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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..6020919 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67323 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67323) diff --git a/old/67323-0.txt b/old/67323-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 43d57dc..0000000 --- a/old/67323-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1251 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Best of Fences, by Randall Garrett - -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 Best of Fences - -Author: Randall Garrett - -Release Date: February 5, 2022 [eBook #67323] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST OF FENCES *** - - - - - - The Best of Fences - - By RANDALL GARRETT - - _It was a race between man and alien to - rule the stars. Scientifically, the aliens - were decades ahead--but their real - advantage was their incredible elusiveness!_ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Infinity Science Fiction, February 1956. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Romm Parmay stepped into the Interstellar Communications Central and -eased the door shut behind him. - -Nobody paid much attention to him; the five hundred ICC men at the -boards were talking in quiet, well-modulated voices that filled the -room with a fluctuating murmur of unintelligible sound. - -At Number One board, Kerrman was staring moodily at the dead screen, -blowing clouds of cigarette smoke at the control panel and watching the -smoke writhe and flow down around the pilot lights and switch plates. -Parmay walked across the room quietly, and stopped a few feet behind -Kerrman. - -"Boo!" - -Kerrman jerked, inhaled a cloud of smoke, coughed, and turned around, -glaring. - -"Romm! Dammit, if you weren't my boss, I'd kick you where it would do -the most good!" - -Parmay turned solemnly, presenting his gluteal region for assault. - -"Go ahead," he said sorrowfully, "I'm not the boss any more." - -"All right, you're asking--_what? What did you say?_" - -Parmay turned back to face Kerrman. The grin on his face threatened to -break into laughter. - -"Let you be the first to congratulate me. You are gazing at the Chief -of Psychological Contact." - -"Contact!" Kerrman grinned back. "You mean you're going out with the -fleet?" - -"Right. They just told me. I've got to get myself a group together, -one for each hypersee ship. So far, I am the head cheese of a totally -nonexistent group; I'm nobody's boss." - -"Need a good assistant?" Kerrman asked hopefully. - -"No, I need a good contact here. You've got my job now, and more. There -isn't room on a ship to carry a complete psych analyzer, much less a -synthesizer, so, for anything I dig up, you'll have to do most of the -math." - -"Good enough. I have--" Kerrman stopped suddenly and looked at his -watch. "Wow! Almost talked too long. There's an Ancestor due in five -minutes." - -He sat down again at the board, cutting in the instruments. A shadow -pointer moved slowly up a dial, then stopped. - -"Not early, at any rate," he commented. - -Better than four hundred light years away, a hypersee communicator -fired out its carrier; at vast multiples of the velocity of light, -that disturbance radiated in all directions through space. Less than -a thousandth of a second after leaving its origin, the carrier was -nudging the receptors on Earth. - -On Kerrman's panel the shadow pointer began a smoothly oscillating -dance. Kerrman touched three switch plates in swift succession. A voice -came from the speaker. - -"Expedition Seven Nine Six calling Earth. Seven Nine Six calling Earth. -Come in, Earth." - -The accent was odd, and most people would have had trouble -understanding it, but Kerrman was used to handling the changes that had -taken place in the language in four centuries. - -"Communications Central, Earth," he replied. "We're in, Seven Nine Six." - -"Seven Nine Six in," said the speaker definitely. "We've been here -twenty-four hours. How long have we been gone?" - -"You're four minutes late; not bad correlation at all. You left Earth -four hundred thirteen years, seventy-one days, two hours, thirty -seconds as of now." He touched a button to produce a _ting!_ "What's -your subjective time?" - -"Eleven years, sixty-two days, twelve hours, five minutes even as of -now." A similar sound came from the speaker. - -Kerrman jabbed the figures into the MAC for subjective-objective time -correlation. - -"Any sign of the enemy?" he asked next. - -"None. They haven't landed here. We've scouted the planet carefully." - -Romm Parmay, standing beside Kerrman, shook his head resignedly. No -sign of them. There never was. - - * * * * * - -Kerrman's next job was pure psychology. That was the reason for -assigning a psych engineer to the first receiver. Each call from a ship -coming out of near-light drive was picked up by this board. - -Kerrman glanced at the dossier on the desk before him; the -four-century-old dossier that contained complete information on -Expedition 796 as she had been when she left Earth. - -"Am I speaking to Commander Loris Cay?" - -"No. He passed away seven years ago, subjective time. I am Lieutenant -William Bowman, commanding." - -"I'm sorry to hear that, Lieutenant." Kerrman looked at the blank -screen and wished that hypersee vision transmission had been in -existence when Expedition 796 was launched. It was easier to judge a -man's psych reaction by his face than by his voice alone. - -"Lieutenant, can you understand me all right? I've had a chance to -study your pronunciation, but how does mine sound to you?" - -The lieutenant admitted it was odd but perfectly clear. - -"Good. Then I'll give you a brief synopsis of the history of the past -four hundred years. - -"When you left the only hint we had that another race was colonizing -the galaxy was the sounds, which we assumed to be speech, that came -over certain frequencies of the hypersee band. Since then, we have -perfected vision transmission; we can see them now. And they're not -pretty to look at. - -"We still have no way of knowing where a hypersee wave is coming from; -they are non-directional, at least insofar as we have been able to -discover, so we still don't know from which direction the enemy is -approaching. - -"We haven't been able to correlate their vision with their voice -transmission, so we still don't have any key to their language. -Luckily, we're fairly sure that they don't have any key to ours, either. - -"A little over a century ago, we detected something else on the -hypersee band. It sounded like a weird sort of static; a whining sort -of thing. The only source that could put out that kind of disturbance -was found to be material objects traveling faster than the velocity of -light. - -"That gave us our first clue--the first hint that hypersee ships could -be built. We figured that if the aliens had them, we could get them, -too. - -"It took better than thirty years, but we've got it now. Our hypersee -fleet has been consolidating the colonies for two hundred light years -out, and we're constantly expanding. - -"Within the next year, we'll be able to ship you supplies and material, -which will speed up your colonization by about fifty years. You'll -have a going civilization there in your lifetime instead of the three -generations that the planners originally estimated. - -"These are the major developments. Any questions, Lieutenant?" - -There were questions, of course, plenty of them, but Parmay didn't pay -much attention to them. Those pioneers the ICC jokingly called the -Ancestors were time travelers in a very real sense of the word. They -came out of near-light drive to find that the rest of the universe had -passed them up; they were anachronisms. - -It hadn't been too bad at first; they were not too far displaced from -their own time, those who had first reported in, centuries ago. - -But now they found that their speech was old-fashioned and their -beautiful new ships were completely out-moded. They could not be told -immediately that the new hypersee ships were transporting colonists to -the stars faster than the old near-light ships were coming out of the -fitzgerald. They could not be told that they had gone out in vain. - -A psych engineer had to be careful in telling them what had happened. -The old ships had served their purpose, of course; without them, the -race of man would not be nearly as far flung through the stars as it -was now. But it would be hard to convince the Ancestors that they were -still performing a useful function--unless a psych engineer told them -so. - - * * * * * - -Kerrman had assigned 796 a report schedule and had cut the connection. -He looked up at Parmay. - -"If I'm the boss now, I can knock off any time I please. There won't -be another Ancestor for three days; Eight-Oh-Two is due then. As soon -as I get all the dope on this one correlated, I'd like to talk to you. -Where're you headed now?" - -Parmay grinned. "I'm going to tell Alina. I want to watch her blow her -stack. I'll see you at my place as soon as you quit. Okay?" - -"Good enough. Don't shock your everlovin' too much." - -"_Hah!_" Parmay _hah'd_. "That woman is about as shockproof as they -come." - -Parmay left communications and took a drop down sixty-three levels to -the Hypersee Physics section. Alina's lab was deadly silent when he -opened the door. The four technicians under her were watching their -instruments and ignoring the door. - -Parmay resisted the impulse to pull the same gag on his wife that he -had pulled on Kerrman. It might ruin an expensive research project. - -Alina Starrnel's blonde, closely-cropped head was bent over an array -of instruments that meant almost nothing to her husband. She moved her -hand over a series of switch plates and looked up at the screen facing -her. - -The un-normal face of an alien stared out at her with its blank eyes. -The fronds on the face flickered gently. - -Parmay watched for the better part of ten minutes as the face blurred, -shifted, and underwent other strange transformations beneath Alina's -manipulations of the controls. Her technicians spoke softly now and -then, making small adjustments in the instruments they were controlling. - -Suddenly Alina slapped at the switch plates. The alien face in the -screen had faded out. "Damn!" she said softly. - -She turned to the four technicians. "Get as much out of that as you -can, though I'm pretty sure we've lost another round." - -"_Bong!_" said Parmay. "Round over." - -"Romm!" Alina turned, seeing him for the first time. "What are you -doing here?" - -"Got bored. Decided I needed a kiss." - -"Well, come get it." - -He did. - -"Now," she said, "the truth. You don't come wandering down here at this -time of day to neck. Out with it." - -"I came to take you to lunch." - -"At this hour? I don't usually take off this early." - -"My darling Alina, I have something to tell you, and I am sure that -you'll need something in your stomach to brace you when I tell it." -Alina put her palms to her temples and looked at the ceiling. - -"Oh, _no_! This is what comes of being a psych engineer! He comes in -and makes a remark like that because he knows damned good and well that -I would drop anything to find out what he's being so mysterious about!" -She dropped her hands and looked back at Romm. "All right," she snarled -in mock viciousness, "I'll come. But you can't get away with this -forever!" - -The Colonization Program Building filled better than a cubic mile of -the city's space, housing every function of the operation that was -taking man to the stars, trying to get the race of man there before the -aliens beat them to it. The lift shaft took Parmay and his wife up to -the top level, where the apartments and restaurants were. There, they -could look out through the broad windows at the rolling meadows and -forest that covered the city beneath. - -They sat down in a booth in the main dining room and dialed a menu. - -"Now, bub," said Alina impatiently, "do I have to wait for food, or do -you talk now?" - -"I talk now. Do you know the present Chief of Psychological Contact?" - -Alina lifted an eyebrow. "No. I never even heard of the department. -What is it? Top secret, or something?" - -"Not particularly. I'm it." - -"That's nice." - -Parmay looked at the tips of his fingers. "Nice? Oh, yes. And on the -same scale, S Doradus is a comfortable warm star." - -"Oh?" Alina lifted both eyebrows this time. "Why did they fire you from -your old job? Did you fluff up?" - -Parmay glowered. "Do you want to listen to me or not? If you're bored, -you can quit paying attention." - -Alina's laughter broke out into the open. "But you'll go on talking -just the same!" - -Parmay's laughter joined hers. "All right, vixen, go ahead and use -your psychological torture methods. Just be glad that I don't use some -of the refinements on you. If I were a research man instead of an -engineer, I'd probably use you as a project." - -"Brute! Shut up and eat!" - -Through the meal, Parmay explained the new job. - -"--so I'll have to pick a good crew to do the job right," he finished. - -"You sound as though you're glad to be rid of the old position. Why?" -Alina asked, offering a cigarette. - -Parmay dragged it into light before answering. - -"In a way, I am. I'm tired of telling new colonists bad news. I'm sick -of feeding Ancestors half-truths. How would you like to tell a hundred -thousand people, over a span of eighty years, that things are terrible, -and tell them in such a way that they will think things are fine?" - -Alina frowned. "Is it as bad as all that? Just because we've left them -behind? Weren't they prepared for that when they left? They should know -that Earth would have changed in all that time, that we would be ahead -of them. Why should they be so shocked to come out of the fitzgerald -and find that it's so?" - -Parmay shook his head. "It's not that, honey. I have to tell them just -the opposite. Look--do you realize that I have to tell them that we are -losing the race with the aliens? - -"I have to tell them that we have invented hypersee vision -transmission--and the aliens had it first. I have to tell them that we -have had hypersee ships for seventy years and the aliens have had them -for twice that long. - -"I have to tell them that the aliens have made a great deal of -progress, and that we have lagged pitifully behind in copying them. -Have we done anything on our own? No." - -Alina closed her eyes. "God, what pessimism. Gimme 'nother cigarette; -mine went out." - -Parmay handed her a cigarette. "What do you mean: 'pessimism'? What -_have_ we done?" - -His wife held up a hand and began counting off fingers. - -"One: Increase in the standard of living. The five-hour work week. - -"Two: If and when it comes to a pitched battle between us and the -aliens, we have the ionic disruptor. I can guarantee that no known -conductor can stand up against it. And--" - -Parmay waved her down. "Cut. That's just another problem to hand to the -Ancestors. We have increased our own personal comforts; what does that -mean to a group of people who are hacking out a new civilization on -some godforsaken planet a couple of hundred light years from home? - -"And how do you know we're invincible? The ionic disruptor -disintegrates all and any metals or alloys we know of. But isn't it -possible that the aliens have some alloy we don't have?" - -"You find me a non-conducting metal," Alina said positively, "and I'll -admit that the disruptor might fail against it." - -"I repeat, my dear, how do you know we're invincible?" - -Alina lifted the eyebrow again, a habit that irritated Parmay because -he couldn't do it. "I don't know that we're invincible, and you know -it," she answered, ignoring syntax. "But I hardly think you can say we -haven't done anything." - -"You think not?" grinned Parmay, "Listen: 'We haven't done anything.'" - -Alina said nothing; she just looked at him. - -"You look," said Parmay, "as though you loved me." - -"You act as though you were analyzing me. Put that slipdisc back in its -case, chum; I'll not have you pulling psychostatistics on me." - -Parmay spread both palms. "Look, ma, no analyzer. I'm innocent." - - * * * * * - -Both man and the aliens were spreading inexorably. Neither knew, or -could know, the aim, intention, or location of the other. Each knew -that the other was spreading. Each was determined that the other should -not be ahead in claiming the galaxy. - -And each was determined that his own race, and his alone, should rule -the stars. - -Neither, seemingly, knew much about the other. It had become a battle -of technology; a battle in which man was lagging behind. The psych -engineers who told the outpost stars that man was catching up to the -aliens were propagandizing in their teeth. - -The enemy was ahead; the enemy was too damned far ahead. - -So man fought doggedly on, hanging by his teeth, making each day, each -second, count. - -The Psychontact Division built up month by month as Parmay worked to -get the right men into the right positions. - -Specifically, Psychontact had the job of co-ordinating the colonies -into a working whole, thus hoping to insure that the whole would be -greater--and stronger--than the sum of its parts. - -"Colonies! Colonies!" blazed Parmay, one morning. "You'd think we were -bacteriological cultures!" - -"Well," answered Alina, "of course we aren't." - -"Well of course we _are_!" Parmay snapped back, "We're trying to -spread, disease-like, over the galaxy in order to counteract the -effects of another type of organism which is trying to do the same." - -Alina was putting some of his things into a travelcase, and she went -right on shoving them in as she answered. - -"Romm, why does the alien problem bother you? You're getting to be a -fanatic on the subject, and it's not your problem at all. Why don't you -let Xenology do its job and you do yours?" - -Parmay grabbed the travelcase as Alina closed it. He smiled -nonchalantly. "Honey chile, I am not a fanatic; I just have to have -something to yell about. Relieves tension and all that. Remind me to -give you a lesson some time." - -"But--" - -"Shaddup. Come here." - -When Alina started asking too many questions, Parmay didn't require a -complete detailed analysis of his wife to know that she was worried -about him; and he didn't need to run a complete synthesis to know what -to do. - -Twenty minutes later, the phone chimed. - -"Damn!" Parmay blistered. He kissed Alina once more, then answered. - -Lon Tallen, commander of the HC-36, greeted him from the screen. "Romm, -we've installed all your equipment; we'll leave in two hours, but I'd -like to have you aboard in about an hour. Can do?" - -"Can. See you." Parmay cut off and grinned at Alina. "Hear that? A -whole hour." - - * * * * * - -An hour later, he was aboard the Thirty-six, checking the instruments -he had had installed. But he was only checking them with half a mind; -the other half was on something Alina had said. - -Fanatic? Possibly. After living with a threat that hadn't materialized -in fifty decades, most of the human race viewed the alien threat with -apathy. A man worked to prevent their spread--or rather to increase the -spread of genus Homo--but after all, nothing had happened so far, had -it? _Peace in our time._ - -The trouble was, it took a psych man to realize the effect that losing -the race would have on the people of Earth, and the human beings that -Earth had scattered to the stars. And the farther Man spread, the worse -that shock would be. - -Parmay knew what it would be like, and Parmay didn't like it. - -So his wife called him a fanatic. Well, perhaps he was, but he still -didn't intend to let the race down by letting the aliens get too far -ahead. Somewhere in the seven hundred million cubic light years that -Man owned there must be traces of the alien, and Parmay was going to -find them if he could. - -The Thirty-six lifted herself off Earth only a shade less than an hour -after Romm Parmay came aboard. Once in free fall beyond the moon, her -nose was aimed at the approximate area of her destination: D 38°40', -RA 17h-4m. Then, gently and easily, the Hypersee Ship-36 slid out of -normal space-time. - -Commander Tallen was watching a communicator screen when Parmay entered -the Main Control Salon. - -Parmay groaned in mock despair. "Every time I walk into a place where -there's a communicator, somebody's got their eyes glued to it. Why?" - -Tallen turned. "I like to watch Junior, here. He scares me." - -The face of an alien squirmed nastily on the plate. - -"Why watch him, then?" - -"I guess I'm like the little boy who banged his head against the wall -because it felt so good when he stopped." - -"Really?" - -Tallen laughed. "No, not really. I keep watching because I keep hoping -I'll run across something that will give me a clue about them. I know -experts have tried and failed, but I like to think that they might have -been too close to the trees to see the forest, if you know what I mean." - -"I'm glad," said Parmay frankly, "that someone besides me worries about -them." - -"Smoke?" asked Tallen, holding out his case. - -"Thanks, no." - -Tallen took one himself, then: "I understand your wife is working with -hypersee." - -Parmay nodded. - -"Did you ever ask her why we can't get a line on the aliens' location?" - -"Sure. And I get the same answer I'd get if I'd asked you: 'I don't -know.' Hypersee waves aren't directional. They seem to ignore normal -space-time and the matter and energy in it. They probably aren't -instantaneous, but they're so close to it that trying to measure their -rate of propagation at ordinary interstellar distances is as futile as -Galileo's experiment with the lanterns on the mountain-tops. Or was -that Torricelli? Anyway, we don't have any way of knowing where they -are or how far away." - -Tallen looked back at the alien on the screen. "Then Junior, here, -might be on the other side of the galaxy, as far as we know?" - -"Right. Or M-33 in Andromeda. Or it's possible that they died out a -thousand years ago, having lived at some spot in the universe so remote -that even the hypersee hasn't reached us till now." - -Tallen looked incredulous. "Then why are we worrying, if the damned -things might not be anywhere around? Just on the off chance that they -_might_ be?" - -Parmay shook his head. "Not exactly. We don't know anything from a -strictly physical point of view, true; but we have done some work on -the psychological side. We know, for instance, that they have seen our -faces and heard our voices, just as you and I can watch Junior. We know -this from the basic reactions of sentient creatures to that type of -stimulus. They are aware of our existence. That rules out their being -too far. - -"We've been working to get ahead of them for five hundred years. If -they're on the other side of the galaxy, we have another five hundred -years before we contact them; if they're in one of the nearer galaxies, -it will be another two thousand years. - -"But we'll contact them eventually, and it had better be on even -terms." - -Tallen examined the glowing end of his cigarette as though he were -appraising a piece of art. "Too bad there isn't a doppler in hypersee; -if the drive could be located, it would make it easy." He looked up at -Parmay. "Do you know why we take so long to get to Therbis? Because -of the stops. Look here." He picked up a card from the desk. "I use a -table of random numbers. Every time we pass a star whose number is in -the schedule chosen, we have to stop to see if there is any modulated -electromagnetic radiation in the system. If there is, we've found the -enemy." - -"And if there isn't?" - -"Then we haven't found him. And I get tired of sitting for eight hours -while the communications boys mess around looking for something that -isn't there." He spread his hands. "That's life. We look all over the -galaxy for vibrations we can locate but can't find, and we find all -kinds of communications we can't locate. I think I'll stick my nose in -my ear and blow my brains out." - -Parmay grinned. "Do me a favor; wait till we get to Therbis. That -colony is scarcely twenty years old, and they might be worried if -their contacts with the rest of civilization go around splattering -their cerebrum over the insides of their own ships." - - * * * * * - -Seven times during the next few days, the HC-36 approached a star and -listened for electromagnetic disturbances in space. - -Seven times, they got nothing but normal static. - -Then came Therbis. - -Someone once defined eternity as the time required for everything -to happen once. If you toss a coin enough times, it will eventually -land on edge; if you shuffle a deck of cards enough times, they will -eventually deal out in any predetermined order. And, by the inherently -unprovable laws of probabilities, if you watch a glass of water long -enough, all the high-velocity molecules will congregate in one place -and boil off, leaving the remainder of the water frozen solid. You -may have to wait some ten to the twentieth years, or it may happen -tomorrow. But, however improbable, each of them _can_ happen. - -Take a spaceship. In order for one spaceship to spot another, via -radar, they must be within a million or so miles of each other and -have low velocities relative to each other. An Earth vessel might -never see another Earth vessel in space unless they had arranged it -beforehand. And arranging things beforehand is stacking the deck, a -reversal of normal entropy that only intelligent beings can bring about. - -The Thirty-six approached the Therbis sun at something less than a -thousand miles per second, the actual difference in velocity between -that sun and Sol. Therbis itself was the fourth planet of the system; -cold and bleak. It was somewhat bigger than Terra, with plenty of water -and a high percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so the -greenhouse effect kept it warm enough for human beings to colonize the -island chains that surrounded the equatorial belt. - -The HC-36 was braking in when the odds-against coincidence happened. -Near planet six, which just happened to be at its nearest approach to -Therbis, a spaceship came into range of the instruments of the HC-36. -At first it was thought to be a meteor; that was what the instruments -were meant to look for, and that's what they expected. - -But no meteor is a smooth prolate spheroid, like a football with -smoothly rounded ends. And no Earth ship was ever shaped like that, -either. - -It was visible on the plates of the HC-36 only a few seconds--then it -vanished. - -Orders were already snapping over the robot control system as Parmay -charged for the main salon. He had heard the alarm and came running. - -Tallen was slapping his hands over switch plates with lightning -movements of his wrists. "Alien ship!" he shouted. "As soon as our -radar touched her, she hit hypersee. That was about thirty-five seconds -before our own equipment registered the echo, so she's had better than -a minute to arrange herself nicely to blast us!" - -"Won't she have to come out of hypersee to do it?" - -"Sure, but where?" - -"I'd--" - -He was cut off by a hum of power from Fire Control; at the same -instant, he saw the football shape of the alien on the screen. It was -less than eight miles away. - -The Earthship's beam blazed momentarily on the alien vessel, then -vanished. The alien dodged suddenly ahead, and something flickered -on her side. All hell broke loose in the Thirty-six. From the engine -section came a faint thudding vibration of overload switches cutting -out. The ship shivered and hiccoughed like a drink-deprived alcoholic. - -Again Fire Control beamed out, and again the alien ship flared. But -there was no answering blast. - -Parmay, shaken, watched the weird battle on the screen. Behind -the enemy ship loomed the vast bulk of planet six, a gigantic -ammonia-methane globe, a Jovian monstrosity that outlined the darker -form of the alien ship. - -Slowly, the enemy vessel began to shrink; it was falling toward the -giant planet. - -"Her drive's out!" Tallen shouted gleefully. - -"So is ours!" snapped a voice from the speaker above the panel. - -"Are we falling?" - -"No, it's the hypersee that's out. The planetary drive is perfect. The -hypersee is burned all to hell. No breach in the hull." - -"Get us orbited to Therbis," Tallen ordered. "What damage to the alien -ship?" - -Fire Control answered. "The ionic disruptor didn't do as much damage as -we thought. We weakened their hull, but we didn't open it." - -"Okay," Tallen said, "keep an eye on the 'scope. Compute the orbit of -the ship and watch it. If it shifts off the computed fall path, we'll -hit it again." - -Parmay grabbed Tallen's shoulder. - -"Did all this get on tape?" - -"Sure. Why?" - -Parmay pushed Tallen aside and headed for the communicator. - - * * * * * - -The news hit Earth like a slug in the teeth. For the second time in -half a millennium the human race was brought face to face with the fact -that it was not the only intelligence in the galaxy, much less in the -whole universe. - -The instant the news came, a fleet of armed ships was given its orders, -and within six hours they were squirting through hyperspace toward -Therbis. - -Meanwhile, the Psychological Corps was in a dither. Parmay was shooting -data to them from Therbis and asking, in return, for all kinds of -seemingly irrelevant information. Chemists were asked questions about -organic oxidation-reduction equations; physicists were asked for data -on propagation of electromagnetic waves in distorted spaces and warped -fields; biologists supplied facts about--of all things--deep sea fish. - -All these things flowed into robot analyzers and synthesizers, came -out and were fed back in again, directed by the frantic brain of Romm -Parmay. - -After twelve days, the big-wigs of Operation Interstellar were -beginning to ask: "What in hell is Parmay driving at?" - -And when Parmay was asked, all he would say was: "I'm not sure yet. I'm -stranded here on Therbis until the fleet gets here, and I want to get -back to Earth. I can't give you any answers 'til then." - -Kerrman was on Earth, and he wasn't entirely unaware of what Parmay was -working on. Kerrman, in fact, knew bloody well what it was. But he kept -his mouth shut and applied a few ideas of his own. - -Finally, word came that Parmay was on his way back from Therbis. - -When he landed, the Directors of Earth were waiting for him, and two -days later he was ready to appear before the assembled Directorate. - -The fourteen Directors waited quietly for him to speak. The vast -silence that filled the room seemed almost a little too big for it, as -though even a slight noise would not be heard if it were to be made. -Pol Enson, the Speaker, looked at the others, then at Parmay. - -"Okay, Romm; blaze away. I'm not a psych man, and I don't quite -understand what you're driving at, but I hope you're right." - -"I think I am," Parmay answered. "I've checked into it from every -conceivable angle, and everything fits--there isn't one single -unexplainable factor. - -"We contacted the ship of the aliens. It went into hypersee. Then it -attacked. Point one. - -"Ask yourselves: _Why did it attack?_ And then ask: _Why did_ we -_attack_?" He paused, watching them, then went on. "_Why didn't we both -get the hell out of there?_" - -The Directors frowned and waited. - -"Keeping that in mind," Parmay continued, "let's look at our method of -checking a system for the presence of aliens. We looked for modulated -electromagnetics; we never found any. One explanation was that there -weren't any aliens. But there's another explanation that fits the -picture even better. - -"They didn't put out any because they don't know anything about them -in communication!" - -The frowns of the Directorate became puzzled. - -"Let's take another tack," Parmay went on. "Our ionic disruptors are -supposed to turn any metal into an incandescent gas. But they hardly -touched the enemy ship. Why? Because it was a non-conductor! Plastics, -gentlemen, plastics strong enough to construct a spaceship hull of -them. And that's even stronger than you think. - -"But why plastics? Why not metal? That's another clue. - -"Here, then, we have a race which does not use metal or the longer -electromagnetic radiations--I have no doubt that they can use the -shorter ones. And they attack another ship. - -"Let's get back to that because it's important; it gave me my first -clue. I wondered why they attacked. There could be no reason to attack -a ship that might be better armed than you, even if your psychology is -bred toward pure hate. - -"There is only one good reason, and it is the same reason that made us -fight back instead of running. We had a colony in that system, and -we didn't want the enemy to know it. If they had found us in a system -where we had no colonies, we would have turned tail and run--the only -sensible thing to do. - -"But we didn't--and neither did they. - -"Therefore, they, too, have a colony in that system!" - - * * * * * - -The Speaker said: "Where? Therbis is the only planet with--" His voice -trailed off as he suddenly saw the truth. - -Parmay nodded. "All this time, we've been assuming that the aliens were -after the same planets we were. But every bit of evidence indicates -that they live on the ammonia-methane giants!" - -He paused to light a cigarette, then went on: "Alina Starrnel, my -wife, has done some checking on the conditions that obtain in such an -atmosphere. Alina--" he nodded toward her. - -She looked at them from her cool green eyes. "The atmospheres of -ammonia-methane giants are such that the surface suffers from almost -unbelievable electric storms. Every sunspot on the primary, every wind, -every slight change in temperature causes lightnings and electrical -displays such as we on Earth can't imagine. The atmosphere itself is a -semi-conductor. - -"Therefore, it would be almost impossible for them to have radio -communication as we know it. - -"There are two reasons why metals are not used for construction on -such planets. One: the heavy, metal-bearing core of the giants is -buried beneath thousands of miles of ice. Two: metals wouldn't stand -the strain. At the temperatures prevailing on those planets, most -metals are so brittle that they'd shatter under the loads that the -unimaginable gravitational pull would cause. - -"Plastics are a different matter. Any life that would evolve on such -a world would be able to synthesize hard, tough materials in its own -body. With plenty of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen around, they -would have to find some way of making building materials from organic -compounds. Actually, they're probably not plastics as we know them; -possibly they wouldn't even stand up at normal room temperature on -Earth." - -Parmay took up the story again. "There, you see, is the reason we never -contacted them. We never went anywhere near such planets; we had no -use for them. And they wouldn't try to colonize our planets any more -than we'd try to colonize Mercury." - -The Speaker had a question: "How did they detect your radar when it -impinged on their ship?" - -Alina answered him. "On their worlds, sound would be useless as a -normal means of communication. There's too much noise. It would be like -you or I trying to talk within fifty feet of an atomic bomb explosion. -The shorter electromagnetic spectrum, bad as it is, would permit them -to 'shout' at each other over a distance of a hundred yards, and they -could probably carry on a normal conversation in a room this size. - -"We believe that they are naturally equipped to speak to each other -by radio--after all, an electric eel can generate currents within its -own body of quite sizable voltages. A slight modification, plus a -controlling intelligence, could make a transmitter of a living body. - -"Therefore, when our radar hit them, it probably sounded like a siren. -They knew our ship was somewhere near and got the devil away from -there." - -The room was silent as Parmay thanked Alina and concluded his speech. - -"So, we have no quarrel with the aliens; they have none with us. We -have entirely different spheres of operation. There is no need for -conflict between us, now, or ever. Our job now is to contact them as -best we can and trade knowledge for--" - -The door opened suddenly, and Kerrman stepped in. He walked over to -Parmay and whispered softly for a moment. - -Parmay turned back to the Directors. "Gentlemen, Dr. Kerrman has had -scout ships watching for several days in places where the aliens -might be assumed to be. It's paid off. Our calculations are perfectly -correct." - -He grinned widely. "We don't have to worry about feeling inferior; we -have a lot of things they don't, and vice versa. - -"For instance, we have Earth. And I don't know how close we may have -come to their home base, but they have already colonized Jupiter! - -"As a poet named Frost once said, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' -We've got the best of all possible fences, so--let's get friendly with -the neighbors, boys!" - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST OF FENCES *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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 Best of Fences</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Randall Garrett</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 5, 2022 [eBook #67323]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST OF FENCES ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>The Best of Fences</h1> - -<h2>By RANDALL GARRETT</h2> - -<p><i>It was a race between man and alien to<br /> -rule the stars. Scientifically, the aliens<br /> -were decades ahead—but their real<br /> -advantage was their incredible elusiveness!</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Infinity Science Fiction, February 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>Romm Parmay stepped into the Interstellar Communications Central and -eased the door shut behind him.</p> - -<p>Nobody paid much attention to him; the five hundred ICC men at the -boards were talking in quiet, well-modulated voices that filled the -room with a fluctuating murmur of unintelligible sound.</p> - -<p>At Number One board, Kerrman was staring moodily at the dead screen, -blowing clouds of cigarette smoke at the control panel and watching the -smoke writhe and flow down around the pilot lights and switch plates. -Parmay walked across the room quietly, and stopped a few feet behind -Kerrman.</p> - -<p>"Boo!"</p> - -<p>Kerrman jerked, inhaled a cloud of smoke, coughed, and turned around, -glaring.</p> - -<p>"Romm! Dammit, if you weren't my boss, I'd kick you where it would do -the most good!"</p> - -<p>Parmay turned solemnly, presenting his gluteal region for assault.</p> - -<p>"Go ahead," he said sorrowfully, "I'm not the boss any more."</p> - -<p>"All right, you're asking—<i>what? What did you say?</i>"</p> - -<p>Parmay turned back to face Kerrman. The grin on his face threatened to -break into laughter.</p> - -<p>"Let you be the first to congratulate me. You are gazing at the Chief -of Psychological Contact."</p> - -<p>"Contact!" Kerrman grinned back. "You mean you're going out with the -fleet?"</p> - -<p>"Right. They just told me. I've got to get myself a group together, -one for each hypersee ship. So far, I am the head cheese of a totally -nonexistent group; I'm nobody's boss."</p> - -<p>"Need a good assistant?" Kerrman asked hopefully.</p> - -<p>"No, I need a good contact here. You've got my job now, and more. There -isn't room on a ship to carry a complete psych analyzer, much less a -synthesizer, so, for anything I dig up, you'll have to do most of the -math."</p> - -<p>"Good enough. I have—" Kerrman stopped suddenly and looked at his -watch. "Wow! Almost talked too long. There's an Ancestor due in five -minutes."</p> - -<p>He sat down again at the board, cutting in the instruments. A shadow -pointer moved slowly up a dial, then stopped.</p> - -<p>"Not early, at any rate," he commented.</p> - -<p>Better than four hundred light years away, a hypersee communicator -fired out its carrier; at vast multiples of the velocity of light, -that disturbance radiated in all directions through space. Less than -a thousandth of a second after leaving its origin, the carrier was -nudging the receptors on Earth.</p> - -<p>On Kerrman's panel the shadow pointer began a smoothly oscillating -dance. Kerrman touched three switch plates in swift succession. A voice -came from the speaker.</p> - -<p>"Expedition Seven Nine Six calling Earth. Seven Nine Six calling Earth. -Come in, Earth."</p> - -<p>The accent was odd, and most people would have had trouble -understanding it, but Kerrman was used to handling the changes that had -taken place in the language in four centuries.</p> - -<p>"Communications Central, Earth," he replied. "We're in, Seven Nine Six."</p> - -<p>"Seven Nine Six in," said the speaker definitely. "We've been here -twenty-four hours. How long have we been gone?"</p> - -<p>"You're four minutes late; not bad correlation at all. You left Earth -four hundred thirteen years, seventy-one days, two hours, thirty -seconds as of now." He touched a button to produce a <i>ting!</i> "What's -your subjective time?"</p> - -<p>"Eleven years, sixty-two days, twelve hours, five minutes even as of -now." A similar sound came from the speaker.</p> - -<p>Kerrman jabbed the figures into the MAC for subjective-objective time -correlation.</p> - -<p>"Any sign of the enemy?" he asked next.</p> - -<p>"None. They haven't landed here. We've scouted the planet carefully."</p> - -<p>Romm Parmay, standing beside Kerrman, shook his head resignedly. No -sign of them. There never was.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kerrman's next job was pure psychology. That was the reason for -assigning a psych engineer to the first receiver. Each call from a ship -coming out of near-light drive was picked up by this board.</p> - -<p>Kerrman glanced at the dossier on the desk before him; the -four-century-old dossier that contained complete information on -Expedition 796 as she had been when she left Earth.</p> - -<p>"Am I speaking to Commander Loris Cay?"</p> - -<p>"No. He passed away seven years ago, subjective time. I am Lieutenant -William Bowman, commanding."</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry to hear that, Lieutenant." Kerrman looked at the blank -screen and wished that hypersee vision transmission had been in -existence when Expedition 796 was launched. It was easier to judge a -man's psych reaction by his face than by his voice alone.</p> - -<p>"Lieutenant, can you understand me all right? I've had a chance to -study your pronunciation, but how does mine sound to you?"</p> - -<p>The lieutenant admitted it was odd but perfectly clear.</p> - -<p>"Good. Then I'll give you a brief synopsis of the history of the past -four hundred years.</p> - -<p>"When you left the only hint we had that another race was colonizing -the galaxy was the sounds, which we assumed to be speech, that came -over certain frequencies of the hypersee band. Since then, we have -perfected vision transmission; we can see them now. And they're not -pretty to look at.</p> - -<p>"We still have no way of knowing where a hypersee wave is coming from; -they are non-directional, at least insofar as we have been able to -discover, so we still don't know from which direction the enemy is -approaching.</p> - -<p>"We haven't been able to correlate their vision with their voice -transmission, so we still don't have any key to their language. -Luckily, we're fairly sure that they don't have any key to ours, either.</p> - -<p>"A little over a century ago, we detected something else on the -hypersee band. It sounded like a weird sort of static; a whining sort -of thing. The only source that could put out that kind of disturbance -was found to be material objects traveling faster than the velocity of -light.</p> - -<p>"That gave us our first clue—the first hint that hypersee ships could -be built. We figured that if the aliens had them, we could get them, -too.</p> - -<p>"It took better than thirty years, but we've got it now. Our hypersee -fleet has been consolidating the colonies for two hundred light years -out, and we're constantly expanding.</p> - -<p>"Within the next year, we'll be able to ship you supplies and material, -which will speed up your colonization by about fifty years. You'll -have a going civilization there in your lifetime instead of the three -generations that the planners originally estimated.</p> - -<p>"These are the major developments. Any questions, Lieutenant?"</p> - -<p>There were questions, of course, plenty of them, but Parmay didn't pay -much attention to them. Those pioneers the ICC jokingly called the -Ancestors were time travelers in a very real sense of the word. They -came out of near-light drive to find that the rest of the universe had -passed them up; they were anachronisms.</p> - -<p>It hadn't been too bad at first; they were not too far displaced from -their own time, those who had first reported in, centuries ago.</p> - -<p>But now they found that their speech was old-fashioned and their -beautiful new ships were completely out-moded. They could not be told -immediately that the new hypersee ships were transporting colonists to -the stars faster than the old near-light ships were coming out of the -fitzgerald. They could not be told that they had gone out in vain.</p> - -<p>A psych engineer had to be careful in telling them what had happened. -The old ships had served their purpose, of course; without them, the -race of man would not be nearly as far flung through the stars as it -was now. But it would be hard to convince the Ancestors that they were -still performing a useful function—unless a psych engineer told them -so.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kerrman had assigned 796 a report schedule and had cut the connection. -He looked up at Parmay.</p> - -<p>"If I'm the boss now, I can knock off any time I please. There won't -be another Ancestor for three days; Eight-Oh-Two is due then. As soon -as I get all the dope on this one correlated, I'd like to talk to you. -Where're you headed now?"</p> - -<p>Parmay grinned. "I'm going to tell Alina. I want to watch her blow her -stack. I'll see you at my place as soon as you quit. Okay?"</p> - -<p>"Good enough. Don't shock your everlovin' too much."</p> - -<p>"<i>Hah!</i>" Parmay <i>hah'd</i>. "That woman is about as shockproof as they -come."</p> - -<p>Parmay left communications and took a drop down sixty-three levels to -the Hypersee Physics section. Alina's lab was deadly silent when he -opened the door. The four technicians under her were watching their -instruments and ignoring the door.</p> - -<p>Parmay resisted the impulse to pull the same gag on his wife that he -had pulled on Kerrman. It might ruin an expensive research project.</p> - -<p>Alina Starrnel's blonde, closely-cropped head was bent over an array -of instruments that meant almost nothing to her husband. She moved her -hand over a series of switch plates and looked up at the screen facing -her.</p> - -<p>The un-normal face of an alien stared out at her with its blank eyes. -The fronds on the face flickered gently.</p> - -<p>Parmay watched for the better part of ten minutes as the face blurred, -shifted, and underwent other strange transformations beneath Alina's -manipulations of the controls. Her technicians spoke softly now and -then, making small adjustments in the instruments they were controlling.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Alina slapped at the switch plates. The alien face in the -screen had faded out. "Damn!" she said softly.</p> - -<p>She turned to the four technicians. "Get as much out of that as you -can, though I'm pretty sure we've lost another round."</p> - -<p>"<i>Bong!</i>" said Parmay. "Round over."</p> - -<p>"Romm!" Alina turned, seeing him for the first time. "What are you -doing here?"</p> - -<p>"Got bored. Decided I needed a kiss."</p> - -<p>"Well, come get it."</p> - -<p>He did.</p> - -<p>"Now," she said, "the truth. You don't come wandering down here at this -time of day to neck. Out with it."</p> - -<p>"I came to take you to lunch."</p> - -<p>"At this hour? I don't usually take off this early."</p> - -<p>"My darling Alina, I have something to tell you, and I am sure that -you'll need something in your stomach to brace you when I tell it." -Alina put her palms to her temples and looked at the ceiling.</p> - -<p>"Oh, <i>no</i>! This is what comes of being a psych engineer! He comes in -and makes a remark like that because he knows damned good and well that -I would drop anything to find out what he's being so mysterious about!" -She dropped her hands and looked back at Romm. "All right," she snarled -in mock viciousness, "I'll come. But you can't get away with this -forever!"</p> - -<p>The Colonization Program Building filled better than a cubic mile of -the city's space, housing every function of the operation that was -taking man to the stars, trying to get the race of man there before the -aliens beat them to it. The lift shaft took Parmay and his wife up to -the top level, where the apartments and restaurants were. There, they -could look out through the broad windows at the rolling meadows and -forest that covered the city beneath.</p> - -<p>They sat down in a booth in the main dining room and dialed a menu.</p> - -<p>"Now, bub," said Alina impatiently, "do I have to wait for food, or do -you talk now?"</p> - -<p>"I talk now. Do you know the present Chief of Psychological Contact?"</p> - -<p>Alina lifted an eyebrow. "No. I never even heard of the department. -What is it? Top secret, or something?"</p> - -<p>"Not particularly. I'm it."</p> - -<p>"That's nice."</p> - -<p>Parmay looked at the tips of his fingers. "Nice? Oh, yes. And on the -same scale, S Doradus is a comfortable warm star."</p> - -<p>"Oh?" Alina lifted both eyebrows this time. "Why did they fire you from -your old job? Did you fluff up?"</p> - -<p>Parmay glowered. "Do you want to listen to me or not? If you're bored, -you can quit paying attention."</p> - -<p>Alina's laughter broke out into the open. "But you'll go on talking -just the same!"</p> - -<p>Parmay's laughter joined hers. "All right, vixen, go ahead and use -your psychological torture methods. Just be glad that I don't use some -of the refinements on you. If I were a research man instead of an -engineer, I'd probably use you as a project."</p> - -<p>"Brute! Shut up and eat!"</p> - -<p>Through the meal, Parmay explained the new job.</p> - -<p>"—so I'll have to pick a good crew to do the job right," he finished.</p> - -<p>"You sound as though you're glad to be rid of the old position. Why?" -Alina asked, offering a cigarette.</p> - -<p>Parmay dragged it into light before answering.</p> - -<p>"In a way, I am. I'm tired of telling new colonists bad news. I'm sick -of feeding Ancestors half-truths. How would you like to tell a hundred -thousand people, over a span of eighty years, that things are terrible, -and tell them in such a way that they will think things are fine?"</p> - -<p>Alina frowned. "Is it as bad as all that? Just because we've left them -behind? Weren't they prepared for that when they left? They should know -that Earth would have changed in all that time, that we would be ahead -of them. Why should they be so shocked to come out of the fitzgerald -and find that it's so?"</p> - -<p>Parmay shook his head. "It's not that, honey. I have to tell them just -the opposite. Look—do you realize that I have to tell them that we are -losing the race with the aliens?</p> - -<p>"I have to tell them that we have invented hypersee vision -transmission—and the aliens had it first. I have to tell them that we -have had hypersee ships for seventy years and the aliens have had them -for twice that long.</p> - -<p>"I have to tell them that the aliens have made a great deal of -progress, and that we have lagged pitifully behind in copying them. -Have we done anything on our own? No."</p> - -<p>Alina closed her eyes. "God, what pessimism. Gimme 'nother cigarette; -mine went out."</p> - -<p>Parmay handed her a cigarette. "What do you mean: 'pessimism'? What -<i>have</i> we done?"</p> - -<p>His wife held up a hand and began counting off fingers.</p> - -<p>"One: Increase in the standard of living. The five-hour work week.</p> - -<p>"Two: If and when it comes to a pitched battle between us and the -aliens, we have the ionic disruptor. I can guarantee that no known -conductor can stand up against it. And—"</p> - -<p>Parmay waved her down. "Cut. That's just another problem to hand to the -Ancestors. We have increased our own personal comforts; what does that -mean to a group of people who are hacking out a new civilization on -some godforsaken planet a couple of hundred light years from home?</p> - -<p>"And how do you know we're invincible? The ionic disruptor -disintegrates all and any metals or alloys we know of. But isn't it -possible that the aliens have some alloy we don't have?"</p> - -<p>"You find me a non-conducting metal," Alina said positively, "and I'll -admit that the disruptor might fail against it."</p> - -<p>"I repeat, my dear, how do you know we're invincible?"</p> - -<p>Alina lifted the eyebrow again, a habit that irritated Parmay because -he couldn't do it. "I don't know that we're invincible, and you know -it," she answered, ignoring syntax. "But I hardly think you can say we -haven't done anything."</p> - -<p>"You think not?" grinned Parmay, "Listen: 'We haven't done anything.'"</p> - -<p>Alina said nothing; she just looked at him.</p> - -<p>"You look," said Parmay, "as though you loved me."</p> - -<p>"You act as though you were analyzing me. Put that slipdisc back in its -case, chum; I'll not have you pulling psychostatistics on me."</p> - -<p>Parmay spread both palms. "Look, ma, no analyzer. I'm innocent."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Both man and the aliens were spreading inexorably. Neither knew, or -could know, the aim, intention, or location of the other. Each knew -that the other was spreading. Each was determined that the other should -not be ahead in claiming the galaxy.</p> - -<p>And each was determined that his own race, and his alone, should rule -the stars.</p> - -<p>Neither, seemingly, knew much about the other. It had become a battle -of technology; a battle in which man was lagging behind. The psych -engineers who told the outpost stars that man was catching up to the -aliens were propagandizing in their teeth.</p> - -<p>The enemy was ahead; the enemy was too damned far ahead.</p> - -<p>So man fought doggedly on, hanging by his teeth, making each day, each -second, count.</p> - -<p>The Psychontact Division built up month by month as Parmay worked to -get the right men into the right positions.</p> - -<p>Specifically, Psychontact had the job of co-ordinating the colonies -into a working whole, thus hoping to insure that the whole would be -greater—and stronger—than the sum of its parts.</p> - -<p>"Colonies! Colonies!" blazed Parmay, one morning. "You'd think we were -bacteriological cultures!"</p> - -<p>"Well," answered Alina, "of course we aren't."</p> - -<p>"Well of course we <i>are</i>!" Parmay snapped back, "We're trying to -spread, disease-like, over the galaxy in order to counteract the -effects of another type of organism which is trying to do the same."</p> - -<p>Alina was putting some of his things into a travelcase, and she went -right on shoving them in as she answered.</p> - -<p>"Romm, why does the alien problem bother you? You're getting to be a -fanatic on the subject, and it's not your problem at all. Why don't you -let Xenology do its job and you do yours?"</p> - -<p>Parmay grabbed the travelcase as Alina closed it. He smiled -nonchalantly. "Honey chile, I am not a fanatic; I just have to have -something to yell about. Relieves tension and all that. Remind me to -give you a lesson some time."</p> - -<p>"But—"</p> - -<p>"Shaddup. Come here."</p> - -<p>When Alina started asking too many questions, Parmay didn't require a -complete detailed analysis of his wife to know that she was worried -about him; and he didn't need to run a complete synthesis to know what -to do.</p> - -<p>Twenty minutes later, the phone chimed.</p> - -<p>"Damn!" Parmay blistered. He kissed Alina once more, then answered.</p> - -<p>Lon Tallen, commander of the HC-36, greeted him from the screen. "Romm, -we've installed all your equipment; we'll leave in two hours, but I'd -like to have you aboard in about an hour. Can do?"</p> - -<p>"Can. See you." Parmay cut off and grinned at Alina. "Hear that? A -whole hour."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>An hour later, he was aboard the Thirty-six, checking the instruments -he had had installed. But he was only checking them with half a mind; -the other half was on something Alina had said.</p> - -<p>Fanatic? Possibly. After living with a threat that hadn't materialized -in fifty decades, most of the human race viewed the alien threat with -apathy. A man worked to prevent their spread—or rather to increase the -spread of genus Homo—but after all, nothing had happened so far, had -it? <i>Peace in our time.</i></p> - -<p>The trouble was, it took a psych man to realize the effect that losing -the race would have on the people of Earth, and the human beings that -Earth had scattered to the stars. And the farther Man spread, the worse -that shock would be.</p> - -<p>Parmay knew what it would be like, and Parmay didn't like it.</p> - -<p>So his wife called him a fanatic. Well, perhaps he was, but he still -didn't intend to let the race down by letting the aliens get too far -ahead. Somewhere in the seven hundred million cubic light years that -Man owned there must be traces of the alien, and Parmay was going to -find them if he could.</p> - -<p>The Thirty-six lifted herself off Earth only a shade less than an hour -after Romm Parmay came aboard. Once in free fall beyond the moon, her -nose was aimed at the approximate area of her destination: D 38° 40', -RA 17h-4m. Then, gently and easily, the Hypersee Ship-36 slid out of -normal space-time.</p> - -<p>Commander Tallen was watching a communicator screen when Parmay entered -the Main Control Salon.</p> - -<p>Parmay groaned in mock despair. "Every time I walk into a place where -there's a communicator, somebody's got their eyes glued to it. Why?"</p> - -<p>Tallen turned. "I like to watch Junior, here. He scares me."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The face of an alien squirmed nastily on the plate.</p> - -<p>"Why watch him, then?"</p> - -<p>"I guess I'm like the little boy who banged his head against the wall -because it felt so good when he stopped."</p> - -<p>"Really?"</p> - -<p>Tallen laughed. "No, not really. I keep watching because I keep hoping -I'll run across something that will give me a clue about them. I know -experts have tried and failed, but I like to think that they might have -been too close to the trees to see the forest, if you know what I mean."</p> - -<p>"I'm glad," said Parmay frankly, "that someone besides me worries about -them."</p> - -<p>"Smoke?" asked Tallen, holding out his case.</p> - -<p>"Thanks, no."</p> - -<p>Tallen took one himself, then: "I understand your wife is working with -hypersee."</p> - -<p>Parmay nodded.</p> - -<p>"Did you ever ask her why we can't get a line on the aliens' location?"</p> - -<p>"Sure. And I get the same answer I'd get if I'd asked you: 'I don't -know.' Hypersee waves aren't directional. They seem to ignore normal -space-time and the matter and energy in it. They probably aren't -instantaneous, but they're so close to it that trying to measure their -rate of propagation at ordinary interstellar distances is as futile as -Galileo's experiment with the lanterns on the mountain-tops. Or was -that Torricelli? Anyway, we don't have any way of knowing where they -are or how far away."</p> - -<p>Tallen looked back at the alien on the screen. "Then Junior, here, -might be on the other side of the galaxy, as far as we know?"</p> - -<p>"Right. Or M-33 in Andromeda. Or it's possible that they died out a -thousand years ago, having lived at some spot in the universe so remote -that even the hypersee hasn't reached us till now."</p> - -<p>Tallen looked incredulous. "Then why are we worrying, if the damned -things might not be anywhere around? Just on the off chance that they -<i>might</i> be?"</p> - -<p>Parmay shook his head. "Not exactly. We don't know anything from a -strictly physical point of view, true; but we have done some work on -the psychological side. We know, for instance, that they have seen our -faces and heard our voices, just as you and I can watch Junior. We know -this from the basic reactions of sentient creatures to that type of -stimulus. They are aware of our existence. That rules out their being -too far.</p> - -<p>"We've been working to get ahead of them for five hundred years. If -they're on the other side of the galaxy, we have another five hundred -years before we contact them; if they're in one of the nearer galaxies, -it will be another two thousand years.</p> - -<p>"But we'll contact them eventually, and it had better be on even -terms."</p> - -<p>Tallen examined the glowing end of his cigarette as though he were -appraising a piece of art. "Too bad there isn't a doppler in hypersee; -if the drive could be located, it would make it easy." He looked up at -Parmay. "Do you know why we take so long to get to Therbis? Because -of the stops. Look here." He picked up a card from the desk. "I use a -table of random numbers. Every time we pass a star whose number is in -the schedule chosen, we have to stop to see if there is any modulated -electromagnetic radiation in the system. If there is, we've found the -enemy."</p> - -<p>"And if there isn't?"</p> - -<p>"Then we haven't found him. And I get tired of sitting for eight hours -while the communications boys mess around looking for something that -isn't there." He spread his hands. "That's life. We look all over the -galaxy for vibrations we can locate but can't find, and we find all -kinds of communications we can't locate. I think I'll stick my nose in -my ear and blow my brains out."</p> - -<p>Parmay grinned. "Do me a favor; wait till we get to Therbis. That -colony is scarcely twenty years old, and they might be worried if -their contacts with the rest of civilization go around splattering -their cerebrum over the insides of their own ships."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Seven times during the next few days, the HC-36 approached a star and -listened for electromagnetic disturbances in space.</p> - -<p>Seven times, they got nothing but normal static.</p> - -<p>Then came Therbis.</p> - -<p>Someone once defined eternity as the time required for everything -to happen once. If you toss a coin enough times, it will eventually -land on edge; if you shuffle a deck of cards enough times, they will -eventually deal out in any predetermined order. And, by the inherently -unprovable laws of probabilities, if you watch a glass of water long -enough, all the high-velocity molecules will congregate in one place -and boil off, leaving the remainder of the water frozen solid. You -may have to wait some ten to the twentieth years, or it may happen -tomorrow. But, however improbable, each of them <i>can</i> happen.</p> - -<p>Take a spaceship. In order for one spaceship to spot another, via -radar, they must be within a million or so miles of each other and -have low velocities relative to each other. An Earth vessel might -never see another Earth vessel in space unless they had arranged it -beforehand. And arranging things beforehand is stacking the deck, a -reversal of normal entropy that only intelligent beings can bring about.</p> - -<p>The Thirty-six approached the Therbis sun at something less than a -thousand miles per second, the actual difference in velocity between -that sun and Sol. Therbis itself was the fourth planet of the system; -cold and bleak. It was somewhat bigger than Terra, with plenty of water -and a high percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so the -greenhouse effect kept it warm enough for human beings to colonize the -island chains that surrounded the equatorial belt.</p> - -<p>The HC-36 was braking in when the odds-against coincidence happened. -Near planet six, which just happened to be at its nearest approach to -Therbis, a spaceship came into range of the instruments of the HC-36. -At first it was thought to be a meteor; that was what the instruments -were meant to look for, and that's what they expected.</p> - -<p>But no meteor is a smooth prolate spheroid, like a football with -smoothly rounded ends. And no Earth ship was ever shaped like that, -either.</p> - -<p>It was visible on the plates of the HC-36 only a few seconds—then it -vanished.</p> - -<p>Orders were already snapping over the robot control system as Parmay -charged for the main salon. He had heard the alarm and came running.</p> - -<p>Tallen was slapping his hands over switch plates with lightning -movements of his wrists. "Alien ship!" he shouted. "As soon as our -radar touched her, she hit hypersee. That was about thirty-five seconds -before our own equipment registered the echo, so she's had better than -a minute to arrange herself nicely to blast us!"</p> - -<p>"Won't she have to come out of hypersee to do it?"</p> - -<p>"Sure, but where?"</p> - -<p>"I'd—"</p> - -<p>He was cut off by a hum of power from Fire Control; at the same -instant, he saw the football shape of the alien on the screen. It was -less than eight miles away.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The Earthship's beam blazed momentarily on the alien vessel, then -vanished. The alien dodged suddenly ahead, and something flickered -on her side. All hell broke loose in the Thirty-six. From the engine -section came a faint thudding vibration of overload switches cutting -out. The ship shivered and hiccoughed like a drink-deprived alcoholic.</p> - -<p>Again Fire Control beamed out, and again the alien ship flared. But -there was no answering blast.</p> - -<p>Parmay, shaken, watched the weird battle on the screen. Behind -the enemy ship loomed the vast bulk of planet six, a gigantic -ammonia-methane globe, a Jovian monstrosity that outlined the darker -form of the alien ship.</p> - -<p>Slowly, the enemy vessel began to shrink; it was falling toward the -giant planet.</p> - -<p>"Her drive's out!" Tallen shouted gleefully.</p> - -<p>"So is ours!" snapped a voice from the speaker above the panel.</p> - -<p>"Are we falling?"</p> - -<p>"No, it's the hypersee that's out. The planetary drive is perfect. The -hypersee is burned all to hell. No breach in the hull."</p> - -<p>"Get us orbited to Therbis," Tallen ordered. "What damage to the alien -ship?"</p> - -<p>Fire Control answered. "The ionic disruptor didn't do as much damage as -we thought. We weakened their hull, but we didn't open it."</p> - -<p>"Okay," Tallen said, "keep an eye on the 'scope. Compute the orbit of -the ship and watch it. If it shifts off the computed fall path, we'll -hit it again."</p> - -<p>Parmay grabbed Tallen's shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Did all this get on tape?"</p> - -<p>"Sure. Why?"</p> - -<p>Parmay pushed Tallen aside and headed for the communicator.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The news hit Earth like a slug in the teeth. For the second time in -half a millennium the human race was brought face to face with the fact -that it was not the only intelligence in the galaxy, much less in the -whole universe.</p> - -<p>The instant the news came, a fleet of armed ships was given its orders, -and within six hours they were squirting through hyperspace toward -Therbis.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the Psychological Corps was in a dither. Parmay was shooting -data to them from Therbis and asking, in return, for all kinds of -seemingly irrelevant information. Chemists were asked questions about -organic oxidation-reduction equations; physicists were asked for data -on propagation of electromagnetic waves in distorted spaces and warped -fields; biologists supplied facts about—of all things—deep sea fish.</p> - -<p>All these things flowed into robot analyzers and synthesizers, came -out and were fed back in again, directed by the frantic brain of Romm -Parmay.</p> - -<p>After twelve days, the big-wigs of Operation Interstellar were -beginning to ask: "What in hell is Parmay driving at?"</p> - -<p>And when Parmay was asked, all he would say was: "I'm not sure yet. I'm -stranded here on Therbis until the fleet gets here, and I want to get -back to Earth. I can't give you any answers 'til then."</p> - -<p>Kerrman was on Earth, and he wasn't entirely unaware of what Parmay was -working on. Kerrman, in fact, knew bloody well what it was. But he kept -his mouth shut and applied a few ideas of his own.</p> - -<p>Finally, word came that Parmay was on his way back from Therbis.</p> - -<p>When he landed, the Directors of Earth were waiting for him, and two -days later he was ready to appear before the assembled Directorate.</p> - -<p>The fourteen Directors waited quietly for him to speak. The vast -silence that filled the room seemed almost a little too big for it, as -though even a slight noise would not be heard if it were to be made. -Pol Enson, the Speaker, looked at the others, then at Parmay.</p> - -<p>"Okay, Romm; blaze away. I'm not a psych man, and I don't quite -understand what you're driving at, but I hope you're right."</p> - -<p>"I think I am," Parmay answered. "I've checked into it from every -conceivable angle, and everything fits—there isn't one single -unexplainable factor.</p> - -<p>"We contacted the ship of the aliens. It went into hypersee. Then it -attacked. Point one.</p> - -<p>"Ask yourselves: <i>Why did it attack?</i> And then ask: <i>Why did</i> we -<i>attack</i>?" He paused, watching them, then went on. "<i>Why didn't we both -get the hell out of there?</i>"</p> - -<p>The Directors frowned and waited.</p> - -<p>"Keeping that in mind," Parmay continued, "let's look at our method of -checking a system for the presence of aliens. We looked for modulated -electromagnetics; we never found any. One explanation was that there -weren't any aliens. But there's another explanation that fits the -picture even better.</p> - -<p>"They didn't put out any because they don't know anything about them -in communication!"</p> - -<p>The frowns of the Directorate became puzzled.</p> - -<p>"Let's take another tack," Parmay went on. "Our ionic disruptors are -supposed to turn any metal into an incandescent gas. But they hardly -touched the enemy ship. Why? Because it was a non-conductor! Plastics, -gentlemen, plastics strong enough to construct a spaceship hull of -them. And that's even stronger than you think.</p> - -<p>"But why plastics? Why not metal? That's another clue.</p> - -<p>"Here, then, we have a race which does not use metal or the longer -electromagnetic radiations—I have no doubt that they can use the -shorter ones. And they attack another ship.</p> - -<p>"Let's get back to that because it's important; it gave me my first -clue. I wondered why they attacked. There could be no reason to attack -a ship that might be better armed than you, even if your psychology is -bred toward pure hate.</p> - -<p>"There is only one good reason, and it is the same reason that made us -fight back instead of running. We had a colony in that system, and -we didn't want the enemy to know it. If they had found us in a system -where we had no colonies, we would have turned tail and run—the only -sensible thing to do.</p> - -<p>"But we didn't—and neither did they.</p> - -<p>"Therefore, they, too, have a colony in that system!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The Speaker said: "Where? Therbis is the only planet with—" His voice -trailed off as he suddenly saw the truth.</p> - -<p>Parmay nodded. "All this time, we've been assuming that the aliens were -after the same planets we were. But every bit of evidence indicates -that they live on the ammonia-methane giants!"</p> - -<p>He paused to light a cigarette, then went on: "Alina Starrnel, my -wife, has done some checking on the conditions that obtain in such an -atmosphere. Alina—" he nodded toward her.</p> - -<p>She looked at them from her cool green eyes. "The atmospheres of -ammonia-methane giants are such that the surface suffers from almost -unbelievable electric storms. Every sunspot on the primary, every wind, -every slight change in temperature causes lightnings and electrical -displays such as we on Earth can't imagine. The atmosphere itself is a -semi-conductor.</p> - -<p>"Therefore, it would be almost impossible for them to have radio -communication as we know it.</p> - -<p>"There are two reasons why metals are not used for construction on -such planets. One: the heavy, metal-bearing core of the giants is -buried beneath thousands of miles of ice. Two: metals wouldn't stand -the strain. At the temperatures prevailing on those planets, most -metals are so brittle that they'd shatter under the loads that the -unimaginable gravitational pull would cause.</p> - -<p>"Plastics are a different matter. Any life that would evolve on such -a world would be able to synthesize hard, tough materials in its own -body. With plenty of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen around, they -would have to find some way of making building materials from organic -compounds. Actually, they're probably not plastics as we know them; -possibly they wouldn't even stand up at normal room temperature on -Earth."</p> - -<p>Parmay took up the story again. "There, you see, is the reason we never -contacted them. We never went anywhere near such planets; we had no -use for them. And they wouldn't try to colonize our planets any more -than we'd try to colonize Mercury."</p> - -<p>The Speaker had a question: "How did they detect your radar when it -impinged on their ship?"</p> - -<p>Alina answered him. "On their worlds, sound would be useless as a -normal means of communication. There's too much noise. It would be like -you or I trying to talk within fifty feet of an atomic bomb explosion. -The shorter electromagnetic spectrum, bad as it is, would permit them -to 'shout' at each other over a distance of a hundred yards, and they -could probably carry on a normal conversation in a room this size.</p> - -<p>"We believe that they are naturally equipped to speak to each other -by radio—after all, an electric eel can generate currents within its -own body of quite sizable voltages. A slight modification, plus a -controlling intelligence, could make a transmitter of a living body.</p> - -<p>"Therefore, when our radar hit them, it probably sounded like a siren. -They knew our ship was somewhere near and got the devil away from -there."</p> - -<p>The room was silent as Parmay thanked Alina and concluded his speech.</p> - -<p>"So, we have no quarrel with the aliens; they have none with us. We -have entirely different spheres of operation. There is no need for -conflict between us, now, or ever. Our job now is to contact them as -best we can and trade knowledge for—"</p> - -<p>The door opened suddenly, and Kerrman stepped in. He walked over to -Parmay and whispered softly for a moment.</p> - -<p>Parmay turned back to the Directors. "Gentlemen, Dr. Kerrman has had -scout ships watching for several days in places where the aliens -might be assumed to be. It's paid off. Our calculations are perfectly -correct."</p> - -<p>He grinned widely. "We don't have to worry about feeling inferior; we -have a lot of things they don't, and vice versa.</p> - -<p>"For instance, we have Earth. And I don't know how close we may have -come to their home base, but they have already colonized Jupiter!</p> - -<p>"As a poet named Frost once said, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' -We've got the best of all possible fences, so—let's get friendly with -the neighbors, boys!"</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST OF FENCES ***</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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