Latest / 4 Science Fiction Stories by Mack Reynolds / Conquest Over Time-Michael Shaara

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Conquest Over Time-Michael Shaara · 4 Science Fiction Stories by Mack Reynolds

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: CONQUEST OVER TIME by Michael Schara. Section 1. When the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: radiogram came in, it was 1028 ship's time, and Old
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: 29 was exactly 3.4 light-years away from Diomed 3. Travis
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: threw her wide open and hoped for the best. By
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: 410 that same afternoon, minus three burned-out generators and fronting
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a warped iron screen, Old 29 touched the atmosphere and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: began homing down. It was a very tense moment. Somewhere
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: down in that great blue disk below... A Mapping Command
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: ship sat in an open field, sending up the beam
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: which was guiding them down. But it was not the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Mapping Command that was important. The Mapping Command was always first.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: What mattered now was to come in second, any kind
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of second, close or wide, mile or eyelash, but second
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: come hell or high water. The clouds peeled away. Travis,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: staring anxiously down, could see nothing but mist and heavy cloud.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: He could not help sniffing the air and groaning inwardly.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: There is no smell quite as expensive as that of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: burned generators. He could hear the old man repeating over
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and over again, as if all space was not one
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of the richest companies in existence, Burned generators, boy, is
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: burned money, and don't you forget it! Fat chance me
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: forgetting it, Travis thought gloomily, twitching his nostrils. But a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: moment later, he did. for Diomed III was below him,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and Diomed III was an open planet. It happened less
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: often nowadays that the mapping command ran across intelligent life,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and it was even less often that the intelligent life
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was humanoid. But when it happened, it was an event
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to remember, for space travel had brought with it two
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: great problems. The first was contact, the second was trade.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: For many years man had prohibited contact with intelligent humanoids
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: who did not yet have space travel, on the grounds
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: of the much-discussed maturity theory. As time went by, however,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and humanoid races were discovered which were biologically identical with man,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and as great swarms of completely alien, often hostile races
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: were also discovered, the maturity theory went in to discard.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: A human being, ran the new slogan, is a human being,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: And so came the first great contact law, which stated
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that any humanoid race, regardless of its place on the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: evolutionary scale, was to be contacted, to be accepted, yea, welcomed,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: as the phrase went, into the human community. And following this,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of course, there came trade, for it was the businessmen
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: who had started the whole thing in the first place.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: HENCE THE DAY OF THE OPEN PLANET A humanoid race
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was discovered by the mapping command, the MC made its investigation,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and then sent out the word. And every company in
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the galaxy, be it monstrous huge or piddling small, made
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a mad rush to be first on the scene. The
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: government was very strict about the whole business, the idea
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: being that planets should make their contracts with companies rather
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: than the government itself, so that if any shady business arose,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the company at fault could be kicked out. and there
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: would be no chance of a general war. Also, went
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the reasoning, under this system there would be no favorites.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Whichever company, no matter its resources, had a ship closest
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: at the time of the call, was the one to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: get first bargaining rights. Under this setup it was very
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: difficult for any one company to grow too large, or
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to freeze any of the others out, and quite often
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a single contract on a single planet was enough to
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: transform a fly-by-night outfit into a major concern. So that
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: was the basis of the open planet, but there the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: real story has only begun. Winning the race did not
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: always mean winning the contract. It was what you found
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: when you got down that made the job of contact
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: man one of the most hazardous occupations in history. Each
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: new planet was wholly and completely new. There were no rules,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and what you learned on all the rest meant nothing.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: You went from a matriarchy which refused absolutely to deal
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: with men— the tenth ship to arrive had a lady doctor
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and therefore got the contract— to a planet where the earth
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: was sacred and you couldn't dig a hole in it,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: so mining was out, to a planet which considered your
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: visit the end of the world and promptly committed mass suicide.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: The result of this was that a successful contact man
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: had to be a remarkable man to begin with, a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: combined speed demon, sociologist— financier, diplomat, and geologist all in one.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: It was a job in which successful men not only
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: made fortunes, they made legends. It was that way with
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Pat Travis. Sitting at the view screen, watching the clouds
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: whip by and the first dark clots of towns beginning
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to shape below, Travis thought about the legend. He was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a tall, frail, remarkably undernourished-looking man with large, soft brown eyes.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: He did not look like a legend, and he knew it.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And being a man of great pride, it bothered him.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: More and more, as the years went by, his competitors
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: blamed his success on luck. It was not Pat Travis
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: that was the legend. It was the luck of Pat Travis.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Over the years, he had learned not to argue about it,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and it was only during these past few months, when
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: his luck had begun to slip, that he mentioned it
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: at all. LUCK NO MORE MAKES A LEGEND, HE KNEW,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: THAN RAW COURAGE MAKES A FIGHTER. BUT LEGENDS DIE QUICK
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: IN DEEP SPACE, AND HIS OWN HAVE BEEN A-DYING FOR
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: A GOOD LONG WHILE NOW, WHILE OTHER LESSER MEN, THE
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: LUCK ALL THEIRS, PLUCKED PLANET AFTER PLANET FROM UNDER HIS NOSE.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: NOW AT THE VIEW-SCREEN HE GLANCED DOLEFULLY ACROSS THE ROOM
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: AND HIS CREW, THE CURLY-HEADED YOUNG DOLLINGER AND THE PROFOUND MR. TRIP.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: IN CONTRAST TO HIS OWN WEARY RELAXATION, Both of the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: young men were tensed and anxious, peering into the screen.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: They had come to learn under the great Pat Travis,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: but in the last few months what they seemed to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: have learned most was luck. If you happened to be close,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: you were lucky, and if you weren't, you weren't. But
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: if they were to get anywhere in this business, Travis knew,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: they had to learn that luck, more often than not,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: follows the man who burns his generators. He stopped thinking
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: abruptly as a long yellow field came into view. He
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: saw silver flashing in the sun, and his heart jumped
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: into his throat. Old 29 settled fast. One ship or two?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: In the distance he could see the gray jumbled shapes
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of a low-lying city. The sun was shining warmly. It
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was spring on Diomed III, and across the field a
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: blue river sparkled, but Travis paid no attention. There was
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: only one silver gleam. Still he waited, not thinking, but
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: when they were close enough he saw that he was right.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: The mapping command ship was alone. Old 29, burned generators
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and all, had won the race.' My boys,' he said gravely,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: turning to the crew,' Pat Travis rides again!' But they
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: were already around him, pounding him on the back. He
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: turned happily back to the screen, for the first time
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: beginning to admire the view. By Jing, he thought, what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a lovely day! That was his first mistake. It was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: not a lovely day. It was absolutely miserable. Travis had
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: his first pang of doubt when he stepped out of
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the ship. The field was empty, not a native in sight.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: But Dollinger was out before him, standing waist-high in the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: grass and heaving deep lungfuls of the flower-scented air. He
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: yelled that he could already smell the gold.' I say, Trav,'
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Trip said thoughtfully, from behind him,' where' s the fatted calf?''
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: In this life,' Travis said warily,' one is often disappointed.'
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: A figure climbed out of a port over at the
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  Speaker 1: mapping command ship and came walking slowly toward them. Travis
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: recognized him and grinned.' Hey, Hort!'' Hey, Trav,' Horton replied
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: from a distance. But he did not say anything else.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He came forward with an odd look on his face.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Travis did not understand. Ed Horton was an old buddy,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and Ed Horton should be happy to see him. Travis
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: felt his second pang. This one went deep. Anybody beat
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: us here? No, you're the first, Trav. Dollinger whooped. Travis
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: relaxed slightly, and even the glacial trip could not control
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a silly grin. Horton caught a whiff of air from
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the open lock. Burn generators. You must have come like hell.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: His face showed his respect. Between burning a generator and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: blowing one entirely, there is only a microscopic distance, and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it takes a very steady pilot indeed to get the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: absolute most out of his generators without also spreading himself
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and his ship over several cubic miles of exploded space.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Like a striped-tailed ape, Dollinger chortled. Man, you should see
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the boss handle the ship. I thought every second we
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: were going to explode in technicolor. Well, Horton said feebly,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: burned generators. Shame. He lowered his eyes and began towing
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the ground. Travis felt suddenly ill. What's the matter, Hort?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Horton shrugged. I hate like heck to be the one
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to tell you, Trav, but seeing as I know you,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: they sent me. Tell me what? Now Dollinger and Tripp
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: both realized it and were suddenly silent. Well, if only
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you'd taken a little more time. But not you. Not
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: old Pat Travis. By damn, Pat, you came in here
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: like a downhill locomotive. It ain't my fault. Hort, straighten
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: it out. What's not your fault? Horton sighed. Listen, it's
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a long story. I've got a buggy over here to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: take you into town. They're putting you up at the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: hotel so you can look the place over. I'll tell
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you on the way in. The heck with that! Dallinger
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: said indignantly, We want to see the man! You're not
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: going to see the man, Sonny, Horton said patiently. You are,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, the last people on the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: planet the man wants to see right now. Dallinger started
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: to say something, but Travis shut him up. He told
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  Speaker 1: Trip to stay with the ship and took Dallinger with him.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: At the end of the field was a carriage straight
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: out of seventeenth-century England, and the things that drew it,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: if you closed your eyes, looked reasonably similar to horses.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: The three men climbed aboard. There was no driver. Horton
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: explained that the horses would head straight for the hotel. Well,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: all right, Travis said. What's the story? Don't turn those
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: baby browns on me, Horton said gloomily. I would have
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  Speaker 1: warned you if I could, but you know the law
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: says we can't show favoritism. Travis decided the best thing
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to do was wait with as much patience as possible.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: After a while, Horton had apologized thoroughly and completely, although
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: what had happened was certainly not his fault, and finally
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: got on with the tale. Now, this here planet, he
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: said cautiously, is wacky in a lot of ways. First off,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: they call it Mert. Mert. Fine name for a planet.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Just plain Mert. And they live in houses strictly from Dickens.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: All carriages, no sewers, narrow streets, stuff like that. With
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: technology roughly equivalent to 17th century. But now, see there?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: See that building over there? Travis followed his pointing finger
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: through the trees. A large white building of blinding marble
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: was coming slowly into view. Travis's eyes widened. You see? See?
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Just like the blinking Parthenon or Acropolis, whichever it is.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: All columns and frescoes. In the middle of a town
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: looks just like London. Makes no sense, but there it is.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And that's not all. Their government is Grecian, too, complete
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: with Senate and citizens. No slaves, though. Well, not exactly.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't call them slaves. Or could you? Heck of
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: a question, that. He paused to brood. Travis nudged him. Yes, well,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: all that is minor, next to the big thing. This
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: is one of two major countries on the planet. There's
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a few hill tribes, but these make up about 90%
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of the population, so you have to deal with these.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: They never go to war, well, maybe once in a while,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: but not very often. So no trouble there. The big
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: trouble is one you'd never guess. Not in a million years.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: He stared at Travis unhappily. The whole planet's run on astrology.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: He waited for a reaction. Travis said nothing. It ain't funny,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Horton said. When I say run on astrology, I mean
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: really run. Wait till you hear. I'm not laughing, Travis said.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: But is that all? In this business you learn to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: respect the native customs, so if all we have to do,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I ain't finished yet, Horton said ominously. You don't get
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the point. Everything these people do is based on astrology.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And that means business too, lad, business too. Every event
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that happens on this cockeyed world, from a picnic to
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a wedding to a company merger or a war, It's
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: all based on astrology. They have it down so exact
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: they even tell you when to sneeze. You ought to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: see the daily paper. Half of it's solid astrological guidance.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: All the senators not only have astrologers, they are astrologers.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And get this. Every man and woman and child alive
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: on this planet was cataloged the day he was born.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: His horoscope was drawn up by the public astrologer, a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: highly honored office, and his future laid out according to
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: what the horoscope said. If his horoscope indicates a man
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: of stature and responsibility, he becomes, by God, a man
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of stature and responsibility. You have to see it to
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: believe it. Kids with good horoscopes are sent to the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: best schools. People fight to give them jobs. Well, take
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the courts, for example. When they're trying a case, do
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: they talk about evidence? They do not. They call in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: a legal astrologer. There's all kinds of branches in the profession.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: And this joker all by himself determines the guilt or
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: innocence of the accused by checking the aspects. Take a wedding.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Does boy go see girl? No.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: He heads straight for an astrologer. The girl's horoscope is
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: on file in the local city hall, just like everybody else.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: The astrologer compares the charts and determines whether the marriage
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: will be a good one. He is, naturally, a marital astrologer.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: He gives the word. If he says no, they don't marry.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I could go on for hours, but you really have
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to see it. Take the case of people who want
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to have children. They want them born, naturally. at the
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: time of the best possible aspects. So they consult an astrologer,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and he gives them a list of the best times
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: for a baby to be conceived. These times are not
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: always convenient. Sometimes it's 4.18 in the morning, and sometimes
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: it's 2.03 Monday afternoon. Yet this is a legitimate excuse
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: for getting out of work. A man goes in, tells
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: his boss it's breeding time, and off he goes without
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a penny docked. Build a better race, they say. Of course,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the gestation period is variable, and they never do hit
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: it right on the nose. But also there are still
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the natural accidents, so quite a few are born with
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: terrible horoscopes. Holy smoke, Travis muttered. The possibilities of it
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: blossomed in his mind. He began to understand what was coming.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Now you begin to see, Horton went on gloomily, Look
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: what an Earthman represents to these people. We are the Unknown,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the completely capital U Unknown. Everybody else is a certain
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: definite quantity. His horoscope is on file, and every man
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: on MERT has access to all his potentialities, be they good, bad,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: or indifferent. But not us. They don't know when we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: were born, or where, And even if they did, it
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do them any good, because they haven't got any
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: system covering Mars and Jupiter, the planets at home. Everybody
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: else is catalogued, but not us. And just because they
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: believe so thoroughly in their own astrology, they've gotten used
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to the idea that a man is what his horoscope
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: says he is. But us? What are we? They haven't
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the vaguest idea, and it scares hell out of them.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: The only thing they can do is check with one
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of the branches, what they call horary astrology, and make
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a horoscope of the day we landed. Even if that
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: tells them nothing about us in particular, at least it
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: tells them, or so they believe, all about our mission
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: to Mert. Because the moment our ship touched the ground
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was the birth date of our business here. He paused
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and regarded Travis with woeful sympathy. With us, luckily, it
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: was all right. The mapping command just happened to hit
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: here on a good day. But you, Trav, old buddy,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: for once you came just too damn fast. Oh, my God,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Travis breathed. We landed on a bad day. Bad, Horton sighed. Man,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: it's it's terrible! CONQUEST OVER TIME This Liebervox recording is
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. and is read by Mark Smith
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Section 2 You see, Horton said as they drove into
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the town, not a soul on the streets. This is
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: not only a bad day, this is one for the books. Tomorrow,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: you see, there is an eclipse. And to these people
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: there is nothing more frightening than an eclipse. During the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: entire week preceding one they won't do a darn thing.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: No business, no weddings, no anything. The height of it
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: will be reached about tomorrow noon. Their moon, which is
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a tiny little thing, not much bigger than our first
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: space station, is called Felda. It is very important in
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: their astrology. And for all practical purposes the eclipse is
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: already in force. I knew you were riding in down
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the base, so I checked it out. It not only
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: applies to you, other things cinch it. He pulled a
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: coarse sheet of paper from his pocket and read from
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: it in a wishful voice. With Huck, planet of necessity,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: transiting the twelfth house of endings and things hidden, squaring Bonkin,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: planet of gain, in the ninth house of travellers and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: distant places— It is unquestionable that the visit of these
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: persons bodes ill for Mert. If further proof is needed,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: one need only examine the position of Diomed, which is
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: conjunct Huck, and closely squared to Lindle, in the third
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: house of commerce, etc., etc. You see what I mean?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: On top of this, yet an eclipse. Trav, you haven't
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: got a prayer. If only you hadn't been so close.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Two days from now would have been great. Once the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: eclipse ends. Well, listen, Travis said desperately. Couldn't we just
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: see the guy? Take my advice. Don't. He has expressed
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: alarm at the thought that you might come near him. Also,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: his guards are armed with blunderbusses. They may be a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: riot to look at, but those boys can shoot, believe me.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Give you a contract? Trav, he wouldn't give you a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: broom to sweep out his cellar. At that moment they
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: drew up before an enormous marble building vaguely reminiscent of
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: a Theban palace. It turned out to be the local hotel.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Horton stepped on the threshold and handed them two of
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the tiny lang kits, the little black memory banks in
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: which the language of Mert had been transcribed for their
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: use by the mapping command. Travis slipped his automatically into
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: position behind his ear. BUT HE FELT NO NEED TO
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: KNOW THE LANGUAGE. THIS ONE WAS GOING TO BE TOUGH.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: HE GLANCED AT DOLLINGER. THE KID WAS WEARING A STUNNED EXPRESSION,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: TOO DULL EVEN TO NOTICE THE PANTALOONED CUSTOMER, FIRST MERTS
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: THEY'D SEEN, EYING THEM FEARFULLY FROM BEHIND PILLARS AS THEY PASSED.'
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Smell that gold,' Travis remembered wistfully.' Then smell those generators.'' Oh,'
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he thought sinkingly, 'smell those generators.' They went silently on
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: up to the room. Travis stopped at the door as
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: a thought struck him.' Listen,' he said cautiously, taking Horton
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: by the arm.' Haven' t you thought of this? Why don't
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: we just take off and start all over? Orbit around
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: for a couple of days, pick a good hour, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: then come back down. That way we'll be starting all—'
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: But Horton was gazing at him reproachfully.' They have a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: word for that, Trav.' he said ominously. They call it vetching.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Worst crime a man can commit. Attempt to evade his stars.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Equivalent almost to falsifying a horoscope. No siree, boy, for
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that they burn you very slowly. The first horoscope stands.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: All your subsequent actions, according to them, date from the original.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: You'll just be bearing out the first diagnosis. You'll be
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: a vetcher. Um, Travis said, if they feel that way,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: why the heck do they even let us stay? Shows
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you the way the system works. This is a bad
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: day for everything, coming as well as going. They never
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: think of asking you to start a trip on a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: day like this, no matter who you are. Travis collapsed
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: into an old, vaguely Chippendale chair. His position was not
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: that of a man sitting in It was that of
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a man dropped from a great height. Well, Horton said,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: so it goes. And listen, Trav, there was nothing I
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: could do. Sure, Hort. I just want you to know
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I know they've been kicking you around lately,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and don't think I don't feel I owe you something.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: After all, if you hadn't— Easy, Travis said, glancing at Dullinger.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: but the kid's ears perked. Well, Horton murmured, just so's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: you know. Anyways, I still got faith in you, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Unico will be in the same boat if they get
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: here tonight. So think about it. Let me see the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: old Pat Travis. Your luck has to change sometime. He
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: clenched a fist, then left. Travis sat for a long
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: while in the chair. Dollinger muttered something very bitter about
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: luck Travis thought of telling him that it was not
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: luck that had put them so close to Mert, but
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: a very grim and expensive liaison with the ferociously ugly
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Mapping Command Secretary at Aldebaran. She had told him that
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: there was a ship in this area, but this news
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: was not for Dollinger's ears, and neither did he think
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: it wise to explain to Dollinger the thing he had
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: done for Horton some years ago. Young Dolly was not
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: yet ripe. Travis sighed and looked around for a bed.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: To his amusement he noted a four-poster in the adjoining room.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: He went in and lay down. Gradually the dullness began
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: to wear off. There was a resiliency in Travis Unequaled,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: some said, by Spring Steel. He began to ponder ways
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and means. There was always a way. There had to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: be a way. Somewhere in the customs of this planet
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: there was a key. But he did not have the time.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: UNICO would be in to-night, others would be down before
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the week was out, and the one to land in
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: two days, on the good day, would get the contract.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: He twisted on the bed. Luck, luck. The hell with luck!
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: If you were born with sense, you were lucky, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: if a meteor fell on you, you were unlucky. But
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: most of the rest of it was even from there
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: on out. So if the legend was to continue— He
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: became gradually aware of the clock in the ceiling. In
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the ceiling? He stared at it. The symbols and the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: time meant nothing, but the clock was embedded flat in
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the ceiling above the bed, facing directly down. He pondered
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: that for a moment. Then he exploded with laughter. By Jing!
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Of course! They would have to know what time the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: baby was conceived. So all over Mert, in thousands of homes,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: there were clocks in the bedrooms, clocks in the ceilings,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and wives peering anxiously upward murmured sweetly in their husbands' ears, Four-seventeen, darling,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: four-seventeen and a half. The roar of his mirth brought
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Dolly floundering in from the other room. Travis sprang from
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the bed. Listen, son, he bellowed. Luck be damned! You
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: get back to the ship. Get mapping command to let
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: you look at its files. Find out everything you can
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: about Mertt. There's a key somewhere, boy. There's an out
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in there someplace, if we look hard enough. Luck! Ha! Work, boy! Work!
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: There's a key! He shooed Dollinger out of the room.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: The young man left dazedly, but he had caught some
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: of Travis's enthusiasm. Travis turned back to the bed, feeling
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: unreasonably optimistic. No way out, eh? Well, by Jingo, old
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Pat Travis would ride again. He could feel it in
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: his bones. A few moments later he had another feeling
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in his bones. This one was much less delightful. He
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: was pacing past a heavy drapery when something very hard
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and moving very fast struck him on the head. The
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: first thing Travis saw when he awoke was, unmistakably, the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: behind of a young woman. His head was lying flat
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: on the floor and the girl was sitting next to him,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: her back toward him very close to his face. He
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: stared at it for a long while without thinking. The
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: pain in his head was enormous, and he was not
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: used to pain, not any kind of pain. The whiskey
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: men drank nowadays left no hangovers, and for a normal
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: headache there were instantaneously acting pills, so Travis on the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: floor was unused to pain. And though he was by
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: nature a courageous man, it took him a while to
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: be able to think at all, much less clearly. Eventually
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: he realized that he was lying on a very hard floor.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: His arms and legs were tightly bound. He investigated the floor.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: It was brick. It was wet. The dark ceiling dripped
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: water and the flickering light from some source beyond the girl.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: The brick, the dripping water, the girl, all combined to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: make it completely unbelievable. If it wasn't for the pain,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: he would have rolled over and gone to sleep. But
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the pain! Yes, the pain! He closed his eyes and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: lay still, hurting. When he opened his eyes again, he
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: was better. By Jing, this was ridiculous! Not a full
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: day yet on Mert, and in addition to his other troubles,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: now this. He did not feel alarmed, only downright angry.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: This business of the flickering light and being tied hand
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and foot was too impossible to be dangerous. He grunted
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: feebly at the back of the girl. Ho! he said.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Now what in the sweet name of Billy H. Culpepper
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: is this? The girl turned and looked down at him.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: She swiveled around on her hips and and a rag-bound
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: foot kicked him unconcernedly in the side. For the first
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: time he saw the other two men behind her. There
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: were two of them. The look of them was ridiculous.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: The girl said something. It was a moment before he
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: realized she was speaking in Mert, which he had to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: translate out of the langkit behind his ear.' The scourge awakes,'
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: one of the men said.' Ajoy!' IT WAS MY THOUGHT
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: THAT IN THE CONJUNCTION WAS DONE PERHAPS MURDER. POOT, ONE
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: OVER WORRIES, AND IF DEATH COMES TO THIS ONE, OBSERVE,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: WILL THE MONEY BE PAID? OF A SURETY, BUT THIS
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: IS BIZARRE. TRULY BIZARRE, THE GIRL NODDED, THEN TO MAKE
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: HER POINT, ALSO CURIOUS, UNIQUE, UNUSUAL, MY THOUGHT, FROM WHAT
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: LAND HE COMES. THE CLOTH IS RARE. ONE OF THE
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: MEN SAID. OBSERVE WITH TIGHT EYES THE OBJECT ON HIS WRIST.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: A MANY-SYMBOLED ENGINE. MY ENGINE, THE GIRL SAID POSITIVELY. SHE
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: REACHED DOWN FOR HIS WATCH. TRAVIS JERKED BACK. LAY OFF THERE,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: HE BALLED IN ENGLISH. YOU HIPLESS, THE GIRL RECOILED. HE
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: COULD NOT SEE HER FACE, BUT HER TONE WAS PUZZLED.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: WHAT LANGUAGE IS THIS? HE SPEAKS WITH LIQUID. The larger
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: of the two men arose and came over to him.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Speak again, scourge, but first empty the mouth. Travis glared
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: at the man's feet, which were wrapped in dirty cloth
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and smelt like the breezes blowing softly over fresh manure.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Speak again? Speak again? Untie my hands, you maggoty slob,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and I'll speak your bloody— He went on at great length,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: but the man ignored him. Truly, he speaks as with
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a full mouth. But this is not Bilken talk. Nor
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: is he, of clarity and also profundity, a hill-man, the
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: girl observed. Poot! Poot! Poot! the young man stuttered. The light!
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: He is of them! It took the other two a
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: moment to understand what he meant, but Travis caught on immediately.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: May the saints preserve us, he thought. They've figured I
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: was from Myrt. He chuckled happily to himself. A natural mistake.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Only one Earthman on this whole blinking planet puts up
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: at a good hotel, best in town. These boys put
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the snatch on me, thinking I'm a visiting VIP. Loaded.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Have no idea. I'm just poor common trash like the
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: rest of us Earthmen. Ha! His face split in a
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: wide grin. He gathered his words from the lang kit
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and began to speak in Mert. Exactly, friends. With clarity
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: one sees that you have been misled. I am not
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: of Mert. I am from a far world, come here
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to deal with your Senate in peace. Untie me, then,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and let us erase this sad but erasable mistake with
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a good handshake all around, and a speedy farewell. It
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: did not have the effect he desired. The girl stepped
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: back from him, a dark frown on her face, and
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the large man above him spoke mournfully. Where now is
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the ransom? And the risk, the girl said. Was there
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: not great risk? Unhappily, the tall man observed, one risks.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: One should be repaid. It is the nature of things
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: that one is repaid. Well now, boys, Travis put in
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: from the floor, you see it yourselves. I'm flat as
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: a— he paused. Apparently the Mertz had no word for pancake.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: My pockets are— Windy. No money is held therein. Still,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the tall man mused absently, this must have friends. On
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the great ships lie things of value. Doubt? Not, the
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: girl said firmly, but I see over the hills coming
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a problem. How does it appear? In the shape of disposal.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: See thee. Such as will come from the great ships—
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Of value though it be, can it not be clarifiably
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: identified by such Pudian authorities as presently seek our intestines? Ha!
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the tall man snorted in anger. So, truth shapes itself.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Will we not, then, continued the girl, risk sunlight on
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: our intestines in pursuing this affair? We will, the young
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: man spoke up emphatically. We will of inevitability. NAVEL. OUR
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: RISK IS UNPAID. SO PASSES THE CLOUD. BUT IN FREEDOM
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: FOR THIS, THE GIRL WARILY INDICATED TRAVIS, LIES RISK IN
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: GREAT MEASURE. WHICH WAY LIE HIS RIBS? CAN WE WITH
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: PROFIT SLICE HIS BINDS? HE IS OF THEM. WHAT COILS
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: IN HIS HEAD? WHAT STRIKES? THEY WERE ALL SILENT. Travis,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: having caught but not deciphered most of the conversation, glanced
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: quickly from face to face. The girl had backed out
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: into the light, and he could see her now clearly,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: and his mouth fell open. She was thickly coated with dirt,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but she was absolutely beautiful. The features were perfect, lovely.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: The mouth was promising and full. Under the ragged skirt
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and the torn sooty blouse roamed surfaces of imaginable perfection,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: He had difficulty getting back to the question at hand.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: All the while he was thinking, other voices inside him
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: were whispering,' By Jing! By Jing! She's absolutely—' The two
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: men were completely unlike. One was huge. From this angle
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: he was enormous. He had what looked like a dirty
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: scarf on his head, Madonna-like, which would have been ridiculous
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: except for the mountainous shoulders below it and the glittering
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: knife stuck in his wide leather belt. The shaft of
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the knife flickered wickedly in the light. It was the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: only clean thing about him. The other man was young,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: probably still in his teens, curly-haired and blonde and much
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: cleaner than the other two, with a softness in his
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: face the others lacked. But in his belt he carried
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be, what was, a well-oiled and yawning-barreled blunderbuss.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: So they sat for a long moment of silence. he
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: had time to observe that what they were sitting in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: was in all likelihood a sewer. It ran off into darkness,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: but there was a dim light in the distance, and
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: other voices far away, and he gathered that this was
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: not all of the gang that had abducted him. But
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: it was beginning to penetrate now, as he began to
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: understand their words, that they were unhappy about letting him go.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: He was about to argue the point when the big
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: man stepped suddenly forward and knelt beside him. He shut
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: out the light. Travis could not see. The last thing
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he heard was the big man grunting as he threw
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the blow, like a rooting pig. Section 3 of Conquest
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Over Time CONQUEST OVER TIME by Michael Shara Section 3
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: When he awoke this time the pain had moved over
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: to the side of his neck. There was no light
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: at all, and he lay wearily for a long while
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: in the blackness. He had no idea how much time
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: had passed. He could tell from the brick wet below
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: him that he was still in the sewer, or at
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: least some other part of it, and, considering the last
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: turn of the conversation, he thought he could call himself
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: lucky to be alive. But as his strength returned, so
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: did his anger. He began to struggle with his bonds.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: There was still the problem of the contract. He regarded
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: that bitterly. He could just possibly die down here, but
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: his main worry was still the contract. All space would
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: be proud of him, but all space might never know.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: He did nothing with the bonds, which he discovered unhappily
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: were raw leather thongs. Eventually he saw a light coming
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: down the corridor. He saw with a thrill of real
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: pleasure that it was the girl. The young man was
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: tagging along behind her, but the big man was absent.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: The girl knelt down by him and regarded him quizzically.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Do you possess pain? Maiden, I possess and possess unto
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the limits of capacity. My thought is sorrow, but this passes. Consider,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: your blood remains wet. Travis caught her meaning. He swore feebly.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: It was very nearly let dry, the girl said, but
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: solutions conjoined. It was noted at the last, even as
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the blade descended, that such friends as yours could no
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: doubt barter for Myrtian coin, untraceable, thus restoring your value. Clever, clever, oh, cleverer,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Travis said dryly. To his surprise, the girl blushed. overgracious
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: overkind speed thanks awry of this windy head aim it
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: yon lappy she indicated the boy who stood smiling shyly
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: behind her it was he who thought you alive he
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: my brother ah travis said well bless you boy he
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: nodded at the boy who very nearly collapsed with embarrassment
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: travis wondered about this brother bit brother in crime The
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: lang kit did not clarify. But the girl turned back
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: on him a smile as glowing as a tiny nova.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: He gazed cheerfully back. Tude and the others sit now
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: composing your note. A matter of weight, confounded in darkness.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: She lowered her eyes becomingly. Few of us, she apologized,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: have facility in letters. A ransom note, Travis growled. GREAT
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: GODS AND LITTLE— TOOD? WHO IS TOOD? The large man who,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: admittedly hastening before the horse, did plant pain in your head. Ah,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Travis said, smiling grimly, we shall presently plough his field. Ho!
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the girl cried, agitated. Speak not in darkness. TOOD extends
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: both north and south, a man of dimension as well
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: as choler. He boasts fours in the tenth, in good
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: aspect to Bonkin, giving prowess at combat, and Lindle in
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the fourth bespeaks a fair ending. Avoid, odd man, foreordained disaster.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: In his urge to say a great many things, Travis stammered.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: The girl laid a cool, grimy hand lightly on his
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: arm and tried to soothe him. With passivity and endurance,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: the night shall see you free. Toot comes in close
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: moment with a note. Quarrel not at the price. Sign,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and there will be a conclusion to the matter. We
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: are not retrograde here. As we set our tongues, so
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: lie our deeds. Yes, well, all right, Travis grumbled. But
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: there will come— all right, all right. My name shall be inscribed.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Let your note contain what it will. But I would
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: have speed. There are matters of gravity lying heavily ahead.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: The girl cocked her head oddly to one side.' You
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: sit on points. A rare thing. Lies your horoscope in
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: such confusion that you know not the drift of the
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: coming hours?' Travis blinked.' Horoscope?' he said.' Surely,' the girl said,'
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the astrologers of your planet did preach warning to you
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: of the danger of this day, and whether, in the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: motions of your system, lay success or failure.' or is
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: it a question of varying interpretations? Did one say you good,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: while the other—' Travis grinned broadly. Then he sobered. It
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: would quite logically follow that these people, primitive as they were,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: might not be able to conceive of a land where
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: astrology was not lord over all. A human trait. But
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: he saw dangerous ground ahead. he began very cautiously and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: diplomatically to explain himself, saying that while astrology was practised
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: among his own people, it had not yet become as
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: exact an art as it was on Mert, and only
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a few had as yet learned to trust it. The
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: effect on the girl was startling. She seemed for a
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: moment actually terrified when it was finally made clear to her.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: She abruptly retreated into a corner with her brother, and
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: mumbled low, frantic sounds. Travis grinned to himself, but kept
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: his face stoically calm. But now the girl was out
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: in the light, and he could examine her clearly for
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the first time, and he forgot about astrology entirely. She
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: was probably in her early twenties. She was dirtier than
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: a well-digger's shoes. She ran with a pack of cutthroats
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and thieves in what was undoubtedly the lowest possible level
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: of Mertian society. But there was something about her. something
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Travis responded to very strongly, which he could not define.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Possibly something about the set of her hair, which was
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: dark and very long, or perhaps in the mouth. Yes,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the mouth. Now observe the mouth. And also maybe in
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: the figure. But he could not puzzle it out. A
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: girl from the gutter. But perhaps that was it. There
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to be no gutter about her, There was real
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: grace in her movements, a definite style in the way
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: she held her head, something gentle and very fine. Now
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: watch that, Travis boy, he told himself sharply. Watch that.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: A psychological thing, certainly. She probably reminds you of a
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: long-forgotten view of your mother. The girl arose and came back,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: followed this time by the young man. She had become
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: suddenly and intensely interested in his world, She had apparently
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: taken it for granted that it was exactly like hers,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: only with spaceships, and Travis obliged her by giving her
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: a brief sketch of selected subjects, speeds, wonders, what women wore,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and so on. Gradually he worked the conversation back around
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: to her, and she began to tell him about herself.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Her name was, euphonically, Naval. This was not particularly startling
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: to Travis. Naval is a pretty word. and the people
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: of Mert had chosen another, uglier sound for use when
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: they meant belly button, which was their right. Travis accepted it,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and then listened to her story. She had not always
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: been a criminal, run with the sewer packs. She had come,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: as a matter of proud record, from an extremely well-to-do
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: family which featured two senators, one horary astrologer, and a
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: mercantile tycoon, which accounted, Travis thought, for her air of breeding.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: The great tragedy of her life, however, the thing that
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: had brought her to her present pass, was her abysmally
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: foul horoscope. She had not been a planned baby. Her
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: parents felt great guilt about it, but the deed was
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: done and there was no help for it. She had
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: been born with huck retrograde in the tenth house, opposing
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: fours retrograde in the fourth, and so on, and so on,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: so that even the most amateur astrologer could see right
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: at her birth that she was born for no good—
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: destined for some shameful end. She told about it with
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: an air of resigned cheerfulness, saying that after all her
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: parents had really done more than could be expected of them,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: both with her and her similarly accidental brother Lappy, now there,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Travis thought, was a careless couple, whose horoscope, she said dolefully,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: was even worse than her own. The parents had sent
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: her off to school up through the first few years,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: and had given her a handsome dowry when they disowned her,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and they did the same with Lappy a few years later.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: But Navel held no bitterness. She was a girl born
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: inevitably for trouble. Her horoscope forecast that she would be
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: ashamed to her parents, would spend much of her life
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: in obscure, dangerous places, and would reflect no credit on
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: any one who befriended her. So, for a child like this,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: what reasonable citizen would waste time and money and love?
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: when it was certain beforehand that the child grown up
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: would be as likely as not to end up a murderess. No,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the schools were reserved for the children of promise, as
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: were the jobs and the parties and the respect later on.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: The only logical course, the habitual custom, was for the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: parents to disown their evilly aspected children, hoping only that
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: such tragedies as lay in the future would not be
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: too severe, and at least would not be connected with
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: the family name. and Naval was not bitter. But there
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: was only one place for her, following her exile from
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: her parents' home. A career in business was, of course, impossible.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Prospective employers took one look at your horoscope and— zoom!— the door.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: The only work she could find was menial in the extreme— dish- washing, street-cleaning,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and so on. So she turned, and Lappy turned, as
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: thousands of their ill-starred kind had turned before them for generations,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: to the wild gangs of the sewers. And it was
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: not nearly so bad as it might have seemed, THE
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: SEWER GANGS WERE COMPOSED OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE JUST LIKE HERSELF, HOMELESS,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: CAST OUT, AND THEY CAME FROM ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: TO FOUND A SOCIETY OF THEIR OWN. THEY OFFERED EACH
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: OTHER WHAT NONE OF THEM COULD HAVE FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: ON MERT, APPRECIATION, COMPANIONSHIP, AND EVEN IF LIFE IN THE
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: SEWERS WAS FILTHY, IT WAS ALSO TOLERABLE, AND MANY EVEN
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: MARRIED AND HAD CHILDREN, THE LUCKIEST OF WHOM QUICKLY DISOWNED
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: THEIR PARENTS AND and were adopted by wealthy families. But
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: the thing which impressed Travis most of all was that
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: none of these people were bitter at their fate. Naval
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: could not recall ever hearing of any organized attempt at rebellion. Indeed,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: most of the sewer people believed more strongly in the
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: astrology of Mert than did the business men on the outside.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: For each day every one of them could look at
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: the dirt of himself, at the disease of his surroundings,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and could see that the message of his horoscope was true.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: He was born to no good end. And since it
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: had been drummed into these people from their earliest childhood
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: that only the worst could be expected of them, they
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: gave in, quite humanly, to the predictions, and went philosophically
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: forth to live up to them. They watched the daily
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: horoscopes intently for the bad days, realizing that what was
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: bad for the normal people must be a field day
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: for themselves, and they issued out of the sewers periodically
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: on binges of robbery, kidnapping, and worse. In this way
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: they lived up to the promise of their stars, fulfilled themselves,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and also managed to eat. And few, if any, ever
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: questioned the justice of their position. Travis sat listening, stunned.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: For a long while the contract and how to get
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: out of here and all the rest of it was forgotten.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: He sat watching the girl and her shy brother as
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: they spoke self-consciously to him, and began to understand what
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: they must be feeling. Travis was from outside the sewers.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: He had stayed at the Grand Hotel. His horoscope, whether
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: he believed it or not, must be very fine. And
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: so they did him unconscious homage, much in the manner
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: of low-caste Hindus speaking to a Brahmin. It was unnerving.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Gradually the boy Lappy began to speak also, and Travis
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: realized with surprise that the boy was in many ways remarkable.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: As Naval's brother— Naval, Travis gathered with a twinge of
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: deep regret, was the big Tude's friend, and Tude was
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: the leader of this particular gang— young Lappy had a restful position.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: He was kept out of most of the rough work,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: and allowed to pursue what he shamelessly called his studies—
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and he guessed proudly that he must have stolen nearly
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: every book in the Consul's library. His particular hobbies, it
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: turned out, were math and physics. He had a startling
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: command of both, and some of the questions he asked
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Travis were embarrassing, but the boy was leaning forward, breathlessly
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: drinking in the answers, when Tude came back. The big
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: man loomed over them suddenly on his quiet, rag-bound feet,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: frightening the boy and causing the girl to flinch. He
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: made a number of singularly impolite remarks, but Travis said
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: nothing and bided his time. He regarded the big man
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: with patient joy, considering with delight such bloodthirsty effects as
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: judo could produce on this one, fours and bonkin be damned,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: if they ever untied his hands. Eventually, unable to get
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: a rise out of him, the big man shoved a
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: paper down before his nose and told him to sign it.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: He pulled out that wickedly clean knife, and freed Travis's
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: hand just enough for him to move his wrist. Hoping
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: for the best, Travis signed. Tude chuckled, said something nastily
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: to the girl. The girl said something chilling in return,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: and the big man cuffed her playfully on the shoulder.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Then he lumbered away. Travis sat glaring after him. The contract,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: the need to escape, flooded back into his mind. The
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: eclipse might be ending even now. UNICA would already be here,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: perhaps one or two others as well, and this ransom
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: business might take a week. He swore to himself. Pat Travis,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: the Terror of the Skies, held captive by a bunch
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: of third-rate musical-comedy pirates while millions lay in wait in
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: the city above. And, oh, my Lord, he thought, stricken,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: what will people say when they hear? He had to
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: get out. He glanced cautiously at the girl and the boy,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: who were gazing at him ingenuously. He saw instantly that
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: the way, if there was a way, lay through them.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: But the plan had not yet formed when the boy
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: leaned forward and spoke.' I have an odd thing in
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: my head,' Lappy said bashfully,' that nevertheless radiates joy to
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: my mind.' In my reading I have seen things leap
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: together from many books, forming a whole.' and the whole
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: is rare. Can you, in your wisdom, confirm or deny
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: what I have seen? It is this. He spoke a
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: short series of sentences. Naval tried to shush him, embarrassed,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: but he doggedly went on, and Travis, stricken, found himself
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: suddenly paying close attention. For the words Lappy said, with
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: minor variations, were Isaac Newton's laws of motion. There are
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the seven planets, Naval was saying gravely, and the two lights,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: that is, the sun and the moon. The first planet,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: that nearest the sun, is called Rim. Rim is the
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: planet of intellect, of the ordinary mind. Second is Lindle,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the planet of love, beauty, parties, marriage, and things of
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a gentle nature. Third is Fors, planet of action, strife.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: FOURTH IS BONKIN, PLANET OF BENEFICENCE, OF GAIN, MONEY, HEALTH.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: NEXT COMES HUCK, ORB OF NECESSITY, THE GREATER INFORTUNE, WHICH
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: BRINGS MEN MOST TROUBLE OF ALL. THEN WEAPON, PLANET OF ILLUSION,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: OF DREAMERS AND POETS, AND POORLY ASPECTED LIARS AND CHEATS.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: AND FINALLY THERE IS SHARB, PLANET OF GENIUS, OF SUDDEN CATACLYSMS.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: I SEE. Travis murmured. But it is not only these
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: planets and their aspects which is important. It is also
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: to be considered such houses and signs as through which
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: these planets transit. She went on, but Travis was having
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: difficulty following her. He could not help but return to
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Newton's laws. It was incredible. Here, on this backward planet,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: mired in an era roughly equivalent to the time of
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the Renaissance— an event was taking place almost exactly at
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: the same time as it had happened long ago on earth.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: It had been Isaac Newton, then. It was, incredibly, this
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: frail young man named Lappy, now. For, unless Travis was
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: greatly mistaken, Naval's kid brother was an authentic genius, and
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: such a genius as comes once in a hundred years. So, naturally,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Lappy would have to come home with Travis. The boy
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: was hardly college age as yet. Sent to school by Allspace,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: given a place in the great Allspace laboratories at Aldebaran,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: young Lappy might eventually make the loss of the contract
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: at Mert seem puny in comparison to the things that
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: head of his could produce. For Lappy was a natural resource,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: just as certainly as any mine on Mert, and since
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: the advent of earth science meant Mert would no longer
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: be needing him, Lappy could go along with Travis, and
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: still leave him a clear conscience. But the question still remained, how?
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: He could not even get himself out yet, let alone Lappy.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: And the girl? What about the girl? He brooded, groping
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: for an out. But in the meanwhile he listened while
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: the girl outlined Mert's system of astrology. He had realized
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: finally that the key to the business lay there. Astrology
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: was these people's most powerful motivating force. If he could
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: somehow turn it to his advantage, he listened to the girl,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: and eventually found his plan.' Ho!' he said abruptly. Startled,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the girl stared at him.' Lightning in the brain!' Travis grinned.'
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Solutions effervesce! Attend! Of surety, are not places on Myrt
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: also ruled by the stars?' Is it not true that
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: towns and villages do also have horoscopes? Naval blinked. Why,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: see thee, it is in the nature of things, odd man,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: that all matter is governed by the planets. How else
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: come explanations, for example, of natural catastrophes, fires, plagues, which
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: affect whole cities and not others? And consider war. Does
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: not one country win and the other lose? Of a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: surety different aspects obtain. Joy! then, Travis said, but do
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: further observe. Is it not so, in your astrology, that
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: a man's horoscope may often conflict with that of the
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: place wherein he dwells? Is it not so that, often,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: a man is promised greater success in other regions— WHERE
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: THE RULING STARS MORE CLOSELY AND FRIENDLY CONJOIN HIS OWN.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: YOUR MIND LEAPS OBSTACLES AND HOMES TO THE TRUTH, NAVEL
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: SAID APPROVINGLY. MANY TIMES HAS IT BEEN MADE CLEAR THAT
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: A MAN'S FORTUNE LIES BEST IN PLACES RULED BY HIS ASCENDANT,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: AS WITNESS, FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE WHO ARE ADVISED TO TAKE
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: TO THE SEA OR TO SOUTHERN LANDS. INTOXICATION, TRAVIS CRIED
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: OUT HAPPILY. Then is our goal made known. Consider. From
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: your poor natal horoscope, in this city, this land, no
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: fortune arises. You doom yourself with Lappy by remaining here.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: But what business is this? Seek you not better times?
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: Could you not go forth to another place, and so
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: become people of gravity, of substance, of moment? The girl
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: regarded for a moment, puzzled. then caught his point and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: shook her head sadly.' Odd man, without profit. You misconstrue.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Such as we, my brother and I, are not condemned
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: by place, but by twistings of the character. My natal huck,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: retrograde in the tenth, gives an untrustworthy, criminous person. It
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: would be so here, there, anywhere. My pattern is set.'
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Such travels as you describe are for those who conflict
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: only with place. I and my brother, it is our
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: sad fortune to conflict with all. But this is the core,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Travis insisted. The conflict is with Mert. Consider, such travail
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: as is yours stems from the radiations of Huck, of Weepin,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: of Sharb. But should you remove yourself beyond their reach—
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: across great vastnesses of space to where other planets subtend,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: and in their alien radiation extinguish and nullify those of Huck,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: what fortune comes then? What rises? What leaps in joy?
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: The girl sat speechless, staring at Travis with great soft eyes.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: The boy Lappy, who until that moment had been grinning
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: happily over the news that his laws were true, suddenly
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: understood what Travis was saying and let his mouth fall open.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: but the girl sat without expression. Then, to Travis's dismay,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: a slow, dark look of disgust came over her face. This,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: she said ominously, this smacks of fetching. The word fell
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: like a sudden fog. Lappy, who had begun to smile,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: cut it sharply off. Travis, remembering what fetching meant to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: these people, gathered his forces. Woman, he said bitingly, YOU
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: SPEAK AN OFFENSE, BUT WITH PATIENCE AND KINDNESS I HEAL
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: YOUR INSULT. I CONTROL MY COLLAR, BUT MY BLOOD FLOWS HOT,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: THEREFORE FASTEN YOUR TONGUE. TELL ME NOT THAT I HAVE
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: OVERVALUED YOU, FOR YOUR BRAIN IS CLEAR, YOUR COURAGE THICK.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: WHEREFORE SPEAK A VETCH? WHAT VETCH IS THERE IN TRAVEL?
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: HE VETCHES WHO LEAVES A CERTAINTY FOR ANOTHER CERTAINTY, WHO
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: ATTEMPTS TO AVOID HIS STARRY FATE. But you go from
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: a certain end to an end not certain at all,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: to places of dark mystery, of grim foreboding. It may
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: be that you perish, or pain in the extreme, as
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: well as gain fortune. The end is not clear. This, then,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: is not vetching. Now retreat your words, and reply to
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: me as one does to a friend, a companion, one
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: who seeks your good. He sat tautly while the girl
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: thought it out. Eventually she dropped her eyes in submission,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: and he sighed inwardly with relief. It was accomplished. He
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: would have to shore it up, perhaps, with a little elaboration,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: but it was accomplished. Ten minutes later he was standing
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: free and unbound in the passageway. It was just barely
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: in time. Down the round dark tunnel two men came.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: End of Section 3 Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Section 4. Naval stepped gingerly over the bodies and gazed
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: at Travis with awestruck admiration.' A rare skill!' she murmured.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: they did flip and gyrate as dry leaves in the wind.' Observe, then,'
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Travis said ominously, inspecting meanwhile the long slash down his arm,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: with which Tude had clearly gotten him,' and learn, and
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: in the future receive my words with planetary respect.'' I will.''
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: And I,' added Lappy, shaken.' Fair, bright. Now attend. How
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: lies the path?' Through more such as these, I fear.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: This place in which we trouble lies at a dead end.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: We must proceed through great halls where many sit waiting,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: ere we arrive at the light. No other way? Think now. None.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: Travis sighed. And they talk about luck. Well, boy, he
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: turned to Lappy, give me your blunderbuss. Obtain that one's knife,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: he indicated the sleeping Tude, and let us carve our
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: way out into the sunshine. But, as it turned out,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: the getting free was much easier than he had anticipated.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: There was only one band, the girls' own, between them
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: and the opening, and these had fortunately just finished their
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: evening meal when Travis stalked, black, gaunt, and murderous, out
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: of the tunnel into their large round room. Part of
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: it was the surprise, part of it was the sudden
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: knowledge that Big Tude and the other man had already
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: tried to stop him, but most of it was simply
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: the look of him. He was infinitely ready. They were not,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: had no reason to be, and they took it automatically
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: for granted that a man this confident must have the
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: stars behind him. They regarded him thoughtfully as he went
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: on by. No one moved. They were a philosophical people.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: When he had gone, taking the boy and girl with him,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: they discussed it thoroughly. Out under the sky at last
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: it was pitch black and the stars were shining. Travis
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: realized that he had been in the sewer almost a
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: full twenty-four hours. That meant that the eclipse was done.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow would be a good day. There was not much time.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: He commandeered the first carriage to come by, routing three
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: elegantly dressed but unwarlike young men who fled in terror.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: He saw with relief that they thought him only another
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: sewer rat, for if word of an earthman robbing the
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: local citizens ever got out, there would be hell to pay,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: and in addition to his other troubles, he could not
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: abide that. He told Naval to head for the field
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: where old Twenty-Nine rested. Thoroughly bushed and beginning now to
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: feel a woeful hunger, he sat back to brood. At
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: the ship, young Trip greeted him with haggard astonishment. He
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: jumped forward joyfully. Trav! By jig, Trav! I thought we'd
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: lost you. Old Dolly's over at the local police st—
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: He stopped abruptly and stood slack-jawed as Naval and Lappy
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: clambered fearfully through the lock. Travis glanced back. No spectators. Good.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: Now what in the sweet, silly name— Trip began, but
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: Travis stopped him. Russ, be a good kid. See if
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: you can get me something to eat. Haven't had a
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: bite in twenty-four hours. Sure, Trav, sure. Only, what's with
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the lower depths here? You might show them the showers,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Travis grinned, or at least turn on the air conditioning.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: But listen, anything new on the contract? Trip's face fell.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: Not a thing. Even worse, let me tell you. But ho,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the food! He dashed off. Travis collapsed into a chair.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: A few moments later, Trip came back bearing food, but
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: his eyes by now had begun to penetrate the dirt
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: of the girl, and he stood watching her, bemused. then
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: suddenly he began to look happier than he had in
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: several days. Travis told him briefly what had happened in
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: the sewer, also about the brains of Lappy. Trip was impressed,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: but he continued to regard the girl. Well, Travis said, munching,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: fill me in on what's been going on. The eclipse
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: come off? Trip jerked. He focused on Travis unhappily. Oh, boy,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: did it come off. Wait'll you hear. Listen, you know
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the way it is now. I think they're going to
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: kick all Earthmen off this planet. The MC says we
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: may have to leave and come back a hundred years
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: from now. Not anybody going to get a contract now.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: What happened? Well, you wouldn't believe it. You have to
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: understand these people's astrology. You know the little moon these
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: people have? Felda, they call it. It's only a tiny thing,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: really only a few hundred yards wide. Well, when the
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: mapping command first came by here, they sat down on
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: that moon and set up a listening post before landing,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: you know, the way they always do. to size up
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: the situation through telescopes, radio, all that. Mostly they just orbit,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: but this time they landed, God knows why, and took
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: off again, naturally, throwing in the star drive. So today
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the eclipse comes off all right, but it comes off late.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: He could not help smiling. You see what happened. A
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: star drive is a hell of a force. It altered
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: the orbit of the moon. Not enough to make any
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: real difference, just a few hours a year, only minutes
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: a day. But boy, you want to hear these people howl.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: And I guess you can see their point. Every movement
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: that damn moon makes is important to them. They know
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: where it should be to the inch. And now not
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: only is it slightly off course, but so is every
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: ephemeris printed on myrt. And they have them printed up,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I understand, for the next thousand years, which runs into money.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: We offered to pay, of course, but paying isn't going
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: to help. It seems we've also messed up interpretations, predictions,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the whole doggone philosophy. It's a real ding-dong. But contract?
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: Not in a million years. Travis sighed. That seemed to
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: put the cap on it, all right. After all, when
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: you start pushing people's moons around, where will it end?
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: He brooded, his appetite gone. But he made a last effort.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: Did you discover anything at all we could use? Nope.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: Not a thing. I finally figured the only thing to
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: do was work on the astrology end of it, you know.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe we could argue about interpretations. These people love to
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: argue about interpretations. But no soap. It's too complicated. To
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: learn enough even to argue would take a couple of years.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: And besides, Unico is here, and also Randall, and they
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: all have the same idea. Anyway, I don't think it
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: would work. The eclipse is too definite. You can't argue
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: the eclipse. Well, Travis said with approval. You were on
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: the right track. You did what you could. At least
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: we got something out of the deal. He indicated Lappy,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: who was at that moment fervently examining the interior of
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: the view-screen. Trip nodded, but his eyes were on Nabal.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: By Jing, he said suddenly. Your luck holds good no
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: matter what. I never saw the beat of it. Luck!
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: Travis fumed. What luck! Look, Trav, what else could you
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: call it? You fall in a sewer, you come up
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: with Isaac Newton and a gorgeous doll. It's uncanny, that's
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: what it is, uncanny. Travis lapsed into wordless musing on navel, planets, people.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: Come to think of it, he thought, it is uncanny.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: At that moment there was a pounding on the lock.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: Travis quickly shooed Naval and Lappy into hiding, then cautiously
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: went to the door. He relaxed. It was Ed Horton.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: I saw you come back, Trav. Mighty glad. But I
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: knew you'd make it. Old Pat Travis always comes through.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Ain't that right, Pat? He tottered in the doorway. Travis
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: caught the sweet scent of strong brew. He stepped forward
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: to help him, but Horton stood up grandly, waving him away.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: His mouth creased in an amiable grin. Diomed, he announced proudly,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: is a nine-planet system. After which he fell backwards out
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: of the door. Trav ran to the door, stared down
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: into the dark. Horton sat upright at the foot of
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: the ladder. It's all right, old buddy. Didn't mean to stay.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: Only thought you'd like to know natural scientific fact. Diamond
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: is nine-planet system. He rose on wobbly but cheerful legs.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: No favoritism there, eh? Science. I just tell you a fact.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: You take it from there. No favoritism at all. He
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: lurched away, mumbling cheerily, his obligation fulfilled. Travis stared after him,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: wheels turning in his brain. Fact? A nine-planet system. It
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: gelled slowly, then broke. Nine planets. The key. He turned
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: slowly on Trip, his eyes swiveling like twin dark cannon.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: What's he say? Trip said, half smiling. Boy, he was sure.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: Did you know this was a nine-planet system? Why, sure, Trav,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: but what And did you take the trouble to examine
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: their astrology? Certainly. What the heck? And you call it luck.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Travis sighed, then broke into a radiant grin. Why, there's
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: your bloomin' answer, you sad, silly, dreamin'. There's your bloomin' answer.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: He sailed over to a drawer, grabbed a batch of
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: fresh contracts, then flashed toward the door. Hold the fort.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: He bawled over his shoulder. ìBreak out a big bottle
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: and small glasses! We got a contract, lad! We got
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: a contract! î He vanished triumphantly into the night. Old Twenty-Nine
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: was homing. Travis felt the great soft piece of deep
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: space close over him. All was right with the world.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: A clean and sparkling navel, well bathed now and almost
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: frighteningly beautifuló sat worshipfully at his feet dressed in a
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: pair of Dollinger's pajamas. Both Tripp and Dollinger were regarding
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: him with wonder and delight, and as he sat gazing
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: down at them fondly he recalled with pleasure the outraged
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: faces of the men from Unico, that robber outfit.' Pat Travis!'
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: he chuckled, patting the fat contract in his pocket.' The
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: luckless Pat Travis rides again!' He turned an eye on
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: the staring Tripp.' My boy!' he said paternally. Speak me
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: no speaks about luck from this day forth. All the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: material was in your hands. There was no luck involved.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: All you had to do was use it. But, Trav,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: I still don't get it. I've been thinking all right,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: all the while you were gone. The planet Pluto, Travis
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: said evenly, was discovered by Earthmen finally in the year 1930.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: At that time we were approximately 300 years ahead, technologically,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: of the people of Mert. A similar case exists for Neptune,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: which was not discovered, although adequate telescopes had long been
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: in use, until 1846. He paused and gazed happily around.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: Does the light dawn? Holy cow! Exactly! Diomed is a
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: nine-planet system! For which fact, thank old Ed Horton, who
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: returned a favor done many years ago. Luck? Only if
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: doing favors for people is lucky, which I suppose you
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: could make a case for. But in the astrology of
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Diomed III, an astrology I took great pains to understand,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: how many planets are considered? Let us examine. Rim, Fors, Lindle, Bonken, Huck, Weepin,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: and Sharb. And then there are also the two lights,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: that is, the sun and the moon. But how many
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: planets are there? Counting Mert as one, add them up.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: It comes out eight, not nine. Eight! But Diomed is
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: a nine-planet system. Bless Ed Horton! What happened to the
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: missing planet? Dollinger whooped. They didn't know they had one!
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: Travis grinned. With surety! They didn't know it existed. If
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: they had, their astrology would certainly have shown it. So
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: it had obviously, like our own Pluto at a similar time,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: never been discovered. He paused once again while Dollinger and
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: Tripp regarded him with delight. And you, Tripp said, you
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: showed them where it was. Travis clucked. I did not.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: For one thing, I didn't know where it was. I
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: simply told him, very regretfully, that there was one, but
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: the situation being what it was, I couldn't allow him
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: to use our telescopes to plot its orbit. Unless, you see,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: there existed a concrete agreement between us. I added that
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: I had heard that Earthman would shortly be leaving his planet.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: Very unhappily, I told him he could not expect to
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: produce a telescope of the necessary power within at least
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the next hundred years. And even then, it would be
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: many more years before they actually found it, I was
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: very sorry about the whole business, so I just thought
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: I'd drop by to offer my regrets. And he leaped
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: at the chance. No, no, you rushed to conclusions. He
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: did not leap at the chance. He sat very quietly,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: thinking about it. It was a gruesome sight. I could
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: sympathize with him. On the one hand he had us,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: the unknown, moon-moving us, with which he wanted no traffic whatever.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: But on the other side there was the knowledge of
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: that planet moving all unwatched, out in the black, casting
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: down its radiations, be they harmful or good, and no
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: way to know in what sign the thing was, or
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: what house, or what effect it would have on him,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: was having on him, even as he sat there. Oh,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: he struggled, but I knew I had him. He signed
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: the contract. I think I may say that it is
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: among the most liberal contracts we have ever signed. There
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: was a long moment of silence in the ship. The
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: young men sat grinning foolishly. So let me hear no
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: more about luck, said Travis firmly. In the future, sons,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: put your shoulders to the wheel. But the attention of
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: the two was already wandering. They were both beginning to
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: gaze once more upon the lovely Navel, who was quite
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: shyly but very womanly gazing back. He saw Trip look
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: at Dollinger. Dollinger glare at Trip, their hackles rising. He
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: looked down at Navel in alarm. Born to cause trouble? Oh, no!
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: he thought abruptly, seeing a whole new world beginning to
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: open up. Oh, no! Oh, no! That is the end
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: of Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara. Thank you for listening.