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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..e79b63c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66731 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66731) diff --git a/old/66731-0.txt b/old/66731-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ac1ff73..0000000 --- a/old/66731-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1187 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Planet of Doom, by C. H. Thames - -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: Planet of Doom - -Author: C. H. Thames - -Release Date: November 14, 2021 [eBook #66731] - -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 PLANET OF DOOM *** - - - - - As a galactic reporter Jane Crowley knew - she had hold of the biggest story of the year; - thousands of people were soon to die on this-- - - Planet Of Doom - - By C. H. Thames - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - June 1956 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Less than an hour after the last spaceship made touchdown on Mandmoora, -Jane Crowley stood before a scowling, head shaking public Information -Officer. - -"My company sent me fifty light years from its nearest base in the -Denebian system, Colonel," Jane said. "I'm sorry, but it's impossible -for me to return to Deneb without my story." - -"This office has issued press releases, my dear Miss Crowley, which--" - -"Press releases!" The way Jane uttered those two words made the -Colonel wince. "I didn't come fifty light years for press releases. -I came...." She watched the Colonel's face and let her voice trail -off. This approach was having absolutely no effect. But Jane Crowley -was a woman, young and quite pretty and it was likely, she thought, -that where the straightforward, man-to-man approach might fail, the -ways of a woman might succeed. "But Colonel," she pouted, then let her -composed face fall apart as if she were going to cry. "But Colonel, my -job depends on this story. My ... my whole career ... you see ..." she -sniffled. - -"There now, Miss Crowley," the Colonel said, looking very -uncomfortable. "There now, miss. Please." - -"Then you'll let me go out there among the Mandmoora?" - -"I'm sorry, miss. Out of the question. Definitely out. We've evacuated -all the Mandmoora who want to go. What remains is a hard core of -Mandmooranian fanatics who refuse to leave their native planet under -any circumstances. They've got an island just off shore here, you see. -They're sun-worshippers. Ironical, isn't it? Sun-worshippers. Their sun -about to go nova on them, boiling all the oceans of this waterworld and -killing every speck of life on Mandmoora, and they're sun-worshippers. -They just won't go. They want to stay. They say we can't make them go -and they're right, we can't. Poor devils. They'll be boiled and broiled -alive, all three thousands of 'em. But this headquarters can't send -men out to their island after them. They'd resist and it would mean -bloodshed, on both sides. We won't have it." - -The Colonel's haggard face brightened, and he went on: "There's your -story, Miss Crowley. Three thousand die-hard sun-worshippers, facing -certain death at the altar of the very deity they adore. File _that_ -story from Deneb, Miss Crowley." - -"It's been filed a hundred times already," Jane said, shaking her head. -"You know it has." - -The Colonel shrugged. "I refuse to authorize your going out to -Mandmoora Island. Be reasonable, miss, can't you? We have evacuated a -hundred million Mandmoorans in history's greatest mass exodus. Three -thousand fanatics don't want out. Three thousand fanatics will broil -with their world, then. That's all." - -"But if they could be led to understand." - -"I thought you wanted a story. A human interest story, wasn't it?" - -"I was only thinking out loud." - -"I've given you the only story you'll get here. Why should your video -service expect more than the others?" - -"No reason, I guess," Jane knew now that the answer was definitely no. -She was hardly listening to the Colonel as he went on. There had to be -another way, somewhere, somehow. It was the story of the century--and -there wasn't another newsman on Mandmoora with a chance to scoop her. -Which also meant that if Jane didn't get the story, the rest of the -civilized galaxy wouldn't, either, except for watered-down public -information releases. - -"... otherwise," the Colonel was saying. "The press people have said -we were more than fair, miss. We let them set up a headquarters beyond -the Mandmooranian sun's eighth planet: our experts said the nova won't -explode that far, you know. Headquarters will be safe there. We've -even agreed to let the last ship out stop at press headquarters for an -interview before it goes subspace for the dash to Deneb. What could be -fairer?" - -"Nothing, I guess," Jane said. "Well, thank you for your time, Colonel." - -"Not at all, young lady." The Colonel touched something on his desk -and a door at the other end of the office opened, irising with a -faint hissing sound. Through it Jane could hear the sounds of office -machinery, think-writers and duplics and a subspace ticker coming in -with the news from the rest of the galaxy. - -A woman, thought Jane. Maybe if I was a man it would have been -different, but they wanted a woman's viewpoint because it's a -heartstring-plucking story. She recalled the Colonel's first -incredulous outburst. "But I can't send a _woman_ out there, Miss -Crowley. A woman!" - - * * * * * - -As she reached the door, impulse became idea and idea came to the -surface for execution. "Thank you very much, Colonel," she said in a -clear, loud voice. "Interstellar News Alliance knew it could count on -you." - -"What's that?" demanded the Colonel in a voice barely audible across -the large room. He was busy now with a mountain of last minute -paperwork and was listening only with one ear, the rest of him already -hard at work. - -"Thanks again, Colonel," Jane said, and stepped through the irised -shutter of a door. She turned to show her best smile to the -sergeant-major at the desk immediately outside the door. "There, -sergeant," she said, smiling. "You see? I told you the Colonel would -give me an unlimited pass." - -"I never would of believed it," the sergeant said, looking at the smile -and daring a glance at the rest of Jane Crowley, which was every bit as -delightful as the pretty way she showed her teeth. - -"An unlimited pass, sergeant. Make one out for me, please." - -The sergeant-major nodded and took a book of forms from a drawer in his -desk. He wrote for a while, then said, "That's C-r-o-w-l-e-y, ma'am?" - -"Right." - -"Any time limit on the pass?" - -"None at all," Jane said, still amazed that her ruse, her show of -elation had actually worked. - -The sergeant-major applied the finishing touches to the pass with an -ink-stamp duplicate of the Colonel's signature and handed the stiff -plastic rectangle to Jane. "There you are, ma'am," he said. "But watch -your step, Miz Crowley. The last ship's blasting off in twenty hours, -with or without the Mandmoorans. Twenty hours, ma'am. So please don't -get lost." - -Jane thanked him, smiled again, and got out of there. - -Five minutes later, the Colonel buzzed for his sergeant-major. "Yes, -sir?" the sergeant asked, poking his head in through the irising door. - -"Well, I see the lady reporter didn't give much trouble after I made it -clear the answer was no. Now, about that Sbogan file. Sbogan, that is -the name?" - -"Yeah, Sbogan. Fomalhautian name. What did you ... did you say, sir?" - -"The Sbogan file should--" - -"No. About the reporter. You told her no? Your answer was no, sir?" - -"Naturally. We couldn't let her put her pretty head in the lion's -mouth." - -"Oh, Lord, sir," the sergeant-major said. "I gave her an unlimited -pass." - -"Sergeant!" - -"She said you had ... sir...." - -"An unlimited pass--sergeant! Send out an alarm for that girl. We're -all right as long as she doesn't leave the mainland. But if she goes to -the Mandmooran Island, where those hold-out sun-worshippers are...." - -"She'll make tracks for there, all right," the sergeant-major predicted. - -"Stop her. Stop her before she gets that far! Because once she crosses -to the island, there isn't a thing we can do about it. You can't tell a -nova to wait, sergeant!" - -"I'll try to stop her, sir." - -"Make it a general alarm, sergeant. You've _got_ to stop her." - -Moments later, Jane Crowley's description was being radio'd to every -martial checkpoint in the city of Northport. - - * * * * * - -It was very hot and sultry on the tarry streets of Northport. It had -been an exotic city, really exotic, Jane thought. You could tell by -the out-of-this world architecture, but oddly--with nothing but the -uniformed figures of the interstellar rescue organization to be seen -on the streets--Northport lost most of its charm. For the charm of any -alien place, of any exotic world, lies in its people. Jane had once -made a broadcast to that effect, and it had been very well received. -It would be nothing though, absolutely nothing, compared to what Jane -almost had in her grasp now. A final interview with the die-hards, with -the Mandmoorans who refused to leave their planet because they had -faith in the sun which would soon, in hardly more than hours, destroy -them. - -The docks were crowded, littered with the worldly belongings of a -few score Mandmoorans who had changed their mind and had paddled -over from the island. A squad of soldiers was busy processing them -and the Mandmoorans, big muscular purple-skinned men with shocks of -stiff lemon-yellow hair and smaller women, brittle-looking women with -strange, wasp-waisted figures, glanced up frequently at the sky. Their -sun, a faintly bluish white star, seemed somehow swollen. It actually -seemed larger to Jane than it had been when she had landed several -hours ago. Probably, she told herself, that's imagination. On the other -hand, the Mandmoorans would certainly have been able to see a change -in solar size by this time. For the Mandmooranian sun had doubled its -apparent size in the past ten days, Jane had been told at the P.I. -office. - -The only result so far was the sweltering heat on Mandmoora. The heat, -though, was not lethal. There had been hot summers before, the die-hard -sun-worshippers had said. So they had told Jane at the P.I.O. The -natives said nothing, could be made to say nothing, about the swollen -appearance of the sun they worshipped. - -In twenty hours their last chance for rescue would be gone. In thirty -hours, Mandmoora's sun would go nova, bursting to a million times its -former luminosity in micro-seconds, sending out a shell of intensely -hot gases which, when it reached Mandmoora, would instantly destroy all -life on the planet. Including three thousand sun-worshippers waiting -devoutly for their deity to prove the interstellar interlopers wrong.... - -"Hey, Miss!" someone cried suddenly. It was an Army corporal running -toward her, bulling his way through a knot of Mandmooran refugees. -"You're Jane Crowley, ain't you?" He was only a dozen strides away now, -and shouting. "Because I got orders to...." - -Jane didn't hear the rest of it. She turned and ran down the length -of the deserted quay adjacent to the one strewn with Mandmooran -belongings. She reached the end of the quay and whirled. The corporal -was trotting confidently toward her, in no great hurry now. For she -had trapped herself on the quay. She was very angry with herself. A -fine newshen you are, she thought. First chance you have, you let -yourself get caught. A fine.... - -Something gave her a raucous razzing, something out over the water. -She whirled and faced it. A runabout whizzed in across the blue water -toward her. Someone was waving. - -She waved back frantically, suddenly recognizing him. It was Sid -Masters. She had met Sid on the ship which had taken both of them -to Mandmoora. Sid was with the electronics outfit setting up camera -equipment on Mandmoora, equipment which would transmit through subspace -the pictures of a sun going nova seen from the surface of its only -inhabited planet. She had struck up a quick friendship with Sid on the -space-liner. - -Making up her mind suddenly, Jane didn't wait for the running corporal -to reach her. Instead, she turned and jumped off the quay. - -She came up sputtering. The water was tepid, was typical harbor-water, -fouled with gasoline and debris. Masters' gas-turbine driven boat -was very close now. The sound of its motor almost drowned out the -corporal's shouts as Jane treaded water. - -"Going to the island," Masters shouted. "You?" - -"They don't want me to, Sid!" - -He smiled. She couldn't hear all of what he said, but she got the last -part of it. "... want me to, either. Hop in, beautiful." - -There was a splash behind her. Jane turned and saw the corporal break -surface, yelling and waving his arms. She stroked for Sid Masters' -runabout. The electronics technician shouted his encouragement, but -as she got one hand on the gunwale of the idling runabout, Jane felt -something grab and tug at her leg. - -She lashed out with her free leg, churning water. But the corporal -clung grimly to her ankle. Then an old, half-rotted oar appeared -alongside Jane's heel, and with it--guiding it--Sid Masters' arms. The -oar went out over the water and probed and a moment later the corporal -shouted and Jane felt the pressure leave her ankle. - -"Hop aboard and be quick about it," Masters yelled. - -Jane needed no urging. She scrambled ungracefully over the gunwale. -She was dripping wet and thought she looked a mess. But Masters merely -said, "Pleasure to have you aboard, beautiful," and the runabout -roared and headed out across the harbor to the island, to the last -redoubt of the three thousand sun-worshipping Mandmoorans who waited -for a miracle which would not come to save them. - - * * * * * - -"Simple," Sid Masters said in answer to Jane's question half an hour -later. "I thought it would be a good idea to set up camera equipment -on the island itself, to show the galaxy the last sun-worshipping -rites of the Mandmoorans--before their god killed them. Maybe it's -heartless, but it's good journalism. Besides, it isn't up to me to get -the Mandmoorans off their island. I'd gladly film their exodus instead, -and first-hand, not with automatic equipment. Anyhow, Colonel, what's -his name at P.I.O. said no." - -"And you didn't take no for an answer?" - -"I didn't take no for an answer. Hell, all I have to do is set up the -equipment so the Mandmoorans don't see it and get off the island. It -shouldn't be hard." - -"I want to get a final impression of the Mandmooran sun-worshippers as -they wait for the end," Jane said. "As you said, Sid, it isn't pretty -but it's good journalism. Sure, I'd rather not get my story and see -them saved--" - -"But if they're going to die you want the story. Right?" - -"Yes," Jane said. Then: "I want to thank you, Sid--" - -He grinned. "You looked so helpless there on the end of the quay. You -were wringing your hands, did you know it?" - -"What a sight that must have been. Sid!" Jane cried abruptly. "Sid! -We're being followed. That boat--" - -"Of course we're being followed. But this runabout's got good speed. -They won't catch us before we reach the island. And once we reach -it, they probably have orders not to land under any circumstances. -They--hey wait a minute! Look behind them." - -At first Jane didn't get it. She looked ahead and saw the green smear -of the sun-worshippers' island, expanding out from the horizon toward -them. They'd be beaching the light-weight, lithium-alloy runabout in a -matter of minutes, she thought. Then, after that.... - -"No Jane. I said behind them. Behind the boat following us." - -At first she saw nothing but the dazzling suntrack across the water -back there. Then, dancing on the suntrack as if belonging to it, scores -of silver midges. But a while ago, the single boat pursuing them had -looked like a silver midge. - -"Boats," Jane said. - -"Boats. A whole fleet of them." - -"What can it mean, Sid?" - -"Beats me. I can guess, though. Jane, maybe we're going to be in on the -kind of ending we'd rather see." - -"I don't understand." - -"It's a fleet of evacuation craft, probably. Making a last attempt to -get the Mandmoorans off their island. Maybe they had some word from the -sun-worshipping chief out there, I don't know." - -"Should we wait until they land?" - -"Not on your life," Sid said. "We've broken a law, Jane. They'd take us -into custody until the whole operation was over. We'll beach this boat -like we planned, and then my equipment--" - -"And my pad and pencil," Jane said. - -"--go to work." - -Moments later they could see a throng of the Mandmoorans waiting on -the beach for them, the brilliant purple of their bodies gleaming -metallically against the dead white sands. - - * * * * * - -The Mandmooran chief was a big fellow six and a half feet tall. He was -old: the shock of stiff yellow hair had faded to a corn-silk color, the -purple skin was wrinkle-creased and had lost some of its sheen. But he -carried himself straight and tall and he looked every inch a chieftain. - -"We stay here," he told Sid in English. "Lord Sun no kills worship -people. You tell soldiers?" - -"They're coming," Sid said. "See? We have nothing to do with that." - -"You not with them?" - -"Not us," Sid said. - -"What then you want?" - -Sid looked at Jane, who shrugged. Words and phrases were already -forming in her mind. The sad proud look on the old chief's face. The -gleaming, healthy, royal purple Mandmoorans. The dried, withered -vegetation all around them, scorched by the swollen sun. The angry, -resentful look on some of the Mandmooran faces behind the chief. The -distant wailing chant of the sun-worshipping priests. - -"... cameras," Sid was saying. "As for the lady, she only wants to -talk with you and look around some. All right?" - -"Twice," the chief said slowly, "your soldiers try to trick us. Third -time now." - -Sid shrugged. "We're not soldiers." - -"You have nothing to do with them?" - -"We have nothing to do with them." - -"Third trick make people angry." - -"If there's a third trick, we're no part of it." - -The chief nodded solemnly and turned to face the water. Ahead of -the flotilla, a single runabout was quite close to land now. Jane -recognized the corporal who had chased her out on the quay. With him -were two other soldiers. - -"Halloa!" the corporal shouted. "Hallo, Miz Crowley. Won't do you no -good to try and hide. We got orders to take you back. Mr. Masters with -you, ma'am. You'll come peacefully?" - -"We won't come any way at all," Sid said defiantly. "Not until we're -good and ready." - -The chief suddenly strode forward, to the edge of the water and then -ankle deep in the surf. "Wait," he said, lifting both hands solemnly. -"You and these two--you know one another?" - -"They're Miz Crowley and Mr. Masters," the corporal shouted back. - -"And you know they come here?" - -"Heck, yes," said the corporal. "It's why we came. Following them." - -"Otherwise you no have come?" - -"That's right." - -"Then you go," the chief said in a strong, solemn voice. "Tell others. -Go! You come close, we hurt these two people. You try to land, take us -off--we kill them. We stay here. Our right is to stay. Our Lord Sun -no hurt Mandmoorans. Lord Sun for life and growing of crops, not for -death. You go." - -"You can't keep them for hostages," the corporal shouted across the -water. "You can't do that." - - * * * * * - -The chief let his right hand fall. A line of spearmen trotted up behind -him and let fly with a fusillade of long-shafted spears. The spears -fell around the military runabout, but none of them touched it. - -"They stay," the chief said, "You take hundred million Mandmoorans off -Mandmoora, we keep two earth people here to see nothing happens to -Lord Sun. Now go!" - -"Sid," Jane said. "Sid, did you hear him? They--they're going to keep -us here, and--Sid, is there any chance the sun won't go nova?" - -Sid shook his head. His face looked suddenly bleak. "No chance at all, -kid. I guess we should have listened." - -"Sid, I'm scared." - -There was a roaring sound as the runabout, instead of retreating, came -bucketing toward the beach. "Come on down to the water!" the corporal -bawled at the top of his voice. "We'll get you!" - -The Chief raised his hand. Another line of spearmen came trotting -forward. "Go back," Sid shouted. "They'll kill you!" - -But the runabout came toward them on the heaving surf. Before the chief -could raise his hand a second time, the corporal stood up in the prow -of the runabout and fired a blaster toward the beach. He had fired it -high and he waited for it to disperse the spearmen. When it did not, -he fired again, lower. The chief lifted his hand and brought it down. -A volley of spears leaped from muscular arms, arching in the sunlight, -dropping toward the runabout.... - -The corporal fired again and a figure near the chief slumped to the -sand. Then the runabout, riddled by fifty spears at the water-line, -began to sink. - -"Take them," the chief said. - -A score of Mandmoorans swarmed out through the surf toward the sinking -boat. Jane watched as they surrounded it and brought the three soldiers -back with them quickly. By then the runabout had gone under, but the -flotilla of rescue craft was now only a few hundred yards offshore and -coming fast. - -"Five hostages," the chief said. "Tell them go." - -Voices shouted back and forth across the water, but Jane saw that the -chief wasn't listening. Instead, he went to the man who had fallen -before the corporal's blaster. He knelt and took the yellow shocked -head on his knee and murmured to it. The young Mandmoora's right arm -had been all but blasted off at the elbow. Blood was gushing and -pumping from severed arteries. The chief raised his head and wailed: - -"Grower, healer, Lord Sun! Save the Princeling of your people. Grower, -healer, Lord Sun!" he chanted, repeating it. "Grower...." - -"Princeling?" Sid said. "The old boy's son, you think?" - -"If they just keep chanting and leave him like that, the poor boy'll -bleed to death. Can't we do something?" - -Just then an amplified voice came across the water toward them, -metallic and somehow unreal. "Masters! Miss Crowley. We'll stay here. -We won't budge until--until it's too late. Until we have to leave. -But we can't come after you. The Mandmoorans would fight. There would -be death on both sides and--I'm sorry, Masters, Miss Crowley. We are -positively forbidden to use force of arms here. You understand?" - -It was a rhetorical question. It did not matter if they understood or -not. The flotilla would wait--hopelessly. The flotilla would leave when -it had to. And the corporal and his companions, along with Sid Masters -and Jane, would be left with the Sun-trusting Mandmoorans. - - * * * * * - -The Mandmooran prince's face was ashen with pain and loss of blood. The -chief cradled his head, and mumbled, and chanted. And the blood pumped -from the severed arteries. - -A ring of Mandmooran guards surrounded Jane, Sid Masters and the three -soldiers, but when Jane walked through the ring, quite close to two -of the spearmen, they did not try to stop her. It was because of the -Mandmooran women, she decided: the Mandmooran women were so small and -fragile-looking that their men would never take the guarding of a woman -seriously. - -Jane went over to where the chief was kneeling by his stricken son. -"Unless you stop the bleeding," she said quietly, "he's going to die. -Don't you know that?" - -"Healer sun stop bleeding. Lord Sun." - -Jane shook her head. "The sun is a slow healer. The sun can't perform -medical miracles. I have no argument with your religion, chief--but we -can save your boy's life if you let us." - -At first Jane thought she had failed. The Chief continued chanting -over his son, not looking at the Earthgirl. Then, slowly, he looked -up. Not at Jane, not immediately at Jane: he let his gaze come to -rest on the Mandmooran sun, faintly bluish and clearly swollen now, -egg-shaped almost as its internal forces gathered themselves for the -final cataclysmic explosion which, in hours, would all but tear the -star apart. Even a fanatic sun-worshipper would know now that something -was wrong with their deity. On the other hand, a fanatic sun-worshipper -might regard the change, Jane realized, as a manifestation of -displeasure. Hadn't all but an infinitesimal fraction of the -Mandmoorans deserted their god? Wasn't that reason enough for the wrath -of the Lord Sun? - -But then the chief looked at Jane. His eyes were sad and old and -suddenly and unexpectedly very wise. He said, "You can help? You can -save his life?" - -"You're not trying," Jane said. "I can try." - -Carefully the chief stood up, making a mound of sand and letting his -son's head rest there. "Then save him," he said finally. "Save him and -you can return to your people." - -A very old Mandmooran, far older than the chief, a skin-puckered, -limping, hunch-backed, rheumy-eyed, gray-skinned Mandmooran, approached -the chief and jabbered excitedly in their own language. The chief -jabbered back at him and the old man raised his voice. The chief -shouted him down. Shrugging but smiling, the old man wandered off to a -hillock of sand, threw his arms up at the Lord Sun, and began a weird, -wailing chant. - -"Shaman say," the chief told Jane, "yours is bad medicine." - -Jane didn't answer. She went down on one knee near the injured prince. -It almost made her ill to stare at his torn, mangled arm. She was no -nurse. She knew first aid, but that was all. Still, anything was better -than the fatalistic Mandmooran attitude. - -"Shaman say," the chief went on, "we offer sacrifice to wrath of Lord -Sun. For long time our people no offer sacrifice in human form. Human -sacrifice now, at moment of trial, work. So say shaman." - -Turning, the chief shouted something. Three spearmen stalked within the -circle around the Earthmen and came out with the uniformed figure of -the corporal. The ancient shaman jabbered excitedly, but the chief did -not look happy. - - * * * * * - -Sid Masters came brawling through the ring of spearmen, fighting clear -with flailing arms and legs. "Wait a minute, chief!" he cried. "Who's -running the show round here, you or that magician?" - -The shaman jabbered, but the chief silenced him with a gesture. "I am -chief of the Mandmoora," he said slowly. - -"The girl is trying to save your son's life. Is that the thanks we -get--what you're going to do with the corporal?" - -The chief was silent for a few moments, meditating. Then: "Let him go. -Until the girl has succeeded--or failed." - -The shaman jabbered again. He didn't like it but he returned, -grumbling, to his hillock. Jane was already going to work on the -stricken prince. First she tore a strip from her jumper and used it -to bind the prince's upper arm. The bleeding was first. She had to -stop the bleeding. Twisting a pencil in the knotted tourniquet, she -tightened it until the blood had stopped flowing. She felt anything but -calm. She actually felt queasy. But somehow her fingers worked quickly -and surely and before long a few score of the Mandmoorans came to watch. - -"He's lost an awful lot of blood," Jane told Sid Masters. "I've stopped -the bleeding now, but he needs a transfusion if he's going to have a -real chance. And look at the wound, will you? It's dirty. He needs -antibiotics and he needs them fast." - -"On the flotilla out there?" Sid asked. "They ought to have -antibiotics." - -"Get them then," Jane said, and turned to the chief. "My companion -needs strong medicine from the boats which wait." - -"Stay. All stay." - -"Then your son dies." - -The chief looked at her. He was very quiet. The shaman wailed louder -now. "Go," said the chief, and Sid Masters went splashing out into the -water. - -Five minutes later, swimming hard, he returned to the beach. He -produced a water-proof packet of antibiotic powders and Jane opened -it and let the powders sift down on the prince's wound. "Listen," -Sid whispered. "We're in trouble, all right. They can't be sure when -the sun is going to nova, you see? They figure it ought to be about -seventeen hours, but nobody's going to make book with his life. They're -giving us fifteen minutes. Then they're pulling out. They're sorry, -but they're pulling out. You can't blame them, Jane, especially since -interstellar law won't permit them the use of force." - -"But you came back, Sid," Jane said. - -"We're trying to help the boy. Besides, I couldn't leave you holding -the bag like this--alone with those soldiers and three thousand -fanatic Mandmoorans." - -Jane smiled at him. There was nothing else she could offer him -now. Their deaths seemed almost a certainty. They would be--had to -be--deserted. They would be left to the Mandmoora--and the novaing sun. - -"Is the boy going to live?" Sid asked. - -"For a while. I've done all that first aid can do. The bleeding's -stopped. The antibiotics will take care of any possibility of -infection. But he's lost blood. If he doesn't get a transfusion soon, -I'm afraid he won't pull through." - -"Then tell the chief." - -Jane nodded, and found the chief near the shaman's hillock, gazing on -his medicine man with a troubled expression as if he couldn't decide -between the old way and the new. "Your boy," Jane said. - -"The boy lives?" - -"For now he lives. He needs the kind of medical care I can't give him. -The kind of care he can get aboard the exodus ships. Let him go, chief. -Let us take him back. We can save his life." - - * * * * * - -The shaman leaped from the hillock and--for all his bag-of-bones -appearance--alighted athletically beside them. "I heard!" he cackled, -showing a toothless black hole of a mouth. "I heard! A trick to leave -our island. A trick to leave our planet! A trick...." - -"Just the boy then," Jane said. "If you want him to live. But you'll -never know about it. Because if you stay here you'll all be killed." - -"You see, a trick!" protested the shaman. - -The chief shook his head slowly. "Life blood flow from boy. Boy would -have died. She save boy. If she wish, let the boy go with them." - -"But they stay here!" the shaman shrieked. "They must stay. Sacrifice -all to Lord Sun, Lord Sun shrink again. Otherwise--" He showed the -palms of his hands in a hopeless gesture. - -"Bring small boat," the chief said, making up his mind. "The girl goes, -with princeling, to her people." - -But Jane shook her head. "Not alone, I don't. I go with this man here -and with the three soldiers, or I don't go at all. And neither does -your son. We can save his life, chief--but we don't intend to if you--" - -"Tricks! Deceit!" screamed the shaman, jumping up and down. "Kill them! -Kill them all!" - -An uncertain line of spearmen appeared, but the chief lifted his hand -and they remained perfectly still as if with the small motion of his -arm he had somehow frozen them in their tracks. The spearmen seemed -content: they had come forward at the shaman's summons without great -resolution. - -All at once the shaman leaped at Jane. He came so suddenly that she -had time only for a quick look. Still, she had not missed the gleam -of something in his hand and she threw herself sideways as the hand -came down. She heard the chief shout, heard Sid Masters' startled oath -as she fell to the sand with the old medicine man. Something burned -against her shoulder and she knew it was his knife, knew it had pierced -her flesh there. She felt a wave of giddiness, but after that the pain -wasn't so bad. She could see Sid lifting the shaman bodily and flinging -him away across the sand like an empty sack, could see Sid's face, -grave with concern, swim close to her through the suddenly shimmering -range of vision before her eyes. - -"Bleeding pretty bad," Sid said. "Ought to be able to control it with -the pressure point in your neck. Hurt much?" - -Jane shook her head. - -"Here goes then." - -"Wait." Jane pushed his hand away. She could feel the warm wetness of -her blood streaming down across her breast from the shoulder wound. She -turned to the chief: - -"I stopped your son's bleeding," she said calmly. "I saved his life. -Stop my bleeding, chief. Save my life in return." - -The chief looked at her without answering. Then he looked at the -shaman, who had climbed to hands and knees but made no move to get up. - -"Don't do it!" Sid pleaded. "He can't save you and you know it. You'll -bleed to death." - -Jane asked the chief, "You want to help me?" - -"Girl saved princeling's life. I want to help." - -"Then stop the bleeding. I've lost a lot of blood, chief. I'm growing -weak. You have to stop ... the bleeding...." - - * * * * * - -The chief seemed confused. He looked first at the medicine man, then -at Jane, then at the flotilla of exodus ships which even while Jane -spoke was turning and heading out to sea, back to the mainland just -beyond the horizon. He looked at Jane again. He opened his mouth to -speak, but no sound came. Then, finally, in a soft voice he said: -"Your people save my people. Millions of them. Take to new home, -because old home, old world, die. Some stay. Some--us. You come. Final -chance for Mandmoora. Boy hurt and you save him. Man go to ships for -good medicine. Could stay, but come back to help boy. You save boy. -Princeling. I have no faith in your medicine, but he live. He live. -Then you hurt. You bleed. Life blood run out. You bleed. You have -faith, faith in chief of Mandmoora, to heal you. You have much faith." -He raised his voice suddenly, shouting: - -"I can no heal! You die if you do not heal yourself. I can no -heal! Faith? Your faith in me kill you. Faith? If Sun-Lord fail us. -Faith ..." he wailed, a broken man. - -Sid Masters said, "Keep your faith, chief. There are other symbols, -other suns. Your mistake was placing all your faith in one physical -symbol--" - -"Enough," the chief said. "The girl is right. I should save her as she -save princeling. I no can heal! The girl is right. All your people's -threats, all offers, all bribes, all speech and science explains, all, -all fail. The girl alone win. Faith alone no good. Faith and deeds. -Girl show deeds. But I no can heal! I no can heal! Stop bleeding, -Earthman. Heal her." - -Sid looked at Jane. She smiled up at him weakly. She had almost lost -consciousness. She had lost much blood and, like the prince of the -Mandmoora, would need a transfusion when they returned to the mainland -and the final ship of the exodus space-fleet. But they had won, because -the chief said: - -"Girl teach us. Earthgirl. We all go." - -The soldiers gave a wild whoop of joy as Sid rushed down to the surf, -hailed the flotilla. Jane was barely aware of the fleet turning around -to come back for the Mandmoora's final three thousand holdouts. The -whole planet would be evacuated after all, she thought. It was hard to -hold the thought. She was almost delirious with weakness, with lack of -blood. She felt Sid's hand applying pressure to the pulse in the curve -of her neck. - -She heard his words: "Bleeding's stopped...." - -Then, for a long time, there was a gentle rocking moment and a vision, -half-remembered, of the three thousand holdouts splashing out across -the surf toward the rescue flotilla, then, after that, a slow drifting -off toward sleep. - -She knew they would make it, knew not a human being, Earthman or -Mandmooran, would be on Mandmoora when the sun's blowup occurred. She -knew she would not see the blowup from deep-space: she would be aboard -the spaceship in a hospital room. - -She regretted that. It was a once-in-a-lifetime story, the kind of -story a reporter didn't want to miss. But she had seen another story, a -far greater story, the story of the final Mandmooran exodus, the story -of life triumphant in the face of superstition and death. - -She knew that was a far better story. 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H. Thames. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Planet of Doom, by C. H. Thames</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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 <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: Planet of Doom</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: C. H. Thames</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 14, 2021 [eBook #66731]</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 PLANET OF DOOM ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<p>As a galactic reporter Jane Crowley knew<br /> -she had hold of the biggest story of the year;<br /> -thousands of people were soon to die on this—</p> - -<h1>Planet Of Doom</h1> - -<p>By C. H. Thames</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -June 1956<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>Less than an hour after the last spaceship made touchdown on Mandmoora, -Jane Crowley stood before a scowling, head shaking public Information -Officer.</p> - -<p>"My company sent me fifty light years from its nearest base in the -Denebian system, Colonel," Jane said. "I'm sorry, but it's impossible -for me to return to Deneb without my story."</p> - -<p>"This office has issued press releases, my dear Miss Crowley, which—"</p> - -<p>"Press releases!" The way Jane uttered those two words made the -Colonel wince. "I didn't come fifty light years for press releases. -I came...." She watched the Colonel's face and let her voice trail -off. This approach was having absolutely no effect. But Jane Crowley -was a woman, young and quite pretty and it was likely, she thought, -that where the straightforward, man-to-man approach might fail, the -ways of a woman might succeed. "But Colonel," she pouted, then let her -composed face fall apart as if she were going to cry. "But Colonel, my -job depends on this story. My ... my whole career ... you see ..." she -sniffled.</p> - -<p>"There now, Miss Crowley," the Colonel said, looking very -uncomfortable. "There now, miss. Please."</p> - -<p>"Then you'll let me go out there among the Mandmoora?"</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry, miss. Out of the question. Definitely out. We've evacuated -all the Mandmoora who want to go. What remains is a hard core of -Mandmooranian fanatics who refuse to leave their native planet under -any circumstances. They've got an island just off shore here, you see. -They're sun-worshippers. Ironical, isn't it? Sun-worshippers. Their sun -about to go nova on them, boiling all the oceans of this waterworld and -killing every speck of life on Mandmoora, and they're sun-worshippers. -They just won't go. They want to stay. They say we can't make them go -and they're right, we can't. Poor devils. They'll be boiled and broiled -alive, all three thousands of 'em. But this headquarters can't send -men out to their island after them. They'd resist and it would mean -bloodshed, on both sides. We won't have it."</p> - -<p>The Colonel's haggard face brightened, and he went on: "There's your -story, Miss Crowley. Three thousand die-hard sun-worshippers, facing -certain death at the altar of the very deity they adore. File <i>that</i> -story from Deneb, Miss Crowley."</p> - -<p>"It's been filed a hundred times already," Jane said, shaking her head. -"You know it has."</p> - -<p>The Colonel shrugged. "I refuse to authorize your going out to -Mandmoora Island. Be reasonable, miss, can't you? We have evacuated a -hundred million Mandmoorans in history's greatest mass exodus. Three -thousand fanatics don't want out. Three thousand fanatics will broil -with their world, then. That's all."</p> - -<p>"But if they could be led to understand."</p> - -<p>"I thought you wanted a story. A human interest story, wasn't it?"</p> - -<p>"I was only thinking out loud."</p> - -<p>"I've given you the only story you'll get here. Why should your video -service expect more than the others?"</p> - -<p>"No reason, I guess," Jane knew now that the answer was definitely no. -She was hardly listening to the Colonel as he went on. There had to be -another way, somewhere, somehow. It was the story of the century—and -there wasn't another newsman on Mandmoora with a chance to scoop her. -Which also meant that if Jane didn't get the story, the rest of the -civilized galaxy wouldn't, either, except for watered-down public -information releases.</p> - -<p>"... otherwise," the Colonel was saying. "The press people have said -we were more than fair, miss. We let them set up a headquarters beyond -the Mandmooranian sun's eighth planet: our experts said the nova won't -explode that far, you know. Headquarters will be safe there. We've -even agreed to let the last ship out stop at press headquarters for an -interview before it goes subspace for the dash to Deneb. What could be -fairer?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing, I guess," Jane said. "Well, thank you for your time, Colonel."</p> - -<p>"Not at all, young lady." The Colonel touched something on his desk -and a door at the other end of the office opened, irising with a -faint hissing sound. Through it Jane could hear the sounds of office -machinery, think-writers and duplics and a subspace ticker coming in -with the news from the rest of the galaxy.</p> - -<p>A woman, thought Jane. Maybe if I was a man it would have been -different, but they wanted a woman's viewpoint because it's a -heartstring-plucking story. She recalled the Colonel's first -incredulous outburst. "But I can't send a <i>woman</i> out there, Miss -Crowley. A woman!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As she reached the door, impulse became idea and idea came to the -surface for execution. "Thank you very much, Colonel," she said in a -clear, loud voice. "Interstellar News Alliance knew it could count on -you."</p> - -<p>"What's that?" demanded the Colonel in a voice barely audible across -the large room. He was busy now with a mountain of last minute -paperwork and was listening only with one ear, the rest of him already -hard at work.</p> - -<p>"Thanks again, Colonel," Jane said, and stepped through the irised -shutter of a door. She turned to show her best smile to the -sergeant-major at the desk immediately outside the door. "There, -sergeant," she said, smiling. "You see? I told you the Colonel would -give me an unlimited pass."</p> - -<p>"I never would of believed it," the sergeant said, looking at the smile -and daring a glance at the rest of Jane Crowley, which was every bit as -delightful as the pretty way she showed her teeth.</p> - -<p>"An unlimited pass, sergeant. Make one out for me, please."</p> - -<p>The sergeant-major nodded and took a book of forms from a drawer in his -desk. He wrote for a while, then said, "That's C-r-o-w-l-e-y, ma'am?"</p> - -<p>"Right."</p> - -<p>"Any time limit on the pass?"</p> - -<p>"None at all," Jane said, still amazed that her ruse, her show of -elation had actually worked.</p> - -<p>The sergeant-major applied the finishing touches to the pass with an -ink-stamp duplicate of the Colonel's signature and handed the stiff -plastic rectangle to Jane. "There you are, ma'am," he said. "But watch -your step, Miz Crowley. The last ship's blasting off in twenty hours, -with or without the Mandmoorans. Twenty hours, ma'am. So please don't -get lost."</p> - -<p>Jane thanked him, smiled again, and got out of there.</p> - -<p>Five minutes later, the Colonel buzzed for his sergeant-major. "Yes, -sir?" the sergeant asked, poking his head in through the irising door.</p> - -<p>"Well, I see the lady reporter didn't give much trouble after I made it -clear the answer was no. Now, about that Sbogan file. Sbogan, that is -the name?"</p> - -<p>"Yeah, Sbogan. Fomalhautian name. What did you ... did you say, sir?"</p> - -<p>"The Sbogan file should—"</p> - -<p>"No. About the reporter. You told her no? Your answer was no, sir?"</p> - -<p>"Naturally. We couldn't let her put her pretty head in the lion's -mouth."</p> - -<p>"Oh, Lord, sir," the sergeant-major said. "I gave her an unlimited -pass."</p> - -<p>"Sergeant!"</p> - -<p>"She said you had ... sir...."</p> - -<p>"An unlimited pass—sergeant! Send out an alarm for that girl. We're -all right as long as she doesn't leave the mainland. But if she goes to -the Mandmooran Island, where those hold-out sun-worshippers are...."</p> - -<p>"She'll make tracks for there, all right," the sergeant-major predicted.</p> - -<p>"Stop her. Stop her before she gets that far! Because once she crosses -to the island, there isn't a thing we can do about it. You can't tell a -nova to wait, sergeant!"</p> - -<p>"I'll try to stop her, sir."</p> - -<p>"Make it a general alarm, sergeant. You've <i>got</i> to stop her."</p> - -<p>Moments later, Jane Crowley's description was being radio'd to every -martial checkpoint in the city of Northport.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was very hot and sultry on the tarry streets of Northport. It had -been an exotic city, really exotic, Jane thought. You could tell by -the out-of-this world architecture, but oddly—with nothing but the -uniformed figures of the interstellar rescue organization to be seen -on the streets—Northport lost most of its charm. For the charm of any -alien place, of any exotic world, lies in its people. Jane had once -made a broadcast to that effect, and it had been very well received. -It would be nothing though, absolutely nothing, compared to what Jane -almost had in her grasp now. A final interview with the die-hards, with -the Mandmoorans who refused to leave their planet because they had -faith in the sun which would soon, in hardly more than hours, destroy -them.</p> - -<p>The docks were crowded, littered with the worldly belongings of a -few score Mandmoorans who had changed their mind and had paddled -over from the island. A squad of soldiers was busy processing them -and the Mandmoorans, big muscular purple-skinned men with shocks of -stiff lemon-yellow hair and smaller women, brittle-looking women with -strange, wasp-waisted figures, glanced up frequently at the sky. Their -sun, a faintly bluish white star, seemed somehow swollen. It actually -seemed larger to Jane than it had been when she had landed several -hours ago. Probably, she told herself, that's imagination. On the other -hand, the Mandmoorans would certainly have been able to see a change -in solar size by this time. For the Mandmooranian sun had doubled its -apparent size in the past ten days, Jane had been told at the P.I. -office.</p> - -<p>The only result so far was the sweltering heat on Mandmoora. The heat, -though, was not lethal. There had been hot summers before, the die-hard -sun-worshippers had said. So they had told Jane at the P.I.O. The -natives said nothing, could be made to say nothing, about the swollen -appearance of the sun they worshipped.</p> - -<p>In twenty hours their last chance for rescue would be gone. In thirty -hours, Mandmoora's sun would go nova, bursting to a million times its -former luminosity in micro-seconds, sending out a shell of intensely -hot gases which, when it reached Mandmoora, would instantly destroy all -life on the planet. Including three thousand sun-worshippers waiting -devoutly for their deity to prove the interstellar interlopers wrong....</p> - -<p>"Hey, Miss!" someone cried suddenly. It was an Army corporal running -toward her, bulling his way through a knot of Mandmooran refugees. -"You're Jane Crowley, ain't you?" He was only a dozen strides away now, -and shouting. "Because I got orders to...."</p> - -<p>Jane didn't hear the rest of it. She turned and ran down the length -of the deserted quay adjacent to the one strewn with Mandmooran -belongings. She reached the end of the quay and whirled. The corporal -was trotting confidently toward her, in no great hurry now. For she -had trapped herself on the quay. She was very angry with herself. A -fine newshen you are, she thought. First chance you have, you let -yourself get caught. A fine....</p> - -<p>Something gave her a raucous razzing, something out over the water. -She whirled and faced it. A runabout whizzed in across the blue water -toward her. Someone was waving.</p> - -<p>She waved back frantically, suddenly recognizing him. It was Sid -Masters. She had met Sid on the ship which had taken both of them -to Mandmoora. Sid was with the electronics outfit setting up camera -equipment on Mandmoora, equipment which would transmit through subspace -the pictures of a sun going nova seen from the surface of its only -inhabited planet. She had struck up a quick friendship with Sid on the -space-liner.</p> - -<p>Making up her mind suddenly, Jane didn't wait for the running corporal -to reach her. Instead, she turned and jumped off the quay.</p> - -<p>She came up sputtering. The water was tepid, was typical harbor-water, -fouled with gasoline and debris. Masters' gas-turbine driven boat -was very close now. The sound of its motor almost drowned out the -corporal's shouts as Jane treaded water.</p> - -<p>"Going to the island," Masters shouted. "You?"</p> - -<p>"They don't want me to, Sid!"</p> - -<p>He smiled. She couldn't hear all of what he said, but she got the last -part of it. "... want me to, either. Hop in, beautiful."</p> - -<p>There was a splash behind her. Jane turned and saw the corporal break -surface, yelling and waving his arms. She stroked for Sid Masters' -runabout. The electronics technician shouted his encouragement, but -as she got one hand on the gunwale of the idling runabout, Jane felt -something grab and tug at her leg.</p> - -<p>She lashed out with her free leg, churning water. But the corporal -clung grimly to her ankle. Then an old, half-rotted oar appeared -alongside Jane's heel, and with it—guiding it—Sid Masters' arms. The -oar went out over the water and probed and a moment later the corporal -shouted and Jane felt the pressure leave her ankle.</p> - -<p>"Hop aboard and be quick about it," Masters yelled.</p> - -<p>Jane needed no urging. She scrambled ungracefully over the gunwale. -She was dripping wet and thought she looked a mess. But Masters merely -said, "Pleasure to have you aboard, beautiful," and the runabout -roared and headed out across the harbor to the island, to the last -redoubt of the three thousand sun-worshipping Mandmoorans who waited -for a miracle which would not come to save them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Simple," Sid Masters said in answer to Jane's question half an hour -later. "I thought it would be a good idea to set up camera equipment -on the island itself, to show the galaxy the last sun-worshipping -rites of the Mandmoorans—before their god killed them. Maybe it's -heartless, but it's good journalism. Besides, it isn't up to me to get -the Mandmoorans off their island. I'd gladly film their exodus instead, -and first-hand, not with automatic equipment. Anyhow, Colonel, what's -his name at P.I.O. said no."</p> - -<p>"And you didn't take no for an answer?"</p> - -<p>"I didn't take no for an answer. Hell, all I have to do is set up the -equipment so the Mandmoorans don't see it and get off the island. It -shouldn't be hard."</p> - -<p>"I want to get a final impression of the Mandmooran sun-worshippers as -they wait for the end," Jane said. "As you said, Sid, it isn't pretty -but it's good journalism. Sure, I'd rather not get my story and see -them saved—"</p> - -<p>"But if they're going to die you want the story. Right?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," Jane said. Then: "I want to thank you, Sid—"</p> - -<p>He grinned. "You looked so helpless there on the end of the quay. You -were wringing your hands, did you know it?"</p> - -<p>"What a sight that must have been. Sid!" Jane cried abruptly. "Sid! -We're being followed. That boat—"</p> - -<p>"Of course we're being followed. But this runabout's got good speed. -They won't catch us before we reach the island. And once we reach -it, they probably have orders not to land under any circumstances. -They—hey wait a minute! Look behind them."</p> - -<p>At first Jane didn't get it. She looked ahead and saw the green smear -of the sun-worshippers' island, expanding out from the horizon toward -them. They'd be beaching the light-weight, lithium-alloy runabout in a -matter of minutes, she thought. Then, after that....</p> - -<p>"No Jane. I said behind them. Behind the boat following us."</p> - -<p>At first she saw nothing but the dazzling suntrack across the water -back there. Then, dancing on the suntrack as if belonging to it, scores -of silver midges. But a while ago, the single boat pursuing them had -looked like a silver midge.</p> - -<p>"Boats," Jane said.</p> - -<p>"Boats. A whole fleet of them."</p> - -<p>"What can it mean, Sid?"</p> - -<p>"Beats me. I can guess, though. Jane, maybe we're going to be in on the -kind of ending we'd rather see."</p> - -<p>"I don't understand."</p> - -<p>"It's a fleet of evacuation craft, probably. Making a last attempt to -get the Mandmoorans off their island. Maybe they had some word from the -sun-worshipping chief out there, I don't know."</p> - -<p>"Should we wait until they land?"</p> - -<p>"Not on your life," Sid said. "We've broken a law, Jane. They'd take us -into custody until the whole operation was over. We'll beach this boat -like we planned, and then my equipment—"</p> - -<p>"And my pad and pencil," Jane said.</p> - -<p>"—go to work."</p> - -<p>Moments later they could see a throng of the Mandmoorans waiting on -the beach for them, the brilliant purple of their bodies gleaming -metallically against the dead white sands.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Mandmooran chief was a big fellow six and a half feet tall. He was -old: the shock of stiff yellow hair had faded to a corn-silk color, the -purple skin was wrinkle-creased and had lost some of its sheen. But he -carried himself straight and tall and he looked every inch a chieftain.</p> - -<p>"We stay here," he told Sid in English. "Lord Sun no kills worship -people. You tell soldiers?"</p> - -<p>"They're coming," Sid said. "See? We have nothing to do with that."</p> - -<p>"You not with them?"</p> - -<p>"Not us," Sid said.</p> - -<p>"What then you want?"</p> - -<p>Sid looked at Jane, who shrugged. Words and phrases were already -forming in her mind. The sad proud look on the old chief's face. The -gleaming, healthy, royal purple Mandmoorans. The dried, withered -vegetation all around them, scorched by the swollen sun. The angry, -resentful look on some of the Mandmooran faces behind the chief. The -distant wailing chant of the sun-worshipping priests.</p> - -<p>"... cameras," Sid was saying. "As for the lady, she only wants to -talk with you and look around some. All right?"</p> - -<p>"Twice," the chief said slowly, "your soldiers try to trick us. Third -time now."</p> - -<p>Sid shrugged. "We're not soldiers."</p> - -<p>"You have nothing to do with them?"</p> - -<p>"We have nothing to do with them."</p> - -<p>"Third trick make people angry."</p> - -<p>"If there's a third trick, we're no part of it."</p> - -<p>The chief nodded solemnly and turned to face the water. Ahead of -the flotilla, a single runabout was quite close to land now. Jane -recognized the corporal who had chased her out on the quay. With him -were two other soldiers.</p> - -<p>"Halloa!" the corporal shouted. "Hallo, Miz Crowley. Won't do you no -good to try and hide. We got orders to take you back. Mr. Masters with -you, ma'am. You'll come peacefully?"</p> - -<p>"We won't come any way at all," Sid said defiantly. "Not until we're -good and ready."</p> - -<p>The chief suddenly strode forward, to the edge of the water and then -ankle deep in the surf. "Wait," he said, lifting both hands solemnly. -"You and these two—you know one another?"</p> - -<p>"They're Miz Crowley and Mr. Masters," the corporal shouted back.</p> - -<p>"And you know they come here?"</p> - -<p>"Heck, yes," said the corporal. "It's why we came. Following them."</p> - -<p>"Otherwise you no have come?"</p> - -<p>"That's right."</p> - -<p>"Then you go," the chief said in a strong, solemn voice. "Tell others. -Go! You come close, we hurt these two people. You try to land, take us -off—we kill them. We stay here. Our right is to stay. Our Lord Sun -no hurt Mandmoorans. Lord Sun for life and growing of crops, not for -death. You go."</p> - -<p>"You can't keep them for hostages," the corporal shouted across the -water. "You can't do that."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The chief let his right hand fall. A line of spearmen trotted up behind -him and let fly with a fusillade of long-shafted spears. The spears -fell around the military runabout, but none of them touched it.</p> - -<p>"They stay," the chief said, "You take hundred million Mandmoorans off -Mandmoora, we keep two earth people here to see nothing happens to -Lord Sun. Now go!"</p> - -<p>"Sid," Jane said. "Sid, did you hear him? They—they're going to keep -us here, and—Sid, is there any chance the sun won't go nova?"</p> - -<p>Sid shook his head. His face looked suddenly bleak. "No chance at all, -kid. I guess we should have listened."</p> - -<p>"Sid, I'm scared."</p> - -<p>There was a roaring sound as the runabout, instead of retreating, came -bucketing toward the beach. "Come on down to the water!" the corporal -bawled at the top of his voice. "We'll get you!"</p> - -<p>The Chief raised his hand. Another line of spearmen came trotting -forward. "Go back," Sid shouted. "They'll kill you!"</p> - -<p>But the runabout came toward them on the heaving surf. Before the chief -could raise his hand a second time, the corporal stood up in the prow -of the runabout and fired a blaster toward the beach. He had fired it -high and he waited for it to disperse the spearmen. When it did not, -he fired again, lower. The chief lifted his hand and brought it down. -A volley of spears leaped from muscular arms, arching in the sunlight, -dropping toward the runabout....</p> - -<p>The corporal fired again and a figure near the chief slumped to the -sand. Then the runabout, riddled by fifty spears at the water-line, -began to sink.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Take them," the chief said.</p> - -<p>A score of Mandmoorans swarmed out through the surf toward the sinking -boat. Jane watched as they surrounded it and brought the three soldiers -back with them quickly. By then the runabout had gone under, but the -flotilla of rescue craft was now only a few hundred yards offshore and -coming fast.</p> - -<p>"Five hostages," the chief said. "Tell them go."</p> - -<p>Voices shouted back and forth across the water, but Jane saw that the -chief wasn't listening. Instead, he went to the man who had fallen -before the corporal's blaster. He knelt and took the yellow shocked -head on his knee and murmured to it. The young Mandmoora's right arm -had been all but blasted off at the elbow. Blood was gushing and -pumping from severed arteries. The chief raised his head and wailed:</p> - -<p>"Grower, healer, Lord Sun! Save the Princeling of your people. Grower, -healer, Lord Sun!" he chanted, repeating it. "Grower...."</p> - -<p>"Princeling?" Sid said. "The old boy's son, you think?"</p> - -<p>"If they just keep chanting and leave him like that, the poor boy'll -bleed to death. Can't we do something?"</p> - -<p>Just then an amplified voice came across the water toward them, -metallic and somehow unreal. "Masters! Miss Crowley. We'll stay here. -We won't budge until—until it's too late. Until we have to leave. -But we can't come after you. The Mandmoorans would fight. There would -be death on both sides and—I'm sorry, Masters, Miss Crowley. We are -positively forbidden to use force of arms here. You understand?"</p> - -<p>It was a rhetorical question. It did not matter if they understood or -not. The flotilla would wait—hopelessly. The flotilla would leave when -it had to. And the corporal and his companions, along with Sid Masters -and Jane, would be left with the Sun-trusting Mandmoorans.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Mandmooran prince's face was ashen with pain and loss of blood. The -chief cradled his head, and mumbled, and chanted. And the blood pumped -from the severed arteries.</p> - -<p>A ring of Mandmooran guards surrounded Jane, Sid Masters and the three -soldiers, but when Jane walked through the ring, quite close to two -of the spearmen, they did not try to stop her. It was because of the -Mandmooran women, she decided: the Mandmooran women were so small and -fragile-looking that their men would never take the guarding of a woman -seriously.</p> - -<p>Jane went over to where the chief was kneeling by his stricken son. -"Unless you stop the bleeding," she said quietly, "he's going to die. -Don't you know that?"</p> - -<p>"Healer sun stop bleeding. Lord Sun."</p> - -<p>Jane shook her head. "The sun is a slow healer. The sun can't perform -medical miracles. I have no argument with your religion, chief—but we -can save your boy's life if you let us."</p> - -<p>At first Jane thought she had failed. The Chief continued chanting -over his son, not looking at the Earthgirl. Then, slowly, he looked -up. Not at Jane, not immediately at Jane: he let his gaze come to -rest on the Mandmooran sun, faintly bluish and clearly swollen now, -egg-shaped almost as its internal forces gathered themselves for the -final cataclysmic explosion which, in hours, would all but tear the -star apart. Even a fanatic sun-worshipper would know now that something -was wrong with their deity. On the other hand, a fanatic sun-worshipper -might regard the change, Jane realized, as a manifestation of -displeasure. Hadn't all but an infinitesimal fraction of the -Mandmoorans deserted their god? Wasn't that reason enough for the wrath -of the Lord Sun?</p> - -<p>But then the chief looked at Jane. His eyes were sad and old and -suddenly and unexpectedly very wise. He said, "You can help? You can -save his life?"</p> - -<p>"You're not trying," Jane said. "I can try."</p> - -<p>Carefully the chief stood up, making a mound of sand and letting his -son's head rest there. "Then save him," he said finally. "Save him and -you can return to your people."</p> - -<p>A very old Mandmooran, far older than the chief, a skin-puckered, -limping, hunch-backed, rheumy-eyed, gray-skinned Mandmooran, approached -the chief and jabbered excitedly in their own language. The chief -jabbered back at him and the old man raised his voice. The chief -shouted him down. Shrugging but smiling, the old man wandered off to a -hillock of sand, threw his arms up at the Lord Sun, and began a weird, -wailing chant.</p> - -<p>"Shaman say," the chief told Jane, "yours is bad medicine."</p> - -<p>Jane didn't answer. She went down on one knee near the injured prince. -It almost made her ill to stare at his torn, mangled arm. She was no -nurse. She knew first aid, but that was all. Still, anything was better -than the fatalistic Mandmooran attitude.</p> - -<p>"Shaman say," the chief went on, "we offer sacrifice to wrath of Lord -Sun. For long time our people no offer sacrifice in human form. Human -sacrifice now, at moment of trial, work. So say shaman."</p> - -<p>Turning, the chief shouted something. Three spearmen stalked within the -circle around the Earthmen and came out with the uniformed figure of -the corporal. The ancient shaman jabbered excitedly, but the chief did -not look happy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sid Masters came brawling through the ring of spearmen, fighting clear -with flailing arms and legs. "Wait a minute, chief!" he cried. "Who's -running the show round here, you or that magician?"</p> - -<p>The shaman jabbered, but the chief silenced him with a gesture. "I am -chief of the Mandmoora," he said slowly.</p> - -<p>"The girl is trying to save your son's life. Is that the thanks we -get—what you're going to do with the corporal?"</p> - -<p>The chief was silent for a few moments, meditating. Then: "Let him go. -Until the girl has succeeded—or failed."</p> - -<p>The shaman jabbered again. He didn't like it but he returned, -grumbling, to his hillock. Jane was already going to work on the -stricken prince. First she tore a strip from her jumper and used it -to bind the prince's upper arm. The bleeding was first. She had to -stop the bleeding. Twisting a pencil in the knotted tourniquet, she -tightened it until the blood had stopped flowing. She felt anything but -calm. She actually felt queasy. But somehow her fingers worked quickly -and surely and before long a few score of the Mandmoorans came to watch.</p> - -<p>"He's lost an awful lot of blood," Jane told Sid Masters. "I've stopped -the bleeding now, but he needs a transfusion if he's going to have a -real chance. And look at the wound, will you? It's dirty. He needs -antibiotics and he needs them fast."</p> - -<p>"On the flotilla out there?" Sid asked. "They ought to have -antibiotics."</p> - -<p>"Get them then," Jane said, and turned to the chief. "My companion -needs strong medicine from the boats which wait."</p> - -<p>"Stay. All stay."</p> - -<p>"Then your son dies."</p> - -<p>The chief looked at her. He was very quiet. The shaman wailed louder -now. "Go," said the chief, and Sid Masters went splashing out into the -water.</p> - -<p>Five minutes later, swimming hard, he returned to the beach. He -produced a water-proof packet of antibiotic powders and Jane opened -it and let the powders sift down on the prince's wound. "Listen," -Sid whispered. "We're in trouble, all right. They can't be sure when -the sun is going to nova, you see? They figure it ought to be about -seventeen hours, but nobody's going to make book with his life. They're -giving us fifteen minutes. Then they're pulling out. They're sorry, -but they're pulling out. You can't blame them, Jane, especially since -interstellar law won't permit them the use of force."</p> - -<p>"But you came back, Sid," Jane said.</p> - -<p>"We're trying to help the boy. Besides, I couldn't leave you holding -the bag like this—alone with those soldiers and three thousand -fanatic Mandmoorans."</p> - -<p>Jane smiled at him. There was nothing else she could offer him -now. Their deaths seemed almost a certainty. They would be—had to -be—deserted. They would be left to the Mandmoora—and the novaing sun.</p> - -<p>"Is the boy going to live?" Sid asked.</p> - -<p>"For a while. I've done all that first aid can do. The bleeding's -stopped. The antibiotics will take care of any possibility of -infection. But he's lost blood. If he doesn't get a transfusion soon, -I'm afraid he won't pull through."</p> - -<p>"Then tell the chief."</p> - -<p>Jane nodded, and found the chief near the shaman's hillock, gazing on -his medicine man with a troubled expression as if he couldn't decide -between the old way and the new. "Your boy," Jane said.</p> - -<p>"The boy lives?"</p> - -<p>"For now he lives. He needs the kind of medical care I can't give him. -The kind of care he can get aboard the exodus ships. Let him go, chief. -Let us take him back. We can save his life."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The shaman leaped from the hillock and—for all his bag-of-bones -appearance—alighted athletically beside them. "I heard!" he cackled, -showing a toothless black hole of a mouth. "I heard! A trick to leave -our island. A trick to leave our planet! A trick...."</p> - -<p>"Just the boy then," Jane said. "If you want him to live. But you'll -never know about it. Because if you stay here you'll all be killed."</p> - -<p>"You see, a trick!" protested the shaman.</p> - -<p>The chief shook his head slowly. "Life blood flow from boy. Boy would -have died. She save boy. If she wish, let the boy go with them."</p> - -<p>"But they stay here!" the shaman shrieked. "They must stay. Sacrifice -all to Lord Sun, Lord Sun shrink again. Otherwise—" He showed the -palms of his hands in a hopeless gesture.</p> - -<p>"Bring small boat," the chief said, making up his mind. "The girl goes, -with princeling, to her people."</p> - -<p>But Jane shook her head. "Not alone, I don't. I go with this man here -and with the three soldiers, or I don't go at all. And neither does -your son. We can save his life, chief—but we don't intend to if you—"</p> - -<p>"Tricks! Deceit!" screamed the shaman, jumping up and down. "Kill them! -Kill them all!"</p> - -<p>An uncertain line of spearmen appeared, but the chief lifted his hand -and they remained perfectly still as if with the small motion of his -arm he had somehow frozen them in their tracks. The spearmen seemed -content: they had come forward at the shaman's summons without great -resolution.</p> - -<p>All at once the shaman leaped at Jane. He came so suddenly that she -had time only for a quick look. Still, she had not missed the gleam -of something in his hand and she threw herself sideways as the hand -came down. She heard the chief shout, heard Sid Masters' startled oath -as she fell to the sand with the old medicine man. Something burned -against her shoulder and she knew it was his knife, knew it had pierced -her flesh there. She felt a wave of giddiness, but after that the pain -wasn't so bad. She could see Sid lifting the shaman bodily and flinging -him away across the sand like an empty sack, could see Sid's face, -grave with concern, swim close to her through the suddenly shimmering -range of vision before her eyes.</p> - -<p>"Bleeding pretty bad," Sid said. "Ought to be able to control it with -the pressure point in your neck. Hurt much?"</p> - -<p>Jane shook her head.</p> - -<p>"Here goes then."</p> - -<p>"Wait." Jane pushed his hand away. She could feel the warm wetness of -her blood streaming down across her breast from the shoulder wound. She -turned to the chief:</p> - -<p>"I stopped your son's bleeding," she said calmly. "I saved his life. -Stop my bleeding, chief. Save my life in return."</p> - -<p>The chief looked at her without answering. Then he looked at the -shaman, who had climbed to hands and knees but made no move to get up.</p> - -<p>"Don't do it!" Sid pleaded. "He can't save you and you know it. You'll -bleed to death."</p> - -<p>Jane asked the chief, "You want to help me?"</p> - -<p>"Girl saved princeling's life. I want to help."</p> - -<p>"Then stop the bleeding. I've lost a lot of blood, chief. I'm growing -weak. You have to stop ... the bleeding...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The chief seemed confused. He looked first at the medicine man, then -at Jane, then at the flotilla of exodus ships which even while Jane -spoke was turning and heading out to sea, back to the mainland just -beyond the horizon. He looked at Jane again. He opened his mouth to -speak, but no sound came. Then, finally, in a soft voice he said: -"Your people save my people. Millions of them. Take to new home, -because old home, old world, die. Some stay. Some—us. You come. Final -chance for Mandmoora. Boy hurt and you save him. Man go to ships for -good medicine. Could stay, but come back to help boy. You save boy. -Princeling. I have no faith in your medicine, but he live. He live. -Then you hurt. You bleed. Life blood run out. You bleed. You have -faith, faith in chief of Mandmoora, to heal you. You have much faith." -He raised his voice suddenly, shouting:</p> - -<p>"I can no heal! You die if you do not heal yourself. I can no -heal! Faith? Your faith in me kill you. Faith? If Sun-Lord fail us. -Faith ..." he wailed, a broken man.</p> - -<p>Sid Masters said, "Keep your faith, chief. There are other symbols, -other suns. Your mistake was placing all your faith in one physical -symbol—"</p> - -<p>"Enough," the chief said. "The girl is right. I should save her as she -save princeling. I no can heal! The girl is right. All your people's -threats, all offers, all bribes, all speech and science explains, all, -all fail. The girl alone win. Faith alone no good. Faith and deeds. -Girl show deeds. But I no can heal! I no can heal! Stop bleeding, -Earthman. Heal her."</p> - -<p>Sid looked at Jane. She smiled up at him weakly. She had almost lost -consciousness. She had lost much blood and, like the prince of the -Mandmoora, would need a transfusion when they returned to the mainland -and the final ship of the exodus space-fleet. But they had won, because -the chief said:</p> - -<p>"Girl teach us. Earthgirl. We all go."</p> - -<p>The soldiers gave a wild whoop of joy as Sid rushed down to the surf, -hailed the flotilla. Jane was barely aware of the fleet turning around -to come back for the Mandmoora's final three thousand holdouts. The -whole planet would be evacuated after all, she thought. It was hard to -hold the thought. She was almost delirious with weakness, with lack of -blood. She felt Sid's hand applying pressure to the pulse in the curve -of her neck.</p> - -<p>She heard his words: "Bleeding's stopped...."</p> - -<p>Then, for a long time, there was a gentle rocking moment and a vision, -half-remembered, of the three thousand holdouts splashing out across -the surf toward the rescue flotilla, then, after that, a slow drifting -off toward sleep.</p> - -<p>She knew they would make it, knew not a human being, Earthman or -Mandmooran, would be on Mandmoora when the sun's blowup occurred. She -knew she would not see the blowup from deep-space: she would be aboard -the spaceship in a hospital room.</p> - -<p>She regretted that. It was a once-in-a-lifetime story, the kind of -story a reporter didn't want to miss. But she had seen another story, a -far greater story, the story of the final Mandmooran exodus, the story -of life triumphant in the face of superstition and death.</p> - -<p>She knew that was a far better story. 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