against a rock, and gazing dreamily out
+to sea. He didn't notice Tom.
+
+"Hey, Willie," Tom said, puffing on his pipe.
+
+Willie started and turned to Tom. "Oh, hi, Tom. I didn't know you'd
+come out."
+
+"You wouldn't," Tom laughed, "not in that daydream. Thinking of some
+gal back home?"
+
+"No, just thinking," Willie said. "Find anything interesting?"
+
+"Just a lot of rock and ferns," he answered.
+
+"Notice how the dead plants just pack under and don't decay?" Willie
+asked.
+
+"Yeah," Tom puffed his pipe. "Looks like your idea of seeds drifting
+through space is as good as any to explain it. Sure is an odd place.
+Full grown plants, but no decay and no sign of evolution."
+
+"This is a wonderful place," Willie said as he leaned back against the
+rock. "I'd like to stay here for ten years."
+
+"Why?" Tom asked. The red of the sunset was fading from the high
+clouds, turning them dark grey.
+
+"Because it's so quiet." Willie smiled at him. "This is the quietest
+place I've ever been in. Does something to you."
+
+"You should have been a colonist," Tom said, "then you could live on a
+place like this and farm it."
+
+"I'm going to, someday," Willie answered. "I'm saving my pay to buy a
+charter and I'm going to buy a place like this."
+
+Tom blew out a cloud of smoke. Seems like every guy working on crowded
+Earth had the same dream. A little farm on a distant planet. But few
+of them ever did anything about it. It was a nice dream to relieve the
+monotony of working, but a hell of a lot of hard work if you actually
+did it.
+
+"I've even got seeds I saved when I was working on the truck farms of
+the West," Willie talked on, more to himself than Tom, "I saved them
+from some of the biggest and heaviest producing plants. I've got
+tomatoes, beans, corn, squash. They'll make a fine beginning."
+
+Tom thought of Willie leaving the safety and comfort of living that
+was found only in the crowded cities of Earth. "Think you'd like the
+loneliness of farming?" he asked.
+
+Willie spoke with conviction. "There's nothing I'd like more. That's
+why I started star mapping, to get out of the mobs. That's why I'm out
+here."
+
+"Dinner's on," Pudge called from the ship.
+
+Tom knocked the ashes out of his pipe. "Let's eat." He led the way to
+the ship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The meal was eaten in an appreciative silence, for Pudge had spread a
+feast of celebration. When the last of the unaccustomed delicacies was
+gone, they pushed their plates away.
+
+"Boy," Bart grunted out as he lit his pipe, "I haven't eaten like that
+since the last time I was hunting. Say, Tom, what say you and I go
+fishing on the Florida coast when we get back. We can get a fish a day
+down there."
+
+"We'll do that," Tom said without conviction. He knew when they got
+back they would go their different ways in the eternal quest of
+spacemen back home.
+
+"I'm due to get a bigger ship when I get back," Bart said expansively,
+"and I'm sure going to have Pudge for my cook. How about you, Tom?
+You're due to step up, now. Want to be my navigator?"
+
+"Sure," Tom said, surprised.
+
+"We'll really do some star mapping," Bart said. "With a bigger and
+newer ship, we can go clear to the end of the galaxy. Who knows what
+we'll find for the Astral Service."
+
+"What about me?" Willie said. "Am I going to be retired as your First
+Mate?"
+
+Tom looked at Willie, he had almost forgotten Willie was there because
+he was so quiet. Willie was trying to look bright and happy, but even
+through the happy haze, Tom could see he looked tired and depressed.
+The wine hadn't done a thing for him, and his dinner was only half
+eaten.
+
+Bart had looked down at his plate, frowning, at Willie's question. He
+knocked out the ashes of his pipe and tossed it on the table. He looked
+Willie squarely in the eye. "I was going to save it until we got back,
+but since you asked, I'll give it to you straight. Willie, I'm sending
+you back for a check-up when we get in. You can't seem to do a darn
+thing anymore, without having somebody doublecheck it. Tom and I have
+had to navigate the ship most of this trip, when you were supposed to
+do it. There's no place out here for a man that can't do his job. It
+puts too much on the others. I think you need a long rest or something."
+
+Willie sat there, his face white, blinking his eyes rapidly. Then he
+lurched to the door, his chair spinning behind him. Pudge got up and
+went to the galley.
+
+"What the hell did you do that for?" Tom asked Bart. "Why didn't you
+kid him along and give it to him easy when we got back. It would have
+been easier on his feelings."
+
+"That's not my way," Bart said. "He asked me and I gave it to him
+straight. He's no good out here anymore. In fact, he's dangerous. If
+something should come up that needs quick action, we'd all be wiped out
+by the time he called me."
+
+"Okay," Tom said. "It was honest, and it was truthful. But it sure as
+hell hurt him. I'm going to see him and try to ease it over."
+
+"You'll be a good first mate, Tom," Bart said. "But don't baby the crew
+too much. They've either got it or they haven't."
+
+Tom went down the narrow passageway to Willie's cabin and knocked on
+the door. When he didn't get an answer, he opened the door. Willie was
+lying on his bunk with his face to the wall. He didn't move as Tom sat
+in the chair.
+
+"Hey, Willie," Tom said. "You got company. I come in to shoot the
+breeze with you."
+
+Willie turned over reluctantly. "I'm sorry, Tom. I hate Bart's guts.
+He's always so goddam right." Willie clasped his hands behind his head
+on the pillow, and stared at the ceiling. "He'll wash me out of this
+job and then what will I do? I've failed at everything else I've tried
+to do. It's the people, Tom. I can't do anything in front of people.
+What am I going to do when they ground me? I can't stand the crowds of
+people on Earth." He rolled over against the wall.
+
+Tom worked his big knuckled long fingers together. "Maybe it won't
+amount to anything. The brass will just put you on another ship."
+
+"Not if he puts in that report," Willie said, his voice muffled
+against the wall.
+
+Tom sat there. There was nothing more to say. Willie was right. "Well,
+I'll see you on the morning." He got up. "Maybe we can go for a hike or
+something." When Willie didn't answer, he went out and carefully shut
+the door behind him.
+
+In his own bunk, he tried to think of something else, but the problem
+of Willie bothered him for a long, restless time. Then it was morning
+and the clock was chiming.
+
+Pudge came in to the table where Tom and Bart were waiting for
+breakfast. "Some one's been in the stores. A couple of cases of
+emergency rations are missing. It must have been in the night."
+
+"What the hell," Bart said, jumping up. "In the stores?"
+
+"Where's Willie?" Tom said, getting up.
+
+"Who cares," Bart said. "There's no one on this planet but us. Who'd
+get into our stores? Or what?"
+
+"That's what I mean," Tom said angrily. "Where's Willie?"
+
+Bart gave him a startled glance, then led the way to Willie's cabin. He
+wasn't there. They went through the ship. They dropped out of the lock,
+one after the other, into the blinding sunlight and looked around.
+Willie was gone.
+
+"We'd better find him before he gets too far," Tom said. "I've got a
+hunch he's not coming back. That's why the food."
+
+"I'll wring the little coward's neck," Bart said as he led the way
+along the one trail of footprints they had all made to the sand by the
+sea. They scattered out, calling and looking. Tom, on a hunch, headed
+for the shoulder of the mountain that jutted out in the sea, while
+Bart and Pudge went the other way.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sun was high in the clear blue sky when Tom at last came around the
+point to the little cove a stream had made in the side of the mountain.
+He walked up the narrow sandy bank between the red cliffs until a short
+way in, he found the cases of food and a pile of blankets. His yell
+echoed off the red cliffs several times before he looked up to see
+Willie standing on top of the cliff twenty feet above him.
+
+"Come on back to the ship, Willie," Tom called as though Willie was
+just out for a walk. "We're going to blast off this afternoon. Got to
+head home."
+
+"I'm not coming back," Willie said. "I'm staying here."
+
+"Be reasonable," Tom shouted, "you can't stay here. Come on back to the
+ship."
+
+"I'm going to live here. I'm going to colonize," Willie said.
+
+"What?" Tom's voice was unbelieving.
+
+"I'm going to live here," Willie repeated. "Tom, give me your word you
+won't force me to go back and I'll come down so we can talk."
+
+"O.K.," Tom said, "you have my word."
+
+"Bart isn't around, is he?" Willie slid down the cliff in a shower of
+loose rock and dirt.
+
+"You can't stay here, Willie," Tom began, "how are you going to live,
+to eat?"
+
+"I've got my seeds," Willie said dreamily. "I'll have a real farm." He
+waved vaguely at the ferns. "Look at the stuff grow. The climate is
+ideal. I'll build a hut and farm enough to eat."
+
+"Willie," Tom said, trying another angle. "There are no other people
+here. What'll you do if you get sick or need help?"
+
+"I won't get sick and I won't need help," Willie said. "That's why
+I want to stay here, 'cause there aren't any people. I can have a
+thousand acres all to myself. I can stake out a whole square mile and
+live right in the middle of it." He laughed like a little kid. "Tom,
+this is what I've wanted all my life. Why should I go back to Earth and
+then try to come back later, I'm staying here, now."
+
+Tom had the feeling he was trying to argue with an ostrich with its
+head in the sand. What would Willie do for food if his crops failed
+when the emergency rations were gone? Willie was gambling his life for
+a dream, but he didn't know it. Willie saw only what he wanted to see,
+disregarding everything else. Arguing was useless. The only way they
+could get Willie back aboard was to carry him back.
+
+"Well, okay, Willie," Tom said. "I'll go back and tell Bart. But I'll
+get him to hold the ship until tomorrow if you should change your mind."
+
+"I won't," Willie said. "So long, Tom." He held out his hand. "You've
+been a swell guy."
+
+Tom took the hand and shook it.
+
+"So long, Willie. I'll be back someday, to see how you're making out."
+He started back down the narrow beach. Along the way, he decided
+that they would have to catch Willie and take him back to Earth for
+hospitalization. Coming back with Bart wouldn't be breaking his word.
+That had only been for the time he had talked to Willie.
+
+Bart heard Tom's report in his usual way. "Let's go," was his only
+comment.
+
+They climbed up the crumbling red rock and followed the edge of the
+cliff. They climbed over the small boulders, around the huge ones,
+endlessly finding the way blocked, but each time going back a little
+and by going around, finding a new way that was clear. The sun was
+halfway to the western horizon when they stopped to rest on a pile of
+small boulders near the top. Tom leaned back against the rock behind
+him. A trickle of sweat ran down his ribs from his armpit under his
+coveralls.
+
+Bart snorted through his nose. "It'll be dark soon." He wiped his arm
+across his forehead, the sweat making a dark stain on the sleeve. "Damn
+that fool Willie. He'll pay for this when we get him back to Earth. He
+must be crazy or something."
+
+"My God," Tom said. "Is that finally dawning on you?"
+
+Bart looked up at Tom, his dark brown eyes small in his broad
+sweat-streaked face. As he continued to stare at Tom without saying
+anything, Tom felt the stir of annoyance, then the beginning of hot
+tempered anger. They sat and waited, looking for the movement Willie
+would make if he showed himself. Nothing stirred in the yellow-green
+ferns below. After an hour of watching, Bart got to his feet.
+
+"He's holed up somewhere and pulled the hole in after him. Let's get
+down there and drag him out." He started back down the ridge the way
+they had come up.
+
+Halfway down, as they stopped for a breather, Tom noted the height
+of the sun. It was going to be dark before they could work their way
+back to the ship. A low bank of rolling grey clouds lay all along the
+straight horizon line of the sea; as the sun sank behind the clouds, it
+turned the edges of them to fiery red.
+
+Bart hurried down the ridge, watching only for a glimpse of Willie, but
+Tom looked at the sunset occasionally, trying to store up the memory of
+the color for the months ahead.
+
+As they reached the stream cliff, Tom stopped Bart.
+
+"Bart, I've got an idea. It's almost dark. Willie will think we've
+headed back to get to the ship before it's too dark to find our way.
+He's probably sitting on a rock, watching the sunset and daydreaming.
+Let's look on the edge of this little cliff where it ends at the sea."
+
+"O.K.," Bart said, leading the way. The only light left was the
+reflected red light of the clouds that made long dark shadows behind
+the rocks.
+
+They came around the rocks, onto the cliff point overlooking the sea
+and the cove, and there was Willie, sitting with his back to a big
+rock, his chin resting on his cupped hands, gazing dreamily out to sea.
+
+"Willie!" Bart shouted, lunging for him.
+
+Willie jerked around to see them, then he was up and sliding down the
+loose rock into the shadowy cove below.
+
+"Grab him, Tom," Bart shouted as he went sliding and falling down, the
+loose rock after him.
+
+Tom jumped down the rocks to the bottom and slid to a stop, the loose
+rocks rolling down around him, but Willie was deep in the ferns with
+only his head and shoulders showing.
+
+Bart had the automatic pistol out and pointed at Willie. "Stop you
+crazy fool, or I'll shoot," he shouted, his voice echoing off the
+cliffs. Willie only crashed into the ferns more desperately.
+
+Bart raised the automatic and fired a burst of shots, the sharp
+explosions echoing shatteringly around them. Tom made a flying tackle
+and smashed into Bart. They went down in the ferns, struggling for the
+gun, until Bart managed to roll and push his way to his feet.
+
+"Knock it off," Bart shouted. "What the hell are you trying to do?"
+
+"Keep you from killing him," Tom shouted back as he got to his feet.
+
+"I wasn't trying to kill him," Bart snapped. "I was trying to scare him
+into stopping so we could grab him, now he's got clean away in those
+damn ferns." He waved a hand helplessly at the mass of dark vegetation.
+Willie was gone all right. "Now we'll have to spend days hunting for
+that lunatic. Next time let me handle it. I'm the captain of this
+expedition."
+
+"Okay," Tom said angrily, "but let's catch him, not kill him. He hasn't
+done anything, just wants to be alone, that's all."
+
+"He's deserted," Bart said, "and he signed articles, so that's a crime.
+How the hell am I going to explain a lost crewman when we go back. And
+on my first trip as captain."
+
+"That's your worry," Tom said. "He's colonizing, not deserting."
+
+"You should have been a lawyer," Bart said as he put the gun in his
+holster. "But this isn't getting that screwball aboard." He groped in
+the pocket of his coveralls and pulled out a small packlight. The white
+searchbeam lit up the ferns around them with glaring brightness. "Come
+on, let's try to find him." He led the way into the ferns.
+
+They hunted through the ferns, forcing their way every step. The
+searchbeam was only good for a few feet in the dense growth. They knew
+Willie was close, but in the ferns they could almost step on him and
+not know it.
+
+At last Bart gave up. "Let's go back to the ship. We'll come back in
+the morning, when it's light." Following him along the beach toward the
+ship, Tom had the feeling that in the morning might be too late. Willie
+might have been hit by the burst of shots, or he might take off in the
+ferns so far they never could find him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tom rolled out of his bunk at the first bell, wincing at his sore
+muscles. After getting the first aid kit from the bathroom, he quietly
+walked down the narrow passageway and out into the bright sunlight.
+As he walked through the grey ash to the strip of red sand, the quiet
+was like a blanket over everything, after the soft hum of the living
+ship. The breeze blew softly against his face, hummed past his ears,
+and rustled the ferns. The sea was glass smooth as far as he could see
+across its surface, smooth right up to where the water turned deep
+green as it got shallower. He could understand why Willie wanted to
+stay here. It was a perfect place for anyone who loved solitude and
+there was probably none like it in the whole system.
+
+He thought of how a man could live here, with no one to bother him,
+nothing to buy, no need to do any more than just produce enough food to
+live. A little shack to keep off the rain, a little field to grow food.
+
+But there would be no one to talk to, no one to share experiences and
+troubles and little triumphs, no one to laugh with, no challenge to
+overcome, no excitement.
+
+"Not for me," Tom said aloud, and his voice was strange in the quiet.
+"Boy, this place puts a spell on a guy, almost hypnotizes him." He
+laughed aloud. "Even got me talking to myself." He hurried on to hunt
+for Willie.
+
+Then he came to the little cove where Willie had his camp. The pile of
+food and blankets was still there. Willie was there, too. He was lying
+half in the pool of water. As Tom crunched over the sand and knelt
+beside him, Willie opened his eyes.
+
+"Hi, Tom," he said faintly. "I'm glad you came alone."
+
+"Hi, Willie," Tom said as he looked at the thin chest with the small
+neat hole low on the left side. "So he did shoot you, didn't he." He
+opened the first aid kit. "I'll get you back to the ship and you'll be
+O.K." He started putting a dressing on the wound.
+
+Willie looked at him with his bright blue eyes. "Never mind, Tom. I
+just got to stay here in spite of the Captain." His voice was so low
+Tom had to lean closer to hear him. Willie coughed slightly and winced
+with the pain.
+
+Tom finished the bandage. He knew there was nothing he could do; Willie
+was hurt inside and only a doctor could help him. But there were no
+doctors here. He wanted to do something for him to make him more
+comfortable. He started to put an arm under him to move him out of the
+pool. "I'll get you out of this water," he said.
+
+"No. Tom," Willie said. "Leave me here. I crawled all night to get
+here. I want to die in this pool."
+
+"In the water?" Tom said in surprise.
+
+"Yes, in the water. Don't you understand? I thought you would." He
+stared up at the white tracing of the clouds in the sky.
+
+Tom waited, silently. He knelt there, the sun burning hot on his back.
+
+"I wanted to stay," Willie said. "I had to stay. Didn't you feel
+anything about this planet, Tom?"
+
+Tom thought a moment. "I did feel a little," he admitted. "On the way
+over here. Like it would be a nice place to live."
+
+"That's it," Willie smiled. "Don't you see. Here was this planet, ripe
+for life, but without life. Then the seeds of the ferns got blown off
+Earth and drifted here. But it needed more, it needed animal life to
+complete the cycle.
+
+"Then we got 'blown off Earth.' Bart for the glory, Pudge for the ride,
+you for the excitement, and me--me--because I had to, I guess. Because
+I couldn't stand it back there. Seeds, all four of us, and not knowing
+it. That's why we had to land. That's why one of us had to stay and I
+guess it was just me. Now the rest of you can go back to Earth."
+
+Willie coughed, much longer this time. Then he lay back exhausted.
+"Tom," he whispered, "look at the edge of my camp. In the ferns."
+
+Tom walked over to the edge of the camp. He looked at the yellow-green
+ferns, wondering what Willie meant. Then he saw it. The faint steaming
+from the packed dead ferns under the growing ones, the spreading dark
+spot, the already darker green of the plants growing around the spot.
+
+Willie had brought the seeds of decay with him, as well as the seeds of
+life. The dead plants were decaying for the first time on this planet.
+This spot would spread until the whole planet was covered with dark
+green; and life would be as it was on Earth.
+
+Tom went back to Willie and stood looking down at him. Then he knelt
+and gently closed Willie's eyelids. He thought of moving him, digging
+him a shallow grave. But kneeling there in the silent cove, he had the
+hunch that maybe there was more to this. Willie had wanted to stay in
+the little pool. The stream came down off the ridge through the pool to
+the sea. Maybe if Willie stayed there, the bacteria of his body would
+live on, and be washed into the sea. The water was warm and there were
+no enemies to destroy them and there were plants to feed them. Perhaps,
+Willie was right. Maybe he _was_ the seed of life coming to this
+planet; and in a million years men might walk these shores.
+
+Tom straightened up. He took a deep breath and looked around the little
+cove, and then back to Willie.
+
+"It's your planet, now, Willie. Willie's Planet from now on. What Bart
+put in the log and what spacemen will call it as they go by, will be
+two different things. Or did you know that in your heart, too." He was
+silent a moment. "So long, Willie. Go with God."
+
+He turned and crunched along the sand towards the ship.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Willie's Planet, by Mike Ellis
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59172 ***