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🟡 Stars, My Brothers (Full Audiobook) | Edmond Hamilton · Classic Science Fiction Audiobooks: Free Public Domain Sci-Fi Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part one of The Stars My Brothers by Edmund Hamilton.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by Greg Marguerite, The Stars
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: My Brothers by Edmund Hamilton, Part one. He was afraid
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: not of the present or the future, but of the past.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He was afraid of the thing tagged Reed Kiernan, that stiff, blind,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: voiceless thing wheeling its slow orbit around the Moon, companion
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to Dead Worlds in silence space. Section one. Something tiny
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: went wrong, but no one ever knew whether it was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: in an electric relay or in the brain of the pilot.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The pilot was Lieutenant Charles wandek U n r C.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Home address sixteen seventy seven and Stay Avenue, Detroit. He
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: did not survive the crash of his ferry into wheel five.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Neither did his three passengers, a young French astrophysicist and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: East Indian expert on magnetic fields, and a forty year
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: old man from Philadelphia who was coming out to replace
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a pump technician. Someone else who did not survive was
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Reed Kiernan, The only man in Wheel five itself to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: lose his life. Kiernan, who was thirty six years old,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was an accredited scientist employee of u n r C.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Home address eight fifteen Elm Street, Midland Springs, Ohio. Kiernan,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: despite the fact that he was a confirmed bachelor, was
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in Wheel five because of a woman. But the woman
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: who had sent him there was no beautiful love lost.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Her name was Gertrude Lemmiken. She was nineteen years old
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and overweight with a fat, stupid face. She suffered from
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: head colds and sniffed constantly in the Ohio College classroom
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: where Kiernan taught physics too. In March morning, Kiernan could
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: bear it no longer. He told himself, if she sniffs
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: this morning, I'm through. I'll resign and join the UNRC.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Gertrude sniffed. Six months later, having finished his training for
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the United Nations Reconnaissance Court, Kieran shipped out for a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: term of duty in the UNRC Space Laboratory Number five,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: known more familiarly as Wheel five. Wheel five circled the Moon.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: There was an elaborate base on the surface of the Moon.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: In this year nineteen eighty one, there were laboratories and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: observatories there too, But it had been found that the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: alternating fortnights of boiling heat and near absolute zero cold
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: on the lunar surface could play havoc with the delicate
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: instruments used in certain researches. Hence, Wheel five had been
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: built and was staffed by research men who were rotated
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: at regular eight month intervals. Kieran loved it from the first.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: He thought that that was because of the sheer beauty
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of it. The gaunt silver death's head of the Moon
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: forever turning beneath, the still and solemn glory of the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: undimmed stars. The filamentary stretched across the distant star clusters
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: like shining veils, the quietness, the peace. But Kieran had
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a certain intellectual honesty, and after a while he admitted
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to himself that neither the beauty nor the romance of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: it was what made this life so attractive to him.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: It was the fact that he was far away from Earth.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: He did not even have to look at Earth, for
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: nearly all geophysical research was taken care of by Wheels
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: two and three that circled the mother planet. He was
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: almost completely divorced from all Earth's problems and people. Kieran
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: liked people, but had never felt that he understood them
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: what seemed important to them. All the drives of ordinary
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: day to day existence had never seemed very important to him.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: He had felt that there must be something wrong with him,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: something lacking, for it seemed to him that people everywhere
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: committed the most outlandish follies, believed in the most incredible things,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: were waited by pure herd instinct into the most harmful
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: courses of behavior. They could not all be wrong, he thought,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: so he must be wrong, and it had worried him.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: He had taken partial refuge in pure science, but the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: study and then the teaching of astrophysics had not been
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the refuge that Wheel five was. He would be sorry
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to leave the wheel when his time was up, and
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: he was sorry when the day came. The others of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: this staff were already out in the docking lock in
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the rim, waiting to greet the replacements from the ferry.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Keron hated to leave, lagged behind, then, realizing it would
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: be churlish not to meet this young Frenchman who was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: replacing him, he hurried along the corridor in the big spoke.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: When he saw the ferry coming in. He was two
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: thirds of the way along the spoke to the rim
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: when it happened. There was a tremendous crash that flung
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: him violently from his feet. He felt a coldness, instant
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and terrible. He was dying. He was dead. The furry
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: had been coming in on a perfectly normal approach when
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the tiny something went wrong in the ship, or in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the judgment of the pilot, its drive rockets suddenly blasted
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: on full. It healed over sharply. It smashed through the
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: big starboard spoke like a knife through butter wheel five staggered, rocked,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and floundered. The automatic safety bulkheads had all closed, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the big spoke section T two was the only section
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to blow its air, and Kieran was the only man
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: caught in it. The alarms went off, and while the
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: wreckage of the ferry with the three dead men and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it was still drifting close by, everyone in the wheel
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: was in his pressure suit and emergency measures were in
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: full force. Within thirty minutes, it became evident that the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: wheel was going to survive this accident. It was edging
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: slowly out of orbit from the impetus of the blow
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and in the present weakened state of the construction, its
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: small corrective rockets could not be used to stop the drift.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: But Maloney, the U n RC Captain commanding, had got
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: first reports from his damage control teams and it did
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: not look too bad. He fired off peremptory demands for
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the repair materials he would need, and was assured by
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: U n r C headquarters at Mexico City that the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: ferries would be loaded and on their way as soon
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: as possible. Maloney was just beginning to relax a little
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: when a young officer brought up a minor but vexing problem.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Vincent had headed the small party sent out to
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: recover the bodies of the four dead men in their
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: pressure suits. They had been pawing through the tangled wreckage
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: for some time, and young Vincent was tired when he
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: made his report. We have all four alongside, Sir. The
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: three men in the ferry were pretty badly mangled in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the crash. Kieran wasn't physically wounded, but died from space asphyxiation.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: The captain stared at him alongside why didn't you bring
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: them in? They'll go back in one of the ferries
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to Earth for burial, but Vincent started to protest. Maloney interrupted, sharply,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you need to learn a few things about morale, lieutenant.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You think it's going to do morale here to have
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: four dead men floating alongside where everyone can see them.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Fetch them in and store them in one of the holes.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Vincent's sweating and unhappy now had visions of a black
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: mark on his record and determined to make his point.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: But about Kieran, Sir, he was only frozen. Suppose there
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: was a chance to bring him back. Bring him back?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: What the devil are you talking about, Vincent said. I
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: read they're trying to find some way of restoring a
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: man that gets space frozen. Some scientists down at Delhi University.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: If they succeeded, and if we had Kiernan still intact
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in space, Oh hell, that's just a scientific pipe dream.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: They'll never find a way to do that. Maloney said,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: it's all just theory. Yes, sir, Vincent said, hanging his head.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: We've got trouble enough here without you bringing up ideas
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: like this, the captain continued, angrily, Get out of here.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Vincent was now completely crushed. Yes, sir, I'll bring the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: bodies in he went out. Maloney stared at the door
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and began to think. A commanding officer had to be
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: careful or he could get skinned alive. If by some
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: remote chance, this Delhi idea ever succeeded, he Maloney would
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: be in for it for having Kieran buried. He strode
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: to the door and flung it open, mentally, cursing the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: young snotty who had had to bring this up. Vincent,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: he shouted. The lieutenant turned back startled, yes, Sir, hold
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Kiernan's body outside. I'll check on this with Mexico City, Yes, sir.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Still angry, Maloney shot a message to personnel at Mexico
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: City that done. He forgot about it. The buck had
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: been passed. Let the boys, sitting on their backsides down
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: on earth handle it. Colonel Housman, second in command to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Personnel Division of U n r C, was the man
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to whom Maloney's message went. He snorted loudly when he
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: read it, and later, when he went in to report
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to Garcies, the brigadier commanding the division, he took the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: message with him. Maloney must be pretty badly rattled by
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the crash, he said, Look at this, Garcies read the message,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: then looked up anything to this the Delhi experiments. I mean,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Hassman had taken care to brief himself on that point
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and was able to answer emphatically, damned little. Those chaps
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: in Deli have been playing around freezing insects and thawing
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the mouth, and they think the process might be developed
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: someday to where it could revive frozen spacemen. It's an
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: iffy idea. I'll burn Maloney's backside off for bringing it
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: up at a time like this. Garcies, after a moment,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: shook his head. No, wait, let me think about this.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: He looked speculatively out of the window for a few moments.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Then he said, message Maloney that this one chap's body,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: what's his name, Kieran, is to be preserved in space
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: against a chance of future revival. Hausman nearly blotted his
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: copy book by exclaiming, for God's sake, he choked that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: down in time and said, but it could be centuries
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: before a revival process is perfected, if it ever is.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Garcies nodded, I know, but you're missing the psychological point
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: that could be valuable to UNRC. This Kieran has relatives,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: doesn't he Hassman nodded, A widowed mother and a sister.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: His father's been dead a long time, no wife or children.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Garcia said, If we tell them he's dead, frozen in space,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and then buried, it's all over with. Won't those people
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: feel a lot better if we tell them that he's
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: apparently dead but might be brought back when a revival
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: technique is perfected in the future. I suppose they'd feel
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: better about it. Houseman conceded, but I don't see. Garci's shrugged. Simple,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: We're only really beginning in space, you know, and as
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: we go on, UNRC is going to lose a number
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of men space struck, just like Kieran. A howl will
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: go up about our casualty lists. It always does. But
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: if we can say that they're only frozen until such
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: a time as revival technique is achieved, everyone will feel
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: better about it. I suppose public relations are important, Houseman
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: began to say, and Garcies nodded quickly. They are see
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that this is done when you go up to confer
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: with Maloney. Make sure that it gets onto the video networks.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I want everyone to see it later, with many cameras
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and millions of people watching Kieran's body, in a pressure suit,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was ceremoniously taken to a selected position where it would
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: orbit the moon. All suggestions of the funiary were carefully avoided.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: The space struck man, nobody at all referred to him
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: as dead, would remain in this position until a revival
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: process was perfected, until forever, thought Holsman, watching sourly. I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: suppose Garcia's is right, But they'll have a whole graveyard
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: here as time goes on. As time went on, they
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: did Section two. In his dreams, a soft voice whispered.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: He did not know what it was telling him, except
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: that it was important. He was hardly aware of its coming.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: The times it came, there would be the quiet murmuring,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and something in him seemed to hear and understand. And
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: then the murmur faded away, and there was nothing but
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the dreams again. But were they dreams? Nothing had form
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: or meaning, light, darkness, sound, pain and not pain, Float
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: over him, float over who? Who was he? He did
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: not even know that, he did not care, but he
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: came to care. The question vaguely nagged him. He should
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: try to remember. There was more than dreams and the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: whispering voice. There was what if he had one real
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: thing to cling to, to put his feet on and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: climb back from one thing like his name. He had
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: no name, He was no one. Sleep and forget it,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Sleep and dream and listen Karin. It went across his
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: brain like a shattering bolt of lightning. That word. He
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: did not know what the word was or what it meant,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: but it found an echo somewhere in his brain. Screamed it, Kiran,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: not his brain alone. His voice was gasping it harshly
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and croakingly. His lungs seemed on fire as they expelled
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the word. He was shaking. He had a body that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: could shake, that could feel pain, That was feeling pain
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: right now. He tried to move, to break the nightmare,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to get back again to the vague dreams in the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: soothing whisper. He moved. His limbs thrashed leadenly. His chest
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: heaved and panted. His eyes opened. He lay in a
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: narrow bunk in a very small metal room. He looked
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: slowly around. He did not know this place. The gleaming
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: white metal walls and ceiling was unfamiliar. There was a slight, persistent,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: tingling vibration in everything that was unfamiliar to He was
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: not in Wheel five. He had seen every cell in it,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and none of them were like this. Also, there lacked
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the persistent soussorin sound of the ventilation pumps. Where you're
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: in a starship, Kuran, a starship. Something back in his
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: mind told him that, but of course it was ridiculous,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a quirk of the imagination. There weren't any starships. You're
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: all right, Kieren. You're in a starship, and you're all right.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: The emphatic assurance came from somewhere back in his brain,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and it was comforting. He didn't feel very good. He
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: felt dopey and sore, but there was no use worrying
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: about it when he knew for sure he was all right.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: The hell he was all right. He was in someplace new,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: someplace strange, and he felt half sick, and he was
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: not all right at all. Instead of lying here on
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: his back listening to comforting lies from his imagination, he
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: should get up, find out what was going on. What
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: had happened. Of a sudden memory began to clear. What
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: had happened something, a crash, a terrible coldness. Kieran began
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to shiver. He had been in Section T two on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: his way to the lock, and suddenly the floor had
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: risen under him, and wheel five had seemed to crash
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: into pieces around him. The cold, the pain, you're in
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a starship. You're all right. For God's sake, why did
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: his mind keep telling him things like that? Things he believed?
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: For if he did not believe them, he would be
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: in a panic, not knowing where he was, how he
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: had come here. There was panic in his mind, but
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: there was a barrier against it, the barrier of the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: soothing reassurances that came from he knew not where. He
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: tried to sit up, it was useless. He was too weak.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: He lay breathing heavily. He felt that he should be
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: hysterical with fear, but somehow he was not. That barrier
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in his mind prevented it. He had decided to try
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: shouting when a door in the side of the little
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: room slid open and a man came in. He came
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: over and looked down at Kieran. He was a young man,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: sandy haired, with a compact, chunky figure and a flat,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: hard face. His eyes were blue and intense, and they
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: gave Kieran the feeling that this man was a wound
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: up spring. He looked down and said, how do you feel, Kieran.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Kieran looked up at him. He asked, am I in
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a starship? Yes? But there aren't any starships there are
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: You're in one. The sandy hair man added, my name
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: is Valiant. It's true what he says murmured the something
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: in Kieran's mind. Where how, Kieran began, Valiant interrupted his
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: stammering question as to where. We're quite away from Earth,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: heading right now in the general direction of altare As
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to how. He paused, looking keenly down at Kieran. Don't
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: you know how? Of course? I know? I was frozen,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and now I have been awakened, and time has gone by. Valiant,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: looking searchingly down at his face, showed a trace of relief.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: You do know, don't you? For a moment I was
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: afraid it hadn't worked. He sat down on the edge
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: of the bunk. How long, asked Kieran. Valiant answered as
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: casually as though it was the most ordinary question in
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the world. A bit over a century. It was wonderful,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: thought Kieran, how he could take a stay like that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: without getting excited. It was almost as though he'd known
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: it all the time. How he began. When there was
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: an interruption. Something buzzed thinly in the pocket of Valiant's shirt.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: He took out a thin three inch disk of metal
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and said, sharply into it. Yes. A tiny voice squawked
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: from the disk. It was too far from Kieran for
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: him to understand what it was saying, but it had
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a note of excitement, almost of panic in it. Something changed,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: hardened in Valiant's flat face. He said, I expected it.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I'll be right there. You know what to do. He
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: did something to the disk and spoke into it again.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Paula take over here. He stood up. Kieran looked at him,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: feeling numb and stupid. I'd like to know some things, later,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: said Valiant. We've got troubles. Stay where you are. He
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: went rapidly out of the room. Kieran looked after him,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: wondering troubles. Troubles in a starship and a century had passed.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: He suddenly felt an emotion that shook his nerves and
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: tightened his guts. It was beginning to hit him now.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: He sat up in the bunk and swung his legs
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: out of it and tried to stand but could not.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: He was too weak. All he could do was to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: sit there, shaking. His mind could not take it in.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: It seemed only minutes ago that he had been walking
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: along the corridor in wheel five. It seemed that Wheel
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: five must exist, that the earth, the people the time
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: he knew, must still be somewhere out there. This could
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: be some kind of joke, or some kind of psychological experiment,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: that was it. The Space Medicine boys were always making
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: way out experiments to find out how men would bear
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: up in unusual conditions, and this must be one of them.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: A woman came into the room. She was a dark
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: woman who might have been thirty years old, and who
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: wore a white shirt and slacks. She would, he thought,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: have been good looking if she had not looked so
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: tired and so edgy. She came over and looked down
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: at him and said to him, don't try to get
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: up yet. You'll feel better very soon. Her voice was
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: a slightly husky one. It was utterly famil to Kieran,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and yet he had never seen this woman before. Then
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: it came to him, you were the one who talked
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to me, he said, looking up at her. In the dreams,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I mean She nodded, I'm Paula Ray, and I'm a psychologist.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: You had to be psychologically prepared for your awakening. Prepared,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the woman explained patiently, hypnopetic technique establishing facts in the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: subconscious of a sleeping patient. Otherwise it would be too
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: terrific a shock for you when you awakened. That was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: proved when they first tried reviving space struck men forty
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: or fifty years ago. The comfortable conviction that this was
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: all a fake and experiment of some kind began to
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: drain out of Kieran. But if it was true, he asked,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: with some difficulty. You say that they've found out how
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to revive space frozen men that long ago. Yes, Yet
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: it took forty or fifty years to get around to
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: reviving me. The woman sighed, you have a misconception. The
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: process of revival was perfected that long ago, but it
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: has been used only immediately after a wreck or disaster.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Men or women in the old space cemeteries have not
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: been revived. Why not, he asked, carefully. Unsatisfactory results, she said.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: They could not adjust psychologically to the changed conditions. They
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: usually became unbalanced. Some suicides in a number of cases
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of extreme schizophrenia resulted. It was decided that it was
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: no kindness to the older space struck cases to bring
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: them back, But you brought me back. Yes, why there
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: were good reasons? She was clearly evading that question. She
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: went on quickly, the psychological shock of awakening you would
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: have been devastating if you were not prepared. So while
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: you were still under sedation, I used the hypnopetic method
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: on you. Your unconscious was aware of the main facts
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of the situation before you awoke, and that cushion to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the shock. Kieran thought of himself lying frozen and dead
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: in a graveyard that was space bodies drifting in orbit,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: circling slowly around each other as the years passed in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a macabre's saraband. A deep shiver shook him. Because all
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: space struck victims were in pressure suits, dehydration was not
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the problem. It could have been, Paula was saying, but
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: it's still a highly delicate process. He looked at her
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and interrupted roughly, what reasons? And when she stared blankly,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: he added, you said there were good reasons why you
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: picked me for revival? What reasons? Her face became tight
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and alert. You were the oldest victim in point of date.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: That was one of the determining factors. Look, said Kiir,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm not a child nor a savage. Yet you
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: can drop the patronizing professional jargon and answer my question.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Her voice became hard and brittle. You're new to this environment.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't understand if I told you. Try me, all right,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: she answered. We need you as a symbol in a
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: political struggle. We're waging against the sake the sa K
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I told you that you couldn't understand yet, she answered, impatiently,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: turning away. You can't expect me to fill you in
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: on a whole world that's new to you in five minutes.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: She started toward the door. Oh no, said Kieran. You're
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: not going yet. He slid out of the bunk. He
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: felt weak and shaky, but resentment energized his flaccid muscles.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: He took a step towards her. The light suddenly went
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: dim and a bull throated roar sounded from somewhere, and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: appalling sound of raw power. The slight tingling that Kieran
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: had felt in the metal fabric around him abruptly became
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a vibration so deep and powerful that it dizzied him,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and he had to grab the stanchion of the bunk
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to keep from falling. Alarm had flashed into the woman's face.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Next moment, from some hidden speaker in the wall, a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: male voice yelled, sharply, overtaken, Prepare for extreme evasion. Get
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: back into the bunk. She told Kieran, what is it?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: It may be, she said, with a certain faint viciousness,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: that you're about to die a second time. Section three.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: The lights dimmed to semi darkness, and the deep vibration
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: grew worse. Kieran clutched the woman's arm. What's happening, damn it,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Let me go, she said. The exclamation was so wholly
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: familiar in its human angriness that Kieran almost liked her
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: for the first time. But he continued to hold on
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to her, although he did not feel that with his
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: present weakness he could hold her long. I've a right
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to know, he said. All right, perhaps you have said, Paula.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: We our group are operating against authority. We've broken laws
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in going to Earth and reviving you, and now authority
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: is catching up to us another ship. Is there going
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to be a fight, A fight She stared at him,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and shock and then faint repulsion showed in her face.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: But of course, you come from the old time of wars.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: You would think that Kieran got the impression that what
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: he had said had made her look at him with
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the same feelings he would have had when he looked
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: at a decent, worthy savage who happened to be a cannibal.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I always felt that bringing you back was a mistake,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: she said, with a sharpness in her voice. Let me go.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: She wrenched away from him, and before he could stop her,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: she had got to the door and slid it open.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: He woke up in time to lurch after her, and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: he got his shoulder into the door opening before she
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: could slide it shut. Oh very well, since you insist,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to worry about you, she said rapidly,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and turned and hurried away. Karon wanted to follow her,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: but his knees were buckling under him. He hung to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the side of the door opening. He felt angry, and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: anger was all that kept him from falling over. He
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: would not faint, He told himself he was not a
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: child and would not be treated like one. He got
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: his head outside the door. There was a long and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: very narrow corridor out there, blank metal, with a few
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: closed doors around it. One door away down toward the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: end of the corridor was just sliding shut. He started
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: down the corridor, steadying himself with his hand against the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: smooth wall. Before he had gone more than a few steps,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the anger that pushed him began to ebb away of
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a sudden, the mountainous an incredible fact of his being
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: here in this place, this time, this ship came down
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: on him like an avalanche, from which the hypnopetic preconditioning
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: would no longer protect him. I am touching a starship.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I am in a starship. I read Kuran of Midland Springs, Ohio.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I ought to be back there, teaching my classes, stopping
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: at Hartnet's drug store for a soft drink on the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: way home. But I am here in a ship fleeing
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: through the stars. His head was spinning, and he was
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: afraid that he was going to go out again. He
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: found himself at the door and slid it open and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: fell rather than walked outside. He heard a startled voice.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: This was a bigger room. There was a table whose
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: top was translucent, in which showed a bewildering mass of
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: fleeting symbols in bright light, ever changing. There was a
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: screen on one wall of the room, and that showed nothing,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a blank, dark surface. Valiant and Paula Ray, and the tall,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: tough looking man of middle age were around the table
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and had looked up surprise. Valiant's face flashed irritation. Paula,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: you were supposed to keep him in his cabin. I
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: didn't think he was strong enough to follow, she said.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not, said Kieran, and pitched over. The tall, middle
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: aged man reached and caught him before he hit the floor,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and eased him into a chair. He heard, as though
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: from a great distance, Valiant's voice saying, irritatedly, let Paula
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: take care of him. Weber, look at this. We're going
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: to cross another rift. There were a few minutes then,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: when everything was very jumbled up in Kieran's mind. The
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: woman was talking to him. She was telling him that
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: they had prepared him physically as well as psychologically for
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the shock of revival, and that he would be quite
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: all right, but had to take things more slowly. He
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: heard her voice, but paid little attention. He sat in
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the chair and blankly watched the two men who hung
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: over the table and its flow of brilliant symbols. Valiant
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to tighten up more and more as the moments passed,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: and there was still about him the look of a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: coiled spring, But now the spring seemed to be wound
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: to the breaking point. Weber, the tall man with the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: tough face, watched the fleeting symbols, and his face was stony.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Here we go, he muttered, and both he and Valiant
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: looked up at the blank black screen on the wall.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Kieran looked too. There was nothing. Then in an instant,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the blackness vanished from the screen, and it framed a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: vista of such cosmic, stunning splendor that Kieran could not
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: grasp it. Stars blazed like high fires across the screen,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: loops and chains and shining clots of them. This was
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: not too different from the way they had looked from
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Wheel five. But what was different was that the starry
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: firmament was partly blotted out by vast, rifted ramparts of
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: blackness eben cliffs that went up to infinity. Kieran had
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: seen astronomical photographs like this and knew what the blackness was. Dust,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a dust so fine that its percentage of particles in
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: space would be a vacuum on Earth, but here, where
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: it extended over parsecs of space, it formed a barrier
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: to light. There was a narrow rift here between the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: titan cliffs of dark Barakness, and he the ship he
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: was in, was fleeing across that rift. The screen abruptly
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: went black again. Kieran remained sitting and staring at it.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: That incredible fleeting vision had finally impressed the utter reality
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: of all this upon his mind. They this ship were
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: far from Earth, very far in one of the dust
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: clouds in which they were trying to lose pursuers. This
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: was real. We'll have got another fix on us as
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: we've crossed, for sure, Valiant was saying, in a bitter voice.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: They'll have the net out for us. The pattern will
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: be shaping now, and we can't slip through it. We can't,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: said Weber. The ship can't, but the flitter can with luck.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: They both looked at Kieran. He's the important one, Weber said,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: if a couple of us could get him through, no,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Paula said we couldn't. As soon as they caught the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: ship and found the Flitter gone, they'd be after him,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: not to Sako, said Weber. They'd never figure that we'd
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: take him to Sako. Do I have a word in this,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: asked Kiernan between his teeth. What, asked Valiant? This the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: hell with you all. I'll go no place with you
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: or for you. He got a savage satisfaction from saying it.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: He was tired of sitting there like a booby while
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: they discussed him. But he did not get the reaction
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: from them he had expected. The two men merely continued
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to look thoughtfully at him. The woman sighed, you see,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: there wasn't time enough to explain it to him. It's
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: natural for him to react with hostility. Put him out
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and take him along, said Weber. No, said Paula sharply.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: If he goes out right now, he's liable to stay out.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I won't answer for it. Meanwhile, said Valiant, with an
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: edge to his voice. The pattern is forming up. Have
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: you any suggestions, Paula? She nodded this. She suddenly squeezed
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: something under Kieran's nose, a small thing that she had
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: produced from her pocket without his noticing it. In his
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: angry preoccupation with the two men. He smelled a sweet
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: refreshing odor, and he struck her arm away. Oh no,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: you're not giving me any more dopes. Then he stopped
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: for suddenly it all seemed wryly humorous to him. A
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: bunch of bloody incompetence, he said, and laughed. This is
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the one thing I would have never dreamed, that a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: man could sleep and wake up in a starship and
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: find the starship manned by blunderers. Euphoric, said Paula to
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the two men. At that, Weber said, sourly, there may
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: be something in what he says about us. Valiant turned
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: on him and said fiercely, if that's what you think.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Then he controlled himself and said tightly, Quarreling's no good.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: We're in a box, but we can maybe still put
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: it over if we get this man to suck o. Weber,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you and Paula take him in the flitter. Kieron rose
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: to his feet. Fine, he said, gaily, let's go in
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the flitter. Whatever that is. I'm already bored with starships.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: He felt good, very good. He felt a little drunk,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: not enough to impede his mental processes, but enough to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: give him a fine Devil may care indifference to what
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: happened Nowtxt, so it was only the spray Paula had
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: given him. It still made his body feel better and
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: removed his shock and wary and made everything seem suddenly
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: rather amusing. Let us to Sacho in the flitter, he said,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: After all, I'm living on velvet. I might as well
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: see the whole show. I'm sure Sacho, wherever it is
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: will be just as full of human folly as Earth was.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: He's euphoric, Paula said again, but her face was stricken.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Of all the people in that space cemetery, we had
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to pick one who thinks like that, said Valiant, with
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: a sort of restrained fury. You said yourself that the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: oldest one would be the best, said Weber. Sacho will
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: change him. Kieran walked down the corridor with Weber and Paula,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: and he laughed as he walked. They had brought him
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: back from nothingness without his consent, violating the privacy of
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: death or near death, and now something that he had
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: just said had bitterly disappointed them. Come along, he said
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: buoyantly to the two. Let us not lag once aboard
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the flitter, and the girl is mine. Oh, for God's sake,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: shut up, said Weber Section four. It was ridiculous to
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: be flying the stars with a bad hangover, but Kiran
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: had one. His head ached dully, He had an unpleasant
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: metallic taste in his mouth, and his former abulience had
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: given away to a dull depression. He looked sourly around.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: He sat in a confined, little metal coop of a cabin,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: hardly enough in which to stand erect. Paul Array, in
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a chair a few feet away, was sleeping her head
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: on her breast. Weber sat forward in what appeared to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: be a pilot chair with a number of crowded control
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: banks in front of it. He was not doing anything
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to the controls. He looked as though he might be
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: sleeping too. That was all a tiny metal room, blank
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: metal walls, silence. They were presumably flying between the stars
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: at incredible speeds, but there was nothing to show it.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: There were no screens such as the one he had
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: seen in the ship to show by artful scanning devices
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: what vista of suns and darknesses lay outside. A flitter,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Weber had informed him, just doesn't have room for the
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: complicated apparatus that such scanners require. Seeing is a luxury
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you dispense with in a flitter. We'll see when we
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: get to Sako. After a moment, he added, if we
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: get to Sacho. Kieran had merely laughed then, and had
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: promptly gone to sleep. When he had awakened, it had
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: been with the euphoria all gone, and with his present hangover.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: At least, he told himself, I can truthfully say that
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: this one wasn't my fault, that blasted spray. He looked
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: resentfully at the sleeping woman in the chair. Then he
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: reached and roughly shook her shoulder. She opened her eyes
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and looked at him, first sleepily and then with resentment.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: You had no right to wake me up, she said. Then,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: before Kieran could retort, she seemed to realize the monumental
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: irony of what she had just said, and she burst
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: into laughter. I'm sorry, she said, go ahead say it.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I had no right to wake you up. Let's come
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: back to that, said Kieran, after a moment, Why did you,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Paula looked at him ruefully. What I need now is
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: a ten volume history of the last century and time
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: enough for you to read it. But since we don't
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: have either, she broke off. Then, after a pause, she added,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: your date was nineteen eighty one, wasn't it it? And
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: your name were on the tag of your pressure suit.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: That's right. Well, then, back in nineteen eighty one, it
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: was expected that men would spread out into the stars,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't it? Kieran nodded. As soon as they had a
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: workable high speed drive. Several drives were being experimented with.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Even then one of them, the FLOORINOI principle, was finally
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: made workable, she said. She frowned. I'm trying to give
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: you this briefly, and I keep straying into details. Just
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: tell me why you woke me up. I'm trying to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: tell you, she said candidly. Were you always so damned hateful?
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Or did the revivocation process do this to you? Kieran grinned,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: all right, go ahead. Things happened pretty much as people
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: foresaw back in nineteen eighty one, she said. The drive
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: was perfected. The ships went out to the nearer stars.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: They found worlds, They established colonies from the overflowing population
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: of Earth. They found human indigenous races on a few worlds.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: All of them were at a rather low technical level,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and they taught them there was a determination from the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: beginning to make it one universe, no separate nationalistic groups,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: no chance of wars. The Governing Council was set up
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: on altair iiO. Every world was represented. There are twenty
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: nine of them now it's expected to go on like
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: that till there are twenty nine hundred star worlds represented there,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: twenty nine thousand, any number. But Kieran had been listening closely.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: But what what upset this particular utopia Sako? This world
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: we're going to, yes, she said soberly. Men found something
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: different about this world when they reached it. It had people,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: human people on it, very low in the scale of civilization. Well,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: what's the problem. Couldn't you start teaching them as you
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: had others? She shook her head. It would take a
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: long while, But that wasn't the real problem. It was.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: You see, there's another race on Sako besides the human ones,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and it's a fairly civilized race, the sa Ke. The
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: trouble is the Sake aren't human here and stared at her.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: So what if they're intelligent? You talk as though it
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: was the simplest thing in the world, she flashed. Isn't
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: it if your Sake are intelligent and the humans of
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Sako aren't. Then the Sake have the rights on that world,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: don't they. She looked at him, not saying anything, and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: again she had that stricken look of one who has
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: tried and failed. Then, from up forward, without turning, Weber spoke,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: what do you think now of Valiant's fine idea? Paula,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it can still work, she said, but there was no
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: conviction in her voice. If you don't mind, said Kieran,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: with an edge to his voice, I'd still like to
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: know what this Sako business has to do with reviving me.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: The Sake rule the humans on that world, Paula answered,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: there are some of us who don't believe they should.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: In the council. We're known as the Humanity Party because
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: we believe that humans should not be ruled by non humans. Again,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Kieran was distracted from his immediate question, this time by
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the phrase non human These Sakay what are they like?
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: They're not monsters, if that's what you're thinking of, Paula said.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: They're bipeds, lizardoid rather than humanoid, and are a fairly
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: intelligent and law abiding lot. If they're all that and
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: higher in development than the humans, why shouldn't they rule
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: their own world? Demanded Kieran. Weber uttered a sardonic laugh.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Without turning. He asked, shall I change course and go
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to Altair? No, she said. Her eyes flashed at Kieran,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and she spoke almost breathlessly. You're very sure about things
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: you just heard about, aren't you. You know what's right
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: and you know what's wrong, even though you've only been
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: in this time, this universe for a few hours. Kieran
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: looked at her closely. He thought he was beginning to
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: get a glimmer of the shape of things. Now, you,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: all of you who woke me up illegally. You belong
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: to this humanity party, don't you. You did it for
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: some reason connected with that, Yes, she answered defiantly. We
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: need a symbol in this political struggle. We thought that
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: one of the Old Time Space pioneers, one of the
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: humans who began the conquest of the stars, would be
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: it we Kieran interrupted, I think I get it. It
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: was really considerate of you to drag a man back
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: from what amounts to death for a party rally. Old
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Time Space hero condemns non humans. It would go something
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: like that, wouldn't it. Listen? She began listen. Hell, he said,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: he was hot with rage, shaking with it. I am
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: glad to say that you could not have possibly picked
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a worse symbol than me. I have no more use
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: for the idea of the innate, sacred superiority of one
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: species over another than I had for that of one
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: kind of man over another. Her face changed from an
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: angry woman, she suddenly became a professional psychologist, coolly observing reactions.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: It's not the political question you really resent, she said.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: You've wakened to a strange world and you're afraid of it.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: In spite of all the pre awakening preparation we gave
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: your subconscious you're afraid, and so you're angry. Kieran got
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: a grip on himself. He shrugged. What you say may
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: be true, but it doesn't change the way I feel.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: I will not help you one damned bit. Weber got
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: up from his seat and came back towards them, his
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: tall form stooping. He looked at Kieran and then at
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the woman. We have to settle this right now, he said.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: We're getting near enough to Sako to go out of drive.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Are we going to land or aren't we? Yes, said
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: paul steadily, we're landing. Weber glanced again at Kieran's face.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: But if that's the way he feels, go ahead and land,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: she said. And of one of the Stars My Brothers
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: by Edmund Hamilton, Part two of the Stars My Brothers
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: by Edmund Hamilton. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by Greg Marguerite,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: The Stars My Brothers by Edmund Hamilton, Section five. It
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: was nothing like landing in a rocket. First, there was
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the business referred to as going out of drive. Paula
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: made Kieran strap in, and she said, you may find
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: this unpleasant, but just sit tight. It doesn't last long.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Kieran sat stiff and glowering, prepared for anything, and determined
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: not to show it no matter how he felt. Then
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Webber did something to the control board and the universe
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: fell apart. Kieran's stomach came up and stuck in his throat.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: He was falling up down sideways, he didn't know, but
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: whichever it was, not all the parts of him were
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: falling at the same rate, or perhaps it was not
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: all in the same direction. He didn't know that either,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: but it was an exceptionally hideous feeling. He opened his
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: mouth to protest, and all of a sudden he was
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: sitting normally in the chair in the normal cabin and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: screaming at the top of his lungs. He shut up.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Paula said, I told you it would be unpleasant, so
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: you did, said Kieran. He sat sweating, His hands and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: feet were cold. Now, for the first time, he became
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: aware of motion. The flitter seemed to hurtle forward at
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: comet like speed. Kieran knew that this was merely an
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: ironic little joke, because now they were proceeding at something
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: in the range of normal velocity, whereas before their speed
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: had been quite beyond his comprehension. But he could comprehend this,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: he could feel it. They were going like a bat
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: out of hell, and somewhere ahead of them was a planet.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: And he was closed in blind, a mouse in a
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: nose cone. His insides writhed with helplessness and the imminence
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: of a crash. He wanted very much to start screaming again,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: but Paula was watching him. In a few moments that
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: desire became academic. A whistling shriek began faintly outside the
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: hall and built swiftly to a point where nothing could
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: have been heard above it. Atmosphere and somewhere under the
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: blind wall of the flitter, a rock hard world face
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: reeling and rushing leaping to meet them. The flitter slowed.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: It seemed to hang motionless, quivering faintly. Then it dropped
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: express elevator to the world's tallest building top to bottom.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Only the elevator is a bubble, and the wind is
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: tossing it from side to side as it drops, and
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: there is no bottom. They hung again, bounding lightly on
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the unseen wind. Then down, and hang again, and down.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Paula said suddenly, Webber, Webber, I think he's dying. She
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: began to unstrap. Kieran said, faintly, Am I churning green?
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: She looked at him, frowning, Yes, a simple old malady.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I'm seasick. Tell Weber to quit playing hummingbird and put
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: this thing down. Paula made an impatient gesture and tightened
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: her belt. Again, Hang and drop once more, twice more,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: A little rocking bounce, a light thump. Motion ceased. Weber
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: turned a series of switches silence, Kieran said air Weber
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: opened a hatch in the side of the cabin. Light
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: poured in. It had to be sunlight, Kieran knew, but
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: it was a queer color, a sort of tawny orange
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: that carried a pleasantly burning heat. He got loose, with
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Paula helping him, and tottered to the hatch. The air
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: smelled of clean, sun warmed dust and some kind of vegetation.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Kieran climbed out of the flitter, practically throwing himself out
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: in his haste. He wanted solid ground under him, he
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: didn't care whose or where, And as his boots thumped
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: onto the red ochre sand, it occurred to him that
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: it had been a very long time since he had
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: had solid ground underfoot, a very long time. Indeed, his
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: insides knotted up again, and this time it was not
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: sea sickness but fear, and he was cold all through again,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: in spite of the hot new sun. He was afraid,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: not of the present nor of the future, but of
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: the past. He was afraid of the thing tagged reed Kieran,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: the stiff, blind, voiceless thing, wheeling its slow orbit around
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the moon, companion to dead worlds and dead space, brother
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: to the cold and the dark. He began to tremble.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Paula shook him. She was talking, but he couldn't hear her.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: He could only hear the rush of eternal darkness past
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: his ears, the thin squeak of his shadow brushing across
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the stars. Weber's face was somewhere above him, looking angry
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: and disgusted. He was talking to Paula, shaking his head.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: They were far away. Kieran was losing them, drifting away
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: from them on the black tide. Then suddenly there was
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: something like an explosion, a crimson flare across the black
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: a burst of heat against the cold. Shocked and wild,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: the physical part of him clawed back to reality. Something
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: hurt him, something threatened him. He put his hand to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: his cheek and it came away red. Paula and Weber
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: were yanking at him, trying to get him to move.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: A stone whizzed past his head. It struck the side
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: of the flitter with a sharp clack and fell. Kieran's
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: nervous relays finally connected. He jumped for the open hatch. Automatically.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: He pushed Paula ahead of him trying to shield her,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and she gave him an odd, startled look. Webber was
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: already inside. More stones rattled around, and one grazed Kieran's thigh.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: It hurt, his cheek was bleeding freely. He rolled inside
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the flitter and turned to look back out the hatch.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: He was mad, Who's doing it, he demanded, Paula pointed.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: At first, Kieran was distracted by the strangeness of the landscape.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: The flitter crouched in a vastness of red ochre sand,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: laced with some low growing plant that shone like metallic
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: gold in the sunlight. The sand receded in tilted plains,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: lifting gradually to a range of mountains on the right
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: and dropping gradually to infinity on the left. Directly in
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: front of the flitter, and quite literally a stone's throw away,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: was the beginning of a thick belt of trees that
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: grew beside a river, apparently quite a wide one, though
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: he could not see much but a tawny sparkling of water.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: The course of the river could be traced clear back
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: to the mountains by the winding line of woods that
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: followed its bed. The trees themselves were not like any
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Kieran had seen before. There seemed to be several varieties,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: all grotesque in shape and exotic in color. There were
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: even some green ones with long, sharp leaves that looked
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: like spear heads. Exotic or not, they made perfectly adequate cover.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Stones came whistling out of the woods, but Kieran could
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: not see anything where Paula was pointing, but an occasional
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: shaking of foliage sakay, he asked. Webersnorted, he'll know it
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: when the sack find us. They don't throw stones. These
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: are the humans, Paula said. There was an indulgent softness
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: in her voice that irritated Kieran. I thought they were
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: our dear little friends, he said. You frightened them. I
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: frightened them. They've seen the flitter before, but they're extremely
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: alert to modes of behavior, and they knew you weren't
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: acting right. They thought you were sick, so they tried
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to kill me. Nice fellows self preservation, Weber said, they
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: can't afford the luxury of too much kindness. They're very
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: kind among themselves, Paula said defensively to Kieran. She added,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I doubt if they were trying to kill you. They
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: just wanted to drive you away. Oh well, said Kieran.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: In that case, I wouldn't dream of disappointing them. Let's go.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Paula glared at him and turned to Weber. Talk to them.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: I hope there's time, Webber grunted, glancing at the sky.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: We're sitting ducks here. Keep your patient quiet. Any more
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: of that moaning and flopping in worse s unk. He
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: picked up a large plastic container and moved closer to
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the door. Paula looked at Kieran's cheek. Let me fix that,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: don't bother, he said. At this moment, he hoped the sack,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: whoever and whatever they were, would come along and clap
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: these two into some suitable place for the rest of
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: their lives. Weber began to talk. Kieran stared at him, fascinated.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: He had expected words, primitive words, perhaps resembling the click
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: speech of Earth's Stone Age survivals, but words of some sort.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Weber hooted. It was a soft, reassuring sound, repeated over
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and over, but it was not a word. The rattling
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: of stones diminished, then stopped. Weber continued to make his
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: hooting call. Presently it was answered Weber turned and nodded
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: at Paula, smiling. He reached into the plastic container and
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: drew forth a handful of brownish objects that smelled to
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Kieran like dried fruit. Weber tossed these out onto the sand.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Now he made a different sound, a grunting and wuffling.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: There was silence. Weber made the sound again on the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: third try. The people came out of the woods. In all,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: there were perhaps twenty five of them. They came slowly
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: and furatively, moving a step or two at a time,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: then halting and peering, prepared to run. The able bodied
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: men came first, with one in the lead, a fine
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: looking chap in early middle age, who was apparently the chief.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: The women, the old men, and the children followed, trickling
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: gradually out of the shadow of the trees, but remaining
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: where they could disappear in a flash if alarmed. They
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: were all perfectly naked, tall and slender and large eyed,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: their muscles strung for speed and agility rather than massive strength.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Their bodies gleamed a light bronze color in the sun,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and Kieran noticed that the men were beardless and smooth skinned.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Both men and women had long hair ranging in color
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: from black to tawny, and very clean and glistening. They
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: were a beautiful people, as dear are a beautiful people, graceful, innocent,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and wild. The men came up to the dried fruits
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: which had been scattered for them. They picked them up
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and sniffed them, bit them, then began to eat, repeating
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the grunt and wuffle call. The women and children and
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: old men decided everything was safe and joined them. Weber
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: tossed out more fruit and then got out himself, carrying
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the plastic box. What does he do next, whispered Kieran
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: to Paula. Scratched their ears. I used to tame squirrels
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: this way when I was a kid. Shut up, she
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: warned him. Webber beckoned, and she nudged him to move
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: out of the flitter. Slow and careful. Kieran slid out
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: of the flitter. Big glistening eyes swung to watch him.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: The eating stopped, Some of the little ones scuttled for
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: the trees. Kieran froze, Webber hooted and wuffled some more,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: and the attension relaxed. Kieran approached the group with Paula.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: There was suddenly no truth in what he was doing.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: He was an actor in a bad scene, mingling with
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: impossible characters in an improbable setting. Weber making ridiculous noises
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: and tossing his dried fruit around like a caricature of
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: somebody sewing. Paula with her brisk professionalism, all dissolved in
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: misty eyed fondness himself and alien in this time and place,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and these perfectly normal appearing people behaving like orangutans with
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: their fur shaved off. He started to laugh, and then
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: thought better of it. Once started, he might not be
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: able to stop. Let them get used to you, Weber
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: said softly. Paula obviously had been here before. She had
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: begun to make noises too, modified, hooting more like a
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: pigeon's call. Kieran just stood still. The people moved in
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: around them, sniffing, touching. There was no conversation, no laughing
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: or giggling, even among the little girls. A particularly beautiful
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: young woman stood just behind the chief, watching the strangers
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: with big yellow cat eyes. Kieran took her to be
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: the man's daughter. He smiled at her. She continued to
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: stare dead panned and blank eyed, with no answering flicker
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: of a smile. It was as though she had never
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: seen one before. Kieran shivered. All this silence and unresponsiveness
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: became eerie. I'm happy to tell you, he muttered to Paula,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: that I don't think much of your little pets. She
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: could not allow herself to be sharply angry. She only
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: said in a whisper. They are not pets, they are
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: not animals. They she broke off. Something had come over
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the naked people. Every head had lifted, every eye had
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: turned away from the strangers. They were listening. Even the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: little ones were still. Kieran could not hear anything except
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the wind in the trees. What he started to ask,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Weber made an imperative gesture for silence. The tableau held
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: for a brief second, longer than the brown haired man
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: who seemed to be the leader, made a short, harsh noise.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: The people turned and vanished into the trees the saket.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Weber said, get out of sight. He ran toward the flitter.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: Paula grabbed Kieran's sleeve and pushed him towards the trees.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: What's going on, he demanded, as he ran. Their ears
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: are better than ours. There's a patrol ship coming. I
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: think the shadows took them in orange and gold splashed
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: shadows under strange trees. Kieran looked back. Weber had been
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: inside the flitter. Now he tumbled out of the hatch
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: and ran towards them behind him. The hatch closed, and
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: the flitter stirred and then took off all by itself, humming,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: they'll follow it for a while. Webber panted, it may
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: give us a chance to get away. He and Paula
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: started after the running people. Kieran balked, I don't know
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: why I'm running away from any body. Weber pulled out
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: a snub nosed instrument that looked enough like a gun
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: to be very convincing. He pointed it at Kieran's middle.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: Reason one, he said, if the sacket catch Paula and
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: me here, we're in very big trouble. Reason two, this
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: is a closed area and you're with us, so you
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: will be in very big trouble. He looked coldly at Kieran.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: The first reason is the one that interests me most.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Kieran shrugged, well, I know. He ran. Only then did
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: he hear the low, heavy thrumming in the sky. Section six.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: The sound came rumbling very swiftly toward them. It was
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: a completely different sound from the humming of the flitter,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: and it seemed to Kieran to hold a note of menace.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: He stopped in a small clearing where he might see
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: up through the trees. He wanted to look at this ship,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: or fly or roar, whatever it was that had been
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: built and was flown by non humans, but Weber shoved
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: him roughly into a clump of squat trees that were
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: the color of sherry wine with flat, thick leads. Don't move,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: he said. Paula was hugging a tree beside him. She
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: nodded to him to do as Weber said. They have
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: very powerful scanners, She pointed with her chin. Look, they've learned.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: The harsh warning barks of the men sounded faintly, then
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: they were hushed. Nothing moved except the natural motion of
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: the wind. The people crouched among the trees so still
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: that Kieran would not have seen them if he had
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: not known. And they were there. The patrol craft roared past,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: cranking up speed as it went. Webber grinned, there'll be
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of hours at least overhauling and examining the flitter.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: By that time it'll be dark, and by morning we'll
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: be in the mountains. The people were already moving. They
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: headed upstream, going at a steady shuffling trot. Three of
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the women, Kieran noticed had babies in their arms. The
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: older children ran beside their mothers. Two of the men
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: and several of the women were white haired. They also ran.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Do you like to see them run, asked Paula, with
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: a sharp note of passion in her voice. Does it
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: look good to you? No, said Kieran, frowning. He looked
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: in the direction in which the sound of the patrol
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: craft was vanishing. Move along, Webber said, they'll leave us
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: far enough behind as it is. Kieran followed the naked
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: people through the woods beside the tawny river. Paula and
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Webber jogged beside him. The shadows were long now reaching
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: out across the wooter. Paula kept glancing at him anxiously,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: as though to detect any sign of winness on his part.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: You're doing fine, she said, you should. Your body was
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: brought back to normal strength and tone before you were
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: ever awakened. They'll slow down when it's dark anyway, said Weber.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: The old people and the little children ran strongly. Is
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: there village there, kuranesked, indicating the distant mountains. They don't
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: live in villages, Paula said, But the mountains are safer,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: more places to hide. You said this was a closed area.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: What is it a hunting preserve? The Sakae don't hunt
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: them anymore, but they used to, well, Weber said, a
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: long time ago. Not for food. The Sacae are vegetarians.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: But but said Paula, they were the dominant race, and
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: that people were simply beasts of the field. When they
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: competed for the land and food, the people were hunted
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: down or driven out. She swung an expressive hand towards
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the landscape beyond the trees. Why do you think they
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: live in this desert, scraping a miserable existence along the
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: water courses. It's land the Sakay didn't want now, of course,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: they have no objejections to setting it aside as a
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: sort of game preserve. The humans are protected. The sake
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: tell us they're living their natural life and their natural environment.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: And when we demand that a program beat. She was
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: out of breath and had to stop panting. Webber finished
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: for her. We want them taught, lifted out of this
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: naked savagery. The sake say it's impossible, Is it true,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: asked Kieran. No, said Paula fiercely. It's a matter of pride.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: They want to keep their dominance, so they simply won't
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: admit that the people are anything more than animals, and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: they won't give them a chance to be anything more.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: There was no more talking after that, but even so,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the three outlanders grew more and more winded, and the
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: people gained on them. The sun went down in a
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: blaze of blood orange light that tinted the trees in
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: even more impossible colors and set the river briefly on fire.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: Then night came, and just after the darkness shut down,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: the patrol craft returned, beating up along the winding river bed.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Kieran froze under the black trees, and the hair lifted
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: on his skin. For the first time, he felt like
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: a hunted thing. For the first time, he felt a
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: personal anger. The patrol craft drummed away and vanished. They
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: won't come back until daylight, Webber said. He handed out
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: little flat packets of concentrated food from his pockets. They
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: munched as they walked. Nobody said anything. The wind, which
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: had dropped at sundown, picked up from a different quarter
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: and began to blow again. It got cold. After a while,
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: they caught up with the people who had stopped to
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: rest and eat. The babies and old people for whom
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: Kieran had felt a worried pity, were in much better
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: shape than he. He drank from the river and then
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: sat down. Paula and Weber sat beside him on the ground.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: The wind blew hard from the desert, dry and chill.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: The trees thrashed overhead against the pale glimmer of the water.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Kieran could see naked bodies moving along the river's edge, waiting, bending,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: grubbing in the mud. Apparently they found things, for he
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: could see that they were eating Somewhere close by, other
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: people were stripping fruit or nuts from the trees. A
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: man picked up a stone and pounded something with a
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: cracking noise, then dropped the stone again. They moved easily
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: in the dark, as though they were used to it.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Kieran recognized the leader's yellow eyed daughter, her beautiful, slender
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: height outlined against the pale, gleaming wooter. She stood up
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: to her ankles in the soft mud, holding something tight
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: in her two hands, eating the sweat dried on Kieran.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: He began to shiver. You're sure that patrol ship won't
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: come back, he asked. Not until they can see what
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: they're looking for. Then I guess it's safe. He began
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: to scramble around, feeling for dried sticks. What are you
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: doing getting some firewood? No, Paula was beside him in
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: an instant, her hand on his arm. No, you mustn't
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: do that, but Weber said. It isn't the patrol ship, Kieran,
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: it's the people they they want. I told you they
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: were low on the social scale. This is one of
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the basic things that they have to be taught. Right now,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: they still regard fire as a danger, something to run from.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: I see, Karen said, and let the kindling fall very well.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: If I can't have a fire, I'll have you. Your
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: body will warm me. He pulled her into his arms.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: She gasped more in astonishment, he thought, than alarm. What
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: are you talking about? That's a line from an old movie,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: from a number of old movies. In fact, not bad eh.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: He held her tight. She was definitely female. After a
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: moment he pushed her away. That was a mistake. I
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: want to be able to go on disliking you without
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: any qualifying considerations, She laughed, a curiously flat little sound.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Was everybody crazy in your day? She asked, and then
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: read It was the first time she had used his
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: given name. What when they threw stones and we got
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: back into the flitter, you pushed me ahead of you.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: You were guarding me. Why he stared at her, or
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: rather at the pale blur of her standing close to him. Well,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: it's always been sort of the custom for the men
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: to But now that I think of it, Weber didn't bother. No,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: said Paula. Back in your day, women were still taking
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: advantage of the duel standard, demanding complete equality with men,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: but clinging to their special status. We've got beyond that.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Do you like it beyond? I mean yes, She said.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: It was good of you to do that. But Weber said,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: they're moving again. Come on. The people walked, this time
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: strung out in a long line between the trees and
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: the water, where the light was a little better and
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the way more open. The three outlanders tagged behind, clumsy
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: in their boots and clothing. The long hair of the
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: people blue in the wind, and their bare feet padded softly,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: light and swift. Kieron looked up at the sky. The
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: trees obscured much of it, so that all he could
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: see was some scattered stars overhead. But he thought that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: somewhere a moon was rising. He asked Paula, and she said, wait,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: you'll see night. And the river rolled behind them. The
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: moonlight became brighter, but it was not at all like
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the moonlight Kieran remembered from long ago and far away
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: that had a cold tranquility to it. But this light
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: was neither cold nor tranquil. It seemed somehow to shift color, too,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: which made it even less adequate for seeing than the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: white moonlight he was used to. Sometimes, as it filtered
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: through the trees, it seemed ice green, and again it
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: was reddish or amber or blue. They came to a
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: place where the river made a wide bend, and they
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: cut across it, clear of the trees. Paula touched Kieran's
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: arm and pointed, look. Kieran looked, and then he stopped still.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: The light was not moonlight, and its source was not
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: a moon. It was a globular cluster of stars, hung
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: in the sky like a swarm of fiery bees, a
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: burning and pulsing of many colors, diamond white and gold,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: green and crimson, peacock blue, and smoky umber. Kieran stared,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: and beside him, Paula murmured, I've been on a lot
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: of planets, but none of them have anything like this.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: The people moved swiftly on, paying no attention at all
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to the sky. Reluctantly, Kieran followed them into the obscuring woods.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: He kept looking at the open sky above the river,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: waiting for the cluster to rise high so he could
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: see it. It was some time after this, but before
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: the cluster rose clear of the trees, that Kieran got
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: the feeling that something or someone was following them. Section seven.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: He had stopped to catch his breath and shaken accumulation
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: of sand out of his boots. He was leaning against
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: a tree with his back to the wind, which meant
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: that he was facing their back trail, and he thought
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: he saw a shadow move where there was nothing to
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: cast a shadow. He straightened up, with the little trip
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: hammers of alarm beating all over him, but he could
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: see nothing more. He thought he might have been mistaken
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: just the same, he ran to catch up with the others.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: The people were moving steadily. Kieran knew that their senses
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: were far keener than his, and they were obviously not
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: aware of any danger other than the basic one of
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: the sake. He decided that he must have been seeing things,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: but an uneasiness persisted. He dropped behind again, this time
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: on purpose. After they had passed a clearing, he stayed
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: hidden behind a tree trunk and watched the cluster. Light
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: was bright now but very confusing to the eye. He
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: heard her rustling that he did not think was wind,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: and he thought that something started to cross the clearing
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: and then stopped, as though it had caught his scent.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Then he thought that he heard rustling at both sides
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: of the clearing, stealthy sounds of stalking that closed in
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: towards him. Only the wind, he told himself, But again
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: he turned to run. This time he met Paula coming
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: back to look for him. Reed Are you all right?
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: She asked. He caught her arm and pulled her around
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: and made her run. What is it? What's the matter?
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know. He hurried with her until he could
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: see Webber ahead and beyond them, the bare backs and
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: blowing hair of the people. Listen, he said, Are there
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: any predators here? Yes, Paula said, and Webber turned sharply around.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Have you seen something? I don't know? I thought I did.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure where behind us. Weber made the harsh,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: barking danger call, and the people stopped. Weber stood, looking
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: back the way they had come. The women caught the children,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and the men fell back to where Weber stood. They
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: looked and listened, sniffing the air. Kieran listened too, but
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: now he did not hear any rustlings except the high
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: thrashing of the branches. Nothing stirred visibly, and the wind
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: would carry away any warning scent. The men turned away.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: The people moved on again. Weber shrugged. You must have
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: been mistaken, Kieran. Maybe, or maybe they just can't think
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: beyond the elementary. If they don't smell it, it isn't there.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: If something is after us, it's coming up wind, the
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: way any hunting animal works. A couple of the men
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: ought to circle around and come on, said Webber wearily.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: They followed the people Beside the river. The cluster was high, now,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: a hive of suns reflected in the flowing water, a
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: kaleidoscopic rippling of colors. Now the women were carrying the
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: smaller children. The ones too large to be carried were
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: lagging behind a little, so were the aged not much yet, Kieran,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: conscious that he was weaker than the weakest of these,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: looked ahead at the dim bulk of the mountains and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: thought that they ought to be able to make it.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: He was not at all sure that he would. The
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: river made another bend. The trail lay across the bend,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: clear of the trees. It was a wide bend, perhaps
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: two miles across the neck. Ahead, where the trail joined
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: the river again, there was a rocky hill. Something about
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: the outlines of the hill seemed wrong to Kieran, but
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: it was too far away to be sure of anything. Overhead,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: the cluster burned gloriously. The people set out across the sand.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Weber looked back, you see, he said nothing. They went on.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: Kieran was beginning to feel very tired. Now. All the
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: artificial strength that had been pumped into him before his
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: awakening was running out. Weber and Paula walked with their
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: heads down, striding determinedly but without joy. What do you
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: think now, she asked Kieran, Is this any way for
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: humans to live? The ragged line of women and children
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: moved ahead of them, with the men in the lead.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: It was not natural, Kiran thought for children to be
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: able to travel so far, and then he remembered that
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: the young of non predaceous species have to be strong
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: in fleet at an early age. Suddenly, one of the
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: women made a harsh, shrill cry. Kiran looked where she was,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: looking off to the left, to the river and the
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: curving line of trees. A large black shadow slipped across
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the sand. He looked behind him. There were other shadows
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: coming with long, easy bounds out of the trees, fanning
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: out in a shallow crescent. They reminded Kieran of some
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: animal he had once seen in a zoo, a partly catlike,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: partly doglike beast, a cheetah, he thought it had been called,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: only that cheetah was spotted like a leopard, and these
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: creatures were black with stiff, upstanding ears. They bayed, and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: the coursing began. Nothing, said Kieran bitterly. I count seven, Weber, said,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: my god. I The people ran. They tried to break
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: back to the river in the trees that could be
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: climbed to safety, but the hunters turned them. Then they
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: fled blindly forward toward the hill. They ran with all
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: their strength, making no sound. Kieran and Webber ran with them,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: with Paula between them. Weber seemed absolutely appalled. Where's that
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: gun you had, Kieran panted. It's not a gun, It's
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: only a short range shocker, he said. It wouldn't stop
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: these things. Look at them. They bounded, sporting around them,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: howling with a sound like laughter. They were as large
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: as leopards, and their eyes glowed in the cluster light.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: They seemed to be enjoying themselves, as though hunting was
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the most delightful game in the world. One of them
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: ran up to within two feet of Kieran and snapped
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: at him with its great jaws, dodging agilely when he
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: raised his arm. They drove the people faster and faster.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: At first, the men had formed around the women and children,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: but the formation began to disintegrate as the weaker ones
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: dropped behind, and no attempt was made to keep it.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: Panic was stronger than instinct. Now, Kieran looked ahead, if
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: we can make it to that hill. Paulus screamed, and
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: he stumbled over a child, a girl about five, crawling
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: on her hands and knees. He picked her up. She
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: bit and thrashed and tore at him, her bare little
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: body hard as whalebone and slippery with sweat. He could
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: not hold on to her. She kicked herself free of
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: his hands and rushed wildly out of reach, and one
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: of the black hunters pounced in and bore her away,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: shrieking thinly, like a fledgling bird in the jaws of
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: a cat. Oh my God, said Paula, and covered her
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: head with her arms, trying to shut out sight and sound.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: He caught her and said harshly, don't faint, because I
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: can't carry you. The child's mother, whichever of the women
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: it might have been, did not look back. An old
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: woman who straight aside was pulled down and dragged off,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: and then one of the white haired men. The hill
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: was closer. Karon saw now what was wrong with it.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Part of it was a building. He was too tired
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: and too sick to be interested, except as it offered
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: a refuge. He spoke to Webber with great difficulty because
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: he was winded, and then he realized that Webber wasn't there.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Weber had stumbled and fallen. He had started to get up,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: but the hunters were on him. He was on his
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: hands and knees, facing them, screaming at them to get
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: away from him. He had obviously had little or no
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: experience with raw violence. Kieran ran back to him, with
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Paula close behind. Use your gun, he yelled. He was
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: afraid of the black hunters, but he was full of rage,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: and the rage outweighed the fear. He yelled at them,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: cursing them. He hurled sand into their eyes, and one
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: that was creeping up on Webber from the side, he kicked.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: The creature drew off a little, not frightened, but surprised.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: They were not used to this sort of thing from humans.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: Your gun, Kieran roared again, and Webber pulled the snub
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: nosed thing out of his pocket. He stood up and
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: said unsteadily. I told you it's not a gun. It
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: won't kill anything. I don't think use it, said Kieran,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: and get moving again. Slowly they started to move, and
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: then across the sky a great iron voice spoke like thunder.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: Lie down, it said, please lie down flat, Kieran turned
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: his head startled from the direction of the building on
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: the hill. A vehicle was speeding toward them. The sack,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: said Webber, with what was almost a sob of relief.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: Lie down. As he did so, Kiran saw a pale
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: flash shoot out from the vehicle and knock over a
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: hunter still hanging on the flanks of the fleeing people.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: He hugged the sand. Something went whining and whistling over him.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: There was a thunk and a screech. It was repeated,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: and then the iron voice spoke again. You may get
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: up now, Please remain where you are. The vehicle was
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: much closer. They were bathed in sudden light. The voice said,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: mister Webber, you are holding a weapon. Please drop it.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: It's only a little shocker. Webber said plaintively. He dropped it.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: The vehicle had wide tracks that threw up clouds of sand.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: It came clanking to a halt. Kiran, shading his eyes,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: thought he distinguished two creatures inside, a driver and a passenger.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: The passenger emerged, climbing with some difficulty over the steep
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: step of the track, his tail rattling down behind him
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: like a length of thick cable. Once on the ground,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: he became quite agile, moving with a sort of oddly
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: graceful prance on his powerful legs. He approached His attention
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: centered on Kieran, but he observed the amenities, placing one
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: delicate hand on his breast and making a slight bow.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ray, his muzzle shaped something like a duck's bill,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: nevertheless formed Paula's name tolerably well. And you, I think,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: are mister Kieran. Kieran said yes. The star cluster blazed overhead,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: the dead beasts lay behind him, that people with their
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: flying hair had run on beyond his sight. He had
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: been dead for a hundred years and now was alive again.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: Now he was standing on alien soil, facing an alien
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: form of life, communicating with it. And he was so
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: dog tired, and every sensory nerve was so thoroughly flayed
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: that he had nothing left to react with. He simply
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: looked at the Sakha as he might have looked at
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: a fence post, and said, yes. The Saka made his
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: formal little bow again. I am bragg he shook his head.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I was able to reach you in time.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: You people don't seem to have any notion of the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: amount of trouble you make for us. Paula, who had
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: not spoken since the child was carried off, suddenly screamed
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: at Breg, murderer. She sprang at him, striking him in
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: blind hysteria Section eight. Greg sighed. He caught Paula in
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: those fine, small hands that seemed to have amazing strength,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: and held her at arm's length. Doctor Ray, he said,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: he shook her, Doctor Ray. She stopped screaming. I don't
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: wish to administer a sedative because then you will say
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: that I drugged you. But I will if I must.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: Kieran said, I'll keep her quiet. He took her from Breg.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: She collapsed against him and began to cry. Murderers. She whispered,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: that little girl, those old people, Weber said, you could
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: exterminate those beasts. You don't have to let them hunt
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: the people like that. It's unhuman, is the word you want?
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Said Breg. His voice was exceedingly weary. Please get into
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: the car. They climbed in. The car churned around and
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: sped back toward the building. Paula shivered and Kieran held
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: her in his arms. Weber said, after a moment or two.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: How did you happen to be here, Breg? When we
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: caught the flitter and found it empty, it was obvious
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: that you were here with the people, and it became
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: imperative to find you before you came to harm. I
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: remembered that the trail ran close by this old outpost building,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: so I had the patrol ship drop us here with
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: an emergency vehicle. Kieran said, you knew the people were
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: coming this way, of course, Breg sounded surprise. They migrate
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: every year at the beginning of the dry season. How
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: do you suppose Weber found them so easily. Kieran looked
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: at Weber. He asked, then they weren't running from the sake,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: of course they were, Paula said, you saw them yourself,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: cowering under the trees. When the ship went over. The
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: patrol ships frightened them, Greg said, sometimes to the point
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: of stampeding them, which is why we use them only
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: in emergencies. The people do not connect the ship with us,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: That said Paula Flatley is a lie. Bregg sighed. Enthusiasts
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: always believe what they want to believe. Come and see
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: for yourself. She straightened up. What have you done to them.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: We've caught them in a trap, said Greg, and we
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: are presently going to stick needles into them, a procedure
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: necessitated by your presence, Doctor Ray. They're highly susceptible to
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: imported viruses, as you should remember, one of your little
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: parties of do gooders succeeded in wiping out a whole
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: band of them not too many years ago. So inoculations
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: and quarantine lights had blazed up in the area near
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: the building. The car sped toward them. Kieran said slowly.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: Why don't you just exterminate the hunters and have done
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: with them in your day? Mister Kieran, Yes, I've heard
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: all about you. In your day. Did you on Earth
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: exterminate the predators so that their natural prey might live
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: more happily? Greg's long muzzle and sloping skull were profiled
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: against the lights. No, said Kieran. We didn't. But in
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: that case they were all animals exactly, said brag. No. Wait,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: doctor Ray, spare me the lecture. I can give you
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: a much better reason than that one even you can't
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: quarrel with. It's a matter of ecology. The number of
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: humans destroyed by these predators annually is negligible, but they
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: do themselves destroy an enormous number of small creatures with
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: which the humans compete for their food. If we exterminated
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the hunters, the small animals would multiply so rapidly that
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: the humans would starve to death. The car stopped beside
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: the hill. At the edge of the lighted area, A
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: sort of makeshift corral of wire fencing had been set
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: up with wide wings to funnel the people into the enclosure,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: where a gate was shut on them. Two sakey were
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: mounting guard as the party from the car approached the corral.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: Inside the fence, Kieran could see the people flopped around
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: in positions of exhaustion. They did not seem to be afraid.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: Now a few of them were drinking from a supply
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: of water provided for them. There was food scattered for
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: them on the ground. Gregg said something in his own
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: language to one of the guards, who looked surprised and
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: questioned him, then departed, springing strongly on his powerful legs. Wait,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: said Breg. They waited, and in a moment or two
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: the guard came back, leading one of the black hunting
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: beasts on a chain. It was a female somewhat smaller
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: than the ones Kieran had fought with, and having a
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: slash of white on the throat and chest. She howled
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: and sprang up on Breg, butting her great head into
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: his shoulder, wriggling with delight. He petted her, talking to her,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: and she laughed doglike and licked his cheek. They domesticate well,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: he said, We've had a tame breed for centuries. He
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: moved a little closer to the corral, holding tight to
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: the animal's chain. Suddenly she became aware of the people. Instantly,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: the good natured pet turned into a snarling fury. She
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: reared on her hind legs and screamed, and inside the
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: corral the people roused up. They were not frightened now.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: They spat and chattered, clawing up sand and pebbles and
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: bits of food to throw through the fence. Bregg handed
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the chain to the guard, who hauled the animal away
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: by main force. Paula said coldly, if your point was
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: that the people are not kind to animals, my answer
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: is that you can hardly blame them. A year ago,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: Bregg said, some of the people got hold of her
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: two young ones. They were torn to pieces before they
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: could be saved, and she saw it. I can't blame
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: her either. He went on to the gate and opened
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: it and went inside. The people drew back from him.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: They spat at him too, and pelted him with food
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: and pebbles. He spoke to them sternly, in the tone
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: of one speaking to unruly dogs, and he spoke words
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: in his own tongue. The people began to shuffle about uneasily.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: They stopped throwing things. He stood waiting. The yellow eyed
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: girl came sidling forward and rubbed herself against his thigh, head, shoulder,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: and flank. He reached down and stroked her, and she
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: whimpered with pleasure and arched her back. Oh, for God's sake,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: said kir, And let's get out of here. Later, they
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: sat wearily on fallen blocks of cement inside a dusty,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: shadowy room of the old building. Only a hand lamp
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: dispelled the gloom, and the wind whispered coldly, and Bregg
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: walked to and fro in his curious prance as he talked.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: It will be a little while before the necessary medical
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: team can be picked up and brought here, he said.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: We shall have to wait, and then asked Kieran. First
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: to Bregg used a word that undoubtedly named a city
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: of the sakee, but that meant nothing to Kieran, and
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: then to Alta too. This, of course, is a council matter.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: He stopped and looked with bright shrewd eyes at Kieran.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: You are quite the sensation already, mister Kieran. The whole
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: community of Star Worlds is already aware of the illegal
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: resuscitation of one of the Pioneer's spacemen. And of course
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: there is great interest, he paused, You yourself have done
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: nothing unlawful. You cannot very well be sent back to sleep,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and undoubtedly the council will want to hear you. I
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: am curious as to what you will say about Sako,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: said Kieran. About them, He made a gesture toward a
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: window through which the wind brought the sound of stirring
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: of the gruntings and wafflings of the corralled people. Yes,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: about them, I'll tell you how I feel, Kieran said flatly.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: He saw Paula and Weber lean forward in the shadows.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: I'm a human man. The people out there may be savage,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: low as the beasts, good for nothing. The way they are,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: But they're human. You, Sakai, may be intelligent, civilized, reasonable,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: but you're not human. When I see you watering them
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: around like beasts, I want to kill you. That's how
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: I feel. Bregg did not change his bearing, but he
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: made a small sound that was almost a sigh. Yes,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: he said, I feared it would be so. A man
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: of your times, a man from a world where humans
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: were all dominant, would feel that way. He turned and
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: looked at Paula and Webber. It appears that your scheme
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: to this extent was successful. No, I wouldn't say that,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: said Kieran. Paula stood up. But you just told us
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: how you feel, and it's the truth said herein. But
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: there's something else. He looked thoughtfully at her. It was
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: a good idea. It was bound to work. A man
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: of my time was bound to feel just the way
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: you wanted him to feel, and would go away from
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: here crying your party slogans and believing them. But you
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: overlooked something, he paused, looking out the window into the
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: sky at the faint, very colored radiance of the cluster.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: You overlook the fact that when you awoke me, I
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: would no longer be a man of my own time,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: or of any time. I was in darkness for a
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: hundred years, with the stars, my brothers, and no man
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: touching me. Maybe that chills a man's feelings. Maybe something
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: deep in his mind lives and has time to think.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: I've told you how I feel, yes, but I haven't
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: told you what I think. He stopped again, then said,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: the people out there in the corral have my form,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: and my instinctive loyalty is to them. But instinct isn't enough.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: It would have kept us in the mud of Earth
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: forever if it could. Reason took us out to the
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: wider universe. Instinct tells me that those out there or
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: my people. Reason tells me that you. He looked at Bregg,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: who are abhorrent to me, who would make my skin
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: creep if I touched you, You, who go by reason
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: that you are my real people. Instinct made a hell
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: of Earth for millennia. I say, we ought to leave
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: it behind us there in the mud. Not let it
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: make a hell of the stars, For you'll run into
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: this same problem over and over again as you go
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: out into the wider universe, and the old parochial human
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: loyalties must be altered. To solve it. He looked at
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: Paula and said, I'm sorry, but if anyone asks me,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: that is what I'll say. I'm sorry too, she said,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: rage and dejection ringing in her voice. Sorry we woke you.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: I hope I never see you again. Kiran shrugged. After
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: all you did wake me. You are responsible for me here.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: I am facing a whole new universe, and I'll need you.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: He went over and patted her shoulder. Damn you, she said,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: but she did not move away from him and of
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: Part two of the Stars My Brothers by Edmund Hamilton