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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..4f7f0dd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69916 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69916) diff --git a/old/69916-0.txt b/old/69916-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 91ad539..0000000 --- a/old/69916-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6390 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The last space ship, by Murray -Leinster - -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 last space ship - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: January 31, 2023 [eBook #69916] - -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 LAST SPACE SHIP *** - - - - - - The Last Space Ship - - MURRAY LEINSTER - - _A Breathtaking Power Packed - Full Length Novel_ - - GALAXY PUBLISHING CORP. - 421 HUDSON STREET - NEW YORK 14, N. Y. - - GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Novels, selected by the editors of - GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Magazine, are the choice of science - fiction novels both original and reprint. - - GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Novel No. 25 - - 35c a copy. Six Novel Subscriptions $2.00 - - _Copyright 1949 by Will F. Jenkins_ - - _Reprinted by arrangement with the publishers, - FREDERICK FELL, INC._ - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - _by_ - THE GUINN COMPANY, INC. - NEW YORK 14, N. Y. - - [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any - evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - PART ONE - - THE DISCIPLINARY CIRCUIT - - - 1. Victim of Tyrants - - 2. Break for Freedom - - 3. Rays of Destruction - - 4. Outcasts of Space - - 5. Super-Science - - 6. Haven at Last - - - - PART TWO - - THE MANLESS WORLDS - - - 1. Empires in the Making - - 2. The Deadly Beams - - 3. Contact! - - 4. Encounter in the Void - - 5. The Needed Fuel - - 6. Man-Made Meteor - - 7. Ready for Action - - 8. Pitched Battle - - 9. Homecoming - - - - - PART THREE - - THE BOOMERANG CIRCUIT - - - 1. Damaged Transmitter - - 2. Enemy Sabotage - - 3. Dangerous Trip - - 4. Despots Take Over - - 5. Industrial World - - 6. Vanished World - - 7. One Chance in a Million - - 8. Dark Barrier - - 9. Gadget of Hope - - - - - PART ONE - - THE DISCIPLINARY CIRCUIT - - - - - - 1 - - _Victim of Tyrants_ - - -Kim Rendell stood by the propped-up _Starshine_ in the transport -hall of the primary museum on Alphin III. He regarded a placard under -the space-ship with a grim and entirely mirthless amusement. He was -unshaven and hollow-cheeked. He was even ragged. He was a pariah -because he had tried to strike at the very foundation of civilization. -He stood beside the hundred-foot, tapering hull, his appearance marking -him as a blocked man. And he re-read the loan-placard within the -railing about the exhibit: - - Citizens, be grateful to Kim Rendell, who shares with you the - pleasure of contemplating this heirloom. - - This is a space-ship, like those which for ten thousand years were - the only means of travel between planets and solar systems. Even - after matter-transmitters were devised, space-ships continued to be - used for exploration for many years. Since exploration of the - Galaxy has been completed and all useful planets colonized and - equipped with matter-transmitters, space-ships are no longer in use. - - This very vessel, however, was used by Sten Rendell when the first - human colonists came in it to Alphin III, bringing with them the - matter-transmitter which enabled civilization to enter upon and - occupy the planet on which you stand. - - This ship is private property, lent to the people of Alphin III by - Kim Rendell, great-grandson of Sten Rendell. - -Kim Rendell read it again. He was haggard and hungry. He had been -guilty of the most horrifying crime imaginable to a man of his time. -But the law would not, of course, allow him or any other man to be -coerced by any violence or threat to his personal liberty. - -Freedom was the law on Alphin III, a wryly humorous law. No man could -be punished. No man could have any violence offered him. Theoretically, -the individual was free as men had never been free before in all of -human history. Despite Kim's crime, this space-ship still belonged to -him and it could not be taken from him. - -Yet he was hungry, and he would remain hungry. He was shabby and he -would grow shabbier. This was the only roof on Alphin III which would -shelter him, and this solely because the law would not permit any man -to be excluded from his rightful possessions. - -A lector came up to him and bowed politely. - -"Citizen," he said apologetically, "may I speak to you?" - -"Why not?" asked Kim grimly. "I am not proud." - -The lector said uncomfortably: - -"I see that you are in difficulty. Your clothes are threadbare." Then -he added with unhappy courtesy, "You are a criminal, are you not?" - -"I am blocked," said Kim in a hard voice. "I was advised by the Prime -Board to leave Alphin Three for my own benefit. I refused. They put on -the first block. Automatically, after that, the other blocks came on -one each day. I have not eaten for three days. I suppose you would call -me a criminal." - -"I sympathize deeply," the lector answered unhappily. "I hope that soon -you will concede the wisdom of the advised action and be civilized -again. But may I ask how you entered the museum? The third block -prevents entrance to all places of study." - -Kim pointed to the loan-card. - -"I am Kim Rendell," he said drily. "The law does not allow me to be -prevented access to my own property. I insisted on my right to visit -this ship, and the Disciplinary Circuit for this building had to be -turned off at the door so I could enter." He shivered. "It is very cold -out-of-doors today, and I could not enter any other building." - -The lector looked relieved. - -"I am glad to know these things," he said gratefully. "Thank you." -He glanced at Kim with a sort of fluttered curiosity. "It is most -interesting to meet a criminal. What was your crime?" - -Kim looked at him under scowling brows. - -"I tried to nullify the Disciplinary Circuit." - -The lector blinked at him, fascinated, then walked hastily away as if -frightened. Kim Rendell stooped under the railing and approached the -_Starshine_. - -The entrance-port was open, and a flush ladder led up to it. Kim, -hollow-cheeked and ragged and defiant, climbed the steps and entered. -The entry-port gave upon a vestibule which Kim knew from his -grandfather's tables to be an airlock. Kim's grandfather had once -gone off into space in the _Starshine_ with his father. It was, -possibly, the last space-flight ever made. - -For a hundred years, now, the ship had been a museum-piece, open to -public inspection. But parts had been sealed off as uninstructive. Kim -broke the seals. This was his property, but if he had not already been -a criminal under block, the breaking of the seals would have made him -one. At least, it would have had to be explained to a lector who, at -discretion, could accept the explanation or refer it to a second-degree -counsellor. - -The counsellor might deplore the matter and dismiss it, or suggest -corrective self-discipline. - -If the seal-breaker did not accept the suggestion the matter would go -to a social board whose suggestion, in turn, could be rejected. But -when it reached the Prime Board--and any matter from the breaking of -a seal to mass murder would go there if suggested self-discipline was -refused--there was no more nonsense. - -Kim's case had reached the Prime Board instantly, and he had been -advised to leave Alphin III for his own good. His crime was monstrous, -but he had ironically refused exile. - -Now he was under block. His psychogram had been placed in the -Disciplinary Circuit.[1] - -[Footnote 1: _Disciplinary Circuit_: The principal instrument of -government during the so-called Era of Perfection in the First Galaxy. -In early ages, all the functions of government were performed by human -beings in person. The Electric Chair (q.v.) was possibly the first -mechanical device to perform a governmental act, that of the execution -of criminals. - -The Disciplinary Circuit was a device based upon the discovery of -the psychographic patterns of human beings, which permitted the -exact identification of any person passing through a neuronic field -of the type IX2H.... A development which permitted the induction of -alternative electric currents in any identified person, made the -Disciplinary Circuit possible.... It was first used in prisons, -permitting much less supervision of prisoners (See Prisons and -Prisoners) with equal security. - -Later, because it allowed of an enormous reduction in the personnel -of government, all citizens were psychographed. Circuits were set -up in all cities of the First Galaxy. When a broadcast adaptation -became possible, the system was complete. Every citizen was liable to -discipline at any time. - -No offender could hide from government. Wherever he might be, he was -subject to punishment focused upon him because of his completely -individual psychographic pattern.... Worship of efficiency and -the obvious reduction in taxes (See Taxes) at first obscured the -possibilities of tyranny inherent in such a governmental system.... - -[See (1) Era of Perfection, (2) Revolts, (3) Ades, (4) First Galaxy, -Reconquest of. For typical developments of government based upon the -Disciplinary Circuit, see articles on Sirius VIII, Algol II, Norten V -and the almost unbelievable but authenticated history of government on -Voorten II.] - -_Encyclopaedia of History, Vol. XXIV. Cosmopolis, 2nd Galaxy._] - - * * * * * - -On the first day he was blocked from the customary complete outfit of -new garments, clean, sterile, and of his own choice. These garments -normally arrived by his bedside in the carrier which took away the old -ones to be converted back to raw material for the garment machines. - -On the second day he could enter no place of public recreation. An -attempt to pass the door of any sport-field, theatre, or concert -stadium caused the Disciplinary Circuit to act. His body began to -tingle. He could turn back then. If he persisted, the tingling became -more severe. If he was obstinate, it became agony, which continued -until he turned back. - -On the third day he found it impossible to enter any place of study or -labor. The fourth day blocked him from any place where food or drink -was served. On the fifth day his own quarters were barred to him. - -After seven days the city and the planet would be barred. Anywhere -he went, his body would tingle, gently in the morning, more and more -strongly as the day wore on, until the torment became unbearable. Then -he would go to the matter-transmitter, name his chosen place of exile, -and walk off the planet which was Alphin III. - -But it happened that Kim was a matter-transmitter technician. It -happened that he knew that the Disciplinary Circuit was tied in to the -matter-transmitter, and blocked men were not sent to destinations of -their own choosing. - -Blocked men automatically went to Ades. And they did not come back. -Ever. - -Behind the sealed-off parts of the space-ship, Kim searched hungrily -and worked desperately, not for food, of course. He had determined to -attempt the impossible. He had accomplished only the first step toward -it when he felt an infinitesimal tingling all over his body. He stood -rigid for a second, and then smiled grimly. He closed the casing of the -catalyzer he had examined and worked on. - -"Just in time," he said. "The merciless brutes!" - -He moved from the catalyzer. A moment later he heard footsteps. Someone -came up the flush ladder and into the space-ship. Kim Rendell turned -his head. Then he bent over the fuel-register, which amazingly showed -the tanks to be almost one-twelfth full of fuel, and stood motionless. - -The footsteps moved here and there. Presently they came cautiously to -the engine-room. Kim did not stir. A man made an indescribable sound of -satisfaction. Kim, not moving even his eyes, saw that it was the lector -who had spoken to him outside the ship. He did not address Kim now. -With a quite extraordinary air of someone about to pick up an inanimate -object, the lector laid hands upon Kim to lift him off his feet. - -"Citizen!" Kim said severely. "What does this mean?" - -The lector gasped. He fell back. His mouth dropped open and his face -went white. - -"I--I thought you were paralyzed." - -"I do not care what you thought," Kim said. "It is against the law for -any citizen to lay violent hands upon another." - -By an effort the lector babbler regained his self-control. - -"You--you.... The Circuit failed to work!" - -"You reported that I had entered this ship," Kim said drily. "There is -some uneasiness about what I do, because of my crime. So the Circuit -was applied to paralyze me, and you were ordered to bring me quietly to -the matter-transmitter. As you observe, it is not practical. Go back -and report it." - -The lector said something incoherent, turned and fled. Kim followed him -leisurely to the entry-port. He turned the hand-power wheels which put -a barrier across the entrance. He went back to his examination of the -ship. The first part of the impossible had been achieved, but there was -much more, too much more, which must be done. He worked feverishly. - -His grandfather had told him many tales of the _Starshine_. -She had made voyages of as long as two years in emptiness, at full -acceleration, during which she had covered four hundred light-years -of space, had purified her air, and fed her crew. Her tanks could -hold fuel for six years' drive at full acceleration and her -food-synthesizers, primitive as they were by modern standards, could -yet produce some four hundred foodstuffs from the carbon, hydrogen, -nitrogen, and traces of other elements into which almost any organic -raw material could be resolved. - -She was, in fact, one of the last and most useful space-ships ever -constructed at the last space-ship yard in existence. She was almost -certainly the last ever to be used. But she was only a museum-piece -now and her switches were opened and her control-cables severed lest -visitors to the museum injure her. But Kim's grandfather had lectured -him at great length upon her qualities. The old gentleman had had an -elderly man's distaste for modern perfectionism. - -Kim threw switches here and there. He spliced cables wherever he found -them cut. He was hungry and he was gaunt, and he worked with a bitter -anticipation of failure. He had been in the museum for almost an hour, -and in the ship for half of that, when voices called politely through -the barrier-grille. - -"Citizen Kim Rendell, may we enter?" - -He made sure it was safe, then opened the way. - -"Enter and welcome, citizens," he said ironically, in the prescribed -formula. But his hands were clenched and he was all ready to fight for -his life. - - - - - 2 - - _Break for Freedom_ - - -Slowly the Prime Board of Alphin III filed up the flush ladder and into -the cabin of the _Starshine_. There was Malby, who looked like an -elderly sheep. There was Ponter, who rather resembled an immature frog. -There was Shimlo, who did not look like anything but an advanced case -of benevolent imbecility, and Burt, who at least looked intelligent and -whom Kim Rendell hated with a corrosive hatred. - -"Greeting, citizen," Malby said. Even his voice had a bleating quality. -"Despite your crime, we have broken all precedent to come and reason -with you. You are not mad, yet you act like a madman." - -Kim grinned savagely at him. - -"Come, now! I found a material that changes a man's psychogram, so he's -immune to the Disciplinary Circuit. I was immune to discipline. So you -four had me seized and my little amulet taken away from me. And then -you sealed up every other bit of that material on the planet. Not so?" - -"Naturally," Burt said pleasantly. "The Disciplinary Circuit is -the basis of civilization nowadays. All discipline and hence all -civilization would cease if the Circuit were nullified. Naturally, you -must be disposed of." - -"But carefully, so if there is anyone who shares my secret, he'll be -betrayed by trying to help me!" said Kim. "And quietly, too, so those -amiable sheep, my fellow-citizens, won't suspect there's anything -wrong. They don't realize that they're slaves. They don't know of -your pleasure-palaces on the other side of the planet. They don't -realize that, when you take a fancy to a woman and she's blocked in her -quarters until she's hysterical with fear and loneliness, you advise -her to take psychological treatments which make her a submissive inmate -of the harems you keep there. They don't know what happens to men you -put under block for being too inquisitive about those women and who -enter the matter-transmitter for exile." - -Burt looked mildly inquiring. "What does happen to them?" - -"Ades!" Kim said furiously. "They go to the transmitter and name their -chosen place of exile, and the transmitter-clerk dutifully pushes the -proper buttons, but the Circuit takes over. They go to Ades! And no man -has ever come back." - -There was a sudden tension in the air. Burt looked at his fellows. -Shimlo was the picture of benevolent indignation, but his eyes were -ugly. Ponter opened his mouth and closed it absurdly, looking more than -ever like a frog. - -"This is monstrous!" Malby bleated. "This is monstrous!" - -Burt held up his hand. - -"How did you get this strange idea?" he asked. - -"I'm a matter-transmitter technician, fourth grade," Kim said coldly. -"I worked on the transmitter when it gave trouble. I found the -Disciplinary Circuit tie-in. I traced it. So I knew there was something -wrong about all personal freedom on Alphin III and I started to look -for more things wrong. I found them. I started to do something about -them. Then I got caught." - -Burt nodded. - -"So!" he said thoughtfully. "We underestimated you, Kim Rendell. It -is much pleasanter to rule Alphin Three as beloved citizens than as -admitted tyrants. There are times when we have to protect ourselves. -Naturally, we would rather not show our hands. It is clear that you -must be sent into exile. Frankly, to Ades--whatever it may be like -there. Apparently you did not have any friends." - -"I dared not trust any of the sheep you rule," Kim said angrily. "But -I did know there was more hafnium on this ship. I didn't dare come -at first, or you'd have guessed. But after I'd starved a bit and was -convincingly cold, I risked the venture. You guessed my intention -too late. I can defy you again, even if you did take away my first -protection from the Circuit. You know that?" - -Burt nodded again. - -"Of course," he admitted. "Yet we do not want a scandal. We will make -a bargain within limits. You must be disposed of, but we will promise -that you can go wherever you choose via the matter-transmitter." - -"Your word's no good," Kim snapped. - -"You will starve," Burt said mildly. "Of course you can seal yourself -in the ship, but we will have lectors, special lectors, waiting for you -when you come out again." - -Kim scowled. "Yes?" he said. "I've been here half an hour. The ship's -circuits were cut, but I've put the communicator back in working order. -I can broadcast over the entire planet, telling the truth. I won't -destroy your power, but I'll make your slaves begin to realize what -they are. Sooner or later, one of them will kill you." - -Malby bleated. It was not necessarily panic, but there are some minds -to whom public admiration is necessary. Such persons will commit any -crime to get admiration which they crave with a passionate desire. Burt -held up his hand again. - -"But why tell us?" he asked pleasantly. "Why didn't you simply -broadcast what you've learned? Possibly it was because you wished to -bargain with us first? You have terms?" - -Kim ground his teeth. - -"That's right," he said. "There is a girl, Dona Brett. She was to marry -me, but one of you saw her, I think you, Burt. She is now blocked in -her quarters to grow hysterical and terrified. It was on account of her -that I acted too soon, and got caught. I want her here." - -Burt considered without perceptible emotion. - -"She is quite pretty, but there are others," he said in his detached -way. "If we send her, you will not broadcast?" - -"I'll kill her and myself," Kim said. "It's apparently the only service -I can do her. Get out, now. It will take your best technician at least -forty minutes to make a scrambler which will keep me from broadcasting. -I'll give you twenty minutes to get her to me. I'll talk to all the -planet if she isn't here." - -Burt shrugged. - -"Almost, I overestimated you," he said mildly. "I thought you had an -actual plan. Very well. She will come. But if I were you, I would not -delay my suicide." - -Burt's eyes gleamed for an instant. Then he went out, followed by -the others. Kim worked the controls which sealed the ship. He got -feverishly to work again. - -From time to time he stared desperately out of the vision-ports, and -then resumed his labors. His task seemingly was an impossible one. -The _Starshine_ had been made into a mere museum exhibit. It was -complete, but Kim's knowledge was inadequate and his time far too short. - -Eighteen minutes passed before he saw Dona. She stood quietly beside -the railing outside the space-ship, alone and quite pale. He opened -the outer airlock door. She came up. He closed the outer door and -opened the inner. She faced him. She was deathly white. As she saw him, -hollow-cheeked and bitter, she managed to smile. - -"My poor Kim! What did they do to you?" - -"Blocked me!" Kim cried. "Took away my hafnium gadget and put me on -the Circuit. They locked up every scrap of hafnium on the planet -behind an all-citizen block. They just didn't know that it was used in -space-ships in the fuel-catalyzers. I've found enough to make the two -of us safe, though. Here!" He thrust a scrap of metal into her hand. -"Hold it tightly. It has to touch your skin." - -She caught her breath. - -"I was blocked in my quarters, and I couldn't come out," she told him -unsteadily. "I was going crazy with terror, because you'd told me what -it might mean. I tried--so hard--to break through. But flesh and blood -can't face the Circuit. I hadn't any reason to hope that you'd be able -to do anything, but I did hope." - -"I told them I'd kill both of us," he said fiercely. "Maybe I shall! -But if I can only find the right cable, we'll have a chance!" - -Suddenly, every muscle in his body went rigid and a screaming torment -filled him. It lasted for part of a second. His face went gray. He -wetted his lips. - -"Burt!" he said thickly. "He had a psychometer under his robe. They -came here, and he knew my psychogram was changed by the hafnium I'd -found, so while they talked he stole the new pattern. It's taken them -this long to get it ready for the Circuit. Now they're putting it in." - -With a sudden, convulsive jerk, he went rigid once more. His muscles -stood out in great knots. He was paralyzed, with every nerve and sinew -in his body tensed to tetanic rigor. Agony filled him with an exquisite -torment. It was the Disciplinary Circuit. It was those waves broadcast, -focused upon him at full power. They would have found him anywhere upon -the planet. And their torment was unspeakable. - -Dona sobbed suddenly. - -"Kim!" she cried desperately. "I know you can hear me! Listen! They -must have me on the Circuit too, only what you gave me has thrown it -off. They expect to hold us paralyzed while they cut in with torches -and take us. But they mustn't! So I'm going to give you the thing -you gave me. If it changed my pattern, it will change yours again, -to something they can't guess at." She sobbed again. "Please, Kim! -Don't give it back. Go ahead and do what you planned, whatever it is. -And if you don't win out, please kill me before you give up. Please! -I don't want to be conditioned to do whatever they want in their -pleasure-palaces." - -She took the tiny sliver of metal in her shaking fingers. She pushed -aside the flesh of her hand to put it in his grip. Courageously she -released it. - -The agonized paralysis left Kim Rendell. But now Dona was a pitiful -figure of agony. - -Kim groaned. Rage filled him. His anguish and fury was so terrible -that he would have destroyed the whole planet, had he been able. But -he could not permit her gift, which she had given at the price of such -torment, to go without reward. He must struggle on to save them both, -even though now he had no hope. - -He sprang to the control-board. He stabbed at buttons almost at random, -hoping for a response. He'd tried to get the ship into some sort of -operating condition, but now there was no time. Frenziedly he attempted -to find some combination of controls which would make something, -anything happen. He slipped the second bit of hafnium into his mouth to -have both hands free. In desperation he ripped the control-board panel -loose. He saw clipped wires everywhere behind it. Seizing the dangling -ends, he struck them fiercely together. A lurid blue spark leaped. He -cried out in triumph, and the morsel of metal Dona had sacrificed to -him dropped from his lips. - -His muscles contorted and agony filled him. - -There was a roaring noise. The _Starshine_ bucked violently. There -were crashes and there was a feeling of intolerable weight which he -could feel, despite his agony. The ship reeled crazily. It smashed -through a wall. It battered into a roof. It spun like a mad thing and -went skyward tail-first with Kim Rendell in frozen, helpless torment, -holding two cables together with muscles utterly beyond his control. - -It went up toward empty space, in which no other vessel was navigating -anywhere. - - - - - 3 - - _Rays of Destruction_ - - -Eventually the "_Starshine_," alone in space as no other -space-ship had been alone in twenty thousand years, behaved like a -sentient thing. At first, of course, her actions were frenzied, almost -insane, as if the Disciplinary Circuit waves which made Dona a statue -of agony and kept Kim frozen with contorted muscles could affect the -space-ship too. - -Wildly the little vessel went upward through air which screamed as it -parted for her passage. She yawed and swayed and ludicrously plunged -backwards. The screaming of the air rose to a shriek, and then to a -high thin whistle, and then ceased altogether. Finally she was free of -the air of Alphin III. - -After this she really made speed, backing away from the planet. Her -meteor-detectors had been turned on in one of Kim's random splicings, -and when current reached them they reported a monstrous obstruction in -her path and shunted in the meteor-repelling beams. The obstacle was -the planet itself, and the beams tried to push it away. Naturally, they -pushed the ship itself away, out into the huge chasm of interplanetary -space. - -It kept up for a long time, too, because Kim was paralyzed by the -broadcast waves. They were kept focused upon him by the psychographic -locator. So long as those waves of the Disciplinary Circuit came -up through the ionosphere, Kim's spasmodically contracted muscles -kept together the two cables which had started everything. But the -_Starshine_ backed away at four gravities acceleration, faster and -ever faster, and ordinary psychographic locators are not designed for -use beyond planetary distances. - -Ultimately the tormenting radio-beam lessened from sheer distance. At -last the influence broke off suddenly and Kim's hands on the leads -dropped away. The beam fumbled back to contact, and wavered away again, -and presently was only a tingling sensation probing for a target the -locators could no longer keep lined up. - -Then the _Starshine_ seemed to lose her frenzy and become merely -a derelict. She sped on, giving no sign of life for a time. Then her -vision-ports glowed abruptly. Kim Rendell, working desperately against -time and with the chill of outer space creeping into the ship's -unpowered hull, had found a severed cable which supplied light and -heat. - -An hour later still, the ship steadied in her motion. He had traced -down the gyros' power-lead and set them to work. - -Two hours later yet the _Starshine_ paused in her flight. Her -long, pointed nose turned about. A new element of motion entered the -picture she made. She changed course. - -At last, as if having her drive finally in operation gave her something -of purposefulness, the slim space-ship ceased to look frenzied or -frowsy or bemused, and swam through space with a serene competence, -like something very much alive and knowing exactly what she was about. - -She came to rest upon the almost but not quite airless bulk of Alphin -II some thirty hours after her escape from Alphin III. Kim was -desperately hungry. But for the lesser gravity of the smaller inner -planet, which was responsible for its thinned-out atmosphere, he might -have staggered as he walked. Certainly a normal space-suit would have -been a heavy burden for a man who had starved for days. Dona, also, -looked pale and worn-out when she took from him the things he brought -back through the airlock. - -They put the great masses of spongy, woody stuff in the synthesizer. It -was organic matter. Some of it, perhaps, could have been consumed as -food in its original state. But the synthesizer received it, and hummed -and buzzed quietly to itself, and presently the man and woman ate. -The synthesizer was not the equivalent of those magnificently complex -food-machines which in public dining-halls provide almost every dish -the gourmets have ever invented from raw materials. But it did make a -palatable meal from the tasteless vegetation of the small planet. - -Kim said quietly, when they had finished eating, "Now we'll find out -for certain what Burt intends to do about us." He grimaced. "He's -dangerously intelligent. He underestimated me before. He may consider -us dead, or he may overestimate us. I think he'll play it safe. I -would, in his place." - -"What does that mean?" Dona asked wistfully. "We will be able -to go to some other planet, won't we, Kim? As if we'd gone in the -matter-transmitter in a perfectly normal fashion? Simply to take up -residence on another world?" - -Kim shook his head. "I'm beginning to doubt it," he said slowly. "The -discovery that with a bit of hafnium a man can change his psychographic -pattern is high explosive. If the Disciplinary Circuit can't pick him -out as an individual, any man can defy any government which depends -on the Circuit. Which means that no government is safe. I've got to -remove you for the sake of the government everywhere in the Galaxy." - -"But they can't touch us here," said Dona. "We're safe now." - -Kim shook his head. - -"No. I was too hungry to think, before. We're not safe. I've got to -work like the devil. Do you remember your Galactic History? Remember -what the Disciplinary Circuit was built up to? Remember the Last War? -It's not only the space-ships which went into museums. I'm suddenly -scared stiff." - -He stood up and abruptly began to put on the space-suit again. His face -had become haggard. - -"In the Last War there were no battles, only massacres," he said curtly -as he snapped buckles. "There was no victory. They used a beam which -was a stepped-up version of the Disciplinary Circuit. They called it -a fighting-beam, then, and they thought they could fight with it. But -they couldn't. It simply made war impossible. So ultimately they hooded -over the projectors of the fighting-beams, and most of them probably -fell to rust. But there are some in the museums. If Burt and the others -want to play safe, they'll haul those projectors out of the museum and -hook them up to find and kill us. And there's no question but that they -can do it." - -He stepped into the airlock and closed the door, still fumbling with -the last adjustments to his space-suit. - -Dona was puzzled by his gloomy forebodings. She heard the outer door -open. As she stood there bewildered, she heard him bringing more raw -food-stuff to the airlock with a feverish haste. He made two trips, -three, and four. - -She found herself screaming shrilly because of an agony already past. - -It had been a bare flash of pain. It was gone in the fraction of a -second, in the fraction of a millisecond. But it was such pain! It was -the anguish of the Disciplinary Circuit a thousand times multiplied. -It was such torment as the ancients tried vainly to picture as the lot -of damned souls in hell. Had it lasted, any living creature would have -died of sheer suffering. - -But it flashed into being, and was gone, and Dona had cried out in a -strangled voice. She was filled with a horrible weakness from the one -instant of anguish, and she felt stark panic lest it come again. - -The outer airlock door slammed shut. The inner opened. Kim came -staggering within. He did not strip off the space-suit. He ran -clumsily toward the now-repaired control-panel, his face contorted. - -"Lie down flat!" he shouted as he opened his face-plate. "I'm taking -off." - -The _Starshine_ roared from the almost-barren world which was -an inferior planet of the sun Alphin, not worth colonization by men. -Acceleration built up and built up and built up to the very limit of -what the human body could stand. - -After twenty minutes, it dropped from four gravities to one. - -"Dona!" Kim called hoarsely. - -She answered faintly. - -"They've got the ancient projectors hooked up," he said as hoarsely -as before. "They're searching for us. We were so far away that the -beam flashed past. It won't record finding us for minutes, as it'll -take time for the response to get back. That's what will save us, but -they're bound to touch us occasionally until we get out of range." - -The _Starshine_ swung about in space. The brutal acceleration -began again, at an angle to the former line of motion. - -Ten minutes later there was another moment of intolerable pain. Every -nerve in their bodies jumped in a tetanic convulsion. Had it continued, -their muscles would have torn loose from their bones and their hearts -would have burst from the violence of the fearful contraction. The -_Starshine_ would have gone on senselessly as a speeding coffin. -But again the searing torment lasted for only the fraction of a second. - -Back on Alphin III, great projectors swept across the sky. They were -ancient devices, those projectors. They were quaint, even primitive -in appearance. But a thousand years before they had been the final -word in armament. They represented an attack against which there was -no defense. A defense which could not be breached. Those machines had -ended wars. - -They poured forth tight beams of the same wave-frequencies and forms -of which the Disciplinary Circuit was a more ancient development -still. But where the Circuit was an exquisitely sensitive device for -the exquisitely graduated torment of individuals, these beams were -murderers of men. They were not tuned to the psychographic patterns of -single persons, but coarsely, in irresistible strength, to all living -matter containing given amino-chain molecules. In short, to all men. - -And they had made the Last War the last. There had been one battle in -that war. It had taken place near Canis Major, where there had been -forty thousand warships of space lined up in hostile array. The two -fleets were almost equally matched in numbers, and both possessed the -fighting beams. They hurtled toward each other, the beams stabbing out -ahead. They interpenetrated each other and went on, blindly. - -It was a hundred years before the last of the run-away derelicts -blundered to destruction or was picked up by other space-ships which -then still roved the space-ways. Because there was no defense against -the fighting-beams, which were aimed by electronic devices, a ship did -not cease to fight when its crew was dead. And every crew had died -when a fighting-beam lingered briefly on their ship. There was not -one single survivor of the Battle of Canis Major. The fleets plunged -at each other, and every living thing in both fleets had perished -instantly. Thereafter the empty ships fought on as robots against all -other ships. So there were no more wars. - -For two hundred years after that battle, the planets of the Galaxy -continued to mount their projectors and keep their detector-screens -out. But war had defeated itself. There could be no victories, but only -joint suicides. There could be no conquests, because even a depopulated -planet's projectors would still destroy all life in any approaching -space-ship for as many years as the projectors were powered for. But in -time, more especially after matter-transmitters had made space-craft -useless, they were forgotten. All but those which went into museums for -the instruction of the young. - -These resuscitated weapons were now at work to find and kill Kim -and Dona. In a sense it was like trying to kill flies with a -sixteen-inch gun. The difficulties of aiming were extreme. To set up a -detector-field and neutralize it would take time and skill which were -not available. - -So the beams swept through great arcs, with operators watching for -signs of contact. It was long minutes after the first contact before -the instruments on the projectors recorded it, because the news could -only go back at the speed of light. Then the projectors had to retrace -their path, and the _Starshine_ had moved. The beams had to fumble -blindly for the fugitives, and they told of each touch, but only after -it occurred. And Kim struggled to make his course unpredictable. - -In ten hours the beam struck four times only, because Kim changed -course and acceleration so fiercely and so frequently that a contact -could only be a matter of chance. - -Then for a long time there was no touch at all. In two days Alphin, the -sun, had dwindled until it was merely the brightest of the stars, with -a barely perceptible disk. On the third day the beam found them yet -again, and Dona burst into hysterical sobs. But it was not really bad, -this time. There is a limit to the distance to which a tight beam can -be held together in space, by technicians who have no space-experience -and instinctive know-how. - -Within hours after this fifth contact, Kim Rendell found the last key -break in the control-cables of the ship, and was able to throw on -the overdrive, by which the _Starshine_ fled from Alphin at two -hundred times the speed of light. Then, of course, they were safe. Even -had the beam of agony been trained directly upon the ship, it could not -have overtaken them. - -But Dona was a bundle of shrinking nerves when it was over, and Kim -raged as he looked at her scared eyes. - -"I know," she said unsteadily, when he had her in the control-room to -look at the cosmos as it appeared at faster-than-light speed. "I know -I'm silly, Kim. It can't hurt us any more. We're going to another solar -system entirely. They won't know anything about us. We're all right. -Quite all right. But I'm just all in little pieces." - -With somber brow, Kim stared at the vision-plates about him. The -Universe as seen at two hundred light-speeds was not a reassuring -sight. All stars behind had vanished. All those on either hand were -dimmed to near-invisibility. Ahead, where the very nose of the -space-ship pointed, there were specks of light in a recognizable -star-pattern, but the colors and the magnitudes were incredible. - -"We're heading now for Cetis Alpha," Kim said slowly, after a -long time. "It's the next nearest solar system. Our fuel-tanks -are one-twelfth full. We have power to travel a distance of fifty -light-years, no more, and it would take us three months to cover that. -Cetis Alpha is seven light-years away, or it was." - -"We're going to settle on one of the planets there?" Dona asked -hopefully. "What are they like, Kim?" - -"You might look them up in the Pilot," Kim said, rather glumly. "There -are six inhabited ones." - -"You sound worried," she said. "What is it?" - -"I'm wondering," Kim admitted. "If Burt and the Prime Board should send -word ahead of us by matter-transmitter, to these six planets and all -the other inhabited planets within fifty or a hundred light-years, -it would be awkward for us. Transmission by matter-transmitter is -instantaneous, and it wouldn't take too long for the governments on -the Cetis Alpha planets to set up detectors and remount the projectors -which could kill us. Burt would call us very dangerous criminals. He'd -say we were so dangerous we had better be killed before we land." He -paused, and added, "He's right." - -"I don't see why they should do anything so cruel." - -"We've struck at the foundation of government," Kim said savagely. "On -Alphin Three there's a pretense that all men are free, and we know -it's a lie. But on the other planets they don't even pretend. On Loré -Four they have a king. On Markab Two the citizens wear collars of -metal--slave-collars--and members of the aristocracy have the right to -murder social inferiors at pleasure. On Andrometa Nine the Disciplinary -Circuit, and so the government, is in the hands of a blood-thirsty -lunatic. The Circuit backs all governments alike, the supposedly free -and the frankly despotic governments impartially. We're a danger to all -of them. Even a decent government, if there is one, would dread having -its citizens able to defy the Circuit. Yet in ten words I can tell how -to nullify the one instrument on which all government is based. Once -that knowledge gets loose, nothing can suppress it." - -Dona sighed. - -"I was hoping we could go some place where we would be safe," she said. -"Isn't there any such place?" - -Kim's laugh was bitter. - -"I wonder if there's any place where we can be free," he said. "I -planned big, Dona, but it didn't work out. There wasn't another man on -Alphin Three who wanted to be free as much as I did. I'd about decided -that just the two of us would put on protectors and journey from one -planet to another in search of freedom. But then Burt saw you, and you -were locked up so you'd go frantic with fear and loneliness. Later -they'd have given you a psychological conditioning to cure you of -terror, and sent you away to Burt's pleasure-palace." - -"Why didn't you take me away before Burt saw me?" she asked. "Why did -you wait?" - -Kim groaned. "Because I wasn't ready. When I realized the danger, I -tried to get you, and I was caught. They found out what I had and -everything became hopeless. They put me on block to see if anyone would -try to befriend me, but I hadn't any friends. I didn't know anyone -else who wouldn't have been frightened if I'd told him he was a slave. -I threatened the Prime Board with a broadcast, but I'm afraid nobody -would have believed me." - -"It all happened because of me," Dona said. "Forget what I said about -wanting to be safe, Kim. I don't care any more, not if I'm with you." - -Kim scowled at the weird pattern of strangely-colored stars upon the -vision-plate. - -"We're using a lot of our fuel in trying for Cetis Alpha's planets. I'd -like to--well--have a marriage ceremony." - -Despite her anxiety, Dona burst out laughing. - -"It's about time, you big lug!" she cried. "I was beginning to lose -hope." - -Kim laughed too. "All right. I'll see if it can be managed. But if -warnings have been sent ahead of us, marriage may be difficult." - - - - - 4 - - _Outcasts of Space_ - - -Like a silver arrow, the "_Starshine_" continued to bore on -through a weird, synthetic Universe, two hundred times faster than -light. In the space-ship Kim worked angrily, making desperate attempts -to devise a method of nullifying the non-individualized fighting beams -with which--now that he was in free space in a space-ship--any attempt -to land upon an inhabited planet might be frustrated. - -In the end he constructed two small wristlets, one for himself and -one for Dona to wear. If tuned waves of the Circuit struck them, the -wristlets might nullify them. But if the fighting-beams struck, that -would be another story. - -Twelve days after turning on the overdrive, which by changing the -constants of space about the space-ship, made two hundred light-speeds -possible, Kim turned it off. He had previously assured himself that -Dona was wearing the little gadget he had built. As he snapped off the -overdrive field, the look of the Universe changed with a startling -suddenness. Stars leaped into being on every side, amazingly bright -and astoundingly varicolored. Cetis Alpha loomed almost dead ahead, a -glaring globe of fire with enormous streamers streaming out on every -side. - -There were planets, too. As the _Starshine_ jogged on at a normal -interplanetary--rather than interstellar--speed, Dona focused the -electron telescope upon the nearest. It was a great, round disk, -with polar ice-caps and extraordinarily interconnected seas, so that -there were innumerable small continents distributed everywhere. Green -vegetation showed, and patches of cloud, and when Dona turned the -magnification up to its very peak, they were certain that they saw the -pattern of a magnificent metropolis. - -She looked at it hungrily. Kim regarded it steadily. They did not speak -for a long time. - -"It would be nice there," Dona said longingly, at last. "Do you think -we can land, Kim?" - -"We're going to try," he told her. - -But they didn't. They were forty million miles away when a sudden -overwhelming anguish smote them both. All the Universe ceased to be.... - - * * * * * - -Six weeks later, Kim Rendell eased the _Starshine_ to a landing on -the solitary satellite of the red dwarf sun Phanis. It was about four -thousand miles in diameter. Its atmosphere was about one-fourth the -density needed to support human life. Such vegetation as it possessed -was stunted and lichenous. The terrain was tumbled and upheaved, with -raw rock showing in great masses which had apparently solidified in a -condition of frenzied turmoil. It had been examined and dismissed as -useless for human colonization many centuries since. That was why Kim -and Dona could land upon it. - -They had spent half their store of fuel in the desperate effort to find -a planet on which they could land. - -Their attempt to approach Cetis Alpha VI had been the exact type of -all their fruitless efforts. They came in for a landing, and while yet -millions of miles out, recently reinstalled detector-screens searched -them out. Newly stepped-up long distance psychographic finders had -identified the _Starshine_ as containing living human beings. -Then projectors, taken out of museums, had hurled at them the deadly -pain-beams which had made war futile a thousand years before. They -might have died within one second, from the bursting of their hearts -and the convulsive rupture of every muscular anchorage to every bone, -except for one thing. - -Kim's contrived wristlets had saved them. The wristlets, plus a relay -on a set of controls to throw the _Starshine_ into overdrive -travel through space. The wristlets contained a morsel of hafnium, so -that any previous psychographic record of them as individuals would -no longer check with the psychogram a searchbeam would encounter. -But also, on the first instant of convulsive contraction of muscles -beneath the wristlets, they emitted a frantic, tiny signal. That signal -kicked over the control-relay. The _Starshine_ flung itself into -overdrive escape, faster than light, faster than the pain-beams could -follow. - -They had suffered, of course. Horribly. But the pain-beams could not -play upon them or more than the tenth of a millisecond before the -_Starshine_ vanished into faster-than-light escape. They had -tried each of the six planets of Cetis Alpha. They had gone rather -desperately to Cetis Gamma, with four inhabited planets, and Sorene, -with three. Then the inroads on their scant fuel-supply and their -dwindling store of vegetation from Alphin II made them accept defeat. -The massed volumes of the Galactic Pilot for this sector, age-yellowed, -brittle volumes now, had told them of vegetation on the useless planet -of the dwarf star Phanis. They came to it. Kim was stunned and bitter. -And they landed. - -After the ship had settled down in a weird valley with fantastic -overhanging cliffs and a frozen small waterfall nearby, the two of them -went outside. They wore space-suits, of course, because of the extreme -thinness of the air. - -"I suppose we can call this home, now," Kim said bitterly. - -It was night. The sky was cloudless, and all the stars of the Galaxy -looked down upon them as they stood in the biting cold. His voice went -by space-phone to the helmet of Dona, by his side. - -"I guess I can stand it if you can, Kim," she said quietly. - -"We've got fuel for six weeks' drive," he said ironically. "That means -we can go to any place within twenty-five light-years. We've tried -every solar system in that range. They're all warned against us. They -all had their projectors in operation. We couldn't land. And we'd have -starved unless we got to some new material for the synthesizer. This -was the only place we could land on. So we have to stand it, if we -stand anything." - -Dona was silent for a little while. - -"We've got each other, Kim," she said slowly. - -"For a limited time," he said. "If we use our fuel only for heat and to -run the synthesizer for food, it will probably last several years. But -ultimately it will run out and we'll die." - -"Are you sorry you threw away everything for me, Kim?" asked Dona. "I'm -not sorry I'm with you. I'd rather be with you for a little while and -then die. Certainly death is better than what I faced." - -Kim made a furious gesture. - -"It's recognized, everywhere, that the population of a planet has the -right to make all the laws of that planet. We are the population here. -We could be married by our own act. But suppose we had children? When -our fuel gives out they'd die with us. I think we'd go mad anticipating -that. We can't even have each other. We're imprisoned here as they used -to imprison criminals. For life. We can have no hope. There is nothing -we can work at. We can't even try to do anything." - -He clenched his hands inside his space-gloves. Dona looked at him. - -"Are you going to give up, Kim?" - -"Give up what?" Then he said bitterly, "No, Dona. I'm going to find -some excuse for hoping. Some lie I can tell myself. But I'll know I'm -simply trying to deceive myself." - -There was a long silence. Hopelessness. Futility. - -"I've been thinking, Kim," Dona said softly, at last. "There are three -hundred million inhabited planets. There are trillions and quintillions -of people in the Galaxy. If they knew about us, some of them at least -would want to help us. There are some, probably, who'd hope we could -help them. If we were to think of a new approach to the problem we -face, and reach the people who would want to help us, it might mean -eventual rescue." - -"Signals travel at the speed of light," Kim said. "We'd be dead long -before even a tight-beam signal could reach another star-cluster, if -there were anybody there to receive or act on it. But there aren't any -space-ships except the _Starshine_. It was the last ship used in -the Galaxy." - -Dona said stoutly: - -"We've been regarding our predicament as if it were unique, as if -nobody else in the Universe wanted to be free. As if there was only -one problem--ours! I heard a story once, Kim. It was about a man who -had to carry a certain particular grain of dust to another place. A -silly story, of course. But this was the top grain in a dust-pile. The -man tried to find something that would pick up the one grain of dust, -and something that would hold it quite safe. But he couldn't solve the -problem. There wasn't any box that would hold a single grain of dust. -He couldn't even pick up a solitary dust-grain. And how could he carry -it if he couldn't pick it up?" - -"That's a fable," Kim said, harshly. "There's a moral?" - -Dona smiled. "Yes," she said. "There is. He picked up the dust-grain. -With a shovel. He picked up a lot of others, too, but that didn't -matter. And he could find a box to hold a hundred thousand dust-grains, -when he couldn't find a box to hold one." - -Kim was silent. Dona nodded and smiled at him. - -"If you want a new way to think, how about thinking not just of us and -our problem, but the problem of all the people like us who have gone -into revolt?" she said. "How about all the people who've been sent to -Ades? How about all those who will go in years to come? I don't know -the answer, Kim, but it's another way to think. Since we've failed to -solve a little problem by itself, suppose we look at it as part of a -big one? It's a new approach, anyhow." - -There was silence. The bright, many-colored stars overhead moved -perceptibly toward what would be called the west by age-old custom. -Weird shapes of frozen rock loomed above the space-ship, and the -starlight glimmered up on thin hoarfrost which settled everywhere upon -this small planet in the dark hours. - -Kim stirred suddenly, and was still again. Dona continued to watch -him. She could not see his face, but it seemed to her that he stood -straighter, somehow. Then, suddenly, he spoke gruffly. - -"Let's go back in the ship," he said. "Space-suits are admirable -inventions, Dona, but they have limitations. I can't kiss you through a -space-helmet." - -He did not wait until they were out of the airlock, and she clung to -him. Then he grinned for the first time in many days. - -"My dear," he said contentedly. "Not only are you the best-looking -female I ever saw, but you've got brains. Now watch me!" - -"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly. - -"Too much to waste time talking about it," he told her. "Want to -help? Look up Ades in the Pilot. I had completely forgotten I was a -matter-transmitter technician." - -He kissed her again, exuberantly, and strode for the _Starshine_ -record-room, shedding the parts of his space-suit as he went. He pulled -down the microfilm reels covering the ship's construction and zestfully -set to work to review them, making notes and sketches from time to -time. The reels, of course, contained not only the complete working -drawings of the entire ship, showing every bolt and rivet, but also -every moving part in stereoscopic relationship to its fellows, with -full data so that no possible breakdown could take place without full -information being available for its repair. - -Dona watched him furtively as she began the tedious task of hunting -through the Galactic Pilot of this sector, two-hundred-odd volumes, for -even a stray reference to the planet Ades. - -Ultimately she did find Ades mentioned. Not in the bound volumes of the -Pilot, but in the microfilm abbreviated Galactic Directory. Ades rated -just three lines of type--its space-coördinates, the spectral type of -its sun, a climate-atmosphere symbol which indicated that three-fourths -of its surface experienced sub-Arctic conditions, and the memo: - -"Its borderline habitability caused it to be chosen as a penal -colony at a very early date. Landing upon it is forbidden under all -circumstances. A patrol-ship is on guard." - -The memorandum was quaint, now that no space-line had operated in five -centuries, no exploring ship in nearly two, and the Space Patrol itself -had been disbanded three hundred years since. - -"Mmmm!" Kim said. "If we need it, not too bad. People could survive on -Ades. People probably have. And they won't be sheep, anyhow." - -"How far away is it?" Dona asked uneasily. "We have enough fuel for -twenty-five light-years' travel, you said." - -"Ades is just about halfway across the Galaxy," he told her. "We -couldn't really get started there if our tanks were full. The only way -to reach it is by matter-transmitter." - -But he did not look disheartened. Dona watch his face. - -"It's ruled out. What did you hope from it, Kim?" - -"A wedding," he said, and grinned. "But it isn't ruled out, Dona. -Nothing's ruled out, if an idea you gave me works. Your story about -the dust-grain hit my mind just right. I was trying to figure out how -to travel a hundred light-years on twenty-five light-years' fuel, even -though the Prime Board may have sent warnings three times that far. But -if you can't solve a little problem, make it a big one and tackle that. -That's what your story meant. It's a nice trick!" - - - - - 5 - - _Super-Science_ - - -Dona was puzzled by what Kim had said. She stared at him, wide-eyed, -trying to figure out his meaning. For a moment or two he made no -attempt to explain. He just stood there, grinning at her. - -"Listen, Dona," he said, finally. "Why did they stop making -space-ships?" - -"Matter-transmitters are quicker and space-ships aren't needed any -more." - -"Right!" Kim said. "But why was the _Starshine_ used by my revered -great-grandfather to bring the first colonists to Alphin Three?" - -"Because--well--because you have to have a receiver for a -matter-transmitter, and you have to carry it. Alphin Three was almost -the last planet in the Galaxy to be colonized, wasn't it?" - -"Yes. Why do you have to carry a receiver? No, don't bother. But do -answer this one. If two places are both too far to get to, what's the -difference?" - -"Why, none." - -"Oh, there's a lot!" he told her. "The next star-cluster is too far -away for the _Starshine_ with her present drive and fuel. To the -next galaxy is no farther. But when I stopped trying to think of ways -to stretch our fuel, and started trying to think of a way to get to the -next galaxy, I got it." - -She stared. - -"Are we going there to live?" she said submissively. But her eyes were -sparkling with mirth. - -He kissed her exuberantly. - -"My dear, I wouldn't put anything past the two of us together. But let -me show you how it works." - -He spread out the drawings he had made from the construction-records -while she searched the Pilot. He expounded their meaning -enthusiastically and she listened and made admiring comments, but it -is rather doubtful if she really understood. She was too much occupied -with the happy knowledge that he was again confident and hopeful. - -But the idea was not particularly complicated. Every fact was familiar -enough. Space-ships, in the old days, and the _Starshine_, in -this, were able to exceed the speed of light by enclosing themselves in -an overdrive field, which was space so stressed that in it the velocity -of light was enormously increased. Therefore the inertia of matter, -its resistance to acceleration, or its mass, was reduced by the same -factor, y. - -The kinetic energy of a moving space-ship, of course, had to remain -the same when an overdrive field was formed about it. Thus when its -inertia was decreased by the field, its velocity had to increase. -Mathematically, the relationship of mass to velocity with a given -quantity of kinetic energy is, for normal space, MV=E. In an overdrive -field, where the factor y enters, the equation is M/y, yV=E. The -value of y is such that speeds up to two hundred times that of light -result from a space-ship at normal interplanetary speed going into an -overdrive field. - -A matter-transmitter field, as everyone knows now, simply raises the -value of y to infinity. The formula then becomes M/infinity, infinity -V=E. The mass is divided by infinity and the velocity multiplied by -infinity. The velocity, in a planet-to-planet transmitter, is always -directly toward the receiver to which the transmitter is tuned. - -In theory, then, a man who enters such a transmitter passes through -empty space unprotected, but his exposure is so exceedingly -brief--across the whole First Galaxy transit was estimated to require -.0001 second--that not one molecule of the air surrounding him has time -to escape into emptiness. - -Thus the one device is simply an extension of the principle of -the other. A matter-transmitter is merely an enormously developed -overdrive-field generator with a tuning device attached. But until -this moment, apparently it had not happened that a matter-transmitter -technician was in a predicament where the only way out was to put those -facts together. Kim was such a technician, and on the _Starshine_ -he had probably the only overdrive field generator of space-ship -pattern still in working order in the Universe. - -"All I've got to do is to add two stages of coupling and rewind the -exciter-secondary," he told her zestfully. "Doing it by hand may take -a week. Then the _Starshine_ will be a matter-transmitter which -will transmit itself! The toughest part of the whole job will be the -distance-gauge. And I've got that." - -Worshipfully, Dona looked up at him. She probably hoped that he would -kiss her again, but he mistook it for interest. - -He explained at length. There could be, of course, no measure of -distance traveled in emptiness. Astrogation has always been a matter -of dead reckoning plus direct observation. But at such immeasurably -high speeds there could be no direct observation. At matter-transmitter -speeds, no manual control could stop a ship in motion within any given -galaxy! - -So Kim had planned a photo-gauge, which would throw off the -transmitter-field when a specific amount of radiation had reached it. -At thousands of light-speeds, the radiation impinging on the bow of -a ship, would equal in seconds the normal reception of years. When -a specific total of radiation had struck it, a relay would cut off -the drive field. Among other features, such a control would make it -impossible for a speeding ship to venture too close to a sun. - -Kim set joyously to work to make three changes in the overdrive -circuit, and to build a radiation-operated relay. - -Outside the space-ship the sky turned deep-purple. Presently the -dull-red sun arose, and the white hoarfrost melted and glistened wetly, -and most of it evaporated in a thin white mist. The frozen waterfall -dripped and dripped, and presently flowed freely. The lichenous plants -rippled and stirred in the thin chill winds that blew over the small -planet, and even animals appeared, stupid and sluggish things, which -lived upon the lichens. - -Hours passed. The dull-red sun sank low and vanished. The little -waterfall flowed more and more slowly, and at last ceased altogether. -The sky became a deep dense black and multitudes of stars shone down on -the grounded space-ship. - -It was a small, starved world, this planet, swinging in lonely -isolation around a burned-out sun. About it lay the Galaxy in which -were three hundred million inhabited worlds, circling brighter, hotter, -much more splendid stars. But the starveling little planet was the only -place in all the Galaxy, save one, where no Disciplinary Circuit held -the human race in slavery. - -Nothing happened visibly upon the planet during many days. There were -nights in which the hoarfrost glistened whitely, and days in which the -frozen waterfall thawed and splashed valiantly. The sluggish, stupid -animals ignored the space-ship. It was motionless and they took it -for a rock. Only twice did its two occupants emerge, to gather the -vegetation which was raw material for their food-synthesizer. On the -second expedition, Kim seized upon an animal to add to the larder, but -its helpless futile struggles somehow disgusted him. He let it go. - -"I prefer test-tube meat," he said distastefully. "We've food enough -anyhow for a long, long time. At worst we can always come back for -more." - -They went into the ship and stored the vegetable matter in the -synthesizer-bins. They returned, then, to the control-room. - -"I think it's right," Kim said soberly, as he took the seat before the -control-panel. "But nobody ever knows. Maybe we have a space-ship now -which makes matter-transmitters absurd. Maybe we've something we can't -control at all, which will land us hundreds of millions of light-years -away, so that we'll never be able to find even this galaxy again." - -"Maybe we might have something which will simply kill us instantly," -Dona said quietly. "That's right, isn't it?" - -He nodded. - -"When I push this button we find out." - -She put her hand over his. She bent over and kissed him. Then she -pressed down his finger on the control-stud. - -Incredible, glaring light burst into the viewports, blinding them. -Relays clicked loudly. Alarms rang stridently. The _Starshine_ -bucked frantically, and the vision-screens flared with a searing light -before the light-control reacted.... - -There was a sun in view to the left. It was a blue-white giant which -even at a distance which reduced its disk to the size of a water-drop, -gave off a blistering heat. To the right, within a matter of a very few -millions of miles, there was a cloud-veiled planet. - -"At least we traveled," Kim said. "And a long way, too. Cosmography's -hardly a living science since exploration stopped, but that star surely -wasn't in the cluster we came from." - -He cut off the alarms and the meteor-repeller beams which strove -to sheer the _Starshine_ away from the planet, as they had -once driven it backward away from Alphin III. He touched a stud -which activated the relay which would turn on overdrive should a -fighting-beam touch its human occupants. - -He waited, expectant, tense. The space-ship was no more than ten -million miles from the surface of the cloud-wreathed world. If there -were an alarm-system at work, the detectors on the planet should -be setting up a terrific clamor, now, and a fighter-beam should be -stabbing out at any instant to destroy the two occupants of the -_Starshine_. Kim found himself almost cringing from anticipation -of the unspeakable agony which only an instant's exposure to a -pain-beam involved. - -But nothing happened. They watched the clouds. Dona trained the -electron telescope upon them. They were not continuous. There were -rifts through which solidity could be glimpsed, sometimes clearly, and -sometimes as through mist. - -She put in an infra-red filter and stepped up the illumination. The -surface of the planet came into view on the telescope-screen. They -saw cities. They saw patches of vegetation of unvarying texture, -which could only be cultivated areas providing raw material for the -food-synthesizers. They saw one city of truly colossal size. - -"We'll go in on planetary drive," Kim said quietly. "We must have gone -beyond news of us, or they'd have stabbed at us before now. But we'll -be careful. I think we'd better sneak in on the night-side. We'll turn -on the communicator, by the way. We may get some idea of the identity -of this sun." - -He put the little ship into a power-orbit, slanting steeply inward in a -curve which would make contact with the planet's atmosphere just beyond -the sunset line. He watched the hull-thermometers for their indications. - -They touched air very high up, and went down and down, fumbling and -cautious. The vision-screens were blank for a long time, but the -instruments told of solidity two hundred miles below, then one hundred, -then fifty, twenty-five, ten-- - -Suddenly the communicator-speaker spoke in a gabble of confusing -voices. Dona tuned it down to one. All the Galaxy spoke the same -language, of course, but this dialect was strangely accented. Presently -they grew accustomed and could understand. - -"We all take pride in the perfection of our life," the voice said -unctuously. "Ten thousand years ago perfection was attained upon this -planet, and it is for us to maintain that perfection. Unquestioningly, -we obey our rulers, because obedience is a part of perfection. -Sometimes our rulers give us orders which, to all appearances, are -severe. It is not always easy to obey. But the more difficult obedience -may be, the more necessary it is for perfection. The Disciplinary -Circuit is a reminder of that need as it touches us once each day to -spur us to perfection. The destruction of a family, even to first and -second cousins, for the disobedience of a single member, is necessary -that every seed of imperfection shall be eliminated from our life." - -Kim and Dona looked at each other. Dona turned to another of the voices. - -"People of Uvan!" The tones were harsh and arrogant. "I am your new -lord. These are your orders. Your taxes are increased by one-tenth. I -require absolute obedience not only to myself, but to my guards. If -any man, woman or child shall so much as think a protest against my -lightest command, he or she shall writhe in agony in a public place -until death comes, and it will not come quickly! Before my guards -you will kneel. Before my personal attendants you will prostrate -yourselves, not daring to lift your eyes. That is all for the present." - -Dona cut it off quickly. A dry, crisp voice came in on a higher -wave-length. - -"This is Matix speaking. You will arrange at once to procure from -Khamil Four a shipment of fighting animals for the Lord Sohn's festival -four days hence. Fliers will arrive at the matter-transmitter to take -them on board tomorrow afternoon two hours before sunset. Lord Sohn -was most pleased with the gheets in the last shipment. They do not -fight well against men, but against women they are fairly deadly. In -addition--" - -"Somehow, I don't think we'll land, Dona," Kim said very quietly. "But -turn back to the first voice." - -Her hand shook, but she obeyed. The unctuous voice had somehow the air -of ending its speech. - -"Before going on, I repeat we are grateful for the perfection of our -way of life, and we resolve firmly that so long as our planet shall -circle Altair, in no wise will we depart from it." - -Kim turned the nose of the _Starshine_ upward. The stars of the -Galaxy seemed strangely bright and monstrously indifferent. The little -space-ship drove back into the heavens. - -After a pause, Kim turned to Dona. - -"Look up Altair," he said. "We came a very long way indeed." - -There was silence save for the rustling of the index-volume as Dona -searched for Altair in the sun-index. Presently she read off the -space-coördinates. Kim calculated, ruefully. - -"That wasn't space-travel," he said drily. "That was -matter-transmission. The _Starshine_ is a matter-transmitter, -Dona, transmitting itself and us. I wasn't aware of any interval -between the time I pressed the stud and the time the altered field shut -off. But we came almost a quarter across the Galaxy." - -"It was--horrible," Dona said, shivering. "I thought Alphin Three was -bad, but the tyranny here is ghastly." - -"Alphin Three is a new planet," Kim told her grimly. "This one below us -is old. Alphin Three has been occupied for barely two hundred years. -Its people have relatively the vigor and the sturdy independence of -pioneers, and still they're sheep! We're in an older part of the Galaxy -now and the race back here has grown old and stupid and cruel. And I -imagine it's ready to die." - -He bent forward and made a careful adjustment of the light-operated -distance-gauge. He cut it down enormously. - -"We'll try it again," he said. He pressed the stud.... - - - - - 6 - - _Haven at Last_ - - -An increasing sense of futility and depression crept over Kim and Dona -during the next few days. - -They visited four solar systems, separated by distances which would -have seemed unthinkable before the alteration of the overdrive. - -There was no longer any sensation of travel, because no distance -required any appreciable period of time. Once, indeed, Kim commented -curtly on the danger that would exist if they went too close to the -Galaxy's edge. With only the amount of received light to work the -cut-out switch, under other circumstances they might have plunged -completely out of the Galaxy and to unimaginable distances before the -switch could have acted. - -"I'm going to have to put a limiting device of some sort on this -thing," he observed. "With a limiting device, the transmitter-drive -can't stay on longer than a few micro-seconds. If we don't, we might -find ourselves lost from our own Galaxy and unable to find it again. -Not that it would seem to matter so much." - -His skepticism seemed justified. The _Starshine_ was the only -vessel now plying among the stars. It had been of the last and best -type, though by no means the largest, ever constructed, and by three -small changes in its overdrive mechanism Kim had made it into something -of which other men had never dreamed. - -For the first time in the history of the human race, other galaxies -were open to the exploration and the colonization of men. It was -probably possible for the cosmos itself to be circumnavigated in the -_Starshine_. But its crew of two humans could find no planet of -their own race on which they dared to land. - -They approached Voorten II, and found a great planet seemingly empty of -human beings. There were roads and cities, but the roads were empty and -the cities full of human skeletons. Kim and Dona saw only three living -beings of human form, and they were skin and bones and shook clenched -fists and gibbered at the slim space-craft as it hovered overhead. The -_Starshine_ soared away. - -It hovered over Makab VI, and there were towers which had been -power-houses rusting into ruin, and human beings naked and chained, -pulling ploughs while other human beings flourished whips behind them. -The great metropolis where the matter-transmitter should have been was -ruins. Unquestionably the matter-transmitter here had been destroyed -and the planet was cut off from the rest of civilization. - -They came fearfully to rest above the planet center upon Moteh VII and -saw decay. The people reveled in the streets, but listlessly, and the -communicator brought only barbarous, sensual music and howled songs of -a beastliness that was impossible to describe. - -The vessel actually touched ground upon Xanin V. Kim and Dona actually -talked to two citizens. But those folk were blank-faced and dull. Yet -what they told Kim and Dona, apathetically, in response to questioning, -was so disheartening that Dona impulsively offered to take them away. -But the two citizens were frightened at the idea. They fled when Dona -would have urged them. - -Out in clear space again, on interplanetary drive, Kim looked at Dona -with brooding eyes. - -"It looks as if we can't find a home, Dona," he said quietly. "The -human race is finished. We completed a job, we humans. We conquered a -galaxy and we occupied it, and the job was done. Then we went downhill. -You and I, we came from the newest planet of all, and we didn't -fit. We're criminals there. But the older planets, like these, are -indescribably horrible." He stopped, and asked wryly, "What shall we -do, Dona? I'd have liked a wedding ceremony. But what are we going to -do?" - -Dona smiled at him. - -"There's one place yet. The Prime Board called us criminals. Let's look -up the criminals on Ades. Maybe--and it's just possible--people who -have mustered energy and independence enough to commit political crimes -would be bearable. If we don't find anything there, why, we'll go to -another galaxy, choose a planet and settle down. And I promise I won't -be sorry, Kim!" - -Kim made his computations and swung the _Starshine_ carefully. He -was able to center the course of the space-ship with absolute precision -upon the sun around which Ades circled slowly in lonely majesty. -He pressed the matter-transmission stud, and the alarm-bells rang -stridently, and there was the sun and the planet Ades barely half a -million miles from their starting-point. - -It was not a large planet, and there was much ice and snow. The -electron telescope showed no monster cities, either, but there -were settlements of a size that could be picked out. Kim sent the -_Starshine_ toward it. - -"Of course, I'm only head of this small city," said the man with the -bearskin hat. "And my powers are limited here, but I think we'll find -plenty to join us. I'll go, of course, if you'll take me." - -Kim nodded in an odd grim satisfaction. - -"We'll set up matter-transmitters," he suggested. "Then there'll be -complete and continuous communication with this planet from the start." - -"Right," said the man with the bearskin hat. He added candidly: "We've -brains on Ades, my friend. We've got every technical device the rest -of the Galaxy has, except the Disciplinary Circuit, and we won't allow -that! If this is a scheme of some damned despot to add another planet -to his empire, it won't work. There are three empires already started, -you know, all taken by matter-transmitter. But that won't work here!" - -"If you build the transmitters yourselves, you'll know there's -nothing tricky about the circuits," Kim said. "My offer is to take a -transmitter and an exploring party to the next nearest galaxy and pick -out a planet there to start on. Ades isn't ideal." - -"No," agreed the man with the bearskin hat. "It's too cold, and we're -overcrowded. There are twenty million of us and more keep coming out -of the transmitter every day. The Galaxy seems to be combing out -all its brains and sending them all here. We're short of minerals, -though--metals, especially. So we'll pick some good sound planets to -start on over in a second galaxy. Hm! Come to the communicator and -we'll talk to the other men we need to reach." - -They went out of the small building which was the center of government -of the quite small city. There was nothing impressive about it, -anywhere. It was not even systematically planned. Each citizen, it -appeared, had built as he chose. Each seemed to dress as he pleased, -too. - -To Kim and to Dona there was a startling novelty in the faces they saw -about them. On Alphin III almost everybody had looked alike. At any -rate their faces had worn the same expression of bovine contentment. - -On other planets contentment had not been the prevailing sentiment. On -some, despair had seemed to be universal. - -But these people, these criminals, were individuals. Their manner was -not the elaborate, cringing politeness of Alphin III. It was free and -natural. - -The communicator-station was rough and ready. It was not a work of -art, but a building put up by people who needed a building and built -one for that purpose only. The vision-screens lighted up one by one and -faces appeared, as variegated as the costumes beneath them. They had a -common look for aliveness which was heartening to Kim. - -The conference lasted for a long time. There was enthusiasm, and there -was reserve. The _Starshine_ would carry a matter-transmitter to -the next galaxy and open a way for migration of the criminals of Ades -to a new island universe for conquest. - -Kim would turn over the construction-records of the space-ship -so that others could be built. He would give the details of the -matter-transmitter alteration. No space-ships had been attempted -by the inhabitants of Ades, because fighting-beams would soon have -been mounted on useful planets, against them, and all useful planets -contained only enemies. - -"What do you want?" asked a figure in one vision-plate. "We don't do -things for nothing, here, and we don't take things without paying for -them, either." - -"Dona and I want only a place to live and a people to live among who -are free," Kim answered sharply. - -"You've got that," the man in the bearskin hat said. "All right? We'll -all call public meetings and confirm these arrangements?" - -The heads of other cities nodded. - -"We'll pass on the news to other cities at once," another man said. He -was one of those who had nodded. "Everybody will wish to come in on it, -of course. If not now, then later." - -"Wait!" Kim said suddenly. "How about the planets around us? Are we -going to leave them enslaved?" - -"Nobody can free a slave," a whiskered man in a vision-plate said -drily. "We could only release prisoners. In time we may have to take -them over, I suppose, but on the planet I come from there aren't a -dozen men who'd know how to be free if we emancipated them. They don't -want to be free. They're satisfied as they are. If any of them want to -be free, they'll be sent here, eventually." - -"I am reluctant to desert them," Kim answered slowly. - -"Count, man," the man with bearskin hat cried. "There are three -hundred million inhabited planets! All of them but Ades are ruled by -Disciplinary Circuits. If we set out to liberate them, it would take -one thousand years, and there are only twenty million of us. Designate -just one of us to stay on each planet to teach the people to be free -again. Otherwise we wouldn't do a tenth of the job and we'd destroy -ourselves by scattering. But, hang it all, we'd be tyrants! No! We go -on and start on a new galaxy. That's a job worth doing. We'll keep a -group of watchers here to receive the new ones who come here into exile -and forward them. Some day, maybe, we'll come back and take over the -old Galaxy if it seems worth while. But we've a job to do. How many -galaxies are there, anyhow, for us and our children and our children's -children to take over?" - -"It's a job that will never be finished," another voice said. "That's -good!" - - * * * * * - -There were trees visible from the window of the house that had been -offered by a citizen for Kim's and Dona's use. The sun went down beyond -those trees, with a glowing of many colors in the foliage. Kim had -never watched a sunset before except upon the towers and pinnacles of -a city. He had never noted quite this sharp tang in the air, either, -which he learned was the smell of fresh growing things. - -"I think I'm going to like living like this," he said to Dona. "Have -you noticed the way people act? They don't behave as if I were -important at all, in one way. They seem to think I'm commonplace. But -I've never before felt so definitely that I matter." - -"You do, Kim, darling," Dona said, wisely. She stood close beside him, -watching the sunset too. She looked up at him. "You matter enormously, -and they know it. But to themselves they matter, too, and when they -listen to you and agree with you it's because they mean it, instead of -just citizen-like politeness. It is good. I think it must be a part of -what we've been looking for. It's a part of freedom, I suppose." - -"And you," Kim said. "Do you feel important too?" - -She laughed at him and pressed close. - -"My dear!" she said. "Could I help it? Can any woman help feeling -important on her wedding-day? Do you realize that we've been married -two whole hours?" - - - - - PART TWO - - THE MANLESS WORLDS - - - - 1 - - _Empires in the Making_ - - -The speaker inside the house spoke softly. - -"Guests for Kim Rendell, asking permission to land." - -Kim stared up at the unfamiliar stars of the Second Galaxy, and picked -out a tiny winking light with his eyes. He moved to a speaker-disk. - -"Land and be welcomed." To Dona he added, "It's a flier. I've been -expecting something like this. We need fuel for the _Starshine_ -if we're not to be stuck on this one planet forever. My guess is that -somebody has come through the matter-transmitter from Ades to argue -about it." - -He moved to the edge of the terrace to watch the landing. Dona came and -stood beside him, her hand twisting into his. The night was very dark, -and the two small moons of Terranova cast no more than enough light -to outline nearby objects. The house behind Kim and Dona was low and -sprawling and, on its polished outer surface, unnamed Second Galaxy -constellations glinted faintly. - -The flier came down, black and seemingly ungainly, with spinning rotors -that guided and controlled its descent, rather than sustaining it -against the planet's gravity. The extraordinarily flexible vegetation -of Terranova bent away from the hovering object. It landed and the -rotors ceased to spin. Figures got out. - -"I'm here," said Kim Rendell into the darkness. - -Two men came across the matted lawn to the terrace. One was the -colony organizer for Terranova and the other was the definitely -rough-and-ready mayor of Steadheim, a small settlement on Ades back in -the First Galaxy. - -"I am honored," said Kim in the stock phrase of greeting. - -The two figures came heavily up on the terrace. Dona went indoors -and came back with refreshments, according to the custom of Ades and -Terranova. The visitors accepted the glasses, in which ice tinkled -musically. - -"You seem depressed," said Kim politely, another stock phrase. It was a -way of getting immediately to business. - -"There's trouble," growled the Mayor of Steadheim. "Bad trouble. It -couldn't be worse. It looks like Ades is going to be wiped out. For -lack of space-ships and fuel." - -"Lack of space-ships and fuel?" protested Kim. "But you're making them!" - -"We thought we were," growled the Mayor. "We've stopped. We're stuck. -We're finished--and the ships aren't. The same with the fuel. There's -not a drop for you and things look bad! But we can't make ships, and we -couldn't make fuel for them if we could! That's why we've come to you. -_We've got to have those ships!_" - -"But why not?" demanded Kim. "What's preventing it? You've got the -record-reels from the _Starshine_! They tell you everything, -from the first steps in making a ship to the last least item of its -outfitting! You know how to make fuel!" - -"Space!" exploded the Mayor of Steadheim. "Of course we know how! We -know all about it! There are fifty useless hulks in a neat row outside -my city--every one unfinished. We're short of metal on Ades and we had -to melt down tools to make them, but we did--as far as we could go. Now -we're stuck and we're apt to be wiped out because of it!" - -The Mayor of Steadheim wore a bearskin cap and his costume was -appropriate to that part of Ades in which his municipality lay. He -was dressed for a sub-arctic climate, not for the balmy warmth of -Terranova, where Kim Rendell had made his homestead. He sweated as he -gulped at his drink. - -"Tell me the trouble," said Kim. "Maybe--" - -"Hafnium!" barked the mayor. "There's no hafnium on Ades! The ships are -done, all but the fuel-catalyzers. The fuel is ready--all but the first -catalyzation that prepares it to be put in a ship's tanks. We have to -have hafnium to make catalyzers for the ships. We have to have hafnium -to make the fuel! - -"We haven't got it! There's not an atom of it on the planet! We're so -short of heavy elements, anyhow, that we make hammers out of magnesium -alloy and put stones in 'em to give them weight so they'll strike a -real blow! We haven't got an atom of hafnium and we can't make ships or -run them either without it!" - -Kim blinked at the Colony Organizer for Terranova. - -"Here--" - -"No hafnium here either," said the Colony Organizer gloomily. "We -analyzed a huge sample of ocean salts. If there were any on the planet -there'd be a trace in the ocean. Naturally! So what do we do?" - -Kim spoke unhappily. - -"I wouldn't know. I'm a matter-transmitter technician. I can do things -with power and, of course, I understand the _Starshine's_ engines. -But there's no record of the early, primitive types that went before -them--types that might work on other fuel. Maybe in some library on one -of the older planets--But at that, the fuel the _Starshine_ used -was so perfect that it would be recorded thousands of years back." - -"Take a year to find it," said the Mayor of Steadheim bitterly. "If -we could search! And it might be no good then! We haven't got a year. -Probably we haven't a month!" - -"We're beaten," mourned the Colony Organizer. "All we can do is get -as many through the Transmitter from Ades as possible and go on half -rations. But we'll starve." - -"We're _not_ beaten!" roared the Mayor of Steadheim. "We'll get -hafnium and have a fighting fleet and fuel to power it! There's plenty -of the blasted stuff somewhere in the Galaxy! Kim Rendell, if I find -out where it is, will you go get it?" - -"The _Starshine_," said Kim grimly, "barely made it to port here. -There's less than six hours' fuel left." - -"And who'd sell us hafnium?" demanded the Colony Organizer bitterly. -"We're the men of Ades--the rebels, the outlaws! We were sent to Ades -to keep us from contaminating the sheep who live under governments with -disciplinary circuits and think they're men! We'd be killed on sight -for breaking our exile on any planet in the First Galaxy! Who'd sell us -hafnium?" - -"Who spoke of buying?" roared the mayor. "I was sent to Ades for -murder! I'm not above killing again for the things I believe in! I've a -wife on Ades, where there are ten men for every woman. I've four tall -sons! D'you think I won't kill for them?" - -"You speak of piracy," said the Colony Organizer, distastefully. - -"Piracy! Murder! What's the difference? When my sons are in danger--" - -"What's this danger?" Kim said sharply. "It's bad enough to be -grounded, as we seem to be. But you said just now--" - -"Sinab Two!" snorted the Mayor of Steadheim. "That's the danger! We -know! When a man becomes a criminal anywhere he's sent to us. In the -First Galaxy a man with brains usually becomes a criminal. A free man -always does! So we've known for a long while there were empires in the -making. You heard that, Kim Rendell!" - -"Yes, I've heard that," agreed Kim. - -So he had, but only vaguely. His own home planet, Alphin Three, was -ostensibly a technarchy, ruled by men chosen for their aptitude for -public affairs by psychological tests and given power after long -training. - -Actually it was a tyranny, ruled by members of the Prime Council. Other -planets were despotisms or oligarchies and many were kingdoms, these -days. Every possible form of government was represented in the three -hundred million inhabited planets of the First Galaxy. - -But every planet was independent and in all--by virtue of the -disciplinary circuit--the government was absolute and hence tyrannical. -Empires, however, were something new. On Ades, Kim barely heard that -three were in process of formation. - -"One's the Empire of Greater Sinab," snorted the mayor, "and we've just -heard how it grows!" - -"Surprise attacks, no doubt," said Kim, "through matter-transmitters." - -"We'd not worry if that were all!" snapped the mayor. "It's vastly -worse! You know the old fighting-beams?" - -"I know them!" said Kim grimly. - - - - - 2 - - _The Deadly Beams_ - - -He did. They were the most terrible weapons ever created by men. They -had ended war by making all battles mass suicide for both sides. -They were beams of the same neuronic frequencies utilized in the -disciplinary circuits which kept men enslaved. - -But where the disciplinary circuits were used in place of police and -prisons and merely tortured the individual citizen to whom they were -tuned--wherever he might be upon a planet--the fighting-beams killed -indiscriminately. They induced monstrous, murderous currents in any -living tissue containing the amino-chains normally a part of human -flesh. - -They were death-rays. They killed men and women and children alike in -instants of shrieking agony. But no planet could be attacked from space -if it was defended by such beams. It was two thousand years since the -last attempt at attack from space had been made. - -That fleet had been detected far out and swept with fighting-beams and -every living thing in the attacking ships died instantly. So planets -were independent of each other. But when space-ships ceased to be used -the fighting-beams were needless and ultimately were scrapped or put -into museums. - -"Somebody," the mayor said wrathfully, "has changed those beams! -They're not tuned to animal tissue in general any more! They're tuned -to male tissue. To blood containing male hormones, perhaps! And Sinab -Two is building an empire with 'em! We found out only two weeks ago! - -"There's a planet near Ades--Thom Four. Four years ago its -matter-transmitter ceased to operate. The Galaxy's going to pot anyhow. -Nothing new about that! But we just learned the real reason. The real -reason was that four years ago fighting-beams killed men and left women -unharmed. - -"Every man on Thom Four died as the planet rotated. The beams came from -space. Every man and every boy and every male baby died! There were -only girls and women left." He added curtly, "There were half a billion -people on Thom Four!" - -Kim stiffened. Dona, beside him, drew closer. - -"Every man killed!" said Kim. "What--" - -The Mayor of Steadheim swore angrily. - -"Half the population! On Ades we're nine-tenths men! Women don't run to -revolt or crime. There'd not be much left on Ades if those beams swept -us! But I'm talking about Thom Four. The men died. All of them. So many -that the women couldn't bury them all. - -"One instant, the planet was going about its business as usual. The -next, every man was dead, his heart burst and blood running from his -nostrils. Lying in the streets, toppled in the baths and eating-halls, -crumpled beside the machines. - -"Boys in the schools dropped at their desks. Babes in arms, with their -mothers shrieking at the sight! Only women left. A world of women! -Cities and continents filled with dead men and women going mad with -grief!" - -Kim felt Dona's hand fumbling for his. She held it fast. - -"Go on!" said Kim. - -"When they thought to go to the matter-transmitter and ask for help -from other planets the matter-transmitter was smashed. They didn't -go at first. They couldn't believe it. They called from city to city -before they realized theirs was a manless world. Then, when they'd have -told the men of another planet what had happened--they couldn't. - -"For four years there was not one man or boy on the planet Thom Four. -Only women. The old ones grew older. The girls grew up. Some couldn't -remember ever seeing a man. No communication with other worlds. Then, -one day, there was a new matter-transmitter in the place of the smashed -one. Men came out of it. The women crowded about them. - -"The men were very friendly. They were from Sinab Two. Their employer -had sent them to colonize. There were a thousand women to every -man--ten thousand! Some of the women realized what had been done. -They'd have killed the newcomers. But some women fell in love with -them, of course! - -"In a matter of days every man had women ready to fight all other women -who would harm him. Their own men were dead four years. What else could -they do? More and more men colonists came. Presently things settled -down. The men were happy enough. They'd no need to work with all the -women about. - -"They established polygamy, naturally! Presently it was understood that -Thom Four was part of the empire of Greater Sinab. So it was. What -else? In a generation there'll be a new population, all its citizens -descended from loyal subjects of the emperor. - -"And why shouldn't they be loyal? A million colonists inherited the -possessions and the women of a planet! It was developed. Everything -was built. Every man was rich and with a harem. A darned clever way to -build an empire! Who'd want to revolt--and who could?" - -He stopped. The two moons of Terranova floated tranquilly, higher in -the sky. The soft sweet unfamiliar smells of a Terranovan night came to -the small group on the terrace of Kim Rendell's house. - -"That's what's ahead on Ades!" raged the Mayor of Steadheim. "And -I've four sons! A woman of Thom Four smashed the lock on the new -matter-transmitter, which set it to send only to Sinab, and traveled to -Khiv Five to warn them. But they laughed at her and when she begged to -be sent to a distant planet they grinned--and sent her to Ades!" - -He paused. - -"Not long after, a criminal from Khiv Five--he'd struck a minor noble -for spitting on him--came to Ades. There'd been inquiry for that woman. -Spies, doubtless, from Thom Four, trying to trace her. It was clear -enough she'd told the truth." - -"So," said Kim slowly, "you think Ades will be next." - -"I know it!" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "We've checked the planets -that have cut communication in our star-cluster. Twenty-one inhabited -planets have ceased to communicate in the past few years--the twenty -planets nearest to Sinab. We figured Khiv Five would be next. Then we'd -be in line for it. - -"Khiv Five cut communications four days ago! Every man on Khiv Five is -dead! We've had exiles from a dozen nearby planets. All know Khiv Five -is cut off. It's inhabited only by women, going mad with grief! - -"In a few years, when they grieve no longer, but despair instead, new -colonists from Sinab will come out of a new matter-transmitter to let -the women fall in love with them--and to breed new subjects for the -Empire of Sinab! So we've got to have space-ships, man! We've got to!" - -Kim was silent. His face was hard and grim. - -"Twenty planets those so-and-so's have taken over!" roared the mayor. -"They've murdered not less than four billion men already, and the -weasels have a hundred wives apiece and the riches of generations for -reward! D'you think I'll let that happen to Ades, with my four sons -there? _Space_, no! I want ships to fight with!" - -The two small moons rose higher. Strange sweet smells floated in the -air. Dona pressed close to Kim. On Terranova, across the gulf between -island universes, Kim was surely safe, but any woman can feel fear for -her man on any excuse. - -"It's a hard problem," said Kim evenly. "We barely made Terranova with -the _Starshine_, and there's just about enough fuel left to take -off with. Of course, on transmitter-drive she could go anywhere, but I -doubt that we've fuel enough to land her. - -"Here on Terranova we need supplies from Ades to live. If -fighting-beams play on Ades we'll starve. And, even if we had fuel the -_Starshine_ isn't armed and they'll have a fleet prepared to fight -anything." - -Dona murmured in his ear. - -"We're beaten, then," said the Colony Organizer bitterly. "Ades will -be wiped out, we'll starve and the Sinabians will go through the First -Galaxy, killing off the men on planet after planet and then moving in -to take over." - -Dona murmured again in Kim's ear. The Mayor of Steadheim growled -profanely, furiously. Dona laughed softly. The two visitors stared at -her suspiciously. - -"What do we do, Kim Rendell?" - -"I suppose," said Kim wryly, "we'll have to fight. We've no fuel and no -weapons--but that ought to surprise them." - -"Eh?" - -"They'll be prepared," Kim explained, "to defend themselves against -any conceivable resistance by any conceivable weapon. And a warship a -fairly intelligent planet could build should be able to wipe out ten -thousand _Starshines_. So when we attack them without any weapons -at all they won't quite know what to do." - -The two visitors simply stared at him. - -"You've got to get hafnium! You've got to get fuel! You can't face a -battleship!" - -"But," said Kim, "battleships have fuel on board and they'll have -hafnium too. It'll be risky--but convenient...." - - - - - 3 - - _Contact!_ - - -Actually there was less than a quart of fuel in the _Starshine's_ -tanks. Kim knew it ruefully well. It would run the little ship at -interplanetary speed for perhaps six hours. On normal overdrive--two -hundred light-speeds--it would send her just about one-seventh of a -light-year, and star-systems averaged eight light-years apart in both -the First and Second Galaxies. - -Of course, on transmitter-drive--the practically infinite speed -the _Starshine_ alone in history had attained--the ship might -circumnavigate the cosmos on a quart of fuel. But merely rising from -Terranova would consume one-third of it, and landing on any other -planet would take another third. - -Actually the little ship was in the position of being able to go almost -anywhere, but of having no hope at all of being able to come back. - -It rose from Terranova though, just three days after the emergency was -made clear. There were a few small gadgets on board--hastily made in -the intervening seventy-two hours--but nothing deadly--nothing that -could really be termed a weapon. - -The _Starshine_ climbed beyond the atmosphere of the Second Galaxy -planet. It went on overdrive--at two hundred light-speeds--to a safe -distance from Terranova's planetary system. Then it stopped in normal -space, not stressed to allow for extra speed. - -Kim jockeyed it with infinite care until it was aimed straight at the -tiny wisp of nebulous light which was the First Galaxy, unthinkable -thousands of light-years away. At long last he was satisfied. He -pressed the transmitter-field button--and all space seemed to reel -about the ship. - -At the moment the transmitter-field went on, the _Starshine_ had a -velocity of twenty miles per second and a mass of perhaps two hundred -tons. The kinetic energy it possessed was fixed by those two facts. - -But, when the transmitter-field enveloped it, its mass dropped--divided -by a factor approaching infinity. And its speed necessarily increased -in exact proportion because its kinetic energy was undiminished. It was -enclosed in a stressed space in which an infinite speed was possible. -It approached that infinite speed on its original course. - -Instantly, it seemed, alarm-gongs rang and the cosmos reeled again. -Suddenly there was a glaring light pouring in the forward vision-ports. -There were uncountable millions of stars all about and, almost straight -ahead, a monstrous, palpitating Cepheid sun swam angrily in emptiness. - -The _Starshine_ had leaped the gulf between galaxies in a time to -be measured in heart-beats and the transmitter-field was thrown off -when the total quantity of radiation impinging upon a sensitive plate -before her had reached a certain total. - -Dona watched absorbedly as Kim made his observations and approximately -fixed his position. The Mayor of Steadheim looked on suspiciously. - -"What's this?" - -"Locating ourselves," Kim explained. "From the Second Galaxy the best -we could hope for was to hit somewhere in the First. We did pretty -well, at that. We're about sixty light-centuries from Ades." - -"That's good, eh?" The mayor mopped his face. "Will we have fuel to get -there?" - -Kim jockeyed the _Starshine_ to a new line. He adjusted the -radiation-operated switch to a new value, to throw off the field more -quickly than before. He pressed the field-button again. Space reeled -once more and the gongs rang and they were deep within the Galaxy. A -lurid purple sun blazed balefully far to the left. - -Kim began another jockeying for line. - -"Khiv Five was beamed about a week ago," he said reflectively. "We're -headed for there now. I think there'll be a warship hanging around, if -only to drop into the stratosphere at night and pick up the broadcasts -or to drop off a spy or two. Dona, you've got your wristlet on?" - -Dona, unsmiling, held up her hand. A curious bracelet clung tightly to -the flesh. She looked at his forearm, too. He wore a duplicate. The -Mayor of Steadheim rumbled puzzledly. - -"These will keep the fighting-beams from killing us," Kim told -him wryly. "And you too. But they'll hurt like the dickens. When -they hit, though, these wristlets trip a relay that throws us into -transmitter-drives and we get away from there in the thousandth of a -second. The beams simply won't have time to kill us. But they'll hurt!" - -He made other adjustments--to a newly-installed switch on the -instrument-board. - -"Now--we see if we get back to Terranova." - -He pressed the transmitter-drive button a third time. Stars swirled -insanely, with all their colors changing. Then they were still. And -there was the ringed sun Khiv with its family of planets about it. - -Khiv Five was readily recognizable by the broad, straight bands of -irrigated vegetation across its otherwise desert middle, where the -water of the melted ice-caps was pumped to its winter hemisphere. -It was on the far side of its orbit from the stopping-place of the -_Starshine_, though, and Kim went on overdrive to reach it. This -used as much fuel as all the journey from the Second Galaxy. - -The three speed-ranges of the _Starshine_ were--if Kim had but -known it--quaintly like the three speeds of ancient internal-combustion -land-cars. Interplanetary drive was a low speed, necessary for taking -off and landing, but terribly wasteful of fuel. - -Overdrive had been the triumph of space-navigation for thousands of -years. It was like the second gear of the ancient land-cars. And the -transmitter-drive of Kim's devising was high speed, almost infinite -speed--but it could not be used within a solar system. It was too fast. - -Kim drove to the farther orbit of Khiv Five and then went into a long, -slow, free fall toward the banded planet below. In the old days it -would have been changed to a landing-parabola at an appropriate moment. - -"Now," said Kim grimly, "my guess is that we haven't enough fuel to -make anything but a crash-landing. Which would mean that we should all -get killed. So we will hope very earnestly that a warship is still -hanging about Khiv Five, and that it comes and tries to wipe us out." - -Dona pointed to a tiny dial. Its needle quivered ever so slightly from -its point of rest. - -"Mmmmm," said Kim. "Right at the limit of the detector's range. -Something using power. We should know how a worm on a fish-hook feels, -right now. We're bait." - -He waited--and waited--and waited. - -The small hundred-foot hull of the space-ship seemed motionless, seen -from without. The stars were infinitely far away. The great ringed sun -was a hundred and twenty million miles distant. Even the belted planet -Khiv Five was a good half-million miles below. - -Such motion as the _Starshine_ possessed was imperceptible. -It floated with a vast leisureliness in what would be a parabolic -semi-orbit. But it would take days to make sure. And meanwhile.... - -Meanwhile the _Starshine_ seemed to spawn. A small object appeared -astern. Suddenly it writhed convulsively. Light glinted upon it. It -whirled dizzily, then more dizzily still, and abruptly it was a shape. -It was, in fact, the shape of a space-ship practically the size of the -_Starshine_ itself, but somehow it was not quite substantial. For -minutes it shimmered and quivered. - -"You'll find it instructive," said Kim drily to the Mayor of Steadheim, -"to look out of a stern-port." - -The Mayor lumbered toward a stern-port. A moment later they heard him -shout. Minutes later, he lumbered back. - -"What's that?" he said angrily. "I thought it was another ship! When I -first saw it, I thought it was ramming us!" - -"It's a gadget," said Kim abstractedly. His eyes were on the indicator -of one of the detectors. The needle was definitely away from its point -of rest. "There's something moving toward us. My guess is that it's a -warship with fighting-beams--and hafnium and fuel." - - - - - 4 - - _Encounter in the Void_ - - -The mayor of Steadheim looked from one to the other of them. Dona was -pale. She looked full of dread. Kim's lips were twisted wryly, but his -eyes were intent on the dial. The mayor opened his mouth, and closed -it, then spoke wrathfully. - -"I don't understand all this! Where'd that other ship come from?" - -"It isn't a ship," said Kim, watching the dial that told of the -approach of something that could only be an enemy--and it had been a -matter of faith that only the _Starshine_ roamed the space-ways. -"I got it made back on Terranova. - -"We took a big reel of metal spring-wire, and wound it round and round -a shape like that of the _Starshine_. When it was in place we -annealed and tempered it so it would always resume that shape. And then -we wound it back on its reel. I just dumped it out in space from a -special lock astern. - -"It began to unroll, and of course to go back to the form it had been -tempered in. Here, with no gravity to distort it, it went perfectly -back into shape. Close to, of course, you can see it's only a shell and -a thin one. But a few miles away it would fool you." - -The needle on the detector-dial crept over and over. Kim wet his lips. -Dona's face was white. - -Then Kim winced and the Mayor of Steadheim roared furiously and the -Universe without the viewports swayed and dissolved into something -else. Alarm-gongs rang and the _Starshine_ was in a brand-new -place, with a blue-white giant sun and a dwarf companion visible -nearby. The ringed sun Khiv had vanished. - -"K-kim!" said Dona, choking. - -"I'm quite all right," he told her. But he wiped sweat off his face. -"Those beams aren't pleasant, no matter how short the feeling is." - -He turned back to the controls. The faint whine of the gyros began. The -_Starshine_ began to turn about. Kim applied power. But it took a -long time for the ship's nose to be turned exactly and precisely back -in the direction from which it had come. - -"It's getting ticklish," he said abruptly. "There's less than a cupful -of fuel left." - -"_Space!_" said the Mayor of Steadheim. He looked sick and weak -and frightened. "What happened?" - -"We were in a sort of orbit about Khiv Five," said Kim, succinctly. -"We had a decoy ship out behind us. A warship spotted our arrival. It -sneaked up on us and let go a blast of its beams--the same beams that -killed all the men on Khiv Five. - -"They didn't bother Dona--she's a girl--but they would have killed us -had not a relay flung the _Starshine_ away from there. The beams -got left behind. So did the dummy ship. I think they'll clamp on to -it to look it over. And if our engines keep turning over long enough, -we'll be all right. Now, let's see!" - -His jaw was set as the transmitter-drive came on and the familiar -crazy gyration of all the stars again took place and the gongs rang -once more. But his astrogation was perfect. There was the ringed sun -Khiv again with its banded fifth planet and its polar ice-cap and -its equatorial belt of desert with the wide bands of irrigated land -crossing it. Kim drove for the planet. He looked at the fuel-gauge. - -"Our tanks," he said evenly, "read empty. What fuel's left is in the -catalyzer." - -A needle stirred on the bank of indicators. Dona caught her -breath. Kim sweated. The indication on the dial grew stronger. The -electron-telescope field sparkled suddenly, where light glinted on -glistening metal. Kim corrected course subtly. - -There was the tiny form which looked so amazingly like a duplicate -of the _Starshine_. It was actually a thin layer of innumerable -turns of spring-wire. On any planet it would have collapsed of its own -weight. Here in space it looked remarkably convincing. - -But the three in the _Starshine_ did not look at it. They looked -at the shape that had come alongside it and made fast with magnetic -grapples that distorted the thin decoy wildly--the shape that gave no -sign of any activity or any motion or any life. - -That shape was a monster space-ship a thousand feet long. It looked as -if it bulged with apparatus of death. It was gigantic. It was deadly. - -"Our trick worked," said Kim uneasily. "We should begin to feel -uncomfortable, you and I, in minutes--if only our engines keep running!" - -He spoke to the Mayor of Steadheim. Almost as he spoke, a tiny tingling -began all over his body. As the ship went on, that tingling grew -noticeably stronger. - -"What--" - -"We've no weapons," said Kim, "nor time to devise them. But when we -were slaves on the planets we came from we were held enslaved by a -circuit that could torture us or paralyze us at the will of our rulers. -The Disciplinary Circuit. Remember? - -"I put a Disciplinary-Circuit generator in that little decoy ship. I -took a suggestion from what our friends yonder did to the fighting -beams. I tuned the Disciplinary Circuit to affect any man--but no -woman--within its range. - -"The generator went on when she grappled the decoy. Every man in it -should be helpless. If it stands like that, we'd be paralyzed too if we -went near. But not Dona." - -The tingling was quite strong. It was painful. Presently it would be -excruciating. It would be completely impossible for any man within -fifty miles of the decoy space-ship to move a muscle. - -"However," said Kim, "I've arranged that. I had Disciplinary-Circuit -projectors fitted on the _Starshine_. We turn them on that ship. -Automatically, the generator on the decoy will cut off. Our friends -will still be helpless, and we can go up and grapple--if our engines -keep going!" - -He threw a switch. A relay snapped over somewhere and a faint humming -noise began. The tingling of Kim's body ceased. The decoy and the enemy -space-ship grew large before them. The enemy was still motionless. - -Its crew, formerly held immobile by the circuit in the decoy, was now -held helpless by the beams from the _Starshine_. But neither Kim -nor the Mayor of Steadheim could enter the enemy ship without becoming -paralyzed too. - -Dona slipped quietly from the control-room. She came back, clad in a -space-suit with the helmet face-plate open. - -"All ready, Kim," she said quietly. - -Sweat stood out in droplets on Kim's face. The _Starshine_ -drifted ever so gently into position alongside the pair of motionless -shapes--the one so solid and huge, the other so flimsy and -insubstantial. Kim energized the grapples. There was a crushing impact -as the _Starshine_ anchored itself to the enemy. - -Kim reached over and pulled out a switch. - -"That's the wristlet relay switch," he told Dona. "We stay here until -you come back--even if a fighting-beam hits us. You've got to go -on board that monster and get some fuel and, if you can, a hafnium -catalyzer. If another battleship's around and comes up--you drive the -_Starshine_ home with what fuel you can get. We'll be dead, but -you do that. You hear?" - -"I'll--hurry, Kim," Dona said. - -"Be careful!" commanded Kim fiercely. "There shouldn't be a man on that -ship who can move, but be careful!" - -She kissed him quickly and closed the face-plate of her helmet. She -went into the airlock and closed the inner door. - -There was silence in the _Starshine_. Kim sweated. The outer -airlock door opened. The two ships were actually touching. The clumping -of the magnetic shoes of Dona's space-suit upon the other ship's hull -was transmitted to the _Starshine_. - -Kim and the Mayor of Steadheim heard the clankings as she opened the -other ship's outer airlock door--the inner door. Then they heard -nothing. - -Dona was in an enemy space-ship, unarmed. Subjects of the Empire of -Greater Sinab manned it. They or their fellows had murdered half the -population of the banded planet below. They were helpless, now, to be -sure, held immobile by fields maintained by the precariously turning -engines of the _Starshine_. - -But the fuel-gauge showed the fuel-tanks absolutely dry. The -_Starshine_ was running on fuel in the pipeline and catalyzers. -It had been for an indefinite time. Its engines would cut off at any -instant. - -When the lights flickered Kim groaned. This meant that the last few -molecules of fuel were going from the catalyzer. He feverishly cut -off the heaters which kept the ship warm in space. He cut off the -air-purifier. - -He became desperately economical of every watt of energy. He used power -for the Disciplinary-Circuit beams which kept the enemy crew helpless -and for the grapples which kept the two ships in contact--for nothing -else. - -But still the lights flickered. The engines gasped for power. They -started and checked and ran again, and again checked. - -The second they failed finally, the immobile monster alongside -would become a ravening engine of destruction. The two men in the -_Starshine_ would die in an instant of unspeakable torment. -Dona--now fumbling desperately through unfamiliar passage-ways amid -contorted, glaring figures--would be at the tender mercy of the crew. - -And when the three of them were dead the drive of the _Starshine_ -would be at the disposal of the Empire of Greater Sinab if they only -chose to look at it. The beastly scheme of conquest would spread and -spread and spread throughout the Galaxy and enslave all women--and -murder all human men not parties to the criminality. - -The lights flickered again. They almost died and on the -_Starshine_, Kim clenched his hands in absolute despair. On the -enemy warship the immobile crew made agonized raging movements. - -But the engine caught fugitively once more, and Dona worked desperately -and then fled toward the airlock with her booty while the Disciplinary -Circuit field which froze the Sinabian crew wavered, and tightened, and -wavered once more. - -And died! - -Dona dragged open the enemy's inner airlock door as a howl rose behind -her. She flung open the outer as murderous projectors warmed. She -clattered along the outer hull of the Sinabian ship on her magnetic -shoes, and saw the _Starshine_ drifting helplessly away, even the -grapples powerless to hold the two bodies together. - -At that sight, Dona gasped. She leaped desperately, with star-filled -nothingness above and below and on every hand. She caught the -_Starshine's_ airlock door. - -And Kim cut out the Disciplinary-Circuit beams and the flow of current -to the grapples and, with a complete absence of hope, pressed the -transmitter-drive button. He had no shred of belief that it would work. - -But it did. The equalizer-batteries from the engines gave out one -last surge of feeble power--and were dead. But that was enough, since -nothing else drew current at all. The stars reeled. - -This was a test. - -Almost anything could happen. Kim held his breath, anxiously watching -and waiting for the worst, his senses attuned to the delicate -mechanisms about him. - -And then, slowly, the reaction was fully determined, and he smiled. - - - - - 5 - - _The Needed Fuel_ - - -The "_Starshine_" had a mass of about two hundred tons and an -intrinsic velocity of so many miles per second. When the field went on, -her mass dropped almost to zero, but her kinetic energy remained the -same. Her velocity went up almost to infinity. And the Universe went -mad. - -The vision-ports showed stark lunacy. There were stars, but they -were the stars of a madman's dream. They formed and dissolved into -nothingness in instants too brief for estimate. For fractions of -micro-seconds they careered upon impossible trajectories across the -vision-ports' field of view. - -Now a monstrous blue-white sun glared in terribly, seemingly almost -touching the ship. An instant later there was utter blackness all -about. Then colossal flaring globes ringed in the _Starshine_, and -shriveling heat poured in. - -Then there was a blue watery-seeming cosmos all around like the vision -of an underwater world and dim shapes seemed to swim in it, and then -stars again, and then.... - -It was stark, gibbering madness! - -But Kim reached the instrument-board. With the end of the last morsel -of power he had ceased to have weight and had floated clear of the -floor and everything else. - -By the crazy, changing light he sighted himself and, when he touched -a sidewall, flung himself toward the now-dark bank of instruments. He -caught hold, fumbled desperately and threw the switch a radiation-relay -should have thrown. And then the madness ended. - -There was stillness. There was nothing anywhere. There was no weight -within the ship, nor light, nor any sound save the heavy breathing of -Kim and the Mayor of Steadheim. The vision-ports showed nothing. - -Looking carefully, with eyes losing the dazzle of now-vanished suns, -one could see infinitely faint, infinitely distant luminosities. The -_Starshine_ was somewhere between galaxies, somewhere in an -unspeakable gulf between islands of space, in the dark voids which are -the abomination of desolation. - -There were small clankings aft. The outer airlock door went shut. A -little later the inner door opened. And then Kim swam fiercely through -weightlessness and clung to Dona, still in her space-suit, unable to -speak for his emotion. - -The voice of the Mayor of Steadheim arose in the darkness which was -the interior of the _Starshine_--and the outer cosmos for tens of -thousands of light-years all about. - -Dona now had the face-plate of her helmet open. She kissed Kim hungrily. - -"--brought you something," she said unsteadily. "I'm not sure what, -but--something. They've separate engines to power their generators on -that ship, and there were tanks I thought were fuel-tanks." - -"Space!" roared the Mayor of Steadheim, forward. "Who's that talking? -Am I dead? Is this Hades?" - -"You're not dead yet," Kim called to him. "I'll tell you in a minute if -you will be." - -There were no emergency-lights in the ship, but Dona's suit was -necessarily so equipped. She turned on lights and Kim looked at the two -objects she had brought. - -"My dear," he told her, "you did it! A little fuel-tank with gallons in -it and a complete catalyzer. By the size of it, one of their beams uses -an engine big enough for fifty ships like this!" - -Clutching at every projection, he made his way to the engine-room. Dona -followed. - -"I'm glad, Kim," she said unsteadily, "that I was able to do something -important. You always do everything." - -"The heck I do," he said. "But anyhow...." - -He worked on the tank. She'd sheared it off with a tiny atomic torch -and the severed fuel-line had closed of itself, of course. He spliced -it into the _Starshine's_ fuel-line, and waited eagerly for the -heavy, viscid fluid to reach the catalyzer and then the engines. - -"We'll--be all right now?" asked Dona hopefully. - -"We were on transmitter-drive for five minutes, at a guess. You know -what that means!" - -She caught her breath. - -"_Kim!_ We're lost!" - -"To say that we're lost is a masterpiece of understatement," he said -wryly. "At transmitter-speed we could cross the First Galaxy in a -ten-thousandth of a second. Which means roughly a hundred thousand -light-years in a ten-thousandth of a second. And we traveled for three -hundred seconds or thereabouts. What are our chances of finding our way -back?" - -"Oh, Kim!" she cried softly. "It's unthinkable!" - -He watched the meters. Suddenly, the engines caught. For the fraction -of a second they ran irregularly. Then all was normal. There was light. -There was weight. An indignant roar came from forward. - -"If this is Hades--" - -They went to the control-room. The Mayor of Steadheim sat on the floor, -staring incredulously about him. As they entered he grinned sheepishly. - -"I was floating in the air and couldn't see a thing, and then the -lights came on and the floor smacked me! What happened and where are -we?" - -Kim went to the instrument-board and plugged in the heaters--already -the vision-ports had begun to frost--and the air-purifier and the other -normal devices of a space-ship. - -"What happened is simple enough," said Kim. "The last atom of power on -board the ship here threw us into transmitter-field drive. And when -that field is established it doesn't take power to maintain it. - -"So we started to move! There's a relay that should have stopped us, -but there wasn't enough power left to work it. So we traveled for -probably five minutes on transmitter-drive." - -"We went a long way, eh?" said the mayor, comfortably. - -"We did," said Kim grimly. "To Ades from its sun is ninety million -miles--eight light-minutes. Minutes, remember! The First Galaxy is a -hundred thousand light-years across. Light travels a hundred thousand -years, going ninety million miles every eight minutes to cross it. - -"The _Starshine_ travels a hundred thousand light-years in the -ten-thousandth part of a second. In one second--a billion light-years. -The most powerful telescope in the Galaxy cannot gather light from so -far away. But we went at least three hundred times farther. - -"Three hundred billion light-years, plus or minus thirty billions more! -We went beyond the farthest that men have ever seen, and kept on beyond -the farthest that men have ever thought of! - -"The light from the island universes we can see through the ports has -never yet reached the First Galaxy since time began. It hasn't had -time! We're not only beyond the limits that men have guessed at, we're -beyond their wildest imagining!" - -The Mayor of Steadheim blinked at him. Then he got up and peered out -the vision-ports. Dim, remote luminosities were visible, each one a -galaxy of a thousand million suns! - -"Hah!" grunted the mayor, "Not much to look at, at that! Now what?" - -Kim spread out his hands and looked at Dona. - -"Turning about and trying to go back," he said, "would be like starting -from an individual grain of sand on a desert, and flying a thousand -miles, and then trying to fly back to that grain of sand again. That's -how the First Galaxy stacks up." - -Dona took a deep breath. - -"You'll find a way, Kim! And--anyhow--" - -She smiled at him shakily. Whether or not they ever saw another human -being she was prepared to take what came, with him. The possibility -of being lost amid the uncountable island universes of the cosmos -had been known to them both from the beginning of the use of the -_Starshine_. - -"We'll take some pictures," Kim told her, "and then sit down on a -planet and figure things out." - -He set to work making a map of all the island universes in view -of the _Starshine's_ current position, with due regard to the -_Starshine's_ course. On the relatively short jumps within a -galaxy, and especially those of a few light-years only, he could simply -turn the ship about and come very close to his original position--the -line of it, anyhow. - -But he did not know within many many billions of light-years how far -he had come and he did know that an error of a hundredth of a second -of arc would amount to millions of light-years at the distance of the -First Galaxy. - -The positions of galaxies about the First were plotted only within a -radius of something like two million light-years. There had never been -a point in even that! At fifteen hundred thousand times that distance -he was not likely to strike the tiny mapped area by accident. - -He set to work. Presently he was examining the photographs by enlarger -for a sign of structure in one of the galaxies in view. One showed -evidences of super-giant stars--which proved it the nearest. He aimed -the _Starshine_ for it. He threw the ship into transmitter-drive. - -The galaxy was startlingly familiar when they reached it. The stellar -types were normal ones and there were star-clusters and doubtless -star-drifts too and Kim was wholly accustomed to astro-navigation now. - -He simply chose a sol-type sun, set the radiation-switch to stop -the little space-ship close by, aimed for it and pressed a button. -Instantly they were there. They visited six solar systems. - -They found a habitable planet in the last--a bit on the small side, but -with good gravity, adequate atmosphere and polar ice-caps to assure its -climate. - -They landed and its atmosphere was good. The Mayor of Steadheim stepped -out and blinked about him. - -"Hah!" he said gruffly. "If we've come as far as you say it was hardly -worth the trip!" - -Kim grinned. - -"It looks normal enough," he acknowledged. "But chemistry's the same -everywhere and plants will use chlorophyll in sunlight from a sol-type -sun. Stalks and leaves will grow anywhere, and the most efficient -animals will be warm-blooded. Given similar conditions you'll have -parallel evolution everywhere." - -"Hm--" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "A planet like this for each of my -four sons to settle on, now--when we've settled with those rats from -Sinab--" - -The planet was a desirable one. The _Starshine_ had come to rest -where a mountain-range rose out of lush, strange, forest-covered hills, -which reached away and away to a greenish sea. There was nothing in -view which was altogether familiar and nothing which was altogether -strange. The Mayor of Steadheim stamped away to a rocky out-crop where -he would have an even better view. - -"Poor man!" said Dona softly. "When he finds out that we can never go -back, and there'll be only the three of us here while horrible things -happen back--back home." - -But Kim's expression had suddenly become strained. - -"I think," he said softly, "I see a way to get back. I was thinking -that a place as far away as this would be ideal for the Empire of -Sinab to be moved to. True, they've murdered all the men on nineteen -or twenty planets, but we couldn't repair anything by murdering all of -them in return. - -"If we moved them out here, though, there'd be no other people for them -to prey on. They'd regret their lost opportunities for scoundrelism but -their real penalty would be that they'd have to learn to be decent in -order to survive. It's a very neat answer to the biggest problem of the -war with Sinab--a post-war settlement." - -"But we haven't any chance of getting back, have we?" - -"If we wanted to send them here, how'd we do it?" asked Kim. "By -matter-transmitter, of course. A receiver set up here--as there used to -be one on Ades--to which a sender would be tuned. - -"When a transmitter's tuned to a receiver you can't miss. But our -transmitter-drive is just that--a transmitter which sends the ship and -itself, with a part which is tuned to receive itself, too. - -"I'll set up the receiving element here, for later use. And I'll tune -the sender-element to Ades. We'll arrive at the station there and -everyone will be surprised." - -He paused and spoke reflectively. - -"A curious war, this. We've no weapons and we arrive at a post-war -settlement before we start fighting. We've decided how to keep from -killing our enemies before we're sure how we'll defeat them and I -suspect that the men had better stay at home and let the women go out -to battle. I'm not sure I like it." - -He set to work. In twelve hours one-half of the transmitter-drive of -the _Starshine_ had been removed and set up on the unnamed planet -of a galaxy not even imagined by human beings before. - -In fifteen hours the _Starshine_, rather limpingly, went aloft. - -An hour later Kim carefully tuned the transmitting part of the little -ship's drive to the matter-receiving station on Ades. In that way, and -only in that way, the ship would inevitably arrive at the home galaxy -of humanity. - -And he pushed a button. - -It arrived at the matter station on Ades instead of descending from the -skies. And the people on Ades were surprised. - - - - - 6 - - _Man-Made Meteor_ - - -No obvious warlike move had been made on either side, of course. Ades -swam through space, a solitary planet circling its own small sun. About -it glittered the thousands of millions of stars which were the suns of -the First Galaxy. - -Nearby, bright and unwinking, Sinab and Khiv and Phanis were the -largest suns of the star-cluster which was becoming the Empire of -Sinab. Twenty planets--twenty-one, with Khiv Five--were already cut -off from the rest of the Galaxy, apparently by the failure of their -matter-transmitters. - -Actually those twenty planets were the cradles of a new and horrible -type of civilization. On the other inhabited worlds every conceivable -type of tyranny had come into being, sustained by the Disciplinary -Circuit which put every citizen at the mercy of his government -throughout every moment of his life. - -On most worlds kings and oligarchs reveled in the primitive -satisfaction of arbitrary power. There is an instinct still surviving -among men which allows power, as such, to become an end in itself, -and when it is attained to be exercised without purpose save for its -own display. Some men use power to force abject submission or fawning -servility or stark terror. - -In the Empire of Greater Sinab there was merely the novelty that the -rulers craved adulation--and got it. The rulers of Sinab were without -doubt served by the most enthusiastic, most loyal, most ardently -cooperative subjects ever known among men. - -Every member of the male population of Sinab--where women were -considered practically a lower species of animal--could look forward -confidently to a life of utter ease on one planet or another, served -and caressed by solicitous females, with no particular obligation save -to admire and revere his rulers and to breed more subjects for them. - -It made for loyalty, but not for undue energy. There was no great worry -about the progress of the splendid plan for a Greater Sinab. All went -well. The planet Khiv Five had been beamed from space some nine days -since. - -Every man upon the planet had died in one instant of unholy anguish, -during which tetanic convulsions of the muscles of his heart burst it -while the ligaments and anchorages of other muscles were torn free of -his skeleton by the terrific contraction of muscle fibres. - -Every woman on Khiv Five was still in a state of frantic grief which -would become despair only with the passage of time. It was strange that -two guard-ships circling Khiv Five no longer reported to headquarters, -but it was unthinkable that any harm could have come to them. Records -showed that no other planet had practiced space-travel for centuries or -millennia. - -Only the Empire of Sinab had revived the ancient art for purposes of -conquest. There was no reason to be solicitous, so the Empire of Sinab -waited somnolently for time to pass, when colonists would be called -upon to take over the manless Khiv Five and all its cities and its -women. - -There was another small planet called Ades, next in order for -absorption into the Empire. A squadron had been dispatched to beam it -to manlessness--though volunteers for its chilly clime would not be -numerous. - -The failure of two guard-ships to report, of course, could have -no meaning to that other squadron. Of course not! There were no -space-ships save the fleet of Greater Sinab. There were no weapons -mounted for use against space-craft anywhere. - -There was nothing to hinder the expansion of Greater Sinab to include -every one of the Galaxy's three hundred million inhabited planets. So -nobody worried on Sinab. - -On Ades it was different. That small planet hummed with activity. It -was not the ordered, regimented-from-above sort of activity any other -planet in the Galaxy would have shown. It was individual activity, -often erratic and doubtless inefficient. But it made for progress. - -First, of course, a steady stream of human beings filed into the -matter-transmitter which communicated with Terranova in the Second -Galaxy. Gangling boys, mostly, and mothers with small boy-children -made the journey, taking them to Terranova where the beams of Sinabian -murder-craft could not cause their death. - -The adults of Terranova were not anxious to flee from Ades. The men -with wives--though there were only one-tenth as many women as men on -Ades--savagely refused to abandon them. Those without wives labored -furiously to complete the space-ships that waited for their finishing -touches on the outskirts of every community on the planet. - -The small drum of fuel taken by Dona from the warship off Khiv Five -was depleted by Kim's use of it, but the rest was enormously useful. -The catalyzer from the same warship was taken apart and its precious -hafnium parts recovered. And then the values of individualism appeared. - -A physicist who had been exiled from Muharram Two for the crime -of criticizing a magistrate, presented himself as an expert on -autocatalysis. With a sample of the catalyzed fuel to start the process -he shortly had a small plant turning out space-fuel without hafnium at -all. The catalyzed fuel itself acted as a catalyst to cause other fuel -to take the desired molecular form. - -A power-plant engineer from Hlond Three seized upon the principle and -redesigned the catalyzers to be made for the ships. For safety's sake a -particle of hafnium was included, but the new-type catalyzers required -only a microscopic speck of the precious material. - -Hafnium from the one bit of machinery from the one beam-generator of an -enemy war-craft, was extended to supply the engine-rooms of a thousand -space-craft of the _Starshine's_ design. - -In a myriad other ways individuals worked at their chosen problems. -Hundreds undoubtedly toiled to contrive a shield for the fighting -beams--tuned to kill men only--which were the means by which Ades was -to be devastated. The scientists of half a galaxy had tried that five -thousand years before without success. - -But one man did come up with a plausible device. He proposed a -shielding paint containing crystals of the hormone to which the -fighting-beams were tuned. The crystalline material should absorb the -deadly frequencies, so they could not pass on to murder men. - -It would have been simple enough to synthesize any desired organic -substance, but Kim pointed out grimly that the shield would be made -useless by changing the tuning of the beams. Other men devised -horrific and generally impractical weapons. - -But again, one man came up with a robot ship idea, a ship which could -be fought without humans on board and controlled even at interstellar -distances. Radio signals at the speed of light would be fantastically -too slow. - -He proposed miniature matter-transmitters automatically shuttling a -magnetic element between ship and planet-station and back to the ship -again, the solid object conveying all the information to be had from -the ship's instruments to the planet-station, and relaying commands to -the ship's controls. The trick could have been made to work, and it -would be vastly faster than any radiation-beam. But there was no time -to manufacture them. - -Actually, only four days after the return of the partly dismantled -_Starshine_ from the farther side of nowhere, Kim took off again -from Ades with fifty other ships following him. There were twenty other -similar squadrons ready to take space in days more. - -But for a first operation he insisted on a small force to gain -experience without too much risk. At transmitter-speeds there could be -no such thing as cruising in fleet formation, nor of arriving at any -destination in a unit. Guerilla warfare was inevitable. - -The navy of the criminals of Ades, though, went swirling up through the -atmosphere of that cold planet like a column of voyaging wild geese. It -broke through the upper atmosphere and there were all the suns of the -Galaxy shining coldly on every hand. - -The ships headed first for Khiv Five, lining up for it with such -precision as the separate astrogators--hurriedly trained by Kim--could -manage. It was a brave small company of tiny ships, forging through -space away from the sunlit little world behind them. The light of the -local sun was bright upon their hulls. - -Glinting reflections of many-colored stars shimmered on their shadowed -sides. They drove on and on, on planetary drive, seemingly motionless -in space. Then the _Starshine_ winked out of existence. By ones -and twos and half-dozens, the others vanished from space. - -It was the transmitter-drive, of course. The repaired _Starshine_ -vanished from space near Ades because it went away from Ades at such -speed that no light could possibly be reflected from it. It reappeared -in space within the solar system of Khiv because it slowed enough to be -visible. - -But it seemed utterly alone. Yet presently an alarm-gong rang, and -there was one of its sister-ships a bare ten thousand miles away. The -rest were scattered over parsecs. - -Kim drove for the banded planet on which dead men still lay unburied. -His fleet was to rendezvous above its summer pole, as shown by the size -of the ice-cap. There had been two guard-ships circling Khiv Five to -keep account of the development of grief into despair. Dona had robbed -one of them while its crew was held helpless by projectors of the -Disciplinary Circuit field. - -A second had been on the way to its aid when the _Starshine_ -reeled away with the last morsel of energy in its equalizing-batteries. -With fifty small ships, swift as gadflies though without a single -weapon. Kim hoped to try out the tactics planned for his fleet, and -perhaps to capture one or both of the giants. - -He picked up a third member of his force on the way to the planet -and the three drove on in company. Detectors indicated two others at -extreme range. But as the three hovered over the polar cap of Khiv -Five, others came from every direction. - -Then a wheezing voice bellowed out of the newly-installed space-radio -in the _Starshine's_ control-room. It was the voice of the Mayor of -Steadheim, grandly captaining a tiny ship with his four tall sons for -crew. - -"_Kim Rendell!_" he bellowed. "_Kim Rendell! Enemy ships in -sight! We're closing with them and be da_--" - -His voice stopped--utterly. - -Kim snapped orders and his squadron came swarming after him. The -direction of the message was clear. It had come from a point a bare -two thousand miles above the surface of Khiv Five and with coördinates -which made its location easy. - -It was too close for the use of transmitter-drive, of course. Even -overdrive at two hundred light-speeds was out of the question. On -normal drive the little ships--bare specks in space--spread out and -out. Their battle tactics had been agreed upon. They wove and darted -erratically. - -They had projectors of the Disciplinary Circuit field, which would -paralyze any man they struck with sufficient intensity. But that was -all--for the good and sufficient reason that such fields could be -tested upon grimly resolute volunteers and adjusted to the utmost of -efficiency. - -On the prison world of Ades, to which criminals were sent from all over -the Galaxy, there was no legal murder. Killing fighting-beams could not -be calibrated. There were no available victims. - -The detectors picked up a single considerable mass. Electron -telescopes focussed upon it. Kim's lips tensed. He saw a giant -war-craft, squat and ungainly--with no air-resistance in space there is -no point in streamlining a space-ship--and with the look of a mass of -crammed generators of deadly beams. - -It turned slowly in its flight. It was not one space-ship, but two--two -giant ships grappled together. It turned further and there was a -shimmering, unsubstantial tiny shape clutched to one.... - -"The dickens!" said Kim bitterly. He called into the space-phones; "Kim -Rendell speaking! Don't attack! Those ships aren't driving, they're -falling! They'll smash on Khiv Five and we can't do anything about it. -Keep at least fifty miles away!" - -A wheezing voice said furiously from the communicator. - -"They tricked me! I went for 'em, and the transmitter-drive went on. -I'll get 'em this time!" - -Kim barked at the Mayor of Steadheim, even as in the field of the -electron telescope he saw a tiny mote of a space-ship charge valorously -at the monsters. It plunged toward them--and vanished. - -Dona spoke breathlessly. - -"But what happened, Kim?" - -"This," said Kim bitterly, "is the end of the battle we fought with one -of those ships a week ago. We put out a decoy and that ship grappled -it. A Disciplinary Circuit generator went on and paralyzed its crew. - -"You remember that we went up to it and you went on board. I turned off -its generator from a distance and held the crew paralyzed with beams -from the _Starshine_. There was another ship coming when you got -off and we got away to the other side of beyond." - -"Yes, but--" - -"We vanished," said Kim. "The other enemy ship came up. Its skipper -must have decided to go on board the first for a conference, or perhaps -to inspect the decoy. It grappled to the first--and the magnetic surge -turned on the disciplinary field again in the gadget in the decoy! - -"Every man in both ships were paralyzed all over again! Both ships were -drifting with power off! They've been falling toward Khiv Five! Every -man of both crews must be dead by now, but the field's still on and it -will stay on! They'll crash!" - -"But can't we do anything?" demanded Dona anxiously. "I know you want a -ship." - -"It would be handy to have those beams modified so we could paralyze a -planet from a distance," said Kim grimly, "but these ships are gone." - -"I could go on board again," said Dona. - -"No! They'll hit atmosphere in minutes now. And even if we could cut -off the paralyzing field and get to the control-room nobody could pull -an unfamiliar ship out of that fall. I wouldn't let you try it anyhow. -They're falling fast. Miles a second. They'll hit with the speed of a -meteor!" - -"But try, Kim!" - -For answer he pulled her away from the electron telescope and pointed -through the forward vision-port. The falling ships had seemed almost -within reach on the electron-telescope screen. But through the -vision-port one could see the whole vast bulk of Khiv Five. - -Two thirds of it glowed brightly in sunlight, but night had fallen -directly below. The falling ships were the barest specks the eye -could possibly detect--too far for hope of overhauling on planetary -drive, too close to risk any other. Any speed that would overtake the -derelicts would mean a crash against the planet's disk. - -"I think," said Kim, "they'll cross the sunset line and fall in the -night area." - -They did. They vanished, as specks against the sunlit disk. Then, -minutes later, a little red spark appeared where the bulk of the banded -planet faded into absolute black. The spark held and grew in brightness. - -"They've hit atmosphere," Kim told her. "They're compressing the air -before them until it's incandescent. They're a meteoric fall." - -The spark flared terribly, minute though it was from this distance. -It curved downward as the air slowed its forward speed. It was an -infinitesimal comet, trailing a long tail of fire behind it. It swooped -downward in a gracefully downward-curving arc. It crashed. - -"Which," said Kim coldly in the _Starshine's_ control-room, "means -that two Sinabian warships are destroyed without cost to us. It's a -victory. But it's very, very bad luck for us. With those two ships and -transmitter-drive we could end the war in one day." - - - - - 7 - - _Ready for Action_ - - -Indignantly the Mayor of Steadheim bellowed from the space-phone -speaker and Kim answered him patiently. - -"The decoy still had a Disciplinary-Circuit field on," he explained for -the tenth time. "You know about it! When you tried to go galumphing -in, the field grabbed you and paralyzed you. When your muscles went -iron hard, the relay on your wrist--you wear it to protect you from the -fighter-beams--threw your ship into transmitter-speed travel. - -"So you were somewhere else. When you came back you charged in again -and the same thing happened. The relay protected you against our field -as well as the enemy fighter-beams. That's all." - -The mayor wheezed and sputtered furiously. It was plain that he had -meant to distinguish himself and his four sons by magnificent bravery. - -"There's something that needs to be done," said Kim. "Those two ships -are smashed but they hadn't time to melt. There'll be hafnium in the -wreckage, anyhow--and metal is scarce on Ades. See what you can salvage -and get it to Ades. It's important war work. Ask for other ships to -volunteer to help you." - -The Mayor of Steadheim roared indignantly--and then consented like a -lamb. In the space-navy of Ades there would not yet be anything like -iron discipline. Kim led his forces as a feudal baron might have led a -motley assemblage of knights and men-at-arms in ancient days. He led by -virtue of prestige and experience. He could not command. - -The fleet grew minute by minute as lost ships came in. And Kim -worked out a new plan of battle to meet the fact that he could not -hope to appear over Sinab with gigantic generators able to pour out -Disciplinary-Circuit beams over the whole planet. - -He explained the plan painstakingly to his followers and presently set -a course for Sinab. A surprising number of ships volunteered to go to -ground on Khiv Five with the Mayor of Steadheim to save what could be -retrieved of the shattered two warships. - -No more than thirty little craft of Ades pointed their noses toward -Sinab. They went speeding toward it in a close-knit group, matching -courses to almost microscopic accuracy and keeping their speed -identical to a hair in hopes of arriving nearly in one group. - -"So we'll try it again," said Kim into the space-phone. "Here we go!" - -He pressed the transmitter-drive button and all the universe danced a -momentary saraband--and far off to the left the giant sun Sinab glowed -fiercely. - -Five of the little ships from Ades were within detector-range. But -there were four monstrous moving masses which by their motion and -velocity were space-ships rising from the planet and setting out upon -some errand of the murder-empire. The same thought must have come -instantly to those upon each of the little ships. They charged. - -There had been no war in space for five thousand years. The last -space-battle was that of Canis Major, when forty thousand warships -plunged toward each other with their fighting-beams stabbing out -savagely, aimed and controlled by every device that human ingenuity -could contrive. - -That battle had ended wars for all time, the Galaxy believed, because -there was no survivor on either side. In seconds every combatant ship -was merely a mass of insensate metal, which fought on in a blind -futility. - -The fighting-beams killed in thousandths of seconds. The robot gunners -aimed with absolute precision. The two fleets joined battle and the -robots fixed their targets and every ship became a coffin in which all -living things were living no longer, which yet fought on with beams -which could do no further harm. - -With every man in both fleets dead the warships raged through -emptiness, pouring out destruction from their unmanned projectors. -It was a hundred years before the last war-craft, its fuel gone and -its crew mere dust, was captured and destroyed. But there had been no -space-fight since--until now. - -And this one was strangeness itself. Four huge, squat ships of war -rose steadily from the planet Sinab Two. They were doubtless bound -on a mission of massacre. The Empire of Sinab gave no warning of its -purpose. It did not permit the option of submission. - -Its ships headed heavily out into space, crammed with generators of the -murder-frequency. They had no inkling of any ships other than those of -their own empire as being in existence anywhere. - -Suddenly, out of nowhere, a slim and slender space-craft winked into -being--a member of Kim's squadron, just arrived. Within a fraction of -an instant it was plunging furiously for the Sinabian monster. - -The _Starshine_ also flung itself into head-long attack, though it -was unarmed save for projectors of a field that would not kill anyone. -The other ships--and more, as they appeared--darted valorously for the -giants. - -Meteor-repellers lashed out automatically. Scanners had detected the -newcomers and instantly flung repeller-beams to thrust them aside. They -had no effect. Meteor-repellers handle inert mass but, by the nature of -its action, an interplanetary drive neutralizes their effect. - -The small ships flashed on. - -Kim found himself grinning sardonically. There would be alarms ringing -frantically in the enemy ships and the officers would be paralyzed -with astonishment at the sudden appearance and instant attack by the -space-craft which could not--to Sinabian knowledge--exist. - -Four ships plunged upon one monster. Three dashed at another. Eight -little motes streaked for a third and the fourth seemed surrounded by -deadly mites of space-ships, flashing toward it with every indication -of vengeful resolution. - -The attacks were sudden, unexpected, and impossible. There was no time -to put the murder-beams into operation. They took priceless seconds to -warm up. - -In stark panic the control-room officer of the ship at which the -_Starshine_ drove jammed his ship into overdrive travel. The -Sinabian flashed into flight at two hundred times the speed of light. -It fled into untraceable retreat, stressed space folded about it. - -Kim spoke comfortably into the space-phone: - -"Everything's fine! If the others do the same...." - -A second giant fled in the same fashion. The small ships of Ades were -appearing on every hand and plunging toward their enemies. A third huge -ship made a crazy, irresolute half-turn and also took the only possible -course by darting away from its home planet on overdrive. Then the -fourth! - -"They'd no time to give an alarm," said Kim crisply. "Into atmosphere -now and we do our stuff!" - -The tiny craft plunged toward the planet below them. It swelled in the -_Starshine's_ forward vision-ports. It filled all the firmament. -Kim changed course and aimed for the limb of the planet. The ship went -down and down. - -A faint trembling went through all the fabric of the ship. It had -touched atmosphere. There was a monstrous metropolis ahead and below. -Kim touched a control. A little thing went tumbling down and down. He -veered out into space again. - -He watched by electron telescope. Like tiny insects, the fleet of Ades -flashed over the surface of the planet. They seemed to have no purpose. -They seemed to accomplish nothing. They darted here and there and fled -for open space again, without ever touching more than the outermost -reaches of the planet's atmosphere. - -But it took time. They were just beginning to stream up into emptiness -again when the first of the giant warships flashed back into view. This -time it was ready for action. - -Its beam-projectors flared thin streams of ions that were visible -even in empty space. The ships of Ades plunged for it in masses. The -fighting-beams flared terribly. - -And the little ships vanished. Diving for it, plunging for it, raging -toward it with every appearance of deadly assault, they flicked into -transmitter-drive when the deadly beams touched them. Because the crews -of every one were fitted with the wristlets and the relays which flung -them into infinite speed when the fighting-beams struck. - -In seconds, when the second and third and fourth Sinabian warships came -back from the void prepared for battle, they found all of space about -their home planet empty. They ragingly reported their encounter to -headquarters. - -Headquarters did not reply. The big ships went recklessly, alarmedly, -down to ground to see what had happened. They feared annihilation had -struck Sinab Two. - -But it hadn't. The fleet of Ades had bombed the enemy planet, to be -sure, but in a quite unprecedented fashion. They had simply dropped -small round cases containing apparatus which was very easily made and -to which not even the most conscientious of the exiles on Ades could -object. - -They were tiny broadcasting units, very much like one Kim had put in a -decoy ship, which gave off the neuronic frequencies of the disciplinary -circuit, tuned to men. The cases were seamless spheres, made of an -alloy that could only be formed by powder metallurgy, and could not be -melted or pierced at all. - -It was the hardest substance developed in thirty thousand years of -civilization. And at least one of those cases had been dropped on -every large city of Sinab Two, and when they struck they began to -broadcast. - - - - - 8 - - _Pitched Battle_ - - -Every man in every city of the capital planet of the empire was -instantly struck motionless. From the gross and corpulent emperor -himself down to the least-considered scoundrel of each city's slums, -every man felt his every muscle go terribly and impossibly rigid. Every -man was helpless and convulsed. And the women were unaffected. - -On Sinab Two, which was the capital of a civilization which considered -women inferior animals, the women had not been encouraged to be -intelligent. For a long time they were merely bewildered. They were -afraid to try to do anything to assist their men. - -Those with small boy-children doubtless were the first to dare to use -their brains. It was unquestionably the mother of a small boy gone -terribly motionless who desperately set out in search of help. - -She reasoned fearfully that, since her own city was full of agonized -statues which were men, perhaps in another city there might be aid. She -tremblingly took a land-car and desperately essayed to convey her son -to where something might be done for him. - -And she found that, in the open space beyond the city, he recovered -from immobility to a mere howling discomfort. As the city was left -farther behind he became increasingly less unhappy and at last was -perfectly normal. - -But it must have been hours before that discovery became fully known, -so that mothers took their boy-children beyond the range of the small -cases dropped from the skies. And then wives dutifully loaded their -helpless husbands upon land-cars or into freight-conveyors and so got -them out to where they could rage in unbridled fury. - -The emperor and his court were probably last of all to be released from -the effects of the disciplinary-circuit broadcasts by mere distance. -The Empire was reduced to chaos. For fifty miles about every bomb it -was impossible for any man to move a muscle. - -For seventy-five it was torment. - -No man could go within a hundred miles of any of the small objects -dropped from the _Starshine_ and her sister-ships without -experiencing active discomfort. - -Obviously, the cities housed the machinery of government and the -matter-transmitters by which the Empire communicated with its -subject worlds and the food-synthesizers and the shelters in which -men were accustomed to live and the baths and lecture-halls and -amusement-centers in which they diverted themselves. - -Men were barred from such places absolutely. They could not govern nor -read nor have food or drink or bathe or even sleep upon comfortable -soft couches. For the very means of living they were dependent upon the -favor of women--because women were free to go anywhere and do anything, -while men had to stay in the open fields like cattle. - -The foundation of the civilization of Greater Sinab was shattered -because women abruptly ceased to be merely inferior animals. The -defenses of that one planet were non-existent, and even the four -ships just taken off went down recklessly to the seemingly unharmed -cities--to land with monstrous crashes and every man in them helpless. -The ships were out of action for as long as the broadcast should -continue. - -But the fleet of Ades rendezvoused at Ades, and again put out into -space. They divided now and attacked the subjugated planets. They had -no weapons save the devices which every government in the Galaxy used. - -It was as if they fought a war with the night-sticks of policemen. But -the disciplinary circuit which made governments absolute, by the most -trivial of modifications became a device by which men were barred from -cities, and therefore from government. All government ceased. - -Active warfare by the Empire of Sinab became impossible. Space-yards, -armories, space-ships grounded and space-ships as they landed from the -void--every facility for war or rule in an empire of twenty planets -became useless without the killing of a single man and without the -least hope of resistance. - -Only--a long while since, a squadron of Sinabian warships had headed -out for Ades as a part of the program of expansion of the Empire. It -had lifted from Sinab Two--then the thriving, comfortable capital of -the Empire--and gone into overdrive on its mission. - -The distance to be covered was something like thirty light-years. -Overdrive gave a speed two hundred times that of light, which was very -high speed indeed, and had sufficed for the conquest of a galaxy, in -the days when the human race was rising. - -But even thirty light-years at that rate required six weeks of -journeying in the stressed space of overdrive. During those six weeks, -of course, there could be no communication with home base. - -So the squadron bound for Ades had sped on all unknowing and -unconscious, while Khiv Five was beamed and all its men killed and -while the _Starshine_ had essayed a return journey from the Second -Galaxy and then sped crazily to universes beyond men's imagining and -returned, and while the midget fleet of Ades wrecked the Empire in -whose service the travelers set out to do murder. - -The journeying squadron--every ship wrapped in the utter -unapproachability of faster-than-light travel--was oblivious to all -that had occurred. Its separate ships came out of overdrive some forty -million miles from the solitary planet Ades, lonesomely circling its -remote small sun. - -The warships of Sinab had an easier task in keeping together -on overdrive than ships of the _Starshine_ class on -transmitter-drive, but even so they went back to normal space forty -million miles from their destination--two seconds' journey on -overdrive--to group and take final counsel. - -Kim Rendell in the _Starshine_ flashed back from the last of the -twenty planets of Sinab as six monster ships emerged from seeming -nothingness. The _Starshine's_ detectors flicked over to the -"_Danger_" signal-strength. - -Alarm-gongs clanged violently. The little ship hurtled past a monster -at a bare two-hundred miles distance, and there was another giant a -thousand miles off, and two others and fifth and sixth.... - -The six ships drew together into battle formation. Their detectors, -too, showed the _Starshine_. More, as other midgets flicked into -being, returning from their raid upon the Empire, they also registered -upon the detector-screens of the battle-fleet. - -The fighter-beams of the ships flared into deadliness. They were -astounded, no doubt, by the existence of other space-craft than -those of Sinab. But as the little ships flung at them furiously, the -fighting-beams raged among them. - -Small, agile craft vanished utterly as the death-beams hit--thrown into -transmitter-drive before their crews could die. But the Sinabians could -not know that. They drove on. Grandly. Ruthlessly. This planet alone -possessed space-craft and offered resistance. - -It had appeared only normal that all the men on Ades should die. Now -it became essential. The murder-fleet destroyed--apparently--the tiny -things which flung themselves recklessly and went on splendidly to -bathe the little planet in death. - -The midgets performed prodigies of valor. They flung themselves at the -giants, with the small hard objects that had destroyed an empire held -loosely to the outside of their hulls. - -When the death-beams struck and they vanished, the small hard objects -went hurtling on. - -They could have been missiles. They traveled at miles per second. But -meteor-repellers flung them contemptuously aside, once they were no -longer parts of space-craft with drive in action. - -The little ships tried to ram, and that was impossible. They could do -nothing but make threatening dashes. And the giants went on toward Ades. - -From forty million miles to thirty millions the enemy squadron drove -on with its tiny antagonists darting despairingly about it. At thirty -millions, Kim commanded his followers to flee ahead to Ades, give -warning, and take on board what refugees they could. - -But there were nineteen million souls on Ades--at most a million had -crowded through to Terranova in the Second Galaxy--and they could do -next to nothing. - -At twenty millions of miles, some of the midgets were back with -cases of chemical explosive. They strewed them in the paths of the -juggernaut ships. With no velocity of their own--almost stationary -in space--someone had thought they might not activate the Sinabian -repellers. - -But that thought was futile. The repeller-beams stabbed at them with -the force of collisions. The chemical explosives flashed luridly in -emptiness and made swift expanding clouds of vapor, of the tenuity of -comets' tails. The enemy ships came on. - -At ten million miles two unmanned ships, guided by remote control, -flashed furiously toward the leading war-craft. They, at least, should -be able to ram. - -Repeller-beams which focused upon them were neutralized by the -space-torpedoes' drives. They drove in frenziedly. But as they drew -closer the power of the repeller-beams rose to incredible heights -and overwhelmed the power of the little ships' engines and shorted -the field-generating coils and blew out the motors--and the guided -missiles were hurled away, broken hulks. - -The fleet reached a mere five million miles from the planet Ades. -Its separate members had come to realize their invincibility against -all the assaults that could be made against them by the defending -forces--unexpected as they were--of this small world. - -The fleet divided, to take up appropriate stations above the planet and -direct their projectors of annihilation downward. They would wipe out -every living male upon the planet's surface. They would do it coldly, -remorselessly, without emotion. - -Presently the planet would become part of an empire which, in fact, -had ceased to function. The action of the fleet would not only be -horrible--it would be futile. But its personnel could not know that. - -The giant ships took position and began to descend. - -Odd little blue-white glows appeared in the atmosphere far below. -They seemed quite useless, those blue-white glows. The only effect -that could at once be ascribed to them was the sudden vanishing of -a dozen little ships preparing to make, for the hundredth time, -despairing dashes at the monsters. Those little ships winked out of -existence--gone into transmitter-drive. - -And then the big ships wavered in their flight. Automatic controls -seemed to take hold. They checked in their descent, and presently were -motionless.... - -A roar of triumph came to Kim Rendell's ears from the space-phone -speaker in the _Starshine's_ control-room. The Mayor of Steadheim -bellowed in exultation. - -"We got 'em, by Space! We _got_ 'em!" - -"Something's happened to them," said Kim. "What?" - -"I'm sending up a couple of shiploads of women," rumbled the Mayor of -Steadheim zestfully. "Women from Khiv Five. They'll take over! Remember -you had us go to ground to salvage the two ships that crashed there? - -"They bounced when they landed. They shook themselves apart and spilled -themselves in little pieces instead of smashing to powder. We picked -up half a dozen projectors that could be repaired--all neatly tuned to -kill men and leave women unharmed. - -"We brought 'em back to Ades and mounted 'em--brought 'em here with -wives for my four sons and a promise of vengeance for the other women -whose men were murdered. We just gave these devils a dose of the -medicine they had for us! - -"Those ships are coffins, Kim Rendell! Every man in the crews is dead! -But no man can go aboard until their beams are cut off! I'll send up -the women from Khiv Five to board 'em. They'll attend to things! If any -man's alive they'll slit his throat for him!" - - - - - 9 - - _Homecoming_ - - -A considerable time later, Kim Rendell eased the _Starshine_ -down through the light of the two Terranovan moons to the matted lawn -outside his homestead in the Second Galaxy. A figure started up from -the terrace and hurried down to greet him as he opened the exit-port -and helped Dona to the ground. - -"Who's this?" asked Kim, blinking in the darkness after the lighted -interior of the _Starshine_. "Who--" - -"It's me, Kim Rendell," said the Colony Organizer for Terranova. He -sounded unhappy and full of forebodings, "We've been doing all we can -to take care of the crowds who came through the matter-transmitter, but -it was a difficult task--a difficult task! - -"Now the crowd of new colonists has dropped to a bare trickle. Every -one has a different story. I was told, though, that you were coming -back in the _Starshine_ and could advise me. I need your advice, -Kim Rendell! The situation may be terrible!" - -Kim led the way to the terrace of his house. - -"I wouldn't say it will be terrible," he said cheerfully enough. "It's -good to get back home. Dona--" - -"I want to look inside," said Dona firmly. - -She went within, to satisfy the instinct of every woman who has been -away from home to examine all her dwelling jealously on her return. Kim -stretched himself out in a chair. - -The stars--unnamed, unexplored, and infinitely promising--of all the -Second Galaxy twinkled overhead. Terranova's two moons floated serenely -across the sky, and the strange soft scents of the night came to his -nostrils. Kim sniffed luxuriously. - -"Ah, this is good!" he said zestfully. - -"But what's happened?" demanded the Colony Organizer anxiously. "In -three weeks we had four hundred thousand new arrivals through the -transmitter. Most of them were children and boys. Then the flood -stopped--like that! What are we to do about them? Did you get fuel for -your ship? I understand the danger from Sinab is over, but we find it -hard to get information from Ades. Everyone there--" - -"Everyone there is busy," said Kim comfortably. "You see, we smashed -the Empire without killing more than a very few men. On Sinab Two where -the Empire was started, we chased the men out of the cities and put -them at the mercy of the women. - -"So many men had emigrated to the planets whose men had been killed -off, that there was a big disproportion even on Sinab. And the women -were not pleased. They'd been badly treated too. We didn't approve of -the men, though. - -"We gave them their choice of emigrating to a brand-new world, with -only such women as chose to go with them, or of being wiped out. They -chose to emigrate. So half the technical men on Ades have been busy -supervising their emigration." - -"Not to here?" asked the Colony Organizer in alarm. "We can't feed -ourselves, yet!" - -"No, not to here," said Kim drily. "They went to a place we scouted -accidentally in the _Starshine_. They're not likely to come back. -I left a matter-receiver there, and when they've all gone through -it--all the men from twenty planets, with what women want to go with -them--we'll smash that receiver and they'll be on their own. - -"They're quite a long way off. Three hundred billion light-years, more -or less. They're not likely to come in contact with our descendants for -several million years yet. By that time they'll either be civilized or -else." - -The Colony Organizer asked questions in a worried tone. Kim answered -them. - -"But twenty-one planets with no men on them," said the Organizer -worriedly, "These women will all want to come here!" - -"Not quite all. There were ten men on Ades for every woman. A lot -of them will settle on the twenty planets where the proportion is -reversed. A surprising lot will want to move on to the Second Galaxy, -though." - -"But--" - -"We'll be ready for them," said Kim. "We've space-ships enough for -exploration now. The Mayor of Steadheim wants a planet for each of his -four sons to colonize. They picked up wives on Khiv Five and want to -get away from the old chap and indulge in a little domesticity. - -"And there'll be plenty of others." He added, "We've some big war-craft -to bring over too, in case there's any dangerous animals or--entities -here." - -"But--" said the Colony Organizer again. - -"We're sending ships through the First Galaxy, too," said Kim, "to do a -little missionary work. After all, twenty-one planets are without men! - -"So the _Starshine's_ sister-ships will drop down secretly on one -planet after another to start whisperings that a man who's sent to Ades -is a pretty lucky man. If he has courage and brains he's better off -than living as a human sheep under kings or technarchs who'll clap the -Disciplinary Circuit on him if he thinks for himself. - -"There'll be more criminals and rebels than usual from now on. The -flow of men who are not quite sheep will increase. With three hundred -million planets to draw from and the way whispers pass from world to -world, the adventurous spirits will start getting themselves sent to -Ades. - -"There'll be planets for them to move to and women to marry and a -leaven of hardy souls to teach them that being a free man is pretty -good fun. We won't make an empire of those twenty-one planets--just a -refuge for every man with backbone in all the Galaxy." - -The Colony Organizer looked worried. - -"But there are Terranova and the Second Galaxy waiting to be explored -and colonized. Maybe they'll be satisfied to stay there." - -Kim laughed. When he ceased to laugh he chuckled. - -"I'm here! I've got a wife. Do you suppose that any woman will want her -husband to stay on one of those twenty-one planets for years to come? -Where women outnumber men? Where--well--a man with a roving eye sees -plenty of women about for his eyes to rove to?" - -The Colony Organizer still worried, nevertheless, until Dona came out -from the inside of the house. She had assured herself that everything -was intact and her mind was at rest. She brought refreshments for Kim -and their guest. - -"I was just saying," said Kim, "that I thought there would still -be plenty of people coming from Ades and the twenty-one planets to -Terranova and to settle on the new worlds as they're opened up." - -"Of course," said Dona. "I wouldn't live there! Any normal woman, when -she has a husband, will want to move where he'll be safe!" - -And she might have been referring to the holocausts on those planets -caused by the death-beams of the dead Sinabian Empire. But even the -Colony Organizer did not think so. - - - - - PART THREE - - THE BOOMERANG CIRCUIT - - - - - 1 - - _Damaged Transmitter_ - - -Kim Rendell had almost forgotten that he was ever a matter-transmitter -technician. But then the matter-transmitter on Terranova ceased to -operate and they called on him. - -It happened just like that. One instant the wavering, silvery film -seemed to stretch across the arch in the public square of the principal -but still small settlement on the first planet to be colonized in the -Second Galaxy. The film bulged, and momentarily seemed to form the -outline of a human figure as a totally-reflecting, pulsating cocoon -about a moving object. Then it broke like a bubble-film and a walking -figure stepped unconcernedly out. Instantly the silvery film was formed -again behind it and another shape developed on the film's surface. - -Only seconds before, these people and these objects had been on another -planet in another island universe, across unthinkable parsecs of space. -Now they were here. Bales and bundles and parcels of merchandise. -Huge containers of foodstuffs--the colony on Terranova was still not -completely self-sustaining--and drums of fuel for the space-ships busy -mapping the new galaxy for the use of men, and more people, and a huge -tank of viscous, opalescent plastic. - -Then came a pretty girl, smiling brightly on her first appearance -on a new planet in a new universe, and crates of castings for more -space-ships, and a family group with a pet zorag on a leash behind -them, and a batch of cryptic pieces of machinery, and a man. - -Then nothing. Without fuss, the silvery film ceased to be. One could -look completely through the archway which was the matter-transmitter. -One could see what was on the other side instead of a wavering, -pulsating reflection of objects nearby. The last man to come through -spoke unconcernedly over his shoulder, to someone he evidently believed -just behind, but who was actually now separated from him by the abyss -between island universes and some thousands of parsecs beyond. - -Nobody paid any attention to matter-transmitters ordinarily. They had -been in use for ten thousand years. All the commerce of the First -Galaxy now moved through them. Space-ships had become obsolete, and -the little _Starshine_--which was the first handiwork of Man to -cross the gulf to the Second Galaxy--had been a museum exhibit for -nearly two hundred years before Kim Rendell smashed out of the museum -in it, with Dona, and the two of them went roaming hopelessly among the -ancient, decaying civilizations of man's first home in quest of a world -in which they could live in freedom. - -But the matter-transmitter had ceased to operate. Five millions of -human beings in the Second Galaxy were isolated from the First. Ades -was the only planet in the home galaxy on which all men were criminals -by definition, and hence were friendly to the people of the new -settlements. Every single other planet--save the bewildered and almost -manless planets which had been subject to Sinab--was a tyranny of one -brutal variety or another. - -Every other planet regarded the men of Ades as outlaws, rebels, and -criminals. The people of Terranova, therefore, were not cut off from -the immigrants and supplies and the technical skills of Ades. They were -necessarily isolated from the rest of the human race. And then, besides -that, there were sixteen millions of people left on Ades, cut off from -the hope that Terranova represented. - -Kim Rendell was called on immediately. The Colony Organizer of -Terranova, himself, went in person to confer and to bewail. - -Kim Rendell was peacefully puttering with an unimportant small gadget -when the Colony Organizer arrived. The house was something of a gem of -polished plastic--Dona had designed it--and it stood on a hill with a -view which faced the morning sun and the rising twin moons of Terranova. - -The atmosphere-flier descended, and Dona led the Organizer to the -workshop in which Kim puttered. The Organizer had had half an hour in -which to think of catastrophe. He was in a deplorable state when Kim -looked up from the thing with which he was tinkering. - -"Enter and welcome," he said cheerfully in the formal greeting. "I'm -only amusing myself. But you look disturbed." - -The Colony Organizer bewailed the fact that there would be no more -supplies from Ades. No more colonists. Technical information, urgently -needed, could not be had. Supplies were necessary for exploring -parties, and new building-machines were desperately in demand, and the -storage-reserves were depleted and could last only so long if no more -came through. - -"But," said Kim blankly. "Why shouldn't they come through?" - -"The matter-transmitter's stopped working!" The Colony Organizer wrung -his hands. "If they're still transmitting on Ades, think of the lives -and the precious material that's being lost!" - -"They aren't transmitting," said Kim. "A transmitter and a receiver are -a unit. Both have to work for either one to operate--except in the very -special case of a transmitter-drive ship. But it's queer. I'll come -take a look." - -He slipped into the conventional out-of-door garments. Dona had -listened. Now she said a word or two to Kim, her expression concerned. -Kim's expression darkened. - -"That's what I'm afraid of," he told her. "A transmitter is too simple -to break down. They can get detuned, but we made the pairs for Ades and -Terranova especially. Their tuning elements are set in solid plastite. -They couldn't get out of tune!" - -He picked up a small box. He tucked it under his arm. - -"I'll be back," he told Dona heavily. "But I suspect you'd better pack." - -He went out to the grounded flier. The Colony Organizer took it up and -across the green-clad hills of Terranova. The vegetation of Terranova -is extraordinarily flexible, and the green stuff below the flier swayed -elaborately in the wind. The top of the forests bowed and bent in -the form of billows and waves. The effect was that of an ocean which -complacently remained upraised in hillocks and had no normal surface. -It was not easy to get used to such things. - -"I'm terribly worried," said the Organizer anxiously. "There is a -tremendous shortage of textiles, and the ores we usually send back to -balance our account are piling up." - -"You're badly worried, eh?" said Kim grimly. - -"Of course! How can we keep our economic system now?" - -Kim made an angry noise. - -"I'm a lot more worried than you are," he snapped. "Nothing should -have stopped this particular pair of transmitters from working but the -destruction of one or the other! This box in my pocket might tell me -the answer, but I'm afraid to find out. I assure you that temporary -surpluses and shortages of ores and textiles are the least of the -things we have to worry about." - -The little flier sped on, with the great, waving billows of the forest -beneath it. On one hillock there was a clearing with a group of four -plastic houses shining in the sunlight. They looked horribly lonely in -the sea of green, but the population on Terranova was spread thin. Far -over at the horizon there was another clearing. Sunlight glinted on -water. A pleasure-pool. There was a sizable village about it. Half a -dozen soarers spun and whirled lazily above. Kim said: - -"The thing is that Ades and the planets left over after we handled -Sinab are the only places in the whole First Galaxy where there are -no disciplinary circuits. Ades is the only place where a man can -spit in the eye of another man and the two of them settle it between -themselves. There's a government of sorts, on Ades, as there is here, -but there's no ruler. Also there's nobody who can strut around and make -other men bow to him. A woman on Ades, and here, belongs to the man -she wants to belong to. She can't be seized by some lordling for his -own pleasure, and turned over to his guards and underlings when he's -through with her." - -"That's true," said the Colony Organizer, who was still worried. "But -the transmitter--" - -"Gossip of the admirable state of things on Ades has gone about," said -Kim hardly. "Some of our young men appointed themselves missionaries -and went roaming around the planets, spreading word that Ades wasn't -a bad place. That if you were exiled to Ades you were lucky. They -probably bragged that we whipped the Empire of Sinab in a fight." - -At this the mouth of the Organizer dropped open in astonishment. - -"Of course, of course! The number of exiles arriving at Ades increased. -It was excellent. We need people for the Second Galaxy, and people who -earn exile are usually people with courage, willing to take risks for -the sake of hope." - -"Don't you realize that such things have been dangerous? When people on -Markab Two began to hope?" Kim said impatiently. "When peasants on the -planets of Allioth began to imagine that things might be better? When -slaves on Utbeg began to tell each other in murmurs that there was a -place where people weren't slaves? Don't you see that such things would -alarm the rulers of such planets? How can people be held as slaves -unless you keep them in despair?" - -The Colony Organizer corrected his course a trifle. Far away the walls -of the capital city of Terranova glinted in the sunlight. - -"And there are the twenty-one planets which fell into our laps when -we had to smash Sinab," said Kim. "Ades became the subject of dreams. -Peasants and commoners think of it yearningly, as a sort of paradise. -But kings and tyrants dream of it either as a nightmare which threatens -the tranquility of their realms, or else as a very pretty bit of loot -to be seized if possible. There are probably ten thousand royal courts -where ambitious men rack their brains for some plausible way to wipe -out Ades as a menace and take over our twenty-one planets for loot. -Ades is already full of spies, sent there in the guise of exiles. -There've been men found murdered after torture,--seized and tortured by -spies hoping to find out the secrets by which we whipped Sinab. There's -one bomb-crater on Ades already, where a bomb smuggled through the -transmitter was set off in an effort to wipe out all the brains on the -planet. It didn't, but it was bad." - - - - - 2 - - _Enemy Sabotage_ - - -Skillfully the colony organizer sent the flier into the long shallow -glide that would land it in the planet capital city. There were only -twenty thousand people in that city. It would rate as a village -anywhere except on Ades, but it was the largest settlement on Terranova. - -"Then you think," said the harassed Organizer, "that some outrage has -been committed and the transmitter on Ades damaged--perhaps by another -bomb?" - -"I hope it's no worse than that," said Kim. "I don't know what I fear, -but there are still sixteen million people on Ades, and some of them -are very decent folk. In a little while I'll know if it's nothing -important, or if it's bad. I could have found out back at home, but I -wanted to hold on to hope." - -His lips were tightly compressed. The flier landed. The two men got out -and went along a yielding walk to the central square of the city. - -Many persons had collected in the square, more people in that one spot -than Kim had seen together for a long time. Now at least a thousand -men and women and children had gathered, and were standing motionless, -looking at the tall arch of the transmitter. - -There would have been nothing extraordinary about the appearance of -the arch to a man from past ages. It would have seemed to be quite -commonplace--gracefully designed, to be sure, and with a smooth purity -of line which the ancient artists only aspired to, but still not at -all a remarkable object. But the throng of onlookers who stared at it, -did so because they could look through it. That had never before been -possible. It had been a matter-transmitter. Now it was only an arch. -The people stared. - -Kim went in the technician's door at the base of the arch. The local -matter-technician greeted him with relief. - -"I'm glad you have come, Kim Rendell," he said uneasily. "I can find -nothing wrong. Every circuit is correct. Every contact is sound. But it -simply does not work!" - -"I'll see," said Kim. "I'm sure you are right, but I'll verify it. Yet -I'm afraid I'm only postponing a test I should have made before." - -He went over the test-panel, trying the various circuits. All checked -up satisfactorily. He went behind the test-panel and switched a number -of leads. He returned to the front and worked the panel again. The -results were widely at variance with the original readings, but Kim -regarded them with an angry acceptance. - -"I reversed some leads, just in case a checking instrument was out -by the same amount as a circuit," he told the technician. "To be -frank about it, I made sure you hadn't knocked out the transmitter on -purpose. Such things have been done." Then he said grimly, "This one -is all right. The transmitter on Ades is out of action. It not only -doesn't work, but they haven't been able to fix it in--how long?" - -"Two hours now," said the technician unhappily. - -"Too long!" said Kim. - -He unpacked his box. It was very small, a foot by a foot by a foot. -There was a cone-shaped hole in one end which diminished to a small -hole at the other end. Kim sweated a little. - -"I should have tried this before," he said. "But I wanted to hope. With -all the First Galaxy fearing and hating Ades, somebody would think of a -way to do us damage, even without space-ships!" - -He turned a tiny knob on the box, and looked through the hole. His lips -tautened. He began to make tests. His face grew more and more drawn and -sombre. At last he turned the little knob again, and nothing happened. -His face went quite white. - -"What is it?" asked the Colony Organizer. - -Kim sat down, looking rather sick. - -"It's bad," he said. Then he gestured toward the box. "When we were -fighting Sinab, somebody worked out an idea for the remote control -of ships. Beam control would be too slow. At a few million miles, -the information the robot gathered would take seconds to get back -to the control-board, and more seconds would be needed for the -controlling signals to get back to the robot. In terms of light-years, -communications that way would be impossible." - -Kim glanced at the Organizer, who signified by a nod that he understood. - -"If it took a year each way, there'd be two years between the robot's -observation of something to be acted on," Kim continued, "and the -signal that would make it act. So this man proposed very tiny -matter-transmitters. One on the robot and one on the home planet. A -solid object would receive all the information the robot's instruments -gathered. - -"The transmitter would send it back to the control-board at -transmitter-speed, and the board would impress orders on it and send -it to the robot again. It could shuttle across the width of a galaxy -a hundred times a second, and make robot-control at any distance -practical. A few of them were made, but not used. This is one of them. - -"I had it for measuring the actual speed of transmitter-travel between -here and Ades. We thought the distance would be enough for a good -measurement. It wasn't. But this is a transmitter like the big one, and -it has a mate on Ades, and its mate is a hemisphere away from Ades' -main transmitter. And neither one works. Something's happened on Ades, -that involves both hemispheres. And the transmitter couldn't have been -knocked out by something that only killed people. It looks as if Ades -may have been destroyed." - -There was an instant's uncomprehending silence. Then the realization -struck home. In all of human history no planet had ever been completely -destroyed. Dozens, even hundreds, had been devastated, before wars -came to an end by the discovery of a weapon too terrible to be used. -Four had been depopulated by that weapon, the fighting-beam. But never -before had it even been imagined that a planet could be wiped out of -existence. - -"There are theoretic considerations," said Kim, dry-throated, "which -make a material weapon like atomic explosive unthinkable. There are -other considerations which make it certain that any immaterial weapon -that could destroy a planet would have infinite speed and therefore -infinite range. _If_ Ades has been destroyed, all the human race, -including us, must sooner or later be subject to those who control -such a weapon." Kim Rendell paused and cleared his throat. "If they -start off by destroying the only world on which men are free, I don't -think I like it. Now I must go back home. I'd better get over to the -First Galaxy in the _Starshine_ and find out what's happened." - - * * * * * - -The thousand million suns of the First Galaxy swam in space, attended -by their families of planets. Three hundred million worlds had -been populated by the human race. For thirty thousand years the -descendants of the people of Earth--that almost mythical first home of -humanity--had spread through the vastness of what once had seemed to -them the very cosmos itself. - -In the older, long-settled planets, civilization rose to incredible -heights of luxury and of pride, and then took the long dive down into -decadence and futility while newer, fresher worlds still struggled -upward from the status of frontier settlements. - -But at long last humanity's task in the First Galaxy was ended. The -last planet suitable for human occupancy had been mapped and colonized. -The race had reached the limit of its growth. It had reached, -too--or so it seemed--its highest possible point of development. -Matter-transmitters conveyed parcels and persons instantly and easily -from rim to rim of the Galaxy. - -Disciplinary Circuits enforced the laws of planetary governments beyond -any hope of evasion or defiance. There were impregnable defenses -against attacks from space. There could be no war, there could be no -revolt, there could be no successful crime--save by those people who -controlled governments--and there could be no hope. So humanity settled -back toward barbarism. - -Perhaps it was inevitable that conquest should again become possible, -revolt conceivable, and crime once more feasible even to individuals, -so that hope could return to men. And perhaps it was the most natural -thing imaginable that hope first sprang from the prison world of Ades. - -Whispers spread from planet to planet. Ades, to which all rebels and -nonconformists had been banished in hopeless exile, was no longer a -symbol for isolation and despair. Its citizens--if criminals could be -citizens anywhere--had revived the art of space-travel by means of -ships. - -The rest of the Galaxy had abandoned space-ships long ago as -antiquities. Matter-transmitters far surpassed them. But Ades had -revived them and fought a war with the Empire of Sinab, and won -it, and twenty-one planets with all their cities and machines had -fallen to them. But the men of Sinab had been sent to an unimaginable -fate, leaving wives and daughters behind. The fact that the women of -the Sinabian Empire were mostly the widows of men massacred for the -Empire's spread was not clearly told in the rumors which ran about -among the worlds. - -If you became a criminal and were exiled to Ades, you were lucky. There -were not enough men on Ades to accomplish the high triumphs awaiting -them on every hand. There was hope for any man who dared to become a -rebel. Exile to Ades was the most fortunate of adventures instead of -the most dreadful of fates. - -Those whispers were fascinating, but they were seditious. The oligarchs -and tyrants and despots and politicians who ruled their planets by the -threat of the disciplinary circuit, found this new state of affairs -deplorable. Populations grew restive. There was actually hope among the -common people, who could be subjected to unbearable torment by the mere -pressure of a button. And of course hope could not be permitted. Allow -the populace to hope, and it would aspire to justice. Grant it justice -and it might look for liberty! Something had to be done! - -So something was done. Many things were done. Royal courts debated the -question, alike of the danger and of possible loot in the empire to -which Ades had fallen heir. And in consequence the despots had acted. - -The _Starshine_ winked into existence near the sun which had been -the luminary of Ades. It was a small, cold sun, and Ades had been its -only planet. The _Starshine_ had made the journey from Terranova -in four leaps, of which the first was the monstrous one from the Second -Galaxy to the First. Accuracy of aim could not be expected over such an -expanse. - -The little ship had come out of its first leap near that preposterous -group of the blue-white suns of Dheen, whose complicated orbits about -each other still puzzled mathematicians. And Kim had come to the sector -of the Galaxy he desired on his second leap, and to the star-cluster in -the third, and the fourth brought him to the small sun he looked for. - -But space was empty about it. A sun without planets is a rarity so -strange that it is almost impossible. This sun had possessed Ades. -Nevertheless Kim searched for Ades. He found nothing. He searched for -debris of an exploded planet. He found nothing. He set cameras to -photograph all the cosmos about him, and drove the _Starshine_ at -highest interplanetary speed for twelve hours. Then he looked at the -plates. - -In that twelve hours the space-ship had driven some hundreds of -thousands of miles. Even nearby stars at distances of light-years, -would not have their angles change appreciably, and so would show upon -the plates as definite, tiny dots. But any planet or any debris within -a thousand million miles would make a streak instead of a dot upon the -photographic plate. - -There was nothing. Ades had vanished. - -He aimed for the star Khiv and flashed to its vicinity. The banded -planet Khiv Five swam sedately in emptiness. Kim drove for it, at first -on mere overdrive, and then on the interplanetary drive used for rising -from and landing on the surface of worlds. He landed on Khiv Five. - -Women looked at him strangely. A space-ship which landed on Khiv -Five--or anywhere else, for that matter--must certainly come from Ades, -but ships were not commonplace sights. Kim was no commonplace sight, -either. Six years before, the men on Khiv Five had died in one rotation -of the planet. Every man and boy was murdered by the killing-beams of -the now defunct Sinabian Empire. Now there were only women, save for -the very few men who had migrated to it in quest of wives, and had -remained to rear families. - -The population of Khiv Five was overwhelmingly female. - -Kim found his way to the governing center of the capital city. Dona -walked with him through the city streets. There were women everywhere. -They turned to stare at Kim. They looked at Dona with veiled eyes. - -Long years on an exclusively feminine world does strange things to -psychology. There were women wearing the badges of mourning for -husbands dead more than half a decade. - -In a sense it was a dramatization of their loss, because all women, -everywhere, take a melancholy pleasure in the display of their -unhappiness. But in part to boast of grief for a lost husband was an -excuse for not having captured one of the few men who had arrived since -the mass murder. As a matter of fact, Kim did not see a single man in -the capital city of Khiv Five, but its streets swarmed with women. - -He asked for the head of the planet government, and at long last found -an untidy woman at a desk. He asked what was known of Ades. - -"I was on Terranova," he explained. "The matter-transmitter went off -and it did not come back on. I came back by space-ship to find out -about it, and went to where Ades should have been. I'm Kim Rendell, and -I used to be a matter-transmitter technician. I thought I might repair -the one on Ades if it needed repairing. But I could find no planet -circling Ades' sun." - -The woman regarded him with what was almost hostility. - -"Kim Rendell," she said. "I've heard of you. You are a very famous man. -But we women on Khiv Five can do without men!" - -"No doubt," Kim said patiently. "But has there been any word of Ades?" - -"We are not interested in Ades," she said angrily. "We can do without -Ades." - -"But I'm interested in Ades," said Kim. "And after all, it was Ades -which punished the murderers of the men of Khiv Five. A certain amount -of gratitude is indicated." - -"Gratitude!" said the untidy woman harshly. "We'd have been grateful if -you men of Ades had turned those Sinabians over to us! We'd have killed -them--every one--slowly!" - -"But the point is," said Kim, "that something has happened to Ades. It -might happen to Khiv Five. If we can find out what it was, we'll take -steps so it won't happen again." - -"Just leave us alone!" said the untidy woman fiercely. "We can get -along without men or Ades or anything else. Go away!" - - - - - 3 - - _Dangerous Trip_ - - -Dona plucked at Kim's arm. He turned, seething, and went out. Outside -he vented his bitterness. - -"I thought men were crazy!" he said. "If she's the head of the planet -government, I pity the planet." - -"She could talk to another woman quite rationally," Dona said with -satisfaction. "But she's had to persuade herself that she hates men, -and you had me with you, and I'm prettier than she is, Kim, and I have -you. So she couldn't talk to you." - -"But she's unreasonable," Kim said stubbornly. - -"We'll go back to the ship," said Dona brightly. "I'll lock you in it -and then go find out what we want to know." - -She smiled comfortably all the way back to the _Starshine_. But -the staring women made Kim acutely uncomfortable. When he was safely -inside the ship, he wiped perspiration from his forehead. - -"I wouldn't want to live on this planet!" he said feverishly. - -"I wouldn't want you to," said Dona. "Stay inside, darling. You'd -better not even show yourself at a vision-port." - -"Heaven forbid!" said Kim. - -Dona went out. Kim paced up and down the living quarters of the ship. -There was something in the back of his mind that would not quite come -out. The disappearance of Ades was impossible. Men had conquered one -galaxy and now started on a second, but never yet had they destroyed -a planet. Never yet had they even moved one. But nevertheless, only -thirty-six hours ago the planet Ades had revolved about its sun and -men and women had strolled into its matter-transmitter with no hint of -danger, and between two seconds something had happened. - -Even had the planet been shattered into dust, its remnants should have -been discoverable. And surely a device which could destroy a planet -would have had some preliminary testings and the Galaxy would have -heard of its existence! This thing that had happened was inconceivable! -On the basis of the photographs, Ades had not only been destroyed, but -the quintillions of tons of its substance had been removed so far that -sunlight shining upon them did not light them enough for photography. -Which simply could not be. - -Kim wrestled with the problem while Dona went about in the world of -women. There was something odd about her in the eyes of women of Khiv -Five. Their faces were unlike the faces of the women of a normal world. -On a world with men and women, all women wear masks. Their thoughts are -unreadable. But where there are no men, masks are useless. The women of -Khiv Five saw plainly that Dona was unlike them, but they were willing -to talk to her. - -She came back to the _Starshine_ as Kim reached a state of -complete bewilderment. Ades could not have been destroyed. But it had -vanished. Even if shattered, its fragments could not have been moved -so far or so fast that they could no longer be detected. But they -were undiscoverable. The thing was impossible on any scale of power -conceivable for humans to use. But it had happened. - -So Kim paced back and forth and bit his nails until Dona returned. - -"We can take off, Kim," she said quietly. - -She locked the inner airlock door as if shutting out something. She -twisted the fastening extra tight. Her face was pale. - -"What about Ades?" asked Kim. - -"They had matter-transmission to it from here, too," said Dona. "You -remember, the original transmitter on Ades was one-way only. It would -receive but not send. Some new ones were built after the war with -Sinab, though. And this planet's communication with Ades cut off just -when ours did, thirty-six hours ago. None of the other twenty planets -had communication with it either. Something happened, and on the -instant everything stopped." - -"What caused it?" Kim asked, but Dona paid no attention. - -"Take off, Kim," she said. "Men are marching out of the -matter-transmitter. Marching, I said, Kim! Armed men, marching as -soldiers with machine-mounted heavy weapons. Somebody knows Ades can't -protect its own any more and invaders must be crowding in for the -spoils. I'm--afraid, Kim, that Ades has been destroyed and our planets -are part of a tyrant's empire now." - -Later, the _Starshine_ swooped down from the blue toward the -matter-transmitter on Khiv Five. Serried ranks of marching figures were -tramping out of the transmitter's silvery, wavering film. In strict -geometric rows they marched, looking neither to the right nor to the -left. They were a glittering stream, moving rhythmically in unison, -proceeding to join an already-arrived mass of armed men already drawn -up in impressive array. - -Racing toward the high arch of the transmitter with air screaming -about the _Starshine's_ hull, Kim saw grimly that the figures were -soldiers, as Dona had said. He had never before seen a soldier in -actual life, but pictures and histories had made them familiar enough. - -These were figures out of the unthinkably remote past. They wore -helmets of polished metal. They glittered with shining orichalc and -chromium. The bright small flashes of faceted corundum--synthetic -sapphire in all the shades from blue-white to ruby--shone from their -identical costumes and equipment. They were barbarous in their -splendor, and strange in the precision and unison of their movements, -which was like nothing so much as the antics of girl precision dancers, -without the extravagance of the dancers' gestures. - -The _Starshine_ dipped lower. It shot along a canyon-like open way -between buildings. The matter-transmitter was upon a hill within the -city and the ship was now lower than the transmitter and the heads of -the soldiers who still tramped out of the archway in a scintillating -stream. - -Kim raged. Soldiers were an absurdity on top of a catastrophe. -Something had erased the planet Ades from its orbit around a lonely -sun. That bespoke science and intelligence beyond anything dreamed -of hitherto. But soldiers marching like dancing-girls, bedecked with -jewels and polished metal like the women of the pleasure-world of Dite-- - -This military display was pure childishness! - -"Our pressure-wave'll topple them," said Kim savagely. "At least we'll -smash the transmitter." - -There was a monstrous roaring noise. The _Starshine_, which had -flashed through intergalactic space at speeds no science was yet able -to measure, roared between tall buildings in atmosphere. Wind whirled -and howled past its hull. It dived forward toward the soldiers. - -There was one instant when the ship was barely yards above the gaping -faces of startled, barbarously accoutred troopers. The following -spreading pressure-wave of the ship's faster-than-sound movement -spread out on every side like a three-dimensional wake. It toppled -the soldiers as it hit. They went down in unison, in a wildly-waving, -light-flashing tangle of waving arms and legs and savage weapons. - -But Kim saw, too, squat and bell-mouthed instruments on wheels, in the -act of swinging to bear upon him. One bore on the _Starshine_. -It was impossible to stop or swerve the ship. There was yet another -fraction of a second of kaleidoscopic confusion, of momentary glimpses -of incredibly antique and childish pomp. - -And then anguish struck. - -It was the hellish torment of a fighting-beam, more concentrated -and more horrible than any other agony known to mankind. For the -infinitesimal fraction of an instant Kim experienced it to the full. -Then there was nothingness. - -There was no sound. There was no planet. There was no sunlight on tall -and stately structures built by men long murdered from the skies. The -vision-ports showed remote and peaceful suns and all the tranquil glory -of interstellar space. The _Starshine_ floated in emptiness. - -It was, of course, the result of that very small device that Kim had -built into the _Starshine_ before even the invention of the -transmitter-drive. It was a relay which flung on faster-than-light -drive the instant fighting-beams struck any living body in the ship. -The _Starshine_ had been thrown into full interstellar drive while -still in atmosphere. - -It had plunged upward--along the line of its aiming--through the air. -The result of its passage to Khiv Five could only be guessed at, but in -even the unthinkably minute part of a second it remained in air, the -ship's outside temperatures had risen two hundred degrees. Moving at -multiples of the speed of light, it must have created an instantaneous -flash of literally stellar heat by the mere compression of air before -it. - -Kim was sick and shaken by the agony which would have killed him had it -lasted as long as the hundredth of a second. But Dona stared at him. - -"Kim--what--Oh!" - -She ran to him. The beam had not touched her. So close to the -projector, it had been narrow, no more than a yard across. It had -struck Kim and missed Dona. - -"Oh, my poor Kim!" - -He grimaced. - -"Forget it," he said, breathing hard. "We've both had it before, but -not as bad as this. It was a mobile fighting-beam projector. I imagine -they'll think we burned up in a flash of lightning. I hope there were -X-rays for them to enjoy." - -For a long time Kim Rendell sat still, with his eyes closed. The dosage -of the fighting-beam had been greater than they had ever experienced -together, though. It left him weak and sick. - -"Funny," he said presently. "Barbarous enough to have soldiers with -decorative uniforms and shiny dingle-dangles on them, and modern enough -to have fighting-beam projectors, and a weapon that's wiped Ades out of -space. We've got to find out who they are, Dona, and where they came -from. They've something quite new." - -"I wonder," said Dona. But she still looked at Kim with troubled eyes. - -"Eh?" - -"If it's new," said Dona. "If it's a weapon. Even if--if Ades is -destroyed." - -Kim stared at her. - -"Now, what do you mean by that?" - -"I don't quite know," admitted Dona. "I say things, and you turn them -over in your head, and something quite new comes out. I told you a -story about a dust-grain, once, and you made the transmitter-drive -that took us to Ades in the first place and made everything else -possible afterward." - -"_Hmmm_," said Kim meditatively. "If it's new. If it's a weapon. -If Ades is destroyed. Why did you think of those three things?" - -"You said no planet had ever been destroyed," she told him. "If -anybody could think of a way to do such a thing, you could. And when -Sinab had to be fought, and there weren't any weapons, you worked out -a way to conquer them with things that certainly weren't weapons. -Just broadcasters of the disciplinary-circuit field. So I wondered if -what they used was a weapon. Of course if it wasn't a weapon, it was -probably something that had been used before for some other purpose, -and it wouldn't be new." - -"I've got to think about that," said Kim. He cogitated for a moment. -"Yes, I definitely have to think about that." - -Then he stood up. - -"We'll try to identify these gentry first. Then we'll go to another of -the twenty-one planets." - - - - - 4 - - _Despots Take Over_ - - -He took his observations and swung the little ship about. He adjusted -the radiation-switch to throw off the transmitter-drive on near -approach to a sun. He aimed for the star Thom. Its fourth planet had -been subjugated to the Empire of Sinab ten years before, and freed by -the men of Ades six years since. - -The _Starshine_ winked into being some twenty million miles -from it, and two hundred million from the star. Kim looked annoyed, -and then glanced at the relay and adjusted it again. He pointed -the _Starshine_ close to the planet's disk. He pressed the -transmitter-drive button. Instantly the ship was within mere thousands -of miles of the planet. - -"Nice!" Kim was pleased. "Saves a lot of overdrive juggling. Those -horrible fighter-beams seem to make one think more clearly. Dona, get -us down to the night-side while I try to work something out. Don't -ground. Just drop into atmosphere enough to pick up any broadcasts." - -She took his place at the controls. He got out his writing-materials -and a stylus and began busily to sketch and to calculate. Dona drove -the ship to atmosphere on the dark side of Thom Four, not too far from -the sunset's rim. In the earlier night hours, on a given continent, the -broadcasts should be greater in number. - -Communicator-bands murmured in soprano. Thom Four was more than -ninety-five per cent female, too. Kim worked on. After a long time -a speaker suddenly emitted a blast of martial music. Until now the -broadcast programs had gone unheeded by both Kim and Dona, because -from each wave-band only women's voices had come out, and only women's -music. The sound of brazen horns was something new. Dona smiled at Kim -and turned up the volume. - -A man's voice said pompously: - -"To the People of Thom Four, greeting! - -"Whereas His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, has heard with distress of the misfortunes of the people -of the planet Thom Four, of the injuries they have suffered at the -hands of enemies, and of their present distressful state, and - -"Whereas, His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, is moved to extend his protection to all well-disposed -persons in need of a gallant and potent protector; - -"Therefore His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, has commanded his loyal and courageous troops to occupy -the said planet Thom Four, to defend it against all enemies whatsoever, -and to extend to its people all the benefits of his reign. - -"Given at his Palace of Gornith, on the second day of the tenth month -of the sixteenth year of his reign, and signed by His Most Gracious -Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and noble lineage." - -The voice stopped. There was another blare of martial music. The -broadcast ended. Ten minutes later, on another wave-length, the same -proclamation was repeated. That broadcast stopped too. Five minutes -later came still another broadcast. And so on and so on. At long last -there was but a single wave-length coming into the communicators. -It was a broadcast of a drama with only female characters, and in -which there was no reference to the fact that the human race normally -includes two sexes. It was highly emotional and it was very strange -indeed. - -Then a pompous male voice read the silly proclamation and the broadcast -cut off. - -"The question," said Kim, "is whether I'd better try to catch a soldier -and make him tell us where Gornith is and what planet is ruled by Elim -the Fortieth of high and noble lineage. I think I'd better find out." - -"Darling," said Dona, "I'm afraid of soldiers bothering you, but I -certainly won't let you venture out on a planet full of women. And -there's something else." - -"What?" - -"There are twenty-one planets which Ades used to protect. What -planetary ruler could send troops to occupy twenty-one other planets? -Do you think this King Elim the Fortieth has tried to seize all of -them, or do you think he arranged a coöperative steal with the rulers -of other planets, and an arrangement for them all to help protect each -other? Hadn't we better make sure?" - -Kim looked up at her from the desk where he worked. - -"You're an uncomfortably brainy woman, Dona," he said drily. "Do you -think you could find Sinab? Sinab Two was the capital planet of the -Empire we had to take over." - -Dona looked carefully on a star-chart. Kim went back to his task. -He had drawn, very carefully, an electronic circuit. Now he began -to simplify it. He frowned from time to time, however, and by his -expression was thinking of something else than the meticulous placing -of symbols on paper. - -It was symptomatic of his confidence in Dona, though, that he remained -absorbed while she worked the ship. Presently there were mutterings in -the speakers. Dona had navigated to another solar system and entered -the atmosphere of another planet. - -"Listen, Kim!" she said suddenly. - -From a communicator blared a heavy male voice. - -"People of Sinab Two!" the voice said. "You are freed from the tyranny -of the criminals of Ades. - -"From this time forth, Sinab Two is under the protection of the Dynast -of Tabor, whose mercy to the meek, justice to the just, and wrath -toward the evil-doer is known among all men. - -"People of Sinab Two! The soldiers now pouring in to defend you are to -be received submissively. You will honor all requisitions for food, -lodgings, and supplies. Such persons as have hitherto exercised public -office will surrender their authority to the officials appointed by the -Dynast to replace them. - -"For your protection, absolute obedience is essential. Persons seeking -to prevent the protection of Sinab Two by the troops of the Dynast of -Tabor will be summarily dealt with. They can expect no mercy. - -"People of Sinab Two! You are freed from the tyranny of the criminals -of Ades!" - -"So Elim the Fortieth, of high and noble lineage, has a competitor," -Kim said grimly. "The Dynast of Tabor, eh? But there are twenty-one -planets that used to belong to Sinab. I'm afraid we'll have to check -further." - -They did. While Kim scowlingly labored over the drawing of a new -device, Dona drove the _Starshine_ to six worlds in succession. -And four of the six worlds had been taken over by the Sardathian -League, by King Ulbert of Arth, by the Emperor and Council of the -Republic of Sind--which was a remarkable item--and by the Imperator -of Donet. On the last two worlds there was confusion. On one the -population was sternly told by one set of voices that it now owed -allegiance to Queen Amritha of Megar, and by another set that King Jan -of Pirn would shortly throw out the Megarian invaders and protect them -forever. On the sixth planet there were four armies proclaiming the -exclusive nobility of their intentions. - -"That's enough, Dona," Kim said in a tired voice. "Ades vanished or was -destroyed, and instantly thereafter gracious majesties and dynasts and -imperators and such vultures pounced on the planets we'd freed. But I'd -like to know how they made sure it was safe to pounce!" - -Dona punched buttons on the _Starshine's_ control-board. The ship -lifted. The great black mass which was the night-side of the last -planet faded behind and the _Starshine_ drove on into space. And -Dona turned back to Kim from her post at the controls. - -"Now what?" - -Kim stared at nothing, his features sombre. - -"It's bad," he said sourly. "There's the gang on Terranova. They're -fair game if they land on any planet in the whole First Galaxy--and -Terranova isn't self-sustaining yet. They'll starve if they stay -isolated. There are the people on Ades. Sixteen millions of them. Not -a big population for a planet, but a lot of people to be murdered so a -few princelings can feast on the leavings of Sinab's Empire. - -"There are all the people who'd started to dream because Ades had come -to mean hope. And there are all the people in generations to come who'd -like to dream of hope and now won't be able to, and there are all the -nasty little surprise-attacks and treacheries which will be carried out -by matter-transmitters, now that these gentry of high and noble lineage -have been able to snatch some loot for themselves. It's pretty much of -a mess, Dona." - -Dona gave an impatient toss of her head. - -"You're not responsible for it, Kim," she protested. - -"Maybe I should simply concentrate on finding a solution for Terranova, -eh? Let decency as something to fight for go by the board and be -strictly practical?" - -"You shouldn't try to take all the problems of two galaxies on your -shoulders," said Dona. - -Kim shook his head impatiently. - -"Look!" he said in vexation. "There's some way out of the mess! I just -contrived a way to make a very desirable change in all the governments -of the First Galaxy, given time. It was one of those problems that seem -too big to handle, but it worked out very easily. But I absolutely -can't think of the ghost of an idea of how to find a friendly world for -Terranova!" - -Dona waited. - -"It occurs to me that I haven't slept for forty hours," Kim said. "I -doubt that you've done any better. I think we should go to bed. There's -one puzzle on which all the rest is based, and it's got me. What the -devil happened to Ades? There's a whole planet, seven thousand miles in -diameter, vanished as if it had never been. Maybe after some sleep I'll -be able to work it out. Let's go to sleep!" - -The space-ship _Starshine_ drove on through emptiness at mere -interplanetary speed, its meteor-repellers ceaselessly searching space -for any sign of danger. But there was no danger. In the midst of space, -between the stars, there was safety. Only where men were was there -death. - -The ship swam in the void, no lights showing in any of its ports. - -Then, in the midst of the darkness inside, Kim sat up in his bunk. - -"But hang it, Ades _couldn't_ be destroyed," he cried, in -exasperation. - - - - - 5 - - _Industrial World_ - - -Planet Spicus Five was an industrial world. According to the prevailing -opinion in the best circles, its prosperity was due to an ample -and adequate supply of raw materials, plus a skilled and thrifty -population. There were sixteen matter-transmitters on the planet, and -their silvery films were never still. - -From abecedaria for infants to zyolites (synthetic) for industrial use, -its products ran in endless streams to the transmitters, and the other -products and raw materials obtained in exchange came out in streams no -less continuous. The industrial area covered a continent of sprawling -rectangular buildings designed for the ultimate of efficiency, with -living-areas for the workmen spreading out between. - -The _Starshine_ descended through morning sunlight. Kim, newly -shaved and rested, forgot to yawn as he stared through the vision-ports -at the endless vista of structures made with a deliberate lack of -grace. From a hundred-mile height they could be seen everywhere to -north and south, to the eastward where it was already close to midday, -and to where shadows beyond the dawn hid them. Even from that altitude -they were no mere specks between the cloud masses. They were definite -shapes, each one a unit. - -The ship went down and down and down. Kim felt uncomfortable and -realized why. He spoke drily. - -"I don't suppose we'll ever land on any new planet without being -ready to wince from a fighting-beam and find ourselves snatched to -hell-and-gone away." - -Dona did not answer. She gazed at the industrial plants as they swelled -in size with the _Starshine's_ descent. Buildings two miles to a -side were commonplace. Great rectangles three and even four miles long -showed here and there. And there were at least half a dozen buildings, -plainly factory units, which were more than ten miles in extent on each -of their ground dimensions. When the _Starshine_ was below the -clouds, Dona focused the electron telescope on one of them and gestured -to call Kim's attention to the sight. - -This factory building enclosed great quadrangles, with gigantic -courtyards to allow--perhaps--of light. And within the courtyards were -dwelling-units for workmen. The telescope showed them plainly. Workmen -in factories like this would have no need and little opportunity ever -to go beyond the limits of their place of employment. The factory in -which they labored would confront them on every hand, at every instant -of their life from birth until death. - -"That's something I don't like, without even asking questions about -it," said Kim. - -He took the controls. The _Starshine_ dived. He remembered to -flick on the communicators. A droning filled the interior of the -space-ship. Dona looked puzzled and tuned in. A male voice mumbled -swiftly and without intonation through a long series of numerals and -initial letters. It paused. Another voice said tensely, "_Tip._" -The first voice droned again. The second voice said, "_Tip._" The -first voice droned. - -Dona looked blank. She turned up another wave-length. A voice barked -hysterically. The words ran so swiftly together that they were almost -indistinguishable, but certain syllables came out in patterns. - -"It's something about commerce," said Kim. "Arranging for some material -to be routed on a matter-transmitter." - -None of the wavelengths carried music. All carried voices, and all -babbled swiftly, without expression, with a nerve-racking haste. - -The _Starshine_ landed before a gigantic building. An armed guard -stood before it at a gateway. Kim trudged across to him. He came back. - -"He's stupid," he said shortly. "He knows what to guard, and the -name of the plant, and where a workman may go to be received into -employment. That's all. We'll try again." - -The _Starshine_ rose and moved. She was designed for movement -in space, with parsecs of distance on every hand. She was unhandy -when used as now for an atmosphere-flier. She descended within a -factory quadrangle. There was no one about. Literally no one. The -dwelling-units were occupied, to be sure, but no one moved anywhere. - -When Kim opened the airlock there was a dull, grumbling rumble in the -air. It came from the many-storied building which surrounded this -courtyard and stretched away for miles. - -Kim and Dona stood blankly in the airlock door. The air had no odor -at all. There was no dust. There was not a single particle of growing -stuff anywhere. To people who had lived on Terranova, it was incredible. - -Then bells rang. Hundreds and thousands of bells. They rang stridently -in all the rooms and corridors of all the dwelling-units which reached -away as far as the eye could follow them. It was a ghastly sound, -because every bell was in exactly the same tone and made exactly the -same tintinabulation. - -Then there was a stirring in the houses. Folk moved within them. -Figures passed inside the windows. Now and again, briefly, faces -peered out. But none lingered to stare at what must have been the -unprecedented sight of a space-ship resting in the courtyard. - -After a little, figures appeared in the doors. Men and women swarmed -out and streamed toward openings in the factory building. Their heads -turned to gaze at the ship, but they did not even slacken speed in -their haste toward the sound of industry. - -Kim hailed them. They looked at him blankly and hurried on. He caught -hold of a man. - -"Where will I find the leader?" he asked sharply. "The boss! The -government! The king or whatever you have! Where?" - -The man struggled. - -"I be late," he protested unhappily. "I work. I be late!" - -"Where's the government?" Kim repeated more sharply still. "The king or -nobles or whoever makes the laws or whatever the devil--" - -"I be late!" panted the man. - -He twisted out of Kim's grasp and ran to join the swarming folk now -approaching the great building. - -They hurried inside. The quadrangle was again empty. Kim scowled. Then -other workers came out of the factory and plodded wearily toward the -dwelling-units. Kim waylaid a man and shot questions at him. His speech -was slurred with fatigue. Dona could not understand him at all. But he -gazed at the _Starshine_, and groped heavily for answers to Kim's -questions, and at the end trudged exhaustedly into a doorway. - -Kim came into the ship, scowling. He seated himself at the -control-board. The ship lifted once more. He headed toward the curve of -the plant's bulging form. - -"What did you learn, Kim?" - -"This is the work continent," said Kim shortly. "The factories and the -workmen are here. The owners live in a place of their own. I have to -talk to one of the more important merchants. I need information." - -Time passed and the ship went on over the rim of the planet. Orbital -speed was impossible. The _Starshine_ stayed almost within -atmosphere and moved eastward at no more than fifteen hundred miles an -hour. - -"Here it is," said Kim, at last. - -The ship settled down once more. There was a thin, hazy overcast here, -and clear vision came suddenly as they dropped below it. And the -coast and the land before them brought an exclamation from Dona. The -shoreline was magnificent, all beautiful bold cliffs with rolling -hills behind them. There were mountains on farther yet and splendid -vistas everywhere. But more than the land or the natural setting, it -was what men had done which caused Dona to exclaim. - -The whole terrain was landscaped like a garden. As far as the eye could -reach--and the _Starshine_ still flew high--every hillside and -every plain had been made into artificial but marvelous gardens. There -were houses here and there. Some were huge and gracefully spreading, or -airily soaring upward, or simple with the simplicity of gems and yet -magnificent beyond compare. There was ostentation here, to be sure, but -there was surely no tawdriness. There was no city in sight. There was -not even a grouping of houses, yet many of the houses were large enough -to shelter communities. - -"I--see," said Kim. "The workmen live near the factories or in their -compounds. The owners have their homes safely away from the ugly part -of commerce. They've a small-sized continent of country homes, Dona, -and undoubtedly it is very pleasant to live here. Whom shall we deal -with?" - -Dona shook her head. Kim picked a magnificent residence at random. He -slanted the _Starshine_ down. Presently it landed lightly upon -smooth lawn of incredible perfection, before a home that Dona regarded -with shining eyes. - -"It's--lovely!" she said breathlessly. - -"It is," agreed Kim. - -"It even has a feeling all its own," he said. "The palace of a king or -a tyrant always has something of arrogance about it. It's designed to -impress the onlooker. A pleasure-palace is always tawdry. It's designed -to flatter the man who enters it. These houses are solid. They're -the homes of men who are thinking of generations to follow them and, -meanwhile, only of themselves. I've heard of the merchant princes of -Spicus Five, and I'm prejudiced. I don't like those factories with the -workmen's homes inside. But--I like this house. Do you want to come -with me?" - -Dona looked at the house--yearningly. At the view all about; every tree -and every stone so placed as to constitute perfection. The effect was -not that of a finicky estheticism, but of authentic beauty and dignity. -But after a moment Dona shook her head. - -"I don't think I'd better," she said slowly. "I'm a woman, and I'd -want one like it. I'll stay in the ship and look at the view. You've a -communicator?" - -Kim nodded. He opened the airlock door and stepped out. He walked -toward the great building. - -Dona watched his figure grow small in its progress toward the mansion. -She watched him approach the ceremonial entrance. She saw a figure in -formalized rich clothing appear in that doorway and bow to him. Kim -spoke, with gestures. The richly clothed servant bowed for him to go -first into the house. Kim entered and the door closed. - -Dona looked at her surroundings. Dignity and tranquility and beauty -were here. Children growing up in such an environment would be very -happy and would feel utterly safe. Wide, smooth, close-cropped lawns, -with ancient trees and flowering shrubs stretched away to the horizons. -There was the gleam of statuary here and there--rarely. A long way off -she could see the glitter of water, and beside it a graceful colonnade, -and she knew that it was a pleasure-pool. - -Once she saw two boys staring at the space-ship. There was no trace of -fear in their manner. But a richly-dressed servant--much more carefully -garbed than the boys--led up two of the slim riding-sards of Phanis, -and the boys mounted and their steeds started off with that sinuous -smooth swiftness which only sards possess in all the First Galaxy. - -Time passed, and shadows lengthened. Finally Dona realized how many -hours had elapsed since Kim's departure. She was beginning to grow -uneasy when the door opened again and Kim came out followed by four -richly clad servants. Those servants carried bundles. Kim's voice came -over the communicator. - -"Close the inner airlock door, Dona, and don't open it until I say so." - -Dona obeyed. She watched uneasily. The four servants placed their -parcels inside the airlock at a gesture from Kim. Then there was an -instant of odd tension. Dona could not see the servants, but she saw -Kim smiling mirthlessly at them. He made no move to enter. He spoke -sharply and she heard them file out of the airlock. Dona could see them -again. - -Kim stepped into the space-ship and closed the door. - -"Take her up, Dona--fast!" - -The _Starshine_ shot upward, with the four servants craning their -necks to look at it. It was out of sight of the ground in seconds. It -was out of the atmosphere before Kim came into the control-room from -the lock. - -"Quite a civilization," he said. "You'd have liked that house, Dona. -There's a staff of several hundred servants, and it is beautiful -inside. The man who owns it is also master of one of the bigger -industrial plants. He doesn't go to the plant, of course. He has his -offices at home, with a corps of secretaries and a television-screen -for interviews with his underlings. Quite a chap." - -"Were those four men servants?" Dona asked. - -"No, they were guards," said Kim drily. "There are no proletarians -around that place, and none are permitted. Guards stand watch night -and day. I'd told my friend that the _Starshine_ was packed with -lethal gadgets with which Ades had won at least one war, and he's in -the munitions business, so I wasn't going to let his guards get inside. -They wanted to, badly, insisting they had to put their parcels in the -proper place. He'd have paid them lavishly if they could have captured -a ship like the _Starshine_." - -He laughed a little. - -"I was lucky to pick a munitions maker. There aren't many wars in the -ordinary course of events, but he turns out weapons for palace guards, -mobile fighting-beam projectors, and so on. All the equipment for a -planet ruler who wants a fancy army for parades or a force with a punch -to fight off any sneak attack via matter-transmitter. That's what your -average ruler is afraid of, and what he keeps an army to defend himself -against. Of course the Disciplinary Circuit takes care of his subjects." - - - - - 6 - - _Vanished World_ - - -Ahead of them loomed the sun, Spicus, many millions of miles away, -while beneath them lay the planet, Spicus Five, a vast hemisphere which -was rapidly shrinking into the distance. Kim moved over beside Dona and -stared reflectively at the instrument-board. - -"I got frightened, Kim," the girl said. "You were gone so long." - -"I was bargaining," Kim answered. "I told him I came from Ades. I'd -a space-ship, so he could believe that. Then I told him what had -happened. Selling munitions, he should have known about it beforehand, -and I think he did. He doubted that I'd come from Ades as quickly as -I said, though, until I recited the names of some of the gracious -majesties who are making a grab of planets. Then he was sure. So he -wanted to strike a bargain with me for Terranova. He'd supply it with -arms, he said, in exchange for a star-cluster of his own in the Second -Galaxy. If I'd set up a private matter-transmitter for him...." - -Kim laughed without mirth. - -"He could colonize a couple of planets himself, and make a syndicate -to handle the rest. He saw himself changing his status from that of a -merchant princeling to that of a landed proprietor with half a dozen -planets as private estates, and probably a crown to wear on week-ends -and when he retired from business on Spicus Five. There are precedents, -I gather." - -"But, Kim!" protested Dona. "What did you do?" - -"I did one thing that's been needed for a long time," said Kim grimly. -"It seems to me that I do everything backwards. I should have attended -to the matter of Ades first, but I had a chance and took it. I think I -put something in motion that will ultimately smash up the whole cursed -system that's made slaves of every human being but those on Ades and -Terranova--the Disciplinary Circuit. Back on Ades we've talked about -the need to free the people of this galaxy. It's always seemed too big -a job. But I think it's started now. It will be a profitable business, -and my friend who wanted to bargain for some planets in the Second -Galaxy will make a pretty penny of the beginning, and it will carry on -of itself." - -The planet below and behind was now only a globe. It soon dwindled into -a tiny ball. Kim touched Dona on the shoulder. - -"I'll take over," he said. "We've got work to do, Dona." - -Dona stood up and stamped her foot. - -"Kim! You're misunderstanding me on purpose! What about Ades? Did you -find out what happened to it?" - -Kim began the process of sighting the _Starshine's_ nose upon a -single, distant, minute speck of light which seemingly could not be -told from a million other points of light, all of which were suns. - -"I think I found out something," he told her. "I thought a merchant -planet would be the place to hear all the gossip of the Galaxy. My -friend back yonder put his research organization to work finding out -what I wanted to know. What they dug up looks plausible. Right now I'm -going to get even for it. That's a necessity! After that, we'll see. -There were sixteen million people on Ades. We'll try to do something -about them. They aren't likely to be all dead--yet." - -The sun of Ades swam in emptiness. For uncountable billions of years -it had floated serenely with its single planet circling it in the -companionability of bodies separated only by millions of miles, when -their next nearest neighbors are light-years away. A sun with one -planet is a great rarity. - -A sun with no satellites--save for giant pulsing Cepheids and -close-coupled double suns--is almost unknown. But for billions upon -billions of years that sun and Ades had kept each other company. Then -men had appeared. For a thousand years great space-ships had grimly -trundled back and forth to unload their cargoes of criminals upon the -chilly small world. - -Ades was chosen as a prison planet from the beginning. Later, -matter-transmitters made the journeys of space-craft useless. For -six, seven, eight thousand years there was no traffic but the one-way -traffic of its especially contrived transmitter, which would receive -criminals from all the Galaxy but would return none or any news of them -to the worlds outside. - -During all that time a lonely guard-ship hung drearily about, watching -lest someone try to rescue a man doomed to hopeless exile, and return -him to happier scenes. And finally the guard-ship had gone away, -because the space-ways were no longer used by anybody, and there were -no ships in the void save those of the Patrol itself. Accordingly the -Patrol was disbanded. - -For hundreds of years nothing happened at all. And then Kim Rendell -came in the _Starshine_, and shortly thereafter tiny ships -began to take off from Ades, and they fought valorously on distant -star-systems, and at last a squadron of war-craft came to subjugate -Ades for the beastly Empire of Sinab. Finally there was a battle in -the bright beams of the lonely sun itself. And after that, for a time, -little space-ships swam up from the planet and darted away, and darted -back, and darted away, and back. - -But never before had there been any such situation as now. The sun, -which had kept company with Ades for so long, now shone in lonely -splendor, amid emptiness, devoid of its companion. And that emptiness -was bewildering to a small ship--sister to the _Starshine_--which -flicked suddenly into being nearby. - -The ship had come back from a journey among the virgin stars of the -Second Galaxy with honorable scars upon its hull and a zestful young -crew who wished to boast of their journeying. They had come back to -Ades--so they thought--direct, not even stopping at Terranova. And -there was no Ades. - -The little ship flashed here and there about the bereft sun in -bewilderment. It searched desperately for a planet some seven thousand -miles in diameter, which had apparently been misplaced. And as it -hunted, a second ship whisked into sight from faster-than-light drive. -The detectors of the two ships told them of each other's presence, and -they met and hung in space together. Then they searched in unison, but -in vain. At long last they set out in company for one of the planets of -the former Sinabian Empire, on which there must be some news of what -had happened to Ades. - -On transmitter-drive they inevitably separated and one was much closer -to the chosen planet when they came out of stressed space. One drove -down into atmosphere while the other was still thousands of miles away. - -The leading ship went down at landing-speed, toward a city. The other -ship watched by electron telescope and prepared to duplicate its -course. But the man of the second ship saw--and there could be no doubt -about it--that suddenly the landing ship vanished from its place as if -it had gone into intergalactic drive in atmosphere. There was a flash -of intolerable, unbearable light. And then there was an explosion of -such monstrous violence that half of the planet's capital city vanished -or was laid in ruins. - -The crew of the second ship were stunned. But the second ship went -slowly and cautiously down into atmosphere, and its communicators -picked up voices issuing stern warnings that troops must be welcomed -by all citizens, and that absolute obedience must be given to all men -wearing the uniform of His Magnificence the Despot of Lith. And then -there was babbling confusion and contradictory shoutings, and a hoarse -voice ordered all soldiers of His Magnificence to keep a ceaseless -watch upon the sky, because a ship had come down from overhead, and -when the fighting-beams struck it--to kill its crew--it appeared to -have fired some devastating projectile which had destroyed half a great -city. All ships seen in the sky were to be shot down instantly. His -Magnificence, the Despot of Lith, would avenge the outrage. - -The lonely surviving ship went dazedly away from the planet which once -had been friendly to the men of Ades. It went back to Ades' sun, and -searched despairingly once again, and then fled to the Second Galaxy -and Terranova, to tell of what it had seen. - -That was an event of some importance. At least all of one planet had -been rocked to its core from the detonation of a space-ship which -flashed into collision with it at uncountable multiples of the speed of -light, and was thereby raised to the temperature of a hot sun's very -heart. And besides, there was agitation and suspicion and threats and -diplomatic chaos among the planetary governments who had joined to loot -the dependencies of Ades, once Ades was eliminated from the scene. - -But a vastly, an enormously more significant event took place on a -planet very far away, at almost the same instant. The planet was Donet -Three, the only habitable planet of its system. It was a monstrous, -sprawling world, visibly flattened by the speed of its rotation and -actually habitable only by the fact that its rotation partly balanced -out its high gravity. - -The _Starshine_ approached over a polar region and descended -to touch atmosphere. Then, while Dona looked curiously through the -electron telescope at monstrous ice-mountains below, Kim donned a -space-suit, went into the airlock, and dropped a small object out of -the door. He closed the door, returned to the control-room, and took -the _Starshine_ out to space again. - -That was the most significant single action, in view of its ultimate -meaning, that had been performed in the First Galaxy in ten thousand -years. And yet, in a sense, it was purely a matter of form. It was not -necessary for Kim to do it. He had arranged for the same effect to be -produced, in time yet to come, upon every one of the three hundred -million inhabited planets of the First Galaxy. The thing was automatic; -implicit in the very nature of the tyrannical governments sustained by -the disciplinary circuit. - -Kim had simply dropped a small metal case to the surface of Donet -Three. It was very strong--practically unbreakable. It contained an -extremely simple electronic circuit. It fell through the frigid air of -the flattened pole of Donet Three, and it struck the side of a sloping -ice-mountain, and bounced and slid down to a valley and buried itself -in snow, and only instants later, the small hole left by its fall was -filled in and covered up completely by snow riding on a hundred-mile -gale. It was undiscoverable. It was irretrievable. No device of man -could detect or recover it. Kim himself could not have told where it -fell. - -Kim then sighted the _Starshine_ on another distant target, and -found the planet Arth, and dropped a small metal object into the -depths of the humid and festering jungles along its equator. Human -beings could live only in the polar regions of Arth. Then he visited a -certain planet in the solar system of Tabor and a small metal case went -twisting through deep water down to the seabed of its ocean. - -He dropped another on the shifting desert sands which cover one-third -of Sind where an Emperor and Council rule in the name of a non-existent -republic, and yet another on a planet of Megar, where an otherwise -unidentified Queen Amritha held imperial power, and others.... - -He dropped one small metal case, secured from a merchant-prince on -Spicus Five, on each of the planets whose troops had moved into the -planets left defenseless by the vanishment of Ades. - -"I wanted to do that myself, because what we've got to do next is -dangerous and we may get killed," he told Dona drily. "But now we're -sure that men won't stay slaves forever and now we can try to do -something about Ades. I'm afraid our chances are pretty slim." - - - - - 7 - - _One Chance in a Million_ - - -In spite of his pessimism, Kim settled down to the fine calculations -required for a voyage to a blue-white dwarf star not readily -distinguished from others. Most inhabited planets, of course, circled -sol-type suns. Light much different from that in which the race had -developed was apt to have produced vegetation inimical to humanity, -and useful vegetation did not thrive. And of course sol-type stars are -most readily spotted by space navigators. As he checked his course with -star-charts, Dona spoke softly. - -"Thanks, Kim." - -"For what?" - -"For not wanting to put me in safety when you're going to do something -dangerous. I wouldn't let you, but thanks for not trying." - -"_Mmmmh!_" said Kim. "You're too useful." - -He lined up his course and pressed the transmitter-drive stud on the -control-panel. Space danced a momentary saraband,--and there was a -blue-white dwarf two hundred million miles away, showing barely a -planet-sized disk, but pouring out a pitiless white glare that hurt the -eyes. - -"That's it," said Kim. "That's the sun Alis. There should be four -planets, but we're looking for Number One. It goes out beyond Two at -aphelion, so we have to check the orbit--if we can find it--before we -can be sure. No--we should be able to tell by the rotation. Very slow." - -"And what are you going to do with it?" demanded Dona. - -There were bright spots in emptiness which the electron telescope -instantly declared to be planets. Kim set up cameras for pictures. - -"Alis One is the only really uninhabitable planet in the Galaxy that's -inhabited," he observed painstakingly. "It belongs to Pharos Three. I -understand it's the personal property of the king. It has no atmosphere -in spite of an extremely high specific gravity and a reasonable mass. -But the plutonium mines have been worked for five thousand years." - -"Plutonium mines with that half-life?" Dona said skeptically. "You must -be joking!" - -"No," said Kim. "It's a very heavy planet, loaded with uranium and -stuff from bismuth on out. It has an extremely eccentric orbit. As -I told you, at aphelion it's beyond the orbit of Pharos Two. At -perihelion, when it's nearest to its sun, it just barely misses Roche's -Limit--the limit of nearness a satellite can come to its primary -without being torn apart by tidal strains. And at its nearest to its -sun, it's bombarded with everything a sun can fling out into space from -its millions of tons of disintegrating atoms. Alpha rays, beta rays, -gamma particles, neutrons, and everything else pour onto its surface -as if it were being bombarded by a cyclotron with a beam the size of a -planet's surface. You see what happens?" - -Dona looked startled. - -"But, Kim, every particle of the whole surface would become -terrifically radioactive. It would kill a man to land on it!" - -"According to my merchant-prince friend on Spicus Five, it did kill the -first men to set foot on it. But the point is that its heavy elements -have been bombarded, and most of its uranium has gone on over to -plutonium and americium and curium. In ancient days, when it went out -on the long sweep away from its sun, it cooled off enough for men to -land on it at its farthest-out point. With shielded space-suits they -were able to mine its substance for four to five months before heat and -rising induced radio-activity drove them off again. Then they'd wait -for it to cool off once more on its next trip around. - -"They went to it with space-ships, and the last space-line in the First -Galaxy ran plutonium and americium and the other radio-actives to a -matter-transmitter from which they could be distributed all over the -Galaxy. But it wasn't very efficient. They could only mine for four -or five months every four years. All their equipment was melted and -ruined when they were able to land again. A few hundred years ago, -however, they solved the problem." - -Dona stared out the vision-ports. There were two planets which might be -the one in question. But there were only three in sight. - -"How did they solve it?" Dona asked. - -"Somebody invented a shield," said Kim, as drily as before. "It -was a force-field. It has the property of a magnetic field on a -conductor with a current in it, except that it acts on mass as such. A -current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field tends to move at right -angles both to the current and the field. This force-field acts as if -mass were an electric charge. - -"Anything having mass, entering the field, tries to move sidewise. -The faster it moves, the stronger the sidewise impulse. Neutrons, -gamma particles, met rays and even electrons have mass. So has light. -Everything moving that hits the shielding field moves sidewise to its -original course. Radiation from the sun isn't reflected, at right -angles. - -"So, with the shield up, men can stay on the planet when it is less -than three diameters from its sun. No heat reaches it. No neutrons. No -radiations at all. It doesn't heat up. And that's the answer. For three -months in every four-year revolution, they have to keep the shield up -all the time. For three months more, they keep it up intermittently, -flashing it on for fractions of a second at a time, just enough to -temper the amount of heat they get. - -"They live on great platforms of uranium glass, domed in. When they -go out mining they wear shielded space-suits and work in shielded -machines. The whole trick was worked out about five hundred years ago, -they say, and the last space-line went out of existence, because they -could use a matter-transmitter for all but six of our months of that -planet's year." - -"And did you find out how it's done?" asked Dona. - -"Hardly," said Kim. "The planet belongs to the king of Pharos Three. -Even five hundred years ago the governments of all the planets were -quite tight corporations. Naturally Pharos wouldn't let the secret get -out. There are other planets so close to their primaries that they're -radioactive. If the secret were to be disclosed there'd be competition. -There'd be other plutonium mines in operation. So he's managed to keep -it to himself. But we've got to find out the trick." - -There was silence. Kim began to check over the pictures the cameras had -taken and developed. He shook his head. Then he stared at a photograph -which showed the blue-white dwarf itself. His face looked suddenly very -drawn and tired. - -"Kim," said Dona presently. "It's stupid of me, but I don't see how -you're going to learn the secret." - -Kim put the picture on the enlarger, for examination in a greater size. - -"They made the shield to keep things out," he said wearily. "Radiation, -charged particles, neutrons--everything. The planet simply can't be -reached, not even by matter-transmitters, when the shield is up. But by -the same token nothing can leave the planet either. It can't even be -spotted from space, because the light of the sun isn't reflected. It's -deflected to a right-angled course. You might pick it up if it formed -a right-angled triangle with you and the sun, or you might spot it in -transit across the sun's disk. But that's all." - -"Yes." - -"The shield was a special job," said Kim. "For a special purpose. -It was not a weapon. But there were all those planets that could be -grabbed if only Ades were knocked out. So why shouldn't King Pharos -sneak a force-field generator on to Ades? When the field went on, Ades -would be invisible and unreachable from outside. And the outside would -be unreachable from it. Space-ships couldn't get through the field. -Matter-transmitters couldn't operate through it. If a few technicians -were sneaked to Ades as supposed exiles and promised adequate reward, -don't you think they'd hide out somewhere and turn on that field, and -leave it on until the folk on Ades had starved or gone mad?" - -Horrified, Dona stared at him. She went pale. - -"Oh--horrible! The sky would be black--always! Never a glimmer of -light. No stars. No moons. No sun. The plants would die and rot, and -the people would grow bleached and pale, and finally they'd starve." - -"All but the little gang hidden away in a well-provisioned hide-out," -said Kim grimly. "I think that's what's happened to Ades, or is -happening. And this is the solar system where the little trick was -worked out. I'd hoped simply to raid the generator and find out how it -worked, which would be dangerous enough. Look!" - -He pointed to the projected image of the sun. There was a tiny dot -against its surface. It was almost, it seemed, bathed in the tentacular -arms of flaming gases flung up from the sun's surface. - -"There's the planet," said Kim. "At its closest to the sun! With the -shield up, so that nothing can reach its surface. Nothing! And that -includes space-ships such as this. And at that distance, Dona, the hard -radiation from the sun would go right through the _Starshine_ and -kill us in seconds before we could get within millions of miles of the -planet. If there's any place in the Universe that's unapproachable, -there it is. It may be anything up to three months before the shield -goes down even for fractions of a second at a time. And my guess is -that the people on Ades won't last that long. They've had days in which -to grow hopeless already. Want to gamble?" - -Dona looked at him. He regarded her steadily. - -"Whatever you say, Kim." - -"Sixteen million lives on Ades, besides other aspects of the -situation," said Kim. "The odds against us are probably about the same, -sixteen million to one. That makes it a fair bet. We'll try." - -He got up and began to tinker with the radiation-operated relay which -turned off the transmitter-drive. Presently he looked up. - -"I'm glad I married you, Dona," he said gruffly. - -As the _Starshine_ moved closer in, the feeling in the -control-room grew tense. The little ship had advanced to within twenty -millions of miles of the blue-white sun, and even at that distance -there was a detectable X-ray intensity. - -Kim had turned on a Geiger counter, and it was silent simply because -there was no measurable interval between its discharges. A neutron -detector showed an indication very close to the danger mark. But Kim -had the _Starshine's_ nose pointed to the intolerably glaring sun. - -The electron telescope showed the sun's surface filling all its field, -and because the illumination had been turned so low, raging sun-storms -could be seen on the star's disk. Against it, the black silhouette of -the planet was clear. It was small. Kim estimated its diameter at no -more than six thousand miles. The _Starshine's_ gyros hummed softly -and the field of the telescope swayed until the planet was centered -exactly. - -There was a little sweat on Kim's forehead. - -"I--don't mind taking the chance myself, Dona," he said, dry-throated. -"But I hate to think of you.... If we miss, we'll flash into the sun." - -"And never know it," said Dona, smiling. "It'll be all over in the -skillionth of a second--if we miss. But we won't." - -"We're aiming for the disk of the planet," he reminded her. "We have -to go in on transmitter-speed to cut the time of our exposure to hard -radiation. That speed will make the time of exposure effectively zero. -But we have to move at a huge multiple of the speed of light, and we -have to stop short of that planet. It may not be possible!" - -"Do you want me to press the button, Kim?" Dona said softly. - -He took a deep breath. - -"I'll do it. Thanks, Dona." - -He put his finger on the stud that would throw the ship into -transmitter-drive, aimed straight at the disk of planet against the -inferno of sun beyond. There was nothing more certain than that to -miss the planet would fling them instantly into the sun. And there was -nothing more absurd than to expect to come out of transmitter-drive -within any given number of millions of miles, much less within a few -thousands. But-- - -Kim pressed the stud. - -Instantly there was blackness before them. A monstrous, absolute -blackness filled half the firmament. It was the force-field-shielded -planet, blotting out its sun and half the stars of the Galaxy. Kim had -made a bull's-eye on a target relatively the size of a dinner-plate -at eleven hundred yards. More than that, he had stopped short of his -target, equivalent to stopping a bullet three inches short of that -place. - -He said in a queer voice: - -"The--relay worked--even backward, Dona." - - - - - 8 - - _Dark Barrier_ - - -For a time Kim sat still and sweat poured out on his skin. Because -their chances had seemed slight indeed. To stop a space-ship at -transmitter-speed was impossible with manual means, anyhow. It could -cross a galaxy in the tenth of a millisecond. So Kim had devised a -radiation-operated relay which threw off the drive when the total -radiation reaching a sensitive plate in the bow had reached an -adjustable total. - -If in an ordinary flight the _Starshine_ headed into a -sun--unlikely as such an occurrence was--the increased light striking -the relay-plate would throw off the drive before harm came. But this -time they had needed to approach fatally close to a star. So Kim had -reversed the operation of the relay. It would throw off the drive when -the amount of light reaching it dropped below a certain minimum. That -could happen only if the ship came up behind the planet, so the sun was -blacked out by the world's shadowed night-side. - -It had happened. The glare was cut off. The transmitter-drive followed. -The _Starshine_ floated within a bare few million miles--perhaps -less than one million--of a blue-white dwarf star, and the two humans -in the ship were alive because they had between them and the sun's -atomic furnaces, a planet some six thousand miles in diameter. - -"We don't know how our velocity matches this thing," said Kim after an -instant. "We could be drifting toward the edge of the shadow. You watch -the stars all around. Make sure I head directly for that blackness. -When we touch, I'll see what I can find out." - -He reversed the ship's direction. He let the _Starshine_ float -down backward. The mass of unsubstantial darkness seemed to swell. It -engulfed more and more of the cosmos.... - -A long, long time later, there was a strange sensation in the feel of -things. Dona gave a little cry. - -"Kim! I feel queer! So queer!" - -Kim moved heavily. His body resisted any attempt at motion, and yet -he felt a horrible tension within him, as if every molecule were -attempting to fly apart from every other molecule. The controls of the -ship moved sluggishly. Each part of each device seemed to have a vast -inertia. But the controls did yield. The drive did come on. A little -later the sensation ended. But both Kim and Dona felt utterly exhausted. - -"It--was getting dark, too," said Dona. She trembled. - -"When we tried to move," said Kim, "our arms had a tendency to move at -right angles to the way we wanted them to--at all the possible right -angles at once. That was the edge of the shield, Dona. Now we'll see -what we've got." - -He uncovered the recording cabinet. There had been no need to set up -instruments especially for the analysis of the field. They had been a -part of the _Starshine's_ original design for exploration. Now Kim -read the records. - -"Cosmic-ray intensity went down," he reported, studying the tapes. -"The dielectric constant of space changed. It just soared up. The -relationship of mass to inertia. That particular gadget never -recorded anything significant before, Dona. In theory it should have -detected space-warps. Actually, it never amounted to anything but a -quantitative measure of gravitation on a planet one landed on. But it -went wild in that field! And here! Look!" - -He exultantly held out a paper recording. - -"Glance at that, Dona! See? A magnetometer to record the strength of -the magnetic field on a new planet. It recorded the ship's own field in -the absence of any other. And the ship's field dropped to zero! Do you -see? Do you?" - -"I'm afraid not," admitted Dona. But she smiled at the expression on -Kim's face. - -"It's the answer!" said Kim zestfully. "Still I don't know how that -blasted field is made, but I know now how it works. Neutrons have no -magnetic field, but this thing turns them aside. Alpha and beta and -gamma radiation do have magnetic fields, but this thing turns them -aside, too. And the point is that it neutralizes their magnetic fields, -because otherwise it couldn't start to turn them aside. So if we make -a magnetic field too strong for the field to counter, it won't be able -to turn aside anything in that magnetic area. The maximum force-field -strength needed for the planet is simply equal to the top magnetic -field the sun may project so far. If we can bury the _Starshine_ -in magnetic flux that the force-field can't handle--" He grinned. He -hugged her. - -"And there's a loop around the _Starshine's_ hull for space-radio -use," he cried. "I'll run a really big current through that loop and -we'll try again. We should be able to put quite a lot of juice through -a six-turn loop and get a flux-density that will curl your hair!" - -He set to work, beaming. It took him less than half an hour to set up a -series-wound generator in the airlock, couple in a thermo-cell to the -loop, so it would cool the generator as the current flowed and thereby -reduce its internal resistance. - -"Now!" he said. "We'll try once more. The more juice that goes through -the outfit, the colder the generator will get and the less its -resistance will be, and the more current it will make and the stronger -the magnetic field will be." - -He flipped a switch. There was a tiny humming noise. A meter-needle -swayed over, and stayed. - -The _Starshine_ ventured into the black globe below. - -Nothing happened. Nothing happened at all. - -"The stars are blotted out, Kim," Dona at last said uneasily. - -"But you feel all right, don't you?" He grinned like an ape in his -delight. - -"Why, yes." - -"I feel unusually good," said Kim happily. - -The vision-screens were utterly blank. The ports opened upon absolute -blackness--blackness so dead and absorbent that it seemed more than -merely lack of light. It seemed like something horrible pressing -against the ports and trying to thrust itself in. - -And, suddenly, a screen glowed faintly, and then another.... - -Then there was a greenish glow in the ports, and Dona looked out and -down. - -Above was that blackness, complete and absolute. But below, seen with -utter clarity, because of the absence of atmosphere, lay a world. -Nothing grew upon it. Nothing moved. It was raw, naked rock with -an unholy luminescence. Here and there the glow was brighter where -mineral deposits contained more highly active material. The surface was -tortured and twisted, in swirled stained writhings of formerly melted -rock. - -They looked. They saw no sign of human life nor any sign that humans -had ever been there. But after all, even five thousand years of mining -on a globe six thousand miles through would not involve the disturbance -of more than a fraction of its surface. - -"We did it," said Kim. "The shield can be broken through by anything -with a strong enough magnetic field. We won't disturb the local -inhabitants. They undoubtedly have orders to kill anybody who -incredibly manages to intrude. We can't afford to take a chance. We've -got to get back to Ades!" - -He pointed the _Starshine_ straight up. He drove her, -slowly, at the ceiling of impenetrable black. He worked upon the -transmitter-drive relay. He adjusted it to throw the _Starshine_ -into transmitter-speed the instant normal starlight appeared ahead. - -The ship swam slowly upward. Suddenly there was a momentary impression -of reeling, dancing stars. Kim swung the bow about. - -"Now for Ades!" he said gleefully. "Did you know, Dona, that once upon -a time the word Ades meant hell?" - -The stars reeled again.... - -They found Ades. Knowing how, now, it was not too difficult. There were -two positions from which it could be detected. One was a position in -which it was on a line between the _Starshine_ and the sun. The -other was a position in which the invisible planet, the space-ship, and -the sun formed the three points of a right-angled triangle with Ades in -the ninety-degree corner. - -Kim sent the little ship in a great circle beyond the planet's normal -orbit, watching for it to appear where such an imaginary triangle -would be formed. The deflected light of the sun would spread out -in a circular flat thin plane, and somewhere about the circuit the -_Starshine_ had to run through it. It would be a momentary sight -only, and it would not be bright; it would be utterly unlike the steady -radiance of a normal planet. Such flashes, if seen before, would have -been dismissed as illusions or as reflections from within the ship. -Even so, it was a long, long time before Dona called out quickly. - -"There!" she said, and pointed. - -Kim swung the _Starshine_ back. He saw the dim, diffused spectre -of sun's reflection. They drove for it, and presently a minute dark -space appeared. It grew against the background of a radiant galaxy, and -presently was a huge blackness, and the _Starshine's_ space-radio -loop was once more filled with a highly improbable electrical amperage -by the supercooled generator in the airlock. - -The ship ventured cautiously into the black. - -And later there were lonely, unspeakably desolate little lights of the -lost world down below. - -Kim drove for them with a reckless exultation. He landed in the very -centre of a despairing small settlement which had believed itself dead -and damned--or at any rate doomed. He shouted out his coming, and Dona -cried out the news that the end of darkness was near, and men came -surging toward her to listen. But it was Dona who explained, her eyes -shining in the light of the torches men held up toward her. - -Kim had gone back into the ship and was using the communicators to -rouse out the mayors of every municipality, and to say he had just -reached the planet from Terranova--there was no time to tell of -adventures in between--and he needed atmosphere fliers to gather around -him at once, with armed men in them, for urgent business connected with -the restoration of a normal state of affairs. - -They came swiftly, flittering down out of the blackness overhead, to -land in the lights of huge bonfires built by Kim's orders. And Kim, -on the communicators, asked for other bonfires everywhere, to help in -navigation, and then he went out to be greeted by the bellowing Mayor -of Steadheim. - -"What's this?" he roared. "No sunlight! No stars! No -matter-transmitter! No ships! Our ships took off and never came back! -What the devil happened to the Universe?" - -Kim grinned at him. - -"The Universe is all right. It's Ades. Somewhere on the planet there's -a generator throwing out a force-field. It will have plenty of power, -that generator. Maybe I can pick it up with the instruments of the -_Starshine_. But we'll be sure to find it with magnetic compasses. -What we want is for everyone to flick their compasses and note the -time of swing. We want to find the place where the swings get slower -and slower. When we find a place where the compasses point steadily, -without a flicker--not even up and down--we'll be at the generator. And -everybody put on navigation-lights or there'll be crashes!" - -He lifted the _Starshine_ and by communicator kept track of the -search. Toward the polar regions was the logical hiding-place for the -generator, because there the chilly climate of Ades became frigid and -there were no inhabitants. But it was a long search. Hours went by -before a signal came from a quarter-way around the globe. - -Then the _Starshine_ drove through darkness--but cautiously--with -atmosphere fliers all about. And there was an area where the planet's -magnetic field grew weaker and weaker, and then a space in which there -was no magnetic field. But in the darkness they could find no sign of a -depot! - - - - - 9 - - _Gadget of Hope_ - - -Grimly Kim set the "_Starshine_" on the ground, in the very -centre of the dark area, and started the generator in the airlock. -When it worked at its utmost, and nothing happened, Kim threw in the -leads of the ship's full engine-power. There was a surging of all the -terrific energy the ship's engines could give. Then the radio-loop went -white-hot and melted, with a sputtering arc as the circuit broke. - -Abruptly the stars appeared overhead, and simultaneously came the -leaping flame of a rumbling explosion. Then followed the flare of fuel -burning savagely in the night. The _Starshine's_ full power had -burned out the force-field generator, an instant before the loop melted -to uselessness. - -Kim was with the men who ran toward the scene of the explosion, and he -would have tried to stop the killing of the other men who ran out of -underground burrows, but the victims would not have it. They expected -to be killed, and they fought wildly. All died. - -Later Kim inspected the shattered apparatus which now lay in pieces, -but he thought it could be reconstructed and perhaps in time understood. - -"Night's nearly over," he announced to those who prowled through the -wreckage. "It shouldn't be much more than an hour until dawn. If I -hadn't seen sunlight for a week or more, I think, I'd go for a look at -the sunrise." - -In seconds the first atmosphere-flier took off. In minutes the last of -them were gone. They flew like great black birds beneath the starlight, -headed for the east to greet a sun they had not expected to see again. - -But the Mayor of Steadheim stayed behind. - -"Hah!" he said, growling. "It's over my head. I don't know what -happened and I never expect to understand. How are my sons in the new -Galaxy?" - -"Fine when last we heard," said Dona, smiling. "Come into the ship." - -He tramped into the living space of the _Starshine_. He eased -himself into a seat. - -"Now tell me what's gone on, and what's happened, and why!" he -commanded dictatorially. - -Kim told him, as well as he could. The Mayor of Steadheim fumed. - -"Took over the twenty-one planets, eh?" he sputtered. "We'll attend to -that. We'll take a few ships, go over there, and punish 'em." - -"I suspect they've pulled out," said Kim. "If they haven't, they will. -And soon! The Gracious Majesties and Magnificents, and the other -planetary rulers who essayed some easy conquests, have other need for -their soldiers now. Plenty of need!" - -"Eh, what?" cried the mayor. "What's the matter? Those rulers have got -to have a lesson! We didn't try to free the whole Galaxy because it was -too big a job. But it looks like we'll have to try!" - -"I doubt the need," said Kim, amused. "After all, it's the Disciplinary -Circuit which has enslaved the human race. When the psychogram of -every citizen is on file, and a disciplinarian has only to put his -card in the machinery and press a button to have that man searched out -by Disciplinary-Circuit waves and tortured, wherever he may be--when -that's possible--any government is absolute. Men can't revolt when -the whole population or any part of it can be tortured at the ruler's -whim." - -Dona's expression changed. - -"Kim!" she said accusingly. "Those things you got on Spicus Five and -dropped on the planets the soldiers came from--what were they?" - -"I'll tell you," said Kim. "The Disciplinary Circuit is all right to -keep criminals in hand--not rebels like us, but thieves and such--and -it does keep down the number of officials who have to be supported by -the state. Police and guards aren't really needed on a free planet -with the Disciplinary Circuit in action. It's a useful machine for the -protection of law and order. The trouble is that, like all machines, -its use has been abused. Now it serves tyranny. So I made a device to -defend freedom." - -The Mayor of Steadheim cocked a suspicious eye upon him. - -"I procured a little gadget," said Kim. "I dropped the gadget in -various places where it wasn't likely to be found. If one man is under -Disciplinary Circuit punishment, or two or three or four--that's not -unreasonable on a great planet--nothing happens. But if twenty-five or -fifty or a hundred are punished at once, the Disciplinary Circuit is -blown out as I just blew out that force-field generator." - -The Mayor of Steadheim considered this information. - -"_Ha-hmmm!_" he said profoundly. - -"Criminals can be kept down, but a revolt can't be suppressed," Kim -went on. "The soldiers who are occupying the twenty-one planets will -be called back to put down revolts, as soon as the people discover the -Disciplinary Circuits on their planets are blowing out, and that they -blow out again as fast as they're re-made and used." - -"_Hm!_" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "Not bad! And the rebels will -have some very tasty ideas of what to do to the folk who've tyrannized -over them. No troops can stop a revolt nowadays. Not for long!" - -"No, not for long," said Kim. "No government will be able to rule -with a dissatisfied population. Not if it has a little gadget hidden -somewhere that will blow out the Disciplinary Circuit, if it's used to -excess." - -"Good enough, good enough," grumbled the mayor. "When rulers are kept -busy satisfying their people, they won't have time to bother political -offenders. That's sensible enough! But it's too fiendish bad that only -those twenty planets have the gadgets on them! I suppose we criminals -will have to set up a factory and make them, and then visit all the -three hundred million inhabited planets, one by one, and drop one -little contrivance on every one. But it'll take us centuries! Space! -That's a pity!" - -"It won't take centuries," said Kim drily. "I made a deal with a -factory-owner on Spicus Five. He turned out the ones I personally -dropped, in exchange for the design. He's going to manufacture them in -quantity. He'll make a fortune out of them!" - -"How? Who'll buy them?" demanded the mayor. "Every king will outlaw -them! Space, yes! They'll be scared to death--" - -"The kings," said Kim more drily than before, "the kings and despots -and emperors will be the ones to buy them. They'll want them to drop -in their neighbors' dominions. Every king or ruler will buy a few to -put where they will weaken his enemies--and every one has enemies! We -don't have to plant the gadgets that make the Disciplinary Circuit -into a boomerang! We'll let the kings weaken each other and bring back -freedom. And they will!" - -The Mayor of Steadheim puffed in his breath until it looked as if he -would explode. Then he bellowed with laughter. - -"Make the tyrants dethrone each other," he roared delightedly. "They'll -weaken each other until they find they've their own people to deal -with. There'll be a fine scramble! I give it five years, no more, -before there's not a king in the Galaxy who dares order an execution -without a jury-trial first!" - -"A consummation devoutly to be wished," said Kim, smiling. "I rather -like the idea myself." - -The mayor heaved himself up. - -"Hah!" he said, still chuckling. "I'll go back to my wife and tell her -to come outdoors and look at the stars. What will you two do next?" - -"Sleep, I suspect," said Kim. It was all over. The realization made him -aware of how tired he was. "We'll probably put in twenty-four hours of -just plain slumber. Then we'll see if anything more needs to be done, -and then I guess Dona and I will head back to Terranova. The Organizer -there is worried about a shortage of textiles." - -"To the devil with him," grunted the Mayor of Steadheim. "We've had -a shortage of sunlight! You're a good man, Kim Rendell. I'll tell my -grandchildren about you, when I have them." - -He waved grandly and went out. A little later his flier took off, -occulting stars as it rose. - -Kim closed the airlock door. He yawned again. - -"Kim," said Dona, "We had to break that shield, but it was dangerous." - -"Yes," said Kim. He yawned again. "So it was. I'll be glad to get back -to our house on Terranova." - -"So will I," said Dona. Her face had become determined. "We shouldn't -even think of leaving it again, Kim! We should--anchor ourselves to it, -so nobody would think of asking us to leave." - -"A good idea," said Kim. "If it could be done." - -Dona looked critically at her fingers, but she flushed suddenly. - -"It could," she said softly. "The best way would be--children." - - - THE END - - * * * * * - - - THE LAST SPACE SHIP - - _By Murray Leinster_ - - -Put yourself in the place of Kim Rendell, a handsome, idealistic young -man living on a distant planet ruled by a super-efficient government. -Here is industrialization carried to its <b>illogical</b> conclusion. -Kim Rendell lives in the shadow of mechanized terror, for machines have -taken over, and the disciplinary circuit keeps the inhabitants in check. - -Rendell is an outlaw because he tried to strike at the very foundations -of this so-called civilization. He will not yield to the tyranny of the -power-mad, sensuously warped rulers of the astral body Alphin III. He -and his girl friend are in danger of psychological torture worse than -death. - -Kim Rendell goes to the antique museum of Alphin III, which houses -_Starshine_, an outmoded space-ship. He conceives the daring -plan of using the _Starshine_ to save his girl and himself from -the dictators of Alphin III. In this world, teleportation of matter -has taken the place of transportation from planet to planet, and -solar system to solar system, via rocket and atomic-powered vessels. -Nevertheless, Kim decides to steal the last space-ship from the antique -museum and flee with his girl. - -Thus starts this most stirring novel of love, adventure and the -fight against tyranny, by the well-known author of hundreds of adult -science-fiction stories. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST SPACE SHIP *** - -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 last space ship</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Murray Leinster</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 31, 2023 [eBook #69916]</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 LAST SPACE SHIP ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap"> - -<div class="titlepage"> - - -<h1>The Last Space Ship</h1> - -<h2>MURRAY LEINSTER</h2> - -<p><i>A Breathtaking Power Packed -Full Length Novel</i></p> - -<p>GALAXY PUBLISHING CORP.<br> -421 HUDSON STREET<br> -NEW YORK 14, N. Y.</p> - -<p>GALAXY <i>Science Fiction</i> Novels, selected by the editors of<br> -GALAXY <i>Science Fiction</i> Magazine, are the choice of science<br> -fiction novels both original and reprint.</p> - -<p>GALAXY <i>Science Fiction</i> Novel No. 25</p> - -<p>35c a copy. Six Novel Subscriptions $2.00</p> - -<p><i>Copyright 1949 by Will F. Jenkins</i></p> - -<p><i>Reprinted by arrangement with the publishers,<br> -FREDERICK FELL, INC.</i></p> - -<p>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br> -<i>by</i><br> -THE GUINN COMPANY, INC.<br> -NEW YORK 14, N. Y.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any<br> -evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - - -<h3>PART ONE<br> -THE DISCIPLINARY CIRCUIT</h3> - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr><td class="tdr">1</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#1a">Victim of Tyrants</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#2a">Break for Freedom</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">3</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#3a">Rays of Destruction</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">4</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#4a">Outcasts of Space</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">5</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#5a">Super-Science</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">6</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#6a">Haven at Last</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<h3>PART TWO<br> -THE MANLESS WORLDS</h3> - - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr><td class="tdr">1</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#1b">Empires in the Making</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#2b">The Deadly Beams</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">3</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#3b">Contact!</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">4</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#4b">Encounter in the Void</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">5</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#5b">The Needed Fuel</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">6</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#6b">Man-Made Meteor</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">7</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#7b">Ready for Action</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">8</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#8b">Pitched Battle</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">9</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#9b">Homecoming</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<h3>PART THREE<br> -THE BOOMERANG CIRCUIT</h3> - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr><td class="tdr">1</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#1c">Damaged Transmitter</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#2c">Enemy Sabotage</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">3</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#3c">Dangerous Trip</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">4</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#4c">Despots Take Over</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">5</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#5c">Industrial World</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">6</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#6c">Vanished World</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">7</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#7c">One Chance in a Million</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">8</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#8c">Dark Barrier</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdr">9</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#9c">Gadget of Hope</a></td></tr> -</table> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PART ONE</h2> - -<h3>THE DISCIPLINARY CIRCUIT</h3> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="1a">1</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Victim of Tyrants</i></h3> - - -<p>Kim Rendell stood by the propped-up <i>Starshine</i> in the transport -hall of the primary museum on Alphin III. He regarded a placard under -the space-ship with a grim and entirely mirthless amusement. He was -unshaven and hollow-cheeked. He was even ragged. He was a pariah -because he had tried to strike at the very foundation of civilization. -He stood beside the hundred-foot, tapering hull, his appearance marking -him as a blocked man. And he re-read the loan-placard within the -railing about the exhibit:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Citizens, be grateful to Kim Rendell, who shares with you the pleasure -of contemplating this heirloom.</p> - -<p>This is a space-ship, like those which for ten thousand years were the -only means of travel between planets and solar systems. Even after -matter-transmitters were devised, space-ships continued to be used -for exploration for many years. Since exploration of the Galaxy has -been completed and all useful planets colonized and equipped with -matter-transmitters, space-ships are no longer in use.</p> - -<p>This very vessel, however, was used by Sten Rendell when the first -human colonists came in it to Alphin III, bringing with them the -matter-transmitter which enabled civilization to enter upon and occupy -the planet on which you stand.</p> - -<p>This ship is private property, lent to the people of Alphin III by Kim -Rendell, great-grandson of Sten Rendell.</p> -</div> - -<p>Kim Rendell read it again. He was haggard and hungry. He had been -guilty of the most horrifying crime imaginable to a man of his time. -But the law would not, of course, allow him or any other man to be -coerced by any violence or threat to his personal liberty.</p> - -<p>Freedom was the law on Alphin III, a wryly humorous law. No man could -be punished. No man could have any violence offered him. Theoretically, -the individual was free as men had never been free before in all of -human history. Despite Kim's crime, this space-ship still belonged to -him and it could not be taken from him.</p> - -<p>Yet he was hungry, and he would remain hungry. He was shabby and he -would grow shabbier. This was the only roof on Alphin III which would -shelter him, and this solely because the law would not permit any man -to be excluded from his rightful possessions.</p> - -<p>A lector came up to him and bowed politely.</p> - -<p>"Citizen," he said apologetically, "may I speak to you?"</p> - -<p>"Why not?" asked Kim grimly. "I am not proud."</p> - -<p>The lector said uncomfortably:</p> - -<p>"I see that you are in difficulty. Your clothes are threadbare." Then -he added with unhappy courtesy, "You are a criminal, are you not?"</p> - -<p>"I am blocked," said Kim in a hard voice. "I was advised by the Prime -Board to leave Alphin Three for my own benefit. I refused. They put on -the first block. Automatically, after that, the other blocks came on -one each day. I have not eaten for three days. I suppose you would call -me a criminal."</p> - -<p>"I sympathize deeply," the lector answered unhappily. "I hope that soon -you will concede the wisdom of the advised action and be civilized -again. But may I ask how you entered the museum? The third block -prevents entrance to all places of study."</p> - -<p>Kim pointed to the loan-card.</p> - -<p>"I am Kim Rendell," he said drily. "The law does not allow me to be -prevented access to my own property. I insisted on my right to visit -this ship, and the Disciplinary Circuit for this building had to be -turned off at the door so I could enter." He shivered. "It is very cold -out-of-doors today, and I could not enter any other building."</p> - -<p>The lector looked relieved.</p> - -<p>"I am glad to know these things," he said gratefully. "Thank you." -He glanced at Kim with a sort of fluttered curiosity. "It is most -interesting to meet a criminal. What was your crime?"</p> - -<p>Kim looked at him under scowling brows.</p> - -<p>"I tried to nullify the Disciplinary Circuit."</p> - -<p>The lector blinked at him, fascinated, then walked hastily away as if -frightened. Kim Rendell stooped under the railing and approached the -<i>Starshine</i>.</p> - -<p>The entrance-port was open, and a flush ladder led up to it. Kim, -hollow-cheeked and ragged and defiant, climbed the steps and entered. -The entry-port gave upon a vestibule which Kim knew from his -grandfather's tables to be an airlock. Kim's grandfather had once -gone off into space in the <i>Starshine</i> with his father. It was, -possibly, the last space-flight ever made.</p> - -<p>For a hundred years, now, the ship had been a museum-piece, open to -public inspection. But parts had been sealed off as uninstructive. Kim -broke the seals. This was his property, but if he had not already been -a criminal under block, the breaking of the seals would have made him -one. At least, it would have had to be explained to a lector who, at -discretion, could accept the explanation or refer it to a second-degree -counsellor.</p> - -<p>The counsellor might deplore the matter and dismiss it, or suggest -corrective self-discipline.</p> - -<p>If the seal-breaker did not accept the suggestion the matter would go -to a social board whose suggestion, in turn, could be rejected. But -when it reached the Prime Board—and any matter from the breaking of -a seal to mass murder would go there if suggested self-discipline was -refused—there was no more nonsense.</p> - -<p>Kim's case had reached the Prime Board instantly, and he had been -advised to leave Alphin III for his own good. His crime was monstrous, -but he had ironically refused exile.</p> - -<p>Now he was under block. His psychogram had been placed in the -Disciplinary Circuit.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> <i>Disciplinary Circuit</i>: The principal instrument of -government during the so-called Era of Perfection in the First Galaxy. -In early ages, all the functions of government were performed by human -beings in person. The Electric Chair (q.v.) was possibly the first -mechanical device to perform a governmental act, that of the execution -of criminals.</p> - -<p>The Disciplinary Circuit was a device based upon the discovery of -the psychographic patterns of human beings, which permitted the -exact identification of any person passing through a neuronic field -of the type IX2H.... A development which permitted the induction of -alternative electric currents in any identified person, made the -Disciplinary Circuit possible.... It was first used in prisons, -permitting much less supervision of prisoners (See Prisons and -Prisoners) with equal security.</p> - -<p>Later, because it allowed of an enormous reduction in the personnel -of government, all citizens were psychographed. Circuits were set -up in all cities of the First Galaxy. When a broadcast adaptation -became possible, the system was complete. Every citizen was liable to -discipline at any time.</p> - -<p>No offender could hide from government. Wherever he might be, he was -subject to punishment focused upon him because of his completely -individual psychographic pattern.... Worship of efficiency and -the obvious reduction in taxes (See Taxes) at first obscured the -possibilities of tyranny inherent in such a governmental system....</p> - -<p>[See (1) Era of Perfection, (2) Revolts, (3) Ades, (4) First Galaxy, -Reconquest of. For typical developments of government based upon the -Disciplinary Circuit, see articles on Sirius VIII, Algol II, Norten V -and the almost unbelievable but authenticated history of government on -Voorten II.]</p> - -<p><i>Encyclopaedia of History, Vol. XXIV. Cosmopolis, 2nd Galaxy.</i></p> - -</div> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>On the first day he was blocked from the customary complete outfit of -new garments, clean, sterile, and of his own choice. These garments -normally arrived by his bedside in the carrier which took away the old -ones to be converted back to raw material for the garment machines.</p> - -<p>On the second day he could enter no place of public recreation. An -attempt to pass the door of any sport-field, theatre, or concert -stadium caused the Disciplinary Circuit to act. His body began to -tingle. He could turn back then. If he persisted, the tingling became -more severe. If he was obstinate, it became agony, which continued -until he turned back.</p> - -<p>On the third day he found it impossible to enter any place of study or -labor. The fourth day blocked him from any place where food or drink -was served. On the fifth day his own quarters were barred to him.</p> - -<p>After seven days the city and the planet would be barred. Anywhere -he went, his body would tingle, gently in the morning, more and more -strongly as the day wore on, until the torment became unbearable. Then -he would go to the matter-transmitter, name his chosen place of exile, -and walk off the planet which was Alphin III.</p> - -<p>But it happened that Kim was a matter-transmitter technician. It -happened that he knew that the Disciplinary Circuit was tied in to the -matter-transmitter, and blocked men were not sent to destinations of -their own choosing.</p> - -<p>Blocked men automatically went to Ades. And they did not come back. -Ever.</p> - -<p>Behind the sealed-off parts of the space-ship, Kim searched hungrily -and worked desperately, not for food, of course. He had determined to -attempt the impossible. He had accomplished only the first step toward -it when he felt an infinitesimal tingling all over his body. He stood -rigid for a second, and then smiled grimly. He closed the casing of the -catalyzer he had examined and worked on.</p> - -<p>"Just in time," he said. "The merciless brutes!"</p> - -<p>He moved from the catalyzer. A moment later he heard footsteps. Someone -came up the flush ladder and into the space-ship. Kim Rendell turned -his head. Then he bent over the fuel-register, which amazingly showed -the tanks to be almost one-twelfth full of fuel, and stood motionless.</p> - -<p>The footsteps moved here and there. Presently they came cautiously to -the engine-room. Kim did not stir. A man made an indescribable sound of -satisfaction. Kim, not moving even his eyes, saw that it was the lector -who had spoken to him outside the ship. He did not address Kim now. -With a quite extraordinary air of someone about to pick up an inanimate -object, the lector laid hands upon Kim to lift him off his feet.</p> - -<p>"Citizen!" Kim said severely. "What does this mean?"</p> - -<p>The lector gasped. He fell back. His mouth dropped open and his face -went white.</p> - -<p>"I—I thought you were paralyzed."</p> - -<p>"I do not care what you thought," Kim said. "It is against the law for -any citizen to lay violent hands upon another."</p> - -<p>By an effort the lector babbler regained his self-control.</p> - -<p>"You—you.... The Circuit failed to work!"</p> - -<p>"You reported that I had entered this ship," Kim said drily. "There is -some uneasiness about what I do, because of my crime. So the Circuit -was applied to paralyze me, and you were ordered to bring me quietly to -the matter-transmitter. As you observe, it is not practical. Go back -and report it."</p> - -<p>The lector said something incoherent, turned and fled. Kim followed him -leisurely to the entry-port. He turned the hand-power wheels which put -a barrier across the entrance. He went back to his examination of the -ship. The first part of the impossible had been achieved, but there was -much more, too much more, which must be done. He worked feverishly.</p> - -<p>His grandfather had told him many tales of the <i>Starshine</i>. -She had made voyages of as long as two years in emptiness, at full -acceleration, during which she had covered four hundred light-years -of space, had purified her air, and fed her crew. Her tanks could -hold fuel for six years' drive at full acceleration and her -food-synthesizers, primitive as they were by modern standards, could -yet produce some four hundred foodstuffs from the carbon, hydrogen, -nitrogen, and traces of other elements into which almost any organic -raw material could be resolved.</p> - -<p>She was, in fact, one of the last and most useful space-ships ever -constructed at the last space-ship yard in existence. She was almost -certainly the last ever to be used. But she was only a museum-piece -now and her switches were opened and her control-cables severed lest -visitors to the museum injure her. But Kim's grandfather had lectured -him at great length upon her qualities. The old gentleman had had an -elderly man's distaste for modern perfectionism.</p> - -<p>Kim threw switches here and there. He spliced cables wherever he found -them cut. He was hungry and he was gaunt, and he worked with a bitter -anticipation of failure. He had been in the museum for almost an hour, -and in the ship for half of that, when voices called politely through -the barrier-grille.</p> - -<p>"Citizen Kim Rendell, may we enter?"</p> - -<p>He made sure it was safe, then opened the way.</p> - -<p>"Enter and welcome, citizens," he said ironically, in the prescribed -formula. But his hands were clenched and he was all ready to fight for -his life.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="2a">2</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Break for Freedom</i></h3> - - -<p>Slowly the Prime Board of Alphin III filed up the flush ladder and into -the cabin of the <i>Starshine</i>. There was Malby, who looked like an -elderly sheep. There was Ponter, who rather resembled an immature frog. -There was Shimlo, who did not look like anything but an advanced case -of benevolent imbecility, and Burt, who at least looked intelligent and -whom Kim Rendell hated with a corrosive hatred.</p> - -<p>"Greeting, citizen," Malby said. Even his voice had a bleating quality. -"Despite your crime, we have broken all precedent to come and reason -with you. You are not mad, yet you act like a madman."</p> - -<p>Kim grinned savagely at him.</p> - -<p>"Come, now! I found a material that changes a man's psychogram, so he's -immune to the Disciplinary Circuit. I was immune to discipline. So you -four had me seized and my little amulet taken away from me. And then -you sealed up every other bit of that material on the planet. Not so?"</p> - -<p>"Naturally," Burt said pleasantly. "The Disciplinary Circuit is -the basis of civilization nowadays. All discipline and hence all -civilization would cease if the Circuit were nullified. Naturally, you -must be disposed of."</p> - -<p>"But carefully, so if there is anyone who shares my secret, he'll be -betrayed by trying to help me!" said Kim. "And quietly, too, so those -amiable sheep, my fellow-citizens, won't suspect there's anything -wrong. They don't realize that they're slaves. They don't know of -your pleasure-palaces on the other side of the planet. They don't -realize that, when you take a fancy to a woman and she's blocked in her -quarters until she's hysterical with fear and loneliness, you advise -her to take psychological treatments which make her a submissive inmate -of the harems you keep there. They don't know what happens to men you -put under block for being too inquisitive about those women and who -enter the matter-transmitter for exile."</p> - -<p>Burt looked mildly inquiring. "What does happen to them?"</p> - -<p>"Ades!" Kim said furiously. "They go to the transmitter and name their -chosen place of exile, and the transmitter-clerk dutifully pushes the -proper buttons, but the Circuit takes over. They go to Ades! And no man -has ever come back."</p> - -<p>There was a sudden tension in the air. Burt looked at his fellows. -Shimlo was the picture of benevolent indignation, but his eyes were -ugly. Ponter opened his mouth and closed it absurdly, looking more than -ever like a frog.</p> - -<p>"This is monstrous!" Malby bleated. "This is monstrous!"</p> - -<p>Burt held up his hand.</p> - -<p>"How did you get this strange idea?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"I'm a matter-transmitter technician, fourth grade," Kim said coldly. -"I worked on the transmitter when it gave trouble. I found the -Disciplinary Circuit tie-in. I traced it. So I knew there was something -wrong about all personal freedom on Alphin III and I started to look -for more things wrong. I found them. I started to do something about -them. Then I got caught."</p> - -<p>Burt nodded.</p> - -<p>"So!" he said thoughtfully. "We underestimated you, Kim Rendell. It -is much pleasanter to rule Alphin Three as beloved citizens than as -admitted tyrants. There are times when we have to protect ourselves. -Naturally, we would rather not show our hands. It is clear that you -must be sent into exile. Frankly, to Ades—whatever it may be like -there. Apparently you did not have any friends."</p> - -<p>"I dared not trust any of the sheep you rule," Kim said angrily. "But -I did know there was more hafnium on this ship. I didn't dare come -at first, or you'd have guessed. But after I'd starved a bit and was -convincingly cold, I risked the venture. You guessed my intention -too late. I can defy you again, even if you did take away my first -protection from the Circuit. You know that?"</p> - -<p>Burt nodded again.</p> - -<p>"Of course," he admitted. "Yet we do not want a scandal. We will make -a bargain within limits. You must be disposed of, but we will promise -that you can go wherever you choose via the matter-transmitter."</p> - -<p>"Your word's no good," Kim snapped.</p> - -<p>"You will starve," Burt said mildly. "Of course you can seal yourself -in the ship, but we will have lectors, special lectors, waiting for you -when you come out again."</p> - -<p>Kim scowled. "Yes?" he said. "I've been here half an hour. The ship's -circuits were cut, but I've put the communicator back in working order. -I can broadcast over the entire planet, telling the truth. I won't -destroy your power, but I'll make your slaves begin to realize what -they are. Sooner or later, one of them will kill you."</p> - -<p>Malby bleated. It was not necessarily panic, but there are some minds -to whom public admiration is necessary. Such persons will commit any -crime to get admiration which they crave with a passionate desire. Burt -held up his hand again.</p> - -<p>"But why tell us?" he asked pleasantly. "Why didn't you simply -broadcast what you've learned? Possibly it was because you wished to -bargain with us first? You have terms?"</p> - -<p>Kim ground his teeth.</p> - -<p>"That's right," he said. "There is a girl, Dona Brett. She was to marry -me, but one of you saw her, I think you, Burt. She is now blocked in -her quarters to grow hysterical and terrified. It was on account of her -that I acted too soon, and got caught. I want her here."</p> - -<p>Burt considered without perceptible emotion.</p> - -<p>"She is quite pretty, but there are others," he said in his detached -way. "If we send her, you will not broadcast?"</p> - -<p>"I'll kill her and myself," Kim said. "It's apparently the only service -I can do her. Get out, now. It will take your best technician at least -forty minutes to make a scrambler which will keep me from broadcasting. -I'll give you twenty minutes to get her to me. I'll talk to all the -planet if she isn't here."</p> - -<p>Burt shrugged.</p> - -<p>"Almost, I overestimated you," he said mildly. "I thought you had an -actual plan. Very well. She will come. But if I were you, I would not -delay my suicide."</p> - -<p>Burt's eyes gleamed for an instant. Then he went out, followed by -the others. Kim worked the controls which sealed the ship. He got -feverishly to work again.</p> - -<p>From time to time he stared desperately out of the vision-ports, and -then resumed his labors. His task seemingly was an impossible one. -The <i>Starshine</i> had been made into a mere museum exhibit. It was -complete, but Kim's knowledge was inadequate and his time far too short.</p> - -<p>Eighteen minutes passed before he saw Dona. She stood quietly beside -the railing outside the space-ship, alone and quite pale. He opened -the outer airlock door. She came up. He closed the outer door and -opened the inner. She faced him. She was deathly white. As she saw him, -hollow-cheeked and bitter, she managed to smile.</p> - -<p>"My poor Kim! What did they do to you?"</p> - -<p>"Blocked me!" Kim cried. "Took away my hafnium gadget and put me on -the Circuit. They locked up every scrap of hafnium on the planet -behind an all-citizen block. They just didn't know that it was used in -space-ships in the fuel-catalyzers. I've found enough to make the two -of us safe, though. Here!" He thrust a scrap of metal into her hand. -"Hold it tightly. It has to touch your skin."</p> - -<p>She caught her breath.</p> - -<p>"I was blocked in my quarters, and I couldn't come out," she told him -unsteadily. "I was going crazy with terror, because you'd told me what -it might mean. I tried—so hard—to break through. But flesh and blood -can't face the Circuit. I hadn't any reason to hope that you'd be able -to do anything, but I did hope."</p> - -<p>"I told them I'd kill both of us," he said fiercely. "Maybe I shall! -But if I can only find the right cable, we'll have a chance!"</p> - -<p>Suddenly, every muscle in his body went rigid and a screaming torment -filled him. It lasted for part of a second. His face went gray. He -wetted his lips.</p> - -<p>"Burt!" he said thickly. "He had a psychometer under his robe. They -came here, and he knew my psychogram was changed by the hafnium I'd -found, so while they talked he stole the new pattern. It's taken them -this long to get it ready for the Circuit. Now they're putting it in."</p> - -<p>With a sudden, convulsive jerk, he went rigid once more. His muscles -stood out in great knots. He was paralyzed, with every nerve and sinew -in his body tensed to tetanic rigor. Agony filled him with an exquisite -torment. It was the Disciplinary Circuit. It was those waves broadcast, -focused upon him at full power. They would have found him anywhere upon -the planet. And their torment was unspeakable.</p> - -<p>Dona sobbed suddenly.</p> - -<p>"Kim!" she cried desperately. "I know you can hear me! Listen! They -must have me on the Circuit too, only what you gave me has thrown it -off. They expect to hold us paralyzed while they cut in with torches -and take us. But they mustn't! So I'm going to give you the thing -you gave me. If it changed my pattern, it will change yours again, -to something they can't guess at." She sobbed again. "Please, Kim! -Don't give it back. Go ahead and do what you planned, whatever it is. -And if you don't win out, please kill me before you give up. Please! -I don't want to be conditioned to do whatever they want in their -pleasure-palaces."</p> - -<p>She took the tiny sliver of metal in her shaking fingers. She pushed -aside the flesh of her hand to put it in his grip. Courageously she -released it.</p> - -<p>The agonized paralysis left Kim Rendell. But now Dona was a pitiful -figure of agony.</p> - -<p>Kim groaned. Rage filled him. His anguish and fury was so terrible -that he would have destroyed the whole planet, had he been able. But -he could not permit her gift, which she had given at the price of such -torment, to go without reward. He must struggle on to save them both, -even though now he had no hope.</p> - -<p>He sprang to the control-board. He stabbed at buttons almost at random, -hoping for a response. He'd tried to get the ship into some sort of -operating condition, but now there was no time. Frenziedly he attempted -to find some combination of controls which would make something, -anything happen. He slipped the second bit of hafnium into his mouth to -have both hands free. In desperation he ripped the control-board panel -loose. He saw clipped wires everywhere behind it. Seizing the dangling -ends, he struck them fiercely together. A lurid blue spark leaped. He -cried out in triumph, and the morsel of metal Dona had sacrificed to -him dropped from his lips.</p> - -<p>His muscles contorted and agony filled him.</p> - -<p>There was a roaring noise. The <i>Starshine</i> bucked violently. There -were crashes and there was a feeling of intolerable weight which he -could feel, despite his agony. The ship reeled crazily. It smashed -through a wall. It battered into a roof. It spun like a mad thing and -went skyward tail-first with Kim Rendell in frozen, helpless torment, -holding two cables together with muscles utterly beyond his control.</p> - -<p>It went up toward empty space, in which no other vessel was navigating -anywhere.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="3a">3</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Rays of Destruction</i></h3> - - -<p>Eventually the "<i>Starshine</i>," alone in space as no other -space-ship had been alone in twenty thousand years, behaved like a -sentient thing. At first, of course, her actions were frenzied, almost -insane, as if the Disciplinary Circuit waves which made Dona a statue -of agony and kept Kim frozen with contorted muscles could affect the -space-ship too.</p> - -<p>Wildly the little vessel went upward through air which screamed as it -parted for her passage. She yawed and swayed and ludicrously plunged -backwards. The screaming of the air rose to a shriek, and then to a -high thin whistle, and then ceased altogether. Finally she was free of -the air of Alphin III.</p> - -<p>After this she really made speed, backing away from the planet. Her -meteor-detectors had been turned on in one of Kim's random splicings, -and when current reached them they reported a monstrous obstruction in -her path and shunted in the meteor-repelling beams. The obstacle was -the planet itself, and the beams tried to push it away. Naturally, they -pushed the ship itself away, out into the huge chasm of interplanetary -space.</p> - -<p>It kept up for a long time, too, because Kim was paralyzed by the -broadcast waves. They were kept focused upon him by the psychographic -locator. So long as those waves of the Disciplinary Circuit came -up through the ionosphere, Kim's spasmodically contracted muscles -kept together the two cables which had started everything. But the -<i>Starshine</i> backed away at four gravities acceleration, faster and -ever faster, and ordinary psychographic locators are not designed for -use beyond planetary distances.</p> - -<p>Ultimately the tormenting radio-beam lessened from sheer distance. At -last the influence broke off suddenly and Kim's hands on the leads -dropped away. The beam fumbled back to contact, and wavered away again, -and presently was only a tingling sensation probing for a target the -locators could no longer keep lined up.</p> - -<p>Then the <i>Starshine</i> seemed to lose her frenzy and become merely -a derelict. She sped on, giving no sign of life for a time. Then her -vision-ports glowed abruptly. Kim Rendell, working desperately against -time and with the chill of outer space creeping into the ship's -unpowered hull, had found a severed cable which supplied light and -heat.</p> - -<p>An hour later still, the ship steadied in her motion. He had traced -down the gyros' power-lead and set them to work.</p> - -<p>Two hours later yet the <i>Starshine</i> paused in her flight. Her -long, pointed nose turned about. A new element of motion entered the -picture she made. She changed course.</p> - -<p>At last, as if having her drive finally in operation gave her something -of purposefulness, the slim space-ship ceased to look frenzied or -frowsy or bemused, and swam through space with a serene competence, -like something very much alive and knowing exactly what she was about.</p> - -<p>She came to rest upon the almost but not quite airless bulk of Alphin -II some thirty hours after her escape from Alphin III. Kim was -desperately hungry. But for the lesser gravity of the smaller inner -planet, which was responsible for its thinned-out atmosphere, he might -have staggered as he walked. Certainly a normal space-suit would have -been a heavy burden for a man who had starved for days. Dona, also, -looked pale and worn-out when she took from him the things he brought -back through the airlock.</p> - -<p>They put the great masses of spongy, woody stuff in the synthesizer. It -was organic matter. Some of it, perhaps, could have been consumed as -food in its original state. But the synthesizer received it, and hummed -and buzzed quietly to itself, and presently the man and woman ate. -The synthesizer was not the equivalent of those magnificently complex -food-machines which in public dining-halls provide almost every dish -the gourmets have ever invented from raw materials. But it did make a -palatable meal from the tasteless vegetation of the small planet.</p> - -<p>Kim said quietly, when they had finished eating, "Now we'll find out -for certain what Burt intends to do about us." He grimaced. "He's -dangerously intelligent. He underestimated me before. He may consider -us dead, or he may overestimate us. I think he'll play it safe. I -would, in his place."</p> - -<p>"What does that mean?" Dona asked wistfully. "We will be able -to go to some other planet, won't we, Kim? As if we'd gone in the -matter-transmitter in a perfectly normal fashion? Simply to take up -residence on another world?"</p> - -<p>Kim shook his head. "I'm beginning to doubt it," he said slowly. "The -discovery that with a bit of hafnium a man can change his psychographic -pattern is high explosive. If the Disciplinary Circuit can't pick him -out as an individual, any man can defy any government which depends -on the Circuit. Which means that no government is safe. I've got to -remove you for the sake of the government everywhere in the Galaxy."</p> - -<p>"But they can't touch us here," said Dona. "We're safe now."</p> - -<p>Kim shook his head.</p> - -<p>"No. I was too hungry to think, before. We're not safe. I've got to -work like the devil. Do you remember your Galactic History? Remember -what the Disciplinary Circuit was built up to? Remember the Last War? -It's not only the space-ships which went into museums. I'm suddenly -scared stiff."</p> - -<p>He stood up and abruptly began to put on the space-suit again. His face -had become haggard.</p> - -<p>"In the Last War there were no battles, only massacres," he said curtly -as he snapped buckles. "There was no victory. They used a beam which -was a stepped-up version of the Disciplinary Circuit. They called it -a fighting-beam, then, and they thought they could fight with it. But -they couldn't. It simply made war impossible. So ultimately they hooded -over the projectors of the fighting-beams, and most of them probably -fell to rust. But there are some in the museums. If Burt and the others -want to play safe, they'll haul those projectors out of the museum and -hook them up to find and kill us. And there's no question but that they -can do it."</p> - -<p>He stepped into the airlock and closed the door, still fumbling with -the last adjustments to his space-suit.</p> - -<p>Dona was puzzled by his gloomy forebodings. She heard the outer door -open. As she stood there bewildered, she heard him bringing more raw -food-stuff to the airlock with a feverish haste. He made two trips, -three, and four.</p> - -<p>She found herself screaming shrilly because of an agony already past.</p> - -<p>It had been a bare flash of pain. It was gone in the fraction of a -second, in the fraction of a millisecond. But it was such pain! It was -the anguish of the Disciplinary Circuit a thousand times multiplied. -It was such torment as the ancients tried vainly to picture as the lot -of damned souls in hell. Had it lasted, any living creature would have -died of sheer suffering.</p> - -<p>But it flashed into being, and was gone, and Dona had cried out in a -strangled voice. She was filled with a horrible weakness from the one -instant of anguish, and she felt stark panic lest it come again.</p> - -<p>The outer airlock door slammed shut. The inner opened. Kim came -staggering within. He did not strip off the space-suit. He ran -clumsily toward the now-repaired control-panel, his face contorted.</p> - -<p>"Lie down flat!" he shouted as he opened his face-plate. "I'm taking -off."</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> roared from the almost-barren world which was -an inferior planet of the sun Alphin, not worth colonization by men. -Acceleration built up and built up and built up to the very limit of -what the human body could stand.</p> - -<p>After twenty minutes, it dropped from four gravities to one.</p> - -<p>"Dona!" Kim called hoarsely.</p> - -<p>She answered faintly.</p> - -<p>"They've got the ancient projectors hooked up," he said as hoarsely -as before. "They're searching for us. We were so far away that the -beam flashed past. It won't record finding us for minutes, as it'll -take time for the response to get back. That's what will save us, but -they're bound to touch us occasionally until we get out of range."</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> swung about in space. The brutal acceleration -began again, at an angle to the former line of motion.</p> - -<p>Ten minutes later there was another moment of intolerable pain. Every -nerve in their bodies jumped in a tetanic convulsion. Had it continued, -their muscles would have torn loose from their bones and their hearts -would have burst from the violence of the fearful contraction. The -<i>Starshine</i> would have gone on senselessly as a speeding coffin. -But again the searing torment lasted for only the fraction of a second.</p> - -<p>Back on Alphin III, great projectors swept across the sky. They were -ancient devices, those projectors. They were quaint, even primitive -in appearance. But a thousand years before they had been the final -word in armament. They represented an attack against which there was -no defense. A defense which could not be breached. Those machines had -ended wars.</p> - -<p>They poured forth tight beams of the same wave-frequencies and forms -of which the Disciplinary Circuit was a more ancient development -still. But where the Circuit was an exquisitely sensitive device for -the exquisitely graduated torment of individuals, these beams were -murderers of men. They were not tuned to the psychographic patterns of -single persons, but coarsely, in irresistible strength, to all living -matter containing given amino-chain molecules. In short, to all men.</p> - -<p>And they had made the Last War the last. There had been one battle in -that war. It had taken place near Canis Major, where there had been -forty thousand warships of space lined up in hostile array. The two -fleets were almost equally matched in numbers, and both possessed the -fighting beams. They hurtled toward each other, the beams stabbing out -ahead. They interpenetrated each other and went on, blindly.</p> - -<p>It was a hundred years before the last of the run-away derelicts -blundered to destruction or was picked up by other space-ships which -then still roved the space-ways. Because there was no defense against -the fighting-beams, which were aimed by electronic devices, a ship did -not cease to fight when its crew was dead. And every crew had died -when a fighting-beam lingered briefly on their ship. There was not -one single survivor of the Battle of Canis Major. The fleets plunged -at each other, and every living thing in both fleets had perished -instantly. Thereafter the empty ships fought on as robots against all -other ships. So there were no more wars.</p> - -<p>For two hundred years after that battle, the planets of the Galaxy -continued to mount their projectors and keep their detector-screens -out. But war had defeated itself. There could be no victories, but only -joint suicides. There could be no conquests, because even a depopulated -planet's projectors would still destroy all life in any approaching -space-ship for as many years as the projectors were powered for. But in -time, more especially after matter-transmitters had made space-craft -useless, they were forgotten. All but those which went into museums for -the instruction of the young.</p> - -<p>These resuscitated weapons were now at work to find and kill Kim -and Dona. In a sense it was like trying to kill flies with a -sixteen-inch gun. The difficulties of aiming were extreme. To set up a -detector-field and neutralize it would take time and skill which were -not available.</p> - -<p>So the beams swept through great arcs, with operators watching for -signs of contact. It was long minutes after the first contact before -the instruments on the projectors recorded it, because the news could -only go back at the speed of light. Then the projectors had to retrace -their path, and the <i>Starshine</i> had moved. The beams had to fumble -blindly for the fugitives, and they told of each touch, but only after -it occurred. And Kim struggled to make his course unpredictable.</p> - -<p>In ten hours the beam struck four times only, because Kim changed -course and acceleration so fiercely and so frequently that a contact -could only be a matter of chance.</p> - -<p>Then for a long time there was no touch at all. In two days Alphin, the -sun, had dwindled until it was merely the brightest of the stars, with -a barely perceptible disk. On the third day the beam found them yet -again, and Dona burst into hysterical sobs. But it was not really bad, -this time. There is a limit to the distance to which a tight beam can -be held together in space, by technicians who have no space-experience -and instinctive know-how.</p> - -<p>Within hours after this fifth contact, Kim Rendell found the last key -break in the control-cables of the ship, and was able to throw on -the overdrive, by which the <i>Starshine</i> fled from Alphin at two -hundred times the speed of light. Then, of course, they were safe. Even -had the beam of agony been trained directly upon the ship, it could not -have overtaken them.</p> - -<p>But Dona was a bundle of shrinking nerves when it was over, and Kim -raged as he looked at her scared eyes.</p> - -<p>"I know," she said unsteadily, when he had her in the control-room to -look at the cosmos as it appeared at faster-than-light speed. "I know -I'm silly, Kim. It can't hurt us any more. We're going to another solar -system entirely. They won't know anything about us. We're all right. -Quite all right. But I'm just all in little pieces."</p> - -<p>With somber brow, Kim stared at the vision-plates about him. The -Universe as seen at two hundred light-speeds was not a reassuring -sight. All stars behind had vanished. All those on either hand were -dimmed to near-invisibility. Ahead, where the very nose of the -space-ship pointed, there were specks of light in a recognizable -star-pattern, but the colors and the magnitudes were incredible.</p> - -<p>"We're heading now for Cetis Alpha," Kim said slowly, after a -long time. "It's the next nearest solar system. Our fuel-tanks -are one-twelfth full. We have power to travel a distance of fifty -light-years, no more, and it would take us three months to cover that. -Cetis Alpha is seven light-years away, or it was."</p> - -<p>"We're going to settle on one of the planets there?" Dona asked -hopefully. "What are they like, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"You might look them up in the Pilot," Kim said, rather glumly. "There -are six inhabited ones."</p> - -<p>"You sound worried," she said. "What is it?"</p> - -<p>"I'm wondering," Kim admitted. "If Burt and the Prime Board should send -word ahead of us by matter-transmitter, to these six planets and all -the other inhabited planets within fifty or a hundred light-years, -it would be awkward for us. Transmission by matter-transmitter is -instantaneous, and it wouldn't take too long for the governments on -the Cetis Alpha planets to set up detectors and remount the projectors -which could kill us. Burt would call us very dangerous criminals. He'd -say we were so dangerous we had better be killed before we land." He -paused, and added, "He's right."</p> - -<p>"I don't see why they should do anything so cruel."</p> - -<p>"We've struck at the foundation of government," Kim said savagely. "On -Alphin Three there's a pretense that all men are free, and we know -it's a lie. But on the other planets they don't even pretend. On Loré -Four they have a king. On Markab Two the citizens wear collars of -metal—slave-collars—and members of the aristocracy have the right to -murder social inferiors at pleasure. On Andrometa Nine the Disciplinary -Circuit, and so the government, is in the hands of a blood-thirsty -lunatic. The Circuit backs all governments alike, the supposedly free -and the frankly despotic governments impartially. We're a danger to all -of them. Even a decent government, if there is one, would dread having -its citizens able to defy the Circuit. Yet in ten words I can tell how -to nullify the one instrument on which all government is based. Once -that knowledge gets loose, nothing can suppress it."</p> - -<p>Dona sighed.</p> - -<p>"I was hoping we could go some place where we would be safe," she said. -"Isn't there any such place?"</p> - -<p>Kim's laugh was bitter.</p> - -<p>"I wonder if there's any place where we can be free," he said. "I -planned big, Dona, but it didn't work out. There wasn't another man on -Alphin Three who wanted to be free as much as I did. I'd about decided -that just the two of us would put on protectors and journey from one -planet to another in search of freedom. But then Burt saw you, and you -were locked up so you'd go frantic with fear and loneliness. Later -they'd have given you a psychological conditioning to cure you of -terror, and sent you away to Burt's pleasure-palace."</p> - -<p>"Why didn't you take me away before Burt saw me?" she asked. "Why did -you wait?"</p> - -<p>Kim groaned. "Because I wasn't ready. When I realized the danger, I -tried to get you, and I was caught. They found out what I had and -everything became hopeless. They put me on block to see if anyone would -try to befriend me, but I hadn't any friends. I didn't know anyone -else who wouldn't have been frightened if I'd told him he was a slave. -I threatened the Prime Board with a broadcast, but I'm afraid nobody -would have believed me."</p> - -<p>"It all happened because of me," Dona said. "Forget what I said about -wanting to be safe, Kim. I don't care any more, not if I'm with you."</p> - -<p>Kim scowled at the weird pattern of strangely-colored stars upon the -vision-plate.</p> - -<p>"We're using a lot of our fuel in trying for Cetis Alpha's planets. I'd -like to—well—have a marriage ceremony."</p> - -<p>Despite her anxiety, Dona burst out laughing.</p> - -<p>"It's about time, you big lug!" she cried. "I was beginning to lose -hope."</p> - -<p>Kim laughed too. "All right. I'll see if it can be managed. But if -warnings have been sent ahead of us, marriage may be difficult."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="4a">4</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Outcasts of Space</i></h3> - - -<p>Like a silver arrow, the "<i>Starshine</i>" continued to bore on -through a weird, synthetic Universe, two hundred times faster than -light. In the space-ship Kim worked angrily, making desperate attempts -to devise a method of nullifying the non-individualized fighting beams -with which—now that he was in free space in a space-ship—any attempt -to land upon an inhabited planet might be frustrated.</p> - -<p>In the end he constructed two small wristlets, one for himself and -one for Dona to wear. If tuned waves of the Circuit struck them, the -wristlets might nullify them. But if the fighting-beams struck, that -would be another story.</p> - -<p>Twelve days after turning on the overdrive, which by changing the -constants of space about the space-ship, made two hundred light-speeds -possible, Kim turned it off. He had previously assured himself that -Dona was wearing the little gadget he had built. As he snapped off the -overdrive field, the look of the Universe changed with a startling -suddenness. Stars leaped into being on every side, amazingly bright -and astoundingly varicolored. Cetis Alpha loomed almost dead ahead, a -glaring globe of fire with enormous streamers streaming out on every -side.</p> - -<p>There were planets, too. As the <i>Starshine</i> jogged on at a normal -interplanetary—rather than interstellar—speed, Dona focused the -electron telescope upon the nearest. It was a great, round disk, -with polar ice-caps and extraordinarily interconnected seas, so that -there were innumerable small continents distributed everywhere. Green -vegetation showed, and patches of cloud, and when Dona turned the -magnification up to its very peak, they were certain that they saw the -pattern of a magnificent metropolis.</p> - -<p>She looked at it hungrily. Kim regarded it steadily. They did not speak -for a long time.</p> - -<p>"It would be nice there," Dona said longingly, at last. "Do you think -we can land, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"We're going to try," he told her.</p> - -<p>But they didn't. They were forty million miles away when a sudden -overwhelming anguish smote them both. All the Universe ceased to be....</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Six weeks later, Kim Rendell eased the <i>Starshine</i> to a landing on -the solitary satellite of the red dwarf sun Phanis. It was about four -thousand miles in diameter. Its atmosphere was about one-fourth the -density needed to support human life. Such vegetation as it possessed -was stunted and lichenous. The terrain was tumbled and upheaved, with -raw rock showing in great masses which had apparently solidified in a -condition of frenzied turmoil. It had been examined and dismissed as -useless for human colonization many centuries since. That was why Kim -and Dona could land upon it.</p> - -<p>They had spent half their store of fuel in the desperate effort to find -a planet on which they could land.</p> - -<p>Their attempt to approach Cetis Alpha VI had been the exact type of -all their fruitless efforts. They came in for a landing, and while yet -millions of miles out, recently reinstalled detector-screens searched -them out. Newly stepped-up long distance psychographic finders had -identified the <i>Starshine</i> as containing living human beings. -Then projectors, taken out of museums, had hurled at them the deadly -pain-beams which had made war futile a thousand years before. They -might have died within one second, from the bursting of their hearts -and the convulsive rupture of every muscular anchorage to every bone, -except for one thing.</p> - -<p>Kim's contrived wristlets had saved them. The wristlets, plus a relay -on a set of controls to throw the <i>Starshine</i> into overdrive -travel through space. The wristlets contained a morsel of hafnium, so -that any previous psychographic record of them as individuals would -no longer check with the psychogram a searchbeam would encounter. -But also, on the first instant of convulsive contraction of muscles -beneath the wristlets, they emitted a frantic, tiny signal. That signal -kicked over the control-relay. The <i>Starshine</i> flung itself into -overdrive escape, faster than light, faster than the pain-beams could -follow.</p> - -<p>They had suffered, of course. Horribly. But the pain-beams could not -play upon them or more than the tenth of a millisecond before the -<i>Starshine</i> vanished into faster-than-light escape. They had -tried each of the six planets of Cetis Alpha. They had gone rather -desperately to Cetis Gamma, with four inhabited planets, and Sorene, -with three. Then the inroads on their scant fuel-supply and their -dwindling store of vegetation from Alphin II made them accept defeat. -The massed volumes of the Galactic Pilot for this sector, age-yellowed, -brittle volumes now, had told them of vegetation on the useless planet -of the dwarf star Phanis. They came to it. Kim was stunned and bitter. -And they landed.</p> - -<p>After the ship had settled down in a weird valley with fantastic -overhanging cliffs and a frozen small waterfall nearby, the two of them -went outside. They wore space-suits, of course, because of the extreme -thinness of the air.</p> - -<p>"I suppose we can call this home, now," Kim said bitterly.</p> - -<p>It was night. The sky was cloudless, and all the stars of the Galaxy -looked down upon them as they stood in the biting cold. His voice went -by space-phone to the helmet of Dona, by his side.</p> - -<p>"I guess I can stand it if you can, Kim," she said quietly.</p> - -<p>"We've got fuel for six weeks' drive," he said ironically. "That means -we can go to any place within twenty-five light-years. We've tried -every solar system in that range. They're all warned against us. They -all had their projectors in operation. We couldn't land. And we'd have -starved unless we got to some new material for the synthesizer. This -was the only place we could land on. So we have to stand it, if we -stand anything."</p> - -<p>Dona was silent for a little while.</p> - -<p>"We've got each other, Kim," she said slowly.</p> - -<p>"For a limited time," he said. "If we use our fuel only for heat and to -run the synthesizer for food, it will probably last several years. But -ultimately it will run out and we'll die."</p> - -<p>"Are you sorry you threw away everything for me, Kim?" asked Dona. "I'm -not sorry I'm with you. I'd rather be with you for a little while and -then die. Certainly death is better than what I faced."</p> - -<p>Kim made a furious gesture.</p> - -<p>"It's recognized, everywhere, that the population of a planet has the -right to make all the laws of that planet. We are the population here. -We could be married by our own act. But suppose we had children? When -our fuel gives out they'd die with us. I think we'd go mad anticipating -that. We can't even have each other. We're imprisoned here as they used -to imprison criminals. For life. We can have no hope. There is nothing -we can work at. We can't even try to do anything."</p> - -<p>He clenched his hands inside his space-gloves. Dona looked at him.</p> - -<p>"Are you going to give up, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"Give up what?" Then he said bitterly, "No, Dona. I'm going to find -some excuse for hoping. Some lie I can tell myself. But I'll know I'm -simply trying to deceive myself."</p> - -<p>There was a long silence. Hopelessness. Futility.</p> - -<p>"I've been thinking, Kim," Dona said softly, at last. "There are three -hundred million inhabited planets. There are trillions and quintillions -of people in the Galaxy. If they knew about us, some of them at least -would want to help us. There are some, probably, who'd hope we could -help them. If we were to think of a new approach to the problem we -face, and reach the people who would want to help us, it might mean -eventual rescue."</p> - -<p>"Signals travel at the speed of light," Kim said. "We'd be dead long -before even a tight-beam signal could reach another star-cluster, if -there were anybody there to receive or act on it. But there aren't any -space-ships except the <i>Starshine</i>. It was the last ship used in -the Galaxy."</p> - -<p>Dona said stoutly:</p> - -<p>"We've been regarding our predicament as if it were unique, as if -nobody else in the Universe wanted to be free. As if there was only -one problem—ours! I heard a story once, Kim. It was about a man who -had to carry a certain particular grain of dust to another place. A -silly story, of course. But this was the top grain in a dust-pile. The -man tried to find something that would pick up the one grain of dust, -and something that would hold it quite safe. But he couldn't solve the -problem. There wasn't any box that would hold a single grain of dust. -He couldn't even pick up a solitary dust-grain. And how could he carry -it if he couldn't pick it up?"</p> - -<p>"That's a fable," Kim said, harshly. "There's a moral?"</p> - -<p>Dona smiled. "Yes," she said. "There is. He picked up the dust-grain. -With a shovel. He picked up a lot of others, too, but that didn't -matter. And he could find a box to hold a hundred thousand dust-grains, -when he couldn't find a box to hold one."</p> - -<p>Kim was silent. Dona nodded and smiled at him.</p> - -<p>"If you want a new way to think, how about thinking not just of us and -our problem, but the problem of all the people like us who have gone -into revolt?" she said. "How about all the people who've been sent to -Ades? How about all those who will go in years to come? I don't know -the answer, Kim, but it's another way to think. Since we've failed to -solve a little problem by itself, suppose we look at it as part of a -big one? It's a new approach, anyhow."</p> - -<p>There was silence. The bright, many-colored stars overhead moved -perceptibly toward what would be called the west by age-old custom. -Weird shapes of frozen rock loomed above the space-ship, and the -starlight glimmered up on thin hoarfrost which settled everywhere upon -this small planet in the dark hours.</p> - -<p>Kim stirred suddenly, and was still again. Dona continued to watch -him. She could not see his face, but it seemed to her that he stood -straighter, somehow. Then, suddenly, he spoke gruffly.</p> - -<p>"Let's go back in the ship," he said. "Space-suits are admirable -inventions, Dona, but they have limitations. I can't kiss you through a -space-helmet."</p> - -<p>He did not wait until they were out of the airlock, and she clung to -him. Then he grinned for the first time in many days.</p> - -<p>"My dear," he said contentedly. "Not only are you the best-looking -female I ever saw, but you've got brains. Now watch me!"</p> - -<p>"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly.</p> - -<p>"Too much to waste time talking about it," he told her. "Want to -help? Look up Ades in the Pilot. I had completely forgotten I was a -matter-transmitter technician."</p> - -<p>He kissed her again, exuberantly, and strode for the <i>Starshine</i> -record-room, shedding the parts of his space-suit as he went. He pulled -down the microfilm reels covering the ship's construction and zestfully -set to work to review them, making notes and sketches from time to -time. The reels, of course, contained not only the complete working -drawings of the entire ship, showing every bolt and rivet, but also -every moving part in stereoscopic relationship to its fellows, with -full data so that no possible breakdown could take place without full -information being available for its repair.</p> - -<p>Dona watched him furtively as she began the tedious task of hunting -through the Galactic Pilot of this sector, two-hundred-odd volumes, for -even a stray reference to the planet Ades.</p> - -<p>Ultimately she did find Ades mentioned. Not in the bound volumes of the -Pilot, but in the microfilm abbreviated Galactic Directory. Ades rated -just three lines of type—its space-coördinates, the spectral type of -its sun, a climate-atmosphere symbol which indicated that three-fourths -of its surface experienced sub-Arctic conditions, and the memo:</p> - -<p>"Its borderline habitability caused it to be chosen as a penal -colony at a very early date. Landing upon it is forbidden under all -circumstances. A patrol-ship is on guard."</p> - -<p>The memorandum was quaint, now that no space-line had operated in five -centuries, no exploring ship in nearly two, and the Space Patrol itself -had been disbanded three hundred years since.</p> - -<p>"Mmmm!" Kim said. "If we need it, not too bad. People could survive on -Ades. People probably have. And they won't be sheep, anyhow."</p> - -<p>"How far away is it?" Dona asked uneasily. "We have enough fuel for -twenty-five light-years' travel, you said."</p> - -<p>"Ades is just about halfway across the Galaxy," he told her. "We -couldn't really get started there if our tanks were full. The only way -to reach it is by matter-transmitter."</p> - -<p>But he did not look disheartened. Dona watch his face.</p> - -<p>"It's ruled out. What did you hope from it, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"A wedding," he said, and grinned. "But it isn't ruled out, Dona. -Nothing's ruled out, if an idea you gave me works. Your story about -the dust-grain hit my mind just right. I was trying to figure out how -to travel a hundred light-years on twenty-five light-years' fuel, even -though the Prime Board may have sent warnings three times that far. But -if you can't solve a little problem, make it a big one and tackle that. -That's what your story meant. It's a nice trick!"</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="5a">5</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Super-Science</i></h3> - - -<p>Dona was puzzled by what Kim had said. She stared at him, wide-eyed, -trying to figure out his meaning. For a moment or two he made no -attempt to explain. He just stood there, grinning at her.</p> - -<p>"Listen, Dona," he said, finally. "Why did they stop making -space-ships?"</p> - -<p>"Matter-transmitters are quicker and space-ships aren't needed any -more."</p> - -<p>"Right!" Kim said. "But why was the <i>Starshine</i> used by my revered -great-grandfather to bring the first colonists to Alphin Three?"</p> - -<p>"Because—well—because you have to have a receiver for a -matter-transmitter, and you have to carry it. Alphin Three was almost -the last planet in the Galaxy to be colonized, wasn't it?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Why do you have to carry a receiver? No, don't bother. But do -answer this one. If two places are both too far to get to, what's the -difference?"</p> - -<p>"Why, none."</p> - -<p>"Oh, there's a lot!" he told her. "The next star-cluster is too far -away for the <i>Starshine</i> with her present drive and fuel. To the -next galaxy is no farther. But when I stopped trying to think of ways -to stretch our fuel, and started trying to think of a way to get to the -next galaxy, I got it."</p> - -<p>She stared.</p> - -<p>"Are we going there to live?" she said submissively. But her eyes were -sparkling with mirth.</p> - -<p>He kissed her exuberantly.</p> - -<p>"My dear, I wouldn't put anything past the two of us together. But let -me show you how it works."</p> - -<p>He spread out the drawings he had made from the construction-records -while she searched the Pilot. He expounded their meaning -enthusiastically and she listened and made admiring comments, but it -is rather doubtful if she really understood. She was too much occupied -with the happy knowledge that he was again confident and hopeful.</p> - -<p>But the idea was not particularly complicated. Every fact was familiar -enough. Space-ships, in the old days, and the <i>Starshine</i>, in -this, were able to exceed the speed of light by enclosing themselves in -an overdrive field, which was space so stressed that in it the velocity -of light was enormously increased. Therefore the inertia of matter, -its resistance to acceleration, or its mass, was reduced by the same -factor, y.</p> - -<p>The kinetic energy of a moving space-ship, of course, had to remain -the same when an overdrive field was formed about it. Thus when its -inertia was decreased by the field, its velocity had to increase. -Mathematically, the relationship of mass to velocity with a given -quantity of kinetic energy is, for normal space, MV=E. In an overdrive -field, where the factor y enters, the equation is M/y, yV=E. The -value of y is such that speeds up to two hundred times that of light -result from a space-ship at normal interplanetary speed going into an -overdrive field.</p> - -<p>A matter-transmitter field, as everyone knows now, simply raises the -value of y to infinity. The formula then becomes M/infinity, infinity -V=E. The mass is divided by infinity and the velocity multiplied by -infinity. The velocity, in a planet-to-planet transmitter, is always -directly toward the receiver to which the transmitter is tuned.</p> - -<p>In theory, then, a man who enters such a transmitter passes through -empty space unprotected, but his exposure is so exceedingly -brief—across the whole First Galaxy transit was estimated to require -.0001 second—that not one molecule of the air surrounding him has time -to escape into emptiness.</p> - -<p>Thus the one device is simply an extension of the principle of -the other. A matter-transmitter is merely an enormously developed -overdrive-field generator with a tuning device attached. But until -this moment, apparently it had not happened that a matter-transmitter -technician was in a predicament where the only way out was to put those -facts together. Kim was such a technician, and on the <i>Starshine</i> -he had probably the only overdrive field generator of space-ship -pattern still in working order in the Universe.</p> - -<p>"All I've got to do is to add two stages of coupling and rewind the -exciter-secondary," he told her zestfully. "Doing it by hand may take -a week. Then the <i>Starshine</i> will be a matter-transmitter which -will transmit itself! The toughest part of the whole job will be the -distance-gauge. And I've got that."</p> - -<p>Worshipfully, Dona looked up at him. She probably hoped that he would -kiss her again, but he mistook it for interest.</p> - -<p>He explained at length. There could be, of course, no measure of -distance traveled in emptiness. Astrogation has always been a matter -of dead reckoning plus direct observation. But at such immeasurably -high speeds there could be no direct observation. At matter-transmitter -speeds, no manual control could stop a ship in motion within any given -galaxy!</p> - -<p>So Kim had planned a photo-gauge, which would throw off the -transmitter-field when a specific amount of radiation had reached it. -At thousands of light-speeds, the radiation impinging on the bow of -a ship, would equal in seconds the normal reception of years. When -a specific total of radiation had struck it, a relay would cut off -the drive field. Among other features, such a control would make it -impossible for a speeding ship to venture too close to a sun.</p> - -<p>Kim set joyously to work to make three changes in the overdrive -circuit, and to build a radiation-operated relay.</p> - -<p>Outside the space-ship the sky turned deep-purple. Presently the -dull-red sun arose, and the white hoarfrost melted and glistened wetly, -and most of it evaporated in a thin white mist. The frozen waterfall -dripped and dripped, and presently flowed freely. The lichenous plants -rippled and stirred in the thin chill winds that blew over the small -planet, and even animals appeared, stupid and sluggish things, which -lived upon the lichens.</p> - -<p>Hours passed. The dull-red sun sank low and vanished. The little -waterfall flowed more and more slowly, and at last ceased altogether. -The sky became a deep dense black and multitudes of stars shone down on -the grounded space-ship.</p> - -<p>It was a small, starved world, this planet, swinging in lonely -isolation around a burned-out sun. About it lay the Galaxy in which -were three hundred million inhabited worlds, circling brighter, hotter, -much more splendid stars. But the starveling little planet was the only -place in all the Galaxy, save one, where no Disciplinary Circuit held -the human race in slavery.</p> - -<p>Nothing happened visibly upon the planet during many days. There were -nights in which the hoarfrost glistened whitely, and days in which the -frozen waterfall thawed and splashed valiantly. The sluggish, stupid -animals ignored the space-ship. It was motionless and they took it -for a rock. Only twice did its two occupants emerge, to gather the -vegetation which was raw material for their food-synthesizer. On the -second expedition, Kim seized upon an animal to add to the larder, but -its helpless futile struggles somehow disgusted him. He let it go.</p> - -<p>"I prefer test-tube meat," he said distastefully. "We've food enough -anyhow for a long, long time. At worst we can always come back for -more."</p> - -<p>They went into the ship and stored the vegetable matter in the -synthesizer-bins. They returned, then, to the control-room.</p> - -<p>"I think it's right," Kim said soberly, as he took the seat before the -control-panel. "But nobody ever knows. Maybe we have a space-ship now -which makes matter-transmitters absurd. Maybe we've something we can't -control at all, which will land us hundreds of millions of light-years -away, so that we'll never be able to find even this galaxy again."</p> - -<p>"Maybe we might have something which will simply kill us instantly," -Dona said quietly. "That's right, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>He nodded.</p> - -<p>"When I push this button we find out."</p> - -<p>She put her hand over his. She bent over and kissed him. Then she -pressed down his finger on the control-stud.</p> - -<p>Incredible, glaring light burst into the viewports, blinding them. -Relays clicked loudly. Alarms rang stridently. The <i>Starshine</i> -bucked frantically, and the vision-screens flared with a searing light -before the light-control reacted....</p> - -<p>There was a sun in view to the left. It was a blue-white giant which -even at a distance which reduced its disk to the size of a water-drop, -gave off a blistering heat. To the right, within a matter of a very few -millions of miles, there was a cloud-veiled planet.</p> - -<p>"At least we traveled," Kim said. "And a long way, too. Cosmography's -hardly a living science since exploration stopped, but that star surely -wasn't in the cluster we came from."</p> - -<p>He cut off the alarms and the meteor-repeller beams which strove -to sheer the <i>Starshine</i> away from the planet, as they had -once driven it backward away from Alphin III. He touched a stud -which activated the relay which would turn on overdrive should a -fighting-beam touch its human occupants.</p> - -<p>He waited, expectant, tense. The space-ship was no more than ten -million miles from the surface of the cloud-wreathed world. If there -were an alarm-system at work, the detectors on the planet should -be setting up a terrific clamor, now, and a fighter-beam should be -stabbing out at any instant to destroy the two occupants of the -<i>Starshine</i>. Kim found himself almost cringing from anticipation -of the unspeakable agony which only an instant's exposure to a -pain-beam involved.</p> - -<p>But nothing happened. They watched the clouds. Dona trained the -electron telescope upon them. They were not continuous. There were -rifts through which solidity could be glimpsed, sometimes clearly, and -sometimes as through mist.</p> - -<p>She put in an infra-red filter and stepped up the illumination. The -surface of the planet came into view on the telescope-screen. They -saw cities. They saw patches of vegetation of unvarying texture, -which could only be cultivated areas providing raw material for the -food-synthesizers. They saw one city of truly colossal size.</p> - -<p>"We'll go in on planetary drive," Kim said quietly. "We must have gone -beyond news of us, or they'd have stabbed at us before now. But we'll -be careful. I think we'd better sneak in on the night-side. We'll turn -on the communicator, by the way. We may get some idea of the identity -of this sun."</p> - -<p>He put the little ship into a power-orbit, slanting steeply inward in a -curve which would make contact with the planet's atmosphere just beyond -the sunset line. He watched the hull-thermometers for their indications.</p> - -<p>They touched air very high up, and went down and down, fumbling and -cautious. The vision-screens were blank for a long time, but the -instruments told of solidity two hundred miles below, then one hundred, -then fifty, twenty-five, ten—</p> - -<p>Suddenly the communicator-speaker spoke in a gabble of confusing -voices. Dona tuned it down to one. All the Galaxy spoke the same -language, of course, but this dialect was strangely accented. Presently -they grew accustomed and could understand.</p> - -<p>"We all take pride in the perfection of our life," the voice said -unctuously. "Ten thousand years ago perfection was attained upon this -planet, and it is for us to maintain that perfection. Unquestioningly, -we obey our rulers, because obedience is a part of perfection. -Sometimes our rulers give us orders which, to all appearances, are -severe. It is not always easy to obey. But the more difficult obedience -may be, the more necessary it is for perfection. The Disciplinary -Circuit is a reminder of that need as it touches us once each day to -spur us to perfection. The destruction of a family, even to first and -second cousins, for the disobedience of a single member, is necessary -that every seed of imperfection shall be eliminated from our life."</p> - -<p>Kim and Dona looked at each other. Dona turned to another of the voices.</p> - -<p>"People of Uvan!" The tones were harsh and arrogant. "I am your new -lord. These are your orders. Your taxes are increased by one-tenth. I -require absolute obedience not only to myself, but to my guards. If -any man, woman or child shall so much as think a protest against my -lightest command, he or she shall writhe in agony in a public place -until death comes, and it will not come quickly! Before my guards -you will kneel. Before my personal attendants you will prostrate -yourselves, not daring to lift your eyes. That is all for the present."</p> - -<p>Dona cut it off quickly. A dry, crisp voice came in on a higher -wave-length.</p> - -<p>"This is Matix speaking. You will arrange at once to procure from -Khamil Four a shipment of fighting animals for the Lord Sohn's festival -four days hence. Fliers will arrive at the matter-transmitter to take -them on board tomorrow afternoon two hours before sunset. Lord Sohn -was most pleased with the gheets in the last shipment. They do not -fight well against men, but against women they are fairly deadly. In -addition—"</p> - -<p>"Somehow, I don't think we'll land, Dona," Kim said very quietly. "But -turn back to the first voice."</p> - -<p>Her hand shook, but she obeyed. The unctuous voice had somehow the air -of ending its speech.</p> - -<p>"Before going on, I repeat we are grateful for the perfection of our -way of life, and we resolve firmly that so long as our planet shall -circle Altair, in no wise will we depart from it."</p> - -<p>Kim turned the nose of the <i>Starshine</i> upward. The stars of the -Galaxy seemed strangely bright and monstrously indifferent. The little -space-ship drove back into the heavens.</p> - -<p>After a pause, Kim turned to Dona.</p> - -<p>"Look up Altair," he said. "We came a very long way indeed."</p> - -<p>There was silence save for the rustling of the index-volume as Dona -searched for Altair in the sun-index. Presently she read off the -space-coördinates. Kim calculated, ruefully.</p> - -<p>"That wasn't space-travel," he said drily. "That was -matter-transmission. The <i>Starshine</i> is a matter-transmitter, -Dona, transmitting itself and us. I wasn't aware of any interval -between the time I pressed the stud and the time the altered field shut -off. But we came almost a quarter across the Galaxy."</p> - -<p>"It was—horrible," Dona said, shivering. "I thought Alphin Three was -bad, but the tyranny here is ghastly."</p> - -<p>"Alphin Three is a new planet," Kim told her grimly. "This one below us -is old. Alphin Three has been occupied for barely two hundred years. -Its people have relatively the vigor and the sturdy independence of -pioneers, and still they're sheep! We're in an older part of the Galaxy -now and the race back here has grown old and stupid and cruel. And I -imagine it's ready to die."</p> - -<p>He bent forward and made a careful adjustment of the light-operated -distance-gauge. He cut it down enormously.</p> - -<p>"We'll try it again," he said. He pressed the stud....</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="6a">6</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Haven at Last</i></h3> - - -<p>An increasing sense of futility and depression crept over Kim and Dona -during the next few days.</p> - -<p>They visited four solar systems, separated by distances which would -have seemed unthinkable before the alteration of the overdrive.</p> - -<p>There was no longer any sensation of travel, because no distance -required any appreciable period of time. Once, indeed, Kim commented -curtly on the danger that would exist if they went too close to the -Galaxy's edge. With only the amount of received light to work the -cut-out switch, under other circumstances they might have plunged -completely out of the Galaxy and to unimaginable distances before the -switch could have acted.</p> - -<p>"I'm going to have to put a limiting device of some sort on this -thing," he observed. "With a limiting device, the transmitter-drive -can't stay on longer than a few micro-seconds. If we don't, we might -find ourselves lost from our own Galaxy and unable to find it again. -Not that it would seem to matter so much."</p> - -<p>His skepticism seemed justified. The <i>Starshine</i> was the only -vessel now plying among the stars. It had been of the last and best -type, though by no means the largest, ever constructed, and by three -small changes in its overdrive mechanism Kim had made it into something -of which other men had never dreamed.</p> - -<p>For the first time in the history of the human race, other galaxies -were open to the exploration and the colonization of men. It was -probably possible for the cosmos itself to be circumnavigated in the -<i>Starshine</i>. But its crew of two humans could find no planet of -their own race on which they dared to land.</p> - -<p>They approached Voorten II, and found a great planet seemingly empty of -human beings. There were roads and cities, but the roads were empty and -the cities full of human skeletons. Kim and Dona saw only three living -beings of human form, and they were skin and bones and shook clenched -fists and gibbered at the slim space-craft as it hovered overhead. The -<i>Starshine</i> soared away.</p> - -<p>It hovered over Makab VI, and there were towers which had been -power-houses rusting into ruin, and human beings naked and chained, -pulling ploughs while other human beings flourished whips behind them. -The great metropolis where the matter-transmitter should have been was -ruins. Unquestionably the matter-transmitter here had been destroyed -and the planet was cut off from the rest of civilization.</p> - -<p>They came fearfully to rest above the planet center upon Moteh VII and -saw decay. The people reveled in the streets, but listlessly, and the -communicator brought only barbarous, sensual music and howled songs of -a beastliness that was impossible to describe.</p> - -<p>The vessel actually touched ground upon Xanin V. Kim and Dona actually -talked to two citizens. But those folk were blank-faced and dull. Yet -what they told Kim and Dona, apathetically, in response to questioning, -was so disheartening that Dona impulsively offered to take them away. -But the two citizens were frightened at the idea. They fled when Dona -would have urged them.</p> - -<p>Out in clear space again, on interplanetary drive, Kim looked at Dona -with brooding eyes.</p> - -<p>"It looks as if we can't find a home, Dona," he said quietly. "The -human race is finished. We completed a job, we humans. We conquered a -galaxy and we occupied it, and the job was done. Then we went downhill. -You and I, we came from the newest planet of all, and we didn't -fit. We're criminals there. But the older planets, like these, are -indescribably horrible." He stopped, and asked wryly, "What shall we -do, Dona? I'd have liked a wedding ceremony. But what are we going to -do?"</p> - -<p>Dona smiled at him.</p> - -<p>"There's one place yet. The Prime Board called us criminals. Let's look -up the criminals on Ades. Maybe—and it's just possible—people who -have mustered energy and independence enough to commit political crimes -would be bearable. If we don't find anything there, why, we'll go to -another galaxy, choose a planet and settle down. And I promise I won't -be sorry, Kim!"</p> - -<p>Kim made his computations and swung the <i>Starshine</i> carefully. He -was able to center the course of the space-ship with absolute precision -upon the sun around which Ades circled slowly in lonely majesty. -He pressed the matter-transmission stud, and the alarm-bells rang -stridently, and there was the sun and the planet Ades barely half a -million miles from their starting-point.</p> - -<p>It was not a large planet, and there was much ice and snow. The -electron telescope showed no monster cities, either, but there -were settlements of a size that could be picked out. Kim sent the -<i>Starshine</i> toward it.</p> - -<p>"Of course, I'm only head of this small city," said the man with the -bearskin hat. "And my powers are limited here, but I think we'll find -plenty to join us. I'll go, of course, if you'll take me."</p> - -<p>Kim nodded in an odd grim satisfaction.</p> - -<p>"We'll set up matter-transmitters," he suggested. "Then there'll be -complete and continuous communication with this planet from the start."</p> - -<p>"Right," said the man with the bearskin hat. He added candidly: "We've -brains on Ades, my friend. We've got every technical device the rest -of the Galaxy has, except the Disciplinary Circuit, and we won't allow -that! If this is a scheme of some damned despot to add another planet -to his empire, it won't work. There are three empires already started, -you know, all taken by matter-transmitter. But that won't work here!"</p> - -<p>"If you build the transmitters yourselves, you'll know there's -nothing tricky about the circuits," Kim said. "My offer is to take a -transmitter and an exploring party to the next nearest galaxy and pick -out a planet there to start on. Ades isn't ideal."</p> - -<p>"No," agreed the man with the bearskin hat. "It's too cold, and we're -overcrowded. There are twenty million of us and more keep coming out -of the transmitter every day. The Galaxy seems to be combing out -all its brains and sending them all here. We're short of minerals, -though—metals, especially. So we'll pick some good sound planets to -start on over in a second galaxy. Hm! Come to the communicator and -we'll talk to the other men we need to reach."</p> - -<p>They went out of the small building which was the center of government -of the quite small city. There was nothing impressive about it, -anywhere. It was not even systematically planned. Each citizen, it -appeared, had built as he chose. Each seemed to dress as he pleased, -too.</p> - -<p>To Kim and to Dona there was a startling novelty in the faces they saw -about them. On Alphin III almost everybody had looked alike. At any -rate their faces had worn the same expression of bovine contentment.</p> - -<p>On other planets contentment had not been the prevailing sentiment. On -some, despair had seemed to be universal.</p> - -<p>But these people, these criminals, were individuals. Their manner was -not the elaborate, cringing politeness of Alphin III. It was free and -natural.</p> - -<p>The communicator-station was rough and ready. It was not a work of -art, but a building put up by people who needed a building and built -one for that purpose only. The vision-screens lighted up one by one and -faces appeared, as variegated as the costumes beneath them. They had a -common look for aliveness which was heartening to Kim.</p> - -<p>The conference lasted for a long time. There was enthusiasm, and there -was reserve. The <i>Starshine</i> would carry a matter-transmitter to -the next galaxy and open a way for migration of the criminals of Ades -to a new island universe for conquest.</p> - -<p>Kim would turn over the construction-records of the space-ship -so that others could be built. He would give the details of the -matter-transmitter alteration. No space-ships had been attempted -by the inhabitants of Ades, because fighting-beams would soon have -been mounted on useful planets, against them, and all useful planets -contained only enemies.</p> - -<p>"What do you want?" asked a figure in one vision-plate. "We don't do -things for nothing, here, and we don't take things without paying for -them, either."</p> - -<p>"Dona and I want only a place to live and a people to live among who -are free," Kim answered sharply.</p> - -<p>"You've got that," the man in the bearskin hat said. "All right? We'll -all call public meetings and confirm these arrangements?"</p> - -<p>The heads of other cities nodded.</p> - -<p>"We'll pass on the news to other cities at once," another man said. He -was one of those who had nodded. "Everybody will wish to come in on it, -of course. If not now, then later."</p> - -<p>"Wait!" Kim said suddenly. "How about the planets around us? Are we -going to leave them enslaved?"</p> - -<p>"Nobody can free a slave," a whiskered man in a vision-plate said -drily. "We could only release prisoners. In time we may have to take -them over, I suppose, but on the planet I come from there aren't a -dozen men who'd know how to be free if we emancipated them. They don't -want to be free. They're satisfied as they are. If any of them want to -be free, they'll be sent here, eventually."</p> - -<p>"I am reluctant to desert them," Kim answered slowly.</p> - -<p>"Count, man," the man with bearskin hat cried. "There are three -hundred million inhabited planets! All of them but Ades are ruled by -Disciplinary Circuits. If we set out to liberate them, it would take -one thousand years, and there are only twenty million of us. Designate -just one of us to stay on each planet to teach the people to be free -again. Otherwise we wouldn't do a tenth of the job and we'd destroy -ourselves by scattering. But, hang it all, we'd be tyrants! No! We go -on and start on a new galaxy. That's a job worth doing. We'll keep a -group of watchers here to receive the new ones who come here into exile -and forward them. Some day, maybe, we'll come back and take over the -old Galaxy if it seems worth while. But we've a job to do. How many -galaxies are there, anyhow, for us and our children and our children's -children to take over?"</p> - -<p>"It's a job that will never be finished," another voice said. "That's -good!"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>There were trees visible from the window of the house that had been -offered by a citizen for Kim's and Dona's use. The sun went down beyond -those trees, with a glowing of many colors in the foliage. Kim had -never watched a sunset before except upon the towers and pinnacles of -a city. He had never noted quite this sharp tang in the air, either, -which he learned was the smell of fresh growing things.</p> - -<p>"I think I'm going to like living like this," he said to Dona. "Have -you noticed the way people act? They don't behave as if I were -important at all, in one way. They seem to think I'm commonplace. But -I've never before felt so definitely that I matter."</p> - -<p>"You do, Kim, darling," Dona said, wisely. She stood close beside him, -watching the sunset too. She looked up at him. "You matter enormously, -and they know it. But to themselves they matter, too, and when they -listen to you and agree with you it's because they mean it, instead of -just citizen-like politeness. It is good. I think it must be a part of -what we've been looking for. It's a part of freedom, I suppose."</p> - -<p>"And you," Kim said. "Do you feel important too?"</p> - -<p>She laughed at him and pressed close.</p> - -<p>"My dear!" she said. "Could I help it? Can any woman help feeling -important on her wedding-day? Do you realize that we've been married -two whole hours?"</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PART TWO</h2> - -<h3>THE MANLESS WORLDS</h3> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="1b">1</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Empires in the Making</i></h3> - - -<p>The speaker inside the house spoke softly.</p> - -<p>"Guests for Kim Rendell, asking permission to land."</p> - -<p>Kim stared up at the unfamiliar stars of the Second Galaxy, and picked -out a tiny winking light with his eyes. He moved to a speaker-disk.</p> - -<p>"Land and be welcomed." To Dona he added, "It's a flier. I've been -expecting something like this. We need fuel for the <i>Starshine</i> -if we're not to be stuck on this one planet forever. My guess is that -somebody has come through the matter-transmitter from Ades to argue -about it."</p> - -<p>He moved to the edge of the terrace to watch the landing. Dona came and -stood beside him, her hand twisting into his. The night was very dark, -and the two small moons of Terranova cast no more than enough light -to outline nearby objects. The house behind Kim and Dona was low and -sprawling and, on its polished outer surface, unnamed Second Galaxy -constellations glinted faintly.</p> - -<p>The flier came down, black and seemingly ungainly, with spinning rotors -that guided and controlled its descent, rather than sustaining it -against the planet's gravity. The extraordinarily flexible vegetation -of Terranova bent away from the hovering object. It landed and the -rotors ceased to spin. Figures got out.</p> - -<p>"I'm here," said Kim Rendell into the darkness.</p> - -<p>Two men came across the matted lawn to the terrace. One was the -colony organizer for Terranova and the other was the definitely -rough-and-ready mayor of Steadheim, a small settlement on Ades back in -the First Galaxy.</p> - -<p>"I am honored," said Kim in the stock phrase of greeting.</p> - -<p>The two figures came heavily up on the terrace. Dona went indoors -and came back with refreshments, according to the custom of Ades and -Terranova. The visitors accepted the glasses, in which ice tinkled -musically.</p> - -<p>"You seem depressed," said Kim politely, another stock phrase. It was a -way of getting immediately to business.</p> - -<p>"There's trouble," growled the Mayor of Steadheim. "Bad trouble. It -couldn't be worse. It looks like Ades is going to be wiped out. For -lack of space-ships and fuel."</p> - -<p>"Lack of space-ships and fuel?" protested Kim. "But you're making them!"</p> - -<p>"We thought we were," growled the Mayor. "We've stopped. We're stuck. -We're finished—and the ships aren't. The same with the fuel. There's -not a drop for you and things look bad! But we can't make ships, and we -couldn't make fuel for them if we could! That's why we've come to you. -<i>We've got to have those ships!</i>"</p> - -<p>"But why not?" demanded Kim. "What's preventing it? You've got the -record-reels from the <i>Starshine</i>! They tell you everything, -from the first steps in making a ship to the last least item of its -outfitting! You know how to make fuel!"</p> - -<p>"Space!" exploded the Mayor of Steadheim. "Of course we know how! We -know all about it! There are fifty useless hulks in a neat row outside -my city—every one unfinished. We're short of metal on Ades and we had -to melt down tools to make them, but we did—as far as we could go. Now -we're stuck and we're apt to be wiped out because of it!"</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim wore a bearskin cap and his costume was -appropriate to that part of Ades in which his municipality lay. He -was dressed for a sub-arctic climate, not for the balmy warmth of -Terranova, where Kim Rendell had made his homestead. He sweated as he -gulped at his drink.</p> - -<p>"Tell me the trouble," said Kim. "Maybe—"</p> - -<p>"Hafnium!" barked the mayor. "There's no hafnium on Ades! The ships are -done, all but the fuel-catalyzers. The fuel is ready—all but the first -catalyzation that prepares it to be put in a ship's tanks. We have to -have hafnium to make catalyzers for the ships. We have to have hafnium -to make the fuel!</p> - -<p>"We haven't got it! There's not an atom of it on the planet! We're so -short of heavy elements, anyhow, that we make hammers out of magnesium -alloy and put stones in 'em to give them weight so they'll strike a -real blow! We haven't got an atom of hafnium and we can't make ships or -run them either without it!"</p> - -<p>Kim blinked at the Colony Organizer for Terranova.</p> - -<p>"Here—"</p> - -<p>"No hafnium here either," said the Colony Organizer gloomily. "We -analyzed a huge sample of ocean salts. If there were any on the planet -there'd be a trace in the ocean. Naturally! So what do we do?"</p> - -<p>Kim spoke unhappily.</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't know. I'm a matter-transmitter technician. I can do things -with power and, of course, I understand the <i>Starshine's</i> engines. -But there's no record of the early, primitive types that went before -them—types that might work on other fuel. Maybe in some library on one -of the older planets—But at that, the fuel the <i>Starshine</i> used -was so perfect that it would be recorded thousands of years back."</p> - -<p>"Take a year to find it," said the Mayor of Steadheim bitterly. "If -we could search! And it might be no good then! We haven't got a year. -Probably we haven't a month!"</p> - -<p>"We're beaten," mourned the Colony Organizer. "All we can do is get -as many through the Transmitter from Ades as possible and go on half -rations. But we'll starve."</p> - -<p>"We're <i>not</i> beaten!" roared the Mayor of Steadheim. "We'll get -hafnium and have a fighting fleet and fuel to power it! There's plenty -of the blasted stuff somewhere in the Galaxy! Kim Rendell, if I find -out where it is, will you go get it?"</p> - -<p>"The <i>Starshine</i>," said Kim grimly, "barely made it to port here. -There's less than six hours' fuel left."</p> - -<p>"And who'd sell us hafnium?" demanded the Colony Organizer bitterly. -"We're the men of Ades—the rebels, the outlaws! We were sent to Ades -to keep us from contaminating the sheep who live under governments with -disciplinary circuits and think they're men! We'd be killed on sight -for breaking our exile on any planet in the First Galaxy! Who'd sell us -hafnium?"</p> - -<p>"Who spoke of buying?" roared the mayor. "I was sent to Ades for -murder! I'm not above killing again for the things I believe in! I've a -wife on Ades, where there are ten men for every woman. I've four tall -sons! D'you think I won't kill for them?"</p> - -<p>"You speak of piracy," said the Colony Organizer, distastefully.</p> - -<p>"Piracy! Murder! What's the difference? When my sons are in danger—"</p> - -<p>"What's this danger?" Kim said sharply. "It's bad enough to be -grounded, as we seem to be. But you said just now—"</p> - -<p>"Sinab Two!" snorted the Mayor of Steadheim. "That's the danger! We -know! When a man becomes a criminal anywhere he's sent to us. In the -First Galaxy a man with brains usually becomes a criminal. A free man -always does! So we've known for a long while there were empires in the -making. You heard that, Kim Rendell!"</p> - -<p>"Yes, I've heard that," agreed Kim.</p> - -<p>So he had, but only vaguely. His own home planet, Alphin Three, was -ostensibly a technarchy, ruled by men chosen for their aptitude for -public affairs by psychological tests and given power after long -training.</p> - -<p>Actually it was a tyranny, ruled by members of the Prime Council. Other -planets were despotisms or oligarchies and many were kingdoms, these -days. Every possible form of government was represented in the three -hundred million inhabited planets of the First Galaxy.</p> - -<p>But every planet was independent and in all—by virtue of the -disciplinary circuit—the government was absolute and hence tyrannical. -Empires, however, were something new. On Ades, Kim barely heard that -three were in process of formation.</p> - -<p>"One's the Empire of Greater Sinab," snorted the mayor, "and we've just -heard how it grows!"</p> - -<p>"Surprise attacks, no doubt," said Kim, "through matter-transmitters."</p> - -<p>"We'd not worry if that were all!" snapped the mayor. "It's vastly -worse! You know the old fighting-beams?"</p> - -<p>"I know them!" said Kim grimly.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="2b">2</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>The Deadly Beams</i></h3> - - -<p>He did. They were the most terrible weapons ever created by men. They -had ended war by making all battles mass suicide for both sides. -They were beams of the same neuronic frequencies utilized in the -disciplinary circuits which kept men enslaved.</p> - -<p>But where the disciplinary circuits were used in place of police and -prisons and merely tortured the individual citizen to whom they were -tuned—wherever he might be upon a planet—the fighting-beams killed -indiscriminately. They induced monstrous, murderous currents in any -living tissue containing the amino-chains normally a part of human -flesh.</p> - -<p>They were death-rays. They killed men and women and children alike in -instants of shrieking agony. But no planet could be attacked from space -if it was defended by such beams. It was two thousand years since the -last attempt at attack from space had been made.</p> - -<p>That fleet had been detected far out and swept with fighting-beams and -every living thing in the attacking ships died instantly. So planets -were independent of each other. But when space-ships ceased to be used -the fighting-beams were needless and ultimately were scrapped or put -into museums.</p> - -<p>"Somebody," the mayor said wrathfully, "has changed those beams! -They're not tuned to animal tissue in general any more! They're tuned -to male tissue. To blood containing male hormones, perhaps! And Sinab -Two is building an empire with 'em! We found out only two weeks ago!</p> - -<p>"There's a planet near Ades—Thom Four. Four years ago its -matter-transmitter ceased to operate. The Galaxy's going to pot anyhow. -Nothing new about that! But we just learned the real reason. The real -reason was that four years ago fighting-beams killed men and left women -unharmed.</p> - -<p>"Every man on Thom Four died as the planet rotated. The beams came from -space. Every man and every boy and every male baby died! There were -only girls and women left." He added curtly, "There were half a billion -people on Thom Four!"</p> - -<p>Kim stiffened. Dona, beside him, drew closer.</p> - -<p>"Every man killed!" said Kim. "What—"</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim swore angrily.</p> - -<p>"Half the population! On Ades we're nine-tenths men! Women don't run to -revolt or crime. There'd not be much left on Ades if those beams swept -us! But I'm talking about Thom Four. The men died. All of them. So many -that the women couldn't bury them all.</p> - -<p>"One instant, the planet was going about its business as usual. The -next, every man was dead, his heart burst and blood running from his -nostrils. Lying in the streets, toppled in the baths and eating-halls, -crumpled beside the machines.</p> - -<p>"Boys in the schools dropped at their desks. Babes in arms, with their -mothers shrieking at the sight! Only women left. A world of women! -Cities and continents filled with dead men and women going mad with -grief!"</p> - -<p>Kim felt Dona's hand fumbling for his. She held it fast.</p> - -<p>"Go on!" said Kim.</p> - -<p>"When they thought to go to the matter-transmitter and ask for help -from other planets the matter-transmitter was smashed. They didn't -go at first. They couldn't believe it. They called from city to city -before they realized theirs was a manless world. Then, when they'd have -told the men of another planet what had happened—they couldn't.</p> - -<p>"For four years there was not one man or boy on the planet Thom Four. -Only women. The old ones grew older. The girls grew up. Some couldn't -remember ever seeing a man. No communication with other worlds. Then, -one day, there was a new matter-transmitter in the place of the smashed -one. Men came out of it. The women crowded about them.</p> - -<p>"The men were very friendly. They were from Sinab Two. Their employer -had sent them to colonize. There were a thousand women to every -man—ten thousand! Some of the women realized what had been done. -They'd have killed the newcomers. But some women fell in love with -them, of course!</p> - -<p>"In a matter of days every man had women ready to fight all other women -who would harm him. Their own men were dead four years. What else could -they do? More and more men colonists came. Presently things settled -down. The men were happy enough. They'd no need to work with all the -women about.</p> - -<p>"They established polygamy, naturally! Presently it was understood that -Thom Four was part of the empire of Greater Sinab. So it was. What -else? In a generation there'll be a new population, all its citizens -descended from loyal subjects of the emperor.</p> - -<p>"And why shouldn't they be loyal? A million colonists inherited the -possessions and the women of a planet! It was developed. Everything -was built. Every man was rich and with a harem. A darned clever way to -build an empire! Who'd want to revolt—and who could?"</p> - -<p>He stopped. The two moons of Terranova floated tranquilly, higher in -the sky. The soft sweet unfamiliar smells of a Terranovan night came to -the small group on the terrace of Kim Rendell's house.</p> - -<p>"That's what's ahead on Ades!" raged the Mayor of Steadheim. "And -I've four sons! A woman of Thom Four smashed the lock on the new -matter-transmitter, which set it to send only to Sinab, and traveled to -Khiv Five to warn them. But they laughed at her and when she begged to -be sent to a distant planet they grinned—and sent her to Ades!"</p> - -<p>He paused.</p> - -<p>"Not long after, a criminal from Khiv Five—he'd struck a minor noble -for spitting on him—came to Ades. There'd been inquiry for that woman. -Spies, doubtless, from Thom Four, trying to trace her. It was clear -enough she'd told the truth."</p> - -<p>"So," said Kim slowly, "you think Ades will be next."</p> - -<p>"I know it!" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "We've checked the planets -that have cut communication in our star-cluster. Twenty-one inhabited -planets have ceased to communicate in the past few years—the twenty -planets nearest to Sinab. We figured Khiv Five would be next. Then we'd -be in line for it.</p> - -<p>"Khiv Five cut communications four days ago! Every man on Khiv Five is -dead! We've had exiles from a dozen nearby planets. All know Khiv Five -is cut off. It's inhabited only by women, going mad with grief!</p> - -<p>"In a few years, when they grieve no longer, but despair instead, new -colonists from Sinab will come out of a new matter-transmitter to let -the women fall in love with them—and to breed new subjects for the -Empire of Sinab! So we've got to have space-ships, man! We've got to!"</p> - -<p>Kim was silent. His face was hard and grim.</p> - -<p>"Twenty planets those so-and-so's have taken over!" roared the mayor. -"They've murdered not less than four billion men already, and the -weasels have a hundred wives apiece and the riches of generations for -reward! D'you think I'll let that happen to Ades, with my four sons -there? <i>Space</i>, no! I want ships to fight with!"</p> - -<p>The two small moons rose higher. Strange sweet smells floated in the -air. Dona pressed close to Kim. On Terranova, across the gulf between -island universes, Kim was surely safe, but any woman can feel fear for -her man on any excuse.</p> - -<p>"It's a hard problem," said Kim evenly. "We barely made Terranova with -the <i>Starshine</i>, and there's just about enough fuel left to take -off with. Of course, on transmitter-drive she could go anywhere, but I -doubt that we've fuel enough to land her.</p> - -<p>"Here on Terranova we need supplies from Ades to live. If -fighting-beams play on Ades we'll starve. And, even if we had fuel the -<i>Starshine</i> isn't armed and they'll have a fleet prepared to fight -anything."</p> - -<p>Dona murmured in his ear.</p> - -<p>"We're beaten, then," said the Colony Organizer bitterly. "Ades will -be wiped out, we'll starve and the Sinabians will go through the First -Galaxy, killing off the men on planet after planet and then moving in -to take over."</p> - -<p>Dona murmured again in Kim's ear. The Mayor of Steadheim growled -profanely, furiously. Dona laughed softly. The two visitors stared at -her suspiciously.</p> - -<p>"What do we do, Kim Rendell?"</p> - -<p>"I suppose," said Kim wryly, "we'll have to fight. We've no fuel and no -weapons—but that ought to surprise them."</p> - -<p>"Eh?"</p> - -<p>"They'll be prepared," Kim explained, "to defend themselves against -any conceivable resistance by any conceivable weapon. And a warship a -fairly intelligent planet could build should be able to wipe out ten -thousand <i>Starshines</i>. So when we attack them without any weapons -at all they won't quite know what to do."</p> - -<p>The two visitors simply stared at him.</p> - -<p>"You've got to get hafnium! You've got to get fuel! You can't face a -battleship!"</p> - -<p>"But," said Kim, "battleships have fuel on board and they'll have -hafnium too. It'll be risky—but convenient...."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="3b">3</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Contact!</i></h3> - - -<p>Actually there was less than a quart of fuel in the <i>Starshine's</i> -tanks. Kim knew it ruefully well. It would run the little ship at -interplanetary speed for perhaps six hours. On normal overdrive—two -hundred light-speeds—it would send her just about one-seventh of a -light-year, and star-systems averaged eight light-years apart in both -the First and Second Galaxies.</p> - -<p>Of course, on transmitter-drive—the practically infinite speed -the <i>Starshine</i> alone in history had attained—the ship might -circumnavigate the cosmos on a quart of fuel. But merely rising from -Terranova would consume one-third of it, and landing on any other -planet would take another third.</p> - -<p>Actually the little ship was in the position of being able to go almost -anywhere, but of having no hope at all of being able to come back.</p> - -<p>It rose from Terranova though, just three days after the emergency was -made clear. There were a few small gadgets on board—hastily made in -the intervening seventy-two hours—but nothing deadly—nothing that -could really be termed a weapon.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> climbed beyond the atmosphere of the Second Galaxy -planet. It went on overdrive—at two hundred light-speeds—to a safe -distance from Terranova's planetary system. Then it stopped in normal -space, not stressed to allow for extra speed.</p> - -<p>Kim jockeyed it with infinite care until it was aimed straight at the -tiny wisp of nebulous light which was the First Galaxy, unthinkable -thousands of light-years away. At long last he was satisfied. He -pressed the transmitter-field button—and all space seemed to reel -about the ship.</p> - -<p>At the moment the transmitter-field went on, the <i>Starshine</i> had a -velocity of twenty miles per second and a mass of perhaps two hundred -tons. The kinetic energy it possessed was fixed by those two facts.</p> - -<p>But, when the transmitter-field enveloped it, its mass dropped—divided -by a factor approaching infinity. And its speed necessarily increased -in exact proportion because its kinetic energy was undiminished. It was -enclosed in a stressed space in which an infinite speed was possible. -It approached that infinite speed on its original course.</p> - -<p>Instantly, it seemed, alarm-gongs rang and the cosmos reeled again. -Suddenly there was a glaring light pouring in the forward vision-ports. -There were uncountable millions of stars all about and, almost straight -ahead, a monstrous, palpitating Cepheid sun swam angrily in emptiness.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> had leaped the gulf between galaxies in a time to -be measured in heart-beats and the transmitter-field was thrown off -when the total quantity of radiation impinging upon a sensitive plate -before her had reached a certain total.</p> - -<p>Dona watched absorbedly as Kim made his observations and approximately -fixed his position. The Mayor of Steadheim looked on suspiciously.</p> - -<p>"What's this?"</p> - -<p>"Locating ourselves," Kim explained. "From the Second Galaxy the best -we could hope for was to hit somewhere in the First. We did pretty -well, at that. We're about sixty light-centuries from Ades."</p> - -<p>"That's good, eh?" The mayor mopped his face. "Will we have fuel to get -there?"</p> - -<p>Kim jockeyed the <i>Starshine</i> to a new line. He adjusted the -radiation-operated switch to a new value, to throw off the field more -quickly than before. He pressed the field-button again. Space reeled -once more and the gongs rang and they were deep within the Galaxy. A -lurid purple sun blazed balefully far to the left.</p> - -<p>Kim began another jockeying for line.</p> - -<p>"Khiv Five was beamed about a week ago," he said reflectively. "We're -headed for there now. I think there'll be a warship hanging around, if -only to drop into the stratosphere at night and pick up the broadcasts -or to drop off a spy or two. Dona, you've got your wristlet on?"</p> - -<p>Dona, unsmiling, held up her hand. A curious bracelet clung tightly to -the flesh. She looked at his forearm, too. He wore a duplicate. The -Mayor of Steadheim rumbled puzzledly.</p> - -<p>"These will keep the fighting-beams from killing us," Kim told -him wryly. "And you too. But they'll hurt like the dickens. When -they hit, though, these wristlets trip a relay that throws us into -transmitter-drives and we get away from there in the thousandth of a -second. The beams simply won't have time to kill us. But they'll hurt!"</p> - -<p>He made other adjustments—to a newly-installed switch on the -instrument-board.</p> - -<p>"Now—we see if we get back to Terranova."</p> - -<p>He pressed the transmitter-drive button a third time. Stars swirled -insanely, with all their colors changing. Then they were still. And -there was the ringed sun Khiv with its family of planets about it.</p> - -<p>Khiv Five was readily recognizable by the broad, straight bands of -irrigated vegetation across its otherwise desert middle, where the -water of the melted ice-caps was pumped to its winter hemisphere. -It was on the far side of its orbit from the stopping-place of the -<i>Starshine</i>, though, and Kim went on overdrive to reach it. This -used as much fuel as all the journey from the Second Galaxy.</p> - -<p>The three speed-ranges of the <i>Starshine</i> were—if Kim had but -known it—quaintly like the three speeds of ancient internal-combustion -land-cars. Interplanetary drive was a low speed, necessary for taking -off and landing, but terribly wasteful of fuel.</p> - -<p>Overdrive had been the triumph of space-navigation for thousands of -years. It was like the second gear of the ancient land-cars. And the -transmitter-drive of Kim's devising was high speed, almost infinite -speed—but it could not be used within a solar system. It was too fast.</p> - -<p>Kim drove to the farther orbit of Khiv Five and then went into a long, -slow, free fall toward the banded planet below. In the old days it -would have been changed to a landing-parabola at an appropriate moment.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Kim grimly, "my guess is that we haven't enough fuel to -make anything but a crash-landing. Which would mean that we should all -get killed. So we will hope very earnestly that a warship is still -hanging about Khiv Five, and that it comes and tries to wipe us out."</p> - -<p>Dona pointed to a tiny dial. Its needle quivered ever so slightly from -its point of rest.</p> - -<p>"Mmmmm," said Kim. "Right at the limit of the detector's range. -Something using power. We should know how a worm on a fish-hook feels, -right now. We're bait."</p> - -<p>He waited—and waited—and waited.</p> - -<p>The small hundred-foot hull of the space-ship seemed motionless, seen -from without. The stars were infinitely far away. The great ringed sun -was a hundred and twenty million miles distant. Even the belted planet -Khiv Five was a good half-million miles below.</p> - -<p>Such motion as the <i>Starshine</i> possessed was imperceptible. -It floated with a vast leisureliness in what would be a parabolic -semi-orbit. But it would take days to make sure. And meanwhile....</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the <i>Starshine</i> seemed to spawn. A small object appeared -astern. Suddenly it writhed convulsively. Light glinted upon it. It -whirled dizzily, then more dizzily still, and abruptly it was a shape. -It was, in fact, the shape of a space-ship practically the size of the -<i>Starshine</i> itself, but somehow it was not quite substantial. For -minutes it shimmered and quivered.</p> - -<p>"You'll find it instructive," said Kim drily to the Mayor of Steadheim, -"to look out of a stern-port."</p> - -<p>The Mayor lumbered toward a stern-port. A moment later they heard him -shout. Minutes later, he lumbered back.</p> - -<p>"What's that?" he said angrily. "I thought it was another ship! When I -first saw it, I thought it was ramming us!"</p> - -<p>"It's a gadget," said Kim abstractedly. His eyes were on the indicator -of one of the detectors. The needle was definitely away from its point -of rest. "There's something moving toward us. My guess is that it's a -warship with fighting-beams—and hafnium and fuel."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="4b">4</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Encounter in the Void</i></h3> - - -<p>The mayor of Steadheim looked from one to the other of them. Dona was -pale. She looked full of dread. Kim's lips were twisted wryly, but his -eyes were intent on the dial. The mayor opened his mouth, and closed -it, then spoke wrathfully.</p> - -<p>"I don't understand all this! Where'd that other ship come from?"</p> - -<p>"It isn't a ship," said Kim, watching the dial that told of the -approach of something that could only be an enemy—and it had been a -matter of faith that only the <i>Starshine</i> roamed the space-ways. -"I got it made back on Terranova.</p> - -<p>"We took a big reel of metal spring-wire, and wound it round and round -a shape like that of the <i>Starshine</i>. When it was in place we -annealed and tempered it so it would always resume that shape. And then -we wound it back on its reel. I just dumped it out in space from a -special lock astern.</p> - -<p>"It began to unroll, and of course to go back to the form it had been -tempered in. Here, with no gravity to distort it, it went perfectly -back into shape. Close to, of course, you can see it's only a shell and -a thin one. But a few miles away it would fool you."</p> - -<p>The needle on the detector-dial crept over and over. Kim wet his lips. -Dona's face was white.</p> - -<p>Then Kim winced and the Mayor of Steadheim roared furiously and the -Universe without the viewports swayed and dissolved into something -else. Alarm-gongs rang and the <i>Starshine</i> was in a brand-new -place, with a blue-white giant sun and a dwarf companion visible -nearby. The ringed sun Khiv had vanished.</p> - -<p>"K-kim!" said Dona, choking.</p> - -<p>"I'm quite all right," he told her. But he wiped sweat off his face. -"Those beams aren't pleasant, no matter how short the feeling is."</p> - -<p>He turned back to the controls. The faint whine of the gyros began. The -<i>Starshine</i> began to turn about. Kim applied power. But it took a -long time for the ship's nose to be turned exactly and precisely back -in the direction from which it had come.</p> - -<p>"It's getting ticklish," he said abruptly. "There's less than a cupful -of fuel left."</p> - -<p>"<i>Space!</i>" said the Mayor of Steadheim. He looked sick and weak -and frightened. "What happened?"</p> - -<p>"We were in a sort of orbit about Khiv Five," said Kim, succinctly. -"We had a decoy ship out behind us. A warship spotted our arrival. It -sneaked up on us and let go a blast of its beams—the same beams that -killed all the men on Khiv Five.</p> - -<p>"They didn't bother Dona—she's a girl—but they would have killed us -had not a relay flung the <i>Starshine</i> away from there. The beams -got left behind. So did the dummy ship. I think they'll clamp on to -it to look it over. And if our engines keep turning over long enough, -we'll be all right. Now, let's see!"</p> - -<p>His jaw was set as the transmitter-drive came on and the familiar -crazy gyration of all the stars again took place and the gongs rang -once more. But his astrogation was perfect. There was the ringed sun -Khiv again with its banded fifth planet and its polar ice-cap and -its equatorial belt of desert with the wide bands of irrigated land -crossing it. Kim drove for the planet. He looked at the fuel-gauge.</p> - -<p>"Our tanks," he said evenly, "read empty. What fuel's left is in the -catalyzer."</p> - -<p>A needle stirred on the bank of indicators. Dona caught her -breath. Kim sweated. The indication on the dial grew stronger. The -electron-telescope field sparkled suddenly, where light glinted on -glistening metal. Kim corrected course subtly.</p> - -<p>There was the tiny form which looked so amazingly like a duplicate -of the <i>Starshine</i>. It was actually a thin layer of innumerable -turns of spring-wire. On any planet it would have collapsed of its own -weight. Here in space it looked remarkably convincing.</p> - -<p>But the three in the <i>Starshine</i> did not look at it. They looked -at the shape that had come alongside it and made fast with magnetic -grapples that distorted the thin decoy wildly—the shape that gave no -sign of any activity or any motion or any life.</p> - -<p>That shape was a monster space-ship a thousand feet long. It looked as -if it bulged with apparatus of death. It was gigantic. It was deadly.</p> - -<p>"Our trick worked," said Kim uneasily. "We should begin to feel -uncomfortable, you and I, in minutes—if only our engines keep running!"</p> - -<p>He spoke to the Mayor of Steadheim. Almost as he spoke, a tiny tingling -began all over his body. As the ship went on, that tingling grew -noticeably stronger.</p> - -<p>"What—"</p> - -<p>"We've no weapons," said Kim, "nor time to devise them. But when we -were slaves on the planets we came from we were held enslaved by a -circuit that could torture us or paralyze us at the will of our rulers. -The Disciplinary Circuit. Remember?</p> - -<p>"I put a Disciplinary-Circuit generator in that little decoy ship. I -took a suggestion from what our friends yonder did to the fighting -beams. I tuned the Disciplinary Circuit to affect any man—but no -woman—within its range.</p> - -<p>"The generator went on when she grappled the decoy. Every man in it -should be helpless. If it stands like that, we'd be paralyzed too if we -went near. But not Dona."</p> - -<p>The tingling was quite strong. It was painful. Presently it would be -excruciating. It would be completely impossible for any man within -fifty miles of the decoy space-ship to move a muscle.</p> - -<p>"However," said Kim, "I've arranged that. I had Disciplinary-Circuit -projectors fitted on the <i>Starshine</i>. We turn them on that ship. -Automatically, the generator on the decoy will cut off. Our friends -will still be helpless, and we can go up and grapple—if our engines -keep going!"</p> - -<p>He threw a switch. A relay snapped over somewhere and a faint humming -noise began. The tingling of Kim's body ceased. The decoy and the enemy -space-ship grew large before them. The enemy was still motionless.</p> - -<p>Its crew, formerly held immobile by the circuit in the decoy, was now -held helpless by the beams from the <i>Starshine</i>. But neither Kim -nor the Mayor of Steadheim could enter the enemy ship without becoming -paralyzed too.</p> - -<p>Dona slipped quietly from the control-room. She came back, clad in a -space-suit with the helmet face-plate open.</p> - -<p>"All ready, Kim," she said quietly.</p> - -<p>Sweat stood out in droplets on Kim's face. The <i>Starshine</i> -drifted ever so gently into position alongside the pair of motionless -shapes—the one so solid and huge, the other so flimsy and -insubstantial. Kim energized the grapples. There was a crushing impact -as the <i>Starshine</i> anchored itself to the enemy.</p> - -<p>Kim reached over and pulled out a switch.</p> - -<p>"That's the wristlet relay switch," he told Dona. "We stay here until -you come back—even if a fighting-beam hits us. You've got to go -on board that monster and get some fuel and, if you can, a hafnium -catalyzer. If another battleship's around and comes up—you drive the -<i>Starshine</i> home with what fuel you can get. We'll be dead, but -you do that. You hear?"</p> - -<p>"I'll—hurry, Kim," Dona said.</p> - -<p>"Be careful!" commanded Kim fiercely. "There shouldn't be a man on that -ship who can move, but be careful!"</p> - -<p>She kissed him quickly and closed the face-plate of her helmet. She -went into the airlock and closed the inner door.</p> - -<p>There was silence in the <i>Starshine</i>. Kim sweated. The outer -airlock door opened. The two ships were actually touching. The clumping -of the magnetic shoes of Dona's space-suit upon the other ship's hull -was transmitted to the <i>Starshine</i>.</p> - -<p>Kim and the Mayor of Steadheim heard the clankings as she opened the -other ship's outer airlock door—the inner door. Then they heard -nothing.</p> - -<p>Dona was in an enemy space-ship, unarmed. Subjects of the Empire of -Greater Sinab manned it. They or their fellows had murdered half the -population of the banded planet below. They were helpless, now, to be -sure, held immobile by fields maintained by the precariously turning -engines of the <i>Starshine</i>.</p> - -<p>But the fuel-gauge showed the fuel-tanks absolutely dry. The -<i>Starshine</i> was running on fuel in the pipeline and catalyzers. -It had been for an indefinite time. Its engines would cut off at any -instant.</p> - -<p>When the lights flickered Kim groaned. This meant that the last few -molecules of fuel were going from the catalyzer. He feverishly cut -off the heaters which kept the ship warm in space. He cut off the -air-purifier.</p> - -<p>He became desperately economical of every watt of energy. He used power -for the Disciplinary-Circuit beams which kept the enemy crew helpless -and for the grapples which kept the two ships in contact—for nothing -else.</p> - -<p>But still the lights flickered. The engines gasped for power. They -started and checked and ran again, and again checked.</p> - -<p>The second they failed finally, the immobile monster alongside -would become a ravening engine of destruction. The two men in the -<i>Starshine</i> would die in an instant of unspeakable torment. -Dona—now fumbling desperately through unfamiliar passage-ways amid -contorted, glaring figures—would be at the tender mercy of the crew.</p> - -<p>And when the three of them were dead the drive of the <i>Starshine</i> -would be at the disposal of the Empire of Greater Sinab if they only -chose to look at it. The beastly scheme of conquest would spread and -spread and spread throughout the Galaxy and enslave all women—and -murder all human men not parties to the criminality.</p> - -<p>The lights flickered again. They almost died and on the -<i>Starshine</i>, Kim clenched his hands in absolute despair. On the -enemy warship the immobile crew made agonized raging movements.</p> - -<p>But the engine caught fugitively once more, and Dona worked desperately -and then fled toward the airlock with her booty while the Disciplinary -Circuit field which froze the Sinabian crew wavered, and tightened, and -wavered once more.</p> - -<p>And died!</p> - -<p>Dona dragged open the enemy's inner airlock door as a howl rose behind -her. She flung open the outer as murderous projectors warmed. She -clattered along the outer hull of the Sinabian ship on her magnetic -shoes, and saw the <i>Starshine</i> drifting helplessly away, even the -grapples powerless to hold the two bodies together.</p> - -<p>At that sight, Dona gasped. She leaped desperately, with star-filled -nothingness above and below and on every hand. She caught the -<i>Starshine's</i> airlock door.</p> - -<p>And Kim cut out the Disciplinary-Circuit beams and the flow of current -to the grapples and, with a complete absence of hope, pressed the -transmitter-drive button. He had no shred of belief that it would work.</p> - -<p>But it did. The equalizer-batteries from the engines gave out one -last surge of feeble power—and were dead. But that was enough, since -nothing else drew current at all. The stars reeled.</p> - -<p>This was a test.</p> - -<p>Almost anything could happen. Kim held his breath, anxiously watching -and waiting for the worst, his senses attuned to the delicate -mechanisms about him.</p> - -<p>And then, slowly, the reaction was fully determined, and he smiled.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="5b">5</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>The Needed Fuel</i></h3> - - -<p>The "<i>Starshine</i>" had a mass of about two hundred tons and an -intrinsic velocity of so many miles per second. When the field went on, -her mass dropped almost to zero, but her kinetic energy remained the -same. Her velocity went up almost to infinity. And the Universe went -mad.</p> - -<p>The vision-ports showed stark lunacy. There were stars, but they -were the stars of a madman's dream. They formed and dissolved into -nothingness in instants too brief for estimate. For fractions of -micro-seconds they careered upon impossible trajectories across the -vision-ports' field of view.</p> - -<p>Now a monstrous blue-white sun glared in terribly, seemingly almost -touching the ship. An instant later there was utter blackness all -about. Then colossal flaring globes ringed in the <i>Starshine</i>, and -shriveling heat poured in.</p> - -<p>Then there was a blue watery-seeming cosmos all around like the vision -of an underwater world and dim shapes seemed to swim in it, and then -stars again, and then....</p> - -<p>It was stark, gibbering madness!</p> - -<p>But Kim reached the instrument-board. With the end of the last morsel -of power he had ceased to have weight and had floated clear of the -floor and everything else.</p> - -<p>By the crazy, changing light he sighted himself and, when he touched -a sidewall, flung himself toward the now-dark bank of instruments. He -caught hold, fumbled desperately and threw the switch a radiation-relay -should have thrown. And then the madness ended.</p> - -<p>There was stillness. There was nothing anywhere. There was no weight -within the ship, nor light, nor any sound save the heavy breathing of -Kim and the Mayor of Steadheim. The vision-ports showed nothing.</p> - -<p>Looking carefully, with eyes losing the dazzle of now-vanished suns, -one could see infinitely faint, infinitely distant luminosities. The -<i>Starshine</i> was somewhere between galaxies, somewhere in an -unspeakable gulf between islands of space, in the dark voids which are -the abomination of desolation.</p> - -<p>There were small clankings aft. The outer airlock door went shut. A -little later the inner door opened. And then Kim swam fiercely through -weightlessness and clung to Dona, still in her space-suit, unable to -speak for his emotion.</p> - -<p>The voice of the Mayor of Steadheim arose in the darkness which was -the interior of the <i>Starshine</i>—and the outer cosmos for tens of -thousands of light-years all about.</p> - -<p>Dona now had the face-plate of her helmet open. She kissed Kim hungrily.</p> - -<p>"—brought you something," she said unsteadily. "I'm not sure what, -but—something. They've separate engines to power their generators on -that ship, and there were tanks I thought were fuel-tanks."</p> - -<p>"Space!" roared the Mayor of Steadheim, forward. "Who's that talking? -Am I dead? Is this Hades?"</p> - -<p>"You're not dead yet," Kim called to him. "I'll tell you in a minute if -you will be."</p> - -<p>There were no emergency-lights in the ship, but Dona's suit was -necessarily so equipped. She turned on lights and Kim looked at the two -objects she had brought.</p> - -<p>"My dear," he told her, "you did it! A little fuel-tank with gallons in -it and a complete catalyzer. By the size of it, one of their beams uses -an engine big enough for fifty ships like this!"</p> - -<p>Clutching at every projection, he made his way to the engine-room. Dona -followed.</p> - -<p>"I'm glad, Kim," she said unsteadily, "that I was able to do something -important. You always do everything."</p> - -<p>"The heck I do," he said. "But anyhow...."</p> - -<p>He worked on the tank. She'd sheared it off with a tiny atomic torch -and the severed fuel-line had closed of itself, of course. He spliced -it into the <i>Starshine's</i> fuel-line, and waited eagerly for the -heavy, viscid fluid to reach the catalyzer and then the engines.</p> - -<p>"We'll—be all right now?" asked Dona hopefully.</p> - -<p>"We were on transmitter-drive for five minutes, at a guess. You know -what that means!"</p> - -<p>She caught her breath.</p> - -<p>"<i>Kim!</i> We're lost!"</p> - -<p>"To say that we're lost is a masterpiece of understatement," he said -wryly. "At transmitter-speed we could cross the First Galaxy in a -ten-thousandth of a second. Which means roughly a hundred thousand -light-years in a ten-thousandth of a second. And we traveled for three -hundred seconds or thereabouts. What are our chances of finding our way -back?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, Kim!" she cried softly. "It's unthinkable!"</p> - -<p>He watched the meters. Suddenly, the engines caught. For the fraction -of a second they ran irregularly. Then all was normal. There was light. -There was weight. An indignant roar came from forward.</p> - -<p>"If this is Hades—"</p> - -<p>They went to the control-room. The Mayor of Steadheim sat on the floor, -staring incredulously about him. As they entered he grinned sheepishly.</p> - -<p>"I was floating in the air and couldn't see a thing, and then the -lights came on and the floor smacked me! What happened and where are -we?"</p> - -<p>Kim went to the instrument-board and plugged in the heaters—already -the vision-ports had begun to frost—and the air-purifier and the other -normal devices of a space-ship.</p> - -<p>"What happened is simple enough," said Kim. "The last atom of power on -board the ship here threw us into transmitter-field drive. And when -that field is established it doesn't take power to maintain it.</p> - -<p>"So we started to move! There's a relay that should have stopped us, -but there wasn't enough power left to work it. So we traveled for -probably five minutes on transmitter-drive."</p> - -<p>"We went a long way, eh?" said the mayor, comfortably.</p> - -<p>"We did," said Kim grimly. "To Ades from its sun is ninety million -miles—eight light-minutes. Minutes, remember! The First Galaxy is a -hundred thousand light-years across. Light travels a hundred thousand -years, going ninety million miles every eight minutes to cross it.</p> - -<p>"The <i>Starshine</i> travels a hundred thousand light-years in the -ten-thousandth part of a second. In one second—a billion light-years. -The most powerful telescope in the Galaxy cannot gather light from so -far away. But we went at least three hundred times farther.</p> - -<p>"Three hundred billion light-years, plus or minus thirty billions more! -We went beyond the farthest that men have ever seen, and kept on beyond -the farthest that men have ever thought of!</p> - -<p>"The light from the island universes we can see through the ports has -never yet reached the First Galaxy since time began. It hasn't had -time! We're not only beyond the limits that men have guessed at, we're -beyond their wildest imagining!"</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim blinked at him. Then he got up and peered out -the vision-ports. Dim, remote luminosities were visible, each one a -galaxy of a thousand million suns!</p> - -<p>"Hah!" grunted the mayor, "Not much to look at, at that! Now what?"</p> - -<p>Kim spread out his hands and looked at Dona.</p> - -<p>"Turning about and trying to go back," he said, "would be like starting -from an individual grain of sand on a desert, and flying a thousand -miles, and then trying to fly back to that grain of sand again. That's -how the First Galaxy stacks up."</p> - -<p>Dona took a deep breath.</p> - -<p>"You'll find a way, Kim! And—anyhow—"</p> - -<p>She smiled at him shakily. Whether or not they ever saw another human -being she was prepared to take what came, with him. The possibility -of being lost amid the uncountable island universes of the cosmos -had been known to them both from the beginning of the use of the -<i>Starshine</i>.</p> - -<p>"We'll take some pictures," Kim told her, "and then sit down on a -planet and figure things out."</p> - -<p>He set to work making a map of all the island universes in view -of the <i>Starshine's</i> current position, with due regard to the -<i>Starshine's</i> course. On the relatively short jumps within a -galaxy, and especially those of a few light-years only, he could simply -turn the ship about and come very close to his original position—the -line of it, anyhow.</p> - -<p>But he did not know within many many billions of light-years how far -he had come and he did know that an error of a hundredth of a second -of arc would amount to millions of light-years at the distance of the -First Galaxy.</p> - -<p>The positions of galaxies about the First were plotted only within a -radius of something like two million light-years. There had never been -a point in even that! At fifteen hundred thousand times that distance -he was not likely to strike the tiny mapped area by accident.</p> - -<p>He set to work. Presently he was examining the photographs by enlarger -for a sign of structure in one of the galaxies in view. One showed -evidences of super-giant stars—which proved it the nearest. He aimed -the <i>Starshine</i> for it. He threw the ship into transmitter-drive.</p> - -<p>The galaxy was startlingly familiar when they reached it. The stellar -types were normal ones and there were star-clusters and doubtless -star-drifts too and Kim was wholly accustomed to astro-navigation now.</p> - -<p>He simply chose a sol-type sun, set the radiation-switch to stop -the little space-ship close by, aimed for it and pressed a button. -Instantly they were there. They visited six solar systems.</p> - -<p>They found a habitable planet in the last—a bit on the small side, but -with good gravity, adequate atmosphere and polar ice-caps to assure its -climate.</p> - -<p>They landed and its atmosphere was good. The Mayor of Steadheim stepped -out and blinked about him.</p> - -<p>"Hah!" he said gruffly. "If we've come as far as you say it was hardly -worth the trip!"</p> - -<p>Kim grinned.</p> - -<p>"It looks normal enough," he acknowledged. "But chemistry's the same -everywhere and plants will use chlorophyll in sunlight from a sol-type -sun. Stalks and leaves will grow anywhere, and the most efficient -animals will be warm-blooded. Given similar conditions you'll have -parallel evolution everywhere."</p> - -<p>"Hm—" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "A planet like this for each of my -four sons to settle on, now—when we've settled with those rats from -Sinab—"</p> - -<p>The planet was a desirable one. The <i>Starshine</i> had come to rest -where a mountain-range rose out of lush, strange, forest-covered hills, -which reached away and away to a greenish sea. There was nothing in -view which was altogether familiar and nothing which was altogether -strange. The Mayor of Steadheim stamped away to a rocky out-crop where -he would have an even better view.</p> - -<p>"Poor man!" said Dona softly. "When he finds out that we can never go -back, and there'll be only the three of us here while horrible things -happen back—back home."</p> - -<p>But Kim's expression had suddenly become strained.</p> - -<p>"I think," he said softly, "I see a way to get back. I was thinking -that a place as far away as this would be ideal for the Empire of -Sinab to be moved to. True, they've murdered all the men on nineteen -or twenty planets, but we couldn't repair anything by murdering all of -them in return.</p> - -<p>"If we moved them out here, though, there'd be no other people for them -to prey on. They'd regret their lost opportunities for scoundrelism but -their real penalty would be that they'd have to learn to be decent in -order to survive. It's a very neat answer to the biggest problem of the -war with Sinab—a post-war settlement."</p> - -<p>"But we haven't any chance of getting back, have we?"</p> - -<p>"If we wanted to send them here, how'd we do it?" asked Kim. "By -matter-transmitter, of course. A receiver set up here—as there used to -be one on Ades—to which a sender would be tuned.</p> - -<p>"When a transmitter's tuned to a receiver you can't miss. But our -transmitter-drive is just that—a transmitter which sends the ship and -itself, with a part which is tuned to receive itself, too.</p> - -<p>"I'll set up the receiving element here, for later use. And I'll tune -the sender-element to Ades. We'll arrive at the station there and -everyone will be surprised."</p> - -<p>He paused and spoke reflectively.</p> - -<p>"A curious war, this. We've no weapons and we arrive at a post-war -settlement before we start fighting. We've decided how to keep from -killing our enemies before we're sure how we'll defeat them and I -suspect that the men had better stay at home and let the women go out -to battle. I'm not sure I like it."</p> - -<p>He set to work. In twelve hours one-half of the transmitter-drive of -the <i>Starshine</i> had been removed and set up on the unnamed planet -of a galaxy not even imagined by human beings before.</p> - -<p>In fifteen hours the <i>Starshine</i>, rather limpingly, went aloft.</p> - -<p>An hour later Kim carefully tuned the transmitting part of the little -ship's drive to the matter-receiving station on Ades. In that way, and -only in that way, the ship would inevitably arrive at the home galaxy -of humanity.</p> - -<p>And he pushed a button.</p> - -<p>It arrived at the matter station on Ades instead of descending from the -skies. And the people on Ades were surprised.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="6b">6</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Man-Made Meteor</i></h3> - - -<p>No obvious warlike move had been made on either side, of course. Ades -swam through space, a solitary planet circling its own small sun. About -it glittered the thousands of millions of stars which were the suns of -the First Galaxy.</p> - -<p>Nearby, bright and unwinking, Sinab and Khiv and Phanis were the -largest suns of the star-cluster which was becoming the Empire of -Sinab. Twenty planets—twenty-one, with Khiv Five—were already cut -off from the rest of the Galaxy, apparently by the failure of their -matter-transmitters.</p> - -<p>Actually those twenty planets were the cradles of a new and horrible -type of civilization. On the other inhabited worlds every conceivable -type of tyranny had come into being, sustained by the Disciplinary -Circuit which put every citizen at the mercy of his government -throughout every moment of his life.</p> - -<p>On most worlds kings and oligarchs reveled in the primitive -satisfaction of arbitrary power. There is an instinct still surviving -among men which allows power, as such, to become an end in itself, -and when it is attained to be exercised without purpose save for its -own display. Some men use power to force abject submission or fawning -servility or stark terror.</p> - -<p>In the Empire of Greater Sinab there was merely the novelty that the -rulers craved adulation—and got it. The rulers of Sinab were without -doubt served by the most enthusiastic, most loyal, most ardently -cooperative subjects ever known among men.</p> - -<p>Every member of the male population of Sinab—where women were -considered practically a lower species of animal—could look forward -confidently to a life of utter ease on one planet or another, served -and caressed by solicitous females, with no particular obligation save -to admire and revere his rulers and to breed more subjects for them.</p> - -<p>It made for loyalty, but not for undue energy. There was no great worry -about the progress of the splendid plan for a Greater Sinab. All went -well. The planet Khiv Five had been beamed from space some nine days -since.</p> - -<p>Every man upon the planet had died in one instant of unholy anguish, -during which tetanic convulsions of the muscles of his heart burst it -while the ligaments and anchorages of other muscles were torn free of -his skeleton by the terrific contraction of muscle fibres.</p> - -<p>Every woman on Khiv Five was still in a state of frantic grief which -would become despair only with the passage of time. It was strange that -two guard-ships circling Khiv Five no longer reported to headquarters, -but it was unthinkable that any harm could have come to them. Records -showed that no other planet had practiced space-travel for centuries or -millennia.</p> - -<p>Only the Empire of Sinab had revived the ancient art for purposes of -conquest. There was no reason to be solicitous, so the Empire of Sinab -waited somnolently for time to pass, when colonists would be called -upon to take over the manless Khiv Five and all its cities and its -women.</p> - -<p>There was another small planet called Ades, next in order for -absorption into the Empire. A squadron had been dispatched to beam it -to manlessness—though volunteers for its chilly clime would not be -numerous.</p> - -<p>The failure of two guard-ships to report, of course, could have -no meaning to that other squadron. Of course not! There were no -space-ships save the fleet of Greater Sinab. There were no weapons -mounted for use against space-craft anywhere.</p> - -<p>There was nothing to hinder the expansion of Greater Sinab to include -every one of the Galaxy's three hundred million inhabited planets. So -nobody worried on Sinab.</p> - -<p>On Ades it was different. That small planet hummed with activity. It -was not the ordered, regimented-from-above sort of activity any other -planet in the Galaxy would have shown. It was individual activity, -often erratic and doubtless inefficient. But it made for progress.</p> - -<p>First, of course, a steady stream of human beings filed into the -matter-transmitter which communicated with Terranova in the Second -Galaxy. Gangling boys, mostly, and mothers with small boy-children -made the journey, taking them to Terranova where the beams of Sinabian -murder-craft could not cause their death.</p> - -<p>The adults of Terranova were not anxious to flee from Ades. The men -with wives—though there were only one-tenth as many women as men on -Ades—savagely refused to abandon them. Those without wives labored -furiously to complete the space-ships that waited for their finishing -touches on the outskirts of every community on the planet.</p> - -<p>The small drum of fuel taken by Dona from the warship off Khiv Five -was depleted by Kim's use of it, but the rest was enormously useful. -The catalyzer from the same warship was taken apart and its precious -hafnium parts recovered. And then the values of individualism appeared.</p> - -<p>A physicist who had been exiled from Muharram Two for the crime -of criticizing a magistrate, presented himself as an expert on -autocatalysis. With a sample of the catalyzed fuel to start the process -he shortly had a small plant turning out space-fuel without hafnium at -all. The catalyzed fuel itself acted as a catalyst to cause other fuel -to take the desired molecular form.</p> - -<p>A power-plant engineer from Hlond Three seized upon the principle and -redesigned the catalyzers to be made for the ships. For safety's sake a -particle of hafnium was included, but the new-type catalyzers required -only a microscopic speck of the precious material.</p> - -<p>Hafnium from the one bit of machinery from the one beam-generator of an -enemy war-craft, was extended to supply the engine-rooms of a thousand -space-craft of the <i>Starshine's</i> design.</p> - -<p>In a myriad other ways individuals worked at their chosen problems. -Hundreds undoubtedly toiled to contrive a shield for the fighting -beams—tuned to kill men only—which were the means by which Ades was -to be devastated. The scientists of half a galaxy had tried that five -thousand years before without success.</p> - -<p>But one man did come up with a plausible device. He proposed a -shielding paint containing crystals of the hormone to which the -fighting-beams were tuned. The crystalline material should absorb the -deadly frequencies, so they could not pass on to murder men.</p> - -<p>It would have been simple enough to synthesize any desired organic -substance, but Kim pointed out grimly that the shield would be made -useless by changing the tuning of the beams. Other men devised -horrific and generally impractical weapons.</p> - -<p>But again, one man came up with a robot ship idea, a ship which could -be fought without humans on board and controlled even at interstellar -distances. Radio signals at the speed of light would be fantastically -too slow.</p> - -<p>He proposed miniature matter-transmitters automatically shuttling a -magnetic element between ship and planet-station and back to the ship -again, the solid object conveying all the information to be had from -the ship's instruments to the planet-station, and relaying commands to -the ship's controls. The trick could have been made to work, and it -would be vastly faster than any radiation-beam. But there was no time -to manufacture them.</p> - -<p>Actually, only four days after the return of the partly dismantled -<i>Starshine</i> from the farther side of nowhere, Kim took off again -from Ades with fifty other ships following him. There were twenty other -similar squadrons ready to take space in days more.</p> - -<p>But for a first operation he insisted on a small force to gain -experience without too much risk. At transmitter-speeds there could be -no such thing as cruising in fleet formation, nor of arriving at any -destination in a unit. Guerilla warfare was inevitable.</p> - -<p>The navy of the criminals of Ades, though, went swirling up through the -atmosphere of that cold planet like a column of voyaging wild geese. It -broke through the upper atmosphere and there were all the suns of the -Galaxy shining coldly on every hand.</p> - -<p>The ships headed first for Khiv Five, lining up for it with such -precision as the separate astrogators—hurriedly trained by Kim—could -manage. It was a brave small company of tiny ships, forging through -space away from the sunlit little world behind them. The light of the -local sun was bright upon their hulls.</p> - -<p>Glinting reflections of many-colored stars shimmered on their shadowed -sides. They drove on and on, on planetary drive, seemingly motionless -in space. Then the <i>Starshine</i> winked out of existence. By ones -and twos and half-dozens, the others vanished from space.</p> - -<p>It was the transmitter-drive, of course. The repaired <i>Starshine</i> -vanished from space near Ades because it went away from Ades at such -speed that no light could possibly be reflected from it. It reappeared -in space within the solar system of Khiv because it slowed enough to be -visible.</p> - -<p>But it seemed utterly alone. Yet presently an alarm-gong rang, and -there was one of its sister-ships a bare ten thousand miles away. The -rest were scattered over parsecs.</p> - -<p>Kim drove for the banded planet on which dead men still lay unburied. -His fleet was to rendezvous above its summer pole, as shown by the size -of the ice-cap. There had been two guard-ships circling Khiv Five to -keep account of the development of grief into despair. Dona had robbed -one of them while its crew was held helpless by projectors of the -Disciplinary Circuit field.</p> - -<p>A second had been on the way to its aid when the <i>Starshine</i> -reeled away with the last morsel of energy in its equalizing-batteries. -With fifty small ships, swift as gadflies though without a single -weapon. Kim hoped to try out the tactics planned for his fleet, and -perhaps to capture one or both of the giants.</p> - -<p>He picked up a third member of his force on the way to the planet -and the three drove on in company. Detectors indicated two others at -extreme range. But as the three hovered over the polar cap of Khiv -Five, others came from every direction.</p> - -<p>Then a wheezing voice bellowed out of the newly-installed space-radio -in the <i>Starshine's</i> control-room. It was the voice of the Mayor of -Steadheim, grandly captaining a tiny ship with his four tall sons for -crew.</p> - -<p>"<i>Kim Rendell!</i>" he bellowed. "<i>Kim Rendell! Enemy ships in -sight! We're closing with them and be da</i>—"</p> - -<p>His voice stopped—utterly.</p> - -<p>Kim snapped orders and his squadron came swarming after him. The -direction of the message was clear. It had come from a point a bare -two thousand miles above the surface of Khiv Five and with coördinates -which made its location easy.</p> - -<p>It was too close for the use of transmitter-drive, of course. Even -overdrive at two hundred light-speeds was out of the question. On -normal drive the little ships—bare specks in space—spread out and -out. Their battle tactics had been agreed upon. They wove and darted -erratically.</p> - -<p>They had projectors of the Disciplinary Circuit field, which would -paralyze any man they struck with sufficient intensity. But that was -all—for the good and sufficient reason that such fields could be -tested upon grimly resolute volunteers and adjusted to the utmost of -efficiency.</p> - -<p>On the prison world of Ades, to which criminals were sent from all over -the Galaxy, there was no legal murder. Killing fighting-beams could not -be calibrated. There were no available victims.</p> - -<p>The detectors picked up a single considerable mass. Electron -telescopes focussed upon it. Kim's lips tensed. He saw a giant -war-craft, squat and ungainly—with no air-resistance in space there is -no point in streamlining a space-ship—and with the look of a mass of -crammed generators of deadly beams.</p> - -<p>It turned slowly in its flight. It was not one space-ship, but two—two -giant ships grappled together. It turned further and there was a -shimmering, unsubstantial tiny shape clutched to one....</p> - -<p>"The dickens!" said Kim bitterly. He called into the space-phones; "Kim -Rendell speaking! Don't attack! Those ships aren't driving, they're -falling! They'll smash on Khiv Five and we can't do anything about it. -Keep at least fifty miles away!"</p> - -<p>A wheezing voice said furiously from the communicator.</p> - -<p>"They tricked me! I went for 'em, and the transmitter-drive went on. -I'll get 'em this time!"</p> - -<p>Kim barked at the Mayor of Steadheim, even as in the field of the -electron telescope he saw a tiny mote of a space-ship charge valorously -at the monsters. It plunged toward them—and vanished.</p> - -<p>Dona spoke breathlessly.</p> - -<p>"But what happened, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"This," said Kim bitterly, "is the end of the battle we fought with one -of those ships a week ago. We put out a decoy and that ship grappled -it. A Disciplinary Circuit generator went on and paralyzed its crew.</p> - -<p>"You remember that we went up to it and you went on board. I turned off -its generator from a distance and held the crew paralyzed with beams -from the <i>Starshine</i>. There was another ship coming when you got -off and we got away to the other side of beyond."</p> - -<p>"Yes, but—"</p> - -<p>"We vanished," said Kim. "The other enemy ship came up. Its skipper -must have decided to go on board the first for a conference, or perhaps -to inspect the decoy. It grappled to the first—and the magnetic surge -turned on the disciplinary field again in the gadget in the decoy!</p> - -<p>"Every man in both ships were paralyzed all over again! Both ships were -drifting with power off! They've been falling toward Khiv Five! Every -man of both crews must be dead by now, but the field's still on and it -will stay on! They'll crash!"</p> - -<p>"But can't we do anything?" demanded Dona anxiously. "I know you want a -ship."</p> - -<p>"It would be handy to have those beams modified so we could paralyze a -planet from a distance," said Kim grimly, "but these ships are gone."</p> - -<p>"I could go on board again," said Dona.</p> - -<p>"No! They'll hit atmosphere in minutes now. And even if we could cut -off the paralyzing field and get to the control-room nobody could pull -an unfamiliar ship out of that fall. I wouldn't let you try it anyhow. -They're falling fast. Miles a second. They'll hit with the speed of a -meteor!"</p> - -<p>"But try, Kim!"</p> - -<p>For answer he pulled her away from the electron telescope and pointed -through the forward vision-port. The falling ships had seemed almost -within reach on the electron-telescope screen. But through the -vision-port one could see the whole vast bulk of Khiv Five.</p> - -<p>Two thirds of it glowed brightly in sunlight, but night had fallen -directly below. The falling ships were the barest specks the eye -could possibly detect—too far for hope of overhauling on planetary -drive, too close to risk any other. Any speed that would overtake the -derelicts would mean a crash against the planet's disk.</p> - -<p>"I think," said Kim, "they'll cross the sunset line and fall in the -night area."</p> - -<p>They did. They vanished, as specks against the sunlit disk. Then, -minutes later, a little red spark appeared where the bulk of the banded -planet faded into absolute black. The spark held and grew in brightness.</p> - -<p>"They've hit atmosphere," Kim told her. "They're compressing the air -before them until it's incandescent. They're a meteoric fall."</p> - -<p>The spark flared terribly, minute though it was from this distance. -It curved downward as the air slowed its forward speed. It was an -infinitesimal comet, trailing a long tail of fire behind it. It swooped -downward in a gracefully downward-curving arc. It crashed.</p> - -<p>"Which," said Kim coldly in the <i>Starshine's</i> control-room, "means -that two Sinabian warships are destroyed without cost to us. It's a -victory. But it's very, very bad luck for us. With those two ships and -transmitter-drive we could end the war in one day."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="7b">7</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Ready for Action</i></h3> - - -<p>Indignantly the Mayor of Steadheim bellowed from the space-phone -speaker and Kim answered him patiently.</p> - -<p>"The decoy still had a Disciplinary-Circuit field on," he explained for -the tenth time. "You know about it! When you tried to go galumphing -in, the field grabbed you and paralyzed you. When your muscles went -iron hard, the relay on your wrist—you wear it to protect you from the -fighter-beams—threw your ship into transmitter-speed travel.</p> - -<p>"So you were somewhere else. When you came back you charged in again -and the same thing happened. The relay protected you against our field -as well as the enemy fighter-beams. That's all."</p> - -<p>The mayor wheezed and sputtered furiously. It was plain that he had -meant to distinguish himself and his four sons by magnificent bravery.</p> - -<p>"There's something that needs to be done," said Kim. "Those two ships -are smashed but they hadn't time to melt. There'll be hafnium in the -wreckage, anyhow—and metal is scarce on Ades. See what you can salvage -and get it to Ades. It's important war work. Ask for other ships to -volunteer to help you."</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim roared indignantly—and then consented like a -lamb. In the space-navy of Ades there would not yet be anything like -iron discipline. Kim led his forces as a feudal baron might have led a -motley assemblage of knights and men-at-arms in ancient days. He led by -virtue of prestige and experience. He could not command.</p> - -<p>The fleet grew minute by minute as lost ships came in. And Kim -worked out a new plan of battle to meet the fact that he could not -hope to appear over Sinab with gigantic generators able to pour out -Disciplinary-Circuit beams over the whole planet.</p> - -<p>He explained the plan painstakingly to his followers and presently set -a course for Sinab. A surprising number of ships volunteered to go to -ground on Khiv Five with the Mayor of Steadheim to save what could be -retrieved of the shattered two warships.</p> - -<p>No more than thirty little craft of Ades pointed their noses toward -Sinab. They went speeding toward it in a close-knit group, matching -courses to almost microscopic accuracy and keeping their speed -identical to a hair in hopes of arriving nearly in one group.</p> - -<p>"So we'll try it again," said Kim into the space-phone. "Here we go!"</p> - -<p>He pressed the transmitter-drive button and all the universe danced a -momentary saraband—and far off to the left the giant sun Sinab glowed -fiercely.</p> - -<p>Five of the little ships from Ades were within detector-range. But -there were four monstrous moving masses which by their motion and -velocity were space-ships rising from the planet and setting out upon -some errand of the murder-empire. The same thought must have come -instantly to those upon each of the little ships. They charged.</p> - -<p>There had been no war in space for five thousand years. The last -space-battle was that of Canis Major, when forty thousand warships -plunged toward each other with their fighting-beams stabbing out -savagely, aimed and controlled by every device that human ingenuity -could contrive.</p> - -<p>That battle had ended wars for all time, the Galaxy believed, because -there was no survivor on either side. In seconds every combatant ship -was merely a mass of insensate metal, which fought on in a blind -futility.</p> - -<p>The fighting-beams killed in thousandths of seconds. The robot gunners -aimed with absolute precision. The two fleets joined battle and the -robots fixed their targets and every ship became a coffin in which all -living things were living no longer, which yet fought on with beams -which could do no further harm.</p> - -<p>With every man in both fleets dead the warships raged through -emptiness, pouring out destruction from their unmanned projectors. -It was a hundred years before the last war-craft, its fuel gone and -its crew mere dust, was captured and destroyed. But there had been no -space-fight since—until now.</p> - -<p>And this one was strangeness itself. Four huge, squat ships of war -rose steadily from the planet Sinab Two. They were doubtless bound -on a mission of massacre. The Empire of Sinab gave no warning of its -purpose. It did not permit the option of submission.</p> - -<p>Its ships headed heavily out into space, crammed with generators of the -murder-frequency. They had no inkling of any ships other than those of -their own empire as being in existence anywhere.</p> - -<p>Suddenly, out of nowhere, a slim and slender space-craft winked into -being—a member of Kim's squadron, just arrived. Within a fraction of -an instant it was plunging furiously for the Sinabian monster.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> also flung itself into head-long attack, though it -was unarmed save for projectors of a field that would not kill anyone. -The other ships—and more, as they appeared—darted valorously for the -giants.</p> - -<p>Meteor-repellers lashed out automatically. Scanners had detected the -newcomers and instantly flung repeller-beams to thrust them aside. They -had no effect. Meteor-repellers handle inert mass but, by the nature of -its action, an interplanetary drive neutralizes their effect.</p> - -<p>The small ships flashed on.</p> - -<p>Kim found himself grinning sardonically. There would be alarms ringing -frantically in the enemy ships and the officers would be paralyzed -with astonishment at the sudden appearance and instant attack by the -space-craft which could not—to Sinabian knowledge—exist.</p> - -<p>Four ships plunged upon one monster. Three dashed at another. Eight -little motes streaked for a third and the fourth seemed surrounded by -deadly mites of space-ships, flashing toward it with every indication -of vengeful resolution.</p> - -<p>The attacks were sudden, unexpected, and impossible. There was no time -to put the murder-beams into operation. They took priceless seconds to -warm up.</p> - -<p>In stark panic the control-room officer of the ship at which the -<i>Starshine</i> drove jammed his ship into overdrive travel. The -Sinabian flashed into flight at two hundred times the speed of light. -It fled into untraceable retreat, stressed space folded about it.</p> - -<p>Kim spoke comfortably into the space-phone:</p> - -<p>"Everything's fine! If the others do the same...."</p> - -<p>A second giant fled in the same fashion. The small ships of Ades were -appearing on every hand and plunging toward their enemies. A third huge -ship made a crazy, irresolute half-turn and also took the only possible -course by darting away from its home planet on overdrive. Then the -fourth!</p> - -<p>"They'd no time to give an alarm," said Kim crisply. "Into atmosphere -now and we do our stuff!"</p> - -<p>The tiny craft plunged toward the planet below them. It swelled in the -<i>Starshine's</i> forward vision-ports. It filled all the firmament. -Kim changed course and aimed for the limb of the planet. The ship went -down and down.</p> - -<p>A faint trembling went through all the fabric of the ship. It had -touched atmosphere. There was a monstrous metropolis ahead and below. -Kim touched a control. A little thing went tumbling down and down. He -veered out into space again.</p> - -<p>He watched by electron telescope. Like tiny insects, the fleet of Ades -flashed over the surface of the planet. They seemed to have no purpose. -They seemed to accomplish nothing. They darted here and there and fled -for open space again, without ever touching more than the outermost -reaches of the planet's atmosphere.</p> - -<p>But it took time. They were just beginning to stream up into emptiness -again when the first of the giant warships flashed back into view. This -time it was ready for action.</p> - -<p>Its beam-projectors flared thin streams of ions that were visible -even in empty space. The ships of Ades plunged for it in masses. The -fighting-beams flared terribly.</p> - -<p>And the little ships vanished. Diving for it, plunging for it, raging -toward it with every appearance of deadly assault, they flicked into -transmitter-drive when the deadly beams touched them. Because the crews -of every one were fitted with the wristlets and the relays which flung -them into infinite speed when the fighting-beams struck.</p> - -<p>In seconds, when the second and third and fourth Sinabian warships came -back from the void prepared for battle, they found all of space about -their home planet empty. They ragingly reported their encounter to -headquarters.</p> - -<p>Headquarters did not reply. The big ships went recklessly, alarmedly, -down to ground to see what had happened. They feared annihilation had -struck Sinab Two.</p> - -<p>But it hadn't. The fleet of Ades had bombed the enemy planet, to be -sure, but in a quite unprecedented fashion. They had simply dropped -small round cases containing apparatus which was very easily made and -to which not even the most conscientious of the exiles on Ades could -object.</p> - -<p>They were tiny broadcasting units, very much like one Kim had put in a -decoy ship, which gave off the neuronic frequencies of the disciplinary -circuit, tuned to men. The cases were seamless spheres, made of an -alloy that could only be formed by powder metallurgy, and could not be -melted or pierced at all.</p> - -<p>It was the hardest substance developed in thirty thousand years of -civilization. And at least one of those cases had been dropped on -every large city of Sinab Two, and when they struck they began to -broadcast.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="8b">8</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Pitched Battle</i></h3> - - -<p>Every man in every city of the capital planet of the empire was -instantly struck motionless. From the gross and corpulent emperor -himself down to the least-considered scoundrel of each city's slums, -every man felt his every muscle go terribly and impossibly rigid. Every -man was helpless and convulsed. And the women were unaffected.</p> - -<p>On Sinab Two, which was the capital of a civilization which considered -women inferior animals, the women had not been encouraged to be -intelligent. For a long time they were merely bewildered. They were -afraid to try to do anything to assist their men.</p> - -<p>Those with small boy-children doubtless were the first to dare to use -their brains. It was unquestionably the mother of a small boy gone -terribly motionless who desperately set out in search of help.</p> - -<p>She reasoned fearfully that, since her own city was full of agonized -statues which were men, perhaps in another city there might be aid. She -tremblingly took a land-car and desperately essayed to convey her son -to where something might be done for him.</p> - -<p>And she found that, in the open space beyond the city, he recovered -from immobility to a mere howling discomfort. As the city was left -farther behind he became increasingly less unhappy and at last was -perfectly normal.</p> - -<p>But it must have been hours before that discovery became fully known, -so that mothers took their boy-children beyond the range of the small -cases dropped from the skies. And then wives dutifully loaded their -helpless husbands upon land-cars or into freight-conveyors and so got -them out to where they could rage in unbridled fury.</p> - -<p>The emperor and his court were probably last of all to be released from -the effects of the disciplinary-circuit broadcasts by mere distance. -The Empire was reduced to chaos. For fifty miles about every bomb it -was impossible for any man to move a muscle.</p> - -<p>For seventy-five it was torment.</p> - -<p>No man could go within a hundred miles of any of the small objects -dropped from the <i>Starshine</i> and her sister-ships without -experiencing active discomfort.</p> - -<p>Obviously, the cities housed the machinery of government and the -matter-transmitters by which the Empire communicated with its -subject worlds and the food-synthesizers and the shelters in which -men were accustomed to live and the baths and lecture-halls and -amusement-centers in which they diverted themselves.</p> - -<p>Men were barred from such places absolutely. They could not govern nor -read nor have food or drink or bathe or even sleep upon comfortable -soft couches. For the very means of living they were dependent upon the -favor of women—because women were free to go anywhere and do anything, -while men had to stay in the open fields like cattle.</p> - -<p>The foundation of the civilization of Greater Sinab was shattered -because women abruptly ceased to be merely inferior animals. The -defenses of that one planet were non-existent, and even the four -ships just taken off went down recklessly to the seemingly unharmed -cities—to land with monstrous crashes and every man in them helpless. -The ships were out of action for as long as the broadcast should -continue.</p> - -<p>But the fleet of Ades rendezvoused at Ades, and again put out into -space. They divided now and attacked the subjugated planets. They had -no weapons save the devices which every government in the Galaxy used.</p> - -<p>It was as if they fought a war with the night-sticks of policemen. But -the disciplinary circuit which made governments absolute, by the most -trivial of modifications became a device by which men were barred from -cities, and therefore from government. All government ceased.</p> - -<p>Active warfare by the Empire of Sinab became impossible. Space-yards, -armories, space-ships grounded and space-ships as they landed from the -void—every facility for war or rule in an empire of twenty planets -became useless without the killing of a single man and without the -least hope of resistance.</p> - -<p>Only—a long while since, a squadron of Sinabian warships had headed -out for Ades as a part of the program of expansion of the Empire. It -had lifted from Sinab Two—then the thriving, comfortable capital of -the Empire—and gone into overdrive on its mission.</p> - -<p>The distance to be covered was something like thirty light-years. -Overdrive gave a speed two hundred times that of light, which was very -high speed indeed, and had sufficed for the conquest of a galaxy, in -the days when the human race was rising.</p> - -<p>But even thirty light-years at that rate required six weeks of -journeying in the stressed space of overdrive. During those six weeks, -of course, there could be no communication with home base.</p> - -<p>So the squadron bound for Ades had sped on all unknowing and -unconscious, while Khiv Five was beamed and all its men killed and -while the <i>Starshine</i> had essayed a return journey from the Second -Galaxy and then sped crazily to universes beyond men's imagining and -returned, and while the midget fleet of Ades wrecked the Empire in -whose service the travelers set out to do murder.</p> - -<p>The journeying squadron—every ship wrapped in the utter -unapproachability of faster-than-light travel—was oblivious to all -that had occurred. Its separate ships came out of overdrive some forty -million miles from the solitary planet Ades, lonesomely circling its -remote small sun.</p> - -<p>The warships of Sinab had an easier task in keeping together -on overdrive than ships of the <i>Starshine</i> class on -transmitter-drive, but even so they went back to normal space forty -million miles from their destination—two seconds' journey on -overdrive—to group and take final counsel.</p> - -<p>Kim Rendell in the <i>Starshine</i> flashed back from the last of the -twenty planets of Sinab as six monster ships emerged from seeming -nothingness. The <i>Starshine's</i> detectors flicked over to the -"<i>Danger</i>" signal-strength.</p> - -<p>Alarm-gongs clanged violently. The little ship hurtled past a monster -at a bare two-hundred miles distance, and there was another giant a -thousand miles off, and two others and fifth and sixth....</p> - -<p>The six ships drew together into battle formation. Their detectors, -too, showed the <i>Starshine</i>. More, as other midgets flicked into -being, returning from their raid upon the Empire, they also registered -upon the detector-screens of the battle-fleet.</p> - -<p>The fighter-beams of the ships flared into deadliness. They were -astounded, no doubt, by the existence of other space-craft than -those of Sinab. But as the little ships flung at them furiously, the -fighting-beams raged among them.</p> - -<p>Small, agile craft vanished utterly as the death-beams hit—thrown into -transmitter-drive before their crews could die. But the Sinabians could -not know that. They drove on. Grandly. Ruthlessly. This planet alone -possessed space-craft and offered resistance.</p> - -<p>It had appeared only normal that all the men on Ades should die. Now -it became essential. The murder-fleet destroyed—apparently—the tiny -things which flung themselves recklessly and went on splendidly to -bathe the little planet in death.</p> - -<p>The midgets performed prodigies of valor. They flung themselves at the -giants, with the small hard objects that had destroyed an empire held -loosely to the outside of their hulls.</p> - -<p>When the death-beams struck and they vanished, the small hard objects -went hurtling on.</p> - -<p>They could have been missiles. They traveled at miles per second. But -meteor-repellers flung them contemptuously aside, once they were no -longer parts of space-craft with drive in action.</p> - -<p>The little ships tried to ram, and that was impossible. They could do -nothing but make threatening dashes. And the giants went on toward Ades.</p> - -<p>From forty million miles to thirty millions the enemy squadron drove -on with its tiny antagonists darting despairingly about it. At thirty -millions, Kim commanded his followers to flee ahead to Ades, give -warning, and take on board what refugees they could.</p> - -<p>But there were nineteen million souls on Ades—at most a million had -crowded through to Terranova in the Second Galaxy—and they could do -next to nothing.</p> - -<p>At twenty millions of miles, some of the midgets were back with -cases of chemical explosive. They strewed them in the paths of the -juggernaut ships. With no velocity of their own—almost stationary -in space—someone had thought they might not activate the Sinabian -repellers.</p> - -<p>But that thought was futile. The repeller-beams stabbed at them with -the force of collisions. The chemical explosives flashed luridly in -emptiness and made swift expanding clouds of vapor, of the tenuity of -comets' tails. The enemy ships came on.</p> - -<p>At ten million miles two unmanned ships, guided by remote control, -flashed furiously toward the leading war-craft. They, at least, should -be able to ram.</p> - -<p>Repeller-beams which focused upon them were neutralized by the -space-torpedoes' drives. They drove in frenziedly. But as they drew -closer the power of the repeller-beams rose to incredible heights -and overwhelmed the power of the little ships' engines and shorted -the field-generating coils and blew out the motors—and the guided -missiles were hurled away, broken hulks.</p> - -<p>The fleet reached a mere five million miles from the planet Ades. -Its separate members had come to realize their invincibility against -all the assaults that could be made against them by the defending -forces—unexpected as they were—of this small world.</p> - -<p>The fleet divided, to take up appropriate stations above the planet and -direct their projectors of annihilation downward. They would wipe out -every living male upon the planet's surface. They would do it coldly, -remorselessly, without emotion.</p> - -<p>Presently the planet would become part of an empire which, in fact, -had ceased to function. The action of the fleet would not only be -horrible—it would be futile. But its personnel could not know that.</p> - -<p>The giant ships took position and began to descend.</p> - -<p>Odd little blue-white glows appeared in the atmosphere far below. -They seemed quite useless, those blue-white glows. The only effect -that could at once be ascribed to them was the sudden vanishing of -a dozen little ships preparing to make, for the hundredth time, -despairing dashes at the monsters. Those little ships winked out of -existence—gone into transmitter-drive.</p> - -<p>And then the big ships wavered in their flight. Automatic controls -seemed to take hold. They checked in their descent, and presently were -motionless....</p> - -<p>A roar of triumph came to Kim Rendell's ears from the space-phone -speaker in the <i>Starshine's</i> control-room. The Mayor of Steadheim -bellowed in exultation.</p> - -<p>"We got 'em, by Space! We <i>got</i> 'em!"</p> - -<p>"Something's happened to them," said Kim. "What?"</p> - -<p>"I'm sending up a couple of shiploads of women," rumbled the Mayor of -Steadheim zestfully. "Women from Khiv Five. They'll take over! Remember -you had us go to ground to salvage the two ships that crashed there?</p> - -<p>"They bounced when they landed. They shook themselves apart and spilled -themselves in little pieces instead of smashing to powder. We picked -up half a dozen projectors that could be repaired—all neatly tuned to -kill men and leave women unharmed.</p> - -<p>"We brought 'em back to Ades and mounted 'em—brought 'em here with -wives for my four sons and a promise of vengeance for the other women -whose men were murdered. We just gave these devils a dose of the -medicine they had for us!</p> - -<p>"Those ships are coffins, Kim Rendell! Every man in the crews is dead! -But no man can go aboard until their beams are cut off! I'll send up -the women from Khiv Five to board 'em. They'll attend to things! If any -man's alive they'll slit his throat for him!"</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="9b">9</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Homecoming</i></h3> - - -<p>A considerable time later, Kim Rendell eased the <i>Starshine</i> -down through the light of the two Terranovan moons to the matted lawn -outside his homestead in the Second Galaxy. A figure started up from -the terrace and hurried down to greet him as he opened the exit-port -and helped Dona to the ground.</p> - -<p>"Who's this?" asked Kim, blinking in the darkness after the lighted -interior of the <i>Starshine</i>. "Who—"</p> - -<p>"It's me, Kim Rendell," said the Colony Organizer for Terranova. He -sounded unhappy and full of forebodings, "We've been doing all we can -to take care of the crowds who came through the matter-transmitter, but -it was a difficult task—a difficult task!</p> - -<p>"Now the crowd of new colonists has dropped to a bare trickle. Every -one has a different story. I was told, though, that you were coming -back in the <i>Starshine</i> and could advise me. I need your advice, -Kim Rendell! The situation may be terrible!"</p> - -<p>Kim led the way to the terrace of his house.</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't say it will be terrible," he said cheerfully enough. "It's -good to get back home. Dona—"</p> - -<p>"I want to look inside," said Dona firmly.</p> - -<p>She went within, to satisfy the instinct of every woman who has been -away from home to examine all her dwelling jealously on her return. Kim -stretched himself out in a chair.</p> - -<p>The stars—unnamed, unexplored, and infinitely promising—of all the -Second Galaxy twinkled overhead. Terranova's two moons floated serenely -across the sky, and the strange soft scents of the night came to his -nostrils. Kim sniffed luxuriously.</p> - -<p>"Ah, this is good!" he said zestfully.</p> - -<p>"But what's happened?" demanded the Colony Organizer anxiously. "In -three weeks we had four hundred thousand new arrivals through the -transmitter. Most of them were children and boys. Then the flood -stopped—like that! What are we to do about them? Did you get fuel for -your ship? I understand the danger from Sinab is over, but we find it -hard to get information from Ades. Everyone there—"</p> - -<p>"Everyone there is busy," said Kim comfortably. "You see, we smashed -the Empire without killing more than a very few men. On Sinab Two where -the Empire was started, we chased the men out of the cities and put -them at the mercy of the women.</p> - -<p>"So many men had emigrated to the planets whose men had been killed -off, that there was a big disproportion even on Sinab. And the women -were not pleased. They'd been badly treated too. We didn't approve of -the men, though.</p> - -<p>"We gave them their choice of emigrating to a brand-new world, with -only such women as chose to go with them, or of being wiped out. They -chose to emigrate. So half the technical men on Ades have been busy -supervising their emigration."</p> - -<p>"Not to here?" asked the Colony Organizer in alarm. "We can't feed -ourselves, yet!"</p> - -<p>"No, not to here," said Kim drily. "They went to a place we scouted -accidentally in the <i>Starshine</i>. They're not likely to come back. -I left a matter-receiver there, and when they've all gone through -it—all the men from twenty planets, with what women want to go with -them—we'll smash that receiver and they'll be on their own.</p> - -<p>"They're quite a long way off. Three hundred billion light-years, more -or less. They're not likely to come in contact with our descendants for -several million years yet. By that time they'll either be civilized or -else."</p> - -<p>The Colony Organizer asked questions in a worried tone. Kim answered -them.</p> - -<p>"But twenty-one planets with no men on them," said the Organizer -worriedly, "These women will all want to come here!"</p> - -<p>"Not quite all. There were ten men on Ades for every woman. A lot -of them will settle on the twenty planets where the proportion is -reversed. A surprising lot will want to move on to the Second Galaxy, -though."</p> - -<p>"But—"</p> - -<p>"We'll be ready for them," said Kim. "We've space-ships enough for -exploration now. The Mayor of Steadheim wants a planet for each of his -four sons to colonize. They picked up wives on Khiv Five and want to -get away from the old chap and indulge in a little domesticity.</p> - -<p>"And there'll be plenty of others." He added, "We've some big war-craft -to bring over too, in case there's any dangerous animals or—entities -here."</p> - -<p>"But—" said the Colony Organizer again.</p> - -<p>"We're sending ships through the First Galaxy, too," said Kim, "to do a -little missionary work. After all, twenty-one planets are without men!</p> - -<p>"So the <i>Starshine's</i> sister-ships will drop down secretly on one -planet after another to start whisperings that a man who's sent to Ades -is a pretty lucky man. If he has courage and brains he's better off -than living as a human sheep under kings or technarchs who'll clap the -Disciplinary Circuit on him if he thinks for himself.</p> - -<p>"There'll be more criminals and rebels than usual from now on. The -flow of men who are not quite sheep will increase. With three hundred -million planets to draw from and the way whispers pass from world to -world, the adventurous spirits will start getting themselves sent to -Ades.</p> - -<p>"There'll be planets for them to move to and women to marry and a -leaven of hardy souls to teach them that being a free man is pretty -good fun. We won't make an empire of those twenty-one planets—just a -refuge for every man with backbone in all the Galaxy."</p> - -<p>The Colony Organizer looked worried.</p> - -<p>"But there are Terranova and the Second Galaxy waiting to be explored -and colonized. Maybe they'll be satisfied to stay there."</p> - -<p>Kim laughed. When he ceased to laugh he chuckled.</p> - -<p>"I'm here! I've got a wife. Do you suppose that any woman will want her -husband to stay on one of those twenty-one planets for years to come? -Where women outnumber men? Where—well—a man with a roving eye sees -plenty of women about for his eyes to rove to?"</p> - -<p>The Colony Organizer still worried, nevertheless, until Dona came out -from the inside of the house. She had assured herself that everything -was intact and her mind was at rest. She brought refreshments for Kim -and their guest.</p> - -<p>"I was just saying," said Kim, "that I thought there would still -be plenty of people coming from Ades and the twenty-one planets to -Terranova and to settle on the new worlds as they're opened up."</p> - -<p>"Of course," said Dona. "I wouldn't live there! Any normal woman, when -she has a husband, will want to move where he'll be safe!"</p> - -<p>And she might have been referring to the holocausts on those planets -caused by the death-beams of the dead Sinabian Empire. But even the -Colony Organizer did not think so.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PART THREE</h2> - -<h3>THE BOOMERANG CIRCUIT</h3> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="1c">1</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Damaged Transmitter</i></h3> - - -<p>Kim Rendell had almost forgotten that he was ever a matter-transmitter -technician. But then the matter-transmitter on Terranova ceased to -operate and they called on him.</p> - -<p>It happened just like that. One instant the wavering, silvery film -seemed to stretch across the arch in the public square of the principal -but still small settlement on the first planet to be colonized in the -Second Galaxy. The film bulged, and momentarily seemed to form the -outline of a human figure as a totally-reflecting, pulsating cocoon -about a moving object. Then it broke like a bubble-film and a walking -figure stepped unconcernedly out. Instantly the silvery film was formed -again behind it and another shape developed on the film's surface.</p> - -<p>Only seconds before, these people and these objects had been on another -planet in another island universe, across unthinkable parsecs of space. -Now they were here. Bales and bundles and parcels of merchandise. -Huge containers of foodstuffs—the colony on Terranova was still not -completely self-sustaining—and drums of fuel for the space-ships busy -mapping the new galaxy for the use of men, and more people, and a huge -tank of viscous, opalescent plastic.</p> - -<p>Then came a pretty girl, smiling brightly on her first appearance -on a new planet in a new universe, and crates of castings for more -space-ships, and a family group with a pet zorag on a leash behind -them, and a batch of cryptic pieces of machinery, and a man.</p> - -<p>Then nothing. Without fuss, the silvery film ceased to be. One could -look completely through the archway which was the matter-transmitter. -One could see what was on the other side instead of a wavering, -pulsating reflection of objects nearby. The last man to come through -spoke unconcernedly over his shoulder, to someone he evidently believed -just behind, but who was actually now separated from him by the abyss -between island universes and some thousands of parsecs beyond.</p> - -<p>Nobody paid any attention to matter-transmitters ordinarily. They had -been in use for ten thousand years. All the commerce of the First -Galaxy now moved through them. Space-ships had become obsolete, and -the little <i>Starshine</i>—which was the first handiwork of Man to -cross the gulf to the Second Galaxy—had been a museum exhibit for -nearly two hundred years before Kim Rendell smashed out of the museum -in it, with Dona, and the two of them went roaming hopelessly among the -ancient, decaying civilizations of man's first home in quest of a world -in which they could live in freedom.</p> - -<p>But the matter-transmitter had ceased to operate. Five millions of -human beings in the Second Galaxy were isolated from the First. Ades -was the only planet in the home galaxy on which all men were criminals -by definition, and hence were friendly to the people of the new -settlements. Every single other planet—save the bewildered and almost -manless planets which had been subject to Sinab—was a tyranny of one -brutal variety or another.</p> - -<p>Every other planet regarded the men of Ades as outlaws, rebels, and -criminals. The people of Terranova, therefore, were not cut off from -the immigrants and supplies and the technical skills of Ades. They were -necessarily isolated from the rest of the human race. And then, besides -that, there were sixteen millions of people left on Ades, cut off from -the hope that Terranova represented.</p> - -<p>Kim Rendell was called on immediately. The Colony Organizer of -Terranova, himself, went in person to confer and to bewail.</p> - -<p>Kim Rendell was peacefully puttering with an unimportant small gadget -when the Colony Organizer arrived. The house was something of a gem of -polished plastic—Dona had designed it—and it stood on a hill with a -view which faced the morning sun and the rising twin moons of Terranova.</p> - -<p>The atmosphere-flier descended, and Dona led the Organizer to the -workshop in which Kim puttered. The Organizer had had half an hour in -which to think of catastrophe. He was in a deplorable state when Kim -looked up from the thing with which he was tinkering.</p> - -<p>"Enter and welcome," he said cheerfully in the formal greeting. "I'm -only amusing myself. But you look disturbed."</p> - -<p>The Colony Organizer bewailed the fact that there would be no more -supplies from Ades. No more colonists. Technical information, urgently -needed, could not be had. Supplies were necessary for exploring -parties, and new building-machines were desperately in demand, and the -storage-reserves were depleted and could last only so long if no more -came through.</p> - -<p>"But," said Kim blankly. "Why shouldn't they come through?"</p> - -<p>"The matter-transmitter's stopped working!" The Colony Organizer wrung -his hands. "If they're still transmitting on Ades, think of the lives -and the precious material that's being lost!"</p> - -<p>"They aren't transmitting," said Kim. "A transmitter and a receiver are -a unit. Both have to work for either one to operate—except in the very -special case of a transmitter-drive ship. But it's queer. I'll come -take a look."</p> - -<p>He slipped into the conventional out-of-door garments. Dona had -listened. Now she said a word or two to Kim, her expression concerned. -Kim's expression darkened.</p> - -<p>"That's what I'm afraid of," he told her. "A transmitter is too simple -to break down. They can get detuned, but we made the pairs for Ades and -Terranova especially. Their tuning elements are set in solid plastite. -They couldn't get out of tune!"</p> - -<p>He picked up a small box. He tucked it under his arm.</p> - -<p>"I'll be back," he told Dona heavily. "But I suspect you'd better pack."</p> - -<p>He went out to the grounded flier. The Colony Organizer took it up and -across the green-clad hills of Terranova. The vegetation of Terranova -is extraordinarily flexible, and the green stuff below the flier swayed -elaborately in the wind. The top of the forests bowed and bent in -the form of billows and waves. The effect was that of an ocean which -complacently remained upraised in hillocks and had no normal surface. -It was not easy to get used to such things.</p> - -<p>"I'm terribly worried," said the Organizer anxiously. "There is a -tremendous shortage of textiles, and the ores we usually send back to -balance our account are piling up."</p> - -<p>"You're badly worried, eh?" said Kim grimly.</p> - -<p>"Of course! How can we keep our economic system now?"</p> - -<p>Kim made an angry noise.</p> - -<p>"I'm a lot more worried than you are," he snapped. "Nothing should -have stopped this particular pair of transmitters from working but the -destruction of one or the other! This box in my pocket might tell me -the answer, but I'm afraid to find out. I assure you that temporary -surpluses and shortages of ores and textiles are the least of the -things we have to worry about."</p> - -<p>The little flier sped on, with the great, waving billows of the forest -beneath it. On one hillock there was a clearing with a group of four -plastic houses shining in the sunlight. They looked horribly lonely in -the sea of green, but the population on Terranova was spread thin. Far -over at the horizon there was another clearing. Sunlight glinted on -water. A pleasure-pool. There was a sizable village about it. Half a -dozen soarers spun and whirled lazily above. Kim said:</p> - -<p>"The thing is that Ades and the planets left over after we handled -Sinab are the only places in the whole First Galaxy where there are -no disciplinary circuits. Ades is the only place where a man can -spit in the eye of another man and the two of them settle it between -themselves. There's a government of sorts, on Ades, as there is here, -but there's no ruler. Also there's nobody who can strut around and make -other men bow to him. A woman on Ades, and here, belongs to the man -she wants to belong to. She can't be seized by some lordling for his -own pleasure, and turned over to his guards and underlings when he's -through with her."</p> - -<p>"That's true," said the Colony Organizer, who was still worried. "But -the transmitter—"</p> - -<p>"Gossip of the admirable state of things on Ades has gone about," said -Kim hardly. "Some of our young men appointed themselves missionaries -and went roaming around the planets, spreading word that Ades wasn't -a bad place. That if you were exiled to Ades you were lucky. They -probably bragged that we whipped the Empire of Sinab in a fight."</p> - -<p>At this the mouth of the Organizer dropped open in astonishment.</p> - -<p>"Of course, of course! The number of exiles arriving at Ades increased. -It was excellent. We need people for the Second Galaxy, and people who -earn exile are usually people with courage, willing to take risks for -the sake of hope."</p> - -<p>"Don't you realize that such things have been dangerous? When people on -Markab Two began to hope?" Kim said impatiently. "When peasants on the -planets of Allioth began to imagine that things might be better? When -slaves on Utbeg began to tell each other in murmurs that there was a -place where people weren't slaves? Don't you see that such things would -alarm the rulers of such planets? How can people be held as slaves -unless you keep them in despair?"</p> - -<p>The Colony Organizer corrected his course a trifle. Far away the walls -of the capital city of Terranova glinted in the sunlight.</p> - -<p>"And there are the twenty-one planets which fell into our laps when -we had to smash Sinab," said Kim. "Ades became the subject of dreams. -Peasants and commoners think of it yearningly, as a sort of paradise. -But kings and tyrants dream of it either as a nightmare which threatens -the tranquility of their realms, or else as a very pretty bit of loot -to be seized if possible. There are probably ten thousand royal courts -where ambitious men rack their brains for some plausible way to wipe -out Ades as a menace and take over our twenty-one planets for loot. -Ades is already full of spies, sent there in the guise of exiles. -There've been men found murdered after torture,—seized and tortured by -spies hoping to find out the secrets by which we whipped Sinab. There's -one bomb-crater on Ades already, where a bomb smuggled through the -transmitter was set off in an effort to wipe out all the brains on the -planet. It didn't, but it was bad."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="2c">2</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Enemy Sabotage</i></h3> - - -<p>Skillfully the colony organizer sent the flier into the long shallow -glide that would land it in the planet capital city. There were only -twenty thousand people in that city. It would rate as a village -anywhere except on Ades, but it was the largest settlement on Terranova.</p> - -<p>"Then you think," said the harassed Organizer, "that some outrage has -been committed and the transmitter on Ades damaged—perhaps by another -bomb?"</p> - -<p>"I hope it's no worse than that," said Kim. "I don't know what I fear, -but there are still sixteen million people on Ades, and some of them -are very decent folk. In a little while I'll know if it's nothing -important, or if it's bad. I could have found out back at home, but I -wanted to hold on to hope."</p> - -<p>His lips were tightly compressed. The flier landed. The two men got out -and went along a yielding walk to the central square of the city.</p> - -<p>Many persons had collected in the square, more people in that one spot -than Kim had seen together for a long time. Now at least a thousand -men and women and children had gathered, and were standing motionless, -looking at the tall arch of the transmitter.</p> - -<p>There would have been nothing extraordinary about the appearance of -the arch to a man from past ages. It would have seemed to be quite -commonplace—gracefully designed, to be sure, and with a smooth purity -of line which the ancient artists only aspired to, but still not at -all a remarkable object. But the throng of onlookers who stared at it, -did so because they could look through it. That had never before been -possible. It had been a matter-transmitter. Now it was only an arch. -The people stared.</p> - -<p>Kim went in the technician's door at the base of the arch. The local -matter-technician greeted him with relief.</p> - -<p>"I'm glad you have come, Kim Rendell," he said uneasily. "I can find -nothing wrong. Every circuit is correct. Every contact is sound. But it -simply does not work!"</p> - -<p>"I'll see," said Kim. "I'm sure you are right, but I'll verify it. Yet -I'm afraid I'm only postponing a test I should have made before."</p> - -<p>He went over the test-panel, trying the various circuits. All checked -up satisfactorily. He went behind the test-panel and switched a number -of leads. He returned to the front and worked the panel again. The -results were widely at variance with the original readings, but Kim -regarded them with an angry acceptance.</p> - -<p>"I reversed some leads, just in case a checking instrument was out -by the same amount as a circuit," he told the technician. "To be -frank about it, I made sure you hadn't knocked out the transmitter on -purpose. Such things have been done." Then he said grimly, "This one -is all right. The transmitter on Ades is out of action. It not only -doesn't work, but they haven't been able to fix it in—how long?"</p> - -<p>"Two hours now," said the technician unhappily.</p> - -<p>"Too long!" said Kim.</p> - -<p>He unpacked his box. It was very small, a foot by a foot by a foot. -There was a cone-shaped hole in one end which diminished to a small -hole at the other end. Kim sweated a little.</p> - -<p>"I should have tried this before," he said. "But I wanted to hope. With -all the First Galaxy fearing and hating Ades, somebody would think of a -way to do us damage, even without space-ships!"</p> - -<p>He turned a tiny knob on the box, and looked through the hole. His lips -tautened. He began to make tests. His face grew more and more drawn and -sombre. At last he turned the little knob again, and nothing happened. -His face went quite white.</p> - -<p>"What is it?" asked the Colony Organizer.</p> - -<p>Kim sat down, looking rather sick.</p> - -<p>"It's bad," he said. Then he gestured toward the box. "When we were -fighting Sinab, somebody worked out an idea for the remote control -of ships. Beam control would be too slow. At a few million miles, -the information the robot gathered would take seconds to get back -to the control-board, and more seconds would be needed for the -controlling signals to get back to the robot. In terms of light-years, -communications that way would be impossible."</p> - -<p>Kim glanced at the Organizer, who signified by a nod that he understood.</p> - -<p>"If it took a year each way, there'd be two years between the robot's -observation of something to be acted on," Kim continued, "and the -signal that would make it act. So this man proposed very tiny -matter-transmitters. One on the robot and one on the home planet. A -solid object would receive all the information the robot's instruments -gathered.</p> - -<p>"The transmitter would send it back to the control-board at -transmitter-speed, and the board would impress orders on it and send -it to the robot again. It could shuttle across the width of a galaxy -a hundred times a second, and make robot-control at any distance -practical. A few of them were made, but not used. This is one of them.</p> - -<p>"I had it for measuring the actual speed of transmitter-travel between -here and Ades. We thought the distance would be enough for a good -measurement. It wasn't. But this is a transmitter like the big one, and -it has a mate on Ades, and its mate is a hemisphere away from Ades' -main transmitter. And neither one works. Something's happened on Ades, -that involves both hemispheres. And the transmitter couldn't have been -knocked out by something that only killed people. It looks as if Ades -may have been destroyed."</p> - -<p>There was an instant's uncomprehending silence. Then the realization -struck home. In all of human history no planet had ever been completely -destroyed. Dozens, even hundreds, had been devastated, before wars -came to an end by the discovery of a weapon too terrible to be used. -Four had been depopulated by that weapon, the fighting-beam. But never -before had it even been imagined that a planet could be wiped out of -existence.</p> - -<p>"There are theoretic considerations," said Kim, dry-throated, "which -make a material weapon like atomic explosive unthinkable. There are -other considerations which make it certain that any immaterial weapon -that could destroy a planet would have infinite speed and therefore -infinite range. <i>If</i> Ades has been destroyed, all the human race, -including us, must sooner or later be subject to those who control -such a weapon." Kim Rendell paused and cleared his throat. "If they -start off by destroying the only world on which men are free, I don't -think I like it. Now I must go back home. I'd better get over to the -First Galaxy in the <i>Starshine</i> and find out what's happened."</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>The thousand million suns of the First Galaxy swam in space, attended -by their families of planets. Three hundred million worlds had -been populated by the human race. For thirty thousand years the -descendants of the people of Earth—that almost mythical first home of -humanity—had spread through the vastness of what once had seemed to -them the very cosmos itself.</p> - -<p>In the older, long-settled planets, civilization rose to incredible -heights of luxury and of pride, and then took the long dive down into -decadence and futility while newer, fresher worlds still struggled -upward from the status of frontier settlements.</p> - -<p>But at long last humanity's task in the First Galaxy was ended. The -last planet suitable for human occupancy had been mapped and colonized. -The race had reached the limit of its growth. It had reached, -too—or so it seemed—its highest possible point of development. -Matter-transmitters conveyed parcels and persons instantly and easily -from rim to rim of the Galaxy.</p> - -<p>Disciplinary Circuits enforced the laws of planetary governments beyond -any hope of evasion or defiance. There were impregnable defenses -against attacks from space. There could be no war, there could be no -revolt, there could be no successful crime—save by those people who -controlled governments—and there could be no hope. So humanity settled -back toward barbarism.</p> - -<p>Perhaps it was inevitable that conquest should again become possible, -revolt conceivable, and crime once more feasible even to individuals, -so that hope could return to men. And perhaps it was the most natural -thing imaginable that hope first sprang from the prison world of Ades.</p> - -<p>Whispers spread from planet to planet. Ades, to which all rebels and -nonconformists had been banished in hopeless exile, was no longer a -symbol for isolation and despair. Its citizens—if criminals could be -citizens anywhere—had revived the art of space-travel by means of -ships.</p> - -<p>The rest of the Galaxy had abandoned space-ships long ago as -antiquities. Matter-transmitters far surpassed them. But Ades had -revived them and fought a war with the Empire of Sinab, and won -it, and twenty-one planets with all their cities and machines had -fallen to them. But the men of Sinab had been sent to an unimaginable -fate, leaving wives and daughters behind. The fact that the women of -the Sinabian Empire were mostly the widows of men massacred for the -Empire's spread was not clearly told in the rumors which ran about -among the worlds.</p> - -<p>If you became a criminal and were exiled to Ades, you were lucky. There -were not enough men on Ades to accomplish the high triumphs awaiting -them on every hand. There was hope for any man who dared to become a -rebel. Exile to Ades was the most fortunate of adventures instead of -the most dreadful of fates.</p> - -<p>Those whispers were fascinating, but they were seditious. The oligarchs -and tyrants and despots and politicians who ruled their planets by the -threat of the disciplinary circuit, found this new state of affairs -deplorable. Populations grew restive. There was actually hope among the -common people, who could be subjected to unbearable torment by the mere -pressure of a button. And of course hope could not be permitted. Allow -the populace to hope, and it would aspire to justice. Grant it justice -and it might look for liberty! Something had to be done!</p> - -<p>So something was done. Many things were done. Royal courts debated the -question, alike of the danger and of possible loot in the empire to -which Ades had fallen heir. And in consequence the despots had acted.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> winked into existence near the sun which had been -the luminary of Ades. It was a small, cold sun, and Ades had been its -only planet. The <i>Starshine</i> had made the journey from Terranova -in four leaps, of which the first was the monstrous one from the Second -Galaxy to the First. Accuracy of aim could not be expected over such an -expanse.</p> - -<p>The little ship had come out of its first leap near that preposterous -group of the blue-white suns of Dheen, whose complicated orbits about -each other still puzzled mathematicians. And Kim had come to the sector -of the Galaxy he desired on his second leap, and to the star-cluster in -the third, and the fourth brought him to the small sun he looked for.</p> - -<p>But space was empty about it. A sun without planets is a rarity so -strange that it is almost impossible. This sun had possessed Ades. -Nevertheless Kim searched for Ades. He found nothing. He searched for -debris of an exploded planet. He found nothing. He set cameras to -photograph all the cosmos about him, and drove the <i>Starshine</i> at -highest interplanetary speed for twelve hours. Then he looked at the -plates.</p> - -<p>In that twelve hours the space-ship had driven some hundreds of -thousands of miles. Even nearby stars at distances of light-years, -would not have their angles change appreciably, and so would show upon -the plates as definite, tiny dots. But any planet or any debris within -a thousand million miles would make a streak instead of a dot upon the -photographic plate.</p> - -<p>There was nothing. Ades had vanished.</p> - -<p>He aimed for the star Khiv and flashed to its vicinity. The banded -planet Khiv Five swam sedately in emptiness. Kim drove for it, at first -on mere overdrive, and then on the interplanetary drive used for rising -from and landing on the surface of worlds. He landed on Khiv Five.</p> - -<p>Women looked at him strangely. A space-ship which landed on Khiv -Five—or anywhere else, for that matter—must certainly come from Ades, -but ships were not commonplace sights. Kim was no commonplace sight, -either. Six years before, the men on Khiv Five had died in one rotation -of the planet. Every man and boy was murdered by the killing-beams of -the now defunct Sinabian Empire. Now there were only women, save for -the very few men who had migrated to it in quest of wives, and had -remained to rear families.</p> - -<p>The population of Khiv Five was overwhelmingly female.</p> - -<p>Kim found his way to the governing center of the capital city. Dona -walked with him through the city streets. There were women everywhere. -They turned to stare at Kim. They looked at Dona with veiled eyes.</p> - -<p>Long years on an exclusively feminine world does strange things to -psychology. There were women wearing the badges of mourning for -husbands dead more than half a decade.</p> - -<p>In a sense it was a dramatization of their loss, because all women, -everywhere, take a melancholy pleasure in the display of their -unhappiness. But in part to boast of grief for a lost husband was an -excuse for not having captured one of the few men who had arrived since -the mass murder. As a matter of fact, Kim did not see a single man in -the capital city of Khiv Five, but its streets swarmed with women.</p> - -<p>He asked for the head of the planet government, and at long last found -an untidy woman at a desk. He asked what was known of Ades.</p> - -<p>"I was on Terranova," he explained. "The matter-transmitter went off -and it did not come back on. I came back by space-ship to find out -about it, and went to where Ades should have been. I'm Kim Rendell, and -I used to be a matter-transmitter technician. I thought I might repair -the one on Ades if it needed repairing. But I could find no planet -circling Ades' sun."</p> - -<p>The woman regarded him with what was almost hostility.</p> - -<p>"Kim Rendell," she said. "I've heard of you. You are a very famous man. -But we women on Khiv Five can do without men!"</p> - -<p>"No doubt," Kim said patiently. "But has there been any word of Ades?"</p> - -<p>"We are not interested in Ades," she said angrily. "We can do without -Ades."</p> - -<p>"But I'm interested in Ades," said Kim. "And after all, it was Ades -which punished the murderers of the men of Khiv Five. A certain amount -of gratitude is indicated."</p> - -<p>"Gratitude!" said the untidy woman harshly. "We'd have been grateful if -you men of Ades had turned those Sinabians over to us! We'd have killed -them—every one—slowly!"</p> - -<p>"But the point is," said Kim, "that something has happened to Ades. It -might happen to Khiv Five. If we can find out what it was, we'll take -steps so it won't happen again."</p> - -<p>"Just leave us alone!" said the untidy woman fiercely. "We can get -along without men or Ades or anything else. Go away!"</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="3c">3</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Dangerous Trip</i></h3> - - -<p>Dona plucked at Kim's arm. He turned, seething, and went out. Outside -he vented his bitterness.</p> - -<p>"I thought men were crazy!" he said. "If she's the head of the planet -government, I pity the planet."</p> - -<p>"She could talk to another woman quite rationally," Dona said with -satisfaction. "But she's had to persuade herself that she hates men, -and you had me with you, and I'm prettier than she is, Kim, and I have -you. So she couldn't talk to you."</p> - -<p>"But she's unreasonable," Kim said stubbornly.</p> - -<p>"We'll go back to the ship," said Dona brightly. "I'll lock you in it -and then go find out what we want to know."</p> - -<p>She smiled comfortably all the way back to the <i>Starshine</i>. But -the staring women made Kim acutely uncomfortable. When he was safely -inside the ship, he wiped perspiration from his forehead.</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't want to live on this planet!" he said feverishly.</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't want you to," said Dona. "Stay inside, darling. You'd -better not even show yourself at a vision-port."</p> - -<p>"Heaven forbid!" said Kim.</p> - -<p>Dona went out. Kim paced up and down the living quarters of the ship. -There was something in the back of his mind that would not quite come -out. The disappearance of Ades was impossible. Men had conquered one -galaxy and now started on a second, but never yet had they destroyed -a planet. Never yet had they even moved one. But nevertheless, only -thirty-six hours ago the planet Ades had revolved about its sun and -men and women had strolled into its matter-transmitter with no hint of -danger, and between two seconds something had happened.</p> - -<p>Even had the planet been shattered into dust, its remnants should have -been discoverable. And surely a device which could destroy a planet -would have had some preliminary testings and the Galaxy would have -heard of its existence! This thing that had happened was inconceivable! -On the basis of the photographs, Ades had not only been destroyed, but -the quintillions of tons of its substance had been removed so far that -sunlight shining upon them did not light them enough for photography. -Which simply could not be.</p> - -<p>Kim wrestled with the problem while Dona went about in the world of -women. There was something odd about her in the eyes of women of Khiv -Five. Their faces were unlike the faces of the women of a normal world. -On a world with men and women, all women wear masks. Their thoughts are -unreadable. But where there are no men, masks are useless. The women of -Khiv Five saw plainly that Dona was unlike them, but they were willing -to talk to her.</p> - -<p>She came back to the <i>Starshine</i> as Kim reached a state of -complete bewilderment. Ades could not have been destroyed. But it had -vanished. Even if shattered, its fragments could not have been moved -so far or so fast that they could no longer be detected. But they -were undiscoverable. The thing was impossible on any scale of power -conceivable for humans to use. But it had happened.</p> - -<p>So Kim paced back and forth and bit his nails until Dona returned.</p> - -<p>"We can take off, Kim," she said quietly.</p> - -<p>She locked the inner airlock door as if shutting out something. She -twisted the fastening extra tight. Her face was pale.</p> - -<p>"What about Ades?" asked Kim.</p> - -<p>"They had matter-transmission to it from here, too," said Dona. "You -remember, the original transmitter on Ades was one-way only. It would -receive but not send. Some new ones were built after the war with -Sinab, though. And this planet's communication with Ades cut off just -when ours did, thirty-six hours ago. None of the other twenty planets -had communication with it either. Something happened, and on the -instant everything stopped."</p> - -<p>"What caused it?" Kim asked, but Dona paid no attention.</p> - -<p>"Take off, Kim," she said. "Men are marching out of the -matter-transmitter. Marching, I said, Kim! Armed men, marching as -soldiers with machine-mounted heavy weapons. Somebody knows Ades can't -protect its own any more and invaders must be crowding in for the -spoils. I'm—afraid, Kim, that Ades has been destroyed and our planets -are part of a tyrant's empire now."</p> - -<p>Later, the <i>Starshine</i> swooped down from the blue toward the -matter-transmitter on Khiv Five. Serried ranks of marching figures were -tramping out of the transmitter's silvery, wavering film. In strict -geometric rows they marched, looking neither to the right nor to the -left. They were a glittering stream, moving rhythmically in unison, -proceeding to join an already-arrived mass of armed men already drawn -up in impressive array.</p> - -<p>Racing toward the high arch of the transmitter with air screaming -about the <i>Starshine's</i> hull, Kim saw grimly that the figures were -soldiers, as Dona had said. He had never before seen a soldier in -actual life, but pictures and histories had made them familiar enough.</p> - -<p>These were figures out of the unthinkably remote past. They wore -helmets of polished metal. They glittered with shining orichalc and -chromium. The bright small flashes of faceted corundum—synthetic -sapphire in all the shades from blue-white to ruby—shone from their -identical costumes and equipment. They were barbarous in their -splendor, and strange in the precision and unison of their movements, -which was like nothing so much as the antics of girl precision dancers, -without the extravagance of the dancers' gestures.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> dipped lower. It shot along a canyon-like open way -between buildings. The matter-transmitter was upon a hill within the -city and the ship was now lower than the transmitter and the heads of -the soldiers who still tramped out of the archway in a scintillating -stream.</p> - -<p>Kim raged. Soldiers were an absurdity on top of a catastrophe. -Something had erased the planet Ades from its orbit around a lonely -sun. That bespoke science and intelligence beyond anything dreamed -of hitherto. But soldiers marching like dancing-girls, bedecked with -jewels and polished metal like the women of the pleasure-world of Dite—</p> - -<p>This military display was pure childishness!</p> - -<p>"Our pressure-wave'll topple them," said Kim savagely. "At least we'll -smash the transmitter."</p> - -<p>There was a monstrous roaring noise. The <i>Starshine</i>, which had -flashed through intergalactic space at speeds no science was yet able -to measure, roared between tall buildings in atmosphere. Wind whirled -and howled past its hull. It dived forward toward the soldiers.</p> - -<p>There was one instant when the ship was barely yards above the gaping -faces of startled, barbarously accoutred troopers. The following -spreading pressure-wave of the ship's faster-than-sound movement -spread out on every side like a three-dimensional wake. It toppled -the soldiers as it hit. They went down in unison, in a wildly-waving, -light-flashing tangle of waving arms and legs and savage weapons.</p> - -<p>But Kim saw, too, squat and bell-mouthed instruments on wheels, in the -act of swinging to bear upon him. One bore on the <i>Starshine</i>. -It was impossible to stop or swerve the ship. There was yet another -fraction of a second of kaleidoscopic confusion, of momentary glimpses -of incredibly antique and childish pomp.</p> - -<p>And then anguish struck.</p> - -<p>It was the hellish torment of a fighting-beam, more concentrated -and more horrible than any other agony known to mankind. For the -infinitesimal fraction of an instant Kim experienced it to the full. -Then there was nothingness.</p> - -<p>There was no sound. There was no planet. There was no sunlight on tall -and stately structures built by men long murdered from the skies. The -vision-ports showed remote and peaceful suns and all the tranquil glory -of interstellar space. The <i>Starshine</i> floated in emptiness.</p> - -<p>It was, of course, the result of that very small device that Kim had -built into the <i>Starshine</i> before even the invention of the -transmitter-drive. It was a relay which flung on faster-than-light -drive the instant fighting-beams struck any living body in the ship. -The <i>Starshine</i> had been thrown into full interstellar drive while -still in atmosphere.</p> - -<p>It had plunged upward—along the line of its aiming—through the air. -The result of its passage to Khiv Five could only be guessed at, but in -even the unthinkably minute part of a second it remained in air, the -ship's outside temperatures had risen two hundred degrees. Moving at -multiples of the speed of light, it must have created an instantaneous -flash of literally stellar heat by the mere compression of air before -it.</p> - -<p>Kim was sick and shaken by the agony which would have killed him had it -lasted as long as the hundredth of a second. But Dona stared at him.</p> - -<p>"Kim—what—Oh!"</p> - -<p>She ran to him. The beam had not touched her. So close to the -projector, it had been narrow, no more than a yard across. It had -struck Kim and missed Dona.</p> - -<p>"Oh, my poor Kim!"</p> - -<p>He grimaced.</p> - -<p>"Forget it," he said, breathing hard. "We've both had it before, but -not as bad as this. It was a mobile fighting-beam projector. I imagine -they'll think we burned up in a flash of lightning. I hope there were -X-rays for them to enjoy."</p> - -<p>For a long time Kim Rendell sat still, with his eyes closed. The dosage -of the fighting-beam had been greater than they had ever experienced -together, though. It left him weak and sick.</p> - -<p>"Funny," he said presently. "Barbarous enough to have soldiers with -decorative uniforms and shiny dingle-dangles on them, and modern enough -to have fighting-beam projectors, and a weapon that's wiped Ades out of -space. We've got to find out who they are, Dona, and where they came -from. They've something quite new."</p> - -<p>"I wonder," said Dona. But she still looked at Kim with troubled eyes.</p> - -<p>"Eh?"</p> - -<p>"If it's new," said Dona. "If it's a weapon. Even if—if Ades is -destroyed."</p> - -<p>Kim stared at her.</p> - -<p>"Now, what do you mean by that?"</p> - -<p>"I don't quite know," admitted Dona. "I say things, and you turn them -over in your head, and something quite new comes out. I told you a -story about a dust-grain, once, and you made the transmitter-drive -that took us to Ades in the first place and made everything else -possible afterward."</p> - -<p>"<i>Hmmm</i>," said Kim meditatively. "If it's new. If it's a weapon. -If Ades is destroyed. Why did you think of those three things?"</p> - -<p>"You said no planet had ever been destroyed," she told him. "If -anybody could think of a way to do such a thing, you could. And when -Sinab had to be fought, and there weren't any weapons, you worked out -a way to conquer them with things that certainly weren't weapons. -Just broadcasters of the disciplinary-circuit field. So I wondered if -what they used was a weapon. Of course if it wasn't a weapon, it was -probably something that had been used before for some other purpose, -and it wouldn't be new."</p> - -<p>"I've got to think about that," said Kim. He cogitated for a moment. -"Yes, I definitely have to think about that."</p> - -<p>Then he stood up.</p> - -<p>"We'll try to identify these gentry first. Then we'll go to another of -the twenty-one planets."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="4c">4</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Despots Take Over</i></h3> - - -<p>He took his observations and swung the little ship about. He adjusted -the radiation-switch to throw off the transmitter-drive on near -approach to a sun. He aimed for the star Thom. Its fourth planet had -been subjugated to the Empire of Sinab ten years before, and freed by -the men of Ades six years since.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> winked into being some twenty million miles -from it, and two hundred million from the star. Kim looked annoyed, -and then glanced at the relay and adjusted it again. He pointed -the <i>Starshine</i> close to the planet's disk. He pressed the -transmitter-drive button. Instantly the ship was within mere thousands -of miles of the planet.</p> - -<p>"Nice!" Kim was pleased. "Saves a lot of overdrive juggling. Those -horrible fighter-beams seem to make one think more clearly. Dona, get -us down to the night-side while I try to work something out. Don't -ground. Just drop into atmosphere enough to pick up any broadcasts."</p> - -<p>She took his place at the controls. He got out his writing-materials -and a stylus and began busily to sketch and to calculate. Dona drove -the ship to atmosphere on the dark side of Thom Four, not too far from -the sunset's rim. In the earlier night hours, on a given continent, the -broadcasts should be greater in number.</p> - -<p>Communicator-bands murmured in soprano. Thom Four was more than -ninety-five per cent female, too. Kim worked on. After a long time -a speaker suddenly emitted a blast of martial music. Until now the -broadcast programs had gone unheeded by both Kim and Dona, because -from each wave-band only women's voices had come out, and only women's -music. The sound of brazen horns was something new. Dona smiled at Kim -and turned up the volume.</p> - -<p>A man's voice said pompously:</p> - -<p>"To the People of Thom Four, greeting!</p> - -<p>"Whereas His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, has heard with distress of the misfortunes of the people -of the planet Thom Four, of the injuries they have suffered at the -hands of enemies, and of their present distressful state, and</p> - -<p>"Whereas, His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, is moved to extend his protection to all well-disposed -persons in need of a gallant and potent protector;</p> - -<p>"Therefore His Most Gracious Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and -noble lineage, has commanded his loyal and courageous troops to occupy -the said planet Thom Four, to defend it against all enemies whatsoever, -and to extend to its people all the benefits of his reign.</p> - -<p>"Given at his Palace of Gornith, on the second day of the tenth month -of the sixteenth year of his reign, and signed by His Most Gracious -Majesty, Elim the Fortieth, of high and noble lineage."</p> - -<p>The voice stopped. There was another blare of martial music. The -broadcast ended. Ten minutes later, on another wave-length, the same -proclamation was repeated. That broadcast stopped too. Five minutes -later came still another broadcast. And so on and so on. At long last -there was but a single wave-length coming into the communicators. -It was a broadcast of a drama with only female characters, and in -which there was no reference to the fact that the human race normally -includes two sexes. It was highly emotional and it was very strange -indeed.</p> - -<p>Then a pompous male voice read the silly proclamation and the broadcast -cut off.</p> - -<p>"The question," said Kim, "is whether I'd better try to catch a soldier -and make him tell us where Gornith is and what planet is ruled by Elim -the Fortieth of high and noble lineage. I think I'd better find out."</p> - -<p>"Darling," said Dona, "I'm afraid of soldiers bothering you, but I -certainly won't let you venture out on a planet full of women. And -there's something else."</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"There are twenty-one planets which Ades used to protect. What -planetary ruler could send troops to occupy twenty-one other planets? -Do you think this King Elim the Fortieth has tried to seize all of -them, or do you think he arranged a coöperative steal with the rulers -of other planets, and an arrangement for them all to help protect each -other? Hadn't we better make sure?"</p> - -<p>Kim looked up at her from the desk where he worked.</p> - -<p>"You're an uncomfortably brainy woman, Dona," he said drily. "Do you -think you could find Sinab? Sinab Two was the capital planet of the -Empire we had to take over."</p> - -<p>Dona looked carefully on a star-chart. Kim went back to his task. -He had drawn, very carefully, an electronic circuit. Now he began -to simplify it. He frowned from time to time, however, and by his -expression was thinking of something else than the meticulous placing -of symbols on paper.</p> - -<p>It was symptomatic of his confidence in Dona, though, that he remained -absorbed while she worked the ship. Presently there were mutterings in -the speakers. Dona had navigated to another solar system and entered -the atmosphere of another planet.</p> - -<p>"Listen, Kim!" she said suddenly.</p> - -<p>From a communicator blared a heavy male voice.</p> - -<p>"People of Sinab Two!" the voice said. "You are freed from the tyranny -of the criminals of Ades.</p> - -<p>"From this time forth, Sinab Two is under the protection of the Dynast -of Tabor, whose mercy to the meek, justice to the just, and wrath -toward the evil-doer is known among all men.</p> - -<p>"People of Sinab Two! The soldiers now pouring in to defend you are to -be received submissively. You will honor all requisitions for food, -lodgings, and supplies. Such persons as have hitherto exercised public -office will surrender their authority to the officials appointed by the -Dynast to replace them.</p> - -<p>"For your protection, absolute obedience is essential. Persons seeking -to prevent the protection of Sinab Two by the troops of the Dynast of -Tabor will be summarily dealt with. They can expect no mercy.</p> - -<p>"People of Sinab Two! You are freed from the tyranny of the criminals -of Ades!"</p> - -<p>"So Elim the Fortieth, of high and noble lineage, has a competitor," -Kim said grimly. "The Dynast of Tabor, eh? But there are twenty-one -planets that used to belong to Sinab. I'm afraid we'll have to check -further."</p> - -<p>They did. While Kim scowlingly labored over the drawing of a new -device, Dona drove the <i>Starshine</i> to six worlds in succession. -And four of the six worlds had been taken over by the Sardathian -League, by King Ulbert of Arth, by the Emperor and Council of the -Republic of Sind—which was a remarkable item—and by the Imperator -of Donet. On the last two worlds there was confusion. On one the -population was sternly told by one set of voices that it now owed -allegiance to Queen Amritha of Megar, and by another set that King Jan -of Pirn would shortly throw out the Megarian invaders and protect them -forever. On the sixth planet there were four armies proclaiming the -exclusive nobility of their intentions.</p> - -<p>"That's enough, Dona," Kim said in a tired voice. "Ades vanished or was -destroyed, and instantly thereafter gracious majesties and dynasts and -imperators and such vultures pounced on the planets we'd freed. But I'd -like to know how they made sure it was safe to pounce!"</p> - -<p>Dona punched buttons on the <i>Starshine's</i> control-board. The ship -lifted. The great black mass which was the night-side of the last -planet faded behind and the <i>Starshine</i> drove on into space. And -Dona turned back to Kim from her post at the controls.</p> - -<p>"Now what?"</p> - -<p>Kim stared at nothing, his features sombre.</p> - -<p>"It's bad," he said sourly. "There's the gang on Terranova. They're -fair game if they land on any planet in the whole First Galaxy—and -Terranova isn't self-sustaining yet. They'll starve if they stay -isolated. There are the people on Ades. Sixteen millions of them. Not -a big population for a planet, but a lot of people to be murdered so a -few princelings can feast on the leavings of Sinab's Empire.</p> - -<p>"There are all the people who'd started to dream because Ades had come -to mean hope. And there are all the people in generations to come who'd -like to dream of hope and now won't be able to, and there are all the -nasty little surprise-attacks and treacheries which will be carried out -by matter-transmitters, now that these gentry of high and noble lineage -have been able to snatch some loot for themselves. It's pretty much of -a mess, Dona."</p> - -<p>Dona gave an impatient toss of her head.</p> - -<p>"You're not responsible for it, Kim," she protested.</p> - -<p>"Maybe I should simply concentrate on finding a solution for Terranova, -eh? Let decency as something to fight for go by the board and be -strictly practical?"</p> - -<p>"You shouldn't try to take all the problems of two galaxies on your -shoulders," said Dona.</p> - -<p>Kim shook his head impatiently.</p> - -<p>"Look!" he said in vexation. "There's some way out of the mess! I just -contrived a way to make a very desirable change in all the governments -of the First Galaxy, given time. It was one of those problems that seem -too big to handle, but it worked out very easily. But I absolutely -can't think of the ghost of an idea of how to find a friendly world for -Terranova!"</p> - -<p>Dona waited.</p> - -<p>"It occurs to me that I haven't slept for forty hours," Kim said. "I -doubt that you've done any better. I think we should go to bed. There's -one puzzle on which all the rest is based, and it's got me. What the -devil happened to Ades? There's a whole planet, seven thousand miles in -diameter, vanished as if it had never been. Maybe after some sleep I'll -be able to work it out. Let's go to sleep!"</p> - -<p>The space-ship <i>Starshine</i> drove on through emptiness at mere -interplanetary speed, its meteor-repellers ceaselessly searching space -for any sign of danger. But there was no danger. In the midst of space, -between the stars, there was safety. Only where men were was there -death.</p> - -<p>The ship swam in the void, no lights showing in any of its ports.</p> - -<p>Then, in the midst of the darkness inside, Kim sat up in his bunk.</p> - -<p>"But hang it, Ades <i>couldn't</i> be destroyed," he cried, in -exasperation.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="5c">5</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Industrial World</i></h3> - - -<p>Planet Spicus Five was an industrial world. According to the prevailing -opinion in the best circles, its prosperity was due to an ample -and adequate supply of raw materials, plus a skilled and thrifty -population. There were sixteen matter-transmitters on the planet, and -their silvery films were never still.</p> - -<p>From abecedaria for infants to zyolites (synthetic) for industrial use, -its products ran in endless streams to the transmitters, and the other -products and raw materials obtained in exchange came out in streams no -less continuous. The industrial area covered a continent of sprawling -rectangular buildings designed for the ultimate of efficiency, with -living-areas for the workmen spreading out between.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> descended through morning sunlight. Kim, newly -shaved and rested, forgot to yawn as he stared through the vision-ports -at the endless vista of structures made with a deliberate lack of -grace. From a hundred-mile height they could be seen everywhere to -north and south, to the eastward where it was already close to midday, -and to where shadows beyond the dawn hid them. Even from that altitude -they were no mere specks between the cloud masses. They were definite -shapes, each one a unit.</p> - -<p>The ship went down and down and down. Kim felt uncomfortable and -realized why. He spoke drily.</p> - -<p>"I don't suppose we'll ever land on any new planet without being -ready to wince from a fighting-beam and find ourselves snatched to -hell-and-gone away."</p> - -<p>Dona did not answer. She gazed at the industrial plants as they swelled -in size with the <i>Starshine's</i> descent. Buildings two miles to a -side were commonplace. Great rectangles three and even four miles long -showed here and there. And there were at least half a dozen buildings, -plainly factory units, which were more than ten miles in extent on each -of their ground dimensions. When the <i>Starshine</i> was below the -clouds, Dona focused the electron telescope on one of them and gestured -to call Kim's attention to the sight.</p> - -<p>This factory building enclosed great quadrangles, with gigantic -courtyards to allow—perhaps—of light. And within the courtyards were -dwelling-units for workmen. The telescope showed them plainly. Workmen -in factories like this would have no need and little opportunity ever -to go beyond the limits of their place of employment. The factory in -which they labored would confront them on every hand, at every instant -of their life from birth until death.</p> - -<p>"That's something I don't like, without even asking questions about -it," said Kim.</p> - -<p>He took the controls. The <i>Starshine</i> dived. He remembered to -flick on the communicators. A droning filled the interior of the -space-ship. Dona looked puzzled and tuned in. A male voice mumbled -swiftly and without intonation through a long series of numerals and -initial letters. It paused. Another voice said tensely, "<i>Tip.</i>" -The first voice droned again. The second voice said, "<i>Tip.</i>" The -first voice droned.</p> - -<p>Dona looked blank. She turned up another wave-length. A voice barked -hysterically. The words ran so swiftly together that they were almost -indistinguishable, but certain syllables came out in patterns.</p> - -<p>"It's something about commerce," said Kim. "Arranging for some material -to be routed on a matter-transmitter."</p> - -<p>None of the wavelengths carried music. All carried voices, and all -babbled swiftly, without expression, with a nerve-racking haste.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> landed before a gigantic building. An armed guard -stood before it at a gateway. Kim trudged across to him. He came back.</p> - -<p>"He's stupid," he said shortly. "He knows what to guard, and the -name of the plant, and where a workman may go to be received into -employment. That's all. We'll try again."</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> rose and moved. She was designed for movement -in space, with parsecs of distance on every hand. She was unhandy -when used as now for an atmosphere-flier. She descended within a -factory quadrangle. There was no one about. Literally no one. The -dwelling-units were occupied, to be sure, but no one moved anywhere.</p> - -<p>When Kim opened the airlock there was a dull, grumbling rumble in the -air. It came from the many-storied building which surrounded this -courtyard and stretched away for miles.</p> - -<p>Kim and Dona stood blankly in the airlock door. The air had no odor -at all. There was no dust. There was not a single particle of growing -stuff anywhere. To people who had lived on Terranova, it was incredible.</p> - -<p>Then bells rang. Hundreds and thousands of bells. They rang stridently -in all the rooms and corridors of all the dwelling-units which reached -away as far as the eye could follow them. It was a ghastly sound, -because every bell was in exactly the same tone and made exactly the -same tintinabulation.</p> - -<p>Then there was a stirring in the houses. Folk moved within them. -Figures passed inside the windows. Now and again, briefly, faces -peered out. But none lingered to stare at what must have been the -unprecedented sight of a space-ship resting in the courtyard.</p> - -<p>After a little, figures appeared in the doors. Men and women swarmed -out and streamed toward openings in the factory building. Their heads -turned to gaze at the ship, but they did not even slacken speed in -their haste toward the sound of industry.</p> - -<p>Kim hailed them. They looked at him blankly and hurried on. He caught -hold of a man.</p> - -<p>"Where will I find the leader?" he asked sharply. "The boss! The -government! The king or whatever you have! Where?"</p> - -<p>The man struggled.</p> - -<p>"I be late," he protested unhappily. "I work. I be late!"</p> - -<p>"Where's the government?" Kim repeated more sharply still. "The king or -nobles or whoever makes the laws or whatever the devil—"</p> - -<p>"I be late!" panted the man.</p> - -<p>He twisted out of Kim's grasp and ran to join the swarming folk now -approaching the great building.</p> - -<p>They hurried inside. The quadrangle was again empty. Kim scowled. Then -other workers came out of the factory and plodded wearily toward the -dwelling-units. Kim waylaid a man and shot questions at him. His speech -was slurred with fatigue. Dona could not understand him at all. But he -gazed at the <i>Starshine</i>, and groped heavily for answers to Kim's -questions, and at the end trudged exhaustedly into a doorway.</p> - -<p>Kim came into the ship, scowling. He seated himself at the -control-board. The ship lifted once more. He headed toward the curve of -the plant's bulging form.</p> - -<p>"What did you learn, Kim?"</p> - -<p>"This is the work continent," said Kim shortly. "The factories and the -workmen are here. The owners live in a place of their own. I have to -talk to one of the more important merchants. I need information."</p> - -<p>Time passed and the ship went on over the rim of the planet. Orbital -speed was impossible. The <i>Starshine</i> stayed almost within -atmosphere and moved eastward at no more than fifteen hundred miles an -hour.</p> - -<p>"Here it is," said Kim, at last.</p> - -<p>The ship settled down once more. There was a thin, hazy overcast here, -and clear vision came suddenly as they dropped below it. And the -coast and the land before them brought an exclamation from Dona. The -shoreline was magnificent, all beautiful bold cliffs with rolling -hills behind them. There were mountains on farther yet and splendid -vistas everywhere. But more than the land or the natural setting, it -was what men had done which caused Dona to exclaim.</p> - -<p>The whole terrain was landscaped like a garden. As far as the eye could -reach—and the <i>Starshine</i> still flew high—every hillside and -every plain had been made into artificial but marvelous gardens. There -were houses here and there. Some were huge and gracefully spreading, or -airily soaring upward, or simple with the simplicity of gems and yet -magnificent beyond compare. There was ostentation here, to be sure, but -there was surely no tawdriness. There was no city in sight. There was -not even a grouping of houses, yet many of the houses were large enough -to shelter communities.</p> - -<p>"I—see," said Kim. "The workmen live near the factories or in their -compounds. The owners have their homes safely away from the ugly part -of commerce. They've a small-sized continent of country homes, Dona, -and undoubtedly it is very pleasant to live here. Whom shall we deal -with?"</p> - -<p>Dona shook her head. Kim picked a magnificent residence at random. He -slanted the <i>Starshine</i> down. Presently it landed lightly upon -smooth lawn of incredible perfection, before a home that Dona regarded -with shining eyes.</p> - -<p>"It's—lovely!" she said breathlessly.</p> - -<p>"It is," agreed Kim.</p> - -<p>"It even has a feeling all its own," he said. "The palace of a king or -a tyrant always has something of arrogance about it. It's designed to -impress the onlooker. A pleasure-palace is always tawdry. It's designed -to flatter the man who enters it. These houses are solid. They're -the homes of men who are thinking of generations to follow them and, -meanwhile, only of themselves. I've heard of the merchant princes of -Spicus Five, and I'm prejudiced. I don't like those factories with the -workmen's homes inside. But—I like this house. Do you want to come -with me?"</p> - -<p>Dona looked at the house—yearningly. At the view all about; every tree -and every stone so placed as to constitute perfection. The effect was -not that of a finicky estheticism, but of authentic beauty and dignity. -But after a moment Dona shook her head.</p> - -<p>"I don't think I'd better," she said slowly. "I'm a woman, and I'd -want one like it. I'll stay in the ship and look at the view. You've a -communicator?"</p> - -<p>Kim nodded. He opened the airlock door and stepped out. He walked -toward the great building.</p> - -<p>Dona watched his figure grow small in its progress toward the mansion. -She watched him approach the ceremonial entrance. She saw a figure in -formalized rich clothing appear in that doorway and bow to him. Kim -spoke, with gestures. The richly clothed servant bowed for him to go -first into the house. Kim entered and the door closed.</p> - -<p>Dona looked at her surroundings. Dignity and tranquility and beauty -were here. Children growing up in such an environment would be very -happy and would feel utterly safe. Wide, smooth, close-cropped lawns, -with ancient trees and flowering shrubs stretched away to the horizons. -There was the gleam of statuary here and there—rarely. A long way off -she could see the glitter of water, and beside it a graceful colonnade, -and she knew that it was a pleasure-pool.</p> - -<p>Once she saw two boys staring at the space-ship. There was no trace of -fear in their manner. But a richly-dressed servant—much more carefully -garbed than the boys—led up two of the slim riding-sards of Phanis, -and the boys mounted and their steeds started off with that sinuous -smooth swiftness which only sards possess in all the First Galaxy.</p> - -<p>Time passed, and shadows lengthened. Finally Dona realized how many -hours had elapsed since Kim's departure. She was beginning to grow -uneasy when the door opened again and Kim came out followed by four -richly clad servants. Those servants carried bundles. Kim's voice came -over the communicator.</p> - -<p>"Close the inner airlock door, Dona, and don't open it until I say so."</p> - -<p>Dona obeyed. She watched uneasily. The four servants placed their -parcels inside the airlock at a gesture from Kim. Then there was an -instant of odd tension. Dona could not see the servants, but she saw -Kim smiling mirthlessly at them. He made no move to enter. He spoke -sharply and she heard them file out of the airlock. Dona could see them -again.</p> - -<p>Kim stepped into the space-ship and closed the door.</p> - -<p>"Take her up, Dona—fast!"</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> shot upward, with the four servants craning their -necks to look at it. It was out of sight of the ground in seconds. It -was out of the atmosphere before Kim came into the control-room from -the lock.</p> - -<p>"Quite a civilization," he said. "You'd have liked that house, Dona. -There's a staff of several hundred servants, and it is beautiful -inside. The man who owns it is also master of one of the bigger -industrial plants. He doesn't go to the plant, of course. He has his -offices at home, with a corps of secretaries and a television-screen -for interviews with his underlings. Quite a chap."</p> - -<p>"Were those four men servants?" Dona asked.</p> - -<p>"No, they were guards," said Kim drily. "There are no proletarians -around that place, and none are permitted. Guards stand watch night -and day. I'd told my friend that the <i>Starshine</i> was packed with -lethal gadgets with which Ades had won at least one war, and he's in -the munitions business, so I wasn't going to let his guards get inside. -They wanted to, badly, insisting they had to put their parcels in the -proper place. He'd have paid them lavishly if they could have captured -a ship like the <i>Starshine</i>."</p> - -<p>He laughed a little.</p> - -<p>"I was lucky to pick a munitions maker. There aren't many wars in the -ordinary course of events, but he turns out weapons for palace guards, -mobile fighting-beam projectors, and so on. All the equipment for a -planet ruler who wants a fancy army for parades or a force with a punch -to fight off any sneak attack via matter-transmitter. That's what your -average ruler is afraid of, and what he keeps an army to defend himself -against. Of course the Disciplinary Circuit takes care of his subjects."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="6c">6</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Vanished World</i></h3> - - -<p>Ahead of them loomed the sun, Spicus, many millions of miles away, -while beneath them lay the planet, Spicus Five, a vast hemisphere which -was rapidly shrinking into the distance. Kim moved over beside Dona and -stared reflectively at the instrument-board.</p> - -<p>"I got frightened, Kim," the girl said. "You were gone so long."</p> - -<p>"I was bargaining," Kim answered. "I told him I came from Ades. I'd -a space-ship, so he could believe that. Then I told him what had -happened. Selling munitions, he should have known about it beforehand, -and I think he did. He doubted that I'd come from Ades as quickly as -I said, though, until I recited the names of some of the gracious -majesties who are making a grab of planets. Then he was sure. So he -wanted to strike a bargain with me for Terranova. He'd supply it with -arms, he said, in exchange for a star-cluster of his own in the Second -Galaxy. If I'd set up a private matter-transmitter for him...."</p> - -<p>Kim laughed without mirth.</p> - -<p>"He could colonize a couple of planets himself, and make a syndicate -to handle the rest. He saw himself changing his status from that of a -merchant princeling to that of a landed proprietor with half a dozen -planets as private estates, and probably a crown to wear on week-ends -and when he retired from business on Spicus Five. There are precedents, -I gather."</p> - -<p>"But, Kim!" protested Dona. "What did you do?"</p> - -<p>"I did one thing that's been needed for a long time," said Kim grimly. -"It seems to me that I do everything backwards. I should have attended -to the matter of Ades first, but I had a chance and took it. I think I -put something in motion that will ultimately smash up the whole cursed -system that's made slaves of every human being but those on Ades and -Terranova—the Disciplinary Circuit. Back on Ades we've talked about -the need to free the people of this galaxy. It's always seemed too big -a job. But I think it's started now. It will be a profitable business, -and my friend who wanted to bargain for some planets in the Second -Galaxy will make a pretty penny of the beginning, and it will carry on -of itself."</p> - -<p>The planet below and behind was now only a globe. It soon dwindled into -a tiny ball. Kim touched Dona on the shoulder.</p> - -<p>"I'll take over," he said. "We've got work to do, Dona."</p> - -<p>Dona stood up and stamped her foot.</p> - -<p>"Kim! You're misunderstanding me on purpose! What about Ades? Did you -find out what happened to it?"</p> - -<p>Kim began the process of sighting the <i>Starshine's</i> nose upon a -single, distant, minute speck of light which seemingly could not be -told from a million other points of light, all of which were suns.</p> - -<p>"I think I found out something," he told her. "I thought a merchant -planet would be the place to hear all the gossip of the Galaxy. My -friend back yonder put his research organization to work finding out -what I wanted to know. What they dug up looks plausible. Right now I'm -going to get even for it. That's a necessity! After that, we'll see. -There were sixteen million people on Ades. We'll try to do something -about them. They aren't likely to be all dead—yet."</p> - -<p>The sun of Ades swam in emptiness. For uncountable billions of years -it had floated serenely with its single planet circling it in the -companionability of bodies separated only by millions of miles, when -their next nearest neighbors are light-years away. A sun with one -planet is a great rarity.</p> - -<p>A sun with no satellites—save for giant pulsing Cepheids and -close-coupled double suns—is almost unknown. But for billions upon -billions of years that sun and Ades had kept each other company. Then -men had appeared. For a thousand years great space-ships had grimly -trundled back and forth to unload their cargoes of criminals upon the -chilly small world.</p> - -<p>Ades was chosen as a prison planet from the beginning. Later, -matter-transmitters made the journeys of space-craft useless. For -six, seven, eight thousand years there was no traffic but the one-way -traffic of its especially contrived transmitter, which would receive -criminals from all the Galaxy but would return none or any news of them -to the worlds outside.</p> - -<p>During all that time a lonely guard-ship hung drearily about, watching -lest someone try to rescue a man doomed to hopeless exile, and return -him to happier scenes. And finally the guard-ship had gone away, -because the space-ways were no longer used by anybody, and there were -no ships in the void save those of the Patrol itself. Accordingly the -Patrol was disbanded.</p> - -<p>For hundreds of years nothing happened at all. And then Kim Rendell -came in the <i>Starshine</i>, and shortly thereafter tiny ships -began to take off from Ades, and they fought valorously on distant -star-systems, and at last a squadron of war-craft came to subjugate -Ades for the beastly Empire of Sinab. Finally there was a battle in -the bright beams of the lonely sun itself. And after that, for a time, -little space-ships swam up from the planet and darted away, and darted -back, and darted away, and back.</p> - -<p>But never before had there been any such situation as now. The sun, -which had kept company with Ades for so long, now shone in lonely -splendor, amid emptiness, devoid of its companion. And that emptiness -was bewildering to a small ship—sister to the <i>Starshine</i>—which -flicked suddenly into being nearby.</p> - -<p>The ship had come back from a journey among the virgin stars of the -Second Galaxy with honorable scars upon its hull and a zestful young -crew who wished to boast of their journeying. They had come back to -Ades—so they thought—direct, not even stopping at Terranova. And -there was no Ades.</p> - -<p>The little ship flashed here and there about the bereft sun in -bewilderment. It searched desperately for a planet some seven thousand -miles in diameter, which had apparently been misplaced. And as it -hunted, a second ship whisked into sight from faster-than-light drive. -The detectors of the two ships told them of each other's presence, and -they met and hung in space together. Then they searched in unison, but -in vain. At long last they set out in company for one of the planets of -the former Sinabian Empire, on which there must be some news of what -had happened to Ades.</p> - -<p>On transmitter-drive they inevitably separated and one was much closer -to the chosen planet when they came out of stressed space. One drove -down into atmosphere while the other was still thousands of miles away.</p> - -<p>The leading ship went down at landing-speed, toward a city. The other -ship watched by electron telescope and prepared to duplicate its -course. But the man of the second ship saw—and there could be no doubt -about it—that suddenly the landing ship vanished from its place as if -it had gone into intergalactic drive in atmosphere. There was a flash -of intolerable, unbearable light. And then there was an explosion of -such monstrous violence that half of the planet's capital city vanished -or was laid in ruins.</p> - -<p>The crew of the second ship were stunned. But the second ship went -slowly and cautiously down into atmosphere, and its communicators -picked up voices issuing stern warnings that troops must be welcomed -by all citizens, and that absolute obedience must be given to all men -wearing the uniform of His Magnificence the Despot of Lith. And then -there was babbling confusion and contradictory shoutings, and a hoarse -voice ordered all soldiers of His Magnificence to keep a ceaseless -watch upon the sky, because a ship had come down from overhead, and -when the fighting-beams struck it—to kill its crew—it appeared to -have fired some devastating projectile which had destroyed half a great -city. All ships seen in the sky were to be shot down instantly. His -Magnificence, the Despot of Lith, would avenge the outrage.</p> - -<p>The lonely surviving ship went dazedly away from the planet which once -had been friendly to the men of Ades. It went back to Ades' sun, and -searched despairingly once again, and then fled to the Second Galaxy -and Terranova, to tell of what it had seen.</p> - -<p>That was an event of some importance. At least all of one planet had -been rocked to its core from the detonation of a space-ship which -flashed into collision with it at uncountable multiples of the speed of -light, and was thereby raised to the temperature of a hot sun's very -heart. And besides, there was agitation and suspicion and threats and -diplomatic chaos among the planetary governments who had joined to loot -the dependencies of Ades, once Ades was eliminated from the scene.</p> - -<p>But a vastly, an enormously more significant event took place on a -planet very far away, at almost the same instant. The planet was Donet -Three, the only habitable planet of its system. It was a monstrous, -sprawling world, visibly flattened by the speed of its rotation and -actually habitable only by the fact that its rotation partly balanced -out its high gravity.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> approached over a polar region and descended -to touch atmosphere. Then, while Dona looked curiously through the -electron telescope at monstrous ice-mountains below, Kim donned a -space-suit, went into the airlock, and dropped a small object out of -the door. He closed the door, returned to the control-room, and took -the <i>Starshine</i> out to space again.</p> - -<p>That was the most significant single action, in view of its ultimate -meaning, that had been performed in the First Galaxy in ten thousand -years. And yet, in a sense, it was purely a matter of form. It was not -necessary for Kim to do it. He had arranged for the same effect to be -produced, in time yet to come, upon every one of the three hundred -million inhabited planets of the First Galaxy. The thing was automatic; -implicit in the very nature of the tyrannical governments sustained by -the disciplinary circuit.</p> - -<p>Kim had simply dropped a small metal case to the surface of Donet -Three. It was very strong—practically unbreakable. It contained an -extremely simple electronic circuit. It fell through the frigid air of -the flattened pole of Donet Three, and it struck the side of a sloping -ice-mountain, and bounced and slid down to a valley and buried itself -in snow, and only instants later, the small hole left by its fall was -filled in and covered up completely by snow riding on a hundred-mile -gale. It was undiscoverable. It was irretrievable. No device of man -could detect or recover it. Kim himself could not have told where it -fell.</p> - -<p>Kim then sighted the <i>Starshine</i> on another distant target, and -found the planet Arth, and dropped a small metal object into the -depths of the humid and festering jungles along its equator. Human -beings could live only in the polar regions of Arth. Then he visited a -certain planet in the solar system of Tabor and a small metal case went -twisting through deep water down to the seabed of its ocean.</p> - -<p>He dropped another on the shifting desert sands which cover one-third -of Sind where an Emperor and Council rule in the name of a non-existent -republic, and yet another on a planet of Megar, where an otherwise -unidentified Queen Amritha held imperial power, and others....</p> - -<p>He dropped one small metal case, secured from a merchant-prince on -Spicus Five, on each of the planets whose troops had moved into the -planets left defenseless by the vanishment of Ades.</p> - -<p>"I wanted to do that myself, because what we've got to do next is -dangerous and we may get killed," he told Dona drily. "But now we're -sure that men won't stay slaves forever and now we can try to do -something about Ades. I'm afraid our chances are pretty slim."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="7c">7</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>One Chance in a Million</i></h3> - - -<p>In spite of his pessimism, Kim settled down to the fine calculations -required for a voyage to a blue-white dwarf star not readily -distinguished from others. Most inhabited planets, of course, circled -sol-type suns. Light much different from that in which the race had -developed was apt to have produced vegetation inimical to humanity, -and useful vegetation did not thrive. And of course sol-type stars are -most readily spotted by space navigators. As he checked his course with -star-charts, Dona spoke softly.</p> - -<p>"Thanks, Kim."</p> - -<p>"For what?"</p> - -<p>"For not wanting to put me in safety when you're going to do something -dangerous. I wouldn't let you, but thanks for not trying."</p> - -<p>"<i>Mmmmh!</i>" said Kim. "You're too useful."</p> - -<p>He lined up his course and pressed the transmitter-drive stud on the -control-panel. Space danced a momentary saraband,—and there was a -blue-white dwarf two hundred million miles away, showing barely a -planet-sized disk, but pouring out a pitiless white glare that hurt the -eyes.</p> - -<p>"That's it," said Kim. "That's the sun Alis. There should be four -planets, but we're looking for Number One. It goes out beyond Two at -aphelion, so we have to check the orbit—if we can find it—before we -can be sure. No—we should be able to tell by the rotation. Very slow."</p> - -<p>"And what are you going to do with it?" demanded Dona.</p> - -<p>There were bright spots in emptiness which the electron telescope -instantly declared to be planets. Kim set up cameras for pictures.</p> - -<p>"Alis One is the only really uninhabitable planet in the Galaxy that's -inhabited," he observed painstakingly. "It belongs to Pharos Three. I -understand it's the personal property of the king. It has no atmosphere -in spite of an extremely high specific gravity and a reasonable mass. -But the plutonium mines have been worked for five thousand years."</p> - -<p>"Plutonium mines with that half-life?" Dona said skeptically. "You must -be joking!"</p> - -<p>"No," said Kim. "It's a very heavy planet, loaded with uranium and -stuff from bismuth on out. It has an extremely eccentric orbit. As -I told you, at aphelion it's beyond the orbit of Pharos Two. At -perihelion, when it's nearest to its sun, it just barely misses Roche's -Limit—the limit of nearness a satellite can come to its primary -without being torn apart by tidal strains. And at its nearest to its -sun, it's bombarded with everything a sun can fling out into space from -its millions of tons of disintegrating atoms. Alpha rays, beta rays, -gamma particles, neutrons, and everything else pour onto its surface -as if it were being bombarded by a cyclotron with a beam the size of a -planet's surface. You see what happens?"</p> - -<p>Dona looked startled.</p> - -<p>"But, Kim, every particle of the whole surface would become -terrifically radioactive. It would kill a man to land on it!"</p> - -<p>"According to my merchant-prince friend on Spicus Five, it did kill the -first men to set foot on it. But the point is that its heavy elements -have been bombarded, and most of its uranium has gone on over to -plutonium and americium and curium. In ancient days, when it went out -on the long sweep away from its sun, it cooled off enough for men to -land on it at its farthest-out point. With shielded space-suits they -were able to mine its substance for four to five months before heat and -rising induced radio-activity drove them off again. Then they'd wait -for it to cool off once more on its next trip around.</p> - -<p>"They went to it with space-ships, and the last space-line in the First -Galaxy ran plutonium and americium and the other radio-actives to a -matter-transmitter from which they could be distributed all over the -Galaxy. But it wasn't very efficient. They could only mine for four -or five months every four years. All their equipment was melted and -ruined when they were able to land again. A few hundred years ago, -however, they solved the problem."</p> - -<p>Dona stared out the vision-ports. There were two planets which might be -the one in question. But there were only three in sight.</p> - -<p>"How did they solve it?" Dona asked.</p> - -<p>"Somebody invented a shield," said Kim, as drily as before. "It -was a force-field. It has the property of a magnetic field on a -conductor with a current in it, except that it acts on mass as such. A -current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field tends to move at right -angles both to the current and the field. This force-field acts as if -mass were an electric charge.</p> - -<p>"Anything having mass, entering the field, tries to move sidewise. -The faster it moves, the stronger the sidewise impulse. Neutrons, -gamma particles, met rays and even electrons have mass. So has light. -Everything moving that hits the shielding field moves sidewise to its -original course. Radiation from the sun isn't reflected, at right -angles.</p> - -<p>"So, with the shield up, men can stay on the planet when it is less -than three diameters from its sun. No heat reaches it. No neutrons. No -radiations at all. It doesn't heat up. And that's the answer. For three -months in every four-year revolution, they have to keep the shield up -all the time. For three months more, they keep it up intermittently, -flashing it on for fractions of a second at a time, just enough to -temper the amount of heat they get.</p> - -<p>"They live on great platforms of uranium glass, domed in. When they -go out mining they wear shielded space-suits and work in shielded -machines. The whole trick was worked out about five hundred years ago, -they say, and the last space-line went out of existence, because they -could use a matter-transmitter for all but six of our months of that -planet's year."</p> - -<p>"And did you find out how it's done?" asked Dona.</p> - -<p>"Hardly," said Kim. "The planet belongs to the king of Pharos Three. -Even five hundred years ago the governments of all the planets were -quite tight corporations. Naturally Pharos wouldn't let the secret get -out. There are other planets so close to their primaries that they're -radioactive. If the secret were to be disclosed there'd be competition. -There'd be other plutonium mines in operation. So he's managed to keep -it to himself. But we've got to find out the trick."</p> - -<p>There was silence. Kim began to check over the pictures the cameras had -taken and developed. He shook his head. Then he stared at a photograph -which showed the blue-white dwarf itself. His face looked suddenly very -drawn and tired.</p> - -<p>"Kim," said Dona presently. "It's stupid of me, but I don't see how -you're going to learn the secret."</p> - -<p>Kim put the picture on the enlarger, for examination in a greater size.</p> - -<p>"They made the shield to keep things out," he said wearily. "Radiation, -charged particles, neutrons—everything. The planet simply can't be -reached, not even by matter-transmitters, when the shield is up. But by -the same token nothing can leave the planet either. It can't even be -spotted from space, because the light of the sun isn't reflected. It's -deflected to a right-angled course. You might pick it up if it formed -a right-angled triangle with you and the sun, or you might spot it in -transit across the sun's disk. But that's all."</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"The shield was a special job," said Kim. "For a special purpose. -It was not a weapon. But there were all those planets that could be -grabbed if only Ades were knocked out. So why shouldn't King Pharos -sneak a force-field generator on to Ades? When the field went on, Ades -would be invisible and unreachable from outside. And the outside would -be unreachable from it. Space-ships couldn't get through the field. -Matter-transmitters couldn't operate through it. If a few technicians -were sneaked to Ades as supposed exiles and promised adequate reward, -don't you think they'd hide out somewhere and turn on that field, and -leave it on until the folk on Ades had starved or gone mad?"</p> - -<p>Horrified, Dona stared at him. She went pale.</p> - -<p>"Oh—horrible! The sky would be black—always! Never a glimmer of -light. No stars. No moons. No sun. The plants would die and rot, and -the people would grow bleached and pale, and finally they'd starve."</p> - -<p>"All but the little gang hidden away in a well-provisioned hide-out," -said Kim grimly. "I think that's what's happened to Ades, or is -happening. And this is the solar system where the little trick was -worked out. I'd hoped simply to raid the generator and find out how it -worked, which would be dangerous enough. Look!"</p> - -<p>He pointed to the projected image of the sun. There was a tiny dot -against its surface. It was almost, it seemed, bathed in the tentacular -arms of flaming gases flung up from the sun's surface.</p> - -<p>"There's the planet," said Kim. "At its closest to the sun! With the -shield up, so that nothing can reach its surface. Nothing! And that -includes space-ships such as this. And at that distance, Dona, the hard -radiation from the sun would go right through the <i>Starshine</i> and -kill us in seconds before we could get within millions of miles of the -planet. If there's any place in the Universe that's unapproachable, -there it is. It may be anything up to three months before the shield -goes down even for fractions of a second at a time. And my guess is -that the people on Ades won't last that long. They've had days in which -to grow hopeless already. Want to gamble?"</p> - -<p>Dona looked at him. He regarded her steadily.</p> - -<p>"Whatever you say, Kim."</p> - -<p>"Sixteen million lives on Ades, besides other aspects of the -situation," said Kim. "The odds against us are probably about the same, -sixteen million to one. That makes it a fair bet. We'll try."</p> - -<p>He got up and began to tinker with the radiation-operated relay which -turned off the transmitter-drive. Presently he looked up.</p> - -<p>"I'm glad I married you, Dona," he said gruffly.</p> - -<p>As the <i>Starshine</i> moved closer in, the feeling in the -control-room grew tense. The little ship had advanced to within twenty -millions of miles of the blue-white sun, and even at that distance -there was a detectable X-ray intensity.</p> - -<p>Kim had turned on a Geiger counter, and it was silent simply because -there was no measurable interval between its discharges. A neutron -detector showed an indication very close to the danger mark. But Kim -had the <i>Starshine's</i> nose pointed to the intolerably glaring sun.</p> - -<p>The electron telescope showed the sun's surface filling all its field, -and because the illumination had been turned so low, raging sun-storms -could be seen on the star's disk. Against it, the black silhouette of -the planet was clear. It was small. Kim estimated its diameter at no -more than six thousand miles. The <i>Starshine's</i> gyros hummed softly -and the field of the telescope swayed until the planet was centered -exactly.</p> - -<p>There was a little sweat on Kim's forehead.</p> - -<p>"I—don't mind taking the chance myself, Dona," he said, dry-throated. -"But I hate to think of you.... If we miss, we'll flash into the sun."</p> - -<p>"And never know it," said Dona, smiling. "It'll be all over in the -skillionth of a second—if we miss. But we won't."</p> - -<p>"We're aiming for the disk of the planet," he reminded her. "We have -to go in on transmitter-speed to cut the time of our exposure to hard -radiation. That speed will make the time of exposure effectively zero. -But we have to move at a huge multiple of the speed of light, and we -have to stop short of that planet. It may not be possible!"</p> - -<p>"Do you want me to press the button, Kim?" Dona said softly.</p> - -<p>He took a deep breath.</p> - -<p>"I'll do it. Thanks, Dona."</p> - -<p>He put his finger on the stud that would throw the ship into -transmitter-drive, aimed straight at the disk of planet against the -inferno of sun beyond. There was nothing more certain than that to -miss the planet would fling them instantly into the sun. And there was -nothing more absurd than to expect to come out of transmitter-drive -within any given number of millions of miles, much less within a few -thousands. But—</p> - -<p>Kim pressed the stud.</p> - -<p>Instantly there was blackness before them. A monstrous, absolute -blackness filled half the firmament. It was the force-field-shielded -planet, blotting out its sun and half the stars of the Galaxy. Kim had -made a bull's-eye on a target relatively the size of a dinner-plate -at eleven hundred yards. More than that, he had stopped short of his -target, equivalent to stopping a bullet three inches short of that -place.</p> - -<p>He said in a queer voice:</p> - -<p>"The—relay worked—even backward, Dona."</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="8c">8</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Dark Barrier</i></h3> - - -<p>For a time Kim sat still and sweat poured out on his skin. Because -their chances had seemed slight indeed. To stop a space-ship at -transmitter-speed was impossible with manual means, anyhow. It could -cross a galaxy in the tenth of a millisecond. So Kim had devised a -radiation-operated relay which threw off the drive when the total -radiation reaching a sensitive plate in the bow had reached an -adjustable total.</p> - -<p>If in an ordinary flight the <i>Starshine</i> headed into a -sun—unlikely as such an occurrence was—the increased light striking -the relay-plate would throw off the drive before harm came. But this -time they had needed to approach fatally close to a star. So Kim had -reversed the operation of the relay. It would throw off the drive when -the amount of light reaching it dropped below a certain minimum. That -could happen only if the ship came up behind the planet, so the sun was -blacked out by the world's shadowed night-side.</p> - -<p>It had happened. The glare was cut off. The transmitter-drive followed. -The <i>Starshine</i> floated within a bare few million miles—perhaps -less than one million—of a blue-white dwarf star, and the two humans -in the ship were alive because they had between them and the sun's -atomic furnaces, a planet some six thousand miles in diameter.</p> - -<p>"We don't know how our velocity matches this thing," said Kim after an -instant. "We could be drifting toward the edge of the shadow. You watch -the stars all around. Make sure I head directly for that blackness. -When we touch, I'll see what I can find out."</p> - -<p>He reversed the ship's direction. He let the <i>Starshine</i> float -down backward. The mass of unsubstantial darkness seemed to swell. It -engulfed more and more of the cosmos....</p> - -<p>A long, long time later, there was a strange sensation in the feel of -things. Dona gave a little cry.</p> - -<p>"Kim! I feel queer! So queer!"</p> - -<p>Kim moved heavily. His body resisted any attempt at motion, and yet -he felt a horrible tension within him, as if every molecule were -attempting to fly apart from every other molecule. The controls of the -ship moved sluggishly. Each part of each device seemed to have a vast -inertia. But the controls did yield. The drive did come on. A little -later the sensation ended. But both Kim and Dona felt utterly exhausted.</p> - -<p>"It—was getting dark, too," said Dona. She trembled.</p> - -<p>"When we tried to move," said Kim, "our arms had a tendency to move at -right angles to the way we wanted them to—at all the possible right -angles at once. That was the edge of the shield, Dona. Now we'll see -what we've got."</p> - -<p>He uncovered the recording cabinet. There had been no need to set up -instruments especially for the analysis of the field. They had been a -part of the <i>Starshine's</i> original design for exploration. Now Kim -read the records.</p> - -<p>"Cosmic-ray intensity went down," he reported, studying the tapes. -"The dielectric constant of space changed. It just soared up. The -relationship of mass to inertia. That particular gadget never -recorded anything significant before, Dona. In theory it should have -detected space-warps. Actually, it never amounted to anything but a -quantitative measure of gravitation on a planet one landed on. But it -went wild in that field! And here! Look!"</p> - -<p>He exultantly held out a paper recording.</p> - -<p>"Glance at that, Dona! See? A magnetometer to record the strength of -the magnetic field on a new planet. It recorded the ship's own field in -the absence of any other. And the ship's field dropped to zero! Do you -see? Do you?"</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid not," admitted Dona. But she smiled at the expression on -Kim's face.</p> - -<p>"It's the answer!" said Kim zestfully. "Still I don't know how that -blasted field is made, but I know now how it works. Neutrons have no -magnetic field, but this thing turns them aside. Alpha and beta and -gamma radiation do have magnetic fields, but this thing turns them -aside, too. And the point is that it neutralizes their magnetic fields, -because otherwise it couldn't start to turn them aside. So if we make -a magnetic field too strong for the field to counter, it won't be able -to turn aside anything in that magnetic area. The maximum force-field -strength needed for the planet is simply equal to the top magnetic -field the sun may project so far. If we can bury the <i>Starshine</i> -in magnetic flux that the force-field can't handle—" He grinned. He -hugged her.</p> - -<p>"And there's a loop around the <i>Starshine's</i> hull for space-radio -use," he cried. "I'll run a really big current through that loop and -we'll try again. We should be able to put quite a lot of juice through -a six-turn loop and get a flux-density that will curl your hair!"</p> - -<p>He set to work, beaming. It took him less than half an hour to set up a -series-wound generator in the airlock, couple in a thermo-cell to the -loop, so it would cool the generator as the current flowed and thereby -reduce its internal resistance.</p> - -<p>"Now!" he said. "We'll try once more. The more juice that goes through -the outfit, the colder the generator will get and the less its -resistance will be, and the more current it will make and the stronger -the magnetic field will be."</p> - -<p>He flipped a switch. There was a tiny humming noise. A meter-needle -swayed over, and stayed.</p> - -<p>The <i>Starshine</i> ventured into the black globe below.</p> - -<p>Nothing happened. Nothing happened at all.</p> - -<p>"The stars are blotted out, Kim," Dona at last said uneasily.</p> - -<p>"But you feel all right, don't you?" He grinned like an ape in his -delight.</p> - -<p>"Why, yes."</p> - -<p>"I feel unusually good," said Kim happily.</p> - -<p>The vision-screens were utterly blank. The ports opened upon absolute -blackness—blackness so dead and absorbent that it seemed more than -merely lack of light. It seemed like something horrible pressing -against the ports and trying to thrust itself in.</p> - -<p>And, suddenly, a screen glowed faintly, and then another....</p> - -<p>Then there was a greenish glow in the ports, and Dona looked out and -down.</p> - -<p>Above was that blackness, complete and absolute. But below, seen with -utter clarity, because of the absence of atmosphere, lay a world. -Nothing grew upon it. Nothing moved. It was raw, naked rock with -an unholy luminescence. Here and there the glow was brighter where -mineral deposits contained more highly active material. The surface was -tortured and twisted, in swirled stained writhings of formerly melted -rock.</p> - -<p>They looked. They saw no sign of human life nor any sign that humans -had ever been there. But after all, even five thousand years of mining -on a globe six thousand miles through would not involve the disturbance -of more than a fraction of its surface.</p> - -<p>"We did it," said Kim. "The shield can be broken through by anything -with a strong enough magnetic field. We won't disturb the local -inhabitants. They undoubtedly have orders to kill anybody who -incredibly manages to intrude. We can't afford to take a chance. We've -got to get back to Ades!"</p> - -<p>He pointed the <i>Starshine</i> straight up. He drove her, -slowly, at the ceiling of impenetrable black. He worked upon the -transmitter-drive relay. He adjusted it to throw the <i>Starshine</i> -into transmitter-speed the instant normal starlight appeared ahead.</p> - -<p>The ship swam slowly upward. Suddenly there was a momentary impression -of reeling, dancing stars. Kim swung the bow about.</p> - -<p>"Now for Ades!" he said gleefully. "Did you know, Dona, that once upon -a time the word Ades meant hell?"</p> - -<p>The stars reeled again....</p> - -<p>They found Ades. Knowing how, now, it was not too difficult. There were -two positions from which it could be detected. One was a position in -which it was on a line between the <i>Starshine</i> and the sun. The -other was a position in which the invisible planet, the space-ship, and -the sun formed the three points of a right-angled triangle with Ades in -the ninety-degree corner.</p> - -<p>Kim sent the little ship in a great circle beyond the planet's normal -orbit, watching for it to appear where such an imaginary triangle -would be formed. The deflected light of the sun would spread out -in a circular flat thin plane, and somewhere about the circuit the -<i>Starshine</i> had to run through it. It would be a momentary sight -only, and it would not be bright; it would be utterly unlike the steady -radiance of a normal planet. Such flashes, if seen before, would have -been dismissed as illusions or as reflections from within the ship. -Even so, it was a long, long time before Dona called out quickly.</p> - -<p>"There!" she said, and pointed.</p> - -<p>Kim swung the <i>Starshine</i> back. He saw the dim, diffused spectre -of sun's reflection. They drove for it, and presently a minute dark -space appeared. It grew against the background of a radiant galaxy, and -presently was a huge blackness, and the <i>Starshine's</i> space-radio -loop was once more filled with a highly improbable electrical amperage -by the supercooled generator in the airlock.</p> - -<p>The ship ventured cautiously into the black.</p> - -<p>And later there were lonely, unspeakably desolate little lights of the -lost world down below.</p> - -<p>Kim drove for them with a reckless exultation. He landed in the very -centre of a despairing small settlement which had believed itself dead -and damned—or at any rate doomed. He shouted out his coming, and Dona -cried out the news that the end of darkness was near, and men came -surging toward her to listen. But it was Dona who explained, her eyes -shining in the light of the torches men held up toward her.</p> - -<p>Kim had gone back into the ship and was using the communicators to -rouse out the mayors of every municipality, and to say he had just -reached the planet from Terranova—there was no time to tell of -adventures in between—and he needed atmosphere fliers to gather around -him at once, with armed men in them, for urgent business connected with -the restoration of a normal state of affairs.</p> - -<p>They came swiftly, flittering down out of the blackness overhead, to -land in the lights of huge bonfires built by Kim's orders. And Kim, -on the communicators, asked for other bonfires everywhere, to help in -navigation, and then he went out to be greeted by the bellowing Mayor -of Steadheim.</p> - -<p>"What's this?" he roared. "No sunlight! No stars! No -matter-transmitter! No ships! Our ships took off and never came back! -What the devil happened to the Universe?"</p> - -<p>Kim grinned at him.</p> - -<p>"The Universe is all right. It's Ades. Somewhere on the planet there's -a generator throwing out a force-field. It will have plenty of power, -that generator. Maybe I can pick it up with the instruments of the -<i>Starshine</i>. But we'll be sure to find it with magnetic compasses. -What we want is for everyone to flick their compasses and note the -time of swing. We want to find the place where the swings get slower -and slower. When we find a place where the compasses point steadily, -without a flicker—not even up and down—we'll be at the generator. And -everybody put on navigation-lights or there'll be crashes!"</p> - -<p>He lifted the <i>Starshine</i> and by communicator kept track of the -search. Toward the polar regions was the logical hiding-place for the -generator, because there the chilly climate of Ades became frigid and -there were no inhabitants. But it was a long search. Hours went by -before a signal came from a quarter-way around the globe.</p> - -<p>Then the <i>Starshine</i> drove through darkness—but cautiously—with -atmosphere fliers all about. And there was an area where the planet's -magnetic field grew weaker and weaker, and then a space in which there -was no magnetic field. But in the darkness they could find no sign of a -depot!</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="9c">9</h2> -</div> - -<h3><i>Gadget of Hope</i></h3> - - -<p>Grimly Kim set the "<i>Starshine</i>" on the ground, in the very -centre of the dark area, and started the generator in the airlock. -When it worked at its utmost, and nothing happened, Kim threw in the -leads of the ship's full engine-power. There was a surging of all the -terrific energy the ship's engines could give. Then the radio-loop went -white-hot and melted, with a sputtering arc as the circuit broke.</p> - -<p>Abruptly the stars appeared overhead, and simultaneously came the -leaping flame of a rumbling explosion. Then followed the flare of fuel -burning savagely in the night. The <i>Starshine's</i> full power had -burned out the force-field generator, an instant before the loop melted -to uselessness.</p> - -<p>Kim was with the men who ran toward the scene of the explosion, and he -would have tried to stop the killing of the other men who ran out of -underground burrows, but the victims would not have it. They expected -to be killed, and they fought wildly. All died.</p> - -<p>Later Kim inspected the shattered apparatus which now lay in pieces, -but he thought it could be reconstructed and perhaps in time understood.</p> - -<p>"Night's nearly over," he announced to those who prowled through the -wreckage. "It shouldn't be much more than an hour until dawn. If I -hadn't seen sunlight for a week or more, I think, I'd go for a look at -the sunrise."</p> - -<p>In seconds the first atmosphere-flier took off. In minutes the last of -them were gone. They flew like great black birds beneath the starlight, -headed for the east to greet a sun they had not expected to see again.</p> - -<p>But the Mayor of Steadheim stayed behind.</p> - -<p>"Hah!" he said, growling. "It's over my head. I don't know what -happened and I never expect to understand. How are my sons in the new -Galaxy?"</p> - -<p>"Fine when last we heard," said Dona, smiling. "Come into the ship."</p> - -<p>He tramped into the living space of the <i>Starshine</i>. He eased -himself into a seat.</p> - -<p>"Now tell me what's gone on, and what's happened, and why!" he -commanded dictatorially.</p> - -<p>Kim told him, as well as he could. The Mayor of Steadheim fumed.</p> - -<p>"Took over the twenty-one planets, eh?" he sputtered. "We'll attend to -that. We'll take a few ships, go over there, and punish 'em."</p> - -<p>"I suspect they've pulled out," said Kim. "If they haven't, they will. -And soon! The Gracious Majesties and Magnificents, and the other -planetary rulers who essayed some easy conquests, have other need for -their soldiers now. Plenty of need!"</p> - -<p>"Eh, what?" cried the mayor. "What's the matter? Those rulers have got -to have a lesson! We didn't try to free the whole Galaxy because it was -too big a job. But it looks like we'll have to try!"</p> - -<p>"I doubt the need," said Kim, amused. "After all, it's the Disciplinary -Circuit which has enslaved the human race. When the psychogram of -every citizen is on file, and a disciplinarian has only to put his -card in the machinery and press a button to have that man searched out -by Disciplinary-Circuit waves and tortured, wherever he may be—when -that's possible—any government is absolute. Men can't revolt when -the whole population or any part of it can be tortured at the ruler's -whim."</p> - -<p>Dona's expression changed.</p> - -<p>"Kim!" she said accusingly. "Those things you got on Spicus Five and -dropped on the planets the soldiers came from—what were they?"</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you," said Kim. "The Disciplinary Circuit is all right to -keep criminals in hand—not rebels like us, but thieves and such—and -it does keep down the number of officials who have to be supported by -the state. Police and guards aren't really needed on a free planet -with the Disciplinary Circuit in action. It's a useful machine for the -protection of law and order. The trouble is that, like all machines, -its use has been abused. Now it serves tyranny. So I made a device to -defend freedom."</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim cocked a suspicious eye upon him.</p> - -<p>"I procured a little gadget," said Kim. "I dropped the gadget in -various places where it wasn't likely to be found. If one man is under -Disciplinary Circuit punishment, or two or three or four—that's not -unreasonable on a great planet—nothing happens. But if twenty-five or -fifty or a hundred are punished at once, the Disciplinary Circuit is -blown out as I just blew out that force-field generator."</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim considered this information.</p> - -<p>"<i>Ha-hmmm!</i>" he said profoundly.</p> - -<p>"Criminals can be kept down, but a revolt can't be suppressed," Kim -went on. "The soldiers who are occupying the twenty-one planets will -be called back to put down revolts, as soon as the people discover the -Disciplinary Circuits on their planets are blowing out, and that they -blow out again as fast as they're re-made and used."</p> - -<p>"<i>Hm!</i>" said the Mayor of Steadheim. "Not bad! And the rebels will -have some very tasty ideas of what to do to the folk who've tyrannized -over them. No troops can stop a revolt nowadays. Not for long!"</p> - -<p>"No, not for long," said Kim. "No government will be able to rule -with a dissatisfied population. Not if it has a little gadget hidden -somewhere that will blow out the Disciplinary Circuit, if it's used to -excess."</p> - -<p>"Good enough, good enough," grumbled the mayor. "When rulers are kept -busy satisfying their people, they won't have time to bother political -offenders. That's sensible enough! But it's too fiendish bad that only -those twenty planets have the gadgets on them! I suppose we criminals -will have to set up a factory and make them, and then visit all the -three hundred million inhabited planets, one by one, and drop one -little contrivance on every one. But it'll take us centuries! Space! -That's a pity!"</p> - -<p>"It won't take centuries," said Kim drily. "I made a deal with a -factory-owner on Spicus Five. He turned out the ones I personally -dropped, in exchange for the design. He's going to manufacture them in -quantity. He'll make a fortune out of them!"</p> - -<p>"How? Who'll buy them?" demanded the mayor. "Every king will outlaw -them! Space, yes! They'll be scared to death—"</p> - -<p>"The kings," said Kim more drily than before, "the kings and despots -and emperors will be the ones to buy them. They'll want them to drop -in their neighbors' dominions. Every king or ruler will buy a few to -put where they will weaken his enemies—and every one has enemies! We -don't have to plant the gadgets that make the Disciplinary Circuit -into a boomerang! We'll let the kings weaken each other and bring back -freedom. And they will!"</p> - -<p>The Mayor of Steadheim puffed in his breath until it looked as if he -would explode. Then he bellowed with laughter.</p> - -<p>"Make the tyrants dethrone each other," he roared delightedly. "They'll -weaken each other until they find they've their own people to deal -with. There'll be a fine scramble! I give it five years, no more, -before there's not a king in the Galaxy who dares order an execution -without a jury-trial first!"</p> - -<p>"A consummation devoutly to be wished," said Kim, smiling. "I rather -like the idea myself."</p> - -<p>The mayor heaved himself up.</p> - -<p>"Hah!" he said, still chuckling. "I'll go back to my wife and tell her -to come outdoors and look at the stars. What will you two do next?"</p> - -<p>"Sleep, I suspect," said Kim. It was all over. The realization made him -aware of how tired he was. "We'll probably put in twenty-four hours of -just plain slumber. Then we'll see if anything more needs to be done, -and then I guess Dona and I will head back to Terranova. The Organizer -there is worried about a shortage of textiles."</p> - -<p>"To the devil with him," grunted the Mayor of Steadheim. "We've had -a shortage of sunlight! You're a good man, Kim Rendell. I'll tell my -grandchildren about you, when I have them."</p> - -<p>He waved grandly and went out. A little later his flier took off, -occulting stars as it rose.</p> - -<p>Kim closed the airlock door. He yawned again.</p> - -<p>"Kim," said Dona, "We had to break that shield, but it was dangerous."</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Kim. He yawned again. "So it was. I'll be glad to get back -to our house on Terranova."</p> - -<p>"So will I," said Dona. Her face had become determined. "We shouldn't -even think of leaving it again, Kim! We should—anchor ourselves to it, -so nobody would think of asking us to leave."</p> - -<p>"A good idea," said Kim. "If it could be done."</p> - -<p>Dona looked critically at her fingers, but she flushed suddenly.</p> - -<p>"It could," she said softly. "The best way would be—children."</p> - - -<h3>THE END</h3> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE LAST SPACE SHIP</h2> - -<h3><i>By Murray Leinster</i></h3> - - -<p>Put yourself in the place of Kim Rendell, a handsome, idealistic young -man living on a distant planet ruled by a super-efficient government. -Here is industrialization carried to its <b>illogical</b> conclusion. -Kim Rendell lives in the shadow of mechanized terror, for machines have -taken over, and the disciplinary circuit keeps the inhabitants in check.</p> - -<p>Rendell is an outlaw because he tried to strike at the very foundations -of this so-called civilization. He will not yield to the tyranny of the -power-mad, sensuously warped rulers of the astral body Alphin III. He -and his girl friend are in danger of psychological torture worse than -death.</p> - -<p>Kim Rendell goes to the antique museum of Alphin III, which houses -<i>Starshine</i>, an outmoded space-ship. He conceives the daring -plan of using the <i>Starshine</i> to save his girl and himself from -the dictators of Alphin III. In this world, teleportation of matter -has taken the place of transportation from planet to planet, and -solar system to solar system, via rocket and atomic-powered vessels. -Nevertheless, Kim decides to steal the last space-ship from the antique -museum and flee with his girl.</p> - -<p>Thus starts this most stirring novel of love, adventure and the -fight against tyranny, by the well-known author of hundreds of adult -science-fiction stories.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST SPACE SHIP ***</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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