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diff --git a/59375-0.txt b/59375-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..489c68d --- /dev/null +++ b/59375-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59375 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + the ethicators + + BY WILLARD MARSH + + _They were used to retarded life forms, but + this was the worst. Yet it is a missionary's duty + to bring light where there is none, for who can + tell what devious forms evolution might take?_ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1955. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +The missionaries came out of the planetary system of a star they didn't +call Antares. They called it, naturally enough, The Sun--just as home +was Earth, Terra, or simply The World. And naturally enough, being the +ascendant animal on Earth, they called themselves human beings. They +were looking for extraterrestrial souls to save. + +They had no real hope of finding humans like themselves in this +wonderously diversified universe. But it wasn't against all probability +that, in their rumaging, there might not be a humanoid species to whom +they could reach down a helping paw; some emergent cousin with at least +a rudimentary symmetry from snout to tail, and hence a rudimentary soul. + +The ship they chose was a compact scout, vaguely resembling the outside +of an orange crate--except that they had no concept of an orange crate +and, being a tesseract, it had no particular outside. It was simply an +expanding cube (and as such, quite roomy) whose "interior" was always +paralleling its "exterior" (or attempting to), in accordance with all +the well-known, basic and irrefutable laws on the subject. + +A number of its sides occupied the same place at the same time, giving +a hypothetical spectator the illusion of looking down merging sets of +railway tracks. This, in fact, was its precise method of locomotion. +The inner cube was always having to catch up, caboose-fashion, with +the outer one in time (or space, depending on one's perspective). +And whenever it had done so, it would have arrived with itself--at +approximately wherever in the space-time continuum it had been pointed. + +When they felt the jar of the settling geodesics, the crew crowded at +the forward visiplate to see where they were. It was the outskirts of +a G type star system. Silently they watched the innermost planet float +past, scorched and craggy, its sunward side seeming about to relapse to +a molten state. + +The Bosun-Colonel turned to the Conductor. "A bit of a disappointment +I'm afraid, sir. Surely with all that heat...?" + +"Steady, lad. The last wicket's not been bowled." The Conductor's +whiskers quivered in amusement at his next-in-command's impetuosity. +"You'll notice that we're dropping downward. If the temperature +accordingly continues dropping--" + +He couldn't shrug, he wasn't physiologically capable of it, but it was +apparent that he felt they'd soon reach a planet whose climate could +support intelligent life. + +If the Bosun-Colonel had any ideas that such directions as up and +down were meaningless in space, he kept them to himself. As the second +planet from its sun hove into view, he switched on the magniscan +eagerly. + +"I say, this is more like it. Clouds and all that sort of thing. Should +we have a go at it, sir?" + +The Conductor yawned. "Too bloody cloudy for my taste. Too equivocal. +Let's push on," he said languidly. "I have a hunch the third planet +might be just our dish of tea." + +Quelling his disappointment, the Bosun-Colonel waited for the third +planet to swim into being. And when it did, blooming like an orchid +in all its greens and moistnesses, he could scarcely contain his +excitement. + +"Why, it looks just like Earth," he marveled. "Gad, sir, what a master +stroke of navigation. How did you realize this would be it?" + +"Oh, I don't know," the Conductor said modestly. "Things usually have +a habit of occurring in threes. I'm quite a student of numerology, you +know." Then he remembered the Mission and drew himself erect on all his +legs. "You may prepare for landing, Mister," he ordered crisply. + +The Bosun-Colonel shifted over to manual and busied himself at the +helm, luffing the square craft down the troughs of air. Gliding over +the vast tropical oceans, he put down at a large land mass above a +shallow warm sea, twenty-five degrees below the northern pole. + +Too numbed for comment, the crew stared out at the alien vista. They'd +heard of retarded life forms from other Missionary expeditions--of +planets where the inhabitants, in extreme emergency, had been known +to commit murder. But this was surely the worst, the most vicious +imaginable in the galaxy. + +Here, with life freshly up from the sea, freshly launched on the long +climb to maturity and self-realization--was nothing but horror. With so +lush a vegetation, so easily capable of supporting them side by side +in abundance, the monsters were actually feeding on each other. Great +lumbering beasts they were with their bristling hides and huge tails, +charging between the giant tree ferns; gouging living chunks from one +another while razor-toothed birds with scaly wings flapped overhead, +screaming for the remnants. As the sounds of carnage came through the +audio ports, the youngest Oarsman keeled over in a faint. + +Even the Conductor was visibly shaken. The Bosun-Colonel turned to him +with a sick expression. + +"Surely it's a lost cause, Skipper. Life like this will never have a +soul worth saving." + +"Not in its present stage," the Old Man was forced to agree. "Still, +one never knows the devious paths that evolution takes." He considered +the scene for a thoughtful, shuddering interval. "Perhaps in several +thousand millenniums...." + +The Bosun-Colonel tried to visualize the possibility of Ethical Life +ever materializing through these swamp mists, but the logic against it +was too insurmountable for the imagination. + +"Even so," he conceded, "granting the impossible--whatever shape it +took, the only worthwhile species would still be...." He couldn't bring +himself to say it. + +"Meat-eaters," the Conductor supplied grimly. + +On hearing this, the Oarsman who had just revived promptly fainted +again. + +"It's too deep in the genes," the Conductor continued, "too far +advanced for us to tamper with. All we can hope to do is modify their +moral outlook. So that by the time they achieve star travel, they'll at +least have a basic sense of Fair Play." + +Sighing, bowed by responsibilities incommensurate with his +chronological youth, he gave the order wearily. It was snapped down the +chain of command to the Senior Yardbird: + +"All paws stand by to lower the Ethics Ray! Step lively, lads--bugger +off, now...." + +There was a din of activity as the outer locks were opened and the +bulky mechanism was shipped over the side. It squatted on a cleared +rise of ground in all its complex, softly ticking majesty, waiting for +the First Human to pad within range of its shedding Grace and Uplift. +The work party scrambled back to the ship, anxious to be off this +sinister terrain. Once more the crew gathered at the visiplate as the +planet fell away beneath them, the Ethics Ray winking in the day's last +light like a cornerstone. Or perhaps a tambourine.... + + * * * * * + +Night closed down on the raw chaotic world, huge beasts closed in on +the strange star-fallen souvenir. They snuffled over it; then enraged +at discovering it was nothing they could fill their clamoring mindless +stomachs with, attempted to wreck it. They were unsuccessful, for +the Machine had been given an extra heavy coat of shellac and things +to withstand such monkeyshines. And the Machine, in its own finely +calibrated way, ignored its harassers, for they had no resemblance to +the Life it had been tuned to influence. + +Days lengthened into decades, eons. The seas came shouldering in to +stand towers tall above the Ethics Ray, lost in the far ooze below. +Then even the seas receded, and the mountains buckled upward in their +place, their arrogant stone faces staring changelessly across the +epochs. Until they too were whittled down by erosion. The ice caps +crept down, crackling and grinding the valleys. The ground stretched +and tossed like a restless sleeper, settled, and the Ethics Ray was +brought to light once more. + +As it always had, it continued beaming its particular signal, on +a cosmic ray carrier modulated by a pulse a particular number of +angstroms below infrared. The beasts that blundered within its field +were entirely different now, but they still weren't the Right Ones. +Among them were some shambling pale bipeds, dressed in skins of other +beasts, who clucked over its gleaming exterior and tried to chip it +away for spearheads. In this of course they were unsuccessful. + +And then one day the First Human wandered by, paused square in the +path of the beam. His physiology was only approximate, his I.Q. was +regrettably low--but he was Pre-Moral Life, such as it was, on this +planet. + +The Ethics Ray made the necessary frequency adjustments, tripped on +full force. The Primitive froze under the bombardment, its germ plasm +shifting in the most minute and subtle dimensions. Then, its mission +fulfilled, the Ethics Ray collapsed into heavy molecules and sank into +the ground. The first convert raced away in fright, having no idea what +had happened. Neither did his billion sons and daughters.... + + * * * * * + +Back on the home base, the Conductor reported in at the Ethication of +Primitive Planets office. It was a magnificently imposing building, +as befitting the moral seat of the universe. And the Overseer was an +equally imposing human with ears greyed by service. His congratulations +were unreserved. + +"A splendid mission, lad," he said, "and I don't mind +suggesting--strictly entre nous--that it could jolly well result in a +Fleet Conductorship for you." + +The Conductor was overwhelmed. + +"Now just let me jot down the essentials while they're still fresh in +mind," he continued, pawing through a desk drawer. "Botheration! I seem +to have traded the last of my styluses. Do you happen to have one on +you?" + +"With pleasure." The Conductor handed over his monogrammed gold stylus, +receiving in exchange a toy silencemaker. + +"My youngster traded it to me this morning," the Overseer chuckled. + +He wrote rapidly for several moments, then gave the stylus back. The +Conductor found a weathered paper-weight in his rear pocket, which he +traded him for it. It looked like it might have come from this very +desk at one time. Then with a smart salute, he about-faced. + +On the way out, a pair of secretaries paused in their trading of a pelt +brush for a tail-curler to watch him admiringly. As well they might. +Fleet Conductor! + +The future Fleet Conductor of a solar system he would never think of +calling Antares paused at the door. In its polished panel he regarded +himself with due appreciation. He had sown the seeds of civilization on +a far-flung planet where, countless light years from now, they would +flower to maturity. Not among the strongest or cleverest species, to +be sure, but among those most worthy of applying First Principles, the +moral law of give and take. + +Among those remote cousins of the Conductor himself--who under no +circumstances would ever think of himself as resembling a rather +oversized trader rat. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ethicators, by Willard Marsh + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59375 *** diff --git a/59375-h/59375-h.htm b/59375-h/59375-h.htm index d31373d..e7486d5 100644 --- a/59375-h/59375-h.htm +++ b/59375-h/59375-h.htm @@ -74,40 +74,7 @@ div.titlepage p { <body> -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ethicators, by Willard Marsh - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Ethicators - -Author: Willard Marsh - -Release Date: April 27, 2019 [EBook #59375] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ETHICATORS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59375 ***</div> <div class="figcenter"> @@ -364,378 +331,7 @@ oversized trader rat.</p> -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ethicators, by Willard Marsh - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ETHICATORS *** - -***** This file should be named 59375-h.htm or 59375-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/3/7/59375/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Ethicators - -Author: Willard Marsh - -Release Date: April 27, 2019 [EBook #59375] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ETHICATORS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - the ethicators - - BY WILLARD MARSH - - _They were used to retarded life forms, but - this was the worst. Yet it is a missionary's duty - to bring light where there is none, for who can - tell what devious forms evolution might take?_ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1955. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The missionaries came out of the planetary system of a star they didn't -call Antares. They called it, naturally enough, The Sun--just as home -was Earth, Terra, or simply The World. And naturally enough, being the -ascendant animal on Earth, they called themselves human beings. They -were looking for extraterrestrial souls to save. - -They had no real hope of finding humans like themselves in this -wonderously diversified universe. But it wasn't against all probability -that, in their rumaging, there might not be a humanoid species to whom -they could reach down a helping paw; some emergent cousin with at least -a rudimentary symmetry from snout to tail, and hence a rudimentary soul. - -The ship they chose was a compact scout, vaguely resembling the outside -of an orange crate--except that they had no concept of an orange crate -and, being a tesseract, it had no particular outside. It was simply an -expanding cube (and as such, quite roomy) whose "interior" was always -paralleling its "exterior" (or attempting to), in accordance with all -the well-known, basic and irrefutable laws on the subject. - -A number of its sides occupied the same place at the same time, giving -a hypothetical spectator the illusion of looking down merging sets of -railway tracks. This, in fact, was its precise method of locomotion. -The inner cube was always having to catch up, caboose-fashion, with -the outer one in time (or space, depending on one's perspective). -And whenever it had done so, it would have arrived with itself--at -approximately wherever in the space-time continuum it had been pointed. - -When they felt the jar of the settling geodesics, the crew crowded at -the forward visiplate to see where they were. It was the outskirts of -a G type star system. Silently they watched the innermost planet float -past, scorched and craggy, its sunward side seeming about to relapse to -a molten state. - -The Bosun-Colonel turned to the Conductor. "A bit of a disappointment -I'm afraid, sir. Surely with all that heat...?" - -"Steady, lad. The last wicket's not been bowled." The Conductor's -whiskers quivered in amusement at his next-in-command's impetuosity. -"You'll notice that we're dropping downward. If the temperature -accordingly continues dropping--" - -He couldn't shrug, he wasn't physiologically capable of it, but it was -apparent that he felt they'd soon reach a planet whose climate could -support intelligent life. - -If the Bosun-Colonel had any ideas that such directions as up and -down were meaningless in space, he kept them to himself. As the second -planet from its sun hove into view, he switched on the magniscan -eagerly. - -"I say, this is more like it. Clouds and all that sort of thing. Should -we have a go at it, sir?" - -The Conductor yawned. "Too bloody cloudy for my taste. Too equivocal. -Let's push on," he said languidly. "I have a hunch the third planet -might be just our dish of tea." - -Quelling his disappointment, the Bosun-Colonel waited for the third -planet to swim into being. And when it did, blooming like an orchid -in all its greens and moistnesses, he could scarcely contain his -excitement. - -"Why, it looks just like Earth," he marveled. "Gad, sir, what a master -stroke of navigation. How did you realize this would be it?" - -"Oh, I don't know," the Conductor said modestly. "Things usually have -a habit of occurring in threes. I'm quite a student of numerology, you -know." Then he remembered the Mission and drew himself erect on all his -legs. "You may prepare for landing, Mister," he ordered crisply. - -The Bosun-Colonel shifted over to manual and busied himself at the -helm, luffing the square craft down the troughs of air. Gliding over -the vast tropical oceans, he put down at a large land mass above a -shallow warm sea, twenty-five degrees below the northern pole. - -Too numbed for comment, the crew stared out at the alien vista. They'd -heard of retarded life forms from other Missionary expeditions--of -planets where the inhabitants, in extreme emergency, had been known -to commit murder. But this was surely the worst, the most vicious -imaginable in the galaxy. - -Here, with life freshly up from the sea, freshly launched on the long -climb to maturity and self-realization--was nothing but horror. With so -lush a vegetation, so easily capable of supporting them side by side -in abundance, the monsters were actually feeding on each other. Great -lumbering beasts they were with their bristling hides and huge tails, -charging between the giant tree ferns; gouging living chunks from one -another while razor-toothed birds with scaly wings flapped overhead, -screaming for the remnants. As the sounds of carnage came through the -audio ports, the youngest Oarsman keeled over in a faint. - -Even the Conductor was visibly shaken. The Bosun-Colonel turned to him -with a sick expression. - -"Surely it's a lost cause, Skipper. Life like this will never have a -soul worth saving." - -"Not in its present stage," the Old Man was forced to agree. "Still, -one never knows the devious paths that evolution takes." He considered -the scene for a thoughtful, shuddering interval. "Perhaps in several -thousand millenniums...." - -The Bosun-Colonel tried to visualize the possibility of Ethical Life -ever materializing through these swamp mists, but the logic against it -was too insurmountable for the imagination. - -"Even so," he conceded, "granting the impossible--whatever shape it -took, the only worthwhile species would still be...." He couldn't bring -himself to say it. - -"Meat-eaters," the Conductor supplied grimly. - -On hearing this, the Oarsman who had just revived promptly fainted -again. - -"It's too deep in the genes," the Conductor continued, "too far -advanced for us to tamper with. All we can hope to do is modify their -moral outlook. So that by the time they achieve star travel, they'll at -least have a basic sense of Fair Play." - -Sighing, bowed by responsibilities incommensurate with his -chronological youth, he gave the order wearily. It was snapped down the -chain of command to the Senior Yardbird: - -"All paws stand by to lower the Ethics Ray! Step lively, lads--bugger -off, now...." - -There was a din of activity as the outer locks were opened and the -bulky mechanism was shipped over the side. It squatted on a cleared -rise of ground in all its complex, softly ticking majesty, waiting for -the First Human to pad within range of its shedding Grace and Uplift. -The work party scrambled back to the ship, anxious to be off this -sinister terrain. Once more the crew gathered at the visiplate as the -planet fell away beneath them, the Ethics Ray winking in the day's last -light like a cornerstone. Or perhaps a tambourine.... - - * * * * * - -Night closed down on the raw chaotic world, huge beasts closed in on -the strange star-fallen souvenir. They snuffled over it; then enraged -at discovering it was nothing they could fill their clamoring mindless -stomachs with, attempted to wreck it. They were unsuccessful, for -the Machine had been given an extra heavy coat of shellac and things -to withstand such monkeyshines. And the Machine, in its own finely -calibrated way, ignored its harassers, for they had no resemblance to -the Life it had been tuned to influence. - -Days lengthened into decades, eons. The seas came shouldering in to -stand towers tall above the Ethics Ray, lost in the far ooze below. -Then even the seas receded, and the mountains buckled upward in their -place, their arrogant stone faces staring changelessly across the -epochs. Until they too were whittled down by erosion. The ice caps -crept down, crackling and grinding the valleys. The ground stretched -and tossed like a restless sleeper, settled, and the Ethics Ray was -brought to light once more. - -As it always had, it continued beaming its particular signal, on -a cosmic ray carrier modulated by a pulse a particular number of -angstroms below infrared. The beasts that blundered within its field -were entirely different now, but they still weren't the Right Ones. -Among them were some shambling pale bipeds, dressed in skins of other -beasts, who clucked over its gleaming exterior and tried to chip it -away for spearheads. In this of course they were unsuccessful. - -And then one day the First Human wandered by, paused square in the -path of the beam. His physiology was only approximate, his I.Q. was -regrettably low--but he was Pre-Moral Life, such as it was, on this -planet. - -The Ethics Ray made the necessary frequency adjustments, tripped on -full force. The Primitive froze under the bombardment, its germ plasm -shifting in the most minute and subtle dimensions. Then, its mission -fulfilled, the Ethics Ray collapsed into heavy molecules and sank into -the ground. The first convert raced away in fright, having no idea what -had happened. Neither did his billion sons and daughters.... - - * * * * * - -Back on the home base, the Conductor reported in at the Ethication of -Primitive Planets office. It was a magnificently imposing building, -as befitting the moral seat of the universe. And the Overseer was an -equally imposing human with ears greyed by service. His congratulations -were unreserved. - -"A splendid mission, lad," he said, "and I don't mind -suggesting--strictly entre nous--that it could jolly well result in a -Fleet Conductorship for you." - -The Conductor was overwhelmed. - -"Now just let me jot down the essentials while they're still fresh in -mind," he continued, pawing through a desk drawer. "Botheration! I seem -to have traded the last of my styluses. Do you happen to have one on -you?" - -"With pleasure." The Conductor handed over his monogrammed gold stylus, -receiving in exchange a toy silencemaker. - -"My youngster traded it to me this morning," the Overseer chuckled. - -He wrote rapidly for several moments, then gave the stylus back. The -Conductor found a weathered paper-weight in his rear pocket, which he -traded him for it. It looked like it might have come from this very -desk at one time. Then with a smart salute, he about-faced. - -On the way out, a pair of secretaries paused in their trading of a pelt -brush for a tail-curler to watch him admiringly. As well they might. -Fleet Conductor! - -The future Fleet Conductor of a solar system he would never think of -calling Antares paused at the door. In its polished panel he regarded -himself with due appreciation. He had sown the seeds of civilization on -a far-flung planet where, countless light years from now, they would -flower to maturity. Not among the strongest or cleverest species, to -be sure, but among those most worthy of applying First Principles, the -moral law of give and take. - -Among those remote cousins of the Conductor himself--who under no -circumstances would ever think of himself as resembling a rather -oversized trader rat. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ethicators, by Willard Marsh - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ETHICATORS *** - -***** This file should be named 59375.txt or 59375.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/3/7/59375/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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