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diff --git a/77718-0.txt b/77718-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ca16b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/77718-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,348 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77718 *** + + + + + Final Exam + + by Sam Merwin Jr. + + + _Sam Merwin’s entertaining, provocative, and warmly human little + yarns about spacemen and their foibles have enlivened our + pages--along with novelette-length stories of wider compass and + somewhat graver import--since that momentous hour when FANTASTIC + UNIVERSE was born out of the fire-mists of an island universe + hovering directly opposite the Pleiades. But seldom has he come up + with a shorter-length yarn quite as excitingly unusual as this._ + + =They had prepared a sturdy bomb shelter to protect the Great Man + from the Flying Saucers. But he had to see them with his own eyes.= + + + + +They tried to make the Great Man go down into the +lead-and-graphite-sheathed bomb shelter deep under the outwardly modest +Midwestern house that was his “secret” summer residence. His aides, his +secretary, the civilian-clothed bodyguards--all of them were insistent. + +“You’re much too valuable, sir” ... + +“It’s our sworn duty to protect you, sir” ... + +“We don’t know what _they_ are, sir....” + +The Great Man knew he was breaking the hearts of his official family by +disobeying. But curiosity was one of the traits that had helped him to +the top, and he had heard too much about “them”--although he had yet +to see one of the alien visitors. He looked at his wife, and read in +her serene gaze that she understood and approved. He said, to his chief +aide: “If they’ve found us here, there’s not much sense in hiding, is +there?” + +And, when no definite reply was forthcoming, he asked, “What is your +theory as to their nature--and just how many of them are there?” + +“Denver reports half a dozen headed directly this way at an estimated +two thousand miles per hour,” said the Air Force aide, his handsome +face a rigid mask of disapproval. “That was five minutes ago.” + +“And their nature?” the Great Man repeated quietly. + +It was the Air Defense aide who answered him. “We don’t know, sir. +They look simply like rather large, moving lights in the sky. But, as +always, radar has picked up solid bodies.” + +“Thank you.” The Great Man glanced at the banjo clock on the +flower-papered wall. “They should be here any minute then,” he said. +“Gentlemen, I ask you to leave us alone. I have no wish to command you.” + +Obviously, this unorthodox request put an alarming spoke in the +closely-meshed wheels of the armed defense plans. Sensing the +uncertainty and dismay of everyone in the room, the Great Man said, +“I wish you to observe, and report--but on no account are you to +inaugurate hostile action. Is that clear?” + +“But what if they attack first?” The Air Force aide inquired anxiously. + +“I said you were not to _inaugurate_ hostile action,” was the Great +Man’s quiet reply. “If they actually attack--and I doubt that they will +from the past records--you are free to take whatever defensive measures +you may consider necessary.” + +They left the room reluctantly, unhappily. The Great Man smiled at +his wife. “Darling,” he said, “let’s go to the balcony. If those +well-meaning friends of ours think they’re going to stop me from seeing +my first flying saucers they’re tragically mistaken.” + +“Of course, dear,” his wife replied. + +She already had her knitting neatly stowed away in the needlepoint bag +in which she customarily carried it. Now she removed her glasses and +put them in their case, and rose quickly to her feet, still a trim, +attractive figure of a woman despite her fifty years. + +As they walked toward the balcony, the Great Man wondered what he could +have accomplished without her. Certainly, the nine years since their +marriage had been his happiest--each a glowing milestone in his swift +climb to political eminence. + +They stood side by side on the broad balcony, which was really the +verandah roof, and looked out at the star-swept skies. Roughly gauging +the direction with his eyes, the Great Man said, “If the reports are +accurate, they should be coming from _there_.” He pointed toward the +low flat sweep of the southwestern horizon. + +“Darling! Look over there!” + +There was controlled excitement in his wife’s soft voice. + +He followed her gaze a bit further north, and immediately saw +them--one, two, three, and then three more--as they came sweeping +earthward at an incredible speed. + +They looked like immense balls of light, slightly fuzzy around the +edges, leaving faint trails of white fire in their wake. + +They were terrifyingly near--and they moved into silence. The Great +Man knew that all around the house, in a complex involving many square +miles, alert defenders were stationed--some at radar panels and others +around electronic anti-aircraft cannon and Nike launchers, their +weapons primed with atomic warheads. Yet the night was silent. + +A cricket chirped somewhere, but its song was quickly drowned in the +faint unmistakable whine of a distant jet engine. The Air Force was on +sky reconnaissance. The Great Man uttered a silent prayer that they +would confine themselves to observation. There was another whine, and +then another and another, each growing louder against the stars as the +mysterious invaders swept rapidly closer. + +Although flying saucer stories had appeared in the press in waves, with +long intervals between reports, in official circles that activity had +not died down since their first sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947. +Of late, more and more such activity had been reported. They had been +seen over the big cities, as well as above more isolated regions. +Unmistakably, it was a pattern of approaching climax. + +Over Europe, Africa, South America and behind the Iron Curtain as +well as over North America, the Unidentified Flying Objects had been +observed and had given birth to the wildest speculations. + +A disturbed Moscow had labeled them horror weapons of the imperialistic +powers. And certain American journals had insisted they were +super-Soviet aircraft that foreshadowed another and greater Pearl +Harbor. + +But until now the Great Man had never seen one of them--had even +disbelieved in their existence. He watched them swoop closer, ever +closer, and his left arm sought the reassuring solace of his wife’s +waist. + +“What are they?” he wondered aloud. “Where do they come from? What do +they _want?_” + + * * * * * + +Suddenly the leading invader dropped with incredible swiftness, until +it seemed to be hovering directly above them. A quartet of searchlight +beams stabbed out and, for an instant, held it in a crossflare of light. + +The Great Man gasped. It was solid, and its billowing contours hinted +at a complex simplicity that was, the Great Man sensed instinctively, +beyond the inventive capacity of human technology at its most ingenious. + +Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone--and with it went the +other lights. The Great Man realized he was gripping his wife far too +tightly, and released her. He laughed, a bit shakily, and said, “Well, +anyway, I’ve seen one of them close up.” + +“What do you think it was?” his wife asked quietly as they went back +indoors. He shook his head. “I’m damned if I know,” he told her. +“Darling, I think I’d better talk to Harlan. He may have an idea. Do +you mind?” + +“Of course not,” she replied warmly. “Give him my love. And let me know +what he thinks they are.” + +Harlan was not an official. A philosopher, a teacher, a writer, a +brilliant theoretical astrophysicist, he was the Great Man’s closest +friend and most trusted advisor. Independently wealthy, he had +stubbornly refused to take any salaried post. “This way,” he had told +the Great Man more than once, “I’m still my own master and can offer +occasional suggestions that you won’t have to frown upon officially.” + +He had taken a house less than a mile from the Great Man’s inland +residence. He did not seem to care at all that it was a comfortable, +hideously ugly relic of the “big house” period that extended roughly +from 1880 to 1910. It took the Great Man less than five minutes to +reach it. + +As always on seeing him again after a month’s absence the Great Man +was startled by his advisor’s outward youthfulness. Save for the grey +that peppered his close-cropped hair, and the tiny crow’s-feet about +his eyes, Harlan might have been a remarkably precocious, quite recent +university graduate. + +More shaken than he cared to admit, the Great Man asked, “Did you see +it, Harlan?” + +“I saw,” said Harlan softly. Like the Great Man’s wife, the famed +astrophysicist seemed built around an inner serenity that enabled him +to meet each of life’s crises, firmly, rationally, and without foolish +or fearful deviation. + +“What do you think?” the Great Man asked him. + +For a moment Harlan regarded his guest calmly from around the bowl of +his pipe. Finally he said, “What _should_ I think? It occurs to me that +what _you_ think is vastly more important.” + +The Great Man had risen and was pacing the floor. “Harlan,” he said. +“I’m beginning to think the military is right. I’m beginning to believe +that these UFO’s are of alien origin. From the steadily increasing and +consistent pattern of their appearances, I can only conclude that they +are the prelude to some sort of invasion from space.” + +“Who’d want this little planet?” Harlan asked, with ironic bitterness. +“It is already despoiled, overpopulated....” + +“Not knowing the nature of our visitors,” said the Great Man, “and not +knowing their needs or desires, how can we answer such a question?” +He paused, regarding his host steadily for an instant. Then he said: +“You’ll be glad to know I refused to permit hostile action, a stand +which you yourself strongly urged me to take.” + +“Thank you,” said Harlan, simply and sincerely. + +Something in his tone stopped the Great Man in his tracks. “Thank you,” +he said. “Why thank me? Harlan. Why are you staring at me like that?” + +Harlan held his gaze, and nodded slowly. “It’s true,” he said. “_I’m +one of them._ We have techniques--hypnotics and the like--to make the +records misleading. Don’t look so horrified, my friend. Although I am +not of Earth, I’m human enough.” + +The Great Man sank into a chair, still staring in stunned horror at +his advisor. “But Harlan,” he said, “why have you done this to _me_? +Where are you from? What do you and your people want?” He felt a sick +dizziness at the base of his brain, such as he had not felt since the +last election had hung precariously in the balance. + +“You have asked me three questions,” was the reply, “and none of them +simple.” A faint smile tugged at his lips. “However, I’ll try to answer +them to the best of my ability. Why have I done this _to_ you? I +scarcely believe, if you’ll think back over the past few years, that I +have done anything _to_ you. + +“The advice I gave you was sincerely given and it was in the best +interests of your country, and your world. I may as well tell you I +became your advisor because I was assigned to the task on my own world.” + +The Great Man could only keep staring at Harlan, wondering what his +real name was, and whether he was seeing him as a human being only +because Harlan had planned it that way. + +Harlan went on quickly: “As to where we are from, I can only say the +inhabited Galaxy. You see, there are hundreds of far-flung planets +suitable for human life scattered among the stars of what you call the +Milky Way.” + +“And precisely what do you want? Why are you invading Earth at this +time?” the Great Man asked in a faraway voice. + +“All we want,” was the quiet reply, “is to see the people of your world +become sufficiently mature to join the rest of us--without repeating +some of the ghastly mistakes that certain other strong, primitive +planetary societies have made. That is why I--and many others--have +been given the assignment of trying to prepare you for your most +difficult task--the early control of atomics. + +“You speak of ‘invasion.’ What you are witnessing is actually quite +the reverse. We have done all we can on Earth. The rest is up to you. +The vessels which you call flying saucers are actually here to take us +home.” + +The Great Man was on his feet again, somehow more alarmed by Harlan’s +last statement than by his previous fears. “But you’re leaving us in a +terrifying mess,” he said. “Why can’t you keep on helping us a little +longer. Why can’t you?” + +Harlan slowly shook his head. “We have guided you as far as we can,” he +replied. “We cannot teach you to master yourselves. We have managed to +bring you, without self destruction, to the final test. It will either +take you to the stars or leave your planet a briefly glowing cinder in +the skies. But we cannot take the examination for you.” + +“I see.” The Great Man was humble beyond his habit. He was just +beginning to realize how completely he had depended on Harlan to make +his decisions for him. Without him ... and without his wife ... he +would be like a small boy trying to run a business. A defiant spark +flamed within him. + +“I could give orders to have you confined--to keep you here,” he said. + +But Harlan shook his head. “You couldn’t. I want you to leave me now. +It will be easier that way. This is goodbye, my friend, unless fate +wills us to meet out there.” He nodded toward the windows and the +glowing night sky beyond. + +There was something in his manner which forbade disbelief. The Great +Man shook his hand and, unexpectedly, there were tears in his eyes. +Harlan put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and said, “That is what +will bring you through. You can love.” + +“Yes,” said the Great Man. “We can love. I only hope it is enough.” + +“It will have to be,” said Harlan, “for you have very little else.” And +there was something--a warning, perhaps--in his tone which echoed in +the Great Man’s ears long after he was back in the big car en route to +his own house. + +The taut excitement of a half hour earlier had vanished. His aides and +bodyguards were casual, and relaxed, as if nothing out of the ordinary +had happened. Wondering, more than a little frightened, the Great Man +went upstairs to the apartment he occupied with his wife. He called to +her but she did not answer. He searched for her but she was not there. + +All at once, he _knew_. She, too, was one of them--the serene, +wonderful woman who had, in a few short years, guided him from +obscurity to the pinnacle, and whose quiet poise and steadfastness had +brought him triumphantly through so much. When he looked in her closet, +he was somehow not surprised to discover that his own things--his golf +clubs and fishing gear--had replaced her removed garments. + +He wandered out on the balcony. All at once a light flashed down out +of the sky and hovered low, no more than a half mile away, over what +had been Harlan’s house. It hovered for an instant and then, suddenly, +it was gone--and the Great Man felt alone as never before in his life. +What had Harlan said--about love being enough? “It will have to be, for +you have very little else.” + +The Great Man looked up at Orion, and the Big Dipper, and at Jupiter +lurking low on the horizon. Somehow, he knew, mankind had passed a lot +of tests, with a great deal of travail--and the big one still lay still +ahead. He wondered about his opposite numbers around the Earth. Had +they, too, had advisors from the stars? + +That, he decided, was one intangible he was going to have to take for +granted. As he went back inside, he was formulating plans to bring +them all together, to get them over the last hurdle safely. And for +the first time he had the feeling that, elsewhere in the world, sad +but still-important great men and women were sharing his thoughts and +emotions. It wasn’t a bad thing to know. Not a bad thing at all. + + + + +Transcriber’s note: + + +This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe, November 1955 (Vol. 4, +No. 4.). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. + +Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but minor +inconsistencies have been retained as printed. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77718 *** |