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Asteroid of Fear - Raymond Z Gallun · The Hound of the Baskervilles

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  Speaker 1: Part one of Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Zgaloon. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Reading by Greg Marguerite, Part one of
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  Speaker 1: Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Zgaloon. The spaceship landed briefly,
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  Speaker 1: and John Endlich lifted the huge asteroids homesteader's office box,
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  Speaker 1: which contained everything from a prefabricated house to toothbrushes for
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  Speaker 1: his family, down from the hold port without help or
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  Speaker 1: visible effort. In the tiny gravity of the asteroid Vesta,
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  Speaker 1: doing this was no trouble at all, but beyond this
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  Speaker 1: point the situation was bitter. His two kids, Bubs seven
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  Speaker 1: and Evelyn nine, clad in space suits that were slightly
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  Speaker 1: oversized to allow for the growth of young bodies, were
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  Speaker 1: both bawling. He could hear them through his oxygen helmet
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  Speaker 1: radio phones. Around him. Under the airless sky of space
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  Speaker 1: stretched desolation that he'd of course known about beforehand, but
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  Speaker 1: which now had assumed that special and terrible starkness of reality.
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  Speaker 1: At his elbow, his wife rose, her heart shaped face
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  Speaker 1: and gray eyes framed by the wide face window of
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  Speaker 1: her armor, was trying desperately to choke back tears and
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  Speaker 1: be brave. Remember, we've got to make good here, Johnny,
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  Speaker 1: she was saying. Remember what the Homesteaders Office people told
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  Speaker 1: us that with modern equipment and the right frame of mind,
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  Speaker 1: life can be nice out here. It's worked on other asteroids.
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  Speaker 1: What if we are the first farmers to come to Vesta.
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  Speaker 1: Don't listen to those crazy miners. They're just kidding us.
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  Speaker 1: Don't listen to them, and don't, for gosh sakes, get sore.
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  Speaker 1: Rose's words were now like dim echoes of his conscience
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  Speaker 1: and his recent grim determination to master his hot temper,
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  Speaker 1: his sensitiveness, his wander lust, and his pension for poker,
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  Speaker 1: and the social glass qualities of an otherwise agreeable and
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  Speaker 1: industrious nature that on earth had always been his undoing. Recently,
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  Speaker 1: back in Illinois, he had even spent six months in
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  Speaker 1: jail for all but inflicting murder with his bare fists
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  Speaker 1: on a bullying neighbor whom he had caught whipping a horse. Sure,
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  Speaker 1: but during those six months, his farm, the fifth he'd
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  Speaker 1: tried to run in scattered parts of North America, had
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  Speaker 1: gone to weeds in spite of Rose's valiant efforts to
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  Speaker 1: take care of it alone. Oh yes, the lessons of
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  Speaker 1: all that past personal history should be strong in his mind.
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  Speaker 1: But now willpower and Roses, frightened to tones of wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: both seemed to fade away in his brain as jeering
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  Speaker 1: words from another's source continued to drive jagged splinters into
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  Speaker 1: the weakest portion of his soul. Hi you, hydroponic punkinhead,
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  Speaker 1: How you like your new claim? Nice saying it? How
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  Speaker 1: about some fresh turnips? Good luck you greenhorn Hia Papa
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  Speaker 1: tied to baby's diaper suspenders. Let the poor dope alone. Guys,
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  Speaker 1: snooty won't take our liquor, huh, won't take our money?
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  Speaker 1: Wifey's boy, Let's make him sociable. Hydroponic Punkinhead mid was
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  Speaker 1: a medley of coarse voices and laughter, matching the row
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  Speaker 1: of a dozen coarse faces and grins that lined the
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  Speaker 1: viewports of the ship. These men were asteroid miners, space hardened,
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  Speaker 1: and space twis. They'd been back to Earth for a
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  Speaker 1: while to raise hell and freshen up and spend the
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  Speaker 1: money in their then bulging pockets coming out again from
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  Speaker 1: Earth across the orbit of Mars to the asteroid belt.
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  Speaker 1: They had had the Endlicks as fellow passengers. John Endlick
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  Speaker 1: had battled valiantly with his feebler side and with his
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  Speaker 1: social inclinations all through that long, dreary voyage to keep
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  Speaker 1: clear of the inevitable griefs that were sure to come
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  Speaker 1: to a chap like himself from the involvement with such characters.
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  Speaker 1: In the main, it had been a rather tattered victory.
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  Speaker 1: But now, at the final moment of bleak anti climax,
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  Speaker 1: they took their revenge in guffaws and ridicule, hurling the
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  Speaker 1: noise at him through the radiophanes of the space suit
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  Speaker 1: helmets that they held in their laps, space suits being
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  Speaker 1: always kept handy beneath the traveler seats of every interplanetary vessel.
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  Speaker 1: Drop over to our camp some time for little drink,
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  Speaker 1: a little game, a panty waste tain't far sure, Just
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  Speaker 1: drop in on this. When the pressure of domesticity in
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  Speaker 1: this beautiful country gets you down, when the turnips get
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  Speaker 1: you down, bring a wife along. She's kind of pretty
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  Speaker 1: ought to have a man sized fellow. Just ask for me.
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  Speaker 1: Alf Neely. Yeah. Alf Neely was the loudest and the
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  Speaker 1: ugliest of John Endlick's baiters. He had gigantic arms and shoulders,
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  Speaker 1: small squinty eyes, and a pendulous nose. Haw Haw Haw
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  Speaker 1: and the others yelling and hooting made it a pack man.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you wish he was back in Podunk? What no tomatoes? Dutch?
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  Speaker 1: What did they tell you back at the Homestead office
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  Speaker 1: in Chicago that we were in desperate need of fresh
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  Speaker 1: vegetables out here? Well? Where are they? Papa? Under the
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  Speaker 1: barrage of John Endlick's last shreds of common sense were
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  Speaker 1: all but blotted out by the red murk of fury.
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  Speaker 1: He was small and broad, a stolid looking thirty two
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  Speaker 1: years old, But now his round and usually placid face
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  Speaker 1: was as red as a fiery moon, and his underlip
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  Speaker 1: curled in a snarl. He might have taken the savage
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  Speaker 1: ribbing more calmly, but there was too much grim fact
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  Speaker 1: behind what these asteroid miners said. Besides, out here, he
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  Speaker 1: had thought that he would have a better chance to
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  Speaker 1: lick the weaknesses in himself because he'd have to work
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  Speaker 1: to keep his family alive. Because he'd been told that
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  Speaker 1: there'd be no one around to distract him from duty, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The irony of that now was maddening. For the moment,
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  Speaker 1: John Endlich was speechless and strangled, but like an ignited
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  Speaker 1: firecracker uh ready to explode. His hard body hunched as
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  Speaker 1: if ready to spring, and the baiting wax lounder. It
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  Speaker 1: was like the yammering of crows or the roar of
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  Speaker 1: a wild surf in his ears. Then came the last straw.
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  Speaker 1: The kids had kept on bawling more and more violently,
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  Speaker 1: but now they got down to verbal explanations of what
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  Speaker 1: they thought was the matter. Papa, we want to go home.
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  Speaker 1: Timing could not have been better or worse. The shrieks
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  Speaker 1: and howls of mirth from the miners a moment ago
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  Speaker 1: were as nothing to what they were now. Tell it
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  Speaker 1: to Daddy, kids, that was a mouthful wow. There is
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  Speaker 1: a point at which an extremity of masculine embarrassment can
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  Speaker 1: lead to but one thing, mayhem. Whether the latter is
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  Speaker 1: to be inflicted on the attacked or the attacker remains
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  Speaker 1: the only question mark. I'll get you out, neely, and
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  Speaker 1: Lick snarled, right, and I'll get all the damned hell
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  Speaker 1: bitten rest of you, guys. Endlick was hardly lacking in
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  Speaker 1: vigor himself like a squat but streamlined fighting rooster, rendered
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  Speaker 1: a hundred times more agile by the puny gravity, He
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  Speaker 1: would have reached the old port threshold in a single
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  Speaker 1: leaf skip had not Rose, despairing, grabbed him around the
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  Speaker 1: middle to restrain him. Together, they slid several yards across
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  Speaker 1: the dried out surface of the asteroid. Don't Johnny, please, don't,
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  Speaker 1: she wailed. Her begging could not have stopped him, nor
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  Speaker 1: could her physical interference for more than an instant. Nor
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  Speaker 1: could this conscience, nor his recent determination to keep out
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  Speaker 1: of trouble, not the certainty of being torn limb from limb,
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  Speaker 1: and not hell itself could have held him back anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Then yet he was brought to a halt. It certainly
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  Speaker 1: wasn't cowardice that accomplished this. Nouddenly there was no laughter
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  Speaker 1: among the miners, but in a body they arose from
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  Speaker 1: their traveler seats aboard the ship. Suddenly there was no
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  Speaker 1: more humor in their faces. Beyond the viewports they were
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  Speaker 1: itching to be assaulted. The glitter in alf Neelie's small
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  Speaker 1: eyes was about as reassuring as the glitter in the
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  Speaker 1: eyes of a slightly prankish guerrilla were waitin for you,
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  Speaker 1: mister civilization, He rumbled softly. After that, all space was
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  Speaker 1: still electrified. The icy stars gleamed in the black sky.
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  Speaker 1: The shrunken sun looked on, and John Endlick saw beyond
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  Speaker 1: his own murder, to the thoughts of his kids and
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  Speaker 1: his wife left alone out here, hundreds of millions of
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  Speaker 1: miles from Earth and real law and order. With these lugs,
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  Speaker 1: these guys, who had been starved emotionally and warped inside
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  Speaker 1: by raw space coldness, crawled into John Endlick's guts and
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  Speaker 1: seemed to twist steel hooks there, making him sick. The
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  Speaker 1: silence of a vacuum, and of unthinkable distances, and of
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  Speaker 1: ghostly remains which must be left on this fragment of
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  Speaker 1: a world that had blown up maybe fifty million or
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  Speaker 1: more years ago, added its weight to John Endlick's feelings
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  Speaker 1: and for his family. He was scared. What hell could
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  Speaker 1: not have accomplished became fact. His almost suicidal impulse to
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  Speaker 1: inflict violence on his tormentors was strangled, bottled up, brutally repressed,
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  Speaker 1: and left to impose the pangs of neuroses on his
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  Speaker 1: tormented soul narrowing domesticity had won a battle, except, of course,
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  Speaker 1: to what he had already said to alf Neelian friends
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  Speaker 1: was sufficient to start the juggernaut that they represented rolling.
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  Speaker 1: As he picked himself and rose up from the ground,
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  Speaker 1: he saw that the miners were grimly donning their space
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  Speaker 1: suits in preparation to their coming out of the ship
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  Speaker 1: to lay him low. Oh tired, huh punkin alf Neely ground.
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  Speaker 1: It don't matter, Dutch, We'll finish you off without you.
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  Speaker 1: Lift in a finger in John Endlick. The rage of
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  Speaker 1: intolerable insults still seethed, but there was no question now
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  Speaker 1: of outcome. Between it and the brassy taste of danger
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  Speaker 1: on his tongue, he knew that even knuckling down and
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  Speaker 1: changing from man to worm to take back his fighting
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  Speaker 1: words couldn't do any good. He felt like a martyr
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  Speaker 1: left with his family in a Roman arena while the
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  Speaker 1: lions approached. His butchery was as good as over. Reprieve came,
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  Speaker 1: presumably by way of the good sense of the pilot
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  Speaker 1: of the spaceship. The hold port was closed abruptly by
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  Speaker 1: a mechanism that could be operated only from the main
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  Speaker 1: control board. The rocket jets of the craft emitted a single,
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  Speaker 1: weak burst of flame like a boulder. Growing agile and flighty,
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  Speaker 1: the ship leaped from the landscape and arched outward toward
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  Speaker 1: the stars to curve around them the asteroid and disappear
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  Speaker 1: behind the scene's jagged brim. The craft had gone to
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  Speaker 1: make its next and final stop among the air domes
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  Speaker 1: of the huge mining camp on the other side of Vesta,
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  Speaker 1: the side of torn rocks and rich radioactive ores. But
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  Speaker 1: before the ship had vanished from sight, John Endlick heard
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  Speaker 1: alf Neelie's grim promise in his helmet radiophones. We'll be
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  Speaker 1: back to night Greenhorn. Lots of time we work night shift.
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  Speaker 1: When it's daytime on this side of Vesta will be free.
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  Speaker 1: Stick around. I'll rub what's left of you in the
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  Speaker 1: dust of your claim. Endlick was alone then, with the
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  Speaker 1: fright in his wife's eyes, the squalling of his children,
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  Speaker 1: and his own abysmal disgust and worry. For once, he
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  Speaker 1: ceased to be a gentle parent. Bubbs Evelyn, he snapped
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  Speaker 1: shut up. The startled silence which ensued was his first
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  Speaker 1: personal vic and Vesta. But the silence itself was an
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  Speaker 1: insidious enemy. It made his ears ring, It made even
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  Speaker 1: his audible pulse beats seem to ache. It bored into
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  Speaker 1: his nerves like a drill. When, after a moment, Rose
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  Speaker 1: spoke quaveringly, he was almost grateful, What do we do, Johnny?
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  Speaker 1: We still got to do what we're supposed to do,
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  Speaker 1: don't we? Whereupon John Endlick allowed himself the luxury and
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  Speaker 1: the slight relief of a torrent of silent cussing inside
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  Speaker 1: his head. Damn the obvious questions of women. Damn the miners,
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  Speaker 1: Damn the Aho, the asteroid's homesteaders office and their corny
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  Speaker 1: slogans and posters meant to hook suckers like himself. Damn
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  Speaker 1: is oh dumb hide. Damn the mighty urge to get drunk.
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  Speaker 1: Damn all the bitter circumstances that made doing so impossible.
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  Speaker 1: Damn Damn Damn Finished with this orgy, he said meekly.
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  Speaker 1: I guess so, hon. All members of the Enlick family
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  Speaker 1: had been looking around them at the weird vestal landscape.
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  Speaker 1: Through John Endlick's mind again there flashed a picture of
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  Speaker 1: what this asteroid was like at the Asteroid's Homesteaders school
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  Speaker 1: in Chicago, where his dependence, and he had been given
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  Speaker 1: several weeks of orientation instruction suitable to their separate needs.
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  Speaker 1: He had been shown diagrams and photographs of Vesta later,
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  Speaker 1: he had, of course seen it from space. It was
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  Speaker 1: not round, like a major planet or most moons. Rather,
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  Speaker 1: it was like a bomb fragment, or even more like
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  Speaker 1: a shard of a gigantic broken vase. It was several
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  Speaker 1: hundred miles long and half as thick one side of it.
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  Speaker 1: This side was curved, for it had been a segment
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  Speaker 1: of the surface of the shattered planet from which all
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  Speaker 1: of the asteroids had come. The other side was jagged, broken,
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  Speaker 1: for it had been torn from the mesoderm of that
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  Speaker 1: tortured mother world. From the desolation of his own thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: in which the ogre form of alf Neelie lurked with
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  Speaker 1: its pendent promise of catastrophe soon to come, and from
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  Speaker 1: his own view of other desolation all around him, John
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  Speaker 1: Endlick was suddenly distracted by the comments of his kids,
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  Speaker 1: all at once, conforming to the changeable weather of children's natures,
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  Speaker 1: regardless of circumstance, their mood had once more turned bright
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  Speaker 1: and adventurous. Look Bob Bubbs chirped, his round red face
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  Speaker 1: beaming now from his helmet face window. In spite of
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  Speaker 1: his undried tears. This land all around here was fields once.
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  Speaker 1: You can even see the rose of some kind of stubble,
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  Speaker 1: like corn stubble. And over there's almost a fence. And
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  Speaker 1: up there is hills with trees on them, some of
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  Speaker 1: them not even knocked over. But everything is all dried
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  Speaker 1: out and black and gray and dead. Gosh, we can
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  Speaker 1: all see that. Dopey Evelyn, who was older, snapped at Bubbs,
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  Speaker 1: we know that something like people lived on a regular
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  Speaker 1: planet here awfully long ago. Why don't you look over
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  Speaker 1: the other way. There's the house and maybe the barn
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  Speaker 1: and the sheds in the old garden. Bubbs turned around,
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  Speaker 1: his eyes got very big. Oh ooh, he gasped in wonder. Bob, mom,
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  Speaker 1: look don't you see, Yeah, we see, Bubbs. John Endlick
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  Speaker 1: answered for a long moment he'd been staring at those
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  Speaker 1: block like structures. One maybe the house was of gray stone.
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  Speaker 1: It had odd triangular windows which may once have been glazed.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the others were of a blackened material, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: cellulos would That is, though all of the buildings were
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  Speaker 1: pushed askew and s partly crumpled from top to bottom,
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  Speaker 1: like great cardboard cartons that had been half crushed. Endlick's
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  Speaker 1: imagination seemed forced to follow a groove trying to picture
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  Speaker 1: that last terrible moment fifty million years ago. Had the
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  Speaker 1: blast been caused by natural atomic forces at the heart
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  Speaker 1: of the planet, as one theory claimed, or had a
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  Speaker 1: great bomb as large as an oversized meteor come self
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  Speaker 1: propelled from space to bury itself deep in that ancient world,
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  Speaker 1: a world as big as Mars, its possible enemy, whose
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  Speaker 1: weird inhabitants had been wiped out in a less spectacular way,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps in the same conflict. Endlick's mind grabbed at that
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  Speaker 1: brief instant of explosion, the awful jolt which must have
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  Speaker 1: ended all consciousness and all capacity for eyes to see
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  Speaker 1: what followed. Perhaps there was a short and terrible passing
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  Speaker 1: of flame, but in swift seconds, great chunks of the
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  Speaker 1: planet's dust must have been hurled outward. In a moment,
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  Speaker 1: the flame must have died, dissipated with the suddenly vanishing
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere into the cold vacuum of the void. Almost instantly,
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  Speaker 1: the sky, which had been deep blue before must have
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  Speaker 1: turned to its present black. With the voidal stars blazing,
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  Speaker 1: there had been no air left to sustain combustion, so
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  Speaker 1: buildings and trees had not continued to burn if there
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  Speaker 1: had been time at all to ignite them. And with
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  Speaker 1: the same swiftness, all remaining artifacts and surface features of
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  Speaker 1: this chip of a world's crust that was vesta had
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  Speaker 1: been plunged into the dual preservatives of the interplanetary regions,
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  Speaker 1: deep freeze and all but absolute dryness. Yes, the motion
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  Speaker 1: of the few scattered molecules in space was very fast,
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  Speaker 1: indicating a high temperature, but without substance to be hot,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no heat, and so few molecules were
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: there the void that while the concept of a hot
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: space remained true, it became tangled at once with the
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  Speaker 1: fact that a practically complete vacuum can have practically no temperature,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: which meant again, in practice, all but absolute zero. John
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Lick knew he'd heard the lectures at the Homesteaders school.
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  Speaker 1: Here was a ghost land, hundreds of square miles in extent,
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  Speaker 1: a region that had been shifted in a few seconds
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  Speaker 1: from the full prime of life and motion to moveless
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  Speaker 1: and timeless space. It was like the mummy of a man.
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  Speaker 1: In its presence, there was a chill, a revulsion, and
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  Speaker 1: yet a fascination. The kids continued to jabber, more excitedly
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  Speaker 1: now than before. Pop Mom Bubbs urged, let's go look
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  Speaker 1: inside them buildings. Maybe the things are still there. The people,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, all black and dried up, like the one
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  Speaker 1: in the showcase of the school for ten les they
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  Speaker 1: had instead of arms and legs. The teacher said, sure,
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  Speaker 1: let's go. Evelyn joined in, I'm not scared to Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: kid's tastes could be pretty gruesome. When you thought most
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  Speaker 1: that you had to shelter them from horror, they were
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  Speaker 1: less bothered by it than you were. John Endlick's lips
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  Speaker 1: made a sour line. Stay here. The pair of you rose,
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  Speaker 1: ordered Ah Mom. Evelyn began to protest. You heard me
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  Speaker 1: the first time, their mother answered. John Endlick moved to
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  Speaker 1: the great box, which had come with them from Earth.
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  Speaker 1: The nervous tension that tore at him, unpleasant and chilling,
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  Speaker 1: driving him towards straining effort, was more than the result
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  Speaker 1: of the shameful and embarrassing memory of his very recent
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: trouble with alf Neelie and companions, and the certainty of
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  Speaker 1: more trouble to come from that source. For there was
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  Speaker 1: another and even worse enemy, and Lick knew what it was.
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  Speaker 1: The awful silence. He still looked shamefaced and furious, but
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  Speaker 1: now he felt a gentler sharing of circumstances. We'll let
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  Speaker 1: the snooping go till later, kids, he growled. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: we gotta do what we gotta do. The youngsters seemed
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  Speaker 1: to join up with his mood as he tore the
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  Speaker 1: pinch bar, which had been conveniently attached to the side
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  Speaker 1: of the box, free of its staples, and proceeded to
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  Speaker 1: break out supplies. Their whimsical musings fell close to what
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  Speaker 1: he was thinking. Vesta Evelyn said, They told us at school.
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  Speaker 1: Remember Vesta was the old Roman goddess of hearth and home.
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  Speaker 1: Funny Hunt That Bub's fancy was vivid too. Look pop,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: he said, again, pointing to a ribbon of what might
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: be concrete, cracked and crumbled as by a terrific quake.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Curving away toward the hills and the broken mountains. Beyond
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that was a road. Can't you almost hear some kind
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: of cars and trucks going by? John Endlick's wife, helping
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: him open the great box, also had things to say.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: In spite of the worry showing in her face. She
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: touched the desiccated soil with a gauntleted hand. Johnny, she remarked, wonderingly,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you can see the splash marks of the last rain
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that ever fell here. Yeah, Endlick growled, without any further comment.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Inside himself, he was fighting the battle of lost things.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: The blue sky, the shifting beauty of clouds in sunshine,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the warm whisper of wind in trees, the rattle of traffic,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the babble of water, the buzz of insects, the smell
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of flowers, the sight of grass waving. In short, all
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the evidences of life. A lot of things that was
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: here once will bring back, won't we, pop Bubbs questioned
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: with astonishing maturity. Hope, So, John Endlick answered, keeping his
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: doubts hidden behind gruffness. Maybe it was a grim joke
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: that here and now every force in himself was concentrated
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: on substantial objectives to the exclusion of his defects. The
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: drive in him was to end the maddening silence and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to rub out the mood of harsh barrenness and his
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: own aching homesickness. By struggling to bring back a little
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: beauty of scenery and a little of living motion. It
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: was a civilized urge, a home building urge, maybe a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: narrow urge. But how could anybody stand being here very
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: long unless such things were done, if they ever could be.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe wilfully, he had led himself into a grimmer trap
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: than it had even seemed to be, or than he
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: had ever wanted. Inside his spacesuit. He had begun to
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: sweat furiously, and it was more because of the tension
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: of his nerves than because of the vigor with which
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: he plied his pinchbar. Doing the first task which had
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to be done, steel ribbons were snapped, nails were yanked
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: silently from the great box. Boards were jerked loose. In
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: another minute, John Endlick and his wife were setting up
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: an airtight tent, which, when the time came, could be
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: inflated from compressed air bottles. They worked somewhat awkwardly, for
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: their instruction period had been brief, and they were green,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: but the job was speedily finished. The first requirement shelter
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: was assured. Digging again into the vast and varied contents
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of the box. John Endlick found some things he had
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: not expected, a fine rifle, a pistol, and ammunition, at
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: which moment an ironic imp seemed to sit on his
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: shoulder and laughed derisively. Uh huh. The asteroids. Homesteader's office
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: had filled these boxes according to a precise survey of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the needs of a peaceful settler on Vesta. It was
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: like bubbs with the inquisitiveness of a seven year old
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: to ask, what did they think we needed guns for?
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: When they knew there was no rabbits to shoot at.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I guess they kind of suspected there'd be guise like
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: alf Neelie's son, John Endlick answered dryly, even if they
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: didn't tell us about it. The next task prescribed by
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the Homesteaders School was to secure a supply of air
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and wooter in quantity. Again, following the instructions they had received,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the end Licks uncrated and set up an atom driven drill.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: In an hour, it had bored to a depth of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: five hundred feet. Hauling up the drill, Endlick lowered an
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: electric heating unit on a cable from an atomic power cell,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and then capped the casting pipe yes. Strangely enough, there
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: was still sufficient wooter beneath the surface of Vesta, its
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: parent planet, like the Earth, had had wooter in its
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: crust that could be tapped by means of wells, and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: so suddenly had Vesta been chilled in the cold of
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: space at the time of the parent's bodies explosions that
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: this water had not had a chance to dissipate itself
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: as vapor into the void, but had been frozen solid.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: The drying soil above it had formed a tough shell
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: which had protected the ice beneath from disappearance through sublimation.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Drilled down to it, melt it with heat, and it
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was water again, ready to be pumped and put to use.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: And water by electrolysis was also an easy source of
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: oxygen to breathe. The soil, once thought over a few acres,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: would also yield considerable nitrogen and carbon dioxide, the makings
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: of many cubic meters of atmosphere. The A h O
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Survey expeditions here on Vesta and on other similar asteroids,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: which were crustal chips of the original planet, had done
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: their work well pathfinding a means of survival here. When
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: John Endlick pumped the first turbid liquid, which immediately froze
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: again in the surface. Called he might, under other better circumstances,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: have felt like cheering. His well was a success, but
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: his tense mind was racing far ahead to all the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: endless tasks that were yet to be done to make
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: any sense at all out of his claim. Besides, the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: short day eighteen hours long instead of twenty four, and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: already far advanced at the time of his tumultuous landing,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: was drawing to a close. It'll be dark here mighty quick.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Johnny Rose said, she was looking scared again. John Endlick
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: considered setting up floodlights and working on through the hours
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of darkness, but such lights would be a dangerous beacon
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: for prowlers, and when you were inside their area of illumination,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: it was difficult to see into the gloom beyond. Still,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: one did not know if the mask of darkness did
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: not afford a greater invitation to those with evil intent.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: For a long moment, Endlick was in an agony of indecision.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Then he said, we'll knock off from work now in
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the tent, eat supper, maybe sleep, But he was remembering
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Neelie's promise to return tonight. In another minute, the small
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: but dazzling sun had disappeared behind the broken mountains as Vesta,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: unspherical and malformed, tumbled rather than rotated on its center
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of gravity. And several hours later, amid heavy cooking odors,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: inside the now inflated plastic bubble that was the tent,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and Lick was sprawled on his stomach, unable through well
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: found a wherey even to remove his spacesuit, or to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: allow his family to do so. Though there was breathable
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: air around them. They lay with their helmet face windows open.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Rose and Evelyn breathed evenly in peaceful sleep. Bubbs, trying
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to be very much a man, battled slumber and yawns
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and kept his dad company with scraps of conversation. Let
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: him come, pop, he said, cheerfully. Hope they do. We'll
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: shoot 'em all, won't we pop? You got to rifle
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: on the pistol ready, pop? Yes, John Endlick had his
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: guns ready beside him, all right, for what it was worth.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: He wished Riley that things could be as simple as
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: his hero worshiping son seemed to think, Thank the Lord
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: that Bubbs was so trusting for his own peace of mind.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: The prankish and savage nature of certain kinds of men
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: with liquor in their bellies being what it was for
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: John Endlick, having been on occasion mildly kindred to such men,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: was well able to understand that nature, and understanding now
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: chilled his blood. Peering from the small plastic windows of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the tent, he kept watching for hulking black shapes to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: silhouette themselves against the stars, and he listened on his
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: helmet phones for scraps of telltale conversation exchanged by short
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: range radio by men in space armor. Once he thought
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: he heard a grunt or a malicious chuckle, but it
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: may have been just vagrant static. Otherwise, from all around,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the stillness of the vacuum was absolute. It was unnerving
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: on this airless piece of planet. An enemy could sneak
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: up on you, almost without stealth, against that maddening silence. However,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Bubbs presently had a helpful and unprompted suggestion. Hey, pop,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: he whispered hoarsely, put the side of your helmet against
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the tent floor and listen. John Endlick obeyed his kid.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: In a second, cold sweat began to break out on
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: his body as intermittent thudding noises reached his ear. In
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the absence of an atmosphere of sounds could still be
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: transmitted through the solid substance of the asteroid. It took
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Endlick a moment to realize that the noises came not
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: from near by, but from far away, on the other
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: side of Vesta. The thudding was vibrated straight through many
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: miles of solid rock. It's nothing, Bubs, he growled, Nothing
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: but the blasting in the mines, Bub said, oh, as
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: if disappointed. Not long thereafter he was asleep, leaving his
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: harassed sire to endure the vigil alone, and Lick dared
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: not doze off to rest little even for a moment.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: He could only wait. If an evil visitation came, as
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: he had been all but sure it must, that would
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: be bad. Indeed, if it didn't come, well, that still
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: meant a sleepless night and the postponement of the inevitable
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: he couldn't win. Thus, the hours slipped away until the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: luminous dial of the clock in the tent it had
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: been synchronized to Vestal time, told him that dawn was near.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: That was when through the ground. He heard the faint
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: scraping a rustle. It might have been made by heavy
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: space boots. It came, and then it stopped. It came again,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and stopped once more, as if skulking forms paused to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: find their way out where the ancient and ghostly buildings were.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: He saw a star wink out briefly, as if a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: shape blocked the path of its light. Then it burned
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: peacefully again. John Endlck's hackles rose, his fists tightened on
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: both his rifle and pistol. He fixed his gaze on
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the great box looming blackly, the box that contained the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: means of survival for his family and himself, as if
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: he foresaw the future a moment away. For Suddenly huge
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: as it was, the box rocked and began to move off,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: as if it had sprouted legs and come alive. John
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Endlick scrambled to action. He slammed and sealed the face
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: windows of the helmets of the members of his family
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: to protect them from suffocation. He did the same for himself,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and then unzipped the tent flap. He darted out with
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the out rushing air. This was a moment with murder
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: poised in every tattered fragment of it. John Endlick knew
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: murder was ingrained in his own taut drawn nerves that
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: rage to destroy the trespassers, whose pranks had passed the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: level of practical humor and become, by the tampering with
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: vital necessities, an attack on life itself. But there was
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: a more immediate menace in these space twisted roughnecks. Strike
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: back at them, even in self defense, and have it
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: proven he had not the faintest doubt who they were,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: even though he could not see their faces in the blackness.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe he should lay low, let them have their way.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: But how could he, even apart from his raging temper
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and his honor as a man, when they were making
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: off with his families and his own means of survival.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: He had to throw rows in the kids into the balance,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: risking them to the danger that he knew lay beyond
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: his own possible ignoble demise. He did just that when
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: he raised his pistol, struggling against the awful impulse of
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the rage in him, lifted it high enough so that
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the explosive bullets that viewed from it would be sure
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: to pass over the heads of the dark silhouettes that
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: were moving about. Damn you, Neelie end Lick yelled into
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: his helmet, Mike, his finger tightening on the trigger, Drop
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that stuff. At that moment, the sun's rim appeared at
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: the landscape's jagged edge, and on this side of airless
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: vesta complete night was transformed to complete day, as abruptly
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: as if a switch had been turned alf Neelie and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: John Endlick blinked at each other. Maybe Neelie was embarrassed
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: little by his sudden exposure, but if he was, it
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: didn't show. Probably the bully in him was scared, but
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: this he covered in a common manner, with a studiedly
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: easy swagger and a bravado that was not good sense
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: but bordered on childish recklessness. Yet he had a trump
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: card by the aggressive glint in his eyes and his
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: unpleasant grin. Endlick knew that Neelie knew that he was
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: afraid for his and wouldn't start anything unless driven and
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: goaded sheerly wild, even now they were seven to his one.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Why good morning, neighbor, punkin head. Neelie crooned, his voice
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: a burlesque of sweetness. Glad to oblige he hurled the
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: great box down. As he did so, something glinted in
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: his gloved paw. He flicked it expertly into the open
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: side of the wooden case, which contained so many things
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: that were vital to the end Licks. It was only
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a tiny nuclear priming cap, and the blast was feeble.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Even so, the box burst apart. Splintered crates, sealed cans,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: great torn bundles and what not went skittering far across
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the plain in every direction, or were hurled high toward
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the stars, to begin falling at last with the laziness
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: of a descending feather. Neelie and his companions hadn't attempted
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: to move out of the way of the explosion. They
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: only rolled with its force, protected by their spacesuits. Endlick
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: rolled too, helplessly, clutching his pistol and rifle. Still, by
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: some superhuman effort, he managed to regain his feet before
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the farm were practiced. Neelie, who was hampered, no doubt
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: by a few too many drinks, had even stopped rolling.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: But when Neelie got up, he had drawn his blaster,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: a useful tool of his trade, but a hellish weapon
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: too at short range. Still Endlick retained the drop on him.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Alf Neelie chuckled. Fourth of July Halloween Dutch. He said, sweetly,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: what's a matter? Don't you think it's fun? Honest to gosh,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: you just ain't neighborly. Then he switched his tone. It
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: became a soft snarl that didn't alter his insolent and
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: confident smirk, and a challenge. He laughed derisively, almost softly. Humph,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I dare you to try to shoot straight? Pal? He said,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: even you got more sense than that, and John Irlick
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was spag against his terrible blank wall again seven to one.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Suppose he got three, there'd be four left and more
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: in the camp, but the four would survive him. Space
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: crazy lugs anyway, half drunk, ready to hoot at the
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: stars even if they found no better diversion, ready to
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: push even any of their own bunch around who seemed
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: weaker than they for spite, maybe, or just for the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: lid blowing hell of it, as a reaction against the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: awful confinement of being out here. I was gonna smear
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: you all over the place greenhorn, Neelie rumbled. But maybe
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: this way is more fun. Huh, maybe we'll be back tonight,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: but don't wait up for us. Our best regards to
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: your sweet family. John Endlick's blazing and just rage was
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: strangled by that same crawling dread as before. As he
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: saw them arc upward and away, propelled by the miniature
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: drive jets attached to the belts of their spacesuits. Their
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: return to camp, hundreds of miles distant, could be accomplished
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: in a couple of minutes. Rose and the kids were
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: crouched in the deflated tent. But returning there, John Endlick
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: hardly saw them, He hardly heard their frightened questions to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: the trouble with Neelie. He could see no end, just
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: one destructive visitation following another. Maybe already mortal damage had
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: been done. But Endlick couldn't lie down and quit any
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: more than a snake tossed into a fire could stop
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: trying to crawl out of it as long as life lasted.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Whether doing so made sense or not didn't matter. In
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Endlick was the savage energy of despair. He was fighting,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: not just Neelie and his crowd, but that other enemy,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: which was perhaps Neelie's main trouble too. Yeah, the stillness,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the nostalgia the heart fishness. No, don't want any breakfast,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: he replied sharply to Rose's last question. Got a work.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: He was like an ant swarm rebuilding a trampled nest,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: oblivious to the certainty of its being trampled again. First,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: he scrambled and leaped around, collecting his scattered and damaged gear.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: He found that his main atomic battery, so necessary to
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: all that he had to do, was damaged and unworkable,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: and he had no hope that he could repair it.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: But this didn't stop his feverish activity. Now he started
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: unrolling great boults of a transparent wire strengthened plastic, patching
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: with an adhesive where explosion rants had to be repaired.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: He cut hundred yard strips and, with Ros's help, laid
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: them edge to edge and fastened them together to make
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: a continuous sheet. Next, all around its perimeter, he dug
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: a shallow trench. The edges of the plastic were then
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: attached to massive metal rails, which he buried in the trench,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: sealed to the ground along all sides. Honey, he growled
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: to Rose. Next, we fit in the airlock cabinet at
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: one corner. Then we've got to see if we can
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: get up enough air to inflate the whole business. That's
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the tough part, the way things are. By then, the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: sun was already high, and Endlick was panting raggedly, mostly
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: from Werry. After the massive airlock was in place, they
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: attached their electrolysis apparatus to the small atomic battery which
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: had been used to run the well driller. The well
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: was in the area covered by the sheet of plastic
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: which was now propped up here and there with long
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: pieces of board from the great Box over their heads.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: The tough, clear material sagged like a tent roof which
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: has not yet been run up all the way on
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: its poles. Sluggishly, the electrolysis apparatus broke down the water,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: discharging the hydrogen as waste through a pipe out over
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the airless surface of Vesta, but freeing the oxygen under
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the plastic roof. Yet from the start it was obvious
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: that with insufficient electric power the process was too slow,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and we need to use heat coils to thaw the ground,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Johnny Rose said, and to keep the place warm and
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to bring nitrogen gas up out of the soil. The
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: few cylinders of the compressed stuff that we've got won't
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: be enough to make a start, and the carbon dioxide.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: So John Endlick had to try to repair that main battery.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: He thought after a while that he might succeed in time,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: but then Rose opened the airlock and the kids came
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: in to bother him with all the triumph of a
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: favorite puppy. Dragging an over ripe bone into the house.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Bubbs bore a crooked piece of a black substance, hard
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: as wood and more gruesome than a dried and moldy
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: monkey pelt a tentacle. Evelyn shrilled. We were up to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: those old buildings. We found the people, what's left of them,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and lots of stuff. We saw one of their cars,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: and there was lots more, Dad, you gotta come see.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Harassed as he was, John endlich yielded because he had
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: had a hunch, an idea of a possibility, so he
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: went with his children. He passed through a garden where
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: a pool had been, and where the blackened remains of
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: plants still projected from beds of dried soil set in
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: an odd stone work. He passed into chambers far too
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: low for comfortable human habitation, And what did he know
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: of the uses of most of what he saw there.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: The niches in the stone walls, the slanting ramp like
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: object of blackened wood beside which three weird corpses lay,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the glazed plaque on the wall, which could have been
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: a religious emblem, a calendar of some kind of decoration,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: or something beyond human imagining. Yeah, leave such stuff for cousin,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Ernest the school teacher, if he ever got here. In
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: these cylinder stone shed near by, John Endlick had a
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: look at the car, low slung, three wheeled, a tiller,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: no seats, just a flat platform. All he could figure
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: out about the motor was that steam seemed to link
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: between atomic energy and mechanical motion. Beyond the car was
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: what might be a small tractor and a lot of
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: odd tools. But the thing which interested him most was
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: the pattern of copper ribbons insulated with a heavy glaze,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: similar to that which he had seen traversing walls and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: ceiling in the first building he had entered. Here. As before,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: they connected with queer apparatus, which might be stoves and
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: non rotary motors for all he knew, and also with
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the globes overhead. The suggestiveness of all this was plain.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: And now at the far end of that cylindrical shed,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: John Endlick found the square, black enameled case where all
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: of those copper ribbons came together. It was sealed than
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: apparently self contained. Nothing could have damaged it very much
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in the frigid stillness of millions of years. Its secrets
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: were hidden within it, but they could not be too unfamiliar,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: and its presence was logical a small compact power unit.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Nervously he turned a little wheel, A faint vibration was
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: transmitted to his gloved hand, and the globe in the
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: ceiling began to glow. He shut the thing off again.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: But how long did it take him to run back
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: to his sagging creation of clear plastic while the kids
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: howled gleefully around him, and returned with the end of
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: a long cable in pliers. How long did it take
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: him to disconnect all of the glazed copper ribbons and
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: substitute the wires of the cable attaching them to queer
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: terminal posts. No, not long. The power was not as
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: great as that which his own large atomic battery would
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: have supplied, but it proved sufficient, and the current was
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: direct as it was supposed to be. The electrolysis apparatus
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: bubbled vigorously. Slowly, the tent like roof began to rise
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: under the beginnings of a tiny gas pressure. At does
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: it pops bubbs shrilled? Yeah, maybe so, John Erlick agreed,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: almost optimistically. He felt really tender towards his kids just
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: then they really helped him for once. Yes, almost, He
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: was hopeful until he glanced at the rapidly declining sun
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: an all night vigil no, probably worse. Oh lord, how
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: long could he last like this? Even if he managed
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: to keep Neeli in company at Bay night after night,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: all that he had accomplished seemed useless. He just had
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: so much more that could be wrecked. Pushed over with
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: a harsh laugh, as if it really was something funny,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: John Endlick's flesh crawled, and in his thinking now he
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: went a little against his own determinations, probably because in
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the present state of disgust, he needed a drink bad nuts,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: he growled lugubriously. If I'd only been a little more sociable,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: that was where the trouble started. I might have got broke,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: but I would have made friends. They think I'm snooty.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Rose's jaw hardened, as if she took his regrets as
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: an accusation that she had led him along the straight
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and narrow path, which, by an exasperating shift in philosophical principle,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: now seemed the shortest route to destruction. But he felt
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: very sorry for her too, and he didn't believe that
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: what he had just said was entirely the truth, so
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: he added, I don't mean it, honey, I'm just griping.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: She softened. You've got to eat, Johnny, she said, you
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: haven't eaten all day, and tonight you've got to sleep.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I'll keep watch. It'll be all right. Well, anyway, it
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: was nice to know that his wife was like that. Yeah,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: gentle and fair minded. After they had all eaten supper,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: he tried hard to keep awake. Fear helped him do
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: so more than ever. Their tent was now covered by
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: the rising plastic roof, but beyond the clear substance, he
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: could still watch for starlight to be stopped by prowling forms.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Out there at the jagged rim of Vesta. It was
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: hell to fuel your skin puckering, and yet to have
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: exhaustion pushing your eyelids down inexorably, and of Part one
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: of Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Z Galoon. Part two
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: of Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Z Galoon. This LibriVox
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Reading by Greg Marguerite,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Part two of Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Z Galoon.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Somewhere he lost the hold on himself, and he dreamed
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: that alf Neelie and he were fighting with their fists,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: and he was being beaten to a pulp. But he
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: was wishing desperately that he could win. Then they could
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: have a drink and maybe be friends. But he knew
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: hopelessly that things weren't quite that simple either. He awoke
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: to blink at blazing sunshine. Then his whole body became
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: clammy with perspiration as he thought of his lapse from responsibility.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Glancing over, he saw that Rose was sleeping as soundly
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: as the kid. His wide eyes searched for the disaster
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: that he knew he'd find, but the wide roof was
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: all the way up now intact, it made a great
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: squarish bubble, the skin of which was specially treated to
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: stop the hard and dangerous part of the ultra violet
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: rays of the sun and also the lethal portion of
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the cosmic rays. It even had an inner skin layer
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of gum that could seal the punctures that grain of
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: sand sized meteors might make. But meteors, though plentiful in
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the asteroid belt, were curiously innocuous. They all moved in
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: much the same direction as the large asteroids and at
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: much the same velocity, so their relative speed had to
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: be low. The walls of the small tent around and
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Lick sagged where they had bulged tautly before, showing that
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: there was now a firm and equal pressure beyond them.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: The electrolysis apparatus had been left active all night, and
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: the heating units this was the result. John Endlick was
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: at first almost unbelieving when he saw that nothing had
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: been wrecked during the night. For a moment he was elated.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: He woke up his family by shouting, Look, the bombs
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: stayed away. They didn't come. Look, we've got five acres
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: of ground covered by air that we can breathe. His
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: sense of triumph, however, was soon dampened. Yes, he'd been
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: left unmolested for one night, but had that been done
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: only to keep him at a fruitless and sleepless watch.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Probably another delicate form of hazing, and it meant nothing
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: for the night to come or for those to follow.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: So he was in the same harrowing position as before,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: pursued only by a wild and defenseless drive to get
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: things done, to find some slight illusion of security by
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: working to build a sham of normal earthly life to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: shut out the cold vacuum, and a little of the
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: bluntness of the voidal star to make certain reassuring sounds
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: possible around him. Got to patch up the pieces of
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the house first, and bolt em together. Rose, he said feverishly. Kids,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: maybe you could help by setting out some of the
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: hydroponic troughs for planting. We got a break plain ground too.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: As soon as it's thought enough, we gotta His words
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: raced on with his flying thoughts. It was a mad
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: day of toil. The hours were pitifully short. They couldn't
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: be stretched to cover more than a fraction of all
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the work that Bendlick wanted to get done. But the
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: low gravity reduced the problem of heavy lifting to almost
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: zero at least, and he did get the house assembled
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: so that it rose, and the kids and he could
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: sleep inside its sealed doors sealed, that is if Neelie
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: or somebody didn't use a blaster or an explosive cap
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: or bullet in an orgy of perverted humor, he still
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: had no answer for that. Rose and the children toiled
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: almost as hard as he did. Rose even managed to
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: find a couple of dozen eggs that, by being carefully
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: packed to withstand a spaceship's take off, had withstood the
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: effects of Neelie's idea of fun. She set up an
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: incubator and put them inside to be hatched. But of
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: course the sunset came again with the same pendent thread
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: as before. Nerve twisting terrible, and a vigil was all
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: but impossible. John Endlick was bout on his feet, far
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: more than just dog tired, that damned Neelie. He groaned,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: almost too weary even to swallow his food. In spite
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: of the luxury of a real Pullman style supper table.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: He doesn't lose sleep. He can pick his time to
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: come here and raise hob Rose's glance was strange, almost
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: guilty to night. I think he might have to stay
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: home too, she said. John Endlick blinked at her. All right,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: she answered, rather defensively, So to speak, Johnny I called
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the cops yesterday with the small radio transmitter when you
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: and Bubbs and Evelyn were up in those old buildings,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I reported Neelie and his companions reported them sure to
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: mister Mahoney, the boss at the mining camp. I was
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: glad to find out that there is a little law
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: and order around here. Mister Mahoney was nice. He said
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: that he wouldn't be surprised if they were cooled in
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: the can for a few days and then confined to
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the camp area. Matter of fact, I radioed him again
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: last night. It's been done. John Endlick's vast sigh of
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: relief was slightly tainted by the idea that to call
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: on a policing power for protection was a little bit
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: on the timid side. Oh, he grunted. Thanks, I never
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: thought of doing that, Johnny. Yeah, I kind of got
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the notion. And though from between the lines of what
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: mister Mahoney said that there was heavy trouble brewing at
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the camp about conditions and home leaves and increased profit sharing.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe there's danger of riots and what not, Johnny. Anyhow,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: mister Mahoney said that we should keep on exercising all
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: reasonable caution. M mister Mahoney is very nice. Any Endlick growled,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: you stop that, Johnny Rose ordered, but her husband had
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: already passed. Beyond thoughts of jealousy. He was thinking of
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: the time when Neelie would have worked out his sentence
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: and would be free to roam around again, no doubt,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: with increased annoyance at the Endlick clan for causing his restraint.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: If a riot or something didn't spring him beforehand, John
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Endlick itched to try to tear his hat off, but
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: of course the same consequences as before still applied. As
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: it turned out, the Endlicks had a reprieve of two
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: months and fourteen days, almost to the hour, and figured
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: on a strictly earth timescale. For what it was worth.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: They accomplished a great deal in their great plastic greenhouse,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: supported like a colossal bubble by the humid, artificially warmed
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: air inside it, long troughs were filled with pebbles and
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: hydroponic solution, and therein tomatoes were planted, and lettuce, radishes,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: corn onions, melons, just about everything in the vegetable wine.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: There remained plenty of ground left over from the five acres,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: so John Endlich tinkered with that fifty million year old tractor,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: figured out its atomic power to steam principle, and used
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: it to help harrow up the ancient soil of a
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: smashed planet. He added commercial fertilizers and nitrates to it.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: The nitrates were, of course, distinct from the gaseous nitrogen
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: that had been held sponge like by the subsoil and
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: had helped supply the greenhouse with atmosphere. Then he harrowed
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: the ground again. The tractor worked fine, except the feeble
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: gravity made the lugs of its wheels slip a lot.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: He repeated his planting in the old fashioned manner under
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: ideal conditions. The inside of the Great Bubble was soon
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: a mass of growing things. Rose had planted flowers to
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: be admired and to help out the hive of bees,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: which were essential to some of the other plants as well.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: Nor was the flora limited to the earthly Some seeds
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: or spores had survived here from the mother world of
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: the asteroids. They came out of their eons of suspended
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: animation to become root and tough spiky stalk, and to
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: mix themselves sparsely with vegetation that had emigrated from Earth.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Now that livable conditions had been restored over this little
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: piece of ground, but whether they were fruit or weed,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: it was difficult to say. Sometimes John Endlick was misled,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes listening to familiar sounds and smelling familiar odors. Towards
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: the latter part of his reprieve, he almost imagined that
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: he'd accomplished his basic desires here on Vesta, when he
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: had always failed on Earth. There was the smell of
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: warm soil, flowers, greenery. He heard irrigation wood are trickling.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: The sweet corn rustled in the wind of fans he'd
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: set up to circulate the air. Bees buzzed, chickens approaching
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: adolescents peeped contentedly as they dusted themselves, and stretched luxuriously
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: in the shadows of the cornfield. For John Endlick, it
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: was all like the echo of some nombolent summer of
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: his boyhood. There was peace in it. It was like
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: a yearning fulfilled, an end of wander lust for him.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Here on Vesta, in contrast to the airless desolation outside,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: the interior of this five acre greenhouse was the one
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: most desirable place to be. So, except for the vaguest
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: of stirrings sometimes in his mind. There was not much
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: in incentive to seek fun elsewhere if he ever had time,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: And there was a lot of the legendary too, in
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: what his family and he had accomplished. He was like
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: returning a little of the blue sky and the sounds
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: of life to this land of ruins and roadways and
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: the ghosts of dead beauty. Maybe there'd be a lot
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: more of all that soon when the rumored major influx
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: of homesteaders reached Vesta. Yes, Johnny Rose said once. Legendary
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: is a lot nicer word than ghostly, and the ghosts
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: are changing their names to legends. Rose had to teach
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: the kids their regular lessons. That children would be taught
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: was part of the agreement you had to sign at
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the Aho before you could be shipped out with them.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: But the kids had time for whimsy too, in make believe.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: They took their excursions far back to former ages. They
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: played that they were old people. Repaired his atomic battery
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: didn't draw power anymore from the unit that had supplied
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: the ancient buildings, but the relics remained from a device
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: like a phonograph. There was even a bell like voice
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: that chanted when a lever was pressed, and it was
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: the kids who found the first Tata bug A day
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: after its drills were heard from among the new foliage. Hey. Hey.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: The sound was like that of a little wheel, humming
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: with the speed of rotation and then slowing to a
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: scratchy stop. A one legged hopper with a thin but
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: rigid gliding wing of horn opalescent in its colors. It
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: had evidently hatched from a tiny egg preserved by the
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: cold for ages. Wise enough not to clutch it with
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: his bare hands, Bubs came running with it held in
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: a leaf. It proved harmless. It was ugly and beautiful.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: Its great charm was that it was a vocal echoes
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: go from the far past. Sure, life got to be
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: fairly okay. In spite of hard work, the Endlicks had
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: conquered the awful stillness with life sounds. Growing plants kept
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: the air in their greenhouse fresh and breathable by photosynthesis.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: John Endlick did a lot of grinning and whistling. His
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: temper never flared once. Deep down in him there was
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: only a brooding certainty that the calm couldn't last. For
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: from all reports, troubles seethed at the mining camp at
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: any time there might be a blow up, a reign
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: of terror that would roll over all of Vesta, a
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: thing to release pent up forces in men who had
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: seen too many hard stars and had heard too much stillness.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: They were like the stuff inside a complaining volcano. The
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Endlicks had sought to time their various crops so that
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: they would all be ready for market on as nearly
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: as possible the same day. It was intended as a
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: trick of advertising a dramatically sudden appearance of much fresh produce.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: So one morning, in a jet equipped spacesuit and Lick
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: arched out for the mining camp. Inside the suit, he
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: carried samples from his garden. Six tomatoes. Beauties have luck
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: with them, Johnny, but watch out, Rose flung after him
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: by helmet phone with a warm laugh. Just for a moment,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: he felt, maybe a little silly tomatoes, but they were
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: what he was banking on and had forced toward maturity.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: Most the way. He figured they were the kind of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: fruit that the guys in the camp gagged by a
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: diet of canned and dehydrated stuff because they were too
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: busy chasing mineral wealth to keep a decent hydroponic garden.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Going would be hungriest. For well, he was rather too
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: right in some ways to be fortunate. Yeah, they still
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: call what happened the tomato War. Poor Johnny Endlick. He
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: was headed for the commissary dome to display his wares,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: but vague urges sidetracked him, and he went into the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: recreation dome of camp instead, and into the bar. The
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: petty sin of two drinks hardly merits the punishing trouble
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: which came his way, as at least partially a result.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: With his face window open, he stood at the bar
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: with men whom he had never seen before, and he
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: began to have minor delusions of grandeur. He became a
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: little too proud of his accomplishments. His weariness slipped into abeyance.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: He had a queer idea that, as a farmer, with
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: concrete evidence of his skills to show, he would win
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: respect that had been denied him. Dread of consequences of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: some things that he might do became blurred. His hot
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: temper began to smolder under the spark of memory and
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: the fury of insult and malicious tricks. That, considering the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: safe of his loved ones, he had had no way
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to fight back against frustration is a dangerous force released
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: a little. It excited him more, and the tense mood
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: of the camp, a thing in the very air of
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: the domes, stirred him up more. The camp, ready to
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: explode into sudden open barbarism for days, was now at
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a point where nothing so dramatic as fresh tomatoes and
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: farmers in a bar was needed to set the fireworks off.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: John Endlick had his two drinks. Then, with calm and
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: foolhardy detachment, he set the six tomatoes out in a
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: row before him on the synthetic mahogany. He didn't have
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: to wait at all for results. Blood Shot eyes, some
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: of them belonging to men who had been as gentle
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: as lambs in their ordinary lives on Earth, turned swiftly alert.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Bristly faces showed swift changes of expression, surprise, interest, greed
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: for possession, but most of all aggressive and satanic humor.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: Geez tomatoes. Somebody growled, amazed under the circumstances. To be
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: aware of opportunity was to act big pause, Some bear
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: and calloused, some in the gloves of spacesuits reached out,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: grabbed teeth, bit juice, squirted landing on hard metals shaped
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: for the interplanetary regions. So far fine. John Endlick felt
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: prouder of himself. He'd expected a certain fierceness and lack
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: of manners, but knowing all he did know he should
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: have taken time to visualize the inevitable chain reaction. Thanks Pal,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: you're a prince, sure, but the thanks were more of
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: a mockery than a formality. Hey, none for me, what's
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the idea? Shut up, Mick? Who's this guy? Say? Friend?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't be that punkinhead we've been hearing about, would you? Well,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: my gracious bet you are. This'll be nice to watch.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: Where's alf Neelie Cranston? What we need is excitement? Seen
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: him out by the slot machines. The bar is still
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: out of bounds for him. He can't come in here,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: says who boss Man? Mahoney? For this much sport, Neelie
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: can go straight to Hell and take Boss Man with
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: him on a pitchfork. Hey, hey, Neelie. The big man
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: whose name was called lumbered to the window at the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: entrance to the bar and peered inside. During the last
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: couple of months, he'd been in a perpetual grouch over
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: his deprivation of liberty, which had rankled him more as
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: an affront to his dignity. When he saw the husband
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: of the authoritress of his woes, the little bum, who,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: being unable to guard his own, had allowed his woman
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to holler cop Neelie let out a yell of sheer glee.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: His huge shoulders hunched, his pennilous nose wobbled, his squinty
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: eyes gleamed, and he charged into the bar. John Endlick's
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: first reaction was curiously similar to Neelie's. He felt a
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: flash of savage triumph. Under the stimulus of the thought
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of immediate battle with the cause of most of his troubles.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Temper blazed in him. Belatedly, however, the awareness came into
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: his mind that he had started an emotional avalanche that
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: went far beyond the weight and fury of one man,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: like Neelie. Lord, wouldn't he ever learn? It was tough
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: as hell to crawl, But how could a man put
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: his wife and kids in awful jeopardy at the hands
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: of a flock of guys whom space had turned into gorillas?
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: Endlick tried for peace. It was to his credit that
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: he did so quite coolly. He turned toward his charging
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: adversary and grinned time. Neelie, he said, have a drink
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: on me. The big man stopped short, almost in unbelief
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: that anyone could stoop so low as to offer appeasement.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: Then he laughed uproariously. Why I'd be delighted, mister Punkins,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: he said, in a poisonous sweet tone. Let bygones be
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: bygones Hey, Charlie, hear what Punkins says? The drinks are
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: all on him? And how is little lady missus Punkins
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: lonesome my bed glad to hear it. I'm gonna fix that.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: With a sudden lunge, Neely gripped Endlick's hand and gave
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: it a savage, if momentary twist that sent needles of
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: pain shooting up the homesteader's arm. It was a goating
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: invitation to battle, which grim knowledge of the sequel now
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: compelled Endlick to pass up. Don't call him Punkins, Neelie,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: somebody yelled. It ain't polite to mispronounce a name. It's
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: mister Tomatoes. I just saw that he's got a million
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: of 'em out there on the farm. The whole crowd
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: in the bar broke into coarse shouts and laughs and comments.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: We ain't good neighbors, neglecting our social duties. Let's pay
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: him a visit, Pumpkins, what else you got besides tomatoes?
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Let's go on a picnic hell with the boss man. Yeah,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: we need some diversion. I'm not going on shift. Come on, everybody,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a fight amoida hell with the
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: boss Man. Like the flicker of flame flashing through dry gunpowder,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: you could feel the excitement spread out of the bar,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: out of the rec dome. It would soon ignite the
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: whole tense camp. John Endlick's heart was in his mouth
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: as his mind pictured the part of all this that
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: would affect him and his A bunch of men gone wild,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: kicking over the traces, arcing around Vesta, sacking and destroying
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: in sheer exuberance, like brats on Halloween. They would stop
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: at nothing and rose and the kids. This was it,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: what he'd been so scared of all along. It was
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: at least partly his own fault, and there was no
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: way to stop it. Now. I love tomatoes, mister Pumpkins.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: Neelie rumbled at Endlick's side, reaching for the drink that
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: had been set before him. But first, I'm gonna smear
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: you all over the camp. Take my time, do a
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: good job, because you didn't give me any tomatoes. Whereat,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: John Endlick took the only slender advantage at hand for
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: him surprise. With all the strength of his muscular body,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: backed up by dread and pent up fury, he sent
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: a gloved fist crashing straight into Neelie's open face window.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: Even the pang in his well protected knuckles was a satisfaction,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: for he knew that the damage to Neelie's ugly features
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: must be many times greater. The blow, occurring under the
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: conditions of Vesta's tiny gravity, had an entirely unearthly effect.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: Neelie's eyes glazing floated gently up in a way, and
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: end Lick, since he had at the last instant clutched
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Neelie's arm, was drawn along with the miner in a
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: graceful arcing flight through the smoky air of the bar.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Both armored bodies, lacking nothing in inertia, tore through the
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: tough plastic window, and they bounced lightly on the pavement
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: of the main section of the rec Dome. Neelie was
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: as limp as a wet rag, sleeping peacefully, blood all
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: over his crushed face. But that he was out of
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: action signified no peace when so many of his buddies
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: were nearby and beginning to seethe like a swarm of hornets.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: So there was an element of despair in Endlick's quick
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: actions as he slammed Neelie's face window and his own shut,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: picked up his enemy, and used his jets to propel
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: him in the long leap to the airlock of the dome.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: He had no real plan. He just had the ragged
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: and all but hopeless thought of using Neelie as a
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: hostage as a weapon in the bitter and desperate attempt
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: to defend his wife and children from the mob that
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: would be following close behind him. Tumbling and over and
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: with his light but bulky burden, he sprawled at the
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: threshold of the airlock, where the guard posted there had
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: stepped hastily out of his way. Again, capricious luck, surprise,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: and swift action were on his side. He pressed the
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: control button of the lock and squirmed through its double
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: valves before the startled guard could stop him. Then he
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: slammed his jets wide and aimed for the horizon. It
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: was a wild journey, for to fly straight in a
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: frictionless vacuum, any missile must be very well balanced, and
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: the inertia and the slight but unwieldy weight of Neelie's
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: bulk disturbed such balance in his own jet equipped spacesuit.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: The journey was made, then, not in a smooth arc,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: but in a series of erratic waverings. But what Rlic
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: lacked in precise direction, he made up in sheer, reckless,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: dread driven speed. From the very start of that wild flight,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: he heard voices in his helmet phones. Damn pumpkinhead, greenhorn.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: Did you see how he hit Neelie Schmidt? Yeah, by surprise, Yeah, Kazak,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: I saw it. He hit him without warning. Damn yellow
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: yokel who's coming along to get him? Sure there was
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: another side to it. Other voices, Shucks, Neelie had it
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: coming to him. I hope the farmer really murders that
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: big lunkhead. You ain't kidding, Mure. I was glad to
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: see his face splatter like a rotten tomato. Okay, fine,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: it was good to know you had some sensible guys
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: on your side. But what good was it? When the
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: camp as a whole was boiling over from its internal troubles.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: There were more than enough roughnecks to do a mighty
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: messy job. Fast, panting with tension, Endlicks swooped down before
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: his greenhouse and dragged Neelie inside through the airlock. For
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: a fleeting instant. The sights and sounds and smells that
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: impinged on his senses as he opened his face window
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: once more brought him they regret, the rustle of corn,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: the odor of greenery, the chicken voices. There was home
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: in all of this, something pastoral and beautiful and orderly
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: gained with hard work, and something brought back, restored from
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: the remote past. The buzzing of the Tata bug was
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: even a real echo from that smash yet undoubtedly once
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: beautiful world of antiquity. But these were fragile concerns beside
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: the desperate question of the immediate safety of Rose and
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: the kids. Already, cries and shouts and comments were coming
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: faintly through his helmet. Phones. Again, get the yokel get
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: the bumb We'll fix his wagon. Good. The pack was
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: on the way, getting closer with every heart beat. Never
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: in his life had Endlicked experienced so harrowing a time
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: as this. Never, if by some miracle he lived, could
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: he expect another equal to it. To stand and fight
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: as he would have done if he were alone, would
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: mean simply that he would be cut down. To try
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: the peacemaking of appeasement would have probably the same result,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: plus for himself the dishonor of contempt. So where was
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: there to turn? With grim on answering blankness on every side,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: John Endlich felt mightily and old, yearning, that of a
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: fundamentally peaceful man, for a way to oppose and win
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: against brutal, overpowering odds without using either serious violence or
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: the even more futile course of supine submission. Here on Vesta,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: this had been the issue he had faced all along,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: in many ages and many nations, and probably on many
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: planets throughout the universe. Others had faced it before him.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: To his straining and tortured mind, the trite and somewhat
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: mocking answers came psychology, salesmanship, the selling of respect for oneself. Ah. Yes,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: these were fine words, glib wore words, But the question
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: how was more bitter and derisive than ever, Still he
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: had to try something to make at least a forlorn effort,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: And now, from certain beliefs that he had coupled with
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: some vague observations that he had made during the last hour,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: a tattered suggestion of what form that effort might take
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: came to him. As for his personal defects that had
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: given him trouble in the past, well, he was lugubriously
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: sure that he had learned a final lesson about liquor.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: For him, it always meant trouble. As for wander lust
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: and the gambling in the hell raising urge, he had
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: been willing to stay put on Vesta, named for the
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Goddess of Home, for weeks now, and he was now
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: about to make his last great gamble. If he lost,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't be alive to gamble again. If by great
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: good fortune he won, well, he was certain that all
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: the charm of unnecessary chance taking would the memory of
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: these awful moments be forever poisoned in him. Now Rose
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: and the youngsters came hurrying toward him back so soon
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: Johnny Rose called, what's this? What happened? Who's the guy? Pop?
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: Evelyn asked, Oh, Blowney knows what are you doing with him?
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: But by then they all had guessed some of the
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: tense mood. And it's probable meaning Neelie's pals are coming. Honey,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: Endlick said, quietly, it's the showdown. Hide the kids and yourself,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: quick under the house. Maybe Rose's pale eyes met his.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: They were comprehending, They were worried, but they were cool.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: He could see that she didn't want to leave him.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: Evelyn looked as though she might begin to whimper, but
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: her small jaw hardened. Bub's lower lip trembled, but he
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: said valiantly, I'll get the guns. Pop, I'm staying with you. No,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: you're not, son, John Endlick answered, get going, orders, get
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: the guns to keep with you, to watch out for
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: mom and siss. Rose took the kids away with her
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: without a word. Endlick wondered how to describe what was
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: maybe her last look at him. There were no fancy
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: words in his mind, just love and deep concern. Alf
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: Neelie was showing signs of returning consciousness, which was good,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: still dragging him, Endlick went and got a bushel basket.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: It was filled to the brim with ripe red tomatoes,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: but he could carry its tiny weight on the palm
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: of one hand, scarcely noticing that it was there. For
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: an instant, Endlick scanned the sky through the clear plastic
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: roof of the great Bubble. He saw at least a
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: score of shapes in space armor arking nearer specks in
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: human form, glowing with reflected sunlight, like little hurling moons
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: among the stars, Neelie's pals. In a moment, they would arrive.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Endlick took Neelie and the OADD basket close to the
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: transparent side of the greenhouse, nearest the approaching roughnecks. There
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: he removed Neelie's oxygen helmet, hoping that maybe this might
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: deter his friends a little from rupturing the plastic of
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: the huge bubble and letting the air out. It was
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: a feeble safeguard, for in all probability, in case of
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: such rupture, Neelie would be rescued from death by smothering
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: and cold and the boiling of his blood, simply by
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: having his helmet slammed back on again. Next end Lick
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: dumped the contents of the basket on the ground, inverted it,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: and sat nearly upon it. The big Man had recovered
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: consciousness enough to be nearly groggy by now. Endlick slapped
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: his battered face vigorously to help clear his head, after
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: having of course relieved him of the blaster at his belt,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: Endlick left his own face window open so that the
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: sounds of Neelie's voice could penetrate to the mike of
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: his own helmet phone, thus to be transmitted to the
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: helmet phones of Neelie's bodies. Endlick was anything but calm inside,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: with the wild Horde as irresponsible in their present state
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: of mind as a pack of idiot baboons bearing down
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: on him, but he forced his tone to be conversational
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: when he spoke Hello, Neelie, he said, you mentioned you
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: liked tomatoes. Maybe you were kidding. Anyhow, I brought you
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: along home with me so you could have some. Here
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: on the ground right in front of you is a
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: whole bushel. The regular asteroid price, considering the trouble it
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: takes to grow em and the amount of dough a
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: guy like you can make for himself out here, is
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: five bucks apiece. But for you right now, they're all free. Here.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: Have a nice fresh ripe one Neelie the big Man,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: glared at his captor for a second, after he had
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: looked dazedly around. He would have leaped to his feet,
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: except that the muzzle of his own blaster was leveled
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: at the center of his chest at a range of
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: not over twenty inches for a fleeting instant. Neelie looked
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: scared and prudent. Then he saw his pals landing like
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: a flock of birds just beyond the transparent side of
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: the greenhouse, and he heard their shouts coming loudly from
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: Endlck's helmet phones. We come after you, Neelie. We'll get
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: the damn yokel off your neck. Come on, guys, let's
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: turn the damn place upside down. Neelie grew courageous. Yes,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: maybe it did take a certain animal nerve to do
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: what he did. His battered and bloody lip curled. When
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: do you think you're up to punkin head? He snarled slowly,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: his tone dripping contempt for the insanely foolish ha ha.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: Then his face twisted into a confident and mocking leer.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: To carry the mockery farther, A big paw reached out
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: and grabbed the proffered tomato from Endlick's hand. Sure, thanks,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: anything to oblige. He took a great bite from the fruit,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: clowning the action with a forced expression of relish. Mum,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: he grunted in danger. He was being a showman, playing
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: for the approval of his pals. He was proving his
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: comic coolness that even now he was master of the
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: situation and was in no hurry to be rescued. Come on, punk,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: he ordered, Endlick, where's the next one? Seeing you're so generous,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: be polite to your guest. Endlick handed him a second tomato,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: but as he did so, it seemed all the things
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: he dreaded would happen were breathing down his back. For
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: the faces that he glimpsed beyond the plastic showed the
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: twisted expressions that betray the point where savage humor imperceptibly
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: becomes murderous. A dozen blasters were leveled at him, but
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: the eyes of the men outside showed two the kind
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: of interest that any odd procedure can command. They stood
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: still for a moment, watching, commenting, Hey, Neelie, see if
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: you can down the next one in one bite. Don't
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: eat am all? Neel he save some for us. Endlick
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: was following no complete plan. He had only the feeling
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: that somewhere here there might be a dramatic touch that,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: by a long chance, would yield him a toe hold
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: on the situation. Without a word, he gave Neeli a
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: third tomato, then a fourth, and a fifth. Neelie kept
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: gobbling and clowning, Yeah, but can this sort of horseplay
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: go on until one man has consumed an entire bushel
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: of tomatoes? The question began to shine speculatively in the
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: faces of the onlookers. It began to appeal to their
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: wolfish sense of comedy, and it started to betray itself
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: in another manner in Neelie's face. After the fifteenth tomato,
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: he burped and balked, that's enough. Kidden around punkinhead, he growled,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: get away with your damned garden truck. I should be
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: beaten you to a grease spot right this minute. Why
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: I Then Neelie tried to lunch for the blaster. As
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: Endlick squeezed the trigger, he turned the weapon aside a trifle,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: so that the beam of energy flicked past Neelie's ear
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: and splashed garden soil that turned incandescent instantly. John Endlick
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: might have died in that moment. Cut down from behind
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't probably meant that from the position of
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: complete underdog among the spectators, his popularity had risen some. Neelie,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: he said, with a grin, How can you start beaten
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: when you ain't done? Eatn Neelie? Here, I am trying
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: to be friendly and hospitable and you aren't co operating.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: A whole bushel of juicy tomatoes, symbols of civilization weigh
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: the hell out here in the asteroids, and you haven't
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: even made a dent in him yet? What's the matter? Nearlie?
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: Loose your appetite here? Eat Endlick's tone was falsely persuasive,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: for there was a steely note of command in it,
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: and the blaster in Endlick's hand was pointed straight at
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Neelie's chest. Neelie's eyes began to look frightened and sullen.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: He shifted uncomfortably, and the bushel basket creaked under his weight.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: You're yella as any damn punkin, he said loudly. You
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: don't fight fair guys. What's the matter with you? Get
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: this nut? With the blaster off of me. Hm, Yella,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: Endlick seemed to muse, Maybe not as yellow as you
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: were once coming around here at night with a whole
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: gang not so long ago, call me yella. Neelie hollered,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: Why you lousy damn yokel if you didn't have that blaster,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: Endlick said grimly. But I got it, friend. He sent
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: a stream of energy from the blaster right past Neelie's head,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: so close that a shock of the other's hair smoked
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: and curled into black wisps. And watch your language, my
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: wife and kids can hear you. Neelie's thick shoulders haunched.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: He ducked nervously, rubbing his head, and for the first
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: time there was a hint of genuine alarm in his voice.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: All right, he growled, all right, take it easy. Something
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: deep within John Endlick relaxed, a cold, tight knot seemed
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: to unwind. For at that moment he knew that Neelie
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: was beginning to lose The big Man's evident discomfort and
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: fear were the marks of weakness to his followers at least,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: and with them he could never be a leader again. Moreover,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: he had allowed himself to be maneuvered into a position
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: of being the butt of a practical joke that, by
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: his own code, must be followed up to its nasty,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: if interesting outcome. The spectators began to resemble Romans at
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: the circus with Neelie the victim, and the victim's downfall
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: was tragically swift. Come on, Neelie, you heard what Punkin said.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: Somebody yelled, geez a whole bushel. Let's see how many
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: of him you can eat, Neelie. Damned if this ain't
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: going to be rich, don't let us down, Neelie. Nobody's
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: hurting you. All you have to do is eat all
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: them nice tomatoes. Hey, Neelie, if that bushel ain't enough
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: for you, I'll personally buy you another at the regular price.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: Ha ha ha. Lucky Neelie. Look at him having a swell banquet,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: better than if he was at home. Come on, pumpkins,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: make a meat. Yeah. Under certain conditions, human nature can
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: be pretty fickle. Wonderingly, John Endlick felt himself to be
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: respected the top man, the guy who had shown carriage
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: and ingenuity and was winning by the harsh code of
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: men who had been roughened and soured by space, by
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: life among the asteroids for a little while. Then he
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: had to be hard. He thrust another tomato toward Neelie
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: at the same time, directing a thin stream from the
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: blaster just past the big nose. Neelie ate six more
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: tomatoes with a will, his eyes popping, sweat streaming down
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: his forehead. Endlick's next blaster stream barely missed Neelie's booted toe.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: The persuasive shot was worth fifty five more dollars in
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: garden fruit consumed. The crowd gave with mock cheers and bravos,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: and demanded more action at makes thirty two. Come on, Neelie,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: that's just a good start. You've got a long ways
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: to go. Come on, Pumpkins, but you can stuff fifty
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: into him to goad neely on in this ludicrous and
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: savage game, end Lick next just scorched the metal at
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: Neelie's shoulder. It isn't to be said that Endlick didn't
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: enjoy his revenge for all the anguish and real danger
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: that Neelie had caused him. But as this fierce yet
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: childish sport went on, and the going turned really rough
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: for the big asteroid miner. Endlick's anger began to be
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: mixed with self disgust. He'd always be a hot tempered guy,
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: he couldn't help that. But now satisfaction and a hopeful
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: glimpse of piece ahead burned the fury out of him
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: and touched him with shame. Still for a little more,
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: he had to go on again and again, as before
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: he used that blaster But as he did so, he talked, ramblingly,
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: knowing that the audience too would hear what he said.
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: Maybe in a way it was a lecture, but he
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't help that. Have another tomato, Neelie, sorry to do
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: things like this, but it's your own way, so why
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: should you complain? Funny, ain't it? A man can get
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: even too many tomatoes. Civilized tomatoes a part of something
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: most guys around here have been homesick for for a
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: long time. Maybe that's what has been most of the
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: trouble out here in the asteroids. Not enough civilization on Earth.
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: We were used to certain standards in spite of being
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: rough enough there too. Here the traces got kicked over.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: But on this side of Vesta, an idea begins to
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: soak in this used to be a nice country, blue
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: sky trees growing. Some of that is coming back nearly
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: and order with it, because deep in our guts, that's
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: what we all want. And fresh vegetables'll help have another tomato, Neelie,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: or should we call it enough guys, Neelie, you ain't
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: gonna quit now, somebody could fawed. You're doing almost good.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: Neelie's face was purple, his eyes were bloodshot, his mouth
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: hung partly open. God, no, please, he croaked. An embarrassed
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: hush fell over the crowd. Back home on Earth, they
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: had all been more or less average men. Finally, someone said,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: expressing the intrusion among them of the better dignity of
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: man ah, let the poor dope go. Then and there,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: John Endlick sold what was left of his first bushel
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: of tomatoes. One of the customers, the once loud mouthed Schmidt,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: even said, rather stiffly, pumpkins, you're all right. And these
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: guys were the real roughnecks of the mining camp. It
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: is necessary to mention that as they were leaving, Neelie
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: lost his pride, completely soiling the inside of his helmet's
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: face window so that he could scarcely see out of it,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: that amid the raucous laughter of his companions, which still
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: sounded slightly self conscious and pitying. Thus alf Neelie sank
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: at last to the level of helpless oblivion and non entity.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: A week of vestal days later, in the afternoon, Rose
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: and the kids came to John Endlick, who was toiling
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: over his cucumbers. Their name is Harper, Pop Bubbs, shouted,
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: and they've got three children, Evelyn added. John Endlick straightened,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: shaking a kink out of his tired back, who he questioned,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: the people who are going to be our new neighbors.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: Johnny Rose said, happily. We just picked up the news
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: on the radio from their ship, which is approaching from
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: space right now. I hope they're nice folks. And Johnny,
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: there used to be country schools with no more than
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: five pupils. Sure, John Endlick said, Something felt warm around
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: his heart. Leave it to a woman to think of
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: a school the symbol of civilization marching now across the void.
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: John Endlick thought of the trouble at the mining camp,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: which his first load of fresh vegetables picked up by
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: a small spaceboat, had perhaps helped to end. He thought
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: of the relics in this strange land, things that were
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: like legends of a lost pastoral beauty, things that could
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: come back. The second family of homesteaders was almost here.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: Endlick was reconciled to domesticity. He felt at home, He
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: felt proud. Bees buzzed near him. A tatae bug from
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: a perished era hummed and scraped out a mournful sound.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: I wonder if the Harper kids will call you mister
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: Punkin's pop bubs remarked, like the miners do. John Endlick laughed,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: but somehow he was prouder than ever. Maybe the name
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: would be a legend too. And of Part two of
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: Asteroid of Fear and of Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Z.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: Galloon