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Equation of Doom - Gerald Vance · Beautiful Joe

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Equation of Doom. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. A more
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  Speaker 1: information not to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Phil Snevert Equation of Doom by Gerald Vance, Part one.
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  Speaker 1: Your name if Jathon Ramfy, The port security officer lisped politely.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Jason Ramsey, who wore the uniform of Interstellar Transfer Service
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and was the only Earthman in the service here on Irwadi,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: smiled and said, take three guesses. You know darn well,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Ramsey. He was a big man, even by Earth's standards,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: which meant he towered over the Irwaddian's green scaly head.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: He was fair of skin and had hair the color
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: of copper. It was room on Irwadi and elsewhere that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: he couldn't return to Earth because of some crime he
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: had committed. I'll wave the chip on the shoulder, the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: port security officer said, won't you earthman ever learn the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: splay tongued reptile humanoids of Irwady always spoke interstellar coine
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: with a pronounced lisp, which Ramsey found annoying, especially since
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  Speaker 1: it went so well with the officious and underhanded behavior
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: for which the Irwadians were famous the galaxy over get
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  Speaker 1: to the point, Ramsey said, hoarsely, I have a ship
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  Speaker 1: to take through hyperspace. No, you have no ship? No,
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  Speaker 1: then what's this? Is? Irritation mounting. Ramsey pulled out the
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  Speaker 1: Interstellar Transfer Services Authorization Form and showed it to the
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  Speaker 1: security officer, a tip sheet for the wayless races of
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  Speaker 1: form Aholt six. The security officer said, ha ha ha.
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  Speaker 1: He could not laugh. He merely uttered the phonetic equivalence
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  Speaker 1: of laughter on harsh Irwadi. Laughter would have been a
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  Speaker 1: cultural anomaly. You make jokes. Well, nevertheless, you have no ship.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: He expanded his scaly green barrel chest and declaimed. At
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: four hundred hours this morning, the government of Irwadi had
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: planetarized the Iwadi Transfer serbith planetarize the transfer service, gasped
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Ramsey in surprise. He knew the Irwadians had been contemplating
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the move in theory for many years, but he also
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  Speaker 1: knew that transferring a starship from normal space through hyperspace
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  Speaker 1: back to normal space again was a tremendously difficult and
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  Speaker 1: the technical task. He doubted, if half a dozen Irwadians
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  Speaker 1: had mastered it, yet the Irwadi branch of Interstellar Transfer
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  Speaker 1: Service was made up of seventy five hyperspace pilots of
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  Speaker 1: divers planatalities. Exactly, said the security officer, as amused as
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: an Irwadian could be by the amazement in Ramsey's frank
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  Speaker 1: green eyes. Though, if you will kindly thrender your permit,
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  Speaker 1: let's see it in writing. Huh, the security officer complied.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Ramsey read the official document, scowled, and handed over his
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Irwadi pilot license. What about the Polaris he wanted to know.
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  Speaker 1: The Polaris was a Centaurion ship he had been scheduled
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  Speaker 1: to take through hyperspace on the run from Iwadi to
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  Speaker 1: Centauri III. Temporarily grounded captain, or should I they ech
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  Speaker 1: captain temporarily my foot, said Ramsey. It'll be months before
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  Speaker 1: you Irwadians can get even a fraction of the ships
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  Speaker 1: into hyper You must be out of your minds our problem, captain,
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  Speaker 1: not yours. That was true enough, Ramsey shrugged. Your problem,
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  Speaker 1: the security officer went on, blandly will be to find
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  Speaker 1: a menth of self support until you and all other
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: extraplanetary eth can be removed from Irwady. We owe you
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  Speaker 1: extraplanetaryth nothing, expect no charity from us. Ramsey shrugged. Like
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  Speaker 1: all extraplanetaries on a bleak, friendless world like Irwady, he
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  Speaker 1: regularly gambled away and drank away his monthly paycheck in
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  Speaker 1: the Interstellar Settlement, which the Irwadians had established in the
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  Speaker 1: old quarter of Irwadi City. But last month he'd managed
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to come out even at the gaming tables, so he
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: had a few hundred credits to his name. That would
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  Speaker 1: be enough. He told himself to tide him over until
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  Speaker 1: Interstellar Transfer of Service came to the rescue of its
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: stranded pilots. Ramsey went up the gangway and got his
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  Speaker 1: gear from the Polaris. When he returned down the gangway,
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  Speaker 1: the late afternoon wind was blowing across the spacefield tarmac,
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  Speaker 1: a wet, bone chilling wind which only the reptile humanoid
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  Speaker 1: Irwadians didn't seem to mind. Ramsey fastened the tockles of
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  Speaker 1: his coal weather cape, put his head down and hunched
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  Speaker 1: his shoulders, and walked into the teeth of the wind.
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  Speaker 1: He did not look back at the Polaris, marooned indefinitely
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  Speaker 1: on Irwaddy, despite anything the Centaurian owners or any one
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  Speaker 1: else for that matter, could do about it. The Irwadi
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  Speaker 1: security officer, whose name was chend Ramar, walked up the
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  Speaker 1: gangway and ordered the ship's Centaurion first officer to assemble
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  Speaker 1: his crew and passengers. Chend Ramar allowed himself the rare
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  Speaker 1: luxury of a fleeting smile. He could imagine this scene
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  Speaker 1: being duplicated on fifty ships here on his native planet today,
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  Speaker 1: fifty out world ships which had no business at all
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  Speaker 1: on Irwaddy. Of course, Irwadi was an important planet of
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  Speaker 1: call in the Galactic Federation because the vital metal titanium
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  Speaker 1: was found as abundantly in Irwadian soil as aluminum is
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  Speaker 1: found in the soil of an Earth style planet. Titanium
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  Speaker 1: in alloy with steel and manganese was the only element
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  Speaker 1: which could withstand the tremendous heat generated in the drive
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  Speaker 1: chambers of interstellar ships during transfer. In the future, chend
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  Speaker 1: Ramar told him himself with a kind of cold pride,
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  Speaker 1: only Irwaddy in pilots plotting Irwaddy in ships through hyperspace
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  Speaker 1: would bring titanium to the waiting galaxy at Irwaddy prices
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  Speaker 1: with great pleasure. Chenned Ramar announced the facts of planetarization
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  Speaker 1: and told the Centurions and their passengers that they would
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  Speaker 1: be stranded for an indefinite period on Irwaddy. Amazement, anger, bluster, debate,
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  Speaker 1: and finally resignation. The reactions were the expected ones, in
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  Speaker 1: the expected order. It was easy, chen Ramar thought, with
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  Speaker 1: all but the interstellar soldiers of fortune like Jason Ramsey. Ramsey,
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  Speaker 1: of course, would need watching as for these others. One
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  Speaker 1: of the others, an earth girl whose beauty was entirely
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  Speaker 1: missed by chinned Ramar, left the Polaris in a hurry.
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  Speaker 1: She either had no luggage or left or luggage aboard
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  Speaker 1: Jason Ramsey. She thought she had read chinned Ramar's mind.
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  Speaker 1: A feet growing less rare, although by no means common,
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  Speaker 1: yet among the offspring of those who had spent a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of time bomboarded by cosmic radiation between the stars.
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  Speaker 1: She hurried through the chilling wind toward the old quarter
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  Speaker 1: of Irwadi City. Panic, she thought, You've got to avoid panic.
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  Speaker 1: If you panic, you're finished. So that's about the size
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  Speaker 1: of it, Ramsey finished. Stew Englander nodded like Ramsey, he
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  Speaker 1: was a hyperspace pilot, but although he had an Earth
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  Speaker 1: style name and had been born of Earth parents, he
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: was not an Earthman. He had been born on Capella
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  Speaker 1: seven and had spent most of his life on that
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  Speaker 1: tropical planet. The result was not an uncommon one for
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  Speaker 1: outworlders who spent any amount of time on Irwadi Stu.
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  Speaker 1: Englander had a nagging barchial condition which had kept him
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  Speaker 1: off the pilot bridge for some months. Now. Englander nodded again, dourly.
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  Speaker 1: He was a short, very slender man, a few years
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  Speaker 1: older than Ramsey, who was thirty one. He said, hatties it,
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  Speaker 1: and I mean ties it, brother, You're looking at the
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  Speaker 1: brokest cup pullin earthman who ever got himself stuck on
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  Speaker 1: an outworld? You mean it dead, broke Jason. What about
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  Speaker 1: Sally and the kids? Englander had an Arcturian Earthian wife
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  Speaker 1: and twin boys four years old. I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: about Sally and the kids, he told Ramsey glumly. I
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  Speaker 1: guess I'll go over to the new Quarter and try
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  Speaker 1: to get some kind of a job. They wouldn't hire
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  Speaker 1: an world or to shine their shoes with his own
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: spit stew They have got the planetarization bug, and they
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: got it bad. Sally Englander called from the kitchen of
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  Speaker 1: the small flat. Will Jase be staying for supper? Englander
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  Speaker 1: stared at Ramsey, who shook his head. Not today, Sally
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  Speaker 1: Englander said, looking at Ramsey gratefully. Listen. Ramsey lied, I've
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: been lucky as I'll get out the last couple of months.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You o pro grinned Englander. So I've got a few
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  Speaker 1: hundred credits just burning a hole in my pocket. Ramsey
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  Speaker 1: went on, how about taking them? But I haven't the
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  Speaker 1: slightest idea when I could pay you back. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: say anything about paying me back. I couldn't accept charity. Jace, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: pay me back when you get a chance. There are
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  Speaker 1: plenty of hyperspace jobs waiting for us all over the galaxy.
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  Speaker 1: You know that. Yeah, all we have to do is
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  Speaker 1: get off Irwadi and go after them. But the Errodians
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  Speaker 1: are keeping us right here. Sure, but it won't last,
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  Speaker 1: not whin the folks back in Capella and DANEB and
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  Speaker 1: sol System here about it? Six months? Said Englander, bleakly.
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  Speaker 1: It'll take at least that long six months. I can wait,
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  Speaker 1: what do you say? Englander coughed rackingly, his eyes watering.
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  Speaker 1: He got off the bed and shook Ramsey's hands sullennly.
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  Speaker 1: Ramsey gave him three hundred and seventy five credits and said,
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  Speaker 1: just see you make that go a long way, supporting
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  Speaker 1: Sally and the kids. I don't want to see you
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  Speaker 1: dropping any of it at the gaming tables. I'll knock
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  Speaker 1: your block off if I see you there. I'll knock
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  Speaker 1: my own block off if I see me there, Jace.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how to think. Don't is right? Forget it?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have enough? Me a plan? Don't worry about
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  Speaker 1: old Jace. Ramsey went to the door. Well see you,
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  Speaker 1: Englander walked quickly to him and shook his hand again.
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  Speaker 1: On the way out, Ramsey played for a moment or
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  Speaker 1: two with the twins, who were rolling a couple of
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  Speaker 1: toy space ships marked Hyper one and Hyper two across
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  Speaker 1: the floor and making anachronistic machine gun noises with their lips.
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  Speaker 1: Sally Englander, a plump, young homemaker type, beamed at Ramsey
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  Speaker 1: from the kitchen. Then he went out into the gathering dusk.
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  Speaker 1: As usual on Irwadi, and particularly with the coming of night.
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  Speaker 1: It was bitterly cold, sucker, Ramsey told himself, But he grinned.
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  Speaker 1: He felt good about what he'd done with stew sick
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  Speaker 1: and with Sally and the kids. He'd done the only
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  Speaker 1: thing he could do. He still had almost twenty five
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  Speaker 1: credits left. Maybe he really would have a lucky night
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  Speaker 1: at the tables. Maybe Heck, he'd been down and out before.
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  Speaker 1: A fugitifferent earth didn't have much choice. Sometimes, Red sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: the croupier said, indifferently. He was a sharp, heavy set
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  Speaker 1: Syrian with a shock of scarlet hair, albino skin and
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  Speaker 1: red eyes. Ramsey watched his money being raked across the table.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't his night, he told himself, with a grim smile.
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  Speaker 1: He had only three credits left. If he risked them now,
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  Speaker 1: there wouldn't even be the temporary physical relief and release
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  Speaker 1: of a bottle of Irwaddy and brandy before hitting the sack,
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  Speaker 1: which was another thing, Ramsey thought. Hitting the sack, ah, yes,
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  Speaker 1: you filed, the outlander capitalist, hitting the sack. You owe
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  Speaker 1: that fish eyed, scale skinned Irwadian landlady the rent money.
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  Speaker 1: So you'd better wait until later, until much later, before
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  Speaker 1: sneaking back to your room. He watched the gambling for
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  Speaker 1: another hour or so without risking his few remaining credits.
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  Speaker 1: After a while, a well dressed Irwadian, drunk and obviously
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  Speaker 1: slumming here in the Old Quarter, made his way over
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  Speaker 1: to the table. His body scales were a glossy dark green,
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  Speaker 1: and he wore glittering bejeweled straps across his chest and
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: an equally glittering bejeweled weapons belt. Aside from these, in
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  Speaker 1: the approved Irwadian fashion, he was quite naked. An anthropologist
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  Speaker 1: friend had once told Ramsey that once the Irwadians had
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  Speaker 1: worn clothing, but since the coming and great number of
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  Speaker 1: the outworlders, they had stripped down, as though to prove
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  Speaker 1: how tough they were in being able to withstand the
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  Speaker 1: freezing climate of their native world. Actually, the Irwadian body
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  Speaker 1: scales were superb insulation, whether from he or from cold earth.
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  Speaker 1: Man watching me, the Irwaddian in the bejeweled straps said, arrogantly,
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  Speaker 1: placing a fat roll of credits on the table, I'm sorry,
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  Speaker 1: Ramsey said, were you talking to me? I thirtainly wath,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: lisped the Irwadian, his eyes blazing with drunken hatred. I
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  Speaker 1: fed I won't have any earthmen snooping over my fielder
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  Speaker 1: while I gamble, not un left heath gambling too. Better
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  Speaker 1: tell that to your security police, Ramsey said, coldly, but
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  Speaker 1: not angrily. I'm out of a job, so I don't
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  Speaker 1: have money to throw around. Go ahead and tell me
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  Speaker 1: with a little smile you think it was my idea.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: The Irwadian looked up haughtily. Evidently he was looking for
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  Speaker 1: trouble or could not hold his liquor, or both. The
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: frenzy of planetary sation Ramsey knew from bitter experience on
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: other worlds made irrational behavior like this typical. He studied
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the drunken Irwadian carefully, and all the time he'd spent
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  Speaker 1: on Irwadi, he'd never been able to tell a native's
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  Speaker 1: age by his green scale skinned, fish eyed poker face.
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  Speaker 1: But the glossy green scales covering face and body told Ramsey,
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  Speaker 1: along with these sturdy muscles revealed by the lack of clothing,
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  Speaker 1: that the Irwadian was in his prime, shorter than Ramsey
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: by far, but wider across the shoulders and thicker through
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  Speaker 1: the barrel chest. You outworld death have been depressing the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: standard of living on Irwaddy every since you came here,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the Irwadian said, all you ever brought with poverty and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: your death, germs and more trouble than you could handle.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want you to think near me. I'm trying
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  Speaker 1: to end I myself. Get out of here. It was
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  Speaker 1: abruptly silent in the little gambling hall, since the establishment
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: catered too outworlders and was full of them. The silence
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Ramsey thought should have been both ominous and in his favor.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: He looked around outworlders, yes, but not another earth Man present.
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  Speaker 1: He wondered if he was in for a fight. He shrugged,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: hardly caring. Maybe a fight was just what he needed
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the way he felt. Get out of here, The Erewaddian repeated,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you stink. Just then, a Vagan girl, blue skinned and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: fantastically wasp waist like all her kind, drifted over to Ramsey.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: He'd seen her around, he thought he recognized her. Maybe
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: he'd even danced with her in the unit, a dance
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: halls reserved for human art outworlders. Are you nuts? She said,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: kissing the words through her teeth and grabbing Ramsey's elbow.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you know who that guy is? Know who he's
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  Speaker 1: gar Sim, that's who. Ramsey smiled at her without mirth.
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  Speaker 1: Do I bow down in awe or run from here
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: screaming I never heard of gar Sim. Oh, you fool,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: she whispered furiously. Gar Sim is the brand new number
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: one man of the Irwaddy Security Police. Don't you read
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the casts. Before Ramsey could answer or adjust to his surprise,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the Irwaddian repeated, I'm telling you for the third time.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Get out. Ostentatiously. Ramsey reached into his cloak pocket for
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: a single credit bill and tossed it on the table.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The denomination is not sufficient, sir, the albino croupier said indifferently.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Ramsey had known it was not gar Siem's face turned
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a darker green. The Vagan girl retreated from Ramsey's side
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: in fright. Sam raised his hand, and an Irwadian waiter
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: brought over a drink in a purple stem glass with
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a filigree pattern of titanium. Bowing obsequiously, sem lurched with
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the glass toward Ramsey. I'm telling you to go, he
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: said in a loud voice. Ramsey picked up his credit note,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: but stood there with a little sigh of drunken contentment.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Gar Sim slushed the contents of his stem glass in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Ramsey's face. The liquor stung Ramsey's eyes. Many of the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: other outworlders, neither Irwaddian or Earthman, laughed nervously. Ramsey wiped
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: his eyes, but otherwise did not move. He was in
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a rough spot, and he knew it. The fact that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: their new security chief went out drunk at night with
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a chip on his shoulder was the Erwadian government's affair,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: not Ramsey's. He'd been insulted before. An Earthman in the outworlds,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: particularly an Earthman fugitive who knew he dared not get
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: into the kind of trouble that could bring the Earth
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: console to investigate, was used to insults. For Earth was
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the leading economic and military power of the galaxy, and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the fact that Earth really tried to deal fairly with
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: its galactic neighbors meant nothing. Earth, being top dog, was resented.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: The thing which got Ramsey though, was this gar Sim.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: He had never heard of gar Sim, and he thought
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: he knew most of the big shots in the Irwadiansecurity
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Police by name. But there must have been a reason
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: for his appointment. A government throwing off outworld influence had
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a reason for everything. So why Garsim, you mith Vegan,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Garcim called, Suddenly, you whispered to the earthman. What did
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: you tell him not to look for trouble, the Vagan
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: girl said, in a frightened voice. But what else? Honest,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: that's all come here pleath her blue skin all at
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: once very pale. The Vagan girl walked back toward Garcim.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: He leered at her quite drunkenly, and took hold of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: her slender arm. What did you tell him for the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: last time? The girl whippered, you're hurting my arm. Thoughts
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: raced through Ramesy's mind. As an administrator, as an Irwadian
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: public servant in a touchy job, gar Sim, a drunkard,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was obviously grossly incompetent. What other qualifications did he have
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: which gave him the top Irwadian security job? Ramsey didn't know,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: he sighed. The Vagan Girl's mouth formed a rictus of pain.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Ramsey had a hunch he was going to find out,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: he said, curtly. Let go over a Sim. She told
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: me nothing that would interest you, gar Sim ignored him.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: The blue skinned girl cried. Ramsey grimaced and hit gar
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Sim in the belly. As hard as he could. Sim
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: fudded back against the table. It overturned with a crash,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and the security chief crashed down on top of it.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: There wasn't a sound in the gambling hall except Ramsey's sudden,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: hard breathing, the vagan girl's sniffling, and gar Sim's noisy
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: attempts to get air into his lungs. Then Garseim gagged
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and was sick. He writhed in pain, still unable to breathe,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: His hands fluttered near his weapons belt. Come on, Ramsey
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: told the vacant girl, we'd better get out of here.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: He took her arm. Dumbly she went with him. None
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: of the outworlders there tried to stop them. Ramsey looked
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: back at Garsim. The Irwadian was shaking his fist. He
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: had finally managed to draw his MG gun, but the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: crowd of onlookers clothes between them and there was no
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: chance he could hit Ramsey or the girl. Wretching, he
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: had dirtied the glossy green scales of his chest. I'll
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: get you, he vowed, I'll get you. Ramsey took the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: girl outside. It was very cold. I'm so afraid, she said,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: What will I do? What can I do, she shot
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: with fear. You got a place to sleep, yes, but
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I'm the only vagan girl in Irwadi city. He'll find me.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: You'll find me when he's ready, Okay, and come home
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: with me. I but crying out loud. I don't look
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that leacherous, do I. We can't stand here. I'm I'm sorry.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I'll go with you. Of course, Ramsey took her hand
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: again and they ran. The cold, black Irwaddian night swallowed them.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: So you live in the old quarter too, the vagant
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: girl said, heck yeah, did you expect a palace? Ramsey
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: had a room rent one Irwaddy muff In Arrears, in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a cold water tenement near the river, which demarked the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: old and the new quarters. The facade of the old
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: building was dark now. His landlady was probably asleep, although
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you never could tell. With that witch. Ramsey knew it
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be the first time she'd stayed up through half
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the night to await a delinquent tenant. I I never
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: went to a man's room before. The blue skinned vagan
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: girl said. She was rather pretty in a slender muscless,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: big eyed female helpless mode. You're a dancehall. Girl, aren't
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: you still I never spent the night in a man's
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? You think we're going to
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: spend the night here. Somebody over at those gaming tables
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: will be able to identify me. Gar Simmel be on
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: his way before long. Then what are we going to do?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: The girl was shivering with cold hide. Jason Ramsey said, somewhere.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I just came back to get my things. There isn't much,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: but there's an old MG gun which we might need,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: but they'll find us in You coming upstairs? Or will
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: you you wait out here and freeze to death in
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the cold? I'm coming. They went upstairs together on tiptoe.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Ramsey's room was on the third floor, with a besooted
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: view of the industrial complex on the river. By day,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the narrow hall was dark and silent. Behind one of
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the closed doors, an outworlder cried out in his sleep.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Ramsey had to cut a hand over the Vagan girl's
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: mouth so she wouldn't scream. In empathic fear. He opened
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the door of his room, surprised that it was not locked.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: He thought he had left it locked at once. He
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: was wary it was dark in the hall, just as
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: dark in the room. He could see nothing. The door
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: hinges squeaked. Come in, Captain Ramsey, A boy said, I
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: thought you would never get here. He stood on the threshold, uncertain.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: The voice had spoken not interstellar coine, but English. It
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: had spoken English without a foreign accent, and it was
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: a girl's voice. End of part one, part two of
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the Equation of Doom by Gerald Vance. This librivoked recording
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain Part two. Still, it could
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: have been an elaborate trick. It was unlikely, but not impossible,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: that gore sim had learned Ramsey's identity already and had
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: sent an operative here to await him. Ramsey and the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Vagan girl had come on foot. It was a long walk.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I'm armed, Ramsey lied, Come over here slowly, don't put
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: any lights on. He could feel the Vagan girl trembling
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: next to him, not able to understand English. She didn't
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: know what was going on. You're armed, the unseen girl's
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: voice said, in crisp amused English, like I'm a six
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: legged Antyrian spider man. You have an MG gun, Ramsey,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: It's in this room. I have it. That's all you have. No,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: don't try to lie to me, I may telepath, I
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: can read you. Come in and put the light on
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and shut the door. You may bring the girl with
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: you if you want, Brother, Is she ever radiating fear?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: It's practically drowning your own mind out. The unseeing girl
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't kidding. Ramsey knew she could read minds. She had
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: proved it to him, which left him this choice. He
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: could grab the Vacan girl's arm again and get the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: heck out of there, or do what the unseen Earth
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Girl told him to do. He wanted that mg gun.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: He took the Vagan Girl's hand and advanced over the
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: threshold and closed the door and switched on the light.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: The girl was sitting on the bed. She was an earthgirl,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: all right. She had come in a toggle cloak of
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: green Irwadian fur, which was folded neatly at her side
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: on the bed. Under it, she wore a daring net halter,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: of the type then fashionable on Earth, but which had
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: not yet taken over the outworlds. It left her shoulders
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: bare and exposed a great deal of smooth, tawny skin
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: through the net. Her firm breasts were cut in two
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: solid cones of black growing out of the net. Her
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: midriff was bare to an inch or tube below the navel.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Her loins were covered by an abreevy tog, which formed
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a triangle in front end and Ramsey knew would form
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: one in back. Her long, well formed legs were bare
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: down to the midcalf boots she wore. She had a
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: beautiful body, and had dressed so Ramsey couldn't miss it.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Her face was so provocatively beautiful that Ramsey just stood
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: there staring at it after he had taken in the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: rest of her She wore her hair quite long. She
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: seemed perfectly composed. In her right hand she held Ramsey's
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: MG gun, but she wasn't pointing it at them. She
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: looked at the timid Vagan girl and smiled, Oh, I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: am sorry, Captain Ramsey, She said, I couldn't know, of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: course you'd be coming home with a company. It isn't
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: what you think it is, Ramsey said, surprised to find
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: himself on the defensive. The girl's in trouble, so am I.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: The earth girl laughed, already you looked the type, but
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I thought it would take a little time. What do
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you want, Ramsey said. They were speaking in English. The
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Vagan girl tugged at Ramsey's arm. She wanted to get
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: out of there and hoped Ramsey would go with her. Abruptly,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the Earth girl burst out, laughing, what's so funny, Ramsey demanded,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: you're a little vagan friend. I read her mind, Ramsey,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: she thinks I'm your wife. She thinks I'm mad at
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you for bringing her home. Then why don't you talk
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: in coin a, Ramsey said, in the interstellar language, and
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: make her feel better. She might as well know. I
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: never saw you before in my life. He was annoyed.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: The Vagan girl smiled, timidly, taking hope. But you did,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the beautiful Earth Girl said, I was on the Polaris
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: to day Captain. You were to be the pilot until
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: interstellar transfer. Here on Irwadi was planetarized. I didn't see
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: you dressed like that. I wouldn't have forgotten you. I
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't dressed like this. The girl smiled, very sure of herself.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I read your mind when you came in. The costumes
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: had the desired effect. I see. But you needn't broadcast
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: your animal desires so blatantly. Nobody asked you to read
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: my mind. Beside, you needn't broadcast your physical assets so blatantly,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: touchet said the Earth girl. Listen, Ramsey began. We're in
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: a jam. We're in a hurry. So you told me
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have wished for more. It looks like I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: didn't need this costume and its obvious inducements at all.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: If you're really in a jam, What the devil is
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: that supposed to mean? My name is Margo Dennis, Captain Ramsey.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: I have managed to buy an old starship, small but
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: held together by spit and string and whatever the Irwadians
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: use for prayer. They're atheists, Ramsey said a little pointlessly.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: It was the girl, darn her hide. She was beautiful.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: What did she expect looking at her? How could a
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: man concentrate? Hey, Ramsey blurted. Suddenly, did you say Margot Dennison,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the tri d star? Margo Denison smiled, that's right, she said.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Stranded five hundred light years from nowhere, Captain Ramsey with
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: a ship with money, in need of a hyperspace pilot.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm here? Or didn't you guess I'm listening?
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Isn't it clear? I'll pay you to take me away
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: from here? Where to through? Hyperspace to Earth. Well, I've
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: been grounded. If I take you through hyperspace, I lose
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: my license. You really don't believe that, do you? After
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the Awadians grounded all you without warning and grounded all
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: ships until they can train a few more pilots, you
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: don't really think ITS would take your license away if
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you took a ship up and through hyper Do you
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: under the circumstances, especially since you're in a jam with
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a totalitarian government gone wild? Do you? Ramsey said abruptly,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I can't take you to sol system. Margo
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Denison smiled. It wasn't the kind of smile designed to
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: make a man roll over on his back and wave
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: all fours in the breeze. Margo Denison didn't need that
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: kind of smile. Oh I'm sorry, she said, I read
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: your mind. You see very well, Captain. If you're a
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: fugitive from Earth, I assume Ramsey isn't your real name.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: By the way, you may take me through hyper to Centauri.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: That will be quite satisfactory. I will make my way
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: from Centauri. Well give me the gun, Ramsey said, My goodness,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: of course, I'm not trying to hold you up here.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: She got up from the bed for the first time
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and walked toward them. She had firm, long legs and
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: used them well. She was utterly lovely, and although part
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of it was probably her professional know how, she made
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you forget that. She was the most attractive girl earth
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: or outworld Ramsey had seen in years. Ramsey took the gun.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Their hands met, Ramsey leaned far we quickly and kissed
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: her on the lips. He was still holding the vagant
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Girl's slender arm, though she tried to run away but couldn't.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Margot Denison returned the kiss for an instant to show
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Ramsey that when she really wanted to return it, if
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: she ever really would, she would pack the same kind
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: of lebidimal vitality in her responses as she did in
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: her appearance. Then she stood coldly, no longer responsive, until
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Ramsey stepped back. Maybe I was asking for it, she said.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: I was prepared for that and more. But it isn't
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: necessary now, is it. My gosh, Ramsey, will you please
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: close that mind of yours. You make a girl blush,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: then put on your cloak, Ramsey said, and really blushing
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: this time, she did so. She said, I'm prepared to
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: pay you one thousand credits. What do you say. I say,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: it must be a pretty important appointment you have on
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Centaurai Earth, Captain Ramy, I'm settling for Centauri. Well i'll
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: take you, Ramsey said, if this girl comes to. Margo
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Denison looked at the frightened Vagan girl and smiled. So
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: it's like that, she said, It isn't like anything. Ramsey
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: packed a few things in an expandufle and the three
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: of them hurried through the doorway and downstairs. The cold,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: dark night awaited them with a fierce howling wind and
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the first flurries of snow from the north. Where to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Ramsey hollered above the wind, My place, Margo Denison told him,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and they ran. Margo Denison had a large apartment in
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Irwadi City's new quarter. This surprised Ramsey, for not many
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: outworlders lived there. That night, though he was too tired
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: to think about it, he vaguely remembered a couch for himself,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: a separate room for the Vagan girl, another for Margot Dennison.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: He slept like a log, without dreaming. He awoke with
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: anxious hands fluttering at his shoulder. Opening one sleepy eye,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: he saw the Vacan girl. He saw daylight through a window,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: but said middle of the night. The Vagan Girl said
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: she's gone. Ramsey came awake all at once, springing to
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: his feet, fully dressed and flinging aside his cloak, which
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: he'd used as a blanket Margo. He cried, she's gone,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: The Vagan Girl repeated, when I awoke, she wasn't here
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the door. Ramsey ran to the door. It was a heavy, plastic,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: irising door. It was locked and naturally would not respond
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to the whirl patterns of Ramsey's thumb. So now we're prisoners,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Ramsey said, I don't get At least there's food in
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: the kitchen. All right, let's eat. There were two windows
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: in the room, but when Ramsey looked out he saw
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: they were at least four stories up. They just have
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to wait for Margo Denison. It took the Vagan Girl
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: some time to prepare the unfamiliar Earth style food with
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: which Margo Denison's kitchen was stocked. Ramsey used the time
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: to prowl around the apartment. It was furnished in Syrian Archaic,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: a mode of furniture too feminine to suit Ramsey's tastes.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: But then the unisexual Syrians, of course, often catered to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: their own feminine taste. Ramsey found nothing in Margo Denison's
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: apartment which indicated she had done any acting on Irwadi,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and that surprised him, for he'd assumed she applied her
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: trade here as elsewhere. He felt a little guilty about
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: his snooping, then changed his mind, and when he remembered
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that Margo had locked them in. It was in one
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: of the sly compartments of what passed for a bureau
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: in Syrian archaic. He found a letter. Since it was
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the only piece of correspondence in the apartment, it might
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: be important to Margo Dennison, thought Ramsey, and if it
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: were important to her. Ramsey opened the letter and read
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: it dated five earth months before it ran. My darling, Margo,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: by the time you read this, I shall be dead. Ironical,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: isn't it? Coming so close? With death in the form
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: of an incurable cancer intervening. As you know, Margo, I
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: always wished for a son, but never had one. You'll
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: have to play that role, I'm afraid, as you always have.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Here is the information I told you I would write
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: it down naturally if you intend to do anything about it,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: you'll go art it with your life. Apparently, the hyperspace
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: pattern from Irwadi to Earth is the one I was
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: looking for. The proto men, if I may be bold
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: enough to call them, that first left hyperspace at that point,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: perhaps a million, perhaps five million Earth years ago. I
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: don't have to tell you what this means, my child,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: I've already indicated it to you previously. It suffices to
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: remind you that, in what science has regarded as the
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: most amazing coincidence in the history of the galaxy, humanoid
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: types sprang up on some three thousand stutter worlds simultaneously
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: between one and five million years ago. I say simultaneously,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: although there is the possibility of a four million year lag.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Indications are, however, that one date would do quite well
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: for all the worlds. Proto Man was tremendously ahead of
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: us in certain sciences. Naturally, for example, each humanoid type
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: admirably fits the evolutionary pattern on its particular planet. The
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: important point, morgo, is the simultaneity of the events. It
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: means that proto man left hyperspace his birthplace and peopled
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: the man habitable worlds of the galaxy at a single
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: absolute instance in time. This would clearly be impossible if
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the thousands of journeys involved any duration. Therefore, it can
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: only be concluded that they were journeys which somehow negated
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the temporal dimension. In other words, instant travel across the
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: length and breadth of the galaxy. Whoever rediscovers proto Man's secret,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: needless to say, will be the most influenced, the most
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: powerful man in the galaxy. Margo, I thought that man
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: would be me. It won't be now, but it can
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: be you. Margo. It is my dying wish that you
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: continue my work. Let nothing stop you nothing. Remember this,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: though I cannot tell you what to expect when you
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: reach the original home of proto Man. In all probability,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: the whole race has perished, or we'd have heard of
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: them since. But I can't be sure of that. I
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: can't be sure of anything. Perhaps proto Man, like some
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: deistic god, became disinterested in the Milky Way galaxy for
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: reasons we'll never understand. Perhaps he still exists in hyperspace. Finally, Margo,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: remember this. If you presented this letter to the evolutionary
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: sciences on any of the worlds, they'd laugh at you.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: It is as if unbelief of the proto Man legend
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: were ingrained in all the planetary people, perhaps somehow fantastically
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: carried from generation to generation in their genes, because proto
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Man a million years ago decided that each stellar world
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: must work out its own destiny, independently of the others
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: and independent of their common heritage. But in my own case,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: there are apparently two unique factors at work. In the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: first place, as you know, I deciphered after discovering it
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: quite by accident, what was probably a proto man's dying
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: message to his children, left a million years ago in
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the ruins at Arcturus two. In the second place, isn't
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: it quite possible that my genes have changed, that I
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: have mutated, and therefore do do not have as an
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: essential part of my make up the unbelief of the
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: proto man legend. Good luck to you, Margo. I hope
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: you're willing to give up your career to carry out
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: your dying father's wish. If you do, and if you succeed,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: more power will be yours than a human being has
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: ever before had in the galaxy. I won't presume to
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: tell you how to use it. Oh, yes, one more thing.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Since Earth and Alpha Centauri are on a direct line
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: from Irwadi Centauri will do quite well as your outbound
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: destination if for some reason you can't make Earth again.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Good luck, my child, with all my love, Dad Ramsey
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: frowned at the letter. He did not know what to
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: make of it. As far as he knew, there was
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: no such thing as a proto man myth in wide
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: currency around the galaxy. He had never heard of proto man,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: unless he thought, suddenly, the dying man could have simply
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: met all the myths of human creation, hypothecating a first
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: man who somehow had developed independently of the beasts of
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: the field, although he seemed to fit their evolutionary pattern.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: But what the devil would hyperspace have to do with
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: such a myth? Proto man, whatever proto man was, couldn't
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: have lived in hyperspace, not in that bleak, ugly faceless infinity,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Unless Ramsey thought more perplexed than ever. It was the
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: very bleak, ugly faceless infinity which made proto man leave breakfast.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: The vagant girl called out, Ramsey joined her in the kitchen,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and they ate without talking. When they were drinking their
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: An Earth style beverage, which the Bacon Girl admitted liking.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: The apartment door irised and Margot Dennison came in. Ramsey,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: who had replaced the letter where he'd found it, said,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: just what the devil did you think you were doing?
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Locking us in for your own protection? Silly? Margo told
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: him smoothly. I always lock my door when I go out,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: so I locked it today. Naturally we won't have a
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: chance to apply for a new lock. Besides, why arouse suspicion?
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Where'd you go? I don't see where that's any of
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: your business, believe it or not, Ramsey said, caustically. I've
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: seen a thousand credits before. I've turned down a thousand
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: credits before in jobs I didn't like. As for being
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: stranded here on Irwadi, it's all the same to me,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: whether I'm on Irwaddy or elsewhere. What does all that mean, Captain?
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: It means keep us informed, It means don't get up
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: at e. Margo laughed and dropped a vidcast tape on
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the table in front of Ramsey. He read it and
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: did not look up. There was a description of himself,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: a description of the Vagan Girl, and a wanted bulletin
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: issued on them for assaulting the chief of your Waddy security.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: The bulletin said for assaulting a drunken fool. Ramsey thought, well,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Margo asked this morning, she wore a man tailored jumper,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: which Ramsey observed clashed with the Syrian archaic furniture. She
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: looked cool and completely poised, and no less beautiful, if
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: less provocatively dressed, than last night. Ramsey returned question for question,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: What about the ship in a spacer graveyard? Of course,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: there isn't a landing feel on the planet that we
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: could go to. You mean we'll take off from a graveyard,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: from a junk heap of battered, old, derelict ships. Of course,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: it has some advantages, believe it or not. We'll work
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: on the ship nights. It needs plenty of work, let
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: me tell you. But then the graveyard is a kind
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: of parts department, isn't it. Ramsey couldn't argue with that.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: They spent the next three days sleeping and slowly going
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: stir crazy. They slipped out each night, though, and walked
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the two miles to the space graveyard down near the river.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: It was on the other side of the river, which
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: meant they'd had to boat across Risky, but there was
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: no help for it. Each night they worked on the ship,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: which Ramsey found to be a fifty year old Canapoosie
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: and freighter in even worse condition than Murgo had indicated.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: The night was usually divided into three sections, first reviewing
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the work which had been done and planning the evening's activities,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Then looking for the parts they would need in the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: jungle of interstellar wrecks all about them. Finally going to
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: work with the parts they had found and with the
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: tools which Ramsey had discovered on the old Canapoosy and
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: freighter the first night. As they made their way back
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: across the river. The first night, Ramsey paddling slowly quietly,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Margo said, Ramsey, I I think we're being watched. I
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: haven't seen or heard a thing you. Varden Varden was
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: the vagant girl's name. Varden shook her head. Ramsey was
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: anxious all at once, though things had gone too smoothly. Personally.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Things hadn't gone smoothly with Ramsey, but that was another story.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: He found himself liking Morgo Denison too much. He found
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: himself trying to hide it because he knew she could
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: read minds. Just how do you hide your thoughts from
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: a mind reader? Ramsey didn't know, but whenever his thoughts
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: drifted in that direction, he tried thinking of something else,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: anything else except the proto Man letter. Yes, that's just
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking, Margo said in the boat. I
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: can read minds, so i'd know best if we were
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: being watched. To get a clear reading, I have to
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: aim my thoughts specifically, but I can pick up free
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: floating thoughts as a kind of emotional tone rather than words.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense if you say so? What else
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: did you read in my mind? Margo smiled at him
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: mysteriously and said nothing. Ramsey felt thoughts of proto Man
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: nibbling at his consciousness. He tried to fight them down
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: purely rationally, and knew he wouldn't succeed. He grabbed Margo
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and pulled her close to him, seeking her lips with
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: his is letting his thoughts wander into a fantasy of desire.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Margo slapped his face and sat stiffly in her cloak
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: while he paddled to the other side of the river.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Warden sat like a statue. Ramsey had come to a
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: conclusion He did not like letting Margo know how he
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: felt about her, but it was mostly on a straight
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: physical level, and he preferred her discovering it to her
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: learning that He read the proto Man letter from her
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: father in his thoughts, though he never designated it as
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the proto Man Letter from her father, he designated it
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: as X. When they reached the bank, Margo said, I'm
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: sorry for slapping you. I'm sorry for making a pass. Ramsey,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: tell me what is X. Ramsey laughed harshly and said nothing.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: That gave Margo something to think about. Maybe it would
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: keep her thoughts out of his mind, keep her from
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: reading X marks the spot, thought Ramsey, X X X
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: marks the spots spot spot X is a spot in
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: a pot or a lot of rot. Oh stop it,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Marco said, irritably. You're thinking nonsense, Then get the heck
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: out of my mind. Ramsey told her. Varden walked on
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: without speaking. If she had any inkling of what they
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: were talking about, she never mentioned it. Marco said, I
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: still get the impression, what impression, that we're being followed,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: that we're being watched every step of the way, wind
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and cold and darkness, the hairs on the back of
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: Ramsey's neck prickled. They walked on, bent against the wind.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Security Officer second class Ramar Chind reported to his chief
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: in the Hall of Retribution the following morning. Chinned, a
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: career man with the Irwadi security Forces, did not like
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: his new boss. Gar Sim was no career man. He
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: knew nothing of police procedure. It was even rumored, probably
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: based upon solid fact, that Garsim liked his brandy excessively
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: and often found himself under its influence. Worst of all,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: after all, a man could understand a desire for drink,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: even if sometimes it interfered with work. Worst of all,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: gar Sim was a scientist, a dome top in the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Irwadi vernacular, and hard headed. Ramar Chind lost no love
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: on dome tops. He saluted crisply and said, you wanted
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: to see me, Sir gar Sim leaned forward over his desk,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: making a tint of his scaly green fingers and peering
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: over it. He said three words. He said, the Earth
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: girl Denison the Spacer graveyard. Ramarchin said promptly, that was
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: an easy one. His agents had been following the Dennison
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: girl at Garsim's orders. Ramarchin did not know why, and
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Garsim asked the earthman Ramsey the Vagan Varden both are
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: with her. We can close in and arrest the lot, Sir,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: any time you wish fool, Garsim says, softly, without malice.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: That is the last thing I want. Don't you understand that? No?
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I guess you don't, Yes, Sir, their ship Every morning
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: after they leave, we go over it. Still two or
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: three nights away from completion, sir. Also, Ramarchin smiled, Yes,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: what is it? Two or three nights away from completion?
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Except for one thing. They'll need a fuel supply two
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: you thirty five capsules rigged for slow implosions, Sir. The
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: hopper of their ship is empty. Is there such a
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: fuel supply in the graveyard? No, sir, but could there be?
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: Usually no, Naturally, the Juckers drain out spaceship hoppers before
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: scrapping them. You two thirty five in any form brings
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I know the value of you to thirty five? Proceed? Well,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: there could be if they were lucky enough to find
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: such a fuel supply in one of the wrecks in
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the graveyard. They wouldn't be suspicious. Naturally, we won't put
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: one there. But you're wrong, my dear remard Chend, You'll
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: load the hopper of one of those wrecks with enough
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: you two thirty five for their purposes, and you'll do
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: it today. But sir, we're going to follow them, Chend.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: You and I we want them to escape. If they
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: don't escape, how can we follow them? End of Part two,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Part three of Equation of Doom by Gerald Vance. This
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part three ramarchand
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: shrugged resignedly, and lisped, how much fuel will they need
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: for their purposes? Sir? Whatever their purposes are? Naturally, his
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: list being sounded perfectly normal to gar Sim, who also
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: spoke in the sulimantless earwady manner. You'd really like to know,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you, Garsim said, yes, sir, to put me in
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: a position in which I could better do my to
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: satisfy your curiosity. You mean, but sir, I am a scientist.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Check and yes, sir, didn't it strike you as odd
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: that a scientist should be elevated to the top post
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: in your department? Of course, sir, I didn't question it, though,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: as you know, Chen, when it was decided to planetarize
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: Airwaddy as a first step toward driving away the outworlders.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: The quarters of every outworld on Irwaddy were thoroughly searched.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: I participated in the program, Sir, good then I needn't
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: tell you. Something was found in Margot Dennison's apartment, something
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: of immense importance, something so important that, if used properly,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: it can assure Irwaddy the dominant place in the galaxy
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: for all time to come. But I thought Irwaddy craved isolation. Isolation, Chend,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: to be sure if intercourse with the other galactic powers
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: saw us at the bottom of the heap, but at
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: the top, who would crave isolation at the top? I see, sir,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: And the something that was found needed a scientist, very
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: perceptive of you, Chend. Precisely, it was a letter. We
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: copied it. Of course, Morgo Denison knows more than what
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: is in the letter. The letter alludes to previous information.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: We need Denison and Ramsey. We have to let them
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: go ahead with their plans, then we follow them, Chinned.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: You understand, Yes, sir, you're a good policeman, Chenned, the
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: best we have. I understand you'll be going with me
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: on the most important assignment. You or any Irwadian ever had.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: I am grateful, Sir that you consider me. Now see
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: about that U two thirty five slow implosion capsule at once, Sir,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: saluting smartly, Ramar Chind left Gore Sim's office. Sim smiled
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and sat perfectly still for some minutes. For Irwadi. Yes,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: he was thinking, certainly for Irwady. For Irwadi, absolutely to
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: make Irwaddy the most important planet in the galaxy. But
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: important planets in the way that Irwadi would be important
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: couldn't maintain the status quo. For example, Irwadi's form of
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: government might have to be changed. At present an autocratic
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: bureaucracy with no one man at the top. Ultimately, after
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: the rediscovery of proto man's secret rule by one man,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Gore Sim absolute dictator of the galaxy if he played
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: his hand right. GAUSI sat there for a long time,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: dreaming of power, as no man before him on any
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: world had ever dreamed of power. Forden rushed into the
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: airlock of the Canopusian freighter in a state of excitement.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: At last they had given her something to do, and
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: she had been successful at the outset. Specifically, Ramsey and
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: the beautiful woman had given her a scintillation counter and
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: told her to prowl among the wrecks with it while
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: they worked on the control board of the freighter, which
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: the beautiful woman had named Enterprise. I found it, Bardin cried,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I found it. She led a skeptical Margo Denison outside
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: while Ramsey continued working on the Enterprise. The two girls
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: walked swiftly through the darkness between the wrecks. By this
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: time they knew every foot of the graveyard there. Bardon said,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: you see, the scintillation counter was clicking and blinking. Margo
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: smiled and went to work with a portable mechanical arm
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: and a leaded bottle. In ten minutes she had the
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: slow implosion capsule out of the hopper of a battered
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: old Aldebaranie cargo ship. I never saw one of those
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: mechanical arms working before, Forden said. Margo smiled. She was
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: delighted with the timid, vacant girl, with the cold night,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: with the way the wind blew across the graveyard. With
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: everything they had their fuel. Tomorrow night, the Enterprise would
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: be ready for its dash into hyperspace. In thirty six hours.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: She might have her hands on the most valuable find
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: in the history of mankind. When they returned to the enterprise,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: she let Ramsey kiss her and tried to slip the
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: telepathic tentacles of her mind behind his guard lewde libidinous
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: fantasies X stands for nothing, for nothing, for nothing X
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: x X she got nowhere. What was X? What was
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: Ramsey's secret? Margo did not know and wondered if she
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: would ever find out. She smiled reading Varden's mind, for
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Varden was thinking, it must be so wonderful to have
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: beauty such as she has to melt the wills of strong,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: handsome men such as Ramsey. Ah, it must be truly wonderful.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: For the first twenty eight years of her life, Margo
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: Denison would have agreed, would have delighted in her own beauty.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: She still did to a point, but beyond that point
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: she could dream only of proto man and his secret
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: beauty or power. She had beauty, she wanted power. In
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the early hours of the following morning, behind the cover
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: of what appeared to be a dense early morning fog,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: but what actually was an artificially produced fog, a team
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: of Irwadi technicians swarmed all over a battered Prosonian cruiser
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: of three thousand tons by mid morning. Working swiftly and
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: with all the tools and spare ports they would need,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: they made the ship called dog Star spaceworthy. Later that day,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: but still two hours before nightfall, ramar Chen arrived with
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: a small crew of three security police. He had selected
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: his men carefully. They knew how to handle a spaceship,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: they knew how to fight. They were quite ruthless. He
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: thought gar Sim would be pleased. Sim did not arrive
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: until just before nightfall. He was very agitated when he came.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Ramar chinned too, was eager. What happened within the next
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: several hours he realized might be beyond his kin, but
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: he still recognized its importance, and being an opportunist, he
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: would punce on whatever he found of value to himself.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: Several hours after the setting of the Erewadi primary had
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: ushered in the cold night, Morgo Dennison, Ramsey, and Varden
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: arrived at the graveyard and made their way at once
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to the enterprise. They went inside swiftly and in a
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: very few minutes prepared the thousand tunner for blast off.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Ramsey's mouth was dry. He could barely keep the thoughts
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: of proto man from his mind. If Margo read them, Centauri,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: here we come, he said, Just to talk Centaurai, said Margo,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: but of course she had another destination in mind. Several
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: hundred yards across the great watching waiting, the occupants of
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: dog Star were armed to the teeth. Ramsey sat at
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: the controls. Varden stood behind him nervously. The space trip
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: from Vega to Eerwadi was probably the only one she
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: had ever taken. Margo sat quite relaxed in the co
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: pilot's chair. I still can't believe we're not going to
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: feel anything, Varden said in her soft, shy voice. Haven't
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: you ever been through hyperspace before, Margo asked the Vagan girl,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: Just once in normal space. Ramsey explained, we feel acceleration
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and deceleration because the increase or decrease in velocity has
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: experienced a different micro incidence by all the cells of
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: our body. In hyperspace, the velocity is felt simultaneously in
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: all parts of the ship, including all parts of us.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: We become weightless, of course, but the change is instant,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: and we feel no pressure, no pain. Ramsey was waiting
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: until zero one thirty four fifty seven on the ship's
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: chronometer at that precise instant in time, and at that
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: instant only blast off would place them on the proper
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: hyperspace orbit, and before they could feel the mounting pressure
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: of blast off, the timelessness of hyperspace would intervene. Zero
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: one thirty fifteen. Margo read the chronometer for Ramsey. It
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: won't be long now, thirty twenty All right, Ramsey said, suddenly,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: all right, I can read the chronometer. Why, Ramsey, I
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: do believe you're nervous? Anxious, Margo, A hyperpolt is always
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: anxious just before crossover. You got to be because the
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: slightest miscalculation can send you fifty thousand light year. Of course,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: so all you have to do is re enter hyperspace
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: and go back. Ramsey shook his head. Hyperspace can only
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: be entered from certain points in space. We've never been
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: able to figure out why. What certain points? Ramsey looked
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: at her steadily, points which vary with the arbis of
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: the three thousand humanoid worlds, Margo, he said slowly. He
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: watched her for a reaction, Knowing that strange fact about
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: hyperspace perfectly true and never understood, Dove tailed with her
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: father's letter about proto Man, an unknown pre human ancestor
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: of all the humanoid races in the galaxy who had
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: discovered hyperspace, bred variations to colonize all the inhabitable worlds,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: found or created the three thousand crossover points in space,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: and used them. Margo showed no response, But then Ramsey
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: told himself she was a tri d actress. She could
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: feign any emotion or hide one. She merely asked, is
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: it true that there's no such thing as time in hyperspace?
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: That's right, that's why you can travel scores or hundreds
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: or thousands of light years through hyperspace in hours. Hyperspace
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: is a continuum of only three dimensions. There is no
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: fourth dimension, no dimension of duration. Then why are on
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: trips through hyperspace instantaneous? They take several hours, don't they? Sure?
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: But the way the scientists have it figured, that's subjective time.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: No objective time passes at all, It can't. There isn't
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: any in hyperspace, then you mean? Ramsey shook his head
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: zero one thirty four O two. He said, it's almost time.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: The seconds ticked away. Even Margo did not seem relaxed.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: Now she stared nervously at the chronometer, or watched Ramsey's
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: lips as he silently read away the seconds a place
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: where time did not exist, an under stratum of extension
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Sau's duration. An idea suddenly entered her mind, and she
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: was afraid. If proto man had colonized the galactic worlds
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: between one and four or five million years ago, but
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: if time did not exist for proto man, then wasn't
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: the super race which had engendered all mankind still waiting
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: in its timeless home, waiting, perhaps grimly amused to see
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: which of their progeny first discover their secret, or must
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: proto Man, like humans everywhere, fall victim to subjective time
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: if object if time did not matter for him, Ramsey
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: was saying softly, fifty three fifty four, fifty five fifty six,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: blast off. His hands slammed down on the activating key.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: An instant later, having felt no sensation of acceleration, they
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: were floating weightlessly in the cabin of the little enterprise.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: The qualities of radar, garsim said, exist in their totality.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: In a universe of extension, time actually is a drawback
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: to radar, necessitating a duration leg between sending and receiving. Therefore,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: Ramarchend radar behaves perfectly in hyperspace. As you see, yes,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Ramarchen said. Floating near the radar screen aboard the dog store,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: at its precise center was a bright little pip of light,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: the enterprise. But don't we do anything except follow them,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: Ramarchen said. After a long silence, gor sim smiled. Does
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: it matter, you see, chenned, Time actually stands still for
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: us here. Duration is purely subjective. So what's your hurry?
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Ramarchind licked his lips nervously and stared fascinated at the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: little pip of bright light, which suddenly dipped and swung erratically.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: What is it, Margo asked, what's the matter. Take it easy,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: Ramsey told her. But the ship's swooping. I can feel it.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: I thought you weren't supposed to feel movement in hyperspace. Relax,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: will you? There are eddies in hyperspace, that's all. If
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: you want an analogy in terms of our own universe,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: think of shoals in an ocean unmarked by boys or lights.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: You mean they have to be avoided, yes, But this
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: particular shoal it's midway between Irwadi and Earth, there isn't
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: any midway, Morgo, that's the paradox of hyperspace. I I
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: don't understand. Look, in the normal universe, extension is measured
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: by time, that is, it takes a certain amount of
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: time to get from point A to point B. Conversely,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: time is measured by extension in space. On Earth, a
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: day of time passes when Earth moves through space on
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: an arc one three hundred and sixty fifth of its
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: orbit around the Sun in length. Since there isn't any
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: time to measure extension with in hyperspace, since time doesn't
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: exist here, you can't speak of midpoints. But this shoal,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: it's always encountered in hyperspace between Earth and Irwady. Ramsey nodded, Yes,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: that is right, Morgo smiled. The smile suddenly froze on
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: her face. The Enterprise lurched as if an unseen giant
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: hand had slapped it. At that moment, Ramsey leaned forward
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: over the controls, battling to bring the Enterprise back on course,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: and let down his mental guard. Precise place in hyperspace.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: Her father must have meant, home of proto man thinks
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to stop there. She's crazy. Heck, I'm no mystic,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: but there are things not meant to be meddled with.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: The ship swooped again. Ramsey went forward against the control
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: panel head first and fell dazed from the pilot chair.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: His head whirled, His arms and legs were suddenly weak
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: and rubbery. He tried to stand up and make his
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: way back to the controls again, but collapsed, then went
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: down to his knees. He crouched there, trying to shake
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: the fog from his brain. With a cry of triumph,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: Margo Denison leaped at him and bore him down to
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: the floor with her weight. He was still too dazed
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: from the blow on his head to offer any resistance
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: when her strong hands tugged at his belt and withdrew
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: the m G gun. She got up with it, backing
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: away from him quickly toward the rear bulkhead. As the
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: ship seemed to go into a smooth glide which could
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: be felt within it, Varden stood alongside Ramsey, a hand
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: to her mouth in horror. Ramsey got up slowly. Stay
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: where you are, Margo cried, pointing the m G gun
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: at him. I'll kill you if I have to, I'll
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: kill you, Ramsey. I mean it. Ramsey did not move.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: So you knew about my father, Margo challenged him. Yeah,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: so what and this shoal in hyperspace as a world,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: isn't it? Ramsey nodded. I think so. Okay, sit down
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: at the controls Ramsey. That's right, don't try anything. Ramsey
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: was seated in the pilot chair again. His head was
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: still whirling, but his strength had returned. He wondered if
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: he could chance rushing her, but told himself she meant
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: what she said. She would kill him in cold blood
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: if she had to bring the Enterprise down on that world. Ramsey,
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: he sat there stubbornly shook his head. Margo, you'll be
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: meddling with a power beyond human understanding. Rubbish. You read
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: my father's letter, didn't you. The fear's been implanted in
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: your genes. It's part of the heredity of our people.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: It's rubbish. Bring the ship down. Still, Ramsey did not move.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: Varden looked from him to Margot Dennison and back again,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: with horror in her eyes. I'll count three, Margo said,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: Then I'll shoot the vagant girl. Do you understand? Ramsey's
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: face went white one, Margo said Varden stared at him, beseechingly.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Ramsey said, all right, Margo, all right. Five minutes later,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: subjective time, the Enterprise landed with a lurch that they
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: had reached a world in hyperspace. There could be no doubt.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: But outside the portholes of the little freighter was only
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: the murky grayness of the timeless hyperspace continuum. They've gone down,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: Sir ramar Chind cried. Gor Sim nodded. For the first time.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: He was really nervous. He wondered about the Denizen letter.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: Could his fear be attributed to ancestral memory, as Denison
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: had indicated? Was it really baseless, this crawling, cold fingered
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: hand of fear on his spine? There was no physical barrier.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: The Enterprise had established that fact. Then was there a
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: barrier which Garsim, along with all humanoids, had somehow inherited,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: a barrier of stark terror, subjective and unfounded on fact,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: and beyond it, what power to chain the universe? Then
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: gar Sim told himself, You've got to be rational. You're
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: a scientist, You've been trained as a scientist. This is
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: their barrier erected against you, against all humanoids a million
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: years ago. It isn't real. It's all in your mind.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Do you want me to follow him down? Ramar Chand asked,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: gar Sim envied the policeman. Naturally, ramar Chind did not
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: share his terror. You didn't know the terror until you
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: learned about proto man. Then the response seemed to be
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: triggered in your brain, as if it had been passed
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: to you through the genes of your ancestors, waiting a
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: million years for release. Fear a guardian of what, gar
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: Sim asked himself. Think of that, fool, Think of what
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: it guards. Power teleportation or its equivalent gone, the subjective
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: passage of ours in hyperspace earned if you were strong
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: enough or brave enough to earn it, the ability to
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: travel instantly from one humanoid world to another, instantly, perhaps
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: from any one point on any humanoid world to any
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: one point precise, specific exact on another world, to plunder
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: or assassinate or control the lives of men everywhere, sans ship, sansphear,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: sans the possibility of being caught, are stopped sweating, Gorri
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: Sim said, bring the dog's door down after them. Remarchend
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: Ramsey smiled, without humor, What now, little lady, he said mockingly.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: Shut up, Oh shut up. What are you going to
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: do now? I told you to shut up. I have
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: to think. I didn't know a gorgeous tried the actress
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: ever had to think. Let me see those figures again,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: morgo said. Ramsey handed her the tapes from the Enterprise's
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: environment checker. Temperature minus two hundred and twenty degrees fahrenheit,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: atmosphere none gra eight tenths Earth normal, and we don't
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: have a space suit aboard, Ramsey said, But it can't be,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: it can't. This is the home of proto man. I
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: know it is. But if I went out there, I'd
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: perish from cold and seconds and lack of air in minutes.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: That's right, Ramsey said, all most cheerfully. So do I
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: take the ship back up? I hate you, Jason Ramsey.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: Oh I hate you, Margo cried. Then suddenly, wait, wait
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: a minute, what was that you were thinking? Tell me,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: you must tell me. Ramsey shook his head and tried
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: to force the thoughts from his mind with doggerel. Ben Adam,
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: he thought, aboo ben Adam, Humpty dumpty, how we how
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: we are we? The only two headed? Get yours here?
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: The sum of the swear of the sides is equal
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: to the sward of the hyperspace. No, Oh, mustn't think that, mimsy.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: Where the borough groves and the momraths? Now? What the
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: heck did the momraths do anyhow? Absolute zero is the
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: temperature at which all molecular activity. What were you thinking, Ramsey?
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: His mind was a labyrinth. There were thousands of discreet thoughts,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: of course, millions of them collected over a lifetime, but
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: all at once. He did not know his way through
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: that labyrinth, and his thoughts kept whirling back to the
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: one Margot Dennison wanted, as if somehow she could pluck
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: it from his mind. She stood before him, her brow furrowed,
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: sweat beating her pretty face, and she was winning, forcing
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: the thought to take shape in Ramsey's mind. But if
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: I went out there, I'd perish from cold and seconds
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: and lack of air in minutes, cold came the known
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and unbidden thoughts to Ramsey's struggling mind. And lack of
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: air attributes of extension of space, but measured by duration
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: by time, And since time does not exist in hyperspace,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: the vacuum out there and the terrible killing cold could
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: have no effect on you. You could go out there
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: perfectly protected from the lethal environment by the absence of
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: the time dimension. Margo smiled at him. Thank you, she said,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: thank you, Ramsey. He was about to speak, but she added,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: and don't give me that stuff about a power we
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: shouldn't tamper with. I'm going out there now. Ramsey nodded slowly.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: I won't stop you, but just so you don't get
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: any ideas of stranding me here, Varden Varden's going with me.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: The Varden girl looked at Ramsey mutely. Ramsey said, what
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: makes you think i'd let you take her? Margo smiled again.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: The m G gun makes me think so. The heck
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: of it is, you're not really bad, Margo. This thing's
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: got you is all. You're not essentially evil. Thank you
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: for the thrilling compliment. I'm delighted, Margo said sarcastically. Forden
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: stays with me. Margo reminded him of the lethal m
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: G gun by showing it to him muzzle first. He
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: laughed in her face. Go ahead and shoot, She stared
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: at him. There isn't a lethal weapon to do you
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: any good here in a timeless continuum. Take an m
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: G gun. It induces an artificial breakdown of radioactive fuel
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: in its chamber, firing an instantly lethal doze of radiation.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: But in order for radioactive breakdown to occur, time must
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: pay asked, even if it's only milliseconds, as in the
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: case of an MG gun. There aren't any milliseconds on
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: this world, Margo, there isn't any time, So go ahead
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: and pull the trigger. Margo frowned and pointed the gun
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: to one side and fired. Nothing happened. Margo almost looked
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: as if her hard shell had been sundered by the
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: impotence of the MG gun. She pouted, her eyes gleamed moistly.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Then Ramsey said, okay, let's go. What what do you
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: mean out there? All of us? But I thought you
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: said sure, I'm scared stiff A normal man would be.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: It's in our genes according to your father. But I'm
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: also a man. What the devil do you think it was?
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: First got man out of his cave and started along
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: the road to sybil as A and the stars. It
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: was curiosity fear restraining him and curiosity egging him on.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: Which do you think one? In the end, Oh, Ramsey,
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: I could kiss you go right ahead, Ramsey said, and
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: she did. They opened the airlock. They went outside smiling,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: but Varden, who went with them, wasn't smiling. There was
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: sadness instead. In cumbersome spacesuits. The five Irwadians made their
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: way from the dog store to the Enterprise. Ramar Chen
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: and his three policemen carried MG guns. Gar Sim was unarmed.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Chend used a world neutralizer to force the pattern of
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: the lock on the outer door of the Enterprise as
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: air lock. Then the five of them plunged inside the ship.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: The inner door was not closed. The Enterprise was empty.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: End of Part three, Part four of Equation of Doom
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: by Gerald Vance. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: Part four. Garcim looked doubtfully at the gray murkiness behind them.
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: Although the dog Star stood out there less than a
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: quarter of a mile away, they couldn't see it through
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: the murk. Where do they go, remarked Chend, asked. Sim
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: waved vaguely behind them. Chended and his men turned round,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: gritting his teeth against the fear, which welled up like
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: nausea from the pit of his stomach. Garcim went with them.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: At that moment they all heard the music? You hear it,
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: Ramsey asked softly. His voice did not carry on the
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: airless world, of course, but he spoke, and the words
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: were understood, not merely by Margo, who could read his mind,
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: but by Varden as well. Music said, Morgo, isn't it beautiful?
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: Ramsey nodded slowly. He could barely see Morgo although he
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: held her hand. He could barely see Varden, although they
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: stood hand in hand too. The music was unearthly, incapable
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: of repetition, indescribably the loveliest sound he had ever heard.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: He wanted to sink down into the obscuring gray murk
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: and weep and listen to the haunting, sad, lovely strains
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: of sound forever. What can it possibly be? Margo asked, surprisingly.
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: It was Varden who answered, Music of the spheres. She said,
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: it's a legend on Vega III, my world, and on Earth.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: Ramsey said, Varden told him on all worlds, and like
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: such legends, it has a basis in reality. This is
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: the basis That didn't sound like timid little Varden at all.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: Ramsey listened in amazement. He thought he heard Varden laugh. Music,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: but didn't the notes need the medium of time in
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: which to be heard. How could they hear music here
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: at all? Or were they hearing it? Perhaps it merely
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: impinged on their minds, their souls, just as they were
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: able to hear one another's thoughts as words they never
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: understand fully. Ramsey knew suddenly, perhaps they could grasp a
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: little of the nature of this place. A shadow here,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: the half suggestion of the substance of reality. There, a
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: still born thought, here, a note of celestial music, there,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: the timeless legacy of proto man, whatever proto man was.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: The fog is lifting, Varden cried. The fog was not lifting,
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: then it was. Ramsey would never forget that Varden had
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: spoken while the dense, gray mirk enveloped them completely. Then
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: it began to grow tenuous, as if Varden's words had
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: made it so little. Vardin shy, frightened, Vardin suddenly inexplicably,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: the strongest, surest one among them. The sky, white and dazzling, glistened,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: The gray murk glistened to a hundred yards off in
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: all directions, like a wall of polished glass, surrounding them
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: in the very middle of the bell jar of visibility
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: granted them all at once stood a black rectangular object,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: the teleporter. Margo cried, the matter transmitter. I know it is,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: I know it is. Ramsey stood waiting breathlessly. No, he
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: realized abruptly, not breathlessly. You couldn't say breathlessly, for Ramsey
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: had not breathed, not once since they left the Enterprise.
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: You didn't breathe on a timeless world. You merely somehow existed.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: It's opening, Margo cried. The black rectangle, ominously coffin shaped,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: was indeed opening the matter transmitter, Margo said a second time,
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: the secret of proto man, of our ancestors, who colonized
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: all the worlds of space with it instantly at the
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: same cosmic moment. Think of what it means, Ramsey. Can
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: you instantaneous travel anywhere without the need for energy? Since
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: energy cannot be used here without the passage of time,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: since time does not exist here. She stood transfixed, looking
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: at the black box. The lid had lifted at right
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: angles to the rest of the box. Margo said, in
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: a whisper of awed thought, who controls it? Controls the galaxy?
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: And she walked toward the box. At that moment, Ramsey
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: had a vision he saw, or thought he saw Margot
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: Dennison in the costume she had worn when they first met.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: She stood eyes wide, fearful, expectant before a chessboard. The
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: pieces seemed to be spaceships. It was a perfectly clear vision,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: but it was the only such vision Ramsey had ever
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: been vouchsafed in his life. He was no mystic. He
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: did not know what to make of it. Playing chess
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: with Margo was proto man. Ramsey only saw his hand,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: a hand perhaps five million years old. He blinked. The
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: vision persisted superimposed over Margo's figure as she walked toward
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: the box. A game, he thought, because we don't understand it.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Not that kind of power, Not the power a matter
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: transmitter would give. A cosmic game on a chessboard, which
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't quite a chessboard, with a creature who had never
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: lived as we know life and so could never die,
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: with the future of the galaxy hanging in the balance,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: life or death for man hanging on a slim thread.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: Because man wasn't ready for matter transmission, couldn't hope to
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: use it wisely, would use it, perhaps for war, transmitting
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: lethal weapons, thermonuclear world destroying weapons instantly through space for
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: a delivery anywhere, negating time. Death hovered. Wait, Ramsey called
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: and ran forward. Just then five new figures, space suited
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: appeared under the gleaming dome. Stop that woman. A voice
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: which Ramsey should not have been able to hear, but
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: which he somehow heard perfectly, cried stop her. MG guns
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: were raised, fired without effect. Three of these space suited
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: figures ran after morgo as the voice repeated, stop her.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: The box's mind mine. It was Gore Simms's voice. Ramsey
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: did not know if he should stop Margo himself or
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: fight Sim's men. Although they couldn't use their weapons on
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: this world, they could still hurt, possibly even kill Margo.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: Ramsey turned and waited for them. The strange mystic vision
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: was gone. He saw only three space suited figures. Saw
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: Margo walking steadily toward the box. Either she was moving
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: very slowly, or the box retreated, or it was farther
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: away than it had looked at first, for she hadn't
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: reached it yet. Ramsey met the space suited figures head on.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: There were three of them, but they were awkward in
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: their suits, cumbersome, incapable of quick responses. Ramsey hit the
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: first one in the belly and darted back. His fist
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: felt contact with the soft bulk of the insulated suit,
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: then with the harder bulk of the man. He struck again,
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: harder this time. The scaly green face of the Irwaddy
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: within the spacesuit grimaced with pain. He doubled over and fell,
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: his helmet shattering against the ground at Ramsey's feet. Then
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: an incredible thing happened. The Irwaddy opened his mouth to scream.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: His face froze, he lost his air, his face bloated,
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: and he died. Ramsey couldn't believe his eyes. It was
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: not possible to die from lack of air or from
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: cold on a world without the time continuum. Ramsey, Varden
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: and Margot had proved that by venturing out without protection.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: But the Irwaddy had died suggestion because he thought he
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: would die, because that was the only way you could
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: perish on a world lacking in time to mention by
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: your own thoughts. This second spacesuited figure closed with Ramsey awkwardly.
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: Ramsey hit him. The man of your Waddy fell, his
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: helmet cracked, He tried to scream and died. The third
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: man fled Ramsey ran after Margo. Wait, he cried. He
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: couldn't talk to her about his fantastic vision. It was personal.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: She wouldn't understand. Mystic experience always is like that, and
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: yet with a conviction that only a mystic can have.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: Although he certainly was no mystic, Ramsey knew the galaxy
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: would be in grave trouble if mankind were given the
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: secret of matter transmission. A voice said, you are right.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: It was Varden's voice, and Varden went on, Ramsey, stop her.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: I can't stop her. It is only granted that I
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: observe and convince if I can. I am not a
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: vagan girl. I am, Ramsey said it proto man. There
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: aren't many of us left. We discovered matter transmission. We
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: used it once to people the worlds of the galaxy.
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: It was our final creative effort. We merely observe, now
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: unable to destroy our creation, trying to keep it out
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: of mankind's hands. You see, then back on Erewaddy, you
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: knew all along we would come here. I was vouchsafed
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: the vision. Yes, even as you stop her, Ramsey, you
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: must stop her. Ramsey sprinted forward. Margot was nearing the
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: black coffin now, Ramsey ran at her and tackled her.
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: They went down together, the girl fighting like a tigress,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: tooth and nail, wildly, sobbing, striking out at Ramsey with small,
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: impotent fists until he subdued her. Panting. They glared at
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: each other and could not stop gar Sim from running
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: past them, eyes wrapped behind the plasty glass of his helmet,
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: and jumping into the black box, to the end of
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: the universe and back. He cried, take me there and back.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: Instantly proved to me that you work now, his voice
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: trailed off. He had addressed the black rectangle, almost as
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: if it were something alive. Ramsey thought he heard a
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: growl from the box. He's stood before it, looking in
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: the hackles rose on his neck. You see, Varden, said,
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: My ancestors and yours discovered the power of a god
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: and did not understand it. We were incorporeal. We created life,
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: your ancestors. We patterned it to fit the evolution of
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: the three thousand worlds, human life, millions of them colonists
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: for the worlds of normal space. We were tampering in
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: our tragic pride, Ramsey, with forces we would never comprehend.
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: We colonized the worlds, deciding that physical existence, along with
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: the mental prowess we had was the ideal state. A
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: few of us, like myself or my ancestors, if you wish,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: although the purely mental lives continuously a few of us
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: behind and saw the loss of a million years. Ramsey's
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: eyes still could not pierce the darkness inside the box.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, he asked in an awed voice.
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: We sent out god like men. We did not understand
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: our discovery the god like men. But look at gar Sim.
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: The space suited figure got up slowly. It blinked at Ramsey,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: It growled. It had a recognizably green scale skinned face.
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: But it was not the face of Garsim. It was
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: the face of gar Sim's cave man ancestors a million
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: years ago. This is what happened to my people, Varden said.
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: She looked at Remarch and and chinned. Responding, went to
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: gar Sim and led him quietly back toward the dog star.
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: Chind never said a word. Gar Sim growled, take the earth,
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: girl and go. Warden told Ramsey, But I you aren't
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: you coming? My work is finished, Varden told him. For now,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: For now, I am a guardian. When I am needed again.
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: She shrugged her slim blue shoulders. But Margot will never
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: be content now, Ramsey protested, Not when she's come so close.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: She'll understand, just as you understand. You will be good
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: for each other. Ramsey, You and the girl. She's had
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: only her fierce pride and her dreams of power. She
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: has room for loves love. But you, Hi, I am nothing.
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: I of the end product of an equation. Our ancestress
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: found a million years ago, an equation to give them
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: god like power. Instead, it made them savages. And I
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: have had to watch their slow climb back to the stars,
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: an equation, Ramsey almost, an equation of doom. Now go.
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: Varden flickered and became insubstantial. Her body seemed to melt
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: into the gray mists. The gleaming walls were gone, the
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: black box was gone. Varden was gone. Ramsey led Margo
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: back to the enterprise moments later, although the elapsed time
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: was subjective, they blasted off. Margo opened her eyes. She
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: had been sleeping. She smiled at Ramsey tremulously. I love you,
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: she said. Her words seemed to surprise her. I can't
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: go back to Earth, Ramsey said, who wants to go
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: back to Earth if you can't they had. Ramsey knew
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: all of space and the lifespan of mortal men to
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: enjoy together. End of Part four, End of Equation of
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: Doom by Gerald Vance. This recording done by Phil Schinevert
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: March of two thousand and fifteen.