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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..5993df6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65956 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65956) diff --git a/old/65956-0.txt b/old/65956-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3d9ef24..0000000 --- a/old/65956-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,867 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Beachcomber, by Damon Knight - -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 Beachcomber - -Author: Damon Knight - -Release Date: July 30, 2021 [eBook #65956] - -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 BEACHCOMBER *** - - - - - The BEACHCOMBER - - By Damon Knight - - Alice saw the Beachcomber as a glorious - hunk of man; Maxwell saw him as a super being - from the future. Tragically, he was both!... - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - December 1952 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Maxwell and the girl started their weekend on Thursday, in Venice. -Friday they went to Paris, Saturday to Nice, and on Sunday they were -bored. Alice pouted at him across the breakfast table. "Vernon, let's -go someplace else," she said. - -"Sure," said Maxwell, not too graciously. "Don't you want your bug -eggs?" - -Alice pushed them away. "If I ever did, I don't now. Why do you have to -be so unpleasant in the morning?" - -The eggs were insect eggs, all right, but they were on the menu as -_oeufs Procyon Thibault_, and three of the half-inch brown spheres -cost about one thousand times their value in calories. Maxwell was -well paid as a script-writer for the North American Unit Ministry of -Information--he bossed a gang of six gagmen on the Cosmic Cocktail -show--but he was beginning to hate to think about what these five days -were costing him. - -"Where do you want to go?" asked Maxwell. Their coffee came out of the -conveyer, steaming and fragrant, and he sipped his moodily. "Want to -run over to Algiers? Or up to Stockholm?" - -"No," said Alice. She leaned forward across the table and put up one -long white hand to keep her honey-colored hair out of her eyes. "You -don't know what I mean. I mean, let's go to some other planet." - -Maxwell choked slightly and spilled coffee on the tabletop. "Europe is -all right," Alice was saying with disdain, "but it's all getting to be -just like Chicago. Let's go someplace different for once." - -"And be back by tomorrow noon?" Maxwell demanded. "It's ten hours even -to Proxima; we'd have just time to turn around and get back on the -liner." - -Alice dropped her long lashes, contriving to look inviting and -sullen at the same time. Not bad at that, Maxwell thought, for ten -o'clock in the morning. "You couldn't get Monday off, I suppose," -she said, giving him her A-number-One smile. "We could have so much -fun--together...." - - * * * * * - -They took the liner to Gamma Tauri IV, the clearing point for the -system, then transferred to the interplanet shuttle for Three. Three -was an almost undeveloped planet; there were perhaps a hundred cities -near the equator, and some mines and plantations in the temperate -zones--the rest was nothing but scenery. Maxwell had heard about it -from people at the Ministry; he'd been warned to go within a year or -so if he went at all--after that it would be as full of tourists as -Proxima II. - -The scenery was worth the trip. Sitting comfortably on their rented -airscooters, stripped to shorts and singlets, with the polarized -sunscreens moderating the blazing heat of Gamma Tauri, Maxwell and the -girl could look in any horizontal direction and see a thousand square -miles of exuberant blue-green foliage. - -Two hundred feet below, the tops of gigantic tree-ferns waved -spasmodically in the breeze. They were following a chain of low -mountains that bisected this continent; the tree-tops sloped away -abruptly on either side, showing an occasional glimpse of reddish-brown -undergrowth, and merged into a sea of blue-green that became bluer -and mistier toward the horizon. A flying thing moved lazily across the -clear, cumulus-dotted sky, perhaps half a mile away. Maxwell trained -his binoculars on it: it was an absurd lozenge with six pairs of -wings--an insect, perhaps; he couldn't tell. He heard a raucous cry -down below, not far away, and glanced down hoping to see one of the -carnivores; but the rippling sea of foliage was unbroken. - -He watched Alice breathing deeply. Maxwell grinned. Her face was shiny -with perspiration and pleasure. "Where to now?" he asked. - -The girl peered to the right, where a glint of silver shone on the -horizon. "Is that the sea, over there?" she asked. "If it is, let's go -look for a nice beach and have our lunch." - -There were no nice beaches; they were all covered with inch-thick -pebbles instead of sand; but Alice kept wanting to try the next place. -After each abortive approach, they went up to two thousand feet to -survey the shore-line. Alice pointed and said, "There's a nice looking -one. Oh! There's somebody on it." - -Maxwell looked, and saw a tiny figure moving along the shore. "Might be -somebody I know," he said, and focused his binoculars. He saw a broad, -naked back, dark against the silvery sea. The man was stooping, looking -at something on the beach. - -The figure straightened, and Maxwell saw a blazing crest of blond hair, -then a strongly modeled nose and chin as the man turned. "Oh-oh," he -said, lowering the binoculars. - -Alice was staring intently through her binoculars. "Isn't he handsome," -she breathed. "Do you know him?" - -"Yeah," said Maxwell. "That's the Beachcomber. I interviewed him a -couple of times. We'd better leave him be." - -Alice kept staring. "Honestly," she said. "I never saw such a--. Look, -Vernie, he's waving at us." - -Maxwell looked again. The Beachcomber's face was turned up directly -toward them. As Maxwell watched, the man's lips moved unmistakably in -the syllables of his name. - -Maxwell shortened the range, and saw that the Beachcomber was indeed -waving. He also saw something he had missed before: the man was stark -naked. - -"He's recognized me," he said, with mingled emotions. "Now we will have -to go down." - - * * * * * - -Alice took her eyes away from the binoculars for the first time -since they had sighted the man. "That's silly," she said. "How could -he--Vernon, you don't mean he can see us clearly from that far away?" - -Maxwell waved back at the tiny figure and mouthed silently, "Coming -right down. Put some pants on, dammit." He said to Alice, "That's not -all he can do. Weren't you listening when I said he's the Beachcomber?" - -They started down on a long slant as the little figure below moved -toward the jungle's edge. "The who?" said Alice, looking through the -binoculars again. - -"Watch where you're going," said Maxwell, more sharply than he had -intended. - -"I'm sorry. Who is he, dear?" - -"The Beachcomber. The Man From the Future. Haven't you seen a newscast -for the last five years?" - -"I only tune in for the sports and fashions," Alice said abstractedly. -Then her mouth formed an O. "My goodness! Is _he_ the one who--" - -"The same," said Maxwell. "The one who gave us the inertialess drive, -the anti-friction field, the math to solve the three-body problem, and -about a thousand other things. The guy from three million years in the -future. And the loneliest man in all creation, probably. This is the -planet he showed up on, five years ago, now that I come to think of it. -I guess he spends most of his time here." - -"But why?" asked Alice. She looked toward the tiny beach, which was now -vacant. Her expression, Maxwell thought, said that there were better -uses to which he could put himself. - -Maxwell snorted. "Did you ever read--" He corrected himself; Alice -obviously never read. "Did you ever see one of the old films about -the South Seas? Ever hear of civilized men 'going native' or becoming -beachcombers?" - -Alice said, "Yes," a trifle uncertainly. - -"All right, imagine a man stranded in a universe full of -savages--pleasant harmless savages, maybe, but people who are three -million years away from his culture. What's he going to do?" - -"Go native," said Alice, "or comb beaches." - -"That's right," Maxwell told her. "His only two alternatives. And -either one is about as bad as the other, from his point of view. -Conform to native customs, settle down, marry, lose everything that -makes him a civilized man--or just simply go to hell by himself." - -"That's what he's doing?" - -"Right." - -"Well, but what is he combing those beaches _for_?" - -Maxwell frowned. "Don't be a cretin. These particular beaches have -nothing to do with it; he just happens to be on one at the moment. He's -a beachcomber because he lives like a bum--doesn't do any work, doesn't -see people, just loafs and waits to be old enough to die." - -"That's awful," said Alice. "It's--such a waste." - -"In more ways than one," Maxwell added drily. "But what do you want? -There's only one place he could be happy--three million years from -now--and he can't go back. He says there isn't any place to go back -to. I don't know what he means; he refuses to clarify that point." - - * * * * * - -The Beachcomber was standing motionless by the edge of the forest -as their scooters floated down to rest on the pebbly beach. He was -wearing a pair of stained, weathered duroplast shorts, but nothing -else; no hat to protect his great domed head, no sandals on his feet, -no equipment, not even a knife at his belt. Yet Maxwell knew that -there were flesh-eaters in the jungle that would gobble a man outside -the force-field of his scooter in about half a second. Knowing the -Beachcomber, none of this surprised him. Whether it occurred to Alice -to be surprised at any of it, he couldn't tell. She was eating the -Beachcomber with her eyes as he walked toward them. - -Maxwell, swearing silently to himself, turned off his scooter's field -and stepped down. Alice did the same. _I only hope she can keep from -trying to flirt with him_, Maxwell thought. Aloud, he said, "How's it, -Dai?" - -"All right," said the Beachcomber. Up close he ceased to be merely -impressive and became a little frightening. He stood over seven feet -tall, and there was an incredible strength in every line of him. His -clear skin looked resilient but _hard_; Maxwell privately doubted that -you could cut it with a knife. But it was the eyes that were really -impressive: they had the same disquieting, alien quality as an eagle's. -Dai never pulled his rank on anybody; he "went native" perfectly when -he had to, for social purposes; but he couldn't help making a normal -human adult feel like a backward child. - -"Dai, I'd like you to meet Alice Zwerling." - -The Beachcomber acknowledged the introduction with effortless courtesy; -Alice nearly beat herself to death with her eyelashes. - -She managed to stumble very plausibly as they walked down to the -water's edge, and put a hand on the giant's arm for support. He righted -her casually with the flat of his hand on her back--at the same time -giving a slight push that put her a step or two in advance--and went on -talking to Maxwell. - -They sat down by the water's edge, and Dai pumped Maxwell for the -latest news on Earth. He seemed genuinely interested; Maxwell didn't -know whether it was an act or not, but he talked willingly and well. -The Beachcomber threw an occasional question Alice's way, just enough -to keep her in the conversation. Maxwell saw her gathering her forces, -and grinned to himself. - -There was a pause and Alice cleared her throat. Both men looked at her -politely. Alice said, "Dai, are there really man-eating animals in this -jungle? Vernon says so, but we haven't seen a one, all the time we've -been here. And--" Her gaze ran down the Beachcomber's smooth, naked -torso, and she blushed very prettily. "I mean--" she added, and stopped -again. - -The Beachcomber said, "Sure, there are lots of them. They don't bother -me, though." - -She said earnestly, "You mean--you walk around, like that, in the -jungle, and nothing can hurt you?" - -"That's it." - -Alice drove the point home. "Could you protect another person who was -with you, too?" - -"I guess I could." - -Alice smiled radiantly. "Why, that's too good to be true! I was just -telling Vernon, before we saw you down here, that I wished I could go -into the jungle without the scooter, to see all the wild animals and -things. Will you take me in for a little walk, Dai? Vernon can mind the -scooters--you wouldn't mind, would you, Vernie?" - - * * * * * - -Maxwell started to reply, but the Beachcomber forestalled him. "I -assure you, Miss Zwerling," he said slowly, "that it would be a waste -of your time and mine." - -Alice blushed again, this time not so prettily. "Just what do you -mean?" she demanded. - -Dai looked at her gravely. "I'm not quite such a wild man as I seem," -he said. "I always wear trousers in mixed company." He repeated, with -emphasis. "_Always._" - -Alice's lips grew hard and thin, and the skin whitened around them. -Her eyes glittered. She started to say something to the Beachcomber, -but the words stuck in her throat. She turned to Maxwell. "I think we'd -better go." - -"We just got here," Maxwell said mildly. "Stick around." - -She stood up. "Are you coming?" - -"Nope," said Maxwell. - -Without another word she turned, walked stiffly to her scooter, got -in and soared away. They watched the tiny shining speck dwindle and -disappear over the horizon. - -Maxwell grinned and looked at the Beachcomber. "She had that coming," -he said. "Not that she's out anything--she's got her return ticket." He -put a hand behind him to hoist himself to his feet. "I'll be going now, -Dai. Nice to have--" - -"No, stay a while, Vern," said the giant. "I don't often see people." -He looked moodily off across the water. "I didn't spoil anything -special for you, I hope?" - -"Nothing special," Maxwell said. "Only my current light o' love." The -giant turned and stared at him, half-frowning. - -"What the hell!" said Maxwell disgustedly. "There are plenty of other -pebbles on the beach." - -"Don't say that!" The Beachcomber's face contorted in a blaze of fury. -He made a chopping motion with his forearm. Violent as it was, the -motion came nowhere near Maxwell. Something else, something that -felt like the pure essence of wrath, struck him and bowled him over, -knocking the breath from him. - -He sat up, a yard away from the giant, eyes popping foolishly. -"Whuhh--" he said. - -There was pain and contrition in the Beachcomber's eyes. "I'm sorry," -he said. He helped Maxwell up. "I don't often forget myself that way. -Will you forgive me?" - -Maxwell's chest was still numb; it was hard to breathe. "Don't know," -he said with difficulty. "What did you do it for?" - -Sunlight gleamed dazzlingly on the Beachcomber's bare head. His eyes -were in deep shadow, and shadows sketched the bold outline of his nose, -marked the firm, bitter lines of his mouth. He said, "I've offended -you." He paused. "I'll explain, Vernon, but there's one condition--you -must never tell anybody else, ever." - -He put his big hand on Maxwell's wrist, and Maxwell felt the power that -flowed from him. Almost hypnotically he knew he never would be able to. -He was aware his mind was being schooled in what to remember. - -"All right," said Maxwell. A curious complexity of emotions boiled -inside him--anger and petulance, curiosity and something else, deeper -down: a vague, objectless fear. "Go ahead." - -The Beachcomber talked. After a few minutes he seemed almost to forget -Maxwell; he stared out across the silver sea, and Maxwell, half -hypnotized by the deep, resonant voice, watched his hawklike profile in -silence. - -Dimly, he saw the universe the Beachcomber spoke of: a universe of Men -set free. Over that inconceivable gap of time that stretched between -Maxwell's time and theirs, they had purged themselves of all their -frailties. Maxwell saw them striding among the stars, as much at home -in the pitiless void as on the verdant planets they loved. He saw them -tall and faultless and strong, handsome men and beautiful women, all -with the power that glowed in the Beachcomber, but without a hint of -his sadness. - - * * * * * - -He tried to imagine what the daily life of those people must be like, -and couldn't; it was three million years beyond his comprehension. But -when he looked at the Beachcomber's face, he knew that the last men -were human beings like himself, capable of love, hate, and despair. - -"We had mating customs that would seem peculiar to you," said the -Beachcomber after a while. "Like elephants--because we were so -long-lived, you know. We--married--late, and it was for life. My -marriage was about to take place when we found the enemy." - -"The enemy?" said Maxwell. "But--didn't you say you were the only -dominant life-form in the whole universe?" - -"That's right." The Beachcomber outlined an egg-shaped figure with a -motion of his cupped hands, caressingly. "The universe; all of it. -Everything that existed in this space. It was all ours. But the enemy -didn't come from this universe." - -"Another dimension?" Maxwell asked. - -The Beachcomber looked puzzled. "Another--" he said, and stopped. -"I thought I could say it better than that in English, but I can't. -Dimension isn't right--call it another time-line; that's a little -closer." - -"Another universe like ours, co-existent with this one, anyhow," said -Maxwell. - -"No--not the same as ours, at all. Different laws, different--" he -stopped again. - -"Well, can you describe the enemy?" - -"Ugly," said the Beachcomber promptly. "We'd been searching -other--dimensions, if you want to use that word--for thousands of -years, and this was the first intelligent race we found. We hated them -on sight." He paused. "If I drew you a picture, it would look like -a little spiny cylinder. But a picture wouldn't convey it. I can't -explain." His mouth contracted with distaste. - -"Go on," said Maxwell. "What happened? They invaded you?" - -"No. We tried to destroy them. We broke up the crystal spiderwebs they -built between their worlds; we smashed their suns. But more than a -quarter of them survived our first attack, and then we knew we were -beaten. They were as powerful as we were, more so in some ways--" - -"Wait, I don't get it," said Maxwell unbelievingly. "You--attacked -them--without provocation? Wiped out three-quarters of them, simply -because--" - -"There was no possible peace between us and them," said the -Beachcomber. "And it was only a matter of time before they discovered -us; it was simply chance that we made the contact first." - -What would an unspoiled South Sea Islander have made of the first -atomic war? Maxwell wondered. Morals of one society didn't apply to -another, he knew. Still--was it possible that the Beachcomber's people, -Maxwell's own descendants, still had a taint of the old Adam? And was -it accident that they were the only dominant life-form in the entire -universe, or had they eliminated all other contenders? - - * * * * * - -Not for him to judge, he decided; but he didn't like it. He said, "Then -what--they counterattacked?" - -"Yes. We had time to prepare, and we knew what they were going to do. -The trouble was, there simply was no defense against it." He noticed -Maxwell's wry smile. "Not like the planet-busters; there is a defense -against those, you just haven't found it yet. But there actually was -no defense whatever against their weapon. They were going to destroy -our universe, down to the last quantum--wipe it right out of the -series, make a blank where it had been." - -"And--?" said Maxwell. He was beginning to understand why the -Beachcomber had never told this story to anyone else; why the public at -large must never know it. There was a feeling of doom in it that would -color everything men did. It was possible, he supposed, to live with -the knowledge that the end of it all was death, but fatalism was the -mark of a dying culture. - -"And there was just one thing we could do," said the Beachcomber. "Not -a defense, but a trick. At the instant before their weapon was due -to take effect, we planned to bring our universe back three million -years along its own time-line. It would vanish, just as if it had -been destroyed. Then, if it worked, we'd be able to return, but on a -different time-line--because, obviously, on our own line nothing like -this doubling-back had already happened. Changing the past changes the -future; you know the theory." - -"Yeah. So--you were too late, is that it? You got away, but all the -rest were destroyed." - -"The timing was perfect," said the Beachcomber. "All the calculations -were perfect. There's a natural limit to the distance in time any mass -can travel, and we managed to meet it exactly. Three million years. I -wish we hadn't. If we hadn't, I could go back again--" He stopped, and -his jaw hardened. - -"There isn't much more to tell," he said. "I happened to be chosen to -execute the plan. It was a great honor, but not an easy one to accept. -Remember, I was about to be married. If anything went wrong it meant -that we'd be separated forever.... We couldn't even die together. But I -accepted. I had one day with her--one day; and then I set up the fields -and waited for the attack. Just one micro-second before it would have -reached us, I released the energy that was channeled through me--and -the next instant, I was falling into the ocean out there." - -He turned a tormented face to Maxwell. "It was the worst possible -luck!" he said. "You can see for yourself, there was less chance of my -landing anywhere near a planet than of--finding one given pebble on all -the beaches of this planet." - -Maxwell felt as if he had missed the point of a joke. "I still don't -understand," he said. "You say _you_ landed--but what about the -universe? Where did it--?" - -The Beachcomber made an impatient gesture. "You don't think we could -bring it back into a space it already occupied, do you? It was in -stasis, all but a fraction out of this time-line. Just a miniature -left, so that it could be controlled. A model of the universe, so big." -He spread his thumb and forefinger an inch apart--"Just a pebble." - -Maxwell's jaw dropped open. He stared at the giant. "You don't -mean--you--" - -"Oh, yes," said the Beachcomber, "I landed about twenty miles out from -shore--five years ago." He stared out across the sea, while his fingers -groped nervously among the pebbles at his feet. - -"And when I hit the water," he said, "I dropped it." - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEACHCOMBER *** - -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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Beachcomber</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Damon Knight</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 30, 2021 [eBook #65956]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEACHCOMBER ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>The BEACHCOMBER</h1> - -<h2>By Damon Knight</h2> - -<p>Alice saw the Beachcomber as a glorious<br /> -hunk of man; Maxwell saw him as a super being<br /> -from the future. Tragically, he was both!...</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -December 1952<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>Maxwell and the girl started their weekend on Thursday, in Venice. -Friday they went to Paris, Saturday to Nice, and on Sunday they were -bored. Alice pouted at him across the breakfast table. "Vernon, let's -go someplace else," she said.</p> - -<p>"Sure," said Maxwell, not too graciously. "Don't you want your bug -eggs?"</p> - -<p>Alice pushed them away. "If I ever did, I don't now. Why do you have to -be so unpleasant in the morning?"</p> - -<p>The eggs were insect eggs, all right, but they were on the menu as -<i>oeufs Procyon Thibault</i>, and three of the half-inch brown spheres -cost about one thousand times their value in calories. Maxwell was -well paid as a script-writer for the North American Unit Ministry of -Information—he bossed a gang of six gagmen on the Cosmic Cocktail -show—but he was beginning to hate to think about what these five days -were costing him.</p> - -<p>"Where do you want to go?" asked Maxwell. Their coffee came out of the -conveyer, steaming and fragrant, and he sipped his moodily. "Want to -run over to Algiers? Or up to Stockholm?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Alice. She leaned forward across the table and put up one -long white hand to keep her honey-colored hair out of her eyes. "You -don't know what I mean. I mean, let's go to some other planet."</p> - -<p>Maxwell choked slightly and spilled coffee on the tabletop. "Europe is -all right," Alice was saying with disdain, "but it's all getting to be -just like Chicago. Let's go someplace different for once."</p> - -<p>"And be back by tomorrow noon?" Maxwell demanded. "It's ten hours even -to Proxima; we'd have just time to turn around and get back on the -liner."</p> - -<p>Alice dropped her long lashes, contriving to look inviting and -sullen at the same time. Not bad at that, Maxwell thought, for ten -o'clock in the morning. "You couldn't get Monday off, I suppose," -she said, giving him her A-number-One smile. "We could have so much -fun—together...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They took the liner to Gamma Tauri IV, the clearing point for the -system, then transferred to the interplanet shuttle for Three. Three -was an almost undeveloped planet; there were perhaps a hundred cities -near the equator, and some mines and plantations in the temperate -zones—the rest was nothing but scenery. Maxwell had heard about it -from people at the Ministry; he'd been warned to go within a year or -so if he went at all—after that it would be as full of tourists as -Proxima II.</p> - -<p>The scenery was worth the trip. Sitting comfortably on their rented -airscooters, stripped to shorts and singlets, with the polarized -sunscreens moderating the blazing heat of Gamma Tauri, Maxwell and the -girl could look in any horizontal direction and see a thousand square -miles of exuberant blue-green foliage.</p> - -<p>Two hundred feet below, the tops of gigantic tree-ferns waved -spasmodically in the breeze. They were following a chain of low -mountains that bisected this continent; the tree-tops sloped away -abruptly on either side, showing an occasional glimpse of reddish-brown -undergrowth, and merged into a sea of blue-green that became bluer -and mistier toward the horizon. A flying thing moved lazily across the -clear, cumulus-dotted sky, perhaps half a mile away. Maxwell trained -his binoculars on it: it was an absurd lozenge with six pairs of -wings—an insect, perhaps; he couldn't tell. He heard a raucous cry -down below, not far away, and glanced down hoping to see one of the -carnivores; but the rippling sea of foliage was unbroken.</p> - -<p>He watched Alice breathing deeply. Maxwell grinned. Her face was shiny -with perspiration and pleasure. "Where to now?" he asked.</p> - -<p>The girl peered to the right, where a glint of silver shone on the -horizon. "Is that the sea, over there?" she asked. "If it is, let's go -look for a nice beach and have our lunch."</p> - -<p>There were no nice beaches; they were all covered with inch-thick -pebbles instead of sand; but Alice kept wanting to try the next place. -After each abortive approach, they went up to two thousand feet to -survey the shore-line. Alice pointed and said, "There's a nice looking -one. Oh! There's somebody on it."</p> - -<p>Maxwell looked, and saw a tiny figure moving along the shore. "Might be -somebody I know," he said, and focused his binoculars. He saw a broad, -naked back, dark against the silvery sea. The man was stooping, looking -at something on the beach.</p> - -<p>The figure straightened, and Maxwell saw a blazing crest of blond hair, -then a strongly modeled nose and chin as the man turned. "Oh-oh," he -said, lowering the binoculars.</p> - -<p>Alice was staring intently through her binoculars. "Isn't he handsome," -she breathed. "Do you know him?"</p> - -<p>"Yeah," said Maxwell. "That's the Beachcomber. I interviewed him a -couple of times. We'd better leave him be."</p> - -<p>Alice kept staring. "Honestly," she said. "I never saw such a—. Look, -Vernie, he's waving at us."</p> - -<p>Maxwell looked again. The Beachcomber's face was turned up directly -toward them. As Maxwell watched, the man's lips moved unmistakably in -the syllables of his name.</p> - -<p>Maxwell shortened the range, and saw that the Beachcomber was indeed -waving. He also saw something he had missed before: the man was stark -naked.</p> - -<p>"He's recognized me," he said, with mingled emotions. "Now we will have -to go down."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Alice took her eyes away from the binoculars for the first time -since they had sighted the man. "That's silly," she said. "How could -he—Vernon, you don't mean he can see us clearly from that far away?"</p> - -<p>Maxwell waved back at the tiny figure and mouthed silently, "Coming -right down. Put some pants on, dammit." He said to Alice, "That's not -all he can do. Weren't you listening when I said he's the Beachcomber?"</p> - -<p>They started down on a long slant as the little figure below moved -toward the jungle's edge. "The who?" said Alice, looking through the -binoculars again.</p> - -<p>"Watch where you're going," said Maxwell, more sharply than he had -intended.</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry. Who is he, dear?"</p> - -<p>"The Beachcomber. The Man From the Future. Haven't you seen a newscast -for the last five years?"</p> - -<p>"I only tune in for the sports and fashions," Alice said abstractedly. -Then her mouth formed an O. "My goodness! Is <i>he</i> the one who—"</p> - -<p>"The same," said Maxwell. "The one who gave us the inertialess drive, -the anti-friction field, the math to solve the three-body problem, and -about a thousand other things. The guy from three million years in the -future. And the loneliest man in all creation, probably. This is the -planet he showed up on, five years ago, now that I come to think of it. -I guess he spends most of his time here."</p> - -<p>"But why?" asked Alice. She looked toward the tiny beach, which was now -vacant. Her expression, Maxwell thought, said that there were better -uses to which he could put himself.</p> - -<p>Maxwell snorted. "Did you ever read—" He corrected himself; Alice -obviously never read. "Did you ever see one of the old films about -the South Seas? Ever hear of civilized men 'going native' or becoming -beachcombers?"</p> - -<p>Alice said, "Yes," a trifle uncertainly.</p> - -<p>"All right, imagine a man stranded in a universe full of -savages—pleasant harmless savages, maybe, but people who are three -million years away from his culture. What's he going to do?"</p> - -<p>"Go native," said Alice, "or comb beaches."</p> - -<p>"That's right," Maxwell told her. "His only two alternatives. And -either one is about as bad as the other, from his point of view. -Conform to native customs, settle down, marry, lose everything that -makes him a civilized man—or just simply go to hell by himself."</p> - -<p>"That's what he's doing?"</p> - -<p>"Right."</p> - -<p>"Well, but what is he combing those beaches <i>for</i>?"</p> - -<p>Maxwell frowned. "Don't be a cretin. These particular beaches have -nothing to do with it; he just happens to be on one at the moment. He's -a beachcomber because he lives like a bum—doesn't do any work, doesn't -see people, just loafs and waits to be old enough to die."</p> - -<p>"That's awful," said Alice. "It's—such a waste."</p> - -<p>"In more ways than one," Maxwell added drily. "But what do you want? -There's only one place he could be happy—three million years from -now—and he can't go back. He says there isn't any place to go back -to. I don't know what he means; he refuses to clarify that point."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Beachcomber was standing motionless by the edge of the forest -as their scooters floated down to rest on the pebbly beach. He was -wearing a pair of stained, weathered duroplast shorts, but nothing -else; no hat to protect his great domed head, no sandals on his feet, -no equipment, not even a knife at his belt. Yet Maxwell knew that -there were flesh-eaters in the jungle that would gobble a man outside -the force-field of his scooter in about half a second. Knowing the -Beachcomber, none of this surprised him. Whether it occurred to Alice -to be surprised at any of it, he couldn't tell. She was eating the -Beachcomber with her eyes as he walked toward them.</p> - -<p>Maxwell, swearing silently to himself, turned off his scooter's field -and stepped down. Alice did the same. <i>I only hope she can keep from -trying to flirt with him</i>, Maxwell thought. Aloud, he said, "How's it, -Dai?"</p> - -<p>"All right," said the Beachcomber. Up close he ceased to be merely -impressive and became a little frightening. He stood over seven feet -tall, and there was an incredible strength in every line of him. His -clear skin looked resilient but <i>hard</i>; Maxwell privately doubted that -you could cut it with a knife. But it was the eyes that were really -impressive: they had the same disquieting, alien quality as an eagle's. -Dai never pulled his rank on anybody; he "went native" perfectly when -he had to, for social purposes; but he couldn't help making a normal -human adult feel like a backward child.</p> - -<p>"Dai, I'd like you to meet Alice Zwerling."</p> - -<p>The Beachcomber acknowledged the introduction with effortless courtesy; -Alice nearly beat herself to death with her eyelashes.</p> - -<p>She managed to stumble very plausibly as they walked down to the -water's edge, and put a hand on the giant's arm for support. He righted -her casually with the flat of his hand on her back—at the same time -giving a slight push that put her a step or two in advance—and went on -talking to Maxwell.</p> - -<p>They sat down by the water's edge, and Dai pumped Maxwell for the -latest news on Earth. He seemed genuinely interested; Maxwell didn't -know whether it was an act or not, but he talked willingly and well. -The Beachcomber threw an occasional question Alice's way, just enough -to keep her in the conversation. Maxwell saw her gathering her forces, -and grinned to himself.</p> - -<p>There was a pause and Alice cleared her throat. Both men looked at her -politely. Alice said, "Dai, are there really man-eating animals in this -jungle? Vernon says so, but we haven't seen a one, all the time we've -been here. And—" Her gaze ran down the Beachcomber's smooth, naked -torso, and she blushed very prettily. "I mean—" she added, and stopped -again.</p> - -<p>The Beachcomber said, "Sure, there are lots of them. They don't bother -me, though."</p> - -<p>She said earnestly, "You mean—you walk around, like that, in the -jungle, and nothing can hurt you?"</p> - -<p>"That's it."</p> - -<p>Alice drove the point home. "Could you protect another person who was -with you, too?"</p> - -<p>"I guess I could."</p> - -<p>Alice smiled radiantly. "Why, that's too good to be true! I was just -telling Vernon, before we saw you down here, that I wished I could go -into the jungle without the scooter, to see all the wild animals and -things. Will you take me in for a little walk, Dai? Vernon can mind the -scooters—you wouldn't mind, would you, Vernie?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Maxwell started to reply, but the Beachcomber forestalled him. "I -assure you, Miss Zwerling," he said slowly, "that it would be a waste -of your time and mine."</p> - -<p>Alice blushed again, this time not so prettily. "Just what do you -mean?" she demanded.</p> - -<p>Dai looked at her gravely. "I'm not quite such a wild man as I seem," -he said. "I always wear trousers in mixed company." He repeated, with -emphasis. "<i>Always.</i>"</p> - -<p>Alice's lips grew hard and thin, and the skin whitened around them. -Her eyes glittered. She started to say something to the Beachcomber, -but the words stuck in her throat. She turned to Maxwell. "I think we'd -better go."</p> - -<p>"We just got here," Maxwell said mildly. "Stick around."</p> - -<p>She stood up. "Are you coming?"</p> - -<p>"Nope," said Maxwell.</p> - -<p>Without another word she turned, walked stiffly to her scooter, got -in and soared away. They watched the tiny shining speck dwindle and -disappear over the horizon.</p> - -<p>Maxwell grinned and looked at the Beachcomber. "She had that coming," -he said. "Not that she's out anything—she's got her return ticket." He -put a hand behind him to hoist himself to his feet. "I'll be going now, -Dai. Nice to have—"</p> - -<p>"No, stay a while, Vern," said the giant. "I don't often see people." -He looked moodily off across the water. "I didn't spoil anything -special for you, I hope?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing special," Maxwell said. "Only my current light o' love." The -giant turned and stared at him, half-frowning.</p> - -<p>"What the hell!" said Maxwell disgustedly. "There are plenty of other -pebbles on the beach."</p> - -<p>"Don't say that!" The Beachcomber's face contorted in a blaze of fury. -He made a chopping motion with his forearm. Violent as it was, the -motion came nowhere near Maxwell. Something else, something that -felt like the pure essence of wrath, struck him and bowled him over, -knocking the breath from him.</p> - -<p>He sat up, a yard away from the giant, eyes popping foolishly. -"Whuhh—" he said.</p> - -<p>There was pain and contrition in the Beachcomber's eyes. "I'm sorry," -he said. He helped Maxwell up. "I don't often forget myself that way. -Will you forgive me?"</p> - -<p>Maxwell's chest was still numb; it was hard to breathe. "Don't know," -he said with difficulty. "What did you do it for?"</p> - -<p>Sunlight gleamed dazzlingly on the Beachcomber's bare head. His eyes -were in deep shadow, and shadows sketched the bold outline of his nose, -marked the firm, bitter lines of his mouth. He said, "I've offended -you." He paused. "I'll explain, Vernon, but there's one condition—you -must never tell anybody else, ever."</p> - -<p>He put his big hand on Maxwell's wrist, and Maxwell felt the power that -flowed from him. Almost hypnotically he knew he never would be able to. -He was aware his mind was being schooled in what to remember.</p> - -<p>"All right," said Maxwell. A curious complexity of emotions boiled -inside him—anger and petulance, curiosity and something else, deeper -down: a vague, objectless fear. "Go ahead."</p> - -<p>The Beachcomber talked. After a few minutes he seemed almost to forget -Maxwell; he stared out across the silver sea, and Maxwell, half -hypnotized by the deep, resonant voice, watched his hawklike profile in -silence.</p> - -<p>Dimly, he saw the universe the Beachcomber spoke of: a universe of Men -set free. Over that inconceivable gap of time that stretched between -Maxwell's time and theirs, they had purged themselves of all their -frailties. Maxwell saw them striding among the stars, as much at home -in the pitiless void as on the verdant planets they loved. He saw them -tall and faultless and strong, handsome men and beautiful women, all -with the power that glowed in the Beachcomber, but without a hint of -his sadness.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He tried to imagine what the daily life of those people must be like, -and couldn't; it was three million years beyond his comprehension. But -when he looked at the Beachcomber's face, he knew that the last men -were human beings like himself, capable of love, hate, and despair.</p> - -<p>"We had mating customs that would seem peculiar to you," said the -Beachcomber after a while. "Like elephants—because we were so -long-lived, you know. We—married—late, and it was for life. My -marriage was about to take place when we found the enemy."</p> - -<p>"The enemy?" said Maxwell. "But—didn't you say you were the only -dominant life-form in the whole universe?"</p> - -<p>"That's right." The Beachcomber outlined an egg-shaped figure with a -motion of his cupped hands, caressingly. "The universe; all of it. -Everything that existed in this space. It was all ours. But the enemy -didn't come from this universe."</p> - -<p>"Another dimension?" Maxwell asked.</p> - -<p>The Beachcomber looked puzzled. "Another—" he said, and stopped. -"I thought I could say it better than that in English, but I can't. -Dimension isn't right—call it another time-line; that's a little -closer."</p> - -<p>"Another universe like ours, co-existent with this one, anyhow," said -Maxwell.</p> - -<p>"No—not the same as ours, at all. Different laws, different—" he -stopped again.</p> - -<p>"Well, can you describe the enemy?"</p> - -<p>"Ugly," said the Beachcomber promptly. "We'd been searching -other—dimensions, if you want to use that word—for thousands of -years, and this was the first intelligent race we found. We hated them -on sight." He paused. "If I drew you a picture, it would look like -a little spiny cylinder. But a picture wouldn't convey it. I can't -explain." His mouth contracted with distaste.</p> - -<p>"Go on," said Maxwell. "What happened? They invaded you?"</p> - -<p>"No. We tried to destroy them. We broke up the crystal spiderwebs they -built between their worlds; we smashed their suns. But more than a -quarter of them survived our first attack, and then we knew we were -beaten. They were as powerful as we were, more so in some ways—"</p> - -<p>"Wait, I don't get it," said Maxwell unbelievingly. "You—attacked -them—without provocation? Wiped out three-quarters of them, simply -because—"</p> - -<p>"There was no possible peace between us and them," said the -Beachcomber. "And it was only a matter of time before they discovered -us; it was simply chance that we made the contact first."</p> - -<p>What would an unspoiled South Sea Islander have made of the first -atomic war? Maxwell wondered. Morals of one society didn't apply to -another, he knew. Still—was it possible that the Beachcomber's people, -Maxwell's own descendants, still had a taint of the old Adam? And was -it accident that they were the only dominant life-form in the entire -universe, or had they eliminated all other contenders?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Not for him to judge, he decided; but he didn't like it. He said, "Then -what—they counterattacked?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. We had time to prepare, and we knew what they were going to do. -The trouble was, there simply was no defense against it." He noticed -Maxwell's wry smile. "Not like the planet-busters; there is a defense -against those, you just haven't found it yet. But there actually was -no defense whatever against their weapon. They were going to destroy -our universe, down to the last quantum—wipe it right out of the -series, make a blank where it had been."</p> - -<p>"And—?" said Maxwell. He was beginning to understand why the -Beachcomber had never told this story to anyone else; why the public at -large must never know it. There was a feeling of doom in it that would -color everything men did. It was possible, he supposed, to live with -the knowledge that the end of it all was death, but fatalism was the -mark of a dying culture.</p> - -<p>"And there was just one thing we could do," said the Beachcomber. "Not -a defense, but a trick. At the instant before their weapon was due -to take effect, we planned to bring our universe back three million -years along its own time-line. It would vanish, just as if it had -been destroyed. Then, if it worked, we'd be able to return, but on a -different time-line—because, obviously, on our own line nothing like -this doubling-back had already happened. Changing the past changes the -future; you know the theory."</p> - -<p>"Yeah. So—you were too late, is that it? You got away, but all the -rest were destroyed."</p> - -<p>"The timing was perfect," said the Beachcomber. "All the calculations -were perfect. There's a natural limit to the distance in time any mass -can travel, and we managed to meet it exactly. Three million years. I -wish we hadn't. If we hadn't, I could go back again—" He stopped, and -his jaw hardened.</p> - -<p>"There isn't much more to tell," he said. "I happened to be chosen to -execute the plan. It was a great honor, but not an easy one to accept. -Remember, I was about to be married. If anything went wrong it meant -that we'd be separated forever.... We couldn't even die together. But I -accepted. I had one day with her—one day; and then I set up the fields -and waited for the attack. Just one micro-second before it would have -reached us, I released the energy that was channeled through me—and -the next instant, I was falling into the ocean out there."</p> - -<p>He turned a tormented face to Maxwell. "It was the worst possible -luck!" he said. "You can see for yourself, there was less chance of my -landing anywhere near a planet than of—finding one given pebble on all -the beaches of this planet."</p> - -<p>Maxwell felt as if he had missed the point of a joke. "I still don't -understand," he said. "You say <i>you</i> landed—but what about the -universe? Where did it—?"</p> - -<p>The Beachcomber made an impatient gesture. "You don't think we could -bring it back into a space it already occupied, do you? It was in -stasis, all but a fraction out of this time-line. Just a miniature -left, so that it could be controlled. A model of the universe, so big." -He spread his thumb and forefinger an inch apart—"Just a pebble."</p> - -<p>Maxwell's jaw dropped open. He stared at the giant. "You don't -mean—you—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes," said the Beachcomber, "I landed about twenty miles out from -shore—five years ago." He stared out across the sea, while his fingers -groped nervously among the pebbles at his feet.</p> - -<p>"And when I hit the water," he said, "I dropped it."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEACHCOMBER ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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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