diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389-h.zip | bin | 580276 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389-h/61389-h.htm | 1303 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 298041 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 125758 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 133973 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389.txt | 1177 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61389.zip | bin | 22834 -> 0 bytes |
10 files changed, 17 insertions, 2480 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f818fb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #61389 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61389) diff --git a/old/61389-h.zip b/old/61389-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 777403d..0000000 --- a/old/61389-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/61389-h/61389-h.htm b/old/61389-h/61389-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index b741b4c..0000000 --- a/old/61389-h/61389-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1303 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Die, Shadow!, by Algis Budrys. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } - -.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Die, Shadow!, by Algis Budrys - -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: Die, Shadow! - -Author: Algis Budrys - -Release Date: February 12, 2020 [EBook #61389] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE, SHADOW! *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>DIE, SHADOW!</h1> - -<h2>BY ALGIS BUDRYS</h2> - -<p class="ph1">He began as a hero. Eons later and a<br /> -universe away, he became instead a god!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, May 1963.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph2">I</p> - -<p><i>I've come a long, long way to die alone</i>, David Greaves thought as -<i>Defiance</i> tumbled through the misty shroud of Venus, hopelessly torn -apart by the explosion in her engines. On the console in front of -him, the altimeter was one of the last few meaningful instruments, -and it told him there were only a few tortured miles remaining before -the ship he had brought this far—had spent his fortune in building -when no government would yet consider risking a manned rocket on his -flight—would smash down to its doom on a planet no man had ever walked.</p> - -<p>Battered and tossed in his seat by the ship's crazy tumbling, Greaves -tensed the oak-hard muscles of his arms and thrust himself up to his -feet. He wasn't dead yet. He wasn't dead and, if the slim chance paid -off, he'd still be present to laugh in the government's face when the -first, safe, cautious official venture finally made its way across the -emptiness between Earth and the Sun's second planet.</p> - -<p>Dragging himself from handhold to handhold, his tendons cracking with -the strain, he levered himself toward the Crash Capsule, forced open -its hatch and pulled himself through, while the winds of Venus tore at -the shattered hull and the scream of <i>Defiance's</i> passage through the -murky sky rose to a savage howl.</p> - -<p>Outside the cloud-lashed hull there were no stars. Below, no one knew -what sort of jungle, or sea, or desert of whipping poison sand might -lie in wait. Greaves had not cared when he set out, and did not care -now. If men had always waited to be sure, if all the adventurers of -mankind had waited until the sign-posts had gone up, the cave bears -would still be the dominant form of life on Earth, and races undreamed -of might never know such a thing as man to contest their sway over the -Universe.</p> - -<p><i>I'll live to see my share of that</i>, Greaves thought as he pulled -the capsule's hatch shut and dropped into the special padding that, -in theory, would cushion much of the impact. <i>Or else I'll know -I tried.</i> He tripped the lever that would flood the capsule with -Doctor Eckstrom's special anesthetic—the experimental compound that -might—just barely, might—offer a chance.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As the hiss of the yellow-tinged, acrid gas became louder and louder -in his ears, David Greaves thought again of the almost obsessive -lengths to which he had gone in making sure that there would be such -a thing as the capsule. The entire project—the decision to build -the ship, to sacrifice for it the personal fortune he had built up -in his meteoric rise from obscurity to being one of the world's most -dynamic and certainly youngest industrialists—had been marked by his -fanatical persistence and dedication. But that dream had come first, -and the fortune second—the sole purpose of his career, from its very -beginnings when he was only another engineer test pilot, had simply -been to accumulate the means so <i>Defiance</i> could be built. But the -ship had been three-quarters complete when he conceived the idea for -the capsule. He could not even now remember exactly when or how he had -decided that he must have some device aboard that would protect him -from a crash and—here was the vital thing he insisted upon—keep him -alive, no matter how injured, no matter how long might be necessary, -until rescuers could reach him.</p> - -<p>For him to even think in terms of rescuers—of depending on others—was -totally uncharacteristic. For him to divert a major portion of his -dwindling resources from work on the ship itself, and push toward -the elaborate design of the capsule, was, in some lights, again -uncharacteristically foolish. But he had done it, and now....</p> - -<p>... Now the anesthetic created by the man some said was a medical -genius and some said was a quack had flooded over him.</p> - -<p>He could feel the first effect—the calm, the drowsy peace. By the time -the <i>Defiance</i> smashed into the ground—very soon now—his metabolism -would have slowed to a carefully metered rate. It would take hours for -his heart to beat once. To him it would seem as if each day was only a -few minutes. The jagged nerve-flashes of pain would be only a faraway -slow tingle; the blink of an eye would encompass hours of actual time, -and he would lie here, safe, asleep, until the hatch was opened and he -was taken out into the air, where slowly the effects would wear off.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, there was more than enough gas compressed into the capsule's -tanks to keep him perfectly relaxed for a hundred years. The valve—a -simple device he had sketched out in five minutes, as if the design had -been part of his mind for years—would continue to meter out the supply -at the optimum rate and pressure.</p> - -<p>It was only now—perhaps a hundred feet from impact, perhaps only a -hundred hairs-breadths—that he suddenly saw the flaw in the design.</p> - -<p>He struggled to reach the valve, in a useless reflex, for there would -have been nothing he could have done, no matter how much time remained. -Then he fell back, a twisted grin on his face. <i>I've come a long, -long way to trap myself</i>, he laughed in his drowsing mind, as the -ship crashed, and the capsule, torn from <i>Defiance's</i> side, rebounded -like a cannon shell from Heaven upon the outraged soil of Venus, and -the overhead clouds sprang into flamed reflection from the blast of -<i>Defiance's</i> end.</p> - -<p>In the capsule, the valve controlling the flow from the illogically -copious supply of anesthetic snapped off cleanly. David Greaves' lungs -jolted to the impact as a century's dosage of the high-pressure gas -delivered its one giant hammerblow of sleep.... Of sleep like death....</p> - -<p>Of sleep so slow, so majestic, that only the eternally ageless body -might testify to life. Of sleep without end, without motion, until....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph2">II</p> - -<p>The woman—the sensuous ivory-skinned woman with eyes like dark jewels -and hair like midnight framing her red-lipped face—kissed him again -and then drew back to touch his cheek.</p> - -<p>"Wake," she whispered softly. "Wake, sleeper."</p> - -<p>David Greaves looked up at her through slowly dawning eyes. The scent -of spices was in his nostrils. As the woman's hair brushed his face -again, the fragrance increased.</p> - -<p>"My name is David Greaves," he said, and looked up at the sky and then -around him.</p> - -<p>There was now no envelope of cloud to hide the face of this planet -from the Sun; no such shroud as had concealed the Venus of his day in -dazzling white without and muffled it in somber black within. This sky -was ruddy, ruddy with the light of the day's last moments, and the -clouds through which the sunset burned were only crayon-strokes of -ochre across the orange sky.</p> - -<p>He lay in state, facing that sunset, on some sort of black metal couch -which supported him on a multitude of sweeping, back-bent arms. -Beneath him, a dozen low broad steps of olive-green polished stone led -down to a long forum, flagged with the same gold-veined, masterfully -fitted paving. Around the court ran a low wall, again of stone; -friezed, and burnished to a dull glow. From the wall, tall slim pillars -thrust into the air.</p> - -<p>And atop each pillar, cast and carved in black metal washed by the -lingering light, crouched a monster.</p> - -<p>No single artist could have created such a bestiary of gargoyles. Some -he could trace in their evolution—the vulpine, the crustacean, the -insectile. Fangs and pincers slit the cool, invigorating breeze that -flowed over the court. Antennae quivered and hummed in the air, and a -myriad legs were poised in tension, forever prepared to leap. Others -were beyond any creation he knew of—limbs and wings contorted into -shapes that had, undoubtedly, been taken by living things ... in lives -unimaginable to any man. And all of them, imaginable or not, faced -toward him forever.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="324" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>At the foot of each pillar, mounted in a cresset on the wall at its -base, burned a torch. And so, when night fell, then the shadows of all -these monsters would be cast upward onto the stars, and he would lie -sleeping in the pooled light of the torches, while all around him these -creatures stood watch.</p> - -<p>How many nights had he lain here? How many centuries to wash the fog -of sleep out of every nook and cranny of his lungs, when each breath -might take a thousand years—ten thousand?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But he was not done with studying his surroundings. He had heard sound -when he turned his head. Now the sound was a rising murmur as he lifted -his shoulders to look down the length of the court of monsters toward -the far end. There were people there. They had been seated on stone -tiers that rose up toward a colonnaded temple. There he could see an -altar through the open sides and, on that altar, a flame that burned -bright and unwinking against the outline of the lowering Sun.</p> - -<p>The people were rising to their feet. From them came an open-throated -murmur that became a cry of savage joy—of unbearable tension finding -release.</p> - -<p>"Who are they?" he asked the woman as he sat up and felt his body -stretch with power cramped too long, as he squared back his shoulders -and peered through the twilight in the court of monsters.</p> - -<p>"Your worshippers, David Greaves," she said, standing beside him among -the many arms of his couch. "The people whose last hope you are." She -added softly: "My name, though you did not ask, is Adelie." She paused. -"I, too, am one of your worshippers. Wherever there are human beings, -throughout the Universe, you are worshipped."</p> - -<p>He looked at her more closely. There was a lift to one black-winged -eyebrow that was less reverent than a god might like, though a man -could have no quarrel with it. She stood gracefully on sandaled feet, -dressed in a single white garment girdled around her waist by a belt -made of the same metal in which the monsters were cast. He saw that -the clasp was shaped into a profile of his own face. And he saw from -the wear that it showed that it was old—older than she could be, -older perhaps than this court. This ... shrine? He wondered how many -priestesses had worn that belt.</p> - -<p>How many of <i>his</i> priestesses.</p> - -<p>He frowned and got down, feeling the touch of the day-warmed stone on -his bare feet. He was dressed, he saw, in a black kilt and nothing -else. He returned his glance to the worshippers and saw that the men -were dressed similarly, and that the women wore flowing, calf-length, -translucently light robes like Adelie's.</p> - -<p>There was motion at one corner of his eye, and he turned his head -sharply to see the arms of the couch sweeping down, folding and bending -against its sides. Now he saw that he had been cradled in the arms of a -great black metal beast. It crouched atop the dais. Its head was bent -supplicatingly, bright oily metal barely visible at the joinings of its -mechanical body.</p> - -<p>He glanced quickly up at the monsters atop their columns. "Are they all -like that?" he asked Adelie.</p> - -<p>An old man's gruff voice answered him from the other side of the -beast-couch. "They won't spring down to devour you—you needn't be -afraid of <i>that</i>." Two men came into view, one old, one young and very -slim. The old one rapped the couch with his knuckles. "This tended you -in your sleep. It is made in the shape of the most ferocious race that -ever rivaled Man. It is now extinct—as are all those others up there, -for the same reason."</p> - -<p>The thin young man—very pale, very long of limb—stretched his broad, -tight mouth into a smile that covered half his face without mirth. -"<i>Not</i> the most ferocious, Vigil."</p> - -<p>"Your kind will learn about that," the old man snapped.</p> - -<p>"Not from you and yours," the slim man said lightly.</p> - -<p>Greaves turned to Adelie, who waited, poised, while old Vigil and the -young man quarreled. "Tell me the situation," Greaves said.</p> - -<p>Adelie's lips parted. But the old man interrupted.</p> - -<p>"The situation is that you have been awakened needlessly and would best -go back to sleep at once. My daughter and these fanatical sheep—" -he waved an angry arm at the standing worshippers—"have forced me -to permit this. But in fact Humanity neither needs you nor wants you -awake."</p> - -<p>"Oh, on the contrary," the young man said. "Humanity needs its gods -very badly at this hour. But you are only a man, not so?"</p> - -<p>Greaves looked from one to the other—the leather-skinned old man -with his mop of ringleted white hair, the young one who was human in -appearance but somehow claimed some other status. "Who are you two?"</p> - -<p>"I am Vigil, your guardian, and this is—"</p> - -<p>"I am Mayron of The Shadows," the young man said, and he held himself -as carelessly as before, but his face looked directly into Greaves's. -"See my eyes."</p> - -<p>There was nothing there. Only darkness speckled by pinpoints of light; -thick, sooty darkness like oil smoke, and sharp lights that burned -through it without illuminating it.</p> - -<p>"Mayron that was First of Men," Vigil said bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Mayron that is First of Shadows," the empty-skinned thing replied -proudly, and began to weep great, black tears that soon emptied it, -so that the skin drooped down into a huddle on the pave and a black -cloud in the shape of a man stood sparkling in the dusk before Greaves. -"Mayron that will again be First of Men, when all men are shadows. -Mayron that is already First of many men. And which of us is a god, -David Greaves?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Adelie's face glowed with excitement. Her red lips were parted -breathlessly. The crowd on the tiers had loosed a great, wailing moan, -which hung over the court of conquered monsters as the first stars -became visible on the far horizon.</p> - -<p>Greaves took a deep breath. He could feel his body tensing itself, the -muscles rippling, as though his hide needed comfort.</p> - -<p>"Which of us is a god, man?" Mayron repeated softly, his voice coming -from the entire cloud. "What is it you can do against me, you whose -entire virtue rests on doing nothing?"</p> - -<p>"That would depend on what was expected of me at this moment," Greaves -said.</p> - -<p>"This moment?" Mayron chuckled. "At <i>this</i> moment, nothing."</p> - -<p>"In that case, get out of my court and come back when there's something -to do."</p> - -<p>Mayron laughed, throwing his head back, the laughter high and insolent. -"How like a god! How very like the real thing."</p> - -<p>Greaves frowned. "If you were a man, once, you might remember how that -feels." But the laugh had bothered him.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="326" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Oh, I remember, I remember. And tomorrow we fight, man." Laughing, -Mayron bent and picked up the skin he had discarded. He crumpled -it by the waist in one fist, and brandished it negligently at the -worshippers. They shrank back with a moan of horror as he strode toward -the far wall. At the wall, he flipped the white, fluttering thing over, -and as a cloud passed through the stone. Perhaps on the other side he -put on his human form again. Greaves could not tell. The sun was down, -and only a little light glowed on the far horizon. The torches guttered -in the court of monsters, and the worshippers were hurrying up the -steps, out through the temple and away.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph2">III</p> - -<p>Greaves, Adelie and Vigil stood beside the beast-couch. "All right," -Greaves said. "Now there are things I want to know, and I want no -quarrels, Vigil."</p> - -<p>"And by what right do you order me around?" the old man growled. "You -may be a god to some, but you are not <i>my</i> god."</p> - -<p>"You owe it to me, atheist. If I was awakened today, at this pat -moment, I could have been awakened before. I wasn't. You kept me -asleep, guardian, when I could have been free as any other man. So you -owe me."</p> - -<p>The old man grunted. "You're brave with Mayron and brave with me. But -all men are brave, each in his own way. We need no gods."</p> - -<p>"But you have one."</p> - -<p>Adelie touched his arm. "You have lived from the beginning of human -history. And you were a great hero. That much the legends tell us. You -were braver than any man, and for your bravery, you could not die. -While other heros conquered the stars and, in their time, died, you -lived on. While enemy after enemy was beaten by Man, and the victorious -men died, you lived on. The stars and all worlds became ours. Men loved -and begat, and men died, but you lived on. It seemed to us that as long -as you lived, all men would have something to remember—how great Man -is; what the reward of courage can be. It seemed only fitting that we -should bring to you the trophies of our achievements. It seemed only -right to believe that you had survived to some purpose—that a day -would come when Man would need his greatest hero."</p> - -<p>"Precisely," Vigil snorted. "Man worships nothing but himself. You were -a convenient symbol. It did no harm. It may have done some good. Of -course, the chuckleheads took it all literally. And so—thanks to Man's -stupid persistence in breeding idiots as well as men with some brains, -you, whoever you are, whatever kind of filibustering bravo you actually -were, have become the focus of a cult populated by the credulous, the -neurotic and those who profit by them. I hope you are grateful for your -legacy!"</p> - -<p>Greaves looked up at the stars. There were some constellations that -might have been the ones he knew, distorted by his transit to another -viewpoint ... or by time. He was no astronomer.</p> - -<p><i>I've come a long way</i>, he thought, <i>and I wonder what the end of it -will be.</i> "Those who profit from the credulous, hmm?" he said to Vigil.</p> - -<p>"I am your guardian and I guarded you. As many others have done before -me, from various motives. This is not your first court, nor your tenth. -The ritual around you is compounded from thousands of years of hogwash, -as witness my worshipful daughter who inherits a post from some time -when every venturing hero had to have a leman patiently awaiting his -return. My duties no doubt were originally medical. But the couch -has been attending to that—with some exceptions—for centuries. And -you may be assured, Man's history has not been one unbroken triumph, -nor his civilization any steady upward climb. But we built while you -slumbered. I had thought to prevent your besmirching Man's greatness -with your cheap legend."</p> - -<p>"Or perhaps he was afraid of the god he denies," Adelie murmured, her -eyes glowing warmly.</p> - -<p>Greaves looked from her to her father. "So she believes in me and you -do not," he said to Vigil. "But it may be you're not entirely sure—and -from the looks she gives me, it may be she isn't, either." He grinned -crookedly. "Man may have climbed, but I assure you he hasn't changed."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He smiled at the looks on both their faces. Divinity was new to him, -but humanity was not. If these two had thought perhaps they had some -dull-witted barbarian here—the one for his faith in his faithlessness, -the other for her pleasures—it had been time their error was corrected.</p> - -<p>"Old man, god or not I have been called out ... whether it pleases you -or not. And I won't willingly lay me down to sleep again until <i>I</i> -think it's time. So you had better tell me what all this is about, or I -will blunder around and perhaps break something you're fond of."</p> - -<p>Adelie laughed.</p> - -<p>Vigil swung his arm sharply toward her. "This—this would-be courtesan -was once Mayron's great love, when he was First of us all. Because he -could find nothing to conquer for her in all the Universe, he began -dabbling beyond it for a worthy prize. And he found it. Oh, he found -it, didn't he, my child?"</p> - -<p>"Be careful, Father," Adelie spat. "The worshippers follow <i>me</i> now -that I've wakened him as promised, and you—"</p> - -<p>"Quiet," Greaves said mildly. "He was telling me something."</p> - -<p>"That I was," Vigil said angrily, while his daughter's look at Greaves -was the least sure it had ever been, "and for all the need you have -of it, I might as well not. But if I may say it once and get it said, -I can then go to my meal and the two of you will be free to amuse -yourselves. Mayron discovered the Shadows, when his machines touched -some continuum beyond this one, and the Shadows ate him. But like the -fox that lost his tail in the trap and then cozened other foxes with -the lie that it was better so and fashionable besides, Mayron made a -virtue of his slavery. Those who give themselves up to the Shadows -never rest and never hunger. They know no barrier. And no love. No -true joy. No noble sorrow. An untailed fox is safe from catching by -the tail. A Shadow has no spirit, no humanity, no—soul. But there are -always dunderheads. Mayron has them, and down in that city of his down -there—" the old man waved a hand at the horizon, but all Greaves could -see from where he stood were the glowing tops of what he took to be -three fitfully active volcanoes—"he has a city full of dunderheaded -shadows who go to some temple he has built and enter the Shadow chamber -to be changed. The admission is easily gained; the price of freedom -from human care is humanity."</p> - -<p>"And up here," Greaves said, "other dunderheads come to gain what in -exchange for what?"</p> - -<p>"Gain at least some sort of affirmation at the cost of remaining men!" -the old man growled. "If they are simple, at least they are human! And -even an intelligent man can see the value in what is embodied here."</p> - -<p>"As witness yourself. Yes."</p> - -<p>"<i>I</i> didn't want to wake you! We know enough so you could have been -awakened centuries ago. But to what purpose? To turn another hooligan -loose to upset civilization, and lose the symbol of that precious -thing? When Man himself can rescue himself? But, no, <i>this</i> one, this -superstition-ridden tramp I wish I'd strangled in her cradle—<i>she</i> -stirred the worshippers up, she arranged the combat between yourself -and Mayron, she—"</p> - -<p>"When and where?"</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"This fight Mayron and you have both spoken of."</p> - -<p>"Tomorrow at noon. In the city. But there's no need for it. Tomorrow -Mayron dies, and the other Shadows die. You can watch or not—as long -as you stay out of the way."</p> - -<p>Greaves looked at Adelie. "Your daughter, Vigil, does not look much -impressed."</p> - -<p>"Impressed! Impressed!" The old man was very nearly dancing with rage. -"I'll <i>show</i> you! Come with me." Vigil turned without looking back -and pattered rapidly down the steps of the dais, his calloused feet -slapping indignantly on the time-buffed stones.</p> - -<p>Greaves frowned after him. Then he jerked his head to Adelie. "Come -on," he said and they, too, walked quickly down the length of the -court of the conquered monsters. And for the first time since their -creation the pillared gargoyles did not have to bear the sight of Man.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The scent of Adelie's fragrance was in Greaves nostrils again as they -followed the old man through the temple, past the altar where the -eternal flame burned bright enough to sting. He said nothing to her. -She volunteered no words of her own. But she walked close enough to -brush his thigh with hers. Greaves smiled appreciatively.</p> - -<p>Vigil led them to a small chamber in one wing of the temple. He flung -open the door with a clatter of bolts in a concealed lock, and pointed -inside. "Look—the two of you. It's not just Mayron who can dabble with -machines. For every clever man, there is another just as clever."</p> - -<p>A gun of green metal was mounted on a pedestal in the center of the -chamber. Slim and graceful as a wading bird with one extended leg, it -poised atop its mount and sang quietly of power and intent to kill. The -friezed walls of the chamber hummed in harmonic response to the idle -melody of the gun. Greaves felt his hackles rising unreasonably, and he -very nearly growled with outrage at the sight of it.</p> - -<p>"Tomorrow at noon," Vigil said in a high, triumphant voice, "the weapon -will be swung to point through that window and down upon Mayron's city. -And when it is done, there will not be a single Shadow alive down -there."</p> - -<p>Greaves walked to the window in the chamber's far wall and looked down. -But it was dark below; nothing to mark the outlines of a city as cities -had been in the time he remembered. The temple apparently stood atop a -high hill, with the city in a great valley at its foot, but again all -Greaves could see were three glowing mountaintops across the way, and, -beyond them, the night sky.</p> - -<p>Then suddenly one of the volcanos flared for an instant, and the few -overhead clouds reflected redly down into the valley.</p> - -<p>Greaves caught his breath. The city had emerged black and immense, -extending for miles, its lightless towers like the spine-bones of a -beast half-eaten and rotting in a tidal pool. Then the light was gone, -and once again there was nothing visible down there—if the undead -beast had chosen to bestir itself and stealthily move on some errand of -the night, no one standing here could have known until it was too late.</p> - -<p>"So that's the city of the Shadows," Greaves said.</p> - -<p>"The city that was once the First City of Man," Vigil said bitterly. -"That Mayron has made into an outpost of Hell. Where no man dares live; -where they say that those with Shadows, once they were in sufficient -number, dragged women and children into the Chamber of Shadows so -that their men, heart-broken, joined them when their Shadow-children -returned to plead with them."</p> - -<p>"And this gun of yours is going to do what to them?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"Kill them."</p> - -<p>"I know that. How?" Greaves stared at the old man through narrowing -eyes.</p> - -<p>"A beam of power, made of the stuff that spins within all things—the -pure force of this continuum."</p> - -<p>"You mean this thing is some kind of particle emitter—an electron or -photon gun?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Our science need not concern itself with crudities like names, -barbarian. This gun was made as a song or a poem is made—in the mind -of a man who dreams weapons where another man might dream bridges ... -and when the gun finds its fruition, tomorrow when Mayron expects no -mightier enemy than you, then the beam will sweep that city, and when -it stops Mayron's city will be a tomb for empty skins. And Man will -build another First City, and those who fled shall have a place again, -and—"</p> - -<p>"Who built—who <i>dreamed</i>—this piece of ironmongery?" Greaves growled. -"Who was the poet—you?"</p> - -<p>"Yes! Why not? Do you think because I am an old man—"</p> - -<p>"A heedlessly spiteful one who hasn't stopped to think."</p> - -<p>"Stopped to think! <i>Look!</i>" Vigil seized the torch at the doorway and -lifted it high. "Did you think I wasn't sure? That the weapon has not -been tested?"</p> - -<p>Now Greaves could see why the gun sang rather than rested in quiet -patience. A Shadow hung against the far wall, supported by its -out-stretched arms, its hands sunken wrist-deep in the stone. And -though it jerked its legs and struggled feebly to be free, the -hands remained trapped. Under the sound of the idling gun, he could -distinguish a quiet, thin, whimpering.</p> - -<p>Adelie laughed softly to herself.</p> - -<p>Vigil crowed: "He cannot move—what little strength remains to him is -needed for bare existence ... if I were to touch that control—</p> - -<p>"The weapon is at its lowest setting—it has incomparably more power -than that; it has the power of all the Universe in it—and look what it -can do when it is barely tapped in to its source of power!"</p> - -<p>Greaves rumbled in his throat. Suddenly the gun's song was more than -he could stand. He barely seemed to move, but Vigil had time to shout, -the outraged cry beginning to echo in the chamber when suddenly there -came the snap of rending metal, and a choked stammer from the gun. -And then Greaves had the gun in his hands, completely torn from its -pedestal. He threw it out into the night in a bright flash of fire that -bathed them all in a thunderclap of light. Greaves stared after it, -his teeth bared, the horrid sound of his hatred still rumbling within -him. When that had dwindled, leaving him with his heavy chest heaving -for air, the trapped Shadow had vanished, no doubt to tell Mayron that -Humanity's godling had gone insane.</p> - -<p>Adelie was very pale. Vigil was trying to speak.</p> - -<p>And that from the old man was enough to bring back the first scarlet -edge of the fury he had turned on the gun.</p> - -<p>"Close your mouth!" Greaves commanded him. "I have to go fight Mayron -tomorrow, and I don't want another word out of you. Go find something -useless to do. Adelie, I want a bath, some food and drink. Right now!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph2">IV</p> - -<p>During the night, he asked Adelie: "I'm supposed to fight him with my -hands, is that it? Or with simple weapons of some kind? And this will -prove to the worshippers all over the Universe or to the Shadows that -either my or Mayron's way of life is right?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," she said. "And you <i>are</i> very strong. I'm sure you will win. I -was sure when I suggested it to Mayron. He's so completely confident—I -knew I could trick him into it."</p> - -<p>Later, he asked her: "Tell me—was there a famous weapon poet in First -City?" And he took her hand, not letting go of it. When she asked him, -once, hesitantly, why he had broken the gun, he answered honestly: -"Because it seemed hateful." And other than that, they said very little -to each other during that night, and whatever they did say had about -as much truth in it as all the things they had said or he had been -told from the first moment of his awakening. He did not sleep. For one -thing, he felt no need of it. For another, he was frightened. He did -not want to be a Shadow....</p> - -<p>In the morning he had forgotten fear. Steps led from the temple to a -pathway that wound down toward the city. He stood for a moment at their -head, with the altar burning behind him, and then stepped out into the -morning, with Adelie and Vigil following.</p> - -<p>There were people waiting out there. They lined the path, murmuring -among themselves. As he strode along they fell in behind him, leaving -behind the temporary shelters they had put up when they fled from the -city and took refuge here.</p> - -<p>"Sheep," Vigil snorted as he padded through the dust beside Greaves. -"All right, <i>let</i> them see you brought down. I'll make another gun—if -your stupidity hasn't robbed me of the time I need—and then they'll -see...."</p> - -<p>"I'm sure that if I lose today, Mayron will give you all the time you -need. Maybe he'll even send that same Shadow poet back to you with -whatever story you'll believe this time."</p> - -<p>"What—?" Vigil stammered.</p> - -<p>"What did he tell you? That he would create the gun for you because he -hated the Shadows, even though he was a Shadow? Did he tell you how -he remembered how fine it was to be a man? Is <i>that</i> the story you -believed? You simple, credulous murderer! And you repaid him by testing -it on him. As he well suspected you might. It's not only humans who can -be brave. Or sacrifice themselves for the ferocity of their race. Or -were you too busy taking Humanity's name in vain to ever consider that? -<i>You</i> never dreamed that gun. Not you—you may be foolish, but you -don't hate this Universe."</p> - -<p>Vigil was blinking at him. "What—?"</p> - -<p>Adelie laughed. "Last night, father. He asked me about weapon poets. -There's no use trying to lie out of it."</p> - -<p>Greaves smiled at her. "That's right. I asked you, and from that moment -on you knew I was cleverer than Mayron thinks. But you never got away -to tell him that, did you? You know," he said thoughtfully, "you'd -better hope I win today. Mayron won't be too fond of you if I give him -any more shocks."</p> - -<p>Adelie grinned. "I thought of that. But if you win, he dies. And if you -die...?"</p> - -<p>"You will have had your glory anyway? You will have engineered the -battle of the gods, and dabbled in other pleasures, too?" Greaves was -still smiling, but Adelie's eyes grew wider. "Maybe it'll be that -simple, Adelie. But who can tell the minds of gods, hmm?"</p> - -<p>And so David Greaves strode into the city of Shadows, followed by a -fearful multitude and two badly shaken people. He walked down a broad -avenue at whose end something black bulked and glimmered, while things -with black-filled eyes stood watching thin-lipped. And as he walked he -showed none of his fear.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He stopped at the end of the avenue, with the tall towers looming over -him, and stood facing the Temple of Shadows. There was no sign of life -in the square black opening that served as a door for the featureless -stone block, dark but not as dark as a Shadow.</p> - -<p>He threw back his head and called: "Mayron!"</p> - -<p>The worshippers huddled around him. Vigil, like them, was throwing -anxious looks over his shoulders as the city's Shadows crowded closer.</p> - -<p>Adelie murmured: "There he is."</p> - -<p>And he was, trotting lightly down the steps, smiling. He wore his human -skin as naturally as if it were more than a cloak, and Greaves had to -look hard to see that when he smiled his lips stretched but no teeth -showed.</p> - -<p>"Well, Man in all your pride. Are you ready?"</p> - -<p>"Ready as any man. How do you propose to go about this?"</p> - -<p>"Adelie didn't tell you?"</p> - -<p>"She told me as much as I asked. I didn't ask much. Could you suggest -any way I could have refused the conditions, no matter what they are? -That loses the fight right there. Wasn't I supposed to understand that? -Do you think politics is a recent invention?"</p> - -<p>"Fierce, fierce," Mayron murmured. "Well spoken." He chuckled. "When I -was a man, I would have liked you."</p> - -<p>"Get to the business, Mayron."</p> - -<p>The Shadow held up his hand. "Not so fast. Perhaps we can arrive at -some—"</p> - -<p>"Arrive at nothing. Put up or shut up. Vigil no longer has that -monstrous gun and there's no point in this for you today. But there is -for <i>me</i>, and you don't have much time to realize that." He glowered -at the Shadow, feeling the rage, feeling the onrush of the bright white -exaltation when the body moves too fast for the brain to speak, when -what directs the body is the reflex founded on the silent knowledge of -the brain's deep layers, where the learning has no words.</p> - -<p>Mayron frowned. His head was cocked to one side. If he had had eyes, he -would have been peering at Greaves' face. But he said nothing; he had -lost the moment, and now Greaves used it.</p> - -<p>"You scum," Greaves said, his voice booming through the Temple square -for all the Shadows to hear. "A weapon that drains the power of this -continuum! You leech—you would have had that doddering old man put all -my stars out!"</p> - -<p>And now the moment was at its peak, and Greaves screamed with rage, so -that the faces of the towers were turned into sounding boards and the -shout crackled in the air like thunder. He jumped forward, one sweeping -arm tossing Mayron out of his way and flailing for balance, while -Greaves sprang into the Temple and charged the Chamber of Shadows.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And now the fear—the great devouring fear that came like fangs in -his belly but did not stop him. Now the fear as he burst through the -acolytes and into the black, light-shot sphere that quivered at the -focus of Mayron's machine. And he stood there, feeling the suck not of -one voracious universe but many—all the universes that had eaten the -over-curious Mayron and sent back a Judas goat in his skin to conquer -what belonged to Man. Feeling the icy cold, and the energy-hunger that -could suck Man's Universe dry and still leave a hunger immeasurable.</p> - -<p>But the rage—the rage that came to him, that came to the god uncounted -generations of men had made while David Greaves lay sleeping but -his deepest mind lay awake, feeling, feeling the faith, knowing the -splendor of what Man had done—The rage that could make a god, that -could give a creature like David Greaves the power to create, to dream -a man—to make a David Greaves who would lie waiting, ready to become a -god....</p> - -<p>That rage went forth.</p> - -<p>And in parallel continuums of life unimaginable, the dawn of Apocalypse -burst upon suns unnameable and worlds unheard-of—upon all the -universes which were the true Shadows. The god who was David Greaves -again, when the rage had passed—that image which Man himself had made -stood blazing his fury in the Chamber of Shadows, and the Universe of -Man was free and safe. But in the places of the Shadows there was no -hope, no joy, no place of refuge. Mankind was come forth, and galaxies -were dying.</p> - -<p>One last snap of the fangs—one moment when the death-spurred Shadows -almost had their greatest prize of all—and then it was over. Greaves -turned and strode out of the blasted Chamber, and the acolytes cowered, -covering their eyes, not yet realizing that once more they had eyes.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>David Greaves appeared on the temple steps, and began walking slowly -down, his legs shaking with exhaustion. Adelie watched him coming -toward her. Around her, Shadows that had once been men were men again, -but at her feet Mayron lay without his skin, and though her father -had fled, she did not dare go without learning what the look on David -Greaves' face meant for her.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Die, Shadow!, by Algis Budrys - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE, SHADOW! *** - -***** This file should be named 61389-h.htm or 61389-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/3/8/61389/ - -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. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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 - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/61389-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/61389-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a497ba3..0000000 --- a/old/61389-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/61389-h/images/illus1.jpg b/old/61389-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0fde68d..0000000 --- a/old/61389-h/images/illus1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/61389-h/images/illus2.jpg b/old/61389-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0813cee..0000000 --- a/old/61389-h/images/illus2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/61389.txt b/old/61389.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 271afb8..0000000 --- a/old/61389.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1177 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Die, Shadow!, by Algis Budrys - -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: Die, Shadow! - -Author: Algis Budrys - -Release Date: February 12, 2020 [EBook #61389] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE, SHADOW! *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - DIE, SHADOW! - - BY ALGIS BUDRYS - - He began as a hero. Eons later and a - universe away, he became instead a god! - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, May 1963. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - I - -_I've come a long, long way to die alone_, David Greaves thought as -_Defiance_ tumbled through the misty shroud of Venus, hopelessly torn -apart by the explosion in her engines. On the console in front of -him, the altimeter was one of the last few meaningful instruments, -and it told him there were only a few tortured miles remaining before -the ship he had brought this far--had spent his fortune in building -when no government would yet consider risking a manned rocket on his -flight--would smash down to its doom on a planet no man had ever walked. - -Battered and tossed in his seat by the ship's crazy tumbling, Greaves -tensed the oak-hard muscles of his arms and thrust himself up to his -feet. He wasn't dead yet. He wasn't dead and, if the slim chance paid -off, he'd still be present to laugh in the government's face when the -first, safe, cautious official venture finally made its way across the -emptiness between Earth and the Sun's second planet. - -Dragging himself from handhold to handhold, his tendons cracking with -the strain, he levered himself toward the Crash Capsule, forced open -its hatch and pulled himself through, while the winds of Venus tore at -the shattered hull and the scream of _Defiance's_ passage through the -murky sky rose to a savage howl. - -Outside the cloud-lashed hull there were no stars. Below, no one knew -what sort of jungle, or sea, or desert of whipping poison sand might -lie in wait. Greaves had not cared when he set out, and did not care -now. If men had always waited to be sure, if all the adventurers of -mankind had waited until the sign-posts had gone up, the cave bears -would still be the dominant form of life on Earth, and races undreamed -of might never know such a thing as man to contest their sway over the -Universe. - -_I'll live to see my share of that_, Greaves thought as he pulled -the capsule's hatch shut and dropped into the special padding that, -in theory, would cushion much of the impact. _Or else I'll know -I tried._ He tripped the lever that would flood the capsule with -Doctor Eckstrom's special anesthetic--the experimental compound that -might--just barely, might--offer a chance. - - * * * * * - -As the hiss of the yellow-tinged, acrid gas became louder and louder -in his ears, David Greaves thought again of the almost obsessive -lengths to which he had gone in making sure that there would be such -a thing as the capsule. The entire project--the decision to build -the ship, to sacrifice for it the personal fortune he had built up -in his meteoric rise from obscurity to being one of the world's most -dynamic and certainly youngest industrialists--had been marked by his -fanatical persistence and dedication. But that dream had come first, -and the fortune second--the sole purpose of his career, from its very -beginnings when he was only another engineer test pilot, had simply -been to accumulate the means so _Defiance_ could be built. But the -ship had been three-quarters complete when he conceived the idea for -the capsule. He could not even now remember exactly when or how he had -decided that he must have some device aboard that would protect him -from a crash and--here was the vital thing he insisted upon--keep him -alive, no matter how injured, no matter how long might be necessary, -until rescuers could reach him. - -For him to even think in terms of rescuers--of depending on others--was -totally uncharacteristic. For him to divert a major portion of his -dwindling resources from work on the ship itself, and push toward -the elaborate design of the capsule, was, in some lights, again -uncharacteristically foolish. But he had done it, and now.... - -... Now the anesthetic created by the man some said was a medical -genius and some said was a quack had flooded over him. - -He could feel the first effect--the calm, the drowsy peace. By the time -the _Defiance_ smashed into the ground--very soon now--his metabolism -would have slowed to a carefully metered rate. It would take hours for -his heart to beat once. To him it would seem as if each day was only a -few minutes. The jagged nerve-flashes of pain would be only a faraway -slow tingle; the blink of an eye would encompass hours of actual time, -and he would lie here, safe, asleep, until the hatch was opened and he -was taken out into the air, where slowly the effects would wear off. - -Meanwhile, there was more than enough gas compressed into the capsule's -tanks to keep him perfectly relaxed for a hundred years. The valve--a -simple device he had sketched out in five minutes, as if the design had -been part of his mind for years--would continue to meter out the supply -at the optimum rate and pressure. - -It was only now--perhaps a hundred feet from impact, perhaps only a -hundred hairs-breadths--that he suddenly saw the flaw in the design. - -He struggled to reach the valve, in a useless reflex, for there would -have been nothing he could have done, no matter how much time remained. -Then he fell back, a twisted grin on his face. _I've come a long, -long way to trap myself_, he laughed in his drowsing mind, as the -ship crashed, and the capsule, torn from _Defiance's_ side, rebounded -like a cannon shell from Heaven upon the outraged soil of Venus, and -the overhead clouds sprang into flamed reflection from the blast of -_Defiance's_ end. - -In the capsule, the valve controlling the flow from the illogically -copious supply of anesthetic snapped off cleanly. David Greaves' lungs -jolted to the impact as a century's dosage of the high-pressure gas -delivered its one giant hammerblow of sleep.... Of sleep like death.... - -Of sleep so slow, so majestic, that only the eternally ageless body -might testify to life. Of sleep without end, without motion, until.... - - - II - -The woman--the sensuous ivory-skinned woman with eyes like dark jewels -and hair like midnight framing her red-lipped face--kissed him again -and then drew back to touch his cheek. - -"Wake," she whispered softly. "Wake, sleeper." - -David Greaves looked up at her through slowly dawning eyes. The scent -of spices was in his nostrils. As the woman's hair brushed his face -again, the fragrance increased. - -"My name is David Greaves," he said, and looked up at the sky and then -around him. - -There was now no envelope of cloud to hide the face of this planet -from the Sun; no such shroud as had concealed the Venus of his day in -dazzling white without and muffled it in somber black within. This sky -was ruddy, ruddy with the light of the day's last moments, and the -clouds through which the sunset burned were only crayon-strokes of -ochre across the orange sky. - -He lay in state, facing that sunset, on some sort of black metal couch -which supported him on a multitude of sweeping, back-bent arms. -Beneath him, a dozen low broad steps of olive-green polished stone led -down to a long forum, flagged with the same gold-veined, masterfully -fitted paving. Around the court ran a low wall, again of stone; -friezed, and burnished to a dull glow. From the wall, tall slim pillars -thrust into the air. - -And atop each pillar, cast and carved in black metal washed by the -lingering light, crouched a monster. - -No single artist could have created such a bestiary of gargoyles. Some -he could trace in their evolution--the vulpine, the crustacean, the -insectile. Fangs and pincers slit the cool, invigorating breeze that -flowed over the court. Antennae quivered and hummed in the air, and a -myriad legs were poised in tension, forever prepared to leap. Others -were beyond any creation he knew of--limbs and wings contorted into -shapes that had, undoubtedly, been taken by living things ... in lives -unimaginable to any man. And all of them, imaginable or not, faced -toward him forever. - -At the foot of each pillar, mounted in a cresset on the wall at its -base, burned a torch. And so, when night fell, then the shadows of all -these monsters would be cast upward onto the stars, and he would lie -sleeping in the pooled light of the torches, while all around him these -creatures stood watch. - -How many nights had he lain here? How many centuries to wash the fog -of sleep out of every nook and cranny of his lungs, when each breath -might take a thousand years--ten thousand? - - * * * * * - -But he was not done with studying his surroundings. He had heard sound -when he turned his head. Now the sound was a rising murmur as he lifted -his shoulders to look down the length of the court of monsters toward -the far end. There were people there. They had been seated on stone -tiers that rose up toward a colonnaded temple. There he could see an -altar through the open sides and, on that altar, a flame that burned -bright and unwinking against the outline of the lowering Sun. - -The people were rising to their feet. From them came an open-throated -murmur that became a cry of savage joy--of unbearable tension finding -release. - -"Who are they?" he asked the woman as he sat up and felt his body -stretch with power cramped too long, as he squared back his shoulders -and peered through the twilight in the court of monsters. - -"Your worshippers, David Greaves," she said, standing beside him among -the many arms of his couch. "The people whose last hope you are." She -added softly: "My name, though you did not ask, is Adelie." She paused. -"I, too, am one of your worshippers. Wherever there are human beings, -throughout the Universe, you are worshipped." - -He looked at her more closely. There was a lift to one black-winged -eyebrow that was less reverent than a god might like, though a man -could have no quarrel with it. She stood gracefully on sandaled feet, -dressed in a single white garment girdled around her waist by a belt -made of the same metal in which the monsters were cast. He saw that -the clasp was shaped into a profile of his own face. And he saw from -the wear that it showed that it was old--older than she could be, -older perhaps than this court. This ... shrine? He wondered how many -priestesses had worn that belt. - -How many of _his_ priestesses. - -He frowned and got down, feeling the touch of the day-warmed stone on -his bare feet. He was dressed, he saw, in a black kilt and nothing -else. He returned his glance to the worshippers and saw that the men -were dressed similarly, and that the women wore flowing, calf-length, -translucently light robes like Adelie's. - -There was motion at one corner of his eye, and he turned his head -sharply to see the arms of the couch sweeping down, folding and bending -against its sides. Now he saw that he had been cradled in the arms of a -great black metal beast. It crouched atop the dais. Its head was bent -supplicatingly, bright oily metal barely visible at the joinings of its -mechanical body. - -He glanced quickly up at the monsters atop their columns. "Are they all -like that?" he asked Adelie. - -An old man's gruff voice answered him from the other side of the -beast-couch. "They won't spring down to devour you--you needn't be -afraid of _that_." Two men came into view, one old, one young and very -slim. The old one rapped the couch with his knuckles. "This tended you -in your sleep. It is made in the shape of the most ferocious race that -ever rivaled Man. It is now extinct--as are all those others up there, -for the same reason." - -The thin young man--very pale, very long of limb--stretched his broad, -tight mouth into a smile that covered half his face without mirth. -"_Not_ the most ferocious, Vigil." - -"Your kind will learn about that," the old man snapped. - -"Not from you and yours," the slim man said lightly. - -Greaves turned to Adelie, who waited, poised, while old Vigil and the -young man quarreled. "Tell me the situation," Greaves said. - -Adelie's lips parted. But the old man interrupted. - -"The situation is that you have been awakened needlessly and would best -go back to sleep at once. My daughter and these fanatical sheep--" -he waved an angry arm at the standing worshippers--"have forced me -to permit this. But in fact Humanity neither needs you nor wants you -awake." - -"Oh, on the contrary," the young man said. "Humanity needs its gods -very badly at this hour. But you are only a man, not so?" - -Greaves looked from one to the other--the leather-skinned old man -with his mop of ringleted white hair, the young one who was human in -appearance but somehow claimed some other status. "Who are you two?" - -"I am Vigil, your guardian, and this is--" - -"I am Mayron of The Shadows," the young man said, and he held himself -as carelessly as before, but his face looked directly into Greaves's. -"See my eyes." - -There was nothing there. Only darkness speckled by pinpoints of light; -thick, sooty darkness like oil smoke, and sharp lights that burned -through it without illuminating it. - -"Mayron that was First of Men," Vigil said bitterly. - -"Mayron that is First of Shadows," the empty-skinned thing replied -proudly, and began to weep great, black tears that soon emptied it, -so that the skin drooped down into a huddle on the pave and a black -cloud in the shape of a man stood sparkling in the dusk before Greaves. -"Mayron that will again be First of Men, when all men are shadows. -Mayron that is already First of many men. And which of us is a god, -David Greaves?" - - * * * * * - -Adelie's face glowed with excitement. Her red lips were parted -breathlessly. The crowd on the tiers had loosed a great, wailing moan, -which hung over the court of conquered monsters as the first stars -became visible on the far horizon. - -Greaves took a deep breath. He could feel his body tensing itself, the -muscles rippling, as though his hide needed comfort. - -"Which of us is a god, man?" Mayron repeated softly, his voice coming -from the entire cloud. "What is it you can do against me, you whose -entire virtue rests on doing nothing?" - -"That would depend on what was expected of me at this moment," Greaves -said. - -"This moment?" Mayron chuckled. "At _this_ moment, nothing." - -"In that case, get out of my court and come back when there's something -to do." - -Mayron laughed, throwing his head back, the laughter high and insolent. -"How like a god! How very like the real thing." - -Greaves frowned. "If you were a man, once, you might remember how that -feels." But the laugh had bothered him. - -"Oh, I remember, I remember. And tomorrow we fight, man." Laughing, -Mayron bent and picked up the skin he had discarded. He crumpled -it by the waist in one fist, and brandished it negligently at the -worshippers. They shrank back with a moan of horror as he strode toward -the far wall. At the wall, he flipped the white, fluttering thing over, -and as a cloud passed through the stone. Perhaps on the other side he -put on his human form again. Greaves could not tell. The sun was down, -and only a little light glowed on the far horizon. The torches guttered -in the court of monsters, and the worshippers were hurrying up the -steps, out through the temple and away. - - - III - -Greaves, Adelie and Vigil stood beside the beast-couch. "All right," -Greaves said. "Now there are things I want to know, and I want no -quarrels, Vigil." - -"And by what right do you order me around?" the old man growled. "You -may be a god to some, but you are not _my_ god." - -"You owe it to me, atheist. If I was awakened today, at this pat -moment, I could have been awakened before. I wasn't. You kept me -asleep, guardian, when I could have been free as any other man. So you -owe me." - -The old man grunted. "You're brave with Mayron and brave with me. But -all men are brave, each in his own way. We need no gods." - -"But you have one." - -Adelie touched his arm. "You have lived from the beginning of human -history. And you were a great hero. That much the legends tell us. You -were braver than any man, and for your bravery, you could not die. -While other heros conquered the stars and, in their time, died, you -lived on. While enemy after enemy was beaten by Man, and the victorious -men died, you lived on. The stars and all worlds became ours. Men loved -and begat, and men died, but you lived on. It seemed to us that as long -as you lived, all men would have something to remember--how great Man -is; what the reward of courage can be. It seemed only fitting that we -should bring to you the trophies of our achievements. It seemed only -right to believe that you had survived to some purpose--that a day -would come when Man would need his greatest hero." - -"Precisely," Vigil snorted. "Man worships nothing but himself. You were -a convenient symbol. It did no harm. It may have done some good. Of -course, the chuckleheads took it all literally. And so--thanks to Man's -stupid persistence in breeding idiots as well as men with some brains, -you, whoever you are, whatever kind of filibustering bravo you actually -were, have become the focus of a cult populated by the credulous, the -neurotic and those who profit by them. I hope you are grateful for your -legacy!" - -Greaves looked up at the stars. There were some constellations that -might have been the ones he knew, distorted by his transit to another -viewpoint ... or by time. He was no astronomer. - -_I've come a long way_, he thought, _and I wonder what the end of it -will be._ "Those who profit from the credulous, hmm?" he said to Vigil. - -"I am your guardian and I guarded you. As many others have done before -me, from various motives. This is not your first court, nor your tenth. -The ritual around you is compounded from thousands of years of hogwash, -as witness my worshipful daughter who inherits a post from some time -when every venturing hero had to have a leman patiently awaiting his -return. My duties no doubt were originally medical. But the couch -has been attending to that--with some exceptions--for centuries. And -you may be assured, Man's history has not been one unbroken triumph, -nor his civilization any steady upward climb. But we built while you -slumbered. I had thought to prevent your besmirching Man's greatness -with your cheap legend." - -"Or perhaps he was afraid of the god he denies," Adelie murmured, her -eyes glowing warmly. - -Greaves looked from her to her father. "So she believes in me and you -do not," he said to Vigil. "But it may be you're not entirely sure--and -from the looks she gives me, it may be she isn't, either." He grinned -crookedly. "Man may have climbed, but I assure you he hasn't changed." - - * * * * * - -He smiled at the looks on both their faces. Divinity was new to him, -but humanity was not. If these two had thought perhaps they had some -dull-witted barbarian here--the one for his faith in his faithlessness, -the other for her pleasures--it had been time their error was corrected. - -"Old man, god or not I have been called out ... whether it pleases you -or not. And I won't willingly lay me down to sleep again until _I_ -think it's time. So you had better tell me what all this is about, or I -will blunder around and perhaps break something you're fond of." - -Adelie laughed. - -Vigil swung his arm sharply toward her. "This--this would-be courtesan -was once Mayron's great love, when he was First of us all. Because he -could find nothing to conquer for her in all the Universe, he began -dabbling beyond it for a worthy prize. And he found it. Oh, he found -it, didn't he, my child?" - -"Be careful, Father," Adelie spat. "The worshippers follow _me_ now -that I've wakened him as promised, and you--" - -"Quiet," Greaves said mildly. "He was telling me something." - -"That I was," Vigil said angrily, while his daughter's look at Greaves -was the least sure it had ever been, "and for all the need you have -of it, I might as well not. But if I may say it once and get it said, -I can then go to my meal and the two of you will be free to amuse -yourselves. Mayron discovered the Shadows, when his machines touched -some continuum beyond this one, and the Shadows ate him. But like the -fox that lost his tail in the trap and then cozened other foxes with -the lie that it was better so and fashionable besides, Mayron made a -virtue of his slavery. Those who give themselves up to the Shadows -never rest and never hunger. They know no barrier. And no love. No -true joy. No noble sorrow. An untailed fox is safe from catching by -the tail. A Shadow has no spirit, no humanity, no--soul. But there are -always dunderheads. Mayron has them, and down in that city of his down -there--" the old man waved a hand at the horizon, but all Greaves could -see from where he stood were the glowing tops of what he took to be -three fitfully active volcanoes--"he has a city full of dunderheaded -shadows who go to some temple he has built and enter the Shadow chamber -to be changed. The admission is easily gained; the price of freedom -from human care is humanity." - -"And up here," Greaves said, "other dunderheads come to gain what in -exchange for what?" - -"Gain at least some sort of affirmation at the cost of remaining men!" -the old man growled. "If they are simple, at least they are human! And -even an intelligent man can see the value in what is embodied here." - -"As witness yourself. Yes." - -"_I_ didn't want to wake you! We know enough so you could have been -awakened centuries ago. But to what purpose? To turn another hooligan -loose to upset civilization, and lose the symbol of that precious -thing? When Man himself can rescue himself? But, no, _this_ one, this -superstition-ridden tramp I wish I'd strangled in her cradle--_she_ -stirred the worshippers up, she arranged the combat between yourself -and Mayron, she--" - -"When and where?" - -"What?" - -"This fight Mayron and you have both spoken of." - -"Tomorrow at noon. In the city. But there's no need for it. Tomorrow -Mayron dies, and the other Shadows die. You can watch or not--as long -as you stay out of the way." - -Greaves looked at Adelie. "Your daughter, Vigil, does not look much -impressed." - -"Impressed! Impressed!" The old man was very nearly dancing with rage. -"I'll _show_ you! Come with me." Vigil turned without looking back -and pattered rapidly down the steps of the dais, his calloused feet -slapping indignantly on the time-buffed stones. - -Greaves frowned after him. Then he jerked his head to Adelie. "Come -on," he said and they, too, walked quickly down the length of the -court of the conquered monsters. And for the first time since their -creation the pillared gargoyles did not have to bear the sight of Man. - - * * * * * - -The scent of Adelie's fragrance was in Greaves nostrils again as they -followed the old man through the temple, past the altar where the -eternal flame burned bright enough to sting. He said nothing to her. -She volunteered no words of her own. But she walked close enough to -brush his thigh with hers. Greaves smiled appreciatively. - -Vigil led them to a small chamber in one wing of the temple. He flung -open the door with a clatter of bolts in a concealed lock, and pointed -inside. "Look--the two of you. It's not just Mayron who can dabble with -machines. For every clever man, there is another just as clever." - -A gun of green metal was mounted on a pedestal in the center of the -chamber. Slim and graceful as a wading bird with one extended leg, it -poised atop its mount and sang quietly of power and intent to kill. The -friezed walls of the chamber hummed in harmonic response to the idle -melody of the gun. Greaves felt his hackles rising unreasonably, and he -very nearly growled with outrage at the sight of it. - -"Tomorrow at noon," Vigil said in a high, triumphant voice, "the weapon -will be swung to point through that window and down upon Mayron's city. -And when it is done, there will not be a single Shadow alive down -there." - -Greaves walked to the window in the chamber's far wall and looked down. -But it was dark below; nothing to mark the outlines of a city as cities -had been in the time he remembered. The temple apparently stood atop a -high hill, with the city in a great valley at its foot, but again all -Greaves could see were three glowing mountaintops across the way, and, -beyond them, the night sky. - -Then suddenly one of the volcanos flared for an instant, and the few -overhead clouds reflected redly down into the valley. - -Greaves caught his breath. The city had emerged black and immense, -extending for miles, its lightless towers like the spine-bones of a -beast half-eaten and rotting in a tidal pool. Then the light was gone, -and once again there was nothing visible down there--if the undead -beast had chosen to bestir itself and stealthily move on some errand of -the night, no one standing here could have known until it was too late. - -"So that's the city of the Shadows," Greaves said. - -"The city that was once the First City of Man," Vigil said bitterly. -"That Mayron has made into an outpost of Hell. Where no man dares live; -where they say that those with Shadows, once they were in sufficient -number, dragged women and children into the Chamber of Shadows so -that their men, heart-broken, joined them when their Shadow-children -returned to plead with them." - -"And this gun of yours is going to do what to them?" he asked. - -"Kill them." - -"I know that. How?" Greaves stared at the old man through narrowing -eyes. - -"A beam of power, made of the stuff that spins within all things--the -pure force of this continuum." - -"You mean this thing is some kind of particle emitter--an electron or -photon gun?" - - * * * * * - -"Our science need not concern itself with crudities like names, -barbarian. This gun was made as a song or a poem is made--in the mind -of a man who dreams weapons where another man might dream bridges ... -and when the gun finds its fruition, tomorrow when Mayron expects no -mightier enemy than you, then the beam will sweep that city, and when -it stops Mayron's city will be a tomb for empty skins. And Man will -build another First City, and those who fled shall have a place again, -and--" - -"Who built--who _dreamed_--this piece of ironmongery?" Greaves growled. -"Who was the poet--you?" - -"Yes! Why not? Do you think because I am an old man--" - -"A heedlessly spiteful one who hasn't stopped to think." - -"Stopped to think! _Look!_" Vigil seized the torch at the doorway and -lifted it high. "Did you think I wasn't sure? That the weapon has not -been tested?" - -Now Greaves could see why the gun sang rather than rested in quiet -patience. A Shadow hung against the far wall, supported by its -out-stretched arms, its hands sunken wrist-deep in the stone. And -though it jerked its legs and struggled feebly to be free, the -hands remained trapped. Under the sound of the idling gun, he could -distinguish a quiet, thin, whimpering. - -Adelie laughed softly to herself. - -Vigil crowed: "He cannot move--what little strength remains to him is -needed for bare existence ... if I were to touch that control-- - -"The weapon is at its lowest setting--it has incomparably more power -than that; it has the power of all the Universe in it--and look what it -can do when it is barely tapped in to its source of power!" - -Greaves rumbled in his throat. Suddenly the gun's song was more than -he could stand. He barely seemed to move, but Vigil had time to shout, -the outraged cry beginning to echo in the chamber when suddenly there -came the snap of rending metal, and a choked stammer from the gun. -And then Greaves had the gun in his hands, completely torn from its -pedestal. He threw it out into the night in a bright flash of fire that -bathed them all in a thunderclap of light. Greaves stared after it, -his teeth bared, the horrid sound of his hatred still rumbling within -him. When that had dwindled, leaving him with his heavy chest heaving -for air, the trapped Shadow had vanished, no doubt to tell Mayron that -Humanity's godling had gone insane. - -Adelie was very pale. Vigil was trying to speak. - -And that from the old man was enough to bring back the first scarlet -edge of the fury he had turned on the gun. - -"Close your mouth!" Greaves commanded him. "I have to go fight Mayron -tomorrow, and I don't want another word out of you. Go find something -useless to do. Adelie, I want a bath, some food and drink. Right now!" - - - IV - -During the night, he asked Adelie: "I'm supposed to fight him with my -hands, is that it? Or with simple weapons of some kind? And this will -prove to the worshippers all over the Universe or to the Shadows that -either my or Mayron's way of life is right?" - -"Yes," she said. "And you _are_ very strong. I'm sure you will win. I -was sure when I suggested it to Mayron. He's so completely confident--I -knew I could trick him into it." - -Later, he asked her: "Tell me--was there a famous weapon poet in First -City?" And he took her hand, not letting go of it. When she asked him, -once, hesitantly, why he had broken the gun, he answered honestly: -"Because it seemed hateful." And other than that, they said very little -to each other during that night, and whatever they did say had about -as much truth in it as all the things they had said or he had been -told from the first moment of his awakening. He did not sleep. For one -thing, he felt no need of it. For another, he was frightened. He did -not want to be a Shadow.... - -In the morning he had forgotten fear. Steps led from the temple to a -pathway that wound down toward the city. He stood for a moment at their -head, with the altar burning behind him, and then stepped out into the -morning, with Adelie and Vigil following. - -There were people waiting out there. They lined the path, murmuring -among themselves. As he strode along they fell in behind him, leaving -behind the temporary shelters they had put up when they fled from the -city and took refuge here. - -"Sheep," Vigil snorted as he padded through the dust beside Greaves. -"All right, _let_ them see you brought down. I'll make another gun--if -your stupidity hasn't robbed me of the time I need--and then they'll -see...." - -"I'm sure that if I lose today, Mayron will give you all the time you -need. Maybe he'll even send that same Shadow poet back to you with -whatever story you'll believe this time." - -"What--?" Vigil stammered. - -"What did he tell you? That he would create the gun for you because he -hated the Shadows, even though he was a Shadow? Did he tell you how -he remembered how fine it was to be a man? Is _that_ the story you -believed? You simple, credulous murderer! And you repaid him by testing -it on him. As he well suspected you might. It's not only humans who can -be brave. Or sacrifice themselves for the ferocity of their race. Or -were you too busy taking Humanity's name in vain to ever consider that? -_You_ never dreamed that gun. Not you--you may be foolish, but you -don't hate this Universe." - -Vigil was blinking at him. "What--?" - -Adelie laughed. "Last night, father. He asked me about weapon poets. -There's no use trying to lie out of it." - -Greaves smiled at her. "That's right. I asked you, and from that moment -on you knew I was cleverer than Mayron thinks. But you never got away -to tell him that, did you? You know," he said thoughtfully, "you'd -better hope I win today. Mayron won't be too fond of you if I give him -any more shocks." - -Adelie grinned. "I thought of that. But if you win, he dies. And if you -die...?" - -"You will have had your glory anyway? You will have engineered the -battle of the gods, and dabbled in other pleasures, too?" Greaves was -still smiling, but Adelie's eyes grew wider. "Maybe it'll be that -simple, Adelie. But who can tell the minds of gods, hmm?" - -And so David Greaves strode into the city of Shadows, followed by a -fearful multitude and two badly shaken people. He walked down a broad -avenue at whose end something black bulked and glimmered, while things -with black-filled eyes stood watching thin-lipped. And as he walked he -showed none of his fear. - - * * * * * - -He stopped at the end of the avenue, with the tall towers looming over -him, and stood facing the Temple of Shadows. There was no sign of life -in the square black opening that served as a door for the featureless -stone block, dark but not as dark as a Shadow. - -He threw back his head and called: "Mayron!" - -The worshippers huddled around him. Vigil, like them, was throwing -anxious looks over his shoulders as the city's Shadows crowded closer. - -Adelie murmured: "There he is." - -And he was, trotting lightly down the steps, smiling. He wore his human -skin as naturally as if it were more than a cloak, and Greaves had to -look hard to see that when he smiled his lips stretched but no teeth -showed. - -"Well, Man in all your pride. Are you ready?" - -"Ready as any man. How do you propose to go about this?" - -"Adelie didn't tell you?" - -"She told me as much as I asked. I didn't ask much. Could you suggest -any way I could have refused the conditions, no matter what they are? -That loses the fight right there. Wasn't I supposed to understand that? -Do you think politics is a recent invention?" - -"Fierce, fierce," Mayron murmured. "Well spoken." He chuckled. "When I -was a man, I would have liked you." - -"Get to the business, Mayron." - -The Shadow held up his hand. "Not so fast. Perhaps we can arrive at -some--" - -"Arrive at nothing. Put up or shut up. Vigil no longer has that -monstrous gun and there's no point in this for you today. But there is -for _me_, and you don't have much time to realize that." He glowered -at the Shadow, feeling the rage, feeling the onrush of the bright white -exaltation when the body moves too fast for the brain to speak, when -what directs the body is the reflex founded on the silent knowledge of -the brain's deep layers, where the learning has no words. - -Mayron frowned. His head was cocked to one side. If he had had eyes, he -would have been peering at Greaves' face. But he said nothing; he had -lost the moment, and now Greaves used it. - -"You scum," Greaves said, his voice booming through the Temple square -for all the Shadows to hear. "A weapon that drains the power of this -continuum! You leech--you would have had that doddering old man put all -my stars out!" - -And now the moment was at its peak, and Greaves screamed with rage, so -that the faces of the towers were turned into sounding boards and the -shout crackled in the air like thunder. He jumped forward, one sweeping -arm tossing Mayron out of his way and flailing for balance, while -Greaves sprang into the Temple and charged the Chamber of Shadows. - - * * * * * - -And now the fear--the great devouring fear that came like fangs in -his belly but did not stop him. Now the fear as he burst through the -acolytes and into the black, light-shot sphere that quivered at the -focus of Mayron's machine. And he stood there, feeling the suck not of -one voracious universe but many--all the universes that had eaten the -over-curious Mayron and sent back a Judas goat in his skin to conquer -what belonged to Man. Feeling the icy cold, and the energy-hunger that -could suck Man's Universe dry and still leave a hunger immeasurable. - -But the rage--the rage that came to him, that came to the god uncounted -generations of men had made while David Greaves lay sleeping but -his deepest mind lay awake, feeling, feeling the faith, knowing the -splendor of what Man had done--The rage that could make a god, that -could give a creature like David Greaves the power to create, to dream -a man--to make a David Greaves who would lie waiting, ready to become a -god.... - -That rage went forth. - -And in parallel continuums of life unimaginable, the dawn of Apocalypse -burst upon suns unnameable and worlds unheard-of--upon all the -universes which were the true Shadows. The god who was David Greaves -again, when the rage had passed--that image which Man himself had made -stood blazing his fury in the Chamber of Shadows, and the Universe of -Man was free and safe. But in the places of the Shadows there was no -hope, no joy, no place of refuge. Mankind was come forth, and galaxies -were dying. - -One last snap of the fangs--one moment when the death-spurred Shadows -almost had their greatest prize of all--and then it was over. Greaves -turned and strode out of the blasted Chamber, and the acolytes cowered, -covering their eyes, not yet realizing that once more they had eyes. - - * * * * * - -David Greaves appeared on the temple steps, and began walking slowly -down, his legs shaking with exhaustion. Adelie watched him coming -toward her. Around her, Shadows that had once been men were men again, -but at her feet Mayron lay without his skin, and though her father -had fled, she did not dare go without learning what the look on David -Greaves' face meant for her. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Die, Shadow!, by Algis Budrys - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE, SHADOW! *** - -***** This file should be named 61389.txt or 61389.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/3/8/61389/ - -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. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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 - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/61389.zip b/old/61389.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 225df48..0000000 --- a/old/61389.zip +++ /dev/null |
