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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..5e265ae --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63795 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63795) diff --git a/old/63795-0.txt b/old/63795-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d8052a1..0000000 --- a/old/63795-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1889 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shadow-Gods, by Vaseleos Garson - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this ebook. - -Title: The Shadow-Gods - -Author: Vaseleos Garson - -Release Date: December 05, 2020 [EBook #63795] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADOW-GODS *** - - - - - THE SHADOW-GODS - - By VASELEOS GARSON - - Curt watched them, screaming as they fled before the - shadow-things--the tortured humans of Earth. He - watched them die, crushed and seared by the spreading - blue flower, and he cursed himself. With all his - knowledge and strength he could not save his people. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Summer 1946. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Around them, space--implacable but generous, impalpable but -tangible--shot through with a thousand far off suns. - -Looming at starboard, blacking out a section of space, the dark -starside of the Moon. Then hundreds of flickering fireflies moving out -of the darkness, blinking on by ones ... twos ... threes ... as they -passed the black moon's rim. - -Curt Wing relaxing, his dark head nodding softly, his dark eyes -widening as he stared into the teleplate. He stared into the plate, and -his lips, for so many hours a thin gray line, pursed into an almost -inaudible whistle. - -Without turning his head, he said to the lean rangy blond lieutenant -beside him. - -"That did it, Packer. It flushed them from cover. Curiosity did it." - -"Now?" Lt. George Packer asked, pulling on his helmet, reaching for the -red button to sound the klaxon alarm. One long finger almost touched -the scarlet dot which would send a hundred crews on a hundred Earth -ships into the action which they had awaited for these long weeks. - -Curt Wing, wing Space Commander, shook his black shock of hair with -deliberate slowness, wiped the sticky sweat from the palms of his hands -on his gold-striped blue breeches. - -"Wait." - -"But, Curt! We've waited two weeks. And for the last seven hours the -crew has been going mad. They know the Mercurians must be out there -now. We got the flash on the intercommunicator and it's tuned to -all-ship length." - -"I know," Wing said. "But what's another moment or two. This has to -be right. We'll never get another chance like this again. Be patient, -George." - -Curt Wing still stared at the visaplate. - -"They must have the whole fleet with them! I've never seen so many -Mercurian ships in my life." - -"They'll spot us," Lt. Packer said anxiously. "Let me signal, Curt." - -"Easy, George. This is Earth's last chance. We've got to be sure it's -good. They've got us--ten to one. Surprise is our only chance of -whittling down the odds." - -"But every minute, Curt, every minute counts. They'll spot us sure." - -His eyes still soldered to the plate, Wing said, an overtone of -exasperation in his deep-timbered voice; "We've been here two weeks. -They didn't spot our black ships in the moon's shadow before. I hardly -think they will now. Take it easy." - -The two stood there, watching the black shadow of the plate, now -flickering with swarms of silver Mercurian ships. Beads of sweat -built up on Curt Wing's forehead, swelled, then rolled down his lean, -harsh-planed face to make tiny plopping sounds on the duralloy deck -beneath their feet. - -"Man!" Lt. Packer burst out. "Curt, are you mad? We've got to strike -now. Their black light visas'll pick us up any second." - -Wing Space Commander Wing didn't answer. Seconds oozed away like -viscous blobs of oil. Then: - -"Now!" - - * * * * * - -Packer's itching finger stabbed the red button viciously. Muted through -the thick bulkheads surrounding the plotting room came the ululating -howl of the ready signal. - -Curt Wing moved from the visaplate, clicked on the intercommunications -speaker, came back to the plate. He studied it for a moment, unmindful -of George Packer who was chewing his nails very deliberately. - -Curt Wing lifted his head, turned toward the speaker and said casually, - -"Fire at will." - -Then his dark eyes turned back to the thousand fireflies flickering -in the visaplate. Lt. Packer crowded his lean body alongside of him, -stared at the screen. - -The ship shuddered. The deck quivered beneath their feet like a -restrained earthquake. Almost simultaneously, the fireflies in the -visaplate were spotting with flowering bursts of bright-hued colors -which hid other of the fireflies for a long moment. - -A metallic voice echoed into the plotting room as the spotter's hit -calculator started clacking from its eyrie in the nose of the ship. - -"Seven direct ... no twelve ..." the metallic voice broke, then resumed -and reflected the glee of the spotter. "Commander, this damn machine's -gone mad. We're hitting them so fast it can't keep up!" - -The flagship trembled again, and the visaplate was filled with the -bright, blooming flowers as Mercurian ship after Mercurian ship tasted -the atomic bolts, sucked them up and exploded. - -Curt Wing's voice was no longer casual as he turned his lips toward the -intercom. - -"Sock it to 'em, you precious monkeys. You've got a million Earthmen to -avenge!" - -Then he kicked the tuning dial over, swept the visascreen from Earth -ship to Earth ship. Only the flashing blue bolts identified most, but -here and there an Earth ship blazed red, then white and molten metal -dripped off into the darkness as the Mercurian ships lashed back at the -dark shrouded hornets which were poisoning them with quick flashing -death. - -The huge Mercurian fleet, its thousands scattered through with broken -hulks, was turning slowly, its own bolts searching out, lighting up the -blackness which hid the tiny Earthian fleet. - -The silver ships moved in, and concentrated hell poured on to one of -the far-flung ships of Earth. The Earth ship exploded into myriad -shells of molten metal, and the horrible atomic rays moved to the next -blue flashing terrestrial ship. - -Curt Wing's voice barked into the intercom: - -"Plan L." - -And the outnumbered Earth ships, pulling in their horns of atomic -bolts, flashed away from the darkness, their rocket exhausts spurting -fire. They blasted into the sky in unison, climbing above the slower -Mercurian ships, and hurtled downward, their blue bolts thrusting -before them, lashing at the silver ships. - -The Mercurian ships swung upward, lumbering, but the Earth ships were -darting in and out like slashing knives wielded by agile, practiced -hands. - -Curt Wing's tight-held breath relaxed, made a whistling sound in -the plotting room. He said, "The longest chance I ever took, and it -worked." His voice was very low, almost like a prayer. - -"Look at them run!" Packer chortled. "You did it again." He was staring -into the visaplate, watching the silver ships begin to scatter away -from the black Earth ships above them. "This is the knockout punch. -We'll drive them away now, forever. Five years they've been nagging us -and all the time they waited until they were strong enough to strike." - -"Yes," said Wing, "and they almost got us in the slaughtering pit by -the asteroid belt. But now...." He halted, snapped into the intercom: - -"Attack at will, you itchy-fingered monkeys. They're all yours. Take -'em." - -The oval door to the plotting room burst open; a big-framed, -heavy-paunched Blackbeard came plowing in. - -"Gee, Cap," his heavy voice lumbered. "I bin missing somepin, huh?" - -Commander Wing turned to the newcomer. The harsh planes of his face -softened as he grinned. - -"Yes, Dead-Eye, I guess you bin missing something all right. Making -love to Elizabeth again?" - - * * * * * - -Dead-Eye Lindstrom grinned, his white square teeth glaring through the -black of his bearded face. - -"Yep, I sure have. Y'know, Cap, Elizabeth's coming along fine now. I -jest got through placing five out of six slugs in the bull'e eye, and -I warn't even looking. I jest grabbed leather and started fanning the -hammer and whamo! Elizabeth put 'em right in thar." - -Dead-Eye patted the bulky length of the archaic powder gun strapped to -his right leg. Then he jerked his hand up quickly and the white steel -of the ancient Frontier .44 revolver sparkled in the light. - -"Pard," he said, "Pard, them were the days. You stood face to face with -another owlhoot rider and reached. By gosh, you could see the whites of -his eyes and whamo! You got him or he got you." - -"Shut up, will you, Lindstrom?" Packer snapped. "You and your ancient -history give me a pain. They buried the last beef striker--" - -"Cowpuncher!" Dead-Eye corrected. - -"Three hundred years ago," Packer went on. "And where you ever found -that excuse for a pistol, only Neptune knows." - -"Easy," said Curt Wing quietly. - -Dead-Eye drew himself up to his full six feet six so that he towered -a full head over Lt. Packer. "Brother," he growled, and his pale blue -eyes were cold, "I'll match you Elizabeth against any of these modern -guns and I'll kill you so quicker that you'll have to be cremated ahead -of time. Why--" - -An eerie whistle from the Earth panel halted him. The three turned -at the summons, infraction of all space battle procedure except in -cases of extreme urgency. Only once before in five years had that -whistle sounded during either battle practice or battle. Then it was to -announce war with Mercury. - -Now.... - -The visaplate crawled up from black through purple to yellow and white. -A voice came through but there was no face accompanying it. - -"Signal six-two ... signal six-two...." - -"No!" Wing cried out. - -"Signal six-two ... signal six-two...." - -Wing glanced at the battle visaplate. The Mercurians were in full rout. - -We've got them licked, he thought; they're running. - -Now this. - -"Signal six-two...." the Earth voice repeated. - -Lt. Packer said, "Commander Wing, what is signal six-two? I thought -there were only sixty-one code numbers." - -Curt Wing looked at Packer but his dark eyes were blank, the lips -thinned and harsh. - -"Signal six-two, lieutenant?" he asked, and there was no life in his -voice. "It takes precedence over everything an Earthman has. Life, -liberty, home, happiness--everything. We must return to Earth at once. -To hell with the Mercurians. They're unimportant." Curt Wing spoke into -the intercom: - -"Commander to all ships. Abandon chase. Gain formation. We're returning -to home base." - -The formation board began to blink as ship captains acknowledged the -order. But where each green light of acquiescence lighted up, below it -came also the yellow light of query. - -Wing pushed on the all-ship button on the officers' intercom system and -said quietly: - -"Signal six-two--you know what that means." The yellow query lights -went off immediately, the green ones blinked off, on, then off again. - -"Yes," Wing said to Lt. Packer, "The Mercurians are unimportant -compared to this. Signal six-two is the emergency signal for earth -catastrophe. What's wrong I don't know. But whatever it is, a mere -interplanetary war is a kindergarten class." He ran his blunt-fingered -hands through his hair. - -"Gee, Cap," said Dead-Eye suddenly. "That's bad, huh?" - -"Yes, Dead-Eye," Wing said softly. "It's bad. Very bad." - -"You'll fix it, won't you, Cap?" Dead-Eye asked, and his light-blue -eyes were trusting. "You can do anything, Cap. Why, didn't you find -Elizabeth for me?" - -Wing stared at Dead-Eye's hulking figure. - -Finally he said, "I think this will be slightly more difficult than -picking Elizabeth out of a museum case, Dead-Eye." - - * * * * * - -Earth below them now, its diadem of clouds winking in the reflected -shafts of light from the moon. - -What danger lay there? What danger so great that they must let a -victory become a might-have-been. What catastrophe so important that a -fight for interplanetary life was dismissed casually with the signal. - -Curt Wing shrugged his shoulders, heard that incessant signal boring -monotonously into his ears. - -Then the breaking rockets were kicking, the high thin wail as the -thickening atmosphere scratched along the black ship's bulk was -deepening, and the deceleration was pushing lazy hands against him, -urging him against the duralloy bulwark at his back. - -"Gosh," Dead-Eye said, gaping open-mouthed into the visaplate. "Cap, -looky here, the whole city is blue." - -It _was_ blue--this White City which in the long ago had been New York. -A blue visible with an inner light of its own that absorbed the white -moon beams and made even black shadows turn blue. - - * * * * * - -The city was like some huge blue flower, sunset blue for stamen and -pistil, its hue lightening to aquamarine, cerulean, and pastel as its -petals stretched farther out over the city. It was pulsing and each -pulsation swelled its circumference. - -Then the visaplate was flickering and the tiny red bulb centered in its -plastic base began to blink, signaling power trouble. Then the screen -went blank. - -"What is it?" Packer exclaimed. His voice was loud and harsh in the -plotting room now. The incessant signal six-two ... signal six-two ... -had ceased. The instrument panel lights went dark, the rockets cut off -abruptly, the only sound was the scrabbling fingers of the outside.... - -"Force field," Curt Wing said. "Something we've never been able to -develop. But there it is. That's the catastrophe. It's swallowing White -City, and if there's an intelligence behind it or not, mankind is done -if we can't stop it." - -"Force field?" Packer asked. "But didn't you...?" - -"Yes," Wing said. "I created one once. A little thing less than an -inch square. Balanced one magnetic field against another by firing four -atomic guns at a coincident point. But a funny thing, the longer the -field held the more power I had to shove into it. - -"Then I didn't have any more power to give, and Dead-Eye says, 'Gee, -what's happening to all those atoms?' So I grabbed him and ran like -hell for the nearest sub-basement. When those compressed atoms let go -it tore everything loose from the experimental station. - -"When Dead-Eye and I crawled out, all it was was a desert. There -wasn't a tree, a bush, a rock or a hill for ten miles around. It was -the flattest place I ever saw, or hope to see again." He was staring -blankly at the insentient visaplate. - -"But, hell, I talk too much." - -Jake Wilson, landing supervisor, pushed open the oval hatch, said: -"Hang on, sir, we're volplaning in. It's lucky we got the vanes out -before the power quit." - -The shock spilled the chunky Wilson into the plotting room, clipped the -legs out from under the three already there. - -There was a moment of lift, then another shock a little less severe. -The ship lifted again, struck, lifted once more and settled with an -audible groan of metal stress. - -They hurried from the plotting room, heading for the exit lock. - -It was a peculiar sort of night outside, a benevolent blue softening -the blackness. Curt Wing stared at the blue haloed city off to the -west. He was licking his dry lips. - -"Gosh, Cap," Dead-Eye asked suddenly. "What if _that_ blows up?" A -shudder quivered through his bulky frame. - -Wing's dark eyes went blank. He put one hand on Dead-Eye's arm. He said -nothing. - -He was standing there, staring at the pulsating blue flower that was -spreading out from the city, his fingers quiescent on Dead-Eye's arm -when the red-uniformed riot officer jockeyed his speedy rocket car up -to them.... - -The building was still untouched by the force field's encroaching maw. -Curt Wing stood by the window staring out at the blue night scene. -Finally he answered the men who sat at the long narrow table behind him. - -"I don't know what we can do. My experiments with such a field taught -me only that I could not control it once it was set in motion," he said -quietly. - -He turned then to face the men--the governors of the seven divisions -of earth. "You have flattered me because of an experiment that ended -in failure," he went on. "But even if we had a solution, a way -to overcome this impossibility, we must not forget that is only -one problem. We have this unknown to lick, yes; but meanwhile the -Mercurians we left out by the moon can punch us to Stardust." - - * * * * * - -Jan Eliel, senior governor, shook his white head quickly. "No, we have -only this force field with which to contend. We have nothing to worry -about from the Mercurians. We gave them Earth's unconditional surrender -only minutes after you were ordered back." - -"Huh?" The exclamation, shot through with amazement, exploded from the -shadows in the corner where Dead-Eye had buried himself. "Why, you!" - -"Quiet, Dead-Eye!" Wing barked. Dead-Eye subsided, grumbling. - -Wing's face had drained of color, the sharp planes of his face came -into sharper relief, the muscles in his throat were working pulsating -as if he could not catch a full breath. - -His mind was shrieking. It's gone, Curt Wing! The loveliest world in -the galaxy no longer belongs to Earthmen. It is owned by strangers, by -Mercurians, by an alien people who will grind its beauty into a molten -crucible so that it may support their hell-hot lives. - -Gone! Everything worth fighting for, living for, dying for! Earth, -who had flung her minions to the stars, first beings in the galaxy to -solve space travel, first to probe across eternity in rickety ships, -spanning the vast distances with blood and broken lives. Earth, who had -struggled to bring her peoples together in peaceful harmony, finally -succeeding in it, lifting them toward their destiny. - -All this--Gone. - -Curt Wing looked at the seven governors. - -"If that's the case," he said finally. "I can't see any reason why we -should worry about the force field. Let the damn Mercurians worry about -it. Earth is theirs now." - -"Wait, Wing!" Eliel cried out as Wing strode past the long narrow -table, Dead-Eye's bulk dogging his heels. "You don't understand!" - -Wing spun around. "I don't understand?" he repeated, and his deep voice -was harsh. - -"Look, you governors. There was only one way Earth could have licked -this force field. Someone would have found the way out--the way to chop -this blue flower off at its source if you hadn't taken it away. - -"Scan back through Earth's history. Way back in the 15th century, a sea -captain did the impossible. He crossed water as vast to him as space -once was to us. He had a way. Earthmen flung their power at a dictator -called Schickelgruber or some such name. It had been impossible to stop -him. But a way was found." - -"Then the moon rocket. That was impossible, too. There was no way to -break gravity chains without killing any living thing on the ship. But -a way was found. Oh, there are scores of instances where Earthmen did -the impossible. But they had something worth fighting for. Columbus his -adopted country; the united nations their people; Dawson and his moon -rocket, the welfare of a world." - -"We had Earth. Now what have we got? Not a mote of dust to call our -own. _I_ don't understand! Hell, I hope the Mercurians use you to fire -those ghastly gas pots they use here to keep Earth's air from poisoning -them." - -Space Commander Curt Wing was balanced on the balls of his feet, -leaning forward now, breathing hard, his fine-muscled body quivering as -his dark eyes burned at the seven governors. - -Jan Eliel said quietly, "We know how you feel, Curt Wing. But there -wasn't anything else we could do. Wait!" He held up his hand as Wing -threatened to interrupt him. - -"We were like the fellow in the old story who stood at the gates of -hell. He was damned if he opened the door and damned if he didn't." - -"We had two alternatives--an unknown enemy and a known enemy, and we -needed time, so we chose to capitulate to Mercury. We recognized the -blue flower for what it was--and we needed you. Until you switched from -building atomics to piloting them, you had made the greatest advance in -the force field." - -"We have time now--precious little since it will be only two weeks -before the Mercurian fleet arrives with Mercury's Zhan Nekel. Earth -still is ours. If you can solve the force field, we need not lose. We -can turn it upon the Mercurians. They have fought with deceit and in -this we must deceive them." - -Jan Eliel sat up stiffly in his chair. "Will you desert us, Curt Wing?" - -Wing's relaxed figure was their answer. The boyish grin which wiped the -harsh planes of his face into softness was his promise. But Dead-Eye -added emphasis, dragging his powder gun from his belt and waving it. - -"Elizabeth and me'll help!" he declared. - - * * * * * - -The _electric clock_ whirred softly--like a breathless metronone -keeping time with Curt Wing's pencil. The metal desk was littered with -crumpled and half-crumpled sheets of paper. Wing's black hair was -rumpled and awry, his face dirtier by a ragged growth of beard, and -when he lifted his aching eyes to the clock, they were blood-shot and -watery with strain. - -Behind him, the door sighed softly as it closed. Aware of a presence, -but too weary to turn around Wing asked: - -"Dead-Eye?" - -"No," a quiet voice answered. Then a laugh, soft, so soft--like the -whisper of leaves at nightfall, the murmuring of water sprites dancing -on moonlit waters. Memory of a day--_that_ day. - -"Get out," Curt Wing said flatly. He did not look around. - -"I won't go, Curt." That voice again--_her_ voice. I didn't think it -would ever hurt me again. I had it licked. I was living. Now-- - -Then that lovely, remembered presence was warming that ache, that cold, -bitter ache in his heart, soothing it. But her words--those words which -had turned him from science to adventure--stayed frozen in his heart. - -"_You're not a man, Curt Wing. You're a machine. You're too sufficient -unto yourself. You don't need me. Your life is just a mixture of metal, -paper and pencils. You just want me because you think a man should have -a mate. So make one out of your metal, paper and pencils!_" - - * * * * * - -Curt Wing stared wryly at the pencil held motionless between his thumb -and forefinger. He forgot for a moment that into those fingers had been -given the solution of an impossible problem--forgot that to him had -been delegated a task so important that every second he relaxed meant -the blue flower of destruction was spreading and Zhan Nekel's Mercurian -fleet sped closer to Earth. - -_She_ was his own personal problem, breaking out from beneath the hard -shell of pain he had built up within him. But his problem meant nothing -at all if Earth no longer belonged to Earthmen. He had wanted her so -much--still wanted her!--that there were times when he wanted to break -down and bawl like a baby. Like now.... - -Then Curt Wing was chuckling. I'm feeling sorry for myself! At a time -when there's no time for self-pity or anything else but work. - -He turned around quickly. She still stood there just inside the door. -She was more beautiful than he remembered! Her soft brown hair that -felt like gossamer when it brushed against his lips; her blue eyes that -could speak of love and hate, of pleasure and disgust so eloquently -her lips need not move; the soft oval of her face--it was all that he -remembered and more.... - -But he said, - -"Business, Miss Packer?" There was no softness in the harsh planes of -his face and his dark eyes were blank. - -"No, Curt, not business." - -"If you'll excuse me then?" Wing said, raising his eyebrows. "There's -no time for anything else." - -She smiled. "It won't take long, Curt. I just wanted to tell you -something before it's too late. - -"You never did and never will need me. I don't need you. But I hurt -you, you hurt me, too, because I've loved you ever since you and dad -first started your force field experiments." - -"I still love you, you sweet fool!" - -Then she was gone. Wing's cry, "Pat!" struck the closed door. - -Wing hurled himself toward the door. Then stopped short as a sleepy -"Whassa matter, Curt?" growled out of the corner where Dead-Eye had -been napping. - -"Nothing," Wing said abruptly. Then: "I thought you went home hours -ago." - -Rubbing bleary eyes and pulling on his beard, Dead-Eye, grinning -through the black mass, said, "I pretended to, but I thought you might -need me and Elizabeth for sumpin." - -Wing glanced at the metal desk, heaped with the paper covered with a -thousand figures he had set down as he tried again and again to find -where in the long ago he had made his mistake in creating his field. If -Prof. Packer were still alive, he could find that error. If I can only -solve that maybe I can build up a neutralizing field. - -"Come on, Dead-Eye, my brain's dulled with too much paper work. Let's -go take a first hand look at that damn blue flower." - -The blue flower was pulsing faster now, Wing decided, as he and Dead -Eye approached a police captain who was directing people with clothing -and valuables, toward the line of rocket buses. - -Wing looked into the hazy depths of the force field. - -Were those figures moving about in there? Or was his tired brain -playing tricks on him? - -"Gee, Cap," Dead-Eye exclaimed. "There's somebody inside!" - -The police captain moved up to them. "We've reported what you see, -Commander," he said. "They only became noticeable a half hour ago. But -it didn't seem possible there _could_ be any life in there." - -"Life within that death?" Wing repeated. His blood-shot eyes peered at -the police captain. "I don't see why not. Whoever created it must be -able to handle it. They must have some protection, some armor against -it. If we could capture one." - -"That's it," the captain said. "They're inside and they won't come out. -Before, those shadows looked like some sort of beings. They're dimmer -now. They walk upright in a sort of shuffle, but they won't come out of -the flower." - -"If we could entice one of them out somehow," Wing said softly. "If we -knew what they were, it might help us find a way of throttling that -flower before it destroyed anything else." - - * * * * * - -The captain grinned ruefully. "We've tried everything to dent that -field, and it didn't even change color. I guess maybe we'll just have -to wait until they decide to come out, huh, Commander?" - -Wing grinned back at the captain. "Maybe we ought to let sleeping dogs -lie, Captain? Maybe you're right, but if one of them even looks like he -intends to come out, buzz me on the visaplate at once." - -Wing and Dead-Eye moved away from the captain, watched the red-clad -police herd more homeless families into the rocket buses for -transportation to other points. But unless that blue flower is killed, -Wing thought, they can go to the far ends of the earth and they'll -never escape it. And if they try to escape to other worlds the -Mercurians will be their Nemesis. - -Wing and Dead-Eye were threading their way through the crowd when the -shout reached them: - -"Commander, one's coming out!" - -Wing spun and sprinted back toward the captain, Dead-Eye's big heavy -bulk lumbering behind him. Wing's atomic pistol was clutched in his -hand as he jarred to a stop beside the captain. His eyes followed the -pointing red arm. - -_One's coming out!_ - -Tensely, Wing waited, aware of Dead-Eye's labored breathing beside him, -of the pounding of his own heart, of the sudden quiet among the police -and their homeless charges. - -What was it? Did it hold the answer he and the Council of Seven were -seeking? Would Earth be free of this voracious flower? Could the -Mercurians be stopped before it was too late? Would it give up its -secret which meant so much to Earth--and Pat's sweet face was smiling -at him--and him? - -One shadow was growing more distinct as it moved toward the rim of -the blue force field. It shuffled along slowly, like an Earth diver -moving across the ocean floor. Wing was aware of the police captain's -gestures, drawing up a squad of red-clad police with their atomic -rifles at the ready. - -The shadow moved closer to the outside. As it approached, the blue -flower immediately before it began to dim, to grow black as if some -intangible hole were opening to let it through. - -Then the shadow-thing was outside the blue flower. - -The police captain's thumb pointed down. Atomic lightning from the -police rifles lashed at the shadow-thing. - -Wing saw the lethal bolts strike the shadow. Then a blast of sound and -light deluged him, spinning him off his feet, hurling him against a -blackness shot through with pain and searing heat. - -The pain and the heat were still branded on his mind--raw wounds that -made him want to scream out in protest--as he crept slowly back to -awareness of the things around him. - -His ears came to life first--and he heard the voice whispering over -and over again. "Oh, Curt. Oh, Curt." Then his skin was responding to -the warm, vibrant fingers caressing his cheek. Into his nostrils came -the sweet scent of her loveliness. His eyes opened and he saw the soft -brown head cradled on his breast. - -Then his mind brushed aside the memory of pain and heat. - -"We failed, didn't we?" He didn't recognize the broken, almost lifeless -voice as his own. - -Pat lifted her head. She didn't need to speak, not when her blue eyes -were so eloquent. - -"Dead-Eye?" Wing asked. - -"Don't you fret, Captain. I'm all in one piece, even if Elizabeth did -give me six nasty powder burns on my leg." - -Curt Wing wearily turned his bandaged head, beheld a mound of bandages -sprawled atop the bed beside him. - -"You sure look like a hangover, Dead-Eye," Wing observed. Then: "Was it -bad, Pat?" - -She nodded. "Only a half dozen out of all those hundreds escaped. Most -of them were killed in the explosion. The medics don't know how any -one came out alive--especially you and Dead-Eye. You were right in the -center of the blast." - -"Well," Wing observed, and it was an effort to speak lightly, but -something had to be done about the horror in her voice, "I don't feel -the least bit alive. Maybe I'm a ghost." - -Her laughter was a relief, but a little too full for such a flimsy -joke. So he said: - -"I suppose the shadow-thing wasn't harmed." It was more a statement -than a question. - -"No," she said flatly. And in the same flat voice, added, "I'd better -go. You need rest and quiet." - -"Wait," he called. But she was gone. "Pat," he called out, once, twice. -That unemotional voice was a dead give away. Something worse had -happened and she didn't dare tell him. - - * * * * * - -Curt Wing dragged his body out of the bed. It screamed in agonized -protest. Somehow, his mind held together against the shock and hurt -that poured into it as he pulled his body upright, focused his eyes, -looking for something to wear instead of the brief hospital garment. - -Dead-Eye, from the next bed, asked weakly, "Where you going, Cap?" Wing -didn't answer. He was delving into a wall locker, dragging out a burnt -tunic, finding torn and broken sandals. - -A white-gowned nurse barred his way in the hall. - -"You can't leave, Commander. In your condition, you'll kill yourself," -she said gently. - -"Why not?" Wing grated. "I should be dead anyway. What's a few more -minutes more or less? Life won't be any fun anyway if Earth is lost." -He had to use his hand to guide himself along the wall as he pushed his -weary, beaten body toward outside. - -Behind him, he heard Dead-Eye calling, - -"Wait for me and Elizabeth, Cap. We're coming, too." - -Outside, it was raining--unobtrusively but relentlessly. The early -afternoon was drab, but in the little park across the hospital -courtyard, there was color. The circular beds of pink roses, of -multi-colored pansies, of bluebells seemed brighter for the rain which -beat so gently at them. - -Wing heard the muted twittering of birds as he stood on the hospital -steps. He looked up into the lowering sky and let the raindrops beat -at his bandaged face. The door behind him opened and Dead-Eye came -stumbling out. - -Wing breathed deeply of the wet air, felt it clearing the heat and pain -from his mind. - -He looked at Dead-Eye, then toward the east where the blue radiance -suffused the sky. - -"Let's go," he said simply. - -They hadn't trudged far in the rain before they found out what Pat -Packer's unemotional voice had meant. - -Terror was riding through the city, whipping the men and women of Earth -into madness and death. - -As the two of them moved closer to the edge of the blue flower, -wild-eyed humans fled past them, casting fearful glances behind. - -These panic-stricken humans ran silently, except for the gasps which -burst from tortured throats. Abandoned children sobbed as they ran, -not knowing nor caring where they went--driven by the fear of what was -behind them. - -Behind them, flames from burning houses were growing brighter and dull -explosions were growing louder. Soon there were no more humans running, -but as Wing Commander Curt Wing and Dead-Eye plodded on, they saw -charred and broken corpses and the smell of burnt flesh was mingling -with the stench of wood and plastic and paint. - -And then Wing and Dead-Eye saw _Them_. - -_They_ numbered in the hundreds--spreading in a long single -line--moving sluggishly but steadily, bolts of blue flame flaring out -ahead of them. The flashing blue bolts melted steel, sent plastic into -exploding drops of fire, touched and charred humans who still moved in -their path. - -Wing dragged Dead-Eye out of the deserted street into a low shop -building. They moved to a window and watched those blue bolts leap -overhead to jab at building or human somewhere back from where they -had just come. - -"What are they?" Dead-Eye asked, peering at the thin line moving -closer. "They're nothing but shadows, looks like." - -"Another dimension," Wing suggested. "Probably on a higher plane than -our own. Maybe that's why they're just shadows to us." - -Dear God, he thought, what has humanity done to deserve this? We cannot -fight them. We don't know what they are. Somehow, though, we must beat -them. Earth must not die, not now, when we are on the very threshold of -destiny. - -We've come from the mud and slime of a new born Earth, clawed and -fought our way out of nothing to start reaching for the stars. Is this -our destiny--to come so far and then be snuffed out before we even -realize our talents? - -"We've got to beat them, Dead-Eye," Wing said harshly. - -"Don't worry, Cap," Dead-Eye urged. "Shucks, they can't be so tough -that they can lick us. Besides, Cap, us Earthmen always fight better -when the going's rough. Why, just give me and Elizabeth a chancet at -them. We'll knock 'em dead." - -Wing's dark eyes were soft as they looked at Dead-Eye's earnest, -bearded face. - -"We sure will, Dead-Eye," he said. "We sure will knock 'em dead." - -That is, Wing amended, staring at the relentless shadows as they moved -slowly toward their haven, if _They_ don't knock us dead first. - -Wing and Dead-Eye hugged the buildings as they retreated. They picked -their way along the rubble-strewn streets, their nostrils quivering at -the intermingled odor of death, burnt flesh, charred and rain-wet wood. - -Ahead and behind them as they retreated, the flashing bolts of the -shadow-things smashed buildings, leveled the trees along the boulevard, -sending them up in puffs of white smoke and flame, heaving up the walks -as tree roots exploded. - -The rain was turning heavier now, turning chill, soaking through their -own burnt and tattered clothes. It was relentless, that rain, almost as -if it were bent upon breaking the spirit of man as the shadow-things -were rending and tearing the flesh. - -The two limped on alone, ahead of the advancing shadow line. They -walked alone through death and destruction as man's promise and hope -darkened. - -We're walking toward the end of our world, Wing thought. We'll soon be -nothing but dust motes kicked up by the tread of a new, more powerful -race. - -The hell of it is, we're not even fighting back. Why, he thought in -amazement, we're not even trying any more. - -"Dead-Eye," he asked suddenly. "What are we running away for?" - -Dead-Eye's slumped figure straightened suddenly. "Gee, Cap, I was -wondering when you'd begin wondering about that. You ain't been acting -natural at all. We never ran away from a fight before. Let's go knock -'em dead right now, huh, Cap?" - -Wing looked at Elizabeth, strapped snugly to Dead-Eye's left hip, then -at his own two empty bandaged hands. - -"Well, Dead-Eye, here, as your owlhoot pard would say, 'here goes -nuttin'." - -Not for many days had Curt Wing felt such a sense of peace and relief -as he did that moment when he turned back toward the unknown and -implacable enemy. Deep inside he was chuckling. It was silly for the -two of them to march against the shadows. Silly, sure, his proud spirit -admitted, but wasn't that the way of man? - -Wasn't it man's way to thumb his nose at impossibilities and forge -ahead? It wasn't a matter of winning, really, but having the guts to go -ahead and try. - -Dead-Eye snapped open the cylinder of his powder gun, observed -candidly: "I hope I don't get rattled again and try to shoot my toes -off. Those six slugs jerked out of Elizabeth so fast before that there -explosion I couldn't even control her at all." - -They moved back deeper into hell. - -All around them buildings, trees, streets and sidewalks were being -flung about as the power of the shadows smashed. The rain was coming -down in torrents now, and the two of them could barely see a few feet -ahead. - -But always they knew where the shadows were--the slashing bolts pointed -them out unerringly. They were very close to that unseen line of -shadows. The thunder of those bolts was rending the air and mixing in -the fresh smell of ozone with the pall of smoke and putrid smells which -even the driving rain could not beat to earth. - -Suddenly, Wing and Dead-Eye stopped. It was as if they had walked into -a solid wall. But this wall was different. It pushed them backward -easily, although they strove to move ahead. - - * * * * * - -"A harmless force wall," Wing said in answer to Dead-Eye's query. "But -we can't get through. There goes our grand gesture, Dead-Eye. We can -hardly thumb our noses while we're being pushed backward." - -"Huh!" grunted Dead-Eye. "I'll fix 'em." He levelled Elizabeth, aimed -her into the unseen obstacle. His thumb flicked at the hammer, and -Elizabeth's gruff voice broke through the cacophony of noise with -amazing clarity. He strode forward, Wing beside him, and blasted at the -invisible wall. - -Of a sudden, the noise was gone. Wing halted in amazement. The -tremendous symphony of sound which had been pounding at his ears now -miraculously was stilled. - -Elizabeth's last shot still echoed, but the crash of masonry and -plastic, the scream of tortured steel, the growling crackling -of the shadows bolts, the snapping as fire gulped at wood and -inflammables--all these were gone. - -But while they still marveled at this change from noise to silence, -something happened. They were thrown off their feet, and they once more -found themselves out in the noise and fire. - -No more had they picked themselves up from the rubble than the -invisible wall was nudging at them again, shoving them ahead of it. - -The insentient wall kept nudging them backward--ever backward until -there was no longer any sense of time or place to them. A confused -roar of crashing buildings, explosions, groans of tortured metal; an -indiscriminate blend of smells, of smoke, fire, charred flesh and wood; -a heterogeneous awareness of pain, cold heat; a knowledge that this, -for Earthmen, was the end. - -What did it matter now that Zhan Nekel and his rocket fleet thundered -ever closer to Earth? That Pat, who had come back with her promise of -happiness, loved him? What did anything matter anymore, except dying -like an Earthman should--in the ruins of his world, still trying to -lick something so much stronger that his greatest effort was breath -against a cylinder? - -Curt Wing stumbled, fell. Then the force wall was rolling over him over -and over, always back, back. The broken pavement, the shattered rubble -pounded and tore at his already burned and battered body. - -Then suddenly: - -"Here they are, Pat!" The voice cut through into his dulled mind. A -powerful light, hurting his eyes, struck at him, and in its reflection -he caught sight of a figure in space blues, gargoyle eyes glinting. Lt. -Packer! Packer shouted: - -"Swing the rocket car around, Pat. Quick! Something's shoving Curt and -Dead-Eye around and it might upset the car." - -His light suddenly twisted crazily and Packer grunted, "Damn, it's -like a moving wall." Then Packer swung back, lifted Wing to his feet, -dragged him ahead of the crawling wall. Wing felt the heat of the -rocket exhaust, muted by its muffler, fan his cheek. Then he was inside -the car. Moments later, Dead-Eye's heavy bulk followed him, and Packer -was leaping in with them, urging: - -"Get going, Pat, but watch out for those rubble piles and holes." Then, -in the bucking car, Packer was tearing open a package of antiseptic -drug needles. Wing felt the sting in his neck, and the dullness and -pain were fleeing from his mind. - -"You're a couple of space zanies," Packer muttered, yanking the -gargoyle-like smoke glasses from his eyes and pulling off his space -crash-helmet. "Pat almost went crazy when she found you'd left the -hospital. We've been searching for you ever since in this hell. It -was only luck Pat spotted you with the infra-red, or you'd be rolling -still." - -Curt Wing leaned back against the car cushion. "Well, Lieutenant," -he said, "I might as well be rolling still for all the good I can do -against these shadow-things." He lifted his bandaged head, his dark -eyes almost black now with weariness and hate of the beings who were -casually flicking man into the limbo of forgotten things. - -"You know what we're up against, don't you, George?" he asked. From the -pilot seat, Pat said bitterly: - -"We know, Curt. The whole world knows. The telecasts have been -bombarding the world with it ever since the first shadow came out and -hurled our own destruction back at us a hundred-fold." - -George Packer added, "I was recruited to pull our biggest space guns -out and hook them up on land rockets. The ships can't rise, somehow, -and when we've called for ships from other points, they get so close -and then their power gives out." - -"But, gee," put in Dead-Eye, "this car's running. How come?" - -"Don't know why, Dead-Eye," Packer added. "These, of course, don't have -the new cyc motors; still run on the old combustion principle. The -force field probably neutralizes the cycs, but doesn't faze the firing -gas in the cars." - -"The space guns didn't help, I suppose?" Wing asked. - -"No," Packer said, twisted his face ruefully. "The shadows thrived on -it and threw our bolts back ten times as hard. It wasn't nice to see." - -"Sometimes," he said, wistfully, "I wish we were back in your -beef-striker--sorry, Dead-Eye--cow-puncher days. It was man to man -then, and you knew that it wasn't the weapon but the wielder." He ran -his hands through his tousled blond hair. - -"Yep," said Dead-Eye. "Elizabeth and me'd fix 'em if we could see 'em." - - * * * * * - -The bucketing car began to have smoother going; the darkness outside -was lifting, and the beat of the rain seemed to decelerate. - -In the comparative quiet and peace, Curt Wing's dulled mind, clarified -by the stimulating drug, was beginning to work again; his spirit numbed -and beaten down by pain and inability to solve the enigma of the -shadows and their weapons was lifting itself, shaking itself from its -lethargy, as something stirred within. - -Just that buoyant spirit of man which refused to admit defeat? Wing was -wondering. Or was despair so deep that I couldn't go any deeper so I -have to come up toward hope again? - -The rocket car suddenly sloughed to a stop. - -"Sorry," Pat said softly, and laughed. There was a note of hysteria in -that laugh. "But we're surrounded." The three men peered out through -the plastic windshield. The shadow-things were ahead, moving toward -them. - -But no destruction was spitting from those ghostly figures. For the -first time, Curt Wing had a chance to observe closely. - -They seemed about the height of a man--but distorted like a man's -shadow falling before him as he trudged up a hill with the sun behind. -Yet not so distinct. They wavered, too, within themselves, although the -outline remained constant. - -The rain was only a light patter now and the sky was brightening as the -three men and one woman crawled out of the rocket car. The shadows were -very close now, but there still was no sign that their weapons would -speak. - -Silently the shadows moved, scores of them. That straight line they -made began to bend and curve around the four who stood waiting. - -No threatening gestures, no weapons visible, just that relentless, -closing circle. - -"Damn you," said Dead-Eye suddenly. "Elizabeth didn't get a chancet at -you before. But she will now." - -"No!" Curt Wing snapped. "I think they want to take us alive. Maybe we -can learn something. No, Dead-Eye, no!" - -But it was too late. - -Dead-Eye had snapped his ancient powder gun from its holster, and his -left hand was fanning Elizabeth's sharp-biting tongue. The hammer -snapped down thrice--three shots blasted out. - -In that breathless second before the awful blast of sound and light -struck, Curt Wing saw three shadows suddenly disappear. Then the sound -and light struck as Wing steeled his muscles and mind against it. -But, amazingly, at the first touch, it was gone, and he was standing -unharmed. - -He twisted his head. Pat was standing close beside him, and George. But -Dead-Eye was gone. Only Elizabeth, her metal twisted and white hot, lay -smoking on the ground where Dead-Eye had stood. - -Dead-Eye, Wing's mind was crying, you big, dumb, blundering bear, where -are you? Oh, you damn fool, pitting an old, crazy powder gun against -atomic power! You killed yourself, you crazy, gallant guy. Now you're -gone--who am I going to have to look out for after this? - -Pat's fingers were soft on his arm, drawing him back from the pain of -the loss. "He always wanted it that way, Curt. Quick, while he was in -action." - -Rage began to boil in Wing's heart against these tenuous shadows who -scorned giving an Earthman even a hopeless chance. The ache for Dead -Eye, who was like a big good-natured puppy; that ever-conscious nagging -of the doom of mankind at the hands of these callous shadows; the -knowledge that even if this doom could be somehow stopped or turned -aside there was Zhan Nekel's space fleet coming nearer, churned his -mind. And from his whirling brain came only one driving thought. Avenge -Dead-Eye--the thousands of Dead-Eyes who never would have the chance -for their simple joys and pleasures if man knuckled down under this -greatest threat! - -With that rage came clear thinking. Little things--like Dead-Eye's -firing into the invisible wall, combustion type engines firing when -cyc-powered units went dead, shadows disappearing when Elizabeth spat -at them; little things, simple things. - -A thought coalescing, growing sharper, until it was burning in his -mind, fueling his spirit with new hope. - -"Thank you, Dead-Eye," he whispered. The harsh sharp planes of Curt -Wing's face were softening. - -"We've got a chance," he said. "Dead-Eye gave it to us, Pat. But we've -got to get away--out of this circle somehow." He waved his hands at the -tight circle of shadow-things that hemmed them in. "Any ideas, George? -Pat?" - -Lt. George Packer's shoulders had come up, he was touched by this new -assurance in Curt Wing's voice, in the fire of those dark eyes. "Not," -he said, and there was new life in his voice, too, "not unless an old -wish comes true and the ground swallows us up." - -"It can," Pat said, the words tumbling out. "We can fall in a hole, -can't we? Look at them, Curt. They shuffle along, but they don't step -into holes. They just float over them--like they do belong in another -dimension and can't anchor themselves to Earth. See?" Her voice rang -with excitement. - -Wing laughed. "But what good would falling in a hole do us? All they'd -have to do is fish us out again. And we'd have new bruises." The circle -was tight now, and suddenly they felt the push of an invisible wall -against them as the shadow-things moved closer. Then they were moving. - -Pat didn't stop arguing. "If you were a fat man and you dropped -something between your feet, wouldn't you have to get your stomach out -of the way to see it?" - -Wing looked at her sharply. "What are you driving at, Pat?" - -"If they're from another dimension, and all the telecast say they are, -and if their vision devices for this world are just for straight-ahead -seeing, what would they have to do in order to look down?" - -"Pat," Wing said softly. "It would be like riding in a rocket car. Once -something gets underneath it, out of the range of the windshield, you -can't see it. You have to back up or go forward. And if we pick a deep -enough hole, the shadows can't back enough or go forward enough to see -the bottom. Is that what you mean? Because the high sides cut off their -vision?" - -Her wide smile and sparkling eyes were his answer. - - * * * * * - -Curt Wing, nursing a new set of bruises after plunging into a -fifteen-foot hole and scrambling out after the shadow-things had -finally floated by above them, led Pat and lanky George Packer at a -loping run back to the rocket car. - -It was almost nightfall and the fire and noise and stench of White City -were far behind them by the time the speedy little car made it to the -mountain retreat of the Council of Seven. - -During the ride, Curt Wing's sense of loss with Dead-Eye gone was -softening, mingling with a gratitude deep and strong to the big, -black-bearded giant. - -With a child's intuition for solving a problem simply, Dead-Eye and his -Elizabeth had given man a chance to fight. - -"A chance, Curt?" Pat had overheard his whisper. Her hand on his arm -was warm and vibrant. Curt clasped his fingers softly over hers. - -"Yes," he said, "if there is only time." - -Jan Eliel, senior governor of the Council of Seven, pulled his -red-rimmed eyes from the telecast when Curt Wing and Pat and Lt. Packer -entered the consultation room. - -Old as his face had stamped him those few days ago when Wing had -brought the fleet back, Jan Eliel now was a broken and bent caricature -of the man who held the direction of a world in his hands. - -"Yes?" he asked, and the life was out of his voice. - -Then he saw the four miniature earths which still glinted proudly in a -row across Wing's torn and burnt tunic's left breast. - -"Wing!" He rose from his seat on the telecast bench, hurried forward. -"You've solved it!" - -Wing shook his bandaged head. "I don't know for sure, Governor, but I -think we do have a way of stopping the shadows--if there's time." - -Jan Eliel ran a shaking hand through his white hair. - -"I don't know. Zhan Nekel's fleet is moving faster than we thought -it would, and the fleet units you smashed at the Moon have been -re-organized and now are swinging toward us. That, at the most, gives -us two days--and I thought we'd have at least two weeks. - -"But enough of that; what is the way to stop these terrible shadows?" - -Instead of answer, Wing asked: - -"How much of that obsolete Twentieth century artillery is available?" - -Jan Eliel's old eyes widened. - -"You're mad, Curt Wing," he said wearily. "We've tried everything -we have, the finest weapons, the heaviest atom machines, and we get -nothing in return except our own power turned against us. Powder -would be worse than useless. You can't stop atomic power with an -old-fashioned shell." - -"My friend Dead-Eye was killed when he proved you can," Wing said -quietly. - - * * * * * - -Jan Eliel's voice was cold. He spoke quite without emotion. "You've -been under too heavy a strain, Space Commander Wing. You are not the -clear-headed Wing we once knew. Go back to the hospital and rest. -Perhaps you will be able to bring back some semblance of sanity and -help your world when she needs you most." - -"Damn you," Wing said. "Can't you see it? We've been throwing atomic -power at an atomic shield, so it just bounces back at us. Suppose we -threw something it couldn't bounce back right away, leaving us an -opening to hurl our own atomic bolts into the heart of it?" - -Jan Eliel had turned his back on them, once more was watching the -telecast. - -What's the use, Curt Wing? Why bother when the ruler of the world won't -listen to what a big, blundering guy proved when he got mad and fired -an old powder gun at a shadow? He's blinded as you were not so long ago -by despair. Follow Dead-Eye's lead, show him the way and he may follow. - -"Come on," Wing said abruptly. "We have a job to do." - -The long low barracks at the Spacers' Training school outside -Washington buzzed and growled with the hundreds of blue-uniformed -spacers. - -There at the far end of the hall on the little platform where the -sergeants took the roll, Wing stood looking at the hard-bitten, -space-burned men who had been land-bound since they turned from victory -to answer that fatal six-two.... - -They had come because their commander had offered them a fight; a -little different perhaps using old-fashioned projectile weapons, but -nevertheless a fight; and they, who had used space guns against the -shadow-things, who had been beaten back without a chance to fight, were -spoiling for battle. - -Some of them were reading the hastily-printed instructions that came -with the bright, shining, but outmoded weapons. Some were a little -jealous of other comrades who even now were hurling their atomic bolts -through the skies over Earth as they harassed the vanguard of Zhan -Nekel's Mercurian fleet. - -But with the pangs of jealousy they had pride in themselves, too. While -their shipmates battled a known enemy, they were going out to fight -against an unknown enemy with untried weapons and only the promise of -their Space Commander, Curt Wing, that these weapons, three centuries -old, could win where atomics had so miserably failed. - -Wing raised his hand for attention. - -"Some of you knew Dead-Eye and his Elizabeth. He's gone now, but he -destroyed three of the shadow-things with leaden pellets from his old -sixshooter before he died. He showed me the way to lick those shadows. -Simply, it's this. A concentration of powder can open a hole in the -atomic shield of the shadows. But in our atomic weapons we have a flow -of power and it's sucked away by the shield before it can concentrate. - -"In Elizabeth, Dead-Eye had concentrated power--the leaden projectile. -Its comparatively inert atoms struck the shield and broke through -before it could be spread out evenly over the shield. - -"For a moment, the shield was out of balance. That's your job and -mine--keep that shield out of balance until we can find the invaders -within and destroy them. - -"I realize that you've had only five days to study what these old -weapons are and how they operate--but we haven't any more time. We've -got to lick an enemy from outside and an enemy from within at one and -the same time. - -"Do you think we can do it?" - -A roar of assent greeted him. - -They numbered in the thousands. Space rovers of the Twenty-fourth -century, moving in a long, spread out line toward the edge of the blue -flower that still pulsated and grew, reaching farther and farther out -from White City. - -Curt Wing's heart was filled with pride--pride in these thousands who, -with strange, obsolete arms, were moving against a shadowy foe equipped -with weapons the like of which they'd never dreamed; pride in that -unbeatable spirit and courage of man, the magnificent fool, who had -lifted himself by his own bootstraps from the caves of Earth to the -vast reaches of the stars! - -It was Curt Wing's powder gun which opened the attack when they struck -against the invisible force barrier. - -In the dawn light, all up and down that long thin line, the powder guns -began snapping and crackling. Tommy guns, rifles and revolvers hurled -their slugs at the wall. - - * * * * * - -The long line kept moving forward. Wing snapped on the portable radio -phone strapped across his chest, and at his words, far behind him, -a dozen space cruisers--those which could be spared from the battle -against the Mercurians above Earth--rose and soon were scintillating in -the rays of a sun still hidden by the rim of Earth. - -As the line of marching men strode forward, the cruisers, their rocket -motors vibrating the air, circled high above them. - -The line reached the edge of the flower--and the intensity of the -firing increased until it was the steady roll of a thousand drums. - -Wing spoke into the phone again as the flower grew bluer along the -edge. The blue deepened and deepened until it was almost black. Then -Wing spoke into the phone once more. - -The circling cruisers steadied. Their blue bolts spat at the blackness. - -The shock of it could be seen for miles in the blue flower. The shield -blackened in scattered spots. Where every black spot showed, the bolts -from the Earth ships lashed. - -The terrible power unleashed inside the shield began to show as the -flower shrunk back into itself. - -The ground smoked and trembled as it emerged from the retreating force -field; great fissures opened and the ground trembled and shook as if in -the grip of an earthquake. - -Wing snapped a halt order to the captains on either side of him and the -word moved rapidly down the line. - -Bracing themselves against the shock of the quake, they waited. - -It wasn't for long. - -In the brightening day ahead of them, on the leveled plain behind them, -the Earthmen saw the shadow-things approaching, their power bolts -lashing out ahead of them. Every other man turned, so that half of them -faced the shadows ahead and half the shadows behind. - -The powder guns crashed, and the steel and lead and copper pellets -whined a song of death in the ranks of the shadows. - -The mist things exploded and disappeared as the multi-shaped spawn of -Dead-Eye's Elizabeth struck their shields. - -Like puncturing a kid's balloon with a needle, Curt Wing thought. He -was laughing now--man had risen once again from the dust. No longer -need he despair. He had been stopped only momentarily in his climb -toward destiny. After this unbelievable enemy, the Mercurians would be, -perhaps not simply, but finally, hurled back to their hell-pot planet. - -It was a tired and weary Curt Wing who threaded his way through the -smoking ash of what had been one of the mightiest of Earth cities. He -moved toward the church, which stood so remarkably untouched by the -tremendous forces which had been unleashed within the blue flower. - -The two powder-burned and dirty spacemen who flanked the steel portals -saluted him as he walked tiredly up the stone steps. - -"Who phoned me?" Wing asked. - -The redhead at the left of the portal saluted. - -"I did, Commander. Jack and I saw this thing and we peeked inside and -saw that funny light, so we thought we'd better call you." - -Wing moved through the steel portals, stood in the quiet hush of -the church. There, just before the altar rail was the curious blue -light--like a hexagon of blue. - -He walked slowly toward it and as he approached, the altar behind it -seemed to fade away and he was looking into a silver hallway. - -He halted within a foot of it. It was like looking through a -doorway--why, it is a doorway, the doorway to the world these invaders -came from! - -He unsheathed the revolver, spun the cylinder to see that it was -loaded, and with only a glimpse over his shoulder at the two spacemen -silhouetted in the church doorway, he stepped through. - - * * * * * - -It was like stepping through fire--a fire that clawed and tore at the -heart of him--but it lasted only a moment. - -The hallway in which he found himself was of silver, tiny overlapping -bits of silver plating that rippled and cast off flashes of light. He -walked slowly ahead to the other doorway he saw before him. - -Framed in the door, he looked above him, through a glass roof, up into -a strange star-studded night sky. - -Where is this world? Curt Wing wondered. Have I crossed a thousand, a -million or a trillion light years to come here? - -He looked down from the night sky and the vastness of the transparent -roof reached as far his eyes could see. - -It was only a whisper in his mind at first--then it grew stronger until -it was as if his ears were hearing it. - -"You're a man," the thought said. Curt Wing's dark eyes cast about for -the source of it. - -"You're a man," the emotionless thought repeated. "That is why we -could not beat you. We are a dying race, trapped on a dying world. You -are young and have your destiny still before you." - -"Who are you?" Wing's mind called out. "Where are you?" - -"We were never beaten until now. We knew that to survive this dying -system we must fight across eternity to find another sun and another -system. We started from mud and slime like you, and some day you too -must come to this--the end of your destiny. - -"You will fight as we have fought. We built a machine to warp space. -For centuries our scientists labored to perfect it, just as other -technicians created a space scanner to find a world suitable to us." - -Curt Wing was trembling as he listened. Somehow, the measured cadence -of those cold thoughts was fingering his heart, bringing a chill to it. - -"We found your world--the world of man, Earth, but we didn't know it -until now. - -"We made a mistake--a mistake which is destroying us but will in your -far distant future destroy you." - -"A mistake?" Wing's mind asked. - -"Yes, those scientists of ours who labored so hard and long, built a -machine not to warp space, as we all thought, but to warp time. - -"You see, Space Commander Curt Wing, we, too, are men. We were fighting -our past, you your future on Earth, our common home. In attacking your -world, we have destroyed ourselves." - -"But why?" Wing's mind started to ask. - -"You saw us merely as shadows, did you not? That's all you were to us, -too. Shadows; but very, very stubborn. Never in our recorded history -had we met such a stubborn and such an able foe. No wonder. We were -fighting against ourselves. - -"It's time to go, Curt Wing, before the time door closes and locks you -forever here." - -Man to climb so far into the stars and to die by his own hand, Wing was -thinking bitterly. - -"Do not despair," the thought intruded. "What is done is done, and -nothing can be changed." - -"Wait," Wing cried out. "We beat you because a big, dumb guy by the -name of Dead-Eye had the quiet faith that we could. He showed us the -way. - -"Dead-Eye said," and the words came from his memory like a prayer, -"don't worry, Cap. Shucks, they can't be tough enough to lick us. -Earthmen always fight better when the going's rough. Why, we'll knock -'em dead. - -"Take hope from Dead-Eye's words. We were in the depths of despair when -he uttered them, and we came up that long, terrible road to hope. We -licked our problem. You, because you, too, are men, can lick yours." - -There was nothing in the emotionless thought that answered him, that -told they were heartened. - -Curt Wing turned his back on Man's future, walked down the silver -hallway, through the hexagonal door to his own world. He stepped out in -the quiet hush of the church. - -He saw the two spacers still staring in as he walked out of the -darkness of the church into the brightness of day. - -One of the spacers called out: - -"Commander, the light's fading!" - -The shouted words echoed in his ears as he strode down the steps. - -_The light's fading...._ Like hell it was! Somehow those future -men would find a way. Wasn't it man's way to thumb his nose at -impossibilities and forge ahead? - -Space Commander Curt Wing's shoulders straightened. He lengthened his -stride. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this ebook. - -Title: The Shadow-Gods - -Author: Vaseleos Garson - -Release Date: December 05, 2020 [EBook #63795] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADOW-GODS *** -</pre> - -<div class="titlepage"> - - -<h1>THE SHADOW-GODS</h1> - -<h2>By VASELEOS GARSON</h2> - -<p>Curt watched them, screaming as they fled before the<br /> -shadow-things—the tortured humans of Earth. He<br /> -watched them die, crushed and seared by the spreading<br /> -blue flower, and he cursed himself. With all his<br /> -knowledge and strength he could not save his people.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Summer 1946.<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>Around them, space—implacable but generous, impalpable but -tangible—shot through with a thousand far off suns.</p> - -<p>Looming at starboard, blacking out a section of space, the dark -starside of the Moon. Then hundreds of flickering fireflies moving out -of the darkness, blinking on by ones ... twos ... threes ... as they -passed the black moon's rim.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing relaxing, his dark head nodding softly, his dark eyes -widening as he stared into the teleplate. He stared into the plate, and -his lips, for so many hours a thin gray line, pursed into an almost -inaudible whistle.</p> - -<p>Without turning his head, he said to the lean rangy blond lieutenant -beside him.</p> - -<p>"That did it, Packer. It flushed them from cover. Curiosity did it."</p> - -<p>"Now?" Lt. George Packer asked, pulling on his helmet, reaching for the -red button to sound the klaxon alarm. One long finger almost touched -the scarlet dot which would send a hundred crews on a hundred Earth -ships into the action which they had awaited for these long weeks.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing, wing Space Commander, shook his black shock of hair with -deliberate slowness, wiped the sticky sweat from the palms of his hands -on his gold-striped blue breeches.</p> - -<p>"Wait."</p> - -<p>"But, Curt! We've waited two weeks. And for the last seven hours the -crew has been going mad. They know the Mercurians must be out there -now. We got the flash on the intercommunicator and it's tuned to -all-ship length."</p> - -<p>"I know," Wing said. "But what's another moment or two. This has to -be right. We'll never get another chance like this again. Be patient, -George."</p> - -<p>Curt Wing still stared at the visaplate.</p> - -<p>"They must have the whole fleet with them! I've never seen so many -Mercurian ships in my life."</p> - -<p>"They'll spot us," Lt. Packer said anxiously. "Let me signal, Curt."</p> - -<p>"Easy, George. This is Earth's last chance. We've got to be sure it's -good. They've got us—ten to one. Surprise is our only chance of -whittling down the odds."</p> - -<p>"But every minute, Curt, every minute counts. They'll spot us sure."</p> - -<p>His eyes still soldered to the plate, Wing said, an overtone of -exasperation in his deep-timbered voice; "We've been here two weeks. -They didn't spot our black ships in the moon's shadow before. I hardly -think they will now. Take it easy."</p> - -<p>The two stood there, watching the black shadow of the plate, now -flickering with swarms of silver Mercurian ships. Beads of sweat -built up on Curt Wing's forehead, swelled, then rolled down his lean, -harsh-planed face to make tiny plopping sounds on the duralloy deck -beneath their feet.</p> - -<p>"Man!" Lt. Packer burst out. "Curt, are you mad? We've got to strike -now. Their black light visas'll pick us up any second."</p> - -<p>Wing Space Commander Wing didn't answer. Seconds oozed away like -viscous blobs of oil. Then:</p> - -<p>"Now!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Packer's itching finger stabbed the red button viciously. Muted through -the thick bulkheads surrounding the plotting room came the ululating -howl of the ready signal.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing moved from the visaplate, clicked on the intercommunications -speaker, came back to the plate. He studied it for a moment, unmindful -of George Packer who was chewing his nails very deliberately.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing lifted his head, turned toward the speaker and said casually,</p> - -<p>"Fire at will."</p> - -<p>Then his dark eyes turned back to the thousand fireflies flickering -in the visaplate. Lt. Packer crowded his lean body alongside of him, -stared at the screen.</p> - -<p>The ship shuddered. The deck quivered beneath their feet like a -restrained earthquake. Almost simultaneously, the fireflies in the -visaplate were spotting with flowering bursts of bright-hued colors -which hid other of the fireflies for a long moment.</p> - -<p>A metallic voice echoed into the plotting room as the spotter's hit -calculator started clacking from its eyrie in the nose of the ship.</p> - -<p>"Seven direct ... no twelve ..." the metallic voice broke, then resumed -and reflected the glee of the spotter. "Commander, this damn machine's -gone mad. We're hitting them so fast it can't keep up!"</p> - -<p>The flagship trembled again, and the visaplate was filled with the -bright, blooming flowers as Mercurian ship after Mercurian ship tasted -the atomic bolts, sucked them up and exploded.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing's voice was no longer casual as he turned his lips toward the -intercom.</p> - -<p>"Sock it to 'em, you precious monkeys. You've got a million Earthmen to -avenge!"</p> - -<p>Then he kicked the tuning dial over, swept the visascreen from Earth -ship to Earth ship. Only the flashing blue bolts identified most, but -here and there an Earth ship blazed red, then white and molten metal -dripped off into the darkness as the Mercurian ships lashed back at the -dark shrouded hornets which were poisoning them with quick flashing -death.</p> - -<p>The huge Mercurian fleet, its thousands scattered through with broken -hulks, was turning slowly, its own bolts searching out, lighting up the -blackness which hid the tiny Earthian fleet.</p> - -<p>The silver ships moved in, and concentrated hell poured on to one of -the far-flung ships of Earth. The Earth ship exploded into myriad -shells of molten metal, and the horrible atomic rays moved to the next -blue flashing terrestrial ship.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing's voice barked into the intercom:</p> - -<p>"Plan L."</p> - -<p>And the outnumbered Earth ships, pulling in their horns of atomic -bolts, flashed away from the darkness, their rocket exhausts spurting -fire. They blasted into the sky in unison, climbing above the slower -Mercurian ships, and hurtled downward, their blue bolts thrusting -before them, lashing at the silver ships.</p> - -<p>The Mercurian ships swung upward, lumbering, but the Earth ships were -darting in and out like slashing knives wielded by agile, practiced -hands.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing's tight-held breath relaxed, made a whistling sound in -the plotting room. He said, "The longest chance I ever took, and it -worked." His voice was very low, almost like a prayer.</p> - -<p>"Look at them run!" Packer chortled. "You did it again." He was staring -into the visaplate, watching the silver ships begin to scatter away -from the black Earth ships above them. "This is the knockout punch. -We'll drive them away now, forever. Five years they've been nagging us -and all the time they waited until they were strong enough to strike."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Wing, "and they almost got us in the slaughtering pit by -the asteroid belt. But now...." He halted, snapped into the intercom:</p> - -<p>"Attack at will, you itchy-fingered monkeys. They're all yours. Take -'em."</p> - -<p>The oval door to the plotting room burst open; a big-framed, -heavy-paunched Blackbeard came plowing in.</p> - -<p>"Gee, Cap," his heavy voice lumbered. "I bin missing somepin, huh?"</p> - -<p>Commander Wing turned to the newcomer. The harsh planes of his face -softened as he grinned.</p> - -<p>"Yes, Dead-Eye, I guess you bin missing something all right. Making -love to Elizabeth again?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dead-Eye Lindstrom grinned, his white square teeth glaring through the -black of his bearded face.</p> - -<p>"Yep, I sure have. Y'know, Cap, Elizabeth's coming along fine now. I -jest got through placing five out of six slugs in the bull'e eye, and -I warn't even looking. I jest grabbed leather and started fanning the -hammer and whamo! Elizabeth put 'em right in thar."</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye patted the bulky length of the archaic powder gun strapped to -his right leg. Then he jerked his hand up quickly and the white steel -of the ancient Frontier .44 revolver sparkled in the light.</p> - -<p>"Pard," he said, "Pard, them were the days. You stood face to face with -another owlhoot rider and reached. By gosh, you could see the whites of -his eyes and whamo! You got him or he got you."</p> - -<p>"Shut up, will you, Lindstrom?" Packer snapped. "You and your ancient -history give me a pain. They buried the last beef striker—"</p> - -<p>"Cowpuncher!" Dead-Eye corrected.</p> - -<p>"Three hundred years ago," Packer went on. "And where you ever found -that excuse for a pistol, only Neptune knows."</p> - -<p>"Easy," said Curt Wing quietly.</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye drew himself up to his full six feet six so that he towered -a full head over Lt. Packer. "Brother," he growled, and his pale blue -eyes were cold, "I'll match you Elizabeth against any of these modern -guns and I'll kill you so quicker that you'll have to be cremated ahead -of time. Why—"</p> - -<p>An eerie whistle from the Earth panel halted him. The three turned -at the summons, infraction of all space battle procedure except in -cases of extreme urgency. Only once before in five years had that -whistle sounded during either battle practice or battle. Then it was to -announce war with Mercury.</p> - -<p>Now....</p> - -<p>The visaplate crawled up from black through purple to yellow and white. -A voice came through but there was no face accompanying it.</p> - -<p>"Signal six-two ... signal six-two...."</p> - -<p>"No!" Wing cried out.</p> - -<p>"Signal six-two ... signal six-two...."</p> - -<p>Wing glanced at the battle visaplate. The Mercurians were in full rout.</p> - -<p>We've got them licked, he thought; they're running.</p> - -<p>Now this.</p> - -<p>"Signal six-two...." the Earth voice repeated.</p> - -<p>Lt. Packer said, "Commander Wing, what is signal six-two? I thought -there were only sixty-one code numbers."</p> - -<p>Curt Wing looked at Packer but his dark eyes were blank, the lips -thinned and harsh.</p> - -<p>"Signal six-two, lieutenant?" he asked, and there was no life in his -voice. "It takes precedence over everything an Earthman has. Life, -liberty, home, happiness—everything. We must return to Earth at once. -To hell with the Mercurians. They're unimportant." Curt Wing spoke into -the intercom:</p> - -<p>"Commander to all ships. Abandon chase. Gain formation. We're returning -to home base."</p> - -<p>The formation board began to blink as ship captains acknowledged the -order. But where each green light of acquiescence lighted up, below it -came also the yellow light of query.</p> - -<p>Wing pushed on the all-ship button on the officers' intercom system and -said quietly:</p> - -<p>"Signal six-two—you know what that means." The yellow query lights -went off immediately, the green ones blinked off, on, then off again.</p> - -<p>"Yes," Wing said to Lt. Packer, "The Mercurians are unimportant -compared to this. Signal six-two is the emergency signal for earth -catastrophe. What's wrong I don't know. But whatever it is, a mere -interplanetary war is a kindergarten class." He ran his blunt-fingered -hands through his hair.</p> - -<p>"Gee, Cap," said Dead-Eye suddenly. "That's bad, huh?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, Dead-Eye," Wing said softly. "It's bad. Very bad."</p> - -<p>"You'll fix it, won't you, Cap?" Dead-Eye asked, and his light-blue -eyes were trusting. "You can do anything, Cap. Why, didn't you find -Elizabeth for me?"</p> - -<p>Wing stared at Dead-Eye's hulking figure.</p> - -<p>Finally he said, "I think this will be slightly more difficult than -picking Elizabeth out of a museum case, Dead-Eye."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Earth below them now, its diadem of clouds winking in the reflected -shafts of light from the moon.</p> - -<p>What danger lay there? What danger so great that they must let a -victory become a might-have-been. What catastrophe so important that a -fight for interplanetary life was dismissed casually with the signal.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing shrugged his shoulders, heard that incessant signal boring -monotonously into his ears.</p> - -<p>Then the breaking rockets were kicking, the high thin wail as the -thickening atmosphere scratched along the black ship's bulk was -deepening, and the deceleration was pushing lazy hands against him, -urging him against the duralloy bulwark at his back.</p> - -<p>"Gosh," Dead-Eye said, gaping open-mouthed into the visaplate. "Cap, -looky here, the whole city is blue."</p> - -<p>It <i>was</i> blue—this White City which in the long ago had been New York. -A blue visible with an inner light of its own that absorbed the white -moon beams and made even black shadows turn blue.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The city was like some huge blue flower, sunset blue for stamen and -pistil, its hue lightening to aquamarine, cerulean, and pastel as its -petals stretched farther out over the city. It was pulsing and each -pulsation swelled its circumference.</p> - -<p>Then the visaplate was flickering and the tiny red bulb centered in its -plastic base began to blink, signaling power trouble. Then the screen -went blank.</p> - -<p>"What is it?" Packer exclaimed. His voice was loud and harsh in the -plotting room now. The incessant signal six-two ... signal six-two ... -had ceased. The instrument panel lights went dark, the rockets cut off -abruptly, the only sound was the scrabbling fingers of the outside....</p> - -<p>"Force field," Curt Wing said. "Something we've never been able to -develop. But there it is. That's the catastrophe. It's swallowing White -City, and if there's an intelligence behind it or not, mankind is done -if we can't stop it."</p> - -<p>"Force field?" Packer asked. "But didn't you...?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," Wing said. "I created one once. A little thing less than an -inch square. Balanced one magnetic field against another by firing four -atomic guns at a coincident point. But a funny thing, the longer the -field held the more power I had to shove into it.</p> - -<p>"Then I didn't have any more power to give, and Dead-Eye says, 'Gee, -what's happening to all those atoms?' So I grabbed him and ran like -hell for the nearest sub-basement. When those compressed atoms let go -it tore everything loose from the experimental station.</p> - -<p>"When Dead-Eye and I crawled out, all it was was a desert. There -wasn't a tree, a bush, a rock or a hill for ten miles around. It was -the flattest place I ever saw, or hope to see again." He was staring -blankly at the insentient visaplate.</p> - -<p>"But, hell, I talk too much."</p> - -<p>Jake Wilson, landing supervisor, pushed open the oval hatch, said: -"Hang on, sir, we're volplaning in. It's lucky we got the vanes out -before the power quit."</p> - -<p>The shock spilled the chunky Wilson into the plotting room, clipped the -legs out from under the three already there.</p> - -<p>There was a moment of lift, then another shock a little less severe. -The ship lifted again, struck, lifted once more and settled with an -audible groan of metal stress.</p> - -<p>They hurried from the plotting room, heading for the exit lock.</p> - -<p>It was a peculiar sort of night outside, a benevolent blue softening -the blackness. Curt Wing stared at the blue haloed city off to the -west. He was licking his dry lips.</p> - -<p>"Gosh, Cap," Dead-Eye asked suddenly. "What if <i>that</i> blows up?" A -shudder quivered through his bulky frame.</p> - -<p>Wing's dark eyes went blank. He put one hand on Dead-Eye's arm. He said -nothing.</p> - -<p>He was standing there, staring at the pulsating blue flower that was -spreading out from the city, his fingers quiescent on Dead-Eye's arm -when the red-uniformed riot officer jockeyed his speedy rocket car up -to them....</p> - -<p>The building was still untouched by the force field's encroaching maw. -Curt Wing stood by the window staring out at the blue night scene. -Finally he answered the men who sat at the long narrow table behind him.</p> - -<p>"I don't know what we can do. My experiments with such a field taught -me only that I could not control it once it was set in motion," he said -quietly.</p> - -<p>He turned then to face the men—the governors of the seven divisions -of earth. "You have flattered me because of an experiment that ended -in failure," he went on. "But even if we had a solution, a way -to overcome this impossibility, we must not forget that is only -one problem. We have this unknown to lick, yes; but meanwhile the -Mercurians we left out by the moon can punch us to Stardust."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jan Eliel, senior governor, shook his white head quickly. "No, we have -only this force field with which to contend. We have nothing to worry -about from the Mercurians. We gave them Earth's unconditional surrender -only minutes after you were ordered back."</p> - -<p>"Huh?" The exclamation, shot through with amazement, exploded from the -shadows in the corner where Dead-Eye had buried himself. "Why, you!"</p> - -<p>"Quiet, Dead-Eye!" Wing barked. Dead-Eye subsided, grumbling.</p> - -<p>Wing's face had drained of color, the sharp planes of his face came -into sharper relief, the muscles in his throat were working pulsating -as if he could not catch a full breath.</p> - -<p>His mind was shrieking. It's gone, Curt Wing! The loveliest world in -the galaxy no longer belongs to Earthmen. It is owned by strangers, by -Mercurians, by an alien people who will grind its beauty into a molten -crucible so that it may support their hell-hot lives.</p> - -<p>Gone! Everything worth fighting for, living for, dying for! Earth, -who had flung her minions to the stars, first beings in the galaxy to -solve space travel, first to probe across eternity in rickety ships, -spanning the vast distances with blood and broken lives. Earth, who had -struggled to bring her peoples together in peaceful harmony, finally -succeeding in it, lifting them toward their destiny.</p> - -<p>All this—Gone.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing looked at the seven governors.</p> - -<p>"If that's the case," he said finally. "I can't see any reason why we -should worry about the force field. Let the damn Mercurians worry about -it. Earth is theirs now."</p> - -<p>"Wait, Wing!" Eliel cried out as Wing strode past the long narrow -table, Dead-Eye's bulk dogging his heels. "You don't understand!"</p> - -<p>Wing spun around. "I don't understand?" he repeated, and his deep voice -was harsh.</p> - -<p>"Look, you governors. There was only one way Earth could have licked -this force field. Someone would have found the way out—the way to chop -this blue flower off at its source if you hadn't taken it away.</p> - -<p>"Scan back through Earth's history. Way back in the 15th century, a sea -captain did the impossible. He crossed water as vast to him as space -once was to us. He had a way. Earthmen flung their power at a dictator -called Schickelgruber or some such name. It had been impossible to stop -him. But a way was found."</p> - -<p>"Then the moon rocket. That was impossible, too. There was no way to -break gravity chains without killing any living thing on the ship. But -a way was found. Oh, there are scores of instances where Earthmen did -the impossible. But they had something worth fighting for. Columbus his -adopted country; the united nations their people; Dawson and his moon -rocket, the welfare of a world."</p> - -<p>"We had Earth. Now what have we got? Not a mote of dust to call our -own. <i>I</i> don't understand! Hell, I hope the Mercurians use you to fire -those ghastly gas pots they use here to keep Earth's air from poisoning -them."</p> - -<p>Space Commander Curt Wing was balanced on the balls of his feet, -leaning forward now, breathing hard, his fine-muscled body quivering as -his dark eyes burned at the seven governors.</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel said quietly, "We know how you feel, Curt Wing. But there -wasn't anything else we could do. Wait!" He held up his hand as Wing -threatened to interrupt him.</p> - -<p>"We were like the fellow in the old story who stood at the gates of -hell. He was damned if he opened the door and damned if he didn't."</p> - -<p>"We had two alternatives—an unknown enemy and a known enemy, and we -needed time, so we chose to capitulate to Mercury. We recognized the -blue flower for what it was—and we needed you. Until you switched from -building atomics to piloting them, you had made the greatest advance in -the force field."</p> - -<p>"We have time now—precious little since it will be only two weeks -before the Mercurian fleet arrives with Mercury's Zhan Nekel. Earth -still is ours. If you can solve the force field, we need not lose. We -can turn it upon the Mercurians. They have fought with deceit and in -this we must deceive them."</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel sat up stiffly in his chair. "Will you desert us, Curt Wing?"</p> - -<p>Wing's relaxed figure was their answer. The boyish grin which wiped the -harsh planes of his face into softness was his promise. But Dead-Eye -added emphasis, dragging his powder gun from his belt and waving it.</p> - -<p>"Elizabeth and me'll help!" he declared.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The <i>electric clock</i> whirred softly—like a breathless metronone -keeping time with Curt Wing's pencil. The metal desk was littered with -crumpled and half-crumpled sheets of paper. Wing's black hair was -rumpled and awry, his face dirtier by a ragged growth of beard, and -when he lifted his aching eyes to the clock, they were blood-shot and -watery with strain.</p> - -<p>Behind him, the door sighed softly as it closed. Aware of a presence, -but too weary to turn around Wing asked:</p> - -<p>"Dead-Eye?"</p> - -<p>"No," a quiet voice answered. Then a laugh, soft, so soft—like the -whisper of leaves at nightfall, the murmuring of water sprites dancing -on moonlit waters. Memory of a day—<i>that</i> day.</p> - -<p>"Get out," Curt Wing said flatly. He did not look around.</p> - -<p>"I won't go, Curt." That voice again—<i>her</i> voice. I didn't think it -would ever hurt me again. I had it licked. I was living. Now—</p> - -<p>Then that lovely, remembered presence was warming that ache, that cold, -bitter ache in his heart, soothing it. But her words—those words which -had turned him from science to adventure—stayed frozen in his heart.</p> - -<p>"<i>You're not a man, Curt Wing. You're a machine. You're too sufficient -unto yourself. You don't need me. Your life is just a mixture of metal, -paper and pencils. You just want me because you think a man should have -a mate. So make one out of your metal, paper and pencils!</i>"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Curt Wing stared wryly at the pencil held motionless between his thumb -and forefinger. He forgot for a moment that into those fingers had been -given the solution of an impossible problem—forgot that to him had -been delegated a task so important that every second he relaxed meant -the blue flower of destruction was spreading and Zhan Nekel's Mercurian -fleet sped closer to Earth.</p> - -<p><i>She</i> was his own personal problem, breaking out from beneath the hard -shell of pain he had built up within him. But his problem meant nothing -at all if Earth no longer belonged to Earthmen. He had wanted her so -much—still wanted her!—that there were times when he wanted to break -down and bawl like a baby. Like now....</p> - -<p>Then Curt Wing was chuckling. I'm feeling sorry for myself! At a time -when there's no time for self-pity or anything else but work.</p> - -<p>He turned around quickly. She still stood there just inside the door. -She was more beautiful than he remembered! Her soft brown hair that -felt like gossamer when it brushed against his lips; her blue eyes that -could speak of love and hate, of pleasure and disgust so eloquently -her lips need not move; the soft oval of her face—it was all that he -remembered and more....</p> - -<p>But he said,</p> - -<p>"Business, Miss Packer?" There was no softness in the harsh planes of -his face and his dark eyes were blank.</p> - -<p>"No, Curt, not business."</p> - -<p>"If you'll excuse me then?" Wing said, raising his eyebrows. "There's -no time for anything else."</p> - -<p>She smiled. "It won't take long, Curt. I just wanted to tell you -something before it's too late.</p> - -<p>"You never did and never will need me. I don't need you. But I hurt -you, you hurt me, too, because I've loved you ever since you and dad -first started your force field experiments."</p> - -<p>"I still love you, you sweet fool!"</p> - -<p>Then she was gone. Wing's cry, "Pat!" struck the closed door.</p> - -<p>Wing hurled himself toward the door. Then stopped short as a sleepy -"Whassa matter, Curt?" growled out of the corner where Dead-Eye had -been napping.</p> - -<p>"Nothing," Wing said abruptly. Then: "I thought you went home hours -ago."</p> - -<p>Rubbing bleary eyes and pulling on his beard, Dead-Eye, grinning -through the black mass, said, "I pretended to, but I thought you might -need me and Elizabeth for sumpin."</p> - -<p>Wing glanced at the metal desk, heaped with the paper covered with a -thousand figures he had set down as he tried again and again to find -where in the long ago he had made his mistake in creating his field. If -Prof. Packer were still alive, he could find that error. If I can only -solve that maybe I can build up a neutralizing field.</p> - -<p>"Come on, Dead-Eye, my brain's dulled with too much paper work. Let's -go take a first hand look at that damn blue flower."</p> - -<p>The blue flower was pulsing faster now, Wing decided, as he and Dead -Eye approached a police captain who was directing people with clothing -and valuables, toward the line of rocket buses.</p> - -<p>Wing looked into the hazy depths of the force field.</p> - -<p>Were those figures moving about in there? Or was his tired brain -playing tricks on him?</p> - -<p>"Gee, Cap," Dead-Eye exclaimed. "There's somebody inside!"</p> - -<p>The police captain moved up to them. "We've reported what you see, -Commander," he said. "They only became noticeable a half hour ago. But -it didn't seem possible there <i>could</i> be any life in there."</p> - -<p>"Life within that death?" Wing repeated. His blood-shot eyes peered at -the police captain. "I don't see why not. Whoever created it must be -able to handle it. They must have some protection, some armor against -it. If we could capture one."</p> - -<p>"That's it," the captain said. "They're inside and they won't come out. -Before, those shadows looked like some sort of beings. They're dimmer -now. They walk upright in a sort of shuffle, but they won't come out of -the flower."</p> - -<p>"If we could entice one of them out somehow," Wing said softly. "If we -knew what they were, it might help us find a way of throttling that -flower before it destroyed anything else."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The captain grinned ruefully. "We've tried everything to dent that -field, and it didn't even change color. I guess maybe we'll just have -to wait until they decide to come out, huh, Commander?"</p> - -<p>Wing grinned back at the captain. "Maybe we ought to let sleeping dogs -lie, Captain? Maybe you're right, but if one of them even looks like he -intends to come out, buzz me on the visaplate at once."</p> - -<p>Wing and Dead-Eye moved away from the captain, watched the red-clad -police herd more homeless families into the rocket buses for -transportation to other points. But unless that blue flower is killed, -Wing thought, they can go to the far ends of the earth and they'll -never escape it. And if they try to escape to other worlds the -Mercurians will be their Nemesis.</p> - -<p>Wing and Dead-Eye were threading their way through the crowd when the -shout reached them:</p> - -<p>"Commander, one's coming out!"</p> - -<p>Wing spun and sprinted back toward the captain, Dead-Eye's big heavy -bulk lumbering behind him. Wing's atomic pistol was clutched in his -hand as he jarred to a stop beside the captain. His eyes followed the -pointing red arm.</p> - -<p><i>One's coming out!</i></p> - -<p>Tensely, Wing waited, aware of Dead-Eye's labored breathing beside him, -of the pounding of his own heart, of the sudden quiet among the police -and their homeless charges.</p> - -<p>What was it? Did it hold the answer he and the Council of Seven were -seeking? Would Earth be free of this voracious flower? Could the -Mercurians be stopped before it was too late? Would it give up its -secret which meant so much to Earth—and Pat's sweet face was smiling -at him—and him?</p> - -<p>One shadow was growing more distinct as it moved toward the rim of -the blue force field. It shuffled along slowly, like an Earth diver -moving across the ocean floor. Wing was aware of the police captain's -gestures, drawing up a squad of red-clad police with their atomic -rifles at the ready.</p> - -<p>The shadow moved closer to the outside. As it approached, the blue -flower immediately before it began to dim, to grow black as if some -intangible hole were opening to let it through.</p> - -<p>Then the shadow-thing was outside the blue flower.</p> - -<p>The police captain's thumb pointed down. Atomic lightning from the -police rifles lashed at the shadow-thing.</p> - -<p>Wing saw the lethal bolts strike the shadow. Then a blast of sound and -light deluged him, spinning him off his feet, hurling him against a -blackness shot through with pain and searing heat.</p> - -<p>The pain and the heat were still branded on his mind—raw wounds that -made him want to scream out in protest—as he crept slowly back to -awareness of the things around him.</p> - -<p>His ears came to life first—and he heard the voice whispering over -and over again. "Oh, Curt. Oh, Curt." Then his skin was responding to -the warm, vibrant fingers caressing his cheek. Into his nostrils came -the sweet scent of her loveliness. His eyes opened and he saw the soft -brown head cradled on his breast.</p> - -<p>Then his mind brushed aside the memory of pain and heat.</p> - -<p>"We failed, didn't we?" He didn't recognize the broken, almost lifeless -voice as his own.</p> - -<p>Pat lifted her head. She didn't need to speak, not when her blue eyes -were so eloquent.</p> - -<p>"Dead-Eye?" Wing asked.</p> - -<p>"Don't you fret, Captain. I'm all in one piece, even if Elizabeth did -give me six nasty powder burns on my leg."</p> - -<p>Curt Wing wearily turned his bandaged head, beheld a mound of bandages -sprawled atop the bed beside him.</p> - -<p>"You sure look like a hangover, Dead-Eye," Wing observed. Then: "Was it -bad, Pat?"</p> - -<p>She nodded. "Only a half dozen out of all those hundreds escaped. Most -of them were killed in the explosion. The medics don't know how any -one came out alive—especially you and Dead-Eye. You were right in the -center of the blast."</p> - -<p>"Well," Wing observed, and it was an effort to speak lightly, but -something had to be done about the horror in her voice, "I don't feel -the least bit alive. Maybe I'm a ghost."</p> - -<p>Her laughter was a relief, but a little too full for such a flimsy -joke. So he said:</p> - -<p>"I suppose the shadow-thing wasn't harmed." It was more a statement -than a question.</p> - -<p>"No," she said flatly. And in the same flat voice, added, "I'd better -go. You need rest and quiet."</p> - -<p>"Wait," he called. But she was gone. "Pat," he called out, once, twice. -That unemotional voice was a dead give away. Something worse had -happened and she didn't dare tell him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Curt Wing dragged his body out of the bed. It screamed in agonized -protest. Somehow, his mind held together against the shock and hurt -that poured into it as he pulled his body upright, focused his eyes, -looking for something to wear instead of the brief hospital garment.</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye, from the next bed, asked weakly, "Where you going, Cap?" Wing -didn't answer. He was delving into a wall locker, dragging out a burnt -tunic, finding torn and broken sandals.</p> - -<p>A white-gowned nurse barred his way in the hall.</p> - -<p>"You can't leave, Commander. In your condition, you'll kill yourself," -she said gently.</p> - -<p>"Why not?" Wing grated. "I should be dead anyway. What's a few more -minutes more or less? Life won't be any fun anyway if Earth is lost." -He had to use his hand to guide himself along the wall as he pushed his -weary, beaten body toward outside.</p> - -<p>Behind him, he heard Dead-Eye calling,</p> - -<p>"Wait for me and Elizabeth, Cap. We're coming, too."</p> - -<p>Outside, it was raining—unobtrusively but relentlessly. The early -afternoon was drab, but in the little park across the hospital -courtyard, there was color. The circular beds of pink roses, of -multi-colored pansies, of bluebells seemed brighter for the rain which -beat so gently at them.</p> - -<p>Wing heard the muted twittering of birds as he stood on the hospital -steps. He looked up into the lowering sky and let the raindrops beat -at his bandaged face. The door behind him opened and Dead-Eye came -stumbling out.</p> - -<p>Wing breathed deeply of the wet air, felt it clearing the heat and pain -from his mind.</p> - -<p>He looked at Dead-Eye, then toward the east where the blue radiance -suffused the sky.</p> - -<p>"Let's go," he said simply.</p> - -<p>They hadn't trudged far in the rain before they found out what Pat -Packer's unemotional voice had meant.</p> - -<p>Terror was riding through the city, whipping the men and women of Earth -into madness and death.</p> - -<p>As the two of them moved closer to the edge of the blue flower, -wild-eyed humans fled past them, casting fearful glances behind.</p> - -<p>These panic-stricken humans ran silently, except for the gasps which -burst from tortured throats. Abandoned children sobbed as they ran, -not knowing nor caring where they went—driven by the fear of what was -behind them.</p> - -<p>Behind them, flames from burning houses were growing brighter and dull -explosions were growing louder. Soon there were no more humans running, -but as Wing Commander Curt Wing and Dead-Eye plodded on, they saw -charred and broken corpses and the smell of burnt flesh was mingling -with the stench of wood and plastic and paint.</p> - -<p>And then Wing and Dead-Eye saw <i>Them</i>.</p> - -<p><i>They</i> numbered in the hundreds—spreading in a long single -line—moving sluggishly but steadily, bolts of blue flame flaring out -ahead of them. The flashing blue bolts melted steel, sent plastic into -exploding drops of fire, touched and charred humans who still moved in -their path.</p> - -<p>Wing dragged Dead-Eye out of the deserted street into a low shop -building. They moved to a window and watched those blue bolts leap -overhead to jab at building or human somewhere back from where they -had just come.</p> - -<p>"What are they?" Dead-Eye asked, peering at the thin line moving -closer. "They're nothing but shadows, looks like."</p> - -<p>"Another dimension," Wing suggested. "Probably on a higher plane than -our own. Maybe that's why they're just shadows to us."</p> - -<p>Dear God, he thought, what has humanity done to deserve this? We cannot -fight them. We don't know what they are. Somehow, though, we must beat -them. Earth must not die, not now, when we are on the very threshold of -destiny.</p> - -<p>We've come from the mud and slime of a new born Earth, clawed and -fought our way out of nothing to start reaching for the stars. Is this -our destiny—to come so far and then be snuffed out before we even -realize our talents?</p> - -<p>"We've got to beat them, Dead-Eye," Wing said harshly.</p> - -<p>"Don't worry, Cap," Dead-Eye urged. "Shucks, they can't be so tough -that they can lick us. Besides, Cap, us Earthmen always fight better -when the going's rough. Why, just give me and Elizabeth a chancet at -them. We'll knock 'em dead."</p> - -<p>Wing's dark eyes were soft as they looked at Dead-Eye's earnest, -bearded face.</p> - -<p>"We sure will, Dead-Eye," he said. "We sure will knock 'em dead."</p> - -<p>That is, Wing amended, staring at the relentless shadows as they moved -slowly toward their haven, if <i>They</i> don't knock us dead first.</p> - -<p>Wing and Dead-Eye hugged the buildings as they retreated. They picked -their way along the rubble-strewn streets, their nostrils quivering at -the intermingled odor of death, burnt flesh, charred and rain-wet wood.</p> - -<p>Ahead and behind them as they retreated, the flashing bolts of the -shadow-things smashed buildings, leveled the trees along the boulevard, -sending them up in puffs of white smoke and flame, heaving up the walks -as tree roots exploded.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The rain was turning heavier now, turning chill, soaking through their -own burnt and tattered clothes. It was relentless, that rain, almost as -if it were bent upon breaking the spirit of man as the shadow-things -were rending and tearing the flesh.</p> - -<p>The two limped on alone, ahead of the advancing shadow line. They -walked alone through death and destruction as man's promise and hope -darkened.</p> - -<p>We're walking toward the end of our world, Wing thought. We'll soon be -nothing but dust motes kicked up by the tread of a new, more powerful -race.</p> - -<p>The hell of it is, we're not even fighting back. Why, he thought in -amazement, we're not even trying any more.</p> - -<p>"Dead-Eye," he asked suddenly. "What are we running away for?"</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye's slumped figure straightened suddenly. "Gee, Cap, I was -wondering when you'd begin wondering about that. You ain't been acting -natural at all. We never ran away from a fight before. Let's go knock -'em dead right now, huh, Cap?"</p> - -<p>Wing looked at Elizabeth, strapped snugly to Dead-Eye's left hip, then -at his own two empty bandaged hands.</p> - -<p>"Well, Dead-Eye, here, as your owlhoot pard would say, 'here goes -nuttin'."</p> - -<p>Not for many days had Curt Wing felt such a sense of peace and relief -as he did that moment when he turned back toward the unknown and -implacable enemy. Deep inside he was chuckling. It was silly for the -two of them to march against the shadows. Silly, sure, his proud spirit -admitted, but wasn't that the way of man?</p> - -<p>Wasn't it man's way to thumb his nose at impossibilities and forge -ahead? It wasn't a matter of winning, really, but having the guts to go -ahead and try.</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye snapped open the cylinder of his powder gun, observed -candidly: "I hope I don't get rattled again and try to shoot my toes -off. Those six slugs jerked out of Elizabeth so fast before that there -explosion I couldn't even control her at all."</p> - -<p>They moved back deeper into hell.</p> - -<p>All around them buildings, trees, streets and sidewalks were being -flung about as the power of the shadows smashed. The rain was coming -down in torrents now, and the two of them could barely see a few feet -ahead.</p> - -<p>But always they knew where the shadows were—the slashing bolts pointed -them out unerringly. They were very close to that unseen line of -shadows. The thunder of those bolts was rending the air and mixing in -the fresh smell of ozone with the pall of smoke and putrid smells which -even the driving rain could not beat to earth.</p> - -<p>Suddenly, Wing and Dead-Eye stopped. It was as if they had walked into -a solid wall. But this wall was different. It pushed them backward -easily, although they strove to move ahead.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"A harmless force wall," Wing said in answer to Dead-Eye's query. "But -we can't get through. There goes our grand gesture, Dead-Eye. We can -hardly thumb our noses while we're being pushed backward."</p> - -<p>"Huh!" grunted Dead-Eye. "I'll fix 'em." He levelled Elizabeth, aimed -her into the unseen obstacle. His thumb flicked at the hammer, and -Elizabeth's gruff voice broke through the cacophony of noise with -amazing clarity. He strode forward, Wing beside him, and blasted at the -invisible wall.</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, the noise was gone. Wing halted in amazement. The -tremendous symphony of sound which had been pounding at his ears now -miraculously was stilled.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth's last shot still echoed, but the crash of masonry and -plastic, the scream of tortured steel, the growling crackling -of the shadows bolts, the snapping as fire gulped at wood and -inflammables—all these were gone.</p> - -<p>But while they still marveled at this change from noise to silence, -something happened. They were thrown off their feet, and they once more -found themselves out in the noise and fire.</p> - -<p>No more had they picked themselves up from the rubble than the -invisible wall was nudging at them again, shoving them ahead of it.</p> - -<p>The insentient wall kept nudging them backward—ever backward until -there was no longer any sense of time or place to them. A confused -roar of crashing buildings, explosions, groans of tortured metal; an -indiscriminate blend of smells, of smoke, fire, charred flesh and wood; -a heterogeneous awareness of pain, cold heat; a knowledge that this, -for Earthmen, was the end.</p> - -<p>What did it matter now that Zhan Nekel and his rocket fleet thundered -ever closer to Earth? That Pat, who had come back with her promise of -happiness, loved him? What did anything matter anymore, except dying -like an Earthman should—in the ruins of his world, still trying to -lick something so much stronger that his greatest effort was breath -against a cylinder?</p> - -<p>Curt Wing stumbled, fell. Then the force wall was rolling over him over -and over, always back, back. The broken pavement, the shattered rubble -pounded and tore at his already burned and battered body.</p> - -<p>Then suddenly:</p> - -<p>"Here they are, Pat!" The voice cut through into his dulled mind. A -powerful light, hurting his eyes, struck at him, and in its reflection -he caught sight of a figure in space blues, gargoyle eyes glinting. Lt. -Packer! Packer shouted:</p> - -<p>"Swing the rocket car around, Pat. Quick! Something's shoving Curt and -Dead-Eye around and it might upset the car."</p> - -<p>His light suddenly twisted crazily and Packer grunted, "Damn, it's -like a moving wall." Then Packer swung back, lifted Wing to his feet, -dragged him ahead of the crawling wall. Wing felt the heat of the -rocket exhaust, muted by its muffler, fan his cheek. Then he was inside -the car. Moments later, Dead-Eye's heavy bulk followed him, and Packer -was leaping in with them, urging:</p> - -<p>"Get going, Pat, but watch out for those rubble piles and holes." Then, -in the bucking car, Packer was tearing open a package of antiseptic -drug needles. Wing felt the sting in his neck, and the dullness and -pain were fleeing from his mind.</p> - -<p>"You're a couple of space zanies," Packer muttered, yanking the -gargoyle-like smoke glasses from his eyes and pulling off his space -crash-helmet. "Pat almost went crazy when she found you'd left the -hospital. We've been searching for you ever since in this hell. It -was only luck Pat spotted you with the infra-red, or you'd be rolling -still."</p> - -<p>Curt Wing leaned back against the car cushion. "Well, Lieutenant," -he said, "I might as well be rolling still for all the good I can do -against these shadow-things." He lifted his bandaged head, his dark -eyes almost black now with weariness and hate of the beings who were -casually flicking man into the limbo of forgotten things.</p> - -<p>"You know what we're up against, don't you, George?" he asked. From the -pilot seat, Pat said bitterly:</p> - -<p>"We know, Curt. The whole world knows. The telecasts have been -bombarding the world with it ever since the first shadow came out and -hurled our own destruction back at us a hundred-fold."</p> - -<p>George Packer added, "I was recruited to pull our biggest space guns -out and hook them up on land rockets. The ships can't rise, somehow, -and when we've called for ships from other points, they get so close -and then their power gives out."</p> - -<p>"But, gee," put in Dead-Eye, "this car's running. How come?"</p> - -<p>"Don't know why, Dead-Eye," Packer added. "These, of course, don't have -the new cyc motors; still run on the old combustion principle. The -force field probably neutralizes the cycs, but doesn't faze the firing -gas in the cars."</p> - -<p>"The space guns didn't help, I suppose?" Wing asked.</p> - -<p>"No," Packer said, twisted his face ruefully. "The shadows thrived on -it and threw our bolts back ten times as hard. It wasn't nice to see."</p> - -<p>"Sometimes," he said, wistfully, "I wish we were back in your -beef-striker—sorry, Dead-Eye—cow-puncher days. It was man to man -then, and you knew that it wasn't the weapon but the wielder." He ran -his hands through his tousled blond hair.</p> - -<p>"Yep," said Dead-Eye. "Elizabeth and me'd fix 'em if we could see 'em."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The bucketing car began to have smoother going; the darkness outside -was lifting, and the beat of the rain seemed to decelerate.</p> - -<p>In the comparative quiet and peace, Curt Wing's dulled mind, clarified -by the stimulating drug, was beginning to work again; his spirit numbed -and beaten down by pain and inability to solve the enigma of the -shadows and their weapons was lifting itself, shaking itself from its -lethargy, as something stirred within.</p> - -<p>Just that buoyant spirit of man which refused to admit defeat? Wing was -wondering. Or was despair so deep that I couldn't go any deeper so I -have to come up toward hope again?</p> - -<p>The rocket car suddenly sloughed to a stop.</p> - -<p>"Sorry," Pat said softly, and laughed. There was a note of hysteria in -that laugh. "But we're surrounded." The three men peered out through -the plastic windshield. The shadow-things were ahead, moving toward -them.</p> - -<p>But no destruction was spitting from those ghostly figures. For the -first time, Curt Wing had a chance to observe closely.</p> - -<p>They seemed about the height of a man—but distorted like a man's -shadow falling before him as he trudged up a hill with the sun behind. -Yet not so distinct. They wavered, too, within themselves, although the -outline remained constant.</p> - -<p>The rain was only a light patter now and the sky was brightening as the -three men and one woman crawled out of the rocket car. The shadows were -very close now, but there still was no sign that their weapons would -speak.</p> - -<p>Silently the shadows moved, scores of them. That straight line they -made began to bend and curve around the four who stood waiting.</p> - -<p>No threatening gestures, no weapons visible, just that relentless, -closing circle.</p> - -<p>"Damn you," said Dead-Eye suddenly. "Elizabeth didn't get a chancet at -you before. But she will now."</p> - -<p>"No!" Curt Wing snapped. "I think they want to take us alive. Maybe we -can learn something. No, Dead-Eye, no!"</p> - -<p>But it was too late.</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye had snapped his ancient powder gun from its holster, and his -left hand was fanning Elizabeth's sharp-biting tongue. The hammer -snapped down thrice—three shots blasted out.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>In that breathless second before the awful blast of sound and light -struck, Curt Wing saw three shadows suddenly disappear. Then the sound -and light struck as Wing steeled his muscles and mind against it. -But, amazingly, at the first touch, it was gone, and he was standing -unharmed.</p> - -<p>He twisted his head. Pat was standing close beside him, and George. But -Dead-Eye was gone. Only Elizabeth, her metal twisted and white hot, lay -smoking on the ground where Dead-Eye had stood.</p> - -<p>Dead-Eye, Wing's mind was crying, you big, dumb, blundering bear, where -are you? Oh, you damn fool, pitting an old, crazy powder gun against -atomic power! You killed yourself, you crazy, gallant guy. Now you're -gone—who am I going to have to look out for after this?</p> - -<p>Pat's fingers were soft on his arm, drawing him back from the pain of -the loss. "He always wanted it that way, Curt. Quick, while he was in -action."</p> - -<p>Rage began to boil in Wing's heart against these tenuous shadows who -scorned giving an Earthman even a hopeless chance. The ache for Dead -Eye, who was like a big good-natured puppy; that ever-conscious nagging -of the doom of mankind at the hands of these callous shadows; the -knowledge that even if this doom could be somehow stopped or turned -aside there was Zhan Nekel's space fleet coming nearer, churned his -mind. And from his whirling brain came only one driving thought. Avenge -Dead-Eye—the thousands of Dead-Eyes who never would have the chance -for their simple joys and pleasures if man knuckled down under this -greatest threat!</p> - -<p>With that rage came clear thinking. Little things—like Dead-Eye's -firing into the invisible wall, combustion type engines firing when -cyc-powered units went dead, shadows disappearing when Elizabeth spat -at them; little things, simple things.</p> - -<p>A thought coalescing, growing sharper, until it was burning in his -mind, fueling his spirit with new hope.</p> - -<p>"Thank you, Dead-Eye," he whispered. The harsh sharp planes of Curt -Wing's face were softening.</p> - -<p>"We've got a chance," he said. "Dead-Eye gave it to us, Pat. But we've -got to get away—out of this circle somehow." He waved his hands at the -tight circle of shadow-things that hemmed them in. "Any ideas, George? -Pat?"</p> - -<p>Lt. George Packer's shoulders had come up, he was touched by this new -assurance in Curt Wing's voice, in the fire of those dark eyes. "Not," -he said, and there was new life in his voice, too, "not unless an old -wish comes true and the ground swallows us up."</p> - -<p>"It can," Pat said, the words tumbling out. "We can fall in a hole, -can't we? Look at them, Curt. They shuffle along, but they don't step -into holes. They just float over them—like they do belong in another -dimension and can't anchor themselves to Earth. See?" Her voice rang -with excitement.</p> - -<p>Wing laughed. "But what good would falling in a hole do us? All they'd -have to do is fish us out again. And we'd have new bruises." The circle -was tight now, and suddenly they felt the push of an invisible wall -against them as the shadow-things moved closer. Then they were moving.</p> - -<p>Pat didn't stop arguing. "If you were a fat man and you dropped -something between your feet, wouldn't you have to get your stomach out -of the way to see it?"</p> - -<p>Wing looked at her sharply. "What are you driving at, Pat?"</p> - -<p>"If they're from another dimension, and all the telecast say they are, -and if their vision devices for this world are just for straight-ahead -seeing, what would they have to do in order to look down?"</p> - -<p>"Pat," Wing said softly. "It would be like riding in a rocket car. Once -something gets underneath it, out of the range of the windshield, you -can't see it. You have to back up or go forward. And if we pick a deep -enough hole, the shadows can't back enough or go forward enough to see -the bottom. Is that what you mean? Because the high sides cut off their -vision?"</p> - -<p>Her wide smile and sparkling eyes were his answer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Curt Wing, nursing a new set of bruises after plunging into a -fifteen-foot hole and scrambling out after the shadow-things had -finally floated by above them, led Pat and lanky George Packer at a -loping run back to the rocket car.</p> - -<p>It was almost nightfall and the fire and noise and stench of White City -were far behind them by the time the speedy little car made it to the -mountain retreat of the Council of Seven.</p> - -<p>During the ride, Curt Wing's sense of loss with Dead-Eye gone was -softening, mingling with a gratitude deep and strong to the big, -black-bearded giant.</p> - -<p>With a child's intuition for solving a problem simply, Dead-Eye and his -Elizabeth had given man a chance to fight.</p> - -<p>"A chance, Curt?" Pat had overheard his whisper. Her hand on his arm -was warm and vibrant. Curt clasped his fingers softly over hers.</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said, "if there is only time."</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel, senior governor of the Council of Seven, pulled his -red-rimmed eyes from the telecast when Curt Wing and Pat and Lt. Packer -entered the consultation room.</p> - -<p>Old as his face had stamped him those few days ago when Wing had -brought the fleet back, Jan Eliel now was a broken and bent caricature -of the man who held the direction of a world in his hands.</p> - -<p>"Yes?" he asked, and the life was out of his voice.</p> - -<p>Then he saw the four miniature earths which still glinted proudly in a -row across Wing's torn and burnt tunic's left breast.</p> - -<p>"Wing!" He rose from his seat on the telecast bench, hurried forward. -"You've solved it!"</p> - -<p>Wing shook his bandaged head. "I don't know for sure, Governor, but I -think we do have a way of stopping the shadows—if there's time."</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel ran a shaking hand through his white hair.</p> - -<p>"I don't know. Zhan Nekel's fleet is moving faster than we thought -it would, and the fleet units you smashed at the Moon have been -re-organized and now are swinging toward us. That, at the most, gives -us two days—and I thought we'd have at least two weeks.</p> - -<p>"But enough of that; what is the way to stop these terrible shadows?"</p> - -<p>Instead of answer, Wing asked:</p> - -<p>"How much of that obsolete Twentieth century artillery is available?"</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel's old eyes widened.</p> - -<p>"You're mad, Curt Wing," he said wearily. "We've tried everything -we have, the finest weapons, the heaviest atom machines, and we get -nothing in return except our own power turned against us. Powder -would be worse than useless. You can't stop atomic power with an -old-fashioned shell."</p> - -<p>"My friend Dead-Eye was killed when he proved you can," Wing said -quietly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jan Eliel's voice was cold. He spoke quite without emotion. "You've -been under too heavy a strain, Space Commander Wing. You are not the -clear-headed Wing we once knew. Go back to the hospital and rest. -Perhaps you will be able to bring back some semblance of sanity and -help your world when she needs you most."</p> - -<p>"Damn you," Wing said. "Can't you see it? We've been throwing atomic -power at an atomic shield, so it just bounces back at us. Suppose we -threw something it couldn't bounce back right away, leaving us an -opening to hurl our own atomic bolts into the heart of it?"</p> - -<p>Jan Eliel had turned his back on them, once more was watching the -telecast.</p> - -<p>What's the use, Curt Wing? Why bother when the ruler of the world won't -listen to what a big, blundering guy proved when he got mad and fired -an old powder gun at a shadow? He's blinded as you were not so long ago -by despair. Follow Dead-Eye's lead, show him the way and he may follow.</p> - -<p>"Come on," Wing said abruptly. "We have a job to do."</p> - -<p>The long low barracks at the Spacers' Training school outside -Washington buzzed and growled with the hundreds of blue-uniformed -spacers.</p> - -<p>There at the far end of the hall on the little platform where the -sergeants took the roll, Wing stood looking at the hard-bitten, -space-burned men who had been land-bound since they turned from victory -to answer that fatal six-two....</p> - -<p>They had come because their commander had offered them a fight; a -little different perhaps using old-fashioned projectile weapons, but -nevertheless a fight; and they, who had used space guns against the -shadow-things, who had been beaten back without a chance to fight, were -spoiling for battle.</p> - -<p>Some of them were reading the hastily-printed instructions that came -with the bright, shining, but outmoded weapons. Some were a little -jealous of other comrades who even now were hurling their atomic bolts -through the skies over Earth as they harassed the vanguard of Zhan -Nekel's Mercurian fleet.</p> - -<p>But with the pangs of jealousy they had pride in themselves, too. While -their shipmates battled a known enemy, they were going out to fight -against an unknown enemy with untried weapons and only the promise of -their Space Commander, Curt Wing, that these weapons, three centuries -old, could win where atomics had so miserably failed.</p> - -<p>Wing raised his hand for attention.</p> - -<p>"Some of you knew Dead-Eye and his Elizabeth. He's gone now, but he -destroyed three of the shadow-things with leaden pellets from his old -sixshooter before he died. He showed me the way to lick those shadows. -Simply, it's this. A concentration of powder can open a hole in the -atomic shield of the shadows. But in our atomic weapons we have a flow -of power and it's sucked away by the shield before it can concentrate.</p> - -<p>"In Elizabeth, Dead-Eye had concentrated power—the leaden projectile. -Its comparatively inert atoms struck the shield and broke through -before it could be spread out evenly over the shield.</p> - -<p>"For a moment, the shield was out of balance. That's your job and -mine—keep that shield out of balance until we can find the invaders -within and destroy them.</p> - -<p>"I realize that you've had only five days to study what these old -weapons are and how they operate—but we haven't any more time. We've -got to lick an enemy from outside and an enemy from within at one and -the same time.</p> - -<p>"Do you think we can do it?"</p> - -<p>A roar of assent greeted him.</p> - -<p>They numbered in the thousands. Space rovers of the Twenty-fourth -century, moving in a long, spread out line toward the edge of the blue -flower that still pulsated and grew, reaching farther and farther out -from White City.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing's heart was filled with pride—pride in these thousands who, -with strange, obsolete arms, were moving against a shadowy foe equipped -with weapons the like of which they'd never dreamed; pride in that -unbeatable spirit and courage of man, the magnificent fool, who had -lifted himself by his own bootstraps from the caves of Earth to the -vast reaches of the stars!</p> - -<p>It was Curt Wing's powder gun which opened the attack when they struck -against the invisible force barrier.</p> - -<p>In the dawn light, all up and down that long thin line, the powder guns -began snapping and crackling. Tommy guns, rifles and revolvers hurled -their slugs at the wall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The long line kept moving forward. Wing snapped on the portable radio -phone strapped across his chest, and at his words, far behind him, -a dozen space cruisers—those which could be spared from the battle -against the Mercurians above Earth—rose and soon were scintillating in -the rays of a sun still hidden by the rim of Earth.</p> - -<p>As the line of marching men strode forward, the cruisers, their rocket -motors vibrating the air, circled high above them.</p> - -<p>The line reached the edge of the flower—and the intensity of the -firing increased until it was the steady roll of a thousand drums.</p> - -<p>Wing spoke into the phone again as the flower grew bluer along the -edge. The blue deepened and deepened until it was almost black. Then -Wing spoke into the phone once more.</p> - -<p>The circling cruisers steadied. Their blue bolts spat at the blackness.</p> - -<p>The shock of it could be seen for miles in the blue flower. The shield -blackened in scattered spots. Where every black spot showed, the bolts -from the Earth ships lashed.</p> - -<p>The terrible power unleashed inside the shield began to show as the -flower shrunk back into itself.</p> - -<p>The ground smoked and trembled as it emerged from the retreating force -field; great fissures opened and the ground trembled and shook as if in -the grip of an earthquake.</p> - -<p>Wing snapped a halt order to the captains on either side of him and the -word moved rapidly down the line.</p> - -<p>Bracing themselves against the shock of the quake, they waited.</p> - -<p>It wasn't for long.</p> - -<p>In the brightening day ahead of them, on the leveled plain behind them, -the Earthmen saw the shadow-things approaching, their power bolts -lashing out ahead of them. Every other man turned, so that half of them -faced the shadows ahead and half the shadows behind.</p> - -<p>The powder guns crashed, and the steel and lead and copper pellets -whined a song of death in the ranks of the shadows.</p> - -<p>The mist things exploded and disappeared as the multi-shaped spawn of -Dead-Eye's Elizabeth struck their shields.</p> - -<p>Like puncturing a kid's balloon with a needle, Curt Wing thought. He -was laughing now—man had risen once again from the dust. No longer -need he despair. He had been stopped only momentarily in his climb -toward destiny. After this unbelievable enemy, the Mercurians would be, -perhaps not simply, but finally, hurled back to their hell-pot planet.</p> - -<p>It was a tired and weary Curt Wing who threaded his way through the -smoking ash of what had been one of the mightiest of Earth cities. He -moved toward the church, which stood so remarkably untouched by the -tremendous forces which had been unleashed within the blue flower.</p> - -<p>The two powder-burned and dirty spacemen who flanked the steel portals -saluted him as he walked tiredly up the stone steps.</p> - -<p>"Who phoned me?" Wing asked.</p> - -<p>The redhead at the left of the portal saluted.</p> - -<p>"I did, Commander. Jack and I saw this thing and we peeked inside and -saw that funny light, so we thought we'd better call you."</p> - -<p>Wing moved through the steel portals, stood in the quiet hush of -the church. There, just before the altar rail was the curious blue -light—like a hexagon of blue.</p> - -<p>He walked slowly toward it and as he approached, the altar behind it -seemed to fade away and he was looking into a silver hallway.</p> - -<p>He halted within a foot of it. It was like looking through a -doorway—why, it is a doorway, the doorway to the world these invaders -came from!</p> - -<p>He unsheathed the revolver, spun the cylinder to see that it was -loaded, and with only a glimpse over his shoulder at the two spacemen -silhouetted in the church doorway, he stepped through.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was like stepping through fire—a fire that clawed and tore at the -heart of him—but it lasted only a moment.</p> - -<p>The hallway in which he found himself was of silver, tiny overlapping -bits of silver plating that rippled and cast off flashes of light. He -walked slowly ahead to the other doorway he saw before him.</p> - -<p>Framed in the door, he looked above him, through a glass roof, up into -a strange star-studded night sky.</p> - -<p>Where is this world? Curt Wing wondered. Have I crossed a thousand, a -million or a trillion light years to come here?</p> - -<p>He looked down from the night sky and the vastness of the transparent -roof reached as far his eyes could see.</p> - -<p>It was only a whisper in his mind at first—then it grew stronger until -it was as if his ears were hearing it.</p> - -<p>"You're a man," the thought said. Curt Wing's dark eyes cast about for -the source of it.</p> - -<p>"You're a man," the emotionless thought repeated. "That is why we -could not beat you. We are a dying race, trapped on a dying world. You -are young and have your destiny still before you."</p> - -<p>"Who are you?" Wing's mind called out. "Where are you?"</p> - -<p>"We were never beaten until now. We knew that to survive this dying -system we must fight across eternity to find another sun and another -system. We started from mud and slime like you, and some day you too -must come to this—the end of your destiny.</p> - -<p>"You will fight as we have fought. We built a machine to warp space. -For centuries our scientists labored to perfect it, just as other -technicians created a space scanner to find a world suitable to us."</p> - -<p>Curt Wing was trembling as he listened. Somehow, the measured cadence -of those cold thoughts was fingering his heart, bringing a chill to it.</p> - -<p>"We found your world—the world of man, Earth, but we didn't know it -until now.</p> - -<p>"We made a mistake—a mistake which is destroying us but will in your -far distant future destroy you."</p> - -<p>"A mistake?" Wing's mind asked.</p> - -<p>"Yes, those scientists of ours who labored so hard and long, built a -machine not to warp space, as we all thought, but to warp time.</p> - -<p>"You see, Space Commander Curt Wing, we, too, are men. We were fighting -our past, you your future on Earth, our common home. In attacking your -world, we have destroyed ourselves."</p> - -<p>"But why?" Wing's mind started to ask.</p> - -<p>"You saw us merely as shadows, did you not? That's all you were to us, -too. Shadows; but very, very stubborn. Never in our recorded history -had we met such a stubborn and such an able foe. No wonder. We were -fighting against ourselves.</p> - -<p>"It's time to go, Curt Wing, before the time door closes and locks you -forever here."</p> - -<p>Man to climb so far into the stars and to die by his own hand, Wing was -thinking bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Do not despair," the thought intruded. "What is done is done, and -nothing can be changed."</p> - -<p>"Wait," Wing cried out. "We beat you because a big, dumb guy by the -name of Dead-Eye had the quiet faith that we could. He showed us the -way.</p> - -<p>"Dead-Eye said," and the words came from his memory like a prayer, -"don't worry, Cap. Shucks, they can't be tough enough to lick us. -Earthmen always fight better when the going's rough. Why, we'll knock -'em dead.</p> - -<p>"Take hope from Dead-Eye's words. We were in the depths of despair when -he uttered them, and we came up that long, terrible road to hope. We -licked our problem. You, because you, too, are men, can lick yours."</p> - -<p>There was nothing in the emotionless thought that answered him, that -told they were heartened.</p> - -<p>Curt Wing turned his back on Man's future, walked down the silver -hallway, through the hexagonal door to his own world. He stepped out in -the quiet hush of the church.</p> - -<p>He saw the two spacers still staring in as he walked out of the -darkness of the church into the brightness of day.</p> - -<p>One of the spacers called out:</p> - -<p>"Commander, the light's fading!"</p> - -<p>The shouted words echoed in his ears as he strode down the steps.</p> - -<p><i>The light's fading....</i> Like hell it was! Somehow those future -men would find a way. Wasn't it man's way to thumb his nose at -impossibilities and forge ahead?</p> - -<p>Space Commander Curt Wing's shoulders straightened. He lengthened his -stride. He did not look back.</p> - -<pre style='margin-top:6em'> -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHADOW-GODS *** - -This file should be named 63795-h.htm or 63795-h.zip - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/7/9/63795/ - -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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