EARTHMEN NO MORE A Captain Future Novelet By Edmond HAMILTON When the Futuremen revived John Carey from his deep freeze, he wanted to go home—but where in space was home ? shrieking of his body against the void as it was sucked into the devouring brilliance. CHAPTER I There was a face between him and the light, huge and awesome. He cried out but The Awakening no sound came and then it was gone, the light, the face, even himself, swallowed up in the quiet night. Memories—the aloneness, the S TILL and cold in its lightless vault of remembering, the timeless drift. A sound bone, the brain stirred feebly. Slowly, like the rustle of far-off surf that boomed slowly, it began to wake and remember— louder and louder and became a voice timeless memories, flowing across it in a speaking out of the heavens, saying, dark inchoate tide from nowhere into “Wake up, John Carey! Wake up!” nothingness. And he thought he answered, “But I am He was alone in space. Quite alone, dead.” floating, turning, drifting. He had no How had he come to die? destinatio n and he was in no hurry. He had lost the Sun and the planets. There were M EMORIES, groping, uncertain, not even any stars. coming faster, clearer, clothed in He did not worry. The dead do not vivid color. A girl's face, a girl's red mouth insist on stars. He had forgotten how he saying, “Don't go. Don't go if you love me. came to die and he was glad. You'll never come back.” After a long while, far distant in the Men and a ship—a little ship, a frail and infinite night, he saw a tiny gleam. He tiny craft, it seemed, for the long way it regarded it without curiosity or fear and was going and the high dreams it had. then he realized that some inexorable Hard- faced iron-handed men, braver than current had caught him and was sweeping angels and more hungry than they were him toward the light, hurling him at it in a brave, hungry for new worlds and the swift relentless rush. He knew that he did unknown things that lay beyond the not want to go to it—but there was no mountains of the Moon, beyond the still escape. canals of Mars, beyond the glittering The little point of light leaped and deadly Belt. spread into a sun, a nova, a shattering He remembered now the men and the glare. Terror overcame him. He clawed at ship, how they had gambled their lives the comforting darkness as it fled past but against glory and lost. “We shot the he could not hold onto it and it seemed to Asteroids,” he muttered, in the silence of him that he could hear the small thin his mind. “Jupiter was there ahead of us, a big golden apple almost in our hands. I 1 remember how the moons looked, aside and his hands, very strong but swarming like bees around it. I delicate of touch, busied the mselves with a remember…” vial and a gleaming needle. The meteor—the tearing agony of Carey lay still. For the moment he had metal, the last glimpse of horror in the ship not the strength to do anything else. The before the air-burst took him with it into room was small. It was fitted as a space, through the riven pilot-dome. The 1aboratory, incredibly compact, and many brief, bitter knowledge that this was death. of the objects that his wandering gaze “Dead,” he said again. “I'm dead.” passed over were strange to him. The strange voice answered, “If you One of these objects was a small want to you can live again.” cubical case of semi- translucent metal, He thought about that. He thought about resting on a table. The surface nearest it for a long time in the darkness. To live Carey was fitted with twin lenses and a again—the light and the warmth, the disc, so that it bore an unsettling hunger and pain and hope, the wanting, the resemblance to a face. Carey thought being able to want. He thought and he was vaguely that it must be some sort of a not sure and then at last he whispered, communicator. “How? Tell me how!” Suddenly he said, “I’m in a ship.” “Open your eyes and come back, back The red-haired man smiled. “How can where the light is. You were here before, you tell? We’re in free fall.” don't you remember? Open your eyes, John “I can tell.” Carey tried to struggle up. Carey!” “But there are no ships beyond the Belt! He did or thought he did and there was How...” Then he began to tremble nothing but mist, heavy darkling clouds of violently. “Listen,” he said to the stranger. it. Far, far away he saw the gleam of light “Listen, I was killed, trying to reach beyond him and he tried to grope toward it Jupiter. A meteor hit us and I was blown but the mists were very thick. clear, out into space with no armor. I'm “I can't,” he moaned. “I'm lost.” dead. I’m a dead man. I…” Lost forever, in darkness and cold. “Steady on,” said the red- haired man. “Come back!” cried the voice strongly. “Easy.” He set the needle into a place “Come back and live!” already swabbed on Carey's naked arm. He heard the sound of a hand striking Carey flinched. He sobbed a little and then smartly against flesh. After a while he felt the trembling quieted. it. That little sharp pain somehow managed “I was dead,” he whispered, again. to bridge a colossal gulf and make him “No,” said the red-haired stranger. “Not aware that he had a body. really dead. What we call the space-death His brain oriented itself with a dizzying isn't true death but cold shock—an lunge. The mists tore away. He woke. instantaneous stoppage of all life It was a full awakening. The exploding processes. There's no time for deterioration nova resolved itself into a light-tube, or cellular damage, no possibility of decay. glowing against a low ceiling of metal. The organism stops short. It can, by certain The countenance that had loomed so means, be started going again.” hugely above him became the face of a He looked thoughtfully down at Carey man. A lean face, deeply bronzed with the and added, “Many lives are restored that unmistakable burn of space, topped with way, lives that would have been considered red hair and set with two level grey eyes ended in your time.” that looked straight into Carey's and made Carey said numbly, “Then you found him feel somehow safe and unafraid. me, floating in space, in frozen sleep? You “Lie still,” said the red-haired man. “Get –revived me?” your breath. There's no hurry.” He turned 2 “Yes. Space law requires that any ship- seemed to have words in it. Carey got up. wreckage encountered on radar must be He clung to the edge of the surgeon's table, investigated. That's how we found you.” fighting the weakness that was on him, his The stranger smiled. “Welcome back to eyes fixed on the bulkhead door. life, Carey. My name is Curt Newton.” “Carey,” said Curt Newton, “things It was only then that it penetrated have changed and science has come a long Carey's stunned mind, the phrase that had way. There are three others aboard this been used so casually a moment before. ship besides myself. They're not—well, not “You said, 'In my time',” he repeated. quite human, as men of your day “How long…” He stopped. His mouth was understood the term. Even now, in our dry. He tried again, forcing out the words time, they're unique, created by techniques that did not wish to be spoken. “How long far beyond the general knowledge. But you was I asleep out there?” must not be afraid of them. They're my The man who called himself Curt friends and will be yours.” Newton hesitated, then asked, “What year A chill came over Carey, creeping into was it when you met disaster, Carey?” his bones. He continued to stare at the “It was nineteen ninety-one. It was June, door. What waited behind it, what nineteen ninety-one, when we left Earth.” monstrous things—not quite human, not Newton reached for a calendar pad, held quite human. The words repeated it up. He did not speak and there was pity themselves in his brain, scuttling across it in his eyes. like spiders spinning icy webs, tightening Carey saw the date on it, and at first it until he could barely hear Newton's voice was too incredible to touch him. “Oh, no,” talking on. he said. “Not all that time, all those “Robot…” Faintly the voice came and generations. No, it’s not true.” Carey stared at the door. The drops of “It is.” sweat ran slowly down his face. “Robot, “But it can’t be ...” His voice trailed off. human in intelligence, created by scientific The numbers on the pad, the awful sum of genius…” years blurred and darkened before him. There were sounds behind the door. Once more he began to tremble and this There were presences not of the flesh. time it was for fear of life, not of death. Carey's mouth was dry with the taste of “Why did you bring me back?” he fear. whispered. “I have no place here. I'm still “… android, human in all respects but a dead man.” created also in the laboratory…” Carey began to move toward the door. A BRUPTLY, from beyond the closed What dreadful facet of the future had he bulkhead door, there came the sound been cast into? What uncanny children of of footsteps. Strange steps, ponderous and this undreamed-of age were lurking there clanking, as though someone enormously behind that panel? He could not bear to heavy walked in metal boots. Curt Newton know but somehow not knowing was turned his head sharply. worse. Not knowing and wondering and “Grag!” he called. “Hold on there. thinking… Wait !” “…the brain of a great scientist, a The footsteps hesitated and a voice from human, kept alive for many years in a beyond the door said mockingly, “I told special case…” you so. What do you want to do, frighten Robot, android, living brain. A red- the poor chap out of his wits?” The voice haired man and a date on a calendar. A had a peculiar soft sibilance of tone. ship where there are no ships, a life where It was answered by a rumbling metallic there is no living. A dream, Carey—a growl, an utterly unhuman sound, that dream you’re dreaming, drifting along 3 with the endless tides, the dark night tides beyond the Belt. Open the door, Carey. What difference in a dream? CHAPTER II A human figure, lithe and graceful, whose face had the unhappy beauty of a Return from Space faun, green-eyed and mocking. And beside it a shape, a towering gigantic manlike form built all of gleaming metal. A shape that bent toward him, reaching out its H E could hear them talking. He did dreadful arms, glaring at him with two not want to hear them. He did not round, flashing eyes. want to lift his head and see them again. A harsh, toneless voice spoke close He did not even want to be alive. But he behind Carey, saying, “Catch him, Curtis.” could not help hearing. Carey looked for the source of the Grag's booming voice, the thunderous strange voice. The cubical box that he had voice of the robot. “I didn't know, when I taken for a communicator had risen from fished him out of that wreckage, that he its shelf, hovering upon tenuous beams. had been floating there so long!” And he saw that the surface with the twin The harsh inflexible voice of the metal lenses and the disc was indeed a face. box, of the brain who had once been Simon “No,” said Carey. “Don't touch me. Wright, a scientist of Earth. “A long time Don't any of you touch me.” indeed,” said Simon Wright and added He made his way back into the little slowly, “He is old, this man—almost as old laboratory. The room had closed in on him. as space- flight.” The darkening air pressed against him like The soft sibilance of the android, at water. He was conscious that his hands once cruel and compassionate. “It was no were cold, that his feet were very heavy, kindness to bring this one back, Curt. He's treading on a surface he could no longer as much alone in the world as we are.” feel. There was something in the attitude of “I tried to soften the shock for him,” these three unhuman strangers that struck Curt Newton was saying somewhere across Carey suddenly. It was a strange thing, for the universe. one who had for all his life been merely a And the harsh voice of the cubical metal man named John Carey, of no particular case replied without inflection, “Poor importance to anyone but himself. It was fellow, he has many shocks in store.” awe. And that realization brought another Carey sat down. He put his face with it—that John Carey was a creature as between his cold palms, and the knowledge queer and unreal to these beings of the came to him, the truth that he had not quite future as they were to him. believed before but from which now there Curt Newton said to the android, “I was no escape. think you’re wrong, Otho. I think any man He had bridged the gulf of time. He had with guts enough to buck the Belt in those left his own past in the dust of centuries old tin skyrockets would rather live, even behind him and he stood face to face with a in an unknown time, than sleep eternity future that was beyond his knowing. He away.” was brother to Lazarus, come forth into an Carey did not answer that. He did not alien world. know the answer. “He creates a problem for us, Curtis,” said Simon Wright. “And at a time when we have a grave problem of our own. You understand that.” 4 “Yes.” Curt Newton went and stood in It was hard to teach himself that they front of Carey and spoke his name. Carey were there no more. But one or another of looked up. his shipmates was always near him and “I want you to know one thing,” said never let things get to bad. So gradually, Newton. “You're not alone, not without from constant association, Grag and Otho friends. You’ll stay with us until you're and Simon Wright became familiar to oriented. After that—well, we have a Carey and he no longer felt that uncanny certain amount of influence and we’ll see twinge when he was near them. that you get a start on whatever sort of life Simon remained enigmatic and remote, you may choose.” an intelligence keen and brilliant far Still Carey did not answer. beyond Carey's power to understand, “Listen,” said Newton. “You were a wrapped in his own thoughts, his own pioneer. Why you were or what you researches. Knowledge was Simon's thirst wanted out of it I don’t know. But and his existence and it seemed to Carey whatever it was you were trying to push that, although Simon Wright had been a the frontiers back so you could get it. man of Earth before his brain was taken Well, you succeeded, you and others like from his dying body and preserved by the you. Even in failure, you succeeded. magic of a future science, Simon had “There are colonies on the farthest become the least human of them all. moons. Men have even begun to reach out Grag and Otho were easier. The android to the worlds of other stars. You helped to was so nearly human that only now and make all that possible, Carey, and you're again did a flicker of something other- alive to see it. Isn’t that enough to make worldly in his green eyes remind Carey you want to live? Aren't you curious to see that Otho was not as other men. Even then the civilization you helped to build?” it was impossible to fee1 any horror of Carey smiled faintly. “Psychotherapy,” him. Carey had known a lot of mothers' he said. “We had it in my day and it wasn't sons but seldom one that he liked as much any more subtle. All right, Newton. I'll be as the sharp-tongued ironic Otho, whose curious as hell when I have time to think most pointed barbs were tempered with about it. Meanwhile I'm alive—so I don’t pity. really have any choice, do I?” As for Grag, once Carey had go t used to He got up. Deliberately he forced his seven-foot clanking bulk and enormous himself to look at Grag and Otho and strength, he became fond of the great Simon Wright. robot, whose only faults were over- “All right,” he said to them all, to no enthusiasm and a certain lack of judgment. one. “I'll get used to it in time. A man can It was, however, constantly upsetting to get used to anything if he has time.” Carey to realize that this lumbering metal “Quite,” said the voice of Simon giant had quite as much intelligence as he Wright. “All of us have learned the truth of and a good deal more knowledge. that—even Curtis.” The man Curt Newton, the man many Carey tried in the period that followed. called Captain Future, remained But it was a hard thing to do. To his own paradoxically the most difficult to time-sense the great gap between yesterday understand of all the four. It was only bit and today was only an instant of sleep. He by bit from the others that Carey picked up caught himself often thinking of Earth as Newton's story—his strange birth and he knew it, of the men and women who stranger upbringing in a lonely laboratory would be there just as he had left them, of hidden under the surface of the Moon, an the songs and the streets and the faces of orphan with no other companions than the buildings, the uncountable small details three who were called the Futuremen. that make up the sum of an epoch. 5 N O wonder, Carey thought, that with under his feet again, to look up into a blue such a background Newton was sky at the familiar Sun. He had been long withdrawn and guarded in his approach to away from Earth when he fell asleep—an the ordinary relationships of men. He, like eternity, it had seemed, shut up in an iron his companions—and like Carey too in this coffin outbound for Jupiter. new incarnation of his—was set apart He remembered now how they had forever from the normal world. Carey talked about Earth, crouching within the sensed that the easy casual manner of the narrow walls that hid them from the black red-haired man had been painfully negation of space. The voices still rang in acquired, that beneath it lay a dark and his ears, the faces were as clear as though solitary creature, much better not aroused. he had only turned his head away for a Carey soon discovered something else moment or two. about Curt Newton. He was angry and it Craddock and Szandor, Miles and was no mere passing rage. It was a cold Delaporte, Gaines, Coletti, Fenner—the black fury that rode him all across the red-headed, the black and the fair—the spatial gulf that plunged between Saturn, different particular tricks of phrase and whence he had come, and Earth, where he expression, the kindness and cruelty and was going. And the cause of it was a courage and fear—the wisdom and the message he had received from a man folly, moulded together into the separate named Ezra Gurney about another man forms of men. And they had talked of named Lowther. Earth. There was something about a monopoly They had planned what they would do on a certain kind of fuel, which was going when they got back, with the wealth of a to put Lowther in control of all shipping to new world in their hands. They had talked and from the distant star-colonies which of the women who would be waiting for were not much at present but would grow. them, of the parades and the speeches, the It seemed that the star-ships took on their fame that would be theirs around the globe. high-potential fuel for the long jump at They had talked and all the time the Pluto, where the radioactive ore was mined darkness that was just beyond the hull had and refined. been listening with a silent mirth and John And now, by devious manipulations of Carey was the only one who would ever hidden stock, Lowther had got control of come back again. the refining companies and raised the price As the ship rushed nearer to the orbit of out of reach. There were ships stranded at Earth Carey's eagerness increased until it Pluto and men in an ugly mood and was like a fever in him. He talked of home Newton was heading fast for Earth to see as those other men had talked and Curt what he could do about it. Newton listened with a kind of pity in his It sounded a dirty enough deal and eyes. Carey hoped that Newton would bring “Don’t expect too much,” he said. “It's Lowther to time. But this talk of star- changed—but it's still Earth, not Paradise.” colonies and star-ships was beyond him. The forward jets were cut in and the His mind was still thinking of Jupiter as ship quivered to the brake-blasts—not the the unattained and well- nigh unattainable. anguished uncertain shuddering of the Any problems of star-ships or the men ships Carey had known but a controlled who flew them were distant and unreal. lessening of speed. The green remembered Furthermore he was too deeply immured in wor1d came gleaming across the forward his own fears and loneliness, in the port and Carey stared at it, sitting strangeness of being alive. motionless and absorbed, urging the misty He began to think more and more of continents into shape, watching the oceans Earth. He was hungry to see it, to feel it 6 T spread into blueness and the mountains rise HE blaze of a summer sun smote and become real. hard upon him. He looked up at white Suddenly he was afraid. He covered his clouds piling slowly in the sky and thought face with his hands, and said, “I can't. I out of some dim coign of memory, Later can't walk like a ghost through streets I there will be a storm. He began to walk never saw, looking for people who have across the concrete apron, scarred with been dead for generations.” many flames. “It won't be easy,” said Curt Newton. This was the same spaceport. It had to “But you'll have to. Until you do you'll be be for there was the city before him and living and thinking in the past.” He looked behind him was the sea. Here, from a little at Carey, half smiling. “After all, you came field that had looked so big and grand, the into this world a stranger once before.” Victrix had taken flight for Jupiter. Here a “What will they say to me?” whispered girl had said goodbye and kissed him with Carey. “How do people talk to a dead the bitterness of tears. man?” But it was not the same. The little field “As rudely as they do to everyone else. was swallowed up and gone, drowned in And how will they know unless you tell the mighty rows of docks. Where the them? Come on, Carey, stiffen up. Forget administration building had stood a white the past. Start thinking about the future.” pylon towered up into the clouds. The air “Future!” said Carey and the word had a was filled with the thunderous roar of strange hollow sound to him. “Give me ships, landing, taking off, jets flaming, lean time. I haven’t caught up with the present hulls flashing in the sun. yet.” Great cranes clanked and rumbled. He was silent after that. Newton asked Strings of lorries snorted back and forth for and got clearance for a landing. The between the freight docks and the ship picked up her pattern and spiraled in. warehouses and from beyond them spoke Nothing was clear to Carey. Confused the anvil voices of the foundries. Atomic vistas reeled and spun beneath him, a huge welders blazed like little suns and the huge monster of a city, the many-colored red tenders rolled ponderously among the patchwork of a spaceport, strange and ships with their loads of fuel. unknown, yet with a haunting familiarity, Carey walked slowly. He was listening like a language learned in childhood and to the music, the titan song of the ships and long forgotten. His heart pounded fiercely. the men who served them. Good music to It was hard to breathe. one who had first helped to write it long The ship touched ground. And John ago. He listened and was proud—not just Carey had come home from space. for himself but for Gaines and Coletti, He remained as he was, sitting still, his Fenner and Miles and Szandor, the men of fingers sunk deep into the padded arms of his crew and all the other crews who had the recoil-chair. Curt Newton’s voice was christened this port in their blood and faint and far away. “Simon and I are going flame. to Government Center. Grag will stay with And suddenly the song was drowned in the ship. But Otho can go along with you if the chattering voices of women. People you like.” surged around him, caught him up and “No,” said Carey. “No thanks—I…” carried him on toward a great sleek craft of There was more he wanted to say but he silvery metal, with a name and an could not form the words. He got up and unknown flag on her bow—Empress of went past the others, seeing them only as Mars. Trim young men in natty uniforms shadows. The airlock was open. He went stood by her gangplank. High heels clicked out. against the curving metal with a sound as brittle as the voices. 7 “Such a wretched cruise the last time! I tall pillar that stood at the edge of the was simply bored to tears…” spaceport. “Well, Mars isn’t what it used to be, so There was gold lettering on it, only a overrun with tourists. I went last to little dingy from the back-blast of many Ganymede for a change and you have no ships. Carey saw a name he knew. idea…” He looked closer. It was a tall pillar and A young girl, giggling—“It’s my first he had to look high to see the legend that trip and I’m just thrilled to death. Janet read, TO THE PIONEERS OF SPACE. said they have a simply heavenly orchestra Now he saw. Underneath that legend on this ship!” were names, and dates. First the names of Under the shrill incessant chatter lay the the great trail-blazers. heavier intermittent voices of men. Rich Gorham Johnson—Mark Carew—Jan men, stuffed with the tallow of good living, Wenzi— men with big sweating bellies sheathed in Wenzi…Once a small boy had watched silk, comparing the food and service on the with worshipping eyes as a grizzled one- Empress with the Morning Star, that flew armed man stumped toward a ridiculous the luxury run to Venus, and the Royal rocket-ship. Jove. And here and there among them an A little farther down, not much. Lane anxious younger man with a red-mouthed Fenner—Etienne Delaporte—William woman on his arm, underlings stripped to Gaines—yes, all the Victrix crew including their last nickel for the privilege of rubbing John Carey, all with the golden stars beside shoulders with the elite on a trip across them that meant Lost in Space. space. Names—names and men, his friends, A sickness came over Carey. He felt his shipmates, his rivals. Jim Hardee, the smothered in perfume and smug kid who had sat drinking with him the sophistication. He looked at the trim young night before he hit for Jupiter. While he officers and hated them. had lain dead in space young Hardee had Over the chatter and the cries an gone on, doing the big things he dreamed annunciator spoke with firm politeness. of. And now, like the others, he was only a “Last warning for Empress of Mars dingy gold- letter name on a forgotten passengers! The gangways close in six monument. minutes. Last warning…” The voice of the annunciator pleaded Carey stood, a silent unnoticed figure in monotonously, “Will Pallas passengers the crowd, thinking of other ships and please report at once to Dock Forty-four? other men who had left Earth long ago, and Will Pallas passengers...” the sickness in him deepened. Caught in Old Wenzi and Jim Hardee and young the press of soft comfortable flesh he heard Szandor and Red Miles—yes, and he gongs clanging and a surge of voices and himself, bucking the black emptiness and then the sibilant roar that became a purring the cold death to push the frontiers out… thunder as a glistening fabric of shining “Attention, please,” said the mechanical metal lifted skyward. Then he was swept voice. “The liner Star of Venus will land at away in the backwash of people from the Dock Fourteen at exactly six-ten. Those empty dock. wishing to greet incoming passengers…” “She really earned a nice vacation…” Carey sat down on the steps of the “…and those cruise-ships are so much monument. Otho found him there, staring more fun than ordinary space-trips. They at the bright crowds going back and forth, have hostesses and games and always listening to the voices and the laughter, the something to do!” swift proud thunder of the ships. Carey stumbled out of the stream at last into a little deserted backwater around a 8 Otho touched his shoulder and after a ancient Martian cities and the pleasure- while Carey asked him tonelessly, “Did we domes of tropical Venus. die for this?” Shop windows, full of marvels. Tenuous spider-silks from Venus, necklaces of Martian rubies like drops of blood to glow against white flesh, jugs of CHAPTER III curious wines from the moons of Jupiter, the splendid furs of beasts that hunt across Men of Earth the frozen polar seas of Neptune. We opened the way, Carey thought. We died and they grow fat. F OR the better part of two days Curt Stone and steel and plastic and rare Newton was busy carrying his fight metals to make the giant towers splendid. against Lowther into one Government Soft colors, soft sounds of music from office after another. And during that time, garden terraces far above, where the sea with Otho determinedly sticking to him to wind tempered the heat and set the fronds keep him out of trouble, Carey wandered of other-worldly shrubs to rustling. about in the city. Terraces where people sat feeding on It was very large. It had always been delicacies brought across space in fleets of so—the largest city on the world of Earth. special ships, watching languidly the Now it was no longer merely large but musicians and the dancers who were as monstrous, bloated, towering, spreading, alien as the exotic plants. Everywhere was gorged with humanity and wealth. Yet it the pervading softness, the silk-wrapped seemed less crowded than Carey cushioned luxury, the certain ease of men remembered. who have never had to fight. The buildings were taller now, “You might as well see it all,” said frighteningly tall, and there w covered ere Otho. And so Carey visited the places of walks of chrome and glassite spanning the amusement, the parks and the pleasure dizzy canyons in between, so that a man gardens, and sat upon the perfumed might go across the city and never touch terraces, a dark and sombre shadow among the ground. Traffic ran on many levels the butterfly crowds. And often the women underneath. The streets were quiet and turned and looked at him as though clean and Carey missed the brawling perhaps they saw in his face a thing that taxicabs, the surge and hum of crowds. was lost out of the men they knew. He watched the people who passed him. Every landmark was gone, every place The tempo had slowed since the days he he knew was changed. There was no single knew. Men and women strolled now, street that he remembered. And the names where before they had almost run. Their were gone too and the faces, gone and faces were a little different too, more utterly forgotten. relaxed and satisfied. He did not think that Suddenly Carey glanced up at the they were much happier or wiser, certainly overtopping spires that leaned against the no more kind. sky and said, “I hate this place. I'm going Men and women, well fed, well dressed, back to the ship.” making money, spending it. Palaces of Otho smiled a little wryly and they entertainment, offering elaborate returned to the port. amusements to suit every taste. Travel Curt Newton came back almost as soon bureaus displaying their three-dimensional as they. Simon was with him and a grizzled living posters, urging people no longer to leathery-faced man in uniform who was visit Quaint Brittany or the Romantic introduced to Carey as Ezra Gurney. Caribbean but luring them instead with the 9 Otho studied Newton's face. “I was Grag held out his two great metal hands going to ask you how it went,” he said, and looked at them, flexing the fingers “but I see—it didn't go at all.” with an ominous small clanking of the Newton shook his head. “No.” He flung joints. “I vote,” he said, “that we pay this himself down, retreating into a brooding Lowther a visit.” silence. Carey saw his hard dangerous “What form of execution would you anger. prefer?” Otho asked him. “Being melted “What happened?” demanded Grag, down for scrap or converted into a nice “You don't mean to say they're going to let useful boiler? There's a law against killing Lowther get away with it?” people, even for bucket- headed robots.” “There doesn't seem to be any way they “Who said anything about killing?” can stop him,” said Ezra Gurney. He had a boomed Grag. “He could have an accident, hard honest space-worn look about him couldn't he?” that Carey liked. He too was angry. “Preferably a bad one,” grunted Ezra. “The trouble is,” he explained, “that “But I'm afraid that approach won't do.” Curt has no proof against Lowther. There's “No,” said Curt slowly, “but I think a half dozen refining companies on Pluto Grag has the right idea at that. I think we and they’ve all raised their fuel-prices ought to go and talk to Mr. Lowther.” He together. Lowther only owns one of them sprang up. “Come on, Carey, this will outright and in the open. interest you as a commentary on the brave “He says and they all say that mining new world you helped to build!” and refinery costs have gone up so that “I think I've seen enough of it,” Carey they have to charge more for the fuel, said. “I don't want to see any more.” which is legal enough. All right. Now we B know that Lowther has used dummy UT he went with them. Only Simon corporations and juggled stock and so on Wright stayed in the ship. They took until he actually controls the other five a car from the spaceport. Except that it had companies. But we can’t prove it! wheels and seats it bore little resemblance “Curt went to everybody at Government to the cars Carey had known. Propulsion Center. They all said the same thing. Such units sent it rushing smoothly along the a charge would require hearings, underground high-ways. committees, investigation, all that By the time they came out onto the rubbish—weeks, months, maybe years, great elevated boulevards that led across because Lowther is smart enough and rich suburb and country the long summer dusk enough to stall indefinitely and the chances was falling. Carey turned and looked back. of nailing him are mighty slim.” Outlined against the deep blue the “And in the meantime,” said Curt enormous bulk of the city blazed with Newton slowly, “the starmen are forced many-colored light. Even at this distance it either to sell out to Lowther for fuel or to had an alien look to his eyes. stay here in the System while their wives The sleek suburban areas fled by. and families and the communities they've Beyond them the country still pretended to worked so hard to build go without the be as it had been. But Carey's more supplies they need. primitive eyes detected the deception. “They'll give in, of course, because they Artful hands had arranged the trees and have to go back—and Lowther will gain a changed the courses of the brooks and stranglehold on all the trade between the pruned the wild hedgerows into pleasing System and the colonies. In twenty years vistas. he'll be rich enough to buy and sell the The car left the highway and proceeded Sun.” along a private road. Presently, upon a slope ahead, Carey saw a graceful structure 10 of metal and glass, shaped by a master One by one the dancing couples saw hand to fit like a huge synthetic jewel into them and the laughter stopped. The its setting of terraced gardens. swirling skirts were still and the faces The translucent walls gleamed softly watched them, not with fear but with an and strains of music drifted on the evening amazement, as children might look at air. The gardens were full of fairy lights. sombre strangers invading their nursery. As they came closer Carey made out the The music continued, soft and sweet. flutter of women's skirts among the Along the paths between the drooping flowers, heard the sounds of laughter. jasmine and the great pale blooms of “Looks like a party,” said Otho. “A big Venus, across the terraces, through a one.” sliding wall wide open to the night, and “We'll give him a party,” rumbled Grag into a pastel room with a vast expanse of and cracked his metal knuckles. mirror- like floor surrounded by graceful They came to the gates, which were colonnades—and here too the dancers artistic but highly functional. Curt Newton drew back from the intruders. got out. He went to the small viewer that Then, from one of the archways, came a was housed at one side and pressed the group of men headed by a tall man no communicator stud. After a moment Carey older than Curt Newton. He wore a dress saw him returning to the car. tunic of black silk and his hair was black “Mr. Lowther is engaged and can see no and his face had a clear healthy pallor. one,” he quoted and then added, Carey thought that it was the sort of skin a “Particularly us.” He surveyed the gates. woman might have, shaped smooth over “An electronic locking device, operated by handsome bones and set with wide dark remote control or with a light-key—neither eyes. Only there was nothing womanish of which helps us. Grag, would you care to about Lowther’s face if by womanish you see what you can do about it?” meant weak or pitying or possessing any Grag's photo-electric eyes gleamed as he softness of heart. heaved himself out of the car and strode The men with him were of a type Carey toward the gates. For a minute his knew and detested. They were the kind enormous bulk was motionless, leaning who are always somewhere around a man forward a little with his hands on the bars, like Lowther. testing the resistance. Then he moved. The two groups came to a halt and eyed There was a groaning and snapping and a each other. Lowther said, “If you came to metallic squeal and the gates were open. say something, say it and get out.” The car drove on into the grounds. Newton put one hand on Carey’s “There was an alarm on the gate, of shoulder and pointed with the other to course,” said Newton. “They’ll be waiting Lowther. “There he is, Carey—the most for us and I don't want any trouble. We had important man in the Solar System. Oh, the better get out here and go ’round through System doesn’t know it yet but he is. And the gardens.” he's modest too. He owns all the refineries The air was heavy with the scent of on Pluto but you'd never know it to look at flowers. It was warm and on the terraces the records.” the white shoulders of women turned back He had raised his voice a bit so that it the moonbeams. The music ran slow and could be heard clearly above the music. A lilting and there was laughter under the considerable crowd had collected, drawn in colored lights. Curt Newton walked from the gardens, and there were plenty to through the gardens and after him came hear. Grag and Otho and John Carey, who was moving in an unreal dream. 11 L OWTHER came closer to Newton. In the car, speeding back toward the He started to speak and Newton went city, Grag said regretfully, “Why didn't on smoothly, politely, drowning him out. you let me wring his neck?” “My friend has been away from Earth for a “He may get it wrung yet out on Pluto,” long time, Mr. Lowther. I wanted him to answered Curt. “When the starmen there meet you, so that he could see the type of find out that I couldn't do anything for man we produce now, the successful man. them they'll try to do something for I thought it might teach him a lesson while themselves.” He turned suddenly to Carey. he’s still young enough to profit by it. There was a hard reckless glint in his eyes. “You see whe re you made yo ur mistake, “Carey,” he said, “do you want to come Carey? You went pioneering, and got with us out to Pluto and see a fight?” nothing out of it but hardship and danger Carey shrugged heavily. “Pluto, and sudden death. You should have stayed Antares—what difference does it make at home like Mr. Lowther here, using your where I am? Yes, I'll go. I'll go anywhere wits and letting others do the dirty work of that isn't Earth.” opening up new worlds. See what you'd He was sick with Earth and opulence have had—a fine house, a host of friends, a and the greedy faces of men. The old good steady business with no competition? horizons were gone and even Pluto, that “After awhile, with patience and good distant stepchild of the Sun, was the seat of judgment, you’d have owned the shipping- monopoly and all the ugly things that had lines to which at first you only sold fuel. plagued mankind since the beginning. But Doesn’t it make you ashamed, Carey, to it would be a change from Earth. think of how you wasted your youth—just Otho said to Curt, “You're not really as the starmen stranded out there on Pluto going to egg them on to fight?” He said it are wasting theirs?” not with reproof but with hope. Lowther's face was even whiter than Curt answered grimly, “No. They'd before except for two streaks of dull red only get themselves killed without along his cheekbones. “Listen,” he said, “if accomplishing anything. Lowther was you’re so worried about the starmen, you'd right. As of now the law is all on his side.” better get word to them to watch their step He was silent and then he said, “No, it or they'll be in real trouble. was another kind of fight I had in mind.” “They're threatening to resort to He said nothing more, until they reached violence and I’m leaving for Pluto in the the spaceport. Then he grinned at Carey, a morning to see that my property is grin without much humor in it. “I know protected. I don’t know exactly what what you need,” he said. “Grag, go on you’re trying to do, Newton, but even you back to the ship and keep Simon company. can't buck the law—and neither can your Otho and I will help Carey drown his friends.” sorrows.” Newton's face was tight and dark but his Grag went off. Newton and Otho took voice was soft. “There are laws and laws,” Carey some distance around the periphery he said. “Some of them are so basic they of the port. There was an endless number haven't even been written down. Perhaps of joints along the fringe, some of them someday soon we’ll have a longer talk fashionable, some catering to ordinary about laws.” spacehands. They entered one of the latter. He turned abruptly and went back down There were a bar and booths and tables and the long room with the glassy floor and the Carey thought dully that this at least had others went with him. Lowther followed not changed. them at a distance, looking after them as They sat down. Through the window, they left the grounds. which looked out on the flash and thunder of the port, Carey could see the rows of 12 docks and the long sheds with the names When he woke, the ship was on its way to on them of this and that line or company. Pluto. One of them said LOWTHER MINING CORPORATION and there was a sleek ship in its dock with an endless conveyor taking cases of supplies up its gangway. CHAPTER IV “Lowther's ship, getting ready to take him off to Pluto tomorrow,” said Newton Earthmen No More harshly. Otho raised his glass toward it. “Confusion to it,” he said. Newton moodily watched the dis tant T HEY made the long sweeping curve ship. Carey felt the unfamiliar liquor to escape the pull of Neptune and explode in him like liquid fire. Otho ranged in toward the dim speck that was signaled and presently there was another Pluto. The jumping-off place of the Solar glass in Carey's hand. System, with nothing beyond it but He was in no mood to refuse it. He had interstellar space, riding its dark cold orbit been a long, long time in space, his around a Sun so distant that it seemed no awakening had been hard, his homecoming greater than the other stars. bitter. The future was a cold and formless Yet even here, if wealth was hidden presence, crouched behind a dark curtain. away, man would find it. Carey thought Carey drank. that undoubtedly a few shrewd souls would There was an interval wherein he knew have set up concessions for mining coal in that he talked but was not sure what he Hell. said. Then he found himself in cool night He had watched all the way out from air and Otho's arm was helping him into a Earth but with only a flicker of the ship. excitement he would once have known. Even through his haze, Carey knew He was interested, of course, because it Simon Wright's toneless voice by now. was his first trip beyond the orbit of “Where is Curtis?” it demanded. Jupiter. But the thrill was gone. People “He'll be along,” Otho said easily. talked of going out to Saturn or Uranus “This way, Carey—you need sleep.” now as they had once talked of going out It was later—how much later he could to California. It gave Carey, somehow, a not guess—when Carey half-roused to feeling of having been cheated. In his day voices. Simon's inflectionless voice and going to Mars had been a big thing and Curt's. fraught with danger. “—and you won't tell me what you've From a featureless fleck of reflected been up to?” Simon was saying. light almost too faint to be seen Pluto grew “There's nothing to tell, Simon. We got into a recognizable world—a dark world nowhere with Lowther so we came back. with black wild mountains shooting up Now we've got to go out to Pluto and see if against the stars and eerie seas of ice. we can stop him there.” There was something so cruel and “Curtis, I know you and I know that you ghostlike in the look of it that Carey could have done something. Well, we shall see. not repress a shudder. But one thing I am sure of and that is that It seemed rather like an invader from someday your anger will outrun your outer space than a member of the familiar wisdom and bring you to disaster.” System, the more so since in bulk and mass Carey drifted into sleep again. He did and composition it bore a ghastly not even rouse to the shock of take-off. 13 resemblance to Earth as though alien distance from the domes—no closer than a demons might have made it as a joke. hundred yards. There's a charged barrier.” They were a little ahead of Lowther. He added, “We're well armed.” They had not had much start on him but The screen went dark. Curt shook his they had a faster ship. head. “They're all set for trouble. Let's “We'll have a little time,” said Curt. hope it hasn't already started.” “Even a few hours might be enough to talk Curt set the Comet down at last, on the some sense into Burke and the others.” edge of a vast white plain where it struck Burke, Carey gathered, was captain of against a mountain wall. Carey saw two one of the two star-ships fighting the battle great dark hulls looming near them with over fuel, was more or less the leader of only their mooring lights showing. Well both crews. over a hundred yards away, sunk into the “They counted on help from the living rock of the cliffs so that only the Government,” said Otho. “When they find outer bulwarks showed, was a series of out what's happened they're going to be steel-and-concrete domes. hard to hold.” Northward along the plain, in a sector “We've got to hold them,” Curt marked off by beacons to warn away answered grimly. “They'll blow their only incoming ships, were other domes. Here chance if they start fighting.” there were rifts and gouges in the barren Simon said nothing but his lens- like rock of Pluto, hulks of strange machinery eyes followed Curt intently. The forward and structures of various sorts whose uses jets began to thunder and the Comet, still Carey could not be sure of. curving, entered its long arc of Occasional lights gleamed but nothing deceleration. moved. The diggers and the ore-carriers As they swept closer Carey saw that the were still and no clouds of vapor came frozen plains were pocked with craters, and from the buried stacks of the refineries. that some of the mountain-peaks had been “They're shut down tight,” said Curt. shattered by caroming meteors. The lunar “Regular state of siege.” He looked at the desolation of the world was hideous. others. “Don't forget what our friend said Carey thought what it must be like to live about the barrier.” and work here. They put on protective coveralls— “The refinery men get relief at regular except for Grag and Simon, who needed no intervals,” Curt told him. “And there are a such protection. Curt had handed Carey couple of small domed cities around on the one of the suits. “You've come all the way other side.” out and you might as well see the fun,” he Carey nodded. “ Even so Pluto seems a said. stiff place for them.” Then they went out into the black “It is,” said Curt. “You'll see.” Plutonian night toward the star-ships. It The televisor buzzed. They had been was intensely dark, colder than anything coming in on the automatic beam but now Carey remembered except that one split- somebody wanted to talk to them. Curt second touch of open space. opened the switch. Carey stared at the distant mockery of a A man's face appeared on the little Sun, overcome with the feeling that he was screen. It wore the expression of one who indeed on the outer edge of the universe. has been handed a hot wire and doesn't He was so occupied by his sensations that know how to let go of it. “Lowther Mines he was taken completely by surprise whe n speaking,” it said. “Identify yourself.” men rose suddenly out of the hollows of Newton did and the man's face grew the ice and closed around them. more unhappy. “We can't very well stop A torchbeam flashed out and struck Curt you from land ing,” he said. “But keep your full in the face. He said, “Burke?” and 14 from beyond the light a voice grunted, Curt Newton told them and as he talked “Okay, relax. It's him.” Carey watched the starmen. An eerie “What’s the idea?” Curt demanded. feeling crept over him that he had known “Well,” said Burke, “we picked up your these men before. He had served with them call but we wanted to be sure it really was in the little ships that fought their way you and not one of Lowther's smart tricks.” along the planetary roads that seemed then “Or,” said Curt, “did you hope maybe it so long and hard. It was strange to see was Lowther himself, trying to get behind these men again, to know that they still the barrier before you knew who he was?” lived. He could almost have called them by He glanced around at the shadow-shapes of name except that their faces had altered a the men, who were numerous and armed. bit and he could not be sure. “Maybe,” said Burke. He switched the Burke was talking. “If they won’t do beam around the Futuremen and onto anything we’ll have to do it ourselves. Carey. “Who's this?” And we will! I’m not going to sell our ship “He's not Lowther either. His name is to that pirate for a load of fuel.” Carey and he's a friend of mine.” Curt said, “The law—” Burke nodded briefly. His attention “To blazes with the law! When it starts returned to Newton. “What's the news? protecting thieves instead of honest men What did they say on Earth?” it’s time to forget the law.” “Let's go on to your ship,” said Curt. There was no cheering or loud talk. “I'll tell you about it there.” There was only a harsh mutter of assent. Burke and the others must have known “Listen,” Curt said. “You can’t smash from the way he said it what the answer into the domes and take the fuel. You was going to be. But they turned silently know what they’ve got ready for you.” and went back across the ice with the “We don’t have to smash in,” said Futuremen and Carey into their ship. Burke. “Lowther's on his way here. We They had the port shutters down but intercepted his message saying so. Well, he there was light inside. It felt very warm to can’t land behind the barrier. There isn’t Carey after the spatial chill. They stripped room.” off their heavy garments and went aft into Curt nodded. “The same thing you the main cabin, sorting themselves out so pulled with me. Get Lowther in your that the officers of both star-ships sat down hands…” around the battered table and the crews “And kill him, if we have to,” Burke crowded where they could in the finished quietly. “But, we’ll get our fuel.” passageways to listen. For the first time Simon spoke. “That is murder.” C AREY stood unnoticed in a corner of Burke shrugged. “They'll have to come the cabin. He could see these starmen a long way to catch us.” He added in a now. They had large scarred hands and sudden fury, “Murder, is it? We've got our faces burned dark as old leather. Their wives and families out there! They need uniform jumpers were worn and their boots the medicines, the tools, the seeds. What if were shabby and they wore their greasy they die for want of them? Isn't that murder caps in a certain way that Carey too?” remembered. He saw the sort of eyes they Simon said, “If you kill Lowther you had too—and those he remembered also. can never come back for more.” Burke leaned forward across the table. Curt had got to his feet. He was about to He had an oblong face that was mostly speak. Then Carey heard a voice clamoring bone and sinew like the rest of him and a over the annunciator, crying, “Radar room! hungry look around the mouth. “All right,” We've just picked up Lowther's ship! He's he said. “Now tell us.” still in free fall but he's coming!” 15 Carey saw the fierce excitement that heading right out into the stars in free fall took the starmen. There was a sudden with no power.” wolfish shouting, a ringing of boots on the He began to walk back and forth with deck-plates. Burke was yelling orders. The short steps as though he could not bear to men in the passageways began to move. be still. His hands gripped fiercely at the Burke faced Curt Newton. “Well?” air. “We don’t have to kill him now. It's Curt said, “Hold your men back.” done and not a finger laid on him. And it's There was a tenseness about him now. better—better! He'll learn before he dies. It seemed to Carey that he was listening for He'll learn what it means to be between the something. “Hold them back!” stars with no fuel!” Burke's face hardened. “I couldn't if I Curt Newton turned sharply toward the wanted to.” He added slowly and door. meaningly, “They'll trample anybody that Simon glided before him. “Curtis,” he gets in their way.” said, “this is your doing.” He turned his back on Newton then and Curt said quietly, “Get out of my way, for a time nothing more was said or done. Simon. I’m going after him.” They listened to the voice of the radar man, Burke heard. So did the others. Carey calling out the position of Lowther's ship. saw them move toward Newton. The voice became more and more puzzled. “What do you mean—going after him?” Simon’s lens- like eyes were fixed cried Burke. intently on Curt Newton. “There are other men in that ship besides “He's still in free fall,” said the radar Lowther. There's no reason why they man. He hasn't started his curve yet and the should die.” indicators don't show any rockets.” “Oh no,” said Burke softly. “You're not Burke put his mouth close to the going to bring him back.” speaker-grid. “Communications,” he said. Carey saw them closing in around “Are you getting anything from Lowther’s Newton and he pushed in to stand with ship?” Otho beside the red-haired man. The answer came back, “No. The “Listen,” said Newton. “I've fought for Company station is calling Lowther but he you. I’m still fighting for you. Are you doesn’t answer. It’s like he hasn’t any going to trust me or aren't you?” power.” Burke’s glance wavered before his. But “Still no rockets,” said the radar man. “I he said, “It doesn't make sense to bring can’t figure this one. He’s way past his him back.” point of approach and going wide.” “Let him go,” said Simon Wright “Still no signals,” put in slowly. “He has done this thing for you. Communications. “He doesn’t answer.” Now let him finish it.” “Going wide—” The voice of the radar U man reached a tight pitch of excitement. NCERTAINLY, reluctantly, Burke “He's lost his landing-curve! He’s heading stepped aside and Curt Newton went right out into space with no rockets!” out of the star-ship with Carey and Otho For some odd reason Curt Newton and Simon Wright. seemed to relax. But Burke and the other Not until the Comet was rising up from officers stared at each other with dawning Pluto on a jet of flame, rushing out into the comprehension and then with a joy that vast darkness where Lowther’s helpless was more savage than their anger. ship was gone, did Simon speak again. He “He’s out of fuel,” said Burke. “Nothing asked tonelessly, “How did you do it, else would kill both his rockets and Curtis?” communications. He’s out of fuel and Newton shrugged but would not meet his gaze. “There’s a certain chemical, you 16 know, a pinch of which can kill a whole “I wouldn't have any choice,” said tank of ship-fuel. An anti-catalytic. Well, Newton. that night before we left Earth, I slipped Carey saw Lowther’s face whiten and into Lowther's ship and used it to kill his crumble until it was hardly human. Then Number Six, Seven and Eight fuel-tanks.” Newton said, “However, I might sell you He shrugged again. “One to Five would fuel to get back to Pluto.” take him out around Neptune, I knew. But Shrewd and biting even through the then he'd run out and couldn't curve in terror Lowther's eyes fastened on him. toward Pluto.” “Now we’re getting to it,” he muttered. “But why?” Carey asked puzzedly. “All right, what's the price?” “Why do it and then save him?” “As you know,” said Curt, “fuel is very Simon said, “I can guess why. But I tell high these days. But I’m not out for profit. you, Curtis, even if you succeed it was You sign over all rights in all your Pluto harebrained. Once in the past your rashness mines and refineries to a Government made outlaws of us four. It could happen foundation, for the furtherance of travel again.” and exploration among the stars. And I'll No more was said until Curt Newton's let you have a bunker full.” masterful piloting brought the Comet at Something like a smile touched last alongside the dark silent ship that was Lowther’s mouth. He smothered it at once, steadily falling toward infinity. The beginning to protest and threaten, but Curt emergency locks were coupled together shook his head. “Oh, no,” he said. “There with magnetic grapples. Curt and Otho will be no repudiation of this deal later on were armed and Grag stood behind them when you're safe on Pluto. You’re going to like an iron colossus, guarding the narrow make out a full confession of your passage. activities in gaining control of the five The locks were opened and Curt stood other companies. It will be kept in a safe facing Lowther. Watching from the place. And just to make doubly sure…” background Carey caught a glimpse of Here he pointed to a fat-joweled little Lowther's face, ugly with fear, with hatred. man behind Lowther's shoulder—a man “I might have known it would be you,” whom Carey recognized as one of the he said to Curt Newton. “You caused our group who had been with Lowther that fuel to go dead. How you did it I don't other time on Earth. know but—” “…to make doubly sure,” Curt was “You can't prove that,” said Newton. saying, “you will go into another cabin and He spoke to the men who were crowding write out a separate confession. As behind Lowther. “Take it easy,” he told Lowther’s secretary you know every angle them. “You’re in no danger.” of that deal because you helped him. And A ray of hope crept into Lowther's eyes. if the two confessions don’t match I will “You're going to take us back?” know that someone is lying—and that will “Well,” said Newton, “I can't tow you be two people there won't be room for in for my stern-grapples aren’t working. And my ship.” my ship is small. I could take off your He turned again to Lowther and waited. officers and crew but I'm afraid there Three different times Carey saw Lowther wouldn’t be any room for you.” start to speak, and give it up. At last he Lowther thought about that. Carey could made a gesture of defeat and Curt see it in his face—the visualization of his motioned him into the Comet. The ship plunging on and on into the great secretary whimpered once and deeps with him alone in it. disappeared. “You couldn't do that,” he whispered. 17 Less than an hour later, Curt Newton The red-haired man nodded. “I knew that had the signed irrevocable papers and only out on the edge, out on the frontier, Lowther had his fuel. would you find your own kind again.” Newton paused and added, “You're not * * * * * the only one, Carey. I've seen it happen over and over again to spacemen in my Time had passed. The two great ships own time. They go out young and eager, on the white plain of Pluto were readying dreaming and talking of how someday for take-off. Rock and ice quivered to the they’ll come back to Earth with wealth and deep hum of great generators running on glory and live there happy the rest of their test. Men were feverishly busy around the lives. And when they come back they find gangways. they can't do it, they find they're Earthmen Carey came hastening across the ice to no more.” where Newton and the Futuremen were “Earthmen no more,” Carey repeated, watching. And as he ran he felt buoyantly wonderingly. “Why, yes. That was it, of and fully alive for the first time since his course. It wasn't Earth that changed so strange awakening. much. It was me.” “I'm going with them!” he cried. “I From the distance, amplified by an talked to Burke. He signed me on and I'm annunciator loudspeaker, roared Burke’s going with them—out to the stars!” voice. “Time to lift, starmen!” Otho laughed and said to Newton, “You were right about him.” And Carey, slipping and hurrying, went Suddenly Carey understood. He said, back across the frozen plain, toward the “That's why you brought me out here with ships and stars that waited. you? You knew!” 18