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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..7ae9dd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62267 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62267) diff --git a/old/62267-8.txt b/old/62267-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6603272..0000000 --- a/old/62267-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1673 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man From Siykul, by Richard Wilson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Man From Siykul - -Author: Richard Wilson - -Release Date: May 28, 2020 [EBook #62267] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN FROM SIYKUL *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Man From Siykul - - By RICHARD WILSON - - The Siykulans demanded pay for Myra and Steve's - freedom. The price was small--merely the losing - of their sanity in the spider's ray-trap. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Winter 1942. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Myra Horn awoke from her nap on the couch in the control room and -looked at her husband. He was hunched over the Simplimatic 50-Button -control board of their sleek Skypiercer space-launch, peering through -the vision shield with a grim intensity. - -Myra turned her involuntary smile into a wifely frown at his muscular -back. - -"Steve!" she said sharply. "Will you stop chasing that meteor? Aren't -you ever going to grow up?" - -Steve Horn glanced at her over his shoulder. - -"Hush, dear," he grinned. "Papa's in the money." - -Myra sat up and smoothed her satin-leather jumper. She looked again at -the meteor they were pursuing. "What a funny color!" she exclaimed. - -"The Primary Color," said Steve. "It's a flying goldmine. I think we're -gaining on it." - -"What are you going to do when you catch up with it?" - -"Lasso it," replied her husband. "In half an hour," he paused -impressively, "--we'll be Horns of plenty." - -Myra made a face at his back. "Bless your heart, darling," she said. -"If there were another man closer than Jupiter I'd divorce you." - -"I'm captain here," said Steve Horn, "with power of life, death and -divorce. You'll do no such thing. Grab the keyboard while I trip up our -quarry." - -Myra slipped into his seat while Steve jumped to a boxlike affair that -jutted from the floor on a pedestal. It was one of the "accessories -optional at slight additional cost" which Myra had insisted they could -do without--a Netaction wireless-grapple capable of exerting a magnetic -pull on objects up to half a mile distant. - -Myra fell into the spirit of the chase. She accelerated their little -craft until they were within snaring distance of the meteor. - -"Take it easy," advised Steve. "Don't get too close. You might dent it." - -He flicked over a switch on the wireless grapple. - -"Got it!" he cried triumphantly a moment later. - -"How do you know?" demanded Myra. "You can't see any more than I -can--and I don't notice any difference." - -"Try decelerating," Steve suggested. - -Myra cut the motor. There was a silence they hadn't experienced since -the start of their trip to Jupiter, more than two weeks before. It was -broken almost immediately by a series of less-deep, sonorous staccato -bursts from the Retarderockets in the nose of the ship. - -"You're right, Steve. There is a definite forward drag not caused by -momentum." - -"'Course, I'm right." - -"But, Steve," said Myra abruptly, "that can't be gold. Since when has -gold been attracted by a magnet?" - -He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again and looked disgusted. - -"Oh, well," Myra said after a moment, "don't let go. Maybe we can sell -it to a Jovian museum as a rare curio. Probably worth millions!" - -"Probably iron pyrite. Probably worth less than twenty bucks. Pfah!" -Steve snorted impatiently. "We'll throw it back. We haven't got time to -lug museum pieces around the solar system, however scholarly we may be." - -"Okay!" Myra pouted prettily. - - * * * * * - -Steve flicked the grappler indicator to "off." Nothing happened. The -retarding rockets continued to blast vainly away. The gold colored -meteor sped before them; their ship followed it inexorably. - -"What's the matter?" asked Myra. "Change your mind?" - -Steve stared at the fleeting meteor in amazement. - -"I let go," he said. He indicated the silent grapple. "Look. It's dead." - -"Don't tell me," purred Myra sarcastically, "that you're going to let a -little hunk of rock kidnap us." - -"Hell of a thing," muttered Steve. "Maybe I used too much power. Maybe -the thing's charged with magnetism." - -"And exerting an attraction strong enough to affect us--half a mile -away?" Suddenly the ship lurched sideways. Myra drew herself erect, -rubbing a painful nose. "Now I ask you--is that any way for a full -grown meteor to act?" - -Steve picked himself off the floor, where the sudden swerve of the -ship had thrown him. He joined his wife at the shield. The meteor was -twisting and turning like a thing demented. The Skypiercer, in its -magnetic grasp, followed the crazy course helplessly. - -Steve looked very wise. "Something's wrong. I have a hunch it isn't a -meteor." - -"Hear! Hear!" applauded Myra. "First it isn't a goldmine. Now it isn't -a meteor. What won't it be next, my profound husband?" - -Steve ignored her. He cut off the Retarderockets. "Save fuel, anyway," -he said. - -There was another cessation of sound. - -The Horns looked at each other in astonishment. They were slowing down! -The meteor drifted slowly through space--then stopped. - -"Everything," said Myra softly, "is all wacked up. Where is the physics -of yesteryear?" - -Steve was staring open mouthed at the gold colored piece of rock. -"Little demons!" he breathed. "It's turning around. It wants to say -hello. Isn't that nice! Pad a cell for me, old fruitcake, I feel a -spasm coming on." - -The "meteor" described a wide arc that brought it to the side of the -Horns' ship, now halted in space. It circled them a few times; then -stopped and bobbed up and down in a friendly manner. - -"It wants to play," said Steve wearily. "Go shake hands with it." - -"If it's a ship," said Myra practically, "it's done a very good job of -disguising itself. There aren't any rocket tubes, or ports, or landing -gear, as far as I can see." - -Their golden companion began to whirl rapidly, like a miniature planet. -Above it, English characters appeared against the black curtain of -space in lines of fire. They were badly made, and misspelled, but -readable. - -"GUD MORNIG," they said. "HELO CQ UGH." - -"Ugh," said Steve. He put his hands over his eyes and sat down. He -moaned, "This," he said, "is too much." - - * * * * * - -When, in 2021, the government created a Department of Education, it -consolidated hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the -country and introduced robot lecturers. Hundreds of instructors were -left without jobs. One of them was Stephen Horn, Professor of American -Literature. - -He faced no immediate worry, however. His salary had permitted him to -save enough to provide for him and his wife for a few years. Myra Horn, -more popularly known as Myra Classon, was a novelist whose books had -received considerable attention--especially in Steve's American Lit -classes, where he shamelessly proclaimed her to be one of the greatest -living authors. - -After a period of futile searching for another professorial position -in America or abroad, Steve came bouncing home one day waving a -pink Space-Cable form. It had been addressed to him care of his old -University, and read: - - "IMPERATIVE NEED FOR LIT PROF HERE SALARY PHENOMENAL STOP WHAT - ARE YOU WAITING FOR LOVE TO MYRA - - (Signed) ART WILDER - UNIVERSITY OF JUPITER" - -Art, Myra and Steve were old friends, and had attended the same -college. But when Steve and Myra married, Art disappeared. They heard -nothing of him for three years, until one day there arrived in the -trans-spatial mail a copy of Art's home-town paper, marked at an -article lauding Wurtsboro's native son for his successful founding of a -university at the booming Earth colony of New City, Jupiter. - -The upshot of his message was that, after several more cables, Steve -went out and bought a space-launch, fully equipped for travel to high -and far off places like the Sun's fifth planet. - -The Horns hadn't expected an uneventful trip, having once taken a -weekend excursion to the Moon. Myra had a vivid recollection of the -things that had happened to them at that time: events including coping -with a pyromaniac, an undecided suicide who leaped overboard in a -space-suit, and a crackpot mutineer who had tried to enlist their aid -in overcoming the captain and setting up an anarchist Utopia on Mars -with the thirty-two passengers aboard. - -But she had never expected to encounter a talking meteor. - - * * * * * - -"Shall we ignore it?" she asked her husband. "Or shall we be civil and -chat a while?" - -"I wash my hands of the matter," said Steve. "If you want to strike up -an acquaintance with every impossibility that comes along, it's up to -you." - -The meteor was getting impatient. It began to bob up and down again, -like a balloon caught in an air current. More letters appeared above it -in space. - -"HELLO?" it said. "EXTRA ENGLISH WHAT?" - -"Okay, okay," soothed Myra. "Just a minute." - -She tore a page out of a notebook and printed something on it. She held -it up to a porthole. - -The meteor bounded closer, so that it was almost touching their ship. -Now they could see tiny mounds on its surface, about the size of -walnuts. - -"Good grief!" said Steve. "It's got eyes. Like...." - -"Like a potato," finished Myra. - -The meteor bounced off again and stood stationary for a moment. - -"What'd you say?" Steve asked. - -"I said, 'I'm a married woman. But stick around.'" - -"Fine," said Steve. "Nothing like a little comedy to buck one up in -moments fraught with suspense. What's it doing now?" - -The meteor was whirling again in a state of industrious agitation. -Suddenly it stopped. A white, sticky substance began to pour out of it. -As it grew it congealed into something resembling frosted glass, which -formed a gigantic bubble, big enough to enclose several ships the size -of the Horns. - -There was a large opening at one point. The transparent bubble drifted -toward them. Before they could move they had entered it through the -opening. The meteor-ship followed them, then spurted some more of the -gelatine substance, sealing the opening. - -A nozzle poked its way through the hull of the golden ship. Through -the hull of their ship they could hear a hissing noise. Presently it -stopped. The nozzle was withdrawn. - -Their neighbor hopped over to them again. One of its "eyes" expanded -until it was the size of a basketball, and transparent. More letters of -fire, much smaller now, appeared within. - -"AIR," they said. "EARTH AIR SAFE OPEN DOOR." - -A section of the golden ship dropped. On it stood a creature less than -two feet tall, colored a deep bronze. Vaguely terrestrial in shape, it -stood on one thick limb which became its body without widening at what -might be called its hips. It terminated below in a ball-shaped foot -and above in a shapeless bumpy head, featureless, except that each of -the bumps seemed to be an eye. Three arms, of various sizes, each with -different joints, extended from its body--one just below the head, in -front, one halfway down on its left side and one at what should have -been the top of its right thigh. - -It was a thoroughly unnerving spectacle. - -"My two-headed aunt!" cried Steve. "The side show's in town." - -"No remarks," said Myra. "You should see yourself in the morning. But -what are we going to do about it?" - -"Ask it to tea." He twisted a little wheel on the control board. "I'll -have the data in a minute. Maybe the little fella isn't lying. Maybe -there is air in the bubble." - -"Temperature 72°, humidity 84 percent," announced Steve. "Tomorrow -fair, with slowly rising food prices." - -"Laugh and you laugh alone," said Myra. "I don't understand it, but do -we let him in?" - -"Sure. Maybe he can play rummy." - -Steve stepped on the treadle that started the motor in the airlock. The -lock rumbled slowly outward. - -"Steve--" Myra's voice was a little uncertain. "Maybe the instruments -aren't working?" - -Steve sighed. "I like the way you think of these things just _after_ -the nick of time. If that were so, we'd be frozen corpses by now. The -door's open. It's a little muggy, but that's all." - -Now they could see the bronze midget more clearly. He looked no -more inviting at close range, being wider and heavier than they had -imagined, but what he lacked in looks he made up for in affability. He -waved all three arms at them once, like a happy windmill. - -Steve waved back. "Nice day," he said. - - * * * * * - -The creature left off waving at them and signalled his ship. It drifted -closer soundlessly, until the two ships were touching. - -"Look," whispered Myra. "He's all over fuzz. Like a peach." - -[Illustration: _"Look," whispered Myra, "he's all over fuzz, like a -peach!"_] - -Steve craned his neck to look down at their visitor, who had stepped -onto the platform of their ship and seemed to be inspecting their knees -with great interest. - -Steve squatted down until he was almost on a level with their guest. He -held out his hand. The fuzzy one let it overflow in one of his curious -three-fingered hands and looked at it critically. - -He couldn't tell whether he was being looked at and listened to, or -not. The creature's eyes were scattered all over its gold-hair-covered -head. Their pupils were hairlike, resembling those of a horse. - -A low-pitched hum, rising and falling, ceasing occasionally, came -from the three-armed one. It emanated from no particular spot, but -surrounded him like an aura. - -"No savvy," said Steve. "C'mon. I want to see how you walk." - - * * * * * - -He got up and stepped backward. The creature followed, in an -effortless, gliding motion. He appeared to have a ball set into a -socket of his foot, which, combined with a delicate sense of balance, -gave him a wonderful mobility. - -Abruptly he turned, gave a little hop to his own craft and disappeared. - -"What do you make of that?" Myra asked. - -"He just remembered a previous engagement," soothed Steve. "What's the -matter, darling--jealous?" - -In a moment the creature reappeared, carrying a plain black box, about -six inches square. - -"I told you he played rummy," said Steve. "Look--he brought chips." - -He set the box on the floor and threw back a lid. Inside the lid were -three fine wires that ended in buttons. He handed one each to Myra and -Steve and took one himself. - -"Now," said a metallic voice, "we'll be able to understand each other." - -The Horns looked at each other, then at the animate piece of bronze -fuzz. At the same time the voice had spoken, there had been the hum -they assumed to be his method of communication. Steve's eyebrows shot -up in inquiry. - -"Does that thing act as a translator?" - -As he spoke, a hum came from the box. - -"Exactly," said the box, while the bronze one hummed. - -"Amazing," murmured Myra. "This should take the place of the -self-lighting cigarette. Speaking of which, how about one? We'll be -burning up Peach's air, not ours." - -"I think we both need one," said Steve. He handed her one, popped one -in his own mouth. After looking in vain for a mouth on Peachy, he put -the pack back in his pocket. They puffed, and smoke curled from the -glow that was suddenly at the end. - -Peachy looked at them curiously. - -"First," he said, "my name isn't Peachy. It's WalmearFgon. Secondly, -what are those?" - -"Wal...." Steve made a face. "We'll let it go at Peachy. Secondly, -these are cigarettes. Also known as smokes, fags, the White Menace and -coffin-nails. They stain your fingers, befoul the atmosphere, use up -oxygen, give you bad breath and shorten your life-span." - -"Then why do you use them?" - -Steve shrugged. "I save coupons." - -Peachy looked blank. But then Peachy had no way of looking otherwise, -so Myra said: - -"Where do you come from?" - -"Siykul." He waved his two free arms vaguely. "Over there." - -"He means he's a Martian," explained Steve. "Aren't you, Peachy?" - -"No," he said. - -"Venerian?" - -"No." - -"Mercurian, Jovian, Saturnine, Platonic?" - -"No." - -"Oh." Steve looked incredulous. "Solar System?" - -"Not this one." He pointed, more specifically this time. "That is my -home. In your words it is called Bungula, in Centauri. I lived on the -second planet, Siykul." - -"Pleased to meet you," said Myra. "Now that the formalities are over -with, let's get to the point. To what do we owe the pleasure, as we -say, of your visit?" - -"I have been on a quest," said Peachy. "I have traveled through -several solar systems looking for two subjects for experimentation. All -that I visited, however, I found far too intelligent for my purposes. -Now, at last, I am successful." - -"_Wh-at?_" said Steve. - -"Imagine," said Myra softly. "This little one-legged, three-armed, -potato-headed, noseless squirt of fuzz came um-teen trillion miles just -to insult us. Imagine!" - - * * * * * - -Peachy's home, the second of five planets that circled the sun, -Bungula, in the constellation of Centauri, was a world about the size -of Mars, but more nearly resembling Earth in every other respect. -Seven-eighths of its surface was covered with water. The atmosphere -they breathed was essentially Earth air. There were two continents -on Siykul, on opposite sides of the globe, as well as minor islands -scattered here and there in the seas. The poles were covered with ice -the year round. - -There were two dominant races on Siykul, one on each continent. -According to Peachy, each was covetous of the other's land. His race -was young, brilliant, industrious and ingenious. Their technicians, -inventors and mechanics were unequaled anywhere in the cosmos, so far -as he knew. - -Theirs were great cities, factories, ships of the sea, land and air. -Buildings stretched scores of tiers into the sky and down into the -ground as far again. Rich in minerals and raw materials, their race was -one with a brief past, but a promising future. - -The other continent, however, was shockingly primitive. Vast forests -and jungles stretched from one sea to the other. Aircraft passing -overhead could make out only scattered and far apart settlements that -might, possibly, house life. There were hundred-mile stretches in which -no trace of a living thing could be found. The inhabitants, glimpsed -occasionally, were immense, red, spidery things, evidently very savage. - -Steve and Myra interrupted Peachy's story long enough to make -themselves comfortable on chairs and choose fresh cigarettes. - -"About how tremendous are these creatures, compared, say--to me?" -asked Steve. - -"They're about your size." - -"Enormous," admitted Steve to the compact two-footer. "Go on." - -Peachy didn't seem to be made for any position other than an upright -one. He shifted his communication wire to another hand and continued: - -"A few years ago my people began to realize that our continent would -not be big enough to hold us very much longer. We are already utilizing -every available inch of space in our country and we must have more -room, otherwise many of our people will starve. - -"Spurred on thus, we quickly built a small fleet of extraplanetary -ships to seek habitation on other worlds. The fleet became useless -when it left our atmosphere, and the eight ships crashed. But we had -profited by our mistakes, and the next fleet successfully navigated the -upper air." - -Steve looked incredulous. "Do you mean to say those were the first -space ships you ever made?" - -"Yes," said the Siykulan simply. "We had never needed them before." - -Steve whistled. - -"Look," said Myra. "What was the idea of dashing all over the Solar -System for this elbow room, when you have all you needed on the other -continent?" - -"We had no way of getting there," said Peachy. - -"Nonsense," said Steve, "you just finished telling us about your -airships, and boats and marvelous inventions--" - -"You don't understand," said their tiny guest patiently. "There was -no _physical_ hardship involved. We had no trouble flying over the -continent, or approaching it from the ocean. But the moment we tried to -land, from the sea or air, disaster overtook us." - -"What sort of disaster?" asked Myra. - -"Insanity." - - * * * * * - -Every so often, it seemed, the Siykulans sent an expedition to their -neighboring continent. And once in a while--not so often--a member or -two of the expedition would return, to babble crazily of monsters and -blackness and throbbings in their heads. - -They had lost some of their best minds that way before they gave up. -Except for one further experiment. They outfitted a remote control -ship with an assortment of animals and sent this to the neighboring -continent, accompanied by a ship manned by a higher-order Siykulan who -directed the animal craft without himself going close enough to the -other continent to be affected. - -The animal ship was landed while the controlling vessel hovered high -above to note reactions. After a time, the first ship took off and the -two sped back to Siykul. - -Tests previously conducted had proven that animals could be made insane -by inaudible notes of music and by scientifically-induced frustration. -But these animals had not been affected by their exposure to whatever -it was that had driven their more intelligent neighbors into idiocy. - -It was therefore assumed that the malignant aura which hung over the -green continent could affect only the brainy, possibly because the aura -was electrical in nature and in some way short-circuited the brain -through thought, which is another form of electricity. - -Hence the pilgrimage of the little Siykulan. Provided with what might -best be described as a brainmeter, or intelligence-tester, he had -roamed the spaceways in his golden ship searching for a race with a -modicum of intelligence, but not too much. - -Steve put out his cigarette. - -"It's been a very interesting story, Peachy," he said, "if not very -complimentary, but I'm sorry we can't oblige you. We have a date on -Jupiter." - -"Yes," said Myra. "We're sorry to have to chase you out like this, but -we must be getting on. Drop in to see us again any time you're in the -neighborhood." - -Although there was no change in the demeanor of the Siykulan, or in the -inflection of the voice that came from him through the black box, he -seemed to them suddenly stern and, ridiculous though it seemed in one -his size, awesome. - -"You must do what I say. You don't seem to understand that upon you -rests the fate of five hundred million people...." - -"... like you," said Myra scornfully. - -"Like me," said Peachy proudly. "They are depending on me, and I shall -not fail them. You need have no fear of not being compensated--" - -"It's not compensation," said Steve. "I don't know what your life span -is, but ours is roughly a hundred years, and we aren't anxious to waste -any of it on a trip to Centauri." - -"So!" said Peachy triumphantly, "since that is your only objection, you -will--" - -"It's _not_ our only objection," said Myra, but Peachy went on -inexorably. - -"--you will be glad to know that we are already in the atmosphere of my -planet." - -"Don't be silly," said Steve. Then, uncertainly, "We couldn't be." - -"You shall see," said Peachy. He dropped his wire and glided to his own -ship. He returned in a moment and with a grandiloquent motion of his -hand, indicated the opaque, glass-like bubble. - -As they watched, it wavered and grew transparent, then disappeared. - -The Horn's space-launch and the meteor ship of the Siykulan were -drifting a scant ten miles above an alien planet from which immense -buildings, for as far as they could see, reached up to them like greedy -fingers. - - * * * * * - -Steve Horn flicked cigarette ashes onto the floor of what seemed to be -the room of a Siykulan hotel. - -"I don't like it one little bit," he said. "It isn't the delay so much -as the affront to our intelligence." - -"Yes, darling," soothed Myra. "We should have shown them our diplomas -and degrees. Or challenged them to a spelling bee!" - -"You're not funny," said her husband. "Do you realize that we've been -in this hole for a week? Do you realize that Art Wilder and everyone on -Jupiter and Earth will think we're dead?" He paused. "Not that we won't -be." - -"What do you mean?" - -"I mean if they stick us in one of those ships of theirs to go explore -that mad-aura continent and find out what's behind all the mystery, -we'd be better off dead than crazy." - -Myra laughed. "What an ego you must have, my husband. It won't permit -you to think that it's possible these peach-people have bigger and -better brainwaves than we." - -A bell sounded and a blue light went on and off above the door. - -"Open it yourself," shouted Steve irritably. "I don't know how." - -The door opened. Peachy entered. - -Accompanying him was a strictly utilitarian piece of robot machinery. -Headless, it consisted of a long steel body terminating in a balled -foot at one end and two triple-jointed arms at the other. At the end of -each arm was a murderous looking spiked ball, both of which swung idly -and menacingly at the thing's sides. - -Peachy beckoned to them. When they hesitated, the robot clanged its -spiked fists together with an unpleasant ringing sound, then raised -them menacingly in the air. - -Steve and Myra blanched, and meekly followed Peachy through the door. -They walked outside, followed Peachy to a space-ship and entered. - -Myra looked at Steve a trifle uncertainly. - -"Resistance would have been futile, I suppose?" - -Steve tried to make himself comfortable on a tiny seat of the cabin. - -"I think so, considering that our only hope of ever getting back to -our own System lies in playing ball with these fuzzy Fascists. There -may not be much chance of our succeeding in this screwball expedition, -but the important thing is that there is _some_. Putting up a fight -might have been gratifying to the ego, but I doubt that it would have -convinced these gangsters that they ought to send us back home." - -"I suppose you're right, Steve. But just what exactly do you think our -chances are, this way?" - -"Looking at it from the scientific angle, we're pretty well off. Here -we are scootling along at Lord knows what speed, in what may well be -the most up to date ship in the universe, with nothing to do but push -Button X when we get to Point Q on--what the hell'd I do with that -chart?" - -"It's all right," said Myra. "I've got it." - -"--And we land without fuss or bother. Providing...." A worried look -crept into Steve's face. - -"Providing we don't go nuts," supplemented Myra. - -"We do have to put an awful lot of faith in Peachy's theory that we're -subnormal enough, mentally, to escape the spider-people's batty beam. -Then all they ask is that we put the beam out of business, or show them -how they can." - -"Steve!" Myra's eyes reflected inspiration. "Why don't we escape? I -mean really escape. Get out of this whole business!" - -"You mean off the planet?" - -Myra nodded. - -"Peachy paid a touching tribute to our allegedly minus intelligence by -warning me against any such ideas--for our own good. Our fuel would -last, and our food might, and even we might, since it'd take years -without Peachy's space-annihilator. The only thing that stands in -our way is the fact that this ship isn't space-proof. It leaks air. -Compared to our Skypiercer," Steve clutched at a simile, "it is as a -hotfoot compared to a holocaust." - -"Well," Myra shrugged philosophically, "no one can say Lady Horn ever -leaves a stone unturned." - -"If you've stopped blowing your own, Horn," said Steve recklessly, -"come look at the view. It makes me homesick." - - - IV - -The tiny ship sped along, a thousand feet above the great ocean that -separated Siykul from its neighboring continent. Only a slight mental -effort was needed to imagine themselves back on Earth. Long swells -swept across the deep, green surface. No sea-craft were in sight, but -occasionally a huge fish would break through the surface and quiver in -the air as sunlight glinted on the drops of water it shook from its -back. - -Miles ahead, land appeared, like low-lying clouds on the horizon. -Ten minutes of flying brought them over the shore--a wide beach that -stretched back half a mile and ended abruptly in a forest. - -The forest seemed endless. - -"We must have gone a hundred miles inland," said Myra. "When are we -supposed to push that fateful button?" - -"Point Q is described as a large prairie. We should reach it any minute -now." - -"What's that up ahead?" - -"That appears to be it," said Steve. - -He pushed the button with crossed fingers. The ship immediately went -into a long glide. The ground came up rapidly. Just when they thought -they would surely crash, the nose came up automatically and the ship -skidded to a bumpy halt. - -Steve shut off the motor. "Last stop," he said. - -Myra looked at him closely. - -"Steve," she said. "How do you feel?" - -"Fine," he replied. "Why? Scared?" - -"No. I mean--aren't we supposed to be ... well, affected, somehow?" - -"Oh." Steve looked at her and scratched his head in thought. "Well-l, I -do feel a trifle crazy." - -"How?" Myra looked concerned. - -Steve grinned impishly. "I feel like kissing you." - -Myra puffed out her cheeks in mock anger, then smiled. - -"You know," she said, "I feel the same way." - -They didn't see the two creatures that stood outside the ship, watching -them through the transparent door. - -Myra's eyes opened. She looked over her husband's shoulder. - -"Steve," she whispered. - -"Mmmm?" he said dreamily. - -"Remember your American history? Apaches, Utes and Algonquins?" - -"You mean the good old days, before spaceships and the machine age?" - -"Yes. And we're back in it. Look." - -Steve turned around. - -"Good grief!" he said. "Indians!" - -For a long time the two parties stared at each other without moving. -Gradually their faces broke into smiles, the natives' of polite -interest and the Horns of relief at having found the "spider people" of -Peachy's description to be simply human beings like themselves. - -Finally the two outside came a little closer. The older one raised his -hand, palm outward. - -Steve, hoping it meant friendship, did the same. He opened the door of -the ship. - -The men outside were about six feet tall and burned a deep copper color -by the planet's bright sun. They wore breech clouts of soft leather and -moccasins of the same material. Their faces were fine and intelligent, -with high brows and prominent noses. The elder had a shock of stiff, -gray-white hair, while the hair of the younger was black. Their bodies, -even in the older man, were muscular and powerful-looking. - -Steve and Myra hopped to the ground. Now that the possibility of being -captured and enwebbed by giant red spiders had been discarded, Steve's -spirits soared. He addressed the younger native jocularly: - -"You don't happen to know of a good hotel around here, do you?" - -The young man evidently understood the tenor of the question, for his -face broke into a smile and he rattled off a string of gutturals in a -speech that was reminiscent of something Steve had heard, but no more -understandable than the voice of the wind soughing through the trees -above them. - -The elder of the two had more sense than any of them. Evidently he -realized that these one-sided conversations might go on all day. He -motioned to the rest to follow him. - -Steve, with a look at the ship, hesitated a moment. Then he remembered -Peachy and his mechanical mace. He made a grimace of distaste, took -Myra's arm and followed. - - * * * * * - -There were no walls around the village. It began abruptly in a -semi-cleared space half a mile from where their ship had landed. -Dwarfed by the huge trees that surrounded it, it looked like something -a gifted child might have built with a mechanical construction set. - -The houses were mostly two and three room affairs, one-storied and -square, all made of green steel. From a distance, the village blended -perfectly with the surrounding forest, making it invisible from the air. - -The houses had been set up in no preconceived pattern and gave a -pleasant, haphazard effect to the scene. Nowhere had a tree been felled -to make way for a house. Here nature and man shared a sylvan paradise, -nature always given preference. - -Steve and Myra had been led to one of the larger buildings which -consisted of one huge dining room with tables and chairs of the same -green steel and here they were given food and drink not unlike what -they had known on Earth. Myra's very faint misgivings about the quality -of the food were allayed when their two hosts sat down to eat with them. - -At the conclusion of the meal, Steve was somewhat astonished when the -two accepted the cigarettes he offered and smoked them with apparent -enjoyment. - -A tour of the village impressed the visitors with the ease and -contentment in which these simple people lived. Men and women worked in -their gardens, or sat in the doorways of their houses fashioning the -soft, leather garments that seemed to be their sole articles of dress. -Children played between the trees, and in them, shrieking with young -laughter. Many of the people showed curiosity about the visitors, but -respectfully kept at a distance. - -Their hosts led Steve and Myra to a tiny building that looked like -an old subway kiosk. With no thought of being on their guard, they -entered, and were taken by surprise when the floor dropped away beneath -them. - -"My astral aunt!" exclaimed Myra. "An elevator!" - -"Why not?" asked Steve. "Any race that can make steel ought to be able -to build an elevator." - -The car stopped after a long descent, and the party stepped out into -a high-ceilinged underground room, filled with hurrying people and, -what was more apparent, noise. Sounds of machinery in feverish action -crashed upon their eardrums in rhythmic, deafening beats. The giant -machines themselves could be seen through great casings of glass-like -material. Men sat at lever-studded desks here and there, evidently in -control of the metal prometheans. - -Their guides led them quickly through the large room and out through a -corridor at the far end. They passed many such rooms that branched off -from the hall, but none so large as the first. - -At length they came to a platform. Beside it there was a strip of -slowly moving steel. Next to this was another, moving faster. There -were several more, each moving a bit faster than its predecessor, and -the last one, on which there were seats, moving at thirty miles per -hour. - -Carefully they made their way across these strips and sat down in the -leather seats. Presently they were whizzing through a dimly illuminated -tunnel. - -Steve and Myra took part in all these proceedings with interest, while -questions mounted in their minds. They made many suppositions to -each other, some of them fantastic. On the whole, they were enjoying -themselves. - -Steve estimated they had gone about five miles when the moving strips -rounded a curve and their hosts signed that they were to get off. They -made their way over the more slowly moving strips onto another platform -and through a door. - -Beyond the door was a wide corridor with an arched ceiling. The whole -was a faint green, the effect achieved by painting the green steel of -which the tunnel was constructed with white paint, which Steve reasoned -had a luminous quality, since the light evidently came from the walls -themselves. - - * * * * * - -As the faint rumble of the transportation strips died away behind them, -they walked through a silence that was almost reverent. Their guides, -who had heretofore carried on a pleasant guttural conversation between -themselves, became silent, almost grave. A feeling of inexplicable awe -crept over the visitors. - -The corridor stretched ahead in a straight line, without a bend to mar -its symmetry. Just when they thought it would go on interminably, a -great double door appeared at the far end. It took up the whole width -and height of the tunnel, and, contrastingly, was of wood, carved over -all in intricate designs. - -When they came to it, the older man knocked on it with the ball of -his palm. The echoes of the sound reverberated throughout the tunnel. -Slowly the door swung inward and revealed a dimly-lit room twenty feet -high and about fifty square. A dark red carpet covered the floor. -Heavy, comfortable-looking armchairs had been placed against the walls, -and an immense wooden table occupied the center of the room. What light -there was came from an ornate glass chandelier which hung halfway -between the floor and ceiling. - -Steve and Myra took two involuntary steps into the room and stopped, -to stare about them for several minutes without moving. The thing that -struck them so forcibly was the extraordinary resemblance between the -manner in which the room was furnished and one on Earth. - -Finally the spell broke and almost simultaneously they turned around. -Their guides were gone. They could see them just within sight at the -other end of the long corridor. They were about to go after them, when -a voice said, in _English_: - -"Won't you come in?" - - - V - -Steve and Myra turned around at the sound of the voice and -automatically stepped back into the room. It wasn't until a few seconds -later that they realized what had happened. Someone here, light years -away from Earth, had spoken to them in their own language! They looked -at each other with amazement, then looked around for the speaker. - -"I'm over here," the voice said, "to your right." - -In that dimly-lit part of the room they made out the figure of an old -man sitting in a high-backed chair, his hands stretched out on its arms. - -"Please come in," he said. - -Slowly they went over to him. He was a very old man, his face and -hands deeply wrinkled, with white hair brushed neatly away from his -intelligent forehead. There was a curious immobility about him that -half-frightened them, but his eyes were kindly. - -Steve and Myra sat down. There was silence for a minute. Then: - -"I am very wise," the old man said abruptly. - -Unable to help himself, Steve chuckled. Myra looked at him reprovingly. - -"You mustn't laugh at me," said the old man. "I know much. What I say -is true. You must remember that. And if you will be patient and humor -me, I will tell you where you are, and how you came to be." - -"You mean how we came to be _here_," corrected Steve. - -"You mustn't interrupt me, either," said the old man irritably. "I mean -what I say. I will tell you how you began and how you are related to -me and many other trivial things like how you will leave here when you -have decided to go." - -"We were on our way to Jupiter," said Myra, "when we got kidnaped. -Steve was going to teach at college there." - -"It is a good thing to teach," the old man said. "Of course, you know -very little, but it is admirable to teach those who know less. I have -always been a teacher...." He trailed off into silence. - -"Just what do you mean by 'always,'" asked Steve, "as long as we're -being rude to each other. Just how old are you?" - -"Who knows?" the old man answered slowly. "Hundreds of thousands of -years." - -Myra gave a little yip. - -"Steve," she gasped. "His lips aren't moving!" - -The oldster took this with equanimity. - -"True," he said. "Because they aren't mine. At least not any more. You -see, the real me is up here, in this vat. I'm just a brain. That thing -you've been talking to is just a corpse. I hope you don't mind." - -Myra shuddered. - -"It's all right," the voice continued. "It's sanitary. They used the -best embalming fluid." - -"How come you speak English?" asked Steve. - -"I don't," said the voice. "You might as well ask why people understand -music written by people who speak different languages. I'm not -speaking; I'm thinking out loud, if you will pardon the idiom. Music -and thought are universal. - -"Now I will tell you a story. Many millions of years ago there was -a great planet, the greatest in the universe. On it was bred a race -of geniuses. Mentally, the planet was ideal; physically, it was less -fortunate. Our sun was about to become a nova. As a result, the day -came when our scientists were forced to warn their people that they -would have to leave the planet before it was burned to a cinder. - -"There was one scientist who was more renowned than the others, and -with good reason. It was he was had isolated the _gion_ beam, as it was -called, which had the property of breaking down a substance to its -component atoms and sending it wherever directed. - -"To make the story easier to tell, I will admit that I was that -scientist, and that my name is Gion, which you may call me, if you can -do so without interrupting me." - -He paused for a moment, as if marshalling his memories. - -"Our scientists searched the universe with their instruments, seeking -another planet. Finally this one was located. But it was too distant to -be reached within a life-span by means of the antiquated space ships we -had then. Only one method was possible--the _gion_ beam. - -"Even this method was not completely satisfactory, because it would -require terrific power to transport anything here and we hadn't fuel -for more than one shipment. Therefore, it was necessary to make a -careful selection of those who were to go and what they were to take -with them. - -"About three hundred were chosen--two hundred women and a hundred men, -all unmarried and all about twenty. The emphasis was put on human -beings, and not on equipment, so only certain surgical supplies were -taken. - -"It was decided that one master-scientist was to go, regardless of his -age, to act as guide and counselor to the new race. I was chosen, and -it was a very bad choice. You see, I was dying of cancer of the stomach -at the time. Naturally, I protested, but they paid no attention. -Instead they killed me." - - * * * * * - -"_What?_" gasped Myra. - -"Exactly," said Gion. "They killed my body and locked my wise old brain -in this glass case. Would you believe it--sometimes I get bored." - -Steve laughed. "You know, Mr. Gion, you're amazing. Tell me, did your -party ever get here?" - -"No I'll tell you about the hairy people," said Gion reprovingly. -"After we had set up our village and things were going along nicely, we -met the people who lived on the planet long before we arrived. Those -peach-colored scoundrels you've already met. Pack of thieves. They -used to come around at night and steal anything they could lay their -hands on. They would also watch up for hours while we worked and later -imitate what we did. It didn't take them long to develop from dumb -animals to malignantly intelligent creatures. Naturally we had to get -rid of them. - -"We drove them down to the sea. As we might have expected, they played -a foul trick on us. They stole one of our ships and escaped across -the ocean. Ever since they've been getting brighter and brighter and -breeding like rabbits, until now they've overrun their continent and -want ours. Naturally, we had to take steps." - -"So you surrounded your continent with a field of insanity, producing -vibrations to send them back gibbering?" asked Steve. - -The voice laughed. "Is that what they told you? Crazy beasts--we did -no such thing. It would be too much bother, too expensive and--well, -impossible. Our defense is much simpler. We merely let them land and -get out of their ships--then biff them with our insanity beam. And -since we don't want any idiotic foreigners running around our forests, -we pile them back into their ships and shoot them back home. Nothing to -it." - -Gion paused. Myra, who had been waiting for a propitious moment, said: - -"I thought you were going to tell us how _we_ began?" - -"I am. I am," he said. "Our new civilization was about a century old, -when we began to receive messages from far out in space. They were -from a ship that had taken off from our old planet just before the -explosion, manned by an intrepid group of people who knew that they -would never live to reach another land, but who hoped that their -children might. - -"The messages were pathetic. They were from the sole survivor of the -original travelers, who said that their children had revolted against -the rigid discipline he had tried to maintain, and that the ship was -in a state of bedlam. Only the fact that he had sealed the engine -room against them had prevented them from reaching the controls and -destroying themselves. Inertia kept the ship on its course. - -"Further messages from this old man reached us, saying that the rebels -had reverted practically to wild beasts and were living in a state -of indescribable filth. Our records show that the ship didn't reach -your Earth until sixty years later, so you can imagine the condition -its passengers were in when it finally landed. And those were your -ancestors." - -"A pretty picture," grimaced Steve. There was a moment's silence. Then -said: "Why do you live underground, or at least work down here? Isn't -it impractical?" - -"On the contrary," explained Gion, "it's very practical. You see, we're -a peace-loving people. We don't like trouble, and we don't believe in -waging war to keep out of trouble at some future date. Consequently, -we build all our factories underground, so that the hairy people can't -blow them up whenever they feel like it by flying over and dropping -bombs. Another reason is that we like the forest and believe it's -healthy for our children to grow up there. We don't build cities to -make targets for the potential enemy--human or bacterial, whichever -it might be--but try to live in as close cooperation with nature as -possible. Does that make sense?" - -"It makes perfect sense," agreed Myra. Steve nodded. - -"And now," said Gion, "if I read your minds correctly, you'd like to -get away from this garrulous old man and see some more of our country -before you continue your interrupted journey to Jupiter." - - - VI - -What had seemed to be a long flat meadow was in reality, just beneath -the surface, an emergency airport that was used in place of the moving -chairs or the underground freight-railway when speed was imperative. -Seldom used, but always in a state of preparedness, the port now buzzed -with activity as the roof of simulated grass rolled back, disclosing a -resplendent green space-ship waiting on the take-off ways. - -So simple was the ship in construction that less than an hour of -intensive instruction from Gion, on a model control board set up in the -underground room, was sufficient to acquaint him perfectly with the -management of the craft. - -It almost frightened him to think that he and Myra were about to -undertake a journey in a ship so swift that they would arrive on -Jupiter, in an inestimably distant solar system, almost as soon as they -would have in their Skypiercer, had they not been interrupted by Peachy. - -At last, all was ready. Steve and Myra waved good-bye to the people -they had come to know as friends in such a short time, and sealed -themselves inside the ship. - -Steve consulted the charts for a second, then sent the ship into a -noiseless take-off that soon left the field far below, already being -retransformed into a green meadow. He followed his instructions -carefully and kept the ship at a moderate speed, to wait until the -gravitational pull of the planet had been left behind before beginning -the almost unbelievable acceleration of which the ship was capable. - -Myra sat in thought for a moment, then: "Steve," she said, "I don't -want to seem skeptical, but doesn't Gion's theory about the beginning -of man on Earth sort of conflict with our time-honored theory of -evolution? Apes and men from the same source, and all that?" - -"Not exactly," Steve said. "The evidence seems to point to the fact -that those third-generation refugees landed on North America a few ages -ago, and founded the Indian nations. It's the only tenable explanation -of the origin of the American Indian that I've ever heard." - -The planet was rapidly growing smaller behind them. - -"If only they hadn't mutinied against discipline, it's probable that -with their advanced knowledge, the Indians would have discovered Europe -long before Columbus--or Lief Erickson--crossed the Atlantic. Their -culture, if they had kept it, might have been a better incentive to -European development than theirs was--" - -"Brrr!" Myra shivered suddenly. "I get the creeps when I think of -talking to a corpse." - -Steve Horn chuckled. "Don't ever accuse me of being dead, again," he -said mockingly. "At least, I can get up and walk around." - -He flipped the drive control, sent the green space-ship whipping past -a darting meteor. He spun the ship again, in a tight circle, thrilling -to the surge of power released by the light touch of his hand on the -controls, then laughed aloud at Myra's instant cry of ecstatic alarm. - -"Hush, Infant," he said, "I'm just practicing up for the time when I -sell the rights to the constructing of ships identical to this. Boy, -will the shekels ever roll in!" - -Myra tucked in a loose strand of hair, bent over and kissed Steve on -the lobe of his right ear. He squirmed, wriggled, jerked the ship -off-course by an inadvertent twitch of his hand, growled playfully, -then let the ship travel uncontrolled while he kissed the ear of his -wife in return. - -"Steve, pulleeze!" Myra said faintly. - -"What were you saying about the Indians, dear?" she asked finally. - -"'Lo, the poor Indian,'" Steve misquoted, "he has gone the way of -all--_Damn!_" His words were bitten off by the sudden jerking of the -ship. - -Myra frowned. "Maybe those Indians didn't build this thing so well," -she said worriedly. "Remember Peachy said the first few ships built by -his people wouldn't fly. It would be just our luck to try and ride an -experimental job back to Jupiter." - -Steve jiggled the controls. - -"Something grabbed us," he said. "Something just reached out and jerked -us off-course--tried to hold us back." - -"I don't believe it," Myra said. "You're just--" - -The ship whipped to one side, then bucked playfully like a trout riding -a fisherman's line. - -"Ugh!" said Steve faintly, struggled to pull his body back into his -seat. - -"Steve, I'm frightened!" Myra wailed. - -"Nonsense!" Steve said stoutly. "There isn't a blamed thing to be -afra--" - - * * * * * - -Suddenly the ship began to toss crazily, like a rat shaken in a -terrier's teeth. Steve and Myra were thrown to the floor. Unsteadily -making their way to a window, they saw a little golden meteor-ship, -such as had been the beginning of all their trouble. Evidently they -were caught in its magnetic field. Steve tried accelerating, but they -were powerless to escape. - -Myra burst into helpless tears. "Oh, Steve, this is too much. We -_can't_ go back there again." - -"Damn those peach-creatures!" said Steve. "Just when I thought we'd -never see them again." - -Again letters of fire appeared above the little golden ship. "RETURN," -they said, simply. - -"You're not going to do it?" asked Myra. - -"There's no use getting killed." Steve shrugged disgustedly. - -He was about to reverse the ship's course when a long snake-like flame -streaked up from the planet below with a menacing rumble that could be -felt through the hull of the ship. - -The golden craft saw it coming and tried to escape, but the lash of -flame followed its frantic dodgings inexorably. Suddenly, like a -striking snake, it straightened. Its tip touched the meteor-ship. There -was an eye-blinding flash. - -When they could see again, nothing was visible but the planet below, -looking serene and peaceful on the wooded half of its surface turned to -them. Of the attacking ship or the instrument of its doom there was no -sign. - -Steve Horn looked for the last time at the planet before climbing back -into the control seat. He wiped his eyes with a self-conscious gesture. - -"Thanks," he said. - -And flicked the drive-beam that was to send them home. - - * * * * * - -[Transcriber's Note: Section headings for section I to III missing.] - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man From Siykul, by Richard Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN FROM SIYKUL *** - -***** This file should be named 62267-8.txt or 62267-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/2/6/62267/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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: 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/62267-8.zip b/old/62267-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 412bb56..0000000 --- a/old/62267-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62267-h.zip b/old/62267-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 83b6c40..0000000 --- a/old/62267-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62267-h/62267-h.htm b/old/62267-h/62267-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 6cdb494..0000000 --- a/old/62267-h/62267-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1802 +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 The Man from Siykul, by Richard Wilson. - </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; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; -} - -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; -} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - -.ph2 { text-align: right; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man From Siykul, by Richard Wilson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Man From Siykul - -Author: Richard Wilson - -Release Date: May 28, 2020 [EBook #62267] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN FROM SIYKUL *** - - - - -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="346" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>The Man From Siykul</h1> - -<h2>By RICHARD WILSON</h2> - -<p>The Siykulans demanded pay for Myra and Steve's<br /> -freedom. The price was small—merely the losing<br /> -of their sanity in the spider's ray-trap.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Winter 1942.<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>Myra Horn awoke from her nap on the couch in the control room and -looked at her husband. He was hunched over the Simplimatic 50-Button -control board of their sleek Skypiercer space-launch, peering through -the vision shield with a grim intensity.</p> - -<p>Myra turned her involuntary smile into a wifely frown at his muscular -back.</p> - -<p>"Steve!" she said sharply. "Will you stop chasing that meteor? Aren't -you ever going to grow up?"</p> - -<p>Steve Horn glanced at her over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Hush, dear," he grinned. "Papa's in the money."</p> - -<p>Myra sat up and smoothed her satin-leather jumper. She looked again at -the meteor they were pursuing. "What a funny color!" she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>"The Primary Color," said Steve. "It's a flying goldmine. I think we're -gaining on it."</p> - -<p>"What are you going to do when you catch up with it?"</p> - -<p>"Lasso it," replied her husband. "In half an hour," he paused -impressively, "—we'll be Horns of plenty."</p> - -<p>Myra made a face at his back. "Bless your heart, darling," she said. -"If there were another man closer than Jupiter I'd divorce you."</p> - -<p>"I'm captain here," said Steve Horn, "with power of life, death and -divorce. You'll do no such thing. Grab the keyboard while I trip up our -quarry."</p> - -<p>Myra slipped into his seat while Steve jumped to a boxlike affair that -jutted from the floor on a pedestal. It was one of the "accessories -optional at slight additional cost" which Myra had insisted they could -do without—a Netaction wireless-grapple capable of exerting a magnetic -pull on objects up to half a mile distant.</p> - -<p>Myra fell into the spirit of the chase. She accelerated their little -craft until they were within snaring distance of the meteor.</p> - -<p>"Take it easy," advised Steve. "Don't get too close. You might dent it."</p> - -<p>He flicked over a switch on the wireless grapple.</p> - -<p>"Got it!" he cried triumphantly a moment later.</p> - -<p>"How do you know?" demanded Myra. "You can't see any more than I -can—and I don't notice any difference."</p> - -<p>"Try decelerating," Steve suggested.</p> - -<p>Myra cut the motor. There was a silence they hadn't experienced since -the start of their trip to Jupiter, more than two weeks before. It was -broken almost immediately by a series of less-deep, sonorous staccato -bursts from the Retarderockets in the nose of the ship.</p> - -<p>"You're right, Steve. There is a definite forward drag not caused by -momentum."</p> - -<p>"'Course, I'm right."</p> - -<p>"But, Steve," said Myra abruptly, "that can't be gold. Since when has -gold been attracted by a magnet?"</p> - -<p>He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again and looked disgusted.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," Myra said after a moment, "don't let go. Maybe we can sell -it to a Jovian museum as a rare curio. Probably worth millions!"</p> - -<p>"Probably iron pyrite. Probably worth less than twenty bucks. Pfah!" -Steve snorted impatiently. "We'll throw it back. We haven't got time to -lug museum pieces around the solar system, however scholarly we may be."</p> - -<p>"Okay!" Myra pouted prettily.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Steve flicked the grappler indicator to "off." Nothing happened. The -retarding rockets continued to blast vainly away. The gold colored -meteor sped before them; their ship followed it inexorably.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter?" asked Myra. "Change your mind?"</p> - -<p>Steve stared at the fleeting meteor in amazement.</p> - -<p>"I let go," he said. He indicated the silent grapple. "Look. It's dead."</p> - -<p>"Don't tell me," purred Myra sarcastically, "that you're going to let a -little hunk of rock kidnap us."</p> - -<p>"Hell of a thing," muttered Steve. "Maybe I used too much power. Maybe -the thing's charged with magnetism."</p> - -<p>"And exerting an attraction strong enough to affect us—half a mile -away?" Suddenly the ship lurched sideways. Myra drew herself erect, -rubbing a painful nose. "Now I ask you—is that any way for a full -grown meteor to act?"</p> - -<p>Steve picked himself off the floor, where the sudden swerve of the -ship had thrown him. He joined his wife at the shield. The meteor was -twisting and turning like a thing demented. The Skypiercer, in its -magnetic grasp, followed the crazy course helplessly.</p> - -<p>Steve looked very wise. "Something's wrong. I have a hunch it isn't a -meteor."</p> - -<p>"Hear! Hear!" applauded Myra. "First it isn't a goldmine. Now it isn't -a meteor. What won't it be next, my profound husband?"</p> - -<p>Steve ignored her. He cut off the Retarderockets. "Save fuel, anyway," -he said.</p> - -<p>There was another cessation of sound.</p> - -<p>The Horns looked at each other in astonishment. They were slowing down! -The meteor drifted slowly through space—then stopped.</p> - -<p>"Everything," said Myra softly, "is all wacked up. Where is the physics -of yesteryear?"</p> - -<p>Steve was staring open mouthed at the gold colored piece of rock. -"Little demons!" he breathed. "It's turning around. It wants to say -hello. Isn't that nice! Pad a cell for me, old fruitcake, I feel a -spasm coming on."</p> - -<p>The "meteor" described a wide arc that brought it to the side of the -Horns' ship, now halted in space. It circled them a few times; then -stopped and bobbed up and down in a friendly manner.</p> - -<p>"It wants to play," said Steve wearily. "Go shake hands with it."</p> - -<p>"If it's a ship," said Myra practically, "it's done a very good job of -disguising itself. There aren't any rocket tubes, or ports, or landing -gear, as far as I can see."</p> - -<p>Their golden companion began to whirl rapidly, like a miniature planet. -Above it, English characters appeared against the black curtain of -space in lines of fire. They were badly made, and misspelled, but -readable.</p> - -<p>"GUD MORNIG," they said. "HELO CQ UGH."</p> - -<p>"Ugh," said Steve. He put his hands over his eyes and sat down. He -moaned, "This," he said, "is too much."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When, in 2021, the government created a Department of Education, it -consolidated hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the -country and introduced robot lecturers. Hundreds of instructors were -left without jobs. One of them was Stephen Horn, Professor of American -Literature.</p> - -<p>He faced no immediate worry, however. His salary had permitted him to -save enough to provide for him and his wife for a few years. Myra Horn, -more popularly known as Myra Classon, was a novelist whose books had -received considerable attention—especially in Steve's American Lit -classes, where he shamelessly proclaimed her to be one of the greatest -living authors.</p> - -<p>After a period of futile searching for another professorial position -in America or abroad, Steve came bouncing home one day waving a -pink Space-Cable form. It had been addressed to him care of his old -University, and read:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>"IMPERATIVE NEED FOR LIT PROF HERE SALARY PHENOMENAL STOP WHAT ARE YOU -WAITING FOR LOVE TO MYRA</p> - -<p class="ph2">(Signed) ART WILDER<br /> -UNIVERSITY OF JUPITER"</p></div> - -<p>Art, Myra and Steve were old friends, and had attended the same -college. But when Steve and Myra married, Art disappeared. They heard -nothing of him for three years, until one day there arrived in the -trans-spatial mail a copy of Art's home-town paper, marked at an -article lauding Wurtsboro's native son for his successful founding of a -university at the booming Earth colony of New City, Jupiter.</p> - -<p>The upshot of his message was that, after several more cables, Steve -went out and bought a space-launch, fully equipped for travel to high -and far off places like the Sun's fifth planet.</p> - -<p>The Horns hadn't expected an uneventful trip, having once taken a -weekend excursion to the Moon. Myra had a vivid recollection of the -things that had happened to them at that time: events including coping -with a pyromaniac, an undecided suicide who leaped overboard in a -space-suit, and a crackpot mutineer who had tried to enlist their aid -in overcoming the captain and setting up an anarchist Utopia on Mars -with the thirty-two passengers aboard.</p> - -<p>But she had never expected to encounter a talking meteor.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Shall we ignore it?" she asked her husband. "Or shall we be civil and -chat a while?"</p> - -<p>"I wash my hands of the matter," said Steve. "If you want to strike up -an acquaintance with every impossibility that comes along, it's up to -you."</p> - -<p>The meteor was getting impatient. It began to bob up and down again, -like a balloon caught in an air current. More letters appeared above it -in space.</p> - -<p>"HELLO?" it said. "EXTRA ENGLISH WHAT?"</p> - -<p>"Okay, okay," soothed Myra. "Just a minute."</p> - -<p>She tore a page out of a notebook and printed something on it. She held -it up to a porthole.</p> - -<p>The meteor bounded closer, so that it was almost touching their ship. -Now they could see tiny mounds on its surface, about the size of -walnuts.</p> - -<p>"Good grief!" said Steve. "It's got eyes. Like...."</p> - -<p>"Like a potato," finished Myra.</p> - -<p>The meteor bounced off again and stood stationary for a moment.</p> - -<p>"What'd you say?" Steve asked.</p> - -<p>"I said, 'I'm a married woman. But stick around.'"</p> - -<p>"Fine," said Steve. "Nothing like a little comedy to buck one up in -moments fraught with suspense. What's it doing now?"</p> - -<p>The meteor was whirling again in a state of industrious agitation. -Suddenly it stopped. A white, sticky substance began to pour out of it. -As it grew it congealed into something resembling frosted glass, which -formed a gigantic bubble, big enough to enclose several ships the size -of the Horns.</p> - -<p>There was a large opening at one point. The transparent bubble drifted -toward them. Before they could move they had entered it through the -opening. The meteor-ship followed them, then spurted some more of the -gelatine substance, sealing the opening.</p> - -<p>A nozzle poked its way through the hull of the golden ship. Through -the hull of their ship they could hear a hissing noise. Presently it -stopped. The nozzle was withdrawn.</p> - -<p>Their neighbor hopped over to them again. One of its "eyes" expanded -until it was the size of a basketball, and transparent. More letters of -fire, much smaller now, appeared within.</p> - -<p>"AIR," they said. "EARTH AIR SAFE OPEN DOOR."</p> - -<p>A section of the golden ship dropped. On it stood a creature less than -two feet tall, colored a deep bronze. Vaguely terrestrial in shape, it -stood on one thick limb which became its body without widening at what -might be called its hips. It terminated below in a ball-shaped foot -and above in a shapeless bumpy head, featureless, except that each of -the bumps seemed to be an eye. Three arms, of various sizes, each with -different joints, extended from its body—one just below the head, in -front, one halfway down on its left side and one at what should have -been the top of its right thigh.</p> - -<p>It was a thoroughly unnerving spectacle.</p> - -<p>"My two-headed aunt!" cried Steve. "The side show's in town."</p> - -<p>"No remarks," said Myra. "You should see yourself in the morning. But -what are we going to do about it?"</p> - -<p>"Ask it to tea." He twisted a little wheel on the control board. "I'll -have the data in a minute. Maybe the little fella isn't lying. Maybe -there is air in the bubble."</p> - -<p>"Temperature 72°, humidity 84 percent," announced Steve. "Tomorrow -fair, with slowly rising food prices."</p> - -<p>"Laugh and you laugh alone," said Myra. "I don't understand it, but do -we let him in?"</p> - -<p>"Sure. Maybe he can play rummy."</p> - -<p>Steve stepped on the treadle that started the motor in the airlock. The -lock rumbled slowly outward.</p> - -<p>"Steve—" Myra's voice was a little uncertain. "Maybe the instruments -aren't working?"</p> - -<p>Steve sighed. "I like the way you think of these things just <i>after</i> -the nick of time. If that were so, we'd be frozen corpses by now. The -door's open. It's a little muggy, but that's all."</p> - -<p>Now they could see the bronze midget more clearly. He looked no -more inviting at close range, being wider and heavier than they had -imagined, but what he lacked in looks he made up for in affability. He -waved all three arms at them once, like a happy windmill.</p> - -<p>Steve waved back. "Nice day," he said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The creature left off waving at them and signalled his ship. It drifted -closer soundlessly, until the two ships were touching.</p> - -<p>"Look," whispered Myra. "He's all over fuzz. Like a peach."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="389" height="500" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>"Look," whispered Myra, "he's all over fuzz, like a peach!"</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Steve craned his neck to look down at their visitor, who had stepped -onto the platform of their ship and seemed to be inspecting their knees -with great interest.</p> - -<p>Steve squatted down until he was almost on a level with their guest. He -held out his hand. The fuzzy one let it overflow in one of his curious -three-fingered hands and looked at it critically.</p> - -<p>He couldn't tell whether he was being looked at and listened to, or -not. The creature's eyes were scattered all over its gold-hair-covered -head. Their pupils were hairlike, resembling those of a horse.</p> - -<p>A low-pitched hum, rising and falling, ceasing occasionally, came -from the three-armed one. It emanated from no particular spot, but -surrounded him like an aura.</p> - -<p>"No savvy," said Steve. "C'mon. I want to see how you walk."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He got up and stepped backward. The creature followed, in an -effortless, gliding motion. He appeared to have a ball set into a -socket of his foot, which, combined with a delicate sense of balance, -gave him a wonderful mobility.</p> - -<p>Abruptly he turned, gave a little hop to his own craft and disappeared.</p> - -<p>"What do you make of that?" Myra asked.</p> - -<p>"He just remembered a previous engagement," soothed Steve. "What's the -matter, darling—jealous?"</p> - -<p>In a moment the creature reappeared, carrying a plain black box, about -six inches square.</p> - -<p>"I told you he played rummy," said Steve. "Look—he brought chips."</p> - -<p>He set the box on the floor and threw back a lid. Inside the lid were -three fine wires that ended in buttons. He handed one each to Myra and -Steve and took one himself.</p> - -<p>"Now," said a metallic voice, "we'll be able to understand each other."</p> - -<p>The Horns looked at each other, then at the animate piece of bronze -fuzz. At the same time the voice had spoken, there had been the hum -they assumed to be his method of communication. Steve's eyebrows shot -up in inquiry.</p> - -<p>"Does that thing act as a translator?"</p> - -<p>As he spoke, a hum came from the box.</p> - -<p>"Exactly," said the box, while the bronze one hummed.</p> - -<p>"Amazing," murmured Myra. "This should take the place of the -self-lighting cigarette. Speaking of which, how about one? We'll be -burning up Peach's air, not ours."</p> - -<p>"I think we both need one," said Steve. He handed her one, popped one -in his own mouth. After looking in vain for a mouth on Peachy, he put -the pack back in his pocket. They puffed, and smoke curled from the -glow that was suddenly at the end.</p> - -<p>Peachy looked at them curiously.</p> - -<p>"First," he said, "my name isn't Peachy. It's WalmearFgon. Secondly, -what are those?"</p> - -<p>"Wal...." Steve made a face. "We'll let it go at Peachy. Secondly, -these are cigarettes. Also known as smokes, fags, the White Menace and -coffin-nails. They stain your fingers, befoul the atmosphere, use up -oxygen, give you bad breath and shorten your life-span."</p> - -<p>"Then why do you use them?"</p> - -<p>Steve shrugged. "I save coupons."</p> - -<p>Peachy looked blank. But then Peachy had no way of looking otherwise, -so Myra said:</p> - -<p>"Where do you come from?"</p> - -<p>"Siykul." He waved his two free arms vaguely. "Over there."</p> - -<p>"He means he's a Martian," explained Steve. "Aren't you, Peachy?"</p> - -<p>"No," he said.</p> - -<p>"Venerian?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Mercurian, Jovian, Saturnine, Platonic?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Oh." Steve looked incredulous. "Solar System?"</p> - -<p>"Not this one." He pointed, more specifically this time. "That is my -home. In your words it is called Bungula, in Centauri. I lived on the -second planet, Siykul."</p> - -<p>"Pleased to meet you," said Myra. "Now that the formalities are over -with, let's get to the point. To what do we owe the pleasure, as we -say, of your visit?"</p> - -<p>"I have been on a quest," said Peachy. "I have traveled through -several solar systems looking for two subjects for experimentation. All -that I visited, however, I found far too intelligent for my purposes. -Now, at last, I am successful."</p> - -<p>"<i>Wh-at?</i>" said Steve.</p> - -<p>"Imagine," said Myra softly. "This little one-legged, three-armed, -potato-headed, noseless squirt of fuzz came um-teen trillion miles just -to insult us. Imagine!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Peachy's home, the second of five planets that circled the sun, -Bungula, in the constellation of Centauri, was a world about the size -of Mars, but more nearly resembling Earth in every other respect. -Seven-eighths of its surface was covered with water. The atmosphere -they breathed was essentially Earth air. There were two continents -on Siykul, on opposite sides of the globe, as well as minor islands -scattered here and there in the seas. The poles were covered with ice -the year round.</p> - -<p>There were two dominant races on Siykul, one on each continent. -According to Peachy, each was covetous of the other's land. His race -was young, brilliant, industrious and ingenious. Their technicians, -inventors and mechanics were unequaled anywhere in the cosmos, so far -as he knew.</p> - -<p>Theirs were great cities, factories, ships of the sea, land and air. -Buildings stretched scores of tiers into the sky and down into the -ground as far again. Rich in minerals and raw materials, their race was -one with a brief past, but a promising future.</p> - -<p>The other continent, however, was shockingly primitive. Vast forests -and jungles stretched from one sea to the other. Aircraft passing -overhead could make out only scattered and far apart settlements that -might, possibly, house life. There were hundred-mile stretches in which -no trace of a living thing could be found. The inhabitants, glimpsed -occasionally, were immense, red, spidery things, evidently very savage.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra interrupted Peachy's story long enough to make -themselves comfortable on chairs and choose fresh cigarettes.</p> - -<p>"About how tremendous are these creatures, compared, say—to me?" -asked Steve.</p> - -<p>"They're about your size."</p> - -<p>"Enormous," admitted Steve to the compact two-footer. "Go on."</p> - -<p>Peachy didn't seem to be made for any position other than an upright -one. He shifted his communication wire to another hand and continued:</p> - -<p>"A few years ago my people began to realize that our continent would -not be big enough to hold us very much longer. We are already utilizing -every available inch of space in our country and we must have more -room, otherwise many of our people will starve.</p> - -<p>"Spurred on thus, we quickly built a small fleet of extraplanetary -ships to seek habitation on other worlds. The fleet became useless -when it left our atmosphere, and the eight ships crashed. But we had -profited by our mistakes, and the next fleet successfully navigated the -upper air."</p> - -<p>Steve looked incredulous. "Do you mean to say those were the first -space ships you ever made?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said the Siykulan simply. "We had never needed them before."</p> - -<p>Steve whistled.</p> - -<p>"Look," said Myra. "What was the idea of dashing all over the Solar -System for this elbow room, when you have all you needed on the other -continent?"</p> - -<p>"We had no way of getting there," said Peachy.</p> - -<p>"Nonsense," said Steve, "you just finished telling us about your -airships, and boats and marvelous inventions—"</p> - -<p>"You don't understand," said their tiny guest patiently. "There was -no <i>physical</i> hardship involved. We had no trouble flying over the -continent, or approaching it from the ocean. But the moment we tried to -land, from the sea or air, disaster overtook us."</p> - -<p>"What sort of disaster?" asked Myra.</p> - -<p>"Insanity."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Every so often, it seemed, the Siykulans sent an expedition to their -neighboring continent. And once in a while—not so often—a member or -two of the expedition would return, to babble crazily of monsters and -blackness and throbbings in their heads.</p> - -<p>They had lost some of their best minds that way before they gave up. -Except for one further experiment. They outfitted a remote control -ship with an assortment of animals and sent this to the neighboring -continent, accompanied by a ship manned by a higher-order Siykulan who -directed the animal craft without himself going close enough to the -other continent to be affected.</p> - -<p>The animal ship was landed while the controlling vessel hovered high -above to note reactions. After a time, the first ship took off and the -two sped back to Siykul.</p> - -<p>Tests previously conducted had proven that animals could be made insane -by inaudible notes of music and by scientifically-induced frustration. -But these animals had not been affected by their exposure to whatever -it was that had driven their more intelligent neighbors into idiocy.</p> - -<p>It was therefore assumed that the malignant aura which hung over the -green continent could affect only the brainy, possibly because the aura -was electrical in nature and in some way short-circuited the brain -through thought, which is another form of electricity.</p> - -<p>Hence the pilgrimage of the little Siykulan. Provided with what might -best be described as a brainmeter, or intelligence-tester, he had -roamed the spaceways in his golden ship searching for a race with a -modicum of intelligence, but not too much.</p> - -<p>Steve put out his cigarette.</p> - -<p>"It's been a very interesting story, Peachy," he said, "if not very -complimentary, but I'm sorry we can't oblige you. We have a date on -Jupiter."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Myra. "We're sorry to have to chase you out like this, but -we must be getting on. Drop in to see us again any time you're in the -neighborhood."</p> - -<p>Although there was no change in the demeanor of the Siykulan, or in the -inflection of the voice that came from him through the black box, he -seemed to them suddenly stern and, ridiculous though it seemed in one -his size, awesome.</p> - -<p>"You must do what I say. You don't seem to understand that upon you -rests the fate of five hundred million people...."</p> - -<p>"... like you," said Myra scornfully.</p> - -<p>"Like me," said Peachy proudly. "They are depending on me, and I shall -not fail them. You need have no fear of not being compensated—"</p> - -<p>"It's not compensation," said Steve. "I don't know what your life span -is, but ours is roughly a hundred years, and we aren't anxious to waste -any of it on a trip to Centauri."</p> - -<p>"So!" said Peachy triumphantly, "since that is your only objection, you -will—"</p> - -<p>"It's <i>not</i> our only objection," said Myra, but Peachy went on -inexorably.</p> - -<p>"—you will be glad to know that we are already in the atmosphere of my -planet."</p> - -<p>"Don't be silly," said Steve. Then, uncertainly, "We couldn't be."</p> - -<p>"You shall see," said Peachy. He dropped his wire and glided to his own -ship. He returned in a moment and with a grandiloquent motion of his -hand, indicated the opaque, glass-like bubble.</p> - -<p>As they watched, it wavered and grew transparent, then disappeared.</p> - -<p>The Horn's space-launch and the meteor ship of the Siykulan were -drifting a scant ten miles above an alien planet from which immense -buildings, for as far as they could see, reached up to them like greedy -fingers.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Steve Horn flicked cigarette ashes onto the floor of what seemed to be -the room of a Siykulan hotel.</p> - -<p>"I don't like it one little bit," he said. "It isn't the delay so much -as the affront to our intelligence."</p> - -<p>"Yes, darling," soothed Myra. "We should have shown them our diplomas -and degrees. Or challenged them to a spelling bee!"</p> - -<p>"You're not funny," said her husband. "Do you realize that we've been -in this hole for a week? Do you realize that Art Wilder and everyone on -Jupiter and Earth will think we're dead?" He paused. "Not that we won't -be."</p> - -<p>"What do you mean?"</p> - -<p>"I mean if they stick us in one of those ships of theirs to go explore -that mad-aura continent and find out what's behind all the mystery, -we'd be better off dead than crazy."</p> - -<p>Myra laughed. "What an ego you must have, my husband. It won't permit -you to think that it's possible these peach-people have bigger and -better brainwaves than we."</p> - -<p>A bell sounded and a blue light went on and off above the door.</p> - -<p>"Open it yourself," shouted Steve irritably. "I don't know how."</p> - -<p>The door opened. Peachy entered.</p> - -<p>Accompanying him was a strictly utilitarian piece of robot machinery. -Headless, it consisted of a long steel body terminating in a balled -foot at one end and two triple-jointed arms at the other. At the end of -each arm was a murderous looking spiked ball, both of which swung idly -and menacingly at the thing's sides.</p> - -<p>Peachy beckoned to them. When they hesitated, the robot clanged its -spiked fists together with an unpleasant ringing sound, then raised -them menacingly in the air.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra blanched, and meekly followed Peachy through the door. -They walked outside, followed Peachy to a space-ship and entered.</p> - -<p>Myra looked at Steve a trifle uncertainly.</p> - -<p>"Resistance would have been futile, I suppose?"</p> - -<p>Steve tried to make himself comfortable on a tiny seat of the cabin.</p> - -<p>"I think so, considering that our only hope of ever getting back to -our own System lies in playing ball with these fuzzy Fascists. There -may not be much chance of our succeeding in this screwball expedition, -but the important thing is that there is <i>some</i>. Putting up a fight -might have been gratifying to the ego, but I doubt that it would have -convinced these gangsters that they ought to send us back home."</p> - -<p>"I suppose you're right, Steve. But just what exactly do you think our -chances are, this way?"</p> - -<p>"Looking at it from the scientific angle, we're pretty well off. Here -we are scootling along at Lord knows what speed, in what may well be -the most up to date ship in the universe, with nothing to do but push -Button X when we get to Point Q on—what the hell'd I do with that -chart?"</p> - -<p>"It's all right," said Myra. "I've got it."</p> - -<p>"—And we land without fuss or bother. Providing...." A worried look -crept into Steve's face.</p> - -<p>"Providing we don't go nuts," supplemented Myra.</p> - -<p>"We do have to put an awful lot of faith in Peachy's theory that we're -subnormal enough, mentally, to escape the spider-people's batty beam. -Then all they ask is that we put the beam out of business, or show them -how they can."</p> - -<p>"Steve!" Myra's eyes reflected inspiration. "Why don't we escape? I -mean really escape. Get out of this whole business!"</p> - -<p>"You mean off the planet?"</p> - -<p>Myra nodded.</p> - -<p>"Peachy paid a touching tribute to our allegedly minus intelligence by -warning me against any such ideas—for our own good. Our fuel would -last, and our food might, and even we might, since it'd take years -without Peachy's space-annihilator. The only thing that stands in -our way is the fact that this ship isn't space-proof. It leaks air. -Compared to our Skypiercer," Steve clutched at a simile, "it is as a -hotfoot compared to a holocaust."</p> - -<p>"Well," Myra shrugged philosophically, "no one can say Lady Horn ever -leaves a stone unturned."</p> - -<p>"If you've stopped blowing your own, Horn," said Steve recklessly, -"come look at the view. It makes me homesick."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>The tiny ship sped along, a thousand feet above the great ocean that -separated Siykul from its neighboring continent. Only a slight mental -effort was needed to imagine themselves back on Earth. Long swells -swept across the deep, green surface. No sea-craft were in sight, but -occasionally a huge fish would break through the surface and quiver in -the air as sunlight glinted on the drops of water it shook from its -back.</p> - -<p>Miles ahead, land appeared, like low-lying clouds on the horizon. -Ten minutes of flying brought them over the shore—a wide beach that -stretched back half a mile and ended abruptly in a forest.</p> - -<p>The forest seemed endless.</p> - -<p>"We must have gone a hundred miles inland," said Myra. "When are we -supposed to push that fateful button?"</p> - -<p>"Point Q is described as a large prairie. We should reach it any minute -now."</p> - -<p>"What's that up ahead?"</p> - -<p>"That appears to be it," said Steve.</p> - -<p>He pushed the button with crossed fingers. The ship immediately went -into a long glide. The ground came up rapidly. Just when they thought -they would surely crash, the nose came up automatically and the ship -skidded to a bumpy halt.</p> - -<p>Steve shut off the motor. "Last stop," he said.</p> - -<p>Myra looked at him closely.</p> - -<p>"Steve," she said. "How do you feel?"</p> - -<p>"Fine," he replied. "Why? Scared?"</p> - -<p>"No. I mean—aren't we supposed to be ... well, affected, somehow?"</p> - -<p>"Oh." Steve looked at her and scratched his head in thought. "Well-l, I -do feel a trifle crazy."</p> - -<p>"How?" Myra looked concerned.</p> - -<p>Steve grinned impishly. "I feel like kissing you."</p> - -<p>Myra puffed out her cheeks in mock anger, then smiled.</p> - -<p>"You know," she said, "I feel the same way."</p> - -<p>They didn't see the two creatures that stood outside the ship, watching -them through the transparent door.</p> - -<p>Myra's eyes opened. She looked over her husband's shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Steve," she whispered.</p> - -<p>"Mmmm?" he said dreamily.</p> - -<p>"Remember your American history? Apaches, Utes and Algonquins?"</p> - -<p>"You mean the good old days, before spaceships and the machine age?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. And we're back in it. Look."</p> - -<p>Steve turned around.</p> - -<p>"Good grief!" he said. "Indians!"</p> - -<p>For a long time the two parties stared at each other without moving. -Gradually their faces broke into smiles, the natives' of polite -interest and the Horns of relief at having found the "spider people" of -Peachy's description to be simply human beings like themselves.</p> - -<p>Finally the two outside came a little closer. The older one raised his -hand, palm outward.</p> - -<p>Steve, hoping it meant friendship, did the same. He opened the door of -the ship.</p> - -<p>The men outside were about six feet tall and burned a deep copper color -by the planet's bright sun. They wore breech clouts of soft leather and -moccasins of the same material. Their faces were fine and intelligent, -with high brows and prominent noses. The elder had a shock of stiff, -gray-white hair, while the hair of the younger was black. Their bodies, -even in the older man, were muscular and powerful-looking.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra hopped to the ground. Now that the possibility of being -captured and enwebbed by giant red spiders had been discarded, Steve's -spirits soared. He addressed the younger native jocularly:</p> - -<p>"You don't happen to know of a good hotel around here, do you?"</p> - -<p>The young man evidently understood the tenor of the question, for his -face broke into a smile and he rattled off a string of gutturals in a -speech that was reminiscent of something Steve had heard, but no more -understandable than the voice of the wind soughing through the trees -above them.</p> - -<p>The elder of the two had more sense than any of them. Evidently he -realized that these one-sided conversations might go on all day. He -motioned to the rest to follow him.</p> - -<p>Steve, with a look at the ship, hesitated a moment. Then he remembered -Peachy and his mechanical mace. He made a grimace of distaste, took -Myra's arm and followed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There were no walls around the village. It began abruptly in a -semi-cleared space half a mile from where their ship had landed. -Dwarfed by the huge trees that surrounded it, it looked like something -a gifted child might have built with a mechanical construction set.</p> - -<p>The houses were mostly two and three room affairs, one-storied and -square, all made of green steel. From a distance, the village blended -perfectly with the surrounding forest, making it invisible from the air.</p> - -<p>The houses had been set up in no preconceived pattern and gave a -pleasant, haphazard effect to the scene. Nowhere had a tree been felled -to make way for a house. Here nature and man shared a sylvan paradise, -nature always given preference.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra had been led to one of the larger buildings which -consisted of one huge dining room with tables and chairs of the same -green steel and here they were given food and drink not unlike what -they had known on Earth. Myra's very faint misgivings about the quality -of the food were allayed when their two hosts sat down to eat with them.</p> - -<p>At the conclusion of the meal, Steve was somewhat astonished when the -two accepted the cigarettes he offered and smoked them with apparent -enjoyment.</p> - -<p>A tour of the village impressed the visitors with the ease and -contentment in which these simple people lived. Men and women worked in -their gardens, or sat in the doorways of their houses fashioning the -soft, leather garments that seemed to be their sole articles of dress. -Children played between the trees, and in them, shrieking with young -laughter. Many of the people showed curiosity about the visitors, but -respectfully kept at a distance.</p> - -<p>Their hosts led Steve and Myra to a tiny building that looked like -an old subway kiosk. With no thought of being on their guard, they -entered, and were taken by surprise when the floor dropped away beneath -them.</p> - -<p>"My astral aunt!" exclaimed Myra. "An elevator!"</p> - -<p>"Why not?" asked Steve. "Any race that can make steel ought to be able -to build an elevator."</p> - -<p>The car stopped after a long descent, and the party stepped out into -a high-ceilinged underground room, filled with hurrying people and, -what was more apparent, noise. Sounds of machinery in feverish action -crashed upon their eardrums in rhythmic, deafening beats. The giant -machines themselves could be seen through great casings of glass-like -material. Men sat at lever-studded desks here and there, evidently in -control of the metal prometheans.</p> - -<p>Their guides led them quickly through the large room and out through a -corridor at the far end. They passed many such rooms that branched off -from the hall, but none so large as the first.</p> - -<p>At length they came to a platform. Beside it there was a strip of -slowly moving steel. Next to this was another, moving faster. There -were several more, each moving a bit faster than its predecessor, and -the last one, on which there were seats, moving at thirty miles per -hour.</p> - -<p>Carefully they made their way across these strips and sat down in the -leather seats. Presently they were whizzing through a dimly illuminated -tunnel.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra took part in all these proceedings with interest, while -questions mounted in their minds. They made many suppositions to -each other, some of them fantastic. On the whole, they were enjoying -themselves.</p> - -<p>Steve estimated they had gone about five miles when the moving strips -rounded a curve and their hosts signed that they were to get off. They -made their way over the more slowly moving strips onto another platform -and through a door.</p> - -<p>Beyond the door was a wide corridor with an arched ceiling. The whole -was a faint green, the effect achieved by painting the green steel of -which the tunnel was constructed with white paint, which Steve reasoned -had a luminous quality, since the light evidently came from the walls -themselves.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As the faint rumble of the transportation strips died away behind them, -they walked through a silence that was almost reverent. Their guides, -who had heretofore carried on a pleasant guttural conversation between -themselves, became silent, almost grave. A feeling of inexplicable awe -crept over the visitors.</p> - -<p>The corridor stretched ahead in a straight line, without a bend to mar -its symmetry. Just when they thought it would go on interminably, a -great double door appeared at the far end. It took up the whole width -and height of the tunnel, and, contrastingly, was of wood, carved over -all in intricate designs.</p> - -<p>When they came to it, the older man knocked on it with the ball of -his palm. The echoes of the sound reverberated throughout the tunnel. -Slowly the door swung inward and revealed a dimly-lit room twenty feet -high and about fifty square. A dark red carpet covered the floor. -Heavy, comfortable-looking armchairs had been placed against the walls, -and an immense wooden table occupied the center of the room. What light -there was came from an ornate glass chandelier which hung halfway -between the floor and ceiling.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra took two involuntary steps into the room and stopped, -to stare about them for several minutes without moving. The thing that -struck them so forcibly was the extraordinary resemblance between the -manner in which the room was furnished and one on Earth.</p> - -<p>Finally the spell broke and almost simultaneously they turned around. -Their guides were gone. They could see them just within sight at the -other end of the long corridor. They were about to go after them, when -a voice said, in <i>English</i>:</p> - -<p>"Won't you come in?"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra turned around at the sound of the voice and -automatically stepped back into the room. It wasn't until a few seconds -later that they realized what had happened. Someone here, light years -away from Earth, had spoken to them in their own language! They looked -at each other with amazement, then looked around for the speaker.</p> - -<p>"I'm over here," the voice said, "to your right."</p> - -<p>In that dimly-lit part of the room they made out the figure of an old -man sitting in a high-backed chair, his hands stretched out on its arms.</p> - -<p>"Please come in," he said.</p> - -<p>Slowly they went over to him. He was a very old man, his face and -hands deeply wrinkled, with white hair brushed neatly away from his -intelligent forehead. There was a curious immobility about him that -half-frightened them, but his eyes were kindly.</p> - -<p>Steve and Myra sat down. There was silence for a minute. Then:</p> - -<p>"I am very wise," the old man said abruptly.</p> - -<p>Unable to help himself, Steve chuckled. Myra looked at him reprovingly.</p> - -<p>"You mustn't laugh at me," said the old man. "I know much. What I say -is true. You must remember that. And if you will be patient and humor -me, I will tell you where you are, and how you came to be."</p> - -<p>"You mean how we came to be <i>here</i>," corrected Steve.</p> - -<p>"You mustn't interrupt me, either," said the old man irritably. "I mean -what I say. I will tell you how you began and how you are related to -me and many other trivial things like how you will leave here when you -have decided to go."</p> - -<p>"We were on our way to Jupiter," said Myra, "when we got kidnaped. -Steve was going to teach at college there."</p> - -<p>"It is a good thing to teach," the old man said. "Of course, you know -very little, but it is admirable to teach those who know less. I have -always been a teacher...." He trailed off into silence.</p> - -<p>"Just what do you mean by 'always,'" asked Steve, "as long as we're -being rude to each other. Just how old are you?"</p> - -<p>"Who knows?" the old man answered slowly. "Hundreds of thousands of -years."</p> - -<p>Myra gave a little yip.</p> - -<p>"Steve," she gasped. "His lips aren't moving!"</p> - -<p>The oldster took this with equanimity.</p> - -<p>"True," he said. "Because they aren't mine. At least not any more. You -see, the real me is up here, in this vat. I'm just a brain. That thing -you've been talking to is just a corpse. I hope you don't mind."</p> - -<p>Myra shuddered.</p> - -<p>"It's all right," the voice continued. "It's sanitary. They used the -best embalming fluid."</p> - -<p>"How come you speak English?" asked Steve.</p> - -<p>"I don't," said the voice. "You might as well ask why people understand -music written by people who speak different languages. I'm not -speaking; I'm thinking out loud, if you will pardon the idiom. Music -and thought are universal.</p> - -<p>"Now I will tell you a story. Many millions of years ago there was -a great planet, the greatest in the universe. On it was bred a race -of geniuses. Mentally, the planet was ideal; physically, it was less -fortunate. Our sun was about to become a nova. As a result, the day -came when our scientists were forced to warn their people that they -would have to leave the planet before it was burned to a cinder.</p> - -<p>"There was one scientist who was more renowned than the others, and -with good reason. It was he was had isolated the <i>gion</i> beam, as it was -called, which had the property of breaking down a substance to its -component atoms and sending it wherever directed.</p> - -<p>"To make the story easier to tell, I will admit that I was that -scientist, and that my name is Gion, which you may call me, if you can -do so without interrupting me."</p> - -<p>He paused for a moment, as if marshalling his memories.</p> - -<p>"Our scientists searched the universe with their instruments, seeking -another planet. Finally this one was located. But it was too distant to -be reached within a life-span by means of the antiquated space ships we -had then. Only one method was possible—the <i>gion</i> beam.</p> - -<p>"Even this method was not completely satisfactory, because it would -require terrific power to transport anything here and we hadn't fuel -for more than one shipment. Therefore, it was necessary to make a -careful selection of those who were to go and what they were to take -with them.</p> - -<p>"About three hundred were chosen—two hundred women and a hundred men, -all unmarried and all about twenty. The emphasis was put on human -beings, and not on equipment, so only certain surgical supplies were -taken.</p> - -<p>"It was decided that one master-scientist was to go, regardless of his -age, to act as guide and counselor to the new race. I was chosen, and -it was a very bad choice. You see, I was dying of cancer of the stomach -at the time. Naturally, I protested, but they paid no attention. -Instead they killed me."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"<i>What?</i>" gasped Myra.</p> - -<p>"Exactly," said Gion. "They killed my body and locked my wise old brain -in this glass case. Would you believe it—sometimes I get bored."</p> - -<p>Steve laughed. "You know, Mr. Gion, you're amazing. Tell me, did your -party ever get here?"</p> - -<p>"No I'll tell you about the hairy people," said Gion reprovingly. -"After we had set up our village and things were going along nicely, we -met the people who lived on the planet long before we arrived. Those -peach-colored scoundrels you've already met. Pack of thieves. They -used to come around at night and steal anything they could lay their -hands on. They would also watch up for hours while we worked and later -imitate what we did. It didn't take them long to develop from dumb -animals to malignantly intelligent creatures. Naturally we had to get -rid of them.</p> - -<p>"We drove them down to the sea. As we might have expected, they played -a foul trick on us. They stole one of our ships and escaped across -the ocean. Ever since they've been getting brighter and brighter and -breeding like rabbits, until now they've overrun their continent and -want ours. Naturally, we had to take steps."</p> - -<p>"So you surrounded your continent with a field of insanity, producing -vibrations to send them back gibbering?" asked Steve.</p> - -<p>The voice laughed. "Is that what they told you? Crazy beasts—we did -no such thing. It would be too much bother, too expensive and—well, -impossible. Our defense is much simpler. We merely let them land and -get out of their ships—then biff them with our insanity beam. And -since we don't want any idiotic foreigners running around our forests, -we pile them back into their ships and shoot them back home. Nothing to -it."</p> - -<p>Gion paused. Myra, who had been waiting for a propitious moment, said:</p> - -<p>"I thought you were going to tell us how <i>we</i> began?"</p> - -<p>"I am. I am," he said. "Our new civilization was about a century old, -when we began to receive messages from far out in space. They were -from a ship that had taken off from our old planet just before the -explosion, manned by an intrepid group of people who knew that they -would never live to reach another land, but who hoped that their -children might.</p> - -<p>"The messages were pathetic. They were from the sole survivor of the -original travelers, who said that their children had revolted against -the rigid discipline he had tried to maintain, and that the ship was -in a state of bedlam. Only the fact that he had sealed the engine -room against them had prevented them from reaching the controls and -destroying themselves. Inertia kept the ship on its course.</p> - -<p>"Further messages from this old man reached us, saying that the rebels -had reverted practically to wild beasts and were living in a state -of indescribable filth. Our records show that the ship didn't reach -your Earth until sixty years later, so you can imagine the condition -its passengers were in when it finally landed. And those were your -ancestors."</p> - -<p>"A pretty picture," grimaced Steve. There was a moment's silence. Then -said: "Why do you live underground, or at least work down here? Isn't -it impractical?"</p> - -<p>"On the contrary," explained Gion, "it's very practical. You see, we're -a peace-loving people. We don't like trouble, and we don't believe in -waging war to keep out of trouble at some future date. Consequently, -we build all our factories underground, so that the hairy people can't -blow them up whenever they feel like it by flying over and dropping -bombs. Another reason is that we like the forest and believe it's -healthy for our children to grow up there. We don't build cities to -make targets for the potential enemy—human or bacterial, whichever -it might be—but try to live in as close cooperation with nature as -possible. Does that make sense?"</p> - -<p>"It makes perfect sense," agreed Myra. Steve nodded.</p> - -<p>"And now," said Gion, "if I read your minds correctly, you'd like to -get away from this garrulous old man and see some more of our country -before you continue your interrupted journey to Jupiter."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - -<p>What had seemed to be a long flat meadow was in reality, just beneath -the surface, an emergency airport that was used in place of the moving -chairs or the underground freight-railway when speed was imperative. -Seldom used, but always in a state of preparedness, the port now buzzed -with activity as the roof of simulated grass rolled back, disclosing a -resplendent green space-ship waiting on the take-off ways.</p> - -<p>So simple was the ship in construction that less than an hour of -intensive instruction from Gion, on a model control board set up in the -underground room, was sufficient to acquaint him perfectly with the -management of the craft.</p> - -<p>It almost frightened him to think that he and Myra were about to -undertake a journey in a ship so swift that they would arrive on -Jupiter, in an inestimably distant solar system, almost as soon as they -would have in their Skypiercer, had they not been interrupted by Peachy.</p> - -<p>At last, all was ready. Steve and Myra waved good-bye to the people -they had come to know as friends in such a short time, and sealed -themselves inside the ship.</p> - -<p>Steve consulted the charts for a second, then sent the ship into a -noiseless take-off that soon left the field far below, already being -retransformed into a green meadow. He followed his instructions -carefully and kept the ship at a moderate speed, to wait until the -gravitational pull of the planet had been left behind before beginning -the almost unbelievable acceleration of which the ship was capable.</p> - -<p>Myra sat in thought for a moment, then: "Steve," she said, "I don't -want to seem skeptical, but doesn't Gion's theory about the beginning -of man on Earth sort of conflict with our time-honored theory of -evolution? Apes and men from the same source, and all that?"</p> - -<p>"Not exactly," Steve said. "The evidence seems to point to the fact -that those third-generation refugees landed on North America a few ages -ago, and founded the Indian nations. It's the only tenable explanation -of the origin of the American Indian that I've ever heard."</p> - -<p>The planet was rapidly growing smaller behind them.</p> - -<p>"If only they hadn't mutinied against discipline, it's probable that -with their advanced knowledge, the Indians would have discovered Europe -long before Columbus—or Lief Erickson—crossed the Atlantic. Their -culture, if they had kept it, might have been a better incentive to -European development than theirs was—"</p> - -<p>"Brrr!" Myra shivered suddenly. "I get the creeps when I think of -talking to a corpse."</p> - -<p>Steve Horn chuckled. "Don't ever accuse me of being dead, again," he -said mockingly. "At least, I can get up and walk around."</p> - -<p>He flipped the drive control, sent the green space-ship whipping past -a darting meteor. He spun the ship again, in a tight circle, thrilling -to the surge of power released by the light touch of his hand on the -controls, then laughed aloud at Myra's instant cry of ecstatic alarm.</p> - -<p>"Hush, Infant," he said, "I'm just practicing up for the time when I -sell the rights to the constructing of ships identical to this. Boy, -will the shekels ever roll in!"</p> - -<p>Myra tucked in a loose strand of hair, bent over and kissed Steve on -the lobe of his right ear. He squirmed, wriggled, jerked the ship -off-course by an inadvertent twitch of his hand, growled playfully, -then let the ship travel uncontrolled while he kissed the ear of his -wife in return.</p> - -<p>"Steve, pulleeze!" Myra said faintly.</p> - -<p>"What were you saying about the Indians, dear?" she asked finally.</p> - -<p>"'Lo, the poor Indian,'" Steve misquoted, "he has gone the way of -all—<i>Damn!</i>" His words were bitten off by the sudden jerking of the -ship.</p> - -<p>Myra frowned. "Maybe those Indians didn't build this thing so well," -she said worriedly. "Remember Peachy said the first few ships built by -his people wouldn't fly. It would be just our luck to try and ride an -experimental job back to Jupiter."</p> - -<p>Steve jiggled the controls.</p> - -<p>"Something grabbed us," he said. "Something just reached out and jerked -us off-course—tried to hold us back."</p> - -<p>"I don't believe it," Myra said. "You're just—"</p> - -<p>The ship whipped to one side, then bucked playfully like a trout riding -a fisherman's line.</p> - -<p>"Ugh!" said Steve faintly, struggled to pull his body back into his -seat.</p> - -<p>"Steve, I'm frightened!" Myra wailed.</p> - -<p>"Nonsense!" Steve said stoutly. "There isn't a blamed thing to be -afra—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Suddenly the ship began to toss crazily, like a rat shaken in a -terrier's teeth. Steve and Myra were thrown to the floor. Unsteadily -making their way to a window, they saw a little golden meteor-ship, -such as had been the beginning of all their trouble. Evidently they -were caught in its magnetic field. Steve tried accelerating, but they -were powerless to escape.</p> - -<p>Myra burst into helpless tears. "Oh, Steve, this is too much. We -<i>can't</i> go back there again."</p> - -<p>"Damn those peach-creatures!" said Steve. "Just when I thought we'd -never see them again."</p> - -<p>Again letters of fire appeared above the little golden ship. "RETURN," -they said, simply.</p> - -<p>"You're not going to do it?" asked Myra.</p> - -<p>"There's no use getting killed." Steve shrugged disgustedly.</p> - -<p>He was about to reverse the ship's course when a long snake-like flame -streaked up from the planet below with a menacing rumble that could be -felt through the hull of the ship.</p> - -<p>The golden craft saw it coming and tried to escape, but the lash of -flame followed its frantic dodgings inexorably. Suddenly, like a -striking snake, it straightened. Its tip touched the meteor-ship. There -was an eye-blinding flash.</p> - -<p>When they could see again, nothing was visible but the planet below, -looking serene and peaceful on the wooded half of its surface turned to -them. Of the attacking ship or the instrument of its doom there was no -sign.</p> - -<p>Steve Horn looked for the last time at the planet before climbing back -into the control seat. He wiped his eyes with a self-conscious gesture.</p> - -<p>"Thanks," he said.</p> - -<p>And flicked the drive-beam that was to send them home.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: Section headings for section I to III missing.]</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man From Siykul, by Richard Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN FROM SIYKUL *** - -***** This file should be named 62267-h.htm or 62267-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/2/6/62267/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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